In old Manehattan

by Askre

Chapter 4. Old 'friends' arrive.

Chapter 4

Applejack continued listening to her uncle drone about his citrus business. It was mostly a polite interest; the mare knew she wouldn’t be much better if asked about her apple farming. People often assumed that all she cared about were apples, even if her farm made other crops as well and a lot of her apple business in Manehattan was handled by Mosely Orange.

The only one not really listening was Aunt Orange, she had never been much of a business mare, letting her husband handle that. Her talent lay more in accessory design, the necklace she wore being her own creation. The mare busied herself with the newspaper, while the others talked, although she kept one ear on the conversation in case someone needed her attention.

“So, in other words, business’s been good,” Applejack said with a chuckle once her uncle finally seemed to be finished. The others smiled at the short summary of just about everything Mosely had been talking about.

Talk soon went into family and how everyone was doing. Applejack was pleased to hear that her various relations, distant or otherwise were doing good. Then she in turn told them that despite her advanced age, Granny Smith showed no sign of dropping down, Big Mac was doing good too and Apple Bloom hadn’t changed too much since acquiring her Cutie Mark, her stubborn focus was now just on other things.

“And then they got that idea in their heads that Ah needed a vacation too,” she finished and shrugged, her uncle and aunt just chuckled.

“That does remind me of old grand aunt Tangerine, she would never take any break from her work,” Mosely started and began a long reminiscing about his great aunt.

Applejack only half listened, not that she wasn’t interested hearing about her distant relatives, but her mind was suddenly brought to the parcel she had promised to deliver for Time Turner. That in turn brought up the warning about Barricade.

Granted she had never interacted that much with Barricade back when he had lived with Derpy, but she had known about him and seen how devastated the pegasus had been when he had left her. Applejack’s opinion of him didn’t improved at all when she heard later about how Turner and Derpy had a run in with Barricade few years ago, about the time they became a couple.

“What can ya’ll tell me about Hoofington?” she asked when hearing that her uncle’s story was ending.

“Oh, it’s downright a sad place,” her aunt remarked with a sigh. “It’s this small part of Manehattan everypony seems to want to forget about.”

“It’s gang territory, houses are in disrepair, the streets need fixing, but the city focuses everything on the tourist areas,” Sunflower snorted. “Guess they figure if they allow the criminals to run rampant there, they won’t bother their precious tourists.”

“Now let’s not be unfair, crime there has gone down lately from what I’ve heard, but still it’s not an area I would recommend the unwary to visit, why do you ask, Applejack?” Mosely wondered and looked at his niece.

“Ah just have a parcel to deliver to an old friend who used to live in Ponyville, he’s now livin’ in Hoofington,” Applejack mentioned and judged from the raised eyebrows that the other ponies were wondering what this old friend was doing, living in Hoofington. “He is a bit down on his luck, he was involved in some things but as far as I know is doin’ a little better.”

“I can take you there once you’re finished unpacking,” Sunflower offered, which reminded Applejack of course that her suitcase was still unopened in the guestroom.

“Yeah, Ah better git to it,” she chuckled and rose from her seat. She was accompanied by her aunt who insisted on helping, even if there wasn’t terribly much in the suitcase at all considering how little clothing ponies wore.

“There is this one drawer on the dresser that can be a bit of a bother to open, I’ll show you a little trick how to do it,” Aunt Orange said as they headed to the guest room, her niece nodded in appreciation, she didn’t want to bust up her relative’s furniture after all.

When they entered, the first thing Applejack did notice was that the parcel was not on top of the suitcase. At first the mare just shrugged it off and figured it had fallen somewhere on the floor, she didn’t quite get a chance to look for it as her aunt started to show her the dresser and the faulty drawer.

Then together they unpacked from the suitcase, Applejack put Apple Bloom’s things to the side so her sister could get to them, they left Scootaloo’s suitcase alone figuring the pegasus would have her own idea where she wanted her things.

“Ah’m just glad we didn’t have to cram Sweetie Belle’s horde in here,” Applejack chuckled as she began searching for the missing parcel. “Hey, Aunt Orange, seen the parcel Ah had with me anywhere?”

