//------------------------------// // Chapter Five: Revenge and Recovery // Story: Hitmares // by Shane1108 //------------------------------// It was loud, so Celestia-damned loud. Why? Who knew? Certainly not Octavia. The last thing she remembered was screaming Vinyl’s name as she lost control of the car. Even that was foggy. The last clear memory she had was the fight in the club. So much blood everywhere, so many ponies screaming and crying for help with their dying breaths. She was pretty sure she had killed at least one of them though, not that it mattered. Then Vinyl got shot. Wait. That’s right, Vinyl got shot. Octavia opened her eyes in a flash and sat up frantically, looking around and trying to piece things together. She wasn’t dead, so that was a plus. Her head was on fire though and the bright light from the winter sun coming through her window wasn’t doing it any favors. Her shoulder felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer too. She looked down at her body. She was covered in dried blood and scratches. Then more things started coming back to her. The blood wasn’t hers; at least it wasn’t all hers. Vinyl had drenched her when she was trying to put her in the backseat of the car. Vinyl. Was she dead? What had happened? She tried to stand up, ripping the IV’s out with her teeth. The machine started beeping loudly and her headache began to get worse. She hopped off the bed but couldn’t put any weight on her front right hoof and fell face first onto the hard linoleum floor. Her headache instantly increased tenfold and she let out scream. Within what felt like only a second the door sprang open and two nurses shot in the room, helping her off of the floor and putting her back into the bed. “Let me go!” she screamed at them. “I need to see Vinyl! Where the bloody hell is Vinyl?” She tried to move again but they held her down to the bed. “Relax miss.” One of them said to her. “If you put too much weight on that shoulder you’re going to break it, you’re lucky you didn’t already.” Break her shoulder? Who cared? Vinyl was hurt, maybe even dead as far as she knew and she wasn’t going to let something as trivial as a broken shoulder get in her way of finding her friend. She then started getting light headed as she felt warm liquid dripping down her face. She tried her hardest to resist and get up but eventually things started to go black and she was out once more. The next time she woke up it was dark. The only sounds she could hear as she slowly opened her eyes were the faint beeps of the EKG machine that she was hooked up to. Her head didn’t hurt as much anymore but it was still foggy. She slowly scanned her eyes around the room until she caught a glimpse of a pony standing outside the room looking in from the large window. Immediately the figure turned away and began walking down the hall. She wanted to get up again but she was too weak. She figured it was probably because of the drugs that were making their way on a steady course through her veins. Then as everything finally started coming back to her she remembered Vinyl again. She felt too heavy to move but was still in a panic. She started darting her eyes across the room for something to help. She finally came across a big red button on the edge of her bed. She tried as hard as she could to move, finally bringing her hoof up to it. She pressed down as hard as she could on it and then waited. A minute that drug on for years later a nurse finally came through the door. It was one of the same ones that held her to the bed before. Or at least she thought she was, everything was still a bit foggy and she didn’t really remember. She was a short unicorn with tan fur and a deep red mane with two crossed crutches as a cutie mark. She looked like she was only a couple of years older than Octavia at best but had a look in her eyes that said she had seen more than most. “Is everything okay Miss Octavia?” She said with a smile, cocking her head to one side. “No.” Octavia started, trying hard to speak through the drugs influence. “I have no idea what happened and the last time I tried to find out I was forcibly restrained to this bed. I need you to tell me what happened to Vinyl, and I need you to tell me right now.” “The pony who you came in with?” The nurse said while walking up to Octavia’s bedside. “I’m not exactly sure. She’s still in the ICU, they should be finishing surgery soon. She was hurt pretty bad as I’m sure you know.” A small wave of relief washed over Octavia. She wasn’t dead. Incredibly hurt, sure, but at least there was some hope. “How long have I been here and what is wrong with me?” She asked, feeling a little bit better at least after hearing about Vinyl. “You’ve been here a little under two days Miss Octavia. As for your wounds, you received quite a few cuts from the glass in your windshield breaking as well as a major concussion