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...."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"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
Sweeney Dash: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Pinkie Lovett's Meat Pies
Rainbow Dash walked up to the dusty door of Mrs. Pinkie Lovett's Meat Pies, giving a quick passing glance to the exterior stairs. She pushed open the door, a cloud of dirt and cobwebs exploded in a cloud of dust in front of her face. The inside of the small shop was disgusting to say the least. A layer of dirt covered everything, leaving a lifeless and cold feel to the place. Besides the multitude of cockroaches roaming the nooks and crannies, the only sign of life was a pony behind the counter cutting vegetables. Her pink mane was matted, her clothes looked as zombified as her paling pink coat. She looked nearly dead.....that or completely insane.
As Dash put one hoof back through the door frame, the pony looked up at her. Her eyes filled with a mixture of shock and alil happiness at the sight of the cyan pegasus.
GASP "A Customer!" the pony called out as she rushed around the counter to greet her first customer in what had seemed like ages, stabbing the large knife she used for slicing vegetables into the counter. Dash barely had time to react before she was being ushered around the store.
"Wait!
What's your rush? What's your hurry?
You gave me such a --
Fright, I thought you was a ghost!
Half a minute, can'tcher sit! Sit you down, sit!"
The pink pony forced Dash deep into a booth seat, rushing back over to the counter picking up where she left off making her pies.
"All I meant is that I haven't seen a customer for weeks!
Did you come here for a pie, ma'am?
Do forgive me if me head's a little vague --"
"Ugh! What is that?"She grabbed a roach off her work space and threw it down to the floor crushing it beneath her hoof
"But you think we had the plague!
From the way that people
Keep avoiding --"
"No you don't!" She smashed another roach on her counter covered in powder, continuing to roll some dough right on it. Then she grabbed a already made pie and set it on a plate. She blew the dust off and dropped it down in front of her customer.
"Heaven knows I try, ma'am!
But there's no one comes in even to inhale!
Right you are, ma'am , would you like a drop of ale?
Mind you, I can't hardly blame them!
These are probably the worst pies in London!
I know why nobody cares to take them,
I should know,
I make them,
But good? No!
The worst pies in London,
Even that's polite!
The worst pies in London,
If you doubt it, take a bite!"
Dash poked at it with her hoof before taking a bite. She held the bite in her mouth trying to keep from puking. The pony could tell what she was trying to do.
Is that just disgusting?
You have to concede it!
It's nothing but crusting!
Here, drink this, you'll need it!
She sat a large pint of ale in front of her, which she jumped at the chance to take the drink to get the taste off her tongue.
"The worst pies in London...
And no wonder with the price of meat
What it is
When you get it
Never
Thought I'd live to see the day
Men'd think it was a treat
Findin' poor
Animals
Wot are dyin' in the street!"
"Mrs. Mooney has a pie shop!
Does a business but I notice something weird.
Lately all her neighbors' cats have disappeared!
Have to hand it to her --
Wot I calls
Enterprise
Poppin' pussies into pies!"
"Wouldn't do in my shop!
Just the thought of it's enough to make you sick!
And I'm tellin' you, them pussycats is quick!
No denying times is hard, ma'am
Even harder than the worst pies in London!
Only lard and nothing more --"
"Is that just revolting,
All greasy and gritty?
It looks like it's molting,
And tastes like,
Well, pity"
"A woman alone,
With limited wind,
And the worst pies in London!
Ah, ma'am , times is hard,
Times is hard!"
She picked up her rolling pin and slammed it onto the now crumpled body of a very large and juicy roach. Dash drank more ale, the taste of the pie still lingering no matter how much she drank.
"It's going to take a lot more than ale to get that taste outta your mouth. Come into the den, I'll get you a nice tumbler a' gin, eh?" The pony, who Dash had figured to be Pinkie Lovett, motioned her to the back room. Dash obliged, curious about this strange mare, but mostly wanting the taste out of her mouth.
They stepped into the den, the room was filled with knickknacks and dusty antiques. A stairway lay vacant just outside the doorway, a haunting feel creeping from the dim light of the dirty windows. Mrs. Lovett trotted over to the mantle, pouring a large glass of gin as she talked in her eerily upbeat voice.
