The Equestrian Revolution

by Synclair

Chapter 2 - Breaking and Entering / Renewal

Chapter 2: Breaking and Entering / Renewal

There was a chemical smell in the air, it made me dizzy and Brass Tacks seemed a bit unsteady on his hooves. It sounded like people were having a party somewhere within the warehouse. I could hear the distant sound of crackling fire and something boiling in a pot. More cackling laughter and Brass Tacks fell to the ground.

“Brass Tacks!” I shrieked.

The laughing stopped. “What the fuck was that?”

I cringed. The F-word was a strong word.

Brass Tacks tossed his small gun towards me and I picked it up in my mouth.

“Find a place to hide, when you can, look for Silver-Lined,” Brass Tacks croaked.

I darted underneath a table, peeking out from beneath the ragged tablecloth. Two stallions marched out, one had a spiky mane and the other appeared to have a shaved mane. They were both gray with swirls for cutie marks. Brass Tacks stood up, ignoring the taunts that the mean stallions threw at him. The F-Bomb was tossed around a couple of times too.

With lightning speed, one of the stallions launched both hind legs at full throttle into Brass Tack’s muzzle. Brass Tacks lurched back violently and I covered my eyes. They laughed as they beat their hooves on Brass Tacks. I had to find Silver-Lined – fast. I pressed myself up against the walls and roamed through the darkness.

I found myself on the second floor, looking down upon the main room where all the Lost Ones hung out. A large cauldron containing Poison Joke leaves was being stirred by a butch-looking mare and other ponies lapped the liquid up. After having a few mouthfuls, the ponies fell back and laughed. I wasn’t quite sure what they were laughing at, but they were really out of it.

Behind me were cells. The first one contained a pony’s skeleton. The second one contained two corpses and the third had nothing in it. I walked around to the other side. Ponies slept and ponies wept in their cells, none seemed to have noticed me. There were ponies of different genders, ages and colors! I studied each cell and found one cell on the far left containing only one pony, a stallion.

This stallion had a silver coat and a gray mane with black and creamy streaks. His eyes were staring right at me, intelligent and dark eyes. His cutie mark was of a single olive branch; it was beautiful and was a nice green which didn’t seem to clash with his silver coat. His wings were hardly noticeable, I nearly took him for an earth pony.

“Silver-Lined Cloud?” I called out to the stallion.

The stallion stood up and approached the bars. “Who said that?” He asked, looking right above me. I knew I was small, but was I really that small that I wasn’t noticeable?!

“Down here!” I said excitedly, jumping up and down, “it’s me!”

Silver-Lined squinted hard.

I reached my hoof in to touch his and he immediately crouched to the ground and looked at me.

“Hello little foal, I was just playing!” he said happily, “what brings you here?”

“Brass Tacks and I came here to help you,” I said proudly.

Silver-Lined bit his bottom lip. “Where’s Brass Tacks?”

I shrugged and just as I did, Brass Tacks gave a groan.

Silver-Lined sighed, “He’s a strong stallion. Besides, these Lost Ones seem a bit passive when it comes to murder. Want to go see how he’s doing?”

I frowned and shook my head, “He told me to get you out first.”

Silver-Lined gave a playful smirk, “And how do you propose to do that?” He asked teasingly.

“Step back,” I said.

He stepped back and raised a brow, still smirking as if he thought my attempt was probably foolish. But this foal was no fool! I levitated the small gun and aimed right at the lock on the cell door. Silver-Lined’s eyes widened with horror as I fired the gun and the cell door came off. The ponies in the other cell stuck their heads and hooves out and begged for help. I smiled but Silver-Lined propped me up on his back and started to run.

“Are we going now?” I asked.

Silver-Lined huffed as he galloped through the halls, the wind ruining my mane. I looked back towards the other trapped ponies.

“Are we leaving?” I asked again.

“No, no we’re not leaving. We’re just trying to find some cover before we let the other ponies out. Lucky for us, it’s their ‘get high and not care if we die’ day,” Silver-Lined explained.

