One week was Blayke's vacation time, and that was how long it had been since he arrived in Ponyville. A week with only two ponies because the others had pissed him off enough to make him respond to just one of their comment. The said remarks were limited to dirty looks when he was visible, but nobody came to get him drunk by talking to him directly.
The dark stallion hadn't heard from Light all week, he must have been partying with the others while keeping them away from him, something Blayke agreed with. Managing (not to say strangling) ponies was not on his list of things to do on vacation.
Since he had become little Dinky's regular teacher, she had some amazing results, but nothing that Blayke didn't expect. She had a kind of gift for music in general, and no doubt she would make her cute mark by making her first sound on stage, in front of other ponies than him or Ditzy. The gray mare had climbed up in her esteem as he came, considering that she didn't have such a simple life, although she didn't approach the stallion's previous level of life at all.
Although his expressions of joy were as rare as a return of Nigthmare Moon, he appreciated the time he spent with his two girls. But as he packed his things into his dozen suitcases and cleaned the apartment as it had been before, he did not expect to see what he saw in front of the train waiting patiently for the traveler to arrive.
The two ponies he had spent the week with were there, a suitcase in Ditzy's hand and the filly's backpack on his. Their eyes shone as they saw the stallion at about ten meters away, Dinky starting another crazy race to kiss him.
"Blayke, you're here, we're going to go!" She said as she ran and touched only the stallion's worn shoe, but she seemed to be expecting it this time.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" He asked in an angry tone, the kind he hadn't taken in a few days, especially to Dinky.
Ditzy approached without worrying about it to explain to him.
"There, I didn't tell you about it, but I had two days off and Dinky won't have school either. I told her about the movie you shot, without the details of course." She says in defense before taking a remark from the stallion. "And... we'd love to come with you to show us Mahenattan, we've never been there." She finally announced herself, being what she called the plan in her head. She was at her girl's side, stroking her head with one hand and waiting for the stallion's answer.
They wanted to come, to see Mahenattan...
...
That big joke!
This rotten city where all the biggest scumbags of Equestria were doing their dirty business. That to happen supernatural things in the hidden alleyways, could be considered an extravagant euphemism.
On the other hand, the city itself attracted a lot of tourists who were fooled everywhere, but Blayke was not one of them. He had lived there, several years in the shallows of the city itself, and if anyone was more able than anyone else to avoid the trickery, it was a former trickster.
Moreover, Ditzy didn't mention having taken a hotel or sleeping, the stallion even wondering if she could afford it. The hotel business could also be a shitty price to throw up. Which means...
"You're going to stay at my place, right?" He asked after a few seconds of silence.
"Well, I've been told that life there was pretty expensive, so..." she wanted to argue by squirming in embarrassment at the proposal that might seem indecent. Blayke had only been a friend for a short time after all, and the stallion may not even have considered them as such after all. She would have understood if he decided to refuse...
"It's okay, you'll be safer with me than anywhere else. BUT BE CAREFUL, THERE ARE RULES TO RESPECT THAT I WILL TEACH YOU DURING THE TRIP, AND YOU WILL HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING I SAY ONCE THERE, IT'S CLEAR !?" He shouted authoritatively, inflating his chest and expecting a big mission, to protect those two from hell.
Ditzy seemed surprised that the stallion who didn't care about others agreed to take in her and her daughter. But she wasn't going to question him about it anymore, taking this as an opportunity.
"Yes sir!" They said in one voice, raising an arm to their heads, imitating a military salute. They laughed at their perfect timing before the stallion urged them to focus again.
"Well, in that case!" He ended his sentence by pointing to the wagon waiting for them, the girls following his signal as a new order, running happily inside.
Why the hell did I agree to give the tour and take these two girls, he thought a little late.
The trip did not seem long for little Dinky and little Ditzy (mentally for the stallion in any case), Blayke occupying their route. He talked at length about things to avoid once they arrived, which could be summed up as "always stay next to me, even stuck in crowded moments, and let me do it as long as we didn't get home. Ah and of course, DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING OUTSIDE, EVEN WITH YOUR EYES!" He ordered, which earned him his usual cheeky look from the other passengers in the car.
