Archangelsby FluttersIsAwesomeChaptersChapter 1: Welcome to ManehattanChapter 2: The ArchangelsChapter 3: Getting StartedChapter 4: LearningChapter 1: Welcome to ManehattanArchangels Eraverse Chapter 1: Welcome to Manehattan By: SleeplessScribe Days at the Apple farm always seemed to get more energized when good things happened in the family. It just so happened that we got a letter a few days ago inviting us to a welcome home celebration in Manehattan. Apparently our distant cousins, the Oranges, had a soldier named Citrus from the family coming home for retirement, which made even us Apples excited. We all wanted to go, but sadly things were far too busy for us all to leave. After a lot of arguing, insisting, and one long lecture from Granny Smith about enjoying life, I finally had to accept that everyone wanted me to go. With that established, I used the next two days to get as much work done as possible before packing up for the trip to Manehattan. Everyone went with me to the train station, and all my friends were there, too. Something felt wrong, though. The happy smiles on my family’s faces were immediately wiped away upon seeing the upturned brows and curved lips of my friends. “Uh, did something happen? Y’all look more worried than a mouse at a cat parade.” I scanned their faces as I spoke, but none of their expressions changed. I did notice Twilight’s eyes darting from side to side. When she cleared her throat, I assumed everyone had been waiting for the others to say something. “We know you’re going to Manehattan and... we just wanted to tell you to be careful, is all.” The alicorn tried to keep a straight face, but her tone was an all too clear indicator that she was actually very nervous about something. I was about to ask why they were so concerned, but Applebloom stepped up and beat me to it. "What's wrong with going to Manehattan? I ain't got nothing from Babs." The five in front of me exchanged looks before Rarity spoke up. "You mean you've not heard the rumors? Ponies are talking about some rather bad things happening in the city." I'm sure both of my siblings were curious, but Granny Smith responded before we could say anything. I saw her tap her chin once, so I knew we had a speech coming. "We don't put no stock into rumors and the like. Believing gossip only gets you into trouble. I'm sure Manehattan is fine; this is just folks trying to scare others." "I ain't so sure, Granny. Something tells me there's more to this." Usually I trusted Granny's word, but the fact that everyone came to tell me this didn't sit well with me. Rainbow Dash had been up in the air during this whole exchange so far, but finally came down and pointed at me. "We know this is pretty important to you, we just want you to be safe." I gave them all a nod as the train pulled up and came to a stop. "I will, don't y'all worry. I won't be but a couple of days." My friends all took a step forward, and before I knew it I was in the middle of a family and friends group hug. Once they all finally let go, we exchanged final goodbyes and then I was on the train with the bag I’d packed with. It took a minute or two for all the other passengers to get on and the train to start moving. Looking out the window, I saw everyone waving at the train until they were too far away to spot. The train ride took a few hours, but in time I could finally see the city on the horizon. However, I immediately began thinking back to my friends’ warnings when I saw the grey, smoky sky we were approaching. As the train closed the gap between itself and the city, the whole place just seemed... darker, and not because it was now late evening. What few ponies were out walked slowly, few lights were on, and hardly anyone was smiling. It was a stark contrast to my last visit here. When the train came to a stop and I got off, I was near instantly grabbed by a police officer. “I’m going to have to see your bag, ma’am.” I never remembered anything like this on any visit here, but I gave him my bag anyway. It was never wise to disobey a guard. Once he had it, he searched thoroughly through it. In fact, I think he took at least ten whole minutes rummaging through my stuff. I was watching him, though, so I was positive he didn’t take anything. After he was done, he gave me back my bag and picked up my hat without even giving me the chance to say something. After my hat was once again sitting on my head, the guard gave me a nod. “Alright, you’re clear. Don’t cause trouble, and you’ll have no problems.” To be honest, I was a little too confused to even say anything, so I just trotted out of the station and towards the address on the invitation we’d been sent. Eventually I started to get very lost. Either there had been a lot of roadwork since the last time I was here, or I didn’t know Manehattan half as well as I thought I did, because I’d already ended up going the wrong way five times before I heard someone call to me. “Hey, you! You with the funny hat, you lost?” I turned towards the voice that called to find a large, dirty stallion walking up to me. He looked as big as my brother, and twice as messy. Patches of dirt covered his green coat, and his mane was long and matted. He was smiling, though, and his gaze immediately shifted to the invitation I was looking at. “I know that address! You’re looking for Orange Manor, I take it? If you want, I can show you the way.” Usually I wasn’t keen on taking offers like this from strangers, but I really needed to get where I was going before actual nightfall. “That’s mighty kind of y’all, thanks. I appreciate it.” The big guy gave a nod and nudged his head in the direction I had come from. “It’s actually not too far from where we are now.” He started walking, and I followed at a short distance. My friends warned me to be careful, and though there was no obvious reason to be, I just felt like something was off. We walked in silence until we came to a three way intersection. The stallion turned to the left, but when I turned, I found myself in a dead end alley. “Uh, y’all sure this is the right way? This looks like a dead end to me.” The big pony didn’t turn to face me, but I could still hear what he said. “Yeah, this is the right place.” When he did turn, I also saw two shadows of ponies coming up behind me. Two more colts had come up to block off the exit. The two slowly made their way closer to me, causing me to bump into the other pony when I backed away from them. “I’m gonna make this easy, girlie. You give us what’s in the bag, and you walk out of here untouched.” I turned around and shuffled back, but that only got me pinned between the three of them and a wall. “I ain’t got nothing worth taking. This is all just stuff for a family visit.” There was no way I was going to tell them that I had a valuable gift for Citrus with me as well. The big colt shook his head. “Doesn’t matter; it’s ours now. I’ll say it again; leave the bag with us or you don’t leave at all. We’re pretty good at making noncooperative ponies... disappear.” Narrowing my gaze at him, I swiped the ground with a hoof. “I said no. This ain’t y’alls to take.” This got a chuckle out of all three of them, but the pony in the center remained the only one to speak. “I hate it when they don’t do what we say. Too bad, I’m sure someone will miss you.” He tried to kick me with his front leg, but I knew they were going to attack me and ducked out of the way. As his hoof slammed into the wall, my back hooves slammed into his face and knocked him down. Unfortunately, I had completely forgotten about the other two for just a long enough moment for one of them to hit me over the head. The kick sent me tumbling to the ground, but I managed to get up before one of the muggers stomped on me. Rearing around again, I gave the one on the left a good hit. I think I saw a tooth fly out. That move left me open, though, and I was immediately slammed by the big one’s shoulder and sent into the wall. The collision left me dazed, but I could still see the three of them all stalking towards me now. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid, but all three of them stopped after what looked like a rock hit the guy on the left in the back of the head. “Stooping to three on one fights now, are we?” I was still a bit fuzzy, but I could see the three muggers turning to another pony in the alley’s exit now. It looked like he had another with him as well. “Damnit, I was hoping to get this over with before you got here. Whatever, we can take you, Jet.” The main mugger turned to his friends before turning to the one he called Jet. “Let’s get him boys!” Now I was starting to get my bearings again. I stood and watched as Jet and his friend flipped the muggers onto their backs and sent them running off and shouting obscenities. The both of them made their way over to me, though at this point I was fine again. The first to speak was another large, dirty colt with a baseball cap and a bandage over his nose. “They rough you up much?” I knew he was Jet for sure once I heard his voice. “I’m fine. I appreciate the help, though. Thanks.” The pony with Jet was a dark blue pegasus with a bright yellow mane and tail. “No need, it’s what we do. But we really should get you where you’re going before more muggers show up.” I gave them a nod. “Y’all know where Orange Manor is?” Both of them nodded in response, but Jet spoke up first. “Yeah, and you’re a long walk away. We should get moving; getting caught by a guard after curfew is arguably worse than muggers.” My eyes widened just a bit when he said that. That officer at the train station was blunt, but he didn’t really seem mean. Regardless, the two colts started moving, and I wasn’t too far behind. I walked up to Jet’s right side, and I noticed a small set of stitches in his cheek when I looked at him. His silver coat was covered in dirt, his long, brown mane and tail were greasy and matted, and it looked like he had chips in his hooves. The pegasus was no better; the ends of his feathers were a little tattered, his hooves were nicked, and his coat, mane, and tail were just as messy and dirty as Jet’s. The silence was deafening, and I was now curious as to who these ponies were, so I just had to speak. “I’m Applejack... figured I’d at least give me name to y’all two.” They both smiled at me but didn’t look at me. The pegasus opened his mouth, but Jet managed to get words out first. “I’m Jet, but you probably could’ve guessed that already. My friend here is Dust Devil. Nice to meet you, Applejack.” Once he was done, Dust Devil started talking. “Nice to meet you Applejack. I suggest you keep your stay in this city brief; there’s a lot of shi– I mean problems going doing right now.” So whatever rumors others were talking about were true. “Yeah, I heard. What exactly is going on?” Jet simply shook his head. “I don’t want to take the chance of someone hearing us. You can get in trouble for a lot these days. Besides, we’re here.” Indeed we were. I hadn’t even realized were at the manor until it was right in front of us. All three of us went up the massive stairs that led up to the front door, but Jet and Dust turned and walked back down. “Y’all got somewhere to be?” Dust turned back to me with a nod. “Yeah. I’d say see you later, but not running into us is actually a good thing.” Jet quickly hushed him. “Quiet! We need to go.” The colt then turned to me and sighed. “Sorry, Applejack, but we really don’t have time to explain.” The two were gone before I could even say “Okay”. I simply tried to shrug it off as I knocked on the door. After a few moments, the door opened, and I was greeted by another large colt. This one was much neater, though, with a bright yellow coat and a very short, orange mane and tail. The mane cut alone told me this was probably Citrus; the only ponies I knew with that kind of look were military folk. His smile was bright as he moved to the side. “Hey! You must be Applejack, right? We were kind of worried when you didn’t arrive with our other guests.” With a smile of my own, I walked in and gave him a nod. “I got lost on the way. Nothing to worry about, though. I take it you’re Citrus, then?” “The one and only.” After he closed the door, Citrus took a quick look out the window. “Any reason those colts just up and left after coming up here?” “Them? Oh, they.... helped me.” I really didn’t want to tell him I was almost mugged, but I was never one to lie. “I see.” The colt rubbed his chin as we walked from room to room. This place was huge, and no two rooms were alike; we passed through a ballroom dancing hall, a trophy room with various animal stuffings, two dining halls, and finally we stopped in some kind of study. The left and right walls both had large bookshelves along them, two desks were pushed together in the center, numerous side desks separated the bookshelves, and the back wall was one giant window. Citrus sighed and looked out over the city. The buildings, for the most part, seemed unchanged from my previous visit, but there was one distinctive clock tower that dwarfed everything around it. That definitely wasn’t there last time. “I’m sorry Applejack; I thought being a guest of the Orange family would put a bit of a barrier between you and the problems the city’s been facing, but clearly I was wrong. I’ll make sure someone escorts you back to the train station when tomorrow’s celebration is over.” I tilted my head and looked out the window myself. “What exactly is going on, Citrus? The minute I stepped in here something just felt wrong, and now I’m sure of it.” The older pony’s gaze remained on the tower. “Corruption has spread throughout the city. Gangs are running rampant and law enforcement has gotten dirty. See that tower? Some guy came in a few months ago, established a new business, and within weeks that tower was up and everything went downhill.” That was... quite a bit to take in. “Is it really that bad? I mean, I almost got mugged, and security seemed a bit tight, but that hardly seems too out of the ordinary.” Citrus turned to me, his mouth the straightest line a mouth could be and the wisdom of war in his eyes. “It’s worse than ‘that bad’. Slavery, murder, drugs, it’s all here now. You’ve seen the soft side of Manehattan’s situation. There are a few that fight back, but I fear for their safety every day.” “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope I ain’t an inconvenience.” He quickly shook his head. “You’re not, believe me. We’re happy to have you, I just didn’t think you’d run into trouble. Forgive me for that.” “Y’all don’t have to apologize.” The colt nodded again before turning his gaze back out the window. “Welcome to Manehattan, Applejack.” Chapter 2: The ArchangelsArchangels Eraverse Chapter 2: The Archangels By: SleeplessScribe It was late, so Citrus led me to one of the manor’s guest bedrooms after our conversation. I thanked him, brushed my teeth, washed off, and got ready to go to bed. However, my attempts to sleep were interrupted about half an hour after I had settled into bed. From where I was, I could see a faint light coming from down the hall, as well as a muffled conversation. After all I had been told, the urge to sneak over and listen was just a touch too hard to resist. My room was at the end of a long hallway, and the light was coming from behind a closed door about three