Equestria Broken

Chapters

Equestria Broken - One : The Thief
Equestria Broken - Two : The Belltower
Equestria Broken - Three : The Commission
Equestria Broken - Four: The Stage
Equestria Broken - Five: The Seeds
Equestria Broken - Six : But, Unless
Equestria Broken - Seven : Travelers
Equestria Broken - Eight : Intentions

Equestria Broken - One : The Thief

This story occasionally uses the Thieves' Cant language. It's not hard to figure out, just replacing words with other words for the sake of being secretive but just for everyone's reference (mine mostly), here is the link: …

Equestria Broken

A fanfiction novel written by Radioactive_Ratt / GutterRatt (aka Crystal Green in the process of changing her online name)
My Little Pony is owned by Hasbro and was created by Bonnie Zacherie.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was created by Lauren Faust

One : The Thief

“I mean, please, I am the master thief, son. That’s a fact that you might need to sleep on. I’ll never let go of my inner klepto, ‘cause I’ve been one ever since the get-go.” JT Machinima - Bleeding Secrets

The scent of smoke filled the large room. It hung in the air and mixed with the other lovely fragrances of body odor and alcohol. The haze hung low like a thick fog thanks to all the patrons of the tavern smoking their favorite flavor of tobacco. There were many ponies in the room, some non-ponies, including a table of griffons, a minotaur and four mutants including the bartender. The mutants might have once been a pony or griffon but thanks to the odd season of Chaos turning one limb or another into one that belonged on another creature, they were labeled as such. From the way they were all dressed, it was obvious none of them were high born and they were most likely up to no-good. Everyone present had some kind of weapon on them; at least a blade if not a firearm. Even the waitress carried a cutlass on her belt. Her poofy red mane bouncing as she trotted over to the next table, levitated a drink off the tray that was strapped to her back and set it down on the table in front of her. She was rewarded with a slap to the flank and the stallion was given a sharp smack from the blunt side of her blade.

The bartender looked on warily as he wiped a used mug clean with a rag. He hoped tonight would be a quiet night. He couldn’t afford any more repairs on his precious Muck and Buck Tavern, especially after paying his own medical bills from trying to break up the previous brawl. He reached a hoof up to rub at his recently broken antler at the thought and sighed.

There was a low murmur in the building as many of his customers were chatting with each other. A couple people were drunkenly passed out with their faces lying in a pool of their own vomit and a shout of victory accompanied grumbles of frustration as a blue griffon won at a game of cards. The bartender knew many of them well as they came in often and treated him decently enough. He watched an unfamiliar light orange mare step around the serving wench and ask another stallion if they recognized the buck in her picture. They shook their head and she moved on to the next.

The next pony she approached was one who visited often but the bartender stallion didn't know very well. He did, however, know they only ever ordered water and their favorite table was along the far wall, center booth by the window. The pony would sit for a few hours, smoke their cigarettes, sip their water and leave. They never spoke to anypony or asked for anything else, they just sat there.

Though the antlered pony wasn't aware, this pony always came to eavesdrop on the other's conversations and that's exactly what they were doing on this cloudy evening before the mare interrupted them.

“Excuse me,” the orange mare said as she showed the stranger her photograph, “have you seen this buck?”

The pony’s blue eyes stared at the image for a moment before they shook their head.

“Thanks, sorry to bother you.” She said with a sigh and trotted to a table of griffons.

The cloaked pony took a drag of their cigarette as they watched the mare interrogate the winged beasts. Apparently they all knew the buck in the photograph as they each gave a different name to the picture before the serving mare glanced over and gave yet another name. She commented on how he’s seen with many mares who look a lot like her. The buck had apparently used the red maned mare too and informed that he ditched every mare once he was done with them. She pointed with her hoof East-ish and gave the name of a hotel in Cloudsdale asking for the mare to give him a good thumping on her behalf. The orange mare suddenly hugged the waitress and caused the remaining two drinks on her tray to fall to the floor with a crash before rushing out the door. One of the sleeping ponies woke to the noise, semi-dried vomit dripping off their face, but nopony moved to help clean up the mess.

The cloaked pony turned their attention to another conversation, one in the booth behind them.

“So, you know that Count Markus guy right? The 'high and mighty' stuffing peddler in Canterlot?” The pale blue unicorn said to her companion who was sitting across the table.

The green pegasus retorted with a disgusted snort, “Yeah, that rich son of a bitch thinks he's better than everypony else.” He proceeded to scratch at some fleas in his dirty white mane while he listened.

“Well CJ and the birds of a feather were signaling a visit to the neighbors. It took a bit of convincing but I got everypony to agree we’d like you to join us. We could do with a better pair of eyes than Cricket. There’s going to be quite the rum stuffing.” She grinned.

The pegasus lifted an eyebrow in curiosity, “Oh yeah? How much rum is in the curbing law?”

Smirking, the unicorn’s horn began to glow a dull white as she levitated a scroll out of one of her saddlebags. “Well, we got a hole in need of plugging that says there’s something special hidden under the rug. He was supposed to switch hooves with his uncle but decided to keep it for himself. Seems he didn’t want to fall into boredom, get hooked and drop a glove. We don’t know what it is, but it’s supposed to be a tall buck’s bit.” The mare unrolled a scroll out on the table to show her companion. “Right there.” She pointed to a crudely drawn square next to a much larger squiggly rectangle that was supposed to represent the massive building, “The hole in need of plugging who gave us a peach about it said it’s in his slave stables. That's why the Count’s been having so many pigs around his place lately. Someone noticed his unusual behavior and someone else sang their song. They thought it was some kind of rare slave but he's just got the usual: seven earth, one pegasai and one unicorn.”

“Really?” the pegasus responded, “A piece of unknown contraband worth more than a chunk ‘o gin.” He said flatly as he whipped his tail and took a swig of his beer before continuing, “You guys have very poor holes to say the least. They can’t even be a little more long tongued about it?”

The unicorn waved a hoof in the air, “The peach said it was worth at least four dozen chunk ‘o gins but, they're not really sure exactly what it was, just its worth. They found a receipt with how much yellow tin they were going to exchange for it but the word ‘Void’ was written on it and it was found in the bin. The description was half a clock of mustang gem shards, whatever in the hell those are.” The unicorn took a gulp of her own mug of alcohol and watched as her friend’s face turned to a frown.

“You want me to join you guys. To get broken gem shards.” The pegasus’ ears went flat as he continued to argue his point to the mare.

“W-well, my uncle said that the mustang gem was some ancient thing, owned by the long gone legit rulers of the Crystal Empire. They can’t be worth a rusted button if it was owned by royalty!”

By the time the two began to argue over the logic of whether attempting to steal mystery shards from a mansion full of armed guards was a good idea or not, the pony who never drank a drop of alcohol had left their seat. After paying for their glass of water, they trotted out of the bar and into the chilled air of the night. Looking up, they could see thick clouds above and gaps between them that the sparkling sea of stars gleaned through. The wind calmly drifted along to let the moon peek out for only a brief moment before hiding back behind it's blanket.

Around them was the small makeshift town of The Everfree. Every building was basically a dilapidated heap of wood thrown together and not very well maintained. The 'road' that guided through the town had once looked nice. It used to be a wooden plank path that lead to every shop, every house and every other ram shack that was put up. The pony that had built it originally kept fixing it when fights broke out and destroyed parts of their hard work but, they had given up long ago and that pony was long dead. The Everfree's residents fought often. If not over haggling or for some kind of work contract then out of fun when they saw another they knew. This town was filled to the brim with all colors of riffraff including bandits, slavers, mercenaries, thieves, scammers and the just plain rotten. They had a system though and most abided by it. This pony didn't care for their bylaws but did try to stick by them nonetheless.

There were many other ponies roaming the streets at this late hour. Several hung out at popular stops such as Crowfoot's Crap Shack and Doc Maggot's Slice and Dice. Aside from the wooden buildings, there were many booths that were empty. These were only open during the day and no doubt sold goods of a sketchy nature. A large tightly woven netting hung above the mass of booths as a shade and partial rain cover. Unfortunately all the bullet holes and its poor craftsmanship in it didn't help with the weather. Some drunkard had stumbled out of the Crippled Cragidile Inn and promptly got into a fight with a pony they fell on top of before a stray dog decided to join in to try and get a free meal. A short distance away two gunshots rang out followed by three more and then some yelling replied to them. Nopony really cared, the rats of The Everfree were always squabbling.

As the cloaked pony reached the end of the town they were visibly assaulted with trees. They were everywhere, thick and entangled in each other's branches. Bushes tried to grow in between them and most were succeeding. A small trail had been carved into the forest and a thick layer of salt bricks covered the road below to keep the foliage at bay. Every so often one of the bricks would be replaced with a new one when they got too worn down from rain.

The only reason the forest hadn't overtaken the town was because the residents who broke the rules trimmed it back daily. They would be the ones who fixed all the salt brick borders and trim all the foliage back. Due to the large amount of residents who would much rather act like brutish children with bad attitudes that their mothers had never corrected than follow rules, there were plenty of drafted community service workers to hold back the unruly foliage.

The pony began to trot along the path through the Everfree Forest and soon the sounds of the town faded away leaving only the sounds of the forest. They could now hear timber wolves howling, crickets and owls around them. The chittering of tiny forest voles and a sharp squeal when one got taken by a predator. It was nothing unfamiliar and nothing they worried about.

Eventually another town came into view: Ponyville. Unlike The Everfree, this town had a wall around it. The wall had been hastily built and bombarded almost daily by war since it was put up. The wall was riddled with bullet holes and made with broken wooden planks, large scraps of metal and other various bits of debris. The pony could see others patrolling around the wall, some atop it with spotlights and a couple pegasai flying above as was the norm for the country cottage town. Trotting with the cover of the treeline, they didn't attract the attention of the guards as they made their way around the town to their destination.

Walking around the outer edge of this small city, they could see the large tree-like structure almost in the center, rising above the great wall. It appeared to act as a lookout tower despite the fact that it was probably just supposed to be a massive tree. The cloaked pony had never actually been within the town's walls and never cared to enter it unless required to do so by a job. They always made it a point to avoid any jobs that had to do with Ponyville anyway. Not because there wasn't anything good inside but because they didn't want to interact with the ponies inside. This pony was just that picky.

Heading around the town wall, they came upon the entrance. A large wooden gate with two tall guard posts to either side. There was a sort of makeshift pulley system set up above the gate that looked like levers and cranks in the guard towers that would lift the wall up high enough to let trade waggons in. At each of the towers were three ponies, one looking out with binoculars, and one talking to the third one as they shone the spotlights out into the night. Below were four more guards standing in front of the gate. One actually appeared to be sleeping while the others stood at attention waiting for travelers that would most likely not arrive until morning.

On the far side of the gate the cloaked pony could see their destination. Train tracks came into view from the vast beyond to the front of the defense and swerved away as if appalled at the state the ponies kept their town in. Being far enough away from the gate, the pony felt comfortable enough to hurriedly sneak past the guards and to the raised platform that came up to the tracks. They walked up the stairs, passed several rows of benches built onto the platform and headed towards the small building just beyond. As they clopped along, they could see silhouettes of a couple others sitting nearby. None of which stirred. A faint sickly smell hung in the air like the bad aftertaste of a spoiled drink came from the direction of one such person sitting as far away from the others as they possibly could.

The ticket booth. When the pony reached the counter they were separated by a pane of glass from the mare on the other side. A radio played from somewhere in the room. The disc jockey, Smile Cat, was reading his report of the news which had been repeating all day in between songs. The same garbage of who attacked who, which town was burning now and what new laws the Kings had decreed this week.

"Where ya headed stranger?" she asked.

"Canterlot." a deep and gravelly voice replied.

"Seven bits." the mare replied.

The buck clicked his tongue in disgust at the price which had risen yet again since last month as he retrieved the coins from his saddlebag. After handing them over, she gave up the train ticket. When the exchange was completed the mare went back to her radio and the stallion headed over to a vacant seat. It wasn't too long before he could hear the whistle of the train announcing its presence. The brakes squealed as the large metal beast tried to halt its movement and when it finally stopped, the stallion boarded. Another stallion was there to greet him, punch his ticket with a hole and tell him which car of the train he was to sit in.

The hooded pony slowly walked to the passenger cart, getting his balance as the train began to move again. When the locomotive jerked forward, the pony almost fell on his face but promptly caught himself. Unfortunately, the jolt had caused something tiny and fuzzy to fall out of the stranger's hood and onto to the floor of the train. He picked it up in one hoof and swiftly made his way to an empty booth close to the door but farthest away from the few others that were actually aboard this time of night. With the visibility protection of the tall backed seats, the stallion pulled his hood down and smiled to the rat in his hooves. The little black rodent's fur was puffed out and she was furiously cleaning herself in embarrassment. The buck chuckled a bit as he petted her.

"I'm sorry Thief, you okay? I always forget you fall out at that part." the pony warmly said to his companion. The rat began to lick the stallion's hoof causing his smile to grow.

The dim moonlight that shone through the grimy window of the train, illuminating the pony's features. He was a buck skinned pony, gold with a dark gray muzzle and socks. His short cropped mane was black on the outer edges and white on the top. His blue eyes still watched his rat companion as she continued to groom herself. The pony had on thick leather vest with many pockets on top of a simple cloth hooded shirt. He had leather straps on his forelegs which held many thin tools the pony used for his job. Right at his withers was a large metal ring attached to the leather vest. Clipped to it was a quiver full of arrows that hung to his left side and a compound bow that hung to his right. His saddle bags weren't as full as they normally were but they soon would be. On each of his hooves was a soft boot with thick plush padding on the bottoms to help him walk silently wherever he went. Hiding all of his gear was a long dark brown cloak that would drag along the ground when he walked.

The train ride wasn't as long as some he's been on, just a few hours, and for the vast majority of the time he watched the world pass by out his window. The broken wall of Ponyville, a few guards and a traveling caravan of three carts being pulled by cattle. Passing them by so quickly, he couldn’t see if they had the slave brand on their flanks. Saddle Lake had something massive break the surface of the water only to dive back down seconds later. The moon's light glistened off the ripples the creature made only for the short moment it peeked through the clouds. A small swarm of bats flew South bound in the night's sky and the clouds seemed to be getting thicker as a pegasus flew West. As the pony flew, more clouds trailed behind seemingly coming from something strapped to its back. The train entered the cavern of the massive mountain Canterlot was built on and began it's slow steep climb to the grand city.

Thief had been gone for a while now but the pony wasn't worried. She wandered off often but always returned to her favorite pony after she was done exploring or finding food. She sniffed around the cabin, crawling under seats and into some ripped cushions out of curiosity. She explored some of the sleeping passengers, none of them being stirred awake as she walked over them and sniffed through their belongings. Passing a small family she stopped to watch the larger being rock back and forth, two fillies in her hooves.

"Don't trust, don't trust, don't trust." the mare seemed to mumble to herself, her voice shaky and distant, "Gotta get out, don't trust, keep them safe. I'll keep them safe for you my love. Won't come back, he won't. Don't trust, gotta get out. Don't trust, don't trust." The terrified mother seemed like she was in another place, ignoring the infant and toddler who were both squirming in her tight grasp.

The rat continued on her way in the darkness. Something in the air caught her attention and she followed the scent. It led her to two young ponies who were quietly arguing over something as their stallion guardian was sleeping. The colt had a cookie in his hooves but he was too busy trying to prove himself correct to his older sister to eat it. Smelling the sweet food in his hooves, Thief quickly jumped up onto the seat, snatched it away from the foal and happily bounce-ran back to her stallion friend. As the rat ran, she had a bit of difficulty running due to the cookie being too heavy to hold aloft causing the treat to keep getting stuck on the floor of the train making her trip. After some effort, she did finally make it to her buck friend and jumped up onto the seat. Or tried to as the cookie bumped her off of her landing pad. She set her prize on the floor of the cabin, stood on her hind legs and sniffed in the air, trying to get her friend’s attention.

The soft bump caught the stallion's attention and he helped his companion along with her cookie back up onto the seat before continuing to watch the black nothingness out the window that was the inside of the cave. As the rat munched on her newly acquired sweet, the colt and filly popped their heads around the seat and stared at her.

"See! I wasn't lying, I didn't drop it, it was stolen." the colt proudly said, breaking the almost-silence of the train car.

The stallion looked over to see the foals, grimaced and looked away.

"Ahh!" the filly squeaked as she grabbed her brother and pulled him away, "Don't touch it! You'll get sick!"

"But that guy's sitting right next to it and he's not scared of it." the colt said trying to squirm out of his sister's grasp.

"Teddy, those things carry the Blight. It'll make you really sick and you'll die! That's how they all died, that's why we're with him!" she said pointing back to where the other stallion was.

The colt stopped struggling and looked down. "Well..." he began, "what if I want to get sick. What if I want to be with big brother again because you're a big butt! You never let me do what I want! I want to be with everypony else! I want mommy!" As he argued, he got louder and louder, struggling once more with renewed vigor until his sister clamped a hoof over his mouth.

"You gotta be quieter, you want him to come over here and hurt us again?"

The stallion glanced at the two foals before looking back out the window.

In response to his sister’s question, Teddy gave his sister's hoof a big lick and she immediately released him, utterly disgusted at the saliva that now covered her foreleg. "Eeeww!" the filly exclaimed, "What is wrong with you? That’s gross!" She tried wiping it off on one of the nearby empty seat cushions.

When the colt was finally released, he went over to the seat that the rat sat on and put his hooves on it, resting his head between them and watched as Thief nibbled on the cookie. She paused for a moment, chewing what was in her mouth and sniffing in Teddy's direction before she continued. The colt reached out to pet her and the action caught the attention of the buck in the seat.

He looked over to the two foals, then to his rat and back to the foals. The filly stared up at him and was fascinated with the stallion’s eyes for a reason she couldn’t immediately understand. She saw something there, something different that she had never seen before. The filly had no idea what it was but she couldn't look away. She had a feeling that if she just kept staring, didn't look away, didn't blink, she would see it. At least, just for a second.

"What?" the stallion said, obviously irritated at the foals.

"Your... eyes." the filly said breathlessly, "What's..."

The train finally came to a massive cave lit with many, many lanterns. Their small flames danced in the glass boxes that contained them, lighting up the space around them. The train began to slow to a stop just beside a platform similar to the one outside of Ponyville. There were dozens upon dozens of small shacks, reinforced boxes and tents filling the space outside the train. Above, on the cavern ceiling, lights danced and twinkled between the old roots that hung thick and low. There in the tangle, lightning bugs found a place to call home.

As the light from the train station lanterns shone against the stallion's eyes, the filly gasped. "Diamonds! You have diamonds in your eyes!" she exclaimed. Excitement on her tiny face. Her brother was smiling too as he petted the black rodent. The children's glee was short lived as another pony clopped up behind them.

"There you two are!" a stallion whose coat was a green so bright it couldn’t be found in nature said, glaring at the two children as he scolded them. "Do you want me to put the chains back on you? Get back to your seats or I'm going to have you two branded the second we get there!"

As the two foals slunk down, the buckskinned stallion finally noticed the marks on the foals. Some old and some recent. They looked to be whip lashes, scars the young ponies would carry for the rest of their lives. The young colt tried to hide under his sister but he wasn’t succeeding very well because she wasn’t much bigger than he was. "Y-yes sir. It won't happen again." the filly said quietly, her eyes downcast.

"S-sorry." Teddy replied in a tiny squeak as he tucked his tail beneath him.

Both of them were visibly shaken as they slowly marched back to their seat. The green buck slammed his hoof down on the floor of the train with a clang and the two began to trot faster. He then looked to the buck skinned pony.

"What the fuck are you lookin' at?" he spat.

The stranger put his rat companion back on his shoulders, put his hood up and got out of his seat, shoving the other buck out of his way. With a glare, the green pony walked back to the foals and the thief inspected his new whip as he headed towards the exit. It was made of some decent materials, had quite a lot of blood on it but was used too much and not maintained well enough to last through however many slaves its previous owner had gone through. It was quite worn and looked ready to snap apart in several places if used once or twice more. The second he stepped off the train, the old battered weapon was thrown in the nearby trash can. Not even worth the bits it would take to repair it.

He trotted down the steps of the platform and set hoof in the small settlement known as Estuary Slums. The buck had always wondered where this place had gotten its name since it was nowhere near an ocean but had never got a clear answer. One rumor said that during one of the previous months of Chaos, the waters of the sea wiped out half the land and rested at the mouth of this cave, the survivors settling here. Another said Estuary was the name of the first pony to have been kicked out of Canterlot and started the settlement. Yet another said somepony just liked the word and decided that's what this place was going to be called since they didn't like it's previous title of 'Lower Mouth Ghetto'. With almost everypony in the slums sleeping, he was able to quickly pass by the dilapidated collection of shacks and enter the Canterlot city limits. He could never figure out how they could sleep with so many lanterns shining about the village.

Out of the small settlement, the stallion stepped onto the pristine marble pathway. It was a large white painted wooden path with marble stones set into it for decoration that stretched out in a sideways arch around the massive waterfall that fell down the side of the mountain. The crash of the water left a constant mist that hung in the air. A thundering sound like boulders continuously smashing down a cliffside was brought on by the massive water stream, silencing all other sounds in the area. The railing was elegantly crafted, unicorn shapes embedded each of the painstakingly carved pieces. The King's royal flag hung on a tall pole every five meters along the path. Each pole had a lantern to either side of it to help light the path. The flag bore a deep red circle with a black line down the center of it like a cat's eye. Two black shadow wings sprouted to either side of the red circle, a silver crown and red horn hovered above. Behind it were three dark purple crystal spires all on a lighter purple background. This design was also etched into the white marble flooring like a pattern without color. There were a pair of benches every so often overlooking the landscape. The buck passed a couple sitting at one of them, probably having a romantic night out.

Finally rounding the last edge of the waterfall, there was a tall set of stairs leading up to the city entrance. He got to the top and reached the last platform before the city. It was a wide semi-circle adorned with the same accents as the marble path. Directly ahead of him was the city entrance. A tall set of thick reinforced wooden doors pulled open by the slaves chained to it if anyone wished to enter or exit. The eight ponies with brands on their flanks were curled up together for warmth. To the right was a large lean-to that stretched out three meters and sideways another eight. Under it were caravans parked to be protected by rain and snow. Just beyond the lean-to was an open barn where the caravaners kept their cattle until their next journey. Even further on the right-hoof side was a walkway, the long dirt trail through the mountain that travelers would take if they didn’t use the train or had pack animals to haul goods for sale. To the left of the city gates was an inn for those travelers to stay at until they were given access into the city. Most traveling merchants were not allowed into Canterlot but were allowed to stay outside and sell their goods.

On the left side of the inn were a set of simple wooden stairs that led up and around the back side of the building, leading up to the roofed bridge above the entrance. The King's guard, known as the Shadow Nights, were stationed all around. The two on the bridge walked back and forth in opposite directions to keep themselves awake. Below were several others who stood at attention inspecting their weapons or talking amongst themselves. They wore black uniforms with red trim, silver buttons and gunmetal gray saddlebags with black trim. The King's symbol was on a patch on their left shoulder, bars and stars adorned their right to show their rank. They were each clean, well shaven and had the same mane and tail style no matter their gender. Their only differences were their coat and mane colors.

A mare in the same uniform trotted out of a small building below the bridge. She held a clipboard in one wing and a pencil behind an ear. She walked up to a pair of stallion guards and spoke to them for a moment, referencing the clipboard several times. They saluted her and trotted off into the town. The mare made a note on her clipboard with the pencil and trotted back into the building.

The cloaked stallion trotted to the inn, a couple of the guards watching him carefully as he moved. Once he reached the door, the edge of the building blocked the guard’s view of him. The buck continued to walk around to the left side of the building, stopped and looked up. It was a brick building with wooden trim and several windows covered in curtains. He unlatched his bow and grabbed one of the arrows from his quiver. Pulling on the thin string that kept the long rope from getting tangled in the quiver, the length dropped to the ground, one of the two ends still attached to the arrow. He set the wooden rod and looked up to the building, aiming his shot as he pulled back on the string. He released. The arrow flew in the air, rope trailing behind. It landed with a soft thunk into the top most wooden trim of the building.

After clipping his bow back on the latch of his vest, he grabbed the tail end of the rope and began to climb. He reached the end and hopped onto the roof of the building. Though the inn was taller than the bridge, if the buck stood up straight, he could clearly see the guards walking the bridge above the city entrance. Ducking down, he grabbed the arrow and plucked it out of the wooden beam to stuff it into his saddlebags. Sneaking atop the building he reached another wall made of plaster.

The guards below gave a shout and a whip lash sounded down below. The pony crept along the roof to see what the noise was and peeked over the side. The slaves were on their hooves tugging at their bonds as the gate slowly groaned as it opened. Eight more slaves were on the opposite side of the doors pushing them open while the others pulled. Once the gate was open enough, two guards escorted a filly out of the city. The young pony collapsed and one of the guards kicked her. She cried out as she struggled to get back to her hooves, one of which was very swollen and different shades of red and a dark purple. She tripped over her injured leg again and fell just before the stairs.

The mare with the clipboard came out of her office to see what the commotion was. She looked to the guards who nodded to her before she looked to the filly. “PC-103, you have not met your daily quota at the workhouse in three days. Due to your lack of willingness to contribute to the sustainability of the city, you are hereby expelled until further notice. If you change your mind and are willing to continue working, you will be required to visit a Shadow Night office in your closest city and fill out form W6-90-F and we will reconsider granting you your citizenship back. Until then, you have thirty minutes to remove yourself from Canterlot property or we will give you flying lessons. Have a good day.” She said coldly before turning back to the two guards, “Good, now go find the other two.”

“But,” the filly said with a raspy voice, “I-I want to work! I just… My leg hurts so bad but I didn’t have a medical voucher and, and I, I can’t move it anymore it just hurts so much. Nopony will help me, please! Let me stay, I want to work!” Tears rolled down her face as she looked to the mare.

“You will remove yourself from the property or measures will be taken to have you removed by the city guards. Have a good day.” She said as she watched the guards trot back into the city and the gates close behind them, her back to the filly.

The filly grit her teeth as her tears continued to fall. Very slowly, she got on her three shaky hooves and started to hobble down the stairs using her little wings for added balance. She dragged his dead foreleg along as she went. The stallion sighed at the all too common sight and got back to his work. He walked back over to the wall and looked up. It was the side of another building with a few windows here and there. Being built on a mountain top, Canterlot was overly built to fit as many ponies as they could in it so most of the city was a maze with houses built atop houses. The cloaked pony jumped and grabbed onto an edge of a windowsill and peeked inside to make sure nopony was around before quietly slipping in.

The room was small and only held a bed, dresser and a standing mirror. Sleeping in the bed was a yellow mare with an orange mane. Atop the dresser was a couple of bits, a silver laced pen and a few pieces of paper which had been scribbled on with a work-in-progress love letter. He stuffed the bits and the pen into his saddlebags before quietly exiting the room through the door. He slowly walked down the hallway and observed his surroundings. Two locked doors, a side table with a lantern that wasn't lit, a bird cage with a canary in it and a few paintings on the walls. The ceiling had water damage and a large crack which traveled down half the wall, mold creeping out from within. He turned a corner and came upon another window. He took the golden lighter that sat on the sill before looking outside.

