Kestral watched from a nearby alley as the trio of guards made their way down a road. Earlier, he had seen on one of the clocks in the mansion that it was only a little past midnight, letting him know that he ha a good five hours to spend before he needed to get back to his new safe place. He had realized that if something happened to him, he would be ill prepared. Injuries and blood loss, he could deal with. But what if he got sick? Running around in the rain was a great way to catch a cold, and a lack of sunlight would make him deficient in vitamin D. Granted, he was often in the midst of a forest back on earth, but on earth, he could visit a pharmacy any time he needed. In 'Equestria', though, he felt he needed to be prepared ahead of time.

Which all led him to there, following a group of guards as they carried off the ponies he saved. He saw them round the corner, so he looked up for any pegasai. The clouds were awfully low, making it easy to spot any that are actually within distance to see him. He burst across the road and took to another alley, close to the other end of the residential district.

Once across, he poked his head out and gauged how far the group had gone. It was about halfway down the last row of houses, so he made his way through the alley at a brisk pace. He made sure not to pass them, and after only a minute or two, got to the end of the last row. He poked his head out again, and saw them going directly for a large building in the distance. It had a normal design, and color scheme as many of the other buildings, but with a big sign in the front with a red cross.

Really, how did I not see that before?

It stuck out like a sore thumb, so it perplexed Kestral how he failed to notice it, since by then he had probably past it at least twice. He watched as the group made its way up to the entrance, which was brightly lit, even with most of the windows being dark. He ran his own way there, making sure there wasn't a flying guard able to spot him. He ran up to the side, in case someone inside could see through the rain and into the darkness.

He began checking windows, but found many of them were lock, and he was unable to find a space under the glass. After checking a few windows, he decided that they were all unable to be broken into. Looking up, he spotted the second floor windows, which were almost all identical to the first floor. There was one exception. One the second floor, about the center was a smaller window, and it looked like it wasn't painted like the rest.

I wonder if this will work.

He ran under the window, and leaped up from the first. He grabbed the window, and pulled until his feet were on the frame of the lower one. He felt looked at the bottom to find that there was a crack, so he pulled out his flat bar and pressed it under. With a quick downward motion, he pried it open. He pushed it open all the way, but instead of pulling himself up, he teleported in, then quickly closed it.

Kestral looked down at his boots, noticing the mud collected on the bottom. He raised a foot in the air, whisked away the boot, and stepped on clean carpet with his exposed sock. He did the same with the other foot, ensuring he would not leave a trail.

With that done, he looked around. It was an office of sorts, one decorated with educational prestige. A desk and papers sat before him, with a comfortable looking chair. To the sides were a number of filing cabinets, indicating that the room was used more for number crunching rather than patients.

He immediately began rummaging through the desk, looking for anything that could be of use. The large drawers on it were filled with files, while the smaller ones were filled with utensils and supplies. The last one at the top had a perfectly organized set of keys, each even with a label. He went through each one, until he got to the last one, which had a note on it. He opened the note and read it.

Dear Nightstick,

If I find you going through our damn supply closet, or find anything missing during your shift, you can bet your ass is on the line for it.

With love,

Redheart

Damn, He thought, Hope he's not on duty, or he might lose his job over me. He grabbed a pencil from the drawer, and wrote on the back of it.

Dear “Redheart”,

Don't hate me babe, but I'm kinda in need of some fixn's, ya know? I have medical needs, but everyone here thinks I'm out to get them, so it'd be better for business to take and go.

With alcohol, and thoughts on your ass,

Your Master Thief

PS

I don't know prices, so I’ll just leave some cash for compensation.

Oh, and, sorry about the mud.

He took out about twenty pieces of gold, and silently laughed as he put them on the paper. He grabbed the key and closed the drawer. The whole note was going to throw them for a loop; Doctors guards and all. It was bad enough, to be a guard and have your whole town be outdone by a single thief. One that apparently tries to act smooth, uses unintelligent slang in writing, and is somehow inebriated during the whole act of the crime is all just icing on the cake. Double points if Redheart turns out to be a guy, and I just made it look like I'm hitting on him.

To Kestral, surviving was important, but he wanted to minimize any permanent damage his survival brought on people. Money can be replaced easily, but reputations can be more difficult to remedy, as he had come to find out. In that instance, the note may very well have kept 'Nightstick' from being fired, so to Kestral it was justified. It didn't hurt that he could have fun with it too.

But that didn't matter too much. He clicked the lock on the door and opened it slowly. He checked left and right to ensure that there wasn't anyone there, and exited the door, leaving it unlocked, but closed.

At one end of the hall was a stairwell, and the other was just a window. Ahead of him was another, short hall that splits a set of rooms apart. The dim moonlight from a couple of exposed windows made it easier to see, but it was still hard to make out too many shapes.

He walked across, and into the shorter hall. A room at either side were set in the middle of each wall. One door had a vague shape of a pony on it and the other... another vague shape of a pony, only a bit bulkier, especially on the snout. He decided they were restrooms and stepped back into the main hall. He went towards the end opposite of the stairway, checking each door on his way. Each one was marked as a patient room, until he got to the end, where a janitor closet took residence instead.

He began walking down to the other end, but as he neared the office again, he began hearing the clopping of hooves and talking of mouths from the stairs. He hid himself behind the corner, next to the restrooms, and watched. He heard two sets of hooves coming up, and as he pulled his head behind the corner, the lights flicked on.

