Tango, former officer of Ponyville police, learns how difficult life is in Hoofington Manehattan under the shadow of the local thug, Barricade
Tango is just trying to live, as much as a pony can live while hating himself for being involved in the biggest foalnapping case in Ponyville history. He's on probation and residing in the more ignored and forgotten part of Manehattan, Hoofington Lane, part of the slightly bigger Hoofington district. He would probably be doing all right if the area wasn't practically controlled by a gang led by one big and mean unicorn named Barricade. A unicorn that Tango has managed to anger. On top of that, a fellow tenant in the building Tango lives in seems to be showing some interest in him.
This story is part of The Equestria Tales series.
Second story of "The Story of Tango and Snow Heart" arc
This story has been marked as a sequel to The Time Keeper of Ponyville as it picks up from were Tango was last left in that story. Explanation can be found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/592234/sequel-sort-of
The radio clicked on and the loud boisterous voice of Sapphire Shores echoed through the room as one of her hit singles began playing. This roused the pony on the bed from his stupor with a loud groan. Desperate to get rid of the loud noise he fumbled with one hoof for the off button, finally finding it and the room was silence once again.
Ugh… I hate those new self…turning on radios. Tango glared at the radio, it was probably the most expensive item in the whole apartment. He hadn’t bought it, his probation officer had given it to him, reward for a good problem free week.
Reward or punishment. The tall earth pony slinked out of the bed, kicking empty cider bottles around in the process.
Yawning he left the very untidy bedroom and shifted into the very small bathroom. It was lucky the pony was thinly built or he might just not fit at all. This apartment had clearly been built with smaller ponies in mind. Tango usually didn’t have problems with his size, but then again he had lived most of his life elsewhere, not in a dingy apartment deep in Manehattan.
“Hey there ugly,” he addressed his reflection in the mirror. “Another day hoping to get by on very little because who wants to associate with a criminal.”
Tango made a halfhearted attempt to brush his dark gray coat and barely swept over his mane and tail. The former officer finished other business in the bathroom and walked out. The pony went straight to the kitchen and started to rummage around for some breakfast.
I miss Ponyville. Tango sighed while sitting down with a lettuce sandwich.
Tango had been a fairly respected police officer in a small town further south in Equestria called Ponyville. Though his services were rarely required for much, it was not a town with a high crime rate and sometimes the most exciting things that happened were the occasional stampede.
Then Princess Celestia’s student Twilight Sparkle arrived and defeated Nightmare Moon and stayed in Ponyville. Things then seemed to happen with more regularity but most often handled by Twilight and her friends. Tango didn’t mind, some of it sounded just a bit out of his jurisdiction, his partner Mulberry had though sometimes complained they didn’t get to do much despite being the only police officers in town.
Mulberry however, almost got his wish several weeks ago. Diamond Tiara the daughter of Filthy Rich was foalnapped and the culprit turned out to be Snow Heart, a mare who had lived in Ponyville long time ago. She hired two thugs to do the job and intended to hold the filly for ransoms as a revenge against Mr. Rich for perceived slights.
Tango sighed deeply when remembering Snow Heart. He had always been smitten with her and had always tried to support her back when she lived there. When she left town he had kept in touch with her through writing letters and he told no one of it. His love for the unicorn mare blinded him and he agreed to help her with the foalnapping, agreeing to sabotage any search efforts.
That didn’t go quite as planned, Princess Celestia took interest in the case and sent royal guards to help. Mayor Mare was so thrilled that she put them in charge of everything and they were much stricter than the local town police officer. Snow Heart and her accomplices where captured, including him.
Tango was granted probation; it was taken into consideration his previous service as a police officer. The former officer only had one request, not to serve it in Ponyville, he agreed to be sent to Manehattan. That came with more complications, the foalnapping case had been given a national coverage by the media, especially when it turned out that one of the thugs, Silver Axe, was a crazed serial killer. Many unsolved missing foal cases were solved with his capture.
Because of this, there were very few landlords in Manehattan who wanted Tango anywhere near the buildings they ran. Because of that Tango actually had to spent two weeks in jail even if his probation had been already granted, his probation officer was still looking for an apartment for him to live in.
The idea was that Tango would live in a regular apartmen and, do a job assigned to him by the local council who would pay the rent until the probation period was over. Tango would receive small amounts of cash to live on during this. Later on though, it was expected of him to find a job on his own and pay rent himself.
Eventually they finally found this small apartment on Hoofington Lane deep in Manehattan. His probation officer was not happy with putting Tango in this neighborhood. It was bad and she warned him as much, there were ponies there that would not take kindly to a police officer living there, former or not.
Tango personally didn’t care. The whole ordeal and realizing just what he had done and how much he had not just ruined his own life and career but others as well, had just broken him. He went to his community work, went home and just stayed there for the most part. Only venturing out to buy food.
Still there were sparks of his old self around. The habit of knowing everyone in the neighborhood as he was wont to do when in Ponyville. So he was somewhat aware of most of the ponies living in the area and a little beyond it. He was quick to learn who to avoid and kept far away from The Barricade Gym which was the central hub for the meaner ponies that lived here.
Tango finished his sandwich and left the kitchen. In the small hallway that separated the various rooms of this otherwise small apartment, the pony glanced at the calendar. It was marked, reminding him that this was his day off. He was mildly relieved, even though he seldom went out otherwise, the stallion was a bit more nervous about it right now.
Few days ago, he had actually ventured out later than usual for him to buy some more bottled cider. On his way to the kiosk he knew of close by, a sound caught his attention. He went to investigate and the sound kept driving him further and further away from his usual routes. Then he heard voices and witnessed the local gang cornering some ponies.
The former officer was shocked to realize he knew two of them. Derpy Hooves and Time Turner from Ponyville. Tango knew he couldn’t let something happen to them, he managed to sneak by and stun and knock out some of the gang ponies before fleeing with his old Ponyville friends and three other ponies. Once they had hidden in his apartment for few hours, they all managed to reach a train station and head back to their respective homes.
However, Tango knew this had put him on the radar of the ponies he had been trying to avoid. The leader himself had been there, a tall unicorn stallion by the name of Barricade. What the former officer had heard of him, he didn’t like. Most ponies in the neighborhood stayed clear off him and his gang. If he was doing something out in the street, they did not interfere.
Tango headed to the living room and slumped down on the couch, ignoring that he lay also on top of some magazines. He probably needed to go check his mail, but right now he just didn’t really want to do anything. The pony wasn’t even sure why he had gone out of bed.
‘Tango, if you want, I can provide you with some books and maybe some shelves to put them in.’ The words of his parole officer resurfaced from the last visit. Tango only had the couch, the coffee table, a chair and two stools in it. He hadn’t accepted the offer; he just didn’t care anymore.
It had been nice to see Derpy and Turner again and she had tried to cheer him up. But he was hesitant, recalling that the mare was very optimistic and right now optimism was far away from the stallion.
“Oh who is it now?” Tango groaned when there was a knock on the apartment door.
The stallion grumbled as he rose up from the couch and went back to the small hallway. One of his neighbors would sometimes knock and just talk and talk and talk with him, she seemed to do that with just about everyone in the building. Tango was polite enough to at least listen, though he could add very little to the one sided conversation. He had a feeling the mare just liked being social with her fellow tenants.
Tango opened the door and half expected to see the vanilla colored pony stand here with a polite smile and ready to inform him of all kinds of news that he barely had any interest in. No mare greeted his eyes, suddenly his neck was restrained by an indigo colored magic aura and the stallion was slammed back to the wall inside the apartment.
“Gah…” Tango could barely breathe and could only watch in shock as a dark grey unicorn with a dirty blonde mane and tail stomped in with a sadistic smile on his muzzle. A brick wall adorned his flank. Right behind him was a big blue earth pony stallion with a pair of dumbbells as cutiemarks.
“Hello Tango!” Barricade chuckled and swung his head so the magic effect holding Tango actually threw the earth pony towards the living room. The pony sailed through the doorway and crash landed on the coffee table that broke under his weight.
Tango groaned in pain and tried to rise up but once again magic aura restrained his neck and he was lifted up harshly. The pony was thrown deeper into the room and crashed into the wall.
“You didn’t think we had forgotten our little encounter did you?” Barricade asked casually as he stepped over the remains of the coffee table.
“N-not…r-really,” Tango muttered where he lay, not sure really if he should try and fight back. Barricade was clearly taking no chances of coming too close to him, knowing that despite the thin built, the earth pony still had good strength.
“Good, now that I have your attention,” the unicorn snorted and used his magic to lift Tango again by the neck. “I understand that you have lived here for a while, few weeks in fact. I have it on good authority that you even know who I am.”
“Y-yes…” Tango just barely managed to speak, he was slammed hard to the floor.
“Then perhaps I shouldn’t need to remind you that I don’t take kindly to ponies interfering in my business,” Barricade growled. “Plus, Blue isn’t too happy to have been kicked in the face and Tornado, Thunder Cloud and Rain Storm aren’t too pleased either with you, knocking them out like this.”
Tango didn’t respond, not just because he couldn’t but because he really didn’t want to. There was no use, the pony was at the unicorn’s mercy and no matter what he would say it would not change anything. The former officer was slammed around the room few more times, he could taste blood in his mouth and his head was ringing.
“I’m going to expect a 100 bits for interfering with me plus additional 100 for each of my employees as a reimbursement. That makes it let’s see, 500 bits,” Barricade said and finally allowed Tango to drop in a heap on the floor. The earth pony just lay there groaning in pain.
“Now I’m not so crazy to think that you can pay all of that now, we’ll come by later and collect some of it. Let you recover and all, I’m not without mercy,” the unicorn chuckled.
A soft gasp caught his attention as well as Blue. The two stallions glared back to see a vanilla colored earth mare standing there. She had a thick lush mane with soft yellowish colors, on her flank was a cutiemark of a candy heart.
“Vanilla Cream,” Barricade chuckled softly and turned around. “I am still amazed about your parents lack of imagination when naming you.”
“G-get out, both of you,” Vanilla Cream demanded though her voice was shaky. “I-I will call the police.”
“Oh really now,” the unicorn laughed. He started to approach and was impressed that the mare stood her ground.
“You bully, get out! He’s done nothing wrong and you have no right to barge in on ponies like this,” Vanilla said with as much conviction as she could muster. Deep down she was shaking, knowing to well that she couldn’t do much against two large stallions.
“Hey, I knocked politely,” Barricade chuckled then looked at Blue. “Come on, Blue, we’ve told him what we want.”
The two stallions walked out of the living room and left apartment. Vanilla let out a breath she was holding then rushed over to Tango who still just lay on the ground groaning in pain. He was very beat up, one eye was swelling and his muzzle was a little bloodied.
“Oh sweet Luna, what have they done to you,” the mare whispered worried as she checked the stallion over.
“We should get you to a hospital, check if anything is broken,” she then said, that prompted Tango to move a bit.
“N… no, no, I just need to sit… sit up,” he whispered and slowly began to rise, Vanilla supported him but looked very concerned.
“Are you sure?” the mare asked. Tango was touching his swelled eye gingerly.
“Y-yes… I just need to rest.” The stallion cringed a little in pain.
“Okay but we should still patch you up, do you have a first aid kit?” Vanilla wondered and started to glance around.
“No.” Tango shook his head slowly.
“Right, I’ll be back, I’ll get mine in my apartment, just sit there.” With that the mare darted out on top speed.
“Not going anywhere,” the stallion assured her.
500 bits… great that’s more than double I get for the week. Tango hung his head, wondering how he would ever manage to pay all that.
There was always the option not to pay at all, but considering what had just occurred just a few minutes ago, the pony was pretty sure Barricade wouldn’t like that. Tango wouldn’t have taken so kindly to being threatened like this back in the day, but things were different now, the willpower just wasn’t there.
Vanilla returned with the first aid kit and icepack for the eye. The mare went right to work at patching the stallion up, cleaning up any open wounds and bandaging them up. Tango didn’t resist but did occasionally grunt and groan during the process.
“Why were Barricade and Blue here?” Vanilla asked with concern in her face and voice while she worked.
“Eh… it was…” Tango accepted the icepack from her and placed it on the swelling eye.
“Please don’t say nothing, everypony says nothing. They let that bully control their lives. All he has to do is show up and they just clam up.” The mare frowned hard when it appeared Tango was going to do what everyone else did when it came to the unicorn.
“I prevented him from harming friends of mine,” Tango relented. “I’m not quite sure what he was doing, but… I couldn’t… I couldn’t let them be harmed.”
“Then you might just be the bravest pony in the Hoofington area,” Vanilla sounded impressed but the stallion cringed at being called brave.
“Yeah and that got me a flying lesson today that smashed my coffee table,” he pointed out, eyeing the remains of the furniture.
“You could go to the police with this, I can back you up, I did walk in on it,” the mare suggested. She finished patching him up and started putting things back in the first aid kit.
“Oh sure, I can just picture how that will go. ‘Oh, you were messing around with Barricade? Now you know why you don’t’,” Tango grumbled. Vanilla opened her mouth as if to protest but it closed and her expression turned sadder.
“Yes you’re right… the police around here is never any help… I just sometimes get so angry that this blasted bully can go about his business like he owns the place,” she said quietly, fiddling with the first aid kit in her hooves. The mare looked up when Tango put one hoof gingerly on her shoulder.
