Thief

by conTROLLER234

Chapter 17 Teaching and Acceptance

Thief

Chapter 17

Teaching and Acceptance

“Drop the gun, now!”

“..Shit..” I dropped the gun next to me.

“Kick it away.”

I growled, kicking the pistol away a few feet.

“Step away from the car, and turn around!”

Knowing there wasn’t much I could do at the moment, I did as the voice said. I turned around, and slowly, I saw a large clump of grass rise from the ground. I quickly realized it was someone wearing a Ghillie Suit. The voice sounded masculine, so I assumed it was a male. (Obviously.) The stranger was holding a bolt-action rifle Kar98k, with a scope and bayonet. The entire rifle was painted lime green, and covered in grass.

“Dylan,” The voice spoke. “Pat him down. Make sure he doesn’t have any weapons.”

On the other side of the highway, there was another stranger in a Ghillie suit, holding a Glock 18. They walked up to me, and knowing I had my knife on me, I prepared for the second he came within arms length. I grabbed his wrist with my left hand, and pulled out my knife with my right. I spun him around towards me, and held my knife to his throat. All in one swift movement.

“Your turn. Drop your weapon.” I spoke in a threatening tone. I wished that I had my mask on, but it was too late for that.

The stranger in the grass hesitated, before mumbling what was probably a curse word and lowering his rifle. Tossing it to the ground.

“You too!” I kicked my hostage in the back of the ankle. He grunted, tossing his Glock to the ground.

I quickly patted him down, a bit rushed, and after finding nothing other than a canteen and a large backpack, I pushed him to the back of the truck. I waved over the other guy, who walked over beside his friend. “Take off your suits.”

They both looked at each other at the same time, and took off their hoods to reveal their faces.

One of them had very short black hair, and a bit of a rounded face. He had dark brown eyes, and also had a large scar that ran along the left of his jawline. He wore the damage the way one would, his death glare attempting to slice daggers into my soul. I merely glanced over him, his threatening glare meant nothing to me.

The other one, a bit longer, dirtier blonde hair with a more narrower face. Stood a bit shorter than the other, his eyes examining me more than looking at my face rather. He looked up and caught my glance, and I identified his eyes the same color as his friends.

“Give me a reason to not kill you.” I declared, picking up the Glock that was dropped. The two of them stood silent, obviously preparing for death. I raised an eyebrow. “No? Makes my job easier-” I lifted the firearm to aim at the first stranger’s head.

“Wait!”

My head turned to the familiar voice of Fluttershy, and my eyes followed. “Fluttershy! Get back in the car, I told you to not get out!”

The two strangers stared, dumbfounded. They didn’t know if they were hallucinating the entire scene unfolding before them, and they couldn’t identify what just climbed out of the truck. Just as I was about to turn back to the two, I was caught off guard as the taller, broader one grabbed the gun from me and smashed my jaw with the handle. I heard Fluttershy gasp a the sudden action.

I growled at the attack, grabbing my jaw. I quickly grabbed my knife reversed, and slashed at him. In my fatigue, he easily blocked my arm with his, and kicked me to the ground. He saw the Glock on the ground, and swiftly picked it up and aimed it at me.

“Get off of ‘im ya lunatic!” The two of us turned our attention to the trunk of the truck. AppleJack was seen just after she jumped off of the truck. She did a 180 mid-air, and bent her hind legs. The enemy began to swing his weapon up at the new opponent, but it was far too late. AJ extended her legs, and bucked him right in the shoulder.

The crack was so loud I thought someone had just smashed a tree with a wreckingball.

“A-AHH!!” He yelped out in pain, his arm going limp as he dropped the gun. AJ’s momentum carried into him, throwing him to the ground. The second one, charged at me with a pair of spiked brass knuckles. I scurried to quickly get up, but found it useless when Twilight flew out from in front of the truck, hovering in the air. She fired a beam at the second attacker, and he stopped dead in his tracks. He stumbled around, his eyes rolled back into his head as he fell flat on his face. Unconscious.

“Aww yeah!!” Dash yelled out, victorious.

