A few days had passed and it was all quiet in Ponyville there was no sign of the thief who had stolen her balloon. He probably wasn’t going to come back too, most likely he was stealing from some other poor town. Even though he was gone all of the town was on edge, Twilight told the Mayor what happened and she made a public announcement about it. It went… well about as well as you thought it would.
‘’No not my scooters!’’
‘’What about my flowers?!’’
‘’Forget that, what about my money?!?’’
Shaking her head Twilight dismissed the event from her mind and continued to write a letter to her teacher, at first she didn’t want to bother her. Still, when a couple of days passed and there was no sign of the thief, she decided to inform Princess Celestia about him, what if he was in Canterlot and stole precious treasures from the Castle? She must warn her teacher so that even if the thief tries to steal something her teacher would be ready.
‘’...he stole my balloon too and made his escape from Ponyville that way and maybe Rarirty’s gems too but we are not sure about that. I don’t want to imagine what else he can steal. Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle.’’ Twilight puts the last dot on the parchment and seals it, now she needs to get Spike and the Princess will have the appropriate knowledge about the thief.
‘’Spike?’’ She yells downstairs to Spike who was cleaning one of the shelves.
‘’Yeah?’’ Spike’s head popped out from the stairs, he was in his usual cleaning gear, that little pink apron, and the duster, a true warrior of cleaning.
‘’Can you send this to the Princess?’’ She tosses the letter to Spike and he sends the letter to Celestia mid-air with his magic fire breath.
‘’Thank you. Now let’s get some breakfast.’’ Twilight puts the quill on the table and begins walking down the stairs.
‘’I want a daisy sandwich!’’ Spike quickly throws the apron and the duster away.
‘’Sure, I could go for a daisy sandwich too.’’
Opening the door Spike leaves first and waits for Twilight, she steps through and closes the door but before they leave she locks the door both physically and magically, you know just in case.
On their way to the cafe Twilight can see ponies locking their doors after they leave their houses, it looks like the news caused everyone to become a little more cautious, and almost all of the town now has locks installed. Well, there was one good thing that came out of this thief, the Locks and Dice shop was now booming with business, Twilight could even swear that she saw the owner had a wide smile when Mayor Mare made her speech about the thief.
Arriving at the cafe they both sit down in their favorite spot which was thankfully empty, the waiter comes and he quickly takes both of their orders.
‘’I’ll have a daisy sandwich and tea please.’’ Twilight says and leans back in her chair.
‘’And you?’’ The waiter writes Twilight’s order and turns his head towards Spike.
‘’Oh, I’ll have a daisy sandwich too, but give me some milk.’’ The waiter nods and quickly leaves to get their order.
A few minutes later another waiter comes with both of their meals and sets them on their tables, after the waiter leaves both Twilight and Spike waste no time digging into their sandwiches. And as usual, the sandwich is delicious and the tea is as well, almost all of the meals in this cafe are good except for the egg sandwich, the eggs taste weird in that one.
‘’Mmmmhh, it’s so good!’’ Spike moans in delight and takes a quick sip of his milk.
‘’I always get surprised by the taste when we come here.’’ Twilight is not lying she really does get surprised by how somepony can make a simple sandwich so good.
They eat their meal in relative peace until a shadow forms over them. Looking up they both see Rainbow Dash on a cloud looking down on them.
‘’Heeyy, you guys eating breakfast?’’ Rainbow Dash throws away the cloud and she slowly descends from up above and lands on one of the empty chairs on their table.
‘’Yeah, you should order something too, this sandwich is divine.’’ Twilight takes another bite out of the sandwich. She chews it and swallows it and going for another bite she is left disappointed as the sandwich is already gone.
‘’Nah, I already ate, hey any word on the Apple Thief?’’ Ah yes, the thief has now been dubbed the Apple Thief from the first thing he stole that they knew of.
With a shake of the head Twilight answers. ‘’No, no one has seen a pony fitting his description anywhere near the town, nor have there been any reports of stolen items.
‘’Pfft, that’s probably because he is afraid of the Rainbow!’’ Rainbow Dash flexes her muscles while posing.
