Sweeney Dash: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The sky was darkened as boat pulled into London Harbor. A purple unicorn mare sat at the bow staring off at the town in front of her. She smiled knowing she was home as she looked out across the water.

"I have sailed the world, beheld its wonders

From the Dardenells, to the mountains of Peru

But there's no place like London!"

"No there's no place like London" A dirty looking cyan pegasus sang as she walked up to the bow, her once rainbow colored mane was now black and white and looked like it hadn't been washed in months. Her face read suffering from the flicker of her muzzle to a blink of her magenta eyes.

"Mrs. Dash?" The unicorn looked at her shipmate. They had became friends near the beginning of the voyage, when they picked her up adrift at sea, but had never seen this side of her.

"You are young. Life has been kind to you." She looked at the city, her face becoming darker as her demeanor changed from depression to hatred."You will learn."

She trotted away cursing under her breath

" There's a hole in the world like a great black pit

and the vermin of the world inhabit it

and its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit

and it goes by the name of London.

At the top of the hole sit the privileged few

Making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo

turning beauty to filth and greed..."

Her Mood lightened slightly as she raised her head towards the city once more

"I too have sailed the world and seen its wonders,

for the cruelty of men is as wonderous as Peru

but there's no place like London!"

"Is everything alright Mrs. Dash?" The unicorn walked beside her friend feeling the suffering and pain in her voice as she stood beside her.

"I beg your indulgence, Antoinette. My mind is far from easy. In these once familiar streets...I feel shadows, everywhere." She stared at the sky, sadness overtaking her voice as her mind slipped into a past she once new.

"Shadows?" Antoinette asked her weary friend.

"Ghosts...."

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Rainbow walked through the streets with her wife Lucy, a blonde maned mare with a beautiful grey coat. Her eyes no matter how strange they seemed to others were beautiful to her, flickering gold whenever she blinked.

"There was a barber and her wife

and she was beautiful...

a foolish barber and her wife.

She was his reason and her life...

and she was beautiful,

and she was virtuous

And She was....naive."

They both smiled down at the young filly in the infant carriage, their beautiful daughter Johanna. Her coat as beautiful as her mother's mane, her pink mane shown brilliantly in the sunlight like diamonds dipped in pink.

Across the square a light gray, almost white, unicorn stared at the object of his desire, Lucy. The judge Turpin Blue Blood stared with longing for her, only impeded by her wife, the barber. Behind him stood the Beadle Rarity Bamford, her purple mane mostly hidden beneath a top hat, her cane held within her hoof.

"There was another one who saw

that she was beautiful...

A pious vulture of the law

who, with a gesture of his claw

removed the barber from her plate!

The judge gestured to the beadle and she ran off, within moments returning as guards began to surround the barber and beat her up. They dragged her away from her family as the judge moved in to comfort her, but she denied his attempts.

Then there was nothing but to wait!

And she would fall!

So soft!

So young!

So lost and oh so beautiful!"

Lucy stood there holding Johanna close to her, tears falling as her love was dragged away from her and both their worlds came crashing to the ground.

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"And the lady, ma'am? Did she succumb?" Antoinette inquired as her friend came back to reality, her face growing ever pale.

"Oh, that was many years ago." Sadness grew withing her as her voice lowered to nothing more than a whisper."I doubt if anyone would know..."

The boat docked and they climbed off, Antoinette's bags being unloaded as her friend stared down a cold, dark and wet ally-way. Dash looked over her shoulder at the purple mare then quickly straightened her gaze.

"I'd like to thank you Antoinette. If you hadn't spotted me, I'd be lost on the ocean still." She said as rain began to fall ahead of her.

"Will I see you again?" Antoinette walked forward to her friends side staring down the same ally-way, her world still darkened but seemingly lighter.

"You might find me if you like. Around Fleet Street, I wouldn't wonder." She stated coldly.

"Until then, my friend." She extended her hoof to the mare, but was denied as Dash began to walk down the ally-way into the darkness of the cities underbelly.

The mare stared straight ahead as she walked among garbage and rats that flooded the streets and buildings of London. Her glare was colder than ice, her voice soft yet full of homicidal malice as she walked along cursing the world she once knew beneath her breath.

"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit

and it's filled with people who are filled with shit!

And the vermin of the world inhabit it..."

She continued to walk past buildings she once knew, homeless faces that were once rich but now their lives lay in ruin and filth as the world brushed them aside. The world she once knew was gone, but she still hoped that her family will be waiting for her, happy to see her. She thought about how beautiful Lucy was and how beautiful she must still be. She also thought about Johanna and how much she has grown over the years, hopefully a proper young lady by now. Her footsteps echoed through the ally as she approached a place she once knew better than any place in London.

Fleet Street....

There was something she did notice as she looked at the old flat where she used to live, a nice old building with an upstairs parlor that she used as her shop. There was something she did not remember, but had assumed had been started in the years that she was gone. Maybe the owner would know about her family, or her family had moved on without her.

She stepped lively as she walked ever closer to the entrance to the shop beneath her old parlor.

Mrs. Pinkie Lovett's Meat Pie's