“John!” Fluttershy called out. Her and the others ran over to me. I sat up, and they helped me stand. I held my jaw in pain, wincing with every movement I made with my head.

“D-Dammit Fluttershy, I told you guys to stay in the car! We could’ve been killed!” I grunted in pain again.

She quickly backed off, sorrow filled her face as she lowered her head.

“Hey, if it weren’t for us, YOU would be dead!” Dash pointed out, defending Fluttershy.

“You got lucky, you were able to catch them by surprise.” I brushed myself off, still holding onto my jaw. “And besides, I had it under control.”

“What do we do with them now?” Twilight looked at the two passed out bodies.

“We leave them.” I replied nonchalantly.

“Why don’t we take them with us?” She said, and seemed to quickly regret it as she saw my reaction.

“You want us to take two people, that just tried to kill us, back home?” I stared at the two strangers, feeling my jaw becoming swollen.

“They didn’t attack us for no reason… Probably. They probably just need a place to stay.” Dash spoke. “It’s better to make friends than enemies, right?”

“Don’t you realize that if we bring them back with us, in the middle of the night they could easily kill us all?” I threw my hands up.

“We don’t know them, they were probably only doing it because they had to! If we give them what they need, they won’t have a reason to attack us.” Dash continued.

I merely shook my head. I’d had enough arguing, and my face was killing me. “Fine. If this is a vote, then I’m outvoted. Your call.”

They all turned to each other, and seemed to agree with one another.

“Okay then.” I sighed. “Get in the car, I’ll put them in the trunk. If we’re bringing them, I’m not having them in the car.”

“I’ll help.” AppleJack offered.

“Whatever.” I picked up the first body and threw him over my shoulder. AppleJack frowned at my attitude, but picked up the other one.

We loaded the two of them in, and I had found some rope in the trunk that I hadn’t noticed before. I tied their hands together behind their back, and tied that to a metal tie-down hook in the trunk. I did that for both of them, and when I was finished I closed the hitch and climbed back into the driver seat. Before I forgot, I collected the Glock and Kar98k and tossed them into the backseat. Fluttershy was beside me in the passenger seat instead of Twilight, and the second I faced forward, she noticed my jaw and gasped.

“Oh, John! Your jaw!” She reached out to touch it. I moved my head away, and started up the truck.

“I’m fine. It’ll heal.”

“It won’t heal properly if you don’t do something.” She worried, examining it as she leaned in.

“Tough.”

I pressed the gas, and the truck barely moved. A loud grinding noise was heard from the back right wheel. I grunted in irritation, turning off the ignition and opening the door. “We better hope there’s a spare. Otherwise we’re walking.” I shut the door and headed to the back of the truck. I first took a glance under the trunk. My body relaxed in relief as I spotted a spare tire.

“Time to get to work.”

- - - - -

About an hour later, we were back on the road. After many failed attempts to stop Fluttershy from touching my face, she had found the medical equipment and did what work she could on my jaw. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, it had helped a lot. My tongue now had space to move around in my mouth, and I didn’t bite swollen flesh on the inside of my cheek every time I closed my jaw. After some time of driving, she was now asleep on my lap as I concentrated on the road. Most of the others were also asleep, tired from the recent events. The two found others were still unconscious in the trunk. Everything was calm, at the moment.

I breathed slowly, almost in time with the sleeping pegasus on my lap. We had been driving for a decently long time, just on this same highway. It only made it easier to find our way back, though. The radio was on quietly so it didn’t wake up the others, so I sat with one hand on the wheel, and the other slowly petting Fluttershy’s head.

“How’s your jaw?”

I jumped a little, but not too much from my surprise. I turned to my right to see Twilight, still in her same spot. She seemed to have just woken up, her hair a bit frizzled, and her quill and scroll was on the floor. She was looking at me, and seemed to have asked her question just after a long yawn.

“Good.” I replied simply, feeling Fluttershy squirm a little to get more comfortable.

