Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

A Light That Was Followed

One dozen ponies on Lord Copper’s security force along with four other ponies he had a business deal with were now gathered in his office. Everypony in the office knew that whatever was going on was extremely serious purely thanks to those who were here. Lord Copper leveled his gaze at his chief of security and the orange band worn around his uniform. He trusted him and his underlings completely, after all he had been paying them a small fortune under the table, what reason did he have to doubt their loyalty? The other four—Lord Copper turned his attention to Malthus and his thugs—simply knew they weren’t going to get any help if they came clean so they might as well stick with Copper.

Lord Copper let them all stand at attention for a moment longer as he gathered his thoughts. He really wished right now he had a speech or something prepared, but unfortunately he hadn’t been thinking that far ahead. They needed to act fast anyways, he just didn’t want to come off as not absolutely certain and in control to his employees. The situation had already gone sour enough.

“I think you can all figure out the reason I’ve called you here tonight to a degree,” he finally said, glancing at the clock on the wall that showed the time as but an hour before midnight. “But regardless of how much you grasp, let me tell you now that it is finally time for me to act and begin the final part of my grand plan. There will be difficulties involved, and dangerous risks since new problems have arisen, but what happens now will be no simple show or farce. This is the real deal and I’ll need all of you to play your parts.”

He continued- “You’re all well aware that we’ve lost access to the TNT we need for the bombs and that’s why nothing has been done lately. However, it’s become apparent that there is nothing we can do about that except for one thing.” His eyes narrowed coldly. “Break into the constable-guarded warehouses and steal more crates of TNT immediately.”

The mouth of his chief of security hung open in shock. “Sir, is that—can we really do that? Not only the danger but the constables and other Lords will know immediately, and what if they connect us to you?”

“That’s why you’ll wear casual clothes while doing it,” Lord Copper’s eyes narrowed. “Either way we need to do this. It’s more TNT or nothing. The longer Barnaby and that pegasus are suspicious of me the more likely it is that they unravel the whole thing.”

“What is this grand plan of yours anyways?” The uneasy Malthus asked.

“That’s none of your business. You’re just muscle hired to do the dirty work, and you’ve caused me a considerable amount of trouble so just shut your mouth and do what you’re told today,” Lord Copper spat.

Malthus’s jaw clenched as he glared at the floor but he and his gang decided it was best to keep quiet.

“Alright,” Lord Copper tapped his hoof on his desk. “You know that not only must this be done fast but much more TNT will be needed than before. Two or even three crates, and it must be used all at once. It can’t just be a small danger like that first bomb—it must be a massive, serious threat to Oreville or it’s meaningless! The plan won’t work otherwise, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” His chief of security nodded.

“Good. You already know what needs to be done once you’ve acquired the TNT. So get to those warehouses and get it as quickly as possible! There’s no time to waste and we’ll be on a timer once the break in happens so you’ll have to work even faster at the second part! Now get out of here!” Lord Copper ordered.

The chief of security and his underlings swiftly saluted and turned to leave the office, marshaling Malthus and his gang with them.

Once they were gone, Lord Copper turned in his chair and looked out the window at Copper Section. His Copper Section. “Everything is going to be fine. It will all be over with soon.”

---

Jarvis, the chief of Lord Copper’s security forces, was fairly wary of the task he was currently undertaking. And he could tell from the tense atmosphere he wasn’t the only pony who felt that way. Both his fellow security officers and the slimy thugs they were working with had a lot to worry about. None of them had the courage to voice any of it though, especially not back in front of Lord Copper. He was just going to have to get the TNT and hope everything turned out alright. There was still a lot more work to be done after this point.

In truth he probably shouldn’t even be thinking that far ahead, he needed to stay focused on the present. There were likely a lot of constables guarding the warehouses now but Jarvis and his group had the element of surprise.

