Unforeseen Consequences - Chapter 1


                                            >Another day without any clouds in the sky. How long has it been like this? Four months? Man, you’ve read about droughts, but this is just stupid. We’re in the middle of fall, this heat ain’t natural.

                                            >Good thing no one really guards the old construction site. It’s really nice up here, the stupid heat ain’t much of a bother, and your goggles did a pretty good job to stop the noon sunbeams from hurting your eyes. The only part that sucked was the view of the smoggy, putrid city that rose beyond the slums. The mere sight of it made you spit in disgust.

                                            “Tch! Stupid rich ponies and their stupid towers. Bet all of them are laughing while we eat their dumb rotted leftovers.”

                                            >You wished the sun could melt down their skyscrapers and fancy highways. Maybe then they would learn what it feels like to live down here with all the garbage, and dusty streets.

                                            >Pfft! Yeah, right! As if that would ever happen. Whatever, it wasn’t anything worth to get angry about. You only hoped those jerks could taste some of this heat.

                                            >Speaking of heat, hah! If the weather is bad up here, bet all those suckers down below were having one heck of a blast.

                                            >Now, everything would be cool if your stupid radio actually worked. The one time you got this old piece of garbage to work, it decides to play boring news. Who cares if the war’s still going? Not you, that’s who.

                                            “Man, this station's a bummer. Let’s see what else is on-air.”

                                            >Some dragons were busted by the highway? Got what they deserved. Suckers should’ve used the old canal; faster and the company never patrols those parts. Next station!

                                            >The griffons wanna go to a strike? B-o-r-i-n-g, everyone knows how this’ll end. Company will bust them again and force those idiots to work for them again. Next!


                                            “Oh, c’mon! Another company ad? Just shut up already! I just wanna hear my jams!”

                                            >“My, my! What an angry colt! Y’know that thing has a cassette player too, right? You should try using it sometime.”

                                            >So she finally decided to show up, huh? Late as ever, she was supposed to be here two hours ago! Well, guess you can’t blame her. It ain’t easy for someone who’s part pony and part… everything else, to walk around the slums and not get a buncha idiots pointing their idiot hooves at her.

                                            “Oh, yeah! The cassette player! Man, it would be so awesome if a certain draconequus didn’t mess it up with her clumsy paw.”

                                            >“That’s what you get for poking me with that horn of yours.” Dang it! You hated when she used her talons to hit your horn! Why do you even have this thing? It just gets in the way all the frickin’ time!

                                            >And she also pushed you to a side so she could sit her fat butt. Stupid Eris, why did she had to be so large? She ain’t that much older than you! “D’aww! You’re so adorable when you get all angry! You should do that more often. Get us extra dosh on the side. You know how those idiots can’t resist cute.”

                                            “Grrr! I ain’t cute! I’m cool!”

                                            >Eh, she's done worse... Just hope that-

                                            >“Aw! Who’s the most adorable little colt! Yes, you are! Yes, you are!” Aaah! Not the cheeks! It did get worse! Ugh! Hope she doesn’t do that again! “Tee-hee! Whatcha doin’ all alone here, Resonance? Show starts in like an hour.”

                                            “Nothing, really. Just trying to chill before all the meat-heads come with their stupid questions. What about you, Eris? Haven’t seen you all day.”

                                            >“Me? Oh! The usual! I first went to the spa and got a hooficure on my poor talons, then I went to the central district to buy me some jewelry-

                                            >Ow! She just flicked your muzzle!

                                            >"Whatchu think I was doing, dork?! I’ve been checking out the show’s place! I don’t want a repeat of last time!”

                                            >You rub your stinging nose and give her a glare.

                                            “Hey! It’s not my fault that stupid patrol decided to check under the benches!”


                                            “Which geezers? The pegasi or the minotaurs?”

                                            >“The winged ones. The minotaurs got busted like a week ago. Now check this out, dork. ‘Cause this is gonna blow your mind!”

                                            >It was a poster for your show, and it was… perfect! So much that you had to take off your goggles to see it in all its glory.

                                            >It had the silhouette of a little unicorn, which was obviously you, put over a yellow background, and it read “The amazing PhD colt show! No matter how hard, he will answer all the questions you throw!”

                                            >Heh! They misspelled Ph.D. but who cares?! Half of those dim-wits can’t read anyway.

                                            “Eris! This… this is just what we needed! Bet this’ll get us more suckers than ever! And you say that those cranky pegasi gave it to you? I thought they only sold quills or whatever.”

                                            >“Yup! But word was that they also owned a bonafide press. So I dug some trash on them and guess what? It turned out it was true! Cost me a bit of convincing, but hey, it worked out in the end.”

