Gangs of Manehattan

A pink-maned yellow pegasus mare walked down a street in Manehattan. It was a part of the city that she usually wouldn't be seen in, with many houses looking more or less run down and ponies, griffons and dragons of questionable appearance loitering around. She wore a black goth-inspired outfit, though without make-up, a white shirt underneath underneath a black top, with a blueish-white glass gem on a black collar around her neck and a black skirt down to her knees with a frontal slit. A slight chill was in the air and she rubbed her shoulders, cursing herself that she should've worn something warmer. Maybe one of her usual jumpers. Or a jacket at least!

She had bought the ensemble on a whim a while ago but never worn and actually contemplated to sell it to a second hand store without ever having worn it, and she had figured this was as good a chance as any to wear it at least once. Usually, the mare preferred clothes that didn't make her stand out too much, hid her figure from attention.

As she turned a corner, her destination came in sight: An old factory hall, illuminated by spotlights in varying colours. Red neon letters spelled a name on the front of the building. “Who names his club after Equestria's most infamous high-security prison?” She wondered once more, as she played with an object in her right hand.

The letters spelled “Tartarus”, and as far as Fluttershy had heard, it had become one of the most popular clubs in Manehattan, despite a seedy appearance in an even seedier part of Manehattan. Or maybe, because of that!

According to what she had heard and read, socialites mixed rather freely with ponies and others they'd usually not be found dead to hang around with. Motivated and inspired by the general atmosphere, a pretty good bar for multiple levels of income, a pretty good DJ and some stage shows... and probably drugs sold by the house and their use, according to the rumors alluded to in some of the reports she had read, though none could be proven yet. Who knew? Maybe she could find something out!

Walking towards the club, she still wondered how she'd gotten herself into this situation to begin with...

Two weeks ago

Fluttershy was on a stroll after work. Finally, she had filled out and sent in her application for K9 training! It would probably take ages for it to be processed and even longer for her to get her acceptance, but it was a start! She had had just barely finished police academy, mainly thanks to the help of her friend, Rainbow Dash. To join the MPD had been her friends long standing dream and, somehow, Fluttershy herself had gotten caught up in it. She'd never been a top performer in most areas, unlike Rainbow Dash, the sporty, confident tomboy, though when sufficiently motivated she'd actually been one of the fastest runners and fliers! But her lack of confidence often caused her to score near to, or among, the bottom row in many things.

However, she'd been remarkable at calming down others, making them feel relaxed, once she'd gotten over her shyness! And even at getting them to feel so comfy that they'd let stuff slip they didn't want to say! Then, Fluttershy had also been great at getting emotionally distressed ponies to calm down, even in tense situation! It even expanded to animals, so when they needed to deal with animals, Fluttershy was the mare they called over. Some of the experienced handlers looked flabbergasted when she tamed dogs that they wouldn't dare get close without three protective layers, just by being herself!

Normally, a pony with her grades probably wouldn't have made the cut, unless there was a need for more officers, but her ability to deal with these things caused them to have her pass and hiring her anyway, though she got mainly paired up with her friend Rainbow Dash, the star of that graduation, and her friend Gilda, a griffon. There'd also been a mare with a southern accent in their year, though she couldn't remember her name, who, for a while, rivaled Rainbow Dash, but she had dropped out after a while, citing family issues.

All three of them ended up at the same precinct, headed by Captain Spitfire. At first, Fluttershy had been deployed just like any other regular academy graduate, but they soon realized that, aside of some patrolling every now and then, she was best suited for work at the precinct. Better for both sides, Fluttershy herself and the department. And when she was sent out, mainly with Rainbow Dash, who racked up a good number of accolades, and a slightly smaller stack of reprimands for recklessness, in short time.

Sometime ago, one of her colleagues had suggested that she should try to apply for the K9 unit, since she was so good with animals. Any time they needed help with an animal, they called her and so she'd figured that, maybe, it'd make sense to swap to training and care for the police dogs instead. She'd probably still be called to help with other stuff, and until the Manehattan bureaucracy did its work, it'd probably take a few months at least. Mayor Celestia did a lot of good work over the years, but some red tape the previous mayors had left, she still hadn't been able to get rid off.

