Loyalty Among Thieves

September 11, 2014
7:00 AM

This is the Seven O’clock News.

Vladimir Kozak, the Ukrainian former mob boss, has been released from prison today. After being turned in in 1999, he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison, reduced to fifteen for good behaviour. Kozak was unavailable for comment, but many have wondered: is releasing a known mob boss back into the world, even with his empire in ruins, truly a good idea?

~~~

Several days had come and gone, but there was still no word anywhere on where they were going to pass off Rainbow Dash. She and Dallas had spent the time simply sitting together, Rainbow occasionally doing some wing stretches that didn’t help her to get off the ground at all. Dallas was starting to go a little bit stir-crazy from the lack of anything to do, and had been planning to hit a convenience store on his own time when the phone call came through.

“Any of you clowns ever heard of Vladimir Kozak?” Bain asked the group over the conference call.

“That mobster on the news?” Hoxton replied. “What about him?”

“Now that he’s out, he wants to start rebuilding his power base, and he’s asking us to help him get off on the right foot.”

“So what does he want us to do?” Chains asked.

“There’s a set of four stores in the Downtown district that he used to own. He wants you to go there and remind them of who they work for. Clean out their cash registers and deliver the loot to Vlad.”

“And what’s our payday like?” Dallas asked, turning to see Rainbow coming up the stairs and lowering his voice near the end. “Is Vlad going to pay us at all?”

“This seems like something you’d hire basic muscle for. Why should we go along with this?” Wolf added.

“Guys, I know it’s not much, but Vlad could easily have a lot of better contacts for us if we do this one for him. Trust me.”

There was completely silence on the line for a minute, and Dallas thought they’d all hung up when Hoxton came through, saying he’d do it. Spurred by his younger brother, Dallas said he’d come as well, and their de-facto leader’s acceptance led the other two to agree as well. “Oh, and you might want to take Rainbow Dash as well. She’s probably feeling a little cooped up in your safe house. Winged beings tend not to like being underground much.”

“What can she do?” Dallas saw Rainbow’s ears perk up as he said it.

“She can always be a spotter,” Chains suggested. “Cheaper than hiring that guy from the senator job we did last year. And she probably won’t chicken out like he did.”

“I’ll ask her.”

“Good. Everyone be ready in ten. Let’s get paid.” Bain hung up, and the others all clicked off at almost exactly the same time.

Dallas turned to Rainbow Dash, who was looking up at him expectantly. “Get ready to move,” he said. “I’m going on another job, and Bain wants you to come along. Said you’d probably want some fresh air.”

“I don’t know how much of that there is in this city,” Rainbow mused, “but okay. As long as I don’t actually have to do anything... y’know, illegal.”

“Nothing simpler. Just keep an eye out on the street for us. Let us know if any cops are coming, stuff like that.” He pulled out a pair of old binoculars from under the kitchen counter. “I used to go birdwatching a lot,” he explained. “Don’t know if these’ll fit you, but they should help.”

Rainbow put the strap around her neck and pulled up the binoculars with one hoof. “They’ll do,” she replied. “When are we going?”

“Ten minutes. Get some breakfast.” He tossed her an apple and picked one up himself. “We’ll eat properly once we’re back in the safehouse.”

~~~

“So, who are all these guys?” Rainbow asked a few minutes after the van left the safehouse, looking around. “Dallas, would you mind introducing me?”

“I’m Wolf,” said the bald one sitting right next to her. “Baddest motherfucker ever came out of Sweden.” The mask sitting on his lap seemed a lot simpler than the one Dallas wore, with only the white and red halves top and bottom, and the black eye coverings.

“That’s Wolf,” Dallas repeated. “When we need a little extra force to get through walls or doors, he’s the guy we set on it. He’s... also a little bit deranged.”

“Can’t be a great criminal without it,” Wolf replied.

Dallas simply shook his head and moved on. “Next up is Chains, our team muscle.” The dark-skinned one waved slowly, raising his mask with the two slits across the eyes. “When the big guns need bringing out, he’s the guy who brings them. He also keeps people from getting in the line of fire.” He left out the fact that he also tended to keep them from getting home for a while, though Wolf was the one who usually ensured they never got home at all.

