Harmony Co.

Fluttershy sat on the office by the docks drinking pitch black coffee while going over the company’s incomes and spending´s, in a very similar way to her old job. The sounds of papers folding and typing from the calculator made her somewhat nostalgic for her past before she remembered that she wasn´t so much an economist as an obedient little dog. Following her master while he insulted everything about her that wasn´t up to his perfect standards. She remembered running around her old office like a hen without its head, constantly looking over her shoulder to make sure her boss wasn´t around to scream at her if she did the slightest mistake. Her feet felt sore in her high heels and her thighs where thumping with pain. In her arms she tried to balance four heavy binders, while her sweaty hand started slipping the binders back and forth forcing her to lean backwards and put the weight on her back. With the binders blocking her sight she couldn´t see where she was going and ended up colliding straight into something. The binders fell onto the floor and she could see what it was she had crashed into. It was her boss, a fat grey stallion with multiple chins folding under his jaw. Looking at his shirt she could see that the collision had spilled out his coffee all over his white shirt. Fluttershy knew exactly what would come next.

She shook the memory out of her head, took a deep breath and tried to focus on her work. Going through the economics of an organized major company was one thing but checking the receipts with hardly any ink left on them and the numbers Applejack gave her was quite another. The incomes and outcomes often didn´t match up and for some reason she still counted with tax reductions.

She growled in frustration at it all. I need a break. She told herself and got out to take a smoke. The harbor was largely empty with only a small boat going across the horizon and Harmony coming right towards the dock where she was standing. When the torpedo boat came closer she could see Rainbow Dash standing on the front with a thick rope in her hands. The cyan mare threw the rope towards Fluttershy. She put out the cigarettes and tied it the dock. Applejack walked out with her hair hanging lose and black bags visible beneath her eyes. She expected Osborn to follow but instead a white stallion wearing rugged clothes jumped of the boat. His hands where cuffed and his thin face had a pink line going from the forehead down to his jaw, the upper lip was split in line with the scar showing a black pit where teeth had once been.

Osborn came up behind him and pushed him. “Move.” His voice was bitter and cold has he led the white stallion to the office. Fluttershy knew they had been out to fetch a prisoner and she didn´t know why but she did know for who. The Diamond Vultures, probably the richest gang in town and the most exclusive. Their currently leader Rarity or the widow as she was known in the streets had come to power by marrying the youngest son of the former boss. The other sons all died just a few weeks after their weeding and her own husband didn´t last longer than a week before he was found dead. Word on the street is that she strangled him in bed on the first time he tried to touch her.

After the white stallion and Osborn where out of sight, Fluttershy started questioning the reason for Rarity wanting him. The Diamond Vultures mostly dealt in money laundering, ponysmuggling is not something she had ever heard them dealing in and why only this one?

Bang! Screech!

Fluttershy let out an involuntarily yelp at the gunshot and Rainbow Dash started laughing in her usual cocky way.

“Pffft, ha, ha! Your still afraid of gunshots Fluttershy?” she giggled.

“Yes.” She responded with a small voice. Shootings happened so often in this town that Fluttershy felt embarrassed for admitting it.

“Bloody fucking hell!” a growling voice roared. Flyttershy immediately recognized it has Osborn. He ran towards them, his hand pressed at a bloody wound in his left shoulder.

“What the fuck happened?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“The fucking wanka broke out of his cuffs somehow, shoot me with my own gun and drove away in the car!” Osborn pushed is hand into his armpit and started feeling around. “He won’t get far in your car though.”

“Which way did he go?” Applejack asked.

“He went up, north” Osborn started digging his fingers into the wound and pulled out a small cylindrical piece of metal, the blank metal shaded in crimson red. “Towards the center of the town.”

“Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy head after him while I patch up Oz.”

Both of them started running up the street and thankfully they found the car just a few blocks up. The bright orange Volvo stood parked in the middle of the road with the driver’s door left open. Anypony who didn´t know how to drive that old car would always get an engine stop.

Rainbow Dash got up the car first and looked inside. Her eyes darted around.

“Fuck,” She turned to Flyttershy and slammed the door. “He´s not here.”

“What do we do know?”

“Start asking around, an ugly son of a bitch like him ought to stand out.”

Flyttershy had always had problems talking to strangers and trying to ask random ponies on the street if they had seen a white stallion with a massive scar on his face didn´t make it easier.

“uhm… excuse me?” She tried to catch the attention of a group of prostitutes. Applejack once told her that prostitutes pick up most of the gossip in towns.

