Half-Hoof: Dire Circumstances

by Alfoals Trottenbauer

I - Beginnings

Sven glanced outside the shoddy apartment's window. The Metrocops had been doing a search on the neighboring block.

His television was on as mandatory. It was on another braycast.

"Thanks to Our Benefactors, Anticitizen Freemane has been eliminated, and Anticitizen Sparks is incarcerated in Nova Prospekt. The world is now safe from any... Obstructions, and we can now reach immortality. Remember, as said by the wisepony Sunset Shimmer, 'The golden key to equality is to clip the wing and brace the horn. All individuality makes us wild and rampant.' "

The white-coated moose looked in a mirror to see his antler braces. He had been pondering a way to get rid of them.

He glanced out the window again, City 28 made you paranoid in that way. One moment you think all of Tartaurus has blown over, and the next you've got Combine busting down your door. He knew what they did to anypony resisting. They cut out any of your unnecessary parts, then they sew up your jaws. You have to be fed through a tube, and they take out any body mass you had. They pull out wings, tear out horns. They cover your whole head with a metal plate, and they ship you out to work where they please.

He was afraid, very much so.

He trotted to the fridge and took out a bottle of hard cider. He took a swig and peered out the window. A large group of metrocops were headed for his building.

He sat on a chair and pulled an antler brace off. He did the same to the other. He race-cantered to a closet in the next room and levitated out a piece of metal he'd carved into a long knife of sorts.