> Can't Stop Now
>  by PingSquirrel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Taking the Job
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        As far back as I could remember, I always wanted to rip off the classic opening to a movie.  That, and be a private investigator.  It looks like I got to do both before I turned twenty-five.  I count that as a win.

        You could say I had a knack for finding out things I wasn’t supposed to know, like that time I caught two of my grade six teachers in the storage closet together.  Or getting where I’m not supposed to be, like that time where I picked the locks to the school and got copies of all the final exams for grade ten.  That doesn’t even count how good I’m at seeing things that no one ever thinks that anyone else will notice.  And I’m not talking about sitting in trees and sneaking peeks at girls as they change.

        By the way, I’m that scrawny guy with the camera.  Old leather jacket, a five o'clock shadow that took a week to grow, and the short black hair?  I’m in the blue Chrysler that looked like it should have been put to in a museum exhibit about dinosaurs and what they drove in the Jurassic.  Who still drove a gas car right these days with it hitting three fifty a litre anyways?  Between the camera and the car, the former was the most valuable thing I owned, and right now, it was earning it’s keep, while the car was likely going to cost me another few hundred by the end of the month.  Stupid car.

But, I digress.

I was in the middle of a case for an insurance company claiming fraud and in the gym across the street was the target for the investigation.  It looked like it was a case of legitimate fraud, given what I was seeing inside the gym; a hulk of a man was deadlifting with a crowd of amazed onlookers around him.  He tossed the weights away from himself as if they were nothing and cheered out with his arms raised above his head.  Even across the street, I thought I heard him.

“Yeah!”

There’s no way I should’ve heard that, so I wiggled a finger in my ear.  I don’t know how that was supposed to help, but it’s what people did.

The digital camera recorded every moment of it to video and I grinned happily to myself.  My rent wasn’t going to be late this month thanks to this idiot.  Slipped disc, my right testicle.  I couldn’t bring myself to feel any sympathy for anybody that stole or cheated and then let themselves be caught doing something so blatant.  He deserved everything that was coming to him for this.

He turned about to face his adoring fans, and I burst out laughing at what I saw.  “Nice tattoo, jackass,”  I gasped out between guffaws.  The guy actually had a dumbbell tattooed on his leg.  Wait!  It’s even better than that!  It’s one for each leg!  How does anyone actually want to do that to himself?  Twice!  Whatever.  I had enough evidence to fulfill the contract, and I felt like getting paid today, so I pulled out my clunker of a smart phone, hooked to the camera and began sending the video in along with an e-mail with all the wonderful details that would let me get paid wirelessly and instantly.  It was a simple task and I did it entirely on autopilot.  Moments like this gave me time to think.

If anyone you know ever, ever, EVER says he wants to be a P.I., you could point at my life as an argument against it.  You could say, “See that?  That’s Ryan Black.  He owns Vantage Point Security and Private Investigations.   Laugh at him for living at home and driving a car that that is past the age of majority.”  Hell, the guy that taught a three month course on how to set yourself up as a P.I. practically pointed to himself and said just that.  In every class, he dedicated ten minutes to destroying the idea of ever getting any jobs that would be anywhere as exciting as a movie plot.  I think out of the twelve of us that signed up for the course, only three other guys stuck it out to finish it.  Out of that, I’m the only one that actually went on to put the theory into practice, and I never regretted that for a moment.  It didn’t matter how many times I caught a cheating spouse or busted someone committing fraud, I loved the little thrill of success every time.  Occasionally though, I thirsted for something bigger. But big stuff only happened in fiction, and I had to settle for the little stuff. 

        I finished up the e-mail, and packed away the tools of my trade into a little bag which included my camera and my paper notepad; we might be in the digital age, but judges still loved their paper records for one reason or another.  With that done, it was time to get out of here. I turned the key to my car and it failed entirely to respond.

        “Dammit.  Don’t do this to me, baby,” I muttered as I gave the dash several swats and punches.  That was as effective as I expected because the car was still as dead.

        Once again, I had to get out of the “comfort” of the old, worn seats and try and play an amateur mechanic under the hood.  I began to poke and prod several times at several things, hoping each time would cause the vehicle to roar to life, when I was suddenly interrupted.

        “Some people were sayin’ you’re spyin’ on me!” the huge, muscle bound, man with a terrible crew cut yelled at me, making me jump right to attention.  He must have been working out a lot over the last while, because he barely resembled the picture I was given by my client when I took the job.  That was neither here nor there though because the more pressing matter was his steady and deliberate approach straight for me.

        “What?  Um, no.  I’m not.  I’m with a land surveyor and I’m just here, surveying some land,” I said, stepping back from the man, and putting the car in the way of any direct lunge.  If the car couldn’t get me anywhere right now, the least it could do was be a roadblock for someone else.

        “They said ya had a camera or something,” he growled as he moved to follow me.  Seriously, I think I didn’t even come to his shoulder and his biceps were as wide as my waist.

        “Yup!  That’s right!  Can’t survey without pictures.  Not at all!” I nervously chuckled as he walked around my Chrysler Roadblock with murderous intent.  Just seeing how his hands were the same size as my head was inspiration enough to keep to the opposite side of the car.  Every time he picked up the pace, I moved faster to match.

        “You with those insurance guys!?” he demanded as he made a lunge over the hood for me, and that was the official cue to be a pansy.  I bolted around the car to my still open driver-side door, grabbed my bag and made for the horizon with that slab of meat in pursuit.

        The chase continued for several blocks down the street with me screaming in terror the entire time.  In the most dignified way possible, of course.  I probably wouldn’t have been screaming so much if he wasn’t gaining on me the entire time, but I never let him close enough to grab me.  After several blocks, I proved that I could run faster scared than he could angry and he trailed behind me while huffing and puffing.  Thank god I was a skinny bastard.

        “Guess I’ll keep your car!”  he called after me while huffing, but I didn’t feel inclined to answer him.  If he could get it to run, he could have it, but good luck doing that without an ingenious mechanic, a blessing from both a young and old priest, and a run of luck that would've been better spent at the casino.

        After I figured out where the chase took me, it wasn’t that hard to flag down a cab to take me back to my home in the suburbs.  In fact, the hardest thing about it was getting the language barrier between myself and the cabby, but once that was done, I settled in to get myself a much needed nap.  Ah, the glamorous life of a P.I.:  long hours, low pay and a new enemy in every client.  At least the next person that would come looking for me should be transferring a payment to my chequing account.  With that thought in my head, I drifted out.


_-_-_-_-_


“Drop her!”

“That wasn’t what I was planning, but we’re such close friends, I think I can do that  for you as a personal favour.”

“Help me!  Please!”

“Do you think she can fly?”

“No!  Stop!”

“That’s what you chose?  Hehehe-HAHAHA!!!”


_-_-_-_-_


        The lurch of the car stopping made me open my eyes, and the first thing I did was checked the time out of habit. Three twenty in the afternoon.  

I had that dream again, and once again it left no lasting memories beyond a few, jumbled words and a sickening feeling in my gut.  It didn’t feel like a nightmare, because it simply was too hazy and I usually remembered my dreams.  It was more like a monster case of deja vu without any context or logic.  Either way, I didn’t like how it kept coming back and left me with no solution but to just shrug it off and go about my business.

        “Forty six dollars,” the cabby said impatiently in broken english.

        “Jeeze.  Why don’t you use a gun?” I muttered under my breath, then it occurred to me that this would count as an expense for the job.  It makes the burden much easier to bare when someone else is picking up the tab.  I offer my Visa over and he runs it through without a word.  It’s just as well because I probably wouldn’t understand him anyways, and with that done, I grabbed my work bag, gave him a tip of an imaginary hat and walked up the driveway to my home.

        It wasn’t a massive house, but it’s always been home for me.  I noted that both cars were in the driveway, so that meant both mom and dad were both home.  That wasn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but it did mean that as soon as my dad noticed my return, he’d ask me the question.  I stepped inside, and I could hear the TV from the living room.  It was on the news, saying something about more “pony sightings and disappearances”.  The story has been going on for nearly a month now about how people are turning into ponies that had something to do with a cartoon, or something like that.  Yeah, right.  What was more likely is that people are trying these stupid stunts to get the show put back on the air like Firefly.  

        (As a side note, season three of Firefly was awesome.  Watch it if you can.)

        There was no sense putting off the inevitable, and I kicked off my shoes and walked to the living room where my parents were.  You know the nursery rhyme “Jack Sprat”?  Well, that’s my parents and I definitely took my looks from the both of them.  “Hey mom.  Hey dad.”

        “Hello, dear,” said my mother as she watched the news.

        “Do I get my basement back this month?” my dad asked without a bit of malice.  If anything, he was hopeful.

“Back off, old man!  I got paid today, so no rec room for you,” I replied smugly.

“Did you even ask if you could live here after eighteen?” he shot right back.

“No,” I muttered as I looked at my phone to see if there was any updates yet.  “Hey dad.  Can I live here?”

        “No.  Get out of my house,” he commanded.

“That’s why I didn’t ask.  I’ll move out when I’m ready, and not a second earlier,” came the snappy answer without an ounce of respect.  We liked to play like that, but the truth was that my parents gave me a pretty sweet deal with the living arrangements.  They set the rent at five hundred bucks a month as long as I was working on my own business or going to school. 

That didn’t mean dad didn’t like to tease me about it.  “Shit.  I guess I got to call the guys and get the poker game moved again.   You know, you’re really ruining my social life there, Ryan.”

“So, your case went well?  Did you get paid for it yet?” my mom asked as she turned her attention from the continuing news story and my dad’s complaints.

“Four percent of the settlement plus expenses.  If I’m really lucky, I can sneak a shitty car into the expense list, too.” I jested.   

My dad was quick to jump on the opportunity, “So, you don’t actually know how much you made?  Does that mean I might get my basement after all?”

The electronic chime from my phone interrupted my answer. “Shhh, I have to take this,” I said as I smugly waved off my father.  He huffed and turned his attention back to the television while my mother laughed into her hand.  “Vantage Point Security and Private Investigations.  This is Ryan Black.”

“Ryan!  You’re sounding professional again!  What’s up, bro?”  said a familiar voice.

I deflated and huffed. “Hey Lanny.  Just got in from a job,” I replied as I tried not to pay attention to my dad’s sniggering.  I wasn’t upset to hear from Lancaster Donaldson, but his timing could of been better.

“Tough one?”  he said before taking a bite out of something crunchy, but that didn’t stop him from talking with his mouth full.  “Or, more watching people from your car?”

“That can be hard!  Harder than getting stoned after painting all day,” I protested, but he did touch a bit of a sore spot.  I loved my work and I had a knack for it, but sometimes, I wish I would get one of those cases that only existed in movies and television shows.

He swallowed and took another bite.  “I know, bro.  I’ve seen it.  I don’t know how you stay sane.  So, was the job hard?”

“Nah, but my car was a casualty of war.  We should take that thing out and dump it into a lake or something for the twenty bucks of the insurance.  I’m pretty sure I can pull off the fraud,” I jested.

“That’d be a great cap off to the party tomorrow!  You’re not going to leave us hanging like last year, are you?” he said after a loud swallow.

“What?  Party?”  I furrowed my brow in confusion.

“Bro!  Birthday!  You’ve got one every year, and you never do anything!  This year is going to be totally different though!  And, a total surprise!”

“You want to take me to the bar,” I said flatly because I saw right through the surprise.  He was right about one thing though.  For the last three years, I was working on my birthdays, and missed them entirely. “And, the surprise is that you’ll pay for a drink.”

“You forgot the stripper we’re going to get you.  She’s a classy one this time.  We’re not going to repeat the whole ‘discount stripper thing’ from the last party you did show up for,” he added.  Even four years later, mentioning the debacle on that night still made me blush deep red.  “You’re going to come, right?  If you miss it, you’re going to have to suffer one hell of a Lanny Donaldson prank.”

“If I can.  You know my rule, though,” I said as began walking towards the stairs to the basement.

“Yeah, yeah.  Client comes first,” Lanny replied right back and followed it with a sigh. “Just try and get here, bro.  Seriously.  It’ll be a good time, you know?  And Lord knows, you need one.”

        My phone beeped at me at that point letting me know that another call was coming in.  “I’ll try.  Got another call.  I got to go!”  I rushed out, before hanging up on him before he could get another word out. Before I took the new call, I yelled out to my parents, “I’m in the Fortress of Solitude.  Talk to you guys later.”

        I closed the door behind me, but didn’t go down the stairs just quite yet because the reception was terrible down there.  “Vantage Point Security and Private Investigations.  This is Ryan Black,” I answered again. 

        “Oh good!  I’m Jacob Esterhazy,” the man answered quickly.  He sounded like a man in his fifties, but more notably, he was very tense and worried.  “And I need help.”

        Generally, a man of Jacob’s age only would call a guy like me for a short list of things, but it was a touchy subject.  Divorces and cheating spouses always are.  “That’s what I do, sir.  What can I do for you?” I replied confidently.

        “I shouldn’t talk too long on the phone about this.  Can you come to my home tonight?  I can give you the details then,” he said, still sounding massively worried.  What stood out about what he said was he wanted to meet at his home.  He wasn’t going through a divorce and he wasn’t worried about his wife cheating because if it were either of those, he’d want to talk to me anywhere but a place where she frequented.  So what did he want to hire me for?

“Of course, sir.  Let me check my schedule,”  I said before a pause.  I knew my schedule, and it was empty for the next few days, but you never let a client know that.  “I can fit you in around eight, and I charge forty dollars an hour for the initial consultation.  Generally, it takes an hour to work out the details and what needs to be done.  Is that alright?”

        “Yes, yes.  We’ll be waiting for you with everything!” he answered quickly.  Shit.  I should’ve said a hundred bucks an hour because he’d have gone with it.  Oh well.

        “Alright.  I need your address and a phone number I can call you at, Mr. Esterhazy,” I asked.  

        “This phone number is fine, and my address is seven Pine Grove,” he said, and I made a mental note of it.  If I wasn’t mistaken, the address was in a pretty swanky part of town.

        “Thank you, and I’ll be there for eight tonight,” I replied.

        “Thank you, Mr. Black.”  He hung up.  The poor guy sounded like he was entirely nerves right now, but I guess I’ll have to wait until this evening to find out why.  I refused to speculate on it too much because that path always lead to disappointment when I convinced myself it would be a tough case and it turned into watching through windows again.

        Wait a moment.

        My television was on.  I could hear it from here, and that meant one thing.  There was an intruder and so I began creeping my way down the stairs, using the theme songs of some show to cover my steps until I got to the door of my room.

        I burst right through and screamed at the small figure on the bed, “This is a raid!  Hands up!”

        The shrill scream from my little sister was worth it as she nearly hit the roof.  Once again, like the rest of the family, she looked like me.  That is, if I was twelve years old and a girl.  After the initial shock though, she threw a pillow at me.  “Don’t you knock?” she demanded in a huff.

        “Not when it’s my room,” I said, holding out a fist. “Pound it.”

She did the fistbump right back, and responded, “Blow it up.”

 We then both threw out fists in the air, opened our hands and went, “Boom,” in unison.

        “So now that our ritual greeting is complete, what the hell are you doing in here, Sally?” I asked, tossing off my coat onto my desk.  If you looked at my room, you’d swear it was owned by two different people.  The side that was for relaxing was a mess with scattered books, magazines and clothes all centred around my (shitty) desktop and an old television.  The other side was for work, and it was several shelves that were neatly organized and sorted, with labeled files and tools of the trade.  And, in the centre, was my sister on my bed, watching something animated on my television.

        “Watching TV,” she replied as she settled back down to watch the anime or whatever was on the screen.

        “I can see that, but why are you in my room watching TV?” I asked, trying to get her clarify her previous statement.

        “Oh.  Auntie Kelly sent you a box of blu rays and DVDs she picked up at garage sales.  She figured since you like them, she’d send you a bunch for your birthday,” she said, pointing to a postmarked box.  “And, you’re like the only person in the world that still watches discs, so I’m here because you got the players.”

        “You opened my mail?” I asked.  If it was anyone else, I’d get mad, but to be honest she is getting to be as a big a snoop as I was at her age.  Turnabout is fair play I suppose, and I couldn’t stay angry at her.  She was the family favourite.

        “It looked interesting.  You got some fun shows in there, too!” she declared with her eyes fixed on the show.  While she was doing that, I started looking through the box to see what I got.  It looked like my aunt wasn’t picky in what she was getting me as long as it filled the requirements of being on a disk.  I pulled some titles from the box and began flipping through them.  Gargoyles: Season 1 on DVD,  season 8 of House on blu ray.  Those might be worth a watch.  I set them aside and then noticed one that was covered up.  The final season of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”.

I’m sure someone told me a bit about the show because I knew it ended in a dramatic tone swing to grimdark with a bunch of characters that were never on the show in the last scene.  Something about soldiers and special agents trying to get a resistance movement going against a chaos god-thing after he kills the queen.  Then, it just ends right after the last one gets broken in a pretty rough and dirty fight.  It must have been something I read on the internet, because I don’t think even Lanny would’ve watched that show.  Either way, it must have been one hell of an ending to have people five years later pulling hoaxes.

        “You know what?  I’m curious about this one.  Move over, squirt,” I said as I gave my sister a shove to the corner of the bed and sat myself down.

        “Really?  That one?” she asked before giggling. “Come on!  Even I’m too old for that one.  And I’m already watching this one.”

        “My room, my rules,” I stated as I swapped the discs out.  “You know where the stairs are if you don’t like it.”

        “Fine,” she huffed with her arms crossed, but she was also settling in to watch with me.  “But I get to make fun of you.”

        “Deal,” I replied as I skipped through the nauseatingly cute selection screen with the tooth-ache inducing music to the episode selection and I went straight for the last episode.  “Now, let’s see what all the fuss is about, eh?”

        The episode confirmed everything I’d heard about the last episode.  It was dark, violent and brutal unlike anything else on the show.  Heck, it was probably worse than most adult shows, with Hellspawn rising from Tartarus to brutalize citizenry and chaos gods doing battle with the powers of good. But unlike most other shows, it was a total rout with the good guys dropping like flies.  I was curious if that final fight I heard about could be as intense as I was told it was, because after gods and magicians, a straight up fight would’ve been refreshing.  After all that build up though, it didn’t happen.  Just this purple unicorn getting killed followed abruptly with a crash to credits.

        I glanced over at my sister, then started chuckling because she was clinging to her pillow rather tightly. “You know, if that was my favorite series, I’d be pretty pissed off with the “everyone dies” ending.”

        Sally blinked several times and let go of the pillow she was clinging to.  The episode must have been more intense because she looked outright scared of what she saw. “I don’t think mom would’ve let me watch that.  That was a lot of blood and bad things.”

        “I know, squirt.  Tell you what, you pick the next show, and I’ll get us some snacks, alright?” I said as I got up from my seat and stretched.  I don’t know why, but the episode seemed incomplete, but then again, why am I getting so wrapped up with something about pastel ponies?  Hopefully Sally will pick something we could both enjoy.

        She nodded. “Maybe another episode of this.  Just not as scary as this one?” she suggested.

        “Sure.  Why not?  I’ll be back with popcorn and other things that are terrible for our hearts and likely will kills us before we’re fifty,” I replied as I headed out of the room.  I loved my sister dearly, and spending an evening watching old cartoons with her sounded like a good way to clear the mind before I met with the client tonight.

        “Sounds good,” she called out behind me.  “Get me a Coke, too!”


_-_-_-_-_


It was a quiet evening, though I wish I didn’t have to borrow my mom’s car to drive to the client’s home.  My car was picked up by a tow truck earlier in the evening, and they said the only thing that was wrong with it was someone dented in one of the panels and a loose battery connection.  All things considered, I got off pretty light there. 

The neighborhood was upscale to put it lightly.  The garages around here had more square footage than our entire house.  If I ever had enough money to have a wrought iron fence with a gatehouse at the top of my driveway, I think I could be happy. I’m easy to please.

        I pulled up to the house, gathered up my things and got to the door.  I made sure I was shaved and even wearing a suit for the meeting too, but even so, I felt sorely outclassed and I hadn’t even seen the inside of the place yet.  After knocking though, I had that confirmed by a show of conspicuous consumption of epic proportions.

        “Good evening.  Would you be Ryan Black?” Jacob asked. I recognized his voice from the call earlier, and he looked pretty much how I pictured him.  Thin and in his mid fifties, without a single hair on the top of his head.  Even with that hawkish nose of his, he looked pretty good for his age.  Or, he would.  The bags under his eyes and his slouched shoulders told me he hadn’t been sleeping well lately.

        I nodded and offered a hand to the man. “I am.  Mr. Esterhazy, I presume?” I returned and he took my hand for a firm shake.

        “Correct.  Thank you for coming on such short notice.  Please come in, Mr. Black,” he said to me.

        “Thank you.  But before I forget, here’s my card,” I said, offering one over.  

        He took it, looked it over and gave me a bit of a forced smile, but I don’t think his emotional state had anything to do with me.  It was clear that the man was hurting.  “Thank you again.  Have a seat in the front office.  First hallway, second door on the left.  I’ll go and bring Daphne, and we can discuss what we need.” 

        Well, he didn’t have trust issues at least or, he considered me to be an honest man.  That was good because it would smooth the whole process and hopefully end in a few more bucks in my pocket.  That said, I didn’t want to abuse it, so I went to the office I was directed to and again marvelled at the meticulously clean, mahogany altar he called a desk.  Any one piece of the furniture in this room would probably sell for enough to furnish my dream house.  I was polite enough to keep my hands to myself, but I did note the pair of family portraits on the desk.  One was with younger Jacob, a young girl that would be looking at going to school in a year or so, and a lovely woman.  I’d say it was a family portrait, but not a recent one because the other one was of the current Jacob, an older daughter of about sixteen if I had to take a guess, and another woman.  Daphne, if I had to take a guess. 

The door opened and I was proved incorrect in my assumption.  The woman with Jacob was his contemporary and finely dressed, and might have been a strawberry blonde at one point, but that was years ago.  At the same time, she also looked as worn down as him with lack of sleep.  However, she wasn't the woman from the photo.

        “Good evening,” I greeted, getting to my feet to offer my hand to the woman.

She sniffled into a kleenex before giving me weak handshake.  All of my instincts were telling me that there was something up and it was big.  “Hello Mr. Black, I’m Daphne.  I hope you can help us.”

        Jacob walked around his desk and sat back down. “I’m going to be blunt, Mr. Black.  Our daughter has been kidnapped,” he stated with a forced calm. Even so, Daphne sobbed at that sentence, pulling his attention to her.  He gave her a hug and comforted her by saying, “It’ll be alright.  We’ll get her back.”

        “I’m sorry,” I finally replied and when the initial shock wore off, I went to my bag to pull my notebook out in the silence.  Now, I really felt bad for making them wait until eight for me to show up as well as overwhelmed.  I could keep a good poker face about that, but you know the saying, “Be careful what you wish for”?  I was feeling that in full force right now. “I assume you contacted the police.”

        “They said they’d kill her if we did and they had inside information from the police so they’d know,” Daphne said, fighting back the tears.  “We just want to pay them and get our daughter back.  That’s all.  I didn’t want to even bring you into this, but we had to do something.”

        I looked between the two, and my heart went out to them.  “I see,” I said with a heavy swallow.  It’s hard keeping calm and collected with a bombshell like that falling on you, but I think I was doing pretty well at it.

        “They want ten million for our girl.  I do have that sort of money, but not in cash.  It will take time.  More time than what they gave us,” Jacob said, explaining the situation as if it was a board meeting.  I guess that’s just how he was holding himself together.  If this is how he was going to operate, I’d try and match him, but hearing that number nearly made me choke.

        “What do you need from me then?”  I asked.

        He rubbed his forehead and sighed. “I don't know.  We are going to leave a message at the drop location asking for more time.  We just want to make sure they get the message, and if we’re lucky, get a few pictures of the bastards that took her.  Can you do that for us?”

        The situation was different than I’m used to, but really, it would just be what I always do on a job; keep a low profile and my eyes open.  “I still recommend going to the police.  They’re much better equipped than I to handle a situation like this,” I said as I took notes on what they needed.

“I would much rather go to the police, too,” Jacob said as he held his wife close to his side, “But, she’s not just my daughter, and if anything happened to her because of a decision we made, I don’t know what we’d do.”

        “We won’t blame you for anything that happens. I was just told you’re a good young man, and knew what you were doing,” Daphne pleaded, “I just want Porsche safe, and we’ll pay for that.  She never deserved any of this!” 
        
        I looked between the two.  It was pretty clear to me what was happening.  They were a couple that were used to being in control of everything around them, and now, they had none.  Even if they couldn’t go to the police, they were looking to me to regain some control on the situation, no matter how minor.  How could I turn my back on them?  “I understand.  I want to ask you a few details and I’ll see what I can do, but you’ll have to promise me the first chance we get, we are going to the police, alright?”

        Jacob looked to his wife, who just nodded. “We can do that,” he agreed.

        “Alright.  Let me ask you some questions.”


_-_-_-_-_




        “Fuck. I don’t want to talk to him.  He’s a fucking freak!” the shorter of two masked men said to the other.  “Look at him.  He’s been like that for, like, a half hour.  Why is he even here?”

The tall one shook his head in adamant refusal. “I don’t give a shit. I ain’t staying up all night on guard duty because you’re afraid of him.  He’s supposed to be good at this sort of thing.”

        “Who told you that load?” demanded the first man.

        “My dealer.  He said he knew a guy that used this guy to fix problems, and he was really good at it,” the second answered.

        “If you love him so much, then you go talk with him, fuck,” spat the first as he looked past the jungle of steel studs, half finished walls and a girl bound to a chair with a burlap sack over her head, to where the man in question was standing.   He was simply staring out the window at the night sky, and and the only sign he was actually alive and not some statue was the casual flicking of his balisong open and closed.  While the other two wanted to stay anonymous with balaclavas to mask their faces and avoiding using names, he didn’t take a single such precaution. Instead, he treated the threat of capture with indifference and apathy, and that made the masked pair nervous.

        “Whatever,” the tall one said, and stomped over. “Me and him want to go and get some food or something.  You alright watching the girl alone for a while?”

        The man didn’t react at all.

        “Yo!  You hear me, Jack?  Wake up!” he called again and Jack failed to answer again.

        “Out of the way, you useless shit!” the short one swore, then stormed over to to Jack to shake his shoulder.  That was enough to awake him from his trance and he finally turned to acknowledge his partners. “We’re going to get some food.  You just stay and watch the girl.  Can you handle that or are you going to zone out and start staring out the window again?”

        It took a moment for Jack to realise where he was or what was happening.  As soon as it happened though, he put on his best and most serene smile, and turned to the masked man and answered, “Oh no,  I’m fine.  You get going, but please, don’t bring back anything with meat for me.” 

        “Yeah, yeah.  We’ll be back in an hour or two,” the short masked man stated before he turned to leave. “Fucking freak.”

        “One day, your mouth is going to get you into some trouble,” Jack called after the pair, and all he got for an answer was a middle finger over a shoulder before they left the half-built office.  He shrugged the insult off.  “I hope I’m there for it.”

Since they took her off the streets, he hadn’t been alone with their victim once.  Now that the thought occurred to him though, he wanted to rectify that and he turned his eyes to Porsche.  She had been quiet for quite some time now that she had stopped her sobbing, but as soon as he approached she flinched as far away from him as her bindings would let her go. 

        “Easy there, easy,” he said comfortingly. “I’m going to take off your hood and gag.  Alright?  No screaming, though.  There’s no one around to hear you, but it doesn’t suit you.”

        She settled slightly and he carefully took both the hood and the wad of cloth and tape away from the girl.  The brown haired girl could be quite pretty but the sixteen year old had spent the last two days in captivity, in the same school uniform she was taken in, leaving her hair matted and her face tear-stained.  Across from her was a man in his mid twenties that looked at her kindly in the sort of way a cat might look kindly upon a wounded bird.  He was a lanky ginger that was very clean cut, even if he was dressed in nothing more than a casual, black hoodie and old jeans.  “That’s a good girl.  I’m Jack,” he said as if it was a casual conversation.  

        “Don't touch me!” she croaked, sending her into a coughing fit.  Having been gagged so long left her throat painfully dry.  The man waited patiently for the coughing to end.  “W-where am I?”

        “Nowhere that matters to you, but I did introduce myself, and it isn’t polite to ignore an introduction,” he chided in good spirits.  “We can try again though.  I’m Jack.”

She eyed the man warily. “Porsche,” she said, not offering anything more than the bare minimum to the man.

“Pleased to meet you, Porsche.  I’d shake your hand, but, you know.  Now, since we already did the bit with the white van, do you want some candy?  It seems to be what guys in white vans offer girls like you,” he joked to the non-response of his captive.  He did make good on his suggestion and pulled a chocolate bar from his hoodie and waved it in front of the girl.  Instantly, her stomach rumbled at the prospect of food but she couldn’t bring herself to ask for it.  The hesitation made his smile fade after a few seconds.  “I understand you don’t trust me and that’s alright.  If the positions were reversed, I’d likely not trust me either.  But, you should because I’m completely honest.  I won’t lie to you or anyone else.  Lying is for people that are ashamed of what they are doing.”

        Porsche stared at the odd man in front of her.  “Then tell me why I’m here,” she said softly to test him.

        “Money and fun.  They want the cash, and I wasn’t doing anything better when this came up,” he answered as he opened up the wrapper and punctuated the whole thing by taking a bite out of the bar.  Just the sound of the bar made Porsche’s mouth water with what little saliva she had left.  

