Hitpony

Chapters

Boredom
Flashback
Gathering Wood
Party
Burn
The Apple Job
Laying Low

Boredom

Ding

Ding Ding

Ding Ding Ding Ding

I watched the bit fall flat on the table. I picked it up and spun it again, I watched the coin spin while in my mesmerized state, waiting for the coin to stop. Then it did just that, not taking as long as the last time. I left the bit to sit on the counter, and picked my book back up.

It was a slow day, I guess. But then again, it's not everyday that somepony comes in wanting to kill another pony ... or to buy some of my near useless paraphernalia. But the whole shop thing simply served as an excuse for my income and how I spent my days. I am the sole pony that works in my shop, which contains various bits and parts. It was a good way for me to protect myself legally. If anypony were to ask, I would just say that I was at my store, or doing something store related. Also, since I own the store, I control my own hours. I just leave whenever I want to and leave a sign up. But that doesn't mean that I'm not careful about it. I take time off here and there to throw off anypony who might ask. It would be very suspicious if I were to have my time off perfectly correlate with the murders of ponies. In fact, if I didn't need to be in the store to pick up the jobs, I might just stay home every day, since no pony came to buy anything. I mean, the things that are sold here are things that you didn't think would be sold by themselves. Like the small knob-like thing that turns on lamps. I have several of those. Yeah, I get nopony coming in asking for parts. Regardless, it was a legitimate business.

If somepony wanted me to hire me, they simply ask for Scarred Shadow. I have two separate names, one for my secret job and another for everything else. Also, I did more than just killing ponies, like interrogation, roughing up ponies, intimidation, you get the picture. Ponies have always wanted these things, it's just that most either thought it was too immoral or were too afraid of getting caught. And I was just there to do it for them, at a reasonable price of course.

Ding-a-ling

Somepony just walked in. My eyes quickly snapped up to the door, jumping a little. With my line of secret work, I felt that I needed that bell, but no matter how many times it went off, I would always be surprised at it. The earth pony that walked in had a somewhat dark blue, and a navy blue mane and tail to match. Looking at his fur I could see that both mane and fur was very neat. Don't get me wrong, he was no model, or actor, but he did look very clean cut.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" I greeted him as I put on a small smile. I always greeted ponies ambiguously, because it hinted at my secret job if somepony was already aware of it. Otherwise it sounded completely normal. It was my way of separating my customers

"Hi, are you Scarred Shadow?" He asked.

"Yes sir I am."

"I ... I want somepony killed." Hesitation. Nothing unusual.

"A'ight, who's it you going for?"

He handed me a picture of a unicorn mare with pink fur and an orange mane, a bit unkempt. "Lives at 33 Wallow Lane. "

"Wallow Lane. Okay, not the best neighborhood, ponies probably aren't too vigilant as crime would probably be moderately common, that'll be ... oh, three hundred bits."

"Okay, let's see..." The stallion took a bag of bits out of his saddlebag and poured some of them onto the counter and began counting them out.

"Would you mind me asking why you want her dead?" I had a policy that the customer didn't need to tell me anything, but I always did like to know. I'd ask if they were willing to tell, and if they wanted to they'd tell me.

"She's my ex-wife."

"Ah, I see."

"There's more to it. She was a psycho, seriously. I don't know how I didn't realize until after marriage. She was always paranoid about everything for no real reason. She insisted on buying several different locks for the door. Also, she would spend time peeking out the curtain, checking the locks-"

"I don't mean to be rude, but this doesn't exactly sound like a reason to kill somepony."

"Well ... at first I thought that she was just weird like that, but after a while, I became suspicious that she actually had reasons to be so paranoid. She hung around ponies that looked and acted like gang members. She would leave with them late at night and never told me where she went. I saw plenty of her friends come up in the news. One time I saw that she had some drugs and a gun in her purse. I never said anything about it to her, or did anything, but I knew that I couldn't trust her and that she could get me into serious trouble. I divorced her and she didn't take it very well. I was very concerned about how she took it. With how edgy she was, I wasn't too surprised. I've even seen her and her friends lurking around my house."

"Lurking? What do you mean?"

"Well they would be walking past very slowly, and looking at my house. Almost as if they were surveying it. They haven't actually done anything yet, but I'm scared. I know that it's out of the hands of the police because they haven't actually done anything yet, and I need your help."

"Alright. As long as you got the money, I'll get her. Don't worry, I'll take care of it. If you need anything else, you know where I am." He finished up counting money and pushed over some of the bits.

"Okay, thank you." His head dropped down to his saddlebag. He slowly went to pick up his saddlebag, getting ready to leave. He stopped and looked back up at me. "Why do you do this?" This again. "I mean, some ponies really need the help, but I'm sure that plenty of ponies just come in for terrible reasons. Why do you support them?"

I sighed, "Listen, if ponies are coming to me prepared to pay me for whatever they want, they're gonna do it anyway. Me doing what I do makes nothing worse. Crime will happen either way, I'm just in the middle to turn a profit. I've given it plenty of thought, and I'm comfortable with it." I swept the bits that were on the counter off to the side and picked up the bit that I had sitting towards the end of the table and spun it right on the center of the counter. "I'll take care of this sometime this weekend, so do something so you'll have an alibi."

He slowly nodded. "...Okay." He put his saddlebag back on, but looked at the bit. "What's so special about that bit?"

I sighed a little, but more relaxed this time. "Oh, it's a long, boring story. Trust me, you wouldn't care."

"Alright." He turned to the door and walked out.

"Some ponies." I said quietly. I took my business ledger and wrote down the transaction, forging it to say he bought something random. It explained where I got all of my bits. Not like it would matter, since I have absolutely no clue how much stuff I had. I thought about the job for a moment. Would killing a gang member really be the best idea? Eh, they'd probably assume it was because of a rival gang or something. I doubt that they'd link it back to the ex-wife of one of their gang members. Besides, he didn't seem like a pony capable of murder

I picked up the bit and started spinning it again. It was true that this bit had a back story, and an actually interesting one at that.

Flashback

Now with cover art!

I brought a hoof up to block the sun from my eyes. I looked down the street to see if my friend, Party Thrill, was there, but he wasn't. I was waiting for him so that we can walk to school together, like we normally do. He was running a bit late today, so I sat down to wait. Normally he shows up on time, so it was weird that he was this late. Whenever he couldn't make it, he would make sure to tell me. I looked back and saw that he was there. He was in a hurry, and his orange mane was blowing in the breeze over his green eyes. His orange mane blended with his red coat. He was a unicorn, but he wasn't very good at magic, so he still went to normal schools. I grabbed my saddlebag and walked over and waved to him. He started to gallop over to me to catch up.

"Hey Bolt." Doom Bolt is my name, but my friends call me Bolt. We started to walk towards school, which wasn't too far away.

"Hey, what took you so long?"

"I woke up late, so I was really in a hurry and forgot things and had to go back for them."

"Whatever, just hope that we're not late."

