AUTHOR'S NOTE: To those of you I said would appear...wait for the next chapter . Remember the formula, recruits, mission, recruits, mission. Rinse and Repeat. Without further ado...
All according to plan
Carrot Top
Time: 2:30 AM
Location: Ponyville, The Joke Shop, same side-room as before.
Carrot Top cautiously entered the dim side-room. A couple of colts whistled flirtatiously from behind the young mare's flank as she ambled toward the single candle in the gloomy space. The vanilla pony sat herself in a plain chair, a few feet away from the lone, burning wax.
Seemingly from thin air; Mister Moneybags materialized into the seat opposite Carrot Top's. "Well, well, well…What can we do for you miss Top?" Moneybags' tone was kind and gentle, opposed to his usual narcissistic demeanor; probably because he knew he was dealing with a customer, and not another fledging.
Carrot Top felt the eyes of the stallions burning into her pelt, but with this in mind she pushed forward bravely. "I've an offer for your gang, Mister Moneybags." she expected the Mafioso would jump on the opportunity like a dragon on gold.
The boss humbly smiled, "Hey, Burn, get this fine young mare a drink will ya'?"
The addressed stallion (whose real name was Dante) seized two mugs in a magical aura and brought the two their beverages. "My name's not really Burn by the way, it's-"
"Shaddup Burn, she doesn't care." The boss informed the thug in a mocking voice.
Dante brushed off the crude remark with a harrumph and trotted back into the darkness.
Carrot Top lightly pushed the mug forward, "I'm sorry…I don't drink alcohol."
"What a coincidence…" Mister Moneybags chugged the contents of the beverage heartily, "neither do I."
The befuddled mare discovered that it was merely apple cider (which has little to no amounts of alcohol.) "My apologies, I thought-"
"You thought what Top? Did you think we'd try getting you drunk? We aren't that bad!" He barely stifled a snicker.
"No…but I should expect less than adequate from a pony that wears sunglasses at night."
"OOOooo…" Everypony clamorously bellowed.
"I'm with you!" Arkane bayed from the hidden crowd.
Mister Moneybags ignored the insubordinate's comment, "…touché, my amigo…so whaddya want?" he asked flagrantly.
Carrot Top drew in a small breath before she spoke. "As you know, Sweet Apple Acres has been a struggling farm for a long time. The apple family never had much of a booming affair until recently…I'm sure you've heard of the whole Flim-Flam incident already, ever since then the farm's fame has increased exponentially, as well as it's owners' income. I on the other hoof, own a failing carrot farm in close proximity to Sweet Apple Acres' expanse. And frankly, the place is bad for business, and my family's earnings are in decline because of ponies buying apple cider instead of our carrots."
"So since they're going up, you're going down."
"…Basically."
"So what're we gonna do? You want us to…" The spring-green mobster raised a crossbow from below the table, "take care of em?"
"NO!" Carrot Top shook the crude table violently as she pounded both fore-hooves on top of it, "I would never ask for that!"
"Okay, okay, calm down…it was just a suggestion."
"W-IT'S NOT A GOOD ONE!"
Axis calmly approached the bewildered pony from the side and placed a hoof on her shoulder, "Okay, well, I think we should all take a deep breath and-"
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" the panicked mare back-hoofed the jet-black pegasus, hard.
Sol stepped in between the two. "Hey, hey, easy now…let's not do anything stupid, like trying to fight an entire gang on your own. " said the rookie, carefully apropos of Carrot Top; his white face filled with anxiousness "we're not going to hurt you…or at least I won't, can't really say the same for Axis. After all you did kind of knock him on his ass."
"I'm about to bucking lose it Sol!" the fighter warned.
I'm sorry is any of this consoling working? I'm new at this." Sol shamelessly asked.
Carrot Top was struggling to catch her breath; it was so hard for her to impede the incoming tears. "I would never, ever, ask anypony to do that!"
"Then WHADDYA WANT!" Mister Moneybags was infuriated with the uncooperative mare.
"Just…I don't know…destroy it!"
"You want us to get rid of the entirety of Sweet Apple Acres?"
"NO! Maybe…The barn, that's where they keep all of their work animals and supplies, take that out and they'll be back to where they were in no time."
