Fighting in a world of Harmony

So this was all a secret plot!? The mayor keeps everypony out of the town, starving her subjects? It made absolutely no sense to me. Even so, I couldn’t scratch out the possibility. It wouldn't be the first corrupt pony I've met.

Even so, I had no proof of this. I trusted Bear, but what if he just wanted me to leave? He sure did act a little suspicious. I looked back at Rapid Fire, trying his best to levitate a bottle.

"Wait, Rapid Fire! Look at it!" I rushed over to inspect the bottle, now an inch into the air. "Twilight's Super Cider."  “I’ve seen this before. I keep seeing everypony in Manehattan drinking this stuff. I don’t even know what it is, but it only seems to be shipped or made here.”

"Maybe this has something to do with why nopony has started to suspect the mayor of anything. I need to find out more about this stuff.”

I turned around, facing the large building that stood in the center of Manehattan. The mayor’s office rested on the very top, or so I assumed. The hard part would be getting up there. If the mayor really was planning on killing the whole town, there was bound to be max security near her at all times.

“Why do I keep getting stuck in these positions…?”

~~~

Slowly, I creeped my way around the east corner of the building. It seemed that there was a guard inside of the door, accepting codes. All the ponies spoke in whispers, so I wasn’t really able to pick up on what the code was. It would be impossible to get inside without it, unless of course I wanted to scale the walls. That was never going to happen.

There had to be a way to get the secret code, without bringing watchful eyes to myself.

No ideas sprang up, so I had no choice but to walk off. It was obvious that I wasn’t going to fix this town. There was always something you couldn’t fix, wasn’t there? It was just annoying! I deserved to do this! It was my destiny…

Walking into the small shack of a radio station where Bear now resided, I heard him just finishing up the latest session.

“...and don’t forget, wear your protective clothing! It’s gonna be a radiation-filled evening, with zombies roaming the streets of Equestria!”

Then the idea hit me. As soon as the Silver Bear put down the microphone, I ran up behind him and hugged him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!”

His face was twisted into a smile, himself looking slightly confused. “Ummm...you’re...welcome?”

My face became blank. I, then, realized he didn’t know what I was talking about. So, as I had to with everypony else, I explained it simply to him.

“Alright, so you say the government is corrupt…”

“Yes…”

“But we can’t prove that! The only way to prove this would be to get into the mayor’s top office. But would she really let us in? She’s probably just as suspicious of us as we are of her. Since there needs to be a passcode to get in, we need to know the password. And to do that, we need to hear it from another pony’s mouth. So...I might need to borrow some of your microphones.”

I slightly chuckled. I probably sounded crazy.

“What, in the name, are you talking about? That went by way too fast…”

I put a hoof to my face. This was going to take a while.

~~~

I stood behind the bush where I had spied just hours before. The bright day had suddenly become black with night. Our ears were pounded by the sounds of crickets, lying above us on the sills of the windows.

My plan was simple. I had hooked up a microphone near the door, hoping to catch the small whispers of any pony who entered. I had another in my saddlebags. This was going to be planted in the mayor’s office. I had Bear break it down, so only the recording part was there. This would make it easier to be concealed.

I was sitting there for hours on end. Bear had fallen asleep (that devil…) just ten minutes earlier. I didn’t think he would be of much use to me this time. He wasn’t very...sneaky. This was going to be a solo mission.

I had actually started to give up hope. Nopony had entered nor left the building for too long. Everypony must’ve gone to bed. When I finally started to pack up my stuff, I heard a mare yelling out through a large speaker within the tower. It could be heard across all of Manehattan, and I heard every pony grumble, exiting their homes.

“All citizens gather at once to the center of Manehattan! There is news to be told! It is gracious news, of which we will all cherish!”

Now it was my turn to be puzzle. A good thing!? What could the mayor want to bring to Manehattan?

I kept the microphone on, just in case anything were to happen while I was away. I looked over to Bear, who was still sound asleep.

