Dark Pony Brotherhood

A Trip to Manehatten

Lucien Lachance awoke early the next morning, as he had been told to do. Shaking his mane, and then straightening it out, he then headed down the ladder that lead to the barn loft.

The Sun had yet to come up, and the air was cold and the smell of dew was invading his nostrils as he left the barn, and went to the front of house, and stood, waiting for Applejack.

She had said they were going to a city nearby to sell apples. He supposed it was a regular business venture, and it would make sense. They couldn’t make a living just selling to the local ponies and cities had a habit of having more people than they could feed themselves.

He let a smirk cross his face.

He’d help them with that problem in time.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as the house door opened, Applejack came out with saddlebags on her, “Good morning Lucien,” she greeted.

“Good Morning Applejack,” the dark pony greeted. “I take it the city is far away?” he asked her.

“Not very, a couple hours walk,” she said, going back to the barn with him.

They needed to get the wagon to haul the apples. “We’ll be out there for tha whole day,” she told him.

She got herself hooked up to the cart, and pulled it out of the barn and towards the storage shed where they kept the picked apples to keep them fresh.

She and Lucien put them in the cart.

The Dark Pony noticed that there was also some planks of wood and an awning in the cart, probably to set up for market to keep the sun and rain off the produce.

Once they were set and ready to go, the sun was just peeking over the horizon. “Well, lets get goin,” said the orange earth pony. “Don’t want these here apples spoilin' before we even get to Manehattan,” she said, pulling the cart with some effort, but having done it so much in her life it didn’t take long for them to get going at a good pace.

“You sell them to his Manehattan place often?” he asked her.

“Nope, haven’t been there since I was a filly,” she told him. “Big Macintosh is usually the one ta go ta Manehattan to sell apples.”

Lucien nodded as they went along.

………….

A few hours later, the two ponies found themselves coming into Manehatten, the clear fields of country replaced by urban sprawl. It had actually taken Lucien by surprise. Who would have thought Ponies would be able to build all this.

It was a magnificent City; he supposed Manehattan could easily be compared to the Imperial City in Cyrodil. He looked to his traveling companion. “Is Manehattan the capitol?” he asked her.

She looked at him and smiled, “Shucks no, that’s Canterlot, it’s a city on the edge of the mountains, just overlookin’ Ponyville in fact,” she told him. “But Manehatten is easily just as big, probably a little bigger. It is however the center of most commerce in Equestria,” she finished.

Lucien looked around. And he had to agree. Commerce meant money, and money meant greed, and that meant two things; individuals who had a lot of money, and those who had little. And that usually lead to thievery and other sorts of things.

He resisted the urge to smile.

There was darkness in ponies hearts after all.

It wasn’t hard to see once he looked. The area they were in seemed to be a little less taken care of than the areas of town that seemed to be deeper into the city.

They were likely in a slum, or a poorer part of town. “Things sure have seemed ta change since I was last here, but that was years ago though,” said the orange earth pony.

“Are we far from the market place?” asked Lucien.

“Not too much further, jus' round the corner in fact,” she said, as they went on through the slums.

They got to the market place not too long after that. Though Lucien was surprised they weren’t mugged. A cart full of apples was more than likely a tempting prospect. He then thought about it, and another smile fit his face.

If he was correct, they’d have more trouble getting out of town.

They would have seen the cart of apples, and knew that it would mean they were selling them. It also meant that on the way out the cart wouldn’t be full of apples but money, which was always a more promising target than apples.

He helped Applejack set up the stand. They were in an open market it seemed. Ponies from all over had stands set up and it was in fact a very nice Bazaar. Ponies walked from stand to stand, buying or trading for goods that they wanted or needed.

Some seemed better to do than others. Lucien also on occasion, noticed a couple of smaller ponies, fillies and colts, sneaking a product or two from a cart or stand and running off with it. Either to eat for themselves, or to give to someone who hired them to steal it.

Lucien found himself smiling. Another sign of the true nature of ponies, or at least what he would prefer their nature to be.

Applejack saw his smile, “Pretty fancy ain’t it?” she asked, mistaking his smile for one of wonder instead of mischievous pleasure.

