Will To Survive

“Fear strikes the citizens of Manehattan as a bomb was detonated in a small pipe shop near Downtown Manehattan. The explosion was large enough to demolish the apartment building above it in mere seconds after the initial blast.

So far, twenty are confirmed dead and five injured…”

Congratulations, I just earned a hundred thousand bits, and all it cost was the lives of twenty ponies…

I lay unmoved on the couch staring blankly into the cracking white ceiling above me. It was hard to regain myself after seeing the explosion, the fire, the people trapped inside. The whole day was wasted, lying in one spot, doing nothing.

After some time I had managed to roll myself off the sofa and onto my hooves, each feeling weak as I tried to walk. Not sure what I’m trying to do, but I felt I needed to do something. After a minute or so of standing mindlessly in one place I was able to move myself onto the streets.

It was late, just beginning to get dark, only half of Celestia’s sun was visible in the horizon. Beginning to walk up the broken stone staircase I was stopped by Black Mail in front of me.

“Hey, I was coming to ask if you wanted to play some poker over at Mercurial’s place. You in?”

I sighed, “Sure.”

Mercurial lived in a small apartment above a bakery about two miles down the road. The fresh scent of the baked goods managed to keep the smell of the junk and garbage at bay. From what I hear, the baker on purpose ventilates the scent out of his store and onto the streets as a way to lure in customers. Not sure if it works, but it makes the place smell nice. We entered in the front and walked up to his apartment on the top floor. Black Mail had said his place was very small, he wasn’t over exaggerating.

The place only had three room; bedroom, bathroom, and a combination of the living room and the kitchen. When Black Mail and I walked in, we sat down at a small red tainted circle table. The boss, whose name I still didn’t know, Mercurial, Golden, Dimlight, and Roseberry Bud were here as well.

I place myself at one of the seats close to the window overlooking the streets. With the large table in the small room, I was crammed in the corner. Two cards flung over to me and a few poker chips were placed by my side by Golden.

A quick glance at my cards drops my attitude even more, junk cards. Immediately off the bat I fold, a conversation was happening, but my mind was focused to the jazz music playing on the low-budget radio on the counter. Roseberry Bud looks up from her cards at me and taps my shoulder.

“Hey, why are so down? Last time I saw you, you were all excited to kill some dude.” She tosses her cards on the table.

I smile at what she said. “I wasn’t really excited,” Roseberry cut me off.

“Nah, you came in all happy n’ shit, checkin’ out all the stuff in my store. Don’t you lie to me!” She had a large smile on her face.

“I’ll admit it was interesting,” Again, she cut me off.

“So what has got ya down?” She grabs both my cheeks and pulls me only inches from her face. “You’re holdin’ out on me and you’re not tellin’ me! What is it!?”

I pull myself away from her. “Nothing, really, I’m just down I guess.”

Roseberry grabs her drink which appeared to be an orange juice with the aroma of vodka. “Whatever you say.”

Black Mail pulls in all the chips he’d just won from that hand. After all the cards were put back together and shuffled two more were thrown to me, two kings. When my turn came I went all in, hopefully they’d all fold and I’d get an easy win.

DimLight had other plans; he continues to do the same. Everyone else had folded so all five cards were placed on the table. An ace, two queens, a ten, and a king. I had a full house with my kings. I place my cards on the table with pride, but DimLight seemed more satisfied after I had done that.

Over on the other side of table, Dimlight shows two aces, he also had a full house, but he won due to his cards being higher. My heart sank as he pulls in all the chips on the table.

“Hey, you can buy back in if you want.” Dimlight said neatly stacking his chips with a smile.

“Nah, I’ll just watch.” My intentions to stay were now slim.

The news began on the radio. I was almost certain they would take about my explosion, but instead they start off on a happier subject.

“So, are you excited for Hearts and Hooves day?” the announcer said in a joyous fashion.

“Oh, Hearts and Hooves day,” Roseberry starts with an overly sarcastic demeanor, “such a great holiday.”

Mercurial looks away from her and looks to the boss who had a faded expression of disappointment on his face; his cards must have been bad because he immediately folded.

“So boss, you getting a lady of the night on Hearts and Hooves day?” Mercurial said with a smile and raising one of his eyebrows.

The boss lifted his head slowly with a grim look. He stared down Mercurial for a second before speaking. “I dedicate my life to one.” He looks back down and grabs his drink.

