//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Rainboom // Story: The Super Sneaky Thieving Pony // by Discorded SheepcityUSA //------------------------------// “No no no for Celestia’s sake I said PINK lemonade you idiot!” the white unicorn with a gold mane wearing an obscene amount of expensive-looking jewelry on her person screamed at one of her unicorn servants in a shrill voice. On this day in Equestria’s capital city of Canterlot, many of the wealthy that lived in town were hosting their own garden parties. This one in particular was being hosted by the unicorn mare, Gold Mine, who’s only real talent as far as anypony who knew her knew, was miraculously managing to reel in a rich husband no matter how many times she divorced. Or perhaps her true talent lied in something to do with her lungs because judging from her interactions with her servants, the mare could screech like nopony else. Of course, she would never display such behavior in front of her guests. In private however, Gold Mine was a menace. The cause of her anger this time being that the lemonade was not pink at her garden party where all the décor was pink. In her anger, Gold splashed the glass of lemonade she was holding in her servant’s face and hung the empty cup from his horn as he wore a completely neutral expression on his face. He should be more upset, but behavior of this sort was so common from her that he could not find it in him to be shocked. “See to it that you fix this, now,” she huffed as she turned her servant away, only for another one, this one holding a rake in her magic from doing yard work, to trot up alongside her, seemingly walking on eggshells. “Erm…ma’am…there’s somepony at the gate wishing to see you. It’s um…it’s a filly,” she said with some hesitation. Gold, looking slightly annoyed, made her way over to the garden’s currently-locked gate, grabbing the rake from her servant and dragging it behind her with her own magic. Sure enough, there was an Earth Pony filly, about 10 years old or so, standing on the other side. Her pink fur and dark pink, straight mane had a few strands of hair sticking from it and were stained with dirt, indicating she hadn’t had a proper bath in a while, and her flank bore no cutie mark. The filly looked up at her with her pair of large, pleading blue eyes. Gold Mine recoiled a bit in disgust at the state the filly’s appearance was in. “Eeugh…speak. I am very busy today, girl,” “Um…excuse me miss Gold Mine?” the filly asked, seemingly nervous. “My name’s Slinky and me and my brothers don’t have a real home. We’re very hungry so…” she continued, looking past Gold Mine and eyeing the snack table in the garden that had various small party foods, causing Slinky to drool a bit. “Forget it girl,” Gold Mine snapped. “I have an image to keep up here, do you have any idea how having a dirty street rat among my guests would make me look?” Slinky’s ears folded back, and she had a dejected, upset look on her face. “I-I’m…sure nopony’d judge you for helping a starving filly out,” “The answer is no. Should I let you in here every urchin in town would be swarming my home for a handout,” Gold Mine reached over the fence with her rake and swatted in Slinky’s direction. “I’ve got guests coming any moment now and I do not want to see mane or tail of you here when they arrive. Now shoo!” Appearing to be frightened with a few tears in her eyes, Slinky galloped off out of Gold Mine’s sight. The unicorn mare exhaled in annoyance. “Honestly. Go back to the orphanage where your ilk will leave me alone,” she said bitterly to herself as she went back to her preparations. Little did she realize that despite her no longer being visible, Slinky had not truly left. Instead, she had made her way behind a nearby flower cart parked next to the sidewalk across the street and just sat on her haunches, sadly looking at the ground with tears in her eyes, eventually covering them in some attempt to keep her tears inside. Everything Slinky said was the truth. She had brothers waiting on her without any food left and no money to speak of to help in that regard. Gold Mine was the eighth pony today to turn her away when she needed help, and she could not go back to her brothers empty-hoofed; they already hadn’t had a proper meal in two days...her and ONE of her brothers hadn’t anyway. Her little body shook as her frustration began to boil over into anger. She took her hooves off her eyes and glared down into a puddle next to her showing her reflection where she was able to see the condition her fur was in, and her quiet rage began to flare. All of this fuss because she was a little bit dirty? “So…that’s how it is, huh?” Slinky growled to