8 - Ponyville Slums
Chapter 8 - Ponyville Slums
Sewer Town. Ugh.
Ace the Younger, President-Adviser of Economic Affairs and the representative of the House of Fields, impatiently tapped his tanned hoof on the platform train floor as it made its angular descent to the villainous sewer slums that lie underneath Ponyville. This really shouldn't be a job for an important pony such as he, but whenever the Chancellor gave an order, he had to follow it.
He wasn't destined for this kind of menial work. Heck, he wasn't destined for Economics, even if it had a tenuous link to his passion for sports. He was once a great soccer player during his school days, but after playing pro for a few years, he discovered that many, if not all of the games were fixed for the sole amusement of keeping Earthians distracted from the truth of their government.
It's not like he could protest. How else could he earn a luxurious living as one of the members of the Party Elite? Vanity came first for this stallion.
In a black coat and fedora hat, it was still hard for him to not stand out, especially with all the hooded Clone Soldiers flanking him from side to side. When the Clones were around, all inhabitants of Sewer Town instinctively backed off and made way, which made Ace's traveling quick and easy.
Then he entered Kobold's Den of the Diamond District. His nose twitched at the terrible pungent aroma of meat, but excess bovine, especially rebellious ones, had to go somewhere. There was, as usual, another fight between rival Diamond Dog packs at the corner of the bar, which had immediately stopped upon his pompous arrival. He snorted at their raggedness of their coats and clothes, their ugly fur, and their simian-like postures before marching upstairs with a few of his select Clone Soldier escorts before and behind him.
Here in the private booths he arrived at his designated appointment, which he motioned for his dispensable Clone Soldiers to draw open the split draperies. The two gray mares sitting and eating their tofu steaks did not look up to acknowledge his handsomeness. How rude, but he did find the pair to be pretty. Ace took off his fedora hat and spun his head to expose his platinum blonde locks for these possible takers.
"So you must be the famed Unicorn Hunters," he smiled. "Ingrid and Bellamena."
The sisters slowly raised their heads from the meal to shoot out a cold stare at the President-Adviser. Ah, those types, he thought amidst wincing nervously. He dealt with a few of those before, and in those situations it ended badly both in bed and in public. He conceded his loss, and decided to sit down across from the mares without protest.
"So, is it true that you two captured a unicorn at such a young age?" he asked. "Not to imply you two are old mares, but beauty such as you two defies time."
"Maybe," said Ingrid. "For all we know that we captured a rebel who was grafted with a fake horn on his head. Then again, I suppose our moniker suits us, as we have been known for capturing criminals the military could not handle. Though, we were surprised that you sent a small company to capture the pegasus clipper who had been the middleman of all the illegal arms trading happening around Ponyville."
"Why would we do that?"
"Because you were after a bigger target, and since the government wants to make an example to clipper spies, it would be prudent to capture one and execute him."
"My, you are well versed in our politics."
"We are. We just chose not to participate in those things. We don't even vote."
"Come now. We live in a democratic society, do we not? I'll have you know that I received the majority of the mare votes before I was appointed by the Chancellor herself."
The two mares shot another cold glare at him. Okay, so the election was fixed from the start, but the Ingrid and Bella did remind him about his reason for being here.
"We have a very important job for you two," said Ace, "one that will benefit not just you two financially, but also secure the safety of Gaea and its allies. You see, we have gotten word that we are significantly down a few hundred Clone Soldiers, and we can't exactly spare anymore due to the ongoing war against Pegasopolis."
"That does explain why we haven't ran into any Clones lately," said Bella.
Ace the Younger motioned the red-accented Clone Commander to place a large metal suitcase on the table. He then opened it up to reveal a dazzling golden array of unmarked bits that caused the sisters to twitch an eyebrow ever so slightly.
"That's just the down payment," said Ace. "You will get the rest when you capture the target."
"So, who are we bringing in?" Ingrid asked.
"The infamous Rebel Terrorist Applejack."
"Applejack? I'm sorry Mister Ace, but like I said, we have no interest in politics. No amount of bits will make us take the job, and I hear Applejack possesses an illegal magical artifact that we can't match up against."