Canterlot. It was a pristine city for the rich and wealthy. Or at least wealthy enough to enter. To be able to enter the city, one must either use a passport to be allowed in for a strictly limited number of days, pay five thousand bits to purchase a citypass or prove they have a job waiting for them on the inside. Unless, of course, they know the few secret entrances those of the Thieves Guild used. Those who lived here ignored the war going on in all the lower-classed cities around them. The only ones who mattered lived here or in the Crystal Empire.

The stallion's ears folded back for a moment as he observed the many Shade Nights who roamed the streets. They kept the weak, sick and dying out. They beat the riff raff into submission and helped keep unruly slaves in line. There were a few stray animals here and there, wild cats and dogs that the guards often tried to deal with. If they let the animals continue to roam the streets, they would get throngs of parasites and the threat of the Blight. This wasn't a city he fancied to steal from due to the dangers but the prizes were certainly worth the risks. Luckily he knew the layout of this large city well enough to avoid the larger gatherings of the city guards and so, the stallion began his descent.

Once he reached the cobblestone path leading between the many buildings, he quickly padded behind a parked hay cart and waited until the approaching two guards passed and the light from their lantern went with them. He poked his head out to watch them leave for a moment, his eyes catching on the left guard's coin purse.

He kept low and crept up behind them, following their hoofsteps. His ears listened to the conversation of the two as he reached for the small bag.

"Yeah, they caught a small band of rebels in the eastern district yesterday. Only four of them but they were trying to break into Barron Silver Mane's manor." The white unicorn said to her partner.

"Tsk," the green mare rolled her eyes, "Those idiots will never learn. They can't just take somepony's property. You know, if they would just submit, this place would be a whole lot better. The Kings have done great things for this land and they just can't see it."

The white mare swished her tail, "Well, some ponies just can't open their eyes and see the bigger picture. They only think of themselves and their selfishness is what's ruining this country."

Before their conversation went any further, the stallion easily took the coin purse in his teeth and was sneaking off in the opposite direction. Once out of earshot of the two mares, he stuffed the coin purse in his own saddle bags and continued on his way. He passed more than a dozen locked doors, a couple standing out in the streets talking amongst each other and a few more guards patrolling the streets before he came upon a small canal. The pony petted his rat a few times, urging her to sit atop his head before he slowly dipped himself into the chilly water. The few small fish swimming down the pony-made river scattered as the stallion moved silently in the night. The few times guards got close to the canal, he held his breath and ducked deeper into the water but making sure Thief was still nice and dry.

After close to twenty minutes, the two finally reached the end of the canal. A wall loomed above with several metal bars beneath to hold back intruders from swimming under it. The wall extended a long ways to his left and only a couple meters to his right before it turned a corner. In between the canal and the right corner was a brightly lit wall torch. The stallion grabbed his bow and another arrow, this one with a water balloon at the end instead of the usual iron arrowhead. Before he could align the arrow and pull the string back tight, he could hear the clopping of hoofsteps on the stone ground. He made his way to the wall closest to the torch and sunk low in the water, holding onto the wall. He heard the hoofsteps get louder, closer and there was a couple coughs from the pony above. A new light source began to illuminate the water as the guard walked to the water's edge. The hidden pony folded his ears flat and silently wished for the other to move already. The guard stopped, coughed once more before a cigarette was tossed into the river. The pony above sniffled his stuffy nose, turned and began to walk away.

Peeking over the edge when the guard's light was gone, he could see the end of their tail turn the corner. The buck kicked off from the wall, aligned his shot and released. The water balloon splashed the wall torch out leaving the remains of the arrow to lightly clatter to the ground. He got out of the water to collect the used arrow before looking around the corner. Since this wall was completely stone he couldn't use a rope arrow nor could he jump high enough let alone fly without wings. He decided that he was just going to have to invite himself in through the front door. This wall kept straight for about five meters before it protruded outwards like an open drawer where the gate and a light on either side of it were. And, of course, there were two guards there too, one on either side of the gate.

The buck observed their outfits. Not the King's garb, a blue uniform that was less fancy and more like a hand-me-down. Patched in several places and unkempt. Probably just random ponies that the rich hired to protect what was on the other side of the stone fence. He watched as the pony that had passed him earlier began to trot back the way she had come. He either needed to think fast to find a way inside or hide in the water again. Already being wet and slightly chilly, he had no intent on getting back in the water. He quickly pulled out yet another arrow from his pack, pulled back and let it fly. The blunt arrow twanged off of the bakery sign across the street catching the immediate attention of the three guards. Only the two mares who were farther away went to investigate. The one closest to the buck stayed at his post.

The stallion mentally scoffed before quickly making his way into the illumination and behind the guard while his attention was elsewhere. The guard buck called out to the other two and they replied. Occupied with each other, they unknowingly allowed the cloaked pony to make his way into the grounds undetected, climbing up the barred gate and landing on the other side with a soft 'tpf' of his padded shoes. He slipped in between a small building and the wall to his left, hiding in the shadows before the guard buck turned around to investigate the noise he thought he heard. After a couple of minutes they settled down and went back to their posts.

The small building the thief hid behind, he noticed, was an outbuilding of some sort. He stood up on two legs and looked inside a window near the top. He could see tools, a rake or pitchfork? With the angle he was looking at it from, he couldn't tell. A small table with some papers on them that looked old. There was a set of keys hanging on a bent nail by the door and a humming machine thing he assumed was the house's generator. Rich ponies had required their own power source for a reason unknown to him.

Slowly peeking out the way he had come, he saw the large metal gate on his right with the far guard in sight at her post. The large walkway from the gate's entrance was actually paved in concrete along with the path that led around the back of the sizable house. The thief assumed personal electricity cost too much and they couldn't afford a proper mansion. To his left was a tall metal pole with a light at the top. Not a fire lantern but an actual electrical bulb. Another light stood tall across the pavement parallel to it. Directly across the driveway was another smaller building. This one had a semi-second story with only half the building being built as a lookout for the guards to see over the wall. The bottom portion was probably either the guard's office or sleeping quarters. There was also another guard standing just outside the door of the building. In between the two lamp posts was a brougham pony drawn carriage parked in the driveway. It was painted a deep purple with golden stars and moons elegantly painted on it and it was adorned with white diamonds embedded everywhere to represent even more stars.

The pony walked to the other side of the outbuilding to survey the rest of his available routes. As a pony passed by right in front of him, he went wide eyed, quickly backed up and sunk low. His heart began to beat faster as he waited. Luckily he spotted them first and they hadn't even noticed him. After they were out of the way, he released the breath he didn't realize he was holding and peeked around the corner once more. To his left on this side of the outbuilding was the disappearing flank of the guard pony, rounding the back side of the house. Straight ahead was a bed of flowers and a few trimmed bushes that bordered the house. He slowly made his way between the next side of the outbuilding and the side of the auctioneer's home. There looked to be the cement path continuing from the driveway going all the way around the large residence. The path also led to the wide double doors of the home. Just next to the doors was a raised wooden deck. Upon the wooden platform, there were a few chairs surrounding a small round table with an umbrella that had lace trimming hanging down. The radio on the table was silent as the night.

Immediately to his left, a little more than two meters away was the lamp post. Past the carriage he could see more greenery, two small trees and a wooden shade structure but past that was his destination: a wooden barn. The rich always kept their slaves in a barn to keep them believing that's the best they deserve. They weren't allowed to sleep in the house, not even the dog house. The cold hard dirt was for them but they at least were fed and had a roof over their heads. Unfortunately, some didn't even get that.

The stallion could make out the door to the stable, a lantern just above it with a guard on either side. He could see another pony walking around the back side of the house, just passing the large window on the corner next to the barn. He saw a path he could take but he would have to be cautious.

Before proceeding, he took his little furry friend out of his hood and set her on the ground. He petted her a few times and looked to the outbuilding. He put his muzzle down to her level before whispering to her, "Okay Thief, time to go to work. Today, you get to chew on some wires for me, alright?" He gently nudged her towards the shack and she began her trek around it to look for a way inside.

He stepped out of his hiding spot, keeping to what little shadow the outbuilding provided from the lantern. With the vehicle in the driveway, it blocked the view of both the guard at the guard house and the one on the right side of the barn's door but not the left one. He was just about to take out a blunt arrow when they turned their head for a brief moment. The stallion made a quick dash in as little illumination as he could, around the corner of the house and onto the wooden deck. He hid behind a couple of the elegant chairs as he looked to the guards. He was lucky none of them noticed and the lights didn't go as far as the deck.

He crawled to the edge of the wooden platform where it met the window. Inside was more money spent. Fancy furniture, decor and rare works of art showed how wealthy these ponies were. Also a self portrait of the buck himself. A dark brown pony with a sky-blue mane wearing a tuxedo. That was Count Markus, auctioneer unicorn for Canterlot. The cloaked pony looked to the two standing in front of the slave barn. The fire from the lantern above them didn't brighten up the area too much and there was quite a bit of darkness between that and the electric lamp beyond the carriage. He carefully crept between the two light sources and to the darkness of the garden.

It wasn't a very large garden, just a hedge of flowering bushes around the square space with a bench in the center and a wooden pergola above. The cement walkway was much thinner and led from the walkway outside the garden to the seating area. Around was a multitude of flowers dotting the green grass. To the right side of the seating area was a small pond with three large koi in it.

The buck crept up to the hedge closest to the barn and peeked out. The pony he had almost run into was walking out from around the back side of the house. One of the two guards at the front of the barn gave a small cough but other than that, they all stayed silent. When the pony had passed the garden, the thief backed up a couple steps before making a running leap over the hedge. He cleared it and landed on the other side, sliding to a stop on the dirt floor before quickly scrambling between the barn and the wall.

"What was that?" one of the guards said.

The cloaked pony could hear hoofsteps coming closer so he decided it was best to make his way to the back side of the barn.

" You see anything?" another voice said.

"Hmm.." the first one said, "No, must have been on the other side of the wall."

"I'd feel better if we made a thorough check of the barn. Want to make sure none of the slaves are digging themselves out again."

"Alright, I'll go check."

The buckskin put his ears back. He had to find a place to hide. Unfortunately, a large pile of manure blocked his path in the far corner. He tried looking around it and saw a metal chute in the wall that must have been to dump the mound into the sewers below. Unfortunately, it must be clogged. Reluctantly, the buck held his breath and moved around it as close to the barn as he could manage. Looking back he could see he left hoof prints in the pile and he could feel some had seeped into his leather padded boots. He didn't have time to cover his tracks so he continued behind the barn.

"What the fuck?" a voice said from the other side of the barn.

"What's going on? Check the generator!" another voice barked.

He could hear several more complaints punctuated with curse words as they complained the lights were out. The pony that was checking the barn for tunnels had turned back the way they came. The thief smirked. 'Good girl.' he thought. After knocking the mess out of his boots, he put them back on and looked around for any way into the barn. No back door and the only windows were short, wide and up high for air flow, not decoration. At the end of the alley was a large stack of boxes. He smirked as he made his way up the boxes to the roof.

The barn's flat roof was covered with thin brick tiles and most of them were heavily damaged from weather. The stallion could feel his weight pushing against the barn's rafters causing them to bow down. He gritted his teeth and folded his ears back. Taking another step, the wood creaked and he swallowed. He looked to the roof again, seeing the many broken tiles scattered about and saw that towards the far corner was a large hole in it.

Taking in a breath, he carefully made his was along the edge of the roof, not wanting to risk falling through the weakened center. He reached the hole and looked through it. It was too tall to jump back up if he went in and even with the electrical lights out he couldn't escape through the front door. Even as the other ponies were still growling orders at each other, one of the two guards still stood at attention beside the barn door. He had no idea where the second guard went to. The small fire light from the door's overhead lantern was still lit and shining through but strangely there was another light inside the barn.

The cloaked pony peeked his head into the hole and saw the missing guard. They were in the barn counting the slaves and levitating a lantern next to themselves. There were several piles of moldy hay around and three groups of ponies huddled together. An adult sleeping with a foal and two adolescents. One group of three sleeping a short distance away and another group of two older adults who slept by the door. The dim light of the guard's lantern shown their raggedy condition, thin shapes in torn rags. When the guard was satisfied they trotted out of the barn to report all the slaves present.

The stallion took the used rope arrow out of his quiver and shoved it roughly into the side of the barn. He grabbed the rope and dropped it through the hole in the roof, letting it dangle down. Grabbing the rope, he dropped himself down into the hole. As he slid down the length of rope he kept an eye on the guards to make sure they weren't going to come back in. He landed onto the slightly muddy floor and looked to the two slaves sleeping by the door. Still sleeping, even with the ruckus outside. He looked around the open space and mentally groaned when he realized he would have to search through all that dirty hay to find the mystery box. It looked like they hadn't cleaned it in a week thanks to the clog in the sewer drain.

He slowly crept to one of the corners of the room and started sifting through the straw. He flinched when the sound of the moving hay seemed like gunfire on a silent hill. He looked to the door and when neither of the guards came to investigate he began his search.

"Are you looking for something mister?" A tiny voice whispered.

"Hush! If they come in and find you talking to him we'll all be punished." another voice whispered harshly.

The thief turned and saw the mare who was curled around two fillies and the young colt had all woken up. The colt rubbed his eyes and turned over, falling back asleep. One of the fillies looked to the mare then back to the buck. The other shivered and laid her head back down.

"Go back to sleep Maybell." the mare whispered to the filly before putting her head down as well.

Maybell glanced once more at the intruder then mimicked the mare's motions. The stallion pulled his hooves out of the hay and looked to the door before he walked up to the filly. He put his head down to her ear and spoke.

"I'm looking for a box. It's in this stable. Do you know where it is?" he asked her.

Her eyes popped open. "What do you need the box for?" Maybell asked in response.

"Shhh!" the mare hushed her charge once more.

The filly looked to the older mare and then to the stranger. She pointed with her muzzle in the direction of another pony. One in the group of three. It was the pegasus.

He walked over and nudged him awake. "Hey," he said, "wake up."

The pegasus moaned and his eyes fluttered open. "Huh?" he spoke.

"Keep quiet. That filly says you know where the box is. Where is it?" The thief questioned.

"The... the box?" the pegasus asked groggily, "That's Master Markus'."

"No it's not." the buckskin said firmly, "Where is it?" He glared daggers at the tan stallion who didn't realize he was being interrogated. A light that moved into the barn frightened the stranger back into a darker corner of the barn while the pegasus looked towards the door.

"Hey! Quiet down in here! I hear one more peep I'll beat the lot of you, got it?" one of the guards yelled from the doorway as he looked inside to the slaves.

The pegasus eyes met briefly with the guard. "I-I'm sorry sir," he spoke softly as he stuttered, "I must have been talking in my sleep again. I'll, um... I'll try not to do it again." His voice deflated as he spoke, eyes downcast and ears drooping.

The guard smirked. "Again Fly? You know what this means." he said with a chuckle.

The pegasus swallowed as he got up on shaky legs. "Yes, yes sir." he said as he swallowed, keeping his head low. As he walked into the lantern's light, the thief could see too many scars to count on the slave's body and an S shaped brand on his flank where his cutiemark should have been. The guard levitated a whip from his saddlebags and moments later sharp cracks and muffled cries of pain could be heard outside the barn.

The buckskin cursed under his breath, his shortcut had been removed. He began searching through the hay once more until the noises outside grew quieter. Instead of commands being thrown around, there was muffled conversation. The pegasus had been sent back into the barn. He moved stiffly, breathing in sharply as pain punctuated every movement as he walked. He looked to the stranger in the barn before slowly lying down, setting his head on the straw away from him.

The stallion lightly shook himself, swished his short tail and continued his quiet search for the elusive box. He knew the pegasus wouldn't give up the information he needed now and if he tried, the slave might call for the guards. He made his way around the barn and noticed something odd when he was close to the door. After moving yet another small bit of the straw out of the way, there was a plank of wood halfway buried in the ground. He looked toward the open door as he uncovered more of the wood.

A small hatch with a rope handle set into the dirt floor hid his prize. The box within the hole was no bigger than one of his saddlebags. He quickly stuffed it into his pack, saving his newly acquired treasure for later viewing. He gave a passing glance to the pegasus before climbing back up his rope. Once he reached the roof, he pulled the rope out of the hole and dropped the length down the side of the building. Climbing down it, he was grateful not to have to walk over the manure pile again. He crept along the side of the building as he decided to retrace his hoofsteps. He could see one of the guards rounding the house and starting to walk in front of it, a lantern attached to their back. In fact, every guard had a lantern of their own now. Unfortunately, Thief's efforts to help by killing the power was thwarted by quick thinking.

The cloaked pony narrowed his eyes and scanned the area. Thinking of his small furry companion made him wonder where she wandered off to. He suddenly felt something brush up against his rear right hoof and turned to look. Then he smiled as he saw a small ball of black fur next to him. Thief bounded closer to him and climbed up his foreleg, tried to hide in one of his saddle bags but was forced to climb into the other one since the box had already stolen her favorite spot.

With his rat companion accounted for, the buck decided it was time to leave. He looked again to the guards, keeping a watchful eye on the closest one as he crept out. There was more visibility for the guards with their torches but he was confident enough that he could make it out the same way he got in. The stallion liked a good challenge once in awhile as they helped keep his skills sharp. Once he felt he was close enough to the hedge, he made a quick gallop and jumped over it gracefully. Only it was graceful in the way he caught his hoof on the dog cage that was in front of the hedge and fell on top of it. He was so focused on the guards that he hadn't even noticed it was there.

He lifted himself up and locked eyes with the animal in the cage. He went wide eyed as the dog began to bristle its fur and growl. It barked at him as he scrambled off the cage and alerted the guards. All eyes were on him now as he attempted to flee but was abruptly stopped as the dog had a powerful bite on the cloak through the bars. The thief glanced to the guards quickly approaching and unlatched the cloth, leaving it to be torn to shreds by the vicious animal.

Galloping back down the alleyway he had come from, he headed towards the manure pile with the guards on his tail. He awkwardly stepped into the pile of muck once more and rounded the corner of the barn. With the guards shooting their firearms and shouting, he hopped up the boxes again and jumped over the wall, landing on the other side with a roll. He quickly got to his hooves, looked back to the outer ponies before galloping away into the late night.

Author's Note

I do not own My Little Pony or any of their characters. This story is completely fiction and not meant to offend anyone at all. The majority of the OC’s in this story, including but not limited to: Clout Upshot, Garrett Strata, Glaciated Era, Frostwork Crystalline and Backdraft Ignition, are owned by the author herself or one of her siblings. Please do not steal any of the OC’s here unless you have permission by the author of this story that you can have that particular pony because it is either not owned or no longer wanted by its owner. All ponies introduced in the story will have it stated in the Author’s Comments when they are introduced, weather they have an owner and who that owner is.

Feel free to ask any questions, Ratt doesn’t bite and absolutely loves constructive criticism! <3

So, I know it's been YEARS since I've touched this. I apologize and I have no other excuse than I'm a lazy, unmotivated person who never keeps to her promises. I know I need to improve myself but for now, I'm okay with it. So, that being said, I'm not making any promises to when the next chapter will be done. I have been wanting to do this for the past week or so but yesterday (01/17/2020) was the first time I have touched this in a very long time and today I finished my edits on the first chapter. I have actually gone through this first chapter multiple times on and off trying to do editing myself but hadn't been motivated enough because I have a hard time concentrating on reading things. Weird how I love to write but I hate reading .-. Anywho, this is officially redone and one hundred percent completed to my satisfaction other than an abrupt ending which if I continued to some other ending would drag out unnecessarily which I do not wish to do because I do not like filler. In my opinion, this new version is sooooo much better than my first draft because with my giant 4" binder full of information, I know exactly what direction I want to go with the story. If anyone notices any errors on it, spelling, grammatical or otherwise, please let me know so I can correct it. Thank you for your patience.

If you wish to read the old, gross, version (Which I do not recommend) it is still available in my DeviantArt scraps pile

Revised:

30 Pages

10,726 Words

Old:

14 Pages

4751 Words

Characters:

Clout Upshot – Owned by RadioactiveRatt
Thief (The rat) – Owned by RadioactiveRatt
Backdraft Ignition – Owned by RadioactiveRatt
Hat Trick – Owned by RadioactiveRatt

Equestria Broken - Two : The Belltower

Two : The Belltower

“Watching the world from here, I see everything. Nothing short of everything. High in the belltower far above the ground.” Rachel Rose Mitchell - Belltower

The thief and his rodent companion trotted through the still streets of Canterlot in the early morning gloom. The sun had not risen yet but the twilight just before the dawn was beginning to show over the horizon. A soft, early morning fog was beginning to roll through the streets which helped conceal the stallion as he padded along the cobblestone. His saddlebags sang a soft chorus of coins and gemstones as the items within clinked together. The saddlebags he wore were full of property that was now his. Missing his cloak, the arrows in their quiver were free to keep up with the beat of the song as he trotted.

Above in a nearby building a shutter door opened and a mare dumped a bucket of excrement out the window. The filth landed with a splatter on the ground below and splashed the stallion. He raised a hoof to his face and wiped the gunk off of before pulling down his soiled mask. Today was just not his day to stay clean.

“Gross” he said as he flicked it off of his hoof. He looked up and glared at the closing shutters, giving a soft snort before he continued trotting. Of course it was bad enough to have the substance in his boots, he had to have it on his head too. He felt Thief rigorously shake herself and furiously clean her face on his back.

He chuckled, “Got you too, eh?”

Rounding another corner of a building he hesitated for only a moment. Through the mist he could see a young mare who had her back to him as she lifted a scoop of manure in her shovel and dumped it in her almost full wheelbarrow. The town obviously had a sewage problem of sorts. As he got a bit closer to the purple pony he could see her brand, the sharp S scar that was so close to her cutiemark it replaced almost half of it. The mare had a chain that attached her to the wheelbarrow, forcing her to keep to her work. If she really wanted to cause trouble for him, the most she could do was call out but that was unlikely as slaves usually didn’t like to involve themselves in other pony’s affairs. She had a radio quietly playing beside her, the announcer, Smile Cat, repeating the last portion of the same news that was on earlier before music began pouring through the device. The buck was clearly not at his radio station and letting it play on a loop.

Ahead of him was a carpenter’s workshop and on the second story was a barbershop. The carpenter had a delivery of fresh wood left out front of the store and the thief saw it as a perfect way to get to the Thieves’ Highway above. Passing the mare, he put his forelegs on the top of the stack and pulled himself up. The mare momentarily stopped her work to watch him jump to the barber shop’s awning and up to the second floor window before sighing and hooking herself to the full wheelbarrow’s harness.

The buck skinned pony crouched low and looked around him. He had snuck into an office of sorts with a desk to his right and a door to his left. A typewriter and a half-drank bottle of whisky were on the desk. The papers that decorated the wooden surface were getting soaked in the drool of their author who was quietly snoring with the empty shot glass in his hoof.

Waiting a few seconds, he determined that the pony hadn't woken and crept over to the desk. The yellow stallion was writing a memoir. It was a bit difficult to make out the words because for some reason he wasn’t using the typewriter and he had very poor hoof-writing. Not to mention the wet parchment smeared the ink. Whatever part of the writer’s life he was recording, he apparently didn’t want to remember and was using the alcohol to help. The latest words were: That’s that and that’s that and that’s the end of that. You’re not getting any more out of me about that!

“Why write a memoir if you don’t want to say what happened?” the thief quietly commented before stealing the half bottle of liquor and making his way around the desk. He picked up the ink pen off of the floor and took the ink bottle from atop the desk. Moving next to the other stallion, he opened the drawers, being careful not to nudge the other pony awake and found nothing of interest but a few bits.

He walked to the door and looked through the keyhole. Not seeing anything but a wall he slowly opened the door and looked down the hallway. To his left was a set of stairs leading down to the ground level of the building and to his right was a couple more rooms. Creeping inside the first room he saw it was the pony’s bedroom. With the room being vacant, he let his sticky hooves roam the room, collecting a pair of ruby earrings, a pocket portrait, a teacup and a ten bit bond. The buck moved to the window and tried to nudge it open. To his dismay it was stuck. He made sure it wasn’t locked, took out a small crowbar and wedged it under the window. Wiggling the handle of the tool down gently he popped the window open with a sound of wood on wood that seemed louder than it should have been. With the sound of the window came the noise of clattering in the other room before shattering glass.

“It seems I woke the master of manes, best make my exit,” the stallion said to Thief as he climbed out the window and up to the roof of the building. Two arrows fell out of his quiver as he climbed the short distance and he grumbled at the loss of supplies.

Standing on the roof, he looked around him and saw the light of twilight was growing stronger, shining through the fog layer. Dawn was close. He could see the Smokey Mountains to the West, Cloudsdale to the North and the Everfree Forest to the South, hiding its occupants from the prying eyes of the authorities. His destination was East, however, but before that he had to go back to the train station.

As he made his way atop the buildings he could see that some ponies were lighting their lanterns for the morning, opening their shutters to let the morning in and leaving their homes to get an early start at the mills. In the south end of the city he could see the large smoke stacks rising above the houses, the furnaces within bellowing their thick black haze into the sky. Pegasai were already in the air trying to clean the smog away but they knew it was a never ending job unless the factories were shut down.

The buck skinned pony reached the roof of the apartments just before the city entrance gate and jumped down to the roof of the inn. The guards were once again making commotion outside the gate and he walked to the edge to listen in.

“Did you find them yet?” Clipboard mare asked.

“I believe Cocoa and Buttercream did but they are having difficulty extracting them from the building.” a mare guard responded.

“How are two guards not able to handle a couple of foals.” she spat, fluttering her wings. “Those children know the rules, their parents die, they refuse the work house and they are removed from the city.” She whipped her tail in frustration, “See that shift A is informed and assists so C can get some rest.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Another guard trotted up to Clipboard mare, “Ma’am,” he said with a salute, “Digger just reported another coffin birth last night.”

She sighed, “Great. Keep it under wraps, we don’t want the citizens worrying about omens and what not again. Can’t risk another panic. You know what to do if any pony finds out.”

The stallion nodded, saluted and trotted back into the city while Clipboard mare made notes on her documents.

“They sure are eager to kick kids out tonight.” the thief said to himself, “Wonder what’s got their hooves tied.” He looked to the command post but thought better of sneaking in for a peek at their reports. There were too many guards around and it was getting light out.

He dug a rope arrow into the side of the building and slid down the length. Casually, he trotted out to the steps as if he had just come from the inn and walked down the stairs, ignoring the looks from the guards.

As he made his descent, he noticed several blood stains that were not there before. He could imagine the young injured pony falling down them, unable to keep her balance with how sick she must have been. The buck continued to trot along, passing the now vacant bench where the two love birds were seated at the start of the night. Making a quick detour, he found an abandoned ring box under the bench which still held the piece of jewelry inside. Apparently either the date went horribly or somepony else forgot it there before the couple visited the bench last night.

Estuary Slums came into view as the sun’s rays slowly but surely began to peak through the gloom, cutting through the layer of clouds that surrounded the mountain. As he came to the entrance of the makeshift town, he noticed two large holes dug into the ground to his left that he didn’t see in the dark of night. They were deep and smelled of death. He was very glad the road mostly went around them and he hadn't fallen in.

