Blood Brothers To The End

The outskirts of the shopping mall..

"Quiet down you imbecile!" came a sturdy male voice, the dark alley causing an echo for a few moments.

"What do you want now? Its almost ready, stop complaining!" came another voice, this one far more feminine, she sounded rather upset.

There was a light rustling, and the sound of heavy metal objects clanging on the floor could be heard.

"Damn it Hair Trigger, you cant drop those, they're incredibly dangerous, one misfire and we all go to jail before we've even started" moaned a rather young male voice, his tone clearly agitated.

"Shut up, the both of you, i will not allow this opportunity to go to waste, the mall is still undergoing repairs, the guards are scattered, and the citizens think the danger is over, they'll be completely under prepared for this." replied the older male voice.

QuickHoof had been waiting for six months for an opportunity like this, one where he could make thousands of bits in just a few minutes, he wasn't going to let this slip through his fingers.

Picking up one of the large metal grapple rifles on the floor, he aimed it up towards the roof, his target, the small entryway on top, that would allow his team access to the control room for the malls security measures.

With a single trigger pull, he fired..

Within the shopping malls central district..

"Hey slow down! My arm hurts!" cried William as he was pulled along for the ninth time by Lyra, her giggling the whole time.

He'd been in almost every shop in the north to east district, almost 12 in total, and in each one, Lyra had insisted on him buying either her, or her friends something cool. And judging by the way Lyra was dragging him along William wasn't sure if she was gunning for his wallet, or his arm.

Lewis laughed light heartedly. He'd been following Lyra and William around whilst being barraged by questions from Minuette and Twinkleshine, whilst Milky Latte followed on just slightly behind, a content smile on her face.

"Why wont you tell us how you did it?" moaned Minuette.

She'd been practically begging to know how the two brothers had descimated the hydra in such a short time. Lewis' rather succinct reply was,

"Its classified." much to the dismay of the two mares.

Lewis had noticed that all four friends had very distinct, almost stereotypical personalities. Twinkleshine was the dumb blonde, the classic airhead who had almost no idea what was happening, but went along with her friends with a smile on her face. Minuette was a whole other ball game. She was the commanding, bold, fearless leader type who led the group on their adventures, and alongside this personality, came her wandering eyes. Lewis had on more than one occasion spotted Minuette's eyes wandering over his form, and of almost every other man they passed. Her libido was further emphasized by the almost endless array of innuendo's she spewed. Almost at the end of every sentence, came a new dirty joke and a cackle worthy of Hades' approval. Lyra was bubbly. Almost unnaturally so. her seemingly boundless energy, coupled with her unique interest in William's hands had definitely worried Lewis at first, but soon her personality, her kind nature and her boundless joy had removed any traces of doubt or worry from his mind.

Finally came Milky Latte. She was quiet, eerily so. She was like the groups support, if the group were a team from league of Legends. The thought of that made Lewis chuckle internally. She was always ready to support her friends and always had a reason to back up the points they made, if they made any at all. Their questions were justified by her, making it all the more difficult for Lewis to keep his and his brothers abilities a secret. If he were being interrogated by these four women, he had no doubt he would crack under her relentless application of reason.

"Wait Lyra stop! Please no more! My arms on fire!" yelled William from far ahead.

His arm now had a rather severe case of carpet burn and the joint holding his arm on felt rather suspiciously like it was going to snap.

"C'mon William, keep up!" yelled Lyra, a grin on her face as she charged towards a store that let you build your own stuffed animal.

"Oh dear" said Milky "This is going to end in disaster, i should go stop them from blowing up the store, could you guys go ahead to the fountain near the middle, we can all meet there. Thanks, Later!" she said as she jogged after the overly energetic mint unicorn mare and the rather terrified young man.

"Well darn" said Minuette, her tone shifting to an uncomfortably sultry one "Looks like we are all by ourselves." she grinned with half lidded eyes to Lewis.

Lewis' immediate response was to simply nod and say "Yep, all alone in the middle, of a mall..." his gaze turning to her with an unamused stare.

"Guys, i gotta go pee." said Twinkleshine as she simply walked off to the toilets without a second thought.

"Well damn.." said Lewis as he realized he really was truly alone with Minuette.

"What? Don't you like hanging out with me? Or is it that you just prefer Twinkleshine? Hmm?" said Minuette mockingly in response to his comment.

"It's not that i dont like hanging out with you Minuette, I'm just worried for my safety, that's all." stated Lewis, his expression shifting to that of a grumpy old man, which contrary to popular belief, didn't suit the young man at all "Plus, Twinkleshine isn't my type, no offense to her.." he added last minute, just quiet enough for Minuette to miss.

"Huh, well alright then, how about we go grab a drink and wait for the others at the fountain?" offered Minuette, her tone surprisingly neutral.

