Will To Survive

by WazaTastix

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Adventure
Length: 41156

Crime does pay, but at a heavy cost. When the cost becomes to much, only one thing can repay it.

Manehattan was a city filled with prosperity and utmost of riches. However, when all of it is lost, the ones who lived inside will do just about anything to get it back, and the ones who never had it will do anything to get there share of it. Over the years, greed has began to run the city, and it's tearing itself apart.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-04-07 16:18:29 UTC

Chapter One: An Average Nopony

Survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden.

– Gerda Weissmann Klein

=====

Chapter 1: An Average Nopony

We all want to live a life of prosperity, happiness, and success. Sometimes it’s easy to grab ahold of and stay on, and for other it’s out of reach. When the dreams we wish are just inches from our grasp, we do thing to get to them, and we do actions to obtain it, at any cost. Lives will seem meaningless to ours. We’ll crush theirs to grow our own. Our greed can do so much, so fast. It’s a sight to see how one life can end many to feed his bottomless hunger. There is no fix; it’s our nature, no matter who we are.

Even I wasn’t invulnerable to my own selfishness…

========

When I was young I was a typical individual. A dark blue stallion pegasus with a spiky mane with shades of red. What made me stand out the most were my eyes. I had heterochromia iridum, a discoloration of the eye or other parts of the body. In my case, it was my eyes. My left eye had shades of red with green while my right had brown with shades of blue. I got it when I had an eye infection when I was a baby, then medication along with the infection caused the wacky discoloration.

I lived in Manehattan, and still do today. If you looked at me when I was around my schoolyard or walking around the city you would have never depicted how my life was. I looked normal, like everypony else, except for a few things

My life was pitiful as a child. I hadn’t got my cutie mark yet, so at my school I was mocked for that. I had no idea what my special talent was. Besides that, I wasn’t a social pony. I didn’t like being around other because I never fit in, at all. I was considered a creep. Although I didn’t talk much I still got in trouble, mainly because the bullies at my school were clever. They found ways to commit problems and successfully frame kids at school, the bastards. I remember getting called to the principal’s office multiple times ‘cause of those guys.

Although I was a social outcast and had a record at the school for being “unstable”, I was probably the most normal in my class. One of the kids in my class named DimLight was probably the biggest outcast. I felt bad for him, mainly because his wings were removed when he was little. He got an infection or something in which he had to have them removed. He was brutally ripped and abused for that at school. At one point his constant picking caused him to snap. Violently, he attacked a bully and began to curb stomp him during recess. I still remember the teachers running over and removing him from the kid, the ambulance flying in to get the kid to the hospital. DimLight didn’t show up to school the next day, and to be honest, I never saw him again after that. The kid who was attacked was fine, but he and his family moved from the city. I think they went to Vanhoover or somewhere in that area.

I didn’t have any parents and was living at an old orphanage on the outskirts of the city. I forgot the name, and frankly I don’t want to remember. The owner was evil, she was abusive. The other kids and I tried to get her in trouble, but she was a crafty witch. So trying to get her taken away was impossible. Many kids ran away, but I stayed. It was a place to sleep and eat, that’s all that mattered to me.

After those dreadful years had passed it felt refreshing to look forward to a new start. However, reality has a unique way of changing its mind rapidly. I worked hard to look for a job, find a cheap apartment, and work to earn an honest living. I kept getting fired. Times were hard, they still are, and everypony was getting laid off left and right. Like a kid popping balloons on a wall with darts, just one by one.

It was only a matter of time before I started to suffer. Money doesn’t bring happiness, but it keeps ponies alive. Rent was due and I was broke. The inevitable happened and I was kicked out, and at the worst possible time. Winter was just around the corner, and now I have nowhere to go. I wasn’t the only one. Much of Manhattan’s population was suffering, especially a few years ago.

You see, in Manehattan about two or three years ago was the end to Manehattan’s pure prosperity. The city’s economy turned for the worst, ponies lost their jobs, businesses collapsed, and worst of all, nopony knew why.

Civilized ponies became savages, killing each other over common necessities; occasionally there were riots and just a lot of destruction. It wasn’t long before ponies began working together forming groups and organizations. Soon, the greed was too great and each of them began killing each other. There was street wars, and mindless killing. Sometimes the battles got so intense they would cause mass devastation in parts of the city. I remember walking through one neighborhood and it looked like a barren wasteland. The debris and rubble with destroyed buildings from incendiary attacks. The trees we burned or had fallen over onto the streets, all the businesses were closed as well. It was a saddening sight to witness.

It wasn’t long before the Royal Guard and the military became involved. There were battles between the two, almost constant warfare. I remember waking up in the morning; hearing gunshots happen so close I wondered if I was the target. There were times I had to kill to stay alive from these psychotic ponies. You just have to do what you can to stay alive.

          However, Shining Armor and the city managed to regain control. The problem was tranquilized, but not removed. Even after those days the problem is still around. It isn’t as bad as it was, but I know there are still a couple of the organizations around still doing their business, not sure what they’re doing to make a profit though. Shining Armor has left the city mayor to keep control, but I think he is doing a horrible job.

= = =

It’s has been seven months sense I was kicked out of my apartment. Time has kept going, and I have needed to keep myself moving, even though I’m already hurt. I can’t even fly I’m so weak. I haven’t eaten in days, and sleep has been a pain as well. If it wasn’t for that drinking fountain down the street, I would have died months ago.

          At this point, I begin to question my existence. No money, house, job, friends, or known relatives, if I even have any. I need money, more than anything else I needed to get some money.

          While on a walk around town I heard a voice calling out my name. It was full of joy and disbelief, kind of a strange sound to be heard, especially directed toward me. I look over my shoulder to see some brown pegasus stallion walking toward me. Who is this? I didn’t know this pony walking to me, but he did. He gets next to me and taps my shoulder.

“Hey there Blue, how are you? Do you remember me?”

I blankly stare at him. His smile kind of goes down a little until he realizes I have no idea who he is. There was a bit of silence until he finally speaks back up.

“DimLight, from school, remember?”

My eyes went wide open. “Oh, whoa, hey how are you?”

“I’m good,” he and I stand there chatting up about times in school. He told me that he was arrested after going after that kid. When he got out he was sent to a different school. After a while he asked me a question I didn’t want answer.

“So what do you do for a living?”

I didn’t want to say I was jobless, so I decided to lie him.

“I work at the store.” I sort of mumbled while refusing eye contact.

“Oh? Which store would that be?”

Shit, I walked right into that one. My brain hasn’t been functioning properly with bad sleeping and lack of food. I guess I should just be honest with him.

“Forget it. I’m actually jobless. I have been trying to get a job, but have had no luck lately and…”

“You need a job?” He interrupted. “Well, I guess you can help me out with my stuff. I could always use the help,”

I was shocked. He was going to offer me a job, just like that? I couldn’t believe it. I was so relieved to hear that he was offering a job to me on such a short notice.

“Yea that would be great! W-what do you need me to do?” I was trembling a little in my mind.

“Just swings by my apartment on Walnut Street. Gold Pegasus Apartments, number 317.”

I was a bit surprised he was so open to offer me this opening. I though he was being generous, I gave him a smile and nod. At this point he said he needed to get going, I didn’t even realize it was ten o’clock. Before we departed he said this,

“Be at my place tomorrow morning around seven. My colleagues would be happy to have you on our side.”

Those last few words repeated in my mind all the way back to my place like an annoying song, but more disturbing.

My colleagues would be happy to have you on our side.

The reason was I wanted to know what “side” I was going to be on. More importantly, what did he mean by side. This wasn’t something that a normal buisnesspony would just say to anypony. This question was constantly flickering through my mind until I got home, well you could say home.

I lived in a pretty bad neighborhood. The building all look like they’re war torn and distraught. They sagging and are in very bad shape. The streets were still made out of cobblestone; they hadn’t reconstructed them to the cities new paved roads like you see downtown. Many of the windows are shattered in a lot of the building, although most are abandoned. The city hasn’t fixed them up, basically letting this place die.

          I lived in an abandoned apartment complex. It was abandoned due to it catching fire about a year ago, but they didn’t take it down like all the others. I didn’t like it, but it was better than living on the streets. I walk in and sat on the floor in what I claimed as my living room. It was a worn down to the point the dry wall was discolored, rotting, and falling off. Some mice would scurry around, but I didn’t mind. I boarded up the window so people on the street didn’t see inside, although I wasn’t doing anything illegal, except trespassing oddly enough. The floors creaked as you walked, and on some occasions they would give in and your leg would fall through. There was actually a huge hole in the corner of the living room where it gave out when I was covering up a window, which was very painful.

          I get up and sulk my way over to another empty room I claimed was my bedroom. There was nothing in this lowly apartment of mine. I wish I could put something in there, like find an old chair in the street or something. Most of all I wish I could find something soft to sleep on. The floor gets very cold around this time of year and the hard, splintery, wooden floors don’t help. Every night as I lay of the ground, I look out the hole smashed through the wall about the size of a window. I see the fog rolling in. It’s actually a soothing sight. The fog and cold air always made me feel comfortable, except when I try to sleep. As I lay on the floor looking out the window, I slowly drifted into an uncomfortable sleep.

= = =

       The next morning I start walking over to DimLight’s place. I will admit I was a bit nervous. However, at this point I am willing to do anything so my stomach will stop growling. Honestly, I didn’t know if I wanted to do it, but I carried on anyway. It could be weeks or months to find another job. I have to take my chances.

       That’s the world we lived in. You have to take chances to get ahead. The city used to be lively and full of jobs. There were so many jobs that ponies were actually moving into the city looking to get ahold of one. For over a decade it was like this. Once the economy took the dive that dreamed was over. There are still a few problems like that in certain parts of the city which are under heavy care by the Princess and her teams to help revive those parts.

       I finally arrived to Walnut Street about an hour later. To my surprise it was a good looking neighborhood. Shops were lively in the morning with warm enthusiastic faces. People said hello to me as I walked past them, which never happens on my side of the city. Building stood tall and proud, gleaming in the sunshine with freshly cleaned windows. I came across the apartments that I suspected to be the same one DimLight lives in. It was in perfect shape, almost looked brand new. It’s a tall six story red building with a gold trim, a fountain of a Pegasus was out front which caught the attention of my eyes. I walk to the third floor and headed to his door.

       I waited by his door for a few moments trying to think about what I should do. But I swallowed those thoughts of nervousness and knocked on the door. Almost instantly DimLight flung open the door at incredible speeds which freaked me out.

“I see you made it, come on in.” He said with a very lively attitude. Very different then how I used to know him back in middle school.

I just walked in found a seat and sat down. His apartment was clean. His living room was a nice shade of white with some fancy furnishing to add to the atmosphere. It was nice, he must be doing well. I look over to DimLight who sat from across me with a glass of water. There was a small silence for a few seconds as I sat there trying to think of what to say.

“So you said you had a business proposition for me?”

“Indeed I do. I have a great line of business delivering and making products all over Manehattan.”

“So, what are you like an intercity postal service or something?” I look over to the side for a second to see a bowl of mixed nuts. I couldn’t resist, I grabbed a few and ate them.

“You could say that.” He said with a sly grin, “We transport items around from place to place. We operate mainly around the city as of right now. We hope to go further out to other cities.”

“What kind of item?”

“Oh nothing special, just some stuff people order.”

At this point I wasn’t sure of what to think. I didn’t want to keep asking questions, but I also didn’t know if I wanted to accept a job I wasn’t fully aware of. Delivering packages seems easy enough. On the bright side I’m getting paid.

“Fine I’ll do it. What do you need me to do?”

He jumped up and walked over to a closet and opened it revealing a small package wrapped tightly in brown paper. He picked it up and stuck it inside of a cardboard box, taped it up and gave it to me.

“It’s plain and simple. Go to Sparky’s Den in West Hollow, there is no sign. It’s inside a basement next to the coffee shop. Don’t worry about the name; it’s the only coffee shop there. The stairs are next to it. Go down there, knock on the door in a certain rhythm and a mare should answer the door. Tell her I sent you and give them the package, in which they will return you with another package. Bring that back to me.”

He then goes to show me the rhythm on how to knock the door by banging his hoof on the wooden floor. He then sends me out without another word.

= = =

It was a long walk down to West Hollow, I wish I could fly. It was a quite a view from the ground though. The way there from Walnut to Hollow I ran into a couple of other sections of the city as well. It was interesting to see how the scenery changes so rapidly over the course of two miles. From Walnuts tall buildings that could cause one’s eyes to explode from the beauty to Hollows run down ghetto.

West Hollow Drive described itself quite well. The local area seemed dead and, well, hollow. No pony made eye contact, buildings were deteriorating. The paint was fading away, or being sprayed on by graffiti artists. Some of the shops were closed with the windows either boarded up, smashed, or both. The sidewalks were breaking down, and plants were overgrowing.

I came across a building that used to be a coffee shop. At least that what the sign showed, but the business was long gone, you could tell. I looked to my right to see some stairs leading down. I walked over to see a door at the bottom of the staircase. This had to be the place because on the door it had an emblem of a lightning bolt.

I knocked on the door with the rhythm that DimLight showed me. After a few seconds the door opens up to show not a mare, but a stallion. I was thrown off by this, but continued on with what I was supposed to do. It wasn’t easy, he stared me down wondering what I was doing. He was brown with a mix of green and yellow mane. Don’t know why but it was a bit creepy.

“The fuck do you want?” He told me in a gravelly voice.

“Uh, DimLight sent me to deliver this package.”

“Oh yea,” He looked to the ground and hit his forehead with his hoof. “I forgot we were getting this… yea… yea… a, shit, come on in.”

I froze when he asked me to come in. He walked in leaving the door wide open. When he turned around to see I hadn’t moved, he gave me a confused look.

“Well, don’t just stand there. Come on in.”

It felt as if he was luring me into a trap, but I continued on anyway. He led me into a room with a bunch of tables with what appeared to be lab equipment. Lots of tubes and vials used to mix chemicals. On the table were also two worn down mortal and pestles along with a bunch of plants hanging from the ceiling. I eventually look down to see the mare that DimLight was talking about. She was a dark green with a straight black mane, and an atom as a cutie mark.

She looked at me and smiled, not the reaction I was expecting. Friendly on first sight was a rare emotion, especially with ones who look like her, not meaning any offense.

“So you’re the one bringing us the supplies, huh?” She said working her alchemy with no eye contact.

“Yea, so, here is the box. I was supposed to get one from you?”

“Yes, it’s on the table over there.”

I look over the see a box, smaller than the one I brought, on a table stacked with a bunch of bags filled with different things. Some had some plants in them; some had old vials and tubs. What caught my eye was in the back. There were smaller bags filled with a strange brownish-grey powder.

I tried not to think of it as anything and picked up the other box and began to walk out the door. Before I walked out I was stopped by the stallion.

“Hey, thanks for getting us this. My boss would have been pissed if we didn’t finish out shit today. What’s your name anyway?”

I wasn’t comfortable with ponies knowing who I was, but he might as well know if I’ll be working with him.

“It’s Blue Sparks”

“A’ight cool, mines Mercurial Rage. I got to get back to work. I’ll see you around.”

We said out goodbyes and I began to walk back to DimLight’s place. On the way back, I was still thinking about all the stuff I had seen in there. The laboratory, all the chemicals, but most importantly the bags filled with the mixture. I needed to know what was going on.

= = =

I arrive back at DimLight’s place about a half hour later and I walk into the front door without knocking. He was sitting down drinking some scotch while reading the newspaper. He looked up at me, smiled, and then looked back down at the paper.

“I see your back. Did you get the package from them?”

“Yea, but first I need to ask a question.”

He looks up straight forward, sighs, folds the paper and tosses it on the coffee table in front of him, grabs his scotch and looks at me with a strange look. He seemed a bit upset that I was asking a question, but also curious on what the question would be.

“Okay, what is it?”

“What was it that I gave them?”

“Just some stuff, that’s all.”

“Yea right, they let me inside while they got the package for you. I saw all the lab equipment and vials and all. They were making something. What was it?”

He looked at me with angered eyes and stood up. “They let you in, who?”

“Mercurial Rage”

He turned around putting his scotch down on the table. “Oh that stupid bastard,”

“So, what are they making down there?”

“Stuff, that’s all you need to know. Where is the package they gave you?”

“I have it, but tell me what they’re doing. I don’t care what it is, but I need to know.”

“There making a mixture. That’s it!” He became infuriated. “Now for Celestia’s sake can I see the damn package?”

“What is the mixture.”

He knew there was no winning in the argument. He calmed down and looked me strait in the eyes.

“It’s a new chemical that does things to the brain. Makes them feel, see, and act different.”

“Like alcohol?”

“Much more powerful, that’s what I do. I get the items the people need who make this chemical and deliver it and their products around the city.”

“What’s it called?”

“It doesn’t have a name yet. It just started up around a half a year ago, but demand for the stuff has skyrocketed over the past few months.”

“D-does it have a street name?” I began to tremble a little at the fact I had just delivered products to create some drug I had little to no information about.

“Powder, dust, gray, and wackl are the most common names right now. Now, can I see the package already?”

Wackl, what the hell kind of name is that?

“Fine,” I toss the package on the coffee table. Dimlight opens it up and reveals what was inside. When I saw what it was, I almost trembled in awe. Inside the box was over 10,000 bits aligned neatly inside. Awestruck, I walked forward to take a closer look.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” He looked at me with a large grin on his face.

“Y-yea.” That’s all I could say, my mind was purely focused on the large stack of money.

“Well, good news. Since your basically living in the gutters I will give you a hundred bits to help start you off. If you want more, you need to come back for more work. Seem fair enough?”

That’s all I needed to hear. Music to my ears is what that was. A job, easier than anything else I have ever done, with a large pay. It was obvious I was going to accept, but one thing struck my mind before I said anything. So I revert my answer to one last question.

“Real quick, is this substance… legal?”

“Uh, no, Celestia and Shining Armor outlawed this stuff almost as soon as it went main stream, which was within a month. Do you still want a job or not? If not I can find somepony else.”

My mind started to work back up again. I was always an honest worker, but finding a job was a struggle. Here was one right in front of me, but would cost not only my reputation, which I had little of, and a chance of time in prison. Not only that, but I knew my life could be at risk. I know for fact that DimLight wasn’t the only one who did this line of work. I had to make a choice between the two. I though hard for a second, looking at the hundred bits that was in front of me. A nervous knot formed in my stomach before I let out my final answer, in which I was both pleased and terrified by.

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

= = =

Chapter Two: Basic Business Operations

Chapter 2: Basic Business Operations

         I woke up in a shock to realize I wasn’t in my abandoned apartment building, but instead, a hotel room. I lay back in the bed to help me relax. The bed was comfortable, nice and soft, but most importantly noted, it was warm. After I finished with the delivery yesterday and got the money, the first thing I got was food, and a lot of it. I ate at a fancy restaurant; it was expensive, but totally worth. I managed to fling myself off the bed and begin to head out. I checked myself out of the hotel and began to head to DimLight’s place for some more work.

         Only yesterday was I offered to work for this business. It’s not my first choice, but it was the only one available on a short notice. Although I knew it was risky, I’m willing to take it. In this timeline it’s safe to say that just about anypony would be willing to take it. Money was scarce, so some ponies were almost forced into this line of work.

There was red glow in the morning; a nice warm feeling overcame the land as I walked to DimLight’s place. When I finally got to his apartment and knocked on the door, he opened up and let me in, “Hey good, you’re here.”

