Bain led the four through the forest, radio on his back and laptop in his hands. Apparently, the idle magic in the air of this world was enough to majorly extend the battery life of devices, because his laptop had been running for quite a while, now, and it was only now reaching half charge. Still, he'd have to see about getting an outlet to plug it into sometime.
But that was an issue for the future. Right now, he had to worry about this rickety bridge in between him and his crew and their destination.
"There should be an old castle on the other side of this gorge, abandoned," Bain explained.
"You sure this is the only way across?" Hoxton asked, looking at the worn bridge with apprehension.
Chains took the initiative. "Everyone just go one at a time, slowly. We should be able to get to the other side if we're careful."
The others all agreed to this course of action, and thirty harrowing minutes later, Wolf was the last one to reach the other side.
"We have to find a better way to get here and back," he said. "I can't do this every time."
"We'll figure something out," Bain replied, "but for now let's just get the place situated." The five of them got moving again, the old castle now in sight.
Once they got to it, they looked around. The place was abandoned, alright; it looked as if no one had used it in hundreds of years. Parts of the roof were caved in, and plants were covering sections of the walls and floor.
"Looks like a fixer-upper," Dallas commented.
"Don't worry, I made a few contacts already, and they agreed to come by and give the place some modern comforts, as well as supplying us with more guns, ammo, and other things we'll need."
"Anything new for sale?" Wolf asked.
"I don't know, they said they'd bring their whole stock with them." Bain looked at his watch. "And they should be arriving soon. Let's see if we can get to the roof."
It took some looking, but they finally found a staircase to the roof that wasn't completely crumbled. Watching the horizon, Chains soon spotted a pair of ordinary helicopters heading their way, low over the treetops. Both of them came in and landed on a flat piece of the wide roof, which thankfully didn't fall apart under the weight.
Out of one chopper emerged a man in a balaclava, who chuckled a little before heading over to the group. "Hey, guys, long time no see."
All of them recognized that vaguely Russian accent. "Alex? Is that you?" Hoxton asked.
"Yep, I help with black market deals now."
"Because you weren't very good at action jobs?" Bain quipped from the back.
Alex chuckled again. "Yeah. I seem to have lost my touch with that. Anyway, there's the chopper you ordered," he said, pointing to the helicopter he just left, "so now you'll talk to my partner here for the rest of the things."
Out of the second helicopter came a yellow unicorn, also wearing a balaclava, and duct tape over where his cutie mark was. "Pleasure to meet you four. I've heard stories about what kind of heists you pulled," he said.
The five nodded, well aware of the capers they had pulled. "So, what's for sale?" Bain asked.
"Straight to business; I like that." The unicorn walked over to a side door on the chopper, and swung it open. Inside were all manner of guns, ammo, and medical supplies. "Assuming you all know what to look for, which I know you do," he continued, "I'll only be explaining the newer stuff, exclusive to the Equestrian black market." He levitated out a few sets of cable ties, which were slightly larger than what the crew was used to. "These cable ties have been enchanted to suppress the magic of any unicorn you use them on, as well as paralyzing the wings of pegasi."
"How much?" Chains asked.
The unicorn smiled. "For a few legends like you, these are on the house." He levitated a gym bag nearly brimming with the cable ties, which Bain took. "Next up, we have this." He took out a small satellite dish, which was attached to some kind of device. "This also suppresses unicorn magic, but on a much larger scale; useful for keeping large groups down, and they're reusable, assuming they don't get shot up. They run about thirty bits each."
"How much is that in U.S. dollars?" Dallas asked.
"Well, conversion rates are roughly three dollars to one bit... so around a hundred each."
Hoxton whistled at the steep price, while Bain grabbed a wad of hundred dollar bills from one of the money bags they've kept with them. "We'll take twenty," he said after counting up the bills. He tossed them to the unicorn, who caught them with his magic. He unloaded six of the devices, before shrugging.
"That's all I've got on me, so I'll have to make repeat trips to fill that order completely. But that's it for the new toys, so let's get to the rest."
The deals went easily enough, each crew member picking out their guns of choice and taking plenty of ammo with them. Medical supplies were also bought, as well as a few drills and saws. When they were finished, nearly the whole chopper was cleaned out, and the crew had only a few bills left.
"Also, how much would it cost to get this place renovated into a proper safe house?" Bain asked, once all the other deals were in order.
"Depends, what kind of safe house are you talking about?"
"Something livable, with electricity and running water, but otherwise bare minimum."
