“Robert! You will stay put! Me and your mother are going out tonight, we’re leaving you with Soprano, do not cause trouble with him, if you do, you know the consequences…” Rob’s father said as a small colt Rob sat lower to the ground than usual with his eyes subconsciously wandering about the room, and his parent’s features. His dad was a large stallion, a lawyer pony that works more out of Stalliongrad in defense of the idiots that try to get drunk and start a couple fights in the streets or maybe even start trouble with the local Stalliongrad militia. His success level was very low, but he was chasing a lost cause in the first place, the militia just goes out and shoots anypony that causes trouble, they’ve even been caught stealing from a traveling carriage a couple of times, but the witnesses never showed up for the court hearings, but the reasons for that were too plain for the idiot judges to see. His father was always dressed in a business suit and had a wired ear piece attached to his head, though the technology wasn’t very advanced and he had wires always running over his face and through parts of his mane, ponies still respected him. Rob’s parents were some of the richest in Stalliongrad, the outskirts of it at least, which was considered, ‘the nice part,’ but as far as anypony could see, there was no nice part of this dead-end town.
Rob’s mother was a stuck-up pony with extremely expensive tastes, which depleted the amount of money available to take care of little Rob. Thought they didn’t really spend much on him anyways, they would make an elegant meal for them and a cheap sandwich for little Rob, if he wanted water, he had to find a way to get the cups down himself and then he still had to find a way to get to the faucet. To tell the truth, he didn’t really like whom his parents were, and they didn’t like who Rob was either, it was a mutual sense of hate between them. But Rob still respected them for the sake that they were his parents, and he may not like them, but he kind of had to respect them for even bringing him into this world. But his mother had more of a charm to her, that made her likable to everypony else that came into contact with them. Her hair was always coiled into a tight bun with swirls of white and blue in her mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a megaphone, she was the town loudmouth and protestor, if anypony wanted to protest something, they would always call her to speak at them, being her voice was louder than anything else in the town.
Little Rob just looked up at them, fiddling with his toy carriage that they had gotten for him out of spite, knowing that it was a toy for little fillies. Rob sighed and lowered to the ground, “Fine mom, dad. Just don’t leave me with that idiot again! Soprano doesn’t know anything about looking after a colt! And not that you guys would either…” Rob said as he pushed his head to the ground as he got a simple slap from his father jolting him up putting his hooves over his face an screaming with a sudden pain that shot through his face.
Rob’s father looked down at him, “You do not speak to me like that you little shit! I am your father, and I deserve nothing but your gratitude and endless love and respect!” He yelled as Rob just stared up at his father with a look of anger in his eyes, a certain dread that his father would stoop to such a level as to hit him like that. “You do not speak to your elders this way, if you have nothing respectful to say to me and your mother, then you will keep your damned mouth shut! Or so fucking help me I’ll beat your little ass back into oblivion!” He finished as Rob just rolled over on his back, as he always did when his dad started yelling at him like this, which happened almost every single day now. “Now you will stay here and be good for Soprano, or your little ass is going to boot camp for juvenile delinquents like you.” He said in a huff as him and Rob’s mother walked out the door, and a small stallion moved inside.
The stallion smiled at Rob’s parents and immediately closed the door behind them, “Okay, I don’t like you, I don’t want to be here, and I certainly will not do anything for you. You will make your own food, you will not cry to me at all, not in the slightest bit, and if you do, I’ll lock you out of this house faster than your little mind could comprehend. Now if you need me, I’ll be in the living room watching T.V. you rich people get the best channels here in Stalliongrad.” The stallion said as he moved over to the living room, kicking Rob out of the way as he bursted through the hall. “Oh yeah, and bring me whatever alcohol you guys have, I can’t watch you without a little bit of ‘liquid tolerance’ to help me through the day you know.” He said laughing loudly, as Rob slowly made his way to the kitchen, grumbling under his breath lowly at the stallion that was lying on their couch.
