The Misadventures of a Grumpy Bat Pony

Sunny stepped out of the alleyway and onto the empty city street as the first alarm bells sounded off in the distance. No doubt the explosion and the rising pillar of smoke coming from over in the Talon Industries building’s direction finally attracted the attention of the city guards, all of which would be convening on that building’s location right now to assess the situation. She figured it best to make herself scarce like Starlight already had, so she picked up her pace down the dimly lit street with the bag of banknotes and her spear slung over her back.

This part of Canterlot stood out from what visitors to the city usually see. The buildings are duller in color, smaller, and built closer together so as to bring a sense of claustrophobia to its inhabitants. The plants didn’t grow as tall nor did their colors glow quite as bright as the plants in the rest of the city, and the streets themselves didn’t look as uniform or cleanly kept. Some buildings looked entirely abandoned while others were stuffed full with more ponies than what was probably deemed safe by city regulations.

Looking up at the windows of each of the building’s however, Sunny saw that ponies were still awake even as the hour neared midnight. Silhouettes jumped and danced behind their closed curtains to what might have been silence or the faint tune of an upbeat song that spurred the corners of the bat pony’s lips into a smile. Even at this hour on an odd night with which many ponies had work the next day, the city life droned on. Perhaps some day Canterlot will be able to call itself the second city that never sleeps.

Rounding a corner to turn down another street, a dirty, four story apartment complex came into view. Many of its windows were already dark, but a few still remained lit, and Sunny’s attention centered on one particular light on the top floor. She quickened her pace from a speedy walk to a brisk trot, a pang of eagerness touching her heart.

Sunny pushed through the bottom floor’s doors and zipped over to the stairwell, but not before looking over at the elevator and see the “out of order” sign still posted on it. She grumbled, then pushed open the door and made her way up the stairs. Past the second floor, then the third floor, until she finally reached the fourth floor and burst back out of the stairwell, taking note of the shoddy carpet laid out on the floor and the barren walls that otherwise would have done with a picture or two.

The apartment room that Sunny was looking for wasn’t much further down the hall. Room 413, built into what was almost in the center of the hallway and perhaps the cleanest looking doors out of all of the other residents that may be living on the same floor. She stopped, looking down at the floor mat positioned in front of the doorway that read “Marigold,” and she rolled her eyes before wiping her hooves off on top of it.

Giving the door a few knocks, the spitting image of Sunny opened the door in a matter of seconds as if she had been waiting for Sunny all night. Well, almost the spitting image. Another bat pony stood in the doorway with a grey coat, multi hued purple mane and tail, and red eyes that were exactly the same as Sunny’s, but her mane and tail were much longer and more finely groomed than Sunny’s could ever be.

The two bat ponies embraced, Sunny’s bag of banknotes sliding off of her back as they both sat on their flanks to give each other a full hug.

“You’ve really gotta stop being such a fucking show off,” Marigold said, giving Sunny a tight squeeze. “I heard the explosion from all of the way over here, and then the city bells. You attracted the attention of the entire city guard.”

“C’mon, why do you think it’s me, Goldie?” Sunny asked innocently. squeezing Marigold back. “Is it because I still haven’t given up mercenary work?”

Marigold broke away from their hug, narrowing her eyes. She caught sight of the gash on Sunny’s shoulder, slapping her hoof on it and shaking her head when Sunny let out a pained squeak. She then grabbed Sunny by the back of the neck, pulled her closer, and lifted a hoof to hover it near Sunny’s spear. When her eyes finally laid on the bag behind Sunny, she gently slapped the other bat pony across the face.

“Don’t lie to your sister,” Marigold said sternly. “You’ve got a fresh gash on your shoulder, Wilbur’s still warm from you heating up his head with electricity, and there’s a bag of bits or banknotes or some shit sitting behind you.”

Sunny’s ears flopped back and she smiled innocently. “Okay, so what if it was me? I’ve got some stuff to pay off and these guys didn’t need the money.”

“And it looks like you ran into more than just a little trouble along the way,” Marigold sighed. “Are you hungry? I know you don’t usually eat before you work one of your jobs.”

“You got any of those fresh mangoes from down south?” Sunny asked sweetly.

