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                  Criminals of Manehattan                  
                        -by Casin-                         
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                     A job interview.                      
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A job interview.
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It was a cold and windy night on the streets of Manehattan, the road was drowned by the rain, the darkness filled every corner of the city, the sound of the rain splattered across the concrete giving it the whole scene a dramatic vibe. Everypony had run to their comfortable and cozy little homes leaving not a single sign of life around the whole city.
However, even with such emptiness on the now wet dusty roads of Manehattan, it didn't stop a lonely pony from walking around these streets with blasted electronic music on their headphones, and that pony’s name was none other than the infamous mare; “Vinyl Scratch”.
She had a stylish blue mane and was wearing a gray dirty hoodie with a few holes on its sleeves. She bobbed her head with every beat of the loud song she was listening to, yet even with such energetic movement she kept a straight face, as she was more worried about her destination rather than the song itself.
Vinyl wasn’t just walking around those empty roads to enjoy her nice song alone, but instead, she was looking for an a job opportunity. On that night Vinyl had just been fired from another job once again, running low on bits, barely having any money to purchase food or anything at all. Her reputation of being lazy, incompetent and clumsy while working didn’t help either, every single job application she got herself into was almost immediately declined for her infamous persona.
If she couldn’t get a job until the end of the month she would get kicked out of her apartment since the rent was already due for months.
After getting so many times fired and slowly becoming a popular figure around the city for all the wrong reasons, her mental health was at its lowest. She was tired of having boring jobs in restaurants or convenience stores, she was tired of having to wait the end of each month to get something in return for her “hard” work, she was tired of everything and everypony. All she wanted inside her soul was the recognition she though she deserved.
So she slowly walked to a dark alley with her mind becoming more and more hesitant with each step she took, making her legs tremble in anxiety, but she kept going regardless, getting closer and closer to it, thinking to herself;
“I’d rather die trying, than die in the misery I'm on,” she thought to herself.
As her shiny red eyes slowly starting to visualize the corners of the alley, a warm orange light that burned like fire caught her attention.
As she looked closer, she saw a pony leaning on the brick walls wearing a dark trench coat whilst smoking a cigarette. They had long and smooth black hair that moved softly with the wind and purple eyes that glowed like two shining amethysts in the darkness.
Vinyl took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself, and slowly started approaching the mysterious pony.  
With them soon realizing Vinyl's presence, a harsh loud voice came from them, saying;
“Hey you! Can I help you with anything?” they said in a feminine voice with a British accent, questioning Vinyl in a violent tone.
“Are you ‘Melody’?” Asked Vinyl, “I am looking for a pony around these streets called ‘Melody’.”
“Yes, I am called Melody,” – they say whilst reaching for something in the pocket of their trench coat aggressively – “what do you want? Do you have any unfinished business to deal with?”
“No, I am here to ask you if I could join the your little mercenary group you work on.” spoke Vinyl.
“Hm..?” They say while looking at Vinyl with a curious expression. “May I ask you, what makes you think you’ll get accepted for such a job? ”
“I don’t even know,” Vinyl shrugs, “I just want a job to pay the bills, you know?”
“Well, if that was not obvious already,” – They take their hooves out of their pocket with an expression of relief, slowly starting to approach Vinyl – “we do not hire anypony.”
“I know, I know,” said Vinyl with a bored voice.
The pony got closer and closer until the street light finally shined on their face. Revealing their identity. It was a gray mare with purple eyes and long black hair, she wore a pink tie with her trench coat.
“Hmm,” – she looks at Vinyl with a surprised expression, recognizing her – “I think I recognize you from somewhere,” She says. “May I ask? Are you not the pony that has been fired over 50 times around this city?”
Vinyl tries to ignore the provoking statement, attempting to not care about it too much, “Yeah… That’s me.”
“So… you are up to crime now, huh?” said the gray pony attempting to get a reaction from Vinyl.
“Anything to pay the bills, I guess,” said Vinyl.
