It was mid December and another cold night in Canterlot. The car chugged along down the snow covered road, spitting exhaust out into the night air as it came down 31st street. A gray earth pony sat in the driver’s seat wearing a black suit and feeling exhausted. It had been another long day for her, and she knew that it was only going to get longer in a few minutes. Jobs like these usually hadn’t ever weighed on her mind, not in years anyways. After the first one it gets a lot easier. Sitting next to her was a cream colored earth pony with curly hair who, as chance would have it, shared the same name as her cutie mark. In the back seat behind the cream colored pony sat a white unicorn, sporting deep red eyes and a spiked mane that was two shades of blue, also wearing a black suit. They were talking amongst themselves as they drove down the road in the late night chill.
“I feel bad about not being able to pay Sunset again like I thought I would.” The cream colored passenger stated. “Times have been tough for Lyra and I lately, no one seems to be interested in my sweets anymore. Sometimes I wished we would have stayed in Ponyville and not gotten involved with Sunset. Not that I don’t appreciate everything that she has done for us, but I just don’t know if it’s all been worth it. Lyra doesn’t even know about all the loans that I got from her. She would never have allowed it but we needed to survive. These things take time, and I’m glad that if nothing else that you two have been there for us. Celestia knows that we need friends now more than ever. Thanks again for the ride by the way Tavi, It’s been forever since I’ve had someone to talk to about these things. I know that maybe it’s a bit of a conflict of interest though.”
The gray earth pony, Octavia (or Tavi to her friends) just nodded to her. “Don’t worry about it” She said in a slightly posh accent. “It’s the least we could do, right Vinyl?”
The unicorn in the back seat nodded. “Yep, it’s no problem Bonnie. Sunset is business, we’re friends. You can talk to us about anything.” Vinyl nodded toward Tavi and the car pulled off of the main road onto a small side street.
Bonnie looked around for a second, confused. “Are we taking a detour or something?” Tavi didn’t answer her.
Before she had a chance to follow up on her question Bonnie suddenly felt something tight wrap around her neck. She couldn’t breathe and started to panic, flailing her front hooves around and grabbing at her neck. Her eyes went wide from fear and realization at what was happening as she started thrashing around trying to break free. It wasn’t working though and things were starting to go dark. With her last moments of strength she turned her mind to her beloved Lyra, just hoping that she would be safe. Then the world slipped away from her, Lyra’s face in her mind the last thought that she ever had.
The car pulled from the side street into an alley and stopped. Vinyl slipped the garrote from her now lifeless former friend’s neck and placed it in one of her pockets. Tavi sighed, turning off the ignition and taking the keys out. “Help me get her into the trunk.” She said to Vinyl as she stepped out of the car. She walked around the back, unlocking and opening the trunk as Vinyl carried Bonnie around from the front seat in her magic, her lifeless eyes still bulging in shock from her final moments. Vinyl dropped her in the trunk with a thud and closed it with her magic.
“Think you can drop me off at the club and take care of her? I’ve gotta open up in like an hour and then head to Sunset’s to tell her that it’s done.” Vinyl said to Tavi as they got back into the car, their job now complete. Octavia wanted to say no. She was never big on getting rid of bodies and was tired from the day.
When she looked at Vinyl she was giving her the trademarked big pleading eyes that Octavia had always found hard to resist. She just sighed, “Fine. But you get to deal with Lyra tomorrow when she starts getting worried about Bonnie disappearing and I’m taking the night off and going to sleep.”
Vinyl just smiled to her, “Deal.” She said, shaking her head.
They drove off into the night towards the club that they ran, “The Hop!” ready to open for another night of ponies looking to drink and get a few other things that were more difficult to find. After dropping Vinyl off at the front Tavi set a course for a warehouse that Sunset owned on the other side of the city, ready to start the long process of disposing of her former friend. She had a long and messy night ahead of her, but it was nothing new. It was just another cold night in Canterlot, as cold as it gets, and she had a job to do.