Marigold grabbed Sunny by the hoof, who grabbed onto the bag of banknotes, and dragged her into her apartment. The front room was quite spacious with a couch, a coffee table, and a television set up within it. The ceiling lay decorated in red and orange string lights that otherwise gave the room a dim, moody feel to it, and a garden of exotic plants set up in a bunch of pots of varying sizes was set up in the corner. Across the front lay the kitchen, which lay open with only a bar table separating it from the rest of the apartment. To the right before reaching the kitchen was a hallway that led back towards both the bathroom and the bedroom.

Pulling Sunny all of the way into the kitchen, Marigold dumped her in front of the stove and shoved an apron onto her. She then dumped a fruit bowl, cutting board, and knife in front of Sunny, who stared at bowl of fruit that sat in front of her. Peaches, bananas, pears, plums, and apricots all lay stuffed within the bowl, but Sunny failed to see the most important fruit of all.

“So, no mangoes then?” Sunny asked, looking back at her sister.

Marigold pulled out a frying pan from one of the cabinets underneath the counter next to the stove and plopped it down on one of the burners. “You know how expensive those things are? If you want them, then you buy them every week.”

“You like them, too,” Sunny said, grabbing several pieces of fruit and starting to chop them up. Taking the knife in her mouth, she held down each piece of fruit with her hooves and and cut them up into small pieces with which she started to make a large pile with. “You’re just going to be depriving yourself of one of the many wonders of life. Those pyramids down in Zebrica? You know, the one that all of those fucking conspiracy theorists claim were built by aliens? Yeah, mangoes are better than those.”

Marigold snickered as she sat down next to her sister. “So what? At least I know when to quit indulging and playing into my vices once in a while.”

“You gonna tell me that I’m fluttering my eyelashes at too many stallions again?”

Sunny sprayed down the frying pan with a thin coat of spritzable butter before turning to her sister and raising a challenging eyebrow. Marigold shook her head and turned the correct burner on before laying her hoof on her sister’s shoulder.

“Well, it would be kind of hypocritical of me to tell you that you should slow down with your work,” Marigold said.

“Yeah, it would be,” Sunny interrupted, grinning.

“Especially being that me, you, and Starlight used to be a team together only a year ago,” Marigold continued, shoving her sister gently for interrupting her. “But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still try to be careful. We’ve both seen our share of adventures, good and bad. You remember Rocket, right? You remember how that shit turned out, right?”

“You have to admit it was fun at first.”

“Yeah, up until we became his prostitute slaves earning bags of coke instead of bits as payment,” Marigold said sternly. “He was going to sell the two of us off to some fat griffon in the Griffon Kingdoms before Zumas stepped in and saved our asses, if you don’t remember. You’re not looking to repeat that again, are you, Sunny?”

“I didn’t come to your place for a lecture,” Sunny replied grumpily. “Look, you know as well as I do that bits and intimidation don’t always work on someone who’s got information you want. You meet a drunk stallion at a bar, though? Who’s going to say no to pretty, little me besides those uptight gangsters who enjoy watching money slip through their hooves more than a mare dancing in their lap, hm?”

“And what happens when you meet the wrong stallion? I’ve already had to bail you out of this BS a few times, not counting the job you had as a maid for two years.”

“Oh yeah? When?” Sunny asked, dumping the pile of fruit into the frying pan and then turning around to face her sister. “Name one time when I needed your help to get away from a guy who decided to turn a one night stand into a kidnapping!”

“Okay, just four months ago when you were trying to get some information from one of Zumas’ goons on one of his top pony trafficking officers, the guy ended up locking you in a gloryhole and fed you his jizz for two days. I had to get Starlight to help me bust you out of there before he decided to sell you off to the same guy you were trying to get information on. Star and I found the documents on the deal and everything. He even renamed you to Batty Spunk!”

Sunny waved her hoof dismissively and turned around to stir around the fruit in the frying pan. “Pffft, I had a plan to bust myself out, thank you very much. All I needed to do is bite his dick the next time he stuck it in there, let him open the door, then with a bit of my ingenuity and knack for getting out of precarious situations, kick his ass and get out of there.”

“Knack for getting out of precarious situations?” Marigold asked, skeptical. “You mean luck? Sunny, you’re a very lucky bat, but some day or another all of that luck is going to run out and then where will you be? Stuck.”

