So, y’see, I don’t practice a lot. Whenever I got the occasion to draw a unicorn, a pegasi, a earth pony, I’m cool with that. However, other species like dragons, griffons & others? I don’t often do that.
...and at the same time, I wanted to have a counterpart for Lucky Bet & Smug, two other OCs set in a Manehattan universe. I thought to myself “Why not combine both!”. So, yeah, have Trigger Claw! ...mhhhm... have a story, I guess?
Whenever somepony is being hired in the Manehattan Police Departement, it’s always a good reason to make a welcoming party. However, the latest possible recruit to the team doesn’t seem to trigger the usual procedure : actually, it’s more the opposite.
Late night, as Trigger Claw, a griffon investigator, enters the office, the pony investigators in the room remain distant, mumbling to each others. With uneasiness, the odd recruit walks toward the office of the Head of the Department, holding a huge bag on his back, emptied out from his personal belongings, left in his hotel room.
Behind the desk, the Chief looks at him entering his office, asking to close the door behind him.
“Take a seat, Trigger Claw.” says the Chief, a stallion unicorn, breaking the silence. Executing his order, the griffon does as he asked. “So... I’ve read your file several times. Over and over and over. Let me be straight, why did you, a griffon, applied for a job in our city?” asked the leader, with a strong voice.
A little intimidated... “Y-You s-see, I live to serve and protect. As you can see, from my records, I’ve d-done an excellent job back in Ravenbeak.” answers Trigger Claw, adjusting his hat.
“Yes... I see that.” Flipping documents on his clipboard... “I always thought that, in the Griffon Empire, griffons only bothered about themselves and their own kind... However, you DO have good recommendations.” the unicorn says.
“Y-yes, I always thought that working as an individual wasn’t the best way to deal with problems... Heh-heh... I did had to teach my other partners the value of teamwork... and it wasn’t an e-easy task, t-that’s for sure.” the griffon answers, slightly laughing.
“Mhm, mhm. However, I don’t think that itself isn’t enough for a griffon to come in a pony city. So, I will repeat my question. Why did a griffon would bother to come in a pony city?”
Staying silent for a few seconds, Trigger Claw smirks lightly, his shyness totally disappearing. “I was bored!” answers Trigger Claw with a jovial tone. “Ravenbeak, despite being a big city... well... it’s nothing compared to Manehattan!”
Scratching his neck with his claw... “I said I live to serve and protect... and it’s true! However, considering the insane crime rate in this town, I thought that the city needs a new approach to deal with it!"
“You’re saying that we don’t know how to do our job?” answers the Chief back, slightly irritated.
Standing on the table, raising his voice, with his wings opened... “N-no! That’s not what I meant! I-It’s not because I’m a griffon I shouldn’t be allowed to deal with pon-”
The Chief interrupts him, stomping on the table as well. “YOU JUST CAME HERE TO WREAK EVERYTHING OPEN, DIDN’T YOU?!”
Yelling back at the leader, Trigger Claw’s feathers bristle. “NO! YOU CAN’T LET CRIMINALS REIGN OVER THE TOWN! WE’RE WORKING FOR THE SAME CAUSE : MAKE OUT CITIES A BETTER PLACE FOR THE CURRENT AND FUTURE GENERATION!”
Breathing heavily, both the griffon and the unicorn stands in front of each others. From across the window, shadows of the other investigators appear.
Calming down, Trigger Claw stands back, with a sad face. “I knew it was a bad idea, sorry for the loss of time, Chief.” Adjusting his bag on his back, he salutes the unicorn.
“...that’s some motivation you got there, to say the least. Okay, show us what a griffon can do here, in our city.” says the leader, smiling. Opening a drawer, he puts a set of police badges. “Be there tomorrow at 7:00. We’ll show you your new work place.”
Shocked and smiling at the same time, the griffon picks the items up. “It’s quite late, I think I can handle that.”
This one gave me troubles. Well, reason 1 being that I suck at positions, proportions & perspective... That’s actually the only problems about that, honestly... but, hey, have a little Lucky Bet & Smug story in the Stray Pony ;)
Manehattan - Downtown Apartment
Waking up from the sound of his phone, Smug picks it up and checks the message on it.
did i wk u up? sory ;)
job at stray pony bar 9pm
dress up nice >:< no guns though :/
ps: free drinks kek /)
Of all his acquaintances, he knew, without checking the sender, that it came from Lucky Bet. Scrolling through his message history, the unicorn remembers other messages she sent, more... explicit ones while she was, probably, drunk.
