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"So, that's how it is, huh?" Zoan looked thoughtfully out of the chariot window, taking in the night sky as the pegasi pulling them tore through the air. Mendax looked out of the same window and muttered, "Yeah, that's exactly how it is." Mendax had just finished telling his accomplice what Boss-Pony had assigned them to do. He also told her how little choice he was given. Neither of them talked for a long while as they both reflected on the task and worried about how it would get done. Zoan looked away from the window and shifted her eyes to Mendax, who was still lost in deep thought.

"Did the Boss-Pony say what our reward for giving him the rights to Ponyville is going to be?" Her eyes sparkled at the thought of some obvious theatrical treasure chest bearing jewels and gold coins. Mendax had forgotten to mention the exuberant reward for the completion of their task. "Well," began Mendax, "If we do what we're told, he promised to pretty much give us so much money that we would never have to work another day in our lives. We would pretty much have it made." Zoan's eyes lit up and excitement flooded her face. She began to bounce in her seat, causing the chariot to rock and throwing the pegasus ponies off of their path. One of them yelled out, "Easy back there, or we'll drop you in a lake!" The pegasi laughed and continued flying towards their destination as Mendax tried to calm down the light-green mare.

Zoan squeeled and her mouth began to run at top-speed. "Can you imagine it? All we have to do is get a simple signature and then we'll be set for life! We'll have all the money in the world and we'll never have to work again and I'll never have to worry about begging anymore! Can you believe it, Mendax? This is our chance!" Mendax couldn't help but allow his face to crack into a solid grin. She was right, why was he worrying about the ponies in Ponyville? What did they mean to him? This was his big break, the kind of chance he'd been waiting for. Why did he even consider letting his emotions cloud what was really important? Himself! Mendax was trying to stay reasonable. "It's not as simple as getting a signature though, Zoan," he said to the mare sitting across from him. "We need to be sure the mayor doesn't know what he or she is agreeing to, or the mayor probably won't sign it. Then we'll be in trouble." Zoan didn't seem at all bothered.

"It'll be easy! With your smooth-talking and my," she ran a hoof through her mane, "skills as an actress, we'll be able to pull this off with no problem!" Mendax didn't seem all too sure, himself, but he was sure she wouldn't listen. Something about what Zoan was saying was slightly beginning to bother Mendax. She didn't seem to be worried at all about the ponies who were currently occupying Ponyville..

"Zoan, don't you kind of care about the ponies in Ponyville?" Zoan's face dropped and a serious air was about her. She said coldly, "No, I don't. Nopony cared about me when I was begging on the streets of Canterlot. I'm sure these ponies are no different. They're cold and greedy. To make it, we have do be the same. This is our chance, Mendax. We can't let it pass us by because we feel bad." Zoan added that "feel bad" with a condescending tone and rolled her eyes. Mendax was purely surprised by how logical his usual air-headed travel companion was being. Perhaps their was more to her than he initially thought. Mendax felt thoroughly reassured, for some reason. He put up a powerful hoof and yelled out, "You're right, Zoan! This is it! This is, in all aspects, the ultimate scam! We'll steal Ponyville right out from under their noses and WE'LL reap the rewards!" Zoan stomped her hooves in applause and wooped. With smiles on both of their faces, they returned their gazes out of their windows, letting the thoughts of what they'd do with their reward money fill their imaginations.

--

It had been a silent fifteen or so minutes when Mendax caught Zoan looking at him. He glanced back over to her, and she quickly averted her eyes. Mendax smiled and asked, "You want to ask me something, Zoan?" She looked back over to him, blushing slightly and let her thoughts be known. "Your cutie-mark," she began, "what is it?" Mendax looked down at his own flank and smiled slightly. "It's a bar of silver, I think."