Ponies were beginning to mingle about the camp, talking with one another, putting out the lanterns and getting ready for the day. Just outside of the town, the hooded pony came upon the crumpled form of the little grey filly. She lay still on the marble pathway, curled up with her swollen leg looking like a lead weight the foal could no longer lift. Puss oozed from the large old gash on her front left knee which seemed to be the origin of her gangrene. Her long, curly blue striped mane hid most of her face which was frozen in agony.

He swished his tail and continued on.

More ponies emerged from their shacks, tents and boxes. He could see many Earth ponies and Pegasai and even a couple unicorns. Most of the ponies here were visibly thin and very tired. A lot of them had coats that were rotting with fungus and falling out leaving angry bald patches or sores. There were fleas and biting insects everywhere. Only the very young had some kind of meat on their bones but it still wasn’t much at all. A few hobbled over to a larger cabin by the back wall, entered and exited with a couple cans of food. Next to the cabin was a mare cooking in a large pot, colts and fillies bringing her whatever they found that might be edible for the morning stew. The ponies who retrieve the canned food were spreading out amongst the camp to feed the sick, wounded or dying. An older colt gave his toy to a filly whose broke to stop her crying. Mares and stallions alike tended to the growth of mosses and mushrooms that grew in the cave. There were no guard ponies here, no slaves, no masters and no pony who wished ill intent on others. The ponies here were forced to depend on each other. They had to scrape a life for themselves out of Canterlot’s garbage and leftovers. Anything thrown out of the walls was theirs and they took it for all the village to share.

These ponies were no threat to the stranger who walked among them and he was no threat to them. Some watched him warily to see if he was a slaver looking for new stock. Others pushed their children inside or hid their trinkets from view, unwilling to trust an outsider. He received a passing glance from a group of five ponies talking in hushed tones.

“Will you be able to make it tonight?” A dark grey pegasus asked, brushing back his red striped mane out of his eyes. His howling wolf cutiemark showing under a ripped jacket.

“Don’t worry about us, we’ll make the schedule. What about you? You’re going to be preoccupied if it’s savable.” A peach mare asked in response, pawing at the ground and tilting her head to the side.

“I have ponies for that.” The charcoal buck responded in an authoritative tone as he straightened and raised his head higher, “Besides, we have plenty of time. Find Dodge and Bean, they can help me prepare him for the journey.”

“Yes sir.” the peach mare saluted before walking away.

The stallion turned to another of his companions, a white colt wearing a tan scarf and a small blue shield shaped patch with a rearing yellow filly crudely sewn onto his dirty brown vest. “Do we know if Strata made it in?”

“Uh, yes sir.” the young pony said as he rubbed the scar on his muzzle, “He got in a couple of hours ago but no word on if he found what he was looking for yet.”

“Hmm.” the older stallion took a moment as he thought. “Alright but make sure you inform me once you get word of any news. If he gets into a tight spot I want to make sure he has a way out. We all know how, uh... eccentric he can be.”

“O-okay.” With that, the colt gave an awkward salute and ran off towards the Canterlot city entrance. The rest of the group of ponies split off in pairs to go begin whatever plans they were talking about.

The thief and his companion passed by the group just as they were starting to disperse. He slightly turned his head to watch them out of the corner of his eye. The mare and her companions went off among the camp while the red maned buck walked toward the marble path, glancing back at the buck skinned stranger with his dark plum eyes.

The stallion began to feel uncomfortable being out in the open for so long. He was used to being in the shadows and away from prying eyes. Galloping on the roof tops in the cold night air. Slipping in and out of apartment buildings and filling his saddle bags along the way. This town was nothing like the cities he preferred. Half of the so-called houses were made of mud or manure and most of them were falling apart. Some were made of sticks or old straw and large pieces of garbage thrown out by Canterlot. Broken down carriages abandoned by traders made the most sturdy shacks. Quite a few of the houses were decorated with trinkets, trash built art or string lights to try and make their home look less depressing to the eye. Unfortunately, nothing here was even worth the time it would take to steal.

His walk in between the shacks was somewhat slow-going. The place was set up with no sense of order being put together like a maze. The only saving grace of finding his destination was the roof of the ticket booth that was visible above it all. Several ponies were curled up and lying in the streets making the thief move around them. Moving through the town had been a lot easier when they were all asleep and not meandering around. Some of the ponies that lay in the streets had healthier ponies tending to their wounds or offering blankets to them. The ones who were coughing were left by themselves for fear they had the deadly plague. The sick and dying were extremely common in these parts of Equestria.

Medical ponies were few and far between not to mention they usually charged at least a foreleg and hind leg to even look at you and double it for any medications. Any doctor ponies that helped the poor were considered foolish with the bit inflation or were seen as the type to lose their patients to the cold bony hooves of death so they weren’t allowed to work on the wealthy folk who were obviously much more important. The ponies in this town did try to keep the dead off the streets as best as they could. The massive graves that were dug on the outskirts of the town were where the bodies of the fallen ponies were disposed of. The mass of corpses left a foul, sour stench to linger in the air of the cave. The stallion didn’t know why they didn’t just throw the bodies off the side of the mountain.

The only saving grace these ponies had to give them a break from it all was the freshwater of the waterfall close by that they had free access to. They didn’t often get to eat but at least they had clean water to drink. Until, that is, the ponies of Canterlot finally took notice and charged them a tax for its usage. They prayed that day would never come.

Just a couple feet away from the train station platform the stranger was stopped in his tracks by a mare who abruptly got in his way. She stood firm for only a moment before she began to shake in fear. He raised an eyebrow. She wore nothing but the many scars on her pink hide and her slave brand where her cutiemark had once been. Her white mane was pulled back with a mane tie and she was so skinny he could see her sides were caved in making her hips look large as they protruded from her small frame. Behind the fur wrapped bones were two little fillies trying to hide. At least they looked in better shape than their mother.

“I-I, um…” she said with a trembling breath. She swallowed before continuing, “P-please, some food sir. My f-fillies they-” She looked back to her daughters, the older one was a yellow Pegasus with a mane that looked as if it was once lavender but now it was caked in mud. The younger one was a dirty purple with some form of rainbow colors in her mane and tail. The children and their mother looked no better than the rest of the town, filthy, starving and covered in parasites. “They’re so hungry they’ve tried to eat the dirt. There’s not enough for the stew and I--”

The stranger backed up a step before walking around the trio, trotting up the wooden steps to the train platform.

As he passed her, the mare quickly crouched down in fear, expecting punishment for talking. She heard his hooves clop on the wood and looked up in surprise.

“I… W-wait!” she said as she stumbled over her hooves to follow him. When her fillies began to follow she waved them back. “I can pay,” she said as she got in front of him to stop him again. She put a warry hoof on his chest, “I can, maybe, um. I-I can... warm your, uh, bed tonight?”

She gave him her very best try at a confident and sexy smile as she raised her tail slightly. She obviously had no idea what she was doing other than trying to feed her family.

He took her hoof in his and moved it aside before continuing to the ticket booth for the train.

Her ears drooped and tears welled up in her eyes as she watched him go. Knowing she was defeated, she turned towards her children and began to walk slowly back to them.

The stallion glanced back to the trio before continuing on his way. He hated children, couldn’t stand the little monsters. Their big eyes, begging, always getting into things that they should really keep their sticky little hooves out of. And worst of all, they were always the ones who asked the most awkward of questions. ‘Just…keep walking’ he thought. He didn’t have any food on him anyways and the sight of them was just…

The former slave sighed before opening her mouth to speak to her children when she noticed a blur of yellow rush passed her. She turned her head back to see that her elder daughter was rushing to catch up with the stranger.

Seeing that her mother wasn’t getting any response from the stranger, the yellow filly flapped her wings as she ran to him. “Mister!” she said, “What about me? I can pay!” The young pegasus gritted her teeth and grimaced as she thought of what she was offering. “Please mister, we need food and if I can.. I-if I…” her voice wavered as she trailed off. Tears welled in her eyes as she saw him ignoring her. She had to earn food for her baby sister at least, she had to save what little family she had left to her name.

“Mister, please!” she begged. The filly grabbed onto one of his saddlebags to try and stop him but only managed to disturb the items and Thief within. Being quite full of stolen goods, the filly had accidentally dropped a small charm out of the bag.

The charm fell to the ground with a soft clang as it unsettled the dust on the wood below. The sound finally got the stallion to stop in his tracks and looked back. The filly was admiring the trinket. The casing that the gems were in was pure gold and it wrapped around a brilliant sapphire carved into the shape of a unicorn. Its eyes and nose were made of tiny diamonds along with a diamond necklace and crown that the unicorn wore. There was a hole at the top as if it was supposed to be worn on a string; the stallion’s eyes grew wide as he saw the filly reach for it.

“Wow! It’s so pretty!” she said, picking up the charm.

“No!” the stallion whinnied, “Hooves off, it’s mine!” He rushed over to the filly and grabbed it out of her hoof. He then proceeded to rub what miniscule amount of dirt there now was on the object off with his vest.

The filly flinched back before looking guilty. “I-I’m sorry sir, it was just so pretty and…” as the filly spoke she noticed a little black rodent crawl out of the stranger’s saddlebag to see what all the ruckus was about. It was Thief. The filly’s eyes grew wide as she screamed and ran back to her mother and sister as fast as she could. “There’s a- It’s a- He’s got a-” she continued to ramble on to her mother as her hooves danced around, not wanting to stay in place and unable to form proper words in her panic.

“What’s wrong sweetie?” The skinny mare asked concerningly.

“A rat!” she said as the words finally came to her.

When the filly’s words rang through the town, whispers and gasps could be heard all around along with the slamming of doors. The mother took her fillies and ran away from the stallion as fast as she could while the stallion put the trinket back into his saddle bag.

The buck folded his ears back at the exclamation and judgemental ponies in the town. Thief wasn’t carrying the plague and not many rats actually did so long as they kept clean and didn’t eat the infected corpses. This village was probably already infested anyway thanks to the abundance of fleas around and their mass graves. The pickpocket looked in the direction the ponies ran and gave a snort. He knew differently than they did and no matter any pony’s opinion, it wouldn’t change how he felt about his friends. He then continued on his way, picking up his pace a bit. He wanted to get out of this town, if you can call it a town, before anypony else decided to beg him for something.

He finally reached the ticket booth.

“One to Ponyville.” he said.

The stallion behind the counter moved the newspaper from his view and looked at the buck skinned pony. He cocked an eyebrow and stared.

“I need a ticket to Ponyville.” he repeated.

The ticket pony’s expression flattened. “No, you don’t.” he said before going back to his paper, once again blocking his view of the patron.

“Yes, I do. Now give me the ticket.” he said, grinding his teeth as he threw his seven bits on the counter.

He continued to glare daggers at the newspaper that had obstructed his view of the ticket pony while he was being ignored. He waited another minute before he swiped his bits off the counter and stormed away. The ticket buck turned the page of his newspaper and grumbled about the stranger thinking he can get on his train with a rodent.

The thief trotted around the side of the small building, looking for any way he could sneak in and steal a ticket but it seemed the only entrance was the door right next to the counter. It wasn’t a large building as it only needed to house the pony inside and a few cubby holes for mail and the like. There were no windows except the glass window that let the pony inside have protection when handing out mail or tickets.

His ears folded as he decided he would have to be a stow-a-way.

He walked around to the back side of the booth, hidden in the darkness and sat down to wait. Thief crawled onto his shoulder and he reached up to pet her. She twitched her nose and tickled his face with her whiskers and licked his cheek before scampering back into his saddlebag. She dug deeper, pushing an assortment of items out of her way to make a comfortable spot to go back to sleep in.

Something dropped onto the deck. The stallion turned his head back to see she had kicked the charm out of his pack.

“Hey!” he said, “Don’t push things out of there young lady.”

The rat turned around and popped her head out from the flap and looked at him.

He picked the unicorn charm up to stick it back in but the rat seemed to not want it in her space. She put her paws on it and pushed it away.

“Excuse me but, I need to put this back.” he told her.

She bit the metal and began chewing on it.

“Hey!” he pulled it back to safety, “If you’re going to be like that you can ride on my head. I know that’s not nearly as comfortable as the saddlebags but you’re not a first class passenger here.”

Thief shook her head and began to clean her face.

“Just because you clean yourself up doesn’t mean you get to keep your seat, other passengers need it so you need to find another one.” he said as a wooden board creaked behind him.

The buck turned his head to see the yellow filly and his ears folded once again.

“I don’t want your… services. Or your mother’s.”

“I saw you needed a ticket. Maybe we could make an exchange?” she asked with hopeful eyes.

“Not if that’s what you’re offering and besides, you have no money for a ticket,” he said firmly.

“But you do. Give me the money and a little food and I’ll get you your ticket.” She stated with determination, she had to convince him to take the deal, for her family’s sake.

The buck turned away, “I have no food. Go away.”

“Then… give me something to sell. Anything! I just need something, please.” she begged as she took a step forward.

“I hate kids…” the buck skinned stallion grumbled under his breath.

The filly fluttered her wings as he stood and turned around. Their eyes locked and he began to walk towards her. She took a nervous step back but didn’t break the gaze.

“You need it don’t you? I know you do. I saw you snooping around, looking for a way in to steal one since he wouldn’t sell it to you.” she said before swallowing hard. Her legs began to shake a bit as she took another step back.

He stopped just in front of the filly and looked down at her from under his hood. He lowered his mouth to her ear and said quietly, “I would keep my voice down when accusing strangers if I were you. You have no idea what somepony could be capable of.”

The filly swallowed hard again and took a couple quick steps away from him. She looked like she was going to soil herself.

The stallion rolled his eyes and sighed. “Calm down, I’m not going to do anything.” he said before taking seven bits out of his pack and hoofing them to the filly, “At least, not if you bring me my ticket.”

She looked to the stranger, to the bits and back to him again, not sure if she should take them or not. Finally, she decided she was brave enough to ask for her payment up front. The buck chuckled and flatly told her no. She picked up the coins and marveled at them, she had never held so many at once in her life. Then the pegasus remembered what she was supposed to do with them and hurried around the corner.

He stared in the direction she went for a moment before looking back to the pendant. He could just give her nothing but then she would probably alert the other ponies and they would make a fuss. He wouldn't get his ticket and would be back to square one with more trouble than he started with. He had other trinkets in his saddlebags he could give her but there were too many he didn’t want to part with. He could give her some bits but honestly, bits were easier for him to barter with rather than trying to find a peddler to take in his more expensive findings. It was even harder if the item was still a hot commodity to the public.

He put the item back into his saddlebag, unsettling Thief’s comfy spot before looking to where the filly had left once again. He wondered what was taking so long. Did the ticket pony catch on to their plan and deny the filly the ticket? Was there a foal price and an adult price and she was only eligible to buy the child’s ticket? Were foals required to have an adult with them when they rode the train so she was only allowed if she had her parents with her? Or was she simply rallying the townsfolk to capture him and sell him?

His ears dropped slightly and he chuckled to himself at that last scenario. He hadn't done anything to alarm the ponies of Estuary Slums and they didn’t know his secrets so, that scenario was obviously off the table.

He swallowed, stood, pulled the hood down lower and backed a bit farther into the shadows.

Little hooves sounded on the wooden platform a moment later and the yellow filly reemerged around the corner. She trotted closer but stopped several feet away and showed him the ticket she held between her wing feathers. She sucked in a nervous breath, “I got it.” she said in a shaky voice, “Now, my um… p-payment?”

The buckskin cracked a thin smile at the look of determination on the frightened foal’s face. He glanced to the ticket and saw it said 5:10 to Ponyville - One pony per ticket. He nodded to her, reached back, grabbed her payment and set it gently on the deck. He looked at it for a moment, still unsure if he really was okay parting with such a beautiful item.

She took a small step forward, her eyes darting between the stranger and the charm on the floor. He looked back to her from under his hood and the filly continued to stand stock still. A few seconds of the mini stand-off later and she darted out, dropping the ticket and biting down on the prize before swiftly flying back to the town.

The buck rolled his eyes and continued to watch the filly as she reached her family. She showed them the trinket and they spoke between each other for a moment before they started off in the direction of Canterlot. He knew the guards wouldn’t let them inside but they could at least find a trader outside the city and attempt to sell the charm. For a moment, he debated whether he should go steal it back after they pawned it or not. He gave a long sigh and pawed at the floor in slight frustration. The train would be here sooner rather than later and he wouldn’t be able to make it back in time. He wasn’t sure when the shift change of the ticket pony was and this frustrating stallion could inform the next one of him and his rat and they could deny him a ticket as well. Not to mention he would much rather not waste bits.

He finally decided he would just have to steal it back later. They probably wouldn’t be able to find somepony in Canterlot who would buy it anyways.

Thief jumped down from his back and scampered away, returning only a moment later. She jumped onto his shoulders, climbed to the top of his head and dropped the ticket onto his nose.

He looked down cross eyed at it. “Oh, thank you.” he said to the rodent before plucking the paper off his snout.

Behind him came a long, low bellowing noise. It echoed through the cavern and began to get louder. It stopped for only a moment and sounded again as if it had to take a breath of air before it made another shout. A few seconds later and the train came into view. Sparks were lightly thrown from its wheels as the conductor hit the breaks for the train to come to a stop and allow passengers on. It took a couple of minutes to halt the massive beast but it finally did stop. The buck’s ears perked as he crept around the building. He peeked through the glass to see the ticket pony still reading his paper before he let out the breath he was holding.

Walking casually into view, he stepped onto the train and entered the car. He held his ticket in his teeth to show the ticket inspector who stamped it before finding a seat. The ride home on the train wasn’t exciting but he was glad for it. Per the norm, he stared out the window and watched the world pass by while Thief explored the train car. There were more passengers on at this hour than there were last night but no pony bothered him.

A couple hours later and the train came to a screeching halt once again. The door of the train car was opened, ready for its passengers to enter or exit. The stallion looked around the car, making sure whoever else was getting off the train at Ponyville did so before he did. After a minute with everypony still in their seats, he stood up and took a step toward the door.

The buckskin pony stopped and looked around once more. Thief came scampering to him, knowing a stopped train meant it was time to leave. He offered a hoof to her and smiled as she jumped up, climbed to his withers and curled up. Trotting off the train, he couldn’t wait to get home. It had been a long night and he did not appreciate the gun that had been pointed at his face the second he stepped onto the train station platform.

The unicorn mare glared at the stranger, daring him to move. “What is your business in Ponyville?” she demanded.

Ignoring her question, he looked to his surroundings in hopes of finding some kind of advantage to resolve his current predicament. Two of the benches were broken and another was in shattered pieces everywhere. The glass that protected the pony inside the ticket booth was mostly gone except for a few jagged pieces that still framed the window sill. Blood was pooled on the counter and dripping onto the ground but the ticket pony was nowhere to be seen. The body of the sick pony that had been there at the beginning of the night lay still on the platform floor with several bullet wounds, nopony dared touch her corpse. There were ponies by the Ponyville gate which was blackened and severely damaged. They were making repairs to the wall, trying to patch it as best they could with what little supplies they had. From the massive hole in the wall, bullet holes everywhere, blood and debris all over the ground it was obvious they had been recently attacked and were on high alert.

The ponies before him all looked worried aside from the mare with the gun in his face who looked pissed off. Each of them had leather armor on but a few had pieces of metal patched onto their suits to try and reinforce it. One stallion’s looked like a foal sewed it on. The only one with decent armor was a grey unicorn stallion with a white and blue striped mane. He was wearing some sort of old palace guard armor that seemed well kept. It was rare to see a unicorn on the side of the rebels.

The most unnerving pony in front of him, however, was a mare with two heads. It was as if two ponies had their bodies cut in half, their rear ends disposed of and the two front ends were stuck together back to back. Did that mean they no longer counted as mares? Were they one pony or two? And how in the world did they use the bathroom with no rear end available to them? The stallion decided he was perfectly content not knowing the answer to the last question.

“Start talking or I’ll start shooting!” The mare commanded.

The hooded buck finally drew his eyes away from the double headed mare and back to the one who was brandishing a gun on him. “I’m no threat to you, your friends or your little rebel group. I’m just going to the Everfree Forest.” he said.

“Why do I not believe you?” She narrowed her eyes.

“Because you just got attacked, I’m in a cloak and you’re a paranoid idiot?” He offered.

The mare seethed. “Dusty, Silver, take him to Canary. I want to make sure he’s telling the truth. If he’s not, we have ourselves a new piñata.”

Behind her, two of the six ponies saluted before stepping forward. One was a tan earth pony buck with a straw colored mane while the other was a nervous dappled blue-silver pegasus mare. The stallion stood to the stranger’s right side while the filly stood to his left. Once the two were in place, they began to march him forward.

The buckskin pony’s ears tilted back slightly at his predicament. The sun was coming up, there were ponies everywhere here and they all knew he was here. If he tried to run, he couldn’t outrun a bullet and he didn’t want to risk Thief falling off and getting hurt. He decided for now he would bide his time and see where this was going. If they took his belongings from him, he would take out his hidden tools, pick the locks and escape. If they were very thorough, he would have to improvise. He hoped he wouldn't have to improvise.

“D-don’t try anything mister.” the pegasus mare said with a gulp.

Their pace was a bit slow thanks to the mare not watching where she was walking but she made sure to keep her rifle trained on her prisoner’s head.

“Silver,” the stallion said, adjusting the cowpony hat atop his head, “Pay attention ta where yer walking an’ calm down. If you trip an’ accidentally fire yer weapon, we won’t have anypony ta interrogate. He’s not a spy. Pro’lly another slaver or mercenary if he’s headed ta The Everfree. Commander Short Stack’s just pissed off ‘cause her stupid brother got shot again.”

Silver blushed and looked at her hooves.

Dusty leaned in towards the buckskin stallion. “Don’t mind the kid, first day jitters an’ all that.” he drawled.

The thief stayed silent as he eye’d his chaperone’s bit pouches. Both ponies had one and neither were really paying attention to him. It didn’t take much effort or the buck to relinquish both of them of their bits without notice.

“Welp, we’re here.” said the cowpony.

Before them was a small shack that was to the right side of the Ponyville gates. The building wasn’t any fancier than four shabby wooden walls and a roof. It didn’t even have any windows.

“Please give any an’ all weapons on yourself to Silver an’ head on inside. If y’all are deemed a non-hostile an’ not a spy for the King, your weapons will be returned to ya an’ y’all will be free ta go.” Dusty recited. Then he sighed, “Just, answer their dumb questions. There’s no real reason fer this other than a publicity stunt.” He looked back toward where Short Stack and the others stood. She was yelling at them to straighten their armor so it could protect them properly. “We got much better things ta do than play Twenty Questions with everypony goin’ ta The Everfree an’ the higher-ups know it. The ponies in there may be on the rough an’ tumble side but they ‘aint never bothered us none before an’ this is only gunna create friction between us an’ them.”

Dusty looked back to the stranger who already hooved over his daggers, bow and quiver full of arrows to the filly. “It’s just a couple questions. Please don’t hurt anypony an’ please understand attacks by the King frighten everypony inside. The higher-ups just order this to make everypony we’re protectin’ feel a little more secure. It’s not like we’re actually going to find a spy fer the King, his ponies are too good to get caught.”

The stallion snorted and rolled his eyes before walking into the building. The small space within consisted of a table, two chairs, one on either side of the table, and a pony on the far side of the room. She was an off white filly with pastel shades of blue and yellow for her mane. Her rump was in the seat opposite the door but the bright orange bird on her butt was proudly uncovered from the light armored top she wore. It almost looked like she was just wearing a collared shirt. She gave a big grin to the newcomer.

“Hello!” She said, way too cheerfully, “My name’s Canary, what’s your name?”

He stared blankly at her.

“Why do you have your hood up inside?”

The buck stifled a yawn.

“Where did you come from?”

He opened his mouth to give a witty retort but the filly talked so fast he couldn’t even utter the first syllable of his response.

“I’m from Ponyville though I’m actually from Manehattan before those big attacks that happened there a long time ago. I don’t really remember much because I was just a filly when that happened.” she giggled, “So where are you going? Is it someplace fun? I love fun but nopony around here will let me have fun with them. They always complain at me that there’s too many chores to be done. Have you ever seen a Crystal Pony? I heard those are like, really rare but they’re suuuuper pretty with their shiny coats and pretty, pretty eyes.” She zoned out of the one sided conversation with a dreamy expression on her face for a moment before continuing,

“Oh! What kind of food do you like? We could throw you a welcome feast with lots of tasty desserts! That would put a smile on those grumpy pony’s faces. They’re always so exhausted maybe having a good meal will cheer them up! We could get ready now and have it all ready for lunch, ooh, maybe even brunch! What should we make? We don’t have a lot of ingredients but we do have--”

The door behind the stallion opened with a creek. He turned around to see a soft green mare with her mane hidden under a helmet. She was one of the ponies just outside the train station.

“Hiya Rooroo!” Canary chirped, waving a hoof in the air ecstatically at the intruder.

“Canary Blues, Commander Stack wanted me to make sure you were letting him talk instead of talking for him,” Roo said in an annoyed tone of voice. “Again,” she added.

“Oh sure, we’re talking lots! We’re planning a potluck, do you want to bring anything? It’s going to be so much fun!” the filly said with a huge smile on her face.

Roo looked to their temporary prisoner who folded his ears. She turned back to the white pony. “Canary!” she barked.

She eeped and lost her smile.

“Your job is to interrogate prisoners, not plan potlucks. I’m going to have to report you to the Commander. Again.” She growled. It was obvious the two went at this issue often.

Canary grew wide eyed and ran to Roo, “No, please no! They’ll put me on bedpan washing again. Please, please, please don’t! I promise I’ll be good!” She groveled.

With both of the mares distracted with each other, it was the easiest thing in the world for the bored buck to steal Canary Blues’ pouch of belongings.

“Hey, somepony’s gotta clean them. Dr. Patch ‘n Stitch and H.N. need all the help they can get with all the injured at their clinic.”

Canary looked up at Roo with big watery eyes. Her bottom lip quivering ever so slightly.

“Ugh, fine,” the green mare said as she rolled her eyes, “but you have to interrogate properly, got it?”

“Yes boss!” the filly said with a salute.

With that Roo left and Canary went back to her seat with a sigh. She picked up the clipboard that was on top of the table, ignored in the first round of questions, and the pencil that was sitting next to it. With that, she groaned at the paperwork and monotonously began her questions. He assumed that all the cheeriness from before was lost with the thought of washing bedpans.

She only asked about twelve or so questions and they were pretty easy, unimportant questions. What was your name, where did you come from, where was he going, what’s your family like, what do you think of the Kings and so on. The only question that caught him off guard was when she asked him what time it was. It was so out of the blue and so random that he just sat there. She shrugged her shoulders and scribbled something down on the paper anyways. He didn’t actually know what time it was and he really didn’t care as he had lied for all of his other answers anyways. It seemed to him that there was a lot more on that list she was supposed to ask him but didn’t. She also wrote more on the paper than talked this time, either filling in answers on his behalf or doodling on the form in her own version of rebellion on the no-fun policy.