Rob sighed and looked around, trying to find anything that will shut that stallion up, and make him not yell constantly at him, but they had nothing. Rob’s parents finished off the last of the fine wine that they had stockpiled in the house, and they didn’t believe in any hard liquor in their house, so Rob just went back out to the living room and stood in front of the stupid looking stallion that reeked of smoke, hard liquor and major amounts of B.O. “We don’t have anything else, but please, feel free to choke on the very air you breathe. Knowing you, you could probably destroy the house just by burping; your foul breath may melt the house down.” Rob said as Soprano looked at him, and raised his hoof and hit Rob square in the side of the eye, making him fall backwards onto the thankfully plush carpet below him.
Soprano stood back up and angrily towered over the small framed Rob that was cowering below him, “You know what? I’ve beat ponies shitless for a lot less than this, but I’m only watching you right now, so If you get majorly hurt, it’s on me, so as much as I’d love to beat the sense back into you, I can’t.” Soprano kicked Rob straight in the temple making him cringe and scream with pain, but this was the normal routine for a day with Soprano, whenever he got angry, he would hit Rob in certain pressure point that didn’t leave bruises, but sent jolts of pain so intense through his body, most of them made him tear up on the floor. “Now get the hell up you little retard, you’re acting like a little filly. You want me to go out and buy you a little box of tampons for your little time of the month?” Soprano said as he picked up Rob from the ground and kicked him to the side.
Rob still had tears in his eyes, all he wanted was a little compassion in life, he just wanted somepony in his life that would actually take time to listen to him once in a while instead of hitting and neglecting him. But none of the such happened, he was cursed with parents who unfortunately didn’t really care about what happened to him. He just wished that something, anything, would happen that would take him away from his miserable life in this place. Stalliongrad was definitely no place to raise a foal, especially a colt that feels neglected, and with all the shifty characters that lurk around in this city, it was no surprise the place was so bad. Rob just went into his room and sighed, all he could do was color and write simple poetry about how horrible his life in this place was. Though he always threw out every poem he wrote, he literally poured his heart into his work, but he didn’t like anypony knowing about it, hence why he always threw them out afterwards.
But suddenly a soothing melody came from somewhere; it overshadowed even the constant stream of voices and vulgar language of this city. It was a violin and what sounded like a small piano, but it was enough to get Rob’s attention, he got up and opened his window which was barred to keep anypony from getting in or out of the house from the windows in any part of the house. So he decided to look downstairs at his sitter, and see if the idiot was actually looking for him, or if he was just waiting for him to some out to kick him or yell at him again. But no, when Rob left the room, Soprano was asleep on the couch, with his hind legs hanging lazily off of the couch exposing areas that Rob could’ve lived without seeing, but he decided to play a bit of a prank on him, so Rob tied Soprano’s hind legs to the ceiling fan, and as he left, flicked the switch on and watched Soprano fly up to the fan and start spinning around with the white stained wooden blades making Rob chuckle seeing that he caused Soprano the same pain he’d been giving to Rob for the past couple of months. And that one single moment where he saw the fear in Soprano’s eyes made it all worth it.
The world on the outside was huge, the ground was covered with snow, and the streets were littered with empty bottles of liquor and piles of vomit, even the occasional unconscious pony or two lie on the ground with snow covering them softly, but some were bleeding slightly, so Rob kept on walking until the bodies were out of his line of sight. But the city was taking its toll upon little Rob, ponies approached him left and right, asking him if he’d like to come with them to someplace he’d never heard of, so he felt it better to keep moving in the direction of the music, which was just as distinct as it was before in his room. But as Rob was running he ran into a stallion who proceeded to swear at Rob, making Rob shyly move backwards as the enraged stallion came after him.
“Hey, you little son of a bitch!” the stallion said with a thick Russian accent with the smell of cheap vodka on his breath, “Where the fuck do you think you’re going kid? We run this town, and nopony gets around here without our permission, filly and colts included. Can’t have you stupid little shits running all over town, now I suggest you run along home now, before you seriously get hurt.” The stallion said, as Rob picked up a large metal pipe and hit the stallion over the head with it, making him fly backwards to the ground, making a crunching noise as he hit the snow and ice that was covering the ground below him.
