Of Radiance and Sacrifice

Of Radiance and Sacrifice

Present Day

Vanhoover Rooftops

     “That’s his sixth pass in eight minutes”

     “Will he be a problem?”

     “No”

     Spitfire stood atop an apartment block directly across from the Bank of Arietis. She had been scoping out the joint for two hours straight, memorising the guard patrols and looking for any exploits that could be used. As of right now? More information was needed before the hit could be made.

     Spitfire lowered her binoculars and put on a pair of jet black shades. “We’re done here. I’ve seen enough.” Spreading her wings, she took flight, speaking into her foreleg strapped radio “Meet up at the waterfront”

     “Wilco” came the reply

     Nearing her destination, Spitfire slowed her descent and landed on the edge of a path overlooking the blue sea that surrounded Vanhoover. Placing her forelegs atop the protective railing, she took in the vista. It was quite a view. Boats sailing across the deep expanse, yachts moored on the boardwalks, the sound of ponies walking behind her. All the time spent as a Wonderbolt and she’d never taken the time to slow down and admire things such as this. Hell she’d never been to Vanhoover to perform a flight show either. All the things she’d been missing out on… As a Wonderbolt…

     That name… Despite the disdain that is brought to Spitfires mind, it still reminds her of some of the best memories she’d made. The shows, the friends, all the newbies she’d grill on their first day.

     “Now it’s all in the past” she mumbled to herself

     “And it should stay as just that. In the past.” Spitfire turned her head towards the voice. Frost. He took up a position next to her and looked out at the horizon. “Cling onto ‘what used to be’ for too long and it’ll eventually tear you up. Destroy you… But it’s never that easy, is it?”

     Spitfire gave Frost a questioning look causing him to audibly sigh. “You were thinking about them. The Wonderbolts.”

     “How… how did you know?”

     “Because I know it’s hard to let go of what you once were.” A pause. “And that it’s even harder to embrace what you’ve become” Frost extended his fingers and slowly flexed them. “But. The cards have been dealt, and now we must make do with what we’ve got.”

     Silence. Nothing but the sound of small waves crashing against the wall and hoofsteps from behind.

     Deciding to open up a little, Spitfire continued the conversation. “I always wanted to be an explorer”

     “An explorer? What do you mean?”

     “You know. Venturing into deep caves, running through temple ruins.”

     “Like… Daring Do?”

     “Yeah. Pretty much.” Spitfire turned to Frost “What about you?”

     “Me? Shit. Well, I always wanted to be a DJ.”

     “Lemme guess. DJ-PON3 style?”

     “Bingo.” Frost chuckled. He thought for a bit. “I wanted to live in Ponyville. Maybe do some collabs with her. Never could though.”

     “Yeah? Why’s that?”

     “Perhaps a story for another time. Cmon. The others are probably waiting for us.” Frost turned around and was about to take off before he looked over at Spitfire. She was still looking at the horizon. “You coming?”

     Reluctantly averting her gaze from the view, Spitfire joined Frost and took off.

     “So. What did you think of the bank?”  Frost asked

     “Well, Luna will be pleased to know that the job is doable. Provided that we have the right tools and equipment along with more information on the infrastructure and response time of the local PD.” Spitfire was a bit unsure.

     “Right. You sound a bit concerned”

      “Sorry if I sound a bit undetermined but I usually raid shipments being run by thugs not state of the art banks with rapid response units on standby.”

     “Point taken. There.” Frost pointed towards the building the crew had taken refuge in during their stay. A small motel on the edge of the city. They both dove down and landed on the second floor. Room 17. Frost opened the door and stepped aside allowing Spitfire to enter first. “After you.” He gave a little bow.

     Spitfire snorted “Smart ass.”

     When they were both inside, the door was closed.

     Vinyl poked her head out from behind the kitchen wall “Oh hey! You’re back. How’d the scouting run go for you’s?”

    Spitfire stared at the awkward way Vinyl had her neck out “Fair enough. Did you and AJ find any information on the bank?”

