Los Pegasus
Gideon peered through the doorway. No guards in the hallway, just sheer utter darkness. He turned round to his brother, Gilder. "It's all clear."
Gilder nodded. Though it wasn't like they had broken into the Canterlot Archives or anything, they didn't want to take any chances. Even if they were just in an aircraft company office with rent-a-cops for guards. The office they were in was only illuminated by the desk lamp, providing a stark yellow light on the desk. Gilder angled the desk lamp towards the pony tied into the chair. She was a unicorn, white with a pink mane and a pencil for a cutie mark. Contrasting with Gilder and Gideon's rather gruff exterior and with being griffons. "Alright, Pencil Pusher. Start talking, where is it?"
She turned her head up high, sweating bullets and obviously working hard to maintain her composure. "Where's what?"
Gilder slammed his hands on the desk, causing Pencil Pusher to flinch. "You know darn well, 'where's what?', so where is it?"
"Okay, even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you thugs where it is!"
"Listen here, chucklenuts! You're going to tell us otherwise I'll beat it out of you!" Gilder cracked his knuckles and advanced on Pencil Pusher. However, he was stopped by Gideon, which meant a sigh of relief from the bound mare.
"Wait," Gideon said. "We can't beat her up. That's evidence. We gotta make this clean."
Gilder buried his face into his hand. "Ah, fine! But you do it. I'm not good at that psycho-mumbo-jumbowhatsit anyway." He walked over to the door to stand guard. That left Gideon and Pencil Pusher alone to talk, so to speak. Gideon leaned on the desk, picking at his beak. Pencil Pusher turned away under his silent but incredibly hard gaze.
"So," Gideon started, "you are Daring Industries chief pencil pusher. Am I right?"
"I am not a pencil pusher!" Pencil Pusher shook the chair. "I'm an accountant!"
Gideon shrugged. "Same thing. The only thing most important to us however, is that you know where it is." Framed on the wall were dozens of Employee of the Month portraits of Pencil Pusher. After a moment of contemplating these portraits and on how well the office was organized, Gideon looked down on the neatly organized stacks of papers on her desk. He pointed to them and said, "I'm sorry, do you mind?" Pencil looked confused, but immediately shrieked in terror as Gideon viciously threw the papers all over her desk and then refiled them in the wrong order.
"Ah!" Pencil took a deep breath in, then relaxed. "Big deal," she said proudly. "I can just simply refile those in the correct order." Gideon slowly slid the papers towards the stapler on the desk. "No! Don't!"
"Tell us where it is."
"Never!"
Gideon slowly slid the papers into the stapler and clenched a fist. Pencil Pusher looked down at the papers, gnashing her teeth, resisting any sort of submission to the griffon. After a moment of pause, Gideon stapled the papers together. Pencil cried a blood curdling scream, sobbing as the mismatched papers were now permanently attached to each other. Even if the staple were to be removed, the papers would be horribly disfigured by two small but incredibly visible holes.
She cried out, "You monster!"
"It doesn't have to be this way," Gideon said calmly as he tossed the mismatched stapled pile to the ground. He walked over to a filing cabinet while Gilder looked at him, dumbstruck. Gideon opened the filing cabinet and started tossing papers out at random. Pencil screamed incoherently at him as he occasionally crumpled a paper or ripped a file as he pulled out it. "Oh, what do we have here?" Gideon paused, then pulled out a file labelled in big bold letters, "Balance Sheet".
"No!" Pencil shook her chair trying to break her restraints. "Not the Balance Sheet! Anything but that! Hurt me all you want just don't harm the Balance Sheet!" Gideon whistled innocently as he began folding the file in half diagonally but not enough to cause any lasting damage. Pencil gnashed her teeth together as sweat ran down her cheeks.
"Last chance." Gideon took up two fingers then slowly edged them towards the fold. Pencil knew what this meant: he was going to crease the fold. Pencil bit her lip as the fingers touched the paper with such slowness that turtles would call it slow. He pressed down on the paper, creating the horrid sound of creasing and ruffling.
"Okay!" Pencil yelled as she trembled in her chair. "It's in the South Wing behind a lock door! It's a four digit code! 1-2-1-7!" Gilder had written down what she had said on a loose piece of paper. With their information secure and nighttime burning, they began exiting the office. "Wait!" Pencil yelled, "The Balance Sheet! You said you'd let it go!"
