Previous Chapters Next
Close
Chapter One2,048 words
Chapter Two1,431 words
Chapter Three1,425 words
Chapter Four1,951 words
Chapter Five1,323 words
Chapter Six1,645 words
Chapter Seven1,542 words
Chapter Eight.2,254 words
Chapter Nine2,032 words
Chapter Ten1,645 words

Chapter Nine

“Chicoltgo?” Gilda asked.

“Evidently,” Trixie responded.

The newly formed trio of two ponies and a Griffon stood just outside the city limits looking up at the welcome sign to confirm their location.

“Ok, but why?” the beaked one asked.

“It’s like I said, Gilda. We don’t have a set destination on this journey. We just go where the road takes us and beyond until our destinies become clear to us.” The Unicorn then looked at the aqua Pegasus among their ranks. “Besides, we can finally get Lightning Dust here to a proper hospital.”

Lightning scratched her bright yellow mane and shifted her eyes awkwardly. “Actually, I’d rather not go to a hospital.”

“What?” Trixie exclaimed. “Why not?”

“…I don’t have insurance.”

“…ah.”

“Yeeaaahhh.”

“Well, you’re still free to hang with us till your wing gets better, strength in numbers and all that. Especially when tackling a city like Chicoltgo.”

“But how are we gonna walk around unnoticed? You’re still kind of infamous, you know.” Gilda reminded her magical friend.

“The same way I laid low in Fillydelphia.” Trixie then went inside the cart that she momentarily parked on the side of the road. She reemerged a moment later wearing a deep purple cloak that was like her performance cape only with a hood and no star designs. “Where they search for ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’ they will only find,” she then placed the hood over her head, “Lulamoon the Wanderer and her nomadic party.”

The display of her genius again went unappreciated as the Griffon simply rolled her eyes and the injured Pegasus simply looked confused.

“She’s kind of odd,” Lightning Dust observed.

“Girl, I can tell you stories,” Gilda replied

***

The city of Chicoltgo was lively to put it the simplest way possible. The streets were busy and energized with ponies doing their usual routines. Foals at play on the weekends, taxi wagons making their way across town, and most notably, a wind that could ruin any mare’s expensive hairdo. What interested Trixie most of all was this city’s history of organized crime.

“If we’re lucky, we might be able to bust some crooks while we’re here,” Trixie said.

“Heh, that sounds like a good time,” Gilda agreed.

“Wait. If we’re lucky? How does that follow?” Lightning Dust asked confusingly.

“This city has been known for its crime problems since the rise of Al Coltpone,” Trixie replied. “A town filled with sinister gangsters that are either too quick to catch or too clever to be proven guilty. If we get the chance to step in and do something the law can’t, we could undo an entire mafia and get that much closer to fulfilling our fate.”

“Wishful thinking, wouldn’t you say, Trix?”

“A mare can dream, can’t she?”

“Even so,” Lightning said, “I don’t think we’d be able to find any crime in this town, let alone prevent it. Recent improvements in law enforcement and personal security make criminals think twice before doing something big.”

“Don’t be so sure about that, Lightning Dust,” Trixie retorted. “Look.”

A gesture of the Unicorn’s hoof ensured her companions moved their attention to a dark alleyway across the street, just next to Chicoltgo’s central bank. In the alleyway they saw two ponies wearing dark clothing and carrying large empty sacks on their backs. They appeared to be briefly exchanging words before they put on black ski masks and then busted open the alley door into the bank.

Gilda smirked. “That the kind of action you were hoping for, Trix?”

“You bet your lion tail it is.” Trixie looked over to their Pegasus hitchhiker. “Lightning, you feel in shape to busts some crooks?”

“Wha-? Um.. I don’t…”

“Ok then, you go to the authorities tell them they’re going to find two robbers gift-wrapped for them when they arrive. Let’s go, G!” The Unicorn and Griffon dashed towards the bank quick as a whip.

***

“Everypony get down on the ground!!!” the gruff voice of the robber bellowed. A flash of his weapon was all that was needed to cause the entire building to drop to the floor in fear. The second, smaller masked pony then grabbed a bank teller and slammed him against the wall.

“Take me to the safe, you worm!” screamed the more feminine sounding robber who then threw the teller to the floor. The terrified older pony then quickly dashed to show her the vault while the bigger crook stayed in the lobby.

The masked pony took the briefest of moments to appreciate how well this was moving along. Their wheel pony had the security system shut down as promised and within moments would expect them to dash out the doors and make their escape before the police would arrive. Things were looking well, but he decided to play it safe. He grabbed a mare off the floor and held a blade to her neck. “If any of you try any funny business, this broad will serve as an example as to what will happen to you!” The pony in his hooves was too petrified to retaliate in any way as was the rest of the room.

Before long, the smaller criminal arrived into the lobby carrying sacks now filled with bits from inside the vault. “We got the loot. Let’s bounce.” The Stallion smiled behind his mask and made for the door, the hostage still in his grip. They were just about to get away before they saw what was between them and the front door.

A blue Unicorn in a deep purple cloak and a Griffon were very much standing up, as opposed to the rest of the ponies in the bank. “You know, I gotta say. Your get up is a little theatrical for the modern age of organized crime,” the Unicorn said snidely. “I mean, you can hardly beat the classics, but couldn’t you come up with something more original?”