“Why no.” The older pony started to look around herself. The two mares took a minute to look around, but could only come to one conclusion, the parcel was gone.

“Land sakes, what could Ah have done with the parcel? Ah’m sure I put on top of mah suitcase,” Applejack grunted as finished the third round scouring under every furniture in the room.

“Yes, I am sure I saw you do that,” her aunt nodded in agreement. “Maybe the girls know where is, we can ask them when they come back.”

Applejack nodded at first in agreement, but then it hit her like a locomotive. She knew her sister and her friends knew Tango too, they often enough fled from the former police officer after a disastrous attempt at a cutie mark search. Despite that, Apple Bloom would probably consider him a friend and since the girls went out, she probably figured they could deliver the parcel for them.

“Oh no, the girls. Sunflower!” Applejack raced out of the guest room and back to the living room, her aunt could only follow her confused over what had spurred her niece.

“Sunflower, we have to go to Hoofington, now! Ah think the girls went to deliver the parcel for me,” Applejack declared to her cousin.

“That can’t be, Babs would know not to go there,” Mosely started to protest, but there was hesitation in his voice.

“You know Babs better than that, Uncle, come on Applejack let’s go.” Sunflower jumped from her chair and the two cousins raced out of the apartment, leaving the two older ponies behind who glanced at each other worriedly.

---

“Okay, I have absolutely no idea where we are,” Babs Seeds declared as the four crusaders went around another corner.

The four fillies had been wandering around for few hours since leaving the subway station, however, this part of Hoofington looked even worse than the part they had been in previously. Some buildings had big signs marking them as condemned. They hadn’t even met any pony at all.

“So we’re lost,” Scootaloo sighed, Babs didn’t really want to nod to confirm it but was forced to.

“We just need to stop wanderin’ around aimlessly, okay let’s just go in that direction and keep going in that direction, surely we’ll meet somepony by then who can help us out,” Apple Bloom suggested.

As none of the other fillies had any better suggestion, they all nodded and started off. While they walked, they continued to talk about the various things they had done in the past. Apple Bloom told them about the Heart’s Warming Eve visit her family had with Pinkie. Babs was surprised to learn that a rock farm was a real thing.

“Hey, you’re not supposed to be here so early.”

The fillies stopped when hearing the whispering voice. They looked at each other wondering if one of them had said it.

“Couldn’t be helped, the bastard’s flunkies chased me out of the area.”

Scootaloo was the first to catch on where the voices were coming from, made a silence gesture to her friends before sneaking to a building and peeked around the corner. The other fillies soon followed suit.

Deep in the alley they saw a blue teenage colt with silver hair, standing in front of him was another earth pony, sea green and with a brown mane fashioned into spikes. They spoke in hushed voices and kept furtively looking around as if they feared being caught.

“They spotted you?” the adult pony growled.

“Hey the stupid girl assured me that her dad wouldn’t be home yet so I thought it was safe to escort her, you know, scout deeper in,” the colt grunted, the other pony didn’t look happy to hear that.

“You actually went all the way to Barricade’s own apartment complex? Are you daft? No wonder you were spotted, most of his inner circle lives there,” he snapped and quickly glanced around as the pony realized this had been too loud. Seeing nothing he relaxed a bit.

The fillies listening in looked at each other skeptically, unsure what exactly they were witnessing. Sweetie Belle didn’t like the looks of these ponies, especially the one with the spiky mane. Babs focus was on the teen, she was sure she had seen him somewhere before.

Isn’t that the guy I saw Cara with at the train station? She wondered.

“Hey, nobody was around, it was Barricade himself and Thunder and Tornado who just suddenly appeared,” the teenager snorted.

“Oh great, you’re telling me that Barricade knows now you’ve been snooping around and seeing his daughter?” the older pony hissed.

“Hey, it’s cool. She’s young and stupid and been telling me all kinds of things about dear old dad. Ever since he returned from the Crystal Empire few months back he’s been behaving down right strange. You know how it is in Hoofington now, his gang barely does anything,” the teen snorted and then chuckled a bit.

“Yeah sure they are keeping us out in the fringes, but when is the last time you heard the Barricade gang doing anything of note, at most they meet at the gym and that’s it. She’s even told me he’s been letting ponies that owe him money off the hook left and right. He also keeps having terrible nightmares, screaming about shadows and darkness, takes Barbell a while to calm him down.”