Blayke noticed only one thing about them, none of them were Light, this one having probably stayed in that village or already gone to Cloudstale to meet his wonderbolt, he thought furtively.
After two hours spent on sieges, the view of the town of Mahenattan amazed the filly, Dizty leaning over to see the buildings, some of which almost extinguished the clouds. For Blayke, this meant only the beginning of the shit.
Taking her multiple trunks and positioning them on her back and arms, making place for the two girls to get out first and get behind her. Blayke wanted to keep a close eye on her two ... guests we shall say, and it started as soon as she got out of the wagon, a mass of ponies crowded into the station by mid-afternoon.
"My apartment is that way, were's taking that exit." He announced to Ditzy, who was holding Dinky by the hand at Blayke's command, and began to move forward with a smile. Although overcrowding bothered her, she wanted to see what Mahenattan could hide to be the city of entrepreneurs and all those who were successful because of their brains.
Blayke didn't have a group of fans at her side again this time, but scornful looks were her only observation. News spreads quickly around the city, especially when it concerns a new celebrity. Blayke hated the word, and what he would hate even more would be if one entity laid its dirty eyes on the two girls he had just landed with.
Aggression cases are rare, but that's because few mares have the courage to testify, and the incompetence of the police does not help. And it all starts with the targeting of a pretty mare, which Ditzy was. Luckily for her, her mixed-up clumsiness and her eyes wandering over everything she could see again in the landscape prevented her from noticing the game that was being played on her.
A stallion could look at the new girl for less than a second as Blayke chained up with minotaur eyes, even blowing air fiercely from his nostrils. It was more than effective, as most of the ponies living here were not physically impressive, the black stallion was the wild beast that everyone would avoid annoying for their own good.
And he had time to do his intimidation tactics about 30 times in a few minutes, before finally arriving at his building.
"I live on the sixth floor, how about you walk a little bit more?" asked the stallion surprisingly politely and with a hint of gallantry as he opened the mailbox from here. Another commercial for his own film...
"We only have one suitcase and you have twelve, we should be the ones to offer it to you." Laughed the grey mare in front of what was for her a... paradox, it seemed to her that was the word.
"In this case." Said Blayke going first, Dinky following him, jumping up and down each step with enthusiasm. Ditzy followed with his trunk dragging against the same steps, creating a ruckus with each new step.
Until Blayke cracked and took his trunk with his left hand still free, already taking his key ring in his right. He still had that tense face, but Ditzy could feel that he was happy, happy to have guests and not immediately return to the solitude he was too accustomed to.
Exactly like her, except that the mare hadn't chosen to be alone, but had dangerously made up her mind before adopting the filly she cherishes today.
Blayke too needed something he would cherish.
Little time seemed to pass as Ditzy and Dinky became aware of the stallion's location, a relatively small apartment if a family were to live there. The mare thought that the profits from the film would have allowed her to buy large spaces, but this was without taking into account Blayke's minimalist aspect. A moderately equipped kitchen, a bedroom that we thought he never opened the windows, a basic bathroom and a living room big enough to store all his instruments, no more, no less.
It was while he was busy robbing all his musical equipment that Ditzy would prepare dinner with what she had taken, thinking the fridge was empty. Dinky would stow his and her mother's clothes in the empty but well-kept wardrobe in the darkened bedroom, with Blayke giving them his bed when he would sleep soundly on the black couch in the living room. Few exchanges have taken place since then, each taking turns showering in the bathroom and then dining in front of a cartoon for the filly.
Ditzy wanted to know what he could visit tomorrow by asking Blayke for suggestions, a bad idea. The stallion hadn't wanted to hang out in this rotten city from the inside for a long time, and planned to look for a place to retire to after the two girls' impromptu vacation was over. He still had plenty of money to go there where a first class trip would bring him, and he was already imagining building his own house and garden, with his Celtic instruments and books as the only modern objects.
