Guardian of the Sun

Chapter 3: To Leave the Flames of Youth

Even after an arduous flight, and doing whatever he could to sleep, Blaze grumbled incoherently to himself as he pulled the sole blanket off of his anxious body. He’d gotten restless sleep, at best. Not that it mattered: the moment his hoof pulled off his only cover, he was greeted by the remorseless cool of a very, very early morning.

The chill ran up his spine, failing halfway through, but he welcomed the stunning clarity it gave him. He had work to do, unfortunately, and now that Star’s success was dependent on his own, he was determined to do this right.

He turned to where his brother slept, and gingerly draped his own blanket over the star-patterned one. With Star taken care of, he turned and crept his way across the empty space, using the minimal light cast by the very few remaining lanterns to avoid any of the sleeping ponies. He stopped the moment he got to the large door, pausing as another thought bounded into his mind: perhaps he should leave Star a note. He didn’t want his brother to worry about him while he was gone, assuming he didn’t get back before then.

He cast his gaze around the almost black room, and he realized that even if he wanted to write a note, he didn’t have anything to write on or with. Sighing to himself, he let out a silent prayer to anything that would listen that Star didn’t decide to go out and spend their few precious bits on candy.

He slipped out the door, walking down the streets still shrouded in the shadows before the dawn. He did what he could to suppress the shudder running through his stomach, but every step he took as he slid through the shadows only reinforced the feeling that something was wrong.

He paused next to the corner of an aged, but intact, warehouse. Pulling himself deeper into the shadows, his gaze swept down every street, barely making out the shapes of buildings and non-buildings from within their own shadowy blankets. It was far too early or anypony else to be out- reasonably, at least -and without his eyes being able to pick up anything, his ears perked up. He barely felt his stomach tightening up, but the tension in his wings and shoulders was nearing a painful margin.

Nothing was coming out to play, and the longer he held his breath trying to find them, the more he was starting to believe that maybe he was just overreacting. His encounters with those buckers from the day before was replaying in the back of his head, and by the third iteration, he had let loose that long-held breath. He didn’t feel like he could relax, not really, but he tried to force his legs to pull him further towards the markets.

He had no idea who he was supposed to meet, or where they were going to be within the market, but he was going on the assumption that they’d find him.

He shuddered underneath his fur, the conflict in his head reaching ever higher and pounding ever harder against his skull. He hated that this was a reality for him now, that he was actually going to go through with this, but he also knew that this was but a small price to pay if he was going to pursue his destiny and protect his brother. Each hoof hit the cobblestone beneath with a heavier thud than it used to, but it felt like he was moving along faster than he ought to have been.

His stomach churned one final time, with greater intensity than before, and a shocking chill shot through from his left wing, passing through his body as it went through his right. His chest tightened up and he felt his heart flutter, forcing a gasp out of him, just as a light breeze began to blow through the streets. His head whipped from side to side, trying to find just what had caused such a reaction out of him, his eyes desperately tearing through the darkness with renewed clarity. Was it fear that he found dominating over him? Or perhaps it was a spark of rage?

There was, just as before, not another soul hiding in the shadows around the streets, nor could he see anything taking shelter along the rooftops; he was alone. But every fiber of his being was shouting at him that that was just not the case.

He forced down a growl, and tried to pull himself further into the darkness, all the while he bemoaned his misfortune of having a nearly pristine white coat. It was the opposite of what he wanted right then. Well, it was an inconveniencing pristine white coat whenever he had the chance to bathe, and everypony knew that those were a very rare luxury that few ponies could make regular use of.

Five minutes of stillness in the shadows, and there was nothing coming out. He couldn’t stop the frustrated growl from escaping, and he stomped a hoof onto the paved stone while berating his inner senses for bringing unwanted stress for absolutely nothing. He pulled into the center of the street, and as he passed a pile of rubble, he glanced over the ruins of what was once a grand building. The moon was resting above the ruins, cresting perfectly between the peak of the mound, shining a brilliant light that cascaded his patch of street in an eerily calm silvery glow.

“What troubles thou?” a deep, almost regal voice asked. The voice was distinctly commanding, sounding booming over the deathly silence of the rest of the city, yet there was the strain as if somepony were whispering in his ear. Blaze spun around on his hooves, crouching down to face the owner of the voice. He’d been down this kind of situation before.

There wasn’t anypony before him, the street was empty, save the shadows that clung to everything with greedy claws.

He was confused for but a second, until the sound of beating wings raised his attention to the space above him. His jaw dropped as his eyes fell upon one of two ponies that he was very certain that he was never going to meet in his lifetime, if he was lucky: the Princess of the Night herself, Princess Luna.

“Buck,” it was the first thing that floated through the barren space that his mind had been, and so it had only felt natural to let it fly out of his unhinged mouth. Then things started to work again, and he proceeded to reclaim control over his body, starting promptly by shutting his mouth shut and shaking his head to get thoughts flowing again. She gently floated down from her aerial position, landing with graceful ease and elegant calm that encouraged his rising worry to flare much larger. He shut that down quickly as he watched her, remembering that she was one of the two most powerful ponies in existence: what did she have to worry about?

She landed with a grace that he assumed would come with the title of Princess, her wings folding at her sides while she stared at him with an expression that he couldn’t quite place. Worry? Confusion? Curiosity? Something else? He eyed her cautiously, taking in the royal presence, noting that she had a striking resemblance to his brother. With that in mind, an unreasonable part of his mind started to chat around, his shoulders relaxed, and he settled his own wings.

