Manehattan Vice

Head pounding from the night before, I soon woke up. Feeling a wretch in my stomach, I immediately reached over the bed and threw up in the vomit basin. As I haven't eaten anything in 12 hours, it was the worst kind of vomit, a mostly dry wretch. The sphincters of my esophagus were intended to contract that way. Or was it relax? I'm not too sure, I didn't take biology in grades 11 and 12, for obvious reasons. As I reached for my phone, my hoof grazed the Narcan syringe that Biggins had given me, I had a faint smile across my face as I thought back to how happy I was the night before. I resolved to clean my basin up, make my bed, and shower before I did anything else. Biggins' kindness seems to have stuck with me, it made me want to be a better person.

Making my way up to the bathroom quietly, I opened the door, but to my surprise, Diamond was in there completely naked and admiring herself in the mirror. I wanted to look away for politeness's sake, but the truth is I couldn't help but admire her beautifully sculpted, and maybe if I'm lucky, choke on her girl cock and squeeze her muscular breasts. My erotic fantasies however were interrupted by diamond asking me in an alluring tone "You like what you see?" There was no answer I could say that wouldn't sound insanely awkward at this particular moment, all that came out of my mouth was audible hesitation. She simply smiled and walked out of the bathroom, and I might've imagined this last part but I could've sworn she slapped my ass with her tail on the way out.

Stepping in the shower, I turned on the hot water, trying to take my mind off of what had happened. Not because I didn't find her hot, to the contrary, I found her to be one of, if not THE sexiest mare I had ever laid eyes on. But I knew I wouldn't be a good boyfriend to her. It would only end up like how my relationship with Aurora did, with her cheating on me, me hitting her, and the both of us breaking up. It would only hurt our unit in the long term, so it would be best that my fantasies remain fantasies, for now at least. Maybe Biggins can help me sort through these feelings too.

As I finished up in the shower and dried myself off, I went back down to my room and got dressed in my new equipment. I put the Narcan injector in a pocket on my ballistic vest, in a slot close to my heart for sentimental reasons. I picked up my phone and searched through my contacts to see if any of my old friends would pick up and I'd be able to cash in a favour for the safehouse that Buckshot needed me to find. As I began looking through the list, however, this became even more difficult to accomplish. Feather Breeze was in jail, Tiger Wing was shot dead last year, Angel Dust OD'ed on his supply, the only person left was the pony who Aurora cheated on, A griffon known as Iron Loyalty.

laying down on my bed, I covered my face with the pillow in frustration, the only person able to help me was the same guy who seduced Aurora into cheating for me. I was so angry at him, but also myself for putting myself in a difficult position. But on the other hand, there's a reason he's known as Iron Loyalty. I hid under my blanket and checked the photos I had of me and the gang, all the way back to me and Iron Loyalty in the Royal Equestrian Cavalry Police, sharing the same graduation photo when he graduated Valedictorian, pouring his heart and soul into his studies, whereas I simply got by on just listening and doing pretty okay on tests. I knew how to come out on top with minimal effort, so it was no surprise I'm the one who put our original gang together.

after a brief moment of hesitation, I decided to call him up, it was worth a shot if Buckshot needed my help, and it was worth the risk to my pride. I hit the "send call" button on his contact info page. It went straight to voicemail. I swallowed and spoke out "Hey, Iron? It's me, Diamond. I know when we last spoke, it was not on good terms, because not only did you cheat on my marefriend with me, you got most of our friends either arrested or killed. I won't pretend to have forgiven you, I am nowhere even close to that, but you told me when your witness protection deal was sealed, I would owe you one favour, that no matter what bad blood may lie between us, I can always call in. Well, I've recently been promoted to an EDF JSOC Team, and my commander, SSG Buckshot. He's a chill guy, and if you're in a particularly rough spot, he will welcome you with open arms if you have any actionable intel on the Balefire Division. I know you were in contact with them on the night of the club shootout, so you'll know that you can't simply lie your way out of this. If you can't stand to see my face and need to stay hidden, that's okay too. As long as you leave your house unlocked and abandoned, at least for a day, then that will also suffice. Please, whatever you can do, I will accept it. Thank you, if this succeeds, then you will have stayed true to your name, for still carrying out this favour is a sign of true iron loyalty." I said as I pressed the red hangup button.

With a heavy heart, I opened a window, lit a cigar and started composing an intelligence briefing that we will review in transit to our destination. I composed a file detailing everything I knew about Iron Loyalty because I knew that starting tomorrow, my fate would be in both Buckshot and Iron Loyalty's hands, and I hope that they both see that I can contribute to this newfound family.

2013, September 26, 07:00

Back then, I was just a lowly cop in Cloudsdale. At this point, I and Iron had been roommates for several years and we were both trying to get a paycheck bonus so we can start investing rather than just living paycheck to paycheck. I walked into the car with our food, passed Iron his while I took us to go do another stakeout at the air docks. I was eating a chicken bacon ranch melt, toasted on flatbread, a classic staple for me. Iron Loyalty on the other hoof was more of an untoasted cold cut kind of guy. In other words, he was straight-laced and uninteresting when on the clock, he took his job way too seriously.

After about half an hour of idle chit chat, we saw the crate we were staking out open up, as a police cruiser without their lights on pull up to it. "you didn't call for backup did you, Ness?"

