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

   I crack open my eyelids and groan at the sunlight for all to hear as my headache pounds against my skull with no remorse. I shouldn't have listened to Mac. Mac in his infinite and omnipotent wisdom decided a victory drink was in order after the announcer, who later let his name, Rating Rat, slip, left.

   Then he decided to have a drinking contest would be even better. Uefi stopped after a bottle and Mac said something about him being pretty good for a pegasus. Mac and I went on for another two bottles each before he gave in. From there we went on to make a hammock on top of the barn that I fell asleep in; all of this leading to my hangover and my position on the roof.

   Stifling a grunt of agony, I try to pick myself up out of the potato sack turned hammock before getting caught-up in the fabric.

"Ah shit." I mutter as I begin to slide down the right side of the tin roof as magic fails me.

   I hit the gutter hard before being propelled off of the roof and into the air. Just as I'm realizing the weight of my situation, I feel a set of soft arms grab me in mid-air and I sigh.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." I hear a bubbly voice respond.

"Fell off the right side. Looks like you win this one Ditzy." Uefi's voice breaks apart some of the cobwebs in my skull.

"What?" I scratch my head as the gray pegasus sets me down.

   I wipe my eyes and see Mac and Uefi toss the mail-mare two small sacs of bits and she stuffs them into her cargo shorts.

"We had a bet on which side of the roof you'd fall down. Mac and I thought you'd fall down the left side and she said the right side." Uefi informs me.

"So you had a bet on whether or not I'd fall and hurt myself?"

"In our defense it was her idea." Mac points fingers at Ditzy.

"In her defense you shouldn't have went along with it." I rub my still aching horn.

"I'd like of stay, but I'm a little behind on my deliveries." The cross-eyed mare salutes and grabs her brown courier bag.

"See ya Ditzy." Uefi waves after her as she flies off.

"Anypony else feel a little weird talking normally with mares when we were running away from them for the last week?"

"I might feel that way about the group that was chasing us, but as far as the other goes, I don't mind. I'm little curious to see how it is in town though." Uefi answers me.

"Did they leave already?"

"Applejack is taking a shower in the house and she avoided eye contact with me at breakfast, but the rest left afterwards." He tosses me my second baggie of manticore tail and Mac gets the same uneasy look he always gets when I eat the stuff.

"I would've thought you'd gotten used to it by now." I speak through a half-mouthful of it before pocketing the bag.

"I have, it's just a little weird still..." He avoids eye contact with me.

"You know I didn't kill it in cold blood if that helps at all."

"It just feels wrong still. It's nothing against you, it's just... Unusual."

"Whatever." I decide not to make a big deal of it and look to Uefi. "Ready to head home? Berry should be back by now."

"I guess. Although I'm not thrilled of go back to stealing."

"You're not the one who got shot at last time." I hold up my coattail, referencing the holes in it.

"Fair enough." He groans as I close the gap between us.

"Then let's go."

~\o/~

   After a walk through a town filled of ponies mostly staring at each other awkwardly, and giving out a few autographs on the side to a few stray fans, all mares, but only some of them in my age group, we make it back to the door to our subterranean home.

"You head on in. I need to take care of something first." I tell Uefi and he nods, unlocking the padlock on the door and hopping down the rabbit hole.

   I look around in the trees for a moment I come across what I was looking for. I thought I saw something earlier. I think before tossing a rock at the obscured being with my magic.

"Come on out Scoots'." I call through the forest at the spying filly.

"I didn't think you'd notice me." I hear her grumble as she comes out from behind the larger oak, wearing full black clothing.

"I didn't think you'd still be spying on me." I grumble as the small pony crosses the brambles.

"I wasn't told to stop and Berry said it was alright." She retorts.

"So Berry knew about this, huh?"

"Not until she caught me waiting this morning."

"Why were you watching me anyway?" I ask, knowing the reason full-well.

"Because Dash told me to and its fun."