Hitmares
By: Shane Hunter
Act One: The Bonnie Situation
Chapter One: A Day in the Life
As Celestia was preparing to raise the early morning sun, Octavia was just finishing up at the warehouse. Everything had been sprayed down and what was left of Bonnie had been sealed into barrels with an acidic compound. She had been tempted to not bother with putting the suit back on, she was ready to go home and pass out. She noticed though that some of the blood had missed the apron she was wearing and had stained a couple of places in her coat and decided that it was better to be on the safe side. As she pulled the car out of the main gate she stopped to slip a 100 bit note to the guard watching the front. That’s just how things worked. Enough bits could get you anything that you wanted in this world, and it does wonders in helping others somehow lose their memory for a few key hours if need be.
She had slipped into a sort of groove over the last few years working for Sunset. At first it was hard, things still upset her then. Those days were long gone now though, it was just another job to her. When she started the club with Vinyl after Sunset had put them both through the Canterlot Academy of Music she had hoped that things would slow down a bit, she was getting tired of it all. Things had slowed down in some respects but there was an unspoken agreement between them and Vinyl’s aunt that if ever she needed something taken care of, they would take care of it. It was a thank you for giving them an education and their own club to play their music out of.
The first time she had killed another pony it was actually an accident. It was years ago, before they had gone to music school. She was only 16 at the time. She had been running with Sunset’s crew for a couple of years already after being introduced to her by her niece Vinyl when they were still children. Octavia had moved with her family to Canterlot when she was still a filly, shortly after she had found her love of music and had earned her cutie mark. After her father’s death from a heart attack when she was only 12 her mother was struggling to provide for her and she became angry with the world. It was only her friendship with her neighbor Vinyl that kept her together; they shared their love of music together and found that they had quite a lot in common despite Octavia’s more snobbish parents and upbringing.
When she was 14 Vinyl introduced her to her aunt Sunset and told her that she may be able to help. Sunset saw her anger and fury and sent her to work with Vinyl collecting bits from ponies who owed her, sometimes roughing them up to get what they wanted. Octavia enjoyed it quite a bit, it was a way to get her rage out and provide for her mother. After a jewelry store that Sunset had owned was robbed they were sent to beat the information of what was stolen out of one of the thieves who Sunset had tracked down.
She beat him with everything that she had in her but he wouldn’t tell her anything. She kept getting angrier and angrier and when the stallion had spit in her face she saw red and began pounding him without stopping. Eventually Vinyl had pulled her off and she saw what she had done. His skull was completely caved in and he didn’t have much of a face left. When she realized what she had done she panicked. She had visions of being locked in the castle dungeon for the rest of her life and it took Vinyl wrapping her in a hug to calm her.
After they left she had been afraid to tell Sunset what had happened. When they finally spoke with her the next day, Sunset just placed a hoof on her shoulder and tried to comfort her, telling her that the robber had it coming and not to weep for him. After having some time to sit on it she became okay with what she had done. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that the only thing that she was ever concerned with was the possibility of the penalties that she could face. She didn’t care about the stallion or the fact that he had lost his life. He should have known better than stealing from one of the most powerful mares in the city.
Eventually Sunset had asked her if she thought that she was capable of it again. There had been an informant in her crew who was going to become a witness in a case that they were trying to build against her. She didn’t know who she could trust and the only ponies who she knew wouldn’t be in on it were Vinyl and Octavia. She felt so grateful to Sunset after everything that she had done for her that she took up the task with Vinyl.
They followed him to his home one night and broke in, just in time to see him packing his things and preparing to head into protective custody. She pulled her small snub nosed pistol from her pocket but she hesitated. The stallion then noticed them and reached down into his bag and pulled out his own gun. It was a split second decision and she raised her pistol and shot him just above his right eye. As she watched him slump lifelessly onto the bed she felt a relief. It was either him or her, and when put in that situation she decided right there and then that it would always be her. She never hesitated again after that day.
As the next two years went by it became more and more normal to her. Then on the eve of her and Vinyl’s 18th birthday Sunset offered to send them to music school. They would be able to leave the life for awhile (but occasionally still help out when something needed taken care of) and learn all about the craft that they both shared. Three years later they had degrees and, with money from Sunset, opened up The Hop! to rave reviews. Some nights it was for more laid back classical and jazz music that Tavi enjoyed and others it was for the more abrasive electronic music that Vinyl had become enraptured with. Of course all of that came with a price. The club was essentially a front for Sunsets drug running operations, but neither of them cared. They got to play music and they got a cut of the profits. The only thing they ever had to do was keep the club running and occasionally solve a problem or two for Sunset when she needed it.
