//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1. Tango 
// Story: Tango 
// by Askre 
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Chapter 1

The radio clicked on and the loud boisterous voice of Sapphire Shores echoed through the room as one of her hit singles began playing. This roused the pony on the bed from his stupor with a loud groan. Desperate to get rid of the loud noise he fumbled with one hoof for the off button, finally finding it and the room was silence once again.

Ugh… I hate those new self…turning on radios. Tango glared at the radio, it was probably the most expensive item in the whole apartment. He hadn’t bought it, his probation officer had given it to him, reward for a good problem free week.

Reward or punishment. The tall earth pony slinked out of the bed, kicking empty cider bottles around in the process.

Yawning he left the very untidy bedroom and shifted into the very small bathroom. It was lucky the pony was thinly built or he might just not fit at all. This apartment had clearly been built with smaller ponies in mind. Tango usually didn’t have problems with his size, but then again he had lived most of his life elsewhere, not in a dingy apartment deep in Manehattan.

“Hey there ugly,” he addressed his reflection in the mirror. “Another day hoping to get by on very little because who wants to associate with a criminal.”

Tango made a halfhearted attempt to brush his dark gray coat and barely swept over his mane and tail. The former officer finished other business in the bathroom and walked out. The pony went straight to the kitchen and started to rummage around for some breakfast.

I miss Ponyville. Tango sighed while sitting down with a lettuce sandwich.

Tango had been a fairly respected police officer in a small town further south in Equestria called Ponyville. Though his services were rarely required for much, it was not a town with a high crime rate and sometimes the most exciting things that happened were the occasional stampede.

Then Princess Celestia’s student Twilight Sparkle arrived and defeated Nightmare Moon and stayed in Ponyville. Things then seemed to happen with more regularity but most often handled by Twilight and her friends. Tango didn’t mind, some of it sounded just a bit out of his jurisdiction, his partner Mulberry had though sometimes complained they didn’t get to do much despite being the only police officers in town.

Mulberry however, almost got his wish several weeks ago. Diamond Tiara the daughter of Filthy Rich was foalnapped and the culprit turned out to be Snow Heart, a mare who had lived in Ponyville long time ago. She hired two thugs to do the job and intended to hold the filly for ransoms as a revenge against Mr. Rich for perceived slights.

Tango sighed deeply when remembering Snow Heart. He had always been smitten with her and had always tried to support her back when she lived there. When she left town he had kept in touch with her through writing letters and he told no one of it. His love for the unicorn mare blinded him and he agreed to help her with the foalnapping, agreeing to sabotage any search efforts.

That didn’t go quite as planned, Princess Celestia took interest in the case and sent royal guards to help. Mayor Mare was so thrilled that she put them in charge of everything and they were much stricter than the local town police officer. Snow Heart and her accomplices where captured, including him.

Tango was granted probation; it was taken into consideration his previous service as a police officer. The former officer only had one request, not to serve it in Ponyville, he agreed to be sent to Manehattan. That came with more complications, the foalnapping case had been given a national coverage by the media, especially when it turned out that one of the thugs, Silver Axe, was a crazed serial killer. Many unsolved missing foal cases were solved with his capture.

Because of this, there were very few landlords in Manehattan who wanted Tango anywhere near the buildings they ran. Because of that Tango actually had to spent two weeks in jail even if his probation had been already granted, his probation officer was still looking for an apartment for him to live in.

The idea was that Tango would live in a regular apartmen and, do a job assigned to him by the local council who would pay the rent until the probation period was over. Tango would receive small amounts of cash to live on during this. Later on though, it was expected of him to find a job on his own and pay rent himself.

Eventually they finally found this small apartment on Hoofington Lane deep in Manehattan. His probation officer was not happy with putting Tango in this neighborhood. It was bad and she warned him as much, there were ponies there that would not take kindly to a police officer living there, former or not.

Tango personally didn’t care. The whole ordeal and realizing just what he had done and how much he had not just ruined his own life and career but others as well, had just broken him. He went to his community work, went home and just stayed there for the most part. Only venturing out to buy food.

Still there were sparks of his old self around. The habit of knowing everyone in the neighborhood as he was wont to do when in Ponyville. So he was somewhat aware of most of the ponies living in the area and a little beyond it. He was quick to learn who to avoid and kept far away from The Barricade Gym which was the central hub for the meaner ponies that lived here.

Tango finished his sandwich and left the kitchen. In the small hallway that separated the various rooms of this otherwise small apartment, the pony glanced at the calendar. It was marked, reminding him that this was his day off. He was mildly relieved, even though he seldom went out otherwise, the stallion was a bit more nervous about it right now.

Few days ago, he had actually ventured out later than usual for him to buy some more bottled cider. On his way to the kiosk he knew of close by, a sound caught his attention. He went to investigate and the sound kept driving him further and further away from his usual routes. Then he heard voices and witnessed the local gang cornering some ponies. 

The former officer was shocked to realize he knew two of them. Derpy Hooves and Time Turner from Ponyville. Tango knew he couldn’t let something happen to them, he managed to sneak by and stun and knock out some of the gang ponies before fleeing with his old Ponyville friends and three other ponies. Once they had hidden in his apartment for few hours, they all managed to reach a train station and head back to their respective homes.

