Scene 3 – Midnight Overture

All of Canterlot is covered in a blanket of snow, as flurries continue to fall. The front doors to the main auditorium hall open, as ponies begin to exit. Amongst the exiting ponies are Octavia and Apple Cinnamon, talking to each other as they walk.

“Oh, I do believe that this was the best that the play as ever been performed!” Octavia told Cinnamon.

“I agree. I’ve always enjoyed the Hearth’s Warming Eve play, and it just seems to get better every year.” Cinnamon responded.

Octavia began to shiver, as they had started to separate from the crowd, and the warmth of the auditorium was beginning to fade. Cinnamon took his scarf from around his neck, and wrapped it around Octavia’s.

“Thank you Cinnamon. I guess I should have brought more layers.” Octavia spoke to Cinnamon.

Cinnamon ruffled the feeling a being a little colder off, as he responded to Octavia.

“It’s no problem at all Octavia, it did seem to get cold pretty quick.”

As the two continued to walk, and make their way back to the train station, Cinnamon couldn’t help but think about the play again, and the different types of ponies in it. Tough ponies like Commander Hurricane, noble ponies like Clover the Clever, and just plain silly ponies like Chancellor Puddinghead. He couldn’t really place himself as any of those ponies, and he wondered how Octavia viewed those kinds of traits in ponies.

“Hey…Octavia. Can I ask you something?”

Octavia turned to Cinnamon, detecting the changed tone in his voice.

“What is it Cinnamon? Is something wrong?”

“N…No, nothing’s wrong. I was just…” Cinnamon took a deep breath, before he answered Octavia again. “Do you ever wish that I was more assertive? Or noble or funny?”

Octavia was a little confused at the question at first, but quickly realized what had brought it on. She let out a little giggle, before she responded to him.

“Oh don’t be silly dear.” She leaned over and gave Cinnamon a peck on the cheek. “I think you’re perfect just the way you are.”

Cinnamon blushed at Octavia’s response, and continued to walk with her, until a newspaper headline in a stand they had just passed, caught his attention. He stopped to take a closer look.

Octavia continued to walk and talk, not realizing that Cinnamon had stopped a short ways behind her. “You shouldn’t worry about how other ponies carry themselves, as long as you focus on what makes you spec…” Octavia finally realized that Cinnamon was no longer walking with her, and she turned around to see where he was. “Cinnamon, why did you stop?” She could see that he had a shocked look on his face, and she quickly trotted over to see what was wrong.

“Oct…Octavia. This…it’s about your father…” Cinnamon responded nervously.

Octavia moved up next to Cinnamon, to get a better look at the newspaper. She skimmed a couple of the less important headlines, such as; “Rain, light turnout forecast expected” and “New De Lux Price on Frosted Doughnuts.” She then noticed the headline that Cinnamon was talking about, and it made her gasp in fear. Alongside a picture of her father, was the headline; “Assassins Gun Down Underworld Chief.” Octavia took a couple steps back from the newspaper stand, trying to tell herself it wasn’t real, before she decided that she had to make sure. She ran across the street to a telephone booth, and quickly dialed for her family’s home in Ponyville. The phone rang a couple times, until Sunny picked up on the other end.

“Hello?” Sunny asked.

“Sunny, it’s Octavia! Where’s father!?” Octavia spoke into the phone.

“Whoa Octavia, calm down! How did you hear?” Sunny replied.

“I just read about it in the damn paper Sunny, now where’s father!?” Octavia responded angrily.

“Look, over the phone isn’t the best place to talk about this Octavia. Just try to get back home as soon as you can.” Sunny replied back.

Octavia slammed the phone back on the receiver, as Cinnamon watched from outside, afraid. Tears began to form in Octavia’s eyes, but she tried to force them back in. She ran out of the booth, and into Cinnamon’s hooves.

“What do we need to do Octavia?” Cinnamon asked, while stroking Octavia’s mane, trying to calm her.

Octavia sniffled up the tears that were still coming out, before she responded.

“I need to get back to Ponyville…now.”