However, the work she and her sister, deputy-mayor Luna, had put into improving the Manehatten Police Department certainly had been a step into the right direction! For years it'd been considered quite corrupt. Not the worst in Equestria, but certainly bad enough. One of Celestia's first actions after her first re-election had been to fire the long running police chief Wind Rider, who'd also been Spitfire's predecessor at one of the most important precincts in the city. Wind Rider had abused his position for personal gain and more and rumours had it that, had Spitfire not have had an astounding track record, he'd have quickly replaced her with one of his stooges.

In the end, with Celestia at the helm, Wind Rider had found himself replaced with a choice that caused some murmuring about nepotism, since the new choice had dating her niece, Cadance, at the time. By now they were married. However, Shining Armor's work as new police chief silenced those complaints. He had served in the military and afterwards in the police departments of Fillydelphia and Canterlot and as such had been quite qualified anyway.

The efficiency and public standing of the police had improved rapidly, but it was well known that Wind Rider nursed a grudge. After having been driven out of the police, he had started a private security firm, mainly hired by one of the richest corporations in the whole country: Umbrum Enterprises, and its most major asset, Umbrum Industries. And their founder and chairmen, Sombra, was known to have supported Celestia's competitors, mainly a stallion named Svengallop who'd been running against her at every election.

Fluttershy was anything but a violent pony, but even she thought that, if she was left alone in a room with Svengallop for more than five minutes, without anypony else, she'd beat the stuffing out of him. He always looked at and talked to others as if they were beneath him, and a waste of his time. Unless they were rich and powerful of course! Or, maybe, when he was trying to garner votes. And adding to this, he was a slimy sycophant! Despite all of that, he usually ranked reasonably high in the poll numbers and it's been speculated that the main reason Celestia had won her first election had been because of a tragic car accident she'd been in, garnering her sympathy points. At least, that's what Svengallop liked to say.

There'd been accusations that he'd orchestrated the accident, but Svengallop naturally always denied those, usually telling anypony asking, “I am offended that you even think I would do something like that! Also, I am not stupid. Without the car accident, I'd have won by a landslide! Orchestrating this accident would've been the most stupid thing I could've done! If she survived, as she did, she could ride on a wave of sympathy, especially if she'd been heavily injured and recovered! If Celestia had been put out of action for a while, or died, then her sister would've gained the sympathy and would've been gone on about how she was doing it for her sister!”

As all of this went through Fluttershy's head, she didn't notice how her surroundings changed, the skyscrapers of the inner city making way for smaller buildings, which slowly started to look like in worse and worse shape.

Suddenly, Fluttershy heard a cry. “Help! Help!” Her head spun around, scanning the area. A green dragon, some ponies, some more ponies, a griffon, another dragon... then she saw two ponies, a stallion and a mare, threatening “Shut up and hand over that purse!”

“Now... no stupid movements, please!”

“Hey, what do you think?” The mare asked her friend. “She ain't too bad of a looker, is she?”

“Heh... you're right... You havin' the same thought?”

Instinct, and the knowledge that she just had to help, kicked in. “Hey! YOU TWO! STOP!”

The green-and-purple dragon watched it, slowly shook his head. There always had to be somepony who played the hero. It wasn't like he liked those idiots or what they did, few in the area did, but for most folks it would've been more trouble than it was worth to get rid of them.

The two ponies laughed dismissively. It wasn't the first time some idiot tried to play the hero. However, what happened next caused them to choke on their laughs.

Fluttershy pulled out a small leather envelope, which she flipped open. A little badge sparkled in the sun and she shouted. The eyes of the two widened as they stared at it, when the pegasus shouted, “MPD! STOP!”

For a moment, the two criminals stared at each other, then the mare broke the silence. “A cop?! Shit!!”

“Let's run!” Her friend cried out as he was already turning away as he tore the mare's purse out of her hands.

Well, with that everything should've been finished, the dragon thought. Until he saw how the pegasus hurried after the two... into a warren of alleys... “Oh, crap!” He shouted, hurrying after them. How stupid was that pony to just rush into back alleys in this part of Manehattan? Alone! In pursuit of two crooks!