herself. She then made her way back to her hooves and peeked out from behind the cart back at the garden, and the growling in her stomach strengthened her resolve for what she was about to do next. Priority one was food, but she had had enough of Canterlot’s apathy toward her plight today. Slinky was not going to let Gold Mine come out of this unscathed after that especially gross display of selfishness. When Slinky was eyeing up the garden again from behind the cart, she noticed Gold Mine’s guests approaching the gate, and took special notice of one mare overcompensating way too hard with her dress being humongous. Perhaps even big enough for a small filly to hide under, if careful enough. “Oh, I’m ever so sorry to hear your husband won’t be joining us this afternoon dear,” One of Gold Mine’s guests, a yellow Pegasus wearing purple eyeshadow and a pink sunhat, said to her. Meanwhile much of the hostility Gold Mine had shown earlier had dissipated now that she was in the presence of ponies whose opinions she actually valued. She shook her head. “Tsk tsk. Yes, I’m afraid the poor thing came down with Hay Fever. The weather was just not agreeing with that nose of his today,” Gold Mine lied as easily as she drew breath. All her servants knew better though. Truthfully her husband just did not wish to be in her presence. The yellow mare was about to continue their conversation when all of a sudden, she felt a sudden gust of air zoom by them and heard the sound of a distressed mare from behind them. “Oh my!” the nearby purple mare wearing the oversized dress exclaimed, her dress having flown up suddenly due to the strange sudden gust of air passing under her. She quickly scrambled to pull it back down. “I’m so sorry, I did not expect the wind to be so strong today,” “Darling what are you so embarrassed for? We do not even wear clothes all that often,” the yellow mare couldn’t help but giggle a little. Gold Mine however, did not have it in her to laugh. “Hm. Odd. I don’t recall the weather team having excessive wind scheduled for today…ah, it doesn’t matter,” she said, dismissively shaking her head and instead choosing to keep her focus on keeping her guests entertained. “One moment, I’m feeling a slight peckish. I will fetch us some hors d'oeuvres,” she said as she turned her back to the yellow mare and toward the snack table… And recoiled in horror when the entire table was now completely barren. Even the pink tablecloth was gone. “W-What in the world?! What happened here?! Where did all the food go?!” She yelled, her façade of civility beginning to crack a little. Just as she was shooting a few accusatory glances at some of her nearby servants, her attention was quickly drawn elsewhere when she heard the horrified gasps of her guests behind her. “O-Oh my goodness!” the yellow pegasus exclaimed with a blush on her face as she stared at the back of Gold Mine’s head. The purple mare with the oversized dress meanwhile had no words and simply fainted. Gold Mine, quickly trying to keep her mask on, quickly composed herself and turned back to them with something resembling a smile. “I-I’m so sorry everypony, truly I don’t know what happened. I had our snack table perfect not but a moment ago, I swear!” Meanwhile, one of her servants had spied something stuck to the back of her head and approached her, speaking with a hint of dread in his voice. “U-Um, ma’am…I don’t think that’s what caught their attention…” he said as he pulled it off her and held it in front of her face to see. When she saw what it was, Gold Mine gawked at it and shook her head, having to blink a few times, not even able to believe what she was seeing. Having been taped to the back of her head was a piece of paper with a certain profane, four-letter word starting with the letter “C” And that is when the façade fell. In her blind rage, her face had turned a dark red, her pupils had dilated, and she was snorting hot air from her nostrils. But she could not even think about how she looked. She took the paper from her servant and viciously shredded it with her teeth. Her anger had still not subsided so she then, without even thinking, took her rage out on the empty table and flipped it over before finally just letting out a furious scream. “AAAAGH! WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?! WHO FUCKING DARES?!?!” she yelled. Just then, she would get her answer as right in the corner of her eye, she’d caught a quick glimpse of Slinky sneaking out from behind a rose bush and bolting out of the front gate, carrying the stolen food in her mouth by forming a sack with the pink tablecloth. “RRRGH! That rotten little brat, of course!” Gold Mine then turned to