//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4-Cash in Canterlot 
// Story: Sins of a Shadow 
// by SilverFlare11 
//------------------------------//

	It’s been a couple of days since the surgery; three or four, I don’t really remember. Keeping track of the days is hard since I’m in a room without a window and I can’t really tell when it’s day or night; I just sleep the days away since I can’t really move all that much.
At least my leg is feeling better. I mean, yeah, I can tell there’s a difference, like when it gets cold in the room I can feel the metal plate get really cold as well and that’s super uncomfortable, but for the most part everything is cool. At least the doctors said I could walk and drive normally once it healed up and they said that if things went well they’d be able to take that plate and stuff out at some point. I honestly don’t care what happens with all of that; just as long as I can keep racing, drifting, driving and walking, I’m good with just about anything.
There was only one problem here, and said problem was that I had no set of wheels. And I also had no money to buy one because all of my cash was still up in the warehouse in Canterlot. If I was LUCKY, it’d still be there, marked as evidence or something. I’d be surprised if it was even there anymore with as long as it’s been since the escape.
All I knew was that I needed my money, and I needed it fast if I was going to be able to buy a car soon. And chances were that without a set of wheels, I wasn’t going to earn money to tune those wheels, especially if my cash back in Canterlot was taken by the cops.
Only problem there was that I couldn’t go anywhere with my leg the way it was. It really sucked, but I knew I was gonna be stuck in bed for the next few days, which meant that I was going to have to send somepony else to get it.
And of course, there was only one other pony in the house who could do it.
Silver looked up as Swift entered the small room, carrying a small glass of water and some pills, presumably painkillers. He smirked as he saw the blue stallion walking in.
And lucky for me he’d walk in right then.
“How ya feelin’ thar, pardner?” Swift asked as he set down the glass and pills on the bedside table for a moment, taking a seat beside the bed. “In any pain?”
“Nah,” Silver replied as he picked up the glass of water with his magic. “Thanks for the water though.” He brought the glass to his lips and slowly sipped the cool beverage, thankful for something to quench his thirst.
“Not a problem,” Swift replied. He looked Silver up and down for a moment; as he did, he began noticing signs of other injuries of sorts, some looking as though they hadn’t been caused by accidents of any sort. “How many times have ya been busted up like this?”
“Like this, none,” Silver said in between sips of water. “Overall just busted up, more times than I care to talk about.”
“Is that how ya got that scar?” Swift inquired, pointing to a scar on Silver’s right foreleg. Silver looked at it briefly before he shook his head, smirking a little bit.
“Nah, that was back in Baltimare,” Silver answered. “I was welding some new pipe onto my Integra to fix an exhaust leak, and I turned away for a second to grab my drink and then I heard sizzling. I looked back at my foreleg and noticed that I was burning the hell out of it and pulled it away, but not before I cooked it medium-rare right where that scar is.” Swift chuckled.
“I know that feelin’,” Swift said. “Not a lotta ponies ‘round ‘ere own cars, but when somepony comes in lookin’ for a quick fix or somethin’, sometimes I do that exact same thang.” Both young stallions shared a small laugh before Silver looked over at Swift.
“Y’know, I have a favor to ask of you,” Silver started, “but it involves going out of town to Canterlot. You down?” Swift raised an eyebrow.
“Is thar anythin’ in it for me?” Swift asked in response.
“Well, if you head up there and get what I tell you to get, you can have some of the loot,” Silver replied. Swift thought for a few moments, taking into consideration that he barely knew Silver while making his decision.
“…Alright, I’ll bite,” Swift said after a couple of minutes thinking. “Whatcha got?”
“Okay,” Silver began, “back in Canterlot, there’s a whole area in the industrial part of town that’s full of old, unused warehouses. One of those was my safe house when I was there, and I kept everything there. Car parts, money, everything. I need you to go there and grab everything you can find in the little cubicle part in there.” Swift nodded.
“I’ll head up thar,” Swift said, standing up.