“That 's quite sad,” she laughs, “Would you really be willing to risk your precious little pony's life for some worthless pieces of bits?”
“It’s not like I could have a life without it anyways,” Vinyl said with a sarcastic tone.
“Heh,” she chuckles, “I guess you are quite right.” And soon a huge silence fills the whole alley.
Vinyl looks at her with an expression mixed with boredom and impatience. “So… how do I get hired for the job?”
“Oh…?” She looks at Vinyl with an amused expression, realizing that she wasn't joking and actually wanted to get the job. “Well, I would have to interview you somewhere.”
“Uhh…” Vinyl looks at her with a confused expression, “can't you do it like… right now?”
“Well yes,” she rolls her eyes, “I just do not feel the need to do it currently. This is the only moment where I can take a break from preparing weapons and murders or anything else.”
“Oh I see.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Hmm... You are rather strange, She says “Are you not a bit intimidated by me? A random pony wearing all black in the middle of the night talking about murder and crime?”
“I’ve seen worse around this stupid city.”
She laughs and opens a big grin on her face, “hehehe, I like that, somepony that has such courage could fit on the team quite nicely. Sadly, that is not enou-” a group of police ponies walk past the alley, interrupting 'Melody' in her speech.
She grabs Vinyl with her hooves and harshly pushes her to a blind spot on the alley, whilst doing so she hits a metal trash can by accident making a loud noise all around it.  
Both Vinyl and Melody sit on a dark corner holding each other's breaths wishing the police won't come to check the alley, 'Melody' is noticeably way more frustrated, almost at the edge of a panic attack.
One of the police ponies notice the noise and stop walking for a few seconds, they stare deeply at the alley trying to catch anything moving. Eventually they just look forward once again and start walking with the other cops around the city.
Both 'Melody' feels an insane feeling of relief, and finally catch a breath after that stressful situation.
She gets up and slowly walks forward checking if the police are not around.  
After seeing nothing she turns around and looks at Vinyl in the eyes. “I suppose that was a close one.”
“Y-yeah…” Vinyl’s heart slowly starts to slow down, attempting to keep her breathing slow, “I guess even you mercenaries fear the police.” said Vinyl with a nervous voice.
“What criminal does not?” She said whilst giving a strained laugh.
“Heh, yeah.”
“You are a rather charming individual, are you not?” She said seeing the opportunity for a new member. “What is your name?” She asks, “somepony like you might fit in our group.”
Vinyl looks at her with a sparkle in her eyes, “my name is Vinyl Scratch, I suppose your name is not only 'Melody', right?”
“No,” she shakes her head “it is not. My actual name is Octavia ‘Melody’ Clef’.”
“Well, nice to meet you, I guess.”
“For you also.” Octavia says with a smile on her face. “So, Miss Vinyl Scratch, can you meet me at the bar called ‘Berryshine’s Booze’ tomorrow?” Octavia asks. “The one near the parking lot.”
“Sure, but I am not paying for any drink!” Vinyl exclaims.
Octavia opens her trench coat and takes a black hardcover notepad and a pen from it, “As you wish, Miss Scratch.”
She said whilst swiping through a few pages eventually stopping at a blank one, starting to write something on it. “Hmm, I don’t suppose you have a weapon, do you?” She asks Vinyl, frightening her with the question.
“W-what? No…” Vinyl said with a trembling voice, “I mean I think I have a few knives at my apartment.”
Octavia looks at her with a disinterested look, “knives are not enough, I guess I will have to bring an extra revolver then.”
“Wait wait wait,” Vinyl starts freaking out at the quick thought of killing somepony that fast, “are we already like-”
“Do not worry for now,” Octavia interrupts, “I will explain everything you need to know tomorrow.”
“R-right…” Vinyl said with a distressed voice.
“For now take some rest. I will be there at 10 PM drinking some red wine, you will identify me through that.”
Vinyl finds Octavia’s ways a bit odd and inconsistent, “What if another pony is also drinking red wine?” She questions her.
“When you come inside the bar I will spill a bit of the wine on my table on purpose,” Octavia explains.