        Porsche just stared at Jack venomously for his honesty and he continued to be completely indifferent to her expression.  “So what’s with the candy bar?” she asked. “You trying to be the nice psychopath?”

        “The nice ones are the most dangerous,” Jack replied in his friendly way  “But enough about all that.  Today’s a special day for me, and I thought I’d lighten up yours a bit.  I don’t think the last few days have been going as planned for you.”

        “Fuck you.”

        That one sentence was answered with a harsh slap that left a welt on the girls face, but as quickly as the blow landed, Jack resumed his relaxed posture.  “I warned you once about being rude, young miss.  But it’s a special day for me, so I’ll let that one slide.  It’s my birthday today, and I figured we could split a few candy bars between us to celebrate it.  We can just talk and be civil.”  He leaned in and shielded his face from a non-existent audience and continued in a whisper.  “Just between the walls, you, and me, those guys I’m working with are barbarians.  You seem much nicer and smarter, or at least you did.  You slipped a notch with your vulgarity.”

        The girl whimpered still from the blow, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry again.  He was content to wait for her to gather her thoughts for her response.  In the end, her hunger started to get the better of her.  “A-alright,” she finally said meekly.

        “Great!” Jack chimed, “Now, I’m going to undo one of your hands so you can eat.  But, there is a catch.  If you so much as try anything to take advantage of this privilege, I’m going to hurt you quite terribly.  Well, terribly for you. I think I’ll do it quite well on my end of the bargain.  I might even cut a souvenir off of you, but that depends how I feel when we come to that bridge.  Understand?”

        Porsche’s just nodded dumbly at him. “Y-yes.  I understand,” she stammered.  She had no intention of finding out what Jack might have in mind for her, and playing along to keep him happy seemed the best route.

He took out a set of keys and continued what he perceived to be a casual conversation while he undid one of the cuffs.  “So, do you take history or mass media in school?  There’s been a quote that’s stuck in my head and maybe you know where it’s from.”

        She really didn’t care to talk to Jack, but to have the cuff off did let her stretch one of her arms.  “I might know it,” she hesitantly said.  She was unsure where he was heading with such a question.

        “Five score divided by four,” he said with the most grandiose voice he could come up with. “I know it’s not much to go on, but it’s all I can remember.  It did seem important, wherever it’s from.”

        “Never heard of it.  Maybe something about Lincoln ?” she offered hesitantly, fearing that not getting the right answer or failing to answer entirely would both end in punishment for her.

        “Shame.  I’m sure some affable gent said it.  That’s how it feels to me, but it’s hazy.  Maybe it’ll come to me later,” he said as sat down across from the girl to enjoy his birthday ‘dinner’.  “Now, do you want a Snickers or a Coffee Crisp?”

He had a good time in sharing a meal with someone else, as the opportunity rarely came Jack’s way.  She just wished to God she’d get home safely.

> Chapter 2: It Starts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        I was running on caffeine today because I didn’t sleep well last night.  I spent most of the night tossing and turning in the sheets while my mind raced with all the ways this could turn out badly.  I knew I was in way over my head, but I did stupidly promise my help to them despite it.  That’s why I was on a roof now in the mid afternoon with my camera aimed at a box in an alley.  We were hoping to catch a glimpse of a guy that picked up the drop that Jacob left earlier.  It was simply a note saying that the money will be ready by Wednesday morning of next week.

I already set my camera pointed down at the location and made myself a little nest on the rooftop consisting of a blanket to lay on and a cooler.  That was all done early in the day, leaving me with little to do, so I turned to my notebook again to read through the notes.  It would force me to keep my head down and not peek.  That sort of thing might give me away.

        Three days ago Porsche Esterhazy, the daughter of Jacob and the late Vanessa Esterhazy was taken, presumably on the way home from school.  An anonymous letter was left at their gate saying that she was taken and not to contact the police.  The kidnappers had stated they’d know if the police were contacted and that they’d kill her if they were.  They gave the Esterhazys five days to come up with the ransom.

        In order to keep the kidnapping quiet, the school was told that Porsche was ill and needed time off.  That went smoothly at least.

        As for the clients themselves, Jacob was a ruthless lawyer in his younger days until he met his first wife Vanessa, who was a small time author of self-help books.  With her, he opened a publishing company, using the wealth from his lawyer days to fund it and her eye for authors that deserved a chance but couldn’t get one from the other publishers.  It did surprisingly well, apparently, though I wasn’t much of a reader.  Even now, Jayvee Publishing is doing quite well by helping back talented authors e-publish by covering the legalities for them.

        Vanessa passed on to cancer about seven years ago, and Jacob spent raised his daughter by himself for those years, while keeping up the business in his wife’s memory.  Daphne met Jacob about four years ago after trying to sue Jayvee for copyright issues, and despite the rocky start to their relationship, they married two years later.

I closed the book and sighed. There were no real suspects that they could point at for the kidnapping. It could be a competitor, someone that one of them met in court, or a disgruntled author that felt shafted by a rejection.  It could even be someone crazy that just wanted the money. 

        “I take it back. I want to go back to just taking pictures of frauds and deadbeats.  This is way too much pressure,” I said to myself as I rolled onto my back and stared up at the sky to clear my head.  Even the lukewarm coke from my lunchbox didn’t provide me any solace as I sipped at it.  At least it was a bit cloudy today, otherwise this would be unbearably hot up here.

        My phone vibrated.  I didn’t even need to look to know that it was Lanny calling me to see if I was coming, but I checked it anyways and found I was right.  He’d keep calling if I didn’t answer him, but if I actually talked to him, his begging would get annoying in seconds.  Maybe, he’ll settle for a text.  I started typing, “Sorry bro.  Client needs me.  Ca-”


_-_-_-_-_


I was pinned me down by an immense pressure.  It might as well have been a mountain above me.

“So, our time together draws to a close.  I bet you been aching to hear that.  Or, maybe you’re just aching.  I admit  it.  I overdid it a wee bit.”

        Everything hurt.  Everything.  It hurt to breath, to flinch, to open my eyes.  It was so damned bright.  It burned.

“You haven’t won.”

        “I love that “never-say-die” attitude you have!  I can see why your friend likes you so much, but as much as I’d like to keep you around a little longer, a deal’s a deal.  Five score, divided by four...”


_-_-_-_-_


        The beep of a phone battery dying startled me.  “I just charged this stupid thing. Why is it dying already?” I said, trailing off as I saw the display.  “Six missed calls?”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on my phone!  How could I miss a call, let alone six?  I never miss calls.  I can’t miss calls!  I’m running my own business.  Then, I noticed it was getting darker out.  Not quite evening yet but getting close.  That can’t be right.  I looked to my phone again, and checked the time.  “Five thirty?  Fuck me, I fell asleep!”

        Alright, Ryan.  Stay calm.  First thing, first.  I peeked over the edge and at the alleyway to see that the box was still there, but opened.  “Fuck!!” 

All wasn’t lost though as I grabbed my camera and flipped through the options to go through the footage at fast forward.  It took me a few minutes, to find the moment where the message was picked up.  I stared at the red-haired man on that small screen while he casually strolled with his hands in his pockets.  He was even whistling from the looks of the video as if he didn’t have a care in the world.  He didn’t even look around for anyone that might watch him open the box, and he did it in the same lackadaisical sort of way he walked there.  You’d think having his money delayed would provoke some sort of reaction from him, but he didn’t even seem upset at the message, and simply jotted down a quick response and tossed it in the box.  As casually and easily as he came, he wandered off without a sense of urgency.  I stopped one of the frames and zoomed in on the suspect.  I didn’t know who he was.   Maybe if I could get the image to a bigger screen to clearly see who that was, and maybe compare it to whatever I could from official wanted bulletins, but at least I had the footage.  I could work with that much, and to that end, I fired the entire video off to my own e-mail.

“Alright.  Next.  Exactly how fucked am I?”  I scrolled through the missed calls.  Only one was from Jacob and Daphne and it was the most recent one.  One was from the insurance company.  The last four were Lanny.  “Good.  Not entirely fucked.  Move onto damage control.” 

With that confirmed, I needed to get the response before I did anything else.  Once I knew what was said, I could contact Jacob and Daphne.  I rushed to the ladder and across the street to the box.  The message was simple and in very neat handwriting, but I couldn’t say I liked what I saw. 

“Good.  That would be more time I get to spend with her.”

I shook my head in disbelief.  I felt sick, but I had to keep my composure for one phone call.  Jacob was quick to answer, and I could hear Daphne in the background.  I think I was on a speaker phone because there was an echo to the sound.  “Hello.  Mr. Esterhazy?”

“Black?  Did they get the message?  Is everything alright?” he asked quickly.  The poor guy was trying to stay calm, but I could tell his nerves were wearing down.

“Yeah.  They got the message.  I think you have the time, but I didn’t like the wording.  I think they’re happy to have more time with your daughter,” I said flatly.  I had to be honest with a client, no matter how painful it might be.

Silence answered me.

“I think we got to go to the police,” I said calmly, filling the space.

“No.  No police.  They’ll kill her!  If they want the money, we’ll get them the money!” Daphne cried before breaking down into sobs.  I wish I could do anything to soothe her, but I had nothing to offer her.

“Tell me you got a picture of the bastard,” Jacob demanded sharply.  I couldn’t blame him for getting angry.

“I did.  I’ll forward a picture of him as soon as I clean it up from the video.  If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll be able to ID the guy.  You can expect it this evening, along with the details of the pick up,” I said as professionally as I could, for their sake.  

“Thank you, Ryan,” said Daphne, as she got a hold of herself. “Please get back to us soon.”

“I’m on it,” I said, and hung up the phone, which was immediately followed by me sighing heavily and falling against the wall.  I was feeling drained all day and it was getting worse even with that mid-day nap.  “I really hope they want to go to the cops soon.”

I couldn’t stop now though.  Not yet.  There was simply too much to do and not enough time to do it in.  With a push off of the wall and with a listless pace I headed back to my camp.  It had to be packed up before I could go home.


_-_-_-_-_




        I was dead on my feet just a few hours ago.  I even stripped down to my boxers and a t-shirt in preparation for an early night as soon as I sent my clients the video and pictures, but I got my second wind as soon as the sun sank below the horizon.  I was revitalized like it was a brand new day and I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and waste it. There was too much work to be done while the energy lasted. 

I was back at home at my computer to take that image of the red-headed man to any site I could think of in search for a name or any other sort of lead on the guy.  The Esterhazys had no idea who he was, so it was up to me to find out who it could be.  So far, there was no matches to anything matching his description, or his pictures but I did have couple of pages of notes on the guy, from how he walked, to the brands he was wearing.

        I also mentally made fun of the man too.  Admittedly, it wasn’t a mature thing to do, but he’s an asshole of the highest caliber, so I’m allowed to do it.  For example, he could really use a haircut.  That red mop on top of his head looked more like a mane.  “Hey.  Didn’t you hear? Mullet’s went out of style decades ago,” I muttered at the screen, but that wasn’t enough.

        I leaned back in my chair and steepled my fingers in front of my face as I stared at that picture.  I didn’t like this man and I mean that in ways deeper than just the visceral reaction to what he did.  It was an instinctive dislike of him and everything he stood for that came from somewhere deep within me.  It was like I wasn’t supposed to like him just like I knew how to breathe.  It’s hard to explain, because I had nothing else to compare the emotion to.  This was further than loathing.  Omni-loathing, if you will.  I hated everything about him.

        The sound of the doorbell broke my concentration on the screen.  It was past midnight, so that quickly narrowed down the list of suspects that could be at the door to one.  It was going to be Lanny and I was about to be whined at for not showing up for an awkward party with a stripper, but he was a friend, so I’d just have to grin and bear it.

        Since no one else in the house was awake this late, it was up to me to get the door.  I was dressed decently enough to shoo a friend away from the door.  “Lanny.  I know it’s you out here.  What are you doing coming here this late?” I asked after I opened the door, only to find the front yard deserted.  “Really, Lanny?  Playing Rap-Rap-Ginger after midnight?”

Then, I made the mistake of stepping outside.  He must of been just out of sight or around the corner because the only warning I got was him screaming in mid-flight, “Birthday Tackles!” 
        
        Every bit of wind in my lungs was knocked out by the ballistic missile that was my supposed friend.  Of course, it helped that he was built like a linebacker, and still played the position occasionally.  He even had the after-a-big-play-taunt dances down too and was showing off his best one over my corpse.  “I got you, bro!  Sacked!”  

        I moaned a response.  If I was thinking coherently, it’d translate to something that combined a death-threat with request for the notification of my next of kin.  Lanny, being the good friend he was, did the only logical thing he could do after inflicting a brutal assault on his friend;  He snapped a picture of me sprawled out in my underwear on my doorstop.  The flash didn’t rouse me, but he blinked at what he noticed.

        “Woah!  Bro!  You got ink done?  Is that why you didn’t show up to the party?  Let me see it!” he said, prodding my leg with his foot.

        “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked as I forced myself up to sit up.  I didn’t think anything was broken, but my big black buddy was going to pay for this insult. 

        He poked me again, right at the bottom hem of my boxers.  This time I looked at what he was pointing at and saw the bottom half of a steel grey circle.  “Did you get high and get tattooed and then forgot, all without me, bro?  That hurts,” Lanny said while pretending to be wounded.

        “No.  Just wait a moment,” I said as I pulled up the edge of the boxers, to see a star inside of the circle.  It looked like a marshal's badge without any sort of writing on it, or maybe a military emblem.  “When the hell did I do that to myself?”

        “You high right now?”  Lanny asked as he offered me a hand up.  “Do you need help getting back down the stairs?”

        I took the offered help and got back to my feet. “No, I’m not high.  I never do that sort of thing, and you know that.  But, what the fuck?  I showered this morning and been working a case pretty much all day.”

        “Okay, okay.  But, you got a tattoo, bro.  Wait!  You got them on both sides!”  he said as he began to laugh. “Are you sure you’re not-”

        “For the last time, Lanny.  I’m not high.  I’m not drunk.  I never do drugs, and I didn’t drink today.  I don’t know when I got these or how I could considering I didn’t have them this morning and I’ve been very busy all day today,” I said very coldly and calmly.

“Alright, alright.  Relax, bro.  I was just trying to get you to have fun, you know?  No need to go all crazy like that.  It’s really no big deal if you really don’t want do anything, but I brought you a couple of those Quebec beers you like.  Figured we’d at least toast your birthday,” he said.  “Sorry about the tackle.”

“Ah, it’s alright Lanny.  You’re just catching the flack for my current case.  It’s big and it’s getting to me,” I said, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

“Big?  Bigger than that car accident scam?” he asks.

“Bigger than that.  Much, much bigger,” I answered.  “Hopefully it’ll be done in a week or so, then I can get back to the usual.  But, you mentioned beer back there?”

He reached into his bag and pulled a tall bottle of Trois Pistol.  “Only the best for you, bro.  How about we get inside and you can tell me about where you got your tattoos done?  Been thinking of getting some ink done myself actually, and if you know a guy, that’d help a lot.”

“Alright, but don’t think the beer will make me forget about the tackle.  There’ll be plenty of vengeance for you once this all clears up,” I said as I ushered my friend in.  Of course, my mind was racing with thoughts of where the tattoos could’ve came from.  Were they even tattoos?  If they were put on today, shouldn’t they be sore and scabbing?  Nothing made sense about them.  “You know what?  You head downstairs.  I need to hit the bathroom.”

        He nodded and headed down to my room, leaving me free to go to the bathroom.  “Why the fuck did this happen?  I don’t need anything else on my plate,” I muttered as I looked at one of the grey stars in the mirror.  I brushed a hand over it, and tried to find an edge to peel up, but nothing of the sort was to be found.  There wasn’t a sign of injury, or any sort of blemish on my skin beyond the mark itself either, which meant this was a tattoo, and I know for a fact that I didn’t do this to myself.  So, how did it get there?

The only unaccounted time I had in the day was when I fell asleep.  It was absurd, but could someone have tattooed me while I was out?  It was implausible, but the only other option was the tattoo spontaneously generated itself and that was impossible.  Other questions like “Who?” “How?” and “Why?” followed quickly.  Occam's Razor was slashing the “Secret Tattoo Stalker” theory into ribbons, but there was nothing better to explain it.

I gave them one last look in the mirror and decided that I might even like the marks if their arrival wasn’t such a mystery.  After I made a quick stop to get a couple of glasses for the beer, I headed down the stairs to join my friend.

“Who’s this “Sanguine” guy?” Lanny asked over his shoulder.  He was at my computer, reading some of my case notes.

“Hey!  That’s confidential information!” I said, as I quickly moved to get him away from there, before I noticed he gave the suspect a name.  That caught my attention. “And, what do you mean, “Sanguine”?  Do you know that guy?”

He pointed at the part of the screen where my typing was.  “It’s your notes.  That’s what it says,” he said defensively.

Now, that didn’t sound like anything I’d do, so I looked over my friend’s shoulder and read over my own notes, only to found I did just that.  I usually wrote “subject” or “suspect” when I was taking notes on my surveillance videos, but this time, every time I referred to the red-haired man, I wrote “Sanguine”.  

“I don’t remember doing that,” I muttered to myself as I gave my head a shake in hopes that would fix everything.  The words didn’t change.  It’s only been a day since I took the case, and it was a simple job.  Watch a stupid box.  That’s it.  The stakes were high, but the work was something I’ve done a hundred times.  I couldn’t be cracking under pressure this quickly.

“You alright, bro?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I flatly said as I still stared at the screen.  It’s one thing to occasionally typo, but I was putting that name down every time and that was uncharacteristically unprofessional of me.

        “If you want, I can come back after you get some sleep,” he said helpfully.  “You know.  Celebrate your b-day tomorrow when you’re not stressing.”

        “Don’t worry about that.  I’m too awake to even consider sleeping, and the beer sounds really good right now,” I said as I set down the two glasses on the desk.  “Pour away, bro.  I need it.”

        Lanny complied and poured the dark brew, and we both lifted our glasses. “To another twenty five years,” he toasted and glasses clicked together.

        “May they get better from here,” I added and we clicked again and followed the gesture with a long drink.

        “So, is “Sanguine” like a code name for your job or something?” Lanny asked as soon as he could. “And the tat is like, the official seal of the group you joined?  Are you a spy?”

        “You caught me;  I’m a spy.  Tomorrow, I meet with Frank Moses and James Bond to take down Blofeld and the Ten Rings,” I replied, laying on the sarcasm thick, and he rolled his eyes at me.  “Sorry.  I wish I could give you more details, but I really can’t right now.  This guy is just setting me right on edge and there’s a lot riding on what I’m doing for my client.”

        “You said that, already, and I’m okay with it.  I just want to make sure you’re still having fun occasionally,” he said, then the doorbell rang.  The grin he got on his face was wide and goofy.  “Like right now.”

        “Lanny.  Who’s at the door at half past midnight?” I asked suspiciously.

        His grin didn’t fade at all.  “Well, I promised you a classy stripper yesterday, right?”

        “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Lanny.”


_-_-_-_-_


        The warmth of sun on her legs told Porsche that it was morning, but she was clueless as to exactly what time it was.  Being bound and gagged for days tends to blend the hours together.

The hood kept her from looking around, so she strained her ears for anything she could hear.  The faint sound of traffic from the streets below, and the noisy snoring about the place told her at least one of her captors was asleep and she wasn’t far from help if she could slip the cuffs she was in.  Jack redid her bindings before his companions returned, but what became obvious with the time spent with him was that he was a different sort from the two that wore masks.  For example, Jack talked at length with her about the Monet exhibit at the local art museum, the other two never reached for any higher than Daniel Tosh’s latest comedy show in their conversations.  Jack was obviously educated and experienced in this sort of work, but had no desire to lead the group. That roll seemed to be on the taller masked man that seemed to flounder without directions at times, but still clung to his tenuous command.  It was no wonder that the first two didn’t like Jack.  He was a threat to them, but they were tolerating him for now.  She didn’t like him either, because while he was more pleasant company, he was much more volatile. 
        
        There was no sound of movement around her, so she began testing her bindings to find they were strong, but the chair she was on had a little play.  She began flexing as much as she could, prying herself against the cuffs until they started to cut into her, but even that didn’t stop her.  The cheap plastic arm suddenly snapped. She reached down to feel cracked surface and her heart leaped.  She nearly gasped cheerfully at how easy it was, but she couldn’t risk waking anyone, no matter how good this moment felt to her.

        She pried up once more, and began working her arm and cuff towards the break. It was slow, painful work but the blood from her cuts did help things move easier, so she took that for what it was.  Finally though, the cuff slipped through the crack and the first thing she did was reach to her hood and pulled it off.  The daylight blinded her instantly, but after a second to adjust, she was paralyzed at what she saw.

        Jack was sitting across the room watching her with his fingers steepled just under his nose and baring a very wide smile.  He even spoke quietly to encourage her to carry on.  “Aren’t you going to continue your escape?  I want to see where you’re going with this.”

        Her vision blurred in an instant as tears began to flow freely.  It wasn’t fair to have hope again, only to have it torn away from her like this.  Now, she wanted to take back everything she had done so far this morning.

        Time dragged as the red-haired man got up from his seat and took a long stretch until he was suitably relaxed for the slow stroll over to Porsche.  He spoke softly, so no one would wake up. “Nothing?  That’s quite the shame.  It would’ve made for a very an interesting morning if you did manage to get loose.  Oh well.”

        As the man stepped up to her, she shrank back in her chair, unsure what she could do to appease him before he loomed over her.  Her heart thumped in her chest as she stared up at him while he looked right through her until the moment he reached for her.

        Porsche screamed into her gag and thrashed as much as she could before his iron grip caught her one free wrist.  He was much stronger than his lithe build would suggest.

        “Quiet,” he commanded calmly.

        She nodded out of panic, though it took her a minute to quell her whimpering. Jack was willing to wait so she could hear his every word.  “Now, you know you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing, and I know I can’t let this slide or it’ll be nothing but escape attempts all the time,” he explained.  “What do you think would be a fair lesson?”

        There was only a trembling sob into a gag to answer him.

        “I see,” he replied as he reached into his pocket, and pulled that balisong he carried with him and with a graceful flick of his wrist, the razor sharp blade was brought out.   “Now, I consider myself a fair man, and this is your first offence so I should be lenient.  A finger should be a good object lesson.  Two, if you fight me on this,” he stated coolly as he brought the knife’s edge to her hand.  

        It was all too much for Porsche as she watched the blade’s approach with wild and frightened eyes, and her screaming into the gag grew louder and louder in muffled pleas for mercy.  She twisted and pulled all she could against his hold in a hope her hand might slip from his grasp, but her captor didn’t care though, and he laid the blade against her skin at the joint.  His twisted smile returned to his face as he started to put enough pressure to dimple the skin against the edge of his knife, and then the-

        “What you doing with the bitch?” The taller masked man yawned as he came through the door, which resulted in the action being paused entirely.  

Jack’s eyes met hers one more time apologetically, and he let out a frustrated sigh as he ended his work before it really began.  No one saw the quick motion he used to put the blade away while he turned to his acquaintance. “It’s breakfast time.  A late breakfast, but breakfast all the same.  I picked up some lovely fresh biscuits and a few pieces of fruit from a place I know,” Jack cheerfully suggested. “Why don’t you go and wake your friend and we can all enjoy a nice meal together?”

The man rubbed his eyes and adjusted his mask.  “Sounds good,” he listlessly said back to Jack before he left the room to go find his shorter friend.

“What a terrible break of luck,” Jack said as he watched the man leave.  “Oh well.  That’s life and today is just a beautiful day.  You can’t get all worked up about the details.”

With that, he simply walked back to the small bag he had and opened it up to reveal he was truthful about what he brought for food. “Now, do you want an apple or an orange.  Both are very nice.”  

        Porsche was still getting out of her shell shocked state, but she did have enough awareness not to give him another reason to get upset.  She dumbly nodded towards the apple. 

        “Oh!  A very good choice.  I’m more of an orange man myself.  I think it’s the whole experience that comes with peeling them that makes me like them.  It’s a nice reminder of good times,” he said before tossing one of the apples to her lap and that was followed by an english muffin.  “What do you say?”

The gag came off slowly because she only had one hand to get it loose, but Jack waited contentedly for her.  She loathed the man she was looking at, but keeping him happy seemed like a good idea. “Thank you,” she breathed, before something caught her eye.

        Jack noticed the perked attention quickly. “What is it?” he asked.

        “Your hair.  It’s longer and a different colour,” she answered, though she was unsure how Jack would take that.

        “I know it is.  It happened over the last day or so, and I’m not entirely sure why.  I do like it, so there’s no complaints from me, but it’s a peculiar thing.  What do you think?” he said as he pulled back his hood to reveal a flow of long, straight red hair.  It wasn’t the same red as it was before, but rather a red that you’d find when you let blood sit too long. 

It didn’t look like a wig, but other than that, she had no real opinion on her captor’s hair style. “I think it suits you,” is all she could say, and the fact it made him smile shamed her.

They both could hear the approaching footsteps and Jack pulled his hood back up before the two masked men walked in.  “Good morning, my friends.  Did you sleep well?”

The short one rolled his eyes. “Yeah.  Just fucking great,” he said right back before he grabbed an apple and bit into it.

“There’s no need to be rude,” Jack said warmly.  He really didn’t expect any better from these two, but he did give the taller one a glance.

“I slept alright, I guess.   Least for sitting on the floor.  Thanks for breakfast,” the taller one replied after the subtle prompt before he dug into the food as well. 

        “You’re very welcome,” Jack answered as he watched the two take several bites. “Oh yes,  I think I should mention that  I fed your cat while I was out this morning, Brad.  The poor thing was starved for affection.  You really should get a sitter for it.”

        The shorter man choked and Jack continued while looking at the dumbfounded taller man.  “And, I think you should visit your mother more often, Chris.  Even first thing in the morning, she wanted to talk for hours.  She’s a very lovely woman.”

        “How the fuck do you know all that?!” Brad finally was able to get out.

        “Please watch the language.  We have a minor present,” Jack scolded before he leaned back in his chair.  “Now, it’s no secret that this little team of ours has a few trust issues and that’s understandable, so I just wanted to find out a little about the two of you.  Now, I know all about you two, and you two don’t really know too much about me, so let me tell you a story, so you two might know where I’m coming from.  That way, you won’t feel like I’m treating you unfairly.”

        “How did you know my name?” Brad demanded again in a near yell.

        “Why are you in such a rush to find out?  Just relax, eat and listen,”  Jack said as he rose to his feet to walk around the group as he talked.  No one noticed that he was bouncing on his toes as he did so.  “When I was about six or seven, I remember living by a forest with my mother.  It was a nice one too, with lots of lush, vibrant trees and clean streams. It was too perfect for this world, but it’s where I grew up.  I’d spend hours wandering the forest by a logging road, when one day something special happened.  One of the drivers must have missed seeing a rabbit crossing the road and clipped it hard enough to hurt it terribly, but not kill it instantly, leaving it for me to find.  I remember looking down at it as it squealed in pain, but there was no help to be had.  I could’ve picked it up and took it back to mother, but what could she do?  She couldn’t magically heal it.  If I just left it, it might have suffered for hours before it eventually passed on.  There was only one thing I could do.”

        Jack took a deep breath and shivered in pleasure as he continued to recount the story. “I remember putting my foot on its throat, and the way it’s bones shifted as I put my weight down.  It was so scared of what was coming, and tried to struggle to prolong the inevitable, but as I put more and more weight on my hoof, I knew I was doing it the greatest favour it ever received.  Destiny, fate and chance all came together to make a perfect little moment just for me to enjoy.  I knew I had found my own special talent that I’d share with the world.  It’s really hard to explain the euphoria that came with the revelation, but just know it was an epiphany.  And, that’s why I’m here.  I can cheerfully do things neither of you can, and I hope you will come to appreciate that in time.“
  
        None of the audience knew what to make of what was said, and there was a thick silence in the room that was only broken by the sound of Jack chewing away.

        “Just one more thing.  Thank you both for buying breakfast today. It’s very much appreciated,” Jack added as he reached into his coat pocket to pull out a pair of wallets which he tossed back to their owners. “And, when you’re trying to stay in disguise, don’t carry photo ID with you.  It’s a tip for next time you undertake a project like this.”

        The two men continued to stare, while Porsche just thought about something she noticed in Jack’s speech that the others seemed to have missed.  He said “hoof”.  She was sure of it.   Between that and his new hairstyle, she started to think on the recent stories about “ponies” in the news.  She never considered that they might be true, but was Jack one of them?

        She looked up at the ginger again.  If he was one, they weren’t all sugar-sweet and nice. 

> Chapter 3: Confirmed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        I stormed through the castle hallway at a very quick pace, ignoring everything around me.  Only one thing mattered right now, however there was things that could cut through my focused state enough to make me acknowledge them. “Stop!” called a familiar, and commanding voice behind me, and I briefly turned my attention to him.

        “You can’t stop me, Shining, and trying to hide this from me was stupid.  You know you can’t keep things from me,” I replied shortly as I resumed my quick pace down the hall towards the exit.  

        He ran to close up with me and kept pace to stay at my side. “I know that.  I’m not trying to pull rank on you, but-,” he started to explain.

        “That’s good, because you can’t.  I don’t answer to you,” I interjected harshly.  I didn’t have the time or the patience for this right now.

        He huffed, and simply continued.  “But, you can’t go, and I’m telling you that as a friend.  Sanguine’s got into your head and he wants you to come to him.  If you go, you’ll do something stupid that you’ll regret.”