"Uggggghhhh. How long 'til the weekend?"

"It's Tuesday." He let out a large sigh and dropped his head to the ground. "Yeah, I know that feeling. You know it's going to be a bad week when you're already waiting for the weekend this early in the week. Anyway let's hurry up, I don't want to get in trouble." On that we both picked up the pace. We galloped around the corner past Sugar Cube Corner and came into view of the school. All the foals were walking to the door, so we started to go faster.

When we arrived in the schoolyard, I pushed Party away so I could walk in the door first. When I walked in, I stopped to catch my breath. Party followed close behind, and hit me in the shoulder.

"Well, look who decided to show up today." I looked up and saw our teacher, Storybook Bloom looking at us, with her forelegs crossed. Her wrinkles were always more visible when she frowned like she is now. She had light black fur, not quite gray. Her pink mane stood out from her coat, except for the stripes that were turning gray. I also saw that we were about a minute late. "Take your seats and take out your ELA things." We both trudged over to our desks, which were right next to each other. I took out my notebook and pencil, and slid my saddlebags under the desk.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, we can go back to talking about commas. Commas are used ..." I looked over to Party, looking at him in disbelief. He looked over at me, and I gestured my foreleg to Storybook. He moved his mouth as to say 'I know', while he shrugged.

I leaned closer and whispered "What's up with her today?"

"I don't know, she doesn't want to be here more than I want to today."

"DOOM BOLT!" I jumped in my chair and snapped my attention to Storybook Bloom. Oh no. "Can you tell me what I just said?"

"Uhhh..." My mind raced, to find something to say. I had no answer. "Nope. I guess I just don't care." That was the best that I had.

"Really? That's what you have to say? This stuff is very important and all that you can say is that you simply don't care. You NEED to pay attention because you can't do anything in the real world without this knowledge. Pay attention." She turned back to the board. I rolled my eyes and bent my neck backwards to the ceiling. "You can't pay attention when you're rolling your eyes." I looked and she hadn't even turned around. I decided that it would be a good idea to put in an effort to at least pretend to pay attention.

So eventually she finished her lecture, and let us go outside for recess. I could see that she was eyeing me, clearly still mad at me. I ignored her because, like I said, I just didn't care. I caught up to Party, who was already out of the door.

"Hey Bolt, teach is pretty mad at you."

"You weren't paying attention either. It's just that I ended up getting in trouble for it, like always"

"Whatever. Hey, you comin' to my 9th birthday party next Saturday? Party starts at 2. Oh, and you'll be sleeping over, and going home whenever."

A birthday party with Party? Besides being my best friend, he was great at throwing parties, in case you couldn't guess. I'm surprised that he didn't have his cutie mark for it yet. He always had a large crowd of ponies that would go and knew how to keep everypony entertained. "I'd love to, but I'm not sure if I can. I'll ask my mom if I can."

"You'd be missing out." We walked over to a table with benches on both sides, and sat down. We never really ran around and took part in all of the nonsense of the other foals. At least I didn't. Party would join them sometimes, but he still spent time with me. Personally, I can't handle all of their stupid games and whatnot.

"Have you seen Clashing Blade today? He looks like he's about to snap at somepony." I said to him. I could see him walking through the crowd, and he was pretty much knocking the other foals to the ground. Clash was older than all of the other foals in our grade. He was held back a year a while back. He had a brown coat and a red mane. He was easily a few inches taller than all the other foals in our grade. He also was very muscular. He had a reputation of taking nothing from nopony. He often beat up kids that would really piss him off.

"Wow, what's up with him? It seems like he's gonna beat up somepony."

"I know. I hope he doesn't." I could see that he was looking around a bit. He stopped for a moment looking at me, then went back to paying attention to the crowd. Then I realized that he had turned and had started to walk in our direction. "Oh no, I think he's walking towards us."

"Alright. Be cool, and don't address him." I guess that was our best plan. He continued to make his way over towards us. I noticed that neither my nor Party had said anything. So much for acting cool. I decided not to be looking at him in case he looked up and noticed that we were staring at him. I just sat there tapping my hoof on the bench nervously. I turned back and saw that he was standing right in front of me. He appeared to be straining himself to look as tall and strong as he could. He was glaring at both me and Party.

"Hey, Clash." I said. His eyes darted to be looking directly at me.

"Only my friends call me Clash. Call me Blade."

Party gave him a very relaxed look. "Okay, Blade," saying 'Blade' like it was difficult for him, "waddaya want?"

Blade turned and slammed his hoof onto the table. "DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!"

"Okay, jeez." Party said as he shrunk away a bit from Blade. I just sat there shocked at Blade doing that, but not too surprised. He turned back to me.

"Bolt, I hear that you're a pretty tough pony."

I got kinda confused at this. I mean, it wasn't like I wasn't tough, but I was far from the strongest foal in our grade. So somepony like Blade tell me that I'm 'pretty tough' wasn't exactly what I was expecting.

"I guess.." I said, trailing off a bit.

"Yeah, well I need you to beat up a little colt that's been annoying me."

"Uh, why don't you? You've never been afraid to beat up some colt that you think deserved it."

"Storybook Bloom has really been on my case about that recently. I think that she might suspend me or something if I do something else. But you have a clean slate. If you do it then she won't get too mad at you since it's your first time-"

"Yeah, and why should he do this?" Party interrupted. I looked over at him trying to get him not to be so blunt with him, but he didn't care.

"If he doesn't I'll break this table using his back."

Party backed down at this. I sat there for a moment, until I realized something. "If you beat me up, then Storybook will suspend you." I pointed at him to put him down. He stopped for a moment to consider it. Then he shook his head a bit.

"Fine, I'll pay you to do it. 25 bits."

I thought about the offer for a moment. Was 25 bits worth it? I'm not too concerned about Storybook yelling at me. She does that already. I thought about my parents, but I'm not even sure if they'd find out. They didn't care too much about what I did. They stood out of the way of what I did and I did the same for them. So I guess that it would be a good idea. "Show me the money."

"What did you say to me?" He leaned in a bit closer to me.

"I said show me the money. Why would I do this if I'm not even sure that you have 25 bits?"

"Are you calling me poor?" At this his face was pretty much touching mine.

"No no no." I assured him a waved my hoof and backed away from him. "I'm just saying that you might not have 25 bits with you right now."

"I do. I'll show you next recess. Now are you going to do it?"

"Not until I get my money. If I beat up this colt, how do I know that you'll pay me? You could just not give it to me and I wouldn't really want to fight you for it. If you give me the money now, then if I don't do it you can just beat me up and say that I was stealing your bits." I said to him. I didn't trust Blade. Not at all. He thought about it for a moment. I could tell that he didn't want to do the wrong thing and risk losing 25 bits.

"Fine. As long as you do it."

"Okay. Now who is it that you want me to beat up?"

"Fluffy Wing." Both me and Party looked at Blade weirdly. Fluffy Wing? The nice colt who never did anything to anypony?

