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

   Uefi and I sit lazily in the back can of the train as we barrel down the tracks in the dark to Dodge Junction. Uefi decided to take his entire outfit, but this time I decided to leave my long coat since it tends to drag behind me too much. I don't even want to remember the times that it got caught in windows or doorways.

   Uefi left his bow, but didn't refrain from taking his knockout gem and a cheap pair of eyeglasses he duct-taped his night vision gem to. I opted to bring my wraps along in hopes that the thieving activities would induce another confrontation with my 'spirits' as I decided to call them.

   Chaos and Deviant Point didn't do anything the last time I tried them and every other attempt at seeing them again failed. I did, however, have Twi' give them a look-over and, after a very long, very boring argument to convince her not to cut my hands off to examine the bonds between them and the fabric, she gave me an answer.

   The crystalline structure in them, while she couldn't identify it, seems to have a small portion of magic; some of it mine, coursing though it that seems to be some sort of enchantment she couldn't make sense of.

   My week working for Coin Purse was much less exciting than I had hoped. Ice kept me doing smaller jobs that never involved Lily or even protecting her; something about how he wanted me to work my way up to it.

   However, as the train comes to a stop, all of these thoughts I push aside to focus on the job and stand up.

"Ready to go Uefi?" I ask my pseudo-brother.

"Ready as I'll ever be." He groans as I slap him across the back and in a split second of teleportation we find ourselves in the alley next to the train station. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that."

"Trust me, my teleportation isn't the smoothest thing you'll find, but I've had some rough ones." I tell him, sniffing up some blood from my nose. The disadvantages of using regular teleportation instead of escape teleportation.

"Whatever, let's just get this over with." He says, walking on ahead towards where the orchard is.

"You almost sound like you're not enjoying this." I follow along.

"It's not that I'm not enjoying the idea of stealing something again. It's that I'm not enjoying that I enjoy it. Doesn't it ever get to you; taking something that some other person worked so hard to get?" He turns to me and I can see the depression on his face.

"It does, but I try not to think about it. Everypony has to get by somehow Uefi; we just happen to be part of the group that has to steal to get by." I try to console him the same way Berry had consoled me.

"Still though, it just doesn't feel right to enjoy it." Sighing, he turns back ahead.

"I just don't question it." I mutter and we continue to pass from alley to alley until we reach the orchard at the end of town, the moonlight giving us needed illumination. "Follow me."

   I take the lead and begin to weave my way through the trees near the path as Uefi follows in suit. At least a half hour passes on before we finally reach the medium sized, two story house with a few windows still illuminated inside.

"How do you want to get in?" Uefi asks as I run through my options, which only amount to the front door, back door and windows.

"Let's to around and see if there's a back door. If there isn't we'll use a window." I direct him as I slip along the edge of the cherry trees, trying to crush as few cherries as possible, lest I leave a trail.

   I keep my eyes firmly on the house as we sidestep; freezing solid as soon as I even think I see movement. After fifteen minutes of stop and go we reach the back of the area behind the house before I twist back to Uefi.

"I'm going to go see if I can't get that door open. I need you to wait here until then." I direct, pointing at the dimly lit doorway.

"Got it."

   I make a quick check across all of the windows and, with a small bit of effort; I roll over to the side of the home and stick to the outer wall like a mosquito on a windshield. I hold a hand out and make a thumbs-up with it before turning in down and then back again while looking at Uefi.

   He gives me a thumbs up and I sigh in relief. We should've brought our comms. I peel my frame off of the wooden siding and get as low as I can in a crouch to keep under any windows in my way.

   Doing what I can to keep a silent step and a serene focus, I manage to make it to the screen door without detection. I open the door and pull out the picks from my pocket before getting to work on the tumblers of the wooden door.

   I rake the cylinders until finally, with a satisfying click of the knob turning; I succeed in opening the lock. I hold up a hand to wave the green pegasus over and within a few moments he comes out of a roll next to me.

"Ready?" I ask.

"Not really, but nothing is going to change that." He chuckles and I open the door.

   We slip into the pitch black room and I close the door as silently as possible behind me. I channel a bit of magic and slowly my vision comes back in a shade of green and I turn to see Uefi fumbling with his cheap glasses.

   We seem to be in some sort of a kitchen/dining room combo with a large walnut table in the center with some counters and kitchen appliances across from us. Resisting the subconscious desire to check for fine china or some other high priced dining ware; I nudge Uefi and walk ahead to the next door.

   Cracking it ever so slightly, I see what to most others would be a pitch black hallway leading down to my left to what seems to be a dimly illuminated living room.

   The very notion of dilly dallying being lost on me, I step out into the hallway and immediately thank my lucky stars that a long rug is going down its length. I curse my luck soon after as I realize there aren't any other doorways in this hallway.

"Fuck."

"What the problem?" Uefi whispers back after closing the door.

"There aren't any other doorways. We'll have to go past that room first." I stick a finger out at the changing glow of the room ahead.

"It couldn't be easy, could it?"

"I'd rather deal with stuff like this sooner rather than later." I decide and live to the edge of the glow, dropping the night vision as well.

   I see a rather large flat screen hanging on the wall to my left with a large couch about two meters in front of it. Another couch sits on the left side of the larger one, forming a right angle with both it and the wall and win about a 1/3x1/3 meter gap between it and the long couch.

   I can see the head of a pony at the far end of the couch parallel to the television and I curse again. My only grace is that the only illumination in the room is the TV, which is playing some sort of pony iron chef, but because of the size of the room I'll have to move within the pony's line of sight and, with the changing light of the show; invisibility is out of the question at its current point.

