Guardian of the Sun

by Hinterland Seer

Blaze Burn was a simple pegasus, just trying to keep him and his brother alive after the destruction wrought by Discord. Unfortunately, he found himself with all the wrong and right ponies in his struggle to free his friends and family from utter chaos. As time passes, he finds himself in walks of life he never imagined existed, like being sought after by Princess Celestia herself.

11. 11 Torch the Rest

Author's note: Just have to say, I'm surprised that as many people have taken to reading this. Personally, I don't think I've got the talent for writing a solid story, but it is an enjoyable hobby. It does mean a lot to me that you guys are enjoying the story, well at least enough to keep reading it, and that I try my best to make a decent story for you all. I've got some plans for what I would like to do with the overall plotline, but the majority of this is last-minute ideas that morph as the story progresses. I'm not especially skilled in the art of writing romance, so you'll have to forgive me if it either sounds extremely corny, or it doesn't feel natural. I try my best, but matters of the heart are not where I feel at home as I write. I'm also really excited to announce that this story has finally peaked over a thousand views. Now I know that in the grand scale, that isn't all that many, but for me, to have people interested enough to read a chapter or two, and have 1000 of those: it means a lot to me. Thanks for the support guys. Also, there has been a huge change of plans, and a lot of things are still being moved around, so I still have some time to produce so more content before shit gets overwhelming.

Just wanted to clear a couple of things before we get to the actual story. First: I don't know how many people have noticed the little Easter eggs I've thrown into the story, but I try to entertain serious readers with a little extra knowledge that is far from cannon-worthy of Equestria. The biggest being the song lyrics, from some of my favorite bands. For any metal-heads out there, you Maggots and Knuckled Heads, you might notice some of the songs. For everyone else, I'll recap what songs I've added to the story, just for your pleasure.

- The dream in Chapter 3: Tired by Stone Sour

- The dream in Chapter 4: The Infection by Disturbed

- The dream in Chapter 6: I Apologize by Five Finger Death Punch

- The dream in Chapter 8: Tell Me Why by Three Days Grace

- The dream in Chapter 9: My Disaster by Seether

- The dream in Chapter 10: Adrenalize Me by In This Moment

- This dream: You Want A Battle by Bullet For My Valentine

Disclaimer: I do not own the lyrics to these songs, nor do I claim any right to the names and titles of characters and/or places in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. My OC's are my own, though I don't care if anyone borrows them for their own story, just give me message saying that you did so, simply for me to check and see how the two would match up. I like to imagine my story has sparked some questions, so don't hesitate to ask, as I may be able to answer them like this, or I may include them into the story.

Now that that has been taken care of, on to the heist on the Castle! - Seer

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Chapter 11: Torch the Rest

Blaze was feeling anxious to get this over with, he was ready, and with that wonderful nap he had taken earlier, he was full of energy. He sat hidden in the shadows, waiting for the signal to start the job, to infiltrate the Castle of the Two Sisters and not only break into their vault and rob them blind, but to do so without them even noticing. He was giddy with excitement as now things were finally in motion that cannot be undone, and then he heard it; the wonderful, sweet, beautiful sound of guards calling out in confusion, followed by the shrill call of a hawk. Blaze turned to the hooded mare with him and Vex, who nodded in affirmation, so he flared his wings and leaped into the air, launching himself up the side of the wall, in the alley between two large houses pressed against the very same wall.

Using his enhanced wings, Blaze found himself vaulting over the crenellations of the wall, slipping in between two and landing silently on the pathway, behind the nearest guard, who had turned to see what the ruckus was about. He heard the subtle wind brush that indicated one of the mares was right behind him and ready to land in his spot, so he tore his gaze to the shade of the tower, where he would hide his descent on the other end of the wall. He jumped forwards, sliding into the darkening shadows, thankful that the sun was already clipping past the treetops off in the distance.

As Blaze slid down the inner edge of the wall, constantly clinging to the shadows to remain hidden, he felt more than heard Vex behind him, preparing to enter the pillar of shade where he resided. Another shrill call from the pair of thieves in the mansion nearby indicated that they had little time to disappear into the courtyard before the guards returned to their normal stations and duties. Blaze utilized the moment to leap from the shadows against the wall and slide into a bush at the edge of the garden.

As he settled into position to wait for the other two, he watched in awe as the hooded mare slid gracefully down the side of the wall, having obvious experience with this kind of thing. Sliding into the bushes next to him, Vex had bad draw, as she growled at the thorn bushes she hid in. Blaze couldn't help but chuckle, though he muffled it with his hoof, that his partner in crime would have a rough start. Before he knew it, the bush next to him was suddenly occupied by the hooded mare. With a nearly mute whistle, she signaled for the two thieves to follow her lead, and she turned and began to weave her way through the bushes in the darkening garden.

Blaze was just about to ask the mare a question when a short, high whistle call sounded from her position, and they all froze. They watched in nervous energy as a group of pegasi landed near the outer edge of the gardens, looking into them before one of the guards turned to speak with another posted on the wall.

"What was that all about?" The pegasi asked. The three intruders held their breath to hear what was being exchanged, silently waiting for the two groups to part and return to their posts.

"Oh nothing. Just a damned animal got loose, started breaking shit in one of the houses below us, the owners started shouting at it or something. Either way, nothing to be concerned about, let's just get back to our duties." The one on the wall replied, sounding bored to the whole affair, and then there were hoofsteps clopping on the top of the wall. The trio inside the garden waited as the pegasi grumbled to themselves about wasting time on useless shit during the end of the shift. Then there was the sound of flapping wings and the air patrol was gone, leaving the thieves to resume their infiltration. As they got near the inner edge of the garden, the hooded mare once again gave off the short whistle, and the three paused to hear yet more guards approaching.

The froze when they saw a group of guards walk closer to the gardens, though the patrol stopped just before the edge of the shaded bushes, preferring to remain in the light given off through the window of a nearby building. They each took a glance at the gardens, though none dared approach, and after what felt like five minutes, the returned to their route, all except a single guard.

"Go on ahead guys, I gotta take a shit." The lone guard said as the others just waved him off, though one did stop at the edge of the building to call back.

"Why don't you just head inside? It ain't right shittin' in the gardens, especially in the royal gardens."

"I ain't a guard, so I can do what I like." The merc replied, heading deeper into the concealment of the darkening gardens as the sun finally left visibility. The sky was glowing bright oranges, violent pinks and striking purples, the bright blue sky steadily being replaced with a much darker shade of blue, nearly purple with the hints of clouds hugging the horizon. "Besides, when we get his all over with, and once I get my paycheck, I'm heading back to Saddle Arabia to live away from this shithole of a country."

The three thieves waited patiently for the patrols to head back to where they were, though the guard decided to hide himself fairly deep in the gardens. Blaze was wondering just how they would deal with him, as he was in front of them, nearly blocking their path towards the castle just a little ways ahead of them. He stalked through the bushes, glad that his cloak let him blend in with the shadows easier, and was trying to find a path around the guard, when a scraping nose caught his attention. He stopped mid-step when he heard the sound, and the guard before him gave off a startled grunt before the thief saw the hooded mare standing just behind the guard. She had stood on her hind legs, wrapping one of her forelegs around the guard's muzzle, silencing him, while she hit him in the ribcage. Well, Blaze had thought that she hit him, until he heard the distinctive sound of a blade coming out of flesh, and then the mare had gently lowered the guard to the ground, concealing the still bleeding body from any other patrols.

Blaze couldn't think of how to react to that, he had just witnessed a pony get murdered, right in front of him, and it was one of his own partners that did the deed. He had to blink several times, trying to process exactly what he had just seen, and whether he had actually seen it or nor.

He was snapped out of his stupor when the hooded mare walked in front of him, and slapped his senses back into him. He shook his head, and decided that he was better off trying to process what had happened after the job was done, though now that he had seen what these friends of Al would do to complete the mission, he wasn't sure he wanted to still follow through with this. Still, he couldn't really turn back now, he was associated to the crime, and he also held onto the fear that turning tail and running would only end with a blade in his back. So he stalked through the bushes, now following Vex's lead as she led them through the last stretch of the gardens. The group made it passed the vegetation zone of the courtyard without further incident, though once they reached the edge of the blacksmith, they ran into a problem.

They were currently hiding in the shadows of the building, using the moon's angle to hide themselves from unwanted eyes, and they had to only get across the road and inside the castle. The problem was that their position put them right on the path of an approaching patrol, and they were running out of options. Panicking, Blaze looked to the sky to see if he could spot the pegasi flying circles. Maybe the trio could hop up on the roof, hide from the patrol and then skip past the others?

Then they heard a second patrol approaching, and Vex stole a peek around the corner of the building, just to see what was going on with two patrols so close together. She kept her eyes around the edge of the building for about ten seconds before she pulled back to talk with the other two.

"Shift change. Looks like we were just a little too late. Damn."

"We can still do this, and there really isn't much point in backing out now, now is there?" Blaze said, feeling that they had gotten this far, and he saw no real reason to quit, sure a shift change meant tougher guards. "Besides, imagine the challenge you'll get from this, Vex. I'm sure the bragging rights for doing this job will extend to far beyond just our own creed, you'll be able to talk shit to anypony who calls themselves a thief, smashing them down that you pulled off the biggest heist in Equestrian history!"

Vex offered a flashy grin when he mentioned that she would be able to brag to anypony about her feats, though she mocked being wounded by his words. She placed a hoof over her heart while she grinned at the opportunity to steal from the most secure building in Equestria. "Your words wound me, but you truly know how to open a mare's heart there, Blaze. Let that be a lesson for when you get older, eh: a mare wants nothing more than her stallion to give her the encouragement she needs to never stop bragging. For a mare who hath not the ability to brag shalt not be namethed a mare."

"While I enjoy the cutesy act, we got a job to do, and guards starting to head our way, so I suggest we take positions to eliminate the threat less we risk jeopardizing our mission." The hooded mare said, and it caught both the others off guard as neither had heard her speak before this point. And now that Blaze was thinking about this, he hadn't seen her take off her hood either, though he had little time to think about that as the three had to hug the wall as they prepared to jump the guards. Blaze heard the familiar scraping noise, and when he looked over at the mare, he saw that her left foreleg was extended, and a blade had extended from beneath her robes. He was going to ask her what the buck she was thinking, when her wings pushed him against the wall of the building, forcing them even deeper into the shadows. As she did so, the patrol passed just in front of them, now becoming difficult to see in the fading light.

There were four of them in total, each clad in black armor, bearing Luna's moon on the breastplate, indicating they were actual guards.

And just like that, the hooded mare leapt forward, her hooves working like clockwork as she jumped onto the back of the rear guard, blade sinking into his back as her other hoof went forwards to cover his mouth. Vex stirred and jumped into action next, diving at the other guard who had just started to turn at movement in the corner of his vision. She jumped at him, slamming his face with her hoof. The two guards in front turned when they heard commotion behind them, and that was all Blaze needed to take action, and he burst forwards with his wings, slamming into the pair of stunned guards.

He wasn't sure which was more surprised, the guards at the intrusion, or Blaze as he took both of them to the ground. Before either could make a sound, he had slammed his hooves into their throats, silencing them as they choked on temporarily blocked windpipes. Blaze hadn't tried to kill them, and he was terrified that he may have caused fatal damage to them as he hopped off the two downed guards, though he knew for certain that the guard the hooded mare had stabbed would die. That only left the guard that Vex had in a chokehold.

When the final guard had been knocked unconscious, the trio took the limp bodies and threw them into the bushes, hoping their scuffle went unnoticed by any other patrols. The lifeless body of the guard that the hooded mare had killed was tossed behind the blacksmith, in a large bin that the mare herself had told the other two to dump in.

"After this is done, you and I are going to have a few words over the murders you have committed tonight." Blaze practically growled at the unfazed mare, to which she only shrugged and made a nodded to the castle, letting them know that she wasn't in the mood to do any more talking. Blaze was seething, he didn't appreciate her just shrugging him off like that, as taking lives was something he thought she should be considerate about during this. He didn't like the idea of lethal combat, and that she was readily killing, he wasn't a fan, not one bit.

"Blaze, forget it, we don't have time to argue over what is past and done, so let's just get to that bucking door, and break into the damn vaults! I want my cut of the wealth before the night ends, and we aren't going to get it by just standing here." Vex said, leading them back to the now silent street between the outer buildings and the actual castle. Checking that the coast was clear, she nodded back to the other two, while Blaze checked the pegasi patrols once more. With empty streets and clear skies, Blaze head the other two wait at the small building as he made a beeline for the door hidden in shadow and the base of the wide castle wall.

He gently tried the door, only to curse to himself that it was locked, before he reached into the pouch at his side, pulling out a pick and tension wrench. He fiddled with the locks for a few moments, until he heard the latch give, and the door slid inward. He peeked his head inside, making sure his intrusion went unnoticed. When it was, he nodded to the others, and stepped inside.

