THE RIOTS OF BALTIMARE:

“Many settlements in Equestria rebelled against the heresies of the Houses, refusing to follow down the paths of madness and bow to traitors. So they became so-called “Rebel” cities, acting as havens to rebel factions and refugees from the Houses and their senseless power disputes. One such Rebel City was Baltimare, a port city seated on the Gulf of Manehatten one of the few ports left that could ferry ponies across the Sea of Harmony. Baltimare became a gateway for desperate ponies willing to risk pirates, storms, and the creatures of the sea, to try their hooves in a new land away from the warring of the Houses.

But there were only so many ships that could be spared, and none of them without a cost. The ship captains, seeing the desperation of the refugees, inflated their prices demanding great amounts of bits for the dangerous trip across the Sea of Harmony. Many refugees simply couldn’t afford the ferry, and became stuck in Baltimare, trying to scrabble together enough bits to leave the city. But Baltimare had already been crowded in the times before the war, and the more refugees became stuck within its walls, the less shelter could be found.

The refugees were forced to live in The Derelicts, abandoned sections of Baltimare following a siege orchestrated by House Moon and Star during the first few years of the city’s “Rebellion”, the siege discontinued so that Moon and Star could turn their attention to House Earthborn, as they became a legitimate threat. The refugees were pushed into the bitter and broken homes laid low by the very violence they had been trying to escape. Angry and bitter at the worth deemed to them by the city, the passage to safety denied to them by their poverty, and the cruelty to which ponies subjected them, the refugees withdrew from the everyday workings of Baltimare, forming their own enclave within The Derelicts, withdrawing from the ponies who grew ever-more tired of their presence.

But such a withdrawal was not enough for the Baltimare citizenry. As time passed food shortages began to shake Baltimare, the city unable to keep its own fed. Its fishing wharfs, once prosperous, were now being beaten out by Whitegold boats, who could afford cannons to enforce their claims to the most lucrative fishing grounds. The farms outside of the city had been devastated by Moon and Star in times past, and Whitegold pirates raided supply ships from over the Sea of Harmony. The only source of food became what House Whitegold deigned to sell to Baltimare, at highly inflated prices that the Baltimare ponies had no choice but to meet. The refugees spent their last remaining bits on the high priced food and the Baltimare citizens watched their funds dwindle down to nothing, their economy decimated, the once wealthy city quickly becoming a downtrodden cesspool, dead and stagnant.

Looking for somepony to blame, a scapegoat to take their anger out upon, the Baltimare citizenry turned to the most obvious tragedy of the war available to them, the refugees. They began to protest the presence of refugees in Baltimare, citing their outrage at the refugees drain on their city’s resources, citing crimes committed by refugees, some true, some false, as reasons to deny them a place in Baltimare, comparing them to conquerors taking over the Derelicts, and demanding that they be thrown out of the city.

The refugees, enraged at the unjust accusations and demands of the protesting ponies, responded in anger, forming protests that galloped shouting through the city, starting riots, and attacking notable anti-refugee figureheads, before retreating back to The Derelicts. This only angered the citizen ponies of Baltimare more, and while the Rebel Factions and the Baltimare City Council attempted to negotiate with the angry ponies, all attempts at compromise and peaceful resolution ended in failure. Misery, hatred, and soul-crushing poverty brought the tempers of the Baltimare citizen and refugee ponies both to a boil, to the point that they cared more about destroying what they viewed as a blight on their lives than they did about the very lives they felt were attacked, and as tempers rose so to did a body count…”

From The Scholars Notes

The shouts echoed through every nook and cranny of Baltimare, over the tall grey stone houses of the city, packed together tightly with thin little alleyways between them, black slanted shingle rooftops, and lamplights shining from inside. Hooves pounded against the dark and mud-caked cobblestone paths of the city streets, past the few and scattered black iron lampposts planted along the sides at the edge of thin concrete sidewalks, casting their dim and flickering lamplights across the shadows. Their light was joined by the dancing lights of fire and flame, as the hoof beats got closer, fires illuminating the walls of houses down the street, past a corner, torches lighting up the night…

A young filly barely older than a foal, an Earth Pony with a bright yellow coat, red fluffy mane and tail, and bright green eyes, stood on the sidewalk of the street beneath a lamplight, a wide smile on her little face, as she looked down to a shiny red ball that she was bouncing against the street with her hoof.