“Wait,” Silver said. “That’s not all you need to know.” Swift sat back down, motioning for the younger stallion to continue. “It’s almost a guarantee that the cops have probably cordoned off that entire section of town pending an investigation, but there’s a pony who can sneak you in and out without being seen. His name is Shade Sneak; you’ll have to go to the black market to get to him. Go to one of the sellers who should be selling import taillights and ask for a set of 1998 Honda Civic HEADLIGHTS; they’ll know I sent you. Once Shade gets you in, you’re on your own. There’s a safe in the cubicle; the combination for the lock is twenty-four, zero, thirteen. Take everything out of there, and when I say everything, I mean everything, even if you don’t know what it is. Take anything out on the desk, too. Go out the way you went in and Shade will get you away without anypony even knowing you were there.” Swift looked at Silver quizzically.
“And how exactly do ya know this is gonna work?” Swift asked. “Have ya done this ‘fore?”
“Actually, no, but it’s gonna work, trust me,” Silver answered. “I’ve known Shade for a while now and there’s not a place that can keep him out or in; he’s busted into banks, warehouses, cop stations, and a bunch of other places without even being seen. He’s also escaped prison seven times, and three of those times were from the highest security prison in all of Equestria. Trust me; if there’s anypony that can get you in and out without being seen, it’s him.”
“Why not just get him to do it?” Swift inquired.
“For one thing, he’s not a good getaway driver in case things get bad,” Silver said. “Second reason; he’s not a good driver in general. And third, his car is what we in the tuner world refer to as a ‘drift taxi’.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means his car is a huge-ass four door full size sedan that’s rear wheel drive and you can drift it and do burnouts anywhere you go if you weld the diff or throw on a limited slip. And he drives it BADLY. Same with his previous cars.”
“…Ah.” Swift just looked at Silver. “Give it to me in Equestrian, Silv. What’s he done that don’t make him right fer the job?” Silver sighed.
“He’s gone through a Lexus LS400, a GS300 and an E34 BMW,” Silver said. “His newest victim of the automobiles out there is apparently another Lexus, but it’s a GS400. Same body as the 300 but a V8 instead of a 2J. And I heard that he almost crashed it three times already.” Swift immediately understood; if this pony Shade went and did this himself, he’d probably crash his car and get caught, or worse.
“Right,” Swift said. “I’ll head on up thar and call AJ to have her come and take care of ya while I’m gone. Where’s that black market again?”
-
“Maybe this was a bad idea…,” Swift quietly remarked to himself as he carefully turned into a back alley in Canterlot. The alley was wide enough for cars to get through without disrupting any other flow of movement, and Swift looked at all of the other ponies in the alley through his rolled up windows; many of them looked incredibly shady, some of them smoking cigarettes. One even had a knife strapped on his left foreleg, blatantly showing in the daylight. Swift simply kept slowly cruising through the alleyway, eventually coming to a small opening that had a pathway leading underground. Quizzical, Swift sped up slightly, but slowed to a stop as three ponies came and blocked the pathway before him. One of them walked to the window of his car and lightly tapped on it. Swift, reluctant, rolled it down.
“Newcomer, huh?” the pony said. “What brings ya to town?”
“Pickin’ up some thangs for a friend,” Swift replied.
“You aren’t from around here, are you?” the pony asked. “I mean, judging by that accent, I’d say you’re from Ponyville or somewhere around there…”
“Yeah,” Swift answered.
“So who’s this ‘friend’ that you’re picking things up for?” the pony asked. “Some ponies who say that are coming in for a guy that we don’t like very much…”
“His name’s Silver Flare.” The pony’s eyes went wide, and he nodded quickly.
“Alright, you’re good, bro,” the pony quickly said. “You can get in there and grab whatever it is that you need, talk to anypony you need to.”
“Well, where’s the stand sellin’ import taillights?”
“If you go in, it’ll be the fourth seller on your left.”
“Thank ya much.” Swift then drove forward, leaving the pony still wide-eyed at the opening of the market.