“Yea, need something today?”

“Of course, come on in here and I’ll show you.”

         He led me into the living room to reveal two stallions and two mares of which I only recognized two of them. Mercurial Rage and that one mare from Sparky’s Den. I looked over to see a full yellowish gold mare with a wavy mane with about the same color. She had light blue eyes that were half closed staring me down. Next to her was a stallion that looked demonic. He was pure black with red and orange strait hair that covered half his face.

I stood there examining all of them before DimLight broke the silence.

“Okay then, so Spark, You remember Mercurial Rage and Cosmic Joy, right?” nudging his head in their direction.

“Yea,”

“Well then, here is more of the gang.”

“He can see that.” Said the golden mare in the corner “But now is not the time for introductions.” She sounded a bit tired.

“Okay, then let us get down to business, you have the floor ma’am.”

The mare stands up and gives me a faded look then takes a glance at Dimlight.

“Don’t be a kiss-ass.” Pointing to him then looked back to me, “So, your name is Blue Spark, huh? Interesting, anyway, we need you and Mercurial Rage along with my other friend here,” pointing to the black one in the corner, “to go get some product we made and take it to the docks where it’s going to be shipped to other parts of Equestria.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to have people fly it to the other towns?” I asked while regretting my words as they left my mouth. But she didn’t mind the question surprisingly. I’ve heard it’s not a good idea to ask too many questions, they’ll get suspicious of you.

“Yes and no. We make and distribute it. But it’s too out in the open to have ponies fly all over the place. We need to be sneakier so we use the ships to get through checkpoints easier, although flying has its advantages too.”

         I guess it made sense even though a bit confusing. They were trying to stay hidden while also be in plain sight. I can see a many instances were that won’t work to well for them, but for now I’ll just do as told.

“So, are you going to go do this?”

“Yes.” That’s all I could manage to say. I felt a bit nerved to be with what’s-his-face over there that was glaring me down, but I managed to keep my composure.

“Alright, let’s go then.” saying Mercurial while grabbing his bag.

         Mercurial tossed a saddlebag on me that was going to be filled with the substance; we began to head out. We started walking down the street to head to our destination until I was stopped by the black one; he grabs me and looks me straight in the eyes.

“I hope I can trust you, or else you’re going to regret it.”

He lets go and walks onward and says nothing more the rest of the time. Mercurial walked next to me and just slowly shakes his head back and forth and continues alongside me.

We get to a neat little middle-class neighborhood and walk to a small blue house on the corner of the street. The windows were covered by black shades and the grass looks as if it hadn't been cut in weeks. Mercurial goes to the door and knocks in a rhythm similar to the one I used to get into Sparky's Den. We were greeted by two stallions that let us in. We went over to the table where there was a bunch of different things. First was the packages we were coming to get, alongside with some others stuff such as some switchblade knives, a half drank tequila bottle, and an unloaded pistol, which caught my eye almost immediately. We grab our stuff and walk out the door and start to head down to the docks.

=================================================================

It was a long walk there so I had a conversation with Mercurial Rage, just something to help pass the time.

“So, what does this stuff actually do?”

“Well, I tried it once. It all depends on who does it. Some have felt like they were on top of the world, others felt little change besides the crazy visual and audial hallucinations, and some just completely lose their shit. And when I mean by who does it, I mean the attitude they go into it. If you go in sad, you come out depressed. Go in angry, come out infuriated, etcetera.”

“So why do ponies do this then?”

“It’s to escape from the hard times, like they do with alcohol.”

“It’s dangerous though, right?”

“You have no idea.” He looks me in the eyes with his eyebrows raised up. “When some go psychotic they begin to attack others around them. Matter of fact: In Canterlot one pony went crazy and began to attack the ponies around him, actually killed one when he was on it. That little situation is what caused its ban by Shining Armor almost immediately afterwards.”

“So that explain why it got banned. I’m just surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”

“You and me both, and to be truthful I don’t like the high it gives.”

“Then why be in this business?”

“Same reason as you, I can’t get job anywhere else. Also, I like what I do, just not the substance.”

“A-alright,”

         That is all I needed to hear, I was quiet the rest of the way there, and so were they. We walked all the way to the old docks on the other end of Manehattan. My legs were tired because we couldn't just cut through the middle of the city, we had to walk all the way around. What a pain... When we finally reached the dock, we went to a boat called The Red Wing. I thought it was going to be some low budget speedboat. Actually, it was a fancy yacht. Now how the hell this is supposed to be more “stealthy” is beyond me. I don’t know if they were really thinking about that, or if they really cared.

We got on board and went to the lower deck, took the stuff out put it inside the hidden compartments that allowed us to line the stuff inside the walls, and then left. Nothing of general interest happened. Well, we did get money before we left by the boat owners. A nice amount to, 250 bits each.

         We walked back and still didn’t talk. I was afraid at this point that other pony was going to stab me. The entire time he looked at me funny. He didn’t trust me at all, he despised me to no end, and I don’t know why. I’m pretty sure I have to prove my worth to all of them. Who knows how long it will take before I finally gain respect.

====================================================================

We get back to DimLight’s place and tell them that the job was done. It was a long walk; we basically walked from one end of the city to the other. When we got back it was almost nightfall, we all sat down and talked to each other, mostly just some small conversations about the world and all that. We had some drinks and basically just talked, until the gold mare that sent us out spoke to me directly.

“So, you joined this business, why?”

“Well, I need money. That’s it really. I see no other reason to be here.”

“It’s not about the ponies you meet or work with?”

“I just started yesterday, so I haven’t met anypony else but you five.”

“Oh really, well then, we need to introduce you to some more sometime," she takes a glance at the clock on the wall, "but right now we need to prepare for our next task.”

When they said next task I was a bit curious. We spent nearly the entire day just to pick up and deliver the powder. The sun had set and it was night time. What else do we need to do?

“So what is it?” I asked out of nervous curiosity.

“It’s plain and simple. Do you know what B&E stands for?”

“No, I’m afraid not.”

“It means breaking and entering. We are going to rob a rival. Sound good?”

Rival? I was never told anything about a rival, but I guess that should have been obvious to me. I had a question, but I was unsure if I should ask.

“Yea, but can I ask a question.”

“Damn it Spark, not another question.” said DimLight with a hoof over his forehead.

“Hey, let him ask the question.” The gold mare said, “He’s new to this, let him ask a few. What is the question, and we may or may not have an answer.”

“Who is the rival and are they the only one?”

She leaned back in the chair picked up a drink on the table next to her. She takes a sip, puts it back and looks at me with a small smile, then to DimLight.

“I find that to be an acceptable question.” She looks back at me, “The rivals are called Unity. They are in the same line of business we are, which is obvious. There are other smaller ones in this city, but we don’t pay much attention to them since they never mess with us, or Unity. We plan to overpower the smaller ones, but as of right now, let’s go collect something from Unity.”

“Okay, what do you have planned?”

“They own a warehouse in Milestone Industrial Park. They have a large laboratory and supply of the powder. We are going in to pay them a little visit tonight.”

====================================================================

Chapter Three: Invasion

Chapter 3: Invasion

We’re still inside DimLight’s apartment, getting ready to rob their, or I guess I should say our, rivals. We pack up some of our saddlebags with some equipment, mainly just some bags to put the drug in. Now, I understand the circumstances that I’m getting into, but it still nerves me to see them load up some guns and put them on their sides. Well, all except for Cosmic Joy, she was getting two small axes and a knife, which was concealed inside her sleeve.

I just stand there with my saddlebag waiting to go. Mercurial tosses me a black hooded outfit, something you’d see at a discount clothes store. I put it on without question. It was actually quite comfortable.

“You’re wearing that so they won’t recognize us and so we blend in with the night.” Mercurial said to me wearing something very similar to what I was, as well as all the rest of the group

“Alright, we ready to go?” I ask in a nervous tone.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Cosmic added in a very hyper and joyous attitude and a very large smile snapping the knife in and out of her sleeve.

We walk out the door and begin to head to our destination, the warehouse in Milestone Industrial Park. I have never been down near that region. When the whole issue happened a few years ago, I avoided it due to it having a large crime rate. Well, the whole city had a large crime rate. It was uncommon not to hear gunshots or sirens in the morning. I’m glad those days are no longer around, well sort of no longer around.

We stop by Sparky’s Den on the way there. I was a bit curious to find out why. When we walked in, there was a mare that was yellow with a blue spiked mane up in the air, with black eyes. She looked a bit young as well. Maybe just turned eighteen is my guess.

“Hey Blue Sparks, this is our friend Sparky. Look at that, your names are kind of similar.” DimLight said pointing to this spaz mare.

Oh, now I get it. She is Sparky, and this is her den, or house, or whatever. Now it’s making sense. I just wave to her and nod my head. She didn’t accept that as a proper introduction apparently because she immediately ran up and hugged me.

“Well, hiya there! Your names Blue Spark? That’s sooo cool!” She said lively and quite rapidly while nearly choking me. I look over my shoulder to see the others smiling and giggling at my surprised reaction.

“Hey, Sparky, we need you to do something for us.” DimLight interjected.

She lets go of me and throws me against the wall, then looks at him with wide eyes. Oh how adorable and terrifying at the same time. She had this big creepy grin on her face that wasn’t helping.

“Oh really, and what would that favor be?” she said while cocking her head completely to the right when saying it while keeping perfect eye contact on DimLight.

“Look, Sparky, were invading that warehouse the Unity are in. We need you to disconnect the power going there. Can you do that for us?”

“Hell yea! I’ll go in there, all, stealthy and shit and take that power out. And you guys go in and do your thing an…” She is saying this while pouncing all over the room reenacting what she’d be doing.

“Yea, okay Sparky we get it. Let’s go.”

She jumps into a room and comes back out in a hooded outfit like ours. She then runs into the kitchen and gets her saddlebag hanging on the wall and packed the bag with a bunch of equipment that I had no idea what it did, most likely something to use to disconnect the power.

We part out the door with Sparky and head down the street, she’s even walks strange. It’s like a feeble jog mixed with a skip. I can’t describe it; it hurts my head trying to think about it. You'd thinking one of the others would tell her to chill out, but instead they let her go.

=======================================================================

We get to a street on a hill that overlooks all of Milestone Industrial Park. It was dark, but some of the warehouses and factories were still lit up. Cosmic walks up to me and points to one of them near the ocean.

“That’s the one we’re going after. We have been watching it for a bit. They used to have this place under heavy guard, but recently they have been leaving it vulnerable, like tonight. We should be able to get in, get the stuff and leave without even killing anypony.”

“Then why’d you guys pack up all those weapons?”

She shrugs, “Just in case, who knows what can happen, better to be safe than sorry.”

Sparky and the black pony whose real name I still don’t know, I’ll call him Inferno (I think that’s a fitting name), head off in a different direction from the rest of us to go cut power to Milestone. Me, Cosmic, and Mercurial head off in one direction and DimLight and the gold mare the opposite way from us. On the way over I ask about our plan.

“It’s simple; we are going in from the top while DimLight and Golden go from the first floor.”

“Oh, so that’s her name? Golden, alright.”

“Well, kind of. Golden is her nickname, but she uses it so much it almost has kind of become permanent.”

“Oh, okay,” That makes no sense. “Anyway, about the plan,”

“Right, anyway, we go in through the top and knock out the guards on the top floor, they take out the ones on the bottom. We go in, take the powder, and destroy their lab equipment. Plain and simple, but don’t kill the guards unless you have too. We don’t want to attract too much attention.”

I don’t have a weapon so it didn’t matter to me. We make our way inside Milestone. Most of the warehouses or factories were dark. Some of them had lights, but were dim and didn’t serve much purpose. The only real lighting was the streetlights, of which quite a few flickered. We make our way to were our target was. Outside the warehouse were tons of metal shipping crates and boxes, perfect for sneaking around. Mercurial, Cosmic, and I jumped and climbed our way to the third floor and were outside a window. The top floor of the warehouse was mostly offices along with some metal walkways that lead to the bottom floor. We expected the powder to be in the offices somewhere. Cosmic Joy used her magic to open the window. Inside were five guards, we sat outside and waited for Sparky to cut the power.

*Click*

Out goes the powers and it’s time to go. The only thing illuminating the warehouse was the moons rays. I stayed back, I couldn’t fight these ponies. Plus, I have nothing to use. It didn’t matter; Cosmic Joy jumped around like crazy and with ease took out three guards by hitting them over the head with the blunt end of her axe, knocking them all out. She was like a ninja hopping around the walkways and knocking out the ponies.

“Hey, leave me some.” Mercurial whispered in a laughing tone. These two obviously enjoyed this.

Down below you could hear DimLight and Golden get the others. I only hear one gunshot go off down there, but it was short lived. It was quiet for a while until Dimlight yelled out that it was all clear. Soon, the lights flicked back on. My eyes widened to see what was down below. A drug lab, the size of which I had never seen before, was on the bottom floor. There were tons of boxes filled with ingredients and tools, most importantly; lots of the powder is in some of those boxes.

“Look at that everypony! All that powder is easily worth about five hundred thousand!” said Golden with the biggest smile on her face, bigger than a child striking it rich on Nightmare Night.

DimLight throws some packages on the table that had the drug labs and fills his saddlebag with some of the powder. Cosmic was sitting on a ledge up high looking out a window keeping an eye out. Mercurial and I began searching the offices for any more powder, but found nothing.

Something didn’t seem right though. It doesn’t seem normal for a group as big as Unity to just leave that much product in one place. Fear got the best of me, but I kept calm. Everything is under control; nothing bad is going to happen. They planned for this.

“H-hey, I see some ponies coming here! And there are a lot of them to!” Cosmic Joy said looking out a window in the top floor. Her eyes grow wide. “Shit, Unity!”

My eyes go wide after she had said that. I look around to see the rest of the group both calm, but also looking determined to fight back. Mercurial looks and walks over to me while reaching into his saddlebag.

“Take this; you’re going to need it,” and he hands me a loaded sub-machine gun. I accept it, and cocked it.

He and I began exit the empty offices and start walking back to the others to figure out what we were going to do. Cosmic was still looking out the window while wielding one of her axes spinning it around in a circle with a large smile on her face. She looks over and sees me, jumps down and runs over. She opens her mouth about to say something until we heard a loud bang. Some of the enemies had shot down the front door and were beginning to storm in and shoot at us.

Mercurial aims his gun and unload the entire magazine at the enemies coming through the door, killing a few of them. He then grabs me and pulls me behind some cover. He reloads his gun and looks at me.

“Alright, you need to get out of here alright. Go straight through the hallways and you will see a window, go out it and fly off. Go find Sparky and...”

“I-I can’t fly.” I interrupted.

There was a small pause. “You’re shitting me right?”

“No, my wings are too weak at the moment.”

He was about to respond until we hear bullets whizzing right past us. He grabs me and drags me into the hallways and shoves me into an office across from the one he was in. The rival members begins unloading bullet after bullet in our general direction nearly hitting us. Mercurial begins to fire back. He ducks back into the office and looks at me with angered and confused eyes.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? SHOOT YOUR DAMN GUN AT THEM!”

A bullet flings past my head. I poke my head out to see what I was doing or who I was aiming at. I see one walking up the steps to our floor. I aim my gun and pull the trigger to fire a small burst. I see two of the three shots hit him, one in his back leg and the other in the neck. He falls down the stairs and doesn’t get back up. I pull back into the room to give myself a second; then look back out and see a pegasus flying around in the air shooting a rifle at Mercurial. I aim and unload at him. I see only one bullet hit his wing, feathers pop out and he falls to the ground, crashing on top of the drug lab.

It was clear for just a moment. I walk out and began to walk to the window. Mercurial follows behind me still shooting at the pursuers. He kicks the window to get me out and gives me another clip for my gun.

“Take this and get out of here. I need to make sure Golden and DimLight are okay!”

I nod and jump out the window and land on a large metal crate. I make my way down and begin to sneak around to avoid detection while also trying to leave Milestone. I walk past and I see somepony in the distance sneaking around as well. I thought it to be Cosmic Joy so I run to her. When I got there, it wasn’t, it was an opposing member who looked very similar. I aim my gun to shoot her, but I forgot to reload.

She pulls out a switchblade knife and chases me all throughout the warehouses back lot. As we’re running I reload the gun and start to fire behind me, she ducks for cover. Quickly running through the lot I go behind a crate to catch my breath. I laid there with my eyes closed to help calm down. My body was shaking in both adrenaline and nervousness. The sounds of the bullets going off from inside was still going on, but it started so subside. I open my eyes to see a stallion in front of me who then hits me in the head with his hoof as hard as he can.

I lay on the ground trying to get up. He turns me around and hits me once more, knocking me out.

==================================

My eyes open slowly to reveal me inside a basement. It was dark and cold, dirt floors, and a putrid smell. The pipes on the ceiling were leaking, and I was unlucky enough to be underneath one of the dripping pipes. I could barely see out my right eye because it was swollen from when I was hit. Attempting to move pointed out I couldn’t. My senses begin to kick in and I realize I’m strapped to a chair. I try to call out, but I was gagged with an old rag and duct tape.

I woke up at the wrong time, two ponies came walking down the stairs. Neither of the two did I recognize. One was a mare and the other was a stallion. The stallion was a light brown with a scar across his face. The mare was white and wearing a black bandana. She walks over to me and is staring me in the eyes only inches from my face.

“Well, good morning. I hope you don’t mind that we snatched you.” She had such a subtle and sweet voice as she was talking to me. “You were being quite the problem down at our warehouse.”

I look to the left of her to see the stallion pick up and box cutting knife. My eyes went wide open, and the mare must have noticed.

“Oh, that? No need to worry,” she puts her hoof under my chin. “My friend and I are just going to do a little experiment. We want to test out some myths and you seem like a perfect test subject to try them on.”

The stallion starts to sharpen the knife. He looks at the stone with a bit of frustration and throws it at me hitting my forehead.

“I need a different stone that one won’t work.”

The mare sighs lifting her eyes up and begins to walk away from me to him; they whisper to each other and look at me for a brief moment. They go back to talking to each other. I could vaguely pick out the words “kill him”. The mare walks to me and rubs my mane.

“We’ll be back in a little bit, you be good now.” And lightly slaps my head before going upstairs with the other one.

I’m going to die in here. I begin to look around to see if I can find a way out. I rustle around to see if there was something faulty with the chair, all I was able to do was free my left wing. My hope drops a little before I noticed my wing could reach the table with the cutting knifes. I wrap my wing around one of the legs and drag it over in front of me.

I rock myself back and forth and fall down on the ground while also hitting the table. With the most pure of luck a knife came close enough to my wing I was able to pick it up and cut the ropes bonding my hooves. With that I got the gag out of my mouth and out of the seat.

So my wings aren’t completely worthless after all.

I was about to get out before I heard the two walk back into the house upstairs. Luckily, due to the poor construction of the house, I could easily eavesdrop on them although it was a bit muffled.

“You go down and cut that poor fucker up; I’ll just stay here”

“Alright, sounds good.”

The pony began his decent into the basement. I grabbed one of the filet knifes that was lying on the ground and I walk over to the side of the staircase. Time seemed to slow as he walked down. I waited in the shadows until he was close enough. He was still walking down the stairs, but he was right next to me. I grab his leg and pull him down. Almost instantly I impale the knife into his neck. He squirms for a second until he finally stops. Luckily, I was able to do this without alerting anypony upstairs.

