//------------------------------// // The Ponyville Job // Story: De_Termination// // by WindigogoGadget //------------------------------// He'd thought about it for an hour as he walked around the town, taking in the sights. On one hand, he'd be in some hot water with the law for breaking and entering, burglary. On the other, answers. Another part of his mind that was less quick to jump the gun wondered why he wasn't just going to sleep and going in the morning, and another was quick to rebuke that he was the only bi-ped and non-technicolor pony in a small town. If he knew anything that could apply to this bright world, is that everything has a dark underbelly, and he was not about to be falsely accused of being a delinquent for his appearance, not until he did something here. Which he was about to. Planning. In terms of planning, everything had to be done the old-fashioned way, no CTos (2) networks, and no hacking with his phone, just his luck that there was an unlocked window. It was long enough that everyone should be asleep, at least according to the clocks he'd spotted around the town. 1 AM. Must have fallen asleep in that tree when I blinked. Old fashioned way? There's hardly anything to work with aside from the claws he had, a bottle, and the reflexive impulse to reach for a baton right about now. He was seriously about to attempt a break-in with very little at his disposal aside from sheer Right, no weapons. So, time to plan again. Unicorns, that was something he'd spotted while looking at the town. While he hadn't seen many, no doubt a horn could be used as a weapon alongside the hooves of any horse that lacked wings or horns. He wasn't sure what wings could do in a fight, speed was about the only thing he could think of as being affected by them. As he thought, he quietly snapped a long, narrow branch from the oak tree with both of his arms. Sturdy, slightly bending and better than nothing. But the grip of it left something to be desired, maybe something less painful than the tree bark, which he promptly fixed by sacrificing the vines on his bottle for his newly made baton, wrapping it around, and tying it off. The wood bottle was discarded after a short drink of its contents since it both didn't carry much and also seemed unnecessary since he found a town. No more camping out in the forest anymore, now instead wandering to the road to the closest city, if there were any in this world. All he'd need to worry about now would be supplies for the trip and fire, not foraging, which he was lucky to not accidentally eat something poisonous because his skills at that were terrible. It wasn't something he'd picked up. But now, he could gain some ground without worrying about wilderness survival, instead gain a foothold in this new world the second he hit the road. Just as soon as I figure out where I am. Baton. Check. Book-Storage? The stolen sack has that covered. Never would Aiden Pearce think he'd ever feel subconscious about how he looked, to say the least, he felt like a stereotypical cartoon robber in the middle of the night. If the robber had the skills of putting several people in the ground, and none of the cartoonish shenanigans. He just wanted some answers, in the form of an unexpected book check-out after hours. Flexing his paw-hands and wincing a little as his unused claws extended, he balanced himself on the ledge of the windowsill and the thick bark of the library oaken exterior, forcing it up quietly with a gentle shnk at the beginning before sliding it up in complete silence. Turning to his left, he spotted an empty perch of sorts. Bird owner? Well, this was unexpected, now he had pets to watch for if they made noise. Thankfully, there was nobody home. At least, not on the first floor, glancing around he spotted a stair-case, which he was going to stay away from entirely, the first floor already had all the information smeared on the walls he needed, and exploring was an unnecessary risk with little to no extra pay-off if he went through with it. Carefully stepping around on the carved wood floor, he made his way to a bookshelf. Wait. What if I can't read them? An intrusive thought called out, just as he started to pull out one of the thinner works, holding it up to himself and turning it over to find the cover. I ought to count my blessings by now. The book, didn't seem to hold any value, it was just some bedtime story, but the fact he could read the cover was valuable to him, it meant wherever he was at least used, or looked like English. He moved up on the shelf, checking covers, opening up to the middle of the book to see what it was about. Since the next book seemed to be another short story of some type he completely skipped that part of the library and moved on to the next bookshelf and the next. Passing by some novels of Daring Do, to an interesting book on gardening. Gem identification, a guide to origami with hooves of all things. (The methods of which he struggled to understand how it should be possible.) The way he worked was slow and almost made him worry, if he took too long he'd be discovered by daytime, if he worked too fast one of these infuriatingly perfectly aligned books would clip against the other one just right and send them toppling down and wake up the person living here, and he'd either flee or fight someone. The next series of books were plain covers, solid covers, and drawn pictures. A History Of Equestria, Vol I, A Brief Summary seemed to be exactly what he was looking for and were quickly placed in the bag alongside Gems And You, Wildlife of Equestria, and a random book on geography. Seeing as he'd found the aisle dedicated to the history and otherwise