Problem was, I liked Grape Sucker. Despite the name. I mean, seriously. If I met his mom, I was going to psychoanalyze her if I had to pin her to the floor to do so. My problem was, I felt that if I delivered my message, it would be the end of Grape Sucker.
Carne Asada... Well. By now you understand that she is a gangster, an actual mobster from Mobtown. I worked rather hard to make sure I didn't know what she did to make her bits, but I had all sorts of clues. I also had all sorts of gold bits that had nothing to do with Princess Celestia, and spent them to buy or rent plenty of magic books to study in my free time. Being a bodyguard was fun, whether working out, training with the team, or being on point. I don't give a single horse apple if you think I'm being stupid.
This, what I had to do this morning... Not so fun.
He had a home in an upscale residential area of Las Pegasus. Enough non-Pegasi lived in the wealthy sections of town, that property taxes paid for the magic necessary for the roads, earthworks, and foundations necessary for keeping buildings aloft. Being a unicorn in Las Pegasus, I learned, paid better than working anywhere else in Equestria other than Canterlot if you weren't prone to falling nightmares and if you could cast long-lasting stasis codicils to transforms of Levitate. I could cast them for Illuminate, which is why I could light the ceiling of a room, but I couldn't manage it for dynamic spells.
An orange sunrise lit lawns and flower beds of marigolds and petunias, as well as wood frame houses with red shake roofs, next to sculpted Art Neighveau cloudominiums. It was nerve-wracking, having to be careful not to mistake a puff of fog for foundational cloud. A moment of absentmindedness would send me falling to my death.
His house had a veneer of flagstones—where heavy equaled expensive—and a grey clay-tile roof. From a distance, I saw him leave with bodyguards in time to supervise the breakfast buffets. No surprise there. Same as the day before. Carne Asada had booked me for visits to her "colleagues" this evening, but I had plenty of free time, and she had guards for the hotel. This was our third day on holiday, and she hadn't asked for progress on her message.
She would ask, though.
A shadow glided across the cloud house. Crystal Skies fluttered down and landed on the "fog bank." Of course he did.
"Well?" I asked.
"Got it. Just like in Baltimare. He filed blueprints with Building and Safety when he built his dream house five years ago. Got a variance, too. Excessive weight." The pegasus glanced back, then flutter-hopped down the street so we were out of sight from Grape Sucker's house before unrolling small copies of the plans from his saddle bags. "See here." His long blue primary feather, sharp as a knife and glittering with ruby edges, sliced right through the paper. "That's a vault." He grinned.
I grinned back.
#
I wore the tan business suit Carne Asada had made for me. It had bell bottom slacks that made kicking easy, and a short sleeve blouse, with a white cravat. I matched it with a tan scarf and I wore the contacts, with my hair in a bun. I wanted to look at least twenty, and business-like, especially if the opportunity arose to learn something from the stallion.
Crystal Skies did a loop de loop and Citron kept his distance in his teenager-visiting-Las Pegasus giddy-up. Safe and Broomhill Dare had returned home on business, while Crystal Skies' sister(?), Daylily, spent the day showing Pig Pen the casinos. The pretty white albino Salernitano pegasus had chatted me up briefly, like a noble evaluating a peer, and told me to take care of "Crys." I took a shine to her and didn't object to Pig Pen's day off. I trotted half a block from the house, calculating vectors, when he nodded.
Nopony looking. I teleported.
The cynical part of me expected the spell to fail. The pegasus lieutenant had a vault, for Celestia's Sake. Had to be stacked floor to ceiling with gold bits, obviously. I'd used the spell enough to know it wouldn't work if I'd injure myself, like materializing in a wall or with gold bits in my chest.
I teleported into complete darkness.
I knew I'd arrived because of the loud pop that made my ears feel like somepony had jabbed a stick into them. That, and that I could breathe the albeit stuffy, frost-scented air. I was so surprised, I fumbled casting Illuminate three times in a row then splashed the entire interior of the vault in blue-green light.
The pantry-sized interior had three aisles of shelves. It wasn't entirely empty.
I said, "I'm in, guys. No gold. No bodies, either, if you were wondering."
Faintly, I heard Citron. "Really?" The vault walls must have been making a difference in the magical connection.
I saw rolled up blueprints, photo albums, and ledger books. I knew the latter well. I'd spent hours two days a week with those back in Grin Having, learning the craft as it were. Not wanting to be made a foal, I trotted down all the aisles, checking carefully for hidden boxes, fake shelves, cantrips, or wards. The thick walls ate sound and muffled my breathing in a way that hurt in its own unique way. I detected nothing hidden and no countermeasures.
They blueprints were of the house, the original restaurant, various sections of the hotel, and another project in-progress. I renewed the lighting spell. The photo album looked like family shots. A little filly, a young mom. They made me think of my dead parents and I didn't want to start crying thinking that my celebrity parents hadn't thought to take enough family pictures of us.
The ledgers. Someone took care to write things down. In really little letters and numbers. I found myself breathing hard and realizing that the air was a bit stale in here.
