//------------------------------//
// The Harmony Hei$t (Day 3) - Ballroom Blitz 
// Story: An Eque$trian Payday 
// by The card holder 
//------------------------------//

Tonight was the night.

The Gala had already started, but there were still droves of ponies and humans alike that kept arriving.

In the midst of the massive crowd, six mares (and a human) all walked to the near center of the ballroom, where Twilight was looking at her schedule.

"Alright, now Applejack, you man an apple stand exactly two point three three meters outside the front doors. Rarity, you start talking with various uptight Canterlot ponies. Fluttershy, you-"

A poke in the ribs from Kevin made her cease her explaining and see that all her friends had already gone off on their own to do whatever it is they would do. She began to freak out, but a light tap on the head from Kevin stopped that, too.

"Twilight, calm down, and just enjoy yourself. They'll be fine."

Twilight took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "Yes, of course, how silly of me to be worried."

Meanwhile, four suited men just walked inside, and then almost immediately split up. They spotted a few ponies from their Ponyville heists, but it was easy enough to completely avoid contact with them.

Near the back of the room, a fairly high-quality camera was set up, watched over by a pair of guards. No doubt that was how the princess kept an eye on things.

"Showtime, boys," Bain said. "Start getting into position, Hoxton."

The Brit did so wordlessly, slipping outside into the gardens. There were party guests here, too, though thankfully they were all currently preoccupied with their own business. Using this to his advantage, Hoxton walked over to a certain part of the wall making up the edge of the hedge maze, and leaned against it nonchalantly. When he was sure no one was looking, he quickly turned around and climbed over the hedge, pulling himself over in a matter of only a couple of seconds. Upon landing, he listened for any signs of alert from the crowd, but heard nothing. Satisfied, he pulled on his mask and drew his suppressed pistol, ready to go to work. This was a job that would make history, so it was only right that they all had masks bearing the resemblance of former US presidents.

Back inside, the other three had split up to cover the most ground in case they needed to get everyone down.

"Alright, I'm able to tap into the princess's live feed of this thing, now. Just give me a few minutes to get a recording of the event, then I'll put it on repeat on her stream if shit hits the fan."

Back in the hallways, Hoxton crept from one hiding spot to the next, avoiding the occasionally patrolling guard. Soon, he came to the first door guarding the elements, guarded by a pair of pony royal guards.

As he got into a position where he wouldn't be spotted by either them or other patrolling guards, they received an order over their radio. "All patrols, check in."

"Elements clear," one of them said, which was followed by other guards checking in over the radio.

"North hallway clear."

"East wing clear."

"Hedge maze clear."

"Ballroom clear, it's just another beautiful night."

As both the guards and the radio went silent, Hoxton thought over this new development. Even if he took these guys out, he'd still have to keep an ear out for any further radio checkups. That would complicate things, since he didn't sound much like the guard that checked in. Still, hopefully they wouldn't notice, if it came to that.

First thing's first, though. Making sure one last time the halls were clear, Hoxton silently stepped over to the guards, just behind them. He would have to act quickly, though, or else this whole thing would go up in flames.

Once he was close enough, the Brit quickly slammed his pistol into the back of one guard's head, knocking him out cold. Before the other one could react, Hoxton grabbed him in a choke hold, and held him until he stopped thrashing. The moment that was done, he grabbed a key card off of the guard and swiped it in the console next to the door, making it flash green and slide open. Wasting no time, Hoxton dragged both guards inside, out of view of any passerby.

"I'm at the elements," he whispered to Bain, who chuckled in response.

"I never doubted you, Hoxton. Now we just need to wait for an opportunity to grab the VIP that can open the second door for us. She'll be the purple unicorn with a cutie mark of stars."

In the ballroom, Dallas spotted the mare in question, his eyes widening slightly in recognition. She was busy talking with that one guy Hoxton said she was dating, as well as a couple of ponies that he also recognized as two ponies that were taken hostage in a couple of jobs of theirs.

Meanwhile, Chains walked up to one of the stationed guards. "Excuse me, but where are the rest rooms?"