one of her servants who was still in shock over seeing her throw such a bad tantrum. “WELL?! DON’T JUST SIT THERE AND STARE, FLAG DOWN A GUARD, TELL THEM I WAS ROBBED!” “Y-Yes ma’am,” he stuttered before quickly trotting off as fast as he could. With the situation now seemingly being handled, only then did Gold Mine start to come down from the height of her anger. The problem was, now that she had a slightly clearer head, a sense of dread started to grow in her chest once she realized what she had just done. Right out in public. With this realization, she slowly turned back toward all her party guests who by this point were nothing short of speechless. They all just stared at her as if she were a mare possessed with their mouths hanging open in shock. “Erm…I…Oh dear…” Gold Mine muttered, failing to find her words. Little did anypony realize, the commotion had been seen by another. High on the rooftop of a house across the street, an adult, pony-like figure was looking through a pair of binoculars at the entire scene from afar. “Well well, looks like she really got under that gold digger’s skin,” the figure said to herself in a mature, feminine voice, lowering the binoculars. “Thieves are just getting younger and younger these days,” “For Celestia’s sake kid, stop running!” a royal pegasus guard shouted as he ran alongside his partner through the busy streets of Canterlot after Slinky. Inwardly, Slinky cursed herself for not getting out of there sooner. Unfortunately sticking around to catch a glimpse of Gold Mine’s breakdown before she made a break for it proved to be too tempting a prospect for her. A mistake she’d come to regret if she didn’t keep moving. “Yeah relax, we’re not going to hurt you, we just want to talk!” the other guard, an earth pony, shouted as they gave chase. “Bullffhit!” the filly swore through her teeth as she gripped the bag in her mouth and barged through a crowd of tourist ponies, knocking a few onto their haunches in the process causing them to shout her way in outrage. But she did not pay them any mind. If these guards were anything like the rest of Canterlot, and in Slinky’s mind that was a near-certainty, their concern was not real. If she got caught, she would likely be sent to juvie, or worse, back to the orphanage. Never, ever again. Not to mention what would happen to her brothers should she not make it. In her desperation to lose the guards, she tried taking a shortcut in an alley between a boutique and a coffee shop. But to her distress, the alley was blocked off halfway by a chain-link fence that stood tall above her head. She turned around to find another route but waiting at the other end of the alley where the two guards that had finally managed to close their distance. Her heart nearly pounding out of her chest in fear, she backed up against the fence, gritting her teeth that held the sack of food and intensely glaring at the two of them like she was a cornered animal. “Easy, easy,” the pegasus said, holding up a hoof in a fruitless attempt to calm her down as the two of them approached. “We know you’re probably pretty scared right now,” The earth pony started. “But frankly I think the best thing we can do for you is to get you off the streets. So why don’t you just come with us and we can-“ BOOOOOOOOM The guards stopped dead in their tracks once the sound of what sounded like an explosion rang out throughout Canterlot, their eyes darting around to find the source. Following the boom, an enormous ring of rainbow light spread across the sky, illuminating the city with all its bright, beautiful colors. The guards, and everypony else that was touring the city streets had all stopped whatever it was they were doing to stare up in awe at the marvelous sight. This included Slinky; so entranced by it that she, if only for a moment, forgot all about the situation she was in and all the hardship that she’d been saddled with. She was quickly brought back down to Equestria though by, ironically, an equally bizarre event happening almost immediately after this Rainboom. For just across the street, was the exam hall of Celestia’s School for gifted unicorns… And an enormous purple dragon’s head erupted from its roof, looking around with an expression as if there were not a single thought in its head. This sight, obviously, distressed the guards. “WHAT IN CELESTIA’S MANE?!” The Earth Pony guard yelled in fright. “D-D-Dragon!” the Pegasus also yelled. Slinky, while initially frightened by the appearance of a dragon in the city, could not afford to be paralyzed with fear. The guards were distracted, and she knew she would likely not be granted another chance. She quickly tossed her sack over the fence