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

Two mean looking stallions stopped in front of us and I got ready to fire my gun but one of the stallions was a unicorn and his magic overthrew mine, causing the gun to go to him.

“Did anyone teach you that it’s impolite to bring a gun to a hoof fight?” Silver-Lined said.

The gun dropped to the ground and the two stallions ganged up on Silver-Lined. I fell to the ground as one of them double-kicked him in the side. The pain of falling onto the concrete floor was too hard to bear, how could Brass Tacks and Silver-Lined take hits like that? Silver-Lined returned the kick and added his own little roundhouse touch. The unicorn went down faster than I expected, his horn shattered as he hit the ground. The other stallion was an earth pony and was ten-times more masculine than Silver-Lined, although Silver-Lined and Brass Tacks were pretty built. The earth pony rammed his head into Silver-Lined and they began to wrestle. More ponies came from the front.

“Now, Glace! Get the gun now!” Silver-Lined yelled before receiving a kick to the face.

I did as I was told, the gun came up quick and I aimed it at all the other ponies and began to fire rapidly. Firing once was no problem, but to fire as quickly as I did takes a lot of concentration and brain-power. Most of them fell; others were injured and moaned in pain. Silver-Lined stood up shakily and turned around with a weary smile. Brass Tacks appeared behind Silver-Lined and they knocked hooves. Something felt different inside me.

“You’re looking dapper,” Brass Tacks teased.

We let the other ponies out but I still had that daunting feeling. The enemy ponies downstairs apparently died from an overdose on Poison Joke. I always thought Poison Joke did the opposite of appealing to your five senses.

“These ponies were taught how to reverse-engineer the leaves with magic,” Silver-Lined explained, “it’s so easy to turn something like this into a hallucinogen and mood enhancer.”

Brass Tacks rubbed his head, “I can’t stand that smell, it makes me feel so… ick!”

Everypony sat down around the fire, eager to leave. Silver-Lined just told everypony to relax and catch their breath before they head back towards Trotten. Everypony seemed distant, nopony laughed except for Silver-Lined who had a foreleg wrapped around me and praised me for being such a brave little colt. It felt… nice. Aside from the guilt which was welling up in me.

“Did I commit murder?” I asked.

The room fell silent.

Silver-Lined nudged me, “No, you stopped them from murdering me. It’s not murder if it’s self-defense, Glace,”

“I’ve never killed anypony before… it… I…” I choked on my words.

Silver-Lined wiped away my tears and smiled softly, “Don’t worry, pal. We’ll be home soon,”

Before we left, I gave Brass Tacks some of that medicinal paste that Elven Spices packed. Apparently you weren’t supposed to eat it, but Brass Tacks still did, so I kept my mouth shut. It wasn't poisonous at all, fortunately. So then we set off for Trotten, the night settled in. The moon seemed a bit duller too, much like the sun. And the previous thought from the other night occurred to me again. Silver-Lined carried me on his back and I fell asleep.

* * *

I awoke in a large bedroom. Silver-Lined was floating around doing stuff, he seemed happy despite the events that had just occurred. He had a few cuts and bruises but that didn’t hinder him from humming a happy tune. Brass Tacks was doodling on a piece of paper. The zebras outside were gone from their usual spot, but left there was a trail of blood.

“Where did the zebras go?” I asked.

Silver-Lined turned around with a grin and Brass Tacks looked up from the paper briefly before scratching on it again.

“You’re awake!” Silver-Lined said.

I couldn’t help but smile at how cheery Silver-Lined was.

“They’re gone now; Trotten is officially the Town of Revolution!” Silver-Lined said.

“That is, until, more zebras come around to check on the town and find out that they’re missing. They’ll pin it on us, those ponies knew about the revolution you were planning to lead, Silver. Discord is bound to find out sooner or later,” Brass Tacks said bluntly.

Silver-Lined scoffed, “Oh come off it, Brass Attacks. They never said anything to anypony or zebra. They only asked the zebras about drugs and then they got introduced to Poison Joke.”

Brass Tacks rolled his eyes.

“What if other zebras DO come here?” I asked.

