Chapter One
Chapter one: Shattered
"Midway this of life we're bound upon,
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
Where the right road was wholly lost and gone."
– The opening lines of Trote's Inferno
"Dad? Dad! Mom! Please, don't leave me." The tiny blue colt pleaded, crying over his parents' bodies.
"I'm not gone yet darling." The alabaster unicorn coughed, blood dripping out the corner of her mouth. "Let me hold you one last time."
"Yes mom." he sobbed as she held him in her forelegs. "I'm scared!"
"Cider...p-promise me something." His mother asked.
"W-what mother?"
"Forgive. Promise me," She ordered, her sapphire eyes staring into her son's. "Fear limits you...anger destroys you. Do not fear, do not anger. Forgive, and live. Live as your father and I taught you."
"I promise."
"Good." She cooed, rubbing the colt's back. She looked over to the massive red stallion laying cold on the street. He didn't need to see this. She enveloped him in her forelegs and kissed the colt's forehead. "Shh, let me sing..." She squeezed the colt tightly.
"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head. Hush now, quiet now, it's time..."
---
"...to go to bed. Cadence'll be making me sleep on the couch tonight..." Shining Armor groaned, releasing the telekinetic hold on his quill, allowing it to drop unceremoniously onto the oak desk before him. He glanced at the headlines etched across the day's paper sitting on his desk.
"Memorial Ball to be held in honor of Captain Blueblood, benefitting the 'Widows of War' charity."
"A Memorial Ball is scheduled to be held next week in honor of Captain Blueblood and all fallen soldiers of the Battle of New Palomin. The event, as described the organizers is "a monument to those who gave everything so that strangers could live, and a chance to thank those they left behind for their loved one's sacrifice." No specific details were disclosed as to who would be in attendance, or where it would be held, but the head of the 'Widows of War' charity, the widow of Captain Blueblood, released a statement early Tuesday; "After I lost my husband in New Palomin, I felt empty and alone, so I created WoW so that others who have lost loved ones might carry on."
- Staff reporter Featherwieght
Shining set the paper down. That entire battle had been an absolute mess. He looked up at the clock hanging on the wall to his right. "11:15," He sighed. Rubbing his forehead with his hoof, he pulled out a small bottle of whiskey and a jigger, filling the small glass to the brim. Rolling out of his chair, Shining turned to the pane of glass that made up the outward wall of his office. Placing his hoof on the magically reinforced glass, Shining couldn't help but feel an ache in his chest. Ponyville had changed. It had changed a lot. The quaint little thatched roof homes had grown into towers of concrete and steel, the dirt paths giving way to paved walkways, the trees and plants now confined to small islands of green sporadically set about the city. The alcohol burned as it went down. It was a good bottle of whiskey.
His sister had introduced him to Ponyville almost twenty years prior, and it had been love at first sight. The simple beauty of the town enthralled him, wrapping it's tendrils around him and it had never let go. It also helped that he never wanted to leave. But the town had grown into a bustling city in no time, becoming a hub of trade and industry. If it existed, it had been shipped through Ponyville. But as with all things, the bigger something grows, so does the shadow it casts. Ponyville's criminal underbelly grew almost as fast as the skyscrapers. Smuggling, organized crime, the whole shebang. By necessity of the unsavory developments, a petition had been set up to form some form of guards for the city. Shining Armor had taken charge and formed the Ponyville Police department, the first of its kind in Equestria. While normally Royal Guards would keep the peace, or in the case of frontier towns where one stallion would be elected to act as a mayor and "sheriff" combo, there had never really been a need for centralized protection. Ponies just tended to be peaceful, non violent creatures. Simple as that. It hadn't been easy setting up a police force in Ponyville, but Shining did it, and more industrialized cities such as Stalliongrad and Fillydelphia followed suit soon thereafter.
