Restless in Hoofington

Ornate opens the door, her amethyst coat sparkling as usual while her smile matches it. “Hey, you two. Glad you could make it after I had to do something so odd as to wait for you after school like a parent.” She opens her front door wider as she moves, giving them space to come in.

Alloy and Night both slip in quickly, the pegasus giving the mare a sheepish smile. “Sorry...not really something we can get out of.”

“I know that,” the mare responds as she leads them to the living room as per usual. “It’s just not where I’m used to contacting you at, but considering you were gone most of the weekend, I had to make due with the time constraints.”

“Yeah, we had a camping trip...and then Night stayed at a friend’s house all day Sunday.” Alloy glances at the thestral as she says this. “She won’t tell me what they got up to, though.”

“You’ll find out in due time.” The batpony pats her friend’s head, but is unable to wipe the smile off her face or still her happily swishing tail.

The pegasus grumbles. “That doesn’t make me any less curious.”

When they get to the living room, they find that a fourth member is attending the last-minute meeting as well. Zesten smiles at the two newcomers, sitting patiently on a cushion at the living room table. A small slip of paper lies in front of him.

Looking around and seeing nopony else, Night hums to herself. “Huh… when you said it was just a little get-together, you weren’t kidding.”

Ornate nods as she lays down on a cushion. “Well, as I implied, this isn’t a real meeting and more something Zesten and I are doing to make sure you’re up to speed.”

The zebra nods. “Yesterday, we spoke with the pony Snowdrift had hired, only to hear the excuses of which she had tired. He claimed that he would soon get it done, but the fact he was lying was bright as the sun.” He shakes his head. “If this is the way things have to be, we will have to resort to Plan B.”

Night giggles as she rubs her hooves together. “Exposure and vengeance?”

Zesten sighs and nods, lifting up his slip of paper. “The others have heard what they have to do; we will meet up with them in an hour or two. That should give us time to tell you your parts.” He looks to the thestral. “This is your first real mission. Are you ready to start?”

“Hey, I did good on the fruit one, right?” she defends, her giggling stopping.

Alloy raises an eyebrow. “We normally don’t stop to sample what we’ve taken until we’re back home.”

Seeing the batpony pout, Ornate raises a hoof. “Now now, we just meant this is your first big mission. While you have gone on a few gatherings, this is different. It will be more risky, more impactful.”

Sighing, Night nods. “I know… I just didn’t think I was still in the ‘proving myself’ stage…”

“Night, I’ve been with these guys for about a year now and even I don’t think I’m out of that stage yet.” Alloy rolls her eyes playfully. “I’m pretty sure you stay there until you don’t have to skip or be late for meetings on account of your parents grounding you.”

“I guess…” Perking back up, the thestral turns to the only male in the room. “So, what’s the plan, then? What do we do?”

“First, we have Portal get us inside the walls,” Zesten begins. “Once in, we need someone to scout out the halls. We decided, Nightshade, that is your task; for thestrals have the night vision of bats.”

She salutes as they move on to the rest of the plan.

Just half an hour after midnight, a group of forms dressed in dark blue move silently along various buildings, staying off the streets and keeping to back alleys or yards whenever possible. They don’t stop until they enter the alley just beside a certain window shop, moving deep in until they are completely hidden from anypony walking by on the street.

The smallest of the forms breaks off from the others, walking up to the wall of the building and moving back and forth along it. The darkness makes it difficult to see exactly what it is doing, but after a moment, the form stops walking and appears to mess with the wall in front of it. Somehow, after several minutes, it disappears through a hole that had not been there before.

One of the cloaked forms tilts its head, but shakes it off, spreading leathery emerald wings as it takes flight. Quietly, Night wings in a circle, eyes darting around as she emits a sound outside normal pony hearing range, her ears twitching. Not seeing or hearing anything suspicious, she glides back down, landing near the hole. She tilts her head at it once more, a small frown on her face.

Through the hole, the dark inside of the building can be seen, the smaller form standing at the mouth of the hole and looking back, waiting for her to enter. Beyond him is what looks like some sort of back room, a staircase nearby leading up to more floors above and a door opposite it that likely leads to the front desk.