“Can’t you have some faith in your sister?” Sunny asked, scrunching her nose up as she looked over the fried fruit. Seeing as they appeared to be cooked well enough, she grabbed a plate out from the cabinet above the stove and poured them out of the frying pan. “You used to when we were working together. Now that you’ve got this job crunching numbers for an insurance firm, sounds like you’re trying to get me to join you.”

“I lost faith when the jobs you went after became more personal,” Marigold said defensively. “I know pony trafficking is the bane of your existence, Sunny, especially after you let the aftermath of the situation with Rocket get to you. Zumas, the most powerful pony trafficker in Canterlot freed two sisters from another pony trafficker because he thought it was unethical. As ironic as it is, you’re trying to pick a fight with a bear while you’re a rabbit. How do you think that’s going to work?”

“What do you want me to do, join you sitting behind a desk?” Sunny asked, tearing off the apron, picking up the plate, and then carrying it over to the kitchen table. Her sister followed and together they sat down with the plate in between them. “Can you see me sitting behind a fucking desk, Goldie? Pushing paper, crunching numbers, taking orders to do stupid, rudimentary jobs day after day for a regular pay that pops into my mailbox every other Friday? Where’s the fun? Where’s the spontaneity? You know for yourself that that’s not me.”

Marigold sighed as both she and Sunny picked at and ate the fruit that sat in front of them. “I’m not asking you to quit your mercenary work altogether, Sunny, just, you know, let up on Zumas. I don’t agree with him either, but I know my limits and he’s far beyond them. He’s the wrong kind of pony to be fucking with, and I don’t want you to get hurt because you’ve got some kind of score or grudge to settle with him, okay?”

“How can I give up trying to disrupt ponies like him? I’m not fucking reputable or someone that a mom would want their kids hanging around, but at least I don’t go selling off ponies for a profit. Ponies every day are taken from their homes and thrust into being slaves and prostitutes against their will, then are sold on the Black Market as if they’re nothing more than some piece food or a couch. Worse yet, Golden Talon gets a hold of them and transports them to another fucking place in the world.”

“Golden Talon?” Marigold asked quietly, then turned to look out the window that faced the general direction of the Talon Industries building. The silhouette of the dark plume of smoke against the dark sky was still visible despite the city guard probably having gotten to the scene. “You went after Golden Talon tonight, didn’t you, Sunny?”

Sunny’s ears flopped back against her head as she saw the dark shadow cast over her sister’s face. Nervously, she said, “Who else would have money that they didn’t need?”

“Not only are you fucking with Zumas,” Marigold growled, “you’ve gone and both stolen money from who is perhaps one of the most powerful griffons in Equestria and blown up part of his Canterlot office? What in Luna’s fucking graces were you thinking?”

“Goldie, someone has to do something about Talon,” Sunny protested. “You know as well as I do where a significant portion of Talon Industries’ profits go towards. There aren’t any records of that company donating a single bit to charity, yet despite the business that they receive both from international corporations and from Equestria itself, the profits they make break even with the cost of building the tech that they design. Where is that money going? There’s only so much that Talon stuffs into his fat, greedy pockets.”

Marigold shook her head. “So what if the money is going towards the griffon terrorists up north? I know that’s not why you fucked with him tonight. It’s the pony trafficking. But even so, Sunny, leave this business up to the princesses. They have the means, the resources, and the power to investigate Talon Industries. You’re just one pony.”

“I’m the only pony fucking doing something!” Sunny said, slapping her hoof onto the table. “The princesses aren’t doing shit, Goldie. In the eight months since the griffon terrorists have popped up, all of the blatant gossip about Golden Talon’s involvement has totally swept underneath the princesses’ noses. They haven’t issued statements, they haven’t launched investigations, they haven’t even met with the guy. This is fucking inaction if I’ve ever seen it.”

“Then let someone else do it! Do you have any idea what kind of mess you’re slowly entangling yourself in? This isn’t a routine infiltration mission or a gang fight that we’ve seen and been so much a part of two years ago, Sunny. These aren’t small time thugs that you can stomp on a few times and they’ll leave you alone. These are cartels, organizations. These are guys who have power and know what to do with it.”