doors down on the left wall. Once I was there, I pressed my ear to the door and listened. I couldn’t exactly put faces to the voices since they were muffled, but I could still hear what they were saying. “You need to call this off! Every guest you’ve brought here is in danger.” “This wasn’t my idea, and it would be incredibly rude and ungrateful of me to tell them all to just go home, especially after the planning and effort my family put into this. Believe me, I know the risks, but I just can’t.” “We don’t have the resources to protect everyone. Not only that, but I’ve heard talk about ‘Archangel’ from the locals. If the wrong ears hear these rumors, it will be a lot harder for us to do anything.” “I know, I know. I... I’ll try and keep things brief tomorrow and get the guests on their way. I’m sorry.” “I’m not mad, just worried.” “I understand.” A few moments later, I could hear hoofsteps coming towards the door. I took off for my room as quickly as I could while staying quiet, and I managed to tuck in just before Citrus walked past my door. The morning came quickly, but the typical sound of crowing roosters had been replace by a right awful ringing from the clock beside my bed. After hitting the alarm and tidying up, I made my way down to the second floor. Quite a bit of chatter was coming from the room to the left of the stairs. Opening the door revealed numerous ponies in a third dining room. A lot of them greeted me when I walked by. The ones that didn't reminded me of last night, as I overheard the word "Archangel" a good few times. Now I was getting really curious. Apparently I'd woken up much later than I was meant to, seeing as how a loud bell started ringing not too long after I walked in. As it rang, ponies sat down in seats with their names on them. It took a moment for me to find mine. I was seated between two ponies I didn't recognize, but they both smiled and gave me warm greetings. I was fairly close to the front of the table, which was where Citrus sat, so it was easy to see and hear him when he stood up to address us all. "Honored guests, friends, family, I cannot express my joy and gratitude in seeing you all here today. I thank each and every one of you, but I am afraid that this meal together will have to be the most time we spend together." This got a lot of folks to chattering. Once again, I heard the world 'Archangel' come up more often than Granny's story of how she saved the farm from timber wolves. The old colt held up a hoof and everyone simmered down. "As I'm sure you're all aware, Manehattan has run into some tough times. The Orange family had expected the situation to be less hectic for all of you, considering you are our guests, but it appears that's not the case. Do not worry; none of you are in any danger. Your visit here will simply be shorter than anticipated." I got a nudge from behind me as I was listening. The filly next to me had leaned in close and began whispering. "Do you think this has something to do with Archangel?" All I could do was shrug. "I've been hearing that name a lot. What in the world is it?" Her eyes widened. "You don't know? Supposedly, he's this brave pony who goes around saving people from criminals." The mare on my other side then turned to us with one brow raised. "Did you say 'he'? I heard Archangel is a filly. She apparently saved two young ponies from foalnappers." “So I’m afraid you all will need to prepare for your return home after this breakfast. Again, please forgive me.” Citrus’s speech had faded out for just a moment. Once the talk of Archangel was over, his voice was once again the only one I heard. When Citrus sat back down, at least five servers walked out of a door behind him. Each was carrying a shiny, silver dish, and they announced what each dish was before allowing all of us to take a serving and pass it down. After breakfast, my goal was to find Citrus. I needed answers now, or this was going to bother me for who knows how long. By a stroke of luck, I caught him walking down the same hallway that my room was in. Something seemed odd about him, though; he was walking quickly and constantly looking around. I decided to hang back and watch instead of just calling him out. The stallion eventually came to the end of the hall and tapped the wall three times. It took a moment, but a portion of the wall slid back and to the side, revealing a dark stairway. Seeing this left me with a dropped jaw and wide eyes, but I was also way too curious, and a little suspicious, to let this go. I heard him talking and then he began to walk away, so I rushed for the door. It began to close before I got to it, but I was fast enough to scoot in. I never was keen on the idea of being a pancake. The staircase was lit only by a few torches along the left wall, and it spiraled down for a decent bit until it came to a big, iron door. Citrus started talking to the pony he had come in here with and a voice I vaguely recalled pushed me to jump out. “Citrus, what in tarnation are you doing?” Both he and the other pony jumped to look at me. My eyes widened yet again when I saw the only pony’s friend. Standing right there beside Citrus was Jet, the colt that helped me the night before. He shook his head quickly and immediately turned to Citrus. “What is she doing here? Get her out! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to have her here?” My cousin opened his mouth, but I more or less didn’t care to wait for my answers any longer, shoving myself between the two. “Hold up now, y’all! What in Equestria are you two doing down here?” Suddenly, a thought popped into my head that I had to bring up. “Citrus, are you Archangel?” Apparently ponies speaking before Citrus could get a word in was becoming a trend; now Jet had his voice raised a little. “She knows about Archangel? Citrus, what the hell are you doing?” “Well if you would let me speak, maybe I can explain!” Citrus narrowed his gaze at both Jet and me before letting out a sigh. “I don’t know how Applejack got in here, but I did tell her about the real problems the city is facing. She was the only one who directly asked me; I felt it was safe to tell her.” Jet just rolled his eyes. I took the opportunity to talk again since it seemed my cousin was done and Jet didn’t have anything to say. “So is Archangel a real thing, or just a rumor? Is he, or she, or whatever, actually a pony that helps others?” The two colts exchanged looks. “I know that look. We can’t say anymore. Applejack needs to leave now.” Jet exclaimed. Citrus set a hoof on his face for a moment. “Maybe she can help. She already knows more than anyone else in the city, and I know a few Apples. They’re a tough bunch.” I went to speak, but Jet was faster than me. “Oh no! That is way too dangerous! I told you Citrus, I can’t take outside help. What if something happens to her? What will her family think, huh?” At this point, I was starting to get frustrated, so I slammed my hoof down to shush them both. “Alright, y’all better tell me what’s going on right now! I ain’t leaving ‘til I get a straight answer!” They both looked me right in the eye and let out heavy sighs. Citrus reached out, placing a hoof on Jet’s shoulder and motioning to me with his head. “Look, why don’t we just tell her what’s going on? It’s literally just us three here right now. We should just tell Applejack what she wants to know, and if she wants to help, I think that should be left up to her.” The bigger colt let out a groan and a defeated “fine” before leaning against the wall. With that, Citrus once again addressed me. “Applejack, you already know how bad the situation in this city is. A pony named Monopoly came in a few months ago and founded this company called Timetech. On the surface, it looks like any old watchmaking company, but we have evidence that Monopoly is the head of various drug trading and pony trafficking rings.” This got me raising my brows. In all my twenty-one years I’d never heard of crimes like that here in Equestria. I don’t even think Granny Smith heard of things like that before, and she’s been around much longer than I have. “He’s got all of law enforcement in his pocket, so unless he says to do it, nobody gets in trouble for anything. That’s why gangs run free now; I guarantee you they work for him too. As for Archangel... Archangel isn’t just one pony.” My cousin turned towards the door, knocked on a lower part three times, and then on a high part twice. Once he set his hoof down, the door opened into a room full of ponies talking, reading papers, and doing all sorts of this. “The Archangels are the only thing standing between Monopoly and total control of Manehattan. Orange Manor’s old cellar is just one of their bases, and Jet is their leader.” Jet pushed himself off the wall once Citrus was done. “We do whatever we can to disrupt gang operations here. We’re hoping to eventually connect the dots and link them with Timetech. Once we do that, we can request help from Canterlot because we’ll have proof that all the incidents are just isolated cases.” I tilted my head a little. “Why do they need proof?” “If we don’t have proof, we can’t get help. It would look terrible if royal guards came here and arrested with wealthiest pony in Manehattan without some reason. Not only that, but I guarantee you he’d get a not guilty verdict if he were taken to court before we have evidence that he’s connected with any of this.” As Jet spoke, his eyes told me just how serious he was. I thought back to what Citrus had said a little bit ago, and then did some serious, serious thinking. “Citrus said it would be my choice whether or not to try and help you. I can’t just go home knowing something like this is happening. Citrus, if you can get a letter to my family telling them I’ll be here a little bit longer than planned, I’ll gladly help.” My cousin gave me a nod. “I can do that.” The other colt shook his head again and looked at me. “Applejack, are you absolutely positive you want to do this? What we do is dangerous, and a few of us have already gone out and not come back.” I stamped my hoof down again with a firm nod. “I’m a good friend of Princess Twilight herself. I know the value of helping folks out, and I’ll give up my favorite hat before I turn away from a situation like this. Y’all need all the help you can get.” He looked me in the eye and just stood there for a few minutes. “You’re serious. There’s nothing I can say to convince you to go home?” I just shook my head. “Not a thing.” I could just see the defeat on his face when he heard my response. In fact, I think his ears would’ve fallen flat had Citrus not caught his attention by walking back up the stairs. “I’ll see you both later. I have a letter to write.” That right there got a smile out of me. “Thank you kindly, Citrus.” Then I turned to Jet with a more sassy smirk than I had intended. “So, mind telling me what exactly y’all do?” His face went from defeat to disbelief in the blink of an eye. “Applejack, you just stood here and told me that you were absolutely positive that you wanted to help us, and you’re not even sure what it is we do?” “Well I got the big picture. It ain’t too much to ask for some details, right?” He simply sighed and walked into the room, motioning for me to follow. Nopony here even bothered to look up at us. We just walked right through to another door that Jet opened for me. Yet again we were in a dark hallway, but this one at least had torches on both sides of the walls. I really didn’t want to push Jet any more than I already had, but I was tempted to remind him that I had asked for more details about the Archangels. Thankfully I didn’t have to. “So... what exactly is it you want to know?” “Everything.” After another sigh, Jet started talking again. “That’s not helpful. It’s a decent walk to where we’re going, so just ask me questions.” I actually kind of understood where he was coming from; it was easier to answer questions than to pick a topic out of something broad. “Uh... how did this all start?” “A bunch of us got fed up with suddenly not being able to do anything. See, with the way things are now, you can’t say or do anything that Monopoly doesn’t agree with, or you get locked up. Archangels started as just me with the help of a few friends. We all figured that it was more work to not bend the rules than it was to shatter them completely.” I just nodded as I listened. “I guess I can understand. You just kinda started being troublemakers?” Jet paused for a moment, adjusting his hat. “For a time it was like that. In time, we realized that we were really good at what we did, so we tried to form this group with the intent of actually making the situation better. The Archangels started to grow when others volunteered to help us, too.” “How did other ponies even find out? Y’all seem pretty set on staying secret and quiet.” While this was true, there was no way I was going to mention just how often I heard the name in the short time I’d been here. “Most of them were like you. They were almost victims of muggings or abductions, but we stepped in and stopped it. After the first few new members, we started just accepting volunteers from the city.” I still had more questions, but Jet held up his hoof as we approached a huge, circular door. There was a rectangular slit in the middle of it that opened as we walked up to it, and a pair of eyes could be seen on the other side. There was a brief pause before a gruff voice came from behind the door. “You have two options.” Jet stepped up and looked the other pony straight in the eye. “I’ll make a third.” The window slid closed again. After some creaking and scraping, the door rolled open to let us in. The room was short, with a set of stairs being maybe fifteen feet away. On either side of us were walls lined with pipes of different sizes, but I didn’t get a good chance to look at them, as Jet tugged me with him up the stairs. When we went through another door at the top of the stairs, I saw that we were in some kind of theater. Rows of seats stretched from the back of the room right to the front of a small platform. A huge screen covered the wall we were facing, too. A nudge to my side brought my attention to Jet again. “We’re based in this theater, here. It’s been closed down for a while, so we all worked to convert the building into a fitting main hub for our operations. We use this room as our briefing room, the one immediately to the left as a cafeteria of sorts, the theater at the end for sleeping, and the one directly to our right is a monitoring hub. The lobby upstairs from here connects all four.” My head was starting to spin with all this. If this was all real and not some kinda crazy dream, then the situation here was heavier than I had bargained for. Of course, nothing was gonna stop me from helping folks in need. Jet was quiet now, which gave me time to think and process everything he’d said. I still had a million questions, but something told me Jet wasn’t done walking me around. My thoughts were interrupted when the colt stepped in front of me. “I think the best thing to do right now is introduce you to the main leaders, but you’re free to ask any more questions first.” Now I had to pick and choose questions that really needed answering. There was one thing that was nagging at me, but I didn’t ask right away. In fact, I was