"What does it represent, you think?" Zoan asked, unabashedly staring at Mendax's flank. Mendax moved his eyes back up to her and explained, "Well, I'm not too sure. If I was to make a guess, I would imagine it represents my love for wealth. Though, I imagine it makes more sense to say that it's because I'm silver tounged." Zoan's face scrunched up a tad and she yelled out, "You're WHAT?" Mendax laughed heavily at the ignorance of his accomplice and cleared things up. "Silver tongued," he explained. "It means that I have a way with words." Zoan rubbed a thoughtful hoof over her chin and said, "Oh, okay then," she laughed a bit and started to look back out her window. Mendax wasn't about to let her off the hook that easy, and was ready to ask Zoan a little bit about herself.

"So," Mendax sighed, "How about YOUR cutie-mark then?" Zoan glanced down at her own flank, as did Mendax. She ever so slightly rotated her plot around so Mendax could get a proper view of her flank. Mendax noticed that Zoan was blushing again, but he couldn't imagine why. "I don't understand," Mendax raised an eyebrow as he tried to decipher the meaning behind Zoan's cutie-mark. "Rain drops?" What Mendax saw were three drops of water, but they didn't look like fresh-water drops. There were white speckles within them that reminded Mendax slightly of salt.

Zoan stopped staring at her own flank and looked back up to Mendax. She shared a heavy explanation. "My cutie-mark is a trio of tear-drops," she explained. Mendax seemed confused. When did THIS mare ever cry? Zoan saw that the stallion didn't understand so she continued. "For a good portion of my life, I've been begging on the streets of Canterlot. In fact, that was what I was doing when you hired me to help you on your gig."

"I remember," Mendax recounted, "Go on." Mendax could tell that she had already come up with a logical explanation as to why tear drops were her cutie-mark, and that she was now simply trying to put her explanation into words. Zoan began, "I've always had a knack for making people feel sorry for me. It was like a gift, I suppose. Whenever I wanted bits or some food, I could just put on a frowny face and tell a sad story about how starving I was. I guess that my cutie-mark represents how easily I can make people feel bad for me. Hence the tears." Mendax was, once again, shocked by the mare. How could an air-head like her be so deep? In fact, since when was an explanation for a cutie-mark so philisophical? Mendax racked his brains.

"So, your special talent is... making people feel bad for you?" He put both his hooves to the sides of his head and massaged lightly. "It's still confusing. That's not much of a talent." Zoan gave him a stoic look and Mendax quickly added, "I mean, yours is much better than mine! Psh, a silver bar, doesn't even make sense!" Zoan cracked a smile at how simply silly her partner was acting. Mendax let out a nervous gust of breath of quickly shifted his attention out the window and towards the ground, watching the trees and wild-life pass under him. "I can't believe we're not there yet!" Zoan complained, slouching in her seat. "We'll get there when we get there," Mendax said simply, once again noticing that fatherly air to his tone. Fatherly? Mendax moved his attention back to Zoan. Was it okay to ask the question that just nipped at his brain? Maybe it would upset her. Well, he would never know unless he tried.

"Zoan?" he began softly. Zoan could tell something was up, but went along with it. "Yes?" she asked, smiling with an inquisitive brow. "You said that you have been begging for most of your life." Zoan nodded and replied, "Yep, that's right. Ever since I was a filly." Mendax noticed she still had a chipper tone to her voice, meaning that she was still unaware of the question he was about to bring up. Mendax continued slowly, "Ever since you were a filly? What happened to your family?" Zoan was startled by the personal question. She jumped slightly in her seat and quickly looked back out the window, clearly taking a moment to think of how to answer the slightly rude question. She gave Mendax an offensive glance and stammered, "W-well, where's your partner? Don't think that I don't know! That night in the shed, you were talking in your sleep! Something about your partner! Is that why you're so unwilling to call me your partner?" Zoan finished strongly.

