What Happened in September...

Old Ponyville - January 7th - 1 Year B.N.M.

9 Months Earlier

The sun was just starting to come over the horizon as birds started to sing their cheery tunes of the morning, snow gently falling from trees as the heat of the celestial orb warmed the quiet town. A cold breeze swept over the silent town of Old Ponyville, the winding streets barren and empty of ponies, with graffiti covered alleyways giving the town a greater sense of dread and misery. A group of drunk ponies, six in all, waltzed down Mane Street from the north, bottles falling from their saddlebags and drunken laughter rumbling from their bellies. Further down the street, a teenaged colt poked his out of of a trash can, a brick in his mouth. He looked to the left and right quickly, making sure the coast was clear before hopping out of the can and rushing across the street. With a quick snap of his head, the brick sailed from his mouth and through a bakery shop's window, the loud shattering of the glass making several lights turn on in the windows of nearby houses. The colt rushed forward, grabbing a loaf of bread in his mouth and dashing away, shouting through muffled lips "Down with the Taxes! Feed our families!!!"

The sound of the shattering glass had woken up most of the ponies in the close vicinity, including a white colt with a long, dark brown mane. His golden, amber eyes shone as he slowly opened them, putting a hoof to his forehead and groaning. He sighed as he heard the commotion outside, muttering to himself

"Bakery...that's the eighth time this month..." A tired voice next to him whispered after a tiny yawn

"Mr. Loaf is going to snap before too long...I bet forty bits he'll be spending the night outside with a shotgun, waiting." The colt turned his head to the right and smiled into the pink face of a mare with a long, flowing yellow mane and bright blue eyes. He leaned forward and gave her a tender kiss, whispering as he pulled back

"Good morning..." The mare smiled and nuzzled his cheek, whispering back

"Morning Hydro...sleep well?" The colt, Hydro Gen, smiled and nodded

"As well as can be expected Angel, how about you?" Angel smiled and shrugged, sitting up and letting the warm, fleece blanket fall around her naked body

"Alright I guess..." she muttered to him, shivering a little at the cold air that occupied their apartment. Hydro sat up as well, smiling as he gently rubbed Angel's back and whispered

"Hey...you know what today is?" Angel looked back to him and smiled, nodding. They leaned in towards each other, wrapping their front hooves around another and sharing a deep, passionate kiss, Hydro mumbling between their lips "Happy Anniversary..."

~~~

Hydro narrowed his eyes at the T.V., sitting in the kitchen and using his magic to levitate a newspaper and donut near him, watching the news. The anchor-colt looked like he was losing sleep, his voice bored and miserable as he muttered

"And in other news...Hoofington has reported a 12.5% increase in crime since Hearth's Warming, with the reported number of theft incidents rising well into the hundred's. Princess Celestia has offered to deploy a full security relief team to the small town, but cannot promise it's arrival date as resources are already stretched thin from Manehatten's relief effort." Hydro sighed, taking a bite out of his donut and flicking his eyes over to his newspaper, reading down the front page article quietly

~*~

Murder Spree in PhillyDelphia!

Authorities are calling for any and all aid from Canterlot Officials concerning the massive spike in murder and assault rates in their besieged town. In the last three months alone, over two hundred and forty-five ponies have been killed or reported missing. PhillyDelphia's mayor had this to say:

'I will not say that things are fine and under control right now, because they're not. We're facing heavy attacks from local street gangs everyday, and everyday I have to personally write a letter to a poor mare explaining why their husband isn't coming home from police duty. The situation is getting worse and without aid soon, I'm afraid our town may even cease to exist.'

Unfortunately, according to a few Canterlot Officials, the massive drug-war in Manehatten is soaking up most of their relief and riot forces, and they promise that resources will be reallocated as they become available...again, Princess Celestia was unavailable for comments, but Princess Luna assures the that help IS on the way.

~*~

Hydro sighed and dropped the newspaper, the sounds of hoof-steps coming into the kitchen. "World's a mess...same as always" he muttered, Angel leaning down and kissing him on his cheek

"Now now dear...have a little faith. Canterlot's trying their best with what they have! Times are hard for everypony..." Hydro nodded and watched as she slipped a pink coat over her blue jumpsuit, smiling as she turned her head and blew a kiss to him "See you later tonight hun." Hydro smiled and said back as she walked out the door

"You too...don't forget! Reservations tonight at La Fluers!" Angel winked at him and shut the door, leaving Hydro to slump in his seat and sigh. He didn't say it outright, but he knew Angel was acting differently. They had been together for at least four years now, and had a few rough patches along the way. It wasn't anything they couldn't handle, and to Hydro it seemed like things were going pretty great now that the worst of it was over. He shook his head though, still feeling as if something was amiss. She was eating more, got moody at smaller and smaller things, and sometimes didn't even bother waking up until the afternoon. Not to mention all the intensified sexual attention she was pretty much demanding from him. One particular night haunted him, actual fear creeping into his mind as he remembered Angel flailing about on top of him, screaming so loudly he had to literally shove his hoof in her mouth to get her to shut up.

He sighed, folding up the newspaper neatly with his magic and heading out towards the balcony door that was located in their tiny living room. He stepped out into the cool, crisp air of the morning, taking in a deep breath and trying not to retch at the foul smell that wafted up from the alley below. Three stories up, and Old Ponyville still looked like the same vat of shit everyday, promises of 'Full-town cleanups' unfulfilled and forgotten. He grimaced, his eyes flicking towards the tall mountains that held the golden city of Canterlot. His eyes traveled across the golden spires of marble beauty, and across the golden Observatory that belonged to the University. His horn gleamed a misty white as he narrowed his eyes towards the dome, his body tingling with the sensation of floating. In a bright white flash and crackle of magic, Hydro had dissapeared.

