In old Manehattan

by Askre

Prologue. Hoofington, Manehattan.

Prologue

The pegasi weather service had certainly gone out of their way to make it rain over Manehattan. Water poured down like a waterfall over the streets, sending ponies not already with umbrellas or other water protective clothing, fleeing for shelter.

The very wet weather didn’t deter one pony walking up a street down in Hoofington. She wore a black cloak that covered most of her body, only the grayish white hooves and parts of her thin legs were visible from under it. The mare walked in a hurried pace but it was laborious as if she carried some weight.

The pony was heading towards one particular building. It wasn’t a tall building but a wide one, it had large front windows where ponies were visible inside doing exercises. The mare stopped in front of it and raised her hooded head to stare at the sign fastened on top of the gym. The Barricade, made in stylish letters.

The mare grunted, stomped one hoof on the ground before heading inside. Her ears were assaulted by the rock music being played over the entire gym, clearly meant to help with the mood while the ponies did their workout. Underneath her cloak the pony frowned and her mouth twitched a little.

“Can I help you, ma’am?” An ash gray pegasus stallion sat behind the counter. The cloaked pony swiftly turned her head towards him.

“I’m looking for the owner of this establishment,” she snorted, there was a cold tone in her voice.

“The boss is busy,” the pegasus said and shrugged, he frowned when the mare stomped one hoof on the ground.

“I don’t care if he’s in the middle of a questionable act with his mate in his office, I’m here to talk with him and I will talk with him now!” she snapped loud enough to compete with the music.

Before the pegasus could respond a big grayish opal earth mare came running to the counter to investigate the commotion. She arched her brow when seeing the cloaked pony who stood in a small puddle from the water dripping down from her.

“What are you doing here? Should you even be traveling in this weather in your condition?” the newly arrived pony asked, there was a hint of concern in her voice.

“Spare me your sympathies,” the cloaked mare snorted and raised a leg to throw down the hood. Revealing her white head with dark gray and white mane and broken unicorn horn. Her golden eyes stared at both ponies coldly. “I’m here to see that good for nothing stallion you share your bed with.”

“I tried to tell her that he’s busy, Barbell,” the Pegasus grunted, receiving a glare from the unicorn that he didn’t pay much heed too.

“And I said that I did not care,” the white mare snorted.

“Calm down Snow Heart, I’m sure I can drag the boss out of his paperwork long enough to see you,” Barbell said and gestured to the unicorn to follow her.

Snow Heart said nothing, just nodded sharply. The unicorn followed the earth pony further into the gym and towards the entrance of an office. Barbell knocked on the door, opened it a bit and looked inside. A very tired and irritated voice from inside snapped:

“What is it!? I’m busy!”

“Snow Heart wants to see you,” the earth pony announced without even flinching.

Barbell chuckled as she pulled her head back and looked at Snow Heart who waited impatiently behind her. The bigger mare stepped back and opened the office door fully and gestured to the unicorn to enter.

Snow walked into the office and her eyes immediately set up on the desk and the large dark gray unicorn sitting behind it. He looked tired and irritated, his dark blonde mane was in a bit of a mess after he’d clearly tried tearing at it with his magic in frustration and in front of him was a mess of papers.

“When I find the pony who invented taxes…” he muttered before glaring up at the mare, she didn’t even waver and glared right back. “What do you want?”

The unicorn mare reached into her cloak without a word. From it she produced a large purse that by the sound and look of it was full of money. This she threw to the desk, landing in the middle of the pile of papers, sending some flying around. The stallion raised his brow and now looked at her more questionably. He activated his horn and an indigo colored magic aura enveloped the purse, it opened and he looked inside.

“And what is this?” he asked unsure.

“I would have thought someone like you, Barricade, knew what money looked like,” Snow Heart snorted, the other unicorn rolled his eyes at the sarcasm.

“Right, let me rephrase that, what is this money for?” he asked. “Don’t tell me you’re planning a new foalnapping and need help.”

