A day has passed since I had joined up with the Manehattan branch of the Shadow Guard and began helping them with this whole thing, and, with an illusion spell placed over me to make me appear as a pony- one with red skin and black hair while wearing a similar dress to my usual- as I stood in the only jewelry store in the area they had figured out that hadn't yet been hit. I had been in there for just a little under ten minutes when I heard the door opened. I looked at it, and saw, not exactly to my surprise, Emerald. Looks like someone was Displaced as her, so that probably means someone dressed as Mercury and Roman are here too. Fun.
She scanned the various cases as I kept my eye son here as I pretended to do the same before a pony came over to her. They talked before the pony took a ring out of the case and handed it to Emerald, who examined it before the pony looked as if he was grabbing it out of thin air before placing said air back in the case and Emerald left, with me following close behind. The streets weren't badly crowded, so I was able to follow her with ease as she went into an alleyway, where I stopped to hide at the edge and look into it to see her meeting with the other two. Looks like my guess was right.
I did a quick glance to the rooftop opposite my position, and saw Azure there overlooking the scene. I nodded, a signal that these were the thieves, and to drop the illusion.
There was a slight shimmer around me as the illusion dropped, and with that, I walked into the alleyway. "Well, look what we have here," I said, getting their attention. "What are you three doing here?"
"C-Cinder?" Roman asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, nothing much," I replied. "Just making sure you three don't screw up. So, how exactly did you three get here?"
"That's just it," Roman said. "We got no idea. One moment, we were at RTX with some of our friends when we saw a guy dressed as Ozpin who had every single character's weapon. We bought what went with who we dressed as, and now we're here, but it's just us here. So, how'd you get here?"
I scoffed. "You wouldn't believe me if I said."
"You do realize we're in a land of talking anthropomorphic ponies that can use magic, right?" Mercury asked.
"Fair point," Cinder said. "The quick version is that I was in the hospital dying of two types of cancer when I died, but the Goddess of this world somehow was able to get me here as I am now."
"Wait a minute," Emerald said. "Before you got Displaced, what was your name?"
"Christine Smith," I replied. "Why?"
"Oh my god," Emerald said. "Miss Smith, it's me, Liz! Lilly's friend!"
"Liz? As in the Liz my Lilly got drunk with the first time?"
"I said I was sorry!" she yelled.
"Yeah, to her face," Mercury muttered.
"Oh, shut it," Emerald snapped at him.
"And I'm guessing Mercury's Sam?" Her brother before coming here.
"Yep, and Mr. Ginger here's our dad," Mercury said. "Well, before we came here, that is."
"Hey, Christie," Roman said.
"Hey, Jake," I replied. "So, I'm guessing you guys were at RTX with Lilly?"
"Yeah," Emerald said. "For your, um, well, you know, and we were each dressed as the characters like we had planned before you came here, if you know what I mean."
I sighed, and placed my forehead in my hand. "And I assume you all got something from that Ozpin guy?"
"Yep," Mercury said.
"Then that means we'll probably see them later," I said. "So, why did you guys start robbing?"
"Well, it's not like we had any money," Roman said, "And in case you didn't notice, we're in Equestria, where they can be suspicious of someone just for not being a pony. We didn't want to take a chance they'd try to stone us."
"Well, the fact you've stolen doesn't hep out," I replied. "But the fact someone you know is friends with the Princesses does."
"Wait, what?" Mercury said. "How the hell are you friends with those two?"
"Another story I'll tell another time," I replied. "For now, return everything you stole, and meet me at this address," I said as I pulled out a sliver of paper form my sleeve, and handed it to them. "I'll see you later." With that, I turned around, and left the alleyway and made my way back to the HQ of the cell.
After walking for a while, Azure popped up next to me and asked, "I'm guessing you knew them?"
"Yep," I replied. "They should be over at the base soon. Reason why they stole is because they didn't have money, and they weren't willing to risk ponies in government positions see them."
"Considering most are afraid of changelings even though the minority is violent, I can see why," she said. "Still, they will need to pay for what they did, even if they return the stuff."
"I'll talk it over with Celestia," I said.
"Then let's hope they don't do anything to screw it over," I heard Azure mutter.
An hour later
"Wait a minute," Mist said, holding one hand up as the five of us sat in the main room of their HQ eating ice cream. "So the thieves are actually friends of yours from where you come from, and only did so because of pony racism?"
I took a bite of my ice cream-vanilla with sprinkles, my favorite when I was a kid- before replying, "Yeah."
Mist threw his hands up in the air. "WHY THE BUCK IS THAT NOT SURPRISING!?"
"Yeah, his family grew up in one of the more tolerant towns," Lone said, a vanilla waffle cone coated with chocolate in his hand. "When they moved out, he was a colt, and one time, he accidentally dropped his disguise in a less tolerant town, and, well. . . the royal guard was called in when they were still willing to kill, and, well, I'll leave it there."
"Fair enough," I said just as there was a knock on the door. "And that's probably them." I set my ice cream on a table nearby, and got up before heading to the door, and looking out the peephole to see my three friends. "Yeah, it's them," I told the other four before unlocking the door and letting them in. "Guy guys."
"Hey, Cinder," Roman said with a two fingered salute as he, Emerald, and Mercury walked in.
"Guys, these are my friends Roman-the ginger- Emerald, and Mercury. Other guys, this is Azure, Zeke, Mist, Gina, and Lone. They're part of a special guard division," I said, noticing Azure with two vanilla cups when she had one before, and mine missing, making me cast a glare at her, only for her to look away and act innocent.
"Hello," Lone said.
"Hey, Mist said.
"What's up?" Gina asked.
"Greetings," Zeke said with a small nod.
"Yo," Azure said.
"Definitely an interesting crowd," Roman muttered. "So," he said much louder, "what do you want us to do to make up for what we did?"
"That's up to the Princess," Lone said. "And that's where you three are going: Canterlot. Cinder, you got that ticket?"
"Yeah, why?" I asked.
"Because it also allows you to take up to three with you," he said. "Though it isn't printed on it or the notes. It's a special symbol on the thing train conductors are trained to look for. Just show it to them when you board." Before he could say anyhting else, a scroll appeared in front of him in a flash of green flame.
"The fuck?" Roman asked.
"Dragon flame message," Emerald- a pegasister before coming here. "Used by Princess Celestia, and is the equivalent to a text message here. Which reminds me, do we have our scrolls?"
She and the other two checker their pockets, and pulled out small, white rectangles with curved edges and a golden rhombus-or two-dimensional diamond like those in baseball games. Looks like a yes.
Anyways, Lone opened and read the scroll. "Well, shit, Cinder, we're coming with you guys," he said as he burned the scroll with a normal flame as he got up from his seat.
"Why's that?" I asked.
"Celestia wants us to head to Ponyville to work on evacuation. Something about chaos."
"Oh, shit," Emerald and i mutter, having a good idea what this is about. "Come on, then," I said, and the nine of us left, Lone and I in the lead. Looks like Discord arrived earlier than I thought he would.