Metropolis

Metropolis

by Kirb Hysteria

Chapter Four

Confronting Windsor

As Twilight Sparkle and her friends walked through the entrance of the massive Metropolis Tower, they looked around. Inside, it was majestic, something they would have only thought to be owned by Celestia or Luna. On their way to the elevator, they were stopped by two big, tough-looking security guard ponies.

"Hey!" exclaimed Twilight, confused. "What's all this?"

"Security check, ma'am," said one of the stallions in a flat tone.

"Security check?" Twilight yelled, obviously none too pleased. "But this can't be right! We were sent by Princess Celestia herself!"

"Let us see your identifications," said the other guard in a similarly flat tone. Each of them handed the guards their IDs. "So, you're the famous Twilight Sparkle, student to Princess Celestia and element of magic. And you all must be her friends: Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. Nice job with Discord and Nightmare Moon. And of course, how could we forget Spike, Twilight's dragon assistant, who helped defeat King Sombra of the Crystal Empire?"

"Yes, that is very correct," said Twilight, frustrated. "Now can we please get through?"

"I'm sorry," stated the first guard strictly, "but you still have to go through a security check. This includes a bag search and a patdown."

"How rude," Rarity murmered to herself.

"Rude?!" the second guard yelled. "You could be carrying weapons that endanger the entire city and you call this rude?"

"Ah hate t' break it to ya," Applejack responded, "but there's really no need for a patdown. We don't exactly have pockets, y'know."

"Did I ask you?!"

The guards looked like they were about to punch somebody, but they were interrupted.

"It's okay, they can go through."

The guards looked in the direction of the voice and another stallion, this one an earth pony, walked into the room. The guards each nodded to themselves and walked back to the front of the room, letting Twilight and her friends go on through. As they continued to walk, the stallion stopped in front of them.

"I'm t-terribly s-sorry," the stallion stuttered nervously. "It's n-not v-very often w-we g-get g-guests of honor s-such as y-yourselves."

Now that he was in front of them, Twilight and her friends got a better look at the stallion. His coat was light gray and his mane was blue. He was somewhat thin, wore a black tie, and his cutie mark resembled a typewriter.

"Oh, it's quite alright, but tell us: must security measures be so high?" asked Rarity curiously.

"Yeah, what was up with that?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Well, um, you see," stuttered the stallion, "most of the ponies who come here are tourists who have come to take pictures from the upper floors, see? It has been this way for a while now, and the guards would just let them in--no possibilities of threats earlier, see? But now, there have been rumors going around about a worker revolt, see? So we have to take extra precautions, after all, we don't want any assassinations, see?"

"I see," said Twilight.

"So why don't they just move everybody who matters to a place less conspicuous?" asked Spike. "I mean, a huge tower in the middle of the city isn't exactly the best place to hide the masters of a city if somebody wants to kill them."

Everybody looked at Spike as if he was stupid.

"What?"

At this point, Fluttershy raised her hoof to ask the stallion a question.

"Um, who are you anyway? I mean, you only have to tell me if you want to..."

"Oh!" said the stallion. "Call me Right Hand. I'm servant to Windsor, the master of Metropolis."

"Nice to meet y'all!" said Applejack. "I'm Applejack! I work at Sweet Apple Acres and represent the Element of Honesty!" After Applejack was done, each of the others introduced themselves too.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, best flyer in all of Equestria and, to date, the only pony known to do a Sonic Rainboom!"

"I'm Rarity, fashion designer and entrepreneur! But please, call me Miss Rarity."

"Um, I'm Fluttershy."

"I'm Spike, dragon assistant to--"

"And I'm Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight interrupted. "Student of Princess Celestia in the magic of friendship!"

Spike glared at Twilight for interrupting him. Finally, it was Pinkie Pie's turn to introduce herself.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie, Party Thrower Extraordinaire!" She pulled out her party cannon and fired it, confetti flew out over Right Hand.

"How did she get that in here?" Right Hand whispered to Twilight.

"Don't worry about it," laughed Twilight, "that's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie."

"Ah," said Right Hand, though he was still confused as to what Twilight had meant by that. "Come, let me take you to Windsor's office."

...

The 160th floor of Metropolis Tower was where the capital office was located. A large window on the side offered a 180° view of the city for anybody who happened to be inside the office at the time to look out. Since the building was cylindrical, the architects of the building--the same two as those who designed the rest of the city--decided to take advantage of it by having the 160th floor rotate, giving a panoramic view of the city not soon forgotten.

A red unicorn paced around on a shiny reddish brown mahogany floor dictating ideas for moving his machine based city closer to perfection. He was a few inches taller than Right Hand and obviously older, but he wore a similar black tie tightly around his neck. His cutie mark resembled a large gear.

As he was dictating his ideas to the tape recorder, a knock came on his door. The stallion glanced towards the door and uttered the command, "End recording." As the tape recorder stopped, the stallion walked towards the door. When he opened it with his magic, he found Right Hand outside, along with six ponies who were unfamiliar to him.