“What the?! GET THAT LITTLE COLT!” one of the ponies around him yelled, with a less thick, but still distinctly Russian accent. “Come here you little shit, you’re gonna’ fuckin’ pay for that!” he yelled as the fearful Rob turned flank and ran as fast as his legs would propel him, but it wasn’t fast enough. If he was going to lose then, he needed to think of a way to get them to stop chasing him, he saw an unsteady looking fruit stand, and as they ran towards him, he kicked down the stand making everypony chasing him trip over each other and fall onto the ground just as the one before them did. Rob couldn’t help but laugh until yet another round of the ponies came charging after him.
“Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Rob exclaimed as he stated up running again, looking for another chance to set them back even the slightest bit so that he can slip away from them with ease. But all there was were a bunch of bottles that littered the ground, but that gave him an idea, he ran and jumped into a pile of snow that was littered with about thirty empty bottles of liquor and beer. And as the stallions approached, he threw the bottle, hitting each one of them in the precise place needed to knock them unconscious, it wouldn’t be for long, but it would give Rob some time to get away from the area before more of the stallions came charging at him. But it was a bit too late for that, another group came up, but they were under a flimsy pull-out awning, but Rob only had one shot at this. He threw the bottle and hit the awning making it shoot back to the wall, making all of the snow on top fall right onto their unsuspecting heads. And in that second Rob was off again in the direction of the music once more as fast as his legs would take him.
One of the stallion’s heads popped up from underneath the snow, and yelled at the receding little colt, that had just humiliated them in front of the entire town. “YOU’RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS YOU LITTLE BASTARD! YOU’RE GOING TO REGRET PICKING A FIGHT WITH THE BROKEN HEARTS YOU LITTLE SHIT!” he yelled as the others popped up slowly, the snow making beards on their faces, as the stallions hit each other with their hooves. “STOP THAT YOU IDIOT! Come on, get the hell up, we’re going to have to report this to the boss.” He said pulling the stallions up from the snow, one coming out upside down, “I’m working with a bunch of fucking amateurs…” he said as they watched Rob run off into the sunset on the south-west edge of town. “Taken down by a colt… Well played… Well played…” he said gesturing the other stallions to follow, who shrugged and hesitantly followed.
Rob was now in another part of Stalliongrad, the music was still calling to him, but he couldn’t distinguish exactly where it was coming from, but he made his way around the town before being stopped by a young colt like himself. He had a light chestnut coat and dark black hair, and something was up with his eyes; one was one color, and one was another. His right eyes was a solid emerald green, while the other was a pure ruby red. “Oh, it’s you,” the colt said, making Rob immediately remember who the young colt was, his name was Mech, or so everypony called him that was, “And to whom do I have the misfortune to be talking to right now, I’ve seen many ponies, and I remember you, but simply not your name. I’m Metal Mecha, my parents named me that, so I have no idea where they came up with it, but apparently thought it was a good enough name to give unto their foal.” Mech sighed, extending his hoof trying to make at least one friendly gesture to the young Rob.
Rob shook his hoof, “Rob, my name is Rob. I’m sure that we’ve met before, but then again, my parents put me upon almost everypony in town. But last time we were together, remember, we made that prank thing, and messed with our last sitter they put us with?” Rob said, getting a chuckle from the young colt.
“Yeah, I do remember that, I’m sorry the guy was insufferable. The guy just reeked of cheap liquor, we did our parents a favor by doing that.” Mech said as they heard a loud battle cry come from the direction Rob had just come from. Mech looked at Rob, “Okay, who;d you piss off this time Rob? I’m sure you can talk them… out… of… it…” Mech saw the large stallions with guns attached to their backs and halves of cards in their vests, not just any card, a king of hearts. “Rob, tell me you didn’t! Please tell me they’re after somepony else!” Mech yelled as Rob chuckled nervously, “This isn’t good, sorry Rob, gotta run, I kind of value my life you know!” Mech said running into the distance.
Rob gave a ‘thank you asshole’ type of scowl before taking off trying to avoid the large stallions that were making their way towards him, yelling angrily. “I probably shouldn’t have messed with these guys…” Rob said to himself lowly as the stallions passed and Rob took off in the direction of the music again, as the stallions spotted him and started shooting, making everypony on the streets run in terror into their houses, abandoning even the very bars that the drunks seem to love so much. Rob thought that they were rather low characters to be shooting at a young colt like himself, but he just ran to the music and eventually heard the gunshots fade slowly behind him.
