Cogs

The room was a light blue; the sort a paint salespony would label something pretentious, to the ilk of Spring Sunrise, or Sea Breeze. It was a pastel sort of colour, sweet to look at, reminiscent of Iridescence's younger years. Everything felt numb and warm; the haze that was Iridescence's brain vaguely noted that he shouldn't be in his Manehattan bedroom but in Canterlot. This thought was dismissed as this was the first time he had felt truly relaxed in years. The gentle ticking of the clock was interrupted by the chiming of the hour. Six chimes; Iridescence eventually realised that meant something, but the dull fog wasn't lifting to aid thinking. A loud cough indicated he wasn't alone in the room.

"Oh... Father?" Iridescence murmured with difficulty focusing.

"You acted without thought. You acted above your station. So here we are." The dull monotonous reply came. Platinum Falls was shifting in and out of Iridescence's hearing. The ticking amplified steadily.

"I see. This conversation I feel we have had before." Iridescence mumbled after an age of thought.

"That sadly is the case. You seem adamant to ignore this lesson." Platinum Falls said with the slightest hint of weariness in his voice. Iridescence blinked slowly, trying to focus visually. The clock's ticking seemed to reverberate about the room, its echo coming in just before the next turning of the cog. Opening his eyes again Iridescence strained to see the unicorn talking to him. Slowly, he registered that the pony was a mare.

"I don't understand this." Iridescence breathed out in a near inaudible whisper.

"You should pay heed to your father darling. He is right; you did act above your station." It became apparent that the speaker was Golden Jubilee. Iridescence registered confusion finally, and tried to sit up. His body refused to follow with that desire.

"Where is he?" He asked feeling nauseous. Head drooping slightly, Iridescence's vision faded again.

"I am still in front of you, talking to you." Platinum Falls said coldly. Iridescence jerked his head up to see that, occupying the space Golden Jubilee had moments ago, his Father stood grimacing.

"What about Mother?" A dark blue mare was in Iridescence's line of sight the moment he thought the question. Yet there was no indication as to how the two ponies were shifting position. Reflecting on it, Iridescence realised he couldn't actually remember Platinum Falls ever being in the room. Confident he had merely assumed Iridescence attempted to sit up again, only to remember that he failed moments previous.

"Hush now, darling, everything is going to be OK." Golden Jubilee said placating him. "If you have been paying attention, you'll know what to do now." She thrust her head back, horn glowing with energy as the walls burst into blue flames. Dully, Iridescence looked about the room. It wasn't his room in Manehattan after all. The surface he was lying on, not a bed, but a cold metal bench, the sort used in the department of Justice's meeting rooms. The walls, while blue in colour, were not the kind baby blue he thought, but the harsh grey blue that was the standard paint in these rooms.

"What if I don't know what to do?" Iridescence asked, starting to overcome the dull fog in his head.

"Hmm?" Platinum Falls started, giving a glance back at Iridescence. "Then this will be the last lesson you learn." Iridescence struggled to coax life into his limbs, but to no avail; the searing heat from the magical flames distracting his already befuddled head; except they weren't hot any more. The fire had cooled, yet the light still danced as though the room was burning.

Panicking, taking in every inch of the room, Iridescence felt the flames grow colder still, sapping the heat from the room. Thinking forcefully, he came to the only conclusion he could. There was nothing that could be done. Frost formed on the bench, burning Iridescence with its vicious coldness. Exhaling painfully he watched his breath condense on the cool air. Iridescence closed his eyes, set his head back and stopped trying. Inhaling deeply, the temperature stabbing at his lungs, he opened his eyes to the bright early afternoon sun.

Poppy Leaf stood above him, exhausted from her feat, while an unhappy looking Platinum Falls stood alongside her. The air was balmy, and the lawn Iridescence was lying on didn't give the slightest hint of frost.

"Don't you dare question my authority or my ability again." Platinum Falls barked loudly.

