Hitmares

by Shane1108

Chapter Four: The Hearth's Warming Eve Massacre

Octavia and Lyra chugged along the snowy streets of Canterlot headed for a lower east side apartment to have a “chat” with a unicorn named Starry Skies who, according to the information that Sunset had given them at the club, was deep purple with a light brown mane and a cutie mark of a fruit basket. Lyra thought to herself just what exactly that could mean as she read over the paper trying to remember exactly where his apartment building was. It had been quite some time since she had been to this part of the city and she liked to pretend that part of her life didn’t exist as much as she could.

She was born here in a small hospital that happened to only be a few blocks away from where they were now. She had a fairly normal childhood, as normal as a pony who’s family were always incredibly poor. She never had much but she was always happy as a foal. While her parents were busy ignoring her and spending the little bits that they made from odd jobs on various dubious substances she learned a way to provide for herself. When she was young she had discovered her love for music and eventually found an instrument that was easy and fun to play as well as quite portable in the lyre.

She was able to make enough bits from playing music on the street corner and even earned a lyre cutie mark. Eventually though it wasn’t enough to keep her stable and she had to adopt more dubious methods earning bits. After being spotted playing on the streets near downtown by Sunset she was offered a job. At first it was small things, helping clean some of her illegal money through shows around the area. Then occasionally someone would need roughing up to see things her way. Lyra discovered then that she had some pent up anger that she had repressed with music when she was younger

At first she was uneasy about it all. It never seemed right but she needed to survive and was willing to compromise her morals occasionally to make it happen. Eventually she put her feelings aside to try and make a better life for herself. Sunset had even made her a deal to send her to the music academy as long as she kept working for her when she needed it. It was there that things started to change for her.

On the first winter break from school she went to visit some family in Ponyville (mostly cousins as she hadn’t spoken to either of her parents since she started working with Sunset), she had never been before. On the first morning in town she was looking for something sweet to eat and walked into the local candy shop. That day her life changed forever.

She saw the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, a young and amazing earth pony mare by the name of Bon Bon who was a candy maker in training. Lyra had never been hit so hard in her life. She fell in love almost instantly. Every weekend for the next month she would make her way to Ponyville just to chat with Bon Bon, getting to know her little by little. Eventually she decided to ask her on a date and when she agreed Lyra had never been happier.

Things went fast after that. They were spending so much time together that Lyra started to skip out on classes and spend all of her time in Ponyville. When Bon Bon found out she wouldn’t let that happen. She loved Lyra’s music so much. It was one of the things that had made her fall in love with the mint green unicorn on their first date when Lyra had played her a song that she had written just for her. A compromise was made and they decided to move to Canterlot together with Bon Bon striking out on her own and opening a shop for herself to support the two while Lyra finished school.

Things were looking up. Bon Bon was making plenty of bits and they even had made friends with Vinyl and Octavia. The only thing that was asked of Bonnie was that Lyra leave Sunsets employ. She couldn’t stand the thought of her beautiful sweet marefriend assaulting other ponies and wouldn’t stand for it. Sunset had given her blessing and said that she wouldn’t get in the way of love. She would even continue to pay for her schooling, which Lyra was very happy to hear as she dreaded for weeks in advanced telling Sunset that she couldn’t work anymore.

Just before graduation Lyra proposed to Bonnie and soon after had their wedding. It was the happiest day in her entire life. Things were starting to look up for the couple. Bonnie’s business even seemed to be doing surprisingly well. Or at least that’s what she thought at the time. She now knew just how much debt that her wife was in and the reason behind her running out, she just couldn’t handle the stress anymore.

Lyra’s memories had been the only thing holding her together the past week but she would eventually start to crack when she got to the end of the story. She knew there must have been a good reason that Bonnie left and she figured that if she could take care of the debt then she would be able to come back home. That was the one thing that kept her sane when she started cracking like this. It was time to focus on the task at hand and get as many bits as she could as fast as she could. She didn’t mind doing this kind of work, especially if it meant getting the love of her life back.