“You wanna have a good time?” One of them walked up to Flyttershy and looked at her with soft blue eyes. She was a slender blue mare dressed in pink skirt and green tank top that looked two sizes too small. She traced her hand along the side Flyttershy´s face, her nails gently scratching. Flyttershy felt herself blushing and the blue mare giggled at the sight of her red chicks.

She forced the mare´s hand away. “If was wondering if you had seen a white stallion with black hair and a scar down the right side of his face?” Flyttershy tried to force to blush away, unsuccessfully.

The mare gave her slightly disappointed look before she answered. “No, I haven´t.”

Fluttershy questioned the other prostitutes but they all gave similar answers and dismissive looks. She tried to talk to a few other ponies on the street but half of them didn´t seem to notice her and the other half she didn´t dare talking to when she saw the guns they had holstered.

“Hey, Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash called behind her.

She turned to face the cyan mare. Before she had time to answer the cyan mare she asked. “Found anything?”
Fluttershy felt embarrassed to tell her that she hadn’t asked anypony besides the prostitutes but she told her anyway, figuring that it was best to be strait up honest with her.

“Shit,” Rainbow Dash looked concerned. “If the whore’s didn´t see anything odds are that nopony did. Come on let´s head back to the docks, maybe Applejack has heard something.”

They drove back in the car and headed straight back. On the short road back Fluttershy started going over things in her head and two things stuck in her head. How he managed to get out of the cuffs and how he managed to disappear without anypony seeing him, or at least nopony noticing him. Did he pay of Osborn to let him lose? But why did Osborn get shoot then?

She didn´t get much time to think about it, has they got back after only a few moments.

Inside they were meet by Applejack stitching up Osborn’s wound. Applejack turned to face them and when she saw that they were alone Fluttershy could see her face palling, though she did a pretty good job hiding it.

“So the prisoner got away?” Osborn Asked.

“Yeah, good news is we got the car back. What little good that does.” Rainbow Dash responded.

“Car or no car I´m gonna have to call Rarity and tell her about this.” Applejack cut the thread she had used to saw and walked over to the phone. “Let´s see how pissed she gets.”

Applejack talked on the phone for a few minutes.

“Yes, I understand.” Applejack put the phone down and faced her crew. She took a deep sigh and rubbed sand out of her eyes. “Here´s the situation, gang. Rarity is not only refusing to pay us unless we bring this guy back but she is also putting a bounty on his head, meaning if somepony beats us to it we won´t get paid at all.”

“Ah, fuck.” Rainbow Dash growled.

“Bloody brilliant, now we have competition on top of losing the guy.” Osborn put on his shirt to cover the wound.

“Well we’re not gonna go anywhere by standing here bitching.” Applejack said. “How are you holding up Oz?”

“I can live with the pain, but if I move around too much I might hurt myself even more.” He tested his shoulder by moving it around, looking surprisingly unbothered by the wound.

“Go tracking then.” She looked at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. “Well split up. You two take the car and look around while I dig around my contacts and see if I can´t find anything, alright?”

“Sounds good to me come on, Flutters.” Rainbow Dash responded.

Fluttershy followed without even bothering to answer. She spent most of the car ride looking out the street and not saying anything. Why is Rarity so eager to get this one stallion? The question kept popping up in her head.

“Why do you think that Rarity cares so much about this guy?” She asked Rainbow Dash.

“How the fuck should I know? She probably wants him to carry tea trays or polish her china.”

“Would you go to so much effort to get a guy if you were gonna have him polish your china?”

“I don´t have any china, and hell she´s always been a drama queen.” She looked thoughtfully while turning the car. “But you do a pretty good make a point, it is pretty strange that she goes to so much effort for this one guy.”

“Do you think we should ask her ourselves?” Fluttershy asked not entirely sure that would be a good idea.

“And what would it do to make her tell us, if she didn´t tell us from the start who this guy is and why she wants him, what’s gonna make her tell us now?”

“A lie,” Flyttershy answered. “We say that we know where he is and can go get him but we want to know who he is and why she wants him considering all the trouble he has caused us. And maybe we can press her for extra money.”

“Yes, I like that idea.” Rainbow Dash said with a dangerous smile. “Let´s do it.”

Rarity lived in a white house surrounded by a spiked fence. A golden vulture holding a crystal the size of an apple adorned the front gate. It´s eyes blood red rubies polished to the point where the sun blinded Fluttershy when she looked at them.
Rainbow Dash parked next to the gate and the red stallion standing on watch walked up next to the car as she got out.

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

“We´ve got some important news for Rarity about the ugly son of bitch she wanted but we want something from her in return.”