I shot him an icy glare.  “What would you have me do?  Do nothing?  Just wait for the Royal Guard to run their playbook while he plays his own game?  What would you do in my situation?” I demanded from him.  If the only advice he was going to give was not to go, he damned well better have a better idea.

He looked stymied at that before he let out a frustrated sigh. “I’d probably be doing exactly what you’re doing right now, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.  He doesn’t have my sister.  He has yours, and you’re not thinking clearly.”

“I’m thinking clearly enough to know exactly what I want to do.  I’m going to get her back and beat the daylights out of him while doing it, along with anything that stands in my way.  Now, are you going to be one of those things, or are you going to let me go,” I returned as we stopped at the door.  I knew my friend well enough to know it was unlikely he could stop me on his best day; he simply wasn’t like me.

“I’m not going to even try.  Just,” he said before pausing to think how to word his next sentence.  “Just be careful.  You’re good, but he made this personal for you and I’m worried that he’ll use that against you.”

“Really?  Because, I think he’s the one that should be worried right now, because I’m coming for him,” I returned, then left through the door, leaving my friend behind me.
        
        “My Little Pony!” blared the TV, forcing me to the waking world, but it was hard to tell the difference.  The dream seemed so vivid, yet surreal at the same time.  It felt like I was there, and there was the name again: Sanguine.   How did that tie in?  More notably, the dream was new, but the one thing that didn’t change about it was the black feelings it left in the pit of my stomach.    

The theme song ran its course, letting me know how long I was laying in bed, thinking about the dream, and I decided to move on.  My sister was watching shows on my television again.  She had been watching the show nearly non-stop whenever she had the chance.  I’d forgive her for waking me up, “Sally?  Is that you?”

        “Yup,” she answered in the barest of answers as she sat on one of the corners of the bed.

        “Shouldn’t you be at school today?” I asked as I began to fight around the blankets wrapped around me.  I must have cocooned myself in these last night; the dream must of had me really tossing and turning.
        
        “I was but now it’s done so now I’m in here, watching cartoons,” she explained.  “Now quiet.  Pinkie Pie is on.”

        All day?  I hadn’t slept through the day since I was fresh out of high-school.  I was semi-decent clothes wise with a white-t and boxers, so I worked my head free of the nest to glance at the clock.  Four twenty in the afternoon.  Crap.

“I sent a text to one of your clients.  Your phone was going nuts, so I told them you were up all night working.  It slowed the messages up,” she said without taking her eyes off the screen. 

“We’re going to have to work on that personal property issues you have, squirt,” I muttered as I sat up, while keeping my blankets over my lap.  “For example.  This is my room and I need you out of here for a while.”

She huffed and turned to protest when her eyes got wide. “Wow!  What did you do to yourself!?” she asked as she pointed to the space just above my head.

 I blinked once.  “What?”

“Did you lose a bet with Lanny?” she continued before she started giggling at me.

        “What are you talking about?” I muttered before I tried looking up to see what she laughing at, but it stayed stubbornly out of view.  I didn’t have a mirror handy, but I did have was my phone.  I snapped a picture of myself, then flipped it over to see the image.

        There was no way that this picture was right, so I got up quickly and rushed to the door.

        “O-M-G!   You got a cutie-” my sister was saying before the door closed behind me and I pushed through to my little bathroom.  There I was, in the mirror, confirming what the picture told me.  I had blue hair.  It was a dark blue, like a navy that was laid over my natural black.  You might even mistake it for black if the light was bad, but under the light, it definitely was blue.  

        I blinked hard and shook my head, as if that would restore my default settings, but it stubbornly stayed that unnatural colour.  Just like the tattoos, there was simply too many questions to process so the two big ones took the lead.  Firstly, “Why?” demanded an answer, and secondly, “Why now?”

        No matter how much I stared at my hair, I couldn’t grasp the fact it was real.  It’d just bash into the walls of accepted reality I had long since established.  Slowly, my hand lifted up to deep blue hair, and tugged on it.  It felt like mine so I moved onto the next test.  I  glanced at my fingers to look for dye that might of rubbed off, but they were clean.  So, it wasn’t dye.

 Before I could consider that too long, there was a knock at the door.

“Ryan!” my sister called through the door. “Why is your hair blue?  Did you lose a bet?”

“Not now, Sally,” I called back.  She responded by fiddling with the locked door.

“Come on!  Let me see it!  It looks neat!” she whined while she knocked at the door.  Even so, I was doing my best to ignore her so I could look at the hair one more time.  It didn’t make any sense.  Last night, I was up and awake until the crack of dawn, and though I had a few drinks with Lanny, I was sober the entire time; Painfully sober for Lanny’s stripper, but the less I think about that, the better.  I really didn’t like that sort of thing, and it was even more awkward than last time.  Seriously.  She was pretty enough, but the whole thing left me just feeling nervous and very un-turned on.

In the end, the only thing I was sure of was this wasn’t going away anytime soon.  Between the marks and my hair, it seemed to be getting worse.  It was time to make a plan.  “First, I’ve got to talk to Jacob and Daphne.  Second, do what they need done.  Finally, if there’s time, look into this weirdness.”  I ran my fingers through my short hair again, to check it one last time for roots.  There were none to find.

It was time to get moving, so I wrapped a towel around my waist in preparation.  I had boxers on, but I was sure my sister was still going to hassle me as soon as I opened the door and that I wasn’t something I wanted to do in my underwear.  The door swung open, and Sally was waiting there.

“I thought you liked the show, but I didn’t think you liked it that much,”  she said as soon as the door opened.

        “Excuse me?” I asked as I walked by my sister to my room again. “Getting dressed.  Don’t follow.”

        The door was pretty cheap so the conversation continued through it. “You’re dressing up like a pony.  Two tattoos and blue hair is totally pony stuff to get, and it all looked pretty good, too,” she excitedly explained.  

        That drew my attention away from the hunt for a clean shirt.  It was on the news lately that there were rumours that this sort of thing was happening, but they were mostly unconfirmed beyond what people had on YouTube.  But, that can’t be true and it couldn’t be happening to me.  I didn’t even watch the show at all.  Maybe, that’s not what my sister meant.  I hesitantly asked, “What do you mean?”  

        “What do you mean, what do I mean?  I mean it looks pretty good, even if you look like a total pony nerd like that,” she returned.  That serves me right for thinking my sister would be the source of enlightenment.

        It was time to go logical about this.  “Why do you think I look ponish?” I asked.

        “Well, the hair is one thing, and you got something on your legs that looks like a cutie mark.  You know?  Those things ponies have on their backsides?  I thought you’d know all of this.  You’re the one with them,” she explained. 

        Well, she was right that ponies had those marks on their legs.  Then, I hung up on a thought.  I had just seen a man with markings like this on him just yesterday morning at the gym.  I had his details on file, so I should be able to find the man and see if something similar was happening to him.  If I did that, I should be able to mitigate what was happening.  Of course, the nagging doubt (pun not intended) was if the rumours were one hundred percent accurate I’d be riding a change fully out to completion, but that was impossible.

        About as impossible as the rest of it.  Heh.

        “Earth to Ryan?  You there?  You kind of went quiet there,” my sister asked as she knocked on the door again.

        “Yeah. I’m here.  Just thinking,” I replied before I grabbed myself some pants.  “Can you do me a favour?”

        “What is it?”

        “Keep this quiet.  No one needs to know about this,” I stated flatly.  There had to be no room for ambiguity on that.

        “But, I bet you’d get like a bunch of hits on-”

        “No way, squirt.  Speak to no one on this.  Period.  That includes texting, messaging, Youtube, Facebook or any other site you can think of,” I repeated.

        I could almost see how her face was twisting as she tried to think of a counter-argument that might sway me before she huffed, “Fine.  No one is going to hear about your new hair colour or cutie mark.”

        “And a second favour; stop calling it that.  It’s a stupid name,” I added.

        “But, that’s what they’re called on the show,” she quickly returned. “Now, do you got pants on?  I want to get back to the TV.”

        I sighed and opened the door.  “Give me ten minutes, squirt.  I need to work for a bit,” I said, and though she huffed, she knew I was serious about that, and once she was gone I got to work.  It only took a few moments to see that there wasn’t any hits back from the picture of “Sanguine”.  That was a setback, but there was a few more sources that have to come in.  I moved onto my phone and looked through the message list to see that the Esterhazys had been trying to get in contact with me.  Two messages didn’t really count as my phone going nuts.  Even the message that my sister sent them was pretty professional so things shouldn’t be that bad.

        The phone only rang once before Jacob answered me.  “Hello?” he asked quickly, as if he was desperate to hear from someone.

        “Hello, Mr. Esterhazy. I’m sorry I took so long to get back to you,” I apologize. 

        There was a pause.  “It’s alright, Black.  They haven’t contacted us yet with any follow-up reply.  I just wish they’d let us talk to Porsche so we’d know she’s alright.”

        Do you have any sort of recording devices on the phone they’ll call?  Having a recording of it could be useful.  If not, I can hook up something for you,” I offered.

        “I’d appreciate that,” he said, “Now, I understand you were working late to identify the man.  Was there any breakthroughs on that?”

        “None so far, though, I do feel he’s familiar.  I don’t want to get your hopes up too much though, incase it’s doesn’t pan out,” I answered.  I wish I did have something more to give the man, but at least with the picture, we did have something to go on.

        “Really?  Familiar how?” Jacob asked with obvious interest showing through in his tone.

        That one question made me think about how I spontaneously named the man and felt so strongly about ‘Sanguine’, but neither of those were something I could just tell Jacob.  “As of right now, it’s just a feeling like I’ve seen him before, and all I’ve got to do is figure out where.  I’ll let you know the instant it gets more concrete,” I finally answered.  There was so much shame that came with telling a client that you ‘got a hunch’.

        “I see,” he said.  “Then, I’d like to have you come by tonight.  Maybe we can work out who this man is together.”

        “That’s an idea.  I can be your way in a few minutes if you like,” I offered outright to the man, only to kick myself a moment later.  I had blue hair.  I can’t exactly look professional with blue fucking hair, but I was committed now.

“It’d have to be in an a few hours.  I’m at the office right now, trying to keep up appearances and arranging the payment,” he said, “I just want all of this to be over and done with.”

“I know, and I’m sorry it’s all coming down on you, but we’ll get you through it, then catch the pricks and put them away until Doomsday.  It’s all just a matter of time.”  He actually chuckled at that, even if it seemed bitter.

“Thank you.  I really hope so.  Does seven work for you, Mr. Black?”  he asked.

“You know, you can call me Ryan, sir.  And, it works.  I’ll see you soon.  You just try and hold yourself together,” I replied quickly, and he gave barely muttered farewell before he hung up.  I guess, he had to get back to his work and that was alright with me because had to work out what I needed to do about hair before then.

“Alright.  I’m all done,         Sally.  You can go back to watching your show,” I called and the door opened, then a thought occurred to me.  “But, you have to do something for me first.”

“What is it?” my sister asked.

“You called the tattoo a cutie mark.  Can you explain that a little more?”  I hesitantly asked.

“Well, sure.  It’s on the show and it’s what shows a pony’s special talent.  One magically appears when they figure it out,” Sally answered as she hopped up onto my bed and started the show again.
                  
        “I see.  And, all ponies have one of these things?”  I couldn’t believe I was asking my sister for information, and on something so childish, but what could I do?  She was the resident expert.  Just to be safe, I sidled up to my computer and went to google to get verification on anything she told me.

        “Almost all of them.  The kids don’t have them, and I don’t think there’s one on the show with the one that you got.  I thought someone that looked like you would’ve looked all of this up,” she said then she got a really wide grin.

        “I’m just doing that now.  Watch your show and stay quiet,” I muttered as I started sifting through news reports and images of ‘real’ ponies.  Much of the results were utter crap like cosplay and drawings, then a few interesting ones came up like the rumours of a pegasus on a military ship and something about a harp being stolen.  They were light on details though, and so I relegated them all to hearsay.  Then a security camera photo came up of a man with red pointy ears, not unlike a pony’s.  It didn't look photoshopped, and what was happening to me made me feel that it was legit.  And, if that was the case, there could be more people in my situation.  That meant more people that might have answers.

Like that guy I was running surveillance on a couple days ago!  How could I be so dense not to see it?  He had those stupid dumbbells on his thigh where I had my own marks, and, as a bonus, I had his address, name and telephone number so tracking him down shouldn’t be that hard.  Of course, he was huge and wanted to kill me last time I saw him.  I think I better call Lanny and ask him to tag along, just in case things got ugly, but I might get some answers if things went right.

        I glanced at the clock quickly and confirmed that I had time right now if I hurried.  I could pick up Lanny, go see if we can track down that guy and get some answers before I had that meeting with my clients.  To that end, I called my buddy.

        “Hey Lanny!  How do you want to go for a drive tonight?” I asked as soon as he picked up.

        There was no hesitation in his answer.  “That doesn’t sound good.  What’s the catch?” he asked me.

        “Two things.  First, I’ve got blue hair and you’re not allowed to laugh,” I said right back.  The stipulation didn’t help at all.

        “What?  Blue hair?  Why the hell do you have blue hair?” he laughed.

        “That’s brings us to the second catch.  I need you to look tough when I go talk to a guy about this whole blue hair and tattoo thing.  I’ll explain more in the car,” I continued as evenly as I could, so as to let Lanny calm down.

        “You got to throw in a dinner with the explanation because I’m starved.  But, this sounds like that time you had me be tough with that deadbeat dad, and that was kind of fun,” he replied.

“Deal, but you don’t get to laugh when I pick you up.  At all.  This is stressful enough already,”  I warned him.  “I’ll get you a sub or something on the way.”

“Deal.  See you in a bit, bro,” he said then hung up.  He better keep up his end of the bargain or I’ll be ticked.


_-_-_-_-_-_-_


        “Say it again!” Lanny laughed.  He’d been laughing for a solid minute now and didn’t show any sign of slowing down.

        “No.  You heard me just fine the first time,” I replied coldly as I drove the directions my phone was feeding me.  At least Siri respected me enough to help me.

        “I did!  That’s why I’m laughing so hard!  It’s crazy because you’re serious!” he guffawed before he wiped his eyes and forced down the laughter.  “Come on, say it again.  We can try this again, bro.  Serious this time.”

        “I think I’m turning into a pony,” I said dully, without taking my eyes off the road.  I wouldn’t have to endure the laughing long anyways because wasn’t going to be too far to Randy Hister’s home.  That was the man that I was taking pictures of at the gym, and hopefully, he knew more than me about the infliction.

        “Well, that’s just cra-cra- hehehe.”  Lanny was trying hard to fight down the urge to laugh, but it was too much for him to do.

        “Lanny!  Seriously!  I didn’t dye my own hair, and the marks aren’t tattoos.  They just appeared entirely on their own, and they’re consistent with the other alleged transformations.  This is big!  Bigger than just us and it’s happening across the world to people at random!” I snapped at him.

        “Sorry bro, but that’s just insane.  You’re not turning into a pony.  One, it’s impossible, bro.  B, it’s insane.  And quatro, see point one.  You got drunk and high or something and don’t want to admit it,” he stated without laughing.  He was in fact, serious about the points he was making, but he mulched the point list system in two languages and that did nothing for his credibility.  What was worse was he dismissed everything I said outright, despite the evidence.

        “Whatever.  You’re still going to help me with this,” I muttered as I pulled my hoodie back up.  If he was going to laugh at me, I will just wait until I get the last laugh, even if I didn’t want it.  I had too much going right now to be turning into a pony!

        Anyways, after snapping at Lanny, he settled into eating his dinner while I drove.  It was awkward, but he looked calm by the time we pulled up in front of the townhouse.  Maybe the food helped.  “Sorry.  I know this is all crazy, but I need you here for this.  I don’t need you against me too, so here’s the deal.  If it turns out that I’m crazy you can laugh all you want, alright?  But, if I’m right, you don’t get to tell one joke about my condition.  Ever,” I stated. 

“Hey bro.  I’m with you, deal or not.  You know that.  You also know that nothing is going to stop me from making jokes about you if you do change,” Lanny said before getting out.  “You might even say, the situation behooves bad puns.”

“Fuck you.  And, I don’t think that word means that,” I snapped with enough annoyance that it approached fury.  The glare I shot him made his face lose all signs of mirth and he began to stammer an apology when I lost my poker face.  We went from being on edge to laughing so hard it hurt, and the tension broke entirely.  “It’s all fucking nuts, but lets’ find out if it’s me or the world.  Now, all you’ve got to do is look tough at the door incase the guy’s crazy, and leave the talking to me.”

“Got it, bro.  Let’s do this!” he cheered, and that rallying call is what got us out of my car and to the front door.  We even did the side-by-side power walk you see in the movies.  If it wasn’t for the blue hair that was peeking out from under my hoodie, I’d almost think we looked badass.  A quick nod to Lanny let him know he could do the knocking at least, and he did so.  The reaction from within the building was instantaneous, with the sound of a scramble within that quickly faded away.  It almost sounded like a clumsy gallop, and I didn’t know if I should grin or feel more worried.

        “Did you hear that?  I think that was the sound of being right,” I said to Lanny, who just looked confused.

        “So, he dropped something.  Should I go to the back door or something so he doesn’t run?” my buddy asked with a shrug.

        “Nah.  He isn’t going to leave his house if he looks like what I suspect he does, but I still want to talk to him,” I replied as I tried the door.  It was locked, but that wasn’t a big deal for me because I came prepared for this.  The lockpick set I had was a very good one and it occasionally came in handy when I needed to get to a specific place for surveillance purposes.  “Just watch for passersby for a minute.”

        “Bro!  This is going from weird to illegal in a hurry!” he snapped at me, and I just waved him off while I worked my way through the tumblers with ease.  This was a real cheap lock and was more of a suggestion not to open, rather than anything that would stop someone.  “I get hassled by the cops for walking down the street already!”

“You’re doing fine, Lanny.  Just stand there and look casual,” I said without much care for his concerns.  I’ve been picking locks for years; this was child’s play.

“Oh sure, says the white guy.  If a cop picks me up, I’m looking at serious time for this,” he huffed, and he returned to just watching for anyone that might report this.  Could he look anymore suspicious with that anxious dance he was doing on the steps.

“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think I’ll be a white guy for long,” I retorted.
        
        “Whatever, man.  You’re nuts, and if you can’t get this lock I’m going to-” he started to threaten when I turned the handle and the door swung open.

        “I’m sorry.  I didn’t hear you that stupid thing you were saying over the sound of my resounding success,” I snarked as I stood up and pocketed my tools again.  “After you.”

        We entered into the townhouse, and carefully closed the door behind us. To the left was a  den with an old green chesterfield and matching chair and a kitchen to the right.  The place didn’t smell bad though, it was cleaned lately, and the lunch that the guy had going was not that bad; carrots, lettuce, oatmeal, tomato and cucumber.  Wait.  Since when was my sense of smell that keen?

        “Can you smell that?” I asked as I rubbed my nose.

        “Smell what?” Lanny asked. 

        “Nevermind.  My imagination,” I said, before walking around to actually look into the kitchen, and everything I smelt was right there on the counter.  Including one other thing, but that was something harder to place.  The only thing that was coming to my head was something like down like from a pillow or a jacket.

        “So, where’s your pony?” Lanny asked sarcastically as he followed me.

        “We’re getting there.  Relax,” I said, before calling out.  “Hello?  Mr. Hister?  I’m Ryan Black and I suspect we really need to talk.  I understand you’ve been going through a lot of changes lately, but I understand what it feels like.  Can you come out?”

        Lanny just followed behind me as I walked slowly through the place.  In the back of the building was a set of stairs going up, and I had a hunch that Hister would’ve went up if he ran anywhere.  “It’s alright.  I’ve just got a few questions, then I’ll be on my way, I promise,” I continued as I climbed the stairs.

        “G-go away!” called a gruff voice from the upstairs bedroom.  “I’ll call the police!”

        Lanny instantly looked scared at that, but I gave him a little shake of the head to let him know there wasn’t anything to be frightened of.

        “Now, if that was true, you’d already have called them.  You don’t want them here anymore than we do.  All I just want to do is ask some questions about your condition because, I think I got the same one,” I calmly said.

        “Same condi-  No!  Go away!  Please!” he Hister yelled through the door.

        I really needed an answer, so I started to open the door, when it slammed back shut with such a force, it nearly sent me flying.  When I got my footing again, I couldn’t even budge the door open a little.  “Little help here?” I grunted at Lanny and he settled in beside me to help push the door open.  To be honest, I was half the size of Lanny and felt utterly useless in a contest of strength. 

        “Holy fuck, Ryan!  What the hell does this guy do for a living?  Lift engine blocks?” Lanny said as he pushed on the door with all the strength he could manage to open it up just a crack only to have it slam shut again.

        “YEAH!” yelled the man on the other side.

        “He wasn’t talking to you,” I yelled right back.

        I could see that Lanny wasn’t making any sort of headway on this, so he backed off the door and took a few steps back. “Woah.  That guy must be ripped or something because I couldn’t move him an inch,” he said as he regarded the door. 

“Well, I did tell you that he works out right?” I said with a shrug, then he dropped down into a three point stance.  He wasn’t going to do what I thought he was, was he?

“Yeah.  I work out and play football,” Lanny stated with grim determination right before he charged.

The poor door never stood a chance in the contest between the irresistible force versus the immovable object and shattered in a terrible crash that made me wince.  In a heap just inside the doorway was Lanny, the splintered remains of a former door, and, most importantly, Hister.  Or, at least I suspected it was him because he didn’t look like the photo I took a couple days ago.

        Once Lanny rolled himself to the side, we all just stared at each other in silence.  We were awed and Hister was terrified.

“Randy Hister, I presume,” I said, trying to sound as casual as I could when I broke the silence, but I was looking at a small white horse with wings.  It was also worth mentioning that he looked ripped for a small white horse.  His muscles had muscles.  He also looked mortified as he tried to crawl away from the wreckage.

“Ya saw me, now get out,” he muttered in defeat as he struggled up to his hooves.  He looked to be a state where he wasn’t sure if he’d be more comfortable on two or four hooves from how he kept standing up only to fall down again.  

Lanny was significantly less cool with this.  “What the fuck are you?” he asked with all the grace I could expect from him.

I was tempted to snark at Lanny, but realised that it was also my worst case scenario, but at least I knew why I was smelling feathers a moment ago.  Hister didn’t seem in the mood to talk further, so I answered for him.  “He’s a pegasus, and hopefully can explain a few things to me about the condition.”

“It ain’t no condition!  A rash is a condition.  This is something else, and I don’t know what,” he spat out at me.

“Hey!  I caught it from you, Snowflake, so don’t get all high and mighty on me now!” I snapped right back.

“Bro!  Did you just called him, Snowflake?  Gay,” added Lanny as colour commentary.

        “I remember you!  You’re that punk that took those pictures of me the other day.  And, you caught this from me?  Heh, then you’re fucked just as bad,” the pegasus said right back, before grinning cruelly. “Serves you right.”

        “Hey!  I got tattoos on my ass, my hair changed colour and now I can smell what you’re having for lunch from up here!  I think I deserve an answer or two about what you gave me so I can get back on with my life, Snowflake,” I shot back.

        “Heh.  You did it again,” commented Lanny.

        “Shut up, Lanny!” I snapped before putting my hands to my temple and taking a deep breath to try and calm myself.  “Listen.  I need to know what you know.  There’s a lot more riding on this than my life.”
 
The white pegasus just stared at me for a moment, then frowned.  “I don’t know.  It sucks, but I know nothing.  Just woke up, feeling better than I did in months and with the barbells on my hips.  Got an urge to start lifting again, and well, you can see how well that went.  You probably got a day or two left before you look like me,” he said out of calm pity.  

“You know nothing at all?  No cure?  No reason for it?” I asked.

        “All I know was I was on my couch, watching TV when I zoned right out, and when I came to, I felt better.  If I knew a cure for this, do you think I’d be looking like Mr. Ed right now?” he replied.

        “I need a moment to put things together,” I said as I stepped back.  Is this really it?  Is this my fate?  There had to be something I could do.

        “So, bro.  You lift?” Lanny asked, as if to break the tension while I just let the facts churn in my head.

        “Used to.  Don’t think I can now.  I’m pretty sure that most gyms have a “No Pets” policy,” Snowflake said to Lanny.  

        Wait?  Why am I thinking his name is Snowflake.  It’s Hister.

“I can’t afford a gym, but I got a set up in my place.  It’s pretty sweet for what I paid for it.  What were you benching?” He asked as he sat on the bed beside the white pony.

Ever since I zoned out and had that new dream, everything had been getting worse.  Was I losing my mind?

“Well, when I was at my best, I was doing a bit more than three hundred, but that was before I hurt myself,” he replied.

“Three hundred?  That’s pretty good,” Lanny commented.

“Yeah!  Damned right it is!” Hister said right back, looking a bit happier.  At least those two were getting along.

“If I can interrupt for a moment, did you have any strange dreams lately?  Anything when you passed out like “Five score, divided by four”?” I asked cautiously. 

Hister’s eyes went wide. “No shit?  You too?  Well, ain’t no disease that does that to people.”

        “What does that mean, bro?” asked Lanny.

        “Pretty much just that. Nothing else other than coincidence, or another clue that might fall into place later.  Any other dreams, Hister?  I know I’ve been getting some really odd and vivid ones,” I asked.

        “Nothing really, other than that one.  I think that’s just you,” he replied.

        “Great.  Just great. I’m a unique case in a unique case,” I muttered, then I cracked open my case book and started taking down notes.  Details are important.

        “So, why did you call him Snowflake, bro?  Is this like that “Sanguine” thing?” asked Lanny.

        I shot my friend a harsh glance. “That’s another case.  Please don’t go spreading details like that around.  It’s unprofessional and confidential,” I said, before it clicked that he was right, but what did that mean?  What could it even mean?

        “Sorry.  Just thought it was weird that you’re getting messed up with names like that,” my friend said.  “You’re usually great with names.”

        I went back to my notes, walking and writing at the same time.  Moving helped me think.  At least, until Hister spoke up again. “Heh. You’re on your toes.  You got “pony-itius” pretty bad,” he chuckled.

        That sent my eyes down to my feet.  He was right, I was on my toes as a resting position to my feet.  Several attempts to put my heels to the ground were instantly cancelled out when they simply popped back up.  “Fuck me,” I said.

        “Looks like something already did.  Sorry,” Hister said.

        “Am I going to catch this from you guys?” Lanny finally asked.

        “I don’t know Lanny, but I think it’s too late to worry about it.  You’ve hung around me plenty and tackled Snowflake over there, so I think if you’re going to catch it, you’ve caught it already,” I said and then room went quiet again until Lanny broke the silence.

        “I’m Lancaster and he’s Ryan,” he said, offering a hand to Snowflake.  “What’s your plan?  Just hang out here until you get kicked out?”

        He put a hoof up and they shook.  “I don’t really got a plan.  Just don’t have any better ideas, either so I’m pretty much stuck here.”

        “How about you come stay at my place then?  You’re pretty much our expert on this pony shape change thing, and well, I’d always wanted a workout buddy,” said Lanny.  

        “Yeah?  You serious?” Snowflake asked, looking rather hopeful as he did so.

        “You’re serious?” I asked with my eyebrows hitting the top of my head.

        “Yeah!” declared Lanny.

        “YEAH!” echoed the pony.

        “I don’t think that’s a great idea,” I started to say.

        “You shouldn’t talk because you’re going to be in the exact same situation in about two days,” pointed out Snowflake.

        “Fine, you’re a grown man and horse thing, so if things go bad, don’t expect any help from me, alright?”  I checked my phone for the time and saw it would be tight to get to the meeting, but it was doable. “How about this?  You wait here, pack or whatever, and we’ll come back by later tonight to get you.  Otherwise, you’ll have to wait in the car.”

        “Yeah, that works,” Snowflake says, “But, why worry about work?  You ain’t going to be able to do it in a day or two.”
        
        He did have a point, but I wasn’t the one that had so much at stake if I gave up on my job now.  Even with this happening to me, I couldn’t just drop everything to sulk.  The Esterhazys deserved much better than that.

        “Just pack and be ready in a couple hours, alright?” I said and I turned to leave.

        “See ya soon, bro,”  Lanny said to Snowflake and he hurried down the stairs to catch up to me.

        “So, you were right. You’re turning into a pony,” he said with a shake of his head. “Sorry for calling you crazy.  I really didn’t think you were sick like that.”

        “Thanks Lanny.  I’ll pull through, one way or another.  I hope.  Jeeze, it had to be now though.  What the fuck?” I said, as we walked through, and I closed the door behind me.

        “Well, if it makes you feel better, you look pretty good for a sick guy, even if you sound a little hoarse,” he said before grinning ear to ear at me.

        That pun was so bad that it hurt physically.  I even groaned.  “Hey Lanny?”

        “Yeah, Ryan?”

        “Fuck you and everything you love.”

        “Love you too, buddy.  But, seriously, I’ll help you anyway I can, Ryan,” he said as he gave my shoulder a pat.  “You aren’t going to be alone.”

        I huffed at my car door and looked across it to Lanny.  “Thanks, buddy.  That actually does mean a lot to me right now,” I said, then I looked at my car. “Well, if you want, after it happens, you can have my car, because I won’t be able to drive anymore.”