“Then we all die,” Brass Tacks replied instantly.

Silver-Lined laughed, but my heart sank.

“He’s kidding, maybe you need more rest pal. If other zebras happen to come, then we get rid of them to. They’ll never send an entire platoon just to check on a town. Only certain teams of like - what? Three to five? Trotten can certainly take on more than that,” Silver-Lined reassured.

I rested my head back on the pillow.

“What do we do now, Silver? The gang split-up since your capture,” Brass Tacks asked.

Silver-Lined put his hooves on the ground and replied, “We recruit the old and the new. Locate, track and recruit,”

“Some of them have gone off to create their own revolutionary army… but no one can lead one like you can. We need to get them back,” Brass Tacks said.

“Don’t have high hopes for their return,” Silver-Lined said.

The three of us went downstairs. We sat at a table and ate Elven Spices’ Spicy Soup Special. It wasn’t all that spicy, although Silver-Lined and Brass Tacks had to have a gulp of water after every three spoonfuls. Elven Spices sat with us too. She asked us what happened and we told her.

“Shortest adventure ever,” Elven Spices teased.

“Yeah well it wasn’t all that of a challenge to be honest,” Silver-Lined said.

“Maybe not for you, but for me it was,” Brass Tacks replied bitterly.

There was a pause as we ate, then Elven Spices spoke timidly. “Do you mind if I travel with you guys for a while?”

Silver-Lined shook his head with a huge grin and Brass Tacks mouthed the word ‘no’. She looked at me endearingly and touched my hoof.

“I just don’t want this little trooper surrounded by such hard stallions and no tender care around,” She added.

The smile on my face was much bigger than usual and the warmth in my tummy was unnatural… I hadn’t felt this loved since my parents.

“Well! That was hoof lickin’ good!” Silver-Lined cheered.

Elven Spices gave a look of gratitude.

“Three cheers for the Equestrian Revolution!” somepony yelled.

Everypony began to cheer and I cheered along with them. A look of determination was on everypony’s face, a look of redemption was on mine.

* * *

Mom and Dad stood before me. They were crying and motioning me to come towards them. But with each step I took, they stepped back. I turned around but nothing was there but a bright light. They were happy to see me again, we were a family again. I started to gallop as fast as my little hooves could take me and I fell. Mom and Dad were now in front of me, Mom held out her hoof for me to grab and time seemed to had slowed just as we were about to connect.

BOOM

Light blinded me and I found myself in the ruins once again. The pile of corpses, my parents’ bodies were now in front of me. Zebras surrounded me, laughing and cackling. The silhouette of Discord stained the skies and chocolate rain began to fall. I started to yell, I even dropped the F-bomb a couple of times. Mom’s head propped up quickly and the words that came out of her mouth made my head reel and my heart shatter like hot glass in cold water.

“I hate you,” She said.

“Glace,” Another voice called.

“I hate you,” Mom said again.

“Glace come on!”

“I hate you,”

I was blinded by light once again but this time something shook me and I felt a hoof on my forehead. I blinked a couple of times to see Elven Spices and Silver-Lined Cloud sitting next to me on a bed.

“Sweetness, you’re burning up, are you feeling alright?” Elven Spices asked.

No, I was clammy and cold. There was now a metaphoric hole in my tummy where love should belong, where the sense of belonging and the values of family were meant to reside. The bed was wet beneath me due to my sweat and Elven Spices began to fiddle with her saddlebag. I felt so empty.

“Take this.” She shoved a bottle in my mouth and I swallowed reluctantly. “This should cure your shivers.”

“What is it?” I asked into the bottle.

Elven Spices looked at Silver-Lined who just shrugged, “It’s um… it’s just… it’s spices, yeah.”

“It didn’t taste like that at all, it tasted like hard pellets,” I said.

“Well it was pills darling, I don’t know how you feel about drugs but some ponies despise synthetic medicine,” she said.