Swift immediately knew why the market was underground; if it wasn’t, then the cops would have cracked down on it immediately. It was a huge expanse of shops and ponies of all different races, shopping for all sorts of different items. Swift spotted a seller with various types of hats, another with car mufflers, and one even selling what appeared to be full engines. He looked about for a brief moment and spotted the taillight seller, and he pulled up right next to it, rolling down his other window. The salespony looked at Swift for a moment.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Swift said. “My friend sent me. I’m lookin’ for a pair of 1998 Honda Civic headlights.” The pony nodded.
“Turn off your car and come with me,” the salespony said. Swift did as he was told, shutting off his car and stepping out of it. The salespony simply nodded to him and walked behind the curtain of her stand, putting up a sign that read “Busy; be back in a few minutes”. Swift followed her as she had told him too, walking into a storeroom of sorts behind the stand. The two walked quietly through the room until they came to the very end of it, where a single light shone dimly on a pony’s face, so dim that Swift couldn’t even properly tell the color of the pony’s fur. The pony looked up.
“I thought I told you not to disturb me,” the pony said. His voice was deep and gruff with a heavy Australian accent, and as he lit a match Swift could see that the pony had an utterly jet black mane that hung down into his right eye and a slate gray face that Swift assumed was also the rest of his body color.
“I’m sorry, Shade,” the salespony said. “But this pony here used the code words.” She gestured to Swift, and Shade looked at the blue stallion, smirking as he brought the match he had lit to a cigarette held between his lips. The flame licked the tip of the cigarette before it fully engulfed it for a brief moment, lighting the tobacco inside. He shook the match a few times to put it out as he took a long puff on his cigarette, blowing the smoke out of the side of his mouth.
“Well then,” Shade started, “leave this pony and I to discuss… business terms.” The salespony nodded and walked out, leaving Swift by himself with Shade. “So… Silver sent you. I’m assuming he had to skip town?”
“Eeyup,” Swift said. “He’s sittin’ at my place right now, busted leg ‘n’ all.”
“Figured that’s what all the sirens around here were for,” Shade remarked, chuckling as he took a long drag on his cigarette, blowing the smoke out slowly through his nostrils. “So he wants me to get his stuff for him, huh? Cute. Seems just like back in Fillydelphia when he had to have me do the same thing…”
“So this ain’t the first time this has happened,” Swift said to confirm. Shade nodded silently, taking another drag on his cigarette. “How many times has he had ya do this?”
“This would be the second time,” Shade replied. “It’s not often Silv has trouble with the cops, considering how long he’s been running from them, but when they find him and crack down, they don’t fuck around. They send everypony they’ve got after him, but Silv’s a slippery little bastard.” Shade chuckled slightly as he brought his cigarette to his lips again. “I’ve seen that colt get away from cops more times than I’ve gotten away from angry hookers.” Swift raised an eyebrow at this statement but didn’t say anything as Shade’s cigarette glowed brighter as he inhaled, sucking in the smoke before the glow died down and Shade blew the smoke out of his nostrils once more. “So, usually Silver and I have a deal of sorts… I get him his stuff, and he does something for me. Since he ain’t here right now ‘cause you said he’s fucked up pretty bad… I’ll make a deal with you.” He took another puff on his cigarette, dabbing it and dropping ashes to the concrete floor before he continued. “We can head out right now to get the stuff, since I know where Silver’s warehouse is.”
“Well, Silv just told me to come up ‘ere and meet up with ya,” Swift said. “He said he wanted me to grab all his stuff and get it all back to him.” Shade nodded in understanding.
“Alright then,” Shade said. “As long as you drive, you don’t have to do anything else. Got it?” Swift nodded. “You got a car?”
“Eeyup, but I don’t think it’ll be big ‘nough to hold all that stuff, includin’ us,” Swift said. “Silv said you had a car… a drift taxi or somethin’ like that.”
