Master Thief Dragon is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic written by Wildcard25
on Fimfiction.net, found here.
For over a hundred years the title of master thief Dragon has been passed down through generations of the Lupin Family. But now the title belongs to one Spike Lupin, a young History Professor at Canterlot High. To the world he is known as the Dragon, a thief who can steal just about everything. With the assistance of his three beautiful servants Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. Spike is determined to show the police and the world that the Dragon cannot be caught.
In short take the characters of Friendship is Magic, place them in the storyline of Mouse, stir, edit, and enjoy.
Master Thief Dragon provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: This Fic has plenty of these.
- The people Dragon and his servants usually steals from are jerks of the highest degree at best or ruthless crime lords at worst, so you won't feel sorry for them when they are robbed blind.
- Benedict Gunn. A Dirty Cop who killed his partner, Shining Armor, along with his and Twilight's parents to keep him quiet about his black-market dealings. One of his men accidently shooting him and bleeding to death afterwards is somewhat satisfying.
- Downplayed with Chet Hoarder, whom he also killed. He was a smuggler but that's all we know about him.
- Tirek ordering the Maulers to wipe out the Dragon Heads and taking control of their assets can be seen as this considering the latter gang were ruthless thugs and greedy hoarders who kidnapped Twilight and her friends to use as ransom in case the cops found them as well as use them as "service entertainers".
- The maulers find themselves on the receiving end of this when Tirek ordered Byakko to wipe most of them out, including the leader Big Jon and his second-in-command Desertstorm, for failing to capture Dragon. Considering they nearly burned down Sweet Apple Acres and later attacked Canterlot High School just to draw Dragon out, they had it coming.
- According to Cadance, Byakko literally sliced up Don Gladmane and let him bleed to death. Don't feel sorry for the guy though, as he was a mobster who tried to get both Spike and Celestia killed in the latter's Origins Episode.
- While killing his comrades was a pretty immoral thing that ninja assassin Shibizo Taizo has done, bear in mind that they were also assassins as well.
- Louie Kaboom. Just when he is about to kill Dragon, Fluttershy goes ballistic and chokes him until his neck snapped. While Fluttershy was horrified of what she just did and Dragon willingly took the fall for her, Louie was an ex-military Psycho for Hire and a mass murdering Mad Bomber. He also bragged that after he turns Dragon over to Tirek, he was gonna take Fluttershy as a... bonus. So, it's doubtful anyone is going to cry for the likes of him anytime soon.
- In a flashback where Granny Smith was telling AJ about her run in with a previous Dragon, she used to work as a maid for Mr. Buck who not only treated her like crap, but one time slapped her butt while feeling proud about it (and it's implied that he treated the other maids this way as well). When the master thief suddenly appeared in front of him, he had a sudden heart attack and literally dropped dead.
- During Spike's final fight with Tirek, He told the latter that he went to a party full of drunk teenagers who hurted a girl that wanted to kill herself. He made them pay for what they did and even paralyzed the ringleader by throwing him out a second story window. He never walked again; A year later, he tormented and chased down a cheerleader who bullied a classmate into suicide, only for her to get run over by a truck; He also mutilated a guard in his first year as Dragon. Not because he was in the way, but because he wanted to violate the curator of the museum.
- Lastly there's the Big Bad, Tirek himself. He was a ruthless Bad Boss who would kill anyone who fails him, including wiping out entire gangs and sent assassins and bounty hunters after Dragon by targeting the girls he cares about mainly for petty reasons. And during his final fight with Spike, he had a sniper ready to kill the young thief should the fight not go his way, only for another sniper to shoot and kill the mob boss instead.
- Bad Boss: Tirek has absolutely no problem killing anyone who fails him. That also includes wiping out an entire gang.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Seeing that Dragon's life was in danger by Louie Kaboom, Fluttershy attacks him, choking him until she snaps his neck, killing him.
- Big Bad: Tirek the mob boss.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Though, he's only the Big Bad of the first story.
- Bittersweet Ending: More heavily on the bitter side. Tirek has been killed by a mysterious sniper during the final battle and the people Spike cares for are safe. However, his identity as Dragon is revealed to the girls during the whole debacle and things are never the same after that; Twilight's relationship with her family and friends (Especially Spike, Cadance, and Applejack) have becomed strained at best over the course of the story which reached a boiling point near the end, greatly distancing herself from them, and transfers to Crystal Prep Academy, a rival school; The other Harmony Sweeties were more or less shaken up from the entire ordeal as well, especially Fluttershy and Applejack with the former now living with the fact the she killed someone and Spike willingly took the fall for her while the latter had her family's precious apple orchard nearly burned to the ground and has come to realize the fact that the world isn't as black and white as she once thought; Cadance, along with her infant daughter, has moved back with her aunts, selling the house she and Twilight lived in; Spike decides to quit being Dragon for a while and leaves Canterlot city, and who knows how long he'll be gone; and lastly, while it wasn't out right stated, there's some heavy implications that Tirek's death may have some unforeseen consequences for the city. The reason that this isn't a full on Downer Ending is that Spike will return one day and make things right.
- Cerebus Syndrome: At first, it's just another harem Story, albeit with some dark and intense moments, but when chapter 15 came out, that's when shit really started hitting the fan.
- Darker and Edgier: When compared to Wildcard 25's other highly well known works. (Though that later gets toppled by Feral World.) People CAN die in this fic and the first story didn't exactly end on a completely happy note.
- Death by Adaptation: Shining Armor along with his parents were killed by his treacherous partner. Tirek also counts near the end.
- Origins Episode: There are three chapters that are origin episodes, each focusing on one of Dragon's servants.
- The Rival: Byakko is this to Spike.
- Tiger vs. Dragon: Spike, as Dragon, often clashes with a bounty hunter named Byakko who's Animal Motif is a tiger.
- Sequel Hook: The story ends with some loose ends having yet to be tied up. The most being the identity of the mystery sniper who shot Tirek
- Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain: For the sympathetic side, there's Byakko, a bounty hunter and Spike/Dragon's rival. However, he has some honorable traits and is a Noble Demon, even helping Spike and his servants save the girls from the Maulers when the biker gang attacked their school. On the despicable side, there's Tirek, a mob boss who rules the Canterlot City Underworld with a massive iron fist. He's utterly ruthless, extremely petty, has little to no tolerance for failure, and has a tendency to "cut loose ends" as he puts it.
- Wham Episode: In chapter 15, Dragonfall, Spike takes the fall for Fluttershy after the latter snapped and killed one of the bounty hunters who was hunting him.