Octavia considered it more than a fair trade and was happy to oblige at first. Now though things started to get tiring for her. Sunset’s recent operations had begun drawing heat from the royal guard and they were finding themselves with more and more ponies that needed to disappear. Then there was Bonnie, her friend from music school who had made the mistake of taking out hundreds of thousands of bits in various loans from Sunset and never paying them back. She had even tried to take out a loan from one of Sunset’s rivals, that was the last straw. Sunset had to show that this would not be taken lightly and make an example for anyone else looking to borrow from her so Bonnie had to be dealt with. Octavia wasn’t happy about the assignment at first but soon she started to see it as just another job that needed to be done. Someone was going to do it so it may as well be her, she could always use the extra bits after all.
She thought on all this as she drove home as the winter snow began to fall on the capital city. By the time she made it home the sun was high in the sky and she was ready to be done for the day. She unlocked the door to the large apartment that she and Vinyl shared (a graduation present from Sunset) and began taking her clothes off, letting them stay where they fell as she headed for her bedroom. She was out as soon as she hit the pillow, and had some of the best sleep she had in months.
On the other side of town in a small apartment above a bakery a mint green unicorn with a harp cutie mark was worried sick. Her wife hadn’t come home last night and hadn’t called. That was not like her at all, sometimes she would go out and end up having a bit too much to drink but she would always call when she wasn’t going to be home. She was starting to get desperate. She had called all of her wife’s friends and even her mother but no one had heard from her. She had heard that she was going out to The Hop to meet up with their friends from school, Vinyl and Octavia but she hadn’t been able to get either on the phone.
Finally making one last attempt and hoping to Celestia that someone would pick up she made another call to the club. As the phone continued to ring she was about to give up but there was finally an answer. “Yo.” The voice on the phone called out. There was only one pony she knew who would answer the phone like that, and it was exactly who she was trying to talk to.
“Vinyl is that you?” She asked with desperation in her voice.
“Yep, who is this?” Vinyl coolly answered.
“It’s Lyra, have you seen Bonnie? She said that she was going out last night and that she would be stopping in.”
“Hmm.” Vinyl said, seemingly thinking about it. “Nope. She called Tavi yesterday afternoon and said she would be coming out but she never showed up. Too bad too, I was looking forward to partying with her. You know how she gets when she starts drinking; she’s the life of the party. Is she not at the bakery already?”
Lyra took this in, her wife had been usually reserved but after a few drinks had certainly become quite a bit of fun, and now she was gone and no one knew where. She started to panic more. “No, she didn’t come home last night and she didn’t call either. You know she always calls. Please you have to help me find her. I’m worried sick right now and I’m starting to lose it. I don’t know what to do and…” Every word was coming out faster and faster as Lyra began to panic.
Vinyl was quick to step in though. “Calm down Ly, I’m sure everything’s fine. Why don’t you come over and I’ll make some calls. We’ll find her, I promise.” Lyra was filled with a bit of relief, although she had a feeling deep down inside her that something was horribly wrong. She dismissed it as just being worried and headed down to the club to continue her search.
At The Hop! Vinyl was hanging up the phone, giving a long sigh. She knew that it was going to be a long day and was beginning to regret telling Tavi that she would see to calming down Lyra. The whole thing didn’t really sit well with her in general. They had all been friends since music school and she liked them both. She understood that her aunt’s methods could be seen as…extreme by ponies who didn’t understand how the underworld worked but she knew that it had to be done. Sunset couldn’t appear weak and letting Bon Bon off the hook for so long wouldn’t stand, especially after she tried to get a loan from a competitor.
It still wasn’t fun having to kill one of her own friends. She could usually find fun in this job. She loved it for the most part. She got to take care of problems for her aunt (which she loved), she got to play music for the adoring masses of the capital city and she got to try out all the best drugs that came through town, because for the most part they were coming through her club. She had a pretty good life, and as a full member of one of the most powerful crews in the city she could do pretty much whatever she wanted. The hits were just a nice topping. She was very angry when she was younger and it was a good way to get out some rage, especially when the jobs required getting information before they were taken care of, those were her favorites.