"It's fun?"

"Yeah, but it was a little scary after you noticed me." She chirps.

"A filly after my own heart." I sigh.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing." I wave her off. "You can stop spying know though. Dash only needed you to for the estrus, but it's over so it should be fine if you stopped."

"Well ok then." She says, downtrodden.

"Of course if you ever want a friend to come along while you spy, I wouldn't object to it every now and again." I smile, trying to cheer her up.

"Ok then." She beams before jogging off.

"Then again, the last thing the world needs is another thief." I chastise myself for partially approving of her spying before locking the door behind me hopping down into the main room.

"Nice to see you again, Sonata." Berry welcomes me and I turn to face the magenta mare.

"It's been awhile. How was the coup d'état?" I ask her, noticing the small medal pinned to her yellow shirt.

"Pretty good actually. The king was a little annoying to get to, but I got this medal." She says, flicking the small piece of silver.

"Glad to hear it was successful." I smile.

"Glad to see you got another ring." She takes a sip of the wine held in her hand.

"Yeah, I guess I'm allowed to have enchantments now."

"I guess so. How was the estrus for you?" She diverts from the subject.

"We survived." Uefi chimes in from the couch, reaffixing the gem to the end of his bow.

"Looks like one of you did a little more than survive." She points at the wall to the original copy of my poster.

"I had to do what was necessary." I shrug and take off my coat.

"I'm still wondering why you lot got caught."

"We let our guard down." Uefi and I respond simultaneously.

"Well, regardless of that, I need to talk with you two about a job."

"Oh joy." Uefi groans.

"Quite." She finishes her glass. "Before I begin, I will tell you that it will require you to go out of town again, but I'll take care of the expense. You'll be heading into Dodge Junction, a town not too much unlike Cannonrim, but it's a larger town, characterized by its cherry ranch. You'll be taking a train there friday night, stealing a few select items and returning Saturday morning. You will not talk to anypony, and you will not be seen, lest you forfeit your profit. You'll get there around 6p.m. to remain timely you'll want to start moving through the ranch as soon as possible. There won't be a problem as far as guards go, but, unless you wait and risk missing your train, you'll have to move through the house while they're still awake."

"So will I need to even go along on this one?" Uefi asks, seeing that his place as a spotter would be useless.

"Yes. For what's required we'll probably need both of you working at the same time. It'll take a bit of time to get the safe picked open so I'd like it if he had somepony to watch his back while he gets it open."

"What if I found the key?" I ask her, remembering my last time picking a safe.

"Cherry Jubilee, the ranch owner, keeps the key on her person at all times so you'd have to pickpocket the key and then slip it back in her pocket before she notices. You can try if you want, but I'd opt for just picking the lock and leaving it at that."

"Point taken; where will the safe be?"

"In her office on the first floor, I don't know where it is exactly though. Once you get it open I want you to take out four of the ten bags of bits along with three out of the seven golden bars." She instructs but I cock a brow.

"Why not take all of it?"

"We're sending a message Sonata. Our client is a private protection agency that have been trying to get a contract for the last two months. They want us to take only part of the wealth to make sure they don't go under and, for the same reason, it means repeat business later."

"Good thinking." Uefi comments and she smiles.

"You don't get far in this business without good planning. Also Sonata, I need you to run back into town and grab some chicken I ordered. I'd ask Rosey here to do it, but he doesn't know where the restaurant is."

"Alright, just let me go take a shower first." I smell the cider in my breath. Some toothpaste wouldn't hurt either...

"Fine by me, just make sure you get it in time for dinner."

"Fair enough." I grumble, tossing my coat over my shoulder and walking back to my room.

~\o/~

   I finish combing my hair back with my pocket comb just as I enter town, opting to wear my usual clothes and leave my mane in the ponytail.

"Excuse me?" I hear a cute female voice call and I smile with a sigh. If I had a bit for each fan-girl who did that today.