Sunny stepped away from the table and paced back and forth across the kitchen floor. “All the more reason for someone to get involved, and if no one else is going to step up then it’s got to be me. I know that fucking face you’re giving me. “But Sunny, you’re a coward who avoids getting her hooves dirty when she can.” You’ve said it before, but there are exceptions that we gotta make. We all can’t just sit idly by and let that fucking griffon push innocent ponies around!”

Marigold got up from her seat and plopped herself down in front of Sunny, grabbing her sister’s cheeks by her forehooves and forcing her to look into her eyes. “Will you fucking listen to me, you dumb bitch? I’m not asking you to give up because I disagree with you, I’m asking you because you’re my sister. You’re my family, my bloodline, my twin, my other half. You think I’m going to fucking sit here and let you throw yourself into danger like some martyr? No! What would mom and dad say about the two of us if I did?”

Sunny’s ears flopped back against the sides of her head as she finally understood her sister’s protests. She searched Marigold’s eyes, not finding the anger or the frustration that she heard in her voice but finding the worry and fear that anyone might feel if they thought their loved might make a rash and stupid decision. She felt her whole body relax and her eyes drop, unable to look at her twin.

Before Sunny had a chance to open her mouth to respond, a heavy thudding sound echoed through the apartment. Both sisters looked up and over at the door, their ears perking as someone knocked on the door again, their hand or hoof heavy against the thick wood on the other side. Sunny looked over at the clock hanging on the far side of the kitchen and scrunched her nose up.

“Who the hell is knocking on pony’s doors at this hour?” she asked. “It’s almost half past midnight.”

“Could be the city guard tracked one of the culprits of the explosion to this apartment complex,” Marigold said dryly. She looked at her sister and ruffled her mane. “I’ll go answer in case it is. You just stay back here and keep Wilbur close.”

Sunny picked up her spear, watching as tiny sparks of electricity pulsed through it from her touch. She doubted that any of the city guard would be individually knocking on the doors of apartment owners, especially at this hour of the night when the dancing ponies from earlier were probably turning off their lights. The investigation would take place in the morning, which means that whoever was knocking on Marigold’s door must have been someone who either sought Sunny or Marigold out specifically.

Thinking back to Starlight, Sunny shook her head. He was almost definitely still mad at her over the mission that they completed tonight. From how he reacted to her admittance about needing the banknotes to pay off a debt, she figured he deserved a full explanation. She dragged him into a desperate situation with relatively desperate consequences for only a mere ten thousand bits, but they were successful and once she delivered the money she could tell him, right?

As Sunny’s gaze drifted towards the bag of banknotes, her eyes widened. Her sister already had her hoof on the door as Sunny shouted, “Wait, Goldie, don’t open the door!”

Sunny’s warning was door late, and as her sister opened the door they both let out a terrified squeak. Standing within the doorway stood a massive, armored minotaur, his shoulders too wide to fit through the door and the top of his head spanning high above the top of the door frame. His armor was scratched and dented in several places, showing wear and tear from years of use, and it covered the entirety of his body aside from his hooves. Not even the minotaur’s face was visible as it was hidden behind a thick frogmouth helmet with a crest full of blue horse hair.

Without so much as a warning, the minotaur slammed his metal hand into Marigold’s face, sending the bat pony flying backwards to crash on top of the banknotes within the center of the front room. Sunny shrieked, picking up her spear and charging the minotaur, but with a swift side step and then a kick to the side, the minotaur sent her sprawling into a corner with a groan. The minotaur ducked through the doorway and stepped into the apartment, advancing on Marigold.

Sunny unsteadily got to her hooves, staring the minotaur down as he reached out for her sister. “You fucking leave her alone, Mongol! I have Zumas’ money right there!”

Mongol paused, his head twisting slightly to stare back at Sunny out of the corner of his visor. When he spoke, his voice was deep, gravely, and metallic, muffled only slightly by his helmet. “I’ve come to collect Zumas’ end of the deal, little bat pony. You have failed your part of the bargain and now you must suffer the consequences.”

“I have the money right there!”Sunny shouted, pointing at the bag of banknotes underneath Marigold. “I have the rest of the money that I promised Zumas, and I got it before the fucking date we agreed on!”