The dark pony looked to her, and nodded, “Indeed it is,” he said.

……………..

The day went by fairly fast. The sun started to go down, and the market place started to clear out.

Eventually, Applejack told him to start packing up. The stand was almost empty of apples, maybe a half dozen or so left, so Lucien nodded and took an apple and started to eat it as he helped her take the awning down. It would suffice as a dinner.

Applejack was pleased with herself. They had sold most of the apples, and now instead of apples to haul home, she had a large bag of bits. Her first time selling in Manehattan and it couldn’t have gone better.

“Well we certainly got ourselves a nice haul of bits didn’t we Lucien?” she asked the pony as she set the bag in the back of the cart.

“I’d say so, certainly worth all the hard work,” he agreed.

The farm pony hitched herself back up to the wagon, and started to pull it, heading back out of town the same way they came in.

Lucien kept his ears perked, listening.

He heard some shushing over the sounds of the wheels on cobblestone. Just as he suspected. He tried to hide his smirk, and mentally prepared himself. First fight as a pony may not go so well.

It didn’t take long.

Suddenly there were three ponies in front of them on the road. None of them had weapons, but they presented themselves in a threatening way. Lucien looked over his shoulder, and saw two more behind them.

Textbook robbery. And they were quite a ways in from the center of town, where anyone would be able to help them. Lucien sighed, ‘They’ve done this before.’

“Well, well, well, what have we here?” said the one in the front of them in the middle, he had a cutie mark in the shape of a thieves mask. “A couple’a business ponies, coming from the market, with a large sum of bits no doubt,” he said with a grin. “We were nice and let you come through here without a toll this morning, I’d say you two owe us double the toll now, everything you got should cover it nicely,” he laughed.

Applejack was startled but narrowed her eyes defiantly, “Out a our way, we don’t owe you nothin,” she said.

She was brave, Lucien would give her that.

The leader of the thieves laughed, “Well, I guess we’ll have to beat ya to take it then, huh?” he said, nodding to his subordinates. The two ponies in front walked towards them, Lucien couldn’t hear the other two from behind, so he assumed they were just standing there to keep them from running back into town.

The one that went for Applejack put his hoof on her shoulder, and quickly got her hoof into his jaw, knocking him back a bit, she narrowed her eyes more, ready for a fight.

Lucien smirked, and when the one who came for him turned his attention to what she was doing, Lucien turned on his hooves and bucked both his back hooves into the assailant’s chest, knocking him away and on his back.

Then the two from behind ran up to join in the fight.

To Lucien’s credit, he adapted to fighting this way pretty easily. Using momentum in a fight to strengthen your blows was no different, but his muscle and body structure being so strange and new to him still slowed him down some.

He soon found himself surrounded by three of the thieves. The two who were at their backs earlier, and the one he bucked in the chest.

Applejack was squaring off against the leader and the one left over. She was a strong pony, and wasn’t one to shy away from a fight, but the two colts clearly had her outmatched, and Lucien wasn’t fairing much better, getting very exhausted.

The leader then whistled, and two more colts came from the shadows.

‘Backup, of course,’ Lucien cursed under his breath.

Lucien growled in frustration, and reared up and slammed his hoof into the face of the closest colt, but then felt a pair of hooves slam into his side, and sent him sprawling. He was about to get back up to fight, when a hoof slammed into his side, and he felt a rib crack.

He hissed from the pain. Yet, to him, it felt oddly satisfying to feel that kind of real pain once again. He kicked at his attacker, but just got stomped again, and again.

Applejack had been charged and put on her back and held down, while the leader stomped her stomach, and then kicked her in the face.

She shook her head, clearing the stars in her vision while the leader then went to the cart, and took out the bag of bits. “Very good, makes it worth it I’d say,” he said laughing. He looked to the two beat up earth ponies, some of his goons were the worse for wear, but not nearly as bad as these two were.

He looked to the Ponies that weren’t holding down Lucien and Applejack, “Wreck their cart, fools deserve it for fightin us,” he said.

“No!” Applejack shouted at the pony, struggling to break free to defend what was hers.