Once he was safe from air patrols inside the halls of the castle, Blaze found he was much more able to focus on the sounds of the castle as it prepared for a nice night's rest. He listened to the subtle hoofsteps of the trio of thieves as they delicately trotted along the carpeted halls, though his ears were listening for any potential guests. The three stopped immediately when they heard a group of heavy steps marching their way from the left, a direction Blaze knew to lead to the throne room.

As they panicked for a place to find shelter, Blaze looked up to the ceiling, remembering his once effective hiding tactic from sudden guards that he would prefer to avoid. To his luck, this hall had several large trusses running across the ceiling, offering perfect perches for a group of pegasi that wanted to remain undetected.

Without missing a beat, Blaze got the attention of the mares with him, nodding up to the trusses, and once he had their understanding, he flared his wings. Making sure he pumped gently but hurriedly, he silently landed along a metal truss, glad that the design of the castle had useful hiding spots for ponies like him. The three settled into their positions, knowing that making a sound would jeopardize their mission, and they stared with baited breath at the far end of the hall, where it separated into two sections. The first, which were being swung open by a pair of royal day guards, was a pair of massive oak doors leading to the throne room.

Then, off to one side of the doors was a second hallway, one that Blaze had never been down before, and was the region that they were each expecting to hold the vault, along with quite a few more guards and mercs. What immediately held his attention, however, was the massive golden alicorn strolling in between two gold-clad guards bearing spears in their grips. Blaze spared a glance at the hooded mare, whose bladed hoof was supporting her balance on the thin metal trussing. He returned his attention to the Princess now walking close to where they had been just moments before, and his heart breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed that somepony had shut the door behind them as the three entered.

"Do be a dear and get me my nightly snack, Shield." Celestia's voice rang out as the group on hoof made their way around the corner, with Blaze 95 percent sure that they were going to have the Princess of Cake's 'nightly snack' of a whole bucking cake ready for her consumption. The trio waited for a minute, giving the Princess and her guards time to leave them in peace, then they dropped back down to the ground.

"I have to say, I don't really remember there being a carpet in this section of the castle." Blaze muttered as they walked closer to the far turn in the hall, hoping that the guards on the other side of the door (should there be any) wouldn't hear them. "Of course, it makes our job that much simpler."

"Simpler, dude this has to be one of the easiest jobs I've ever done!" Vex said confidently, only to clamp her muzzle shut as she slammed her hooves to her mouth, hoping that they went undetected. Their hopes were valiantly smashed into smithereens when the doors to the throne room cracked open just a tad.

One of the guards on the other side peered his head through the door, staring at the trio of thieves with a look that could only be described as the statement: Who the buck do you think you are? And how the buck did you end up on the same planet as me? He stared at them for a good fifteen seconds, which were fifteen seconds of utter terror and tension on their parts and frustration on his. After those fifteen seconds of him glaring at them, the guard had had enough of the ponies he assumed to be mercs. "You guys are getting paid by the day, protecting something that doesn't even need you, and on top of that, you were hired out by one of the wealthiest merchant companies in Equestria. No shit you got it easy, you get to sit around all bucking day while us guards have to deal with real shit with common criminals and distressed civilians. Shut the buck up about your lack of balls. No offence ladies."

The three stared at the guard as he shut the door, though they heard him from the other side muttering to his companion about spineless mercenaries who had no desire to do anything productive with their lives. Vex actually blushed at some of the insults that were being creatively used by the guy.

Not wanting to test the waters any longer, Blaze walked around the stunned mares, and pushed them along, moving them towards the side hall. He stopped when they had their senses returned to them by life, glad that he didn't have to push two fully grown mares about just to get on with the job. He waited as they fully regained their basic bodily functions, Blaze paced around them in a circle, glad for their luck. The guard had mistaken them for mercs, which only went to prove Vex's earlier point, that this job was sounding almost too easy for the three of them. Something about the fact that they had slipped into the castle so easily, it was starting to bother Blaze a little. He didn't want to say anything, because he knew that they would mock him for being a paranoid bitch, but he felt that his gut wouldn't lie to him about something as serious as this. As the two mares prepared to continue the job, and shook themselves back into the mood to do some burglary, Blaze put it out of his mind, blaming his nerves for the sense of foreboding inside him.

Blaze walked down the right side of the hall, sticking as much of his body in the tiny amount of darkness as he could. He knew it wouldn't do jack shit if he actually needed to find cover, but he felt better about it that he had some shade to cover his ass. The hallway extended beyond them for a while, before abruptly ending at yet another pair of oak doors. These doors lacked any guards, though Blaze knew that they were far from undefended. He looked back to the mares, who nodded at him, and he spread his wings, taking to the air once more as he sought shelter from the torchlight adorning the walls. He glided over the light, clinging to the shadows at this height, something that struck him as odd, seeing as how much of this castle there was. His thoughts were cut short by a slight clinking sound, followed by what he could only describe as a drawer sliding open. His first instinct was to push his wings forwards, falling back and dropping slightly while he tried to figure out what was happening.

Blaze watched as he fell backwards towards the ground, a rope had flung out of the wall, and was spinning through the air, just where he had been. He steadied himself, staying in place as the netting flew through the air, crashing against the far wall, then slid down until Vex caught it to keep it from hitting the ground and alerting any guards. They were nervous that the commotion from the trap hitting the wall would get the attention of at least one curious guard, but none came to investigate.

Blaze's worries only grew as they continued along the trusses, each pegasus feeling something in the air that screamed danger at them. Still, they had gotten this far, and they saw no reason to end now, so they pushed on. Vex set the trap on one of the trusses, wrapping the stone weights around the center pole to keep it from falling again.

Blaze had pushed forward, having finally reached the middle of the admittingly longer hallway, though he was far from fatigued, his gut was telling him to pause for a moment. Vex and the hooded mare caught up with him, both casting a curious glance his way as he stopped on a metal trussing, senses on high alert as he tried to figure out what was bothering. He sat there, examining the darkness that was extending from the depths below them, making the remaining distance in the hallway seem endless. He wasn't sure what was wrong, but his gut had never failed him before, so he felt confident enough to trust it.

"What's the hold-up? We don't have time to be taking a break, kid." The hooded mare said, landing next to him so she could stare at him in the steadily growing darkness. Once it registered for her what situation they found themselves in, her eyes grew as wide as saucers, and she tried to say something to the other two. Her mouth moved, but no words came out, though they wouldn't have been needed, as the thieves had already noticed the problem. Blaze wanted to panic, he really did, but with the smoke-like void rising up from the ground, thickening and growing more and more opaque, he felt his heart settle. A powerful feeling of content settled over him as he watched, his mind noting a figure slowly rising above the void.

"We hath not thought thee would show thine face here again, young Gold Blood." Luna said, her voice smug as she watched the three figures on the metal trussing, her wings gently bringing her up to their level, while the darkness below them suddenly halted its advance. Her blue wings rhythmically beat as she maintained her height, staring down Blaze as if he were nothing but a common criminal intruding in her royal sanctum. Blaze felt his calmness evaporate as the situation finally registered and his survival instincts kicked into overdrive to make up for lost time. His wings flared out, and he leaped backwards, only to slam straight into a wall of black that wrapped itself around him and forced him back to the other thieves. Luna only chuckled at his attempts of evasion, though her smile dropped when she saw the hooded mare. "Assassin, why hath a pony such as thine's self maketh an appearance on this night? We hath thought thine's kind was not to take action against thine's Princesses, and that thou shalt avoid thy royal city."

The assassin chuckled in response, reaching her hoof back to peel away her hood, and in the weak light provided of the castle torches far below, now illuminating once again in the lack of a void, the three got a look at the mare under the hood. Though Blaze was still trapped by a grip of void, he was able to lean forwards enough to get a good look at the mare, as he was admittedly curious about her features. He hadn't seen under the hood, and he figured now would be the best time.

The first thing that caught Blaze by surprise was the light blue, nearly cyan but with just a touch less aqua to her coat. As soon as he registered her blue coat, his attention was immediately diverted to her mane, which had the six main colors of the rainbow, from red into yellow and blue, finishing with a deep violet. He had to admit that he was most surprised that a mare as merciless as her was as colorful as she was.

He blinked momentarily, trying to get his wits about him before he came to regret it, and was just in time, as when he whipped his head back to Luna, he found her flying towards him. He only had time to react, and his mind went blank as he flipped his wings backwards, pulling his head towards the wall behind him, and started to fall. The wind picked up as he tucked his wings against his sides and tried to evade the princess charging him.

He landed on something rough, glancing down to see the black void once again taking physical form, and he leapt into the air to avoid capture. Luna landed heavily in front of him, eyes boring through his skull as he backpedaled to escape her, only to find his back pressed against the wall. Much to his surprise, Vex landed right beside Luna, diving to tackle the princess to the ground, though her efforts only paid her in a wing to the face, flipping her on her back in a daze. The assassin was gliding overhead, waiting for her chance to intervene.

Luna didn't spare a glance towards the blue mare above, her attention fixed solely on Blaze, who was pressing his chest against the ground, wings flared in preparation of flight. The blue mare glared at Blaze, her horn lighting up and her blue aura wrapping itself around the young thief.

"Surely thou would hath enough of a brain to question thine difficulty in gaining entrance into this castle? Tis not a surprise that thee would make thine's self appear tonight, for we hath encouraged circumstances to get thee into thine castle." Luna gloated, though now that they were all within torchlight, Blaze caught the briefest of glimpses of a sheen on the princess' face. He would have liked to verify it, but it vanished as fast as it appeared, and he had to focus on the current problem he had. "We hath a plan of bringing thee to us to show thee thine's error in thine's way, and to encourage thee to mend thou ways. Tis all part of thine's redemption."

"Well, that would explain the shit guard duties around here." Vex mumbled as she climbed to her hooves, holding one to her bloodied muzzle as she steadied herself on a ground that only shook for her.

"Yes, we hath removed guards from their duties to ensure thee would come to us." Luna replied rather quickly, and something in the back of Blaze's mind caught up with the rest of him.

"You're bluffing." He stated, rising to his full height once more, though under the fact that he was the youngest in the room by a few years, it didn't do much. He took a single step forwards the Princess of the Night, returning her original glare, though her face now was a mix of calm, and what Blaze thought would be some equivalent to confusion. "I spoke with Celestia, and she said that you guys were running low on guards, and that you really needed these mercs to boost the number of ponies on the guard. She even went so far as to say that she wanted to raise me so that I could train other guards in the future."

"THOU LIES!" Luna shouted, and for a second Blaze saw unconcealed fear on her face, though he wasn't able to get a good look, as a blast of blue, there was a blur of motion, a sharp pain in his skull, and then blackness. He was sure the void had swallowed him, but the pain in his head told him that there was more to it than that, most likely Luna smacking him around.

Well, at least he got the chance to rest for a moment, and maybe when he woke up, just maybe, he would be able to finally get some rest. He was having one Tartarus of a week, and a long nap might be just what he needed.

Blaze opened his eyes in pain, looking at the castle around him, though he was sure that things were about to get very strange for him. The first clue he had was that instead of the royal throne room being well-kept and cleaned to perfection, the place was in ruins. Like, it wasn't just dusty and had some dirt around the place, it was literally in ruins, the walls were cracked and aged, the ceiling had given long ago in many places, and the thrones themselves were shattered.

"What in the hay happened here?" He muttered while he stood from his laying position, his cloak and armor making not a single sound as he moved. He reached back, dusting off his black cape, shuffling his wings from underneath it while his hooves carried him closer to the thrones themselves. His focus shifted from the two thrones, he had always known that they Sisters would move into the new palace that was being built, it was the reason they sent him there to look for suitable locations to construct another castle. But this: it looked like they had a fight before they could completely move, Blaze was surprised, as that looked exactly like Celestia's throne. She had dozens of little trinkets hidden under the cushion for her entertainment when she thought she was alone.

He trotted up to the thrones, now that he was able to study them closer, he observed that Luna's looked like the ground had been ripped clean open underneath it, as it was sheered in two. Behind her throne, however, was something that Blaze didn't know how to interpret: the wall was shredded, as if the same force that cleaved her throne in half had torn a chunk of the wall down. Blaze was worried, as there were few creatures large enough to do this to the castle, and even fewer still that would have been able to get through the rest of the city first.

The first creature on his mind was a dragon, a very large dragon, that was most likely pissed about hearing a pony had stolen a dragon egg. It was possible, but he imagined Celestia would have diplomatically solved that issue, covering up the fact that is was indeed him who had stolen that egg. It was Celestia's gift to placate others with false ideas and deceit to hide what she was doing for her country.

