Prologue: A Peaceful Night
Embrace Midnight
A Thief's Chronicle
Prologue
Written by Alpha268
A fresh breeze was running through the streets of Manehattan. The rushing clouds blocked the glaring moon at the sky, only letting sudden outbursts of light dive into the sleeping metropolis. In the distance a repetitive squeal was exclaimed by a plate as it swung on rusty joints. The streets presented a vast perspective, not only because of the black and gray regularity, but they were also void of life, as the fortunate ponies of the Windrush district enjoyed their righteous sleep. Leaves shivered in the trees of the avenue, adding a silent swoosh to the otherwise quiet night.
The paved street was flanked by ornated houses with four floors, therefore giving the viewer the impression of being mediocre in this peaceful world. Gardens with flourishing flowers flecking the green grass welcomed anypony, who had the luck being invited into a house of the airily highsociety. About a hundred metres away there was a crossing with a awe-inspiring statue of a lorldy stallion on top of a fountain, which dominated the small plaza around.
Suddenly the sound of monotonous hoofsteps dripped through the night. The sound grew louder as they were coming closer slowly to the street.
" 'at do you think then? 'ere should I spend my holidays?", one voice said slowly and murmurous, as if something was stuck in his mouth.
"Well, at least not in Fillydelphia. I mean, you're spending your whole time in this city, so why use your days off from work to visit another big city? That would be pointless. You need a change in perspective, else you'll go crazy with all these paved streets and huge buildings.", an other voice exclaimed.
"Oh, 'at a great help you are. Now you told me 'ere not to go, thank you very much."
A cone of light appeared around the crossing. The light illuminated the statue, and the beam made light and shadow crawl around the face of the stallion, giving it a daemonic grimace.
"Fine then, how about... um... Ponyville?"
Two white stallions in heavy armor, making them Guardponies, entered the plaza. One of them carried a flickering lamp in his mouth, which he almost dropped in surprise. The fast reaction of his hoof stabilized the cargo in his mouth. He turned his head towards his companion and hooked the lamp onto his hoof, so he could speak without hindrance.
"Ponyville? Are you...? I mean, that place is literally in the middle of nowhere! Should I spend my time glazing at the boring nature? Do you even try to help me finding a place for vacation? There is no way..."
"Shut up, you don't want to wake up everypony in Manehattan!", the other pony hissed through his teeth. To emphazise these words he hit the pony holding the lamp firmly into his flank.
"Sorry, but I don't really see, why I should want to go to Ponyville these days." The pony said quietly, while looking around to see if his prior outburst had done any harm to the sleep of the ponies in the houses next to them.
"That's simple. Your town 'in the middle of nowhere'", the second pony said with a smudgy grin," is full of mares, who surely need protection from a strong guard like you, if you get my hint. I mean they're living next to the Everfree Forest, and they can barely defend themselves." He laughed with his dark voice.
"Umm... You have a point there, I see. Well actually, that's a great idea. It has been some time since... oh...", the first guard concluded unclear, as the thought crossed his mind that his private life might not be the be the best topic while on night watch. Furthermore the other guard moved on and left the statue behind.
"Hey, wait!", the guard exclaimed, while trying to catch up with his companion.
The two faded away in the dark of the night. They left behind a street almost devoid of life.
A bush in a garden of a towering apartment shivered and exhaled his breath into the night. A gray unicorn-stallion carefully stepped out of it, slowly lowering every hoof into the green, uncut grass and moved towards the gate, which seperated garden and street.
"They changed the scedule. Why has nopony told me?" These thoughts came to his mind while he moved across the garden, charily avoiding every part of the garden with no cover to hide behind. The pony had a saddlebag tied to his back, and as he came close to the gate it silently swung open. He carefully watched the street and trotted out of the garden. The gate was closed by a silent force.
The stallion moved onwards into the night, using the darkest shadows provided by houses and trees to stay undetected. Everytime he had to cross the street, he waited for a cloud to cross the moon at the sky, as it gave him a few seconds of additional cover on the streets bare of any hideouts.
"This break-in was very profitable. Now let's head home.", he thought with a invidious grin on his face. He reflected his recently theft. "How peaceful they slept. The mother, the father, the two fillies. I wonder what they'll say when they wake up in a house they thought to be safe from burglars, when their jewelry is missing. They'll surely hold the guards responsible for that.
He followed a street heading towards the southern part of Manehattan. He slowed his trot at times to check his surroundings and occasionally moved through narrow streets. He changed his direction a few times, until he was sure nopony was following him.
After a while he reached a high wall, built with heavy, grey stones.
The inner city wall devided Manehattan into different parts and separated the wealthy districts from the other ones. This wall in particular draw a line between the district Windplay, where average families live, and the district Ashfall, one of the so called Lockdown Districts. Every traffic between these two districts was heavily controlled by the Lockdown Guards to protect the normal families from thievery and violence, which emerged from the 4 Lockdown Districts Ashfall, Quarry, Downspawn, and The Edge. They were used as a basin for the unlucky ponies, who couldn't afford the life in any other district, and the violent nature paired with the law of the jungle usually drove more ponies into criminality, which fed from the surrounding, wealthier districts. The Lockdown Guards were soon called to arms to stop the spread of organised crime from those unfriendly districts, isolating them from the rest of the metropolis.