Moneybags paused…he was deep in thought.
Please…please don't refuse… thought the carrot farmer.
The spring-green gangster cracked a greedy smirk, "What's in it for us?"
Carrot Top had already predetermined what the pay would be. "If you do this…we'll split our total monthly earnings with you fifty-fifty."
"Sixty-forty,"
"Bu-" she was about to argue but realized she was in no position at all to do so. "Fine then, just get it done."
"O'course."
So Moneybags developed a practical plan of action for the herd's task. First, he split the gang into three small squads. The explosives team: Sol and Arkane; would infiltrate the barn and botch it with flammable oil and small explosives. The over watch team: Striker, Pyro, and Moneybags; would provide surveillance of Applejack while she is late-night apple bucking and warn the other teams of her movements, as well as handling the actual detonation of the objective (and serve as back-up if need be.) And the security team: Axis, Dante, and Doll Face; would make sure that the rest of the Apple family would not interfere with the job by keeping a keen eye on them inside of their house (though hopefully, they'd be asleep the whole time.)
Arkane
Time: the next night, 2:00 AM
Location: Sweet Apple Acres' Barn, dimly lit with Arkane's horn.
Sol and Arkane were halfway through their repertoire of supplies. The white pegasus threw another stick of dynamite on the pile "So…hehe, how did you get into this line of work?"
Arkane was a bit annoyed with the younger stallion, he would much rather focus on the job he was trying to get along with. However, he believed his curious co-worker at least deserved an explanation. "Tch, I've done way worse than this bud. I always hung around with the wrong crowd y'know, not that that's a bad thing! I grew up with this kind of stuff. Why?"
"Just tryin' to make conversation brony," Sol continued with another stick of dynamite in his mouth "I grew up like this too…well, I can't really say that! I mean we did shakedowns, small store break-ins and the like, but my bro's gang didn't do any of this arson bull-crap."
"Your brother was a godfather?" The unicorn asked.
"The best…until," He stopped talking for a mere second, before moving on to another subject. "Y'know what's weird?"
Arkane honestly could care less about what his co-worker thought was weird but asked anyway. "Jee, why don't cha tell me Sol?" He said sarcastically.
"We have televisions…"
"Yeah,"
"And we have enormous, bustling cities…"
"Uh-huh,"
"And Ovens, Hot air balloons and tons of other electrical equipment…"
"Eeyup,"
"But we're led by a princess, living in a castle, guarded by ponies in centurion armor, and the only form of gunpowder we have is in confetti cannons?"
"What's your point?"
"WHAT THE BUCK IS WRONG WITH THE SYSTEM?"
Dante
Time: 2:30 AM
Location: The Apple House, Big Macintosh's bedroom.
It was easy breaking into the house; the Apple family must have felt very secure if they kept all of their windows open. Dante was keeping watch over Big Macintosh in his bedroom; while Doll face had the same situation with Apple Bloom, and Axis observed Granny Smith's slumber. The workhorse was sound asleep. At this rate, we should have no problem at all, not that I couldn't handle this big lug if he woke up… Suddenly, a loud bark came from behind the black unicorn. The small herder dog known as Winona had discovered them. Horse apples! We didn't know there was a dog! He quickly materialized a colossal dark claw; smashing the poor dog into the opposite wall. Oh Celestia…that was close…
"Who're you?" Big Macintosh asked fiercely.
There was no point in making up stupid excuses, the only way Dante could stop this behemoth from interfering was taking him down, "Your worst nightmare!"
CRASH!
Axis
Time: 2:45 AM
Location: Granny Smith's Bedroom.
Axis heard the earsplitting break of a window coming from the other room. It was a mystery how the old Granny Smith could still sleep after such a noise. The curdling screams arousing from the violent fight outside nearly drove the jet-black pegasus to abandon his post. "Why am I stuck with the boring job?"
"WHO SAID THAT?" the frightened granny yelped in fear.
"Oh you heard that, you heard THAT?"
"What're yawl doin' in ma house?"
Axis wasn't exactly an esteemed Cloudsdale graduate, but he figured tricking this old hag wouldn't be too hard. "Right, well-"
BONG! The old mare hit the stallion in the head with a nearby frying pan.