Wildfire hadn't slept through a morning in years, so was feeling refreshed at the chance to do so. He looked about the room with a disapproving glance. Grey was the only way it could be described, though if pressed further, the word drab might find its way in. He gave a slight humourless smile as he regretted his decision to stay the night. Cursing Tiger May for getting him so exhausted for her assault, he paused in the act of dressing. One thing that was underlined in the brief exchange was how odd he looked in comparison to the ponies milling about the desolate streets.

Conceding to Iridescence's knowledge on dressing to look right, he put down the carefully stitched, beautifully cut suit, in favour of the tatty work-worn clothing he had owned for years. He shuffled over to the cracked spotty mirror hanging on a loose nail. The clothes little more than roughly shaped sacking feeling oddly restrictive, given how comfortable he remembered them being, were causing movement to be restricted. Wildfire picked up a brush, and was about to tackle his mane with it, when the thought continued as to how neat and presentable it now looked to these less fortunate. Throwing it back into the drawer, he fell back onto the bed, staring up at the flaky plaster of the ceiling.

"How did you get me to dream that?" Iridescence asked shaken. He and Poppy Leaf had returned to his offices, and, after a cup of coffee, Iridescence had taken a seat on the entrance sofa.

"I didn't make you dream anything." Poppy Leaf stated bemused. "All I did was bring back a memory of fear. Platinum thought it best. You fell unconscious, so I can only guess your subconscious cobbled it together, yes? Out of whatever stray bits of memory I woke up."

"It felt like the dreams I had been having this past week." Iridescence sighed shaking. Poppy Leaf placed a hoof gently on Iridescence.

"I'm sorry, but I do have to respect Platinum Falls' authority. Apparently so do you." She stated meaningfully. "As for your dreams, perhaps they are a Pavlovian reaction."

"I'm sorry Poppy Leaf, but I haven't a clue what that is." Iridescence said wearily. He stretched out on the sofa, shifting his weight to allow a more relaxed posture.

"You surprise me, given your application of... shall we say, persuading ponies, that such a theory had not been explained to you. In a nutshell, it's psychological conditioning, to induce the same reaction each time a trigger is made. The example given is ringing a bell to get a dog to perform a certain trick, yes? With you, the trigger is your parents, thinking of them, or being around them seems to trigger a subconscious fear, most notably manifesting when you sleep." Poppy Leaf said cheerfully. Smiling as she gently smoothed Iridescence's mane.

"Are you saying I've been trained to fear my parents?" Iridescence asked aghast. "Darling, no offence to you, but, I am not scared of them." He finished resolute.

"Why not? Everypony else is."

"Everypony else is what? Trained to fear them, or scared of them?" Iridescence asked incredulously. Poppy Leaf took Iridescence's chin and looked him square in the eyes. Smiling widely, she let his head drop, as she turned away to leave the room.

Rouge awoke with a start.  Fretting he gave a cursory stare at the ceiling. It didn't make him feel any better. He looked down at the bed covers. They also did nothing to improve his mood. He turned to his left to see a bleary, but smiling light pink mare. This underlined his dread. It was the wrong room, the wrong bed, and the wrong company for a pony of his low status.

"Oh dear Celestia." Rouge said quietly. Pearl Ring's face fell slightly.

"I expected a more positive reaction than that." She said amused briefly.

"Don't get me wrong. I find you a charming mare, and a wonderful intellect to engage with, but this is not going to work out." Rouge said nervously.

"Oh and this is when you become a hero is it? You’re going to save me from you, so I can appease some societal norm and end with some up himself unicorn, with his notions of superiority and class, just because he was born the right shape?" Pearl Ring asked angrily.

"I suppose to you I'm just a unicorn who was born without a horn then?" Rouge replied, meeting her level of frustration.

"That doesn't even make any sense." Pearl Ring cried indignantly.

"No? So I'm born to the right family for your upper class tastes, and in the right shape for your anti-unicorn thing you have going on, yet I'm to take it you don't see me as a unicorn without a horn?" Rouge retorted aggressively, his neat demeanour vanishing.

