One
“Ah yes thank you.” I said to my waiter as he set my drink down on the table.
"You’re welcome." He said politely. "Are you about ready to order now sir?"
“Not quite, but tell you what.” I pointed to the exit to restaurant. There was an older white man, around 50 to 55, standing near the doorway. He had his hands in his pockets and his eyes darted around from table to table as he searched for someone. "You see that lost look fellow in the sport coat? Could you direct him over here, please?"
“Of course.” He said as he walked over to the man and pointed him in my direction.
"Are you the Wizard?" He asked when he reached my table.
I sighed. “ Yes I am." I nodded and lied to him.
I hated the god-awful nickname. Every time it was used, it made me feel as if I was some kind of fucking cosplaying nerd who spent every waking minute playing videogames or watching stupid shows. It was one of a few names of or relating to “The Wizard Of Oz". Oz was another one I got frequently which I actually preferred. I suppose I was associated with that because I was known to help people with their problems. “Take a seat Mr. Stevens.” I said as I held my hand out to him.
“One of my associates brought you to my attention. have something for you.” He said anxiously after I’d taken a long sip. I’d been examining him the entire time. Mr. Stevens didn’t look to good. His clothes were unironed. He had missed a button or two in his lightly stained shirt and his hair was going in all directions as if he’d hadn’t slept for a while.
“What’s troubling you?” I asked calmly.
“The PER!” He said a bit too loud. Anger he had been holding inside came out in his facial expression. The table shook as he slammed a fist on it. The restaurant wasn’t too packed, but it went completely silent for a few moments as the patrons, both ponies and humans, turned towards us. However the look I gave them made most of them look away after a few seconds. When they had gone back to their own business, Mr. Stevens continued, but a more hushed voice.
“Those PER fucks ambushed my youngest son on his way to school!” His fist on the table shook with rage and his face was rapidly turning red. “They fuckin’ converted him!. They converted him and just left him in an a wrecked car like he was fuckin’ worthless! Those fucking assholes!”
I felt bad for the guy. I’d heard stories of parents getting calls telling them their children had been in a PER attack and weren’t coming back home as humans. I’d done things that’d make most people cringe, but hearing things like that always struck a nerve with me. And I didn’t even have children, so I couldn’t imagine how parents must feel.
I nodded sympathetically. “How many heads we talking about here?” I said leaning in close.
“My boy says he saw five. Two pegasi, two unicorns and an earth pony.”
“He tell you anything else, male/ female, color, cutie mark?”
“Nothing, hes still pretty shaken up. Police couldn't get much from from him either. All we know for certain is that it was a male unicorn who actually did it to him."
“Thats not much to go by.” I said disgruntledly, shaking my head . “But I do have my ways of finding things, be it people or ponies. I will find them. Now, on to other matters… I need 50 per head. Cash. Delivered to my garage. ”
“Done.” Mr. Stevens said almost immediately, making me realized that I could’ve asked for even more. “I’ll throw in an extra twenty thousand if you do something special for them.”
I raised an eyebrow. An extra hundred thousand dollars did sound appealing. “What do I have to do?”
“Kill those fucks one by one. I want them to know my anger. Make them feel haunted by what they did to my son.”
I almost smiled. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll start right away and contact you when I have an update.”
“If you need anything just let me know.”
I thought for a moment if I would need anything from him. Only one thing came to mind. “You have $50 on you?” I asked. He took out his wallet and took out three bills. His expression had changed from anger to heavy grief. “Thanks." I said, taking the money. "And I wouldn't worry too much about this. I'll get the fuckers."
]*************************************
"I know this is long overdue, but because we're all together now, I feel we should do it anyway. What we did on Monday could really change things around here. I think it really opened up the door for similar things in the future. When the public sees the rich going pony, maybe they'll finally see that its not just an option for lower class people who can't make ends meet. I also want to congratulate each of you for the job well done. We were quick, everything went exactly according to plan and so far the police have no leads on us. And maybe its too early, but for now I’d say were in the clear!”