The force did its job well, managing to keep the city together and maintain order. It wasn't easy, that's for sure. It had become especially hard since these new weapons, "fire arms," as they were called, had begun to spill out. Originally invented by Gryphon War Forges International. Fire arms employed a simple tube with a trigger mechanism at the end that would ignite some gunpowder, forcing a metal ball, also called a "bullet," out of the tube at a high velocity. Shining had seen a few tests of the weapons in the past few weeks, and had even fired a few of them himself. He hated them. They were too sleek, too seductive. Too effective, too easy to shoot. And easy to make. Already, Port Authority had intercepted two shipments, one for Ponyville, another intended for Hoofswell, both were missing port of origin tags. Clearly corruption is beginning to spread into Ponyville's administrative systems. Damnit. It'll only be a matter of time before it reaches the police and governmental structures...
Shining silently prayed he could maintain the peace in the city as he slid back into his (faux) leather chair, and began shifting the papers scattered across his desk, going over everything from the latest crime rates to the current stock market reports. Fortunately, the latter had been rising, unfortunately, the former had been too. Finally, after an eternity, the form he had been dreading all week rose to the top, rearing it's ugly head. The form that would make room in the city budget for arming the police force with guns. "What do you think madam brandy?" Shining asked the bottle floating before him. "Yeah, only a crazy pony would ask a bottle for advice."
Shining pulled the crime rate sheet out of the now organized stack of papers on his desk. Crimes involving fire arms were at seven percent, but no fatalities, with murders (not involving fire arms) staying about the same, zero home invasions, and only petty thievery was beginning to rise. "Today is a good day Miss Brandy. Care for a drink?" He chuckled to himself.
Shining's ears perked up at the clacking of hooves emanating from the hallway outside his office. His secretary, Peppermint Twist, must be bringing him something. A rap on the door confirmed his suspicions. She always knocked that way. "Come in Twist." He grumbled.
"Are you alright thir?" She said around the folder she had in her mouth. She quickly transferred the file to her hooves, "You know you're not supposed to drink on duty?"
"I'm fully aware what the rules say I shouldn't do." He quipped. "After all...I wrote them..."
"Is it the budget form?" She blurted out.
The look on his face sufficed for an answer, "Oh...I see sir. I-I-I'll give this to you later." The commissioner had been under a lot of stress, and the form had not been helping at all. The last thing he needed was this folder.
"Give it Twist." He ordered. "Now." If Twist was bringing it to him personally, it was important.
"H-here sir." She held the folder out as Shining levitated it towards him. He remembered he still had a glass of whiskey on his desk, so he floated that to him too. The folder opened, and several pages floated in front Shining as he lazily sipped on the glass held in his telekinetic aura. All police reports were organized by date, location, time, and type of crime, then given a case number. After that, the responding officer, any suspects in custody at the time of the report, and any victims involved were listed.
"What is it this time, another noblepony's brat got busted, so now his daddy wants to have a pissing match?" Shining muttered angrily to himself.
This report was similar to all the others Shining had seen in his tenure. Occurred tonight at about 11:10 PM, double murder, case number 11875. Responding officer was lieutenant Archer. No... Shining's blood turned to ice in his veins, sending a shiver up his spine and turning his breath ragged. "Twist, send out messages alerting the appropriate ponies. You know who they are, and tell them to meet at Apple Manor."
"Your sister too sir?" She asked, nervously playing with her glasses.
"Especially her." This situation needed to be handled delicately. One misstep, and there could be even more bloodshed. Shining knew she should be the first to know, but once she got involved, the situation could go downhill faster than somepony making a "Your momma joke," at a Zebra banquet. Shining had been to one where that happened. He still wondered if they ever got those stains out. "Send her's last." This wasn't going to help anything, and, but he wondered how he would ever get rid of these stains.
---
Shining gently swirled the contents of his glass whilst he looked upon the Ponyville night sky. Long gone were the days when a pony could look up at the stars hanging in the night sky and admire Luna's handiwork. The city lights now shone in place of the celestial bodies, turning night into day for Ponyville.
