//------------------------------//
// 9 - The Hideout 
// Story: The Crescent Pact 
// by Chromentazol 
//------------------------------//

"Here you go, boss," said Sandstorm as she threw a yellow folder at a brown earth pony with a shaved mane. The folder fell on the ground next to the filthy sofa covered in beer stains and empty pizza boxes, the brown stallion barely reacting to it. He grumbled as he stood up, having been woken up from his nap by Sandstorm.

"Crap, not so loud, you buckin..." he mumbled.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it, hangover. By the way, we're out of booze."

Glaring at the mare in front of him, he growled. "Then go get some more, unless you wanna deal with the sober me."

"You're already a pain in the arse drunk. Sober can't be that much worse, Mud," Sandstorm shrugged. She began walking towards the door, carefully stepping over the remnants of her boss' recent alcohol binges while wondering how he hadn't drunk himself into an ethylic coma yet. Mud reached down to grab the folder, quickly flipping through it. Raising an eyebrow, he whistled.

"That's some good material. Where did you and your bitch get it from?"

Suddenly feeling her body tense up, Sandstorm stopped dead in her tracks. It took all of her willpower not to snap back at Mud. "...D'you really wanna know?"

"Nah, I don't care as long as this is legit," he chortled. "We got a big payday soon, that's all that matters."

"Yeah, well, don't forget our share, this time. This was a pain to find."

"Mmhm," Mud was too busy reading over the folder to pay much more attention to Sandstorm. "Oh, also, did you get the stuff from the Moonies?"

"Yeah. Misty's busy with it in the lab, making sure they didn't screw us over."

"Good. How's the old cunt doing?" he asked, still not looking at Sandstorm.

"Who?"

"The dude, bucking... I dunno, forgot his name. Some Prench crap. Apo... Apogo..."

"Apogée? Yeah, it wasn't him. They sent some fresh blood instead, I think. A unicorn named Aphelion."

"Shit, they sent the son? Hope ya treat him well, else we'd lose our biggest supplier."

Sandstorm felt a pit forming in her stomach upon learning that Aphelion was the direct son of their main supplier... And that he had been arrested because of her. Sweating bullets, she flashed an unconvincing smile. "Oh, you know... It went well. Flirted a bit, trade went off without a hitch," while being a terrible liar, Mud was too busy reading the stolen folder and searching for dregs in beer bottles to notice it.

"Good. Right, buck off now, I need to do my thing. And go get more booze, or I'm selling your asses."

Her eye twitching, Sandstorm left the dank room. Pushing the heavy metal door, she began climbing the flight of stairs, heading for the building's main floor. As she walked, she felt cold, filthy water dripping from the ceiling on her coat. "The stingy bastard should use some of his bits to fix the plumbing instead of drinking himself to death," she thought. Finally reaching the main floor, Sandstorm's nostrils were immediately assaulted by the smell of cigarette smoke. Doing her best to ignore it, she walked towards a door in the back of the room, going through the barber shop her boss had picked as their hideout in Manehattan. While all the ponies here were on Mud's payroll and acting as a front to hide their group's activities, they were still offering to work as actual barbers, though they were shoddy in their work. Most of the shop's clientele were mostly there to partake in illegal activities without drawing in too much attention from the local authorities. She glanced at the ponies around her, all in different states of intoxication. When meeting their gaze, they quickly started their routine of catcalling, trying to coax the young mare into 'having some fun' with them. Sandstorm simply went forward silently, going to the first floor. Making sure not to step in one of the many holes in the wooden stairs which had already caused numerous accidents, Sandstorm did her best to ignore the raunchy bunch trying to get her attention. She was used to this and had already broken a few ribs whenever they had gotten a bit too insistent, but the ponies in the barber shop usually limited themselves to dirty jokes and barely veiled innuendos.

"Can't wait to burn this place to the bucking ground," she mumbled. Finally reaching the first floor, Sandstorm went into her room and locked the door behind her. Turning back, she saw her friend at her desk - the only clean part of the building - as Misty was busy inspecting vials filled with strange liquids. Throwing herself into her bed, Sandstorm buried her face in a pillow, groaning.

