Amber Ashes

by GMBlackjack


Thief of Fate

Fluttershy and Applejack followed the Blue Bolt through the expanse of whiteness… until they weren’t in the whiteness anymore.

Fluttershy had a hard time piecing together where they were. Everything was bright and vibrant with a penchant for the color green, but the sky was darker than the darkest night. There were many trees that looked like they belonged in a magic jungle, lit as if it were midday, though they seemed to be moving around when Fluttershy wasn’t looking directly at them.

Among the trees were large, wooden structures that curled in outrageous, exaggerated designs that should have crumbled under the weight of gravity or simply been impossible. Fluttershy’s mind bent into a knot when she tried to look at a house shaped like a triangle that folded in on itself…

At least Fluttershy was able to accept this.

“That’s impossible,” Applejack said, freezing in her tracks. “The angles don’t add up. There has to be some trick...”

“The Thieves’ Guild is all tricks,” Bolt said with a smirk. “Leave your assumptions at the door, whatever they may have been! This isn’t some ordered machine or bleak desert, this is a place of life!”

“Found some new thieves?” A pegasus mare who definitely hadn’t been there a moment ago asked. She wore a similar black outfit to the Blue Bolt but her face was uncovered, revealing a luscious brown mane, coat, and eyes.

“Maybe, maybe not?” Rainbow said with a shrug. “You are not gonna believe the crazy stuff I’ve been through in the last few hours.”

“Considering that one of the mares with you is a complete dead zone and the other is a shining magic beacon covered in armor, I’m ready for some pretty unbelievable stuff.”

“Oooh yeah. See, this all started when I was minding my own business…”

“Er, excuse me,” Fluttershy said, raising a hoof. “Care to introduce us?”

“Oh, right.” Bolt coughed. “This is the Auburn Crown, leader of the Thieves. These two, uh… don’t have names aside from their true ones and really need to come up with some alternates.”

“Why would my name matter?” Applejack asked.

“The papers they tried to have us sign,” Fluttershy explained. “Something about the name matters.”

“…Well, that makes about as much sense as that triangle house over there…”

Auburn looked at the two of them in disbelief – but also with a huge grin. “I am going to love this story, aren’t I?”

“You betcha!” Bolt laughed.

Other Thieves had started poking their heads out of the houses – ponies of all three races curious about the newcomers, all wearing black outfits fit for sneaking around. Not in a place this bright, but definitely in the City itself.

“So, alternate names are like… titles?” Fluttershy asked.

Bolt nodded. “Yep. I’m the Blue Bolt.”

‘Then I am the Weaponsmith.”

“…Mechanic, I guess,” Applejack added.

“…Man you two are boring. Just using your jobs?” Bolt rolled her eyes. “Please.”

“So… let’s hear this story,” Auburn said, sitting on a stump that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

Bolt grinned. “So, I was minding my own business, and then I was dropped in a desert… A real desert, not the sort of thing we run into in the side depths. Then I saw ol ‘Smith here and…”

“The Enchantress,” Fluttershy offered.

“Yeah, these two were talking, walking down a road to a bunch of rocks. I dashed away before they could see anything, and then I ran into the weirdest thing. Another me. Looked just like me, talked like me, and had my true name.”

Auburn gasped.

“And get this! She actually used it in casual conversation! They all did, and nothing happened to any of them!”

“That’s impossible.”

“That’s what I thought! But then I realized something – I had been taken out of New Alice City. Completely out! Another world kind of out, a place where the moon’s influence doesn’t exist! Pretty cool, huh?”

“A bit pointless, but that is pretty cool.”

“Yeah. So, being the thief I am, I knew I had to get back to New Alice City somehow, and the other me had a device thingy that allowed her to access other worlds.”

Applejack held up the device.

“Oh sweet! You have it! Let’s show them!”

Applejack looked to Fluttershy. “I can… try.” The weaponsmith picked up the device in her wings and tried to remember how Rainbow has used it last. Twist a knob there… set it to something green… press the button…

A portal ripped open in the air, going directly to the Crystal Sea. Sand as far as the eye could see.

“Wooooooah…” the Thieves collectively gasped.

“…I, um, don’t know how to close it.” Fluttershy admitted.

