Chapter 2: Cache & Carry
Carol City, Equestria
The washing machine beeped a couple of times and whirred to life, a swirling colorful mass visible through the window on its front face. The mare exhaled and turned around to walk out of the bathroom. Along the way, she paused and glanced back, noticing a stain on the white tiles next to the washing machine. Sighing, she grabbed the mop and quickly wiped up the brownish-red blot.
Ditzy's hind leg nudged the door closed behind her. She took a step forward and knocked over a pair of figurines on the floor. Her eyes followed a trail of toys from her hooves, all the way to the door adjacent to the bathroom. It was closed, and a crayon drawing of a smiling grey pony and their child was hung up on it.
Walking past the door, she slumped down on the couch, her face half-buried in a pillow as she stared at the lava lamp on the table. An opened envelope lay before it, the lines of the fine cursive writing brought out by the dull orange glow.
Dear Ditzy,
I’ve heard you have been settling in there at Carol City. Not so sure on your choice of town, rumors say that your crime rate has been going through the roof. Hope you are doing fine there at the shores, we still remember you over here.
You’re probably working pretty hard, so I’ve taken the liberty of finding a decent place for you to hang out. You don’t mind a little excitement, do you? The catalogues say there’s a pretty blazing club on 88 Starling Avenue, called “Mustang Sally”. I’d suggest you get a nice outfit for your first time visiting, and make sure to dance with everyone.
Regards,
LilyPS: Don’t take any of the stuff they offer you. If you really need a fix, I’ve sent you something safer to experiment with. Just add water.
Ditzy's good eye traced the lines several times, and she took a deep breath before getting up again. She walked up to the pots on the stove and scooped out a small portion of food, leaving it on the table along with the note, putting the rest into the coldbox.
Trudging back to the bathroom and spending a half hour inside, Ditzy returned wearing a blue postal outfit, carrying a grey pigeon mask in her forehoof. On the way to the front door, she grabbed a hoof-sized plastic packet from a nearby shelf, tucking it into one of the pockets of the blue outfit, and stuffing the mask into her saddlebag.
Outside, the bright orange sun wavered on the horizon. The midday heat lingered on, leaving the outside hazy and blurry. Seagulls chattered overhead, hovering on the breeze with outstretched, motionless wings.
The pegasus stretched her limbs a little, then spread her wings and took off from the balcony.
Muffled beats were audible through the walls of the club, becoming clearer for a moment each time someone opened the double doors. A pair of guards stood idly before the entrance, backs against the wall and forelegs crossed. They were silent, only grunting or nodding each time a guest showed up and presented their ticket.
Hoofsteps approached the pair from the nearby alley, and an equine figure emerged. The bouncer on the left blinked and rubbed his eyes, then leaned forward to take a closer look. It was a grey pegasus mare wearing a postal outfit. Her face was blank, and one of her eyes was off-center.
The large stallion grunted at his partner and nodded his head at the newcomer. The two of them straightened slightly and waited for the mare to approach. She walked right up to them, standing between the two within leg’s reach. They looked at her, and the one on the left held out his hoof, expecting a ticket or an entry fee.
In response, the mare slowly turned her head to look at him. His jaw dropped slowly as her odd eye gradually centered itself, both of her irises boring straight into his own.
Just before he could let out a gasp, she grabbed his hoof and yanked him away from the wall, her other foreleg moving below to trip his legs. The guard slammed face first onto the ground, grunting in pain. His limbs squirmed as he tried to get back up, while his partner cried out.
The pegasus gave neither of them time to react. Her hind leg came down on the stallion’s head, slamming his face into the concrete, and she used to motion to propel himself against the other bouncer. While he fumbled with the baton and tried to take up a fighting stance, the mare’s hooves knocked his head back and pounded on his throat. He coughed and fell to his knees, forelegs grasping at his neck.
Moments later, his own baton came down against his temple, and he collapsed, a pool of blood forming around his head. His partner only had time to let out another groan before a hoof pressed against his skull and crushed it into the concrete.
Once the bouncers stopped moving, the mare reached into her bag and retrieved the mask. She gently pulled it over her head, stepped forward, and nudged the doors aside to enter the club.
There was a narrow hallway, at the end of which stood a desk with coat racks behind it. There was no light on the other side, and no staff was present. The hallway made a right turn at the wardrobe, leading straight to the source of the loud music. From inside, faint voices were barely audible over the noise.
