The City Of The Magistrate

Pinkie Pie and AppleJack carried the luggage with ease as they stored it in the sleeping car their group of friends would be sharing.

“Oh, do be careful with my bag. . . my only bag,” Rarity said, still looking upset from Twilight and AJ’s insistence she pack light. Pinkie Pie, AJ and Rainbow Dash all struggled with the massive steamer trunk.

“Now, ya care to tell us why you're needin’ all this? Yeah we’re goin’ to another country, but it’s only fer TWO DAYS!” AJ emphasized the last part, ramming the large steamer trunk through the door with vigor.

“Hurry up everypony, everyone's here?”

“Yeah yeah, we’re all set to go to the land of monkeys,” Rainbow yawned bored out of her mind at the prospect of a long train ride.

“Humans,” Twilight snorted. “How many times do I have to tell you, they’re called humans, and the country of Bulwark isn’t made up of just humans. There are Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Lizardfolk and Halflings.” Twilight paused before using her magic to pull out a large book from her bag, titled Guide To Bulwark. She hurriedly flipped through pages of the many festivals and various districts until her eyes lit up, having found what she wanted. “There’s also a lot of other races as well. . . oh, that doesn’t seem very fair.” She pouted.

“What is it?” Fluttershy half whispered.

“The book lists a large list of stereotypes associated with each race.” Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes.

“Like?” Rainbow said, leaning forward with a smile, now intently interested.

“Dwarves drink. . . a lot, Elves are dirty tree huggers, Humans are all ‘scarred’ by Discord, and Goblins are usually thieves.” Twilight said with a raised brow shaking her head.

“That’s a bit rude, you can’t completely brand an entire race or species. It’s just wrong.” Rarity said peaking over the back of the seat to better see Twilight and the book from behind.

“What’s it say about Lizard people in there?” Spike asked strolling up as he munched on a container of popcorn.

“Not much really,” Twilight sighed “Wait, it says they’re uncivilized brutes at best, and blood thirsty baby snatchers at worst,” Twilight sighed as she looked at the name of the obviously racist author. “Oh how the times have changed. . . Rarity you still have the package right?”

“Yes Twilight, I would never forget it, it’s locked away in my steamer trunk safe and sound.” Rarity said, slightly offended that she would be accused of forgetfulness.

“Good then, well let’s get settled in. It's going to be a long ride.” Twilight cheered.

* * *

Prefect Thomas was enjoying a rather large and cold mug of ale. The dwarf sighed as his relative peace in the bar was interrupted by a human being thrown over onto a table by a screeching Lizard man, he hopped off the stool and unclipped his mace before he spoke, laying on ‘the voice’ nice and thick. “You, Scale Skin, Drop the human. . . and you, put away the gun. We’re all civilized folk here,” Thomas sighed, neither we’re doing as he asked, so he laid another hypnotic, commanding layer to his voice “Drop the man, and back away, and you sir, holster your weapon immi-. . . let go of the gun!” Thomas smiled as the dazed two obliged, and they say magic is worthless.

“He Sstarted it!” Hissed the lizard man, folding his arms and letting out a low guttural growl, as the man began to speak.

“I asked him what the time was, that’s it I swear!” the man whined.

“God, is this how you two are going to act during the Festival of flames?!” Thomas face palmed, stowing his mace once again, “I swear we’ll never get any more tourists this year if my own men act like thugs!” Thomas glared at both of them, “You two are already on thin ice from that little fruit cart incident.”

“That thing came out of nowhere, we had to defend ourselves!” Said the man with a tint of irritation.

“That’s no excuse for leveling an entire building. . . gods man, it’ll take them a month just to scrape up the charred rats!” Thomas shot back silencing him, and giving the lizardman another pause.

“Alright, I thought you said we weren't bringing that up ever again,” the lizardman grumbled.

“That’s right, now when are our charges to arrive?” Thomas cast a glance at both of them, eyes narrowing as realization struck. The tall lanky human replied first with a cough.

“We didn’t get all of the paper work, but they’re supposed to be arriving some time today, around nine O'clock,” the man chuckled nervously as his superior face palmed.