"What if I told you that your reward is not just all these bits, but also the pardoning of your family name and the land rights of your parents' beloved rock farm?"
This time, Ingrid's eyebrow really twitched.
"I don't understand," she said. "Was it not you ponies who unlawfully seized our parents' land long ago?"
"Do recall that it was your parents who responded to our generous and peaceful buyout offer with violence," said Ace. "They were quite stubborn in keeping their land. Admirably stubborn, which is a shame because I heard they were very loyal to the Party."
"The government built a prison labor camp on top of it."
"Not to worry my lovely ladies. When you bring the criminal pony back alive, I'll personally see to it that I'll close the prison down and move it elsewhere. After all, I am the President-Adviser of Economic Affairs. I know where to get all the money."
"We haven't given our answer."
"How about this? You hold on to this suitcase for a while and think about it. It's too much trouble for me to carry it, especially in a dangerous town like this. Besides, I must be back at the capital in about four hours' time for the Chancellor's speech. I really don't want to remain in this despicable hole any more than I should."
"Hold on Mister Ace--"
"Think this over ladies."
Hurriedly he left with his entourage, although either Ingrid or Bella would have already tossed the suitcase to the back of his head from the second floor window of the Kobold's Den. They could not just shoot just anypony just because they did not like him. Sure Ace was once a sports star, and he might have studied a little martial art during his mandatory military enlistment. Obviously, he was the weakest of the four who ruled Gaea, but where he was deficient in strength, he made up with his shrewd business tactics and despicable charm.
Besides, even if the others within the Chancellor's cabinet did not care much for each other, any attack against any one of them constitutes treason of the highest order. The Chancellor made ponies disappear.
"Is he serious?" asked Bella. "Is he really going to give back our parents' farm?"
"I highly doubt it," replied Ingrid. "What he gave us was insurance. Applejack has been a thorn in the Government for so long that he would rather kill her than bring her back alive."
"Then if we capture her..."
"He'll likely kill us and say that we tried to demand more money from him. This is why we don't get mixed up into politics."
"We obviously can't return all these bits. What do we do now?"
"Humor Mister Ace, but we'll do more than just capture Applejack."
The hotel bed was old, but awfully springy for one compared to the hay mattresses and straw cots Twilight was used to. She did ask Applejack why it had a device with a slot to insert bits, but the orange pony promptly told her not to drop any in because it would be a waste of money. The unicorn insisted with puppy-dog eyes, and Applejack gave in to lend her some bits.
The bed came to life in all its noisy and vibrating glory.
"What's the purpose of this kind of bed?" Twilight asked.
"Let's just say it's for pony couples."
"Oh. Uh, sorry. I just wanted to see how it worked."
"It's all right. I gotta take a bath anyway. Why don't you watch some TV while you're at it."
Applejack took off her hat and duster to place them on the hanging hooks of the closet. Once more the unicorn's eyes drawn to the earth pony's flank and the image of three red apples.
"Um, Applejack?"
"What is it sugarcube?"
"About, well, ponies not showing their Destiny Glyph in front of others, I mean, your Nature's Call..."
"Never thought you'd be prude about these things. It's all right Twi. It's okay to show yours before family and close friends."
"Oh, okay."
"Now, just relax. Well, not until the bed stops shakin'."
Twilight's heart finally relaxed. She thought she was doing something wrong by allowing Applejack strip and walk naked before her, but this shouldn't be anything new. Unicorns walked without clothes back at her village on a daily basis, and not once did she have any sense of impropriety. In this surface world however, Twilight must quickly learn all of its the cultural mores in order to blend in.
The bed finally stopped vibrating. As it was the only optimal viewing position for the bulky tube television the seedy Sewer Town hotel provided, Twilight jumped on it activated the entertainment device with the remote that was bolted to the nightstand. The initial channel was just the basic menu of channels, but Twilight decided to go up the selection one by one to absorb Earthian culture piece by piece.
The lower channels were that of news, mainly propaganda. It was always painting a rosy picture of the strong economy of Gaea, featuring shots of smiling earth ponies happily working in the factories and fields for the ongoing war effort against Pegasopolis. In contrast, the news also depicted pegasii as winged equine ogres that rained bombs of lightning, hail bullets, and tornadoes upon the idyllic farms of Gaea. On top of that, there was also news of the Chancellor announcing her pledge to send arms to other far-off foreign countries that were struggling to fight against their winged or magical abominations that were their neighbors.
