Chapter Eleven:
Stage Two: Weapons and Ammo
Twilight dipped her head under the sink nozzle, letting the cool water run through her mane and down the sides of her body. She watched as all the blood and filth that had accumulated in her mane from the days work mixed in with the dirty water and swirled down the drain. Whit a sigh she lifted her head out of the sink and shook it until her mane was all dried up. She then gave herself a quick glance in the cracked and grimy mirror above the sink. She barely recognized herself; her mane was unkempt and tangled, her eyes were heavy and bloodshot, and her violet color seemed muted and dull, as if Discord had once again corrupted her. Unable to see herself like this for too long, the unicorn quickly turned away and trotted out of the bathroom.
Her friends were all spread out around the factory floor, resting and relaxing, They were all seriously worn out, it had been one hay of an experience getting this place cleaned up. Applejack, who had come back about a half hour ago was the only one who was on all fours. She had come in carrying a black saddle bag next her flank. Its contents included six sets of black ski masks and a couple rolls of black tape. Pinkie Pie was already digging through them excitedly. She pulled one of ski masks over her head and gazed around the room with exuberance.
"Hey, look at me, I'm Mare Do Well again!" She cried happily.
Rainbow Dash, who had been lying on her back and staring blankly at the ceiling, face-hoofed hard.
"Please, Pinkie, don't open up that wound again," she moaned.
"Aw, are you still embarrassed about that, Dashie?" Pinkie asked.
"What did I just say?" Dash snapped. "Drop the fucking Mare Do Well thing already!"
"Dash, take it easy, will you?" Twilight pleaded. "And Pinkie, please stop teasing Rainbow Dash."
"Sorry, Twilight," Pinkie said, smiling widely through the mask. "I'm just really enjoying myself. I mean, this whole thing is coming together so well, it's kinda exciting!"
"Yeah, yeah, we know, sugarcube, this is all a big party to ya," Applejack said a little irritably. "Not sure if these here masks'll be enough, but it was the best Ah could do."
"You did fine, Applejack," Twilight assured her. "As long as they can't see our faces or cutie marks they won't be able to identify us easily. Rarity and I will probably need to cut an extra hole for our horns, but that shouldn't be too difficult."
"I hope she's okay..." Fluttershy said in a hushed voice. "She's been gone for a while now."
"Fifty bits says she's sitting in a corner somewhere, crouching in the fetal position and crying like a foal," Dash muttered.
Twilight sighed with annoyance.
"Dash, have a little faith, will you?" She chided.
"Sorry," Dash murmered. "It's just... are you sure she was the best pony for this job? I could've taken care of it in a matter of minutes, even with my wing hurting me like it is."
"She's known Manehatten better than any of us," Twilight said. "Besides, I'd hate to think of what you would've ended up doing to get those plans. At least Rarity wouldn't resort to burning down the building or something."
An awkward silence followed. Dash took slight offense to that statement; she was no barbarian, no crazed pyromaniac who would would torch an entire building full of ponies just for some blueprints, even if it was for something as important as this robbery. She was sure Rarity was the same way, but still... there were things Dash felt she could've done that Rarity couldn't. Not wanting to start another scuffle, though, Dash decided to change the subject. Turning her head, she saw the empty, crumpled up McDerpy's bag lying inconspicuously off in the far corner of the warehouse.
"Can you guys honestly believe what happened to Derpy?" She said quickly.
Though they were a little taken aback by this sudden change of subject, the others managed to smile and chuckle a bit.
"Was that something else or what?" Twilight said.
"I'm happy for her," Fluttershy squeaked. "At least she's having a good go."
"Mmm," was all Applejack could say. The farm pony couldn't deny that she had always felt a slight tinge of bitterness over Derpy's sudden billionaire status, especially considering she had achieved it by introducing Equestria to some of the most unhealthy food imaginable. Even the lettus in the veggie burgers were coated with some sort of oily substance to enhance flavor. Applejack and her family had worked their flanks off for years trying to bring their good, healthy, farm fresh foods into the world, and yet they continued to struggle to make ends meet. Applejack kept those thoughts to herself, though, at the risk of sounding like a hypocrite. After all, she kind of enjoyed that junk food too. Not as much as her apples, but still... those hay fries were unbelievable.
"Wait a sec," Pinkie Pie said suddenly. "Dashie, you were pretty close with Derpy, weren't you? You were friends, right?"
Dash thought about that for a moment.
"Yeeeeeaaaah, kinda," she answered after a while. "We'd chill out after work sometimes, kick back, have a few beers, talk shit about our bosses, usual friend stuff. Though I don't think I was ever a close with her as I am with you guys."
"Well, do you think that maybe if we asked her, she'd help us?" Pinkie suggested.
Everypony in the room except for Rainbow Dash seemed to suddenly come to life.
"That's a good idea, Pinkie," Twilight said, surprised that Pinkie of all ponies had been smart enough to think of that. "Dash, maybe you could send her a letter or something explaining our situation. I'm sure she'd be willing to help us, she was always such a nice mare."