                                            “Oh, man! This is gonna be so… wait! Ain’t those two supposed to be snitches though? Are you sure they won’t rat you out to the company?”

                                            >“Nah! They ain’t that bad, just a big, big pain in the butt. Couple old coots had me running errands through the entire outskirt district.”

                                            “Oh! Works for me then.”

                                            >“As it should! Now, you better have gotten ready for the show this time.” Eris stretched herself and stood up on her four limbs. "‘Cause I spent a lotta time putting these babies all over the slum district and I’ll get mad real mad if you suddenly go blank.”


                                            “Tch! Of course I did! Who do you think I am, a rich snob? Whatever, let’s just move before the show starts. Wanna get this over with before I get hungrier.”

                                            >“Alright, dork! Then get ready, ‘cause the Eris express is about to take off and there ain’t any stops on this ride!” Eris giggled and placed you on her back. She then took off in the direction of the vacant lot that the two of you had used for the show since a couple weeks ago.

                                            >You never knew how she could do it, but even when Eris had to take scenic route to avoid the patrols, and her constant jumps and what not through every single alleyway she could find, the travel was always lightning fast, and you never felt like you were about to fall from her back.

                                            >Except for having a few extra graffiti, the stage was exactly as you left it. Some wooden boxes that Eris put together for you to stand on, and the wooden stands that you carefully designed… and that Eris assembled too.

                                            >Yup! Everything was fine, now all you had to do was to wait for all the idiots to come with their idiot questions. Easy-peasy.

                                            >You only wished there was something fun to do in the meantime. Man! You should’ve brought something to read! Stupid radio and its stupid news.

                                            >Whatever, it could be worse. Like being Eris. You had the entire stage for yourself, but her? Nah, she had to curl up below the stands and stay there until after everyone leaves.

                                            >It totally sucked, but hey! Who else was gonna pickpocket your “dear audience”?

                                            >So the two of you had to wait on your positions and that’s exactly what you did. And so, after charging your entrance of one bit to the wooping twenty ponies that came, which were mostly foals, you put up your best fake smile and began with the show.


                                            >“I-I wanted to know… What’s the largest side of a triangle?”

                                            “The hypotenuse. You get it by doing the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides. Next!”

                                            >“Yo! Kid! What’s acceleration? That’s has been eating me the whole day”

                                            “Easy, rate of change of velocity of an object with respect to time.”

                                            >“Cool! Uh… but what’s velocity?”

                                            “Y’know the rules, pay up first!”

                                            >“Okay, okay! Geez! Here are yer two bits!”

                                            “Thank you! Velocity is a function of time, it tells you the rate of change of an object’s position with respect to a frame of reference. Like, how much something advances in a certain amount of time. Y’know, that’s why we say miles per hour.”

                                            >“Umm… I always wanted to know… hold up… uh, what form of government we had before the company and why it disappeared?”

                                            “Yo! You can’t trick me! Those were two questions! That means you pay four bits!”

                                            >“But… I did… I even left five bits.”

                                            “Oh… yeah, you did. Sorry. Alright, like a hundred years ago, we were a federation, right? And this federation was made up of small city-states. We ditched all that when the government went bankrupt and then the company bought everything.”

                                            >“Oi! My history teacher wanted to know something like what that girl said! And this is also a double feature so here are yer four bits plus two extra!”

                                            “Alright, shoot.”

                                            >“Okay! What did the old geezer wanted? Oh yeah! Is it true ponies used to have magic? What was even used for? Better give me a good answer, kid. Gotta write an essay about this garbage.”


                                            “Well, I dunno if it’s trash. I think magic is kinda a cool thing, but… yeah, ponies did have magic. It’s just that it disappeared like, five to seven hundred years ago depending on what stuff you read. For the other question, well, all the books tell stuff about how pegasi could control the weather, unicorns the time of the day and earth-ponies could grow crops like no other. Buncha fairy tales if you ask me, but hey, it’s not like there’s much to read about this stuff anyway.”

                                            >Things went like that for the most part, foals asked you their homework while the adults came up with stupid brain-teasers that made you cringe more than anything.

                                            >Meanwhile, Eris used her skills to take what she could from her hiding spot below the bleachers without anyone noticing a thing.

                                            >Everything went like normal, except for this one creepy guy. It wasn’t like he had some weird monster face or anything like that. He was just a bald middle aged earth-pony with a funny beard and a plain brown coat.

                                            >No, he was creepy because of the way he acted. Like… it’s just hard to describe, man. Guy didn’t spoke once during the show, he just… looked at you and smirked the whole way through.