One of the other forms nudges her rump with their muzzle from behind. “Go in!” Alloy’s voice hisses quietly from the darkness.

Huffing, Night quickly goes through the hole, not wanting to spend more time in it than needed. Once inside, she smiles at the small form before crouching and starting to prowl around the interior now, slitted eyes darting everywhere. An almost imperceptible rattle is heard as she tries a door before returning to the hole and slipping out once more. She looks to the rest of them. “Clear, but the doors are locked.”

“Well, that’s why we have Snap.” Alloy nods to the rest of the group, and one by one, they start filing in. Alloy and Night are the last ones in, and by the time they enter, almost everyone else has split up and gone off to do their part of the plan.

The thestral looks around for a moment before turning around. However, instead of seeing a hole, she only sees the solid wall as little Portal walks away from it. She blinks, opening her mouth a moment before just shutting it and shaking her head.

Over at the door, Snap takes only a moment to unlock it, slowly pushing it open with a quiet creaking. Once it’s open for the others, he begins working on the filing cabinets, Snowdrift watching over him. Zesten heads upstairs, pulling a small pouch out from beneath his outfit as he does so.

Observing everyone, their leader nods approvingly as they go about their tasks. Looking at Night, he motions her towards the cloaked colt. After she nods, he turns toward the stairs, beckoning Ornate and Alloy to follow him. The younger of the two mares gives the thestral a reassuring smile before following him upstairs, leaving the batpony with the youngest member of the group.

Without saying a word - quite unlike her first impression of him - Portal reaches beneath his outfit and pulls out several cans of spray paint, one by one, setting them upright on the floor in a small row in front of Night.

Again, she tilts her head in silent confusion. She eases one hoof forward, poking one of the cans. The colt scowls and nudges it back into place with his muzzle before he pulls out the last two cans, setting them in the same order.

Scratching her head with a hoof, she looks at him questioningly, motioning down at the cans. He looks back up at her for a second before he finally speaks, whispering loudly. “We’re spraying the logo on the wall in the front room.” He points to the logo on his hood.

Her mouth opens in an ‘o’ as she nods. Picking up a can randomly from the line, she moves to begin. Behind her, Portal groans, and the quiet scraping sound of metal on the wood floor reaches her ears as he tries to arrange the cans back into a proper line.

Having finished her share of the scouting, Alloy quietly walks back over to the other two figures that had gone upstairs with her. She taps Ornate on the shoulder. “Think we’re clear.”

Looking away from where she had been staring upwards, the crystal mare nods. She looks toward their leader as he slowly walks around. “It’s a fairly simple structure; it wouldn’t support any more rooms than we’ve seen or know about.”

He nods, trusting her expertise. “Good, we don’t need any surprises. Let’s check on the others.” He leads them back downstairs to see their lockpick finishing with the cabinets and moving to the front room, his escort close behind.

Ornate tilts her head towards the cabinets questioningly, getting a nod from the boss. Walking over, she starts sifting through the drawers, pulling out a few files and browsing.

“Anything interesting?” Alloy asks quietly as she walks up beside her, looking over her shoulder at what appear to be sales records.

“Nothing so far… grab a drawer and see if you can spot anything.” She flips to another one as the last shape walks over and does the same.

Nodding, the pegasus pulls out a drawer and starts rifling through the files inside. For several minutes, the three of them just sit there shuffling through papers, looking for anything even remotely useful to them.

“Well, I found Snowdrift’s charges,” Alloy finally says with a sigh, pulling out one of the pieces of paper and glancing over it. “Wow...what kind of job did she need done again? It was just something small, right?”

Ornate nods. “Yes, just some resizing or replacing. Why?”

“This guy must be some shrewd businesspony then.” Alloy frowns at the paper. “I wouldn’t pay that much to replace all the windows in my house with stained glass, let alone just another window that fits properly.” Sighing, she sticks the paper back into the file. “Probably just as well that we’re ruining his business if he’s pricing simple jobs that high.”

“And a good thing she’ll be getting a refund, plus some.” The crystal mare finishes, setting down her file and looking over her younger cohort’s shoulder. “Alright… at least we know a ballpark of what to take now.” She trots toward the front room.

