The dawn of a new day

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to muffins." -Humble Pie.

The city of Canterlot was quiet at this time of night, with the citizens asleep in their posh beds on this, a cold and damp winter night. Foals dreamed of the night princess Luna playing tag with them, while the mares and stallions would cuddle with their loved ones in sheets of rest. Tonight was different however, for tonight in the streets below the two ruler’s castle was a lone figure standing in a dark alley next to a tall, old office building. The figure was an earth pony stallion that had a swampy green overcoat what partly hid his scarred muzzle along with his boxing cutie mark.

"Damn it!" said the figure. "Why is it so cold!? And where is that idiot?" he grunted as he rubbed his hooves together. "If he isn’t here in five minutes, I'm gonna kick his ass all the way to the Crystal Empire!"

As if it had heard the threat of said ass kicking another figure dashed from across the street to the dark, damp alleyway. The new figure, who was shown to be a bright yellow unicorn stallion, was panting for breath as he approached the stallion waiting for him. He had on him a grey sweater and on his right eye was covered by a eye patch.

"Sorry I'm late, Stale," the unicorn panted in a low voice. "The streets were full of guar—" the unicorn was interrupted by a violent slap. "Oww! What the hell was that for!" he quietly bellowed as he gently rubbed his cheek.

"For being bucking late! You realize how much trouble we will get in if we are caught?" shouted Stale. "And not just by the guards."

"Sheesh. Sorry, your highness," the unicorn sarcastically replied. "So, where’s the boss, anyway?"

"Inside, you dolt. Now come on, Lemon! I’m about to freeze my bloody shaft off," The shivering stallion muttered.

After they entered the building through an alley door the two looked at the design. The building's interior was old, yet it was also kept clean, like a renewed painting. Lemon Squeeze and Stale Crumbs then climbed into an elevator with a night attendant who wore a blue valet uniform.

"Which floor?" questioned the attendant.

"Top," Crumb curtly replied.

The pair hurried through the opening gates into a dimly lit hallway with dark red carpet covered in fluers. Eventually, they reached a single door at the end of the hallway, a tall minotaur was standing guard, he wore a sports jacket, and a set of dark tortoiseshell glasses that reflected the hallway’s dim light sat upon his nose.

The two stallions stopped in front of the beast and calmly looked up at him expectantly.

"You supposed to be here?" the unamused minotaur grumbled condescendingly.

"We have business with the boss, now move," Crumbs snapped.

The minotaur smirked at the stallions as he glared at them. “Password?”

"Blueberry," Lemon stated, ignoring the absurdity of the password.

The minotaur did not try to hide his disappointment as he pushed the door open. “Well, get in there.”

The two stallions walked into a bright crescent room and towards a secretary desk in the middle. A mare with an emerald green mane typed on an old fashioned typewriter. She wore glasses that were shaped as a cheesy sunrise.

The room reeked of liquid soap residue left by past visitor's bubble pipes. There was also a comfortable-looking couch sitting on the right side of the room under a painting. The painting was of a seapony that layed on the rocky shore, looking at a faraway mountain like she wanted to climb it. Slowly, Stale approached the desk before clearing his throat and politely saying, “Excuse me miss,” to the mare.

Looking up to the source of the voice, the mare saw the two stallions in the dim lighting of the room. With a shake of the head to wake herself up, she replied in a Manehattan accent, "Is there something you require, gentlecolts?"

"We’re here to see Mr. Pike, our names our Lemon Squeeze and Stale Crumbs," said Lemon nervously.

"Let me see here," said the mare. They watched as the mare pulled a hidden panel off of the bottom of the desk. On it was what appeared to be a list of names. Scanning the list with one of her hooves, she stopped near the bottom at two names. Tapping them, she finally said, "Ah yes, here you are. If you could just sit over there for a moment, Mr. Pike will see you in a moment.”

"Of course madam," said Crumbs to the mare. As Stale trotted towards one of the benches he noticed that Lemon was covered in a thin layer of sweat. "Calm down man, it's just a room," Stale said to Lemon.

"Sorry, I'm just worried is all," replied Lemon. "I've heard of this guy , they say he is well connected.” The stallion shivered before whispering, “There are even rumors that is he has connections in the Royal Court."

"Well don't wor—" Stales began, but stopped as he heard the door burst open. A brown-coated stallion walked out of the room. His cutie mark was a dollar sign. His blue suit was perfectly accented by the silver streak flowing through his black mane.

"So remember, Rich, don't forget to contact me when you see him," said a stern voice with exotic, elder like tone from behind the door.

"Yes, Mr. Pike, but I still don't understand why you wish to meet Miss A—" Filthy began to reply, but was cut off.