Applejack seemed to be the one most ecstatic about this new development.
"Are... are ya'll sayin' we may not hafta go through with this?" She could barely contain her excitement.
"If Derpy's generous enough," Twilight replied.
"But, um, how long would it take?" Fluttershy asked. "I mean, Angel doesn't have much time left, and he-_
"Uh, guys?" Dash interrupted. "There's a bit of a problem with what you're suggesting: I haven't been able to get a hold of Derpy for months, and believe me, I've tried, I miss her."
Slowly the others began to deflate.
"Wh-what do you mean you haven't been able to get a hold of her?" Twilight asked.
"I mean she's either been too busy for me or she's been ignoring me." Dash answered. "Personally I think it's the latter."
"Why would she ignore you?" Fluttershy came in.
"I dunno," Dash shrugged. "But every time I've tried to get a hold of her I kept getting the same damn story; she's at a business meeting, she's having lunch with the mayor, she's playing horseshoes with Celestia, just the same crap every time."
"Well, I imagine it's a lot of work running a successful fast-food chain," Twilight tried to reason with Dash.
"Ah screw that," Dash muttered bitterly. "As far as I'm concerned, she's just another victim of a little thing called greed. Once she had made, she decided she didn't need me or anypony else... at least that's what I believe."
Ya sure ya ain't just bein' bitter that she caught a break an' you didn't?" Applejack said.
Rainbow Dash gave the farmer a scathing look.
"I'm not like that!" She spat. "I was happy for her! She deserved the break she got! But... did she have to go and shut us out of her life? "Cause I'll tell you now, if it had been me... I'd have never sever ties with the ones I care about. Hay, I'd probably have invited you all to live in my mansion with me."
"Well, that's really touching, Dash, but to be honest, I'm a little too disappointed right now. I... I was honestly hoping we had something else going for us here."
Dash sighed sadly and shook her head.
"I'm sorry, guys, I really am. But if Derpy and I were still tight, I would've thought of asking her for help long before we left."
"It's fine, Dash," Twilight sighed. "We're just really gonna have to go through with this heist, it's the only way."
Sad gazes from her friends met Twilights eyes, but there was also a hint of understanding in them. Now they knew that every possible option had been exhausted, and that there was simply no other alternative.
"Ah still can't believe we're actually doing this," Applejack whispered.
"You know something, AJ, I kinda feel the same way," Rainbow Dash said. "I mean, I know I was the first one on board for this thing, but... sometimes I still have trouble accepting it; we're robbing a bank. They say fillies that come broken families tend to end up living living these kinds of lives, but... dammit, I tried so hard not to... I tried so hard not to be like my father, but now... here I am."
"You're father was a crook?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.
"He might as well have been," Dash replied. "Always borrowing money from loan sharks and whatnot so he could fuel his habits. Came back to bite him the flank though, didn't it? Fuckin' bastard."
"What happened to him, Dashie?" Pinkie Pie asked.
A sigh was her only answer. Truth be told, the untimely death of Dash's father was something she never liked bringing up. Not because she was sad about it or anything, it was just that... it was something she shouldn't have had to have seen, especially considering how young she was when it happened. What she had told her friends that night on the road was all she was going to say about it.
Dash prayed for something, anything to change the subject, and much to her luck her prayers were answered by the sudden sound of the warehouse door bursting open. The five mares all snapped their attention towards it to see a very distraught, very enraged looking Rarity. Hovering above her was a large golden folder containing what they assumed were the hard earned blueprints. Rarity stepped into the building, limping slightly, her eye twitching violently. The expression on her face would've been hilarious had the situation not been so serious. As the door shut behind her, the sounds of sirens could still be heard in the distance. Slowly, the fashionista approached her friends, letting the gold folder drop to the floor in front of her. The others stared blankly at her, not sure of what to make of this; they had never seen Rarity look this terrible before. It was Applejack who finally worked up the courage to approach her and say something.
"So, uh... how'd it go?" She asked with a weak smile. Her answer was a sharp forehoof right upside her face. "OW! What the hay, Rare?"
"DO... NOT... ASK!" Rarity roared at her. "I GOT... THE DAMN... BLUEPRINTS! DON'T... ASK... HOW!"
A few minutes were allowed for Rarity to calm herself down before they started going over things. As much as her friends wanted to know what had happened at the City Planning Department, the look on Rarity's face, combined with the fact that she had just slapped Applejack upside the head (the farm pony was still rubbing her sore mouth) told them that it was best to wait until later... or maybe just not ever ask. Maybe this was something better off remaining unknown.
Twilight had just pulled the blueprints out of their folder and had set them out on the hard wooden floor. She separated all three of them and set them in order from what she assumed was the upper most lever to the lower most. She then glanced over them carefully, taking in every little detail. She wanted to have a good idea of the buildings layout before she started talking with her friends.
"Rarity, this is fantastic," Twilight said with genuine pride. "The images couldn't be more clear! We owe you big time for this, girl!"