"No thanks, I'm not that thirsty, you go on ahead, I'll meet you at the fountain." replied Lewis, shifting the small bag he carried from one hand to the other.

This bag held a little surprise for the princess'.

"Suit yourself" Minuette said, turning away and heading to some juice shop "See you there!"

With a sigh, Lewis began to slowly walk towards the hallway leading to the central plaza containing the fountain.

Lewis was about half way through when he heard a noise coming from a security door behind him, and then felt something cold and sharp, press against his neck.

"Don't move" came a short gruff voice "Forward, towards the fountain." the voice said, as he felt the sharp object, which Lewis guessed was some sort of magic spear, as he'd seen the guards using, press harder against his back.

Begrudgingly, Lewis started forward, mentally sighing to himself "This is gonna be along day.."

Meanwhile, in the Make-A-Friend stuffed animal shop..

"I want it to have dark brown fur and shiny blue eyes, like my friend here, and make it quick good sir!" yelled Lyra, once again catching the attention of the other customers.

"Lyra keep it down!" whispered both Milky and William simultaneously. They had to deal with a hyper active Lyra in a child's wet dream store. It was a nightmare.

First she wanted a bunny animal, then a bear, the a fish, then a bear again! Then she wanted two, but decided on one after throwing a good six or seven unstuffed bear, fish and bunny animals on the floor. Then Lyra had decided to model it after her new 'best friend' and thus, both Milky and William were stood behind a grinning Lyra at the dressing counter, where the bears would be dressed.

"Lyra c'mon, we have to go! I told them we would meet them at the fountain in ten minutes!" Milky whisper yelled to Lyra.

"Yea, yea just a minute! Its almost ready!" said an over excited Lyra, her eyes never leaving the bear as the employee's dressed it in clothes similar to the ones William were currently wearing.

William sighed, and with a heavy head he glanced outside the shop window. The whole mall was alive, like it's own little ecosystem, and William was rather enticed by that idea. He'd always admired nature, and all it had to offer, and even in this mall, the world it contained was alive and breathing and thus he believed it to be a unique part of nature in and of itself. He watched the many citizens going round doing their daily business, when something caught his eye.

A silver furred, lilac maned mare, standing near a security door. She was glancing round in a slight frenzy, almost like she was searching for someone.

William started to feel uneasy. He'd seen the mall security, and they certainly didn't wear all black camouflage. This was concerning to him, and without so much as a word, he left the shop, leaving Milky and Lyra alone. He failed to notice a second black camouflage figure enter the store immediately after he left.

Outside the eastern halls security room..

Hair Trigger was on edge. She had been informed by their youngest recruit, Rumble, that there were two ponies of great concern within the mall. "Envoys of the princess'" he'd said. Pff, like the princess' would send an envoy to the most undamaged section of Canterlot. What a load of rubbish. She had considered radioing back to tell him he was overreacting and was being an idiot when she'd got an almost immediate response from their leader, QuickHoof, telling them to remain vigilant. That the threat was very much real. She was now officially nervous. What kind of envoy caused their fearless leader to call an immediate shift in play style. careful, no rushing. This would, rather unfortunately, extend the time this would take to over 3 hours. Damn, she would have to send a letter to work explaining why she wasn't in today.

"Alright, i can do this." she said, kicking herself mentally for her hesitation.

Her job was simple, QuickHoof, had the security and announcements, Rumble had the hostages, and she had the perimeter, once rumble had the hostages and the announcement had been made by QuickHoof, he would then proceed to move from the security booth, to the main jewelry stores, raiding each one, leaving as little as possible. Her job was to remain alert and report any issues.

After all, she was the teams magic sniper user.

Her weapon was a simple golden barrel, with a stock at one end, a simple trigger for her hands, and a small magic cartridge for the rifle. The mechanism was super simple and even a baby could figure it out, but it took finesse to hit a target from over 200 meters without a scope. Luckily her team had her, the most successful sniper in all of bank robbing history, she held a record that went out to only those in the Friendship Games, the sporting event that occurred every four years. She had planned on being a part of it next year.

With only slight hesitation, Hair Trigger left her spot from behind the security door, heading towards the stairs leading up, every now and then, glancing at her wrist, flicking through the magic crystal cameras she placed.

"No one so far" she thought to herself as she began heading up. she failed to register William, shifting behind her as she went.

At the central plaza fountain..

Lewis had been sat on the edge of the fountain for over 20 minutes. The now recognizably young stallion who'd brought him there had wandered in the direction of a familiar Make-A-Friend store. He just hoped William was out of there, he would've hated for his backup to get caught too.

Lewis had been thinking of a way out since the stallion had placed him at the fountain, a small microphone attached to his collar, and some sort of small metal bomb attached to his chest. The orders were simple.

Stay put, don't move, don't make a sound.

"C'mon William" he thought to himself as he shifted his arms to a more comfortable position "I believe in you.."