apparently taking so long that Jet looked worried. “Hey, Applejack? You there? I’m sure that wall is interesting, but I have other things to do.” I shook myself back down to earth and nodded. “Yeah, sorry. I think I just now realized what I’ve gotten myself into. I mean, this whole deal sounds like the plot to one of Twilight’s crazy action books or something; it’s just hard to believe that this is actually real.” Leaning onto his back legs completely, Jet crossed his forelegs. “And you volunteered to help without know a damn thing.” “Hey, there ain’t no need to talk like that! Just because I know how heavy things are don’t mean I plan on running. I can’t go home knowing y’all are having such a hard time. I just... I just wish I could tell someone what’s going on.” Almost immediately, a thought crossed my mind that nearly made me jump. “Wait... why can’t I just go tell somepony else? I know you told me about all that legal mumbo jumbo, but what’s stopping me from just going over to Ponyville for some help?” Jet’s eyes widened and he immediately smacked his hoof against his forehead. “I am so stupid! Ugh, we should’ve waited to let Citrus go write that letter.” “Why, what’s wrong?” The colt put his front hooves on the ground again and nudged his head towards the theater door. “Come on, I’ll show you.” He led me up the steps to the main lobby, where an empty concession stand sat on the left wall and old, broken dividers would have separated the lines of ponies coming in to see movies on our right. Jet walked out of the only front door that wasn’t boarded up, waiting on me to come through too. There was a ladder leading all the way to the roof of the theater, which Jet quickly climbed up. I followed behind him, and he pointed forward once I was at the top. “See that?” My eyes were drawn to the train station I had arrived at. There were dense lines and crowds of ponies at the entrance, but they were leaving very slowly. It was like only one pony left the station for every five that were there. “Security is tighter than you realize here in Manehattan. That train is the only way in and out now; flying is restricted, and anyone who tries to walk in is turned away. While this wouldn’t normally be a problem....” The dirty colt paused for a moment, tapping his chin. “There are too many unknowns. If you’re really friends with Princess Twilight, that would be a swift victory. Even if they tried to keep you from coming back, they’d never deny an order from a Princess. The problem lies with trying to get out.” I looked from him, to the station, and back again. “Why wouldn’t they let me leave?” “I don’t know. Honestly, I’m not sure I want you trying to leave.” I narrowed my gaze, a frown slowly growing on my face. When Jet turned to me, he jumped back and started shaking his head. “No need to give me that look! Hear me out, okay? What I’m afraid of is those thugs from last night warning the guards about you. If they did, you’ll be arrested on the spot, and we both know that’s something that should be avoided.” I was really tempted to argue with him, but at the same time I did understand his feelings. We were high enough for me to get a good view of the city, and this view got me to thinking. It was harder to notice since I arrived late last night, but in broad daylight, the city looked even worse. The whole sky was like one thick cloud of smoke. Trash and dust littered the streets and drifted in the air. A lot of the walls I could see were covered in weird looking art and graffiti, and ponies walked around with their heads down constantly. Everything was just... wrong. "Can you do something for me, Jet?" He gave a quick nod and adjusted his hat. "Depends." "Can you just... tell me this is real? Y'know what I mean?" Jet nodded again. "I understand. In less than a day, you've learned about a very dark situation in a once proud city, had almost everything you knew about this place shifted and warped, and now have thrust yourself into the struggle yourself. This is real, Applejack. Very real." After a deep breath, I felt I had finally managed to move past my "is this happening?" mindset. With that out of the way, I could actually think about other points Jet had made. "So if I can't be spotted by the law, how am I supposed to help y'all?" The colt raised both of his front hooves up halfway. "Okay, hear me out. The Archangels move throughout Manehattan two ways: the sewers and the rooftops. Usually only pegasi take the roofs, but a few earth ponies, myself included, do on occasion." “Sewers don’t bother me none. Getting messy is part of my life, y’know? But I do know the fussiest unicorn that wouldn’t even think of getting close to a sewer.” He rolled his eyes and made his way back to the ladder. “Don’t even get me started on fussy unicorns. Come on, I’ll introduce you to the others in charge and hopefully someone can show you around the tunnels.” Once Jet was at the bottom, I went down the ladder myself. “Sounds good to me.” Chapter 3: Getting StartedArchangels Eraverse Chapter 3: Getting Started By: SleeplessScribe Once we were back in the theater lobby, Jet tugged me towards the room on my right. I swear, if you were to walk in that room, you would have forgotten you were in a movie theater. A unicorn stood in the center of the room completely stripped of its seats. The projector was on, and lists of locations with numbers to go with them was being shown on the screen. Aside from the one in the middle, all others there were sitting down at tables along the walls, and they looked like they had some kind of screen in front of them. The unicorn’s horn was glowing, she was talking to all the ponies around her, and they sounded like they were repeating what she said. Every couple of seconds, the numbers on the screen would change, too. When I got a closer look, I also noticed that all the the ponies in this room had some kind of weird earmuffs on their heads that were connected to the screens they were looking at. I was half tempted to tell someone to hit me and wake me up, until I heard Jet’s voice again. “This is our communications hub. From here, we monitor the city and relay information to our teams out and about.” He gave me a nudge before walking towards the unicorn that immediately turned to us. I could only imagine how many sleepless nights she’d been through; her eyes were bloodshot and there were dark bags under them that stood out again her violet coat. She only looked at me for a second before turning her attention to Jet, and she spoke as if I wasn’t right next to her. “Jet, I’d appreciate you letting me know that you’re bringing a stranger here ahead of time in future instances. As you can see, I’m incredibly busy.” I heard a deep sigh from the colt before he looked at me. “Applejack, this is Quick Fix. She heads up out comm hub, making sure everypony out in the city remains up to date on what’s going on around them.” Quick Fix’s flat, sarcastic tone, combined with her words, really didn’t give me a good first impression of her, but I still wanted to stay polite. “Howdy there, Quick Fix. I’m Applejack.” I smiled and held my hoof out to her. The unicorn just paused for a moment, looked down at my hoof, then turned to one of the other ponies watching the monitors. “Just don’t break anything while you’re here. In fact, don’t touch anything, it’s safer that way.” She really wasn’t helping her case. I guess Jet could tell that this unicorn was slowly wearing down my patience, because he scooted between us and pushed me back a little. “Quick, the least you could do is be polite. Applejack isn’t a stranger, she’s here to help us. I know you’re busy, but she deserves a greeting.” Quick Fix raised her brow at Jet. “You came at a bad time. Forgive me if I’m a little short.” Jet sighed again before giving a reply. “You can work while you explain what goes on here. I understand it, but you know all about it.” She looked at me, then to Jet, then back to me before rolling her eyes. “This is the room where we watch the city. We have video cameras set up at various points, and my magic keeps them hidden and keeps them connected to the monitors in here.” Concern almost instantly swept away my aggravation when she said that. “Are you telling me y’all have been doing this nonstop for as long as this group’s been going?” Quick Fix went to speak, but the colt stuck his hoof in front of her face. “I make sure she sleeps. She throws a fit, but she will get rest when she needs to.” Jet then turned to her, but the way his voice deepened and he drew out his next word was a dead giveaway that there was a problem. “Right?” The unicorn completely blew him off, instead turning to me. "The cameras we have are the most expensive and vital pieces of equipment at the Archanels' disposal. We only have them thanks to a generous donation from the Orange family." "Wow, that was sure nice of them." I guess Quick Fix didn't know that Citrus was the one who basically led me here. I wanted to say more, but one of the ponies suddenly turned to Quick Fix. "Ma'am, you need to see this." "If you'll excuse me, I have work to do." Without another word or a chance to let us speak, she walked off to the filly that called her. Jet was already headed towards the door when I turned to him, so I trotted over to catch up. "Is her patience always paper thin?" My friend just shook his head. "She's just tired. Quick Fix knows that our surveillance system is the biggest contributor to this group's effectiveness; she doesn't trust anyone else with it. She's constantly pushing her limits to keep others from 'messing up' her work." I raised my brow. "But y'all are all a team. Why wouldn't she trust others?" "I... that... well...." Jet stopped walking for a moment with his gaze to the floor. "That's a story for another time. Sorry." I only responded once he started walking again. "Don't worry, I understand. Where are we headed now?" "Well you've already met Dust, so there's only two other head crew members to meet. We're going to the mess hall since they're probably eating." "Mind if ask who they are?" Jet chuckled as we crossed through the lobby. "You'll see." As we got closer to the door on the right of the front wall, I started hearing chatter. When Jet opened it, I saw about twenty ponies all sitting at long, rectangular tables. At the back of the room was a counter where I could see maybe three or four ponies cooking up who knows what. Jet's eyes widened as he stepped in. "Forgive me, I was wrong. I said there were two more head crew, but there's three." He pointed to the counter, right at one of the workers who was currently serving someone. "That there is Mrs. Gourmet. She'd be furious with me if I didn't bring you up to meet her." I couldn't help but chuckle a bit, myself. "Sounds like my granny. It's a requirement for a stranger coming to Ponyville that they meet her." "Yep, that's Mrs. Gourmet." He started walking to the counter, giving nods and replying to greetings the whole way there. The elderly mare had her silver mane up in a net, and a smile spread on her pale blue face when she saw the both of us. "Why Jet, did you bring another new fighter for me?" Her city accent was even thicker than Jet's, but something about it made me feel right welcome. I think Jet was going to introduce us, but Mrs. Gourmet and I were already shaking hooves by the time I noticed. "Howdy there, Mrs. Gourmet. My name's Applejack, and it's mighty nice to meet you." Her smile just grew wider. "Sounds like we got us a country filly. You always did have a thing for southern folk, Jet. Was it her voice, those strong farm legs, or maybe something else?" She started snickering, and I was too when I turned and saw how red Jet's face was. "Okay so Applejack is new here! I was just telling her about how all new recruits are basically required to meet you." Him completely avoiding the question only made Mrs. Gourmet chuckle more, but she did finally stop teasing him. “That’s right, sweetie. Nobody joins this little group without me knowing! I’m the head chef here, making sure all these brave souls don’t go hungry, so get used to saying hello to me!” We both nodded to her, and I took to looking at the food that had already been prepared. Toasted sandwiches of all kinds lined the long table behind her, the cooks in the back looked like they were tossing salads, and a few pastries were on shelves on Mrs. Gourmet’s left. “So, is there any chance you’ve seen Sprint or Jack anywhere? I’d like to get them introduced to Applejack soon, too.” I turned back to Jet once I heard the names. Mrs. Gourmet put a hoof up, waving it up and down. “Oh, you actually just missed little Sprint. She came in here for a bite not too long ago and then took off. I think you’ll find her wandering around the back.” I raised my brow up at her. “That seems a might dangerous. ‘Course, I don’t know what the streets are really like out here, but being out in broad daylight don’t seem like the kind of thing y’all wanna be doing.” Jet gave me a nod. “It’s not. I told Sprint to stay inside unless we had a job to do. Applejack, you feel like tagging along with me to find her?” “Wouldn’t bother me a bit.” I found myself crossing my front leg over the other one, as I often did when I was pleased or confident. The colt nodded at me again before turning to Mrs. Gourmet. “Sorry we have to cut this visit short.” She just let out a giggle. “Oh, don’t sweat it, sweets. I’ve got plenty of company!” With that, Jet headed towards the door with me right behind him. It was a quick trip back through the lobby and out the front door, where Jet quickly dashed around the side of the building and to the back. Apparently the theater was near the edge of the city, as I could see the ocean from where we were. In fact, there was nothing but one more street and a line of buildings between us and the end of the land. The entire back area was a large, empty lot littered with stacks of boxes and barrels. There was a single streetlight in the center, and the whole space was surrounded in chain link fence. As empty as it was, there was no sign of a pony around. “Jet, I don’t see anyone. Maybe –” “Sshh.” Jet started looking around. After a few moments, he froze and motioned to a few barrels not too far away that were shaking. He slowly made his way to the left side of the barrels, waving his hoof over to the right side. Once I was across from him, he dived behind the barrels. I heard a squeal just before Jet popped up facing away from me. “Gotcha!” When he turned around, I saw a small, brown filly with a white spot between her eyes. She looked like she was around Applebloom’s age and was just as dirty as Jet. “Applejack, meet my little sister, Sprint. Sprint, this is Applejack, our newest recruit.” I saw a big smile cross her face when she looked up at me. "Nice to meet you, Miss Applejack!" "So you're Sprint? Mighty nice to meet you, little miss." I held my hoof out ans was promptly met with a strong shake. "Hoowee, we got us a strong one." "I would hope so." Jet ruffled up Sprint's mane. "My little sister here is the head of our infiltration division. I've seen her sneak in and out of places an invisible unicorn couldn't even get through." My eyes widened, as did Sprint's proud grin. "Ain't you a bit young to be putting yourself in danger like that? And Jet, ain't you