With that in her mind she steeled her resolve. They were coming up the street that the apartment building was on and it was time to get into character. She wasn’t what most ponies would think of as intimidating in her everyday life. While Octavia had a really cold stare that could stop most ponies in their tracks and you could almost sense the crazy coming off of Vinyl from a mile away, Lyra didn’t really have anything like that. She was generally bubbly and happy in her everyday life and had to really work at being feared. Conjuring up thoughts of her parents usually did the trick back in the day but now she knew that just focusing on her goal of getting Bonnie back would be motivation enough to do whatever she needed to do.

As they pulled up to the building Octavia shut off the engine and looked to Lyra. “Are you ready?” She asked in a serious but still caring tone. She couldn’t afford Lyra losing her nerve or causing some kind of a scene when they got in there. Lyra just put on her best intimidating face and nodded her head. That was all she needed as convincing for now, she just hoped that things could go well.

They made their way out of the car and walked slowly into the large brown building around the back entrance. They decided to be as quiet as they could so they took the stairs. It was only three floors up so it didn’t take long. The building was pretty run down. They could see cockroaches scattering on the walls as Lyra’s horn lit their path. The walls were cracked and there wasn’t any heating. It seemed like a good place for a pony who didn’t want to be found to hide out. As they approached door 305 Lyra put out her light. Octavia gave her one last glance before they went in, asking her if she was ready with just a stare. Lyra nodded and

Octavia pulled the pistol from her coat pocket as Lyra went to check the door, it was unlocked,a huge mistake for the pony inside.In one fluid motion Lyra opened the door and they both stepped inside. It was a small place with the bed in the center of the room. Starry Skies was passed out on the bed with an empty bottle of whiskey on the floor next to his left hoof and a small silver pistol sitting on top of his right hoof. Octavia slowly crept around the passed out unicorn with her pistol still pointed at him as Lyra shut and locked the door behind them. She then walked over by Octavia and slowly picked his gun up with her magic, turning it around and aiming it at him.

They moved next to each other at the foot of the bed. Lyra turned her head to Octavia and whispered “So what’s our next move here?”

Octavia took a second to think about it. They needed to wake him up but couldn’t risk him reacting too fast and making too much noise. They had to make sure that they got all the information that they came for at least before things got out of hoof. They had to find a way to make sure he didn’t do anything crazy. She then had a quick idea strike her. He had been passed out on just the mattress. In the corner she noticed the crumpled heaps of the discarded sheets from the bed. She guessed the alcohol was all he needed to keep himself warm on this freezing winter night. Her mind went to work fast. “Can you use your magic to tie him to the bed post and cover his mouth with those sheets?” She said pointing to them. “It needs to be delicate so we don’t wake him until it’s done.”

Lyra nodded and slowly set down the gun and picked up the sheets as quietly as she could. While she may have not always been much of a fighter or a master mage she had grown quite adept at using magic delicately from all the time spent playing her lyre over the years. She was able to pick up the sheets and weave them into knots around the bedposts and his hooves with grace and expert precision (of course it probably helped that he was blackout drunk and wasn’t going to be responding to much).

Once he was fully tied she set to work on the extremely touchy procedure of tearing off a few strips from the remaining sheets and making something to keep him from talking. She multi-tasked the strips of fabric in the air with starting to gently lift his head off of the mattress when suddenly he opened his eyes. Out of reflex she dropped his head on the mattress and took a step back, grabbing the pistol off of the floor that she had discarded with her magic and pointing it directly at him.

He shook his head around for a second trying to focus on just what was going on. “What in tartarus is this? Who the fuck are you two?” He slurred out. He then looked at his hooves, noticing that he was very much incapacitated and started trying to
squirm.

Octavia stepped forward and pressed her snub nosed pistol to his forehead. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you dear. I’ve decided in the spirit of Hearth’s Warming I don’t want to have to use mister pistol here make a mess of your head. Don’t make me regret it and change my mind. As to who we are, that doesn’t really matter. What matters is who sent us. Do you know a mare named Sunset Shimmer?”

His eyes went wide with fear at the mention of Sunset’s name. “Look,” he started frantically. “Whatever it is that she thinks I did I swear I didn’t. Please just let me go. I didn’t do anything. I haven’t even spoken to her in months.” He started speaking faster and faster and was starting to get loud.

Octavia pressed the gun harder into his head. “Shh. If you start getting loud this conversation is going to end right now, and not in a good way for you. Just tell me where the briefcase is as well as the extra bits you owe in back pay and we can be on our way.”

