The Great Axeblade Sting Operation
Rusty Nails proudly stood in the living room of the old stone guest house. The room was decorated with traditional wooden furniture and antique lamps, the windows were shiny and clean, and the new floorboards hardly creaked at all. The other rooms in the house had received the same treatment, and they too looked as good as new. “Well, there you have it!” the old gray-haired contractor announced to his twin nephews. “Our work here’s done!”
“Let’s go!” Donald Axeblade exclaimed. Between the twins, he was distinguished by his shaved head and thick ginger beard. “Man, it feels good to be done. How long has it been, like, a year?”
“About nine or ten months, I think,” Rusty replied. “Still, it was initially supposed to take a year, so we’re actually ahead of schedule, thanks in no small part to you two. You really took a lot of weight off my back.”
Douglas Axeblade smiled. Unlike his brother, he had very long ginger hair tied in a ponytail. “It was our pleasure, Uncle Rusty. The year we spent at college may not have worked out for us, but instead we got to come out here and help you restore this place. This past year has been the time of my life.”
“It’s certainly been quite the year,” Rusty agreed. “Remember how rundown this place was when we started? I was surprised it hadn’t been condemned.”
“How could we forget?” Donald groaned. “It was so bad that we had to replace the entire floor. That was a huge pain in the ass.”
“Oh, yeah. And while we were doing that, we got mistaken for ghosts by Sunset and her friends,” Douglas chuckled. “That was funny.”
“Yes, except for the part where my old van went up in flames,” Rusty added. “That was just scary, and made me feel like an idiot.”
“But not half as scary as almost falling to our death on the Treacherous Way last month,” Donald remarked. “I’m still shaken up from that.”
“Well, at least Wallflower and I came to your rescue as soon as we heard,” said Douglas. “Speaking of which, meeting her was easily the best thing that’s happened to me since I moved here. I’m definitely not moving back home anytime soon.”
Donald nodded. “Me neither. At the very least, I want to be here for the grand opening of this place. When is that happening, anyway?”
“I think it’s happening on the Saturday two weeks from now,” replied Rusty. “The preservation society has already put up a bunch of fliers for it.”
“Great!” said Donald. “I can’t wait for that.”
“Same here,” agreed Douglas. All of their hard work would soon pay off in a big way.
The next day was a Saturday, so the students of Canterlot High had the day off. At around ten in the morning, Douglas met up with Wallflower Blush for breakfast at the Sweet Shoppe. Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy and Applejack were there as well.
“It feels like it was just yesterday that Ah was mistakin’ y’all for ghosts in the fog,” Applejack chuckled. “Ah can’t wait to see what the old house looks like now!”
Douglas smiled. “Well, you won’t have to wait for long. The grand opening’s only two weeks away. There’s a flier for it right over there.” He pointed to a piece of paper taped to the wall, advertising the old house’s grand reopening. It listed the address of the house, the date of the ceremony, and showed two pictures of the property in its newly restored state.
“I actually didn’t notice that when I came in,” Sunset admitted. “It looks great, though! You guys did an amazing job restoring it.”
“The woods around the house look wonderful too,” added Fluttershy. “Did you plant new trees there?”
Wallflower grinned. “We sure did! About a month after we met, Douglas invited me to visit the old house and help him replace the dead trees that the landscapers removed. We spent a couple of weeks there, planting new trees around the house and building a nice garden in the backyard. We go back there a few times each week to water the flowers and make sure everything is in place.”
“It’s our little passion project,” Douglas said with a smile. “We make the perfect pair, don’t we?”
Wallflower smiled and nodded at her boyfriend.
Just then, the door of the Sweet Shoppe opened and two young women walked in. Sunset and her friends had never seen these women before. One had light green skin, wavy pink hair, and wore a black beanie. The other had lavender skin and long dark blue hair tied in a ponytail. After ordering a pair of coffees, they spotted the flier for the old house on the wall, and walked over to take a look. “Ooh, this place looks nice!” remarked the pink-haired one. “Very fancy!”
“Yeah, I really like the furniture,” agreed the blue-haired one. “We should totally check it out.” They picked up their coffees from the counter, and then left the cafe.
“Well, it sounds like people are taking an interest in the old house already!” said Sunset.
“That’s good!” smiled Douglas. “Hopefully they’ll check out the garden too.”
“Now that this project is done, any idea what you and Donald will be doing next?” Sunset asked.