“What do you want?” His voice had a hint of annoyance.

“A bit of information and a lot more cash than she promised.” Rainbow Dash responded with boosting confidence.

“Hang on a minute.” He pulled out a radio and talked with somepony on the other end. “Alright I´ll let you two trough.”

“Come on Flutters.”

Fluttershy followed Rainbow Dash into the house. The inside looked like a jewelry store, monitors with necklace’s and earrings made of what she assumed was solid gold, watches made of shining silver and snow white wallpapers with exquisite patterns drawn to form wild growing branches covering every wall.

“So who are you and what is that you have to tell me?” A voice said with a cold and irritated tone.

Fluttershy turned to face the voice and saw a white mare with purple hair dressed in a purple dress entering the room. Her hair waived of her head forming into curls on her shoulders, on her feet she whore high heels with little diamonds sparkling, forming a heart on her toes. Fluttershy assumed that she was Rarity.

“We work for AJ and have found your prisoner but we won´t take him unless you pay extra and tell us why you want him so badly.” Rainbow Dash answered.

“Is that so?” Rarity answered with a smug tone.

“Yeah, AJ is sitting right outside his holdout.” Rainbow Dash boosted. “But considering he almost ran our car into the ground and shoot Oz, me and Flutters think we deserve to know what it is you want with him.“

“Ah, yes I heard that Osborn got shoot. Shame that Cupid didn´t kill him.” Her voice gave of a bitter ting.

“Cupid, that´s his name?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yes and I guess you want to know more about him, very well. He was one of my allies before I married my late husband. A good stallion, he grew up on in this town and thus knows every inch of it. I assume that´s how he escaped you.”

“So why do you want him taken prisoner?” Fluttershy asked.

Rarity looked at Fluttershy with her ocean blue eyes. Fluttershy felt tenser than usual with Rarity looking at her with eyes that looked inviting and off-putting at the same time. She tried her best not let her anxiety show, she bit her lip and tried to keep her eyes locked on hers.

“He raped me.” Her voice was drenched in anger and Fluttershy felt the metallic taste blood in her mouth. “Multiple times and my useless husband didn´t even notice it.”

“So now we are hunting a rapist in town full of thieves, murders and what else?” Rainbow Dash budge in. ”Oh yeah rapists.”
Rarity turned to Rainbow Dash, her blue eyes almost changing to red in anger. “What are you trying to say, Rainbow Dash?”
“That we live in a city notorious for being one of the worst crime centers in the world and a rapist isn´t gonna shock me, especially not one so ugly and with poor taste to boot. What I want to know is how dangerous is he.”

“Very dangerous particularly if he sees you coming, he might have already noticed Applejack so you better get there before he figures out that you are coming.” Rarity turned her back on them and waved her hand before she left the room.

“Let´s go Flutters.” Rainbow Dash said and they both went out to the car.

“Know anypony who might know where he might be now that we know his name?” Fluttershy asked just before they got into the car.

“Yeah, the mayor. She knows practically knows this town’s history like I know my guns.” Both got in and Rainbow Dash started driving.

“What was that thing Rarity said about it being a shame that Cupid didn´t kill Oz?”

“He and Rarity used to be an item before they had a bit of fallout and I ended up saving his sorry ass. We´ve gotta move fast now flutters if Rarity calls on our bluff we will probably have bigger problems than not getting paid.” She pushed down the gas pedal and car growled so hard Fluttershy felt the car vibrating her seat.

Rainbow Dash made some turns so sharp Fluttershy could see signs passing close, they might take the mirrors of. When they came out on a straight street she drove so fast she thought she was trying to kill anything walking on the street. At one point when they came upon a car crash she drove right up on the side walk without hesitation, making everypony on it jump away in panic.

Fluttreshy herself felt scared but she didn´t say anything because she remembered the short fuse Rainbow Dash had and then there where her guns to boot.

The mayor’s office was a relatively small building compared to the houses that the gangs of the town held. It was probably the oldest to, with the rust brown iron bars inside the concrete surfacing roots next to a tree. Fluttershy started doubting this was an office at all when she got inside and saw multiple ponys either drunk or high on something lying in a hallway leading up to a door with the word “Mayor” written on it and sing underneath saying “In”.

Rainbow Dash walked briskly up the hallway paying little mind to anypony lying there and even steeping on one at one point. At first the blue stallion she had stepped on with her heavy boot didn´t seem to bother him has he stared dead into the wall in front of him, but then he slowly moved his head too look on his hand. On the back of his hand the boot had left a red print of its pattern. He looked at her with a strange affection and looked over at Fluttershy as she went by. He had tired golden brown eyes with bags underneath them so dark that they were almost purple. He took his eyes back to his hand before he started starring at the wall again.

