Ballad of The Shadow

by Crackshot

Nick Pick, jailbreaker and thief extrodanaire

I ran as fast as I possibly could, the royal guard in hot pursuit. They hadn’t taken to kindly to me nicking some bits from the captains pocket. Before you ask, no, I’m not a pickpocket. Well, not usually anyway, I’m a thief and jail breaker by trade. Don’t know what a jail breaker is? Well you’ll find out soon enough. Anyway, we were in the Canterlot market place, which, believe it or not, would’ve made escaping easier. It was crowded, there were ponies everywhere, buying “rare” trinkets from a stall, or peddling fresh picked fruits on the street. I could‘ve disappeared in an instant, if I wanted to. I was admiring the scenery a little bit when a shout from behind me reminded me I was still on the job. I waited until one of the guards was close enough, then kicked him right in the jaw, which caused a loud crack that would’ve made most ponies cringe. Gotta love combat boots, eh? After he hit the ground I continued to run, diving through the occasional merchant stall, much to the dismay of the owners. “Hey! You break it, you buy it!” one of them yelled at me. I didn’t bother responding, as I was in a hurry. I knew right were I was going, and I needed to get there soon, with guards in tow. Eventually I led the chase out of the market district and into the residential area. It was a nice enough place, not somewhere I could afford to live in, but a nice place. Big mansions, with big gardens, and owners with bigger wallets. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’d want to live here, even if I could. The place is filled with arrogant pricks who look down on people like me who do what’s necessary to survive. But I digress. We were still running when I noticed an alleyway. ‘perfect.’ I thought to myself. I stalled for a moment. Debating whether I should go in or not. “HALT! THIEF! YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER!” I looked behind me to see the guards on their way down the street. They could obviously see me, so I decided to take the alleyway. Now I’m sure you’re all thinking, “why didn’t you just take it in the first place? You could’ve lost ‘em!” well I’ll tell you why. It’s all part of the plan. I know this city like the back of my hoof, and I know what I’m doing. So I ran down the alley, it was thin. Not enough to make it uncomfortable, but enough to make it to where I couldn’t spread my wings, if I had the desire to. I’ll explain why I haven’t just flown away yet later. For right now, I’m still running, and I can here the clanking of the guards armor from behind me. I checked to make sure I hadn’t swallowed my lock picks. Nope, they’re still there. ‘Good, I’m gonna need those where I’m goin.’ I thought to myself. Eventually I hit a dead end. Walls to my left, walls to my right, wall in front of me, and royal guards behind. All is going according to plan. Took them a while, but they caught up to me. “We’ve finally caught you. Alright, Nick Pick, you are under arrest, for; breaking into the palace, stealing from a captain of the royal guard, causing panic in the streets, assaulting an officer, and vandalism. The fine for such acts is three hundred bits, pay the fine, or sleep in a cell for the next few months. Your choice.” said the guard next to me. I didn’t have enough money on me to pay the fine, especially since the captain only had twenty in his pocket. I had no choice but to submit. “Alright, ya got me. I’ll serve my time, since the captain can‘t seem to pay the fine for me.” I said as I turned around with a laugh, hooves in the air. That laugh was short lived, however, as the joke earned me a kick to the gut. I doubled over in pain, and the guards simply dragged me away. When we got back to the palace, I was searched. They made me empty my pockets, revealing the key to my house, some coin(most of it the captains.), and two daggers, which I kept on my person at all time, in case a heist went haywire. After that, they decided to frisk me, in case I had anymore blades on me, which I didn’t. content with their search of my personal possessions, they mad me hand in all my clothes. I hoofed over my black turtle neck, which I used because it has pockets, my black hooded cloak, which I believe explains itself, and my black combat boots, worn specifically for the purpose of breaking a jaw before I got caught. My dad always told me, don’t fuck with a pony wearing “comboots”, as he used to call them, because they will mess you up worse then an angry manticore. After that they threw in my cell, and that was it. Now this is where I explain everything that‘s been confusing you. Jail breaking is where somepony pays you to get yourself thrown in prison, for the express reason of breaking out. Usually they want you to also bust out a loved one, or kill somepony they don’t like before you brake out. But this time, I was getting paid to prove that the Canterlot prison could be escaped. I don’t know what the big deal is, I’ve escaped from there before then, but if it pays, it pays. I decided to take some time to figure out a plan. In case you haven’t noticed yet, I just make shit up as I go along. It’s worked for me so far, so I don’t plan on changing. Ironically, I was in the same cell I was when I broke out the first time. They’d probably upgraded the locks since then, considering it was ten years ago. I waited until the officer patrolling the hall turned a corner, then got to work. They had indeed upgraded the locks, but not enough to the point that I couldn’t pick it. I Didn’t earn a lock pick cutie mark for nothing. Took me about fifteen minutes, and I broke my first pick, but I managed to get the right spot for the door to open. Unfortunately, rusted iron hinges creak, and in a place made entirely of stone, the sound tends to get around. Now I try to refrain from violence as much as possible, especially when a contract offers a bonus for no corpses, but a stallions gotta do what a stallions gotta do. When one of the guards finally got to the hallway where my cell was, he seemed completely flabbergasted. “How did you get out? Those locks are supposed to be unpickable!” he said, obviously not knowing who I am. He soon regained his composure, though, and drew his sword. “Get back in the cell now, before I have to use this.” he said, though his voice, and his hooves, were shaking.