“Look, don’t be too quick to blame them,” he said. “I was maybe just a police officer from a small town but I wasn’t ignorant to how things were in the bigger cities. It was because of thugs like Barricade I was always so happy to live in a small low crime town.”
“I was originally the only officer in the town. I had... I had to really argue with the town council until they finally hired the second one. They didn’t think we needed this second officer, but even if the town was small it was still big enough that it was too much to cover for a single pony. If something did happen that required me, I didn’t have any backup,” the stallion told her.
“You would think in a much bigger and richer city like Manehattan, with its many districts things would be different. But no, if there is one thing I know about town or city councils, they are always looking to where they can cut expenses. I’m sure the police here would love to do something about Barricade, but they just don’t have enough ponies to do it and Barricade knows it. Their resources are pressed to focus on the richer districts and the areas the tourists go, small area like Hoofington is just not on priority because they don’t get to have it as priority.” Tango shook his head as he continued to explain.
“Thus the few officers that are around are jaded, they know Barricade is no good, but they can’t do anything about it, they have no proof. Sure I could go tell them he just beat me up, you could come as an additional witness. They might go and question Barricade but then he would produce dozens of witnesses that would swear to Celestia and Luna that he’s been at his gym the whole time,” he concluded.
“How can you be so sure about it?” Vanilla asked, mildly surprised how informed Tango was.
“My probation officer, she briefed me how things were here and those few ponies I’ve spoken to, including the one police officer in the district that doesn’t hate my guts for having been involved in the foalnapping case in Ponyville.” Tango chuckled weakly. “I… have this habit of wanting to know my neighborhood well.”
“Me too, I just can’t stand it not be at least casually aware of my neighbors. There really is lacking a proper community here… probably no thanks to Barricade,” Vanilla grunted, she then carefully put a hoof on Tango’s back. “Will you be alright? I was on my way to get the mail when I saw that your door was open… I didn’t mean to barge in like this, I just knew you didn’t go out so much and thought maybe I could save you the trip.”
“I live on the ground floor, literally few steps away from the front door of this building,” the former officer pointed out, he would have raised an eyebrow but it hurt too much.
“I know.” Vanilla smiled innocently. “Want me to go get the mail for you?”
“Sure, fine,” Tango shrugged, the mare took off once again.
Why is she being so sweet? the stallion wondered. He rose slowly up and began hoppling to the couch. Or more like… why is somepony as sweet as her, wasting her time on a trash like me.
Vanilla Cream felt a little bored sitting by the counter of the candy store. It had been a long day but not many customers. Apparently no one was in mood for sweets. The mare had thought she had lucked out, scoring a job in the much nicer Hooflyn area of Manehattan but sadly, despite candy and candy making being her passion, it didn’t pay enough to be able to live there. Thus she was stuck living in Hoofington.
I need someone to talk to. Vanilla yawned, she was a social pony who tended to chat with the customers, that’s why the mare usually liked being at the counter.
It would also have helped distract her, she kept thinking back to Tango and what happened to him earlier in the day. The stallion had still refused to go to the hospital and after fetching the mail for him, Vanilla couldn’t do much except leave him be so she wouldn’t be late for work.
Vanilla groaned and rose up, she might as well make sure everything was fully stocked since nobody was there. The shop owner would usually do that but she wasn’t in and for the most part tended to let the mare run the small corner shop on her own. Vanilla liked having the responsibility and the owner had mentioned few times that she might take over it completely one day.
The mare looked over the shelves, the cases, the jars, all stuffed with delicious looking sweets. Vanilla had made some of them herself and was allowed to sell them in the shop, it gave a little boost to her paycheck. She was so engrossed in her work that she almost missed the chime of the bell above the door, indicating that someone had just come in.
Ooh, a customer, finally. Vanilla jumped and hurried back to the front. She stopped, smiling wide and friendly, in front of a little filly. Her coat was brilliant gamboge, the mane and tail were light amaranth with brilliant amaranth streaks. She had no cutie mark.
“Hello and welcome, little one, here to feed your sweet tooth a little? We got something for everypony here in Sweet Candy World,” she greeted the girl cheerfully.
“Huh? Uh yeah, I guess.” the filly shrugged and blew the mane out of her eyes.
A noise from outside seemed to catch her attention, the filly’s eyes widened and she quickly stepped to the side so that she was out of view from big glass door. Vanilla was confused by this behavior, then saw few foals run past the shop.
“Uh, were those your friends?” she asked and pointed towards the door.
“No,” the filly quickly responded and kept staring at the exit as if she was worried the others would come in.
“Well, why don’t you come on in and see if you can’t find something you like,” Vanilla said when she realized that the girl had come in here to hide, she gestured further into the shop.
“Uh, yeah, sure.” The filly walked further in and started to examine what was available. She did keep an eye on the door as she browsed.
“So what’s your name?” Vanilla asked, the mare strategically stood so that the filly was blocked from view of anyone that looked through the door. She didn’t know why the girl was hiding from the other kids, but had an idea what it was all about.
“Babs… Babs Seed,” the girl hesitantly responded.
“Nice name, I’m Vanilla Cream. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around here, do you live in Hooflyn?” the mare wondered and casually glanced towards the door, she saw the same foals run now in the other direction right past the shop. None of them even looked inside.
“Yeah, Farrier Hill,” Babs muttered almost inaudibly.
Farrier Hill, that’s one of the higher tier residences in Hooflyn. Vanilla blinked, most ponies living there made more on a month than she did on a year.
“That’s a pretty nice neighborhood,” the mare said and then remembered where she lived and almost envied the girl. “Very nice.”
“Eh, it’s okay I guess.” The filly turned around to face her. “Do you live in Hooflyn?”
“No, no I don’t. Too expensive for me I’m afraid, even here in the southern part of it. I live in Hoofington, Hoofington Lane to be more precise,” Vanilla sighed slightly.
“Hoofington? Uncle Orange says that’s a bad place, I should never go there,” Babs said and walked to another shelf to look at things available there.
“Your uncle is not wrong.” Vanilla nodded but then blinked when realizing she was familiar with the name. “Orange, as in Mosely Orange? The biggest orange and other citrus fruit distributer in all of Manehattan?”
“Yeah, but I just call him Uncle Orange.” The filly didn’t seem overly concerned who she was related too.
Well, I wanted to talk with somepony. Didn’t think it would be with the niece of one of Manehattan’s richest. Vanilla thought, she could almost picture the faces of some her neighbors she regularly chatted with when the mare would tell them about this encounter.
“So find anything you like?” she wondered, since the girl hadn’t made any selection yet.
“Uh… no, not really,” Babs sighed and turned back towards her, she started to slowly walk towards the exit. “I… didn’t bring any money anyway.”
Vanilla felt a bit sorry for the girl, she picked up a candy heart from one of the shelves and offered it to the filly. Babs hesitated before accepting the treat, she stared at the mare quizzically.
“It’s on the house, it’s one of my own creations,” the mare assured her and then walked over to the exit. “Also, let me check if the coast is clear for you.”
“Uh, thanks?” Babs was even more confused. “Why are you helping me?”
Vanilla didn’t respond just yet as she was looking out of the shop. She saw a lot of ponies walking around but none of the kids from earlier. After judging that things should be relatively safe for the filly, she held open the door for her.
“I don’t like bullies,” the mare said with a warm smile.
“H-how did you…?” Babs Seed brow rose even higher.
“Let’s just say I have a good eye for spotting bullies.” Vanilla’s smile turned more solemn. “It was nice meeting you Babs, see you maybe later.”
“Yeah, see ya and thanks again.” The filly smiled a little for real now as she trotted out with her candy heart.
The mare closed the door and returned to the counter. She half expected things to be quiet for the remainder of the day, then the foals that had been chasing after Babs Seed burst into the shop. There were five of them all together.
“No she’s not here,” the leader said, a rather prissy looking earth colt with a silvery coat and sky blue mane and tail.
Vanilla Cream rose up with a frown, half ready to shove them all right back out. Then she had a much more devious idea and grinned wide.
“Hey children, welcome to Sweet Candy World. You’re in such a luck, we just got all kinds of new candy here to try out and on sale too, why don’t you all go find something you like, take your time, there is a lot we have to offer,” she addressed the foals who all looked at her questionably.
“The last one to make a selection gets it free,” Vanilla added laughing on the inside, figuring that would delay them. The kids took the bait and rushed into the store proper but as the mare had predicted they took their time, not wanting to be the first to select.
That should buy Babs some time to get home, the mare chuckled.
It was well into the afternoon when Vanilla Cream found herself waiting for the subway that would take her to Hoofington. Once the kid bully group had gone the rest of the day had been very quiet and the pony was just relieved to be done with it. For once she couldn’t wait to get home.
I hope Tango is still okay. Her thoughts went back to the stallion and she wondered if she should bring him something.
The subway arrived and Vanilla entered, finding herself a quiet corner in the car. It was not over crowded but still plenty of ponies around. Most seemed to be on their way home from work much like her.
The trip was rather uneventful; Vanilla had tried to strike up a conversation with the pony sitting next to her but that one ended up changing her seat. Sometimes the mare wondered if it was possible she was a little too social. She just couldn’t help it.
Not many ponies stepped out at the Hoofington stop. In fact, Vanilla was the only one and she wasn’t too surprised, not many would voluntarily come here unless they already lived there. The station was littered with graffiti and some of the local homeless had already arrived to stay for the coming night.
The homeless ignored Vanilla who felt a little guilty walking past them and essentially ignoring them. She wanted to help but wasn’t sure how. She also knew Barricade employed some of them as spies. The mare walked the steps to reach the streets above. She wasn’t too far away from her apartment from where she came up.
“I should check on Tango first, just to make sure he’s still okay,” she mused quietly to herself as she trotted down the street.
When the mare turned a corner she nearly walked into a figurative brick wall. Figurative in the sense that it wasn’t a real one, it was an image on a dark grey flank. The earth pony quickly backed when realizing she had nearly walked right into Barricade. The unicorn slowly turned his head towards her.
“Hello again, Vanilla Cream,” he greeted her in a soft tone of voice, it was eerie and quiet. The stallion was grinning strangely.
“I have nothing to say to you,” Vanilla snorted and tried to go around but Barricade swiftly stepped in her way.
“Going so soon?” he purred.
“What do you want?” the mare snapped and tried again to go around but the stallion kept being in her way. It was then she noticed the stench of alcohol coming from him. He was drunk, but not enough to be unsteady on his hooves.
Horseapples, just what I needed. Vanilla wondered if she should make a break for it in the other direction and try to go around somewhere.
“I was thinking of a Vanilla Ice Cream,” Barricade laughed and stepped closer. “Because you need to chill, you sexy filly.”
“Don’t you already have somepony? Not that I understand what Barbell can possibly see in you,” the mare snorted and backed a step when the stallion came forward.
“That’s because you all assume I’m some nice brainless ditz Barricade has brainwashed,” a voice spoke up behind her.
Vanilla looked back to see a greyish opal earth mare standing there, her mane and tail were moderate turquoise and white, braided up. Her cutiemark was the rather appropriate barbell. The newly arrived was smirking and reeked just as much of alcohol as the stallion.
“Heya baby,” Barricade greeted her. “Want some Vanilla Ice Cream?”
“I’m not into Vanilla,” Barbell snorted and shoved Vanilla out of her way and went nose to nose with the unicorn. “I want the jerky gray poupon.”
“Gray poupon?... Uh wait is that reference to both my coat and mane?” Barricade actually looked slightly confused.
Vanilla was quick to use the opportunity of the distraction to dart past the drunk couple. She shuddered a bit, not reveling in the memory of Barricade hitting on her. The mare didn’t glance back and just made a beeline for her apartment building.
Ugh, I need brain bleach. She ran inside and sat down for a moment in the hallway. Thank Celestia Barbell was there to take over the attention.
The mare rose up, but then her wild imagination began playing all kinds of scenarios. What if Barricade would follow, would Barbell necessarily be distracting enough? How predictable was the unicorn when drunk? He knew what apartment she lived in. She had interfered with him this morning, considering what he did to Tango for doing the same, what would he do to her?
Suddenly going to her apartment wasn’t an appealing thought at all. Was this what the other ponies scared of Barricade felt like? The insecurity that he knew where they lived and could barge in whenever he liked. The pony was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn’t notice the door to the building opening behind her, bathed in an indigo colored glow.
“Hey sexy filly, why did you run off? We weren’t done talking.” The voice reaching her ears nearly froze her. Vanilla slowly turned around and winched when seeing Barricade standing there, right behind him was Barbell.
“I told you already, I have nothing to say to you,” the vanilla colored mare stated though it sounded rather weak. It was clear to her now that Barricade hadn’t been just randomly standing there while drunk, he and Barbell had in fact been waiting for her.
Barricade approached her, looking more like a cat ready to pounce on its prey. Slowly he started to circle the mare. Due to his size and the tight quarters of the hall it made him come uncomfortably close to her.
“Then don’t talk and let me do the talking,” he said softly.
“Now my dear, Vanilla, I am not upset with you, but terribly disappointed,” Barricade kept talking in this soft gentle voice, it gave the mare creeps, it was like it was trying to worm itself into her head and stay there.
“I wouldn’t want to have to hurt a pretty face like yours.” Barricade eyes narrowed. “But don’t think I won’t.”