     “Yup.” The three of them walked to the middle of the room. On the wall were numerous bits of information and pictures. Blueprints, times, equipment. “Turns out, being the figurehead of a notorious mafia family has its perks” Vinyl looked over at Applejack who sat in a chair and gave her a wink. “She also brought some leftover bits from her recent sale… well, attempt at a sale.”

     Vinyl turned around and looked towards Luna next to the kitchen counter “You better not be doing anything without me, Luna!”

     Luna scoffed as she mixed flour and milk with a whisk “Would you rather have something to eat or no food at all? You keep getting sidetracked, Scratch. Besides, i've already written down the recipe for you.”

     “Yeah well, it never hurts to watch somepony else do it. Where did you learn to bake anyway?”

     Luna thought back “Frost taught me. Back when things in the castle were pretty… uneventful, I went for a little midnight snack. I was caught in the act by none other than black and red himself. One thing lead to another and… I became a novice baker, thanks to him.”

     Frost spoke up “You're a novice no more, Luna. You're probably better than me.” Trying to think of something funny to say, Frost said “Maybe we should rethink our whole plan. How about you bake cakes for Celestia! Then boom! Kick her out right there and then”

     Spitfire sighed at his attempt at a joke. Luna decided to make an effort and put on a regal accent “Impossible! Thy sister doth trust us with the royal cake!”

     Everypony shared a laugh at that. Even Applejack had a chuckle.

     Eventually, everyone calmed down enough to continue with their work. “That should be fine. Leave it in the fridge for a bit and it'll be ready in a day or two.” Luna levitated the bowl of mix into the fridge. After cleaning up the mess and grabbing a tray of sandwiches, both Luna and Vinyl joined everyone else in the centre of the room. Luna laid down on the bed, Vinyl took a position at the foot of the bed in between Frost and Spitfire, laying her head against the former's neck. And Applejack moved her chair next to the group and sat on it.

     In a matter of seconds, the sandwiches were gone.

     “So, ya got your information S. What's your take on tha task at hoof?” Applejack asked

     Spitfire studied the wall of knowledge intently. “What's the response time?”

     “5 minutes. Tops.”

     “That's not what I wanted to hear. But, we'll make it work. Somehow. What about the vault doors?”

     “The first door leading to the stairs down to the vault itself can be opened from outside, but it takes a lot more time than being opened from inside. The second door has a retinal scanner. Most likely assigned to the manager.”

     Spitfire scratched her mane in frustration “Fuck this new age shit. Things used to be much simpler back then. So we’ll need to be quick about it with a hint of subtlety.” She rubbed her chin with a hoof “I'm thinking we find the manager and get some guard uniforms, right. Luna poses as the manager and Frost and I go with her as guards. Luna scans in and boom. We're in.”

     “Mind you that I can only mimic the body not precise details in the eyes.” Luna lowered her head. “Sorry.”

     Spitfire groaned “Alright. We get that far and blow the secondary door, grabbing as much as we can. By then, the cops would have surrounded the place and will be in the middle of opening the first door. So then we quickly place a charge on the wall beside the stairs and blow it. The hole will lead us to a sewer that can take us outside the bank. From there, we run because flight isn't an option. Snipers will probably be positioned on surrounding buildings. But…”

     “But what?” Luna questioned

     “But even if we move fast, it won't be enough. We’ll get swarmed as we're leaving. So…”

     “So what you're sayin is ya need a distraction.” Applejack finished for her.

     “More or less. Any ideas?”

     The group was silent, deep in thought.

     “Vinyl” Frost mumbled

     “What? Me?” Vinyl was confused

     “Our problem is that the PD is too fast, right?” Spitfire nodded. “So let's delay them.” Frost said plainly

     Vinyl raised her hoof “Uh, what do I have to do with this?”

