Hey. Ya see that pony over there? That pathetic looking unicorn who gets ignored by everypony, even the Taxi Carriage ponies? Yeah. That's me. A Grade A Nopony. A plus, in fact. My name is Penny Pincher. Pen, for short, and I, am a bank teller. Sounds like a fun job right? Wrong. Imagine, sitting at a desk all day, with barely a bit to your name, watching much richer ponies come in every day, depositing and withdrawing over thousands in bits every day. Getting a small glimpse of hope, whenever you see that vault open, only to remember that you can't take any of the money....It's that kind of job. I'm almost glad they fired me! Huh? Oh, yeah, I got laid off today. Why? I lipped off at a customer by the name o' Blueblood. He wasn't givin' me the respect I deserved. My boss said, and I quote, "You're a bank teller! You don't deserve respect!" To which I then lipped off at him. He said it was my last warning. Wanting to get the one up on him, I decided to, give myself a raise, if you know what I mean. I stole from the vault. In broad daylight. While everypony was watching me. And then I got fired. Probably shoulda waited until night time.....nah! That'd be too easy! So, here I am....the biggest nopony in Manehattan....tryign to get a cab to go home to my apartment.....Oi, Nickles is gonna be pissed that I lost my job.....Huh? Oh, Nickles as in Nickles and Dimes. He's my older brother. O'course, he don't like to be called "Nickles and Dimes..." He says it's too childish....he likes tah be called "Nickle A. Dimes". He says it sounds more professional. I just nod, and take it whenever he yells at me for it. Finally, a taxi stops for me. I step up to the door, and climb inside. "Where too, Mac?" The cab driver rasped through his cigar smoke.
"Skyline Apartments. Hooflyn." I said simply.
"Will do, Mac." He said, after blowing his cigar smoke in my face, causing me to cough.
"Aw, man up, ya filly! S'just a little smoke!" The cab driver chortled as he began to gallop down the street, pulling me along with him. Sure, I've lived in this city all my life, but still, the sights amazed me. Especially Bridleway. I cannot tell you how much I've wanted to see Hinny of the Hills while it's in town, but I never have enough bits....I did meet a member of the cast every now and again during my time as a teller....but they usually didn't remember me. Why would they? They were someponies... and I was....nopony. The cab stopped in front of the apartment buildings. How my brother was able to afford this place, I don't even know. The Skyline Apartments are a really nice place to live....well, for Hooflyn, anyway. Hooflyn wasn't exactly the....nicest borough in Manehattan....our parents couldn't support us here, so they dumped us at an orphanage the first chance they got. Nickle's been lookin' after me ever since. Oooh...he was gonna be mad when he found out I lost my job.....I payed the cab driver and walked up the stairs into the apartment building. The inside lobby looked just as grungy as the city outside. The guard next to the door fast asleep. I sighed, and walked to the elevator, pushing the button, and walking inside the doors when they opened. After the elevator opened on the fifth floor, I walked down the hall to my apartment. This hall was just as old as the rest of the building, wallpaper tearing a bit on the walls, dying plants on small decorative tables...it was sad what had become o' this borough. 'Apartment Number 10...' I thought to myself. I counted the numbers as I walked down the hall. "Eight....Nine....Ten." I mumbled to myself. The door was just as dilapidated as the rest of the hall. I was a bit surprised it didn't topple over when I knocked.... "'Ey, Nickle! I'm home!" I shouted through the door.
"You got a key, don't ya?" A deeper voice said through the door. That was my older brother, alright.
"Um....y'see, what happened was....." I began, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment.
"Don't finish that sentence." Nickle said, as I heard him sit up and walk over from the inside.
What happened was, I had lost my key. At the bottom of the East River. Don't ask me how it happened, it's a very embarrassing story. Besides, that's not the story I'm telling you anyway. The door opened slowly, Nickle's horn glowing sort of a light green, using his magic to open the door. He was a unicorn, like me. He was much taller, and more muscular than I was. He had a dark blonde mane and tail, and a magenta-looking coat. His cutie mark was a pile of golden bits, a perfect compliment to mine, which is a dollar sign. "You alright, Pen?" He asked. "Ya look like somethin' cralled on ya and died."
"Well...." I began, chuckling nervously as I stepped into the apartment. It wasn't much, but it was home. It had a couch, where Nickle and I would usually sit and talk, and two bedrooms, one for the each of us. And it gave us a good view of the street...good enough for Hooflyn at least...."What if....hypothetically.... I had come home, hypothetically.... and told you....hypothetically of course....that I had....hypothetically... lost my job at the bank? Hypothetically." I asked, smiling nervously.
