Everypony Needs A Payday

Big or Small, We’re The Ones With The Guns

"So explain to me why I can't just set some C-4 on the door leading to the manager's office?" Rin asked me, leaning against the wall behind Jei.

I looked at her sideways and raised an eyebrow. "Well, for starters, we're trying to do this silently. Two, C-4 makes a hell of a lot of noise and the cops will hear it half-way across the fucking city. And three. We. Are. Doing. This. Silently."

Rin just shook her head. "Well, I don't see the problem. Two explosives on the latches and one on the lock, and we're in."

"Well, if it goes south, then yes, it would work," Onyx said. "Only thing is, if we blow the safe, we blow the stuff inside of it. Better to let the little spook just pick the lock on the damn thing."

"Yeah, leave it to me, I'll have that sucker open in ninety seconds flat!" Jei jabbed a thumb at his chest as he boasted.

"I'll hold ya' to that,” I said with confidence before turning myself towards the rest of the group. “I wanna be in and out of that place in under twenty minutes. If the cops show up, we got a problem. That'll only make our getaway that much more difficult," I told them.

"Don't worry, I got you guys covered. Do you always forget that I'm a sniper? Puh-lease, if any cop tries to take a shot at ya', I'll blast 'em back."

"Well, for our sake, I hope your aim hasn't diminished Rin." I said jokingly to her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, what time are we doing this?" Rin asked curiously, looking up at me from the adjacent wall.

I thought for a moment. "I think doing this at night would be the best idea. No ponies on the street to see us make our getaway. Plus, Jei here can slip in even better."

"Sounds good to me." Said Onyx. "There shouldn't be more than a few guards in the place either. Easy in, easy out."

"That's the plan big guy, though, you're still bringing the muscle."

"Haha, what else would I bring? After all, since when is a shotgun not a heavy weapon?"

"When you put a silencer on it," I looked over at Jei. "then it just sounds like a peashooter."

Rin started laughing, as well as Onyx, and I just smiled at the look on Jei's face.

"I guess you don't need a ghost for this job then, huh?" Jei shot back with a smirk on his muzzle.

"All right, all right, we'll cool it with the teasing." I said back to him.

After that, we made our way back to the house, and slipped into our 'Safe house' portion of the place. The secret room that I mentioned before was just a floor section that opened up to reveal a metal staircase leading down into a whole 'nother set of rooms. Rooms for Jei to practice his lockpicking, a firing range for Onyx and Rin to practice their aiming and long range shooting. Then, of course, there's my favorite room of all. The Vault room, where we keep all of our hard earned money. So far, we only had about a hundred thousand bits in the vault. Of course, that seems like a lot to anypony that never sees that much at once, but for us. This is like like holding a fifty bit bill in our hands.

As we made our way down, we shuffled into the shooting range. Rin sat down a little to the right of Onyx, watching him ready himself with his pump-shotgun. “Hey, Rin?”

“Whatcha need?” She murmurs as she’s rummaging through a new blueprint. Upon it, there was an RPG layout and a grenade launcher, with various ways to connect the two together.

I loomed over her shoulder, looking at the blueprint. Onyx spoke up gently, the shotgun rounds being shot just above the shoulder of the practice dummy. “Are you still going to try and make that RPG and grenade launcher?”

I smiled to myself. “Well, it sure looks like it.” As I spoke up, Rin stuffed the blueprint into her pocket, crumbling it up. Although her handwriting was what I’d call ‘neat’, I’d still say it was legible.

“It’ll work this time, I can swear by it!” The half-demon said with a confident tone, giving a toothy grin as she looked over at a grenade launcher in the corner.

“Rin,” Onyx paused, looking back at her with a pair of goggles stretched over his face and some earbuds in. “You tried this last time with your rifle and one of my shotguns. Do you remember what happened to them?”

Rin sighed, hanging her head. “It blew the barrell of the gun up and made it look like a firework…” Her voice trailed off before a sudden wave of happiness washed over her. “But these are two totally different guns!”

“I know you’re enthusiastic to make a new gun, but keep in mind that doing so could also result in harming yourself,” I murmured softly, grasping her shoulder in my hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Nag, nag, nag. Whatever. I do what I want,” Rin stands up, positioning herself in front of one of the practice dummies. “Where’s my fuckin’ rifle?” She begins to look around, and I snicker to myself as the doorbell sounds throughout the house. “Who the fuck is that?”

“Hold that thought.” I scurry up the steps and come out from the room, pacing towards the front door where a dark earth stallion waited. I opened the door and the stallion gave a frown.

“Got a delivery for you,” He said in a husky voice. I took the package and set it aside, momentarily letting the stallion out of my sight.

“Hey, thanks--” When I stood back up, the stallion was half-way down the block already. “Could’ve said you’re welcome...” I closed the front door behind me with my back hoof, locking it with one hand before I picked up the package and made my way back downstairs.

“Aw, c’mon! Let me shoot your gun!” I heard Rin’s voice carry out through the range. As I walked into the room, I saw Onyx holding the shotgun above his head, with Rin hanging on one of his biceps.

“We got a delivery,” I said as I set the box down onto the bench near by. Rin snapped her head back towards me, an excited grin stretched across her face. “Okay, chill out, Destructor. There’s more than just yours in here.”

Rin dropped down from Onyx’s arm, bolting over to stand across from me. Shortly afterwards, the other two members of our team walked in, and Onyx glanced down. “What’s in it?”