Slowly, I go up the staircase and look out the door. It wasn’t morning, in fact; only an hour has passed from when we started the raid. The house was a bit worn down, but mostly dirty from nopony cleaning the place up. The ceilings paint was chipping along with the walls. I poke my head out a little further to see the mare without her bandana on lying on the couch reading a magazine. A little to the left I see another stallion who was counting money behind a counter in the kitchen.

I had to plan a way out. Nothing I seemed to do would work. Both had a loaded gun by them, and all I had was a bloody knife. Soon, the mare got up and walked into another room leaving the stallion vulnerable. This is my chance. I have to get out fast and attack him. Hopefully I will be able to pull this off; he was good five yards away from me.

I waited for a few second and busted out the door sprinting straight towards him. I didn’t have enough time before he quickly lifted up his gun and began firing. I rolled behind a counter and when he quit to reload I flung myself over and charged him once more. He got the clip in, but not enough time before I lunged my knife into his stomach and took the gun out of his hooves.

The mare had ran in and started to fire at me. I duck down behind the counter and finished loading the gun. I pop my head around the corner of the counter tops and began firing back. She gets behind a wall to dodge the shots and begins to run off and heads upstairs. You’re not getting away that easy you little fuck. I follow her into a hallway where she was standing. We both pull our guns at each other at the same time and fire. Her bullet hits the gun out of my hoof, just barely missing me, unfortunately mine misses. On the positive, it was her last shot. She drops her gun and stares me down with anger in her green eyes. She begins to charge me head on. We clash in the middle of the hallway hitting each other. She was fast, being able to throw multiple punches very quick and hard. All I could do was fling her off every now and then if I was lucky.

We wrestle all the way to the staircase and fell down to the first floor. I was on my back and she was on top of me holding the knife I had dropped next to my throat.

“Any last words you piece of shit?” she said through her teeth.

Right as I opened my mouth another pony charges and collided with her knocker her off of me. I get up and look over to see Cosmic Joy pinning her down. She lifts up her hoof in the air where a dagger popped out of her sleeve. With incredible speeds she lunges the knife right into the skull of the enemy.

She gets up off of her and looks at me with worried eyes. “Hey, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for saving my life right there. If it wasn’t for you I would have been killed.”

“What are friends for?” She said while giving a smile. “Come on, we need to get out of here and head back to Sparky’s.”

She looks around the house and finds a stacks of bits that were on the counter in the kitchen. She uses her magic to levitate them into her saddlebag. “There, at least we can take something from them here.”

We walk out of the house and begin a steady and quick pace back to Sparky’s. We were cautious the whole way back. Police were storming the local area. Apparently, Golden had set off explosives to destroy the lab, but put enough down to light half of the warehouse into a large fireball.

We get back and Cosmic takes her saddlebag off and tosses it over into the corner and falls flat onto the couch. We were the first to arrive here, so now we wait for the rest. I sit on the recliner that sits to the right of the couch that Cosmic was now sleeping on. Just to think that under that innocent act and looks is a professional killer. I leaned back and close my eyes, thinking of the attack.

I had taken multiple lives today, not only to survive, but also to make my friends and me a profit off another gang. I had a sense of pleasure and satisfaction. It was nice, I liked it. Hopefully we do more raids like this again. From how this went, it’s safe to say we probably will.

And to think I joined just yesterday.

===================================================================

I was woken up ten minutes later to Golden clapping her hooves in front of my face. I lean back up to see the rest had made it back.

“Hey Blue Sparks, did you get anything?”

“No, I was knocked out and kidnapped. Cosmic helped get me out. She did steal some money from the house though.”

Cosmic Joy nodded and levitated the almost overfilled saddlebag filled with the golden coins. Golden was able to take it as a notable success on our end, now she wanted so see hers. She wonders off into the kitchen with three saddlebags filled with bags of powder.

The rest of the group had done like I did, we started to fall asleep. Well, all except for Sparky. She was jogging in place. Just ignore her. I begin to fall back asleep until again I was disrupted, but this time by the noise of somepony yelling.

“IT”S FAKE!? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!”

I, as well as the rest, walked into the kitchen to see Golden with her head down between her hooves. The powder we collected was thrown against the wall leaving a small mist of the powdery substance wafting through the air along with an imprint on the wall.

We needed to ask no questions. We all just stood there doing nothing just staring at her. Eventually, everypony else walked out except me. She lifts her head from her hooves and looks at me.

“I can’t believe it.” and plops her head on the table again.

“I can.”

She glances back to me. “What do you mean you can?”

“I just can. They left the stuff out in the open. Not something I would typically see a drug organization do.”

She was about to respond, but decided not to. She puts her head down once again and begins to doze off. I said no more and walked out of the room and sat back down in the chair I was in before in the dark room. I lean back to see Sparky over in the corner on a pile of plastic bags curled tightly up in a ball like a dog twitching with her ears flopping at lightning fast speeds. She just gets weirder every minute I see her.

======================================================================

The next day I awake still in Sparky’s Den. It was around nine according the clock on the wall, but I don’t trust it. Didn’t look like something that would be accurate in anyway. Honestly I don’t trust most things in this den. I lean forward still in the couch to see that most of the group had left. It was just me, Mercurial, and Cosmic. Cosmic was in the kitchen eating something and Mercurial was still passed out on the couch, looking like he was drunk the night before.

I get up and walk into the kitchen and sit down, not saying anything to Cosmic. I just sit and look at all the crap lining the room. The sink filled with dishes, the wallpaper being torn off. The door was half off going to the bathroom, the floor was made of cement and cracking. Looked like my apartment I used a few days ago to live in. The only difference is this place was heated and furnished, so the terrible atmosphere didn’t bother me too much.

Cosmic finishes her food, but instead of getting up and putting, or attempting to put the dish away, in the sink, she just looks over her shoulder and uses her magic to fling it over there. She missed, and it fell down on the floor and smashed.

“Damn it,” She mumbled as she used her magic again to pick up the small bits and hover them over to the trashcan, successfully. She looks at me with a cocky grin then plops her head onto the table. I just had to laugh; it was a funny sight to see. She raises her head and stares at me.

“So, what are we doing today?” She asked me with one eyelid half down and the other about the same.

“How am I supposed to know?”

“Oh yea, right, umm,” She rubs her eyes with her hooves, “I remember early this morning Golden said she wanted to get revenge.” She shakes her head back and forth, “That won’t end well. Trust me on that.”

“Why?”

“Well,” She said grabbing a cup filled with water and taking a sip. “She has a unique skill. It’s over exaggerating. She is going to just bomb rush some place the Unity have control of. Either that, or she is going to find a way to kill one of their main ponies, or some shit.” She takes another sip of water.

“Will she?”

“Probably not, but you have no way of knowing with her.”

Oh great, so I’m working with a delinquent for a boss. This is not what I expected. I thought that Dimlight was the main pony here, but apparently not. It’s this Golden one, but what about what’s-his-face?

“Hey, what’s the name of that black pony?”

“Who? Oh, his name is Black Mail. He joined in around the same time I did. He’s been a huge help, getting information and planning out strategies.”

“Did he set up the attack for the warehouse?”

“No, Golden did. That’s probably why he wasn’t with us. He didn’t want to be involved in something he didn’t do. He’s kind of uptight like that.”

I bet so, but I can’t judge him I guess. I look down at the table and close my eyes for a few moments. Still, even the next day, my mind is wrapped around the night of our attack.

I stand up and walk back into the living room and head out onto the streets waving goodbye to Cosmic Joy. I begin to walk aimlessly around looking for something to do. I must’ve walked for some time, because I eventually was in the downtown region.

It’s a wonderful sight to see how much this place has improved sense the riots and all. This place that was once filled with garbage, rubble and debris from the damaged or destroyed building, is now healing its way back to its glorious state. Building stand tall and proud, shops are open and lively and filled with ponies with smiles. The sun rises leaving a nice color scene to the area around. It is a wonderful sight.

I walk around and see a booth selling out candy and magazines. I buy a chocolate bar. I look down to see today’s local newspaper. On the front page had a picture of the warehouse on fire with the caption,

Shootout in Milestone Leads to Disaster

The whole time as I skimmed the page, it kept mentioning another group of ponies called Vimont. I have no idea who they are, maybe the others will know. I purchase the newspaper and begin to head back.

===============================================

I finally made my way back to Sparky’s Den to see Cosmic making more powder and Mercurial just sitting there talking with her. When I walked in they just looked at me and nodded their heads. I walk over and place the paper on the table to show them.

“Oh hey, check it out. Our little raid is on the front page.” Mercurial said with a satisfied tone and a warm smile.

“Yeah, who is Vimont?”

“There another group, or family if you want to call them that, which are in the same business as us and Unity.” Cosmic added, “We don’t really do much with them mainly because they don’t really care about us, yet that is.”

“So why does the paper say that Vimont caused the attack?”

“Probably because we were in Vimont territory, they didn’t mind us being in there. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but we have good connections with them. As of right now that is.” She goes back to her work not saying another word.

Mercurial get up and walks over to help Cosmic with the making of the chemical. I just sit and watch while the two work together to make the bizarre substance. I took an interest in how they made it. How they added the mixtures, when they added it, the filtering, etcetera. They must have noticed me observing them.

“Want to know how to make this stuff?” Cosmic said with her usual friendly smile.

“Sure,”

=========================================================

Chapter Four: Suspicions

Chapter 4: Suspicions

A week has passed sense our unsuccessful attack on the warehouse. Since then I have learned a lot on making the drug. The intense concentration and knowledge that goes behind it is fascinating. Each part of the process must be done a certain way or one of two things will happen. Through most of the process if you mess up it just ruins the batch and you will have to start over. On the last part, which is the most time consuming, when the batch is slowing cooked over a small fire if you mess up, such as just moving the table, it will ignite making a large fireball. Matter of fact: In Sparky’s Den right above our heads in the kitchen is a big black scorch mark from that happening one time.

I also learned that the other rivals in the city all have different characteristics. The Vimont have a huge supply of explosives and high-class weaponry. The Unity has numbers and land, and there are two other groups. The Havenruns and the Diamond Havocs, both of which are quite small compared to the other three. Vimont has direct connections to us and Unity, but remain neutral. The other two fight each other like we fight Unity. The city is just one big bloodshed.

I have been staying in Sparky’s Den because I haven’t bought an apartment yet. I don’t mind Sparky’s place, she isn't there most of the time, but when she is it can be hard to stay. She must be on something because I have never met a pony so active and energetic at three in the morning singing tunes and skipping around. She has made several attempts to talk to me, but I can’t understand what she says. It’s just one large run-on sentence. When she isn’t there it’s peaceful, except when it’s windy out, like it has been recently. The whole place creaks when the wind pounds the building. It’s not scary in any way, just a nuisance when you try to sleep.

Recently Cosmic, Mercurial, and I have been just hanging out making the powder at Sparky’s. It’s actually entertaining to make it. It keeps you busy, it’s a neat learning process, and over all I have some interesting conversations with those two. However, when a conversation isn’t taking place we flick on the radio and listen to it. Cosmic usually picks the stations which always end up being dubstep. Sometimes we gamble by playing cards or make pointless bet. Mercurial and I bet on whether or not Princess Celestia would be in a room with a felon with no guards. I say she would, he said no. If only I could prove I was right to get myself a quick ten bits.

==============

Today was supposed to be like any other day. Wake, work, hang around, and sleep. On occasion we would take the goods and deliver them. Not today, we had to make some and tomorrow we would ship it.

Mercurial and I were just doing our normal business without Cosmic; she was taking a break today. We had a knock on the door, this wasn't uncommon. What threw us off was that it was not in the rhythm that you’re supposed to do it in. Mercurial grabs his pistol and walks over to the door. I wasn’t far behind him, although I was unarmed.

I really need to get a weapon of my own.

When Mercurial opened the door it revealed a rather older looking dark brown stallion. There were bags under his eyes and lines showing age all over his face. I have never seen him before, but Mercurial did. He lets him in without any question and takes a seat. The old pony sits across from him, and I just stand there. There was a silence in the room as the old pony looks around observing his surroundings, like he has never been here before.

“So what are you doing here for?” Mercurial said breaking the silence.

“Well,” He paused and cleared his throat. “I heard about your guys little attack on the warehouse.” his voice was deep, gravely, and a bit monotone.

“Yea, what about it, other than the fact we failed.”

“Oh, are you sure about that?”

Mercurial looked at him with a very confused look. “What do you mean ‘Are you sure about that’?”

He smiles, but it quickly fades away. “I don’t think Unity did the attack.”

Now he had Mercurial’s full attention, but I didn’t understand were he was going at with this.

“What do you mean?” I added to figure out what he meant.

“Well, Unity isn’t known for attacks like they did there. They're not good at responding fast. I believe it was a setup. Either that, or they were informed you guys were coming.”

“What?” Mercurial said with an unsatisfied tone.

“Just think about it Mercurial. Have you ever seen Unity reflect an attack like that before? It was all a setup; even the powder stolen was fake.”

He had point, so now he needs to skip to the chase.

“So what are you thinking?” I said cutting of Mercurial before he spoke up again.

“Well, you guys were in a part of the city that Vimont operates in. I think they have something to do with this.” Mercurial drops his eyes half down and leans back in his chair. It was obvious he was unconvinced. The old pony continued on anyway. “So we need to find something out, and I know just how to figure out if this is true or not.”

“How?” Mercurial said in his usual tone.

“Remember Genocide, from the strip mall shooting a year ago? He’s working with Unity as a negotiator for purchasing goods.”

“And he’s going to help us, why?”

“Black Mail informed me he’s meeting with somepony in a few weeks. I need you…”

“Nope.” Mercurial said cutting him off.

The old one seemed to respect Mercurial, but when he had said that, the veteran old pony looked at him with eyes filled with rage. As this moment Sparky jumps in from the kitchen, wait. She was here this whole time?

“I’ll do it!” She said with her usual oversized grin.

The old pony sat there for a second calming down, “Fine, whatever.” Waving his hoof in her direction.

Sparky was beginning to jump in place with pure joy. I just shake my head back and forth, if she needs to follow somepony she’ll be sighted quickly.

“And you, uh, Blue Sparks, go with her.”

I quickly look at him. “What?”

“You heard me, when the time comes I want you to go with her.”

Damn it. “Alright.” I sort of mumbled in hopes he would change his mind.

“Good,” and he begins to walk out the door without another word.

“Wait, who are you?”

“Just refer to me as your boss.” He nods his head and walks out.

==============

Ever sense Sparky and I were assigned to take the task to locate somepony of which we didn’t know anything about other than his name being Genocide, she has been staying at her place the whole time. It’s been about two weeks and I’m about to lose it. I haven’t seen her sleep at all this entire time. She’s either in the kitchen singing to tunes on the radio, dancing, or just standing there with a blank face staring off into space.

A vast number of things pop into mind when meeting her. Oh she's just hyperactive. Oh she's just random and likes to be funny. Once you live with her however, your brain can’t comprehend it. Her attitude, behavior, likes and dislikes, and just about anything else besides appearance changes rapidly. It’s like playing the slot machines; the combinations are always different, no matter how many times you pull that lever. Same goes for her; she’s never the same, no matter how often you see her.

I have retreated to the coffee shop upstairs. This abandoned old place has the feeling of loneliness. It looks as if a dust storm had passed through. A lowly glaze of dust lingers in the air, the windows shattered, the tables all tossed in one corner with the chairs tossed in another. There is broken glass on the ground and the walls have holes in them and are damaged to the extent the building looks like it was about to collapse. It reminds me so much of my old apartment.

There is a metal vent with a grate on top that comes from the basement were the heat seeps through. Using an old carpet rug, I placed it overtop to use it like a heated bed, it worked to. Although this coffee shop is long gone, the coffee makers still work surprising enough. Every morning I would make coffee that it now has become a habit, and it may become an addiction. It’s just so damn good!

After two weeks of waiting the old pony comes back with Black Mail as well. They came inside and called out for me and Sparky. I was in the kitchen with Cosmic, Sparky was doing, and whatever the hell she was doing in the living room. I kind of hesitate to call it a room for this whole basement could be legally deemed a closet with all the towers of boxes filled with junk.

When the two entered and called for us I walked in to the living room, but just stood there. I knew we would be heading out soon, so I saw no reason to sit down. Sparky, on the other side of things, flings over to the nearest seat and sit upright and perfect. And of course she is the first to speak up, and almost so fast it’s hard to understand.

“So whata we doing?!”

The Boss looks at Black Mail and nods his head. Black Mail steps forward and puts some pictures down on the table.

“So here’s who you two are going after.” The pictures showed a white stallion with a red and black mane. His left eye was pure white with a scar across it. “His real name is unknown, but his street name is Genocide.”

“Why?” I asked

“He was the cause of twenty deaths last year at a shootout in a strip mall. He’s wanted big time by the Royal Guard.” The old one said in his usual gravelly voice.

“So anyway, we need you two to follow him. He’s going to be meeting somepony today in about two hours at a club in downtown.”

“OH which club? Is it Neon? No wait is it Palmy Sp…” Spark was cut off by Black Mail.

“Neither of those two, it’s a special underground one near the Crystal Building. In order to get in you need a special card, of which I have two right here.” Black Mail goes to toss two red cards with fancy gold lacings on the table. “Once you’re in, find him and keep an eye on him. However, keep your distance. Figure out what they’re up to, and then report back here if you find something out.”

Sparky goes to salute as I just nod my head. We pick up the cards and begin to head out. I know the place their talking about. I was in there once when I worked for a friend who had access. It’s not all that great, but that was over five years ago, the place has probably changed a bit.

==============

I was right; this old place has changed VERY much since I was last here. What used to be an old speakeasy was now a full blown club. There was a new dance area; the entire room was a just one big screen, which would change between a multitude of colors and effects. Some were so intense that during the drop on some electronic songs the whole room looked as if it was warping; moving back and forth to the rhythm of the music being played. So often it seemed ponies would walk away swaying back and forth from being dizzy. There were multi-colored strobe lights that flickered at speeds so fast it was almost impossible to recognize they were flashing.

The old dusty wooden bar had been completely removed and was now added to a more fancy style. The bar table was made out of a shiny marble in crested with gems. The floors in the bar were also screens that would change to the music playing as well, just not as loudly. The walls were aligned with different things from records to antique weaponry.

This place isn’t even close to the same as it was only five years ago.

Sparky and I walked in with ease and made our way to the bar. We sat down on the comfortable spinning bar chairs and searched for Genocide. We didn’t see him anywhere. For a while it didn’t even seem as if he was coming. Sparky and I sat there for about twenty minutes and there was still no sight of him. To help kill the time I talked to Sparky, and we managed to have a real conversation, but for a only a brief moment.

“So you said you’ve been here before?”

“Yeah, it used to be speakeasy, just a place for ponies to go to drink during the prohibition. It wasn’t this fancy place decked out with enough electronics to cause rolling blackouts.”

“Oh! That’s neat. So neat, like…”

I faded out of the conversation at this part. It becomes easy to fade away from listening when she begins to go on without a goal to end. I just sip the beverage in front of me still scanning the room for the one we’re after. Still no sight and I was beginning to get annoyed. Eventually, he walks in through the front, pauses for a second and heads into a corner booth. He sits down and begins talking to the two who were sitting there before him. There was a brown stallion with braided green hair, and a mare who was teal with red hair. I did know who the two he was talking with, so I had to ask Sparky.

“Hey,” I nudge her shoulder who then quickly looks at me. “Genocide is in the corner booth with two others, do you know who they are?” I said this to her while staring down at my drink which was almost empty.