He started to sputter and mumble. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know anything about any briefcase and I’ve paid my dues. I’ve been robbed twice in the last three months and she was nowhere to be seen. If she isn’t going to actually protect me then I’m going to pay someone else to do it.”

Lyra stepped forward at that. “Look buddy. We aren’t here to hear your little stories. Give us what we want and we’ll get out of here. We’ve got stuff to do tonight too you know. As cliché as it sounds we can do this the easy way or the hard way. If you want to do it the hard way it’s fine by us so it’s time to decide.”

Octavia was a little taken aback by Lyra’s forwardness at first. She had heard that Lyra worked for Sunset in the past but they had never worked together. Even though they knew each other through school they hadn’t actually found out that Lyra knew Sunset until her and Bon Bon’s wedding. She was getting a taste of just how far Lyra would go to get Bonnie back; something that she hoped would never come back against her.

Her train of thought was cut off by Starry speaking again. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have any briefcase and I don’t have any bits to give you. Look around, do you think I would be here if I had bits?”

Lyra just grunted in frustration. “Fine buddy, it’s obvious that you want to do this the hard way.” She then levitated the strip of sheet that she was going to use to gag him and began to press down on his throat with it as hard as she could. His eyes went wide and he started struggling against his bonds trying to cry out but nothing would come. After a few seconds she took it away. He began cough and she could see tears starting to fall from his eyes.

“Now,” Octavia started, pressing her gun to his head again. “Do we need to keep doing this until you finally can’t fight it anymore and die or are you going to tell us where it is?”

He was sobbing now, realizing the gravity of the situation that he was in. They weren’t going to leave without what they came for, there was no other way around it. He finally broke. “It’s… It’s under the bed. All of it. Just take it and go, please.”

Octavia motioned for Lyra to check while she kept the gun to his head. Lyra got down and of course it was there. She opened it up, amazed at what she saw inside of it. “Are we happy?” Octavia asked her. She didn’t respond, she just kept staring at the briefcase. “Lyra? Hello?” She finally snapped out of it and looked back at Octavia. She asked again, “Are we happy?”

Lyra looked bewildered and slowly closed the briefcase. “Yeah,” she started slowly. “We’re happy. Let’s just get out of here.”

Octavia nodded to her. “Go get the car started and pull it around. I need to have a little talk with our friend here so he makes sure to forget what we look like and that he understands what will happen to him if he does something like this again. Lyra turned quickly to the door with the briefcase held in her magic. As she made her way out Octavia turned to look at Starry, he was trying to make his way out of his binds.

“See.” She said walking over to him. “I told you it would be easy once you handed it over. I don’t know why you ponies always have to make it hard on yourselves.” As she said this to him she started walking around the edge of the bed, grabbing his pistol off of the ground as she reached it. “Now let’s have a little chat shall we?” She said with a smile cracking on her face.

Lyra had just reached the car and had placed the briefcase in the trunk. Celestia knows what would happen if they got pulled over and the guards found that in their possession. She couldn’t understand why some random pony had it or how he could have possibly gotten it from Sunset in the first place. On top of that, how did Sunset even get it? That she surely didn’t even want to know. As she snapped out of her thoughts she realized that Octavia was taking a really long time. She hoped everything had been okay. What if Starry tried to start something when she untied him?

Then she heard a muffled bang from the apartment. It sent a deep shiver down her spine. She immediately started looking around frantically. At first she wanted to hop out of the car and go check on Octavia, but if they needed to make a quick escape she wouldn’t be ready. She figured Tavi could most likely handle her own if she had to. She had never done anything with her before like this but just one look at her sometimes would let most ponies know that if they tried to mess with her they would regret it.

Now though, a pony was most likely dead up there. She She had always known somewhere in her heart that Sunset did more than just intimidate and extort other ponies but she would try not to think about it. She tried even now to put it out of her mind. What would Bonnie say if she knew that Lyra had in some way taken part in a murder, whether it was out of self defense or not? Lyra couldn’t think of that now though, Bonnie had to come home.