“Great, now I have to try and cut through the red tape to get their passes and such, just wonderful!” Thomas grumbled as he grabbed his coat and headed out, with one last warning glare to the two troublemakers before buttoning up the jacket against the wind.

* * *

“Oh Twilight, darling thank you ever so much for inviting us to come along, oh I’ve heard so much about this city, I’ve always wanted to visit but just haven’t had a reason till now.”

“Oh, oh, I wonder what the magistrate looks like!” Cheered Pinkie Pie, “I bet he’s a really big fellow, and has lots of CANDY!”

“I hear he’s a jerk,” Rainbow Dash said, not even bothering to turn towards them as she watched the scenery roll by the train window. In the distance mechanical servants tended the fields. This made Rainbow perk up a bit, leaning against the glass she asked, “Hey Twilight, what are those. . . things?”

“Autonomous servants, Humans and Dwarves are quite notorious for creating them for menial tasks.” Twilight said as she referred to her guide book, before quickly flipping back to the page she had been on before.

“Wow, hey AppleJack heh, looks like you could use a few of those on the farm,” Rainbow chuckled, gesturing to the machines working the land as the train sped by.

“Ah have never trusted dem’ things dere’ A’sides, considerin’ the upkeep of them it’d be better jus’ to go ahead an’ hire worker ponies.”

“. . . Wait, if they're more expensive, then why do they use them?” Pinkie said from over head. Everyone simply blinked, shaking their heads before dismissing the pink pony’s antics.

“Well, they're cheap to run here because repair ponies are readily available, and fuel isn’t hard to come by,” Twilight began before thinking carefully, “It’s also got a lot to do with some of the things around here. We are pretty close to the blighted lands, and machines can be replaced, ponies can’t.”

“Oh yes, the blighted lands are very dangerous indeed. This whole region is very similar to the Everfree Forest back home. Why, even a big Ol’ Manticore would be sent running in terror from a hunter maw. . . and zombies,” Fluttershy filled in, “The edge of it’s almost as bad as the badlands.”

“Zombies aren’t real,” Spike yawned, “Twilight said so.”

pike, but it’s better if you don’t mention it once we arrive, my understanding is that the locals can be a bit superstitious,” Twilight said, re-reading a passage of her guide once again.

“Well wake me when we’re there,” Spike yawned before drifting off to sleep once again.

“How are we going to find our way around the city Twilight? It’s very big and  none of us have ever gone there before,” Rarity said sitting up to peer over the seats to her friends.

“Oh don’t worry about that, Princess Celestia has arranged an escort for us,” Twilight smiled “We’ll be perfectly fine.”

* * *

Prefect Thomas was running late again, ‘Train station at 9’ he thought sighing to himself ‘not going to happen today I’m afraid.’ He stroked his beard as he paced, waiting for the clerk to finish and hand him his papers already. Thomas was relatively tall for a Dwarf, though that didn’t matter to him. He walked to the desk once more, mace clipped to his belt, thumping against his leg as he walked. Thomas loved his mace, Leather wrapped handle, with the spikes adorning the polished round head, sharpened as best he could. Thomas took pride in his weapon as any officer of the law or dwarf should.

Thomas gave a polite grunt to get the bored looking human clerk’s attention, She looked down and replied with a disturbing level of unenthusiasm.

"Yeah? What do you need?" she sighed, it looked like she was straining not to yawn.

"Is it finished?" Thomas grumbled.

"What's finished?" Said the clerk, idly reading a book in an attempt to ignore the dwarf.

"My paperwork," Thomas grunted.

"It's been sent off to be notarized, it'll arrive by bike courier shortly." She sighed, turning each page. The book was old and torn so much that Thomas couldn’t make out the title anymore, his best bet was it was some sort of trashy romance.

"Well then, good." Thomas stroked his beard some more as he walked away, it was a bit of a nervous habit for him, really, but when it's hard to sit still it helps take your mind off things. 'Why couldn't they stick some other poor schmuck to babysit some ponies?' He thought. He looked about the office once more, white walls a lone desk and a few cubicles. A poster of a stylized oblin lighting an elf on fire caught his attention, and he had to bite his tongue to not laugh at the thought. 'The Pyro and the Pretty boy, so that play is showing again?' Thomas made a mental note of it. Maybe he would get the chance to catch it this time around yet.