“Oh, Bear…”

I left him as he was. Disturbing him never seemed to be a good idea for anypony. So I left him to his slumber, pretending to clamme, towards the center, with the rest of Manehattan. The mayor had already arrived, her presence being greeted with sneers and rude looks.

All around, ponies were yelling out.

“What do you want!?

“Can’t we sleep!?

“My muffins will burn!”

I kind of fell short of words at that last comment.

The royal power just held her hoof up high, pointing out towards the horizon, where a bright orange still held true to the sky.

“Out there, another shipment of food is to arrive! Within this shipment, a new barrage of cider will arrive!”

At that announcement, all the ponies forgot their anger, bursting out in praise.

“You’re the best!

“When will it be here!?

“Ack, my muffins!!!”

Again, what in Equestria…

I heard a stomping of hooves run off, presumptuously the pony who’s muffins would be ruined.  I looked back up towards the mayor, smiling and bustling with joy.

“And, as you all know, our wonderful hero, Sodapop, has brought the raiders down. The same raiders who attacked us before! We have no worries! Food will soon arrive!”

All the ponies rejoiced yet again. Soon, their town would prosper, their lives looking up to a brighter future. I didn’t believe one second of this crap. Why in Equestria did everypony else?

The mayor stepped off the stage, excusing the town back to a peaceful night’s sleep.

This was my chance. I knew that the mayor would retreat back to her office, and she couldn’t get in without the passcode. I followed her back to the tower, hiding behind everything I could. I watched as she whispered to the guard inside, and then rushed over to the bush.

I must’ve made quite a racket, as jumping through the bush had awoken Silver Bear.

“Oh, hey Soda...what’s going on?”

Quickly, I explained to him everything that had happened over the course of the last five minutes. He didn’t seem very fazed.

“Yea, I already knew that. Some officials wanted me to broadcast it about a week ago. Hey, do you know where Rapid Fire is?”

Come to think of it, I didn’t know. I hadn’t seen him since I stole the bottle he was trying to levitate. I assumed he had just gone off. He occasionally did that. “No, I haven’t. I really hope he’s okay.”

Alright, that was a lie. Honestly, I hadn’t thought of him, not even for one second. I knew he could fend for himself, so why should I worry? I just didn’t want Bear to think I was some heartless fool.

I pulled the microphone back behind the bush, and turned on the recording equipment of Bears’.

“Citizens…”

Skip.

A male voice boomed into the speakers, now covering both of our ears.

“‘Ey there, Ms. Sparkle. You know the drill.”

We heard a slight shuffling, as if the mayor had tripped over her own hooves.

Ha.

“Sparkle Cola.”

Silver Bear jumped at the word. “Oh my!! I know that stuff! I read it in a book! That new book that I’ve been broadcasting about has it written all over its pages!”

I slightly laughed at him, my face turning a light shade of red. Of course, we couldn’t see it, but I could definitely feel a blush coming on. Sometimes, he was just a cute guy.

After placing the stuff back in Bear’s radio tent, we crossed back to the bush. Bear was the first to speak up. “Are you sure you’ll be okay in there, Soda? I really don’t want you to be hurt.”

I smiled at him, half sure myself if I was ready to do this. “Bear, I promise I’ll be back. I would never leave you.”

Was that really true? I was making promises that I couldn’t keep. I knew, truly, that someday a point would come where I would never see my beloved again.

I didn’t say another word to him. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him until this issue was resolved. I took one look back to make sure nopony saw us, and then ventured forth, up to the door.

The door itself was made of thick glass. Inside, it looked normal. Carpets lined the floors, and a desk stood in the center of the room. It looked like your typical work building, but much fancier.

“Could the mayor seriously have had time for all of this? What about her people…?”

Shakily, I brought my light-colored hoof up to the door, tapping it gently, so as not to crack the glass. He guard pony came from the side, staring at me. I could see that he was about to ask for the password, but suddenly his expression changed.

“Ms. Sodapop, we’ve been expecting you! I was told to let you in, under any circumstances! Welcome to the main communications building!”