/)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\

Meanwhile,

Sunny hung up the phone on her end. She knew how hard Octavia must be taking this, but she didn’t want to discuss anything about their father over the phone, since she knew that the authorities had been tapping the phones lately. Bonnie then walked into the kitchen, holding one of the family’s foals in her hooves. After she had heard about what happened to her father, she came back to the family home to be with her family, leaving Lucko in Filly Delphia.

Suddenly, a loud banging came from the back door. The little foal began to cry, and Sunny told Bonnie to take herself and the foal into the other room. Sunny then grabbed a small pistol from off the counter, and slowly approached the back door.

“Who is it!?”

“It’s Jubileena!” A voice responded.

Sunny let out a sigh of relief, as she opened the back door for one of her family’s associates.

“You could’ve given me a little heads up that you were coming!” Sunny told Jubileena.

“Sorry, but I had to come over as soon as I heard what happened.” Jubileena responded.

“So what is it? What do you know? How did this happen? Where was his bodyguard?” Sunny asked.

“Well, you know about as much as I do I’m sure, from the papers and hearsay. As far as his bodyguard goes, Affero was there with him, but he fumbled trying to get his gun.” Jubileena responded.

“What? Affero? Where was Ivory!?” Why wasn’t Ivory there!?” Sunny told Jubileena.

“Ivory’s been sick the past couple days, so Affero was filling in for him.” Jubileena replied.

“Celestia dammit! This is all just messed up!” Sunny spoke aloud, angrily. She was about to swear again, when the phone started ringing again. Sunny picked up the phone, still annoyed. “Hello? Who is it!?”

“It’s Caballeron.” The voice on the other end responded.

Sunny quickly snapped back to reality, as she told Jubileena to go keep the foal crying in the other room quiet. She then answered Caballeron.

“What can I do ya for Caballeron?”

“I have Prim in my custody, but no harm will come to her, as long as you do exactly as I say.” Caballeron responded.

“What do you want me to do?” Sunny asked.

“Nothing, don’t do anything. Prim will be released in exactly three hours, and at that time, you WILL be at the statue in Town Square to pick her up. You’re going to listen to everything she has to tell you, and you WILL NOT call the police at any time, or else I guarantee you that there will be consequences.” Caballeron told Sunny.

“You know me, I LOVE to listen.” Sunny replied.

“Good. You have 2 hours and 58 minutes.” Caballeron responded one last time, before hanging up on his end.

Jubileena walked back into the kitchen.

“So what did he want Sunny?”

“Don’t worry about it Jubileena. He’s got Prim, but he’s going to release her in a few hours. In the meantime, go find Ivory, and bring him here.”

/)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\

Meanwhile, in the back room of an abandoned dental clinic, in Manehattan,

Caballeron hung up the phone on his end, before her turned back to Prim Raining, still strapped to her chair.

“Whatever you’re up to, you’re not going to get away with it Caballeron.” Prim told the stallion.

“That’s ‘Doctor’ Caballeron to you.” Caballeron responded. “But you should stop living in the past. Don Colteone is dead. It was an unfortunate fate that had to befall him, but I couldn’t very well let him walk away after disrespecting myself, and the Tarttaglia family like that. However, I’d like things between myself, and the Colteone family to be different. I want you to help me Prim, to make peace between Sunny and myself. And of course those other regimes within your family.”

“Do you really think that Sunny will cooperate with you?” Sunny told Caballeron.

“Your friend Looka did, so I’m hoping that Sunny will be just as reasonable.” Caballeron responded.

“Tch, that Looka.” Prim muttered under her breath.

“Look, I’d very much like to avoid a war with the other families, as I’m sure both yourself and the rest of the Colteone family would agree. Just talk to them, get them to reconsider my offer, and everything will work out.” Caballeron told Prim, before looking at the clock on the wall. He then turned and spoke to each of his men, and finally to Prim. “Time to go Ms. Raining. You’ve got a long train ride ahead of you.”

