The sun shined brightly over the bustling streets of Buckland, Trotting hooves created a low, deep rumble on the paved streets while ponies, yaks, griffons and all configuration of sentient creature filled the streets. It seemed the day would go about as regular routine as always, one could almost predict how the day would go, down to the children playing in the park. However, all of that quickly changed as the B.S.D, The Buckland Security Division, began to rush, fly and teleport around an unassuming bookstore...

30 Minutes Ago

With sunlight bathing over a plethora of well kept, lively flowers filling the bookstore with an array of gentle fragrances, Celestia's gentle, golden rays shined a warm light within the store through the windows.. The forest green walls that surrounded the main lobby worked to create a more relaxing, calm energy to the décor of the bookstore. Shelves upon shelves of books and magazines covered the walls and divided the center of the lobby into five clean, even sections. Upon entry of one of the five isles, a candle sat upon a dolly with the wick infused with a chemical to hint what lay within; Blue for horror or thriller, Pink for romance and erotica, Red for Action and/or Adventure, Green for Mystery or nonfiction and lastly yellow for short stories and children's books.

Connected to the back of the bookstore was the "Off-limits" area, which opened up to be both where they stored the surplus and very "Spicy and Unique" stories. But most importantly, was the hideout of the notorious syndicate 'Warflank'

A slightly overweight, plump earth pony was hard at work within the back of the store, refueling his very special saddle bag. His dirty blond mane, merely a few shades darker than his dark yellow coat, was tied up into a bun to keep it out of his shimmering, sapphire blue eyes. He was just in the finishing touches of loading all manner of munitions into the magical saddle bag , the first of a pair, when a sudden hum of wild vibrations broke his concentration. With a jump back and a wild "Crud!" that escaped his lips, the pony prepared for an explosion or feedback of some sort, since the magic that infused the bags was very much so unstable and experimental.

There was a low, steady drone mixed with the rapid, unsteady tickling of a duo pair of clocks that came from the bag. A n unsteady mixture of green and dark blue auras resonated from the bag, lifting it up shakily into the air. In a panic, the pony who was just working on the now alarming, vibrating ticking time bomb of an ammunition bag dashed up, leaped up and sprung off of what could only be assumed now to be the corpse of a train engine block, and shouted "Get down, ye spooky bitch!" before bringing his foreleg down and slapping the cloth bag onto the table it was previously on. With a rattling thud and a sound of teapots whistling and slowly losing steam, the auras around the ammo bag faded ever slowly and the item seemed to stabilize itself...at least for now.

Letting out a long, anxious sigh of relief, the pone who was originally working on restocking the satchel turned his focus to the grey stone, still vibrating and humming with magic. The stone in question held a very unassuming visage when it wasn't vibrating wildly. Though now, shaking and stirring with a familiar green aura, near yellowish-green runes ran across it's smooth, flat surface, resonating with magic. With a swipe of his hoof, the dark yellow stallion grasped the stone from the air and put the attached blue string that floated with the stone around his neck and let out a low, irritable groan. "This better be important. You almost made me-"

"The B.S.D are 15 minutes away from busting your walls in!" A panicked voice cut him off mid-complaint. Without getting a chance to ask the distorted, low droning voice spoke once more. "Roasty is in Trottingham working on a concert, Novella is over investigating on a possible warp point over at Applepalooza and Mako is in transit from Yak-Yakastan. Send Zero and Lilac home and get ready to have your asshole blown in, you're soloing a 'Level 4' Shitstorm. Good luck, Séance, You're gonna need it!"

With those abrupt and poignantly crass words of information, the stone's mixture of auras faded along with the greenish-yellow runes, returning the stone to it's original plain, smooth and abnormally silky form.

With a short series of blinks to gather his thoughts and process the rush of information the disembodied voice bombarded him with, Séance Blitz mumbled "Damn you and your network of information Ollie!" Rushing past the false wall and lifting the portrait of Twilight's Royal Coronation that lead to the storage room, Séance popped his head out of the door to look mainly at two ponies.