“Fascinating,” the older pony sneered.

“It is indeed fascinating,” a foreign accented voice addressed the two ponies who jumped a bit and turned around.

The fillies continued to watch, having themselves started a bit at the sudden voice. Their brows rose when seeing a brownish looking earth stallion with a dark mane, wearing shirt and red cloth around his neck with white polka dots, his cutie mark was a golden skull that had a green and red gem in its eye sockets. Accompanying the stranger were three rough looking ponies.

“Who in Tartarus are you?” the spiky maned pony addressed the newly arrived pony.

“I am Dr. Caballeron and I’m investigating how my old business associate, Barricade, is doing. I’m really interested in hearing that he’s having such a rough time since he cut all ties with me so many years ago,” Caballeron said and lazily examined one of his front hooves.

“Wait, you’re the guy Barricade was always selling stuff too?” the teen colt blinked in astonishment.

“Well it was more of a, ‘I knew of some items his parents discovered, he would get them for me and I would pay for that service’ kind of a deal. However, few years ago he stopped, refused to work for me. I let it slide, but I must admit I wouldn’t mind convincing him to engage in business with me again,” Caballeron explained and then grinned slyly as he looked at the two ponies. “And I want you two to help me.”

“Why would we want to help you? Wait, Dr. Caballeron, aren’t you the dude who is always after Daring Do?” the sea green pony snorted.

“I have a life outside Daring Do,” Caballeron spat and looked incensed. “Well if you do not wish to help, boys, get him out of my face.”

The fillies gasped when the three rough looking ponies advanced immediately on the sea green one. He didn’t even get a chance to do much before they were right on top of him and beating him into a pulp. The whole time Caballeron just stood there and casually fixed the cloth around his neck, the teen colt stared as well, wide eyed and half terrified.

Soon the beaten and battered body of the spiky maned pony was thrown into a nearby old dumpster. Now Caballeron turned his attention to the teenager, who was frozen with fear.

“Now boy, are you going to refuse to assist me? I couldn’t help but overhear that you are getting a little cozy with Barricade’s daughter.” The earth pony chuckled dryly.

“Um well, yeah… Spikes, few of my buddies and I have been spying on Barricade and his gang for few months, hoping we could establish our own gang that could take over… but yeah I’m in with his daughter, she thinks I’m alright… I mean, sure I can help, what do you need?” the teen colt stammered, shaking like a leaf.

“I need you to keep doing what you were doing for now, but report to me rather than that pathetic sack of manure my boys just dumped into the dumpster,” Caballeron said and out of a pocket inside of his shirt he produced a card. “I’m staying at this hotel. One of my people will always be around to escort you to my room.

The teen colt hesitated before grabbing the card, but the older pony didn’t let go just yet, instead he narrowed his eyes on the boy.

“Now don’t get any bright ideas, my dear boy. I have been keeping an eye on Barricade for a little while myself, I just need to know few more minor details before I move in. Details that have eluded me, but I’m hoping that somepony, somepony like you who is in with his daughter, can eventually provide,” he warned before letting go of the card.

The teen just nodded, assuring the doctor that he would do that. Suddenly all five ponies in the alley looked up when hearing a sound. Outside it the fillies were hugging the wall hoping they were out of sight and three hooves were over Sweetie Belle’s muzzle, she had been unable to hold in a sneeze.

“Ah probably just a rat. What’s your name boy?”

“Trail.”

The crusaders continued to hold their breaths as the voice became more distant. Didn’t seem the ponies were coming their way to leave the alley. When there was no more sound they all let out a sigh in relief.

“What did we just witness?” Babs cringed, the memory of Spikes being beaten into pulp still vivid.

“We really need to stop witnessing ponies being dumped into dumpsters,” Scootaloo remarked, remembering last time that had happened.

“Wait, Dr. Caballeron is real? Isn’t he from the Daring Do books?” Sweetie Belle wondered utterly confused.

“Okay, that just happened,” was the only thing Apple Bloom could really say at the moment.

