Chapter 1
In a small suburban home in the city of Stablewater, Fluttershy suddenly found herself waking to the sound of bullets. She thought to herself Must be another gang fight.
Fluttershy groggily crawled out of bed and looked around her house, she sighed in relief to find nothing, no broken glass, no bullet holes, she even briefly risked going outside and back again to see none of the gangs have spray-painted graffiti on her house.
As she went back inside she started to feel restless, it was the fifth time this week that happened, Fluttershy couldn't remember a time where Stablewater was gang-war free and she could walk down the streets without getting caught in a crossfires in another fight between the either the Smoking Mirrors, the Apple Slicers, the Bolterz, or the Steeds.
It's been years since those gangs started causing trouble in the streets of Stablewater. The Smoking Mirrors, if Fluttershy remembered correctly, were the first of the 4 gangs that formed, though all Fluttershy knew about them was how they were a mainly Unicorn mafia that wore light-blue, noted for cooking up and selling literally every drug under the sun. And that they took from her the pet store she used to work in to re-purpose it into a drug lab. The only bright-side (according to Fluttershy), was that for some reason the Mirrors did nothing to harm the animals even after she was kicked out, Fluttershy suspected it might be because the Mirrors needed the pets for producing their drugs, but if they were, Fluttershy didn't want to know what they could be doing to the animals for their drugs.
Then came the Bolterz, a mainly Pegasus group that wore white, who came second and, according to one news reporter, immediately started forging campaigns on the Smoking Mirrors and spent much of their time stealing cars at alarming rates, in their territory it's hard to feel safe to even walk the sidewalk because the Bolterz really like street-racing, and in that regard, have complete disregard for traffic laws.
The third gang to arise was the Apple Slicers, Fluttershy came to know them the most, if mainly because it was only recently when her house fell to becoming part of their 'territory'. the Slicers were a mainly Earth-Pony gang that wore red, lead by somepony named Big Macintosh, who presumably formed the Slicers in response to how the gang violence between the Mirrors and the Bolterz was getting to his family farm. However, the Apple Slicers were known for having the city's largest prostitution ring and gun-running ring, and while Fluttershy was able to pay off any Slicers she came across that extort her for 'protection money', those said Slicers always threatened that if she couldn't pay, that they would take her and make her work in one of their brothels, the very thought of it horrified her.
But the most recent of all were the Steeds, a somewhat small purple-wearing gang that had a balanced mixture of Earth-Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi. Who had territory right next door to where Fluttershy's part of the neighborhood was that the Apple Slicers took. They were oddly enough the least hostile of the StableWater gangs. Whenever Fluttershy had to go do something in their territory, the Steeds mostly left her alone. She counted only 4 times that a Steed has ever extorted her for money, and even then those Steeds ask for very paltry sums of cash compared to what the Apple Slicers charge her.
Fluttershy was startled to suddenly hear footsteps, she shrieked in panic and crouched down with her front legs on her head, she softly said in panic, "Please! please don't shoot! I'll pay! just don't take me to one of your brothels either!"
She heard a mild scoff right behind her, she turned around to see her bunny friend Angel, how crossed his arms and shook his head in exasperation. He knew how hard the whole gang thing was to Fluttershy and knew there wasn't much she could do about it. But he hoped Fluttershy would, for her own sake, cave in and join up with one of the gangs so that at least she'd have other ponies watching her flank. But he knew that while Fluttershy has thought about it, she figured it just make her more of a target, which made her think joining a gang was the last thing she needed. And also, to her, working in one of the Apple Slicer's brothels for free protection was also out of the question.
It was when Angel's stomach grumbled when he suddenly remembered what he was trying to get Fluttershy's attention for, he rubbed his belly and licked his lips to tell Fluttershy he was hungry.
"Oh, of course, Angel!" Fluttershy said, "I'll get right to it."
Fluttershy went to the kitchen and opened the fridge to see all that was left were 2 apples, it's been a god while since Fluttershy left the house and she was looking at what she had to show from it, But it was evident that now she had to get out to get groceries. Though she dreaded having to go out considering her own neighborhood is now practically a warzone, she knew that obviously there was no way she and Angel could stay inside any longer if they'd have to starve themselves.
