Les Mareables

Chapter 1: 1823

Chapter 1

It is now the year 1823. We are in Montree. Montree is not the most glamorous city. About three-fourths of the population are the poor. It's too bad. Most of the poor a cursed with the plague and don't have enough money to get medicine. They will all most likely die soon.

In Montree, is a mare named Cadence. She is the next character to introduce. She had a daughter, but gave her to an innkeeper and his wife so she could find work. She doesn't even know that the innkeepers are crooks. They steal everything. They make poor Cadence pay for her child to live there. Right now it costs 160 bits a month to keep her daughter there. For such an outrageous price, they raise the price every so ofter to keep their inn going. If only Cadence knew.

So today Cadence is starting a new job at a button making factory. This factory is owned by the mayor of the town, Mayor Stirrup. Mayor Stirrup became the mayor by donating money to half the town to make it nicer. Many people liked the mayor, some did not. This is about Cadence though, so lets get back to her.

Cadence gave her daughter to the innkeepers five years ago. She promised her daughter she'd come back soon, so far she hasn't visited once. She barely even writes letters to her, mainly because she could barely read or write. Cadence couldn't find work very easily either. She's tried so many different jobs. She just recently got fired from her tenth job. She came here because everyone says that you must go here to find the best job. She listened and started working right away.

After a long hard days work, Cadence pulled out the letter she had received from the innkeepers. She could read this:

Dear Madame Cadence,

Your daughter is very ill and we need more money to pay for the medical attention.

-Monsieur Discord

Cadence read it all the time. She didn't know how she could pay for the medicine. Terrible enough, the innkeepers were faking her child's illness. They just needed more money again.

“What's that?” asked one of the mares in the factory. Cadence looked up at her. Before she could answer the mare had took the paper away from her. “You have a... child?” the mare asked. You see, if you had a child you couldn't work, anywhere. No matter where you go, children are never wanted.

“I-I-I,” is all Cadence could say.

The mare gave her a mean look. “Forestallion! Forestallion!” the mare called. The forestallion then came to the women. “Forestallion, Cadence has a child.”

The forestallion looked at Cadence. “Do you have a child?” he asked Cadence. Cadence didn't want to answer. “I said, do you have a child?”

Cadence slowly nodded. The forestallion then kicked Cadence out onto the streets. “No! No!” Cadence tried yelling. No one heard her.

* * *

Mayor Stirrup is a character that came out of the blue, am I right? Well, no. You actually have known Mayor Stirrup, she is Twilight Sparkle. No one knows except for herself. She had been really good undercover, until now.

One day she was in her mayor's office doing mayor stuff. When all of a sudden, Inspector Applejack walked in. “Mayor,” she said coming up to Stirrup's desk, “I am Inspector Applejack. I have been promoted from prison inspector to police man. I am now here to justify this town,” Applejack told her kneeling down. Something about “Mayor Stirrup” seemed familiar to Applejack, very familiar.

Mayor Stirrup stood up and bowed back. “Thank you for your duties,” Stirrup said showing Applejack the door.

As Applejack was walking out the door she turned back. “It seems to me we may have met,” she told the mayor.

Twilight started sweating. “Your face is not a face I would forget,” she told Applejack.

Applejack then bowed again and left the room. Twilight sat back down in her chair. What am I going to do now?, she thought.