                                            >But the weirdest part was… even when you could never managed to shrug off his creepy looks, you really don’t remember seeing him ever walking to you after the show was over. It was like the guy just popped in and dropped his two bits.

                                            >“That was quite the entertaining show, if I must say so” He said “I like you kid, there’s definitely some potential in you. Keep up the good work.”

                                            >You didn’t know what to do or say other than watching how that guy disappeared with the rest of the audience.

                                            >If it wasn’t for Eris, you could’ve stayed still for the rest of day, just watching the empty seat where the guy was sitting at. Wondering what the heck was up with him.


                                            >“Wee-hee! Look at this, dork! Bits! Beautiful, beautiful bits! I almost forgot how they looked like! Gotta say, those posters sure did their… huh? Res? Are you okay?”

                                            “Wha-? Oh, yeah! I’m cool.”

                                            >“You sure? ‘Cause it looked like your mind was, poof! Gone.”

                                            “I’m telling you, I’m fine! It’s just… I’m very hungry. Haven’t had anything since yesterday”

                                            >“Tell me about it! I feel like my stomach is about to eat itself! Look! I’m basically a walking noodle right now!”

                                            >But as you said, you had Eris, and she was more than enough to make you forget about any problem or creep that you may had.

                                            “Heh, heh, heh! You’re always like that! Hey, Eris, what do you say if we go to the market and use those bits? Maybe they’ll be enough to get us something better than old rice”

                                            >“MMMM! Nah! I’d love to, but gotta do some stuff first.”

                                            “Awww! Really? But I thought that maybe we could… wait! What kind of stuff do you have to do?”

                                            >“Just stuff! Gee! A girl needs to have a moment for herself, y’know? Have fun on your own, dork. Oh! But don’t spend everything! Remember that this has to last us until the next show! Remember the patrols screwed over our street poker stunt.”

                                            “But maybe we could…”

                                            >You wanted to convince Eris to stay, but she was way faster than you. With a might leap, and snake-like movements, she disappeared in the alleyways closer to the vacant lot.

                                            “Alright… see ya later, Eris.”

                                            >With a heavy sigh, you put your goggles back on, and using your mouth, you picked the bits that you got from audience and placed them into your saddlebag.


                                            >Before heading to the old marketplace at the central plaza, you took a last glance to where the creepy stallion was sitting at. Yep! You never wanted to see that guy ever again.

                                            >It was mostly the same as always. Tons of dusty colorful tents everywhere, merchants yelling, ponies making noise, and the same horrible heat that was made worse by all the dust and dirt.

                                            >You said mostly the same right? Well, that’s different as exactly the same. You see, the marketplace was already bad enough on its own. You simply couldn’t stand the noise and all these ponies bundled into the same place. Today though, was especially bad.

                                            “Tch! The company’s kids are here again.”

                                            >Once every month, the company sends its “children” to the slums so they can learn how the lowlifes like you lived like and become more humble thanks to it. That’s what the company’s ads said anyway, the truth was that those kids were a buncha of snobby bullies.

                                            >It was super easy to know when those kids came to the slums, since that was the only time of the month where you saw those high-tech patrol’ ships around these parts.

                                            >It’s not like you needed to put a lot of effort to tell those kids apart either. Those were the only guys who had the company’s logo stamped into their flanks, and boy, they really liked to rub that in everyone’s nose.

                                            “Tch! Guess that’s another reason to not stay too long in here. Screw those rich kids, I’ll just buy my stuff and get the heck outta here.”

                                            >Yup! Perfect plan! You only had to be extra sneaky as to not be seen by those jerks, which... was actually how you rolled all the time anyway.

                                            >Whatever, before you realized it, you had already bought a bag of flour, a bag of rice, some water bottles and a sack of hay.

                                            >All of which made your saddlebag a bit too heavy, which couple with the horrible heat, it made you extra sweaty. It wasn’t too bad though, you even managed to keep most of your bits.


                                            >Heh! Just wait until Eris see this! She’s gonna be so happy! Yup! Your absolutely idiot-proof strategy was a success!

                                            >Yeah… the only thing left for you to do was to make a beeline towards your hideout, while ignoring the colt being bullied by the company’s kids like two meters away from you.

                                            >It was a chubby pegasus colt against three of those kids. A unicorn with an extra buckable smarmy face, and two earth-ponies who looked as dumb as they come.

                                            >The unicorn was the clear leader of the bunch, as he was doing all the bullying while the other two just laughed at everything that he said “Hey boys! Check this fatso out! It’s like he’s made of jelly!”

                                            >The pegasus didn’t do much other than apologizing for everything, guess he wasn’t much of a fighter “P-Please! I already said I was sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going!”

