Master Thief Dragon

It was Saturday afternoon, and at the city's Animal Shelter Spike and Fluttershy were busy feeding the animals. Spike was by the aquariums sprinkling fish food for the fish, “There you go, guys. Eat up.” he looked over and saw Fluttershy feeding the puppies.

Fluttershy picked one of the puppies up and rubbed her nose against its affectionately, before the puppy licked her causing Fluttershy to giggle. Spike watched Fluttershy smiling while thinking, 'How can anyone as kind as Fluttershy be able to exist?'

“Spike?” Fluttershy asked the boy who was deep in thought.

The boy snapped out of his stupor and spoke up, “Yes, Fluttershy?”

“I just wanted to thank you for coming by to help me out at the shelter today.” she said with a smile.

“No problem at all. I just hope these critters will one day find the owner they're destined to be with.” Spike replied, while looking around at all the different animals.

“I do too,” Fluttershy agreed, before continuing, “You know, Spike, if you want I can help you pick out a pet yourself. You know I've offered countless times.”

“And I appreciate every time, but I just don't have the time to take care of a pet.” he confessed.

“Well, my offer still stands if you ever change your mind.” Fluttershy said, as Spike nodded and the two got back to work.

After their shifts were done, Spike and Fluttershy left the shelter, “Well, I'm heading home. I still got some papers to grade from yesterday’s classes.”

“I understand. Just try not to work too hard, ok?” she asked.

“Ok, Fluttershy. I'll see you around.” Spike got on his bike and rode off.

“Bye, Spike!” Fluttershy called, before walking home.

As she walked she was unaware someone had been keeping an eye on her from a distance. The spy spoke to himself, “So this is the girl Tirek asked me to go after, huh? Should be easy as pie.”

Meanwhile, Spike returned to his place where his servants were waiting for him, “Welcome home, Master.” Celestia greeted.

“Yes, welcome home.” Luna and Cadence greeted.

“Thanks, girls.” Spike said, as he hung up his jacket and plopped into his armchair.

“And how was your time with Fluttershy?” Luna inquired.

“It was good. Helping her out has really brought my stress down.” Spike answered, as he took some tea offered by Cadence.

“And you were able to keep an eye on her in person instead of just watching from afar.” Cadence noted.

“Yeah. At least as Spike I can watch the girls closer.”

“Master, while we understand how concerned you are for the girls safety as much as we are. The three of us are also worried about your safety.” Celestia voiced her concern.

“My safety?” he asked.

“Yes,” Luna confirmed, “If you keep at this you're going to tire yourself out to the point if something does happen to any of the girls you won't have the strength to protect them or yourself.”

“I swore to protect the girls from Tirek and his grunts,” Spike reminded them, “And I stand by that promise even if it puts me in the ground.” he finished seriously.

As the sun was going down, Fluttershy who had just finished picking up some food for the animals tomorrow started walking home. As she walked she hummed happily to herself, until a mailbox close to her exploded. Fluttershy was thrown back off her feet and dropped the pet food in the process. She wasn't the only one, as several pedestrians close by started screaming and running for their lives.

Fluttershy got up looking frightened, “What was that?” she looked around, before spotting someone walking down the street to her.

He was a man with black hair and a goatee, wearing red and yellow goggles over his eyes. He wore a red shirt with black vest, armbands, and gloves; light gray straps and belt; black pants and boots with red padding and light gray knee pads. In one hand we has carrying a machine gun, and in his other hand was a grenade. Strapped to his arms were missile launchers.

“Well, hey there, sweetie. How'd you like that bang?” he asked, “Explosive enough for you?”

Fluttershy trembled before finally finding her voice, “Who-Who're you?”

“Name's Louie Kaboom, and blowing stuff up is what I do.” he introduced himself.

“Stay away from me!!” Fluttershy screamed, as she tried to run, but Louie held up his machine gun and started shooting several cars and building windows to frighten her even more.

“Don't move or you'll find one of these in between your eyes!” he shouted.

Fluttershy whimpered, shaking in fear as she stared at the machine gun pointing straight at her.