"Oh ho ho, you have no idea how right you are, dear!" Rarity said angrily.
"Alright, simmer down, hon, we're all grateful to ya," Applejack said.
Rarity scoffed and turned away, muttering quietly under her breath. These stupid little foals had no idea what she had just been through. She was lucky to have made it back at all.
Once Twilight felt ready to start explaining things, she gathered her friends up and had them circle themselves around the layouts.
"Alright then," she began. "What these layouts, who were so generously provided for us by our good friend Rarity, to whom we are deeply indebted to seem to show-"
"*cough* kiss-ass *cough*" Dash muttered.
"Shut it," Twilight snapped at her. "Anyway, it appears that the building is made up of three levels. I'm guessing this bottom level here is underground, and I'm pretty sure that this is the safe right here," she pointed out on the blueprint.
'Makes sense," Applejack said.
"Now, the first thing we need to take care of when we get in that building is getting the crowd under control," Twilight explained. "This includes the tellers and all the ponies on the upper level. We'll need to move fast with this also, we can't allow them to have any time to make any sudden movements or try to get away."
"Fluttershy and I can take care of the upper level," Dash chimed in. "I'm guessing these are mostly offices up there, maybe that's where the bank president is as well. Shouldn't be anything we can't handle, right Fluttershy?"
"I... guess," the pegasus mused.
Dash sighed and shook her head.
"Little more enthusiasm, Shy," she encouraged.
"I, um, guess it's nothing we can't handle," Fluttershy said a little louder.
Dash sighed again.
"Well, that was a little better, but we still gotta work on your assertiveness if we're gonna do this right."
"My assertiveness?" Shy asked weakly. "But what if I let it go too far again? I don't want to be a bully like I was last time."
"Rainbow Dash is right, Fluttershy," Twilight said. "In order for this to work, we need to make those ponies believe that we're stone cold psychos. We need to scare them to the point that they won't even want to cough at the risk of getting a hoof across the face, and that's where the next stage comes in; we need weapons and ammo."
Twilight was met with a series of nervous glances.
"Are you quite sure that's necessary, dear?" Rarity asked. "I mean, you and I are quite skilled with magic, or at least you are. Couldn't we just maintain order with a couple of threatening spells or something?"
Twilight shook her head.
"I'm not quite powerful enough to handle a room full of ponies with just magic," she said. "Besides, part of keeping control involves using intimidation, and I can assure you there are few things more intimidating than having a semi-automatic weapon pointing right at your face."
"I... suppose that makes sense," Rarity said, though she still didn't sound too sure.
"Right then," Twilight continued. "First off I need to know if anypony here as had any experience with a firearm of any kind. Please speak up now."
Applejack, after a moment of silence, gave a small cough.
"Well, uh, Big Macntosh used ta have this old bolt-action rifle that he used fer clearin' little critters outta our crop-"
"Oh no," Fluttershy covered her face.
"Aw shoot, Fluttershy, we don't use it no more," Applejack said. "An' besides, we weren't actually shootin' 'em, we were jus' scarin' 'em off. But anyway, Ah fired it once 'r twice."
"Do you remember how it worked?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, it weren't too tricky," AJ replied. "Hardest part was tryin' ta stay balanced on mah hindlegs. Years of apple-buckin' have really helped me build up strong hind-quarters, though, so Ah suppose ah could handle mahself fine with a weapon."
"Okay," Twilight said with a nod. "Anypony else ever handled any type of firearm?"
Rainbow Dash shuffled a bit.
"Well, back when I was in flight school, Gilda and I used to go shoot her BB gun at pop cans and stuff. I was pretty good with it too," she said with a chuckle. "Sometimes we'd ditch school and just go down to the Everfree forest, pretend we were in some kind of action movie... just try to get away from our crappy lives for a little while." She started to sound a little out of it there, and her friends stared at her oddly for it. Dash noticed this after a short while. "Oh, sorry, I just kinda lost myself there for a moment. What were we talkin' about again?"
Twilight sighed.
"Okay, two of us have handle guns before. Anypony else?" She continued.
Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie shook their heads.
"Honestly, darling, do I look like the kind of pony who would've spent her time strutting about, toting an instrument of destruction?" Rarity asked indignantly.
"Just had to make sure," Twilight said irritably. "Anyway, two of have handled weapons before, I guess that's something."
"Yeah, but I don't think it's gonna be enough," Pinkie Pie chimed in. "I mean, BB guns and rifles aren't really the best types of pow pow's for holding up banks."
"Ya know, she's right," Applejack said. "Ah reckon we're gonna need some purty heavy firepower if we're gonna pull this off."
"Right, the question is where are we going to find the kind of artillery that will meet our needs?" Twilight said.
"I asssume there must be some form of establishment out there that can provide for us in that category," Rarity said hopefully.
"Heh heh, like Ammunation or something," Rainbow Dash said jokingly, thinking of one of her favorite video games.
The others gave her a brief look of confusion before deciding to just shrug it off and continue with the matter at hoof.