"Stop putting words in my mouth, shut up, and listen for a second."

"Don't you have a school to teach in?" Rouge asked bitterly.

"It's my day off. Don't you have a filly to take to school?" Pearl Ring replied with the same arrogance. Rouge sat silently opening his mouth at this question. Eventually he found his voice again.

"I'm sorry I jumped at you like that." He said meekly.

"Just... go, OK." Pearl Ring said forlornly. Rouge made it as far as the door before turning back to face Pearl. His slow gait not helping matters much.

"Look... I..." Rouge began sheepishly.

"I had a wonderful evening with you. If you get your head removed from your own backside maybe you can take me out again." Pearl Ring cut across glaring.

A rock sailed through the one remaining pane of glass in the window, shattering it into the rough floorboards. Wildfire sighed, walked to the window, and called out to the street below.

"Hey! Get on with you, some of us work to pay for these windows." Wildfire bellowed down to the group of young ponies. The group was mostly fillies, but one colt had joined them in their afternoon terrorising session. He thought back to when he met the unicorn colt that directed them to Higgins', which, on reflection marked a huge difference from the foals he was used to. Wildfire had grown up around street ponies; barely making enough to survive, with the constant fear that they may lose their homes, their jobs, their families, all at the whim of the government. It didn't help that the moment a foal reached maturity it would be assigned a role, and potentially relocated from their family. A world so impoverished manners are too expensive a luxury was a stark contrast to the world of obscene wealth, where even the smallest generosity is viewed as a social grace.

"What does that say about society?" Iridescence had asked. Wildfire knew now what Iridescence meant. He meant that the ponies that are tomorrows' sociopaths, aren't always who you think they're going to be. The foals in the street, some may turn to crime, but most will live close enough to honest; toiling in hellish conditions for little recompense, and the unicorn colt will one day come to expect from others their generosity, and demand they sacrifice on his behalf. Yet standing here, slick and prim, in his butler suit, Wildfire was the unhappy medium between the two realities: Neither a true incarnation of poverty and injustice, nor a well off pony capable of sustaining himself on the labour of others.

The suit was more comfortable than the sacking, and his mane being neat did have practicality value. Decision made Wildfire set about leaving for the old town.

There was a shuffling beneath the guest bed in Carousel Boutique. With the bright sunshine catching in the dust motes Autumn Lily prepared herself to get up. It was quite the task though, her time under the bed had caused her joints to seize up in a painful cramp. Slowly she stood up, her back shaking from the effort.

"Is there anypony out there?" She opened her mouth to say. After a few minutes of standing silently open-mouthed, Autumn Lily gave up trying to speak. Walking stiffly, she managed to shuffle to a small dressing table, and critically glance at herself in a mirror. Autumn Lily looked shocked at herself, her mane back to being lacklustre, and her coat matted and wild. A flicker of light caught her eye in the reflection. Atop the bed a small button was glinting as the sun hit it as just the right angle.

Transfixed, she stared at the button for what felt like hours, until eventually, very gingerly, Autumn Lily knocked it lightly with the tip of a hoof. The button had come from Spirit Flame's shirt, at some point in the confusion of that evening. With a more boisterous flick, she sent the delicate silver disc soaring across the room, landing between the floorboards. She smiled at this and turned to walk out of the room, only to be met with Dusk smiling, less than two feet from her. Autumn Lily gave a silent scream, before huddling at Dusk's hooves.

The light in the street, though technically bright, seemed second hand and washed-out, as if the entire sky had been passed through a greyscale filter. This did nothing to improve Wildfire's mood, which was as decidedly grey as the street he trudged through. A commotion caught his eye; one of the small bakeries was dealing with the all too frequent dispute over ration quantities, and how the loaves were too small for purpose. It was only a week ago that he himself would have been in that shouting mob, yet now the problem seemed distant and alien, affecting a different group of ponies. The result would always be the same, the shop keep would smile warmly, carefully answering all of the concerns, and then the instigator of the complaints would fail to turn up tomorrow.