scared to have her running around out there?" The filly quickly shook her head. "I can handle myself, and everyone here knows it. Right bro?" "Don't let her age or size fool you, Applejack. I was a bit apprehensive to let her take on missions by herself, but Sprint here has bailed me out of more bad situations than I can count." I couldn't help but smile myself. Hearing all this really reminded me of my own sister. "So what exactly is it you do?" Before Sprint could answer, we all heard someone shouting Jet's name and turned. A panting colt ran right up to us, huffing and trying to speak. Eventually he finally stopped, waited to catch his breath, and then started speaking. "Jet, you need to come to the comm room. No time to explain, you need to see somethin." He raised his brow, looked to Sprint and me, then back to the other colt. "How important is this?" "Very. Please hurry." "Alright." Jet then turned to his sister. "Sprint, I'm trusting you with Applejack. She needs to learn our routes. You can do that, yeah?" The filly puffed her chest out proudly. "Leave it to me!" With that, Jet took off. Sprint turned to me once he was out of sight. Her face was much more serious now, but she retained her playful tone. "Follow me, rookie! You've got a lot of work to do!" Sprint took off inside again, but she wasn’t quick enough to get away from me. Once we were in the lobby, the filly scooted behind the concession area, through a door that was there, and opened a manhole cover in the center of the barren room that the door led to. “This here is a preferred sewer entrance. It’s not graceful, but you don’t really look like the graceful type. Uh... no offense.” At first, Sprint looked a little worried that she might’ve offended me, but her bright smile came right back when she heard me laugh. “None taken, sugarcube. I ain’t never taken to prim and proper anyhow.” The little filly grinned at me before descending the ladder. I followed after her pretty quickly, and I soon realized why Jet and Sprint thought this might be a problem. Of course it’s a sewer, but it smelled worse than my uncle’s two year old collection of skunk skins. "Hoowee, now that's a stink. And I thought the chicken coops stunk." Sprint just chuckled and climbed back up to close the lid. "You get used to it after a while. I'm gonna warn you, Miss Applejack, the way we've routed these sewers is pretty complicated." "I'm sure it ain't too bad. Where do we start? Oh, and y'all can just call me Applejack, but I like your manners." The small filly let out a giggle before motioning to the corner to our right. "We label routes by color. We have blue, green, red, and yellow. I'll start with red." I nodded and followed when she started walking. "Sounds good to me." The two of us turned the corner and walked for a long while. It was quiet save for the occasional rat or splash of... something going in or out of the grimy, green water. Eventually we stopped at an intersection, and Sprint drew my attention to a drawing on the wall of a pony profile. "See these shapes?" The small pony waved her hoof around the drawing. It was then that I noticed a circle, triangle, square, and star. "At each corner, we have these little pictures. Each shape indicates a direction, and the color of the shape tells you to go that direction to continue the route." I just gave her a nod. "Sounds easy enough. So which shape is which direction?" "Star is straight forward, circle means left, square means right, and triangle means up. You'll only see triangles when there's a ladder to climb up on." After Sprint was finished, I took another look at the picture. "So if we're on the red route, this is telling us we need to take a left?" She gave me a firm nod and a smile. "You got it! Come on, let's keep going!" Seeing her so excited and full of energy was pretty refreshing considering how gloomy things had been lately. "Right behind you, sugarcube." I'm not sure how much longer we were down there, but it had to have been a few hours. The sewers were massive, and by the time we had gotten back where we started aboveground the sun was almost exactly overhead. It was hard to tell through the clouds of smoke, but there was a brightness where I assumed the sun was. "Boy howdy, y'all really had to learn your way around. I could've sworn we'd passed by the same place at least three times." Sprint let out a giggle as she trotted towards the entrance of the theater. "It takes time to figure out, but I'm sure you will! Come on, let's find my brother." "Sounds good to me, let's go." Chapter 4: LearningArchangels Eraverse Chapter 4: Learning By: SleeplessScribe Sprint and I searched for a good fifteen minutes without any sign of Jet. Even though we checked the comm room, we decided to go back and ask Quick Fix if she knew where he went. Honestly, we probably should have done that first. When we walked into the room without just focusing on whether or not Jet was there, I noticed that the unicorn was actually pretty frantic. The numbers and text on the projector were moving and changing rapidly, and everyone in the room was chattering. I wanted to say something, but Quick bounded toward us the minute she saw Sprint. “Sprint! Oh thank Celestia you’re here! Look, I don’t have time to explain right now, but I need you to go down with a few others and secure the sewers. We have a big situation on our hooves.” The little filly began to nod, but didn’t move immediately. “Can you tell me anything at all?” Quick took a brief look at her projector before answering. “Someone very important has come out of hiding. We really want to make sure they don’t get away.” She then handed Sprint a headset similar to what the others working in the room had on. Sprint nodded again and turned around. When I looked in her direction, I could see two other ponies waiting for her at the door. “Hey, uh, Quick Fix? Is there anything I can do?” All I could do was hope the unicorn would be at least a bit more polite this time around. Unfortunately, her back was already to me. “Fine, sure, whatever, just don’t get in the way.” My ears flattened and I lowered my head. I guess Sprint could tell that I was none too appreciative of her response, seeing as she called out to me. “Come on, Applejack! You can help me out!” I didn't have much time to respond since she ran off so quickly, so I just followed behind her. We hopped right down into the manhole we'd just came out of, but we didn't move for a bit. Sprint tapped one of the cuffs on her headset, stood still for a moment, then addressed the rest of us. "Okay, we need to get to D20 as soon as possible. Applejack, time to test what you've learned." "So what's the big deal?" I spoke as we ran, and the massive stallion beside me gave me a nudge. "We've spotted a meetup for one of the big gangs in the city. Jet's taken a team to catch them, and we need to be ready if any of them come down here." His words confused me a little. "Big gangs? There's more than one?" We turned a corner and I almost fell in the water; this guy was even bigger than my brother. He helped me regain my balance before answering. "Manehattan is controlled by three big gangs. There's these guys in red hoods that call themselves the Reapers, ponies who always wear some kind of headband called the Rovers, and Timetech's own gang. They call themselves the Knights, and they are the worst." The big guy took a breath, which gave Sprint a chance to finish his thought for him. "They all dress like fancy business ponies, but they're thugs like the rest. They do a lit of the foalnapping that provides the sweatshop under that big tower with free labor." My eyes widened. Things had been happening so fast that I forgot about how bad the situation in the city was. "Y'all really need to get help from Canterlot or something." All three of the other ponies nodded, but Sprint responded first. "Jackhammer here has been telling my brother that for weeks." "Yeah, I have." The big guy nodded. "It always ends the same. Jet is too afraid to send anyone out for fear of them getting caught and arrested. He doesn't want to go himself because he's worried about what might happen without him." "Shh shh shush!" Sprint calm to a halt, waved to us, and motioned upward. We were now underneath another sewer entrance. Faint, muffled voices echoed through the musty air. The other mare with us gave all of us a long rope out of her bag, whispering a "just in case" as she closed her bag. The small filly lifted a hoof to her headset again, then brought the rest of us in close so she could speak softly. "Get ready." I felt myself tense up. Honestly, I had to keep myself from chuckling. This feeling, the tension, the silence, and even having the rope a made me feel like I was at a rodeo. It was just a little funny that I felt familiar in this situation despite the circumstances. After just a few moments, the silence was broken. Various grunts and thumps sounded above us. The manhole cover clanged as hooves slammed down on it. After some time, the noise died down, but the pressure didn't. A pony draped in a red, hooded cloak dropped down right in between the four of us. Both Jackhammer and the unnamed mare jumped at her, but they ended up smacking into each other. Before I realized what happened, Sprint was on the hooded mare's back and clinging as she ran off. With our other two teammates dazed, all I could think to do was give chase. I stayed right on her tail with a twirling rope in my mouth. Within moments, the mare was tied up like a wild hog. Sprint hopped off the pony's back, taking the cloak with her. I guess the others would recognize her, because she certainly wasn't ringing any bells to me. Once the hood came off, the mare started struggling. "Let me go! I got nothing to say to you." "That's alright. In fact, I'd prefer if you stayed quiet." Jackhammer came up behind us and slung the thug over his back, while our other friend strapped her to him. I made a mental note to ask what her name was at a better time. "So, what do we do with her?" I was a might curious now. Jack motioned to the path we ran down to get here and started walking. "She gets locked up. I'd tell you about it, but I'm not allowed to. You'll see it when it's your turn for guard duty." I guess the little filly saw the look on my face because she hopped up on my back before I could speak. "Just trust us. We don't talk about that, but believe me, you'll know when you see it. And you will see it." The mystery pony gave a nod, so I just dismissed the topic. "If y'all say so. I guess I'll see." I found out a lot on the way back to base. The filly we caught had a fair number of gadgets and doohickeys in her cloak, our other friend's name was Marigold, and any captured ponies had to be blindfolded for safety reasons. Once we were back, Jackhammer and Marigold split off from us, so Sprint and I just hung out and talked in the lobby for a bit. "So Sprint, I don't suppose you know how things got this bad?" Much to my surprise, she nodded. "Monopoly, the big guy at the center of all this, is unstoppable in legal situations. My mom is a local prosecutor, and she couldn't touch him in any of the three trials he was in." That right there made my eyes widen. "Three trials? And he won them all?" The small pony gave me an "mhm" and a nod. "Any time mom came up with a theory, he always had some kind of evidence to counter her. Even her best evidence wasn't enough. Honestly, I think the judge was bribed." "Wow. He really does have a grip on this city, huh?" I took off my hat and turned towards the door, looking at the city through the windows. "He does, and it's stronger than a dragon's jaw." Jet's voice came from behind me and made me jump just a little. The large colt tipped his own hat as I put mine on. "I heard you were the one that caught that thug. Nice work, AJ." "Aw, it won't no thing. I'm pretty good with a lasso." Even though I was trying to be humble, I couldn't help but put on a proud smile. "Pretty good is an understatement; she was tied up like a wild boar." It was like Jet had read my mind. "She'll be questioned and then imprisoned. Remember to do all you can to subdue others; Archangels don't take lives." I gave him a firm nod. "I like that." Sprint scooted up between us. "Now you gotta report to Mrs. Gourmet! You're required to let her know you're safe." "She really is like a mom, ain't she?" I could help but smile as I spoke. Jet nodded, turning towards the door that led to the kitchen. "She practically is. I know even before this all started that she practically raised some of the ponies here." My smile widened as we started walking. Since we were heading to the kitchen anyways, we decided to grab a bite to eat as well. We talked for a bit and I learned a lot more names, found out about all the experimental gadgets that Archangel uses, and more. This group had goals, and even now they were working to accomplish them. As we continued talking, I noticed Jet look over at Sprint with furrowed brows. It became more and more frequent until the colt finally grumbled at his sister. "Sprint, any time you feel like keeping your hooves away from my ribs would be a great time." The little filly just smiled up at him innocently, then turned to me. She stared at me for a moment, then back to her brother. After a while, Jet finally looked like he got the point she was trying to get across. "Oh no, sis. Applejack isn't ready for that kind of a mission yet. Give her some time." The filly gave him big puppy dog eyes. "Aw come on Jet. She's big and strong like you, I bet'cha she could make it look easy!" He turned to me, which prompted me to narrow my gaze. I had no idea what was going on, but now I was raring to prove that I could handle whatever was thrown at me. I would have actually spoken, but Jet's face told me I didn't need to. "We're going to be attacking a new steel mill that's been built. It's not even complete, but already ponies have been dragged out of their homes, regardless of age, and forced to work in it. We're going to get them out." Before I could say anything, Sprint hopped onto my back. "We've been planning this for days and trying to eavesdrop for information. We think we know enough to finally pull off the operation." The small filly nodded and sat down on my back. "Is that safe? Sounds like y'all will be throwing yourselves right into the face of danger." Jet walked past me and gazed out the window. "It will be, but I trust in the skills of my friends. I believe we can do this as long as we all know and stick to our roles." My attention went from Jet to Sprint and then back again. "Will I be allowed to help?" The colt turned, and I felt the pressure of Sprint's front hooves disappear. "Well... I think my sister and I agree that you're ready, but I have to take it up with the other leaders, too." I raised my brow. "You can't decide this for yourself?" He just shook his head. "Everything here is a team effort. We agreed to talk out decisions like this with everyone. In fact, I think it best to get this over with now. Come on, Sprint." Jet's sister hopped off of me and headed to the comm room. "Sorry, Applejack. Do you mind a little more waiting?" Out of habit, I crossed my right front leg over my left. "Ain't nothing. Y'all go ahead, I'll be right here." They both nodded and walked off, leaving me to look out of the window and think about everything that's happened.