I had had twenty minutes to recover from the first teleport. The last few days were enough to convince me no one remained in the house; nopony I couldn't handle, in any case. I visualized the blueprint for a moment, carefully calculated my vectors so I wouldn't waste a single splendor, and teleported into the office outside of the vault.
What an office! Very modern. Tasteful. Everything was polished metal, glass, or black-veined white marble. Orange and tan travertine tile provided an earthy floor for the hooves and medium olive-brown walnut wood lined the walls, accenting the white plaster ceiling. Light from skylights and frosted windows made it welcoming and warm. Too cheery for my tastes, but I could work here. I first checked for other ledgers or other evidence I might want to return to Carne Asada, but found nothing other than stuff I would expect running a restaurant or hotel business on a weekly or monthly basis. It looked legit.
I cleared a space. These ledgers went back years. I started crosschecking.
#
Crystal Skies shouted through the gum, "Sucker and his guards just pulled up in a pegasus limousine. Get ready to skip with whatever treasure you've stolen."
Citron said, "I can be in front or back to fight. Just give me the word!"
I closed the ledger. I said, "Stand down. Just keep in earshot. I got this."
Crystal Skies said, "You're kidding, right?"
"Not so much," I said.
What I didn't want was to let certain secrets out. I took my time and worked up Force. Regardless of how this all turned out, Grape Sucker was going to have to pay something, and fixing his vault would be the least of it. When I was done, part of the metal door had melted and dripped to the travertine tile. The stone made a very loud cracking sound as it cooled, and I took the opportunity to break out a large window to the backside of the house at the same time for good measure. That helped to lessen the burnt metal stink in the air.
It also informed the bodyguards of the intruder in the house.
I popped out Shield, queued some Levitate transforms, and put Teleport at the end of the queue so as not to be entirely stupid. I positioned myself to be immediately visible as ponies came down the hall, and recognizable as Carne Asada's daughter. I hoped everypony running my way had seen me at the party.
That turned out to be two earth pony mares in black suits, knobby blackjack horseshoes, white blouses, and black ties leading the way for Grape Sucker himself in his signature white shirt and slacks. His dapper black bow tie lay pulled open at his neck. Caramel eyes looked wary.
"Carne Asada's daughter," the two bodyguards said, slowing down.
"Miss Glitter," said Grape Sucker, passing them by. "What are you doing here?" His eyes took in the destruction behind me and the blue-green aura around my horn, as well as floating in front of me. He waved a curt hoof and his mares stopped behind him at the ready.
I let the shield vanish, but kept it spinning in my horn at the ready. I said, "I'd like to speak to you in private, if you don't mind."
I glanced left at the desk. He was at the entrance to the room, further than his guards. It was enough for him to see the ledgers as I trotted on up to him as he stiffened up in recognition. Turns out that he was my height. I reached over, tilted my head slightly, and gave him an open-mouthed kiss.
After a slightly surprised jerk and a dainty whinny, he returned it. Ohhh, ho, ho. He knew what he was doing!
"Bubblegum?" he murmured.
One mare said worriedly to the other, "Is that the 'Kiss of Death?"
I stepped back and said, "No, it's not," then demurely, "Could you please leave us. Now?"
Grape Sucker said, "You can leave."
The pair grumbled, but retreated and I heard a door latch. I said, "I didn't think they'd listen to me. I'd have thrown Carne Asada out of the house were I in their place regardless of your orders. But that's me."
Grape Sucker rubbed a hoof across his lips and looked at me. "I think you're a little too young to be looking at me like you're looking at me."
"Says who?" I returned.
"My point."
I rolled my eyes and stepped back, then cracked my gum because I could. "We have business to attend to here, Sucker," I said, changing my tone. I thumped the ledger up and down with Levitate, rattling the glass.
His eyes drifted back toward the vault. "Did you break open my safe? Did you burn anything inside?" he asked worriedly.
I banged the desk again. "I didn't burn your plans or pictures, if that what you're concerned about," I said.
He relaxed, the tilt of his ears going from looking sick to forward and very worried.
"Carne Asada sent me with a message for you."
"So, that really was the kiss of death."
"Now you're making me mad. These books make me think there is a great big communications problem going on here, or something. You have a vault larger than most banks with no gold inside. You keep meticulous books. Perhaps auditing your receipts will turn up something that doesn't balance, but other than the new hotel construction project, I can't figure out what's wrong here other than some overruns. Your profits are low. Maybe you need a management revamp, but I'm not seeing embezzlement. I got test ledgers sent at me enough times to know what those horse apples look like."
"Yeah, Miss Glitter, you figured it out. Give the message and leave. Doña Asada will take care of the rest."
My ears folded forward and I narrowed my eyes. "Are you listening to me?"
He walked over to a book shelf with crystal flasks. He opened one with a wing and I ripped it away with Levitate. I opened it up and sniffed. I smelled brandy mixed with cider. I filled his glass. "You drink a lot."
"What's left for me?"
"Apathetic a lot?"
He drank it down in one go and grimaced.
Out loud, I said, "I wonder what's worse than dying? I think we need to take a field trip," I said to benefit a wider audience.