Wildfire was close to the mob now, and could discern comments in the rabble.

"I don't care what it says on my food card, I have a bloody family to feed!" An angry green mare shouted boisterously at the wizened stallion.

"Oh dearie me, I can't be having that now..." He said in a voice cracked with age. Smiling brightly, the shop keep graciously presented a second loaf. To Wildfire the gesture seemed too generous, as if the act came with strings attached. Of course it did, but, to the general street rabble, here was free bread, and who is to argue with that. The mare eyed it suspiciously, before gingerly taking it into her saddlebag.

"I'm grateful, I'm sure..." She admitted nervously. The mob of ponies seemed satisfied that the working-stallion had won, and gradually milled away from the dumbstruck mare. Out of morbid curiosity Wildfire continued to watch her as she slowly trotted through the desolate streets. He kept a steady pace, holding a respectable distance until they had rounded a corner into a darkened alley.

Even in the bright daylight little penetrated the shadows of the precipice between the buildings. The gentle clop of hooves striking flagstones broke the eerie silence, moving towards the green mare, a solitary black clad unicorn smiled grimly.

"Oh what have I found?" He said in a rich forbidding voice. His white coat and mane penetrated the darkness, adding a darker feel to the rest of the alley. "An earth pony extorting undeserved foodstuffs?" He took a couple of strides closer to her. "Well now, that's just unacceptable. The department of Agriculture and Welfare set these limits for a reason."

"I have a family to feed..." The mare replied meekly, holding herself proud despite feeling sick.

"Yes well that's rather the thing..." The unicorn enforcer continued, "not anymore." He finished with a slight smile and a nod of his head to the saddlebag, allowing the loaf of bread to levitate out in a crimson aura. She stared across at him for a few seconds, then as the statement hit, she paled with shock, and ran through the streets crying out for her loved ones. Smiling, the stallion held a steady gait to Wildfire, who was rooted to the spot.

"Good day there, fellow." The enforcer said with a hint of warmth. "I trust you enjoyed your escapade, watched an interesting piece of street theatre, and now are itching to go home, and forget about it all."

"Oh very much so sir, thank you sir." Wildfire said shrinking with fear.

"Hmm, you're not one of these usual waifs are you?" The enforcer said pensively. "Ah, you're that pegasus young Iridescence has taken a shine to. Wildfire, I take it. Quince, dear fellow, I implore you to a spot of light tea somewhere. I have things I would love to discuss with you." Quince intoned warming significantly.

"That's a very kind offer, sir, but I really must be going now."

"It wasn't a request, Wildfire." Quince said harshly.

Autumn Lily had braved the staircase, it was a daunting task, but she had managed to walk as far as the kitchen, and was looking about the room with a mixture of fear and trepidation. With a placating smile Starfall looked fondly at the earth pony as she gazed at the kitchen for the first time in quite a while.

“How are you feeling now?” Starfall asked gently, slowly standing. Autumn Lily looked at her pained.

“Cold, empty, alone.” Autumn Lily formed the words, but still could not yet form the ability to put sound behind them.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you are trying to say.” Starfall said apologetically. Autumn Lily could taste the eggs cooking in the frying pan, their scent drifting through the kitchen with the slightest of breezes from the open window. With a tortured glance at Starfall she collapsed onto the table in a torrent of tears.

“I was screaming for so long, and nopony could hear me.” She said through gasping sobs. Starfall moved to hold Autumn Lily compassionately, then paused shocked as she registered hearing a voice.

“You’re speaking?” Starfall exclaimed questioningly.

“I asked Rouge, it was the last thing I said, I asked him if we really were being sold. He said he didn’t know.” Autumn Lily looked up, her face drenched and burning from the tears. “I couldn’t speak to Spirit Flame, it hurt to even look at him.” She cried pitifully. “The maid that fed me tried to cheer me up, but with her ignorance and her quips only reminded me of the hell I had been sold into.”

