A Pony Chooses...

by FancierPants

Chapter 3

"I just have a bit of paper work left darling. Yes, I shouldn't be that long, but don't wait up. Pick out your dress for tomorrow evening? Grand, I need you looking smashing, oh as you always do of course. Je vous vois peu amour."

Fancypants put the phone back down on the receiver and slumped in his chair. He yawned and stretched. It had been a long day. He turned his chair around again to look out at the Manehattan skyline. It looked beautiful at night. He loosened his tie and stared unseeingly out at the cityscape as his thoughts turned to other things. His plans were all starting to come together. He had the money, the materials, and even the location for his great vision, but now he needed the muscle and brains to put it all into motion. He heard a knock at his office door and then heard it open slightly, "Mr. Fancypants?"

It was his secretary Rosalyn. "Do you need anything else before I leave?"

He perked up and forced a believable smile on his face as he spun around in his chair to greet her. "No thank you Rosalyn, that will be all for today."

"Right, goodnight- Oh! I almost forgot! This telegram from Colonel Warspite arrived a few minutes ago, it's marked urgent."

She came in and placed it on his desk. "Excellent. Thank you Rosalyn."

"Goodnight again, sir."

"Goodnight."

She left and, as the door clicked shut behind her, Fancypants anxiously picked up the telegram and ripped open the envelope. The message read:
From: Colonel Warspite
To: Fancypants Industries Headquarters, Solar Empire Building, Manehattan

Subject: Urgent message for CEO, Mr. Fancypants

Arrived in Appleloosa stop.

Contacted Promontory stop.

Now returning to Manehattan with Promontory stop.

Good news. Most of his guests had accepted his invitations to Manehattan. There would be nearly three hundred ponies in attendance at his party at the Hapton Hooves Hotel tomorrow evening. He then lifted his gold pocket watch out of his designer suit jacket; the magical aura surrounding it illuminated his dim office. "Half-past ten!" he exclaimed to himself. He knew he had to get to work on the mountain of paperwork on his desk or he'd be there till dawn.

He began to unconsciously sign his name off on paper after paper while his thoughts stayed with his gold pocket watch. His father's legacy, all he had left to remember him by. His father Argyle was an outspoken journalist with the Trottingham Tribune. He had taught him as a young colt that if there was anything you ever wanted or anything in which you truly believed, you had to fight for it and persevere. He had always looked up to him and admired him. He was the pony that gave him his hard work ethic that had gotten him where he was today. A smile beamed across his face as the warm memories came flooding back. Suddenly, the good memories of his father stopped as he remembered how it all ended.

It was ungodly early. The sun had only just begun to rise over Trottingham's thatched roofs, but still Fancypants found himself shivering in the early morning cold on the windswept train platform, his father standing next to him. Fancypants looked up at his father. He had a large, intimidating build along with a pure white coat and violet purple mane. His mother, when she was still alive, had told him that was where he had gotten his looks. But his father's face looked different in the early morning light; a face which was usually relaxed and confident was now etched with worry. His eyes had an excited look and he kept looking all around the train platform. "Dad?" he piped up inquisitively, "Is something wrong?"

Argyle forced a smile on his face and hooked a foreleg around his son, drawing him in close. "No, everything's fine lad, just wondering when this blasted train is going to show up..."

Fancypants nuzzled his face into his father’s side. Argyle looked down at him; he could tell his worrying had begun to affect his young son. "Hey? You excited to visit your Uncle Essex in Manehattan?"

Fancypants looked back up at his father and nodded, "Uh-huh."

"Dad?"

"Yes son?"

"Can I see your watch again?"

Jokingly, Argyle said, "Oh I don't know."

"Oh pleeeeeease Dad! I swear I won't drop it like last time!"

"Weeell….since you promised."

Argyle unbuttoned his suit jacket and magically levitated his golden pocket watch into his anxious son's waiting hooves. Fancypants loved that pocket watch, although he could never figure out exactly what it was about it that made him adore it so. "Hey Dad, do you think someday I could have this watch?"

"Sure you can. My father gave it to me, and his father to him, and his father before him. But don't get to excited that's still a few years off."

Totally wrapped up in the gold pocket watch, Fancypants didn't even notice as the train that would take them to Manehattan pulled into the station behind him. A scrawny stallion, wearing a straw derby and two piece suit, hopped down off the train before it had even come to a full stop and called out to Argyle. He looked relieved, "Good to see you Essex old boy! How have you been?"

"Fine, fine. I got down here as quick as I could."

"You have the tickets?"

"Yes, three return tickets to Manehattan we should be there by tomorrow morning."

"Grand. Fancypants you remember your Uncle Essex?"

Fancypants said hello nervously and drew back slightly behind his father.
Essex cleared his throat uncomfortably and went on, "Well then, shall we get on board?"

Just as the trio was about to move onto the train, a voice yelled out from the far end of the platform behind them. "Argyle! Stop right where you are!"

Fancypants spun around to see two unicorn royal guards trotting towards them. He looked at his father, his eyes were wide open in fear, but he still managed to push his son protectively behind him. He then whispered to Essex in a hurried, barely audible tone, "Get my son on the train, get out of here and don't look back!"

Fancypants was scared and confused, "Dad? What's going on?" His uncle was trying to pull him back.

"Come along-"

"No! Dad!" He managed to break away from his uncle and ran back to his father, now in tears. "Dad?!"

Argyle spun around and dropped down to his son's level. Fancypants could see he was crying now too. In spite of the tears, he still managed to crack a smile as he tried to reassure his son, "It's okay lad, everything's going to be fine. Go with your uncle. I want you to keep that pocket watch, okay?"

"But Dad you said I wouldn't get that for a few years."

"Well, that time is now,” he paused for a moment, looked down to the ground, then back at Fancypants. “Son, I love you."

Fancypants was crying shamelessly now and threw himself at his father in one final embrace before he was pushed back gently and was told in a soft, but shaky, voice to go with his uncle. The next thing he remembered was watching a horrible scene unfold on the train platform from the car’s interior. His father appeared to be in a heated argument with the two guards. The train suddenly jerked slightly and began to pull slowly out of the station. Then it happened. One of the guards grabbed his father by the foreleg. Argyle hit the guard across the snout with his other free foreleg, knocking him to the ground. Then as he turned to face the other guard, just before going out of sight, the unicorn jumped back and fired a bolt of magic, hitting Argyle square in the chest. He collapsed to the floor. And then, as the train pulled out of the station, Fancypants buried his face into his uncle's chest, sobbing loudly.

Fancypants awoke with a frightened gasp. It took him a moment to realize where he was. He was safe in his office, 36 years later. He was in cold sweat, breathing heavily. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, trying his damnedest to calm himself. He glanced over at a nearby grandfather clock. It read 11:30 on the dot. Then, he forced the unpleasant memories out of his mind and sighed, "Back to work." He continued on with his papers in total silence.