A Reflection of sorts

by thetaleweaver

An Apple Divided, Part 1

Chapter 1

An Apple Divided

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850 years since Luna's Disappearance

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The city of Manehattan: a bustling metropolis where dreams can be made or broken. Where a living could be made by working one's hooves to the bone, or without so much as lifting one. Work is never too hard to find, whether it be helping to build on to the city, or to repair the damages almost constantly done to what already stands. It is unfortunate that despite the wondrous opportunity this city presents, there exists one major drawback: The townsfolk are constantly conflicting with each other in the streets. The conflicts can be as mild as the exchange of insults and derrogatory remarks, but can be fierce enough to result in several ponies leaving the scene in gurneys. Thankfully, not all ponies in this city, or other cities for that matter, are consumed with such hatred for the other races.

Tomorrow will be a special day for Manehattan. On that day, the mayoral candidates will be giving speeches in the center of the city. Ponies of all races and backgrounds will be there to cheer on the mare or stallion they feel should lead the city. Unfortunately, with all of the townsfolk gathered together, the risk of a conflict is at an all-time high. To dispel any riots that may occur, a handful of the city's guards have volunteered to keep the violence to a minimum.

"All right, any questions regarding our briefing?" asked an armor-clad unicorn to a room full of other armor-clad ponies. Seeing that none had spoken up or raised their hooves, he smiled and continued to speak. "Good, then we meet up at the podium tomorrow at 0800 hours. That wil give us two hours before the speeches to make sure we are ready for anything. All of you are now dismissed". All of the guards cleared out of the room and set forth to go home. Morning came quicker than anticipated, and soon the captain found himself walking down the road leading deeper into town. He came to up to the stage that had been set up in the square, and saw that one of his men was waiting for him.

"Captain Valorous! Good morning, sir!" called out the pony.

"Good morning, rookie. You're here quite early, something wrong?" asked Valorous.

"Brickmason, Edgar Brickmason is my name. And yes, I couldn't sleep. I'm nervous that something bad could happen".

"Don't worry, kid, I've been through riots before. While they are no fun, you'll be fine so long as you make sure to incapacitate any attackers as quickly as possible".

"I just hope nothing happens. It would be a shame for anyone to get hurt".

"Hope is all you can do. Just keep calm for now, the rest of the troops should be here within the next hour". Sure enough, the other guards arrived one after another, and all had arrived by the time they were supposed to meet up. Not long after that, the mayoral candidates arrived. The three candidates greeted the guards, and then walked off behind the stage to practice their speeches. Brickmason broke off from the rest of the guards to observe them practice, wanting desperately to forget the unease in his soul. He was noticed by one of the candidates, a light-brown pegasus mare with a dark brown mane, tied back into a bun.

"Oy! Something wrong?" she questioned, causing Edgar to recoil slightly.

"I'm sorry, ma'am! I just needed to get my mind off of something..."

"Nervous, are we? I can relate. This is my first time giving a speech to such a large crowd of ponies".

"I've been getting a bad feeling since last night. I can't tell what it is trying to tell me, but my gut says that something bad will happen".

"I don't see any reason to worry. Valorous is your captain, no?"

"Well, yes. But..."

"He's a capable stallion. I've heard of his feats before. He's the first stallion anypony should want at their back in a crisis". One of the other candidates, a dark-orange earth stallion, appeared from behind her almost suddenly.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Ms. Stratos" announced the stallion, causing the mare to jump.

"Mr. Blackmoor! Please don't startle me like that!" ejaculated Stratos.

"What do you mean, sir?" inquired Edgar.

"I've seen what his father has done in the past. Seeing as he was raised by his father, I fear he may be very similar. Another bigoted monster" stated Blackmoor.

"I haven't seen anything bad about him yet. How bad can he be?"

"His father hates us earth ponies. I've seen him head many a lynch mob. I was almost a victim once, but then my brother stepped in and was taken instead". Blackmoor's expression changed to a pained one as he spoke these words.

"His father may have been a monster, but that doesn't mean he's the same" stated Edgar. He was about to continue speaking, but then he was interrupted by Valorous calling out to him.

"Brickmason! Fall back into position! There's five minutes left until the presentation, and I have some things I want to say to all of you!" announced Valorous. Edgar looked at his face, and saw that his attention had shifted slightly after his announcement. He appeared to be glaring at someone. Edgar chose not to think about it and began walking back to the front of the stage. Before he could make his way back, Ms. Stratos flew in front of him and began talking again.

"Brickmason, is it?" she asked.

"Yes. Edgar Brickmason, Ms. Stratos".

"Please, call me Nimba, Edgar. Good luck out there". Edgar smiled and moved along, placing himself amongst the phalanx-esque formation that his comrades had formed.