“You in there mayor?” Rainbow Dash bashed the door.

“Oh, yes come in Rainbow Dash.” The voice of an old mare responded. It had the gentle and kind tone that surprised Fluttershy. Almost everypony she had meet in this town were hardboiled or acting tough which reflected in their tone of voice.

Rainbow Dash opened the door with some force and walked in. Flyttershy lingered for moment before she decided to follow.
The mayor was an old grey mare with visible wrinkles drawn across her face and a small sack of skin hanging from her neck.
“What´s on your mind Rainbow Dash?” The mayor asked.

“We need to know about a stallion called Cupid, he´s a white stallion with black hair and a scar running across his face and one of his teeth are missing.”

“Cupid you said?” The mayor answered thoughtfully. “Yes, I know of him he used to be Rarity´s partner. Supposedly a street orphan of this town but not even I am certain of that.”

“Know where he used to live or any other place we might find him?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yes, down at Hammerstreet he used to own an apartment at the third floor, but now it´s been shoot up so many times that only hobos and junkies live there now.”

“Good, let´s go Flutters.” Rainbow Dash turned to walk away.

The mayor slammed her cane into the floor, causing Fluttershy to jump. “Are you going to leave without making a donation?” Her gentle and kind tone was replaced by a far harsher and mean voice.

“How the fuck could I forget.” Rainbow Dash reached down into her pocket and pulled a hundred bit bill out of her wallet. She placed it on the shelf next to the door.

“Thank you.” She tried to hide her anger with the gentle tone from before.

Outside the blue stallion was gone but all of the other ponies where exactly where they were before. Must have gone too fix his hand or get some new drugs. Fluttershy thought to herself.

Back in the car she started going over things once again has Rainbow Dash drove at her usual breakneck pace.

Could it be that Osborn set Cupid free, took a bullet to make it convincing in order to sabotage something for Rarity? Rainbow Dash said that they used to be an item and she had to save him. Was this the stupid things he mentioned at Lighter´s bay? She didn´t dare tell this too Rainbow Dash, she was afraid that she wouldn´t believe her over Osborn. Probably best to wait until we have him and then I might spill his guts about the whole thing.

The apartment building at Hammerstreet truly was what the mayor had told them and more. Walls where either missing or had massive holes in them, shattered glass was spread across the ground like sparkling snowflakes. When Rainbow Dash walked over the glass with her boots the glass made crushing sounds that send uneasy shakes across Fluttershy´s body.

“Wait here.” Rainbow Dash pulled out one of her guns. “I´ll take this fucker down.”

Fluttershy didn´t protest, she would probably be more of a problem for Rainbow Dash now than anything else. Fluttershy felt somewhat relaxed as Rainbow Dash entered the building. As she waited she lit a cigarette and leaned back in her seat watching the smoke dance about before slowly dispersing.

Click.

A cold metallic object pressed against the side of her head and her heart skipped a beat.

“Drive.” A tired and desperate voice said.

She looked to her side and saw a white stallion with black hair and a scar running down his face standing next to her on the street, it was Cupid holding Osborn’s revolver. Somehow he knew they were coming. The blue stallion? Did he tip him of?

“Get in the driver seat, now.” He growled and pushed the revolver to her head.
Fluttershy climbed to the other seat and Cupid jumped into the passenger seat. He probably thought that Fluttershy knew how to drive the car since he didn´t come more than a few blocks before it stopped, but fluttershy was the only one in the harmony company who didn´t know how to drive this car.

She tried desperately to recall how Rainbow Dash drove. At first the car drove like any other car but she soon started to notice sounds of the engine coughing and was afraid that it would stoop.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Cupid roared into her face. “You don´t know how to drive this fucking car?”

She tried to muster an answer but the words got stuck in her throat like a nervous lump, her hands started shaking and car started jumping.

Fuck! Not know. She jerked the key and hopped against hope that the car would start up again. It gave of a few horse growls before the engine started again. Flyttershy drew a small sigh of relief before she realized that the car might stop again at any time.

“What are you going to do?” The question jumped out of her in one quick breath.

He took a few moments before answering. “I am going to get my revenge on Rarity.”

Revenge for what? She wanted to say. You raped her didn´t you? She remembered what Rainbow Dash told her. “Ponies in Rajkrud who don´t have any money are constantly trying to rip each other of.” And what will those with money do to keep their money?