   “It's simple. You host an event near the bank. All of Vanhoover knows. Things go well. Then shit breaks loose, one big brawl. The crowd cuts off the cops from getting to the bank and law enforcement will also have their hooves tied trying to restore order on their streets. We can even use the crowd as an exit strategy.”

     “That just might work. A few more things and we might have a whole functioning plan.” Spitfire looked from left to right, staring at each pony's face “How the fuck do we sneak bags into the bank. And how do we fit and carry 5.3 million bits?”

     Luna tapped her horn “Magic, my little pony.” Spitfire just mouthed ‘oh’. “You also forget one key element. Exfiltration.”

     Spitfire shook her head “Exfil? Oh yeah. AJ, would you be able to get your hooves on a train?”

     “I can try.”

     “Cool. So once we’re topside, we move through the crowd and make haste for the train station, where AJ will be waiting. From there, we take the train through the Frozen North so they can't follow us. We jump off at a certain point where we’ll have a set of wheels waiting for us, then we go back to Manehattan and swim in a pool of bits. Sound good?”

     Yeahs and yups of approval were heard through the room.

     “Aight. Vinyl, get to making an announcement about your performance in Vanhoover. Applejack, find us a train. Frost, get us a set of uniforms. I'll find information on the manager and source explosives. And Luna?” Spitfire eyed her up and down. “Keep making those sandwiches.”

     Spitfire clapped her hooves “Let's go!”

Meanwhile in Ponyville

     Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle sat around a table in the dining hall of Twilight’s castle.

     “And with those to the east sending materials our way, we can further the development of our new machines.” Twilight levitated a glass up to her muzzle, taking a few sips. Lowering the glass, she looked towards the door behind her “Shouldn't they have arrived by now?”

     “With their line of work, delays are to be expected, Twilight” Celestia said simply.

     As if on cue, the doors opened to reveal two ponies. One was an earth pony named Octavia. She was wearing a black dress and had a pearl necklace on.

     The other was a blue-grey coated pegasus named Velocity. She had a light grey mane with dark grey highlights. Her cutie mark was half a heart and the other half a feather. But unlike Octavia, she wasn't wearing a dress.

     “Apologies on our late arrival, princesses. But somepony thought they needed to dress the part.” Velocity turned her head towards Octavia

     “I beg your pardon! This is a very formal occasion. And so I must wear the proper attire.” Octavia countered

     “Whatever”

     They both moved to the table and took their seats. Celestia levitated a knife and cut the food on her plate. “How fares the meeting?” She asked

     “Could've gone better” Velocity remarked

     “Quiet you.” Octavia glared at Velocity “It was splendid. We have two ships headed for Vanhoover.”

     Celestia smiled “Lovely. Whenever possible, I want the both of you to head to Vanhoover when they arrive.”

     “As you wish, princess.” Octavia gave a little nod.

     “Duly noted.” Velocity saluted.

     Twilight finally spoke since the two arrived “Velocity? Take something small with you. Not a rifle this time, hm?”

     “Eh, no promises there.” She gave Twilight a smug look. “Oh, almost forgot. Soarin wanted me to tell you that he's having a bit of trouble at Wonderbolt HQ, so he won't be showing today.” Velocity stretched her wings.

     “Have you any clue as to why?”

     “Nope.”

     “Well, we wish him the best of luck then.”

     A bead of sweat trickled down Luna's neck. Of course, no pony knew it was her except for the two guards flanking her sides. She was the bank’s manager: unicorn, brown coat, grey suit.

     No one paid the group any notice as they moved through the second floor of the building. With no pony around, she whispered into the earpiece she had on “Are you positive this will work, S?”

     “Definitely” Spitfire reassured Luna  “She makes a check on the vault at 10am everyday. She usually acts…. jovial. Just try that. Also, the guard in front of the first door, his name is Carbon Gate.”

     “Right.”

“Jovial she says” Luna thought to herself

     They descended the stairs and walked passed ponies talking to tellers and others sitting around and passing time. Luna looked towards Frost as they walked. He had his eyes straight, a lifeless expression on his face. Just as they reached the door, Luna bumped Frost’s shoulder with her foreleg “Hey. No need to be so tense. Loosen up man.”

