Metropolis

by Kirb

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Crossover
Length: 7381

Studies the division of rich and poor in the city of Metropolis.

In the city of Metropolis, the wealthy ponies live on the surface, and spend their hours having fun.

Meanwhile, underneath the surface, the worker ponies, those who were not born to the upper class, work the machines that run the highly technological city. Many of them have never even seen the surface, and most hold a dark hatred towards their leaders.

This is the tale of that long-lasting division of wealth and of how two ponies did everything they could to put it to an end.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-04-24 22:32:14 UTC

Prologue

Metropolis

by Kirb Hysteria

Chapter One

Prologue

The sun rose over Equestria at precisely 9:00 in the morning. As that happened, ponies everywhere awoke and began their day. Some would stay in their homes and eat breakfast, others would get out immediately after waking up and go to eat at the nearest restaurants, and still others had already woken up before the sun rose and were working to get their businesses ready for the day.

In Canterlot Castle, the capitol building of Equestria, Princess Celestia, having just finished her royal duty of raising the sun, sat on her throne, with her two royal guards sitting on either side of her. She sipped her tea as a servant approached her and knelt just before coming to tell her the morning's announcements.

"Good morning," Celestia said to her servant. "What news do you have for the morning?"

"Well, Your Highness," said the servant, "according to the weather control groups at Cloudsdale, everything is looking fine for the weather! There will be a few clouds here and there, but not a drop of rain, especially with that huge storm two days ago."

"Good," said Celestia, smiling. She always liked it when the skies were free, because then her sun would not be covered. "And how about the stocks?"

"Ah, yes," said the servant, pulling out a chart. "Let's see... all seems to be doing well in the Manehattan Stock Exchange today. Las Pegasus is doing well financially, and so is Fillydelphia. Stalliongrad could be doing better, but in their defense they haven't been doing so well ever since they tried to implement communism..."

He looked through the lists. "Aha! According to these lists, the city of Metropolis is hitting an all-time high!"

At the name of the city, Celestia's smile turned upside down.

"Metropolis?" said the princess.

"Yes! And according to my charts, it has become the most financially successful city over the month! Hay, it could even become the new capital! Watch out, Celestia, Canterlot might have some competition!"

Celestia slowly turned her head away and put her hoof to her chin, contemplating this. "That's enough."

The servant looked worried, not as much for the princess as for his job. "Are you okay, Your Highness? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no," said Celestia, rubbing her temples with her hooves. "It was nothing you said, I know you were just joking around. You may be dismissed."

"Okay."

As the servant left the room, Celestia turned to her guards. "I need to leave to go talk with my sister."

...

Princess Luna had finished her duties of lowering the moon and had taken off her crown and shoes and was about ready to go to sleep for the day when she heard a knock on the door.

"Thou mayst come in as thou pleases," said Luna, still having not fully adjusted to the modern Equestria-speak. The door opened with the glow of unicorn magic around it and Princess Celestia stepped inside. "Tia!" Luna exclaimed, always happy to talk to her sister. "Good evening to you!"

"Good morning, you mean," said Celestia with a smile. "It may be evening to you, but it's still no later than 10 in the morning for the rest of Equestria."

"'Tis correct, I suppose. Why hast thou come to speak with us?"

"Well, Luna, I'll just get to the point. I'm troubled."

"Troubled? Why so?"

The sun princess gripped her tea cup with her magic. "It's about Metropolis."

"Metropolis? I have not heard of this?"

"Oh, right. I almost forgot you were on the moon for a thousand years. I guess you have a lot to catch up on."

"Tell me! We enjoy a good bedtime story."

"Okay." Celestia cleared her throat, for she had a lot to explain to her sister. "As you know, Equestria has many cities in its provinces."

"Yes," said Luna. "I have visited a few of them in the two years I have been back."

"Well," the sun princess replied, "there is a city to the north known as Metropolis."

"Metropolis?" asked Luna, rubbing her chin. "We have never heard of such a city."

"It is a fairly new city, created about twenty or so years before you arrived back to Equestria. Anyway, this city was created, designed, funded, and led by a unicorn named Windsor. A brilliant mind, Windsor and his best friend Static Charge planned to make a city that would launch Equestria into the future with its technology."

"Go on." The moon princess was interested now.