“Ah,” Shade chortled, “still talking shit about my car, I see. Well, it might be a big ass sedan, but it just means I can haul more hot mares around than he can.” Shade then dropped his cigarette to the floor and crushed it underneath his left rear hoof as he stood. “Let’s go.” Swift nodded and silently followed Shade to the back of the room, where Shade lifted a curtain and revealed a small opening between two of the vendors. In the center of it was Shade’s car, a beautiful silver 1999 Lexus GS400. Swift eyed the car, noting that it was at stock height but had swapped rims, most likely 18 inches, and the car looked almost as though it was lifted because of the size of the tires. He nearly laughed at this, but managed to contain himself. “Keys are in the driver’s seat. Get in, country colt.” Swift nodded and opened the door of the car, seeing the key on the seat. He picked it up as he eased himself into the leather seat, placing the key in the ignition and turning it.
The motor roared to life, and Swift immediately smirked; he could tell just by the soft rumble on the idle that the car was most definitely a V8. He looked down at the gearbox and put the car in drive, pushing on the gas shortly after. The car lurched forward, and Swift pulled out into the main drive of the market once more, heading out and onto the streets of Canterlot, following Shade’s directions to the warehouses.
-
“Are ya sure ya can get me in ‘n’ out ‘fore anypony sees me?” Swift asked as he and Shade hid behind a woodpile near the warehouses. The two peeked out from behind the pile again; there was crime scene tape everywhere cordoning off the entire area around Silver’s old warehouse, and at least a twenty foot radius around that as well. There was also a cop on duty watching the place, making sure that no one got anywhere near the scene.
“Of course I can get you in,” Shade responded. “I didn’t escape prison seven times for nothing. I know ways to get in and out of literally anywhere without being seen. Hell, you could lock me in a bank safe with the highest security systems and I’d still be out within ten minutes. There’s not a place in this world that can hold me!” He grabbed a few chunks of wood and started stacking them up.
“What’re ya doin’?” Swift asked, confused.
“Trying to see if I can do this the easy way,” Shade replied. “Seeing if I can make a set of stairs of sorts so we can go across the tops of the roofs. These warehouses all have ventilation shafts that you can crawl through to get inside; knowing Silver, when the cops came to find him, he hid inside one of those ventilation shafts so the cops wouldn’t find him and then he started up that 400R and raised all sorts of hell.” He continued stacking until he had constructed a decent size step up of sorts. “Alright, now you hop on up there and get to work. You can jump, can’t ya?”
“Yeah, I jump jus’ fine ‘n’ dandy,” Swift replied, hopping up onto the surprisingly stable structure. He then hopped his absolute hardest and grabbed onto the edge of the roof, scrambling as he pulled himself onto it.
“Good!” Shade said from down below. “Now just run across and hop the two roofs; not that hard, they’re only about a foot apart each. Just don’t miss the jump; you don’t want to fall and get caught. And take this!” Swift looked back over the edge of the warehouse roof as Shade tossed him something, which he caught and looked at; it was a small walkie-talkie of sorts. “If you need to talk to me, just press the little button on the side and talk, then let go again as soon as you’re done talking. Now go!” Swift didn’t need to be told twice; he quickly ran and jumped from one rooftop to the next, then ran and jumped across the second one to the roof of Silver’s old one. He saw the ventilation unit opening and climbed up onto it, kicking in the grate and dropping inside the ventilation shaft.
It was obvious to Swift within seconds that Silver had kept good raps on his ventilation; the shaft was immaculate, almost to the point where Swift could see his reflection in the metallic walls. He crawled through it carefully to the very end of it, seeing that the vent that normally covered the opening was already missing. He crawled out and dropped down into the warehouse, the sound of his hooves hitting the concrete floor echoing off of the walls. He took a moment to look about and take in what had once been Silver’s hideout. He saw countless tools and various car parts; turbochargers, intercoolers, air intakes, throttle bodies, and much more were strewn about the garage area, and in the center of the garage in front of the door was a single set of tire tracks. Swift presumed they were made by Silver’s car in his haste to get away. He then saw the small cubicle area that Silver had told him about and he walked to it, opening the door and walking inside. He saw a single chain dangling from a light bulb and pulled it, turning on not just the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling but three others mounted on the walls. He took a moment to look about in there as well.