“Don’t worry.  I’ll drive you anywhere you need to go,” Lanny said before we both got in, and started talking logistics of me winding up like Snowflake.  I’d have to break the news to my parents, and make sure I still had a place to live, then work out if I could actually still work.  Maybe, it could work out, but I was still left a little numb about my future.  It was all up in the air right now.  To top it all off, I was feeling less and less comfortable in my seat as we drove along like I sat on something, and no matter which way I turned it just got worse and worse.

“So, what’s the deal with this job?  It’s not an insurance scam or anything or you’d just walk away,” Lanny asked nearing the end of the drive.

        Part of me wanted to just keep the whole thing to myself, but considering the situation and how dependant I’d be on my friend soon, I should come clean. “It’s a kidnapping.  That Sanguine guy is one of the suspects,” I said flatly.

        “Woah."

        “I know.  Of course, I’d change species when I’ve got a case with lives on the line,” I said flatly as we pulled up that long driveway.   “With luck, they’ll go to the police ASAP and let me off the hook before I’m like Snowflake.”

        “Why do you keep calling him that?”  Lanny asked.

        “I’m doing it again?  I don’t have a clue why.  It’s just what’s coming to mind as his name.  I’ll look it all up later when I got more time,”  I said as I took the car to a stop.  “Now, go for a drive or something and I’ll call you back when I’m done.”
        
        “Alright, bro.  See you in a bit,” Lanny said as he walked around to take the driver’s seat.  “‘I’ll get you a coffee or something.”

        “Thanks,” I said as I adjusted my pants to try and fix that pressure at the base of my spine before I knocked on the door, but it was stubborn.  Finally, I tucked a finger behind myself to find a little nub with thick hair.  I had a tail.  “Fuck.”

        I pulled a few strands of the hair out and took a look.  They looked like they’d be down to my knees in length, and the same dark blue colour as my hair.  All I could do is sigh and tuck the hair right back into my pants.  If blue hair wasn’t going to stop me, a tail that I could hide wouldn’t either.

        After a moment to recompose myself, I knocked on the door, and Jacob answered it in a hurry.  “Good evening, Mr. Black, I hope- Oh.”  He stopped talking and ended up blinking at the blue on top of my head.

        “Yeah.  Blue hair.  I know.  It was my birthday the other day and well, I might of went a little far on a dare.  It’s a  thing between my friends and I do every birthday,” I lied.  I could actively keep my heels down, but needed to explain the hair.  

        He accepted it with a slight nod and half smile.  “Of course.  Come in,” he said, and I followed along.

        “So, have they contacted you since we last spoke?” I asked as we moved down the hallway.

        “No.  Haven’t heard anything.  The wait is nearly as bad as anything they could say to us,” he said.  The balding man was still in his suit, but he looked wrecked.  If I had to guess, he didn’t get a wink of sleep at all over the last few days, and adding a full day of work on top of it didn’t help.

“Well, let’s get that recorder on your landline and I’ll show you how to use the app on your phone.  It’s all pretty simple, but the more documentation we get, the better for the case when we put these guys away,” I said to reassure the man.  His office was pretty much as I remembered, if with a few scattered papers spread around the room.  “Is Daphne going to join us?”

“In a few minutes.  She was trying to get some sleep and needs to freshen up.  The poor thing isn’t taking this any better than I am,” he said.  “I think I’m going to try to sleep as soon as we’re done here.”

“Understandable,” I said as I started hooking a small device to the land line.  With the tail, it felt much, much nicer to be standing anyways, even if it felt kinked against the belt.  “Now, if you get a call from an unknown number, answer it on this phone and hit the red button.  You’ll get a recording, which you can send out as a digital file to pretty much anywhere you can plug a USB.”

        “Simple enough.  Has there been any further information on the red haired man?” he asked next.

        “Nothing I’d want to tell you right at the moment because it’s all too vague.  As I said before, I was sure I’ve seen the man before.  Currently, I’m calling in some favours with some non-police sources I’ve got to try and get anything on him,” I said, wanting to keep the whole “Sanguine” thing quiet, especially since it seemed to imply a pony connection.

        “Well, I checked my employee files, and he’s not there.  Damn.  I wish I knew who this guy was!” said Jacob with his voice getting edgier as it went. 

        “I know. I wish I had something a little more solid for you, but that’s what I got.  A hunch and a few callbacks that haven’t happened yet.  I’m sure something will turn up, but they need time to run,” I replied with a shrug.  To be honest, I didn’t really have much hope of anything turning up until the end of the week at least.  “If we are holding off going to the police, the best thing we can do is carefully document everything so when we do go to them, they can make a proper case out of it.”

        He sighed at that, but he understood. “Just a couple more days.  I hope Porsche will forgive me for leaving her out there for a couple more days.”

        “I’m sure she will.  Now, let’s get your cell set up,” I said, and he handed over his phone to me.  While I worked, Daphne walked in and sat down.  She looked a little better than her husband, but not by much.  He started to explain what I just told him, and what I was doing when the house phone rang.  The world stopped as everyone looked at it and we all could see that it was an unknown number.

        I motioned to Jacob to answer it, and he picked up the phone as soon as he hit that button exactly how I showed him, then switched it to the speaker.  I knew I had to be silent for this.

        “This is Jacob Esterhazy,” he said.

        “I know who you are.  We got your little note.”  The voice on the other side was gruff and muffled.

        “Is Porsche alright?” Jacob asked, trying not to show desperation. 

        “She is for now.  We’re not happy about the changing of the deal though.  We wanted the fucking money, and now we got to be watching her for a few more days.  I don’t like it.”

        “Please, don’t hurt her!  We haven’t gone to the police like you asked.  You’ll get your money,”  Daphne said with her voice wavering.

        “We better.  We just thought we should call and let all of you know not to do anything funny.  You’ve got another three days, and after that, we fucking kill the bitch.  You all got it?” he snapped and both the parents were struggling to be strong.  Jacob moved over to put an arm around his wife.

        “Yes.  We understand. It’ll be there,” Jacob stammered out 

        “Good.”  Then, the line went dead and Daphne just started sobbing.  It was hard to watch this reaction, but nothing I could say seemed that appropriate to what just happened.

        “Mr. Black?” Jacob said while he held Daphne.

        “Yes sir?”  I asked, trying to look as calm as I could given the circumstances.  

        “Find out whatever you can,” he said flatly, and I was already taking a copy of the call onto my phone, before he even said that.

        “Of course,” I said, then nodded.  It was a major coincidence that this happened just as I installed the recorder, but I counted that as a win, more than anything else.  At least the guy was willing to wait, and it’s now confirmed for sure he wasn’t alone which was good.  The more suspects, the more likely one of them had a warrant out on them or a record.  The transfer completed and I looked over to the pair. “Are you two going to be alright?”

“We’ll be better when we get Porsche back,” mewled Daphne.

“I think it might be best if I take off for the night. I know I haven’t been here long, but there’s
not much I can do from here,” I said apologetically, and they just gave me a nod to send me on my way.  “We’ll be in touch as soon as something comes up.”

        I called Lanny as I walked out of the room.  “Hey.  You can pick me up,” I said.

        “I just got to Tim’s and you want me to come back?” he pouted.  “Can you hold your ho-.”

        “Lanny.  If you finish that joke, I’m going to beat you until you’re a bloody smudge on the floor.  I’m not in the mood,” I snapped harshly.

“Take it easy, bro.  It was just a joke,” he said, “I’ll be right back.”

I hung up, and started walking outside, and after a few steps, I pulled my new tail loose from the confines of my jeans.  The relief was instantaneous.  “What the fuck did I do to deserve all this?” I said to myself as I made my way down that driveway.

  By the time I got to the end, Lanny pulled up and got out.  “How did it go?  Either really good, or really bad,” he said.

“Really bad.  The kidnappers called and really scared them.  You can drive,” I answered dully.

        “Nah man.  This might be your last time driving ever.  You’re going to do it,” Lanny said as he tilted his head. “The tail’s new.”

        “Yeah, it is, but you got a point.  I might as well enjoy fingers while I got them,” I answered as I walked around the car to the driver’s seat, got in, and closed the door on my tail. It was like having your entire head of hair pulled at once.  “Fucking ouch!”

        “What did you do?” Lanny asked as he got in.

        “I just slammed the door on my tail,” I said, as I pulled it in and tucked it behind me.  It’s going to be a while before I got used to having this thing. “Why are you taking this so easily?”

“Because, you’re my friend, bro.  That’s not going to change even if you are, but if I can make you feel a little better about all this, I’m going to do it,” he said warmly. “And, your coffee is just right there.”

        “I know.  Thanks man.  For everything,” I said as I started driving, “But, let’s stop before this gets too lovey.”  

        “I’m serious, bro.  You’re always the guy that kept me on track and made sure I kept in school and working.  I’m here for you all the way, and if that means being your cover for you, you got it,” he said with a smile. “I’ll even try and quit with the horse jokes.”

        He really was a good friend and a much better one than any guy like me deserved.  He, in the course of a couple hours not only broke into a house with me, but also accepted that I was going equine and was still willing to stand by me.  “Yeah, I appreciate it a ton.  Do you think you can help break the news to my mom and dad?” I asked.

        “You got it, bro.  Anything.”  Nothing more needed to be said on that for now.  We were still friends and that was all that mattered right now.  Knowing that gave me a bit of a base to work out what I was going to do.  Of course, the case still needed running, even if I was being nothing more than a glorified fact checker for them.

We came to a red light, which gave me some time to pull out my phone and I tossed it over to Lanny.  “I just want to think about the case for a bit.  If you go onto my phone, can you play the audio file on the front?  I want to hear the call again.”

“It’s not going to be a problem if I hear it?” he asked.

“Nah.  It’s alright.  Just don’t go spreading it around,” I replied. He tapped the screen several times and the recording played.  I listened to it carefully, trying to pick out a clue of where they could be.  And, then I caught one and it wasn’t any sort of noise.  How did I miss that?

“Woah.  Shit,” Lanny whispered.  “I can see why you’re all stressed out right now.”

“You heard it, too?” I asked as I started working out what it could mean.

“Yeah!  That guy sounded pissed,” Lanny said quickly.

“Not that.  The guy knew I was there, and there should be a very short list of people that know I’m working this case,” I explained as I tried to keep a hold of my anger, but if that was true, someone was playing me for a sucker.  I made a quick u-turn, and punched the gas, sending everything loose against the passenger side.

“Woah!  What the fuck?” Lanny cried as he was pressed to the side of the car.

        “The guy at the end was talking like he knew that there was another person in there with the Esterhazys and since only you and them know I’m working for them, that leaves exactly two people on my suspect list,” I growled as drove back a little quicker than the speed limit would allow for, but I was angry and wanted answers.  There were too many complications in my life right now without any sort of answers and this was the last one I could tolerate.

        “What do you mean?  They’re trying to fuck you?” Lanny asked.

        “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out!”  We were only about twenty minutes away at that point, so it wouldn’t be long before we got back to the house.   I didn’t really have a plan if things got ugly, but I was pretty sure I could take Jacob if it came down to it.

         The car stopped hard just outside of their house and I stormed out of the car.  Lanny yelled something at me, but I didn’t really care.  “Just stay in the car, and call the police if you hear gunshots.”

        “Open up!” I yelled at the door as I pounded on it.  Jacob got to it first, and he looked like he was just getting undressed for bed.

        “Mr. Black?  Did something turn up?” he asked hopefully as he tried to wake himself.

        “No.  Nothing turned up, but I did have a question.  Why do the kidnappers know that I’m involved with the case?”  I asked as I pushed my way into the building.

        “What?  How would they know that?” Jacob said as he stepped back from me.  I must of looked angry.

        “That’s what I want to know!   Did you tell them?  Is this all some sort of hoax or a scam?  Because, this is what I’m thinking; someone in this building needed to look like an investigation was happening while keeping the cops out of it, so they flipped through the yellow pages until they found the youngest PI they could, hoping he was some sort of inexperienced idiot that wouldn’t catch on,” I said, speaking harshly as I kept walking toward Jacob and he kept backing up. 

        Then the world went white, and Jacob screamed at something.  Did someone just hit this place with a flashbang because that’s what it felt like.  I buried my eyes under my arm to protect my eyes from the searing light.

        “Jesus.  Wha- what are you?” Jacob asked in an awed shock.   Shit!  My tail!  I forgot about my tail and I turned myself to face him entirely, in hopes that he didn’t see it.

        “It’s not what it looks like,” I murmured as I peeked an eye out from under the cover. The world was bright like it was noon, not after eight in the evening.

        “Y-your eyes,” he asked in hushed awe. “Are you some sort of demon?”

        “My eyes?” I asked, unsure of what he was saying, so I pulled my phone out again and snapped a quick picture of myself.  I was still mostly me with the blue hair, but my eyes were entirely different. They looked like a cat’s with a diamond shape to the pupil, surrounded by an over-sized gold iris.  The case had to come first, no matter what happened to me.  “Just- just ignore them for now, Jacob, for your daughter’s sake.  Did you set me up as a fall guy?”

        “I didn’t, but what’s happening to your eyes?” he asked as he tried to get another glimpse at them by bending down. 

        “It’s too long to explain.  Now, where’s Daphne?” I asked.  She was the one that was first to say no to the police and apparently she found me on a ‘recommendation’. 

        “She needed to get out to think for a bit and left a few minutes after you did,” Jacob said, “You can’t be suggesting that she’s in on this?”

        “I don’t know, but it’s the most likely case right now,” I said, “Where would she go?”

        “I can call her,” Jacob said, then the land line rang.  He stared at me for a moment, then ran to get it.  I couldn’t blame him, considering the last call that he got on that line and I had to followed him.  

Everything was so bright under nothing more than normal lighting, but my eyes were adjusting to it slowly.  I made a note that I’d need shades before long though to cope with the light, and to hide them.  They did look rather creepy.  I could look up the sort of pony had eyes like mine later.  

I didn’t get long to reflect on it, because as soon as I got into the office, Jacob lifted the receiver, and the sound of chewing was on the other side.  

“Oh, good!  You picked up!  I was beginning to worry that you wouldn’t talk to me.  I’m looking for a friend of mine.  Is Vantage around?  You can tell him it’s his old buddy, Jack.  Oops, I’m sorry, that’s my fault.  That name’s an old habit.  You can tell him that Sanguine needs to talk with him.”  


> Chapter 4: Surprise
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        ~~Earlier That Day~~

        “Good day, Miss,” Jack happily chimed as he pursued over the selection of newspapers and magazines that could be found at the cluttered corner store.

        “Already back?  What did your co-workers do this time that sent you walking?” the middle-aged woman behind the counter asked.  The conversation was no distraction from her paperwork that covered the counter.

        “Nothing actually.  I told them some things that I considered rather critical to the task at hand and working with each other.  They didn’t take it so well, so I decided to take a step out and let them have some time to come to terms with the reality of our situation,” Jack explained as he picked up a copy of Times and flipped through the pages.

        “You read more than two pages and you’ll need to pay for that,” she warned without even really glancing up.

        Rules.  Everywhere had rules.  Some had to be followed and others didn’t, but the trick was knowing which rules he had to follow and which ones had no meaning beyond using up air to say them.  For example, Jack could just ignore the rule he just heard, but then he’d lose this store as the place where he could buy lunches, and that simply wasn’t acceptable.  As long as a rule gave as much as it took from him, it was acceptable in his eyes.

        “I give you my word that I’ll only read two pages, less a sentence and no more,” he replied as he continued to read an excerpt on the “Death of Television”, He very much hoped it was true and would’ve read more if he could, but instead, he put it down as exactly as he promised the woman. 

        “Thank you,” she said, as she flipped the to the next page in her work, and he wasn’t sure why.  He could figure it out, but it simply wasn’t worth his time to do so.  Besides, he had the beginnings of a headache coming to him and that had to be addressed.

        “Miss?  Would you happen to have some Aspirin for sale?” Jack asked as he gave his forehead a rub. 

        “I’ve got it behind the counter,” she replied, and as soon a she actually looked up from the counter to see the man, she grinned. “Late night, last night?”

        “No.  Not particularly late,” he replied as he went into his own wallet; an empty thing with a few dirty bills in it.  It was getting to be a rarity to see someone actually carrying cash with them, but he liked the anonymity it afforded him.

        “You wouldn’t know it from how sunken your eyes are right now.  You should go home and catch a nap if you can or you’ll get sick,” she said helpfully while she collected the payment.

        Jack briefly considered the merits of slow police response times in this area and that one corner of the store that didn’t have any security cameras in response to the woman’s unsolicited advice, but ultimately just gave her a convincing smile and nodded.  He had his own rules to follow and the top one was to never try to wage war with everything and everyone that irked him.  It was simply not possible to win, though he’d make sure the struggle would be something to remember. “Thank you. I’ll consider it,” he replied warmly.  “You have a wonderful day.”

        The tower that held the girl was plainly in sight as soon as he stepped outside and he began walking only to stop a few steps into the journey.  He had caught his reflection in one of the windows, and his eyes did seem darker.  It was like they sank into his skull and were left permanently shaded away.  He liked the change nearly as much as the red-brown colour his irises had took, but that was far less than other changes that have visited him.

        All in all, it had been a curious few days, but nothing he couldn’t enjoy on some level.  He quite thoroughly enjoyed that he could have a long mane, and be walking on toes constantly without a single person turning a head his way.  He was beginning to suspect that no matter what happened to him, people just didn’t notice or care about it.  Except for Porsche.  She was something special, and he would enjoy his time with her.

        With that thought in mind, he began his way back to the old, half-abandoned office tower. It was built during better times in the 90s when the economy was stronger, but since the third major crash in 2017 when the oil companies admitted that they had hit peak oil, it was one of many buildings that simply emptied out.  As such, it made it a perfect place to keep the girl, though he had to convince the idiots of that.  He could be having so much fun right now if they weren’t there to remind him that there was a task at hand.

        Jack sighed.  Maybe, he could be rid of them soon.  That would truly be a wonderful and liberating thing.

        It was a surprise for him to realise that he was whistling happily at that one thought, and it was a lovely little tune called I’ve Got a Little List by Gilbert and Sullivan.  He knew the musical well and out of all the songs, it was that one he enjoyed the most, so why stop the mirthful tune?  If he did have a little list, those two men would be amongst the top names on it.  Maybe after the money was split up.  He might not care much for the stuff, but it did make everything a little bit easier to deal with.

        As the tune in his head continued, he moved from whistling to outright singing about all those he’d put on his little list and how they wouldn’t be missed, and that only got the barest of glances from a pedestrian as he entered into the building.  Of course, he wouldn’t stop for anyone that he passed simply because he didn’t meet their approval.  That included his compatriots, because when he walked into their abandoned office, they both shot him a sharp glance and neither offered a greeting.

        He was in too good a mood to care. “Good afternoon, friends,” he said as he practically pranced into the room. “How have we all been?”

        “Shh!  He’s on the phone,” Chris said in a hushed sort of way.  Brad was at their little fold-out table and talking on the phone.

        “Oh?  With the victim or client?” Jack asked without a bit of worry before he sat down at the table. 

        “Yes.  I understand.  We’ll call when you told us to.  And thanks for the heads up,” Brad said before closing out the call.

        “So, what’s the word?” Chris asked.

        “Well, they’ve got a private eye.  He’s not working the case to find us though, and he’s been set up to just help the father feel better,” he said.  “Nothing’s really changed with the plan.  We just have to keep the girl for a few more days.”

        That was mildly interesting to Jack, but nothing to worry about.  I wasn’t the first time someone was looking for him, and likely wouldn’t be the last time either.  “You should see about getting a picture of this man, and his business name.  Knowing what he looks like would be a benefit to us, and if we knew what his track record was like, we’d know if we had to worry,” Jack pointed out.

        Brad gave Jack a venomous look, and looked ready to reject the suggestion off the cuff simply because of the source.

“Or, whatever course of action you think is best.  I’m just here for the entertainment,” Jack said with a smile and a shrug.

Chris spoke up in the idea’s defense. “That’s actually a pretty good idea.  Can’t hurt to be prepared and all.”

“Thank you, Chris,” Jack added, and nodded to the smaller of the two men. “He thinks it’s a good idea, at least.”

 Brad looked between the two and finally conceded to the advice. “I’ll text her right now.  Maybe she can get it to us soon,” he said as he picked his phone back up and started typing.

        “Now, for my second piece of advice, who’s watching the girl?  You shouldn’t leave her alone,” Jack asked as he looked towards the back room.

        “She’s tied up tight.  Ain’t no fucking way she’s going anywhere,” Brad stated confidently.

        The ginger gave consideration to spending his time with these two, but decided against it in the end.  The girl had tried to slip her bonds before, and she was liable to try it again because he never did have the chance to properly correct her behavior.  “I think I’ll go and stand guard for a while, but would you please let me know when the information arrives?  Thank you.”

        “Uh yeah.  Sure,” one of the men said.  Jack didn’t particularly care who and was already heading into the improvised cell.  The girl was there and properly tied to her chair, but quite aware of Jack’s entrance into the room.  He was disappointed that the encounter earlier in the morning left the girl so mollified that she didn’t at least test her bonds again. 

        He closed the door behind him.  “Good day.  I trust you’re feeling better than you did this morning?”  he asked.

        She didn’t respond vocally, but her wide eyes showed clear terror.  Of course, he could see that she was still securely gagged and any verbal answer would be impossible, but he at least hoped for a grunt or some sort of acknowledgement.  He let the question hang for a moment longer before he walked over and took the gag from the girl.  “So, are you feeling better?  You were restless this morning,” he repeated.
        
        “Yes, I’m feeling better,” she lied, hoping he hadn’t come to finish the job he started in the morning.

        “Wonderful!” he declared with a smile.  “Then you learnt your lesson.  There’s many that would need several reiterations of the lesson to learn it.”

She relaxed very slightly and looked away from the man, though a glance down to his feet revealed he was still on his toes.  When she looked back up, she could see that Jack had followed her eyes down.

“Like the hair, and other things, I haven’t a clue why those are doing that,” he said with a shrug and an honestly sheepish grin.

Porsche heard about that stuff on the news about the ponies.  Everything from online posts complaining about “transformations” to a few bad video shots of ponies on the news, but now she was seeing what she suspected was living proof of the whole story.  She was silent while she thought about how she might be able to use this, and Jack just lost his interest in the conversation.

He turned his attention to the window, and stared out of it at the motions of cars and pedestrians that were on the street.  It was almost a peaceful moment, even when he brought out his balisong again to open and close out of nervous habit.  He had done this before, but this time, there was something different.  It took Porsche a few minutes to actually realise what it was, but the casual flicking of the blade had changed from a regular metronome that it was for the last few nights.  Instead, it was irregular and clumsy as if it was the man’s first time with such a blade.  This continued until he snapped the blade on his own finger.

“Ah, curse this thing!” he swore as he pulled the cut finger to his lips and sucked at the injury.  His other hand pocketed the weapon away, though he continued to stare out of the window.

The girl looked at the man, and in the reflection in the glass, she could note a faint image of concern on his face.  As much as she thought he deserved all the discomfort he got, she also saw an opportunity to garner a bit of trust from him and that might lead to her freedom.

“What other changes are there?” she asked after she gathered up her courage to speak.

He turned his head slightly to her. “What was that?” he questioned.

She nodded to his feet again.  “What other changes do you have?  You used to be better with that,” she repeated, hoping he wasn’t going to overreact to this line of questioning.

He chuckled and turned back to the window, though a hand reached behind him and tucked into his pants.  When he pulled it back, a red tail of long hair followed. Like his new mane, it was long and straight, and ended just by his ankles.  “There are other things, but this is likely the most obvious one,” he said dryly.  “What gave me away?”

She really hoped that was a positive reaction.  “Well, you said you had a ‘hoof’ when you told your story earlier, and I used to watch the show and really liked it, so when all the news about the sightings came up, I really payed attention to it,” she answered.

“Show?” he asked in confusion, before he turned all away around. “You must forgive me, but I never watched much television.  Do you care to explain?”

“Well, um, the rumour is that people are turning into ponies from a show called My Little Pony,” she said and Jack’s eyebrows raised.  He was always unreadable so she couldn’t decide if he didn’t believe her or he didn’t believe that she knew what was happening.  She had to go for broke.  “Do you have a cutie mark?”
        
        “A what?” he asked with honest interest as he walked back to the girl.

        “Um, it’s sort of a tattoo that appears on your rear that’s supposed to show a pony’s special talent.  According to some posts online, it was the first thing someone gets when they change,” she explained as the man approached her, and she could feel that nervous fear start to build again.  He even kneeled down to bring himself down to her level and looked her in the eyes for a moment of inspection.  When she tried to look away, his hand grabbed her face and brought her right back to his gaze into those sunken, shadowed eyes.

        “You’re serious about that.  Well, yes, I do.  I’m not about to put them on display, though. You’re far too young for a grown man to be flashing that sort of thing at you,” he finally replied, and let the girl go to get up and go back to his window.  

She allowed herself to breathe again once he looked away, and once again, she built up her courage to speak.  “So, this is a surprise to you, eh?” she asked.

The man thought about that then shook his head. “No.  Not really, though getting the confirmation from a third party wasn’t something I anticipated.  If that is all true, it would explain the dreams, as well as the more obvious things.  Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” he answered.

“What dre-” the girl started to say before being hushed by Jack.

“I need time to think about this, and have a terrible headache.  Do be quiet or I’ll have to gag you again,” he stated flatly, leaving Porsche without a clue if he appreciated her insight.  She wasn’t about to ask, considering how close she came to losing a finger this morning.

He stood there in silence for quite some time, though the brooding demeanor was lessened by the casual flicking of his tail.  He even brought out the knife again and resumed the flicking to a respectable rhythm, though it paled in comparison against the dexterity he showed off even a day ago.

        If there was one thing that Porsche had gotten better at since being taken hostage, it was sitting in silence for extended periods of time.  She didn’t even mind the boredom as much after a few days of the treatment.  Jack eventually pushed his tail back into his pants and took her to the bathroom, where he waited patiently outside to take her back. It wasn’t like there was anywhere to go from there.  He returned her to her chair, and a meal was shared between the two, all without words.

        As for the other two, they constantly jabbered and chatted about one thing or another without an end, and were happy to let Jack tend to their charge.  Porsche might have forgotten them entirely if it wasn’t for the constant noise they created, and nothing really changed until the evening when Brad called out loudly through the door, “I need some quiet!  Important call I got to make.”

        The ginger scoffed as he rubbed his forehead again; the headache was still bothering him. “Yes, because we’re the ones that need to be silent,” he added, before glancing at the girl over his shoulder.  “Wouldn’t you agree?”

        She nearly cracked a smile at the observation, though it was tempered quickly by knowing who was the one that said it.  “They can certainly talk a lot about nothing,” she offered to the man.

        “They certainly can,” he said before he walked to the door and leaned against it to listen in at what was being said.  His brow furrowed in tightly and he even shook his head in confusion at one point. “That was terribly amatuer.  I wish they’d let me handle those sorts of things.  The only way he could’ve done that worse was to flat out state we knew about him.”

        Porsche looked at Jack with confusion, but hesitated from asking what that was about.

        “As for you, that was a remarkable display of self-restraint you showed there.  You didn’t scream for the phone, or anything undignified.  You should be proud of yourself,” Jack praised as he walked back to his window, only to be interrupted half way through the trip.

        “Hey Jack.  We got that stuff you wanted,” Chris called as he opened the door, and held up his phone.  “Do you want a look still?”

        Jack bounded across the room and grinned widely. “Of course!  You’re a gentleman and a scholar,” he said thankfully, before settling down to study the information.

        “Yeah.  He’s some new kid at the job, so he’s pretty safe for us,” Chris explained before Jack put up his hand to stop what he was saying.

        “First of all, don’t give meaningful details away in front of the hostage,” he scolded, but there was a grin coming to his lips.  What he was seeing on that screen was an impossibility, but he had come to believe so many impossible things over the last two days.

        “What’s the second thing?” Chris asked, watching the ginger and how he was focused on a picture of the private eye.

        “That’s Vantage,” he said as his eyes grew wider.

        “Well, yeah.  The firm, if you can call it that is Vantage Point Security or something another,” Chris said, totally forgetting the lesson that he was just told, but it didn’t even matter to Jack.

        “No.  This man, right here.  He’s Vantage,” Jack said again as he barely stifled a giggle. “Do you realise what this means?”

        Chris could only offer a blank stare at the man, and Porsche just shrank back in her seat as far as she could go, so she might be forgotten.  

        “It means it’s all real!  All of it.  Every dream.  Every promise and hint that was left for me was real!” Jack exclaimed as he leaped to his feet to laugh and dance out of pure excited exuberance. 

“The fuck is going on in here?” Brad demanded as he poked his head into the room to see the man prancing without a care for who was watching him.  The shorter man just shook his head at the sight before he turned to Chris and asked, “What the fuck is this?”

“I donno.  He saw the picture then just lost it,” Chris answered with a confused shrug.

The outburst came to an abrupt end, and Jack turned to face the two. “I’ve got to thank you both for this.  Really!  We might never have found each other if it wasn’t for you two, though I think you’re being tools of a much higher power right now,” he said as he offered handshakes to the both of them.  Chris took his hesitantly, while Brad stepped away from Jack.

“Uh, you’re welcome?” Chris said, then took another uneasy glance to Brad, as if he would be able to instantly fix this, or at least give an explanation. 

        “Fuck that noise.  You’re fucking nuts, Jack.  Time for you to get the fuck out before we make you go!” barked Brad as he stepped up again and pointed to the door.