So with the dragon ruled out, Blaze was wondering if a hydra may have broken through the city and torn a chunk in the castle, but he had his doubts. The only way that a hydra could have done this was if it had been so small that it snuck passed the guards, and then had to eat enough ponies to spontaneously grow enough to attack the castle. If the guards acted quick enough, with the Princesses' help, they would have stopped it before it ruined the whole castle. But Blaze couldn't buy it, the hole was too small, and the strips of ruined ceiling, now this was something different. Blaze took a break from the thrones, examining the rest of the castle, though it seemed that consistent holes and damage appeared throughout the ruins.

"It's almost as if there was a fight around the entire castle," He mumbled as he looked out the windows, which made him pause in his tracks. He would have been looking out at the city, if not for the massive trees lining the edge of the building. "What the buck?"

He trotted back into the throne room, gliding his way to the entrance hall of the castle, though he was surprised by the lack of much of a hall. Half of the entrance was lying on the ground, with the frame of the door and two of the walls remaining standing. Through the openings in the castle, Blaze could only see trees, more tree, and yet even more trees. He looked up, gazing through what should have been the roof of the castle, and saw a large mass of storm clouds forming in the distance, towards what he assumed was the area that he had said was suitable for a castle.

He paused for a moment to consider where things were going, as this wasn't the first time he was sent forwards in time, though that last time was Celestia's fault, and she was terrified about the accident it was. He assumed that whatever Luna had done to him had sent him forward this time, though he was also assuming that if it was Luna, then she had also committed the accident.

In the utter silence of the castle, Blaze found himself worrying about whether the Sisters were alright in the new castle, as it was under construction when he last saw it. Shrugging to himself that he would get answers there, he shuffled his wings, the cape on his back shifting to make way for his large, pearl white wings. He took a moment to make sure they were the same, he didn't want any surprises this time around, one surprise was all he needed with these things. They were just as large as before, nearly matching Celestia's in size, something which he was sure both annoyed her and was a source of her attraction. He sighed a little at that, it was more annoying than anything else in his life, that the Princess of the Sun would constantly bother him about spending time with her. She knew how he felt about any relationship they might have, and he had even told her many times that he didn't reciprocate her feelings. He had to give it to her, though, she never gave up. Ever.

He returned his attention to the wings, checking the golden feather tips that marked his rank and heritage on the edge of his primary flight feathers. He much enjoyed the fact that his large wings had gold accents, the color making obvious his blood, and then he remembered the day that he got them. He had to shake his head before he went down memory lane, and get back to the task at hoof.

He raised his wings, preparing to launch into the air, and with a mighty leap, he nearly instantly found himself above the castle. His eyes adjusted to the sudden sunlight streaming in from above, and once his eyes were working properly again, he found his wings not doing so. He dropped to the ground in a heap, staring at the forest around him, where the city once sprawled, grand and recovered, there was nothing but the Everfree. He landed heavily, sliding a little before he shot back to his hooves staring at the horror before him, wondering just what the buck had happened this time.

He couldn't do much more than stare, though, and then his brain turned off and things flickered for a moment.

Suddenly Blaze found his heart heavy, and he was rocketing towards the new castle, which was under a massive storm, the black clouds swirling in an unnatural pattern that he was certain was not from Cloudsdale. He was nearing the complex, when he saw the armada of blimps anchored at the side of the city, and if his ears were indeed picking up on the crying of ponies, then this was an invasion.

He found himself crashing into a group of these large, ugly blue ape things that bore even larger spears. He stood from the group, quickly slamming a hoof into each of their midsections, hoping to down them without lethal force, and then launched himself forwards, tackling another pair of guards. He heard a shrill call from above, and watched as a little grey hedgehog with long white hair spiked up dive away from a cake he was eating and land away from the scuffle.

"Who are you?" It called out, pulling a slice of cake from out of nowhere and being munching on it while it felt safe.

Blaze merely sighed and leapt at another of the massive soldiers, taking it down with a spinning roundhouse to the jaw before he left the little creature on its own. He had more important issues to deal with. He ran around a corner, finding himself standing in front of around a dozen soldiers, each with their backs to a group of chained ponies. He took a single glance at the ponies, noting their terrified looks and lunged.

'Civilians.' He thought as he slammed down two of the soldiers, before his wings carried above the reach of their spears, and before they could react to his presence, he felt his blood magic fueling his wings. With a single, powerful pump of his wings, he sent a burst of air spiraling at the soldiers, a ball of twirling wind that launched half a dozen into those behind them.

"You came here for battle, well here's a war!" He yelled as he dived into the confused mix, slamming hooves in a flurry of strikes, each sending another soldier into the realm of the Blessed Sleep. Once each creature had been dealt with, he turned to the petrified citizens, and releasing each of them from their chains, sending them into the nearest building to hide. After he had dealt with them, he took to the skies to find where his Princesses were, only to be forced down by several rocks thrown by a group of soldiers guarding-

Blaze had to blink as he avoided the stones, just to make sure he saw that correctly.

-A cake? They were surrounding a massive cake?

That was when all chaos broke loose, as the cake exploded revealing several pirate birds within, while the five mares hauling the cake suddenly took up a fighting stance. Blaze admired their courage, but noted their lack of any proper fighting skill, making him believe they were brave citizens that had a trap sprung.

He glided down to the group of fighters, taking out a pair of soldiers creeping up on the backend of a white unicorn with a curly purple mane. She turned at the sound of dropping bodies, gasping as she saw the stallion draped in black armor, steel shaded the color of the night sky.

"We will not take this anymore!" A mare from the other side of the group shouted, using a cannon to take out a couple more of the creatures.

Blaze slammed a hoof into an approaching soldier, stopping it dead in its tracks before turning to the mare he had saved. When he turned around, his face dropped for a moment, as the mare had been staring at him and completely ignored the troops that were separating her from the others. He leapt over her, making her squeal and duck for cover, while he flared his wings and, with a burst of speed, tackled another creature. He grabbed the downed creature, heaving with his wings, and sent it back into a group of others.

"Don't be afraid, no remorse, no restraint!" He called as he tried to rally the civilians behind him in a protective manner, though a mare that looked strikingly familiar shot out to his side to slam against a soldier that was about to get clobbered by the armored pegasus. "You girls alright?"

Blaze grabbed a spear that was thrust at him, returning it to its sender, and then rising slightly above them, ready to use his blood's gift again. Seeing a group coming closer, Blaze flared his wings back, calling for the mares to take cover, and thrust his wings into the powerful move he had mastered so long ago. Another ball of pure, untamed power went soaring at the group. It created yet another mix of soldiers as they tumbled against each other.

"These scars won't heal, now you're the victim I'm making you feel. Like you are me, I need you to know what you've done can you hear?" He mumbled as he turned to the group of ponies once again, though they were each staring at him as he was a gift from the heavens, with eyes shining of equal parts admiration and relief. The blue mare he noticed from before, a pegasus all the more, recovered first and pointed a hoof at him.

"Dude, you are like totally awesome, can you teach me how to do that?" The mare burst with excitement, allowing Blaze a moment to be confused before he turned to the other four mares, and a purple dragon that looked eerily familiar. He saw the white unicorn, a bright pink earth pony with a fluffy pink mane, a buttery yellow pegasus hiding behind her pink mane like it was a mother's leg. His gaze then rested on an orange earth pony wearing what he assumed was a ranch-style farmer's hat, her golden mane tied back with a red tie as she stepped forwards.

"Ah think that Ah speak for mah friends, an' we thank ya greatly for what ya just did, but we gotta get to our friends, so if ya'll just 'scuse us?" She said as she pulled the yellow pegasus and began leading the group towards another section of the castle. Blaze nodded and stepped aside, though not before asking for directions to the Princesses, which at the mention the group stalled.

They each looked back at him with horror and determination of their faces, making the armored pegasus feel a little uncomfortable. The blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and a rainbow-colored lightning bolt coming from a cloud answered his query. "We're heading to the castle tight now, you can join us if you like, and maybe with your fighting, we may get there faster."

Blaze led the group, fighting every soldier they came across as he led them towards the castle, though the girls were adamant about quickening the pace after every fight.

Blaze had just finished dealing with a small group of soldiers when a much larger one ran from around a corner, and Blaze took the opportunity and had the girls continue while he distracted the soldiers. "You want a battle? Here's a war."

Blaze's eyes snapped open, and he had to roll backwards, fearing that he was going to get injured, though when he tried to move, he found his body sluggish, untrained. He did manage to get from his back and onto his hooves, diving to the side as much as he could while his eyes refocused on what was going on around him. Vex and the assassin had Luna backing from him, each trying to swipe at her while avoiding her magic. He groaned, temporarily stopping combat, as each mare looked over to him, he shook his head one final time before taking to flight and heading to Luna with a glare planted on his face. She looked over at him sheepishly, then her horn flared brightly and then she was gone, leaving the two thieves and the assassin floating in shock at the passing of events.

"So. . ." Blaze began, unsure as to what just happened, though he was sure he was knocked out for a moment, if what happened had indeed just happened. "Yeah. That just happened, whatever the hay that was. Anypony care to explain?"

"We could ask the same of you." Vex replied, while the three made their way back into the trusses to take a break.

"Well, I guess all that I have to say is I blacked out and had a nice little nap, had a wonderful dream, and then woke up to you two fighting off Celestia. And boy oh boy does it just melt my cold, icy black heart to see two beautiful mares fighting a third over me." He chuckled to himself, receiving a hard punch from both mares in turn as they realized what he was implying. "No but seriously, I did black out, and then had this strange ass dream, something about an invasion when I'm older. Ponies everywhere freaking out and these strange creatures wielding spears were capturing prisoners, and then I came in, badass armor and super awesome abilities, tackling, slamming, and beating the shit out of the invaders. It was awesome."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've only heard it for three seconds and I've already lost interest in it. How about this: you finish getting back in today, and then we can head on out of here, because if the Princesses know that we are in here, then there is no way in Tartarus that we are actually going to get into that damn vault." The assassin muttered, pulling her hood back over her face, hiding the rainbow of color within the shadows of her cloth once more. The other two shook their heads, though it was Blaze that chose to speak up about it.

"Yeah, I would normally agree with you on that, but since we are already here, and we've gotten so far, I kind of want to just get this over with. Yeah, sure Luna knows we are here, but she just took off, so I don't think she really wants to deal with us right now."

"Or maybe she was just too tired to deal with us by herself, and she went to fetch guards to wait for us in the vault, or worse yet: she went to fetch Princess Celestia. We stand no chance of robbing this place if we have the two Princesses trying to capture us in their own castle." She retorted, shaking her head and leaning back to take flight, feeling more than ready to just leave this mistake of a job behind her before she got caught and jailed for good. The castle dungeons were renowned for their integrity, and she had no plans on testing their legitimacy.

"Go ahead and leave if you want, miss. I don't care what you want to do, sure you might make this a little easier, but you'd probably just kill a whole bunch of guards. I don't care what you do, but I know that Vex and I came here to do a job, and I ain't leaving until the job gets done, whether or not you decided to stay won't change the outcome. I will get this done, and not even the Princesses will stop me." Blaze declared, balancing carefully as he stood on his own segment of the trussing. His response only garnered a concerned glare from the assassin, her eyes scanning him to figure out if he was being honest, and insane, or just trying to pull her chain. When she was satisfied that she had her answer, she just sighed, turning to him in hopes of convincing him to abandon this before shit really hit the fan.

"Look, kid. I understand that you want to prove yourself to the elders, to show that you ain't no pushover, I've been there and I'm pretty sure we all have, but this is stupid. You didn't stand a chance against the weaker of the Sisters, during the night, when she is at full power. Just what on this sweet, green Equus makes you think that you would stand anything of a vertical chance, not even bucking standing, of facing both Princesses?"

"Because I know how to avoid them, I've been doing it for a while now, hiding in this castle, evading guards on patrol. I know how to stay hidden when they look." Blaze replied, floating in the air to get in the assassin's face, causing her to back slightly on the edge of the metal beam holding her weight. "If I get into an open fight with them, then there would be no bucking chance I'd survive, but that's common bucking sense! Nopony gets into a fight with a Princess and expects to survive, so the plan is to avoid them at all costs. Trust me with this, I will be staying out of sight, and I will be just fine. Now head on home, tell your boss that you pussied out on a job, and let the real ponies get to work."

Blaze drifted down through the smoke, letting Vex and the assassin exchange equally confused and amused glances before the smoky-grey pegasus shrugged and joined her companion. The assassin stared at where the pair had left her, then let out a sigh grumbling about money and not getting paid enough for some shit or another, and joined the other two. She found herself hovering just above the floor, the void-like blackness having been slowly dissipating into the shadows once more, and the trio found themselves all in a hallway marked by a single staircase falling into the ground. It went down all of about fifty feet, a single path heading straight towards a platform beneath the marble floors of the castle above. They touched down gently, hoping to not disturb any unwanted guests as they observed their surroundings in better clarity. The hall was mostly barren of any decoration, though the carpet usually splitting the center of the halls ended sharply at the head of the stairs, painting a stark contrast between the glowing white of the marble of the floors, to the darker granite of the stairs. Blaze took a step forwards, being the first to have landed, and peered down the steps. The landing below seemed empty of any guards, making him believe it extended further on and probably turned at some point, hiding the rest of the protection detail.

