I kicked the driver's side door out of the destroyed car. I slowly crawled out and stood on my feet. My body and face hurt like all hell, numerous cuts and bruises peppered my appearance. Reaching into my holsters, I pulled out my Five-Sevens. I hit the mag releases and reloaded drunkenly. Speeding cars fast approaching caught my attention,
"Ah, son of a bitch." I groaned, spitting some blood out of my mouth. I limped towards my wrecked Mustang and crouched down, waiting for more of Sombra's ponies to come and finish the job. Each second the roar of modified engines grew closer and closer.
The cars all stopped a few feet from me. I waited for the slamming of car doors to die down. I gritted my teeth and held the handles of my pistols so tight that the grips creaked. I spun around and took aim,
"Lobo?" I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. It was Twilight and the others.
Three Months Earlier...
I sighed in absolute annoyance at the predicament that I found myself in. It was ten o clock at night and I was on my way to work. For the past ten minutes, traffic was backed up due to some asshole losing control of his Honda Civic and plowing into a Charger. This left chunks of car parts scattered all over the freeway,
"Cool, yeah, I didn't wanna fucking go to work anyway. Not like I have bills to pay," I groaned, slamming my head on the steering wheel. Bringing my head back up, I noticed that the traffic was starting to go back to normal, "About damn time." Good thing too, because I would have been one hundred percent late. And my boss, being the bitch that she is, would have just blamed it all on me and said some bullshit like,
"Well, you should have gotten onto the freeway earlier then fool, now go restock the shelves on aisle 10. Get to it before I fire your ass!" I'm a twenty-four-year-old stallion that works at a grocery store. It's not like I wanted to work there, but I was denied college funding. So as of now, my main focus is to just have a place to live and eat. The only good thing about Maretropolis is that everything is cheap here, gas, apartments, and etcetera. My name is Lobo by the way, in case any of you were wondering.
Maretropolis is also the most violent city in the country. Several murders each night, drug selling, prostitutes, and illegal gun shipments. Of course, all of this fucking violence leads to law enforcement just not giving a shit anymore. I can't tell you how many times I was robbed at gunpoint in the last month,
"Alright 53rd and Hills. Almost there." I stopped at a street light. I leaned back in the car seat, then, the sound of automatic gunfire rang out. Bullets whizzed through my car, shattering both the driver and passenger side windows. I ducked down during the assault on my car. Whipping my head to the right, I could see a Unicorn and an Alicorn running towards my car.
The Alicorn had lavender fur, purple eyes, and a violet mane and tail with a pink highlight in it. The Unicorn was a darker shade of purple, with light blue eyes and a dark pink mane and tail. She had a bloody hand clasped over her shoulder...and they both had guns in their hands. I was about to drive away when a bullet hit my dashboard. I looked back at the mares to see that the dark purple one aiming the gun at me. My car doors were almost torn open as they hopped in,
"Drive!" The lavender mare shouted. Shooting outside the window, one of the stallions running to my car keeled over. I guess she hit one of them,
"Listen, I don't know what the fuck you guys just did, but my car is loaded with bulle-" the dark purple mare had her gun to my forehead,
"You will be too if you don't drive!" 'Fuck!' I mentally screamed as I slammed on the gas, leaving our pursuers. As a last-ditch effort, they unloaded into my car. My rear windshield came apart, coating the mare in the back with shards. Once we were three blocks down, I let off the gas. However, the mare in the passenger seat rammed the Glock to my temple, "Who the fuck told you to slow down?!" I ground my teeth as I hit the gas again,
"Where do you want me to take you guys?" I asked, oblivious to the armored SUV that was headed our way,
"Ah dammit, I knew they wouldn't let us off that easy. Tempest, tell him the directions to Eclipse Corp." The mare in the back informed before she sat upright and fired. Much to her disappointment, the bullets just ricocheted off of the reinforced vehicle. So Tempest was this mare's name,
"Make a right and head straight!" I did as she asked, swinging the car around a corner, "After the next light, make two lefts and then a right!" 'Two lefts and a right, two lefts and a right, two lefts, and a right.' I repeated in my head,
"I'm gonna make a call," the lavender mare pulled out her phone and dialed, "Dash it's me Twilight! We need some help! A ton of Tirek's goons caught us completely off guard. We had to ditch our ride and force some guy to drive us to Eclipse. As I'm talking to you, there's an armored SUV on us. Grab a few ponies inside and set up an ambush. Use RPGs!" She ended the call and laid down in the backseat,
"Make one more right turn, and you'll be there! It's the huge office building with the gold fountain, can't miss it!" Tempest shouted. Almost immediately after she gave me the last of the directions, gunfire tore through the interior.
