And I thought we were normal. How wrong I was.

   We exit the train calmly at about 11a.m. and walk off of the platform into ponyville with Uefi still wearing the clothes I brought for him and myself back into my casual wear.

"It feels weird being back here." Uefi comments as he eyes the townspeople.

"Try being me. You know what I did to get you back here and now I have to act like nothing happened." I remind him with a semi-humorous glare.

"Yeah, but now I have to explain what happened before." He tells me, referring to what happened a month ago when he was taken I guess.

"No you don't; that princess wiped you from everypony else's mind. You just have to re-introduce yourself. Consider this your opportunity to change your name or something. Also; you're now my brother." I explain to him.

"Brother?"

"Berry thought a faux bloodline association would help explain our living arrangements and would sound cooler if there was ever to be a bounty on our heads."

"Fair enough I guess, is there any kind of last name thing here?"

"If there is; I was never told of it. Just keep your old name or whatever you feel like calling yourself. It doesn't matter to me; just make sure that you tell me if you change it." I inform him as we enter the center of town.

"Call me Redolent Rose." He changes his name and I give him an odd look. I'm surprised that word is in his mental dictionary. "What? The prison did not deny me access to books so I started a whole 'word-of-the-day' thing. Yesterday's word was Redolent, but I never got the chance to use it."

"Whatever you say Rose." I say nonchalantly as we make our way through the crowd of ponies in the plaza.

We walk into the boutique, with the warm chime of the bell on the door heralding our entry. "Why are we here Sonata?" 'Rose' asks, doing a good job of sticking to our personas.

"We threw out your old clothes to make room for Berry's; so now you need to get new ones. Don't worry about 'work' clothes though; Berry will take care of those. Just get something that looks nice; maybe something to fit my 'style'." I say as a white mare runs over to greet us.

"Hello Sonata," she brings with a nod of her head, "and I don't believe I know who you are." She finishes while eyeing Uefi.

"Good day to you as well Rarity. This is my brother Redolent Rose." I introduce a slightly dazed Uefi and I snap to draw his attention.

"Oh yes, pleased to meet you, Ms. Rarity was it?" He says with a small bow. That was a bit formal for him, but whatever.

"Yes, pleased to meet you as well. You're Sonata's brother then?" She asks with a return of the bow and her face becomes slightly disgruntled.

"Yes, I am. I hope my brother here hasn't troubled you any."

"Not very much. I guess you're here for gloves or something then." She says gesturing to the hand Uefi has had in his pocket thus far.

"What?" He responds, caught off guard by the specific question I presume.

"No, no Rarity. He doesn't have any changeling blood impurity like I do. You're looking at a pure blood pony. He's just moving in today, but, as you can see, he needs to get some new clothes. Our old home village didn't offer much as far as clothes went so he needs to get up-to-date." I explain quietly and her face loosens with a sigh.

"Blood impurity? What imp-" Uefi begins but he is soon cut off by Rarity.

"Thank Celestia; it'd be problematic for me if he was a changeling too."

"I'll explain later Rose and why would it be problematic?" I ask her.

"No reason, no reason; so you need new clothes then?" She backtracks and I nod.

"Yes; he'll be able to tell you more about what he wants than I could. I guess just give him the grand tour and help him pick things out. We should have enough bits between for a small wardrobe." I say before turning to my green companion, "Just follow her around and take her advice."

"I'm not a child, Sonata." He complains a little.

"Oh yes, sorry about that. I guess I got a little carried away there." I myself backtrack.

"Learn to take a joke, brother." He says as he walks past me and follows Rarity through the store, taking plenty of time to be selective of his clothes this time.

   I wait around for the next hour near the entrance and after about fifteen minutes I move over to an empty table and, taking advantage of the otherwise vacant store, I begin to form tiny magical boxes to be used as bricks in the construction of my miniature castle.

   Surprisingly I find myself straining to keep each small brick from falling apart. Stacking the blocks only makes it worse due the constant vigilance it takes me to keep the boundaries between them from falling apart.

    By the time I have half of the first wall done, I'm already suffering from a massive migraine and I consider abandoning the endeavor. So it's hard to make large or dense magical constructs because of the amount of energy needed, but alternately it's difficult to create many small things because of the constant attention needed to keep the thin 'skin' around them intact; interesting.

"Yo; Sonata. You ready to go?" I hear Uefi call and my concentration wavers for a moment causing the structure to barrack apart and the small amounts of energy in the blocks floods out and dissipates into the air.

"I guess I am." I mutter in defeat as I turn around to see him holding a few bags of clothes. "Where'd Rarity go?" I follow as I look around him.

"She rang me up and said she needed to go take care of a few things." He answers and I nod.