     She turned to face the guard in front of the door “Good morning Carbon” Luna greeted with a simple smile.

     “Morning, Miss Charity.” The guard, Carbon, looked over Frost and Spitfire. “Newbies eh?” He asked

     “Yes sir” Frost responded “My mothers really hoping that I do well in this line of work.” He sounded way younger than he actually was.

Carbon chuckled “Don't worry son. You’ll be fine.” He looked down at the watch strapped to his foreleg. “You're an hour earlier than I expected” Luna's heart froze “But, must be a very busy day. Just trying to get everything out of the way, huh?”

     “Yeah, you know how it is.” Luna replied

     “Right.” Carbon tapped a button on the radio on his shoulder “Hey. Miss Charity is making a check. Open er up.”

     “Copy” came the reply. Instantly, the door made clicking sounds and slowly opened. They stepped inside and instantly, the door closed behind them, locks clicking into place. They made their way down the set of stairs and at the bottom was the giant vault door and a guard booth to be left.

     The guard nodded towards Luna in a greeting “Charity.” Luna reciprocated the gesture “You know how it is. Step up to the scanner when ready.”

     Luna looked at Spitfire who nodded towards the scanner. Luna walked forward placing her eye in front of the machine on the wall.

     “Scanning” the machine quipped

     “Error. Unknown user”

     The guard looked at one of the screens in his booth “That can't be right.”

     Two silent shots rang out through the silent space. Said shots hit two cameras in the room, one by the vault, the other by the stairs. The shots were followed by a dull thud. Turning around, Luna saw Spitfire with a silenced pistol in her hoof and Frost standing next to the guards prone body.

     “You said nothing of this!” Luna exclaimed, pointing a hoof at the body.

     “Yeah? Neither did anypony else.” Spitfire chucked two plastic blocks at her. “Put those there and there” she pointed at certain spots on the door. “Frost. You got his radio?” He lifted the item up and showed it. “Good. V, how we doing up there. You ready?”

     Vinyl’s voice came through the earpiece “As ready as I'll ever be. My people are waiting for the signal.”

     “Aight. Everypony get back.” They took cover behind the guard booth “Detonating in three… two… one…”

     The explosion shook the entire building, the vault door blasting open. “Let's go!” Two duffel bags appeared, each strapped to Luna's sides. She entered the vault and stood before piles and piles of bits. She began levitating massive chunks into the magically enhanced bags. The enhancements made them infinitely bigger and so they had no weight to them.

     The radio in Frost’s hoof cracked to life “CB, what was that?” Nopony made a response “CB? The cameras are down. What's going on in there?” Again, nothing.  “That's it. We are sending ponies down.”

     Spitfire grabbed the radio “I wouldn't do that if I were you. That door opens, we start executing hostages.” She said coldly

     She held it near Frost who put on his fake, young voice “N..no! Please, please don't kill me!” He mouthed the words ‘hit me’ to Spitfire who obliged, striking him with a hoof. He fell to the ground, yelling in pain. Fake pain.

     “Shut it kid!” She yelled

     Carbon’s voice came through the radio “Ok, ok. Don't hurt them.”

     Spitfire chucked the radio on the ground and Frost smashed it to pieces with a hoof. They both stripped off their clothes and put on their usual outfits. Spitfire with her vest and shirt with a bandana. Frost with his cloak and face mask. They moved into the vault to help Luna.

     As they were shovelling bits into the bags, Vinyl’s voice was heard.“S, the response unit is in front of the bank but the crowd is blocking their path. They're on hoof and pushing through now.”

     Spitfire tossed another explosive charge, this time at Frost “Place it on the wall by the stairs.” He took off.

