The Black Mask Brothers

by Alex Rite

Chapter 2: Business as Usual

Chapter 2: Business as Usual

---

Baws

It was the next day, and man, did it feel good to steal a priceless artifact.

Keyword, priceless, this book was probably a farce. I can't read this mumbo-jumbo, and neither could Spark.

"How did you grab the wrong book?!" Spark yelled.

"This was the same book you told us about!!"

"Yeah, but we should be able to read it!!"

"You're a flipping unicorn!! You're smart, do something!!"

"That's stereotypical!!"

The door opens to reveal Alex, and relief fell upon me. "Alex! Thank you!" I say with more relief than necessary.

"What? What's going on?" He asked.

"Spark is peeved that we 'got the wrong book'."

"Did we?"
"I don't know, ask him. I'm leaving. Gotta work and schedule for the upcoming weather."

I left with a... friendly matter, and gently closed the door.

Freaking geez...

---

Alex

After Baws left, I turned to my lemon yellow brother to see if I could lend him a hoof. It was obvious he was quite perplexed, as he kept fiddling with his red bowtie and his square glasses.

"Let me take a look at it."

Spark ran a hoof through the few tufts of black hair he had on his head and handed the book to me, and I looked it over. The writing was strange, but there was something off about it. I gave the ink a sniff.

"Here's the problem!" I exclaimed. "There's a protection spell mixed into the ink."

"Well that's just great!" replied Sparks, sarcastically. "It'll take me forever to figure out how to bypass such an old spell!"

"Well then, you better get started." I said, tossing the book back into Spark's hooves. "Meanwhile, I've got to get to work."

A few minutes later, I approached the place of my employment: the local police department. I know- what kind of a thief works for the police? Well, actually, I'm only an assistant here, not a cop. Plus, it a good way to find out about local crimes. Best of all, though, I was the assistant to my favorite inspector.

"Alex! There you are!" Inspector Gold Heart said as I walked through the door. "You've got a lot of work to do today!"

"Always a pleasure working with you, Goldie," I replied.

"I told you, it's Inspector Heart to you!" Gold Heart scowled at me.

"I know, but you get mad when I call you Goldie, and you truly are lovely when you're angry."

Gold Heart blushed, but then looked surprised. "Hey- one of the Black Masks said the same exact thing to me last night!"

Oops.

"W-well, uh... he and I must have had a similar thought," I said, trying to save face.

Gold Heart glared at me, then stopped. "Eh, you're probably right."

I let out an internal sigh of relief. Too close. Had to be more careful.

---

Baws

Putting on my white lab coat, I walk through Cloudsdale and entered the Rainbow Factory. It's not so bad, really. Just don't drink the rainbow mixture, follow instructions, all fine and dandy. As I was walking through the factory, Rainbow Dash came from behind.

"Hey, Winter, you heard about what happened last night?" She asked, a smile on her face.

I can guess. "No, what?" I asked.

She got in front of me with a big smile. "Have you heard of the Vendetta crew?"

"Vendetta crew? Who are they?" I asked.

"A group of thieves like the Black Mask Brothers! The ones we were talking about yesterday! It's amazing how only those two can steal something so awesome!"

I couldn't resist a smile. She looked at me with the same face. "Nah, don't worry about it, big guy. I'll keep it a secret." She said, playfully punching my shoulder.

"You better. I don't want to come out in the middle of the night to black you out."

"Yeah. But you haven't heard of the Vendetta crew?"

I was more curious than ever than to hear who these jokers are.

Seriously? Vendetta? ...Okay that sounds pretty damn awesome, but so what? "No, who are they?" I continued.

"A group of females stealing priceless artifacts! Last night, Las Pegasus lost 2.3 million bits worth of casino money because of them! They left not only a note, but a black and red rose!"

Okay, they sound more awesome than they should have. We continued until we got into our stations, since we work together at our stations. I was the water provider, and she was the cloud maker. "What'd it say?" I asked, bringing in buckets of water with my wings.

"I don't know, Canterlot guards wouldn't say. All they gave us was the master minds and a black and red rose." She stopped to pick up the buckets of water, and toss them into the machine. She looked back at me with a more stern attitude. "Some say that this was just the beginning against you guys. Bataille des Voleurs, they said."

"Battle of the Thieves. Guess they got that one right." I said, bringing more buckets of water for her.

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, actually. We'll see how well their skills are by finding out where they live. We will go from there."

"Alright..."
The bell rung and the intercom rang.

"Lunch Time!!" It yelled out. Before I could walk out that door, Rainbow put a hoof on my shoulder.

"Winter?"

"Yeah?"

"Just...thanks for telling me."

"It didn't seem like I had much of a choice at the time, now did I? Your smart for a mare in the Wonderbolts. After Thunderlane made it in, I thought it was over for you guys."

"Oh shut up! He's a nice guy!"

"To you, maybe, but he's a sour lemon around me."