"Well let's go. I still have to go and see my secondary employer about what I'll be doing tomorrow." I tell him as we walk out the door.

"So I finally get to meet this Berry then?"

"Not yet, I guess I should've said my 'daytime' employer. I have a side job working at that apple farm we went to before. Mostly it's just to build up strength and stamina, but only one pony there knows about my, or rather our, alternate professions; so I still have to report in as if it's my only job."

"You're really embracing this, or at least more than I thought you would." Uefi remarks, most likely noticing my nonchalant attitude.

"I'm more surprised that you aren't reacting. Usually by this point you're in a corner asking yourself what to do while I run damage control. This time however it seems we aren't doing either; although I can't run damage control yet."

"Well for me so far you've been the only hospitable part of this world. I had to run my own damage control when you weren't around so it was left to me." He defends himself with his usual vigor.

"I guess we've both had to grow up a little." I decide as we exit the town on the trail to Sweet Apple Acres.

"I've got to ask though, what was that changeling thing about?"

"It's basically the core reason for Luna trying to kill us from what I've determined. I have a genetic displacement which, for me, means that I'm partially changeling." I begin and I pull off my left glove, revealing the midnight black chitin plating on it to Uefi. "My hand changed shortly after I escaped. The problem is that changelings are insect-like ponies from the north of Equestria that tend to work as spies and assassins. Mere association, bloodline relations being even worse, can lead to heavy segregation. However, that very thing that almost got us killed, also saved us." I finish, avoiding telling him about the two 'tenants' in my soul, and putting my glove back on.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, because of my cutie mark showing a natural talent for stealth and my 'ancestry' being heavily rooted in crimes, Berry and her associates took notice of me and helped cover up my existence after I escaped. Then about a month ago, Berry heard about your imprisonment. I got you out, they covered it up and here we are now."

"So this is your fault." He sarcastically blames me and I give a grunt,

"Not intentionally, but, yes, you could say that." I finish as we take the last turn to face the Apple family home.

"So this is where you work?" Uefi asks plainly as we approach the old, decaying house.

"Yeah; it's mostly moving barrels of apples and sacks of apples to the market and in a week's time we'll start making different apple products. It won't be until next year that I get to do any harvesting so I haven't been paid much as of yet." I tell him and we reach the door.

"Sounds fun." More sarcasm.

"It is." I counter and knock on the old wooden door.

   A few moments later the door opens inward to reveal a tired looking Applebloom who looks us over a time or two before she seems to realize who we are.

"Hello Sonata, hello whoever ya are." She murmurs as she looks at us respectively. "What're ya here for." She finishes with a yawn.

"Good morning Applebloom. I need to see your sister about work and this is my brother, Redolent Rose. Is she around?" I ask the small filly who just stares off into space. Must've just woken up I guess.

"Nice to meet you Rose. I'll take ya to her; she's in the kitchen now." The droopy eyed pony mutters with a yawn and we follow her into the house.

   While I've been in the cellar, I only enter it through the outside entrance; so I've never actually been inside their house before. The smell of old ash becomes immediately apparent, most likely due to Granny Smith's active smoking habits, and I can hear the wood creak under my every step. Across the walls of the hallway hang a few family portraits and the ceiling seems to have some minor water damage.

   At the end of the hallway we enter a small rectangular room with a countertop on the opposite wall and cabinets run above the surface with a stove with a fume-hood and a refrigerator at the end of the countertop and cabinets, respectively. Across most of the room stretches a long wooden table of rather good condition with four chairs on each side and one on each end.

   In the chair closest to us sits Applejack wearing her flannel pink and white checkered shirt and jeans. In front of her sits a simple sandwich on a plate.

"Sonata is here to see you, Applejack." Applebloom informs her before turning to leave. "See ya later."

"Thank you Applebloom." Uefi calls back to her as we each take a seat by the orange mare.

"Good afternoon Applejack. I'm guessing your sister just work up." I greet the mare who refocuses her attention to Uefi.

"Yeah; ah let er stay out with her friends last night which was probably a bad idea since now she's too tired to do much. But that's enough about me, who is this?" She explains without a glance in my direction.

"Applejack I'd like you to meet my brother." I stop for Uefi to handle his own introduction.

A pause...

Uefi continues to just gaze......

.........Well this has gone on long enough..........

"Uh; you there Rose?" I say with a snap of my fingers which seems to drag him out of his trance.

"Oh yes, excuse me. Nice to meet you. Redolent Rose, I hope my brother hasn't troubled you." He recovers.

"Not at all; I guess you already know my name though." The orange mare says with a warm smile.

"Applejack, wasn't it?" He answers with a return of the smile.

"Yup. So why did you to come by?" She confirms and turns to face me.