"Well, if yer referrin' to gun shops, Ah saw a fair few of 'em while Ah was out today," Applejack interjected.
"A fair few, huh?" Twilight said.
"Aw yeah, ya wouldn't believe how common they are in big cities. Appleoosa had its fair share too, Ah remember, though they were a might more primitive than the ones Ah saw here, and... aw shoot, ah'm ramblin'. Anyway, Ah'm sure we'll find what we're lookin' for somewhere 'round this here city."
"Okay, we'll come back to that issue in a little while," Twilight said. "Another thing we need to focus on is how we're going to get the crowd under control. I think it's safe to assume that it's going to be fairly crowded in there."
"I think it'd be a good idea to separate bank employees from from customers," Dash suggested. "That way we know who's who in case we need somepony to help us out with something that only staff would be able to."
"Waddya mean help us?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Ya know, with like... accessing restricted areas and stuff," Dash explained. "I'm pretty sure some of these areas, particularily where the vault is located are locked off by key-codes or swipe-cards or something."
Fluttershy cleared her throat and raised her hoof, causing Twilight to roll her eyes.
"Shy, if you want to say something, just say it," she said. "Especially if it's something about what we can expect in terms of security."
"I'm sorry," Fluttershy hung her head in shame.
Dash rolled her eyes and put a foreleg around her fellow pegasus.
"Assertiveness, Fluttershy, assertiveness!" she said while shaking her a bit.
"Okay, well... um, in the bank my father worked at the vault was sealed of by this door that required two ponies to open it.," Fluttershy explained.
"Two ponies, how would that work?" Pinkie asked.
"Well, I don't really know the specifics of it, and I'm not good at explaining things, but from what I heard my father once say; the door to the vault could only be opened by two ponies who had these... special keys or something that had to be used at the same time to unlock it. At least I think that's what he meant," she sighed sadly. "I wish I could remember and be more helpful."
Twilight would've consoled her, but she was too busy thinking about what the pegasus had just said.
"I think I know what you're talking about, Shy," she said after a while. "I've read about those. Usually the bank president along with another trusted employee has possession of those keys. They have to be turned at exactly the same time to get the door open."
"Do ya really think that's what can expect at the bank here?" Applejack asked. "What bank did he work in exactly?"
"Cloudsdales," Fluttershy answered.
"That bank is a total craphole though," Dash remarked. "If they really had something that high-tech, then I think it's pretty safe to assume that Manehattens branch will have something like that, or maybe something worse."
"Fluttershy, what other security measures can you tell us about?" Twilight asked the pegasus. "We know they'll have cameras -we'll have to think of a way to deal with those later- but what else?"
"Well... there's the silent alarm..." Fluttershy said quietly.
"The silent alarm? That sounds silly!" Pinkie said with a giggle. "How can an alarm be silent? That kinda defeats the purpose of an alarm, doesn't it? Aren't they supposed to be all like BLEEEERG BLEEEEERG BLEE- "
"Let her explain, Pinkie," Rarity cut her off, attempting to sound calm.
Pinkie did a zipper like motion over her mouth. Fluttershy cleared her throat and attempted to explain.
"Silent alarms are these little buttons that the tellers have under their desks. If anything goes wrong, all they have to do is push it. They don't make any noise, but they somehow alert the police that somethings wrong, and then they come."
The others stared at the yellow pegasus, eyes wide and jaws slightly agape.
"Well... thaaaaat's definitely gonna be a bit of a problem..." Dash said.
"No kiddin'," Applejack said angrily. "How the hay are we s'posed to prevent something like that? They could hit the button an' we wouldn't know a damned thing about it."
"Well, what's the average response time for police?" Rarity asked.
"I'd say about four minutes, maybe less if a patrol happens to be wandering by," Twilight guessed.
"And how long should this whole thing take us?" Rainbow Dash inquired.
"Well..." Twilight thought for a moment. "Considering the fact that we have to get the crowd under control, get through that one door, break open the vault, load up as many bits as we can, and then get out of the area before things get ugly... I'd say fifteen to twenty minutes tops."
"Dammit!" Dash cursed. "If that silent alarm gets tripped, we'd barely have the crowd under control before the cops show."
"Then we need to think of a way to keep the tellers from getting a chance to press it before we do anything to crazy," Twilight explained.
"What can we do though?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I'm fast and all, but I don't think I could get an entire row of ponies away from those buttons quick enough. Chances are one of them would be able to press it before I could get to them."
Silence filled the room again. This was definitely gonna be one of the harder obstacles to overcome. In a matter of seconds their whole operation could go down the tubes, and they wouldn't even be aware of it until it the sirens sounded from outside, and then it would be too late. Minutes passed before a certain shy young pegasus had something of a crazy idea, and when she spoke up her soft squeaky voice was enough send chills down the spines of those around her.
"We could cut the power..."