Rob stopped running, and the music was louder now, he walked up into a little makeshift camp, where a little filly was dancing around an older phonograph until Rob broke a twig and snapped the filly back to reality and quickly shut off the phonograph and looked around. “Wh-who are you?! Sh-show yourself!” she screamed defensively, “G-go away! I-I didn’t do anything! P-please d-don’t hurt me!” she screamed as Rob came out from the tree line and sat down, still trying to catch his breath. The filly shot back then took off towards Rob, “Oh my! What happened to you?!” she inquired frantically trying to see if he was hurt anywhere.
Rob was gasping, trying to catch his breath before he looked up at the filly, who was now bringing him a cup of ice cold water and a thin blanket. “You know, it’s a really long story, I’d rather not go into detail right now for the sake that I just probably signed my death warrant back in the town.” Rob said as the filly jolted back again, making Rob feel uncomfortable as her face changed. “But what was that song that you were playing on… that… thing… whatever it is.” Rob said, getting a chuckle from the little filly who was a light pink pegasus, and her hair was a mix of blonde and red. And Rob couldn’t help but just stare into her sapphire eyes that shone in the light like a true gem.
The filly smiled and replied to Rob’s question with a sweet and calming tone, “It was Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no. 8 ‘Pathétique’ movement 2. It’s one of my favorite works, but there are so many more that are just so excellent as well. By the way, the name’s Marlene, and if you keep looking into my eyes, you might get a rude awakening bud.” She said jokingly, helping Rob up from the ground, “So, have you ever heard and classical works before?” she inquired of Rob, who gave a silence back to her.
Rob found himself at a loss of words with this filly but managed to respond in a low tone, “No actually, I’ve never even really been outside. Not when I could actually think for myself that is. But I think I’d rather go back inside, I think I’ve pissed off some rather shifty stallions in the city limits today. But I wouldn’t worry about it. But I’d like to know where you live; I’d like to visit you sometime.” Rob said, getting a smile and a simple eye roll from Marlene.
“I live on the western edge of town; you can usually find me working around the local bars though. For some reason, that’s the only place to get a job in this accursed place. But I’d like to get a visit from you someday soon.” Marlene smiled and gave Rob a kiss on the cheek, making him blush slightly. “See ya’ later romeo.” She said playfully as she headed back into town, leaving Rob to smile where he sat. He decided to turn the music box back on and listen to the music; it was the most calming time he’d ever had in his life. She had a bunch of music piled in a box, Beethoven, Bach, Tchaikovsky, and others, he played each one and got lost in the music, ever hit on the piano keys, the orquestra, just calmed him, but then reminded him of something; he still had to get home, he’d never think he’d ever miss being away from home, but he did. He couldn’t explain it, he just felt like there was something drawing him to go back home.
“Rooooob! Where are you sweetie?”
Rob was snapped from his mind by a loud call of his name, it was a female voice, his mother’s voice to be precise. He’d never thought he’d be so relieved to hear his mother’s voice in his life, he ran towards the voice as it got louder and he finally could make out the figure of his parents. His father was wearing a large puffy jacket and his nice pants were torn from the brush they’d walked through to find him, his mother was in a similar jacket and had similar cuts on her legs from the thorns and brush. Rob ran up and hugged his parents tightly, tighter than he’d ever hugged them before.
Rob’s parents had tears in their eyes as their colt hugged them, “Oh Rob! Please never do that again! You worried us dearly about you! We’re sorry that we haven’t paid attention to you, but you must always remember,” Rob’s mother lowered herself to Rob’s level, “We are your parents, and we will always love you, no matter what.” She said making Rob smile and hug them again, tears starting to form in his eyes, “Come on honey, let’s go home.” She said as the family walked slowly away, nopony knowing about Rob’s adventurous day in the city, but it’s better that they don’t know, Rob, was happy again.
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Author’s notes; I wrote this for a dear friend of mine, I had the idea and I wrote it down and made it into this story. This takes place in Stalliongrad, before the events of ‘Rob’s New Beginnings.’ You might notice the little poem up in the description, basically, I thought since it was a story for my friend, it would be funny to knock off what he does to every story he’s ever published and put a poem or quote up there. I really hope that you enjoyed the story, thank you everybody for at least giving this a chance!