Fluttershy took one of the apples, placed it on a plate, and gave it to Angel, who immediately started eating it.
"I should head.." Fluttershy gulped, "Out... I'll be back with some groceries... I hope..."
Fluttershy walked out of the house, she looked around to, much to her relief, find now gang bangers close by, she moved to a standard sports car* that belonged to her, went in it, and started driving.
(* Yeah, yeah, you're probably wondering how Equestrian ponies could drive cars in this fanfic, though you're free to think up your own way of filling in the blanks. But if you won't here's how I do it; the cars are made so that, like humans, ponies can sit in specially made seats with the gas and brake pedal arranged to make it so they can be used by the rear hooves, and the steering wheel and gear shift have crater-like handles that make it easier for them to be used by the front hooves. okay? good.)
While driving to the nearest grocery store, Fluttershy was part relieved part scared as heck to see very few bangers, but she knew it was too early in the morning for them to be doing much, but the store should be opening by know.
She parked in front of the grocery store upon arrival, but it was when she came out after purchasing the amount of groceries she needed groceries that she just realized something; she had to spend all her money, every, last, bit.
Oh no! I've got no money, I can't pay off the Apple Slicers now! stupid! stupid! stupid! Fluttershy cursed to herself. she knew if she couldn't pay off the Slicers it could only mean one thing...
But it got worse, Fluttershy saw 3 Earth Pony Apple Slicers hanging around the street corner to her left, she saw they were wearing masks that looked like respirators with paint spray cans attached to them, Fluttershy could tell they were tagging over another gang's graffiti, and judging from the colors and what was left of the wording that wasn't sprayed over yet, it had to be the Smoking Mirrors.
The Apple Slicers wore rather casual attire, all 3 of them wore red sports shirts and one of them wore a ballcap with a bandana underneath.
But it got even worse, one of the Slicers turned and saw her, "Yo! guys! look what I just found!"
All the Slicers turned to her and started approaching her, it was clear that they recognize her, and she recognized them as the Slicers that keep extorting her for money and threatening to take her to one of the brothels.
"Well, well, well," one of the Slicers said with a smirk, "Fancy meeting you here, you know the drill, we haven't come to you for this month's payment yet, so ya might as well fork over the bits now."
"P-p-please!" Fluttershy pleaded meekly, crouching down in intimidation, "I'm completely out of money! I can't pay you now, I'll find a way to make the money I need, just please don't..."
"Outta dough, huh?" one of the other Slicers asked, "Well, ya had to figure it would to this eventually, let's take her, buds!"
"No! no! no! no!" Fluttershy panicked, "Not the brothels! anything but the brothels! I can't do it! I just can't do it!"
"Unless you're castrated there's no reason ya can't do it," the third Slicer barked, "And we'll find out if you are soon enough."
"Hey! what the blazes?" a voice from behind the Slicers exclaimed.
The 3 Apple Slicers turned around to see 3 Smoking Mirrors, Unicorns wearing fancy blue mafia-style formal wear, angrily walking toward them, they apparently saw their graffiti having been partially sprayed over by the Apple Slicers and were very offended by it.
the 2 trios of gang members approached each other.
"Did you primitive Slicers just disrespect us with your abominable red?" one of the Smoking Mirrors asked.
one of the Apple Slicers retorted, "Just doin' some civic cleaning, you should thank us, it's one heck of an improvement!"
The Apple Slicers and Smoking Mirrors immediately started fighting, one Slicer used his paint spray on one of the Mirrors, blinding the Mirror and causing him to cry out in pain, the Slicer then tackled the Mirror, knocking him off his feet long enough for the Slicer to smash the Mirror's head by stomping it with his front hooves.
Another Smoking Mirror used his magic to levitate one of the Apple Slicers and slammed him into the side of a nearby building. But the Slicer recovered and pulled out a knife that he was now holding with his teeth, He attempted to slash the Mirror, but the Mirror jumped away in time, pulled out a baseball bat that he used his magic to levitate, and swung the bat at the Slicer, smashing his skull in.
