//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5. Digging himself deeper. 
// Story: Tango 
// by Askre 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 5

Tango was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming; it just couldn’t be anything else. Everything looked so off and unreal, shrouded partly in mist. He saw Ponyville and its thatch roof cottages in the distance, the stallion was on a hill overlooking the town but saw no sign of life.

He started walking towards it but the hill never ended, no matter how much the pony walked he was always in the same distance away. The stallion sighed, the longing to go there was deep. Tango wanted to go the café and order his favorite lunch. He wanted to chat with the mayor and wonder how quiet things where. He wanted to go to the inn with Mulberry and have a drink before heading home.

I want to go back, he thought and felt a tear in his eye.

A sound from behind distracted him. He glanced back, out of the mist arrived a black cloaked pony, just as thin as him but a little bit smaller. She threw down her hood to reveal her white face and broken unicorn horn, the mane was split into a white and dark gray color, the tail was long and similarly split in color. Although it couldn’t be seen Tango knew that on her flank was an image of a snowflake.

“You can’t go back,” the mare said, looking grim and her golden eyes were emotionless.

“I know.” Tango hung his head. The mare approached him and the stallion eyed her. "Snow Heart… I”

“Shhh, it’s alright,” the mare whispered and reached up to nuzzle the stallion’s cheek. “I’m here now.”

Tango closed his eyes, enjoying the affection he was receiving. He was about to return the favor when once more a sound caught his attention. The stallion faced forward again and blinked. Ponyville was gone, there was just empty space. Vanilla colored empty space and within that space multicolored candy hearts began raining down. There were so many that soon there were piles of them in the formerly empty space.

Then slowly out from one pile rose Vanilla Cream, candy hearts streaming down from her body. Her soft lush yellowish mane glistered in the light. She lay down on top of the candy, looked towards him and giggled. Tango just stared, mouth agape.

“Are you replacing me?” An angry voice shook him from his stupor. He looked at Snow Heart who still stood right next to him.

“What? No… never…” Tango cringed, he glanced back towards Vanilla. She just continued to lay there, smiling warmly, twinkles in her eyes.

“I… I…” Tango kept looking back and forth, his breathing becoming heavier and his expression more panicked. He didn’t know what to do, Snow Heart was looking more and more furious and Vanilla kept looking more and more welcoming.

“AAAAAH!” Tango finally woke up with a panicked scream. He sat up in the bed panting heavily and the sweat poured down his head. 

It took a minute for the pony to calm down. He had never dreamt anything like this before, usually he didn’t even remember his dreams and sometimes wasn’t sure he dreamt at all. This had seriously ruffled him as it seemed like his subconscious was trying to tell him something or perhaps Barricade’s words were still haunting his mind.

He couldn’t say he liked this feeling, he never liked thinking of mares in sexual terms. His attraction to Snow Heart had always been her strong personality, how well she carried a conversation and yet despite her temper could be so gentle and caring if the mare wanted to be.

I… I love her, Tango thought as he slowly crawled out of bed.

Which one? An uncertain voice popped up in his head.

Snow Heart of course, who else? Tango rubbed his forehead with one hoof.

Are you sure? the uncertain voice spoke up again.

Ye…no…no I’m not. The stallion relented and cringed a bit. His visit with Snow Heart was today. Pardon Peace had managed to arrange it. According to her, the judge hadn’t seen any problem with it as long as both were carefully monitored.  Tango didn’t care, now that he apparently could, he wanted to see Snow Heart, he felt he needed to. But what if he slipped, what if mentioned Vanilla or something like that?

No… no no that’s not love, Tango growled to himself and went to the bathroom. This is lust. I love Snow Heart.

The pony entered the shower which always seemed to him to have been made with small pegasi in mind when it was built. Right now though he didn’t care, he needed a shower and made it a cold one.

Once the hygienic portions of the morning where done he went to the kitchen. He wasn’t feeling terribly hungry so he just grabbed a bottle of root beer and took it with him to the living room. There was a new coffee table in there now and it was already well on its way to be covered with mail, magazines and newspapers.

Tango sat down on the couch and was still trying not to think about the dream that still lingered back in his mind, nagging at him. The stallion grabbed a magazine he still hadn’t opened yet and started to read it. But every photograph of a mare started somehow to morph into either Snow Heart or Vanilla.

“Arg, what in Tartarus is wrong with me!” Tango threw the magazine away, he put the root beer bottle on the coffee table and covered his face with his hooves.

“On top of being criminal trash, am I’m turning into a sleaze like Barricade who judges mares on the size of their rump?” the stallion snarled. “Why is this happening? Why!?”