"As a colt, Windsor had gone to my School of Gifted Unicorns. He and Static were always interested in technology. I, of course, supported him all the way. When they graduated, they wanted to take Equestria to 'the next level', and that was when Windsor created the idea of Metropolis, the futuristic city.

"It took a lot of work and planning between the two of them. Windsor had the idea, Static had the designs. They designed a city with numerous buildings, streets, and lots of various technological advances. The two of them even designed a monstrous looming capitol building over the city, known as Metropolis Tower."

"Why, that sounds absolutely marvelous!" interrupted Luna. "So why are you so troubled, sister?"

"Well," continued Celestia, "it was not long before they came to me for advice on their plans for construction. From one look at their blueprints I could tell they would need a lot of ponies to build, and a lot of ponies to work the machines. Windsor and Static recruited thousands of ponies from everywhere in Equestria. Most of those they had recruited were poor, uneducated ponies, but Windsor told them that their children would be given education and that they would work under better hours than any other jobs they had had before.

"In about five years, the city was opened to the public. Immediately ponies started gathering into the city, eager to see the progressive new machinery. But no sooner had it opened than Windsor had broken his promise to the workers. The workers' shifts were each ten hours long, with only ten-hour breaks in between for nourishment and sleep. With more people in the city than they had predicted, the amount of work the workers had to do doubled twice the size of their original predictions.

"Their children are usually lucky if they're given mediocre education--usually they get none at all--and quite often they are told that their only purpose in life is to work the machines that run the city. Many of them don't get their cutie marks, and even if they do, they are all forced to do the same jobs, special talent or not. Furthermore, the workers are never allowed to come up on to the surface, due to the increasing crowd of rich ponies there. From the pictures, Metropolis looks like a great place to live, but when you go there and see the horrible conditions the workers have to put up with it chills your bones to the very marrow."

"Wow," said Luna, with her once smiling face now looking seemingly unhappy. "Hast thou tried to communicate with the leaders about this?"

"I have written many letters to Windsor," Celestia said, "but he never responds. And Static, whom I fear has grown mad, tells me that he is no longer in contact with Windsor."

"Oh." Luna could not fully comprehend the hopelessness of the situation.

As Celestia turned to leave, Luna called to her, "Actually, Tia, will you bring us a cup of tea? We do not think that we can go to sleep after such a tale as that."

...

Author's note: Here it is! The first chapter of my "Metropolis" fanfic.

Please note that this fanfiction is based loosely on Fritz Lang's 1927 German sci-fi film of the same name.

Also, special thanks to The Dagwood Brony (Daegan Hamilton) for revising this before I submitted it.

Life in Metropolis

Metropolis

by Kirb Hysteria

Chapter Two

Life in Equestria

A few miles to the north of Canterlot, the city of Metropolis thrived. Its bright lights could be seen miles away, its huge buildings loomed over the heads of the city's inhabitants, and its complex highways and subway system made it quick and easy to get from one place to another.

Nearly everything on the surface was powered by machines that worked underneath. Thousands of gears, pumps, switches, knobs, dials, buttons, levers and other things of the sort kept everything in the city intact.

Suddenly, as the clock struck ten, an alarm sounded. An incredibly loud, almost deafening electric shreik sounded beneath the surface, so ear-shattering that ponies could hear it up on the high stories of the skyscrapers that loomed on top of it. This meant nothing to the average Metropolis citizen, but to the workers, it signified the changing of their 10-hour shift.

All the workers of the previous shift lined up behind a gate. Once they were all in line, the gate opened up to reveal a hallway with two aisles. The exhausted figures walked down the aisle while a second group of ponies walked in the opposite direction down the second. These ponies were to work the next shift.

As the newly freed workers trudged down the aisles, there was an almost eerie silence accompanied by a unanimous feeling of hopelessness in the very air. These ponies' shifts were done, but they knew they would only get a ten-hour break before they would be put back to work. Things had gone on like this for years, and they knew it would never get any better.

At the end of the aisle there was an elevator. A rather large elevator, actually, large enough to fit all the workers from that single shift. Once all the workers were inside, the elevator started descending. Deeper and deeper. Down far below the Earth's surface, even deeper than the machines, lay the workers' city.