She looked up from her ball-bouncing with her right eyebrow raised, a curious look forming on her features as the lights from flames illuminated the surfaces of the houses at the end of the street, along with moving, violent shadows, whipping about in a frenzy, in the vague shapes of ponies, shadows cast from torches as the shouts rose in volume, and the hoofs beat closer…

The little filly’s eyes widened with surprise as a hoof wrapped around her waist and pulled her up quickly off of the street, sending the little red ball from her grasp, bouncing into the street. A purple-coated mare, Earth Pony, with a fluffy green mane and tail, soft yellow eyes, and a cutie mark of a hammer and chisel on her flank, looked down the street with panic in her eyes at the red light and shadows on the wall… Quickly she turned, with the filly in hoof, and galloped back through an open door, into her house, slamming the door shut behind her… And the little red ball rolled slowly into the middle of the street… coming to a stop at the very middle, hints of red light starting to reflect off it’s surface…

The little filly staggered on her feet as the mare put her down just past the doorway, and looked up with wide surprised eyes, bottom lip starting to tremble softly, a little moisture forming at her eyes.

“M-mommy, m-my ball-”.

“Shhh Merry Gold I need you to be quiet sweetie, okay?” Spoke the mare quickly, her voice anxious while trying to be soothing, and her eyes still panicked, moving her teeth down to a brass bolt-lock on the inside of the door and pulling it over, locking the door, then standing up on her hind legs to reach the brass chain-bolt at the top pulling it over and sliding it into place with her teeth, before turning her head back to look to the little foal.

“Honey, I need you to go get me the upstairs lantern, okay?” Spoke the mother gently as Merry Gold, sniffling softly, her lower lip trembling, nodded, before turning and moving over to the stone stairs with wooden railing and magenta carpeting covering them. The filly had to pull herself up step by step, still sniffling, with her little legs as the mare moved away from the door, and into the house’s living room.

The living room was patterned with a magenta carpet and a round soft light red rug in the middle of it. There were dark green couches on either side of the rug and a pair of green cushioned seats in front of an empty stone fireplace. A grandfather clock against the wall beneath the stairs ticked away at the time away, and a round wooden table sat between the couches on top of the rug. A lit brass lantern in turn sat on top of the table, shining its light all across the living room… and out of the large glass window looking out onto the street.

As the sound of the shouts got louder, the mare moved quickly over to the window standing quickly on her hind legs and bringing her hooves up to the dark purple curtains on either side of the window. Quickly she pulled them together over the window, lowering her head and sighing out heavily, gritting her teeth, some moisture seeming to form at the edges of her eyes… She shook her head quickly, and turned to move over to the table in the middle of the room. She leaned over the brass lantern, bringing her right hoof forward to the lantern’s glass cover, tilting it back and leaning down close to the flame. She took a deep breathe, and then quickly blew out the flame, snuffing out the fire and plunging the room into darkness…

As she set back the glass over the now lightless lantern, the tiny grunts and hoofbeats of Merry Gold could be heard on the stairs, and a shaky light started to illuminate the room. The little filly made her way down the stairs, holding a brass lantern by its handle in her mouth, eyes squinting a bit with the effort, legs shaking a little.

“Gwot et!” Spoke Merry Gold past the handle as she brought the lantern down, and the mare, glancing towards the window once more, as though to make sure she’d really drawn the curtains, moved over quickly to meet Merry Gold, looking back to her as she got down to the base of the stairs.