She was always a little different when she was a filly. She loved her friends and family but everyone else was a little afraid of her. She would get into rages sometimes at the slightest provocation and would brutally fight anyone that got in her way. Her mother gave her music as an outlet in the form of a keyboard when she was younger and she loved it, eventually earning her cutie mark from it. Everything changed one day though when she was seven. Her aunt came to her one day crying and told her that something horrible had happened. Both of her parents had been found sitting in their car riddled with bullets on the outskirts of the city earlier that morning. She was devastated and took out her rage on any pony that would dare come around her.
She moved to Ponyville with her older brother Long Play and her grandmother for awhile but she constantly got in fights and even put one filly in the hospital after being picked on in school. After that she moved in with Sunset back in Canterlot with her brother staying behind. After seeing what she was capable of Sunset gave her an outlet for her anger and put her to work. At only 11 years old she was robbing stores for her and by 14 she was shaking other ponies down. Later that same year she got a chance to exact revenge on the pony that killed her parents.
Sunset had found all of the members of the crew that had killed her sister and her brother in law over the years and there was only one that still remained alive. She had him captured and offered Vinyl the chance to finish him. It wasn’t fast. She took her time and enjoyed every second of it. By the time it was over the stallion had begged her for death, which she happily obliged. She wasn’t fazed at all, it thrilled her like nothing else she had ever experienced, and she wanted more. At that time she had kept that life a bit of a secret from her younger best friend Octavia, the only pony who she never got angry at. After Octavia had fallen on hard times Vinyl introduced her to Sunset and they started working together. She even consoled her after her first accidental kill.
After graduating music school she was ready to go into the club business. She loved being a businessmare and making money and she loved being able to get ponies high and show them the wonders of the compositions that she put together. She wasn’t some cheap remixer like other DJ’s in town. Everything was her own down to the last detail and she was very protective of her music. She saw the opportunity to help out Sunset with hits as a bit of fun and a bit of pay back to her for taking her in and giving her everything that she had. She loved the life and everything that came with it and she even found out that she was going to possibly be made a full member soon, which she was overjoyed about. Everything was going very well as far as she was concerned.
It was days like these thought that she didn’t really like. She really liked Lyra and it felt wrong to lie to her like that, and even more wrong for what she was going to do later in the day when Lyra arrived. It was all okay though, she had to push through and get it over with. It was for her aunt so it was worth it. She would do anything to help Sunset and would do it with a smile on her face. As she was thinking of this she had her own little moment of panic. She had forgotten to call her aunt the night before and tell her that it was taken care of. She didn’t want her to be worried.
She picked up the phone once more and dialed Sunset, hoping that she wasn’t upset. She picked up quickly to Vinyl’s surprise. “Hey auntie it’s Vinnie. Sorry I forgot to call last night, things were crazy at the club. It’s all taken care of though.”
She heard her aunt give a little chuckle on the other side of the phone. “Good. Thank you, I’m sure it must have been tough but you understand why it had to be done right?”
Vinyl didn’t even take a moment to think before answering. “Of course I do, I’m sorry it had to come to that but she should have known what she was getting into when she went to Neon for bits. I just feel bad for having to lie to Lyra, she will think that Bonnie left her or something like that. She doesn’t really deserve that but at least it’s better than her finding out the truth I guess.”
Sunset replied with warmth. “Stay strong dear, I know you have it in you. I want to come see you tonight so we can talk about a few things, Octavia too. Do you have time?”
Vinyl smiled. She didn’t see too much of Sunset lately and had always loved spending time with her. “We’ve always got time for you auntie. Just let me know when you want to come in and I’ll be ready.” They said their goodbyes with Sunset planning on meeting her later. Vinyl’s potentially distressing day got a little brighter then at least. She hung up and got things ready for Lyra to arrive, popping a few pills and putting on her best consoling face. She had a job to do.
Just about three blocks from the club on the seventh floor of a large building was Sunset Shimmer, sitting in her office. After hanging up the phone with her niece she started planning her day and reminiscing a bit on just how well Vinyl and Octavia and turned out as well as her business in general. It was in her family for generations after all. They called themselves Il Cavallo Sconosciuto. Years ago after Luna’s rebellion most of Equestria was in chaos, especially Canterlot. An old unicorn clan called the Stonewalker’s then decided that it would be a good time to start taking over their piece of the city. It was all under the guise of keeping their neighborhoods under control, which was a perfect excuse to start Equestria’s first organized crime ring. Over the years they grew large and expanded to cities like Manehattan and Fillydelphia.