        There was a moment where Jack’s smile faded, then he shook his head and it was back. “You don’t understand.  This is much bigger and more important than you or the money,” he said calmly as he could as if rational discourse could ease the tensions, “I need you two to let me take the leadership role in this.”

        “No, and I’m done being a nice guy about you, shithead,” Brad spat back as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled an old glock and pointed it straight at Jack.  “Now, get the fuck out!”

“Oh hey, a gun!  Let’s all take a deep relaxing breath before we do something we’ll regret, my friends,” Jack said as he put his hands up and took a step away from the man, but that manic smile was still plastered on his face.  Chris looked close to panicking outright at the the situation with his quick glances between the two.

“Brad.  We can’t shoot him!   Someone will hear it,” Chris warned in a shaky voice.

“Yeah Brad, you cannot shoot me,” Jack added as he turned his head down slightly to try and hide that smile of his, but it was just getting wider.

“Shut the fuck up, freakshow, and just start marching,” Brad ordered as he lifted the gun level with Jack’s head.

“No.  I like it here and this is where Vantage is going to come,” stated Jack in defiance.

“For fuck’s sake, Jack, he’s not playing around!”

        “I’m giving you to the count of five to get out!  One!”

        “If he really meant to shoot me, he’d used three.”



        “Two!”

        “I can finish the count for you.  Three! Four! Five!”  Jack took a long step towards Brad, and Chris shrank back from the scene, while Porsche tried her best to scoot her chair to a corner.  Time stopped for all involved.

        *CLICK*

        Silence.

        *CLICK* *CLICK*

        Brad turned the gun slightly to the side and looked at it questioningly.

        “Oh.  When I went through the wallets this morning, I also decided to take some ammunition away from the angry man that really didn’t seem to want me around.  It seemed like a reasonable precaution,” Jack said to the man who was staring at his weapon in stunned silence, before he flicked out his knife and stepped in.  The soft noise of a razor sliding into a stomach was the only sound that could be heard.

        “B-brad!” Chris screamed, but he was cut off by a solid blow across the jaw from the butt end of the same weapon that pierced his friend.  The force of the blow sent him right to the ground where he sprawled out completely still.

        Jack surveyed the scene before him and chuckled. “This turned out better than I’d ever hope for,” he said with the slightest of backwards glances towards Porsche, who was pushed right up to the corner in terror.  “Now, come on out.  You’re safe for now, and I really think you need to see what happens next.”

        Porsche just whimpered and made no effort to move.

        “Come out!” Jack roared, and with that a sickly, dripping red aura flared around the girl and her chair and it lurched towards him several feet.  He blinked at what he just saw, then a terrible smile came to his face as he concentrated again.  The aura came into place again, and pulled the chair along until it was at his side, facing the bleeding man on the ground.  “It’s been so long, I forgot how it all felt.”

Brad coughed and struggled to get up.  “Y-you son of a bitch,” the man choked as he tried to fight through the pain of his wound, and for it, he was simply pushed back to the ground by a foot on that deep puncture.  The scream sent shivers up Jack’s spine.

“I think ‘son of a mare’ is much more accurate,” as he pulled his tail free again, because this moment was years in the making and he wasn’t going to let anything mar it, and that included a pinched tail.  His mane was pulled back so he wouldn’t miss anything, revealing the beginnings of a shock white horn in the middle of his forehead. He stretched several times and cracked his joints as he considered every motion of his next act, and to his surprise, he was humming, while a phantom band could be heard from the aether.  It was all perfect, and he wasn’t going to delay any further.  He dropped his knife into the grip the red aura in the final preparation for what was to happen.

Then, he sang. 
 
       

I don't ask much, less than you know


The limits of our language are the limits that we sow


And I want to explain why the vacancy gets you needing a buzz


You got to obey what it is that gets you off




 
       While those words echoed through the small room, the man was letting his aura flick and twist the knife in an ever closing orbit to the wounded man and without so much as an effort the first slash sent a crimson arc to the wall.  All that could be heard now was the faint slicing of the knife and Jack’s song.



Speak what you feel, not what you know


Fear in our cities leave us alone





        The display was brutal, and yet, Jack leaned over the shoulder of the girl as if he was a spectator as well.   As she tried to turn her eyes anywhere else, she could see the completely mad glee in his shadowed eyes.





I don't do much, I'm just passing through


On the authority of the beat and groove


Why do we kill all the things that we love because it's easy to do


It's easy to do because everyone else is doing it too




Speak what you feel, not what you show


Fear in our cities it only grows


Say it, say it's nothing or say nothing all


'Cause you don't get it from turning your face away



        She tried to look away, to anywhere but the act in front of her, but a strong hand, pushed at her to keep looking straight at it.  She just stared at his work, with tears flowing down her face the entire time.



At the sound of attack, I'm craving a blast for ease on my mind


I can never go back because I think I left a long-long time ago






Speak what you feel, not what you know


Fear in our cities we all know


We can never go back because we left a long time ago


And you don't get nothing from turning your face away today






Speak what you feel, what do you feel


Speak what you feel, what do you feel


I can never go back because I think I left a long time ago


At the sound of attack I'm craving a blast for ease on my mind


Ease on my mind






You had to take me on





        As the song echoed away to wherever it came from, Jack let the knife fall from his aura and collapsed over the table with a satisfied groan. “Forgive my language, my dear, but I damn well needed that,” he gasped as he stared at the ceiling.  “You know when you get a seed caught under a tooth, and you can’t quite get it out.  That’s the sort of relief I’m getting right now.  It’s bliss.”

        The girl continued to sob while huddling into her chair.  

As much as he would love stay here all night  to bask in the glory and gore, there was one more thing that needed to be done.  He reached out with his magic again, testing it for it’s limits.  First thing was first; the use of magic left him hungry and he plucked up an apple, and brought it back.  It was clumsier than he’d like, but that would improve with time.  He took a rather large bite of it, while he looked to the phone Chris brought in, and scrolled through it for the last call placed.  He didn’t wait to call because he had to find his friend as soon as he could and this was the only way he knew how to find him.  There was so much to share and they definitely needed to meet up again as soon as possible.  After all, the voice in the dreams had promised that it’d be like old times.

        And, yet the phone kept ringing. He played with his mane in giddy excitement though, when his fingers brushed his ears.  They stood pointed and fuzzy. “Hey!  New ears!  Take a look, Porsche!”

        She didn’t even stop her tears long enough for the quickest of glances, and he just gave her a dismissive wave.  She was no fun, but the first time seeing this sort of thing was always the hardest.  He could recall his first time and even he bawled afterwards.  Or, was it his first time, considering the new set of memories that were coming to him.  It was so exciting!

This was more rings than he expected, and he started to lose hope in being answered.  He even took another bite from his snack when the line picked up.  He swallowed what he could, and spoke.

“Oh, good!  You picked up!  I was beginning to worry that you wouldn’t talk to me.  I’m looking for a friend of mine.  Is Vantage around?  You can tell him it’s his old buddy, Jack.  Oops, I’m sorry, that’s my fault.  That name’s an old habit.  You can tell him that Sanguine needs to talk with him.” 

> Chapter 5: Stepping Back
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sanguine.

That name just hung in the air.  We could hear some whimpering in the background.  I assumed it was Porsche, but that didn’t seem important in comparison to who was speaking.

Neither of us spoke. Jacob was just staring at the speaker and I didn’t know the protocol involved with this.

“Hello? You didn’t put me on mute, did you?” the man that just called himself Sanguine said.

“I’m from Vantage Point Security.  My name is Ryan Black,” I said eventually.  God, my tail was getting twitchy just talking to this guy.

        “Ryan?  Oh!  Right, right, right.   That’s the name you’re going by these days.  How have you been, dear friend?  It’s been a dog’s age since we last spoke!” Sanguine said as if he was talking with an old buddy.  Just the idea of being a friend to this man made me grit my teeth in anger.

        “We’ve never spoken before,” I said.  Something told me that wasn’t quite true.

        He didn’t seem to care about how I denied knowing him because he didn’t get any less cheery.  “Hmm.  Well, you were a few hours behind me, weren’t you?  So, where are you along the changeover?  Did your tail come in yet?”

        I wasn’t about to play his game, and ignored what he said.  “Where is the man that called us earlier?”

        “Him?  Well, I don’t think he’ll be doing much more talking, or anything much anymore.  Huh.  Porsche, remind me to pick up his cat later.  Poor thing shouldn’t starve to death,” he said as casually as one would make a to do list.

        “Mom!?  Dad?!  He killed him!” she shrieked over the phone.

        “I’m here Porsche!  Everything is going to be alright!” Jacob yelled right back.

        “Oops!  Somebody is getting a little too excited.  I need a minute here,” he said in a singsong and the phone was put down on his end.  We could hear the shuffling and struggles in a muted sort of way.

        “Do you actually know this man?” Jacob asked shakily.

        I looked down, and tried to work through my thoughts. “I don’t know.  I’ll try to explain everything I know as soon as this is done,” I said apologetically.

        The phone picked up again. “Sorry about that.  She’s a lovely girl, but a little rambunctious,” Sanguine said.  “Where were we?”

        “What do you want?” I asked shortly.

        “Right now?  I just want to catch up with you, Vantage.  Tell me, what’s your count like this time around?  I think I’m up to twelve now.  Maybe thirteen depending how Chris reacts to all of this,” he said.

        “My count?”  He couldn’t mean what I think he did.

        “Yeah.  How many times have you killed?  Old habits die hard, after all.  At least, die harder than other things,” he joked  with a chuckle.

        “Never!  I’ve never done anything like that, you bastard!  I’m not whoever you think I am,” I snarled at the phone.  Every word he said was just putting me further on edge and now he was accusing me of killing.  What did he think I was?

        “You really don’t remember anything?” he asked of me, sounding concerned.  “Nothing?  Not even the deal I cut for us?”

“I don’t know who you think I am, but there’s nothing between us,” I answered, as I gripped the edges of the table until my knuckles went white. I’d do this to his neck if he was here.

        There was another pause.  “That’s too bad.  Maybe I’m not speaking to the right person right now,” he said and he did sound rather defeated, too.  Then, there was a faint groan over the line.  “Oh, you’re waking up just in time, Chris!  You can help me out a lot right now.”

        “Holy Jesus fuck, what did you do to Brad?” a new voice screamed (I presumed it was Chris), followed by a dull thud of two solid objects striking, and a pained groan.

        “Please watch your volume. I’m on the phone,” Sanguine scolded the other voice like a parent might scold a child, then he chuckled. “Do you at least remember what magic was like, Vantage?”

        I looked up and Jacob was just staring at me as if he couldn’t believe this exchange was happening.  I knew I couldn’t believe it. It was plainly obvious that we were dealing with some sort of wackjob here.  “There’s no such thing,” I answered slowly. Of course, the whole transformation thing I was going through was making me doubt that.

        “It’s very real, my friend.  I know I can pick up anything around me that I can picture in my head.  Like this apple, for example.  But, you can’t see that, can you?”

        I didn’t trust that one bit. What was he doing?

“Maybe something with a more audio component.  I know!  Like these fingers!” he stated and then a series of pops could be heard with a man crying out in pain.  I was grinding my teeth and I just realised how hard my fists were clenched together until my knuckles were white. I wanted to stop this and beat this asshole to death in the process.

        “I don’t even need to see it as long as it’s within my reach and I can picture it.  A liver, for example,” he mused aloud, then started chuckling.  The other man screamed in agony and all I could see was red.

        “You fucking let him go or I’m going to sheer off your horn, break your legs, and leave you to the wolves!” I screamed at the phone, as if the sound of my voice had all the power needed to destroy this fucker.

        “There you are, Vantage!  You had me worried that I was speaking to the wrong person, but only you have that way with words.  What really makes you special though, is that you really mean it,” he laughed as if I just told a joke.  My chest was rising and falling sharply as I huffed.   I was ready to destroy this man and was willing to go to any length to do it.  “You’d do all of that and more.  And, all for me!   It’s so beautiful a promise that lets me know that you care so much.”

        “I swear if you hurt anypony else, I’m going to make you pay for every bit of it and then some!” I snarled into the phone.

        “You don’t need to worry, my friend.  Chris here is mostly alright, internal organs aside, and the girl will be safe for now.  I still need them both, after all.  What’s truly important is that we’ve found each other again.  There’s so little time to get ready for when we meet face to face, but what a time will be had by all.  It’ll be just like old times just as he promised, my friend,” he said happily.  I hated him so much.

        “What the hell do you mean “old times”?  For the last time, we haven’t met!” I demanded.  If he knew something I needed to know and needed to know now.

        “And, there’s Ryan back on the phone.  How disappointing, but that’ll be fixed over the next few days,” he painfully sighed.  “But now that we know how to find one another, I’ll keep in touch.  After all, we’ve a lot of catching up to do.  And, since I’ve you on the line Jacob, I’d like to tell you not to worry about the cash.  It’s really not that important anymore.”

        The line went dead at that point, leaving Jacob and myself in silence and staring at the phone.  I was still angry.  Angrier than I’ve ever felt and I’ve never met this man.  If he could do this to me just over the phone, what would I do face to face?

        You know what you’d do; inflict a marvelous amount of pain upon him.  You want to break his bones, draw his blood and leave him a shattered waste in front of you.

        Since when did I become the sort of person that’d scare me?  It didn’t even sound like my thoughts, but they had to be.  There was no one but me in my head.  Right?

        “What are you?” Jacob finally asked.  “What sort of thing is my daughter with right now?”

        “I…” My voice trailed off as I found a total lack of answers.  What could I say?  I didn’t know what was happening.  “I don’t know.  This change started over the last couple days, and only seems to be getting worse.” 

        “But, what are you?  How does he know you?” he pleaded to get at least one solid answer. I wish I could give them.  “Please, I need to know.”

        “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know, and what I do know sounds stupid and insane.  As far as I can tell is that all those rumours about people turning into ponies are true and I’m one of them.  And, maybe he’s one of them too, but that’s about all I can guess at,” I offered and felt like an idiot for doing so.

        He looked at me as if I grew a third head, then sat down heavily in his chair. “If I didn’t see those eyes of yours, I’d never believe you.  So, where does that leave us?”

        I had to think about that because I really didn’t have much of a clue about what was going to be happening to me. “I think its time you called the police.  This has gone beyond what it started as.  Hopefully, Daphne will come back and they can get some information out of her.  I’ll leave you with my notes so you can pass them off to them too, but I don’t think I want to deal with them looking as I do right now.”
        
        “So, you’re abandoning the case?  I wouldn’t be blaming you with your condition and all,” he asked.

        I looked the man over and felt a great deal of sadness; he was a wreck and I in no way intended to add to that, but what else could I do.  If this were a movie, it’d be the place where the guy backs down right before something horrible happens to his best buddy or his family to pull him right in with a vengeance. That wasn’t going to be me. “She doesn’t know that we know about what she did.  Call the police, get them over here and keep me posted on the details.  I’ll help in anyway I can, but if the best case scenario happens, she’ll spill the details and we can get your daughter back right away without me getting further involved.”

“I can’t believe she’d do this.  Why?  It doesn’t make any sense,” he said as he came to terms with what was being said.  He slouched back in his chair and stared straight ahead.

I took a long breath. While I didn’t know the first thing about the whole ‘pony’ thing, that sort of question was one that I was used to fielding, and I could fall into a familiar routine that might actually help.  “Has anything been different in your relationship lately?  Any arguments or fights?”

        That could’ve used some more context, because Jacob sank in his chair and let out a wounded sigh.   At least he realised what I was trying to get at without taking offence.  “No.  Nothing new.  We met while arguing in front of a judge.  She’s a lawyer and it’s how she thinks and kept it up the entire time, but it never became something that’d lead to this,” he answered while he stared at no particular point in the air. 

        That was something to note at least.  “What do you argue about lately?” I asked, as I flipped open my notebook and joted a quick couple notes.

        “Lately, it was fiscal policy and how it affects small business.  We don’t bring up anything about us personally.  We just enjoy the verbal sparring,” he said, still looking defeated. “Why would want the money?  It’s all the family’s.  We don’t even have investors in the company because we want it there for Porsche.”

Not exactly a dead-end there, but the mention that it was the ‘family’s’ money hinted that Daphne might not have the access to cash she thought she might have when she married in.  Maybe after a few years, she decided to get a little more proactive.  What a bitch.   Anyways, I followed up as soon as I finished jotting down my theory.  “Does she have any side projects, or former business operations that could use an influx of cash?” I asked.  

        “Well, she had several investments when we married, but our pre-nup made sure they stayed separate legally.  I did the same for her, that way we wouldn’t be responsible for each other’s mistakes.  Anyways, they’re still going, even if they’re smaller than they were.  The downturn was really hard on them.”

        That sounded like a motive if I ever heard one, though it was the stupidest sort of thing I’ve ever heard.   She had to be desperate to try a stunt like this.  And, a horrible, horrible person.

        You want to find her.  Make her pay for this, don’t you?

        I was sure that the inner monologue wasn’t me, but damned if it didn’t make sense.  If anyone deserved to be caught and have the full weight of justice on them, it was her.  Hell, why wait for the courts?  Why not just wait until the right moment and just handle it myself.  It could be quick and- What the fuck am I thinking?!   I gave my head a hard shake to clear my head. “Sorry that this is all happening to you.  You really didn’t need any of this,” I said softly and Jacob didn’t so much as twitch in his seat.  I bet he was thinking on what he did wrong, but I doubt he did anything.  “You should call the police soon, so they can find her.  I’m still here for you though;  if there’s anything further you think of, give me a call.”

Again, he just kept staring straight ahead.  Damn, this was getting awkward.  I took a couple steps towards the door, and he finally spoke up. “I’ll transfer your payment to your account tonight,” he hollowly said, stopping my progress.

“Thank you,” I replied, then sighed as I noticed he still hadn’t moved from his spot. “Are you alright to be alone right now?  I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now, but it’s got to be absolute shit.”

He finally looked my way and forced a smile. “I’ll make it through this,” he replied with a little more life.  “Just stay available no matter what happens.”

“I will,” I said, then turned to the door.  Before I even left the building, I could hear him placing the call.  At least we had the cavalry coming.  Fuck, what a all-around, shitactular night.  I’m turning into a pony, there’s a crazy fucker with magic out there that swears he knows me, and Jacob just got the worst news he could possibly get.  About then I tripped over my own feet when I got of the door because not only am I on my toes again, I can’t see anything because everything is too god fucking damn bright!

Lanny was already there as I got up.  “I saw you fall, bro.  You alright?” he asked as he offered a hand to me.  I took the help up.  “Cool eyes.”

“Cool eyes?  That’s it?  No asking something like, ‘What the hell?’?” I replied as I dusted myself off.  “And, what were you doing at the door.”

“Just got worried, so I wanted to be rush in to save you, bro.  And you got a tail already, so why should I get worried about the eyes.  They look cool.”

Now that I was outside, the brightness of the world was easier to deal with, but the street lights were still miniature suns to me.  Unlike everything else today, I had solution to that.  I resumed walking to my car with Lanny beside me and as soon as we were in, I pulled on my sunglasses.  The early night was instantly and infinitely more bearable. "So, what's the plan, Ryan?  Everything alright?"  Lanny asked.

"Right now? They could be better, but we got to get moving before the police show up;  I might be kind of hard to explain to the nice men with guns," I answered as I started up the car and pulled out.

"So, you're home free?" Lanny asked.

“I’ve got no idea.  Sanguine apparently knows me because of the whole pony thing, and it’s the wife that set this whole kidnapping-thing up for some god-damned reason.  Probably money, but that’s messed up.” Just saying this out loud helped me with my own thoughts, but it wasn’t getting me answers.  Just more ‘whys’ again, and again.

"That Sanguine guy knows about you?"  Lanny asked.  Just looking over at him, I could see him trying to work out what that could mean.  Good fucking luck, Lanny.  Let me know how you do, because I don’t have a clue.

"Yeah. He called us while I was in there and asked for me by the company name, then proceeded to talk like a total psycho," I replied, but just thinking about him was setting me on edge. “Oh yeah.  Just to make things better, apparently he does magic too.”

"Wait, what?"

"Unless the poor shit with him is a very good actor, and wasn’t screaming because Sanguine was rearranging his organs."  I lost it and punched the steering wheel. "Fuck Lanny!  I'm fucked!  I'm turning into a horse-thing and there a crazy asshole with magic power out there that thinks I'm his man-crush or something!  What the fuck am I going to do, Lanny?"

He sat quietly beside me, looking at me with fucking pity.  Pity!  For me.  That was the last fucking thing I needed right now.  To keep from snapping, I turned my attention entirely to the road and the drive towards Snowflake’s home.  At least it was something I could do right now.

Lanny pointed to the next turn. “Take a right,” he stated flatly.

“But, Snowflake isn’t that way,” I snapped.

“Just take a right.  You’ll thank me, bro,” he repeated.  I gave in and turned, and quickly I realised what he was planning.  Up ahead was a favourite burger joint of mine called TJ's Drive-In.  I don't know if there ever was an actual TJ, but he'd be proud of lending his name to a superior hole in the wall such as this.   This place was the greasy spoon to measure all other greasy spoons against.  “You’re stressing and need to calm down.  I’ll pay.”

“Lanny. I think my problems are bigger than a burger,” I replied.  

He laughed in his carefree way and nodded. “Yeah, but it might help you anyways, bro.  Besides in a day or two, you won’t be able to have a burger again, so we’re going to take a break here.”

He was right, and I knew it.  This could be my last shot ever at eating meat and I already needed to get my head back in the game.  Better yet, the place didn't seem that busy, so I pulled in.  "Alright.  We're doing this then we're off to pick-up your new pony-man crush.”

“Hey, he lifts, bro.  I can relate to that,” Lanny said to explain himself.

“Whatever.”  Like always, the place was humming with people coming in for late dinners and early late night snacks, but the lines were worth it for deep-fried deliciousness and greasy perfection on a fresh bun.  Heck, my mouth was already watering just thinking about it, and I stepped out of the car and took a sniff of the air.  One upside of this change is that my sense of smell is so much better, so this should be a wonderful experience for me.  With much anticipation, I sniffed the air drawing the scent in and instantly my gut twisted in total rejection and my appetite vanished.  There had to be something about different about the meat today because it was way off.  Too greasy, and salty to the point of smelling revolting.  It was just my luck the one day I was here, and they had bad meat, unless… Ah fuck, it’s me.  As if I needed anything else to go south on me. “Oh, come on.  Really?”

My buddy looked over my way. “What’s up?”

I took another sniff of the air, and it didn’t get any better than the first time. “I don’t think I can eat here.  It really doesn’t smell right.”

“What?  It doesn’t smell any different,” he said right back. “Oh.  Is this one of those pony things?”

“Lanny!  Shut up,” I snapped and gave the parking lot a look around to make sure no one heard and fortunately, we were alone.  Finally, something turned out alright, but he was really bad at keeping anything secret for long.  “But yeah.  I think I can handle a milkshake and fries or something like that, but that meat is really smelling bad.”

“You serious, bro?  Man, that’s shitty.”  Yup.  That’s what I needed.  More pity from Lanny, and I wasn’t going to take it sitting down.  There had to be something I could do to have one last meal out in public before this damned curse went too far.  A quick look around the neighborhood revealed that there was a there was a corner store across the street, and TJ’s had a patio so I could eat outside without pissing off the staff too much.  I should be able to find something to appease my new sense of taste, whatever that was.

“Yeah.  Just go and get yourself whatever you want.  I’ll be back with something that I can stomach,” I said as I already took a few steps in the store’s direction.  With my glasses on, no one should be able to see the yellow eyes, and even if they did, I could just say they were contacts.  No risk.

"Okay, bro.   But, get yourself something good because you need it bad," Lanny called after me.

"What would I do without you telling me what to do?" I asked sarcastically over my shoulder.

"Be a lot more upset and work stressed," he answer back honestly.  He had me there.  Whatever.

The store itself was one of those corner stores you’d find anywhere.  All the necessities you could need at an inflated price for the convenience.  I looked around quickly, and the place looked pretty much deserted except for the clerk doing orders behind the counter.  Thank god for the sunglasses because those florescent lights were bright.  I didn’t see anything I wanted to eat up front, but I could smell the produce section in the back, so I headed that way on autopilot.  If there was anything I did like about this change was that my senses were getting better.  Hell, that could even be handy in the job.  Other than the fact I wouldn’t have hands. Fuck.  I wish I understood what was happening better.  Snowflake didn’t really didn’t know anything, but Sanguine did.

Who was that guy anyways?  He just acted like he knew me.  And, he cut a deal for us?  When did that happen?  What the hell was this deal he made and with who?  I needed to get in contact with him again I wanted more, but I don’t think he’d be the sort to give me anything straight up, and he had way too much crazy on him. 

While I was thinking, I was tossing anything that looked appetizing into a handbasket.  It didn’t really matter what it was because I was going to find something that I’d like for what was looking to be the last meal public.  Anyways, where was I?  I guess if I wanted to find him, the best way would be through Daphne.  She’ll just return to the house because I doubt she knew about the second phone call, and the police should be waiting for her by then.  After that, I’d have to play it by ear, but I’m sure I could get a chance to speak to Sanguine.  That is, if I wanted one.  I wasn’t too clear on that yet, but my only other option would be check the internet again and try and look up details again.  My sister liked the show; maybe she could look up information on ponies or whatever with cat-eyes.  There couldn’t be too many of those out there.  Of course, that might include showing her the tail.  Jeeze.  I’d end up in braids or with bows on.  But, that could be simpler too.

It didn’t feel right to leave it all up to the police but it was simple and clean, and well, considering the fact I had a tail right now, I shouldn’t be wandering the city looking for her.   I huffed.   I wanted to keep going on this, but again, let’s keep this simple.

“Card in the bottom, please.”

“Uh, what?” I replied back.  I was at the till with a bag full of stuff.  I wasn’t paying much attention and was just letting my nose decide, so this will be an interesting experiment.  “Oh, right. Money.”  

I pulled my card out and hoped there was enough cash in the account to cover it.  Towing my car towing really tapped me out, but it came back approved.  Heh. I guess the insurance company actually paid me on time for once.  Nice for them to get the last time right at least.  I took my dinner back to the patio where, Lanny was already sitting, with a milkshake ready for me, along with the usual for himself.
        
        “Think you have enough, bro?” Lanny asked as he glanced at my bag.  It wasn’t that much, but there should be something for a snack later.  

        “Heh.  I don’t know what I eat.  Might as well apply the shotgun method,” I replied as I took my drink and took a sip.  At least dairy was still alright for me.  Actually, it was pretty damned good.  Now that I was satisfied with the taste, I lifted my glass towards Lanny.  “Anyways.  Here’s to my last night out.”

        He obliged with a little tap of his glass to mine.  “Let’s make a good one,” he toasted back.

        I chuckled sadly.  Right now, I was very aware of that tail of mine in my pants, reminding me that I wasn’t going to be human-ish very much longer.  Might as well try what my nose picked out for me, and I grabbed the orange at the top of the bag.  “Yeah.  If I’d known that all this would happen, I’d shown up at my party.”

        Lanny snorted and shook his head, before he started picking through his dinner.  “You kidding me, bro?  I knew you wouldn’t show even before you missed it.  It’s just what you do.”
        
        “What do you mean by that?” I asked between bites.  

        “Just that bro.  You’ve missed your last few birthdays, last Christmas your parents called me to ask where you were, and you skipped out on every dance in high school as soon as you got a chance,” he replied with his mouth full.  He swallowed hard. “I worry about you, bro.”

        “Well, I had work to do,” I said in my defence after I put down the orange to pick up something new.  I don’t recall ever liking kiwis before, but my sense of taste must be shifting like my smell because it was better than I remember them being.  “I can’t drop everything just to goof off.”

        He rolled his eyes at me. “You’ve always got work to do. Or people to talk to.  Or pictures to take.  Hell, if I didn't’ make you, you would’ve worked this entire night, and this is your one big last chance to get out there like a normal person, bro.  You don’t even really have anything to do.  Just relax a little and let the police handle it.”

        A twinge of annoyance ran through me.  I should be going home and researching what’s happening to me, or trying to pin down where’s Sanguine or Daphne. “Need I remind you, that there’s a girl out there, in the hands of a psycho?”

        “And the police got this, man.  They’ll get the woman, get the info and get the girl.  You did your part, and you’re turning into a fucking horse, bro!  You can take a night off and worry about yourself for once!” he snapped and then he noticed he got a little loud there, and we were overheard.  A table several seats over looked over our way.

        “Tell me what the girl said after that!” I said loudly as a cover as if this was all building to a punchline, and the gawkers looked satisfied.  Fuck, Lanny had no clue how to keep anything quiet.  “Quieter, please.  I don’t want to be picked up for the local zoo.  Anyways, all the stores are closed so its not like I’m going to be taking care of myself.  Not sure what I even need, really.” 

        “I ain’t talking about going shopping for Mane and Tail or anything like that.  This is your last night that you’ll be able to get out and you never did that enough already.  Come on, bro; hit a bar with me.  We can pick up Snowflake on the way back, and continue the party at my place,” Lanny said in a much more appropriate sort of voice, but he still looked worried for me.  “And, tomorrow morning, we can work on this “pony thing” for you.”

I tossed the rind aside, and went into the bag again.  He was pretty simple in his worldview sometimes, but he had a point.  The police were on the job, and it was just a waiting game for me right now.  “Maybe, I’ll come out.  I always wanted to be a normal person,  Even if it’s just for one night.  But, if I get a call, or pick up any sort of lead, we are following it the minute we get it.” I answered hesitantly, then bit into my next selection.  Whatever it was, it was crunchy and kind of sweet.

