43. Manehatten Heist! - Part 1
A burst of light dropped Midnight into a cobbled road, and a shouting alerted him, “Hey! Get outta the way!”
“Huh?” Midnight looked and yipped as he jumped out of the way of, “A taxi coach?!”
It was indeed a coach, patterned black and yellow, pulled by a strong earth pony stallion, and more sounds caught his attention as he looked around, finding himself in a city!
It reminded Midnight of a modern city from the world he originally came from but back in an earlier time, a time of barbershop quartets. Which was funny, as there was one such quartet at the corner of a street, four stallions singing in a capella and tapping their hooves, there was a colt standing on a crate, stacks of papers next to him while he held one, shouting, “Extra, extra! Read all about it!”
Ponies passed him by, some stallions wearing zoot suits, mares wore flapper dresses and gloves along with their horseshoes that ran up along their forelegs, there were fedoras, bowler hats, faux fur coats, and a lot of fashions Midnight knew his friend Rarity would have liked were she researching the styles he was seeing.
He saw foals playing stickball and kick the can, he saw signs on various buildings, such as Bridleway Theatre, Mane Fair Hotel, Carneighie Hall, Furlongacre Square, there were newsstands, flower stands, food stalls, and to Midnight, it looked like heaven!
It had been so long since he’d been in a metropolitan setting, and as he walked about, he was amazed at the skyscrapers and tall buildings.
“Wow…!” he whispered when he felt somepony bump into his rear. “Ooh!”
“Oh, watch yerself there!” The bumper was a unicorn stallion of gray, his mane black with a streak of white, he wore a flat cap, his cutie-mark was a wavy set of piano keys, but his most startling feature was his eyes, the right red, the left blue.
“Th’ way ye were gawkin’ an’ awin’, mate, I’d say this’d be ye first time in th’ big apple!”
“Uh, yeah!” Midnight chuckled sheepishly, “Just arrived. Never knew such a big city was in Equestria! I mean, Canterlot is no one-horse town, but this?!”
“Aye,” the unicorn chuckled, speaking with a Shirish accent, “lived here me whole life after mum an’ da immigrated here from Shireland, lookin’ for a better life. Found it they did and I grew up from a wee laddie to the big strong copper ya see before ye!”
“Uh… copper?” Midnight echoed.
“Oh, I meant police officer, I’m just off-duty right now. Oh! Where are me manners?” He held out a welcoming hoof, “Pentatonic Philharmonica, me mates call me Keys!”
“Midnight Blaze,” Midnight gladly shook hooves, “Pentatonic Philharmonica? Heh, kind of a mouthful.”
“Aye, which is why I prefer ye call me Keys!”
They both shared chuckle when they heard a yelp and they both looked towards a flower stand where an earth pony mare was whimpering as a pegasus stallion knocked one of the baskets holding her flowers over, making a mess.
“The boss don’t got the patience for excuses, sweethawt!”
The pegasus was tall and brawny but a little pudgy, with a dirty gold coat and pinkish-orange mane, short and spiky in the back while the top of his head was covered by a flat cap, a pair of saddlebags strapped to his barrel, his cutie-mark looked like an iconic cartoon smoke cloud with hooves sticking out, the kind one might see when somepony was fighting.
“Either cough up them bits otherwise… heh, you’ll see how helpless ya are without our… protection.”
“The only thing she needs protection from…” the pegasus turned to see a cross-looking Midnight, “is you!”
His horn flared, the merchant’s flowers floating back into their container, which Midnight set back onto her stand and gestured for her to stand back.
“You talkin’ t’ me, dipstick?” the pegasus flared his wings threateningly, “Cuz you’ve gotta have a lotta balls t’ mess wit’ the business of Big Pokey!”
“The name sounds like you’re compensating for something,” Midnight cracked, instigating some sniggers from the bystanders.
“Oh you gonna regret dissin’ the name of my boss or my name ain’t Rough `Em Up!”
The pegasus through a punch, only for Midnight to easily duck aside, whirl about, and whip his tail right into Rough’s eyes, making him yelp!
“Agh! Hold still an’ fight like a mane!”
“‘Fight like a mane’?” Midnight echoed as he cast a spell, “That’s funny, cuz just now you whined like a little girl!”
“I’ll show you, ya-” Rough gasped as he covered his mouth, everypony gaping with the corners of their mouths pulling into smiles. Rough’s voice had just sounded squeaky.
“Hey! What’s wrong wit’ my voice?!”
At the sound of how ridiculous Rough sounded, everypony in the street started breaking out in gut-busting laughter. Rough glared at them, his wings raised, as he squealed, “Shuddup, ya mugs! I’m still Rough `Em Up, an’ I answer t’ Big Pokey! If’n ya don’ shut yer traps he’ll poke yer guts out!”
Ordinarily, the threat would’ve made everypony shush, keep their eyes low, and go about their business. But the voice was just too funny to be taken seriously, everypony laughing at the high-squeaky voiced gangster as he shouted for everypony to shut up.
He threw an angry look at Midnight and charged with a squeaky roar, only for Midnight to quickly step aside, his leg held out just so, making Rough trip and fall flat on his face, groaning, as his bag opened and out slipped a piece of paper.