Now close to midnight, in the washroom of the main warehouse, a grating on the shower floor was popped open. Jarvis, Malthus, and everypony else quietly came up one by one until the whole group was gathered inside the washroom. The grating led to a secret tunnel in the sewers that few knew about, it was far too narrow to bring a crate of TNT back through it but it was useful to get into the warehouses and get the drop on the constables. Walking through all that dreck had been a pain but the next part of their business was probably going to be even worse.

“So do we just try and sneak a few crates out of here?” Malthus asked Jarvis.

“Sneak?” Jarvis looked at him like he was an idiot. “There’s no way the Chief Constable hasn’t explicitly instructed his constables to guard this place at all hours of the night. We won’t be getting these crates out the front without being seen, there’s bound to be too many around for that.”

“Well then what’s the plan, genius?” Malthus scowled at him.

Jarvis glared back at him. “There’s only one thing to do; we charge out of this washroom, hit them hard and fast in this warehouse, and run out of here with three crates before most of them can react and get here.”

“That’s not even really a plan at all...” Malthus shook his head. “We’re all going to end up dead or arrested, aren’t we?”

“Since you’d be rotting in a cell already if it wasn’t for Lord Copper you better still do your part anyways,” Jarvis narrowed his eyes.

“We will,” Malthus looked at his gang, who all nodded back to him.

“Then let’s do this. We’re already wasting too much time standing around and talking,” Jarvis said. He looked at his fellow security officers. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, sir,” they snapped a salute to him.

Jarvis nodded. “Good.” He took a deep breath. “Right out of the washroom, knock out and incapacitate everypony you see, try not to let them activate any alarms, and then the crates. It’ll take us all working together to carry the three crates we need.” He walked over to the door leading into the main part of the warehouse and put his hoof on the handle.

A lot of last second worries and regrets went through his mind right then but he snuffed them all out and quickly yanked the door open.

Almost twenty ponies ran out into the warehouse, closer to the back end where the office was. Jarvis immediately ran to the office with two others since he knew for sure there’d be at least one pony in there keeping watch. The rest fanned out and ran through the rows of crates of TNT to find and incapacitate any other constables that may be in here. Nopony yelled or screamed, they didn’t hide the sounds of their hooves running across the floor but they didn’t need to so obviously alert everypony else to what was going on.

Jarvis passed by the window of the back office right as the constable inside was sitting up after hearing the commotion. So Jarvis grit his teeth and threw open the door, stepping inside with his two comrades and pointing a hoof at the constable. “Stop right there!”

The eyes of the constable flickered to a conspicuous button on the side of the wall.

“Don’t even think about it,” Jarvis warned.

The constable didn’t listen, he ran to the alarm with an outstretched hoof—but he was intercepted by Jarvis, who grabbed him and put him in a headlock before spinning him around and slamming him into the filing cabinet by the desk. With a pained grunt, the constable tried to fight his way to his hooves but the other two security ponies came forward and kicked him repeatedly in the ribs. Jarvis ended it with a final punch across the jaw to knock the pony out cold.

“Well we don’t have to worry about that alarm going off anytime soon,” Jarvis said and then looked out the window at the quickly growing chaos inside the warehouse. “Come on, let’s hurry and finish up in here so we can get those crates out.”

Outside the office, Malthus was leading the charge against any constables who had been unlucky enough to be roaming around inside the warehouse keeping watch over the stockpile of TNT. They had already taken down three of them before the rest seemed to realize that something was wrong. Malthus only hoped that none of them were smart enough to go running outside for help. The other ponies in his gang and a few of Copper’s security guards were trailing behind him.

A constable came around the corner of a few stacked up crates of TNT, his red uniform easy to make out in the dim lighting of the warehouse. Malthus charged forward and body-checked him into the crate behind him before the constable could react. He then reached his hooves forward and grabbed the constables head and repeatedly slammed it into the heavy wooden crate. It felt good to be on the giving end of a beatdown after Barnaby and that pegasus had humiliated him a week ago.