Once the game of Twenty Questions was over, more scolding was in order for Canary, the buck was given his gear back and he was escorted to the edge of the Everfree Forest by yet another guard. This guard’s personality matched his cutiemark perfectly, a bent tin can. He was a dark brown pegasus with a light blue and white mane and he limped as he walked.

Tin Can didn’t speak a word until they were both at the edge of the forest. “Alright, go on, git and don’t come back.” he said, gesturing to the forest with his head.

The hooded pony snorted at the order and trotted into the brush before him.

Knowing his way around the forest, he found the salt stone path easily and eventually made his way into the town. He passed the usual buildings along the rickety wooden path that lead through the organized chaos of the place. Here and there ponies, griffons and a minotaur or two mulled about, a few talking in clusters, some carrying crates and others were hauling wagons filled with goods. This time, when he passed the open space filled with empty stalls, the market booths weren’t so empty. There were merchants who were filling some of the stalls with their products, readying to open soon. The blacksmith and his apprentice were heating up their forges, sorting their metals for whatever projects they were going to be working on for the day and gathering bundles of wood. As he passed Dr. Slice’s office, one of his nurses flipped their sign from closed to open. Soon as she took her hoof away from the sign and unlocked the door, four twitchy ponies fought each other to bolt through his door. No doubt to buy more of whatever drug they were addicted to.

It was then that a white rat came running towards him from an alleyway. Thief poked her head out from her hiding spot and jumped off to greet the other rodent.

“Oh, hi Winter.” the hooded buck said, “Long time no see girl.” He walked a few steps closer so he could pet Winter in greeting.

The two rats sniffed each other before they began a short game of tag. The older rat, Winter, began to chase Thief around the stallion before the black rat ran back up his leg. The white rat followed. Then the two began chasing and play fighting up and down his back, hiding in his hood, in the quiver and finally into his vest before he protested.

“Girls, that’s enough, I’m not a circus ring!” he said as he shook both of them off him. Thief clung to his back leg but not for long and both rats went tumbling to the wooden platform. He sighed, “You two okay?” he asked. The two began to furiously clean themselves. “You can play later. Winter, do you have any notes for me?” Winter stood on her back legs and wiggled her nose at him before hopping closer.

Due to the dangerous nature of the thief’s job, trustworthy folk were quite difficult to come by. With this in mind, he had his own way of communicating with anyone who wanted to hire him. They would first have to ask around to figure out who his contact was. Once they spoke with that third party, that third party would then make a deal with them on the thief’s behalf. They would write a note, find a rat with a collar and the note would be transported to him. The buckskin saw this method of communication safer for him and the messages due to the social stigma around rats. With the blight rampant in the cities and everypony blaming the rats for transporting it, no one would mess with his messages and he didn’t have to risk getting close to strangers who might betray him.

Around the white rat’s neck was a small silver chain with a clasp. The stallion opened the clasp and found a note tucked away inside, pulled the paper out, slipped it into a front pocket on his vest and closed the secret compartment on the rat’s chain.

“Thanks girl.” he said as he pet her, “Come on Thief, we have to get going.”

The young rat shook herself out briefly before climbing back onto her friend’s withers while the older one ran back into the alleyway. After his passenger was back in her seat, the thief continued on his way.

As he passed the Crippled Cragadile Inn there were a group of ponies complaining. As others passed by, they joined in the heated discussion while a tan pegasus with a multicolored mane was crowded by the herd, trying to calm them down.

“Look every-creature, if you want something done, go talk to him. I’m not the boss! I-I can’t do anything about it!” the overwhelmed stallion said to them all. No one was listening to him, of course, as they were so boisterous his words could barely be heard.

The buckskin snorted, flattened his ears and trotted a bit faster. Apparently that guard, Dusty, was right. The residents of The Everfree were upset at the intrusion of their private comings and goings and weren’t going to keep their opinions to themselves. At least he didn’t have to worry about things like politics. He moved around the last few homes and came upon the back edge of the town.

This side of the Everfree Forest wasn’t maintained nearly as much as the Ponyville side was. Thick brush tried to hide every path that anyone attempted to create and tall trees blocked out any natural light. He never understood how any of the bushes or grass grew here if there was no sunlight for them. He found the thin trail he had always taken and continued on his way. This path was getting more and more cramped by the day with the overgrown flora but he could still fit his small frame where he needed to go.

On occasion he came across some poison joke flowers that had crept onto the path and he knew to either go around or jump across. He had been told stories of this plant and its effects and he would much rather not know what kind of devious prank it would pull on him. Probably make his coat shine like a freshly polished shield with the brightest spotlight shining on it for all to see even if he hid in a darkened room. He shivered at the thought of shining like a lamp light.

Eventually he came upon an ancient castle broken down into rubble with time. The ruins were so old that the forest around it had taken the land back for itself. Vines wrapped around pillars, grasses and bushes grew out of cracks between the cobblestones and massive trees broke down walls with their growth. The work of pony hooves for past royalty had been subdued to the test of time.

When the stallion was a colt, he had wanted to go exploring through the rubble to see what he could find but was always told not to. He constantly argued that the castle once belonged to royalty, there had to be treasure somewhere in there but nevertheless, he obeyed because the orders came from those who were bigger and older than he was. That didn’t make him any less frustrated about being told no. As he grew older this desire had dissipated. He understood the thousand year old castle was so unstable that setting hoof in there could mean a death wish. Not to mention all the ghost stories about the castle and the area around it. He didn’t really believe in ghost stories but didn’t want to take the chance just in case there actually were angry spirits lurking. Bad enough he walked right through their territory almost on a daily basis.

He trotted around the massive structure and came upon a bending stream. He followed the river away from the castle and around a large jagged rock structure known as Ragged Rock Ridge. As he passed, a few small boulders came tumbling down just ahead of him and he slowed his pace to a stop. He looked up to where the rocks came from to see that the last one had fallen. In his peripheral vision, on the top of the ridge, something had moved but when he looked to where the movement had been, it was gone. Couldn’t have been an evil spirit, this place wasn’t the nearby castle and ghosts didn’t change where they lived, right? He twitched an ear before moving around the boulders and followed the stream of water.

He passed by a bridge leading across the water going from East to West and came upon a split in the river. He followed the stream northward, crossed some railroad tracks and came upon an open field.

Looming above him was Foal Mountain. It wasn’t the biggest mountain in Equestria but it had once been important enough to the Kings to have a royal city dedicated to them here. Leading through the small line of trees that seemed to guard the mountain range was a cracked stone trail. He passed several cautionary signs that were nailed to the trees, giving several different warnings to travelers.

Along the side of the road were a couple of forgotten suitcases, a broken toy and an abandoned waggon with a broken wheel. The badly torn cloth cover of the vehicle was softly waving in the light breeze of the morning.

The stallion stopped just in front of a large hastily built wall that obstructed the path ahead. It had a pony skull painted in red on it that took up the entire face of the structure. The barricade was made of large cut stones with a thick wooden beam for support every ten feet or so. Large dark crystals protruded from the earth below helped give extra support. With years of neglect on upkeep, many vines and brush had latched itself to the enclosure giving it almost an enchanted look in the morning sunlight. He looked up at the tall structure before looking to his left. He grabbed the rope that dangled down from the grappling hook which was attached to the top of the wall before scaling up it. When he reached the top he slowly peeked over the edge and cautiously looked around. After he was certain that nopony was around, he finished climbing atop the fortification. Standing on the structure’s peak, he could see what was hidden beyond.

The road continued for a little ways before two statues loomed above it. Both of them were facing each other with one on either side of the path. They were built to resemble faceless rearing unicorns having one hoof of each statue touching the other’s. For balance or the aesthetic of being an entrance archway to the city, the stallion didn’t know.

The pathway below the statues had gone from being stone to white quartz blocks, each having their own unique design of black veins splitting the stones in various ways almost looking like inverted lightning strikes. On the outer edge of the quartz road were more of the black crystals, framing the road with its contrast to the white stones. Unfortunately though, time had taken its toll on the beauty that had once been and now most of the road was damaged with cracks and foliage growing between. One of the unicorn statues had lost a leg, the other its tail. They weren’t truly lost of course, they had fallen to the ground and destroyed part of the roadway beneath.

In front of the two statues were a set of poles, one on either side. The left pole held up the King’s flag displaying his sigil to all who entered through. Like the rest of the hoof built landscape around it, it was ripped and faded with the passage of time. The right pole had dropped its flag long ago and now the fabric was taken over by a briar bush. Thorns slowly tore up the flag allowing rodents and birds easy access to use it for nesting materials.

Up and up this road led before weaving back and forth up the mountain side so the path wouldn’t be too steep for travelers. A structure that looked like a wooden basket hung down from a high ledge far above that stuck out of the mountain like a sore hoof and attached to a massive tree at the bottom of the slope. Just on the other side of the wall were dozens of carts and wagons. They were all wrecked and broken, empty save for their deceased occupants and drivers. Long dead ponies lay scattered along the path as if they crushed each other while trying to get past the walls. The vast majority of them were unicorn and they were wearing some sort of formal outfits to show their high class status. Earth pony bones were latched to the carts, still bearing their slave collars or hoof cuff chains. Some of the bones had damages to them, a cracked skull to a blunt object or a sharp blade lodged between bones and some pierced through with bullet holes. There were adults and children, slaves and masters, civilians and King’s guard alike. No pony survived the tragedy that occured here so long ago.

He jumped down from the wall and onto one of the carts then down to the road. Instead of following its winding up the mountain, past the broken cottages with their black crystal fences and the dried up water well halfway up the slope, he walked straight ahead to the children’s playground. Just beyond was the massive tree with its ride up. Hoofing his way up the ladder he made it to the small platform attached to the trunk. There he found the lower pulley system and crank he needed to lower the wooden basket if it were at the top. Today, it was already on the lower platform and ready to ascend. He trotted into the basket while Thief poked her little head out to sniff the air.

“Going up.” he said to his passenger and began tugging on the ropes.

As they rose higher and higher into the air, they got a good view of the mountain side that led up to the city. Above them was a large wooden platform that connected the two mountain peaks with the larger one hosting the incomplete castle. Almost half of the structure between the rocky terrain had collapsed in a massive rock slide that had brought down a large portion of the forgotten metropolis above. Below was a heap of debris, old broken buildings, boulders and half the mountain side. The only thing that had survived the collapse was a single apple tree that latched itself to the side of the mountain as it fell. The previous residents had worked hard to secure the underside of the city with massive wooden beams and tried to create the grand city the King had ordered but their efforts were in vain as constant landslides impeded their construction, their crops would somehow always foul just before harvest and swarms of wood beetles refused to be exterminated.

It was when the caverns were excavated for resources that everypony called the mountain range cursed. Twenty-seven years ago, a few ponies grew violently ill, their coat fell off within days, nasty boils grew all over their bodies and their lungs filled with fluids. Within a week they either died of asphyxiation or organ failure. It wasn’t until a couple dozen ponies died that they realized the deadly plague came from the cavern. It had spread like wildfire through the town, the King brought his army in to force the citizens to stay in the city while new workers from Filly Delphia were sent in by trains to build the wall all the way around, sealing everypony within.

Once the great wall was completed, more orders were given and every pony within was exterminated. Even the guards still left inside were abandoned to die of the plague within the week. Unfortunately the containment hadn't held as they had thought and somepony got free. A small child slipping through a crack in the walls, a pegasus simply flying out or a unicorn teleporting, no pony knew for sure how. It didn’t matter though, what mattered was the lives of millions were being threatened with death and the kings were forced to take drastic measures to protect their citizens.

Curfews, limited medical services to preserve what doctors they had left and exterminating anyone showing any small signs they were sick were only a few of the steps taken. Massive holes were dug for the dead to be thrown into but they couldn’t dig fast enough not to mention the heeps of bodies decaying attracted all sorts of creatures to come lurking out of the woods for a free meal. Swarms of flies plagued the cities nearest the graves while rats, crows and condors came to feast on the carrion. The fleas hopped onto the rats and got free rides into the city, spreading the plague even faster. Eventually they resorted to burning the bodies, building soot mills in each city and having carts be pulled through town each day to transport the dead. It became illegal to house or hide the sick and if you were caught not turning them in you were exterminated alongside them as a precaution to preserve the healthy. The only hope the people had were the two inventive scientists the kings hired to find a cure.

This city was once proudly called The King’s Hoof but after it had been abandoned everypony dubbed it as Pestilence Peak. It was a lonely mountain now, isolated, shunned and cold. Silent as the wind with the only bit of life residing here almost thirty years later were wild dogs, raccoons, rats and the buckskin stallion.

The stallion and his companion reached the top of the lift, tied off the rope to hold the basket up and stepped out. He stepped off the wooden basket and onto an unkempt dirt road filled with potholes. Though quite a few buildings in this town were falling apart, there were still some here and there standing strong. Those that once housed ponies and still had intact doors had symbols and numbers painted on its face. A large circle with an X, splitting it into four sections. In each section were different numbers. The top spot showed how many total ponies lived in the house. The left numbered how many children were inside, the right had tally marks to count the sick leaving the bottom to tally the dead. Usually the dead slot was one short of the household number for obvious reasons.

As he made his way through the small city and towards the castle atop the mountain peak the only sound around was his hoofsteps. Soft as they were from the padded shoes he wore, they still echoed through the streets. There were no voices from other ponies, no music or sounds of coin exchange. No children were laughing as they chased each other through the buildings and no birds were singing of this place as they flew about. The only thing around that answered his hoofsteps were the shop signs that moved with the light breeze and creaked while sounds of window shutters groaned open and closed, upset that they were being disturbed.

Then there was a growl. The stallion quickly looked towards it as he readied his weapon. The growl escalated to the sounds of dogs attacking one another as one cried in pain. The pony moved around a building and the fight came into view. Three mangy dogs were ganging up on another who refused to defend itself. That or it knew it was not going to win and decided to let its fate be decided by the others. He couldn’t tell what they were fighting about but he quickly put his bow and arrow back before moving faster to make sure he wasn’t next on the hit list.

A few more minutes of trotting through the city later and he came to a small bridge that led over a dry canal. He walked over the rickety bridge and came upon his destination. It was halfway up the mountain side, not near as high up as the castle but with how elevated it was, one could see the entire town if at the top. The building was as large as it was tall. The bottom level, as most of the buildings in the town, was made of stones held together with soft lime mortar to glue them together. The remaining four floors were made of wood with the second and higher floors overhanging the first by about a foot. The belltower portion of the building was built to stand out farther than the rest of the structure to showcase the massive rounded stained glass window on the second floor. The bell tower itself was notably lacking a bell.

On the first floor, one side of the building had a large window so one could see inside. The actual entrance of the cathedral, however, was inaccessible with the news press building next to it collapsed in front and blocking the door as well as half of the badly cracked window. With the collapse of the church’s neighbor, part of the second and third floors had been damaged and the belltower was a bit crooked but still standing. Due to the destruction around, there was no way anyone could enter from the ground level. The wall sized window did not open and all the other windows on the sides of the building were tall but way too narrow for even a filly to squeeze through them.

The stallion trotted to the side of the building where the canal was and climbed down the rope ladder that had been tied to a couple of old fence posts. Once at the bottom, he came to a hole in the wall of the water way. Stone and brick had been blasted out from the inside of the church leaving a hole for him to enter through into the building’s basement.

Inside the room it was dark and slightly damp. Along one wall was a rack full of unopened wine bottles. In large rows filling the majority of the space were larger racks to hold oaken wine barrels that were still corked. He walked past the containers and to the back of the room where a set of stairs led up to the next floor. Under the stairs was a sort of office corner containing a desk, several old documents and a used up candle. The cobwebs that filled the room’s rafters showed its age and loneliness.

The ground floor looked a bit more inviting with the light of the sunshine filtering through the dusty windows. He stood on a stage only slightly taller than the floor. Behind him on the wall was a statue of a white alicorn doing battle with a monstrous black creature made of many different animals. The flags on either side of the statue were of the white alicorn standing tall while the darkness was below, subdued by the powerful being that dominated the banner. At the edge of the stage was a podium, a long table and several religious instruments used in past ceremonies. An old dusty tome was left open on the dais, forgotten after the last congregation. Beyond the stage were rows and rows of pews. Here and there were skeletons of single ponies or families who prayed in their last moments for peace from their pain and in the end, their god listened to their cries.

He trotted past the pews and toward the main entrance. Halfway through the long building the pews changed to foal desks and faced the opposite direction. At the other end was a large chalkboard and a teacher’s desk. Small bookshelves along the walls held many texts and history books for the students to use in their studies. To the left side of the teacher’s desk was a spiral staircase that led to the second floor of the building.

He trotted up the stairs and found himself in a room filled with cots and mattresses. The other end of the room was sectioned off for a large kitchen and a few tables to eat at. The cots had been shoved in a corner of the room while the mattresses looked to be violently torn apart, so much so that the only ones left to be able to use them were the rats that claimed them for their nests. It was on this level of the cathedral that Thief jumped off her ride to go say hi to her family.

The spiral staircase continued to the third floor of the building. All of the large desks on this floor had been shoved all around the sides leaving the center of the room vacant. Along one of the walls was a wardrobe containing ancient robes worn by the clergy ponies and their transitional deacons. On two of the desks books were stacked up high to collect dust as they waited to be opened. The others contained a large assortment of items such as stolen documents, journals, unframed paintings and unpolished jewelry. On four of the desks there were display cases filled with ornaments and trinkets that shined like the stars, glittering when the sunlight hit them just right and filling the room with the colors of their gemstones.

Hanging from the rafters of this room and framing a few of the walls were several pieces of silken linen, their designs completely mismatched from any aesthetic the room’s other decorations had to provide. Most of them were decorated in gemstones such as diamonds, rubies and emeralds. Some had golden thread stitching while others had magnificent embroidery that had most likely taken weeks of hoof stitching to get just so. His favorite of these silks was a mural of the Crystal Empire, the castle embroidered with fine thread and studded with black diamonds to compliment the white fire opals that topped the citadel.

The elegant scenery was hung above a desk singled out and placed next to the winding staircase by a slightly opened window. On top of its wooden surface were an assortment of tools used to clean and polish the treasure within the room. The drawers contained all the elements the thief would need to craft any of the arrows he carried within his quiver for his work. Above the desk was a fishing net. It hung low as a few empty quivers were tied to it to hold any extra supplies he had pre-made. Three grappling hooks, their ropes neatly tied up, were also hanging from the net from their metal claw.

Several empty picture frames were neatly stacked in a tower of sorts on the floor next to the desk while the ones that proudly presented their paintings were hung on any wall space they could find to occupy. All around the room, in between the picture frames, were at least two dozen wall hanging ring holders in the shape of unicorn horns, each bearing several elegant pieces. Delicate wire frames on stands in the middle of the room displayed the most brilliant of gemstones, too precious to sell to his fence. Every other wire frame was a display stand with a glass box top to protect the precious ancient artifacts within.

The buckskin moved to the work desk, pulled down his hood and removed his saddlebags. He sat in the stool before taking the contents out one by one. There were a few loose bits, a silver laced pen, a gold lighter, three coin purses, the ruby earrings and ring box, a half a bottle of whisky, the pocket portrait, the box of mysteries, a fancy looking porcelain teacup, a bond paper worth ten bits and the smaller saddlebags that once belonged to the very talkative guard, Canary Blues.

He unclipped his bow and quiver next, setting them on the desk beside the items. The coin purses and loose bits he stuffed all in one bag while he took the earrings, ring and the bond, walked over to the other side of the room and placed them in their respective piles to either be polished or wait to sell with the rest of the stack of bonds. The teacup he set next to the full coin purse and the pocket portrait he left on the desk while the pen went into a drawer full of other decoratively metal laced pens.

With all the items out of his bags, he stared at them and knew something was missing. Still torn about giving the filly the charm, he sighed and went to the mystery box to get his mind off of the lost prize. The box was painted bright red and accented in thin golden lines. Studded on the lid was a large sapphire with four small pearls around it. At the front of the box was a keyhole so he removed a couple of his lock picks from the leather bands around his canons and began to pick the lock. He was very gentle with it, going more by sound than by feel, hearing the soft clicks before sharp ones knowing the tumblers had set into place. After all four were in position the lock opened easily.

Inside the small box, dark gray velvet cotton lined the entirety of the inside which cradled seven shards of a blue gem. He pulled one out and looked at it curiously. It wasn’t sapphire, tanzanite or zircon which were the obvious blue gems it could have been. It definitely wasn’t a blue diamond as it had a sort of milky look to it rather than a clear one. They were obviously precious stones to have been kept in such an elegant box but he couldn’t figure out what they were. He examined them closer and noticed they seem to have been shards of something bigger. Two of the pieces even fit perfectly together like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces.

He placed the gem back into the case with the others and gave a yawn. He could figure out the mystery later. Maybe his fence knew something about the stones. Grabbing the full coin purse and the tea cup, he walked up the last set of spiral stairs to the fourth floor. Up here was a small attic room that hid away shelves of old scrolls covered in cobwebs. In every last bit of extra space on this floor there were large barrels filled to the brim with golden bits. As he stepped hoof in the room the floor gave a long groan, complaining of the weight it was forced to bare. The roof above was badly damaged with a large piece of metal protruding through the wood and a couple lengths of broken rope dangling down.

He dumped the coins into the barrels and admired his collection. To an average pony, this was a fortune. Enough to buy their own castle, land and many servants. This amount of bits would make anypony a high-class citizen. Someone labeled as posh or elegant who would wear fancy tuxedos with a top hat, cane and a monocle whose only goal in life was to talk gossip at fancy parties, mingling with other ponies of high standing.

It wasn’t enough. It was never going to be enough for the buck skinned thief. He had been stashing this collection for almost twenty years of his life and he still didn’t have what he needed.

He ran his hoof through one of the barrels letting the gold bits flow over his hoof, watching as they glittered from the light shining through the single small window in the room. Taking his hoof out of the mountain of money he sighed and his ears folded. He knew that even if he did one day get enough that no one would accept his wealth but he had to try, it was the only goal he had and he was determined to achieve it.

The buck turned to the ladder on the far side of the room and climbed up it. He had to push open a hatch and moved through it to reach the fifth and final story of the cathedral. This level had a short half wall on all four sides sort of like a wooden fence to keep ponies from falling off. On each of the corners was a thick wooden post that held the tall roof up. Small bits of soft moss hung down from the roof and clung to parts of the broken rafters. The mechanisms that once held the large bell were broken and damaged, ripped down with the bell when the old wood gave way to rot. The bell itself lay on the crushed floor of the tower, open side out to the West. Next to the bell was a small table that had two drawers. On the top of the end table was a sleeping lantern and a silver pocket watch slowly counting the seconds of the day.

He pulled the note he got from Winter out of his picket before he removed his gear, folding each piece of clothing neatly before placing them inside the drawers. His leather boots and mask he left next to the end table to be washed later. His buckskin coat shone some in the morning light as he looked to the city below. A crystal pony, king of all he saw. King of rubble and dirt, of cobwebs and wild dogs. He was without a crown and without proper subjects or ponies to till his lands. No ponies to guard his territory or to bow to his every whim. It wasn’t exactly what he wanted but it was something and it was his. Better than a slave collar he supposed.

He sat down on the small rug that hid the damaged floor and opened the note.

Hey Clout, it’s me. It’s been months, why not come and visit? At least let me know you’re alive. Your shipment has been here for you for a while now, getting kind of worried about you. I’ve got a new helper, can’t wait for you to meet her! I wish you would find a mare and settle down already.

I also wish you would find some other way for me to get notes to you, my customers are starting to think your rats are going to bring the blight into my shop. I’ve got a job for you, stinking journalist got their hooves on information that would get us into trouble and I think you should pay them a visit.

Oh, my brother also has a job for you too. Come see me soon!

-- M.

Clout’s eyes lingered on the last line of the letter and seethed. Thief brought him out of his anger by jumping onto his shoulder.

“Oh, hi.” he said to her.

The little black rat twitched her whiskers at him.

“We gotta go see Merchant tomorrow and tell him off about taking any jobs from Flight. He should know better than to tell that ass I would ever take a job from him.” he informed his furry friend with a scowl.

She jumped off of him and ran into the bell.

“Bedtime already?” he asked with a chuckle, “Okay, one second.”

On the other side of the bell was a metal wire basket loosely woven together. He lit the burnt pieces of wood within and when the fire was decent enough, he tossed the letter into it. The stallion watched it burn completely before turning to the bell. He pushed aside the old raggedy sheet that hung over the entrance and to the straw mess inside. The materials within resembled a nest more than a bed being a mixture of pieces of cloth, cotton and straw.

Clout curled up on his makeshift bed, waited for Thief to settle into her spot next to him before falling asleep for the day.

Author's Note

New:
32 pages
14,036 words

Old:
9 pages
4828 words

Characters:
All of these characters belong to me and they can (mostly) all be found on my Toyhouse:
https://toyhou.se/~world/47151.equestria-broken/characters

Clout Upshot
Thief
Hat Trick
Wulf Song
Short Stack
Possum
Dusty Moose
Twisler
Roo
Angus
Canary Blues
Tin Can
Silver Flurry
Garrett Strata (Only mentioned)
Dodge Well (Only mentioned)
Beanstalk (Only mentioned)

I am a terrible editor so if you see any errors please let me know.

I'm going to take a quick break before starting to write / redo Chapter 3 as I have a YCH I really want to draw as well as a couple other things. President's week is here so I have this week off of one of my two jobs (I'm a custodian for a school) so I'll have a bit of extra time to work on projects and such.

Yes, I did steal part of old Chapter 3 and stuffed it here because I thought it would fit better with the new rewrite and besides, I have other stuff to throw in new Chapter 3.

Equestria Broken - Three : The Commission

Three : The Commission

“We can't see past our own sad stories and wonder what we're missing, we can't see past our own sad stories and forget how to listen” Patrick Park - Here We Are

Clout sat atop the fallen bell in the clouded evening dusk, observing the blue shard in his hoof. The last of the sun’s rays glistened off of the gem piece just as they had shown against his own hide. He turned it this way and that, observing the way it sparkled and wondered what it was about the stones that felt so familiar to him. He couldn’t place it precisely but he had a feeling that it was somehow important, not just to him but too… Well, he wasn’t sure.

He twitched an ear and hopped off the bell, the old floor beneath giving a creak. The stallion placed the shard back into the box on the end table before walking to the railing where he had left his boots and mask to dry. It had only been a half hour or so since he went to the nearby river to clean his gear and they weren’t nearly dry yet. It didn’t help that the cool night air and approaching rainstorm did nothing to help dry his clothes.

Leaving the items, Clout made his way down the rope ladder and trotted to the lower floors. As he exited the cathedral, he felt Thief climb up his back leg and make her way to his head.

“Hey Thief,” he said with a smile as he tried to look up at her, “I’m gunna go see if the apples are ripe yet. I’m sure they are with all the work it took to keep those pesky beetles away.”

The rodent twitched her whiskers at him as she sniffed the air.

He cantered down the slope of the mountain side and passed the empty buildings of his city. As the stallion moved around a vacant house, he was almost hit by a falling piece of pottery. Looking up, he saw three raccoons making their way into the cottage. Off in the distance he could hear cats yowling at each other and hissing. The songs of the wild dogs began to bellow low and long. Clout gave a thin smile. Though he hated the mongrels, he loved the music they made.

