A Thieve's Redemption

by Gsbrill

Chapter 2 - Blood Red Secrets

The sunlight on my face brought me back from my short night of sleep, and I got up, slowly absorbing the details of the world around me. I was once again at the edge of town, looking at the sign that pointed towards it and read “Ponyville”. I could see other ponies in the distance going on about their daily business on the market street, preparing food carts and such.

I needed to start working if I wanted to get out of this town anytime sooner. My backpack wouldn’t be of much use and would attract too much attention, so I decided to bury it in the same spot I slept last night.

You might be wondering what is it that I work with. It’s no big deal, really. I just come into a new town, “befriend” as many ponies as I can and then I get to know who the wealthiest ones are. Then it’s just a matter of breaking in, taking all I can carry, and leaving unnoticed. Sometimes it goes smoothly like that, sometimes I leave with half the city after me with stakes and torches; it’s just a matter of caution. And if half this city was just as carefree as the first pony I met, then this was going to be a piece of cake.

Pinkie Pie. That was her name. I just couldn’t get her out of my head.

“Having pink dreams again eh Ember?”

“You know Quill; if you had a throat I would have already ripped it”

“Don’t give me that, you even mumbled her name in your sleep. And now her mother thinks you’re a rapist”

I blushed. The dream I had last night came back vividly to me. I won’t get descriptive here in order to keep the innocence and sanity of the few of you that still have either one (if the internet didn’t do its job already).

Oh and by the way, that’s my real name; Ember, and I don’t think that I need to tell you why I can’t use my real name in this line of work. I just hope that my wanted posters burned down along with half Canterlot when Discord came back, and that no one finds them ever again.

And so I left to find a job, after all, what better way to earn the trust of the residents than to prove yourself an honest and hardworking pony?

The marketplace was still rather empty. As I strolled around the place I noticed the intrigued looks of the other ponies, and I remembered that not only I was a complete stranger, I still looked like a beggar.

I kept on walking and looking around, looking for a proper place to start my search, when I bumped straight into somepony. It was a small yellow coated pegasus with a pink mane and three butterflies for a cutie mark. She dropped down her bag and I helped repack her stuff, as she apologized repeatedly.

“I’m sorry! I’m really really sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going and eeek!”

She let out a loud shriek as she raised her head and looked at me through her mane.

“Sorry ma’am, I was the one walking so carelessly. Are you okay?”

She whispered something barely audible, looking away from me.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that, are you feeling alright?”

“For Luna’s sake Ember take the damn hood off, you’re frightening the kid!” And for the first time in a month Quill gives me some useful advice. I lowered the hood and she seemed to be a little bit more at ease.

“Sorry if I scared you like that, it’s just that I’m new around here and I wanted to find a job. Could you give me some directions?”

Once again she muttered something completely incomprehensible. I sighed. I wasn’t going to get anything out of this one anytime sooner.

“Can you point me the way?”

She seemed to appreciate the idea of not having to speak, as she raised her head a bit and pointed towards a large tree close by, that seemed to work as some sort of house.

I tipped an imaginary hat and thanked her, before heading out towards the tree. She sighed in relief as I left, and I couldn’t understand why that mare was so afraid of me. Maybe she was like that around everyone? No, that couldn’t be right, after all, how could anyone like that survive in the real world?

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I knocked at the door of the house-tree. The door opened and before me was a small dragon with purple and green scales.

“Hi there, do you want to borrow a book?”

“I’m looking for a job and someone directed me here. Are you the one in charge?”

He charged inside without even answering and brought back a piece of parchment and a quill, and gave me a pleading stare.

“Are you here for the librarian job? Please tell me you are! Here’s the contract, just please take the job!”

I took the parchment and laid it down in the ground in front of me. I wanted to read the whole thing and know what I was getting into here. My jaw dropped halfway through.

“This part about the payment here. Is this for a year of work?”

The dragon smirked. “No, just a month”

“Where do I sign?”

He gave me the quill and pointed towards the end of the parchment. I took it and signed without hesitation. He took it and looked at it.

“Just so you know, there is a bedroom in the second floor and a kitchen in the back in case you need… Steve? Is that your name?” He stared at me confused.

“Yes, that’s my name” I stared angrily at Quill, who just ignored me.

“So your list of assignments is on the desk, you start right now, if you need anything, find a book about it, and remember, Twilight requested a weekly report on the situation of the library, there’s parchment on the front desk, bye!” The dragon finished speaking and ran like a bat out of hell, disappearing in a cloud of dust.