"You just worry about getting my employees an autograph with her and I'll take care of the rest," the voice interrupted Filthy.

"Alright, Mr. Pike. Goodnight, sir," replied Filthy before leaving the room.

"Mr. Pike, sir, your 1:55s have arrived," the mare said to the voice.

"Thank you, Typo, my dear. Ah! My friends, come in, come in!"

"Mr. Pike sir, it is an honor to see you," said Crumbs while he and Lemon entered the room and closed the door.

The room they had entered was like an academy dean’s office, with carpeting that was most likely from Saddle Arabia. There were shelves lining the walls that were filled with books of foreign languages, and a interesting statue that appeared as a faceless elephant sitting on it’s rear was at the end of each shelf. In the back of the room was desk with a lamp of the spirit of chaos Discord on it. All in all, the room had an odd vibe to it, which was not helped by the stallion behind the desk: a tall, light yellow, elderly pegasus with a white slim mustache on his face and an equally white mane that was sitting forward like it was on the edge of its seat. He wore a dark blue jacket with a body suit resembling that of the wonderbolts, but this one was black with yellow arrows. A name plate identified the grandfather-like figure before them: Mr. Sunny Days Pike.

Seeing that his guests were uncomfortable, and being the polite old man that he was, Mr. Pike asked them to sit in two wooden chairs facing the desk. “Come sit down, my friends. Get comfortable.” Satisfied, Mr. Pike sat down in his more comfortable-looking velvet chair. "A pleasure to meet you Mr. Lemon and Mr. Crumbs. My contacts told me you two are some of the best for this job, is that correct?" asked Pike staring towards them.

"W-well, I wouldn't say the best, but you know we are good at what we do," stuttered Lemon.

"Hmmmm, now my friends, you do know why I asked for you to come here today, correct?” Mr. Pike questioned with a warm smile.

"Yes, sir, you want us find a certain stallion, correct?" replied Crumbs with an attentive look. "And ya want us to "persuade" him to come along with us, right?"

"Good, so you do know what you're doing. Yes, I do want you to find this stallion," said Mr. Pike handing them a picture. "This stallion is the key to drawing out our true target," Mr. Pike said with a grin.

"The true target?" asked Lemon.

Pike smirked as he said, "That's not important right now. I have others that will see to it.” His mouth then straightened. “Now, listen here closely: I require complete secrecy in this task I am giving you. There cannot be a single thread connecting me to you if this goes south, do you understand?"

The pair nodded in agreement.

"Mr. Pike, sir?" asked Lemon.

"Yes, lad?" replied PIke

"What’s our pay gonna be?” he said before being kicked by Crumbs. "Oww, what was that for?"

"It's rude," hissed Crumbs.

With a chuckle, Pike said, "It's alright lad. Do not worry, Mr. Lemon, you and Mr. Crumbs will rewarded quite handsomely after the job."

"Now listen, I have a meeting to attend in Manehattan. You are to bring the stallion to this location," Mr. Pike stated as he handed over a paper with coordinates on them. “I will send send another helper to take care of the fish we’re baiting.”

"Of course sir. Just one question before we go?" asked Crumbs.

"Yes?" asked Mr. Pike.

"What’s this bloke's name?"

The room felt as if the warmth was sucked from the very corner as Mr. Pike looked at them grimly and said, "This stallion’s name is—”

"Mr. Humble Pie!" a young stallion with a spiky mane and a very noticeable trottingham accent shouted to an older stallion sitting on a bench. The older stallion was writing in a book and had a similar physique to the young stallion, except this one was one was a bit older. The older stallion had a dark-grey coat on a skinny body, a light-grey tangled mane on top of him with a bushy, equally-grey mustache on his snout. His cutie mark was that of a pencil with a smiling and sad pony face. He wore a brown suit with a black tie, and had brown eyes under light grey eyebrows. Beside him was a huge male alligator with a blank look and eyes that looked like slits.

"Hello there my boy, what can I do for you?" asked Humble in a medium-deep voice.

"Oh, good! The innkeeper said you were here. Umm, well, uh, Mr. Humble," sweated the stallion. "Well, you see ,uhh, Mr. Humble I'm a f-fan," stuttered the stallion.

Humble chuckled at the stuttering stallion before saying, "Calm down friend. Here, come sit by me," and patted the space by his side.

"Well, that—thank you," stuttered the stallion before sitting next to Humble.

"Now, then seeing as you know me how, about you introduce yourself to the audience?" said Humble throwing a hoof in the air.

"Um, well, my name is Emerald Shine, Wait, what audience?" Emerald asked with a confused look on his face.

