Hauntings

by NightInk

A Thief

"I recon y'all better start with your name."

AppleJack was pissed, though she'd use another word for it. She had pulled this fellow out of the river, given him a bed, left food for him, and he had tried to rob them. Being the honest, hardworking pony she was, she couldn't understand for the life of her why any pony would take advantage of her like that. It just wasn't right. She had left him under the rubble of the CMC's 'monster trap' so that he couldn't run away.

He smiled sheepishly up at her, but there was something else in his face. Something that wasn't usually there when somepony got caught doing something wrong. She couldn't quite put he hoof on it, but she didn't much care for it. "Yeah, I guess I'd better. I suppose you can call me Trip."

She glared at him, squinting a little bit. "If yer trying to be funny, I ain't laughing."

He shook his head. "No, really, that’s what I'm called. Honest."

She kept glaring. "I know honest. You aren't it."

He nodded comically, looking up at the ceiling and shrugging a bit. "Can't argue much with that. But I'm being straight with you. My name is Trip."

She let up on her glare. It didn't really matter much if he was lying or not at this point. She had something to call him. "Well, then, do you mind explaining what you’re doing with me and Granny's jewelry and why you were headin' upstairs?"

"I was robbing you."

AppleJacks jaw dropped. She hadn't expected him to tell her straightforward that he was a thief. He certainly was trying to earn some degree of trust. "Well... Why? We were so kind to ya! Ah even pulled you out of the river and saved yer life!"

He nodded seriously. "And I'm very grateful for that. That doesn't change that I need to move along and I needed money. I'm sorry for having had to rob from you specifically, but as I don't know where we are I had to do my work here."

She sighed. "I hope you realize that I can't let you leave. In fact, I ought to call some local authorities."

"You mean there's a town right nearby?"

"Closer than you think. I can send my siblings to get help and they'd be back in fifteen, twenty minutes."

"Then why haven't you?"

She paused and thought. Why hadn't she? Really, she should have now. She could tell him she had, but she wasn't going to lie to him. Plus, if one of them came in she wouldn't be able to explain that. "I don't know," she admitted. "I suppose I prefer to take care of things on my own. Big Mac is up and at the door, so all it would take is a word. But I don't want to do that. So you'd best begin talking."

He tilted his head and thought a second. He could spill everything, but then she would almost certainly turn him in. He could lie, but that would take a lot of off the cuff and remembering details, and he didn't want to take so great a risk of making a mistake. On the other hoof, he could tell some lies, some truths, and leave some spots open for her interpretation. That was probably the best route, though not necessarily the easiest.

"All right. I'll tell you some about me. Obviously, I'm a thief. I didn't do this my whole life. I was a successful locksmith before taking up... The art, really, of acquisition. Hence my cutie mark." He moved his flank as best he could, showing off the ring of keys. "As a colt I just liked picking locks. I knew what made them click, as it were. Didn't have much formal schooling, my folks being broke, but I learned as best I could. Worked as an apprentice for a locksmith, all that good stuff. Shop went bad, and so I turned my talents to other uses. My last mark caught me off guard, and I ended up escaping into the river. There really isn't a lot to my life."

She eyed him carefully. If he was lying, he was very talented. He certainly looked too well groomed to be a poor thief. Maybe the dip in the river had cleaned him up a bit though. There wasn't any way of knowing for sure. Even Twilight didn't have any truth-telling spells. If she did, it would have made most of their adventures so much easier. "Allll riiight..." she said, drawing both words out. "I still don't quite trust you, since you tried to rob us after we put you up after saving your life, but I won't call the authorities. But-!" she added quickly before he could rejoice. "One slip up and you'll find yourself in the town jail faster than a zap apple in a jam." Despite it being such a long process, she thought silently.

He nodded, not understanding the analogy but willing to play along. "One thing," he said, beginning to struggle a bit under the wood. "You talk like I'm going to stay here. I can't do that. I'll leave without robbing you, but I'm leaving."