It was dawn, apparently a few zebras had come to check up on Trotten but they were disposed of as soon as they set foot inside the inn. Silver-Lined informed us that we needed to recruit an arcane science genius by the name of Kiara. Apparently she and Silver-Lined had a thing (I’m pretty sure that means that they loved each other) for a while and broke off shortly before his capture. Kiara was last seen in the work capital of Equestria, Manehattan.

“Is that walking distance?” I asked.

“Of course!” Silver-Lined answered optimistically.

But Brass Tacks shook his head, and since Brass Tacks was so straightforward, I took his word for it instead.

When we reached the bar, everypony clapped for us once again. I even heard someone shout out my name and I smiled cutely. Silver-Lined let me ride on his back again as we travelled. Elven Spices insisted that she held my saddlebag while I recovered but I told her that I was feeling better and that she couldn’t carry two saddlebags at once. Silver-Lined sometimes flew a few feet off the ground with me on him. The first few flights I nearly fell off but he used his wings to keep me balanced. Then I got comfortable and felt like I was a Pegasus myself.

“So what does Kiara look like?” I asked as we flew a few feet above Brass Tack’s head.

Silver-Lined cocked his head as he thought. “She’s a beautiful marine unicorn. Her mane is golden and her cutie mark is of a… what was it again, guys?”

Brass Tacks sighed and Elven Spices gave it some thought.

“A gold crown, wasn’t it?” Elven Spices said.

“No, it was just three gold dots forming a triangle, much like my cutie mark except hers actually shines in the light,” Brass Tacks said.

“So exotic…” Silver-Lined mused.

The night was cold again but Silver-Lined provided me with some warmth so I rested my head. He swooped down and set his hooves on the ground and began to walk. Elven Spices held a gun in her mouth, so did Brass Tacks and Silver-Lined. I had mine resting near my hooves and was ready to use it when it was needed.

The sky ahead of us was dark and gave off a brown tinge. If you squinted hard, you could see the broken skyline of Manehattan. Factories were set up in and around Manehattan, the large skyscrapers served an eerie reminder of chaos to anyone that approached. Manehattan was the capital of industry. It was awfully steampunk-themed. They say the Element of Generosity runs Manehattan after making a deal with Discord to provide him with uniforms for the zebras, although I haven’t seen the zebras wear anything.

“So what does Kiara do here?” I asked.

“She does technical work, repairs the equipment. She’s the only technician they have,” Silver-Lined replied.

Manehattan was walled off, topped with barbed wire on the top. Zebras with rifles guarded the entrance and we stopped in front of them. We placed the small guns in my saddlebag and waited. The zebras approached us slowly and we gave our best smiles. The zebras said something in a different language and kicked Silver-Lined in the side, I nearly toppled over with him but he maintained his balance.

“I want to check this foal’s saddlebag,” one of the zebras said.

We all froze. I reluctantly handed my saddlebag over and he snatched it out of my hoof and nearly took me with it. He looked at me as he opened the saddlebag then closed it before tossing it back. Elven Spices’ eyes widened and Silver-Lined gave a sigh of relief. It turns out that the zebras were too lazy to move sheets of paper to further inspect a saddlebag for weapons. We entered Manehattan and immediately coughed as the pollution entered our systems.

“Where do we start?” Brass Tacks asked.

We wandered Manehattan. A lot of zebras patrolled the streets and gave us curious glances. When they began to approach us, we entered a nearby factor and hid in there for a while. There were more zebras inside than there was outside though and we went back out. It was comical, but the mission was serious. A lot of machines needed some repairing apparently as the factories were filled with billowing smoke.

“‘Mares of Equestria – Join the Innovation’,” Elven Spices read from a poster.

“‘YOU can do it – Rarity Innovations’,” Silver-Lined read another.

Brass Tacks seemed in awe now, “No… Rarity is working for Discord?”

We continued on walking, processing the Element of Generosity working for the Spirit of Disharmony. To me, it really meant nothing. Mom and Dad never spoke of the Elements of Harmony which is apparently what this ‘Rarity’ was a part of. I know that she saved us from Nightmare Moon and Discord once before, but that was about it. I guess the fact that a good guy was now working for the bad guy seemed a bit… overwhelming and disturbing.