“What you did this morning, it’s understandable and I was done with Tango anyway. But I’m going to need a little clarification. Am I going to expect something like this from you again?” The stallion’s face darkened and his voice deepened. “I would, as I said, hate to have to hurt that pretty face.”
“Barbell, you can… you can tell your stupid coltfriend that I won’t let him bully me,” Vanilla managed to force out, she was determined not to be intimidated.
“Barbell was she just asking for her face to be rearranged?” Barricade asked, still maintaining that soft eerie tone in his voice.
“Sounded like that to me,” Barbell snorted and rolled her eyes.
“W-what?” Vanilla’s stance faltered a bit, suddenly magic aura grabbed parts of her mane and she found herself pinned up against the wall. Barricade stood now right in front of her, grinning sadistically and a strange glint in his eyes.
“Oh my naïve little Vanilla Cream,” the unicorn whispered in a mock concerned tone. “Not all bullies back down when you stand your ground. Some just crush you if you are stupid enough to still stand there in their way.”
“I tend to agree, those bullies usually only understand, THIS language!” was snorted and suddenly a pony threw himself at the unicorn, pushing him away. The magic holding Vanilla was released and she crumbled to the ground.
Tango stood now between her and Barricade. He still looked just as banged up and his legs where shaky. But the stallion stubbornly kept himself standing, glaring at the unicorn who still stood and peered at the newly arrived pony.
“This is starting to become a habit with you, Tango.” Barricade frowned. “A habit I would advise you to break.”
“At least if you must… attack somepony who interfered… you can attack me,” Tango snorted and nearly fell down to the ground but managed to steady himself. “All she did was walk in on you beating me up.”
“Alright, I’ll concede to that.” The unicorn nodded and eyed Vanilla who was standing back up, she in turn glared hatefully back at him. “I think she got the message anyway.”
Barricade headed towards the door, nodding to Barbell to go out before him. Before he left, the unicorn looked back at the two earth ponies inside. A smirk crossed his muzzle, Tango was not having it easy standing upright and Vanilla was now supporting him.
“By the way, Tango. I’ll be collecting 600 bits from you now,” Barricade said before disappearing out.
“Oh that… aaarg.” Vanilla glared at the closing door. Then she turned her full attention to Tango. “Come one, I’ll help you back to your apartment.”
“You say I’m brave, yet there you were standing your ground,” the stallion muttered with a small smile as he stumbled into his apartment, leaning on the other pony.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not sure why I thought it would work,” Vanilla sighed and shivered a little, the reality of what had almost happened finally washing over her. “I’ve only met Barricade briefly few times in the past and I quite seriously thought most of those stories about him were just exaggeration.”
“I think my battered body can vouch that… it’s not,” Tango grunted and followed the mare’s lead to the living room. She helped him lie down on the couch.
“I don’t get it… why would Barbell be with that pony. He’s awful,” Vanilla shook her head and sat down close to the couch. The coffee table had been cleared away into a pile in one corner of the living room.
“Y-you know her?” Tango glanced at her curiously.
“Well, I thought I did. We were in school together in Baltimare. We weren’t friends… but she never seemed to be bad, she always was a tough no nonsense pony, but I could never picture her associating with someone like Barricade,” she told him though looking uncertain.
“Ponies change… sometimes for the worse,” Tango whispered and his face became expressionless. “And love… can make you do stupid things.”
“I suppose.” The mare looked at him. “Are you… alright, you haven’t stressed anything too much? Maybe I should have taken you to the bed instead.”
“No… I’m good,” he assured her though his voice sounded a bit distant and his eyes were without emotion or life.
“Are you sure?” she asked, not quite buying it. The stallion didn’t look at all good or sound it.
“Look… if it’s all the same with you… I want to be alone,” Tango muttered and somehow managed to twist enough in the couch so that his back faced the mare.
The living room became silent. Vanilla still sat there but now stared at the back of the injured pony. It was a mystery for her why Tango was refusing help yet he had now two times helped against Barricade. She was aware he was on probation, everyone on the block knew that but she was only vaguely aware of what it was he had been arrested for. The mare had read something about a foalnapping case in Ponyville but that was about it.
“Thanks, anyway, for helping me out there I mean,” Vanilla said and stood up. She waited for a second to see if there was any response but the only movement from the couch was Tango’s steady breathing. Shaking her head the mare left the living room and headed out. She closed the door to the stallion’s apartment and headed up to the second floor to her own.
There was deep awkward silence in the office, the only sound was ticking of a clock on the wall. Tango sat in front of the desk and behind it sat his probation officer, Pardon Peace. Teal colored both in mane and coat, wearing a business suit that concealed her scroll cutie mark. She was cringing a little at the sight of the stallion, wondering how he received his black eye and the various bruises over his body. The former officer had long since shed his bandages.
“Tango… what in Equestria happened to you?” the pegasus finally ventured to ask, utter disbelief in her voice. Tango had so far been her most problem free case, so problem free she was almost tempted to appeal for the probation to be lifted within the year.
There was no response from the stallion. He looked very ashamed, head hung and ears down. It had not been easy for him to come for his scheduled meeting looking like this, knowing there would be questions and he would have to answer them.
“You ran into the gang didn’t you?” the mare asked with a sigh and muttered something under her breath. It sounded like it was directed at those who had approved the apartment.
“I…” Tango slowly glanced up. “Yes… I… did.”
“Of all the places they approve in Manehattan, it had to be Hoofington.” Pardon rubbed her forehead tiredly. “I’m sorry, Tango. I never should have accepted putting you there.”
“It doesn’t… matter,” the stallion muttered.
“Tango, don’t say that, of course it matters,” the pegasus said with a concerned frown. “You got probation because we feel you are worth the effort, that there is low risk that you’ll do any crime again. You shouldn’t be treated…”
“Like unwanted trash that nopony will miss, so might as well just toss him into a high crime neighborhood where there is always an off chance he’ll disappear and be found dead in a ditch few weeks later?” Tango interrupted her and now fully looked at the probation officer. His expression was grim and the eyes looked empty of life.
“No, no, no that’s not it,” Pardon protested but could see the stallion wasn’t buying it.
The mare couldn’t blame him though for feeling this way. It had been a real struggle to find not just an apartment but a neighborhood that would accept having him. She had tried in a nice little suburb in Manehattan, but some of the families residing there balked at the idea that a criminal charged for involvement in foalnapping would be living amongst them. Various apartment landlords also wanted nothing to do with it, some even had their information mixed up and though Tango was the serial killer caught.
Pardon had really dreaded placing Tango in Hoofington. It was just asking for trouble and by the looks of it, her worries had been well justified. The stallion could only avoid ponies for so long before he would eventually run into the local gang and now he had.
“You know Tango; we could have put you in Fillydelphia or even Vanhoover. Why were you so dead set on Manehattan?” she asked and tilted her head when some life actually returned into Tango’s eyes.
“B-Because…” Tango inhaled sharply and closed his eyes before whispering: “She is here.”
“She?” It took a few moments for it to register with the pegasus mare. She arched her brow when realizing of whom he was referring to. “Snow Heart?”
“Oh right, Snow Heart is incarcerated on Long Whinny Island just off the coast of Manehattan,” Pardon mused and rubbed her muzzle for a bit. “Do you wish to visit her?”
Tango blinked when hearing the question. Never in a thousand years did he expect to hear it. He had been absolutely certain that he was forbidden to ever meet Snow Heart again. She had been the leader of the foalnapping plot after all.
“I…I can?” he asked absolutely stunned.
“Ordinarily I would be wary of allowing partners in crime to meet again,” Pardon stated, causing Tango to slump down. “However, I trust you and I don’t think Snow Heart is in any condition to try anything. I am going to look into it and see if I can’t arrange for you to visit her during visiting hours.”
Tango nodded slowly, although this brought him small hope that he could at least see Snow Heart again, he wasn’t going to fool himself it would necessarily happen. Pardon could only do so much and her job wasn’t to cater to him, her job was to ensure he did everything expected of him during his probation.
“As for the gang, Tango, I need you to tell me what happened.” Pardon then brought the subject back to his injuries.
The stallion nodded again and quietly began telling what had happened, both when he first met them when helping Derpy and Time Turner and when Barricade had attacked him in his apartment. Pardon listened without a comment, she knew Tango was very truthful and tended to be detailed in his accounts.
Pardon wasn’t though familiar with Barricade and his gang, only was aware that there was one. What she mostly knew was that Hoofington seemed to be a forgotten dirty part of Manehattan that the city just wanted to forget about. It was a breeding ground for all kinds of criminal elements and it had only been a question of time when a strong enough pony would appear to take control.
“This Vanilla Cream, she lives in the same building?” she asked once Tango had finished telling about his attack. She noted the name down when he responded positively to the question.
“I wouldn’t bother… I know how it will just go… Barricade will produce dozens of witnesses that he was at his gym,” Tango muttered.
“Tango, you were physically assaulted, of course I’m going to have it investigated,” Pardon said sharply leaving no room for argument.
Bet Barricade is going to just love that, the stallion thought but remained quiet.
“This Vanilla, is she a friend?” The pegasus softened her tone as she decided to shift the subject a little.
“Well… I suppose.” Tango’s brow sunk a bit as he considered it. “She is on speaking term with most of the building… I think. She has a habit of seeing how everypony is doing. She is very friendly and social.”
“You don’t say.” Pardon noticed that Tango didn’t speak in as broken voice when talking about Vanilla. “Do you like her?”
“W-what?” Tango exclaimed, he was not certain how to read that question.
“As a friend I mean. Do you want to consider her as a friend?” Pardon smiled a little when seeing the mildly flustered look on him.
“I guess.” Tango wasn’t actually so sure himself, he didn’t mind Vanilla and when he thought about it, it was nice that someone in the building didn’t care he had committed a crime and was on probation.
“Good, I recommend you continue with that friendship. It’s healthy for you and it’s good to see that you are socializing even if it just one pony,” the mare told him.
Tango wasn’t so sure he agreed, he was actually starting to wonder if it was healthy for Vanilla to associate with him. Barricade was already breathing down his neck about the money he claimed Tango owed him, the former officer was pretty sure there would be more visits by the unicorn to extract that money. Vanilla had barely escaped the thug’s wrath few days ago and only because Tango had summoned enough strength and willpower to go out the door and push him away.
Pardon now continued to ask more mundane questions about his life that the stallion really just answered with nods or shaking of his head. He had no problem at work, though he had been questioned about his injuries. Otherwise, aside from his run in with the gang, Tango’s life was still mostly problem free and quiet.
Soon enough the session was over and Tango was free to head back home. Pardon still promised that she would have the attack investigated. The stallion made no comment on that and was soon on the busy Manehattan streets walking away from the probation office.
One subway trip later he was back in Hoofington. It didn’t look so bad during the daytime at the moment, ponies were actually out and about though some looked ragged and tired. No one paid much heed to Tango and he didn’t bother them either. The stallion had not arrived close to his home street as he was going to buy some supplies. The pony soon found the store he was looking for and entered.
Once his saddle bag was filled with groceries, the stallion paid for them and headed for the exit. As he was stepping out the pony was nearly hit by a pegasus filly that whizzed quickly by. Tango just barely managed to stop himself in the doorway of the grocery store. The filly was already gone from sight, having taken a sharp turn to another street.
“Hey mistah!” Babs Seed came running from the direction the other filly had come from. She was nearly out of breath and stopped in front of Tango. “Did you see a dark grayish brown pegasus filly go by?”
“Yes, she turned down the street here,” the stallion responded and pointed to where the other foal had gone. He raised an eyebrow when Babs snorted in frustration.
“That jerk, first she calls me a Hooflyn snob and then she steals my ball,” the filly grunted and prepared to continue the chase. Tango stopped her by putting one front leg in her way.
“Wait, you’re from Hooflyn?” he whispered startled. “What are you doing all the way in Hoofington?”
Babs Seed quickly glanced at the stallion wide eyed, then she looked around and first now noticed that things looked a little more run down. The streets were not as clean and some of the building definitely could use some repair. The filly hadn’t even noticed the change; she had been so intent on chasing that thief. She had been so incensed at both being called a snob and having her ball stolen. This was somehow different than the blank flank teasing she received from school, this was something she felt she could deal with by chasing down the other filly.
“Look, it’s not a good idea for you to be here. The subway is not far away from here, I’ll buy you a ticket back to Hooflyn,” Tango offered.
“No way, dat filly stole my ball, am gonna get it back!” Babs declared firmly and took off.
She is not your problem, she is not your problem, she is not… oh to Tartarus with it. Tango groaned and hurried after her.
Tango hurried around the corner and stopped short when seeing where Babs was headed. The filly had spotted the other girl just outside a gym, playing with her ball. She had called out and rushed for her, the grayish brown pegasus in turn quickly darted inside. The stallion gave even a longer groan; the gym’s name was The Barricade.
“Kid wait!” Tango just barely managed to reach Babs and stop her from going into the gym. “You do not want to go in there.”
“Why not? That jerk that stole my ball is there,” the filly protested and pointed indignantly at the building.
“That gym is run by very bad ponies, very bad ponies go in there,” the stallion explained between his teeth. He didn’t know why but for some reason he felt like he was arguing with Apple Bloom back in Ponyville.
Though Tango knew that regular ponies also went to the gym, ponies who were not associated at all with Barricade and his gang, that still didn’t make him think it was safe for the filly to go in there.