"If you want to have the same title as the mare who cruelly ripped my heart out and stabbed me in the back, then you can have it!" Mendax countered. "All I did was ask you about your family!" Mendax continued pounding Zoan with his louder than necessary words. "What? Do you not trust me? You think that I'm not going to like what you have to say? If you want to truly be partners, then the first step to getting there is for us to trust each other! Understand!?" He finished yelling, his chest heaving with the typical sharp breaths of an angered stallion. Mendax didn't mean to get angry. In fact, he had no idea why he was so angered. She didn't trust him, that's why. That hurt him, because deep down...maybe he-

"I'm sorry, Zoan." Mendax said, his head bowed and his eyes closed. "I shouldn't have yelled at you. Just forget I ever asked you about your family." He was finally calmed down and his breathing had once again regulated. Just then, before the silence became unbearable, Zoan began speaking, causing Mendax's head to shoot up, his ears perked and ready to listen. "My father simply abandoned my mother before I was even born," she began softly. "After I was born, my mother couldn't raise me on her own, and she took to begging on the streets. When she thought I was old enough, she handed me a cup and told me, 'Zoan, go out there and make mommy proud.' Well, I did. I had a knack for it, begging." Zoan stopped a moment before continuing on.

"My mom noticed how good I was. In fact, I was so good at begging and making ponies feel bad for me, that I would sometimes go alone and make just enough bits to feed the both of us for the day." Once again, Zoan stopped. "What I didn't know, though, was that my mother was putting some of the money I made away. One morning, I woke up. I remember it so clearly. I woke up in a park, under a tree, where my mother and I had fallen asleep for the night. I looked around, and noticed that my mother was gone. The morning sun was shining so brightly that I couldn't make out anything more than a few inches from my eyes. When my eyes adjusted, I noticed a small piece of paper sitting where my head had once been under the tree. I trotted over to it and read it. The mouth-writing was my mother's. It said,

'I'm sorry I couldn't give you the life you deserved.'

My mother had taken all of the money I had earned for the both of us, and left in the night. I figure she took a train to Fillydelphia or something."

Zoan stopped talking. Mendax was blown away. What a tragic tale! Mendax's foalhood was actually pretty leisurely, all things considered. That's what probably lead to him living a life like he has. One of excitement! Mendax reached a hoof across the carraige and caringly let his hoof run through Zoan's red mane. She didn't flinch away, but simply stared at him. Mendax sighed, "I'm really sorry. I can easily relate when it comes to knowing how it feels to be betrayed." Mendax sat back in his seat and closed his eyes. Zoan hadn't forgotten what she wanted to know. "What happened between you and your former partner then?" she questioned, with a nervous smile. Mendax really didn't want to talk about it, but after that little speech he gave about trust, he had very little option. Mendax sat back in his seat, closing his eyes and letting the memories he's tried to repress flood his mind as he began to speak.

"My partner and I used to work our scams in Manehatten. She was a beautiful gray mare. In fact, her coat was just a shade or two lighter than mine. Her mane was a snow white. I remember how perfect she always seemed to me. Her voice was like velvet."

Zoan loudly interrupted, "Isn't that a kind of cake!?" Mendax opened one eye and grumbled, "Yes, red velvet. I'm talking about something entirely different, though.." Mendax couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed that Zoan had already returned back to her normal, annoying self. He closed his eye and continued. "One particular morning, I had set up my props for the day. I was planning on doing something very similar to what we did in Canterlot. I was going to wave and boast my product, then bring her on stage and demonstrate its effects." Mendax halted his story and his face contorted slightly, as if the memory brought him pain. "Something went wrong afterwards. I made the mistake of saying that the effects of my product were instantaneous. Right when I sold those ponies my wares, they tested them out and instantly knew we were both frauds.

Then I remember galloping. Both of us, as fast as we could. The ponies we'd attempted to scam were giving chase. I had all of their bits still and they had no intentions on letting me keep them. We ran through the streets of Manehatten as quickly as our hooves could carry us. knowing it was a lost cause. No matter where we ran, we couldn't get out of eye-shot of our pursuers. Eventually, the two of us began to gallop over a large bridge that went over a fairly calm river. When we were about half-way across the bridge, she stopped in front of me. I stopped too as she turned to look at me, with an apologetic look in her eyes. She turned again so that her plot was facing me, then planted a crushing kick with her hind-hoof to my muzzle. I heard my muzzle crack and its shape contort from the force as the large pouch of bits I'd earned fell from my mouth. I staggered from both the force of her kick and disorientation. My hooves tangled themselves and I found myself tripping and falling over the railing and in to the river below.