Twilight skimmed more channels. One was all just commentary representing two sides of an argument. Another showed what appeared to be old movies of earth pony soldiers fighting a heroic uphill battle against the pegasii menace. There were also a cooking and crafts show, a live soccer game, and a children's education cartoon.
The higher up on the channel lineup, the more the content became deviant. There happened to be a gambling channel where not just illegal poker games were advertised, but death battles between ponies and non-ponies took place with constant furor. Higher still, were several channels that Twilight found to be... well, very, very mature in content. What came to her mind when she watched such channels with jaw-dropping curiosity were her mother's many lectures of a filly's transition to marehood.
Applejack had emerged from her bath to catch Twilight watching the high-number channels. The unicorn, not realizing her bedmate had just walked on, threw herself on the nightstand and fumbled to switch the channel or at least turn it off, the latter of which took a little effort due to her not having dexterous hooves to push on the rubber buttons.
"Lemme guess," said Applejack. "You found the porn channel."
Twilight did not want to admit it, but she did not want to lie either. She remained on the bed blushing with a stupid wince on her face, and Applejack laughed it all off.
"The bath's all yours sugarcube. Now I gotta go argue with the manager to make sure he ain't pullin' a fast one in chargin' extra for those channels."
Twilight was glad that it was her turn to take a bath after watching those channels, but sat in the tub thinking about the things ponies did to each other in the course of love, if she could call it love. When she thought about it, her mother hardly discussed love to her. Rather, she discussed about the duties of a mare to give birth to foals and provide support to her husband, as a husband would provide for his wife. It never occurred to her that there were more to it in the relationship between a mare and stallion, although she heard stories back in her village about two ponies that were so in love that it distracted them from their duties. The Chieftain, furious over their constant amorous acts, was forced to separate them by force until they learned the error of their ways. Those two ponies did marry anyway eventually, but they did not show the vigor of being together as they did during their youth.
At the same, Twilight wasn't entirely unfamiliar of the decadence of the surface world. She would read from cover to cover many romance novels she found on the Chasm's river, and she even looked through a pornographic magazine or two that she reluctantly kept on her shelves. She might had been quite young back then, and a bit frightened to discuss her findings even with her best friend Trixie. Yet during those days in the cave system, she often yearned for a stallion like her brother to spirit her away to a far off land in a romantic adventure, just like those novels.
After bathing and drying herself off, Twilight found Applejack seemingly fast asleep on her side of the bed. She crawled at the other side of the bed with her back facing her bedmate. She did not fall asleep fast enough as she was slightly worried she might imitate the scenes of those movies between two mares. The late night noises of town also kept her up.
"Applejack. Applejack. Are you awake?"
"Mmm, maybe."
"There are a lot of things I still need to learn more about the surface world. Do you think you can spare some more bits for me to buy some books? I promise I'll manage my money wisely."
"We can't carry too much stuff."
"I know, but I also promise that I buy one book and read it in one night, every night, and I'll try to sell it in the next day. Hey, about the ponies we met today..."
"They're the shadiest bunch in Sewer Town."
"I'm getting different reactions whenever we give them my name. What does Twilight mean to you?"
"We don't talk usual about it for fear of accidental veneration, but we do regard Twilight as the legendary First Unicorn. To me, she's like this mare who began everything: the Earth Pony Tribe, the Pegasii, the Unicorn Tribe, and even the war. Since the Government is so anti-magic and anti-unicorn, they tell everypony that Twilight doesn't exist, and that we arose from somethin' called evolution. There aren't many who believe in the First Unicorn. At least, not many who will openly claim it. Maybe it's not a good idea to run around with that name.”
“It’s not like I can't. It is my name from hereon.”
“Your mother gave you that name.”
“I know, but no matter much I think about it, Twilight feels like it's me. I have another question.”
“What is it?”
"On those, um, porn channels... have you...”
"Just go to sleep, Twi."
