Sunset helps... you know.
Sunset's eyes snapped open, then forcibly tried to close themselves again. What could have woken her up? She could've sworn she heard the sound of drifting tires.
She groaned and peeled herself outside of her warm, soft, comfortable bed, and moved herself over to her window. She leaned her face against the cold window, quickly jumping back off of it. She squinted at a blurry figure on her driveway. As her vision got clearer, she realized it was somebody in a hooded jacket. Then she noticed the hair. Rainbow Dash? She was headed to Sunset's door.
Sunset quickly put on her red slippers and stumbled down the stairs. Her hand turned the cold knob. Why was everything so cold? She swung open the door, to see Rainbow's fist bop her in the nose.
"Ow!" Sunset shrieked, gripping her face. "What gives?!"
"Oooh! I did not mean to do that!" Rainbow said, backing off. "I won't knock next time. I didn't know you are always creepily watching if someone is coming to your door..."
"No," Sunset said, still clenching her nose. "But I heard something and I woke up, then I saw you on my driveway, next to your car!"
"Oh no." Rainbow started. "That isn't my car, the white one? I'm not that lame."
"What do you mean it's not your car? Just, what do you want, I'm tired!" Sunset said, rubbing her eyes.
"I mean- well, it's a rather long story. Hop in and I'll tell you!"
Sunset looked bemused. "No!"
"What? Why?!" Rainbow said asked, confused.
"Look, come inside, and we'll talk about what the heck is going on." Sunset smiled, gesturing Rainbow inside.
"Um, no." Rainbow said sternly. "I'm in deep trouble, and I need your help now or never... c'mon, your my friend, right?"
Sunset shrugged. "Yea, but I don't understand why you're in such a hurry?"
"I'll tell you why, but I have no time now!" Rainbow looked back outside nervously. "Sunset, you don't get it. I need you! Remember that time you came over to my house because you needed help to get Twi-"
"Very well!" Sunset shouted. "I'll go with you! Just let me get ready, what should I bring?"
"Anything you'd normally bring to anything you do, everyday! Preferably your driver's license, ID, social security number, and, yea?" Rainbow smiled awkwardly.
"Oookay..." Sunset said slowly, jogging to get her purse, shoes, and jacket. She wondered what was going on. Rainbow comes to her house in a hood in panic, in a car that isn't hers, and she needs urgent help. There's a little red flag going up. It's probably okay. Rainbow probably didn't do anything drastic, and Sunset trusts her to be completely honest with her. Sunset finally quickly grabbed a bag of peach rings to go.
Before she knew it, Sunset was in the white junker car with Rainbow Dash. Rainbow started moving the car forward slowly, then stepped on the gas in a steady dash to get out of Sunset's neighborhood.
"Alright, since friends are always honest, I'm gonna be straightforward with you, okay?" Rainbow said. "I would hate to reenact one of those movies where the friend lies and ends up-" Rainbow stopped and stared at Sunset, who was in the passenger seat, eating peach rings.
"Yea, sounds good to me." Sunset replied casually, popping a peach ring in her mouth. "You can handle the truth?" Rainbow emphasized.
"Yes." Sunset repeated, a little annoyed.
"Alright." Rainbow took a deep breath. "I need you to help me rob a bank."
Sunset gasped and inhaled a peach ring, blocking off her trachea. She started pantingly choking until Rainbow slapped her hard on the back, sending the snack flying out of her mouth. Sunset gasped for air. "You what?!"
"Look Sunset, that was thrilling to see your reaction, but it's not that simple, see, I got into a bad situation." Rainbow explained calmly. "First, let me tell you the main rules on how this is going to work. If the cops drive by and ask for an ID, you give em' one, driver's license, let em' see it. Act like nothing abnormal is going on."
"Hold up." Sunset stopped her. "Are you using me as a backup?"
Rainbow laughed. "Of course not, Sunset! The reason I chose you is because we're closer than ever, we've been hanging out a lot lately, I put my trust in you." Rainbow backed.
"Okay," Sunset put her fingers on her forehead. "Just get it over with, tell me how you got into this mess."
Rainbow opened her mouth.
"We need someone... unsuspecting... and brave, someone that can act up, but who can deliver." The man in the cloak said to his colleague.
"Yes, someone average, someone we can use to cover us..."
"There!" One pointed. There was a rainbow-haired girl walking down the street.
"Of course!"
"So... two men in cloaks just grabbed you and told you to rob this bank or they'd kill you? Sounds... like something you made up." Sunset raised a brow.
