Honor Among Thieves

by BluePhoenyx

CH.1 My Fair Thief

The city was bustling in the morning sun, as Seb climbed out of his abandoned dumpster that hadn’t been used in years. He had slept there all night and was now rubbing the kinks out of his back and neck. He ran his fingers through his long, unkempt, brown hair and shook out the dirt. With a bright smile on his face, and making sure his trusty knife was safely in his jeans pocket, Seb stepped out into the city streets. University Avenue was packed with students rushing to morning classes, while street vendors struggled to keep up with the demands of hungry students. It was perfect for Seb. He walked up to a vendor that was selling hot waffles and quickly snagged a fresh waffle the cook wasn’t paying attention to and walked off, stuffing his face quickly. He smirked as he heard a voice call “thief” behind him and began running, disappearing into the crowd of students. It was like a badge of honor to be called ‘thief’ like that, and he wore it with pride. After vanishing into the city, Seb began his rounds. He spent his day walking around town looking for jobs, not the typical jobs like construction or janitor or whatever. See, he was a professional thief. Well, he wasn’t on the grid, but he liked to consider himself a professional. He would, and could, steal just about anything.

Seb finally made it down town after an hour of walking and found a client. His “office” in down town was a lonely park bench under a tree. People from the underworld of the city, mostly other crooks, knew if they wanted to commission Seb to steal something, they’d have to wait on the bench until he arrived. This time, Seb was a little unsure of his newest client. The old man wore a tight, three piece suit and held a very expensive looking cane as he looked at a very expensive looking pocket watch. Seb looked at his own clothes. Nothing special, just some jeans he found in a dumpster and a shirt he had taken from a previous job. He shook his head and walked over to the bench, sitting down beside the old man. Maybe he was just lost and didn’t know what the bench meant to most people in the city.

“Are you..Seba-”

“Seb is fine,” he said, cutting the old man off.

“I have a job for you,” The man said. He spoke very slowly and deliberately, which made Seb feel a little uneasy.

“How big of a job?” Seb asked, crossing his leg over top his other one.

“Nothing major.” The old man pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Seb.

Seb briefly touched the old man’s hand. It felt cold and covered in baby powder, the scent of scotch briefly crossed Seb’s nose. He unfolded the note and saw a picture of a disk in a case with strange writing on it. Under the picture was an address. Seb looked up at the old man, confused.

“What the hell is this, gramps?” Seb asked, reaching into his pocket for his knife. The old man didn’t seem right.

The man reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a folded up envelope and handed it to Seb. The thief opened the envelope and looked at the money inside. He didn’t stop to take time and count the $100 bills but he guessed there were 10 or more inside. He quickly closed it up and looked at the old man.

“Where do you want me to drop it off at?” Seb asked. The old man sighed and leaned heavily on his cane to lift himself up into a slouched position. He looked as if the simplest of breezes could push him over.

“Just bring it back here when you get it,” he said and turned back towards the entrance to the park.

“Wait, Gramps,” Seb said. The man stopped. “You’re paying me a grand to get a DVD, and bring it back here? I’m not an idiot, what the fuck is this?”

“That money is just an advanced payment; I have much more if you succeed. That ‘DVD’, as you call, is the future,” The man said and started walking off again.

Seb was going to stop the man again and ask him more questions, but after looking at the money again, his greed and pride got the best of him, and he headed towards the address on the paper.

The address led him to a simple laboratory that was once an ice cream shop in the 70’s. He waited until nightfall to return and stake out the place. The next evening he returned, enjoying a burger he had stolen on the way there. As soon as the last man left the lab, Seb’s job began. The street lights provided just enough shadows for him to slink through. The only door into the lab was, of course, locked tight, but that wasn’t an issue for Seb. He grabbed the handle with his right hand and, with a simple twist, broke it off completely. His strength wasn’t something he’d practice before or even trained for; it was just a talent he’d always had. He tossed the broken doorknob into the nearby bushes and stepped back so the door could swing open. He slipped inside and wandered down the hallway, looking at the doors for any indication his prize might be there.

“God, this is so simple. These people don’t even have cameras. I’ve been in houses with more security than this,” Seb said to himself. He even dared to whistle a tune while he wandered the halls.

