Chapter 4

Applebloom walked the streets and past the skylines of the heart of Mane-hattan, gasping at the lights filling the sky, all different colours, a rainbow haze just like she'd seen in her dream. The neon signs wouldn't stop catching her eyes, and it was fun and aggravating at the same time to the young mare. Eat Here NOW, Veggi Burgers!, Cabaret Show, Fashion House, Art Gallery…it seemed nothing was closed. She'd truly come to the city that never slept, and there seemed to be so many intricate nooks, crannies and districts. "Wow…" She gasped. She was in danger of getting lost as she walked, so she decided it was best to give two bits to a street vendor in exchange for a crumpled map. Right now she was in the entertainment district, or Broadway but there wasn't many apartments or motels here and she needed to find a place to rest, and for cheap. She'd have to walk through the Bohemian district to get to the housing projects, and that was left of Broadway. She followed the map carefully and estimated it was twenty or so minutes away from Broadway.

It was eight pm just about so she had plenty of time to find somewhere to rest, but Applebloom ran as she was so afraid of getting caught in Broadway. It was the district in which her cousin and Aunt and Uncle Orange lived and if she saw her, Babs Seed was sure to take her back to Ponyville. So she made the Bohemian district in ten minutes and by pure luck none of her relatives happened to be walking around. They must've been having dinner, she thought with a sigh of relief. She strolled through the Bohemian district and found it more exciting than generic Broadway. Ponies with cool round shades in different colours, patterned neckties around their necks and heads, baggy jeans or dull coloured jean jackets lay on the grass just hanging out. A few were even blank flanks! Loud concerts of harmonious music filled the streets.

Cafes sold strictly organic but delicious looking things she never heard of like vegan black bean and sweet potato fritters, eggplant sausages, fresh fruit smoothies, BBQ chilli mushroom and mashed plantain, popcorn, fresh nuts. She'd never be able to get that stuff in Ponyville. She decided to stop and get some fresh nuts, some she'd never tried, roasted pecans and roasted brazil nuts, along with a small papaya smoothie. She smiled as the tropical sensation and the smoky roasted nuts hit her tongue in different bursts. Suddenly a familiar noise took over her ears from next door and she made her way into the bar next door almost hypnotically. She gasped at just how familiar the song was. It was the song of her dream.

I want to fly like an eagle, to the sea,

Fly like an eagle let my spirit carry me…

The stallion singing and playing guitar, not the drums, the rest of the band, or the clapping, wildly dancing crowd seemingly smoking something was drawing her in. The sticky, smelly room seemed to disappear and she was surrounded by a rainbow haze, circling her with the stallion. It was a nice dream, but she sure couldn't walk straight. She decided to leap onto one of the stallion's shoulders and wave her arms around in the front row. She locked eyes with the performing stallion and he began singing at her. Suddenly the haze fell away and she seemed sobered. But sobered of what? She hadn't taken anything. Maybe the overwhelming fumes of whatever was pungent in the air had gotten to her too? Had Applebloom just gotten high? She then could focus on the features of the stallion properly. He was completely black, but had a light brown shoulder length mop of hair, unruly, and perhaps a little rugged. He had red orange flame coloured eyes, which were small and glassy with cynicism and experience.

He was handsome in not a well-groomed way, but in a way that he didn't seem to care about anypony else's opinion on his grooming, but at Applebloom's most rebellious stage of life she found that seriously attractive. It wasn't that she liked the stallion yet, but she did think he was good looking. They had locked eyes for a good three minutes, so if she didn't know any better she would've thought that he found something in her too, attractive or not. The stallion whom had leant her his shoulders put her down and she thanked him, always being taught manners. He looked surprised. "Don't thank me." He shrugged and went to hang with his friends and smoke. She beamed. She would really love this place in all it's uncouth and earthy glory. "Hay there filly." The black stallion spoke up and pulled her up on the stage with his arm. "Hay…uh…nice song." "Yeah you were getting into it weren't you? I've never seen you around before, but you look like you'd be the type to fit in here." The stallion complimented.

"Oh thanks but, I'm actually not a local…uh I've just arrived here." Applebloom said. "You're visiting? I can show you a lot of places—" "No it's indefinitely. But thanks for the offer." "Indefinitely? Why are you here?" The stallion asked brashly. "Uh why are you asking me that?" Applebloom tensed up, bristling slightly at the nerve of the guy to ask her like that when he barely knew her. "Oh whoops. Sorry I forgot, out of towner. We ponies of Bohemian Town are kind of—well speak the truth so much it can sound pushy. We're brash ponies, but we are friendly. I'm not used to using my manners, to be honest." The stallion chuckled bashfully. "Oh ok. I guess I have to get used to it, and I don't know anypony here, and you seem a nice guy…I…well I ran away." The band stopped chatting and snapped their heads toward the young mare.