He heard another familiar sound, the noise of claws on stone. It was a bit off as the creature sounded like it was limping. He slowed his pace a bit as he rounded a corner to see what made the uneven gate. It was a black dog, big and wounded. It whined as it hobbled along. There were several fresh marks on its face and limbs, one eye was mauled so bad it was missing from the socket and half of its right ear was missing. The large wound on the back of its neck still bled some and dripped to the ground. This dog was the same one that had been attacked by the others earlier that morning.

The crystal pony folded his ears and moved closer to the building he was hiding behind. He watched as the dog wobbled before collapsing onto the ground, giving a yelp in pain. It shook and whined as it tried to lick its wounded leg but every movement sent a shockwave of new pain through its battered body.

He watched the beast for a moment more before looking around. There were no other dogs in the vicinity, no vultures and no other creatures waiting for the animal to die. The mutt was still struggling on the ground with its wounds as Clout slowly walked forward. This road was a bit narrower than he would have liked but he needed to use it to get to his destination. He tried to give the wounded animal a wide berth but when he stepped close, the dog looked up at him. It folded its ears and began to growl.

The pony stared down at the hound.

“Hang tight girl,” Clout whispered to his passenger.

The frightened animal lashed out at him. As the dog’s teeth came near, he lept passed, kicking it in the jaw with his hind hooves. The mutt yelped once more, tried to stand and stumbled back before falling again. Its cries of pain echoed through the darkened streets.

The crystal pony galloped away for a bit before slowing his pace and looking back. He knew that with the way it moved earlier, even adrenalyn wouldn’t be able to serve the animal enough for it to keep pace with the pony.

“Stupid dog.” he said with a harumph, “You okay girl?”

The rat atop his head pulled at some of his mane.

“Oow! Rude.” Clout’s ears folded.

She bit his ear.

“Hey, stop that! What is your problem?” he asked her as he shook his head a bit.

Thief moved to his back and looked behind him and to the dog.

Clout looked to his friend and back to the dog then back to her. “No, no way. Not going to happen.” he said folding his ears once again, “The only help I would give that stupid mutt would be an arrow but I left those in the tower.”

Thief ran back to the top of his head before running down to his withers once more.

“I said no, end of discussion.”

The thief trotted along, ignoring his companion’s silent complaints as he made his way to the edge of the town platform. Here were only bits and pieces of houses still clinging to their foundation. Sharp pieces of broken wood jutted out from the end of the missing floor. As he got close to the limit of the belvedere, the stones of the road beneath him cracked and let a few pebbles loose to fall down the mountain side.

Clout peered over the edge and looked along the craggy rock face. Among all the debris from the buildings and boulders was a lone tree. It was small but full of life with bright red apples hanging from its branches. The stallion cracked a smile.

“Alright Thief, you need to stay here. Don’t want you falling off and getting hurt. I’ll be right back. Looks like we’ve finally got some fresh food for once.” he said with a grin.

Thief jumped off her friend and watched him take a shoulder bag which had been left hanging on a lone wooden pole. He slipped the strap over his head and walked back to the edge. A wooden board creaked and gave way, breaking off of the rest of the platform and falling down to join the large pile of debris far below.

“I really need to figure out some way to fix the supports…” the crystal pony mumbled to himself, glad he only lost one footing instead of all four.

He grabbed a rope that was hanging on a stone fence and tied it around his waist and flank. The rope had been wrapped around a large rock jutting out of the platform farther up and the end of its length was dangling over the edge. The buck picked up the cordage that dangled over the side and tugged the slack out of the end tied to himself before he jumped down.

Holding onto the length and using the rock as a pulley system, Clout slowly made his way down the rough slope until he reached the tree. It had taken him many years to bring the little tree back to life but his hard work had finally paid off. There weren't many apples and they weren’t very big but they were ripe. He pulled every apple off the tree that was within reach and stuffed them into his bag before climbing back up. Once he was back on the platform he untied the rope.

Thief bounded up to her friend as he opened the satchel.

“It’s not much but at least it’s something, right?” Clout said to her as he showed the rat his harvest.

When she tried to get closer for a nibble he closed it.

“I know they smell good but you have to wait until we get home.” he told her.

The rodent wiggled her whiskers at him before hopping onto her ride.

Clout began trotting back to the cathedral, unable to stop the smile on his face at the thought of fresh food. When he knew he was coming close to the dog he slowed his pace and peered around the corner. It was still there, lying on the ground and breathing heavily. The crystal pony’s ears folded back as he crept out, the grin finally leaving his muzzle. He watched every movement the animal made as he slowly made his way passed. When the dog twitched an ear and let out a whine, the stallion flinched and took a step back.

After a few uneventful seconds of raspy breathing from the canine, he continued around the animal. When the dog made eye contact with him, his body tensed, ready to defend himself. The mongrel, however, cowered and tried to move away, shaking in fear. Clout stood up straighter and narrowed his eyes. It appeared he learned not to attack the pony.

The stallion gave a snort, turned and trotted off while his passenger looked back until it was out of site.

“I’m not helping it so don’t even start.” he told her.

The rat began chewing on the satchel strap.

“Hey!” he reared a few inches off the ground to get her attention, “Excuse me but, you know better than to chew on my equipment.”

The young rat twitched her whiskers at him again.

“I said no, you’re not changing my mind.”

She went back to the strap.

“And if you continue to chew on that you’re not getting any!” he scolded as he stomped a hoof on the cobblestones.

Thief jumped up to the top of his head.

“Thank you.” he said as he continued on his way, “What is your problem today anyway? Think I’ll leave you home if you keep up this attitude.”

Clout made his way through the cathedral and up to the second floor. Trotting passed the conglomerate of mattresses, he went to the kitchen, took a small knife out of a drawer and walked to one of the several wooden benches in the mess hall. He took the shoulder bag off and set it along with the knife on the table. Thief jumped off her ride while he went to grab a bowl. He turned back to the table to see a rat tail vanishing into the bag and two more rats jumping onto the table.

He sighed. “Hey, could you just wait a second? You’ll get some, just have some patience.” the buckskin said as he set the dish down and pulled Thief out of the sack along with an apple. After a brief game of tug-of-war, the fruit was released from the rodent’s grasp. “I have to cut them up first. There’s only seven apples and two dozen of you. And me. Not to mention they’re tiny apples.” He set Thief back down on the table.

Clout sat down at the bench, turned a knob on a large wooden box next to the table and began cutting the fruit.

The old radio crackled and struggled before coming to life with a soft melody. As it played, the stallion began to cut the apples, putting any seeds he found within into the bowl. He popped a square into his mouth and gave some pieces to his small friends.

“Doesn’t Star just have the sweetest voice?” Smile Cat’s voice came through the speaker, “She was definitely born to sing! Grateful her master saw her for the beautiful gem she is, that’s for sure!” there was a rustling of papers before he continued, “Me-ow we certainly have a lot of news tonight. Well, I suppose we’ll start off with the hoity-toity business of the upper class that none of us commoners care about so we can get it out of the way.”

Clout chuckled as he watched a younger rat, Pumpkin Pie, steal from her mother, Cherry, and then had her prize immediately stolen by her sister, Little Rascal.

“First up, the Blues are hosting a birthday party tonight for their youngest daughter who is turning three and none of you are invited! Wonderful, right? I honestly have no idea why they even wanted that in the news. Well baby Blue, I would just like to say I hope your cake is as sweet as your mommy is to my herd. Actually, no, I don’t. That’s not a very nice thing to say to a child. Sorry little one.” The host moved away from the microphone and mumbled something about frustrating attention-seeking no-good upscale unicorns.

“Next on my list we got something on Canterlot’s auctioneer as he was robbed today. It was a group of thieves between four and six ponies. How can it not be a set number you ask? Maybe some of the group decided to quit in the middle of the heist. That or none of the guards can agree on how many they saw. Not very good guards if you ask me. Two of the assailants were killed when they got into a fire fight with the guards. One guard was killed while three were injured due to the explosion of Count Markus’ electricity generator. Unfortunately for Mr. I’m-So-Important, whatever they went in to steal was not recovered in the battle. They refused to give a description so I don’t know what they want us to do about it. Oh, he does want us to keep an eye out for his missing slaves. Apparently in the chaos a couple got free and we just care so much about his financial losses, don’t we my herd?

“I may or may not have received descriptions of his lost slaves but there was a small fire incident at the studio here a bit ago. I cannot say whether or not any such description papers may or may not have been involved in such a terrible incident though. I can, however, say that I currently cannot locate any such papers with supposed slave descriptions on them so unfortunately I am unable to give any information on said missing slaves.”

Clout scoffed.

“In all honesty though,” Smile Cat continued with a chuckle, “I don’t think anyone really wants to make a trip to Canterlot anyways with the massive sewage back up. Found out rebels were involved in the matter as about a dozen of them were caught and arrested earlier today destroying and blocking sewage lines under the city. I have no idea what the purpose of stinking up the town is but, guys, I really hope you’ve thought ahead because that stuff has got to go somewhere and if it contaminates the mountain’s fresh water, Estuary Slums is pretty much doomed.”

Smile Cat took a moment to turn a page of his notes. “Okay, now on to something we might care a little more about. Beach Side Road between Fillydelphia and Baltimare has had an increase in toll price. King Sombra has not commented on this but Discord had said, ‘It’s for your own good.’ What that means… I have no idea! Your guess is as good as mine.”

A cream colored rat tipped the bowl of seeds over and began to grab as many as could fit in his mouth.

“Hey!” Clout scolded but as he reached for the rat, the fat ball of fluff quickly scurried away and jumped down off the table. “Damit Stormy, I needed those!” He glared at the rat as his tail vanished with the rest of him and the seeds into some mattress remains. The stallion sighed and put the remaining three back into the dish.

“Rumors have it that the ruler of San Palomino plans to speak with our kings soon and arrange to merge their lands into Equestrian territory. I don’t think that will benefit any of us but if the rumors are true and it does happen, stallions would probably finally be able to visit without immediately being put into chains. Would be interesting to see if their pyramid is solid gold like the rumors say and not just a giant sand dune like the maps show. All the privileged ladies over there might be knocked down a peg having males in charge. We’ll see what happens though.”

As the buck popped another square of fruit into his mouth he saw Thief go for the seeds. He put his hoof on top to cover it and gave her another piece of apple.

“Last one. We’re almost out and you can’t have the seeds.” he told her, “We want more trees to get more apples, right? Can’t grow more If we don’t have any seeds.”

The disk jockey took a moment for a drink, “I know that this is quite a lot my herd, but bear with me as there’s just two more stories to go and then it’s back to the normal broadcast.

“A couple of griffon doctors were arrested today and a mental facility was shut down by Discord on the island of Trottingham. Apparently they were experimenting on patients by trying a new procedure that they claim would calm more… unruly patients. I have no information on what this supposed medical procedure is, or, uh, was now. But if it had killed several patients and turned others into walking vegetables, I would be concerned too.

“And, last but not least, King Sombra is going to make an appearance in Los Pegasus next week. With the increase of the plague’s numbers he has ordered several new Soot Mills to be opened. Soon as he makes his final inspections in a few days, Los Pegasus will have their streets be a little cleaner with a new place to burn the bodies. Then again they’re just redistributing the bodies as ash and spreading it all over the city so, I guess it’s cleaner by removing the sickness but it certainly doesn’t remove the smell. Or the disgustingness because we’re all breathing in our dead loved ones. Hopefully some pegasus will figure out a way to freshen up our air a bit. Uh, sorry for the imagery. That was even grosser than the sewage problem.

“Anyway, we made it! That was quite a lot of talking so I’m going to turn to every foal’s favorite segment, Spades! Will Detective Shadow Spade finally catch the jewel thief? We’ll find out thanks to our favorite sponsors: 2B Pharmaceuticals, thanks for the tonic boys! We love ya!”

The radio show began to play with a short theme song followed by different actors voicing each character. Clout dismounted the bench and turned off the radio. He wiped the knife clean with a rag and put it away before taking the bowl in his teeth. Walking up to the third floor, he set the dish on the table by the window in hopes tomorrow’s sun would dry them out so he could plant them in the next few days.

Looking to the deep shades of purple and red along the horizon, he could see the looming, angry clouds of a thunderstorm quickly approaching in the distance thanks to the winds. The crystal pony could never tell if it was actual rain clouds or if one of the sky cities roamed around the land to try and wash away all the grime from the ponies below. From what Clout had seen, there was quite a lot of filth that could use a good cleaning in more than one sense of the word. With that, he finally decided it was time he should probably head out. The crystal pony made his way back up to his bell, put all of his still damp gear back on, put the mystery shards into his bags and descended down the stairs. As he passed the second floor, he felt the usual sensation of his passenger hitching a ride to join in on whatever mischievousness they were to have tonight.

When they were outside, the rat climbed around his neck to hide inside Clout’s hood. A low rumble above his head made him look up at the dark clouds that slowly began to release a thin, mist-like rain down upon them. He pulled his hood down farther over his face and trotted onward. As the stallion made his way through the near-empty city he watched any critters he passed scurry on home to protect themselves from the oncoming storm. When the two reached the basket elevator, they descended to the mountain town’s entrance, climbed the quarantine wall and made their way to The Everfree.

Almost two hours later they found themselves in the mercenary town. The booths in the bazaar were already closed and packed up for the night but the town was packed with people who didn’t mind the rain. Several small groups were having heated discussions with each other while a mare stood on top of a vacant shop stand yelling passerbys. Her crowd grew with each sentence she shouted. She was a green and sky blue painted earth pony and she seemed very angry.

“-And we’re just going to put up with it? I think not! I don’t care what the Eight have to say, they have no right! If the tom of bedlam really want to peek over our fence and see what we’re rooton’, I say we go pay them a visit and show them!” she squawked, throwing a hoof in the air.

“Fast Trick, get off of there before you hurt yourself.” another mare yelled back at her.

“No!” she whinnied with a look of insult on her face as some of the crowd laughed, “Stuff it Quick Step! You wouldn’t be so quick to ignore their forced office if you had your whole shipment made too!” She pointed a hoof at an orange unicorn with a red and black striped mane hauling an empty waggon cage. “And I’m not the only one they’ve ‘confiscated’ stuffing from!”

The passing unicorn gave Trick a flat look, “Bring me into another of your arguments again and I will give you a broken hoof for violating the code Trick.”

“Oh come on, the code isn’t really law, it’s more of a guideline. Besides, aren’t you pissed you had over a dozen good slaves made?” she responded over the noise of the crowd.

“Oh, I am.” he assured her, “But I’m going to keep my opinions to myself if the Eight tell us we can’t do anything about it.” He glared at her and snorted before trotting away.

The mare glared back in shock. “Friendly Fire, get back here, I’m not done yelling at you!” She took a throwing knife out of her satchel but was interrupted before she could throw it at him.

“Get off my booth!” a mare in the crowd yelled before tackling the painted pony.

The two of them fell to the ground while the crowd cheered them on. Whooping and hollering rose up while the two mares fought in the thickening mud. Some pony began to yell over the crowd about taking bets while others responded by raising money in the air and shouting back.

A slate blue stallion climbed atop the now vacant wooden structure. As Clout noticed a young colt slipping in and out of the distracted crowd to steal coin purses while his two friends hid behind another booth not too far away.

“The Eight have made their decision but do they really care what happens?” the blue stallion asked the crowd, “The only thing they care about, we all care about. Personal profit. They get a bigger score holding back. For us, the bigger score is to act. If we want the rebels to know how smart it is to deny us our plunder, we must show them!” His hoofstomp cracked the wooden counter.

Another voice rose up, “But the Eight’s words are law, we can’t just go against their commands.”

“The Eight’s plans have always profited everyone, not just themselves.” a griffon shouted.

“The code is law!”

“But they stole our yellow tin!”

“We have to give them a shoulder tap!”

“It is against the code!”

“We should give them the oaken towel!”

“The Eight have laid down the law, we can’t!”

As the crowd rose up in arguments again, the stallion on the makeshift stage stomped his hoof several times like a judge with a gavel. When the crowd settled some he continued, “If any creature among us wishes to retaliate, prepare yourselves and meet by the Northwestern entrance at seven clean hooves. They will learn what it means to follow the curbing law of the Rouge Rogues!”

Some of the crowd cheered while others continued to argue. Clout decided he had heard enough and moved on.

He continued along the old wooden path and passed a hoof full of ponies, griffons and minotaurs trotting away from the mass of creatures. Several went into a general store while half a dozen tried to squeeze themselves into a blacksmith at the same time. Others entered the taverns to make sure they weren’t sober going into battle and a couple pegasi were going into a large building called The Guild.

A mare shoved the two stallions out of the building roughly. “We ain’t tellin’ jokes ‘ere, go someways else!” she growled at them before slamming the door shut in their face.

The charcoal gray stallion looked to his cream colored companion. “Well that was rude, how are we going to find him now?” he asked as he looked to The Guild’s locked door.

As the crystal pony passed the building he made a left turn. Beyond the center row of wooden shops and houses, several tents were set up for those who didn’t have a house of their own. Lanterns were lit by many of the small shelters as they were preparing themselves for battle, bed or mischief.

At the end of the boardwalk was a strange looking structure made of hundreds of trees that had been bent, twisted and broken. With how tangled the mass was, it would be very difficult to tell which branches belonged to which tree as they all looked more like roots, growing down instead of up. The trunks of the trees all gathered together at the top of the structure to let their knot of leaves fight for the sunshine.

Looking at it from a distance, the miniature forest within a forest made the shape of a pony head. Somepony had put two lanterns half way up it to look like eyes and cut back part of the branches as a mouth. To keep the rain and cold outside there was a black sheet to cover the entrance that was dotted with beads. Just outside was a small faded sign that read ‘Merchant’s Merchandise’.

As Clout trotted closer he could hear two ponies arguing inside because, of course, there just wasn’t enough ponies bickering today. He put his hoof on the curtain and pushed it aside, the many multi-colored beads sparkling in the surrounding fire light. Before he was able to step hoof into the shop, a little filly popped her head out. She had a rainbow colored mane that was braided, her coat was red and she was glaring at the stranger who stood in front of the entryway.

“Piss off asshole!” the filly said angrily at the stallion for no particular reason.

Clout put his hoof down, stood in place and stared at her, unsure how to react to the foul mouthed child who looked about a year shy of getting her cutiemark. He finally decided to just walk around her.

“Who said you could go in huh? You want me to kick your ass?” she asked angrily as she came out from behind the curtain. The thief backed up as she violated his personal bubble to poke a tiny hoof at his chest threateningly. The rest of her small frame was the same red as her face, including her tail. She had a lighter colored belly and tip of her fox-like tail. The strangest thing about her was her front hooves were not hooves but paws.

Clout was unamused, cold and wet. He gave a sigh, “Look, I just came to—“ he started but was quickly interrupted by the filly yet again.

“I said beat it!” she growled, “You want me to rip your balls off?” She took another bold step towards the stallion causing him to step back some more.

The crystal stallion rolled his eyes. This filly obviously wasn’t backing down so he decided to go around to the back entrance. He trotted off the deck and around to the back of the shop.

“Yeah, you better beat it!” the filly shouted at him, waving her little hoof in the air.

As he got closer to the back door, he could hear the voices clearer and decided to see what they were talking about before butting in on their conversation.

“--and I lost two good ponies! You owe me him!” one voice growled.

“I owe you nothing. Your venture was a non-contracted, personal visit to the neighbors. Any non-contracted rooton’ is not covered under Rogue code. There is nothing to reimburse.” a second voice said.

“Rose was long tongued about a calle’d pony with his description in the Muck and Buck when Snapdragon and Hoof Shine were in office, I know it was him!”

The second voice sighed. “Look Cracker Jack, you don’t have a smoking gun that he even did anything and if you did, I wouldn’t doubt it would be confect. Regardless, I still wouldn’t be able to enforce any type of pulling, cramp word or reimbursement. There is no clause in the code against someone getting a quota before you if it is not part of a contract. Personal ventures reap personal boredom and dropping of a score. This is your problem to solve, not mine.”

“Fine, I’ll get my stuffing out of his hide.” Cracker Jack growled.

“You know you can’t do that. Everyone within Rouge Rogue territory is protected, guild member or not. You go after him and there will be consequences.”

“Not if I mark him for a three legged mare!”

“Ugh, would you just go! I have bigger problems on my hooves to deal with than you thinking you’re above the code!” the second pony shouted.

“Oh, you mean like that mass of creatures heading out just now to click the rebels?” Clout asked as he walked in through the back door of the shop.

The shopkeeper turned around as Cracker Jack glared at the intruder.

Cracker Jack was a cream colored earth pony stallion with three dark colored socks and marking over his left eye like an eye patch. A large jagged scar marked his face over the same eye and he had a short red mane slicked back with grease. Like quite a few ponies who ran into the wrong end of the month of Chaos, his hind legs and tail were turned into that of a large cat, his thick tail swayed back and forth in anger. His ears were flat back as he glared at Clout with his emerald green eyes.

The second pony was light purple with a vibrant rainbow mane. He stared at the buckskin in surprise. Like the angry stallion behind him, his back end was that of a cat’s but his tail was shorter and more fluffy.

“Clout?” the shopkeeper said.

Cracker Jack leapt over the counter and tackled the crystal pony, both of them crashing into a wall of merchandise. Thief was thrown off of her ride in the battle and the two stallions struggled with each other, Clout trying to defend himself while Jack tried to pummel his enemy into the ground.

The little red filly ran over from the door to see what the new comotion was all about. “Hey! Knock it off!” she said as she ran to join in on the brawl.

“Guys, not in my shop!” the shopkeeper yelled as he bit down on the long tail of Cracker Jack and tugged him off of Clout.

The buck skinned stallion kicked his assailant with his rear hooves, sending him into the air. As soon as the cream pony fell off of him, the little red filly jumped on top of the thief and began to beat on him as hard as she could. Clout raised a leg in defense for a moment before shoving her away, standing back up and dusting himself off. The filly growled, gave a war cry and ran at him, ready to tear him apart with her teeth. He held a hoof out and caught her by her forehead, holding her at foreleg’s length. She struggled and yelled but was no match for the strength of the adult pony’s single leg.

“How dare you! He is mine to use up and you deny me of my right?!” Cracker Jack yelled at the shopkeeper as he stood up, the wreckage of a shelf and it’s contents falling off of him.

“It is not your right to do anything, especially not in my shop, Jack.” he scolded, “I told you the last time this happened, if Clout was the one who got to your stuffing before you did, he did nothing wrong. Maybe next time don’t have your goons flag wave jokingly or make sure your rooton’ is under contract!” He stomped a hoof in frustration. “Now get out, I’m no longer telling jokes for you!” he ordered, pointing a hoof at the exit.

The stallion grit his teeth and growled, the end of his tail twitching as he glared. “Fine. We’re not done with this though, mark my words we’re not done. I’m tired of this game crystal pony, you’d better watch your back.” Jack said to Clout before turning and walking out the shop exit.

The two watched him leave and the shopkeeper sighed. He turned to the thief, “Seriously Clout, why. I have enough trouble on my hooves and you do this, to him. Why him of all ponies.” He rubbed his brow with a hoof.

Clout gave a shrug. “He just makes it too easy I suppose. Not a very smart gang leader to let his ponies have such a long leash.” he said with a smirk.

The purple stallion gave him a flat look.

“What? Eventually he’ll smarten up.”

The shopkeeper’s ears dropped. “And in the meantime he complains to me about what you do to screw up his signals. The Eight aren’t foalsitters ya know.” he scolded, giving Clout a glare.

The crystal pony chuckled, “How else am I supposed to make your day more interesting when I’m not here?”

The purple buck’s expression softened and he gave a small grin, “It’s good to see you Clout.” He walked closer and put a hoof on the buckskin’s shoulder.

“Good to see you too Merchant.” Clout replied with a smile “So, uh, would you mind?” he asked as he looked down to the still struggling filly.

Merchant looked to the angry filly and smiled. “Crimson, you can stop now. This is daddy’s friend, we’re always telling a joke for him.”

The filly ignored him and continued her relentless attack on the intruder, growling curses at him for his defenses and trying to bite his leg.

The purple pony picked the filly up who whinnied in protest. “Come now, stop that. Clout, this is Crimson Kit. Crimson, this is Clout Upshot. He’s your big brother.”

The crystal pony gave his friend a flat look.

“Okay, not blood related but he is family.” Merchant amended.

The filly glared daggers at the buckskin, “You are trespassing on private property, you interrupted a business meeting, you’re dripping water everywhere, you are not welcome here! Get the fuck out!” she yelled.

“Well,” Clout nickered, “best help you have had for the shop in years.”

“Yeah, I know,” Merchant sighed, “No better than you were and look how you turned out.” He set the filly on the ground and she pouted up at her father.

“Don’t ignore me! He needs to leave!” she pointed a hoof at the thief.

“Enough of that silly filly.” he put a hoof on her head and ruffled her mane, “You run along now and play with your toys.”

Crimson glared at the two stallions before trotting away, her head held low in defeat.

“I didn’t think any mare would ever let an old buck like yourself help them procreate.” Clout teased as he watched the filly walk behind the counter.

“Watch it, you.” Merchant said as he lightly hoofed the younger stallion on the head.

He chuckled, “So when did this happen anyways? I’ve only been gone a little over five months and she’s what, five years old?”

Merchant chuckled, “It’s not as if I haven’t been around some. Just the first mare to leave one on my doorstep.” he rubbed the back of his neck with a hoof, “You remember Tinder Box, right?”

Clout shuddered, “Stop, just, stop. How, with the scariest mare ever.” He saw Merchant give a smug grin, “Please don’t show and tell.” he quickly changed subjects, “So, when did you get the paws?” Clout gestured to his friend’s non-pony parts.

He looked back at himself. “Oh, these,” the purple stallion said, “couple months ago. Darn chaos bubbles were all over the place in Vanhoover when I had to attend an Eight nubbing ken.”

“Vanhoover? I thought all the Eight’s flag waving was held at The Guild?”

“Ah, well, official business. Sorry, can’t sing about it.” Merchant replied, waving a hoof in the air.

“Whatever,” Clout said, “So, what’s this about a game?”

“You got my message then, good.” he said as he walked behind the counter and to the fallen gun rack. The stallion picked up the broken pieces and began to fix the mess as he continued, “I have one and Flight has one for you. Through my hole in need of plugging I have been cackled to that there is a buck by the name of Ink Well. He’s got a fat mare’s rat on me and I’m needing anything he has to be smoothed out.”

“Why’s that so important, everyone here knows you’re an uncle.” the crystal stallion walked over to help.

“It’s not just that, he’s a reporter. He writes for the Weekly Gallop newspaper and that’s not good for business because almost everypony in Equestria reads it. I don’t know where he lives but I’ve heard he’s a zebra with wings or… something like that, so hopefully that’s enough peaches for you to find him. If everypony you and everyone else borrows from finds out who is switching their quota, things are really going to go sour for me.” he said as he put the last gun on the counter.

“You know, he’ll still have his word against yours.” Clout pointed out.