As the fighting went on, Fluttershy could hear an engine roaring, and it wasn't coming from her car, she turned to look behind her and saw a high-performance convertible car with 2 Pegasi Bolterz wearing goggles and white custom leather jackets. One Bolter (the singular word for Bolterz) was driving forward while the other was stand on the back seats with 2 SMG's strapped to his sides under his wings. The 2 Bolterz slammed their car into Fluttershy's, causing Fluttershy's car to do a flip and land upside-down. The backseat Bolter quickly fired his SMG's at the remaining Apple Slicers and Smoking Mirrors and killed almost all of them except for a Mirror that managed to get behind a big post box before any bullets could hit him, the Mirror then pulled out a grenade, waited a few seconds after pulling the pin, then threw the grenade under the Bolterz' car. The Bolterz saw this, but the car exploded before they could get out, killing them in the process.
Fluttershy was too scared to move throughout that entire fight, this wasn't helped by the fact that 1 Smoking Mirror was still alive, and he was not in a good mood.
The last surviving Smoking Mirror used his magic to pull off an SMG from the corpse of one of the dead Bolterz and pointed it at Fluttershy, it was clear the Smoking Mirror was ticked from that fight was solely in the mood to shoot something, much to Fluttershy's dismay.
"P-please don't!" Fluttershy pleaded, she cowered before the Smoking Mirror, covering her head with her front legs.
"Wrong time, wrong place!" the Smoking Mirror sneered.
But before the Mirror could fire, someone else shot and killed him, no bullets hit Fluttershy, but she heard the gunshot very close to where she was, and it was enough to make her faint from the shock.
The fainted Fluttershy was approached by 2 ponies, one of them was Celestia, who was wearing her gold necklace over a purple turtle-neck sweater, a black leather jacket, and snap brim cap with her horn sticking out of it. The other was Twilight Sparkle, was was wearing a t-shirt that had the same shade of purple as her mane with a horizontal pink stripe on the middle, Twilight was also levitating a pistol which she apparently used to take out the Smoking Mirror that tried to kill Fluttershy.
Celestia looked at the fainted Fluttershy and sighed in relief, "Good, we got here just in time."
Twilight also looked at Fluttershy and said, "Wow, she clearly has been having a bad day, and it's not even dawn yet."
"We should get her out of here before more show up," Celestia said as she levitated the fainted Fluttershy onto her back.
"Right," Twilight agreed as she used her teeth to pick up the bag of groceries that belonged to Fluttershy, "we don't want another close shave like the one Derpy got into last week."
At around 6:00 am, Celestia and Twilight brought Fluttershy to what looked like a bakery with the sign 'Cakes & Pies' on the front of the building. Celestia gently levitated Fluttershy back onto the sidewalk, Fluttershy woke up seconds later, but didn't like what she saw.
"Eeep! Steeds!" Fluttershy shrieked as she quickly stood back up and took afew steps back, obvious scared of who she's looking at.
"Relax, my little pony, we're not gonna hurt you." Celestia said in a calm, reassuring voice, "We saw that little bind you got yourself into and managed to pull you out of it. You really should watch yourself, as you likely already know, the city's become a very dangerous place nowadays, oh, and we believe this is yours."
Twilight placed Fluttershy's grocery bag in front of her.
"Um, uh, Thank you?" Fluttershy nervously said.
"Think nothing of it," Twilight said, "helping people is what we Steeds do, even if our methods are.. you know.."
"I formed the Steeds a while ago to stop the other gangs and help make the city safer," Celestia added, "the police do what they can, but if that was enough we wouldn't be here to help tackle the problem."
"Aren't the police after you too?" Fluttershy asked.
Celestia gave an apparent shrug, "No solution is perfect, but we do know unless something's done it would only get worse for this city. If you want to feel safe again, you might consider becoming part of the solution."
Fluttershy easily figured what Celestia was thinking, she wanted Fluttershy to join the Steeds.
"Oh no! I couldn't do that," Fluttershy said.