"Go complain elsewhere," Misty barked dryly.

"But I must vent mine heart," Sandstorm replied with an overly dramatic voice, turning to lay on her back and spreading her forelegs wide towards the ceiling. "This world is nothing but pain and suffering, only the kiss of a pure, innocent maiden could bring me salvation!"

"Go be melodramatic elsewhere. I'm busy."

"Alas, betrayed by the only one who could save me... What a cold, cruel world!" Sandstorm stood up from the bed and walked next to Misty before suddenly dropping on the ground, placing her hooves over her chest. "I am dying, fair maiden, please saveth me!"

Repressing the urge to smirk at her marefriend's antics, Misty instead focused on a spell aimed at Sandstorm. After a flash of gray energy, the yellow mare became unable to produce any sound, Misty's silencing spell shutting her up. This, however, wasn't enough to stop Sandstorm from trying to get Misty's attention as she instead began to mime what she claimed she needed, which quickly turned into lewd gestures.

"Listen, I know you want attention, but I really need to finish checking the potions," Misty sighed. "I don't want a repeat of last time," she said as she dropped her silencing spell.

"Aw, you're no fun," Sandstorm stood up from the floor before throwing herself back in bed. "And, uh, I may have some bad news."

"Let me guess. Mud pissed off another gang?"

"Nah, something else. We may have bucked up real big in Canterlot."

With a worried expression, Misty turned away from her desk and towards Sandstorm. "...What do you mean?"

"Remember that Aphelion guy?"

"Yes?"

"He's the son of Apogée."

Silence befell the room, as Misty slowly took a deep breath. "Okay. So, that's bad."

"Yup. We're bucked," Sandstorm said with a shrug.

"I probably shouldn't say I told you so, but..."

"Hey, how could I know they'd sent him instead of Apogée? He just looked like any other random cultist schmuck."

"Does Mud know?"

"Nah. Told him the plan went fine, though it's probably a matter of time before the Pact asks where the buck Aphelion went. Guess that's our cue to cut our losses and run."

"Run where? Without any bits, it's only a matter of time before Mud or the Crescent Pact finds us."

"Well, guess that's a good thing we've never done our part of the trade. We still got the crystals."

"I suppose you haven't told Mud that you chose to double the price on a whim either, did you?"

"I didn't, but think about it. Mud thinks the trade happened as planned and that we don't have the crystals. We even brought the potions, so why should he doubt us? Once they learn that Aphelion's in jail, it's fair to say they'll assume the crystals were confiscated by the guards. Nopony's gonna know we actually kept those."

"Except Aphelion."

"He's in Celestia's private dungeon, Misty. Probably getting his rocks off thinking about her."

Misty sighed. "Sandstorm, the Pact hates Celestia. They're not their fan club."

"Eh, love, hate, both sides of the same coin. Point is, even if he pretends not to have received the crystals, by the time it reaches Mud or the Pact, we could've run far away with a shitload of bits from the crystals. You know how much these babies are worth."

Looking at the window for a moment, Misty was deep in her thoughts. Eventually, she looked back at Sandstorm and sighed. "Fine. We don't have much of a choice anyway. We'll leave by the end of the week, when Mud's going back to Fillydelphia. Where do we go ourselves, though?"

"While we search for a buyer, we need a nice, chill place away from the big cities. We can always crash at my parent's place in Ponyville for a while."

"Right. While we're there, we can even tell them we've been dating for three years and that you were too afraid to tell them, then."

With a nervous chuckle, Sandstorm looked away. "Y-Yeah, or we can just lay low until it's safe and..."

Feeling defeated, Misty just nodded. "Sure. We'll lay low. I'll leave the Pact's potions here, then. If we take them, Mud'll know something's up."

Noticing her marefriend's worsening mood, Sandstorm went to hug Misty. They held each other for a long, comforting moment before the mares spent the rest of their afternoon packing their bags as quietly as possible, preparing to run away from Manehattan.