Not wanting him to realize I teleported him, I blindfolded him and held my legs over his ears. His apparent apathy helped and he proved docile, doing as I directed. I couldn't hide that a few minutes later we took a taxi out of his neighborhood without trotting through his house, but a least I didn't have the burden of his bodyguards following us around. He did balk when I had him direct us to the new construction site. I'd spent some minutes comparing the new construction and the plans in my head to the first hotel that had been built out from his original restaurant. What lay around me was nowhere as grand or groundbreaking as that first hotel. Instead, this one would be elegant, concentrating on a luxury spa and resort experience. Whereas the first hotel was a squatter, wider version of Canterlot Castle, this would have wide expanses of oval buildings, courtyards, and pools. It had been under construction for four years. I expected something more complete, but, other than watching Sire's Hallow Manor being built, I hadn't been tutored in construction.
As the taxi driver trotted to a halt at the green fence outside the construction site, I spoke out first. "I expected more progress."
The four of us donned yellow hard hats and entered the site. Most of the foundations had been poured. Not all of them. Expanses of cloud had been gathered at the edge of Las Pegasus. There were rings and swaths of cloud inside cement inside cloud. The magic to support the foundations cost bits; the gathering of extra cloud also cost bits. It saw a half-finished main dance casino and one hotel wing. Workers were busy, with pegasus flying to and fro.
Not that many, however.
Not as many for the materials being bought and the labor being paid. Eyeballing it, I estimated it didn't balance. Not hardly. I waved my team back so it was the two of us.
Grape Sucker pointed with his front hoof at what looked like a sidewalk, but made of clouds. "I'm going to step right over there. Don't stop me."
I put my left rear hoof below his right hip joint and swept his leg out from under him to pivot him over. I used Levitate and brought him down on his right side with a gentle oof! that barely emptied his lungs. You'd think everypony had been working diligently, but practically all the workers saw when I sat down on his shoulders, pinning him to the cement.
I glared down at him. "And here I was thinking of jumping into bed with you. Are you trying to scar me for life?"
He thought about it for a moment. "Scar you for life?" He started laughing at some inside joke, not like I'd just stopped him from killing himself.
"Embezzlement?" I asked.
"Just let me jump."
"Your answer makes no sense. Where's the bits?"
"Let's save Doña Asada trouble. I jump. She closes it down. Problem over."
"Next answer that's a lie, I break your nose. Embezzlement?"
Our eyes locked. I didn't want to do this, especially with a construction yard of work ponies looking. I took his nose in both hooves... waiting.
Neither of us blinked.
I said, "Please."
"Not embezzlement. Blackmail."
I jumped up and shouted, "Celestia on roller-skates." I paced in a circle around him, letting things click together. The pictures in the vault and his worry about them, and the plans. Dread started to build. I added, "Tell them to get back to work. Shout it! Now."
He did, standing. They did, finding other jobs to make themselves scarce.
I brought the other two over and pointed to our ears. "Tell me."
He whispered, "I was born a mare."
I blinked.
Awkward, considering the image Grape Sucker cultivated.
Explained his high-register voice and the practiced masculinity. The always wearing pants, too. I didn't see how his being different from other ponies made much a difference in the syndicate, but ponies always had personal reasons for secrets. I rudely looked for his stallion parts. His tight slacks didn't leave much for the imagination, including his purposely not wearing undergarments. Prosthetics?
He added, "I transitioned five years ago."
I decided not to quip that I'd still give him a ride. I looked at the wide-eyed lemon meringue colt and blue pegasus. "Him," I said.
They nodded.
He added, "I had a daughter. They'll hurt her if I stop funding the project as they demand. If the police get involved. If it gets in the news. I'm pretty sure she's safe if I'm dead."
I shook my head. "The project looked like a good idea to me."
"I put it up to bid as everypony does. Little did I know that the lowest bidder would be crooks and blackmailers."
"So says the guy working for the C.A. Syndicate."
His face darkened. "I'm a hotelier. She's my largest investor."
I rolled my eyes. At least he didn't say something about washing bits clean for her, a concept or perhaps a fetish that had thoroughly confused me since I'd overheard somepony mention big establishments laundered them.
I asked, "Did you tell Carne Asada?"
"Do I look like I want to be unnecessarily dead?"
Citron add, "Says a pony who threatened to step on open clouds. Wait! You're a pegasus!"
"I'm not a strong flyer."
I glared. He was pegasus. Did he think I was a foal?
"What? My mother is an earth pony."
"The one that named you Grape Sucker. Uh, huh."
"So is my father. I was adopted."
I wanted to hit my head against a wall, but none nearby were taller than knee height. "Do you know where your daughter is?"
"My ex made a big stink when I made my decision on who I was. Said I was confusing Hyperglide and that my work caused me to neglect my responsibilities at home, and that I hung out around shady characters. With Carne Asada in the background, back then still fighting indictments, he could easily make his point."
"Do you know?"
"I gave up custody to him, which doesn't mean I don't love her. It's just... I don't know what it is, other I can't be there. I pay child support, and a lot more voluntarily. I'm making sure she goes to the best schools when she gets to college. She's probably older than you."
I growled. "Do you have an address?"
"Of course. I mail bits weekly."