"I'll go first." I whisper back taking a few steps forward until I'm at the edge of the couch and directly under the pony's head.

   Tempting fate, I quickly roll through the light and behind the other couch. I look back to Uefi who is holding himself as still and possible and I turn up to the pony looking at the crack in the shadows.

"Could've sworn I saw something." The feminine voice mutters before turning back to the TV. "What kind of pony would put Seastars in ice cream?"

   I let a silent breath escape before looking back to Uefi who has his thinking look stern about his face. A moment later he smiles as the image of a timer comes across the screen with 44:59 seconds left on it and counting down.

   Putting my knowledge of Berry's TV watching habits to use, I arrive at the same conclusion he did with seconds as the screen fades to black momentarily for commercials and by the time the light is back I have a rather smug looking pegasus at my side, the other pony in the room none the wiser.

   With our night vision reactivated and both of us knowing not to talk until the job is over, I take the lead as we pass by the staircase and into another hallway. Similar to its counterpart, this hallway consists of three doorways, one at the end and one on either side.

   "You take left, I'll take right." I whisper to Uefi as we pass the door on the left and he slides through the doorway. With nary a peep, I come up to the door on the right to find it locked. Promising... I smile.

   Unlike the outside lock, this one only takes me about five seconds. I feel a light tap on my soldier and I almost jump out of my skin before I realize it's Uefi.

"Jesus, man." I mutter.

"Sorry. The other room was just a bathroom."

   I ignore him and open the door and smile at the sight of bookshelves and file cabinets on the walls with a desk straight ahead of me.

"Bingo." I wave Uefi in before closing the door. "Time to work my magic."

   Activating a rather complex spell I made in privacy, I begin to send very noticeable lines of scarlet magic across the room until I can feel a small rejection of the field. While my Shadow's Sonar, as I've taken to calling it, is extremely visible and causes physical recoil about 88% of the time, for something like this it's worth saving the time.

[Full description at chapter end.]

   I take out a bandage from my small storage I keep on hand for these kinds of spells and put it across my face where a rather sizable gash appeared. With the bleeding stopped, I follow my mental waypoint to where the safe is and find myself at a rather small portrait of a solemn cherry tree.

   I slide my fingers into the space behind it I slide them around on the top until I find the clip holing the painting in place. After undoing the clip and taking the painting down to reveal the dark black safe. Shit.

   While I expected a simple lock and key system, some smart little pony decided that the combination lock was a safer route. You're fine; just remember what Berry taught you, most ponies keep the combination within twenty feet of the safe itself. I reassure myself.

   I walk over to the desk and begin to look through various pieces of paper on the surface. Expense reports, profit margins, break even point, supply graphs... No, none of this. I take a quick survey of the books on the shelves but none of them yield any logical result and I dare not begin pulling books off the walls. Shit; where is it?

"Dude, we need to get out of here soon." Uefi reminds me from his position by the door and I sigh.

"We're gonna have to bail for tonight. I can't find the code." I decide after what seems to be thirty minutes of useless searching.

"Berry won't be happy about this."

"She'll be happier with us not in prison." I become the very voice of reason.

"Fine, I'll unlock the door." He says as I pick the painting back up.

   I hang the painting back up before looking down and sighing. Come on, you're better than this. It's just a stupid code! I yell mentally before bring my eyes back up and catching a small sliver on cursive in the lower right hand corner of the picture.

"From humble beginnings. April 12, 1912." I whisper aloud. "Wait up, Uefi. I think I cracked the code." I grin like a bloody madman.

   Vigor renewed, I practically rip the painting off the wall and begin fumbling with the knob. 12,19,12. I coach myself and grab the handle. And behind door number one is... I pull the handle and safe opens up like a rich-man's wallet to buy another suit.

   A small yellow sheen comes off of the golden bars in the safe and I grab the leather pouch I had strapped to my leg. I toss three of the golden bars into the sack, the weight of them surprising me a little but I ignore it. Reaching a little farther back, I grab onto a pair of small brown bags and toss them into the pouch, another pair shortly after.

"Alright I've got it all." I whisper back before something else catches my eye, a rather nice looking silver ring adorned with about 10 deep red gems growing in proportional size while moving into a central, larger gem.

"Ok, I'll go open the door." He turns away and I give into temptation and snatch the ring, slipping it onto my left hand, over the wraps.

   After taking the time to hang the painting again, I move to join Uefi and we slip out the door together, locking it behind us to ensure we leave the smallest trail we can. We move back into the main room and thankfully by this time, surprisingly only 9:30 according to my clock, she's fallen asleep as a Marey Queen [Zing] commercials come across the screen.

  Uefi has no sense of shame however and takes the opportunity to grab her left breast lightly and I grab his collar and literally drag him away anger rising, but it isn't the worst thing I've seen him do to sleeping women on earth, at this point I just accept that it's the way he is, no more trying to roundhouse him into submission like I did back on earth.

   After exiting through the kitchen's back door, I let go of him and he groans in response as we take off into a sprint through the cherry trees towards town.

"Come on man. They were nice."

"I don't want to hear it Uefi. We were on the job and you know it pisses me off." I retort.

"Like you don't think about it with ever mare you look at."

"I'm not a perv like you. I'm a gentleman." I respond as we enter the town again through the alleyways.

"Whatever..." He flips me off.

   Deciding not to make a scene of it, we continue to run through from alley to alley until we end up where I teleported us to begin with.

"Alright. You ready for this?" I ask him, a train pulling into the station behind me.

"Just get it over with." He says and I punch him at 15% power right in the face and magic swirls around us as we appear in the back of the train.

"That," I begin as he falls back into a seat, "was for flipping me the bird."