The four of us cheered at Carly's short speech and held up our cups. After I had converted, I stopped drinking. It was part of my attempt to rid myself of problems I had when I was a human. However, tonight I hung my rules, this was a special occasion. This was the first time the five of us had been together since we had successfully completed our task. We were together in our "safehouse" which was really just a nice apartment with some extra beds brought in.
"We really do deserve this." Alisa said after she had downed her drink. "Everything went exactly how we planned it."
"I just hope one day the kid will see what we did for him and be appreciative." Nick said.
I laughed. "You know that will never happen. People will never see what good we do for them."
"Yeah your probably right." He said again. "But we'll keep going anyway!" He said proudly. That was something I could drink to. We took ours at the same time. The taste was bitter and warm, but I quickly remembered it. It was super expensive a bottle as it was made of so I was sure to drink all of it. Nick must've loved it because he landed just to pour another glass.
"Don't get too much, Nick." Carly said serious, but with a playful tone. "We still need to plan for our second hit."
"So soon?" David asked. He had absolutely no reservations about drinking and was always going to bars and getting drunk. He blamed his drinking on his lack of gaining a cutie mark. "Can't we have a little more time to celebrate our first one?"
"I suppose..." She said slowly. "But I really want to at least have another one planned out before the end of the week. Plus we all know how you get sometimes..."
"Aw come on, Carly!" David pleaded. "I'll be fine tomorrow. You know I don't get hangovers anymore."
"Fine." She beckoned out the door. "Go ahead. But be careful out there!"
David was gone. He had grabbed his keycard to the apartment, tossed it in his saddlebag and was out of the apartment.
Nick was also a drinker and he was getting visibly antsy when David left. Finally he couldn’t take it anymore. “Imgoingwithhimbebacksoon.” He spat as he flew out the door.
******************************
When I left the restaurant, I got right to work. I brought my keys out and moved quickly across the parking lot to my car. When stuck the key in the lock, I had to jimmy the handle so that the door would open. Needless to say it wasn’t one of my best cars. A POS 1993 Toyota Camry.
However the reason I choose it as my ride tonight wasn’t to impress anyone. I used it as my work vehicle. It was so completely ordinary and plain on the outside that it hardly attracted attention. If I was going to be out all night, this was the car I wanted to be in.
When I started it up, the clock read, “10:47 PM”. It had been approximately 38 hours since Mr. Steven’s son had been converted. Each hour that passed would make it that much harder to track down the ponies responsible. But luckily I already knew the first place to go.
By the time I had reached my destination it was 11:16 PM. I parked my car in the huge lot and headed for the building’s entrance. I found it funny that I had been in the establishment dozens of times, but never once for what the place actually offered.
“Welcome to The Conversion Bureau!” A red unicorn said brightly at me as I entered. I simply nodded to him. The guy had to have known who I was, seeing as I’d came in there and left so many times. Perhaps he thought I was simply one of the humans who would chicken out right before they made their final decision.
The front of the Bureau was made to resemble a doctors office,which is to say it was really just a big waiting room. Rows of chairs faced the long countertop that divided the two ends. At this time of night, there weren’t too many people waiting, but when conversion was performed by the professionals, it took at least an hour or two.
I really didn’t like coming to this place. Waiting in the seats were a mom and dad with a few young kids who were playing with some stupid looking toy made of bent wires and various objects with holes in them. They all looked too thin for their age and they were wearing clothes that had gone at least a few weeks without a wash. This was most likely either a homeless or really poor family, and thats what pissed me of about the whole conversion thing. It wasn’t some great thing that people looked forward to like the ponies made it seem. For many it was simply a last resort. Desperation drove them to the choice of ultimately starving or changing their species. Desperation could make people do crazy things. Hell, Its what fueled the majority of my business.
There was a small line of people waiting to sign in with the pony who worked the desk at this hour. Had it been another night I might’ve waited, but not this time.
“Excuse me. Pardon me.” I said coldly to them as I pushed my way up to the front. No one really stopped me. I wasn’t a terribly big guy, but I had a persona that kept most people at bay. “I don’t wait in lines, sorry.”
