As a reporter, you get used to the weird stuff that you experience everyday while trying to get the story.
Especially if it was your special talent, like Truth Seeker. He had discovered several scandals behind Equestria's top companies and lived long enough to tell them to his favorite paper, The Fillydelphia Report. He had plenty of scars from his closer encounters and could recall every second from those wonderful times he spent in ratty hotels being tied up and being smacked by a 2x4. Yet, the one story he would never tell was how his right wing got permanently damaged.
Today, he received a letter from somepony who apparently lived in a cave somewhere in the Ghastly Gorge. Truth hated the gorge. The place wasn't responsible for his disability, but it came close. Those damn eels and random updrafts. But he didn't have much choice in the matter, his editor got the letter first and gave him a train ticket to Ponyville and told him to get on it.
He read the letter during the trip, sipping on some tea and munching on a slice of apple pie. Apparently, the being came from a different world (Truth broke a couple of stories about UFOs, all bunk.) where he stole eggs (A major crime, indeed.) for Princess Celestia.
The part about Celestia stealing eggs sounded stupid, but it hit Truth hard. He liked Celestia, a loyalist seeking only the truth to better his homeland and clean up the filth that plagued the princess' mind. He often received letters trying to shroud the princess in conspiracy, but all turned out to be junk or an attempt at misdirection. Still, it made a good page five story about a loon trying to turn the princess into a monster.
His editor was new, and already proven himself to be a communist…some what. He did like the color red, helped around the office a lot, and would speak his mind about how the princesses were evil oppressors and some junk like that. Truth wanted his old editor to come back from retirement; he had common sense and wouldn't send his star reporter on a wild goose chase.
After arriving, he grabbed a snack from the legendary Sugar Cube Corner, booked a overnight hotel room, and checked out a book from the Golden Oaks library (Given the town's habit of incidents, he figured he would be back in a week.) before heading out to the edge of the Everfree Forest to meet his contact. He would be looking for a large Pegasus with a large black mane, who would carry him to the cave in the gorge.
"You Truth Seeker?" Asked the Pegasus once Truth spotted him.
"Yes, it's me." As proof, he showed his cutie mark to the large pony; a magnifying glass above a document.
"Indeed, you are." The Pegasus spread his wings. "I'm Storm Runner. Get on my back, I will take you to him."
Truth, using what little wingpower he had left, hovered onto Storm's back. "Who's he, anyway?" He asked.
"He'll explain." Said Storm before he shot off into the sky.
It had been a long time since Truth saw the open sky from his high up. Been, what, twelve years? All the big things that once tower him on the ground now so small above him. He always had been a careful flyer, never too fast, never too slow. Being on Storm's back was new experience, as Storm kept true to his name; flying at high speeds while dodging anything that came before him with lightning-fast reflexes. Truth never flown around here before, and seeing nature from his high gave his heart…well…flight.
"How did you meet this guy?" Asked Truth.
"He contacted me." Storm said as he dived into the gorge and kicking a eel in the face. "I fly people for a living… especially into dangerous conditions."
"Huh." Truth felt terrible, both from traveling at uncomfortable speeds and just being here. "I could use you later. Could you double as a bodyguard?"
Storm flashed a devilish smile. "Extra fee."
"I'm some what rich."
"I don't charge much, Mr. Seeker." Storm looped around a eel. "In fact, I tend to work pro bono for the most severe missions."
"I'll just take a pamphlet."
It took only five minutes from the forest to reach the cave. Storm might have been a fast flyer, but he landed with the grace of a acrobat.
"Whew." Truth wheezed.
"All my customer's first word after their first flight." Snarked Storm. "All right, I'll wait out here. Go in and have your talk. I'll fly you back to the woods afterwards." He pulled from his satchel a black velvet covered book and opened it halfway.
Truth looked into the cave. It was dark, save for a small patch of light at the end. He walked in, taking each step carefully and kept his head down to avoid anything dangerous on the ground. Years of walking around mines have taught him better.
