The City of Dreams

Big Al, proprietor of Big Al's Big Toys for Big Boy's garage and car vendor slumped into his brown leather office chair sometime after seven at night and let his large belly hang loose; he was exhausted from earlier jaunts around Reno. Al looked up at the ceiling fan twirl about lazily and started to become hypnotized by the fan's pitiful efforts to keep his office cool, but it wasn't enough so he used his Grey Stetson as a fan. He just sat there in his sweat stained steel grey suit, pondering why lady luck could be a real pain in the ass sometimes.

He eventually broke from the stupor and drifted his eyes down onto his desk; it was littered with an assortment of documents, folders for each of his clients, and several part order forms that he needed to completed sooner rather than later, but Al hadn't gotten around to them yet. But amongst the debris, was something that was way above anything of value in the entire garage filled with every kind of luxury car under the sun; there sat a set of golden jewelry, five necklaces and a crown. They sparkled like wildfire even though there wasn't anything really that shined at it; the gold was finely polished to a near mirrored reflection. Each jeweled crystal embedded in them reflected a bit of coloured light onto the office walls, forming together to create a small rainbow in the dingy office. The room looked like it was holding a leprechaun disco.

They looked a little childish, like some sort of kid's toy; but Big Al knew better, earlier he had taken his Bowie knife to the gold and cut a sliver off to see if it was the real deal. He wasn't disappointed, it was real. Though when Al had tried to find the part where the sliver was taken, it had mysteriously disappeared along with the shaving.

Al had spent all day traveling from pawn shops to auction house to see if he could sell it for a fortune, but was met with little success. Ever since he had found the retched little things on the side of a road, Al's luck had plummeted. When he first went to one of his buddies in a jewelry store to get an estimation of their value, the jeweler had confirmed his thoughts that they were real; but when Al tired to sell it to him, the jeweler had tried to undercut him by more than half of what Big Al knew they were worth. Al may never be considered bright, but he knew enough to catch a rip when he saw it.

And so Al had set off on a quest to find a better deal for the set in Reno; but the other stores were no different, ether they tried to rip him off, or they thought that he must have stolen them and declared that they couldn't possibly take something with so much heat on them. And so, by the end of the day Al was stuck with the crummy little things. They sat there on his desk like the world's most expensive paper weights.

Suddenly there came a knocking on his office door, "Boss, Mister Antonio Villanueva is here to pick up his Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG," It was one of Al's mechanics. Antonio was one of Big Al's most important and respected clients; you could even go as far to say the same for most of Reno.

Antonio Villanueva was one of the biggest contributors to the Reno Air Races, the man had spent half a billion US dollars to keep the whole event as lively as possible, without him Reno wouldn't be as large as it was today. Also there was the fact that had he not intervened into a federal debate to shut the whole event down after a catastrophic crash a few years back, then the entire city might have just shriveled up and died. The Spanish oil baron was the savior of the city, and Al took pride that he serviced his rides.

"Alright, I'll be there in a moment to greet him. Make sure that his little joy ride is fueled and ready, I have the feeling that he may want to ride it home," Al said to the mechanic as he left his office.

The garage wasn't small by any means as it was more like a large were house for the rich, and it took Al a minute or two of weaving in between different sports cars, vintages models, and a Hummer or two to get to the lobby where Mr. Villanueva waited.

"Ah, Mr. Alphonse, how are you this fine evening?" A Latin man wearing a black Calvin Klein suit with an oxblood red tie asked as he rose from his red comfy chair, a smile adorned across his face revealed rows of pearl white teeth. The man was somewhere in his late fifties, with stripes of steel grey penetrating his swept back jet black hair and neatly trimmed beard; though to call him old looking was out of the question, as he looked even healthier than most young people and not a wrinkle could be seen on his features. Antonio's grey eyes sparkled with intelligence and experience as he met Al's. His face was angular, and his chin jutted out giving him a sharp presence of a professor or a wise man. His English was perfect from an Oxford tuition; though hints of his Madrid upbringing showed from time to time. The man radiated charisma and power, and he knew how to use it; it was no surprise that he had made eight figure numbers a year.

