//------------------------------//
// It Begins. 
// Story: Can You Hear the Drums? 
// by Symphonicdysonince 
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It had taken us a few days to create our door, and even longer to map the sewers. We knew which houses looked like they held what we needed were, if not what they contained. I sat at the dining room table, maps and papers in hand, going over everything we knew. The dogs left me to it, citing that I would ask for their opinions if I wanted it.

They're too used to the Alphas planing everything, it seems.

Hmm... I rubbed my eyes as I contemplated. If there's one thing these ponies did right, they've keep anything valuable out of sight. I'm going to need to take a risk and just pick a house to hit. I pulled my scroll out, and started scratching what I knew about the 'best' houses to hit. Once done, I checked their locations on our map. Hmmm. This residence is the furthest from our sewer door. It might be safest to hit it first, use the surprise of the raid to run the distance back. A brief, dull glow from my scroll caught my attention. Oh? What's this?

I focused on the scroll, and noticed a list of valuables listed beside each house. How did that get there? None of us knew about those. I shrugged, putting it from my mind. Must be my mysterious benefactor. Although, this does give me enough info to start my plans. But I mustn't become reliant on this. I looked up to the door as Missy walk past. "Missy, a moment, if you would?"

"Wadda want?" She groaned as she approached the table.

I flip the map and parchments to face her, keeping my scroll to myself. "What do you make of this?"

She scoffed. "I assume you have a plan?" I nodded. "Then why even ask me?"

"You might find something I missed." I rumbled.

She rolled her eyes at me, then bent down to examine the papers. It didn't take her long to give me her answer. "I'd hit this house first, then this one. Both in the same night, but only at night. We grab everything we can." She tapped the two closest houses as she spoke.

"Why?"

"Does it matter?" She snarked, giving me a glare. I just rolled my hand, encouraging her to continue. "The close access to the tunnel will give us an easy escape if we get caught, and we could split our forces to hit both houses at once. Ya know, double our gain?"

"How would you split us?"

"You, Fido and Rover hit the farther house, Spot, Capricorn and I hit the closer."

I nodded. "And then what?"

"Eh," she shrugged, "I'd figure that out tomorrow."

"That's not good enough." I stated, raising a hand to cut off her retort. "If you plan far enough ahead, you can anticipate what you're foe will do. Ever play chess?" She shook her head. "Of course not. You should, if you want to be an Alpha. It'll teach you to strategize." I pulled the papers back to me. "Now, your plan does have merit, but only if we had more dogs. Why send only three dogs against an unknown number of hostiles?

"Also, I think we should save the nearest houses for when the pones catch on to us, make it easier to get away." I looked up at her. "What do you think?"

"So we hit a couple of mid distance ones." She scowled. "Don't change my plan none."

I sighed. "Can you go find the others? I'll detail the plan to the Pack as a whole."

That got a final eye roll and sigh. "Fine."

I had enough time to unfurl our larger map and set up some tokens before the Pack had all gathered. I waited until everydog was seated, letting them look over the map I had set up. I had the furthest house circled, and I began by tapping the token. "This is our target for tonight." I rumbled. "It's the farthest house from our door. Zeva, you're on door guard duty. When we come back, we'll knock three times. We may be coming back hot, so you'll need to be ready to open and close it quickly. Do you want anyone for company?"

She shook her head. "I'll be fine alone."

"Good. Spot, you and Missy will be on watch. Each of you are to take a corner of the lot. If you see ponies coming, let us know and we'll bail. The rest of us will be looting the house. Fido, Capricorn, you're going to be the muscle here. Grab as much as you can carry, but prioritize leathers and diamonds. Rover and I will be rounding up the occupants and keeping them secure.

"I want this quick and quiet. If we can be done in ten minutes, great. Under five? Even better." I made sure to look each of them in the eye. "No killing if we can help it. I want the city guards to come after us as thieves, not killers."

"Why would that matter?" Missy asked. "They'd still be after us."

"Yes, but how they'd be after us would be different." I explained. "As thieves, they'd be after us to reclaim goods and wares, and throw us in jail if they could. They'd be happy with one or two of us, hoping that we'd either rescue the ones caught, or leave them behind as we go after easier pickings.

"As murderers, they'd be after us, wares be damned. They wouldn't stop at just one or two, they'd want us all. And they'd be more inclined to use lethal force to stop us." I smiled. "I'd rather they'd underestimate us, at least until we have a larger pack. Any other questions? No? Rover, how long until sunset?"

"About four hours."

"Alright. Everyone get some rest, we move out in five."




We stepped through our door into the sewers, sacs hanging from our belts. I stepped to the side to let Spot take point. Missy hung back as the rest of my pack spread into the sewers.

"Are you sure you'll be okay." Missy fussed about Zeva.

The blind dog waved her off. "I'll be fine. You go have fun with the raid." She closed the door, shutting us in.