“We’ll definitely be staying here in Canterlot,” Douglas replied. “Obviously it’s far away from our home city of San Francisco, but it’s a really nice city and we’ve made a lot of friends here. We’ll probably continue working with our uncle until we decide what else we want to do.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” said Sunset. “From everything you guys have told me, you’ve really turned your life around since coming here.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Douglas agreed. “We’ve come a long way over the past year.”
“Both literally and metaphorically!” added Wallflower. She put her arm around Douglas, and he gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek.
Sunset smiled. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”
The following week was relatively uneventful. The twins didn’t have any work to do, while the girls were all busy at school. On Friday afternoon, Wallflower was walking home on her usual route. Further down the street, she passed by an alleyway between two brick buildings. She paid no attention to it at first, but then she heard a pair of voices talking heatedly. She peered down the alleyway and spotted two young women standing next to a small black van. They were the same two women who had been in the Sweet Shoppe the weekend before.
“I’m telling you, Ivy, this van isn’t going to be big enough!” growled the blue-haired woman.
“Oh, quit your complaining, Berry!” retorted the pink-haired woman. “My van is perfectly big enough for a few tables and chairs. If you don’t like it, you should have gotten your own.”
What are they talking about?, Wallflower wondered.
“Whatever…” Berry muttered. “Anyway, we’re doing it on Sunday morning, right?”
“Correct,” Ivy replied. “We’ll break in there after midnight, load up as many antiques as we can fit, and take ‘em all to the pawn shop. Easy as pie.”
“And we’ll make a fortune,” Berry snickered. “Good thing we spotted that flier in the Sweet Shoppe!”
“Totally!” Ivy laughed. “The people in charge of that backwoods place won’t know what hit them. Anyway, let’s get out of here. Don’t want anyone eavesdropping on us, do we?” The two women climbed into the van and drove away.
Wallflower couldn’t believe what she had heard. If these two women did what they were planning to do, all of Douglas, Donald and Rusty’s hard work would be ruined. She knew she had to inform them of the situation as soon as possible.
Wallflower soon made it home, and left her backpack on a chair in her room. She then headed back out the door to pay Rusty and the twins a visit.
When Wallflower arrived at Rusty’s house, she hurried up the front steps and rang the doorbell. Within a few seconds, Douglas answered the door. “Hey, Blushie!” he said with a smile. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here today. What’s up?”
“Well, there’s uh… something important I need to tell you,” Wallflower replied.
“Oh?” Douglas asked with concern. “What kind of something?”
“I’ll explain once I’m inside,” said Wallflower. “I think Donald and your uncle should know about it too.”
“Um… okay,” said Douglas. He moved aside to let Wallflower enter the house, and followed her into the living room.
Rusty and Donald were watching a history program on the TV when Wallflower sat down on the couch. “Hey, guys,” she said.
“Hey, Wallflower!” said Rusty. “What’s going on? Just decided to drop by for a visit?”
“Sort of,” Wallflower replied. “I overheard something on my way home from school today, and I thought you guys might want to know about it.”
“What did you hear?” Donald asked.
Wallflower took a deep breath. “Well, I passed by this alleyway where two women were talking to each other. They were discussing plans to steal furniture from an old house, and I think they meant the house that you guys restored. One of them mentioned the flier from the Sweet Shoppe. They were the same women we saw there last weekend, Douglas.”
The twins were shocked. “Wait, what?!” Donald exclaimed.
“Are you sure?” Douglas asked.
Wallflower nodded. “Yeah, I heard them pretty clearly. They said they were going to do it after midnight on Sunday, which is only two days from now. What should we do? Should we call the police?”
Rusty sighed and shook his head. “Calling the cops right now isn’t going to do much. Unless you managed to record the conversation, there’s no real evidence for them to go off of.”
“That’s true,” Wallflower admitted. “But seriously, when one of those women said they wanted to check the house out, I can’t believe this is what she meant.”
Douglas nodded in agreement.
“Well, I don’t want to just sit on my ass while some burglars raid the house!” Donald grunted. “If we can’t get the cops involved, I say we deal with them ourselves!”
“And how would we do that?” asked Douglas, raising an eyebrow.
“I say we do a sting operation,” said Donald. “We go there on Saturday night, and when the burglars show up, we take them down!”
“I guess we could try that,” said Douglas, “but it might be better to set a trap instead. That would probably be the safer option. We don’t know what kind of weapons these burglars might have.”
“Exactly,” Rusty agreed. “Something simple like a wire or a pit would probably do the trick. Either one would stop the burglars before they even get in.”
“I like that idea,” said Wallflower. “It’ll keep the burglars away, and no one will get hurt.”