She looks over my shoulder and looks at them for only a second before coming back. “Yeppers, the guy, that’s Evergreen, he’s the leader of Vimont. I don't know who the bitch is." When she said that last sentence it threw me off. She wasn't one for cursing, especially so open. "So, bossy boss boss was right. They are working together.”

I peer over again to see Genocide slip a bag filled with bits over to Evergreen; in return he gave him a folder with some papers inside. They all had a large smile and was slightly laughing, until Genocide takes a glance in my direction and sees me looking at him. He quickly turns his smile into a concerned look. He shakes Evergreens hoof and begins to walk out.

“Sparky, come on. We’re going.”

She quickly takes her new drink down and walks with me. We waited until he was out of sight and then we pick up our pace. Up the stairs out of this electronic den and into the night filled city. Genocide knew we were following him and he begins to run.

Sparky and I begin to run after him. Whatever papers he had it was something we needed. I charge after him head on, but Sparky had other plans. “Keep chasing him, I gots an idea!” Then runs off into a nearby alleyway.

“Sparky what are you..?” She continues on anyway, and I just chase Genocide without any thought. We flung through the crowded city streets. He was fast, but not much faster than me. The issue is he flung anypony or anything in his way at me. Jumping back and forth dodging his throws in his petty attempted to escape he runs into an alleyway. I followed him in; at the end of the long brick-walled alleyway there was a split to go either left or right. He stops right in the center trying to decipher which way he should go. He looks left to see a stone wall, and then glances to his right. At that moment, his eyes went wide as a bolt of electricity hit him flinging him twenty feet.

Sparky walks out with her body slightly glowing with a static sparks zapping around her body and through her spiked hair. She comes out laughing so hard she was nearly choking.

“HAHAHA! He went like, like, so far!!” She walks over to Genocide charging her horn again. Her attitude quickly changes as she points it at Genocide. “WHERE ARE THE DOCUMENTS!?!” The static begins again and rings of electricity were going all throughout her figure, and her eyes shrunk making them look pure white with small little black dots in the middle.

“Okay, just relax you psycho, here.” Genocide said in a deep voice giving Sparky the file. Sparky grabbed the files and threw them over to me.

“Okay Blue, let’s go.” Her horn discharged the bolt of lightning at the wall beside her shooting electricity in every direction, almost hitting Genocide a second time. We get up and begin walking away. It didn't take long for him to react as he gets up and begins to charge at me. However, Sparky is quicker. With little thought, she quickly recharged her horn and shot him a second time. He went flying back up against the wall, but didn’t move.

“There, now that’s one less problem to deal with. We did the Royal Guard a favor.” Sparky said with a serious attitude walking away. Very quickly after she begins to skip down the street with me all the way back to her place humming a harmonious tune.

==============

We headed in through the front door around eleven at night. When walking in it was completely dark except for a light illuminating from the kitchen, a light instrumental jazz music playing softly on the radio, the smell of cigars being burned and sounds of a conversation in the kitchen. Sparky and I walk in with the folder we got from Genocide. They both looked at us with small smiles on their faces. Black Mail had a cigar in his mouth; he goes and pulls it out to talk to us.

“So what did you two figure out?”

I place the folder on the table to which the documents inside spilled out. He goes forward to grab them to have a look.

“Wow, just, wow. This is amazing, how did you get these?”

We tell him the story to which he as well as The Boss was quite pleased. He skims through the papers loaded with key information. Few of the papers had plans and idea, few of them were receipts on recently purchased weapons, others were pictures of our own hotspots with ideas on how to attack stapled to them. What was the biggest surprise was three photos of ponies. One showed Black Mail with a sniper rifle crosshair on it. The second did the same thing, but this one had Cosmic Joy. The last one was the same as the other two, but the pony I didn't know. She was a slight tan color with light red and purple hair.

The dimly lit room with a hazy atmosphere of a smoke cloud wafting over our heads made the moment more intense than it already was. We waited there in the silence eagerly waiting for Black Mail to give us a response as he skimmed over all the pages.

“Alright,” He gets up and puts out his cigar, “I’m taking these back to my place. Warn the other places about what we have found out on these two’s little alliance.” He waves his hoof in our direction. “Well, do that tomorrow that is.”

We gave slight nods as I walked upstairs into the dusty coffee shop to sleep on my makeshift bed. Out of the cracks the light shined through with the cigar smoke leaking out with it. I curl into it and did one thing I haven’t done in a long time. I slowly drifted into a uncomfortable sleep, because I’m unaware to what will come forth over this alliance of our biggest rivals.

============

The next morning my eyes open to the light hitting my face. The sun shined through the shops broken and boarded up windows while hitting the dust in the air.

Struggling to get up, I stretched and headed downstairs. Sparky wasn’t there, but Mercurial and Cosmic were. They were talking and enjoying the breakfast. What shocked me was when entering this usually grimy room, it was cleaned. Well, it was a little, enough so that you can walk around without bumping into something. The counter-tops had been cleaned off with the dishes cleaned and put away.

“What the hell happened here?”

Cosmic and Mercurial began to laugh. “We don’t know either; we walked into it like this. We’re guessing Sparky did it.” Cosmic said still giggling.

I just sit down shaking my head back and forth. “So have you guys heard yet, about Vimont and Unity?”

They both not at the same time, “Sparky told us last night.” Mercurial added, “I was asleep at home when she busted through my front door yelling.” He begins to laugh. “Then she told me and headed out. So random, it’s impossible to understand with her.”

We all chuckle in agreement.

“So what’s going down?” I asked trying to figure out today’s objective.

“Our normal routine I guess, unless something comes up. But now that we have their documents I doubt there going to do much now.” Cosmic said taking a bit of her toast with a fried egg on top.

“Hopefully this thing will blow over. I’m not scared of Unity, it’s Vimont I’m nervous about,” He takes a drink of his soda. “and with good reason too.”

“Yeah, ever since that attack they did on that casino about a year or so ago.” Cosmic added in while actually getting up to put the dish in the sink, shocker.

I know about the attack she’s mentioning.

It was more about ten months ago really. Unity owned a casino called Lucky Horseshoes near the beach. It was a huge fancy building, standing proud twenty stories in the air with enough ascetics around it to make florists have a heart attack. This huge building was in an area that was like Applewood. Rich and famous ponies lived there. The oceanic view from just about any area you were made it an ideal location.

Vimont had snuck into the casino one night and had charged the entire building with high explosives. The next morning while all was calm and peaceful, Vimont set off the explosives. The top ten floors went up in a flaming mushroom cloud as the building began to give in. Luckily, the fire department managed to get there quickly and put the fire out and recuse the rest inside.

The casino was totaled the next day with controlled explosives. This little event sparked up a nationwide scare. Radio talk show hosts reported on it nonstop. Newspapers were riddled with pictures and documents. Once word got out that Vimont cause the attack, the Royal Guard became involved to strike back, there was no success on their end.

After Cosmic, Mercurial, and I were finished talking, we went on with our daily routine. We, as well as the rest of everypony else in our group, were waiting eagerly to hear about what’s ahead for us.

========

Chapter Five: Sending A Message

Chapter Five: Sending a Message

Ever sense Sparky and I had gotten a hold of Genocides files, Black Mail has been working nonstop to find ways to cut down Unity and Vimont. Only once have I gone on one of those little attacks. It was too easy, which was a bit strange.

Of the coast about a mile a boat called The Mocking Bird was coming in. Mercurial and I had tracked its location and found it was offloading near the Pave Hotel on the east side of the city. It was a good dropping point because the docks near there were generally dark and only the moon illuminated the area. Once the boat had landed Mercurial and I made our move. We snuck onto the crooked wooden docks and got on the boat. Inside was a something we didn’t expect.

First, the captain was drunk, no wasted, far gone beyond any possibilities of mental thinking. When we walked in on him he just looked at us, laughed, and went on with his measly little song he was humming swaying the steering wheel back and forth, even though the boat was docked. Mercurial just walked up and hit him on top of the head knocking him out, leaving the captain sleeping like a child on the ground next so some rum bottles.

Second, half the crew had left leaving the boat open. The few guards who were still around were either asleep, not paying attention, or talking so loud we knew where they were at. It was easy to get around them and into the lower deck. We managed to find the storage room, but instead of weaponry and money like Black Mail had told us, it was filled with a bunch of parts for factory equipment. We left them and went onto another room which was a small closet filled with the some money. We packed them in our bags and began searching for the weapons, nothing.

It was a quick jump off the boat and we headed back to Sparky’s Den to drop off the stash. Afterwards, Mercurial and I went to a local bar to grab a drink. It wasn’t much to celebrate about, but it didn’t matter. We snagged about five hundred bits so we're not complaining.

However, our retaliation hasn’t gone unnoticed and the two have been hitting back, and just as hard. At Mezzo Park, three of our dealers were on the bridge going across the park. They got into a shootout with some of the boys from Vimont. The fight was quickly over when they were gunned down from both the front and back. On the same day, one of our boats was heading down south to Fillydelphia to create a new trade route. The boat however, was rigged, and when it was about two miles off the coast the boat was demolished into a large fireball.

We’re not the only ones taking a hit here. The Havenruns lost their mob boss. He was killed in his house yesterday night; his wife is now in witness protection for she saw the two who assassinated him. The police know who did it, but they have yet to find them.

The Diamond Havocs, who are mostly thieves, have taken a heavy loss as Vimont cut off one of their raids. The Diamond Havocs, were trying to break into the Equestrian National Bank in attempts to get in the vault which was storing some jewelry for Filthy Rich’s wife, it was his birthday gift to her and they were holding on to it until it would be sent off to Ponyville the next morning. Halfway through they were ambushed by Vimont who went in, killed all seven of the thieves including the five security guards in the bank. They grabbed the jewels and some bits and bailed from the bank, only one was caught a day later and she is now in a federal prison near Canterlot.

Over all, it’s been a back and forth slaughter and steal between each other. The police and Royal Guard have enhanced their appearance in the city, but have done very little stop the violence. Shining Armor has called in an elite squad of ponies who train in undercover operations, and some other government agencies have also come in. So far three undercover agents had been caught. It should be safe to say what has happened to them.

Even though the police are trying their best, the bloodshed continues uninterrupted.

=========

Black Mail had asked me to meet him, so we’re meeting at nearby café. I have been sitting up on the loft waiting for about twenty minutes and he still hasn’t arrived. So within the twenty minutes I have had two cappuccinos, going for a third, watched people walk in and out, and listen to the unfitting music on the radio. The café has a more relaxed theme, nice comfy seats, stained wooden and glass tables, and some abstract art, but the radio is playing heavy metal. It’s a very interesting choice never the less.

Out the window I see Black Mail walking across the street and into the café. When he walks in I wave my hoof so he sees me. He walks up to the loft, sits down and places a folder on the square glass table.

“How’ve you been?”

I just nod my head as a response. “Well, good to know,” he leans his head in closer, “I’m surprised you’re still alive.”

I chuckled a little although it was true. “Likewise,”

He opens the folder, inside showed a picture of a stallion, medium sized with whitish coat with a light green mane. Standing next to him were three ponies that looked like bodyguards.

“This is Spearmint Trail, he’s like me. He plans out operations for Unity’s west and north cliques. The goons in the picture are as you probably already have guessed are his body guards. They never leave his side, even when he’s sleeping.”

“That’s a bit creepy.”

“No kidding, anyway, they hang out at a bar called Siamese near Victory Boulevard, it's on the other side of the river of the old casino that Vimont blew up.”

Nodding my head as a response he continues. “We need him gone, if his goonies go down with him so be it. You will be paid handsomely for this one.”

I look away from the papers up at him, “Wasn’t I just some drug maker not more than a few weeks ago, and at the same time you didn’t like me?”

He laughs with a smile, which he rarely did. “You’re moving up the ladder my friend.” He taps my shoulder as he stands up. “You’ve done good for us, and this little thing will show Unity were not messing around.”

“Alright, but I don’t have a weapon.”

“You don’t? I thought you did. Well then, talk to Mercurial and he’ll introduce you to our arms dealer. See you around.” He then walks out of the café.

I chug down my coffee and head out the door, time to meet this arms dealer.

===

When I walked into Sparky’s Den, Sparky was doing something a little bit, unusual, even for her. She was sitting next to the radio in the kitchen with a large creepy smile calmly bobbing her head to the rhythm of the music on the radio. No humming, no dancing, nothing, just bobbing her head calmly. Is this what she is like if she’s high?

“Hey Blue, Black Mail said you need a weapon.” Mercurial said while slowly boiling the chemical mixture over a fire. This is the step before the last one, where you boil the water out of the chemical mixture before putting it in the heated compressing part, where it’s likely to explode.

“Yeah, I’m supposed to meet some gun dealer.”

“Yep, I’ll take you to her. Sparky; take over for me while I’m gone.” He gets up, grabs a flashlight off the table and heads over to the door towards me. Sparky’s eyes open to show them slightly bloodshot. She calmly nods her head and walks over to the seat were Mercurial was just sitting in with the smile still locked on her face.

Mercurial and I walked out and head about a mile down the street to a stairwell heading into an out-of-service part of a subway line. We walk down and jump onto the tracks and begin heading into the dark graffiti filled tunnel. Through the dark with only Mercurial flashlight to guide the way, we get to a large green metal door; this wasn’t put here by the construction crew. Along the sides of the door were cracks and new cement where the original had been removed. It wasn’t until then I saw the original door rusted and bent slightly lodged in the corner. Mercurial bangs on the door in a rhythm similar to the one used on Sparky's den. Slowly, a small slit in the doorway opens up to show a pair of red eyes staring at me, they glance at Mercurial then the slit closed shut. With a loud bang of the gears moving inside the door, it opens up to reveal a light green mare with a red and purple mane which was partially cover by brown beany over her head.

“Hey Mercurial, who’s your friend?” she said in slightly pointing at me. Her voice is a bit lively, but her appearance isn't, eyes half shut and her ears are down a little.

“His name is Blue Sparks.” He looks over to me, “Blue, this is Roseberry Bud. She sells and fixes our weapons, reloads shells, all that good stuff.”

She gets a small cocky grin, “Yeah, just somepony with a weapon craze." She walks in leaving the door wide open. "Come on in guys, I need some company."

The inside of this subway room was immense. The grey brick walls were aligned with a large number of different weapons ranging between carbines and high powered automatic rifles. Over near the corner was a glass counter filled with a multitude of pistols and smaller SMG’s. In a room behind the counter there was a stack of boxes labeled C-4 with to RPG-7’s leaning up against them.

Roseberry stops and looks at me. “So what are you lookin’ for?”

“I’m supposed to kill some guy at a bar, not really sure how I want to do this.”

She puts on a sarcastic tone. “Well, obviously a nicely placed grenade could do the trick.”

“Uhh, something a little bit, smaller.”

She laughs as she goes over to a glass counter and looks at some different pistols that filled the inside. It was a few seconds before she does an overdramatic roll over the counter to pull one of them out.

“Here, its .40 caliber, ten round mag, and it’s the perfect size for you,” she jumps back over the counter to me.  “Here hold it.”

I grab a hold of the weapon and look down the iron sights pointing towards the wall. It was a nice size, weight, and the grip worked well. “Can I test fire this?”

Roseberry’s eyes go wide open and her ears perk up, “Hell yeah you can try it out!” She runs behind the counter once more and pulls out a box of ammunition, a paper target, and some earphones. “Come on, follow me.”

Inside the gun range Roseberry hooks a poster of Sapphire Short and reels it out about thirty feet out into the hallway. I look at her with a confused look.

“Bitch insulted me a few years ago over my appearance, so this is how I cope with it.”

I don’t think she realizes that buying that poster helps Sapphire’s profit.

Roseberry loads up one of the clips and hands it to me. I load the gun and cock it getting it ready. I had aimed down the sights and was about to shoot before Roseberry stopped me.

“The gun won’t be accurate sense it’s not set to you eyesight. Just shoot so you get a feel for it.”

I nod my head and begin to fire the ten rounds with the best of my accuracy, miserably missing a lot of the shots. The recoil was very low; it felt much like shooting a one-hoof potato gun back when I was elementary school, which got me suspended. Once the clip was finished I look over my shoulder to see Roseberry walk back in the room with three other .40 caliber pistols.

“Try these ones out.”

For the next half hour we spent shooting a multitude of guns. Finally, I made my decision, a Colt .40 with a wood finish. Then for another hour and a half was spent sighting the weapon in. She put the iron sights to a six o’clock hold. When I finally finished, we walked out of the shooting ranged, tired and half deaf, to the counter to purchase the weapon. I look around for Mercurial, he must've left a while ago.

“Alright, that’s going to be three hundred bits for the gun and a box of fifty rounds.”

“Hey, could I get a silencer for this?”

She gave a bit off a confused look. “Sure, but why?”

“Just in case.”

“Uhh, sure, then it’ll be five fifty. Sorry for the huge jump in the price, but where having a shortage on them.”

“It’s fine,” I place the bits on the table and grab the merchandise and began walking out the door.

Her slightly nervous tone quickly changes back to her lively attitude. “See you later Blue! Come back sometime A’ight!”

=====

I’m inside Sparky’s Den alone in the dark with only the kitchen ceiling lamp lighting up the table, loading the magazines for my newly purchased pistol. The front door closes, over my shoulder Cosmic Joy walking in hovering a paper bag from a restaurant. She pulls out two takeout boxes and hands one to me.

“I heard you’re about to assassinate some guy, thought you might want something before going.” She opened her box and began to eat while I finish loading the last clip and placing it inside the gun.

“That’s sounds good,” I grab the box and began to eat the noodles inside. “I just wish I could do it a bit more, stealthy, instead of charging right in.”

Cosmic mumbles with the food in her mouth before putting the box-of-noodles on the table and walking into the living room. She comes back holding a circular devise with a knife attached to the side.

“Hidden blade, may come in handy. Wear some hooded sweatshirt or any long sleeved shirt and hide this in your sleeve and if they come close,” the knife slides forward, “click.” She spent the next minute showing me how to use it. The blade can move in and out so fast you can't even see its transition between hidden and out. It sits tightly and comfortably around my hoof and is lightweight.

I hid the knife inside the sleeve of the black hoody and with a nylon strap, hid the pistol on my left side. When I was about to head out the door, Cosmic stopped me and does something she's never done before, she embraces me in a hug.

I just hug her back and once we were finished I headed off to Siamese to find Spearmint.

=====

I hitch a monorail ride over to Victory Boulevard and begin looking for the Siamese bar. After walking for about ten minutes I spot it next to a laundromat on a corner of a street. The M on the neon sign was out and the windows had metals bars over them. I head inside to see it was like a usual bar, creaky wooden floors, mahogany bar counter, and dark green tint for the seat colors. There was a light drinking music playing, a guy playing darts alone and another one in a fancy business suit drinking heavily. I spot Spearmint with two of his bodyguards; they were in the corner booth. Instead of opening fire I decide to play it casual and slid my way over to the bar and sit down on the velvet chairs.

“What’ll ya have?” The bartender asks walking over to me while cleaning a mug with a white rag.

“Anything, I don’t care.” The bartender walks off to get my drink. It wasn’t really my intention to get it but I needed it to blend in to the scene. I peer over my shoulder to see Spearmint in the corner staring back at me along with the bodyguards. The bartender walks back over and places the cup filled with the brown liquid in a glass with ice in front of me.