The pegasus stands up to follow, glancing down at the files left strewn on the floor in front of the cabinet. She picks them up, glancing at the team’s leader questioningly.

He shrugs. “Keep looking if you want. Might be something interesting in there.”

Nodding, she tucks the files under her good wing. “I’ll look later. For now, we should follow Ornate.” She proceeds to do just that, quietly heading towards the door. As she gets closer, she can hear the quiet sound of spray paint.

Through the door, they can see that the two assigned with the job of painting have made decent progress. They’ve finished the rather large blue circle, and Portal is currently retrieving the red spray paint so they can begin the moon.

“Never knew this was so time consuming…” Night mutters as she tries to quietly shake her can.

“It’s still one of the easier jobs,” Alloy responds with a small smile as she trots over to the cash register, watching Ornate as she opens the machine. “Trust me, until they figure out your proper role in the group, be glad this is all you have to do.”

“Is scout not considered my role?” she replies, picking up a different can.

“That’s more of a default role. You’re just exceptionally good at it because you can see in the dark.” She peers in over the crystal mare’s shoulder. “Huh...not a lot in here.”

“Yes… definitely going to need more.” Ornate thinks aloud as she gathers every bit in a small bag, closing the register after.

Alloy rubs her chin. “Maybe the register is just for small change. There’s probably some sort of box or safe in the back or upstairs where he keeps his actual profits until he brings it home.”

“Right. Why don’t you go check up there with the rest while I stay down here?” the crystal mare offers, heading over to a window and peering carefully out of it.

The pegasus nods. “Alright. It shouldn’t take too long.” Nodding to their leader, she trots back through the door into the back, giving Night a quick goodbye wave before she disappears, the leader right behind her.

When the door shuts, Portal’s ears flick and he looks over, noticing Ornate staying behind. Curious, he trots over to look out the window with her, wondering what she’s looking at.

Spotting him next to her after a moment, she smiles, rubbing his head fondly with a hoof. “Nothing to worry about, Port. Just keeping busy by seeing if anypony decided to drop by out of the blue.” Smiling from the head rub, the colt nods, glancing back at Night to see how she’s doing.

The clothed thestral narrows her eyes as she uses a hoof to hold the can and a wing to steady it. She makes a smooth red crescent along the blue one already present, sighing as she completes it before resetting to do it again. “I’m just glad we don’t have a complicated logo…”

Portal nods in agreement despite the batpony not looking his way. He sits on the floor and looks back at Ornate, speaking in the loud whisper he seemed to believe was necessary. “I normally do that by myself.”

“I know, but it’s good to have everypony involved in these excursions of ours,” the mare whispers back to him. “Is it bad having her help? You aren’t on your own now.”

“I don’t mind.” He idly taps his front hooves on the floor, the sound thankfully muffled by his sleeves. “Just weird to see somepony else do what I do.”

She giggles. “Well, at least you don’t have to worry about her making holes, right?”

“Mm-hm...” The colt seems to have taken an interest in the pattern of tapping his hooves are doing, staring down at the floor as he continues to tap in an odd, muffled rhythm.

Seeing this, Ornate leans down and nudges him with her head. “Maybe go help her finish? I don’t think we’ll be here for too much longer.”

Portal blinks, pausing his tapping to look at her for a second before nodding. Standing up, he trots back over to the hovering thestral, picking up his own can of the red spray paint along the way.

A small muffled curse comes from the thestral as she presses the nozzle on the can off-center, still painting the wall, but getting a section of the edge of her wing red as well. Setting the can down, she starts trying to rub it off with a hoof, but is less than successful.

Portal tilts his head as he sees this, walking to her side. “Does it hurt?”

“No…” Her voice has a small whine to it. “But it won't… come… off…” She continues rubbing. “Is this stuff at least washable?”

The colt nods. “Just spit on it. That’s what I do.”

“Eww!” She shakes her head in defiance. “There has to be another way.”

“Wait until later to wash it with water then,” he replies. “That’s the only other way I can think of.” Turning to the wall, he looks up at the unfinished moon and puts the can of paint in his mouth before putting one hoof on the wall. He puts the other one up next, then his back hooves, and soon is crawling his way up like he’s on a rock climbing wall.