Nickle frowned at me. "Then I'd, hypothetically, knock some sense into your pea-brained skull. Why?"
My eyes widened a bit at that. I coughed a bit, then smiled coyly. "Well....heheh....I.....lostmyjobatthebank." I mumbled.
Nickle said nothing. I thought for sure he was gonna start pummeling me right there...he did that when I messed up. But no...no pummeling this time. He just facehoofed, sighed, and sat down on the couch. "C'mon, Pen....ya couldn't even keep that job?!"
"Nickle, ya know that job wasn't for me!" I said defensively.
"That's what you said about the last bank that fired ya!" He groaned. "Yer gettin' a reputation, Pen. And not a good one! Every bank in the city's starting to learn about how you constantly mess up on the job!!"
"Well then, maybe workin' at a bank ain't right for me!" I shouted. It was true. I hated working at a bank. Seeing all that money come and go, while my brother and I barely had a bit to our names was something I couldn't handle anymore. All these rich ponies from upper Manehatten...they didn't give a Crag-o-dile's behind about us, and here they were, just coming and going, spending all the money they please, while Nickle and I were struggling just to get by. Maybe it was just me....I didn't even know what my brother did.....did he even have a job? I had never seen him work..... "Why are you gettin' on my case anyway?! Do you even have a job!?" I shouted. He said nothing. He simply looked away for a second. Then, he sighed. "I have a job."
That was weird.....Nickle was never this hesitant to respond to me....was his job a touchy subject? Hoo boy, if I had known what I was getting into then, I woulda backed out as soon as I could. I would've just said, "Never mind", and moved on with the conversation. But I didn't. I was suspicious. My interest, had been peaked. "What job is this?"
Nickle sighed again, looking away for a second. He looked back at me. "I suppose your old enough to know now. But we gotta get ya properly attired, first. C'mon, I'll buy ya a suit."
"A suit?" I asked. "Why would I need a suit?"
"Just trust me....my job has a very....strict dress code." He said. "C'mon, let's go."
That seemed a bit suspicious. Ooho...if I had know then....nah, I already used that bit. Let's just move on.
Where did my brother manage to get the money for this? Two pinstripped suits, a red tie for me, a blue tie for him. I bought a black matching fedora, but Nickle didn't. He wasn't a hat pony for some reason....what, he afraid a hat will break his horn or somethin'? "Thanks for the suit, Bro. Ya didn't have to."
Nickle laughed at that. "Trust me, Pen. In my line o' work, ya wanna look presentable."
"Presentable?" I asked. "Why?"
"Just trust me, ya pea-brain." He said, lightly tapping me on the head with a chuckle.
"I ain't no pea-brain!" I said, laughing along with him. We walked down the street from the haberdasher's, rounding a corner into an alley. Wait...why would we be going into an alley? Weren't alley's dangerous...? If only I had known......eh, I gotta stop sayin' that and just tell the story. "Uh....Nickle?" I asked. "What is this? Some kinda short-cut?"
"You could say that, yeah." He said to me, looking at a wall. His horn glowed, as if he was trying to cast a spell. Then, three of the bricks on the wall glowed as well. After he made sure nopony was looking, he pushed in all three bricks at once. The wall then slowly slid out of the way, revealing a door. It was old, and I could barely make out the lettering on it unless I squinted my eyes. "The Crusading Cavalier....wait....Nickle....I didn't know you ran a restaurant!"
Nickle facehoofed, shaking his head. "Sure, it's a restaurant. Lets get inside." He knocked on the door three times. A small slot slid open, and I only saw two eyes.
"I'm not night. I'm not day. What am I?" The voice the pair of eyes belonged to croaked.
"Twilight." Nickle whispered. The slot on the door closed right after. Then the door opened shortly after. The stallion behind the door was much taller than me, and Nickle. He squinted his eyes in the light of the son, and he grunted when he saw me. "He cool?" The pony asked.
"Yeah, he's my little brother." Nickle whispered to him. He gave the pony two bits, and walked inside. "C'mon." Nickle said to me. I followed him inside the dark room, dimly lit by a few lights. It looked like your basic small time speakeasy. There was a bar, a few poker tables, and a billiards room in the back. There were three stallions sitting over at the poker table. Nickle sat down next to him. I just stood there awkwardly. "C'mon, Pen! Take a seat." He said with a smirk. Hesitantly, I trotted over and sat down next to my brother. The stallions at the other end of the table all seemed very gruff, like they had each seen varying degrees of action. "Ey, Swig! Five cups o' cider over here!"
"You got it, Boss." The bartender pony croaked, as he began pouring the drinks.
"That's Big Swig. He's the bartender here." Nickle said to me.
