Spare Some Change?

by Nadir

The Confrontation

The day came, and oddly enough, Octavia didn’t really find herself feeling nervous. It was definitely there, but it was in the back of her head, not at the forefront, and not something that actually made her jittery or anything of the sort. Instead, she had an odd calm about her. Even as she dressed in her best - a nice, white sundress with a purple sash and a wide brimmed hat - she moved with a sense of being unshakeable.

The day began hours earlier with a team coming to her house to help fit her with what she needed. A purse had been given to her, a small, gray one that matched her coat and had quite the number of gold pieces inside of it, as well as a small wire for the team to listen in on. That and the co-words would be all she was given: Celestia’s Mercy.

Once she spoke the words, the team would flood in, arrest everyone, and they’d sweep the compound to find Vinyl. At least, that’s what they’d told Octavia. And she believed them, but she also knew that things never went to plan. No matter how straightforward, how easy something felt, it always went wrong. There was something about that - Morphy’s law or whatever. But Octavia would do her best, and that’s all she could do.

For a day that had such foreboding plans, the weather couldn’t have been nicer. Celestia’s sun shone in the sky, the warmth coming onto her coat and filling her mind up with hope. Ponies waved and smiled in the streets, and Octavia did her best to return them. The buildings Octavia passed slowly changed, going from nice, small townhouses and well kept stores gradually became more and more decrepit, run down. The stores changed from bakeries with their stores proudly on display, to pawn stores with bars on their windows.

Octavia hadn’t been around this part of town often. She’d never had a reason to be, not when her life was spent in the upper districts, when she played music professionally, when her parents were a noble family. It was a privilege that she couldn’t ignore, especially as she noticed the ponies passing her smile less, wave less, and just seem more run down, just like their buildings. There were still lively sorts, families together chatting and seeming happy, but it was fewer and far between, and the looks Octavia received started to border on predatory. Not for her, but for the purse around her flank.

She had to remind herself that nopony could know what she carried, nopony knew that she had a veritable fortune in that small handbag, but the fear of it still pricked the hairs on the back of her neck. Still, she kept her focus, walking forward step by step, getting closer and closer to the docks, the smells in the air changing gradually to oil, grease, and fire - the smell of industry.

It was a good thing that Octavia had remembered her directions, memorized the map before setting off. The lower districts seemed almost labyrinth to her mind, the streets twisting and turning, unlike the smooth, concentric circles of the streets above. A left here, a right on Griffin, then another on Tsach, not bad, it should be…

There.
A warehouse, normal looking as could be on the outside.There wasn’t much too it, a simple sloped roof and a weathered, brick surface. It used to be red at some point, probably, but now it was more of a gray tinged with red more than actually colored. A sign hung about the door: ‘D & L Shipping Co’. That was it, that’s what she had walked all this way for. The door underneath the sign didn’t have much to it either, the most simple, nondescript door she’d ever seen.

The pony swallowed, the anxiety suddenly welling up inside of her. It hadn’t bothered her on the way, but this close she couldn’t help it anymore. So much could go wrong, she could get caught, she could not get what the team needed, she might even be killed in the crossfire! No, Octavia shouldn’t do this, she needed to go home and rest, needed to have someone else-

Needed to save Vinyl.

That steeled her resolve like nothing else. Vinyl waited inside, Vinyl suffered inside and delaying this, backed out would mean she suffered longer and how could Octavia live with herself if she gave up now? She didn’t even have to do a lot, just have a conversation, an illegal one sure, but a conversation nonetheless.

Octavia took a long, deep breath, gathering her resolve and stepping forward. The door in front of her opened with a little tiny chime of a bell, the inside just as plain as the out. Yellowed, linoleum tiles took up the floor space, with simple ceilings with dull fluorescent lights. A desk in the front sat unmanned, and a few chairs haphazardly placed around gave it something of a ‘lobby’ feel.

A few looks around the place confirmed her initial guess - no pony waited for her. There was, however, a small chime bell on the desk, and with all the courage she could muster, the earth pony stepped forward and pressed her hoof on top, letting the thing chime out and ring through the place.

For a minute or so, nopony came. Octavia stayed alone with her thoughts, the chime still rining in her ears, the terror that her loved one had to deal with playing in her mind. Without a warning, a stallion stepped out from behind a nearby door, one that Octavia hadn’t even seen. He looked nice enough, pale blue coat, brown hair, dice cutie mark, wearing a simple, protective jacket. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he answered. Even his voice sounded sort of kind, like what you’d expect from a day. Octavia expected something else entirely, some gruff, seedy person who would stab you as soon as smile at you. But there he went, smiling away.

“What can I do ya for? Ain’t many of your type that come out here. I mean no offense, but you’re rather proper ain’t ya?” he asked, leaning against the counter with one arm and quirking up an eyebrow.

Now this is when Octavia’s script came in. She knew what she was supposed to say, it’d been all planned out from the very start. “Good afternoon!” she chimed in, with her own smile, with her own exuberance. She needed to play the part, the part of a well to do lady that just happened to go a little down the wrong path. “I’ve heard through a colleague of mine that your warehouse specializes in certain things that are a bit harder to get in other places,” she started, already implying what she wanted to get at. “And I have quite a bit of interest in the more exotic spices of life.”