Turning around, his face betrayed his mild surprise at seeing the assassin, but he recovered nearly instantaneously. He motioned for the other two to join him, and as they circled up, he spared a quick glance at the far entrance of the hall, noting its bareness of any guard detachment.

"Alright, girls. Here's what I was thinking we should do. The hallway goes down some fifty-ish feet, a straight path, hard stone that is impossible to sneak on, though we have wings, and a possible turn further down. No visible guards, which means either it's not what we are looking for, or the guards are all stationed further in. How about we all glide down, sticking as close to the ceiling as we can, then once we hit the landing, we find someplace to take cover, watch what we can. Work with what we have as it goes. We are on a bit of a time schedule, as Luna is sure to get either more guards or Celestia herself to deal with us." He explained as he motioned his head towards the stairs, hoping that there wasn't some bucked up trap at the bottom of the stairs that would make their night that much harder. "Try not to buck anything up, touch only what we have to, and keep any blades on us clean, maybe we can get out of here with more than we had originally planned, eh?"

"One problem with that, kid." The assassin said, sending a quick glance backwards to watch the entrance, something that Blaze had already done four times. He understood that they were paranoid about being caught by a patrol, or worse yet one of the Sisters, but they had to have at least some shit plan scrapped together before heading down. "We don't have any bucking clue what down there we will have to touch, and rumors are floating around that this place is trapped worse than an old stallion sending letters pretending to be a young mare."

"Gotta say it right now, I have never even bucking heard of anything like that." Vex said matter-of-factly, shaking her head all the while, while Blaze could only nod in agreement. "But not that it really matters anymore. Yeah, we ain't got a bucking clue what is down there, but exploring and maybe stumbling across the vault is a far better option than giving up and heading back, telling the boss that we did so. I'd rather try my luck at getting a bit cut out of this loot rather than try my luck at pissing Al off, because while I'm sure you are all fine with murder and violence, there are some ponies one dimply does not buck with. Al is one of those ponies."

"Speaking of comfort with violence." Blaze began, before his ears perked up at the sound of distant hoofsteps on marble in the distance. "You know what, we can continue this later, when we aren't pressed for time and in the middle of trying to steal shit from the most secure building in Equestria."

"But we aren't robbing the Creed Vault, Blaze." Vex pointed out, halfheartedly joking, though it was also part truth. Blaze didn't respond, he just flexed his wings, raising them to get into the air before gliding down the flight of stairs leading to what they all hoped was the direction of the vault. They were really wishing for this job to be over with as soon as possible. In and out was not exactly something that was an option, but it was still something that the thieves were used to following. Habits always died hard, and this was a habit that they neither wished to break, nor desired to have die on them when they were in need of whatever luck their thieving charms could bring them. Blaze had just reached the bottom of the stairs when he heard the distinct sound of wind being severed by wings, and as he pulled up to glue himself to the ceiling, he was met by the other two following just behind him.

They scanned quickly for anything to use as aerial cover, but were only met with blank stone, not even painted, for Celestia's sake! Sighing to themselves that they were now not only grounded, but also in desperate need of somewhere shaded to cover in, they turned to their new task. Blaze and Vex had difficulty finding an appropriate hiding spot, as the only real decorations along the length of the hall were numerous statues of ponies, though Blaze was sure these were generic pony heads, nopony specific.

The assassin, on the other hoof, had taken special notice to the statues, as she had known that these kinds of things were especially useful under the current circumstances, all she had to do was find one that was sufficiently hidden in shadows to take shelter behind. She scanned them, noting that about three pairs had no torches anywhere near them, though the nearest pair was a distance from the trio. Then the clopping of hooves on stone recaptured their attention, and Blaze went into panic mode, he searched every statue for anything that would help him, and while the indentations behind them in the walls seemed big enough for them to hide in, they weren't nearly dark enough. He cast a glance at the assassin, who was already in motion, and he found himself wrapped in her blue wings as she sent both himself and Vex into the darker crevices behind a pair of statues. He noticed that the assassin had her cloak wrapped loosely around them both, her wings clutching him as tight to her as she could manage, and her hood had been forced around them both.

Blaze had to hold his breath, though his was too stunned to really comprehend what was happening, as a group of ponies trotted by in the hall. The hoofsteps sounded consistent, moving from the stairs to the other end of the hall before turning around the corner. The three heard a somewhat muted voice speaking, then another replied, and a conversation was struck between the guards. Blaze really wished he could see what was going on, though he doubted that even if his vision wasn't blinded by a mane of the rainbow, nor a hood, he would have had the balls to sneak a peek at the guards.

After what felt like an eternity stretching out from about five minutes, they heard the guard's hoofsteps echoing back from the bend. Using his ears, Blaze had to gage that about five or six guards were marching passed, though he was only shooting in the dark. The guards continued on as if nothing was amiss, and after their steps seized echoing through the halls above the stairs, the three let out a collective sigh. The assassin backed off of Blaze, letting him have his body back as she dropped back onto all four hooves and walking out from behind the statue. Blaze followed shortly after, and if he had been slightly less mature, he was sure he would have had a massive blush on his face, rendering him completely, and possibly permanently, scarlet. As it was, he had to settle on an appropriate amount of maturity to stare at the assassin with a shit-eating grin on his face, while the mare in question looked at him as if he was nothing more than a silly colt. Her blank stare told him not to do what she knew he was about to do, not that he was going to listen, of course.

He did have the patience to wait until Vex had joined them in the hallway once more, before he let his age really show as he let out a light chuckle, then began what the assassin most likely did not want him to. "So, how about that, miss? I dare say that all it took was a few guards for you to admit that you just wanted to get some quality time with the most handsome stallion on Equestria."

"Oh please." The mare scoffed, rubbing hoof against her black vest, much like Vex had done that one time, while she waited for the grey pegasus to finish her chuckling. "Kid, if I was even remotely interested in a pony like you, you are nothing more than a little colt. Besides, I don't know if you are aware of this, but your coat is about as white as a sun-bleached snowflake, which blends in with black about as well as a Princess walking out for a stroll through the city. With a fanfare of trumpets, and a squad of pegasi flying overhead. I merely did what I had to in order to keep this dead-brained mission of your alive, so please be a stallion about this and shut the buck up."

"Well, I don't know, there missy. But I think it would have been perfectly acceptable to just throw coat over him and call it good, from what I could see, it looked like you two were doing the forbidden dance." Vex snickered, earning a sharp jab from the mare in her side for her trouble, which she then had to rub with an idle hoof to keep from getting sore.

"Let's just get going." The mare said, rolling her eyes as she led the way towards the corner, shaking her head the whole way. "Foals."

Mirroring her actions, the thieves soon followed her to the corner, where they each glanced around the corner, trying to find out what they were going up against. They weren't happy with the guard situation before them: a night guard on either side of the vault, black and blue armor shining duly in the torchlight flickering from torches planted into the wall next to the doors. The bat wings on the left guard caught Blaze by surprise, as he hadn't seen very many of Luna's guards. He did most of his burglary during the daylight hours, when guards were least expecting an intrusion. The right guard had a long, black horn piercing out of his helmet, glowing yellow eyes staring straight at the entrance. Suddenly Blaze was grateful that the torchlight stopped short of the bend, else they would most likely have been spotted immediately once they poked their heads around the corner.

Standing in between the two royal guards stood four mercs, or what looked like mercs, as their leather armor seemed cheap and worn down, probably wear and tear from the road or poor working conditions. Each of the ponies standing at attention at the door had a spear within their grips, though the two night guards also had what Blaze could only assume was an altered bow on their backs. The unicorn guard had a quiver that he could see, which meant that the others was probably on his other side.

Blaze let loose a silent sigh, backing away from the corner, trying to think of a way around the situation they found themselves in. The mares followed suit soon enough, and the three sat in silence for a moment, thinking of a way around the six guards, each of whom had a spear, and lots of room to use them. That's when Blaze got an idea, though he doubted it was going to be any good. "What about a bum rush?"

"Seriously? How fast do you think we would have to be to cover that distance before they react and lower their spears? It's like forty feet!" Vex exclaimed in his ear, just loud enough for the assassin to hear, which she nodded in agreement to the reasoning. "And as much as I like to think my wings are strong, I just don't have that kind of speed, maybe you do kid, but these old feathers ain't going to cover that kind of distance fast enough."

"As if your wings are really that old." Blaze muttered, returning his focus to solving this riddle, and he hated riddles, always having too much thinking and not enough doing.

"Charming. But really, you are the only guy, hay pony, I know that has the speed necessary to get over to them before they get their wits about them." She continued, tapping her chin with a hoof as an idea sprang into her mind. She turned to face the assassin, pointing a hoof to the various pouches and bags tied onto belts around the mare's chest and stomach. "Hey, what kinds of shit you got in there? Maybe there is something that we can use to either distract or stun the guards?"

"Hmm. I think I may have something in here. Give me a second." She said as she rummaged around in some of her pouches, producing various items that Vex would ask the function for, then decline. Nothing seemed to be helping them, and the clock was ticking, Blaze remembered Al telling him to be quick about it, so he decided to make do with what they had. "Aha!"

"Girls, just give me something to hit them with, and I'll bum rush them and give each of them a good knock on the head, maybe I'll get enough of them down before you two get over there to help me finish them off." He offered, only to have his extended hoof be grabbed by the assassin, who shoved a small ball into it. He stared down at the ceramic ball, confusion written clearly all over his face as he wondered just what the buck he was looking at. "This is what exactly?"

"That would be a ceramic smoke pellet, just throw it onto any hard surface, and a small cloud of smoke erupts from the impact, thick enough to force anypony unprepared for it to close their eyes. Hit the door with that, then the three of us can rush over, take out the guards before they even knew what hit them." She answered, nodding in the direction of the guards, and before any more questions could be asked she shoved him towards the corner, helping him along. Vex sat by, idly wondering just what these little pellets were supposed to exactly do, as a smoke cloud sounded a little farfetched for such a small ball. Still, Blaze was near on the bend, and about to be shoved passed it, so it wasn't like she had time to ask for more clarification, so she just prepared to rush over to the soon-to-be dazed guards. Popping her neck to either side and rolling her shoulder as she bounced lightly on her hooves, wings flapping to create a small breeze and get the feathers in line for a short burst of speed. "Now throw."

Blaze wasted no time, hoping that if this supposed smoke pellet didn't work, then maybe the impact and shattering ceramic would distract the guards in its place. He mentally shrugged to himself, hoping for the best as he drew his hoof back, balancing the pellet in the middle of his hoof so as to not drop it. With a sudden motion that neither mare beside him could notice, he launched himself around the corner, and as his eyes locked with those of a single guard, his hoof whipped forwards, sending the pellet straight into the very same guard. Without missing a beat, he felt a surge in his wings, and he was suddenly on top of two mercs, slamming his lighter body into their armor. The three tumbled to the ground, then the smoke enveloped them, and chaos ensued.

Vex and the assassin wasted as little time as they could, flying into the fray, where Blaze was busy knocking the two mercs unconscious while the guard that had taken the smoke pellet to the face was tumbling out of the cloud. Vex drew her dagger, diving forward and sending the pegasus into the pony afterlife with a single thrust into his skull. The assassin had similar luck with the unicorn, where her leg-blade was driven though his throat, and the blue mare watched in abstract fascination as the guard choked to death on his own blood. There was a small squirt of blood strained over her vest, though she took no notice as she whipped her left leg, the one with her blade and metal bracer on it, up to block the incoming spear swipe. With a single chop of her right hoof, and a slash with the bladed one, she sent the merc tumbling to the ground, his hooves covering his throat as blood spewed out like a fountain. Then Vex dived at the other merc, who had dropped his spear in favor of a shortsword that was aimed at Blaze's back. The pegasus in question was busy holding his legs around another merc in a choke hold, while at his hooves was the final merc, unconscious. He turned around, with the merc hopelessly swiping at his face, just in time to see both Vex and the assassin stab the threatening merc. He stared in shock as blood was spat on his face from the falling soldier, the assassin following him to the ground. She rolled him over, taking his head in her hooves as if comforting him, then leaned in close, as if to kiss him, and Blaze heard her whisper into the merc's ear: "Rest in peace."

Blaze knew the distinct sound of a blade being driven through somepony's neck would haunt him for the rest of his life. Though he was appalled by the murder right in front of him, the barely struggling merc in his grip finally succumbed to the lack of oxygen, passing out in his hooves. Careful to not commit a murder himself, Blaze laid the unconscious body on the floor, putting him next to the other merc he had spared.

