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

   I get off of the ladder after Uefi with the bag of loot on my leg making small rustles. I reach down and undo the knot on it before turning around to see Berry sitting up with a bag of potato chips.

"Glad to see things went well." She comments and I toss the sack at her and she promptly catches it.

"Yeah, save for the fact that it was a combination lock and not a key lock." I complain, but Uefi just goes off to his room obviously wanting to get as much sleep as he can for the coming day.

"Well it doesn't seem like that was a problem though."

"It almost was, but I guess it was worth it in the end." I take a seat on the couch and show her the ring I swiped for myself.

"I don't remember that being in the job description."

"Neither did I, but I figured I was at liberty to pick up a thing for myself every now and again."

"I guess you are, but why the ring?"

"I don't know, it was in the safe and it seemed like something I should take."

"Hmm, any chance that you've learned anything over these last months about enchantments?"

"Nothing except for how to charge one." I mumble, only catching what feels like a part of what she means.

"Alright then. You can just hang onto the ring for now, but I'd advice learning a bit more on enchantments so you could take care of the enchantments yourself."

"You're not going to teach me?"

"Do I look like a unicorn?" She remarks and I face palm.

"No."

"Then there's your answer, go to the library or track down Spacial or something."

"You don't know where Spacial is?"

"I usually only know where she is up to 8% of the time. I send her jobs over the phone and that's about it." I raise a brow.

"She's not much of a home body then?"

"No, she just doesn't care for other ponies very much. I guess that's why stealing from them and killing them suits her so well."

"I'm starting to see why you don't like her that much."

"It's not as much I never liked her than it is she never liked me, but that's another story for another time." She waves me off and I decide not to push the subject further.

"I won't pry then." I stand up and start towards my room. "Good night."

~\o/~

   I replace my watch into my vest pocket as I enter the foyer and move towards where the cleaning staff supply room is, intent on grabbing a broom and continuing cleaning duty for the 7th day in a row.

"Not today Sonata." An old fart of a stallion calls me from the staircase and I glance up at him.

"What do you mean Chilled?"

"I need you to come along with me today. Lily wants to go out to eat again and I don't have the necessary funds with me today."

"So you need me to pay?" I narrow my eyes.

"In a word."

"I thought you were rich?"

"Master Purse is, but he sets a daily budget for these things. I already went over that budget twice to pay for her to go out and I can't afford to risk a third day. In all honesty I'm not supposed to let her go there at all while he's gone." He chuckles.

"Well you know, that's just a load of-" I begin but catch myself when Lily enters the room from the direction of the library. "-extremely good news and I would be glad to accompany you for brunch." I laugh nervously. My fellow butler I might tell to fuck off, but considering she's my boss's daughter I think I'll wait for later.

"Glad to see I have your consent." He makes no attempt at a poker face considering the mare is blind.

"I'm glad you offered." I flip him the bird.

"Don't be so happy about it." He chuckles, surprising lacking any glint of irritation.

"Good morning Chilled and Sonata." Lily greets us merrily but turns to us in the incorrect order.

"Inverse your perception my dear." He corrects her.

"Good morning to you as well Lily." I answer back.

"Thank you Sonata." She turns back to Chilled. "So are we leaving now?"

"I guess if you want to. I hope you don't mind if Sonata were to accompany us."

"Not at all. I was wondering where you were the last week." She turns back to me, the way of expressing irritation with her face not being lost by her vision impairment.

"Yes, well my senior here decided I would be better suited for cleaning duty." I jive.

"Really Chilled?" She raises a brow to where she believes the older male to be.

"I felt like he was better suited for that. Besides, he's with us today isn't he?" He defends himself and I'm still not sure what to make of him. Seems to act a lot less strict and her.

"I guess so. I just wish you would've told me." She sighs and extends her cane.

"I guess we're ready to go then?" I ask, still not feeling like justice was done.

"Yes we are."

~\o/~

   We enter a rather expensive looking restaurant and the semi familiar pain in my wallet pounds against me at the same time the smell of herbs and spices does.

"Just how expensive is this place?" I ask Chilled quietly.

"The water is ten bits per glass." He whispers back and I nearly shit a brick.

"Is it imported?" I ask in a half serious manner.

"Yes, it has a zero taste profile as well."

"I thought this was a rural town..." I groan.

"They aren't too fancy though. The water is more of gimmick."

"Thank god." I sign as an all too familiar waitress comes over to seat us. "Dash?"

"Sonata?" The polychromatic pegasus returns with an equal amount of surprise.

"You work here?" I ask, taking the time to appreciate the look of my outfit on her.

"Part time on weekends... What are you doing here?" She returns, looking over Chilled and Lily.

"I got hired as a part time guard until the end of this week by Coin purse. This senile old fart didn't have the money on him today, so I have to pay." I joke a little.

"Oh, well I'll get you seated then." She gets back into a waitress mood and grabs the menus.

"He'll be sitting at a separate booth." Chilled speaks up and Dash nods as I sigh. Still doesn't trust me at all.