"Yeah, I assumed that's why he was cleaning the glasses with that filthy rag..." I remarked sarcastically.
"Who is this guy, Nick?" One of the stallions grunted. "He's got quite a mouth on 'im..." This pony had a blue coat, and judging by the wings on his back, I'd say he was a pegasus. He had his black mane slicked back with gel, and he wore a brown velvet jacket over a white T-shirt. His cutie mark was that of a brass horseshoe.
"This is my brother, Penny Pincher." Nickle said, patting me on the back. "Pen, that's Donny Coltleone. A friend o' mine, now he serves as the Underboss of this outfit."
"Underboss? Outfit? Wait...." The realization hit me like a sack of bricks flying out of a moving carriage. "This is a....sewing circle?!" I asked in shock. They all just stared at me awkwardly. "W-What? Your talking about outfits....." Nickle bapped me on the back of the head. "Outfit as in mafia, ya pea-brain!" He shouted.
"Ow....ok...." I rubbed the back of my head. "Mafia....I suppose that's not as bad as a sewing circle....." I shuddered, the thought of all those needles, and all that fabric was enough to make my skin crawl.
Nickle nodded. "Suppose I couldn't keep it a secret forever. Now before ya start flippin' out, just let me introduce you to the rest of our group so far." He gestured to the pony sitting next to Coltleone. "That's Scarface. an old mentor o' mine, and my Consigliere. A Consigliere is like, a right hand man." I looked over at Scarface. He seemed much older than the rest of the ponies in the group. He wore a faded grey pinstripe suit, a fedora to match, his horn poking through the hat. His coat was dark red, and his mane was an aged grey. His face was old and wrinkled, a big ol' scar stretching across it, cutting through one of his hazel eyes. His Cutie Mark was a deadly looking switchblade knife. "The underboss is in charge when neither me, nor the consilgliere is available at the time." Nickle said, continuing his explination. "Then of course you got your Capo, which means the captain in charge of the Soldiers. His name is Good Fella. We call him 'Goody.'" He gestured to the Unicorn pony sitting on the other side of Scarface. His coat was a minty green, he had a red mane to match his orange eyes. He wore a brown vest, and he had his hind hooves leaning up against the poker table. His cutie mark was just five tally marks. Wonder what that meant...? "You already met Mugsy." He gestured over to the large earth pony standing by the door. He wore a grey sweater, and his Cutie Mark was a boxing glove. "And you met Big Swig." Big Swig, the unicorn looked just about as old as Scarface, except he was much plumper. his coat was a creme color, and he had no mane to be seen. He wore a white dress shirt under a black vest with a red bow tie. His Cutie Mark a bottle labeled, "XXX."
"Well...it's good to meet such a colorful cast of characters..." I said with a smile. "But...what does all of this have to do with me?"
"Who said it had anythin' ta do with ya, Small Fry?" Scarface asked.
"Well, my brother wouldn't just show me his secret underground organization just because I lost my job at the bank....there has to be another reason." I said simply.
"Well, yer not wrong." Nickle said. "There is a bigger reason for me bringin' him here."
"Y'mean...the job?" Donny asked.
"The Job?" I asked as well. "What kinda job? Will it involve selling fine leather jackets?"
Nickle facehoofed. "Job as in heist, ya pea-brain! We're gonna knock over the bank you used to work at!"
Ohohoho, that got me on board instantly. I had a serious vendetta against that bank, as well as the poofy-shirted stuck up aristocrats that had accounts set up there. "So....whaddaya want me to do?"
"Well..." Nickle began. "You know that building better than any of us. So you'll be our guide in there." He levitated a map of the bank out from one of his saddle bags and layed it on the poker table. "We'll be knocking the joint over at midnight tonight. Pen, You, Me, and Goody will be going in through the back entrance. I have an associate on the inside that'll drop us off a key to get in through the back door. Scarface, and Donny, you'll be waiting at the getaway carriage to help us load the bits. Mugsy's our getaway driver. Pen, you know the combination to the vault, right?"
"Sure do." I said. Well...I didn't know it by heart....but I did see them open the vault enough times to know what positions to turn the dial to!
"You'll also be carrying the sacks that we'll load the money into." Nickle said. "I;m sure you can handle that. I just got one more question for ya. Are you sure you wanna join us? Cause once you get in, there's no getting out. Capice?"
Now, if I had known better then, I would've backed out. I would've said no, then gone into hiding. But I didn't know better.....back then, I thought I had a chance. A chance to get back at the fat aristocrats who were letting this city die for their amusement....a chance to actually make it in this town....a chance.....to be somepony.... I took a big swig of cider, and slammed it down on the table. "I'LL DO IT!" I shouted.