"Wait, Fluffy Wing? Why? What did he do to you?"

"ARE YOU GOING TO DO IT OR NOT?" He shouted as shoved me.

"Yes yes sure." I said, holding my hooves up in defense. His hoof was still on my barrel from shoving me. I could see that a bunch of the other foals had stopped their playing and looked over our way.

"Good, meet me here next recess."

"Alright students, recess is over. Time to come back inside." Storybook shouted. All the other foals forgot what happened, and dropped their stuff to walk in. Blade turned and looked over to her for a moment then back at me. He pushed me lightly and then went to walk back in.

I looked over to Party, and saw that he was just as scared as I was. We stood up and walked inside, not saying a word. We were both very shocked at the request. I still wasn't sure if I should do it. I had nothing against Fluffy, and liked him a bit. He was an okay colt, and he never really got on my nerves. He didn't do anything that bothered me really, better than most of the idiotic foals in this school.

I walked over to my desk and sat down. I looked over at Party. He was just sitting there, with his stuff in front of him. He was looking straight to the board, not taking a moment to look over at me. I turned back to look at my desk. I grabbed some stuff and put it on my desk, so Storybook wouldn't yell at me. I couldn't focus on the lesson. My mind kept thinking about this dilemma. I liked Fluffy, but not too much. 25 bits and staying on Blade's good side was a pretty good deal though. In the long run, I could probably make up with Fluffy. Blade probably wouldn't look at me the same way for a while, and potentially put me in danger. 25 bits was a decent amount of money. I could get some pretty good stuff at Sugar Cube Corner for that. I could get a few muffins, like chocolate chip or blueberry. Maybe some cupcakes. I always liked the ones with strawberry frosting and chocolate breading. Those were so delicious. Or maybe I could keep some of the 25 bits for a birthday present for Party. I could get something nice, but then again my mom usually paid for things like that. So I guess I'll keep the 25 bits for myself. I snapped out of my food induced trance, so that I wouldn't start to drool on my desk. All that was left to do was to wait for lunch and then get everything straight with Blade.

"Alright class, put away your learning materials and grab your lunches." Wow, that took forever. I don't know why, but I just couldn't wait for that to be over. That was easily one of the most difficult lessons that I've had to sit through.

All of the other foals ran over to the door, to try to be the first in line. I decided to hang back, because it really didn't matter. We all walked to the lunchroom, and sure enough being in the back of the line didn't matter at all. Everypony had their seats already chosen. I sat down next to Party, and took out my lunch. I said 'Hi', but he just nodded, not saying anything. Somepony reached over and dropped some bits next to me. Turning around I saw that Blade was there, and he was looking around at the other foals nervously. I saw that Party was eyeing the bits out of the corner of his eyes. I put them into my lunch bag and went back to eating. At that Party turned back to his own lunch. Party talked with some other of his friends throughout the lunch, but never to me. I shrugged it off. He's done things like this before. I realize that he has other friends that I don't get along with, and some days he feels like talking with them.

After lunch was over, we were brought back over to our classroom to drop off our lunch stuff before our second recess. I walked over and put the bits away in my saddlebags. While walking out I looked around to see if I could spot Fluffy, but I couldn't. I proceeded to walk over to our bench. Party didn't show up, but Blade did shortly.

"Hey Blade."

"Alright, Fluffy is over by the swings."

"Okay. Hey how bad do you want me to beat him up? I'm not too sure about beating him too badly."

"Whatever works for you. I just want him to be injured significantly."

"Fine. Anything you want me to say to him to help get the message across?"

"Hmm." He brought a hoof up to his chin to think of something to say. "I dunno, just let him know that it was me who sent you."

"A'ight. Give me a minute then I'll do it."

"Cool. Don't you wuss out on me." He finished the sentence pointing at me menacingly. He then turned and started walking, but turned around. "Oh, and make sure that he won't say anything about me."

"Will do." He turned around and walked over close to the swings. I guess that it would be weird if he was right there when it happened. I looked around and didn't see Party anywhere. I took in a deep breath. I got up from the table and slowly walked over. Sure enough, Fluffy was standing near the swings, probably waiting to have his turn. Some other kids were yelling and screaming and whatnot. I slowed down as I came close, with my mind racing about what I should say. Once I was confident I walked up behind him. He had a small pair of glasses, not anything too ridiculous. His light green mane was getting tangled with the wind that was blowing. His eyes matched his blue coat very well, something that I found interesting. I took another deep breath before approaching him. I looked over and saw Blade standing in the background. We made eye contact for a moment before I turned away. I walked up nervously and tapped Fluffy on the shoulder. He turned around to face me.

"Oh, hello! I'm Fluffy, who are you?" Wow he was nice. I wish I didn't have to do this. I was close to him, and nopony was close enough to hear what I would say to him, with all of the commotion.

"A messenger. I got something for you from Clashing Blade." He looked confused for a moment. He opened his mouth to say something to me.

I pulled a hoof back and punched him square in the nose. He fell back on the ground, grabbing his nose with his hoof. His glasses fell to the ground next to him, and cracked on a rock. I could see that there was blood coming down from his nose. All of the noise around had become surprised hushes, nopony daring to make any noise. I took my other foreleg and hit him directly below his ribs. He let out a scream and moved one of his hooves down to cover his gut, while the other was raised up to protect his face. It was clear that there were tears streaming down his face. For the most part, the foals around were completely silent. I bent down lower, and hit the hoof protecting himself away, and hit the side of his face with a left hook. At this he screamed again and started to cry loudly. I pulled back my hoof to hit him again, when he kicked me in the stomach. I fell over, surprised that he was fighting back. I recovered quickly, to see that he was trying to crawl away. He looked up at one of the other foals through his tear covered eyes. I walked over and hit him right in the back of the head. I wound up again and hit him twice more in the back of the head. At this point, he was still teary eyed, but had stopped crying. He didn't hold up a hoof to protect himself or anything. He just laid there and grabbed the back of his head, tensed up and preparing to be hit again. I leaned in real close to his ear, and whispered to him. "Don't mention Blade to Storybook, or else." After saying that I slammed the side of his head with a final punch. He moved one of his hooves to the point of impact, and lie there, slightly cradling his head. The blood from his nose had formed a small pool, under his nose, and was covering both of his hooves. There was blood in other places that I hit him, but I couldn't tell if it was blood from his nose, or the spot itself.

I stood up completely, and turned around to walk away. I immediately saw that Storybook was running over, with a filly next to her. She was yelling at the foals to move away, which they did, leaving Fluffy with more space. Storybook ran past me, more concerned about Fluffy than me. I looked back for a moment, then continued my slow walk away. For a small moment, I saw Party in the crowd. He was one of the few not looking at Fluffy. His face was blank, which wasn't what I'd expected. I thought that he would be disappointed at me, but he wasn't. The school nurse ran over to Fluffy, and went to help him inside. With Fluffy taken care of, Storybook turned over to me, and walked me inside.