Gideon turned around looked at Pencil. "I said no such thing." He swiftly and irreversibly creased the fold. Pencil burst into tears, screaming for the now disfigured Balance Sheet and hurling half-hearted insults at the griffons. Gideon exited and closed the door behind him, a wide grin plastered on his face. Gilder looked at Gideon however, like he was nuts.
"What...?" Gilder started, but was waved off by Gideon.
"Unlike you, Gilder. I happen to know people."
The two griffons proceeded to sneak their way towards the South Wing. The company building wasn't large, fortunately for them. The company, Daring Industries, was only in its infancy with its major breakthrough having occurred a year ago and still needing time to process. Occasionally they'd stumble on a security guard but they were either gagged and stuffed into a closet quite quickly or found fast asleep on the job. They took no chances and crept quietly. It was then that they came upon the great steel door, featureless and cold. On the wall next to it was a keypad with the numbers. Wordlessly, Gilder walked up and input the code, 1-2-1-7. With a hiss of air, the door slid to the left into the wall, revealing a hallway obscured by darkness.
Gilder looked inwards, then at Gideon. "You first."
Gideon looked in then at Gilder, raising an eyebrow. "Why me?"
"Well, you did the whole sadistic interrogation stuff. I figure you'd be brave enough to take point."
"Why not you?"
"Are you saying you're a chicken?"
"I'm not a chicken!"
"Bawk."
"Shut up!"
"You shut up, make a chicken and scoot!"
"What- no one says that!"
"'Til now, dweeb. Get in there!"
"You get in there!"
"Chicken! Chicken! Let me call your chicken companions! Gi-gi-gi-gi-deon!"
"Fine!" Gideon stomped his way into the darkness and called back to Gilder, "you little baby!" Gilder giggled as he followed Gideon in. They were shrouded in black, unable to see anything past a foot in front of them. They stopped and looked around, fruitlessly.
"It's dark in here," Gilder said.
Gideon sighed. "No, really?"
Gilder scoffed. It was just like Gideon to point out that he was stating the obvious. The two griffons immediately set about looking for a light switch or anything. Why they didn't bring a flashlight briefly crossed Gilder's mind. He nearly started on why they didn't bring one before he realized that it was his fault that they couldn't. He'd spent the last of their bits on frosted donuts. He swore under his breath then went back to searching.
"Hey, I think a brushed by a chain," said Gideon. He fumbled about before getting his grip on something hanging from something. It felt like tiny metal beads. He quickly tugged and on came the lights, briefly blinding the two griffons. The room was now brightly lit, and was a store of many blueprints, files, and other confidential items stored in marked green metal boxes. Gideon scratched the bottom of his beak thoughtfully and said, "alright, so where is it?" Gilder tripped over a large marked briefcase, which looked like it matched the measurements given by their employers and bore the marking '1903.MARK ONE'. "Oh, there it is."
"Well great!" Gilder said, pushing himself up. "Open her up. Let's see."
Gideon pushed Gilder away, much to his annoyance. Gideon pulled a feather from his wing and quietly proceeded to pick the lock. After a couple of minutes of waiting and picking tumblers, there was a distinct click. Gideon opened the box up and gazed at the contents. The washy silver coating reflected the light back onto Gideon's happy face. Gilder looked at the inside with more scrutiny however.
"Yep," he said. "That's it alright."
"It looks like a vacuum cleaner," said Gilder as he shook his head.
"Regardless, let's get this out of here." Gideon closed the box shut and locked it. He tossed it to Gilder, who reluctantly began carrying it under his arm. They began walking out of the room, and Gideon delightfully said, "home stretch, Gilder. We can get paid, we're set for a whole year."
Gilder chuckled, "maybe Gilda will be happy for once, maybe we'll get her to crack a smile."
"'Oh, my younger brothers!'" Gideon started a nasally interpretation of Gilda's voice, "'You've finally made me happy! I'll never ever ever beat the ever-loving daylights out of you or shove feathers where Celestia-don't-look ever again! Oh, I'll stop being such a broody raven! Ohoho!' Yeah, that's totally what's she going to say when we present to her the-"
The two griffons stopped as they stepped back into the hallway. They froze, staring at the now present security officer. He was a large set brown unicorn and he stared back at the griffons just as surprised. There wouldn't be much of a stand-off here were it not for the Unicorn being nearly a foot away from one of the alarm switches.
