I could never understand the reasons given for banditry and crime in the middle ages.

If you had the power to pick up a sword and rob someone in the woods, you had the power to kill a deer and sell its hide.

Crime, during those ages, was responded to by squads of knights.

Death.

Even in the modern era, where crime is more visible than ever, a common reason given by the criminals for why they started, was that they must take care of their families, financially so.

Surely they must have known that resorting to crime was the coward's way out, and that should you be captured your life is over.

You can not take care of your family out of a jail cell.

Simply doing a crime for such an asinine reason always confused me.

And perhaps it is simply my character that makes it so.

More research is needed to reach a conclusion.

Hogger wasn't the smartest Dog around.

Being born to a poor family of farmers in Caninia, he knew early on that he had no future there.

You either worked in the capital, were a soldier, or you were nothing.

And the start of the civil unrest only highlighted those facts.

So, seeing no other path for his future, Hogger decided to do something that his parents would never support.

He took a vessel across the ocean and joined an illegal gem mining Cartel.

With bases hidden all around the land of Equestria, and the large amount of gems and crystals found in the land, Equestria became a hot spot for Illegal Diamond Dog immigrants wanting to make some coin.

And the mountain he found himself in was no different, with caves dug around the entirety of the mountain, the arid desert heat being kept out by layers of tarp and linen. Caves full of Dogs of all shapes and sizes mining into the mountain.

Each Dog that brings a gem to the boss gets to keep a cut of the money from that stone.

It was good business, Hogger wasn't a professional, but to him, it was good business.

The only real problem with the situation of holding an illegal diamond dog mining operation on Equestrian soil, was funnily enough, not the ponies.

In the north, it was trying not to freeze to death underground without alerting the authorities to the operation.

In the east it was a gang of Illegal Gryphon hunters hunting animals, fighting for control over the land. Hogger didn't understand that one, Diamond Dogs mined underground and Gryphons were in the forests and skies above.

There was no need to argue, they could share the land.

In the west, the problem was the dangerous monsters leaving the Everfree forest, the west gang was already abandoned.

In the center, the issue was the leadership of that portion of the Cartel, Rover, Fido, and Spot were simply not good leaders for the organization, and the eastern gang has been thinking of replacing them, getting a better location away from the bird-headed cats in the process.

But with Hogger's group, down south, in the Appaloosan mountains?

Their problem was Buffalo.

The ponies are no problem, those cowardly herbivores barely leave their town, but the Buffalo?
They are a problem.

Hogger wasn't sure who decided to start stealing from them, or why so many agreed, but for the past several months, Once every two weeks, a small group was sent to steal supplies from the Buffalo.

There was probably a reason for it, he just didn't know.

But what he did know, was that being on the lookout was boring.

He was always told that the desert is most lively during the night, but as he waited for the group sent to steal from the Buffalo to return, he had nothing better to do but sit outside and wait for something to move.

And he was bored. Incredibly bored.

So when he finally spotted movement, he was quickly disappointed to find that the group of dogs sent to steal had returned.

And as the dogs walked back into the cave system, he kept watch.

It was then that he spotted something shining on the ground, just behind the dogs that returned.

Seeing as nobody else noticed it and that the dogs already entered the cave leaving him alone, he decided to check it out.

Whatever he saw, was small, but it was reflecting the subtle glow of the moon, like a small gem.

And if one of the thieves dropped a gem and he just so managed to take it for himself, well, finders keepers.

However, it was as Hogger approached the gem, did he find himself paralyzed with fear.

because he wasn't approaching a gem, no.

He was approaching the eyes of a snake. An unnaturally long snake. And snakes in the desert are dangerous, unnaturally long snakes even more so.

"Oh? You managed to see me," he heard the snake hiss, and he knew that snakes should not be able to speak.

He was terrified.

"How interesting, such a large supply of test subjects, ripe for the taking, nobody will even know they're here." The snake giggled to itself, "How fun."

And then the snake simply stared at Hogger, for what felt like hours he stood there solid, afraid of moving a muscle.

"How interesting indeed," The snake whispered one last time before turning around and slithering its unnaturally long body away.

And when he was sure the snake was gone, Hogger collapsed to the floor.

Returning silently to the Buffalo tribe, Looper made sure to enter his tent and switch back to looking like Blaze Glass without alerting anyone.

His brain was brimming with Ideas of how he might utilize the knowledge he got by learning of the thieves location.

"Lycanthropes? This world keeps getting more and more interesting," He whispered to himself as he transformed his hoof into the paw of a dog.

"How interesting indeed," Blaze Glass smiled to himself in the confines of the tent.

And with a small flash of green fire, the paw was replaced with the hoof of the orange Pegasus.

And as he returned to the pile of pillows that acts as his bed, the smile never left his face.

Author's Note

I just realized that I've been writing Looper into being changeling Orochimaru thus far and I don't know how to feel about that.