//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14 
// Story: Piraka Don't  Play Fair 
// by The Warmaster 
//------------------------------//

The moon shone brightly over the city of Canterlot, the pale light reflecting off the chiseled marble and golden spires that dominated much of the skyline of Equestria’s capitol. Radio antennae littered the rooftops of almost every building, a spider’s web of wires connecting them together and casting their shadows across the empty streets.

Several ponies of Equestria’s royal guard patrolled the streets every now and then, lanterns either attached to their spears or held in a magical grip. The only two who stayed still were two unicorns, who guarded the entrance to the Hooftrot Bank, their golden armor bulkier than that of those who patrolled the streets, and instead of spears they had black batons strapped to their barrels, with a yellow crystal embedded in the grips. 

From a particularly shadowy alleyway down the street from the bank, two bipedal figures watched, their red eyes reflecting in the torchlight.

One of the figures was coated in dark red, spiky armor, his clawed feet scraping against the pavement impatiently as his grip tightened on his weapons, one being some form of sphere launcher, the other being a magma launcher on one end, a dual pronged claw on the other. He turned his head to his partner, the grin that dominated much of his face looking almost savage. 

“Alright, how we wanna deal with the guards?” Hakann asked his fellow Piraka, a skakdi clad in dark blue armor of a similar spiked design.

“We need to do this quickly, and quietly,” Vezok grunted, gesturing with his harpoon weapon to the guard on the left. “You hit that one with a mental blast, I’ll get the other with my Impact vision.”  Hakann nodded, glancing at the five or so ponies they had with them. The ponies were all equipped with similar weapons to the guards; stun batons, making use of magically charged crystals to electrify the blunt objects. The five ponies all wore black garments, equipment designed to hide their cutie marks, as well as face masks that only showed their eyes. 

“And what if your impact vision thing doesn’t knock him out immediately?” Hakann asked, flipping his claw into its magma launcher. “We’ can’t risk an alarm being raised right at the start.”

“That’s why we rush 'em when we move.” Vezok raised a fist, and smacked it into his other hand. “The nice, simple way.”

“Right, then next patrol we move.” Hakann nodded, looking over at the guards. “All that gold, and none of it stealable… I hate the Royal Guard.”

“You said it, boss. How I’d love to get my hooves on some of that gear. Shame it’s all magically traceable, innit?” One of the ponies spoke up. If Hakann recalled correctly, this one’s name was Lock Hopper. He had been brought along due to his experience in making locks… and picking them. Hakann’s smile grew wider as he remembered Avak wanting to see how well he handled a cell made of molten lava after the earth pony had picked every lock in the headquarters, most of which had been designed by the brown skakdi himself. Thankfully, Zaktann had intervened before such a prison could be made.

“Yeah, wish we could have some fancy mage join the Piraka.” Hakann nodded, and his eyes narrowed as he spotted the golden armor of two more guardsponies one a pegasus and the other a unicorn, and the group lurched further into the shadows.

“By Celestia, I can’t wait for this shift to be over.” The Unicorn grumbled to her pegasus partner, who looked at her amusedly as they walked past where the Piraka were hiding.

“Oh yeah? You got your colt waiting for you or something?” The white coated pegasus replied, raising an eyebrow under his helmet.

“Nah, my anniversary is tomorrow,” She continued, lowering her spear down to her side while smiling wistfully. “To think it’s already been three years… I’ve already requested the day off, and we’re thinking of going down south for a vacation.”

“Oh yeah? Well, just stay clear of the southern empire. I heard something bad...” the two ponies walked into the distance, their conversation getting harder to hear, leaving the two, much more silent guards, behind at the bank. When the Piraka could no longer hear them, Vezok nodded.

Almost simultaneously, the two skakdi burst from their hiding place, rushing towards the very surprised guards. 


“It’s the-“ the left Guard started to raised his voice, only to be cut off by a horrible pain that cut through his mind like a knife, the pain swiftly spreading through his head before he collapsed without making a sound, his baton dropping to the ground with him.