‘’Of course, I’m sure. Are you still looking around the town for any signs of him?’’
‘’Yep! But it’s probably pointless though, he took your balloon, right? He can be anywhere right now.’’
Right, he took her balloon… she wanted to forget about that if only Rainbow hadn’t opened her mouth, but that’s kinda impossible.
‘’Ughh, right but he could still come back, so be on the lookout.’’
‘’Aye aye!’’ Rainbow Dash salutes with a serious face and flies off.
Looking down at her plate all Twilight can see is emptiness… just like how her wallet will be if she buys another balloon. How could she forget to get something so important as insurance? She needs to find money somewhere, now who could have money that would be willing to give it to her? Aha!
‘’Spike when we get home I’m going to need you to send another letter.’’ Spike finishes his milk and slams it on the table.
‘’Sure, for who though?’’
‘’For Shining.’’
‘’Shining Armor? Why-’’ Spike doesn’t get to finish his sentence as he burps and a green flame materializes a parchment.
‘’Oh, she replied quickly. Maybe this Apple Thief is more dangerous than we thought?’’ Twilight quickly takes the letter and begins reading it.
My dear student thank you for your report on the ‘The Apple Thief’ but you don’t have to worry about him for I have already met him, in fact, he used your balloon to crash through one of the windows of the throne room. But please do not judge him too harshly for he most likely did those acts out of not malice but desperation. I hope you and your friends meet and become his friends at the gala next week for he needs friends in his time of need, and please do not call him ‘The Apple Thief’ his name is Laika.
PS: I have already taken care of your balloon it has been repaired and will be sent to Ponyville tomorrow.
‘’Looks like the Princess already has it under control.’’ Spike takes the last bite and his sandwich is now gone too. ‘’Awww.’’ he tries to take another sip of his milk but realizes that his glass is empty. ‘’Awwwww.’’
‘’Yeah…Oh! I won’t have to worry about the balloon now!’’ Twilight relaxes and takes a sip out of her now almost empty tea. Wait, the Gala is next week?!?
*PFFFTT*
‘’Eughh! What was that for Twilight?!’’ Spike wipes his now wet tea face with his hands.
‘’I forgot about the Gala!’’ Her head slams to the table and she groans.
‘’And that is why I think that we as the nobles of…’’
Celestia was listening to yet another noble with a… dumb problem as they say. So she kinda tuned it out, her mind was elsewhere entirely. It was on Laika, the breakfast had gone horribly and he had added another set of bandages to his body. She couldn’t understand why he had acted the way he had, he seemed better, it was a sudden change, but maybe it wasn’t, maybe the dam that was his emotions finally gave way?
Suddenly a green flame appears in front of her and a letter from her student forms in front of her eyes. Oh, she can use this opportunity to send the noble away.
‘’As much as I love listening to your problems I’m afraid our meeting has to be cut short for something much more important has come up.’’ The noble opens his mouth to object but he realizes that he is not talking to a common pony but the princess so he gives out an exaggerated bow and leaves with his troupe.
Celestia quickly leaves the throne room and moves to her room to read Twilight’s letter.
Dear Princess Celestia I wish I was sending this letter under more favorable circumstances but a grave danger has been discovered in Ponyville and I wish to warn you, a thief. He was first seen by my friend Fluttershy, according to her he knocked on her door and asked for help, when Fluttershy opened the door he saw a really dirty tan-colored pony with a light brown mane. She took him inside and tended to him but he managed to slip away from her house when she was gone, Fluttershy asked for help from Rainbow Dash to find him, but he managed to evade her all day. We call him the The Apple Thief because he first stole some of Applejack’s apples which she caught him at night and promptly captured him, but this thief is very clever for he has managed to escape injuring himself in the process. After he escaped from the farm, it seems like he wandered into the town and he stole my balloon with which he made his escape from Ponyville that way. and maybe Rarirty’s gems too but we are not sure about that. I don’t want to imagine what else he can steal. Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle.
Closing the letter Celestia takes a deep breath, this pony really has been causing quite the chaos. And he was already injured in Ponyville? His unnatural ability to get hurt makes Celestia wince a little. With a sigh, she takes her quill and dips it in ink.