~~~

"And here ve see the effects of rainbow juice and several larvae of the mo- SVEET CELESTIA!" A dark brown colt with a lightish brown mane shouted, jumping in fright as a white crackle of magic emanated from right behind him. Hydro Gen stood upright, smirking as his white lab-coat stopped flapping and letting the colt turn around to face him, a shocked look on his face. Once he saw Hydro's face however, he sighed with relief and muttered "Oh...Hydro...it's you! You scared me half to death you foal! I thought one of the students may have gone and tipped over one of the chemistry sets." Hydro laughed as he stepped around the colt, the faces of several younger students looking up at Hydro with awe. He turned his head towards the colt and said with excitement

"Alexi! You didn't tell me the higher professors were letting you take the lower classes on tours!" Alexi blushed and chuckled a little, muttering

"Vell I didn't see it as much of a promotion...not too much of a change if you ask me..." Hydro shook his head and smiled, patting him on the back and whispering

"Well keep up the good work, I'll be in the lab when you're ready." They nodded to each other and went their separate ways, Hydro towards the Nuclear Physics lab, and Alexi back to his eagerly awaiting class.

~~~

Hydro focused his eyes through the visor that was located on the side of a massive, cylinder-shaped microscope which took up most of the room. He watched as a few atoms carefully floated about in his view, his horn aglow with white magic and levitating four notepads around him, pencils scribbling furiously on each of them. As he finished, the lab door opened and Alexi trotted in, donning his white lab coat and goggles and heading over to Hydro

"Class vent vell enough" he said with a sigh, sitting on his haunches next to Hydro "vut's new?" Hydro sighed and shook his head, turning off the microscope with the push of a button and muttering

"Nothing new...I still can't get them to stick together or find any kind of magnetic polarity between different types. I don't know but...at this point it's not looking good for our 'Use an atom to split an atom' theory." Alexi groaned and face-hoofed, looking over one of the floating notepads and sighing

"Another dead end...vutever. As long as Canterlot keeps paying the vills and keeps me rich, I have no problems." Hydro smiled at his friend and gave him a playful punch in his shoulder, laughing

"Still in it for the money Alexi? Come on now, you know that the glory and adventure of the science is worth it!" Alexi smiled and nodded

"Of course Hydro, you know I am only kidding da? Oh, Happy Anniversary by the way, I heard from Angel just the other day that you vere celebrating it today!" Hydro's smile faded slightly as he asked

"Oh? When did you see her?" He didn't know why or how, but he had already guessed the answer before Alexi even opened his mouth

"About two days ago, ve went out to lunch, vhy?" Hydro's eye twitched slightly as he remembered that Angel had bailed on him that day, saying she would be too tied up at work to have any kind of lunch with him that day.

"No reason..." he muttered, turning towards the nearby table and placing all of the notepads neatly in a line on top of it, his anger boiling up for a moment before subsiding. If anything, he'd get to questioning Angel about it later. He sighed as he sat on his haunches in front of the table, going over his notes carefully and muttering "Well this is a dead end...now what? Perhaps...something smaller? Maybe if I can use parts of the at-" his thoughts were interupted as the lab door banged opened and a golden-armored Pegasus guard walked in, his head high and his eyes narrowed. Alexi groaned as he saw him enter and shouted

"For the last time, ve said no bursting in like that! Ve are vorking on delicate projects here and-" Hydro gently placed a hoof over Alexi's lips and shushed him, looking over towards the guards and asking

"Yes? What do you want?" The guard cleared his throat and stated loudly

"Princess Celestia requests your immediate audience in Canterlot Castle, she wishes to express the urgency in this matter and that there is no time to lose." Alexi's eyes widened as he heard those words, Hydro sharing the same expression. There was only two times they had ever heard those exact same words come from a messenger's mouth, and each time it had meant severe trouble for the science department. It was no surprise that Alexi and Hydro let out an aggravating sigh at the same time, each of them breathing out the word

"Shit..."