I take a sip, shortly after there was a tap on my shoulder. To the left of me was Spearmint sitting with anger in his eyes. I just glance at him for a moment before going back to my drink.

“What are you doing here?” He grabs my shoulder and pushes to look at me again.

“Just here for a drink, nothing more.” I do my best to act innocent.

“Yeah, I know who you are.” he leans in closer. “You’ve killed many of my friends.”

“Hmm, must’ve been an accident.”

“Yeah, nice try, here, I’m going to make you an offer.” He points to the door. “You just fuck off outta here and I’ll let you live another day.”

I just look away, “I’m not leaving here, just got my drink.”

He grabs ahold of my shoulder to try and push me once again, but I don’t move.

“Looks like we’re going to have a pro…” Quickly, I pop the hidden blade out of my sleeve and impale it into his chest straight threw his heart. I move him out of the way as to get a clear shot on the other two still sitting in the corner that were getting up and reaching for their weapons. Once in sight, I slide out my pistol and began opening fire at them. One was hit in the back of the head while the other was hit in the side and in his right arm. He falls to the ground and didn’t move, but he was still breathing. I aim once more and take one last shot hitting him in the side of his head.

It was silent in the bar except the music playing lightly on the ceiling stereo. The bartender hadn’t moved from his spot, he just stood there staring at me. I place five bits on the counter and nod my head at him, in which he did the same. I was about to run out until the bartender yells out to me.

“Hey, use the back exit.” He waves to me to get me to follow. I run into the back of the bar and began to head out.

I started running down a nearby alleyway, already you could hear the sounds of the police sirens going to the bar, which is the fastest they’ve ever responded to a shootout. I ditched my hoody and weapons in a dumpster and began walking casually back to Sparky’s Den.  About halfway, the police had gone right pass me, not even recognizing who they had passed.

When I got back to Sparky’s, I walk into the front door to see Sparky lying on her back on  the couch waving her hooves lightly around in the air. Again, no sound, humming, or any other body movement besides her eyes following her hooves. In the kitchen sitting at the table listening to some music on the radio with a little static, Roseberry Bud and Cosmic Joy are drinking some coffee and reloading some shells. As I walk into the kitchen they both look up at me.

Roseberry was the first to speak. “Hey again Blue Spark, how’d the gun work for you?”

“Good, and so did Cosmic’s blade, but it’s in an alleyway where I ditched the stuff so I could be hidden from the cops.”

They just nod their heads in agreement. “We’ll just pick it up tomorrow morning.” Cosmic said waving me over to the table and placing a cup and a coffee pot where I’d be sitting. “Hope you don’t mind, but Sparky said you’d been using this and we wanted to give it a try.”

I just chuckle as I pick up the coffee pot and pour myself some. “Speaking of Sparky, what the hell is wrong with her?”

“New medication the doctor prescribed her. It’s making her hallucinate a little bit.” Roseberry explained rolling the pill bottle over to me.

“Then why is she using them?”

“I don’t know, but she is a lot more relaxed.”

I lean my chair back and look into the living room. Sparky had stopped moving her hooves around and was now asleep, but her hooves were still up in the air. “I don’t like it.”

“Neither do we, we’re cutting off her supply.”

“Good,” Down at the end of the table there’s a white envelope with my name on it. “What is that?”

Roseberry slides it across the table over to me. Inside was a letter.

Blue Sparks,

Here is the pay for a job well done. Cash the check at the Eastern Equestrian Bank, talk to Rhinestone Ruby, she’ll cash it out for you.

-The Boss

At the bottom of the paper was the check, written out to me for ten thousand. My eyes go wide open and my jaw drops. Roseberry and Cosmic look over to me.

“How much?” Cosmic asks stopping her work.

“Ten,” I folded the paper back up and stick it back in the envelope.

“Damn, I guess that pays for your pistol, huh?” Roseberry adds in a sarcastic tone pulling down on a lever reloading another shell.

I sit down and stare blankly at the coffee on the table. All this money, just to kill some guy, this could possibly be the easiest line of business I have ever been in. The radio’s music fades off into static as it loses signal. It wasn’t long before my eyes close and I fell asleep.

Chapter Six: Pandora's Box

Chapter Six: Pandora’s Box

“In other news, a shootout at a local bar called Siamese happened late last night as an armed pony killed three Unity gang members. Police have no leads on who had caused the murders, but they are continuing their search to find who is responsible. In other news…”

This played on the news station on the radio this morning. To be honest, it was a relief to hear. Just knowing I’m in the clear let me have a moment of security. However, and unfortunately, the news channels have been known for fabricating their stories. Not to say you can’t trust them completely, but be wary on some things they say.

When the economy failed here in Manehattan, they were spewing lies all over the place. They were saying more shit then the sewer system contained. They blamed everypony for the cause, and they did so with no evidence. It didn’t matter, people ate it up, and they began attacking who they thought was responsible. Celestia had put a stop to it quick when she heard about the newscaster’s slander.

I’m not ready to move yet, but I have to. Passing out on the table made my body stiff and unwilling to cooperate when attempting to move; specifically my shoulders. Alone, as I sat upright at the kitchen table trying to regain my strength, I peered over at the envelope containing the check. It’s a bit nerve racking to be in possession of that much money, especially how it was obtained.

With the rhythmic bumping in my head beginning to die down, I head out the door with the check to the Eastern Equestian Bank. Never in my life have I heard of The EEB, but I bet I know where it’s at. They most likely bought out the open lot near the city square, so I’ll have to see. What is getting to me is who I have to meet with, this Rhinestone Ruby. The envelope contained no picture showing what she looked like.

The bank was where I guessed it to be; they did buy the open lot and placed a new bank there. The bank was a new brick building on the corner of the street.  Just last week they opened up and ponies were flooding the place opening up accounts. Ever since the economy collapsed ponies have been looking for other places to safely put their money. What is making this bank different is beyond me.

The inside was crowded with a wave of ponies of all colors swarming the front desks wanting to get their accounts open. It seemed pointless to be here, there was no way of pushing my way through the crowd. Just as I was about to head out the door there was a tap on my shoulder. When I looked to my right, I see an employee of the bank looking at me.

“Are you Blue Sparks?” The light blue mare asked pulling me aside trying to get me to an open spot.

“Uh, yes, I’m here looking for Rhinestone Ruby.” I responded with an eyebrow up. I don’t know this mare, but she might.

“Yep, follow me.” She grabs me and helps push my way through the crowded room and into the hallway with glass windows looking into the offices. We went all the way to the end to room 8. She opens the door and lets me inside a small white room barren from any decorations besides a fake potted plant in the corner.

“Here is Blue Sparks for you ma’am.” She gives to Rhinestone with a satisfied look and tone.

“Thanks,” She responded, unsatisfied, without looking up from her work.

The door closed behind me, the noise of the chatting outside fades away to a quite mumble. I stood there looking at Rhinestone. She sat there working on her papers before looking back up at me. Our eyes were locked before she spoke up.

“Well, take a seat.” She waved her hoof over to the grey seat across from her desk.

As I sit down she pulls out a tan folder from inside her desk drawer. “So, Blue Sparks, you killed Spearmint correct?”

I look around the room with my eyes for a brief second before responding; making sure nopony was listening in. “Yes,”

“Good, good, he died nice I heard. Knife through the heart, what an honorable way to die.”

“If you say so.”

She puts on a small smirk as she hands the folder to me. “That’s for your friend Cosmic Joy, don’t read it.”

I give her a small glance as I examined the outside of the folder he gave to me. “What’s inside it?”

“None of your business, but she needs to get it and I’m trusting you with this. Don’t look inside, or I will kill you.” She wasn’t lying; you can tell by the way she looked at me. Eyes locked on with no emotion behind her.

“Fine, what about my paycheck for killing Spearmint?”

She leans back and looks at me, “You think you deserve that money?”

“I killed a pony in a bar along with two of his bodyguards in plain view.” My voice without my control raises as I get angry by her response. “So yes I think I deserve that fuckin’ money.”

Rhinestone gets a large smile, “I like your attitude, quick to anger, love it.” She leans back forward and crosses her hooves on the table. “There is a briefcase in an alleyway near where you lived before working with us, in those old apartments. It’s across the street near the old dry cleaners.”

My eyes grow wide when she mentioned my old apartment. “H-How do you where I lived?”

“Your friends told me. Anyway, take the folder to Cosmic, get your money.” She waves her hoof to get me to leave as she returns to her work.

I stumble a little out the door and back into the noisy crowded room to take the folder to Cosmic.

===

When entering the through the creaky door to Sparky’s Den I got a different greeting than usual. Sparky grabs me and pushes me up to the walls holding a dull butter knife in her mouth pointing it to my throat.

“What are you, a shpy?” Her eyes were blood shot with her pupils dilated, squinting while staring at me. There wasn’t a long time to respond before Cosmic Joy pulls her away from me and throws her over to the couch.

“Sparky! Mellow the fuck out!” Cosmic says while pinning Sparky down to the couch. While holding Sparky down Cosmic looks back up at me. “Is that my folder?”

I just stand there a bit stunned before nodding my head slowly watching her hold down Sparky as she squirms to get free.

“Good, put it on the kitchen table, I got to sort this one out first.” She sits there struggling to control Sparky as she kicked around screaming profanities.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked while walking into the kitchen. The table had been flipped upside down with all the items that were on it spilled onto the floor.

“She mixed up some of the batch with sugar. So she’s quite messed up right now.”

“I see,” I slowly back out the door and head off into the streets.

===

Once on the street of my old neighborhood, I walked over to my old apartment building. It still stands there in all its pitiful glory. Hopefully it will be taken down someday.

I get in front of my apartment and see the entrance to the alleyway where my money was supposed to be stashed.

Inside the dark dirty alleyway, the little bit of light from the sun illuminated it enough to depict what was back here. Piles of garbage bags, stacks of cardboard, greasy dumpsters, and other worthless junk. There didn’t seem to be anything in here that would be containing the money I was searching for. Just as I was giving up, I turn my head and a flash of light hit my eyes. The light from the sun had reflected off the polished brass of a brand new briefcase, sitting in the corner between a stone wall and a dumpster.

I walked over to the briefcase and pulled it out, it was heavy. I place it on its side and with a quick click of the locks opening up; the case opened up and revealed a large stack of money on the inside. Each bit, aligned neatly and perfectly on the inside, shining in the little bit of light with all of its glory. My heart skips a beat as I stare at the cleanest thing in this appalling alleyway.

After a few minutes of uninterrupted staring, I pack the case back up, pick it up with my mouth, and head off back to Sparky’s Den.

Outside the front door, the lightning emblem that usually hangs on the front of the door had been knocked off and was lying on the concrete ground. I stared at it for a brief second before hearing screaming and banging of a door on the inside.

I open up the door and place the suitcase next to the sofa near the door. I look forward to see Cosmic on her hind legs leaning her back against a closet door with her fore hooves spread across. She gives a worried smile as I walk in.

“Hey there Blue, what’s up?” Right after she says that, a yellow hoof punches through wooden door near her head and begins searching for Cosmic. Bizarre screeches come from the door as the hoof feels its way across.

“Having fun with Sparky?” giving her a sarcastic tone as I walked into the kitchen.

“Oh, a blast,” The house was littered and damaged with things knocked over, broken, or turned over in some way. Everything was except the drug lab. “As you can see, we’ve been having a peaceful day.”

I look around and see the trashed basement. A few more muffled screams from Sparky finally got me thinking.

“Hey, why don’t you use the tranquilizer in the cupboard?”

There was a small silence before Cosmic snapped, “WE HAVE A FUCKING TRANQUILIZER?”

“Yeah, in the cupboard.”

You could faintly hear the sounds of sadness from Cosmic before she spoke up again. “Son of a bitch, Can you please get it for me?” There was another smash against the door from Sparky.

I laughed as I walk back into the living room and get the tranquilizer that was shoved in between some books in a brown cupboard. Once it was in my hoof, Cosmic used her magic to levitate the pill over to her.

“Okay, I’m going to open this door. Once it’s open, help me pin her down while I get the pill down her damn throat.” She says through her teeth.

I nodded my head. Cosmic flings open the door and Sparky blasts out at intense speeds. She gets up and picks up a nearby newspaper and rolls it up. She stands on her hind legs holding the newspaper next to the front door.

“Back demons, I command you!” Sparky at this point was a bit delusional, which is sort of common with her... she, was more delusional.

Cosmic sighs as she uses her magic to open the door she was standing nearby. Sparky gets slammed between the door and the wall. She was unable to move, but she continued to struggle to break free. Cosmic takes the pill and open Sparky’s mouth with her hooves. With her magic, Cosmic drops the pill in Sparky’s mouth. With no retaliation, Sparky swallows the tranquilizer.

Cosmic lets her out from her temporary prison. Sparky pick up her newspaper again before stumbling and falling to the ground.

I pick up Sparky and place her on the sofa. I trot over to the recliner and lie down.

“Cheers,” She says handing over a glass of water and sitting down on the couch across from Sparky. “Were out of beer, Sparky smashed them all.”

I sit on my recliner and look back at Cosmic. “You have fun with her?”

Cosmic just shakes her head back at fourth. “It was crazy, I’m glad I can rest for a minute.” There was a brief moment of silence before Cosmic speaks up again. “Where’s the folder you got for me?”

“Kitchen table,” I said while pointing my hoof over to the archway leading into the kitchen.

Cosmic stands up and walks over to kitchen and back in with the folder.

“Thanks for getting me this.”

I lay back in the recliner and close my eyes. It was quiet besides the heavy breathing from Sparky, almost near snoring.

The front door gets unlocked and Mercurial walks in the door holding in his mouth a 24-pack of beer. He drops the case as he looks at the wrecked room.

Cosmic puts her folder down and looks at him with a smile. “What’s up?”

Mercurial was still in a state of shock as he looks around the room. “Uhh….”

Neither Cosmic or I could resist, we looked at each other and busted out laughing.

“I…” Mercurial pauses, “Never mind, I don’t want to know.” He picks the case back up as he takes it into the kitchen and places it on the table and walks back out. Mercurial looks at me before walking out the door, “Hey Blue, DimLight says he needs to see you at his place.”

DimLight? I haven’t seen him since we attacked the warehouse.

“He said it’s important.” His eyes drop halfway and smiles, “which coming from him doesn’t mean much.”

I just get up and walk out of the demolished basement as Mercurial asked Cosmic what had happened.

===

It was early afternoon by the time I got to DimLight fancy neighborhood. The place hasn’t changed much, but it definitely has kept its pizazz over the course of two months. The sun reflecting off of the dew on the thriving green grass proves that some places in the city are still being looked after.

I bang on DimLights door to find out what was going on, why he needed me so badly. There was no response. I try again, still nothing.

Growing impatient, I open the door and head inside. It was dark besides the light coming through the windows and hitting the cigar smoke on the inside. It wasn’t clean like it was before, books filled the tables and were falling off the edge, mice scurried around picking up loose crumbs on the floor, and the wooden cabinets were covered in a fine dust, so fine walking past made enough disturbance in the air flow it made dust fling everywhere.

After walking around, I spot DimLight siting on a fancy red leather wingback chair near a window overlooking a park. I sit on the chair next to him with no words. DimLight didn’t even look up at me; he stared emotionlessly at a group of young kids down in the park who were all wearing a red coat with a blue emblem with a yellow pony on the side.

This didn’t seem like him, so I decided to break the silence. “You needed to see me?”

He doesn’t look at me, “Yes, I need you to deliver a special package.” He continued to observe to kids down below, which bothered me.

I stare at him with concern for a few moments before speaking up. “Why are you staring at those kids?”

He points to one of them, a young filly with a white coat and curly light green hair. “She’s my niece; her parents dropped her off for me to look after her while they’re on their vacation.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Week ago, they’re coming back next week.” He looks at me, “I haven’t been around or helping because I don’t want her to get hurt.” He picks up the package and places it in front of me. His face grows with concern, “Then Black Mail assigned me this damn job even when I told him I couldn’t because of my niece.”

“What do you need me to do?”

He leans back into his chair, “First, let me ask you, are you up for this?”

“I’ll do anything as long as I get paid.”

DimLight nods his head a few times, “Alright, deliver this package to Pandora’s Box, a tobacco shop near downtown, near Anevail. Walk in, act like a delivery pony, give them the package. Walk across the street and head to the rooftop. Up there you’ll see another lever, pull it.”

“Alright, can do.” I put the box on my back and look out the window once more to see DimLight’s niece getting her own red coat from the other in the group. “What’s going on there?”

DimLight smiles and lets out a warm hearted chuckle. “Something called the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

I nod my head off and walk out the door. Before heading out the front one question enters my mind.

“Hey, what does the lever do?”

He’s sighs, “What do you think?”

===

Downtown was more relaxed tonight than usual. The city streets are many times filled with ponies walking all over the streets, entering and exiting buildings, or trying to sprint across the busy traffic. Today was different, it was relaxed, calm, and it seemed as if it was a weekday when everypony was a work.

Down the littered city streets I come across a building, Pandora’s Box with a stack of apartments on top of it. I head inside to find a mare working at the counter, we was purple with a violet hair covered by head bandana she wore. Inside the shop was a large number of ever pipe, hookah, or bong known to pony kind.

“Hey, can I help ya?” The mare asks sounding almost irritated by my presence.

“I have this package to deliver.” I place the box on the counter.

She stared emotionless with her eyes half dropped and mouth open. After a few seconds she looks up at me with the same expression. “Uh, cool okay.” She picks it up with her mouth at takes it into the backroom. I head out of the store before she came out.

The street was almost barren, with only a few pedestrians in the street. I head across and get inside the stairwell leading to the rooftops of the ten story building. I got to the roof and spot the lever on the side of the building facing Pandora’s Box. I look at the rooms of the apartments on the inside, seeing all the ponies who lived inside. Just normal people who were living their daily lives, some gathered around tables talking, other were walking around doing work, some cooking their dinner. I snap out of my brief moment of lost focus and was unhesitant and pulled the lever.

I look down at Pandora’s Box to see a bright flash. Soon, the entire shop was consumed into a large fireball. The windows were blasted out flinging bits of shattered glass filling the streets. The fire rose and smoke rose up into the air. Within a few moments a second explosion took place as it went straight upwards into the apartments. The ground shook as the apartments were engulfed like the pipe shop, filled with fire and smoke. The building didn’t stand much longer until it lost its foundation and collapsed under its own weight.

The ponies on the street fled for their lives as the dust from the brick building fell to the ground damaging nearby buildings as well. I headed back downstairs as quick as possible and ran as fast as I could out of the area and back to Sparky’s Den.

It took a moment before the realization hit me, all the innocent people inside, maybe some with families, all gone.

All because of me.

===

Chapter Seven: A Red Hearts and Hooves Day

“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.

===

Chapter Eight: Deeper into Fear

“Please don’t…”

I stand aiming a gun on an unknown pony; I’m unsure how I even got into this position. His hooves cover his face as tear run down his cheeks.

“I’m begging you, please don’t…” His voice is worn down and having difficulties pleading for his life under his shaking body.

I stand over him with my pistol to his face ready to blow his head open, and I was content on doing it. It felt wrong, but there was a feeling it needed to be done.

“HEY!”

I look behind me to see nopony there, I look back and the pony who was begging for his life was gone.

“WAKE THE FUCK UP!”

I was hit across the face by a mare in front of me. When consciousness came to me I realized it was Golden. She was angry, but she was afraid of something. Back and forth she drifted between anger and paranoia as she tried to bring herself together to talk to me.