"Down that hall, first door on your left," the guard answered simply. Chains thanked the stallion and followed his directions, entering a rather basic bathroom, no doubt set up for public events like this. There, he began making preparations for a potential phase two to the heist.

Wolf, to his credit, was managing to keep his thirst for action in check. He honestly just wanted to mask up and start shouting everyone down, but he knew that it would screw things up for the whole crew, and potentially get them caught or killed. Plenty of people said Wolf was insane, and they wouldn't be incorrect, but he wasn't stupid.

As he was thinking over this, he spotted a particular yellow pegasus looking in his direction. Not wanting to be recognized, even through his wig, Wolf turned around and helped himself to the nearby punch bowl, in an attempt to be inconspicuous. It seemed to work, as the pony didn't seem to suffer any sort of PTSD or anything.

Back in the Elements hallway, the radio checkup went up again, and when it came time, Hoxton carefully answered, "Elements clear."

It seemed to work, as no one was suspicious at the slight change in voice from the last checkup. They probably assumed that the other guard spoke this time, or something. 

Either way, Hoxton was glad for the success, no matter how temporary it was.

The Brit turned around to take a glance at the outside hallway-

Before coming face to mask with a small colt.

The two stared each other down for a few agonizingly long seconds, before, thinking quickly, Hoxton removed a card from his pocket, and did his "crush then burn away" trick. This made the kid giggle, and walk away. The human sighed with relief, but he knew it wouldn't last. "We got a problem here, Bain."

"What's wrong?"

"Some kid must've gotten lost or something, because he just saw me."

"Shit, shit shit shit... Okay, did he look scared?"

"I managed to make him laugh with a magic trick, then he walked off."

"Well, that buys us some more time, but not much. God dammit, everything was going so well..."

The others heard the bad news, and started getting ready for the worst. Dallas kept subtly tailing the purple unicorn they would need, while Wolf began to overhear a conversation behind him.

"Mom!"

"What is it, sweetie?"

"I was looking for the bathroom, and I saw this human down the hall who could do magic!"

"Oh, you and your imagination." 

"But it's true!"

Wolf chanced a look behind him, and saw the mom and colt who were speaking. Not too far from them, one of the stationed guards looked to have also overheard, and he keyed in his radio to say something Wolf couldn't make out. Knowing that shit was about to get interesting real soon, he started moving towards one of the suggested spots for one of the extra jammers.

Dallas, too, got into position across the ballroom, still keeping the purple unicorn in the corner of his vision. 

Chains, meanwhile, had already finished getting ready for this situation, and waited for the go ahead.

Back in the Elements hallway, Hoxton made sure that both he and the knocked out guards were out of sight, which was difficult given the lack of cover in the hall. He heard hoofsteps approaching the door, then stopping. He could faintly hear the guard report the lack of guards in front of those doors, and the Brit clutched his pistol a bit more tightly. 

The door opened, and the guard entered, looking around. Thankfully, he looked in the corner opposite of where Hoxton and the two KO'd guards were, giving him a chance to run up and knock the guard out. His footsteps alerted the guard, however, and he whirled around and let out half a yell before a strong punch from Hoxton knocked him out cold. However, his radio was now buzzing with another guard's voice.

"What's going on? Respond!"

Cautiously, Hoxton keyed in the radio. "Uh, sorry, just got spooked by... uh, a spider."

"...a spider? Really?"

"....it was a big spider."

The guard at the other end sighed. "Alright, fine, whatever."

Hoxton sighed with relief. That was way too close. Hopefully the rest of the night went better than-

Suddenly, he heard hoofsteps again, much faster this time, and he turned back to the door just in time to catch the rear end of a guard running out of sight. "Fuck me, they're onto us!" he reported, somewhat loudly.

"Shit, no choice now. Activating the looped broadcast now... okay, aaand... jammers online."

There was a clatter of dishes all around the ballroom as unicorn horns suddenly stopped working, and the few pegasi that were airborne suddenly plummeted to the ground.

"What the hay's going on?!" Dash questioned, poking her now-numb wings with a hoof. In fact, it felt just like-

"EVERYBODY DOWN!"