She blinks, her mouth falling open as she observes this. The thestral makes several short utterances before she finds actual words. “But… how… you… wall… not…”

Either ignoring or not hearing her, the colt keeps climbing until he gets high enough, then begins painting the spots she had missed. Ornate silently laughs as she sees the filly take deep breaths before resolutely turning away from the colt, resuming her painting.

The room is silent aside from the gentle scraping and clicking of the pony’s tools. Though he could work amongst noise, the others find it polite to grant him the silence to do his job well. They wait patiently as he fiddles with the lockbox, Alloy passing the time by searching through the files she had pilfered.

Soon, Snap backs away from the box, nodding at the two who had brought him to it. Their boss nods, stepping forward and easily opening the container, revealing the enormous amount of bits inside. “Perfect. This should cover both the refund, and the hassle.” As Ornate had done, he withdraws a bag from within his clothing, emptying the bits into it and stowing it once more.

Alloy looks up at him. “I found something you might want to take a look at.” She points to one of the many sales records. “Look at all these jobs he was hired to do. Full window installation, various repairs and replacements...” She flips to a different page. “And look at Snowdrift’s. Just a few adjustments, maybe a replacement here or there.” Her eyes narrow. “So how come what she got charged is almost four times as much as these more complicated jobs?”

He huffs, scuffing a hoof on the ground. “Probably the same reason she paid up front and never actually got the job done. See any others with price spikes and lack of completion?”

“Now that you mention it...” She flips through the pages some more, setting aside any that didn’t have what she was looking for. “Yeah. Most of them regular jobs, none of them completed, all of them way more expensive than any of the others.” She squints. “And he’s scribbled something next to some of them...I can’t make it out.”

“May I see those?” He holds out a foreleg. Nodding, she passes over all of the sheets that seem suspicious. Casting an eye over all of them, he nods, growling quietly for a moment. “He wrote their species. Just another bigot. Alloy, see if you can find a nice red marker. I think we’ve found more wall decoration.”

She nods, trotting off into one of the second floor rooms and coming back a couple minutes later with two thick red markers and a roll of tape in her mouth. “Thith’ll be great!”

After several minutes of scouring the sales records and outlining everything suspect with a bright red circle, the two begin trotting back downstairs, ready to finish the job. When they get to the front room, they find the logo fully painted and the rest of the group gathered there.

The big boss nods. “Alright, we’ve got what we came for, so now we just need to leave them a few parting gifts and get out of here.” He nods to Alloy. “Post our little discoveries on the wall so they know exactly why we did this.” Next he looks to Ornate. “Call the police and let them know an incident occurred.” Next is Zesten. “Give them a little something extra to find when they get here.” Lastly, he looks to Portal. “Work your magic, little one.” As they all scramble to their positions, he walks over and pats their griffon’s back reassuringly, her giving him a smile in return.

Within the next few minutes, the group seems to descend into a quiet chaos. Portal begins working almost frantically, walking around the perimeter of the room and poking the walls before finally going into the back room to find the spot he had gotten them in with. Alloy quickly tapes the marked papers underneath their logo on the wall, while Zesten removes a small pouch from his outfit and places it on the desk, taking several seconds to position it meticulously so that it would look as though it had been thoughtlessly discarded. Ornate, meanwhile, heads to the phone and plays the part of the concerned citizen, letting the authorities know of a disturbance she thinks she saw.

Once they have all finished their jobs, the gang heads to the back room, where a large hole is waiting for them. They waste no time in getting out, Portal stopping only to close the hole up as everyone is looking for which way to go, and disappear into the night just moments before a small squad of officer ponies come galloping up to the building from the other side.

Listening for any disturbances and hearing none, the first officer in line tests the door and finds it still locked. Not wasting any time, he turns and bucks it, forcing it open with a loud crash. Four or five officers swarm in, looking around at the scene with expressions of shock, confusion, and anger.

To them, it is a strike against their authority. Files upturned and posted on the wall, signs of the place being thoroughly searched, suggesting plenty of time to do so. Worst of all is the familiar symbol brazenly painted on the wall, defying them by telling them exactly who did it, yet bringing them no closer to actually capturing them.