“I’m so sorry for you…” Starfall said gently.

“Then I was saved, but not by Rouge, the pony I expected to come to my rescue, but by another unicorn. Why is it that the earth ponies I trusted did nothing for me, and it was another of my potential slavers that eventually freed me?”

“Uh…” Starfall tried, shocked by the proposition. “I don’t know, but I don’t think Rouge should be diminished. He probably helped Iridescence.”

“What are you going to use me for?” Autumn Lily asked forlorn.

“I wasn’t going to use you for anything.” Starfall interjected genuinely shocked. “I care for your wellbeing and rights as a pony.”

“Isn’t this nice, eh?” Quince asked rhetorically. “Just a couple of fellows enjoying tea in one of the better tea houses in Ponyville.”

“Oh, very much so…” Wildfire said carefully. He looked about the twee shop with an expression of mild distaste.

“And yet something troubles you?” Quince said calmly. “Let me guess, that earth mare’s family?” Wildfire looked carefully at Quince’s face, trying to figure out if there was a trap in this conversation.

“I had a thought, yes.” Wildfire reasoned carefully.

“Don’t worry about them, they are alive and well, just not here anymore. This time tomorrow they will be in another glorious town, working towards whatever cause Agriculture and Welfare decree.”

“That’s good to know?” Wildfire said carefully interjecting a questioning inflection.

“Ah, but it’s not their wellbeing that troubles you, no, what you are really troubled by is the speed at which I managed to discover her crimes, and suitably reprimand her.” Quince gave a slight smile, and sipped his cream tea delicately.

“Well…” Wildfire said relaxing slightly.

“You’re a clever pony, and you spend so much time with one of us, why don’t you tell me how you think I did it?” Quince implored with the right level of flattery.

“I can only assume the shopkeeper reported it.” Wildfire said after careful thought.

“Quite right, but there is so much more to it than that.” Quince said passionately. “Think about how the system works, its beautiful intricacies and nuances, would you not be cautious about talking in front of a unicorn, let alone acting before one. Why, everypony would simply go about their days merely thinking their traitorous thoughts, we would never apprehend anypony.”

“But surely a greater test of criminality is to see if an offence would be committed in front of you?” Wildfire said losing his fear of disparagement.

“I know you had a similar conversation yesterday with a troublesome mare, Tiger May, such a pretty name. Shame she no longer enjoys it. Her thoughts were very clear. Uniforms, visibility, and presence, they keep ponies honest, but think now of the cost to the state, the cost to our fair government if we need a uniformed enforcer per pony, keeping everypony honest. It is so much cheaper and more efficient to use fear, rather than assuming that the law is visible, let the ragamuffins of the street assume the opposite. They will fear the retribution whenever there is the potential for witnesses, and if you can never see the observer, surely there is always the potential.”

“That system relies on deceit and lies though.” Wildfire said aghast.

“There is no deceit, we are honest in saying they might be being watched, there are no lies, we allow them to know of our presence when we apprehend them. The invisible observer is always present, always watching, that is a working mind-set that ensured everypony stays honest. When it does fail, as it did earlier, it fails on a primal level, basic low-life criminals who are selfish and self-important.”

“You do not give them the chance to prove otherwise.” Wildfire criticised thoughtfully.

“They have ample opportunity. The thought happens before the act, why act on a thought if you know it to be wrong?”

“Why are you having this discussion with me?” Wildfire interjected. “I’m nopony special; I hold no need for this knowledge.”

“Oh, but dear fellow you do, if you plan on working for someone to the ilk of Iridescence, you will find knowledge of how he acts invaluable. More importantly though, you will be invaluable to him if you can give a greater understanding to assisting him in his endeavours.”

“Everything is so shrouded and hidden. Why would any system rely on subterfuge?”

“His family motto is also accepted as the de-facto motto of the department of Justice. Muros Aures Habent. When even the walls are listening, you guard your words, yes?”