Working the desk was an orange earth pony with a medical hat on. This was Teresa. She had been back and forth on the streets before she was converted. Selling drug, prostitution, robbery, she did whatever to stay afloat and in doing so, she came to know many people. But she was more devious than she let on. She was good tricking people into talking about things that they normally wouldn't. Couple that with her good memory and you could have dangerous mix. I think that's part of the reason I liked her.
“Um excuse me, sir, but there is a-”
“Cut the bullshit. I'm in a hurry. ” I said taking out the fifty bucks Mr. Stevens had given me and sliding it across the counter. She swiped the money as soon as it got close and pushed it somewhere below the desk.
“What do you want, Oz?” She asked.
“Jeffrey Stevens.” I said softly. “What do you know about him.”
“He was a cute little boy. I saw some of his pictures on the news last night. He's the son of some millionaire, though I forget what he does. But anyway he got ambushed and converted yesterday morning and became the PER's latest victim."
"Police say they have nothing. They want to write it up as just another PER attack and leave it at that. But I know you got something."
She sighed then beckoned for me to come in closer. "So last week I'm in this shitty bar called The Froggy Bottom and this guy walks in. Gets real drunk and tries hitting on me. I do my stuff and get him talking and he says he's with the PER. Says that him and some friends have something big planned for the next Monday."
I took out a small sheet of paper and used the pen chained to the counter. "What did this pony look like?"
"He's an earth pony. Orange coat, but a little darker than mine. He didn't have a cutiemark yet, which was weird because he was definitely in his twenties. But get this. He told me that if it things worked out then he would go back to that same bar tonight!"
I pushed away from the counter. "Thanks." I said. I thought we were done, but when I turned around she tried to stop me.
"Wait, you're not going there now are you? That place is like PER central."
I sighed. "I know."
***********************************
Before I went to The Froggy Bottom, I had to gear up. I owned a small garage only a couple minutes away from the Conversion Bureau.
I drove my car right inside after I'd unlocked the chain fence. I knew I probably wouldn't be back to the place until morning, so I got everything I would need.
I opened one of my gun lockers and threw some things into the backseat. A shotgun with a few boxes of shells, some brass knuckles and a pistol with a suppressor which was placed in the glove compartment. I also took a cheap prepaid cell phone from a desk drawer which I had gotten a morbid idea for.
That was it for the legal items. I took out a pair of keys and put them into a hole in the floor. When I pushed down, a section of the floor slid back revealing a short ladder to the small room of my illegally owned items. I grabbed the smallest block of C4 I had, maybe a tenth of the full size, and put it in a case. A remote trigger and detonator went in the car too. The last thing was housed inside a large black trunk. I dragged it out and slid the slab of floor back up.
Before I put it in my trunk, I couldn't help but look at it again. So I popped it open and inside was my semi-automatic 7.62mm sniper rifle. I had acquired it as a bonus from a job a few months ago. I had only fired it a few times and the thing was still nice and clean, but with a sandy brown camo on it. i didn’t even know if I’d need it, but I packed it in anyway.
Later…
My car was parked along the street with the pony's bar. Every other building seemed dead compared to the bright lights and loud TV volume from it. I could hear ponies cheering and laughing and talking, most likely watching some Wonderbolts event or something. They were so obnoxious I wondered how the neighborhood could stand it.
I was sitting in the passenger seat of my car with everything turned off. I was few cars down from the entrance and from here I could see everything. I watched each and every pony who entered or exited, making sure they didn't fit the description I was given.
In some many ways finding ponies is easier than humans. The main thing I had to go on for people was race, gender and good estimate for height and weight. Ponies had, gender, race, color and their cutie marks(or lack of) were dead giveaways and they were infinitely easier to identify at a distance.
But if the pony I wanted was in there, it didn't look like he was leaving. I checked my watch, it was 1:12 on Wednesday morning. I slumped even lower in the seat.
"Jesus Christ..." I sighed. Part of me wanted to slip my mask down over my face, jump out of the car and run in there. But Teresa was right, this area had a really strong PER presence. Most of the forced conversions happened in this neighborhood. Becoming a New Foal tonight was not something I wanted. I still had five ponies to kill.