This wall nevertheless didn't stop the stallion from entering and leaving the district Ashfall. He looked around for any witness, then left the street and moved towards the massive wall across the street. While approaching, a force moved a thin metal slab, which was embedded into the ground right in front of the wall and therefore opened a small entrance descending into the darkness. The pony moved onwards and a few seconds after he vanished into the catacombs, the slab slided back into its original position.
"That's it." he thought, "Im finally home."
When Incognito Grey closed the door to his apartment, he could hear the familiar sound of his door locking in place. He focused a small amount of magic in his horn and gave the door a strong push to assure himself that the door was closed properly. Then he took a deep breath and the damp scent of his home came to his nostrils. Within the darkness, the saddlebag parted from his back and levitated to the ground. A high-pitched clatter could be heard through his small apartment as it hit the dark wooden planks.
He was standing in a small hallway, leading into the living room a few hoofsteps ahead. The room was lacking any furniture, besides one small basket with an perforated umbrella within it.
Without turning on any light, Incognito took advantage of his night-adapted sight and sneaked towards the doorframe of the hallway, carefully putting hoof before hoof until he got a proper sight of the living room behind the frame.
The windows of the room were closed, like always, and there was a thin layer of dust on the shelves and on some furniture. The room was small, with an old table in the center. A damaged sofa, which was missing all of it comfortable parts, so it could be easily used as instrument of torture with all its lose springs, was located behind the table. Pieces of paper were scattered all around the floor.
His eyes moved to the doorframe dividing both rooms, and examined the lower half of it. For personal safety, the unicorn used to tie a line of his silver hair to both sides of the doorframe. The hair wasn't ripped off, and therefore Incognito relaxed his muscles and entered the living room, cutting the hair in two as he moved with slow steps. He summoned a small tip of power into his horn and aimed for the candles on some of the shelves.
Soon the room glowed in the unsteady light of five candles. Incognito trotted across the room, and stared into a shattered mirror. A grim pony was facing him. The grey coat and dark silver hair - which was interrupted by strands of blue-metallic color - were unusual colors for a pony, but gave the thief a useful advantage at the night. His mane was cut short and a simple mess, while the tail was neither long nor short, but in the same frazzled style as the rest of his look. The pony watched himself in the mirror for a few moments, then exhaled a deep breath. The mirror fogged up as his warm breath came in contact with the cold glass. He shook his head and moved back to lay down on the torturing sofa, which screamed in agony. Finally he closed his eyes for a moment.
"Well! This day was an awful lot of work. Observing, sneaking, hiding and complaining about irregular patrols. Nevertheless it was worth the effort. Two tiaras from that fillies, bracelets from the mother, and some bits from a cupboard. That'll leave me safe for a while. Tomorrow I'm going to see my friend from the market about those."
His thoughts drifted off. Soon the stallion put his head down on the sofa and observed the room for the last time.
He hesitated. His vision blurred for a second, as the eyes lost their focus in the sudden shock. Incognitos guts started to revolt.
Swallowing the sour taste in his mouth, he got up from the sofa. Slowly he moved towards the wall with the doorframe.
A piece of paper was pinned to a shelf. It was pinned with a knife; a knife which showed signs of recently use, as it was stained with a still liquid line of blood running down the grip. And there was only one pony in Manehattan, who signed his treaties with blood.
Incognito Grey,
the Don of Manehattan demands to see you immediately. Go to the Dire Straits Inn.
Signed
Blackmail
An icy embrace was grabbing Incognitos heart, and cold sweat ran down his coat. His mind was racing, and soon he started trotting slowly through the room.
"The Don?", was his only thought, a thought that ravaged any thoughts of sleeping.
A strange thought of a gray unicorn tied up in ropes came to his mind. Pictures of a whip, the canal and scarred ponies armed to the teeth with sharp objects, which were invented to hurt ponies. Supressing the urgent desire to choke, the stallion tried to calm down.
"The Don. Wants to see me. Now. Oh Luna, what have I done?"
The pony used the magic to pull the dagger out of his shelf. The yellow sheet of paper glided to the ground, joining the hopeless chaos on the floor. Incognito looked at the piece of metal in his hands. The red line reflected the light from the candles. Slowly he regained his senses and finally plucked up courage again. Empowered by a weapon in his magic grip the nervous pony calmed down.
"I'm not dead yet. Still living. Maybe it's just a simple invitation...
Or it might be a trap I'll run into ironically, to have my coat stripped from my bones or my horn sawed off. Most likely both at the same time."
With a bad feeling the unicorn moved towards the door and unlocked it with his magic.
Incognito was going to meet the Don. Probably the most brutal and grim pony in Manehattan, and king of the underworld. His harsh and unforgiving behaviour united the violent ponies of the streets two years ago and forced them to work under his conditions. Although a serious threat to peace in Manehattan, even the Lockdown Guards refuse to move close to the headquarters of this cruel pony. The Dire Straits Inn was located in the centre of The Quarry, being the home to plenty mares with questional business and hireable murders side by side, all ready to unleash their wrath upon any white pony in his shining armor.