“Well, I still like the idea of a sting operation,” said Donald. “But maybe only as a last resort if the traps don’t work.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Douglas. “Glad we’re on the same page for once.”
“If you need another idea, I’m pretty sure a solid portion of this city’s population still thinks the woods are haunted by your ancestors,” added Wallflower.
“Ooh, that’s a great idea!” Douglas laughed. “We can use that to our advantage too.”
The next morning, Rusty called a member of the Canterlot Preservation Society on behalf of Donald and Douglas. “Good morning, North. I wanted to let you know that my nephews will be stopping by the old guest house again tonight,” Rusty explained. “They’ll be checking to make sure everything is still in good working order.”
“All right, thanks for letting me know!” North Point answered. “Glad you’re making sure the house is in tip-top shape for next week!”
“Of course,” said Rusty. “You know me – I take a lot of pride in my work. Anyway, I just thought I’d give you a heads up. Have a good one!”
“You too, Rusty!” North replied, and she hung up.
Rusty put down his phone and turned to his nephews. “All right, I’ve gotten you the all-clear to go to the old house tonight. This way, when the cops show up, you’ll have an explanation for why you were there.”
“That’s good,” said Douglas. “Thanks, Rusty.”
“No problem at all,” Rusty replied. “I hope your plan works.”
At ten o’clock that night, Donald and Douglas loaded up Rusty’s van with all the supplies they would need. The temperature had dropped considerably after dusk, and a thin layer of mist hung over the city. Douglas was very careful as he drove to the outskirts of Canterlot. “This weather reminds me of last summer,” he remarked. “It’ll be good for us, though. The foggier it is, the less likely the burglars are to see us.”
The twins soon made it into the woods and arrived at the old stone house. The dirt road had recently been extended to include space for parking just beyond the house. Douglas parked the van at the very end of the lot, behind some trees and shrubs where it wasn’t likely to be noticed. He and Donald then got out and began unloading their supplies from the back. “So what are we thinking… tripwires for both doors?” Donald asked.
“Yep,” Douglas replied. “I’ll do the back, you do the front.”
Donald walked up the front steps, while Douglas hurried down the dirt path to the backyard. In front of each door, they set up a long, thin wire connected to a wooden mousetrap, which would snap as soon as the wire was touched. When he was finished setting up his wire, Douglas came back around to the front of the house.
Just off the side of the path, there was a sizable hole in the ground from where a dead tree stump had been removed. “If we made this hole a bit bigger, it would be perfect for a pit trap,” suggested Douglas.
“Good idea!” agreed Donald. “Let’s start digging.” He grabbed two shovels from the back of the van and handed one to his brother. They quickly began making the hole deeper and wider. When they felt it was big enough to trap an average-sized person, they placed a black tarp over it and coated the tarp with dirt to disguise it.
“And now we wait,” said Douglas. The twins crouched behind a large, dark bush at the end of the parking lot, and waited for the burglars to arrive.
“Ugh… where the hell is this place?” Berry grunted as the black van bumped along the dirt road.
“Just be glad you’re not the one driving!” Ivy shot back. “We’ll be there in no time!”
Ivy rolled up in front of the old house and stopped the van. It was only a few minutes past midnight. She and Berry climbed out of the van, each carrying a set of lock picks. Ivy was careful when shutting her door, but Berry slammed hers loudly.
Donald and Douglas were jolted awake by this sound. They peered over the bush to see two young women walking toward the house. “Oh shit, they’re here!” Donald muttered.
“Here goes nothing…” whispered Douglas.
“I’ll try the front door first,” ordered Ivy. “You go around and see if there are any windows to climb through.” As Berry began to circle the house, Ivy tiptoed up the front steps. She was about to reach for the doorknob when her foot caught the tripwire. Immediately, the mousetrap snapped shut with a loud bang that sounded like a gunshot, echoing all around the woods.
“Aah!” cried Ivy.
“What was that?!” exclaimed Berry.
This was the twins’ cue. “Who dares set foot on my property?!” Donald bellowed.
Ivy and Berry both went pale. “Who… who’s there?!” yelped Ivy.
“If you go anywhere near that house, we’ll hunt you down, make no mistake!” Douglas hissed in a sinister tone.
“So depart from this territory now, or face the wrath of the Axeblades!” Donald growled.
“Oh, shit!” Ivy shrieked. “They do exist!” She tried to run away, but wasn’t looking where she was going and smacked head-on into the side of her own van, knocking herself out cold.
