Mortal Ponies
Chapter 1
The light was fading as night approached on this dreary evening. The once great Traction City of Manehattan was giving chase to a small mining barge that could barely be considered a town across the western Salt flats.
In her heyday Manehattan would have let such a meager prize alone in favor of much larger prey from as far north as the Ice Plains and as far south as the Quiet Sea. Unfortunately, prey was growing scarce and Manehattan was beginning to become an attractive target for larger cities. Ten years ago the decision had been made to hide in the low mountains of the Far West. Here Manehattan survived an little towns and static settlements, all the while hiding from cities too large to chase Manehattan into the narrow valleys of the Far West. Manehattan had since begun moving east into the Equestrian Hunting Grounds once more. The mining barge, small as it was, seemed a sign from the gods that the Lord Mare had made the right decision in moving the city east.
The city had barely started to cross the deserts of the Mild West when the lookout Pegasi spotted the mining barge on the salt flats a few miles to the north. The Lord Mare (who didn't believe in gods or signs from them) acknowledge that the turn of events was showing promise for Manehattan's future and gave the order to chase the town.
The mining town saw Manehattan and began running. This attempt at escape was futile; before the ton had even begun to run Manehattan's massive caterpillar tracks had begun moving faster and faster. The giant city was in hot pursuit, the mountain of metal that rose seven tiers like a square wedding cake, the lowest levels were wreathed in smoke from the cities engines, the white villas of the rich ponies gleaming brightly on the higher decks, and above all that was the circular star atop Celestia's Cathedral shining gold in the twilight, rose 2,000 feet above the barren earth.
Odoacer was busy cleaning the exhibits in the Manehattan Museum's Natural History section when she felt the telltale tremor through the floor. She looked up to see the model whales and dolphins swinging softly from side to side, the cables that secured them to the ceiling creaking softly as they did.
This didn't surprise or scare her. She'd lived in Manehattan all fifteen years of her life and knew the feeling well. She could tell the city was beginning to pick up speed and changing course. Excitement began boiling up inside her, the thrill of the hunt that was hared by all the ponies in Manehattan. There's prey in sight! Dropping her duster, she put her ear against the wall and listened to the vibrations emanating from the engines deep in the Gut. Yes, there it is – the throb of the auxiliary motors cutting in, boom, boom, boom, like a big drum beating inside her bones.
The door at the far end of the gallery burst open and Chudsleigh Ponyroy stormed in, his toupee nearly falling off and his round face red with indignation. "What in the name of Quirke . . . ?" he blustered, gawking at the gyrating whales, and the stuffed birds jigging and twitching in their cases like they were shaking off their long captivity and readying themselves to take flight again. "Apprentice Noteworthy! What's going on here?"
"It's a chase, sir," said Odoacer, wondering how the Deputy Head of the Guild of Historians had managed to live aboard Manehattan for so long and still not recognize its heartbeat. "It must be something good," she explained. "They've brought all the auxiliaries online. Haven't done that for ages. Perhaps Manehattan's luck has changed!"
Ponyroy neighed, wincing as the glass in the display cases started to whine and shiver in sympathy with the beat of the engines. Above his head the biggest of the models – something called a blue whale that had become extinct over a millennium ago – was jerking back and forth on its hawsers like a plank swing. "That may be, Noteworthy," he said. "I just wish the Guild of Engineers would fit some decent shock absorbers in this building. Some of these specimens are very delicate. This won't do. This won't do at all." He tugged a stained handkerchief out of the folds of the long black robes he wore over his sand colored coat and dabbed his face with it.
"Please, sir," pleaded Odoacer, "could I run down to the observation platforms and watch the chase, just for half an hour? It's been years since the last good one."
Ponyroy looked shocked. "Certainly not, Apprentice! Look at all the dust this chase has shaken down! The exhibits will have to be cleaned and checked for damage."
"That's not fair!" cried Odoacer. "I've dusted this whole gallery!"
