"Don't ya be playen' with me, or I'll have ya brains all over the table."
The click of the hammer of a revolver being cocked back resounded through the room.
"Now, let's be getten' down ta business, shall we?" the elderly green pony announced. "My colts have been droppen' dead lately, an' Ah have a feelen' ya know somethen' 'bout it."
"I had already informed you that all I know of the matter is what is broadcasted on the local news. I have nothing to do with it."
The pony speaking was an all orange stallion with an orange (the fruit) as a cutie mark. He had a neat and trim yellow mane and sported a pair of specials, which were now cracked. His head was being held to a desk by a single muscular red hoof that belonged to a stallion earth pony; in his other, he held a revolver placed carefully against the back of the orange pony's head.
"Slam 'em, Big Mac." On cue, the red pony lifted the head of the orange earth pony and slammed it against the desk. The wood was now beginning to soak with a dull red liquid.
"Please! I don't see why we can't just converse about the situation like pony beings." The voice sounded desperate. Granny Smith pondered it over a while before speaking.
"Two o' mah colts are dead, and my granddaughter's been shot along with a few other ponies. Gimme one good reason why Ah should believe you."
"Not only do I utterly lack any interest in starting a war, but we have no funds, no guns, we are utterly hated by the parliament so even if we did start something, I know that you would use your 'influences' to have the whole damn Equestrian government on our flanks and, quite frankly, our organization is no longer in existence. I had thought that we had made that clear five years ago."
Granny Smith and Big Macintosh looked at each other at the sharp tone of voice the orange stallion used.
"How d' Ah know that ya didn't try to get yer colts back together for some revenge?" The suspicion in her voice bordered paranoia.
"Oh, please! Revenge is for madmen, and I am quite content living in retirement in Manehattan and I have no desire to mix things up. By-gones are by-gones. There is no Orange Family, and that's the way it has been for the past few years. So if you would PLEASE let me go!" The earth pony was making no attempt to hide his frustration. Or maybe it was more of annoyance?
Granny Smith sighed.
"Let 'em go, Big Mac." The red stallion released his grip on the former mobster and stepped back. The orange earth pony rose and brushed himself off.
"Why, thank you." The voice was sarcastic. "If that is all you want of me, then-"
"Ah do want somethen' more of ya. Guns."
"Guns?"
"Eyup." Big Mac decided to enter the conversation.
"Ah got mah ear ta the streets. I hear about all them guns that ya got layen around, and we gonna need them if this gets outta hoof."
"Now wherever did you hear that?" The question was sarcastic and rhetorical. "I do happen to have some firearms as surplus from the events that transpired between our two enterprises those five years ago. And you have interest in them? Why? I am well aware that you have the wealth to get your hooves on guns elsewhere."
"Rifles and sub-machine guns kin be found anywhere. But Ah ain't interested in that kind. Ah'm interested in the kind ya can't find nowhere else. Fifty cals, LMGs, RPG's, that sort o' thing."
"Dear Celestia!" The stallion sounded appalled. "It sounds as if you are preparing for a slaughter! Over a few gunfights? Don't you suppose that you may be blowing this out of proportion? I would guess that it is one of the small time Marami drug dealing gangs that is unhappy with the product. Frankly, I think-"
"Ah don't give an apple-bucken' shit what you frankly think! Ah know Pinkie too good. Ah know she ain't never one to turn to a small time gang. Besides, better safe then sorry."
"I suppose. Well, you can have them. Free of charge. I have no use for them these days." He grabbed a map of the Everfree Forest off of the work desk. He drew an X on a spot a few miles behind Fluttershy's cottage. "They are hidden in a shed marked here."
"Ah'll get one of mah ponies out to get 'em. Thank you for your time."
"My... pleasure." His reply was sarcastic as always, and had an edge of anger. The orange pony wiped the blood from his nose and proceeded through the door.
