The year is 1972. The same old cars ran across the heated asphalt of the streets to and fro in the big city of Los Angeles. Taxis everywhere, wide open crashes everywhere else. People rode casually on their bikes to get to one place as there was too much traffic today. The vacation season had started, and businesses were climbing up the profit ladder. The city was as lively as ever and many new things were happening, besides graduations and whatnot. Despite the occasional robbery and police cars going to the scene, there was a brown Van slowly going to a stop in front of a large shop. The men in the car wore brown tuxedoes and other formal attire. The doors clapped shut, and they were out, their faces showing utmost seriousness as they analyzed their surroundings before entering the shop. Despite their attire, everyone around ignored them and continued with their shopping. These six then entered a room with a sign on it spelling:

"Only authorized personnel are permitted entry."

They ignored this and passed aside the employees working at their desks. Instead of trying to stop them, the employees began to stress and kept to themselves. Apparently, they were well known, and they slammed the door at the end of this miniature working area. Fallen from his chair was a scrawny man wearing a simple black cap. His plaid shirt was in shambles and the amount of paperwork all over this office showed that he was trying to get something done before these men arrived. One of these six people wore a fedora, and he seemed to be giving orders to the others, gesturing two of them to guard the door while the other three took out a bat, a golf club, and a crow bar.

"C-c-c-come on, man." The scrawny owner was hyperventilating and gulping at the same time."Things have been r-r-rough. I can't pay you the protection money."

The fedora wearer sniffed a bit and lit a cigarette taken from his coat pocket. A small tuft of smoke left his nostrils as he glared at the poor shop owner crawling on the ground.

"You said that twice already. How bad IS your commerce? I beleive that your investments in the stock markets is where our due has gone, no?"

"Wh-what? N-no! I wwould never! I respect the family! I would never betray you in any such way!"

"Can it."

"Yes sir."

"Based upon your daily revenue, we have only asked for monthly revenues of two thousand bucks. This is not an excessive amount to pay...And our members at Wall Street have indeed confirmed that there have been investments, under your name,"he said as he pointed towards the owner with his cigarette and ever widening eyes."no less. I think you have been trying to deal with the Bertaglis as your investments have been directed towards their owned companies."

"N-never!"

"It is too late for that. We already have someone to replace you."

"P-please! I'm not married! I have a perfect and happy life."

The six men stared at him in confusion for a moment, completely confounded at what he just said.

"You have been watching too much television."

The Fedora man pulled a gun out from his left pocket, a .357 magnum, and placed it directly at the forehead of the owner, who had completely frozen up and wasn't making a word. The man pulled in another tuft of smoke.

"Accetti le miei piu profonde condoglianze."

Near the suburbs stood a huge house but with only one floor. It looked like a depot, but protected with old, beige brick walls and two large gates with the symbol of a howling wolf on them. Two guards were watching the front as the occasional brown car came by to enter. The yard itself was mostly made of bricked passageways, but the leftern side and the backyard of this property were of a beautiful emerald green, and the bushes were perfectly trimmed, so much so that the gardeners were coming back and forth to perfect what they had done to the yard. People of the family were all around and talking, so were the henchmen. Within the building, near the backyard, stood a finely cleaned room. A black leather couch sat strongly against the wall which was itself covered in gold, striped wall paper. A little stool with a lamp sat in the corner further away from it, and, near two of the three windows, was a desk made of fine, Italian wood. A little lamp and some papers were its only companions when the owner wasn't present.

Sitting on the big chair behind the desk was a man with average length hair of a swampy-brown shade. His almost-black eyes looked with utter boredom at his entourage. While he himself preferred formal attire, like the brown tuxedo suit that his thugs would wear, these three men were rather varied. One wore typical clothing, nothing too fancy, but, despite his balding, this gray haired man seemed quite content with his situation in the family. Another wore a green worker suit with some cloth pants of a matching color along with basic leather shoes. He was a "persuader" in the family, and atleast he had hair, though he needed a bath. Another, and this one was not of the family, wore a green tweed suit and similar pants with green dyed, leather shoes. He was of the Bertaglis family, and his own fedora with a bent flap on the side hid his hair.