"C'mon!" Twilight exclaimed, "What do ya got to lose? stay as you are, you'll just end up back with one of the rival gangs bullying you again, and probably end up caught in the crossfires again like you were 15 minutes ago, and you were lucky Celestia and I were around to pull you out of the fire, you think you should take the chance we'll be around the next time a Smoking Mirror has you at gunpoint?"
Fluttershy was silent, as if she didn't know how to answer that question, but both Celestia and Twilight kept friendly demeanor's and small smiles, as if understanding her reluctance.
"If you ever decide you want to help us," Celestia said then nudged her head to the nearby bakery, "You can meet us anytime in that bakery over here. Just know one thing about joining the Steeds; you watch our flanks and we'll watch yours."
Celestia and Twilight both started heading for the bakery.
Fluttershy sighed, is it really that unavoidable? would she still be living in fear if stayed as she was any longer? ever since the Stablewater gangs started fighting each other and and tearing the city up like they could do whatever they wanted, things have only gotten worse and worse as time went on. Fluttershy wanted to think things will eventually get better if she was patient enough, but the 2 Steeds she talked to seemed convinced themselves that waiting it off wasn't gonna solve anything.
But Fluttershy just remembered one other important detail; she still has no money!
Having just spent what little she had on groceries (in retrospect, Fluttershy believed, she should've thought that through more), Fluttershy knew that since her home is in Apple Slicer territory that she's not unable to pay them off. And even if they stop coming to her for protection money (as unlikely as it would be), Fluttershy had to put food on the table for Angel and herself somehow, and her previous attempts at getting a new job after losing her old one at the pet store have proven unsuccessful, partly because the gang violence made her afraid of what might happen if she worked in any place owned by the gangs, and while Fluttershy figured that now it was a moot thing to worry about, but even so, she would rather not be a target if she could help it.
She knew the bangers were paid for the work they do, however illegal or questionable the work might be, but it had to be a decent salary if the fact so many ponies were doing it is any indication.
In the end, Fluttershy figured that her lack of bits has left her with only 2 options; join one of the Stablewater gangs, or let the Apple Slicers take her to one of their brothels.
Much to her own surprise, she found herself deciding to join one of the gangs instead, but then, she instinctively refused to even consider the idea of selling herself in a brothel. But which gang? She knew the Steeds usually left her alone, and while she very rarely had run-ins with them, she knew they were the least hostile of the gangs, which might mean she won't have to hurt anyone if she joined, she figured if she was lucky, she might only have to get paid just to walk around their territory looking tough while wearing purple, but even then she had a hard time picturing herself like that. Also, she figured the fact that Celestia and Twilight gave her a friendly verbal invitation to join them meant she'd easily be accepted with open arms.
Fluttershy ran toward Celestia and Twilight before they enter the bakery.
"Wait!" Fluttershy called out, getting Celestia and Twilight's attention, "If I join you, is it possible I can move some stuff anywhere in your territory? my house is in Apple Slicer territory."
"Certainly! by all means!" Celestia said cheerfully, "There's a basement in this bakery that serves as our HQ, there's plenty of room, but just bring whatever you can't afford to lose."
"Thanks, and don't worry," Fluttershy said, "I already have someone in mind."
Celestia and Twilight both found themselves very confused.
Meanwhile, in downtown Stablewater.
Applebloom is seen waiting in an alleyway for someone, she was wearing what looked like a red tank top with her trademark red bow. just seconds later, she saw Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle arrive. Scootaloo for some reason was wearing a red jean jacket while Sweetie Belle was wearing a red dress with really short, but puffed sleeves.
"Perfect! you're both here!" Applebloom exclaimed excitingly, "So we're ready to do this?"
"Yep! I got what we need right here!" Scootaloo took out 3 spray-can muzzles.
"Are you sure about this, Applebloom?" Sweetie Belle asked, "I mean just because your big brother's the leader of the Apple Slicers..."
"We shouldn't stop now, Sweetie Belle," Applebloom stated, "Big Mac's been gettin' into the gang business ever since the Mirrors and Bolterz were givin' us trouble in our farm, and what's the one thing we ain't never considered ever since we started looking for our Cutie Marks?"
"Well, I guess that makes sense... maybe," Sweetie Belle said.