   After helping Lily and Chilled into their booth, Dash takes me two booths down the line, smirking now.

"What?"

"I'm surprised the rumors that you got a job because of your estrus performance are true."

"It's been nothing but cleaning duty for the last week. That aged flatulence over there doesn't like me too much I think. Thankfully it's only until week's end." I explain.

"I'll be back in a minute. It probably not a good idea to keep them waiting." She manages to say through a small chuckle before running over to the other table.

At least I'm not having to work with somepony I know nothing about. I think checking my dough quickly; my wallet with 250 bits worth of bills and a few lose coins. I take a quick look through of the menu and find that Chilled was only half joking, the cheapest appetizer or dessert being a solid 30 bits and cheapest entrée being 45. So if they go for a full course meal I'll at least have a 205 bit bill and a maximum bill of 275, taxes excluded... Fuck. I'm starting to understand why Purse doesn't want her eating here too much.

"Sorry about that, apparently they were already ready to order." Dash apologizes and pulls out a notepad. "So what will you have?"

"Wait a second; what did they order, since I'm paying for it?"

"I'll skip the names and just give you the total then, 247.34 bits." She reads off and I sigh.

"After taxes I hope?"

"After taxes."

"Thank god. I won't be having anything then. Something tells me I don't want to get any debt." I tell her and she nods.

"Sad, I was going to offer you the meat based menu." She says, pocketing the note pad.

"Meat based menu; a place like this serves meat?" I raise a brow; semi-certain she's yanking my chain.

"Every now and then a Griffon or a Diamond Dog comes through so Whiskey keeps a separate menu for those occasions."

"Whiskey?"

"Whiskey Barrel, resident chef."

"He's the only chef here?" I ask, wondering how this place is operating off of the labor of a single ponies cooking.

"Have you noticed how few ponies eat here? Just him is enough and besides, his magical duplicates can take care of the rest."

"Ah. I see. Well you can put me down for nothing then. I can't afford more with the money on me now." I hide my displeasure, a nice spaghetti and meatballs sounds really good right now, even if there are fancier options.

"And you thought I was bad."

"Treating you to another lunch would be a walk in the park compared to these two; fight included." I kid with her.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it and even if they did try anything again I'd definitely fair better. Mac's helped me get enough muscle mass, though there's no style to the fighting. Now you might want to get that order in before they complain." I tell her and she nods before leaving through a set of double doors. Although I believe Chilled would be the only one to complain.

   I resign to twiddling my thumbs as I wait for either Dash to come back for conversation or for Chilled and Lily to eventually finish their meals. Deciding not to waste all my time I begin to stack small magical blocks again for the purpose of seeing if I can actually manage a castle again. Of course the moment I finish one wall and tower a rather pleasant voice interrupts me again and the magical energy breaks its boundaries and disappears into the air.

"Alright, I'm back."

"Took you a little bit." I say, not really sure as to what I should talk about.

"Yeah, I had to talk with Whiskey for a bit and bring them their drinks."

"It's no problem. So how long have you been working here?" I mutter, merely trying to keep the only thing repelling boredom around. Couldn't be a restaurant with complementary chips and salsa, could it?

"About a month or two ago, just needed the extra money."

"Oh."

"Yeah, sure you can't afford anything to eat though?"

"Maybe your garbage," I just chuckle. "But seriously I'll be fine until dinner." I finish, not mentioning that I skipped breakfast as well.

"Alright then, I can't wait to tell the girls about this though."

"About what?"

"How you got your job and about how bad it is." She keeps giggling.

"What's so funny about it?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's just that you seem to be good at turning one bad situation into another."

"Give me one example."

"You turned have to buy me a lunch into a fight and you turned the estrus into a bad job."

"That... is a very good point." I admit defeat.

"There's a reason stallions never win arguments with mares."

"I guess so." I decide and a bell ringer shortly after.

"Meals are ready; be back in a bit." She sighs before running off again and leaving me back to my thoughts.

I guess she is right though. I also turned going to a different universe into becoming a thief; not that she needs to know any of that though. I chuckle a little. I still haven't gotten entirely used to that though. I go back to twiddling my thumbs in boredom.

   I wait for another three or four minutes before Dash comes back over with a slightly annoyed expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" I ask and she just sighs.

"Nothing, they were just complaining that it took to long for their orders."

"Ah, I guess it was mainly the old guy?"

"How'd you know?"

"Call it a guess." I laugh a little.

   We spend the next half hour just shooting the breeze in-between Dash having to leave for a few minutes to service the very minimal amount of customers, that is until Chilled comes over to tell me it's time to go.

"Already?" I ask, but he just turns back to Dash.

"You can bring him the bill." He turns back to me. "We'll be waiting outside."

He walks off with the usual air of smug dignity I've come to expect from him before Dash looks back to me. "Why did you agree to work with a guy like that?"

"He acted a lot nicer before I got the job. Whether that was a sales pitch or just because he was around Lily is unknown to me. If I had known he was this 'unpleasant' for lack of better words, I wouldn't have taken the job." I explain and she nods.