Still though, she had been told that there would be no heavy work on this job, and what was the deal with that briefcase? Sunset never said anything to her about a briefcase, especially nothing about one that was filled with….that. Her fur stood up just thinking about what she had seen. She needed the bits though, and fast. Now wasn’t the time to get picky about how she got it. As she was pondering this she heard Octavia hop into the passenger seat of the car. “Time to go now dear, quickly.” Lyra’s mind was pulled back into the moment and she put the car in gear and chugged down the street away from the building.

“So…” she started, looking over at Octavia briefly in between watching the road. “What happened up there?” At first Octavia didn’t answer. She just pulled a cigarette from her pack and lit it, rolling down her window and taking a slow drag.

She started slowly. “Our friend didn’t take to kindly to losing that package and all of his bits. He went for his gun as soon as I untied him and we got into a little tussle. Obviously I came out ahead. Don’t worry though, it’s taken care of.” She exhaled what seemed like a large cloud of smoke when it mixed with the fogging of her breath from the cold night air.

Lyra was having trouble processing it. She believed Octavia but couldn’t believe that she could be so calm about it. Had she done something like this before? She wouldn’t have put it past Vinyl but she just couldn’t picture Octavia doing something like that. Maybe she was just in shock and that’s why she didn’t have much of a reaction. Lyra had nothing else to go on so she assumed that must have been it. Anything else was too much to consider after how strange the night had been. So she just kept quiet and drove on.

About an hour later after making their way across town they sat parked out in front of the bakery. “Thanks for bringing me along tonight.” Lyra said, slowly at first. Octavia hadn’t said much since they left. She just figured that having to shoot Starry was weighing heavy on her mind. “I really appreciate the extra work and I’m always ready for more.”

Octavia took a few seconds but she finally turned to Lyra and smiled a little bit. “It’s no problem at all dear, it was nice having you around. As much as love working with Vinyl she can be a bit…heavy hooved sometimes when it comes to trying to get information. It’s a shame how it ended up but at least we got what we came for.”

She then tossed the bag of bits that they had collected from Starry. “This is for tonight and there will be plenty more in the future if you need work. Let’s keep the business about the briefcase just between us shall we? Let’s just say that what is in there is something very important to Sunset as you no doubt could have guessed and keep it at that eh?”

Lyra was confused but the bag was quite stuffed and she was definitely grateful for it. She had assumed by then that of course the briefcase is what they had actually came for and that Sunset for some reason didn’t want to tell her about it but decided it would be best not to press the issue. “Thank you.” She said with a large smile. “I’ll be back for more as soon as she has more to do. There aren’t really words for how much I appreciate this chance to save our bakery. I know that if there is one thing that can bring Bonny back it’s this.”

Octavia then put a hoof on Lyra’s shoulders, looking at her with a smile that mirrored her own. “Why don’t you stop by the club tomorrow evening. I can’t imagine how hard it has been for you with Bonny gone and no one deserves to spend Hearth’s Warming Eve alone. We are having a little party in celebration after the re-enactment. It should be quite fun and you will get to spend time with some friends if nothing else.”

A tear came to Lyra’s eyes at that. She hadn’t even been thinking about how hard it would be to spend the holiday alone. It was always one of her favorites, a time for giving and friendship and family. She couldn’t bear the thought of spending the night in her empty apartment thinking about where her wife had gone and what she could be doing. She grabbed Octavia’s hoof from her shoulders and wrapped her in an awkward hug over the car’s center console.

“Thank you so much Tavi.” She said with a sniffle, the tears beginning to flow. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” They continued the hug for a few seconds then both got out of the car with Lyra bidding her goodnight with a wave as she went inside and Octavia hopping back in the driver’s seat, heading home for the evening.

As the early morning sun rose Octavia was already up and ready for the day. She was going to head into work soon and see how well they had done from the first nights take of their new supply and deliver the briefcase to Sunset as soon as she could. She didn’t want that thing in her possession any longer than she had to. She brought her evening dress along with her for the party that night. She didn’t want to be in it all day and risk getting it stained or dirty.

Across town in the back room behind the office of the club, Vinyl had just finally gotten to sleep when the club’s phone rang, shaking her back awake. Her head felt like someone had hit her horn with a hammer and her whole body was aching. Next to her, still very much passed out, was the bruised and scratched form of Rose. The memory of the night that they spent together came back to her and she cracked a sly smile. Rose was different from the others. She loved everything that Vinyl had to dish out and then some, and would always ask for more.