However, Tango knew this had put him on the radar of the ponies he had been trying to avoid. The leader himself had been there, a tall unicorn stallion by the name of Barricade. What the former officer had heard of him, he didn’t like. Most ponies in the neighborhood stayed clear off him and his gang. If he was doing something out in the street, they did not interfere.

Tango headed to the living room and slumped down on the couch, ignoring that he lay also on top of some magazines. He probably needed to go check his mail, but right now he just didn’t really want to do anything. The pony wasn’t even sure why he had gone out of bed.

‘Tango, if you want, I can provide you with some books and maybe some shelves to put them in.’ The words of his parole officer resurfaced from the last visit. Tango only had the couch, the coffee table, a chair and two stools in it. He hadn’t accepted the offer; he just didn’t care anymore.

It had been nice to see Derpy and Turner again and she had tried to cheer him up. But he was hesitant, recalling that the mare was very optimistic and right now optimism was far away from the stallion.

“Oh who is it now?” Tango groaned when there was a knock on the apartment door.

The stallion grumbled as he rose up from the couch and went back to the small hallway. One of his neighbors would sometimes knock and just talk and talk and talk with him, she seemed to do that with just about everyone in the building. Tango was polite enough to at least listen, though he could add very little to the one sided conversation. He had a feeling the mare just liked being social with her fellow tenants.

Tango opened the door and half expected to see the vanilla colored pony stand here with a polite smile and ready to inform him of all kinds of news that he barely had any interest in. No mare greeted his eyes, suddenly his neck was restrained by an indigo colored magic aura and the stallion was slammed back to the wall inside the apartment.

“Gah…” Tango could barely breathe and could only watch in shock as a dark grey unicorn with a dirty blonde mane and tail stomped in with a sadistic smile on his muzzle. A brick wall adorned his flank. Right behind him was a big blue earth pony stallion with a pair of dumbbells as cutiemarks.

“Hello Tango!” Barricade chuckled and swung his head so the magic effect holding Tango actually threw the earth pony towards the living room. The pony sailed through the doorway and crash landed on the coffee table that broke under his weight.

Tango groaned in pain and tried to rise up but once again magic aura restrained his neck and he was lifted up harshly. The pony was thrown deeper into the room and crashed into the wall.

“You didn’t think we had forgotten our little encounter did you?” Barricade asked casually as he stepped over the remains of the coffee table.

“N-not…r-really,” Tango muttered where he lay, not sure really if he should try and fight back. Barricade was clearly taking no chances of coming too close to him, knowing that despite the thin built, the earth pony still had good strength.

“Good, now that I have your attention,” the unicorn snorted and used his magic to lift Tango again by the neck. “I understand that you have lived here for a while, few weeks in fact. I have it on good authority that you even know who I am.”

“Y-yes…” Tango just barely managed to speak, he was slammed hard to the floor.

“Then perhaps I shouldn’t need to remind you that I don’t take kindly to ponies interfering in my business,” Barricade growled. “Plus, Blue isn’t too happy to have been kicked in the face and Tornado, Thunder Cloud and Rain Storm aren’t too pleased either with you, knocking them out like this.”

Tango didn’t respond, not just because he couldn’t but because he really didn’t want to. There was no use, the pony was at the unicorn’s mercy and no matter what he would say it would not change anything. The former officer was slammed around the room few more times, he could taste blood in his mouth and his head was ringing.

“I’m going to expect a 100 bits for interfering with me plus additional 100 for each of my employees as a reimbursement. That makes it let’s see, 500 bits,” Barricade said and finally allowed Tango to drop in a heap on the floor. The earth pony just lay there groaning in pain.

“Now I’m not so crazy to think that you can pay all of that now, we’ll come by later and collect some of it. Let you recover and all, I’m not without mercy,” the unicorn chuckled.

A soft gasp caught his attention as well as Blue. The two stallions glared back to see a vanilla colored earth mare standing there. She had a thick lush mane with soft yellowish colors, on her flank was a cutiemark of a candy heart. 

“Vanilla Cream,” Barricade chuckled softly and turned around. “I am still amazed about your parents lack of imagination when naming you.”

“G-get out, both of you,” Vanilla Cream demanded though her voice was shaky. “I-I will call the police.”

“Oh really now,” the unicorn laughed. He started to approach and was impressed that the mare stood her ground.

“You bully, get out! He’s done nothing wrong and you have no right to barge in on ponies like this,” Vanilla said with as much conviction as she could muster. Deep down she was shaking, knowing to well that she couldn’t do much against two large stallions.

“Hey, I knocked politely,” Barricade chuckled then looked at Blue. “Come on, Blue, we’ve told him what we want.”

The two stallions walked out of the living room and left apartment. Vanilla let out a breath she was holding then rushed over to Tango who still just lay on the ground groaning in pain. He was very beat up, one eye was swelling and his muzzle was a little bloodied.

“Oh sweet Luna, what have they done to you,” the mare whispered worried as she checked the stallion over.