"Why, Slit, my alligator," replied Humble, as he took out his journal before pointing at Slit.

"Oh, hehe," chuckled Emerald nervously. "Well, sir, let me say its an honor to meet you and your gator."

"Well, it's an honor to be me, and Slit here is honored to be himself, too," said Humble, writing in his journal.

"Well, that’s good. Um, well, sir, I am a huge fan of your works," Emerald stuttered, still sweating like a Canterlot noble on a hot day.

"Ah! Well, there's something we have in common," said Humble. "I'm a fan of my works too, as is Slit here, is that not right boy," he said in a cheery tone to the alligator by his side.

"Well, sir, if it’s not too much trouble, I'd like to know what you think of my book," said Emerald, hoofing over a book with the title, "The Everfree Book".

"Well, I don't usually read other peoples’ works for review unless they ask, but… meh, why not?" Humble said with a shrug and turned to the first page. "I'm in a hurry, but I'll read the first chapter at least."

Giving the the first chapter a quick read, Humble said “Mmmmm.”

"So, what did you think?" questioned Emerald.

"Well, I found the idea of an orphaned colt being raised by timberwolves interesting," said Humble. "I liked it."

Emerald sighed with relief before saying, "Oh good. I thought that with your... you know, um..."

"Distaste of the jungles?" said Humble.

"Yeahhh," said Emerald rubbing his neck.

"Well, I've gotten over most of it, especially when my niece sent me some rare amaponian candy from the tribes there," said Humble.

"Well, thats nice," said Emerald "Who's your niece?"

"You might have heard of her name: Pinkamena Diane Pie," replied Humble.

Spitting out the tea he had been drinking, Emerald Shine looked at Humble with an amazed expression. "Your niece is the element of laughter!" yelled Emerald. "Oh sorry! I got tea on you!"

"That's alright, and eeyup," said Humble, going back to writing in his book. "She gets her sense of life's joys from me.” He wiped his snout of the spat tea.

"Wow,” said Emerald in a low tone. "So, uh, what are you writing there, anyway?"

Humble, looking up from his writing, looked at Emerald with a squint. "This here, my friend, is the sequel to my award winning book, "The Adventures of Con Colt" It’s called, "The Adventures of Straw Hat," He said, holding up a notebook with the same words written on it.

"Oh, can I hear a bit?" asked Emerald with an earnest look.

"Sure, I don't see why not," said Humble clearing his throat before starting to read.

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Chapter 1

Old friends, New enemies.

"So, you wanna know how things went after that adventure Con Colt and I had with them diamond dogs. Well, after that escapade of ours, we received six thousand bits in gems from the dogs’ hoard. We were the richest ponies in the city of Haystake, but due to us being young enough not to have our cutie marks (which didn't matter to me in the slightest, on account of me being a dragon) the "honorable" Judge Hale Bail decided it would be best for us to receive a bit a day over the next six thousand days. Also, he decided to leave me in the care of the widow Miss Shovel post and her sister Silk Wagon. They both had grey and black manes, white coats, and wore matching green shirts.

Now, I ain't saying the two were bad folks, I'm just saying it ain't right for no old mare to make a boy my age civilised by making me wear tight fitting clothes and such. Eventually I had had enough of it and decided to run away. Well, at least that’s what I was gonna do ‘till Con told me if I stayed with the widow I could join a gang he was forming. So, after deciding to stay, I ran back to the widow. She cried over me and told me to put on clothes and shoes again.

This process happened for weeks, ‘till one day he came back. It was just a normal day when I had been coming back from the schoolhouse (another thing the widow forced me to attend, along with church) when I heard the voices of the widow, Judge Hale Bail, and an unknown one from inside the house of the widow. Thats when I saw him again.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hello boy," my father said.

"Wow, so Straw Hat’s father returned?" asked Emerald to Humble.

"Eeyup," said Humble putting away the book. “To be honest the novel has been finished, I just need to get a new editor; my old one retired.”

"Huh. Well, I look forward to reading the novel when it comes out," said Emerald looking at his watch. " Well, Mr. Humble, I gotta go. It was a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure was mine," replied Humble shaking Emerald’s hoof. “And good luck with your novel.”

As Emerald left the train station, Humble heard a wailing whistle. Turning his head, he saw the train taking him to his niece.

"All Aboard!" yelled the conductor from the train.

"Well, this is our ride I guess, come along, Slit, heh," said Humble, straining to get up from his seat while Slit followed close by. Heading toward his train car, two figures watched him enter before entering themselves.

"I guess this our ride too, Lemon," said Crumbs, closing the cabin's door.