"Holy Shit!" I yelled, almost losing my grip on the steering while I made the last turn. We were only a football field away from the building. The golden fountain twinkled brilliantly in the moonlight. I looked into the rearview and saw that the SUV was gaining on us,
"Can't this thing go any faster?!" Twilight shouted,
"This is a Toyota Camry, not a Toyota Supra!" I shot back. A fist came crashing into my jaw,
"Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?!" Tempest's hand was cocked back, waiting for me to speak again. I rubbed my sore jaw, huffing angrily. When we got five yards away from the fountain, seven rockets collided into the SUV. It flew in the air before landing in a heap on its roof. The screams soon tore at my ears. A charred hand pathetically slapped against the bulletproof windshield before falling seconds later. The Camry's engine rattled violently before exploding, splattering oil all over the windshield. The car slowed to a dead stop. I disconnected the seatbelt and stepped out to examine the damage,
"Ah fuck, dude. How am I gonna get to work now?" The car was riddled in bullet holes, black smoke came out of the hood, and every window except for the driver's side was shattered. When I looked at the engine, my heart sank even further. Three bullets found their way into the block (I guess that's why it's in two pieces) and one tore a hole in the oil pan,
"How's the car?" I looked over to see Twilight standing next to me,
"Engine's fucked, the oil pan has a hole in it, windows are shattered and every button except the hazard lights are gone," I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sighed," And I'm five minutes late."
"Come on, we'll give you something for your trouble." She walked inside the office building with me in tow. I don't understand why they wanted me to bring them here, this place is just filled with cubicles. Strangely enough, nopony seemed to be phased at the two mares holding loaded guns. We entered an elevator and Twilight pressed a button for the top floor. I leaned against the side,
"I'm getting fucking fired, I just know it." I groan as I pinched the corners of my eyes. Tempest just scoffed and shook her head before looking away from us,
"Don't worry about that, as a matter of fact...you might never have to work a nine-to-five job again." My eyes flew open at the sound of that. After what I just went through, those words DO NOT bode well. Apparently, neither did they for Tempest, if her expression of disbelief was anything to go by,
"A-Are you gonna kill me?"
"Nope, you'll find out soon enough." She turned around and smiled at me. For some reason, the way she smiled kind of assured me that I wasn't gonna get popped like some rat in the Mafia.
When the doors opened, my jaw dropped, everypony in here walked around with guns in their hands. Each desk had a money cleaning station, and next to each desk was a mountain of money,
"I'm gonna go to Fluttershy and see if she can get this bullet out," Tempest said before going about her way,
"Alright, I'll be in the meeting room when I'm done with this."
"This has to be the most amount of money I've ever seen in my life."
"I guess it isn't often that you see four million dollars in cash." Twilight said nonchalantly, "When I asked about your car, you knew exactly what you were talking about. I take it you like cars right?"
"Mostly muscle cars, but yeah."
"Is there any car in particular, that you would like?"
"I actually have a lot that I like. But I do want a 2015 Mustang, I'm a big Ford guy, but I never had the money to buy a Mustang GT."
"My friend Applejack's a fan of muscle cars too. But she prefers Chevrolet, as a matter of fact, she recently managed to buy her dream car."
