Prologue
Manehattan, A large bustling city of opportunity that is located within the pony kingdom of Equestria. Many ponies are going about their business with not a care in the world.
“Oh dear, I need to get these to miss Rarity pronto.” Said an earth pony mare in her early twenties holding several rolls of fabrics. In appearance, she had a light amberish gray colored coat, her mane and tail were pale, light grayish cyan and light opalish gray, and her eyes were light cyan. For attire, she wore a white colored sailor shirt, teal skirt, white long socks, and red slip-on shoes. For accessories, she had a tri-shade hair clip on the back of her mane.
The young mare wasn’t so much running as she was power walking towards her destination. The fabrics she is carrying were for a friend and mentor of Her’s for an upcoming fashion show. She was already running late, and she needed to hurry.
However, as she was walking past the Manehattan national bank. She suddenly hears an explosion and an alarm going off in the bank which startled her and nearly dropped the fabrics she was carrying.
"What in the world?!" The bewildered mare asked no one in particular as she turned her sights towards the bank. She began to hear some yelling and screaming as well as some gunshots.
The mare then hears some guards shouting.
"Stop Thieves!"
"Don't let them get away!"
"One of them has the vault!"
Not long after, she saw three individuals burst through one of the glass doors, shattering it in the process. The mare’s eyes widen as none of them were ponies at all
The first one was a male changeling who wore a white two-piece suit with a matching fedora. He had one arm around a small vault and while using the other to keep his fedora on. He also had a nervous look on his face.
The second one is also a male changeling but with a more intimidating appearance and a crimson neck fin. For attire, he wore a leather biker vest with a symbol of a manticore’s skull on the back, a black shirt that says, ‘Buck Off’, black jeans and black shoes with red trimmings. He had a big grin on his face as he was carrying almost a dozen moneybags.
The third one was a creature the mare had never seen before. He almost looked like a hairless monkey with spiky green hair and emerald eyes. Judging by the physique of this third creature, it was probably male as well. For attire, he wore a gray t-shirt with a symbol of a dragon on it, a purple jacket with green trimmings that's tied around his waist, dark brown jeans, and light green tennis shoes. He was also carrying a pair of moneybags, one for each hand.
The mare was so focused on trying to figure out what this creature was that she failed to realize that he and his partners were running right towards her.
"Watch out!" Said the creature as he zipped passed her causing her to almost fall down.
"Move bitch! Get out the way!" The aggressive changeling yelled as he not-so-gently elbowed the poor mare, causing her to fall on her ass and drop the fabrics.
“Sorry about that!” The other changeling said as he ran past her while trying not to step on any of the fabrics.
As the mare slowly got back up, a group of security guards ran past her, causing her to spin and fall to the ground once again. As she recovers from her dizziness, she sees hoofprints all over the fabrics, “Oh dear…”
Back at the trio, they continue to run like their lives depend on it, which is not too far from the truth when you have a dozen security officers chasing after you.
“In the name of the Royal Princesses we order you to stop!” One of the guards shouted.
“The Royal Princesses can suck our dicks asshole!” The aggressive changeling shouted back
“Really Pharynx?” The other changeling glared at him.
“Shut it, Thorax!” Pharynx shot back.
“Not the time you two, you can bicker later. Right now, let’s ditch these guys.” The third creature said as he busted out a smoke grenade from his pocket and tossed it at the guards.
The smoke grenade went off and greatly disanointed the guards. When the smoke cleared, the guards were shocked to see that the creatures they were pursuing were gone.
“Spread out!” The captain shouted, “They couldn’t have gotten far!”
As soon as the guards splitted up and were out of sight, the two changelings and the mysterious creature soon crawled out of the dumpsters they were hiding, grabbing the moneybags and the vault.
“Alright, I think we lost ‘em.” The creature said. “Let’s get to the van.”
“You know Spike, all we had to get was the vault. We didn’t need to go the whole nine yards and grab anything that wasn’t nailed down.” Thorax pointed while out carrying the vault.
Spike just shrugged and said, “Hey don’t look at me, your brother was the one that got all grabby-grabby I just… helped out a little.”
