The Cider Runners of Marewaukee - a Ciderfest App Story

by Snowday_Pegasus

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 2176

Barley Tender discovers there were cider bootleggers in his family during the Roaring 20's

There is a lot of cider history in the city of Marewaukee, including the dark age of prohibition. Barley Tender learns that he had family members who were bootleggers, and they had a hidden speakeasy the very hotel that Ponyville Ciderfest is being held. Once a page from the Book of all Stories ends up in the mix, you have a chance to experience the criminal operation of Marley Tender up close and personal.

Published 2023-11-26 00:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2023-11-26 00:00:01 UTC

Beginning: Marley "The Tenderizer"

Barley and Caramel are both in shock.

“You didn’t know anything about it?” Caramel exclaimed.

Barley replied, “I’d heard somepony in my family was involved with the Draft-Horse mob, but I didn’t know just how far up the chain he was.”

“And Draft-Horse had a hideout. Here! At this hotel.”

“Pretty neat, huh? So somepony in my family was smuggling Cider here when it wasn’t legal. And I’m here serving it when it is.”

“If the hideout is still here, it sounds like a place where one of those pages might have hidden themselves.”

You offer to try and find the secret hideout.

“Thank you, [USERNAME]. We’ve got a rough idea, but it might take some effort to find,” Barley says.

After you reach the floor where the hideout is rumored to be, the three of you spend roughly a half hour feeling for cracks in the walls, stomping the floor in search of hollow sounds, and nudging random wall decor.

“Maybe workers sealed it off,” Barley suggests.

You lean against a wall and suddenly it turns behind you, causing you to stumble backwards. The heavy air in the dimly lit room forces you to cough. Somehow a faint smell of cider permeates the air.

Caramel points in your direction. “Barley, look!”

“You found it, [USERNAME!]”

As you look at the two Ponies still outside in the hallway, you notice there’s a page wedged in a split in the old wooden door. Immediately, the door begins to close.

“Wait, wait!” Barley yells as he runs towards it. You reach forward as well, but it’s too late. The door closes itself tightly and you would be lost in total darkness, were it not for the faint glow of the page. You decide to grab it and use it like a flashlight, but the moment you touch it, the whole room lights up and you hear lounge music coming from an antique radio in the corner.

There are a lot of voices speaking; some playing cards at a table in the corner, others enjoying a round of cider at the bar counter. A couple whispering not far from you catches your attention.

“So, what’s the job, Tender?”

Tender?

“Nelly, we got a pretty reliable tip that our old buddy Hal Capony is going to be striking a deal with the Apple Gang. And they’ve got some new brewing machine they call the Super Cider Squeezy. And it’s all going down… tonight.”

“That sure ain’t good. We gunna make a move?”

A loud voice speaks from right behind you, “What are you doing, sweetheart? Haven’t seen you around before.” You jump a foot off the ground. You turn around and see a white unicorn mare with a lavender mane, wearing a sparkly cocktail dress.

“Yeah, I’m… new,” you reply.

“Well, don’t be a wallflower. Let’s get you introduced to the Underboss.”

She gives you a strong push in the direction of the two Ponies you heard talking. Each of them is wearing a pristine white suit with a fedora.

“Hey, Tender. We’ve got a new recruit here,” the mare says.

“Oh, is that right, Scar?” The earth pony asks you, “What do we call you?”

“I’m [USERNAME].”

He looks at you disapprovingly. “Not the best mobster name, is it?”

The others shake their heads.

He continues, “Well, we can fix that later. We’ll give you a fitting mobster name when you’ve earned it. I’m the Underboss, Marley Tender. This pegasus here is my Capo, Equine Gun Nelly. And the one behind you is our most accomplished Femme Fatale, Scarcity; we usually just call ‘er Scar..”

Scarcity says to you with a laugh, “On the streets, Marley Tender is known as: the Marley the Tenderizer.

Tender says, “Well, [USERNAME], welcome to the Draft-Horse organization. That is… if you’re really here as part of the organization.”