“Oh I see, clever,” Vinyl said, still seeing inconsistencies but ignoring them.
Octavia makes a small chuckle and proceeds to grab a black cellphone from her other pocket, she dials some numbers and calls somepony in it, telling them to pick her up, giving the exact location of the alley.
After that she starts heading out of the alley patiently waiting for somepony whilst looking at the streets.
After a few minutes of a deafening silence a black Plymouth Valiant with black blind windows shows up in front of her. She gently opens the door of the car revealing a completely dark interior with barely any light.
“It was nice meeting you Miss Vinyl Scratch” – Octavia said before getting inside the car – “I hope you get the job tomorrow, we could really use some ponies like you in the group.” Octavia waves her hoof and closes the door of the car, with it soon moving forward.
Vinyl starts wondering if getting herself into these kinds of business really was a good idea or not. She shrugs and puts her loud headphones on her small white pony ears once again, and starts heading to her apartment wondering what awaits her tomorrow.
On the next day Vinyl wakes up from her soft bed by the sound of her annoying alarm, seeing that the time that was set was 1 PM, the exact time that she was supposed to be at the location of her last job. She aggressively hits the alarm to shut it off only to be met with more and more of the annoying beeping noise.
Then she just decides to patiently click on the “turn off” button to stop the noise, and by doing so it works.
She lays down on the bed once again, wondering what she will do for the next 9 hours before the job interview. She gets up, takes a shower, gets dressed in the least messy and dirty clothes she has and decides to put her headphones on and listen to some music for the next few hours, listening to almost every genre of music ever made, varying from Rock, Pop, Metal, Jazz, Electronic and even Rap.  
She does that for the next 8 and a half hours until she finally looks at the time and for once in her life decides to leave her apartment early.
The weather on that day was cloudy but not rainy, there was a smooth and cold breeze that surrounded every corner of the city in all ways and directions. As she walked through the streets a lot of ponies looked at her with disappointment on their faces, especially the older ones, as if everypony knew about her laziness and failures.  
She didn’t really bother with those looks anymore, since she was determined that she was finally going to get a fun job to work with.
As she approached the bar she started listening to a smooth Jazz like song with saxophones and pianos coming from a radio, giving the bar a relaxing and elegant vibe.  
She gets inside it with a proud look on her face, moving her eyes left and right attempting to find Octavia.   
Eventually she soon notices a pony that had some red wine spilled on the white wooden table, hiding their face on an open newspaper.  
Vinyl approaches them and sits on one of the seats, trying to get their attention by tapping her hooves on the table a few times:
“Melody? Is that you?” Vinyl asks.
The pony soon lowers the newspaper revealing them to be Octavia, wearing a fancy black suit with black leather gloves.
She looks at Vinyl with a surprised expression, “you got here pretty early. It's 9 hours and 45 minutes past morning, what a miracle for somepony with such a reputation as you.” She said whilst giving a small provocative chuckle.
Vinyl once again attempts to ignore her provocative statement by playing it off, “Yeah yeah… I guess.”
“So…” Octavia reaches for her pocket and grabs the same notepad from yesterday “ready for your interview? Miss Vinyl Scratch.”
“Heck I am!” said Vinyl with an excited voice.
“Wonderful! So, let’s get started…” – Octavia opens her notepad and checks the notes she wrote on the blank page from yesterday, – “let’s see…” She makes a small pause before making eye contact with Vinyl, eventually asking her a question, “what cutie mark do you have?”
“Well… mine’s a music note, a black two bridged eighth note to be exact,” Vinyl said whilst pointing at her flank.
Octavia looks amused by her answer – “That is quite interesting, do you know, Miss Vinyl, I also got a musical note as my cutie mark? It’s a purple treble clef.”
“Oh wow,” Vinyl said, quite surprised. “I thought it would be a gun or something. Why aren’t you in the music industry if that’s your talent?”
“Oh that is quite easy to answer,” Octavia quickly said, “money.”