Chapter 1: Welcome to ManehattanArchangels Eraverse Chapter 1: Welcome to Manehattan By: SleeplessScribe Days at the Apple farm always seemed to get more energized when good things happened in the family. It just so happened that we got a letter a few days ago inviting us to a welcome home celebration in Manehattan. Apparently our distant cousins, the Oranges, had a soldier named Citrus from the family coming home for retirement, which made even us Apples excited. We all wanted to go, but sadly things were far too busy for us all to leave. After a lot of arguing, insisting, and one long lecture from Granny Smith about enjoying life, I finally had to accept that everyone wanted me to go. With that established, I used the next two days to get as much work done as possible before packing up for the trip to Manehattan. Everyone went with me to the train station, and all my friends were there, too. Something felt wrong, though. The happy smiles on my family’s faces were immediately wiped away upon seeing the upturned brows and curved lips of my friends. “Uh, did something happen? Y’all look more worried than a mouse at a cat parade.” I scanned their faces as I spoke, but none of their expressions changed. I did notice Twilight’s eyes darting from side to side. When she cleared her throat, I assumed everyone had been waiting for the others to say something. “We know you’re going to Manehattan and... we just wanted to tell you to be careful, is all.” The alicorn tried to keep a straight face, but her tone was an all too clear indicator that she was actually very nervous about something. I was about to ask why they were so concerned, but Applebloom stepped up and beat me to it. "What's wrong with going to Manehattan? I ain't got nothing from Babs." The five in front of me exchanged looks before Rarity spoke up. "You mean you've not heard the rumors? Ponies are talking about some rather bad things happening in the city." I'm sure both of my siblings were curious, but Granny Smith responded before we could say anything. I saw her tap her chin once, so I knew we had a speech coming. "We don't put no stock into rumors and the like. Believing gossip only gets you into trouble. I'm sure Manehattan is fine; this is just folks trying to scare others." "I ain't so sure, Granny. Something tells me there's more to this." Usually I trusted Granny's word, but the fact that everyone came to tell me this didn't sit well with me. Rainbow Dash had been up in the air during this whole exchange so far, but finally came down and pointed at me. "We know this is pretty important to you, we just want you to be safe." I gave them all a nod as the train pulled up and came to a stop. "I will, don't y'all worry. I won't be but a couple of days." My friends all took a step forward, and before I knew it I was in the middle of a family and friends group hug. Once they all finally let go, we exchanged final goodbyes and then I was on the train with the bag I’d packed with. It took a minute or two for all the other passengers to get on and the train to start moving. Looking out the window, I saw everyone waving at the train until they were too far away to spot. The train ride took a few hours, but in time I could finally see the city on the horizon. However, I immediately began thinking back to my friends’ warnings when I saw the grey, smoky sky we were approaching. As the train closed the gap between itself and the city, the whole place just seemed... darker, and not because it was now late evening. What few ponies were out walked slowly, few lights were on, and hardly anyone was smiling. It was a stark contrast to my last visit here. When the train came to a stop and I got off, I was near instantly grabbed by a police officer. “I’m going to have to see your bag, ma’am.” I never remembered anything like this on any visit here, but I gave him my bag anyway. It was never wise to disobey a guard. Once he had it, he searched thoroughly through it. In fact, I think he took at least ten whole minutes rummaging through my stuff. I was watching him, though, so I was positive he didn’t take anything. After he was done, he gave me back my bag and picked up my hat without even giving me the chance to say something. After my hat was once again sitting on my head, the guard gave me a nod. “Alright, you’re clear. Don’t cause trouble, and you’ll have no problems.” To be honest, I was a little too confused to even say anything, so I just trotted out of the station and towards the address on the invitation we’d been sent. Eventually I started to get very lost. Either there had been a lot of roadwork since the last time I was here, or I didn’t know Manehattan half as well as I thought I did, because I’d already ended up going the wrong way five times before I heard someone call to me. “Hey, you! You with the funny hat, you lost?” I turned towards the voice that called to find a large, dirty stallion walking up to me. He looked as big as my brother, and twice as messy. Patches of dirt covered his green coat, and his mane was long and matted. He was smiling, though, and his gaze immediately shifted to the invitation I was looking at. “I know that address! You’re looking for Orange Manor, I take it? If you want, I can show you the way.” Usually I wasn’t keen on taking offers like this from strangers, but I really needed to get where I was going before actual nightfall. “That’s mighty kind of y’all, thanks. I appreciate it.” The big guy gave a nod and nudged his head in the direction I had come from. “It’s actually not too far from where we are now.” He started walking, and I followed at a short distance. My friends warned me to be careful, and though there was no obvious reason to be, I just felt like something was off. We walked in silence until we came to a three way intersection. The stallion turned to the left, but when I turned, I found myself in a dead end alley. “Uh, y’all sure this is the right way? This looks like a dead end to me.” The big pony didn’t turn to face me, but I could still hear what he said. “Yeah, this is the right place.” When he did turn, I also saw two shadows of ponies coming up behind me. Two more colts had come up to block off the exit. The two slowly made their way closer to me, causing me to bump into the other pony when I backed away from them. “I’m gonna make this easy, girlie. You give us what’s in the bag, and you walk out of here untouched.” I turned around and shuffled back, but that only got me pinned between the three of them and a wall. “I ain’t got nothing worth taking. This is all just stuff for a family visit.” There was no way I was going to tell them that I had a valuable gift for Citrus with me as well. The big colt shook his head. “Doesn’t matter; it’s ours now. I’ll say it again; leave the bag with us or you don’t leave at all. We’re pretty good at making noncooperative ponies... disappear.” Narrowing my gaze at him, I swiped the ground with a hoof. “I said no. This ain’t y’alls to take.” This got a chuckle out of all three of them, but the pony in the center remained the only one to speak. “I hate it when they don’t do what we say. Too bad, I’m sure someone will miss you.” He tried to kick me with his front leg, but I knew they were going to attack me and ducked out of the way. As his hoof slammed into the wall, my back hooves slammed into his face and knocked him down. Unfortunately, I had completely forgotten about the other two for just a long enough moment for one of them to hit me over the head. The kick sent me tumbling to the ground, but I managed to get up before one of the muggers stomped on me. Rearing around again, I gave the one on the left a good hit. I think I saw a tooth fly out. That move left me open, though, and I was immediately slammed by the big one’s shoulder and sent into the wall. The collision left me dazed, but I could still see the three of them all stalking towards me now. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid, but all three of them stopped after what looked like a rock hit the guy on the left in the back of the head. “Stooping to three on one fights now, are we?” I was still a bit fuzzy, but I could see the three muggers turning to another pony in the alley’s exit now. It looked like he had another with him as well. “Damnit, I was hoping to get this over with before you got here. Whatever, we can take you, Jet.” The main mugger turned to his friends before turning to the one he called Jet. “Let’s get him boys!” Now I was starting to get my bearings again. I stood and watched as Jet and his friend flipped the muggers onto their backs and sent them running off and shouting obscenities. The both of them made their way over to me, though at this point I was fine again. The first to speak was another large, dirty colt with a baseball cap and a bandage over his nose. “They rough you up much?” I knew he was Jet for sure once I heard his voice. “I’m fine. I appreciate the help, though. Thanks.” The pony with Jet was a dark blue pegasus with a bright yellow mane and tail. “No need, it’s what we do. But we really should get you where you’re going before more muggers show up.” I gave them a nod. “Y’all know where Orange Manor is?” Both of them nodded in response, but Jet spoke up first. “Yeah, and you’re a long walk away. We should get moving; getting caught by a guard after curfew is arguably worse than muggers.” My eyes widened just a bit when he said that. That officer at the train station was blunt, but he didn’t really seem mean. Regardless, the two colts started moving, and I wasn’t too far behind. I walked up to Jet’s right side, and I noticed a small set of stitches in his cheek when I looked at him. His silver coat was covered in dirt, his long, brown mane and tail were greasy and matted, and it looked like he had chips in his hooves. The pegasus was no better; the ends of his feathers were a little tattered, his hooves were nicked, and his coat, mane, and tail were just as messy and dirty as Jet’s. The silence was deafening, and I was now curious as to who these ponies were, so I just had to speak. “I’m Applejack... figured I’d at least give me name to y’all two.” They both smiled at me but didn’t look at me. The pegasus opened his mouth, but Jet managed to get words out first. “I’m Jet, but you probably could’ve guessed that already. My friend here is Dust Devil. Nice to meet you, Applejack.” Once he was done, Dust Devil started talking. “Nice to meet you Applejack. I suggest you keep your stay in this city brief; there’s a lot of shi– I mean problems going doing right now.” So whatever rumors others were talking about were true. “Yeah, I heard. What exactly is going on?” Jet simply shook his head. “I don’t want to take the chance of someone hearing us. You can get in trouble for a lot these days. Besides, we’re here.” Indeed we were. I hadn’t even realized were at the manor until it was right in front of us. All three of us went up the massive stairs that led up to the front door, but Jet and Dust turned and walked back down. “Y’all got somewhere to be?” Dust turned back to me with a nod. “Yeah. I’d say see you later, but not running into us is actually a good thing.” Jet quickly hushed him. “Quiet! We need to go.” The colt then turned to me and sighed. “Sorry, Applejack, but we really don’t have time to explain.” The two were gone before I could even say “Okay”. I simply tried to shrug it off as I knocked on the door. After a few moments, the door opened, and I was greeted by another large colt. This one was much neater, though, with a bright yellow coat and a very short, orange mane and tail. The mane cut alone told me this was probably Citrus; the only ponies I knew with that kind of look were military folk. His smile was bright as he moved to the side. “Hey! You must be Applejack, right? We were kind of worried when you didn’t arrive with our other guests.” With a smile of my own, I walked in and gave him a nod. “I got lost on the way. Nothing to worry about, though. I take it you’re Citrus, then?” “The one and only.” After he closed the door, Citrus took a quick look out the window. “Any reason those colts just up and left after coming up here?” “Them? Oh, they.... helped me.” I really didn’t want to tell him I was almost mugged, but I was never one to lie. “I see.” The colt rubbed his chin as we walked from room to room. This place was huge, and no two rooms were alike; we passed through a ballroom dancing hall, a trophy room with various animal stuffings, two dining halls, and finally we stopped in some kind of study. The left and right walls both had large bookshelves along them, two desks were pushed together in the center, numerous side desks separated the bookshelves, and the back wall was one giant window. Citrus sighed and looked out over the city. The buildings, for the most part, seemed unchanged from my previous visit, but there was one distinctive clock tower that dwarfed everything around it. That definitely wasn’t there last time. “I’m sorry Applejack; I thought being a guest of the Orange family would put a bit of a barrier between you and the problems the city’s been facing, but clearly I was wrong. I’ll make sure someone escorts you back to the train station when tomorrow’s celebration is over.” I tilted my head and looked out the window myself. “What exactly is going on, Citrus? The minute I stepped in here something just felt wrong, and now I’m sure of it.” The older pony’s gaze remained on the tower. “Corruption has spread throughout the city. Gangs are running rampant and law enforcement has gotten dirty. See that tower? Some guy came in a few months ago, established a new business, and within weeks that tower was up and everything went downhill.” That was... quite a bit to take in. “Is it really that bad? I mean, I almost got mugged, and security seemed a bit tight, but that hardly seems too out of the ordinary.” Citrus turned to me, his mouth the straightest line a mouth could be and the wisdom of war in his eyes. “It’s worse than ‘that bad’. Slavery, murder, drugs, it’s all here now. You’ve seen the soft side of Manehattan’s situation. There are a few that fight back, but I fear for their safety every day.” “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope I ain’t an inconvenience.” He quickly shook his head. “You’re not, believe me. We’re happy to have you, I just didn’t think you’d run into trouble. Forgive me for that.” “Y’all don’t have to apologize.” The colt nodded again before turning his gaze back out the window. “Welcome to Manehattan, Applejack.”