But beyond that, he preferred to propose the only place he really knew, the one where he spent a year with the same hundred ponies, shooting ...
"Burrywood Studio!" Announced the stallion without an ounce of pride standing in front of their offices. As if on the contrary, the two girls illuminated their pupils by observing the facade of the building. This is where all of Equestria's greatest films are made.
It was soon time to close most of the stores and other venues, as the stallion had spent the day wandering with Ditzy and Dinky in front of various places at their request. From theaters of all kinds (especially concerts) to the city's engineering and business schools, not forgetting cinemas where the succes film begin. Having then eaten in a luxurious restaurant in order for the stallion to spend all the money he didn't want anymore, Ditzy didn't seem to complain about the lack of muffins on the menu, so they continued on by passing through the central park of Mahenattan. And before they left for the apartment, they had one last place to visit, the only one where even Blayke really wanted to go. Or rather, must go.
The Burrywood studio was a central building decorated at the front by a giant camera image and leaving room behind for the various recording sets. Protected by a grid, it was imperative to go through the main studio to reach the rest.
Blayke hadn't forgotten his actor's key card, but he would have gotten through even without it, everyone knew him in this building after all, good or not so good. Naturally, staff members were limited as to the possible guests, but there was nothing to say that his rules applied to a thin mare with divergent pupils and a horny filly. They passed without argument and Blayke headed to Block D, with Ditzy and Dinky following him the whole time.
The interior of the room resembled its facade, dressed in a black veil so that the sun's rays would not pass, leaving the studio lights to illuminate the scenes against a large, prime green background.
The visual and audio equipment no longer seemed to date from the time of the creation of the seventh art, Blayke inferred that the film's backgrounds were already gone in his purchases. Arriving at the same time, filming and editing up to an endless hour, only to return the next day, and this for almost a year. The stallion almost cracked several times, running away in a forest far from civilization seemed the perfect escape route, but he doesn't know why he never did. No doubt that leaving even strangers they preferred to avoid during a greedy shoot would haunt him for his act unworthy of Celtic heroes.
Still, he was there, and he would take the opportunity to firmly withdraw from this lucrative but perfectly useless market for his future plans. That's how, from the first person he met, he asked.
"Oh Blayke, it's been a long time, how do you..."
"Yeah hi, where's MT, I need to see him." The stallion eagerly asked in front of his district partner.
For it was indeed Farmty, or rather Mornangel in front of him as indicated by his badge on his chest, having the same outward appearance as in the footage. She seemed used to him cutting her, so she answered.
"On the field as usual, but he was in the back room earlier, you should check it out. Who's the lovely mare and the cute filly next to you?" She asked, staring attentively at the two new girls.
Ditzy wanted to present herself in front of the mare bolder than the image she had of her before today, but he was too fast, almost cutting her off.
"Ditzy and Dinky, they're not from here so stay with them and show them around if you want. I don't trust at all the stallions around here!" Blayke said as she watched a band set up the stage for a future scene. A new mare here often had to make a first impression that was noticed so as not to be overly flirtatious. Most of them manage to do so because they live in Mahenattan, surely the best place to come out harder.
"Oh, so you trust me then, it's so cute, stop it, you're going to make me blush." Mornangel reacts by paradoxically blushing and giving a soft hand movement.
"Don't get excited ! And you two stay with her until I get back." He ordered before redirecting in the proposed direction.
Mornangel just waited until Blayke was no longer visible to begin the conversation, a disproportionate smile on his lips.
"Nice to meet you both, my name is Mornangel. Are you friends of this lonely stallion?" She asked without concealing her impatience with the answer.
"Yes, we're from Ponyville and we met Blayke while he was vacationing there." The gray mare answered honestly with jeans all over her legs and a persimmon jacket. Blayke's order.
"Ponyville huh, I don't know. But good job for him, he's the type to scare away ponies that get too close, you must have noticed." She says with a hint of defeat in her voice. "You're here to visit, so I don't have a stage yet so I can take care of it, just like Blayke asked." She says with pride in wanting to fill the role.