"Yes?" I say, opening my eyes before sending them wide and wishing I had ignored the voice.

   A bright yellow mare stands across from me with shoulder length, curled hair and a smile on her face. A pretty white sundress runs down her form with small yellow flowers accenting the lower right corner. Her semi-opaque yellow eyes stare just to my right with a false knowing expression.

   Next to her stands an older looking dark green stallion wearing a jet-black tuxedo who just looks at me and sighs as if he expected this.

"Five centimeters to the right, miss." He speaks up.

"Oh, sorry." She stumbles over the words realigning her eyes with my face. This is the last possible thing I needed to happen. I should've known wearing my thief clothes for the vent would be a bad idea.

"Miss, perhaps you should let me take the lead in this?" He suggests, seemingly used to this situation. At lease it doesn't seem like they're here about the heist.

"That'd probably be best, you know as well as I do that I don't have mind for this stuff." She says, taking a step back and her butler fills in the position.

"Sorry if that was a little awkward for you." He extends his hand.

"No it's fine. I'm mostly wondering why you're talking to me though." I shake his hand, returning to my smile.

"We're here on a bit of business. You see, milady, my master and the young master watched your performance in the event and Mr.Purse would like to extend you a job offer for the next few weeks." I cock a brow.

"Not to be sound offensive, but how did she watch my performance?" I ask and he breaks demeanor to laugh.

"They described the event to her as it proceeded, this including how you look. I haven't a memory for these things and I haven't personally seen the tapes yet. Although I did see a few posters remaining as I walked through town. So we got here about an hour ago and I described the ponies that came by until you matched the description she had of you." He explains after taking a moment to calm down.

"Oh... You'll have to excuse how I acted before. I've had some problems with giving autographs today for some of the mares and I'm tired of it to be honest." I apologize and his eyes widen in embarrassment and I notice the large role of paper in his grasp. "Just give it here." I groan, taking the poster.

"Sorry about this."

"No problem, no problem. At least she's my age, I had a 34 year old ask for one and run off like a school girl. Didn't even stay long enough to hand me the poster." I wave him off, sighing the bottom left corner in stylized cursive as I did with the others.

"That must've been something." He chuckles as I hand it back to him.

"Yes, well I remember you mentioned some business..." I lead him on, the yellow pegasus standing behind him and humming a tune.

"Ah yes. Mr.Purse would like to offer you a job for the next two weeks as a day time guard while he and the Mrs do some business in Manehattan. Normally he wouldn't be worried, but in light of the little skirmish a few months ago he'd like to have a few extras on hand. He decided to offer you a position to work with me during the day."

"Well, while I appreciate the offer, I would need to run it by my employer first."

"I understand, I understand. Just talk it over with him, or her, and bring this by the mansion tomorrow." He hands me a small piece of yellow paper. "They'll let you through the gate and bring you to meet Mr.Purse and you can talk it over with him."

"I'll make sure to come by with and answer then." I tell him, taking the paper.

"Thank you, sir."

"One thing, what's your name?" I ask, slightly annoyed that he didn't introduce himself.

"Oh yes, where are my manners. You can just call me Chilled' and milady her is..." He moves out of the way to reveal the mare, who still hums her tune in ignorance. "20 degrees right and one step forward." He instructs like before and she follows it perfectly, arriving just outside of my personal space.

"I'm Golden Lily. I hope you can come by and work for us." She smiles cutely and I shake her outstretched hand with an unseen smile. By a fair enough margin, the most beautiful mare I've met.

"Still Sonata, and the feeling is mutual." I assure her, retracting my hand.

"Well we better be off then. I'll expect to see you tomorrow then?" Chilled chimes back in and hands Lily her cane.

"I'll try to come by sometime around midday probably."

"I look forward to it then." He calls back as they walk off.

All things considered, that went much better than expected. I think, watching a golden tail swishing back and forth away from me. Come on, back to work Sonata; no time for sightseeing.