“Who could have guessed!” Vinyl exclaims with a sarcastic voice, attempting to make Octavia chuckle, just to be met with a dead and blank stare from Octavia’s eyes, making the mood of the interview quite awkward.
Octavia soon realizes that and gets back to interviewing Vinyl, “this question is quite obvious but… any current occupation?”
Vinyl quickly said with a clear and serious voice, – “No.” – Octavia gives a smirk and writes something on her notes.
“Alright, so, I will list a few skills written here, please rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 on how good you are with them, being 1 something you are awful at and 10 something you are perfect at.” Octavia moves her head making sure Vinyl was paying attention, “understood?”
“Yup,” Vinyl said.
“Alright…” – Octavia stops for a few seconds taking a look at the skills she wrote, soon starting to list them out loud. “Communication?”
“8 out of 10,” Vinyl answers.
“Persuasion?”
“4 out of 10.”
“Tech Savvy?”
Vinyl opens a smirk, soon answering in a careless way – “Technology is something I have no clue messing with, 2 out of 10,” – Octavia looks at Vinyl with an annoyed look on her face, but tries to ignore her careless behavior.
“Literacy?”
“6 out of 10.”
“Combat?”
“4 out of 10.”
“Stealth?”
“5 out of 10.”
“Survival?”
Vinyl stops for a while and thinks a bit before coming up with an answer, “I have been getting fired every month for over 4 years now, so… definitely a 9 out of 10” I guess.  
Octavia gets visibly more and more irritated by each response Vinyl hands her with. She takes a deep breath and attempts to calm herself.
“Right… right…” said Octavia almost losing her mind but still attempting to give Vinyl a chance. “Are you more of a follower or a leader?”
“Follower, one hundred percent,” Vinyl answered”
“Would you lie if the life of somepony was on the line?” Octavia asked.
Vinyl takes some time to think before answering. “Might depend on the pony, but yes, I think so.”
“Would you give your life to your partner?”
Vinyl looks confused at Octavia’s question, “What kind of partner?” Vinyl asks, “like romantical partner or like a work colleagu-” Vinyl gets interrupted as soon as she notices the visible annoyance on Octavia’s face.
“What do you bloody think?” said Octavia with an infuriated look on her face.
“Right, right, work colleague of course” Vinyl said with an awkward look on her face, before trying to answer the question, “uhm… yeah sure I guess, I probably would.”
Octavia puts one of her hooves on her face out of shame, “Miss Vinyl Scratch, “Probably” is not on my answer list, it is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
“Ugh… Yes, I would.” Said in a distressed voice.
“Uhum…” Octavia exclaimed in a tired voice, after listening to so much nonsense, “we are almost done, just two questions left.”
“Yes Mare’m!”
“What is the main thing you seek on this job?” Octavia asked with an annoyed voice “Forget the money for a bit, are you seeking anything deeper inside your soul? Revenge? Praise? Justice? Anything like that?”
Vinyl takes a good look at herself, actually thinking to answer one of the questions in a proper way. “Maybe a bit of praise? I kind of want to show to all the ponies in this city that I am not so lazy and careless as I look and seem to be to them.”
“Good answer, that took some time.” Said Octavia feeling a sense of relief inside of her, after finally getting a decent answer.
Octavia slightly adjusts her position on her comfortable seat, preparing to ask the last question of the interview. “The next question will determine if you are in or not on the job. Are you ready for it?”
“Yup.” Said Vinyl once again.
“Speak with all honesty and sincerity,” Octavia makes a pause of a few seconds. "Would you be willing to kill somepony?”
Vinyl gets caught off guard by the question, “I-I… I don’t know. I really don’t know.” She says with confusion and doubt, questioning her morals.
“What?” Octavia says whilst looking at her completely confused, wondering why Vinyl even asked to apply for a mercenary job in the first place, “Let me get this straight, you walk to me, a mercenary, that murders ponies for money, for a mercenary job and you aren’t even sure if you can pull the trigger or not?!”