"Sorry."
In the morning back at Curio's, the merchant pony gave Applejack and Twilight a brief presentation of the features of their new fake IDs with their fake names. Twilight learned from there that without these ID cards, she could not travel as freely as she thought she could in Gaea, and there were certain places she could enter and could not enter. However, the most important item were the keycards to the Labs, Applejack's target, and Twilight's hope that she would find some clue about the whereabouts of her brother, father, and perhaps Trixie.
Once their IDs had been procured, Applejack took twilight to other stores for fresh and more modern supplies before arriving at the large platform train to the surface. Here, the crowd became denser, and the ratio between earth ponies and non-ponies was much higher. Twilight could see rows upon rows of shop stalls selling all sorts of wares smuggled from various countries and rich ponies' homes, but she latched on to a bookstand where she purchased a hard-boiled novel about a detective in Detrot. If she were back in Unicornia, she would have already been reading page after page while levitating the open book in front of her face. Sadly, discreteness took precedence, and she pocketed her dime novel into her saddlebag to join Applejack on the densely packed tram to the surface.
Twilight could only read for about fifteen minutes with her novel held in one hoof, and before she knew it, the ride was over. Once exiting the car, Twilight gagged and coughed at the noxious fumes coming from the platform train's engines, nearby vehicles, and the tobacco smell puffed from other ponies. Where she stood in the station she still could not see blue sky or the sun.
"Over here Twi!" Applejack cried. She stood on the stairwell instead being in the general direction of the exit. Twilight wasn't sure if there was another way out of the station due to the fact that it was also filled with the same shop stalls at the station below ground. This time, she only saw only earth ponies.
Traversing alone and together on the stairwell, Twilight and Applejack climbed higher and higher as sunlight filtered through the stained windows of the walls and ceiling. Once reaching the last step, Applejack kicked open the door to the roof.
Pure sunlight. Adjusting her eyes to the natural brightness, Twilight bolted all the way to the edge. She thought she would be prepared to see the endless fields she saw on the poster she framed at the back of her secret cave.
Instead, she saw a near endless array of drab buildings, a line of factories pumping out black smoke at the edge of the city, and ugly towering spires spewing out cloud-steam from their funnels. Intimidating black airships painted on the sky with Gaea’s emblem roamed the smoggy skies. Twilight was now outside, but with her expectations lowered so drastically, it almost drove her to shivering tears.
"Welcome to the Ponyville Slums," said Applejack as she trotted next to her unicorn friend. "Sorry Twi, but I really do wish your first time here was more memorable."
"It's okay Applejack," said Twilight as she wiped her eyes. "I sort of expected all this."
"Well, if you want to get out this dang city, I could show you my home. What's left of it anyway. The Alicorn thing can wait for a while. Besides, I need to pay my respects."
The two mares turned around and descended back down the stairwell where their ears heard a delightful chime coming from almost every visible speaker in the station. Twilight could see almost everypony sighing as they suddenly dropped whatever they were doing and slavishly advanced towards the nearest flatscreen television monitor. Yet there was a small and lively group of earth ponies dressed in fine suits and uniforms that stood at the very front of the largest monitor in the station in perfect attention and in perfect formation with the utmost zeal.
"We gotta join up with them," said Applejack.
"What's going on?"
"Propaganda hour."
Applejack and Twilight hurried down the stairs as the chimes blared across the speakers. They did not join up with the zealots at the front, but they camouflaged themselves in the middle with the other unenthusiastic ponies.
Simultaneously, all the active monitors, flat or boxy, switched over to a flying flag of Gaea, an image of four quadrants that contained sub-images of, clockwise from the top-left, a sun, a hill, a quintet of sunflowers, and a field of crops. Soon the image switched over to that of a most beautiful yellow mare garbed neck to hoof in a black uniform adorned with medals and insignias on her neck collar or her front breast pockets. Behind her stood three stallions donned in similar uniforms but held less rank and insignia. The first had a tan coat and a styled blonde mane. The second appeared more military-like with a grayish-blue coat and a flat-topped Mohawk mane. The third seemed to be the most appealing of the three with a deep indigo coat and a wavy orange mane.