The door banged open and Thomas found himself grasping the handle of his mace, the buckles holding it already loosened. In the doorway stood a young human male, a bit on the shorter side for a human, dressed in multiple pocketed brown pants and the blue jacket of a bike courier. Thomas blinked making sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, 'Is he smoldering?' The courier strode over to the desk and reached into his satchel before plopping a package down onto the desk in front of him.

"Here, you go, rush delivery. . . through cross town's back alleys," Grumbled the courier. He smiled lightly as the desk worker signed the form and handed him his payment, her bored expression turned into a frightened one as he began to count the coins. "Your short, rush delivery is fifteen bits extra, you only paid me five." The couriers eyes widened as the clerk blasted him with surprising bravado.

"Well, you shouldn't have been so late. Also this package is burnt!" her newfound bravado died down as he glowered with rage, and Thomas prepared to step between the two humans.

"Listen, it's been a long day, I've been shot at, lit on fire, and if you can see the holes in my jacket, you can see that some assclown threw a jar of iron wasps at me. . . give me what you owe or it's going to get ugly. Fast." The courier sneered, barely flinching as the rune on the back of the clerks hand glowed red. He simply clutched the handle of his fire poker all the harder.

"You shouldn't threaten me errand boy, I'll mess you up way worse than so-" The clerk stopped as Thomas coughed loudly to gain their attention. The couriers eyes narrowed as Thomas strolled up to the two, and pressed a bag into the young man's hands.

"Take that, and a little extra for a tip. Now be off with ya before one of you be doin somethin stupid," Thomas said in his no nonsense authoritative voice. It did the trick and silenced the uppity clerk. The Courier bowed his head and said his thanks, before quickly walking out the door, muttering something or other about lizardmen. “Now, can I have my papers. Please?” Thomas strained not to give into the urge to smash the woman's drinking glass as she took a long drink, before finally handing him his paperwork.

* * *

“FE.FI.FO.FUM. GILL SMELLS THE BLOOD OF GOBLIN SCUM!” Gill boomed. The massive troll did not bother to turn sideways as he chased the green skinned thief, tearing the door frames off as he moved after him.

“Time to make some bacon, and you’re the grease, LARD ASS!” Jasper snarked back snapping his fingers in rapid rhythmic succession till his finger lit ablaze, and the fire spread along his arm. With a simple gesture, a wall of flame with a smoky gout bloomed into existence behind him as he fled, dropping trinkets as he fled.

“THIEF, STOP HIM, THIEF!” cried out an elderly voice. Jasper shot a quick glance over his leather clad left shoulder to see the deceivingly elderly looking man charging after him, right behind his massive troll bodyguard as they tore through back alleys and open doorways in a test of wits, muscle , and luck.

“OH NO!” Jasper skidded to a halt as he saw the muscular mustachioed human standing at the end of the alleyway, clad in golden trimmed steam powered armor, brass pipes barely peeking over his back and shoulders. Steam poured from the exhaust as the magically bonded armor sensed the man tense up.

“YOU GO NO FURTHER GOBLIN!” The man smiled. Jasper squealed as his mind reeled. He truly was caught between a rock and a hard place. He looked for any nearby lowered fire escapes, anything to get away. All he spied was his terrified reflection  at his feet gazing back, he began to grin even as the armored man charged him. He blasted a gout of flame straight at the puddle, and grit his fangs against the pain of burning steam, the thief took advantage of his new found cover and dashed under the man's guard, laughing at his expense as he heard the troll trip over him.

“Am I good, or am I good?” Jasper chuckled to himself as his leather booted feet sped away from the arguing trio, his catch in tow.

* * *

Rainbow Dash just sighed, bouncing a ball against the far wall of the sleeper car, listening to Pinkie gently hum a song as she worked on a scrap book.

“Rainbow, do you think there's a lot of nice ponies in the city?” Pinkie asked looking up from her scrapbook.