Turning his back to the enormous window, Shining refilled his glass. Four mares sit on the same couch, almost in some sort of collective group hug as they all cry. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack, the new CEO of Apple Enterprises. The yellow pegasus was holding Applejack as she cried into the pegasus pony's mane, their tears mixing as they fell to the ground. Rainbow sat silently, stroking the orange mare's mane, and somehow Ms. Pie had stretched her arms to the point of enveloping the others in an enormous bear hug.
Suddenly, rays of light shone from under the door of the study they were in, and the aforementioned door was pulled open in the purple glow of telekinesis. An equally purple mare stepped into the room, accompanied by the tang of ozone, a look of surprise upon her face, and the temperature dropping several degrees. Her eyes locked on Shining's, and if anything had come between them, it would have burst into flames. "Sparkle." He nodded his head.
"Armor." She huffed. "What happened?"
"Lieutenant Archer responded to reports of gunshots outside of the downtown theater. When she arrived..." He downed his glass of wine in one swig and swiftly refilled the glass. "Mister and Missus Apple were dead at the scene."
Suddenly, the entire house shook, and the glass in Shining's magic grasp turned to dust, the wine inside staying in the shape of the glass oddly enough.
For a brief second, Twilight looked as though she was about to destroy anything and everything that came within her field of vision. She felt as though she might. She knew she could do it too, but violence would never bring Rarity back. It's not what she would have wanted. She bit back her tears and forced the lump in her throat down. Things like this don't happen in Ponyville... At least they're not supposed to. "Where's Cider?" She asked, tears beginning to form around her eyes.
"He's sleeping upstairs. He's medically okay, but mentally... Only Celestia knows how screwed up the poor foal will be..." Shining attempted to drink from his glass, but then realized it was naught but dust and wine being held together by his magic. Dropping it in a near by trash can, he returned his attention to the assembled mares. "Which brings me to another matter. Who will be taking custody of young Apple Cider? Will it be you Applejack, or Applebloom?"
"Applebloom don't know how ta take care of a foal properly," She wiped the tears away, "and neither do Ah."
Shining stood there bewildered. Leave it to the pony descended from generations of farmers to get cryptic when you least need it. "What?"
"Ah said Ah won't take care of the foal."
"Why not?" Shining Armor sputtered. "He was your brother, why won't you take care of his foal?"
"Ah have mah reasons. Ah won't take care of the foal." She gave him a look similar to Twilight's, except this look would cause a plant to wither.
"I don't have time for this. Will anypony in this room take custody of the foal?" Shining pleaded, levitating the wine bottle towards him.
"I will. I've been helping keep Apple Manor clean for the Apples for quite some time now."
The voice seemed familiar, although Shining wasn't sure. He looked to the bottle floating next to him. There was enough gone that could allow for the chance that he was drunk, and he was sure he was, considering the voice that spoke did not belong to a mare. "Name please." He shrugged, swigging the bottle.
"Spike." A particularly large shadow announced, causing Shining to jump. How the dragon had managed to enter the room without his knowing, he had no idea.
Eeyup. I'm drunk.
Shining floated the bottle away.His horn briefly lit up, bathing him in a warm glow, and the world cleared. Shining took in the six foot tall dragon standing before him, hands held together in nervous anxiety. Nothing like the sober-up spell
"Spike, you don't need to do that, we can find somepony else-" Twilight tried to say.
"Yes I do Twilight." Spike interrupted her. "I didn't have a lot of male figures in my life. As great as Shining Armor was, he was still gone quite a bit, being in the royal guard and all," he looked at Shining, a smile built from years of happy memories stretched across his face, "Macintosh was the one of the only males to actually pay attention to me... And, that meant a lot. Rarity taught me how a lady acts...even though she treated me like an equal...she was like family, and I can never thank her enough. And besides, I've spent the most time with him out of everyone here." He looked at Applejack. "Mac was like a father, Rarity was like a sister, and the least I can do is be a father to one thing left of them."