"Normally that'd be pretty cheap, but the price will no doubt go up, since you're talking about the place where Nightmare Moon was defeated."
"Who?"
"Equestrian legend. Basically, your stereotypical cartoon villain, not quite an honest criminal like ourselves."
Bain nodded. He had skimmed through the Ponyville database, but he ignored things like legends; they probably weren't important to know for their jobs.
"But anyway," the unicorn went on, "you probably don't have enough money for it right now, anyway. I trust you'll have it by next week?"
"More than likely. And what about the local currency? We only have bills, not bits."
"Don't worry; larger bills are accepted everywhere in Equestria in place of large amounts of bits. Just buy some things in town, and they'll give you change in bits." The unicorn got in the pilot seat and started up the helicopter, while Alex got in the other seat.
"Happy stealing!" he called to the crew before the chopper lifted off and left.
With that done, Bain explained the situation to the others, who were checking out their new guns. They nodded, and then went back inside as the sun began to set.
It had been a long day, and they deserved the shuteye.
After braving the bridge one more time in the morning ("Maybe we could make a pair of zip-lines across the gorge, that'd probably be safer!"), the four walked back through the forest towards town. Bain had told them about how, as simple as it was, they needed food. And Ponyville had good amounts of it ready for purchase, so they'd have to legally acquire something this one time.
Besides, they still had to make arrangements for their new suits. And with Bain now tapped into the few cameras in town, he could keep an eye out for them.
With this in mind, as they entered town, they stuck together, rather than split up. They took care not to stay too close together, though; they didn't want to seem suspicious.
Dallas led them to the boutique, but it seemed to still be closed. They decided to get the grocery shopping out of the way while they waited.
Before they could buy anything, however, Bain spoke up in their ear pieces. "Hold on, there seems to be something happening at the local school. A pair of SWAT vans just pulled up, but no sirens are on."
By now, the four were completely separated, but they still voiced their acknowledgement as they were directed to the schoolhouse, Wolf remembering the path he took the day before.
They arrived at different times from different angles, but none of them could really see what was going on.
"Hold on," Bain told them, "I think there's some cameras inside the school... aaand their signal is encrypted. Give me a second."
As the four men waited, a few ponies also arrived at the school, curious about the SWAT vans. They didn't seem concerned, however. Though to be fair, they weren't career criminals like the four suited men who were there.
"Alright, I'm tapped in to the cameras now... Huh, it seems like some kind of assembly from the local police force. They're giving some PSAs about the usual things, like fire safety and stuff. Hold on... Is that... Yeah, that's a Bulldozer. And a couple Tazers... a few Cloakers... and even a shield! They got all the specialist units here!"
This news worried the crew, but they remained stoic.
"Wait, they're going outside now, apparently for early recess," Bain added. "Act inconspicuous!"
The four nonchalantly leaned on nearby walls, lamp posts, or trees, and Dallas and Chains held a quiet conversation, though nothing of value was being said, as they were simply trying to blend in. Hoxton sat on a bench some distance away, and Wolf ended up leaning on the fence, watching, along with the small gathered crowd, as several colts and fillies ran out of the building, followed by SWAT units and the specialist units. They were all bombarded with questions from the children, and they answered them with relative ease. Notably, the Bulldozer was being approached by a group of three fillies, all of which Wolf noted had no cutie marks.
"Excuse me, sir," the yellow one, whom Wolf recognized as one of the arguing fillies from yesterday, started, "but you think you're stronger than mah brother?"
"Well, probably," the Bulldozer spoke in a somewhat garbled voice, due to the suit's need for a radio to be heard. "Why do you ask?"
The orange one said excitedly, "I bet you're not as strong as Apple Bloom's brother! He can lift, like, a dozen barrels full of apples at once! He's almost as awesome as Rainbow Dash!"
The Bulldozer laughed, something that made Wolf's skin turn cold. "I'm sure I could at least match him."
"Oh yeah?" The yellow one, Apple Bloom, replied. "Prove it."
The Bulldozer shrugged. "If you insist." Bending down, he effortlessly picked up Apple Bloom, who gave out a yelp. She hung from his arm, nervous at first, but nervousness gave way to excitement, then joy. She began laughing, as the other two began asking to be picked up like that, too. The Bulldozer complied, and he soon had three laughing fillies hanging off his arms. Other kids began to notice, and they asked to be picked up, too. Soon, the Bulldozer was carrying about seven colts and fillies, and he ever so slightly showed some sign of wavering.