and a cut in your head that needed about seven stitches. You re-opened that one and added a few more bruises as well as a black eye this morning when you tried to get up. You completely dislocated your right shoulder in the crash and got a pretty deep cut down your left side which will leave a nasty scar unfortunately. Other than that though, you're doing pretty well, all things considered of course.” Octavia processed all the information that was coming at her. Her mind went back to the shooting. “Something terrible happened at the club I ran. I need to know more about it. Was there any information on the news or something?” The nurse then walked over to the other side of the room, picking up a newspaper in her magic and walked it back over to Octavia. “We’ve all heard Miss Octavia. The shooting is all that has been on the news the last two days. Here, take a look.” She then began levitating it in front of Octavia so she could read it. On the cover in large words were: THE HEARTH’S WARMING EVE MASSACRE: SIXTEEN DEAD AFTER A SHOOTING IN DOWNTOWN CLUB Below that was a picture of the front of her club where body bags were being wheeled out into ambulances with guards circling around and placing police tape. It seemed unreal to see her club in that way. She hoped that her business would survive after publicity like this. Then she started reading the article. A grisly scene unfolded this morning as details emerge about the vicious shooting that took place on the eve of one of our most sacred holidays at the downtown club “The Hop!”. Just after 11 PM witnesses reported that a gang of armed thugs in masks entered the building and began firing on the crowd. In an attempt to protect their club and guests the owners began to return fire shortly afterward, even managing to kill three of the armed ponies who entered. “It was so horrible.” A survivor told us this morning. “One second we were having a nice dinner and enjoying some music and the next thing we knew it was chaos. I saw two people next to me drop and choke to death on their own blood. It’s something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I just don’t know who could do something so terrible.” Currently both of the owners have been reported to be in Canterlot General Hospital after a daring attempt by one of them to save the other after she had been shot resulted in a car accident and some minor damage to the outside of the hospital. Currently the death toll sits at sixteen but there are over forty ponies in the hospital with serious injuries and based off of information that we had received from an anonymous source at the hospital the number will most likely be quite a bit higher when everything has settled. The culprits are still at large but we were assured by the guard that they are following up on a few strong leads. No potential motive outside of a general robbery was given. We will keep you up to date on the story as it progresses. Octavia’s frown turned into a deep scowl as she read on. Not only was it a big story that was making headlines but her accident and even their use of weapons had been announced. The more she read over it only one thought could pop into her mind. “I need you to get me a phone.” She said dryly. “I have a few calls to make.” “Sure thing. I can’t imagine what you went through. You should also know that you are kind of a hero around here. When the story got out about you trying to protect the ponies in your club and trying to save your friends life, even going so far as to smash in the building, ponies around here were amazed at just how brave you were.” She gave Octavia a deep smile at that and started to walk towards the door. “Oh yeah.” She said, turning back to face her. “I almost forgot. There is some pony here to see you. She wanted to be notified as soon as you woke up. She said she was family. Her name is Sunset Shimmer. Would you like to see her?” Octavia was filled with both relief and dread. What would Sunset say about everything that was stolen? How could they handle the heat that would most likely be brought down on them? Most importantly though, how would she handle what had happened to Vinyl? She tried to calm herself. “That would be lovely, send her in as soon as possible please. You can forget about the phone as well. I won’t be needing it.” The nurse just smiled and nodded to her as she exited the room. Octavia sat still, staring at the ceiling and trying to put everything that had happened together in her mind. Had Velvet and Long Play made it out of the club alive? Was Lyra able to cover everything up that was needed before the guard showed up? She didn’t know and started to play out the worst case scenario in her mind. For all she knew there were guard’s posted and waiting to take her in. She figured that she could handle interrogation if it came to it but seriously questioned the resolve of some