Sunny’s sister groaned, rolling off the bag and onto her belly, but her brief movement caught Mongol’s attention. With a large hand, he grabbed onto her mane and slammed her face into the floor with a sickening thud. Sunny saw her sister go limp and her heart stopped, but only for a moment before she saw her sister’s back rise and fall from her shallow breaths.

“The date that you two agreed on was tonight at midnight, little bat pony,” Mongol said, getting back onto his hooves. “You may have the money with you, but you did not keep your end of the bargain. Therefore you and your sister will suffer as per Zumas’ request. I will take your sister and I will give her to Zumas, and you will be left with nothing but to wither and moan over your failure.”

“Fuck you, you’re not taking her!” Sunny shouted, charging Mongol. Again, the minotaur side stepped out of Sunny’s way, but this time she was counting on it. With Mongol still lifting his hoof to kick her in the side again, Sunny lept into the air and twisted her body around, flinging her spear around into a loop to drive its head into a little pocket of leather between two plates of metal armor. Mongol growled as electricity convulsed through his body, and whirling around he pulled both Sunny and her spear out of her side to chuck her against the fall wall.

Sunny hit the wall with a slam, then dropped onto her belly. She groaned, feeling both her back and her side screaming in pain from only two of Mongol’s hits. She knew he hit hard because of his size, but she thought her bones were on the verge of breaking without Mongol using even a fraction of his strength. He merely pushed her off of him like she was some kind of insect.

Straining to clamber back onto her hooves, she stared the minotaur down. Mongol still stood over her unconscious sister, cracking his knuckles together as if in anticipation for Sunny’s next move. A little trickle of blood dripped down his hip and over his metal from the wound that Sunny had inflicted on him, but overall the wound seemed to do nothing but add a little color to his armor.

With another scream, Sunny charged Mongol again, but this time the minotaur didn’t wait for her to get close. Twisting around her spear, Mongol reached out with one of his hands and gripped onto Sunny’s hoof, then spun around and slammed her into the television with a crunch. The little bat pony collapsed to the ground, several shards of glass buried into her back while the television itself was left a sizzling, broken mess.

Mongol grabbed Sunny by the scruff of her neck and slapped her hoof, causing her to drop her spear and let it clatter to the floor. She had no choice but to stare into his visor, but even then she could not make out the minotaur’s eyes.

“Do not test your luck once again, little bat pony,” Mongol growled, using his other hand to wiggle around one of the pieces of glass stuck in Sunny’s back. She screamed and whimpered quite loudly before Mongol finally pulled the glass out and tossed it to the floor. “I have been instructed to come here and take your sister away from you, not your life. Zumas doesn’t wish for me to have to kill anyone despite the joy I’d have in squeezing every inch of your pathetic, whimpering life force out of you.”

Mongol grabbed another piece of glass stuck in Sunny’s back, and after twisting it around for a moment and watching her squirm and struggle, he pulled it out and tossed it to the floor as well. With the bat pony still panting in his grip, he threw her across the room and into the barstools that were set up next to the counter that separated the kitchen from the front room.

When Sunny smashed into the barstool, shattering one of them from the impact, she squeaked and tumbled to the floor in a heap. Unsteadily she lifted her head and watched as Mongol picked both the bag of banknotes and her sister up and slung them over his shoulder. She put one forehoof in front of the other, growling, and scraping them across the ground as she made an attempt to crawl towards him in a last ditch effort to pick up her spear again.

Mongol watched her crawl towards him until she was almost at her spear, then walked over and kicked her across the head. “Your luck’s run out, little bat pony. Your sister now belongs to Zumas, and soon she will belong to someone else. I’m sure she’ll fetch a nice price.”

Sunny rolled across the floor and slammed into the couch, her vision blurring as Mongol strode towards the door. She still saw her sister knocked unconscious on the minotaur’s back, streaks of blood running down her muzzle from having her face smashed against the floor. Her mane was in tangles, but at least in her unconsciousness allowed her to look peaceful.

“Please, don’t take my sister,” Sunny whimpered, but Mongol already stepped out of the apartment and slammed the door behind him. She wheezed, trying to move one of her hooves, but it was entirely unresponsive. Marigold was gone and Sunny was left as a broken mess.

Defeated, Sunny only managed to let out a single whimpered before she blacked out.