It was a simple room, comprised of a desk with a few drawers, a rolling chair, a miniature refrigerator and the large safe that Swift assumed was the same safe Silver had told him about. He looked on the desk and saw two wrenches, a pencil, and, slightly more interesting, a notebook.
“Swift,” a crackly voice came over the walkie-talkie; it was Shade. “Can you hear me?” Swift grabbed his walkie and pushed the button down on the side.
“Yeah, I hear ya,” Swift replied.
“Good,” Shade said. “I know you’re in; how much do you think we’re gonna have to get out of there?”
“Dunno yet,” Swift said. “I haven’t cracked open his safe yet, but I got the combination.”
“Open it then!” Shade replied.
“Hold on,” Swift told him. “Thar’s a notebook on his desk in ‘ere.” He walked to the desk and sat down in the chair, reading the front cover’s writing. “’My Daily Journal’. Hm.”
“What?” Shade said, puzzled. “I didn’t know Silv kept a journal. What’s written in it?” Swift flipped open the notebook and scanned through the pages until he found an interesting entry.
“’Ere,” Swift said into the walkie, “this one’s dated just a few weeks ago.” He began to read the entry aloud.
“It’s late, probably around 2 AM or something like that. But I can’t sleep worth a damn right now; got too much stuff on my mind. That huge black market car shipment just came in and I’m glad that went over alright, but I think it may have raised a few red flags. The cops were everywhere. I’m just glad that driving and tuning happened to be my special talent; the car I took got stripped, a quick basic tune (y’know, oil change, spark plugs, that stuff) and put back together in two days so that I could get it off my hooves. All I know is the cops are out looking for that car, I swear, and I’m just glad I don’t have it on me anymore. If I did, I’d be done for in a second.
“Honestly though, I think I’m already fucked as it is. The cops seem way more on edge lately; more prone to jump at anything that doesn’t seem right. I’m running scared again; not the first time at all. I’ve been running for three years, and I’m not about to get caught. I can only hope somepony doesn’t drop a hint as to where I am…”
“…Wow,” Shade’s voice said. “I knew about the shipment and the cop chase that went down, but how Silver got that car out in two days is amazing. And just how he knew something was up… that colt’s real perceptive.”
“Seems like it,” Swift said as he flipped through the notebook, seeing page after endless page of Silver’s scrawl. “What kinda car did he take though?”
“I think he grabbed a ’98 EK Civic Type R,” Shade replied. “Illegal in mainland Equestria, but fast as shit if you tune it right. He was always partial to Honda, that colt… He’d grab a Honda from any of the heists if there weren’t any Nissans or Mitsubishis in the shipment.”
“Hold on, ‘ere’s another entry,” Swift said as he stopped on another interesting page. Once again, he began to read it out loud.
“Life sucks ass at the moment. The 400R has a fuel injector leak and a blown turbo, I’m up to my eyeballs in ponies who need their cars fixed, I got into five fights this week and I miss my family more than anything. I’ve honestly even forgotten why the hell I keep running all the time. No cop ever listens to my reasoning, but what difference would that make? They always try to either arrest me or kill me; seems to me if I killed myself right now I’d be doing the world a favor.”
“What the fuck?” Shade said, interrupting Swift. “I didn’t know Silv was struggling with suicidal thoughts.”
“Shut yer cake hole, thar’s more,” Swift said. He continued reading.
“I mean, for fuck’s sake, what do I even matter in the big scheme of things? I’m an eighteen year old excuse of a unicorn who’s been running from the cops since I was fifteen for something I shouldn’t even be being blamed for. I had no choice in the matter. Ugh… well, I guess killing myself wouldn’t really matter either… guess I just gotta keep on living. But until I figure out why I’m gonna be depressed and shit for a while.”
