The City Of Dreams And Nightmares
The city of Trottingham. A lively city where both nobles and commoners share their home. Rather the nobles live on a hill overlooking the city while the poor are forced to live under them. But this was a minor problem, the city was still a thriving population filled with new businesses opportunities and a place to start over. At least this was in the day. At night gangs patrol the streets looking for unlucky victims. Noble dragons had also lived in the city until they migrated north to nearby mountains due to the rise in crime. It wasn't long before even the police could not maintain the city, even in broad daylight robberies would take place. But the nobles did not know this. Rather they chose not to.
Travis Diadem looked over the city. At the young age of 15 he had already had dreams for the city to flourish. But after the abandonment of his peers, the city although popular was falling into dark times. Large gangs found it easy to make their home in the rich environment. The nobles too proud to even look into the matter had simply told the police to try harder. It was not working, every report made his dream wither until it had become a childish notion.
The air was cold in Trottingham at night. A father and son had just finished watching a play and were making their way back to the estate. That was until they vanished. The next morning news reports came in about an abduction of the Steelworks family and the ransom was 100,000 bits. No less, Although most times this money would have been easy to access but the recent famine that affected the Dodge Junction mines meant that the Steelworks family were in heavy losses. Panic rose but there was nothing they could do. The threat was that if the payment did not come in by tomorrow the Steelwork family will lose their heir and President. Nobles often smiled when in the presence of peers but would stab them in the back if it meant bigger businesses could bloom. So all the nobles shut their doors to the soon to be widow of the Steelworks empire.
Mrs Steelwork rushed to the drop-off point at precisely 12 noon. The sun was shining brightly but her face was grim. The police were instructed to stay away. Not that they can do anything anyway. Mrs Steelwork watched as the time slowly tick to 12:01.
At 12:02 Mrs Steelwork was gone, leaving behind the chest of 100,000 bits she hurriedly left into her carriage to hear further news of her family. At 17:00 The news agency received a letter stating that it was 100,00 for EACH pony and that the second payment had to be delivered at 12:00 p.m. No later. At 18:30 Mrs Steelwork cried on her bed as she made preparations to clear out the rest of the Steelwork fortune.
The very next day the bodies of both the Steelwork son and father were found in the streets with a note that read
Too little too late.
That same day Mrs Steelwork left the world to join her family.
"Come on Travis keep your hooves up."
The sound of hooves clashed against a punching bag with a dull thud. Travis felt the sweat drip down, wiping it away the punching bag swung at his unguarded side sending him flying back a few feet.
"My dear master you must keep and eye on your opponent at all times." A tall slender Stallion dressed in a butler costume wiped his own brow and helped up the person he just punched.
"Funny Desmond I was pretty sure you enjoyed that one." The Earl of Diadem enterprise smacked his butler playfully. "Anyway we should get going, the meeting is about to begin."
The old and middle aged nobles gathered into a room with a large table that took up half the space, finding their seats drinks were passed around and the room fell into a hush. A pony with a large top hat entered the room
"Alright my fellow nobles, as you know one of our peers in the industry has fallen, the Steelworks are gone. This is a sad loss."
The crowd let out a slight murmur, most were about the future, and the few that were condolences were not genuine.
The pony waited for the crowd to be silenced before continuing. "A sad loss for the economy, I lost a quarter of my profits due to the sudden drop in metal, someone needs to take over from where they had abandoned. But instead of behaving like barbarians let us do this in a civilized matter, we shall start the bid at 10,000 bits.
"Shouldn't we be more worried about the ponies who killed them." All heads turned to face a young stallion who spoke out. The pony leading the auction flinched. "Yes we have the police looking into the matter, for now we should get on wi-"
"Business? Is that all you care about when a noble dies? We don't even spend time to go to their funeral?" The young stallion stood up in anger.
"Earl of the Diadem is it? Are you supposed to be here? shouldn't you be scampering along playing with your friends?" A short wave of snickering rose through the crowd. The young pony felt the anger build up inside him, such selfish creatures! "I have come here on behalf of my father who is currently going to Canterlot to explain the situation of recent events. Are we seriously going to let the triads to continues terrorizing the city?"
"Oh little boy its alright so long as they stay down there our new guards will handle anything." A rather large mare blurted out taking yet another sandwich.
Travis had enough. He stood up and marched towards the pony with the top hat. "This is cold hearted, and we call ourselves nobles, we don't even bother to tell their relatives or even help with the funeral, everything is falling and none of you are listening!"
The room fell into a deathly silence. Some uncomfortable at being yelled at squirmed in their seats. "Especially you Schooner Windsong." Windsong adjusted his top hat. "Boy what you are thinking of are childish dreams that your father put into your head." The crowd murmured in agreement. "This is not a game, this is real life. There are no superheros among us its time you learned that."
"Yea, don't come bother us with your ignorant ways, just sit down and listen when someone smarter talks." Pitched in another noble.
One after the other they turned against him, Travis realized that they were merely sheep, and could not make decisions by themselves.
"Alright then, I apologise for my outbursts, please continue." Almost immediately the crowd accepted his apology and went back to work bidding for the now president-less Steelwork empire. Silently, Travis left the room, without anyone noticing.
You want a Hero? You got one.
A lone pony traversed the dim lit roads. Draped in a large black trench coat he wandered through the infamous city. Almost immediately he could feel eyes watching him from the shadows. Quickly turning round a corner he realized that they had already surrounded him the moment he had stepped into the street. This was their territory, the rogues. After walking a distance he heard the sound of hooves walking quickly from behind. Without turning around he carried on walking leisurely.
Easily the stalker caught up to him, tapping his new found victim on the shoulder he smiled. "Enjoyin tah cool breeze are we.?" The cloaked pony simply stopped. "Well I'm looking for someone. Perhaps you can offer assistance."
The thief paused for a second. Most people would know about the dangers of entering the north side of the city but this Pony seem undaunted. He decided to play along. "Well those are big words mister. I could help ye, for a price."
"Perfect. I'm looking for the group that ponynapped the Steelwork father and son." The attacker flinched. He hadn't expected anyone to bother, after all that man gave his word tha-
"Well do you know anything?" The shadowed pony questioned.
"Well maybe I do maybe I don't whats it to ya"
The Pony adjusted his coat. "Oh it means everything." Travis lashed out cracking his attacker in the side. Shaking off the blow the assailant whipped out a blade with his mouth. "Well well well if it isn't a noble pony, getting revenge? Well that young boy sure screamed like a donkey when we-"
He didn't get to finish that sentence. Travis spun around and threw out both his legs. The mugger fell to the floor slamming into the dust. Travis wiped his hooves and from the shadows came a carriage. "All done sir?" Desmond stuck his head out helping his master drag the unconscious pony into a carriage.