He would have lamented more but a knock on the apartment door interrupted him. Tango groaned and did his best to compose himself before rising up from the couch. With a dejected sigh he trotted to answer. When he opened the entrance his eyes became wide as saucers and the stallion almost reeled back.

Vanilla Cream was standing there wearing a sparkly silvery gown that streamlined the features of her body. Silver and gold ribbons had been interwoven into her mane and tail and the hair was partly braided.

“Hi Tango, look what the girls next door did to me,” Vanilla giggled and did an elegant pose. “They needed somepony to practice on and I was abducted when I went to see how they were doing this morning.”

“Ha….ha…haai…” Tango couldn’t speak, he could just stare.

“Oh I can’t wait to see the face on Mrs. Fin when I go show her this,” the mare laughed and then regarded the frozen stallion. “Oh, your eye is looking much better now. Well I gotta run, want to freak out Mrs. Fin before I take this off.”

Tango slowly backed into the apartment and closed the door when Vanilla was gone out of his line of sight. Without missing a beat, he slowly turned to his left and went straight back to the bathroom to take another very cold shower.





Long Whinny Island was a small island off the coast of Manehattan only reachable by boat. pegasi were not allowed to fly over it or land on it, if a pegasus wanted to visit, he or she had to come by a boat. Dominating the landscape was the Manehattan Mare Correctional Facility, intended for the incarceration of adult mares who had committed various crimes. It had strong magical security and there were always winged pegasi guards on patrol in the skies above it.

This was still not the highest security prison in Equestria despite its location. Majority of the inmates were first time offenders and it was sometimes nicknamed Redemption Central, due to the high rate of previous guests of the facility turning their life completely around after serving their time.

Tango sat now in the visitation room of the facility, waiting for Snow Heart. The stallion had been strictly instructed that he could not bring her anything, but he didn’t mind. For the first time since his arrest, he actually felt a little giddy. His heart skipped a beat when the heavy security doors opened and two guards came walking through with Snow Heart following slowly behind them.

The mare looked thinner and despite her horn being broken, she had a magical shackle on it that prevented the use of magic. She wore just an orange jumpsuit with a long number written on it. The unicorn showed no expression as she was escorted towards where Tango sat. She was instructed to sit and she did so without a word, her gaze was always on the floor. 

“H-hi,” Tango greeted her with a small smile, he gingerly touched the magical force field that separated them.

“Do not touch the force field sir,” the nearby guard sharply reminded him.

“Sorry… sorry.” The stallion cringed and pulled his hoof away, it was maybe not a high security prison, but it was still a prison.

Tango turned his attention back to Snow Heart. She just continued to stare at the floor, no emotions where in her eyes and her mouth was just in a thin straight line. The stallion thought she looked stunningly beautiful.

“So… uh, how are you doing?” he asked but received no response.

“I… well… I’m on probation as you know, I’m here in Manehattan.” Tango chuckled weakly, refraining from telling where in the city he was.

Tango’s already weak smile faltered as he regarded the unicorn in front of him. He wasn’t really sure what he could do or say that might cheer her up. The stallion wasn’t even sure if the mare returned his feelings, she had certainly played with them in the past to her favor but he never really knew how she really felt about him.

“I’m sure you’ll get parole eventually, my probation officer says you are a very trouble free inmate,” he said, still no reaction.

“Snow Heart?” He shuffled as close to the forcefield he possibly could without toughing it. “Snow Heart, look at me.”

“Snow Heart, please… look at me.” Tango felt a lump in his throat and tears threatened to sprout forth. “Please say something… do something, anything.”

“Snow Heart it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know he was a serial killer, you didn’t know,” the stallion cried and was so tempted to touch the force field again, but barely managed to refrain from it.

“Didn’t… know…” a whisper came from the mare. Tango held his breath, wondering if he had finally gotten through.

“Didn’t… Didn’t know?” Slowly Snow Heart raised her head, her jaw clenched and a flash of anger passed her eyes.

“I was… with that lunatic… for a week… I… I hired him… to abduct exactly the kind of target… he was slaughtering…” Snow Heart’s voice was strained. “And… and I’m just supposed to feel better… because I didn’t know?”

“I hired a foal serial killer to foalnap a foal! And I’m justified because I DIDN’T KNOW?” The mare’s eyes were twitching and her front hooves were beginning to dig into the floor. Tango cringed and didn’t dare to say another word.

Snow Heart rose up with flames in her eyes, she began stomping on the ground and cracking the floor. All the time she kept screaming: “I AM A MONSTER!!”

