Chapter 3

I watched Flare get into a comfortable position on the grass, the evening sun shining through the holes in trees, seemed like the crazy magic wasn't affecting this part of the forest, other than the occasional long legged rodents. She started telling me their story.

"It happened a few months ago, I was living in a small cave at the time with a decent pile of bits and gems. Since I feel I can trust you with not turning me in, I was a thief who stole mainly from the rich and hardly from the poor. I may have been a thief, but I at least had some moralities. I stole from mostly the rich, like I stated, and took most of their valuables. I took enough from them to make me more rich and less than what would make them poor. I took mostly shiny and flashy gems, bits, bracelets, earrings, expensive fabric, and the rare crowns." She stated, before I cut her off.

"Wait, how were you going to sell the jewels? I'm sure the owners were smart enough to know what they've lost and how to notice it on somebody else. Unless you were to sell them far away from where you stole them, you would've gotten caught." I questioned with disbelief. A soft breathing below, took my attention away.
Grace was sleeping silently on me, with her head on my leg and a smile on her face. I looked back at Flare and she stared at her as well, she had a smile that showed affection for the little bat filly. She looked back at me, annoyed that I interrupted her story and also, possibly, by the smile that I showed her.

"Well if you want to keep listening to the story, then you have to stop interrupting. Yes I had a fence, and despite us being 'buddy buddy' " She stated with the equine gesture for air quotes that I know so deeply back then, "I want to keep their identity a secret. From what I know about fencing, that they take apart pieces of the item, refine them into new ones, or just change the shape of the objects. I've done some jewel cutting myself at the time, I found it quite difficult so I have to have someone else do it for me, hence more of the need for a fence." She said grinning, possibly thinking that took away any other thoughts of questions. I just stared at her with an amused look in my eye.

"So this was all before you met Grace?" Grace's ears stirred upon hearing her name, but I just scratched behind her ear and calmed her back down.

"Well yes it was. Now this next part might seem unbelievable, but I mean every truth of it." She warned me before telling beginning.

"It's alright, I have been in crazy situations back then. Who knows, maybe I would tell you two some of them later in the future, if we were to ever meet again." I say with my trademarked grin and confidence.

'Yang thinks that we would see each other more? Huh, maybe. But I can't shake the feeling of him being dangerous in some way, like when he was about to rush towards Grace when they met.' Flare start to think in her head, she shook those thoughts out and I stared at her with a bit of confusion at what she just did. She decided not to make this more awkward than it is and reply, "Yeah, I bet Grace and I would be interested in hearing those later." I smiled softly and gestured her to continue.

"After a few weeks of a good small number of heists on some ponies, some pony sent me on a high priority contract and my fence said that they were an old friend of theirs. Some bandit leader found a place to settle in the forest, trying to make his own camp there and I was to do a simple sneak in, snatch and grab and leave with a valuable crown in my saddle bags. I was feeling pretty confident about my skills and took the job head on. I geared up with smoke potions for quick escapes, pick locks, arcane tracing detectors for magical traps, as well as their respectable disenchantment, and knock out gas that I made myself. From what the intel told me, he had a few guards with him and a most of them were from guard units from Canterlot who left their service, meaning they would have more skills than your average thug or bandit, and of course your average bandit. I was feeling more than confident, I felt cocky. The fact that I would pull this lord's top hat over his eyes excited me. I scoped out their camp from the trees. They had their shifts like any other group would have if they were camping in the forest. Some patrol the perimeters while the others rested and then they switched. I continued to watch them, making sure what shifts they held before switching off to the other team for the day. Night fell and I went in to start the heist. I flew over to one guard and threw a rock behind him, into the bushes. Like I suspected, he went over to check out the disturbance. I flew into the camp and went over to the guard's barracks and poured some of the sleeping agent on the ones who were already sleeping to make sure they didn't follow me out or woke up for some dumb reason. I fly over to the lord's tent, which looked like a small house to me, and peeked him. Upon hearing snores resonating from within, I trot slowly over to a chest at the base of his bed. I got out the pick locks out of my saddle bags and got to work on the lock. It was a pretty intermediate level lock, so it had to take a few more picks to hold the slots into place. I found what some nobles would think chump change would be and small trinkets. I thought that none of these were that important, so I decided not to check them with an arcane tracer. After I was done with my small time looting, I noticed that the chest seemed smaller on the inside. I shuffled the base of chest and heard wood moving, so I looked around for the thing that could open it and found a string attached to the side of the chest. I pull it and I found the jack pot, the crown sitting on top of a pile of bits. Said crown looked as though it was made of silver or platinum, I couldn't see it that well in the dark, with a ruby shaped into the symbol of a flame. I took out a magic scanner and scanned the crown, no trace of magic appeared on the scanner and I stared at it perplexed, as I was thinking the occupant of the bed started to stir. I bent the lock picks and tucked them into my ear for safe keeping, deftly closed the lid of the chest shut and flew up to the ceiling. Trying not to make as much noise from my wings as possible, I watch a stallion rise from the bed with that stupid little mask that people wear to go to sleep, took said mask off, leaned over to his bedside table and pick up a glass of water. He drank the thing in one gulp and went back into bed. After hearing the snores emitted from his bed. I flew back down to his bed and did what I should have done in the first place, I took out another sleeping agent and as I was going to pour some onto him, he spoke in a amused tone, 'Well aren't you a crafty one, trying to put me to sleep?' "