All eyes were now on the masked human in the middle of the ballroom, who was waving a gun around. The stationed guards tried to draw their own guns, but when their horns didn't function, Dallas took advantage of the opening and knocked them both to the ground, forcing them to cuff themselves.

A few of the partygoers tried to escape through one of the halls, but Chains stood in their path, heavily armored, masked, and wielding a large machine gun, carefully smuggled in pieces. "All of you, eat that dirt, now!"

The civilians obliged, and Hoxton rushed into the ballroom, cutting off a few more civs from their escape.

"No time to waste, get that unicorn to the door, ASAP."

Scanning the group of guests still standing in the middle of the room, frightened, Wolf spotted their target. "You!" he commanded, pointing at her. "You're coming with me!"

Before he could grab her, the human next to her stood between them. "You'll have to go through me, first, dirtbag."

Not even saying a word, Wolf fired off a round from his revolver into the man's leg, making him fall to the ground yelling in pain, and all the nearby civs to start screaming and/or crying.

"Kevin!" the unicorn shouted, bending down to help the fallen human.

"Consider it done," the Swede taunted, before roughly grabbing the unicorn and pushing her towards the Elements. "Now move!"

She glared daggers at him the whole way, and Wolf could tell when she noticed she was outside the range of the jammers. Before she could get any ideas, though, Wolf said, "Don't try anything, or we'll kill everyone in there."

It was a bluff, but it worked, as the unicorn's anger gave way to simple resentment. By now, they had reached the door leading to the Elements, and when they slid open for them, Wolf shoved Twilight inside.

"Now, you're gonna open that door down there for us," Wolf both explained and ordered. "Remember what I said about any funny business."

Twilight froze in shock. "T- The Elements?" She knew that the Elements were usually targeted when she and her friends went up against some evil force, but now they were being targeted as what she saw as a common street thug.

When Twilight didn't move, Wolf's anger only rose. "Did I fucking stutter? Get moving!"

While Twilight finally listened, Bain reported the situation outside. "Cops and SWATs just pulled up, things are about to get hairy!"

Soon after that, gunshots could be heard farther down the hall. Twilight froze in place and looked back, but Wolf prodded her forward with his shotgun. "It's just the cops," he told her, though it didn't calm her down at all.

Silently fuming, she soon reached the door guarding the Elements, and she inserted her horn into the hole. She briefly considered casting some sort of spell on him, but she didn't want to risk angering him any more than he already was. Powering up her horn, the door lit up, and then slowly opened. Inside was a somewhat small box, which upon further inspection, contained five necklaces and a tiara, all holding different shaped gems. From the looks of it, these matched the description Bain gave for the Elements.

"Now get on the ground!" he told Twilight. Now a bit more frightened, she complied, and he roughly tied something around her hooves behind her back, and immediately after she felt her horn lose all sensation, just like in the ballroom.

Stuffing the box into a duffel bag for easier transporting and leaving the unicorn tied up, Wolf returned to his crewmates in the ballroom. "I got the Elements!"

"Nice job, Wolf! Now, get to the van in the back. Go go go!"

The cops had turned up the pressure of the assault, and the four found themselves pinned down, keeping them from moving. Chains gave some suppressing fire of his own, while the other three began picking off the cops one at a time, along with the occasional Tazer or Shield.

Soon, the assault let up enough so they could leave, and they did. Sprinting down the halls, the four quickly made their way to where the rear parking lot was located, occasionally stopping to gun down SWAT units climbing in through windows.

They quickly made it outside, on a balcony with stairs leading down. Below them, they could see an unmarked van waiting in a somewhat small parking lot. Deciding that carrying the Elements would be too much trouble, Wolf tossed the bag straight down at the van, where it landed right in front of the back doors.

As they were descending the stairs as fast as they could, a man in a ski mask emerged from the van, picked up the bag, and returned inside. However, just as the crew reached the bottom of the stairs, the van started pulling away.

"No no no NO NO NO!" Wolf shouted, taking a few potshots at the van, which soon became invisible as its enchantment started working.

