chapter one: Branching Out
Bloodied Hands
Chapter one: Branching Out
A young boy of no more than sixteen sat in the bathroom of a modern apartment, one with a grand view of the river Thames and the city of London. The boy wore clean casual trousers without a shirt on, leaving his bruised and bloodied upper-body exposed. His face and arms had a layer of grit, dirt and blood, his torso was also covered in bruises and small cuts. The boy handled a small bath towel and using it he cleaned his body, he then followed to use antiseptic to clean the cuts and apply plasters to the worst of them.
This slow process of cleaning took about half an hour to complete and by the time the boy walked out of the bathroom the sun had retreated beyond the horizon and the moon was peaking up from beyond the opposite side of the world. The city didn’t stop though and the streets were already full of nightlife and people having a better time than the boy. Periodic helicopters flew over the city and police cars scuttled throughout the city, all of them looking for that boy.
The boy slipped on a black T-shirt and black hoodie, before lying down on the bed. The apartment was clean and modern, but also carried no real personality. That was fine with the boy as he didn’t want to be judged by any kind of personality at that moment. He always felt a little bit like this after a job, but more so tonight because of his cockup.
On the wall in front of the bed was a TV with a small table below, the boy contemplated turning it on but he didn’t want to see the aftereffects of his actions. So instead he rolled onto his left and stared out at the city. It was a beautiful city but also carried many crimes; few people really know that the biggest crimes are often carried by the most beautiful parts of the city. It was these crimes that the boy hated and it was these crimes he wished to stop.
The boy lay there for a long time and his only interruption the ringing of the bedside phone. The boy sighed, he had been expecting this call and he feared what it would mean. Sitting on the edge of the bed he reached out and lifted the receiver to his ear.
“Hello Alex” came the gentle feminine voice of the woman who always gave him his missions, “seems that you made quite the bit of mess”
“Don’t give me the lecture, how else was I supposed to know that he was having an affair” Alex responded, his voice was quite but he spoke confidently.
“Don’t worry, we don’t blame you for the mess, intelligence should have picked up on that.”
“It would have been a clean hit if that whore wasn’t hiding in the en suite. Of course she came out to find his body and raised the whole roof with her scream” a little bit of anger had slipped into Alex’s voice but he took a breath and calmed down. “It was a shock to see here there screaming at me. I had to ditch the body and get out before I got killed, and I did that barely.”
“Like I said don’t worry, we don’t blame you for it.” Despite her reassurance worry was still etched on Alex’s face. “It’s too risky for you to stay in the UK. We’re going to put you on loan to a smaller group in another country; one of their correspondents is going to meet you in a moment. It is still your choice as to whether or not you wish to go with them, but unless there is another group immediately available we’re going to have to exclude you from the organization.”
Alex gave a nod, while he still had a choice there weren’t many favourable ones being offered to him. He also knew what being put on loan meant, if you were lucky you were only away for a few years, but most likely he would end up working with that new group the rest of his working life. That option did seem to inch ahead of the option of being left alone with an entire country after him.
“I guess this is goodbye then.” Alex said to the woman, his voice cracking a little from the thought of no longer hearing the woman’s voice which he had heard for many years. “Funny after all these years and I still don’t know your name.”
“For what it’s worth it has been an honour working with you Alex, you have quite a good moral compass considering what we do and I hope you retain that while you’re away” the woman’s voice could be heard to crack a little with the emotion. “And my name is Alice by the way”
“Is it really?”
“No, it’s not.” She said with a chuckle “for security reasons we can’t give our real names so we say fake ones”.
Alex to let out a small chuckle, “well goodbye, if I return I look forward to working with you again”
“Goodbye Alex” and with that the phone was hung up. Alex was probably never going to hear that voice, and if he did it would be a long time till that moment.
Still things could be worse, a lot worse in this line of work. “Well that representative will be arriving soon might as well make a meal while I wait” Alex said aloud to himself. So Alex went into the kitchen and started whipping up spaghetti Bolognese, one of his favourite dishes.
While cooking Alex let his mind wander and he felt himself thinking about how he had gotten into this business. He thought about the first day that lead to everything in the last few years, the day his parents were killed, the day when he first killed. He would never forget that day and those moments would forever be burned into his mind. His parents never deserved their death, they had simply been trying to expose the truth, but those fuckers didn’t want that exposure. So they hired some gang to kill them, make it look like a mugging gone wrong. He still felt his blood boil when thinking about those that were involved, but there was nothing more to do to them, they had already been shot, stabbed and neck snapped. Then later on he was approached by…
KNOCK. KNOCK.