‘’What have thou done to Laika?!’’ Luna pins the maid to the wall, she will get her answers.
‘’Wha-what?’’
‘’Thou have heard us! What. have. thou. done. to. Laika!’’ Luna hisses the words out.
‘’Nothing! W-what happened? Is Laika okay?! Did something bad happen to him again?!’’ Moonlight's eyes are filled with a mixture of fear and concern now, fear from the Princess in front of her and concern for Laika.
‘’Yes, something indeed has happened to him, and we suspect that thou are the reason for his suffering!’’
‘’No! I would never hurt him! Why would you say that?!’’
‘’You lie! He was fine until this morning’s breakfast something must have happened to him! And we haveth found your hair on his bed, how would thee explain that?!’’ Moonlight’s eyes widen, Aha! Luna knew it!
‘’M-my hair? Uhmm.’’
‘’Spit it out or shall I have your tongue?’’ Luna’s horn glows and a magical dark blue sword appears pointing at Moonlight.
‘’W-wait! Yes… I did sleep in his bed, but nothing happened! I did nothing that would hurt him! We just slept!’’
‘’If thou are weaving lies-’’ Luna is not convinced she tries to press the maid, but she was not ready for what the maid would do next.
‘’IT’S NOT A LIE! I WOULD NOT HURT THE STALLION THAT SAVED ME!’’ The small maid’s eyes filled with fear are now replaced with fire, she takes a step towards Luna and screams. The sudden reaction causes Luna to break concentration and the sword disappears, she takes a step back. But before she can say anything else the maid continues.
‘’I should be asking you if you did anything to him! He was okay this morning before he had breakfast with you!’’ Moonlight takes another step forward, Luna takes another step back.
‘’If something happened why are you not with him then?’’ Moonlight spits the words out.
‘’Wh-what?’’ Luna stutters, was the maid right? Was all his pain because of her? Should she not have left him alone?
‘’Buck this I’m going to see Laika since you won’t stay with him, and you call him your friend.’’ Moonlight scoffs and goes around the Princess.
‘’We are his friend…’’
Luna can only whisper the words out as the maid leaves, after a few minutes she starts moving albeit very slowly. She enters her sister’s room hoping to see her.
‘’Luna?’’
She throws herself to her sister and starts crying.
Moonlight is in the castle’s kitchen after she had her fight with the princess. Who does she think she is?! Just because she is a princess she can do anything? Opening one of the many fridges of the kitchen she looks around, where is it? Oh, there it is.
She grabs a large tub of ice cream, chocolate ice cream to be exact, closing the fridge she is met with the face of Hearty Meal.
‘’Moonlight? Why are you grabbing a whole tub of ice cream? …you aren’t going to eat that all on your own right?’’
‘’No, Princess Luna asked me to deliver her some ice cream, and I thought a whole tub should be enough.’’
Hearing that Luna herself wanted this ice cream, Hearty Meal sucks his teeth in. At least that Princess can be useful for something.
‘’Princess Luna? Okay, t-that’s fine, you can take another one if you need.’’
‘’One should be enough.’’
‘’If you say so.’’
Moonlight says a quick goodbye to Hearty Meal and then leaves to kitchen to go to Laika’s room, she has some ice cream to share, but only the greatest ice cream that has been made from only the best cows that eat the best grass, it’s the least he deserves.
On her way her mind wanders to the fight with the princess, maybe she was a bit too harsh, but she couldn’t just say nothing when the princess accused her of lying. She’ll apologize to her after she sees Laika.
Can’t even hold a teacup, not a human, walks on four legs, an animal, has hooves, not a human, only manages to injure himself, only brings trouble to the only people who helped him, not a human, they don’t know, they can’t know, they must know, they must not know, not a human, doesn’t belong…not here.
*knock-knock*
‘’Laika? …can I come in?’’
No, yes, no, she can’t you’ll talk, yes, she must you have to talk, what would happen if she knew? What would happen if she doesn't know? She tried to save you even though she couldn’t… Luna saved you, you can trust them, no you can’t, you must trust them…
‘’...okay.’’ I reply.