"Uh..." Rainbow laughed nervously. "I didn't make it up, that's crazy!"
"Where'd you get the car?" Sunset asked.
"They gave it to me, told me I could use it in my heist." Rainbow said. "Probably stolen."
"Something about this seems fishy. Two cloaked figures grab you in public and force you to rob a bank for them, also giving you a car?" Sunset said.
"Yea, yea." Rainbow said. "Let's just get to my house to plan the heist."
Sunset rolled her eyes. Something was wrong. In fact, she knew it. Rainbow was a terrible lair, and there was no logic behind her story. Like, at all. But why would Rainbow lie to her?
Soon enough, they arrived at Rainbow's house, pulling in the car in her garage. Sunset was led downstairs, where Rainbow had put out a pool table, with an elaborate array of weapons and tools laid out on it.
"Okay, let's review what's going to go down tonight at 6:45 p.m." Rainbow said, showing Sunset to a seat on a couch. "We are first going to get there and..."
Sunset cut herself off from Rainbow's talking. She thought. Could Rainbow be pulling a massive prank on her. It seemed unlikely, but anything was possible. After all, this could just be a dream.
"...and then if needed we could use the M14-" Rainbow caught Sunset's gaze.
"Got a question?" Rainbow asked.
"Actually, yes." Sunset replied. "Rainbow, is this a joke?"
Rainbow tried to wipe the guilty look that was slammed into her face, but failed. "Um, no definitely not! Why would you ask me?! I suck at jokes!" Rainbow sputtered. Now Sunset knew what was going on. She should just play with it. "Okay, back to business! Any questions about the plan?" Rainbow asked again.
Or did she? Rainbow could be acting... it was hard to tell.
"Yea, could you repeat the plan?" Sunset asked sheepishly.
The time was 6:40, and Sunset and Rainbow were sitting in the car in the parking lot of Vegan Subs. Right next to it was a Canterlot District Credit Union bank. This location was not known for security, having to improve it after several attempted robberies.
What the plan was in the shortest summary possible was: Sunset and Rainbow would wait in the car until the 6:45. Once that time came, Sunset would casually walk to the back window of the bank and use the extendable binoculars Rainbow gave her to look inside and check the coast. She would then give a signal to Rainbow, who would hijack the back door with her complex sledgehammer. Then, once inside, Rainbow would signal Sunset to get in, they would find the safe, and- Sunset was pretty sure the joke would be over by then. She didn't pay much attention.
Finally, the time came for Sunset to get in position. As she walked, the thought ran through her mind that this couldn't be a joke, Rainbow could have been telling the truth, it just seemed like she wasn't. When Sunset got to the back window, she was faced with a problem. There was a gray shutter pulled down from the window. They weren't even closed yet! Then Sunset noticed Rainbow driving into the drive thru. That wasn't part of the plan. Then she caught Rainbow wink at her.
"Oh great." Sunset's face fell. She watched Rainbow talk to the teller for a second. Then, Sunset watched the shutters open. What the...?
Sunset looked inside. It seemed to be some kind of office. Inside, she saw a safe large enough to walk into. Hm. It looked pretty secure.
Then she heard banging. And cracking. It went on for a while. She kept silent. It was probably part of the plan.
She peered over to the car, then she saw a red light start flashing from inside the window, following it a loud alarm sound.
"Oh no..." She muttered, taking a glance around the corner to see that Rainbow had exited the car and had probably smashed the teller's window open. "This is not good, not good at all." Sunset paced. "It's okay... it's all a joke."
Her walkie talkie let out a loud and muffled yell. "STARDOWN, GET OVER HERE, WE'VE GOT A SITU-" After that was muffled white noise that Sunset couldn't make out.
She thought. What would she do? If this was a prank, she could go in and 'save' Rainbow and everything would be fine. If it wasn't a park, she would have to put herself in danger because of her friend's crime. On the other hand, if she dumped Rainbow, Rainbow could get in big trouble. On the other hand, Sunset could get in trouble if she saved her.
"There's not time for this!" Sunset yelled as she charged forward and skidded around a corner to see a broken open teller window. Bingo! She climbed in with much effort, and just before she was about to climb in, she felt a sharp jolt through her side, and fell back to the ground. Some kind of shock hit her. It must've been a security precaution. Sunset tried to walk it off and called inside the window. She used the codenames Rainbow assigned. "Aurora! AURORA!" Sunset called.
Silence.