“Very good sweetie! Now put it down right there, that’s it.” Spoke the mare, trying to be gentle as Merry Gold placed it down on the bottom step, her eyes tearful, bottom lip trembling lightly, sniffling gently as she looked to her mommy.

“M-mommy? I-I’m sorry I stayed up, I-I just wanted to play with m-my ball!” Spoke the little filly, as she started to move from sniffling towards full-on sobbing.

“It’s okay sweetie! It’s okay…” Spoke the mare, moving quickly over to Merry Gold, wrapping her hooves around her in a hug, and turning her gaze to the brass lantern as she held the shaking little filly close.

“I know you just wanted to play with your ball… bedtimes bedtime for a reason sweetie, you can’t stay out after dark…” Spoke the mare softly, as she moved her left hoof forward to the lantern, tipping back the glass as she’d done with the other, leaning down to blow out the flame.

Merry Gold, her eyes buried in her mommy’s coat, didn’t even notice as the room went dark, hugging her mommy close and crying gently, little hiccups starting to move her body.

“I-I’m ‘hic’ I’m sorry m-‘hic’ mommy! I didn’t m-mean ‘hic’ to!” She spoke, crying into her mother’s coat, as the mare looked to the door, the sounds of the hoofbeats and shouts starting to come through the wood.

“Its okay sweetie, its okay, just don’t do it again okay honey? Mommy needs you to be a good filly and stay in after dark from now on, okay?” Spoke the mare, holding Merry Gold tighter as her eyes moved rapidly over the living room, trying to remember if there was anything she’d forgotten. As satisfied as she was going to be, she moved back a little, bringing her hoofs up to Merry Gold’s shoulders, and moving down so that she was looking Merry Gold in the eyes, faces close in the dark.

“Now sweetie I’m going to need you to stay quiet for me, okay? Until I say that it’s okay to talk. Can you be quiet for mommy?” She asked gently, smiling softly as the little Merry Gold sniffled a bit more, and nodded gently, her bottom lip trembling.

“U-u-huh…” She spoke, as her mother smiled gently…

“That’s my good filly…” Spoke the mare softly, before gently moving to Merry Gold’s side, left hoof wrapping around her, leading the young filly into the living room, over towards the closer of the two couches.

“Let’s just sit and snuggle for a bit, okay? Let’s cuddle on the couch…” She spoke, her voice quiet, at a whisper, as she moved up onto the couch. Merry Gold, still sniffling gently, her eyes wet, crawled up into her mommy’s lap. The mare, as Merry Gold did so, wrapped her hooves gently around the little filly, bringing her right hoof up to stroke the young pony’s mane gently… Looking down to her sweet little Merry Gold with soft eyes and a gentle smile… then turning her eyes to the wooden, fear replacing joy, and a lump in her throat forming… gulping it down softly, she turned and buried her face in Merry Gold’s mane, as the sound of shouts and trampling hooves got louder and louder, light from the fires dancing through the slit of space in the drawn curtains…

“Please sweet Celestia, please let them be a city mob, please don’t let them hurt Merry Gold, please…” whispered the mare gently into her filly’s mane, wrapping her hooves around her tighter, eyes squeezed shut as she held her beloved Merry Gold tight in her hooves, snuggled up against her coat…

The little red ball, left alone in the street, reflected the fire from the torchlight… and in its shiny red reflective surface, ponies could be seen rounding the corner from the end of the street onto the street proper. These ponies seemed to galloping, shouts surrounding the air around them, fire in the torches they carried, and the light from the fire glinting off the steel prongs of pitch-forks, the blades of knives, the edges of axes… If the little red ball could have thought, it might have thought- “Well bu-” just before the beating hooves of the mob trampled it into tatters…