“Shit man.  If you’d wanted to be a normal person, maybe you should eat like one,” Lanny  exclaimed with his eyes wide in surprise.  “How the fuck did you do that?”

“Do what?” I asked, before I glanced down at what I hand in my hand.  It was a coconut with a bite out of the shell.  The rinds were entirely intact on the table, too, expect for a pair of small punctures in them.  I had no clues and just gave my buddy a sheepish smile and shrug.

“Woah.  Your teeth!” he said as he pointed at my face.   I immediately ran my tongue around my mouth.  Molar, molar, bicuspid, fang, front teeth, fang, bicuspid, molar, molar.  Everything checking in normal.  Wait.  Fang?  I actually reached up and tapped a finger on the long, pointed teeth to check if they’re real.  The certainly felt real, and were pretty strong apparently too if I could bite through a shell like that.  Now that I was aware of them, I couldn't help but continually tongue at them.

“What the hell type of horse has fangs?  I’m going to go through that show’s wiki as soon as I get home,” I stated.





“Leather jacket, blue hair, ‘contacts’ and ‘fake fangs’.  I know where we’re going as soon as we’re done here,” he said with an ever widening grin.  That confirmed that he had what he thought was a good idea.

“This won’t be good,” I muttered, as I worried about what I might’ve got myself into.

        “We’re going to hit a goth bar!”

        The sound of a facepalm echoed over the patio.




_-_-_-_-_


        ~Just after the phone call~

        How was he ever going to contain himself!  After all this time, his friend that he never knew he had was back.  It was a crying shame that no one else here seemed to appreciate that.  Brad was good fun but now he was rather broken.  Chris was a little better as he rolled around in the fetal position, and Porsche was just sobbing.

        All signs of a very wonderful night.

        “My dear friends, I know we all have some issues to work through, but I’ve need of your attention for about two minutes here,” Sanguine said with a clap of his hands and a oddly unbalanced grin on his face.  “You just heard half of a conversation between myself, and someone very dear to me.  Everything has to be perfect for us to meet up again, so I expect the utmost of cooperation from all of you.   Except for you, Brad.  You can take five.”

        The mutilated corpse stayed exactly where it was, and no one laughed.

        “I suppose you’re all right; that was a terrible joke,” the half-unicorn admitted, as he pulled up a chair towards Chris and sat in.  Just the approach made the man shrink back in fear. “Easy now.  I don’t need to hurt you again right now, so relax.  But, since I’m soon going to be short opposable thumbs, I need to make sure you’re committed to this project.”

        Chris turned his gaze up at the man. “Go to hell,” he coughed and was immediately rewarded with a sharp kick across the jaw.

        “Come now.  I need someone to watch the girl while I’m away, and to drive once my restoration completes itself,” Sanguine explained as if the blow never happened.  “And since you already know of it, it makes you the perfect candidate!”

        Chris just glared with his hand up to his bleeding lips to try and contain the flow.

        “Heh.  I understand and you’re free to go, but I think I’ll go pay your mother a visit to see if she’ll help out.  I might not be as kindly as I’m being with you though.  The interview process isn’t my forte,” he mused aloud as he stroked his chin.

        “You leave her out of this,” whimpered Chris as he struggled to get to his feet.  “I’ll do it, but she stays out of this.”

        “Excellent!  I knew you were my favorite co-worker for a reason!” Sanguine chimed as he got up and offered his chair to Chris.  It was followed by a friendly hand into it.

        Now, what to do?  The girl was a wreck, Vantage wasn’t quite ready, and Chris needed a while before he was up for anything.  Right!  The boss!  He could give the boss a call, and find out the secrets Brad was hiding.  It was a simple matter of going through the call history to find the number.

        “Quiet please, everyone.  I’m on the phone,” he announced before he placed the call.  

It only rang once and an older woman answered it.  “What is it?”

“Good evening to you too, Miss.  I’m just letting you know that Brad is unable to handle anymore of the calls.  He’s taken an early forced leave on the project here, but the good news, I’m already stepping up and into the role, Miss,” Sanguine said cheerily, leaving the woman bewildered on the otherside.

“What are you talking about?” she eventually asked.

“He’s dead,” Sanguine tersely explained, then chuckled.

“Wha-  How did it happen!?” the woman demanded as she tried to control her tone.

“Well, it started with a deep thrust straight into the gut with a four inch blade, followed by a slow peeling of the skin off of his… Or, you didn’t really want the detailed answer?”  By now, Sanguine was flicking his knife again in his aura with a frightening amount of control and speed, which gave him something to do in that silence.   “You’re not much for words, are you?”

“What are you doing with the girl?” the woman finally asked in a poor effort to hide her worried tone.  

That one question made Sanguine’s eyebrow perk.  He then chuckled. “Excuse me.  So, you don’t care about the money as much as her?  Interesting.  Very, very interesting.  And revealing, too.  Now, why would that be?”

“Just, don’t,” came a aimless stammering reply.

“Let me guess.  Don’t touch your daughter?”  There was a gasp on the other side of the line.  That was good as a confirmation.  “Well, don’t worry.  I rather like your daughter, and as long as I’ve need of her, she’ll remain unharmed.  You have my solemn word,” he said, full of confidence.  “But, I must let you know it wasn’t that hard to figure out who you were. I was really looking more for confirmation.”

“But how?” the shocked woman asked.

“Well, I did notice there hasn’t been a single security guard through this building since we set up here, and that means someone would have to cancel the service.  Pretty simple to do when you’re the building owner, I would think.  And, justifiable since this place is mostly empty, too.  Must be hurting the pocketbook pretty bad, no?  So, what did you do?  Did you watch Fargo one night and decide that the fatal flaw in that plan is the man hired Steve Buscemi?”

“It’s n-not that simple!  It was supposed to be-” 

Sanguine laughed into the line, cutting off the response entirely.  “I’m sorry. I really don’t care about what you thought would be happening now.  This is bigger than you and your money, and I’ve work that needs to be done so everything will be perfect.  

“That aside, you’re away from your home right now so you can make a few calls without worrying about being overheard, correct?  My advice to you is stay away from home.   If I figured this all out, I know he will and then, he’ll be hunting you.”

There was no reply.

“Anyways, you have a wonderful evening.”  He hung up the phone and smiled widely towards the window.  This was working out too perfectly.  Vantage will have a warm-up before he came.

A hunt.  A gift for an old friend.
> Chapter 6: Escalation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	        

        It might only happen once in a blue moon, but every once in a while, I’ve got to admit that Lanny was right.  It’s kind of hard to believe, but it happens and tonight was one of those nights.  I had doubts about where Lanny was taking me, but it was all confirmed as soon as I saw the place.  The place barely even qualified for a bar.   It was the basement for an actual bar, with some homemade sign saying it was “The Spider’s Web”.  At least there was no cover for The clientele were strange looking in their over-the-top leather and PVC outfits and top hats, but that didn’t stop Lanny from diving into them like he was a regular.  Unlike me, he had no fear.

        This wasn’t my scene.  I was worried that someone would notice my eyes or tail, so I found myself a corner table to nurse a beer in silent worry for my case that I should be working on.  The music was loud and grating and the entire place reeked of sweat and alcohol, though that might have been my newly enhanced sense of smell.  In short, it was looking to go as badly as I feared it would with me planning to wallflower away the entire night.
 
That’s about when Lanny stepped in and badgered me until I actually joined the people on the dancefloor.  He wasn’t going to let me hide on my last night and anything less than enjoying myself wasn’t an option for me.  I didn’t think I could though. I don’t dance and the music was some loud, aggressive beat that I didn’t recognize, but I tried, making me smile nervously.  One of the other girls must have noticed me though because she saw the fangs, and rather than be scared or anything like that, she actually came over to me, and started asking questions about where I got them because they were so realistic.  I didn’t give her the real answer but told her I made them myself.  Well, it was technically true, but splitting hairs. 

        You know, once you have the attention of a pretty girl in leather, dancing gets a whole lot easier.  She loved my ‘contacts’ just as much once she convinced me to take my shades off, though I was quick to get the shades back on.  I didn’t want to freak her out when my diamond shaped pupils narrowed or something, and even the lights on the dancefloor were a little bright for me.  We danced, we talked.  I bought her a couple drinks and we had a good time which ended all too quickly with last call.

        I told her I’d call her in a couple days but that was a lie.  It was unlikely I was going to even be human in a couple days, so that precluded even considering a relationship.  Besides, she was nice and cute and all, but by the end of the night, that initial spark was gone.  That aside though, Lanny was right and I did have a good time.  Maybe I should’ve done it before I was going to be a horse for the foreseeable future.

To his credit, Lanny never said, “I told you so” on the ride home.  He didn’t even imply it; he was happy that I had a good time and nothing more.  After he dropped me off, he took off to pick up our new friend, and left me with a few regrets at home.  I wish I could’ve stopped and listened to him more, but I always had a reason not to, and now it was too late.

As I approached my door, I checked the time quickly.  Three in the morning.  It might as well be three in the afternoon though because I was wide awake, if a little buzzed.  It wouldn’t be the first time I had to sneak into the house, and with my newly developed night-vision, it was even easier.  I didn’t need to turn on a single light on the way to my Fortress of Solitude once I took off my shades.  At least there was a couple perks to this.

It was good to be back somewhere familiar.  It was in the same state as I left it with the mess to one side, and all business to the other, and in the middle, as always was the unmade bed and TV.  Sally must’ve left it on after watching more of that show because it was on the title screen for one of the seasons.  No big deal.  Tonight was more fun than I expected once Lanny plied me with alcohol and women, but all the worries never left me.  The case still bugged me even if I did hand it off to the police.  I really wish I could’ve done more for them but with my condition, it simply wasn’t possible.

Speaking about my condition, though, my tail was aching; how can something that’s mostly hair ache like that in the first place.  I pulled the offending limb free of my pants and tossed off my jacket on to my office chair.  If I was going to be awake, I was going to make some plans for tomorrow and do a little research on what I was becoming. The more I knew the better but I wasn’t going to hold out for a cure or anything like that.  That’d be like panning for gold in the shower as far as unwarranted optimism went.

It could wait a few minutes because my feet had been feeling numb for the last hour, and I could take a pretty guess as to why, but I wanted to see for myself.   I sat heavily on my bed, and before I could even bend to pull a sock off, the heap of blankets beside stirred.

“Ryan?”

Crap!  My sister didn’t just leave the show running, she fell asleep in my room.  I sprung to my feet and turned my back to the wall.  If I was really lucky, I could get my tail hidden before she woke up.  “Sally!  What are you doing in here?”  I snapped.  I didn’t want to get angry, but she was in my room again.  Why did she even have her own room if she was just going to use mine?

She rubbed her eyes while I tried to stuff my tail away, but it was clear I’d never make it so I did the next best thing; I pulled it up and held it in my hand behind my back.  “Just watching the show,” she yawned as she sat up.  She was in her sweats and t-shirt.

“And mom and dad let you?”  I asked.

“They can’t really stop me when they’re asleep,” she said as she reached for the nightstand light.  I didn’t remember until after she flicked it on that I didn’t have my shades on anymore, and for the second time that night, I was temporarily blinded by the light. Brain, you’re not allowed to get that song stuck in my head.

“Can you turn that off?” I asked with a hand over my face to shield it while my eyes adjusted to the light again. 

Instead of quick obedience from my sister, she got curious.  “What do you got behind your back?” she asked.   Crap.  I should’ve known she’d waste no time before getting to that.  I wouldn’t have.

The glare dulled as I adjusted to the light, but I couldn’t risk a peek or she’d see that my eyes were messed up.  Crap.  I wrapped my hand around my tail again to make sure none of that blue hair got spotted.  “Nothing!  Just get out of my room!”

“Why you covering your face?  Are you on drugs or something?” she asked with no intention to leave. “Can I blackmail you?”

“No, you may not blackmail me, Sally.  I’ve been in the dark for a while so my eyes are sensitive, and I’m not on drugs.  Now, get out!”  I repeated firmly, and I heard her get off of my bed finally.  It was the triumph of hope over experience to expect she’d actually leave.  Totally my fault.

“How about you show me what’s behind your back and I’ll go?” she asked sounding more awake by the second.  She was definitely my sister, but this was the worst time ever for her to get so damned curious.

        My first instinct was to stick to my guns, but that wasn’t likely going to get me anywhere.  Maybe I could play this off and get her out of my room.  With a defeated sigh I let my tail drop. “I guess you can call me a brony,” I lied.  Well, kind of lied.  I did get more involved with the show, though in no way that I thought possible a few days ago, but I hope my sister would think I was just a fan and tease me for it.

“You serious?” she squeaked as she dashed to my side to look at my dark blue tail. “Oh wow!  I love it!  Where did you get it?  Can you get me one?”

Well, shit.  I was expecting teasing and laughing and not praise.  The first would’ve been easier to shoo her away with, but now she was even more interested in checking out my tail… Ugh.  There had to be a better way to phrase that.  “I found a guy that makes them.  I guess I could ask,” I answered hoping she’d just lose interest after the novelty went away.        

“It looks so real.  Other than the whole blue thing, but hey, it matches your dye job,” she said, and then came a very sudden and surprisingly painful yank on it. 

“Holyjesusfuck!” I cursed as both my hands reached for the base of my tail, and my sister jumped back from my outburst.  Yeah, I could’ve handled that better but crap that hurt.

“It’s attached!” she declared as she shook some stray hairs from her hand but then she looked up at me, and I realised my mistake instantly.  I wasn’t covering my eyes anymore and now she was staring up at me with her mouth agape.

“Sally. I can explain,” said as calmly as I could with my hands out in front of me, showing my palms.  I’m not entirely sure how that was to help, but it’s what people in movies always did when trying to calm someone down.

“F-fangs,” she whispered in her state of shock.  Oh, come on!  I didn’t even show those, and here she was staring up at me like I was some sort of monster.

“Earth to Sally.  Please stay calm about this.  I can explain.  Well, I can’t explain but I can explain everything I know,” I said in an effort to keep her from screaming or anything.  I’m sure I’d have to reveal my changes to my parents eventually, but three in the morning wasn’t a good time to do that.

“A-and your eyes,” she whispered looking like a creepy-girl-in-a-horror-film.  This could be going better.  She took a deep breath with her hands clenched to her sides.  This is it.  Here comes the scream and a long, awkward night.

“Oh, my god!  Those are all real aren’t they!  Does that mean that star was really your cutie mark?” she ask excitedly as she started bouncing in place.  Well, this was better...ish?

“Hey, keep it down Sally.  Mom and Dad are still asleep,” I said as I gave my tail a flick.  She knew about it already, and just moving it helped it feel better, especially after that pull.  Just that was enough to get her to giggle.

“It even moves!” she chimed with a wide grin, but then the smile faded and her brow furrowed in thought. “But how do you got a tail like a pony’s?  People don’t grow tails.”

         Isn’t that the million dollar question right now.  “I don’t don’t know, Sally.  It just came out of nowhere, and now I got a tail and fangs.  It’s not fair, really.  I didn’t even know much about the show until a couple days ago,” I admitted with a helpless shrug.

        “Wow.  That’s kinda cool and sucks at the same time,” she said as she more carefully reached for my tail again.  I turned away from her.  “I just want to see it.  I’m not going to pull it again.”

        With a little apprehension I turned back and she went to inspecting the dark blue hair. “You’re right that it sucks, though.  I don’t know how or why or even how to stop it, and it’s getting worse.  Like the eyes.”

        My sister seemed to be taking this all pretty well.  Better than I was, but then again, she wasn’t the one changing.  Either way, she was happily combing her fingers through my tail before she looked up at me. “I could totally get a bow for-”

        “No.  No bows.  Period,” I said as I pulled away from her and sat on my bed.  “And, no braiding it either, just before you ask.”

        “You’re no fun,” she retorted as she took my office chair and swiveled it to face me. “At least you look like you’re one of the cooler types of ponies.”

        “Well, ‘cool’ wouldn’t be the first thing I’d call a pony, but we can run with that over cute.  Now what sort of pony do I look like?”  I asked.  She might actually have some insight into my condition given that she’s been watching the show non-stop.

“A bat pony!”

        Well, that’ll save me looking that up tomorrow and I could move directly into trying to planning my life around being a bat pony.  Whatever that was.  “Alright.  What’s a bat pony?” I asked.

        “You don’t know?” she asked as if I were kidding.
        
I gave my head a quick shake. “How would I know?”

        “Well, you look like one!  How can’t you know?”

        “Sally. I don’t know.  You’ve seen every time I watched the show, so please assume I’ve never seen anything if you do know something,” I restated.

        She got up and went to the TV to fiddle with the remotes. “Well, let me show you then.  Bat ponies had only been in like a few episodes and don’t do much on the show, but they’re there!” she said. “Real bat ponies seem to be really in tight with Princess Luna and are her guards which is coolness right there.”

        Luna.  Did that name ring any bells?  Not really.  Either way, I watched as she went through the episode selection, and pulled up a scene where a yellow and pink-maned pony was hanging from a tree limb by her tail.   “Now, Fluttershy isn’t a real bat-pony here but she really looks like one so, it’s close enough to show you how they look.”  Sure enough, she had bat wings and fangs.

        “Oh my god, hotness!” was my immediate and internal response from my libido while I stared at the mare on the screen.  My sense of decency immediately relegated the feeling to the back of the bus where it continued to make noises about how I should feel about what I was seen.  It was just a cartoon character.  I shouldn’t have that sort of reaction to her, but I couldn’t help thinking about what it’d be like if she was here in the flesh.

        “Well, uh.  So that’s a bat pony,” I said flatly as I stared at the image.  “Are they all yellow, or just this one?”

        Sally shook her head. “Nope.  The other ones are all dark colours.  It’s just that this episode was in the tray already and well,” she said before trailing off. “This is so weird.”

        “Tell me about it,” I replied dully.  I guess the wings are a plus.  I don’t think I’d be able to do anything like hang by my tail without tying a knot in it, and that didn’t seem like a comfortable thing to do considering my sister hurt me by tugging on it a few minutes ago.        

        My sister had turned off the TV but hadn’t got to her feet yet.  Instead, she was looking down at the ground in front of her.  It was pretty easy to notice the worried tremble in her voice. “This isn’t some crazy dream, is it?”

        Now that would be nice if all this was just that.  The kidnapping.  Sanguine.  The whole metamorphosis.   If only I could write this up to a late night at work and some bad food or something.  “Afraid not, kid,” I droned back.

        She turned slightly towards me.  “So, what’s going to happen?”

        You’re putting them in danger.  Run away.

        I shook my head.  A half-bat, half horse with some sort of magical enemy didn’t exactly make for a safe member of the household. “I don’t know.  This might be my last night looking mostly human.  I might have to go into hiding.  Or, maybe run away entirely.”  

Before I was even done that sentence, Sally was staring at me like I just ripped her heart out.  Tears were already building on the corner of hers eyes, but she wasn’t about to let herself cry.  “Run away?  Like, for good?”

Did you mumble?  Yes, for good.  Just say it!

I needed to say it, but my breath caught in my throat as I looked at her.  My sister.  She looked up to me from as soon as she could walk.  There was an age difference but that didn’t matter.  I loved her, and wanted to keep her safe and happy, but how could I do that when I had hooves?   I knew what I had to do.  “Well, I don’t know.  Maybe. I hope not,” I lied.

        It’s for your own good.  There’ s no shame in forgetting about your family when all you are is a risk to them.  They’ll be better off without you.

        That got her attention because she got up and hugged me.  “I know you’re not around much, but I don’t want you to go away for good!  Just don’t go and leave us.  That isn’t fair” she sobbed.  Oh god, now I’m misting up too, but I had to do my best to be there for her.

        “Hey, hey, kiddo.  All this is crazy, but it’s not all bad.  It’s not.  I’m going to be around.  Just, if I do go into hiding, it’s just until I figure out how to fix all of this,” I said as strongly as I could, while I hugged her back.  My worlds nearly sounded true to me as well.

        “P-promise?” she said into my side.  She hadn’t let go of me yet.

        “I promise,” I said softly back following it with a sniffle.

        “Ryan?”

        “Yeah?”

        “Are you crying?”

        “No.  Just venting excess tears through the ducts,” I joked.  God, the laugh felt bitter.

        She looked up at me with a bit of a grin, even though her cheeks were tear-streaked.  “The show called it ‘liquid pride’,” she said.

        Oh, jeeze, I didn’t need to hear that right now.  I felt anything but pride knowing I was about to take off on them all.  “Alright.  Yeah.  Liquid pride.”

        “When are you going to tell mom and dad?  They’re going to wonder why you’re leaving hoofprints on the carpet eventually,” she said as she wiped her face.  I did the same.

        “Yeah. I’ll tell them tomorrow after I go and get some things.  I’m sure being a pony means some things will change when it comes to my day to day needs,” I answered, trying to work up to the lie I was going to tell her.  “What I need you to do is watch as much of the show as you can, and look for anything that might explain what’s happening to me.  Can you do that for me?”

If it works out as I plan it, the task will keep her busy enough that she’ll miss me packing up and leaving.  She didn’t pick up on the lie. “Sure thing!  I’ll work on it as soon as I can,” she stated, then got up to go to the TV.

“Sally. It’s late.  Go to bed, and work on it tomorrow,” I said flatly.  

She looked a touch disappointed at that, but she’s smart and knew that I was right.  “Okay.  Goodnight Ryan,” she said as she came back over to me for one last hug.

“Goodnight, kiddo.  See you tomorrow,” I said.  The words tasted bitter in my mouth, but  She might see me once more, but then, I’ll be gone.  I let go, and she left me alone in my room.  I reached over and flicked the light off and instantly the dark of the room was much more comfortable for my eyes.

That’s a good boy.

I sighed and looked straight up at the ceiling.  I wasn’t really tired but I should try and get some sleep for tomorrow.  Abandoning your whole life wasn’t a simple, one step process. 


_-_-_-_-_


The cold and bitter wind whipped the snow around in a whirl about me as soon as I opened the door to the roof.  Needless to say, the weather was ill-suited to flying.  It didn’t matter now though.  I could feel it through me from my hooves to my tail.  I was close.

He was close.

I could smell him.  I could hear my sister’s whimpering through the frosty haze.

“Sanguine!  I know you’re here!  Show yourself!” I yelled, without a care for stealth.  Even just saying his name made me bare my fangs in anger.  There was only one way to go, and kept walking towards the edge.

Finally, a unicorn’s silhouette showed through, right by the edge of the building.  He was calmly sitting, drinking something from a mug as I came closer, but as soon as he saw me, he put down the mug and waved with a bright smile.  I was already to rush him, but this seemed wrong.  He had to have a plan.

“Oh good, my friend, you’re here!” he said as if greeting a friend and he gave his mane to shake to get some of the frost and snow out of it, but it fell right back in its long, red cascade.  “Care for a nice cup of tea?  It’s hot and it’s so cold out here.”

“Shut it.  Where is she?” I spat as I closed the distance and got ready to rush him  Then, I noticed the aura of his horn, but he was drinking with his hoof.  He was holding something up behind him and entirely off of the building.

        He chuckled. “Looks like you found her without my help,” he said, as he turned his head to the tightly wrapped sack behind him.  It was the right size for her.

        “Sallet?  Are you alright?”  I called without taking my eyes off of the psychopath.

        “Save me, Vantage!  Please!”  the bag called right back.  He had my sister and was clearly holding her hostage.

        “Now that we got that out of the way, my friend, do you care for a spot of tea and a friendly chat?” he offered as he gestured to the thermos beside him.  It was like nothing was wrong to him.

        “No, you sadistic pile of road apples!  Let her go!” I yelled.

        He arched an eyebrow.  “Right now?  Are you sure?”  For a moment his aura flicked off and instantly my sister began to fall.  The shrill scream cut through the air before the aura resumed and the sack lifted again.  Now she was sobbing in terror.

        “You,” I spat, without anything I could say to even finish that sentence.

        “Me.  You and me, specifically.  Sit down, my friend and just talk with me,” he said as calmly as ever.  It’s like nearly letting a filly fall to her death didn’t even phase him.  How could it, considering the carnage that he’s caused so far.   The foalsitter.  The police officer.  The security guards and who knows how many others along the way. 

He had me at a loss.  “About what?” I asked through gritted fangs.  “What could we possibly talk?  How many bones I’m going to break?”

He laughed softly then drained the last of his tea and set his cup aside so he could turn and face me properly.  The cold all around him didn’t look to affect him in the least.  “Oh, life and the purpose of special talents,” he answered happily. 

        I glanced to the sack he was holding aloft. Until something changed about that, I was stuck.  “Fine.  What do you got to say?” I said coolly as I tried to take another step a little closer, only to have Sanguine shake his head.  I withdrew a step back. 

        Once he was satisfied with the distance I had from him, he looked up to the snow-hazed sky and sighed wistfully. “Do you know what my name means?” he said after a moment of reflection.  He glanced to me and I clearly had no intention in humouring him any further than listening, so he continued. “Names for us ponies are portents.  That little tremor of magic that comes with our births inspires a proper name that not only identifies us, but describes us.  To be sanguine is to be hopeful; cheerfully optimistic despite all odds.  But simply just being hopeful without any method to share it is worthless.  I was young and I tried to live up to it, but it’s not until I realised my name’s second meaning did I understand.  Blood red.”

        Was he really doing this?  “Get to your point,” I growled.

        Sanguine chuckled and took my interruption to pick up his thermos once more and poured the last cup of his drink into it. He was making a show of swirling the hot liquid in the cup while staring into it.  I’d considered how fast I could close the distance to him, but as he swirled, his hostage and my sister bobbed behind him.  “In good time, my friend.  It’ll be obvious by the time I’m done all this.”  He paused to sip his drink again.  “Everyday I hope to make Equestria a better place for all.  I’m polite and kind to those that deserve it, and to the liars, thieves, braggarts, cads, pretenders and ne'er-do-wells of the world, I act in the way the second meaning of my name dictates.  I remove them gladly without regret or hesitation because it must be done.”

        He stops again and stares into his cup again, but his facade of friendly cheerfulness breaks down to a bleak sneers. “And, I’m called a monster for it.  I’m hated and ostracized for it!  I do work that needs to be done!  To keep the fear and worry of the ultimate reprisal in the blood of every stallion, mare and foal of this nation and I’m cursed for it!  Cursed for doing nothing more than what I love to do!”  He tosses his cup over the side and it disappeared into the icy haze, and that simple act of destruction allowed him to compose himself.   “Sorry, my friend.  I didn’t mean to let my emotions run away with me like that, but it frustrates me to be so alone in my struggle, and I highly recommend that you take a few steps back.”

  While he was talking I was creeping closer, but evidently he had had enough of that.  I took a step back and he smiled at me as if I was his neighbor.  I hated that smile so much.

“Thank you.  Now, as poorly as my work is received by the general public, you can only imagine my surprise when I hear that there’s a pony that does exactly what I do, but is even respected and appreciated.  I had to see for myself if that was true.”  He couldn’t be saying what it sounds like.  His eyes met mine and he nodded once to confirm it.

“Don’t you dare compare me to you!” I snapped, with a stomp of my hooves. “I’m nothing like you!”

“Actually, that’s why I went through all of this trouble; I wish to determine what exactly you are for myself,” he said as he looked me over as if for the first time. “You’ve done a lot of things, Vantage.  A lot of things that most ponies do not want to think about, but I do think it’s rather good work you do.”

His praise filled me with nothing but shame and anger to the point that I stamped hard the frozen ground. “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done under orders and the blessing of Princess Luna!  I’m not a deranged psychopath!”

“An overly fine distinction to that gryphon war-prince, isn’t it?  How exactly did he meet his end?  A terrible allergic reaction to a parasprite sting while in his warcamp high in the mountains, if I recall.  It’s a good thing too, because he was in a perfect position to raid that minotaur iron mine and have access to high quality steel weapons.  Now that would’ve been a terrible predicament for the status quo,” he said as if he was musing the entire situation.  It was anything but hypothetical.

“That was just as you said, an allergic reaction and nothing more,” I replied neutrally but I knew he knew everything.

He just grinned wider. “Of course.  Just like that hunting accident a couple months ago where that pack of diamond dogs ran into a hydra.  It’s a true shame none of them survived to tell anypony why they were on the surface rather than their nice, safe caves, but it’s just as well.  That Alpha was actively holding the train system hostage wasn’t he?”

My stoney visage didn’t even flinch, but I remember that night.  It was a simple job.  Go in before they could mine out the supports to another rail line and fix the problem.  It wasn’t even hard because diamond dogs are so ill-disciplined that all I had to do was wait for them to fall asleep before I moved in.  The cover up was the hardest part of the task, but the nearby hydra warren solved that issue. “I can neither confirm or deny the circumstances of the supposed event in question,” was my stock response.

        “I’m sure you cannot.  You’re quite the professional and just speaking freely of your accomplishments like that wouldn’t be fitting,” he said with a chuckle.  “But, hypothetically, if a pony happened to have a hoof in bringing these things to pass, and happened to be on this rooftop right now, I would ask if he enjoyed his work.”
        
        All of this blood and chaos just for that one question?  The kidnapping, the dead foalsitter, the disaster at the archives for this one question:  Do I enjoy my work?  He couldn’t be serious, but here he was.  Right now, I’d do about anything to see him broken and bleeding onto the snow.  This had to stop, and I was going to make sure he never got off of this roof.

        “Well?  Do you enjoy your work?”