Swift then looked down at the bottom of the page, where there appeared to be a very deep crimson color crusted onto the bottom of the paper.
“…What the hell?” Shade’s hushed voice came over the walkie. “I mean… I knew Silv had problems, but… to that extent?”
“Thar’s dried blood on the page, too…,” Swift added, touching the bottom of the page where Silver’s dried blood was.
“Damn…,” Shade said. “…Hey… let’s forget about that journal for now. Open up the safe, see what’s in there and if I need to distract the cop out front or not.”
“Right,” Swift said, looking to the monstrous safe. “Now let’s see ‘ere…” He walked to it and began turning the large dial to the correct numbers that Silver had told him. He could hear the tumblers clicking as he entered the combination. “Twenty-four… zero… thirteen.” He heard a loud clang and he turned the wheel on the side, hearing another lock turn as he pulled on the handles and opened the safe.
Almost immediately he was greeted by three falling burlap sacks, which he dodged easily by simply backing up. He picked up on the sound of metallic objects shifting as the bags hit the ground, noting that there was probably a large amount of Bits within each. He looked inside the safe and saw at least ten more of the same type of bags, presumably filled with money as well. He also saw a single photo frame, which he slowly reached out and picked up carefully, examining the photo within.
There was no doubt that Silver was one of the ponies in the photo; the golden mane, silver body and amber eyes gave that away, but he was several years younger; somewhere around eleven years old. But Swift couldn’t figure out who the others in the photo were; there was one mare, somewhere presumably around thirty-five years old, a stallion around the same age as the mare and then a colt a few years younger than Silver. The photo had been taken at a hill of some sort, with a solitary tree overlooking a vast field of grass. Silver had the younger colt in one hoof, giving him noogies with the other while they both seemed to be laughing. The mare and the stallion in the background were smiling at the two colts, the mare having a glow of pride in her eyes as she looked upon the two. Swift just continued to stare at the picture, confused. What kind of importance did this photo hold to Silver? Was it really so important that he kept it locked up in a safe?
That’s when he noticed that all of the ponies in the photo looked incredibly alike, and they all shared quite a few similarities. The older stallion in the background had the same color eyes as Silver, as well as a shared body color. The mare’s mane color was the same as Silver’s as well. And the colt that Silver was giving noogies had the same mane color as Silver’s body. They also were all unicorns except for the stallion in the back, who was an earth pony.
It was then that Swift realized just what he was looking at; he was looking at a picture of Silver’s family several years before he’d met him. The stallion was most likely Silver’s father, the mare his mother, and the younger colt most likely a sibling of Silver’s. They all looked so happy in the photo; they were all smiling and laughing while they had no care in the world what was going on around them.
“Swift?” Shade’s voice rang in. “Talk to me. You need a distraction or can you get all that stuff out through the roof?” Swift looked at all of the bags and items inside of the safe and immediately judged that he needed a distraction.
“Ya need to get rid of that cop outside,” Swift said. “Got at least twelve sacks of cash in ‘ere, plus some things I don’t know what they are.”
“Alright, one distraction coming up,” Shade replied. Barely ten seconds later, Swift heard the Australian accent outside the warehouse door saying something unintelligible, and he then heard a loud bang, like something-or rather somePONY- had been slammed against a metal surface. The large door then rolled up, allowing Shade to enter; the cop who had been out front was out cold on the ground.
“What’d ya even do?” Swift asked as Shade entered the cubicle.
“Ah, told the dumb bastard that someone nearby needed help right away,” Shade replied. “Stupid prick fell for it right away and I grabbed him and slammed his head into the door. Nothin’ special.” Swift just shook his head.
“Violent, but effective, I s’pose…,” Swift remarked. “Now c’mon, let’s load up these bags and hightail it outta ‘ere. Cops oughta be stormin’ this place when that pony outside comes to.”