The pain seared in his skull, "OW! What the- what's wrong with you?"
Granny Smith took hold of a kettle and once again smacked him upside the head.
"For the love of Celestia, please stop hitting me!"
"DIE, HEATHON!" she was now menacingly waving a glass jar between her hooves.
Axis had enough. "You think I won't hit an old pony? I'LL HIT AN OLD PONY!" the pegasus bucked the elder's face with all his might. She lost consciousness. "COME AT ME!" bragged the airborne gangster.
"Did you just hit ma granny in the face?" Apple bloom was standing completely still beside the open door, mouth agape.
"Uuu…no," Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!
"Ah thought yawl was hired to protect us from thieves."
The statement made sense when Axis saw Doll Face giving him the: you feather-brained dipshit look.
"Well you see there's a very good explanation for all this. First, UNCONSIOUS!" he sucker punched the blank flank without a second thought.
Doll Face's expression was a lazy one. "Wow…you punched an old, crippled pony and a small, innocent filly in one night. What, a guy."
"You're welcome."
Striker
Time: 4:00 A.M
Location: a small hill, just a mile out from the barn.
Where are they… it's nearly dawn and the cowpony's almost done. Striker steadily adjusted his crossbow's scope to the scuffle moving toward the barn. "Boss, you might wanna have a look at this."
Moneybags reared up behind the scope "Gah! Idiot! If that giant workhorse doesn't kill him, I will. Stay here!" the Mafioso rolled down the hill and into the trees.
Striker watched from afar as Dante was struggling with Big Macintosh.
Not only was the unicorn going up against the largest stallion in Ponyville, but he was hindered by his worry of killing the brute. And it was very possible that Macintosh had no such worry.
Now, Applejack was aiding her massive brother's assault, and Axis had also jumped into the fray.
The battle was large-scale. Trees collapsed from Dante's tempestuous dark claws reaching for Applejack; whom skillfully dodged every one.
At the same time, Axis and Big Mac were in the hoof-fight of their lives. It seemed every punch gradually drained the other's life. It was at this point Striker had an idea…an image. It was a nasty, evil, rancid image. If I blow up the barn now…then I'd kill the two still inside, but…all the more bits for me! He chuckled at the thought but first, hehe, I'll need this idiot! "Hey Pyro, could you come over here for a sec?"
Pyro stumbled on over with a cigarette in his mouth. "What?"
"See that barn…just look at all those…explosives!"
Pyro dropped the smoke, "y-y-yeah…"
"I know Mister Moneybags said that we should wait for them to get out but…well, I just can't help myself. Can you?"
"…"
"Come on buddy," Striker placed an arrow with a small rag covering the front. "Give me a light."
Pyro's entire body was shaking. "No!"
"WHAT?"
"No! I- I won't go back on the boss like that." Pyro turned around, lighting another smoke. "I can't go back…on my family."
"Well I'm sorry to hear that Pyro. Because now I'm gonna have to kill you." The earth pony mercilessly shanked the unicorn's neck.
Pyro fell onto his back, "Why…Striker…we were…family." Pyro choked on his own blood.
The stabs continued. Piercing the young colt's body until his whole body was an ocean of blood, guts, and stomach fluids.
Pyro
Time: just after death
Location: unknown.
Guys, Oh shit, I see a light. I see a bucking light I…I don't wanna die…I don't wanna die, I…I just met so many great friends…I…I know I could be annoying…and I know I got on every ponies nerves but…I'm not even sure, that, they got a chance to meet the real me…I…I really don't want to die…it's not fair…hopefully, the gang didn't think that I was such a freak…I just wanted to fit in…be accepted…ah shit I'm crying…I'm such a baby…I…I'm so glad…I met all of you…even if the feeling's not mutual…I'll miss all of you. Bye…pals.
Striker set the arrow alight and fired it straight into the barn, just as Sol and Arkane threw themselves out.
"SOL!" Arkane shouted to his comrade.
"I GOT YOU!" Sol lifted the unicorn in his hooves and flew for his life.
BOOM!
Next Time: more recruits...and what will become of Striker and the rest of the gang?
We're always looking for more ponies! R&R as always!
