Archangels

Archangels
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.”