Twilight looked down at Fluttershy, and a calm smile grew upon her face. “You know, I hope you realize how lucky you are to have somepony like Fluttershy, get so comfortable around you after only knowing you so long. Plus, how you were… acting, when you first showed up.”

I glanced down at Fluttershy for a moment, and I relaxed. I didn’t have time to speak before she carried on.

“It takes nearly a few days for her to even consider talking to somepony new. But for some reason, there must be something about you that she likes, that she cares about.” She continued. “Just don’t throw her friendship away, is what I’m saying.”

“I wasn’t planning on doing that anytime soon. Honestly, I probably care about her more than she cares about me.” I replied simply, and I saw her raise her eyebrows in my peripheral.

“Really?” She faced forward. “You definitely don’t show it sometimes.”

“I do, just not in a way you would understand.”

She grunted quietly. She didn’t want this to turn into an argument, and neither did I. We kept quiet after that for a little while, until we both saw something ahead of us, in the distance.

“Looks like we finally have a stop to make.” I turned to the backseats, seeing everyone else was asleep. “We should wake them up.”

Twilight nodded and turned around, moving her head and two front hooves between the two front seats and whispered to the others to wake them up.

I stroked Fluttershy’s mane and head a little faster and rougher to wake her up, and sure enough she stirred out of her slumber. She looked up at me with heavy eyes, but smiled when we caught each other’s glance. I lazily smiled back, then looked back to the road, noticing what seemed to be a small town up ahead, drawing closer.

“There’s a town up ahead, we all have to get ready to get going.” I whispered to her, and she ‘Mhm’’d tiredly, closing her eyes again. I heard the ponies in the back, moaning and groaning. (Mostly Dash).

About 5 minutes later, we pulled up to a market. It was only a local market, so it was pretty small. But it didn’t look like it had been broken into at all, so there might still be a good supply of food and water inside. I turned off the truck, and put the keys into my pocket. I opened the door and grabbed my black face mask. “Okay, everyone out.”

The doors swung open and everyone piled out of the truck. I nudged Fluttershy, and her eyes opened again.

“Come on Fluttershy, let’s go.” I shook her a little bit. She yawned, her mouth opening wide as she squirmed to get up. She hopped out the open door, and I followed suit. After grabbing my Beretta off the dashboard, I closed the door and took in a deep breath.

“So, what are we doing with the two in the back?” Dash questioned, stretching out her wings and legs.

I turned to the trunk, spotting a glimpse of the two. I had almost forgotten about them. “Well, they’re tied up. Even if they wake up I don’t think they’re going anywhere.”

“But what if a, ‘walker’, comes up ‘n gets ‘em?” AJ inquired, and earned a sigh from me.

“You guys wanted to keep them, you figure it out. I’m here to pick up supplies, and you all wanted to come.” I said, looking around for where I should check first.

“Ah can watch ‘em, you girls go with John.” AppleJack volunteered, trotting over to the two hostages and jumping in the trunk.

Lyra walked over to AJ to join her. “I’ll stay too, it’s better to have two ponies together anyways.”

The rest nodded, and walked over to me. “So, what first?” Dash requested, ready to go.

“Uhh..” I finished looking around. “Honestly, this town looks untouched. If anyone lived here, they just upped and left. So it’s likely we won’t come across any walkers or raiders. But it doesn’t mean we let our guard down.” I pointed to the market. “There first.”

“Got it.” Dash was already flying over before anyone had even started walking. When she made it to the door, she tried the handle. And to no one’s surprise, it was locked. And for some reason, her next idea was to turn around, and…

“Dash!” I quickly ran over. She stopped, just about to kick the door with all of her might. She looked at me and tilted her head to the left a little.

“What’s the problem?” She asked, completely oblivious.

“You can’t just go ahead and break down the door. If an alarm goes off then we’ll attract walkers for miles!” I told down to her, and she blew air out of her nose quickly, un amused by my stern talking.

“Then what do we do, John?” She asked, sarcasm dripping from her lips.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to the door, and bent down on one knee. I pulled off my backpack, and rooted through one of the very small pockets on the outside. “Aha.”