"WHAT IN TARTARUS WAS THAT?" Storybook yelled. Blade was the only pony to ever get into any fights. There was also usually some sort of warning. You could generally tell when he was going to do something like get into a fight. He would walk over, and say something to somepony. When he did, it was clear that he wanted to fight, so all the other foals would back off immediately. Also, the majority of his fights took place after school, so it never interrupted school. This was out of nowhere, and at the beginning of recess. To my understanding, recess was still going on. Also, I think that Fluffy was hurt pretty bad. I guess since almost all of my punches were to the head. I overheard something about him seeing stars, and they were worried that he might pass out. I didn't mean to hurt him that bad, but what's done is done. "WELL?" Oh yeah, her.

I sat there for a moment, not sure what to say. I really had no clue. I couldn't mention Blade because that was part of our deal. And if I said that I was paid to do it she would ask who paid me, and I wasn't going to lie about it. If I didn't say who, we would sit here for a long time. Well I figured that I should say something. "I hated that kid. ... He always pissed me off, ... with the way that he talked and whatever. ... I told him to stop being like the way he is, but he didn't listen, so I taught him a lesson. I guess that I got a little carried away with it. I didn't mean to hurt him that bad. ... I just wanted to give him a bloody nose and maybe a bump on his head."

"... Really? That's it. He just bothered you, that's why you did this to him?" Honestly, I just didn't pay attention. Most of what I had said was a lie, so I just didn't care. She went on to talk about how this isn't how to solve your problems, and how messed up that was, you know. Same old story with a different event. I did feel bad though. Not because she was scolding me and that I would get a punishment, but because of how bad it was. I was honest in saying that I didn't want him to be hurt this bad. "So, come in tomorrow and we'll talk about your punishment. You will finish classes today and a letter will be sent to your parents. Stay in here until I come back to get you." I nodded, and she walked to the door. When she went to open it, she looked back at me. She stared at me for a moment, but not making eye contact. Then she closed the door and walked away from the door. I sat there for a moment, looking at her desk. There was some loose paperwork laying on her desk. I turned back to look at the door. I got up and opened it up very slightly. I poked my head out and looked for her in the hallway. She wasn't there. She probably went to talk with the foals who were worried about Fluffy.

I took a left in the hallway and started walking, looking for the nurse's office. I saw the door on my right that had the label on it. I stood up as much as I could so that I could see through the window. Strange, I would've thought that they would have wanted to have more privacy in there. I looked in and saw Fluffy, sitting up on a bed, looking very woozy. All the blood had been cleaned up, and he held a tissue up to his nose. The nurse was in front of him, holding up a hoof and moving it around in front of his face. Fluffy tried to follow the hoof with his eyes, but I could tell that he was struggling. He was blinking a lot, and seemed to be struggling just to keep his balance. I wanted to walk in and say something, but there was nothing that I could say. So I turned around and walked back to Storybook's office, and waited.

"Alright class, that's all for today. See you all tomorrow." And like that, class was over. The rest of the day had gone without incident. Fluffy never returned to class, and was probably sent home. After we got back to class, all of the foals kept their distance from me. I'm not too surprised that they were scared of me. What did surprise me was that some of my friends had refused to talk to me. I thought that maybe they'd ask why I did it, and wouldn't leave me alone once they figured out why. However, they all stayed away from me. I made my way out of the school and started walking to Sugar Cube Corner. I decided that I was going to get some of those strawberry frosted chocolate cupcakes. My mouth was already watering thinking of them. I looked around and saw that I was alone. I guess that all of the other foals were too scared to risk going and being near me. I walked in, and the bell rung. Mrs. Cake, who was carrying some sweets turned to see me.

"Hello. How are you today?" she greeted, with a very cheery smile, as she put the tray onto the display case.

"Eh, good I guess." I said. I wasn't quite sure how I should say that my day went.

"What can I get for you?" She gestured to all of the sweets on the rack. When she did it was almost as if the treats sparkled. I looked and saw all of them glistening like they were in some invisible spotlight. They were trophies in the trophy case of a famous wonderbolt. But I already had my mind made up. The chocolate cupcakes stood out the most from the group.

"I'll have some strawberry frosted chocolate cupcakes." She opened up the case and brought out the tray for me to pick out which ones I wanted.

"They're 8 bits a piece." I took a moment to do the math. With 25 bits, I could buy 3 and have 1 bit left over. I looked back to the tray, and grabbed three that were in a line towards the back of the tray. She went back to put the tray away, and I put my saddlebags on the counter. I took out my money and started to count out 24 bits. I put the last bit into my saddlebag and put the saddlebags back on. Mrs. Cake took the bits and put them into the register.

"Have a nice day!"

"You too!" I said, and walked over to one of the tables with my cupcakes. I sat down and put two of them down. I took off the wrapping of the third, and put the wrapping on the table. I stared at the cupcake for a moment, before taking a bite. I let the flavors mix in my mouth as I chewed. I always loved the taste of strawberries and chocolate, ever since I first had them. Chocolate covered fruits were delicious, but I especially liked chocolate covered strawberries. I swallowed and took another bite. This bite tasted kinda weird. It was like there was something sour in the middle of the cupcake, that had poisoned the inside of it. I swallowed this bite without savoring it too much, and took another bite, hoping that it wouldn't be sour like the last one. This wasn't as sour, but still had a fowl taste. I finished off that cupcake in disgust, and started eating the next one. This cupcake was the same as the last one. The cupcake was a bit hard to swallow, but it tasted okay-ish. I ate the last cupcake, and crumpled up the wrappers. I rubbed my stomach, right where Fluffy had kicked me. I didn't expect him to kick me that hard. It still hurt a bit, but not too bad. I picked up the wrappers and threw them away. I proceeded to walk to the door and leave.

I walked into my house and then walked up to my room. I assumed that nopony was home yet. I usually had the place to myself for a while. I put my saddlebags down in the corner of my room and laid down on my bed. I let out a sigh, glad that the school day was over. Tomorrow, Storybook was gonna yell at me, but it was inevitable. I knew that it was coming when I beat up Fluffy. I looked over at my saddlebags, and remembered that I still had one bit left over. I walked over to my saddlebags and took out the bit put it on the table.

I sat there for a moment and then went to the bathroom, to wash out any mulch that may have gotten in my tail or mane. Luckily, the pieces of mulch stuck out from my light green tail, and were easy to pick out. While washing up I noticed something on my rump. It was a bit more difficult to see because my dull yellow coat was a bit similar in color. I went to wipe it off with my hoof, but there was nothing there. I turned my head to wee what it was.

My cutie mark!!! I had gotten my cutie mark! A lot of other foals in my grade hadn't gotten their cutie marks yet, so I was among the first. It was difficult to see exactly what it was, but it looked like a single bit. But the bit was weird. Parts of the bit had some gold that looked like it was flaking off, and underneath there was nothing. There was just black underneath where the bit was falling apart. On the left of the bit, there was a liquid that had pooled up on the lip of the bit and was dripping off slightly. The liquid was a dark red. I stared at it for a moment. I was very confused by it. I think that it had something to do with the fight, because that was the only time that I had done anything with money. As for why the bit had pieces of gold flaking off of it, that escaped me. The red liquid, I figured, was blood, again referencing the fight.