“Yeah, I guess. . . hey Twilight are there a lot of ponies in the city?” Rainbow narrowed her eyes a bit glaring at the egghead so firmly engrossed in her book. With a mischievous smirk Rainbow ‘accidently’ hit the purple unicorn in the head.

“OW, Dash watch where you're throwing that, you could put an eye out!” Twilight said rubbing her head with a free hoof.

“Hey Twi, are there a lot of ponies in the city?” Rainbow asked unapologetically.

“Um, sure I guess so. The cities pretty big so it wouldn’t be really far fetched to find any number of races living there.”

“All right, that’s kinda neat. . . I guess,” Rainbow said then smiled at her friend. “Um, hey Twi’ can I have my ba-,”

“No” Twilight said flatly.

“Oh come on,” Rainbow pleaded.

“Are you going to hit me with it again?”

“May-. .  I mean no,”

“Well. All right then.” Twilight smiled as she telekinetically giving the ball back to Dash.

* * *

Jasper chuckled, upending the bag of goodies onto an old table set hastily upright in the sewer maintenance area, with a grin at his glittering treasure. “Tonight I eat like a king! Well. . . I eat, anyways.” With a sigh he scooped his ill gotten goods back into their sack before running through a list of fences and pawnshops he hadn’t used in a while. ‘Ah, Silver Hammers pawnery, thats pretty close to the station, I could probably sneak through the tunnels till I get a few streets over.’ he thought to himself.

“I saw someone this way,”

“No,” Jasper whispered to himself “It’s the guild.”

“Come on, the little goblin knows better than to screw with the guild, he’s just a little later than usual in paying his dues, cut him some slack” said another voice. Jasper smiled a fang tooth filled smile.

‘Well, good to see Brainy still has a little faith in me,’ he thought, as he slinked along the side drainage tunnels.

“Wait. . . hold up that whatchamacallit. It’s beepin,” said the strange voice.

“Means we’re gettin closer.”

‘Oh dear gods! I’ve had two warnings already from the thieves guild, I don’t want them to find me! I like having my insides be inside me!’ Jasper’s mind screamed, urging him to run, but he fought back the urge and crouched lower, he knew little about the gizmos humans had, but he knew things that sensed others didn’t work very well underground, or near electrical wires. Jasper sped off towards the only maintenance tunnels he knew, he followed the tunnels headed to the Grand Station.

* * *

“Rainbow, wake up darling. We’re almost there!” Rarity cheered hopping up from her seat, eager to get the blood circulating again.

“Spike! wake up!” Twilight shot, nudging the sleepy baby dragon awake. “Pinkie, Pinkie where’d you, AH!” Twilight yelled as Pinkie Pie swung upside down outside the train window.

“Hey Twilight, you guys sure are slow,” Pinkie giggled slightly muffled by the glass. Dash seemed to perk up at this comment.

“Hey I’m not slow,” Dash said before zipping along rapidly unloading things.

“I’m up, I’m up, sheesh would you guys slow down” Spike  yawned, “Where's Fluttershy?”

“In the baggage car, would you mind going to see if she needs any help?”

“No problem,” Spike smiled, his little legs carrying him away quickly. “Oh ho ho, first thing I’m doing is sampling the local cuisine,” Spike grinned to himself as he licked his lip expectantly. He smiled as he poked his head through the baggage cars door, Fluttershy was faced away in the far corner, partially concealed by some luggage.

“Aww, aren’t you adorable?” She cooed at the bundle she now held in her forelegs.

“Um, What’s up shy?” Spike offered with one last yawn before cracking his back.

“Oh Spike, isn’t he adorable?” She said pulling back the blankets to reveal a very small green furred humanoid with long arms and blazing amber eyes of mischievous glee. Spike recoiled as it smiled at him, before smiling in turn as well.

“Yeah it is kind of cute, I guess,” He shrugged, picking up a suitcase and carrying it over head. “Come on and hurry up, we're here,” Spike called back as he hurried to meet everyone on the platform.

* * *

‘Disgusting!’ Jasper thought to himself as he crawled above the veins of the city, the utility tunnels were alway either the safest place in the city, or the most dangerous. Well perhaps not nearly as bad as the older parts of city at night, specially if you happened to have a nose bleed. ‘Damn rats!’ With a gloved clawed hand, he backhanded the rodent in front of him to the side, sending it to the greasy floor of the long snaking maze of tunnels.