The other guard was less lucky. One moment she was moving a wing towards her weapon, the next she had been slammed into the marble wall behind her by some unseen force, looking up just in time to see a blue fist flying towards her face.

“There, see? Nice, quiet and simple.” Vezok grunted, flexing his claws out as the pegasus’ head dislodged from the indent the back of her head had made, and she slumped to the ground. “Now, get this door open.” He gestures towards the large, ornate marble doorway, with a depiction of the two princesses on each door. They were held closed by a complex lock, and Lock Hopper quickly got to work.

One of the other ponies looked to the Guardspony Vezok had taken down while the two skakdi took up positions, watching for any patrols. “Hey, uh, boss? You sure ya didn’t… ya know, kill that one?” She asked, gesturing with a hoof to the indent in the wall.

Vezok glanced back. “Yeah, she’ll be fine. Might need a hospital trip once the next patrol arrives in thirty minutes, but that’s what taxes are for.”

“Boss… you hit her hard enough to crack the marble behind her. You sure she ain’t gotten some kinda serious brain injury or somethin?” The pegasus asked, and this time Vezok turned fully around, towering over her and clearly irritated.

“Well then, Doctor Cut, feel free to give her a medical examination. Frankly, it’s not our problem.” He grabbed the pony by the head, and lifted her up despite her protests. “I didn’t hit her hard enough to kill her. I know my own strength, and you ponies are surprisingly sturdy. In fact, I also know how much strength would be needed to send mouthy little ponies like yourself to the peak of this mountain… would you like a demonstration?” He growled, and the pegasus shook her body, too frightened to speak and unable to turn her head. “Good.” Vezok dropped her unceremoniously and turned back to find Hakann giving him an incredulous look.

“Vezok, why are you being so-“ Hakann was cut off by Lock Hopper completing his work, and the lock fell away with a thunk. 

“Der we go, boss.” He said, backing away from the ornate doors as Vezok shoved them open. 

“Because we don’t have time for whiny ponies, Hakann. If you want to play nurse, be my guest. I’m going to get what we came for and not get arrested.” Vezok marched in before Hakann could respond. He looked down at the very clearly scared pony Vezok had threatened, and gave her a shrug.

“We best follow along. But don’t you worry, Clear Cut.” Hakann glared into the dark bank. “I’ll be sure to have a chat with him later. Maybe with Zaktann too.” Clear Cut nodded, her fear lessening at his words. The ponies made a quick double-check of their gear, before entering the bank. As the group walked past the doorway, none noticed the small red line that their feet and hooves walked through.

Hakann was almost impressed by how overly decorated the interior was. The room they had entered was quite large, so large in fact the red Piraka theorized they could host a party here, and likely had in the past. Banners distinguishing long-lasting nobility houses hung overhead, bearing the emblems of their family lines and names. Much of the walls were pure white, with golden decorations depicting Celestia raising the sun on one wall, and the opposite with Luna bringing a silver moon to the sky, wings spread. The floors were polished marble, leading towards a fountain made of the same material, rimmed by golden lining and spewing water from the mouths of three statues, each depicting one of the three races of pony.

Hakann regarded all this in a moment, and despised every nook and cranny of it. “These ponies sure do love stroking their egos. How I’d love to turn this place to molten slag.” He grumbled as he walked past the fountain, letting the claw of his magma launcher tear a jagged line into the fountain. 

Vezok chuckled as he leapt over the receptionist table, using his Buzzsaw to hook onto the edge of it as he went across. “Now who’s the one being extreme? Come on, the vault should be this way.” Hakann hurried after him, the ponies only slightly lagging behind. 

“There is a difference between threatening to throw one of our loyal subordinates up a mountain, and destroying a bank to send a message to our enemies.” Hakann replied, watching as Vezok slammed open a wooden door with his clawed foot, sending it flying off its hinges. 