“New recruit, eh?”

“How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess. Now I know you don’t have the balls to take a swing at me, so why don’t you just give me all your stuff so I can get out of here with minimal bloodshed? You’ll be helping me and all your friends in the guard.” I said, hoping he would at least let me by. However, I wasn’t expecting him to let his guard down.

“All my stuff? Why wou-” I never gave him a chance to finish that sentence. I quickly ran up and kicked him in the gut, dropping him to his hind knees. Then I turned and bucked him in the face, knocking him out cold. I dragged him into my cell, took his armor, his weapon, his gold, and all his keys before I threw him onto the cot. Now I don’t know if you know this, but guard armor has an enchantment that changes the color of whoever wears its coat and mane to pure white, and completely makes their cutie mark invisible. So now I was a pure white Pegasus pony, while the “prisoner” was now a dark brown, also a Pegasus. Funny how that works out. I walked out of the cell, closing and locking the door behind me, and proceeded to simply walk out of prison. I wondered how long it would take before they realized I was gone. Safe money was on two day, at least. I passed a few other guards, but they all believed me to be one of them. As long as I kept my mouth shut I could get out of here without a hitch. All I needed to do was get to the evidence locker and get all my stuff back. Now I’m sure you’re wondering why I cant just buy replacements with the money I’m getting for this job, or if all else fails steal replacements. The answer is quite simple, they belonged to my father, who was also a master thief. He’d had them enchanted before he died, so that the turtle neck’s pockets could hold anything you could fit into it, knives, gold, whatever. If it could make it past the top of the pocket, it would fit. The boots granted the wearer a little extra muscle, so that if the need arose, they could seriously fuck some ponies up. The cloak made the wearer harder to spot. When I’m wearing that, if I walk into a crowd, or even a dark alley, I’m gone, never see me again, peace out homie. The daggers tended to leave only superficial wounds unless you actually wanted the target dead. If that was the case, the daggers would, quite literally, drain the life from them. I only saw it happen once, and it‘s haunted my dreams since. But that’s a story for another time. Anyway, there was no way I was going to leave those behind. When I reached the door to the evidence locker, it was locked. I tried every key on the key ring I got from the rookie. None of ‘em worked. “Well then, I’m screwed.” I said aloud, not really caring if anypony heard me.

“you haven a problem there son?” asked a voice from off to my left. I looked to see an old acquaintance of mine, by the name of Captain Firecloak. Unicorn, a few inches shorter then me, but built like a brick house. His coat was a bright orange, and his mane was as well, with streaks of red, from what I‘m told at least. As I said earlier, armor makes ‘em all look white as fallen snow. He‘s been after me for a few about seven years now, but the case has been cold for six. I do my homework, otherwise I wouldn‘t have made it this far. Long story short, I’d pulled off a long string of thefts in Manehattan, people there taking to calling me “The Shadow.” he had been assigned to the case, and has a personal vendetta against me, as the one that got away. Though thankfully he only knows the alias, and not the pony behind it.

“Uh, yes sir. I’ve been given permission to take a look at some of the items from the incident involving one Nick Pick, I have reason to believe he may have had something to do with another theft that I’m investigating. However, it seems that I don‘t have the right key to open the door to the evidence locker.”

“Here son, let me get that for ya then. Now did you say theft?”

“Yes sir, there was a break in at a small coffee shop the day before we apprehended him, and I wish to see if he may have performed that as well.” I said, giving him one of the heists I had done the day before. One of about six.

“Any chance it was The Shadow? Did it have any of the same signs?” he asked, hoping he had gotten a new lead on me, after his case had been cold for nearly a six years. If he only knew just who he was talking to, he’d probably be kicking himself right now.

“No sir, but this Pick character matches the witness’s description to the letter, so I’m just following leads.”