And with that door-knock his train of thought was derailed. Straitening his clothes Alex walked up to the door and looked through the eyepiece. On the other side of the door stood a female figure, she wore a large grey coat that had a high collar and to top it off she wore a wide brimmed hat. She looked like someone in a cheesy detective flick. The hat cast a deep shadow that hid her features and she stood completely still waiting for the door to be answered. Alex reasoned that this must be the representative he was told he was going to meet. So he opened the door
“Good morning Mr Alex” came a soft feminine voice, but one that gave the impression that the voice could cut like a blade when needed. Alex had heard many a voice like it before.
“It’s the Evening” Alex spoke matter of factly.
“Err… yes I knew that… I was just err testing you” the woman’s voice faltered, it was clear that she was new to this, so Alex decided not to stress it further as he didn’t want to offend his possible future employer.
“Would you like to come in?” Alex asked stepping aside and waving hand towards the inside of the apartment.
“Thank you” the woman said before taking a few steps into the room and removing her cloak and hat, revealing her clothes and face. She wore black converse and a pair of jeans that hugged the hips before widening off slightly at the ankle; on her torso she wore a black buttoned shirt. She was also drop dead gorgeous; her face was clean without blemishes but was devoid of makeup, and she had the figure that could have been that of a model. Her hair was long and brown, dangling a bit lower than her shoulders.
Alex felt his jaw hit the floor and only just managed to recover his professionalism before she noticed his gawping. Giving a slight cough Alex asked “So could I interest you to some spaghetti Bolognese, miss…”
“Eclipse” she answered to the question while turning and flashing Alex a smile that most men would fight over, “and no I do not wish to have any food, I have already ate”.
With a shrug Alex offered a seat at the table before turning into the kitchen to grab his food. ‘Can’t do business on an empty stomach’ Alex thought to himself as he served up his food on a plate. Coming back into the dining room/living room he took a seat opposite Eclipse.
“So you are going to be the one employing me I hear” Alex stated before taking a mouthful of spaghetti.
“Yes the group I work for are looking to employ you, because you display traits that the others do not”
“What’s that? Me being sixteen”
Giving a slight smile she answered “no, because you have morality”
That made Alex raise a slight eyebrow, usually people wanted him because of his young age and his ability to get away with things adults couldn’t. Although it was true that he had built up a reputation of only accepting jobs where the target had reason to be targeted, Alex refused to kill in an innocent in cold blood.
“Ok then. It was mentioned that I would be going to another country, which country will it be?”
“Sorry but I can’t tell you the name of the country and I can’t tell you many details about it. What I can tell you though is that we work for the betterment of the country.” Eclipse said with a smile on her face, the kind of smile that someone has when they now a joke that someone else doesn’t. She also occasionally glanced at Alex’s plate of food, Alex just figured she didn’t like Italian.
“So you work for the country, does that mean I have Government backing” Alex asked, “ also if you aren’t sharing details how come the organization I’m with even accepted this loan?”
“Sorry but they consider you a liability now, that last job gained you too much of a reputation, they were just happy to give you over to someone else” she gave a sad smile as she told Alex the news, and with that news Alex’s hopes of returning to the UK were dashed. “Also no you won’t have government backing. We work for the Government, but not with the government, also we have a monarchy.”
“A monarchy?” Alex asked raising an eyebrow, “better not be a tyrannical monarchy.”
“Don’t worry the monarchy is good and I think you will agree when you see for yourself. The main threats are large corporations trying to manipulate the rules and the leaders of the smaller parts of Government below the monarchy.” She said all this with a slight smile to herself, again that smile that hinted at being in on some joke. “So Alex do you accept our invitation to our group”
Alex thought for a moment and then came to a conclusion, not that there was much to conclude. “Yes I guess I will give your group a whirl”
Eclipse smiled joyfully at the answer, “I’m sure you won’t regret it”. She stood up and walked up to the floor to ceiling window and looked out upon the city. “When you arrive head North East and head towards the city with the tallest and largest skyline, and avoid going into any smaller settlements. When you arrive in the city find a small business on the western outskirts called ‘Wagon Wash’, also avoid being seen by the locales. Your own supplies will be provided as well as other equipment, it is only a couple days travel I’m sure you can handle it”
With a nod Alex asked the next reasonable question, “So when we leaving, after the heat dies down”
Eclipse turned to look over her shoulder with a sly smile, again hinting at being in on a joke, and gave a slightly unreasonable answer, “Right now”.
And with that Alex got one last thought before it felt like his body was sucked through a tube, exploded across the universe and compacted into a single atom, all at the same time, and he blacked out. In case you’re wondering what that last thought was it went somewhere along the lines of ‘Dat ass’.
