//------------------------------// // Chapter Two - The Offer // Story: AiE: The Heist // by nameundetermined //------------------------------// Anon drew a deep breath and rolled his shoulders as he stood outside of The old dilapidated warehouse whose address had been on a scrap of paper in his new hat. He was wearing the suit that had been provided to him, and he had to admit, the entire look made him feel pretty snazzy. The suit seemed to be bespoke, which Anon found heavily disturbing, but shrugged off for the time being. He had a meeting to attend. He walked up to the front door and knocked firmly, and after a few moments, the sound of scrambling hooves could be heard approaching before a slit in the door opened to reveal a set of green eyes peering out at him, squinting for a moment before the owner of them spoke out in a transatlantic accent. “Punctual, I like it! Uh, just a sec here, fella…” The slit closed again and a quick click prefaced the door swinging open towards him, he was greeted by a pair of yellow stallions with red and white manes wearing dress attire of their own. Jackets akin to a Ringmaster’s blazer, white dress shirts with black pants and suspenders, with bow ties and black boater-styled hats. One of them, sporting a dapper mustache, spoke out. “Let’s get the new guy to the office, Flim. The others are gonna want to get a look at him.” before turning in unison with the other, who was clean-shaven and spoke afterward in the same voice. “Spot on, Flam. The boss lady has been expecting this big fella. Don’t want to keep her waiting.” Anon shrugged and nodded, following behind the two of them through the dimly lit space. The inside of the building seemed to have been retrofitted with walls to be more akin to an office building than the normal open space of a storage warehouse, and the two of them led Anon down a long hallway. The Arcane lanterns strung from the ceiling on long cables occasionally flickering as he passed beneath them. The walk felt like it went on for a bit longer than seemed normal, and just before Anon was tempted enough to actually say something again, they finally arrived at a set of double doors. The two of them knocked on the door in what seemed to be a rhythmic pattern before pausing for a moment and each pulling one of the doors open. As the doors swung open, light spilled in and after Anon’s eyes had adjusted to the increase, he looked around and was treated to the sight of what seemed to be a small hangout of sorts. There were currently three ponies seated within. The first one he took notice of was a greyish-colored earth pony mare with a dark mane and striking eyes tinted an almost whimsical shade of light purple that contrasted the rest of her look. She wore a suit as well, much like the one being sported by the stallions escorting him, though her tie was purple in color. She was currently seated at a large table in the center of the room, with two other ponies, three of the seats still empty. A fedora sat on the table next to her, upturned and the mare seemed to be looking over a set of building blueprints, taking some notes. Seated to her left was a blue unicorn mare with light blue hair and eyes not too dissimilar in color from those of the first. She was clad in a tuxedo styled suit, a top hat adorning her head and a black cloak pinned in place at her neck by a simple onyx broach laid across her back. She was admiring herself in a mirror, a rag floating next to her, occasionally dipping into a small tin of what appeared to be horn polish, rubbing the natural protrusion with care as she brought it to a shine. On her other side was the most unusual of the group in Anon’s opinion, a pegasus filly. Her coat was a peachy pink with white freckles on her cheeks. Her wide expressive eyes were a soft auburn color, and her mane a blue slightly darker than the mane of the blue mare across from her. In her mane and tail, she wore a couple of black bows and she was clothed in a white pull-on shirt with a rather cure little vest and bow tie, along with a pair of pants. She actually seemed to be unoccupied and was the first to greet him, flying out of her chair and over towards the three who had just arrived to inspect their guest with a beaming smile. “Hey girls, Flim and Flam brought the new guy!” she said seeming somewhat excited as she flitted around him, bobbing up and down in the air as she did a few laps around him to get a good loo. “Golly mister, you sure are really tall. You must hit your head on doorframes a lot, huh?” Before Anon can respond, the little filly is interrupted by the grey mare looking up from her blueprints and speaking in a smooth, refined Canterlot canter. “Now now, Cozy Gow. Le the poor thing settle in. He only just got here, after all, it’s bad form to just start chatting up an unfamiliar stallion that way. I think introductions are in order.” The little filly, Cozy Glow, he thought he heard her called, smiled a little less widely as she looked over at the older mare and gave a small nod. “You’re right, I’m sorry, here…” She turned to face him again and hovered in front of him at about eye level, offering her hoof. “My name is Cozy Glow, You must be that Anon stallion Octavia wanted to bring in, right?” Anon clears his throat and nods, shaking her hoof firmly as he speaks up “Well uh, not really a stallion, but yes, I am Anon, nice to meet you Cozy.” he said kindly to the little filly, giving her a slightly unsure smile. “Sorry if I am a bit off, I’m uh, not exactly sure what I’m doing here…” The blue mare at the table sneers softly down her snout at him as she puts down her polishing rag and speaks in a haughty tone. Trixie agrees with your assessment, she is not sure why Octavia has decided to sully the sanctity of our office with your presence.” she says as she eyes him with a condescending air. “What could a giant monkey have to offer the team that we do not already have.” The grey one, Octavia, gave a small sigh and rubbed at her forehead with a hoof. “Trixie, do you always have to be a raging bitch to the new recruits?” She asked, giving her a tired, disappointed glare. “Maybe we wouldn’t have to call him in for this if someone at the table had finished magic school.” Trixie