To Twilight Sparkle the exterior of the highrise had been quite normal when compared to the buildings of other cities she had seen. Perhaps not so much to Canterlot, with their rolling curves and traditional architecture, but it would have fit right in with the metropolises of Manehatten and Baltimare. The only true stand out feature of the building was its dominance of the present skyline. It was illuminated with enough exterior lights as to be a beacon for all of Stalliongrad to see. The building did tower over the rest of Stalliongrad, but when the majority of the buildings were either ruins or only 3 stories tall, this fact was much less impressive. For all intents and purposes, the building looked to Twilight to be nothing more than a standard office building.
Because of this it came as quite the shock that upon entering this overly generic looking highrise, Twilight’s senses were assaulted from all directions by noise and sound. The drab exterior of the building gave way to a boisterous speakeasy.
The lights were dimmed and pulsing red and black. Rolling jazz flooded the air all through out the speakeasy. Numerous patrons to the bar were clearly already well imbibed in their drinks. Some were even passed out in a corner, multiple empty cider cups piled around them. Neither Apple Jack nor Rainbow Dash made any attempt to hide their interest in the bar and the liquid refreshments that it contained but a look from Captain Hunter seemed to suppress any notion they had of tasting the local drink.
Off to one side of the noisy establishment was a stage surrounded by the majority of the patrons. On the stage was the source of the brass heavy music, a jazz band made of an earth pony on drums, a pegasus playing the saxophone, a unicorn on the piano, and finally a second earth pony on a stand up bass.
However, it was not the band that caught Twilight’s attention. It was the scantily clad unicorn mare that was up on the stage, standing off to the side of the band that drew all of the attention. A burst of applause rang out from the still conscious drinkers as the mare started to sing. The song started slowly as the singer slowly stepped out from the shade of the curtain. The ivory coat of the mare was starkly contrasted by the gossamer red of her dress. Her intermixed white and pink mane flowed behind her as she continued to sachey her way to the edge of the stage. She seemed to hypnotize the majority of her audience. The use of her body, the movements that she made. The teasing and playful touches she left on the stallions and occasional mare that were transfixed on her. The couldn’t look away.
This included Twilight and Bulwark, the latter of the two even lowered seemed to almost salivate before he remembered he needed to maintain his suave demeanor. It wasn’t that Twilight had never heard of clubs or speakeasies and what sorts of entertainment they tended to provide. It was that she had never actually encountered a scene of such sexuality. She was thankful, when Borscht pushed his way through the club to a door near the back and Captain Hunter motioned for the team to follow to follow. Twilight followed close behind the commander.
Bulwark, seeing that it was time to move onto more serious business gave a final catcalling whistle. With that done, he returned to the team as they proceed through the speakeasy.
Twilight was initially surprised by the lack of reaction to their presence, but the patrons seemed to be accustomed to armed groups being escorted through the club.
Must be some mafia related desensitization. They are all brutes so they don’t mind other brutes in their midst.
Borscht led the them through the door, which was flanked on both sides by large earth pony stallions, at the back. The stallions were both dressed like many of the club goers, they even had drinks in their hand, but it wasn’t hard to notice that there was a distinct difference in the air about them from the others that were reveling in the debauchery of the watering hole. Not only were their drinks still full and untouched, their suits did little to hide the bulge of a shoulder holster. The eyes of both bouncers tracked over all of the members in Nightmare team, surveying and sizing them up. Many members of the the team returned the same surveying glance.
After a short reaffirming nod from Borscht, the bouncer acquiesced to the team and opened the door to them.
In stark contrast to the velvet colors and the boisterous sound of the club, the other side of the door was a rather utilitarian and mundane staircase. Much more like what Twilight had expected to find based on the drab exterior. Their mafia envoy started his way up the staircase with the Nightmares in tow. The stairs ened on a floor that was fairly open with a series of doors that seemed to ring the outside of the main open room.
Reaching the next floor, Twilight found that her previous thought on the acceptance of violent individuals in the presence of the mafia seemed to be confirmed. All around on this second floor were individuals, sitting on crates, leaning against walls, or sitting at tables, that were fully loaded with weapons. The armed strongmen were a conglomerate of all three pony races. Some were talking with others, some were cleaning or maintaining their weapons, and others were drinking and playing cards at a table near the center.
Unlike below, the arrival of Nightmare Team did seem to draw some eyes. A few hands even moved closer to weapons.