As the elevator sank lower, the workers looked at their version of the Metropolis above. It had many buildings, but it was nowhere near as spectacular as the true Metropolis, and was poorly maintained at best. Some of the bricks on the buildings were falling out, and the lights that lit the city due to the lack of sun were dim and fading more each day. In the center of the city was a large bell, which was to be used as an alarm in the case of emergency.

When the elevator landed, the workers slowly departed and left for their homes and families, knowing their miserable lifestyles would most likely never change.

...

Just as the workers' city remained so deep underground, Metropolis towered higher than thought possible. On the side of one of the many skyscrapers there was a sign that read "Club de l'Postérité Riche." This was where the children of the chosen few went to spend their days. This complex had everything, from lecture halls to libraries, from theaters to stadiums.

In one of the many rooms of the Club, several young foals sat back and relaxed while watching a movie projected on an illuminated screen. One of them, a reddish unicorn colt, sat laid back in a chair eating popcorn. This unicorn looked around sixteen years of age, too old for fairy tales but still too young to go to work. He had a short mane, cut to his desired length and wore a white jacket. His cutie mark resembled two gears grinding together.

As the movie continued, the unicorn pressed a button on the side of his chair. Immediately, a butler came to the unicorn's side.

"How may I be of service, Master Wenzel?" asked the butler.

"Excuse me," spoke the unicorn, "but would you please refill my popcorn?" He levitated the empty box into the hooves of the butler.

"Certainly," the butler replied, walking away with the red and white striped box. He was readily at the service of all the colts and fillies there, but he gave extra attention to this one in particular. This unicorn was Wenzel and he was the son of Windsor, the master of Metropolis. Surely one would want to treat Wenzel with respect, as to not get his father upset.

A few seconds after the butler had left, a noise came from outside the theater. A few minutes after this, the doors were pushed wide open and let light into the room. The ponies in the audience turned around, wondering what had disturbed their film that they had been watching.

The disturbance was caused by fifty or so ponies entering the room. Wenzel, who had turned his head in their direction, looked upon them with such wonder. Many of these ponies, most of which young fillies and colts, were covered in dirt and grime. They looked around the room curiously. These were children of the workers and they had not seen rooms like this before.

One of these ponies in particular caught Wenzel's eye: a pale blue Pegasus filly who seemed to be the leader of the group. She was many years older than the group, and she looked around Wenzel's age. She had a long mane that she preferrably wore in a ponytail, probably to keep it out of her eyes. She, like the rest of the group, was covered in dirt as only a worker's child could be, but not so much that Wenzel couldn't see her cutie mark which resembled a megaphone.

The filly looked down at the children and said to them, "Look! These are your brothers and sisters!" As she pointed out to the numerous ponies in the room many of the ponies who had only just earlier been watching their movie looked at her with disgust, some turning back to continue watching the movie. She signaled again. "Look! These are our brothers and sisters!"

A few seconds after this, several security guard ponies came in. One of them told the filly, "Excuse me, ma'am, but you and your children will have to leave. Please remove yourselves willingly or we will have to remove you by force."

Understanding, the filly looked to the other children. "Alright, it's time to go now."

What were they doing wrong? Wenzel pondered this. Is it a crime, now, to just be here? Why were they forced to leave?

As they left, Wenzel could not stop watching the mysterious filly who had led them in. By now, most of the other ponies had gone back to watching the movie, though a few of them were talking amongst themselves. Among the words Wenzel heard was "worker trash." At this point, the butler had arrived back with the full box of popcorn.

"Here is your popcorn, Master Wenzel."

Wenzel grabbed the popcorn with his magic and placed it in the seat beside him; he was in no mood for eating.

"That filly who just left--the leader of the children--who was that?" Wenzel asked curiously.

"Her?" he responded indignantly. "Oh, she was only the daughter of some worker. Come now, Wenzel, who cares about such miniscule things? Sit back down and enjoy the movie! Here, I brought you a soda, too! It's Colt Cola, your favorite!"

Wenzel wasn't thirsty, and he especially did not want to watch the movie any longer. What he wanted to do was find out who that filly was. She intrigued him, fascinated him, and she had vanished as mysteriously as she had come. Knowing the butler would not be any help in his search for the filly, Wenzel got up out of his seat and galloped out the door.

The butler watched Wenzel leave, then looked back down at the soda and the abandoned popcorn he had brought for Wenzel. Glancing about nervously, the butler sat down. He felt he deserved a break, which he hadn't had in a long time, so he sat down with popcorn in one hoof, soda in the other, and watched the movie.