                                            >“Of course you didn’t!” The unicorn said as he slapped the pegasus’ forehead. “You can’t see a thing with all that fat covering your eyes!”

                                            >Whatever, you were already on your way out. No need to get involved. Heck! You didn’t even know that kid, his problems ain’t yours. Just…

                                            >“Hey, I’m thinking on something.” The unicorn said with a smirk “How comes you’re so fat if you’re so poor?”

                                            >The pegasus let out a whimper, but nonetheless, he didn’t really do anything to defend himself. “M-My m-mom says I have big bones... I-I dunno what…”

                                            >“Awww, isn’t this cute?” The unicorn pushed the pegasus “Bet your mommy also said that if you believe hard enough you’ll stop being poor!”

                                            >“N-No… I-I want to…”

                                            >“You want to eat right? Yeah, I bet you want to eat! C’mon boys, let’s give this fatso some food!”

                                            >They threw the kid into the ground and were forcing a buncha dirt into his mouth. Walk away, Resonance. This ain’t your problem… even if the kid is begging for help… even when all the adults are pretending this ain’t happening. Ignore everything and walk…

                                            “Aw dang, here I come!”


                                            >You galloped towards the bullies and tackled their leader down, making the other two to drop the chubby pegasus and help their leader to stand up.

                                            “Hey dolts! Why don’t you pick on someone your size?!”

                                            >You quickly jumped in between the bullies and that other kid so the two of you could…

                                            “Dang, man! You really know how to be classy!”

                                            >The chubby pegasus… he ran away, like, he grabbed his things faster than a speedy train and disappeared into the crowd. Geez, at least a little thank you would’ve nice!

                                            >When you turned back, the leader of the bunch was already up and glaring furiously at you. “Hey, kid! What’s the big idea?!”

                                            >You shrugged and gave the guy a smuggy little grin.

                                            “Oh, I wouldn’t call it big! I just saw you guys having so much fun that I wanted to join in. Why? Did I hurt your wimpy little face or something?”

                                            >The unicorn wiped off the last remnants of dirt that were on his face “That’s it. I dunno who you’re but I’m going to wipe that grin off of your…”

                                            >“Hey boss!” One of the other guys interrupted the unicorn, and in his mouth, you could see a familiar piece of paper. "I think I know who this guy is! Look!”

                                            >It was one of the posters that Eris made. The unicorn grabbed it with so much anger that it made the other guy to flinch in pain “Lemme see… 'PhD colt… he will answer…'”

                                            >As he let out a cruel, loud laughter, the unicorn threw the poster into the ground and crushed it with his hoof “Oh, boy! I thought you were poor, but this?! Hah! Now this is just sad!”

                                            >You immediately tried to push that kid away and savage the poster, but his goons thought on that first, as both pushed you down into the dirt.

                                            >It didn’t matter, you wanted the poster back. Even if those two earth-ponies were pinning you against the ground, you’d get that darn poster back!

                                            “Hey! My friend worked really hard to get these!”


                                            >The unicorn motioned his friends to move aside. Then he leaned down, so he could mockingly whisper to you. “Okay, kid! Here comes a question for you! If you’re so smart… then where are your parents?”

                                            >That… that was something you didn’t know. The only thing you remembered about your pa and ma is…

                                            >W-Who cares about them?! Not you, that’s who! Besides, that was so long ago, and you were managing on your own, and you had Eris now… and… and…

                                            >You turned away from the unicorn the moment when you felt your eyes starting to fill with tears. You didn’t want to cry… not for those two and not in front of these jerks.

                                            “…”

                                            >You were too obvious though. The unicorn looked right through you and started laughing . “D’awww! Why are you so sad? Lemme guess. Not even your parents wanted you, that’s why you’re so poo-AGH!”

                                            >You head-butted the unicorn so hard that he fell on his back. You didn’t think about it, your anger got the best of you.

                                            >But what got you the most wasn’t that. It was the fact that you had to hit one of the company’s kids to get a reaction outta the adults, and even then, they just gasped in shock. Bunch of useless idiots!

                                            >The same went to the two earth-ponies, the only thing they did was gallop to their friend and try to look like they totally didn’t freeze back there “BOSS!”

                                            >The unicorn rejected any help from the other kids. He stood up on his own, his eyes filled with anger, and wiped out the blood from his nose. “You’re dead, kid! Get him!”

                                            >The two earth-ponies immediately started to gallop towards you, and they would’ve totally kicked your flank right there if it wasn’t for your quick thinking.