~\o/~

   I slip into my home, or more rather Berry's home at this point, and set the bag of chicken down on the counter next to her.

"Thank you Sonata." She says in the same sing-song tone she usually has when cooking.

"No problem, although I am wondering when you'll be teaching me to cook." I joke; remembering the last few months of eating my food which compared to Berry's seems to be dog-food.

"I'll get around to it sometime." She answers just as she did before she left as I slip the yellow paper from my pocket. "What's that?"

"It's a pass to get into Coin Purse's mansion tomorrow. His butler and Daughter caught me on my way into town and it turns out they saw my performance in the estrus."

"You'd be hard pressed to find a pony around here who hasn't." She mumbles, tossing the now seasoned chicken breast into the wok.

"Well, it turns out that, because of what I did, he's become a little impressed with me. His wife and him are going to Manehattan on business and want to hire a few extra guards because of the robbery you had Uefi and I commit. He wants to sign me on as a daytime guard for the next two weeks." I explain to her, pocketing the invitation.

"Are you going to take the job then?" She doesn't miss a beat.

"How can I? I have the job this weekend and who knows about next week. Not to mention the fact that I'm the one who caused this. I'm truly surprised you even asked." I scoff at the obviously tipsy mare as she stumbles around the wok, another glass of wine poured and in her hand.

"Like I said, we're a family here. If my 'wonderful' son wants to get a part-time job, I don't mind at all. I won't have you doing daytime heists for awhile, so as long as you're just working days you can work if you want to. And what you did last year was just business. In my opinion it'd do you some good to have your days occupied with something you like, because I know the apple orchard isn't a place you like working." She sounds so much like a mother I nearly forget myself... Nearly.

"So you don't care at all?" I ask as Uefi comes in from his room.

"Not really. Go for it is what I say."

"Alright then, I'm taking the job." I smile and she turns back with the same look.

"Glad to see you're realizing I'm not a terrible pony."

"Umm... What's going on?" Uefi asks in a bewildered manner.

"Nothing, Rose petals, nothing at all." She smirks with the new nickname taking hold.

~\o/~

   I walk up to the faux gold gates to the mansion, but this time without the will of a thief in my heart. I spot a small intercom on one side and walk over to it before clocking the small button on it.

"Hello?" I ask through the static, taking a hand off of the button.

"State your business."

"I'm Still Sonata. I'm here about a job as a temporary guard for the next few weeks. I have this invitation if that helps." I explain and slip the paper through the slot.

"Ah yes, that colt from the heat cycle. Come on in." The voice lightens up a little as the gates slowly open.

   I walk through the gateway and up the cobble path to the oversized house, the breeze of the day accompanying me with the occasion leaf blowing past. I open the rather large front door and walk into the foyer after walking up a few stairs to the entrance. I choose to simply ignore the occasional glare from the guards.

"I'll be taking you to me Mr.Purse now, sir." A middle aged butler greets me and I follow him towards the library.

   I enter the library and the servant closes the door, leaving me in the large room with a rather imposing looking blue unicorn, wearing a white dress shirt tucked inside of his dark grey pants, who sits in a chair near the fireplace.

"You must be Sonata?" He calls and I find myself eerily calmed by his voice.

"And you must be Coin Purse." I return the pleasantry and take a sear across from him.

"Nice outfit."

"Same to you." We both smirk and I can already tell that I'll like this man. Although I do wish this weird post-theft nostalgia would subside. "So you wanted to hire me for the next few weeks?"

"Yes. I'm still a little on edge from the theft a few months ago and I've been trying to up my security. I saw you and an idea occurred to me; you seem to be good at the whole sneaking business and you seem to have some combat skill."

"I appreciate the complement, but how does an affinity for stealth matter?"

"It won't to be honest, but I think having somepony on hand who knows how to hide might be able to understand the minds of these ponies a bit more."