and with all her strength, scaled it as fast as she could. Eventually she made it to the other side, scooped up her sack again, and bolted out of the guard’s sight. The Earth Pony one briefly looked behind him, but by the time he noticed Slinky was getting away, it was too late. “H-Hey wait!” he shouted. His now very nervous Pegasus partner grabbed his shoulder to stop him. “Dude forget it! There’s a freakin’ dragon in the city! Wherever she’s going’s better than right here right now. We must get to the exam hall, NOW!” Out of breath, Slinky made it to her alleyway on the outskirts of Canterlot that she’d called home for the time being and dropped the sack at her hooves and instead chose to drag it across the ground inside the alley. The alley smelled nothing short of unbearable, but it was all Slinky and her brothers could manage at the moment to minimize risk of being spotted and her being hauled back to the orphanage, and who-knows-what being done to her brothers. She called into the darkness of the alley for her brothers as she made her way inside. “Fluffy! Jade! I’m back! Get out here ya dorks,” Almost right away, Slinky could hear 2 pairs of hoofsteps and one pair of feet making their way closer to her. When their owners stepped into the light of day, Slinky, despite her exhaustion, couldn’t help but smile a little bit. In front of her stepped a young yellow pegasus colt with a brown mane wearing a pair of cheap-looking glasses, and a scrawny diamond dog of the bulldog breed that barely stood at Slinky’s eye-level, with grey fur and brown eyes wearing a vest made of sewn-together rags. The colt was clearly distressed for obvious reasons. “S-Slinky what in Tartarus happened out there?! There was this loud boom sound, the whole freakin’ sky lit up all rainbow-y a-and,” Slinky cut him off by putting a hoof over his mouth to make him shut up. “Jade. I don’t know. I don’t care. It stopped. We’re all still alive. And it was even kind of pretty. Chill,” she said, deadpanning a little bit and looking him over. “And stop with this phony look. Doesn’t seem like anypony followed me for miles. You’re good. Nopony will see you,” Jade had a nervous look in his eyes but with quiet resignation, he nodded. Afterwards, Jade’s figure was quickly engulfed in a flash of green flames. Once they dissipated, in his place was one of a black, insect and equine-like species known to ponykind as a changeling. Jade quickly readjusted his glasses after returning to his natural form and pushed them up against his dark purple eyes. “B-Better?” he stammered. “Better,” Slinky said with a smile. She then turned her attention to the Diamond Dog. “How’ve you been holding up Fluffy?” She got her answer when Fluffy’s stomach made a long, growling sound, causing him to hold his stomach. “Mmmmn….hungry,” Fluffy whimpered. “Awww I know buddy,” She said, patting his stomach. “Don’t worry, I got you covered,” Slinky quickly untied the knot on the sack and let fall open. Inside was the entire supply of hors d'oeuvres from Gold Mine’s garden party. Cheese sandwiches, various kinds of fruit and small cakes made up Slinky’s haul from her heist. After quickly shoving a cheese sandwich in her mouth, she then took a one and held it up to Fluffy. “I know it’s not meat like you really SHOULD be eating Fluffy, but we have to work with what we’ve got right now. Sorry,” Slinky said. Fluffy seemed to be too hungry to care as he quickly devoured the sandwich whole, having also ended up with Slinky’s hoof in his mouth. “Mmm. No be sorry, cheese is good!” Fluffy said with Slinky’s hoof still stuck in his mouth. “Eeech, dude…” Slinky grimaced, freeing her hoof and using Fluffy’s vest to clean it. “Okaaay that was gross. But anyhow Fluffy, I think it’s about time we fed Jaaaaaade~” She said, her head turning to Jade with the biggest smile on her face. Fluffy did much of the same along with his round spiked tail wagging. Jade meanwhile, blushed in embarrassment. “Nnngh, y-you don’t have to guys, I’m not-“ Jade was interrupted by both Slinky and Fluffy hugging the changeling tightly. “Shhhhhh. I get this embarrasses you, but you need love to live. Now don’t complain,” Slinky said, a faint pink mist emanating off her and trailing into Jade’s mouth. “Feel love Jade,” Fluffy added as the same began to happen with him. As he fed off the sibling love he received from Slinky and Fluffy, Jade was clearly feeling its warmth, having calmed his nerves a little and just allowing himself to be given its strength. Eventually, he had his fill and pushed the two of them off him so he would not overindulge and take too much from them. “Aaah…really don’t know what I would do without you two,” Jade