"I needed to ask about work for this next week; I would've come by yesterday but I had to go pick up Rose." I explain to her, glazing over the subject of where I picked him up from.

"Well, we had planned on having you and Mac replace some of the siding on the house, along with putting in some new flooring in some sections, putting new shingles on the roof, and fixing the stairs both inside and in the barn." She rattles off.

"Where'd you get the idea to do that?" I ask as my mind begins to process what she just said. Sounds like I've got my work cut out for me.

"Sales have been better than usual in the last month so we have enough bits lying around to fix-up the place." She explains and turns to Uefi, "and with another pair of hands around things should go faster."

"How'd I get dragged into this?" Uefi complains, but I know he doesn't mean anything by it.

"'Cause yer his brother and I'll pay ya." Applejack shoots with a slightly perceivable amount of hostility back at him, most likely not picking up on the fact that Uefi was being sarcastic.

"I was just joking Applejack." Uefi explains other with a bashful smile and raises his hands near his face in case of a punch. I guess he remembers our first meeting with her well.

"Well, be more direct about it next time."

"Point taken."

"But you two are up for it, right?" She asks for confirmation and finishes her sandwich,

"Of course we are, but I'm guessing the 'no magic' rule hasn't changed." I answer her.

"Unless it becomes absolutely necessary, which it shouldn't, you won't be allowed to use it." She reiterates and I nod.

"I guess that's all then. So unless you need anything else I think it's about time we went off." I say, looking out through a window to see the sky changing to the orange of sunset.

"Well I won't keep you then. I expect to see both of you tomorrow and ready to work, I'll have everything we'll need ready then." She says and Uefi and I both get up to leave.

"It was nice meeting you Applejack." Uefi bids her farewell and we start to move towards the door.

"You too; see ya Monday." She calls after us and we exit the hour and head back 'home'.

~\o/~

   We approach the hole down to our home with the sun sitting just on the horizon and I pull out the key for the padlock one the door. After opening the lock and door I jump down into the hole casually and I can see Berry sleeping in her rocking chair with a half glass of wine sitting lazily with the stem in between her long fingers and a book in her lap, still wearing her usual purple shirt and a pair of jeans. I didn't she'd be back this early, let alone early enough for a nap.

   I move out of the way to make way for Uefi to climb down and I go into the kitchen to rummage around for some food. After taking out a can of tomato soup from a cabinet I turn around just as Uefi finishes making his way down.

   Setting down the can, I walk over and tap Berry on the head a few times which seems to bring her back from whatever dream she was having.

"Ugh... What the hell?" She groans and I stop.

"We're home Berry."

"Oh; it’s about time." She snaps as she closes her book, but not before downing the rest of her beverage and pouring herself another with the bottle next to her chair.

"Sorry; we had some things to attend to and I didn't think you'd be back already." I apologize to her and take a seat on the remaining couch.

"I finished the job early and took the early morning train back. Saved 15 bits by doing that and then spent that and a bit more and this cheap bottle of wine." She explains and takes a sip of her wine as she turns to face Uefi who is still standing by the ladder with a somewhat dumbfounded expression on his face. "So this is him then; thought he'd be shorter."

   Berry and I both sit there for a moment expecting Uefi to say something or another, but he still stands there seemingly trying to put his thoughts into words.

"Well speak up birdie." Berry snaps at him playfully.

"Sorry; I just thought you'd be a bit... different." He mumbles.

"Different how?"

"I had you figured for a bit of a darker, more serious type." Uefi explains and the mare in the room just nods.

"Fair enough; so what's your name?"

"Redolent Rose."

"I'm gonna call you Rose or Flowers then, and I guess you already know my name is Berry Punch." She sighs before turning to me. "So how did it go?"

"Just fine; I had to do some dangerous acrobatics, but besides that nopony even knew we were there."

"Good; I'm glad to see I didn't waste a month of time."

"So now that I'm out of prison; what are we going to do now?" Uefi asks her and he leans back against the wall.

"Well Sonata is ready for actual jobs now as far as I'm concerned. I'm not like Spacial who'd rather just keep teaching him from books and practice. So from here on he's going to be learning on the job as well and getting advice from me. You however need a little bit of training." She explains and I feel a little bit of apprehension grow in my chest. So now I'm going to be having to do stuff like that all the time? Shit.

"What kind of training?" He asks her and the look in his eyes tells me he's starting to take a serious interest in this.

"Shooting and spotting mostly. You'll also need to do some basic strength building and some gain some foot and air speed until you can match Sonata in both; speed should be easy for a pegasus, but he does have more strength than the average unicorn or pegasus so that may take some time." She explains to him and he raises an eyebrow.

"Shooting?" Uefi and I both ask her at the same time.