“We should get you to a hospital, check if anything is broken,” she then said, that prompted Tango to move a bit.

“N… no, no, I just need to sit… sit up,” he whispered and slowly began to rise, Vanilla supported him but looked very concerned.

“Are you sure?” the mare asked. Tango was touching his swelled eye gingerly.

“Y-yes… I just need to rest.” The stallion cringed a little in pain.

“Okay but we should still patch you up, do you have a first aid kit?” Vanilla wondered and started to glance around.

“No.” Tango shook his head slowly.

“Right, I’ll be back, I’ll get mine in my apartment, just sit there.” With that the mare darted out on top speed.

“Not going anywhere,” the stallion assured her.

500 bits… great that’s more than double I get for the week. Tango hung his head, wondering how he would ever manage to pay all that.

There was always the option not to pay at all, but considering what had just occurred just a few minutes ago, the pony was pretty sure Barricade wouldn’t like that. Tango wouldn’t have taken so kindly to being threatened like this back in the day, but things were different now, the willpower just wasn’t there.

Vanilla returned with the first aid kit and icepack for the eye. The mare went right to work at patching the stallion up, cleaning up any open wounds and bandaging them up. Tango didn’t resist but did occasionally grunt and groan during the process.

“Why were Barricade and Blue here?” Vanilla asked with concern in her face and voice while she worked.

“Eh… it was…” Tango accepted the icepack from her and placed it on the swelling eye.

“Please don’t say nothing, everypony says nothing. They let that bully control their lives. All he has to do is show up and they just clam up.” The mare frowned hard when it appeared Tango was going to do what everyone else did when it came to the unicorn.

“I prevented him from harming friends of mine,” Tango relented. “I’m not quite sure what he was doing, but… I couldn’t… I couldn’t let them be harmed.”

“Then you might just be the bravest pony in the Hoofington area,” Vanilla sounded impressed but the stallion cringed at being called brave.

“Yeah and that got me a flying lesson today that smashed my coffee table,” he pointed out, eyeing the remains of the furniture.

“You could go to the police with this, I can back you up, I did walk in on it,” the mare suggested. She finished patching him up and started putting things back in the first aid kit.

“Oh sure, I can just picture how that will go. ‘Oh, you were messing around with Barricade? Now you know why you don’t’,” Tango grumbled. Vanilla opened her mouth as if to protest but it closed and her expression turned sadder.

“Yes you’re right… the police around here is never any help… I just sometimes get so angry that this blasted bully can go about his business like he owns the place,” she said quietly, fiddling with the first aid kit in her hooves. The mare looked up when Tango put one hoof gingerly on her shoulder.

“Look, don’t be too quick to blame them,” he said. “I was maybe just a police officer from a small town but I wasn’t ignorant to how things were in the bigger cities. It was because of thugs like Barricade I was always so happy to live in a small low crime town.”

“I was originally the only officer in the town. I had... I had to really argue with the town council until they finally hired the second one. They didn’t think we needed this second officer, but even if the town was small it was still big enough that it was too much to cover for a single pony. If something did happen that required me, I didn’t have any backup,” the stallion told her.

“You would think in a much bigger and richer city like Manehattan, with its many districts things would be different. But no, if there is one thing I know about town or city councils, they are always looking to where they can cut expenses. I’m sure the police here would love to do something about Barricade, but they just don’t have enough ponies to do it and Barricade knows it. Their resources are pressed to focus on the richer districts and the areas the tourists go, small area like Hoofington is just not on priority because they don’t get to have it as priority.” Tango shook his head as he continued to explain.

“Thus the few officers that are around are jaded, they know Barricade is no good, but they can’t do anything about it, they have no proof. Sure I could go tell them he just beat me up, you could come as an additional witness. They might go and question Barricade but then he would produce dozens of witnesses that would swear to Celestia and Luna that he’s been at his gym the whole time,” he concluded.

“How can you be so sure about it?” Vanilla asked, mildly surprised how informed Tango was.

“My probation officer, she briefed me how things were here and those few ponies I’ve spoken to, including the one police officer in the district that doesn’t hate my guts for having been involved in the foalnapping case in Ponyville.” Tango chuckled weakly. “I… have this habit of wanting to know my neighborhood well.”

“Me too, I just can’t stand it not be at least casually aware of my neighbors. There really is lacking a proper community here… probably no thanks to Barricade,” Vanilla grunted, she then carefully put a hoof on Tango’s back. “Will you be alright? I was on my way to get the mail when I saw that your door was open… I didn’t mean to barge in like this, I just knew you didn’t go out so much and thought maybe I could save you the trip.”

“I live on the ground floor, literally few steps away from the front door of this building,” the former officer pointed out, he would have raised an eyebrow but it hurt too much.

“I know.” Vanilla smiled innocently. “Want me to go get the mail for you?”

“Sure, fine,” Tango shrugged, the mare took off once again.

Why is she being so sweet? the stallion wondered. He rose slowly up and began hoppling to the couch. Or more like… why is somepony as sweet as her, wasting her time on a trash like me.

End Chapter 1