"You that reporter?" A voice called out.
"Yes." Truth called back. The light got brighter.
The contact was a figure clad in a blue robe, and when the figure turned, only his white frown and white pupil-less eyes could be seen in an opening. The robe was old and ratty, and he smelled like sweat, probably from wearing the robe all the time. Truth had encountered his kind before on several stories, and he had never seen them without the robe on.
"Do you have a name?" Asked Truth.
"Vor Zabyl. Vor for short." The thief was far away in thoughts.
"All right, Vor…can you explain why you stole eggs for the princess?" Truth asked. He wanted to do this as fast as possible. He didn't want to be here, he wanted to go back and get a afternoon nap.
"For profit." He pulled out from the darkness a grey metal chest with a lock on it. The thief pulled a key from a pocket and opened the chest. Truth looked in.
Treasure!
A princess' ransom…maybe even worth three! Gems of all sizes and colors, coins of brilliant gold, and relics made from both! Truth would have loved to take a hoofull, but the thief closed the chest. He probably knew better to display his jewels in front of others.
"She paid handsomely for my services, among others of my clan." The thief said, but with the tone of someone who doesn't want to remember. "It was dangerous business, it was, stealing eggs from those dragons…"
"Dragons?" Asked Truth. "Your letter didn't say anything about stealing dragon eggs."
"Sorry, guess I forgot about that." The thief replied. He seemed lost. Maybe he didn't know where he was. "Anyway, I should start with my past. Seems only fair if I told you how I got here."
"Yeah." Truth replied. He was writing a article, not a biography. He would have to sum it up.
"Well, the Clan of Thieves trained me well as a kid. My parents also gave me tips. By the age of ten, I could steal the crown off the royal head of the king without even raising the alarm, yet alone suspicion. I wasn't very sociable as a kid, so I learned how to blend in pretty easily. The guild had ranks, and I ranked pretty high. I didn't get much higher because I wasn't a fast runner. Kinda hard to be a good thief if you couldn't keep up your target."
"Ah."
"Eventually, I got old enough to enlist in the Job Department. I chose jobs carefully, making sure they would suite my needs and would let me practice my abilities to the fullest. There were plenty, and eventually I was getting calls. Of course, with fame comes rivals, and boy, were there lots of them! If I got a job with other rivals for a common goal, they would rather bungle the job than let me do anything. I nearly got killed for playing a card game with the owner of a casino!"
"But you're still alive, so they weren't that big of a threat."
"You got that right. Come to think of it, those guys would have failed the job anyway."
"Back to the past, please."
"Oh, right. Well, nothing important happened until me and several of my trusted friends got a call for a important job with a promise for a high reward. Of course, my friends and I took it without a second notice. We met with some Canterlotian guards and they took us to a place called Dragon Mountain."
"Yeah…that's dragon country. But Canterlot had a treaty with the dragon king…"
"I'm stuck here, but I know that treaty came about years ago, after my visit. The warning period."
"Right…so you're asked to steal eggs."
"Dragon eggs for some experiment. As thieves, we weren't given the major details. Grab as many eggs as possible, and make it back. We would get an amount around ten thousand gold pieces for each egg we safely brought back. These guys asked us to check the surroundings first, and try to steal eggs that weren't going to be missed or something like that. They didn't care. They wanted eggs, and they only said stuff to make them feel better."
"From what I recall, dragon eggs were used as a test. If a pony could hatch it, they would become Celestia's student."
"That's sound easy…and delicious."
"Hatch the egg and birth the dragon."
"Ah. Well, still. We had six hours to gather as many eggs as we could. And remember, Canterlot didn't know us. Live or die, it was all about money. There were ten of us when we started out, including me. About six of us got killed that day, one every hour! Let's see, two got killed from falling off, one had the ground fall apart under him and the remaining three got baked. Those who fell were unlucky. The ones well-done were just idiots."