"Oh no." Sunset yelped worryingly. She climbed with all her energy up the window, avoiding the metal bar on the seal. She felt an even stronger jolt though, this time falling ungracefully inside the bank, flat on her face. She could barely keep her eyes open, but she saw red laser pointing around the room, and a faint... faint... rainbow...
"STARDOWN!" Rainbow yelled. "Stardown? Stardown! You need to wake up unless you want to spend half your life behind bars..." Rainbow nudged Sunset forcefully.
Her eyes opened. "Rainb-" "I mean, Aurora! You're okay!"
"Yea." Rainbow was dressed in the black suit and face mask just as Sunset was, though Sunset's mask had fallen off. Rainbow picked it up off the ground and handed it to her. "You might need this."
In the flashing red loud environment, Sunset looked around. "What now?" She asked, quickly slipping on the mask.
"We have to hurry, I took out four guards with these." Rainbow held up a bottle of mace and baseball bat.
"Rainbow, what did you do?"
"Relax, they'll be fine, I just temporarily disabled them. Coach taught me how to do that. Heh." Rainbow grinned.
"Let's just get on with this!" Sunset said.
"Right! You may need to help me with the cracking of the safe. We better make it fast, the police are on their way." Rainbow said.
The two ran to the locked door of the safe room. Sunset looked at Rainbow. She held up a keycard and smiled, swiping it across the scanner. After going through, Sunset ran over to the safe and set up the supplies like Rainbow had showed her, connecting it to the safe.
"Is this right?" Sunset asked.
"It'll do." Rainbow nodded.
"Your sure you've got this?" Sunset asked.
"Yeah, it's just like that scene from Ant-Guy." Rainbow said, working with the equipment.
Sunset face-palmed. "Just hurry up. Are you sure those were security guards you took out?"
"Well they had tasers." Rainbow shrugged.
Then the sound of police sirens got louder and louder. "Uh... Rai- Aurora?"
Rainbow turned. "Yea?"
"The police." Sunset said.
"Yea, yea." Rainbow said. "We'll be fine." She said, still fiddling with the whole thing. "One wrong move, and we're screwed."
Why on earth was Sunset doing this? She didn't know for sure if this was one of Rainbow's jokes. Some instinct inside of Sunset told her she needed to get out, fast. Or she'd get in trouble with Rainbow. Or worse, she could be in jail half her life. Not a good idea.
"Rainbow. We gotta get out. Now!" Sunset shouted.
"Hold on." Rainbow said.
"I'm out!" Sunset shrugged, making a break for the exit to the bank, all the while police sirens getting louder. It didn't take long to find the front doors, and she realized it was a bad idea just after opening them. Two police were pointing weapons at her, standing next to a single police car. Lights off. But there were still sirens. More were coming. She put her hands up.
"Don't move!" One officer shouted, edging closer to her. Soon enough, both got close enough. "Turn around, your under arrest."
"Uh-" Sunset was lost for words. "Erm- permission to speak?"
"We're not your commander, ma'am, but you most definitely would benefit from shutting up, no matter how much you try to convince us it wasn't you. The safe thing for us to do is arrest anything suspicious on the perimeter. It doesn't help that your dressed in all black. But we can't call you a crook just yet. Tommy, check the rest of the compound for suspects, I'll be right with you."
After the police handcuffed her, one of them escorted her to the police car. I mean, they were surprisingly merciful, and the only thing Sunset was thinking about was what she was going to say in court. Why hadn't she just tranqed one of them? It probably would have made it worse. At least she had surrendered.
Just as another cop car pulled up, the officer shoved Sunset into the backseat without saying a word, making a hand signal to the driver of the other car. He quickly ran inside the building.
Rainbow half-suspected that Sunset would defect, it was just a part of her. But Rainbow knew what to do, and soon enough Sunset would be free. The number of cops to surpass didn't help, either. And now, Rainbow was stuck with the money loaded into the briefcase. She needed only 15,000 dollars, and she knew this bank had enough.
Her plan was to cover up her tracks and make it seem like Sunset worked alone. She'd been planning if this were to happen. If Rainbow were to be the one caught, then the police would find Sunset, giving Rainbow an open opportunity. Now, of course, she would have to find a way to release Sunset. After all, she had helped her in the long run.
"Tommy, check the rest of the compound for suspects. I'll be right with you."
That was Rainbow's signal. Escape was through the teller window, which she now realized was closed off by an iron plate that must have come down after the safe was cracked. Now, the only way to escape was through the other window on the other side of the building, but she would have to cross paths with-
"Freeze." The cop, Tommy, seemingly, had walked into the room too quickly. His gun was pointed.