Thorax glared at Pharynx, “What? We gotta eat right?” The other changeling defended himself, “Besides, if the vault was a bust, at least we got a consolation prize.”
The trio didn’t need to get very far as they walked over to a tarp and pulled it down, revealing a black van with flame patterns.
After throwing the moneybags and the vault in the back, the trio entered the vehicle themselves and started it up. They then hitted the road.
Now I bet you’re wondering; who’s the handsome rogue with green hair?
Well that’s me, Spike Shade. I’m what you would call a “human” and let’s just say that I’m not exactly from around here. Originally.
Why am I a crook? Well, you could say I didn’t exactly have “the ideal life”. My deadbeat dad walked out on us when I was a baby, my mom died of an illness when I was seven, and I was left in the care of a piece of shit uncle who would occasionally get drunk and beat me senseless whenever I “fell out of line”.
Eventually, I had enough and ran away but not before I stole most of my uncle’s money and burned down his house using his own liquor. With him still inside.
I was on my own and quickly fell in with the wrong crowd. I've had a life of crime ever since.
When I turned sixteen, there was a job I was given along with several other guys. The job; steal a priceless artifact from a small museum. I didn’t know much about the artifact at the time, nor did I care. All I knew was that it was a jeweled unicorn head that was the size of a football and is rumored to have had “mystical powers”. Little did I know of how true that last part was.
It was simple: get in, get the artifact, and get out. Sounds easy right? Wrong. Alarms were tripped, bullets flew, and there was a betrayal or two. Everything that could have gone wrong on this job, has and then some, with me being the only one making it out with the artifact in one piece.
When I was trying to outrun the cops, the damndest thing happened. The artifact suddenly glowed and there was a flash of light. The next thing I knew, I was in a whole new world. A world populated by magical creatures. Most of them were akin to anthropomorphic animals.
You think maybe this would’ve been a good time to rethink my life and try to change my ways, right? Well… not really.
The first small town I visited wasn’t exactly a pleasant one. The minute I entered, I was instantly lynched by a bunch of ponies and got thrown in the slammer all because I was “different”.
After that, I think “You know what? If this world, or any other world, is gonna treat me like a bad guy, then a bad guy is what they’re gonna get.
I escaped that same night but not before “thanking” the townsfolk with their “hospitality” by robbing their bank and burning down most of their houses.
Since then, I learned to survive in this world of magic and robbed whatever I could while running from the law. I eventually met up with a couple of guys who were more or less on the same boat as I was.
“Uh guys, I think we got company.” Thorax said as he was in the passenger seat while looking at the rearview mirror and saw a lot of cop cars coming their way.
“Took ‘em long enough.” Spike smirked as he put the pedal to the metal.
“The nervous wreck sitting beside me is Thorax. Sure, he doesn’t like it when things get dicey, but he stuck by me when I needed him most and I could never ask for a better partner-in-crime or best friend for that matter. He’s also a master of disguise as well as can pick any lock or crack any safe.
“Let me handle them. You sissies just focus on the road!” Pharynx said as he flew through the opened window of the van’s roof and instantly transformed into a large bug-like monster. He then tackled the first three cop cars and swatted the rest. Pharynx then lets out a monstrous roar.
Thorax continued to look at the rearview mirror before shaking his head and said, “Gotta love my brother…” Spike just chuckled and gave Thorax a gentle pat on the back.
The other changeling is Pharynx, Thorax’s brother. He's the muscle of the group. A bit of a hothead and a loose cannon who's willing to scrap with anyone or anything. But the dude knows how to fight, and I've seen him take down guys that were three times his size.
After he was done with the cops, Pharynx returned to his original form and flew back into the van.
“Whew! That was fun!” Pharynx chuckled as he approached the front to join the others, “Go bad…”
“...Or go home.” Spike finished as he gave Pharynx a fist bump.
Sure, we’re a trio of misfits but when you're us, you don’t exactly win any popularity contests. Do I kinda wish people didn’t see us as villains? Sure, I do. But these were the cards the three of us have been dealt with so we might as well play them.
Eventually, the trio managed to get out of the city and hide in a nearby forest.
We may be bad, but we’re so damn good at it.