Hitpony

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.