of the others. Long Play wouldn’t say anything of course. He was family, even if he was a little distanced from the rest of them. Lyra would most likely not talk, but she could never be sure. They were friends as far as Lyra was concerned and she had done quite a few illegal things for them already as well and could easily be implicated in some of the things that they did. However though if she thought that for some reason it could bring her wife back Octavia was sure that she would potentially take that option. She needed to talk with Lyra when she got a chance and make sure that nothing like that would happen. As she continued to think she heard the door crack open and turned her head toward it. She then saw something she had never seen before. Sunset was standing at the door but she looked different. She had clearly been crying and her mane and coat were both a mess. Octavia had known her for well over a decade and had never once seen her look anything but the essence of cool before, even when things had gone wrong with the business to the point where someone had to die because of it. She never once lost her composure. Once they made eye contact Sunset practically rushed over to her bedside. “Octy, sweetie, I’m so glad you’re awake.” She put a hoof on Octavia’s, looking over her wounds. Octavia saw a tear roll down her face and then could feel a few rolling down her own. She couldn’t even remember the last time she cried. At her mother’s funeral maybe? She didn’t know. It wasn’t something she had time for much in this business. She was still stuck in a bit of a haze from the drugs and was struggling to talk. “I’m so glad to see you. What happened? Is everyone okay? Is Vinyl okay?” Sunset sniffled a bit and hung her head low for a second. “We don’t know, not yet. She lost a lot of blood and is still in surgery.” She picked her head up and shook the stray strands of mane out of her face. “Everyone else is fine. LP and Velvet are here with that new girl you hired, waiting outside of Vinyl’s room. Velvet got her flank grazed by a stray bullet but she’s okay. Lyra is out taking care of something for me right now, she’s fine too. Shaken up for sure but otherwise she’s good.” That was a relief at least. Most of her friends were fine, but not the one that she really cared about. She was also a little annoyed by the fact that it was Rose who was sitting out in that waiting room instead of her, but she pushed that out of her mind. There were more important things to be upset about for the time being. “What about the club?” She asked, trying to raise her head up off of the bed a little bit. Sunset sighed. “They got just about everything. It doesn’t matter though really, that will all be settled soon.” Her eyes grew dark when she said that, Octavia knew exactly what she had meant. “I pulled some strings with the guard and no one is asking any questions. You were all the victims here and no one is looking to indict any of you for anything. It’s not illegal to keep weapons in a business and it was all out of self defense. You’ll have to give an official statement sometime soon but it’s nothing you can’t handle. Right now all that matters is making sure my little Vinnie is okay.” She started sniffling again and Octavia saw a few fresh tears roll down her cheek. She couldn’t imagine how this must have affected her surrogate aunt and she really felt for her. They were the only family that she had known for a large part of her life and she couldn’t bear to see it fall apart now. She reached up her hoof and started slowly stroking Sunset’s. “You know,” Sunset started, sniffling again. “When Tantarella died I didn’t know what to do with myself. She was always my best friend growing up and the best little sister anyone could ask for. I remember when I got the call. I was sitting in my office and looking over some numbers from some jewel operation I had going at the time when the phone rang. It was a short message, as things of that nature usually tend to be. I remember screaming so loud I was sure that all of downtown heard it. Then I threw my phone and most of the things on my desk with it right out of the window down into the street.” She shook her head, looking away from Octavia. “At the funeral I made a promise to her that I would keep her family safe, whatever the cost. When little Vinnie came to live with me I intended to make good on that promise and never let it happen to her. I didn’t even want her to work for me at first. She was just so angry though, nothing would calm her down. I knew that she would find a way to vent her anger eventually and I figured that it was better doing something that I could control instead of leaving her to her own devices. Now look where we are. This is my fault.” She started to cry again and Octavia couldn’t take it. It was all just too much. She just kept rubbing Sunset’s hoof. “She’s