So what exactly did that mean? Was I going to be a boxer or professional fighter of some sort? Probably not though, since the main focus seemed to be the bit. Other fighters usually had cutie marks of a boxing glove or whatever. Maybe it was getting paid to beat up other ponies. Yeah, that seemed about right. I mean, I got the money to beat up Fluffy. I can't say that it was a fight because Fluffy had no idea what was going to happen. So I was going to be paid to beat up other ponies. What does that make me then? Hmm. A contract killer? No, that would imply that I only killed other ponies. Fluffy was still alive. So I think the right term would be a hitpony. Yeah, that seems about right. I'm a hitpony.

Gathering Wood

So that's how I got this bit, and my cutie mark. Fluffy ended up okay, but I never made it up to him. Party forgot about what happened a couple days after. Most of my friends did too, but some didn't. After that day things continued to be normal.

I looked over at the clock, and saw that it was coming close to the end of the work day. I grabbed the money from that day, and put it into a bag and then into my saddlebags. I grabbed my saddlebags, and switched the sign to closed. I locked up the shop, and headed for home. On my way, I noticed that the streets weren't too crowded yet. I still had time to get home before the streets were swarmed. That put a smile on my face. I always hated crowds. It wasn't too hard to navigate through them, but I didn't like to be that close to other ponies. If you stay in a crowd for a long enough time, you get bumped into several times and there's always that one pony who stares at you. Not the awkward eye contact you make with some of the ponies in the crowd (I disliked that also), but when somepony is actually staring at you. Once that happens you end up looking over your shoulder until you get home.

I looked up to see that I had arrived at my house. The house was nothing too special. I didn't care too much about having some lavish and ridiculous house. I just wanted a house that would give me shelter and a place to store things. I still kept it in decent shape though. The house was clean, shudders in good condition, grass cut, the works. I actually would need to rake soon-ish. there were a few leaves that had begun to fall of and covered the lawn. I'd probably get around to it on the weekend.

I opened the door and walked inside my house. I threw my saddlebags into the corner by the door and walked over to the couch in the living room. I picked up a book from the coffee table and opened it up. The book was about some rich pony who threw wild parties, but it was told from the point of view of the neighbor. I really liked the book so far, but other ponies don't and it's not selling too well. It makes me sad because I can tell from reading that the author spent a lot of time on it. And the time that the author spent on it wasn't spent on making the story long. The story was only, like, 200 pages. The author spent all of that time in putting in all of these details. The thing that I don't like about it is that the author uses color symbolism. But besides that it's a great book.

I read until I got hungry enough for dinner. I put the book down the book and walked over to the kitchen. I grabbed some bread and other ingredients to make a sandwich. I also poured a glass of milk, and walked back into the living room. I ate sandwich and drank the milk in silence. When I finished I put the plates in the sink and washed them. I went back into the living room to read some more, but I heard a knock on the door before I could do so. I walked over and opened the door to see Party. He was probably over to invite me to a party of some sort. He frequently does that when he comes over, so that's what I'm guessing. He also looked like he already had a drink or two.

"Hey Bolt, there's a sweet party over at my place. You should totally come over, it's gonna be great." Me and Party had been good friends throughout both of our lives. He liked to invite me to his parties, but he'd also come over and hang out with me sometimes. He didn't always invite me to his parties, but he would if it was a large party or if it was mainly our friends.

"Uhh I don't know. I've got some things that I want to do, but I'll try to make it over when I finish." I was planning on scoping out that house tonight. I was just waiting for it to be dark enough.

"Alright. I gotta get back to the party. See you there." He pointed at me and looked serious for a moment, then laughed it off. "Take it easy."

"Bye." I watched him walk down the street a bit. I looked around and up at the sky. It seemed dark enough to go and scope out the house. 33 Wallow Lane. I left my saddlebags there in the corner, and left to go to the house.

Luckily, her house was bordered by an empty yard with construction equipment. When I had made it to Wallow Lane, I saw that the houses were surrounded on three sides by other houses. Wallow Lane was a dead end street off of a main road, and there were many adjacent streets. Without the construction yard, I wouldn't have been able to observe the house without being noticed.

I sat behind some I-beams that were piled up. I was able to see clearly into her house. I could see that she was sitting on a couch, near her front door. She kept looking at her clock, and out the front window. It was hard to tell, but I could see that she was twitching a bit. Hopefully she was waiting for a friend or somepony, and that she'd leave when they arrived. Once she left, I could sneak in from one of the windows and look around. It was late enough that nopony would notice me going into her house.

Finally, she walked to the door after looking out the window. I could see her walk away from in between the houses. Now was my chance. I ran out from the I-beams, jumped over the fence and walked up to her house. There was a window right above the bulkhead that she had. I reared up on my hind legs and pushed the window open with my forelegs. Once the window was open, I jumped up and pushed my forelegs into the window, and clung on to the sill. From there I was able to lift myself completely into her kitchen.

The house looked worse on the inside than on the outside. The wallpaper was peeling, there was junk on the tables, etc. There was clearly some white powder on the table, next to a razor. Wouldn't she try to hide that better? I turned away from the kitchen, and walked into the front of the house. Immediately I saw that there was a rather lavish and noticeable fireplace in the adjacent room. Like the rest of the house, the fireplace was not in good shape, potentially being a fire hazard.

Hmm... That could work. It would definitely be believable to whomever investigated the fire. The only thing left is to make sure that she stays in the house while the fire's burning, and make that look believable. Let's see, I could hit her over the head and knock her out, but that might cause problems. If it doesn't knock her out, then there'd be a fight on my hooves, and that would be noticeable. Maybe some large beam from the rafters trapping her to the ground. Nah, she wouldn't be in the house by the time that the fire would be able to cause the beam to fall. Drugs? Yeah... She does do drugs, and if I sedate her with something, it'd be believable that she was doing whatever and OD'd before the fire started. And since the body will be burnt, they won't be able to run a drug test that's accurate enough to find what kind of drug it was.

Wow, that was easy. Now all I need is the drugs and to wait for the right time. I turned and walked back to the kitchen window, and began to lower myself onto the bulkhead. While doing so I pulled the window down more, and landed on the bulkhead. Reaching up, I closed the window fully. I walked back over to the construction yard to make my escape.

So, I'll need to get the drugs, which I'll do tomorrow. No problem, I know how to get them. Now, what was it that I wanted to do? Oh yeah, the party with Party. I should probably get moving.