"You ran away hey? Just how old are you little Mama?" asked the drummer with a flirty wink. "I'm sixteen for your information." Applebloom whipped her tail in the drummer's face, as he seemed like he was coming onto her. The other band members chuckled and then started swooning over the sassy young mare. "Sixteen? Did you run away from your family?" The stallion she preferred talking to asked. "Yeah, I did. But it wasn't just my family, I mean my friends dumped me too. I-I-I-ve seen blank flanks around here so I didn't think maybe it was such a big deal, but you need to know that, I'm a blank flank. It's the worst. And I came from a farming family so I was pressured to be good with farming and such and that would be my cutie mark, but I was no good at the work. No more I decided. So I made a new start here." Applebloom explained. "It doesn't matter you're a blank flank! Hey you wanna know a secret?" The stallion asked playfully. "What?" Applebloom asked back curiously. The stallion turned on his side to show off the side of his flank. It was bare and blank.

"You—a blank flank? I thought that the band would be your special talent." Applebloom said, pleasantly surprised. "Well I'm also a culinary school graduate and I work at Scoops on the corner of Broadway and Bohemia." "Ice cream chain?" "Yep that's the one. Where do you come from anyway?" "Well…I'll tell you if you finally tell me your name. Are all Bohemians like this?" Applebloom teased. "Ok ok. My name is Mahogany Strummer. Changed it from Grapefruit Jelly, because I look nothing like grapefruit or jelly and I escaped from a farm…just like you believe it not. Except that I did so five years ago. So I don't look country and I don't speak it anymore, I just have my memories to prove it." "Cool. Well I'm Applebloom, and I come from Ponyville." "Ponyville? Gee, small town. Good cider. Been there on a mini-tour with the band about three years ago, but I don't think you would've come to our concerts. We're kind of alternative, so it was not surprising when close to nopony watched us in that tiny town. About fifty or so ponies. But they were good fans. There's no Scoops in Ponyville though, so I don't know where you'd get some."

"Me and my friends didn't use to spend every second in Ponyville! It was a boring place for a teenager. We'd often pool our bits together so we could get the student discount tickets to the next town over on the train, Haybale Avenue and get those ridiculously giant cups of Scoops together on the weekends. They were good times. But now apparently I'm not good enough for them because I don't have my mark. Perhaps I'll make some new friends over here." "Yeah well we don't discriminate on marks as a pony's value. We believe every adult pony, marked or not, deserves to be treated like an adult with as much purpose. You may not believe this, but I'm a twenty-one year old pony, and I don't have a cutie mark. I ran away at the same age as you for about similar reasons. Many of this little section of Mane-hattan are runaways. We all help each other, albeit in a slightly brash way." Mahogany assured Applebloom. "I love that. I love this place!" Applebloom jumped up in excitement. She'd found the perfect new home.

"She's such a rebellious filly." The organist said softly. "I know. It's sexy." The drummer replied and Applebloom blushed bright red. She wasn't sure about that description. She'd never even had a coltfriend and was just an ol' farm filly. What made her sexy? "Hey guys knock it off. She's only a teen." Mahogany said protectively. "Yeah I bet you want her to yourself." "No but she's blushing too hard to be comfortable." Mahogany pointed out. "Whatever." The band shrugged and went to smoke while sitting on the bar. "What is the thing their all smoking?" "Oh that? It's the addictive part of chocolate put into a cigar instead of nicotine called ca-caine or "choco-puff". Used to be addicted to it, but now I smoke it only occasionally. It's fine in small doses but it is a drug and can get addictive in a small time. You looked like you were a little high off the fumes there."

"I was high. Is it legal?" "No Applebloom…technically for a second you were breaking the law. It's only been around half a century but helps the poets, songwriters and artists around here write their pieces more…creatively. You probably shouldn't tell anyone outside of Bohemia. Police tend to let us off the hook a bit so they can smoke the drug at their parties once in a while." Applebloom gasped. "But is that right to do that?" "No not really. But it's being going on for years under Celestia's nose." "Huh." Applebloom was deep in thought for a few moments before Mahogany broke the silence quickly. "It's going to get late soon. Come with me, I have an apartment. Until you get a regular job and some proper income, you can crash there. Is that ok? Don't worry, I'll respect you and all…not like any of my band members might." "No it's ok, I'd trust a southern gentlepony. I have nowhere else to go right now anyway, and although you don't want me to say it, thankyou."

"It's alright I wish I had someone to help me crash when I didn't have a job. I had to sleep on the grass patch, you know the one you probably saw five minutes away. We can go in my car, I live around the corner from Scoops, but it's still in Bohemia." Mahogany told her and the young mare nodded, following the older but still young stallion. Applebloom couldn't believe he'd sleep on the grass, but then again she'd never experienced that sort of desperation before. She got into his tiny candy red electrically powered two-seater and drove off in a car, something that was virtually unattainable in the towns or small cities in between Ponyville and Canterlot. More updated, younger cities like Mane-Hattan or Saddle Arabia had cars for a little under a hundred years instead of horse and carriage. It was only a ten minute hop as Mahogany promised and Applebloom made a makeshift bed on Mahogany's couch after a few hours of TV, and thanked her lucky stars she already had a place to stay and she had a potential new friend. ***