smiled at Slinky and Fluffy before casting his vision down to the pile of food before them that the pony and diamond dog were snacking on. “Gotta say, impressed you managed to get this much Slinky. Who woulda thought Canterlot ponies were this generous?” Slinky’s eyes shot open, and she stopped chewing the moment that left Jade’s mouth. “Eheh…well…” Jade’s smile dropped and he raised an eyebrow, growing suspicious. “Uh…this was…GIVEN to you right?” Jade asked. Slinky couldn’t find it in herself to speak up still. Her eyes darted all over the place, wanting to look at anything but Jade and Fluffy right now, and she began to sweat a little. “Slinky,” Fluffy said with narrowed eyes. “Slinky, what did you do?” At that point, Slinky finally cracked, and she groaned, putting her hoof to her face and turning her head to the sky. “Okaaay. I might’ve…helped myself,” Jade’s glasses fell down his face a bit, looking a lot more nervous. “So, you mean you stole it? Don’t…don’t ponies not usually like it when you take things from them? A-Are we going to get in trouble? Isn’t this…wrong?” Slinky took her hoof off her face and gave Jade a stern look. “You didn’t see what I saw. Nopony in Canterlot wants to help us. I was a step away from digging in the trash if that last pony wasn’t so awful,” “Pony…awful? Why? What wrong with her? Fluffy asked, frowning. Slinky growled as she thought about her encounter with Gold Mine. “Oh, don’t get me started on Gold Mine. Almost looked like she was mad she had to even talk to dirty little street urchin me, shooed me away with a rake like I was a dog, treated all her servants really bad. Got me so fired up that I gave her what she deserved. Stole all her food and embarrassed the heck out of her in front of everypony she knew,” Slinky said, her anger simmering down and now seeming to smile a little more and almost laughed after remembering the mare's reaction. “Hehheh…you should’ve seen it, I got her good,” Jade pushed his glasses back up still looking worried. “Mmn…guess I can’t feel too bad for her if she was like that but…wasn’t it like…you know…scary?” “Y’know…” Slinky said, pawing at the ground with her hoof in thought. “It should’ve been but…it wasn’t, really. All I could really think about was getting you guys food and how mad I was. I mean I almost got caught by some guards and that got me pretty freaked but...but now that I think about it…I liked it. Gold Mine is a bad pony. She doesn’t deserve all the money she has. So, getting to screw her over while being able to help you guys? It felt good. I felt like I was…alive,” she said with her smile growing even more. Just then, a light emanated from Slinky’s flank, causing Fluffy and Jade to wince a bit. Once the light had died down, they just stared in amazement for several seconds. Slinky had also been caught off guard by the light, so when it finally dimmed, she glanced down at her flank and gasped in amazement. Where her flank had been blank before, now sat Slinky’s cutie mark: One yellow diamond with two blue diamonds on either side of it. After simply staring at it in utter disbelief for a few seconds, Slinky’s smile grew wider than Fluffy or Jade had ever seen it and she squealed in delight. “EEEEEEEEE!” Slinky bounced up and down and hugged her brothers tightly. “EEHEHEEE I GOT MY CUTIE MARK, OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH I GOT MY CUTIE MARK!” “GACK!” Jade gagged as Slinky hugged him slightly too tight. “C-Congrats Slinky but…t-tight.” Fluffy meanwhile was not nearly as bothered as he still had it in him to smile. “Yay for Slinky!” Fluffy cheered, patting Slinky’s head. It wasn’t for a few more seconds that something dawned on Slinky and all of a sudden stopped hugging them and looked a bit confused. “Hang on…I don’t remember doing anything with jewels today. Why’s my cutie mark look like that?” “They aren’t always literal,” The three kids jumped at the sound of the feminine voice that startled them. They looked up to the rooftop overlooking the alley where they heard it and shook in fear of the figure they saw standing on it. On the rooftop stood an adult mare with light red fur wearing a dark red trench coat and a long-rimmed hat of matching color, with a long auburn mane flowing down her shoulder. In a display of athleticism not seen from an earth pony by the kids, the mare jumped down from the roof and hopped from wall to wall of the alley until she reached the ground, her hooves splashing a puddle of water. Jade had already brought his colt disguise back up with the appearance of this new pony and stood behind Fluffy, terrified. “S-Slinky I thought you said you weren’t followed!” “I-I thought I wasn’t! I