Thanks for reading please leave me some creative criticism below. Also there will be whole lot more ponies in the chapters to come
chapter two: Waking and Walking
Bloodied Hands
Chapter two: Waking and Walking
The universe was black and colourless; nothing was there except for the inky black darkness that stretched out infinitely. There was still conscious but a lack of the senses, Alex just drifted through the darkness not even feeling his body. A warm glow began in his mind and spread out wards and he began to feel the various limbs of his body, but he was incapable of moving them. The first sense to approach his conscious was touch, and with it he could feel the grass below him, and unfortunately a rock that was jabbing into his back. Hearing returned next and with it he was approached by the sounds of the wind whistling through the trees and distant birds singing their songs. Smell returned and he was greeted by the smell of fresh un-polluted air and fragrant flowers. Next on the list to return was taste and with it came the flavour of saliva. Then finally vision returned and Alex looked forward to greeting it again. The centre of his vision became a light, which expanded and momentarily blinded Alex. After a second his eyes adjusted and he got his first view of where he was.
He was situated on the side of a hill, but at a point that was flat and hidden behind a tree. Beyond the tree he could see a large forest that stretched out from the base of the hill and wrapped around the hill. Beyond the forest he could make out a small town with yellow thatch roofing, he could see dots moving around the town but couldn’t discern any details of the inhabitants. To the right there was a large mountain off in the distance, it was hard to tell from such a distance but there looked like there was a structure on the side. Off to the left the forest continued to stretch out for a long distance before reaching an end.
“Well, where the fuck am I?” Alex questioned himself out loud. He gazed out at the world before turning around to see what was behind him. On the small flat part of the hill he stood was a small spring feeding into a rock basin before draining away into a small stream. Also what made Alex grin was that his large container had been left there, as well as some hiking bag that looked modified with extra pockets and external slings.
Rubbing his hands together he walked up to his container, flipped the catches off, and lifting the lid. Alex grinned again when he noticed that everything was still in place, from his balisong knife (butterfly knife) to his sniper. Although on top of his kit was a small folded piece of paper, Alex opened it and read:
Dear Alex
I hope the transportation didn’t leave you to rough and that you are well, you are going to need your strength for your first test. This first test is about survival in the wilderness and I need you to start from this location and move north-east towards large city with a very unique skyline. The travel will take many days and will require you to fend for yourself and collect your own food, water and shelter. One thing though AVOID all contact with the citizens of this country and stay out of all settlements until you reach the before mentioned city. Good luck, a compass has been left for you and I hope you do like the bag, I’m sure it will be useful. Remember look for the small business on the western side called “Wagon Wash”.
-Eclipse
‘Well great’ thought Alex, ‘now I’ve got a long walk ahead of me’. And with that Alex gave a sigh and sat on a rock next to the spring. Cupping his hands he scooped some water up and took a quick drink of the life sustaining substance. With another sigh he wandered over to his container and the bag, now he had the difficult job of choosing what he wanted to bring with. He began by choosing the essentials and placing them in the bag. He soon realised that there was always room to pack with, and before you know it everything had been packed into the bag, even the things that shouldn’t have even been able to fit in the bag.
With a raised eyebrow, he stood back and looked at the bag. Despite it being full of all manner of equipment, the bag barely even looked full. When he lifted it up he found it to be extremely light for something that should have weighed many times his own weight. Opening it up he could see the items he placed inside and when he removed something they seemed to rise up to fill the space, and then when he placed it inside they moved away to make space. Mind boggled, Alex stared at the bag as his brain started to hurt trying to comprehend it.
With a final shrug he decided not to question it, it did provide him with a convenience after all. He then put on some better clothing for the trip, which consisted of some hiking boots, crag hopper trousers’, t-shirt and black hooded jacket. Hefting the bag up onto his back he pulled out a compass and aligned himself up with north east and began the first steps of his journey.
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The sun was nearing the horizon and it wouldn’t be long till it started getting dark. Alex took this as a cue to get a camp set up. Placing the bag down against a tree he began collecting firewood and organising it into a small campfire. Once the fire was lit and the fire well supplemented with fuel, Alex went over to his bag. Next to get was some food and so he needed to hunt. Opening up his bag to retrieve his bow and arrows, he found them to be at the top of the bag. Again he gave the bag a look and hesitated when pulling out his bow.
With his bow at hand and arrows in a quiver on his back, Alex stalked into the forest.
It wasn’t long until he came across a small clearing, in the centre of which was a small collection of rabbits feeding on the grass and plants. There was about ten milling about, one of which was a small white bunny that looked as if it was in charge. Alex didn’t know much about rabbits but he was sure that they didn’t spend so much time out in the open. Alex just reasoned that the rabbits just weren’t used to predators and thusly would make this much easier. Drawing an arrow and nocking it on the string, he stood up and pulled back on the string bringing his hand under his chin and aiming down the sight. With a slight exhale he released the string sending the arrow whistling through the air and hitting the bulls-eye, right through the rabbit’s eye. The other rabbits froze in shock and Alex took the opportunity to fire a second arrow and score a second hit. The rabbits finally reacting sprinted out of the clearing and into the forest. The white rabbit turned at the edge and gave Alex a glare before turning and sprinting away.