"We are going to have a long talk after this is all over." He nearly growled through his clenched teeth, and then he carefully stepped around the bloodbath the two mares had made, hoping that this day wouldn't keep him up at nights more than once or twice, but he knew it would. This wasn't going to leave his mind for a very long time. "Can't bucking believe this shit."

He walked over to the door, hoping that having a chance to pick a lock would take his mind off the murders. The violent, apathetic murder, and these two mares who seemed all too happy to commit them, almost as if they reveled in death. Blaze had to suppress a shudder of discomfort, thinking that these were the kinds of ponies that he was going to have to work with, and put up with for as long as he was with the creed. Shaking his one final time as he settled down in front of the door to see what he was going to have to deal with, the first thing he did was check to see if the door was indeed locked.

The memory of his reasoning behind checking the lock did manage to take his mind off the death behind him, one of the first lessons Door Cracker had taught him.

"How long should this take me?" Younger Blaze asked, settling in front of the door, as he had imagined how a pony ought to when picking a lock. He excitedly picked up the pick and tension wrench with his hooves, anxious to begin learning how to open doors others wanted closed. The elder earth pony chuckled at the enthusiasm.

"Depends on how smart you are: could be seconds, could be minutes, hay it might even take you an hour." He replied with a hearty chuckle at the idea of sitting there for an hour. Blaze responded in kind, then set his lockpick and the tension wrench into the keyhole. He fiddled with the pins for a few moments, before he noticed that Door Cracker was silent.

"Isn't there some kind of lesson you want me to learn from this?"

"Yeah there is. Though I think that it might have been kind of obvious to you. This door is used by ponies, and sometimes, ponies can be forgetful. Think about what you are doing, and how things could be improved." Door Cracker answered the unasked question with his own secrecy.

"Well, I don't know that much, so maybe if you actually taught me something?" The room went silent for about five minutes, with Blaze still unsure as to what exactly he was doing, having never had to actually pick locks before. After some time, he decided to wait for Door Cracker to give him a lesson, and another ten minutes passed in awkward silence. "Door Cracker, would you care to explain to me the basics of lockpicking?"

"Oh, sure. The first, and arguably most important rule of lockpicking is this: Make sure that you are actually going to need to use your skills with a lock-pick." Blaze's face fell, wondering if he had really just wasted fifteen minutes fiddling with an already unlocked door, and when he tried to latch, it gave way as if it had never been locked, which it probably hadn't. Door Cracker laughed about that for a solid week before he finally let it go.

Back in the present, Blaze tugged at the handle, hoping that he could save them all several minutes, though his hopes were instantly smashed. The door wouldn't budge, which meant he had to get to work. He reached into his pouch, pulling out a lockpick and his tension wrench, sliding them into the keyhole. He fidgeted around with the pins, careful to figure out where the sweet spots were that he would be able to use to open this damned vault door. He was not at all surprised to see that the large golden steel door had several plates of steel covering the front, no doubt to prevent the idiot raider from just breaking down the door. He looked at the outer edge of the door while he worked away, noticing the patterns of runes carved into the rim.

'Magic wards. Clever.' He thought as his gaze rested on the actual doors themselves, the pair being split like so many of the doors in this damnable castle. He looked at the way the locks interacted with the two large steel struts passing between the gap between the doors, just barely visible from the outside. No doubt he was going to have to unlock both locks to open the damned thing.

"Hey, Vex. You said you're a master burglar, right?" He asked, looking back to see her nod at him. "Good, because I think we need to save some time cracking this bucker open. Mind getting the second lock, that'll put you on double guard duty okay?"

His gaze turned to the assassin, who absentmindedly nodded to his question while her gaze remained focused on the entrance to the hall. Blaze returned his attention to the lock, which was a lot more complicated than he was hoping for. It was nothing like that door from the basement of the creed, that shit was horrible. No, this was a nice challenge, but not something that would take too long to crack. Feeling a little better about the situation they were in, Blaze decided to get something out of the way while he was here and it was on his mind.

"Hey, assassin." He called over his shoulder, and when he heard the hum indicating he had her attention for the moment, he paused to gather enough brain cells to speak a longer sentence. "I don't think I ever got your name, mind sharing it while we have some free time?"

"Oh, well, I mean I guess it wouldn't hurt. Names Rainbow Crescent." She said casually, sitting on her haunches to watch the entrance a little better, allowing Blaze to return his attention to opening the door. He heard a click, though it wasn't the click he wanted to hear. This was the click of an advanced lock reengaging the previous pins if a later one was pushed too hard. "Damnit!"

He sighed in defeat, ready to take significantly longer on this that he would have liked, and settled into a more comfortable position to deal with what was going to be a rather annoying door to pick. He had gotten the first two of what felt to be about eight or nine pins done when he heard Vex curse under her breath. He spared a quick glance her way, only to see her tongue stuck out of the side of her muzzle in concentration, her eyes staring intently down at the lock her hooves were fiddling with. He chuckled to himself before returning to his work once more.

After several minutes of a definite lack of success, both Blaze and Vex were feeling pretty displeased with their progress, or lack thereof. Vex had nearly locked her end out when the pick cracked down the middle, and she had paused just enough to pull it out and replace it with another one. Blaze just sighed, knowing that one slip up and he could ruin this entire thing for them, not to mention that it would be a bit of a bitch for anypony to ever get into this thing again. He focused everything he had on getting this right, and after several more minutes of hard work, minutes filled with Rainbow Crescent constantly shifting around in anxiety over the potential of being caught before they even broke into the damn thing. Eventually, Blaze had to pause what he was doing to face the rainbow-maned shifting pegasus.

"Rainbow Crescent, we will be fine. You don't have to worry about this, because if Luna had really gone to get reinforcements, they would have arrived a very long time ago. This castle isn't that big, and we have been down here for a significant amount of time, more than long enough for them to show up. Take that as proof that we are going to be fine." He finished with a sigh, and without giving her the chance to respond to him with more negativity, he turned back to cracking the lock.

"I guess so. . ." Rainbow was still unsure, but she had stopped shifting her weight around, and the sudden stillness was very welcomed by Blaze, who now had one less thing to distract him from what he needed to do. And within a minute, he heard a very satisfying click, and the lock within the door slowly slid back from between the doors, hiding in the compartment in the right steel blockade. He turned to Vex, who's own smile was slowly replacing her look of utter concentration as she slid the last pin into place. With an extremely satisfying click and slide, the final barrier began to release itself from the situation, granting access to the determined thieves. Those thieves were equally excited for finally getting somewhere with the heist, but even more so because they had already gotten this far, and things showed no sign of letting up anytime soon. Not that any of them were willing to risk thinking that for fear of ruining what luck they had going for them. It was more of the subconscious reveling in finally having this get a move on.

Blaze and Vex exchanged excited looks, watching in awe as the steel beams slowly made the door accessible to them. Once the doors were finally free and individualized, they each took their respective doors and began to gently apply pressure to open them wide enough to slip in. The steel doors they had been working on for about ten minutes had, in style of holding treasures within, been plated in thin coats of gold. Only to flaunt the wealth that was accumulating behind the thick steel that was normally under guard. While Blaze was sure to break down about the loss of solid soldiers later, right now he was under obligation of honor to stay composed until the job was done. And the door that was so flaunting of wealth was hardly even a preview for the wealth being hoarded within the castle vaults.

As soon as the doors had swung open wide enough for the three ponies standing before them to slip in side by side, they had all let out a collective gasp in surprise. Standing in front of them was a literal treasure trove of gold, silver, priceless gemstones, artifacts from before the time of the Princesses, even some items that Blaze had no idea what they would even be seen as.

They each took a single step towards what had to be the wealth of several adult dragons all crammed together underneath what had to be the poorest city in Equestria at the time. Blaze couldn't believe his eyes, all this time, the citizens of the city were struggling to make it alive, and that they had been starving, freezing in the winter or drowning in autumn. All this time, and the Princesses had stockpiled this much wealth?! "Okay. What the actual buck is all this bucking gold doing just sitting around here?"

"Yeah, I'll say, this much gold, we could have afforded to get the creed outfitted with a bucking castle of our own!" Vex said, then her thoughts turned from their briefest moment of the closest she had probably ever gotten of selfless thinking, and then her mind turned to what she could afford with this much loot. She could buy out a small town, if only she had a way to carry it all out. "Alright, ponies! Let's stuff everything we can from this shitload of gold, and then make our break out of here!"

The other two were all too happy to comply, neither of them having seen this much gold in one place at a single time. To Blaze, this was like he had stumbled across the wealth of an entire nation, but not only any nation, he could have mistaken this for the wealth of the Dragons. He lunged forward, leaping for whatever he thought would make it very valuable turn in the black markets, though he made sure to grab a large portion of actual bits too. Golden necklaces would only pay for so much. As he was diving around looking at various items that he could sell, he remembered what it was that they had originally come to grab. He cleared his throat, hoping to get the attention of the mares in the room, though he knew that right now, he had to compete with the gold, no easy task for any stallion after the attention of a mare.

"Hey girls, remember to only grab from the merchant's stock, it's why we are here, and we shouldn't get too far carried away. I'm sure Al would be pissed if we stole shit from any of the other clients that support the creed with whatever is all stored here." He said, though he had the sneaking suspicion that he wasn't being paid any attention to. "GIRLS!"

The two stopped literally swimming in a pool's worth of gold to stare at the stallion that had raised his voice to get them back to reality. Vex had a massive golden crown depicting a beautiful Sphinx on the head with rubies as the eyes and moonstones along the ring atop her head, while she had on at least a dozen necklaces draped over her neck, many lazily rolling over her black leather chest-piece. Rainbow on the other hoof had been filling a large, solid sapphire cup with as many bits and golden trinkets as she could fit in it. She also bore jewelry, though she only had a few necklaces draped over the backside of her head, which was covering her face once more. Atop her head, above the hood, rested a simple silver circlet that bore a single gemstone of each type known to pony-kind.

"Good, now do either of you remember why we were here in the first place?" He asked impatiently, hoping that they could get this over with and get out as soon as possible. He was getting a nervous tick in the bottom of his stomach and he wanted to be as far away from the castle as possible. The two mares took a moment to share a look between themselves, then returned their blank gazes back to him, making him sigh in frustration. "Seriously? We've been at the castle for like, maybe an hour, and you've already forgotten the whole bucking reason we came here?!"

"Sorry, kid, but you obviously have no idea what gold can do to a mare's head when is large enough amounts." Rainbow answered, returning to her scavenger hunt for the most lucrative of items to add to her rising collection.

She and vex were moving through piles, heaps and stacks if gold, jewels, fine fabrics, and just about anything that a pony could consider of high value. Blaze shook his head in discontent, knowing that greed was not exclusive to just dragons, as these two mares here were sifting through the treasures to find only the best items to steal. Blaze wanted to get them to stop, but right as he was about to tell them to get out of the mounds of wealth, something caught his attention. He turned his head to the side, glancing at a gold-framed painting that sat on the wall off to the side. It wasn't the richly decorated gold frame that caught his attention, but it was the beautiful painting within.

Blaze figured he could spare half a second to investigate the painting, and he took two steps over to it, eyes scanning the painting for every detail they could catch. What he looked at was an old oil painting of Celestia and Luna, the sisters standing next to each other, looking at the viewer with what Blaze could only assume was a sophisticated smile reserved for the elitist of the highest social standings. The sisters had their manes done up in what he would guess was some style at the time, though what caught his eyes was that neither of them had their typical flowing aspect to their manes. Celestia's was just a bright pink, shorter than he would have ever expected it to be, while Luna's mane was curled up and a bright baby blue, contrasting to the darker shades of her coat.

Blaze looked at the sisters, wondering just when this painting had to have been done, as the edges, while still in fine condition, were showing signs of wear. The fact that the sisters appeared visibly younger begged the question of just when they would have had something like this made, especially since they lacked their 'Princess' appearance.

He had to shake his head, having spent more than enough time looking at an old painting, and while he was curious about the questions this painting raised, he had more important things to do. He turned from the oil painting and began walking back to the mares, who were throwing various items at each other's heaps like a couple of fillies. He called to get their attention, but they seemed intent of making the other receive a particular golden vase with sapphire gemstones around the lip. He watched in mild annoyance as they tossed it back and forth, giggling like mad. He would have made fun of them for it, but he was suddenly reminded that they had shit to do, and no time to do it.

He tried once more, calling out to the mares to get their attention, and he succeeded, if only for a moment as Vex took the vase and tossed it at him. He lazily dodged to the side, but when he looked back at her, she had returned to stuffing every expensive item she could into her pouches. His annoyed frown turned into an annoyed glare as he stared at the mares acting like foals, and then he decided that they had had enough fun in the gold.