As she took another look at her sleeping form while she stumbled her way to the phone in the office she thought to herself that hiring Rose had been a pretty good idea. She was learning how to serve drinks fast and she had learned how to serve her even faster. She finally managed to stumble to the phone, cursing to herself about who would have the gall to call her at this hour.

“Yo.” She answered in a gruff tone, the phone shaking in her weakened magic.

“Why Vinnie sweetie is that any way to talk to your dear auntie?” The voice of Sunset said on the other end before breaking into a chuckle. “Did I wake you up dear?” She asked, her voice taking a mockingly concerned tone.

“Very funny Auntie.” Vinyl said flatly. “I just got to sleep probably like ten minutes ago or less. That shit you brought over last night was bomb. We already got rid of probably over a third of it and it wasn’t even on a rave night. I can’t wait until tonight, we’re going to be rich by morning. Hell we may even need another shipment to get ready for it.”

Sunset laughed again. “That’s great to hear. That’s actually why I was calling. I wanted to make sure everything was going well. Not that I had any doubts of course. I’d be more than happy to have some more sent over. I was going to personally attend but I’m needed in a bit of an upper-class soirée of course in the castle this evening. Sorry I can’t make it. I’m sure you will have plenty of fun though. I saw you flirting with the new girl when I left, how did that go?”

At the question Vinyl’s mind began to flashback to the frantic antics that had played out in her drug induced haze the night before, cracking a smile again. “I would say it went pretty well. She’s passed out on the bed right now. I think I’m going to have to keep this one, she’s a lot of fun.”

She could almost hear her aunt shaking her head over the phone. “Just be careful dear. We wouldn’t want to have anymore mishaps like what happened last time, would we?”

Vinyl grunted. “How many times do I have to tell you and Tavi that it was an accident?” she said in an angry whisper, trying to not wake up Rose in the other room. “I told her to let me know if she was having trouble breathing. It’s not my fault that she never said anything. Besides it’s not like anyone was going to miss her anyways. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

Sunset paused for a second. “Whatever you say darling, just be careful. Celestia knows I’m not judging you. We all make mistakes. It’s about learning from them that makes us better ponies. Anyways, I’m off to get ready for the day. I’ll have someone come down before you open up with enough to tide you over through the party tonight. I’ve got a few other major deliveries to make too, apparently it’s selling well all over the city. Have a good Hearth’s Warming Eve my little Vinnie. I love you.”

Vinyl didn’t hesitate to respond. “I love you too Auntie. Have a good Hearth’s Warming and I’ll call you sometime tomorrow so we can meet up and have lunch or something. I’m gonna go pass out for a couple more hours so I’m not a zombie tonight.” She then hung up and promptly did exactly what she said she was going too. Rose stirred a little bit but never woke up so she wrapped her hooves around her and finally went to sleep.

It didn’t last too long though as Octavia showed up less than an hour later. Vinyl didn’t have much more patience for disturbance and simply yelled out “Fuck off” to the knocking at the door. Octavia peeked in and saw her frame wrapped around a bruised but very satisfied looking Rose. She thought to herself that at least Vinyl hadn’t killed this one. They could use all the help that they could get tonight for the big party. Velvet and Long Play would be showing up soon to get busy prepping everything so she took some time to count the bits that they had pulled from last night.

She was amazed to say the least. They had taken in over 20,000 in profit in one night. Of course half of that was going to Sunset and the other half was going to be split between her and Vinyl with some left over to pay the employees. Still though, she would net around 4,000 or so which was pretty fantastic for a single night. They had even gone through quite a bit of their supply and with the party tonight she was sure that they would be swimming in bits by the time the sun came up on Hearth’s Warming Day.

So the day went on and after Velvet and Long Play had spent most of the day setting things up with Octavia, Rose and Vinyl finally woke up around the time it was getting dark and started getting ready themselves. Aside from New Year’s, Hearth’s Warming was their biggest night of the year. They had a huge party that started off with softer music and as the night got later eventually turned into a full on rave sometime after midnight. Hundreds of ponies would be in and out as the night went on and almost all of them, especially the rave crowd, were customers of their side business as well.