I know that,” Applejack said, tapping the device and closing the portal.

“So, anyway, I stole that,” Bolt said, grinning. “Why? Because I saw them dial New Alice City. Turns out the device isn’t really simple to use and I ended up in the wrong world, a place with a lot of gears everywhere and no magic. Couldn’t even fly!”

“How’d you survive?!” Another thief asked.

“Carefully. And by striking a deal with the other me, the Enchantress, and ‘Smith here. I gave them back the device, they took me to New Alice City. They had some sort of idea about ‘saving the worlds’ or something, which sounded interesting, but they had no plan. I told them to come find me when they had a plan. And since ‘Smith is here without the others… well, I have the distinct impression something’s gone wrong.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Yes. Things… things went wrong. I’m not sure exactly what, we were attacked…”

Applejack cleared her throat. “I think I can explain this one.”

“Yeah, I don’t know who you are,” Bolt admitted. “But given the outfit, you’re from that gear-Mesh world thing.”

Applejack nodded. “After they sent you back, the rest of us displaced ponies met up. Me, the… Empress, and the… uh… Pink One.”

Fluttershy snorted.

“Give me a break, I’m not good at the whole name thing. I named the green thing I found after myself for crying out loud.”

“Huh. Convenient.”

“Yeah, really was weird…” Applejack shook her head. “Anyway, in the Empress’ universe – which I’m not even going to try to explain what it’s like – there were these ponies called the Starcross Society. I’m not entirely sure what their deal was, but they threatened us, wanted to steal Tw… the Empress’ portal spell. When we escaped, they copied the spell, came to the desert… and attacked. Ra-“

Everypony shot her a death glare.

“Uh, the other you gave me the device thingy and told me to get everypony out of there who couldn’t fight and find you. That was Smith here and Pink.”

“…Where’s Pink?” Bolt asked.

“Don’t know,” Fluttershy said. “We had to deal with one of the Starcross soldiers when we came through, and when we were done with that… we couldn’t find Pink.”

“She’s alone in New Alice City with no friends or protection?” Bolt asked.

Fluttershy nodded.

“Okay, Auburn? I’d love to stay and chat but I’m going to go get her. Call me if anything happens here and be good to our guests, okay?”

Auburn smirked. “Sure. Remember, though, you’re not the boss.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t want to be responsible for a pony getting lost in the darkness,” Bolt muttered.

“How are you going to find her?” Applejack asked.

“Nopony hides from the Thief of Lightning!” With a laugh, Bolt flapped her wings and… vanished.

“…Will she really be able to find her?” Applejack asked.

Auburn nodded. “Don’t worry. Bolt’s the best of the best, if she is a bit reckless. She can find anything in the City and take it away from the moon’s grasp. If Pink hasn’t been taken already, she’ll get her. Meanwhile… we can help you two.”

“R-really?” Fluttershy asked.

“Come on, the Bolt vouched for you, and we’re low on friends as it is, of course we’ll help!” She pointed at the dimensional device. “Plus, if we can get that to work, we could get more ponies into the Thieves, even if you two aren’t suited for it.”

“Why do I get the impression you aren’t… normal thieves?”

“What’s a normal thief?”

“A pony who just takes stuff because they want it. Generally against the law.”

Auburn twitched. “The law is evil.”

Fluttershy held up a hoof. “Law enforcement, in my world at least, is made up of perfectly normal ponies that don’t try to get you to sign blood contracts.”

Auburn blinked. “…That’s a foreign idea.”

“We don’t even have whatever ‘law enforcement’ is,” Applejack said. “Just mechanics, managers, and higher managers.”

“We have to be just as confusing to you as you are to us.”

“Yep,” Fluttershy said. “Though at this point I pretty much just expect that….”

Auburn chuckled. “Anyway, before we get on the tour, I’d like to have our tech guy look at that device. Maybe he can figure out how to get it to work.”

Fluttershy turned to Applejack. “Think we can?”

“What else are we going to do with it? Go back to the desert?”

“...I don’t know…” She held the device in her wing, furrowing her brow. “You won’t try to take it apart?”