“I thought we were going to go on this ‘killing’ and ‘murdering’ stuff a bit slower.” Said Vinyl with pure honesty, “I-I don’t know if killing another pony really worth the bits.”
“There is no “I don’t know” on the answers Vinyl, either it is “yes” or “no”.
Vinyl seems hesitant of her answers, she starts sweating rivers wondering if she would actually be able to do such a thing, completely freezing in place, not saying a single word.  
Octavia seems impatient by her silence, and attempts to pressure her by asking:
“…So?”
“No… I wouldn't be able to do it,” she says with a voice of shame and disappointment. “I am sorry for wasting your time Miss Melody. I just thought that maybe I could get something that didn’t really involve killing, but more like…Ugh… I don’t even know…”
Octavia looks at her with a not so surprised expression, grabbing her pen and harshly scribbling the paper with all the answers and questions of the interview. “Ugh…” She says feeling somewhat sad. “Well, I guess I didn’t need to bring the second revolver at all. I really had some hopes for you Miss Vinyl, I will not lie.”
Vinyl looks confused at Octavia, “second revolver?”
“Yes, if you were determined to kill other ponies for money I would give you the revolver I brought with me to test that determination, but I guess I won’t need it.” Octavia explains.
“Oh… I see,” said Vinyl in a sad and disappointed voice.
Octavia looks at Vinyl with a bit of empathy but remains with a blank face, attempting to keep her harsh posture, “Apologies Vinyl but… you did not get the job, that is the only red flag about you that I completely cannot ignore.”
“No no, I understand,” said Vinyl.
“Well… it was a pleasure knowing you, I do have some respect for you though, at least you have some morals in this cruel and reckless city.” Octavia says while getting up from her seat looking for the exit door.
As she looks around she quickly notices something walking past the window of the bar, it was a pink pony with fluffy pink hair as pink as bubble gum, the pink pony was wearing a large black trench coat and a black fedora, one of her hooves was inside the trench coat, reaching for something into it.  
With all these signs Octavia quickly recognized the pony and her intention.
She quickly looks at Vinyl with a tense face, screaming. “PINKAMENA! GET DOWN!”
Octavia rushes to Vinyl harshly, pushing her to the floor and dropping the large wooden table of the bar on it too, making the wine with glass shatter.  
As soon as Octavia does that Pinkamena slams the door of the bar with her hooves.
She takes a quick look around the bar before saying in a loud and excited voice: “PIE VISIT, EVERYPONY!” As she takes a Tommy gun out of her trench coat and proceeds to shoot everypony inside the bar, laughing nonstop.
Octavia uses the wooden table as a shield to get some time to think as Pinkamena shoots everything and everypony.
Octavia grabs the two revolvers out of her pocket and hands one of them to Vinyl, “Look Vinyl, if you wanna get out of here alive you will need to kill that maniac!”
“What is going on!?” Vinyl screams in fear.
“Revenge, I know that pony pretty well, I’ll explain to you lat-”
With all the chaos happening Vinyl and Octavia didn’t notice that the sound of the Tommy gun had already stopped, both of them look up and see Pinkie holding a pocket knife, about to pierce Octavia in the skull.  
As soon as Vinyl sees her she grabs Octavia by her hoof and pushes her away from the table, making Pinkamena miss the attack, plunging the knife at the wooden table.
Octavia and Vinyl run to the bar table with Vinyl quickly laying down and hiding below it, whilst Octavia attempts to shoot at Pinkie with her revolver, missing a couple of shots before Pinkie quickly moves down and hides on one of the bar tables.  
Pinkie reaches for her pocket on the trench coat and grabs a Beretta pistol, beginning a gun fight on the bar, with the ponies that remained alive from the massive shootout running away as quickly as they could.
Octavia and the pony start trading shots, rapidly filling the place with gunshot noises.  
Vinyl keeps hiding under the bar table trembling with fear, with her hooves on her ears, looking completely terrified with tears in her eyes, seeing so much blood all over the place and the corpse of the bartender nearby.