She put a rough hoof on his head. "Oh, I don't think so. See, if you don't want me to get someone here now, you'll be working here for a little while. We need some help in the harvest time, and that starts in a week. Until then, you'll help where we need it. I think we'll have you around for two, three weeks."

He sighed and groaned, shaking his head as best he could. "No you really don't want me around for more than another six hours. And I can be gone in a minute and a half. Trust me. You want that."

She took her hoof off his head. "I know that's what I want, but what you need is to work off a lesson."

He rested his eyes on his hooves, not sure whether to groan. He wasn't upset about being kept to work for a couple weeks. Not so long as it kept her from calling someone. It was her stubbornness. She was going to regret having him around pretty quick. "If I stay here, it will mean destruction for you and your family," he moaned, making one last attempt to save her.

She squinted at him. Like she had said, she knew truth and honesty pretty well, and he was putting a pretty convincing display on if he was still lying. "Destruction from what?"

He chuckled. He had known she was going to ask, and he had thought it through. "A great, dark power. It has haunted me for about a week now. I blame it for my botching the job and having to jump into the river. I don't know how to get rid of it. Everything in my life has been ruined. What's worse is that it is a non-corporeal influence. I cannot touch it, and I have never been touched by it."

AppleJack restrained herself from rolling her eyes. "So, what? Your insane? Haunted?"

"Haunted is closer," he admitted. "Every time I close my eyes, I hear timberwolves. I've felt their claws, but I've never woken up with any scars. Aside from them, there is only one voice in the darkness. He will not give me a name, just taunts me from the darkness. He keeps talking about some 'game' we are playing. I don't know who he is or recognize the voice." He looked sadly up at her. "You must think me crazy."

AJ almost blurt out "Uh, huh," but she caught herself at the last second. Instead she said, "Naw. I just think you’re someone who has bad dreams and a lot of bad luck. With any luck some hard, honest work should clear you right up. Now come on, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping."

He smiled from the floor. "So I can stand up and you won't push my head back into the splintered wood?"

She couldn't help but chuckle. "Y'all can jump from being haunted tah makin' bad jokes just like that?"

He stood, shaking the dust out of his coat. "You can go from haunted dreams to working off a debt just like that?"

She smiled again. She had to admit, he was sort of... Charming. In a thieving, apologetic way. "Good point. Really, though. You should probably get some real sleep. Not the 'knocked unconscious by falling trap parts' kind. We'll have dinner before you go to bed, since Ah recon you haven't eaten a real meal recently. You've been out for the better part of the day in addition to the night."

He rubbed a sore spot on his head, grimacing as he remembered. "Yeah, what was that anyways?"

AppleJack just shrugged the question off, stating simply, "Mah sister and her friends enjoy trying to do new things."

He followed her up to his new quarters, a little confused, supposing that he could be worse off than having a bed and food for a while, even if he did have to work honestly.

...

"Impressive manner of speaking you have, my friend!"

Trip shook his head groggily. He felt as though he had just fallen asleep and was then rudely awakened. Oh. Wait. He had been. "Yeah, yeah, would you leave me alone? I'd really appreciate a good night's sleep for once. Last night doesn't count since I was knocked out."

"Oh, I understand. I just wanted to congratulate you on your talking your way out of another hanging."

He sighed and held his head. Last night he had been ok, but tonight it really felt like these dreams were taking their toll. "I haven't talked my way out yet. She could still call someone. And once they realized exactly who I was, I would be done for."

"Mmm. Yes... This is good. This is really good. I haven't seen a game played this well in a long time."

Trip scoffed into the darkness. "It isn't a game! It's my life and I could die!"

"Isn't life a kind of game?"

Before he could explain that it wasn't, Trip felt himself begin to swirl in the darkness, feeling it get caught up in his fur and tangled in his mane. The suddenly thick and viscous blackness threatened to suffocate him, pulling him deeper and deeper into someplace he wasn't sure he wanted to go. He tried to cry out, but felt the hateful air seep into his mouth and nose, clogging his airway and keeping him from speaking. The only thing he heard before waking back up was that voice.

“I wiii-iiin…”