As the officers split up to search the building, one of them takes note of the files stuck to the wall. Stepping over, his eyes flick left to right as he reads through it. “Sales records…?” He blinks as he comes to a line circled in bright red. “Xander...window frame replacement...zebra?” His eyes widen as he takes a look at the listed cost, looking up and down the sheet to see if that sort of pricing was consistent. “Hey, you guys might want to take a look at this...”

“How about a look at this instead?” another officer retorts, lifting up a small pouch from the desk with one wing. “Somepony left their beneviolet just lying around here...”

The first officer raises an eyebrow, then turns to call into the back. “Keep an eye out for beneviolet, or anything else of the sort!” He looks back to the forms on the wall, then looks up at the logo. “What are they up to...”

Another week comes and goes. Before anypony realizes it, Friday has once again reared its head, bringing hope to all. To a certain enchanting shop, it also brings the usual Friday rush. Inside, mother and daughter dart around and serve customers like well-oiled machines. Orders, pick-ups, purchases, questions; everything is done in its usual excellent quality.

As the time goes on, the flood starts to be fought back, eventually to the point where there is only one or two customers at once as the work hours near their end. Rune smiles as she puts a small pale green gem into a bag, floating it over to a stallion. “Here you are, sir. Just tap it once to light it up and it will server as an excellent nightlight for your little filly. It certainly worked for mine.” He nods gratefully, putting his bits on the counter as he leaves the shop with a smile on his face as well.

At the other end of the counter, Autumn is finishing up with a customer as well, passing her a small cloth bag, enchanted to prevent any outside magic from interfering with its contents. “One cooling-off gem. Just put some magic into it, and it’ll help keep your house cooler for when summer comes around. Just be careful how much you put into it; once you start it, you can’t turn it off until the effect fades away on its own.” Nodding in thanks, the mare takes the bag and leaves her payment in a small pouch on the counter, trotting away looking relieved.

Rune comments as she watches the mare leave, “Why most of them go for the cheaper simpler one instead of the more controllable one, I don’t get. But, it’s what they want, so I’ll give it to them.”

“Maybe they pick it because it’s cheaper?” Autumn suggests, trotting over. “Or they just don’t need the more controllable one that badly?”

Shrugging, the shop owner looks to the door to see if any more will come in. “Naturally I assume that, but I suppose I’m more biased towards the complicated ones because I actually know their potential.”

Autumn sighs and nuzzles her. “Not everypony can be as smart as you, you know.” She giggles. “That’s the point of this shop, isn’t it? Provide a service for those who can’t take care of it themselves. It’s only natural they won’t know exactly what to do.”

“A fair point, I suppose… and one that I must remind myself of every once in a while.” Hugging her daughter to her, Rune nuzzles her lovingly. “That’s my smart filly…”

The younger unicorn giggles and hugs back. “Just trying to help.”

Nuzzling her a little longer, the mother’s nose twitches. Blinking, she leans back and looks her daughter in the face. “Autumn? Do you have something to tell me? You smell like freshly pressed clothes for some reason…”

Autumn blinks, confused, before suddenly remembering. “Oh, right!” She turns to the saddlebags on her back, sticking her muzzle in before coming out with some white articles of clothing, which she lies on the counter. “The tennis team’s outfits just came in today. I was bringing mine home and just forgot in the sales rush.”

Giggling gleefully, Rune claps her hooves together. “Oh this is wonderful, sweetie! I know we were excited when they said you officially got in a few days ago, but this just makes it seem more… official! Oh, and I bet you look adorable in it… I wonder if you’ll start wearing your mane in a tail again…”

The blue filly blushes a bit. “I don’t know...I haven’t tried it on yet...and, well, I could switch my mane style up again.” She rubs the back of her neck, a little embarrassed.

“Hmm…” the green mare puts a hoof to her chin as she thinks. “I wonder if we could get Nightshade’s opinion… you two have certainly been hanging around each other enough to where it wouldn’t be that difficult…”

Autumn’s blush increases, and her eyes widen. “Y-You mean have her see me in those?” She glances to the tennis outfit a little frantically before catching herself. “I-I mean...s-sure. That...shouldn’t be a problem.” She tries to smile.