"Alright, that is IT! Listen up you two! We came here for a specific job, and I'm not going to stand around waiting for you two to finish being prissy little nags and trying to steal loot we didn't come here to steal. It's not like we could even carry everything you all have already. I don't know if you also forgot this too, but we are still supposed to sneak out of her, remember? We are bucking trespassing, and the more time we waste lollygagging around, the sooner a guard patrol is going to pay this place a visit, see six bodies outside, and rush in here to investigate!" Blaze took a moment to breath, knowing that passing out at a time like this would only lead to disaster for the lot of them. Once he had his breathing under control, he opened his eyes to see both mares returning their stolen items back to the places they stole them from. "Now, I want to apologize for shouting, but I needed to get your attention. Now that I have it, can we please just go over what it is exactly that we are stealing from the merchants while we have time. Al said that he wanted me to be in here for less than three minutes, and it's already been six, so the sooner we loot this place, the sooner we can be done with this shit and out of here with the goods."

"Right, the merchants." Vex said, reaching her muzzle behind to her fish through one of the small satchels strapped to her side, just underneath her wing. She grabbed something in her jaw and walked over to Blaze offering him the scroll, while Rainbow walked over to the pair to see what they needed to grab. "And why are you still here, Rainbow? I thought your job was to watch our backs."

"It was, but with nothing interesting happening, I figured I might as well enjoy the fun, and maybe snag an item or two for my own personal collection." She added with a wink, then the pair looked at Blaze who had read the scroll and was now looking for the location described to him in the letter.

"Instructions say to grab whatever we could that belonged to the merchants, and we'd know which shit was theirs because they paid for it to be stored in a separate area of the vault, apparently some sort of back room or some shit like that. Either way, let's get to it." The three split and began combing the walls, looking for anything that may seem out of place, until Rainbow called from the back, and when they all met up, it was indeed a small back room. The door wasn't locked, which was a little surprising, but other than that, the room was about as full as it was going to be, so maybe the movers still had some shit to fill the room with, but had no room left to do so. The three agreed to just grab whatever looked valuable to them, and began loading as many pockets full of items that they could, though Rainbow mostly stuck with bits. Something she knew she could carry quite a few of without attracting too much attention.

"Good, now that all that shit is taken care of, how about we just head the buck out of here before it's too late?" He asked as they each had removed a few of the non-essential items from their own bags to make room for more loot to carry. Blaze had dropped some candy he still had no clue why it was in there, along with a knife that he had no use of, and some rope that again, he had no use for. Vex had cleared out most of her throwing knives, opting to strap them around a belt across her chest, just adding another to the multitude already there. She had insisted on grabbing as many golden trinkets as she could, knowing that the noise might be a bit cumbersome, but the payoff would be so worth it. Rainbow had two pockets full of bits, and a couple necklaces strung about her neck. She also had several golden watches thrown in a small pack at her waist.

They all nodded, and Blaze turned to lead them out of the maze of gold and wealth piled around them. And so bad was the urge Blaze had to rob this place of everything it had, and to give it to every shelter and home he could, only to make ponies' lives that much better. A hoofful of bits, maybe some nice jewelry for a dowry for a family with a daughter. He knew he could make so many ponies happy, to make so many of them less miserable, all by just giving a small portion of the gold stockpiled here.

Blaze was nearing the entrance to the vault, his head feeling lighter by the minute, his heart pounding at the prospect of getting this payload of gold to the creed, and then to take home his share and buy the whole community some nice treats. He was nearly prancing with how excited he was, though the act was not lost on the two mares following him.

"Getting a little excited, eh there kid?" Vex asked, chuckling as Blaze realized what he was doing and promptly stopped, though he still had a little pep in his step from the thoughts racing through his mind nearly as fast as anything he could ever think of. Faster than a blizzard, than a racing dragon, faster than he himself has ever flown. "No need to calm down, kid. We got all this shit, and when we get back, we are going to split it, take home what's ours, and have great times, am I right?"

"Buck yeah! Oh, I just can't wait to get what's mine, going to buy the whole lot of the guys back home something nice, and tomorrow, I think I might take some time off and come home early to spend the rest of the day with the guys, been too long since I last hung out with any of them. Especially some ponies that I kind of need to have a conversation with." Blaze said as he turned around a bend, the steel doors now in sight, though the idea of speaking with Scaled Equilibrium made him think about the conversations he still needed to have with these two. "And speaking of conversations, don't think I haven't forgotten the ones we are going to have about your merciless attitudes. I can excuse this time as situational, but if I ever have to see this again, I'm going to be one pissed stallion, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah." Vex grumbled, slightly put off that Blaze had taken the direct approach, it just wasn't the thief style to go directly.

Rainbow had a totally different attitude towards the youngest pegasus' brashness, as it was something that finally struck a nerve with her. "You know kid, you have to have some brains in order to pick locks like those, so it surprises me that you were surprised that I had to do some killing today. I just had to ask: you do realize that killing is in my job description, right? It is literally the main focus of my job, I'm a bucking assassin, which means that I have to kill ponies. Or dragons, or griffons, or any bucking species I'm paid to assassinate. It is something that I cannot avoid in this career."

"Then pick a different career." Blaze said bluntly, not really in the mood to delve into a negative topic: he was having such a great time now that shit was finally ending. He picked up his pace, hoping that they would be able to leave this all behind them, at least the nasty parts until they can start bragging about a job that they pulled off that none had ever dreamed of pulling off before. "You don't have to kill ponies, these guards were just doing their jobs, and it's not like they didn't have lives of their own that they had to go home to after work."

"Dude. If you honestly believe that I chose to be an assassin, you have no bucking clue what life was like before you were born. I realize that I'm not that much older than you, but I was born into this life style, I wasn't given the choice to be what I wanted: I was raised, trained, and made to believe I was an assassin." The confession coming out had halted the trio as they passed the main mound of gold they had seen upon entry, Blaze turning around to look at Rainbow while Vex just stared with a startled look on her face.

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry, I didn't know that." He mumbled, looking down as he understood what she meant, the pain of having your own life chosen for you. He didn't like the idea at all, that ponies could just decide what you were going to do for your life; it was almost like they got to decide what your cutie mark was, and that they were the ones going to apply it. "I'm sorry you had to go through that-"

"Spare me your pity, I don't need it. I've accepted this life, it's the only one I have ever known, so even if I wanted to leave right now, there are few skills I have that other employers would use. That's the price us criminals pay for joining the underworld young for the sake of survival. We pay with our futures, in return we have full, lifetime membership until the day we die, or get exiled." She muttered that last phrase under her breath, a painful memory surfacing in her mind, and the mood that was lightening so fast was suddenly crumbled before them. Blaze felt the need to lift their spirits for the sake of having clear minds on the way out, so he cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Fine, I feel bad for you, but if you don't want support, then I'll just keep it to myself. You can always talk to somepony about your problems, and- Never mind. We got shit to do, and while I will pity you, you seemed to have made the best of your life, so we can just move on, okay?" He asked, offering a hoof to the mare, who shook it briefly and pulled her hood back up over her face, concealing her features once again.

"Now, while we have all this loot, and my itching desire to spend some sweet cut money from this job, can we please get a move on?" Vex asked, slightly shifting her weight between each of her sides as she anxiously awaited the two others to have their emotional moment. She was equal parts uncomfortable with the mushy moment that she was sure would pass, as she was never a fan of softy emotions, along with a side of anxiety at the combination of the wealth stuffed into her bags, and the chore to escape that they still had to complete. Blaze and Rainbow shared a look, then nodded in agreement.

The continued their way through the door, though that was about as far as they were bound to get, as standing in front of them, staring at the bodies in mild horror, was none other than Princess Celestia herself. The three froze, stopping at the edge of the door, eyes glued on the princess whose jaw was hanging open at the sight of four dead guards and two unconscious ones. After two seconds of a lack of any heartbeats, Celestia looked up at the thieves, her eyes slightly cloudy and her jaw was still hanging open. Her eyes locked onto Blaze's and he could clearly see her confusion, disgust, fear, and even a sliver of rapidly growing rage. It was the last emotion he had seen, the fires burning her back to life that spurred him to move.

"Rainbow, Vex." He began to order the girls in a tone that left no room for argument, though his eyes never left the princess before them. "Hug the walls and get out of here. Don't forget to tell Al that I'll be just a moment, I've got to deal with this mess here."

The named mares didn't question him, though Vex did cast a glance his way as she tried to squeeze her way around the Princess of the Sun. Unfortunately for both thieves, Celestia's horn lit up bright gold, and the two mares found themselves trapped in her magic grip. They struggled for a moment before the princess dumped them back next to Blaze, her eyes never leaving his, though the fire raging beneath the surface had grown to nearly overwhelming proportions.

"Actually, I want to speak with Blaze Burn about his current position in the Thieves Guild." Celestia said in a distant voice, her pink orbs finally tearing themselves away from the gaze they had locked with the only standing male in the room. "And in order to do so, I think I need to have you two here to inform him of why he needs to leave you all."

"So it is true!" Vex exclaimed, though she was utterly terrified, she was only acting strong because her mind had shut down at the sight of Princess Celestia. She was working on autopilot at the moment. "You do want Blaze for yourself! Well, hate to break it to you, Princess, but Blaze had chosen to stay with us here at the creed, and he plans of staying."

Celestia didn't really respond to the grey pegasus, she only looked down at her with a deathly blank glare that made the smaller mare squeak in fear, huddling closer to the ground. Blaze was brought out of his own stupor when he heard this fearless mare suddenly try to hide behind her hooves like a filly scared of being yelled at by their parents. He looked down at her, then his gaze worked back up to the Princess, conflict and confusion mixing rather well in his mind right then. What he saw suddenly put the pieces together; Princess Celestia looked positively pissed, her left eye was twitching slightly and her gaze was harder than he had ever seen her before. The more he looked at her, the more he came to realize that she could snap at any moment, then violently rip them all limb from limb, and she seemed angry enough to do so. The dread was beginning to rise in his stomach, and he was beginning to think about his life choices leading up to this point.

Celestia turned her gaze to the other mare, and she had to give the assassin some points, as she had stayed her ground, standing tall in the face of a furious Princess. She levelled her eyes, boring down on the murderer, watching as her psyche slowly cracked under the pressure that only royalty like her was able to create. The mare finally submitted, lowering her gaze and taking the smallest of steps backwards, inciting a low growl to emit from the lips of the Princess of the Sun. "Thine group of thieves all come here unto our dwelling, taking the lives of our faithful subjects, try to corrupt young Blaze Burn from a more innocent life style, and dare not to look us in the eyes? Thee shalt have hath at least the guts to stand up for thine's beliefs."

"Princess, let them go, and maybe we can talk about this?" Blaze asked hopeful that he could at least get these two mares out of the situation, unfortunately, his query only brought the hardened glare Celestia had onto himself. He dropped his gaze to avoid being burned by the raging inferno behind her pink irises. When he looked back up when she didn't respond, he was caught very much off guard, as her angry glare had softened into a look of pity.

"You poor thing, to have to had witnessed such mindless brutality, if only you hadn't had to see what these monsters did to those unfortunate souls." She cooed, lowering her head to be eye level with him, stepping forward while reaching a hoof towards him. He watched her golden-shooed hoof extend closer with confusion spreading over his face, until she was nearly touching him. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, he raised his own hoof, which caused a temporary smile to appear on the Princess' face, until he swatted away her extended limb, sending her back onto her four legs. That was when her face dropped into equal confusion as he had been a moment before.

"It's not like I haven't seen death before, Celestia. You forget that most of the city had been suffering from starvation and homelessness before, and we have only just begun to really fix this shithole of a city back up. I've seen countless families loose somepony because of illness or hunger, freeze in the winter or die of heat stroke in the summer because they had no shelter." He said solemnly, reminiscing on the past, and how he had to turn to the creed to provide for Star while he was able to protect the little blue pegasus.

"Oh, my. I'm so sorry, Blaze. I realize that it may have sounded presumptuous of me, to say that you had to see death, but surely you can recognize the difference between starving ponies and needless murder?" Celestia responded rising to her full height as she spared a glance in the direction of the two mares behind Blaze now, the two using the pearl pegasus as a small meat shield in case shit hit the fan once more.

"Of course there is a difference, and I already told these two that we were going to have a nice, long conversation about it when we got out of here, which is something that you are currently preventing us from doing." Blaze turned his attention to the mares behind him for a second, then his gaze returned to Celestia before he spoke up again. "And while I have no desire to see ponies killed for no real purpose, I recognize that in the heat of the moment, sometime choices have to be made in order to follow through with plans the likes of these. Yes, I think that killing these guards was pointless, however, we cannot go back in time, so there is no point worrying over them."