Oh Celestia, they wanted to see me? I didn’t have to say a password? What was going on!? I knew it, they were planning to kill me!

I couldn’t deny him. I would seem suspicious. I just stepped in carefully, scanning the room for any marauders. It seemed safe enough, so I walked up to the front desk. The mare sitting there looked up at me, a look of pain in her eyes.

“W-welcome to Sparkle Towers, where we put the town before ourselves. My name is Dinky, how may I help you?”

I recognized the voice. She sounded almost exactly like the pony who had been screaming about her muffins. I just looked at her with eyes of friendship. “Hello, Dinky! My name is Sodapop and I-”

“Oh my Celestia, it’s you! You saved us! I would do anything for you!  I’m also supposed to instruct you to go up to the mayor’s office at once!”

She pointed me towards a flight of wooden stairs. They looked ancient, much older than the rest of the architecture around me. I waved at her, telling her that she should visit me sometime. I told her which tent I was in, and then faced the flight of stairs in front of me. At each thirty-step interval, I saw a platform.

I gulped down a little bit of saliva, my mouth beginning to run dry. What could be so important that the mayor requested my immediate presence to her office? Did I have to do this? I could just back out now...nopony would stop me. My fame allowed me to do anything here.

Just the thought of my “fame” disgusted me. I had done absolutely nothing. Bear knew that, and the mayor knew that. Why she was spreading rumors about me, I couldn’t quite place my hoof on.

I walked, quite clumsily, up the creaking stairs. At each new landing, I looked through the windows on each door. It seemed like a normal place, free of forced labor and corruption. Ponies sat at tables, mixing ingredients to form what appeared to be the soda that everypony had been drinking.

But that was impossible! Didn’t they receive shipments? This made absolutely no sense. I couldn’t just ignore these ponies. When I hit the fifth floor, I walked in on one group of working ponies. They all stopped for about two seconds to see me, then reverted back to their science. One pony in particular was different. He sat at a table in front of the others, reading a book.

Walking up to him, the first thing I noticed was his gray mane. He looked as if he had been around forever, and knew a lot about the events that were going down here.

“H-hello...mister? What’s going on here?”

He didn’t look up. He just kept his eyes on the same sentence he had been staring at since I entered this room.

“Ummm, are you working? Am I bothering you?”

His voice was deep. Deeper than any other stallions’ voice, at least.

“Eeyup.”

Well, that was a waste of a question. I guess I asked for it, but I figured that he’d at least explain something. I put myself back to work, turning around and stepping outside the door.

“Wait!”

That was a feminine voice. One of the workers stood up. The others kept their eyes down, mixing and bottling their creations.  I turned around, confused. She ran up to me, putting her hood on my shoulder. “I can help you. I work here, and they haven’t gotten to me yet. “

I assumed that she was better than nothing. “Alright, my name’s-”

“Yes, I know. You’re the savior, Sodapop.”

Does everypony have to interrupt me!? I’m not the savior of anything!!

“Well, what’s going on here?”

She looked up at me, a tear in her eyes. “Brainwashing.”

Whoa, what!? “H-how is that possible?”

“I didn’t learn until just recently. For countless hours, we sit here, mixing the same concoction over and over. I don’t know what we’re mixing, but I know what it does. When a pony drinks it, their minds, figuratively, explode! They become slaves, basically. Whatever the mayor says, goes. I never liked the stuff, so I don’t bother to drink it. That’s why they can’t get me.”

That’s what she was doing! The whole town wasn’t starving, they were just ignorant! And, of course, the mayor was the criminal. If this was true, then the soda could spread over all of Equestria. What if it was her all along!? The wars...the death...the downfall of our princess. The mayor has done it all.

“Do you know anything else?”

“I can only tell you this. The mayor isn’t who you-”

And she was gone. I looked down, the gaping hole in the ground catching my eye. "Whoa..."She fell down a trap door. That was a little bit cliche, at least I thought so. A voice came from behind me (yet again…) and this one, I actually recognized.

“Ms. Sodapop, don’t we have an appointment in my office…?”