"Isn't this homey now. Got me wallpaper at a bargain, only partly singed when the chapel burned down," She talked out loud, not caring if anyone was listening, as she handed Dash the gin. She barely got hold of the glass before it was emptied and Pinkie began to pour another one. "There's a good girl, now sit and warm your bones." She motioned for Dash to sit down on the ragged looking couch in front of the fire place. Once again Rainbow obliged at the offer, but stared off at the empty stairwell.
"If times are so hard, Mrs. Lovett, then why don't you rent out your upper room?" Dash asked as she threw back her second tumbler of gin.
"No one will go up there, they say it's haunted." Pinkie said in a mournful tone as she stared off at the stairs too.
"Haunted?"
"Who's to say they're wrong. You see, something happened up there many years ago. Something...not so nice." Pinkie stated staring off into space. Dash stared intently at her, hoping for news of her family. Hoping they were ok.
"There was a barber and her wife.
And she was beautiful...
A proper artist with a knife,
but they transported her for life.
And she was beautiful..."
Her eyes darted over to Dash. "Dash was her name, Rainbow Dash." The room felt colder at the mention of the name.
"What was her crime?" Dash asked coldly, sadness and fear taking over her.
"Foolishness.... "
Pinkie stared off into the distance once more
"He had this wife, ya see.
Pretty little thing,
silly little nit.
Had her chance for the moon on a string...
Poor thing!
Poor thing!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lucy sat at the window of her apartment, tears streaming down her face as she stared down at the merciless streets below. Around the corner, just in her line of sight, Judge Blue Blood stood with a bouquet of flowers, The Beadle Rarity Bamford standing beside him as he raised it to her sights.
"There was this judge, ya see...
Wanted her like mad!
Everyday he sent her a flower
But did she come down from her tower?
Sat up there and sulked by the hour
Poor fool!
Ah, but there was worse yet to come
Pure thing!"
She turned away from her window and looked down at her filly, a beautiful yellow pegasus with flowing pink hair. The Judge looked down and threw the flowers into a dirty mud puddle as he stormed off, Rarity following close behind.
"Well, Beadle calls on her all polite
Poor thing!
Poor thing!
The judge, he tells her, is all contright.
He blames himself for her dreadful plight.
She must come straight to his house tonight!
Poor thing!
Poor thing!"
Later that night, Rarity showed up at Lucy's doorstep, telling of how The Judge was sorry for her tragedy and wanted to apologize personally for what happened. She dragged poor Lucy along the dark ally ways of London leading to the judges house.
"Of course when she goes there...
Poor thing!
Poor thing!
They're having this ball all in masks.
There's no one she knows there!
Poor dear!
Poor thing!
She wonders, tormented and drinks!
Poor thing!
The judge has repented, she thinks.
Poor thing!
"Oh where is Judge Turpin?" she asks..."
Lucy stumbles around the party looking for Turpin, throwing back whatever drink she can find. Turpin is standing in the corner, a mask covering his eyes but not his intentions as he moves towards the helpless and drunken woman.
"He was there, alright!
Only not so contright!
She wasn't no match for such craft, ya see.
And everyone thought it so drull.
They figured she had to be daft, ya see.
So all of them stood there and laughed, ya see!
Poor soul!
Poor thing!"
The Judge removed his mask as he descended on the poor woman, her screams ripping through the air as he began to remove her night dress and defile her twisting form. The other guest laughed and the Beadle stared with a smile of triumph written across her face as the woman let out a primal scream
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Dash screamed, enraged by the image the story placed into her mind. Her eyes glowed with a savage rage as the world she once knew came back into perspective. Pinkie looked at her in shock. "Would no one have mercy on her?"
"So it is you. Rainbow Dash." Pinkie said to the shattered remains of a mare in front of her.
"Where is my wife? Where is my Lucy!"
"Poisoned herself. Changeling venom, from a herbalist around the corner.l tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen to me."
Dash fell back into her seat, a tear falling from her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and not another one fell.
"And he's got your daughter."
Dash looked at her. 'H-he?...........Judge Turpin?"
"Adopted her like his own."
The color drained from Dash's face as she staggered around the room.
"Fifteen years....sweating in a living hell on a false charge." She was talking, of course, of the mines situated below the city of Cloudsdale. " Fifteen years dreaming that i might come home to a wife and child."
"Well i can't say the years have been kind to you Rainbow Dash."
"No! Not Rainbow. That bitch is dead. It's Sweeney now..... and she will have her revenge."
((AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter was a little harder than the others will be to convey the emotions here and i hope i did my best. More to come!))