Chapter 2: The ArchangelsArchangels Eraverse Chapter 2: The Archangels By: SleeplessScribe It was late, so Citrus led me to one of the manor’s guest bedrooms after our conversation. I thanked him, brushed my teeth, washed off, and got ready to go to bed. However, my attempts to sleep were interrupted about half an hour after I had settled into bed. From where I was, I could see a faint light coming from down the hall, as well as a muffled conversation. After all I had been told, the urge to sneak over and listen was just a touch too hard to resist. My room was at the end of a long hallway, and the light was coming from behind a closed door about three doors down on the left wall. Once I was there, I pressed my ear to the door and listened. I couldn’t exactly put faces to the voices since they were muffled, but I could still hear what they were saying. “You need to call this off! Every guest you’ve brought here is in danger.” “This wasn’t my idea, and it would be incredibly rude and ungrateful of me to tell them all to just go home, especially after the planning and effort my family put into this. Believe me, I know the risks, but I just can’t.” “We don’t have the resources to protect everyone. Not only that, but I’ve heard talk about ‘Archangel’ from the locals. If the wrong ears hear these rumors, it will be a lot harder for us to do anything.” “I know, I know. I... I’ll try and keep things brief tomorrow and get the guests on their way. I’m sorry.” “I’m not mad, just worried.” “I understand.” A few moments later, I could hear hoofsteps coming towards the door. I took off for my room as quickly as I could while staying quiet, and I managed to tuck in just before Citrus walked past my door. The morning came quickly, but the typical sound of crowing roosters had been replace by a right awful ringing from the clock beside my bed. After hitting the alarm and tidying up, I made my way down to the second floor. Quite a bit of chatter was coming from the room to the left of the stairs. Opening the door revealed numerous ponies in a third dining room. A lot of them greeted me when I walked by. The ones that didn't reminded me of last night, as I overheard the word "Archangel" a good few times. Now I was getting really curious. Apparently I'd woken up much later than I was meant to, seeing as how a loud bell started ringing not too long after I walked in. As it rang, ponies sat down in seats with their names on them. It took a moment for me to find mine. I was seated between two ponies I didn't recognize, but they both smiled and gave me warm greetings. I was fairly close to the front of the table, which was where Citrus sat, so it was easy to see and hear him when he stood up to address us all. "Honored guests, friends, family, I cannot express my joy and gratitude in seeing you all here today. I thank each and every one of you, but I am afraid that this meal together will have to be the most time we spend together." This got a lot of folks to chattering. Once again, I heard the world 'Archangel' come up more often than Granny's story of how she saved the farm from timber wolves. The old colt held up a hoof and everyone simmered down. "As I'm sure you're all aware, Manehattan has run into some tough times. The Orange family had expected the situation to be less hectic for all of you, considering you are our guests, but it appears that's not the case. Do not worry; none of you are in any danger. Your visit here will simply be shorter than anticipated." I got a nudge from behind me as I was listening. The filly next to me had leaned in close and began whispering. "Do you think this has something to do with Archangel?" All I could do was shrug. "I've been hearing that name a lot. What in the world is it?" Her eyes widened. "You don't know? Supposedly, he's this brave pony who goes around saving people from criminals." The mare on my other side then turned to us with one brow raised. "Did you say 'he'? I heard Archangel is a filly. She apparently saved two young ponies from foalnappers." “So I’m afraid you all will need to prepare for your return home after this breakfast. Again, please forgive me.” Citrus’s speech had faded out for just a moment. Once the talk of Archangel was over, his voice was once again the only one I heard. When Citrus sat back down, at least five servers walked out of a door behind him. Each was carrying a shiny, silver dish, and they announced what each dish was before allowing all of us to take a serving and pass it down. After breakfast, my goal was to find Citrus. I needed answers now, or this was going to bother me for who knows how long. By a stroke of luck, I caught him walking down the same hallway that my room was in. Something seemed odd about him, though; he was walking quickly and constantly looking around. I decided to hang back and watch instead of just calling him out. The stallion eventually came to the end of the hall and tapped the wall three times. It took a moment, but a portion of the wall slid back and to the side, revealing a dark stairway. Seeing this left me with a dropped jaw and wide eyes, but I was also way too curious, and a little suspicious, to let this go. I heard him talking and then he began to walk away, so I rushed for the door. It began to close before I got to it, but I was fast enough to scoot in. I never was keen on the idea of being a pancake. The staircase was lit only by a few torches along the left wall, and it spiraled down for a decent bit until it came to a big, iron door. Citrus started talking to the pony he had come in here with and a voice I vaguely recalled pushed me to jump out. “Citrus, what in tarnation are you doing?” Both he and the other pony jumped to look at me. My eyes widened yet again when I saw the only pony’s friend. Standing right there beside Citrus was Jet, the colt that helped me the night before. He shook his head quickly and immediately turned to Citrus. “What is she doing here? Get her out! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to have her here?” My cousin opened his mouth, but I more or less didn’t care to wait for my answers any longer, shoving myself between the two. “Hold up now, y’all! What in Equestria are you two doing down here?” Suddenly, a thought popped into my head that I had to bring up. “Citrus, are you Archangel?” Apparently ponies speaking before Citrus could get a word in was becoming a trend; now Jet had his voice raised a little. “She knows about Archangel? Citrus, what the hell are you doing?” “Well if you would let me speak, maybe I can explain!” Citrus narrowed his gaze at both Jet and me before letting out a sigh. “I don’t know how Applejack got in here, but I did tell her about the real problems the city is facing. She was the only one who directly asked me; I felt it was safe to tell her.” Jet just rolled his eyes. I took the opportunity to talk again since it seemed my cousin was done and Jet didn’t have anything to say. “So is Archangel a real thing, or just a rumor? Is he, or she, or whatever, actually a pony that helps others?” The two colts exchanged looks. “I know that look. We can’t say anymore. Applejack needs to leave now.” Jet exclaimed. Citrus set a hoof on his face for a moment. “Maybe she can help. She already knows more than anyone else in the city, and I know a few Apples. They’re a tough bunch.” I went to speak, but Jet was faster than me. “Oh no! That is way too dangerous! I told you Citrus, I can’t take outside help. What if something happens to her? What will her family think, huh?” At this point, I was starting to get frustrated, so I slammed my hoof down to shush them both. “Alright, y’all better tell me what’s going on right now! I ain’t leaving ‘til I get a straight answer!” They both looked me right in the eye and let out heavy sighs. Citrus reached out, placing a hoof on Jet’s shoulder and motioning to me with his head. “Look, why don’t we just tell her what’s going on? It’s literally just us three here right now. We should just tell Applejack what she wants to know, and if she wants to help, I think that should be left up to her.” The bigger colt let out a groan and a defeated “fine” before leaning against the wall. With that, Citrus once again addressed me. “Applejack, you already know how bad the situation in this city is. A pony named Monopoly came in a few months ago and founded this company called Timetech. On the surface, it looks like any old watchmaking company, but we have evidence that Monopoly is the head of various drug trading and pony trafficking rings.” This got me raising my brows. In all my twenty-one years I’d never heard of crimes like that here in Equestria. I don’t even think Granny Smith heard of things like that before, and she’s been around much longer than I have. “He’s got all of law enforcement in his pocket, so unless he says to do it, nobody gets in trouble for anything. That’s why gangs run free now; I guarantee you they work for him too. As for Archangel... Archangel isn’t just one pony.” My cousin turned towards the door, knocked on a lower part three times, and then on a high part twice. Once he set his hoof down, the door opened into a room full of ponies talking, reading papers, and doing all sorts of this. “The Archangels are the only thing standing between Monopoly and total control of Manehattan. Orange Manor’s old cellar is just one of their bases, and Jet is their leader.” Jet pushed himself off the wall once Citrus was done. “We do whatever we can to disrupt gang operations here. We’re hoping to eventually connect the dots and link them with Timetech. Once we do that, we can request help from Canterlot because we’ll have proof that all the incidents are just isolated cases.” I tilted my head a little. “Why do they need proof?” “If we don’t have proof, we can’t get help. It would look terrible if royal guards came here and arrested with wealthiest pony in Manehattan without some reason. Not only that, but I guarantee you he’d get a not guilty verdict if he were taken to court before we have evidence that he’s connected with any of this.” As Jet spoke, his eyes told me just how serious he was. I thought back to what Citrus had said a little bit ago, and then did some serious, serious thinking. “Citrus said it would be my choice whether or not to try and help you. I can’t just go home knowing something like this is happening. Citrus, if you can get a letter to my family telling them I’ll be here a little bit longer than planned, I’ll gladly help.” My cousin gave me a nod. “I can do that.” The other colt shook his head again and looked at me. “Applejack, are you absolutely positive you want to do this? What we do is dangerous, and a few of us have already gone out and not come back.” I stamped my hoof down again with a firm nod. “I’m a good friend of Princess Twilight herself. I know the value of helping folks out, and I’ll give up my favorite hat before I turn away from a situation like this. Y’all need all the help you can get.” He looked me in the eye and just stood there for a few minutes. “You’re serious. There’s nothing I can say to convince you to go home?” I just shook my head. “Not a thing.” I could just see the defeat on his face when he heard my response. In fact, I think his ears would’ve fallen flat had Citrus not caught his attention by walking back up the stairs. “I’ll see you both later. I have a letter to write.” That right there got a smile out of me. “Thank you kindly, Citrus.” Then I turned to Jet with a more sassy smirk than I had intended. “So, mind telling me what exactly y’all do?” His face went from defeat to disbelief in the blink of an eye. “Applejack, you just stood here and told me that you were absolutely positive that you wanted to help us, and you’re not even sure what it is we do?” “Well I got the big picture. It ain’t too much to ask for some details, right?” He simply sighed and walked into the room, motioning for me to follow. Nopony here even bothered to look up at us. We just walked right through to another door that Jet opened for me. Yet again we were in a dark hallway, but this one at least had torches on both sides of the walls. I really didn’t want to push Jet any more than I already had, but I was tempted to remind him that I had asked for more details about the Archangels. Thankfully I didn’t have to. “So... what exactly is it you want to know?” “Everything.” After another sigh, Jet started talking again. “That’s not helpful. It’s a decent walk to where we’re going, so just ask me questions.” I actually kind of understood where he was coming from; it was easier to answer questions than to pick a topic out of something broad. “Uh... how did this all start?” “A bunch of us got fed up with suddenly not being able to do anything. See, with the way things are now, you can’t say or do anything that Monopoly doesn’t agree with, or you get locked up. Archangels started as just me with the help of a few friends. We all figured that it was more work to not bend the rules than it was to shatter them completely.” I just nodded as I listened. “I guess I can understand. You just kinda started being troublemakers?” Jet paused for a moment, adjusting his hat. “For a time it was like that. In time, we realized that we were really good at what we did, so we tried to form this group with the intent of actually making the situation better. The Archangels started to grow when others volunteered to help us, too.” “How did other ponies even find out? Y’all seem pretty set on staying secret and quiet.” While this was true, there was no way I was going to mention just how often I heard the name in the short time I’d been here. “Most of them were like you. They were almost victims of muggings or abductions, but we stepped in and stopped it. After the first few new members, we started just accepting volunteers from the city.” I still had more questions, but Jet held up his hoof as we approached a huge, circular door. There was a rectangular slit in the middle of it that opened as we walked up to it, and a pair of eyes could be seen on the other side. There was a brief pause before a gruff voice came from behind the door. “You have two options.” Jet stepped up and looked the other pony straight in the eye. “I’ll make a third.” The window slid closed again. After some creaking and scraping, the door rolled open to let us in. The room was short, with a set of stairs being maybe fifteen feet away. On either side of us were walls lined with pipes of different sizes, but I didn’t get a good chance to look at them, as Jet tugged me with him up the stairs. When we went through another door at the top of the stairs, I saw that we were in some kind of theater. Rows of seats stretched from the back of the room right to the front of a small platform. A huge screen covered the wall we were facing, too. A nudge to my side brought my attention to Jet again. “We’re based in this theater, here. It’s been closed down for a while, so we all worked to convert the building into a fitting main hub for our operations. We use this room as our briefing room, the one immediately to the left as a cafeteria of sorts, the theater at the end for sleeping, and the one directly to our right is a monitoring hub. The lobby upstairs from here connects all four.” My head was starting to spin with all this. If this was all real and not some kinda crazy dream, then the situation here was heavier than I had bargained for. Of course, nothing was gonna stop me from helping folks in need. Jet was quiet now, which gave me time to think and process everything he’d said. I still had a million questions, but something told me Jet wasn’t done walking me around. My thoughts were interrupted when the colt stepped in front of me. “I think the best thing to do right now is introduce you to the main leaders, but you’re free to ask any more questions first.” Now I had to pick and choose questions that really needed answering. There was one thing that was nagging at me, but I didn’t ask right away. In fact, I was apparently taking so long that Jet looked worried. “Hey, Applejack? You