"Fuck! They betrayed us!" Hoxton yelled, taking cover as cops started to catch up to them.

"What?! Shit shit shit... Okay, I'll send a chopper to get you guys out. We'll deal with this later."

"I can't fucking believe it!" Chains exclaimed, mowing down attacking SWAT teams. 

"Stay strong, friends!" Dallas encouraged. "We'll give the bastards what they deserve!"

"Oh, fuck! They got the Equestrian military on your ass! I'm pretty sure the princesses know what's up, now! You guys gotta leave, NOW!"

Wolf, meanwhile, had almost completely flown off the handle. "THEY FUCKING BETRAYED US, THOSE PIECES OF SHIT, I CANNOT BELIEVE-" He then started cursing up a storm in Swedish, slaughtering any cops unlucky enough to be caught in his sights.

The crew started working their way back into the castle, Wolf's rampage leading the way. Even a Bulldozer proved no match for the raging Swede, as he just ripped the shotgun from the armored units hands and used it to break open his faceplate, before doing the same with his face. 

Even in the midst of an all out shootout, the other three were awed at Wolf's rage fueled rampage. "Holy shit," Dallas commented.

Eventually, their fight led them to the top of one of the castle's towers, which provided a good place for the chopper to swing by and pick them up.

"Pilot Bile here, I'll be there in three minutes, flying faster than a shark!"

The four started to hold off the onslaught of both SWAT units and now the occasional military units. Chains, while laying down suppressing fire, heard a faint whistling noise. He turned just in time to see a Cloaker running at him. Shifting his gun over, he fired off dozens of rounds, but the Cloaker just rolled under them, before he sprung up and delivered a strong kick to Chains's head, knocking him straight to the ground. 

"I know, I know, I'm late!" the spook said, while throwing down a smoke grenade and focusing on the other three heisters.

Dallas saw the situation Chains was in, and gunned down the Cloaker. However, when he went to help his colleague back up, he heard a Tazer start charging up, and whirled around just in time to catch a face full of volts. His gun fired wildly, and soon the electricity proved too much, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Just two minutes, flying as fast as I can!"

Meanwhile, Hoxton and Wolf were busy holding off most of the assault, the latter's bloodlust still going strong. Hoxton saw both Chains and Dallas on the ground, and moved in to help them, but suddenly heard fast footsteps behind him. He turned just as a second Cloaker jumped into the air and kicked Hoxton straight to the ground. "The safe word is 'police brutality'!" he then taunted.

Wolf paused his slaughter long enough to see this, and quickly turned to gun down the Cloaker. "One Cloaker down!" he growled, before turning back to the incoming assault. Soon, however, his shotgun clicked dry, and he cursed as he looked over to where Chains was still recovering. Wolf rolled over to him, and picked up his machine gun. He then held down the trigger while aiming it at the incoming cops, yelling a war cry. Over a dozen SWAT and military units were mowed down, before the gun ran out. Undeterred, Wolf removed the currently empty box of ammo, and replaced it with one he pulled off Chains.

While the assault had let up a bit, a Bulldozer rose up the steps. This didn't faze Wolf one bit, as he just poured dozens of bullets into his faceplate, before it shattered and a bullet impacted his forehead. 

Now pushing forward, Wolf ran down the stairs and started spraying more shots at the cops, taking down a good number of them. However, shots were now impacting Wolf's bulletproof vest, and soon the machine gun ran out yet again. This time, he just threw it down entirely and drew his revolver, firing it off as fast and as accurately as he could at the cops. Unfortunately, he soon felt his shoulder, waist, and leg get ventilated, and he fell to the ground.

Back upstairs, Chains, Dallas, and Hoxton were just starting to get back on their feet, when suddenly they were tackled and cuffed. Their masks were ripped off, and in their now unobscured vision, they could see a large amount of cops around them, now looking slightly more relaxed. Behind them, a very angry looking Princess Celestia walked up to them. If looks could kill, they would be vaporized.

Behind them, one of the officers began to add insult to custody:

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say, can and will be used against you in the court of law..."