“How about you be a nice girl and come with me?” Louie asked as he beckoned for Fluttershy, “My employer has selected me personally to bring Dragon in and you'll make a nice piece of bait for him.”

“What...what are you-”

“Nothing yet, so long as you behave,” Louie said with a said sadistic smirk, cutting Fluttershy off. "I would hate to mess up that pretty little face of yours before the main event happens."

Fluttershy was so scared she couldn't move, but knew if she did move he was going to shoot her or someone else. Before she could do anything, a voice shouted, “Freeze!”

Both Fluttershy and Louie looked around seeing they were surrounded by Chief Iron Will, Officer Sentry, and several more cops, “Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air!” Iron Will ordered.

Louie turned around slowly to face the chief, “Alright, Chief, you got me,” he sat his weapons down and raised his hands, “Oh, by the way. You might wanna take cover.” he revealed he had detonators in his palms.

Upon seeing them the Chief shouted to his men, “Move!” they all took cover, as Louie triggered the detonators and several spots around them exploded.

The cops took cover as Louie picked his weapons up again. He looked back and saw in the midst of the chaos Fluttershy had already made a run for it, “Guess it's a game of tag now. Here I come, ready or not!” he called, as his boots suddenly became rocket skates and he went after her.

Back at Spike's place, the young teacher/thief was relaxing with his servants, until an alarm came from Luna's room, “Oh, no. The alarm!” Luna gasped, as the four got up and ran to Luna's room.

Luna went to her monitors and pulled up security footage of what was happening in the city, “Something bad is going on, Master.” she told him.

“What's the situation?” he asked.

“Look.” Luna pulled up footage of Fluttershy running for her life, as a man was coming after her while shooting anything in his path with his machine gun or blowing stuff up with grenades and missiles.

“Fluttershy!” Spike gasped.

“Master, you better go.” Celestia suggested.

“I'm on it.” Spike answered, as he ran to suit up.

With Fluttershy she continued to run for her dear life, as Louie was destroying anything in his path, “You can't run from me forever!” he laughed.

Fluttershy kept running, until she slipped and fell down. She picked herself up, only to be snatched by Louie who skated by. He hefted her over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes as he continued on.

Dragon had reached the city and flew on his glider wings following the trail of destruction left by Fluttershy's pursuer, “Trail's still hot, he can't be far,” Dragon spoke into his comlink to Luna who was at her monitor, “Any idea on our hit-man?”

Luna pulled up a profile, “Our explosive guy is Louis Mackire; aka Louie Kaboom. A former soldier in the military, but was imprisoned for being too eccentric with his weapons. Blew up a lot of homes and other places for his own amusement at the expense of hundreds of lives.”

“A trigger happy lunatic. Whoever thought giving that guy a gun was a good idea must've been certifiably insane.”

“He's mad, but still dangerous, Master. Be careful.” Luna warned him.

“Always.” Dragon answered, as he flew on.

Back on the ground level, Chief Iron Will was following the trail in his squad car with Sentry in the passenger seat. The officer looked up and saw Dragon flying ahead of them, “Chief, it's Dragon!”

The Chief saw Dragon in the sky flying ahead of them, “Where does he think he's going?” he asked.

“Maybe he's searching for the bomber as well?” Flash suggested.

“If that's the case he might lead us right to him.” The chief saw, as he followed Dragon, but the master thief's rocket glider made him go so fast the chief couldn't keep up.

Dragon followed the trail, until he saw it went cold, “Damn! I got nothing. Luna, check the other security cameras see where they went!”

Luna checked the security cams, and saw Louie bringing Fluttershy into a warehouse, “I found them. They went into the warehouse on 53rd St.”

“Thanks.” Dragon said, as he headed over there.

When Dragon reached his destination, he landed on the roof and looked down through the skylight. He could see Fluttershy mouth gagged and tied to a support beam while struggling to get loose, but to no avail.

“Fluttershy.” Dragon gasped, and knew what he had to do. He jumped down through the skylight breaking the glass, hung onto a crane hook and swung himself off landing safely on a pile of crates.