Party

Knock Knock Knock

I stood in front of Party's place, hoping that he heard the knocking. Music was blaring loudly, so I'm not sure if anypony would hear me knock. I looked at the house while I waited. The house wasn't in good shape, but it's not like I'd expect it to be. There were balloons, streamers and whatnot everywhere. He never cleaned his place because he was always had ponies over, so even if he did it wouldn't stay clean for long. The curtains were draped over the windows, but you could see the lights and shadows of ponies from outside. I rang the doorbell and then knocked again to try to get his attention. Soon enough, the door opened.

"Hey Bolt, you don't have to knock. Come right on in!" Party greeted me, as he put a foreleg around my shoulder and pulled me in. He talked a bit slower than usual, but it was a party. He had a plastic cup in his hand that was mostly empty. "Hey, I gotta get back to spinning the records, you go ahead and enjoy yourself."

I looked around and saw just how wild this party was. I was expecting it to be a small party, how wrong I was. There was a sea of ponies out in his living room; all of the furniture had been moved out of the way to make room. He had multicolored lights flashing and music blaring. The music was essentially was high notes alternating with low notes in an upbeat tune. The crowd didn't even give it a second thought. They were all just caught up in it, and didn't give it a second though. In the other room, there was also a crowd, but they weren't partying like crazy. For the most part they were more relaxed than the other crowd. There were some card and board games, ponies just chatting with drinks, generally less reckless. I liked it here a lot more.

I walked in and sat down right on a chair that was near the corner of the room, a bit away from the rest of the ponies. I enjoyed sitting away from the crowd and just watching. I can sit here and laugh at things because I'm not a part of it. Nothing ever happens to me, but I still get to enjoy seeing what happens. I enjoy the things that you can only experience in hindsight. I just sit back and watch the show.

There was one particularly loud crowd of ponies playing Texas Hold 'em. They were ridiculously overexcited about it, and I was worried about them getting alcohol poisoning. I could probably go over there and destroy them, but where's the challenge taking advantage of drunk ponies not having poker faces? Besides them other ponies were playing other games, but nothing too notable. There was one couple that was busy making out in the corner, and I seemed to be the only one to notice them. Gross. Get a room.

Just then I thought about getting a drink. Perfect distraction. I got up from my chair and began to walk over into the kitchen to see what was available. But first I had to navigate through all of the debris laying haphazardly on the floor. Somehow I had managed to stay clean up until now, and I intend to keep it that way. There were cups, chips, spilled drinks, everything on the floor. Eventually I made it to the kitchen.

The kitchen was surprisingly empty compared to the other rooms. There were red and blue cups lined up on a table, along with some drink that had been spilled whilst ponies were grabbing the sludge that they are addicted to for some reason. I fail to understand why ponies willingly give up all self control. For fun? How can stumbling around like an idiot be fun? You just end up looking stupid and waking up with a hangover and memory loss. It looked like there were only alcoholic drinks here, so I'd have to improvise. I grabbed one of the drinks and poured out the vile concoction down the drain. I turned around to the fridge and looked at what beverages were available. Milk, orange juice, liquor, ... I'll just have some tap water. I walked over to the sink and filled up the cup.

Now to get back to my chair. The chair looked a lot farther away than I remember. But I managed to get there safely. I took a sip from the drink and then put the cup down on a table. I looked over and the two ponies that were kissing each other had left. Good. I took a look around for a second to see where they were for a second. And they were walking upstairs together. I guess that they couldn't go home first. Whatever. To each his own, and now they're out of my fur. I have a hunch that they're not the only ones upstairs. What did I say about alcohol?

Anyway I really wish that I had some sort of ear protection, because the bass was really getting to me. I'm surprised that somepony hasn't sent in a complaint about the noise to the police. Maybe his neighbors are all at this party. I know that pretty much none of my neighbors get along. One of them has a dog and if it starts barking then all hell breaks loose in my neighborhood. I just simply don't understand why ponies are that uptight. Like, what do you get from it? You just need to loosen up and have a little fun.

I looked around and it didn't look like the party was slowing down at all. It was going to be a long time until the party was over. Since I didn't see anypony that I recognized, I decided that I might as well take up playing one of the games here. Maybe some cards.

There went most of the guests. This party had been going on for a while. About 30 minutes ago Party had stopped spinning records, and hinted that the guests should get going. but now the place was pretty much empty. I had returned to the chair that I had been sitting in, and Party had made his way over to the couch next to me. Looking at him I could tell that he really was a mess. Stains on his fur, mane all mangled, you get the picture. His eyes were also a bit bloodshot. Party isn't above drugs, so that's probably what it was.

"Wow, that took way too long," Party said. "Some ponies just can't take a hint about when the party's over."

"I thought that you would like the idea of having a party that never stops." I teased.

"Contrary to popular belief even I need to get rest."

"Well then why haven't you kicked me out and went to bed yet?"

"I'm not going to sleep just yet, but I need to give my head a rest from all of the music. I'm gonna be deaf before my forties."

"I was thinking about that earlier. We should bring some sort of ear protection. Especially you since you're forced to stand right next to the speakers."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Tape and cotton." He snorted at this.

"So we shove cotton in our ears and then tape it there."

"Pretty much. It'll definitely work."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah." He looked out the window for a second. I looked too.

"Hey, speaking of noise, do your neighbors ever complain about the parties that you throw?"

"Nope. Why?" he turned back to look at me.

"Curious. I know that if I so much as dropped glass in my house everypony in the neighborhood would file noise complaints on me and possibly make death threats."

"Your neighbors don't get along?"

"Nope. They all wish that each other will go straight to Tartarus."

"How about you?"

"If they all went to Tartarus then I wouldn't have to deal with them anymore, so I'd be okay with it."

"You wouldn't mind somepony burning for the rest of eternity just for peace and quiet."

I shrugged. "Hey, they'd all get their wishes that way. I'm just giving them what they want."

"So now your the one who sends them to Tartarus."

"Now there's an idea." He covered his face with his hoof.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. Aside from the usual."

"And what exactly is the usual?"

Time to dodge questions. "I dunno. Me?"

"Fair enough. Well listen, I'm pretty tired, so I think that you should get going and I'll get some rest."

"All right." I stood up and walked over to the door. Once I walked down the steps I turned and waved. "See you 'round."

"Goodbye." He said as he waved.

I looked around, realizing that it was pretty dark. I should probably go. I need my rest too.

Burn

The day has come. I sat in the construction yard, waiting for her to leave her house. I had all the stuff that I needed; the needle the drugs, a box of matches, and a knife (in case things went wrong) all sat in my saddlebags, waiting. I sat behind the same pile of I-beams, waiting for her to leave. The lights were on. I had saw her in the house earlier, but I lost sight of her. I'm surprised that she was still in her house. I assume that she would have plans on a weekend, or at least something to do. Especially since she's part of a gang. I would think that they would do things frequently.

The light went out upstairs. Hopefully she was leaving now. Then, after a few seconds, the downstairs lights went out. Finally, I saw her walking on the sidewalk with some other ponies.