                                            >Since you couldn’t win this fight, what you did was to quickly grab the bag of flour from your saddlebag and throw it at the colts. Luckily, it worked like you wanted, the bag hit one of those jerks right in the face, creating a smoke-screen that you used to gallop away.


                                            >While your little tactic obviously didn’t stop those three, it at least gave you a bit of a lead. Too bad those guys weren’t exactly slow.

                                            >You tried your best to lose them. Get lost in the middle of the crowd, take shortcuts, jump over small wagons, but nothing really worked, and the weight of your saddlebag wasn’t helping either.

                                            >It wasn’t long before the kids caught up with you. One of the earth ponies, the one that didn’t got hit by the flour, tackled you into a stand with so much force that you heard it crackle.

                                            >What happened next? Well, the three colts started to beat you up, that’s what. They stomped you when you were on the ground, and the kicked you when you tried to get up.

                                            >And they would’ve continued with this for who knows how long if it wasn’t for a little chance they gave you without knowing. One of the colts kicked you into the wooden stand with so much force that it cracked again.

                                            >They didn’t think much of it course, they were company’s kids. These rich idiots don’t care about anyone but themselves. Screw them, the only thing you wanted was to get out without any broken bone.

                                            >So what you did was to hold your saddlebag with your mouth and then slam it against the stand, making it to come crashing down and spilling all of your saddlebag’s contents everywhere.

                                            >Your plan worked, but not like you wanted to. While you and the earth-ponies rolled away from danger, the unicorn was slower to react. One of the wooden logs from the stand managed to hit him.

                                            >The unicorn was rolling on the ground, crying and covering his face. The wound didn’t look to deep, but boy, his face was now covered in blood. His friends were in shock, the adults surrounding you were in shock.

                                            “Oh, man! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that! I just wanted to-!”


                                            >“Shut up!” The unicorn jumped right back up and gave you one final glare “You’ll pay for this buddy! No one does this to a company’s pony and gets out clean!”

                                            >You wanted to say something more, heck even give a little of an apology, but the kids left before you could say anything else, leaving you alone with all the crowd that had gathered. Dang it man, this was supposed to be a victory, but you only felt like garbage.

                                            >You looked all around you and the only thing you were meet with were the exact same disgusted faces… except for him. It was the middle aged earth-pony from the show.

                                            >He wasn’t grossed out by your existence like the rest of the crowd. No, he looked curious, amused even.

                                            >The guy even helped you to get up and whispered into your ear “Nice quick thinking, kid. Not exactly what I’d call elegant, but effective nonetheless. Now, it’s to get up and run. Show isn’t over just yet.”

                                            >What the heck was his problem?

                                            >The middle aged stallion let out a silent laughter and pointed out to something beyond the crowd. Oh, no! The adults had already called the patrols, you could see their black helmets coming to where you were.

                                            >When you turned back, the guy wasn’t there anymore. It’s like he disappeared into thin air… what the heck, man? Was he some sort of street magician? Or maybe just some weirdo stalker? Hmm… wait, no! You couldn’t think on that now!

                                            >There was no time to pick up your stuff. You just galloped away aimlessly, trying to escape from the market and everything else. At times, some adult or patrol would try to stop you, but you either dodged them or bit their hooves to break free from their grasp.

                                            >Others, you saw the creepy stallion at the distance, pointing out the direction in which you needed to go, and every single time, the stallion would vanish in the same way as before.


                                            >Eventually, and without really know how, you made it out and without anyone on your trail. Which usually would make you do a victory dance or something. It’s not every day that you manage to pull something like this off.

                                            >Not this time though. Because now that your head had cooled off, you came to the realization that not only you probably left a kid with a horrible scar, but you also lost all the stuff that you had worked so hard for.

                                            >The food, the bits, even your saddlebag. All of that was left in the dirt. Man, what were you gonna do now? What were you gonna eat? What would you tell Eris?”

                                            >You felt a warm sensation coming down from both your nostrils and your mouth. You sniffed and gently touched your face with your hoof.

                                            “Man, what am I gonna do with all this blood? I can’t just show up like this. I’m gonna freak out Eris even more!”

                                            >So you looked around once more to know where you were. The old dried canal. Cool, you were close to your hideout. Now, you only needed to find that old industrial pipe and take a bath there. Both to clean off the blood and to chill from the heat, which at this point, had become unbearable.

                                            >Which is exactly where you headed off to, always careful to be sneaky enough so if Eris was near, she couldn’t see you.

                                            “Aw, c’mon! This day sucks, man!”

                                            >If your luck couldn’t be any worse, there nothing was coming out from the pipe. The only things you could find were a couple of smelly backwater puddles and some weird brown cat.

                                            “Well… better than nothing, I guess.”