Eventually Pinkie manages to hit Octavia on her hoof making her drop the revolver on the wooden floor and scream in agony, she looks at Vinyl pleading for her to help her, but Vinyl remains completely still, frozen in fright.
Pinkamena gets up and starts rapidly pulling the trigger, just to realize that she ran out of ammo. “Lucky you Melody! I almost got the party popped on that balloon head of yours.”
She said whilst she grabs a dining knife from the floor and rushing to Octavia with it.  
Octavia attempts to back away but Pinkamena pushes her against the wall making her head hit the glass window shattering into various pieces. As Octavia closes her eyes in pain, Pinkie attempts to stab her multiple times just to realize that the knife is barely sharp enough for that. She throws it on the floor and starts beating Octavia with her bare hooves, aiming at the stomach, rib cage and face.  
Octavia starts fighting back with both of them starting throwing punches at each other, seeing who is going to be the last one standing and breathing.
With all the noise and grunts Vinyl finally snaps back to reality, realizing that if Octavia died she would also get killed by the hands of Pinkamena.   
Vinyl slowly gets up from the table to see what’s going on, seeing that Octavia managed to rear naked choke Pinkie on the neck with her arms immobilizing her whilst trying to strangle her also.
As Octavia sees Vinyl standing completely still she screams and begs for her to shoot Pinkamena. “GO ON VINYL! SHOOT THIS BLOODY PSYCHOPATH WITH THE REVOLVER I GAVE YOU! WASTE ALL OF YOUR BULLETS ON HER!”
Vinyl with a trembling body, raises her arms and starts carefully aiming at Pinkie's head, she tries her best to do something but she just doesn’t have enough courage to pull the trigger. “I-I-I JUST CAN’T!”
Pinkamena looks at Vinyl and starts laughing at how pathetic she looks.“HAHAHAHAHA! What a great partner you got there! Somehow more incompetent than the last one!”   
Headbutting Octavia on the head soon after, making blood start dripping out of her nose intensely, soon letting Pinkie go off her arms.
Seeing the opportunity, Pinkamena starts giving consecutive strikes on Octavia’s face, making blood come out of her mouth and nose more and more, soon making her fall on the floor almost unconscious.
Pinkamena starts stepping and kicking Octavia’s head aggressively whilst screaming, “M-A-U-D P-I-E! M-A-U-D P-I-E! M-A-U-D P-I-E! THAT’S WHO YOU SHOT ON THE HEAD!”
After using all her energy to harm Octavia, she grabs Octavia’s revolver and aims at her head, she stares at her with a malicious smile coming out of their mouth, with blood dripping all over her teeth.
Pinkie starts giggling and laughing loudly preparing to pull the trigger, saying with all pride and vigor “THIS ONE IS FOR MY DEAD SISTER, MAU-”
BANG!
A loud shoot fills the whole bar, making it go completely silent. No smoke came out from Pinkie’s gun, as that was not a shot from her, but instead, from Vinyl.
Vinyl with tears in her eyes pulled the trigger, shooting Pinkie right on the head.  
Pinkie Pie stands still for a few seconds before she falls dead on the floor completely immobilized, giving an end to all this fighting.
Vinyl breaths in and out at the urge of almost throwing up with all of this situation.  
After managing to recompose herself she approaches Octavia to see if her heart was still beating and to her surprise it still was.
Octavia slowly opens her eyes with blood all over her face trying to understand what happened. She just had closed her eyes for a few seconds and the table had flipped harshly. With both Octavia and Vinyl coming out victorious.
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Author's Note
Hello to everyone who cares enough to read this.
This is the first ever fanfic I actually bothered to post (and the first one that I actually putted effort into, way too much tho), and I am just seeing if it does well or not. Being honest I don't really know if I will write another chapter for it.
This surely was a fun experience though, learned a lot of new writing stuff with it and the site's guide.  
That's pretty much it, have a good day/afternoon/night or whatever to everyone that read till here (or just scrolled to the bottom of the page).  
:)