"Ah, welcome," said the stallion. "You must be Twilight Sparkle and her friends."

"That's correct," answered Twilight.

"Come in, I guess." The stallion used his magic to open the door the rest of the way. "As you probably know, I'm Windsor, the master of Metropolis."

"Nice to finally meet you, Windsor!" said Twilight cheerfully as she entered the room. "I've heard a lot about you!"

"Yeah?" said Windsor, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "Where, from Celestia? I suppose she's told you about all the 'horrible things I've done' and how you should come and reform me. But for what reason? For at least trying to launch Equestria into the future?"

"Um..." Twilight didn't know how to comment.

"You silly!" laughed Pinkie. "I know what will cheer you up! A party!" She pulled out her party cannon and shot it, confetti flying out.

"Agh!" exclaimed Windsor. "Get that out of here! That could hurt somebody!"

"Aww."

"Your Princess, whom you love so much, has been sending me countless letters. She's always saying that I need to give the workers more pay, more vacations and less work. Well let me tell you something. I didn't create Metropolis to give breaks to ponies who are supposed to be working. I didn't create it to stay stuck in the past. No, I wanted to make Equestria grow! Expand! The griffins and other societies will be envious of us!"

"An' so accordin' t' you, that's a good thing?" Applejack asked.

"Nobody asked you!" Windsor slugged down his coffee in one gulp. "And your little beliefs about 'harmony' and 'love and toleration' don't mean a thing in the rest of the world! You don't see dragons 'playing fair' or griffins 'treating everybody equally,' do you? No! And you know why? Because they're more advanced than our society! They know the only way to survive in the real world, outside of our protective bubble of Equestria, is to bend rules, steal territory, and destroy the competition, which is more than I can say for your little princesses."

As Windsor was ranting to the other ponies, Wenzel ran in frantically. He sat by the wall, panting. Nobody in the room even noticed him, excluding Right Hand, who approached Wenzel from behind.

"Wenzel?"

Wenzel turned around, still breathing heavy.

"Wenzel? Are-- are you alright?"

In a panic, Wenzel got up and grabbed Right Hand by the hooves. Shaking him violently, Wenzel yelled, "How do we live with what we do?!"

A few of the ponies turned in Wenzel's direction, excluding Windsor who was continuing his rant.

"How do we live knowing that thousands of other ponies aren't getting the same care as us? The same education? The same privileges? Do we not know or something? Well, I know! I was there! I went underground! I saw our brothers and sisters getting thrown to their deaths! How do we live with ourselves?"

At this point, all of the other ponies in the room were watching Wenzel, including his father who had noticed that everybody else had stopped listening to him.

"Wenzel?" asked Windsor.

The younger of the two red unicorns looked to his father.

"Dad!"

Wenzel ran to Windsor, who still stood tall.

"Hey!" said Twilight. "You're the pony I bumped into earlier today! I didn't know you were Windsor's son!"

Wenzel didn't listen to Twilight's comments. He ran to his father and started ranting, almost stuttering out his words.

"Now, son," spoke Windsor. "Son! Calm down. What happened?"

After taking a few breaths, Wenzel spoke again.

"I was in the underground, the Machine Layer, where the workers were working on the machines, and there was an explosion! The pressure must have gone up or something, not sure... it was in the CPC! Oh, Dad, you should have seen it! It was horrible! Why do we treat them this way? I don't see why--"

Windsor stuck a hoof to his son's mouth. He then walked over to an ashamed Right Hand.

"Why is it, Right Hand, that I have just learned of the explosion from my son, and not from you?" Windsor asked sternly.

"I-- was dealing with the guests," stuttered Right Hand.

"Ah. Excuses! Always excuses!"

"Uh, Windsor," said Applejack, "don't ya feel yer bein' a little, uh, harsh to th' poor fella?"

The master of Metropolis didn't respond. Instead, he motioned Right Hand out the door.

"Get the details."

"Yes, sir."

And with that, Right Hand was gone. Windsor then turned to his son.

"What were you doing in the machine halls, Wenzel?"

Wenzel was unprepared to answer this question, so he stuttered out what the mysterious filly had told him.

"I-- I wanted to look into the faces... of the ponies whose children are my brothers, my sisters..."

"Ah don't know if that's fully true," Applejack eyed Wenzel suspiciously. "Ya aren't keepin' eye contact. It's because of a girl, ain't it?"

"Applejack would know," said Rarity. "She is the Element of Honesty, after all."

Unsure of what to believe, Windsor walked to look out the window on his city. Wenzel approached him.

"Dad, why do we treat the workers so badly? Look at your magnificent city! You're the brain of the city, ruling over all of us in the city's light..."

He pointed out the window to the skyline of the city.

"...and it was their hooves that built Metropolis! But where are they in your scheme?"

"They," replied Windsor, "are right where they belong, in their proper place: the depths!"

Wenzel looked in his father's eyes. "But what if one day, those in the depths rise up against you?"

Before Windsor could respond, a light started flashing on his desk, accompanied by a beeping noise. Seeing this, Windsor walked to his desk and pushed a button, causing a large curtain to cover the window.