Sweeney Dash: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
"Come wit me, deary." Pinkie motioned for Dash to follow her up the stairs to the old loft room. The stairs creaked and groaned like a million dead souls screaming out in their abyssal horror. They continued up the stairs until they reached a large wooden door. Pinkie pressed on it gently, causing it to swing forward and release a cloud of dust up into the air.
Dash slowly pushed passed Pinkie and crossed the room to a large vanity mirror that sat on one end of the loft. A few trinkets sat on the edge of the vanity, most of them old lather jars and brushes. They were all meaningless to her as she focused on an old picture frame that she had not touched in many a year. It contained two photos, one being of her wife, the other his wife and daughter. She picked it up slowly, her hoof caressing the cold glass covering. She quickly sat the picture frame down and made her way over to a crib that sat opposite the vanity. It was old, rusted and charred, the metal frame bending and flaking away from years of disrepair. She moved closer and peered over the edge at a burned quilt that covered the interior of the crib. She pressed her hoof to it, the corner crumbling away as she lifted it. The mattress below had been worn away, a spring skeleton laying motionless. Her eyes wandered until they fell upon a small pony doll that had been melted by intense heat and had melded to the frame. Dash would have cried had she the emotions within her to do so. A sound from the other side of the room made her jump abit. She turned and faced Pinkie, who was slowly lifting up a wooden panel hidden in the floor.
"I hid these away when they came to take the girl. Thought about selling them once, but...." She lifted out a small red box and slid it over to Dash. Dash slowly picked up the box, it's wooden stain barely succumbing to years of neglect and the effects of the weather. Her hoof slid lowly across the top until it reached a small silver clasp that held the box closed tight. She pressed on it enough for the clasp to release and the lid to slowly raise. Inside were Dash's most prized possessions. Several silver straight-edge razors She looked like she was about to break down, her breath becoming heavy and thick as kerosene as she removed one from it's hibernation. She lifted the blade to her face, her hoof slowly sliding the razor from it's handle. It flipped out with ease, Dash's breath becoming even more heavy. She quickly grabbed another, keeping it closed, but holding it up to the light.
"Those handles are chased silver, ain't they?" Pinkie asked, her pale face focused on Dash's
"Silver......." Dash said in a quick breath that seemed to knock the wind right out of her. ".....yes."
Dash stood and moved slowly over to the window. She raised the open razor up into the light, the other flicked outward from her hoof, opening as smooth as butter, the light reflecting off of it flashing across the room.
"These are my friends.
See how they glisten.
See this one shine...How he smiles...in the light..
My friend.....my faithful friend...."
Dash slowly raised the blade resting in her left hoof to her ear, as if listening for some response that she would never receive.
"Speak to me friend.
Whisper, I'll listen.
I know, I know....you've been locked....out of sight all these years
Like me my friends
Well, I've come home....to find you waiting
Home.....and we're together....
And we'll do wonders.....
won't we?"
Dash slowly walked closer to the window, the blades in her hooves raised skywards, her eyes reflecting every inch of the silver surface. Pinkie stood slowly and moved closer to her, her voice somber and soft as silk.
"You there, my friend?
I'm you're friend too Ms. Dash
Come let me hold you
If you only knew Ms. Dash
Now, move aside
Ohh, Ms. Dash
You're warm in my hand
My friend
You've come home
My clever friends
Always had a fondness, for you I did"
Dash slowly closed one of her blades and let it rest in the case. The other she held tight in her hooves as the two knelled on the cold wood floor.
"Rest now my friend
Never you fear Ms. Dash
Soon I'll unfold you
You can move in here Ms. Dash
Soon you'll know
Splendors you have never have dreamed....all your days
Will be yours
My lucky friends
I'm your friend and now you're mine
So now you'll shine
Don't they shine beautiful
Was merely silver
Silver's good enough for me
Friends
Ms. D
You shall drip rubies...you'll soon drip precious....rubies..."
Dash tilted the blade a small bit, it's silver gleam reflecting the pale face of Pinkie Lovett as it peered over Dash's shoulder. She didn't even give her the slightest bit of acknowledgement before her demeanor once again changed.
"Leave me...."
Pinkie hesitated a moment, but slowly began to stand and make her way from the window to the large door and down the stairs. Dash waited until her hoof steps where no longer heard before she stood and raised her hoof to the horizon, the blade open and pointed outward.
"At last....my arm is complete!"