Alex wandered over and bent over the first rabbit before recovering his arrow, as he picked up the rabbit he heard rustlings from outside the clearing. Sprinting over to the other side of the clearing he lay down behind a tree.
A timid female voice faintly came across the clearing, “oh dear what’s the matter? Where are we going? Has something bad happened?”. This was then followed by the rustlings of the bushes as she entered the clearing, the tone of her voice then became shaken and frightened. “Oh my, oh dear. What did this? Who did this? I feel sick. We’re going to have to take him to his family. Who would do this?” the female voice broke into sobs and he heard the sound of her moving into the centre of the clearing and then moving away out of the clearing.
When the sounds of the sobs died down Alex leaned out from the tree and saw that the second dead rabbit had been taken by the girl. He felt sorry for traumatizing the girl but there was little he could do. With a shrug Alex began his walk to his camp; it was going to be cooked rabbit for dinner.
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The next day Alex woke up behind a tree that was off to the side of his camp, he had slept there in case it rained. Alex identified what had woken him up, two voices talking over by his campfire, fortunately the tree blocked the view and so they hadn’t seen him, but this also meant he couldn’t see them. Staying completely still he held onto his bag, ready to run if he needed to, in the meantime he would listen in on them.
“So you’re saying Angel came to you and lead you to a clearing with a dead rabbit with an arrow though its eye.” said a female voice that sounded like it belonged to someone very smart who read a lot of books.
“Yes. Except there was another rabbit missing meaning whatever mean creature killed that one, took the other one away” again it was that timid voice from yesterday.
“Seems you were very close to whatever it was yesterday, as this campfire would support”
“Could it still be here?”
“It looks like it has already left”
“Oh ok, can we go now”
“Sure there’s no need to be here any longer. We’ll just have to wait and see if this repeats” finished the smarter sounding one, to which both began moving away. Wanting a look at the speakers Alex risked being seen and looked out from behind the tree. All he saw was a fleeting glimpse of two colours: lavender and yellow, as they disappeared into the bushes.
With a sigh of relief Alex hefted up the bag and slung it on his back. Bending down he also picked up his combat knife in its sheaf, he had used it yesterday to skin the rabbit and cut slices of meat. Strapping the sheaf to his leg Alex began his next day of his journey and wandered off into the forest, before promptly realising he was walking the wrong way and turning around
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The next two days went by without any mishaps and he hadn’t run into any more locals, not even having a view of the two others from the first day. It had been a long walk but it was finally coming to an end. Crossing over a hill he got his first view of the target city, the city was large and had a tall skyline that reminded Alex of the skyline that Manhattan had. He camped out and predicted to be arriving at the western edge of the city by nightfall tomorrow.
So there he was walking towards the western edge of the city, he kept to the wooded areas in the dark so as to avoid being seen by any locals. When he finally got close enough to the treeline by a road the sight he saw made his jaw drop, and he definitely heard the thud of it hitting the ground.
chapter three: Urban Exploration
Bloodied Hands
Chapter three: Urban Exploration
It was dark and Alex stayed crouched, hidden behind a bush. He was at the edge of the woods and in front of him was a road with many houses lined along the opposite side that were mostly three stories high, the one exception was a two story bar directly across the street. There wasn’t anything unusual about the buildings; it was what was outside and inside them that was unusual.
Ponies, techni-coloured ponies. Just strolling down the street, a few going into the houses and a few making their way to the bar. They were all kinds of colours and they all had weird markings on their flanks, what really got Alex was that some had wings while others had horns.
After Alex had picked up his jaw he sat back on the ground and just stared for a moment, completely lost at how to react. He then raised his hand and formed a fist, then punched himself in the face. “Fuck, guess I’m not dreaming.” Alex exasperated in a hushed tone. He glanced back across the street and started to feel panic rise in his chest, ”Oh fuck, oh fuck oh fuck!” he swore, his breathing becoming more rapid. Reaching for his bag he pulled out a bag and began hyperventilating into it, and after a few breaths his breathing started to calm down.
“ok,ok. What do I do, what do I do?” Alex asked himself, beginning to feel the panic return “I know find Eclipse she’s human; she knows what’s going on. Ok”. With that plan in his mind he clung to it like a safety line.
Looking across the road he took a few breaths and calmed down enough to set out a plan. He couldn’t be seen by the pony things but he needed to travel and get around. His attention was turned towards the bar when the bouncer pulled out an already drunk stallion, “ Get out of here you drunken bum” the bouncer told the stallion before slamming the door shut and going back in. The stallion then stumbled towards the alley to the side of the bar, and then promptly vomited on the wall and pissed on the garbage before wandering off in a drunken stupor.