gasped softly at this and snorted as she flipped her bangs to one side with her hoof, grumbling softly and looking down at the table as Octavia, who seemed to be the leader, began to speak. “My apologies Anon, Trixie has a...complex.” She says, not seeming to care to elaborate further as she continued. “My name is Octavia, though you may know me already as Meastra from my letter earlier.” “Actually, I am pretty sure I have seen you at the Gala a few times,” he said, scratching the back of his neck with a gloved hand. He was invited to the event yearly, due to being the only member of his species, and thus it’s representative in Equestria. Or at least that was the reasoning Celestia gave him when he asked. Personally, he thought she just felt kind of bad for him. She smiled a bit wider, seeming pleased that he remembered her. “Ah, well that makes this a bit easier then. Not by much but, a little.” She said with a small chuckle as she got up out of her seat and walked towards him, gesturing over her shoulder. “You already Know Trixie’s name of course, and I presume Flim and Flam have already introduced themselves?” As she said this the two of them popped up next to Anon at either side, smiling jovially. Flim Spoke first “Actually we were waiting to let you do the honors, boss lady.” he said shaking one of Anon’s hands. Flam shook his other hand, Spaking right after Flim finished as if flowing from one to the other. “Don’t want to get too chatty before we get behind closed doors after all! Anyway, the name’s are Flam-” “And Flim, and we are-” “The Flim Flam brothers!” They said, ceasing shaking his hands, and striking a pose in front of Anon, tipping their hats with a smirk and a small bow apiece before Octavia chuckled softly and shooed them off for the moment to continue conversing with him. “Alright, now that everypony is acquainted, we can discuss why you are here.” She said, gesturing with a nod of her head for him to follow her back to the table, everyone else seating themselves again, leaving one seat directly across the table from Octavia for Anon to deposit himself in. A chair that was thankfully, notably, and considerably larger than the rest. “Man, they must really want to make a good first impression if they are pulling out the stops with custom furniture for a first visit.” he thought to himself as he got somewhat comfortably seated, the table only coming up to his knees. He honestly wasn’t sure if he would ever get used to everything being built for creatures who averaged about three feet tall. Sadly his musings on accessibility would have to wait for another time as his attention was caught by Octavia beginning to speak again. “So tell me, Anon. What do you want more than anything out of life.” He paused at this, thinking about it for a few long moments before answering. “Well, really, I just want to fit in, ya know? Not like, everyone accepts me and all of that gay shit. More just having a little square I can call my own and a niche to fill. As long as I have some people that appreciate having me around and something useful to be doing, I guess I’m pretty content.” Octavia nodded at this, Trixie gave a dismissive little “hmphh” as Flim, Flam, and Cozy all watched him...a little more intently than he was comfortable with as Octavia spoke again. “I suppose that is to be expected. I have to admit, it is sort of admirable how reasonable and simple your desires are. You see Anon, the five of us have all banded together for the purpose of accomplishing our individual goals. Glory, Fame, Monetary Gain, Thrills... what they are isn’t strictly important. What is important, is that we have come together because our goals...your goals, can all be met through the same means...” Anon swallowed dryly, eyes fixed on the mare in front of him as he spoke again, asking her a simple question that he was already sure he knew the answer to. “And...what exactly are those means?” Octavie smiled a little wider, a spark running through her gaze that sent a shiver down his spine as she spoke these next words with a staggering charismatic confidence. “Whatever means it takes. But keeping it simple…crime, Anon. And we want you to join us. You see, we have a particularly tricky job that would benefit greatly from your...anomalous properties.” she said as she glanced down at the blueprints on the table then back to him. “And if you would be willing to indulge us, I assure you that the risk here is well worth the reward. If this job goes well, You will never have to spend another day with that vile mare again. What was her name, Shepherds Pie?” She sat back, placing her hooves together in front of her on the table. “Of course, we will not force you. If you wish to decline, you will be removed from the premises and put back in your little shithole apartment, and you will not remember a word of what happened here.” Anon thinks for a long hard moment about this. It’s all really outlandish, and kind of sudden, and he, of course, feels apprehensive at the idea. Become some kind of career criminal? He had never thought about it, but the idea did seem sort of...enticing. It was better than what he had going on for him right now. If anything, getting thrown into one of the cushy cells in the Canterlot dungeons would probably net him a better life than what he had right now. Hell, at this point he might take a cell in Tartarus over having to go back to work and deal with that loudmouthed, misandrist… “I’m in.” he heard himself say before he realized he was saying it. He surprised himself for a moment, but recovered quickly, owning the statement with a confident smile as he offered the mare his hoof across the table. “Let’s get ourselves a payday, together. So, what’s the uh...job?” She seemed a little surprised by how quickly he had come to his choice, but smiled back at him and reached over to take his hand, shaking it with a confident chuckle. “Don’t worry about that quite yet. I wouldn’t just throw you into the deep end. I’ll have you do a few smaller ones first to get your hoo-er...feet wet.” Anon breathed a small sigh of relief as tension he did not know was there fell from his shoulders “ah, good, you had me nervous for a second there. So uh, when is the first job?” “Now.”