Lucien just growled angrily again, and spat blood onto the hoof of the Pony who was holding him down. This earned him another stomp, but he felt himself smirk from it, before suppressing it.

He could deal with the pain, especially when he angered those who were trying to hurt him.

The thugs smashed up the cart quickly, busting the wheels and the yoke as well. The leader smirked, and took the bag of bits, and signaled to his thugs, running back into the alleyways, leaving Lucien and Applejack laying in the street, the latter of which was cursing the thugs as they ran off, but was too sore to give chase, though Lucien felt she would do so without a second thought if she could.

Lucien got on his hooves shakily, feeling the pain in his chest where he was stomped repeatedly. His mouth was filling with blood. He spat it out. His breathing was fine, so he knew his lungs were okay, it just hurt.

He got to Applejack’s side, “Are you alright?” he asked her.

She looked to be on the verge of crying, out of anger, hate, frustration, self-pity, maybe all of it. “Y-yes,” she said shakily.

Lucien could tell that lying wasn’t her strength. But even the most honest person, or pony in this case, had to lie especially when pride was on the line.

He offered her a hoof, which she took with little disagreement, and he helped her up. “We should get home, think you can walk that far?” he asked her, this only got him a nod in response. “Alright then, take it slowly,” he told her.

Once they were a fair distance from the city, Applejack choked out a sob, and lay down in the street, Smacking at the road with her hoof.

It was hard for her, she considered herself to be strong, and she was, but it wasn’t enough.

The whole situation made her angry, and she hated herself for not being stronger, not strong enough to hang onto what she earned and owned.

She didn’t want to cry in the city, and she didn’t want to cry in front of Lucien, but she couldn’t stop, she felt so weak and she hated it.

Lucien just stood there, watching her, waiting for her to cry herself out. He understood how she felt, in a way at least. Everything goes well in the day, and suddenly someone takes it all out from under you.

He was betrayed by his closest family after all.

Lucien had stopped spiting blood long ago, but was still sore, and he was almost certain that one of his ribs was broken.

He was however, intent on returning later tonight, not for the crying Pony in front of him. But because the frustration had given him the urge to kill, and it would be good to get those bits back.

He had remembered their cutie marks, especially that one with the thieves mask.

………

It wasn’t too long after that, when Applejack had calmed down, and stopped crying, her expression still angry at their situation, but she had gotten rid of her feelings of failure.

She apologized, and he told her not to worry about it and they continued on their way back to the farm.

And while the journey seemed to take forever, it had only been dark for about an hour by the time they got back.

Big Macintosh was at the barn, putting away some of the farming equipment, having just gotten done himself. He saw them coming up, and raised an eyebrow, obviously interested in their condition.

He went to them, “What in tarnation happened ta you two?” he asked.

Applejack frowned, and ran to the house, getting inside, still not ready to tell her older brother that she had failed.

Lucien however had no difficulty, “We were mugged on our way out of the city, we gave them a fight, but they had us outnumbered, they took all the bits and wrecked the cart,” he informed him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do a better job protecting it,” he said, somewhat honestly.

He was disappointed In himself that he wasn’t able to stop the thugs, but he was happy that he got the chance to fight again, the adrenaline pumping through his veins was like an ecstasy, though he could have done without the broken rib.

As Lucien told him what happened, Big Macintosh’s brow seemed to ridge in concentration and anger. Lucien went on to describe what the assailants looked like. “I understand, t’weren’t none your fault,” he said to the dark pony. “Will you be okay?” he asked him.

Lucien nodded, “Think they just cracked a rib, though I may check in with Nurse Redheart tomorrow to see if anything is out of place,” he said.

The red stallion nodded, “You go get some rest, and don’t push yourself too hard,” he said, “I gotta see to my kin,” he said, heading inside.

Lucien bid him a goodnight, and went to the barn.

He had to see about making some form of weapon, if he was going to kill those thieves tonight.

He climbed to the loft, and started to look for pieces of wood that maybe splintering. And luckily found a fairly large piece.

It would have to do.

He started to shave the edges of it with his hoof.

Finally, he would be able to offer Sithis pony blood.