Pursuing the two, Fluttershy had a hard time not to lose them, in the warren of paths. Constantly, they turned into another direction. She didn't stop to think about her way back, nor did she wonder why the two didn't just split up, so that one of them was guaranteed to get away. Finally, the two stopped in a dead end. Apparently, they had overshot their next turn.

Fluttershy panted heavily as she came to a halt around ten meters away from then. “So... finally...I... got you!” Taking deep breaths for a few seconds, she calmed herself down, and then told them, “Hands up! You have the right to...”

She was stopped dead in her tracks, as she saw the the two grinning malevolently as she noticed more figures emerging from the shadows of the alleys to the left and right. “Never seen a cop that stupid!” The mare laughed dismissively. “Your on our turf now, you stupid bitch!”

“Hehe, and you won't wanna leave once we're through with you!” One of her newly arrived friends added. It was a snow white hippogriff. A female one, judging by the voice. Aside of her, there was a zebra stallion, a pair of blue stallions that were obviously twins and a griffon.

Fluttershy's head rapidly moved between the three groups, constantly adjusting her body to be ready against one of them. But she knew that, against so many, if she defended against one group, the others would take her unprepared, and she'd never been the best in the self-defence courses. Against one or two, she had thought she had a decent chance, and more opponents would, if they weren't well attuned to each other, usually get into one another's way. But these guys? They looked like they knew what they were doing... Sweat of fear mixed itself into the the sweat that had built up from the chase. The situation looked dire and fluttershy cursed herself for not having called in before she had started the chase.

“Calm down, Fluttershy!” She told herself, “Calm down! You can do this!... But... Can I? What if...”

The griffon and the hippogriff pulled out zip ties and a gag, while the twins pulled out an assortment of pills and powders, and a syringe filled with... something. “Just another pony that disappeared here... nothing big to report about!” The zebra laughed.

“Don't overdo it! All we need for her is to forget anything that happened the last ten minutes ago... and maybe in the next twenty or so...” One of the females told him.

“Oh no you don't!” A voice shouted into the alley. Fluttershy spun around and saw the green dragon she'd seen earlier storming towards her, his boots' heavy steps echoing through the back alley and his open jeans jacket waving behind him.

The group stared at him with utter disbelief in their eyes, apparently knowing him. “What's he doing here?!” The zebra cried out.

The mare who had been one of the attempted robbers meanwhile asked a different question, but the implications didn't register with Fluttershy. “Why's he helping a cop?!”

“OH CRA....” The griffon shouted, but was interrupted by Fluttershy's hoof hitting his face. They had been so distracted by the charging dragon that they had completely forgot about her! Next, she grabbed the hippogriff that had been standing next to her friend and judo tossed her to the ground, just in time to hear how the dragon crashed into others, judging from the direction probably the zebra and the pony twins. A dull thud reached Fluttershy's ears when one of them was thrown to the ground.

She turned around to see what was going on. The dragon was being attacked by four of them, the Zebra lying on the ground and shaking his head. One of the twin stallions tried to inject whatever was in the syringe was into the dragon, but... “THE FUCKING SYRINGE BENT ON HIS SCALES!” His brother shouted.

Fluttershy gave a short look at her own opponents. The griffon was out cold , a good kick with a horse shoe to the face could have that effect, she chuckled grimly, but his partner was about to get up again. She stared at the pegasus in utter shock, having believed that Fluttershy would've been easy prey even for just two of them. Going with her instinct, Fluttershy pulled out a pair of spare cuffs she'd in her back pocket, knocked the hippogriff down again and cuffed her to a dumpster.

As she turned around again, the mare, the zebra and one of the twins were laid out on the ground, but the the other two were getting the dragon into a bit of a tight spot. He held the other twin in a full nelson, but the stallion Fluttershy had chased was punching him into his side with brass knuckles. The pain in the dragon's face was visible. Dragons were tough but that still had to hurt.

Fluttershy charged! She couldn't allow her savior to take any lasting damage because of her own inaction! She hit a running drop kick on the stallion in the full nelson, and the dragon used the momentum to lift the guy up and throw himself backwards, causing the stallion to come down on the back of his head. He was out cold.