"Then that means you need to try harder at making friends."

"Worked on you, didn't it?"

"Just shut up and hurry. They're serving hay burgers today."

"Really?!"

Oh my Celestia--HAY BURGERS!! Can't be late for this one!!

---

Alex

"RITE!!! GET IN HERE!!!"

I came in running at the below of Gold Heart, my claws filled with an unnecessarily huge stack of papers.

"Uh-um, yes, Inspector Heart?"

"Are those the papers I asked you to get on the Black Mask Brothers' criminal activities?"

"Why, yes they are," I replied, looking over the stack of papers. Damn, we were good at being thieves.

"Put'em all back where you found them- we've been reassigned."

"What?!" I exclaimed, dropping the stack on the ground. "Reassigned?! To who?!"

"Have you heard of the Vendette Crew?" Gold Heart asked, to which I shook my head. "They're a large group of thieves who have stolen millions of bits worth of treasures, including some one-of-a-kind artifacts."

"I see. But what does that have to do with us?"

"Aside from it being our job?" she asked sarcastically. "They pose a threat to the safety of Equestria. If they keep up at the rate they're going, Equestria will face a state of financial ruin!"

"Okay- that does seem pretty important."

Just then, another officer came in and asked to speak to Inspector Heart alone. When she returned, she looked completely spooked- something that Gold Heart almost never is. I asked her what was up.

"There... there's a fire! Right now! At one-thirty-two Trottington Avenue!"

I felt my heart stop.

"B-but... that's where I live!"

---

Baws

We walked into the lunch room, every pony chilling and eating their lunch like usual. Already into having our lunches from waiting in that long line, we sit down at a table. Of course, nothing's more interesting than eating a lunch full of hay burgers and hay fries!
"You really love that stuff?" Rainbow asked.

"Uh, yeah! I love these suckers!" My excitement was killing me, and I can't wait to taste the deliciousness in my mouth! Yeah...

...it's sad how a simple day could ruin your chance of eating your favorite food.

I couldn't even take a dang bite of my burger without the intercom going off. "ATTENTION ALL PEGASI!! WE HAVE A CODE RED. I REPEAT, A CODE RED!!"

Code Red?

"That's fire, isn't it?" Rainbow asked me.

"Yeah, c'mon!" I rushed outside and grabbed an emergency rain cloud. Rainbow followed in pursuit with the other Pegasus, but stayed beside me. "
Which building?" She asked the others.

"One-thirty-two Trottington Avenue!"

W-what?! B-but...

"Winter, isn't that where you live?" Rainbow asked. Your gosh-dang right it is! My house is flippin burning! I rushed faster than anyone in the Emergency Squad, and your gosh dang right if you assume that address is my house! The fire was slowing dying out by the time I got there, aside from the Fire Ponies were hosing down the building, but we got the fire from above. The fire died out in a matter of minutes, and I was damned pissed. When I swooped down to talk with the Fire Ponies, they didn't look happy to see me.

"O-oh...Mr. Winter, sir." One of the stuttered.

"Well? What caused the fire to my house this time?" I asked. Let me tell you something; every time their's a fucking disaster, my house always somehow catches on fire. Even if their nowhere near my property, it catches on fire. I just let Alex and Spark live in it because ponies are still scared of dragons, and Spark had nowhere to live since he was kicked out of his girlfriends house. It's a fucking pain to come back one day to see my house on fire with no pony calling the dang guards. Friends we are in Ponyville.

"U-uh...we promise to pay for the damages to your house!"

"You said that four times, and you stilled never bothered to pay it!! Where's my 750,000 bits you 'Fire Ponies' still owe me?"

You don't know how pissed I was, and you don't know how lucky they were when Alex rolled up into the scene. Alex better find a damn way to convince them, or I'm going to be the next damn villian for the Elements of Harmony to fight.

---

Alex

"Yo, Al, tell these foos to gimme my money!!" yelled Baws as I approached.

"Dude, we got more important things to worry about than yo damn money!!"

"Yeah? Like what?"
"Like where the heck is Sparks?!"

It was then that the realization hit him.

"Oh Celestia- Sparks!!" Baws quickly dashed over to the rubble of our house, digging through pile after pile in search of our little brother. We may not be related by blood, and he may complain about us from time to time, but Sparks and I knew Baws cared about us just as much as we cared about him.

"I found him!!" Baws exclaimed, pulling Sparks out of a pile of rubble. He was beaten and bruised, but otherwise alright. I quickly ran to their side.

"Sparks, what the Tartarus happened?!"

"It was... it was... the... Vendettes..." Spark Plug grunted, hacking a bit. "They... they got... the book. I... tried... to stop them... but... there were... too many... and I... wasn't... strong enough. I'm... sorry guys... I... failed..."

At this point, tears are streaming down Baws's face. "You did good, little bro. You did good."

With that, Spark gave a weak smile and passed out.