"Rather impressive, huh?"
Wolf jumped at the sudden voice to his side. He turned, coming face to mask with a Cloaker. He was about to freak out and start shooting, but he remembered that he wasn't in the middle of a heist, and calmed down. "Jeez, you scared me."
"Heh, yeah, I do that to people." The Cloaker looked to the Bulldozer, who was being surrounded by eager fillies and colts. "You know, he's not actually that strong. It's the suit."
Despite his fear and hate of Cloakers, Wolf was intrigued. "Really? How so?"
"Think about it. You wear over sixty pounds of armor a lot, and you can lift nearly anything... while in the suit. Outside it, he doesn't fare much better than he did before."
Wolf gave a snort. "So, tell me: Why are there SWAT teams here? I thought Equestria was supposed to be mostly peaceful."
"It is. But it's standard procedure. Every major town gets its own SWAT team, along with specialists, like us Cloakers." He gave some kind of salute to another Cloaker across the schoolyard, who was sharing a bench with a rather uncomfortable Hoxton. The other Cloaker returned the salute, and the first one chuckled. "Though, here specifically, there's been hardly any common street crimes, so this is basically like a paid vacation for us. We came here because we needed something to do." He laughed.
Back in the schoolyard, the Bulldozer was nearly toppled over by the small ponies.
The Cloaker gave a playful laugh in his direction. "Come on, Davis! I've seen you lift twice as much as that! Don't tell me a bunch of kids are gonna beat ya!"
Looking for a way out of this, Wolf checked his watch. "Ah, crap, I gotta be somewhere," he said, backing away. The Cloaker waved goodbye silently as he watched the Bulldozer finally fall to the rampaging children.
Now away from the police forces, Wolf headed over to Dallas and Chains. "Fucking Cloakers, man," he said under his breath, getting a chuckle from the two.
"Come on, let's grab Hoxton, and get out of here," Dallas said. The other two nodded and walked around the school. Chains motioned to Hoxton, who seemed to be on the receiving end of the Cloaker's statements. Hoxton got up, said he was late for something, and hurried off. The three walked after him, chuckling at the slightly offended Cloaker as they passed.
Once the four were together again, they immediately split up again to get the items they needed. Once that was done, they met up back in front of the boutique, which looked to be open now. Dallas led the way inside, where Rarity was putting the finishing touches on a plain black suit. She turned when the door opened, and smiled. "Ah, Dallas, you're a bit early. I was just putting the finishing touches on your suit." Leaning to the side, she saw the other three behind him. "And these gentlemen must be your associates, I presume."
"Yeah, this is Wolf, Hoxton, and Chains," Dallas said, pointing to each member of the group as he named them. Still holding grocery bags, they could only offer a small wave in return. As Dallas took the suit and went into a changing room, the white unicorn turned to the three newcomers.
"And you three need new suits, as well?" They nodded. "Alright. Normally, I'd charge forty bits a suit, but given your current suits are rather... worn, I'll make three new suits for only sixty bits total."
The three counted up the bits they got for change, and gave them to Rarity. "Thank you! Your suits will be ready in a day or two!" she said.
"Wait, don't you need to take our measurements, or something?" Hoxton asked.
"Nonsense. I find that most human males have about the same dimensions, and I'm good at doing measurements in my head, anyway."
At that moment, Dallas came out of the changing room, wearing the new suit. He had to move over his holster and mic to the new suit, but it was an easily done job. "How do I look?"
Hoxton smirked. "Like a cheeky bastard in an expensive suit," he quipped. This got a couple of laughs from Chains and Wolf, and even Rarity seemed to be holding back a small giggle.
"Real funny, Hoxton."
They picked up their groceries, said their goodbyes, and headed back off to their new castle hideout.
The next couple of days passed quickly. The unicorn who sold them the guns (who told them to call him "Spade") returned to help them get the castle fixed up and made modern. Within a busy afternoon, most of the holes were boarded up and electricity was hooked up. Running water was a fairly easy task of slightly diverting a river. Now the crew had a proper base.
Wolf, Chains, and Hoxton all got new suits, each one like the one they had before, only less damaged.
The daughter of the local billionaire, Filthy Rich, was having her birthday tomorrow. A storm was also planned that day, so their job was made slightly easier. The night before, all five of them gathered around a printed out blueprint of the mansion in question. Bain, armed with a marker, got to work drawing up a scheme.
"Alright, here's the plan..."