“Should we go see if that pony they attacked is okay?” Babs wondered, not really thrilling at the idea of going into the alley.

The crusaders all glanced towards the entrance, but much like her the Ponyville Crusaders didn’t really like the idea of coming anywhere near it now. Two of them, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle cringed as they remembered Silver Spoon in the dumpster back in Ponyville.

“We should tell somepony though,” Apple Bloom pointed out.

“Tell somepony what?” a voice addressed them, causing all four fillies to scream for a moment. It quieted down quickly when they saw a teen colt standing in front of them, but this one was aquamarine and had a cobalt blue mane cut into a large mohawk. On his flank was a yellow typewriter and dangling around his neck was a camera.

“Whoa, whoa, easy now,” the teenager said calmly, holding one hoof up. The crusaders sighed in relief when seeing it was none of the five ponies from before.

“A pony was attacked in the alley over there,” Apple Bloom rose and pointed towards it. The crusaders then all at once proceeded to try and tell the teenager what had just happened.

“Okay, whoa, one at a time,” the colt raised his voice a bit to overcome the noise. The fillies fell silent, looking a little sheepish. “Let’s just focus on the important fact, a pony was attacked. Is he still in there?”

Both fillies nodded, the colt looked at the alley, took a deep breath and rushed in. The crusaders didn’t follow and just waited outside of it. They all arched their brows when they heard the colt laugh.

“Spikes? Oh man, they really messed you up. Did you run into Barricade and his boys again?” they heard the colt say in a loud voice. “You know better than to be hanging around here. Barricade’s gone nuts on anypony he thinks will raise the crime level in Hoofington again.”

“Spikes? Oh buck…”

The fillies heard the lid of the dumpster slam and the colt rushed out of the alley, his face was now pale. He muttered something to himself before looking at the fillies.

“Girls, did you see who did that?” he asked in a dead serious tone. Apple Bloom proceeded to describe the ponies.

“Sweet Celestia. Trail, what have you gotten your rump into now?” the teenager whispered startled and looked around more nervously.

“What’s your name?” Sweetie Belle asked, since they hadn’t really been introduced, her crusader friends gave her a look, this was hardly a time for introductions.

“What? Oh, I’m Paper Scribbler… um I better get you girls out of here, come with me,” the colt said, now there was determination in his voice and face. He started to run off and the crusaders followed, figuring they might as well since he probably knew the way out of here.

“What about the pony in the dumpster?” Babs called.

“Don’t worry about him,” Paper responded and cringed a bit.

“Why not?” Scootaloo asked.

“Because he’s dead,” the teenager now grimaced and the crusaders eyes opened wide in shock.

End chapter 4

Author's Note:

Now if this damn sequel would have been written on right time, that is two years ago instead of today, the second part of this chapter would be a more clearer reference to the Time Keeper of Ponyville, where I did reveal that Barricade used to do some shady business, acquiring things for certain ponies who paid him for getting those items.

Well we finally get to meet Barricade's old boss so to speak, I have wanted to use Cabelleron for ages, always intended for him to be the one Barricade used to do business with. I always figured Caballeron was a pain in the ass for many archaeologists, not just Daring Do, he's just more known as an antagonist for Daring Do since she writes books about it.

Comments

[Hail King Sombra]

Nice to see Caballeron making an appearance, but his gang killing a pony? Eekk...that's hard core! I've been kinda nervous about reading your next chapter since before you moved since it seemed like the CMC were also risking their lives going into Hoofington. Here's fingers crossed they get out alive and intact, unlike that poor bastard in the dumpster *shiver!*

[Askre]

Nice to see Caballeron making an appearance, but his gang killing a pony? Eekk...that's hard core!

Considering that Caballeron is a pretty blatant expy of Belloq (I think that's how you spell his name) from Indiana Jones, I can well see him have his men kill someone, especially if he wants to avoid witnesses. This also makes for a nice contrast to Barricade and his gang who actually avoid killing.

I've been kinda nervous about reading your next chapter since before you moved since it seemed like the CMC were also risking their lives going into Hoofington. Here's fingers crossed they get out alive and intact, unlike that poor bastard in the dumpster *shiver!*

Well these are the CMC, risking their hides is nothing new to them.