important things, a book titled The Elements of Harmony with an ornate gold inlay of a unicorn on the front and small gems, immediately went into the bag as well. If it wasn't important, it'd be harvested for the gold and gems, if they were real and worth anything. Unicorns... Something about that was bothering him, like he'd noticed something about that and just didn't keep it in his memory long enough for it to stick. Moving onto a different part of the library he suddenly pulled out a book titledMagic And You - Intermediate Spells So that's why, magic, in this new world magic was real and as far as he knew, only accessible by unicorns. Which bumped them up higher on the threat list alongside Enforcers (3) because not only did they have horns to deal with but magic that could do... Whatever, He didn't know yet, at least not until he gets a chance to properly read this book. Maybe bind him in place or something. The book was promptly thrust in with the others. 'So, I've got intel to read later, a weapon, no money, and- His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden THUNK of a heavy tome falling to the floor, Spellwriting 101 was promptly added to his inventory of books to read later, though he felt his ears droop as he realized just what was going to happen after if just one fell. The shelf rumbled for a second, and it was enough for him to take his bag, dive out of the way and hear the cacophony of noise erupt behind him, waking anyone nearby. 'Books to read, no money, a weapon, and it's time to get moving from a botched job. Pausing to tie up the bag in a knot he dashed over to the window, seeing a violet glow around the corner of the staircase. Unicorn magic. Shrugging, he cracked the window with the force and speed he'd put into the movement, bumping against it as he successfully escaped the library. The window shattered shortly afterward. "Time to run." Twilight Sparkle awoke with a start, hearing things fall and crashing, and glass cracking. The one time she'd actually fallen asleep on her own without any help from her Number One Assistant and something had to show up and ruin it, glancing around it looked like said assistant was still blissfully asleep. Twilight hoofed it down the stairs, charging gup some light in her horn to see better, seeing her bookshelves in disorder made her pause, but what made her stop dead in her tracks was the shape in the middle of all it, with a bag, just before it hopped through her window. And then broke it. Casting a spell, all the books in her vicinity were swiftly put back in place before she did a short-range teleport outside her home in a flash of bright light. Sure, she was angry that someone had broken into her home, but even more so when she realized that whatever it was was bipedal, and not a pony judging by what she could see before it fled. Where was it- Aha! Found you! Galloping after the running form she shouted, feeling the wind rush around her form "Get back here you thief! Return my stuff right now!" Speeding up as she turned the corner of a road, tailing them just twenty feet away, as she started to speed up down a straight road closing distance as quickly as she could, she didn't have the agility of Rainbow Dash or the speed of Applejack, but she had magic. 'Wait, why didn't I just cast a spell from the beginning!?!' Charging up magical energy into her horn, she felt it be pushed outward and focus on the running thief, wrapping them up in a levitation spell to drag them towards her. A thief, breaking into her home, staying only in the library and probably knocking down everything by grabbing a book. Why break-in at all? She didn't charge for it unless it was overdue. They struggled and kicked, revealing they had some sort of trench coat on as she brought them closer to the light. She noticed them suddenly pause, take a clawed, furry hand, and swipe at the aura of her spell. Maybe I'm overdoing it... "You can't break a spell like that. So why not just give up and tell me why-" She could feel her magical grip being suddenly severed, like the fabric that made it up was being unraveled and warped as she brought them closer, her eyes widening as she saw that the aura was physically being cut with claws, and the thief slipped away, running even faster on two legs. "Wha- How'd you do that! Get back here!" Her anger was replaced with curiosity and a desire to learn, at first, maybe she thought a diamond dog had broken in since they were the only fluffy bipeds she could think of with claws, as much of a stretch it would be, but they couldn't cut through magic with claws, nothing in Equestria could! "Tell me!" She cast another levitation spell, but they used it to grab hold of a high ledge, and cut through it faster than last time again, the thief grabbed onto the ledge and hoisted itself up, finding nooks and crannies to skillfully climb its way onto the roof of a building and run off into the distance. Foalishly she tried to run around, teleport, whatever she could to travel around town on hoof before coming to the conclusion she'd absolutely lost track of her mysterious thief, and whatever they had stolen. She felt downtrodden, losing both the culprit and scientific mystery. Just what exactly enabled them to cut spells on the fly just like that, with a flick of the claws. And then she realized she had also been robbed and that seeing whatever had been stolen, was probably just a few dots higher on the 'List Of Things To Do After Being Robbed' she'd come up with in her mind. Groaning, she charged up another short-range teleport spell to get home. All the careless spending of her magic was absolutely going to make her feel terrible later.