going to be okay. I know she will be.” She said, trying to give Sunset her most convincing assured look. “We’re going to figure out who did this. I promise, I’ll make sure it happens.” Sunset shook away the tears and then returned her gaze to Octavia. “I have no doubt in that my dear. Our friend who Lyra held there for us has been moved out to the warehouse. I will get the information out of him that we need. It’s just a question as to how long it takes.” Octavia smiled for the first time since she had woken up. She forgot about him. “Who do you have doing it? I want in.” Sunset just shook her head. “You are in absolutely no condition to be getting any information out of anyone right now. I have Fleur on it and Lyra will should be joining her soon. We should know soon just exactly what is going on. For now though I need you to just relax. You need to get better as soon as you can. I promise we will figure this out though. I need to go back to the ICU to check on Vinyl. I’ll let you know as soon as anything changes.” Octavia’s smile had quickly turned into a frown. She should be the one doing this. Who cared if one shoulder was hurt? She had another perfectly fine one, as well as two strong back hooves that could no doubt free any information that she needed from anyone. She knew that there was nothing that could be done about it though and was certainly not going to argue with Sunset at a time like this. She just thanked her dear auntie and tried to go back to sleep. It wouldn’t come though. She couldn’t get rest knowing that Vinyl may not be alive when she woke up. Across town outside of a cold warehouse Lyra was parking the car that Sunset had given her to take care of her daily business. She was getting paid far more than she could have imagined and was happy to do whatever she needed to help. She had heard from Sunset that Octavia had woken up earlier that morning and although she was a bit frantic, everything was fine now. She still hadn’t heard anything about Vinyl though, which worried her. She had never been to this warehouse before but had known exactly what she was looking to find inside from Sunset’s message to her earlier. She opened the door quietly and shut it behind her with her magic as she stepped through towards the source of light in the middle of the large room. There were barrels and boxes lining it on all sides, some of them extending almost all the way to the ceiling. She didn’t know it, but she was closer then to her missing wife then she had been in the last week or ever would be again. They were all just barrels to her though, so she paid them no mind and kept walking. Finally after tracing the sounds of some very muffled screams and the occasional chuckle she located Fleur. She was ragged and had a slightly crazed look in her eyes. She was wearing an apron that had enough blood on it that it’s once pearly white appearance had faded into a salmon pink. She looked over at the robber who she tied up in the back room of the club two days earlier. He was hanging from his forehooves, suspended on a meat hook in the air just high enough that his rear hooves were off of the floor. He had a deep brown coat and a short black mane. She couldn’t really make out his cutie mark. It had been shredded from the shotgun pellets and looked like a bloody smudge on his flanks. He had deep purple eyes that, in a better situation, she was sure would be very vibrant. Now though they were glazed over in pain and fear. He had been cut most likely hundreds of times and all four of his legs were broken in some way or another. It also looked like he was missing part of one eye and most of his teeth were gone as well. As she stared at him she wasn’t paying attention to where she was walking and bumped into a table that had been wheeled in. Fleur jumped up and quickly picked up a knife in her telekinesis, turning to Lyra quicker than she could have imagined the lanky mare of moving. When they made eye contact she relaxed, setting the knife back on the table. “Sweet Celestia Lyra, don’t sneak up on me like that. You could have been killed. You really need to learn to announce yourself when you enter somewhere darling.” Lyra gave a sheepish grin, while reeling inside at the potential danger she had completely unknowingly put herself in. “Sorry, I guess I don’t really know the protocol for these kinds of situations. I’ll make sure I say something next time.” Fleur walked over to her, giving her a quick hug and trying her best not to get any blood on Lyra. “It’s okay dear. I’m glad you are here. As you can see I’ve been working quite a bit with our friend here with no luck so far. He’s a pretty tough one, I’ll give him that. Now that you’re here though I think that will change quickly. I’ve got something that is pretty much a guaranteed way to get our buddy here talking.” She looked over to the gagged stallion. “I hope