“Yeah right,” Golden whispers to herself in a joking manner, she speaks up. “This is coming from the stallion that’s been divorced three times.” She says looking at Mercurial.

The boss slowly looks over at Golden sitting next to him, still with an unsatisfied look. Golden leans back on the two hind legs of the chairs. She laughs as she glorifies at her remark. The boss wasn’t taking any of it. He looks down at the legs of her chair and kicks one of them out. Golden fumbles and crashes to the ground. The boss looks up and slides her cards across the table.

“She folds,” he said also taking half her chips.

It was impossible to hold back a small laugh. Black Mail grabs the cards that were given to him and looks at them. He had a stone cold poker face, but he looked as if he was losing it. He looked at me and acted fast.

“So Blue, what are you doing for Hearts and Hooves day?”

My ears slink down when he told me that. I’ve always hated this day, mainly due to me being single every single year.

“Nothing I guess, I’ve never gone on a date before.” All eyes turn towards me with shock and confusion, Roseberry’s mouth was wide open. “What?”

In the small silence, Mercurial was the first to break it. “I thought you and Cosmic were going out.” Roseberry nods her head in agreement.

“No, we’re just friends.”

A golden hoof slams on the table as Golden works her way back up. “Well,” She gets up and looks at everyone at the table. “We need to get him a date for Hearts and Hooves day. And I’m sure we all think he should ask out Cosmic.”

“Of course he should! Cosmic has been waiting for him to for a while!” Roseberry adds, which sends another moment of silence in the room, but this time, the eyes were directed at her.

“Cosmic has been waiting for Bl…” Black Mail pauses, “Okay, Blue, ask out Cosmic, and go do something for Hearts and Hooves day.”

“How?” I asked which made Mercurial put his head down on the table and put his hooves on top of his head. He lifts his head up and looks at me.

“Okay, here’s what you do. You know she likes dubstep right?”

“Yeah, she plays it nonstop.”

“Okay, well, one of her favorite artist, DJ-Pon3, is going to be playing on Hearts and Hooves day at The Longrass. Go there, get tickets, go to her place, and ask her to go, plain and simple.” He looks away back to his cards.

I still sat at the table with Mercurial staring me down. After a few minutes I squeezed my way out of the corner I was trapped in and headed out the door. Roseberry threw out a few last words of encouragement.

“Good luck!”

===

After a long walk to get the tickets that cost more than expected, I headed to Cosmics house. The old battered down buildings were a sign of another bad neighborhood, but one home had an exception. The grass was somewhat alive and green, the paint looked new, no broken windows, and an open feeling of a home. The thing that was surprising was that it was Cosmics house. It’s nearly eleven by the time I walked up on the porch, the only part of the house that was visibly damaged by age and weathering.

Nervousness got the best of me; I stumbled as I neared the door. Even with the feeling of failure and embarrassment filling me, I managed to knock on her door. There wasn’t an answer for a while, which made it seem as if she wasn’t around. This wasn’t the case, the door creaked open a little to show Cosmic hiding slightly behind it. When she noticed it was me, she opened the door further.

“Hey Blue, what are you doing you?” She asks letting me inside and sitting down on her green recliner.

Inside her house was a small modern style with some neat furniture, but at the same time, it wasn’t. Instead of window blinds, she has some think blankets nailed to the walls around them to cover the windows. Her house was used as general storage as some boxes of junk you would see in attics or basements were cluttered in the corner, and some garbage was lying on the ground such as empty bottles.

On her coffee table in the center of a circle of chairs and one long couch, was a dismantled sniper rifle.

“Uh, what’s with the sniper?” I asked as she picks one piece up with her magic.

“Cleaning it for Roseberry,” She continues with cleaning it with a white rag covered in black and brown spots. “So, what can I do for you?”

“Well, um,” Nervousness began to kick in as I slowly shook in place. “I was, uh, you see,”

Cosmic puts the piece of the weapon down and looks at me confused. This made no sense, how could I be a drug peddler, murderer, and full on criminal with no fear of committing the actions. I detonated a building killing all the people inside, but to ask Cosmic out was locking me up.

“I uh,” I paused again. Son of a bitch.

“What are you doing?” She says with a laugh and a small nervous smile.

“I was wondering if you’d… like to….” Again, my mind locked up.

“Like to… what?” Her ears go back, but she still had the nervous smile.

“If you want to, go, with me,” I froze again, “If you want to go to…” and again.

Cosmic put her head down and begins to laugh, after a minute she raises her head with tears of laughter in her eyes. “Oh please hurry up before you embarrass yourself anymore.”