The two ponies were standing in silence for the greater part of a minute, observing each other, before Blaze had a sudden realization that the Princess had asked him a question. He shook his mind clear and thought about how much she was actually interested in hearing about his problems.

Pawing at the ground, he strained his ears to find the presence of somepony- anypony -else, only to be reminded, once again, that they were alone. Well, those previous warnings might have been false, after all. His ears were on swivels as his gaze fell upon the massive mare before him. “Uh. . . I guess I’m just a little stressed about things. Worried for my brother. Nothing worthy of the attention of a Princess.”

The Princess cocked her head to the side, concentration pulling her face downward while her eyes focused on his worried expression. “We art here to help thy little ponies. It is of no consequence to bear thine heart before us.”

“Don’t know why you’d care, though-” he finally shot back, his mind finding purchase at the thought of his little brother. His stance widened and he felt his feathers stiffening at his actions, the steady beat of his heart quickening as he settled into some semblance of a combat stance. He’d learned a little from the last time he’d been in a bad spot, and he had no intention of making the same mistake; no, he was fully planning on doing whatever he needed to to escape. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was goading the Princess, but the urge was there, and what kind of pony was he to refuse his every base desire? “-you’ve been oh so busy up in that cozy little castle of yours enjoying the regal life that you’d never need to understand what troubles us pathetic commoners.”

The Princess flinched back at the biting tone, and for a moment her ears flopped back over her head. She looked genuinely hurt. “Surely, thou doth not belief this to be true?”

He blinked for a second, biting the inside of his cheek for the brief flicker of doubt emerging, but the feeling was crushed by a surge of resignation. He straightened his stance, doing what he could to appear as large as possible, though he leaned back just enough to have an easy time spinning and fleeing. He was far too gone to back out, and Princess Luna would not see him doubting the path he’d chosen.

“Of course I mean it!” his hoof gestured to the buildings surrounding them, “Have you even bothered taking a look around? This shit-show is basically dragging itself to Tartarus, ponies are desperate for anything and everything, and everything is seeping in chaos. We’re just trying to survive, and yet you somehow think that your gracious benevolence has shown clearly to us peasants? Like we have so much time to just stand around and talk about politics? We’re starving down here; we’re fighting over scraps. We’re doing whatever we can to make it through another day. So, yes: I do believe that you don’t care about what troubles I’m going through.”

Each word assaulted the Princess with venom, spite raging forth as the walls crumbled down, releasing the torrent of pent-up emotions. Princess Luna slowly stepped back, begrudgingly retreating from the barrage of rage, until she caught the first opportunity she had when he paused for breath. She stepped up to him, her wings stubbornly fighting to rise to their full height, as befitting a pony of her stature.

Though her chin was set and her shoulders square, her gaze cast down upon the young colt with a soft understanding, and just the barest sparkle of hope. “But thou hath not the understanding of just what it is we Princesses hath labored over to prevent further collapse of thine country, nor our effort in hastening the peace and well-being of everypony within.”

The dignified ferocity of her Royal Voice was straining to be heard, to rise up and disable any displeasure with the royal Sisters’ attitudes. Still, she kept her tone even and her voice carried a soft melody as she approached the aggravated colt.

“Spare me the royal language. You don’t have any idea. . .” He waved her away, dismissing her kindly extended hoof. His emotions were still running loose, and it was only through clenched teeth that he was able to refrain from actually slapping her hoof away. Kindness had no place being in his company right now. He was about to continue his rant, but the words died in his chest, his throat catching when that very deep blue hoof landed on his shoulder.

His body locked up, any thought he had had about his misfortunes, and how he had seen the city around him suffer, was swiftly replaced by a crippling fear. He’d made another tragic mistake. He knew he did: he had gotten too worked up, and now he was going to be punished by the Princess for his insolence. If only he’d managed to keep his cool enough to have watched out for whatever she was doing: maybe he would have been able to distract her enough to find a means of escape. . .

He doubted that would have worked.

Princess Luna inched closer to him, then she fell onto her haunches, her generous smile radiating a strange warmth that nearly cooked the crisp air between them. She found her gaze shifting from the desperate fear and confusion in his eyes to the dingy, grimy coat of fur that had once been a pristine and elegant white. She could see the bones showing through, something she wasn’t terribly accustomed to, and she felt a break in her chest.

The moment the royal hoof had touched his shoulder, he knew he was bucked: there was just now way he’d even be able to escape from whatever wrath he was deemed due to suffer. His mind was screaming for a means of freedom, the incoherent shouting echoing in his skull, though none of the thoughts seemed to carry any weight. The best he got was a startled flicker of acknowledgment when she sat down before him, her presence seemingly not there to punish, but to comfort. He couldn’t wrap his head around that, though he wasn’t able to wrap it around much right then.

“Thou art correct in one assumption; we hath not had the misfortune of being forced to fend for ourselves in the street.” her tone remained as calm and comforting as ever, and as her words began to wash over him, he felt some of his turbulent emotions begin to sooth over. With the abating emotions, he found himself in greater control of his body, and he made short use of that control, lightly stamping a hoof onto the ground.

“You get to spend all your time in that castle, enjoying every little pleasure you could want.”

“Even so, we still throw ourselves into our work; laboring day and night to restore our nation to the glory we had before. It may sound simple enough, little pony, but we assure thee: it is most intensive.” her other hoof reached down and brought his chin up so she could look into his eyes. “We hath no desire to see thee, or anypony, suffer from what hath brought us so low.”