"Medium range shots mostly, but yes. Pegasi and gryphons tend to be renowned marksmen. Mind you I said shooting; not killing. Mostly it will just be something like a crossbow with mild sleep enchantment to make the arrows knockout the targets. You will have to pay for the garnet and the enchanting services though; I can get you the bow and some arrows though." She tells us.

"You never mentioned enchanting before." I glare at her. "One of those sleep enchantments would've been a nice alternative to poisons or having to knock them out."

"It wasn't needed before. Besides, enchanted items run out of charge after so many uses and then they need to be recharged and that can only be done a four ring unicorn. Knowing my luck you'd end up running out of charges and since you'd be dependent on them you'd be as defenseless as an infant. On his side though, he'll only be playing support for you and he can also just carry as many arrows as there will be charges left. If he runs out of charges he can just switch to spotting, if you ran out you'd be dead in the water. I'll let you enchant those eventually, but not until you can charge them yourself and not until I think you're ready." She explains to me and I sigh.

"You do have a point."

"I always do."

"Excuse me, but how much will those cost me?" Uefi chimes in.

"Since garnets are the only gem that can hold a knockout enchantment you'll have to pay for one with a good enough cut to hold the enchantment well and you'll need to pay for the enchanting as well, so about 1000 bits." She estimates and Uefi pulls out his wallet.

"Here you go then." He says as he pulls out a few bills and walks over and hands her the cash.

"I didn't think you'd have the bits on hand, but whatever." She comments, counting the money, "pay an extra 1.5 and I'll get you a monocular with emerald rimmed lens that'll have an enchantment to adjust to different light levels that you can attach to the bow." She adds on and I wonder a little at the price. I guess enchanting is expensive.

"I guess I'll need it we work at night, fine I'll pay." He groans and pulls out the extra money.

"Thank you." She responds and pockets the money.

"So when do I start?" He asks as he walks back I his place on the wall.

"Tomorrow; I already have the bow ready with a scope. It'll be a week before I can get the gems though. I also lined up a job for you two once I get the gems." She tells him.

"A week is a little bit too short don't you think Berry? After all; I had I work for a month before you gave me a real job." I mildly criticize her.

"Yes, but you had to learn many more things that he does, like sneaking, lock picking, hiding, knockout techniques, ect. He only has to learn how to preform mid-range shots with a scoped weapon and how to find a good vantage point. You had a bit more to learn and it also took a week before we started any of that training, so really you only spent three weeks on that."

"I guess you've got a point, but what are we stealing?"

"I need you to break into a local mansion and steal a few things. It should be within your skills since you'll be working together and security is fairly light." She summarizes.

"I guess we don't have much of a choice, but I'd like to know that we'll be stealing." I comment. She wasn't kidding when she said I'd be doing real jobs from here on.

"Well you can steal almost anything you want as long as you can get it out, but you must steal three things. A necklace that you'll find next to the dresser in the master bedroom, a small enchanted ring which is kept in the library and a pair of earrings bearing a similar enchantment which should be found by the necklace. There's plenty else to steal and no doubt a safe somewhere, but these items were requested by a client. Claims they were stolen from him oddly enough. Besides those three items, take any other trinkets you want. They're yours if you can take them." She laughs a little at the end.

"That's a little much for my first job don't you think?" I kid and Uefi nods.

"You won't learn anything if you don't test yourself. Besides you're a thief; the worst thing that can happen is that you get seen and you run like hell out of there. You don't have to fight anypony if you so choose." She shoots back.

"I don't plan on getting seen." I dodge her statement.

"None of us plan on getting seen. I however due plan on getting back to sleep now." She finishes her glass. "Rose, your room is the first door on the left in that hallway; you two can go to sleep whenever, just remember that you start training tomorrow Flowers." She tells him and points to the hallway to her room as she puts up her bottle and glass. "Good night."

"She's a lot less intimidating than I pictured." Uefi whispers to me as soon as she's out of earshot and we hear the door close.

"You have no idea how chill she can be and how serious she can be. Alcohol tends to keep her in-between the two pretty well." I tell him as I levitate my can of soup over to my body.

"But what do you think about this whole mess? I mean I sold drugs before, but breaking into someone's home and robbing them blind just doesn't feel right to me." He asks me, letting his old insecurities show.

"Don't worry about it too much. I'm not too happy with it either, but it's something we've got to do. To be honest though, I kind of like it. It was all mental for me, as soon as I just decided to do it and get over the fear of doing it, it got pretty fun." I tell him honestly before chugging the thin soup.

"I guess you're right. After all, it wouldn't be the first time I broke the law." He decides before walking towards his room. "See ya in the morning."

"Alright then." I mumble before getting up to go to bed myself. I do have work tomorrow.