I sighed to take a moment to relax; she knew what I was trying to do at this point. “I was wonder if you, want to go on a date.”

She chuckled one last time. “Sure, what did you have in mind to do?”

Still a bit shaky, but beginning to stop. “I, uh, got two tickets to DJ-Po…” I was cut off by her.

“DJ-PON3! YES!” She jumps over to the table and embraces me in a hug. “I’ve always wanted to go to one of her concerts! When are we going?” She lets go of me and stands next to me with a smile that looked as if all muscles in her face were in use.

“On Hearts and Hooves day.” I said showing her the tickets.

“Awesome, first time I’ll be on a date on Hearts and Hooves day.” Her smile goes down as she relaxes.

“First time?” I give a confused look.

“Never been in a relationship that lasted long enough to get to that day. Well anyway, this will be lots of fun!” She gives me another hug, “I have to finish getting this thing ready for Roseberry, you can stick around if you’d like.”

“Sure,”

The rest of the time was spent talking about mostly the DJ we were going to see, but she also gave me a quick rundown of her past boyfriends, each, she criticized harshly.

After a few hours I eventually left and went back to the coffee shop above Sparky’s Den. Now it’s time to wait until Hearts and Hooves day, only a few days until then.

===

Three Days Later

Tonight was the date I was having with Cosmic, but instead of nervousness, I felt excitement. Never before have I gone a date, but it was all about to change.

I walk over to Cosmic’s to get her and head over to The Longrass. When I knocked at her door, in the same rhythm that’s done at Sparky’s, Cosmic opens it up to show her wearing a white hoody.

“Hey, you ready to go?” I asked as she steps outside.

“Yeah,” Her horn glows and the sound of locks click on the inside of her door, “let’s go.”

We started to walk over the club in which was hosting the DJ pony. Cosmic had a stuck facial expression of happiness and her biting her bottom lip. She was a bit silent the way over there. We got to the line on the outside of the building. Cosmics attitude changed to even more excitement.

I look at Cosmic with a smile, “I’ve never seen you like this before.”

She calms down, “That’s because my life is spent either in Sparky’s Den or running for my life.”

“Running for your life?” I ask as she stops for a second and looks at me.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” We get to the front of the line, hand the two tickets to the pony collecting them and head inside. Inside the front door, it was dark with a low amount of music playing. Cosmic changers her attitude quickly back to her hyperactive excitement.

Once inside, we managed to squeeze our way near the middle of the large crowd. After about a half hour later the lights dim down to the point we were in noisy darkness. A few lights appear on a small stage were the disk jockey appeared. A white mare with two blue colors in her mane wearing purple goggles appeared in front of the large audience which reacted in a cheer. She waved her hooves in the air as she levitates one of the records onto the turntables.

The music began to play and the large group inside began to go wild. Ponies began to dance where they stood moving to the beat of the music as well as the flashing multicolored lights that were synced to the beat. The building was flourishing with a wave a natural and artificial ecstasy. Cosmic had lost herself in the music and scenery and was jumping in place with the beat, along with every other pony in the building. It wasn’t long before I joined in and was hopping in place along with them.

Hours past in what seemed like minutes. The music began to die down as the crowd calmed, but went back to its upbeat lively attitude and the building began to vibrate as the subwoofers created a wave of physical assault from the music. Soon, it was over, and the DJ left behind the electrified countertop. The crowd cheered for an encore, it became inevitable she wasn’t coming back, unfortunately.

Cosmic and I, after a half hour on trying to get back into the streets, stood outside in the self-illuminated city shaking from the party that had just rocked us. After a few moments of just standing there trying to regain focus, Cosmic grabs ahold of me.

“Hey, want to go to a bar before we head back?”

“Sure,” I was tired but didn’t want to refuse the offer, one more place wouldn’t hurt.

===

After about a half hour of walking through the crowded streets, we headed inside a pub called the Caravan. It was one of the larger ones on the city that’s usually packed, but most of the ponies that come here must have been at the show. Matter of fact: many of the ponies that were here now were at the concert.

The place was a basic pub, but it had a more retro style to it that a large number of ponies liked. This place was almost a club; all it needed was a dance floor. There was a DJ, but he wasn’t trying to get everyone livened up. He played more chilled music at this time.

Cosmic and I took some seats that were up at the counter of the bar. We started off with just two beers. The intension of getting drunk wasn’t here, just a small drink before ending our night. While sitting there and talking mostly about the concert, surprisingly, Cosmic decides to change the topic.