there? I’m sure that wall is interesting, but I have other things to do.” I shook myself back down to earth and nodded. “Yeah, sorry. I think I just now realized what I’ve gotten myself into. I mean, this whole deal sounds like the plot to one of Twilight’s crazy action books or something; it’s just hard to believe that this is actually real.” Leaning onto his back legs completely, Jet crossed his forelegs. “And you volunteered to help without know a damn thing.” “Hey, there ain’t no need to talk like that! Just because I know how heavy things are don’t mean I plan on running. I can’t go home knowing y’all are having such a hard time. I just... I just wish I could tell someone what’s going on.” Almost immediately, a thought crossed my mind that nearly made me jump. “Wait... why can’t I just go tell somepony else? I know you told me about all that legal mumbo jumbo, but what’s stopping me from just going over to Ponyville for some help?” Jet’s eyes widened and he immediately smacked his hoof against his forehead. “I am so stupid! Ugh, we should’ve waited to let Citrus go write that letter.” “Why, what’s wrong?” The colt put his front hooves on the ground again and nudged his head towards the theater door. “Come on, I’ll show you.” He led me up the steps to the main lobby, where an empty concession stand sat on the left wall and old, broken dividers would have separated the lines of ponies coming in to see movies on our right. Jet walked out of the only front door that wasn’t boarded up, waiting on me to come through too. There was a ladder leading all the way to the roof of the theater, which Jet quickly climbed up. I followed behind him, and he pointed forward once I was at the top. “See that?” My eyes were drawn to the train station I had arrived at. There were dense lines and crowds of ponies at the entrance, but they were leaving very slowly. It was like only one pony left the station for every five that were there. “Security is tighter than you realize here in Manehattan. That train is the only way in and out now; flying is restricted, and anyone who tries to walk in is turned away. While this wouldn’t normally be a problem....” The dirty colt paused for a moment, tapping his chin. “There are too many unknowns. If you’re really friends with Princess Twilight, that would be a swift victory. Even if they tried to keep you from coming back, they’d never deny an order from a Princess. The problem lies with trying to get out.” I looked from him, to the station, and back again. “Why wouldn’t they let me leave?” “I don’t know. Honestly, I’m not sure I want you trying to leave.” I narrowed my gaze, a frown slowly growing on my face. When Jet turned to me, he jumped back and started shaking his head. “No need to give me that look! Hear me out, okay? What I’m afraid of is those thugs from last night warning the guards about you. If they did, you’ll be arrested on the spot, and we both know that’s something that should be avoided.” I was really tempted to argue with him, but at the same time I did understand his feelings. We were high enough for me to get a good view of the city, and this view got me to thinking. It was harder to notice since I arrived late last night, but in broad daylight, the city looked even worse. The whole sky was like one thick cloud of smoke. Trash and dust littered the streets and drifted in the air. A lot of the walls I could see were covered in weird looking art and graffiti, and ponies walked around with their heads down constantly. Everything was just... wrong. "Can you do something for me, Jet?" He gave a quick nod and adjusted his hat. "Depends." "Can you just... tell me this is real? Y'know what I mean?" Jet nodded again. "I understand. In less than a day, you've learned about a very dark situation in a once proud city, had almost everything you knew about this place shifted and warped, and now have thrust yourself into the struggle yourself. This is real, Applejack. Very real." After a deep breath, I felt I had finally managed to move past my "is this happening?" mindset. With that out of the way, I could actually think about other points Jet had made. "So if I can't be spotted by the law, how am I supposed to help y'all?" The colt raised both of his front hooves up halfway. "Okay, hear me out. The Archangels move throughout Manehattan two ways: the sewers and the rooftops. Usually only pegasi take the roofs, but a few earth ponies, myself included, do on occasion." “Sewers don’t bother me none. Getting messy is part of my life, y’know? But I do know the fussiest unicorn that wouldn’t even think of getting close to a sewer.” He rolled his eyes and made his way back to the ladder. “Don’t even get me started on fussy unicorns. Come on, I’ll introduce you to the others in charge and hopefully someone can show you around the tunnels.” Once Jet was at the bottom, I went down the ladder myself. “Sounds good to me.”
Chapter 3: Getting StartedArchangels Eraverse Chapter 3: Getting Started By: SleeplessScribe Once we were back in the theater lobby, Jet tugged me towards the room on my right. I swear, if you were to walk in that room, you would have forgotten you were in a movie theater. A unicorn stood in the center of the room completely stripped of its seats. The projector was on, and lists of locations with numbers to go with them was being shown on the screen. Aside from the one in the middle, all others there were sitting down at tables along the walls, and they looked like they had some kind of screen in front of them. The unicorn’s horn was glowing, she was talking to all the ponies around her, and they sounded like they were repeating what she said. Every couple of seconds, the numbers on the screen would change, too. When I got a closer look, I also noticed that all the the ponies in this room had some kind of weird earmuffs on their heads that were connected to the screens they were looking at. I was half tempted to tell someone to hit me and wake me up, until I heard Jet’s voice again. “This is our communications hub. From here, we monitor the city and relay information to our teams out and about.” He gave me a nudge before walking towards the unicorn that immediately turned to us. I could only imagine how many sleepless nights she’d been through; her eyes were bloodshot and there were dark bags under them that stood out again her violet coat. She only looked at me for a second before turning her attention to Jet, and she spoke as if I wasn’t right next to her. “Jet, I’d appreciate you letting me know that you’re bringing a stranger here ahead of time in future instances. As you can see, I’m incredibly busy.” I heard a deep sigh from the colt before he looked at me. “Applejack, this is Quick Fix. She heads up out comm hub, making sure everypony out in the city remains up to date on what’s going on around them.” Quick Fix’s flat, sarcastic tone, combined with her words, really didn’t give me a good first impression of her, but I still wanted to stay polite. “Howdy there, Quick Fix. I’m Applejack.” I smiled and held my hoof out to her. The unicorn just paused for a moment, looked down at my hoof, then turned to one of the other ponies watching the monitors. “Just don’t break anything while you’re here. In fact, don’t touch anything, it’s safer that way.” She really wasn’t helping her case. I guess Jet could tell that this unicorn was slowly wearing down my patience, because he scooted between us and pushed me back a little. “Quick, the least you could do is be polite. Applejack isn’t a stranger, she’s here to help us. I know you’re busy, but she deserves a greeting.” Quick Fix raised her brow at Jet. “You came at a bad time. Forgive me if I’m a little short.” Jet sighed again before giving a reply. “You can work while you explain what goes on here. I understand it, but you know all about it.” She looked at me, then to Jet, then back to me before rolling her eyes. “This is the room where we watch the city. We have video cameras set up at various points, and my magic keeps them hidden and keeps them connected to the monitors in here.” Concern almost instantly swept away my aggravation when she said that. “Are you telling me y’all have been doing this nonstop for as long as this group’s been going?” Quick Fix went to speak, but the colt stuck his hoof in front of her face. “I make sure she sleeps. She throws a fit, but she will get rest when she needs to.” Jet then turned to her, but the way his voice deepened and he drew out his next word was a dead giveaway that there was a problem. “Right?” The unicorn completely blew him off, instead turning to me. "The cameras we have are the most expensive and vital pieces of equipment at the Archanels' disposal. We only have them thanks to a generous donation from the Orange family." "Wow, that was sure nice of them." I guess Quick Fix didn't know that Citrus was the one who basically led me here. I wanted to say more, but one of the ponies suddenly turned to Quick Fix. "Ma'am, you need to see this." "If you'll excuse me, I have work to do." Without another word or a chance to let us speak, she walked off to the filly that called her. Jet was already headed towards the door when I turned to him, so I trotted over to catch up. "Is her patience always paper thin?" My friend just shook his head. "She's just tired. Quick Fix knows that our surveillance system is the biggest contributor to this group's effectiveness; she doesn't trust anyone else with it. She's constantly pushing her limits to keep others from 'messing up' her work." I raised my brow. "But y'all are all a team. Why wouldn't she trust others?" "I... that... well...." Jet stopped walking for a moment with his gaze to the floor. "That's a story for another time. Sorry." I only responded once he started walking again. "Don't worry, I understand. Where are we headed now?" "Well you've already met Dust, so there's only two other head crew members to meet. We're going to the mess hall since they're probably eating." "Mind if ask who they are?" Jet chuckled as we crossed through the lobby. "You'll see." As we got closer to the door on the right of the front wall, I started hearing chatter. When Jet opened it, I saw about twenty ponies all sitting at long, rectangular tables. At the back of the room was a counter where I could see maybe three or four ponies cooking up who knows what. Jet's eyes widened as he stepped in. "Forgive me, I was wrong. I said there were two more head crew, but there's three." He pointed to the counter, right at one of the workers who was currently serving someone. "That there is Mrs. Gourmet. She'd be furious with me if I didn't bring you up to meet her." I couldn't help but chuckle a bit, myself. "Sounds like my granny. It's a requirement for a stranger coming to Ponyville that they meet her." "Yep, that's Mrs. Gourmet." He started walking to the counter, giving nods and replying to greetings the whole way there. The elderly mare had her silver mane up in a net, and a smile spread on her pale blue face when she saw the both of us. "Why Jet, did you bring another new fighter for me?" Her city accent was even thicker than Jet's, but something about it made me feel right welcome. I think Jet was going to introduce us, but Mrs. Gourmet and I were already shaking hooves by the time I noticed. "Howdy there, Mrs. Gourmet. My name's Applejack, and it's mighty nice to meet you." Her smile just grew wider. "Sounds like we got us a country filly. You always did have a thing for southern folk, Jet. Was it her voice, those strong farm legs, or maybe something else?" She started snickering, and I was too when I turned and saw how red Jet's face was. "Okay so Applejack is new here! I was just telling her about how all new recruits are basically required to meet you." Him completely avoiding the question only made Mrs. Gourmet chuckle more, but she did finally stop teasing him. “That’s right, sweetie. Nobody joins this little group without me knowing! I’m the head chef here, making sure all these brave souls don’t go hungry, so get used to saying hello to me!” We both nodded to her, and I took to looking at the food that had already been prepared. Toasted sandwiches of all kinds lined the long table behind her, the cooks in the back looked like they were tossing salads, and a few pastries were on shelves on Mrs. Gourmet’s left. “So, is there any chance you’ve seen Sprint or Jack anywhere? I’d like to get them introduced to Applejack soon, too.” I turned back to Jet once I heard the names. Mrs. Gourmet put a hoof up, waving it up and down. “Oh, you actually just missed little Sprint. She came in here for a bite not too long ago and then took off. I think you’ll find her wandering around the back.” I raised my brow up at her. “That seems a might dangerous. ‘Course, I don’t know what the streets are really like out here, but being out in broad daylight don’t seem like the kind of thing y’all wanna be doing.” Jet gave me a nod. “It’s not. I told Sprint to stay inside unless we had a job to do. Applejack, you feel like tagging along with me to find her?” “Wouldn’t bother me a bit.” I found myself crossing my front leg over the other one, as I often did when I was pleased or confident. The colt nodded at me again before turning to Mrs. Gourmet. “Sorry we have to cut this visit short.” She just let out a giggle. “Oh, don’t sweat it, sweets. I’ve got plenty of company!” With that, Jet headed towards the door with me right behind him. It was a quick trip back through the lobby and out the front door, where Jet quickly dashed around the side of the building and to the back. Apparently the theater was near the edge of the city, as I could see the ocean from where we were. In fact, there was nothing but one more street and a line of buildings between us and the end of the land. The entire back area was a large, empty lot littered with stacks of boxes and barrels. There was a single streetlight in the center, and the whole space was surrounded in chain link fence. As empty as it was, there was no sign of a pony around. “Jet, I don’t see anyone. Maybe –” “Sshh.” Jet started looking around. After a few moments, he froze and motioned to a few barrels not too far away that were shaking. He slowly made his way to the left side of the barrels, waving his hoof over to the right side. Once I was across from him, he dived behind the barrels. I heard a squeal just before Jet popped up facing away from me. “Gotcha!” When he turned around, I saw a small, brown filly with a white spot between her eyes. She looked like she was around Applebloom’s age and was just as dirty as Jet. “Applejack, meet my little sister, Sprint. Sprint, this is Applejack, our newest recruit.” I saw a big smile cross her face when she looked up at me. "Nice to meet you, Miss Applejack!" "So you're Sprint? Mighty nice to meet you, little miss." I held my hoof out ans was promptly met with a strong shake. "Hoowee, we got us a strong one." "I would hope so." Jet ruffled up Sprint's mane. "My little sister here is the head of our infiltration division. I've seen her sneak in and out of places an invisible unicorn couldn't even get through." My eyes widened, as did Sprint's proud grin. "Ain't you a bit young to be putting yourself in danger like that? And Jet, ain't you scared to have her running around out there?" The filly quickly shook her