Perhaps explaining things rather than using the egregarious task of narratin would be more helpful? I am Adone Federo, of the Federo family who can trace its origins back to Italy during the Roman age of power. My great-grandfather was one of the pioneers to come to this country, hoping to make a living as a farmer,but found better profits in businesses and corporations. He moved to the long-gone Belly Gulch and set up a tailor buisness there. A few decades later, and my grand-father was in New York, making a name for our family both in that state and in Florida. Things became hot, making my grand-mother and father move to Los Angeles, where my father grew up and met his own "century charm", as he calls it. The family, by now, was extremely powerful, both in wealth and in influence, Unfortunately, he was ratted out, and our lawyers weren't capable of protecting him, so now he's in prison for life...atleast until we can figure out how to get him out. This meant that, not only because I am his only son that I must take his place, but that I can no longer be what I wanted to be. It's best I don't speak of it..
For now, I must deal with an envoy of our rival family, the Bertaglis, and this snake was the one who ratted out my father.

"So, Federo, what do you think about my proposal? A fifteen percent income of our business goes to you, and you supply us in arms traded from the port."

"I'm sorry, Lorenzo, but I cannot do that, and you know why. Your ties to the family were broken when you ratted out my father."

"Yeah.*gulp* Who do you think you are?!"

I face palmed."Oh god. He's drunk again. Take our soaked friend out, Alfred."

"Yes, Don."

The two soldiers of the family left our room, but my nephew, Alessandro, ran inside to greet me with joy.

"Hi, Zio Federo. Are you going to be able to play with me today?" he was bouncing with excitement. Lorenzo just looked at him with disgust as his crossed arms prevented any proper movement.

His mother came running in, fear painted across her face. She grabbed his son in a crouched position and began to back away while apologizing:

"I am sorry, Don. I do not know why my son has--"

"That's okay. He is still a child. Innocence runs powerfully through his veins. Let him enjoy the things in his life now that he won't later on." I had interrupted her with a lifted hand and leaned over the desk."I'm sorry, Alessandro, but I'm very busy at the moment. We'll have to play later. How about baseball?"

"Alright! See you later."

His mother showed surprise as she turned with her son to leave the room. It goes to show that, despite me being thirty-five, I still know what it was like to be a child.

"Hm..."the rat hummed with intrigue."You seem quite merciful. That is a sign of weakness in a don."

"That is where you're wrong. When it is your family, you must be kind, but also know when to tell things directly at them."

"Huh. I suppose there is no way to persuade you into accepting our agreement, then?"

"No."

He tipped his hat."Then I'll be seeing you. A presto." He gave an undertone which I didn't appreciate. He was hiding something.

Finally, the door shut, and I let out a sigh of comfort.

"It's good when I can act myself again. Pffff. I hate being a don. So much evil done. Heheh. Done Don. Close enough. Hmm. I wonder if there'll be a full moon tonight? It's so comforting to look at the stars at night, but not here. That light pollution ruins every pleasure to be had. I'll have to go later to the woods. Let's see. Alessandro is waiting for me, but I still have these documents to sign. Hmmm. Perhap the park would be a nice place for baseball."

It was sunset, and the sand-filled park was practically empty. My nephew and I finished tossing a few final balls, and we both left the park, laughing, tired, and smelly.

"How about we stop at the local ice cream parlor? Get you some strawberry?"

"That'd be great! Thanks alot, Zio."

"Ha! Hmmm. Where are our...buddies?"

"I don't know. They were here earlier. Maybe they had to go to the potty?"

"I doubt it. Hmphgh!"

I was suddenly gagged with a piece of cloth and held in a headlock. My nephew tried to intervene, but he was caught by another, bulkier man. It's no matter. He wouldn't have helped anyways. And, of course, the one behind this was Lorenzo the rat.

"Well, if it isn't the rat."

"Heheh. So feisty despite his predicament. Don't think that I'm doing this just because you're the don of an enemy family."

"Well then, do it away from my nephew."

He looked a few moments at my angry nephew then looked back at me."No can do."he took out a Walther and prepped its barrel."It's a few in your family that have decided that you weren't fit for being a don. Amazing how such small things can turn into enormous events. I'll be seeing you."

"NOT IN FRONT OF--"

*bang*

I feel myself falling flatly onto the ground, no sensation besides a slight touching left. Nothing left. The world is becoming blurred. I can see my nephew looking at the scene in pure shock, horror as well as the breaking of his innocence right there and then. I can see a red puddle forming in front of my face. I was shot in the head, and I can only hear these final words:

"Che la morte ti dia la pace che cercavi. Requiescat in Pace."

Nothing but cold and darkness envelops me as I feel myself falling downwards.