“Thanks for taking me out tonight, I don’t get out very often.”

“How come?” I ask to keep this conversation rolling. Talking about the concert was getting old fast.

“Ever since I got into this business I’ve been cooped up in either Sparky’s or Roseberry’s shop. If I’m not doing either of those I’m raiding some place or staying at my house.” She takes a drink from her bottle. “The repetitiveness can get to you sometimes. And, just, yeah,” She takes another drink.

“Sounds a bit boring.”

“Yeah, but it sort of worth it, a large pay, easy work, and respect; all I’ve ever wanted.” She looks down at her bottle. “Respect though is what I ask of the most and it’s very rarely given anymore.”

As soon as I was about to speak up, a drunken stallion stumbled over to the bar next to Cosmic and places his half-filled bottle on the bar, leans on the counter and stares at Cosmic.

“Hey, there, you, what you doin’ tonight?” His speech was slurred, but understandable.

Cosmic leans her head on her hoof and looks at me with an unsatisfied and disapproving face. “See what I mean, no respect.”

The drunk fellow wraps his arm around her, “Oh, I cun show ya some repect.”

With quick speeds Cosmic pushes him off her. “Hey buddy, touch me again and you’ll regret it.” Cosmic looks away and back to me.

“Oh come on,” The stallion places his hoof on her leg. “Lithen up.”

Cosmics eyes go wide, she snaps around and grabs his head and slams his forehead down on the bottle he had brought over. She lifts him back up and lets go, the stallion falls off the stool and onto the ground.

The entire building became quiet, even the DJ had stopped the music. All eyes in the pub were staring at us. I tap Cosmic’s shoulder and got up, Cosmic does the same. However, our moment to get out was cut short when a quarter of the crowd that was staring at us pulled out weapons and aimed them at us. They must not have thought this through, because the obvious happened and the crowd began to freak out and started to rush to the exits. Some felt heroic and charged the ponies with the weapons, but it didn’t last long before they were shot.

Cosmic and I hopped over the bar and hid behind it. The bartender was even crouched behind the counter and shaking in fear. Cosmic unzips her hoody to show she had two pistols and a few clips. She slides one over to me and loads the one she had. The pistol she gave to me was a loaded .45. We stayed behind the counters until the panic calmed down. However, at this point, we had no idea where the armed ponies were at.

It was silent for a moment before one of the ponies spoke up. “Come on out and we won’t shoot you.”

The bartender begins to stand up with his hooves in the air, “Okay, okay, I’m coming out.”

“NO!” Cosmic yells quietly to get him to get down, but it was too late. The bartender stood up on his hind legs to reveal himself to the ponies, but his hope of survival was gone when a barrage of bullets hit him with enough force to push him to the wall of bottles. His body was suspended on the wall for a moment before he plummeted to the ground covered in shattered glass and spilt liquor.

There was another moment of silence as the Cosmic and I leaned behind the counter. Cosmic looked franticly with her head around the bar. She noticed an unbroken liquor bottle. This wasn’t weak stuff; it was the strongest kind you can get without it being pure alcohol. She grabs the almost full bottle and uses her magic to get the white cloth out of the bartender shirt pocket.

She opens the bottle and shoves the cloth in the hole. She sits with her eyes closed and her ears perked up listening to the steps of the enemy’s. The sound of some louder steps to her right alarmed her. She looks at me and lifts her gun and points in that direction, telling me to fire over there on her signal.

“Come on out, make this easy on yourself!” This came from our left. Without a second though, Cosmic lights the Molotov and throws it at the pony that spoke and slings out her pistol and fires at a pony that was next to him. I stood up and shot at the pony she pointed out hitting him in the head on the first shot.

The other ponies ducked for cover while a few slid there way closer to the exit. Cosmic and I jump over the counter and made our way to the small wall that separated the bar from the eating areas. Cosmic points me to go right while she takes the left. We begin crawling our separate ways to meet head on with our opposing forces. As I pop around the corner there was already another pony there, but he wasn’t paying attention. I put the pistol to his head and shot. I look around the corner to see four other ponies look in my direction. I duck back behind before they unloaded towards me.

This created a perfect diversion. Cosmic had managed to grab one of the ponies and dragged him around the corner; his fate was inevitable when another gunshot went off. She pops her head around the corner and shoots a pony that began charging me. I pop around the corner and fired at another who had his sights on Cosmic.