Rainbow froze, as instructed.
"Hands up, off your weapon."
"What weapon?" Rainbow said softly.
"Don't make me-"
Rainbow's weapon fired from her utility belt. It was pre-pointed forward. In the same millisecond, she dodged to the left right before a quick pop issued from cop's gun, followed by a speeding needle-like dart. The cop was using a tranquilizer, just like Rainbow and Sunset. But Rainbow was too quick to celebrate, as she felt a sharp prick in her side, followed by an influx of cool, heavy material that flowed through her. It was strange. There were a few other pricks, but it felt all strung together. She noticed another cop enter the room right before her vision blurred away.
To be completely honest with herself, Twilight wasn't one to watch cable in the mornings, but it just felt right today. Usually, she would be watching her favorite show or be doing something much more productive, but again, today was Saturday. A for once lazy Saturday. Twilight didn't plan on doing anything, but that quickly changed.
Her initial reaction to what she on the screen as soon as she turned on the TV was that she was dreaming, but it also triggered a feeling in the back of her head. She watched with fascination. Sunset and Rainbow Dash's mugs were displayed on the screen, and quickly after, it switched to a reporter standing in front of a bank.
"Thanks Mark, here I am, actually at the scene of the crime. Last night at around seven o'clock two female individuals were caught robbing this Canterlot District bank. It was an interesting chain of events. A white Chevrolet Impala parked near the bank last night. The girls, both late teen-aged, triggered the bank alarm at 6:48 pm. Authorities say the girls smashed the drive-through teller window and made an entrance that way. The bank had closed just shortly before the robbery, so the front doors were locked. The police were able to shut them down upon arriving at the crime scene, but they say one girl was trying to get away. Both were non-lethally armed. Police won't disclose a solid reason for the robbery. Mark."
"Thanks Cassie, very interesting story. I-uh, guess those girls, uh, didn't check the-"
Twilight stood up abruptly and headed straight toward her car. She knew this was caused by her, but she thought Rainbow had it under control! Now she dragged Sunset into it? It was a long and complicated story, but Rainbow promised to not bring anyone else into it.
Twilight soon was on the road, driving straight to where she knew she could get help. It didn't take long to get there, and after about 5 minutes on the road she parked in front of an old-fashioned brick oven pizza joint. Once inside, she headed down the stairs that led to the place, the building being shared with a counseling office. The place was warm and smelled delicious, and was decorated strangely and unnecessarily like an alleyway 70s strip club. Twilight walked up to the main desk area, meeting a goth-looking teenager with a subtle fro-hawk.
"Welcome to the Pizza Bunker, take a seat wherever you'd like and we'll be- Twilight?"
"Come on, Ed. You know it's me, I need to talk to Gary." Twilight said. "This is urgent."
"You didn't want to eat pizza for once?" Ed grinned. His smile faded after seeing Twilight's expression. "Fine. Go ahead and get him. He's in his office."
Twilight walked past Ed and into the employee area. She passed through the kitchen and made her way to the back room. Behind the employee hangout was a grey door with an access keypad on the knob. Twilight still wasn't sure why Gary bought this for the door, but she knew the code nevertheless. She typed in the code and opened the door.
"Twilight." He looked angry as soon as her recognized it was her. Gary was an around 50 year old man with an uneven beard and typical smuggler look. He was sitting behind a desk, a small TV on in the corner, displaying Sunset and Rainbow's mugs. "I knew you'd be here, eventually. Otherwise I would have found you."
"Just cut to the chase. What do we do now? You promised you'd help if a part of the mission was endangered, and Rainbow is."
"Yes, I suppose she is. Plus, she needs to attempt getting my bills again."
"Oh, come on! This just seems like a lost cause! If we're going to find that code why can't we just track down someone involved with the Radiance?" Twilight shouted.
"Twilight, we've been over this!" Gary shouted back. "There's no tracking down one of their members! It's too hard. Each member is highly trained and won't talk. Plus, they all have tracking devices inside them which attracts backup from the rest of the agency. Do you want to help or not? I thought you were a good fit for this... No... we'll just have to contact our insider agents..." He was quiet for a second. "Twilight?"
"Sorry, sorry." Twilight said, shaking her head. "This just went from 0 to 100 fast."
"Great, just great. Sunset, you screwed us up. You screwed us up big time." Rainbow rolled her eyes in the back of the cop car.