The mob consisted of ponies of every kind and size… big and small, strong and weak, naked and finely clothed… Earth ponies, Pegasus ponies, and Unicorn ponies alike raced in the thundering herd of a mob, but all of them had a few things in common… They were all citizens of Baltimare, they were all carrying something unwholesome in some way, and they were all actively looking for trouble…

As the herd thundered down the street, the fires from their makeshift torches reflected off the shut windows, illuminated the locked doors, and cast shadows upon the stone surfaces of the buildings as the mob stampeded by. Signs bopped up and down with the thundering herd, held aloft by ponies of all kinds, some were levitated, some were held by teeth and jaws, and others were tied into position with straps upon the backs of ponies, held up with propping and binding, leaving the hooves and mouth free to more violent pursuits… The signs bore many different phrases, and were born by many different ponies…

“CAST THEM OUT!” Was one message scrawled in black charcoal on a piece of white cloth, stretched out and nailed onto a wooden signpost, bobbing up and down as it’s Pegasus holder galloped, her coat a bright white, her mane a bright yellow, her Cutie-Mark a simple blue feather, and her eyes a violent purple. She turned her head as she galloped with the herd, so that the sign could be held aloft while clenched in her teeth, the rage of her message more important than her being able to see straight.

“THROW OUT THE LEECHES!!!” Another sign read with the words in bright red and a fairly well painted picture of a fat pony with his face buried in a large pile of food below the words on a wide wooden sign being levitated in a green aura by its Unicorn designer, a stallion with fine gentlemanly clothing, a dark green coat, a nice black mane with grey streaks, a short fine mustache, a Cutie-Mark of a knife and fork crossed over, and aggravated grey eyes.

Yet another sign proclaimed in big black letters “BALTIMARE IS OURS!” on a piece of white poster board, held strapped to the back of an Earth Pony stallion, the sign shifting a bit with every step he took. The stallion in question had a dark brown coat, a white mane, bright blue eyes, and a cutie-mark of a big blue fish on his flank.

These ponies carried more than signs however… Tucked beneath her wing the Pegasus wielded a pitchfork with barbed tips glinting in the firelight. Floating beside his sign, the unicorn made sure to levitate a half-broken bottle of wine, the sharp shards sticking out. And in the teeth of the Earth Pony was the handle of a carving knife, held tightly in-between his teeth, blade glinting from the light of the flames…

They were far from the only ones who went prepared to kill… Every member of the galloping mob had brought something with which to harm other ponies. The herd was armed with clubs and knives, hatchets and pitchforks, flame and rocks… Their hooves hit the streets with purpose, even as they shouted and yelled under the dark night, carrying dancing shadows with them on the surfaces of the houses, the raging mob relentlessly going to their destination, and prepared to do great evil upon arrival…

The mare held little Merry Gold close, biting her lower lip and shivering with her little filly wrapped in her hooves, as the flames passed by her window, and the stomping hooves and shouting throats echoed throughout her home, all around her, the sound barely discernable, but the wrath of those making it unable to be denied … And then the lights were gone, and the sound of the hooves and yelling began to fade…

The mare opened her eyes, slowly, blinking away moisture that she wasn’t aware had collected there, and turned her gaze to the window… She waited a few moments, quietly, listening, barely daring to breathe as she listened to the noises fade… Then, as she became sure that they were leaving, she breathed out a shaking sigh… her body trembling from the sheer release of nerves, as she turned her gaze back down to the little filly in her hooves…

Merry Gold’s eyes were closed, her tiny body breathing softly in the hooves of her mommy, eyes still a little wet from crying… she had fallen asleep… sniffled, hiccupped, and cried herself to sleep, her little body already tired from staying up past her bedtime… The mare blinked as she looked at the sight of the little filly who had slept through one of the most terrifying moments of her life… and then she smiled gently, closing her eyes and bowing her head softly, moisture reforming at the corners of her eyes…