“What’s going on?!”

“Stop!”

Two voices yelled from where the other constable had emerged from and Malthus looked to see two other uniformed guards coming at him. Malthus didn’t waste any time with talk, he charged at the two constables while his gang came behind him to back him up. To their credit, the two constables didn’t try to run away like cowards, they stood their ground even as they were tackled to the floor and beaten senseless.

Some of Copper’s guards came to a stop around the painful melee until Malthus was finished and got up.

“How many more do you think are in here?” One of the security guards asked him.

“Who cares? Can’t be too many,” Malthus said. “Your boss should come help us out so we can start moving these darn crates already.”

After that there were only about five more constables inside the warehouse that the group had to take care of. It was easy thanks to them having much superior numbers now after taking out some of the others by surprise. They had no idea how many might be patrolling outside, or at the gate, or in the other warehouses, but they were lucky to clear this one out. Jarvis and Malthus made sure everypony was knocked out and wouldn’t cause any trouble, then met up at the large front doors of the warehouse. The lights above only barely gave enough illumination inside here but it was all they needed. Multiple stacks of crates sat right in front of the large doors, just waiting to be moved.

“Alright, we’ll take down three, throw the doors open, and run for the gates. Somepony will need to be in front to either take out whichever pony is guarding the front gate or to just open it up for us in case nopony is there,” Jarvis said.

“I’ll do that,” Malthus volunteered. “Don’t want to help carrying one of those huge things anyways.”

Jarvis nodded. “Fine. Now let’s hope there aren’t any constables right outside when we open this up.”

Once they had gotten the crates down, five stallions each went to carry one with Malthus staying at point. The crates were heavy even for five stallions and it would be a mess of trouble if they didn’t get out of here with them soon. The huge doors that opened up into the yard of the walled off warehouses now needed to be opened. Thankfully that was easy. There was one metal drop rod that needed to be lifted out of its hole at the bottom of the door and turned aside. Then Malthus could easily push the doors open and they could make a break for it.

Malthus pulled up the rod to unlock the door and placed his hooves on them, briefly looking back at Jarvis. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Jarvis answered.

Malthus bit his lip and threw the doors open. Him, Jarvis, and all the others moved their hooves like their lives depended on it. Since it was the dead of night, most of the yard was dark and the lights built into the ceiling of the cavern weren’t turned on yet. There was one light on inside the pillbox at the front gate, a desk lamp, like a lighthouse showing exactly where they needed to go, and there were several constables roaming around with flashlights elsewhere in the yard. So it wasn’t exactly a perfect situation but it could’ve been worse.

The ponies flat out ignored the other constables, who noticed something was up but were slow to react, and ran straight for the front gate.

The constable stationed in the pillbox both heard and saw their shadowed approach. Trying to get a better view he pulled out a flashlight of his own and shone it at the running ponies. What he saw shocked him and he got out of the box to confront Malthus leading the charge.

“Stop there!” The constable yelled and whistled for help.

Malthus meanwhile just kept running at him, he could tell that not only had this constable realized what was going on, but he recognized Malthus as well. He must’ve been a pony that Barnaby trusted or at least kept up to date on recent important arrests. Either way, Malthus wasn’t going to let him off easy. He needed to take this constable out quick and open up the gate before more arrived.

The constable dropped the flashlight to the ground to keep his hooves free and went for a straight punch as soon as Malthus got close. Malthus cross-countered it, throwing his hoof right along the constable’s outstretched leg while ducking under the hoof coming for him. His hoof landed across the constable’s right jaw, knocking a tooth clean out of the pony’s mouth.

Blood was spat from the constable’s mouth as he took a few steps back while Malthus threw another punch to his face. But this time the constable blocked it and managed to uppercut a surprised Malthus instead. Meanwhile the three crates were practically right behind them and at the gates already.

“Malthus!” Jarvis shouted. “Hurry up and get the gate open!”