“A dragon suplex?!” Fluttershy panted in surprise and disbelief, as the last one stared in disbelief. From his body movements, it was clear what he wanted to do: Attack the pegasus and use her as bargaining chip to get at least himself out of this situation, but the moment he too his first step towards her, he froze. His eyes were fixed on Fluttershy's, or the be more precise, the hard stare that was in them. A glare of such a steely resolve , on a face that was so unlike that stare, that he was frozen in place.

For his inattention, the dragon low blowed him as she was getting back to his feet and the pegasus used the moment when the stallion was bent over, clutching his groin in pain, for a well placed kick against the temple.

The hippogriff, who was angrily rattling her cuffs , aside, all of the gang was unconscious. “Unfortunately, I only had one pair of cuffs with me... but maybe...” She checked the pockets of the hippogriff and found more zip ties. “How nice of them to provide their own cuffs...” She grimly observed as she and the dragon tied the others up, arms and legs. And then, for added measure, tied them together. After they had stripped them of any hidden knifes and such.

Finally, Fluttershy turned to her savior. “Thank you for your help! I don't want to imagine what...” But he just waved her off, in a 'not a big thing' gesture. “What's your name by the way?” She asked him.

“I'm Spike!” He told her and then asked her the same, “And your name is?”

“Fluttershy!” She replied, her voice jumping a bit from the adrenaline still running through her body.

The dragon's nostrils widened as he sniffed the air, when her smell hit his nose. It was a pleasant smell, like a meadow full of flowers, and a hint of forest after rain. “You smell nice!”

“What?!” Fluttershy hadn't expected this. “Uhm... thank you, I guess?”

“Sorry!” He chuckled, “We dragons have a fine sense of smell, so I couldn't help but notice it. Now, Fluttershy, I guess you'll be calling your colleagues... I'd prefer it if you'd leave me out of this. I mean, your word against theirs should be enough, especially if the mare also tells her story!”

“But, why wouldn't you want to testify?” She asked him, confused that one wouldn't want to testify after such an event.

“Too much of a hassle. And I'm not going to stay here long! I got stuff to do!” He tried to wind his way out. And, apparently, it worked. To his own surprise.

She made a short call, turning over for a moment, her hand over the speaker of her phone, and asked him where exactly they were. After her call was over, Fluttershy returned to Spike. “So, two patrol cars should be here in twenty minutes or so, apparently there was an accident which is causing delays. Can you maybe show me how to get back to the street?”

He laughed as he lead her down the alley to their right, from where the twins and the zebra had come, partially to show her the way, but also to get themselves out of sight and hearing range to the those goons. “Yeah, this is a bit of a labyrinth, ain't it? Right-right-left-left-right and you're back at the street from which you started!”

“They really led myself around by the sound of that!” She chuckled herself, somewhat exasperated at having been led around like that. “Would you mind waiting with me at least for a while? I'd feel safer that way...”

“No problem! Know what? I'll stay with you until the sirens are nearby, but then I'm gone!” The dragon told her as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.

She looked at him, asking the the obvious, "You smoke?"

"Sometimes,” He answered, before adding, “Rarely.”

Fluttershy gave him a disapproving look. "You know that smoking isn't good for you, right?"

Spike snorted "For you ponies maybe. Considering what's going on inside us dragons to allow us to breathe fire, and considering that we can live inside of volcanoes... cigarettes are pretty much harmless to us!"

Then, from his other pocket, he procured a golden zippo with a silver flame engraved on the sides.

"A lighter?” She asked, confused, “Can't you just use your fire breath?"

"Sure I could. But I prefer not to feel like a glorified lighter. It's also a bit safer. Sneeze while you want to light a cig with fire breath, and you might need to repaint a wall or some ponies suffer a sudden loss of fur. Also, a nice zippo has style."

After a minute or two of somewhat awkward silence, Fluttershy again had a question: “How can I thank you for helping me?”

Spike thought for a while before answering. When he did, he shot her a teeth filled grin first. “How about a kiss?

“What?!” The pegasus was shocke.