“LOST HIM!” Called out the same irate voice somewhere in the distance, his voice almost lost among the sounds from the pipes.

‘Screw it, I’m not staying down here any longer, I’m headed up topside through the train station,” Jasper thought as he double timed it away from the voices

* * *

Prefect Thomas was becoming frustrated very quickly, he was supposed to have been at the train station a while ago, yet things just kept stopping him, He gave the police wagon a slap to the side as it carted off the enraged troll and some crazed mustachioed man.

“Why do trolls always think it’s a good idea to throw people, hell the other guy would have gotten away if he wouldn’t have started tearing up lampposts to hit him with,” Thomas sighed as he once again began to slowly make his way towards the train station, his package in tow. “Maybe we should spring for one of those motorized carriages.” He thought aloud to himself as he walked down the sidewalk, side stepping the odd slowpoke or two. The afternoon sun was wonderful, too bad they were going to have another rain tonight, he smiled looking up at the colorful specks already moving the clouds into place.

* * *

“Fluttershy where did you find that thing?”

“Oh, I found him in the baggage car,” She smiled even as the the little green fur ball chewed on her mane.

“Well. . . put it back, it’s probably someone's pet.” Rarity said, ignoring Pinkie and AJ as they struggled with the now extremely heavy luggage cart.

“AJ, Pinkie don’t worry about the luggage we’ve arranged for someone to deliver them to our hotel,” Twilight called out trotting after the two.

“Oh, well thats good, so where do we take it to?” AJ asked glad at no longer having to move Rarities things anymore.

“See the man in the fancy blue and silver trimmed uniform, take it over to him would you mind?” Twilight asked before turning to Fluttershy, “Shy that’s some ponies pet more than likely, you should give it to someone,”

“Alright, you're right, it’d be wrong to take the wittle guy, specially if he is someponies pet,” Fluttershy cantered to one of the humans leaned against the wall ,” Um, excuse me miss, I believe I’ve found someponies pet,” Fluttershy smiled, moving to expose the little friend she had found as he attempted to hide in her saddle bag.

“Drop that thing NOW!” The alarmed woman shouted, unholstering a silver looking boxy weapon from it’s holster, vacuum tubes along its side glowing to life with a whir.” Fluttershy gave her a confused stare.” I, I don’t understand, what’s wro-?”

“Please miss, don’t take this the wrong way but you need to unbuckle your bags and step away,” She said, moving her thumb to flip the dial, turning the tubes from a glowing red to a sunshine yellow.

“Why?” Fluttershy gasped “You're not going to hurt him are you, I haven’t done anything wrong have I?” The woman's eyes narrowed as the thing poked it’s head out of the bag and grinned wide. her eyes widened as the sparks of blue began to frizzle through its hair, and the tubes on her weapon glowed brightly, one of them even burst.

“. . . No, you’ve got a gremlin in your bag,” she spoke quickly with that her weapon discharged randomly, nearly slipping from her grasp, causing Fluttershy to stagger then fall to the floor with an “Oomph!”, as her mane to curl from the static. The Gremlin leapt freely out of it’s bag and giggled as it zigged and zagged, headed straight towards a large mechanical servant, steadily unloading luggage from the train..

“GREMLIN!” She shouted stepping over the dazed butter pegasus to fire more pulses of cascading energy at the thing as it rolled and tumbled, flinging itself skywards with a push from its powerful arms, and it landed with a thud on the mechanical hulk's head. Blue sparks emanated with it as it phased into the machine.

“Is, is that bad?” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Run. . . go, get away now!” The guardswoman yelled flipping out a vial of gray goo, and flinging it towards the machine.The vial struck the large mover in the chest even as its multi faceted lensed eyes began to glow bright red and explode. “CLEAR THE PLATFORM NOW!” She yelled dropping to one knee, two handed she sent four more rounds into the machine that was now turning towards her, gears grinding, smoke pouring forth out of slits of its iron chest plates. It let loose a soul chilling howl with an unearthly screech of twisting metal and grinding cogs it charged.