//------------------------------//
// Chapter One: What Could Go Wrong? 
// Story: Vinyl and Octavia Join COBRA 
// by DoctorSpectrum 
//------------------------------//

It was a hot afternoon. Octavia the Earth pony was reading a newspaper at a table in the small apartment which was, for now, her current home, but every few minutes she had to stop to drink from a glass of water, or alternatively, refill it. Between the hot sun beating through the glass door which led to the apartment’s balcony and the lack of content important to Octavia in the paper, it wasn’t long before she was frustrated.
 
“Damn it all,” she muttered, flipping the newspaper closed as she realised how little attention she was paying to it. “I wish that there was something to do, aside from –”
 
BANG! Octavia was interrupted by the sound of a door slamming open, causing her to flinch and jump slightly in surprise.
 
“Huzzah!” came a voice from the entrance to the apartment. “Good news, Octavia!”
 
“Vinyl Scratch,” said Octavia, scowling as she faced the apartment door, where a white-coated unicorn had just entered from, “do you have to slam the door as you come into the apartment every single time? It is loud and unnecessary.”
 
“Sorry, babe,” said Vinyl, walking over to Octavia and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. Vinyl had two saddlebags on, which she levitated off with her magic. Opening them up revealed an assortment of fruit and vegetables inside which Vinyl began moving into cupboards. “I didn’t mean to slam the door, it’s just that I was really excited!”
 
“That’s what you said last time,” pointed out Octavia. “And the time before that, and the time before that.”
 
Vinyl shrugged. “Yeah, well, those times I was excited to get home to see you, wasn’t I?” she asked.
 
“So you’re saying that this time you’re not excited to see me?” teased Octavia. “I’m shocked, Vinyl. Hurt, even.”
 
“Ah, you know that I’m always excited to see you, sexy,” said Vinyl, grinning. “But this time I’ve got something that’s actually pretty damn important! And cool, too, that’s also important.”
 
“Well? Stop keeping me in suspense, Vinyl,” said Octavia.
 
Vinyl levitated the last of the food out of the saddlebags and into a cupboard. “Feast your eyes on this!” she said, using her magic to grab something out of one of the saddlebags.
 
“A…poster?” Octavia wondered out loud. “Is there a musician in town whom you wish to see?”
 
“Nah, although that would be cool. I was heading home from buying food – obviously -  when a group of nice ponies who I passed down an alley gave it to me,” said Vinyl as she unrolled the poster for Octavia to see. “Then they said something about creating anarchy and ran off. Read what’s on it.”
 
“Sick and tired of the dictatorship we live in?” Octavia read aloud from the poster. “Want to make a difference and get more ponies like yourself into positions of power? Want to join an organisation that doesn’t care what you’ve done or where you’re from? Join COBRA today!” Beneath the text was a picture of a pony wearing blue robes – including a hood covering his face – looking proud. There was also an abstract cobra head behind him.
 
“Well, what do you think?” asked Vinyl. “Since we escaped from jail and made our way to Manehattan a month or so ago, we’ve been looking for decent jobs where we can avoid the authorities – this looks perfect.”
 
“Do you know what this job even involves?” Octavia asked, squinting at the poster, particularly the first line.
 
Vinyl shrugged. “I dunno, something involving looking after snakes or something. Who cares? The thing that got my attention was where it says that they won’t ask about our pasts. So far, the jobs we’ve gotten here have all been short-term so that nopony realises that we’re escaped criminals – even though we were framed for the crimes which we supposedly committed.”
 
“I know all of this, Vinyl,” said Octavia, rolling her eyes.
 
“Naturally, this has left us without much money, since all we’ve got has been what we’ve earned here in these various short-term jobs,” Vinyl continued, not listening to Octavia. “And we don’t dare return to Canterlot because the authorities will probably be watching our house – which we would have lost anyway since we haven’t paid rent on it since we were arrested. It’s a good thing that Natural Twenty moved all of our essential belongings to a storage facility before we were arrested, at least.”
 
“What’s your point, Vinyl?” asked Octavia, sounding impatient.
 
“My point is that we can’t go home and we can’t keep moving from job to job here like we have been – we’re not earning enough money, and we’re going to be recognised by somepony eventually,” Vinyl said. “A job like this, where all that we have to do is show up and we get good pay for what’s probably easy work, without anypony questioning us? That’s exactly what we need – then we just need to hang out in Manehattan until the heat is off us and head back to Canterlot, either to move back there or just to pick up our stuff and bring it here.”
 
Octavia looked sceptical. “How do we know that this job is going to be everything you think that it will be? This poster is very vague.”
 
“Have some faith,” said Vinyl, shrugging. “It’s not like they’re going to be terrorists or anything – with a name like COBRA, you know that you can trust them!”
 
“I suppose that it would be good to have a decent job,” mused Octavia. “Any idea what we have to do to join this organisation?”
 
“There’s an address to head to, here on the poster,” said Vinyl, pointing to some fine print on the bottom of the poster below the picture of the pony wearing blue robes. “I guess we can show up there and see what this is all about.”
 
“And you still have no idea what this job or organisation is about?” asked Octavia.
 
“Eh, it can’t be that bad,” said Vinyl. “Like I said, COBRA’s a name you can trust!”
 
“I suppose it is,” agreed Octavia. “And if the job doesn’t sound all that appealing once we’re there at the recruitment office, we don’t have to take up the offer. We could always just….”Octavia faltered. “Contact Natural Twenty about borrowing some money?” she suggested.
 
“That’s only the worst-case scenario,” said Vinyl, grinning. “Don’t worry, Octavia – all we have to do is head to the recruitment office of an ambiguous organisation called COBRA and tell them that we want to join them!”
 
“Well, when you put it like that, it sounds incredibly easy,” said Octavia cheerfully. “I’m sure that there is absolutely nothing that could go wrong with this plan!”