The mare pressed on, carefully moving toward the corner while hugging the wall to her right, painted bright pink by the lights overhead. The color shifted to green just as she reached the corner and peeked around it. Beyond another set of double doors was the main dance floor, a group of equines gathered upon it. None of them danced, but they moved constantly, either chatting away, laughing, or pushing each other around.
The lights overhead shifted to blue. She took a deep breath and marched forth, the patrons oblivious to her as she approached.
Bright neon tubes lined the floor beneath the thick glassy floor. The color of the lights changed in sync with the ones overhead, and those in turn were synced up with the loud music. Radiant beams made crisscrossing patterns across the chamber, and a large disco ball hung above the center of the floor, occasionally lighting up to fill the place with tiny motes of light. Beneath it, a group of stallions gathered, conversing and roaring with laughter. They all wore similar white and blue combinations, the clothes themselves ranging from just shirts to full suits.
A couple more bouncers sat at the opposite end of the chamber. Smaller groups rested on couches and chairs in the corners. These were regular ponies, who kept their heads down and kept away from the others. There was little chatter from them. Several were huddled closer to the walls, the white and blue thugs having approached their tables. At a few, they shoved the civilians around, shouting at them, while taking the drinks off their tables.
The music boomed, the lights shifted constantly, and the party raged on, until a few gasps of surprise cut it short. The wild laughter and conversation gradually died down, and one by one everyone turned their heads to watch a newcomer step in through the doorway.
The mare in the bird mask calmly stepped onto the dance floor, the strobe lights dancing in her glassy eyes. She stopped dead a few paces away from the gang, breathing evenly while everyone stared at her. The thugs’ expressions ranged from confusion to slight amusement, while the rest were plain terrified. For a moment, both sides just stood there, staring at each other, until the mobsters roared and screamed, several flailing their hooves, backing away, and pointing at the bloodstained masked mare. They were still regrouping when she made the move.
Just as the thugs moved around and reached for their weapons, she dashed towards them, sped up by her wings. A scream cut through the music for a moment before the high-pitched synths drowned it out. Her body barreled through the gang, a trail of red vapor trailing behind it. The stallions fell to either side, those in the middle screaming in pain or dropping still to the ground. The others shouted obscenities and scrambled after the mare, who skidded to a halt a few yards away, blood dripping off the tips of her wings.
The mobsters rushed her blindly and she took flight again, going rapidly in circles around them. One by one, she picked them off by swerving into their ranks, the blades hidden in her wings slashing across the victims’ bodies. Some bystanders stared and gave panicked shouts, while others tried to hide in the darker corners of the chamber.
The bouncers got off their flanks as well, freezing and backing off after watching a thug’s intestines slide right out through a slash across their belly.
The mobsters were reduced to a pair standing back to back, trying to keep up with the pegasus circling around them. She landed next to one of the dead ponies and picked up a metal pipe. Almost immediately, she tossed it at the thug closest to her, who ducked out of the way just in time. His partner, however, did not, - he fell on his back, crying out in pain. The other turned around and reached for him, in which time the pigeon mare closed the distance.
The witnesses cringed as the first pony’s neck snapped from an abrupt twist of his skull. Moments later, a shrill scream punctuated the sound of the shattering glass, as the other one’s head was smashed through the floor.
The thug's face ground up in the shredded wiring underneath. The lights across the chamber flickered, and the ones underneath went out completely.
The crowd held their breath and turned their attention to the masked mare, who slowly got up from the smoldering and twitching body. She shook herself off a little and returned their gaze with the mask’s empty eyes. Her breathing had barely intensified.
After a couple of seconds, the postal mare retrieved an object from her pocket and calmly walked off toward one of the side doors. She only managed to take one step before it burst open, and another thug stepped out - a swollen-eyed blonde unicorn dressed in a fine white suit, with a frazzled blue coat.
“The hell is going on out here?” he said. “Who the fuck are you?”
Without answering, the pegasus put the object away and dashed forward, wings spread. Along the way, she picked up a large metal crowbar belonging to a dead mobster and tossed it at the newcomer. The unicorn failed to move.
Just when the crowbar was about to hit, it froze in mid-air, a dull white glow forming around it. The stallion cleared his throat, bits of saliva fizzling in the air. The mare stopped as well, eyes fixed on the stallion's horn, emitting the same light, which flickered green for a moment, showing its taller, more jagged form.