“Yeah, and I think you’ll find you’re on the wrong end of that particular spectrum.” Vezok grunted. The group of thieves wandered through a few lavishly decorated halls, with paintings of over a dozen ponies who were likely influencers. Hung upon the unblemished white walls. Hakann made sure to tilt every painting they came across until they finally came upon the vault. 

“Alright, we should still have twenty minutes.” Vezok grinned as he gazed upon the typically large steel door barring their way. “Once Hakann melts through, we take as much as we can and run for it.” He gave the ponies a look as Hakann approached the metal gate. “You lot remember where to go, right? Down by the river?” He received several nods as Hakann began his work, two crimson beams erupting from his eyes as they began to slowly melt into the meters thick steel gate. After about a minute of little progress, he growled, and the beams cut out. 

“This’ll take too long like this… how about…” Hakann closed his eyes for a moment, much to the confusion of Vezok. A moment later, the crimson Piraka’s eyes shot open, and his heat vision once more fired at the vault. This time, however, it was spread out, bathing the entire vault door in burning heat. After a few minutes, and the metal had softened enough, Hakann cut it off, gesturing towards Vezok.  “Tear it open.” Vezok looked over at the glowing red metal, and sighed, cracking his clawed fingers as he approached. With grim hesitation, he dug his claws into the metal, the burning pain lessened by his armor as he quickly began tearing through the burning metal, creating a opening wide enough for him and Hakann to fit through, and ignoring the pain from his fingers as he admired his handiwork.

Hakann stepped past him without a word, walking into the vault… and staggered to a halt. “What…?” He asked, shock and anger filling his voice. “What… the fuck is this?!”

Vezok marched in, pushing his red friend aside and getting a shock of his own. “Where… where’s the bits?!” 

Instead of being filled with millions of the golden coins Equestria used for currency, the vault was filled with a few hundred small scrolls. When Vezok picked one up and read it, he growled. “Sir Fancy Pants has 1.5 million bits.” He threw it down in frustration, crushing the paper under his clawed foot. “It’s all just papers! Papers that say how much money a pony has!”  He stormed out of the vault, and heard Hakann roaring with frustration behind him, the sounds of his heat vision setting paper scrolls ablaze following soon after. “There must be another vault, with the actual money.” Vezok growled as Hakann stepped back outside. “We’ll have to retreat for now, figure out where the vault is, and come back another-“ A bolt of blue magic slammed into Vezok, sending him flying into the wall behind them. Hakann turned, his weapons raised as he found himself face to face with at least a dozen ponies of the Royal Guard, their magic-infused spears held in front of them.

“In the name of Princess Celestia, you are under arrest, Piraka scum!” One of the guards yelled. “Surrender now, and you’ll have-“ the Guard was unable to finish before he was sent flying, and Hakann yelled.

“Run!” 

Hakann turned to see his ally already running down the hall they had came from, and as the rest of the Piraka criminals turned to flee, Hakann launched a particularly large ball of molten magma at the floor between him and the Royal Guard. Their hooves scuttled backwards as a sudden moat of magma burned the carpeted floor between them and Hakann, and before they could recover, Hakann was already running after his comrades.


“How in Makuta’s name did they get around us?!” Hakann yelled over the sounds of magic bolts and yelling guards behind them. “Were they waiting for us?!” Hakann had quickly caught up to him, outpacing the ponies as they galloped towards the exit. 

“We can discuss this later! Keep running!” Vezok replied. One of the ponies behind them stumbled as they fled, one hoof blocking the other as he fell onto his face, causing two others to fall with her. Hakann looked back when he heard them yell, and almost stopped to go help them when Vezok’s arm flashed out, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him away. “Come on!”

Hakann glanced back, and saw that the guards had already gotten to the fallen ponies, magical stun batons smashing the side of their heads to knock them unconscious as the rest of the guard continued the chase. Moments later, the remaining four criminals ran out of the bank and straight into a circle of more royal guard, their spears held up as the Piraka came to a stop.