"Really? What'd she buy?"
"It was a 1970 Chevelle SS 454. But she went and bought a supercharged LSX and threw it in there."
"Oh shit! The thing must be fast as hell." She giggled,
"Oh, it is. You should see Dash's Hayabusa, now that thing is insanely fast."
"Sounds like you get paid big bucks here. If the giant mountains of cash and fast cars are anything to go buy."
"We certainly do get paid a lot here, um, I never got your name?"
"Oh yeah, it's Lobo."
"Twilight." She held out her hand and I shook it. We came to a stop at these double doors. Twilight walked forward and opened them. Inside was a large circular table, of which two well-dressed Alicorns sat. One was an alabaster white, with magenta irises, and a flowing pink, green, and blue mane. The other was navy blue and had teal irises. Her mane and tail looked like a starry night sky as it sparkled and billowed,
"Twilight, who is this stallion you've brought to us?" The blue alicorn asked,
"Luna, this stallion saved Tempest and me from Tirek's guys. I thought it would be nice to repay him since his car got trashed in the chase. Also, he's probably getting sent his unemployment notice in the mail with how late he is to work. So I thought that we could hire him." Luna's hard expression softened as she pulled open her laptop,
"Oh, I thought that you brought in a stallion from a rival organization for us to interrogate." The white alicorn spoke next,
"What is your name, sir?" Her voice had a soft and motherly tone,
"Lobo." She nodded and smiled,
"I am Celestia and this is Luna, my sister," she got out of her chair and stood up. As she rose, I could see two golden Desert Eagles in her suit jacket. Fuck, these ponies meant business,
"We are the executive directors of Eclipse Corp. A highly professional marketing company. Unfortunately, when the stocks crashed, this building fell under financial jeopardy. We had no choice but to...how shall I say it? Dip our hands into more "effective" fields. Now Eclipse Corp. makes up a large part of the drug and illegal weapons trade in Maretropolis." I can hear my subconscious screaming,
"Hold on. Lemme get this straight, you guys are basically a crime syndicate?" Luna leaned forward in her seat,
"Do you have any reservations against our line of work?"
"W-Well I don't exactly feel comfortable with-" Before I could finish speaking, the barrel of a pistol nudged the back of my head. I turned slightly to see Twilight pointing her gun at me, with her finger resting on the trigger. Celestia spoke after a few seconds,
"Sorry Lobo, but I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter. I've already told you what goes on in the shadows here and you've seen way to much, we can't have you informing a federal agency. You either join us or...die," Twilight accentuated the point by pulling back the hammer. Ever. So. Slowly. Celestia walked closer until she was a foot away from me, "Please join us, you'll be making far more money working with us than any other career in the world. About two hundred thousand dollars a week to be precise. Not to mention the one hundred thousand dollars we will wire to your bank account for the damages to your vehicle."
"Really? Do I really get that much money?"
"You sure do, all you have to say is yes." Twilight's left hand rested on my shoulder,
"Okay. Okay, I'll do it. Just get that gun away from my head." Celestia nodded and Twilight put her weapon back in its holster,
"By the way, what's your favorite color?"
"Black?" I answered questioningly, she almost wasted me with no hesitation and now she asks what my favorite color was,
"Okay black, got it." She said tapping her temple. I stared at her awkwardly until Luna calls my name,
"Lobo?"
"Yes, Miss Luna?" She snorted and blushed. She covered her muzzle before continuing,
"S-Such formalities are unnecessary. Just call my sister and I by our names, please. Anyway, I have run your name through our database and added you to our payroll. I also managed to find your bank account and enter the funds for your compensation. Your payday will be every Friday." This is like a generic action movie, I get fired from my shitty job by my shitty boss, I get into a high-speed car chase with two hot mares and then have a giant amount of money wired to my account. Now I'm apart of a high res crime syndicate,
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Twilight hugs me from behind,
"No. Thank you, you saved us. I thought for sure we were gonna die and then we saw your car. I know Tempest may have been a little harsh. She was just on edge, in our line of work, there's no room for hesitation. I'm sure you'll get an apology from her soon."