“Pull over.” He said as Fluttershy drove past a corner. She parked outside a small apartment building. “Move it. If that damned rainbow mare shows up I will need a hostage.”

Cupid and Fluttershy walked into an abandoned apartment and Cupid pushed her to sit right next to the wall. He looked out the window while pointing the gun at her. Even with his white skin he looked pale and droops of nervous sweet gathered on his forehead.
Fluttershy considered her options, fighting him was out of the question and trying to run away would probably get her killed even faster, she could hope that Rainbow Dash would find her but there was no telling what she would do if she did.

Think, Fluttershy what could you use against him?

“Why did your friends take me back here?”

The question surprised Fluttershy and it took her a few moments before she answered him. “We were tasked by Rarity to do it. It was just a job.”

“Well it wasn´t to her.” He glanced out the window with the revolver kept close to his face.

Fluttershy sat with her back against the wall, wishing she had a cigarette. “What is it you want revenge for?” She asked.

“What did she tell you?” he turned to her and looked at her with narrow eyes.

“She told me you raped her.” Multiple times. She added.

“Is that what she told you? Did she tell you the part where she tried to have me killed after I got rid of her husband’s older brothers?”

“What, why?”

“Because I remind her of a fact she hates.”

For a brief moment Fluttershy didn´t know whether he was telling the truth or making a very believable lie. “What is that fact?”

“I am her brother and we are both the offspring of a whore.”

“So she wants you dead because of your looks?”

“Not just this.” He traced his fingers on the pink scar, from his forehead down to his chin. “Our mother died of some illness when Rarity was 15 years old, and already she knew how to make money of herself. But a life living on the street and dying like our mother wasn´t enough for her so she got her eyes set on one of the richest gangs in she knew and decided to become part of it. Or rather she wanted become the head of it. Now that she´s become the head of the Diamond vultures she wants to erase the last traces of her street life.”

“And now you want revenge on her?”

“Damned right, I´m gonna tear the Diamond Vultures to the ground and kill her with my own hands. Something she would never have the balls for.”

Good luck doing that with only one gun. Fluttershy wanted to say.

“Shit.” Cupid grabbed Fluttershy by the arm and ran out the building with her. She never managed to see what it was that scared Cupid but she reckoned that Rainbow Dash must have fetched Applejack. If I could only get the gun away from him for a moment this would be over in a heartbeat.

He dragged her down an alley to an old garage door with a padlock keeping it down. Upon seeing it Cupid shoot the padlock of with the revolver and tried to pull it up. At first he couldn´t do it with one hand, so in order to get it open he put the revolver at his side and started tugging with both hands. The gun was lying in front of Fluttershy. She made one quick jump for it and pulled back the hammer back.

“Wait!” Cupid said when he turned to her. If he felt any fear at all he did not show it. “Just walk away with the gun and I will take down Rarity myself none of your friends have to be involved in it.”

Fluttershy stood still for a few moments considering letting him go.

Bang!

A single bullet flew threw and went right through Cupids skull. Blood spattered on the ground as his corpse fell down. Fluttershy stood frozen looking at the barrel of the revolver. No smoke? Then what-. She turned to see Osborn standing at the end of the alley with a small handgun with grey smoke steaming of the barrel. A white bandage was wrapped around his left shoulder. He walked up to Fluttershy and took the revolver from her.

“Why didn´t you shoot?” He asked.

She looked up at him, his harsh eyes judging her. “H-he told me to wait.” Was the only answer she could muster.

“Let me give you a tip for about living in this place, Flutter; if you got your target in sight you shoot to kill because they rarely give you the same luxury.” Osborn put the revolver into his holster.

The night was cool and still, a street light blinked outside the office while Fluttershy finished the calculations she worked with that morning, adding a significant profit from their latest job from the Diamond Vultures. Finally. She walked outside to get a smoke and found Osborn leaning on the building, his hat folded over down eyes not, paying no mind to her.

“I thought you were working with him to get revenge on Rarity.” Fluttershy stated has she lit her cigarette.

Osborn gave her a puzzled look before answering. “Trust me, flutters, if wanted Rarity dead I would have done so a long time ago and I wouldn´t have relied on a complete stranger like him. I may not like Rarity but it takes a lot more then breaking my heart and trying to kill me to make me commit murder.”

“And what you did there back there wasn´t murder?”

“That was me killing a bloke for money, if I were to draw my revolver and blow your head off for asking, that would be murder. See the difference?”

“Yes I do.” Fluttershy drew a breath on the cigarette.