"You really believe that you'll have another thief problem so soon?" I barely contain my laughter at his paranoia.

"Not so soon, but of know what happened the last time I dropped my guard."

"Fair enough, but what will my job be here?" I ask as he takes a shot of whiskey.

"Well that's up to you, but I'd like to have you work with Chilled. He's the personal guard to my daughter, but I'm a little worried about him having too much to do at times. I don't doubt his ability with the gun, but he's a bit old too be doing all of this alone. Not to mention my daughter has been requesting a younger attendant to work with him. Something about needing a more relatable guard."

"I'm surprised you'd trust me to do that immediately." I raise a brow, wondering just why he'd trust a relative stranger with his daughter's safety.

"Normally I wouldn't, but I've heard a thing or two about you. You got into a fight with three pegasi because one of them threw a punch at a mare you were repaying a debt to, continuing until you passed out from exhaustion. You also feel a sense of loyalty to those you work with, like when you helped your friends in the estrus. Your muscle mass is impressive for a unicorn and you achieved a fourth ring over the last month. I admire somepony with those aspects of loyalty."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere." I refrain from blushing.

"Yes, well, based on what I know about you, I thought it would be reasonable for you to take the task." He pours another shot.

"I think I can take that task. Your daughter seemed quite enjoyable when I met her yesterday. Although I'll only be working during the day correct?" I ask.

"Yes, I trust you, but not enough to be a private night guard, especially for my daughter." He glares daggers at me that seem to say 'don't lay a finger on her'.

"Don't worry about anything like that. I was asking because I work a night job already, not because I had dirty thoughts about your daughter." I defend myself and his eyes soften.

"So now my daughter isn't beautiful? Is that it?" He jokes as his hard demeanor does a 180.

"I didn't say that, in honesty she's probably one of the prettiest mares I've seen since moving here."

"See, now you're fawning after her!" He rises from his seat.

"For a colt of my age to not notice her beauty would be a stupid mistake. You should take it as a compliment!" I follow his game and raise up to face him, our equal heights putting us face to face.

"Then I'm glad to see we understand each other." He smiles and holds out a hand, the charade being broken in an instant.

"Same here." I shake.

"Well, I think Chilled and Lily should be in the foyer by now to give you a tour of the grounds. You can go on ahead, my wife and I will be leaving tomorrow, but you may see us from time to time today." He pulls pack from the handshake and I nod before going off back to the lobby.

   I enter the sunlit room to see Chilled standing in the center, wearing something similar to Coin Purse, along with Lily who has switched to a pink sundress with the same flowery ascents. Next to her however, I notice a young unicorn who looks almost like a miniature Coin Purse, save for his darker coat, who eyes me cautiously.

After whispering something to Lily, Chilled turns back and smiles, "Glad to see you decided to take the job." Lily turns from the staircase to face me.

"He made an offer I didn't want to refuse." I answer simply.

"How much is he paying you?" Chilled asks and I stop in my tracks and curse.

"I knew I was forgetting something." I sigh. He's rich; he couldn't be too stingy... Could he?

"Now I'm starting to think I should've found a better candidate." He groans as I finish closing the gap in distance.

"I was just so excited by the opportunity to be around such pleasant ponies that I forgot to ask." I say sarcastically before looking down at the blue unicorn and changing my demeanor. "And who are you?"

"This is young master Bag, Ms. Lily's younger brother. He wanted to meet you for himself." Chilled responds for the mute colt.

"He's just a little paranoid over having a new guard around me." Lily sighs as I just look at the unwavering unicorn.

"Does he not like me?" I ask the sociable ponies in the room.

"No, I just don't trust you." He speaks up.

"So you do speak; but why don't you trust me?"

"I don't trust you with protecting my sister. Dad said he enjoyed watching in the estrus competition, but never anything about hiring you to me."

"He's in that phase where he's protective of me..." The blond mare says.

"And why don't you trust me with your sister?"