She dodged out of the way just in time to avoid the crowbar flying back at her head. A few quick flaps of her wings helped her dodge a couple of knives torn out of the pile of corpses. One of the patrons cried out, a stray shot hitting him on the shoulder. The others started shouting and stumbling around in panic, while the bouncers finally began to approach the fight.
The mare continued to run around on the dance floor, desperately trying to dodge every object her opponent’s magic tossed at her. She rolled to a halt to avoid a broken bottle when the white glow appeared on her foreleg. Grunting, she tried to pull it away when the glow spread to her other limbs and hoisted her up.
“Now! Quick!” the unicorn shouted at the others. His legs took up a lower stance to keep him steady. “Tear the bitch apart!”
His face contorted from the effort as the pegasus kept thrashing against the magical bonds. The ponies around him just stared. The bouncers looked at each other and took another hesitant step.
“Hurry the fuck up!” he yelled. “I can’t hold her for— Shit!”
The glow on his horn faded, and he narrowly avoided the pegasus shooting towards him. Spitting and cursing, he tossed every random object he could find at the mare while scampering to put distance between him and her.
The mare dodged the blind throws and tried to make another pass, only to be held back by an incoming couch, a pony still sitting on it. The loud groan of straining metal rang out, and the rotating disco ball on the ceiling of the stage broke out of its frame before it was sent hurtling after her.
The mobster braced himself on all four hooves, and the glow on his horn outshone the strobelights above. He lifted entire tables, chairs, and even ponies, tossing them all after the masked intruder. The victims thrashed and screamed before crashing to a halt on the walls and the floor, most of them staying down. None hit the mare, but the large projectiles forced her to keep dodging.
“For fuck’s sake!” The stallion emitted a sharp, reverberating hiss. “Help me out here, will ya? You useless cunts are all—”
A wet crack rang out,and the white glow of his horn faded away. The pony stumbled forward, groaning in pain, and a green flash came over his body. He flickered again, but now it was the blue unicorn that was being flickered in. The actual body, a thick-limbed, long-fanged changeling with smooth, dark hair and a pair of slit, glaring pupils, appeared more consistently.
Behind him, one of the bouncers lowered the baton in his hoof, a few greenish stains on its surface. They sizzled and steamed, making the guard drop the weapon in surprise. Meanwhile, the unicorn changeling fell on his haunches and grasped at the back of his head, more of the green ichor streaming from it. Parts of his body flickered and turned black, the distinctive holes showing on his limbs, his horn growing crooked.
He went silent and froze when the masked mare approached. The bouncer behind him yelped and backed away. The mobster looked up, pupils widening as he stared into the eyes of the mask. Moments later, a pair of hooves grabbed him by the horn to drag him across the stage. He screamed in pain and thrashed violently, the crooked appendage on his forehead vomiting sparks.
The bystanders watched as the mare dragged the thug over to the disco ball, flapping her wings to propel herself. It had rolled to a halt against one of the dead thugs, already turned into a changeling. Upon reaching it, she quickly punched him in the temple. While he squirmed and coughed, she grabbed his head and slammed it hard against, and into, the disco ball.
The changeling screamed and gurgled, his crushed face filling up with blood. It stayed red for a fraction of a second before becoming a thick green liquid.
The snout managed to punch a hole through the ball, going halfway into it. The mare pulled him out, revealing the mirror shards embedded in his face. His screams were cut off as she pushed him in a second time, which made his entire head enter the ball. With that, she let go and turned around, using her hind legs to pound the back of his head repeatedly. The jagged edges of the hole tore into the stallion’s head, while his face was mauled by the shards piled up inside of it.
Eventually, the disco ball broke in half, exposing the unicorn’s head once more. His body twitched lightly. His horn sizzled randomly, sporting a large crack near the base. A final wet hack came from his lungs when another kick snapped the horn clean off.
The next moment, the mare picked up the curved piece of chitin and stabbed it into his throat. He twitched for a few more seconds before going still, a pool of green, steaming liquid forming around him.
The pegasus sighed, shook herself off, and took a moment to look around.
By then, the dance floor was a bloody mess, filled with corpses and heavily injured ponies. A few of them tried to limp their way to the exit, only to find it blocked by a couch and other large objects that had been thrown around, now having wedged themselves in the doorway. The survivors looked to the masked figure, who ignored them and headed off toward the side door once again.