Going through the castle's hallways and corridors, Aphelion followed Glaze, the maid assigned to him for his stay in the palace. It wasn't the first time that Aphelion had ponies working specifically to assist him in his daily task, but it was the first time that he had met a servant that spoke at all, let alone in such a jovial manner. "If I was at the manor," Aphelion thought, "Father would've already fired her. Or worse..."

In just the two hours they had spent in each other's company, Glaze had already begun telling everything about herself, talking about her past and her family. Aphelion, unsure of how to react to such an optimistic and outgoing personality, mostly focused on listening to her and her stories. As she led him towards the room where Steady was waiting for him, Glaze suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"O-Oh, I just noticed I've been talking your ears off for, like, two hours now, and I haven't asked about you even once... I'm sorry!" she quickly blurted out, blushing at her lack of manners.

Aphelion chuckled. "It's fine, I don't mind. I rarely get to meet ponies that enjoy talking at all, so it's a nice change of pace."

"Really? Where do you come from? What kinda job do you have?"

"I... Uh... I guess you could say I'm an artificer," Aphelion looked away, not wanting to reveal his past.

"An 'artificer'? What's that? Sounds fancy."

"In my case, it's somepony that focuses on creating artifacts and spells. Kind of like a mage, but with an added physical component, so to speak."

"Oh, so you do magic stuff? That's cool! You've got to show me some of your stuff at some point! I'd love to..."

Their discussion was cut off by a visibly annoyed Steady Travels, waiting next to a door. Having been talking for so long, Aphelion and Glaze barely noticed that they were late. "Listen, kid," Steady spoke directly to Aphelion. "It's nice to see you gettin' along with the staff, but we got an actual job to do," he said before walking back in the room.

"Uh... I guess I'll leave you to it, then?" Glaze stood awkwardly, feeling guilty for holding Aphelion back with her ramblings.

"Guess so. Thanks for showing me the way, I don't think I could've found my way on my own here."

She scoffed. "Don't even start with that. I got lost so many times on my first month here, it's a wonder I wasn't fired earlier than-"

"I'm still waiting!" yelled Steady from inside the room.

"Oopsokaysorrybye-" Glaze quickly ran off, leaving Aphelion in the hallway. He quickly headed inside the room, not wanting to anger Steady any longer. The room itself was relatively small, barely having enough room for a table and two shelves on the side. The only source of light came from the corridor itself, as the only window in the room was curtained off. On the table, countless scrolls and sheets of paper were spread everywhere. The shelves were filled with more of these documents. In a way, this room reminded Aphelion of the royal archives. Remembering the folder he had attempted to steal, he wondered if he could read it if he asked Celestia or Shining Armor.

Steady was sitting on a large chair, waiting for Aphelion. "Close the damned door behind you."

Doing so, Aphelion expected the room to go completely dark, but the opposite happened. As soon as the door was closed, a blue light illuminated the entire room from above. Looking up, Aphelion saw a small floating sphere acting as a magical lamp. Resisting the urge to ask about it, he turned his attention back on the pegasus in front of him. "Alright, I'm here. Sorry for my lateness."

"It's fine," Steady grumbled. "Just, be on time from now on."

"I will. So, you need my help to catch Sandstorm and Misty?"

"Yup. I've been tracking them for a while now... Well, not them personally, but their boss."

Approaching the desk, Aphelion noticed the clear lack of a second chair or seat for him. "And who do they work for, exactly? They wouldn't tell me."

Steady slid a photograph towards Aphelion. "An earth pony calling himself 'Mud', though that's not his real name. He's the head of a group of thugs operating in multiple big cities across Equestria. They do all kinds of 'fun activities', like robbing, spying, blackmailing, kidnapping, drug-dealing... And a shit load of drinking."

"A... Lovely bunch. Does this group call itself something specific?"

"They don't have an official name. They keep changing every few months, though I can't say if it's to throw us off, or because they just can't stick to one Celestia-damned name."