She realized at once that she'd made a mistake. Old Chudsleigh Ponyroy wasn't bad as Guildsponies went, but he didn't like being talked back to by a mere Third Class Apprentice. He pulled himself up to his full height, which wasn't much taller than Odoacer. "Apprentice Notesworthy, you will dust this entire gallery over again and don't even think about leaving until you've done so. You will dust until you get your cutie mark in dusting." Ponyroy's face had turned a bright red and he turned to leave. He walked out of the gallery, presumably back to his office, leaving Odoacer to dust the whole of the gallery. She bit her tongue to keep from lashing out at him for commenting on her blank flank and grudgingly returned to dusting the gallery.
Not ten minutes after Chudsleigh delivered his ultimatum, Odoacer decided she would sneak out. What could it hurt if she snuck out for a mere ten minutes. The nearest observation platform was only a short trot from the museum, she was sure she could return before Ponyroy noticed she'd left.
She walked down the corridor, stepping lightly on the hard tiles, hesitating by Ponyroy's office. The only noise from within was the snoring of old Ponyroy. Confident he wouldn't awake for some time, Odoacer quickly made her way out of the dusty old museum. Once outside she stopped a moment to take in the wind rushing across the deck plate, blowing her mane it was a slight annoyance because it meant she couldn't fly to the platform and had to take the lift.
She made good time to the nearest lift. It went up to the tier above where the nearest observation platform. While she waited for it to return to the deck, she turned to watch the goggle screens, which were showing images of the small mining town. It hardly passed as a town, only two decks high it's decks seemed occupied by mining equipment. Faint blobs were floating away from the town, airships, no doubt recognizing the futility of the chase. It was obvious that Manehattan would win, it was only matter of time, and that made Odoacer squirm. She wanted to see the final moments with her own eyes, not on a goggle screen.
A bell twanged, signaling that the lift was there. She filed into the crampt space along with a sea of ponies, ranging from Earth Ponies to Unicorns, all headed to different parts of the city. The lift began to ascend, all too slowly for Odoacer. Neighboring ponies gave her disapproving looks as she unconsciously tried to spread her wings. The lift stopped and ponies began to file out, Odoacer pushed passed all of them, ignoring their complaints.
She ran at full gallop to the observation platform and smiled brightly when she saw that the chase was not yet over. More of the airships had taken flight and the air around the town was filled with smudges of very color and size, all becoming increasingly difficult to see in the waning twilight. The massive jaws of Manehattan had opened and a soft red glow was visible if you looked straight down. A cheer erupted among the crowd as a cloud a dark smoke suddenly erupted from the town's smoke stacks and it began to lose speed rapidly.
Manehattan was upon the town almost immediately. The crowd erupted once more in gleeful cheering as the town disappeared into the dismantling yard of the Gut far below. Odoacer turned to the crowd of fellow onlookers, only to be greeted by an overexcited mare who kissed her. "Oh, sorry! Wait... I know you," the excitement didn't disappear from Clytie's face as she struggle to remember Odoacer, who was glad she was too distracted to notice how red her face had become.
"Get away from her Clytie!" Called an all too familiar voice in the crowd. "Shouldn't hang around with Third Class Apprentices. They're beneath us, especially a blank-flank Pegasus like Notesworthy." Mitchel couldn't help but point out.
Odoacer was half ready to buck the First Class Apprentice off the deck when Clytie stepped in. "Stop acting all high and mighty just because your parents have enough money to pay for you to be a First Class Apprentice and you have a cutie-mark. She'll get one soon enough and it'll be a lot better than yours." Odoacer felt her face become hot as Clytie Potts, the most beautiful pony in the Guild of Historians stuck up for her, and was very glad the dwindling sunlight hid her face's color.
"Really now? Well maybe she'll get one that lets her avoid falling deck plates. Her parents could've used that." She'd had it, Odaocer turned and bucked him right in the face, knocking him back and bloodying his face.
"I usually don't hit mares, or filly's in your case, but I'll make an exception..." He was interrupted as a far more commanding voice broke out, causing most of the apprentices of the Guild of Historians, regardless of class scatter, "Mrs. Notesworthy! It is one thing to defy me for a silly chase, but it is another entirely to assault a fellow apprentice, especially one that is of a higher class." Chudsleigh Ponyroy left Odoacer no opportunity to defend herself. "You will report to the gut immediately for your punishment." Odoacer looked to Clytie, hoping for some support after her earlier help, but only to find that the Unicorn had made herself scarce. She bowed her head in indignation and accepted the punishment.