In the room was almost everypony I had met, inside Sparky’s Den, all except Cosmic Joy and Roseberry Bud. As I try to get up Golden shoves me back into my recliner.

She puts her hoof on my chest and stares me dead in the eyes, “Where the hell were you last night?”

“I was on a date with Cosmic…”

“Where the hell did you two go?”

“To a concert then a bar. What’s going on here?”

Golden gets away from me and sits on the sofa next to Mercurial who looks at Sparky. He points to her, “Care to explain what you heard Sparky?”

Sparky’s eyes were wide open and in a state of shock as she turned her head to look at me, she was sitting still and slightly shaking. “Y-you killed him didn’t you?”

My heart stops for a second to hear Sparky stutter like that. She stutters sometimes, but not in fear like she had done.

“Who?”

“Evergreens Reigns son,” Black Mail speaks up in the corner not making eye contact looking down to the floor. “Midnight Haze is his name.”

I was a bit shocked to hear this, but confused. “What’s the big deal?”

All of them looked at me, like I was insane to even ask that. Golden grabs ahold of me and begins to shake me. “We’re all going to die because of you!”

Mercurial gets up and gets Golden off of me. Golden walks away before turning around to speak to me again; almost vibrating from the panic she had started. “Evergreen is a fucking psychopath. If he gets his hooves on us we’re going to be killed, TOURTURED to death!”

“So, what do we do?” I asked hoping to calm her down.

“I-,” She falls on the couch and puts her head down, “I don’t know.” Golden was afraid for her life, but was willing to surrender easily.

There was a bit of silence in the room before the boss who kept completely quiet the whole time spoke up. “It’s obvious we have to hit first.” He sounded more calm and content. He looks to Black Mail, who immediately gets up from his seat.

Black Mail sighs, “I’ll see if I can find his whereabouts.” He heads out the door, the boss soon follows suit.

Sparky and Golden begin to head out the door, but Sparky stayed behind for second letting Golden head up before her. She looks to me and heads into the kitchen. After a few moments she heads back in with a letter in her mouth and her eyes closed. She drops the letter on the table next to me and heads out without another word.

I was wondering why her eyes were closed until I looked at the envelope which had, “For Blue Sparks eyes only” written on the side. Even in fear she never changes. I picked up the white enveloped a bit confused. This wasn’t a typical thing to have happen. I opened it up to see what was inside.

“I know who you are.

I know what you’ve done.

I know what’s wrong.

I want to help.

Meet me at my office at Emerald Boulevard, near Mezzo Park. Building number 231, Room 212.

Come alone.”

I stared at the letter blankly for a while, confused by who would send me this. After sitting alone in the dark for a few minutes I shoved the letter in the crack of the couch and headed to the streets. I wandered around for a while wanting to find something to do. My mind was strapped with the letter, wondering who gave it to me.

After an hour of mindless walking I noticed I was at Mezzo Park. Children ran around playing in the first warm sunny day we’ve had in the past few weeks. Ponies socialized as they jogged or played their games in the lush green park.

I sat on a bench facing the large white old fashion styled building where the letter allegedly came from. Out front were two large Equestrian flags waving in the slight breeze. Four massive columns sat on the outside on top of a large white marble staircase. For a few minutes I stared and wondered if I wanted to make the attempted to enter. With Evergreen wanted me and my friends dead, I saw no harm in investigating where the letter of help came from, even if it was a trap.

===

I walked in front into the lobby of this massive structure. The main floor was mainly consistent of chairs and couches around coffee table, a bar in one corner, decorative carpet flooring, and a massive fountain in the center, which wasn’t working. Two pegasi with orange construction hats were working on trying to fix the broken water shooter.

After gazing in awe at the astonishing inside, I made my way to the front desk to find out which way to go to get to room 212. The receptionist was working frantically, shuffling through the large amounts of paperwork trying to get through it all. Her mane was all messed up and her glasses fogged. Trying my best not to upset her, I stood next to the desk waiting for her to respond to me.

This didn’t work; she eventually stopped and looked at me with her mouth open and glaring me down.

She sighs, “Can I help you?”

“Which way to room 212?”

She looks back down and points to the left of her. “Go upstairs to the second floor, take a right, it’ll be down that way.”

I double tap the counter as I walk away, “Thank you Ma’am.”

“Yeah, whatever,” she continues to wave through her paperwork.

I hiked my way to the second floor and down the white hallways to a brown door with a white 212 on it. There was no name tag underneath it like many offices did. There was a hesitation before knocking on the door. Eventually I did, and in the same rhythm that is used on Sparky’s Den. It wasn’t my intention to do that, but it has become a habit.

“Come on in Blue Sparks.”

I froze before opening the door. When I opened it I walk in, close the door behind me and see a stallion sitting in a spinning office chair looking out the window into the busy city streets. He was levitating a cigar in the air along with a folder with his magic.

I took a second before speaking up. “You sent me the letter?”

He spins around and looks at me with a devious grin. He was wearing a black business suit with a red tie. As soon as he did that my eyes went wide open, I recognized him.

“Wait a minute, I’ve seen you before. You were at Siamese when I-“

He cuts me off, “Killed Spearmint? Yes, nice work on that by the way.”

It was the drunken business pony I saw at Siamese when I had to kill Spearmint. He places the folder on the counter and gently puts his cigar down on the ash tray. “Take a seat Blue.”

I grab a seat in one of his grey chairs. He opens the folder and looks through some of the papers inside. After a moment he smiles gets even larger as he takes one paper out and closes the folder.

“You know Blue, when I saw you kill Spearmint at the bar; I knew you’d be perfect.”

“Perfect, for what?”

He leans back in his seat. “You see, it’s my job to take down the scum in this city. Ponies who mean harm to the peace, ponies like you. However, I was given the task to take down a specific green pony, one you know.”

I lean forward, “Let me guess, Evergreen?”

His smile goes away, “No, a pony more… personal to you.”

I stop and think for a minute about any other green pony I knew then it hit me, “Cosmic Joy?”

“Precisely, she is wanted, but not by the police. She is wanted, dead, by the Royal Guard.”

“W-what? Why?”

He pauses, “Not important, but here is the thing-”

I get up and put my hooves on his table. “What is she wanted for?”

He didn’t flinch, “I’ll say later, but may I talk about what I asked you to come down here for?”

I slowly sit back down, “fine.”

He levitates the cigar to his mouth and takes a drag, “Good, now.” He puts the cigar out in the ash tray.

“You mentioned the name Evergreen Reign, the rightfully nominated biggest psychopath in Manehattan. I know about his son, it’s all over the news he’s dead.”

“How do you know it was me?”

He takes a picture out of the folder and levitates it in front of me. It was me and Cosmic in front of the pub where we had the shootout last night. It was shocking to see the evidence go around so quickly.

“My job is to find ponies and give the all clear to take them down. With the crime in the city so high they made a law allowing that if a pony is suspected of a crime big enough, we can bust in and arrest them without a warrant or trial. I was asked to find you and Cosmic Joy. You were easy to find, Cosmic, not so much.”

I push the picture away, “I’m not betraying Cosmic if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No, I have nothing against her.” He leans forward quickly, “I want Evergreen gone, and I know you do to. Work with me and I’ll lead you to him.”

“You expect me to work with you? You’re a government pony!”

“Sort of yes, but does that mean you can’t trust me?”

“You’re government, wouldn’t you be corrupt?”

He chuckles a little bit, “Yes, if I wasn’t then I would have done my job and would have arrested you right now.”

He had a good point, but I wasn’t taking any risks with him. I stand up, “I won’t work with you.”

“You sure? I can help you find Evergreen Reign and help you out, clear your record.”

I start to head out the door, “I’m sure,”

“Okay, but remember this, my offer still stands. You won’t be able to refuse.”

I head out of the building and headed down the street.

===

An hour has passed since I left the government building. Since then I’ve been sitting at a table outside a small café. As I was about to leave until I noticed Cosmic walking down the street alone wearing a white hoodie with the hood covering most of her head, she looks over my direction. I wave my hoof to grab her attention. She sees me and trots over and sits down.

“Hey Blue, what are doing here?”

I didn’t make eye contact, “Just hanging out.”

There was a brief moment of silence before she spoke up. “Golden and them integrate you to?”

I look at her, “Yeah, they’re in quite the panic.”

“They have a reason to be, trust me Evergreen isn’t a pony to be messed with.”

After a few more second of awkward silence we got up and decided to head back to Sparky’s Den. There was a large order to be shipped out and we would need to work over time to make it. After an hour of walking to Sparky’s I asked Cosmic about what she said the other night.

“Hey, what did you mean you’re ‘running for your life’?”

She shakes her head, “nothing, don’t worry about it.”

I wanted to find a way to get the answer out of her without making it obvious I was on to her about something.

“Is somepony after you?”

“No,” she rests her hoof on my shoulder, “like said it’s nothing, no need to worry.”

“I’m not worrying, I’m just wondering.”

“I underst-” Cosmic froze with her mouth wide open. I stopped and looked in shock at what she had seen.

We were a few yards away from Sparky’s Den, and outside were wagons with police going in and out of Sparky’s Den removing all the contents within it. The vials, the tubs, and every other lab equipment used to make the powder. Some were holding back a wave of ponies all trying to gain a glimpse of the mass of illegal substances.

After staring at the horrific sight Comic downed ears perk up and she grabs ahold of me with one of her hooves lightly. She looks me in the eyes with fear. “Was Sparky in there?”

My eyes go wide, “I, I don’t know.”

We begin to back up and started to head off without a destination in mind. After a few minutes we get far enough away from Sparky’s we started to drift off and headed down into the subways and to Roseberry’s Buds weapons shop. When we got to it, Comic’s horn lit up and unlocked the large metal door.

We walk inside to the sound of reggae music echoing from a living space. We went into the room to see Roseberry lying on the couch humming to the music. Cosmic wakes her up and asks about Sparky’s whereabouts. Roseberry gets up and rubs her eyes before responding.

Roseberry clears her throat, “SPARKY! COSMIC IS HERE TO SEE YOU!” after that Roseberry opens her eyes to reveal them heavily bloodshot. She smiles and flops back down on the couch. Sparky walks in with a joint rolled in her mouth and sits on a chair.

“H-hey there Cosmic, and Blue, what’s up?” She begins to giggle a little.

Cosmic looks at her with frustrated eyes, “Sparky, your house has been raided by the police.”

Roseberry lift up from the couch as lightning fast speeds, “COPS?!”

I wave my hoof in front of her, “No, cops raided Sparky’s place. We came here to see if she was here.” Roseberry closes her eyes and sighs as she relaxes back on the couch.

“Well, I am, so, yeah. I’m fine,” she lifts her joint and smiles, “very very fine.”

Cosmic shakes her head, and sits down on a chair across from Roseberry’s. I stood there thinking about Sparky’s Den being raided. Why would they do it today of all days? We’ve always been careful to make sure we didn’t attract too much attention to it. After thinking for a minute I came to a realization.

“Hey I’m going to go; I’ll see you all later.” I said while making my way to the exit.

Cosmic lifts her head up, “Where you going?”

“To do something, I’ll see you later.” I headed out before they could say another word.

===

I walk quickly up the staircase and to the brown wooden door and opened it up and rushed into his office. I slammed the door closed and went up right to his face. He doesn’t move at all.

“Why did you do it?” I ask through my teeth.

“Well, I was thinking about what you said. I am corrupt; I should do the right thing. So I should do my job and take you and your friends down.”

“You said you were after Evergreen.”

He leans back in his chair, “No I’m ordered to take down your friend Cosmic Joy. She’s a worthy foe, in order to take her down I have to wipe out her support.” He pauses and points to me, “like you. I WANT Evergreen instead.”

I step back, “What do I have to do to get you to stop?”

“My last offer still stands, work for me and I’ll leave you, Cosmic, and the rest of your friends and organization alone. At the same time I’ll help you find and kill Evergreen Reign and I’ll clear your record. All you have to do is some jobs I need attended to.”

“And if I say no?”

He sighs and looks out the window, “Then I’ll be forced to hunt you and your friends down. Arresting them one by one and taking down the entire drug operation that is going on. We will eventually get our hooves on Cosmic to which she will most likely resist so she’ll die on the spot. Either that or she’ll surrender to which it’s to the electric chair with her.”

“You’ll be in jail for a long time or Evergreen sends somepony or himself in to kill you.”

“What are you going to make me do?”

He spins his chair and faces me with a smile and looks me in the eyes. “Things you’ve already done, taking lives is only a portion of what I’ll have you do. So, what’ll it be?”

I stood there for a moment trying to figure out what to do. If I say no, my life as well as the only friends I’ve come to know will have their lives ruined and destroyed. If I say yes, then I’m working for a government agent to find Evergreen, but if my friends found out, who knows what they will do.

We stared at each other until I eventually spoke up with three words. The same three words that got me involved in this conundrum of crime in the first place. Now, without a winning choice, I’m left to go deeper, all because I accepted the offer to start almost a year ago, with three simple words.

“I’ll do it,”

Chapter Nine: A Well Placed Shot

Usually mornings were the same; waking up, grabbing something to eat, maybe take a shower, and do whatever work needed to be completed. However, time has now changed. I just woke up and there have already been three attacks on us overnight by Evergreen himself.

When my friends told me he was a psychopath, they weren’t over exaggerating. One place Evergreen struck was another lab like ours near the Manehattan University. Evergreen dragged the three people out and tortured them until they spoke. One of them was killed after Evergreen had enough of him and lunged his machete through his head.

The other two were the same, both at people’s homes. Everyone inside was killed with the exception of any pony who had Cosmic’s and I whereabouts. The scenes were gruesome, they were chopped up and their blood was everywhere, like there was an explosion inside their bodies.

If that wasn’t enough, now I have some corrupt government pony wanting me to work for him in order to get my hooves on Evergreen first and to wipe my record clean. To be honest, I don’t have a huge issue with it, but when he busted Sparky’s Den I’ve had to go somewhere else. I ended up at Roseberry Bud’s weapon shop. It’s not bad, other than its freezing cold. It’s surprising the pipes haven’t all froze up.

After I woke up I headed straight to the government building to meet up with the government agent. If the city wasn’t corrupt enough, the ones running it are just as bad, and on some occasions worse. Now I’m working for one of them, but at least he can be helpful. Celestia knows for a fact the rest aren’t.

I headed in through the front door of the building and began to head to the stairwell until I was stopped by the receptionist.

“Hey,” she looks down and circles the floor a little with her hoof. “I wanted to say I’m sorry for being an ass the other day.”

I wave my hoof at her with a smile, “No problem.” I began to head up the stairs to the office. I looked back at her to which she gave a nervously creepy smile.

The door to his room was unlocked, so I suspected him to be there. Surprisingly he wasn’t yet. The thought occurred to me to just head out and try again later, but then a different option came to mind. I headed to the back of his desk and opened up his drawers looking for the file with my name, none. However, I found a thick file on Evergreen Reign. It looked to be an inch thick filled with papers.

I pulled out the beast and placed it on the desk opening it up. Papers and pictures all fell out with reports on this guy. There was just about every crime you could possible think. Robbery, murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, kidnapping, rape, and even assisted suicide. The list went on for pages, and the pictures were all there to prove his evil deeds.

The most interesting part of it though was the medical background of him. There was a few that stuck out to me. He had schizophrenia and was locked up in the nut hut for a few years because of it, until he broke out. He had bouts of extreme anxiety and in very rare cases he’s been known to have multiple personalities. How he’s even able to run an organization of this size without obliterating anything is beyond my understanding.

Still flipping through the file the door opened up and the tan colored stallion I talked to yesterday walked in. He looked at me flipping through Evergreens files and smiled.

“He’s quite an unusual pony isn’t he?” He said still standing by the door.

No words came out as I browsed through the files again. He walks in and places two more files on the desk in front of me, both had Cosmic Joy’s name on them. When I was about to open them he used his magic to pull them away.

“Not today, you have a separate task.” He opens up the small filing cabinet and placed the folders inside, along with Evergreens. He sits in his seat and moves me away from the back of his desk. “You have a very important job to do today.”

I take a seat across from him and listened in without interruption.

“I need two ponies taken out. However, there’s a catch. They aren’t going to be like your idiot friends walking down the street with a red target painted to their sides. They’re going to be like you, being stealthy and hidden.

I look at him with an eyebrow raised, “Then how am I going to kill them?” He responded quickly by opening up a closet and grabbing a large case and slamming it on the desk causing papers to fly off from the airflow. His enthusiasm explodes.

“With this badass piece of equipment!” He gains a large smile as he cracks open the case showing a large sniper rifle with a wood finish. On the end is a bipod and a high powered scope attached on top. He gleamed with pride when he showed it. “Customized it myself, took a while but it’s beautiful!”

I picked it up standing on my hind legs while doing it. The sheer weight of it nearly made me fall over. Eventually I did, but right back into the seat. He laughed as he uses his magic to float it back into the case.

“That’s what the bipod is for, it’s too heavy to use without it. Anyway, it’s a .50 caliber, the range is incredible, and the stopping power,” He pauses and chuckles a little “let’s just say that if you get hit anywhere with this thing, you’re dead.” He finished his sentence while motioning his hoof under his chin like a knife.

Even with the massive cannon lying in front of me, the though occurred to figure out who was the target. “So who am I shooting?”

His smile fades down a little, but still maintained. He sits down and closes the case to the sniper and levitates it into the corner. “How do you feel about our,” he pauses and spins his hoof in the air thinking on how to say his next part. “Political power?”

“Who? Like Celestia? I don’t mind them.”

“Let me reword that, what is your thought on political ponies?”

“Depends.”

His smile grows back, “You see, there is a pony coming in to run for Mayor. He’s expected to, as he says, ‘bring Manehattan back to its glory days’.” He nods his head a little as to slightly agree with the statement he had said.

“So what do you need me to do?” I asked but almost knowing the answer which I felt almost upset by.

“Well, he’s going to run for mayor, and our current mayor is going to try and lose to give him the position. She’s worn out, tired, and wants to move on.” His face shows a small frown as to give some sympathy to her.

“Anyway, the new mayor is being hunted by two assassins. One who will try and take him out up close and the other is going to use a sniper. Most likely he’ll be in the old bell tower near the city hall. It’s the only place to get a good shot if the other assassin fails.”

“The mayor is meeting up with the new candidate today around one. Make sure he lives.”

I was taken back, he didn’t want me to hurt the future mayor, but instead help him. When I came out of my shock I was quite relieved. I continued with the subject, “So you want me to take them both out?”

“Yes, and I’ll wipe some of you and your friends records.”

“And what about Evergreen.”

“I’ll get some info on him later. Get going, you only have a half hour to get to the bell tower.”

The clock was ticking near 12:30. I get up and head out the door without another word.

Rain… wonderful.

Not only that, but the weather team rolled the fog in as well. This was going to cause some serious problems. There wasn’t a lot, but enough to make a difference. The rain was small drops, but it was coming down fast.

After a few minutes of walking around I came to the base of the building that had the bell tower. There were a few old buildings as well as new, but from the construction it looked as if they had fused together. The bell tower was really just the tip on top of the buildings rooftops. As I look up I see a metal barrel sticking out the side. It was the sniper. It wasn’t until then I realized I forgot to get the sniper rifle from the office.

The candidate was going to soon arrive, I didn’t have much time. Quickly, I ran into the building and ran up the staircase and headed to the rooftops. I got up to the roof and walked up a metal staircase to the bell tower and saw the sniper, oblivious to my existence. Once I was behind him he spins around to notice me.