He was beginning to despise the fact that his anger was dissipating, but the more he tried to hold onto it, the faster it seemed to slip away from him. He looked into the Princess’ eyes, and though he could see the genuine compassion she felt, he refused to buckle entirely and return her kindness. He just wasn’t ready for that yet.

“You might be fighting some fight that I don’t understand, but right now. . . right now I’ve got to fight for anything that will keep my brother alive: I’ll fight for any food or bits that I can get my hooves on.” he glanced down the street, towards the markets that he really needed to get to. His gaze seemed to fixate itself on the ever-decreasing shadows, reminding him that he was running out of time, whatever it was that those damned thieves were going to use him for, it was happening very soon. He sighed, forcing his attention back to the larger pony before him. He regarded her in a slightly new light, understanding that she might actually care about all the little ponies struggling to live. She seemed to be regarding him in a similar light, as her features seemed to soften to a degree that he thought to be almost casual. “You can keep doing whatever it is you Princesses do up in that fancy castle of yours, and I guess I’ll be staying out here in the filth until I can do something to help my baby brother.”

The Princess gave him a small smile and took a step back. Her horn lit up a bright blue, and for a moment, her eyes shut in concentration, then there was a soft pop, and a bag appeared before her. Her magic enveloped the small pouch and levitated it over to the young colt. “We must apologize to thee; for it would appear that we hath not done enough to care for the personal wellbeing of our subjects. We beg thee to accept this small allowance of bits as a token of our regret that thee and thine brother hath suffered under us.”

He quickly snatched up the bag, hearing the merry clink of gold within, and returned her smile, a touch more enthusiastically this time. He gave her a short bow as she rose to her full height, wings flaring open. Without another word, the Princess threw herself to the open skies, fading from sight as she returned to whatever it was that befitted a royal Sister on the dying night.

He bounced the bag in his hoof once he was alone again, guessing that there had to be at least a few dozen bits in here: more than enough for him to help feed a growing colt and himself. “Maybe the Princesses aren’t so bad, after all.”

With the bag clenched firmly between his teeth, he made his way down the street, suddenly remembering that he had places to be and important meetings to deal with. Or whatever it was that that thief leader wanted with him. Probably stealing. It was a meeting at the market before just about anypony should be up, and there was that little fact that he was needed to repay some bullshit “debt.” It wasn’t his fault those stallions were idiots and got themselves into trouble; so why was he being required to pay for it?

As much as he wanted to just run back home with the new bits he’d just received, he knew that refusing to go through with this horrid deal would end badly: that Al Capony guy had some knowledge that most everypony else wouldn’t have had access to. Whatever he did, he had a feeling that the leader of those thieves would eventually find out.

And he could not have that.

So he kept his dissatisfaction to himself, though he grumbled incoherently around the bag of bits in his mouth, and forced himself to scurry down the streets faster. His body was still remembering that absolutely horrible feeling he’d had just before running into Princess Luna. But the genuine happiness creeping through his skull, quickly joining forces with the unrelenting hope that had entrenched itself, had allowed him to move and he did his best to push it out of his mind. The market was just a few blocks away and he was hoping that he still had enough time to put up with whatever plan he was expected to put up with. Things were too unstable for him to have even more bad shit happen to either him or Star.

He trotted down the center of the street, glad that the shadows were unhindered by the moon. He had known that he was alone, but the presence of a single pony had shattered that knowledge, and he couldn’t shake the tingling sensation under his fur screaming that he was still being watched. The streets around him were empty, the gentle breeze flowing around him his only company, and even the skies above were devoid of life: he felt like Princess Luna had left him for good. And yet those invisible eyes seemed to cling to his flank regardless of anypony around him.

He put a bit more energy into his stride, trotting down the barren streets towards the market in the hopes that maybe a bit of distance was all he needed. His hopes diminished with each step as the feeling rose higher and higher, clawing at his ability to focus, and making his hide crawl: it was getting to the point he thought something was trapped inside of him and trying to fight its way out, and he hated every bit of it.

The sensation was getting so bad he was considering just collapsing in the street and waiting for it to pass. But before he had the chance to drop his legs out from under him, the choice was taken away, and the watchful eyes let him be. Just as soon as the feeling had started, it was gone, leaving him equally grateful and terrified at what would have been able to produce such a feeling in anypony.

He hoped that he’d be lucky enough to never find out.

He shrugged the remaining tingling out of his fur and found himself trotting through the barren marketplace. Even without the help of the pale moonlight, he was able to see the shapes of the decrepit stalls either lined up or scattered around the vast opening between the encircling buildings. He glanced around the open space, trying to find any signs of the ponies that he was supposed to meet with. If they were here, he figured that it shouldn’t be too hard to find them.

He trotted into the large opening, hoping that the faint sound of his hoof falls would alert them to his presence. He was finding the idea of stumbling around in the dark to be undesirable, especially when he was cutting it short on time. And as he made his way closer to what was probably the center of the market space, he found his unease rising at the others’ lack of presence.

He continued on, however, unwilling to give up with so much on the line, and eventually found himself closing in on the buildings at the far side of the market, still noticing the distinct lack of anypony else. He was starting to get more than a little worried.

He turned to his left and followed the buildings around the market, desperately hoping that he’d run into whoever those damned thieves wanted him to meet. Time was already short, and he very rapidly found himself grumbling around his bits about how badly this was already going. A knot was forming in his stomach, and his worry was growing by the second, but nopony was appearing, and he had the strangest feeling that he’d already made it back to where he started.