"I jumped back from the noise and he rose from the bed. He stretched his muscles and popped a few kinks out of them. After he felt satisfied, he spoke again, but not in my direction, 'You can come in now, what do I even hire you guys if you can't find the thief before I do? I thought you were better than this, Ward.' As he said this, 5 ponies walked in, three earth ponies, a unicorn lighting the way, and a pegasus who started to light the candles. Now that I can see with flames dancing in the room, I noticed the most distinctive one of the group, the unicorn. He sported a scar over his left eye, a coat of blue with black and dark blue mane and tail, and dark blue eyes that showed no compassion what so ever. The unicorn walked forward and spoke in a rough voice emitting a sense of leadership 'Sorry my lord, none my troops noticed the thief sneak in and about half of my squad are knocked out.' The leader looked at me with a sense of amusement."

" 'So you think you can come in here and to only take a fake crown? I must say, you are either a dumb thief or just have bad luck. Never the less you are caught, now I must thank your contractor for giving my guards a new toy' He looked at me with a sadistic smile. 'Oh wait, that was ME. Guards, take her away and please, don't break this one. After you are done, throw her in with the others. Oh and one thing you should remember, little mare? My name is Dusk, Dusk Blade.' My eyes widened when he said it, I knew that he was notorious for a slave ring. Thoughts were running through my mind as I tried to process this. I thought about running and flying away, but they had another pegasus on their team and the three earth ponies were blocking the entrance. The unicorn walked to me and charged a spell, I felt my body loosening up and I fell onto the ground but I could still move my eyes so that meant I was still awake. 'Yes my lord, you,' He pointed towards one of the earth stallions. 'carry her and take her with the rest of our group and when you are done playing with her, throw her with the rest of the prisoners.' With that he walked out of the tent and the stallion hoisted me onto his back and took me out of the tent and into an room full of candles scattered around the tent, saved for a mattress lying in the middle of the tent. My thoughts were in a panic of what I thought was going to happen. They d-d-di-did" She was noticeably shaking.

I saw her eyes tearing up as she said that last part. I moved Grace off of my leg and kneeled over Flare, she looked up only to see me grab her and pull her in for a hug. She resisted for a moment to take in what was happening and the flood gates were set loose. Her silent tears were trailing down my vest and soaking through, but I payed no heed. I stroked her dark colored mane, nuzzling her head. I spoke softly, "Sorry, I shouldn't have made you tell me. I have no idea you were put through all that, I should have been more considerate."

Her crying were reduced to sniffles and her voice shook a bit as she spoke, "No it's okay, I thought that I have left it behind me and that I could move on. But it looks like it's still a part of me." She added with a chuckle. She nuzzled me back, "Thanks for calming me down, Yang. I guess you aren't as dangerous to us as thought."