He didn’t have enough time to pull out his knife before I knocked it out of his hooves. My intention was just to shove him off the roof, gruesome, yes, but there wasn’t any other way. Just as I was approaching him he grabs the sniper and uses it as a melee weapon at hit me across the face. I fall to the ground and open my eyes to see him coming in for another hit with the butt end of the weapon.

With enough reaction time I swing my back leg up and kick him in the chest knocking him to the ground. I crawled over and grabbed the weapon and aimed it at him. This sniper was much lighter than the one in the office, but the weapon caliber was smaller.

The Vimont member gets up and without hesitation and sprints towards me. With a quick swing I hit him across the face with the end of the sniper rifle knocking him out. He falls on his back and laid unconscious on the ground. There was a slight trail of blood running from his head.

After a second I looked over an edge and find another nearby rooftop that was about a seven foot drop down. I dragged the unconscious body and lightly dropped him over the edge to which he fell and hit the ground with a loud thud. From where I was it looked like he’d be fine and wouldn’t be bothering me anymore.

When I felt reassured I picked up the sniper and went prone to help steady the aim better. The fog got thicker and made it even more difficult to see what I would be aiming at. After a few seconds the office was in sight. Inside from the faint view was the old worn down mare that was currently running this broken city.

He was right. She does look tired.

She had no expression of joy going through all the files on her desk, stacked to ceiling. She had dark bags under her eyes and she could barely get through the work she was doing. Occasionally she would put her head down for a few moments.  After a few minutes the pony of the hour arrived in her office. The new candidate, young and ready to work, approached the mare whose expression changed drastically.

She was overjoyed to see someone who would be taking over and finally taking all the weight off her shoulders. I searched in hopes to spot the assassin early and take care of him now. As I searched there was no sign of this hit pony.

The meeting between the mayors seemed to be going quite fine; the two looked as if to have a peaceful conversation. I was starting to wonder if the information was false, and the sniper was the only real enemy. I look away from the snipers scope to allow my eyes to rest for a second.

When I looked back in I see one of the body guards of the solicitant approaching him, he taps his shoulder to gain his attention. When he turned to look at him the guards flings out a pistol and aims it at his head. Before he could shoot the other guard fired the weapon at him. His aim was off long enough the assassin quickly flung his pistol and had a crack shot on the guard.

The solicitant jumped up and tackled the hit pony to the ground and the two wrestled to take advantage of the situation. All the while, the mayor sat and did nothing but watch. She was too old and weak to do anything anyway. I line up my sights to get a clear shot, but the two rolled around so much it was difficult to determine who I would hit.

After a few seconds I make an educated guess and slowly pulled the trigger. Within a second the rifle fired and the bullet went onward to the fight. As I viewed down the sight time seemed to almost slow down as I could see a small trail were the bullet was. It went straight through the window and into the collision of ponies.

Neither of the two moved giving me the impression that I hit both at the same time. The mayor at this point was breaking down into tears.

There was no sense of sound and all nervous went numb. The feeling that I had failed not only at my task, but also failing the chance to help revive this mutilated city began to surround me. I put my head down in shame for a brief moment before looking through the scope once more.

The two bodies on the ground began to move, and the assassin’s body that was lying on top of the candidate was pushed off and he got up with a small bullet wound in his shoulder.  My eyes went wide open to see he was fine, hurt badly, but alive never the less.

I couldn’t resist, I cracked a large smile and a reassuring feeling went throughout me. I got up and looked over the edge were the other assassin was. He was still on the ground, but he had rolled over. I jump down and drag him out of the rain and stuck him upright under the metal staircase that lead to the bell tower. It didn’t protect him from all the rain, but it was better than being drenched.

His eyes slightly crack and he mumbles some words. After a few seconds he closes his eyes. He was still breathing and seemed fine, but I couldn’t really tell, and I couldn’t stay around.

After sticking him under there I made my way down by hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Here’s the good thing about being a pegasus, we can walk on clouds. Now technically fog is a cloud, but we can’t walk on it unless we were above it, however it does slow down my decent drastically, almost half. I easily float from one rooftop to the other. After a moment it got me thinking.

I haven’t been flying this whole time.

I haven’t needed to, but surely I’d be strong enough by now. I try and make an attempt by jumping off the last ledge straight into and alleyway and began flapping my wings to how I remember when I was really young. I had no experience what so ever, and my wings were hurt from being unused for so long. My decent was slowed a bit more, but I wasn’t stopping. Luckily I was moving slowly enough a hit the ground without much force.

Quickly I got out of the area to make sure no one saw me. I headed down the street and made my way back to the office to give the good news that the new mayor of the city was safe.

The rain began to die down, but the fog was just as thick. I was walking through Mezzo Park until I heard my name being called. Behind me was DimLight slowly making his way towards me. He walks up and points the park bench. I sit down and he does the same.

“Hey, I was sent to find you. I have some good news.” He said

“And what would that be?” I asked sounding a bit puzzled.

“Evergreen has been found near as old orphanage near the outskirts of the city. He’s got a large lab down there.” He said with a large grin, “We might take care of him first.”

“So when are we going?”

“Tonight. It’s going to be you, Cosmic Joy, Sparky, Golden, and Black Mail.” He said while tapping his hoof counting out the ponies going.

“You’re not going?”

He shook his head, “No, they told me to stay back and keep an eye on things, because of what happened at Sparky’s.”

I assured him with a nod, “Alright, I’ll be at Roseberry’s tonight, I’ll meet them there.”

DimLight gets up, “Alright, I’ll go tell them.” He then heads off.

Once he was far enough away I continued into the government building.

I walk in through the dark door into the office where the fancily dressed pony was looking out the window with a cigar lit and being levitated in the air. He spins around with a large smile and began to slowly nod his head.

“You!” He points to me and picks up a small bunch of papers from a file with my name on them. He takes the cigars and puts in into his mouth and levitates the papers to the lit end of his stogie and lights the papers on fire.

“You did a wonderful job, and there is your pay. And I will begin to search for Everg-” I cut him off.

“Yeah about Evergreen, my friend Black Mail located him, so were going after him tonight.”

His smile drops and his eyes go wide. He leans forward and stands up with his hooves on his desk. “You’ve found him already? Where?”

“He’s said to be at an old orphanage on the out… skirts…” My mind goes blank to my final realization. I know where he is.

Evergreen Reign is at my old orphanage.

“At an old orphanage? That doesn’t seem right… he was found that easily?”

When my mind came back I looked him in the eyes, “Yeah,”

He shakes his head back and forth, “Don’t go.”

I was taken aback by this, “What, why?”

“Evergreen wouldn’t be found this easy, this doesn’t seem right.”

I stood up, “Yes, well, I don’t have much of a choice. I don’t know when I’ll have a chance like this again, so I’m taking it.”

He sits back down, “Fine, but be weary, for your sake.”

I gave him a nod and walked out the door and headed to Roseberry’s, with Evergreen on my mind.

“In shocking news, an assassination attempt goes wrong.”

“Here at the city hall, Silver Bill, a running candidate for the Mayor of Manehattan was almost killed today by an assassin sent by the criminal organization, Vimont. We had a chance to speak to Silver Bill today a few hours after his near death experience.”

~

“I was just talking to the mayor until one of my ‘bodyguards’ walked up and tried to kill me. I tackled him to the ground until he was shot in the back by some sniper!”

“Do you know who shot him?”

“No idea, but I owe my life to this, Guardian Angel.”

~

“Silver Bill says this assassination attempt has only made him want to become mayor even more and end the crime spree in the city.”

“In other news…”

Chapter Ten: Psychopath

“…but be weary, for your sake”

“Evergreen has been found…”

Time seemed to ultimately slow as I walked down the dark cold tunnels to Roseberry’s shop. I can only think of how this night is going to go. We bust in and take care of him, ending this little pandemonium once and for all.

When I walked in the front door, most of all the light where turned off except the one in the living quarters. Inside was everyone who I was meeting with, Golden, Sparky, Black Mail, and Cosmic who was sharpening one of her hidden knives. They all look to me and nodded.

Black Mail tosses me a black robe with a large hoodie to wear while also getting me my equipment. A small pistol that shot full-auto. It was dead silent with no conversation at all. My friends including myself were mentally preparing themselves to go into a very dangerous situation.

Finally Black Mail spoke up to break the silence. “Alright, listen up. We’re going to this orphanage to get rid of Evergreen. This psycho has been on us for a few days, if not a couple of years, and now and it’s time to put an end to it.”

Everyone nods their heads in agreement. “Are we ready to go?”

We all stood up and loaded our weapons, concealing them in the black clothing we were wearing. We headed onto the streets and onward to the orphanage, my old orphanage.

As we walked, a flood of old memories began to overwhelm me.

I crawled on the ground, covered in bruises to escape the torment that was being bestowed upon me.

“Get up you wimp!” a kid yells at me as he steps on my tail. “Fight back you loser.”

I struggle to get back up and make one last attempt to flee from the bullies’ harassment, but it was no use. As soon as I was back up one of his friends pushes me back down and punches me square in the face.

“How do you like it now!?” The kid yelled as he kept swinging his punches at me. I open my eyes and time began to slow as I finally block one of the punches. My mind fills with rage as I spin my hind legs around and kick him in the head.

The pain was gone, and the anger had control of me. I get up and immediately tackle the colt who was stepping on my tail. I sat on him as I swing punches back and forth across his face. One of his other friends pushes me off and tries to pull his crying and bloodied friend away.

“What are you doing you maniac?”

I get up and pause as more rage begins to fill me? “Oh, I’M the maniac? I’m not the one who attacks a pony for no reason until he hurts so much they can’t even leave bed in the mornings. I’m not the one who puts fear into ponies every day, like you. I’m not the maniac, you are, all of you!”

Tear were rolling down my face as I see the ponies that I attacked stumble away. The one I kicked in the chest was holding it trying to regain his breath, and the one I punched in the head was bleeding profusely.

He points to me one more time, “You stay away from us.”

“And you stay away from me.”

“Hey we’re here.” Cosmic says tapping my shoulder. We stood over a hill that was behind the orphanage. I could see the backyard filled with all the play equipment, none of which I was allowed on due to the kids.

“What’s the plan?” I ask.

“Same like the warehouse we raided those months back. Sparky cuts the power as we go in. Black Mail and golden go in one side, you and me in the other, and Sparky will follow behind us later.”

“Where is Evergreen?”

“Somewhere in the basement we presume. Ready? I can see Golden and Black Mail heading inside.”

“Let’s go,” We headed down and hopped the fence and snuck to the back door. Cosmic and I pull out our pistols and slowly made our way into the old broken building. Inside we heard voices, but they got louder once the power was cut and the whole building went dark.

Only the full moon lit up the building. There was a few we saw which we took out by smacking them over the head and knocking them out. It wasn’t long until a gunshot went off, but it came from where Golden and Black Mail was. Screaming and yelling followed suit. We were detected, and it was time to make this quick.

As we turned a corner one of the ponies was a unicorn, using her magic to illuminate the area. Quickly Cosmic takes her out while at the same time alerting the ponies nearby. They spin around and open fire at us. I duck behind the wall and started to shoot where small bursts of light that was coming from the gunfire. Eventually it stopped. I whisper out to Cosmic to which she replies back with a simple whistle sounding like a bird.

At this moment, Sparky made her way to us. With only Luna’s moon illumining the building through the dirty windows we made our way to the door that lead the basement. Right when we were about to open the door, Black Mail and Golden ran up to us. With no words we step aside from the door to have Cosmic open it up with her magic. Once the door was open, a fully auto machine gun began to open fire on us.

Luckily we weren’t in front of it as the bullets flew out of it. Cosmic uses her magic to levitate her weapon and blind fire into the dark basement below. Eventually all noise stopped. We were a bit skeptical to head down. As I was about to head down, Black Mail stops me and goes instead. No bullets came out, so we began to head down with Black Mail in the lead.

When we got to the bottom of the staircase the lone machine gunner was dead on the ground with three bullets wounds. At the bottom, the basement split in two. Both splits looked identical, but it was difficult to see when the darkness consumed it.

“Cosmic, Sparky, and I will take the right, you guys take the left.” I whisper to Black Mail and Golden. We all nod our heads as we began to walk on. We headed down the linear corridors trying to find our way to Evergreen, where ever he was.

I don’t know these parts, the kids and I were never allowed down here. The walls and floor were made completely of cement. Doors were old wood and rotting away. It seemed as if this part of the building was never hit by modern times. Everything was older fashion, dusty, and seemed in a time trap.

Eventually we find our small hallway with some doors leading to a few rooms. We walked in and went into a random room, nobody. Went into another, still nobody. Right when we were about to go into another we heard gunshots, and they didn’t sound like ours much thicker sounding, like a rifle. We looked behind us as gunfire went back and forth. A violent shout was heard and then silence.

We stood in the dark with the moons light showing only enough to see our path. Cosmic looks to Sparky and I.

“I’m going to see what’s happened.” And without another words she ran down the hall into the darkness.

Sparky and I still searched the rooms looking for anyone or anything. But each room was barren and empty. After a few moments we get to the end of the hallway were there was a turnoff to the left leading into a part of the basement that looked remodeled. The walls were painted and the floors were made of cheap wood that felt new.

In front of me was a door with a large rectangular window, allowing you to see clear through to other side. I walked to the door and it was locked. After a second I turned to ask Sparky if she could unlock it, but she wasn’t there.

There was a banging noise on the window of the door. I go to look to see Golden with tears in her eyes and hitting the window.

“Blue! Help me, get me out of here.” She was trembling in fear. “Evergreen is over here.”

I look back to find Sparky, but she wasn’t there. I start bucking the door to break it down, but it was no use. The door what attached to well, and the glass was shatterproof.

“NO! Please don’t give up! Help me!”

I continued but there was still no hope. When I stopped and looked at her again a faint figure appeared behind her. Before I could speak up he was already next to her and a machete went clear through her and popped out her chest.

There was no scream, there was no noise as the machete gets pulled out from her and she falls to the ground.

On the other side of this windowed door, was Evergreen Reign. Only half his face in the visible light. He smiles and he begins to hit the window with his machete, but it fails to break it. I aim my pistol at him and shoot, but it stops the bullet dead in its track.

Evergreen places the bloody machete on the window to show it to me.

“You’re next…” He says in a dark but happy voice. He turns around and walks away. I start walking backwards and looked for Sparky. I find her in the hallway walking towards me.

“I heard a gunshot! What happened?” She asked tilting her head to the right.

“We need to get out of here, now!” I say beginning to sprint to the exit.

Sparky and I make our way to point where the hallway split. Once we got there we headed up the stairs. We get back in and the lights to the building turn back on. When we got to the top Sparky and I were ambushed and kicked to the ground. I fell on my side but couldn’t move. I struggle to get up but it was no use. There was the weight of a pony on me.

Sparky put up a small fight before she was kicked to the ground. A hoof came down and smashed her horn. A scream of intense pain broke out as she begins to tear up. The last sight I saw was a black bag being put over her head, and then, mine as well. Soon, I was knocked out by a powerful plow to my face.

“Wake up… wake up my friend.”

My conscience began to come back as my vision was blurry and faded. Looking up from the ground I see a faded figure standing in front of me. When the rest of my senses returned I realized the horrible position I was in. I was strapped to a chair with only my wings free. I couldn’t move at all, even the chair was bolted to the ground.

“Well, hello there friend,” said a voice in smooth and calming fashion. I look up to see Evergreen looking me in the face with a smile. “What wonderful day it is, isn’t it?”

Evergreen steps back to reveal himself more. His teal eyes were bloodshot and even with his smile his eyes gave an angry expression. To the left of him was a white mare with a light purple mane that had an eye patch on. To Evergreens right was a Stallion, brown coat with darker brown mane, but one feature stuck out to me. His eyes, they were like mine. However instead of 4 colors there was only two, dark green for his left and a light blue for his right.

“I would just like to say thank you for visiting my orphanarium!” He smiles waving a hoof through the air. “But the placed closed and we had to get you out ye’ drunkin’ bastard.” He ended his sentence on an old fashion style.

“W-where am I now?” My throat hurt very badly so my voice sounded blatant.

Evergreen Reign smiles, “You are home my friend.” He steps back and the mare lights up her horn revealing where I was.

Home…

This was my ‘home’ so to speak. It was the old apartment I stayed at, in all its glory. We were in the room that I used to sleep in. I could see out the window into the darkness of the city and the bridge connecting one island to the other with the lights all on it.

The stallion speaks up, “Do you know why you’re here?” Right after he said that Evergreen grabs him and slams him into the wall causing it to break and him falling to the other side.

“I ASK THE QUESTIONS!” Evergreen yells. He looks to me and points to his comrade who he just badly injured, “What he said, do you know?”

“I-I…” I was in so much shock it was hard to speak.

“I’ll tell you. You hurt, me, myself, my organization, and my family.”

“Y-you said yourself twice.” Not sure what made me say it, but it happened. Evergreen runs up and puts both of his hooved on the back rest of the wooden chair and stares me in the eyes only inches from my face.

“I OUTTA…” he pauses and looks up with a blank expression. “No…” He backs away with a saddened expression on his face. He snaps and begins to freak out and begins punching the wall next to him as hard as he can while screaming.

He pulls his hoofs out of the wall and looks at them. Blood trickled down them as he begins to laugh hysterically. He looks at me and throws some of it on my face. He giggles while he did it. The mare had a disgusted look on her face, but she hid it from Evergreen.

He eventually stops and sighs, he grabs the machete he had from the corner and drags it over. It was still dripping slightly from Golden’s blood. He brings it over and stabs it into the ground.

“So here is the thing, since you owe me, you got to help me with something that has been bugging me.”

My eyes go wide, “W-what?”

“There is a rumor that pegasi can only walk on clouds due to the magic ability given to them by their wings.” He says rubbing one of mine.

My eyes go wide seeing two pegasi flying near the window with a cloud. The stallion Evergreen attacked comes to my right side while the mare goes to my left and they grab my wings and open them up. I try to resist, but it was no use. Evergreen pulls the machete out of the floor and looks at me.

“You are going to be our test subject.” He says with a sly grin. I try to squirm my way out, but they had me in a death grip.

Evergreen raises his machete. Before he swings it down the mare levitates a bandana and crams it into my mouth and puts duct tape around to keep my from spitting it out. Evergreen gives a smile to the mare.

“Nice touch,” Evergreen quickly raises his stone cold blade once more and comes down on my right wings, cutting it off completely on the first go. I scream in agonizing pain and begin thrashing around, but I was still strapped to my harness. Tears roll down my face as the pain became unbearable.

The mare held up my left wing and with one more slash the large machete comes down on my left wing, but doesn’t come off. Quickly, Evergreen strikes once more cutting it off. I start to become dizzy as my world started to fade around me.

I look over to see the mare levitating my wings and placing them into the bucket filled with a clear liquid. It begins to bubble as my wings start to dissolve. They let me out of my harness and I fall out of the chair, I became too weak to move.

They grab and drag me close to the window. Outside I look down, to see the road far below me. I see the cloud, my only refuge if I can still walk on them.

“Ready?” Evergreen says whispering in my ear. He taps my shoulder which sends pain all throughout my body. “Do it,”

The two Vimont members toss me over the edge to the cloud. I grab on and I was able to hold on with no issue.

I hanged on over the ledge of the cloud, suspended over the cement ground below. I struggle to get on top, but was too weak to do so.