I sat down on the ground, looking at the door. What the hay just happened? It seems like I just got a job and a house. In less than thirty minutes of search. The dragon seemed to be a bit desperate to give the job to someone, not even asking for references or anything, and I was starting to get quite suspicious.

I walked inside the library and in the front desk was a roll of parchment long enough to wrap the entire tree if I wanted. I started to unwrap it and on the first line was the royal seal.

Wait, the Twilight Sparkle?

I’m so screwed right now. I’m a wanted pony, and now I’m working for the Princess? And what the hay is with this roll of assignments? Is this a library or a farm?

Ack, screw it all, I’m in a library, I’ll just read a book, maybe it will help me get my mind out of this mess. It’s not like the books can’t cope without anypony taking care of them for a bit. I walked past the table and looked at the shelves. The books were separated my topic, and in each topic they were ordered alphabetically. Apparently the previous owner of the place was a neat freak.

I walked towards a shelf in the back, hidden behind all others.

“Books to be forgotten? Sounds promising”

“Maybe it’s a code for forbidden books! There might be something valuable in there, and if you’re in charge you can just take the book and pretend it was rented but never returned!”

“What happened with you today Quill? Are you sick or something? This is already the second time you say something useful”

“I used to be a writer you know! Don’t underestimate my wisdom”

“Right right, you used to not exist before I imagined you. Now just help me choose one”

I picked one of the last ones, under the letter T.

“Twilight? Why’d you choose that?”

“I don’t know, maybe it was written by the Princess? Who knows, it’s got her name on it. And I like apples therefore the cover seems good. Let’s see what it is about.”

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50 pages. It’s all I managed. Now I’m here in the bathroom, puking my lungs out. Quill was floating above the closed book on the ground, staring at a wall with blackened eyes. He spoke somberly.

“As a former writer, I feel violated. I’m going to try to kill myself now. I don’t know if it’s possible to die twice but I’m about to find out”

I went to the sink and washed my mouth. I’m never getting close to that shelf again. There’s no way this day can get any worse.

A thought crossed my mind. I still needed a place to hide my money, and no one ever looked at that shelf. I took my knife used it to hollow out that wretched book, and used the space to store the bits I had on my pouch.

All that remained were a few bits that didn’t fit and the blood red gem I had stolen. I laid it down on the front desk to take a good look at it. Against the light, I noticed many runes carved on the stone, and some of them seemed to have been carved inside of it somehow. Whoever I sold this to would pay a nice amount of bits for it.

But then, why should I sell it? Why did that thought even cross my mind? I gazed upon it and felt it stare back. Somehow that didn’t scare me at all, It just made it even more attractive. Yes. I will keep it. With me. The ruby was so mesmerizing, so beautiful, so hypnotizing, so...

“Heloo! Anypony home?” A voice called out from the slightly opened door, and was followed by a pink head.

I didn’t have much time to think of what to do, so I instinctively hid the stone in my mouth, pretending to chew on it. When I saw the pink pony standing by the door I smiled goofily without even noticing.

“There you are Steve! When Spike told me that a pony he had never seen came here looking for a job I knew it had to be you because you’re new in Ponyville and nopony knows you so I came here looking for you hey is that gum?”

She looked even prettier than when we had first met, and she was looking for me! I tried to speak but without much success. The best I managed was a barely comprehensible mumble.

“Sowee it’s ma rasht one”

“It’s alright, I have some at home. So hey, I’ve been looking for you all day! I need you to go to Sugarcube Corner today at six. I have a surprise for you!”

“Go where?”

“The bakery where we met the first time silly, I live and work there. Will you be there?”

I just nodded affirmatively.

“Great! See you there!”

I sighed as she left, just as fast as she had come in. I opened my mouth to drop down the ruby, but with a loud bang, the door smacked open and her head popped back in.

“And don’t be late!”

She closed the door once again and disappeared, leaving me to panic alone, and luckily she didn’t stay long enough to see me coughing like mad, after she startled me into swallowing the whole stone.

I expected it to come down scratching my insides and killing me from internal bleeding, but it came down like a liquid, as if it had dissolved.

A sharp pain on my back made me forget about the whole thing for the time being. It was still early, and it would be a good idea to get some sleep before going to see Pinkie. I took of my cloak and headed upstairs after locking the door.

The bedroom had two beds and a small basket lying on the ground. I fell down on the closest one and the feeling of a real bed, after sleeping of the ground for weeks, made me drift quickly into sleep.

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I looked at the three pegasus fillies in front of me. They were smiling mischievously and whispering amongst themselves. I stood on the edge of a large cloud.

“How do you even call yourself a pegasus? You don’t have wings!”

“But you told me that my wings would grow one day!” My eyes were flooded with tears.