I can feel nothing, and I feel as if I have been falling for over a thousand years. What a way for a family associated with wolves to die. I hope someone more competent takes my place. However, I suddenly feel myself warming, and a great light begins to envelop the surrounding area. I look down, and what I see is pure beauty. An enormous city of shining gold right below. I thought I was falling downwards? As I float even lower, like a sky-diver, I can see an angel sitting at her own desk...in the sky, and I stop short of it. She looks at my tiny, naked stature and huffs. Her blonde hair reflected just as beautifully as the city.

"A don, eh? Oh. I know you. Your father was imprisoned, and you were forced to take lead."

I stayed silent.

"Of course, normally, I would let this slide, but you seem to have still commited some heinous acts." she looked at me while her head still pointed at her sheet of paper."I can't let you go to Heaven, as you haven't saved as many souls as those you have killed."

"But, I didn't want to--"

"Then why do it? You knew the implications."

"...It was for my family. If I didn't step in, they would have all begun to claw at eachother for power. I didn't want anybody to die."

"A noble cause indeed. You also seem to have a bizarre thought pattern, much more different from the others of your 'age'."

"I didn't really have a childhood. It's just mounting up against me. I also neeed to know. Where am I? In hell?"

"No. You're in purgatory."

"What?"

"In the rebirth section to be exact."

"In the rebirth...Why?"

"You've been given a second chance, but it'll be a bit special. You can no longer go to your own world seeing as you'll be allowed to remember everything."

"...Okay. If I can fulfill my dreams and not have to worry about them...or that 'tradition' I hated so. I wasn't even born in Italy! Just because my family went to live there all the time didn't mean that I needed to fulfill their needs."

"That's nice. In the meantime, I found you a perfect new world."

"How is it l--"

"Down you go." she said, resting on her arm as she pulled a string hanging from nowhere with the other. I fell through a hole that suddenly appeared below me. I spun and flipped in the air as I screamed like a little girl, and as I could feel myself being chained to another body, I suddenly remembered.

"What's going to happen to Alessandro?!"

She poked her head out of the hole."Extinction of rivalry with red smoke." she gave an evil smile then waved me goodbye.

I understood immediately what she meant. I fear for his ascendance.

There was a terrible storm right above Canterlot. Thunder and rain blocked the starry sky that Luna was hoping to see once more. It was normally dusk, but the sky was so dark it seemed like midnight. Right above the trembling city, there was a small pegasi town that moved occassionally along the currents, and just so happened to find itself right above Canterlot. The clouds the town was on was somehow lower than the stormclouds, but had no rain falling on it. Near the edge stood three pegasi. One was scrawny looking, brown, with a scraggly gray mane and tail, and was holing something wrapped up in his arms. The other two were draped in some type of cloak, but it was obvious that they were of a high-standing in society.

"Just dispose of that horror."

"Why? M'am, it's still just a stillborn. Why not bury it?"

"And have it linked to our family? Not only is it a repulsive color, like that dreadful alicorn, but it isn't even a pegasus!"

"Nyes. It cannot be linked to our family. We would be forever shamed upon by the whole pegasus society." the male responded, his haughty tone pricking at the ears of the scrawny pegasus.

"Are you sure."

"Yes. Now find any way to dispose of it."

"...Okay." the scrawny pegasus shrugged and casually tossed the package over the edge of the clouds, and saluted the two pegasi as he simply returned home with no care.

The hooded couple leaned over the edge to see the package slowly shrink into nothing as it fell downwards.

"Good riddance."

"Quite."

"Back to our home for some...hors-d'oeuvre."

Meanwhile, the small package flung through the raindrop ridden air, the intensity of the fall being lethal for whatever could have been in there. It was going for a straight line to the solid ground, ready to splatter everywhere like a baloon, but fate gave the middle finger to death and decided otherwise. The brown package bounced off a flock of storks going through this torrent of water, and rolled off one's wing to start falling diagonally towards the castle. It still continued to bounce off of everything in the air, such as the air, which modified its trajectory to tumble towards the enormous trees in the castle yards in an angle that proved non-lethal to it, and allowed the package to roll off some branches towards the lower trees before being flung through a window onto Luna's bed, allowing the wind to blast the shards everywhere, and to throw gallons of water everywhere as well. The princess, on the other hoof, was still in the throne room. Nopony was coming tonight, so she had no need to stay in it.

"Guard."

"Yes, your highness?"

"I think I will take a little stroll through the castle, perhaps, even have a bit of time to reflect upon myself in my room. Alert me if anything important happens."

"Yes, m'am."