As I fell, I could hear the pursuing ponies yelling out, 'Stop, he fell in the river! Somepony save him, quick! Forget about that mare! Let's go!' Next thing I knew, I had hit the water. It's true what they say, water can be gentle as silk or as hard as a brick. On that day, it chose to be hard as a brick. I hit the water and was instantly submerged. The sound of water filled my ears as my lungs almost instantly began to burn and fill with the liquid death that was quickly pouring into my body. My lungs screamed for air, yet I did nothing to bring myself back up to the surface. I think I may have wanted to die. I had been betrayed, and by the only pony I felt was actually my friend. My partner."

Mendax wiped a hoof over his eyes as discreetly as possible. True gentlestallions don't cry with company around. It's unseemly. He continued, "The ponies I had swindled fished me out of the river, hollering and trying to return me from my oxygen deprived stupor. I woke up and they started laughing and insulting me. They called me an idiot for trying to scam them, like they were some kind of geniuses or something that couldn't be fooled. If I had the energy or will, I would have told them that they had already foolishly purchased my garbage. One of the ponies noticed my muzzle was broken and leaned his head down to me, saying, 'Your marefriend did you good, partner. She took all of our bits too.' He flicked his hoof over my muzzle, sending a sharp pain throughout my whole body and causing my brain to throb. The pony continued, 'I think she gave you punishment enough, bucko. Although...' The pony kicked a hoof straight into my ribs, forcing out the air that my lungs were so greedily trying to regain. 'There, a broken muzzle from your partner, a broken rib from the ponies you scammed, I think we're even now.'

My assailant left me there, on the side of the river, laughing with the other ponies as they cantered away. My body was in despair. The pain I was experiencing coupled with the lack of oxygen must've caused me to pass out. When I woke up, I felt well enough to walk. My ribs definitely weren't broken, but they were sore. My muzzle, on the other hand, probably needed to be looked at. I had a doctor look at it in town, and she painfully snapped it into place, telling me it would correct itself in time. After that, I knew I had to retreat from Manehatten. Since I no longer had any money, I simply hoofed it all the way to Canterlot. I spent about two years there and then I met you. The end," Mendax finished with a hefty sigh.

Zoan was listening intently to the personal story of her travel companion. She asked, "You never saw her again.?"

"Nope," Mendax replied cooly, "which is good for her. If I ever do see her again, I can't be held responsible for what happens to her." Zoan smiled and laughed, saying, "If you find her while I'm around, you can break her muzzle while I kick her in the ribs." They both roared with laughter at the thought. "I have no idea why that's so funny," Mendax laughed. "Exactly," said Zoan. "That makes it even funnier!" The two accomplices in crime continued to laugh and talk about trivialties as they neared Ponyville. Before they were even aware, the carraige had landed and was coming to an abrupt stop. So abrupt, in fact, that Mendax almost toppled over onto Zoan, causing them both to burst into laughter again.

Mendax flung the doors of the carraige open and stepped out, Zoan right behind him. They were in Ponyville. The pegasi instantly bolted off when Zoan had exited, leaving the two friends alone in the night. "Sugarcube Corner," Zoan read. Mendax knew she was addressing the large gingerbread looking house in front of them. They both took a moment to look around at their surroundings. It was a quaint town. Very simple, in fact. Mendax scanned and quickly located what appeared to be City Hall. That was definitely where the mayor would be in the morning. He made a mental note of it and turned back to Zoan, who was still gawking at the Sugarcube Corner.

He began, "Alright, our work begins tomorrow! Remember the plan?"

"Yessir!" Zoan said, slamming a saluting hoof to her head. Mendax continued, "Okay then! As for tonight, we need to get some sleep," Zoan nodded in agreement as Mendax added with a wink, "partner." Mendax began cantering away as Zoan stood, frozen in place, a bright smile taking over her shocked face. Mendax looked over his shoulder, "You coming?" Zoan squeeled in delight and followed her partner into Ponyville.