Scarcity huffs loudly. “Hmm…”

“If you’re not… we might just be fitting you with a pair of cement horseshoes.”

You tense up at the threat.

He continues and points, “Just like our pal Joe Gallop over there in the corner. Say hello to the new guy, Joe, and tell him about your fancy shoes.”

“Oh, these things hurt. I’ve been wearing them for two weeks. Can I please take them off now?”

“Maybe in another week, you’ll have learned your lesson.” Tender looks back at you. So, are you in?”

What other choice do you have? You nod.

“Good. Well, you picked a good first day. This is going to be big.”

A while later, you find yourself sitting on beautiful upholstery in a covered wagon, making your way across Marewaukee. You’re surrounded by tough, able-bodied Ponies; all of them surprisingly well-dressed.

“There’s the warehouse. Stop in this alley,” Tender says.

Nelly asks, “What are they unloading? Is that the Slooper Cider Speakeasy–”

“Super Cider Squeezy. There sure is a lot of muscle over there. Looks to be a big fight if we go at them like this.” He says to you, “Hey, [USERNAME], any bright ideas?”

[CHOICE]
Chaos: Steal the Super Cider Squeezy.
Villain: Destroy Hal Capony’s warehouse.

Chaos: Stealing the Super Cider Squeezy

Tender replies, “Alright. You’ve got some Moxie. I respect that. We’ll wait and see where they stash the thing, and then we’ll move in.”

You sit in the wagon for what seems like forever. Celestia lowered the sun hours ago, and most of the city lights have been snuffed out.

“Alright. Sure it’s in the warehouse. It’s now or never. But where’s all that steam coming from?”

The moment you begin to step out of the wagon, the Super Cider Squeezy comes crashing out of the warehouse through a loading gate and making a hard turn away from your wagon, chugging steam as it goes.

Tender yells, “Somepony got here ahead of us. It’s the Grift Brothers! Get ‘em!”

The wagon takes off in pursuit of the Super Cider Squeezy as some hench ponies rip the cover off the wagon. You see old Marewaukee in all its glory now as a team of four clydesdales pull your wagon at a heart-pounding speed.

A couple of Tender’s unicorn hench ponies fire magic at the runaway machine, but Tender snaps at them, “That’s our prize, don’t break it!”

Nelly says, “Boss, that crazy contraption is going to get away if she gets out of the city.”

Tender tosses the reins to you, “[USERNAME]. Drive! Get us alongside it!”

You clench the reins tightly and give them a shake. “Hyeah!”

You manage to maneuver the wagon next to the Super Cider Squeezy, and see three Ponies in it. You can’t help but notice a couple of them look very similar to Flim and Flam. But the third?

Tender says, “It’s one of the Apple boys. That double-crosser! That’s low, even if you’re doing it to Hal Capony!”

Tender jumps off the wagon onto the strange machine, and Scarcity and Nelly quickly follow. You pull back as the street narrows, and all you can hear is the sounds of the brawl ahead as the Squeezy meanders all over the road, knocking over trees, mailboxes, and fire hydrants as it speeds along.

You see the Apple pony and one of the Grift brothers get thrown clear and then the Squeezy slows to a stop.

“That’ll teach you to try and steal what we were goin’ to try and steal,” Tender yells.

You don’t get much time to relax before you hear sirens in the distance.

“The fuzz! We gotta move, gotta move!”

You follow the Squeezy as it takes a long winding way through the city to keep all of you from getting caught, and then into an odd door a few blocks from the hideout. It leads underground to a long tunnel and into a garage.

Making your way upstairs from the garage, you find yourself back in the hideout. You take a few minutes to catch your breath from all the mayhem that just took place.

Tender punches you in the shoulder. “Not a bad day’s work, [USERNAME.] You did good.”

“Hey, what happened to the Grift brother you caught.”

“Oh, him? We put him on ice. See?” He points to the corner where a shivering Pony is sitting on a block of ice.

Tender says to all of his associates, “Hey, the rest of you get some shut-eye. I’m going to have a long talk with the Grift brother here.”