“But I gotta have my ball back, please mistah, can you help me?” Babs asked pleadingly.
“Can’t your parents just buy you a new one?” Tango wondered, the filly shook her head. The stallion wasn’t so sure he believed her and had a feeling this was a matter of principle rather than anything else for the girl.
She is going to go in, whether I help or not, he thought and looked at the gym. Through the large windows Tango saw ponies inside, exercising, he even recognized few of them. Ponies that he very much rather avoid.
Sighing the stallion hung his head and headed inside with Babs following right behind him. Barbell was at the counter and she arched her brow when seeing Tango enter. Several of the gym goers also stopped their exercise though most were just staring in surprise at who had entered.
“You have some nerve to come here,” Barbell retorted and didn’t appear overly impressed.
“Believe me, nerves had nothing to do with it.” Tango raised his head fully up and grit his teeth. “This young filly over here is chasing somepony that stole her ball.”
“And called me a Hooflyn snob!” Babs snapped causing Tango to palm his face with one hoof.
“The other filly went in here, dark grayish brown coat, I think her mane was dark grayish sapphire blue with grayish blue highlights. Couldn’t see a cutie mark,” the stallion grunted, hoping it wouldn’t come bite them in the rump that Babs had identified that she came from the richer districts of Manehattan.
“Sounds like Cara.” Barbell shook her head and rose up from the counter. “She went into the boss’s office, follow me.”
Oh wonderful. Tango didn’t look forward to meet the boss at all, considering he knew who it was. Reluctantly he followed the mare, with Babs strutting behind, towards a door further inside the gym.
“Boss, looks like Cara’s been causing trouble again,” Barbell said as she knocked on the door. There came an indignant snort from behind it, belonging to a little filly by the sound of it. The mare opened the door and looked inside, then she pulled back and opened the entrance fully and gestured Tango and Babs to go in.
Tango braced himself as he entered the office. Barricade sat behind a desk and for a second the pegasus filly stood on top of it, but the moment the stallion and Babs entered, she immediately ducked behind it and out of sight. The unicorn watched the newcomers with mild bemusement.
“I’ll just go straight to it, that girl here wants her ball back that was stolen by the one who ducked behind your desk,” Tango grunted, pointing first at Babs and then the desk.
Barricade smirked, then his horn began to glow and suddenly Cara the little pegasus filly was lifted off the floor via levitating magic aura. The girl looked quite indignant and folded her thin front legs, glaring at the unicorn.
“Cara, did you steal her ball?” Barricade asked and just smirked wider when Cara scrunched up her face.
“Who cares, she is a Hooflyn snob,” the filly retorted.
“I’m not a snob,” Babs snapped glaring at the pegasus.
“Hooflyn? Cara, what were you doing all the way up in Hooflyn?” unicorn dropped the smirk and sounded genuinely surprised and confused. He released the filly from the magic aura but she continued to hover in the air under her own wing power.
“I wasn’t going to Hooflyn, just ended up there.” Cara shrugged, she stuck her tongue out at Babs who returned the gesture the same way.
“Right, we will talk about that later.” Barricade shook his head and now looked at Babs. His horn began glowing again and a red and blue ball was lifted up from behind the desk. “I take it this is your ball.”
“Yes.” Babs nodded, she raised one leg to grab it when the toy was floated over to her.
“Now, Cara,” the unicorn looked at the pegasus. “Say you’re sorry.”
“What? But daaaaad?” Cara protested. Tango raised an eyebrow when hearing that, it hadn’t actually clicked with him that this was Barricade’s daughter.
“Cara!” Barricade scowled and deepened his voice. “You apologize for stealing that toy, now!”
Cara cringed slightly when her father’s voice deepened, but she didn’t flinch away or show any behavior that she feared being struck. Tango also found it rather strange that Barricade was actually demanding she apologized for stealing. He just couldn’t picture it that the unicorn was raising the child to be a model citizen.
“Sorry I stole your ball,” the filly grumbled and glared away from everyone in the room.
“And calling her a snob.” Her father was clearly not done.
“Daaad!” Cara turned back to him but sighed and hung her head when all the answer she received was another scowl. “Sorry I called you a snob.”
“Thanks.” Babs was satisfied to hear this. Seemed Cara was being taken to task. The earth filly also felt more generous to accept the apology since the pegasus hadn’t really actively teased her.
Alright, we got the ball, can we go now? Tango glanced at the doorway, Barbell still stood there, clearly ready to escort them out when they were done.
“I think we are done here,” he said. Barricade just shrugged and smirked at him.
Tango ushered Babs out of the office, the filly looked much happier now. Barbell followed them until the two were all the way out of the gym and back on the sidewalk outside. The stallion felt extremely relieved to be out of there.
“Thanks mistha, I dunno why they say Hoofingon is a bad place, you’re the second pony from here who is nice to me,” Babs said and bounced her ball as she and Tango began walking away from the gym.
“Second? Who was the first?” Tango asked, he made sure they were headed towards an entrance to a subway station. The stallion was determined to get that kid back home.
“Uh… Vanilla somethin’, works in a candy store in Hooflyn,” the filly told him while balancing the ball on her nose.
“Vanilla Cream?” the stallion frowned, though he couldn’t be surprised Babs had met her since she worked there.
“Yeah, you know her?” Babs asked.
“She lives in the same building as me.” Tango walked down the steps that lead to the subway. He would have liked to escort her all the way to Hooflyn, but he was actually forbidden to go there. So the stallion could only buy Babs a ticket and see her off to the correct subway.
“Is she your special somepony?” the filly wondered as she accepted the subway ticket from him.
“No… no not at all, we’re just friends,” Tango quickly assured her. Babs didn’t seem to care much though anyway and didn’t go further into the subject.
The stallion felt even more relief when watching Babs go onboard a subway car and when it finally took off. He felt had averted a crisis, there was no telling what some ponies around here might do if a filly from a rich family was found wandering around here. Tango left the subway station and finally headed home.
“And well… then I just sent her off back to Hooflyn.” Tango finished and shrugged lightly.
The stallion was for once the one giving some news to Vanilla when she had once again knocked on his door. He hadn’t really planned on telling about his encounter with this young filly, but the mare had asked if there was anything new and he saw no reason not to tell the story.
“That does sound like Babs Seed, she’s been visiting Sweet Candy World now where I work for the past several days, ever since I helped her escape some bullies,” the mare chuckled.
“I hope she sticks to that in the future,” Tango muttered and shook his head.
“Yeah, I’m sorry you had to go to The Barricade, speaking of, the owner hasn’t been giving you any more trouble has he?” the mare asked and winched when the other pony grunted and muttered something inaudible.
“He’s… collected the first payment from me…” he looked down.
“Oh I’m so sorry, are you out of money then?” Vanilla asked and felt even more sorry for the stallion when he nodded.
“I had just enough to buy some supplies, they should be enough until I get my next payment,” Tango said though he wasn’t sure, it would probably be very tight.
Vanilla bit her lips as she thought it over, she glanced at the stairs leading up before looking back at the stallion. The mare wasn’t exactly swimming in riches but she probably was better set than he was right now.
“I need to go to the store myself, if you need anything more, I can buy it for you,” she offered.
“W-what?” Tango blinked, taken a little by surprised at the officer. “I wouldn’t… I don’t even know if I can pay you back.”
“You don’t have to.” Vanilla shook her head and smiled warmly. “It would be my pleasure.”
Why is she being so nice and generous? Tango frowned a bit but then relented. He had been forced to refrain from buying few things because he couldn’t afford it. “I guess I should write you a list then.”
“Oooh wait, I have better idea,” the mare said happily. “Why don’t you accompany me to the store, then you can pick out things you need and maybe find something more you didn’t think of putting on your list.”
“Uh…sure…” Tango wasn’t sure how to take this, Vanilla was confusing him greatly.
“Let me just go get my saddlebag.” The mare quickly darted for the stairs and head up.
Tango shrugged and returned back into his own apartment to get his own saddlebag. Once he had returned out to the hall, Vanilla came galloping back down. She stopped almost right beside him and looked up at the stallion with a perky smile.
“All ready to go?” she asked though it was rather obvious that he was.
The two ponies headed outside, the afternoon was already getting late but there was still enough sun shining down into the city. There were less ponies now around now that the evening was fast approaching. While they walked Vanilla brought up Babs Seed again.
“Did you know she’s the niece of Mosely Orange?” she asked Tango who arched his brow, now where had he heard that name before?
“I’m sometimes a little dazed that the relatives of one of Manehattan’s biggest are visiting the store I work in,” the mare giggled a bit.
“Relatives?” Tango couldn’t help but notice the plural.
“Oh yeah, her big sister came also the other day. Sunflower I think her name was, nice mare, though she seemed to be accompanying Babs that day more out of obligation, she didn’t buy anything, barely talked,” Vanilla explained.
“No wonder she reminded me of Apple Bloom,” the stallion suddenly said out of the blue. While she had been talking, he had been mulling over Babs Seed relation to Orange.
“Who?” the mare looked at Tango questionably.
“Ah, a filly I knew back where I come from, part of a big, big clan of earth ponies, the Apples. I just remembered that the Oranges are related to the Apples,” he told her and rolled his eyes. “Guess stubbornness runs in both families.”
“Oh wow that is interesting,” Vanilla giggled.
Tango ended up chuckling as well. His mind now thinking of all the times he and Mulberry had chased the Cutie Mark Crusaders after yet another crazy stunt they had performed in their quest for cutie marks. This made him miss Ponyville even more and then the guilt over what he did came over him again. He managed though not to show it outwardly as he listened to Vanilla chat, she had begun a story about a customer she met at her work.
They arrived at the store and took their time to find everything they needed. Tango felt another pang of guilt when watching Vanilla pay for everything. He still couldn’t understand why she was being so nice to him.
“My probation officer is going to arrange for me to meet a… friend of mine,” Tango was now talking as they were heading back home. The mare had asked him about his probation, the stallion was reluctant to tell too much but relented to briefly tell what Pardon Peace was doing for him.
“Oh that sounds nice, been a while I take it?” Vanilla nodded when Tango responded positively to her question. “It is always nice to meet old friends again.”
Yeah… yeah it is, Tango sighed inwardly, outwardly he just inclined his head in agreement. Deep down the stallion was very nervous and uncertain. Last time he saw Snow Heart she had looked so distant, so unresponsive.
“Well, well look who we have here guys,” a voice spoke up near them.
Oooh no. Tango silently groaned and looked to the side, crossing the street was Barricade. With him were Blue and an ash gray pegasus, with a double tornado cutiemark, Tornado was his name.
“Just ignore him,” Vanilla whispered and continued to walk, Tango followed but had a feeling they weren’t escaping so easily. Tornado landing right in front of them, blocking their way confirmed his fear.
“Going so soon? I was hoping to have a little chat this fine afternoon,” Barricade chuckled and approached the two earth ponies. Blue hung back a little, it was obvious he and the pegasus were meant to prevent them from going anywhere until their boss was done with them.
“We have nothing to say to you,” the mare grunted, glaring at the unicorn.
“You keep saying that.” Barricade smiled mockingly as he stepped up in front of them. He looked at Tango and his full saddle bag of groceries. “Didn’t we clean you out pretty much the other day? I recall you having little left in that purse of yours.”
“You did,” Tango narrowed his eyes on the unicorn.
“If you must know, not that it is any of your business. I bought these groceries for him, since you are robbing him of what little money he gets because of your perceived slights,” Vanilla snapped, Barricade immediately turned his attention to her.
“Aw, you’re so nice and compassionate, Vanilla,” the unicorn chuckled, his voice softening considerably as he regarded the mare. “Or are you hoping to impress him? Get into his good graces, hoping to score maybe?”
“W-what?” Vanilla was incensed and sorely tempted to slap Barricade for even suggesting this. She restrained herself though but just barely. Tango’s eyes narrowed even further, his eyes were just slits as he glared at the Unciorn.
“She is quite a catch; isn’t she, Tango?” Barricade looked at the stallion with a devilish grin. “Sexy haunches, lush mane, soft lines, creamy looking coat.”
“E-excuse me!?” Vanilla’s face flushed with more anger.
“Is that… all what mares are too you? Objects to gawk at and embarrass with sexist remarks,” Tango snorted, that only caused the unicorn to laugh.
“Oh don’t tell me you haven’t taken a peek yourself, it’s hard not to,” Barricade’s grin changed into a smirk and he ran his eyes over Vanilla again.
“I would never,” the stallion snarled but there wasn’t a strong conviction in it. He saw that Vanilla was getting really uncomfortable with the attention the unicorn was giving her. Tango thus stepped in front of her, blocking the mare mostly from Barricade’s view.
“Spoil my fun why don’t you,” Barricade chuckled and stepped back a bit, Tango had come closer to him in order to shield Vanilla from view.
“Just leave us alone already, you’ve had your sick fun,” Tango snapped.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” the unicorn chuckled and started to walk away, he rather intentionally walked so that he would have full view of Vanilla again, but Tango noticed and quickly placed himself again in the way.
Barricade just laughed and gestured to Blue and Tornado to follow him. The three stallions then disappeared down the street. Once they were gone Vanilla shuddered and suddenly grabbed Tango in a tight hug.