“Bits isn’t that stupid,” Auburn assured her. “This way…” She took a step – and they were suddenly standing in a different area of the impossible jungle, outside a wooden cube made of smaller wooden cubes made of even smaller wooden cubes and likely cubes smaller than that.

“Folding…” Fluttershy said, furrowing her brow.

“…How do you ponies get around if you can’t fold?” Auburn asked.

“We fly.”

“Walk,” Applejack corrected.

“I can’t imagine… must be so boring.” Auburn walked into the cube of cubes, the interior of which was shaped like a pyramid. Fluttershy heard Applejack groan at the spatial inconsistency. The mechanic must had lived in a world of ordered, predictable machines all her life, this had to be much worse than anything else she had encountered so far.

Sitting in the center of the room was a unicorn stallion with a peach coat and emerald mane. “Oh. New Thieves?”

“Eh…” Auburn said, tilting a wing side to side. “Maybe?”

“That’s curious.”

“We have a device here for you to look at, Bits.” Auburn gestured to Fluttershy. “Show him.”

Fluttershy did what she’d done last time, opening a portal directly to the Crystal Sea. Bits gasped. “Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes!” He swiped the device out of her wing. “A parallel accessory! The writings on the walls said such things might be possible but I never imagined… How does it work?”

“I… have no idea,” Fluttershy said. “It’s not mine. I barely know how to access the other world. It can access at least one more, but I don’t know how to get there.”

“Then I’ll find out!”

“Doooon’t break it!”

Bits smirked. “Really, me, break something? You really are new here, aren’t you?” He lifted it in his magic. “I’ll be using scrying spells to figure out the function. Just give me a minute…”

“He means an hour,” Auburn said. “…Or maybe more.”

“Guess we’ll sit here for an hour then,” Applejack said, planting her rear on the ground. “Or whenever Bolt gets back with Pin…k.”

“Why do we have to hide our names, anyway?” Fluttershy asked. “I understand it’s dangerous, but… why at all times?”

Auburn frowned. “Every pony has a name. They just know this name. Always have, always will.”

“…Your name isn’t given to you by your parents?”

Auburn laughed. “Who would name their kid?”

“Everypony in the history of ever. In every world we know of.”

Applejack nodded in confirmation.

Auburn rubbed her head with a wing. “Geez… Okay, so, simplest thing? Your name is you, the only thing that is always, irrevocably yours. The moon can steal it through the officers or other unsavory types in a variety of ways, and if your name is ever spoken aloud before the moon… well, it tends to look at you.”

“That moon is wrong,” Applejack said.

“I’m going to hazard a guess and say you don’t have one?”

“Nope.”

“I do,” Fluttershy said. “It doesn’t watch people though… it’s just a big round rock. What is your moon?”

Auburn shrugged. “To be perfectly honest I haven’t the foggiest idea what the moon is. I know it’s there, and it’s always watching everypony. Every spirit in the city is part of the moon’s influence in some way. They are its eyes, its ears, and...” She waved a hoof in the air, struggling to come up with a metaphor. “Bits, help me out here.”

“The moon turns ponies into spirits,” Bits answered as he turned the device over and over in his magic. “These spirits seek out ponies to turn into more spirits – usually by signing over their name, or just tossing them into the dark spots and letting that take care of them. There are more dead than living in New Alice City.”

“How can something be dead but walking about?” Applejack asked.

“The pony was killed, the aspect of the moon controls what was left behind.”

“How… how terrible!” Fluttershy cried out. “How do you live?”

“Ponies learn to hide,” Auburn said with a sad smile. “They stay inside, never leave, and only get food when they absolutely have to. Some communities find their way to the side depths, creating little pockets that like to pretend they’re outside the City. Like this place.” She gestured out a window at the glowing trees. “Places like this are how Thieves are made.”

“I don’t understand.”

Applejack snorted.

Auburn nodded. “Most ponies don’t know about the side depths. Because you have to know they exist to get to them, or you have to be dragged in there by somepony else. There’s always a price to enter the side depths – you must bring in something important. Which means you have to steal it from New Alice City. Once you have it, run and look down. You’ll find a trapdoor.”

“That’s illogical,” Applejack said.

“New Alice City isn’t logical.”