She then describes every nook and cranny of the studio and its usefulness during a shoot, without going into too much detail so as not to lose her guests. She then introduced them to part of the crew that had just shot a drama scene, including Ditzy, who had recently been recognized as the Sky Lines of the film, which had recently been called that, by the way. However, she saw no trace of Light, but didn't ask Mornangel if she knew where he was.
"Is this where we have the costume room, is this where we, uh, would you need to go to the toilet by any chance ?" said the actress as she saw the gray mare in all these states, squirming on the spot like avoiding walking on insects.
"Uh, you guessed it, hey..." she replied embarrassed.
"There just on the left as you go out, I'll stay here with your daughter until you come back, how's that sound, Dinky darling?" she exclaimed, bending down to the level of the filly, having always dreamed of making a movie with children.
"Only if I can try a costume!" Dinky declared, sparkling stars in her impatient eyes.
"Hahaha, let's see what I can find for you." Laughed at the mare on her way to the storeroom, Dinky following her after Ditzy confirmed that she could.
On the left, that's where Ditzy went, and she found the right door. She wanted to enter, except that her hand on the handle was caught by another one. She withdrew it by reflex and widened her eyes, still looking at that bluish hand.
"Hop, I'm sorry I scared you, but this toilet is being renovated, you can't go in there." Said the stranger, who was a tall but rather frail stallion. He wears a mane capped backwards and a coat a little darker than sky blue.
Ditzy understood that she was in no danger by recognizing him, he was one of Blayke's many victims in the film, the one he cut up first to be exact. However, she was still hanging on to his revelation, even though there was no warning sign on the door.
"Hey don't make that face, you can go in the stallion's, we'll do that in the meantime." Said the stallion without a badge, no longer hiding the door next to the ladies' room.
Ditzy smiled again, realizing that she could still relieve herself.
"Thank you." she said. She simply smiled naively at the stallion, neither of her two eyes being able to stay straight on his flattened face. She walked over there and, seeing no one inside, rushed in fearlessly.
And it wasn't until he took a few steps in the room that a question popped into his mind, where was the normal toilet? Since only urinals covered two of the four walls, not very practical for a mare. And where were the stallions doing their other needs?
She might have an answer, since the stallion called Sclap in the movie came in right after her. She wanted to turn around and ask him.
"Excuse me, but where are the..." she might have said before she couldn't talk anymore.
Within seconds she found herself with her wrists clutching, and without the haste of the movement, she almost fell on her buttocks. Thanks or because of the stallion who was holding her now, she took steps backwards in front of her pronounced advance, finishing her maneuver against the wall, between two urinals.
The shock made her eyes widen with real fear now in place, one of them managing to stare at her attacker with visible tremors. It seemed as if he was about to escape from her head at that moment. With his arms raised and his lascivious position, Ditzy no longer reacts, simply maintaining eye contact with Sclap as he slyly smiled at the mare. He approached her ear and whispered with pleasure.
"I've always wanted to do this with a handicapped mare."
The sentence should have shown how dangerous it was for her to be alone here, the terror the stallion gave her when she only met him a minute ago, the obvious and all logic was screaming at her inside to scream out herself. But she did nothing, apart from the trembling that was accentuated with each breath of the stallion against her face.
Her jeans were getting wet as she crossed that shelf of fear, urinating on herself instead of screaming or defending herself without even noticing it. But that was the least of her worries right now, only thing that scream her conscience for help instead of her mouth. Feeling the stallion's lips coming closer to them, her last reaction was to let her eyes express themselves by shedding a tear, no matter where they looked.
...
...
...
SMASH*
A shattering noise could be heard throughout the studio, so much so that the poor door had been thrown against the wall with one arm. The blow startled Sclap, not so much because of the noise, but more because of its location.
It was by turning his head behind him that he realized, realized that he had made a huge mistake by giving him to his phantasm now.