Everypony stared at her for a moment, taking in her suggestion. It was admittedly a bit of a shock that she had been the one to vocalize this idea, especially for Twilight. She had thought that Pinkie Pie would blurt out some crazy nonsensical thing involving her party canon or something. Instead, she got a very sound and manageable idea from Fluttershy.
"That actually might be a good idea," she finally said. "It would take care of both silent alarms and security cameras."
Slowly the others began to brighten up a bit. Rainbow Dash appeared to be genuinely surprised by her fellow pegasus' intellect. She patted her on the back and gave her a reassuring nod. Fluttershy blushed and looked away, a small smile cracking across her face.
"How would we go about cutting the power though?" Rarity asked.
"We hit the generator," Dash answered. "It should be up on roof, I'm guessing."
"Sounds about right," Applejack said. "How'r we gonna git up there though?"
"Fluttershy or I could take care of it," Dash offered. "I don't exactly know how I could get into it, but-"
"Well, actually, Dash," Twilight interrupted. "I know a spell or two that can temporarily disable electronics. I was studying up on it not too long before this whole mess happened. I think I could pull something off."
"Well, wait a second," Rarity interjected. "Why temporarily disable it? Would it not be easier to just destroy it?"
Twilight stared at her fellow unicorn wide-eyed with shock.
"Destroy it? Do you realize how dangerous that is, Rarity?" She said scathingly. "The thing could blow up and send me flying off the roof! What kind of pony would be stupid enough to blast an electrical unit with some kind of destruction spell?"
The ivory unicorn quickly averted her gaze. She did all she could to keep her cheeks from flushing anymore than they already were.
"Alright, you can temporarily disable the power," Dash came in. "How long is temporary?"
Twilight thought for a moment.
"Conservatively speaking, maybe about a half-hour," she said, sounding rather unsure.
Rainbow Dash seemed to lighten up a bit at hearing this.
"Okay, and we we're guessing it shouldn't take longer than twenty minutes for us to get out of there, so this whole thing is starting to sound pretty sweet. We'll be long gone by the time the power comes back for them," Dash smiled triumphantly.
"Wait a minute," Rarity said suddenly. "If we cut the power won't that affect the dual locks for that door we were talking about earlier? Those are electronic, are they not?"
The sense of disappointment in the room was almost palpable. Rarity seemed to have a good point, though she didn't sound entirely sure. Perhaps Fluttershy would know for sure. Twilight didn't even need to say anything, the look she gave the shy young pegasus said enough.
"I... don't really know for sure. I don't understand electronics," she said, hanging her head.
Twilight sighed again and took some time to think. She was admittedly getting a little sick of all these set-backs. Every time they thought they had something good going for them, some small technicality would come along and spoil everything. As much as she wanted to scream at Fluttershy for not being more helpful, she was able to remind herself that it wasn't the little sweethearts fault. Her parents ignored her, after all. It was amazing that Fluttershy knew as much as she did. She was being very helpful, and Twilight wanted to be sure to thank her for it at some point. But for now she had to focus on the current prerogative.
"Well..." she said slowly after a long moment of thought. "I might be able to get the door down with a blast or two from my horn."
In an instant everypony seemed to brighten up again. How could they have forgotten Twilights skill with magic? Even though she sounded a bit unsure about being able to get the door down, they believed she could do it. Her ability with magic was unmatched by all others (except perhaps Celestia and Luna).
"Sounds like we got a plan then," Applejack said in a tone of finality. "Rainbow Dash can fly Twilight up to the roof-"
"Assuming my wing feels better," the pegasus interrupted.
"And..." Applejack continued, glaring scathingly at Dash for butting in. "While Twilight's takin' care of the generator, Ah guess we'll just wait until the power goes out, then make ourselves known to the general public an' jus' go ta town on 'em."
"Here's what I think would be a good idea..." Twilight said. "Go in one at a time, wait about a minute or two before the next goes in. That way it doesn't look like we're together, and we avoid arousing suspicion."
"Should we go in wearing our masks?" Fluttershy asked in her usual hushed voice.
"No, wait until the power goes out before you put them on," Twilight said. "The crowd will be too confused by the sudden outage to notice you guys pulling your masks on. We'll cover our cutie marks before we go in, though. I don't think anypony will pay too much attention those parts of our bodies when we go in."
"Unless their checking us out," Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath. Nopony heard her, though.
"So we go in, wait for the power to go out, wave our weapons around a bit, maybe fire a round or two to show that we're serious, just try to scare the crap out of everypony in there, you know. Make them believe we'll kill them if they try anything."
"Oh no," Fluttershy whimpered, hiding her face behind her pink mane. "I thought we weren't going to have to kill again."
""We're not killing anypony, silly," Pinkie answered before Twilight had a chance to say anything. "We just want them to think that we will, right, girls?"
"Exactly," Twilight said. "As long as they think we're serious about being murderous, they won't try anything stupid."
Fluttershy continued to frown, her head hung even lower.
"That still sounds awful, though," she murmured. "Making innocent ponies think that they're about to die. I can't imagine what that would feel like."