Gilder snarled and said, "don't do it." The unicorn briefly eyed the switch. "Don't even think about it," he said again. The unicorn turned his head at the alarm then back at the griffons. "Don't even think about not doing it!" After a moment pause, the unicorn did it. Gilder whacked him with the case, knocking him out cold, but the damage was done. Intensely loud sirens were now replacing the quiet. Wordlessly, the two griffons ran for it. Gilder and Gideon had already prepared an exit, which was the front entrance of the building.
As they burst through the wooden double doors, they were immediately blinded by searchlights from hovering pegasi security. On the ground were a contingent of unicorn and earth pony guards as well. They weren't armed but they didn't need to be, they had numbers on their side.
"I am not surprised at any of this." Gideon rubbed his eyes and blinked away the sunspots.
An Earth pony held up a megaphone and shouted, "throw down the case and surrender! You're surrounded! You have 30 seconds to respond or we will use force!"
Gideon backed up slightly and looked around at the small security force. They weren't Royal Police and definitely weren't Wonderbolts or Royal Guard. He considered fighting his way through with Gilder and making a fly-by for treetop level where a griffon's natural slowness would allow the speedy pegasi to simply fly over them whereupon the two griffons would make an escape in the cover of the trees. "Okay, Gilder. We're going to-" he would have finished that sentence had Gilder not already flown off without Gideon and rammed a pegasus out of his way. "Typical," he muttered. Gideon flared his wings and went after him. The surprise of it all left the ponies stunned but after a few minutes of consolidation, the security pegasi went after them.
Instead of making a fly for the White-Tail woods, the two griffons banked east for the ground portion of the city of Los Pegasus, more commonly known as Applewood. It was a veritable metropolis, rivaling Manehatten in brightness and Earth pony population. In fact, Los Pegasus and Manehatten ponies often argue which city is more culturally rich. Manehatten has foreign trade and a relatively large aristocratic population, while Los Pegasus has technology and is the home of many movie studios.
None of that was entirely important to the two griffons however. All that was important was escaping with the case.
"Gilder!" Gideon flew up next to his brother and shouted into his ear. "Draw them into the alleyways, we'll out turn these scrubs!" Gilder nodded and angled downwards, Gideon following after on his tail. The pegasi formed a flying V-formation and followed them in.
They flew down in between the multi-story buildings of Applewood. Like Gideon had planned, their slow speed allowed them to angle in and out of alleyways and turn street corners on a dime. The pegasi, whether because thieves were the most action they had in weeks or because they were untrained, were crashing into everything. By the time the griffons made it to the less stuffy hotel district, only three pegasi were following them at great distance. The rest had overturned carts, crashed into windows, and in one case collided with another pegasus.
"They're still following us!" Gilder landed, the case under his arm. Gideon landed alongside him, muttering a snide remark at Gilder's tendency to state the obvious. Gideon looked around, empty streets, a hotel themed with apples, an open top cart filled with apples, two trash cans, and immediately advancing pegasi on their tail about to turn the corner. The circumstances could not be more evident to him.
Gideon pushed Gilder forward. "Quick! Into those trashcans!" Gilder hopped into a can and tried to take the case with him, but it would not fit. Gideon, having no time for technicalities like diameters, grabbed the case and threw it into the apple cart. For safe keeping, he brushed as many apples over it as possible before heading into his trash can. They threw the lids over and proceeded to play the waiting game. There was a noticeable whooshing sound roaring past near their ears. Gideon lifted his lid slightly and whispered to Gilder, "we'll wait here for things to die down."
An hour passed. In that time, all that was heard was carts, ponies walking along, and the occasional automobile. Gideon pushed the lid off and jumped out of the can. Gilder, being less agile than his older brother, rolled out when his trash can toppled over with a loud clang.
"We made it!" Gilder brushed himself off, he was covered in apple skins and what Gideon hoped to be applesauce. Gilder paid no mind to his condition however and slapped his brother on the back. "Nice work, Gideon! Maybe I'll stop calling you a chicken from here on in!"
"Yeah, that'd be great," said Gideon with a smile on his face. They were in the clear. There were sirens, but they were out in the distance, probably in the outskirts of the city. From here, Gideon and Gilder could head towards the restaurant Gilda and her gang were boarding with the case and be home free. "Get the case, Gilder. We're bailing."
"Right. Where'd you put the case?" Gilder asked, looking around.
"In the apple cart."
"What apple cart?"
Gideon took a look directly where the apple cart was. Nothing but pavement. He looked around the completely empty street frantically. He groaned in frustration, there was no denying it. The cart was gone. The case was gone. Their money, in a manner of speaking, was gone. Gilder rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Gilda is going to murder us."