     Just as Spitfire and Luna finished with the bits, an explosion came from outside the vault. They stepped out, walking towards the new hole in the wall. Strapping one of the bags around herself and tossing the other towards Frost, Spitfire took off down the tunnel. “Move it!” The others followed suit. After they had trotted to a safe distance, an explosion was heard back where they came from, sealing the tunnel

     They ran through the seemingly endless tunnel till they came to a stop at a point where the tunnel intersected into another. “Aight. This is where we split up. We meet at the location. Got it?” Spitfire questioned. Each pony gave a nod. Luna turned and took off down the tunnel to the left, disappearing into the darkness. Spitfire was about to take the tunnel straight when wet hoofsteps could be heard from where they had came from. It was just one pony, walking down the middle of the tunnel.

     Frost took off the duffel bag, gave it to Spitfire who nodded in understanding and watched as she ran off into the distance. He turned to face his new opponent. They kept walking until they were in rays of sunlight shining through a sewer grate. The light showed a pegasus mare with a light-grey mane and dark-grey highlights. Her blue-grey coat and blue eyes shining in the darkness. Frost looked across her form and noticed she had a tan body armour vest on with a patch on her shoulder that depicted a sword with the sun behind it, embers materializing from the patch.

     “Do you have any idea who you are stealing from?” Velocity asked, her voice echoing off the tunnel walls

     “Yes. I do.” Frost stood up on his hind legs in a battle stance. “Very much so.”

     Velocity also got into a battle stance, albeit on four legs, not two. She charged him, her hooves hitting the water as she did. She jumped into the air, bringing her hind legs forward to kick him.

     The sound of splashing water and yells filled the tunnel as the two of them fought, swinging their hooves toward one another. Velocity was trying hard to take down Frost but he was just blocking every punch she threw. This went on for five minutes straight.

     Deciding he had bought enough time for Spitfire and Luna, he kicked Velocity in the chest, knocking her down.

     He sighed “ I hate to hurt nice mares like you. But, I gotta fly.” He spread his wings and took off down the right tunnel. Velocity got up and flew after him.

     The sound of sirens could be heard as Spitfire stepped out of the tunnel and into the Vanhoover train station. Getting off the tracks and stepping up to the platform, she kept her head low as she moved through the dense crowd waiting for a train. The crowd, however, wouldn't be getting a train. In wake of the robbery at the Bank of Arietis, the local law enforcement locked down any forms of transport entering and/or leaving the city. That meant there were guards and police watching every citizen and train in the station. Any unauthorised movements and they would be on it in an instant. Same goes for flying above the crowd.

     “A, where are you?” Spitfire spoke into her earpiece.

     “Platform 9” Applejack responded. “Watch out ya hear? Em guards are onto ya. Two of em followin close behind.”

     Spitfire turned her head slowly and saw her stalkers among the crowd. She pushed through the crowd quicker, slightly picking up her pace. “Start her up” the train was in sight. Just the engine and one carriage. “Get moving.” The train started to inch away from the platform. Reaching the platform beside the train, Spitfire broke out into a gallop, staying among the crowd so that the guards couldn't shoot her. She kept galloping but was running out of ground. As the edge came into view, she leaped towards the carriage, just making the jump. Opening the door, she ducked inside, hitting the ground as bullets flew through the cart windows.

     The train smashed through wooden posts at the exit when Applejack decided to ask a question “Where's F?”

     “There was some rando bitch in the tunnels. Definitely not a local.”

     “Ah see”

     The train left the station and was above ground, accelerating through the city, at high speeds and climbing. Applejack yelled “They got sky carriages!” Single bullets started to rain from above, snipers upon the carriages taking pot shots. Spitfire smashed one of the windows and leaned out, shooting at the enemy. The train steamed on, now crossing a massive bridge that led to the outskirts of Vanhoover, vehicles positioned at the end of the bridge. Vehicles that were easily smashed upon impact. It kept going, entering the mountainous area of Galloping Gorge. There were vehicles following alongside the train on the dirt roads but they couldn't keep up.