“Sorry… I just… ugh… I need brain bleach and I think I need to take several showers, I feel dirty all over after how he looked at me and talked about me,” the mare whispered. Tango gingerly patted her on the back, taken a little aback at being hugged so suddenly.
“Don’t uh… don’t worry about it, those were just words, meant to rile us up,” Tango said trying to sound reassuring. The truth is, he felt a little uncomfortable being hugged by the mare after Barricade’s words. Deep, deep, deep back in his mind a tiny voice was telling him that the unicorn did have a point, Vanilla was good looking mare. It was not a voice the stallion wanted to pay too much attention to.
“Oh I know.” Vanilla released him and started to glance around nervously. “I was just caught off guard.”
“You and me both,” the stallion muttered.
They resumed their walk home but were more silent now. Vanilla was just feeling all kinds of icky right now It had been bad enough that Barricade had nearly smeared her face across the hall few days ago, having him stare and talk about her like she was some choice fruit in the market unsettled her even more.
Tango was feeling guilty, for many reasons. Right now, the worst one was that Barricade seemed to be in the process of grabbing a hold in his mind. The unicorn made him uncomfortable, he dreaded meeting him at any point and the former officer couldn’t sometimes help but feel that no matter what he did to resist, it was ultimately futile.
Barricade appeared to have this uncanny ability to spot weaknesses and exploit them. He had effectively silenced Vanilla with just few choice words and a leering look. Most mares would probably just have slapped the unicorn for this and given him a piece of their mind, but this kind of attention clearly made Vanilla so very uncomfortable she just couldn’t do anything.
The unicorn also seemed to see Tango’s doubt and guilt or he was just really good at guessing. The stallion wasn’t sure, but it felt like Barricade knew Tango was confused and uncertain about Vanilla.
“You think he would have harmed us if I had slapped him?” Vanilla wondered, they were approaching their apartment building.
“I’m not sure he would have given you a chance to,” Tango muttered, Barricade’s words still haunted his mind, he tried not to look at the mare too much and painstakingly made sure to look her in the face if he did.
“Yeah… you’re right,” she sighed. “Can I tell you a little secret?”
“Um sure?” The stallion wondered what was up, Vanilla looked more miserable.
“W-when I first moved here… I was almost, well… I was almost assaulted,” the mare whispered. “I was out late, had gone to a party with a friend and lost my way when I was going home. A drunk stallion managed to corner me.”
“He never got a chance to touch me though, the next thing I knew a magic blast threw him away from me and there was Barricade.” Vanilla was not surprised to see the confusion in Tango’s eyes. “Yes I know, Barricade saved me from assault. It still difficult for me to digest today as well.”
“Ever since then… I’ve always got the gut feeling that he only did it so I owed him. He never specifically asked for anything in return, he just introduced himself and then escorted me home without further ado. But after that, I sometimes seriously think he feels entitled… to me.” The mare shuddered. “I’ve never told anypony about this and I think he knows I never told anypony.”
“But, doesn’t he live with this Barbell?” Tango asked, then again he could believe Barricade not to be very monogamous.
“Ugh, I know and I’m not sure she cares, for all I know they are herd supporters.” Vanilla shrugged, feeling a bit better now that this was out.
“Herd supporters?” the stallion had never heard of that term before. Sure in ancient times it wasn’t uncommon for ponies to form herds, but that custom had died out ages ago.
“Oh, you don’t know that is? it’s a new age polygyny movement that wants to revive the old herd marriage customs.” Vanilla shrugged.
“Revive it? It’s maybe an outdated and ancient custom and would probably be considered eccentric if done today, but it’s not illegal,” Tango said, he personally didn’t see the appeal to it but he couldn’t understand why there needed to be a movement for it.
“Eh, maybe they feel the idea isn’t well represented enough,” the mare guessed. The two ponies entered the building and stopped in front of Tango’s apartment.
“Seriously though, I have no idea what’s up with Barbell, like I told you before, I just can’t see what she sees in him.” Vanilla shook her head.
Tango just nodded, he had not seen much of that Barbell so he couldn’t tell. What little he had seen, the mare was a loyal supporter of Barricade and that was enough for him.
“Thanks for… uh the groceries,” he said and started to open his apartment.
“You’re welcome, don’t worry about paying it back, see you later,” Vanilla said then quickly give the stallion a peck on the cheek.
Tango froze and just stared after the mare as she skipped up the steps to the second floor. Slowly the stallion raised a hoof and touched his cheek. Barricade’s words came rushing back at him.
This was just an affectionate gesture of a friend, a friend, nothing else, he thought several times as he stumbled into his apartment. Don’t look too much into it.
‘She is quite a catch; isn’t she?’ Tango growled while making his way to the kitchen, the unicorn just wouldn’t leave his mind, his words still taunting him.
‘Sexy haunches.’ The stallion tried to block the voice out as he began putting away the groceries, but no avail.
‘Lush mane.’ He tried to drown this out by muttering: “She’s just a friend, she’s just a friend.”
‘Soft lines.’ Tango took a deep breath, throwing the now empty saddlebag to a chair. ‘Creamy looking coat.’
Shut up… just shut up. He sat down by the kitchen table, put his head on top of it and then covered his head with his front legs.
Snow Heart. Snow Heart, it’s Snow Heart I love. Tango started to chant in his head.
“But… does she love me?” The stallion suddenly wondered aloud and cringed when he realized that he wasn’t even sure which mare he was referring to.
Tango was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming; it just couldn’t be anything else. Everything looked so off and unreal, shrouded partly in mist. He saw Ponyville and its thatch roof cottages in the distance, the stallion was on a hill overlooking the town but saw no sign of life.
He started walking towards it but the hill never ended, no matter how much the pony walked he was always in the same distance away. The stallion sighed, the longing to go there was deep. Tango wanted to go the café and order his favorite lunch. He wanted to chat with the mayor and wonder how quiet things where. He wanted to go to the inn with Mulberry and have a drink before heading home.
I want to go back, he thought and felt a tear in his eye.
A sound from behind distracted him. He glanced back, out of the mist arrived a black cloaked pony, just as thin as him but a little bit smaller. She threw down her hood to reveal her white face and broken unicorn horn, the mane was split into a white and dark gray color, the tail was long and similarly split in color. Although it couldn’t be seen Tango knew that on her flank was an image of a snowflake.
“You can’t go back,” the mare said, looking grim and her golden eyes were emotionless.
“I know.” Tango hung his head. The mare approached him and the stallion eyed her. "Snow Heart… I”
“Shhh, it’s alright,” the mare whispered and reached up to nuzzle the stallion’s cheek. “I’m here now.”
Tango closed his eyes, enjoying the affection he was receiving. He was about to return the favor when once more a sound caught his attention. The stallion faced forward again and blinked. Ponyville was gone, there was just empty space. Vanilla colored empty space and within that space multicolored candy hearts began raining down. There were so many that soon there were piles of them in the formerly empty space.
Then slowly out from one pile rose Vanilla Cream, candy hearts streaming down from her body. Her soft lush yellowish mane glistered in the light. She lay down on top of the candy, looked towards him and giggled. Tango just stared, mouth agape.
“Are you replacing me?” An angry voice shook him from his stupor. He looked at Snow Heart who still stood right next to him.
“What? No… never…” Tango cringed, he glanced back towards Vanilla. She just continued to lay there, smiling warmly, twinkles in her eyes.
“I… I…” Tango kept looking back and forth, his breathing becoming heavier and his expression more panicked. He didn’t know what to do, Snow Heart was looking more and more furious and Vanilla kept looking more and more welcoming.
“AAAAAH!” Tango finally woke up with a panicked scream. He sat up in the bed panting heavily and the sweat poured down his head.
It took a minute for the pony to calm down. He had never dreamt anything like this before, usually he didn’t even remember his dreams and sometimes wasn’t sure he dreamt at all. This had seriously ruffled him as it seemed like his subconscious was trying to tell him something or perhaps Barricade’s words were still haunting his mind.
He couldn’t say he liked this feeling, he never liked thinking of mares in sexual terms. His attraction to Snow Heart had always been her strong personality, how well she carried a conversation and yet despite her temper could be so gentle and caring if the mare wanted to be.
I… I love her, Tango thought as he slowly crawled out of bed.
Which one? An uncertain voice popped up in his head.
Snow Heart of course, who else? Tango rubbed his forehead with one hoof.
Are you sure? the uncertain voice spoke up again.
Ye…no…no I’m not. The stallion relented and cringed a bit. His visit with Snow Heart was today. Pardon Peace had managed to arrange it. According to her, the judge hadn’t seen any problem with it as long as both were carefully monitored. Tango didn’t care, now that he apparently could, he wanted to see Snow Heart, he felt he needed to. But what if he slipped, what if mentioned Vanilla or something like that?
No… no no that’s not love, Tango growled to himself and went to the bathroom. This is lust. I love Snow Heart.
The pony entered the shower which always seemed to him to have been made with small pegasi in mind when it was built. Right now though he didn’t care, he needed a shower and made it a cold one.
Once the hygienic portions of the morning where done he went to the kitchen. He wasn’t feeling terribly hungry so he just grabbed a bottle of root beer and took it with him to the living room. There was a new coffee table in there now and it was already well on its way to be covered with mail, magazines and newspapers.
Tango sat down on the couch and was still trying not to think about the dream that still lingered back in his mind, nagging at him. The stallion grabbed a magazine he still hadn’t opened yet and started to read it. But every photograph of a mare started somehow to morph into either Snow Heart or Vanilla.
“Arg, what in Tartarus is wrong with me!” Tango threw the magazine away, he put the root beer bottle on the coffee table and covered his face with his hooves.
“On top of being criminal trash, am I’m turning into a sleaze like Barricade who judges mares on the size of their rump?” the stallion snarled. “Why is this happening? Why!?”
He would have lamented more but a knock on the apartment door interrupted him. Tango groaned and did his best to compose himself before rising up from the couch. With a dejected sigh he trotted to answer. When he opened the entrance his eyes became wide as saucers and the stallion almost reeled back.
Vanilla Cream was standing there wearing a sparkly silvery gown that streamlined the features of her body. Silver and gold ribbons had been interwoven into her mane and tail and the hair was partly braided.
“Hi Tango, look what the girls next door did to me,” Vanilla giggled and did an elegant pose. “They needed somepony to practice on and I was abducted when I went to see how they were doing this morning.”
“Ha….ha…haai…” Tango couldn’t speak, he could just stare.
“Oh I can’t wait to see the face on Mrs. Fin when I go show her this,” the mare laughed and then regarded the frozen stallion. “Oh, your eye is looking much better now. Well I gotta run, want to freak out Mrs. Fin before I take this off.”
Tango slowly backed into the apartment and closed the door when Vanilla was gone out of his line of sight. Without missing a beat, he slowly turned to his left and went straight back to the bathroom to take another very cold shower.
Long Whinny Island was a small island off the coast of Manehattan only reachable by boat. pegasi were not allowed to fly over it or land on it, if a pegasus wanted to visit, he or she had to come by a boat. Dominating the landscape was the Manehattan Mare Correctional Facility, intended for the incarceration of adult mares who had committed various crimes. It had strong magical security and there were always winged pegasi guards on patrol in the skies above it.
This was still not the highest security prison in Equestria despite its location. Majority of the inmates were first time offenders and it was sometimes nicknamed Redemption Central, due to the high rate of previous guests of the facility turning their life completely around after serving their time.
Tango sat now in the visitation room of the facility, waiting for Snow Heart. The stallion had been strictly instructed that he could not bring her anything, but he didn’t mind. For the first time since his arrest, he actually felt a little giddy. His heart skipped a beat when the heavy security doors opened and two guards came walking through with Snow Heart following slowly behind them.
The mare looked thinner and despite her horn being broken, she had a magical shackle on it that prevented the use of magic. She wore just an orange jumpsuit with a long number written on it. The unicorn showed no expression as she was escorted towards where Tango sat. She was instructed to sit and she did so without a word, her gaze was always on the floor.
“H-hi,” Tango greeted her with a small smile, he gingerly touched the magical force field that separated them.
“Do not touch the force field sir,” the nearby guard sharply reminded him.
“Sorry… sorry.” The stallion cringed and pulled his hoof away, it was maybe not a high security prison, but it was still a prison.
Tango turned his attention back to Snow Heart. She just continued to stare at the floor, no emotions where in her eyes and her mouth was just in a thin straight line. The stallion thought she looked stunningly beautiful.
“So… uh, how are you doing?” he asked but received no response.
“I… well… I’m on probation as you know, I’m here in Manehattan.” Tango chuckled weakly, refraining from telling where in the city he was.
Tango’s already weak smile faltered as he regarded the unicorn in front of him. He wasn’t really sure what he could do or say that might cheer her up. The stallion wasn’t even sure if the mare returned his feelings, she had certainly played with them in the past to her favor but he never really knew how she really felt about him.
“I’m sure you’ll get parole eventually, my probation officer says you are a very trouble free inmate,” he said, still no reaction.
“Snow Heart?” He shuffled as close to the forcefield he possibly could without toughing it. “Snow Heart, look at me.”
“Snow Heart, please… look at me.” Tango felt a lump in his throat and tears threatened to sprout forth. “Please say something… do something, anything.”
“Snow Heart it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know he was a serial killer, you didn’t know,” the stallion cried and was so tempted to touch the force field again, but barely managed to refrain from it.