"Fellow Earthians of Gaea," spoke the soft-spoken mare. "I, Chancellor Posey bring you good tidings of our allies in the Eastern Continents. Our Zebra brothers and sisters have now received the necessary arms to fight off the Abada barbarians, and now the Saddle Arabians have driven the Griffons and the Dragon horde from the capital city of Neighneveh thanks to our never-ending generosity.
"But we should not relax too easily, for we still have the threat of Pegasopolis to constantly remind us to remain vigilant. We must all do our part in our fields, our factories, and wherever we may support the war effort so that one day we will bring peace upon this land."
Chancellor Posey went on praising the increased food and weapons production, but Twilight could see Applejack had lowered her Stetson hat to cover her eyes. All throughout the speech, she had been muttering to herself angrily.
"Damned lies," Applejack had said over and over. It wasn't like she wasn't the only one not convinced of the facts and figures uttered from the mouth of Posey. Left and right, Twilight strongly sensed that many of the earth ponies loathed listening to Posey's speech, often grumbling with each other or dozing off. Yet whenever a police pony passed by, they lifted their head back at attention and forced a smile upon their own faces.
Then there was Posey who even in a black fascist uniform could be the most beautiful mare Twilight had seen yet. Add her soft voice, there could be no pony no alluring, and yet her words felt sharp and precise like ice. Even her doleful eyes had the effect of stabbing one's hooves to the ground and in the heart that it would almost be impossible to worship her. The many ponies around Twilight resisted her icy charms, but to the other extreme, the zealots in the front row shouted "Hail Posey!" repeatedly while they snap their front forelegs into the air in a stiff salute.
About thirty minutes had passed, and the speech finally ended with a loud blaring soundtrack that forced everypony to sing the Gaean National Anthem while a video of the flag of Gaea waved and fluttered on the television monitors. The well-dressed zealots at the front sang the loudest, while the rest sang low or simply mouthed the words, the latter of which Twilight had to do to avoid suspicion.
Then in the middle of the anthem, all the television monitors started flickering before switching from the flag of Gaea…
There was just no way. Everypony else did not seem to be shocked, excepting the zealots of course, but what she saw on every screen was none other than Twilight's own Destiny Glyph, or at least a variation thereof. It had the same six-pointed magenta star surrounded by five smaller stars.
"REPENT! REPENT ALL OF YOU!" The voice that rang through the speakers was so loud that almost everypony covered their ears. It had a strange and heavy foreign accent, but not deep enough to be mistaken for a stallion's.
"REPENT CITIZENS OF GAEA FOR THE HOUR OF TWILIGHT IS UPON US! THE WORLD SHALL BE REMADE ACCORDING TO HER DIVINE WILL!"
"What are you doing officers?" cried one of the stallion zealots. "The cultists have interrupted our anthem! They must be punished!"
The confused police officers gathered their bearings and scrambled in all directions to find the ponies responsible for the pirate broadcast. It was not long until the television monitors switched back to their regular scheduled programming, and during this confusion, Applejack tugged Twilight towards the main entrance.
"Applejack," said the unicorn. "That's my…"
"It's just a coincidence sugarcube. No need to think about it."
She couldn't do anything but think about. Sure ponies in Unicornia shared Destiny Glyphs and variations thereof, but the one that was broadcasted was way too similar.
Then right as she exited station, she heard the whistle of the police ponies, and Twilight reacted too late to avoid being run over. When she came to, she came face to face with a blue mare with a white mane dressed in a gaudy and worn out black and white gothic lolita dress. She wore chipped magenta sunglasses, and surrounding her were bags messily stuffed with various electronic equipment such as microphones, portable speakers, and video cameras. The strange mare took one look at the surprised unicorn, and then drew a manic smile across her face.
"She is here," she said. "The Prophecy is coming true! Praise the Goddess! Praise the Goddess!"
The police caught up to the alleged criminal just as Applejack pulled Twilight back to her hooves. She forced the unicorn to turn around, hoping that her horned friend would be spared from seeing the brutal beating of the mad mare. Twilight heard it all: hooves smashing on fur and flesh, verbal slurs, and the sirens of the police cars. The worst part was that she wasn't sure if she should feel sorry for the mad mare, whose voice was the very same shouting through all the speakers in the station. Clearly she was responsible for the pirate broadcast, or was compelled to commit the crime. Even without seeing past those large sunglasses, Twilight was sure she was mad enough to commit such an act before an oppressive regime.