head. "I can handle myself, and everyone here knows it. Right bro?" "Don't let her age or size fool you, Applejack. I was a bit apprehensive to let her take on missions by herself, but Sprint here has bailed me out of more bad situations than I can count." I couldn't help but smile myself. Hearing all this really reminded me of my own sister. "So what exactly is it you do?" Before Sprint could answer, we all heard someone shouting Jet's name and turned. A panting colt ran right up to us, huffing and trying to speak. Eventually he finally stopped, waited to catch his breath, and then started speaking. "Jet, you need to come to the comm room. No time to explain, you need to see somethin." He raised his brow, looked to Sprint and me, then back to the other colt. "How important is this?" "Very. Please hurry." "Alright." Jet then turned to his sister. "Sprint, I'm trusting you with Applejack. She needs to learn our routes. You can do that, yeah?" The filly puffed her chest out proudly. "Leave it to me!" With that, Jet took off. Sprint turned to me once he was out of sight. Her face was much more serious now, but she retained her playful tone. "Follow me, rookie! You've got a lot of work to do!" Sprint took off inside again, but she wasn’t quick enough to get away from me. Once we were in the lobby, the filly scooted behind the concession area, through a door that was there, and opened a manhole cover in the center of the barren room that the door led to. “This here is a preferred sewer entrance. It’s not graceful, but you don’t really look like the graceful type. Uh... no offense.” At first, Sprint looked a little worried that she might’ve offended me, but her bright smile came right back when she heard me laugh. “None taken, sugarcube. I ain’t never taken to prim and proper anyhow.” The little filly grinned at me before descending the ladder. I followed after her pretty quickly, and I soon realized why Jet and Sprint thought this might be a problem. Of course it’s a sewer, but it smelled worse than my uncle’s two year old collection of skunk skins. "Hoowee, now that's a stink. And I thought the chicken coops stunk." Sprint just chuckled and climbed back up to close the lid. "You get used to it after a while. I'm gonna warn you, Miss Applejack, the way we've routed these sewers is pretty complicated." "I'm sure it ain't too bad. Where do we start? Oh, and y'all can just call me Applejack, but I like your manners." The small filly let out a giggle before motioning to the corner to our right. "We label routes by color. We have blue, green, red, and yellow. I'll start with red." I nodded and followed when she started walking. "Sounds good to me." The two of us turned the corner and walked for a long while. It was quiet save for the occasional rat or splash of... something going in or out of the grimy, green water. Eventually we stopped at an intersection, and Sprint drew my attention to a drawing on the wall of a pony profile. "See these shapes?" The small pony waved her hoof around the drawing. It was then that I noticed a circle, triangle, square, and star. "At each corner, we have these little pictures. Each shape indicates a direction, and the color of the shape tells you to go that direction to continue the route." I just gave her a nod. "Sounds easy enough. So which shape is which direction?" "Star is straight forward, circle means left, square means right, and triangle means up. You'll only see triangles when there's a ladder to climb up on." After Sprint was finished, I took another look at the picture. "So if we're on the red route, this is telling us we need to take a left?" She gave me a firm nod and a smile. "You got it! Come on, let's keep going!" Seeing her so excited and full of energy was pretty refreshing considering how gloomy things had been lately. "Right behind you, sugarcube." I'm not sure how much longer we were down there, but it had to have been a few hours. The sewers were massive, and by the time we had gotten back where we started aboveground the sun was almost exactly overhead. It was hard to tell through the clouds of smoke, but there was a brightness where I assumed the sun was. "Boy howdy, y'all really had to learn your way around. I could've sworn we'd passed by the same place at least three times." Sprint let out a giggle as she trotted towards the entrance of the theater. "It takes time to figure out, but I'm sure you will! Come on, let's find my brother." "Sounds good to me, let's go."
Chapter 4: LearningArchangels Eraverse Chapter 4: Learning By: SleeplessScribe Sprint and I searched for a good fifteen minutes without any sign of Jet. Even though we checked the comm room, we decided to go back and ask Quick Fix if she knew where he went. Honestly, we probably should have done that first. When we walked into the room without just focusing on whether or not Jet was there, I noticed that the unicorn was actually pretty frantic. The numbers and text on the projector were moving and changing rapidly, and everyone in the room was chattering. I wanted to say something, but Quick bounded toward us the minute she saw Sprint. “Sprint! Oh thank Celestia you’re here! Look, I don’t have time to explain right now, but I need you to go down with a few others and secure the sewers. We have a big situation on our hooves.” The little filly began to nod, but didn’t move immediately. “Can you tell me anything at all?” Quick took a brief look at her projector before answering. “Someone very important has come out of hiding. We really want to make sure they don’t get away.” She then handed Sprint a headset similar to what the others working in the room had on. Sprint nodded again and turned around. When I looked in her direction, I could see two other ponies waiting for her at the door. “Hey, uh, Quick Fix? Is there anything I can do?” All I could do was hope the unicorn would be at least a bit more polite this time around. Unfortunately, her back was already to me. “Fine, sure, whatever, just don’t get in the way.” My ears flattened and I lowered my head. I guess Sprint could tell that I was none too appreciative of her response, seeing as she called out to me. “Come on, Applejack! You can help me out!” I didn't have much time to respond since she ran off so quickly, so I just followed behind her. We hopped right down into the manhole we'd just came out of, but we didn't move for a bit. Sprint tapped one of the cuffs on her headset, stood still for a moment, then addressed the rest of us. "Okay, we need to get to D20 as soon as possible. Applejack, time to test what you've learned." "So what's the big deal?" I spoke as we ran, and the massive stallion beside me gave me a nudge. "We've spotted a meetup for one of the big gangs in the city. Jet's taken a team to catch them, and we need to be ready if any of them come down here." His words confused me a little. "Big gangs? There's more than one?" We turned a corner and I almost fell in the water; this guy was even bigger than my brother. He helped me regain my balance before answering. "Manehattan is controlled by three big gangs. There's these guys in red hoods that call themselves the Reapers, ponies who always wear some kind of headband called the Rovers, and Timetech's own gang. They call themselves the Knights, and they are the worst." The big guy took a breath, which gave Sprint a chance to finish his thought for him. "They all dress like fancy business ponies, but they're thugs like the rest. They do a lit of the foalnapping that provides the sweatshop under that big tower with free labor." My eyes widened. Things had been happening so fast that I forgot about how bad the situation in the city was. "Y'all really need to get help from Canterlot or something." All three of the other ponies nodded, but Sprint responded first. "Jackhammer here has been telling my brother that for weeks." "Yeah, I have." The big guy nodded. "It always ends the same. Jet is too afraid to send anyone out for fear of them getting caught and arrested. He doesn't want to go himself because he's worried about what might happen without him." "Shh shh shush!" Sprint calm to a halt, waved to us, and motioned upward. We were now underneath another sewer entrance. Faint, muffled voices echoed through the musty air. The other mare with us gave all of us a long rope out of her bag, whispering a "just in case" as she closed her bag. The small filly lifted a hoof to her headset again, then brought the rest of us in close so she could speak softly. "Get ready." I felt myself tense up. Honestly, I had to keep myself from chuckling. This feeling, the tension, the silence, and even having the rope a made me feel like I was at a rodeo. It was just a little funny that I felt familiar in this situation despite the circumstances. After just a few moments, the silence was broken. Various grunts and thumps sounded above us. The manhole cover clanged as hooves slammed down on it. After some time, the noise died down, but the pressure didn't. A pony draped in a red, hooded cloak dropped down right in between the four of us. Both Jackhammer and the unnamed mare jumped at her, but they ended up smacking into each other. Before I realized what happened, Sprint was on the hooded mare's back and clinging as she ran off. With our other two teammates dazed, all I could think to do was give chase. I stayed right on her tail with a twirling rope in my mouth. Within moments, the mare was tied up like a wild hog. Sprint hopped off the pony's back, taking the cloak with her. I guess the others would recognize her, because she certainly wasn't ringing any bells to me. Once the hood came off, the mare started struggling. "Let me go! I got nothing to say to you." "That's alright. In fact, I'd prefer if you stayed quiet." Jackhammer came up behind us and slung the thug over his back, while our other friend strapped her to him. I made a mental note to ask what her name was at a better time. "So, what do we do with her?" I was a might curious now. Jack motioned to the path we ran down to get here and started walking. "She gets locked up. I'd tell you about it, but I'm not allowed to. You'll see it when it's your turn for guard duty." I guess the little filly saw the look on my face because she hopped up on my back before I could speak. "Just trust us. We don't talk about that, but believe me, you'll know when you see it. And you will see it." The mystery pony gave a nod, so I just dismissed the topic. "If y'all say so. I guess I'll see." I found out a lot on the way back to base. The filly we caught had a fair number of gadgets and doohickeys in her cloak, our other friend's name was Marigold, and any captured ponies had to be blindfolded for safety reasons. Once we were back, Jackhammer and Marigold split off from us, so Sprint and I just hung out and talked in the lobby for a bit. "So Sprint, I don't suppose you know how things got this bad?" Much to my surprise, she nodded. "Monopoly, the big guy at the center of all this, is unstoppable in legal situations. My mom is a local prosecutor, and she couldn't touch him in any of the three trials he was in." That right there made my eyes widen. "Three trials? And he won them all?" The small pony gave me an "mhm" and a nod. "Any time mom came up with a theory, he always had some kind of evidence to counter her. Even her best evidence wasn't enough. Honestly, I think the judge was bribed." "Wow. He really does have a grip on this city, huh?" I took off my hat and turned towards the door, looking at the city through the windows. "He does, and it's stronger than a dragon's jaw." Jet's voice came from behind me and made me jump just a little. The large colt tipped his own hat as I put mine on. "I heard you were the one that caught that thug. Nice work, AJ." "Aw, it won't no thing. I'm pretty good with a lasso." Even though I was trying to be humble, I couldn't help but put on a proud smile. "Pretty good is an understatement; she was tied up like a wild boar." It was like Jet had read my mind. "She'll be questioned and then imprisoned. Remember to do all you can to subdue others; Archangels don't take lives." I gave him a firm nod. "I like that." Sprint scooted up between us. "Now you gotta report to Mrs. Gourmet! You're required to let her know you're safe." "She really is like a mom, ain't she?" I could help but smile as I spoke. Jet nodded, turning towards the door that led to the kitchen. "She practically is. I know even before this all started that she practically raised some of the ponies here." My smile widened as we started walking. Since we were heading to the kitchen anyways, we decided to grab a bite to eat as well. We talked for a bit and I learned a lot more names, found out about all the experimental gadgets that Archangel uses, and more. This group had goals, and even now they were working to accomplish them. As we continued talking, I noticed Jet look over at Sprint with furrowed brows. It became more and more frequent until the colt finally grumbled at his sister. "Sprint, any time you feel like keeping your hooves away from my ribs would be a great time." The little filly just smiled up at him innocently, then turned to me. She stared at me for a moment, then back to her brother. After a while, Jet finally looked like he got the point she was trying to get across. "Oh no, sis. Applejack isn't ready for that kind of a mission yet. Give her some time." The filly gave him big puppy dog eyes. "Aw come on Jet. She's big and strong like you, I bet'cha she could make it look easy!" He turned to me, which prompted me to narrow my gaze. I had no idea what was going on, but now I was raring to prove that I could handle whatever was thrown at me. I would have actually spoken, but Jet's face told me I didn't need to. "We're going to be attacking a new steel mill that's been built. It's not even complete, but already ponies have been dragged out of their homes, regardless of age, and forced to work in it. We're going to get them out." Before I could say anything, Sprint hopped onto my back. "We've been planning this for days and trying to eavesdrop for information. We think we know enough to finally pull off the operation." The small filly nodded and sat down on my back. "Is that safe? Sounds like y'all will be throwing yourselves right into the face of danger." Jet walked past me and gazed out the window. "It will be, but I trust in the skills of my friends. I believe we can do this as long as we all know and stick to our roles." My attention went from Jet to Sprint and then back again. "Will I be allowed to help?" The colt turned, and I felt the pressure of Sprint's front hooves disappear. "Well... I think my sister and I agree that you're ready, but I have to take it up with the other leaders, too." I raised my brow. "You can't decide this for yourself?" He just shook his head. "Everything here is a team effort. We agreed to talk out decisions like this with everyone. In fact, I think it best to get this over with now. Come on, Sprint." Jet's sister hopped off of me and headed to the comm room. "Sorry, Applejack. Do you mind a little more waiting?" Out of habit, I crossed my right front leg over my left. "Ain't nothing. Y'all go ahead, I'll be right here." They both nodded and walked off, leaving me to look out of the window and think about everything that's happened.