“Oh, alright then, there you go, good luck kid.”
“thank you sir.” I said, it taking all the control I had not to bust out laughing. The evidence locker is pretty basic, just a shit-ton of shelves with boxes marked with the case number, date, and last and first names of the owner of the contents. I walked down the aisles looking for one labeled “Pick”. Eventually I found one, but it didn’t have my first name on it. It was marked “Pick, Joseph”. That was my old mans name. I checked the date on it, which was 10/26/95. The day he died, the day I turned fifteen, and the day my whole life turned to shit and hit the fan. I grabbed the box and kept looking for mine. Took me a while, but I found it. No. 5897, 10/24/10, Pick, Nicholas. That was me. I opened it and collected my things, removing the armor in favor of my clothing, my coat returning to it’s original dark grey, the same color streaking through my dark, almost blood red mane and tail. After I put my cloak back on, I put the hood up and bolted for the door, managing to catch all everypony on the other side by surprise. That gave me enough time to get through the next door, the one that led outside, and take off, spreading my wings and flying for the first time in days. It didn’t feel as liberating as it should’ve though, as the box in my hooves weighed me down, but I still managed to get away before the let the aerial regiment loose on my sorry flank. I flew around aimlessly for a few hours, simply taking in the scenery, then I decided to go home and drop of the box before meeting my client for payment. I lived in the slums of Canterlot, the part they never let anypony see. There ponies die of disease, starvation, thirst, or murder on a daily basis. Once saw a colt get dropped my a full grown stallion for a sandwich. I’ve been trying to build up enough coin to get the hell out of here, but theft isn’t exactly high pay work, at most I’d be able to steal about twenty or thirty bits worth of goods a day, forty if I’m lucky. Throw in the odds of getting caught, and it’s a slow process. But this job should get me enough bits to go someplace better. ‘But then again, that what I thought about the job that got me here out of Manehattan, so don’t assume it’s going to get any better.’ I thought to myself. In fact, living here had been worse then Manehattan, but I hoped my next move would be better. I’m not saying I was gonna give up the life, no. once a thief, always a thief, my old man would tell me. I just wouldn’t have to watch as the ponies around me starved to death. When I got home, the door was open. I lived alone, and had no close friends, certainly none that I would give a key to my house, so instinctively I put the box down and drew my weapons. I slowly pushed the door open, but before I got all the way in, a familiar voice spoke to me. “Now now mister Pick, there’s no need for weapons. I believed it would be best if I met you here, as to save you time and energy. No doubt after such a daring escape you are tired, so come, sit down, and we will talk about your payment.” it said. The voice belonged to a mare, the mare who had hired him. He didn’t know her name, as asking such things was bad for business, and had never seen her face, as she always wore a cloak. Until now that is. I sheathed my daggers and picked up the box, setting it inside the doorway. I closed the door and proceeded to the kitchen, were the voice was coming from. There, sitting at my kitchen table, was a night sky colored alicorn with a crescent moon for her cutie mark.

“Princess Luna!? You hired me? Why?”

“it’s simple really, I’ve been telling Tia that we need to increase security in the prison, to make sure people such as yourself can not escape. Every time she told me that nopony could escape, as it has the best security around, and thus I hired you to prove her wrong. Before we discuss your pay, was violence necessary?”

“I had to knock one guard out, but that was it. He’s currently sleeping in my cell. If I remember right, you said there was a bonus if I didn’t kill anypony.”

“I did. Now your payment. How does five thousand bits and a new home in the town of Ponyville sound? Before you ask, the house is the bonus.” in all honesty it sounded great. I’d heard of the place, small town, nice ponies, and no starvation. That and the fact that she was paying me, and buying me a house just for breaking out of prison sounded like a great deal. But I’m a business stallion.

“Make it six thousand and it’s a deal.” I said. I know I was pushing it a bit, but what can I say? I’m optimistic.

“Done. I’ll have a chariot stop by to take you to your new home tomorrow, the funds will be waiting on the table when you get there. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.” she said getting up to leave. I was shocked. I just got away with bargaining with one of the princesses. As soon as she was out the door, I began to pack. I didn’t have all that much. Some clothes, some mementos, some weapons for the higher risk jobs, and the other tools of the trade, lock picks and such. I was done packing by nightfall, and I made sure to thank Luna before I went to bed that night. I just couldn’t wait to get out of that hell hole. I didn’t dream that night. I rarely did anymore, and what nights I did, I had nightmares. When I awoke in the morning, there was a sky chariot waiting right outside my door. I grabbed my dads box and my bag, walked out the door and hoped in the chariot. Next stop, Ponyville.

Comments

[Eclipse]

Did you spell 'Ballad' right, or were you aiming at having it spelled like that?

[Crackshot]

32132 oh, snap, thanks for pointing that out, i'll go fix that right now.

[Br2nd66]

go luna

[Primordial Deomontus]

LOL I'm not really surprised that Luna did that since she used to be nightmare moon i know that she only did that to get Tia to improve prison security