But the zealot mentioned about there being cultists, and Applejack had mentioned there were a few ponies who believe in the existence of Twilight the First Unicorn. These facts couldn't just be mere coincidences.
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good alternate universe, direct in my fav
Still good! Just keep on writing!
Interesting that the Gaean leadership appears to be at least half made up by pegasi, assuming that really was Fluttershy and that the gray-coated, mohawked one was Thunderlane.
This fic is very engaging - I can't resist clicking on the next chapter again and again. What made me check it out was the cover art and intriguing premise, and so far I'm enjoying it. The world and history are fascinating. The pacing is a tad fast in the first several chapters, but since they've left the Unicorn village, it seems to be slowing down a bit. It's almost as if you were as eager to leave the caves as Twilight was, haha. The different names for Cutie Marks are clever, and I want to know more about the Clone Troopers. I love how the Elements turn into literal weapons.
One issue that you might want to work on is that AJ is just a little too self-sacrificing in this story, and I say this as an Applejack fan. I mean, she usually puts others first, but at some point self-preservation should kick in. It was a bit unbelievable that she was willing to just stand there and let Velvet execute her. That said, I love how badass she is in this story. You'll never see me complain about AJ being too badass - such a thing is impossible.
Another issue is the comments/author's notes tacked onto the end of Chapters 4 and 5. You should probably delete those parts, since they're confusing and look like they're not supposed to be there.
I had to chuckle when AJ said she wanted to clear her family name of Chancellor Puddinghead's assassination by assassinating the current Chancellor. I'm not sure how that's going to work, LOL. Speaking of the Chancellor, is she actually Fluttershy disguised as an Earthian? Other than the wings, her description sounds exactly like Fluttershy.
5443861
Thanks for pointing out the "author's notes" at the end.
That was weird though. It seems like that with all the changes going on the site, somebody's comments somehow got tacked onto the end of the chapter.
Did she even TRY to stay hidden there?
A fashist dictatorship that's against the main religion and for the theory of evolution, which supresses their main populace? Someone didn't make their research. But the story is so well written, that even small inconsistencies like these aren't reason enough, to stop reading it.
5748453 data.archive.moe/board/mlp/image/1411/07/1411070118410.png im sorry but posey reminds me to mush of flutters
I love the idea of Hitlershy. Well, Posey. But it's basically the same. Posey being Fluttershys inspiration. Maybe that'll come into play . X3. Makes me REALLY wanna see how Pinks, Dashie, and Rarity fit into all this, as well.
Also "hardboiled novel about a detective in Detrot." I'm reading through "Starlight over Detrot" so it may just be my own bias... but a story about a detective named "Hard Boiled"... can't help but make connections
Holy crap, that was Photo Finish! Photo Finish is in a cult/rebellion that worships Twilight! Or... was at least.
5965440
My guess (since I'm still reading) is that Posey is Fluttershy's mother, in a massive twist.
... Nevermind, they did go the cheap route it seems. (Or did they? MUAHAHA)
6045290 i thought i was the only one who noticed that
you cheeky bastard
Could you be any more obvious with the Nazism? I'm here thinking it's like the Soviet Union kind of regime, but no, fascism. I don't have a problem with it in of itself, I have a problem with how you insulted my intelligence by having them give a Hitler salute and the whole nine yards, when you don't have to be that obvious.
7892332 This. Still, overall, not bad so far. I'll of course be continuing.
Soccer? Really? Why can't you just call it Football like the rest of the planet?
7995959
Thats Americans for you.
7995959
If you're talking about Americans, I don't know.
If you're talking about the Gaeans, they don't have feet, so they can't call it football, and I'm pretty sure hoofball is another game entirely.
7995959
I mean I agree with you in concept but its already to late. here in America Football is already another sport. not just any other sport... but like the most popular (tho I don't see the appeal... the rules don't make sense to me) so it's too late
we can't call soccer football.