"What of the families? Would you be willing to tell the widows that their husbands died so you could rob some rich family?" Celestia pried, slowly wearing down at Blaze's resistance.

"Well, I like to think that I-" He had to pause, just so he could really think about this, and whether or not he would have been able to tell a wife that her husband had been killed in action. For him, he had rescue in the form of the assassin, Rainbow, stepping up to his side, placing a wing over his side. He turned his eyes to her, finding her offering him a reassuring smile before her expression hardened and she turned to face Celestia.

"What kind of a question is that? I doubt you would be able to go to a fearful widow and drop that kind of news on her!" She pointed a hoof at the Princess, who was smiling on the inside as she was getting to where she wanted them all to be, having Blaze doubting the validity of a sin such as murder. That was the first thing she needed from him, then to drive a wedge between him and them, all by having them justify or defend their murders.

"You seem to enjoy it, seeing as how you are more than willing to kill an innocent guard just for the sake of grabbing some gold for yourself. I know why you are here, assassin, and it is not in your job description to steal from the wealthy, your job is to kill."

"At least the discomfort is back." Blaze muttered, wondering just where in Tartarus he would have to go to get away from this kind of shit. He always knew Celestia was bound to try some shit to get him to commit to her side, but this? He didn't like having his motives questioned, as he was always doing what he had to, nothing more, nothing less. Unfortunately for him, both mares that had been arguing without his attention not only heard him, but also turned to him.

"Blaze Burn, you must understand, there are more important things that you could be doing than stealing wealth from some stuck-up merchants. You could be helping us rebuild this great nation, and to help get everything we need to make the future as bright as my sun for all ponies under our banner." Celestia said, inciting a scoff of disbelief from Rainbow Crescent.

"Oh, come on! You promise the future, when ponies are struggling to get their hooves under them right now. How are you going to provide for those that need it when the wealthy hold all the power, and all you can do is beg them to assist you in your little pet projects?" She said, removing her wing from Blaze's back and walking forward, getting in the Princess' face, pointing a hoof in her chest. "Besides, as we all have already discussed, Blaze doesn't want to see unnecessary deaths whenever he works with us, which won't be a problem because we probably won't be working together much as it is."

"The sad thing is that Blaze hath need to work with vermin like thee from the beginning." Celestia snapped, knocking the blue hoof out of her golden breastplate as she towered over the pegasus before her. "Blaze Burn is the kind of pony that deserves to work with ponies with some moral compass, not rats like thee. Al Capony is nothing but a two-faced liar whose sole desire is to accumulate as much power and wealth as he can, hence why he hath worked with scum murderers like yourself. He lies and cheats all those under him merely for his own gain, and while you all live in relative comfort, he hath a large house with every luxury of those thee steals from."

"What?" Blaze asked, unsure if he heard that correctly. Yes, he knew that Al had a lot of money, it comes with being leader of the creed, however, something about that revelation seemed off to him. "What do you mean he lies and cheats those underneath of him?"

"Oh, that is the least of thine's concern, Blaze Burn. Thou art against violence to any possible extent, yet thee employer hath deceived you from where in which he hath obtained most of his information." Celestia explained, though Blaze had to turn to Vex to see if she was showing any reaction at all to the words coming from the Princess' maw. What he saw was more than he would have ever gotten from Celestia, as Vex's face had gone completely pale, and she was staring at the Princess of the Sun in utter terror. Said princess seemed to notice the reaction, as her cocky grin broke through for half a second before she resumed with a friendly smile as she approached Blaze. He was busy throwing a questioning look at Vex, but when a large white wing suddenly draped over his back, he jumped quite a bit. "It would seem that thine friend is but unable to come to terms with the now common knowledge of her activities with thine leader."

"Vex. What in the wide world is she talking about?" Blaze asked the quivering mess on the ground, and when she didn't respond, he walked out of Celestia's wing and stepped over to his fellow thief. He nudged her with a hoof, and when she still didn't respond, he turned to prying her onto he legs, which she barely managed to stay up, even with legs shaking as if standing during an earthquake. "Vex?"

"Blaze, as much as I would love for us to all get the answers to question we each have, can we please just ignore the Princess and get out of here? I don't know how much time we have before Al assumes we have been captured." Blaze looked up at her, smacking his head against the wall nearest him, remembering that Al had given him specific times that he was supposed to meet, and be out of the castle from, else they would all have to assume the worst. He smacked his head once more to try to remember the time frame they had while also trying to keep track of how much time had passed.

In his sudden epiphany, Vex had climbed to her hooves and was trying to sneak away, though she got about ten steps before Celestia's horn lit up and she found herself dragged back into the circle forming around Blaze. "You know, I have a faint recollection of Al wanting us in the vault for a bucking minute, and out before the shift had changed. So what are the odds our only distraction to flee from the guards are already long gone?"

"All the more reason to stay and finish this discussion we have started so that you may see the error of your friends' ways at that filthy hole of a building you call a guild." Celestia sounded a little smug about herself, and while Blaze wasn't wanting to do her bidding, the very idea made him want to vomit, he had to admit he was curious. "So, what is it to be, young Blaze Burn. Shalt thee stay and finish thine discussion and learn the secrets thine's creed wished be kept from you?"

Blaze let out a sigh, looking to Rainbow for assistance, though she seemed more curious over the interpersonal drama happening to offer any more aid. He guessed she had realized that until they had a good way out of the castle, humoring the Princess was their best shot at staying out of the castle dungeons. Vex was looking at the ground in what he could only guess to be some form of shame, and Celestia still had the smug grin on her face that he didn't like. Still if humoring the Princess got them out, then humor the Princess he shall.

"I guess you could say that you have sparked my curiosity." He said in obviously forced enthusiasm, though Celestia seemed to miss it and beamed in perceived victory as she floated Vex over to him, though the more in magical grip still refused to look up. "Vex? Mind if I ask a question?"

"No, no. You don't have to ask anything." She mumbled, looking up at him, and he saw what he believed to be fear and defeat? He never really saw a whole lot of Vex's facial range, and this side of her was something he was sure nopony had ever seen before, so maybe this was a stress-induced state. She let out a sigh, her face turning into a more familiar form of discontented acceptance, and she began to elaborate on what the Princess of the Sun had accused her and the creed of. "You see, in this line of work, secrets and information that others want hidden are sort of like a special currency. Gold is your key to information, but some information can be spent as a check, getting something far more valuable out of it."

"Okay." Blaze spoke without confidence, unsure as to what she was going with, because it wasn't exactly a state secret that state secrets were in high demand among thieves and the other undesirables that mad up their community.

"Well, because information like that has high value, those that wish to keep secrets make sure to do so, and that usually involves threats of violence or worse to those who leak information. And those types of threats are common amongst the personal guards-for-hire and mercs around. They know that spilling information could end up with a bounty on their heads. That means that there is a high competition amongst the bidders between who is willing to pay to most to own somepony's lips long enough to contain a secret or to earn the right to hear it. That is where we come in, Blaze. Some information we have, such as the basement and the tunnels under the city, are privy to few, because we have to maintain a level of secrecy else we get more and more ponies trying to go to the city guard to find our base and raid it to permanently seal the tunnels. We would have a mass panic on out hooves if word spread about that sort of thing."

"Oh, please remain silent on thine subject." Celestia whined. "Thou art not the only ones who hath to hide information from the public to prevent mass panic in regards to the tunnels beneath the city. Mine dearest sister and I hath withheld any discussions of them to keep the citizens happy, and thee hath not any idea how difficult it hath been with current renovations to the city. But we stray from our original discourse."

"Please." Blaze had to close his eyes to keep himself from getting a headache, though he felt one coming on. "Can we please keep hostility out of this for as long as it takes for us to clear this shit out?"

"Very well. As I was saying before being rudely interrupted," Vex shot a quick, fearfully defiant glare at Celestia, then she looked back at Blaze with even more resignation in her tone. "We had to hold information, and we aren't the only ones to ever do so, and that is the other major problem we usually run into. Whenever we get a job, we want to know as much as possible, hence sending you to scout the castle today an extra time. We had enough information to pull the job off, but we wanted to have everything we could before barging in. Well, wow I really didn't think I'd be the one to have to explain our extra activities with you. Okay, here it goes. Kid, in order to get everything we could for this job, we had to interrogate a couple of ponies about the locations of various posts and the location of the vault itself. We have contacts, yes. But sometimes we can't get to them, or they usually have little information to offer, those useless pricks don't usually expect to stay within the business for very long."

"Where are you going with this, Vex? Interrogations aren't that big of a deal." Blaze asked, his hoof rubbing the side of his head as he felt that there was going to be more to this story than he even cared to know.

"If thou would let her finish, thee would understand that their 'interrogations' don't just consist of asking polite questions." Celestia muttered under her breath, intentionally loud enough for the three others to hear. Blaze stared her down for a moment, then her turned to let his fellow thief finish her explanation, his headache not going to go away until he was out of this situation.

"When we interrogate somepony, Blaze, we don't just ask questions, as Celestia is so happy to say. We make sure they know we mean business, and that we are going to get answers from them one way or another." As she finished the final sentence, she bit her lip, hoping that there wouldn't be too terrible of a whiplash from this revelation for the kid. She didn't look down at the ground, though, she just sat there on her haunches, looking at Blaze with a pleasing look in her eyes. She deeply hoped he wouldn't give into the Princess' desire to have him on her side, as he was so close to the creed. Having him leave them, it wasn't going to be terrible, but the kid had some skill that was very useful to the group of thieves, and losing him would make a noticeable difference in their success. She used that as motivation to stop herself from revealing anything else about her activities with the Blackguard in the prison block underneath the warehouse, because she knew that that was all she would have to say to push him to the Princess' side.

Blaze looked at her, though his eyes rested upon her, his gaze was drifting beyond, staring into space as he thought about the methods of interrogation, if he could still call it that. After a brief moment he decided that he needed to understand exactly what she was saying about the subject. "How much torture did you use to get information from ponies?"

"What?" Vex blinked for a moment, having expected some kind of outburst from the young Blackguard, while hoping he would show compassion and understanding. What she was not expecting, was him to be curious, or at least she thought he was being curious, it may have just been him trying to process what the buck was changing around him.

"How many ponies have you tortured to get information about jobs like this?" He repeated, his tone neither welcoming nor repulsed, but there was an icy chill in the lack of emotion, as if he was merely speaking words from a distance.

"Oh, well, uh. I don't know how many the creed has, but I've seen a few. Maybe a dozen or so that resisted enough to get Al's attention and have him force the information out of them." As she revealed the numbers, Blaze's face fell, his mind racing at the thought of all those ponies being beaten and abused, all for some sick kind of greed. Vex was starting to panic, because she was getting the picture that if Blaze turned on them right then, Celestia was going to be more than happy to imprison her. Vex didn't want to go to jail, she was so young, she still had so much to live for, so many places to rob, and so much wealth waiting for her back at her home. "But most of them lived!"

"Most?" Blaze's voice dipped from emotionally lacking cold, to the edgy ice cold that Vex had only heard from Al once, and that was when he was furious. She stepped away from Blaze, Rainbow doing the same, while even Celestia seemed a little worried about what was going on. Vex tried to explain her way out of this, but her jaw wouldn't stop trembling, so she only did what she could do, which was nod furiously as she backed herself into a corner.

Blaze glared down at Vex, feeling bile rising in his throat, but he swallowed it down, forcing his burning neck to lower to the ground as he approached the trembling mare. He hated that they had killed guards, here, but he was willing to move past it as long as he established some ground rules with his partners. He was a little disturbed by the fact that they had tortured ponies, and he knew that was something he wasn't able to forgive the creed for, but he was willing to work them into stopping it. He knew there were other ways of getting information from ponies, and beating them into submission wasn't the only option. But this: them killing prisoners in their search for knowledge? Blaze would not align himself with thieves who stole from the needy, who were willing to kill an innocent, or kill prisoners once they had outlived their usefulness. He was not going to just sit around and let them behave like they lived under Discord's rule, chaos and violence the name of the game.

He paused in front of the pegasus, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath to center his thoughts. He hadn't known anypony to leave the creed behind, but with what he had, he desired no part of them. He just needed to get this one last job done and over with, then he would collect his pay from them and move on. He opened his eyes to see that Vex he collected some of her lost ego, standing tall again in front of him, looking down at him with eyes that still betrayed her fear of him. He reached forwards and grabbed her hoof, pulling her back towards the stairs. "Rainbow, let's go. We've been in here for too long as it is."

The three mares all sputtered at the same time, having seen looking like he was just an inch away from killing somepony. Rainbow Crescent and Celestia all shook their head, trying to make sure they weren't delusional, turning to each other in equally bewildered shock.