It was another 35 minutes before I saw the pony I wanted. He stumbled out of the bar with a pegasus who was way more drunk. His altitude changed randomly and there were times when he would stop flapping his wings completely for a few moments. I could hear them talking as they stood outside the entrance.
"Thawa sagood race!" The Pegasus said in a drunken slur. The other pony nodded as he leaned against the wall. So far he was a match. An orange, male, Earth pony. Last thing I needed to check was his cutiemark which I couldn't yet see.
"Yous ureyo uwantto walkb ack byyourself?" The pegasus asked.
"Yeeeeeah, Im fine. I'm fine." He kept repeating.
"Alright, man." The pegasus said. "I'llllllllllllllll seeyouathehouse." He shot off down the street, narrowly avoiding buildings and leaving his friend alone.
Luckily for me, the pony began walking down the sidewalk coming towards me. I slipped the brass knuckles in my pocket and had my gun in my left hand. My right was on the door handle, ready for me to pounce. My parking space was specially chosen. Directly to my right past the sidewalk was a dark dead end alley.
As soon as he was close, I could see that he had no cutiemark. This was my pony. I pulled my cheap mask over my face. It was more to frighten him than to keep my identity secret, because he wasn't going to leave the alley.
When he was adjacent to me, I sprang from my car. I grabbed him in a bear hug and clasped a hand over his mouth as I pulled him into the alley.
He was screaming against my grip on his mouth and I was praying he didn't vomit. At some point I was able to get behind him. I repositioned my gun hand around his neck and hauled him further down.
When we’d reached the end, I pushed him away into the wall. I slipped my brass knuckles around my fingers and punched him twice in the mouth.
“Aggh! What do you want?!” He screamed when I was finished. I extended my arm and pointed my pistol at him.
I decided to play a hunch and assume him responsible. “What did you do Monday morning?!” I shouted at him.
“What?!” He shouted. “I...I...I was in class! I have an early session on Mondays!”
“Hmm.” It might've been the truth, but then again, he perfectly matched my description. Teresa wasn't known to be wrong and it wasn't the first time I'd been given false alibies. I punched him four more times. “Don’t lie to me! Where the fuck were you?!”
He started sobbing then told the truth. “I did a conversion!! It was kid, some rich guy’s. Please don’t hit me again!”
“You converted a kid!? Someone’s child!” I hit him a few more times. When I was finished, he was cowering on the floor.
“...Yes! We did, yes!”
I put the knuckles back in my pocket, feeling that I'd roughed him up enough, and leaned in close to him. “Who is we?” I whispered.
The pony told me everything. Carly, Jordan, Nicholas and Alisa, I now had the names and descriptions of the rest of my targets. He also told me why the PER was specifically targeting the children of more wealthy families. This disturbed me. The PER did some fucked up shit, but everyone assumed that there was some kind of unwritten rule about purposefully converting people kids. Once he swore under threat of more punches that he didn't know anything else, my job was pretty much done. Unfortunately for David there was really one thing left to do.
I pointed my pistol to the still whimpering pony and flipped the safety off. His face was bloody and his eyes red from crying.
"Wait don't kill me, man. Please!" He cried his eyes wide with surprise. Unfortunately I had to lie to him and say that I’d let him go if he told me what I needed to know.
I sighed and shrugged. "Sorry man, but I'm on the clock."
*THWUMP*
*THWUMP*
He slumped down dead against the wall. that was one down.
As I was about to walk away, there was something that caught my eye. His saddle bag. It had flown off after one of my initial punches. I picked it up and took it back to my car which I quickly entered and left the area.
I parked behind a gas station a few blocks away. I dumped the contents of the bag into the passenger seat and started sorting through it. It was mostly just junk, pieces of trash, old receipts, packs of crackers. There was only one thing of value I found in the bag. A keycard for an apartment room. The address, room number and floor were all on it. I grinned as I put it in my pocket. I had my next destination.