"How long are you stuck working there?"

"Until the end of this week."

"At least it's not too bad then; I'm still sorry for you though. Be back in a minute with the bill." She sympathizes and goes off towards the hostess stand.

Glad to see somepony cares about my misfortune, unlike that ass out there and the obliviously happy mare with him. I really don't know why I put up with his shit. I contemplate as another thought enters my mind. Then why do I deal with it? Better; why should I deal with it? Better yet; I won't deal with it. I smile with suddenly brimming confidence as Dash comes back over.

"Here you go, 247.34 bits due." She hands me a receipt as I pull out the mix of bills and coins. "Thank you."

"Thank you for the conversation." I return to her and stand up with my smile still on my face.

"Somepony seems a little happier." Dash comments with a cocky smirk.

"Yeah, I guess I am." My smile grows a little as I turn away.

On second thought...

I conceal my smile back into my common demeanor before turning back to Dash, "Hey, would it be alright with you if went to hang out sometime?" I lay my cards on the table. Kind of got low chances here, but, save for Twilight and Applejack; she is one of the only mares who have been nice to me.

"Oh uh, sure I guess. You have my number so just give me a call whenever." She passes it off nonchalantly, but to my current state of mind it just sounds like a yes.

"Alright great. I'll give you a call later." I smile again, but not as wide, before exiting the building to see an annoyed looking Chilled.

"About time you got out here you-" I cut off his lecture.

"Cut the crap Ice."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm through. No more being your lackey, no more reorganizing the library in both alphabetical and by date of publishing to see which looks better; I quit." At this point he just looks completely pissed and I notice Lily standing a good twenty meters away with some mares who seem to be her friends. So he won't be holding back I see.

"Now look here, you can't just quit. You'll be working until your time is up. You should be grateful for how Mr.Purse gave you this job; you're indebted to him." He practically yells but I just chuckle.

"I'm indebted to him? I just paid less than three bits away from a quarter of a thousand on lunch for you and his daughter. If I was indebted then it's paid, you can send my pay through the mail." I argue no further before turning away from him.

A rather forceful hand grabs my shoulder and turns me around to face him again, "Now you stop where you are, I-" but I don't let him finish before giving him a strong backhanded slap the nearly cause him to collapse.

"You can't fight me here Chilled. You're too weak to stop me from leaving. Like I said, I'm through." I keep the level tone I've had since this began.

"Well just where do you think you're going then?" He yells back up at me with one knee planted in the dirt, obviously caught up in both the surprise of my outburst and the stares of onlookers.

   I channel the last of my sudden energy and bravado spike into one single statement. One known across galaxies far and wide for its profound meaning. One uttered only when needed most. One I think everyone should honor.

"Screw you guys, I'm going home." I give two fingers to him and the last of my energy fades along with the small spirit of South Park within me.

   I walk off, leaving a dazed butler, an oblivious golden pegasus and a very small crowd of ponies who I hope are just going to pass this off as another weird day in ponyville; after all I've seen worse happen in these streets.

   After I get a good distance away from the scene, I slip into a small alleyway and sit down unceremoniously, panting like a dog. I can't believe I just did that. Asking Dash out; a ways out of my comfort zone, but not unbelievable. Telling Chilled to fuck off and that I'm quitting; a little less likely since I'd like to keep a good reputation. Both in a public place; that I can't see my logic in.

   I catch my breath and pull myself up and out of the dirt. Whatever in me caused that little outburst; thanks I guess. I laugh a little while walking back to my subterranean abode. Though something like that is hardly the usual me.

~\o/~

   I step off of the ladder, my regular gusto having returned, and walk past Uefi and into the kitchen. I pull an apple put of the fruit basket, not what I would've wanted for lunch but it will work.

"I thought you were working today."

"I quit."

"Finally decided to stop dealing with that prick, huh?" Uefi chuckles and sips his apple juice.

"Yeah. I had to pay a quarter thousand for his lunch. That kind of thing tends to push me over the edge."

"How much did you pay?!" He almost spits his whole drink out.

"Less than three bits under a quarter thousand."

"I can't blame you then."

"How could you?" I bite into the delectable green fruit.

"So what are you gonna do for a job?"

"I don't know. I don't really need one, but I guess having one on the side would be helpful."

"You could always talk with Mac about farm work."

"Nah, that's not my thing. I need something a bit more... Fun." I chuckle at my lack for better words.

"Well I can't help you there." He rolls his eyes, a task I'm not sure either of us is used to yet due to our large eyes, as Berry enters the room.

"What's this I hear about Sonata growing a pair?" Uefi again nearly loses his entire drink.

"Har, har; yeah I quit my job." I role my own eyes.

"Good for you. So you're free during the day now, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good, then tomorrow I want you to meet me at that little clearing you go to in the woods every now and again." Her smile grows.

"Why?" I ask, but she turns my devious.

"I think it's time I started getting you in touch with those changeling roots." I have the small feeling that this isn't going to be fun.