Rainbow Dash sighed with annoyance. Her fellow pegasus was really starting to get on her nerves. It was time to try something a little more harsh to push her into assertiveness.
"Shy, do you want to save your stupid rabbit or not?" She hissed.
Fluttershy immediately looked up. She was still frowning, but now her eyes were narrowed and her lips were pouted. She looked close to tears... angry tears.
"Don't call him stupid," she said quitely yet threateningly.
"Well unless you mare up and mare up soon, he's pretty much fucked, isn't he?" Dash shot at her.
"No," Fluttershy said, her voice rising. "I won't let him die. I'll... I'll... I'll do whatever we have to do. I'll... mare up."
It was quiet for a while after that tense exchange. As badly as the others wanted to butt in and quell it, they also wanted to see where it was going to go. It was true, Fluttershy needed to toughen up if they were gonna pull this off. It was a little brutal of Dash to target her rabbit like that, but it worked, and in the end that was all that mattered, thought Fluttershy's angry expression sure was taking a while to fade.
"So then," Twilight attempted to keep things going. "We get the crowd under control... that shouldn't take more than three or four minutes; we blast our way through that one door, that shouldn't take me too long; then we get down to the vault... how do we get it open?"
"I imagine it requires a combination of some kind..." Rarity said. "Or possibly a key."
"Ah'd place my money on a combination," Applejack stated. "Ah don't think they'd risk havin' a key be the only way inta the vault. Could get stolen 'r lost purty easily."
"Yeah, I agree, we'll assume it's a combination," Twilight said. "So... how do we figure it out?"
"Simple, the bank president oughta know it," Dash said. "We just grab him, threaten him with some violence, and he'll open it for us. This might just be a total cakewalk."
Twilight smiled a bit. That was a pretty sound plan, and it was definitely looking like they could be out of there in within the fifteen to twenty minute time frame they had given themselves.
But then came the squeaky voice of the shy young animal lover with yet another piece of bad news...
"Um, I don't mean to bring you all down, but... it might be a little more complicated than that..."
Fluttershy received a torrent of annoyed and scathing looks from the others.
"What... what could possibly be more complicated about this?" Dash cried angrily. "Is there a laser grid we have to worry about? Or maybe there's a dragon guarding it? Or wait, maybe there's a vault within the vault? A little vaultception goin' on here? Is that what we're dealing with? Or maybe-"
"Will you kindly let her explain?" Rarity snapped at the pegasus.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and sighed, but went silent all the same.
"Well, you see," Fluttershy began. "I remember my father once mentioned something about how no one employee knowing the entire combination at the bank he worked at. What they did was give one part of the combination to one employee, and whenever they needed to open it they had to down one at a time and put their part of the combination in. I guess it was done that way in case an employee... lost it or something and decided to steal from the bank."
"You gotta be kidding me," Dash moaned angrily.
"Wooooow," Pinkie Pie said in an awed tone. "That's pretty smart of them."
"More like ridiculous," Dash spat. "Are you sure they'd do something that extreme for a bank? 'Cause it sounds like that's something they'd do in Canterlot for Celestia's... porno stash or something. It just seems a little excessive for a bank. Are you sure you heard your father right, Shy?"
Fluttershy looked down again, seemingly deep in thought.
"Positive," she said resolutely after a moment.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and groaned with annoyance.
"Well this just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" She moaned. "How are we supposed to get in there now?"
"It sounds quite simple to me," Rarity said calmly. "We'll weed out whoever had a piece of the combination and take them down one at a time to put it in."
"No, Rarity, you don't understand," Fluttershy said a little forcefully. "They work different shifts. None if them would be there at the same time. Whenever they need the vault open they call them at home their homes and have them come in one at a time."
Dash face-hoofed.
"Un-fuckin-believeable!"
"Well you did expect any less, Dash? They're not stupid," Twilight said.
"So... we make them call up the others and have them come in?" Pinkie Pie suggested.
"That'll take too long. We need to be out of there in no longer than twenty minutes, remember?" Twilight explained. She took a few more seconds to think before coming to another ridiculous idea. "I think we're just going to have to get in there by force somehow."
"Ah reckon ya have spell 'r two ta take care o' that, Twi?" Applejack asked.
"Are you kidding?" Twilight said a little rudely. "We talking about a two-ton wall of steel, possibly more. There's not a spell I know that could put even a dent in that thing. Celestia, herself probably couldn't even get through one of those things. We'll have to think of something else."
"How 'bout one o' them big-ass power drills?" Applejack suggested.
"That'll still take too long," Twilight said with a sigh. "Besides, those things are huge. You really want to have to haul one of those things around the whole day? You're strong, AJ, but not that strong."
"Well then use your magic to levitate one or something," Rainbow Dash said impatiently.
"I'll be too busy levitating my weapon to focus of the drill," Twilight shot back at the cyan pegasus. "It's going to take a lot of concentration to figure out how to handle my weapon of choice, so much so that I won't be able to use my magic for anything else."