“I lied! Don’t be a crybaby, I’m sure your parents hate you as it is, everypony knows you’re adopted”

I couldn’t make out the details of the other two fillies, but the one in front of me was cristal clear. She was a black coated filly with a long grey mane and two bat wings for her cutie mark.

I felt weak; all I could do was look at the ground and cry.

“Aren’t you gonna say anything? Are you going to make me beat you up again?”

She pushed me with her front hooves and I plummeted down the cloud. Then darkness.

I woke up, panting, covered in sweat.

I hadn’t had that nightmare in a while, and never so vivid like this. Looking to the side I could see a dark head poking from under the bed. As I got up, it slowly moved out from under the bed, revealing a dark pony with hollow eyes and a trashed, dark cloak that seemed to be made of pure darkness.

“Eeeembeeer. I came to take your soul to the afterliiiiife!” It spoke in a ghostly voice.

“Cut it already Quill, I know it’s you”

“You’re reeeealyyyyy no fuuuuuuun do you knoooooow that?”

I looked at the clock in the wall. There were still a few hours left, so I should make myself presentable. The pains had now reduced to a weird tingling sensation on my back, so I decided to take a bath.

Under the warm shower, my mind wandered back to Pinkie. Out of all the ponies I had met since I got here, she was surely the most ecstasic, but also the most fascinating, and definitively the most beautifull…

I banged my head against the wall, letting out a guttural scream as I did.

“Stop that. Remember the last time you trusted somepony? Remember the pain? We’re not letting that happen again. Just keep this in mind: Everypony has a rotten core, you just need to trust them for it to come out, that’s all” I spoke up without even noticing.

“Still crying over Nightshade? She’s past can’t you see? Won’t you ever move on?”

“What the buck are you doing here Quill? Don’t you know anything about privacy? And weren’t you killing yourself or something?”

“By the looks of it, you can only die once. And don’t give me that crap about privacy; you walk naked all the time! And if I remember correctly, you had somepony to see, so shouldn’t you get out of the shower already? You’re going to be late.”

“Sometimes I wonder why can’t I just will you away like any imaginary person”

“I already told you I’m not… You know, I’m not even trying anymore, I just don’t care”

I got out of the shower and dried myself, then headed off to the bakery. The whole town was so small that you could go to one side to the other in less than two hours walking, and I reached the place in just a few minutes.

I opened the door. All the lights were turned off and I could hear a loud sound of breathing. Before I could think about leaving, the lights were turned on and dozens of voices called a the same time.

“SURPRISE!”

I reached out for my knife instinctively, remembering that I had left behind. I looked around confused.

“What’s this all about?”

A rainbow maned pegasus spoke from the middle of the crowd.

“Well duh! It’s a surprise party for you!”

Pinkie popped from nowhere once again and started to explain.

“Since you got a job at the library I knew you were going to stay here in Ponyville, so I threw you a party so you could get to meet everypony and get some friends!”

“Wow. Just. Wow. It’s just that nopony ever did something like this to me. I don’t know what to say” I was blushing, and I felt my eyes get wet. Was I crying?

“Don’t worry, that’s what friends are for, now why don’t you come and enjoy your party?”

I lowered my head. I couldn’t look up or they would see me crying and that wouldn’t be much of a first impression. I took a deep breath and tried to restore my composure. I wiped my eyes with a hoof and smiled to her. She smiled back. I looked at all the ponies in the room. It was filled to the brim with what I believe it was at least half Ponyville.

“Alright so I think this is the idea of this party so I should introduce myself” I spoke as confidently as possible “My name is Steve and I’m from Trottingham, I’ currently working at the library here, thank you all for being so…”

I stopped. The pains in my back had returned, this time much stronger than before. I couldn’t speak, only moan in pain as I felt like burning needles were being pushed against my skin. I could see the preoccupied ponies approaching me to see what was wrong.

I tried to get back up, only managing to go halfway, my knees still flexed.

“AARGH!” I let out a guttural scream of pain, and then fell to the ground, blacking out completely. The last thing I remember was hearing a few voices nearby.

“Is he dead?”

“Sweetie Belle!”

“If he’s dead can we feed him to Gummy? I want to know how he eats without teeth”

“Scootaloo!”

Comments

[-Brutus]

...is he dead?

[StealthBrony]

I Love this story ! Love Ember and Quill !

[AtomicAlton]

OH NOES!!! The stone is hurting him! (or possibly giving him some kind of magical ability)

[SonOfTheNorthe]

Or maybe the stone is making him poopy out blood!

[MagicMissingno]

If he’s dead can we feed him to Gummy? I want to know how he eats without teeth.