you’re ready.” She said, giving him a very menacing smile that sent chills down Lyra’s spine and caused him to begin to squirm against the chains that held him on the hook. She turned to Lyra. “I would have done this much sooner but it’s a two pony job. There is a table on wheels just over behind him in the corner. Be a dear and roll it over here for me while I get him ready.” Lyra did exactly that. The table wasn’t exactly heavy and she wasn’t even sure what they would need it for until she saw what was attached to it at the top. She wheeled it over and placed it right in front of the chained stallion. Fleur smiled again and pointed to the table. “Have you ever seen one of those before, darling? If you've ever built anything I have no doubt you are familiar with it. If not though, let me fill you in. This is device is what they call a vice grip. Usually it’s used to held things in place when they need to be fixed or assembled, and that is quite similar to what we will be using it for tonight.” His eyes went wide with terror and he started fighting as much as he could against his bindings and began trying to scream through his gag. Fleur walked up to him, using her magic to wrap around the chains that held him on the hook. “Now now dear, there is no need for any of that. You are going in there one way or another. How easy the process of getting you in there is entirely up to you though. If you would have just told me what I needed to know earlier this wouldn’t even be happening so you have no one to thank for this but yourself.” She lifted him up with her magic off of the hook and he started kicking his back legs wildly, blood splattering in every direction from his broken bones flailing around. Fleur turned to Lyra. “Grab his legs and help me get him on this thing.” She said, trying to keep him still. Lyra had been completely still after bringing the table, thinking of what they were going to use the vice for and trying to suppress her horror at what she was about to be doing. As soon as she heard Fleur calling her though she sprang into action and rushed over to him. She wrapped his back legs in her magic but it was tough keeping him still. She focused as hard as she could as they slowly moved him over and put him on his back on the table. He began kicking wildly as Fleur lowered his head down between the open clamps of the vice. Lyra quickly threw her hooves over his squirming lower body as well as using as much of her magical might as she could to hold him still as Fleur began tightening the vice until it rested on both of his temples with just enough force to keep him from getting up. While Lyra was busy keeping him still Fleur stared at him dead in the eyes. “Now. Here is how this is going to work. I’m going to start asking you questions. Any time I get an answer that I don’t like or no response at all I’m going to make this thing a little bit tighter. I don’t think I have to tell you what happens if you get too many questions wrong. Let’s begin.” With that she used her magic to pull the gag out of his mouth. “Who hired you to attack the club and what were the other attacker’s names?” she asked with a very strange amount of courtesy. He looked at her for a few seconds before simply saying “Fuck you.” Her only response was tweaking the lever on the vice. He started to scream and she placed the gag back in his mouth until his screams died out. “Let’s try this again.” She said with her hoof wrapped around the vice lever. “Who hired you to attack the club and what were the other attacker’s names?” He stared her down again but instead of cursing her he simply spit a thick glob of blood right into her face. She stuffed the gag in his mouth and began tightening the grip. His screams were so loud that the gag barely did anything. Lyra had to fight the urge to be sick when she heard a low cracking sound coming from both sides of his head and she stared horrified as the partially destroyed eye she had seen earlier was now almost completely out of its socket and looking down at her. Fleur took the gag off again. He was crying a little this time, with small sobs escaping out between low screams and ragged breaths. She looked down to him again. “I’m going to ask you this one last time. Who hired you to attack the club and what were the other attacker’s names?” At first he didn’t say anything. Fleur started to tighten her grip on the lever when he finally broke. “Please.” He started through his sobs and ragged, pained breaths. “I don’t know who the others were. We hadn’t met before that morning. Sweet Peach brought us all together to do the job. We weren’t allowed to ask any questions. They just told us to go in shooting and grab whatever was in the back room. It’s the truth, I swear. Just kill me, please, just kill me.” Fleur started chuckling and eventually it erupted into a full on laugh. “Sweet Peach? Sweet