*******
Braeburn was an extremely influential figure in the Apple Family. He also had one of the most important jobs. Though the Apple Family had dipped their hooves into many other ventures, the drug business was the one that brought the most power in the underground. He who controlled the addiction of the country, was the one that could manipulate the addicts to do their bidding; a shocking amount of ponies were slaves to the substance, making them slaves to the suppliers. Braeburn ran the biggest zap-apple farm in Equestria. He made sure that the drug was grown pure and healthy in the sleepy town of Appleloosa.
The drug dealing branch relied on him to ensure supply ran well.
In addition to also being a big name in the underground, he was an old friend of Vinyl Scratch. The two of them met in a nightclub outside of Manehatten a while back, when Vinyl was still playing for small time clubs. In exchange for some wild sex, Braeburn introduced her to Granny Smith. Without Breaburn, Vinyl would never have gotten that record deal and would never have seen the level of fame she saw today.
No, after six months, he was standing right in front of her in the least likely place. He smiled and moved over to the seat just to the right of her.
"Now, I didn't expect to see your pretty little face around these parts."
"What are you doing here?" The excitement and happiness in her voice could not be mistaken for anything else. She put two hooves around Braeburn's neck and squeezed tight.
"Well," he rolled his eyes with a grin at the friendly gesture "Ah was just minden my own business when a small time business associate came along. I think her name was Dorpy, or Derpy, somethen' like that. She didn't really look like she was playen' with a full deck either. Probably been smoking too much of the product...." He cocked an eyebrow and stared into space, lost in thought. He quickly recollected himself and looked back at the gleeful mare listening to him. "She told me o' that shootout in the graveyard. Figured I'd come down an' pay my respects to Neon. Glad I did, 'cuz I woulda never got to see you here if I hadn't."
"Sorry I'm late, mare at the counter was bitching about exact change." Chuck came scootching down the row and sat himself to the left of Vinyl. "Who's this?" he gestured with a nod of his head toward Braeburn.
"Oh, just an old friend." Braeburn and Vinyl cast each other glances, suppressing giggles.
The lights dimmed and the curtains parted. Vinyl's eyes glowed in excitement, only to be let down in disappointment when she saw that it was Lyra Heartstrings playing some sort of stringed instrument. A lute, maybe?
"So as I was saying, that li'l mare I was saying about, she bought a whole bunch of product an' the two of us made our way down here together."
Vinyl noticed that Chuck was leaning over, obviously eavesdropping on the conversation. She wasn't about to say anything, though.
"Going on long trips with drug dealing mares, I see? You haven't changed a bit." She spoke with a playful tone.
"Nope. An' I gotta go see Rarity and a few otha ponies at Sugarcube Corner tomorrow after I pay mah visit ta mah cousin, Applejack, in the hospital."
After getting a 'shhh" from a rather overweight pony behind them, the two fell silent to listen to the music. Vinyl couldn't help but to giggle when she caught eyes with Braeburn again. It's good to see old friends.
Chuck leaned back in his chair and grinned to himself.
*********
Scootaloo slowly opened the broken down door to the Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse.
"Wow, Applebloom. You got a lotta holes in your house. And why is all the furniture all broken?"
"Ah dunno..." She looked on in confusion "Ah was just sleepen at Zecora's an' when Ah came back, ev'rythang was all broken. Ya think Applejack got real mad an' poked holes through the walls an' broke the furniture?"
"Naw, she wouldn't do that. She's way too mellow. Where's Sweetie Bell?"
"She went ta the clubhouse ta get... uh, the stuff."
"Ohhh, yah! I gotcha." Scootaloo flashed a wink at Applebloom. Bored, she wandered over to the window and stared out, admiring the flowers and fruit that grew out all over the farm. Her eyes caught a glimpse of something approaching "Is that... Rainbow Dash?"
Applebloom approached the window and looked out at the approaching figure.
"Yeah, Ah think tha's Rainbow Dash. And there's somepony with 'er."
"Who is it?" Scootaloo tipped her head to look at Applebloom, anxious to know who it was.
"I dunno."
Scootaloo looked out again. It was clearly Rainbow Dash, with a pony she didn't recognize. The stallion had a black coat with a green and red mane. He had a tipped fedora on the top of his head.