"No, I did not, I'll try and ID the officers in question," I said, zooming in with my binoculars. "It's Officer Thorny Talon, why is he trying to bust them?" I continued to watch as he proceeded to beat all of them with his nightstick, taking major deviations from procedure. I immediately knew what this was, Thorny Talon was shaking them down.

Iron Loyalty looked over to me, “Should I report it into Internal Affairs?” He asked.

Pondering my response with cold calculating precision, I replied “If we do that, at worst he’ll get a warning and the security will increase. I say, we take him out and replace him. We’ll be reducing police brutality, AND we’ll both get richer.” A devious smile crossed my young face, turning to Iron Loyalty. “THAT is the Cloudsdale way to get even, that’s the way you can become the rich, successful business griff you wanted to be, and I can be the ruthless, cutthroat, defender of the weak I wanted to be. So what do you say, wanna make the plan official?”

Iron Loyalty hesitated a bit on the shake, but I could see it clear as day it’s what he wanted. Soon, he took my talon and shook it. That was the moment we went from being friends to becoming brothers. We made a pact that we will never rat anyone out, no matter what the world might throw at us, and that we would always operate with everyone's interests in mind, especially the public's.

The first thing we needed to do was find someone who would be able to get Thorny Talon into a vulnerable position. We decided to move the location of our stakeout to a strip club that Iron knew of, called 'Summer Heat'. It was the preying grounds for a local pimp, a pegasus known as Valentine. He had been on the police department radar for quite some time, unfortunately, we've been trying to catch him in a sting op. Prostitution, gambling, drug trafficking, but he always has a way of telling the difference between genuine desperation and feigned desperation, so me and Iron to go about this differently.

Pulling the car into an alley next to the strip club, I had the intent to keep this relatively discreet as well as to box Valentine in. I opened the trunk of the car and pulled out the service shotgun I always loved to use during practice, my good ol' Kel-Tec KSG, screwed the suppressor on and made sure only the slug chamber would be used, shotgun suppressors don't work too well with buckshot, which is kind of ironic that Buckshot is the leader of our special ops unit, but that's a story for later.

waiting for hours, I had a couple of call-ins, I only answered that I was still in the stakeout. Not technically a lie, so I at least had an alibi. Soon, the silence was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. I ducked for cover, holding my shotgun close to me, and I listened carefully to what was going on, I had to be sure this was Valentine before I acted. "You know the deal slut, you want some of my coke, you need to pleasure my cock first." From there, I could hear a struggle going on and tearful pleas for help.

Peering around the corner to check to see if it was Valentine, I saw a pink pegasus with a cavalier hat and an equally outrageous feather in it, heart-shaped cutie mark, and his profile from this angle was a dead ringer from the mugshot for the few brief arrests he had. I had steadied my shotgun, watching it through the shotgun sights made my anger feel all the more justified, I signed up to put sickos like him a body bag. I aimed for the head and squeezed the trigger, smiling as I watched his brains splatter out of his skull from the shotgun slug. I got such an incredible rush from this, I managed to save a life, and just got the perfect loyal pawn to help me overthrow the corrupt cops in my department.

Gently approaching the crying mare, I noticed she was a much brighter magenta than Valentine was, and yes, that was after factoring how he was now soaked in his blood. I also noticed that she looked a bit different for a pegasus, I couldn't put my hoof on it, but I soon figured out it was because she was half bison. Lowering my shotgun, I asked her in the most genuinely caring and compassionate tone I knew, in rapid succession, "Are you, okay miss? Do you have a name? Where do you live?"

Between her tearful sobs, she slowly began to compose herself, saying "I-I'm okay, I think. My name's Aurora, and y-yeah, I lived at what used to be his place, I'll show you to it."

"Aurora? You're safe with me now aurora, come, I'll take you there." I said, holding her close in my hooves. I returned my shotgun to the car and got her a blanket she could cover herself in for warmth, comfort, and modesty, while I got her seated in the back-set of my cruiser. I told Iron Loyalty to collect evidence for a rape kit from the corpse so we have an alibi just in case our bosses find out.

2020, July 25, 16:00

Giving my careful instructions to buckshot, I had briefed him on where to find the safe house. Sure enough, it was exactly as Iron Loyalty promised to have left it. It was unlocked, but he was nowhere in sight. Buckshot nodded, impressed with me "Well hogtie, butcher me and have me for Hearth's Warming Eve dinner. This is a pretty great safe house. Not only is it going to be rife with intel, has a spot to do our interrogations, it's also a very defensible and very swanky home for our operations in Cloudsdale. Good on ya, Ness. I knew we could count on you." Said Buckshot, with a visible, cocky smile. I simply returned a salute and told me "At ease, we'll get set up in our rooms when soon enough, but you Ness, get the first pick." I smiled brilliantly, I ran upstairs to quickly drop my bag off in my old bedroom.

Opening the door, I took a look around. The furniture in the room is exactly how I left it, and even had posters from the bands I was obsessed with back then. Especially Bon Jovi. I had gotten that poster from a collector's seat that was halfway between a floor seat and a nosebleed seat, and it would be quite a difficult possession to replace if it wasn't.

Stretching back, I laid on my bed, now dusty and dried with who knows what kinds of fluid. At the very least, I'll be given a chance to right the wrongs of my past in here, and I won't leave Cloudsdale until I accomplish that, no ifs, and, or buts. "This is how we get even in Cloudsadale."