Applejack looked like she wanted to argue but couldn’t think of the words to do it.

“In the Blue Bolt’s case, she stole you two. But in most of our cases we steal things like food or produce that are always in the shops. We provide for each other that way and we give to other living ponies we come across should the opportunity arise. The Blue Bolt has become something of a legend up there on the streets, ransacking some of the most spirit-filled areas and coming out with loads of stuff and throwing it all over the streets, daring the shadows to come get her.” Auburn chuckled. “She is so going to get herself killed one day, but hey, she’s doing something.”

“…Shadows? Are those the… dark spots?” Fluttershy asked.

“You saw them?”

“They were chasing me. All of them.”

“Well, you do shine like a beacon of not spirit…” Auburn scratched her chin. “We don’t know what they are either. But we know when they pass through an area, all the lights go out and some ponies come out of it spirits. The others see and hear nothing the entire time.”

“Terrifying.”

“We Thieves have a rule. If it starts getting dark, take something and run.”

“I’ll keep that in mind if I’m ever back on the streets.” Fluttershy shivered. “Auburn… I don’t think you realize how terrifying your world is.”

“It’s all we’ve ever known.”

~~~

Pinkie knew this needed to be perfect. With no interruptions. No chance of interruptions.

She had walked into one of the skyscrapers, head held as far down as she could manage. She took the stairs. An elevator would be too unpredictable – and although the stairs were agonizing on her legs, she had made it to the top.

There was only one reason to be up here: to look for the shadows. Every spot of blackness she could make out was far enough away for her tastes and not moving in her direction.

Good.

She made her way back down to ground level, head down. Always down. They wouldn’t notice her, that way.

It was almost too easy for somepony who knew the world as well as she did. Not a single one of the moon’s servants suspected anything.

Pinkie found herself an abandoned alley. Such things were exceedingly commonplace in New Alice City, so it had taken all of ten minutes. She grabbed a small wastebasket and turned it upside down.

She set the notebook and pen on top of the wastebasket and flipped open to the first blank page. Pinkie set her hoof down on the pen, picking it up like it were a delicate, frozen flower.

A thought occurred to her. She could back out. The notebook and pen might qualify as important enough stolen items… she could try.

Did she want to, though?

No. No, if what she thought was true, then… then she needed to stay as far away as possible. From everything.

She set her pen to the page and started writing.

I jumped along the flat rooftops, spreading my wings just enough to cross the distance. Had I been a weaker pony, I would have stumbled on the sharp edge of my destination. Instead, I hoisted myself up with a precisely positioned hoof and came to a skidding stop on the new roof.

I could have just flown where I needed to go, of course. But I was the Blue Bolt, Thief of Lightning; if I did anything I was going to do it with some flair.

Pinkie took a breath, lifting the pen from the paper. That was all fine by itself. But now…

She rammed the pen back onto the page.

I looked over the edge, down at the street below. Easily visible was the neon sign of the donut shop, shining forth with its pink light, daring any of the lost or the drivers to give it a second thought. None did at the moment, and that was the way it should be. For it was a place of safety for those who refused to step into the side…

My hooves clattered against the ground as I jumped overhead. I spread my wings and banked to the side, coming to the ground in a gentle spiral. Had anypony looked up, I would have been an easy target.

Luckily, the lost were just as clueless as always.

With a light whoosh of air, I entered the donut shop. “Hey.”

The caretaker of the establishment, a mare by the title of Nibbler, looked at me in surprise. “I… weren’t you just here?”

“Me?”

“No, not you, another Thief.”

I shrugged. “Maybe? Different cells don’t always coordinate, you know. You are on overlapping territory.”

“Right… I was afraid there was going to be another shouting match.”

“Huh?” Why would there be a shouting match in this safe space?

“Well… a pink mare came in a while ago, ordered the special order. I set up a meeting, but she was gone when the Thief arrived!”

“Pink mare…” I furrowed my brow. I needed to find her.

“Yes… you do,” Pinkie said with barely more than a whisper.