“Didn’t… know…” a whisper came from the mare. Tango held his breath, wondering if he had finally gotten through.
“Didn’t… Didn’t know?” Slowly Snow Heart raised her head, her jaw clenched and a flash of anger passed her eyes.
“I was… with that lunatic… for a week… I… I hired him… to abduct exactly the kind of target… he was slaughtering…” Snow Heart’s voice was strained. “And… and I’m just supposed to feel better… because I didn’t know?”
“I hired a foal serial killer to foalnap a foal! And I’m justified because I DIDN’T KNOW?” The mare’s eyes were twitching and her front hooves were beginning to dig into the floor. Tango cringed and didn’t dare to say another word.
Snow Heart rose up with flames in her eyes, she began stomping on the ground and cracking the floor. All the time she kept screaming: “I AM A MONSTER!!”
The guards arrived and grabbed the furious mare. She didn’t really struggle, but kept screaming. It didn’t stop until she was dragged out of the room and the doors shut close after her and the guards. Then everything just went eerily silent.
Tango felt empty. Once the permission for the visit had been granted, the stallion’s hopes had skyrocketed. But now they had plummeted right back to where they had been from the beginning. The stallion dried the tears from his face and sniffled. Slowly the pony rose up and still with a lump in his throat, he left the visitation room.
Vanilla knocked on Tango’s door. She had just arrived home from work and was a bit curious how the stallion was doing. The mare knew he was going to visit his friend today and she couldn’t help but want to know how that had gone, that is if he was willing to tell about it.
It took a bit before the door opened a crack, the mare smiled innocently and desperately hoped she hadn’t been waking him from a nap. The smile faltered a little when seeing Tango peek out, his eyes were bloodshot and bleary and there was a definite smell of alcohol coming from him.
“Ah, hi Tango, am I disturbing you?” she asked unsure, the stallion didn’t look very happy.
“That’s never stopped you before, now has it,” Tango grunted and opened the door fully. In one hoof was a bottle of cider, a particularly hard brand.
Vanilla hesitated, not sure how to take that. The stallion was glaring at her, almost with contempt. The mare wondered if the visit had gone bad. Sure sometimes when she had knocked, Tango was holding alcoholic cider but not a particularly strong one. He had actually been a bit more talkative and friendly when lightly buzzed. This was different, very different.
“I just wanted to see how you were doing, you were looking so forward to meet that friend of yours and I was just curious how it went,” she said though with hesitation, things could escalate quickly if she didn’t word herself carefully.
“It went swimmingly, can’t you tell!” Tango snapped, the edges of his mouth twitching.
“I…” Vanilla figured this was really a bad time, best to retreat and allow the stallion to sober up. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite done.
“Why do you care anyway? Or is my life just on the gossip line all over town, that’s why you keep bothering me isn’t it? Everypony wants to hear about the criminal from Ponyville, the guy involved in that foalnapping case. The one where the serial killer was discovered!” The stallion snarled and his eyes shoot daggers at the bewildered mare.
“Or do you think you can score some further point by enticing him? That’s why you came here this morning, dressed like a whore wasn’t it?” Tango sneered and took one unsteady step forward out of the entrance.
“W-what? No.” Vanilla blinked and felt a sting in her heart when hearing these awful accusations. She shrieked and ducked when the cider bottle came flying at her, it smashed on the wall behind her and what was left of the drink spilled all over.
The mare shivered in fright and crouched by the base of the stairs leading up to the second floor. Tango was still in the doorway after throwing the bottle, but the stallion was clearly in a drunken rage. He was staring at her as if ready to continue attacking.
“I don’t want to hear it, you filthy SKANK!” Tango yelled, shaking now in intoxicated anger. He ignored that other doors in the hallway were opening and bewildered ponies were peeking out.
“What are you trying to prove anyway! You are not HER! You will NEVER be HER! I don’t need you to distract me away from HER!” The stallion roared so loud that even ponies outside that were passing the building halted their walk to glance at it.
“So why don’t you just leave me alone and shove your rump into Barricade or something! He seems interested enough in it!” With those words Tango disappeared into his apartment and slammed the door shut.
Vanilla still didn’t dare stand up. She felt numb, frightened, hurt and didn’t really know what to do. Never in her wildest imagination had she expected this to happen. The mare felt tears form and didn’t really do much to try and stop them running down her cheeks. She just kept staring at Tango’s apartment door.
Ponies started to come out, some eyeing Tango’s apartment warily while others approached Vanilla. She ignored them, buried her face in her front legs and started crying in earnest. The mare wanted to run up and disappear into her apartment but just felt too numb to do so.
“Alright, make way, this is no time or place to be gawking, somepony get a mop and clean this mess up, don’t think he’ll be doing it.” A heavily girthed blue earth mare pushed through the forming crowd around Vanilla, her mane was brown and she was wearing an apron. Her cutiemark was a plate with salad on it. She was generally known as Mrs. Fin amongst the ponies in the neighborhood.
“Come along now, Vanilla dear, you’ll just get yourself a cold lying here.” The blue mare began talking softly and gently with the distraught pony.
It took a little bit, but finally Mrs. Fin managed to coax Vanilla to stand up, she then led her up the stairs to the second floor. The crowd was already dispersing and one pony did arrive with a mop to clean up the broken glass and spilled cider. No one saw Tango for the rest of the day and none dared approaching his apartment.
Vanilla smiled politely as she accepted the payment for the purchase from the customer. She had already gathered everything into a paper bag and then gave it to the pony who thanked her before leaving the shop. The morning had been busy, many ponies had come in to buy sweets, but as it neared lunch time things were quieting down.
With a sigh the mare sat down, forgetting for a moment that she wasn’t quite alone. Two old eyes peered at her from the other side of the counter, they belonged to an older pony, the owner of the shop, Toffee Swirl. Her once powder blue coat was getting a bit darker and her silver mane had few last strands of the original caramel brown color in it.
“You did not talk that customer’s ears off, Vanilla,” the elder mare remarked, there was a hint of surprise in her gravelly voice. “As a matter of fact, you have been unusually quiet all day.”
“It’s been that obvious?” the younger pony looked uneasy, she didn’t try to smile now that only Toffee and her were in the shop.
“As plain as the mark on my flank,” Toffee stated and patted with one hoof the image of a bowl of candy on her flank. “What’s the matter kiddo? Can’t have my future replacement down in the dumps.”
“I…” Vanilla cringed a little as she remembered yesterday. She had spent most of the evening crying in the arms of Mrs Fin, who tried her best to comfort her.
“A friend… he… well… something happened, he was drunk… I don’t think meant what he said… but he said some awful things… he’s been under a lot of stress lately… he’s on probation… and this local thug in our neighborhood… keeps bullying him,” she started explaining with some effort, she could feel new tears coming.
Toffee hummed as she listened and nodded. The old mare then turned to the shop entrance, locked it and turn a signed that read ‘Out on lunch’. Then she gestured Vanilla to come with her to the back room. In there the elder gestured her to sit by the break table while she went to make some hot chocolate.
Vanilla was bit glad for the early break. She had considered not going to work today, but then realized that she just needed to leave Hoofington, if only for the few hours work allowed her. The mare hadn’t really talked with Mrs. Fin, just cried until she finally fell asleep. She woke up snug with a blanket but no sign of her heavy set neighbor, who had probably returned to her own apartment once Vanilla had calmed down.
“So this friend of yours, I take it he would usually not cause you such grief,” Toffee said as she placed a mug full of hot chocolate with marshmallows, whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles in front of her. The old pony sat on the other side of the table with her own drink.
“No, he’s always been so polite, though he often looks sad and like he’s just given up,” Vanilla told her and sighed. “He helps though; he seems somewhat driven to help. He even helped me against that thug I mentioned, while still injured and barely able to stand.”
“I was trying to return the favor, help him, he seemed to need it. I just wanted to be a friend, I wasn’t going to replace anyone.” The mare sniffed and sipped her drink.
“Well they do say the booze has a habit of making a fool out of you. Never liked the stuff myself. I’m sure he’ll apologize once he’s sobered up and realized what he said,” Toffee nodded.
“Oh I’m sure he will, just… it was so scary to see him like this,” Vanilla whispered and slowly let the marshmallows in her cup swirl in circles.
“I’ve no doubt about that, the way you describe the fellow he doesn’t sound like someone who loses control easy. Those are usually the scariest when they finally snap,” her employer told her.
Vanilla didn’t respond to that just kept swirling the marshmallows that hadn’t melted yet. For the first time since she moved to her apartment in Hoofington Lane she hadn’t checked on any of her neighbors, wishing them good morning, asking or telling them news if she hadn’t spoken with them the day before. The mare had just grabbed her bag and headed straight out, she ate her breakfast when she arrived at work. She hadn’t even glanced at Tango’s door as she passed it.
“You know, if you feel like you need to be alone I can take the counter for the rest of the day, you can do the inventory,” Toffee offered, she had hoped to cheer up her employee but could see that the younger pony needed a little more time.
“But… the inventory won’t take so long,” Vanilla frowned a little. That was about the only reason Toffee was here today.
“Then you can take the rest of the day off that much earlier,” the old mare chuckled and drank the last drips from her mug.
“T-thanks.” The younger Pony managed a weak smile. Maybe taking the day early and just wander a little about Manehattan was a better idea than just work and then go home.
“Think nothing off it, I’ll head off now and open the shop up again, you finish the inventory when you feel you’re ready.” Toffee smiled and took the mug to a sink. Then she left the backroom.
Vanilla took her time to finish her own mug before taking it to the sink. She washed up both containers before going to her work. As the mare had suspected there wasn’t a whole lot to do, Toffee had already finished the majority of it. She considered asking the old mare if she didn’t need help with something else, but thought against it, her employer would probably not hear it. She tended to stick to her promises to the letter.
The mare was soon out and about to explore parts of Manehattan she had never been in. She went to the more touristy areas and tried to pretend she was one of them, visiting the city for the first time. But yesterday’s event still lingered on her mind and she knew that she couldn’t delay it forever to return home. It was dangerous to be out and about in Hoofington after dark.
Vanilla kept delaying it though, thinking she still had plenty of time. When she reached Bridleway it was already late afternoon. The mare was busy examining theater posters and musing if she should go and see a play when she realized the time and noticed that the streetlights were turning on.
Oh horseapples. The mare cringed, she still wasn’t sure if she wanted to go home but there really wasn’t much choice, she didn’t have money for a hotel room and didn’t know anyone in this part of the city. Surrendering to the fact the pony hurried to the nearest subway station.
The sun was already set when Vanilla finally arrived in Hoofington. With a heavy sigh she slowly headed out of the station and up to the now semi-dark streets. Vanilla shivered a little, it had been a while since she walked this path so late.
Oh you’re being silly; he would never hurt you. He was drunk, yes he threw that bottle but he didn’t do anything else, Vanilla thought as she slowly started to walk down the street.
I mean, he was upset about something. He was talking about somepony. Replace who? Who was he afraid I was trying to replace? The mare was so busy going over what happened yesterday that she didn’t notice that she turned in the wrong direction and started to walk in the opposite direction of her apartment building.
I probably should… check on him… if he’s still drunk…I will just… Vanilla cringed a little and now worried she might just be barraged with more insults.
Or maybe I should just leave well enough…huh? She looked up when she noticed voices up a head.
Vanilla blinked when seeing all the ponies there on the street. They had formed a large circle and in the middle of it were two earth ponies duking it out, they didn’t spare their kicks and bites and already had bloodied wounds all over.
Oh Luna, where am I? She quickly looked around and suddenly realized she was on the completely wrong street. This is Avenu, Lane is several streets back.
The mare carefully backed away from the circle, so far the ponies hadn’t noticed her and for that she was relieved. She already recognized some of them belonging to Barricade’s gang. Vanilla froze when her tail and rump touched a chest, slowly she glanced back and inwardly winched when seeing the unicorn standing right behind her.
“Well, well, this is an odd sight, what are you doing out here so late?” Barricade inquired with a smirk, he made no sign that he was going to move.
“I… I took a wrong turn.” Vanilla turned herself around so she faced him, not thrilling at the concept of her rear parts so close to the unicorn’s front. She did glance back to the fight and cringed at the violence on display there. “What in sweet Celestia’s name is happening there.”
“Hm, that?” Barricade eyed the circle. “Eh, we’re just having a little fun.”
They call that fun? The mare felt sick and did not want to see more of this. Better to risk seeing Tango drunk again, so she started to move back the way she came. Barricade immediately stepped into her way.
“Leaving so soon? You just got here.” He grinned unnervingly down at her.
“Barricade… please,” Vanilla didn’t have the will at the moment to sound defiant. “I’m not in mood for this. Let me go home.”
“Why should I?” Barricade whispered, lowering his head towards her.
“Why are you doing this to me?” The mare took a step back. She cringed when noticing that some of the other ponies had noticed what was going on and were watching, some even began taking strategic positions that prevented her escape from the street.
“Please… I just want to go home.” Vanilla was starting to get frightened. She was alone, completely alone, face to face with Barricade and surrounded by his thugs.
“You haven’t answered my question,” the unicorn pointed out in a sing-a-song voice.
“I… don’t know… what do you want from me? You want to do me? Then just do me already and get it over with,” Vanilla cried and dropped down to the ground sobbing loudly. “Just make it quick.”