Fluttershy seeing the thief looked relieved, as he came over and removed her gag, “Dragon.” she gasped.

“It's ok, Fluttershy, I'm getting you out of here.” Dragon answered, as he started cutting the rope.

“It's a trap!” she cried, as gunshots were fired at Dragon who ran for cover.

He hid behind a crate for cover, as Louie who was using a pile of crates as his own cover called out, “I knew you'd come looking for her.”

“You must know me so well.” Dragon replied in sarcasm.

“Just that you'd do anything for this girl and her friends. It's really all I need to know.”

“Then you didn't know about this.” Dragon flung one of his exploding throwing stars at the crate pile Louie hid behind.

Louie hearing the beeping on the star quickly ran before the star detonated causing the crates to blow. The bomber ended up getting thrown off his feet and onto the floor. Dragon went back to Fluttershy and finally undid the bindings, “Hurry, get out of here!”

“What about you?” she asked in concern.

“I'll be fine. Now go!” Dragon ordered, as Fluttershy tried to run, only for Louie to open fire at Fluttershy who quickly took cover.

“She's not going anywhere, and neither are you!” Louie said sternly.

“Wasn't planning on leaving soon anyway.” Dragon replied, as he ran at Louie who kept trying to shoot the thief. Dragon dodged the bullet shots, before disarming the bomber of his gun and threw it aside.

“Bullets ain't all I got.” Louie said, as he launched two missiles from the launchers on his arms.

“Shit!” Dragon cursed, as he jumped away to avoid the two missiles, but the explosion sent him rolling across the ground.

“Don't be difficult, Dragon. I was asked to bring you to Tirek in one piece. And it's so hard for me to resist not blowing you into a million pieces.” Louie warned him.

“Guess that's why you were kicked out of the service.” Dragon mocked.

“So I like to blow stuff up, it's a hobby!”

“Whatever you say.” Dragon answered, as the two engaged in combat.

Peeking out from behind some crates was Fluttershy who instead of fleeing like Dragon suggested stayed behind. She watched as her captor and rescuer fought, while praying Dragon would be all right.

Louie managed to overpower Dragon before knocking him to the ground. He pinned the thief to the ground with his foot before aiming a pistol right at his face, “Stay down if ya know what's good for ya. Ya put up a good fight, Dragon, but ya lost. Tirek's gonna award me with a hefty cash prize for delivering you to him. Maybe he'll even let me have the girl as a bonus.”

“You will do nothing to her!” Dragon shouted, but Louie put the pistol to his forehead.

“Like I said, it's so hard to resist not to blow you into a million pieces. So don't tempt me anymore.” he warned the thief.

Fluttershy watched in horror at what Louie was willing to do to Dragon. Suddenly her frightened look started changing into a frown with her eyes tightening. Finally something inside the once peaceful timid girl snapped, and she ran from her hiding spot and tackled Louie right off Dragon and started strangling him hard, “YOU LEAVE DRAGON ALONE, YOU BULLY!”

Dragon got up and saw Raging Fluttershy strangling the hell out of Louie whose face was turning blue before she eventually snapped his neck, “Fluttershy!” he shouted, as he ran to her and tried to pull her off, “Enough! It's over! FLUTTERSHY!” he screamed, as Fluttershy finally snapped out of her rage mode.

“What? What happened?” she asked in concern, before looking down at Louie who wasn't moving a inch. She gasped and got off the bomber in fright, “Is-is he?”

Dragon checked Louie's neck, and answered in shock, “He's dead.”

As those words rung through Fluttershy's ears, she started whimpering before falling to her knees crying her eyes out, “I'm a murderer!”

Dragon went to Fluttershy to try to calm her down, “Fluttershy, take it easy. It wasn't your fault.”

“I killed someone!” she continued to bawl.

As the girl sobbed into the thief's chest, Dragon received word from Luna, “Master the explosions from inside the warehouse have caught the attention from the police. They're closing in on you.”