"Well, we ain't gonna get our Cutie Marks just standing here talkin'," Scootaloo said as she put her spray muzzle on.
"Right!" Applebloom agreed as she and Sweetie Belle put their spray muzzles on.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER GRAFFITI ARTISTS! YAY!" the Cutie Mark Crusaders shouted as they went to work at spraying the wall they were targeting, unfortunately, with their...excitable way of spraying, it didn't turn out the way they hoped.
"well... this is... interesting," Applebloom commented in an embarrassed tone.
"Oh, that is just wonderful!" Scootaloo exclaimed in a tone both frustrated and sarcastic.
Sweetie belle stated the obvious, "It certainly doesn't look like a knife stabbed through an apple."
"Stop right there, rapscallions!" a stern voice exclaimed, CMC's hearts all skipped a beat when they heard it and turned to see a nameless Earth Pony policemen.
"Geez it's the fuzz!" Scootaloo exclaimed.
"No it's not!" Applebloom argued, "It's the police!"
"That's not what I-," Scootaloo stopped herself, "Oh, never mind, RUN!"
the CMC start running off with the policepony running after them.
"Think any of us got Cutie Marks from that spray-painting?" Applebloom asked, "Or running from cops?"
The CMC look at each other's flanks while running, they found nothing.
"Drat!" Applebloom exclaimed in frustration, "Well, I have a suggestion; let's keep running anyway."
"Right!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle said in unison.
The CMC managed to make it to the other side of the alley way and start running on the sidewalks, they find a local cafe with outdoor chairs and tables and decide to out maneuver the policepony by running through it. They were fortunately small enough that they could run under the tables and around the chairs with ease.
Unfortunately, by the time they made it past the cafe, they turned back to see the policepony, who while was stumbling and slowing down from accidentally crashing into tables, chairs, and customers many times, he was somehow able to continue giving chase, prompting the CMC to continue running.
"Man, those coppers don't give up!" Scootaloo said.
"You think our notoriety's gone down yet?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Now what kind of question is that?" Applebloom asked.
"What do you think this is? a video game?" Scootaloo asked.
"Right, forget I asked," Sweetie Belle said, slightly embarrassed.
The CMC make it to a bridge with a highway below it, Applebloom sees an 18-wheeler truck driving under the bridge and had a crazy idea.
"Quick! jump!" Applebloom commanded, and without hesitation, they jumped off the bridge and landed safely on the trailer of the truck. The policepony got to where the CMC jumped from but the truck was now already too far from the bridge for him to continue her pursuit. the policepony waved his front hooves in frustration and seemed to be inaudibly cursing, but the CMC were already too far to hear him.
"Whew! that was too close!" Applebloom sighed in relief "Big Mac an' Applejack might get mighty unhappy if they find out about this
"Still, that was alot of fun!" Scootaloo exclaimed, "We escaped in our first cop chase, how many would-be bangers do that well in their first time?"
"So, what do we do now?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Applebloom looked at the truck they were standing on and said, "I think I might already have an idea."
Scootaloo and Sweetie also looked at the truck, then at Applebloom. they seemed to already have figured out what Applebloom was thinking.
the CMC shouted cheerfully, ""CUTIE MARK CRUSADER VEHICLE SURFERS! YAY!"
And the CMC start standing on their hind-legs, trying to 'surf' on the truck.
(Author's note: okay, you saw the first chapter of my MLP/Saints Row x-over. As you can see, it's not gonna be just me ripping off Saints Row and merely putting MLP characters in the place of Saints Row characters. Everyone in the MLP cast is as you know them from the show, you're just seeing some of them as they would be if they took up gang-banging (or pretend wanna-be banging for comic relief in the CMC's case), among other things. And while I have roughly based a fraction (I stress the word 'fraction') of the plot of the first Saints Row, you'll see elements from the other 2 games being spoofed as well. And in case you're worried, I'll tell you right now that through the entire fic, NONE of the canon MLP characters are gonna be killed off for any reason. If you see characters die, those characters will only be certain OC's I write in, or nameless mooks that have to be fought. Anyway, keep in touch!)