The gray pony trotted out of the building. His nostrils caught the familiar scent of the Ashway district in Manehattan. Sticky, warm air mixed with the distant taste of blood and other fluids which usually flow inside of a ponies body, but made their way out unexpectedly.
He glanced up to the sky to watch the moon wandering his way across the horizon and saw the sparkling stars in the distance.
Incognito started his walk following the streets, accompanied by the white moon. While he trotted across the decayed streets of Ashway, his eyes explored the familiar sights of crumbling houses. Where once had been windows, nails held planks in place. Yellow paint flaked off the front of various buildings, and occasionally eyes could be seen in the shadows, fearful eyes, grim eyes, or just a single eye. These houses gathered the poor families with no hope as well as punks and ravaging criminals.That was the reason most ponies hesitated to go outside at dusk or even later. The felonious ponies got out of their beds to do what they were best at: burglary, robbery and murder.
"And I am one of them, what a life."
The dark-grey stallion pressed his jaws against each other to create a determined expression. He stared straight ahead and lifted his head. Incognito learned not a few lessons how to deal with criminal ponies. To not look like a possible victim was one of them. As the moon moved across the sky, already leaving behind his peak, Incognito moved past a few narrow streets.
"I'm saying this only one last time, filly. Where are my bits?" A dark voice exclamed from behind a tight entrance to one of the lanes. Incognito didnt even stop his trot for a second.
"Ignorance is bliss, they say." He thought, exhaling a deep breath. "And we all have to survive these nights somehow, I guess." Cries and cracking noises erupted from the lane, which developed into silent sobs and cracking noises.
A few blocks later the unicorn reached his destination: the well-known Dire Straits Inn in the centre of The Quarry could be seen across the shabby city square. The salty taste of the canal was blown to his nostrils, as it flew right past the square on the right side. The left side of the open area was occupied with ruinous houses and streets, which led deep into The Quarry. Although it was way past midnight, life - or whatever was left of it in some cases of drunken ponies - flourished. Torches illuminated the dark, and groups of ponies were scattered around the wide square. Incognito tried to figure a route to the inn on the other side without moving too close to gangs, who apparently looked for trouble. Then he moved on.
Suddenly he heard hoofsteps coming closer and his eyes looked for the origin of those sounds. A dark-red mare with white hair moved towards him. When she closed the distance, she picked up his pace and trotted besides him.
"Hey, sugarcube!", she exclaimed. "You look like a handsome stallion to me. Maybe you are looking for a lovely mare for the night?"
Incognito looked at her. She seemed quite young, probably driven into this filthy business by her depts or other problems, which where omnipresent in Manehattan. The mare moved around him, and her tail started to caress his coat. She was making it difficult to refuse, but nevertheless the stallion moved on towards the main entrance of the Dire Straits Inn. "And if I'm not 'looking for a lovely mare for the night'?"
"Who wouldn't want some company in these hard times? And I'm the most pleasant company in whole Manehattan!" - "And I'm not interested in company." Incognito grinded his teeth.
Suddenly she stood in front of him, effectively blocking his way. "Why that? Don't you like me? Do you think I'm ugly?" With these words her face formed a sad expression. She lowered her hooves and her head, then she looked up to Incognito with tearful eyes. Incognito supressed the urge to hug her and tell her, that everything was going to be alright. She was doing her job way too good. He exhaled his held breath and moved past the heartrending picture of vulnerability. After a few steps he heard the loose mare yell. "You stallions are all the same! Tomorrow you will beg for my company, I swear!" Hasty steps cut through the icy night, becoming more quiet, until they couldn't be heard anymore.
Finally the unicorn aproached the front entrance of the Dire Straits Inn, which was guarded by two stallions, one dark-blue pegasus and a bright-yellow earth pony. Their bodies looked like they were toughened by years of apple bucking, but the lack of apple trees in Manehattan suggested that they never bucked any trees, but rather victims with outstanding depts. A scar ran through the face of the pegasus, snaking on his coat as he spoke words of great wisdom with his deep voice.
"Get lost, filly."
"Well, I tried my best. Looks like I will back home early then." The grey unicorn turned around. He felt a weight dropping from his heart.
"You are Incognito Gray. Come in.", a different, raspy voice demanded. As Incognito turned around again, the earth pony pointed a hoof at him.
"We were told to look for a pony with a sleepy eye as Cutie Mark. Looks like I found him." A cruel smirk crawled across his face. He moved around and knocked at the huge wooden door, which opened slowly after a short delay. Turning his head towards the pegasus, he said:
"Looks like somepony owes me ten bits, what do you say, foal?"
The bulky mass of muscles growled. "Would you fight for your money?"
The earth pony glanced at the pegasus, and the comparatively skinny unicorn in front of them watched in anticipation of a hoof-to-hoof fight. But suddenly both started laughing about a joke only they could understand. Realizing the unicorn in front of them, both got serious again. The Pegasus looked at him with his yellow eyes.
"Move."
And Incognito complied.