"Woah, hold on there, kid! After everything that just bucking happened, all you are going to do is say one word, think it over for a second and decide to keep trooping on? We had a long ass conversation because you didn't like us killing a few guards in combat, but you are more than happy to move past a dozen tortured to death ponies being kept secret from you?" Rainbow dived in front of Blaze, halting him from advancing any further away from the vault, sticking their faces right next to each other so she could stare into his eyes and make sure he wasn't insane all of a sudden. Blaze blinked back at the sudden intrusion, but recovered enough to back away and look at her with raised eyebrows in the universal 'Really?' look.

"We shalt concur with the assassin on this topic, it shalt seem rather strange that thee would act this way towards a revelation of this magnitude." Celestia said, though she opted with not moving from her spot.

"No, I am not just moving passed this, because I don't know how any of you could live with this kind of knowledge. I saw you two kill a total of one, two, three. . ." Blaze had to pause mid-sentence so he could remember exactly how many lives had been taken by these two mares just this night. "six guards tonight you two. How the buck you sleep at night is beyond me, so no; I'm not just going to shrug this off as part of the job. You can do that, Rainbow, as it is literally your job to kill ponies, but us thieves prefer to keep our blades clean unless we have no other choice, and don't you give me that shit that there was no other choice. You could have easily knocked them out, I did."

"So, where the hay are you going then?" Rainbow retorted, hoping to drive him away from the repeated topic of murder, as she was done with hearing him complain.

"I'm going to take you and Vex back to the creed, we are going to complete this bucking mission, and you get sent on your way. Vex and I get our checks, I say my goodbyes to the creed, and then I'm done." He answered with an air of finality that made it difficult to argue with, not that that was going to stop Vex from trying. She may have only really cared about the money, but this was something that she felt she needed to intervene with. If Blaze left the creed, there were going to be quite a few issues that the group would have to resolve about his knowledge of what they were doing.

"Blaze, you can't just give up on us like that! Think of all the shit we've been through, and what you've contributed to us." She said, finally getting her hoof back and rubbing it to get the blood flowing through the limb once more. "Kid, you've done some crazy shit for us, and I know that we have always done what we could to make you feel like part of the family. How are you going to just leave a family like this?"

"Family? Are you really trying to tell me we are a family? Listen to me, and listen good, because I'm only going to say this once: Family doesn't lie to each other, family trust each other, and family is cares enough to let the other know when they've gone too far. I don't even have to tell you when you've gone too far, because you never followed limits as it was." Blaze began angrily, though by the end he just sounded more exhausted than anything, and he had to turn to look completely at Vex as she stared at him with panicked eyes. "We are not a family, because you never cared, nor trusted me enough to tell me your sins, and the final thing: We are not family because I would never dare relate to anypony who would take a life so mercilessly, over something like information about money. Greed is your sin, selfishness and desire your means of obtaining that sin. Now let's go, I'm done sitting around here with murderers and ponies who pretend to care about my opinions, only to use me for their own goals."

"Blaze, wait!" Vex called as he gave her hoof another pull, trying to make her move so they could make their escape. "Even if we wanted to get out, we have no way of knowing what the buck is outside, we'll be captured for sure. Blaze! You're not listening, are you? Blaze!"

Blaze had heard her, but he was just so tired of dealing with them, and at that point, all he cared about was getting his cut and leaving. He wanted to go home, rest on his bed, and sleep for a week, though he wasn't thrilled about dealing with the fallout of his actions the night before this one. He pulled her once more, and she finally relented, starting to head towards the stairs, though Rainbow halted her with a hoof on her side, the pair still looking at back at him. Though when he focused his attention on them, he saw that they were gazing behind him, at the Princess in the hall he had already forgotten about. He sighed and turned to her, wondering just what he was going to have to do to get her off his case.

"Are you sure you are okay?" She asked, her tone tender and caring, though Blaze felt that it was more forced because of his sudden outburst. He looked at her, her pink eyes showing what he could only guess was genuine concern, though he had only seen such from Star, the old guy at home, and Scaled Equilibrium, so he wasn't too sure.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm done with this shit, and I'm going to collect my pay, head home, and rest for as long as I can." He answered, feeling strangely numb after his energetic night. This was going on for far longer than he had expected, and calling it a night sounded better by the minute.

"If you truly desire to leave the creed, does that mean you have considered my offer of joining mine or my sisters' soldiers?" Blaze blinked, as he thought he heard a hint of distaste in her voice, but it was gone before he could confirm. He looked at her for a moment, trying to think about why she would think to ask that, at such a time, she wanted him to join her even when he- He had to take a moment to breathe before he could come up with an answer, and as the silence blanketed over them, Rainbow and Vex leaned in closer to see his reaction.

After carefully choosing his words, he inhaled so that he could grace them with his decision, something he was unsure how they would take it, especially Vex as she was still grasping his plan to leave.

"Princess Celestia, you come to me to ask me to join the royal guard, more so protectors of the throne than the city guard, correct?" He began, his gaze landing even on the named princess, who had a smile creeping onto her maw from his choice of words. She nodded once, answering that she would love to have him being her guard. "Very well, if I were to take up such a position, I'm sure it would have been an honor to guard such an important pony in Equestria. Be that as it may, I'm afraid I must refuse your offer once more."

That got a surprised yelp from the Princess, who had been so sure he was finally giving into her side after she had revealed his creed's activities to him. But what came next only added to the shock was reeling in. "I wouldn't have accepted before tonight, but I'm sure as Tartarus not going to accept the position now. Not only have you been waiting for a moment like this to tell the big secret to me, which is something that you really shouldn't be keeping a secret, but then there is the fact that you thought to use a crime organization's crimes to coerce me to your side. You desired to use this information only to convince me that you are in the right, and that somehow you would be able to fix these wrongs, yet here you stand, the dead before you because you allowed them to die.

"Princess Celestia, you allowed ponies to die, just so you could try to convince me that you are a holy crusader desiring to bring ponies like those in the creed to justice. You are killing ponies by not doing anything to stop murderers from killing them, so to think that you can blame the creed for all this wrong." Blaze had to shake his head, trying to stop the fire that was reignited within his heart. "No, Celestia, I want nothing to do with ponies who know that ponies die, yet does nothing about it."

Without sparing any more words, Blaze turned and marched Vex and Rainbow out of the hallway, up the stairs, and through an empty hallway towards the servant door. Both mares couldn't help but stare into space, mostly surprised the Blaze would think of something like that on the spot. Just before he could open the door to escape, they heard hoofsteps behind them, and they turned to see who was approaching. It was Celestia, her face blank as she got closer.

"Damnit." He muttered under his breath as he looked back at the door that was barely cracked open, revealing a dark cobblestone path between the castle and the nearest buildings. The torchlight from inside was shining through several of the windows and illuminating the near sides of the buildings. "You two head on out, take the loot back to the creed, tell them that I'll be on my way, I'll be just a moment, but I don't want you two to get caught. Okay?"

He didn't let them answer, as he shoved them out of the door, closing it before they could resist, and turned to see Celestia getting even closer. He inhaled, holding his breath for a second before letting it out and moving to meet the Princess in the middle.

"Blaze Burn, I fear that you may not have received the message that I was attempting to give you, so please allow me to clarify my position." She said as soon as the two had come within polite speaking distance, though Blaze had halted the moment her words left her mouth. She was so inclined, and had kept walking until the two were side by side, then she turned around, and wrapped her wing over his back, pulling him into her side. Blaze weakly tried to resist, though he was hesitant to admit that he did enjoy the warmth spreading between them. Blaze shuffled his wings, feeling the cloak between his back and her wing begin to clump up as her wing gently applied more and more pressure. He had to shuffle his back once more before he had it settled into a comfortable position. Celestia waited patiently for him to get comfortable before she pulled him with her wing and the two began to walk slowly down the hall.

As soon as they started to walk, Blaze felt his cloak really begin to scrunch up, so he did the first thing that he thought of. He waited until Celestia was mid-step, then he ducked out of her wing, sidestepping so to avoid getting stuck under her wing again. As soon as he had straightened himself out, he looked at her, while she stared at him with confusion making itself the dominant emotion on her face. He rolled his shoulders, letting the cloak fall back to its full length as an answer for himself.

"You were explaining." He said, trying to get her to continue with her explanation, because while he didn't really want to be here, he was trying to be nice enough that she didn't throw him in the dungeons. Not that he really believed she would do that.

"Right, well. I wish to clarify because you seemed to believe that I intentionally ignore the crimes that your employer, Al Capony commits. Well, the truth is far more complicated than that, because you see, there are a great many issues that my sister and I must attend to during our working time. We get very little sleep, and we are constantly worrying about what to do to repair this broken nation. Because of the multitude of large issues we work with, we have very little time to investigate crimes on smaller scales in the nation." She said as they continued down the hall, passed the corner and heading towards what Blaze assumed to be the kitchens. "Due to smaller issues becoming more and more common, we have had to put more guards into city policing. The problem with that is we can't send all our guards to patrol the streets, and we have so few guards as it is. Al can get away with his crimes because I need him to help regulate any other criminals on the streets, which is why he does as he pleases. He had immunity from anything I can do, because it is him and whatever he does that helps to keep other crime at a minimum whenever the guards are unable to assist."

"So, you had to make a deal with a criminal to stop other criminals from becoming more of a threat?" Blaze asked to clarify, wondering just why the adult life seemed to get more and more complicated the more he grew up.

"Precisely, though I had thought that by employing a pony like you, we would have been able to either have special guards capable of more abuse than others, or that I could have you training more guards as well, increasing the number of guards we have to use. It seems that in my attempt to protect the city in the short run, I had ruined its chances of protection over longer periods of time." She sighed, the pair finally reaching their destination: the kitchens. Celestia led her way in, heading directly to where a couple of chefs stood at a counter, rolling dough on the flour-encrusted counters. "Chefs, have thee any meals prepared for a mare hungry late at night?"

The ponies leapt into the air at the sudden sound of her voice, not at all expecting to see or hear from the day princess at this hour. They spun around to see her looking at them with an amused look on her face, and they quickly bowed, the larger of the two nodding at her request. Underneath his chef's hat and cooking apron was a bright pink coat of fur, and rolling from underneath his hat was an equally bright pink mane. He stood and quickly trotted over to a nearby pantry, pulling out a questionably fresh apple pie, the steam still rolling from the slice in the top. He bounded over to the Princess, offering it just underneath her muzzle, to which she blinked in surprise until the aroma from the pie drifted into her nostrils. Once the sweet scent of apple pie invaded her nose, her muzzle began to drool slightly, and her stomach made it common knowledge that it demanded an immediate sacrifice.

"We must apologize, Blaze Burn, but we hath not eaten since sometime around noon. We trust thee hath capabilities to find thine's way out of the castle?" He nodded. "Excellent, we shalt see thee soon for a more formal conversation, and we bid thee a restful night, of which we must get to ourselves. We hath a busy day on the morrow."

Blaze nodded and left, hearing the gasps from behind him, most likely the chefs surprised by his lack of bowing in respect to the Princess. He shrugged, not really caring about what they thought, and made his way to the servant door.

Outside, he could see the patrols of guards around the castle, all unaware to his presence, though he wanted to make sure that that was not the case for much longer. He crouched low, flaring his wings wide open as he adjusted the saddlebags on his back, his cloak sliding into a thin strip between his white feathered wings. He shook his back, settling the cloak into a position it would hold as he sped away, while he made sure the bags of loot were indeed secured to his back. The last thing he really wanted was during the flight, having the saddlebags open and his loot falling to the ground.

Happy that he was not going to lose anything during his sudden departure or games with the guards, he leaped into the air. With a very loud pump of his wings, he was rocketing skywards, his thief clothing doing a decent job at hiding his pearl chest and back, though his wings and legs were still doing an excellent job at making him visible in the night sky. His speed proved useful for him, however, as by the time the air patrols had noticed him, he was already completing a barrel roll above them and flying towards the city. He heard them shout at him as he shot passed, but their words were lost to him as he took a dive to avoid colliding with an incoming pegasus guard, one who hadn't noticed him yet. Flaring his wings again to level out, Blaze heard the distinct sound of wings separating air caught in his ears, and he spared a glance back at the patrol following him. He grinned as he saw a group of five pegasi zoning in on him, and he pulled his wings tight against his body. Almost immediately, he dropped like a fat foal on a seesaw.

The guards did their best to follow him into the streets below, but Blaze's knowledge of the street layout, combined with his ability to quickly turn in air, and he lost them within five minutes.

---

Author's Later Note: Hey guys, I don't plan on doing this much, but I really need your guys' opinion. I'd appreciate it if you could give me your opinion on the interaction with Celestia. I wanted to replicate the idea that she has a natural ability to turn situations to her favor, but I don't know how I did. If you have any suggestions on how it turned out, feel free to give them to me. I want it to be as perfect as possible, but I just don't have the proper abilities to put into words what I wanted to. Thanks.