Rose was given the night off, despite her saying that she was fine, as to not give off the wrong vibe to customers who would have to stare at a battered bartender all night. Vinyl was given the task since it had been her fault for Rose’s appearance in the first place, which she happily agreed to. Nothing was more fun to her than pouring drinks on work nights. She got to talk with all the customers and even take a few shots herself when they offered (which thanks to her charisma they almost always did). It was pretty much a win-win for her as far as she was concerned.

As the night came closer to starting Octavia got ready by putting on the beautiful purple and red dress that Sunset had gotten her for her last birthday. It was custom made by an up and coming fashionista in Ponyville of all places. As she came down from the office the doors had already opened and ponies were filing in, with the first band preparing to start their set. She noticed Lyra coming in the door and walked up to her, offering her a table and ordering the first round of drinks. She hoped that Fleur would show up at some point as well but knew that during major holidays she was always somewhere nice as a part of her cover while researching for her newest job.

For then it was just them, eventually she had to take a few minutes to prepare Sunsets shipment and get samples ready for Velvet and Long Play to distribute to the ponies in need. As the night went on and she got slightly more intoxicated things seemed to be going really well. The last band was playing their set before the transition to the rave and she was having a fun conversation with Lyra about school memories.

“Then she actually tried to tell the professor that she tripped and landed on that mare and that’s why they were like that when he found them. Can you believe how ridiculous she used to be?” Lyra said before busting up with laughter. It had been a good night. She had even managed to not be intensely worried about what Bonnie was doing for the first time since she had left, something that surprised her.

Octavia laughed deeply as well before turning to look at Vinyl behind the bar chatting it up and doing shots with ponies dressed up as Chancelor Puddinghead and Private Pansy. She turned back to Lyra. “As if she’s any less ridiculous now.” She said, stifling a giggle. It had been a good night. Things with Lyra were going well, she was a little disappointed that Fluer didn’t show up but there was nothing that could be done about that. She hadn’t checked recently but if the occasional whisper from Velvet was any indication then they were making a mint in profits as the ponies poured in.

Then all at once things changed. A group of eight masked unicorns came bursting through the door holding up assault rifles and shotguns. One of them fired a shot in the air and began screaming. “Everybody hit the fucking floor! This is a robbery!” Ponies went into a panic, as they tend to do when someone comes into the room and starts shooting and tried to run for the other exits.

Immediately bullets started flying into the crowd. Vinyl dropped behind the bar to pick up the shotgun that was kept under it in her magic and Octavia grabbed Lyra and flipped the table that they were sitting at on its side, grabbing her pistol from her purse. She saw Velvet grabbing a mare who had been shot in the chest and was screaming and trying to pull her behind the stage into safety. Everything was moving so fast.

She heard one of them yell “Grab the shit and lets go. It should be in the office.” She knew that this was no random robbery, they knew what they were here for. She would rather be dead than lose what they had been working so hard for and were just getting started with. She immediately sat up and started firing in their direction, clipping one of the ones who was shooting at the crowd just above his right eye and dropping him, his gun still firing as it went wild out of his magical grip.

When they turned to shoot at the table they were hiding behind Vinyl raised the shotgun from behind the bar and fired two shots quickly at them, missing one entirely but hitting another one of them square in the chest with some of the rogue pellets taking out another one of the robbers back legs. He let out a scream as he hit the floor and as two made a break for the office two more began firing quickly at the bar. Vinyl made a quick break for it but the ponies who were dressed up as the founders who had hid with her weren’t as lucky as they were quickly torn to pieces from the barrage of bullets.

Lyra had set her sights on one and began using her magic to try and wrestle the gun from his grip. It went wild and started spraying everywhere eventually turning on him and hitting him with about 15 bullets in the upper body but not before it had hit at least five ponies in the crowd. The entire club was erupting in madness and the robbers knew that the situation wasn’t looking good so the four that remained made a break for the office and kept firing as they ran.

Vinyl tried to intercept them but she ended up catching a bullet in her chest and went down screaming in pain. Octavia saw this and panicked, running towards her and pulling her to safety behind the table. With the front doors now clear the remaining bar patrons began to rush out of them, nearly trampling the squirming thief who caught shells in the leg and full on trampling a couple of ponies with longer dresses who tripped.