don’t even know who this is!” Slinky said defensively, stammering a bit. Fluffy meanwhile had gotten on all fours and crouched close to the ground in a fighting stance, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice “ARF ARF ARF RRRARF!” he barked. The mare pushed her hat up so the three of them could see her steel-grey eyes unobscured and paid Fluffy’s barking little mind. “Cutie marks are not always literal of one’s talents in their imagery. Considering your little stunt at Gold Mine’s and your newfound reverence for the art of thievery, that’s likely what your cutie mark is referring to. Just so happens jewels and treasure are usually associated with that craft,” Slinky’s ears folded back a bit at the revelation, and she looked nervous. “Y-You saw that?” The mare nodded. “You don’t need to be nervous. Nopony is looking for you. After that display caused by that Sonic Rainboom, those guards have certainly forgotten all about you,” “S…Sonic…Rainboom?” Jade asked, tilting his head a bit, still nervous over the new pony but curious, nonetheless. “An event where a pegasus reaches such speed that they break both the sound and light barriers resulting in…well you saw earlier. I’d always thought they were just theoretical, but it seems somepony out there’s proven me wrong,” the mare said, looking at the sky. “O-Oh. She’s smart,” Jade said to himself, looking impressed. The mare’s eyes shifted to Jade. “You can drop the disguise by the way. I already know you’re a changeling. You don’t seem like the type to kidnap ponies and drain the love of their family, so I don’t mind,” Jade nervously looked at Slinky. At this point, they had no reason to hide it so Slinky gave him a quick nod, prompting him to hesitantly revert to his natural form. “That’s better,” the mare said, then turning her attention back to Slinky. “Okay, my little criminal-“ “Look,” Slinky began, trying her hardest to look stern. “If you’re here to tell me stealing’s wrong or whatever, I don’t wanna hear it. I…” Slinky stopped for a moment to steel her nerves before she continued. “I’m not a bad filly,” “Never said you were,” The mare said, holding up her hoof. “You do fit the definition of a criminal; you did break the law by taking something that didn’t belong to you after all. But, in my experience, ‘criminal’ is a neutral term. You can either be a good one, or a bad one. I wouldn’t sit here and try to lecture you about if stealing is inherently wrong regardless of who the victim is. If I did…well…” The mare stopped to reach into her trench coat, which briefly caused the kids to flinch, though they calmed down when they saw it was just a piece of paper. “If I did, I would be a MASSIVE hypocrite,” she said, holding the paper out for Slinky to see. Fluffy and Jade gathered around to get a look for themselves, and all their eyes lit up in shock when they saw what was on it. It was a photo of the mare distorted by her movement, indicating whoever took the picture couldn’t get one of her standing still and that this was likely taken on the fly. And sitting below her photo were the words: WANTED FOR GRAND LARCENY: SCARLET. INFORMATION LEADING TO ARREST WILL BE REWARDED WITH 300,000 BITS UPON CAPTURE The kids stared at the wanted poster in wide-eyed amazement, though Fluffy looked more confused than anything. He took his eyes off it to look back up at the mare they now knew as Scarlet. “What does…’grand larceny’ mean?” he asked. “Theft of personal property above a certain value. She’s a thief,” Jade answered. Scarlet nodded. “I was actually scouting out Gold Mine’s home myself when I saw your little garden party heist,” she said, with a slight smile on her face. “YOU’RE Scarlet?! Gosh, I’ve heard a lot about you. Word on the street is you’re like the greatest master thief to ever live! Heck, I heard some ponies thought you were just like…a ghost that steals gold or something you’re so sneaky!” Slinky said, thoroughly impressed. “My reputation precedes me it seems. But that is an exaggeration,” Scarlet said, a small chuckle escaping her mouth. “But gosh…” Slinky continued, looking back at the wanted poster in her hooves. “300,000 bits, who the heck did you piss off?” “Lot of ponies. Some real rotten to the core folks that tend to fit in pretty cozy in high society that make screwing over the less fortunate their hobby. So that huge reward…well, you don’t get into this business without making some powerful enemies, and it’s not like law enforcement cares for the ‘why’ I do this. At the end of the day, I'm still a criminal,” Scarlet said, leaning against the brick wall of the building on the left of the alley. “Well guess I can see why you’d wanna hit Gold Mine