As Rainbow Dash grew closer to the house, Scootaloo felt her cheeks begin to blush. She couldn't help it. She always blushed and got nervous when Rainbow Dash was around. The orange filly strained her hearing to try and catch a bit of the conversation Dash was having with the black stallion, and briefly wondered if she noticed her and Applebloom peeking out the window at her.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, I got a lot on my mind, so I'll just get this over with." She sounded angry.
"Orders came from Granny Smith. Sorry." Unlike Rainbow Dash, this voice sounded calm and collected.
"Whatever. I'll bring them over in a day. A few miles behind Fluttershy's cottage?"
"Exactly." With that, the black stallion walked off.
Rainbow Dash still looked angry. Scootaloo couldn't figure out why she was angry, or what that conversation was about, but it hurt her to see the cyan pegasus in a state like this. She felt bad for Rainbow Dash. Something must have really rustled her jimmies.
Rainbow Dash entered through the front door, only to be greeted by two smiling fillies. The smiles were fake, Scootaloo knew, yet she wondered how convincing they appeared. She didn't want to see Dash mad.
"Hi, Rainbow Dash!" they both spoke simultaneously. The pony with the rainbow mane looked uninterested in the two little ponies.
"Uh, hey." She moved on without even casting a glance in the direction of the two fillies. Scootaloo felt a pain in her chest at being ignored by the pony she so revered.
"Hey guys, I got the zap-" Sweetie Belle appeared in the front door holding a bag of multi-colored dried fruit. The smile and look of excitement died as soon as she saw Rainbow Dash's shocked expression. Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Rainbow Dash all had their jaws dropped in an utter loss for words.
Sweetie Belle, not knowing what to do, sat on her flank and hid the plastic bag behind her back. Her cheeks blushed bright red as she forced a false smile.
"Uh, hi, Rainbow Dash." Her voice sounded quiet and unsure.
"You have got to be shitting me..." The cyan mare brought her hoof to her face, closing her eyes and shaking her head. She brought her face up and now looked on in anger at the three fillies. "Drugs? You have got to be kidding me. You three, of all the ponies!"
"We-"
"Just.... no. Just shut up. Hand it over." She held her hoof out. The three looked at each other, unsure of how to respond. Sweetie Bell used her magic to engulf the bag of dried zap-apple in a blue glow that carried it through the air and into Rainbow Dash's hoof.
Dash carried the bag over to a drawer beside the front door. The eyes of the three fillies grew wide when they saw her pull out a small tobacco pipe and a lighter. They watched in utter astonishment as she angrily stuffed the dried fruit into the pipe, brought it up to her lips, hovered the flame from the lighter above the bowl of the pipe, and took a deep inhale of the drug.
After a few seconds, she blew out a sheet of smoke and turned her gaze to the fillies that were staring in amazement.
"I need to go and run an errand. Don't do anything stupid!" Rainbow Dash left the house and slammed the door.
Silence filled the room. Each filly trying to comprehend what just happened. If she's that bad, I wonder what other bad things she might do....
A rush of very naughty thoughts filled Scootaloo's mind. The mental images she conjured of Rainbow Dash brought a fiery blush to her cheeks. This wasn't the time or place to entertain thoughts like that. Still, they were pretty hot....
"SCOOTALOO!" the loud voice of Applebloom snapped her out of her risque thoughts.
"Uhh, yeah?"
"Where do ya think RD is headen'?
"I dunno."
"What if she's going to go and tell on us to Applejack or Rarity or Wood Chuck?" Sweetie Belle asked in panic.
"She can't do that! We didn't evin smoke any. She did! And besides, I doubt Rainbow Dash would do that. she's too cool to be a tattletale." Scootaloo rushed to the cyan pegasus's defense. She didn't like to think Rainbow Dash would rat them out.
"I guess there's only one way ta find out!"
"What?" Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo asked in unison.
"We gotta follow her and make sure she don't tell nobody!"
*******