“Right,” Shade replied. “Lemme get the Lexus over here. You stay put.” Swift nodded as Shade quickly ran out of the warehouse, leaving Swift by himself. Swift simply pondered what Silver’s life had been like and what had caused him to run away and then end up in Ponyville three years after he started running from the police.
Of course, inevitably his thoughts were interrupted as he heard the GS400 pull up outside, and he aided Shade in backing the car into the warehouse by signaling to him whether to turn more one way or another, or to stop and go. Finally, the car was fully inside, and the two began loading the sacks of money into the trunk, one by one. Swift’s assumption of at least twelve sacks of Bits was heavily wrong; there were many, MANY more than that. Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen… the amount went up and up until they had loaded twenty-four bags into the car.
“Whoo, glad that’s over,” Swift said, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow. “Hope I can get all this in my car to get it back to Silv.”
“Hold on, there’s more stuff we’ve gotta grab,” Shade said, going back into the cubicle. Swift raised his eyebrow but followed, seeing Shade grabbing the notebook from the desk and putting it in a satchel he had with him now, as well as the wrenches and pencil. He then opened the drawers and pulled out a few more pencils, a knife, and a few boxy items that Swift couldn’t identify. He also watched as the Australian pony grabbed about ten bottles filled with some sort of a liquid, each one of them having a cap with a dripper on it, and then several batteries and two or three chargers for the batteries.
“Hold up,” Swift said, causing Shade to stop and look at him. “What’s all that stuff you just packed in that satchel thar?”
“I’m pretty sure that was Silver’s vapes and vape juices and other stuff for them,” Shade replied simply. Swift raised an eyebrow, and Shade looked back to see the expression on Swift’s face before shaking his head. “It’s like cigarettes, but it’s just water vapor instead of actual smoke.” Swift nodded in slight understanding.
“Now c’mon, let’s get outta ‘ere, ‘fore the cops come,” Swift said, going to the driver’s side of the GS400. Shade nodded in agreement as he walked to the passenger door and got in himself, and Swift put the car back in gear, driving back out onto the open city streets without leaving so much as a trace behind.
-
“Well, that went off without a hitch,” Shade said as they were transferring the haul from Silver’s warehouse into Swift’s Mustang from the GS400. “I’m actually glad Silv sent you; didn’t have to do all the Celestia-damn work by myself for a change.” Swift chuckled.
“I’ve just gotta ask you somethin’ real quick,” Swift said as he tossed the last bag of money into his trunk, just barely managing to shut the trunk lid. “You’ve known Silv a long while now, seems like. Is he… well, trustworthy?” Shade smirked.
“You just met the colt, didn’t ya?” Shade replied. “Silv’s the most trustworthy pony I know. He’s always kept his word to myself and everypony else that he knows. He’s an honest guy; that’s why when he was sitting at a stand in the market here ponies would flock to him to buy his merchandise because they knew that they could trust him not to sell them a bad part, and if he did that they’d get their money back with no extra hassle. He’ll protect his friends and his allies like they’re his own family, and anypony who fucks with him or anyone close to him is like asking for a one way ticket to the emergency room.” Shade looked up at Swift. “The way I see it, you’re off to a roaring start on being on that fiery colt’s good side. Stay there and he’ll fuck up anypony who fucks with you. Get on his bad side though… it won’t be pretty.” Shade took the satchel that he had on off and hoofed it to Swift, and Swift put it on, hearing the items inside clank against each other at the shift. “Good luck, mate. Hope to see you around again; and take this as well.” He placed something in Swift’s hoof, covering it up with his own as he spoke one last time. “Anytime, anyplace; use that and I’ll come to help you out.” He then walked back into the shop, leaving Swift in silence. He looked at what Shade had placed in his hoof, and he smirked.
The item was nothing more than a business card of sorts; it had a phone number written down on it, and a note below saying “No, I’m not gay; don’t call me for sex.” Swift chuckled at this as he got into his Mustang and started it up, driving back around to the entrance of the black market and out into the alley and finally back onto the streets, heading for Ponyville to make the delivery.