Orion

by Wisher

Antares

~ ~ ~ Antares ~ ~ ~

“I got… stuff to do.”

Oh yeah. Stuff to do indeed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked me. ‘Course I couldn’t let him know… not yet. Tsk tsk, Orion, curiosity is a nasty habit of yours.

“Eh, nothing much. We can meet up later, if you want.”

“Sounds good. See ya later.”

Yes. Bullet dodged.

He turned around and left, leaving me to contemplate things, when I realized I’d almost forgot to wish the guy a happy birthday.

“And oh, dude! Happy birthday!”

I saw him grin back at me before I lost him to the crowd. Yes, happy birthday, Orion. Celestia knows you’re in for a treat…

---

Yes siree, it was a beautiful day. On top of that, it was my best friend’s birthday. Could a pony ask for more? Well, maybe a free pass to ditch school for a year and do whatever I want wouldn’t hurt. But right now, things were pretty sweet. And they were about to get a lot sweeter.

As I walked down Crystal Avenue, I looked around at the people around me. Usually there were too many to really pay attention to -- you know how it is. Big city, people don’t like socializing, all that.

But today, I was looking at each and every one of them, like I had something to show them all. And in a way, I did. This big city always ignored me… always treated me like an average joe out of millions of others… Well, this sucker was about to show them what’s what! Even though they wouldn’t all be there to see it, I was gonna rock this city off its hinges! And then there would be no more losing at the arcade to a bunch of snotty brats. Although technically, I didn’t lose, it was Orion. He was the one who got cold hooves. Wonder what’s up with that...

But hey, no need to dwell on that stuff. There was a lot to do… and no time to lose.

I went down to Crystal Park, as I was supposed to. There was somepony I had to meet there.

As expected, she was late. Don’t you hate it when you put effort into something and people just blatantly show you that it’s not that important to them? ‘Cause that’s what being late means. Frankly, it’s fucking annoying, and it would have annoyed me on any day except today. And on my own birthday. And on Hearth’s Warming. And on Hearts and Hooves Day -- wait, no. Especially on Hearts and Hooves Day.

But today it didn’t matter. The sun was shining and nothing could foreseeably go wrong. So I sat down on a bench and waited. It was an easy wait, I mean, the view was fantastic. Crystal Park was no doubt the best place to be on a sunny day. I wonder if they thought of that when they built it? Bah, who knows. It’s just the coolest thing when the sun hits those crystal trees just right, and the trees seem to pass on light to each other in their reflections. Especially in the middle of the park, where a big crystal pony statue stands to the memory of those that died in battle at the start of the Long Day. No wonder so many of them live in this part of town… Word is their home up north was completely destroyed.

Also, it didn’t hurt that two lovely crystal mares walked past and giggled while I waited. Sitting on the park bench, eyeing little fillies with bad intent… Hehe.

I was about to check out another one that I saw arriving, but on second thought I held back. It was my sister, Bella. I don’t know if she saw through me just then, but she had a look told me she probably did.

“You’re late,” I told her. I know I said it didn’t matter all that much, but a guy’s gotta have principles.

“Good day to you too,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Time to cut to the chase.

“So, ya got anything good for me?”

I saw my sister tense up. For a moment I thought she had forgot it and that I was gonna have to smack a filly. But she rummaged through her satchel and my heart skipped a beat when I saw her take out a small white stone with a purple crystal in the middle.

“Is this it?” she asked. I took it from her hoof -- actually, more like snatched it -- and watched the magnificent little jewel.

Oh. my. Celestia. Yes!

“Yeah… Yeah, that’s the one! Great job, sis!” I beamed at her to show my thanks, but she still looked worried. “Do you have any idea what we’re gonna be able to do with this?”

“Yeah, I do. But I’d really rather not.”

Crap. I thought this might happen. Ugh, some ponies… You put your genius to their use and all they do is pout.

“It was a rhetorical question, Bel.”

“Yeah, thanks!” she said, visibly annoyed although I couldn’t imagine why. “But this isn’t one of your stupid little pranks, Antares!”

“Okay first off, my pranks are not stupid, they are the quintessence of raditude,” I told her. She scoffed, unable to appreciate my humour, but she couldn’t escape the truth. “And it’s not like we’re breaking into the royal castle or anything!”

“Did you ever stop to think about the ponies we’re gonna hurt because of this?”

“See, you think it’s a big deal because you make it sound like a big deal. We’re not ‘hurting’ anypony, it’s not like it’s gonna ruin lives or anything!”

It looked like she wanted to find another preachy comeback, but all she could do was fidget and bite her lip. That’s Bella, alright; always trying to act like my big sister although we were born the same year.

“I thought you said you were ok with this?” I asked her.

“I did!” she said. I waited for her to explain her weird attitude, but she didn’t.

“So what is it?”

She gave me a strange look, kinda between fear and anger.

“The lady who… from whom this came from…” she said. “I dunno, it just doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Why d’you bring it up, then?”

“It doesn’t matter!” she snapped. Mares, I swear… “Just, tell me…”

“What is it?”

“Promise this whole thing isn’t going to cause any trouble.”

I could feel a headache approaching. I thought we’d gone over and over this already. But rather than to aggravate things and bring unto myself the familiar shitstorm of my sister’s wrath, I decided to reconfirm with her what had been true all along.

“It’s just a birthday surprise for Orion.”

She seemed skeptical.

“Honest!” I said.

She groaned her approval -- or not.

“D’you know where you need to be?” I asked her.

“Yeah.”

“And at what time?”

“Yeah.”

“And what you need to d--”

“Yes! I’m ready, alright?”

