Chapter 3
Rarity made them all tea. They sat in the Suburban in a parking lot and drank it.
“Where did you get the cups?” Rainbow asked. “How did you heat the water?”
“Dear, it’s tea. One simply does not ask such things.”
“Well, it was refreshing,” said Twilight. “Thank you.”
“How’s it going on the intel?” Spike asked.
Twilight had switched to her Toughbook, holding her teacup in one hand and typing with the other. “We’ve got a little, like the name of the man we saw in the casino. Sure enough, he’s a bad guy. He trades in exotic animals. It’s possible the business is a front for money laundering.”
“If we go down there, we can persuade him to tell us where Sombrero is,” Applejack offered.
“It may cost us the element of surprise,” said Rarity. “We could do it at night and search the place thoroughly.”
“I like that idea,” said Twilight. “If we don’t turn anything up, then we can grab him when he shows up in the morning.”
“Wow, for being the Princess of Friendship, you’re pretty ruthless,” Pinkie giggled.
Twilight flushed. “I’m just very mission-focused.”
“What do we do to kill time until nightfall?” said Rainbow.
“We could figure out some way to get heavier weapons,” suggested Pinkie.
“What, just go down to the ‘ol black market and ask, if anybody’s got any RPGs?” said Applejack.
“Do you have a better idea?” challenged Rainbow.
They were all getting more talkative now that the tea break had begun to cure hangovers. Twilight stepped in. “If we’re going to try to make a deal, we’d better let Rarity do it.”
Rainbow got the Suburban moving and they headed to the black market. It wasn’t on any map, and they only knew they had arrived when Spike said-
“-you’re in the black market.”
“All right Rarity,” said Twilight. “You’ve got the most charisma.”
“I roll to persuade a nearby black merchant to give us an RPG,” said Rarity.
Spike rolled. “Six. Uh, that was a bad one. I should probably roll again.”
“You can’t just re-roll.” Twilight put a hoof on his arm. “We can’t just play with fate like that!”
Rarity sighed. “Very well. What does a six get me?”
Spike fumbled for a moment. “The vendor says he’ll give you the RPG if you kill his rival for him.”
“Well, we’ve got all these guns,” said Rainbow.
“Do we really want to do this?” Fluttershy asked.
“I mean, arguably this warlord’s rival is also probably a warlord and therefore a bad person,” said Twilight.
“And it’s not like we weren’t going to kill Sombrero,” said Pinkie.
“Wait a second, I thought we were supposed to capture him,” said Applejack.
“Actually, the mission was just to track him down,” corrected Spike. He frowned. “I guess someone should have come up with a plan for after that. As Americans, we’re not really good at exit strategies.”
“Speak for yourself, darling.”
“Wait, so we’re killing some guy just so we can merely track down some other guy?” said Pinkie.
“Let’s not kill anyone,” said Fluttershy.
“Says the woman with the eleven pound rifle,” Rainbow retorted.
“Look, if we think we need it, we can come back later,” said Twilight.
Everyone agreed to that, and they set off for their next destination.
Night was falling as they pulled up to the place that was supposedly an exotic pet store. It didn’t look like it from the outside, but perhaps that was due to some of those animals being illegal to import.
Rainbow pulled around to the back where they were less likely to be observed and shut off the engine. They got out and went to figure out how to get inside.
“I also knitted everyone these cute hijabs, considering where we are,” said Rarity. “We’ll look great in coordination.”
“And it might make us less conspicuous among the natives,” noted Twilight. “Or disguise us for breaking into this place.”
“That too.”
The back door was locked, but that was to be expected. “Does anyone know how to pick locks?” Twilight asked.
“I’ve got a paperclip,” said Rainbow. She bent down to the lock.
Spike rolled the d20. “Two. You break the lock. Now it’s even harder to open.”
Rainbow crossed her arms. “Stupid foreign locks.”