“And finally, we have Hoxton.” The one with the close-cropped hair nodded slowly, raising a mask with large pink bags over the eyes. “When we need a job done quietly or a door opened, there’s nobody better on the East Coast. He’s not the best in a gunfight, but he’s always come through for us before.”

“Together, we’re called the Payday Crew,” Hoxton supplied. “Since the First World Bank in 2011, we’ve been the scourge of safes, vaults and rich corporations everywhere.” Rainbow nodded slowly, taking in the crew around her. “Not many people get to watch us in action on a job start to finish. You’re about to become one of an elite group.”

“She’s not seeing any action,” Dallas told him. “She’s just there to be a spotter. She’s not fighting or anything like that.” He turned to her for a moment, then continued, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” Checking his gun one last time as the van suddenly braked, he said, “This is it. Everyone out.”

The van deposited the group in a deserted back alley, and Dallas hoisted Rainbow up onto a nearby fire escape. From there, she climbed up to the roof, looking down at the street below. “Alright, fellas,” Bain crackled through again. “There’s four stores down there that apparently Vlad used to own, but now his rivals have taken them over. Again, he wants you to clean them out so they know he’s back in charge. You’re looking for the Kung Bo, the Time Out café, the Twenty-Four Seven convenience store, and the local Pear Store.”

“I can see Kung Bo and Time Out from here,” Rainbow reported. “The other two must be on my side of the road.”

“Anyone inside?” Dallas asked.

Pulling up her binoculars, she replied, “Yeah, there’s a couple of people in each. And...” She focused through the front of the china store on the man in the baseball cap and white shirt. “One of the guys in the Kung Bo has a gun.” She’d learned from Dallas just how dangerous guns could be, though she’d had trouble using it herself. Pony hooves were more dextrous than the humans thought from horses, but she’d never bothered learning it, focusing more on her flight.

“Roger that. We’re moving,” Chains affirmed. He and Wolf stepped out into the street, looking around at the group of civilians. Chains headed for the Time Out, Wolf for the Kung Bo. She assumed that Dallas and Hoxton were in the other two stores, and kept looking out at the street.

“Everyone ready to go?” Dallas asked, waiting for a moment. “On my mark. Three, two, one, go!” Looking through the window of the Time Out, she saw Chains suddenly pull on his mask while nobody was looking directly at him, and his gun immediately after. As he fired twice into the air, a similar symphony of syncopated gunfire filled the air, quickly followed by screaming.

Rainbow gulped slowly, trying to tell herself that she wasn’t involved, that they needed her help, that it wasn’t a major crime. She couldn’t turn them in. She couldn’t betray the people who’d saved her life and given her a roof to sleep under. As she was telling herself that, she dropped her binoculars, only pulling them up in time to see someone in the street pull out a phone. “Uh, guys,” she started, but it was too late.

“A 911 call just went out! Cops on scene in 30 seconds!” Bain shouted. “Get the cash and dig in for a fight!” In a few seconds, Rainbow could hear the sirens in the distance. Looking down at the street, she saw the crew meet together for a second, then head for cover in a nearby alley.

“I’m just a few blocks away! Be ready to move in one minute!” a strange voice called out, that Rainbow could only assume was the van driver. The sirens down below faded into hearing range, and as she looked over the rooftop, she saw the cars with the flashing lights pull up. People, Rainbow assumed they were the police, started to get out of the cars, pulling guns out and looking around, stopping when they saw the crew holed up in the alley.

All of a sudden, one of them fired, and the officer’s head exploded, spraying blood across a nearby colleague and draining out when it fell to the floor a few seconds later. Rainbow couldn’t take her eyes off the spectacle until she heard a few more gunshots in rapid succession, this time hitting someone square in the chest and spraying blood out multiple times as he flailed backwards. She felt her cheeks building up, but tried to force herself down.