“A kiss by a cute mare like you would be ample reward for me!” He told her. It should've sounded matter-of-factly, but with the grin, it felt somewhat off.

“I-I-I mean...” The mare blushed, having always been bad at handling advances and compliments in general. “You see... I.... you... I mean...”

Suddenly, Spike pressed his lips against Fluttershy's, blowing the smoke from his mouth into hers. He moved forward, pressing her against the brick wall behind her, his left hand next to her shoulder, his right fixing both of her arms over her head.. At first, she wanted to protest, the sound of her attempted complaints muffled by his lips as his tongue used this as chance to enter her mouth and play with her tongue. It was wrong, and she wanted it to stop! But another voice inside of her spoke up.

It told her, that the kiss felt good! That she, Fluttershy, should allow herself to get intimate, to be wanted! To not always be the cute wallflower, doing the best to hide her looks! Slowly, her eyes closed as she enjoyed this feeling. To be kissed by this dragon in some back alley... It felt... thrilling! And exciting! Then, Fluttershy felt how how his left hand moved over her spine, stopping just above her butt and part of her wanted that he'd continue! Wanted his hand to move down her to her thighs, maybe left her leg up! But then, he broke their kiss. The pegasus felt relieved, but also disappointed.

The dragon laughed a bit “Ehehe... sorry! I just couldn't control myself, you looked too cute!”

As she exhaled, smoke shot out of her nostrils. Her body began to feel... warm. Not unpleasantly so, but in a weird way. It kind of reminded her of heat “It-it... It's alright! You... you only surprised me, that's all!”

Finally, they noticed the blaring sirens, having forgotten about the time that had passed. “I... I'm being expected..." Fluttershy mumbled as Spike was preparing to run. But before she could leave, or he could run he grabbed her hand and pressed something into it.

“Here, take this! Come to the address on it, if you want to have a fun evening!” He shouted to her as he rushed towards the the prisoners, stopping for a moment, apparently to check on them. Fluttershy opened her hand and looked at the object. It was a necklace of some sorts, with a badge on it saying “Club Tartarus”, and an address on the backside. She quickly shoved it into her pocket and hurried on, to lead her colleagues to them.

She told her story, leaving out Spike's interference, the mare told her story, and apparently hadn't noticed Spike or thought him unimportant and, to her surprise, the criminals themselves also left out the dragon!

She'd been reprimanded for her recklessness, and Rainbow Dash didn't let her hear the end of charging into a situation like that without her, but at the same time, having taking out that gang also gained her some newfound respect from her colleagues, having proven that she could handle herself in such a situation after all. The pegasus had breathed a sigh of relief when she heard that they, of course, tried to make themselves look completely innocent, but never once mentioned a dragon!

And, she still wondered why, she never told any of her colleagues about her going to this club, once she decided she'd do so. Gilda, Rainbow Dash and some of the others probably would've demanded to accompany her and Fluttershy had to admit, for some reason she didn't want that...

Fluttershy got torn out her thoughts when she nearly crashed into the back of a pretty long line of creatures, hoping to be allowed in. The wait would take ages! But then, a young, slim, brown stallion in a suit, probably part of the club's security standing at next to her, probably looking out for ponies trying to cut the line, noticed that she was holding something.

He pointed at her right hand, the chain on the badge handing out of her fist. She gave him a confused look, which he replied to by pointing at her hand again and at himself. Now Fluttershy realized that he wanted her to show it to him. Slowly, she raised her arm, slowly, she opened her hand. The stallion took a good look at the badge and then pointed towards the entrance and at a huge, red, broad-shouldered stallion, checking the hopeful entrants.

If she interpreted the gesture correctly, the guy had, just now, told her to skip the line and go to the entrance directly. And, when she walked around the line, he didn't try to stop her. She didn't notice how the brown stallion talked into his earpiece.

Doing her best to ignore the angered murmurs of the line, Fluttershy arrived at the entrance door. The big stallion shot her a stare that nearly made her flinch, but she managed to calm herself down. She showed him what she had in her hand, adding, insecurely, “I-I-I am being e-expected. Kind off...”

The stallion looked at her, then at the badge in her hand. He pointed his thumb behind his back, to indicate her to enter.