“Well, yes. But so long as he doesn’t have any proof, no pony will care. They have taller bucks to worry about than to storm into a mercenary town and break down my door for their lost fancy booze if they’re not even positive that I have it.” he looked to the entrance of his shop, “Uh, rip down my curtain.” he amended, “If they have proof, they will be more willing to hire pigs to protect them and force their way in but, without it…”

“Yeah, I got it.” Clout said. He looked around the shop for his tiny furry friend and saw her with Crimson, the filly playing a game of chase with the rodent. “By the way, I wasn’t kidding when I said there was a mob going after the Ponyville rebels.”

Merchant walked out to the other broken shelf. “Yeah, I just figured they would sort it out on their own. Half the ponies want to get their stuffing back, the other half follow the rules to a T so, it’ll even itself out.”

“You sure about that?” Clout asked, “Fast Trick started it and once she was kicked off her soap box Genesis finished getting them all riled up.”

“Fast Trick is a milch cow, she’s nothing to worry about.” he said as he gathered the artifacts, old tomes and other odds and ends before he set them neatly on the counter one by one, “Genesis on the other hoof…” He stopped cleaning for a moment and looked to his friend, “Maybe I should go give him some stripes. Maybe a day or two in the box will cool his head.” Merchant scratched the back of his head with a hoof and let out an exasperated sigh, “Then again I’m not that strong of a pony and he’s all muscle.”

“It’s up to you, boss. You’ll have ponies to help if you command it.” the younger buck said with a grin.

Merchant waved a hoof, “Even after all these years I can’t get used to being in charge.” he looked to the damaged shelf. “I’ll figure it out.” he said with another sigh, “Well, you’d best get to talking to Flight about the game he wants you to play before it gets too clean.”

Clout’s ears folded and he glared at the purple stallion. “No.” he said.

“Come on Clout, you can’t still be mad at him, it’s been more than twenty years!”

“I don’t see clients Merch and I certainly don’t see him of all ponies. You know this.” he retorted as he swished his tail.

“And you know he’s changed, he’s not gull enough to do it again and--”

“Betrayal is in his name!” the crystal pony interrupted, “Flight Risk. It is a boredom to work with him and I don’t do boredoms that big. I’m not doing it!” He stomped his hoof for emphasis.

“Stop being such a foal.” the older pony said, “If you would let me finish before starting your tantrums you would have had the fact that this game is to save some fillies from being sent to the workhouses.”

Clout held his glare firmly at his foster father.

“Look, if you won’t do it for me or the fillies, do it for the yellow tin. He’s paying well.”

The buckskin’s glare broke as he looked away. “Fine.” he said as he gave in, “But if something happens I’m going to give him a broken hoof. I don’t trust him and neither should you. He's not a cull!”

Merchant chuckled. “He’s my brother. It’s kind of difficult to not trust family.”

“Whatever.” Clout muttered.

“I think he’s over at Doc Maggot’s so when we’re done here, try and catch him before he leaves.”

The younger buck raised an eyebrow.

Merchant sighed, “I know but, Doctor Maggot doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with stringing up addicts. He’s my older brother and I can’t make his life choices for him.”

Clout rolled his eyes and changed the subject again, “Hey, I wanted to ask you about something I found.” he took the small box of gem shards out of his saddlebag and opened it to show his friend, “Do you have any clue what these are?”

The purple stallion looked curiously at the small stones. He picked one up and looked closely at it turning it this way and that. “I have no idea.” the buck finally said after a couple minutes of silence, “If you let me hold onto them I can ask around for you. Where did you find them?”

“In Count Markus’ slave barn. I liberated them from the future of being in Jack’s greasy hooves,” the thief said with a sly grin, “Just keep them under the rug, I’ll be wanting them back.”

Merchant rolled his eyes. “Alright, I’ll keep these in the safe in your room.”

“Oh you finally found it did you? Took you long enough, did you figure out the combination?”

“Yes. I’m not a box-buck but it was easy enough getting it to tell me a joke on the first one I tried. And, well, sometimes it’s frustratingly hard to find something when it’s in plain sight.” the older stallion said with a swish of his tail.

“Maybe your eyes are going with your age.” Clout teased.

“Watch it, second strike with the age.” Merchant playfully warned.

Clout chuckled as he turned away and walked towards a pile of cloaks, “You said my package was here?”

“Oh! I forgot about that.” Merchant said, “Wait right here, I’ll go get it while I put these away.” The buck trotted back behind the counter, lifted a hatch and trotted down a set of stairs.

As he waited, the crystal stallion looked around the shop. Along the walls were a few mismatched lanterns to brighten up the room. The air was warm with the scent of burning pine from a fireplace behind the counter that he and Cracker Jack were very lucky not to have crashed into. The walls were lined with shelves and bookcases filled with all assortments of ancient artifacts, rare books and magical scrolls. There were a couple of aisles in the middle of the room with boxes of arrows, bullets, rope, plastic tarps and several cases of hoof held weapons locked in glass boxes. Behind the counter on either side of the fireplace were gun racks filled with all assortments of firearms and bows, one of them shattered to pieces from the fight. Under the counter protected by more glass were several smaller guns and boxes of grenades.

The shop was set up as it always was. It was one of the few constants he knew of. No matter how long he was away, no matter how the country or its people changed, Merchant and his shop wouldn’t. It was something he could always count on.

He smiled at the thought. Clout’s eyes moved back to his companion. She was still with the young filly. Crimson was sitting behind the counter by the fireplace, Thief cuddled on her shoulder, with her blanket tied around the filly’s neck like a cape. She was pulling the heads off of some pony dolls and playing a game of Sacrifice-To-The-Volcano-God by throwing them into the fireplace one by one and cheering while they burned.

“Merchant has one morbid filly.” the stallion muttered to himself as she cheered once more in glee at the flaming dolls.

He continued to watch her as he heard the sound of hoof steps behind him. Turning around, he saw two pegasi stallions entering the shop. One was a cream color with white feathers and a burnt orange colored mane. He had a simple brown vest, tan saddle bags that covered his cutiemark and a red neckerchief. The second was charcoal with orange buckskin markings and mane. He had a white lace-up shirt, a messenger bag and a cutiemark of some sort of lizard skeleton with a brush over top it. They were the two stallions who were refused entry to The Guild almost an hour ago.

“--could have showed us where it was, would have taken a lot less time to find.” the cream stallion was saying to the other.

“Well,” the charcoal one started, “he does work here. Somewhere. Probably has somepony to see. These people here are quite easily upsetable and who knows what they would do to somepony who misses an appointment. Besides, we found it alright. After I asked for directions,” he nudged his friend with a wing. “They may be mercenaries but unless they’re paid, they won’t bite your head off for asking a question.”

Cream stopped and flattened his ears. “I’m sorry, last time I tried, I was charged a tax for loitering, making ‘mouth noises’,” he said wiggling the tips of his wing feathers in air quotes, “and breathing her air space. All I did was ask where the toilet was! It’s not like I wanted her life story or information on anypony!”

Gray stallion chuckled, “At least she didn’t take all your bits. You still have some left.”

“Yeah, sure, just enough to pay for a drink and that’s about it in this place.” he complained as he looked around the shop.

Clout’s attention turned back to the cloaks he was eyeing before and began to check each one for quality, length and weight. Since losing his last one to the dog, he needed a new one.

“What was her name?” Crimson Kit asked as she stood inches from the cream stallion, the rat no longer on her shoulder. She had finished burning all her toys and decided to torment the new customers. “I said, what was her name?” she demanded of them, “Tell me now asshole!” The tiny filly gave a withering glare at him.

The three stallions looked to the filly.

“What’s a foal doing here?” the lighter colored pegasus asked no one in particular.

“Sorry it took so long, I--” Merchant started to say as he trotted up the stairs with the string of Clout’s package in his mouth but stopped himself when he saw the two new ponies. “Oh, customers,” he said as he set the parcel on the counter.

Kit roughly grabbed the buck’s vest with both hooves. “What color was she?!” the foal loudly pressed the white feathered buck.

“Uh…” he said as he backed up a step.

“She was very determined to get our bits but I don’t remember what color she was, there’s so many ponies here.” the darker stallion replied for his friend.

Somehow, Crimson’s glare got more intense in response. She tightened her grip on his clothing and opened her mouth to no doubt give a very colorful reply but, Merchant rushed over and clamped her mouth shut with a hoof.

“Ahaha, so sorry about her,” the purple pony said, “My little helper likes to--” Before he could finish his sentence he felt teeth biting down hard on his fetlock. “Ow! Crimson, that’s not nice! You don’t bite daddy!” he scolded as he looked to his slightly bleeding hoof.

Ignoring her parent, the filly asked quickly, “Was she tall and orange with a short red mane with yellow stripes and pretty, pretty blue eyes?”

The two strangers looked at each other.

“Mamma!” the filly screeched, wide-eyed before bolting out the door. The four stallions could see her blanket-cape billowing in the wind of the increasing rain as the shop’s curtain was shoved aside for her escape.

“Crimson!” Merchant called after her, “Ah, I’m so sorry, I’ll be right back. Clout, watch the shop, will you?” He quickly said to them as he ran after his daughter.

“But I don’t--” the thief started but cut himself off with a groan. “Fine but I’m lifting a cloak!” he called out.

They could hear the purple stallion’s voice outside the shop yell, “No you’re not!”

Clout snorted. “Yeah, we’ll see about that.” he muttered to himself and went back to sifting through the pile of fabric before him.

After a short awkward silence, Gray pony spoke up, “Well, that was different. Didn’t think a mercenary town had children that weren’t slaves.”

Clout rolled his eyes before pulling a cloak out of the pile and tossing it over himself to try it on.It was a dark shade of green that was studded with dragon scales for extra protection. It was long enough to cover him completely and it was the perfect size to fit his small frame.

“Uh, are you supposed to be taking things? We all clearly heard him tell you no.” Cream stallion asked.

“If this is a ‘mercenary town,’ what do you care?” Clout spat back.

The pegasus glared and opened his mouth to respond but his friend opened one of his wings to block his view. “Anyway!” Gray stallion said as he took a step towards the thief, “We were hoping to find a couple of things and were told to come here. Can you help us?”

“That all depends on if you have the bits to pay.” Clout said adjusting the cloak.

Cream stallion shoved his friend’s wing away. “Is that all you thugs care about?”

“Information is a commodity like weapons or food. Knowing dirt on someone can mean life or death so yeah, we charge for that here.” the crystal pony replied with a glare.

Cream stallion continued to stare down at the cloaked buckskin while his friend sighed.

“Even if it’s the location of an item in the shop here? There is a lot of uh, stuff. Kind of reminds me of a rommage sale like they have in the shipyards of San Palomino.” Gray pegasus said, looking around the mass of junk. He continued in hopes he would be answered regardless of what Clout told them, “We’re looking for a dampening ring and were told we might be able to find one here. We’re also looking for a pony.” Gray pegasus stated.

Clout looked at them flatly, “Just because you ask a question doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you. I usually take payment up front, however, I’ll be a little long tongued for free because I’m nice. Dampening rings are very hard to come by and so are unicorn slaves. You want one, go find a stable that sells them and see if they’ll sell you a dampening ring.” He gestured to the entrance of the shop with a hoof. “I highly doubt they will, they are only given as many as they get unicorns to sell and I don’t think anypony wants a unicorn slave who can magic up their master.”

“But we were told--” Gray started but was cut off.

“Well someone was amused by you then. It’s not that uncommon for a cullability to be made.” the buckskin nickered.

“What?” Gray asked.

“They lied because you’re an idiot and you were swindled out of your coins.” Clout paraphrased.

“With that logic, how can we trust anypony’s word in this place? Furthermore, how can we trust your word?” Cream argued.

“Feel free to browse the shelves if you really don’t believe me. It’ll get you asshats to stop talking to me.” the crystal pony said, gesturing to the shelves in the shop. “Would be a lot quieter around here without your noise holes telling jokes.”

Cream scoffed, “Some help any of these thugs are. All they do is steal our coin and talk gibberish.”

Gray looked at his friend and back to Clout. “You know, if you’re going to take that cloak regardless of what the shopkeeper said, you might as well earn it by using your customer service skills.” he said with a grin, “I don’t think your friend would be very happy with you taking his stuff and not paying for it.”

“Technically,” the Clout began, “I have been helping you. Whether you want to believe me or not is at your discretion. If you actually take your bits out of your coin pouch and hoof the bill, I might be more inclined to provide such customer services you are requesting from this establishment. Otherwise, piss the hell off because I don’t cave to blackmail.”

The two stallions blinked at him before Gray took out a few bits and hoofed them over. The crystal pony inspected them before stuffing them in his saddlebag and cocking an eyebrow at them.

Clout rolled his eyes and sighed before chanting the greeting he was taught as a foal in the most monotone voice he could muster, “Welcome to Merchant’s Merchandise where we have everything from machetties to machineguns, moth-eaten mementos to mighty mail and munitions to magical manuscripts. If you’re looking for that matchless machine to maul your marks with, you’ve come to the right place because Merchant has the merchandise for you. My name is Clout, how can I make your mutilations more meaningful today.”

“You still remember it!” Merchant’s voice came from the back of the store bordering on child-like levels of excitement. He shook off as much water as he could at the entrance before trotting up to the group with a big grin on his face, the red filly following slowly behind him. She wore a scowl on her face and her cape was dripping water on the floor.

The crystal pony looked at the shopkeeper with a flat expression, “Of course I remember that stupid thing.”

“See honey?” the purple stallion said to his daughter, “If he got it when he was your age, you can get it too!”

“Fuck you!” Crimson growled back.

Merchant’s ears folded back some, “Kit, you be nice.”

She glared at her father and decided to change the subject, “The Fire God demands more sacrifices!”

“Did you burn all your dolls again? I don’t have any more right now, you’ll just have to wait.”

She put her paws in the air and shouted, “More sacrifices!!”

The stallion sighed, “Honey, daddy has customers, you’ll just have to wait.”

“Fine!” she shouted, “I’ll go find more on my own!” She ran towards the cellar and bolted down the stairs.

Merchant’s ears tilted back. “Kit, be careful! You might fall down the stairs like that! It’s not fun, trust me! And no burning any more artifacts, they’re not toys and they're expensive!” he called out to her before turning to his customers, “My apologies gentlecolts, I hope you didn’t wait long. Has Clout already helped you with what you were looking for?”

“Hardly.” Cream stallion said harshly with a glare in the crystal pony’s direction, “All he did was insult us, take our bits and tell us we should look somewhere else.”

Clout snorted at the accusation.

Merchant glanced at the younger stallion, “I’m sure he didn’t mean what he said and I know he’ll give you your bits back.”

The thief gave the purple buck a ‘what’ expression before rolling his eyes and hoofing over the bits he was given.

“Thank you.” the shopkeep said with a grin before he turned to the two stallions, “So what was it you needed?”

As Merchant tended to his customers, Clout walked behind the counter, grabbed his package, his rat who was cuddled up by the fire and trotted out the door. He knew he would be in some sort of trouble for taking the cloak but Merchant was too busy to pay attention to notice right away so the buck didn’t care.

He put both the hood of his vest and the hood of his new cloak up and put on his mask, concealing himself as much as possible for warmth from the cold and to hide his shinier than normal coat.

The hooded stallion trotted through the makeshift town towards a building made of rotting wood. The rain was indecisive tonight as it was only downpouring for a few minutes more before it settled to a light drizzle. His hoof steps made wet sloshes as he stepped along the boardwalk. The building he approached had hardened plaster, stained from time, that looked like it was oozing out of all the cracks and seams. The vast majority of the door was covered in old dried blood stains and above the door scrawled in large black ink were crudely drawn letters that spelled out ‘Doc Maggot’s Slice and Dice.’

‘So inviting.’ he thought. Clout’s ears folded and he shuddered at the thought of entering a doctor’s office but did so anyway at the prospect of his next paycheck.

He pushed open the door with a hoof. The old wood felt like it was about to fall apart at the slightest touch but by some strange miracle did not falter in the slightest. The walls inside were mostly caked in the dried blood of his patients that was never cleaned off. Patients that Clout thought of as Doc Maggot’s unfortunate victims. By the front door and to his right was a desk, not so bloodied but recently cleaned with a few folders stuffed with papers, a couple of pens and three patient charts. It was pretty obvious that nopony cared about confidentiality here unless it was something they could blackmail someone with. Straight ahead of Clout there was a small room that lacked a door with at least five gurneys stuffed into it, all but one had somepony resting on it. They seemed to all be either recovering from an injury or illness or perhaps slowly dying from it.

Behind the front desk with no curtain to hide it was another gurney. A small wheeled table that held many sharp and bloody surgical instruments and needles was between the left side of the bed and the desk. A couple of IV stands stood toward the front of the bed and several large machines that were set on keeping a pony alive during what the doctor here considered surgery had been stationed behind the head of the gurney and to its far side. Behind the farther machines on the bed’s right hoof side was a curtain divider, possibly hiding another ‘surgery room’ behind it. To the left of the operating section was a door, possibly leading to an office or consultation room. Or a room to discuss the terms of their blackmail. Clout hated hospitals.

The light blue nurse at the front desk gave a sweet smile and pushed away the part of her soft gold mane that had fallen into her eyes before speaking. “Why hello there sir,” she said in a sweet voice, “my name is Ocean Blues, welcome to Doctor Maggot’s clinic. How can we heal you today?”

Clout could imagine being strapped to one of the gurneys, powerless as the doctor and his assistants sliced him open and ripped out his internal organs. They would probably sell them to other ponies who were willing to put their lives in the hooves of somepony they didn’t know. The doctor and nurses could have very well been paid to let any of their patients expire by someone who wanted them dead or wanted fresh organs for the black market. It would have been the easiest thing on Equis to slit one’s throat while they were drugged and unawares.

He shuddered at the thought. “I am not here for me.” He said, putting an emphasis on ‘not,’ “I was told Flight Risk was here. I need to talk to him.”

“Oh, yes. He’s here.” The Ocean informed, “He’s speaking with the doctor right now, they should be out shortly. They’ve been in there a while now.” When he turned away from her, the mare went back to her paperwork and began to hum a tune.

There were no chairs or waiting room so he moved out of the way of the building’s entrance and sat down to wait. Just a few minutes later, the door to the consultation room opened and two stallions walked out. The first was a sandy buckskin unicorn with light gray markings and a lavender colored mane. His mane was pulled back and tied in a sloppy bun, probably for surgery purposes, and he wore a doctor’s coat that had dried blood stains on it that made him match the unnecessarily bloodied decor of his office.

The other stallion was tan colored with an almost neon rainbow arrangement of color in his mane. The wings at his side had the same tint of turquoise blue from his mane for their feathers. His front legs had hooves and his back legs had paws. His tail was long and skinny with a tuft of purple fur at the end, a mutation mostly only seen in unicorns so a pegasus having one was stranger than his back paws. He had a dark brown lace-up shirt and a black vest on. A gun sat comfortably in his leg holster while a sword filled the sheath on the opposite side on his belt. On the same side as the firearm he also had a coin purse attached to his waistband. This stallion had a small sack in his mouth that he proudly carried toward the door. He stopped mid trot when he saw Clout.

“Clout!” The tan stallion greeted after taking the bag out of his mouth, “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Clout snorted, “Looks like you’ve been making a deal to me.”

“Well, that's just because I was tired of waiting.” Flight Risk stated as he tied the medicine bag to his waist, “Why don’t we go find a stop hole abbey. Away from eavesdropping ears.” He glanced at the office assistant as she gave him a flirty smile. He waved at her with a hoof and returned her smile with a goofy grin. “Actually, maybe we can flag wave here.”

The crystal pony rolled his eyes, grabbed Flight Risk by his shirt and dragged him out of the building.

After a short walk, they ended up at the Crippled Cragadile Inn. More famous for its wide variety of booze than either of its two rooms for rent. The overly large sign above the door was decorated with a weather worn cartoon painting of a cragadile and to the right side of the entrance was a large window. Clout gave the pouting stallion behind him a glance to make sure he was following. Satisfied the pony he hated most in this world was keeping up, he opened the door and entered.

Normally full beyond capacity and the noisiest place in the city, today the Cripple Cragadile was almost empty with only a couple of drunks at the bar and the bartender. The large chandelier overhead brightened up the room with its two dozen candles but it didn’t make the place feel any less forlorn with so many empty seats. The decor on the walls consisted of old broken nets, spears, large pieces of saw blades and cragadile skulls on placards. There was a large painting on the far wall of a massive ancient Cragidile that only had three legs. Under it was a small copper placard that read the beast’s name: Cross Joynt. The bar took up an entire wall of the building with a set of stairs going to the cellar that contained most of the wide variety of beverages people could order to drink. Behind the bar were racks filled with different distilled spirits while on either side were three massive beer barrels laid sideways with a spicket to fill the drinks with.

The bartender looked to the two ponies and cocked an eyebrow.Everyone knew her name, Hydroplane. She was a tough blue mare with an orange mane. The feathers on her right wing were mostly torn out and her left eye was blackened and slightly swollen from a bar fight she broke up earlier that day. She looked at Clout hidden under his cloak and mask then to the pony he brought in.

“He ain’t allowed ta get clear.” she told them pointing to Flight Risk.

Clout turned his head to glare at the tan stallion while he gave her a self-conscious grin.

“Oh, uh, we just need a smooth ken for a few minutes to do some flag waving.” Flight Risk told the mare.

Hydroplane glared at him, “Seventy bits.”

“For just a couple minutes?” the pegasus stallion exclaimed in shock.

“For startin’ a brawl, replacement of two of my bar stools, ta pay off yer tab ya binged out on and an extra charge for generally bein’ a jackass. I may be a beggar maker but I can’t be equipt enough ta run a business if I let every figure dancer an’ jack in a box take a hike without givin’ me what I’m due. Now cough it up afore I dress ya up and let ya have tea with the pigs.”

“Aww come on Hydry, I’ll pay for that later.” Flight whined.

“Just pay her.” Clout growled.

Flight Risk rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he said as he took out his coin bag.

Hydroplane quickly grabbed it out of his hooves and dumped the bits on the counter.

“Hey!” the pegasus stallion complained.

“Shut it.” she commanded, “Ya only have eighteen bits. I want the rest of my fifty-two pieces ‘a tin Flight Risk.”

The stallion flinched at the anger in her voice and looked to Clout. “Could you, uh… I’ll pay you back.” He gave an uneasy smile as he ruffled his wings.

The crystal thief glared daggers at him.

“Uh, hehheh…” he nervously chuckled as he looked back to Hydroplane.

“Fine,” she said, “Any longer than five minutes an’ I’m charging ya double.” She took the bits off the counter and made some marks in her ledger, waving the two stallions on with a wing.

Clout started up the stairs, Flight Risk following close behind to get away from the mare’s angry glare.

The second floor of the building was a short hallway that had two doors on the left and a balcony with a broken railing on the right. A small coffee table with two chairs sat in between the doors.

The two walked to the closest room and opened the door. It was a small space, just enough for a bed, a desk and a shelf. There was one window that was positioned above the bed that only showed the darkened, damp world they retreated indoors from. The rain outside looked like it had stopped for a brief moment. The room was covered in a fine layer of dust that the keeper of the bar hadn’t had time to address and the floor had three bullet holes in it where smoke from the bar below seeped up into the room. It wasn’t the best of accommodations, but at least it was private enough for their conversation.

Flight Risk closed the door. “So, about the game. I need you to get me a document. The last will and testament of Lady Chrysanthemum Blue, an aristocrat who pannys up in Baltimare.”

Clout raised an eyebrow.

“A friend of mine had a chat with her and she went legit. I’ve been cackled to that it was all peaceful-like in her bed chambers, not that that actually matters any. Not many folk have heard the song about it yet so there’s still time for me to do my job. I need to make a confect version of her will to keep her fillies out of the workhouse.”

“Why.” Clout said flatly, “No one cares what happens to foals after their parents die.”

“Apparently somepony does. They’ve put up one hell of a fat mare’s yellow tin to put them in somepony else’s hooves once the rest of the fancy ponies hear her song. Really I should have changed the documents before the hit buck made his move but I was having too much fun bowsing with the rounders yesterday.” Flight said with a chuckle as he looked to the door.

The thief rolled his eyes. “I heard on the radio she’s having a birthday party for one of her foals tonight.” he said.

“Oh, yeah so her ken shouldn’t be too hard to find with all the commotion but it might get boring with so many ponies around so just make sure it’s smooth.” the pegasus said as he folded his ears.

Clout snorted and started for the door. “When have you ever cared what happens to me.” he growled.

Flight Risk called out to Clout as he slammed the door behind him and went on his way.

Author's Note

Author’s Notes: All characters found in this chapter belong to me, GutterRatt (Also RadioactiveRatt, trying to change my screen name cause I think it sounds cooler). They can all be found on my new toyhou.se account over here:

https://toyhou.se/GutterRatt1213/characters/folder:1192030

I got tired of listing all the characters in the chapter so that’s what I’ll do from now on. I don’t have every character from the story up just yet nor do I have all their information listed but there are a lot of characters so it will take some time but I will make sure that at least any pony who is named in a chapter has a character profile started with the basics of a name and picture.

Chapter four was the last one I had completed before I redid the story from the ground up and it’s actually longer than any of the first three chapters and basically already done. I just have to go through and make sure everything is squared away with a quick edit and final read through to make sure everything I changed world-wise is corrected and I can post it. No promises of how long but I won’t make y’all wait the month and a half you did for chapter three. I’ve no clue why I’ve been so unmotivated lately. Thanks for reading! <3

Revised:

31 pages

11,896 words

Old:

13 pages

7228 words

Equestria Broken - Four: The Stage

EB C4: The Stage

Four : The Stage

“Please, leave all overcoats, canes and top hats with the doorman and from that moment, you’ll be out of place and underdressed. I’m wrecking this evening already and loving every minute of it, ruining this banquet for the mildly inspiring and?” Panic! at the Disco - There’s a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought of It Yet

Clout quickened his pace and veered down a dark alleyway, away from a master whipping her slave. The stallion could hear the chained pony’s muffled shrieks of pain around the corner behind him as he pulled out his compound bow. He shot an arrow upwards where it made a soft thunk on the wooden paneling on the underside of a roof. He climbed the rope and hoisted himself onto the top of the building. The thick leather pads on his shoes softened the noise he made on the tiles as he walked along the thieve’s highway. Another, taller roof with rotten wooden beams blocked his path. This one not being too tall for him, he jumped, grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up with a grunt, the softened wood bowing with his weight. Padding to the top most point of the roof, he looked out and saw the city he lurked in.

Baltimare. One of the many cities that news reporters loved. This city was plagued almost daily by occurrences of aristocratic society plans being sabotaged, theft of precious cargo from poor merchants and security alike, freedom of slaves and destruction of private property. With so much trouble to document, there was no need to put rumors and gossip in the paper. However, it was rather difficult to determine who was at fault in most incidents. The rebels blamed the Kings, the King’s guard blamed the ticks and the ticks blamed the rebels. With so much strife between everypony in the city, it was a bit difficult to determine who exactly ran the town.

Shade Nights troops patrolled the city streets here and there in small groups but they weren’t numerous enough to enforce the King’s rule. The aristocratic ponies hired muscle to keep their property protected but had no love for the lower class, or ticks as they called them. Everypony else blamed the ticks for feeding off of the King’s generosity and not contributing to the land as much as they could so it wasn’t unheard of that they would interfere with the higher class’ functions. Many groups of rebels were seen out in the open in Baltimare and everypony knew they had control of part of the town with their sentries posted on certain streets to keep the Shade Nights away.