"How so?"
"Because unlike the other thieves, when I see a dragon I don't just taunt him and run around a circle saying 'nyah-nyah'."
"Oh."
"In this chest…" Vor patted the chest. "…is the bounty of four eggs. I could return home a rich and retired man, but I didn't."
"Why?"
"…I felt guilty. I stole only valuables. Gems, coins, the crown from before. I only stole things that could be easily replaced. And when I stole, I only resorted to violence as a last resort, or at least to knock someone out to get them out of the way."
"I stole life. I felt like a murderer."
Vor went silent. Truth mulled over the information. Yes, the princess used dragon eggs to test young fillies to see if they were worth teaching. In fact…one of the students lived in Ponyville right now, as the librarian! And she also lived with a young dragon. Could…?
Truth never believed in coincidences. Vor never mentioned how long ago he stole the eggs, only that the treaty between dragons and ponies came about after he stole the eggs, at least according to him. Besides, this was a story about how the princess of his beloved country arranged the kidnapping of young infants. Thieves were well-known liars; the loot could be the results of looting. It didn't help Vor that Truth once dealt with people like this before.
"You want proof, don't you?" Asked Vor. "I recognized that look. As a thief, you have to know how to work emotions. And I have proof."
He opened the chest and pulled out a sheet of paper. The paper had been through a lot; wet, torn, slightly burned and had a hole in the middle.
"Read it. I kept it in the best condition as possible."
Truth read it. It was a royal document, he got one years ago to congratulate him on his job on breaking Drucks Inc. It was an official order asking for the acquisition of dragon eggs. Celestia's royal signature dotted the bottom.
"Yes. Celestia ordered her soldiers to track down people who could acquire eggs. She signed this one document, gave it to a silver-haired pony, for whom I stole this from." He tapped the document. "I have no idea why she did this. It's a paper trail that could lead to a war! Actually, why did the captain hold onto this?"
"Because…" Truth tried to find something to justify Celestia. Nothing came.
"No reason! There was no reason! At all! She kidnapped babies for her own use! In fact, this reminds me of a story! There was once a witch who also kidnapped baby dragons so she could rip their wings out and use them for an immortality spell!"
"But…"
"Look, Celestia wants to teach her young. Okay. How does that justify stealing someone else young?"
Truth went silent.
"Keep the document." Vor said, getting excited. "Go out and write the story! Expose your princess for the monster she truly is!"
"One last question."
"Shoot!"
"How do you plan of reading my story? I've seen no newspapers, and I don't think you can get my paper from this cave." One last act of defiance.
"I actually don't care."
"What?"
Vor smiled. The smile of the thieves. "I know you're a loyalist. And I don't care about this world. I remained here to scout for the riches, and when I found there wasn't anything worth stealing, it was too late. The portal closed. This hole is my punishment for being stupid." He spread his arms out. "No one would miss me back home anyway."
Vor took a deep breath. "I don't care if you publish the damn story or not. But consider it. It's a trump card." He snapped his fingers. "I'm done now. Storm?"
Storm Runner moved in. "Yes, Vor?"
Vor threw a handful of jewels, which Storm caught in his wings before placing it in his satchel. "Take him back. He knows everything that needs to be known. I would prefer to be left alone now."
In a flash, the light died. Truth jumped back in surprise.
"Come, Mr. Seeker." Storm called out. "The eels are hungry this time of day."
Truth looked back into the darkness, uncertain of recent events. He wondered if he was in some sort of dream. But he got onto Storm's back and the two left the cave and the gorge.
As Storm dropped him off and gave him a pamphlet for his business, Truth continued to think about what transpired.
As said before, people before contacted Truth to fib about the princess. But Vor seemed to…speak the…truth.
He considered burning the document and his notes.
But as he took his nap, he knew better.
After all, the last time cost him his ability of flight.