Suddenly, he felt something bind his wings to his barrel and gawked up at Keys, who was levitating his badge up.
“Rough `Em Up, yer under arrest, laddie! Charged with extortion, attempted assault, disturbin' th' peace, and known affiliation to th’ local mob!”
He forced Rough onto his hooves and gave him a look that told the pegasus to shut his mouth, making him groan in defeat. Keys gave Midnight a smile, “Sorry fer th’ poor welcomin’ committee, boyo! Head on over t’ th’ diner thataway!”
He pointed with is hoof, Midnight looking in the direction to see an old fashioned diner, Keys suggesting, “Tell `em whatever ya order is on th’ tab o’ Pentatonic Philharmonic! Now move along, ya blighter!”
“At least gimme back my bodacious voice…!” whined Rough towards Midnight, who smirked.
“Oh don’t worry, the charm will wear off, heh! Eventually…”
Rough bawled like a baby as he was led away, the locals all clopping their hooves, prompting Midnight to smile and take a bow. When he did, he noticed the paper that had fallen out of Rough’s saddlebag. Levitating it up, he saw it read ‘Equestrian Museum of Supernatural History is proud to present its newest exhibit featuring today: The Garnet of Grani the Gallant’.
“Huh, sounds interesting,” Midnight muttered when his belly rumbled at him to feed it. “But… a bite seems to be first in order, heh-heh!”
*Burp*
Lying against the seat of his booth table, Midnight sighed in the blissful satisfaction of a full belly, patting his blissfully stuffed gut with satisfaction. The diner cook and waitress turned out to be good friends of Keys, that when he mentioned the cop would pick up the tab they were happy to serve him a delicious meal of a hayburger with cheese, hay-fries slathered, cola ice-cold and fizzy, and for desert a slice of apple-cinnamon pie!
That was the best meal I’ve had in… centuries! Midnight chuckled to his private joke, the feeling of a full belly along with the pride he felt in one-upping a jerk made him wonder, Is this how Rainbow Dash feels from time to time?
“Hey honey!”
He looked up at the waitress, “Can I getcha anything else?”
“No thanks, Sandy, I’m good,” Midnight rubbed his tummy, sighing again, “You’ve got great food here!”
“Aw, you’re sweet, daddy an’ I just run a simple diner,” the waitress beamed, “now just lemme take your dishes and I’ll be back with a refill if ya want it.”
“Thanks!” Midnight let her take the dishes and pulled out his two-way journal. He just had to brag to somepony but wasn’t comfortable to do so to strangers.
‘Dear Prince Sombra,
I’m proud to say I am getting closer to the Present! I recently arrived in what appears to be Manehatten but at an early time, given the fashions and retro stuff I’ve seen so far. I made a friend with a Shirish police officer, Pentatonic Philharmonic, though he prefers to be called Keys. As we talked, we saw a jerk pegasus harassing a flower merchant, that I stepped in and taught the creep a lesson.
Keys arrested him and so Rough `Em Up is behind bars!
Keys gave me a free meal at the local diner and-’
Suddenly, to Midnight’s surprise, the journal lit up and vibrated, startling him that he dropped his quill, and, to his bewilderment, letters appeared on the journal, spelling out a reply from Prince Sombra!
‘My loyal apprentice, Midnight Blaze…
I am afraid to tell you that you’ve made a mistake! You should not have interfered with Rough `Em Up, because he partakes in a moment in Equestrian History by his involvement with a heist on the Equestrian Museum of Supernatural History!’
The message went on but the implications sprung up in his mind as Midnight muttered, “Oh… buck me with a cattle prod!”
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i'm guessing he's now in 930-40 C.R [Celestia's Reign] will he also go into the rocking 80s when Cheerilee and her friends are still teens?
I'm having an L.A. Noire vibes kicking in.
Wait! Does this mean to keep the time stream right Midnight is going to have to pull off the heist himself?
Well I guess midnight have to turn into rough 'me up and do a heist.
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Let's do this
Nice chapter. I can't wait to see how Midnight tries to fix this. Will he steal Rough's identity, or will he try and break him out of jail. I guess we will see soon.
This'll be good.
That last line has me in tears
This is very promising, a 30's new-York set up with gangsters, policeman, force to make a histe with people that can easily double-cross you, the potential is endless finding yourself on the wrong side of the law after you befriended one of them. Is there going to be a form of prohibition of some sort, (how about pie's or cake's), how about involving an ancestor from Ponyvill that is involve in the smuggling (the Cake's maybe). The only problem I have about this is why would Sombra ask Midnight to be involved in a theft that he probably shouldn't know anything about because it append from his thousand you stasis and probably has as much of a hard time as Luna to adjust to his new world much less what append then and now. this better be good.
5715911 Uh-uh, I doubt Cadance was born back then. Cadance was born a pegasus and was raised by earth ponies - when she was still a filly, she stopped a witch and used a magic that earned her ascension to alicorn princess.
Rather, Autumn, her baby, and by technicality, Sombra, are all ancestors of somepony else, including the pony Autumn married after she was saved