...

Author's note: In Chapter Two, we meet our protagonist, Wenzel (based on Freder from the original) as he meets a mysterious filly. Little does he know that as he looks for her, he will discover a world he never could have imagined.

Please note that this fanfiction is based loosely on Fritz Lang's 1927 German sci-fi film of the same name.

Also, special thanks to The Dagwood Brony (Daegan Hamilton) for revising this before I submitted it.

The Explosion

Metropolis

by Kirb Hysteria

Chapter Three

The Explosion

A train pulled into Metropolis Station in the early hours of the day. As soon as it slowed to a stop, the doors opened, allowing six all-too-familiar ponies to exit with the other passengers. Twilight Sparkle, along with her five other friends and dragon assistant Spike, looked around as they walked through the train station.

"So, Twilight," asked Spike, who rode on Twilight's back, "why are we here again?"

"Well, Spike--" Twilight began to reply, but was cut off by Pinkie Pie.

"Don't you remember, silly? We came here to throw a super-gigantic party for all the ponies around and they'll just love it!"

"Uh, Ah don't think that's why we're here, sugercube," said Applejack in her typical southern accent.

"Correct you are, Applejack," said Twilight. "We have come here by order of Princess Celestia herself to try to talk Windsor, the master of Metropolis, into giving the workers below the town better wages."

"Oh, but surely we could do some sightseeing while we're at it, right darling?" asked Rarity.

"Suit yourself," said Rainbow Dash, flying past the rest of the group. "I still think that no city can match the pure awesomeness of my hometown, Cloudsdale! Why, all other cities are the same: smog, street gangsters, ridiculously oversized buildings--" She stopped and looked directly in front of her. Her jaw dropped to the ground and all the rest of her friends looked to see what caught her attention.

There, standing out in front of them, was the city Metropolis. Its tall buildings seemed to go up for miles, the sun reflecting off the mirrored windows of each tower to give a first impression of the town that nobody would soon forget.

After a short period of time spent staring in awe, a huge smile grew on Rainbow Dash's face, and she completely contradicted what she had previously said with an exclamation of "So... awesome..."

All the other ponies laughed. Pinkie then voiced her reaction in a hyperactive tone.

"Isn't this exciting?! Are you excited because I'm excited I've never been so excited! Well, except for the time when--"

Applejack promptly put a hoof in Pinkie's mouth. "Can it, sugarcube."

"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!" Rainbow Dash stuttered in almost as hyperactive a voice as Pinkie had been speaking. "This is a great place to practice my awesome flying moves! Not sure where I would do my Sonic Rainboom, though. I might break some windows, but it'll be so worth it!"

"Oh my," said Fluttershy. "This city sure is... big... and a little frightening..."

"Well, we have no time to lose!" said Twilight. "We have to get going to Metropolis Tower! But the question is, which way do we go?"

"Uh, Twilight?" said Spike, pointing his claw to the left of them. "Do you think that might be it?"

Everybody turned their heads to the left. Standing before them was the tallest building in the entire city, the capitol building known as Metropolis Tower. There were ornate decorations fanning out from all sides of the building like wings. The top of the building was barely visible due to the fog, but you could still make out an antenna with a light pulsing from it.

Twilight and her friends were in awe. "Wow..."

"Well, we have no time to lose!" said Twilight. "Is everypony ready?"

"Yeah!" everybody cheered.

"Alright!" said Twilight. "To Metropolis Tower!"

As they were all leaving, Fluttershy was left behind, shivering. "So... big..."

...

Wenzel ran out the front door of the Club and stopped in the sidewalk. He looked around, but he could no longer find the mysterious filly nor the children she had brought to the Club so shortly just earlier. He had to find her, and his only thought was that he would have to descend to the Machine Layer, the underground, in order to do so.

As he pondered how to get down to the Machine Layer, he bumped into somebody else and fell over.

"Oh my gosh!" said the voice in front of him. "I'm so so sorry!"

Wenzel looked in front of him and saw that the pony he had bumped into was indeed Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia. Her dragon assistant Spike rode on her back, and her five other friends were behind her.

"It's okay," Wenzel grunted, getting up off his back. "No harm done."