then heheh,” Slinky snickered. “But uh…I have a question. Why’d you follow me at all? We’re nocreatures,” “Because” Scarlet replied, looking down at her. “I could tell this wouldn’t be the last time you’d try something like that. Starving kid just found an easier way to feed themselves and got away with it, why would you stop? And that cutie mark of yours only confirmed my suspicions. I’d never tell a pony not to embrace their destiny, but if you’re going to keep doing this, you’re going to need some guidance. This line of work can get pretty dangerous,” “Are…you saying what I think you’re saying?” Slinky asked, a few sparkles appearing in her eyes. “I am,” Scarlet said, kneeling to the filly’s eye level. “I know I am not going to be able to do this forever. But my work is too important for it to end with me. I need to start thinking about what is going to happen to creatures like the three of you that get trampled on by ponies like Gold Mine once I can no longer do this. And I think you have a lot of potential to be a great candidate for my successor. Train under me, and I can help you hone your skill to become an incredible master thief like me. You’ll be able to take down those that need it several pegs and help a lot of ponies like you,” Scarlet then stood back up. “But I won’t lie to you. This is going to involve a lot of moving around from city to city, don’t forget that law enforcement is not exactly appreciative of ponies like us. Society at large will still shun you. That is unlikely to change. This a relatively thankless job, but it’s one that needs doing. Think hard about this,” To say that Slinky was immensely tempted to go through with this would be an understatement. She did just get her cutie mark in this talent after all and would love nothing more than to bring more ponies that abuse their wealth and status to justice and give their victims a chance at something greater. But there was one problem. “I…unless Fluffy and Jade can come with me, then no deal,” Slinky said, puffing out her chest. Scarlet smiled a little bit. “I would never ask you to be without your brothers. They may,” Scarlet responded, looking behind Slinky at Fluffy and Jade. “Are the two of you for this? I might be able to help the two of you pick up on some latent abilities yourselves,” “I get help Slinky? I come too!” Fluffy said enthusiastically raising his arms in the air, Scarlet taking some note of his slightly broken speech and to get the Diamond Dog some homeschooling. “Good, good. I’ve got some contacts in Griffonstone that will make it easier to get the nutrition a tough, growing little pup like you needs,” Scarlet, patting Fluffy’s head, eliciting a tail wag from him. Jade meanwhile, was more hesitant. “Mmmn, oh gosh…I dunno, this all sounds kind of dangerous,” “It might be,” Scarlet said. “But by the end of your training, there will not be many that will be a serious threat to you. I get the sense you’re a smart little Changeling. The mind is arguably the most important part of a thief’s skillset and can get one out of plenty of bad situations. If you let me help you learn how to use it to your benefit, the three of you will be nigh-unstoppable together,” “Gggggh,” Jade held his head. “Well, when you put it like that…okay. I’m in too,” “Lovely,” Scarlet said, patting Jade’s head as well, causing him to blush in embarrassment a little bit. “First order of business is getting you three out of this dump. This is no place for children to live. I’ve got a lot of hideouts around Equestria so we’ll be staying at this cabin down the mountain tonight,” “So…do we get to have an actual bed? Slinky asked with a hopeful look in her eyes. “Of course,” Scarlet replied. Right away, the three now-teary-eyed kids swarmed her and hugged her legs, throwing her off guard. “O-Oh um…are you okay?” “Y-Yeah we just…can’t remember the last time we had a real bed is all,” Jade said, pushing his glasses out of the way to wipe a few tears from his eyes. “Piiiiiillooooows,” Fluffy hummed, his tail wagging some more. “There there children,” Scarlet said, giving them a hug back. “You know Slinky, usually when ponies their cutie marks, they will make some kind of change to their name to reflect their newfound talents. Did you have one in mind if anything?” Wiping tears out of her own eyes, Slinky thought for a moment. She’d called herself Slinky for so long that she didn’t feel like that part of her name should change now. But maybe an addition to it was in order now that she’d discovered a liking for thievery. “Hmm…Sly,” She decided. “My name is Slinky Sly,” “Slinky Sly. Graceful and cunning. It suits you,” Scarlet said as she smiled down at her new apprentice.