Now there was a huge collective sigh given by all six ponies in the room. For the millionth time that day, another long silence was taken to think of what to do next. Though Twilight had to admit; for the first time since the journey began, she felt like giving up and going home. They were so clearly in over their heads. How could six formerly peaceful ponies with no criminal history even begin to believe that they could pull off something as crazy as this? They should've known it was going to be as difficult as it-
"C4," Dash suddenly said, garnering strange looks from her friends, except for Twilight, who know exactly what she was talking about.
"C4? The plastic explosive?" She said in a tone of shock.
Rainbow Dash stared at the lavender unicorn wide-eyed.
"You know what C4 is?" She cried in disbelief.
"I've read about it, yes," Twilight explained. "And I think I remember Zecora once mentioned something about the materials that are used to create it."
Dash's jaw dropped even further, if that was at all possible.
"Zecora had C4 with her?" She cried.
"What? No!" Twilight snapped. "She didn't own any C4, she just knew how to make it. C4's illegal, Dash."
"That doesn't mean it's impossible to find..." Dash said in an almost sinister whisper.
Twilight stared at her tentatively, trying to decide if the spunky pegasus was either brilliant for suggesting this... or insane.
"Well, what do you about this... C4, Twilight?" Rarity inquired.
"Well, it's a plastic explosive, a member of a variety called Composition C," the unicorn stated. "It's a lot like modeling clay in that it can be molded into any shape; it can be fit into little cracks, gaps, voids and such, it's very durable. It's also relatively stable; most physical shock isn't enough to detonate it. I imagine the Equestrian military had made good use of it in various conflicts and such."
"Sounds like you really do know a thing or two about your explosives, Twi," Rainbow Dash said proudly.
"Yeah, well," Twilight blushed a bit. "Some of it was pretty interesting, I have to admit... but that's beside the point. As I said earlier, C4 is illegal for civilians to own. It's for military use only. No legitimate weapons shop carries it."
"And like I said earlier: that doesn't mean it's impossible to find..." Dash said quietly.
"What'r ya gettin' at, Dash?" Applejack asked nervously.
Rainbow Dash motioned for the others to come in closer. The five other ponies leaned in towards the cyan pegasus, all anxious to hear what she had to say.
"Well," Dash said in a hushed voice. "If we can't find it in a legitimate weapons store, then maybe we oughta try somewhere a little more... illegitimate."
That was all Twilight needed to hear in order for her to reel back in shock. She placed a hoof over mouth and gasped loudly.
"Rainbow Dash, you're not talking about the Black Market, are you?" She cried.
Now all of them had reeled back, gasping loudly, except for Rainbow Dash, who gave Twilight a small smirk.
"I see you've heard of it," she said quietly.
"Yes I have," Twilight replied. "And I also know enough about it that I don't want to get involved! Those ponies are brutal, sick and evil! They're among the worst cut-throats in Equestria! They... they'd eat ponies like us for breakfast!"
"Wrong, Twilight," Dash interjected. "All they care about is making a profit. They don't care who buys from them, as long as our bits are good, they'll get us what we want."
"Yeah, but... we don't have a lot of bits, remember?" Pinkie said suddenly.
"Aw shoot, that's absolutely right. Ah plum fergot," Applejack face-hoofed. "How'r we gonna afford the kind of fire-power we're lookin' fer?"
Rainbow Dash gave a sinister smile and leaned in towards her.
"Who says we have to pay for this stuff," she cooed.
Once again the young pegasus received a collection of wide-eyed looks.
"Dash, you are really starting to scare me," Twilight said shakily. "What are you suggesting we do... rob the Black Market? We're taking enough chances as it is robbing a bank! We'd never get away with ripping off one of the most dangerous organizations in Equestria!"
"So what? You just want to give up now?" Dash yelled at her. "Just go home and tell Spike that things just aren't gonna work out for you guys ever again and spend the rest of your lives living under a bridge?"
"No!" Twilight yelled back. "I'm just trying to think rationally here! If we go around holding up illegitimate weapons stores, we might as well change our cutie marks to what those punks last night had! We-"
"I think we should do it," Fluttershy squeaked.
"Same here," Pinkie Pie added.
Twilight just gaped at the two.
"A-ARE YOU BOTH INSANE?" She shrieked.
"Twi, calm down," Applejack said soothingly. "Maybe Rainbow Dash had a point here."
"YOU TOO?" Twilight was practically twitching with fury now.
"Darling, nothing else is going to work for us," Rarity interjected. "I And after what we went through last night, and..." she added the next part in a soft whisper. "after what I did earlier today," she straightened up again. "I think we can handle these so-called 'most dangerous cut-throats in Equestria.'"
Twilight shook her head in disbelief. She just couldn't understand this sudden surge of recklessness from her normally sound friends.
"You guys have all lost it," she said in an eerily calm voice. "You've all gotten a small taste of the criminal lifestyle and now you want more. You're losing yourselves, that's what's going on here."