Twilight for her own part felt a little uncomfortable it what amounted to the lions den of a known criminal organization. Out of the side of her eye Twilight could notice that Sunset’s hand had also moved back closer to the houlster of her revolver. AJ, Bulwark, and Rainbow Dash also tightened their grip on their respective weapons. Even the guard that had been part of the original meeting turned firefight looked a little uneasy with the current situation. In the whole room the only two people that showed not sign of feeling the palpable tension were Captain Hunter and Borscht.
The invisible stare down between the two groups continued to grow until Borscht stepped out in front of the rest of the members of the mafia strongmen.
“Stand down. They aren't here for us, at least not this time. It’s more of a cooperation between our two organizations. More than that, they have Bratva’s protection on them for now,” Borscht announced.
With those words the tension seemed to ease for both sides but it most certainly didn’t go away.
With this potential conflict out of the way, Borscht continued to lead the team through the open meeting area to what looked to Twilight to be an elevator door on the far side of the room.
At this point Borscht turned around to face back to the team.
“From here I can only take the officers of your group,” Borscht stated.
Captain Hunter sighed and gave the red maned pegasus a stern stare, “What do you mean only the officers go on? You want me to split my team in the middle of your headquarters?”
Borscht gave an affirming nod in response, “Yes, the way that our organization works is that only officers in the mafia meet with our higher leaders especially with Bratva. It is not just in our organization, but between all of that gangs in the city. This is a requirement that we will be extending to you and your team.”
After a brief moment of thought the team lead finally relented, “Alright, Lazarus, Honesty, Rainboom, you three stay here. Try to indear yourselves to the mafia members if you can. Wolf and Spellblade you’re with me.”
The three sergeants; AJ, Rainbow Dash, and Bulwark, all shared a nervous glance at each other. After a few seconds of silent resignation they moved off as a group. They proceed to the side of the open room and took up a set of crates together, each still scanning their surroundings like they were caught behind enemy lines.
Sunset also moved up to the Captain and, just loud enough for Twilight to also hear, muttered, “Sir are you sure you’re alright with this? I don’t know if it is really such a great idea.”
Twilight also inched closer to her commander and joined the muttered conversation, “Sir, I concur with Wolf’s assessment of the situation. We are currently in a semi-hostile environment. Every tactics book that I have read says that splitting our strength and sending them in separate directions could easily turn to disaster.”
Captain Midnight Hunter turned to his two young Leutinents with a stoic gaze.
“I have full faith in those three to keep themselves and each other safe and relatively out of trouble. The same faith that I have in the three of us to do the same. We also need the cooperation of the mafia to run this operation. If that means playing Bratva’s game then that is what we do. Besides, sometimes you just need to trust in others.”
Both Twilight and Sunset muttered their acceptance to Capt. Hunter’s decision and fell in behind him, flanking on either side. They proceed forward to join Borscht at the entrance to the elevator.
It did not take long for the elevator to arrive after Borscht pushed the button to summon it. Upon arrival the doors of the elevator opened to reveal a new set of guards. Neither one of them looked particularly aggressive, and one of them stood at the input panel pressing the hold door button.
“If you have finished gossip session we can get going, Bratva is waiting,” the thick northern accent of Borscht called as he entered the elevator followed by the female earth pony that had been part of the original receiving party.
“We best not keep the man waiting I guess,” Captain Hunter sighed, and he too entered the elevator.
Twilight shot a quick look to her partner as if she was looking for some assurance from Sunset.
“It will be fine Spellblade. Apparently we need to play nice with the mafia to catch a terrorist. Who knows, maybe a talk with the Captain will be enough for them to see the error of their ways and reform into well adjusted members of society,” Sunset said with a small snort. With that she entered the elevator leaving Twilight little choice but to join the others.
The ride up to the top floor was a short one and was completed in relative silence with only the noise of the elevator on the cables to break the stillness. The elevator came to a jarring stop at the final destination. The door creaked open and Borscht stepped out onto the landing. Twilight watched as Captain Hunter, Sunset, and the female escort exited the elevator. Twilight moved out behind them into a small hallway.
The walls of the hallway were fairly barren. One side of the hall had an Equestrian flag. The flag was slightly tattered and had smudges of what could be either dirt or possibly blood. The other side there was a pair of maps. One of Stalliongrad and one of Equestria at large. The hallway extended for a few meters before it ended at a metal door.
Once again Borscht lead the way with the three officers of Nightmare Team in tow. He rapped on the door twice. A resounding metallic echo eliminated from the door. A few seconds passed before any response came from the other room.