The smile on the stallion’s face shrunk slightly, turning in but not going away. “Yea? Who’d ya hear that from anyways?”

Another response that Octavia had an answer to, her expression going a little sympathetic. “Ah, I’m afraid I can’t say. My colleague insisted that they remain anonymous, they said it was for both their safety and yours that we couldn’t connect them. Honestly, I know what you do here and I don’t intend to report it, soil it, or anything like that. I merely wish to peruse some of your wares for myself, would that be too hard?” she asked, fluttering her eyelashes at the stallion, putting her charm to good use.

That seemed to take him aback for a few seconds, the gears in his head quite clearly spinning so much that it showed on his face. “Aye, we could do something like that. What were you interested in particularly?” he asked.

Okay, home stretch. “Mare-y jane, if you will. I’m not too familiar with the different strands for yourself, so perhaps you could suggest something that could give me a good, relaxing night? My job is rather stressful, you see, I’m a musician that performs in a rather large orchestra and any bit of stress relief can be useful for me, Celestia, it’s definitely useful!” Octavia leaned against the counter too, propping herself up against it.

Wait, why did his face tighten up when she asked? “Yea? Alright. I think we got some in the back. How ‘bout you wait right there?” he asked, with a nod of his head. There was something wrong about this, something weird. Why did it feel weird? The stallion turned, heading towards the door he came from without another word. Octavia usually trusted her instincts, and now should probably continue along that path. “Celestia’s mercy,” she whispered. The trigger words, the squad would be here within minutes, right?

Which was definitely good, because as the man came out, others came out with him. A mare that she recognized from a night on her porch, one that had claimed to be an investigator, and another stallion, beefy, massive, hulking. The mare had a gun gripped in her magic, leveling the thing at Octavia, a faint smile on her face. “I remember you. I knocked on your door about… what was it, four months back?” she mused, brandishing the gun all the more closely.

Yes, Octavia recognized the mare, but she couldn’t give things away that easily. She put on an incredulous mask, eyes going wide and taking a small, itty bitty stuttering step back. “Ma’am, I have no idea what you mean!” she cooed, trying to clam this down, trying to bring it all back down to a baseline that she could handle. “I don’t think we’ve ever met in my life before, and I’m simply here to make a business transaction that-”

The gun pressed right against her chest, and that was more impetus than Octavia needed to shut the heck up. Her muzzle clamped shut, eyes going wide as she looked over the mare in front of her. “Yea, that’s bullshit. Seriously, you gotta learn when to shut up every now and then. I know you’re here for your little girlfriend, what I don’t know is how you were going to do it. So this is how things are going to play out - you’re going to take off your saddlebags slowly, and kick them over to my associate here-” The stallion from before nodded his head, indicating him, “- and he’s going to search them. If we find anything suspicious in there, I take you back and you get to see your girlfriend earlier than ya thought, but neither of you are going to leave here alive.”

Octavia swallowed a lump in her throat, though now it felt more like a damned boulder than just a lump. She took her damned time taking the saddle bags off, weakly nudging them towards the stallion, then kicking them quite a bit harder once it proved it wasn’t enough.

The air felt so thick you could cut it with a knife, and Octavia already knew what they’d find in there. They’d find the fire, they’d throw her in with Vinyl, they’d probably torture her to try and see who she worked with. Was Vinyl even still alive? She’d already tried to kill herself!

All at once, many things happened. First, the door behind her exploded open. Quite literally exploded, the thing shattering into a million splinters and flying into the air. Second, the gun in front of her fired, nearly point blank right into her chest. Finally, a deep purple shield surrounded her, stopping the splinters, the gunshot, anything at all from reaching her.

Three ponies searched inside, one that Octavia recognized - Royal Guard Captain Shining Armor. His horn glowed bright, standing his ground while two heavily armored guardsmen flanked him on each side, levitating guns of their own. “Freeze! Drop your weapons and surrender! Come peacefully and you’ll be treated well under the law. Resist, and all of Celestia’s might will be thrown at you.” It was an impressive speech, one that even rattled Octavia a little. Such a shame it didn’t matter.

Without another second passing, all hell broke loose.

Author's Note:

I can feel the end a-coming. Three, maybe four left.

Comments

[Fishsticks]

Excrement, meet fan.

[Autum Breeze]

The cover art made me worried it was Ocativa in trouble.

[Viper Pit]

Holy shit

[Natedogg2006]

I've loved this story so much already, but that was a different kind of thing. I was following along like it was a crime drama or something. The moment she gave too much information about herself and tiped them off made me cringe. Her on point "oh frick" instincts gave me relief. And it led to a perfect moment of tension. Can't wait to see how this finishes.

[YewUnicorn]

OOOOOHHHH!!! Things are getting GUD and I am all here fo it!! YEAH!!

[Nadir]

10439736
YEP

10439825
Well about that...

10440117
:3

10440723
It comes. Probably in a week!

10442760
Hope you're ready :3

[Pr1deM0rn1ngstar]

I can definitely say s*** hit the fan much faster than I thought it would

[BlueSh1ft]

He looked nice enough, pale blue coat, brown hair,

Me: "that's almost my OC"

dice cutie mark.

wait that'exactly my OC