She looked away for a moment to get herself back together, until the driver said he was only thirty seconds out and Dallas asked her if anything was wrong at the same time. A black truck pulled up in the street as she looked out again, and a group of five humans wearing armour stepped out. Before she could report it, Chains pulled out a small object and threw it into the group that had just arrived. They all immediately tried to split up, but then the object exploded, flinging the bodies around.

Most of them were missing at least one leg, and one body was hardly recognisable as human anymore. All of them were leaking blood all over the street, and the screams of the civilians reached her even on the roof. Down below, Wolf ran up to one of the bodies that was still moving and raised a large knife above his head.

As it came down, Rainbow was finally unable to take any more, and turning away from the street, she threw up. She only managed to throw up once on her scant breakfast, but continued dry-retching for almost a minute until Dallas finally came up to check on her. “Van’s already here,” he said as he came up. “Hoxton’s just getting the door, and...” He trailed off as he saw what had happened, and without saying any more, he picked her up across his shoulders as he had before.

“Why?” Rainbow asked as Dallas took her down the fire escape. More gunfire came up from the others, stopping when they hit the ground. “Why?” She could barely even stand up when she was finally put in the van, she felt so weak. “Why?” They started to drive off, and the crew pulled their masks off one by one, but she barely saw it as she lay on the floor. “Why?”

Her repeated question was the only sound as they drove, and only stopped when the van did. Slowly pulling herself to her hooves, she stepped out of the van and into the safehouse garage. She only fell over once she was safely inside, and Dallas crouched down next to her. “It was horrible... Blood... Death... Why?”

Dallas paused, unable to answer her. “It’s...” She pushed him away with a hoof even as he started, sliding along the floor towards his bedroom. He could only watch as she clambered into one of the small beds and, dry-retching towards the floor one more time, fell into a restless sleep.

~~~

From her position on the side of the mountain, Trottingham looked like a diorama to Twilight. The standing flames seemed almost fictional and easy to write off, if only she hadn’t seen firsthand what had happened in similar towns. Beyond Trottingham, the plains seemed like an ocean of flame, with no ground visible between them from the distance and height. Slowly, Twilight turned away from the scene, towards one of the only other beings to still be active despite the spell.

Dragons had a naturally high magic resistance, but only the oldest could manage to move despite the freezing spell cast by the Princess of Magic herself. Spike was an exception; Twilight had pulled him inside her bubble to aid Cadance in finding Rarity. The dragon before her seemed to be a totally different species to her diminutive assistant, nearly a hundred feet long and large enough to swallow her whole if it wanted to.

As the oldest dragon living in Equestria, however, Twilight doubted he had any desire at all for pony flesh. That he hadn’t attempted to eat her yet was no guarantee, but it was a good sign. When he spoke to her unprovoked, that cemented it. “Why do you seek my help?” he asked.

“You are the oldest, and the wisest being remaining in Equestria,” Twilight started. Flattery wasn’t guaranteed to work, she knew that much from experience, but it never hurt. “I wanted to ask you something about what happened.”

“I had nothing to do with it, if that is what you want to know,” he intoned. “Fire comes from more places than just dragons.”

Twilight sighed. “I had assumed as much. But is there anything you might be able to tell me anyway?”

He snorted once, the smoke filling her face, but she didn’t flinch. “I know this for certain. A portal of such distance, and such magnitude, could not have been created solely at one end.”

“Then how could it have been done?”

“I should think that was obvious, Twilight Sparkle. Then again, those with intelligence, but too young for wisdom, have a habit of ignoring the obvious.”

“What do you mean?”

“They had help from inside Equestria. At this point, however, it would be fruitless to search for them. The damage has been done, and your acts to contain it make their persecution impossible.” He turned around and returned to his cave, and Twilight flew off over Trottingham, wondering who could possibly do such a thing.

The dragon was right, though. With time frozen, she couldn’t interrogate anypony on why or how they had done it. All she could do was keep searching for a way to get Rainbow Dash back without leaving Equestria herself, and ensure that Bain and his Payday Crew kept her safe until she did.