Peach?! You’ve had me out here all Celestia-damned day doing this, going so far as to making me pop your eye out of your filthy head just to protect that low life piece of trash? I hope it was worth it. I can assure you she wouldn’t have done the same for you.” She looked down to Lyra. “Do him a favor.” She said motioning to the knife on the other table. “I’ve gotta call Sunset and let her know the situation and get out of this disgusting apron.” Lyra tried to object but Fleur was already walking away before she had a chance. Before she knew it she was alone with the knife and the almost dead stallion. She slowly picked it up in her magic and held it shakily above him. She tried to block out the thought of what she was about to do. He had tried to do the same thing to her after all. Well, not directly, but still he would have had no qualms in shooting her just like he did to Celestia-only-knows how many ponies in the club before he went down. That still wasn’t enough to make her want to do it. She knew that there was no way out though. She couldn’t just let him live and go against Sunset’s orders. Who knew how volatile that decision could end up? Especially if Vinyl didn’t make it out of surgery alive. Her name would most likely go right down on the list with the others as far as she thought. Plus it wasn’t like he was going to live for much longer anyways. Even if she rushed him straight to a hospital he would probably not even survive the trip there. She was doing him a favor just like Fleur had said. With that in mind she knew what had to be done. She looked at his large purple eyes. They were thick with fear but still pleading for release, even the one that was almost falling out of his skull. She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.” She muttered out softly. She then ran the knife across his neck in a quick motion. It made a sickly slicing sound as it went clean though. In what seemed like only a split second blood began pouring out like a river all over his chest and the table below him. As the blood began to flow freely from his neck she could hear him choking out his final breaths. Finally after what had felt like an eternity his one good eye rolled back in his head and his chest stopped rising. She wanted to turn away from the horrible scene that played out in front of her but couldn’t do it. She watched the life go out of his eyes as she felt fresh tears fall from hers. The last thing she thought as his breathing stopped and she started walking away was what Bonnie would say if she could see her now. Back at the hospital Sunset was still waiting with the others in a set of chairs outside of the surgery room that Vinyl was in. The lanky figure of Long Play had his hoof wrapped around her shoulder with her head resting in his. Beside him was Velvet who had been asleep for over an hour. On the other side of her was Rose who had been there since she heard about the shooting and had spent most of the time crying to herself. She never had much that was nice in her life and she finally found someone who made her a little bit happy and then before she knew it, it was all ripped away from her. No one had spoken in the hour since Sunset returned from visiting Octavia. They all sat in silence, waiting to find out the fate of the pony that tied them all together. The silence was broken finally by a nurse walking into the room. “Excuse me.” She said, looking at the group. “There is a call for you Miss Shimmer. They say that it’s urgent.” Sunset untangled herself from her nephew and stood up without saying a word, following the nurse out of the room to the phones.When she was alone with the phone she finally spoke. “What’s the news?” She asked flatly. While there was a bit of a problem with the reception by the sound of it, she heard the message from Fleur clearly. “We got a name. Sweet Peach hired them. What do you want to do now? I’m ready to roll over there as soon as you give the order.” Sunset seethed to herself at the revelation. Sweet Peach. Of course it was someone like Sweet Peach. That mare would take any job opportunity from anyone she could, no matter who the target was. She was smart, not as smart as she thought that she was, but smart nonetheless. She was just a mercenary though. She had no real motive for this outside of bits. They needed to find out who was actually behind it, something that Sunset had every intention of doing. “Don’t do anything yet. I’m going to make some calls and get surveillance on her as soon as I can. I want to see if she meets up with anyone. Nothing major is going to happen until I make sure Vinnie is okay. In the meantime you can go back uptown; I’ll have something ready for you in a few days if you like. Ask Lyra to head here before you leave, I need to talk with her about something. Thank you for doing this for me. I’ll make sure you have a nice bag of extra