There were rules to joining of course. Anyone could be an associate as long as they knew someone, but to be a fully fledged member you had to meet certain criteria. Firstly you had to be a unicorn, there were no exceptions to this rule. There were plenty of well respected Earth Ponies in the organization but they never were full members. There were even a few Pegasi but they had their own groups of organized syndicates in the cloud cities so most of them were not trusted. Secondly you had to be from one of those three cities so they could trace your family lineage back to the old days.
To be made an official member came with privileges that many ponies would kill for. Anyone else in any crew can’t fuck around with you without fear of serious retribution and if anyone who is associated with the group in any way disrespects, robs or kills you it is a guaranteed death sentence for them. Most of the crews operated independently of each other with an elected leadership parliament in each of the cities, Sunset was the downtown representative and had control over the entire area.
She had been a part of it her entire life. Her family had been in it for generations and her father was the local boss. Her younger sister Tantarella had been in it with her as well. Her father was sentenced to prison for life when she was only 25 and she took over. He died from cancer on the inside a few years later. Her sister got out almost entirely after the birth of her first foal Long Play but apparently some ponies didn’t get the message. Years later when her younger daughter was still a filly she was gunned down with her husband and left on the outskirts of town. She was devastated and spent countless resources on finding those responsible.
In the meantime her niece Vinyl was having problems with their father’s mother in Ponyville so she was sent to live with Sunset.
Sunset saw the potential in her to be a future member so she started her working from a young age. She even gave her the chance to avenge her parents, and she was a natural. A few years later Vinyl had brought along her friend Octavia too, who Sunset was more than happy to help, she too turned out to be a natural. After devising a plan to start running drugs she sent the girls to music school. She was so proud when they walked down the aisle with their degrees in hoof. She set them up with a nice place and a club to play music in, also a convenient place for a front from her newly expanded drug empire.
Sunset had it all. She had money; she had power and most of all she had the respect and fear from all who knew her. She loved every second of it and always wanted more. She wasn’t greedy though per se, she just thought that she deserved it after almost 20 years in control of her crew. She didn’t like the killing as much. It was a bad way to do business. You can’t get repeat customers when they are all buried in the mountain or in a barrel somewhere. Regardless though sometimes it had to be done.
It was unfortunate about her niece's little friend Bon Bon. She had met the mare a few times in the past and her wife Lyra had even worked for Sunset a bit before and she liked both of them. She was even content to let the debts go until she found out that she tried to take a loan out from Neon. Business is business after all and she could not look weak or be crossed by anyone. She didn’t originally even want to give the job to Vinyl and Octavia but as the days went on they were the two that she trusted most with jobs like that. For most of her employees they were only that, employees. Those fillies though were family and she knew that they would do anything she asked.
She thought on this as she sipped her morning tea and looked out at the snow falling. She had a good feeling about today. Things had been going well lately, although there had been a bit more heat than she would have liked. That would all be dealt with in time though. Bits made the world spin and she had more than enough to pay off anyone who would try and mess with her operation. She had guards, judges, nobles and everyone in-between on her payroll and they almost always came through for her. On the off chance that they didn’t though she had her beloved niece and her best friend to take care of the situation for her first hoof. Life was good for Sunset, and she thought that it would go on forever. She had a busy day ahead though filled with planning for the next new expansion, things were looking up.
And so as Tavi slept, Lyra poured her worried heart out to the mare that killed her wife, and Sunset planned her eventual takeover of the city Canterlot kept moving with no one even knowing about any of it. To the average pony it was just another winter day in the capital filled with fun and frolicking, perhaps making a snow pony or two and sipping cocoa by the evening fire. They never knew about the world around them. They never wanted to know either. Their world was content without the knowledge of the grime that lay just beneath the gold and marble of the massive city where the princess’s lived. It was the perfect place for ponies like Sunset and her crew to hide in plain sight. A murder here, some extortion or a beating handed out there, everyone got by and the world kept turning. It was just another cold day in Canterlot.