     The sky carriages also bugged off, unable to navigate the gorge safely. They had reached the home stretch, the Frozen North’s white mountains were in view and closing in fast.

     “We've done it!” Applejack yelled

     “Yeah!” Spitfire celebrated from inside the carriage. A thud came from the roof “yeah?” Another thud followed by a battlecry from a female. “What the?” She stepped outside and peeked into the roof. The first thing she saw was another mare's flanks. “Not bad” she thought. The second was Frost. She was about to grab her pistol when Frost shook his head.

     The train had entered the chilly conditions of the Frozen North, both the wind and flakes of snow pelting them. Visible breath being drawn from their muzzles. The two stared at each other for what felt like forever. Then, she lunged at him. In an instant, Frost blocked the punch and countered by hitting her side, just above the wing joint, leaving her reeling towards the edge of the cart. He jumped towards her, drop kicking her off the back. He too went sailing off the edge but not before Spitfire caught his hoof “Gotcha.”

     She pulled him up onto the platform. “Come on. I don't want to freeze to death after all the shit we've done.” At that, they stepped inside.

     Velocity laid in the snow, watching as the train sped off. Getting up, she toggled the radio on her shoulder “Helios, this is Ember 2-1. Do you read?”

     “Roger that Ember 2-1, we read you. What is the status of the train?”

     “Still mobile…”

     “Copy, Ember 2-1. Are you able to pursue?”

     “Negative”

     Silence.

     “Copy. You are to RTB via Hightail at Vanhoover airfield, how copy?”

     “Solid copy.”

     “Helios will be reporting the mission status to Helios Actual.”

     “No… I'll report to her myself”

     Again, silence.

     “Affirmative, Ember 2-1. Helios out.”

     “Roger, Ember 2-1 out.”

     Velocity hit the button on her radio and walked down the track back to Vanhoover.

     “Fuck.”

     The train began slowing down. Applejack opened the door to the cabin “This is us.” Spitfire and Frost nodded in understanding, grabbed the bags full of bits and made way for the back door, jumping off to the side. The train started to speed up a little as Applejack jumped off the engine. Almost immediately after hitting the snow, she saw where the vehicle they had stashed was. Covered in a light layer of snow and leaves, it revved to life as Spitfire drove it out.

     “A while back, a friend of mine got his hooves on one of these. A 4x4 he called it. An experimental prototype vehicle for Celestia’s military. Capable when off-road.” Spitfire ran her hoof over the steering wheel. “Don't know how he got it, nor do I really care so don't ask.”

     To Applejack, the thing looked almost futuristic but to Frost, it was modern. They climbed into the seats as it took off, weaving through trees and smashing through snow mounds.

     Luna and Vinyl Scratch stood next to each other in the tower they would soon call home. It had been a few days since the heist took place and now they were waiting for their friends to return. As of now, they were exchanging some details about their past.

     “I'm not gonna lie. I actually liked him. You know, like liked him. But then another mare got to him first and they wanted to settle in Ponyville.” Vinyl slouched and sighed but perked back up instantly “What about you? Anypony you've ever fancied?”

     Luna was silent. “Well… there was this one stallion tha-”

     The door hinges squeaked. They both turned around and found Applejack, Frost and Spitfire walking through, AJ pointing her head to the next room, signalling for them to follow. Once they were all inside, the duffel bags were placed on the table.

     “Five point three million bits. All in those bags” Spitfire mused.

     AJ stepped forward “Our first priority should be setting ourselves up with some place we can run things from.” She scratched her chin in thought “This place should do.”

     Frost stepped up to the table and out of nowhere, pulled out a bottle of champagne with five glasses “Hope y'all don't mind but I feel like we should be celebrating.” He popped the cork and filled each glass. Everypony grabbed one and raised their glass with their hooves, fingers or through magic.

     “To us!” Frost exclaimed “Harbingers of the New Lunar Commonwealth.”

     Everyone clinked their glasses, cheered and took a sip.

     Things were beginning to be set in motion.