She heard the window in the back office break and figured that they were going to climb out of the back window and make their escape down the fire escape, most likely with all of their powder and whatever bits they could stuff into the bags that they brought with them. There was no time to think of that though. Her brain went into full speed as she planned what needed to happen. She looked to Lyra who was holding Vinyl’s shoulder and slowly getting covered in her blood, looking shell shocked.

“Lyra!” She yelled at her. Lyra snapped to attention. “I think their gone. There is something we need to do and we have to do it fast. I need you to take that wounded robber into the back room and tie him up, put a gag on him and lock the door behind you when you come out. I need to call Sunset before the guards get here and get Vinyl to the hospital. This place is going to be a hotbed of guards soon and we need to be ready. Okay?”

Lyra vigorously nodded and hopped up quickly, stepping over the screaming downed ponies and rushing to the wounded robber, quickly scooping him up in her magic and running as quickly as she could towards the office. Vinyl was still screaming in pain herself as Octavia put pressure over the hole in her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.” She said as calmly as she could. Then she heard something that she hadn’t expected.

“It’s funny Tavi.” Vinyl coughed out, blood starting to come out of her mouth. “I’ve never actually been shot before. It hurts like a bitch. I kinda feel bad for all the ponies I’ve done this too now.” She then started laughing a little bit more until she started coughing up blood onto the floor.

“Shh.” Octavia cooed to her. “Stop talking. You need to save your energy. I didn’t realize how bad this was, we need to get going now.” There was no time to wait, if she didn’t make a move Vinyl was going to die right there on the floor with all the others. She stood up quickly, picking up Vinyl and putting her on her back. “Velvet! Lyra! If anyone can hear me someone needs to call Sunset now. Her number is written by the phone in the back. Tell her what happened. I’ve gotta go to the hospital now!”

There was no time to say anything else. She just hoped someone had heard her over the screams and cries of the injured and dying ponies on the floor around her as she ran out to her car as fast as she could. She could see the trail of blood that Vinyl was leaving behind in the snow as she opened the back door and gently put her inside. She ripped a piece of her bloody dress with her teeth and handed it to Vinyl. “You need to try and keep pressure on it. I’m going to get us to the hospital, I promise.” Vinyl could only weakly nod as she held the dress over the gushing hole in her chest.

Octavia jumped in the front seat and turned it on as quickly as she could, peeling out in the snow and almost crashing right away before speeding down the street. The hospital was almost fifteen minutes away at normal speed. She figured she had five at the most before Vinyl faded out so she pushed the pedal to the floor and raced as fast as she could through the snowy streets.

“Tavi.” She heard Vinyl weakly cry out from the back. “I’m pretty sure I’m dying. This is so fucked up. How did this happen?”

She shook her head trying to focus on the road. “What did I tell you Vinnie? You need to save your energy. You are going to be fine. You’re not dying. Just stay awake okay?” Vinyl didn’t respond. “Vinyl!” she screamed, not wanting to take her eyes off of the road. She finally afforded a second to look behind her and saw that Vinyl’s eyes were closed. She panicked and started crying out Vinyl’s name. She couldn’t fail now, Vinyl couldn’t die like this.

She could see the hospital at the end of the street and didn’t let go of the brakes unfortunately when she did finally try to stop she forgot about the ice that was covering the road and she started sliding. The last thing she saw was the front end of her car about to smash into one of the large pillars that held up the roof over the bay where the ambulances came in to drop off patients. She heard the sound of the sound of smashing metal and rock and felt her head hitting the steering wheel. Then everything went black and her problems faded away into the night.

Author's Note:

Here we are with our first real chapter of the first act in motion. Sorry for any errors, it's 3:30 AM right now and I'm super tired. If you catch any leave me a note in the comments and I'll fix them as I see them. Look for chapter five sometime in the next day or two. I have tomorrow off so I'm going to try and get it done. Thank you all again for reading, I appreciate it as well as any feedback.

Also on a side note, while I don't usually like references I couldn't help but reference the movie that helped serve as a big inspiration for this story, which I'm sure you will pick up on if you've seen it.

Comments

[BlackStealth08]

Holy shit that was intense.

[Shane1108]

5022030 I tried to make it as intense as I could without getting too gory or over the top. I think it ended up coming out okay. Thanks for reading btw

[BlackStealth08]

5025876 np, I just hope what I think happened didnt actually happen. Cliff hangers why must you torture me.