"Y-Yeah, no problem." Twilight grabs my hand and pulls me out of the room,
"Come on, I want to introduce you to everypony! First, we're gonna go see my friends." Well, she sure was ecstatic. I'll give her that. After running around the top floor like a bunch of kids at a playground, we finally reached our destination. Twilight knocked on the door,
"Who is it?" A gruff tomboyish voice called asked,
"It's me, Rainbow." I could hear the sound of locks turning before the door opened. In the doorway stood a cyan Pegasus mare. Her rainbow mane rested on her shoulders. She wore a crop-top and jean shorts, really short jean shorts. Her body was lean and fit,
"Who's this clown, Twi?"
"New hire, his name's Lobo. I thought I'd take him to meet everypony before I showed him the ropes." The mare immediately began to size me up like a slab of meat,
"Alright, then. I'm Rainbow Dash, nice to meet ya," I gripped her hand tightly and shook it, "Good hold, you're gonna need it for the range." She let us in and closed the door. Inside the room, five mares sat around,
"Okay, these are my friends, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy. You already met Tempest and Rainbow Dash."
"Hello, Dear, a pleasure to meet you." Rarity spoke in a refined voice. She was very extravagant and beautiful. Not the type of mare you'd expect to see in this line of work. I wonder what parts she plays in all of this,
"Hey there partner, Ah'm Applejack. But you could jus' call me AJ for short." The orange mare's deep southern voice was crisp like apple cider. She wore a red and black flannel button-up with a black tank underneath, on her lower half she had on blue jeans and brown snakeskin boots. A brown Stetson sat atop her head,
"So you're the one with the LSX swapped Chevelle?" Her face evolves into a smug grin,
"Ya' seen it?" I shook my head,
"No, but Twilight told me about it. So how much power is it putting down?"
"Eh, not much, just eight hundred an' sixty-seven horsepower with nine hundred an' twelve foot-pounds a' torque." I give her a fist bump,
"Sick."
"Nice to know somepony appreciates V8 power. So what brand ya into? Ah bet you're a Dodge guy right?"
"Nah, Ford." She threw her head back and laughed,
"Ford guy huh?"
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up."
"Hey, I'm not judgin', at least I won't be the only one with a muscle car."
"Yeah, you can bet on that." AJ was getting ready to say something else, but Pinkie Pie (oh how do I know what her name is? I don't know, maybe it's because of the fact that she's pink.) tackled me and shoved her snout against mine,
"Hey, I'm Pinkie Pie!"
"Um, h-"
"ICAN'TWAITTOSEEHOWMANYPONIESWE'REGONNAKILLTOGETHERTHENWHENYOUGETYOURFIRSTKILLI'LLTHROWYOUAFIRSTBLOODPARTY!!!" This mare is legitimately scary,
"So uh, did she just snort a rail of cocaine?" Twilight snickered,
"No, she's always like that, if she did coke then she'd probably end up in an alternate universe." I gently lift her body off of mine. As I regained my composure, I heard a meek voice,
"I'm...Fluttershy." I looked all around the room trying to find the origin of the voice. My eyes landed on a butter yellow pegasus mare on the couch, looking off into the distance, fiddling with her mane. Her name fit her I guess,
"Hey, I'm Lobo." She turns her head to gaze at me with her teal eyes. The sheepish mare stares at me for a moment, then proceeds to avoid eye contact,
"Okay Lobo, now that you met my friends. Let's go meet everypony else."
"You guys are going to see Gearhead, right," Twilight responds with a nod, "I'll tag along too, my bike got riddled two days ago. I wanna see if she's fixed it yet." Rainbow Dash gets off the couch and follows us into the hallway.
You know what? I'm still having a hard time trying to process this.