“Ivy?” Berry called out. “What the hell’s going on?!” She hurried back around to find her partner, but ran onto the tarp and fell into the hole. She cursed profusely and tried desperately to climb out, but to no avail.
Donald and Douglas had seen everything unfold. “Well, looks like our plan worked!” Douglas chortled. “Let’s call the cops before either of them escapes.”
Donald pulled out his phone and did just that.
Before long, a group of police officers had arrived and taken the would-be burglars away. It turned out that these two women were Poison Ivy and Blackberry Thorns, a pair of thieves whom the police had been after for quite some time. Together, Ivy and Berry had made a career out of stealing valuable antiques and selling them on the black market. The officers were glad to have finally caught these elusive crooks, and thanked Donald and Douglas for their vigilance. When they were free to go, the twins got back into their uncle’s van and drove home for the night. Their sting operation had worked out brilliantly.
News of the twins’ act spread quickly. Douglas told Wallflower all about it the next morning, and Wallflower relayed the story to her friends at school during the week. The following Saturday, it was time for the old house to officially reopen. Sunset and the rest of the girls rode a bus to the west side of Canterlot, and then walked down the dirt road to the house.
“Boy, these woods sure look a lot healthier than they did when Ah got lost down here!” Applejack remarked. The dead trees that had once lined the road were all gone, replaced with newly planted oaks, maples and conifers.
“Well, Douglas did say he wanted to plant some new trees around here,” Sunset recalled. “It looks like he really went all out with that!”
When the girls arrived at the old house, they saw several cars parked in the lot, including Rusty’s van. “Wow, a lot of people showed up for this!” said Twilight Sparkle.
“And it appears Rusty Nails and the Axeblade brothers are here too!” added Rarity. “Oh, I can’t wait to go inside the house and see what they’ve done!”
“Me too!” squealed Pinkie Pie. “This is gonna be the best grand opening ever!”
At the front door, the girls were greeted by North Point. “Welcome to the grand reopening of the Canterlot Woodlands Guest House!” North said as she scanned their tickets. “We’re so thrilled to be able to open it to the public once more. Enjoy your visit!”
“We certainly will!” Sunset replied with a smile. She and her friends entered the newly refurbished living room, and were immediately very impressed.
“Oh, this living room looks simply divine!” Rarity exclaimed. “Why, they’ve even got a chaise longue just like the one I have at home! May I try it out?”
North Point smiled. “You can sit wherever you like.”
Rarity took a seat on the antique sofa and sighed happily. “Makin’ yourself comfortable?” chuckled Applejack.
“Why, yes I am, darling!” Rarity replied. “Why, if I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t have guessed this lovely place had ever been abandoned.”
“Yeah, Rusty and the twins sure did a great job fixin’ it up,” Applejack agreed. “Speakin’ of which, here they come now!”
Rusty Nails came into the living room, with Donald and Douglas following close behind. “So, what do you think?” Rusty asked. “Impressed with our work?”
“Absolutely!” replied Sunset. “It’s amazing how much you guys were able to transform this place in less than a year.”
“But most of all, we’re glad it was able to re-open on schedule,” added Fluttershy. “It would have been awful if those burglars had gotten in.”
“For sure,” agreed Rusty. “But thanks to my nephews, that didn’t happen!”
“Oh, yes!” said Fluttershy. “Wallflower told us all about it. You two were so brave – I don’t know what I would have done if I was in that situation.”
“Yeah, you guys were awesome!” Rainbow Dash chimed in.
At that moment, North Point came up. “I overheard you guys talking about your sting operation from last weekend, and I just want to say once again how grateful we are for it. If not for you, those burglars may well have robbed this house of all its furniture, and depending on where they sold it, we may never have gotten it back.”
“Ah, well, it didn’t take much,” Douglas said modestly. “Once we knew when the burglars were planning to strike, we just did what was necessary to keep them out.” He turned to his friends. “Anyway, do you girls want to come out back and see the garden? Wallflower can’t wait to show you what she and I have planted out there.”
“Sure!” replied Sunset. “I’ve been looking forward to seeing it ever since Wallflower told us about it.”
“Well, before you guys go, I want to share one more thing with you,” said North. “We haven’t been able to get it framed yet, but on that wall over there, we’re going to put up a picture of you three as a reward for all of your hard work.”
“Really?” Donald exclaimed. “Wow! Thanks so much!”
“No problem at all,” North replied with a smile. “It’s the least we can do to thank you. Those burglars thought they could get us, but the Axeblades got them in the end!”
Everyone cheered at that, especially Donald and Douglas, who were the happiest of all.