"Enter."

The door opened and Right Hand stepped inside.

"Excuse me, sir, but the chief foreman of the CPC is here with an important message."

"Send him in."

Right Hand nodded and left, returning a few seconds later with a large gray earth pony, built with muscle from years of working the machines. He wore a black suit, covered with dirt much like those of the workers, and had a black mane and beard. This was the workers' foreman. He approached Windsor's desk, and Twilight and her friends moved out of the way to let him through.

"Two more of these damned plans, Mr. Windsor," grunted the foreman. He handed a few pieces of paper to Windsor. "They were found in the pockets of two of the workers in today's accident at the Central Power Core."

Windsor looked at the papers. They had been singed from the explosion, but they were still readable. Both plans had maps using a foreign language describing an unknown region.

Immediately after looking at the plans, Windsor glared angrily at Right Hand, who approached his boss. Wenzel also walked up to his father.

"Right Hand, why did you not know of these plans?"

"I... I..." Right Hand backed away in fear. Windsor began folding up the plans.

"You're dismissed. Apply to the M-Bank for your remaining wages, I no longer have need of you."

Right Hand gasped. Seeing he had not left yet, Windsor yelled.

"Now!"

Right Hand slowly nodded and walked out the door. Wenzel watched him leave. He had known Right Hand since he was a foal, and now he was gone for good. Wenzel had to stop this.

"Dad!" yelled Wenzel. "Do you know what it means to be dismissed by you? It means, go below! Father, he has to now go below! Into the Depths! I beg of you, take him back!"

"No," said Windsor. "He was incompetent and I no longer had need of him."

Wenzel knew now that there was no way he would ever convince his father of anything, so he turned to the door and ran out.

"Wenzel, wait!" Twilight followed Wenzel out the door, with Rainbow Dash flying after her.

...

Wenzel ran down the stairs as quickly as possible, until he saw Right Hand stumbling at the bottom of the stairs. He stopped for a second, and then pulled out a knife and aimed it towards his chest.

"Goodbye, Equestria."

"No!" Wenzel yelled and ran to Right Hand, tackling him to the ground. Once he was pinned down, Wenzel grabbed the knife with his magic. "Don't you ever try to do that, you hear me?"

"What's going on down here?"

Twilight ran down the stairs, with Rainbow Dash flying after her.

"Here he is," said Wenzel, getting up off the ground. Right Hand stood up and looked at the three others.

"Do you know what it means to be dismissed like that by Windsor? He's the master of Metropolis! My reputation, Wenzel! My reputation!"

He ran to the wall and hit his head on it, crying the whole time.

"That idiot!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "I'm gonna go give him a piece of my mind!" She started to fly up the stairs, but Twilight grabbed her by the tail using her telekinesis.

"Rainbow, stop! We're here on a diplomatic mission! Attacking Windsor will only make this harder."

Wenzel approached a weeping Right Hand and handed him a handkerchief.

"Right Hand, do you want to work for me?"

Right Hand looked up. "You really mean it?"

"Yes!" replied Wenzel.

"Oh, thank you, Wenzel!" Right Hand hugged Wenzel. "I would be honored to work for you."

"Good," said Wenzel. "I'll need to know a few things. First of all, where do you live?"

"I live on Block 8, House 6, 3rd floor," replied Right Hand.

"Go home, Right Hand, and wait for me," said Wenzel. "I still have a long way to go tonight. Now, as for you two."

Both of the other ponies were at attention.

"Rainbow Dash, I'll need you to go with Right Hand. If I know my dad, he has the power to pull a few strings, maybe get a hired thug or something, so Right Hand might need a bodyguard." Rainbow Dash nodded. "Twilight, I would like for you to come with me. I'm heading down to the machine layer. Along the way, there will be a few things I will have to explain to you."

"Sounds good to me!" said Twilight. "I've always wanted to see what the city looks like!"

And with that, all four ponies departed.

...

It had been around thirty seconds since Wenzel had stormed out of the office, along with Twilight and Rainbow. Since then, the room had fallen into silence. Applejack decided to break the silence.

"Why, you should be ashamed of yerself! Yer assistant and yer son had nothin' but good intentions an' you--"

"Will you be quiet?"

Windsor's voice boomed over Applejack's, and she was quiet instantly. Windsor's hoof floated to a button on his desk. When he pressed it, another door opened, hidden from the wall, and another pony entered the room. This pony, a white pegasus stallion with a short orange mane, wore a suit of black, was very tall and had a thin face. Seeing him, the other ponies in the room backed away. Fluttershy even squealed.

"That doesn't look good," said Spike.

"Come here, Slim," commanded Windsor. The thin stallion approached.

"Beginning today, I wish to be kept informed of every step taken by my son. Is that understood?"

The thin stallion slowly nodded and turned around to leave the room. After he had walked out the door, Windsor looked at the remaining ponies in the room.

"I reserve Slim for special jobs, if you know what I mean. Foreman, you may return to your job. As for the rest of you, I have a friend I would like you to meet."