“The other Thief?”

“Madrigal. I think he went back to his space, wherever that is.”

“Didn’t even try to hunt her down?”

“I… guess not.” Nibbler frowned. “Do you think she’s…”

“No,” I said. “Definitely not. If this were a trap it would have been sprung. I-“

I was interrupted when a lost strode into the establishment. Instantly I put my head down, imitating the shell of a pony. Nibbler’s job was different – she was emulating a servitor, so she had to at least make a show of running a donut shop. It may have been rare one of them would come in here, but when you’re little more than a mindless automaton, you try noticing if the place you’ve walked in wasn’t there last week.

“How can I help?”

“There is no help…”

I trudged out of there as quickly as I could while still imitating the dejected pony inside. The moment I was free, I ducked into an alley and smirked – idiots.

Anyway, I needed to find the pink mare. And, just my luck, I saw a bright pink hair in a nearby dumpster. That gave me a connection. Perfect.

“This won’t work…” Pinkie said, scrawling line after line.

With the piece of her in my wing, all I’d have to do was fold. Where to do it? That was the question. Just about anywhere would work, but I needed to have some fun. Even though no one was watching. Which seemed a little silly, now that I thought about it…

Guess I was putting on a show for the moon. Hah. Enjoying the show, oppressive nimrod?

Pinkie’s tongue caught in her throat for a moment. But she pushed forward.

I threw open a dumpster and pulled out a red baseball cap – sweet, totally keeping that. I slapped it on my head and jumped into the air, angled to crash right into the trash.

Then I folded, the pink hair in front of me, serving as a focal point.

Pinkie let out a breath, refusing to look up. She couldn’t. Not yet…

I came out in an alleyway, my hooves hitting the ground with a thud

THUD

and there she was, scribbling something in a notebook. She looked up and we locked eyes.

Pinkie looked up and locked eyes with a pegasus mare… in a red baseball cap holding one of her hairs.

“That’s…” Pinkie didn’t know what to say.

“Hey, Pink One,” the Blue Bolt took off her face wrappings. “Your friends are waiting for you back at the Guild.”

Pinkie blinked. “Wait. They sent you?”

“Uh, yeah. And I-“ Bolt’s ears perked up. Pinkie couldn’t hear it, but she knew her phone was receiving a call. “Blue Bolt here. Yeah, guess what Auburn? I found her! Yeah, that’s great. Right by the donut shop, actually, you can send them up here if you want. Right. See you soon.” She tilted her head, hanging up. “Looks like everything’s gonna be fine. Just, uh, don’t use your name here, okay? Or the names of anypony else. That’s rule number one.”

Pinkie stared at her in disbelief, a smile slowly crawling up her face. “You… it must just be coincidence. You just arrived at the perfect time with… a red hat…” she shook her head. “Nah, coincidence! Cooooooincidence!”

“…Wow, kay, you’re a nutter.”

Pinkie looked down at her notes. “Yeah. I was crazy. The multiverse must be large enough that this would happen by chance…”

“You wish that were true,” a new voice said.

Pinkie’s hairs stood on end. Bolt lowered her head aggressively at the newcomer who had folded into existence behind Pinkie.

Shine. The stallion at the diner.

Pinkie’s hooves shook as she turned her head. “Y-you tricked me…”

“I needed her to be here,” Shine said. “All I had to do was plant a little seed in your mind… and you wrote her right too you.”

“I would have been here anyway!” Bolt shouted, flaring her wings.

“Folding through connections would not be true if she did not write it on that page. She had not established such a mechanic before.” Shine chuckled. “How would you have found her then?”

“What…?”

“Run,” Pinkie whispered. “Just run.”

Bolt rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“Please…”

“Oh, do stop,” Shine said with a chuckle. “You know her well enough. She’s not going to leave you helpless. She’s just too noble.” Behind Shine something dark took shape – but it was not the kind of darkness that prowled the streets of New Alice City. That darkness was elegant. This darkness was monstrous: a conglomeration of tentacles, eyes, and rippling inky skin dripping like it belonged at the bottom of a murky lake.

Just looking at it gave Pinkie a headache. She couldn’t look away.

Seven eyes that all belonged to different animals fixed their gaze on Bolt.

Bolt stared in disbelief, wincing in pain, but refused to look away. “What… what are you!?

Shine smirked. “About to put on a show the likes of which your moon has never seen.”