He looked around at the empty marketplace, then unfurled his wings and took to the skies, hoping for a better viewpoint. The market felt even more desolate as he rose above the barren opening; the lifeless stalls seeming to call out in forlorn abandonment, as if he were the final pony they were ever going to see. His irritation was growing by the second, and he hastily stuffed his meager wealth into his mane, hoping that it would hold through whatever ordeal he knew he was going to suffer.

“This is bucking horseshit.” he grumbled as he circled over the buildings, his eyes glued down, though his attention was desperately fighting to avoid lingering on those balck shapes that liked to shift in his imagination. Eventually, he heard the telltale clopping of hooves on cobblestone not far below him, and he gradually slid back down to the ground.

Landing between a couple of those unsettling market stalls, he trotted towards the sounds of the ponies he was hoping he was supposed to meet. He passed away from them and found himself facing three shadowy figures exiting from one of the standing buildings. He was really beginning to hate how frequently he was running into less than fortunate situations. But he shoved his disapproval away enough that he stepped forward to meet the three.

One of the shadows separated from the other two and slid silently towards him, creeping forwards in an intimidating way that got him to take a single step back. He watched as the form solidified into something definitely pony-shaped, though in the darkness any discernible features melded flawlessly together to form one black shadow. It stopped just short of him, standing a complete head taller than him, and what looked to be something like a head leaned down to stare at him. He held his breath as the strange thing stared down at him, well; he thought it was staring at him. In the darkness, there wasn’t any glint of eyes or flash of a color other than that of the void.

“You’ve got to be bucking kidding me?” a mare’s voice grumbled from where a mouth could have been. He flinched when what looked like a hoof split from the shadows and reached up, then he blinked in surprise when a hood was pulled down. There was just enough light for him to make out the general features of what he found to be a rather striking mare standing over him.

Her charcoal coat melded so flawlessly into her clothing that he had trouble finding where one ended and the other began, though her mane was something else entirely. It was several shades lighter than her fur, appearing strangely groomed and looking delightfully tidy pulled back behind her ear. His eyes caught on the singular stripe of the brightest of pinks he had ever seen running down her mane, effectively splitting it in two. His attention was quickly shifted to her gleaming pink eyes as she glared at him, her hoof poking his snout and forcing him to blink and scrunch his nose in surprise.

“The Boss told us we was gettin’ some fresh blood come morning, I didn’t think he was sending in the fresh blood.” she groaned as she turned to her two companions, whom Blaze figured had to be two more of the thieves. At least he’d finally found them. The two others trotted forward, slipping into the slightly better light and revealing themselves to be exactly as he’d thought they’d been: a couple of thieving ponies. Her tone hardened as she addressed them, “Alright, you two do what you gotta do to get him paying his dues. I’ll head down to the Roaring Hydra, finish up with that little detail we’re earning.”

Without waiting for either of her companions to respond, the mare revealed more of her form when a pair of wings unfurled from her sides and she took to the air. Blaze stared at where she’d flown off to for a few seconds longer than was probably necessary.

Then he managed to shake a couple of sudden and strange thoughts out of his head, a small voice in one corner of his mind wondering just where a few of these new thoughts were coming from. That voice was very quickly snuffed out when the two other ponies, gruff-looking stallions who seemed rather disinterested in this whole situation, stepped forward and one pointed a hoof at him.

“Listen here, kid; we’re just doing some simple snatches and break-ins. No need to do anything special, just crack a few locks and grab anything that looks even remotely valuable.” the speaker was a crimson unicorn who seemed especially bored to be here. His silent friend lacked a horn, though Blaze was suddenly hesitant to disregard the possibility of wings under a cloak, but did appear to at least be anxious to get to this ‘snatching and breaking in’ and Blaze wasn’t sure which attitude he prefered. “Boss said that we’re going to make sure you get in your fair share of work, so don’t think you can just slack off. Now come on, we’ve got a couple of wealthy donors looking to make a few contributions to the cause.”

“. . .Okay.” Blaze replied, trotting to catch up with the two large stallions as they turned and began to make their way down a side street. They were steadily making their way towards the large central street. He shoved any disgust he had remaining about doing something like this into the darkest parts of his head, forcing a happy image of Star into his mind. Any justification he had was going to be employed until he no longer had to see these things through.

Even in the darkness of the predawn, the three ponies made excellent time crossing away from the crumbling ruins of the markets and industrial districts and into the more lavish ruins of the wealthy patrons to Equestria’s capital. A small part of his mind was overly pleased to see that those who seemed to try to be snobbishly better than the rest were also suffering. Then a flicker of worry crossed the front of his mind; these two said that there was going to be valuable to procure, but what if the ponies they were victimizing- no, he was doing what he needed to to help Star- had nothing that they could share? Would the others accept his ‘efforts’ for their thieving cause if nothing turned up for it?

He had to put that thought on hold as the crimson unicorn’s horn lit up in a sparkly show and directed them away from the street and along a tiny wall. The three crept along the crumbling stone until they reached a section that had worn down enough that they could hop over.

His heart thundering in his chest at the crime he was willingly committing, Blaze kept his eyes and ears alert for any signs of danger. His vision had adjusted to the crippling darkness enough that silhouettes were a more visible shade of black than the void outside of their miniscule circle of light flickering from the unicorn’s horn. The yard he found himself in was large, but far from pristine; with what appeared to be a dilapidated fountain as the centerpiece of an untamed and heavily invaded lawn. As they approached on silent hooves, a ruined cobblestone line loosely marked where a beautiful garden path might have welcomed visitors as they entered the property in the proper way.