Barricade watched the crying pony in front of him. The unicorn rolled his eyes and started to examine one hoof while waiting patiently. Some of the ponies around started to snicker and said something he heard, the stallion gave them a glare and they fell silent.
“Are you done?” he asked once the sobbing had quieted down a little. Vanilla hesitantly glanced up at him.
“First of all, do me? What are you, a teenager still afraid of the f word? Seriously, just use that or say sex. Secondly, no I’m not going to ‘do’ you as you put it,” the unicorn snorted, then he whistled sharply. “Yo, Gold Shovel come over here.”
Vanilla watched as a golden brown colored mare came trotting closer. She was an earth pony and her dark red mane was cut rather sharp and stylish, she wore a jacket that was long enough to cover her cutie mark.
“So Goldie, want to do it?” Barricade asked in a matter of fact tone. Vanilla tilted her head a bit in confusion when Gold almost lit up and wrapped her front legs around the unicorn.
“Ooh, you mean tonight?” she asked eagerly.
“Sure, why not, see you when I’m done here,” the stallion confirmed and freed himself from the mare. He winked her and Gold trotted happily away. Barricade turned his attention back to Vanilla who looked even more confused and mildly bewildered.
“You saw the key difference here?” he asked and rolled his eyes when Vanilla shook her head slowly. “She is willing.”
Barricade laughed when the mare looked even more confused. Some of the other ponies looked as amused as him. Once the laughter died down, the unicorn lowered his head down to Vanilla’s level.
“Seriously, you think I force myself on unwilling mares? You know how much of a bother that is? I much rather have them all into it as well,” the stallion smiled deviously.
“Then why…” Vanilla whispered. “Do you keep tormenting me?”
“Because it’s fun seeing you squirm,” Barricade chuckled and started to circle the mare. “I can’t help it, you look so adorable when you try to be all big and brave and defiant.”
“You’re sick.” The mare started to slowly rise up. She froze when Barricade was right next to her, put one leg around her and pressed his head up against hers.
“You have nooooo idea,” the stallion chuckled.
Usually Vanilla would have been incensed at this blatant violation of her personal space, demanded the unicorn let go of her and tried to wiggle out of the grasp. But she was still feeling frightened and a bit numb, also deep down she knew this was delaying her returning home even further. The lack of struggling didn’t go unnoticed however.
Barricade let go and stared at her genuinely puzzled. Vanilla looked down to the ground, waiting for some taunting comment or further embarrassment from him.
“Barbell, I think I broke her,” the unicorn called. “Or she came here already broken.”
Barbell came walking from the pony circle. She looked at Vanilla critically then eyed the stallion. She pushed him out of the way and stepped up to the smaller mare. Barbell frowned in thought then glanced at Barricade.
“Get lost, I’ll take it from here,” she snorted.
“Well excuse me, I’ll just go to Goldie then,” the unicorn snorted and stuck his tongue out at her before walking away.
“Don’t tire him out, Goldie, I’ve plans later tonight!” Barbell shouted in the direction Barricade was going. She then turned her attention to Vanilla.
“Come, on pretty face, I’ll walk you away from here.” The large mare nudged the smaller one to walk and they departed the street.
They walked in silence until they were at least a street away from the crowd of ponies. Vanilla was though more just on autopilot right now; she just wasn’t sure anymore what she wanted to do. Go home? Go see Tango and see if he’s doing better? After a while she glanced carefully at the large mare walking beside her.
“Barbell?” she whispered. Barbell didn’t turn her head but her eyes narrowed a bit.
“Look, I know what you are going to ask. The answer is simple, you ponies don’t know me, I go my own path and not some perceived one the rest of you have for me. Is Barricade a colossal asshole? Yes, I’m not blind and not some brainless ditz he’s brainwashed. Not even Goldie is brainless, she just likes having sex. We like Barricade because he is at least honest about being a jerk. I’m not exactly miss sunshine either, I am jerk. I can deal with Barricade, he knows I can whoop is ass if necessary, so please stop wondering. You see something to avoid like he’s a spawn from the deepest bowels of Tartarus. I see magnificently manipulative bastard I happen to enjoy bantering with.” Barbell now first looked at Vanilla. “And the sex isn’t so bad either.”
“Sorry…” the other mare looked down again. “I just… never mind.”
Barbell groaned a bit, she did in fact remember Vanilla from back when they were in school. But as the smaller mare had told Tango, they hadn’t been friends, just knew of each other. The larger earth pony just never understood why ponies assumed she was some brainless victim of Barricade. She had never concealed who she truly was, the mare had never been the nicest of ponies, admitted it willingly and without any shame. Sure she put up a nice front when interacting with customers at the gym, but anyone who truly knew her, knew Barbell first and foremost thought of herself.
“Listen pretty face, you need to stop thinking so much in black and white, there are gray areas in life too,” Barbell grunted and rolled her eyes. She was about to say something more when a faint noise caught her attention. The mare stopped and halted Vanilla as well.
“W-what is it?” she asked, they were still a street or two from her home.
“Trouble,” the bigger pony whispered.
“Run. Now!” Barbell snapped and took off.
Vanilla followed the best she could but even if she galloped as fast as possible, Barbell was faster and already way ahead of her. The mare was confused and wondered what was going on. Then she heard the hoof beats behind her and insane laughter. Vanilla tried to look back but in the process of doing so tripped and hit her forehead on the sidewalk. The last thing she knew was something striking her hard on the head.
Tango lay in slumber. Parts of him wanted to wake up, the other just wanted to continue wallowing in misery. The hangover wasn’t helping much either, the throbbing headache kept reminding him of last two days of heavy drinking. The stallion had really just wanted to forget but somehow the alcohol just made him remember the first day clearer and that had made him angry.
Now though as a new morning had arrived, most of it was a drunken blur. He only vaguely remembered talking with someone, lots of loud noises, then just going to his bed with a new bottle, spending the rest of it and most of yesterday there. The stallion groaned and rolled to his side, kicking many empty cider bottles off the bed in the process.
Tango groaned more when he realized that he needed to pee, he really did not want to rise up. In the end he relented though, slowly stumbling to his legs and dragging himself out of the bedroom and to the bathroom.
When he walked out of the bathroom the stallion contemplated just going straight back to bed. It wasn’t like he was needed right now anywhere, but then his stomach rumbled. With a sigh the pony headed into the kitchen to find something edible to munch on. As he rummaged through his kitchen he heard voices and suddenly there was a knock on his apartment door.
Ugh, he groaned and stumbled out of the kitchen. There was another knock, louder and someone called his name.
“Coming…” he called though his voice didn’t rise a whole lot, his headache didn’t allow it.
Tango opened the door and half expected it to be Barricade come to bother him again, but no it was Mrs. Fin and an older powder blue mare that he didn’t recognize. They were looking very concerned.
“Oh good you are awake, have you heard or seen Vanilla at all this morning?” Mrs. Fin asked but she was giving the stallion a very hard glare that he couldn’t quite understand why.
“Yeah, Vanilla didn’t show up for work this morning, so I hoppled over here to Hoofington to see if she was okay, she was mighty downtrodden yesterday so I gave her half the day off, I’m Toffee Swirl, her employer,” the old mare spoke.
“What?” Tango frowned in confusion.
“Vanilla is missing, you miserable excuse for a stallion,” Mrs. Fin snapped. “She went to work yesterday heartbroken after you verbally abused her the other day and she hasn’t been home at all after that.”
“What?” Tango blinked as he took this in, a blurry memory was starting to tug at his brain, he had shouted at someone.
“Son, have you or have not seen Vanilla?” Toffee Swirl asked, she sounded calmer than Mrs. Fin who still gave Tango a death glare.
“Not since… not since… she came to show me a dress… wait… oh Celestia, what I have done!?” Tango froze as it all came back to him, his brain practically forcing through the blur and showing when he yelled and threw the bottle at Vanilla.
“Tango, I am going to report your rampage to your probation officer. Now thanks to you Vanilla is missing and considering some of the ponies that live in this neighborhood, I dread to think in what state she is in, you better hope she alright,” Mrs. Fin snapped before turning to Toffee. “We better go to the police and file a missing pony report.”
Tango barely paid attention to what the heavy set mare had said. He was just continuously replaying in his mind what had occurred the other day, becoming more horrified by the second as it dawned on him more and more what he had done. Suddenly he sprang past both mares and galloped out of the building.
“Well, what got into him?” Toffee blinked when the stallion disappeared outside.
“Hopefully wising up and going to search for Vanilla and apologize if he finds her in one piece,” Mrs. Fin snorted and closed the apartment door since Tango had neglected to do so.
Tango had no idea where to even begin searching for Vanilla, he didn’t really know her usual routes. However, he had a feeling a certain pony knew either where she was or what happened to her.
What was I thinking… why did I say all that? the stallion thought as he galloped down the streets.
“Stupid, stupid… I just can’t believe I…” he muttered, evading other ponies as he ran.
“He knows, I just know it he knows, like he’s been treating her, sizing her up like that,” Tango growled as he thought over the past few days.
Tango sneered when seeing his location in the distance, The Barricade gym. He didn’t even care if he was heading straight into a lion’s den, there would be plenty of ponies there that could cause him serious injury. The stallion was intent on ‘talking’ with their boss, that blasted unicorn that’s been making his life even more miserable than it already was.
The former officer kicked open the door to the gym and raced right in. He ignored the surprised and startled look from the other ponies as he charged right for the office. He didn’t even pay attention to Barbell who had been by the counter, bandages wrapped around her head.
“Hey!” she called after him, but he didn’t listen, there was only one pony here he wanted to see.
“Where is she!” Tango snarled as he slammed open Barricade’s office.
Barricade rose up from his desk, using his magic he enveloped a magic aura over Cara who had been playing on the floor with some toys and pulled her closer to him. The unicorn frowned as he stared gravely at the steaming earth pony who had barged in.
“Tango, I recommend you carefully consider what you do next,” Barricade warned as his magic let go of Cara. The filly quickly crawled behind the desk and peeked frightened from behind it.
“Tell me where she is, what have you done to her?!” Tango growled and stomped further into the office just as Blue and Barbell appeared in the doorway. Their boss however gave them a signal to stay put.
“I can only assume you’re talking about Vanilla,” Barricade remarked and walked around the desk, there was nothing now between him and the angry pony.
“Of course I am! Why else would I come to this filthy stink hole!?” Tango snapped and gave the floor a hard stomp with one hoof.
“Tango!” Barbell shouted, causing the stallion to look at her. Now first did he see the bandages on her and that she was covered in bruises.
“Vanilla accidentally stumbled up on us and the rest of the gang when we were out tussling yesterday night,” the mare said calmly but intently.
“Where is she?” Tango growled.
“She was attacked when I…” Barbell didn’t get further, just hearing that she was attacked sent Tango into rage. He turned right back to Barricade and charged for him.
“YOU SON OF A…” Tango didn’t get further. The unicorn slammed his right front hoof into his face, sending him sailing to the innermost wall.
“Hey, I use the equipment in my gym just so you know,” Barricade snorted as the earth pony crumbled to the ground, the punch had not helped with his headache at all.
“Seriously Tango, you honestly think we did anything to her?” the unicorn snorted as he walked over to him. “Alright, not the right question, let’s put it more this way. Do you think that if we had done something to her, we would just have let you barge in here and not just thrown you immediately out? If you hadn’t noticed Barbell was trying to tell you what happened.”
“Secondly, don’t ever, EVER come here with violence near my daughter. You want to duke it out, we can go to the streets if you really want to,” Barricade snarled down at the disoriented Pony.
“Tango, we did not attack Barbell. A rival gang did, they heard of our gathering and were coming to attack us, they thought she was part of our group since I was trying to escort her home.” Barbell walked in, she still kept the same calm but intent tone in her voice.
“Take a look at Barbell, she looks like this because she tried to protect your precious girlfriend!” the unicorn snorted, gesturing to the mare.
“Tango… I’m sorry, I realized too late that she had fallen behind me. By the time I got back to her, they were already kicking her around…” Barbell fell silent and glanced at Blue. “Blue, don’t stand there you idiot, take Cara out of here!”
The blue stallion quickly nodded and waved to the filly to come to him. Cara quickly flew over and left the office with the large pony. When it was clear that the girl was gone, Barbell looked back down at Tango who had fallen silent and stared right back at her.
“I tried to fend them off, but there were too many so I had to run back to my gang to get them to come and help. We finally managed to chase them off… but…” Barbell had to stop for a moment.
“We took her to the hospital, but it was too late,” Barricade finished.
No. Tango paled up and felt numb.
“Now kindly,” the unicorn lowered his head to be muzzle to muzzle with the other stallion, glaring at him. “Get your sorry pitiful carcass out of my office and out of my gym!”
Tango slowly rose up and Barricade backed away to give him room to do so. The earth stallion’s anger had all vanished, now he just didn’t know what to say or do. The unicorn opened his mouth to say something, but Barbell put a hoof on his shoulder to silence him.
“Barricade please, not now,” she said tiredly.
Slowly Tango edged himself to the entrance of the office, his head hung and ears downcast. The stallion paid little attention to the looks given him as he crossed the distance between the office and the exit of the gym. He had no idea what to do now.
Outside the stallion stopped and looked around. Ponies where everywhere going about their business. Tango just stood there, watching, feeling numb and unsure what to do. He couldn’t believe it; it couldn’t be real. Why should he believe them? They were criminals as far as he was concerned.