You quickly head to where the adventure began, and touch the page wedged in the door. It takes you back to the empty room, and the secret door opens in front of you.

“Are you alright?” Barley asks. “You look exhausted!”

“You would not believe where I just was,” you say excitedly.

Caramel asks, “What do you mean? You were only in there for a minute.”

You suddenly realize the page you had has disappeared. You can hear mischievous laughter echoing in your head.

You say to them, “I’ve got a story for you, and you’re going to love it.”

Villain: Destroying Al Caponey's Warehouse

“Well, you sure want to hit ‘em straight in the throat. Hey, Scar, feeling up for some demolition?”

“When am I not?”

Night falls, and you all creep out of the wagon. You think of trying to run, but you’d never find the hideout on your own.

You slip into the warehouse, which is now unguarded. Those who were guarding it, have been knocked unconscious.

“Get them outta here before we blow the place,” Tender said, as Scarcity goes towards the center of the warehouse. Then, a loud commotion starts.

“Grift Brothers?” Unicorn lasers fly as more hench ponies quickly jump into the chaos.

“Run, brother!”

A couple of Ponies flee through a backdoor, narrowly dodging unicorn beams. One of them looked suspiciously like Flim or Flam.

Tender trots over. “Well, what have we here? One of the Grift brothers?”

Scarcity says, “The other one got away, and another was with him. Looked like one of the Apple boys.” She opened a compact and reapplied her lipstick.

“A Double-crosser? That’s low, even if you’re doing it to Hal Capony! We’ll take this one back after you cast your favorite spell.

Bright floodlights suddenly shine into the warehouse.

One of the hench ponies squeals, “The Fuzz!”

“We know you’re in there, Tender,” says a voice over a loudspeaker. “Come out with your hooves held high!”

“We’re trapped,” Tender says.

“No we’re not,” you say.

You jump into the driver’s seat of the Super Cider Squeezy, pull on a lever, and the steam engine starts cranking.

Tender smiles. “Friends, we have a getaway wagon! Everypony in!”

As soon as everyone has climbed on, you push the throttle forward and the machine crashes into the streets. The night fills with sirens and flashing lights as the police give chase. Unicorn officers fire magical blasts at you.

Tender screams back, “Flatties, don’t scratch the paint, she’s brand new!” He says to his hench ponies, “Get ‘em, fellas!” Trotter’s ponies begin shooting magic back at the police, and the quiet night of Marewaukee becomes a loud and dazzling light show.

Nelly notices a large tank of cider affixed to the vehicle, and finds a lever marked, ‘flush.’ “Whoops,” he says with a smirk as he pulls it, and gallons of cider spill into the street, throwing the police wagons this way and that.

Tender smiles. “Well, that takes care of them. Hey, Scar, did you get to cast your–”

An explosion is seen off in the distance. You know it was the warehouse. Scarcity grins at Tender, and he smiles back.

“That will set Caponey back a few months. Turn left here, [USERNAME].” Tender directs you on a meandering path through the city, and then into an odd door. An underground tunnel leads to a long tunnel and into a garage.

Making your way upstairs, you find yourself back in the hideout. You take a few minutes to catch your breath from all the excitement.

Tender punches you in the shoulder. “Not a bad day’s work. You did good.”

“Hey, what happened to the Grift brother you caught,” you ask.

“Oh, him? We put him on ice. See?” He points to the corner where a shivering Pony is sitting on a huge block of ice.

“Hey, the rest of you get some shut-eye. I’m going to have a long talk with the Grift brother here.”

You quickly head to where the adventure began, and touch the page wedged in the door. It takes you back to the empty room, and the secret door opens in front of you.

“Are you alright?” Barley asks. “You look exhausted!”

“You would not believe where I just was,” you say excitedly.

Caramel asks, “What do you mean? You were only in there for a minute.”

You suddenly realize the page you had has disappeared. You can hear mischievous laughter echoing in your head.

You say to them, “I’ve got a story for you, and you’re going to love it.”