“No need to be embarrassed, sweetie.” Rune giggles. “She’s your friend. Plus, all the fillies will be wearing that, so it’s not like you’ll be alone in it once you start playing.”

Her daughter nods. “I know, just...” She tries to think of how to best explain it without getting too specific. “I don’t know how she’d react.”

“I’m sure she’ll love it.” Rune nuzzles her one more time before letting go and putting away what she can. “Maybe you’ll inadvertently give her ideas for her own wardrobe.”

The mere thought of this causes Autumn’s blush to return in full force before it had fully faded. She giggles. “I hope so...”

Her mother soon joins her in giggles, though for very different reasons. “Heh, imagine if you two started wearing clothes daily to school. Think of it, every morning you’d pick out a cute shirt, a nice skirt, maybe a little accessory, then off you go. soon, everypony is doing it and suddenly we have no idea how we ever went walking around without… that would certainly be strange, wouldn’t it?”

The younger unicorn just nods absentmindedly, staring at the wall with a goofy grin on her face as various images run through her mind.

At the literal tail end of her thought train, Rune looks back at her own tail. “I never really did do skirts… I wonder how I would look in one…”

This quickly derails Autumn’s own thought process, and she shuts her eyes, looking away from her mother before making a face. She shakes her head rapidly before taking a deep breath and turning back around, feeling much better. “Um...should we start heading home?”

“Once we close up the shop, dear. We have to make sure everything is nice and secure.” A small frown comes to the mare’s face as she locks her safe, her horn lighting up as runes flash across it’s surface before fading from view. “Doubly so due to that break-in a couple of streets over.”

Autumn pauses, looking over. “Break-in? Another one?”

“Yes, it was quite strange.” Rune speaks as she locks everything down by means both mundane and magical. “Apparently somepony saw something and called the police, but when they got there it was like… a robbery combined with vigilante vandalism. True, every bit was gone, but it brazenly showed just how bad of a pony the owner was, so nopony would even do business there anymore. It’s been the talk of the town for most of this week. The shop is even for sale now.”

“Huh...was it that gang that’s been running around?” the younger unicorn asks, curious. “The one that hit the produce shop?”

“Allegedly hit the shop, yes.” The mare nods. “They even put their signature on the crime, so they had no qualms about letting the town know.”

“Well, if the owner was a bad pony, I’d take pride in showing that off too.” She huffs. “What did he do, exactly?”

Rune’s coat bristles along her back as she narrows her eyes. “Apparently he was nothing more than a bigot; a pony who thought that just because others were different, they were lesser. Hmph!” She sniffs, lifting her nose up. “I’d have thrown him out on his ass if he tried to pull something like that in my store. Apparently the Hearth’s Warming pageants aren’t doing their jobs these days.”

Autumn winces, not used to hearing her mother get like this. “Wow...um...yeah, that’s pretty bad...”

“And if that wasn’t bad enough, apparently he was also involved in drugs!” Her nostrils flare as she rears for a moment. When she lands, she shakes her head, mane getting a bit wild. “The very idea…” Her breathing slows as she looks to Autumn, relaxing. “But… at least you never get involved in things like that. That’s my girl…”

The young unicorn walks over and hugs her. “I’ve never seen you get that mad before, Mom...is everything okay?”

Hugging her tightly, Rune nuzzles her daughter, kissing her head. “I’m alright, sweetie… I just can never understand ponies like that… so hateful, so corrupt. I’m just glad you turned out better than that.”

Autumn smiles, feeling the worry leave her body. “I’m glad, too...”

The mare hums. “Come on, let’s pack everything away and get ice cream on the way home. I think it’d make us both feel better.”

“Alright.” Nodding, the filly gathers up her tennis outfit to put away before helping her mother with the rest of the packing up. “At least we can relax since it’s the weekend now.”

As they lock the door and walk onto the street, Rune looks to Autumn. “Think I can get a picture of you in your new outfit this weekend?”

Giggling, she nods. “I’m planning to try it on when we get home, so we can do it then if you want.”

“Yes!” A victorious hoof pumps.

Autumn rolls her eyes playfully. “You’re way too excited over this...”