I looked around the group, getting nods back in turn. Turning, I lead the way through the sewers. Soon, we reached the surface access we needed. Stepping back, I let Spot rush up the ladder and slowly lift the cover. After making sure we wouldn't be noticed, he led the way out. Capricorn had to squeeze out last. We crept our way up the street, sticking to what shadows and hedgerows we could.

"When we come back, you and Fido go first. Drop your load to him, then go down after." I ordered, knowing that we may be pressed for time by then. "We'll jump down after you."

"Ya wan' us ta catch ya?"

"That's the idea, yes." I confirmed as we neared our target. It was a two story building, with a small yard at the front. from our scouting, we knew that it had a fairly large backyard.

Missy rushed to the front corner, checking down the side of the building. We waited for her nod before slipping down the side of the building. I edged my way to the corner, peering around it. Seeing no one in the backyard and no lights in the windows, I tapped Spot and waved him forward.

He nodded, bolting across the yard and taking his place at the corner. I led the group to the door, and, after checking the handle, pushed the door in. I glanced at Rover, both of us sharing an arched eyebrow, stunned at the lack of sense displayed. Shaking my head, I stepped in.

The room was neatly organized, yet sparse. We quietly spread through the ground floor, noting the lack of family photos. The table had only a few chairs, and was mostly taken up with schematics. I quickly glanced over them. They looked to be for some kind of motor. I rolled them up and tucked them into my belt.

"Nobody"s down here, boss." Rover whispered to me.

I nodded. "Owner might be single." I snapped my fingers to get my dog's attention and pointed up the stairs. Capricorn nodded, and softly climbed the stairs. One by one, we ascended to the second story. We carefully peeked into each room as we went. Fido hissed at me, pointing of the room he was outside of. Nodding, I made my way over while drawing my blade. Looking in, I saw a four post bed with twined lumps in it. I waved Rover over before stalking into the room.

As I got closet, I saw that a pair of earth ponies were in sleeping in the bed, one male, the other female. Their colors were hard to make out. I pointed Rover to the far side of the bed, where the mare's back was facing. I whipped the blankets of the couple, pointing my blade to the stallion's throat. Rover reached out and grabbed the mare in a choke hold, but refrained from applying pressure.

The mare quickly woke up, and her gasp and choked of scream awoke her most likely husband. His eye's widened upon noticing my blade.

"Are you awake now?" I growled out.

"Y-yes." He squeaked out.

"Good. Anyone else here?"

"N-no."

I glanced at Rover, who nodded to the door. Capricorn tromped of to begin looting the house. Fido came in to begin tying the stallion in his sheets. "You'll stay here. Both of you. You scream, the mare gets it. She screams, you get it. Got it?" He nodded, his hooves hogtied together and muzzle bound. Fido bound the mare the same way, then left to help Capricorn. I waved Rover to join them. "Let me know when we're done."

Rover nodded, leaving the room. I could here faint tinkling and clattering as things were moved around. The stallion flinched when a loud crunching noise echoed through the house. Soon enough the sound died down.

"We're good, boss." Rover leaned in. "The others are getting the haul to the... entrance now."

"Good." I strode forward, and slammed my pommel into the stallions head. The mare began screaming, muffled by her own muzzle, as he slumped into unconsciousness. Her muted screams turned to muted pleas as I turned to her. I cut her off with a quick strike, knocking her out as well. I sliced their legs free, then turned and strode out of the room. "C'mon, lets go."

Rover nodded, following me back as I sheathed my blade.. Once we were down the stairs, we bolted through the open back door. Spot ran across the yard to join us. As a group, we jogged back to the sewer cover. Missy stood over the hole, dropping the last of our gains to the others below. She looked up, nodding before jumping down herself.

Spot pushed the cover over enough to be easily grabbed from below as Rover hopped down. I waved Spot down ahead of me, before flipping down onto the ladder. I pulled the cover back into place before dropping down into Capricorns arms. I gave her a nod as I got my feet under me. I grabbed a chest and accepted a bag on top of it. As one, we turned for our secret exit.

Capricorn reached it first, shifting the safe she was carrying onto her shoulders to knock on the door. With a near silent click, Zeva pulled the door open, making sure to stand out of the way. Capricorn bulled through first, followed by Fido. I waited for the others to go through first before going through myself. I heard Zeva push the door closed behind us.

We didn't stop our running until we got back to our first check point.

We placed our ill-gotten gains down to rest. I quickly began sifting through the loose items and bags. I frowned at the materials inside, before looking over the pair of chests and the safe. The locks on the chests didn't look too hard to pick, if I had the tools for it, but the safe would be it's own problem.

I looked over my group of dogs. "Good work, everyone." I rumbled. "Quick, clean, and we got a good haul. Most of this we'll need to pawn off or repurpose, but we got most of what we needed. No leather, though."

"Here's hoping the next house has some." Rover stated. The others nodded in agreement. "Right, who's carrying what?"

Capricorn lifted the safe back onto her shoulder and tucked a chest under her other arm. Fido claimed the other chest and a pair of bags. The rest we split, even Zeva grabbing a bag. With a smile on my face, I led my pack back to base.