“Thank you…” She whispered gently, leaning down to kiss Merry Gold’s forehead gently as a single tear ran down her cheek, her little filly sleeping peacefully in her hooves, and the sounds of all-consuming rage faded from her street…

But not from the city. The sounds of the thundering herd continued down street after street, twisting its way through the city moving with one objective, one purpose, to cast out those who they hated, who they blamed, and their hooves lead them towards the mares and stallions whom they had declared their enemies, and the violence they craved to unleash…

Pounding around a corner, the mob found their way to a short stretch of cobblestone street that ran up to a wide stone bridge, arching over a river that ran through Baltimare… The bridge was broad, strong, and old, made from a hard grey stone, slightly cracked and worn over the years, but still mighty, still durable, and over it, lay their objective… The Derelicts.

On the opposite side of the bridge was another patch of cobblestone street with buildings on either side… Buildings that were old, dilapidated, broken, battered worn out, and in poor repair… Numerous buildings could be seen to have holes in their walls, or walls missing completely, and instead of stone and brick, wood and cloth had been used to fill up the gaps, hastily erected to shield those within from the elements. The glass in nearly every window had long since shattered, most of them were boarded up, or had only a cloth or blanket covering to hold out the rain and noises from the city. Shingles from the roofs were missing in droves, and in more than a few cases the roofs were partially missing themselves. In some, what remained could no longer be called a roof at all. Many doors were old, battered, and scratched, and some were downright missing, replaced with cloths hanging from hooks, or custom doors made with hammer and nail, or just blocked off by old crates.

The most noticeable aspect of this street over the bridge however, was not its buildings… but the ponies who stood in the middle of the street, in a herd as large as the one that faced them across the bridge, with torches of their own and weapons to… The ponies of this herd stood with stumps where horns had once been, cutie-marks ripped off their flanks and replaced with crude coverings and cloths sewn over, and ponies with wings cut apart, only the skeletal remains of the wings sticking out from the backs, plucked free of feathers… The refugee ponies stood grim, and defiant, marked and bruised and scarred, with bedraggled and dirtied coats, raggedy patchwork clothing, and vicious, brutal clubs, hatchets, knives, broken bottle parts, and numerous other weapons… The refugee ponies looked grim, they looked angry, they looked grim, and they looked ready to fight…

Like their opposites they stood together, with hatred in their eyes, and as the galloping mob of citizens came to a stop on the other side the bridge, both sides glared into the eyes of the across the bridge, over the water, the light from their flames dancing against their faces in the night, two burning armies just looking for an excuse…

The air was still as the two sides stared each other down… No words were said. None were needed. The shouts and slogans, the angry slurs, even the signs they still carried, all the mob’s bluster, had been for their sake alone. The refugees didn’t need to hear it… the mob didn’t want them to hear it. If they had decided to pack up and leave in that very instant, the mob would have pursued them anyway… They were angry. They were enraged. And they were looking for somepony to vent that rage upon…

The hatred was returned by the refugee ponies… the hatred that the ponies bore for each other was clear in their eyes… And as the fires and the flames danced across the shadows, both herds silent, all ponies ready, the ever-encroaching moment that each of them could feel drew closer, and closer, to that final moment… that moment when life would be taken, and blood spilled in rage…

Tense moments ticked by… and in the background, almost imperceptibly at first, but rising in pitch, a strange kind of soft music began to play… It was harmonious while off-putting, joyful while discordant, filling up the silence with pleasant yet oddly dark tones, drifting over the two pony herds, one of Citizens, one of Refugees, staring each other down with a hatred born in the pits of fear and desperation…

A hornless Unicorn tightened her mouth around the handle of her knife… A winged Pegasus pawed the ground… A wingless Pegasus began to twitch his right eye… A bedraggled Earth Pony clutched his rake beneath his curled left leg… A horned Unicorn started to let the edges of her mouth curl up… And then the music hit a high note, followed quickly by a low discordant tone…

“AAAAAHHHH!!!!” Came the roar from the citizen herd as they charged forward.