With the city in such disarray, nopony really cared who was in charge because crime was easy to get away with. It also left those ill with the blight to fend for themselves. On almost every street there were sick ponies dying and crying to every passerby for help. It was a small help that somepony funded the dead carts to haul the bodies to the soot mill but it wasn’t enough to keep the plague at bay. Luckily for the crystal thief, the disease didn’t reach the rooftops.

He could see much of the city from where he stood: the harbor that encircled more than half of the city, the damaged or repaired rooftops from many past bombings and the infamous broken clock tower. The tower’s clock only worked when the supposed ghost haunted the place. Clout loved to go there when he was in the neighborhood if he needed to stay the night. It was lonely and quite peaceful not to mention the ticking of the giant clock helped him fall asleep.

To the West, the only direction that wasn’t dominated by the ocean, the buildings rose up higher than the rest of the city, rolling higher with the land’s hills and dipping low to sea level as it reached its grasp out east. The buildings West of the metropolis were smaller mansions and townhouses with much fancier architecture then most of the other buildings. A sure sign of aristoponies, their wealth and his main target for the night.
Lady Chrysanthemum Blue had been a younger noble but quickly acquired quite the name for herself in the past few years by flaunting her money and status since she inherited it from her deceased father. Most ponies of Baltimare thought she would be the one to take control over this small piece of Equestria only because her father was Lord before her but it seemed that someone didn’t approve of her status and decided she was a threat to be taken out. That left her fillies to the workhouse, a sort of prison for the orphans and homeless. This wouldn’t normally be the case if their father wasn’t an unknown stallion who was most likely a servant or lower class pony. Bloodlines were everything for nobles and this fact made her children be seen as unworthy of their noble status for their mother having dipped her hoof in the pools of the inferior breeding stock. With that, no pony came forward as her consort.

Her younger brother, Lord Cuckoo Blue, would most likely leave the children to their fate without the will and with his newly acquired position of power, would take control of her massive wealth. Lord Blue was not the most generous of ponies and based on his diplomatic standings would plunge the town into high taxes and low rations to further increase the numbers in his bank account. Depending on what Lady Blue wrote in her will, her dying wishes would be the deciding factor in where her wealth and her fillies would go, regardless of her little brother taking power.

Clout made his way along the rooftops, jumping small gaps, using his rope arrows as needed or making bridges with pieces of already damaged structures. The thieves' highway was always his favored route. Atop the roofs he could see all the guards, their assigned routes, any ponies roaming the streets and any open windows for opportune stealing moments. Thankfully, this city didn’t have much in the way of guards, just many, many slavers. He occasionally slipped into available skylights to obtain valuable items, diary notes lying about or precious keepsakes that weren’t bolted down. Though things such as silver encased pens, brass candle holders, mercury cut picture frames and gem encrusted hoof-mirrors weren’t worth much on the market, Clout had to take all he could carry because he felt he had to. It was there for the taking so why not? Finders keepers after all.

It wasn’t long before he arrived at an estate surrounded by a fancy looking steel fence that had sharp arrow points at the top to keep out intruders. The fence was kept stable by three horizontal beams, one at the top, one at the middle and the last towards the bottom. At the corners of the property, and parallel to the gate, were solid stone pillars with a potted vining plant atop each, the vines had grown down the pillars and crept along the metal fencing. The thick old moss that had grown between the cobblestones below it was climbing up the pillars to meet the vines. Along the ground on the inside of the property were bushes with sleeping blue flowers that were speckling the green plants with their color. To the left side of the gate was a small building with a window to the outside where a pony who was hired to play the role of a guard stood. He was taking tickets from aristoponies who came dressed in gentlestallion garments, ball dresses and masquerade masks. They were all obviously going to the party that was advertised on the radio. Unfortunately for the thief, Smile Cat was right when he said none of his listeners were invited. Luckily, the bucksking had his own way of inviting himself.

Two ponies walked up to the guard booth. The stallion was in a cashmere jacket and wearing a crude mask of what could be either a bear or a mouse, Clout couldn’t tell. The mare had on an elegant white dress with a matching white cat mask. The thief could see their tickets in the stallion’s pocket. Staying in the shadows whenever possible, he snuck up behind the pair. He slowly and carefully reached out a hoof while keeping pace with the two. They were just inches away from the guard. He was just inches away from the tickets.

The sound of a shattered glass bottle and a slump drew all four pony’s attention.
“I gots it, I gots it.” a heavily drunk green stallion slurred as he tried to get back on his hooves. He wore a grungy looking higher class tan garments and had a disturbing fox mask set sideways on the top of his head. He grunted as he lifted himself up before looking down at the broken remains of his alcohol. “Aww, what, what hap- *hic* happened? Where’d the drink go? Why is the rum always gone?” he slurred.

As the stallion slowly staggered towards the guard booth, the two aristoponies hurriedly handed the guard their tickets and made their way inside the gate. Missing his chance, Clout slunk back next to the booth.

“Ah, well. There’ll be more drin- *hic* -ink inside.” The green stallion said to himself as he wobbled over to the guard. The guard watched in amusement as the drunk pony fell twice while walking the short distance from his broken alcohol bottle to the booth. Clout wasn't amused at all. “'Ello my gooood sir, can I come in for a fizz?”

The guard pony stared at the mess of a noble in front of him and smirked, relishing in the other stallion's state. He loved seeing aristoponies fall so far down the ladder of society. He knew he wasn't allowed to let in ponies that were so inebriated so he decided to have a little fun. After a short moment, he regained his composure, “Uh, ticket please.”

Confused, the drunkard narrowed his eyes and looked at the guard and leaned in toward him. “Oooohhhhh! Right, right. Gimme a jiff.” he said as he looked towards his pockets. He then checked his left pockets before attempting to check his right ones. He spun in a circle several times, failing to reach it before falling on his face and vomiting on himself.

The guard pony smiled and rolled his eyes. “Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I cannot allow you to enter this establishment being so drunk and filthy.” he said, having had his short fun with the drunkard, he had to get back to his job.

The green pony looked up at the guard, “Wha- n-no wait, wait, I gots it here some *hic* place.” He frantically searched his pockets again, this time while stationary. Just as he found it, the guard magically took out his rifle and aimed it at the sick-covered stallion.

“Please leave the property sir. I am authorized to shoot if you do not comply.” The guard said as if he had rehearsed the line several times to make sure he got it right when he finally had the chance to say it.

The drunkard looked at the buck with the gun pointed at his face and blinked a few times, trying to get his blurry eyes into focus. “Wha’ve ya got there? ‘S it a zucchini? I love zucchini!” he said before biting the end of the barrel.

The guard yanked the gun away and bashed the butt of the gun to the green stallion’s head, cracking the right side of the fox mask. He pointed the gun at the drunkard once more. “I said get ya drunken idiot!” he yelled.

The messy stallion looked up at the guard, finally realizing he had a gun pointed at him. His eyes went wide with terror as he made another mess on himself, this time with a different bodily fluid, before scrambling to his hooves and falling flat on his face. He got back to his hooves as fast as he could and stumbled away from the threat of death.

Clout followed the fox masked stallion as he wandered down the street. As he spotted a bar, the green stallion quickened his pace, tripped and fell on his face once more. This time he didn’t get up. Clout looked around. A couple of stallions outside of the bar smoking, a mare and her sickly filly walking down the street and a stray cat knocking over a trash can down the next alleyway. He casually trotted up to the passed out noble and slipped the mask off his face as he went past, stuffing it into his saddle bags. He then made his way back to the mansion, this time heading for the back wall. Finding another pillar covered in vines, he easily climbed the foliage and dropped down into the garden. Hiding behind a rose bush, he took in his surroundings.

The garden was full of fruit trees and berry bushes that decorated the vast space forming elaborate designs. A small stream ran through the yard, splitting it in half, veering around a gazebo in the center of the yard. A small but beautiful bridge allowed passage over the pony-made river and to the entrance of the gazebo. The structure itself was surrounded by more flowering plants and grass. The vast majority of the flowers were blue or white with a few mis-colors dotting the landscape here and there.

In the back corner where Clout had landed there was a path leading from the house to a small bench on-looking a miniature waterfall pond with koi fish swimming about it. The large yard was well kept, most of the bushes were trimmed proper and some were even trimmed into shapes of animals or ponies for decoration. The wall that surrounded the yard had several faded murals painted on it, all by the same artist and all depicting the grace, beauty and power of the unicorns. Most of the paintings were overrun with the same wall climbing moss and vines.

Clout took the mask out of his saddlebag, cleaned the splashes of spew off in the pond before putting it on. The mask was surprisingly heavy for such a small thing. It fit well enough over his face and muzzle but was a little larger than he’d have liked on the sides of his head. The small slits where the eyes of the mask were thin and provided only limited visibility but he had no way of widening them. He hid his bow and quiver in the bushes next to the pond and pulled the hood of his new cloak over his head.

Trotting over to the mansion’s glass back door, he was noticing the aristopony’s attire. Most of the mares wore ball dresses or shimmering gowns. The bucks were wearing suits, some had jackets or cloaks to hide their family crests on their chest and their cutie marks. Everypony wore a mask of some kind. This information made Clout feel a little more at ease knowing his outfit would fit in nicely with no questions.

Looking at the mansion from the outside, the crystal buck knew it would take a while for him to search the entire place. The building was three stories tall and who knew how many below. It spanned quite a ways on either side of the large doors, enough that he thought the place might have been close to seventeen thousand square feet if not more. With so much ground to cover and so many other ponies here tonight, he knew it was best to start with the mare's room and go from there. Unfortunately he had no idea where it was but knowing this was a birthday for one of her fillies, he knew he could ask the children and not be found as a suspicious person. He did find it odd a child’s birthday party was held so late at night but he never questioned the ways of the aristocracy.

He strolled through the door as if he were meant to be there and immediately spotted the buffet. There were rows and rows of tables all lined up with a large assortment of food. The colorful vegetables were delicately placed on each tray to create a masterpiece of food art so amazing that it would have been difficult for anypony who appreciated art to even touch it. Unfortunately, all these ponies were of aristocracy and had seen this kind of display almost daily so they had no trouble destroying the hard work. As Clout walked he could see two long tables with nothing but mounds of fruit on them, many of which he had never seen before.

Thief smelled the delicious banquet and poked her head out, her whiskers twitching with anticipation of more fresh food. As she tried to climb down the front of his cloak, the stallion gently pushed her back up with a hoof.

“Not yet little one, there’s too many ponies here. I don’t want you to get stepped on or cause a panic.” he quietly told her.

Then he spotted a large basket hidden in between a crate which held weird green scaley apples and another that had fruit that looked like large round black grapes not on the vine. The hidden basket held several dozen oranges. Clout stopped and picked one up, eyes gleaming and mouth watering. He tilted his mask up just enough and bit into the delicious fruit and savored its sweet and sour citric flavor as he gave a small sigh of bliss. The crystal pony hadn't eaten his favorite fruit in years and he was not going to pass this opportunity up. He had thought no pony grew orange trees in Equestria any more since he hadn't seen anyone with the fruit in ages.

As he bit it a third time, he looked around to notice quite a lot of ponies staring at him. He blinked, not knowing what they were staring at. Was his shiny coat exposed from a hole in the cloak he didn’t notice earlier? Had somepony said something about his attire or was the mask too odd? Had Thief poked her head out of his cloak and ponies could see her? He blinked again, looked down to the fruit in his hooves and then realized what was wrong. He was eating the orange, peel and all. He never saw what the problem was with eating the peel, it wasn't that bad and it was part of the fruit but it often drew attention because no one else ate it the way he did. Clout stopped eating, swallowed his latest bite, pulled his mask back down and trotted off, orange still in his hoof. He wasn't about to let good fruit go to waste. He kept a mental note to steal the rest of the oranges when no pony was staring at him.

On a few other tables, away from the fruits and vegetables, were an assortment of cooked meats. The cloaked stallion never cared for the smell of it so he was never inclined to try it whenever he had the chance. There were several lumps of meat on trays where other ponies with chef hats were cutting off slices for anypony who wanted a piece and a separate table full of sauces to smother the meat in. In between two of the meat tables was a door which many servants trotted in and out of with more trays of food. As the door swung open and closed, Clout could see glimpses of the kitchen. Going to the opposite side of the vast room filled with food there was another door. This one was locked. He decided it was best to try it a bit later when there weren't as many ponies stuffing their faces.

After he rounded the last tables of food, he passed a couple closets on either side of the wall before he came upon a giant set of rounded stairs that went up to the next floor. After he passed a couple hallways, he entered the massive entry way. By the door was a podium with a stallion standing in front of it, taking the names of incoming ponies and announcing their arrival. With mostly everypony already present, he looked rather bored standing around with nothing to do. On either side of the grand entrance were another set of closets where guests were putting their jackets.

The room was filled with unicorn ponies of all colors in fancy dress mingling with one another, passing on rumors and trying to get on each other's good sides to make good business deals or just chatting about family affairs. The only earth ponies it seemed were serving food and drink but there were a couple pegasi guests here and there as guests. A few conversations caught Clout's attention and he was inclined to stand close enough to eavesdrop on them. Since he was here, he might as well collect as much as he could to sell when he got back to the Everfree Forest. Not only were stolen objects a commodity but so were secrets and he was happy to steal them too.

A gray unicorn stallion with a sandy yellow mane and tail who wore a black bear mask was talking to two others. One of them was a silver stallion in a blue bird mask with lavender mane and tail, the other was a blue mare with fire red mane and tail in a panda mask. Each of them had on elegant clothing and had a glass of champagne in their hooves.

"--And no pony knows who was to blame." Black Bear said.

"Somepony has to know, doesn't the King rule Manehattan?" Blue Bird asked, shocked at the news he just heard.

"I thought that city was overtaken by those filthy rebels." Panda commented, a bit of concern in her voice.

"Why would the rebels bomb the city if they were in control of it?" Black Bear retorted, "The Kings really need to send more troops there. Losing Manehattan would be quite the loss. They have some of the best factories there. I've had my eye on some of their paper presses. To expand my news articles over on the western coast would be a wonderful addition to my company." He swirled his champaign in the glass a couple of times before taking a sip.

"Don't you have your little paper route spread far enough?" asked Panda in a mocking tone of voice. "It's not like you need that press to stay in business. Besides, soon enough, those factories will be mine so don't even worry about them."

"Please," said Black Bear, "don't talk to me like your company needs it so desperately either. You've got your hooves on twice as many manufacturing plants as I do. You have no need for another. Besides, the presses there only print articles. They can't do the overdramatic advertisement pictures you're so fond of shoving in everypony's faces."

Panda harrumphed and set her glass down on a table before jabbing a hoof at Bear's chest. "I'll have you know, my advertisements attract more revenue than your meager articles on random nonsense that only the poor lower class care about. Even if you purchase that factory before I do you'll never even come close to my stock so go ahead, try for it. It won't matter to me anyways. Soon enough I'll ruin you and all of your stockholders." She tilted her head to the side and put a hoof on her own chest in ladylike fashion. "Soon, I'll own every press in Equestria. I'm sure you already knew that I am planning on monopolizing it all. Then King Sombra will have to take notice. Then I can be his queen!"

Black Bear's ears went flat back. Just before he was able to get to say anything in response, Blue Bird interrupted.

"Not that I wouldn't love to see real entertainment at this snooze of a party but I don't think you two should be fighting here." Blue Bird said, trying to reason with the two and stop their argument from escalating. "Besides, neither one of you can get those factories until that city's government is settled. And, oh, look! The chefs finally brought out the octopops, isn't that your favorite?" he asked, not specifying which he was asking as he shoved them both towards the table where the octopus rounds on a stick were displayed.

Clout's attention was given to another nearby conversation.

"I can't wait to go! There's going to be so much to discover there." A light purple mare with a short pink and white mane said in an excited tone of voice. The short dove colored frilly dress she wore matched her gray shrew mask. She tilted it slightly upwards so she could snack on a spiky red fruit she held in her magical grasp.

"How are you even going to find anything if it's all frozen over there? You're probably going to have to dig through about three feet of ice to get to anything. Probably more." A gray and white painted pegasus with a pink mane and tail said. She wore a white rabbit mask over the top of her glasses which poked out the sides.

A blood red stallion with dark maroon mane and tail knickered. "I'm sure the treasure in that arctic city has to be worth quite the fortune if it's been frozen for centuries. No pony's been able to even touch it. If you can guarantee me that you and your team will be the ones to retrieve it, I would be more than happy to fund your expedition. We'll discuss the conditions of the contract in private of course." he said as he shifted the red coyote mask on his face.

"Oh I've got the ice part covered, don't you worry about that." Gray Shrew said confidently, "My sister is quite talented with her fire magic. She showed me that she can thaw a piece of paper from a block of ice without even leaving the slightest hint of a scorch mark. She has perfected her art and can assure you that none of the artifacts will be harmed by her magic in any way. She does have her own terms for any contract we sign of course."

Red Coyote put a hoof around Gray Shrew's shoulder. "That won't be a problem. Let's go somewhere a bit more private though." He then turned to White Rabbit, "Would you oversee our contract? You would charge your regular fee, correct?"

"Of course." was all White Rabbit said before following them further into the mansion and to a private room.

With that conversation over, Clout didn't want to look too suspicious so he looked for a new direction to wander in. On either side of the room, there was a door. The left one was open and ponies freely walked in and out of it. The right one was closed but noises could be heard on the other side. Curious, he walked towards the closed door. As he passed more aristoponies, he heard some of them complain.

"I can understand the need to throw a ball, it is quite the opportunity for profit, but why would she throw a party like this for her filly is beyond me. She could have thrown a soiree without declaring it a birthday party for that little annoyance. There would have been a lot more ponies here to do business with if it had been just a regular party." A dark blue mare wearing a tapir mask said. She brushed a hoof through her yellow mane and swished her tail before continuing with her complaint to the two other ponies standing with her. Her mask was tilted up so the other two could see her face but at his angle, Clout couldn't make out who it was. "If I were in charge of Equestria, I would have it mandatory for all children to be sent to the rock farms until they're old enough to not be whiny."

"How can you say such a thing?" A grey stallion wearing an eagle mask said, "She's your niece."

"Well, there are quite a few aristoponies who refuse to come to birthday parties but at least they are keeping the children in a separate room." A light turquoise mare said. She shifted the frog mask on her face and hoofed her red mane away from the mask before asking, "By the way, has anypony seen our hostess tonight? I haven't been able to find her anywhere."

Tapir swished her tail again as she thought before speaking, "No, I haven't. I'm surprised about that. Lady Chrysanthemum's always one to gossip at parties and I haven't seen her at all tonight. You think she's bedded an unaware stallion again?" The mare laughed at her own words.

"She might have. I'll go check her room later if I don't see her around soon." Eagle said.

Clout continued towards the closed doors, hoping he could find where the children were being kept, then he could ask Lady Chrysanthemum's children where their mom's room was. Though foals weren't Clout's favorite thing in the world, they were so much easier to manipulate then adult ponies were. And once he was out of sight of the aristocracy, he could sneak around as he pleased. Lost in his thoughts, Clout was startled when someone called out to him.

"Um, sir?"

"Y-yes?" The crystal stallion answered stiffly, worried he wasn't supposed to be opening the door his hoof was now on.

A pink earth pony with light yellow mane and tail wearing a tail coat and holding a tray of horderves stood next to the thief. His shackles clinked together when he moved. "Would you like a g-glass of champagne?"

Clout let out a breath of relief that he wasn't in trouble. Remembering he had to keep up his noble apparence, he straightened up, stepped towards the servant and spoke, "No, thank you. But you can tell me where the children are being kept. I have a present for the birthday girl and nopony seems to want to tell me where she is."

"Y-yes sir. But... um..." The servant shakily answered.

"Well?" Clout said impatiently, making the servant flinch.

"Sir, you're just about to open the room where all the foals are." the servant replied.

Clout snorted and rolled his eyes. 'Of Course' he thought. "Thank you. Be on your way." he shooed the servant away with a wave of his hoof.

The pony bowed his head before walking away.

The thief turned back to the door he was in front of and opened it. This room was slightly smaller than the grand entrance. The left wall of the room was a giant window overlooking the front garden. The plush carpet under his hooves was the cleanest he'd ever seen. The right side of the room was split into three parts. In the center was another large, decorated doorway. On either side was a partial wall of books. On the far side of the room was a large family portrait featuring Lady Chrysanthemum Blue, her twins and her young filly, all standing together in formal wear which hung above a grand fireplace.

In the middle of the room was some kind of odd structure made of what looked to be a sofa and several arm chairs that were probably supposed to be in front of the fireplace, expensive rugs and bed sheets. The stallion watched as several colts and fillies ran about, holding eating utensils and throwing apple cores, shouting "Pew, pew" at each other. All of them wore some kind of formal dress wear which was somewhat dirty with food and colorful party hats. A small group on one side of the fort had a chest they looked to be defending while all the other foals were trying to get it from them. Clout blinked as he watched in confusion.

"Pew, pew, pew!" one unicorn filly shouted, pointing her fork at her enemies. "I got you Rubber!"

"Nuh-uh!" Rubber replied, "I gotsa bubble shield!" The pudgy colt held out one of his hooves where a string was tied to it. at the end of the string, a balloon floated.

"You don't know that magic." another filly said.

"He does too!" one of the fillies on Rubber's side exclaimed, "I'm our magic pony and I teached him so!" She held a hoof to her chest in pride of her apparent magic prowess.

"Magic ponies can't teach other ponies spells, that's why we have magic ponies." one of the colts said, "They're the only ones with all the spells!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

Suddenly Clout was poked in the ankle by a silver spoon. Looking down at its source, he saw a white filly in an elegant blue ball gown holding the object with her magic. Her light pink and blue mane and tail were tied up in a neat but very complicated looking braid. Her grey eyes appeared to focus straight on clout as she spoke.

"You're not supposed to be here." she said simply.

Clout looked at the foal, tempted to back slowly out of the room at her cryptic tone of voice but instead stood his ground. "I'm just looking for the birthday filly." he said as he looked around at everything but the filly in front of him.

"Blue and yellow are the colors of your betrayal." she said, "Beware the weight you carry, for it will destroy you."

“What?" the stallion asked in utter confusion.

Another filly ran up to the two and bowed to Clout. "My apologies for my sister sir, she lacks the ability to see properly. She... probably mistook you for somepony else." she said as she hugged her sister to herself. This foal looked almost identical to the other but her mane was purple and blue.

Seeing both fillies together, Clout recognized them. He looked back to the painting above the fireplace. Anne and Mone Blue. The elder twin daughters of Lady Blue. This was perfect. He could get what he needed from these two and be on his way.

"You were looking for our baby sister?" Anne asked, her teal eyes gazing up at the fox mask.

"Uh, yeah. I have a present for the birthday girl," Clout said, "But I can give it to you to give to her if you can tell me where your mom's room is. No pony can seem to find her and I want to make sure she's okay."

"Are you one of mother's Concubinus'?" Mone asked.

"E-excuse me??" Clout asked in shock.

"Ah! Never mind her sir!" Anne said as she placed a hoof over her sister's mouth, "What my sister meant to say was that a noble buck shouldn't barge in on a lady's private quarters lest he find himself slapped for being so rude."

Clout's ears twitched in annoyance. "I am just concerned for her well being because nopony has seen our hostess at all tonight. I’m only looking to find her and make sure she’s okay."

The twins looked at each other before speaking at the same time, "Find our baby sister first."

"What?"

"She's with the zebra. Or is it the monster?" Mone asked herself, "Yes, the monster. The monster of mud and mucus."

"She's probably playing in the cellar again. Go get her and bring her here. Only after will we tell you where our mother's quarters are." Anne stated firmly.

Clout rubbed the side of his head with a hoof and let out an exasperated sigh. “Can’t you just tell me where it is and go find your sister yourself?” he asked.

“No.” Mone said simply.

“You have to work for it.” Anne said, “We don’t just hoof out information to rebel pegasus spies.”

“I’m not a pegasus and I’m not a spy. If you’re not going to tell me I’ll just find it on my own.” Clout said.

“Oh, well then good luck with that. There are eighty seven rooms in this house and that is not including the many outbuildings on the property. Are you sure you can find it before we tell a guard and have him arrest you for snooping?” Anne asked with a mischievous grin, “We know you’re not a guest. You admitted you’re not a pegasus and there is obviously no horn under that mask. Mother doesn’t invite guests of such low class to soirees and she certainly wouldn’t remove her chastity belt for one. So what will it be Mr. Uninvited-Guest? We can get the guards now if you’d like or we can give you a ten second head start.”

The stallion twitched an ear. He would much rather find his own way around than be bossed around by children. Then again it might take too much time to try and find it on his own in this massive mansion. Not knowing how much longer the party had left, he didn’t know how much time he had before the staff resumed their normal duties of wandering the mansion and getting in his way. He decided to play along with the children and hope that they would actually give him the information he needed.

“You’re too smart for your own good.” the stallion grumbled.

“That’s what you get with high class breeding, not many of us turn out to be dimwits like you ticks.” Anne said with a grin.

“This one’s not a tick.” Mone told her sister who looked to the blind filly and opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the buck.

“Fine, I’ll do it, just keep your trap shut.” Clout told them, “Where’s this cellar?”

The filly smiled, “Oh, and it's past the double staircase towards the back garden. To your right is a door all the servants are going in and out of, that's the kitchen. I'm sure you can find your way to the cellar from there." Anne waved a hoof towards the door the stallion came through, "Off you go, good sir."

The crystal pony rolled his eyes before turning around and walking out of the room. When he returned to the entrance, the crowd had mostly dispersed and distant music was playing. It was most likely time for the ball dance.

Clout made his way back through the hallway, past the stairs and into the dining area. He casually trotted past the many tables of food, including the now empty tray of oranges. With his saddle bags a bit heavier, he made his way to the door to the kitchen. He pushed the swinging door open and entered.

Inside was mostly a flurry of activity. There were ponies cooking things, preparing dishes, washing fruit and vegetables and at least three ponies washing stacks of dirty dishes. There were others bringing in empty trays and taking out full ones. A few were pouring glasses of fine liquor and stacking them neatly on a cart. And then there were those who were just standing in small groups looking like they were peeling vegetables but were actually just gossiping with each other. Though some great rumors could be learned from wealthy pony's staff members, Clout wasn't able to hear even the smallest breath of their conversations over the noise of the kitchen. Not to mention the moment he entered, all of the staff paused for just a moment to look at the guest who just barged in on them. After a couple of seconds, everypony got back to their tasks, keeping their mouths closed and eyes on their work. None of them wanted to be snitched on for their chatter for fear of the consequences.

The thief trotted in and looked around for the cellar. As he passed the small group of ponies peeling apples, a light blue and white coated mare glanced at the passing buck. She kept her head low and her clipped wings folded tight to her sides. She swallowed before speaking, "Um... my lord, I'm afraid you're n-not supposed to be in here. The guests are supposed to stay in the ballroom and the main entrance."

"I was told to fetch something from the cellar by Lady Blue."

The apple peeler bowed her head low, "My apologies sir! I-I had not known. If I had, I would have shown you there immediately. Please have mercy on me. Lady Blue normally has one of her servants fetch things for her, not her guests."