"Dress up nice?" he thought to himself. Rolling on his side, he can see his clothing hanging in the wardrobe : long brown overcoat, work shirts and a bloody scarf. Starring at the scarf, he looks at his hooves, bruised up with scars, sighing to himself "I have to use this spell, again..?"
Hours later...
Walking down the suburb streets, looking at his GPS, the stallion spots the bat mare, very jumpy, waving at him, in a dark alley. From what he can see, Lucky Bet looks not different than she usually looks : gray overcoat, fuzzy mane & an unclean shirt.
Wrapping the stallion's shoulder with her hoof, she boops the unicorn. "Heeeey, Smuuuuug ♫ You look..." she said, looking up & down at him, frowning "...eeer... good, I guess?". "I could say the same for you, Lucky. I thought we were supposed to dress up nice." answered Smug, slightly irritated from her comment.
Now that Smug is close to her, he can smell already the vapor of alcohol from her mouth. The mare pouts, crossing her arms : "That's not what you're supposed to say to a lady like me, jerk." she replied, followed instantly with cute bat puppy eyes, wrapping Smug's waist "I'm a fragile lady, after all...".
"Y-you already drunk, didn't you?" replied shortly the uneasy stallion. "I had to put myself in the mood, I guess..." she answered, sighing "...it has been a while I haven't hang out with somepony in a bar, even if it's for a job...".
Petting Lucky Bet's mane, the unicorn smirks. "Don't worry, we can go out together, you never asked before, I though you weren't into it." Smiling, Lucky smiles of joy, very jumpy. "Heee! Let's get over with, then!"
In front of the entrance of the Stray Pony, which looks like just a door in a dark alley, a guard greets them, checking they have no weapons. After Lucky Bet went through the control post, Smug hides two gun magazines in his inner sleeves and let the guard do his thing, juggling with dexterity with the magazines. After the check, the two smugglers walks down the stairs leading to the bar.
Once downstairs, they see a bunch of crooks, counting down bags of money. Holding Smug with her hoof, Lucky leads him to the bar counter, with a grey pony cleaning out glasses. Sitting on the chair, Lucky engages the conversation.
"What would it be for you?" asked the elder earth pony. "Ooooooh... I want your finest whiskey bottle, I can show you an awesssssome cocktail I've recently learned!" answered happily the mare. Taking out a bottle from the counter, he gives it to Lucky, along with a glass.
"I mean, what do you want? The Stray Pony isn't really a bar, you came here for a reason." replied the frowning pony. "From what I know, you're the owner of this place, aren't you?" asked Lucky while she's opening the bottle, drinking a full gulp of it. "...yes." he answered.
As the conversation goes on, some stallions in the back gets up from their seat, as Smug spots them. "Y'see, you owe money to Mesrhym and you haven't paaaaid baaaack..." hums Lucky to the Owner. "...and the two of you alone came to collect it, in my stronghold?" replied the grinning grey stallion.
The other ponies are on their way toward the bar counter. All in a sudden, Lucky grabs the bar owner and pulls him toward her, crashing glasses on the floor. As she does that, suddendly, gunshots can be heard and destroy the lights, leaving the room with the faint light of the neon sign.
When the other ponies realizes what's happening, other gunshots can be seen from Smug's position, along with glass cracks.
"You see, Lucky, I don't need an actual gun, all I need is something to contain the shots."
That's what Smug explained to Lucky Bet when she asked where his wounds come from. To explain his thoughts, he took elements of his surroundings, such as metal scraps & wood, and used his magic to form a gun-shape and used it to fire with his bullet magazines.
Taking careful shots, he takes down the enemy mobsters with magic guns, the entirety gun mechanism built from glass shards, aside from the magazines & bullets. However, as he shoots with them, the glass shatters, bruising Smug's hooves, and reforms with the magic into the gun-shape.
A few minutes later...
As the place becomes silent, once he checked that the place was clear, Smug ceases his magic, the glass shards falling on the ground, leaving him with an important amount of bruises on his hooves. Taking out his scarf, he wipes out the blood. Lucky Bet, zigzagging with a heavy crate full of bottles, stops and sits by him.
"You can have one. It helps.". Smug looks at her, thinking she's mocking him. However, she looks at him, worried, handing him a bottle of whiskey. "Heh... thanks. I think our little hang out session will have to wait." smiling back at her.