/)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\

Prim, Caballeron, and Caballeron’s men all exited the abandoned clinic. The carriage to take Prim to the train station arrived, and a pony got out from inside. He walked up to Caballeron, and whispered something in his ear. Caballeron froze in place, before turning around to his men and Prim, anger in his eyes and voice.

“The Don’s alive! Six shots apiece and you couldn’t kill him!? What the Tartarus am I paying you ponies for!? Get her out of here!”

Caballeron then stormed off, as Prim and Caballeron’s men got into the carriage.

/)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\

Very late into the night, a carriage pulled up to the front gate of the Colteone family home. The guards at the gate let down a chain, allowing the carriage to come through, before replacing the chain, once the carriage has passed. The carriage pulled up alongside the entrance to the home, and a pony exited the carriage, before walking inside.

Octavia closed the door behind her, before noticing several different members, and associates, of her family scattered about. She headed into the living room, where she was greeted by Jubileena, a smile on her face.

“You’re mother is with your father right now in the hospital, he’s going to pull through!” She told Octavia, holding her hoof in hers.

/)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\

Octavia, Sunny, Prim, Jubileena, and Keyzzio, another associate of the family, all sat around Don Colteone’s office. All the ponies argued about what they should do now, while Octavia sat quietly on her father’s desk.

“There’s no way I’m going to help that bastard! Not after what he did to dad!” Sunny said aloud.

“Be that as it may, we need to think things through. If Don Colteone dies, then all of the political contacts that the family has will be gone. We’re at half strength as it is right now, and the Manehattan families might support Caballeron to avoid war. We can’t be hasty.” Prim tried to reason with Sunny, and everypony else.

“We should just kill them all.” Octavia finally spoke up, an emotionless look on her face.

“Quiet Octavia, don’t be saying things like that.” Sunny told her sister. “How about you try giving Looka another call?”

Octavia reached for her father’s phone, and began to dial Looka’s number, as Ivory walked in.

“There’s a package that’s just arrived Sunny.” Ivory told the mare.

“Keyzzio, go with Ivory and get it would you?”

Keyzzio got up from his chair, and followed Ivory out of the room. Sunny then turned to Jubileena to speak with her.

“I want you to take Ivory out somewhere and kill him. He sold out dad, and I never want to see his face again. Do you understand?”

Jubileena nodded in agreement. Sunny then spoke aloud to the group.

“In the meantime, I want Octavia, and a couple of our men to head to Looka’s apartment, and wait for him to show up. I wanna know what’s been taking him so long to get back with us.”

“I think it would be best if Octavia avoids any direct work with the family. She’s just a civilian in all this, and we don’t want her to get involved too far.” Prim reasoned.

Sunny took a second to think it over, before she agreed.

“Fine. Hey Octavia, would you try calling Looka again? Where the Tartarus is this pony?”

Octavia reached back for the phone again, as Keyzzio walked in, a brown package in hooves. He dropped the package on Sunny’s lap, whom proceeded to open it. Inside, she found Looka’s bulletproof vest, with two fish wrapped inside it.

“What in Celestia’s name is this?” Sunny asked aloud.

“It’s an old Equestrian saying. It means that Looka is sleeping with the fishes.” Keyzzio responded.

The ponies in the room all looked around at each other, before looking back at the fish. Their dead, lifeless eyes, looking up at them all. The same way Looka’s probably were, at the bottom of a river somewhere.

Author's Note

Terms, by use.
Tartarus= Hell

Pony references, by appearance.
Octavia= Octavia Melody
Apple Cinnamon= Apple Cinnamon
Sunny= Sunny Smiles
Bonnie= Bonnie
Jubileena= Jubileena
Caballeron= Dr. Caballeron
Prim Raining= S04E10 Unnamed Pegasus Mare #3
Caballeron's men= S04E04 Unnamed Earth Stallion #9, S04E04 Unnamed Earth Stallion #10, S04E04 Unnamed Earth Stallion #11
Keyzzio= S04E08 Unnamed Earth Stallion #10
Ivory= Ivory