“I’ve got a solution!” said Pinkie. She grabbed her shotgun from the Suburban.
Twilight stopped her. “That’s last resort. We wouldn’t want them to know we’d broken in.”
“The little pieces of metal stuck in the lock will tell them that somebody tried to break in,” Applejack noted. “At this point, there’s no real reason to keep being subtle. Why don’t we back the truck into it?”
“We could explore alternate routes,” suggested Rarity. “If you’re as Airborne as you say, perhaps the roof?”
“Hey, what are you doing, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked.
Fluttershy turned from where she was kneeling. “I was just talking to this rat. He agreed to bring us the key to the front door.”
“Since when can you talk to animals?” Applejack demanded.
“I’ve always been able to,” Fluttershy said.
“I meant in the game.”
“It’s on my character sheet.”
“I’ll allow it,” said Spike.
“What, they don’t teach you that in the Army?” Fluttershy asked.
Applejack was about to reply when the rat returned with the key. The front door was out in the open, but if they moved quickly, perhaps no one would see them going inside.
As they went into the building, Fluttershy was disappointed to see that the building was not actually an exotic pet shop, merely a pet supply store.
There didn’t seem to be anyone around and the group of them met in the back room. There was a desk, containing a laptop computer and a large pile of paperwork.
“It would take us all night to search this for useful intel,” Twilight guessed.
“We don’t have anything else to do, especially if we wanted to grab this guy in the morning,” Rainbow pointed out.
“Did anyone else notice that alarm panel out front?” said Rarity. “I wonder if it’s a silent alarm. Or it’s not a silent alarm, but it just hasn’t alarmed yet. Or maybe it just wasn’t turned on.”
“If we stay and the alarm goes off, it might draw the target to us,” said Applejack. “Of course, it might also draw the police.”
“We could leave,” Fluttershy suggested.
“We could leave and go take that arms dealer up on his deal for an RPG,” Pinkie said. “We might even be able to do that and come back by morning.”
“What do we do?”
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I say they take the laptop and the papers.
6913490 Agreed, although I would photograph the papers and then dump them on the floor instead of stealing them. If they are missing, the owner might suspect that it was an intelligence operation, but if they are left behind then it reinforces the story that it was a robbery rather than an intell raid. Also, robbing the store will probably give them some extra cash to buy more weapons with so it is a win-win. That said, they definitely need to get someone to look at the alarm first to see if it went off because that will radically change the amount of time they have to work with.
Once they are done with that, the next step is to check who the rival arms dealer is to make sure they don't do something embarrassing like offing one of Sunset's friends, then kill him for the RPG and whatever else they can loot from his body.
6913490 Also, burn the place down and destroy a bunch of nearby shops and homes so that they can't be sure this specific place was the target.
6916053 No, you don't want to make it too suspicious. Arson is the kind of thing that gets people looking for a motive which can lead them back to you or at least make them suspicious and therefore harder to move against later, but simple robbery is so self-explanatory that it does not attract undue attention.
6916485 Spike got a mess of spy gear. There should be a camera in there somewhere, and if there somehow is not, they probably have other electronics with them that do thanks to the prevalence of smartphones.
If Fluttershy can still talk to animals, ask that rat about the comings and goings of people to the store. Also, maybe buy a falcon somewhere along the line, use it like a spy plane. Also, why do I feel like this talent is the only reason she got into the SEALs?
6916903 That back door they broke the improvised pick in would be a good candidate. Go smash in the door (without shooting it because that is suspicious) and leave a clear trail of an amateur but determined thief. After all, no professional operative would try picking a lock when they don't have the skills or tools for the job so no one will think it is anything out of the ordinary, especially because I got the impression that shop was in a shadier part of town.
6916053
I approve of wanton pyrotechnics.
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I'm sure glad I wrote this story the way I did - it's practically written for me. I can practically hear the dialogue across these comments.
6920711 Happy to help.
6920711
It's good to be helping