That’s when Alex’s eye caught something, in the alley the dumpster could be used to reach the bar’s fire escape and then get up onto the roof. It would be a start and from the roofs he wouldn’t be seen, now he just needed to cross a brightly lit road to the other side without being seen. Biting his lip Alex looked around for inspiration. He saw some of the streetlamps were shattered, probably vandals. Looking at the ground he saw some good sized rocks lying about, with a smile Alex picked one up and thought that no one would be to suspicious if a few more lights were to break.
After breaking the fourth light Alex had cleared a path of dark from one side to the other. He was about to move when the bar’s door opened again, and there stood the bouncer. “Fucking vandals! Get out of here you stupid cunts!” he shouted scanning the road for a reaction. When he received none he grunted and slammed the door closed.
With a sigh of relief Alex stood up and ran across the now empty street towards the alley. Without breaking pace he vaulted up onto the dumpster and jumped up and grabbed the edge of the fire escape. Straining his arms he managed to pull himself up and over the hand rail, and then proceeded to stop and take a few lungful’s of air. After half a minute of catching his breath he climbed up the fire escape and onto the roof of the bar. The roof was a simple gravel one and was devoid of any features apart from a skylight. Walking up to the skylight he looked in to see the living room of the apartment above the bar, probably lived in by the owner of the bar. There wasn’t anything special about the room and it was devoid of any living creatures, so Alex moved on. He continued across the roof to the other side from which he climbed up. On this side the next door building was attached to the bar and so its fire escape came down onto the roof of the bar, this made it all the more easier for Alex to get on top of the three story housing line.
Looking across the roofs he had a clear and simple path to take and so he got jogging down the length of houses. The houses stretched on for a good distance and stopped at another road, looking across Alex saw a large warehouse factory type of building that looked abandoned for a long time. It looked like the best place around for Alex to camp out in without raising the suspicions of the residents. Only problem would be getting across the road and into the building. The road below was wider than the last and was busy with carriages being pulled along regularly and other ponies walking along the pavements.
Again Alex bit his lip and looked around for inspiration, after about five minutes he only could think of one option and he didn’t like it. The only way he could see of getting across would be by swinging hand over hand along an old wire that stretched from a window to the roof he stood on. The wire looked like some sort of old communication system and ended at a metal box next to Alex, that had a wire come out of it and into the building he stood on, which was also abandoned. From what Alex could guess, he thought that the warehouse and building he stood on were part of some company that went bust, and that this building was their offices and the wires were some sort of short communication between the two buildings. Alex thought about maybe sleeping in the office building but a sign in front of the building showed that it was for sale, and Alex didn’t want to be woken up by some potential buyer.
With a slight gulp Alex walked up to the edge of the building and took a grip of the wire, he had done things similar to this but it’s always scary to know that if the cable breaks its almost guaranteed death. With a final exhale he stepped off the building and hung there for a moment, feeling and listening for any sign of the cable being about to break. The metal block the cable was connected to let out a quiet creak but it stood fast and the cable held. With a sigh of relief Alex began swinging hand over hand across the gap. He felt awfully exposed but if anyone, or anypony, was to look up he would be hidden in the dark. He didn’t want to take any chances though and climbed as swiftly as he could.
He reached the end and swung from the cable and through the windor and into the warehouse. Looking back at the building across the road, Alex let out a quiet chuckle at the ridiculousness of his situation. Looking around the room he stood in he found himself in a small office with a balcony overlooking the floor of the warehouse. The warehouse floor was large and contained much machinery that Alex couldn’t recognise, what he could recognise though was a bottling machine at one end. Turning back into the office there was two doors, one opened out into a closet of some sorts that contained odd bits of equipment that hadn’t been taken when the factory was abandoned, and the machinery confirmed that it was a factory and not just a warehouse for storage. The other door opened onto a collapsed staircase down to the factory floor. On this side of the door there was a sign on the door that read ‘Forman’s office’.
With it getting late Alex pulled out his sleeping bag and some food collected in the forest. Munching on the berries and downing a bottle of water, Alex thought for a moment about what he would do. He knew he had to get to Eclipse at that place called ‘Wagon Wash’, but how he would find it was another question and a much harder one at that. After finishing his dinner Alex decided to worry about it tomorrow for the moment he would sleep.
Before climbing into his sleeping bag he got his combat knife and sheath out of his bag. Then he climbed into the bag and kept the sheath close to him as he drifted into an uncomfortable sleep.