He finally came to a room with the title “Test Room A” and opened the door. It wasn’t even locked for heaven’s sake! Seb chuckled and walked in, turning the light on as he did. The room was typical for an experimenting room; it had gadgets and computers and other stuff Seb couldn’t even begin to understand, but that wasn’t what caught his eye. Sitting across the room from him on a table was a glass box with the disk sitting inside. It was all prettied up for some type of show or something. They were just making this way too easy. He’d take the disk, box and all, and give it to the old man like a gift wrapped up in a box on Christmas day. If he was lucky, the old man would pay him double. He walked over to the box, made sure it wasn’t hooked up to anything, and picked it up. Sirens blared, scaring Seb half to death making him nearly drop the box. The door he had come from locked itself and bars rolled down from the top of the door frame and lock into the floor below.

“Well fuck,” Seb muttered. He heard laughing from the other side of the door and walked over to it. The door had a small window which was filled with the face of a man.

“I knew Cornelius would try and take the disk, but I didn’t think he’d hire some petty street thief., The man behind the door said. He was actually having a hard time keeping himself from laughing too hard.

“Some petty street thief? Dear sir, I am insulted!” Seb said, laughing a bit to keep himself from panicking.

“Oh look, it does know how to speak to a superior,” The man said and stepped away from the window to unlock the door.

Seb braced himself to bolt through the door once it opened but was blocked by three very large men who looked like they had been pro wrestlers for years. One of them grabbed Seb around the chest while another took the box from him. Seb seemed to get lost in the man’s grasp. He was half the width of man’s arm, and probably a good foot shorter him too. He looked like a stick bug being squeezed by a bear, and felt like it too. He was actually finding it hard to breathe. The third man stood by the door, blocking off his only escape.

“I think, my fair thief, you will be the perfect test subject for what this disk actually does,” The man from behind the window musingly said. He had long orange hair, pulled back in a short, tight pony tail and a gray three piece suit with pinstripes. Seb thought he kind of looked like a used tampon, if his hair was a little redder.

“You don’t even know what it does? You’re a smart one aren’t you?” Seb said. The tampon man smirked and walked over to him and lifted his chin up with his fingers.

“Anyone ever tell you, you look a little girly?” he asked Seb. Seb twisted his head away and sunk his teeth into the man’s hand, drawing blood. The man hissed in pain and tore himself away while Seb spit out the blood.

“Anyone ever tell you, you don’t mess with a cornered animal?” Seb asked as a drop of blood rolled down his chin. The man held his hand close to his chest, glaring at Seb.

“Take him to the other room and hook him up. And for God’s sake, why isn’t anyone getting me a damn bandage or something!” the man yelled and stormed out. Seb couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, even as he was dragged out of the room.

He was taken down the hall to another testing room, where what appeared to be an MRI machine sat like a coffin at a funeral. Seb was slammed onto the bed of the machine that rolled into the giant tube of the machine and latched in. The tampon man came back moments later with a disk and his hand bandaged. He walked over to the bed while Seb struggled. The man leaned over and moved Seb’s hair out of his face.

“Sleep tight, my prince,” The man said with a bright smirk. Seb spat in his face and was promptly punished with a harsh punch to the jaw by the man.

“Get this damn machine up and running! If we’re lucky it’ll kill him,” The man said, and walked over to a control console on the other side of the machine.

He loaded the disk into the disk drive on the console and turned a key that started the machine. The bed began to slide into the machine and a loud whirring sound began to fill the room along with a constant beeping. Seb struggled as best he could, but even his grand strength failed him as the bed locked in place. The whirring got loud but the beeping stayed constant.

Beep…..beep…..beep….beep….beep….beep…

Seb’s eyes rolled back in his head, nauseated by the constant high-pitched monotone of the beeping. His thoughts became clouded, impossible to decipher. His body felt heavy and finally, he passed out.

Seb’s eyes opened to see a bright, clear blue sky above him. He groaned and sat up, running his fingers through his hair. He felt a bump on his head, and then felt warm ooze flowing between his fingers. He pulled his hand back and saw blood dripping through his fingers. He looked around and saw nothing but the dirt road he had woken up on, and trees surrounding him.

“What hell happened?” he muttered as he pulled himself to his feet. He wobbled a little but caught himself.

He looked up and down the lonely road he was on and shrugged, picking a direction and walking down the road. After walking for about half an hour, Seb could just make out what looked like a farm in the distance ahead of him.

“What the hell did that machine do? Am I dreaming or something?” Seb asked himself. He shrugged and decided if it was a dream, he might as well make the most of it.