He was about to leave to keep looking for the entrance to the Machine Layer, but suddenly a thought dawned on him. He turned back to Twilight and her friends. "Excuse me, do you know how to get to the Machine Layer?"

"Why, yes!" answered Twilight. "I just studied this. There are usually stairs that lead to it--they lead from a structure that looks a little like a phone booth--often they're found on street corners. Aha!" Twilight lifted a hoof and pointed to the street corner on the right. "There's one over there!"

Wenzel turned his head and saw, indeed, that there was a structure that looked a little like a phone booth on the street corner. The words on the top of it read, "To Machine Layer." "Thanks!" said Wenzel, running off towards the building.

"No problem!" Twilight replied. Then she continued along with her friends towards Metropolis Tower.

...

That was weird, Wenzel thought to himself as he walked down the stairs to the machine layer. I recognize that unicorn and her friends as the Elements of Harmony--I've read about them in the news--but they were heading towards Metropolis Tower. Wonder why.

He had no more time to ponder that as he came to a door. Upon opening it with his magic, a huge rush of wind flew at his face. He backed away for a second, but then slowly opened the door the rest of the way and entered.

The unicorn colt walked through the room, his eyes peeled open the entire time, in search for the mysterious filly whom he had seen earlier. All he saw wherever he looked, however, were workers painstakingly working their machines to keep the surface from losing power.

As he rounded a corner, he looked up and saw a gigantic machine. He recognized this machine from his dad's sketches as the CPC, or Central Power Core. He saw around 100 workers working each part of the machine--pegasi, earth ponies and unicorns, male and female. Wow, he thought, I always knew the workers had tough jobs, but I never knew they were this tough.

As he looked around the CPC, Wenzel spied a pony who was working one of the posts at the machine. He was flipping switches frantically, while constantly looking at the machine pressure to make sure it wouldn't go too high, for he knew that if the pressure went too high, the machine would go into overdrive and would probably explode. Unfortunately, he was doing so much that he became too exhausted to keep moving on and passed out on the ground.

Wenzel looked around and yelled out, "Hey! Who's in charge here?" Nobody responded to him.

He ran up to one of the workers. "Do you know who's in charge around here? We got a man down at the CPC!" The worker was too busy working his machine to respond.

Frantically, Wenzel ran back to the machine and saw that the pressure was going too high and was about to pass over the pressure build up was safe. He ran to the machine to see if he could stop it, but it was too late. With a deafening "Boom!" the machine burst into flames.

Wenzel backed away in terror as he saw workers catching on fire and the machine continuing to burn. More workers dashed in to try to extinguish the fire and get the power level back down. Still more workers hopelessly ran out from the machine in an attempt to save themselves from what would become certain death, ripping off their burning worker's uniforms so they wouldn't catch fire themselves. Wenzel almost became sick to his stomach as he witnessed the horrific sight of the burning machine and of many different unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies throwing themselves from the machine to their deaths.

When Wenzel looked back, the machine was... different, somehow. It had a distinct red glow, and the blaze seemed to have been extinguished--except for a large pit of roaring fire at the top of it. He saw the workers slowly trudging up a long set of stairs towards the pit. Approaching it, they would throw themselves into the flaring tentacles of heat and to their deaths. Wenzel shut his eyes. He couldn't bear to look anymore. The sight was just too gruesome, and he just wanted it to stop.

When he opened his eyes again, the CPC was back to normal, and he realized it had been a halucination. The fire had been extinguished, and a new set of workers had moved in to take the places of the workers present during the explosion. He looked down and saw that several medical ponies were carrying the injured workers to an ambulance. He knew he still hadn't found who he had been looking for, but he didn't care. He had to let his father know about this.

He ran out the door and up the stairs until he was back on the surface. He then ran to where he had left earlier, right in front of the Club. He signaled with his hoof and a taxi pulled over at the side of the road. As he got in, the driver asked him, "Where to?"

Wenzel handed the driver ten bits and commanded, "To Metropolis Tower-- to my father!"

...

Author's note: During a short trip down to the Machine Layer, Wenzel witnesses a terrifying explosion and has a hallucination. Also, enter Twilight Sparkle and the mane six.

Please note that this fanfiction is based loosely on Fritz Lang's 1927 German sci-fi film of the same name.

Also, special thanks to The Dagwood Brony (Daegan Hamilton) for revising this before I submitted it.

Confronting Windsor

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."