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Alex woke with a start felling his heart beating against his chest and sweat on his brow. Using a hand to wipe away the sweat he calmed himself down. He’d had the dream again; the one that came every few days and the one that Alex feared would follow him to his grave. After gaining some bearings looked around him to find himself exactly where he left himself, in some old abandoned factory in a city inhabited by techni-coloured ponies. Alex rubbed his eyes half hoping that when he opened them he would be back home, but to no avail as he was greeted again by the derelict walls of the factory.
Getting out of his sleeping bag he edged his way closer to a window and looked out onto the street, which was busier than last night and carried large amounts of traffic. Alex let out a small chuckle when he saw a cart being pulled to a stop and the pony pulling swapped with the one sitting in the cart. There was just something amusing about a pony drawn cart being pulled for a pony passenger. The sun was also well up on its way to travel across the sky and Alex made a quick prediction of it being about 10 o’clock in the morning.
Alex turned back into the room before anyone or any pony, as Alex thought might be more fitting, saw him. He rolled up his sleeping bag and slipped it into the bag, of which continued to puzzle Alex but he was willing to suspend disbelief in return for the convenience it provided. Alex then pulled out some small supplies that he had gathered and made a small breakfast of water and berries, he would save the better food till later.
Alex lay back against a wall and thought about his predicament and what to do. He found himself strangely calm considering what situation he was in, to be fair though despite talking ponies being weird they weren’t particularly dangerous and Alex had been in many dangerous situations. Next he pulled on clean(ish) clothing that consisted of his craghoppers and a baggy black t-shirt. He then began putting on some equipment and started by putting on a shoulder sheath for his combat knife, the straps could also be used to attach a back holster for a firearm, but he didn’t need any large weapons. Next he put on a thigh holster for his pistol, which he attached a silencer to, and slipped some extra magazines into some holders on his thigh holster. Feeling less exposed Alex sat down and began thinking of a plan.
He still felt groggy from waking up and his mind felt clouded, which made it harder to think of what to do. With a sigh Alex rose again to his feet and wandered to the balcony. Looking at all the machinery that was everywhere Alex thought that he might as well get some practice in.
Then he jumped off the balcony and towards a tall piece of machinery. Landing on the side Alex gripped onto the various handholds it provided. Shimmying around the machine he made a small leap and landed onto an elevated conveyor and broke into a downhill run. Before reaching the end of the conveyor he jumped off the side and swung on a pipe before performing a backflip and landing into a roll. Looking back at his path through the machinery Alex couldn’t help but smile from his feat of acrobatics. That short burst of exercise got his blood pumping and adrenaline flowing, helping to wake him up.
Alex continued to explore around the factory and only found bits of scrap machinery and litter. Near the bottling machine though he did find some crates containing old glass bottles, most of which were shattered and all of which were empty. The bottles were unlabelled but the crate had a logo on it, which consisted of a brown coated stallion with a blonde mane raising a mug of cider with his hoof hooked through the handle. Below the image of the stallion was a blue banner with the name of the company on it which read ‘Strong-Buck cider’. ‘Well that solves the mystery of what this factory made’ thought Alex as he then understood what the machinery was for.
“still need to find that place called ‘Wagon Wash’ though” he said aloud to himself realising he still had no plan. Alex wandered out of a fire door and into the midday light of the outside world. He stood in a covered loading bay of some sort which had a lone derelict wooden cart that was missing its wheels and falling apart. The road of stone led from the bay to a chained up solid metal gate that was part of a wooden fence that ran around the factory and was about a metre higher than Alex. The awning covering the bay meant that he couldn’t be seen by anyone, or as Alex had to keep reminding himself ‘anypony’, who was in the top floors of the buildings across the road. The fence kept the gaze of pedestrians at bay, although it did have some holes and small gaps between the planks, but nothing that would seriously compromise Alex.
Sitting at the edge of the bay Alex allowed himself to relax a bit in a shadow. He was sitting for a while thinking of a way to find the location of Wagon Wash, but then after 20 minutes or so he got the lucky break he needed. Across the fence he heard the sound of a cart mounting onto the side of a curb and a small amount of commotion.
“Well damn it!” shouted out a gruff loud voice from over the fence
“What’s wrong with it?” queried a quieter but intelligent voice.
“The wheel’s come loose and been damaged. Gonna have to head over to Wagon Wash and get a replacement one” with that Alex’s curiousness rose and he carefully sped over the open area and pressed himself up against the fence. Peeking through the fence he saw a cart, which had a badly damaged and loose wheel, up on the pavement. Besides that there stood two ponies, one a pegasus and one a unicorn. The pegasus was male, had a black coat and a grey mane, he looked a bit old but his voice carried power and strength. The unicorn was also male, had an orange coat and a purple mane, his voice was younger but didn’t have the grizzled strong sound of the pegasus’s. “Well come on get off the cart and help me push” the Pegasus grunted at the unicorn, who obliged and helped push the cart down the street. “Well only got to go one block, so put your back into it and let’s get there quickly” he said to the unicorn in encouragement.