Back and forth we popped in and out and crawled our way to the exit, when we opened the door, a sight we didn’t expect occurred. Outside was twelve police officers all aiming their pistols and hiding behind their wagons.

“DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”

Cosmic pushes me out of the way and uses her magic to shut the door. We run over to the back and try our way in escaping through the kitchen. We stopped at the door and Cosmic hands me another clip and opened her coat to pull out two silencers. I stare at her with disbelieving eyes.

“What don’t use the silencers?” she asked as the screws one on her pistol with her magic.

“Why didn’t we use the back exit before?”

Cosmic pauses for a second before finishing attaching the silencer. “I don’t know I’m not thinking straight! Anyway, they’re going to back here. When this door is opened, don’t hesitate to shoot.”

“Alright, what’s your plan?”

“An exit through the sewers, there’s an entrance back here. Ready?”

I reloaded my pistol, attached the silencer, and nodded my head. She uses her magic to open the door. There are only about five ponies back here. Like she said, don’t hesitate, and we began to open fire on the unsuspecting officers that blocked our path to freedom. It didn’t take much, all officers were hit and down without them even firing one shot. One managed to survive and was trying to crawl for cover. She rolled over on her back and was about to scream for help.

Cosmic showed no mercy and shot her before she opened her mouth. We ran down a nearby alleyway and kept using the dark alleys until we got far enough from the pub. When we were far enough, Cosmic used her magic to fling open one of the sewer grate and we jumped in and got inside before we were seen by any of the pedestrians.

Cosmic uses her horn to illuminate the darkness and leads me down the path. After walking on a small walkway in the sewer keeping us out of the dirty water, a door on the wall lead us into the subway tunnels. It was only a half hour later running through the subways did I finally recognize were we were. She banged on a big metal door in a rhythm. It opened up to show Roseberry inside with her eyes half closed and bloodshot.

“Whoa, Cosmic?” she looks over to me, “and Blue, what you guys doin’ here?”

Cosmic pushes her aside and lets me in. “Oh,” She pauses and smiles at Roseberry. “We went to a bar and we had a little mishap, that’s all.” Cosmic looks to me a chuckles in which I do the same.

Roseberry was obviously to out of it to recognize Cosmics sarcasm. “Huh, alright.” Roseberry slowly walks over to the couch where the radio was playing static and the floor was littered with empty potato chip bags.

After waiting in Roseberry’s dimly lit shop for about twenty minutes, we headed out and I walked with her back to her house. After a few minutes of nervous walking, we got back to her house. I walked with her to the front door and she stops and embraces me in a hug, in which I gladly return.

“Thank you for an amazing night.”

“Amazing? We got in the middle of a shootout.” I asked as she lets me go.

“I know, but we got out alive, and we got to go to an amazing concert with my favorite artist! There is no way I can thank you enough.” She pauses looking at me before giving another hug. However, instead of just letting go, she only releases me half way and gives me a kiss.

The few seconds that seemed like forever ended and she walked back inside her house with a smile on her face. I was in a small haze for a second before coming back from it. The realization took a minute before it hit me; that was my first kiss.

I walked back to Sparky’s Den overloaded with pride and joy. The one thing I thought would never happen had occurred. Once I reached Sparky’s Den I walked in on her packaging the powder in bags.

“Hey Blue! How was your date with Cosmic?” She asks.

“It went good,” the clock said two in the morning, “well, I’m going to bed.”

“Nighty night!” She goes back to wrapping the remaining amount of powder. There was a large shipment going out, she must be finishing up the rest.

I lay in the recliner and lean back. It wasn’t long before I passed out, but not without looking back on the past few months.

I had lots of money, the work I was doing was fun, indeed risky, but fun nevertheless. The ponies I have met are fun to be around and good friends, and to top it off, I got my first girlfriend.

For once, life is leaning to my favor.

===

“In other news, a local pub in downtown Manehattan was the location of a gruesome shootout on the day of love. A few hours after the DJ-Pon3 concert, the shootout was caused by a few ponies that just came from there.

Twenty are confirmed dead, and three seriously injured. Some of the ponies inside were a part of the terrorist organization, Vimont. Whether this was a gang assault or not has yet to be confirmed. The deceased are being taken to the mortuary where they will identify.

Police say that one of the shooters that had got away was Cosmic Joy, a pony that the Royal Guard have been searching for the past two years. Any whereabouts on her location please report to your local police station.

===