“Borscht? Is that you?” a mystery voice boomed through the door.
“Da is me.” Borscht yelled back through the door.
“Well get on in here. I want to meet my new guests,” the mystery voice commanded.
Borscht opened the thick metal door and walked in. Captain Hunter followed behind with Sunset Shimmer at his side. Twilight hesitated a second until she realized that the female mafia guard was waiting around and watching for her to enter as well. With a small apprehensive inhale of air, as if preparing to dive into a deep pool of water, Twilight followed the rest of the group and entered the den of the gangster leader.
The room, like the hallway that preceded it, was spartan. There was little on the walls besides a second Equestrian flag was displayed prominently behind a large wooden desk.
Behind the desk were a pair of ponies, one seated and one standing just off to the side and leaning over the desk. Bother were going over a black ledger book that was open upon the desk. As Twilight and the rest of the party entered the room the seated pony, with a waive of his hand, dismissed the apparent secretary. She moved to close the ledger book, but not before Twilight was able to take interest and attempt to snoop on the contents of the book from a distance. Even though the contents were upside down, Twilight was still able to make out a few lines. This was purely due to the shear number of odd ways that she had lain about reading her her younger days.
The leger seemed to mostly contain information on payments to and from various groups or individuals. Only one name really stood out to Twilight, Sonnenreich. It was the only name that she could remember before the ledger was closed and taken away by the secretary.
As the group entered the room, the seated pony, a gray maned earth pony with a dark green coat, looked up and seemed to examine each member of the Lunar Guard as they entered. Based on the description this was most likely Bratva, the head of the mafia.
Bratva cleared his throat before speaking, “I’m glad that you could finally make it back Borsch. What took so long?”
The eyes of Bratva finished his scan of the group. It was clear from his pause that there was something was wrong.
Bratva continued, “Where is Dacia?”
Twilight immediately felt a pang of nervousness. There was only one pony that was at the initial rendezvous that wasn’t at this meeting. The dead guard is the only pony that the gangster boss could be talking about.
Borscht’s expression turned somber, “We were ambushed by Red Army upon first contact with guests. Dacia didn’t make it.”
An expression of anger flashed across the face of Bratva. He did a second, much slower, scan of Nightmare team. In Twilight’s mind it was as if looking for a culprit or a villain
Oh no! Is this alliance going to fall apart? Did I ruin everything because I wasn’t good enough.
The anger in Bratva’s face eased and it turned a bit sorrowful. He reached down under his desk and withdrew a bottle of some clear liquid. He placed the bottle down on the desk and reached back into the drawer to retrieve a number of small metal shot glasses, 6 glasses in total, before placing each of the glasses in a row, Twilight watched as Bratva unscrewed the cap of the bottle and filled each of the shot glasses.
Bratva picked up one glass and with a gesture offered the remainders to the others in the room. Borscht was the first to move forward and take one. The female guard was not far behind the second in command of the mafia in retrieving her glass. Twilight was more hesitant to take the proffered drink. The Captain and Sunset also seemed to share an apprehensive glance before the head of the Nightmare team nodded. Captain Hunter was still looking slightly apprehensive about drinking on the job, but still stepped forward and took the last three of glasses off of the desk. He handed one to Sunset and the final one to Twilight.
Sunset took a sniff of the drink and seemed to be satisfied with the contents. Twilight however was still nervous and hesitated to take the drink from her commander.
Bratva noticed this hesitation. He tried to break through it with a smile.
“Come my new friend please join us in this toast.”
Alright. How bad can it be?
Twilight took her glass but still stood of to the side, unsure of how to proceed.
With all of the glasses passed out to the ponies in the room, Bratva raised his own glass and began to speak, “We drink to those that stand strong for what they believe in, their brothers in arm, and give their lives for the beliefs they hold so dear. We vow to hold your memory and avenge your death.”
With his small speech completed, Bratva took his glass and tapped it against the top of his desk with a small clink. After the motion, Bratva threw back the drink in one go showing no reaction. Borscht and the remaining guard followed suit. Captain Hunter and Sunset also took their drinks and downed them as well.
Overcoming her hesitation, Twilight also took her drink and, in one fell swoop, downed her drink. At first she felt nothing, but in seconds she could feel a burning sensation run down her throat. The burning sensation seemed to cause her throat to inflame and close. In seconds Twilight was doubled over with her hand on her knees, caught in an uncontrollable coughing fit.