Now it was time to act. I jumped over the fence and climbed into the kitchen window. Nothing seems to have changed too much since I last entered. I immediately walked over to the fireplace that she had. I grabbed some logs from next to the fireplace, and put them in. Then, I proceeded to take out the box of matchsticks. I struck one of the matches, and lit the fire. Hopefully she wasn't out for too long. I wouldn't want the fire to go out before she came back.

I grabbed the syringe in one hoof, and my backup knife in the other. I walked over and sat down next to a small table that had a vase on it. I slid my saddlebag underneath the table. Besides the fire, the room was completely dark, so I wouldn't stand out while sitting in the corner. All I had left to do was wait. She'll walk in, notice the fire, walk over to it confused, I stick her with the syringe, and then spread the fire to the rest of the house. Then she'll burn in the fire, and I'll leave. The authorities will handle the fire and investigate, and (hopefully) believe it was an accident. If not, no big deal. There's nothing that leads back to me.

I heard the door open. It was about time; the fire had started to run low. I heard her say something to somepony, and then the door closing. I cautiously inhaled and held my breath, trying to remain as quiet as possible. I stayed as perfectly still as I could. I focused on her hoofsteps. They were ever so painfully making their way down the hall closer to the entrance of the room. Closer. Closer. Closer. Further. Now going upstairs?

Shit, I needed to do something to get her attention, and fast. I looked over at the table, and saw the vase. I picked it up and threw it over to the other side of the entryway. I took another breath just as the vase shattered on the floor. I listened and heard no hoofsteps.

"Is somepony there?" She called out. Cautiously, she made her way down the stairs to investigate. I looked towards the entryway, waiting to see her. She walked in, and turned to look at the vase.

This was my chance. I put the knife down to free up one hoof. I slowly stood up, and took a couple steps in her direction. She was too busy wondering what happened. She was looking at the table that was near where the broken glass was, probably wondering why the vase was there. I took the opportunity and jumped over to her and wrapped my free hoof over her mouth, and the other waiting to strike. She frantically clawed at my hoof, trying to move it away from her mouth so that she could scream, but I held my hoof there. I stabbed her in the shoulder with the syringe, and injected her. I dropped the syringe on the ground, and used my other hoof to help stop her from struggling. At this point she was still panicking, and I just had to wait for the drugs to kick in. Slowly, she got weaker in her attempts, until her body fell limp on the ground. I sighed in relief, now that the hard part was over.

I picked up her body, and put it down next to the fireplace. I grabbed another log from the pile, and held it in the flames. I pulled it out once it was on fire, and spread the fire to the pile of logs, and then to the wall. Then I dropped the long down onto her hoof, the log still burning.

I turned away and grabbed my syringe and knife into my saddlebags, then went to walk away. When I reached the staircase I looked back and saw that the flame had spread quicker than I had expected, engulfing a large portion of the wall and spreading on the floor. I walked back over to the window and jumped down and then walked over into the construction yard. I looked back and saw the smoke column rising from the house, as well as the fire making its way around the corner of the house. Everything burns, I thought to myself. I just hope that it doesn't spread to the other houses. As I walked away, I started humming a tune to a short song. I forgot where I heard it from, but I still think that it's a good song.

I have to be leaving now

It makes me sad to go

But it's my time

Which by now I know

I'm walking down a tunnel

It's cold, damp, and foggy

I have a jacket with me

It doesn't feel too icy

The tunnel is getting dark

But I don't need to see

I will be just all right

So put you mind at ease

The Apple Job

Back at the store again. Everything had worked itself out last night. I hid my stuff away once I got home, and then that was that. When I got the newspaper in the morning, like I usually do, I saw nothing about a murder, so that's good. I always liked to keep informed, just in case there was suspicion and I had to go silent. Caution never killed anypony.

So I just sat here with some coffee that I had got from the local shop. I really like ponies who work there. They are always very kind to me. I know that they work in service and that's kinda their job, but something just feels a bit more genuine about it. Their warm smiles never faltered, and they always seemed nice, no matter what. I can't recall a time where I went in there and one of the workers looked frustrated at all. It was a nice place to hang out and enjoy some breakfast.

But for today, I wanted to spend the morning at the office. I wasn't feeling up to the minimal social interaction that would take place at the coffee shop. If I was there, I would feel obligated to talk to somepony. Otherwise eating there has no purpose.

Today seemed like it was going to be a good day. It was a warm day in fall. The leaves had just begun to change colors, but they hadn't started to fall down so they didn't cover the ground. Once the leaves start falling then I want nothing to do with it.

Just then two ponies walked in. Looking at them I could clearly tell that they were brothers. Their fur was a yellow and their manes were red with white stripes. They both wore blue and white striped suits with black bowties and had straw hats on. The only difference between the unicorn twins was that one had a red mustache. They looked around the place as they walked up to the counter.

"How may I help you two today?" Standard greeting as usual. They both turned to me, realizing that I had said something.

"We're looking for Scarred Shadow." Said one of them. By now they had both reached the counter.

"You're looking at him." I'll admit that I was in a pretty good mood today. It felt kinda weird.

"There's a mare who's been ruining all of our business. Anytime we try to sell something, she ruins it for us." Wonderful story, I don't care.

"Where do I come in?"

"We need you to get her to leave us alone."

"That's a pretty vague request. Details would be nice."

"You know the big apple orchard? She lives there." This really wasn't doing too much for me.

"What do you want me to do specifically?" At this they stopped to think for a moment.

"How about you break into her house and destroy the place." Finally something I can work with.

"Alright. What about leaving a message? Should I leave some sort of note or something so that she knows it's you two?"

"Yeah, I like that. Say ... 'Don't get in our way. F and F.'"

"What do you mean by say? Like should I leave a piece of paper or carve it into the wall?" These ponies suck with details.

"Just nail a piece of paper onto the wall."

"Alright." I opened a drawer of my desk top grab a piece of paper, a quill, and some ink. I put them on the desk and pushed them over to F and F. "Just write it down and I'll bring it with me." One of them grabbed the quill in his mouth to write down the note. Before he could finish I asked the other one "Do you happen to know anything about her schedule? Like is there a time when the house would be empty or am I going to have to figure that one out?"

"She's been asked to help cater for that big party. Her whole family will be there so you got an open window."

"Ah yes, the big town whatever the hay it's called. Good. So yeah that'll be ... oh I don't know ... 200 bits." The other brother produced several bags of coins and lay them on the counter. I reached over and pulled them over to my side of the counter. I assumed that they had the right amount of bits in them, both because I don't feel like counting and I trust that somepony wouldn't try to cross me, being a hitpony and all. I put all of the bags into the drawer and then wrote down some numbers into my little transaction booklet. At this point, he had finished writing the note, which he gave to me.

"Okay. I'll go over tonight and do the job. You two make yourselves scarce and have an alibi." The brothers nodded their head in unison, and walked out the door without another word.