He continued along his path and finally came up to the edge of the farm. He walked along the fence, looking at a vast orchard of apple trees. He felt his stomach growl, which he found odd for being in a dream, and thought about how he could so easily take a few of the apples. He looked around, saw no one, and jumped the fence. He walked up to one of the trees and grabbed onto a branch to pull himself up. There was an apple fairly close to him and he could just barely reach it until a voice startled him, causing him to fall back on the ground.

“What in the hay is that!?” a southern female voice said. He looked around trying to find the voice and explain himself.

Finally, he found the source of the voice and he couldn’t even try and explain to himself what he saw. What appeared to be a small horse was standing to his left. She was an orange color, with a blonde mane and tail and a cowboy hat on her head. She was pulling a cart full of apples and had a look that was a mixture of confusion, concern, and a touch of fear.

“Wha…what are you?” She asked, looking at Seb. She was looking at him like a kid at the zoo looking at an animal he’d never seen before. Seb, on the other hand, simply screamed.

“You can talk!?” Seb yelled, trying to scramble away from the pony.

“Never mind me talkin’. You can talk!?” she asked, taking a step back as well.

“You’re a horse!” Seb yelled. “Horses can’t talk!” He was trying hard to rationalize the situation. As much he tried to convince himself this was all a dream, the pain in his head and the feeling of hunger was telling him otherwise.

“I am not a horse. I’m a pony,” The pony said. “What are you? Ya look like a monkey or summin,” she added, tilting her head.

“I’m a man. Er, human, kinda like a monkey, I guess,” Seb replied. Seb, you’re talking to a talking pony, I think you’ve finally lost it old friend, he said to himself as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Well I don’t know what a human is but you look mighty hungry to me, and you don’t seem dangerous. Why don’t y’all come inside, n’ get a bite to eat?” the pony said, walking up to Seb.

Seb sighed and stood up, towering over the pony. She was about abdomen height, making her have to look up to see his face. He started walking, and then wobbled a little as his balance failed. The pony pulled up under him, letting him use her for balance.

“So, y’all walk on two legs like a bird?” She asked. Seb nodded, which only made his head hurt more. The pony laughed a little. “Well I’ll be…Say, you got a name?” She asked.

“Seb,” he replied, as they began walking towards the farm house on the other side of the orchard.

“I’m Applejack. Pleasure ta’ meet ya Seb,” Applejack said proudly.

Comments

[BuckRogers]

Before I read it: Put some more spacing in between paragraphs.

[BluePhoenyx]

1549043
I worked on this....

[BuckRogers]

1549048 Other than that, It's pretty interesting, will be looking for future updates.

[BluePhoenyx]

1549056
yay glad you liked it so far ^^ i will be updating every week around the same time hopefully

[James Vivien]

Good so far. Here's hoping this gets featured, too many interesting fics slip through the cracks

[Grado]

So Applejack sees this weird creature shes never seen before in her orchard trying to steal her apples then she asks it come back to her house (which has her young sister in it) for lunch... that doesnt make a lot of sense. Also in the description it says Seb has an inability to trust so it doesnt make sense for him to immediately go with this pony whom he met ten seconds ago. I tend to rant about things.... so heres a random moustache keep it up

[Shirohige]

fave'd....
looks interesting

[DrYumekui]

I agree with Grado, they're both too trusting of eachother. From what i've read from other fanfictions, Applejack would go and teach the human a thing or two about stealing her apples, and the human would tend to leg it, but i would expect that seeing as the human is a self claimed master theif that he would book it as soon as he heard Applejack's voice, and seeing that the description says that he essentailly finds it hard to trust others i doubt he would so easily give her his name and go into her house.
But apart from all that it's certainly an interesting idea and i shall fav it to see where it goes. soooooo ya for the idea have some of the local currency

[Mcayon]

Well, this is kind of ironic, since my name's also Sebastian... I like it, I will track this. One thing though, I know it's difficult, but try to have spaces between paragraphs.

[joefox3272]

Huh when I read the title I was expecting sly cooper for some reason

[The Naval Brony]

Sly Cooper: Honor Among Thieves.

I thought it was a Sly Cooper crossover until I saw the categories.

[djElectrOctavia]

INB4FAMOUS

[Niloss]

Inb4 featured, I must say.

[Deyeaz]

Saw this on the front page and thought to myself, 'Aw snap! Dis gon b gud.'

Now... onto reading!

[Anonymous_AiE]

Holy crap its like only 5 paragraphs lol. I wished you could have given a bit more info on Seb's appearance.