The first was a bleach white unicorn with crimson red accents along his short, messy mane. He had the same look in his eyes as a foal who got his hoof caught in the cookie jar after being told 'no' three times. Probably because he had a portable gaming console in his hooves, clearly playing a game when he was supposed to be working; stocking, organizing and fixing the shelves.

"Zero, you're fired. Come back tomorrow." Séance stated, a look on his face that mixed his minor frustration and questioning why he kept rehiring the pone spread across his face.

Zero shot his hooves in the air with an excited exclamation before putting the floating the console over into his saddle back and standing up, walking over to the rack and coating the bag in the same crimson aura the console was covered in a few moments ago. Slowly lifting the bag off of the hook on the wall, he wrapped the strap around the barrel of his frame and spoke with too much cheerfulness for someone who was just fired. "I'll get back to work on those books tomorrow, Séance!" With that, the bell over the front door rang and the unicorn spoke his fair wells to the purple mare before walking right out.

With a light sigh towards being so casually 'fired' again, Lilac turned her focus from the all too happy Zero's exit to her manager. She had only been working there for two years, on Zero's Six, but she had already gathered his next few words before he could speak them. "Let me just get my bags and help the last few creatures get their purchases verified, alright?" She asked with a cheerful, if not forced smile and air of positivity.

This was routine by now; Séance would pop up, ask herself and Zero to leave, round up the last few creatures in his store and close up shop only for some gas leak, electrical fire or some other 'disaster' to strike the building and cause the shop to close up for a month, give or take several weeks. Whatever caused him to go into these states of evacuation had her young, empathic mind curious that there was always more to Seance's dismissing everyone so suddenly.

Her mane sake coat, mane and magic was ruffled a bit by earth pony as she levitated her own saddle bag over to her back and made sure to clasp it around herself before taking care of the approaching customers who heard the bookstore was closing early. With a genuine, warm and assuring smile, Séance waved to lilac as he chuckled softly to her. "Thanks, Lilac. See you tomorrow!" He stated, which was confirmed with a quiet "Yeah, of course." From Lilac, though, even as those words left her mouth, she knew they were lies. Some tragedy would strike, the shop would be closed for a month and she'd be returning to work then.

She wanted to know why this kept happening, how he always knew what and when it would happen and why he kept it hidden from her all these years. Well, she wanted to add Zero into her group of 'being left in the dark,' but her feminine intuition said he really didn't care nearly as much as she did or already knew. With a resigned sigh, she focused on checking the patrons out and would be gone herself within 5-10 minutes.

10-15 minutes. That's how long Séance had to set up for the raid. Granted, Oliver always gave him a pretty substantial 10 minute grace period, but with how the assaults had been lately, he would need that grace period, especially now he was going into it solo. The stress was on and he would need to pull all the stops on this raid and possibly find a new base.

That was partially why he was alone now Roasty, Mako, Novella and Ollie where all busy looking for ideal locations to make their bases. They had the bits, hell, bits were never a problem for them. It was the golden rule for both heisters and realtor agents; Location, location, location. Hopefully, the others were striking gold, because the B.S.D had thrown him into shit rapids and he didn't pack a swimming suit.

Séance took a moment to recall the data Oliver relayed to him. "A Level 4 Shitstorm." That meant he would be dealing with Changling Clockers and their shapeshifting surprise attacks, Earth Pony "Dozers" with their near ton suit of armor, unicorn "Tazers" and their lightning binding spells, Pegasus "Shields" wielding their bullet proof, almost ten-foot-tall shield and every Tail, Rich and Furry they had to beat him down.

A weight like a stone sank to his stomach. They were no doubt sending hundreds if not thousands of guards after him. He even lacked the luxury of doubt, since they had yet to move their stash of Seventy-Seven-Million bits out from their vaults down stairs. Plus all of their equipment and belongings, that would be an all week job if they hurried. Looking upon the ammo bag, his high density, titanium mask designed as an Eastern red Tanuki, full Royal-guard-grade armor, his chain machine gun and his four tube rocket launcher, he steeled his nerves. He had to prepare himself for the shitstorm that was approaching.

Author's Note

I'm excited to continue this! Keep an eye out for my notes, cause I'll be posting each pone's load out here! Alright, Ramblers, let's get Rambling!