Unease was a growing concern, but he managed to stifle it again.

The trio slipped past the wrecked fountain and made their way to the manor proper; a building that would have stood tall and regal in its prime, with what could have been a grand front porch framed by a double row of shining marble pillars. In the gloom of night, and after the destructive touch of chaos, blackened streaks of shadow arose from the ground, lifeless teeth itching to clamp down on whoever thinks to enter the void behind them. Behind the maw of the manor, and flaring out in both directions, a mass of shadow darker than the air or ground stood and endured the test of time. Whatever elegance and prestige had been thrown into making this building beautiful had been so completely masked by time and the cover of night that it seemed to have been perverted into a twisted mockery made of the embodiment of black.

Blaze looked at the other two, who shared his concerned look, but the unicorn shrugged it off. The unicorn hung his head low and pointed his horn off towards one side. “The size might just work to our aid. We’ll go dark, break in, and grab everything we come across of value. In and out. Let’s go.”

Without waiting for confirmation, the miniscule light died off, and it was only by straining his ears to listen for hoof-falls that they were able to steadily make their way towards one side of the whispering porch. It might have been his imagination, but he thought he could hear a faint, gentle weeping coming from the desecrated building.

They managed to find the side of the building eventually, and with little effort, the unicorn slipped the lock on a window, sliding it open with but a tug from his horn. Blaze was pressured to be the first to enter, and when he had hesitated, he was thrust through the opening by force, reminding him that a unicorn with magic could do quite a few things that he couldn’t. Still, the thief had had the decency to not throw him hard enough that he slammed down.

It took but a moment for him to realize that the darkness of outside was a bright light compared to the void within. In a moment, he’d gone from disoriented to wholly anxious; the building was grieving, of that he was certain. The sadness in the very walls immediately began to tear into him, lamenting of a glorious past marred ugly by fate, bemoaning the beauty and grandeur of a noble lost to the horrid scarring of war. The melancholy was nearly stifling, and would have swallowed him into the carpet for the rest of time had one of his new partners in crime not dropped on top of him.

The slip in his concentration was enough for him to regain control of himself and pull his hooves back under him. He blinked when the area around them lit with a gentle pink hue.

“Damn, those walls were thicker than I thought.” the unicorn muttered as he climbed through the window and settled beside the others. “What the actual buck is wrong with this place? You know what? Don’t answer that: we’ll just do what we gotta do, then get the buck out of here. I’d suggest we split up to save time, but it’s so damn dark in here. . . buck, really wish we’d have gotten another spellcaster. Pegasi ain’t nothing but trouble.”

“If I had a magic horn sticking out of my head, I’d probably have just zapped all the gold out of this house without trying to break in.” Blaze mumbled in retort, shaking the last clinging tendrils of depression from his head. He shot a short glare at the unicorn before Pulling himself away from the others and trying to get a better look at wherever it was that they had ended up.

It looked to be some kind of hallway, well, he thought it might have been that; what with the lack of anything other than a matted rug running into the darkness to either side of him. The walls on the other sides were also a pretty big thing, too.

There was a short reply from the unicorn that he chose to ignore, and instead waited for the other two to decide on just what their new plan of action would be. Eventually, they were on the move again, stalking down the hall in one direction, peeking through every door they came across in the hopes of hitting a score worth the trouble they’d gone through.

For fifteen minutes, they worked a circle around the hallway, moving through the square building’s bottom level with ease. No guards, servants, or even animals disturbed their progress, and yet, there wasn’t an item of value to be found. The barest of furniture decorated sparse regions of various rooms, each coated in dust and worn from use, spread around the barren rooms in a manner that begged for recognition and pleaded for salvation from an inevitable end.

The trio finally came across a staircase leading up to the next floor, though it was with hesitation that they decided to proceed. The lack of anypony else in a building that seemed only rumored to be inhabited was worrying for them, but a job in need of doing was a job in need of doing.

The boards creaked as they ascended the steps, despite all their efforts to muffle themselves. The anguished manor had a smaller presence in the more occupied quarters, and the trio were given a small bit of breathing room as they all spread into the open landing, squinting as the light cascading off the unicorn dimmed. Though there were no signs that anypony was awake, they’d had it in good faith that this place still had residents, and that called for the bare minimum of light necessary.

Door to door they went, desperately scanning each room for possible valuables and then scurrying to the next, grabbing the occasional vase or platter from any and all tables they crossed. The halls were all the same dull grey, barely broken by the meager light they had to move about, and not even the barely distinguishable shapes of paintings on the walls could shake the sensation creeping into each of their heads that the midnight hours turned this manor into some sort of resting place for the dead. Blaze had the distinct feeling of being locked inside a building that acted like a graveyard; and he wasn’t enjoying any second of it.

They had gotten roughly halfway down a side hallway, carefully picking out anything they thought would have any remote value behind it, when they came to their first setback. The door they were in front of had been locked, which normally wouldn’t have posed any problem: the unicorn proved quite adept at picking locks, and had easily slipped past the simple mechanisms of a couple of doors already. No, the problem he was muttering about wasn’t the door being locked, it was the five snapped picks he’d already lost to the greedy device. The inconspicuous hole in the door was stubbornly refusing to yield to anything but the correct key, preventing the trio from reaching whatever would have been held within. Blaze had suggested moving on, but the unicorn insisted on breaking through, his voice deep and rough in the silence of the building. “This is a personal affront to my skills, and I’ll not give up just because this scrap metal doesn’t know its place! Head on down to the next door and see what you can see.”