“Everypony please line up for the daily Rarity’s Extravaganza,” somepony’s voice echoed throughout Manehattan through speakers.

Immediately, everypony left the factories and lined up, squishing and squeezing each other on the sidewalk. A piano instrumental played, along with brass instruments and strings. The song seemed sinister yet elegant, much like the theme song of some evil mastermind of high status or the head of an evil business like Rarity Industries. Silver-Lined looked over his shoulder at me to make sure I was okay and I smiled, he smiled back.

A lot of Pegasi were flying in the air to get a good view and Silver-Lined had an idea. He whispered in Elven Spices’ ear and then she passed the message onto Brass Tacks. Everypony nodded but I was still oblivious as he flew up in the air. Then his eyes darted around the crowd.

“Help me look for a marine colored pony with a golden mane,” Silver-Lined said.

We soared over the giant crowd. Most, if not everypony was covered in black stains and dirt. Most of them were dreary-eyed, weary workers looking for anything to get out of work. Even if that anything was to watch their superior have the ball of her life. Most of the manes were caked with dirt and if Kiara was anything like them, her mane would be unpolished and dull.

“Come on help me out, Glace. Your eyesight is probably better than mine,” Silver-Lined urged.

Of course, Kiara was a tech savvy mare. And someone who was tech savvy had to operate Rarity’s Extravaganza lighting and machinery. Kiara had to be somewhere on high-ground, on a rooftop because she couldn’t fly, she was a unicorn. I informed Silver-Lined and he started cruising around. Other ponies shoved him as he navigated his way as he was ‘disrupting the show’.

There, the marine color gleamed in the orange glow of the sun behind pollution. Everything seemed rustic like Brass Tacks. She had her eyes shut as she operated multiple pieces of machinery. Intricately, she flicked switches and moved lights around. She was very talented in magic, I could see.

I looked down to see the gleaming white pony with a purple mane. I could have passed as her little brother, we looked that much alike with our coats and the brightness of our manes… and we were both unicorns! She smiled, but it was easy for me to tell that it was fake. Other people may have bought it as a smile of confidence, but it wasn’t real. Her eyebrows often slanted up showing how worried or scared she was but then she’d quickly raise one and pout.

“Kiara!” Silver-Lined called out to the marine pony.

“Nini katika nyasi?!” The marine pony yelled.

All the macinery clattered onto the street or around her. She gave a horrified gasp as the music stopped abruptly and Rarity’s gaze turned up on me. Her eyes were wide with fear, as if she was afraid that her time was up. I waved a hoof at her but she sat there, petrified. The zebras looked up and began making their way up towards us.

“Kiara, is that you?” Silver-Lined asked.

“Oh my Celestia,” the marine pony gasped, it was Kiara, “Silver-Lined Cloud? It’s you?”

I sat there awkwardly.

“Who’s this?” She asked and stroked my mane.

“This is Glace, he rescued me with Brass Tacks,” Silver-Lined boasted for me.

I gave a soft smile.

“He’s so adorable!” she squealed.

“What language were you speaking?” I asked.

Her ears perked up. “Zebra, it was Zebra. When you work around zebra for a while, you pick up the language fast,”

One zebra made it up to the top. He had his rifle and hind legs ready.

“Kiara nini kilitokea?” The zebra asked. At least, I think he was asking her something... his sentence ended with a high pitch.

“F- Friends,” she answered quickly, “they’re my friends and somepony knocked me right out of my concentration and they came to see if I was alright.”

The zebra eyed us suspiciously, “Si basi ni kutokea tena.”

With that, the zebra walked away.

“What’s happening?” I heard Rarity ask a zebra.

The zebra spoke in Zebra.

“What’s he saying?” Rarity asked again.

More Zebra.

“Can...” Her voice broke off as the festivites continued.

“Can this wait until after the parade? Meet me near Rarity’s Palace, I have my own quarters there. Just say Kiara sent you, they’ll be bound to let you in,” Kiara said.

“I can wait here with you, can’t I?” Silver-Lined asked and pecked her on the cheek.

She smiled softly and nodded.