I picked up my newspaper again and took a sip from my coffee, which was still warm. That was more difficult than it needed to be. I should put a sign up that says "Please be direct and specific with what you need." It would also come in handy when somepony needs something and can only describe it as "the thing that ___". It takes a solid 10 minutes to figure out what they're talking about.

I looked through the rest of the newspaper and saw nothing that I cared about, so I threw away the paper. I took the bit out of my saddlebags and looked at it for a second, before setting it back down on the counter. I thought about the job that I was about to do. I'll leave sometime around sunset and then hopefully they're gone by then, and hopefully they stay at the party for a while.

And there they go. Four ponies walked away from the farmhouse and towards town. I watched them from a safe distance in the apple orchard. The sun had already started to go down, and it was getting pretty dark. Well, time is of the essence. I don't want to risk them coming back early and seeing me destroying their house. That wouldn't go over too well.

I got up from behind the tree that i was sitting next to and made my way over to the barn/house/whatever. The farm was huge; no wonder whoever those two were had a competition with these ponies. Then again, it's pretty hard to compete with a farm this size, I'm surprised that they're even in business. I walked up to the front door and tried the handle to see if they had left it open. Nope, looks like I'll have to find another way in.

After checking all of the surrounding doors and windows, I knew I needed an alternative way in. I picked up a rock that was laying next to the front steps and, after a quick check of my surrounding, hurled it through the window. I carefully climbed through the window making sure not to cut myself on the glass that was left on the window. I looked around and saw that I was in the living room. I walked over to the entrance of the house and took out the note that "F & F" had given me. I also pulled out a hammer and nail and hung up the note on the wall so that it was painfully noticeable. Well it was a big house, and I had better get to work.

I walked into what appeared to be a young fillies room by the chest full of toys on the far wall. I wasted no time in getting down to work, throwing the lamp off of the table and shattering it into many pieces. I then turned to the chest to go and rip apart some of the toys.

"WHAT IN TARNATION?" I heard somepony shoutfrom downstairs.

Oh shit oh shit. They're home. I've gotta make a quick escape. I panicked as I heard hoofsteps coming up the stairs. I turned to the window, opened it, and climbed onto the roof. I creeped towards the edge and looked over. I saw a pile of hay a little ways away from the house. Inside I heard some more yelling, but I paid no attention. I took in a breath, and leaped for the pile of hay. I landed in the pile with a thump. Pain shot out through my back. I pulled myself up and started sprinting as fast as I could into the woods. Behind me, I heard a door slam and hoofs hitting wood.

I ran on without looking back knowing that somepony was chasing me. I pushed on and tried to block out the pain. Behind me I heard my pursuer screaming a torrent of colorful language at me, but I paid no attention. I heard the pony catching up to me, as I started to sweat and lose my breath.

Suddenly, I was tackled to the ground hard. My saddlebags fell off and the wind was completely knocked out of me. I rolled over and looked up to see an orange mare with a blonde mane pinning me down.

"JUS' WHAT DO YOU THINK YER DOIN' TO MY HOUSE?"

I was sweating profusely from fear and exertion. I saw out of the corner of my eye my saddlebags laying next to me.

"WHY IN CELESTIA'S NAME WERE YOU VANDALIZING MAH HOUSE? WHAT IS YER PROBLEM?"

I kept eye contact with her as I reached out a hoof to try and grab my saddlebag. I felt around and finally managed to get a firm grip on it.

"WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST OUR FAMILY? DO YO--" Her voice cut out as my saddlebag hit her across the face. She recoiled back and was leaning to the side. I took both my hooves and shoved her to the ground off of me. Then I stood up and hit her across the face again with my saddlebag. This time she screamed out in pain and brought a hoof up to her face. I slung my saddlebag across my back and leaned in close to her face.

"Don't come looking for me you bastard" I whispered into her ear. I turned around and sprinted away into the night. This time I did not hear anypony following me, so I slowed my pace a bit.

After a while I stopped and rubbed a hoof on my stomach, and looked at it to see that I was bleeding a bit. I decided it would be better to keep going and worry about it later.

Laying Low

After I got home, I didn't sleep to well. Any noise from outside made me jump, and I was awake until at least 2 in the morning. When I finally woke up, I laid in bed too tired to get up, but unable to sleep any more. After a while I managed to drag myself out of bed and get in the shower. Afterwords I grabbed the paper and skimmed through the front pages. I sighted with relief as there was no breaking news, but I knew that I wasn't clear yet. Not by a long shot.

I decided that going to work wouldn't be the best idea for at least today. My first thought was to see what Party was doing, but he doesn't leave his bed until at least noon. Even then he's not in a mood to do anything until 3, an hour before he goes to the club. So, I had around 5 hours to burn. Shit.

The clock on my wall went off, and I saw that it was finally 3. I put away the book that I was reading and the remnants of my lunch. I threw my saddlebags on and left to head towards Party's place. The cool autumn air blew my mane aside, causing me to shiver. I had thought about bringing a jacket, but I didn't really feel like it. The weather was in that awkward stage between when it's comfortable with a jacket and when it's comfortable without it. Whether or not you have a jacket, it just doesn't feel right. Yet another reason why I hate the fall.

I walked down my front steps and then around and into the woods behind my house. I felt that walking through the center of town wasn't the best plan. Plus, I liked the woods. Not many ponies walked through there, and those that did were too busy looking at the scenery to say anything.

5 minutes later I walked onto Party's street, and headed towards his house. His stuck out with all of the plastic cups strewn across the yard amongst other debris. I walked up the steps and knocked on the door, but only received a mumble as a response. I knocked again with more force.

"What do you want? It's too early to be bothered." I heard from behind the door. He swung the door open and looked at me with an exhausted look.

"Rise and shine. It's almost 3:10." I replied to him.

"Hey, what's up?" he managed to say while rubbing his eyes.

"Oh, I just decided to take a day off. Can I come in or not?"

"Sure" he replied, stepping away from the door. As usual the place was a mess, but it was none of my business. I sat down on a chair next to a window in his living room. He closed the door and laid down on the couch. "So what's up with you skipping out on work?"

"You know that I make plenty of money at the shop. Plus, owning the place means that the only things I really pay for are food and drinks."

"Yeah. I still don't get how you're able to make so much off of a store that sells random things that you almost never need."

"Simple supply and demand. Though there's a low demand, the supply is even lower. You can't find any of that stuff anywhere else, which means that I get to make my own prices."

"That still sounds corrupt."

"Are you kidding me? Finding all of the shit I have in the store is hard enough. The extra that they're paying me is for all the trouble I go through."

"Riiight." He said with a skeptical nod. "What'd you call it? The 'finder's fee'?"

"Yeah. And don't criticize what I'm doing."

"Apologies if it sounds like you're ripping off everypony that steps hoof in your store."

"Give me a break."

"Whatever. I'm grabbing some food. Want anything?" Party said as he got up and headed to the kitchen.

"No, I'm good."

Party walked back out of the kitchen with a sandwich and some hay fries on a plate. He ate what he had and then we left for the club, even though it was early.