Blaze relented, the tension that had been slowly building up demanding that he not try to start something that could put them in any more trouble than they were likely going to run into sooner rather than later. He turned and was about to follow the order when he ran into nothing less than that very same trouble he didn’t want to make: a small colt, easily younger than Star by at least a year, standing before them with wide, confused eyes.

The foal was just within the reach of their feeble light, but his ghostly coat appeared to be somewhere within the range of maybe having color to maybe being a light grey. The only thing that made him obviously living was the sparkling pink eyes that locked onto the closest of the trio of thieves, who happened to be Blaze.

“Uh. . . you are those scary monsters, are you?” his voice trembled just slightly, like his drowsiness was vying for control with his fear and confusion. A pale hoof rose to try to wipe the sleep from his eyes, but he missed and instead bumped it against his cheek, much to his surprise. Blaze blinked at the sudden and very unwelcome presence of somepony else, but before he locked up in fear, an unusually hopeful thought jumped to the front of his mind, and he stepped into action before something bad happened.

“No. No. . . we’re not some scary monsters.” he kept his voice barely above a whisper, speaking to the colt in a calm, nearly friendly manner. He offered the young foal a warm smile and stepped up to him, crouching so that the two were at eye level. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Quartz Quarry.” the colt smiled, his body relaxing with the confirmation that there weren’t any monsters lurking inside his house. He looked at the three of them for a second before his satisfied smile turned into a worried frown and he opened his mouth to state the obvious question.

“Well then, Quartz Quarry; would you mind telling me what you’re doing up and about at such a late hour? You know that it’s a bad idea to walk around at night: that’s when all the big scary monsters come out to snatch little foals up.” Blaze said before the foal had a chance to say that one something that could turn their situation even worse. The sudden question stunned the colt for a second, as his thoughts tried to reform through his exhaustion.

“I. . . I thought I heard something and I wanted to just make sure that everything was okay. . “

“Oh. Well, I’ll let you know that everything over here is fine.” another warm smile disarmed the foal before he could try to rouse his wariness at the three of them. Blaze slid closer and placed a comforting hoof on the pale colt’s shoulder. “But before you head on back to bed, can I ask you a question?’

“Um. . . what exactly are you guys doing here?” the question that he’d been trying so hard to avoid made Blaze wince.

“We’re here for a. . . surprise. Yeah, a surprise for your parents.” he nodded to Quartz, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze and did his best to give off the most friendly, brotherly aura he could. “But I need to know a couple of things first, and I think that you can help us out just fine.”

“Dad doesn’t like surprises. Like; he really doesn’t like them.” the colt muttered, his ears falling to the back of his head and he frowned at the ground. “One time he came home from the palace once and found out that a couple of the servants had been moving some of the furniture around. He got really mad and started yelling at them, then he took them out back and had them work really hard to clean up the gardens, and they worked so hard that they had to spend a couple of days at their homes.

“Then there was that time he got the surprise that mommy had been spending a lot of alone time with one of our cooks. There was a lot of yelling and screaming, and I got really scared, so I hid in the vault. . .” Blaze shared a very quick look with the other two before returning his attention to the colt. “I don’t really know what happened to mommy after that. I think she had to go help the Princesses with something, but dad doesn’t talk about it.”

“This vault you mentioned-” the unicorn started, stepping closer to the foal with a greedy grin plastered on his face. He hadn’t managed to finish the thought, as Blaze quickly stepped in front of him and shot him with a short warning scowl.

“I’m sorry to hear that your dad gets a bit angry, but maybe there’s a way that we could convince you that this is going to be a fun surprise? I want you to know that we’re really good at giving ponies surprises, like; we’re professionals at it.” even as he said it, he did his best to hide his internal wincing, forcing the distaste as far away as he could. His forced smile seemed to placate the foal enough, however, as he was rewarded with a hesitant, if genuine, smile from him. “I think that this is going to be a pretty big surprise, but I’ve got to know that you want this to be the best that we can give; can you do that for me?”

The foal nodded eagerly, appearing to be more and more enthusiastic of the idea of a fun surprise.

“That’s wonderful!” the tension slowly began to slip away from the group as a semblance of a panicked plan was finally beginning to form in the minds of the three intruders. Blaze patted Quartz’s shoulder and leaned in close so he could more easily whisper towards him. “The first thing I need to know is that you’ll be able to keep this a secret from your dad: we can’t have you spoiling the surprise before it can happen naturally. Remember that we’re really good at this, and I need you to trust me that we know the best way to give somepony a surprise. Can you do that for me? Can you keep this a secret until your dad finds out on his own?”

With an eager nod, the colt threw in his aid for their ‘mysterious’ plan to give some kind of ‘pleasant’ surprise to his dad. Blaze wanted to waste no more time, and pulled the colt to the center of the hallway, gesturing to the others to keep quiet. “Alright, Quartz, I hope you’re ready for this. I’m going to need you to show us all the special places that you run off to hide in when your dad gets real angry. If we can get to all those little nooks and crannies, we can make this surprise super special.”

On silent hooves, the four ponies stalked through the halls, illuminated only enough to see by the unicorn’s magic. They made their way through several rooms, the two elder thieves grabbing everything they could while Blaze kept Quartz distracted with the various intriguing and crafty places the oblivious colt could hide in. The unicorn had tried to urge them to go straight to this supposed vault so they could grab their loot and go, but Blaze had managed to silence him.