“What does it look like I’m trying to do?!” Malthus shouted back and tackled the constable.

The both of them fought to get on top of the other as they rolled across the hard ground and traded close blows with each other. Malthus ended up on top and slammed his hooves into the constable’s shoulders to keep him pinned, and then headbutted him with all the strength he could muster. The constable’s head snapped back and his skull echoed off the ground, his eyelids fluttering and his pupils losing focus. Satisfied that that was enough, Malthus quickly got off him while rubbing his own bruised forehead and ran into the pillbox.

There was a switch inside at the desk that he flipped and the metal gate started automatically rolling back into the stone wall. As soon as there was just barely enough room to fit through, Jarvis and the other ponies made a beeline for it and Malthus came running right after them.

“Come on, we’re not in the clear yet,” Jarvis said as the first crate made it past the gate. “We’ve gotta get the bombs ready and into the mines as fast as we can!”

“Whatever!” Malthus said and went to help carry the last crate as well.

In just a few seconds all three of them had been taken past the gate and were now being carried down the dark streets of the Copper Section. While finally a few of the other constables in the yard made it to the gate and noticed their downed comrade and his discarded flashlight.

“H-Hey! What happened?!” The first one yelled as he knelt down and tried to shake the semi-conscious guard back into coherency while the others shined their lights out into the street for a sign of where the ponies and crates of TNT had gone.

The eyes of the gate guard came back into focus for a brief moment as he coughed up some blood and spittle onto his uniform. “M-Mines...” His eyes then rolled back as he lost consciousness.

---

At the checkpoint right inside the front door that led to the main city center of Copper Section, an incredibly bored pony sat on a stool behind glass. Formerly this had been a position held by security guards of Copper Section, but Lord Silver had changed that. Now it was a personal guard from Lord Silver’s security forces that sat here and monitored the main tunnel in and out of Copper Section. A boring, empty job, but a job nonetheless.

Herman sat with his eyes half-closed, threatening to fall asleep, and stared at the turnstiles and gates that made up the checkpoint outside his little booth. His shift still had a few hours to go and he doubted those hours were going to be flying by. Near the entrance to the tunnel, the metal door stayed closed, the pulley system used to make it retreat up against the ceiling currently idle. Despite the hour the lights were on in the tunnel (they always were) and he could see the inner side of the door.

It was crazy to think a pony had actually come here for the first time in... how long? He wouldn’t have been surprised if that door went another hundred years without being-

*Knock knock knock*

The echoing of a hoof knocking on the outside of the metal door reverberated through the tunnel and made it to Herman’s booth. He practically fell off his stool.

“You’re kidding me?” He blinked a few times down at the door, wondering if maybe he had just imagined it.

*Knock knock knock*

Nope, there it was again.

Herman rubbed his head and looked at his clock: it was still a couple hours before the lights would come on in Oreville, it was still night outside too. Who the hay was coming here at this time of night? And why? His eyes looked at the button to raise the door that was sitting right on his desk, and even though he was confused and surprised, it was still his job to open up the door for any visitors and travelers.

The security guard shrugged and pushed the button, watching as the door slowly lifted.

He looked out past the glass of his booth and down the tunnel and once the door had risen by a few feet, the figure of a lone pony appeared to him.

Comments

[TheCommunistDog]

Well all these idiots are about to die.

Y

In today’s chapter: Copper once again shows that he’s the dumbest villain yet. And Herman just signed his own death warrant.

[redmar]

Copper's plan has already failed by this point since the theft has been discovered before the thieves even left the are of the warehouse. Malthus knows he's in big trouble because he was recognized he's going to make a fuss about it to Jarvis for sure.

[RoboRed]

He looked out past the glass of his booth and down the tunnel and once the door had risen by a few feet, the figure of a lone pony appeared to him.

Oh, hell...

Malthus ended up on top and slammed his hooves into the constable’s shoulders to keep him pin,

"pinned"