“YAAAAHHHH!!!” Came the yell from the refugee herd as they galloped ahead.

The pony herds swarmed over the bridge from opposite sides in a rushing tide of rage, ramming into each other with a wave of swinging clubs and jabbing knives, piercing pitchforks and bashing hooves. Stallion fought stallion, mare fought mare, pony struck pony, with no regard to their lives or by whom they were loved, driven by their anger, driven by their hate… And in a darkened alleyway, down the river past a curve, looking out from a dark alleyway nestled between two houses, a figure, shrouded in the darkness grinned wide… And started to chuckle softly, with what sounded like a young stallion’s voice.

“Heheheheh…”

A Unicorn Mare wearing a fashionable dark-blue cape, with a light pink coat, dark purple mane and tale, and light teal eyes with a Cutie Mark of a hammer crossed over a saw on her flank, swung her very real hammer, encased in a pretty purple glow down into the head of a bedraggled Earth Pony Stallion with the Cutie Mark of a set of three sunflowers on his flank. She brought the hammer down again, and again with her magic, cracking his green coat open and dark-blue mane, striking him down hard onto the stone bridge, his yellow eyes rolling up into the back of his head, blood spilling from his cracked, dying his mane and coat red as it spilled over onto the stone…

“Heeheeheeheehee…”

A Pegasus Stallion with a dark green coat, baby blue eyes, falcon as his Cutie Mark, and bright red mane, who had naught but stumps for wings, jammed the cutting edge of his carving knife into the throat of a fit looking Earth Pony Stallion with a cutie-mark of a violin and bow upon his flank. The Earth pony, with a light brown coat, dark brown mane and tale, and chocolate brown eyes, seemed truly surprised, as the blade dug into his windpipe… and even more so as the Pegasus gritted his teeth, and pulled the blade to the side, cutting open the throat, blood spraying onto the Pegasus’ wings, back, and coat, and all over the stone of the bridge as the Earth Pony collapsed.

“Hahahahahahahah!”

An Earth Pony Stallion with iron horseshoes, dull golden coat, black mane and tail, sharp magenta eyes, and a patch brown leather sewn over where his Cutie-Mark should have been, reared up on his hind legs, and struck out against a Pegasus Mare with his hooves. The Pegasus, with her light blue coat, soft grey eyes, Cutie Mark of a chicken on her flank, and purple mane and tail, fell to her stomach with the force of the strike. The Stallion reared up again, eyes filled with rage, and brought his hooves down again, and again upon the Mare, smashing her head against the bridge, blood pouring out from the wounds, skull and bones cracking as the blood spattered up onto the Stallion’s coat and face, his eyes wild as he pounded the Mare’s head into mush.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”

The figure laughed in the dark as the wrongly upbeat and disturbingly pleasant music continued to play… The mob continued to beat each other senseless, almost indistinguishable from one another so entwined were they, so eager to rip each other apart… Blood and mane and skin were everywhere, bodies were trampled on where they fell, and blood poured over the sides of the bridge, dripping into the gentle river below, red streaks snaking through the water, as the butchery continued, the mysterious stallion laughed, and the music continued to play…

… … …

Hours later, the sun rose on Baltimare… the light of the morning stretched over the streets of the city… over the houses, over the port, over the river of Baltimare… and over the bridge. The light stretched over the bloodied bridge, with signs discarded, torches snuffed out in blood, mane and fur and fragments of bone, scattered across the bridge… But upon the bridge dried in blood, red stained upon the stone, not a single body was to be seen… The corpses of the raging ponies had been taken, to serve a use they had never suspected… and somewhere, in a dark alley where nopony could here… a pony, with a wide grin on his face and a happy gait in his step, was snickering…

Author's Note

Here's chapter number one. I hope that it brings some joy to you, and if it doesn't, please be polite about it in whatever critique you may write.