"Now that ain't true, sugarcube," Applejack said sternly. "We're exhaustin' ev'ry possible option here, an' right now this Black Market thing is startin' to sound pretty solid."
"Think about it, Twilight," Rainbow Dash came in. "Enough C4 properly positioned around the vault door should be enough to jar it loose. And on top of that, think of all the other illegal arms they're bound to have. We could find firearms there that we wouldn't find in typical gunshops. We'd really be a force to reckon with if we came in with like... sawn-off shotguns and AR-15s."
"AR-15s are legal, Dash," Applejack pointed out.
"Not full-auto ones," Dash replied. "The ones they have legit stores are only semi-auto or three round burst or something. You'd have to like... personally modify them on your own to make them full-auto. Or... at least I think they can be modified to full-auto... or are those M16s?" She sighed. "Whatever, I'm getting off topic. The point is, I think we could find some pretty useful stuff if we look in the right place."
"Also," Pinkie stepped up. "They oughta have a pretty hefty amount of bits in a place like that. Maybe we could snag some while we're there! Get a head start, ya know?"
"Good idea, Pinkie!" Dash slapped the pink party pony on the back. She turned back to Twilight. "Don't you see how beneficial this can be for us? We're no pushovers, we've handled worse than them. C'mon."
"Twilight," Fluttershy mused. "I think you should stick with your friends. You're the most powerful unicorn I know. If you're with us, I really think we can do it."
"We can do anything if we stick together," Rarity added. "We've demonstrated that many times before."
"Twi, have a little courage, will ya?" Applejack said with a warm smile. "Yer friends are with ya."
"That's right," Pinkie Pie came in at last. "Please, Twilight. Nothing can stop the Elements of Disharmony!"
Twilight had long since turned her head to the floor, but she had heard everything they had said, and they were admittedly winning her over. Part of it was because she knew she couldn't let them do this without her. They were fully intent on attempting this, nothing she could say was going to change that now, and she had to be there to protect them no matter what. Twilight was the kind of pony who would push a friend out of the path of a speeding cart and get hit herself if she had to. She couldn't let her dear beloved friends do this without her. And also, they had some good points. Most likely they could find what they were looking for, along with some extra bits to help them along. She hadn't changed her mind about crazy this whole thing was... but it was really starting to look like there was no other option. Looking back up, she met the intent gazes of her fellow Elements.
"We'll take a look and see what they have," she uttered in a tired voice. "And if that place is filled with psychos and killers, and we appear to be in way over our heads, we're out of there; no questions or complaints. Is that understood?"
They all nodded, Dash and Pinkie smiling gleefully.
"Alright then," Twilight continued. "Now our only question is: where are we supposed to find a place like that? I don't think they exactly advertise themselves on the front of their building."
"Well," Dash said thoughtfully. "If there's one thing I've learned from Grand Theft Carriage, it's that these illegal weapons dealers can usually be found in back allys and out of the way places and such."
"Oh, well that really narrows it down, doesn't it?" Rarity said sarcastically. "There must be thousands of back alleys in this accursed city! How are we supposed to find-"
"Ahem," Pinkie interrupted, her chest puffed out proudly. "I think it's time for my good ol' Pinkie Sense to do it's job!"
"Can your Pinkie Sense really work that way?" Fluttershy asked in a light tone of amazement.
"Oh, you betcha!" Pinkie announced grandly. "It once helped me find Gummy when he went missing! And it helped me find lil' Pound Cake when he crawled off during a picnic! If I really want to find something really really really badly, it'll work. And I really really really really want to help the Cakes, so... yeah, it should work!"
"Sweet," Dash muttered quietly. She was genuinely impressed by her pink friends ability.
"So that settles then," Applejack announced. "We're goin' toe ta toe with one o' the most dangerous organizations in Equestria. Ah guess Ah shoulda known what Ah was signin' up for when Ah agreed to this."
"BALLS TO THE WALLS, MOTHERFUCKERS!" Rainbow Dash roared suddenly, slamming her hooves into the ground, garnering surprised looks from her friends. "Sorry," she muttered sheepishly. "Just getting myself pumped up."
Twilight had just then slipped off to be alone for a minute. She sat facing a far corner of the warehouse, contemplating what they were about to do. As Applejack had put it: they were about to go up against one of the most dangerous organizations in Equestria. Even Celestia seemed hesitant to deal with them directly, though it didn't seem to be due to fear. It seemed much more like she wanted to find the right way of doing it, or maybe even she, the ruler of all Equestria, had trouble pin-pointing their exact locations.
Whatever the case, the young lavender unicorn felt almost close to vomiting with how afraid she was. Even with her friends by her side, there was no telling how ugly tonight was going to be. It seemed likely that more murder was just around the corner...
Well, that sure took me a while. I apologize for the wait. Truth is I just kind of slacked off this week. I kinda needed a break, ya know? Writing too much too often can really take a lot out of me. Still, it shouldn't have taken me this long, and I'm truly sorry for it. I'll try not to slack off too much anymore. Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading! More soon!