“Whatcha think is in it, big boy?” Jei murmured, looking up at the dragon with a soft smile. “Guns, obviously.”

Rin crouched down on the bench, staring at the tape intensely. “Open it.” She demanded, looking up at me with her two different colored eyes.

Onyx stuck a claw out and dragged it slowly down the length of the box, the tape tearing down the middle with ease. “There you go, Rin.” He said aloud, standing back a bit and crossing his arms over his chest.

Using her magic, she lifted four guns out of the box. One being the Kel-Tec KSG, another being a FAMAS, a rifle that goes by the name of Barrett 50-Cal, and a HK SD Semi-Automatic Rifle. She looked around at each of her friends, giving them their assigned gun.

“Give me!” Onyx snatched the gun from her magic, hugging it against himself. I looked over at him, the look on his face was practically that of a child. “What? What’re you looking at?!” He looked up, a soft blush on his cheeks.

“Where’d Jei go?” I asked him, looking around aimlessly. “Oh…” I rested my eyes on a floating gun in the middle of the room, and I shook my head lightly.

“So….where’s Rin?” Onyx spoke up, throwing the new gun over his shoulder delicately. Onyx and I looked around the room, our eyes finally resting on the half-demon floating in the corner with the new rifle cradled in her arms.

“Oh…” Onyx and I stared at her for a bit until we caught her attention. “Are you just gonna sit there and hug it? Or are you actually gonna shoot it?”

At that, Rin leaped up and readied herself at the post of the firing range, levitating a pair of earbuds to her ears and a pair of glasses to her eyes. “What do I do now?” She grinned widely, looking around at the three of us.

“First, you put your finger on the trigger.” She did as I said, and then smiled, looking ahead. “Secondly, make sure you have it pressed against your shoulder.” She crouched a little, digging her foot into the ground so she had a better stance. “Now, for the most important part. Ready. Aim--”

“FIRE!” Rin screamed, pulling the trigger. Seconds later, I hear, “Holy shit!” Before a loud smack echoed off the back wall of the room. The remaining three of us looked at each other before poking our heads out from the corner of the doorway.

“Hey, Rin? Are you okay?” Jei asked curiously, watching her with slight worry on his face.

Rin raised her head slowly, a grin going from ear-to-ear stretched wide across her face. A thin trail of blood trickled from her nose and the corner of her mouth before she spit out a bit of blood. “That. Was. AWESOME!” She yelled, making a fist with her hand as the other held the rifle.

I looked at her demon wings splayed against the wall. “Rin. What’d you do to your wings?”

“What about ‘em?” She said with a smile, but a wince of pain flashed across her face as she stood up. Looking back, her wings were jutting out, one twisted at an awkward angle while the other was dislocated. “Oh, that’s what happened!” She smiled softly as she turned her head slowly back towards us, a painful smile on her face.

“Are you gonna…fix them?” Onyx asked as I wrapped my wings around myself, stroking them gently as a horrified look washed over my features.

“Sure thing!” Rin said, but she still stood there uneasy in her sports bra and jeans. “Is it gonna hurt?” She looked up at the three of us, pain in her eyes. “I can do this!” Enveloping her left wing in her magic, she snapped it back into place, a horrific squeak being released from her throat. “Fucking shit!” She screamed, her legs turning to Jell-o as she crumbled to the ground.

I approached her slowly, folding my wings back. “Are you okay?” I asked, although I knew what kind of answer I’d get.

“Do I look fucking okay?” She glared up at me, hatred and pain mixed into her features. “I got this; they’ll heal soon.”

“Not if they’re dislocated,” I butted in, cutting her off a bit. “Here, let me help y--”

Swatting my hand away, she enveloped her other wing in her magic. “I don’t need your help.” At the end of her sentence, she snapped her wing back into place and then relocated it, an eeeeee being heard as the first two letters of ‘fuck!’ left her mouth.

She smiled weakly, standing up with the rifle in her hand. “I-I’m okay. But holy fucking shit, this hurts.”

Onyx made his way towards her and picked her up, carrying her up the stairs. “You should’ve been more careful,” Onyx scolded her as he made his way up the steps. I watched after them before they went out of my line of sight.

I turned towards Jei for a moment and looked back up the steps. “What if Rin wasn’t who she was?”

Jei looked up at me, sitting on the bench with his legs crossed. “What do you mean? Not herself?”

“Let’s go with that,” I murmured to myself, looking back at her range. A perfect headshot was made with the rifle, even if she wasn’t trying. “What if we had never met her, and were stuck with some crybaby?”

With a faint, sad smile, Jei stood up and placed his hand on my shoulder. “If it weren’t for her, none of us would actually get anything done, and no smiles would be made.” He made his way up the steps, looking back down at me as he reached the top. “We should really pay her more respect. She may be a bit of a dunce and a goof sometimes, but you have to admit she makes all of us smile, without even trying.” Jei turned the corner, leaving my line of sight.

“You’re right,” I say to myself before I stroke my chin. “Maybe we don’t show her enough appreciation.”

Author's Notes:

So, this chapter,though it is my story, was not written by me this time. It was mostly written by my friend SilverMistMLP who is also editing my story. It wasn't supposed to be like that, but I figured that instead of writing it all by myself, that it would turn into a collab of some sorts. I wrote like one chapter in this part, the rest was her. Regardless, enjoy. (Previously known as 'Big or Small We're The Ones With The Guns')

Until next time, this has been Cobolt Soundwave saying, I'll see you at the safe house.