“I am not, how dare you!?” Snow Heart snapped, stomping a hoof on the floor. She took a moment to calm down, but still gave Barricade a stinging glare.

“This money should cover the rest of Tango’s so called questionable petty debt you strung on him years ago. I trust now that this means your business with him is over and you’ll just let us live in peace,” the mare said sharply.

“I’ll try but you two are living in the building I’m running for Barbell’s dad.” Barricade shrugged and closed the purse.

“Don’t remind me. We pay the rent on time and as far as I know none of the other tenants have any complaint about us. So I would appreciate that you leave us alone,” Snow Heart growled and turned to leave.

“That depends on great many things, Snow Heart.” Barricade grunted, for a moment he looked at the picture frames that were on his desk before rising up.

The unicorn stallion walked over to the mare who had stopped when he spoke. She narrowed her eyes but said nothing, even when Barricade was now right in front of her, nearly muzzle to muzzle.

“Let’s not forget a few ‘minor’ details here Snowy.” The stallion snorted, his expression almost matched Snow Heart’s.

“You and Tango are a bit more in debt with me than money wise. Don’t forget that when you were granted parole, absolutely no town wanted you anywhere near it. I’m so far the only one who agreed to grant you an apartment. When Tango was kicked out of his first apartment, I didn’t have to accept him at all considering our history together. In fact, I had every reason not to want him in my building, but here we are, I gave him a place to live in,” Barricade told her, his eyes narrowing even further.

Snow Heart looked away but still had that same hard expression on her face. Barricade started to circle her, he saw that despite her front the mare was really uncomfortable with what the stallion was saying. Once he would have reveled in this level of power he was holding over her, now he was just angry, not so much at the mare but what she reminded him of.

“Seriously Snow Heart, the two of you are completely dependent on my good graces. The great Ponyville foalnapper and her lackey that nopony wants or cares about. How is the job hunt going? You’ve been off community service for a while now, Tango was lucky enough to land that low paying security guard job. You can barely show your face in public, can you? That’s why you wear that stupid cloak right?” Barricade stopped circling, staring now at the black damp cloak.

The stallion used his magic to grab the edges of the cloak and threw it off so it now just hung on Snow Heart’s neck. The mare glared at him again, her entire grayish white body exposed, especially her swollen underbelly. Her dark gray and white tail swished back and forth in irritation.

“You honestly think they are going to allow you to keep it?” Barricade asked with a snort.

Snow Heart’s face fell, genuine fright appeared in her eyes. She quickly grabbed her cloak and threw it over herself again, the mare looked away and now the discomfort she was feeling was visible on her face. Barricade sighed and some of the anger he was feeling subsided.

“Tell you what.” Barricade grabbed the purse with levitation without even looking back at the desk and threw it to the mare, it landed with a clank on the floor in front of her. “Keep it. You’re right, the money debt was petty. I’ll forget all about it.”

Hesitantly Snow Heart used a hoof to grab the purse and put it back in her cloak. She started towards the door intending to leave, but stopped and looked at Barricade when he addressed her again.

“But this is just another thing you owe me now, don’t forget that,” he warned. Snow Heart made no comment, just stared at the grim looking unicorn for a moment before opening the door and left the office.

When she was gone Barricade returned to his desk and sat down behind it, staring at the now scattered paperwork. He sighed and glanced at the small puddle of water on the floor that had leaked from Snow Heart’s cloak.

Have I really just come down to this? he thought before gathering up his papers again with his magic.

End Prologue

Author's Note:

And we are finally off. A story that was supposed to be up in 2013 or 14

Naturally a lot of my original plans for the story have changed, but the basic idea is still the same. Old readers, welcome and I hope you enjoy this sequel. New readers, welcome as well, hope you enjoy this story.

Although part of my now expanding The Equestria Tales universe, that by now counts 7 stories, including this one, I've striven to write this one so that it can stand mostly alone, of course reading the other stories adds depth, but all necessary details will be in this story because you shouldn't have to read 6 other stories to be able to read one story.

So I hope you enjoy.