"Okay Spike..." Twilight was saddened that she was losing her number one assistant, but Big Mac must have meant something to him if he was willing to do this. Twilight had never really put much thought into the male influences in Spike's life. Her brother had played with Spike when he was a baby, but beyond that it had become more and more sporadic as both parties grew older and older. After she'd gone to Ponyville, Twilight hadn't even thought much of how often Spike spent time at Sweet Apple Acres back then. Big Mac must have really meant something to him...the reason for spending time at Carousel Boutique had been all too obvious. "Take care of that foal like you've taken care of me all these years." She pulled the dragon in for a hug.
"I will Twilight."
Shining drew his hoof across his chest, directly over a long white scar, obscured by both his clothes and fur. He couldn't stay here any longer. "I have business to attend to. Spike, come by the mayor's office later this week, before the funeral. I'll have all the paper work in order." Shining's horn lit up, a flash and a pop later, and he was gone.
---
Obsidian levitated the bottle to his lips and took a long swig, the cold liquid flowing down his throat like a river. "Ahh...sarsaparilla. Nothing like it." the massive midnight colored unicorn set the now empty bottle on his cherrywood desk, the proceeded to gaze up at the stars. He glanced to the small clock sitting upon his desk. "11:45." He rubbed his face absentminded with a hoof. "I need to go to bed."
Born and raised in the northern mining town of Hoofswell, Obsidian had worked in the mines there for most of his life, pulling the ore cart, or rather, carts, out of the mine. His record on a good day had been twenty fully laden carts. When he was impressing a mare, he pulled no less than fifty. Most of the ponies found it odd that a unicorn preferred to work in the mine, and while the management had tried to get Obsidian to take an overseer position numerous times, he turned them down everytime. His father had been an earth pony, and he believed the only way to work was with your own strength. Eventually, he'd moved to Ponyville, and found work in the local rail yard. After several years of doing that, his parents both died in a mining incident. His father had been killed evacuating ponies, his mother had been poisoned by toxic fumes. The entire mess had lead to strike by worker ponies demanding better conditions. It had crippled Equestria, and nearly obliterated the economy. In some of the larger cities, riots had erupted alongside the protests. The cause of the cave in had never been determined, but the government just removed most of the company heads to quell all the unrest. For the most part, it succeeded, but it left power vacuums in nearly all the major companies across Equestria.
Obsidian himself had ended up receiving settlements from the Hoofswell mine incident, and had found a lost bank account containing several million bits. Turns out an old descendant had deposited money in there a few centuries ago, and then somehow forgot about it. Using the combined money, he had managed to buy the rail road company in Ponyville, and start an air ship shipping corporation. By that point, Ponyville had become more urbanized, and having only two ways of getting anywhere, there was a golden opprotunity. So Obsidian started the first air shipping company in Equestria, and he rest is history. He married, had foals, still has them, and became one of the richest ponies in the world.
"Heya, uh, boss?"
That was the voice of Streetwise, his right hoof pony. "What is it Streetwise?" he sighed, turning away from the beautiful night.
"Our contact in the PPD sent us somethin." The skittish grey pony answered.
On top of controlling Ponyville's shipping industry, Obsidian also controlled half the east side of Ponyville with his gang, the Tempestas. Having come from Hoofswell, where crime factored into a lot of business decisions, Obsidian had made it a priority to have control of the crime in his area. He made sure his ponies acted with dignity though. No murder, no rape, no stealing. The only reason the would commit violence at all would be if another gang tried something in their territory. The only reason he maintained the gang at all was because as long as he controlled them, they were under the control of a pony with a conscience. Sort of a, "Better to reign it in than let it run free." type of thing.
He opened the folder and began to sort through its contents.
"Wonder what it is this time..."