“We need him to think we’re actually doing something in all these places, or else he’s gonna catch on to us.” Blaze had explained when the colt was occupied by their third partner. “We’ll get to this vault when we get to it.”

“Kid. . .” the unicorn set his jaw in a stern fashion and glared down at Blaze, who returned the expression with an equally hard glare. “The boss thinks that he’s able to make something out of you, but unless you hurry this along, I’m really going to have to disappoint him and remind us all of why little foals don’t usually do this kind of work.”

“Fine.” Blaze spat out before spinning around and approaching Quartz, who had finally stopped to wonder just what they were talking about. “Hey, Quartz Quarry; I’ve got something real important to tell you, but it’s a secret that we like to keep between us ponies who give others fun surprises, okay? Come here and I’ll let you in on something as important as it is special.”

Once the younger foal had leaned in close enough that whispers were as loud as yelling, Blaze emphasized the urgency of getting this surprise done with so they could move on to the other ponies that needed to get their own surprises before it got too early in the morning. Quartz seemed to accept the new pace well, which did unnerve Blaze, but he got over it as quickly as he could, hoping that he had enough charm to convince a single foal that he was actually doing something good. If his hunch was wrong. . . he shook his head clear of any doubts and doubled his attention down to the task at hoof. The pale foal led the trio of thieves further down the darkened hallways until they reached what seemed like a dead-end.

“I’m not really supposed to know about this place, but if you told me so many of your secrets, then I supposed it’s alright if I tell you some of mine.” he seemed both anxious and excited, emotions that Blaze understood all too well under these kinds of circumstances. Before any of the intruders could question what the foal was going on about, he reached his ghostly hoof up and tugged at an unlit candle sconce.

Despite all the strange things that he’d already witnessed growing up in these interesting times, the fact that the sconce was actually a secret lever still caused Blaze to do a double take. There was a nearly silent clicking sound, then a part of the wall popped loose and slid forward enough for Quartz to pull it open; revealing a small alcove just large enough to store both the foal himself and a pony-sized block of pure blackness.

Blinking into the void, Blaze tried to figure out what the unnatural shape was supposed to be, until his unicorn buddy lit his horn, casting a faint light into the secret compartment. The odd shape turned out to be an impressive safe, one that could have held quite the fortune inside of it, and one that, no doubt, had an equally impressive lock sheltering that fortune. He stepped forward, wondering if this safe was the entire ‘vault’ that Quartz had mentioned, or if there was more to it. While he was sure that there had to be enough gold in that safe alone to feed him and Star for months, he immediately began to wonder just how he was going to get the poor foal away from the safe long enough for the other two to grab the valuables and slip away.

“You got the ‘surprise,’ right?” the unicorn turned to the unfortunate third party member, who snapped his gaze off of the safe to nod nervously. He then turned to Blaze and Quartz with a worried frown on his face. “Kid, why don’t you make sure that the foal gets back to his bed nice and safely, and just let us professionals handle the finer details, yeah? Don’t worry: you’ll get to have your share of the fun at the. . . next job.”

Blaze frowned at the unicorn, but ultimately, he didn’t have any argument that would also maintain the poorly cobbled illusion they had Quartz under, and he really didn’t want his first involuntary job with these goons to go that badly: the more gold he collected, the better. So he set his jaw in a resigned smile and nodded along, tugging the unknowing foal along.

“We’ve already told you this; but just remember that these kinds of surprises are best left to be discovered on their own.” he nudged the foal’s shoulder as the two quietly crept towards the more inhabited portions of the manor. “And I promise you; your father is really going to have a big surprise waiting for him, so let him have the pleasure of coming across it, alright?”

“Okay. . . but just what kind of surprise are those stallions going to give us?” Blaze winced at the fact that this kid really wasn’t hearing that he had to keep this between the thieves.

“The kind that is best left for your father to find. . . it would be really hard for you to understand, since you’re still so young. But I promise you that once you’re older, I’m sure that you’ll be able to appreciate it.” he hoped that the non-answer was enough, because he was still internally screaming at himself for even considering resorting to this kind of behavior.

“Star. . . for Star” he had to mumble to himself as he sent the foal back to wherever he had come from in the first place. He didn’t want to try to rack his brain for some other excuse for why he needed to keep the poor colt away.

Once he was sure that Quartz had gone back to his room, or at least far enough away that he could run right back to the others, he wasted no time in bolting through the halls. He was nervously noting that the light shining from the unblinded windows was growing ever stronger, and that dawn was rapidly approaching. The sooner they grabbed the goods, the sooner he’d be able to get this stupid job done with and return home to where he belonged.

Turning the final corner, he nearly slammed into the other two, who had already finished their part of the job, and had slid the hidden door back into place, making it look like they had never even been there. He blinked in response, but quickly recovered and stepped into line beside them as they made their way to the nearest window that would allow them to quickly and, more importantly, quietly leave the manor. “I really do hope that there was enough gold in that safe to justify how badly this mess could have gotten.”

“Eh, there was plenty of gold, but that wasn’t what the boss wanted from this place.” the unicorn shrugged as the pair slipped by the colt and silently crept towards the nearest window that overlooked the fastest escape route. His horn lit up brighter than usual as they slipped the window open, nearly blinding them while they waited for their vision to adjust. “Just hop on out and meet us over that far wall past the row of hedges and we’ll be able to call this job a success.”

“Damn shame we couldn’t get to the other place. . .” the second stallion muttered as he threw himself out of the building and into the welcoming darkness. While he was making a dramatic departure, the unicorn’s horn flared even brighter for a split second before the light detached itself from his horn in a violent burst, flinging itself as a steadily dimming ball of light to illuminate the courtyard.