The guards arrived and grabbed the furious mare. She didn’t really struggle, but kept screaming. It didn’t stop until she was dragged out of the room and the doors shut close after her and the guards. Then everything just went eerily silent.

Tango felt empty. Once the permission for the visit had been granted, the stallion’s hopes had skyrocketed. But now they had plummeted right back to where they had been from the beginning. The stallion dried the tears from his face and sniffled. Slowly the pony rose up and still with a lump in his throat, he left the visitation room.





Vanilla knocked on Tango’s door. She had just arrived home from work and was a bit curious how the stallion was doing. The mare knew he was going to visit his friend today and she couldn’t help but want to know how that had gone, that is if he was willing to tell about it.

It took a bit before the door opened a crack, the mare smiled innocently and desperately hoped she hadn’t been waking him from a nap. The smile faltered a little when seeing Tango peek out, his eyes were bloodshot and bleary and there was a definite smell of alcohol coming from him.

“Ah, hi Tango, am I disturbing you?” she asked unsure, the stallion didn’t look very happy.

“That’s never stopped you before, now has it,” Tango grunted and opened the door fully. In one hoof was a bottle of cider, a particularly hard brand.

Vanilla hesitated, not sure how to take that. The stallion was glaring at her, almost with contempt. The mare wondered if the visit had gone bad. Sure sometimes when she had knocked, Tango was holding alcoholic cider but not a particularly strong one. He had actually been a bit more talkative and friendly when lightly buzzed. This was different, very different.

“I just wanted to see how you were doing, you were looking so forward to meet that friend of yours and I was just curious how it went,” she said though with hesitation, things could escalate quickly if she didn’t word herself carefully.

“It went swimmingly, can’t you tell!” Tango snapped, the edges of his mouth twitching.

“I…” Vanilla figured this was really a bad time, best to retreat and allow the stallion to sober up. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite done.

“Why do you care anyway? Or is my life just on the gossip line all over town, that’s why you keep bothering me isn’t it? Everypony wants to hear about the criminal from Ponyville, the guy involved in that foalnapping case. The one where the serial killer was discovered!” The stallion snarled and his eyes shoot daggers at the bewildered mare.

“Or do you think you can score some further point by enticing him? That’s why you came here this morning, dressed like a whore wasn’t it?” Tango sneered and took one unsteady step forward out of the entrance.

“W-what? No.” Vanilla blinked and felt a sting in her heart when hearing these awful accusations. She shrieked and ducked when the cider bottle came flying at her, it smashed on the wall behind her and what was left of the drink spilled all over.

The mare shivered in fright and crouched by the base of the stairs leading up to the second floor. Tango was still in the doorway after throwing the bottle, but the stallion was clearly in a drunken rage. He was staring at her as if ready to continue attacking.

“I don’t want to hear it, you filthy SKANK!” Tango yelled, shaking now in intoxicated anger. He ignored that other doors in the hallway were opening and bewildered ponies were peeking out.

“What are you trying to prove anyway! You are not HER! You will NEVER be HER! I don’t need you to distract me away from HER!” The stallion roared so loud that even ponies outside that were passing the building halted their walk to glance at it.

“So why don’t you just leave me alone and shove your rump into Barricade or something! He seems interested enough in it!” With those words Tango disappeared into his apartment and slammed the door shut.

Vanilla still didn’t dare stand up. She felt numb, frightened, hurt and didn’t really know what to do. Never in her wildest imagination had she expected this to happen. The mare felt tears form and didn’t really do much to try and stop them running down her cheeks. She just kept staring at Tango’s apartment door.

Ponies started to come out, some eyeing Tango’s apartment warily while others approached Vanilla. She ignored them, buried her face in her front legs and started crying in earnest. The mare wanted to run up and disappear into her apartment but just felt too numb to do so.

“Alright, make way, this is no time or place to be gawking, somepony get a mop and clean this mess up, don’t think he’ll be doing it.” A heavily girthed blue earth mare pushed through the forming crowd around Vanilla, her mane was brown and she was wearing an apron. Her cutiemark was a plate with salad on it. She was generally known as Mrs. Fin amongst the ponies in the neighborhood.

“Come along now, Vanilla dear, you’ll just get yourself a cold lying here.” The blue mare began talking softly and gently with the distraught pony.

It took a little bit, but finally Mrs. Fin managed to coax Vanilla to stand up, she then led her up the stairs to the second floor. The crowd was already dispersing and one pony did arrive with a mop to clean up the broken glass and spilled cider. No one saw Tango for the rest of the day and none dared approaching his apartment.

End chapter 5