“Surrender at once! We have you surrounded!” One yelled, a white unicorn with golden eyes. Vezok’s response was to blast her into her cohorts with his impact vision, before charging the line of ponies. Hakann quickly supported him, staggering the guardsponies with a quick hit of his mental blasts to knock them off balance. It worked, and Hakann and Vezok barreled right through them, their remaining two pony compatriots following swiftly behind as the chase resumed.

“Split up! We’ll meet back up at extraction!” Hakann yelled, panting as he turned a corner to split away from Vezok. He could hear Lock Hopper just behind him, panting heavily as the two ran through the streets. Hakann slowed himself just enough to let the pony catch up with him, then grabbed him by his neck and hauled him up. “I need you to go on ahead! Get the carriages ready!” Hakann yelled, and before Lock could respond, the crimson Piraka threw him, sending the screaming pony flying forward. As soon as Hakann lost sight of the pony over the buildings, he pulled a full stop, turning around to face the guards.

“Alright, you stuck up horses… let’s see if you can handle the heat!” Hakann yelled, bringing up his magma launcher. The royal guard stopped a few feet away, a magical shield forming between them and Hakann. He took this moment to take note of how many there were; five unicorns, two earth ponies and 3 pegasi. 

‘Too many to knock out with a mental blast, and I can’t risk killing them with my magma launcher…” Hakann wished he had asked Avak to design the Piraka some nonlethal weapons. ‘Guess I’ll just have to get creative…’ Hakann glanced around quickly, noting the buildings around them. They were closer to the outskirts of the city, close enough that Hakann could see the wall that surrounded and protected the capital through the alleyways between houses. The buildings were rather decorated, just like everything in the city, with marble walls, violet drapes, and wooden structures for support being the most common things. ‘Wait… wood? That’s perfect!’ Before the ponies started getting brave, Hakann leapt back, until there was a whole house’ distance between them. Then, he uses a combination of his magma launcher and his heat vision to set the outer wooden support beams ablaze, or outright destroying them. 

The royal guard dropped their shield and rushed to attempt to save the building as Hakann turned to run. Their efforts were in vain, as soon after, the entire front of the house crumbled, debris crashing into the street as the Guards narrowly avoided being crushed. ‘That should buy me a few minutes. Just long enough to get to the carriages.’ He could hear alarms ringing, and briefly glanced to the palace, where he could see dozens of small, flying figures taking to the sky. He growled. ‘Vezok better not be late…’






Vezok was currently thinking of fifty other things aside from being late as he fired a burst of magic from his hand, the stolen bolt flying true and taking a pegasus out of the sky. He didn’t watch the pony fall, more focused on keeping ahead of the fifteen or so other guards chasing him through the business district of Canterlot. Unlike Hakann, who had ran towards the quieter, almost tranquil housing district, the blue skakdi had ran into the noisiest district, hoping that he’d be able to lose them soon enough. 
 
Vezok spotted two ponies stumble their way out of what Vezok assumed to be a bar, tripping over their hooves as they walked into the street. Without breaking pace, Vezok threw out his clawed hand, snatching one by his barrel and hoisting them upward, despite his sputtering protests.

“Nnnhey, put me down, you big… bully!” The yellow coated unicorn stuttered his words, the tip of his horn flaring up with magic, only for it to fade away. “You’s got… any idea who I am?”

“Yeah. A distraction.” Vezok growled, taking a momentary stop to spin around. He threw his arm back, and before either the guard or the drunkard could react, he threw the unicorn at them. His aim was slightly thrown off due to the struggles of the drunk pony, but he still achieved what he wanted; for the living projectile to slam into the guards, bowling through a dozen of them. Before they could recover, or the other pegasi could swoop down at him, he was on the run again, firing magic bullets at the remaining pegasi in hopes to bring a few more down.

 He had to give them credit, they were good at flying. The ponies he had fired at ducked and dived through the hail of magic the Piraka had fired at them with ease, and Vezok was quickly having to come up with a new idea. 