All he saw at first was the hate-filled face of a certain black pegasus stallion, his teeth knocking against each other and his expression forcing the stallion to do like poor Ditzy... wet his pants.
And the second thing he saw was only a fraction of the time before he closed his eyes, not by anticipation, but by the force of the blow he had just received in his face. A shock that exploded the thin stallion's head, spitting a lot of blood into the space in front of him. The blow propelled him against the toilet mirror, shattering the mirror as he finally let go of his weak grip on the mare.
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU !" screamed angrily at the newly arrived stallion, who was none other than Blayke. He rushed at him, ramming his fist straight into his face again, spanking him even more into his head, breaking the mirror a little more with each blow by domino effect. Sclap may have been Blayke's size, but there's no way he could have been a tenth of his strength.
Ditzy stayed against the wall, still unable to move, partly due to the shock of the assault, but mostly seeing Blayke in his wildest form. That of a beast she thought she would never see, a brute who was killing a pony right in front of her eyes. Coming to her senses, she didn't know if she was crying for being saved in time, or if the new Blayke terrified her so much that she closed her pupils, now wetter than her crotch.
"YOU'RE GOING TO DIE, PIECE OF SHIT!" He was screaming insults as everyone crowded in front of the entrance with his door smashed in. The strongest (and bravest) all got on top of Blayke and made him stop the massacre. The explosion of the stallion was too much for one or two of them, so they joined together to pull him back.
"LEAVE ME THIS MOTHERFUCKER IN, HE MUST DIE, I'M GOING TO BURY HERE IN THE TOILETS, THIS IS HIS PLACE, FOR SHITS!' He continued his racket as soon two ponies would be on each of his arms and legs, plus three more pushing his torso to stop him from going back in.
A mare checked Sclap's condition, he was so bloody that she began to cry for him, not knowing the context of this aggression. On the other side, Mornangel had arrived with Dinky hidden against her leg, the filly recognizing the voice of the one who was screaming. The mare could not bring herself to do so and plugged her ears with her hands while preventing her from reaching the door.
And in all this mess, Sky Lines spoke first.
"BLAYKE, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO?"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, THAT PIECE OF SHIT WAS ABOUT TO RAPE DITZY, SO I JUST PUT HIM IN HIS PLACE OF SHIT !" The stallion continued to scream, but no longer struggling to continue his revenge.
"What?" she shouted. exclaimed the mare, finally noticing the poor victim who was currently using the urinals on her sides to stay as stable as possible. "Is that really what happened?" She then asked, trying to appear calm but with a ravaged voice.
Ditzy, drying her tears with her still soft hands, made only a head movement, trying to resume proper breathing. Luckily, her black jeans hid the traces of urine, she thought to herself as she finally felt this sensation.
The revelation dissipated the force that everyone had put to stop the ferocity of their fellow actor. Blayke reacted by giving a shoulder to force their grip to dissolve, but they were always afraid he would do it again. Even though Sclap no longer showed them any real pity, no one could let Blayke kill a pony without getting into trouble later. The black pegasus remained where it was, its face down but its expression still terrifying to those who tried to see it.
"DITZY DINKY, LET'S GO HOME!" He shouted again, sending shivers down the spine of all who heard him. He couldn't take the murderous rage off his face, so for the first time, he didn't look this mare straight in the eye. He grabbed her hand, careful not to break it, and walked out of the room to the amazed gaze of everyone, wondering if it was risky to let him go just like that.
He made sure that Dinky didn't see her face either as he passed in front of her and Mornangel, who refused to let the filly go.
"Uh, excuse me, but I have to go." She simply responded by not understanding everything that had happened, but her mother's destructive expression forced her to step aside and follow her.
Mornangel remained on his knees crying for Ditzy, but also for the filly. It wasn't going to be an easy situation to get rid of.
And in the end, the three ponies would cross the entire town, Blayke never letting go of Ditzy's hand with the one that had massacred the face of his attacker, terrifying many passing by at the sight of the blood, and the mare reassuring her daughter as to why she was still crying.