We broke apart. "Do you want to continue? You know, you don't have to if you feel like you've said too much already." I reassure her.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine Yang. It wouldn't do good to leave a cliff hanger like that" I rolled my eyes at that last statement. Somewhere in the west coast of the US, a teen lying on a bed typing, sneezed.

"After what happened that night, I was thrown into a pool of water to clean myself. Guards were put on watch to make sure that I didn't escape. After I was done washing off the grime, dirt, and smell of musk off of my body. They put restraints on my wings and shackles on my legs to prevent me from running away. There I met another bat pony, or should I say filly?" She smiled at Grace who I placed back onto my lap. "From what I've heard of from the other prisoners and the one who served as their leader, her parents were murdered by Dusk and she was taken by him a few days ago and that she's been distant and quiet to them since she met them. That hit me in the heart and what did even more, was that I found her sleeping beside me that night. She spoke in her sleep, 'Mommy, you are so warm.' We've been close since and I had to get us out of that place. I took the lock picks out of my ear and started to pick the locks of all our chains, though I could do nothing for the unicorns who had special rings around their horns. After that, they said there were going to cause a distraction for Grace and I to escape. The leader of the group, who was a unicorn mare, who had a purple mane and a white coat and diamonds as a cutie mark, was approached by Grace and she nuzzled up against the mare saying, 'Thank you, sorry for being distant from you. I should have been more nicer to everypony.' Graced climbed onto my back and we flew off. As we escaped, we heard sirens running off around the camp as well as screaming coming from it. I felt Grace shiver on my back as we rose through the clouds and above them. It has been a week and a half since then and I hope that the original prisoners escaped without harm."

She ended her little tale and I nodded in understanding. Something else popped into my mind, Celestia. I still had to deal with her and I didn't want to include these two with me. I put on a serious face and spoke up, "Thank you for telling me your story and sorry but I have to go take care of some private business." I got up with Grace and placed her next to Flare. "Next time we meet, let's share a drink and I could spin my own tale for you two." I walked back next to Bumblebee. As I was about to saddle on my bike, Flare came running towards me. She stopped in front of me and threw her forelegs onto my shoulders and brought me into a hug she said, "I would like that and we can't share that drink if you die, so please be careful." She nuzzled me and I returned the gesture and I hopped onto my bike. Something popped into my head and I remember an invention of Chrono and an old human invention of mine. I handed Flare a bottle of thick yellow ink, she stared at it perplexed. She clearly wanted an explanation, "Don't worry, it isn't urine, most people think that. It's ink, magic ink mixed with crystal to be precise. Simply write a message on a piece of paper and after you are done with it, burn the paper in a fire and that should send it to me. This has a limited use, so use it wisely." I dig through my pockets once more and find a small, flat rectangular device. I found the ear phones with it and I flipped through my iPod and found one of my favorite RWBY song, I Burn (Remix), for obvious reasons. I placed my helmet back on, I said my final goodbye to Flare and I rode off to Canterlot.

After the 45 minute ride up the mountain, I noticed the castle and more importantly I saw 6 ponies in the garden talking to...some thing? I dug through Hammer Space and found my binoculars, I looked at the group and that thing I saw was the same creature that rescued me from my stone cold prison. Since this was the princess' castle, I would find her here and I could also thank the thing that saved me. Two birds with one stone. I continue to stare at the group with a malevolent smile.

Author's Note

Holy fucking shit that took about a month. The reason why I was so late on this chapter, was plainly due to the fact that I didn't know what to write. If any of you could help me in a form or fashion about this story, from telling me if I wrote something wrong, want to add a character, or even help with the story. Feel free to leave a comment or send me a Private Message. I thank the number of followers who were so patient in waiting for my chapters and who have been with me since I started:
lines n stuff
Mujaker
ghost of the fallen
djponyfl
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There was no need to write all these names down but they were the ones who made me continue, instead of just trashing it. Again thank you for following this story and any for of help or criticism would be helpful.
~Blaze