“Huh, I guess they can still walk on clouds even without wings.” The mare says.

The sound of a revolver being cocked pierces through my ears.

“Not today,” Evergreen says aiming it at me.

He fires the weapon, the piece of metal goes straight through me and goes out through my chest. I lose my grip and begin to fall.

The last sound I heard was the noise of my bones shattering as I hit the ground.

“Clear…”

“Clear…”

For a brief second I hear a faint beeping noise.

“He’s coming around…”

A painful shock goes throughout me as I gain conciseness, but couldn’t move.

“Yes….” A familiar voice says in tone that sounded as if she was crying.

“Oh my… I am a GOD!” This voice I didn’t recognize. It was another mare; that was for sure. I open my eyes to see a pure white mare with puffy pink and red hair. She was shaking in excitement.

“You see that Cosmic, I resurrected him! How many doctors can say that? Huh!?”

She looks at me and points to me, “You are one lucky bastard, ya know that? You… were legally dead for four hours, and now you’re alive! ‘Cause of me!” She begins to do some dance that looked as if she was having a seizure.

I look back to Cosmic Joy, she just shook her head, “Ignore her, how do you feel?”

I try to move; surprisingly I was able to move a little with no pain. “Fine, but didn’t my bones break?”

The doctor looks to me and taps her horn, “I was trained in helping heal broken bones. I healed most of them. Your legs ‘re good, your spine and neck. Well, most are good; you’ll be able to walk in a few days.”

“How come I can’t feel anything?”

The doctor lifts up a bag of the powdered drug, the one I’ve been making for so many months. “There is a chemical in this that disables pain sensors in your body. I extracted it and used it.”

I relax in the bed I was in. I don’t know where I was, but it’s better than where I was before. I turn my head to Cosmic who had her head down. I managed to lift my arm and rub the top of her head and mess up her mane even more. She looks up and smiles.

“What… happens now?” I asked

Cosmic looks down trying to hold back her tears, “I don’t know, I have no idea.” She gets up and gets the doctor out of the room and closes the door. “She says you’ll walk in a day or so. Until then I’ll keep an eye on you.” She opens the door and begins to walk out; she stops halfway and looks back. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She says with a smile and closes the door.

It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep.

Two Days Later…

The pain is no longer around, whatever is in the powder it sure does knock it away. I’ve been letting the past couple of days slip by relaxing on this nerveless trip. Honestly it’s a good way to relax, it still blows me away that I was dead. The fact I’m given a second chance actually scares me for some unexplainable reason.

The radio in the corner was playing the morning news. Most of which has been actually quite relaxed. The city has taken a bit of a turn. The candidate I saved, Silver Bill, is helping the current mayor right now even before he’s put into office.

However, there are still some parts of the news that revolve around this city’s crime issues. Most of which now are caused by Vimont.

Vimont… that word keeps going through me. Evergreen is the leader, and only when he goes down will the organization go to. I sigh, we had the chance and lost. There is no way for me to find him and by this point all hope seems gone. Golden was killed right in front of me, Black Mail was shot, and Sparky…

Sparky… I have no idea what happened to her, the thought never occurred to me. I start to move out of the bed I have been in for the past few days. It was early morning, Cosmic was asleep on the couch and the doctor wasn’t here. I walk outside into the streets of the bleak city.

I knew where I was, I’m about a half hour away from downtown. The building was a comic shop, and I’ve been in the basement. I chuckle a little as a dumb little thought comes through my mind.

I was underground. My grave… and now I’m out and alive.

The streets were still lively as usual, this city never quits moving. I pass through the shopping district and ended up at Mezzo Park. I’m looking at the bench where I talked to DimLight. All sounded faded away as I remember the conversation. I sit on the bench and look straight forward and stare at a building that had completely slipped my mind.

My eyes go wide as I get up and quickly limped my way over to it. I enter the inside and pass the empty receptionist desk and up the stairs. I open the door to show me to a tan stallion.

He looks up at me and his eyes go wider than dinner plates. He was looking at a folder with my name, a report on me with a large word across it saying, deceased. He opens his mouth but says no words, eventually he comes up with some.

“H-h-how are you alive? I was told-” I stumble over to his desk and place both my hooves on his desk, grab him and pull him only a few inches from my face.

“I… I want Evergreen dead.” I said through my teeth in anger.

His shocked expression quickly changes to a smile.

Chapter Eleven: Friends and Enemies

I fall back into my seat and place my head down between my hooves. Pain was still seeping its way into me from my back. There is no easy way to describe it other than it feels as if someone was stabbing me were my wings used to be.

Across from me was the government agent who was still in a small state of shock at my presence, but glad to see me. He closes his eyes for a second and rubs them.

“So, are you ready for your next task then?” He asks with an emotionalist expression.

I look up from him and nod, but then another thought crossed my mind. Sparky was still out there, but I had no idea where. She went missing, and no one knew her presence.

“Before you search for Evergreen Reign, I need you to help me find someone else.”

He tilts his head, “Who?”

“My friend Sparky, you know? The yellow colored, high spiked up hair mare.” I said motioning my hooves above my head describing her mane.

He closes his eyes and nods his head. “Yes,”

“I need to find her; I think she may be alive if Evergreen went for me.”

He lowers his eyes and looks down at his desk for a brief moment. He looks back at me, “I actually know someone who recently left Vimont in fear of his life. Maybe he could help.”

“You want me to work with a Vimont member?” I said in an unsatisfied tone.

He shrugs, “What other choice do you have right now?”

I lower my head, “Yeah I guess you’re right.”

“Come back tomorrow and I’ll see if I can get a hold of him.”

With that I walk out the door without another question. When I closed the door I stood next to it for a moment. Working with a former Vimont member made me go cold for a second. However, I needed to find Sparky; she is of great help, and a loyal friend. With Black Mail and Golden gone, we need all the help we can get.

The rest of the day was wasted lying in bed and using the painkillers. My back was still in tremendous pain, and every time I placed my hoof back there, it reminded me of what I lost. Memories seep in and I realize I’ve lost more than my wings; I’ve lost two good friends.

Celestia raised the sun in a morning I wished never came. All throughout the night I had nightmares of Evergreen cutting my wings off; only in my mind he did it slowly with a dull jagged knife, like using a saw. I freaked out and woke up in a state of panic flipping out and screaming. Never once had I manage to sleep for a long period of time, so now I was extremely tired. Which makes me wonder how Cosmic Joy is sleeping through that, maybe she’s listening to music or something.

I sigh as I slowly get off the bed and leave the basement I’ve been concealed in. Strangely, Cosmic wasn’t around, she usually was. Usually she leaves a note or something telling me, but nothing at all oddly enough.

Ignoring this, I head out to what’s-his-face to see if he got some information on Sparky. We need her back, her experience on electricity is much needed. Sure she’s really a child at heart, but when matters are serious, she can control herself. Hopefully we know of her whereabouts.

When I got to the office there was a large number of police in the area. From the outside it looked as if a robbery had happened. This wasn’t the place to be at this time, and I began to head out. Just as I turned I ran into the pony I was looking for. He tapped me twice on the side and began walking without a word. I follow without asking questions.

When we were a good distance from the building we stopped and sat on a park bench.

“What’s going on?” I ask looking back at the building.

“Guess who broke into that building and stole all my files including a few of my co-workers?”

“Evergreen Reign?” I asked in more of a statement then a question.

“Spot on, everything I had on him is gone, including your files, Cosmics Joys, Snow Flurry who we suspect is dead, Tornado Watcher who is in the Witness Protection for slipping information about the Diamond Havocs, then there is…”

“Okay I get it.”

“Sorry, it’s just all the work I had put into it is now gone.”

There was a small silence until I broke it, “Any info on Sparky?”

He looks up with a slightly changed expression from weary to a bit of joy. “Yes, actually. The former Vimont member who is on the run does have her whereabouts. He is willing to help because he’s like you now, he wants Evergreen dead.”

“Why?”

“He said something about failing his task and he has to repay his debt.” He says and gets up, “Meet him at the pub near midtown around ten. Sit on the bench at the end of the bar.” He tips his hat, “Have fun.”

As he begins to walk away, I quickly grab ahold of him and pull him back. He looks at me with curiosity.

“Before you go, what is your name?”

“Not important,” he tries to get up before I pull him back down.

“No, tell me, I’ve been working for you and I need to know.” I stared at him for a while before he raised an eyebrow.

“Just call me Ersatz Acumen if it’s that big of a deal.” He gets up and walks away before I could stop him again.

The dark city streets were being flooded by the large amounts of rain being produced by the cities weather team. Manehattan has been having a dry period so the city is being bombarded by heavy storms every once and a while to make it up.

This pub was subtle and quiet. There weren’t a lot of ponies in today, just a few sitting in booth drinking and talking. After a few minutes another pony waked in wearing a hoody and was keeping his appearance hidden. He sat on the other end of the bar and bought a glass of hard cider.

After a minute had passed the bartender had given me another drink. I didn’t purchase it. I looked down at the hooded pony who just lightly nodded to me, to which I returned it. He gets up and slides down next to me and sat down. He kept his line of sight in front of me and never made eye contact.  We sat in silence for a while until I saw him shaking a little.

“Hey,” I whisper to him. He looks at me and he tried his best to hold back tears until he looked away again. He eventually spoke up.

“Why?” he asked with his voice sounding choked up.

“What?”

He looks at me with tears slowly coming out of his eyes. “Why did you let me live?” he says through his teeth.

“I don’t understand.” I said. He takes his hood off and revealed himself wiping away the tears showing both anger and grief. Once he did that I recognized him. There was a large black eye he had from where he was hit, by me. He was one of the ponies who tried to kill the new mayor; he’s the one I let live.

“Oh, I didn’t know it was you. Why are you saddened by your survival?” I asked looking away.

He begins to tear up again. He looks away and tries to take a drink from his cider. He looks down as he tries to speak.

“Because Evergreen has taken everything away from me. My home, my money, my friends…” He pauses for a while as he tried to bring himself together to speak the next part. “My love…”

I look at him with open eyes. There was nothing to say more than he was filled with sorrow and sadness.

“She…” he chokes one more time “We were about to have a child her and I,” he said with a slight smile “but then I failed the task, the one you stopped. Evergreen looked at the failure and said it needed to be repaid. Instead of just killing me he went for my friends first, then my home. He burned my house down,”

He begins to cry and tried his best to keep quiet while saying the next part which he mumbled, “with my wife inside.” He turns his sadness to anger and he lifts his head. He looks at me in the eyes. “I want him dead as much as you. I want him for taking my family, you for taking your friends.”

“So, where going to work together to find him?” I asked nudging his shoulder.

He simply nods, wipes away his last tear, and looks back at his half empty bottle. “We can’t go after him; he can counteract it too quickly for us to assault him. We need to draw him in. Hurt everything around him so he comes out.”

“So he’s in hiding?” I asked in a slight confusion.

“Yes, the coward only goes in the open completely concealed with a group of ponies to blend in with. We need to lure him out to the open.”

‘How do you propose to do that?”

He begins to get back together. “He has three large ongoing productions that keep his money flow intact, the drug market, the sex market, and his assassination program.” He draws all three down on a napkin. He crosses the drug market and sex market off.

“Why take out the sex market and not the assassins?”

“As much as assassins may seem like a problem, it’s funded by these two. Take them out and it will fall without much effort.”

“Alright, but I need help first.” I said in which he quickly responded before I could continue.

“Sparky, I know. She was taken to a storage unit near the docks, about a mile from the largest drug lab in Manehattan.”

“How am I going to get her out?”

He perks his head up, “Oh that’s simple. She’s going to be in the north-west side of the building. Use some breaching charges or something to bust down the wall, get her out and leave without actually killing anyone.”

I nod my head, “Alright, I know where to get some charges. I’ll do it tonight.” I finish off my drink and begin to head out.

“Go get em’” he says waving his hoof on the air. He looks back forward and stares emotionless at the drink. A small tear forms in his eye as he places his head down on the table.

“You need these for what?” Roseberry says levitating the explosive charges in mid-air with a puzzled expression.

“I need to use them to get something.” I try to grab them out of the air, but she moved them away too quickly.

“Tell me first, I don’t have a lot of these in stock.”

I sighed, “I know where Sparky is and I can get her back. I need to use them to blow a hole in the wall and get her out without killing anyone inside.”

Roseberry’s expression changes, her eyes go wide open. “Why are you going alone?”

“Because I need to, okay?” I said flatly.

She backs away, “Do you like her instead of Cosmic!?”

My eyes go open, “No! We need her back and I’m going to get her.”

“Why are trying to keep it a secret then?”

Finally I gave up trying to compete with her, “It’s how I found out. Now can I please have the charge?”

She smiles, “Only if I can tag along.”

I sighed, “Fine, let’s go.”

She grabs the charges and places them in a saddlebag and puts them around her and follows along behind me.

12:24 AM

Roseberry and I overlook the docks from a vantage point on a bridge that connects to one of the islands that are highly industrial. The smoke stacks were spewing out large clouds of smog into the air. We see the warehouse sitting close by. A few ponies kept guard, but not too many to take alarm.

As we began to walk over Roseberry stops me. When I look at her to find out what she wanted she points at the warehouse near the large door that let boats in and out of the warehouse. When I looked Evergreen walked out of the warehouse. It was easy to tell it was him; he was wearing a full black outfit and was surrounded by ponies, some wielding assault rifles.

To the right of the warehouse was a large building that was a large building composed of indoor storage units. Most of the building was dark, except for the offices on the bottom floor. This was in the same location that the Vimont member mentioned. Roseberry and I begin to head down. Quietly we made our way to the outside of the office rooms.

We get to the end of the building where Sparky was supposed to be. Roseberry walks up to the wall and looks in the window. A sheet covered it, but there was a small enough crack to see inside. Very faintly you could see the spiked up hair of Sparky.

Roseberry pulls out a small pistol and gives it to me and loads one for her. She places the charges on the wall.

“When the charge goes off, the guards inside will be stunned and confused long enough we should be able to get Sparky out.”

“She’s strapped to a chair.”

She nods her head, “Leave that issue to me. Just make sure none of the guards gets up and tries to attack.”

I nod my head and pull the action back on the pistol. Roseberry times the charge for ten seconds and leaned her body up against one side of the wall. The silent timer ticked down and my mind was beginning to focus in.

3…

2…

1…

A loud eruption goes off. The wall complete comes out and flings inside stunning everyone who was in the room, including Sparky. Some of the ponies inside where unconscious while other had fallen on the ground and took a while to recuperate. Roseberry was quick to use her magic and break the bonds holding down Sparky releasing her. Without a second thought I pick up Sparky and place her on my back and ran out the hole we created. Roseberry was close behind firing her pistol to keep the oncoming pursuers at bay.

We headed quickly into the dark to get out of the line of sight. We ran into a nearby park and ducked into a bush to hide from the Vimont members. A few ran up and looked around; they searched for us but didn’t see us. I checked on Sparky to see if she was fine, she was breathing, but unconscious. In the dark I could barely see her physical appearance, but with what I could see, it didn’t look good.

Once the enemies were gone Roseberry helps me up with Sparky on my back and leads me to an underground subway. We quickly sprint in and jump on the tracks. This area was still in use, and we got some strange looks when we ran onto the tracks and headed down the dark tunnels. We were quick enough, luckily, to get into the abandoned area without having to doge oncoming trains.

After a few minutes of running around we got back to Roseberry’s shop. We get into the light and place Sparky down on the comfortable couch. Roseberry and I have no knowledge on medical treatment, but we needed to get a doctor, Sparky was beaten quite badly.

Her mane was tangled in every which direction. She had a large black eye that had swollen up largely and had cracked leaking a small trail of blood. Cuts all throughout her body, her tail cut short, and some teeth missing. It was difficult to see her in this state, but even harder to think of what other things may have happened to her. She may be an adult, but she’s a child at heart.

Roseberry is a quick runner and got Cosmic Joy and the doctor back very quickly. Instantly the doctor picked her up and took her to a separate room and began to treat her wounds. Cosmic ran up and gave Roseberry a huge, and me soon after.

“How did you two find her?” Cosmic said in amazement.

“Blue Spark found her location and asked me for some help.” Roseberry said tossing her saddlebag onto a counter stacked with grenades.

“How did you…” Cosmic stops for a second still in some shock, “never mind, I’m just glad she’s okay.” Her ears droop down, “Well, somewhat okay.”

Cosmic ears perk back up as she walks over and embraces me in another hug.

“I’m going to go help the doctor with her.” She releases me and heads into the room with the doctor.

Roseberry and I stood there in silence. Roseberry levitated a bottle of liquor from the counter and takes a straight shot from it. She places the bottle back and salutes me as she walked into a dark hallway to her room.

I sat down on the couch and closed my eyes. After about ten minutes I fell into a light sleep. I was still awake, but was having a vivid dream in my mind.

The streets were cold, and the fog only added to the nip in the air. I sat on a rooftop of an old house that was abandoned after a fire had destroyed half of it. This neighborhood, once being a rich part of the city was now gone and abandoned and is now used by street gangs as drug production and prostitution.

The old house overlooked a large portion of the city. It was near a beach and from their viewpoint they could see the colossus skyscrapers that dominated the sky, day and night.

I sat next to a random pony I never met before. She was like me, hungry and looking to survive. However, she seemed to doing alright. My ribcage was visible to anyone who looked at me.

The mare looked at me and opened up her worn down saddlebag and offered a slice of bread. My eyes opened at the friendly gesture from the stranger. We looked over the city. Neither of us talked, but we watched the beauty the city gave off at night.

Eventually I decided to make a conversation with her.

“Hey, I know we’ve never met, but, what’s the point to life, or even living, especially here?”

She gives a warm smile while still gazing at the city.

“It’s quite simple, it’s to care for each other. Your friends, your family, strangers” she turn her head to me and pokes my shoulder, she pauses for a second, “and even your enemies.”

“Enemies?” I asked confused.

“If we hate each other, we destroy each other, no winners and no losers. Just mindless bickering, fighting, and in some cases, bloodshed. We need to learn to accept each other and come together, to help each other.”

I nod my head in agreement, “It isn’t easy though.”

She frowns, “Yes it is quite true, and it’s sad to see out city tearing itself apart, over what. Money? Power? Drugs?” she shakes her head in disappointment, “I hope to see this city come out of this in one piece.”

I nod my head again and gets up. “Thank you for the bread, and what is your name if I might ask?”

She smiles but it quickly fades, “I can’t say, I don’t know you enough. It’s for my safety, you understand.”

I closed my eyes and nodded my head once more before leaving.

I wake up to the sound of hoof-steps coming towards me. Cosmic walks to the kitchen and pulls out two glasses and fills them up with a dark liquid, most likely the same drink Roseberry had, but it was a different bottle. Cosmic walk back and gives one of the drinks to me and sits up close.

We sat in silence for a moment before she places her head on my shoulder.

“How is Sparky?” I asked.

“Unconscious and badly injured,” she said a grim voice, “but alive.” She said and took a sip from her drink.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you a question.”

She lifts her head up and looks at me. “What is it?”

“I’ve heard a lot about how you’re highly wanted, why is that?” I gave the question bluntly. I know Cosmic, and she’s not one for delays or subtleness.

Cosmic sits upright and takes another sip from her drink. She places it on the coffee table and looks at me.

“It’s a long story.”

“I can tell, but please tell me.”

She sighs, “Okay, it all started back when I was twenty one and I just joined the Royal Guard…”