“Alright, alright, just checking. Okay, I better hit it, there’s somepony I gotta see for tonight.”

“Alright,” said Bella before suddenly taking off.

Well, that went much better when we talked about it the first time. Jeez, why is everypony acting so weird on such a fine day?

---

Next stop: New Ponyville. It’s a residential area a little ways further from the city centre. It looks real nice with its little suburban dollhouses and its pavements lined with perfectly trimmed hedges. Nice ponies live here, too; nice middle-class folk with no trouble done or done to. It’s good-looking. It’s quiet. Nothing bad ever happens here, that’s for sure.

Live around here, and your brains will melt out of your head like ice-cream from the hot summer’s sun, and the buzz of eternal boredom.

If I had to live here, I’d probably be just as permanently pissed off as the pony I had to meet. ‘Course that’s why this was gonna be so fun. He would never agree to do it, but he was gonna end up doing it anyway. How? Well shit, I don’t know how, that’s the best part! I was about to find out!

I walked up to a house that pretty much looked like all the others: a big white box with a front door, two windows on the upper story, a bright blue roof to make sure the architect wasn’t completely color blind, a neatly kept front yard with a mini fountain (nice touch) and a garage for storage to the right.

I grabbed a bunch of little stones that were laying on the curb, and I threw one to the upper window on the left. I threw just hard enough so that it would only hit the window and not break it of course. Although if it did, it would probably inject a little excitement in their lives...

I didn’t have time to formulate an escape plan for that possibility however, as I saw a face approach the window. Blue coat, black mane, obviously not happy to see me… Yep, this was the place. I signaled him to come down, hearing him groan in exasperation from where I was.

While I waited, I looked at his house. It was kinda fascinating. I mean, Celestia knows I wouldn’t want to live in this shithole. But at least it’s a nice, clean house. We don’t have houses like that in New Cloudsdale. We don’t have a lot there, really. Not many kids, too, ‘cause their parents don’t wanna bring them up in that neighborhood if they can help it. Suffice to say that when your only playmates are older colts, you get a knack for trouble. It’s fun and all… but it’s not like having a nice house.

I heard a loud metal noise as the garage door rolled up. It revealed a messy garage, in the middle of which was an equally messy-looking colt, who always looked as though he’d just been woken up for nothing. I walked up to him and put on my best smile.

“Naos, my brother! What’s up?”

“What do you want?” he asked moodily. I didn’t expect any other kind of greeting.

“Beautiful day, ain’t it?”

He looked at me, then at the sky, then back to me.

“Uh… Yeah?”

“C’mon,” I teased. “D’you really wanna mope around on a day like this? Where’s the love? Turn that frown upside do--”

“What’s this about?” he said in his usual deadpan voice.

“It’s Orion’s birthday today.”

He put a hoof to his face. He probably had a headache. Again.

“Oh… Is it? Uh… I didn’t know. I guess I’ll buy him something.”

“No, no! No need for that! We’re throwing a little sumthin’ with Bella, and you can help us organize!”

He looked at me in curiosity.

“What kind of something?”

“You know that bakery downtown? Cake & Cake’s?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

Alright, here goes. Moment of truth.

“I wanna rob it.”

---

Finally, it was time.

The sun was coming down, and the moon was taking a more defined shape. It was that time of the day where everypony stopped running, for the most part, and felt it was finally time to retreat back to their private lives. Only a few adventurous ponies would be going downtown now, either to work those nighttime jobs that were arguably cooler than those of the day, or to live it up like animals in a concrete jungle.

Living it up? Was that what we would be doing? I like to think that it was indeed. But I’d have to make sure of it, because it looked like some ponies hadn’t caught on yet.

“This is a terrible idea,” said Naos next to me. See what I mean?

“Relax. I’ve done this before, just follow my lead and we’ll be fine,” I told him. We were hidden from sight in a narrow alleyway flooded in the shadows of dusk, that Naos was looking at like they were gonna jump out and arrest him.

“You’re out of your mind!” he said.

“Yeah, well, you’re out of Boringsville, doesn’t that feel nice?”

He grunted, which was fine but it wasn’t a counter-argument. So while my friend was busy overreacting -- like I thought he would, to be honest -- I was busy trying to get the lock to this steel door open. It was the back door to the bakery, which led directly to storage.

I pressed the stone Bella gave me earlier that day against the lock. It was supposed to work… but nothing was happening, and I could sense that Naos would end up running around like a headless chicken if it didn’t work soon.

But just then, as if on purpose, the stone started glowing against the metal of the door. With a spark, the lock was busted and the door swung just a bit open.

“Yes! Hell yeah!” I said. I wanted to shout it out loud, but of course that wouldn’t have been very smart. I didn’t actually doubt this would work, but in a way it still surprised me that it was actually real, that I had called it right.

“Shut up, we’re gonna get busted!” whispered Naos so strongly that I felt a tiny droplet of spit hit my coat.

“Don’t worry, that was the hardest part.”

“Okay, what now?”

“Now we go in…”

Naos stepped inside the room, which was dark and cool, with a little hesitation. I gotta admit I was a little surprised that he was the first to go in instead of me. Maybe, secretly, he was more eager to do this thing than he let on? That would be so awesome.

I followed him inside, and turned around to close the door on us as much as possible.

“Remind me why I agreed to do this already…?” I heard Naos whisper to himself.

I grinned. Oh, Antares. Oh, baby. You are just too good.

Comments

[Butterwings]

Orion, curiosity is a nasty habit of yours.

Curiosity killed the pon-Wait, actualy it was a changeling to face, but heh details.