Alex watched the cart go down the street and then turned with his back against the fence, he couldn’t believe his luck. Being wary of being seen Alex sped back to the loading bay and the cover of the awning. In cover Alex reflected on what he had heard, he now knew that his location was only a block down the road, just that the convenience of the broken down cart bothered him. Still it was the only plan he had and it would have to wait until night when he can move through the city without alerting the citizens.
With that Alex jogged to the back of the factory where the office was and climbed up the collapsed stairwell. The rest of the afternoon he spent running maintenance on his armoury, and yes it would be described as an armoury. The crate he kept all this kit in was very large and could only fit in a van, he usually had it dropped off at a safe-house and took what he needed for a job. Never before had he been able to take all his equipment at once, and he was carrying it in a hiking backpack that when fully packed only weighed about 10kg. By the time that it was time to move he hadn’t even gotten a quarter of way through his kit. Looking at the clock on his iPod he watched it as it reached midnight. It was dark enough to move; Alex lifted his bag and got ready to leave.
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Alex promised himself that he would never try to cross an elevated cable again, he would probably break that promise later but it made him feel better. The wire, the same he climbed across yesterday, was not holding his weight as well as before. The large metal block at the office building groaned and creaked, threatening to give way at any moment. Alex sped up his climb trying to reach the building before the ground got to him first.
He was nearly there, only a couple feet was between him and solid roofing. Then, of course, the block began to slide. The bolts keeping it to the roof had gone loose with Alex’s weight and the box slid towards the edge, once it reached the edge it would not end pleasantly for Alex. Reacting quickly Alex swung from the cable and let go, propelling himself at one of the buildings windows. Alex smashed through just as the box tipped over the edge and surrendered to gravity, falling to the ground. He heard a scream from the street and with a groan of pain Alex lifted himself to his feet to take a look at the street.
Looking out the window he could see the smashed remains of the metal box and a terrified young mare, well she looked young to Alex. The box had thankfully not hit anypony but had missed the young mare by a couple of feet. A stallion tried to console her as she screamed in shock, it took about half a minute to get her to calm down completely and take a few deep breaths.
“They should tear this place down, it’s a bloody death trap” said a stallion in the crowd that had formed. Some of the others in the crowd nodded their heads in agreement but no one else said anything. The crowd began to disperse and the mare recovered and went on her way.
Alex gave a sigh of relief and turned back towards the interior of the office. The office was small and the furnishings had all been removed, leaving a barren slightly decrepit room. Crossing the threshold and entering the corridor Alex looked about for the roof access and saw the door down at the end of hall.
Standing on the roof Alex took a deep breath of the cold air and looked about him. He would need to go down the length of the road and at some point cross the road. He saw that he would need to go past the point of which ‘Wagon Wash’ was to cross over, because further down was an elevated train-track which he could use to cross the road. The train-track came close enough to the roof to be able to climb up and use the supports to monkey his way across.
Breaking into a jog Alex began to move in that direction. The bag may have been very light considering its contents, but it stilled weighed him down, and Alex was grateful that the roofs were flat. The journey was short and across the road he could see a small two story building with a windowed front with a closed shutter for a garage next to it. The second floor had a sign on the front announcing the name of the store. Alex noticed the alley round the back and guessed that was his point of entry.
Continuing along the rooftops Alex reached the crossover point at the train-tracks and began looking for a way to reach the supports. From the street a support rose up and connected to the struts of the train-tracks, and it provided a plethora of handholds. Alex took a run-up and without looking down made the leap from the roof to the support. Alex clinged to the support and took a firm grip of the handholds that he managed to scrabble for. Once he got a good handhold he shimmied his way up the support and into the struts under the train-tracks. Once he was in the struts he jumped and clambered his way across, and at one point he had to stop and clutch for support as a train thundered overhead. Once over the roof of the building across the road Alex dropped down and landed into a crouch.
‘Not too far to go now’ thought Alex with a smile, once he got there he could get some answers from Eclipse. Feeling the end of his journey being nigh he broke into a run along the rooftops in the direction of Wagon Wash. Without breaking a stride Alex jumped the gap from the top of the three story building and onto the roof of the two story Wagon Wash. Turning to face the back end of the roof, where there was an alley below, he sprinted at the gap. Making the jump he grabbed a drain pipe on the opposite building and used it to slide down into the alley. Taking a couple breaths Alex prepared himself for meeting Eclipse again, and whoever else she worked with.
