Infiltration

A/N; Hello again, hopefully this chapter will be much longer that the previous one. ^^" If any of you has suggestions or criticization... stuff, (don't even know if thats a word) just comment. Now for the words of wisdom;

"If a person has just one good friend, their happiness is doubled and their life immeasurably enriched. This is genuine wealth." -Daisaku Ikeda

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Birds chirped happily as the sun slowly rose on the horizon, warming the valley beneath it with its glow. Woken by the noise, a black earth pony stepped casually out of his cloth tent. Stretching and yawning, he used his mouth to remove the stakes holding his tent up, then packed it with the rest of his belongings in his saddle bag. Looking out to the town in the distance, he sighed and began trotting forward, flipping his brown mane out of his eyes.

Scarf felt naked without his cloak, but it was necessary, he would draw much to many eyes if he walked into Ponyville with a hood and mask on. Stopping at a crossroads, he looked at the sign. left to Sweet Apple Acres, or right to continue into Ponyville. His route was intended route was obvious, but he may be able to enter the small village without catching any attention if he went through a back way. He turned to the orchard.

"Where are you going, silly? Ponyville is the other way!" Hidden Scarf jumped.

"I, er, have business at the orchard." He stumbled over his words, this was the first time anyone had snuck up in him. He looked over his shoulder to see who it was.

"Ooh, are you moving in? Is that why you need a job? I should throw you a party!" The pink mare behind him began rambling about what kind of party she would throw, but Scarf wasn't listening. He was more interested in how this pony had snuck up on him. Did she fly, no, no wings. Maybe magic, but that’s hard to do without a horn.

"-But then if we had all that pie, AJ might not have enough to sell, and that would be a bummer. Maybe we could have carrot pie, ooh that would be interesting, I wonder if Carrot Top has enough for something like that. If not we could make some carrot cake. But wait, does carrot cake need more, or less carrots than pie?" Scarf shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name." He said politely.

"Don't be sorry, silly billy, no-one can catch names" she paused for a moment, grinning ear to ear, "Oh! Now I get it! You wanted to know what my name is!" Scarf nodded with a small grin. "Well why didn't you say so? My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, but you can just call me Pinkie." Pinkie Pie said gleefully.

"Pleased to meet you." Scarf said, turning back to the road and trotting lightly, he didn't want to be snuck up on again by anypony else. Pinkie Pie either didn’t follow him, or was following the same way she snuck up on him.

After about a half hours walk, he finally made it to the farm, at first glance, there was nopony there, So he kept walking, hoping to get to the orchard quickly so he could hide among the trees.

"Well howdy there, anythin' I can do for you?" Of course. Scarf turned around slowly to look at the speaker, An orange earth pony in a large stetson and blonde mane. This must be Applejack, the farm pony. "'Part from interviewing you 'course."

"Interview?"

"Well yeah, Pinkie pie already told me how you was looking for work here, and ah would be most glad to give you a job on our farm here." Hidden Scarf slowly examined the pony, she seemed honestly welcoming, and a job wouldn't be too bad to have, even if it did count against his current plan. He was nothing if not good at improvising.

"Okay..." He said slowly, still unsure if he wanted to do this, "what kind of work would I have to do?"

"Oh, we got lots of stuff you could help out with, startin' with some good old fashioned apple buckin', then maybe come saturday, y'all could help with the stand and selling them apples, how's that?"

"Um..." Scarf thought for a bit, maybe he could make this work to his advantage, "Okay then, when do I start?"

"Yer highered, yall can start right away if'n yer wantin' to, or yeh can go get to know everypony in town." Applejack said. reaching out a hoof, the black pony shook it.

"I'll need to find a place to stay, though," He explained.

"Oh, no need for that, partner, y'all can stay in the barn, it may not look like much, but it's mighty comfortable." Scarfs eye twitched slightly and he took a step back.

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll need a more permanent residence, I'll just come back here once I've found one." A.J. looked crestfallen.

"Alright then, it's just we don't get many visitors round here, much less ones lookin' for a job." Scarfs eye twitched again, really he thought, Why do I always have to do the right thing? He suddenly heard one of Masters pieces of advice ringing in his ear.

”heeheehee, sympathy is want everypony needs and has, its only when you let it get the best of you that it becomes dangerous. Of course you just so cold hearted I don't think that'll ever happen." He gritted his teeth, I'll show you cold hearted, you little good for nothing- the thought was cut short by AppleJack prodding him with her hoof.

"Are y'all gonna go or not?" she asked

"Eh? Oh, yeah, I'll be back by nightfall." he said, galloping off.

The home hunting went surprisingly fast, he had found a good house near the center of town, close by the library and town hall, he had also scouted out the park and shopping districts before walking toward his final destination. It seemed to be the social center of ponyville. Sugarcube Corner. Unfortunately, the pink mare from earlier popped out of a nearby bush.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" She sharply inhaled. "Oh my goodness! your early! I've never had anyone early to one of my parties before! Mostly because they're surprise parties. Oh! looks like I just spoiled it, I guess I'm just so super-duper excited, I mean, It's not everyday you get to throw a party for such a renown thief from the guild or anything, hahaha!" In a flash, Scarf tackled her back into the bush.

"How'd you know I was a thief?" He asked, not wasting any time to get the information out of her. Pinkie giggled uncontrollably.

"I saw you going to the 'Con the other day and decided to follow you," she began making hoof gestures and expressions to help explain things, "You were all like -.- 'hmph', Then that one colt was like :D 'cool!' And rainbow Dash was all drooling like; :P. Then you stole that watcha-ma-call-it book and walked out all >.> and everyone else was all O.O" Scarf grabbed her face with both forehooves so her face went ^3^.

"If you tell anyone about that, you will not only have me, but every other member of the thieves guild after you for the rest of you life" He said sternly, it was a bluff, but it was hard to tell if the mare bought it with the way she was grinning.

"Okie-dokie-lokie!" she replied, bouncing off, the thief shook his head and headed back to the farm.

better get back so I can actually WORK on my first day He told himself, almost completely forgetting to go to sugarcube corner, probably wasn't missing anything anyway.

"My my, he seems to be moving in nicely."

"Nicely? he got his cover blown BEFORE HE EVEN HAD ONE!"

"Oooh, sounds like someone's cranky."

"Hush, both of you, we need to keep our eyes on what's going on."