Dragon looked at Fluttershy and Louie's corpse. He knew once the cops recovered the body they would find out his death was from not only getting his neck snapped, but they would be able to find Fluttershy's hand prints on him. He had to act quick and spoke to the girl, “Marilyn...Fluttershy...look at me...” she looked up at Dragon still crying, “You're not going to jail. Do you understand me? No way am I letting the law take you. Not you!”

Fluttershy sobbed, “But...but I ki-” Dragon interrupted her.

“NO! You're not taking the fall for this! Not for me!” she remained silent, as he continued, “Fluttershy...I need you to do as say...no arguments.” Fluttershy was concerned.

As the cops pulled up outside the warehouse, Chief Will, Officer Sentry, and many more cops got out and surrounded the place.

Back inside Dragon stood by the corpse, while looking over at Fluttershy who was hiding in a corner. Dragon spoke into his comlink, “Operation Dragonfall is a go.”

Luna's voice came back in protest, “Master, no!”

Dragon snapped, “That's an order! If anyone is taking the rap on this, it's me! Fluttershy is not going to jail! End of discussion!”

Luna knowing better than to argue with her master when his mind was made up, reluctantly answered, “... yes, Master.”

The doors of the warehouse were broken in, as the cops entered, “Freeze!” Chief Will ordered, as they saw the scene before them with Dragon standing above Louie, “What happened here? Why isn't he moving?”

Flash Sentry went to Louie's body while the cops made sure Dragon stayed where he was. The young officer checked Louie's neck, before speaking in shock, “He's dead.”

“Dead?” Chief Will gasped, until his eyes fell on Dragon and got angry, “You. You did this, didn't you?!”

Dragon answered calmly, “I had no choice.”

The cops gasped in shock, as Chief Will spoke, “I knew you were scum, but even I never thought you'd go this low.”

“I did what I had to!” Dragon answered, “This maniac was gonna kill the girl he abducted. Say what you want about me, Chief. But know this, I did what I had to just to save a life.” he spread his glider wings and rocketed out of the skylight flying off.

Chief Will growled at the loss of the thief, until on of the cops spoke up, “Chief! The girl's here, and she appears to be unharmed.” Chief Will watched as two of the cops helped Fluttershy up from hiding, as she still looked traumatized.

They brought her over, as the chief spoke calmly to her, “It's ok, miss. It's over. How about we take you home?” Fluttershy could only nod having promised to keep her mouth shut about the truth. So she left with the police, as some of them were removing Louie's body to be taken away.

That night at Spike's place, Spike and his servants were watching the news with the top story being what happened today, “And so what was once a mere master thief, is now a master murderer.” the newswoman explained.

Chief Iron Will was speaking to the press, “He told me so through his own mouth. I knew he could never be trusted! This is why he needs to be apprehended for the sake of this city and all its civilians!”

Spike not wanting to listen to anymore, turned the TV off. Celestia spoke to him, “Master, I know you did it to save Fluttershy, but this was a risk too big to take.”

“Fluttershy wouldn't be able to handle jail, Tia,” Spike answered, “Besides she did what I just did to her. She saved me, and so I take the blame to save her in return.”

“You realize protecting the girls will be harder now that everyone thinks you're a murderer too.” Cadence noted.

“I don't care. Even if the whole city has turned on me, I will continued to watch over and protect the girls.” he promised.

At Tirek's office, the mob boss was watching the same news story which showed Fluttershy being brought into her house by her parents who were shooing the media away before closing the door and locking it.

Tirek's assistant spoke up, “It seems like Dragon finally snapped and decided to murder your latest hitman.”

“I don't buy it for a second.” Tirek answered.

“Sir?”

“With all the stories and reports on Dragon he never murdered anybody else who was after his skin or even threatened the other girls.” the boss explained.

“Perhaps it became too much for him to resist.” the assistant suggested.

“Maybe, but I still have my doubts on that.”

“Well, you might wanna do something about the rest of the help you hired. Half of them have threatened to pull out from your deal thanks to this.”