"All right, men! Simple task today: Protect the mayoral candidates, break up any rioting, and go home tonight in one piece. Is there anyone who doesn't understand this?" barked Valorous. None of the guards spoke up, much to his delight. "Right! Stand at attention in front of the stage, and keep your eyes open for any shenanigans! Move!" The guards moved out, and Edgar trailed behind at the end. Suddenly, he heard the captain call out to him. "I saw you talking to the candidates earlier. Anything you want to tell me about that, rookie?" asked Valorous, eyebrow raised.

"Nothing, Captain. Just discussing the anxiety that this event is causing" said Edgar, nonchalantly.

"I see. Keep yourself calm out there, Brickmason. The last thing we need is a guard panicking, think of it as a sign of weakness".

"Thank you, sir. I'll do my best". The two joined the rest of the troops in front of the stage as Mr. Blackmoor walked up to the podium in the center of the stage. Cheers and jeers were heard throughout the crowd, but they soon died down as Blackmoor began to speak. Edgar listened to the speech intently as he scanned the scenery for any sort of disturbance. Unfortunately, the combination of anxiety and Blackmoor's monotone voice made Edgar's eyes feel heavier with each passing second. He stirred suddenly when the sounds of Blackmoor's voice were replaced by several hooves stomping on the ground and clapping in the air. This did not keep him alert for long, as soon he began drifting off once again. Another noise roused his attention, but also made a pit form in his stomach.

"Get that feather-brain off the stage!" exclaimed a unicorn in the front of the crowd.

"Shut up, horn-face!" roared a pegasus that had rose from out of the crowd.

"Both of you shut your traps! Can't you just let the ponies give their speeches?!" shouted an earth pony from the front of the crowd. After those three shouts, much more, unintelligible clamor sounded through the air, and violence ensued soon afterwards.

"All right men, move in!" commanded Valorous. All of the guards save for Edgar, who was shocked from how quickly the situation had escalated, charged into the crowd to break up any fights. Valorous noticed this, and shouted at Edgar to take action. Edgar, however, could not make out a word that was said over the roaring of the crowd. What did catch his eye has a glass bottle flying towards Nimba, who had taken the stage before the riot had broken out. Quickly focusing on what needed to be done, he gripped the bottle with his magic and spiked it to the ground in front of him. He then mounted the stage to talk to the candidates.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked the three candidates.

"Nobody got hurt, at least up here anyways. You may want to go help the other guards out" stated Blackmoor.

"Alright then. Keep your heads down, this could get bad". Edgar turned back to the crowd, looking for his captain. He spotted him, in combat with the earth pony who attempted to silence the two other rabble-rousers. Said earth pony was clearly being beaten, but to an unnecessary extent. Edgar charged over to his captain. "Captain! What are you doing?!" he asked. Valorous turned his head away from the earth pony, who was now on the ground gasping for air, to face Edgar.

"This bastard was causing trouble, so I need to incapacitate him. If you don't mind, I have work to do, and so do you!" declared Valorous, angrily.

"I doubt he wants to fight you anymore, so leave him be! There are other ponies who need to be put under control!"

"He may not want to fight, but he still can fight. He's not incapacitated yet, rookie. Now help with the riot while I finish up!" Valorous then turned back to the earth pony and prepared to continue stomping on him. Edgar, seeing what his captain was bout to do, fired a bolt of magic at him and sent him flying a few feet away. He then helped the earth pony to his hooves.

"I only wanted to see my father give his speech, I didn't expect to get beaten for it!" commented the earth pony, weakly.

"You're Blackmoor's son?" asked Edgar.

"Yes. Thank you for the help".

"You should probably get out of the crowd before someone else attacks you". The earth pony limped away quickly towards the stage to be with his father. Edgar turned to help the other guards out, when suddenly he was knocked to the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Brickmason?! I told you to help with the violence, not add to it!" roared Valorous, furiously.

"I did help, Valorous! You nearly killed Mr. Blackmoor's son!"

"Who cares about that mud horse?! You assaulted me! In my eyes, that makes you one of those rioters!"

"I don't want to fight you, Valorous. Now let's go back to work and try to actually help someone!"

"That's Captain Valorous, rookie. And this isn't going to be a fight" said Valorous, before moving his neck around and making an audible cracking sound as his mouth twisted itself into a smile of sorts. "This is discipline!" he roared, as he struck his hoof across Edgar's face. Enraged, Edgar fought back against his captain. The two traded blows with each other for what seemed like hours, but was actually all but a few minutes when suddenly a roar echoed throughout the city. The ground began to shake furiously, and the sounds of screams could be heard in the distance. A pegasus frantically flew over to the site of the riot.

"Get out of town, everyone! An Ursa Minor is attacking!" he shouted nervously. This threw the rioters into a new state of unrest, as they frantically ran around looking for a hiding spot.

"Dammit! One thing after another with today! Listen here, traitor, I'm not done with you! You stay here and try not to mess anything else up, while the rest of us go attend to the new issue" hissed Valorous. The rest of the guards left the scene, and Edgar tried to think of a way to calm everyone down.