She stepped into the narrow hallway, filled with darkness in absence of the strobe lights. A large fire axe hung upon the wall to her right, and she picked it up. Her wings kept her steady as she walked on her hind legs to the door at the other end, labeled 'STAFF ONLY'.
Inside, she found a stallion sitting motionless behind his desk. Blood trickled from the ragged hole where half of his face used to be. Next to him, another stallion in a white outfit cursed to himself while tossing packets of green vials out a hole in the wall. More of the vials lay in a nearby safe, as well as numerous pill bottles, several of them scattered on the floor between it and the safe.
Upon hearing her enter, the thug froze and turned around slowly. He only had time to curse loudly before the axe came down on his face, cleaving his head in two. The mare left the weapon embedded in his flesh and dropped back to all fours to look around.
There was a large aquarium bubbling in the corner, various exotic fish floating inside.
She walked up to the tank and extracted the package from her pocket. Pulling the plastic open, she held it above the water to let a hoofful of white spheres fall in. As soon as they hit the liquid, they began sizzling wildly. Thick, grey vapor formed in the tank and slowly seeped out of it. By the time she opened the window, the entire surface of the water was roiling, and the vapor grew into a cloud of fumes.
The mare quickly climbed out a window, slammed it shut behind her, and flapped her wings to take off.
”Less than a week since the mass killing at 45 Starling Avenue, the northwestern part of town faces another bout of destruction - at half past 7 PM today, “Mustang Sally”, one of the many local nightclubs, had erupted into flames, consuming the building and its patrons.”
…
“Tragically, the fire had caused multiple casualties. Located at the scene of the accident were 18 bodies, most burned beyond recognition. Expert analysis had proven that at least 2 of the bodies belong to Pact citizens, including a currently unidentified synapse potent individual. Evidence suggests that the club, which falls under the protection of the Majority Solutions security group, was being subject to gang harassment. After examining the bodies, CCPD forensics claim that a fight broke out between Majority Solutions security and unidentified hooligans. Unfortunately, before the criminals could be subdued, a fire broke out, with none of the patrons escaping.”
…
“Upon examination, the fire department and investigation crews have concluded that the cause of the fire was a fault in the establishment’s gas pipes. Lack of proper ventilation led to a critical buildup of the substance, and the crystal mechanism within the dance floor caused a reaction...”
Bright lamp posts illuminated the park pathway, covered in shadow. The last of the sun's orange glow fell onto the path in checkered lines, blocked by trees and tall office buildings. Two ponies walked down the asphalt road, occasionally passing others. The bigger pony, a grey pegasus, draped a wing over the smaller one as they walked slowly towards a turn of the road, which led to kiosks decorated with neon signs and edges.
“You know, you look kinda tired,” the Dinky said, looking up. “Maybe we should go home early? I don’t really wanna play if it’d make you feel bad.”
Ditzy patted her on the back and shook her head, nudging the small unicorn forward.
“I mean, I was okay at home. I’m independent, you know!” she stopped herself, touching her lip with a hoof. “Well, kinda-sorta. I can’t do laundry...”
The pegasus looked right at the filly and slowly got her bad eye to focus. She put on an exaggerated frown and shook her head.
“Okay, okay! I’ll play… I just don’t want you to feel tired. You’re still trying to—”
The mare lifted a hoof up, closed her eyes, and pointed at a kiosk right at the corner. She sat and turned her filly around as well.
“Oooh! I always wanted one of those!” Dinky trotted in place happily for a few seconds and left the grey mare’s embrace, galloping toward the kiosk. The older pony followed close behind.
The vendor raised an eyebrow at the two as Ditzy pointed out a big bubble blower colored orange and grey. She dropped a bunch of coins on the counter and took the toy before he named the price.
“Wooow!” The child giggled and took the blower. After dipping the ring in the soap a few times, she breathed on it and watched the large bubbles erupt from the other side. “Oh my gosh! Thanks, mom!”
The pair shared one more hug and left the booth, not bothering to collect the change. They walked further into the neon-lit city, passing kiosks and rides. Ditzy looked back at the trail of colorful bubbles and smiled.
Stats
Page generated in 0.018 seconds
Total duration
795 users online
1,558,072 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Epic. Keep up the good work
Aww yeah!!!
Need more...
A glorious day.