Sunset just kept her mouth shut, because she didn't want any evidence pointing towards her.
On the other hand, Rainbow was talking away. "Y'know, you'd do yourself a favor by releasing us now."
The cop grunted.
"We weren't robbing the- Okay this is a lost cause." Rainbow said softer so that Sunset could hear. "New plan. We're busting out."
"Are you an idiot?" Sunset said, infuriated. "Just shut up!"
"I got us into this mess, I'll get us out." Rainbow replied confidently.
The cop chuckled up front.
"Come on." Rainbow urged
Sunset was silent. How could Rainbow be so stupid? And why did Sunset help her rob a bank?
Eventually, the cop parked the car outside the local police office, but they weren't ushered inside. Sunset and Rainbow were escorted into another cop car. Strange. They both were shoved in by the cop. There was already another cop in the drivers seat.
"Uh-" Sunset looked at Rainbow. She shrugged in return.
The car pulled out the parking space and took off. Soon enough, they were on the road. After a long silence, Sunset felt like saying something. There were going farther and farther away from the station. Where else was there to go? But she was cut off when the cop turned around.
"SURPRISE!"
Sunset gaped. It was Pinkie Pie.
"Oh, heck yes!" Rainbow pumped her fist. "I knew you'd help us!"
"Wha-"
"Oh yeah, Sunset doesn't know about any of this." Pinkie frowned.
"Pinkie, watch the road!" Sunset shouted, just as the car swerved to the right.
Rainbow was still psyched. "Thanks, Pinkie. I knew you'd be here. Just... tell the boss I can try again. I know what I did wrong and I can fix it. Not bring Sunset and focus."
"Why DID you bring Sunset?!" A voice sounded on the car's speaker system.
"Twilight..." Rainbow said nervously. "What's up?"
"You literally ruined everything!" Twilight screamed. "Now how are we supposed to-"
Suddenly a loud bang and crack sounded throughout the car. Rainbow peered back. "They're shooting at us! It's them!" A black van pulled closer to the car with people in black sunglasses holding out small guns. They fired again and again, and the cop car deflected the bullets, which were leaving nasty cracks in the windows.
"What is happening!?" Sunset screamed.
"Crap! We're under attack!" Rainbow said, climbing into the front. "Pinkie, roll down the window! Did you bring the AK?"
"Sure did!" Pinkie smiled, reaching down and picking up a brownish automatic rifle. She handed it to Rainbow, who rolled down the window just a crack. She started a pattern of poking her head up and firing through the opening, and ducking under for cover. Occasionally a whoosh would sound and a crack on Pinkie's window, and Pinkie's ducking was very delayed. Sunset just sat in the back, mortified.
"Aim for the tires!" Pinkie shouted.
"I'm trying, they have reinforced ones like us!" She shot some more, quickly ducking. "I need ammo!"
"That's it!" Pinkie said. "I think. Sunset, is there anything back there?"
Sunset looked around quickly but saw nothing on the floor of the car.
"Dammit, I must have put it in the trun-" Pinkie was cut off by a loud flurry of bullets ramming against the glass. One of the men had pulled out an AR. After the glass was harassed some more, it finally shattered violently.
"Get down!"
Though right after, the men poked their heads back into the van and closed the windows.
Rainbow looked up. "Turn ahead!" She screamed. "There are three infantry jeeps on the left end, so go right!"
"THIS IS A LOT OF EXCLAMATIONS!" Pinkie yelled.
Sunset looked behind the car, surprised to see a missile artillery vehicle, camouflaged and all, coming up behind them. "There's a missile car behind us, too..."
"This is not how I thought this day was going to go!" Rainbow said. "They're trying to shut us down. We can't let them end the alliance now!"
"Missile!" Sunset shouted. She looked to the sky to see a flock of... sharks? They looked like jets but she soon realized that they were too slow. There were four sharks above the car.
Pinkie slammed on her brakes, the missile hitting the road in front of them violently, knocking them back.
By now the sharks landed, behind them an army of military jeeps and tanks. The sharks had laser beams attached to their heads.
"Gah!" Sunset sat up in bed. "What the-" She peered outside, seeing no car or Rainbow Dash. "Thank goodness... What a weird dream."
Though back in the Pizza Bunker, Gary chuckled, facing Pinkie Pie. "Did we erase her memory?"
"Yes, sir!" Pinkie smiled. "She'll never know she was a part of this!"
"Good, but now... it's too late to pursue our old mission. We must face... the dawn of the sharks."
Author's Note
i was tired when I wrote this