No, it can’t be true, he thought and started walking. There was only one hospital close enough to Hoofington Lane that would be sensible to take someone in dire need of medical care.
Tango kept convincing himself that this couldn’t be right, why would Barricade or Barbell take Vanilla to a hospital? Why wouldn’t they just leave her rotting in the ditch if they came across her. It just didn’t fit in his mind. When he finally arrived at the hospital, the stallion half expected that once he got home Vanilla would be there with a story how she just simply was lost on her way home.
The stallion entered the hospital and approached the reception. He calmed himself down fully before preparing to address the nurse manning it. He was almost positive that no pony had been brought here matching Vanilla’s description.
“Excuse me, was a young mare brought here yesterday severely injured after an attack? Vanilla colored, yellowish mane, candy heart for a cutie mark. Goes by the name Vanilla Cream,” Tango inquired.
“Just a moment, I need to check,” the nurse said and rose up, she walked to another nurse and began talking with her.
Tango waited patiently, thinking now that Barricade and Barbell had just been messing with him. The nurse didn’t come back right away; she was talking to another nurse now who started nodding. The nurse returned finally after few minutes and looked very grave and sorry.
“Sir, you might want to sit down for this one,” she spoke calmly and gently. Tango started to pale up, slowly he did as instructed.
“There was a mare with this description brought to the ER yesterday night. However, she was too far gone, we couldn’t save her. She was too injured,” the nurse then told him.
“No…” Tango whispered, he couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t possible.
“Sir, are you a relative of the deceased?” she asked him gently.
“A… a friend,” the stallion whispered feeling tears in his eyes. Yeah… some friend you are.
“Can I… can I see her?” he asked.
“I should warn you sir, she looks pretty bad, are you sure?” the nurse asked, Tango just nodded.
Another pony on the hospital staff was called to lead the stallion to the morgue. Tango followed with heavy hoof steps. It still all seemed so unreal to him, he couldn’t believe this was happening. There was pit now in his stomach and the rest of his body just felt numb, he barely dared to enter the room where bodies lay on tables covered with white sheets.
“This way, sir,” the coroner said after being told what Tango was doing here by the staffer. The yellowish pony walked to the inner most table and prepared to unravel the sheet.
Tango walked closer and gave a single nod to the coroner. The sheet went off and the stallion reeled back in horror. Vanilla lay there completely still, her body covered in heavy bruises and cuts. Her face was badly beaten and the muzzle looked broken. Her mane was torn and there were still dried patches of blood on her vanilla coat.
No… no… Tango dared himself to walk closer but he couldn’t deny it anymore. She was really gone, he reached to touch her mane, there was no reaction. He touched the front leg that was closest to him, it felt cold to the touch.
“No… Vanilla!” The stallion broke down and wrapped his legs around the cold body of the mare. He couldn’t stop the tears as they flooded down his cheeks. He buried his face into what was left of the tattered mane, that had been so lush once. Hugged the pony tight who had once been so full of life. She had only tried to bring some optimism into his own dreary existence and he had thrown it all away.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” Tango sobbed, he was unable to let go, he just couldn’t believe she was gone. There would be no more daily visits, no more seeing that joyful mare walking around the building greeting her neighbors. All because he had in drunken rage crossed the line, called her names she didn’t deserve to be called, became the focus of his anger when she had done nothing to deserve it.
Finally, once he just couldn’t cry anymore he let go of her. It was painful to step away from the limp body on the table and watch the coroner cover the body again. Both she and the other hospital pony had watched him with sympathy, allowing him to say his goodbye.
“You want something to drink, sir?” the staffer asked gently. Tango shook his head, he slowly turned around and walked out.
It was with heavy steps that Tango returned to Hoofington Lane. He hadn’t really walked a straight path back home, just wandered lost in thought, remembering Vanilla and how horribly he had treated her. She had offered nothing but friendship to him and now he had nothing.
He barely noticed that there was police presence around the building, not until a green unicorn mare with a darker green mane stepped up in front of him and stopped the stallion. She wore a uniform and when Tango looked at her, he realized it was the one officer in the area that didn’t dislike him for his criminal past.
“Tango, hey,” she addressed him with a friendly smile. “Sorry to stop you like that, but we are asking everypony in your building few questions, and I think I better ask you rather than somepony else.”
“Officer Trotters,” Tango whispered, he looked around and saw various police ponies talking with other ponies. He could see Mrs. Fin at the entrance, she looked upset.
“You know Vanilla Cream? She lives in the same building as you, she was brought yesterday to the hospital… oh, you know already,” Trotters fell silent when seeing the anguish come on Tango when hearing Vanilla’s name.
“I’m sorry Tango, our reports indicate that she was attacked by a gang from another neighborhood, surprisingly it was our local bully Barricade and his crew who chased them away, but they were too late. She was too far gone,” the officer told him and shook her head.
“You didn’t hear anything yesterday? This didn’t happen that far away from your street,” she then asked and brought up a notebook and a pen.
“N-no,” Tango whispered and felt new tears at the corners of his eyes. “I was in drunken stupor in my bed.”
“You were asleep in other words.” Trotters nodded.
“This is my fault,” the stallion hung his head again. The officer looked at him with a concerned expression.
“The day before… I… I said some horrible things to her… I called her horrible names… I was drunk… angry… I lashed out at her… I just… she… she’s been nothing but kind to me and I… and I call her a whore and a skank for no other reason than… than…” Tango started crying unable to continue.
Trotters put her notebook and pen back in the pocket of her uniform. She then walked closer to the stallion and drew him in a hug, patting him reassuringly on the back. Tango put his legs around her and continued to cry on the officer’s shoulder.
“We’ll find those who did this, I promise you,” Trotters said reassuringly. “Come on, I’ll escort you to your apartment so my fellow officers will leave you alone.”
Tango sniffed, nodded and let go of her. He then followed the officer to the building. Trotters gave any police officer looking their way a warning look before they could even open their mouths. They walked past Mrs. Fin who just gave a Tango a cold glare as they went through the entrance.
Trotters escorted Tango all the way inside the apartment. Seeing that the pony was really in no shape to do anything more, the mare guided him to the bedroom and had him lie down on the bed. She used her magic to put a blanket over him and made sure he was comfortable before leaving.
“Vanilla…” Tango whispered before drifting into uneasy sleep.
Pardon Peace shook her head in disappointment. She looked at the stallion sitting downtrodden in front of her desk, the mare couldn’t say she was happy with how things had gone lately. On her desk were various reports, including one from the Tango’s landlord, Mrs. Fin.
“Tango, what happened?” she asked quietly.
“You were doing so well. I can look past that you got yourself into trouble with the local gang because you were helping your friends. But what is this?” She gestured to the reports in front of her.
“First you are you heavily intoxicated and verbally abuse a fellow tenant and throw a bottle at her, this leads to her being so upset the next day that she accidentally wanders too deep into gang territory where she is attacked and killed. Then you burst into a local gym and behave threateningly towards the owner with a child present in his office.” The pegasus looked at Tango.
“For the record he’s pressed charges against you, for endangering his foal,” she grunted.
Tango winched but said nothing. He knew it wouldn’t help at all if he pointed out that Barricade was the leader of the gang he had tangled with. Pardon Peace was aware of it, she had after all had the unicorn’s assault on him investigated. Sadly, as the Tango had always suspected, nothing came of it, Barricade provided an alibi that he had been in his gym during the day of the assault with several ponies backing him up.
“Tango, I can still keep you on probation, but in order to do so, I’m going to have to put some heavy restrictions on you,” Pardon said with a frown. “That’s the only way I can convince the judge to keep you on it.”
The stallion sighed and just nodded, he had a feeling this would happen. He wasn’t even surprised Barricade had pressed charges, his daughter had been in the office and the unicorn had seemed most concerned about her safety when Tango burst in.
“I’m banning you from any kind of alcohol, I don’t care how light it is. You cannot approach the Barricade Gym at any time or under any circumstances. You are not to leave the Hoofington area unless it is to come here during your regular scheduled meeting with me, or to attend your community service. A police officer will come and escort you for that. I cannot allow you more visits to Snow Heart at the present time and finally, I will be making house calls now randomly to ensure that you are following this new setup to the letter,” Pardon Peace told him with a very serious tone.
“Can I… attend her funeral?” Tango whispered and glanced up, he didn’t like the hard expression that came on the mare.
"Her family has expressed that you come nowhere near it. So no,” she said gravely but then assumed a more sympathetic look. “I know you considered her a friend and she no doubt thought the same. You made a mistake, a lapse in judgement and it wasn’t you who killed her. It wasn’t your fault. But I think this time you better stay away.”
Tango hung his head again but nodded. He didn’t agree with Pardon that this wasn’t his fault; the stallion didn’t feel he was fully blameless for this. Seemed many in the building agreed, Mrs. Fin still glared at him if they met and some of the other tenants didn’t look so kindly at him anymore.
“Mrs. Fin has requested though that we move you out. I have another apartment lined up, it’s still in Hoofington but it is a bit bigger apartment, more for a pony your size. Let’s see the landlord is… oh dear,” Pardon Peace frowned in worry.
“Who is it?” Tango asked and looked up.
“Barricade,” Pardon Peace cringed. “I don’t understand, he presses charged against you for endangering his daughter, yet he agreed to let you have the apartment.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Tango snorted. “So he can say I owe him, now I’m in his debt.”
“I seriously need to check with the ponies that find the apartments for me, I can’t let you go to a building he’s in charge of.” The pegasus shook her head.
“Don’t bother, at this point, he’s probably the only one who is willing to give me an apartment,” the earth pony sighed deeply. “When do I move?”
“Tango,” Pardon started to say but the stallion shook his head.
“Don’t, please don’t. I might as well just go there, maybe I’m wrong, maybe it was Barbell who convinced him to agree to let me have the apartment. I won’t get in trouble again, I promise, I’ll stay out of his way as much as I can, I’ve burned the bridges behind me, might as well just go where road takes me,” Tango whispered.
Pardon Peace sighed and then looked at the information again she had about the apartment. She looked at the additional note and grunted when reading it, she had only received the list today shortly before Tango had arrived and thus not had a proper chance to examine it closely, just scanned briefly over it. She had been busier with all the reports she had suddenly received on Tango.
“Miss Peace, this is the only apartment that’s available in the entire Hoofington area that can take Mister Tango in on such short notice. We considered widening the search to other parts of Manehattan, but we got orders from the judge that Tango must stay in Hoofington during his probation. – Papertrail.”
Pardon Peace frowned and started to search her own files and then found a letter she hadn’t opened yet. It was from the judge. Opening it and reading it, confirmed what the apartment note said, the judge was very firm that Tango not be moved from Hoofington during his probation for some reason. Pardon had a feeling she had very little sympathy for the stallion and saw no reason to move him to another area.
“I thought those decisions were up to me,” she muttered dryly.
Toffee Swirl looked over the counter when hearing the door open and the bell chime. She didn’t see a pony enter but that was because the pony was a filly and thus smaller than the counter.
“Hello there, little one, come to feed your sweet tooth?” the old mare smiled at Babs Seed who glanced at her questionably.
“Uh yeah I guess,” the filly said and shrugged. “Where is Vanilla?”
Toffee fell silent for a moment when hearing the name of her late employee. Babs tilted her head, wondering why the old pony looked so sad suddenly. The mare finally took a deep breath before looking at the girl intently.
“You were her friend?” she asked quietly.
“I guess, she helped me out like few weeks ago and I like coming here, she was nice,” Babs said with a nod.
“I came today because I’m going soon on a trip. My sister is sending me to Ponyville to meet my cousins, so I wanted to see if you had any apple type candy I can take to them,” the filly then explained.
I can’t do it. I can’t ruin that nice girl’s family trip, Toffee sighed. “Vanilla is on a little vacation, maybe she’ll be back when you return.”
“Oh okay,” Babs shrugged, accepting that information.
“I have some apple candy over there by the second shelf, why don’t you go and have a look, sweetheart,” the old mare smiled and gestured into the store.
“Sweet,” the filly grinned and hurried over to check out the treats.
Toffee watched with solemn smile. She recalled Vanilla telling her about helping a girl escaping some bullies and was glad to meet her. She had always adored the younger mare’s helpful nature; she had brightened up the store with her smile alone. The elder pony had looked forward to giving her full reins over it, she had considered Vanilla a worthy replacement.
Why must the good ones die, she sighed.
Toffee felt a bit bad for not telling Babs what had happened, but just couldn’t bring it up. The young girl would probably never hear the news unless she read the papers. The old mare had already made a decision to close the shop in few days, already had a buyer willing to take it off her hooves.
“I think these will do.” Babs returned to the counter with her selection.
“Just take it, sweetheart, it’s on the house.” Toffee smiled warmly at the filly.
“Wowza, thanks.” Babs Seed grinned and stashed the candy into her saddlebag. “Tell Vanilla I said hi.”
The old pony nodded and the filly was soon gone out of the store. Toffee walked around the counter and approached the door. She stared outside the glass window at all the ponies outside. She saw Babs disappear on a speedy trot through a crowd further away. She turned around and walked to the back room, she found a sizeable piece of paper and a black marker. The mare wrote a line on it, then took the paper sign back out to the store. Toffee returned to the door and hung it up. It read:
“Clearance sale. Everything needs to be out today.”