bits waiting for you when you get home.” Fleur assured her that there was no need. They were family after all and an attack on one was an attack on all. Sunset thanked her but insisted that the bits would be there no matter what. She had earned them. After that they said their goodbyes and Sunset started walking back to the rest of the group. Sweet Peach had made a very bad move in going after her. Sunset was sure that she knew it too and would most likely be trying to leave town within the next few days if she hadn’t already. None of that was really important now though. She needed to make sure that Vinyl was okay before she got to dealing with Sweet Peach, she would be dealt with either way after all. It was just a matter of time. She could hear a commotion from behind the door to the ICU and saw the tall frame of Long Play standing in the hallway. Her mind instantly expected the worst as she rushed through the swinging double doors, almost running directly into Velvet as they all stood around listening to the doctor that was speaking with them. “Did something happen to Vinnie? Is she okay?” Sunset blurted out as she ran into the room. The doctor gave her a stern glare, clearly not enjoying being interrupted and having to start whatever he was talking about over. “As I was telling the others here, Vinyl is okay, for now at least. Her recovery is going to be a long and difficult process though and she is very lucky to even be alive. She lost a lot of blood and almost broke her back in the crash. If her friend had been even a minute or two later there would have been nothing that we could have done. The worst is over now though and if Celestia is in our favor then she should be just fine within a few months or so.” Sunset rushed the doctor and threw both of her hooves around him. “Thank you so much.” She said, crying tears of joy. “Anything you want, bits, a new car, a new house. Anything, just name it and it’s yours. You saved my little Vinnie.” He slowly and gently freed himself from her tight grasp. “That won’t be necessary Miss. I’m just doing my job. I’ve got other patients to attend to but if you would like you can see her in a couple of hours after she gets some rest. I would recommend that you all do the same as well in the meantime.” With that he left. As the others were embracing and expressing how happy they were, Sunset walked at as fast of a pace as she could without running to Octavia’s room. Octavia had fallen back asleep since Sunset had left earlier, despite her best attempts not to and was shocked awake as her door flew open. She saw Sunset’s face and had automatically assumed the worst. Before she could ask what was going on though she was wrapped in a deep hug. “She’s okay!” Sunset exclaimed loudly into her ear. She didn’t hear have anything to say back to her though the drugs had begun to fade away and her shoulder was now on fire from suddenly being embraced. Sunset sensed it right away and jumped back. “Oh my, I’m so sorry sweetie!” Octavia winced in pain as she pushed down on the button that she had been informed was for extra drip of the sweet painkillers into her blood. “It’s okay Auntie.” She said through a strained smile. It really was okay. Just knowing that Vinyl was alive had put all the pain aside. “How is she?” Sunset smiled, wiping a tear from her eye. “They said that she has a long road of recovery ahead of her but she should be fine otherwise. You saved her life you know. The doctor said that if you were even a minute or two later that she would have been lost. There are no words for how proud and thankful I am right now Octavia. I don’t know how I can repay you but I promise that I’ll find a way.” They had a light hug this time as Sunset cried a few more tears of joy into her shoulder. “Do we know what happened yet?” Octavia asked, whispering into her ear. “Yes.” Sunset whispered back. “We got a name, but let’s not worry about that now.” Octavia sat up a little bit as they separated from their hug. “I’m not worried. I just have a favor to ask. I know it will take a couple of weeks for me to heal up but I want to be the one who takes care of this.” Sunset just nodded to her. “I knew that’s what you would say. I told the others to hold off for now, we’re keeping tabs to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere but nothing will happen until you are ready. I promise. For now though, I think it’s time we both got some rest.” Sunset then hopped up onto the empty bed that was beside Octavia and stretched out on it. “The hard part is over now Tavi. Now we can rest. Thank you again. Thank you so much.” Octavia didn’t hear any of it though. The drugs had worked their magic and she was already fast asleep after hearing the good news. Sunset let out a deep contented sigh and followed Octavia into the night princess’s dreamland domain. On the west side of the city in a moderately sized apartment on the 21’st floor of the newly renovated Canterlot Heights building a pink earth pony mare with a bright yellow mane and a smiling sun for a cutie mark sat in her favorite leather chair while chain smoking cigarettes and staring at the phone next to her silver pistol on the coffee table. Finally after what seemed like hours it began to ring. She dropped her cigarette into the ashtray and snatched to phone off of its receiver. “What in tartarus took you so long to call back? I’ve been waiting for hours!” She said as soon as the phone was up to her face. A smooth male voice was on the other end. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just trying to make sure everything is taken care of. I don’t think she knows anything about you.” She began shaking her head. “You know I should kill you for this. Why didn’t you tell me it was Sunset’s club? Don’t you know what those Cavallo ponies do when things like this happen? I wouldn’t be surprised if there was someone watching my house from outside right now ready to put a bullet in my head.” She said frantically. “Look Peachy, No one is waiting for you. It’s been three days already, if they knew about you they would have already showed up. If those guys were as good as you said then the one who they got must not have said anything, there is no way they kept him alive this long. I’ve got a Cavallo sponsor too so if worse came to worse she would have to have multiple meetings with the big bosses to even get at us. Also I just got word that Vinyl made it through surgery so if nothing else Sunset’s wrath won’t be as intense as it could have been. Besides would you have refused the job if I told you it was Sunset’s club?” She picked up another cigarette in her free hoof as he was trying to soothe her and lit it. “Probably not, but I would have planned it with a lot more finesse and tact than this, and I would have covered my ass a lot better had I known the potential for repercussion.” The smooth voice sighed on the other end of the phone. “Listen, none of that even matters now. It’s done. I don’t think that she’s going to find you but you need to be ready if she does. Start getting your affairs in order. I know it will take a week or two but it’s time to get ready to move on from Canterlot. I just need you to make sure you remember one thing.” She took a deep drag from her cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray, reaching for another one. “I’m already working on getting out of here, thanks to you. I’ll be expecting a full payment from that delivery within 48 hours by the way. What is it that you need me to remember?” The voice paused for a few seconds. “That wasn’t the deal. The deal was that you get your cut when it’s all sold. I don’t have the extra capital to give you right now.” She slammed the cigarette into the ashtray, cracking it in the process. “The deal changed the second it became one of the biggest bosses in the city that I was hitting. You have 48 hours. I don’t want to have to do anything rash here so don’t make me. Now tell me what it is that you want me to remember, I need to try and get some sleep.” There was another long pause before the voice spoke again. “I’ll try my best to get it to you but I can’t make any promises. All you need to remember is this, if she finds you and you mention my name then we are going to have serious problems. If she doesn’t kill you I’ll do things much worse than that if she finds out about me. Are we clear on that?” She scoffed, slapping the ashtray and sent it rolling across the floor until it broke apart on the wall. “I don’t know who you think it is you're talking to Neon but it would be wise not to take that tone with me. I won’t say anything. Not out of some bullshit fear tactic nonsense that your trying to pull but because I’m not a rat, plain and simple. So take the thought out of your head. Don’t contact me again until you have the bits we agreed on. The clock is ticking.” She didn’t give him a chance to respond before slamming the phone down. She then picked up her pistol from the table and walked over to the door to check (for the 15th time) that it was locked before walking over the window and staring outside. “I really fucked up on this one.” She said to herself as she looked out on the city around her. She could see off of the mountain from there and even all the way down to the lights coming off of the town of Ponyville in the distance. “I just hope I have enough time to get out.” With that she walked with her pistol in hoof to her bedroom, locking that door and then sitting in her bed, staring at the ceiling. Sweet Peach wouldn’t be sleeping any time soon. Almost as if on cue a long black car that carried two stallions with guns and a pair of binoculars pulled up and parked across the street from the building, they wouldn’t be sleeping any time soon either.