As the presence of Princess Luna dominated the sky, all of a small village that went by the name of…Ponyville was under the spell of the sandman; except for a few guard colts that ever vigilantly patrolled the village.
Now you see; strange things have been happening around Ponyville such as the disappearance of food, clothing and other everyday items with not even a single clue as to who (or what) took them except for tracks leading to the living forest. And often time mares with child would disappear from their homes and return after a few days traumatized from what has happened to them. They would recover from the experience, usually.
All of this would only occur every few days and with the cover of the night.
Though sometimes a brave and/or foolish pony would wander off following the tracks into the forest with the intent of finding out who or what was responsible for these actions. They were never heard from again.
But ever since Princess Luna was reintroduced into royalty, these occurrences have stopped. Nothing else happened to the foods and items and the mares could take their nightly strolls without fear.
Still, it never hurts to be careful just for a few more weeks to make sure that nothing bad will happen again.
Within the present however, a pony cloaked with a robe and the shadows prowled around the village area with a basket in her mouth. On the basket was a note and in it were bundles of cloth.
Like sand through your fingers, she stuck to the shadows as she neared her destination; a tree that has been turned into a library of some sorts in the middle of town. For this was where she had deemed right for the basket.
When she had gotten close to the tree-house, she swiftly hid in the shadows as a pair of guards walked by while being careful as to not disturb the contents of the basket she carried.
Yet a small squeak escaped from it, causing the guards to stop in their tracks and look at where it had come from. Thinking quickly, the robed pony quickly kicked a nearby wandering mouse far from her position and into the trashcans behind a bakery; effectively getting the guards’ attention and away from her position.
Like a bullet, she ran straight towards the tree-house, gingerly set the basket down onto the porch, and used her hoof to knock on the door loudly enough to wake its occupant yet quiet enough not to awake the whole village.
Then she bolted out of there but without lightly snuggling the basket’s contents and whispering with a foreign accent, “Do not fret for you’ll see me again,”
As the sounds of running hooves receded, the door to the tree-house opened and out came a unicorn with a violet coat, a dark purple mane and tail with a pink streak here and there cut in straight line at the ends, eyes that nearly matched her mane, and a mark in the shape of a pink six-pointed star on her flank.
She went by the name of Twilight Sparkle.
She looked around the front yard of the tree-house in the slight confusion of seeing nopony until she spotted the basket and its note at her feet. Curious, she used the magic of her horn to bring the note to her face and opened it to see what it had.
It read:
To whomever my friend deemed right,
As you may have noticed, nothing has been stolen and nobody (is that how you say it?) has been kidnapped for a while now. Well that means I’m no longer going to be a problem. For the time being at least, I think
Since this is a gain for you and your home, it was a loss for me. You see, in the basket contains the reason why all of the mare-napping and thievery have happened.
Since I’m no longer able to perform my duties for these treasures, you will have to care for them until they’re grown up. Or at least until I can reawake in who knows how long.
You can have assistance in caretaking of them, just as long as they remain safe. They’re the only reason why I lived on until this point
Until my reawakening, your future acquaintance
~The Thief
P.S. Please do take care to make my friend welcome to your town for she was the one who has brought these little ones to your doorsteps. She can use the companionship now that I’m not around and she was a good friend to me. She goes by the name Zecora; you’ll know who she is when you see her. It’s not every day you see someone different from the usual ones you see.
P.S.S. Never mention about them to that princess you report to and make sure she never sees them. Or else…
Twilight couldn’t believe it. The thief actually left something behind rather than take. Despite the slight chill down her spine from that last part, she soon used her mouth to grip the basket by its handle and brought inside into her home, closing the door right behind with her magic horn.
Sure she could’ve brought them to her friends but, well would you like if someone woke you in the middle of the night?
As she brought the basket to her bedroom she wondered. What is in this basket that made The Thief is very protective of it?
Is it stolen rare gems? No, the thief probably wouldn’t have parted with those. Is it some pets the Thief held dearly? Probably because there seems to some small squeaking is coming from the basket.
Setting the basket down onto her bed, she gingerly pulled the cloth off of what they were covering in the basket. What she saw was something she couldn’t explain with words.
In the basket were two sleeping foals that each had wings and a horn. ‘By Celestia, Alicorns. Baby Alicorns!’ Twilight thought to herself excitedly that she could barely contain the need to tap her hooves in excitement.
She took a good look at them and by Celestia they were precious. One alicorn was white as snow with a mane and tail that was red as cherries as it took a style similar to bird feathers. The other was black as the shadow on the moon with a mane and tail that was green as a spring forest while taking an uncut natural look.
She couldn't help but snuggle them gently so they wouldn't wake up. Her mane however did tickle their noses, causing them to sneeze.
Instead of the stuff that came with sneezing like Twilight expected, she gotten frozen in a body cast of ice and a gust of wind blew away her bed sheets and brought the backside of the note onto her face.
It was then she noticed some extra writing as it read:
P.S.S.S. You might want to get some help in the caring for these young ones for these two can be a real handful at times and not just in the ways you think.
Twilight looked back at the infant fillies then back at the note, connecting the dots all the while. When she found her answer, she said (or at least tried to) this, “At least it can’t get any worse,”
She couldn't have spoken any sooner as the red mane infant soon sneezed again and set the ceiling on fire while accidentally scorching her green mane friend; causing her to give out a tan-trum of pain, pounding her hooves on the bed and causing the whole village of ponyville to shake uncontrollably.
Twilight just gave out an exasperated sigh as all of this happened.