Clout waved a hoof, dismissing her worries, "Whatever, I just need to get to the cellar."

"Yes sir, it's just down those stairs." the mare informed as she pointed across the room just in between the dish washing station and a pair of trash bins.

He trotted over to the stairs. The way down had decent wooden steps and it was lit up by a set of string lights above. When he reached the bottom, he found himself in a wide room with a low ceiling. It was dimly lit and the damp draft about the place. There were barrels and boxes stacked in two piles. Clout figured one was for empty containers and the other probably still had goods in them. On several of the walls were wine racks filled with many different vintages of the beverage. Here and there were burlap sacks which looked to have vegetables in them. On the walls that didn't have wine racks, wooden planks were haphazardly placed, probably to try and prevent any more cave-ins like the one in the far right corner.

Over by the stacks of empty crates Clout could hear laughter. Thief poked her head out of the cloak once more at the sweet smell in the air as the stallion made his way towards the sound. He rounded the barrels and wooden boxes to see a large canine licking a tiny unicorn filly. A blue and yellow cake was splattered everywhere covering both of them in the sticky sugary treat. The foal was happily painting her previously white dress in the now green frosting and humming a tune to herself.

The stallion folded his ears back as he watched the dog. His companion jumped off of her ride and scampered off to join in the fun of destroying the massive cake. “Thief, wait!” he called out to her.

“Hello!” the filly said as she waived her frosting covered hoof at him.

Clout readied himself for a fight as the gray and white dog looked to him. She happily wagged her tail as she licked her chops.

“Say hi Fuzzy.” the filly told the dog who barked at the stallion in greeting.

The buckskin took a half a step backwards as the dog tilted her head at him. “Why’s there always gotta be a damn dog.” he mumbled to himself, “Hey, kid, come here.” Figuring this was the missing birthday filly, he had to get her back upstairs somehow.

“But we’re playing paint. My dress is pretty!” she told him as she stretched out the hem of her gown, green frosting oozing down the folds.

“U-uh, sure,” he said to her. An idea then struck him, “Why don’t you go back upstairs and show off your dress. I’m sure everypony would like to see it.”

The foal giggled as the dog licked her mane clean. “Okay but Fuzzy come too!” she said with a big smile.

Clout grimaced, “Well, I don’t think, uh, Fuzzy is done playing yet so we’ll just leave it here.”

The filly looked to the dog then back to the stranger. “Oh, okay. Fuzzy come upstairs when you're done playing okay?” she told the dog before standing up and trotting over to him.

“Thief, come on, it’s time to go.” the stallion told his rat but she ignored him as she continued to dig her way into a large piece of spongy mass. He rolled his eyes, “Fine, don’t get eaten by the dog then. Don’t forget we’re leaving once I get what I came for.”

As the two ponies walked away, Fuzzy sat down in the pasty mess and gave a whine, watching them leave.

Clout ignored the mutt’s whining and proceeded back up the stairs. There were quite a bit less ponies in the kitchen when he reached it and the ones who were left ignored the two. He trotted back through the servant door, past the buffet and made his way back to the other children. When he got to the room, most of the children had begun to pass out from being awake so late. Most of them had taken refuge under their fort but a couple slept on pillows in front of the fireplace.

Clout looked to the two fillies who gave him his latest commission. "Where's your mom's room." he demanded.

"Pompon, look at you, you're a mess!" Anne said as she started to wipe her baby sister's face with a cloth.

"Smells like sugar." Mone stated.

"Hey, where is the room?" Clout said, irritated he was being ignored.

"And look at your dress Pompon! You're the birthday girl, you're supposed to be dressed proper for the occasion, not sticky." Anne continued to ignore the stallion and fuss over Pompon.

Pompon looked up at her sister, "Isn’t it pretty! Fuzzy played paint with me!" The filly had a big smile on her face.

"The dog is in the house." Mone said.

"The dog, the dog is here? Pompon! You know mother is allergic to dogs, she said you couldn't play with it any more and it has to stay outside, away from us. You're going to make mother sick again!" Anne scolded her little sister as Clout tried to speak up again.

"Uh, hello? The room?"

Pompon looked at her sisters, eyes round as saucers with tears welling up in them. Anne sighed. She couldn't keep up her strict older sister act for long when it came to Pompon. "Alright." she said, "I won't tell mom but we have to get the dog outside without anyone seeing okay?"

Pompon gave a big smile, "Okay!"

The second Clout opened his mouth to butt into their conversation once again, there were screams heard from the other room. All the children groggily woke and gathered around the door as the stallion opened it slightly to peek out. Dishes were dropped on the floor and guests were running for the door. The manor guards rushed in, looking for something.

'It can't be me so then what..?'Clout thought. And then he saw the dog. Its grey-blue and white patchy coat was covered in cake, the blue and yellow frosting making green smears all over the animal. Of course the first aristopony who saw it probably thought it had the Blight because not too many of them were smart enough to take a second glance at the monster. The guards spotted it and pointed their weapons towards it.

"No! Fuzzy Paste is a good puppy!" Pompon yelled. She had slipped through the door everypony was looking through and ran towards the guards.

The guards turned to see the filly. "She has it too!" a unicorn mare exclaimed as she turned her weapon to the child, "S-stop! Please, I don't want to hurt you!"

Another unicorn mare guard turned to the others, "Somepony get the children out of here! We need to call the sanitization department and keep this under control before it spreads. Keep track of the guests, they'll want to test everypony for the Blight before they're released so don't let anypony go home yet."

One of the guards saluted her before he ran to the room the foals were in. Wide eyed, Clout ran to the blanket fort and hid in it. The guard burst into the room and shooed the fillies and colts out of the mansion, none of them mentioning the pegasus spy hiding in their blanket fort.

After the last of the foals were out, Clout snorted and face-hoofed. Of course he wouldn't get what he was promised. They were foals after all, why should they keep their end of a black mail. He pulled his hoof away from his face and grimaced. Cake. Of course he just had to have stepped in some earlier. Using the fort to clean the mask and his hoof off, he sighed. This mission wasn't going as perfectly as he hoped it would but at least now the house was empty. Or, empty-ish. He could still hear the guards outside yelling about the dog, not wanting to damage the furniture with their bullets but not wanting to touch the dog to capture it either. If only they had a few more brain cells, they would have realized something with the Blight shouldn't be that hyperactive.

The crystal pony trotted over to the large set of doors to the right side of the room. He crouched down a bit, pulled up the mask he wore and peeked through the keyhole. No pony there. He opened the door slowly, peeking through to make certain no pony was there that was out of the sight range of the key hole. The hallway he entered was lined with framed photographs of all sorts of fancy looking ponies, mostly shaking hooves with each other. There was a small door in front of him, a set of double doors to his left at the end of the hall and another smaller door a little ways away from the one in front of him. He turned to his right, the open hallway leading back to the room with the massive staircase. With his ears carefully scanning for sounds of others, he slowly walked to the entryway. Peeking around the corner, he could still see the ponies struggling with the dog. It ran back and forth as if it were playing tag with the guards. That is, until it stopped and saw Clout. The two made eye contact for a moment before the dog ran off, leading the guards away from the thief.

"Well, I guess not all dogs are so bad." Clout whispered to himself before trotting out to the stairs. 'The master suit has to be on the top floor.' he thought as he made his way up. He peeked over the second floor and saw a few staff ponies walking along, carrying linens into a room. They left the door open as they worked on replacing the bed sheets to a room that had toys all over the floor. The rest of the floor was wide but short. On either side was a balcony overlooking the first floor of the mansion. To his right and left were more hallways and doors. He continued up the stairs to the third floor.

The final floor of the mansion entered into a much smaller rounded room with a hallway to the right and one to the left. And again, it had doors. Lots of doors. This time there weren't any other ponies around so the stallion searched them one by one. To make sure there wasn't anypony in the area he was about to enter, he would look through the keyhole and listen through the door. When he felt he had surveyed well enough, he entered the rooms. In each new chamber, he stole anything he deemed of value that would fit into his many pockets and saddlebags. Any diaries or documents he stuffed away for later reading. He knew he had to be quick. It wouldn't be long before the city's sanitation team would arrive and detox the entire house, bubble it in a giant tent and fill it with some form of magic gas that killed any so-called plague virus. All the ticks knew it didn't actually work but it did make the rich ponies feel like they could just sweep it off their door mat so they were safe from the disease.

A laundry room, an office, a bedroom (But not Lady Blue's room unfortunately), a rec room, servant's quarters, more servant's quarters, a wine closet, an exercise room that looked like it hadn't ever been used, a sauna and a swimming pool. Why anypony would ever put a swimming pool on the top floor of a building, Clout would never know but he still wondered who's bright idea that was. He also wondered why the servant's quarters were on the top floor but not Chrysanthemum's.

There was another room but it seemed to be just a guest room. Attached to the large rec room was another, much smaller room with no door. Inside consisted of several couches, a small side table and a couple of book shelves. It wasn't an office but probably just a room to read in. Why a reading room didn't have a door to keep the noise from the rec room out Clout also didn't understand. Aristocratic ponies were weird, he decided.

His confusion at the design of the mansion was interrupted by a safe. It was a wall safe on the left side of the room, just adjacent to the far wall. Also adjacent to the safe was a large window that was slightly open letting the cool night breeze in. Rearing up in excitement, he bolted to the safe. Just as quickly, and with a big grin on his face, he ripped the mask off, stuffed it in his saddlebag, pulled out his lock picking tools and got to work. His ears strained to hear the soft scrapes and clicks the pins made as he slid each of the tumblers into place. With all of the stallion’s attention on the safe's lock, he failed to notice the mare at the room's entrance. And the three guards behind her.

The mare cleared her throat softly and Clout stopped mid opening of the safe. "I must apologize sir but the guests were not allowed to go upstairs." she said, "So, you'd best have quite a decent excuse for the guards here to not shoot you for snooping around."

Clout turned his head to look at them and cursed his luck that the foals lied to him and told somepony even though he held up his end of their bargain. She was a tall charcoal mare with yellow legs. Her long bright blue mane and tail was tied in a fancy looking braid and she had quite a lot of jewelry hanging from her neck, ears and horn. The guards behind her pushed passed and turned on the room's light.

The mare gasped as she saw him, "Oh my goodness, you're a--"

"Get him before he gets away!" one of the guards shouted.

Clout went wide eyed before backing up only to have his path blocked by the window.

The pegasus guard made the first move, tackling the crystal pony and trying to restrain him. "You are trespassing on private property and you will be punished! No pony gets away with theft in Blue manor!" she said growled.

The unicorn guard levitated out her weapon and aimed it at the two, trying to get a clear shot.

"No! Wait!" The charcoal mare said as she tried to stop the third guard from joining the fray.

The mare was shoved to the ground as the unicorn guard found her clear shot and pulled the trigger. In the chaos of the fight, the window had been pushed all the way open and Clout fell out of it just after he was hit with the tranquilizer dart. The pegasus dashed out of the window to try and catch him but the rushing river below caught him first and whisked him away in its icy grasp.

The wind blew through the grass of the small meadow, making the air warm and dry. Cinders floated on the breeze while two foals ran through the field, fear on their faces. In front was a long legged filly, her light silver coat singed from the lick of flames, her gray and lavender mane flowing behind her as she ran with all her might. She looked back with her big blue eyes to the smaller colt who limped as fast as he could behind her.

"Don't look back!" he said, "Keep running! Daddy said to run!" The buck skinned colt's foreleg was bleeding and he winced with every step but he kept pushing forward. They had to out run the blaze behind them. They couldn't look back, they couldn't see the fate of the ponies who screamed behind them because they knew there was nothing they could do to help. They just had to keep running. Daddy told them to run.

A giant winged beast flew past them and circled around.

"Watch out!" the filly yelled back to the colt as she skidded to a stop. The filly looked back to the colt one last time as the claws of the beast grabbed her and flew away.

"No!" the colt screamed, "You give her back! You can't take her too!!" He tried to run faster, tears streaming down his soot covered face but his leg just hurt too much for him to force himself. Focusing on her and the giant monster, he didn't see the ditch hidden in the grass and fell into it. He moaned in pain and lifted his dizzy head to watch his friend struggle and fall from the creature's claws. She fell and fell into the dark abyss while he lay there, helpless.

"Charm!"

The fog faded from Clout's mind as he slowly opened his eyes. His throat was scratchy and his chest ached but his body forced himself to cough a few times to try and expel whatever remnants of water still lingered in his lungs. This bodily function caused him even more pain. He groaned and lifted his head. He could see large metal beams surrounding him and several other ponies. They all had matching collars and they looked skinny and beaten. On the other side of the metal bars were ponies and griffons walking around, talking with each other about paperwork. A couple were yelling at each other, arguing over... something. He couldn't quite make it out.

He lifted one of his hooves and rubbed the top of his aching head. Only, he couldn't. He was completely bound to the floor. The chains clanged together as he moved and he finally realized what was going on. Somepony had found him in the river and they were going to sell him. His gear was completely gone. There were weapons on every guard that included no less than a whip, a pistol and a dart gun. He looked around but he didn't see where they put his belongings and Thief was nowhere to be seen. Clout's ears folded back at the thought of his missing companion. He would have to look for her as soon as he got out of his chains.

Standing up, the former thief punctuated his situation with a loud curse word when his head hit the very low ceiling of his cage. With the guards laughing at him, he decided it was best to stay lying down while giving them a stern glare in response. Being inside of the cage, it didn't have the effect he was hoping for. With another look around the room, he saw some ponies lifting large, and apparently heavy from their expressions, crates onto their backs. They walked out a nearby door where a voice on a loudspeaker boomed. For the brief moment the door was open, he could make out what the previously muffled background noise was saying.

"And do I have 600 bits? 600 bits, anyone? Anyone? Oh! I have 650 bits! Anyone going for 700? 700? Anypony? No? Going once, going twice, sold! For 650 bits! Next on our list is a very beautiful set of--"

The doors closed and the voice turned back to is muffled static. The two griffons were still arguing over their paperwork off in the corner and one of them was pointing a claw in Clout's general direction. The other griffon threw the papers in the other's face, spatted a couple more words before stomping away. The griffon shot a glare at Clout who glared back, before picking the papers up off the floor. The crystal pony snorted, whatever they were mad at him for wasn't his fault. He didn't choose to be here so they had nothing to be mad at him for.

He glanced at the other cages around him. A couple donkeys and earth ponies. Several pegasi with clipped wings no doubt. At least five unicorns and a bigger cell with a large group of foals all huddled together. Behind the slave cages were four much larger cages that contained creatures of a different taste. One had a minotaur sitting with his arms crossed and a pouty look on his face. Two of the cages had manticores in them. Large lion-like creatures with leathery wings and a scorpion tail. One of them was lying lazily in it's binds. The other was swiping a claw through the bars and roaring at the two mares who were trying to force it to calm down by stabbing at it with electric pulsing spears. In the last large metal box was a curled form covered in scales. It was barely twice the size of a pony and it had leathery wings. Soft snoring could be heard from the form in between each of the manticore's outbursts. Most of the cages had a clipboard hanging from a hook that was on the top middle of each cage. From the closest one to him, he could read that it had a line for the price sold for and the name of who the future buyer would be.

He memorized where each of the exits were: one to his left where the auctioneer was, one to the back of the room where ponies and griffons walked in and out of with paperwork (probably an office of some sort) and a large roll up metal wall that was probably a loading dock. This was not a place Clout had been before but he knew it had to be a black market. No pony or griffon would dare sell a dragon let alone a crystal pony. Once he finally finished surveying his surroundings, he decided it was time to make his grand escape. He lowered his head and sifted through his mane. He continued to search and furrowed his brow. One of the colts in the cage behind him decided to make a comment.

"Got fleas mister?"

Clout decided to ignore the commentary, lifted his head and looked towards his tail. It was too short for him to reach but he scanned it nonetheless, still frowning.

"You're awful shiny, are you a mutant? Do you have super powers or somethin'?" the colt said.

Still ignoring the foal, the stallion looked to his hooves, scanning the underside of them.

"What'cha lookin' for, the fleas? There's too many around here to kill 'em all."

"Shut it kid. I ain't got fleas." Clout said to the youngster.

The thin mare in the cage next to the stallion spoke up. "Don't bother lookin', you aren't going to find whatever it is you hid on your person. They're very thorough and are used to searching ponies. They even do..." she shuttered, "cavity searches. It's very unpleasant but they find everything. They don't want their money escaping."

Clout's ears folded back. He wasn't sure how he was going to escape but he had to. He had to keep running. A griffon walked up to his cage, the one who was arguing earlier, and glared at the buck.

"I'd much rather kill you. Would be less trouble." he said. "The boss wants to keep you though. Said you'd go damn high but I don't think you'll sell. The moment you don't, I'm going to put a bullet in your brain and wipe my claws of you. Damned crystal pony." As he walked away, he muttered to himself that he had to increase the guards to make sure nopony sold them out to the king's guards over the situation. He called over a passing mare. She was white with her mane being various shades of gray. They spoke for a moment, she nodded and barked orders to a few others. Noting the way they immediately got to their work, she had to be the one in charge. As she trotted past Clout's cage and to the door he figured was an office, she called out.

"And some pony find me Paper Cut! I know he's sleeping on the job again! Stupid stallion, I have to do everything around here." she said before slamming the door shut behind her.

Another pony came in through the door to the auctioneer. She was tan with dark grey spots on her. Her horn glowed as she floated a clipboard full of paperwork in front of her. Her blue eyes focused on the text. "Are they really sure this is right?" She asked the text in front of her. She sighed and walked up to Clout before staring at him. For a few awkward moments, the mare examined him through the bars. She turned her head this way and that, squinting her eyes and looking at him from different angles. "You really are a crystal pony, aren't you?" she asked.

Clout glared at her. "That information is confidential." he retorted with a growl.

She gave a slight chuckle. "I'm sorry sweetie but it's not hard to tell what you really are, there's no use hiding it." she said, "What's your name?"

"None of your business."

"Now come on, you're almost up. We would really like to put a name to your sale paperwork if we could." She gave Clout a smile.

He glared at her for a bit before giving into her sweet nature "Whisky Trot." he said as he looked away.

The mare laughed at the name. "Seriously? That can't be your real name! Come on, pretty please?"

Gritting his teeth, he decided on another fake name. "Arrow Point."

"Well, that's a bit better." she said with a smile, "My name is Honey Dew and it's lovely to meet you. Too bad our meeting here will be a short one, you're kind of cute. Good luck Arrow." Honey Dew turned away and walked back out the door, her tail swishing behind her.

Clout rolled his eyes and let a breath out through clenched teeth.

When she had left, the children decided that quiet time was finally over and began to speak again. "So you're really a crystal pony?" the colt asked, "I heard they were just a myth!" His eyes were wide in wonder, staring at the buckskin. Just the same as all of the rest of the foals in the cage. Clout flinched away at the dozen prying eyes and gulped. He was very glad there were bars between him and the foals, he had no intention of letting any of those brats touch him, no matter how curious they were. Some of them were 'wow'-ing, others just stared at his coat in amazement. Just in the nick of time, a stallion whacked at the foal's cage with a nightstick before yelling for them to quiet down. To Clout's relief, they all shied away in the back of their cage and stayed silent.

The crystal pony continued to look around, he had already observed everything in the room but he still tried to find any little detail he might have missed that would help him out of his situation. Unfortunately, his thoughts were cut short when the white and grey mare who he thought was in charge trotted over to his cage.

"Let's get this over with before something bad happens." she said with a scowl on her face. Two ponies flanked her, each of them holding a long pole with a rope attached at the end that was most likely supposed to be around Clout's neck. As she unlocked the cage, he tried to scooch back, his ears folded as his fate became more real.

The two ponies put the end of the catch poles around his neck and tightened the rope so it wouldn't slip off.

He was to be sold.

The mare used another key on the keyring to unlock the lock that bound his chains to the bottom of the cage.

He couldn't think fast enough, he should have looked harder for a way out, he couldn't see an escape.

They yanked him out of the cage, his chains clinking as he fell to the ground. Another guard, a griffon, came up behind him and zapped him with his cattle prod, yelling for him to get on his hooves and move. He couldn't hear them, his panic grew as he was dragged towards the door, a look of sheer terror on his face. His breathing quickened and he started to feel sick.

'This can't be happening, just can't. Not again, no, no, not again!' Clout thought in panic as he grit his teeth, trying with all his might to stop being shoved through the doorway and into the bright stage lights. They blinded him for a moment and he was hit again with electricity, causing his body to jerk forward and his hooves to finally move the way they wanted him to. When he opened his eyes, he saw a large crowd before him of gaping ponies. He could make out muzzles that were gasping but the pounding in his ears still wouldn't let him hear their murmurs to each other.

He closed his eyes tight again and focused on the beat. It had been a long time since he last had anything close to a panic attack. He knew he just had to calm himself and think rationally. There had to be a way out of this. If not now, then after he had been sold. He had done it before, he could do it again. The stage didn't matter, the crowd didn't matter, but Thief did, he had to get out of this and make sure she was okay. With one shaky, long breath after another, he calmed himself enough to dull the thud of his heart beat in his ears so he could hear the auctioneer.

"Does nopony really want the opportunity to show off their power with one of the rarest slaves?" a voice asked in shock, "Surely there is some pony out there who wants to show off their status with a genuine crystal pony!" It was a female voice. "He is a strong one, not a single mark on him and--" she continued before she cut herself off. "Oh! We have a bidder!"

Clout swallowed before opening his eyes. He stared at the floor for a moment, watching his shaky legs.

"Going for one hundred thousand bits! Anyone for one hundred twenty?" the auctioneer said with a smile in her voice.

Focusing on his breathing, the crystal pony had managed to calm himself enough to look at the crowd. He took another deep breath.

"We have two hundred thousand from number twenty three! Do we have-- Oh! And another back from number seventy one, two hundred fifty thousand!"

He could make out shapes, the stage lights blurred his vision. A pony in the middle row to the right raised a hoof with a sign and the auctioneer started again. One in the front raised their sign, he could make out the number twenty three on it. The two were in a bidding war. Occasionally another would put in their bid but theirs was soon well overtaken by one of the other two.

Breaking the fury of the bidding war, the auctioneer paused.
"Oh!" she said, "Number one hundred has made a bid of twenty million!"

More mummers through the crowd, some of which Clout could make out.

"Number one hundred? Isn't that number always reserved?"

"Twenty million bits, it's never gone that high!"

"Is the Hatter joking?"

The crystal pony glanced up at the auctioneer. A white smile was painted on the mare’s gray face, bright red blush on her cheeks. The dark purple hat atop her head and short crop black mane shaded the pony’s eyes. In her right wing was a microphone. The black and purple suit she wore matched the hat and was topped off with a large blue bow tie. The Hatter looked to Clout and met his eyes for a moment before continuing to entice the crowd for more bits.

"Well mares and gentle colts, what a bid!" they said, "Twenty million bits! But you must remember, that much money isn't even half of what it costs to purchase a crystal pony legitimately, not to mention buy the permit to own one and move to Canterlot or the Crystal Empire."

The audience once again began to whisper amongst themselves and Clout could see a few of the ponies began to lift their numbers but a door slamming open interrupted them.

"Every creature in this building is under arrest by the authority of King Sombra! Resist arrest and there will be consequences!" somepony by the doors shouted.

At least two dozen ponies dressed in black uniforms with red trim stood in front of the two main doors to the theatre. The black market patrons began to panic and run towards the stage. The monochrome mare leader charged towards the guards with a group behind her, all of them armed with weapons. The two groups immediately began a bloody battle in the old building, distracting the King's authority and giving the crowd a chance to escape. Two ponies and a griffon directed the crowd to exit through the back door and out the loading bay.

Finally, the thief found his chance. With the rush of the panicked ponies, he was pushed by the crowd away from the Hatter and the slavers who held the catch poles. Unable to reach the ends to loosen and remove them, he ran with them clattering behind him and his chains limiting his movements. Clout knew from surveying the stock room earlier that his gear wasn't in there so his best bet was the office. He burst through the door and looked around. A pin board covered in paper, a desk and chair, more paperwork and binders atop it, and a key ring holder by the door, complete with three sets of keys. He grabbed all three sets and began trying each on his bindings. None of the seven keys on the first ring worked nor did any of the twelve on the second. He thought he had it when the first key on the third ring fit but unfortunately it didn't turn. Then he noticed somepony was pulling one of the now loosened catch poles off of him. He looked behind himself to see a mare looking at him bashfully as she removed the second.

"I'm sorry" she began, "The key you were looking for was on one of the griffons." She pulled the keys out of her saddlebags and Clout snatched them away, quickly getting to work on the locks. "Um, you are--" she began again but was interrupted by a pegasus stallion who galloped into the room.

"There you are!" He said, slightly out of breath, "We've got to go!" He looked to the mare. "Who the hell are you? Nevermind, we don't have time, the guards are here for you, let's go before they find you." The stallion grabbed Clout's hoof the second the last shackle was off and pulled him out of the office.

"Hey! You can't just--" the mare exclaimed before running after the two.

The three ponies ran through the stockroom, out the loading bay and down the city street. The entire way, Clout complained and tried to struggle out of the grip of the pegasus but could not get away. The mare followed the two stallions, barely keeping up as she too complained to the pegasus.

As they galloped, the dark shadow of the Hatter followed. The three tried to out run it but it flew ahead of them. They quickly turned down an alleyway, hoping to lose the pegasus but the Hatter was already there, at the end waiting for them. The small group turned around and continued to run. Yet again the Hatter's shadow was following.

"What do you want?" Clout yelled to the dappled mare.

The suited pony landed abruptly in front of them, halting their gallop. They took a step forward as the three stepped back. "Oh don't worry, I'm not here to capture you, crystal pony." The painted grin on their face grew into a confident smile as they spoke, "I only want to deliver a message before you leave. Since you are actually leaving on your own accord of course." Her black tail swished and she took a couple more steps forward before starting to speak in rhyme, "There was a crystal pony, short and stout. That no pony else knew about. Fearless he was, brave and bold." They chuckled a bit, "Captured by slavers, bound and sold. Bought by the Head to stop the act." The Hatter's smile turned to a frown, glaring at the three, "But tattled on, they were attacked. Escape he did with the help of two friends. Soon, their days will be at ends." Her smile returned, "So tread lightly and watch your backs. For the main willtake their tax."

Author's Note

I actually did try to stay true to an actual mansion layout. I tried counting the rooms so I may be off when Anne says 87. If anyone has a more accurate number feel free to let me know and I'll correct it. Rooms include bathrooms and closets and every other space behind a door. The irl mansion layout is here: https://homesoftherich.net/2013/06/a-hotr-readers-revised-floor-plans-to-a-17000-square-foot-mansion/

All characters found in this chapter belong to me, GutterRatt (Also RadioactiveRatt, trying to change my screen name cause I think it sounds cooler). They can all be found on my toyhou.se account over here:

https://toyhou.se/GutterRatt1213/characters/folder:1192030

Chapter 5 coming soon! :)

Equestria Broken - Five: The Seeds

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Equestria Broken - Six : But, Unless

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Equestria Broken - Seven : Travelers

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Equestria Broken - Eight : Intentions

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