Finally A Day Off

Trebass began to tell the tale of when him and Alex first met.

**********************

The pegasus express, the fastest train in Equestria, was speedily running on the tracks leading towards the royal city of Canterlot. A large breeze blew through the window and above a white unicorn's head. He was slowly reading through the newest "Daring Do" novel until the small gust had blown the pages around.

"Blast! Whatever, it was getting boring anyways. I don't know what cousin sees in these things." The unicorn tossed the novel to the side.

A yell of pain was soon followed, "Ouch! Hey watch it pal!" A voice that sounded furious, yet calm, rang into the unicorn's ear.

The white colt quickly turned around to see who he had hit, "Oh, sorry about that."

A pair of black sunglasses sat upon the face of a pegasus wearing a black vest. He had been sitting only a couple feet away from the white unicorn. The stallion began to yell at the young book-hater, "What's the big deal?! Throwing around--"

He stopped, then spoke up again, "Daring Do and the Griffon's Goblet? Heh, haven't read that one yet."

The white unicorn found it amazing how a pegasus could change attitudes so quickly.

"I'm terribly sorry. It must have been that gust of wind." Trebass made up an excuse to avoid any more conflict.

"Tell you what, if you let me keep this book... I won't throw you off this train." The pegasus said with a serious tone.

A brief pause lingered in the air for a bit until the black stallion began chuckle, which quickly turned into loud laugh, "Hahaha!  You should see the look on your face right now! Lighten up friend!"

Trebass let out a loud sigh, "Says the guy who threatened to throw me off a train."

The pegasus punched the unicorn lightly, "Aw, cheer up guy! Name's Alex, and I'm still keeping this." He tossed the book in the air and caught it again in his wing.

"I'm Trebass. Nice to meet you." The white unicorn introduced himself.

*WOOH WOOH*

The train's whistle sounded loudly, and it echoed through the train and probably through most of Canterlot.

"Well, maybe we'll run into each other in there." Trebass said, as he stared at the approaching white city.

Alex stood up from his seat, "Maybe. See ya around." He then trotted off, and disappeared into the crowd that was ready to disembark from the train.

Finally, the train arrived at Canterlot Station. Trebass decided to disembark himself. He gathered his bags and trotted out of the train.

He took one step outside the train. Immediately, hot gust blew against the unicorn's body. He thought it was a relief from the cold air conditioning from the train.

Trebass trotted down from the station platform, and signaled a taxi. A bulky stallion pulled a black and yellow tiled cart towards him. He loaded his luggage into the trunk of the cart, and they were on their way.

Slowly, Trebass saw the beautiful buildings and parks pass by him on the way to his hotel.

The stallion pulling the cart began to speak to Trebass, "So what brings you to the snobby corner of Equestria?" He asked.

"Here to see a concert, I won a ticket in a raffle back in Ponyville." Trebass replied.

The driver looked surprised, "That concert wouldn't happen to be the Canterlot Symphony would it?"

Trebass replied with a short, "Yes."

"Apparently one of Saxists is quite the popular with the ladies. Some actor or celebrity or something. He's probably the only musician in that orchestra that isn't a complete bore!" The driver laughed loudly.

Suddenly, the cart came to a stop, and the two stallions were in front of a run-down corner street hotel. "HOTEL" Was spelt out above the door in large glowing red letters. Trebass noticed how Canterlot was separated into two "areas". The fancy uptight rich-folk and beautiful buildings around them. And then there was the old broken down buildings, tramps and beggars were in the dark corners of every trash-ridden alleyway.

"It's a shame I know..." The taxi pony said.

Trebass raised his eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

The taxi driver replied, "Well I shouldn't be talking about this, but Canterlot didn't used to be this way."

"What happened?" Trebass asked.

"Well, there was an incorporation. An organization even, they made a vaccine that could supposedly strengthen the common pony's immune system to the point where no illness could even touch them. They offered it to anypony who could afford it." The taxi cab explained, as he unloaded all of Trebass' baggages.

Trebass took one of his luggages from the driver, and then asked, "So what? A fraction of Canterlot's most richest went bankrupt?"

The driver shook his head, "No, the opposite actually. Almost nopony took their offer. But then something happened, some kind of flu started to spread around Canterlot. The strangest part about it was that it was only in Canterlot. Nopony from Manehatten to Ponyville had showed any symptoms of this flu. Ponies finally went crawling back to that corporation, and blew all their bits on that vaccine. The ponies who couldn't afford the vaccine, spent their bits on the second best thing, common doctors. The ones who spent their bits on doctors, lost their dough, and started living on the streets."

"Harsh, so what is this 'incorporation' anyways?" Trebass asked.

The taxi driver looked around him, and lowered his voice, "Their name is Caduc--"

*BANG*

Out of nowhere, a loud shot rang from somewhere above Trebass. Then suddenly, the taxi driver fell backwards onto his own taxi cab. Screams echoed throughout the area where the crime had taken place. Trebass looked above him, where he thought the gunshot had come from. He saw something move on top of the hotel roof, but it quickly moved out of his vision.

"Sweet Celestia, w-what the hell?!" Trebass panicked, and stumbled, then fell backwards on his rump.

Soon after the incident, police ponies began to flood the area, setting up roadblocks and moving citizens out of the vicinity.

Trebass tried to disappear into the crowd, not wanting to have any more conflict than he needed. Unfortunately, a stallion from the crowd started screaming at the top of his lungs, "There he is! He's the killer! Arrest him!"

Trebass glared at at the colt, but he disappeared into the crowd before anypony could get a good look at him. As he was trying to chase after the pony who had snitched on him, he felt something blunt smash against the back of his head. He fell forward onto his face, and then blacked out.

Before he fell unconscious, the sound of chattering ponies around him faded out.