"Right... And you think catching Sandstorm and Misty will lead to Mud's arrest?"

"It could. At the very least, it'll help us get a lead on him and their group's activities."

"How did they get in your crosshair specifically? Misty and Sandstorm, I mean."

Tensing up, Steady stared at Aphelion, who could feel the pegasus' eyes dig into his soul. "One of 'em messed with me personally some years ago. I'm gonna make sure they both pay for it."

"O-Okay," Aphelion gulped. "What's our first step, then? Do you have any idea of where they might be?"

"Yeah. Got a source claiming to have seen Mud somewhere in Manehattan, so that's where we'll start. The two mares probably came back to him there to transfer the documents you helped them steal."

"Wait, but if we know Mud is hiding in Manehattan, why not go directly for him?"

"Because we have no idea if he'll stay in town or if he'll just send some other lackey to pick up the folder. Besides, Mud rarely shows his own face in public. Your two crime friends, however, are bound to step outside to deal with whatever bullshit they get tasked with. We're basically hoping to catch them during one of their other missions. I'll need you to help me recognize them and subdue them if they resist."

"Uh... I'm not sure I can capture any of them. Well, maybe Misty if I get the drop on her, but Sandstorm... I've seen what she can do to walls. I don't think my ribs are more resistant than walls."

"Then you take care of the unicorn, and I'll take care of the earth pony. Deal?"

Looking Steady up and down, Aphelion was hesitant. "Are you sure you can take her on?"

Steady laughed. "It ain't my first rodeo, kid. She won't be an issue, don't worry."

"Then I guess that's settled. How should we proceed?"

"We'll take the train to Manehattan this evening. Once we're there, we start searching the city. I've got a few leads on where to start, but we may have to improvise a bit if we can't find anything. I'll go into more details as we go."

"Can't you just tell me everything right now?"

"No offense, but we still don't know if we can fully trust you. Right now, you're on a 'need to know' basis. Do a good job and you'll get more."

"That's... That's fair enough, actually. Though, I do have something to ask..."

"Then ask away," Steady leaned back in his chair.

"Officially, I'm in Canterolt's jail. It's only a matter of time before the Crescent Pact hears about it and I don't think my father will sit by idly. What should I do if he, or another member of the Pact, contacts me?"

Steady sighed. "Yeah, that's a good point. I talked to Celestia earlier about it, and we reached a consensus. Should that happen, you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't interrupt the mission. Lie, tell the truth, go back home. Whatever you choose to do, we're fine with it, though we'd obviously prefer if you stuck by us."

"What if they try to take me back by force?"

"They won't. They've been trying to stay hidden for 200 years, they won't blow their cover just to get you back. In all honesty, they'll probably cut their losses and burn bridges with you. To deny anything you could say about them by pretending not to know you, basically."

Aphelion looked up at the floating orb emitting light. While he had asked Steady about what he should do if the Pact was to contact him again, Aphelion had already made up his mind earlier and just wanted to know Steady's opinion. Taking a deep breath, he looked back at the crimson pegasus. "Alright, anything else I should know, or do before leaving tonight?"

"One thing you'll need to do after we're back," Steady smirked. "Go ask that maid on a date."

"Alright, I'll do that and... Wait, what?!"

"You've spent your whole life holed up in this manor in the middle of the woods. You need to have more contact with the outside world. So, go ask that maid on a date and start being a regular stallion. Unless you prefer hot-dogs instead of tacos?"

Taking a moment to decipher the last part of Steady's sentence, Aphelion began to blush. "I, uh, no preference. Though I don't know... We've literally only known each other for two hours."

"Then get to know her better. Or anypony else, for that matter. Honestly, just go and make friends. You need to socialize with regular ponies, otherwise I'll ask Celestia to throw your ass back in jail."

"I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"You don't. For you, friendship is freedom."

"That's dumb."

"Just wait until you hear what Celestia's got planned in Ponyville," Steady chortled.