        He was there, still as relaxed and kind as ever, with that smile still on his miserable face.   He knew already.  “I only do as is required of me by the Princess,” I answered.

        Her turned at me, and spoke firmly as if “That’s not what I asked, Vantage!  I’m trying to be civil with you, but you’re avoiding my question.  Are you nothing more than some weapon that is turned loose at a Royal Decree?  If you only do it because you’re told, you’re nothing but an attack dog and a thousand times worse than any pony I’ve met.”

        I started to close the distance again. I wasn’t worse than him.  There was no way that was true and he’d never insinuate that again. “I do what they need!”

“That’s exactly why it’s worse!  I’m a supposed monster for doing the necessary work that I love, but if you’ve no love for your work, you’re nothing more than a mindless tool that does nothing but kill on command!  Anypony that had control of you could aim you anywhere they pleased!” he spat as he got to his hooves and faced me as I stomped closer on the snow-covered roof.

“Your twisted sense of morals don’t make you better than me!  I save lives!” I yelled at him.

        “Is that the lie you tell yourself to keep yourself from the truth?  Because if that were the case you’d be a doctor and not Luna’s little secret agent,” he replied with an infuriating calm.  My pace quickened.  I’d shut him up.
        
        “I can tell what you really want, and it’s not saving lives,” he said as he faced me.   My eyes drew up and I saw my sister again.  She was still hovering behind him, over that edge.  I was going to make him put her down.

“Drop her!” I screamed as I slammed into him with the full weight of my body.  He didn’t even try to dodge and he crashed to the buildings parapet in an unceremonious heap, and I never gave him a chance to get back onto his hooves before I rained heavy stomps down upon him.  He was going to bleed for all he’s done!

There wasn’t a struggle.  Instead, he was staring into my eyes and studying me no matter what I was doing to him, but I didn’t care. I was hurting him now and that felt so good.  Finally there, was a snap from one stomp on his chest, and he screamed.  I couldn’t bring myself to feel any sympathy for anypony that killed or caused chaos and then let themselves be caught.  He deserved everything that was coming to him for this. 

That scream turned into a soft chuckle after a moment.  “That wasn’t what I was planning, but we’re such close friends, I think I can do that for you as a personal favour.”

I didn’t even realise what happened until I heard the squeak of the voice off of the edge.  “Help me!  Please!”  He was pushing her further into the snowstorm, and already I couldn’t see her in the haze.  If I flew out there I might find her in time or catch her, but that had to be what Sanguine was hoping for.  He wanted me to leave him for her.

I turned back to the monster and he was focused entirely on his magic.  “Do you think she can fly?” he asked as if he honestly expected an answer from me.

If I went for her, he’d simply just walk away before I got back.  Who knows where he’d go?  Who would he kill before he was caught again?  He had to be stopped now!  Like all the other monsters I’ve ended, it was my duty to stop him!  But my sister.  I had to do something!  “No!  Stop!” I growled as pushed down on that broken rib.  The pain had to be immense, but he didn’t even seem to care.

He just kept waiting for me to go after her, but I wasn’t going to let him away so easily.  Finally, he just smirked through his bleeding lips. “That’s what you chose?”  His horn’s aura just ceased.  There wasn’t even a scream to be heard through the winds and I was dumbstruck by what just happened.   

At least, until I looked down and saw him laughing and clenching his broken side as he did so.  “I’m not alone!” he cheered through his laughter, “You understand perfectly!  You know what has to be done!”

My sister!  I was at the edge of the building like a shot, and looking over it, but there was nothing to be seen.  That son of a bitch!  I turned about and just started beating him with no style or purpose beyond inflicting pain.  Just swing after swing as hard as I could, breaking his bones and cutting his flesh until another pony dragged me off of him.  It was a royal guard, but that didn’t mean anything. I just wanted to keep beating him.

He never stopped laughing the entire time.


_-_-_-_-_


My hand hurt.

“Jesus!” I yelped as I cradled it against my body, but it was throbbing.  It wasn’t hard to figure out that I just punched the headboard.

Oh god.

That was all real.  It felt so real.  The cold, the feel of hitting that bastard. 

I let him drop her.  Out of what?  Some sense of duty?

I rolled onto my back and threw an arm over my eyes to shield them from the light that was coming through my basement window and choked back a bitter sob.  What the fuck was I?  What did I do?  I was nothing more than a threat to everyone I cared about.  I had to leave. 

Fuck.  Just force it all down for now and focus.  I had work I needed to do so I can go before this all got worse for them.  Step one, see what changed.  After I brushed my hair out of my eyes,  I held my hands out and flexed my fingers.  Still had those going for me.  Wait.  My hair wasn’t that long when I went to bed.  My fingers combed through the tangle of hair and I brushed my ears.  “I guess I should’ve expected that.”   They were more to the top of my head.  I guess I should take a look in the bathroom mirror or something so I wouldn’t get surprised by anything else.  I’d just have to be quiet as I went so mom or dad won’t notice me. 

*Clop clop*

Well, that’s something else to add to the list.  Why the fuck not?  I brought my foot up and it was pretty clear that it wasn’t a human foot under my sock.  “Might as well see what I got,” I muttered as I pulled off the sock to reveal a hoof that was the same dark blue as my tail.  Just seeing that ending a mostly normal leg was kind of freaky.  The other sock came off too. I was thinking the hard edge of the hooves would make short work of them anyways.

“I guess I’ll have to look into new shoes or something.”  I got up, and went for my baggiest and most oversized pair of pants that I owned.  That should accommodate my tail and if I wear it a little lower on my hips it’ll hide the hooves.  If anyone really looked they’d see I was kind of missing feet, but it’ll do for now.   With that and a hoodie, I’ll look passibly human.  Now that is a problem I never thought I’d have.

        It was time to see the damage and to that end, I snuck to the bathroom despite the sharp clip-clop of hooves on the concrete floor.  With the bathroom door closed behind me and the mirror ahead of me, I pulled the hood back.  I had changed more than I expected and this was the first time I took time to really look at myself.  I expected the fangs when I smiled, but didn’t realise how large they were.  They were like railway spikes in my mouth!  The damage those could cause if I bit someone would send someone to the hospital.  And, of course, my eyes were just as the picture showed, but I didn’t realise how strange they were.  I better keep the shades on, and not just to help keep the light out of them.  If anyone ever clearly saw these, they’d know they weren’t novelty contacts.  The clincher on my fading humanity was my new ears sticking from my blue mane. They were charcoal grey and quickly turning and shifting to catch all the sounds that caught my interests.  From down here, I could easily hear the show my mother was watching in the living room or how my dad was moving around upstairs.  With a little concentration though, I could get them to lay down or focus in a particular direction.  That should get better with practice.

        It was all so weird to see it all at once. My hair didn’t even look right even more.  The colour I knew about, but now it was twice the length than it was when I went to bed, and was anchored all the way to my shoulders like an actual mane. Who am I kidding?  It was an actual mane.  Between all this, and my tail, hooves and that (ugh) cutie mark, I really am turning into something from a children’s show.

So, why did I have a dream where I was a royal hitman and my sister just got dropped off a building by some pony version of Dahmer.  That ain’t any sort of shit for a kid’s show.  Whatever, I guess.  Maybe it was just stress, but it all felt far too real.

        I looked at the clock in the mirror behind me, and noted it was about noon.   It felt it was like I was getting up way too early though.  I guess being nocturnal is going to come with my new species.  Why the fuck not change that too?  That seemed to be my mantra right now.

        “Fuck.  Gotta get going,” I said as a reminder to myself.  I couldn’t have much longer where I’d be presentable as human, and there was things that had to do if I was going to leave for good.  The first thing I decided I’d need is some sort of supplies for whenever the change finished itself. If I was lucky at least one of the payments from the insurance company or the Esterhazy’s cleared so I’d have a bit of a budget to work with.  Then I’d give my last client a call to make sure that the case is being handled.  His wife should be picked up by the cops by now, and that all could be winding down.  If everything was alright on that front, I could come home, leave a letter and leave.  Maybe sometime during the day I could actually figure out where I’m supposed to go.  “Away” didn’t seem specific enough, but it was a start.

        Before I headed out to let my parents test my disguise, I went to my phone and looking up my account info.  Last I checked, I had enough left in the account to maybe get me a ticket somewhere, or maybe some groceries, but if was really lucky (for once) I’d have enough to…

        Holy shit.

        My fingers quickly flicked the buttons over to call Lanny who picked up on the third ring.

        “Hey bro, what’s up?” he answered sounding like he just woke up.

        “Put Bulk on the line,” I said in my state of shock.  “He’s there, right?”

        “Uh.  Yeah.  Picked him up last night.  Wasn’t happy with being left waiting so long but he’s here now.  Hey Bulk!  Get over here!”  Lanny yelled.  A few moments later I could hear the sound of approaching hooves over the line.

        “Yeah?” the pegasus said over the line.

        “Your settlement was for 1.8 million dollars?” I asked flatly.  I was still trying to comprehend what I saw, but I could do the math well enough to take a guess why I saw what I did on my phone.

        He paused slightly before gruffly answering. “It was 1.75 but I was really, badly hurt and it was a permanent disability.  That amount was for basically buying a new house so I could get out of that two floor thing I was in, retraining and all the medical equipment and drugs I’d need.  I had a really kick ass health plan,” he said defensively.

        “1.75,” I repeated as I tried to comprehend that number. “Fuck.”

        “Hey!  I wasn’t supposed to recover but this whole pony thing started,” he yelled at me.  “I ain’t letting anypony guilt me about that.  I don’t care, you’re like me now, you’re not turning me in for anything!”

        I didn’t expect him to react like that.  If he only knew why I was calling.  “What?  Guilt you?  Turn you in?!  Jesus!  I could fucking kiss you right now!” I laughed.

        “What?”

        “My pay for your pictures was a percentage of your settlement.  You just got me my biggest payday ever!” I explained. “Jeeze. I just wanted to check if it was a bank error or what but seriously,  thank you.” 

“Uh.  You’re welcome?” he said back with an obvious struggle to switch out of his defensive mode.   I’ll have to buy him something nice before I took off just to say thanks.  

Huh.  That was a kick to the balls.  I just got more money in one day than I ever had, and only a half day to spend it before I was stuck on all fours.  It’d be kind of hard to go to a store when I’m just a bat pony thing.

“You there?” Bulk said.

        “Yeah. I’m here.  Just realised I might not get a chance to spend any of this,” I droned as my mind mulled the fact my life as I knew it was rapidly coming to an end.

        “How far along are you?” he asked.

        “Uh.  I got ears and hooves now, too,” I said as I lifted a pant leg to confirm that I was still missing my toes.  They were still gone, and dropped my pant leg back down.

        “Shitty.”

        “Tell me about it.  Hey. Is there anything I should pick up before I go full pony?” I asked.  I might as well talk to the guy that’s already been through it.

        “Uh, I’d stock up on proper food.  Whatever looks good and maybe some actual things to take care of a horse.  By the time I figured out what was happening to me, I was housebound because I changed too much.  Maybe you could get me a few things before it happens to you, yeah?”

        Anything he’d need, I’d likely need soon too. “Like what?”

        “Maybe a couple horse brushes or whatever they’re called.  Regular combs don’t cut it,” he says. “You could go to a store and ask what’s they call a starter kit for someone looking to take care of a horse.”

        “That’s not a bad idea. I’ll do that today,” I said.  It’d be quicker if that sort of kit actually existed and quick was what I needed.  My life was on a timer.

“Yeah?”

        “Yeah.  I will. No problem.”

        “YEAH!”

        I held the phone away from my ear. “Ow.  Jeeze.  Indoor voice, please,” I scolded as I rubbed my new ear and coaxed it to stand again.

        “Sorry.  Just got to do that.  Don’t know why.”

        There was a brief pause before I continued.  “So anyways, it’s my last day as a human so I got to get going here.  I’ll catch you later, alright?”

        “Okay.  Good luck.”

        I hung up the phone and considered calling Jacob just to see how the pickup went.  I wasn’t really part of the case anymore and I couldn’t really continue working on it with what was happening, but it didn’t seem right asking when I knew I couldn’t do anything about it.  It was still an effort to put my phone back in it’s pocket; it didn’t feel right just leaving the job half done.

        I came to a compromise with myself decided to call him later, after I got through the shopping.  It shouldn’t be that long anyways.  With my shades on, my hood up and pants worn low, I was ready to head up and test this disguise, but every step along the way was a rather pointed clop.  I definitely had to fix that and soon.

        “He lives!” declared my father as soon as I opened the door to the basement stairs.  He was at the kitchen table with a newspaper laid out. I suppose I knew her was there, but that didn’t make me worry any less.  “What’s with the glasses?  Trying to skip out on paying rent?”

        “It’s a disguise old man.  Guess who I am!” I answered with the same playful venom we’d throw back and forth.  So far so good.

        “I don’t know. It’s been so long since I’ve last seen you that I’ve forgotten how you looked,” he sarcastically sniped back, but he did have a point.  It’s been a few days since I’ve seen him and mom.  I needed to at least see them off.

        “Yeah, yeah.  Sorry.   Been really busy lately with clients and all,” I said.  It was technically not a lie.

        “One of these years you’re going to have to make your own birthday party,” he said rather seriously. “Your mother made a cake and you didn’t even call to say you weren’t going to be in.  I think you do owe her an apology.”
 
I winced.  Even with all that was happening, I wasn’t immune to the dreaded scorn of a mother and I won’t let the last memory of me be me skipping out on dinner.  “You’re right, dad.”

“I’m serious,” he scolded. He went back to his paper because his work was done saying his piece.  The familiar guilt was already festering inside of me on top of the guilt that this might be the last time I’d be talking with them; well played dad.  At least the disguise was working. 

        He was right though, and I should try and make it up to my mom.  I went into the fridge and found the half eaten leftovers of the cake.  It was my mother’s homemade black forest cake which was a favorite for the whole family and right now, that cherry layer was calling out to me.  I could easily smell it even before I reached for that plate..  Dad just glanced at me as I pulled it out, and plucked some of the unlit candles that were on the lip of the plate and set them in.  A trip to the drawers and I had a knife and fork and a pack of matches to light the candles.  After I lit them, Dad chuckled and let me head off in the living room while singing, “Happy birthday to me.  Happy birthday to me!”

        Mom turned around in confusion at seeing me walk in with the cake and when I finished the song, I sat down on the couch beside her and blew out the candle. “Thank you mom for the cake.”

“Have you been working on your singing voice?” she asked as soon as I was done.  “That wasn’t half bad.”

I didn’t even notice that change yet so lets just play it off as nothing. “Only the best for you, mom,” I joked.  “Sorry for missing the party, though.  The cake looks great.”
        
        She smiled at me, though it didn’t cover the disappointment in her eyes. “It was better fresh. I wish you could of made it home for dinner,” she said wistfully.   Ah, am I going to see it again?

        “I was working, mom,” I explained sheepishly.   That was technically true.

        She sighed.  Yup.  I’m going to see the world champion of passive aggression at work here. “I know you were, and we’re really proud of how dedicated you are.  It’d just be nice to see you more often.”

        Anything I could promise her now would be a lie, so I didn’t promise her anything with my answer. “I know mom.  I know,” I replied.  Mercifully, she gave up on the guilt trip early.

        “Twenty five.  Wow, where does the time go?  It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, and you grew up so strong.  When you were born, the doctors were saying such awful things about you even seeing your first birthday, but you showed them,” she said with a bit of pride.

        “We Blacks are tough,” I replied, thinking about that little fact.  It rarely came up, but when I was born, apparently I was a mess as if I was on the bad side of a barroom brawl in the womb.  It was straight to the operating table as soon as I was born to fix everything that was wrong with me.  You don’t want to hear the odds that the doctors were giving me.

        “You started out by scaring me, and that hasn’t changed over the years,” she teased with a little jab to my side. 

        “Well, to be fair I got a lot of practice at it by now,” I said as cut myself a slice, but I didn’t even bother with the fork and used my fingers to lift it.  Of course, I had to be careful not to reveal my new fangs, but the cake was worth the risk for a bite.  “Mmm, delicious as always, mom.”

        “Maybe you’ll actually show up next time for it,” she said plainly.  “So, what’s with the glasses?”

“Dad asked that too.  I’m going deep undercover.  You think I can pull it off?” I said as I adjusted my glasses to play up my coolness. 

        She didn’t buy it for a second, but this wouldn’t be the first time she’d thought that.  “Well, whatever you’re going to be doing, just keep safe, dear.  I worry about you,” she said.  “Before you go, do you have some time to spend with your mother?”

        God, I want to say yes to that, but my life was on a very short timer right now.  Maybe, if I hurried, I could get back here before the change took me too far, and that way I could say goodbye, but that all hinged on me actually getting out and moving today.  “Well, actually, I got something I’ve got to get going, but I’ll hurry back as soon as I can,” I suggested apologetically.

        She didn’t look hurt, but mom was always a champ at hiding that sort of thing.  “Well, I’ll be home when you get here.  Now you get going.” 

        I half smiled.  Anything more than that would be hard to do right now. “See you soon.” I gave her one last hug and then headed for the door.  With luck, maybe it wouldn’t be the last time and only the second-to-last time. 


_-_-_-_-_


        It had been a very quiet night after Jack left Porsche with Chris for safe keeping.  He left shortly after the call to get some rest, while leaving them with the mutilated remains and a warning that he wasn’t going to be far away.  That was enough to keep them cowed for the night.  They didn’t take too long before moving into a new room on the floor, though the mood didn’t get much better once that was done.   At least Porsche had the luxury of sleep that night, even if it was a fitful and poor rest.

        When she gave up on the prospect of further sleep, she opened her eyes.  The sun was barely over the horizon which meant it was still relatively early in the morning, but Chris was there, bleary-eyed and morose as the evening before.  Upon seeing that his charge was awake though, he nodded her way. “Morning.”

        Her guard was a young man in maybe his late twenties, but right now he looked so old right now thanks to the sheer weight of his situation.  The welt on his temple from from the blow he took last night didn’t help either.  The throbbing headache just added to everything and it left him hunched over the table to look down at his phone’s little screen, with only the occasional listless trace of a finger over it being the only sign he was alive.  Between the lack of rest and the emotional cost of knowing his friend died last night was weighing him down until his every motion seemed like it was in slow motion.  Porsche would pity him if he wasn’t one of the men that helped orchestrate this situation in the first place.  Instead, she decided to use it to her advantage.  “You don’t have to listen to him.  We can go. You can let me go.  We’d both be free.”

        The words didn’t even make an impact with him.

        “Did you hear me?  We could run right now!  He’s not here to stop either of us,” she urged.

        “He knows where my mom is.  If I run, she’ll be picking up the tab for this,” he said in a dull monotone.  He didn’t even bother to look her way as he said it.  

        “Then call her!  Get her to run too!  We can call the cops and they can deal with Jack!” she suggested but both her frustration and desperation were showing through in how sharply she spoke. 

        He just shook his head. “And tell her what?  That her boy’s a fucking kidnapper?  That he’s been dealing and stealing to make sure the rent’s paid?  She’d never forget that.”

        “And this is better?” she continued.  “He’s going to kill us, too.”

        There wasn’t even a twitch from him. “Just drop it.  I can’t do that to her.  I just can’t.”

        Porsche couldn’t believe what she was seeing.  The chance to get away was obvious.  All he had to do is take it and let her go too.  Why couldn’t he see it.  “We’re in danger as long as we’re here!” she pleaded.  The rebuke was instant.

        “Just shut up about it!  I get it!” he bellowed before he put his face into a hand to hide his face.  His tone calmed down.   “I’m not that sort of guy.  I can’t doublecross Jack.  So, please stop asking.”

        The statement hung in the air.  Chris had nothing more to add and Porsche couldn’t believe what was just said.  After half a minute, she, at long last, processed what was said and continued to press on him more.  “You can’t double cross him!  He just gutted your friend last night!”

        Chris snapped to his feet sending his chair tumbling and raised his hand to strike the girl.  “And I don’t want that to be my mom!  Now just shut the fuck up!” he screamed.  Porsche was already twisting in her bindings to avoid the blow, but it never came.  Instead, that hand hovered there above her until he realised what he was about to do.  From there, it dropped down and he listlessly collapsed into the next chair over that was meant for his friend.

 The threat of violence snuffed Porsche’s hope for an easy escape, and with that gone, she slipped into silence.  A frustrated, angry silence for sure, but there wasn’t anything coming to her mind that might help her situation.

It was Chris that eventually broke the silence.  “Sorry.  I didn’t mean to scare you.  It’s just that...  Sorry.  Listen.  You need something to eat?  I think Jack left some fruit behind,” he offered as an olive branch complete with a sad smile turned her way.

She shook her head.

“You need to go to the can?” he tried next.

Porsche was ready to turn him down out of habit, but she had been tied up all night and hadn’t left the room.  As much as she didn’t want to take anything from the man, she couldn’t ignore that offer.  Finally, she gave in.  “Yeah.”

“Alright.  We can do that, but don’t cause any trouble,” he said right back as he got up, and walked behind her to undo some of her bindings.  Not all of them, but enough that she could get up.  “I really don’t want to do anything to you.”

Porsche nodded slightly when she took her feet, and Chris redid the cuffs in front of her.  To be standing again always felt good after three days of nothing but sitting (excluding the brief trips to the bathroom), and she stretched as much as Chris would allow.  Brad nor Jack allowed her this much freedom, but even that came to an end with the man giving her a shove in the back.  He didn’t even look comfortable doing that much to her but it was a necessity.

The bathroom was meant for a busy office with several stalls and sinks for the staff, but since it never materialized, it was left in a half finished state.  At least it still did have those stalls for privacy so whoever was watching her at the time wouldn’t actually see her, even though the locks were missing.

“Just make it quick, alright?” he warned though Porsche really doubted that he’d do anything, but she still went about her business without making a fuss.  She’d had been doing this for a few days now, and modesty wasn’t even a concern for her now.  It was her other captor that was the real fear that was digging at her.  What was going to happen when he came back?  If only Chris wasn’t such a useless shit, the both of them could already be gone.

God, she wanted to go home so badly.

She leaned back and let out a long sigh, and something shifted behind her.  It was the toilet’s lid.  It was eighteen inches of heavy porcelain weighing a few pounds, but Porsche saw it as it as her way out.  With her hands tied in front of her, she could pick it up and swing it still.  Now that she thought about it, she didn’t even recall seeing a weapon on Chris.  It’s just been routine that had her acting this way so far.  This could work.

For the first time in a few days she smiled as she lifted up her weapon carefully not to clink it against anything.  Nothing was going to take this chance away from her.  She flushed to keep up the illusion and stood up.

“You’re ready to come out?” he asked as he walked over to the door and pushed it open.  He had enough time to blink before the dull thunk of that heavy lid hitting a skull came.   Without even knowing what happened he was left reeling.

“Fuck you!”  she screamed at the the man before she struck him again and this time there was wet slap to the blow.  This one sent him down in a graceless fall onto his face where blood was quick to puddle around him.  She didn’t stop there but wound up once more and struck one last time.  He didn’t react in the least to it, and she dropped her weapon to run for the exit.

        There was nothing in the way of the door and no one around.  She was good as free!  She scrambled to undo the locks on the office’s main door and with that hinderance gone, she threw the door open.

For a moment, she dreaded Jack just waiting on the other side of it with that cruel smile of his, but the coast was clear, and she began running again.  All she needed to do is get down to the street level or find a floor with other people.  She didn’t care which happened first.

“Fuck yeah, I’m out of here!” she cheered, ignoring how her underused muscles were protesting the sudden sprint.  All she had to do is keep moving forward.

She was halfway down that bare hallway when another door opened in the hallway, and out stepped a yawning Jack.  She stopped so fast that she slide down to her back, and scrambled to her feet to run the other way.  She got about two steps before that red brown aura enveloped her and lifted her from the ground.

“No!  Please no!” she cried as she tried to will any part of her to move but it all was frozen by that magic.  Her back was turned to him, so she couldn’t even see him and she wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse.

“Didn’t think Chris would perform this badly at his duties, but it’s a good thing I didn’t go that far.  That’d be quite the embarrassment on my part, eh?” he said as he walked towards her. He was still on two legs, but those hooves were so loud on the bare floor so she knew exactly how close he was.  “Maybe you shouldn’t yell so much next time.” 

He stepped by her, and that aura pulled her with him with a lurch back into the room.  Chris was back on his feet, though looking worse than ever with blood flowing freely down his face from the cut in his scalp.  “S-shit.  I’m sorry.  She took me by surprise,” he stammered, though it was clear he wasn’t entirely there and was relying heavily on the walls to help him keep his balance.

He didn’t care about the excuse as he sat the girl back down in her seat and started locking her into place before the aura faded out again.  Even though she was held, it was clear the change was still going.  His hands were down to three fingers and an undersized thumb, and the nail on the middle finger took up two knuckles of length.  It was clear how clumsy he was now because of how he struggled to even close cuffs into place.  It wasn’t a concern to him. He wouldn’t need hands much longer because that horn had grown from the stub it was last night into a long thing and unlike the show, it came to a harsh, sharp point.

It was his eyes that seemed the most wrong though.  Alien even on his barely human face. Every feature of it seemed distorted and stretched to accommodate the very beginnings of a pony muzzle.  Only that evil smile was the same and he wore one now.

“So, care to tell me how this little adventure happened?” he asked of Porsche.

She turned her head away and just whimpered an intelligible response.   Chris answered instead, while he closed the distance between where he was and his chair.   “She got the jump on me.  Hit me with the toilet tank cover,” he said, as he put his hand to his cut as if it’d help stop the bleeding.

Jack’s ears turned the way of the other man and his tail flicked once.  “I see.  You were caught off-guard by a girl in handcuffs,” he said calmly to clarify what had happened.  Chris dumbly nodded. “Why were you caught off-guard?”

“She had a cover,” Chris repeated with a nervous tremble in his voice.  “It was hard and heavy.”

Jack shook his head in disappointment. “That’s not what I asked.  I asked why.  Why did you get caught off guard by the girl you’d said you’d be watching.  That you promised you’d watch.  This is twice that she has nearly gotten away over two days and I’d hate for there to be a third repetition of this, so I ask again, Chris; Why were you caught off-guard?”

        Chris wanted to stand up for himself so badly, but his will just dried up and vanished under the harsh judgement.  “I don’t know.  I guess I wasn’t watching her,” he replied finally.  By then, he had gotten to his chair.

        “And the truth comes out!” called Jack with his hands up in the air as if it was some grand biblical revelation that was just given.  “You weren’t watching!  Well, let’s see if we can teach you to watch.  Come over here.”

        Jack didn’t even wait for Chris to get to his feet, but grabbed the chair in his aura and easily pulled it along the floor to be right beside Porsche.  Chris grunted when he was run into the table.

        “Undo one of her cuffs and hold onto her hand,” Jack commanded as he stood across from them.  It was slow as he was still dazed from the blows to the head, but Chris managed to do what was asked.

        “What’s going to happen?”  Porsche meekly asked.

        “Well, I think we need to learn a few valuable lessons here.  Last time we were in a situation like this, I already stated what the punishment would be, correct?” he said as his magic pulled his knife from his jacket pocket and flicked it open as deftly as he could with his hands.  “This is the second such instance, so I think doubling up on the punishment is fair.”

        All colour drained from the girls face as she realised what this would mean. “Oh god, no!”

        “And, Chris.  Hold her hand out and watch everything.  Don’t you dare even blink,” Jack said as that knife floated towards the girl.  He didn’t know what was going to happen, but it wasn’t anything he wanted to see.

        The screams echoed through the empty floor.
> Chapter 7: Preparations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	
        Now this wasn’t the sort of place I ever imagined myself shopping in.  Especially for myself.  I mean, what the hell?  Why was I in a livestock supply store wondering if I’d need this ringworm treatment in the near future?  I really should’ve researched this more before I came here, but it wasn’t like I had an abundance of time to work with here.  It was getting harder and harder to hide my pony parts and the pace of the change was only getting faster over time, so here I was looking at this damned box covered in legalize and possible side effects.

        The door rang as someone came into the store, and my ears immediately swiveled to track the noise of his movement without any effort on my part.  It was automatic and every footstep let me knew exactly how far he was from me even though I couldn’t see him past the shelves stacked with small boxes.  It wasn’t hard since I had been the only person in here for the last fifteen minutes.  I went out of my way to find a small mom and pop store on the edge of the city to minimize the chance of others seeing me. It wasn’t like I had a lot of friends into equestrian activities, but why chance it?

        I went back to staring at the box helplessly and in the few minutes it took him to get whatever he wanted, have a friendly conversation with the old lady at the til, ring up and leave, I determined that I might actually need this ringworm stuff.  Maybe.

“Fuck!” I snorted to myself as I tossed the small box into my cart.  Who was I kidding?  I knew shit about horses other than I was becoming one with fangs and possibly batwings.  I had pulled up a website on my phone about horse and pony ownership. But it was mostly a primer about the costs of stabling the animals and the work involved, and I wasn’t about to set myself up in a stable or anything like that.  I’m just going to look like an animal; not be one!  This was getting to me and I didn’t have time for this.  My humanity was slipping away by the second, and I couldn’t even rush this; every step I took had to be carefully done or someone might hear the ‘clop’ of my hooves.  

My ears turned again to another person walking in the store and this one was closing in on me.  Maybe if I kept my head down, he’d just walk on by and leave me alone.  Maybe he’d just think I looked a little too creepy or something with my sunglasses on, my hood up and baggy jeans that touched the ground around my hooves.  That or a shoplifter, but I just had to hope he wouldn’t think that.  The last touch was turning to my phone again and I flicked to a random page on the horse site.  Hopefully that’d dissuade him from talking from me.