I pulled out two, small, very fine wires. One shaped like an L, and the other had a small W at the end. I moved closer to the door lock, and placed the two wires in the lock in a specific way. The others leaned closer, a little too close for my comfort as I waved them away.

“What are you doing?” Fluttershy wondered, trying to get a good view of my working.

“Picking the lock. Just give me a minute, I have to do the handle afterwards also.” I said quietly, concentrating on the lock.

“That’s so cool!” Dash squee’d. “That’s like some Sherlock Hooves action!”

I stopped. Immediately after she said that, I kept my hands in the same working position but slowly turned my head to Dash.

“...Sherlock, Hooves?”

She grinned. “Yeah, you know him?”

I didn’t have the energy to deal with this right now. I finished the bolt lock and went onto the door handle. “I know Sherlock HOLMES, whoever Sherlock Hooves is, is a mystery to me.”

Sherlock Holmes..? Twilight thought to herself, tapping her chin with a hoof.

A sudden click from the door was sounded before the door swung open slowly. “Bingo.” I said, putting the lockpicks back into my back. I zipped it up and swung the pack, back onto my back.

“Okay, this store doesn’t look too big, but each of us has to stay within sight of another. We check the entire, and I mean, ENTIRE store before looting anything. Got it?” I ordered, making sure I had all of their eyes. Of course I didn’t have Dash’s, but that’s to be expected.

“Good. First, we’re staying together while we check the store. Then we can split up to loot the place.” I finished, and it seemed that Dash was leading the group.

“Hey!” She came back around the corner with something in her mouth. I smirked.

“So, you found your zodiac sign?” I chuckled, and earned an unamused glare from her eyes. In her mouth she held a bag of Original Skittles.

She spat it into her hoof. “What even is it?”

“It’s a candy. I’d open it for you if it wasn’t covered in saliva.” I poked, and she rolled her eyes.

“Anyways, you have to stay with the group Dash. Let’s go.”

- - - - -

The pain… I couldn’t describe it. I felt like someone just ran over my shoulder with a steam roller. Every movement I made, even every breath I took. God damn… it was excruciating.

And what happened? Right now, all I could do was feel my surroundings without actually moving to feel it. Whatever I was sitting on, it was ridged, hard, and cold. I at least knew I was outside. I also heard some voices, two as far as I knew. And female.

I recalled recent events. I still couldn’t believe myself or my eyes. Was it something I ate? Did I consume something that made me hallucinate? But it attacked me, the orange horse..

I finally opened my eyes, not wanting to be trapped in my mind any longer. What I saw before me almost made me pass out once more. In front of me sat the same orange pony that demolished my shoulder. Across from it, was a different one that I hadn’t seen before. It was a very light blue, almost mint colored. And, wait… is that a horn? I don’t even know anymore..

The two of them seemed to be playing a game of cards together. Sitting about 6 feet away from me. They hadn’t noticed my awakening, yet. I turned to my left, and spotted Dylan. He didn’t seem to have any damage done to him from the angle I was looking at. Besides a bump on his forehead. But he was still asleep.

I turned back to the ponies, who were now staring at me. I was half expecting them to do something, tease or knock me out again.

But no, they just turned away and continued their game of cards.

I moved around, trying my best to ignore the horrible discomfort in my shoulder. Squirming around made me notice that my hands were tied together behind my back. Then, tied to something else. I wasn’t sure what to do. To be honest, I was in the midst of some very different feelings.

Confusement was the overtaker of them all, as I had no idea what the hell was going on or where I was, and why there were two multicolored miniature horses in front of me. Fear, to be honest, was also another large one. Although the orange one seemed to be less intimidating as she was, she was strong as hell.

Pain was the hardest to deal with. And at this point I was looking for anything to take my mind off of it. I turned back to the strange animals, who were peacefully playing away at their little game.

“What’re you playing?” I spoke, then cleared my throat right after as I noticed my voice was grudgy and bubbly. They turned to me.

“Blackjack.” The mint-colored one spoke.

I sighed. “Mind if I join?”