The crook gritted his teeth and held his weapon tighter at the hostage’s throat. “GET OUT OF THE WAY NOW!!!”

“Yeah, that ain’t gonna happen,” fhe Griffon replied.

“Move or I’ll cut her open!” he yelled.

“If you were serious about that, you would have done it by now,” the feathered one retorted, unimpressed.

“Clover, we don’t have time for this.” the masked mare said. “We need to move.”

“Wha- Clover?” the Unicorn asked. “You guys aren’t using code-names? In a bank robbery!? Are you that bad at this!?” This caused the crooks to get nervous.

The stallion then threw the hostage at the ground and pointed his weapon at the two in front of him. “We’ll show you how bad we are at this when we run you through-“

“Hold that thought,” the blue pony interrupted. She then reached into her cloak and pulled out a pair of sunglasses and a pair of ear muffs which she secured on her being. Then she provided another pair of each to her hybrid friend. This left the two robbers very confused.

“Wha? What are you doing?”

The Unicorn lifted the muff off her ears. “I’m sorry, what?”

“What are those for?”

“Oh these? These are safety precautions.”

“For what?”

The cloaked pony reapplied her earmuffs. “For this.”

Her blue hoof threw a small pellet at the ground which then exploded into an overwhelming burst of light and sound. The two crooks screamed in shock as they were left blinded and deafened from the apparent flash bang.

“AH! MY EYES!!!” the stallion yelled.

“I can’t hear!” the other screeched.

Their screams were soon silenced when the Griffon clocked the bigger one with a swift swing of her fist and a blue blast of magic energy from her Unicorn friend incapacitated the other. Both robbers laid unconscious on the floor with the duo looking over their victory.

“Well, these two were rank amateurs. Rather disappointing,” Trixie said.

Gilda looked at the weapons the stallion was previously holding. “Oh you’re kidding me. These weapons are props. What a rip-off.”

“Ah well. Let’s hurry along before the cops get here.” The two then proceeded to go out the front door.

“Wait!” cried a teller who succeeded in getting their attention. “Who-who are you two?”

Trixie then smiled and put her hood over her head and answered “Just a couple of wanderers.” With that, the two were gone.

*** The Next Day***

The travelling trio was enjoying a full balanced breakfast within their mobile wagon when the Griffon brought everypony’s attention to that day’s paper which she ‘procured’ from a papercolt minutes before. “Looks like we made the front page,” she said.

Trixie gripped the paper with her magic as her eyes skimmed the article’s content. “Armed thugs attempt robbery, yadda yadda… currently serving 15 to 20 years in Chicoltgo penitentiary, blah blah… accomplish captured later that day, etcetera etcetera…eye witnesses confirm the robbers were subdued by two unknown ‘wanderers’ who left the scene shortly after.”

Lightning Dust looked up from her cereal with a smile. “I don’t suppose your plan was to get mentioned in the paper, was it?”

Violet eyes rolled at the question. “It would have been nice if I did more than just take out a few hooligans. I was hoping it could take us deeper into the heart of the criminal underworld. These two however, were too stupid to be part of anything bigger.”

“Schink weh schoul’ schtick awound?” Gilda asked with her beak full with hay hash.

“Probably not. It’s pretty evident that we’re not going to find anything substantial here. We’ll depart later today.” Trixie looked over at the teal Pegasus. “You sure you want to stick with us?”

Lightning Dust’s grin became wider. “If this is what you guys do regularly…I suppose I could get used to it.”

“Sweet,” Gilda responded.

“Indeed” Trixie agreed.

“So why do you think those two were trying to rob a bank?” Lightning asked.

“I don’t know. Generic thug mentality?”

***Chicoltgo Central Bank: Yesterday Morning***

Clover was pacing in the alley awaiting the signal from his wheel pony. Once the light over the door had gone out, the security system would be down. It took a lot of will to maintain his composure. The mare beside him was not so well composed.

“We shouldn’t do this, Clover,” Cherry Blossom pleaded.

The stallion placed a comforting hoof on his marefriend. “It’s gonna be OK, baby. If we stick to the plan, we’re golden.”

“But what if we get caught? We could get 15 to 20 years!”

“We won’t. We go in, we scare them, we grab the money and go. We’ll be halfway to Manehattan long before the cops know what's going on.”

“B-but I can’t actually hurt somepony!”

“We’re not going to. The weapons are fake, remember? If we keep them scared enough we won’t have to hurt anypony.”

This still wasn't enough to comfort the trembling mare. “But there’s still so much that could go wrong. What if Tire Iron ditches us? What if there are guards in the bank? What if-“

“Cherry Blossom,” Clover hushed her and held her close to him, “I don’t like doing this either. It makes me sick to my stomach.” He them placed his hoof on Cherry Blossom’s belly. “But you have to remember who we’re doing it for.”

Cherry looked down at her belly and back up at Clover with tears in her eyes. “W-we’re doing it for her.”

Clover smiled. “We’re doing it for her.”

The pony took a deep breath and wiped the tears off her face. “Ok”

Just then, the light above the door went out. That was their signal to move in. They looked at each other, applied their ski masks and proceeded to break open the door.

‘Don’t worry Cherry Blossom,’ Clover thought to himself. ‘We’re doing the right thing. And besides, it’s not like anyone can stop us.’

Author's Note:

Here it is, after a month of planning. Chapter nine is finally here. Enjoy

934 views