“I'll handle them. In the meantime let's let this sink in. Because I have a feeling Dragon's not going to be escaping so easily next time.” Tirek smirked.

The next day at school on the roof top were the girls meeting each other. Fluttershy's parents didn't want her to go in today what with all that happened, but she insisted she would be fine. Even though she spent the whole day dodging fellow students who were asking her how the fight between Dragon and Louie went down, she ignored as best she could, while her friends shielded her from the students who wouldn't leave without an answer.

“I can't believe Dragon would actually kill someone.” Rarity gasped with a hand to her mouth.

“I know. That just didn't seem like him.” Rainbow added.

“I told ya he was no good.” Applejack called it.

“But he did save Fluttershy's life.” Pinkie noted.

“Murder doesn't make it right, Pinkie Pie.” Twilight replied.

“I agree. As much as I am grateful to Dragon for what he's done. I cannot support him after this.” Rarity agreed.

As the girls continued to discuss about Dragon and what he did, Fluttershy was getting more and more uncomfortable until the pressure was too much, and she snapped, “IT WAS ME!”

The girls were shocked at Fluttershy's outburst, as the girl herself covered her mouth, “What do you mean it was you?” Rainbow asked in confusion.

Fluttershy looked at her friends knowing she couldn't hide it anymore, “I-I was the one that killed the bad man.”

“You?” the girls asked.

“Fluttershy, you can't be serious.” Applejack said skeptically.

“Yeah. You'd never do anything like that. Would you?” Pinkie asked.

“He was threatening to kill Dragon, and something inside me snapped and I snapped his neck!” Fluttershy started sobbing, as the girls tried to calm her.

“You're serious about that?” Rainbow asked, as Fluttershy nodded sadly.

“So he covered for you?” Rarity asked still in shock.

“Yes. He didn't want me to go to jail, so he took the fall for me.” she explained.

“Unbelievable.” Twilight gasped.

“I don't believe it.” Applejack said also in shock.

“Say what you want about him, but never call him a murderer.” Fluttershy told them, as she continued to sob, while the girls comforted her.

All six were unaware of Spike hiding behind the door of the rooftop entrance had overheard them, and was shocked to see she told the truth to her friends. He knew he couldn't leave things on a bad note with Fluttershy so he had to do something.

As school let out, Fluttershy dawned a hoody and put the hood up to avoid the media before heading for home. As she walked, she looked up and saw Dragon was ducking around in an alley way and motioned her to come over.

Fluttershy looked around seeing no one was looking and went to the alley way, where Dragon was. When she came face to face with the thief she whispered, “Dragon, what're you doing out here? If someone catches you...”

“What's life without a little risk?” he asked.

“I just don't wanna see you get thrown into jail, or worse, executed.” she voiced her worry.

“Don't worry about me, Ms. Fluttershy. I just came to see how you're holding up since that night.”

“It's been horrible. I'm all over the TV and internet. Our house is constantly getting called by news networks who want to set up an interview with me on being witness to 'your' first murder. Even everyone from school won't leave me alone with asking questions about how it all happened.”

“I'm terribly sorry with what you're dealing with. Really I am.” Dragon spoke with guilt.

“Well, I can imagine what you're dealing with is just as worse as what I am dealing with.” Fluttershy said. Fluttershy stayed quiet before asking, “Why did you do it, Dragon? Why risk your reputation for me?”

“Because you don't deserve to be put in jail. You're a good person, and one act of murder can take all that away from a person regardless of a perfect crime-free record. You have your whole life ahead of you, and I wouldn't want that taken away from you. Better I take the heat rather than you taking the fall.”

“But what's going to happen to you now?” Fluttershy asked in concern.

“I honestly have no idea. But one thing hasn't changed,” the girl tilted her head, as the thief continued, “I'm going to protect you and your friends no matter what it takes.” he promised.

Fluttershy's eyes began watering as she threw her arms around Dragon and cried into his chest. Dragon wrapped his arms around her in a comforting embrace knowing from this point on he was no longer simply a Master Thief to the public, but a Master Murderer as well.