Blaze took a second to watch how the path was revealed before him as the light travelled, noting that this side of the manor seemed particularly depressing to view from inside. The unicorn disappeared in a flash, his magic allowing him to cheat out of any kind of sticky situation, and the sudden realization hit the colt that he was now alone in a strange place, and he needed to be gone.

He snapped his wings open and felt a comfortably gentle breeze flow over his sweaty feathers. HIs let out a tense breath and tried to focus on one thing at a time as an unwelcome spike of nervousness wracked through his brain. “Just leave this place and be done with it. Just leave and be done.”

Finally getting his nerves under control, he jumped out of the window and pumped his wings down, feeling relief wash over him as they caught air, and he was propelled even further away from this nightmare of an adventure. A second beat of his wings, and he was fully flying through the air, soaring rapidly across the open space between the scene of the crime and freedom. The light was getting uncomfortably bright, and he had to pour even more effort into crossing the final third of the way, hoping that nopony was awake and looking in his direction. He was hating that his coat was the exact opposite of a benefit for sneaking around, but at least he was going to start learning how to minimize the misfortune as soon as he could.

He shot over the dilapidated stone wall that marked his passage into freedom and breathed a sigh of relief as he snapped his wings shut and thumped to the cold cobblestone road beside the other two thieves. “We’re good now, right?”

“Yeah. . . we’re good.” the unicorn wasn’t sounding terribly convinced, and he shuffled in place as he looked over his shoulder. The three were silent for a moment as they all shared an equally worried expression, with the two elders’ ears parked high on alert for any signs that they might have been compromised. Not a minute after meeting back up, the trio wordlessly slunk into the shadowy alleys that divided the crumbling manors.

“Well, things could have definitely gone worse. . .” there was a sigh from the unicorn as his companion made the remark, but it went unchallenged as a clinking bag was drawn forth and a beam of light illuminated the weathered canvas. “These shards better have come with enough bits for me to enjoy a trip to the Galloper’s Delight.”

“You and your whorses. You’re going to wind up getting into some kind of trouble one of these days, and I’m going to laugh my flank off when you come back with an itch.” the unicorn chuckled as his magic slid the pouch open and a dozen or two shining gold bits floated over to the second stallion. Before any more gold was dispensed, a smaller, second piece of canvas was pulled from the pouch, and the two older thieves held their breath as the unicorn carefully pulled the string loose. Blaze watched in hesitant interest as the big reveal came for whatever this band of thieves wanted so badly.

The string slipped away from the canvas pouch, letting the rough fabric fall loosely around the unicorn’s magic grip, his horn casting a gleaming cherry glow on what Blaze thought were several shining, sharp pieces of scrap metal. His confusion made itself apparent nearly immediately, and he had no control over his thoughts as an audible “what?” was blurted at nopony in particular.

“Are you really trying to tell me that we went through all of that. . . that. . . that trouble, and that house specifically, all because your stupid boss wanted some shards of metal?” the colt asked in disbelief, and he even went as far as to lean in to get a closer look at the shards, which were as unremarkable as he imagined, even in the dim light. He just couldn’t believe what they had gone through, raiding some slightly well-off place all because some stupid, mean, and ugly ponies wanted some scrap steel. “You guys are aware that there are, like, a hundred abandoned ruins dotted around the city, right? There’s a whole lot of metal there, and nopony’s even gonna care if you go and salvage to your hearts’ content.”

“This ain’t just the same ol’ steel we use in those ancient piles of rubble.” the unicorn grunted, his magic folding the fabric back over the shards and returning the pouch back to safety. “I ain’t too sure that it is, but the boss wanted these shards pretty bad, and so we had to go and relieve that troublesome pony of them, for his sake, of course. But either way; we were planning on hitting up another unwelcoming donor, but this place was worse than anypony would have liked, and we didn’t scour the place as thoroughly as I normally would.”

“Whatever, I just hope that this all gets done with as soon as possible. I really don’t much care for this line of work.” Blaze muttered as he glanced up at the larger stallion. “I’ll just take my split of the gold for my split of the work, and hopefully we’ll never work together in the future.”

The two elder thieves shared a devious grin between themselves before they cackled at the colt’s expense. Their chuckles did nothing to ease the worry that was starting to blossom in the colt’s stomach, and he felt his ears plaster themselves against his skull at what he figured was about to come next. Eventually, the two quieted down enough for the unicorn to give the colt one final look before the pouch of bits disappeared in a flash. “Your payment is the pleasure of working with us, and the wonderful experience we so generously shared with you.”

“You really ought to feel grateful,” the second stallion continued the thought while the unicorn started to giggle again. “Not everypony is so lucky to receive first-hoof experience from two talented souls such as ourselves.”

Before Blaze could voice his disappointment and anger, he was forced out of their way by way of a hard telekinetic push, easily toppling him as the two thieves made their hasty escape. He bounced right back up to his hooves and stepped forward to try chasing them down, but he stopped himself, realizing there wasn’t a whole lot he could do to collect his rightful payment from what he was finally understanding to be a pair of righteously selfish assholes. Instead of hunting them down and demanding his payment, which was what his gut was screaming at him to do, he opted to at least take the bits from the Princess and treat Star to something nice.

Day two of their newfound freedom and subsequent struggle to make a place for themselves was going to be so, so much harder than the first. Or, at least that was what every fiber of his being was telling him.