The plan was flawless.  All I had to do was keep my eyes down and uh…

…

What the fuck!?

My luck’s record remained unbroken as I was now looking at a rather graphic set of diagrams and pictures related to horse breeding.  This was bad enough but what was worse was that I wanted to keep staring at the pictures to the point that I was absently scrolling down the screen like I was some sort of pervert.  This was like that whole ‘bat pony mare’ thing Sally showed me last night, but worse because these equines were real.

        “Do you need any help there?”

        I scrambled to shut down the screen, but I kept fumbling it.  It was like my fingers didn’t want to do anything I needed them to do.  After several seconds of struggle, I just shoved the phone into a pocket and turned to look at who spoke at me.  A tall, nearly impossibly thin man was looking down at me.  He could’ve been any age after forty, but his short, silver hair with his deep wrinkles while he smiled at a potential customer made me suspect he was closer to retirement age.  He had to work here, because while he was casually dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans, he also had a nametag on declaring his name was “Greg”. 

        The good news was that the heat in my cheeks died down pretty quickly, but it was still hard to get my brain to shift from neutral to thinking again.  Stupid sexy horses.  "Ah, um, not really. I've been doing pretty well on my own, I think."  God dammit that was bad. Stupid nice, old man for catching me while I was distracted. 
        
        He wasn’t convinced.  “You sure 'bout that?  You just took twenty minutes to get a single thing in your cart.  Whatcha looking for?” he asked helpfully.  

Even he could see that I wasn’t making progress and didn’t have a clue on what I needed. He even that whole, ‘kindly old man’ vibe going for him.  Toss in the fact that I didn’t have time to waste and it was pretty clear that I had to give in.  “Okay, I give.  I’m not really sure what I need.  You wouldn’t have anything like a ‘starter kit’ for someone that is buying a horse?” I asked.

        “Oh?  What sort of horse you thinkin' of gettin, son?” he asked while he folded his arms across his front.  

I could tell he already was thinking of lists of things to sell me so I should make sure the right lists were going.  “Well, more like a pony,” I added with a quick smile.  It took me a moment to remember the fangs and I stopped. I don't think I showed them off.

        He arched an eyebrow and looked me over.  I know I didn’t fit the demographic for the typical pony fanatic (At least real ponies).  “Really?  Do you got one picked out?”

        “Uh, kinda.”  You gotta love being technically correct, but I didn’t need this guys digging into my life.  Time to get this conversation back on track.  “So, about that sort of starter kit?”

        He looked both ways down the aisle. Maybe he was checking for another customer to help.  I knew we were alone though; I couldn’t hear or smell anyone but us. He turned back to me and leaned in so he didn’t need to speak so loudly.  “We don’t have one but you know, there’s been a few young people like you that have taken a sudden interest in owning a pony.”

        A few young people? Did he just suggest what I thought he did?  No.  Ah, fuck.  What else could that mean?  That threw my train of thought off its rails entirely.  “Really now.  Uh…”

        He was smiling while he gave a quick, affirmative nod.  “A couple even came through this store a week or two back.  All done up in hoodies and glasses like you,” he recalled.  “A nice couple.”

        Fuck!!  Really!?  How many more of us were in this situation?  Nevermind.  Just get out of here and put some distance between us.  I stepped towards the door with that familiar clop of a hoof. “You don’t say.”

        “And, we do talk with others in our business.  There’s actually a lot of kids like you getting interested in ponies all of a sudden,” he continued. “It’s a nice upswing in the business, but you’d think something odd is happening.   Wouldn’t you agree?”

I took another step away from Greg and glanced down the hall.  It was all clear and now I could hope that hooves had enough traction for a sprint on tile.  “That’s very neat.  I guess, uh, I’ll be going.”

        “What?” he said in surprise, then realisation washed over his face.  “Oh!  Just hold up there!  I didn’t mean to spook you like that.  We just want to help poor kids like you out.”

        “We?” I asked skeptically.  I wasn’t going to sprint yet, because he seemed genuine, but I wasn’t about to let him cut the way off to the door either.

He didn’t so much as budge from his spot.  “Mildred and I.  She’s my wife of thirty two years and co-owner of this here store.”

        “She knows as well?” I asked.  He certainly didn’t seem like the sort to be planning evil things to do with a young man that was turning into a pony.

“I’m just saying, we watch the news and can put two and two together even if the answer doesn’t make much sense,” he chuckled.

        “Four?”  Curse my natural inclination to snark without thinking.

        He was caught off guard by the flippant remark and that made the conversation lull for a second.  “Heh.  Nobody likes a smart ass, kiddo.  We’re trying to help.”

        “Sorry.” I gave my shoulders a shrug and noticed how stiff they felt.   They just have to have to wait until I had some time to do something about them.

        He accepted the apology with a curt nod before he rubbed his chin and looked me over again.  “So, what do you really need?”

        It was a tempting offer.  It’d save a lot of time to actually have someone that knew what equines needed to help me out.  “I wouldn’t mind something for the hooves.  They’re really noisy and don’t get much traction on tile floors.”

        “I might got just the thing for you but it’ll have to wait a minute,” he said while grinning ear to ear.  He took a couple steps towards the door.  “Dear?” he called out.

        “Yes, hon?” the old lady that was at the till called right back.  That must of been the previously mentioned Mildred.

        “Is the store empty?” he asked loudly.

        “I think so.  No one is saying you’re being too loud, hon,” she answered.

        “We got a very special client in the store.  Why don’t you put the ‘out for lunch’ sign on the door and come back here to meet him?"

        “Special client?  Oh?  Oh!” she said in a normal voice, but I could pick it up with my keen sense of hearing.  The reply that I was supposed to hear came a moment later.  “Of course.  Be there in a minute!”

        There was the sounds of busywork and movement of the front, punctuated with the loud click of a lock being turned.  A moment later, a matronly lady poked her head around the shelves and lit right up at the sight of us.  “There you guys are,” she chimed before hustling our way.  Alright, she was pretty adorable with her little stetson on her and those over-sized glasses.  She came straight for me and took my hand for a quick shake. “I’m Mildred, dear.  You must be one of the poor kids.”

        “Ryan.  And yeah, you can say that,” I said with a shrug.  “But, why are you so eager to help out?”

        “Do you have to ask, son?”  Greg said giving me a pat on the back.  “It’s just the right thing to do.  You got enough to worry about without anyone giving you the help you need.”  Mildred just nodded quickly in agreement.

        “Thanks.  It’s appreciated.  I would’ve read up on what I needed if I had any choice in the matter, but that’s not how it played out,” I admitted before looking between the two.  They seemed nice and honest but I still had my doubts that anyone would offer this sort of thing selflessly.

        Your instincts are as keen as ever!  It’s clearly because they’re not.

What?

They’re going to need you to pay them back eventually.  That’s how the world works, and you’re pretty good at the taking part, but when it comes to giving, well...

What the fuck does that mean?

How should I put this?  You tend to drop the proverbial ball and the literal familial relation when it comes to giving.

        Don’t you dare...

 What’s the sound of a little sister hitting the ground from a dozen stories, hmmm?  Is it more of a thud or a splat?  Or maybe some combination of both of those?

HEY!  What the fuck!?
        
Hay is for ponies, and you’re getting off topic.  I’m just saying that you’d do well to remember exactly how well you do at that ‘giving’ thing.  You might as well save everyone the trouble and not even let them get close to you.  They’ll be in less danger that way.

        You’re not a just a voice in my head.  What the hell are you?
        
        You’re a smart pony. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

        What do you want from me?

        “Hm?  Nothing, son,” Greg said, snapping my attention back to where I was.  He looks me over critically.  “Are you alright?  You went a little quiet there for a minute.”

        “Uhh...  Yeah, I’m fine,” I muttered.  What the hell was that?  The voice was gone now but it was so foreign from my normal thoughts.  Was it the pony I was changing into that was talking to me or something else?  It’d explain the dreams.  God dammit, there had to be answers out there somewhere.  “No, yeah, I’m fine,” I repeat. “Its probably just something to do with the change, I guess.”

        “Ah, well, if you say so, dear.  Speaking of that, though, may we see what we’re dealing with?” Mildred asked delicately.  Oh good.  At least this is awkward for them too.

        “Well, I’m probably not like the other ones that you’ve seen,” I warned while I brought my hands up to my sunglasses.

        Greg scoffed. “Don’t worry too much.  I mean, it’s an odd situation, sure, but nothing we haven’t seen before with the others. I doubt you coul...”  He trailed off as I lowered my glasses. I couldn’t help but smirk at the reaction when I showed off my new slitted golden eyes.  It was hard to see in the glare of the fluorescent lights but I could still see that his mouth was left partly open on the half formed word until his wife noticed the delay and gave him a sharp elbow to the ribs.  “Ah, yeah, that’s something alright.”

        “You’re telling me,” I joked. “I guess those others didn’t have anything like these?”

        “No,” he answers, transfixed.

        “So there really are others?” I ask.

        “Yes. Just… not quite like that,” answers Mildred.

        I put my shades back in place and they both visibly relax. “Oh! I’m sorry for staring,” Mildred apologizes. “I don’t know what came over me. It’s just the other’s eyes were more… colorful and rather pretty.” She catches what she said and backpedals, “Oh! Not to say yours aren’t! They’re just… different. Are you sure you’re turning into… you know?

        It was understandable that they’d have doubts. I doubt they’d seen any more of the show than I have and I’ve seen only a couple episodes. “Apparently some sort of night-pony with bat wings and eyes, but I got the hooves,” I said as I finally risked pulling up a pant leg to show off a hoof.  I lifted it up too, and gave it a wiggle in the air while they looked at it.

        “I think we got something in your size.  Don’t normally sell them but back when the rumours and speculation started, we decided to pick up a few odds and ends.  Lucky for you,” mused Greg as he looked down at me.  “I’ll tell you what.  You come with me around back, and we can get you sized up and Mildred will pick up the rest of the stuff you’ll need.”

        “Actually, can I get two sets?  There’s another pony like me just back home and he never got a chance to prep,” I asked.

        “Oh my, yes you can,” Mildred gushed.  “Just give me a few and I’ll have it all boxed up for you.”  She was practically bouncing as she went for the rest.  I’m sure she’d be a contender to for world’s best grandma if this is how she treated a stranger like me.

        My attention turned back to Greg and he motioned for me to follow. “Come on.” 

        “You’re not worried about catching pony-itis?” I asked as we made our way to the back room.

        He laughed.  “Nope.  At my age, I’m more worried about my prostate killing me, or my ticker just forgetting to tock one time,” he joked before he held the door open to the back room for me.  I stepped through into a room filled with boxes and crates packed with merchandise and store records, but there was one spot that was cleared out with a couple of chairs.

        “I think that’d be the world's loss,” I said.

        He shrugged.  “We all gotta go sometime, but I want to make sure people and ponies are both glad I was here more than glad I’m gone.  But anyways, take a seat and let me see them again.”

        Well, the first worry that it was going to be some elaborate trap had been addressed and dismissed.  I let my guard down and took the seat on the chair and as soon as I leaned back, I winced  He didn’t notice because he was already going through some boxes, pulling a couple odd cup like things out of them.  God, my shoulders are getting sore.  “Done this before, I see.”

        “Only a couple times where I can talk to who I’m sizing up,” he chuckled while he worked.

“Whatever happened to those other ones you mentioned?”  I asked as I reached back to adjust my tail a little bit   I stopped fighting it a moment later and pulled it loose.  He already knew everything, so why fight it now.  He did leer my way for a moment.  I followed it up by pulling down my hood to show off the ears and mane.  It took him a second to get his mind back on his work. 

“Oh, they said they were getting out of the city.  Didn’t mention where or anything that detailed, but a park or a farm is the where my bets would be.  How about you?”

“Me?”

         “Where are you going?” he asked as he brought several sets over to me and knelt down.  It looked hard on his knees to do that, but he didn’t complain.

        Away.

~ I don’t need anything from the peanut gallery, thank you. ~ I thought in my internal monologue.  “I don’t know yet.  I don’t know anyone outside of the city, and I don’t camp,” I answered as he took a hold of my hoof and pulled it up so he could take a look at it.  He hummed in thought, then pulled out one of the cups to test fit it.  Sure, it felt weird with that pressure around what was pretty much one big nail, but it felt big, like it could fall off in short order too.  He thought so, too, and took it off to try another.  “It’s not like we get much time to put everything in order when this happens,”

“Heh.  Any reason why it happened?” He asked as he looked for a slightly smaller one.

“Does it matter?” I replied with a shrug.

He looked up at me.  “If I was changing into a horse, it might be something I’d want to figure out,” he replied.

“I only got a couple days to get as much put away as possible.  Likely much less than that now, even.  I can leave ‘why’ for later, and get the rest of the issues taken care of while I still got thumbs.”

He smiled up at me. “That’s a good head on your shoulders that you got there.  If you keep thinking like that, I’m sure you’ll be just fine.  Now, how do those feel?”

I looked down at the black rubber cover over the hoof before I stood up.  They didn’t clop on the floor nearly as loud as they did before, and I took a few steps around to test them.  Not only they feel pretty good, they added to my traction a lot, too.  “Not bad.  What are they for normally?  I can’t imagine that a lot of horses come in here looking for sports shoes.”

He shook his head. “Usually, they’re special order for those rich yahoos that want to take their ponies somewhere that they shouldn’t go in the first place.  If you’re worrying more about the floor than the animal, I think your priorities are wrong, but I can’t fix all the world’s vices.”

“Take on what you can, eh?”  I said as I looked in the box.  Sure enough there were two more in there.  It was a harsh reminder that I was going to need them too soon enough.

“You’ll live longer doing that,” he chuckled.  “Now, speaking about living longer, do you feel alright about needles?  There's a few bugs ponies can get that you really should get a shot for."

I winced.  “Maybe we should hold off on that until the change to go full run. Might be some complications, and that’s the last thing I need right now.  But, I guess I could stop by for them afterwards?”

He nodded. “Not a problem.  Just call us and we’ll make sure the store can be closed up for you.  Does that mean you’re planning to stick around the city?”

That was food for thought.  I didn’t have any real plans yet, but I could figure that out with the help of Lanny and Snowy later.  That didn't change that being a horse in the city didn’t seem like a viable option.  “For the foreseeable future, I guess.  But, just one problem at a time, eh?”

He smirked.  "You're a brave kid.  Keeping being that no matter what happens to you.  You'll do well by it.  Now let's go see what sort of care package Mildred has got for you."  He gestured for us to go back to the front door.

“That fast?”  Seriously.  All we did was chat a bit and size me for these hoof cover things.

“She moves fast and it ain't a big store,” he replied.  “We’ll go through what she pulled for you before you go.  Some things might need some explanation.”  

“As long as it doesn’t take too long.  I’m liable to go full equine any minute now and I still need to get my car home,” I pointed out.  That'd be awkward.

He waved me off while he held the door for me.   “I’ll make it quick and we’ll get you our business card for when you got questions later.  And, you’re going to have them.  No one learns everything overnight.”

“I’ll take that under advisement.”  Time was of the essence though, so  I checked my phone to check the time and what do I see.  That’s right.  Horse breeding techniques in full frontal detail.  Dammit, I hope this blush goes away before I get to the nice old lady.

~~~ 

It didn’t but she didn’t find out why I had that blush, so that worked out and as a bonus, she threw some snacks into the boxes.  Of course, I was on my third one before she explained to me that it was her homemade horse treats.  I don’t know if that counts as a win or a loss for me because they were damned tasty.

What really was a shitty loss for me was how hard it was getting to drive.  My back ached every time I leaned into my seat and my legs felt like they were cramping up as I drove just from the angles I was forcing myself to sit in.  It felt like my knees and ankles weren’t in the right positions anymore.  Maybe they weren’t and no amount of shuffling in my seat was going to fix it.  I’d just have to check letter and maybe swear about it a bunch before grudgingly accepting it.

The drive came to an end outside of the plain red brick apartment block. It was the sort of building that could be faithfully recreated with only a few red Lego bricks and a little imagination.  It's not like Lanny really cared where he lived and being on the top floor might help out for his new roomy with wings.

The thought made me snort in amusement and it took me a moment to realize what I just did. "Dammit."

Time enough for that later.  I got out of my '92 POS and gathered up the plain cardboard boxes the Wolfes gave to me.  They were heavy with everything a growing stallion would need as Mildred put it.  She had a good helping of 'kindly grandmother' in her and I'd bet she'd be knitting me a sweater if I was still in their store.  

I headed to the door Once I was all loaded up and maneuvered my elbow just enough to hit the buzzer for Lanny's pad. He answered a moment later.  "Who's that?"

I put on my best generic, non-English accent and replied, "Ah, no sorree.  No English. No English."  The door clicked open and I forced my way through it and up the stairs. It was a hassle to manage the climb but it was a great test for the covers.  The… my hooves still didn’t sound quite right but that might be my extra sharp hearing.  I also could hear the game of Madden that Lanny had going in his apartment.  I didn’t even bother knocking and walked right in because I knew he wouldn’t be able to hear me.  Maybe Snowflake, but not him.

Anyways, the place was as it was always; unnaturally (and unexpectedly for first timers here) clean.  Lanny came from a family that didn’t have much and he took care of everything he hand now that he had his own place.  It still wasn't  much but he took care of it like it was the Princess's Crown Jewels and I admired that in him.  What I didn’t admire was the fact I still had to get the door on my own while struggling with the heavy box.

“I got this guys. Don’t worry!  I love carrying heavy boxes without any help whatsoever,” I called before dropping the box on his kitchen counter.

“Oh good!  I was worried I’d need to get up,” sniped Snowflake as he mashed at the buttons with his hooves.  The plastic controller couldn't last long with that muscle bound pony using it.

“You know you’re going to get your asskicked if you keep doing that,” Lanny called from his couch without missing a beat.  Snowflake was beside him, trying to use his hooves to play along.  It was clearly a struggle for a pony to use a controller as evidenced by how he’s was down about 60 points in the first quarter.

“Keep doing what?” I asked as I made my way over to  the two.

“That accent thing. Someone’s going to hear that and get really pissed at you,” he said without so much as pausing his game.  The clattering of hooves on plastic wasn’t too much of a distraction.

I rolled my eyes and took off my glasses since it wasn’t exactly bright in here. “Good thing I’m not going to be able to do that again, eh?”

I could see Lanny work his way through that statement until he gave me a sad nod and paused the game.  "Right.  So you find you stuff?"  

“Yeah.  Found a store where they sell this stuff and they really helped out,” I answered.  I hesitated to add the next point, but they did deserve to know about them. “They know about us.”

Two sets of eyes were wide and peering over the couch at me.  “You serious, bro?” Lanny asked while Snowflake just looked terrified.  “Do we got to go right now or something?”

“Nah.  It’s cool.  They want to help us out and it sounds like they’ve done it before for other ponies.  They didn’t even charge me for all this stuff.  For example, this.”  I pulled out a brush and tossed it to Lanny.

“What’s that?”  Snowflake asked while Lanny picked it up.  “A brush?  You ain’t touching me with that!”  The muscular pony recoiled back from Lanny.  I think the word is ‘indignation’ or something like that.  He was full of that.

“What’s the matter little pony?  Don’t like your brush?” Lanny joked as he followed and the situation looked ready to escalate to an outright fight at this rate.  That’s okay. I had myself another of those treats Mildred game me to munch on from my safe place in the kitchen.

"Hey, get away from me!"  Snowflake kept recoiling back right until that stiff bristled brush hit his neck.  Rather than continue his struggle, his eyes went wide and he got a silly grin on his face right before he melted into it.  "Oooooh yeah."

Dang.  I was ready to watch a fight and not a pony leaning in like a happy dog.  God, that's going to be me is a few days.  I had to put a stop to this now.  "Should I give you two some alone time?" I snarked at the pair and immediately the two of them stopped to pull to the very opposite corners of the chesterfield.  "Aww, you're blushing."

"Fuck you, bro," Lanny sniped.

"Anyways, I lined us up for some shots at some point so we got to figure a way down to Greg's store after I'm done with...  You know," I said.  This was it. The countdown for my humanity.

"You're going to go back home, right?  Spend it with your family before you can't?" Lanny suggested forcefully.

"That's what I wish I got to do," Snowflake lamented wistfully.  He even folded his ears down and looked at the ground in front of him.  "Never got the chance; mom and sis live in a different city.  Now, I don't know if I'll ever talk to them again."

I did promise my mom I'd get back to spend some time with her today, and I really wanted to, but there was one more thing I wanted to check up on.  "I will, but I want to-"

"I swear to god Ryan, if you say you want to check in with your client, I'm going to kick your ass," Lanny interrupted. 

"I'd be a quick stop and nothing else," I suggested.  How did he fucking know?

"Fuck man. You got fangs and hooves and you're still worried about some rich old man's kid?  The police got it.  They're paid to stress about that shit.  You got to take care of your own shit, bro," he stated as he got off of the couch.   As for Snowflake, he just stayed in place but was nodding in agreement.  "So, you going home right?"

He was right.  I was trying to pass the case off from minute one but now that it was in police hands I found myself wanting to stay involved. I did have a connection of my own to the case.  "But what about Sanguine?" 

"What about him?  After you're done changing, you can do whatever you want.  Right now though, you should be at home.  You ain't going to get another chance," Lanny argued.

"Do the right thing.  They're going to miss you," Snowflake urged.  

I glanced between the two of them then sighed.  They didn't get that this was important too, and the least I owed Jacob was a call.  "Fine.  You made your point.  I'll head home.  Can you do me a favour though?"

"Whatcha need, bro?"

"Can you drive me back?  It's getting hard for me to drive. It's too bright even with the sunglasses, and the seat doesn't feel right anymore."  I turned slightly and lifted a leg up to confirm my suspicions. It was clear that my legs no longer had the correct shape to them and my baggy pants couldn't hide that from anyone looking at them.

"Yeah, bro. I can do that.  Just let me hit the bathroom and we'll get going," Lanny said before he looked at the full pony beside him. "You'll be alright alone?"  

"Yeah, so long as I don't have to open a jar," he said with a chuckle. 

"Right. I'm gonna hit the can and then we can get going," Lanny said with a jerk of his thumb towards the bathroom.  He didn't wait for my blessing or anything before he headed off. Snowflake just nodded once hard and went back to his game but this time he was trying to use his wingtips.

"I'll look at the stuff while you’re gone" he said gruffly while he quit out of his game.

This left me to nothing but my own thoughts and most of them were on the case now that I got the stuff for me and Snowflake.  I know I passed it off to the police but I should at least call Jacob and see how he's holding up.  It wouldn't take any time at all and would help settle my nerves.  Why not call him?  I don't think Lanny would even mind a quick call and my family wouldn't even know so while he was in the bathroom did the call.

"Jacob Esterhazy," was the prompt answer.  He sounded stressed already.  

"Hello sir. It's Ryan Black. I just wanted to check in with you," I answered in a hushed tone.

"I have to say that I didn't expect to hear from you again given your condition.

"I want to be professional, even given the circumstances.  Have they found your daughter yet?" 

"No.  And Daphne never came home last night.  The police are looking for her now.  I hope they catch that lying bitch soon. I want my daughter back," he snarled.

"I totally understand, sir.  What do you mean when you say she never came back last night?"

"They found her car abandoned.  She's now a person of interest in the case and they've started a search for her. They've a few leads but nothing to show for it yet," he explained with barely contained frustration. "How could I not see this?"

"Sorry.  If knew how this happened you'd be the first to know," I said.  I could feel where he was coming from.  I think.  It was that dream coming back to mind now.  It was like I was in his situation before and all the frustration, anger and worry was burning in me.  "Have you mentioned me to the police?"

"No.  Given your condition, I'm not sure how'd they'd react and the last thing I need is to undercut someone that has helped me as much as you," he said, calming down. "How is your, uh condition, anyways?"

"I'm still on two feet. For now. Not sure how long that will last," I said with a glance at my hooves.  I was still human enough to work. I had time to do what was right and track down Daphne.  It was the least I could do and still look at myself in a mirror in the morning.  "Where was her car found?"  

"I can send you the address if you want it, but given what's happening to you, I couldn't ask for your help," he said oozing concern for me.  He was a family man to the core.

"Good. I'm not asking, I'm volunteering, sir.  Send me the details right away.  I'll be in touch if I find anything."  I ended the call and I knew Lanny was right behind me.  I heard him the entire way.

"What the hell?  What's wrong with you?" he snapped at me before I even turned about to face him.  He was pissed at me and rightfully so.

"Lanny.  Somewhere out there is an evil, manipulating woman that has gotten a man killed and her own daughter kidnapped," I replied. "What's wrong with me now is nothing in comparison to what's wrong with me if I walk away from this.  I was wrong to let you talk me out of my job before but I can't stop being me."

"What about your family?  You're just going to disappear on them?"  He demanded.  It was rare to see Lanny like this. 

"What? No!  I'm pretty sure I got a few hours left before I hit the point of no return so I'm going to use it and help look for a couple hours, then rush back home, spend an evening with the family then sneak off," I explained. "Everyone wins except me but there's nothing I can do about that."

"But-"

"No buts. That's how this is all going down I can still drive for now and when that goes to shit, I can walk. Now, are you going to help me or not?" I said while pointing directly at Lanny."

"Fuck man. Snowflake, back me up," Lanny pleaded. 

"He knows what I think," he snorted without so much as looking in my direction.  At least he wasn't directly siding against me but it was disappointing that he couldn't see that I did care for my family.  It was just that there was other things I had to do.

"So, Lanny.  In or out?" I repeated.

"You know I'm in.  I just think you're fucking up," Lanny flatly stated. 

That worked for me just fine.  He’ll forgive me later when everything works out for everyone.  The bad guys will get caught and the girls will be home and I’ll be a pony.  Well, it’ll work out for nearly everyone.  "Let's get going.”

It took Lanny a few moments to follow, and when he did he was grumbling loudly.  He’d forgive me when I was right.

        ~~~

        It’s been proven time and time again that time moves its slowest when you wait for something you wanted.  It’s why Christmas morning was torturous to so many.  The more you wanted it, and the longer you did without it, the more tedious and painful the wait, and today Sanguine was waiting.  He had been waiting his entire second life for this day, and it was so tantalizingly close.  Soon, he’d have the only one that truly understood him back.

Unlike his current company.  Brad was propped up in a corner, but that didn’t make him any better of a conversationalist given his condition.  It had been a few hours since the lesson but Chris had yet to speak to him, and the girl was still whimpering about her hand.  A single finger didn’t seem like much of a loss to him though.  After all, he'd be losing his shortly.  They were already stiff and getting non-response, and he was sure they’d recede away as his proper hooves returned to him.

Again, he’d have to wait.  Sanguine sighed and finally decided he'd need to something to fill the time. He was patient but a complete and total idle was taxing.  He glanced over at the slumped over Brad.  Not much entertainment to be had there, but there was his phone not too far away.  Now, he wasn't the sort that found much joy in meaningless digital prattle but it did offer more potential entertainment then nothing.

"Mind if I borrow your phone again, good sir?" He didn't wait for an answer of course and with a tug of his aura, he pulled it to himself. It was locked of course, but this wasn't the first time Sanguine accessed a phone by pressing a thumb to a fingerprint reader. "Thank you again."

There were icons all over the screen but he didn't really know what he wanted to see.  He could pull up the news but he could assume that the search for the girl and her mother was on and wouldn't give him anything more substantive than that, though that did mean it would be time to move from their current location soon.  He had hoped he'd be done with this awkward change by the time it came to that.

He hummed as a thought occurred to him and he clicked on the Facebook icon. A screen of meaningless messages for and from people he didn't care to know.  He cradled the device in his aura and poked at the screen while he put in a search for someone that he did want to know about.

It didn't take much effort before a page dedicated to one Ryan Black came up.  Sadly, there wasn't much activity on the page.  Just the odd picture of a small, black-haired human and a few mass apologies for missing events due to work constraints.  Even so, Sanguine grinned.  He could see his friend in this human and soon he'd be free as well, and the sky was the limit from there. 

Curiously, he was tagged in a recent picture by one Sally Black.  The picture wasn't that telling.  It was a heap of blankets with a navy horsetail dangling out of it. The caption was simply, "My brother is a total brony :0".  His brow furrowed for a moment, then he moved onto her profile. She was an avid poster with pictures and comments about anything and everything about her life. 

"This is so much more than I expected and deserve, Discord," he laughed.  How could he do anything but revel in how perfectly things were turning out for him? "Truly, I never knew a more generous soul than you!"

He knew exactly where to find the Black's home simply by looking into the addresses set for some of Sally's events.  He was positively giddy as he gathered the factoids about the Black's; where they worked, where they went to school, names of friends and more.  This was too perfect and he'd be a fool not to take advantage of what was offered to him.  

"Chris!  I've somewhere I wish to go and I require you to drive.  It'll be a nice distraction for you from what happened earlier," he called as he stood up and instantly fell to all fours. The position felt familiar. It felt good. It felt liberating.  If only the return would complete itself soon. 

Chris got up and came into the room and stared at the near unicorn before him. The creature barely had a trace of humanity in it and it looked as far from a predator as it was from a human. Maybe it was that fact made those bloodthirsty eyes all the more terrifying.

"Bring around the van and I'll bring the girl down.  We're going for a little trip to visit an old friend's family."