‘Let’s see if you can handle a surprise?’ Vezok grinned. He ducked to the left, stopping at what he assumed was a clothing store to tear a chunk of rock the size of a pony out of the wall. When the pegasi flew overhead, Vezok launched the marble chunk at one. The pegasi ducked under it, but just as he was about to dive down, Vezok fired his impact vision. It struck the flying chunk of marble, shattering it and causing hundreds of shards of varying sizes to burst out, many nailing the nearby pegasi guards and sending them tumbling to the ground in pained heaps, their armor protecting them from any serious injuries, though many wings had been damaged. 

Vezok was midway through mentally congratulating himself when a ball of purple magic whizzed past his head, barely missing his grinning features. He cursed, taking off to running again as the remaining unicorns and earth ponies started catching up to him.

‘At this rate, I’m never going to lose them.’ Vezok growled, dodging past a few ponies who had frozen up in terror when they saw him barreli towards them. ‘I need something faster than them!’ He flung a few more magic bolts behind him, sensing that his stolen power was starting to fade. Once that ran out, he either would need to get hit again, or start using his impact vision, or even his elemental powers. 

As he turned a corner, something caught his eye. A rather large, ornate carriage sat waiting outside of what Vezok assumed to be a diner. It was unguarded, save for a rather old looking driver, and the earth pony that would pull it. Vezok grunted as he ran towards them. ‘It’ll have to do….’ He leapt up onto the carriage, and when the old pony turned in confusion, mouth open to speak, he found Vezok’s harpoon pressed against his throat. 

“Drive, you old bastard!” Vezok yelled, and the old pony, a pegasus with a dull grey coat, quickly started yelling at the earth pony. The carriage quickly took off. 

“Um… Wh-where to, s-sir?” The pony asked fearfully, 

Vezok turned back towards the guards chasing them.”Towards the edge of town, by the gate!” Vezok released the last blast of magic he had, shooting it in a curve so it bowled over at least three of the Guard, before switching to his impact vision. 

“And.. are we getting… paid for this service?” The pony asked, and Vezok turned, momentarily stunned. 

“You… you’ll be lucky enough to escape with your life, you old fool!” Vezok growled. The pegasus was unimpressed.

“Sir… it’s becoming a well known fact that your kind doesn’t kill. Jimothy Twist, stop the carriage.” The earth pony began to slow down, and Vezok was almost impressed by this old pony. 

He glanced back to the now-gaining troop of guards, and sighed. “Fine, we’ll pay you thirty bits once we arrive, and thirty more if we escape. Does that sound good to you, grandpa?”

“Hmm… I suppose so.” The pegasus swiped out a card from under his dress shirt, and handed it to Vezok with a wing. “Here’s my business card. Jimothy! Get going towards the gate!”  The carriage started up again, and after a few seconds of glaring at the pegasus, he turned back to the guard, who were quickly falling behind.

“This is ridiculous…” He grumbled as the carriage moved swiftly along, magic bolts flying past his head.






Hakann leaned forward, peeking out from the shadows made by a large, almost tower-like house that dominated much of this block, it’s violet rooftop rising over the walls of the city edges. He was currently hunched over, watching the streets for any guards. Across from him, and down the road a fair bit, was their escape route;  three large transport carriages, manned by roughly a dozen ponies, one of which Hakann noted was Lock Hopper. The carriages bore a few dozen crates each, most being goods the caravan had been unable to sell to the nobility of Canterlot, and others purposefully empty, with some perfectly sized to fit a skakdi. 

Each carriage bore metal signs on the side, with the words Zakaz Industries stamped out clear as day. Aside from that, they were simple wood, pulled by three earth ponies each, most being very clearly nervous. 

Hakann was about to start walking towards the caravan when the sound of another carriage driving close by stopped him in his tracks. He dove back into the shadows, hugging the wall as the carriage drove past him. He tilted his head when he heard a familiar voice.

“Alright, stop here!” Came the clearly irritated voice of Vezok, who rapidly and unceremoniously jumped off the carriage, and turned towards the caravan. 