"Not bad sir," Al said as he shook Antonio's hand, the man's grip was enough to bend iron and Al thought he heard several pops coming from his wrist, "we have your ride ready to roll. But there are some documents that need signing before I can hand over the keys, just a routine legal process, plus there's payment," Al said trying hard not to look like the casual shake had caused him any pain.

"But of course, will you lead the way?" Antonio let go of his steel grip, and Al thanked god that nothing had been broken.

The two men walked back to the main office, but before Big Al entered though the doorway he remembered the Jewelry still on top of his desk. It would look highly suspicious, and Al doubted that it would set the right impression for Mr. Villanueva if Al left priceless valuables lying about. "Ah, I just remembered that my office is a complete mess. Would you kindly wait out here while I tidy up?"

"Nonsense, so long as we can find a pen and the papers, I'm sure it will be just fine," Mr. Villanueva said as he brushed past Al into his office. Al hurried in after him, but there was nothing he could do now.

Antonio stood there staring at the gleaming treasures on the desk, captivated by their beauty. Al wasn't sure what he should say as an excuse, and eventually came up with one just in time.

"Mr. Alphonse, what are those?" Antonio said with wonder in his voice.

"Ah, a good question. I was putting them aside for a bit of polishing. They were my Ol' Gran's, and she left them to me after she passed on," Al lied smoothly.

"How much?" Antonio said abruptly, his eyes never leaving the desk.

"I'm sorry?" Al was taken aback but the sudden offer.

"How much do you want for them? A million? Two perhaps?" Mr. Villanueva said plucking a check book from his breast pocket. At first Big Al didn't know how to respond; then it hit him that this man was willing to pay three times what he was offered earlier that day as if it was spare change.

"How does 2.5 Million sound?" Maybe Lady Luck hadn't forsaken Al after all.

Will led the girls out the back of the house and into the cool night air. The stars shown intensely from the clear Nevada night sky, a partial full moon lit the area with its light and cast silver linings over the landscape. Twilight had to admit that the night seemed more beautiful than she last remembered it, last time she was in partial shock and had too many other things on her mind; but now she took the time appreciate her surroundings.

The group had finished up their dinner and was waiting for Will's grand reveal of his flying machine. Rainbow Dash still claimed that whatever Will had, it could never compete against her wings in "Sheer Awesomeness." Though from what Twilight had seen from the models, it would be a good guess that Dash might just have a competitor, since the replica craft looked impressive and seemed designed for extremely high speeds.

They stopped in front of a pair of massive rusted iron doors for the hanger. From the light cast from the house and the moon, Twilight could see that it was easily larger than her Tree Library, and from glimpses earlier on in the day she knew that it stretched on further into the darkness. Will stood with them fishing around in one of his pant's pockets for something, eventually satisfied that he had what he wanted, he withdrew his hand to reveal a small remote. He turned to face the girls, a foolish grin plastered on his lips, he was like a colt with his latest toy, "Alright ladies, prepare yourselves for eye melting levels of awesomeness!"

The doors behind him creaked and moaned as they separated. Pinkie was bobbing up and down with excitement and enjoying every minute of it. The girls felt the same way, though Fluttershy had taken refuge behind Applejack and her new hat that Will had fished out of an old box. Applejack said that it wasn't anything like her old hat, but it would do for now.

To add to the mood, Will was playing the opening orchestra to 2001 a Space Odyssey over some speakers hidden somewhere inside the metal construct. Liza thought that was just pushing it, though she let her brother have his fun and time in the spot light. The gap grew wider and wider until a dark cavern lay before them. Another click of a button released a flash of blinding light as pairs of industrial lights flicked on with an echoing "thunk" as each row of lights started to illuminate the hanger.