Alex felt a bit nervous as he stood in front of the door, he didn’t know what he should ask. He had thought about getting answers, but answers to what? Knocking on the door he heard some shuffling noises within the building and the door was opened to reveal a unicorn mare that came to about the top of Alex’s chest. She had a light grey coat with a long curly brown mane, also she had bright blue eyes that gave an air of friendliness. She didn’t look surprised to see Alex and smiled in greeting. “Alex you made it, well done” she spoke, her voice sounded familiar to Alex but he didn’t dwell on it.
Alex didn’t know what to say, this was the first time he had spoken to one of these ponies, so he asked the first thing he thought of. “Where the hell am I?”
“Maybe you should come inside before somepony sees you” she led Alex inside and up some stairs just inside the doorway. The stairs opened onto a Living room of sorts which already occupied two others. A familiar Pegasus and unicorn sat on the couch drinking beer.
“Wait you’re the ones I saw break down by the factory” Alex said pointing at the two of them.
“You didn’t think we would just completely abandon you in Manehatten” grunted the Pegasus.
“Manhattan, I’m in Manhattan. Err last time I checked Manhattan wasn’t occupied by ponies.” Alex stated confused by the information.
“Manehattan, not Manhattan.” Said the mare, “it’s a lot like the city in your world except we live in this one and in many other cities across Equestria”
“Wait, Equestria? My world?” Alex began to feel panic rise but managed to hold it back. “Ok can I please speak to Eclipse” he asked as calmly as he could.
The mare looked a bit sheepish and rubbed the back of her head with a foreleg. “Um, Alex I am Eclipse”
The panic came at Alex again and his heart thudded against his chest painfully. “No, no. You can’t be Eclipse” Alex almost pleaded, “She’s a human about my height, good looking, nice butt”
“Sorry Alex but that was me, it was a spell to disguise myself” Eclipse said nervously, afraid to cause Alex more panic.
“SPELL? SO NOW THERE’S MAGIC!” Alex shouted his panic causing him to lose control of his voice.
“well actually it was both a spell and a potion” she said backing off and moving her mane in front of her as to protect her from Alex’s anger, he had every right to be angry and she thought it better to let him let it out.
Alex took an inhale and looked about ready to explode into another spout of shouting, and then he let out a weary sigh. “Fuck it, just fuck it” he sighed before collapsing onto a couch that was empty.
“Wait, fuck it?”
“Yes. Fuck it” Alex said before leaning over and grabbing a beer from the table and popping the cap off using his combat knife.
“So what you don’t care about what we did?” she said with a hoof gesture towards the other two on the other couch, who were also looking pretty uncomfortable at that moment. “Also isn’t it illegal in for you to drink until you’re eighteen?”
“Killing is illegal to, and at any age mind you” Alex said looking over the bottle as he downed half the bottle in one go. “And what’s the point of getting angry, I came here to work for you and I’m just going to have to stick by my word”
“Oh ok. I guess we can talk about everything tomorrow, I think going to sleep will be a good idea for the moment. Here I’ll show you your room” she said before trotting down the corridor. With a sigh of regret at having to move after just sitting down Alex rose to his feet and lifted his bag, which was noticeably getting heavier.
“Just to let you know, we put a spell on the bag to make it capable of carrying large amounts of equipment and not weigh much, except the spell is temporary and runs out midday tomorrow.” The unicorn on the couch said “So unless you want the bag exploding you might want to empty it by midday”
“Thanks for the heads up” Alex thanked the unicorn. “Well see you tomorrow, night.” He said before turning away and following after Eclipse.
Eclipse led Alex to a fairly large bedroom with a single bed and a lone window facing out into the back alley. The bed was against the left hand wall and against the right stood a wardrobe, cupboards and a desk and chair. The room didn’t have any fancy decoration besides the slightly off white colour of the walls. Compared to some places Alex had slept in before it was a palace, and was also pretty good by normal standards.
“That window seems like a bit of a problem. won’t people, sorry ponies, be freaked out if they were to see me at the window” Alex said pointing a finger at the window at the back of the room.
“Don’t worry a fairly simple spell was put on it to make the room look like it’s just used for storage from the outside” she said with a reassuring smile. “We have a few other safe-houses spread through the city and in the rest of the country but this, so to speak, will be your base of operations”
Alex walked over to the bed and rested his bag against the side of it before sitting down on it; the mattress was soft and inviting after days of sleeping it rough in a sleeping bag. “Well guess I’ll catch some sleep and we can talk about what we’re gonna do tomorrow” Alex said with a yawn and a stretch of his limbs.
“Goodnight Alex” said Eclipse before walking towards the door and stopping in the frame, “Oh and happy birthday”
Alex felt himself tense up and his mind flooded with the memories from his past. Looking back up towards Eclipse with an expressionless face he muttered the words “There’s nothing happy about it”