“Hey, numbskulls! Get me sixty bits from today’s earnings!” He yelled, hardly even bothering with keeping quiet. 

“I’m glad you’re a Piraka of your word, mister…” Hakann spotted an older pony manning the carriage, and mentally cursed Vezok as he stealthily approached.

“Vezok.” The blue Skakdi grunted as one of the ponies hurriedly trotted forward, a bag of bits in his mouth. Before Vezok could grab the bits, Hakann launched a particularly strong mental blast at the earth pony pulling the carriage, knocking him out instantly. Before the old stallion could even react to this, Hakann had leapt up onto the carriage behind him, and delivered a powerful swing of his fist to the back of the gray stallion's head, sending him flying off the carriage and sprawled across the cobble road.

“Hakann, what are you-“

“No, what are you doing, you absolute buffoon?!” Hakann growled, jumping off the carriage and marching right up to his blue friend. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?! Now this old piece of trash knows that Zakaz industries works for us! If he told the guard, we’d lose the entire business!” He turned towards the ponies by the caravan, and gestured to the unconscious equines. “Make room for them in one of the boxes, and make sure they don’t try anything if they wake up!” 

“Look, I had no choice!” Vezok growled, stepping face to face with Hakann, angry crimson eyes meeting a furious crimson glare. “I couldn’t shake the guard. He refused to work for free, since we don’t kill! I needed a fast escape!”

“So you led a random, untrustworthy pony right to our getaway vehicles?!” Hakann shook his head in exasperation, before shoving past Vezok. “Come on. We’ll discuss this later, if we make it out in one piece.” He leapt up into one of the carriages, carefully pulling open one of the larger boxes and slipping inside. “This operation is already enough of a disaster.”

Vezok glanced at their underlings as they carefully yet quickly pulled the unconscious ponies  towards the caravan, having already tied their hooves together and gagged them. Vezok growled, swinging his harpoon out and smashing it into the closest wall in frustration, digging out a large gash in the process. He stood there for a few moments, attempting to calm himself even a little bit, before walking to the caravan, and quickly slipping into one of the boxes. 

After a few moments of silent, hurried movement, Vezok felt the ground underneath him begin to move, and soon enough they were on their way. 





Back at the bank, two dozen guards were searching through the building, spears in hoof in case the Piraka left anything else behind. The ponies who were captured had all been huddled up outside, awaiting a carriage to take them to the nearest prison. 


And so it was that as they waited, they saw the dark blue pony land gracefully in front of them, surrounded by thirteen black-armored ponies that brought all movement from the guard to a standstill. Unlike their golden-armored counterparts, these ponies’ armor was pure black, with blades strapped to their hooves in the shape of claws. Their coats were magically changed to a dark grey, to better blend in with the shadows, and their mane’s were a dull purple. 

But what really drew the attention of the guard, who were now kneeling before her, was the alicorn beauty they guarded. 

“Bring to us your commander, noble guardsponies!” She declared, her ethereal blue mane covered in stars like the night sky. Her coat was a darker blue, and her body was wrapped by an obsidian black necklace, which bore a pearl shaped like a crescent moon, just like her cutie mark.. One of the golden armored guards, who unlike his fellows bore a golden helmet with a purple plume instead of blue, rose with a salute. 

“Your majesty, we have this situation under control.” The pony said, gesturing to his guards. “The Piraka attempted to rob the bank about an hour ago, but they clearly went for the wrong vault. By the time we arrived, they had destroyed the vault door where all the bank statements are, and most of the statements were destroyed. We captured these four ponies, but the Piraka themselves escaped.”

“These barbarians…” Princess Luna shook her head, giving the four ponies a look, before turning back to the guard sergeant. “The recovery of the bank statements will be quite a pain for the next few months… but excellent work, Sergeant. We will capture these fiends soon enough!” She declared proudly, raising a hoof up high. “Take these four to the Castle’s prison… We shalt interrogate these knaves personally…”