Inside, several large machines were placed all around the edges of the hanger; some Twilight could guess what they did from their shape, but pretty much everything was beyond her. To the far end a lab was set up with pipes winding around between machines, and a low hum emitted from a few of them. But what was really eye catching stood in the centre under several bright halogen lights, its bright aqua blue paint shimmered as it reflected the beams off of a polished finish.

"Girls meet my pride and joy, 'The Sparrow'!" Will announced as he flung his arms wide open in a showmanship style.

"W-what is that?" Fluttershy asked as the group went in after Will; he had already run over to The Sparrow and was stroking its paintjob lovingly as if it were his marefriend.

"This right here is a Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire F.Mk.24! Homebuilt over the years from an ordered kit, and modified to race! The engine is a modified Rolls-Royce Griffon 85, and scratch built to run at speeds up to 850km/h; designed by yours truly. And to top it off, Liz helped me make it run off of her high potency aviation biofuel!" Will went on spouting details of his craft; but none of the girls understood a word that he had said.

Liza coughed loudly, and Will turned from his beloved plane to see that the girls had lost him, "Yeah, I guess you wouldn't get all the details, you being magical horses and all." Will sighed, no one really appreciated his work, "Suffice to so say; It flies really fast."

Rainbow dash walked over next to him, she inspected the blue metal of the fuselage and the wings. She took a step back and snorted in bemusement, "This will never fly; the wings won't even flap. But I'll admit that at least it looks cool, so I guess it's not complete trash," RD looked down her nose at Will with contempt at the ridiculous thought that this machine could do the same as her wings.

"Say what?! Wings flapping? Of course they don't flap! We have the engine to generate trust and aerodynamics to do that! This is a highly sophisticated piece of work, it doesn't need to "flap" its wings to fly like those useless feathers of yours," Will was insulted that this multicoloured girl, who would have fit right in at Xavier's School for mutants, had just dissed his baby girl.

Though now that he remembered the teal blue wings hanging off her back, it did make sense that they wouldn't have a need to go through all the troubles to create flight, like what the Wright Brothers and their predecessors did. Well, that wasn't fair really. All she had to do was flap her wings like a bird's and off she was, while Earth bound beings such as himself had to go through a ton of trouble to get into the skies.

Will turned and met Rainbow in a challenging stare, "Fine, you won't believe me right now; but tomorrow when the sun comes up you will eat those words," Will declared.

"Alright, it is on! And I hope you have some more hot sauce, cause you are going to eat those words of yours right with it! My wings aren't useless, and I'm sure that I can out fly that hunk of scrap!" There was enough static in the air that Liza thought that a gas fire might start and kill them all.

"Alright you too, I think that's enough. You can have your little duel later; right now we need to get some beds for you girls, since it's already eleven o'clock. Even if it's a weekend, you all need some rest," Liz said motherly and started to herd the girls back to the house with a few protests and moans, mainly from Pinkie Pie who wanted to see more.

Rainbow and Will stared for a minute longer in their little staring contest until some prodding from Liza broke them up. "You go ahead sis, I'm going to stay here and make some preparations for tomorrow," Will picked up a clipboard from a table and started to look it over.

Eventually all the girls had left except for Liza and Will. She rolled up to her brother and patted him on the back, "Thanks Will."

"What for? All I'm doing is getting ready to make that girl lose that little challenge," Will said as he walked over to The Sparrow to test some of the instruments.

"I meant thanks for bringing those girls out of their funk with all these theatrics, they've been taking it really hard that they're now trapped here in our world. And by distracting them and livening up the mood a little seems to be helping. So thanks," Liza said as she turned to go after her charges.

"Think nothing of it. Besides, how can I leave them like that? It would go against my code of honour as a gentleman," Liza looked back at her brother work on his task for a moment longer, eventually she let out a soft laugh. A crash and some yelling came from the house followed by Pinkie's trademark giggling, and Liza realized that she had to fit six new guests into three beds. Also, that crash sounded like something that needed immediate attention, so she pushed her wheelchair out and into the darkness.