"You don't have any background in this line of work, you're too sneaky to just be an average unicorn, you're generally under qualified and you're probably just taking this job to brag to your friends." He lists off and I decide to just be civil with him. At least his heart is in the right place.

"First off, I was very good at hide-and-seek as a foal and it carried over into my magic style. Second, I'm a gentlecolt and would never let anything bad happen to your sister. Finally, who am I going to brag to? My brother, who has apples in his head everyday now or Macintosh, the pony who literally has apples in his head everyday; I could get a job at a Marey-Queen and still brag to them." I defend myself, but in a neutral manner after all this is the son of my employer.

(Mid-way note: I loled so f**king hard when I wrote down 'Marey Queen'.)

"Well you're still not qualified to be a guard here. Maybe a trashcolt but not a guard."

"We'll let time be the judge of that, Silvy." Lily smiles again, moving her hand around in the area near 'Silvy' until she manages to find his head.

"But sis-" he grounds before getting cut off.

"And if he isn't suited to guard me then at the very least he looks intimidating, I think, and he can just get caught in the crossfire." She jokes and I'm happy she took over the conversation.

"I guess he can't hurt too much if Chilled is watching him..." The small unicorn complies, stretching out a hand to me.

"I'll do my best." I assure him and shake.

"Don't think this means I like having you here. You were fun to watch in the game, but that doesn't mean you're good enough for us." He hastily retracts.

"I'll keep that in mind." I assure him before he walks off towards the library, probably to give his dad shit over this. "Is he always like that?" I whisper to Chilled.

"Only about his family. He tends to like new ponies otherwise." Chilled replies as we take advantage of Lily's lack of understanding her surroundings.

"Also, should I be calling Lily and 'Silvy' 'Ms, Mr, young master or milady'?" I ask, hoping I didn't break any formality.

"Since we're Lily's personal guards, though technically I'm a butler, when we're not in the company of others it's fine to call them by name, but around other guards or ponies in general it'd be wise to just call her Ms. Lily or milady." He instructs me before turning back to Lily. "Are we ready to begin the tour then?"

"If you are, then I am." She says in what seems to be her usual bubbly tone before reaching out and grabbing Chilled's hand so that he can guide her.

~\o/~

   The tour passed uneventfully and afterwards I had to ask Chilled', who had then revealed his whole name to be Chilled Ice, about what hours I was working with him, which were decided to be 8a.m. to about 5p.m. give or take extra time if needed.

   The only real factors he could tell me was that, A. Lily enjoys lunch at the local Italian restaurant two-three times a week and B. the days would probably consist of lounging around due to her relaxed personality.

   After having bid a quick farewell to Lily, Chilled and her father, I make my way back home by the light of the moon, but I can't help but feel I got a bit too lucky there. I'm surprised I didn't get shot, then again I guess none of them got a good look at me last time I was there.

"So how'd your interview go Sonata?" Uefi asks me as I step off of the ladder.

"I got the job so it went well all things considered. How did asking Mac for a full time position work out?"

"He was a little hesitant, but with the gathering season looming ahead he did admit that it would be nice to have an extra set of hands around. I guess you could say I'm still on a trial run, though." He admits, running a hand through his mane nervously.

"You did tell him about Saturday though, right?"

"Of course. He just said he understands if I have to leave early for it."

"How of you feel about going back on a job?" I ask, after all it has been a few months and in that time I'm the only one of us who kept up on it. Not that I actually stole anything, I would just slip inside and slip back out without waking anypony.

"It'll be a little different being on the inside, but I think I can handle it."

"Well alright then. One thing though..." I lead on.

"What?"

"Do you kinda feel like we got downgraded? From a mansion to a cherry farm; not that I'm complaining. It just doesn't feel right..." I voice my concern.

"Just don't think about it. Maybe Berry is trying to ease us back into the feel of it."

"Yeah... Maybe." I scratch the back of my head. It still doesn't feel right though...