“They're right there around the corner.” Quickly the sets split, leaving only one set coming towards Kestral.

Aw crap. There was no other place to go, so he opened the door next to him, and slipped inside. With the bright lights already on, he looked at each of the three stalls, one of which had a picture of a pony on a wheelchair, go figure. With little time, he teleported into the handicap stall, standing on top of the closed cover.

His speedy escape from danger was rewarded, as the door of the room opened loudly. The hooves of a pony got louder, until they stopped in the stall next to him.

The next minute in that room became a horrifying experience of listening to the most ungodly bowl movements. He plugged his ears in a desperate attempt to keep it out, but the complete silence in the rest of the surroundings helped none. The offending smell made him want to claw his nose off, but he managed to stay quite through the ordeal. None too soon, the pony flushed and exited again, leading her self up to the sinks. Right then is where 'she' said the absolute worst thing possible.

“Darn it, some of it got in my tail.”

The sound of the faucet drowned out the sound of Kestral gagging at the mental image.

She had then left, while Kestral waited, holding his breath. After a minute or so, he decided it was safe, so he exited the stall. He walked out the door and took in two lungs full of fresh air. With the hell behind him, and the hallway lights off again, he started checking the rooms to each side of him. Only a couple of rooms, both being less private patient rooms, until he came to the end. Right there, in bold print, were the words 'Medical Supply Closet'.

He pulled out the key, and pressed it in the tumbler lock. He opened the door with ease, and closed it, making sure to lock it. A window at one side let in some light, and it seemed to be too bright to be moonlight, but as he looked he saw that the clouds were rolling back, almost as if directed to a spot just out of town.

Huh... fucking weather's always doing weird shit.

He shook his head, and looked around the room. Metal shelves greeted him all along the wall, full of organized supplies, though not all of it looked familiar. He immediately went for what did; Bandages. He grabbed a large handful of different kinds. Rolls of gauze and absorbent white pads were the most critical, but he did grab some stick-ons for the minor things. After he was done with that, he went through the pharmaceutical supplies in stock.

They were labeled off into different generic symptoms, though near the end of the shelf some of the bottles were labeled off for specific diseases. He grabbed painkillers, which were marked as containing morphine, and must have been stronger than the ones he already had. Then he grabbed an anti-diarrheal, and placed it in his bag as well. One of the worst things that could happen is to get diarrhea, and not have access to water. It is a painful way to die, since it will drain the body off its precious water supply. It had yet to happen to Kestral, but all it takes is one bad bite of food or gulp of drink, and it starts.

He grabbed some fever-reducing pills, for similar reasons. He turned around and looked for anything else that could be of use. He saw a section labeled 'supplements', and decided that he could try to find some vitamin D supplements, since he was going to spend much less time out during the day.

When he reached to start searching for a bottle, though, he saw something else that caught his eye. He read the most interesting thing in that room, right on the label of a cardboard box; 'Sedation'.

He forgot about the vitamins, and pulled out the box so he could see. There was no top, so he simply looked into it. A few bags of pills, each with labels on the side, a bag of unknown, white powder, and several odd-looking syringes. He grabbed one of the syringes, and noticed that there was no way to force its contents out. He messed around with it, until pressing on the end caused a reaction. Past the needle of it, he pressed on the blunt base, causing some of the liquid to come out.

Oh cool, this is one of those auto-injectors they use on the mentally ill. Good to know.

He hid the half used -and probably then useless- needle, and grabbed some of the others. He snatched four in total, placing them in his coat. He knew that they weren't completely necessary, but if he got caught and had to knock out someone, those injectors would do less damage to a pony's body than, say, chocking him or her out. He didn't grab any powder or pills, though, since he had no plans to preemptively knock people out. The syringes were more just for emergencies.

He unlocked the door and slowly went out. He quickly made his way to the office and inside. He dropped the key off on the note he left, and opened the window. After throwing his boots back on, he hopped out, into the grass, and into the dark night.

It was time to do some 'shopping'.

Kestral pried on the third window in a row. Once again, it failed to budge. He whisked away his flat bar, giving up on any of the windows being anything but barred shut. He would try to pick the lock, but he had never taught himself how to do it, and he could never find a book on it. In fact, he didn't own a lock-picking set.

You know what? That's on my list of crap to get. Discord probably knows where a locksmith is around here.

Of course, that didn't solve the problem at hand. He ran to the back, but found there was no back entrance to the first floor, but there was a basement. It had a lock on it, but unlike the metal/glass door at the front, this one was wood. He set the wood around the lock in flames, though it burned slowly. Once the obstruction was out of the way, he pulled it open and descended into the room.

He started a flame, to illuminate the room. Odd looking machinery stood against the walls; Some made for smashing, some for cutting, and a few pieces looked like they were for molding. Metallic dust kicked off the ground as he walked towards the back, where a stairwell waited for him. He passed by a pile of broken metallic bits and pieces and ores. They looked as if they were prepared to be recycled, but Kestral saw no furnace in the room. He would grab them, but decided that they didn't have much potential value compared to what was waiting for him upstairs.

He ascended to the door at the top, and opened it, revealing the back of a counter. He walked out and saw an array of silver and gold around the room. Bracelets, necklaces, even a small set of rings were set up in display cases around the room. Next to him was a cash register, the metal door, and a key hanging on the wall.

He eagerly opened the register, letting the ring fill the silence, but was disappointed to find it was empty. He casually closed it and walked down the counter. Kestral opened a display case at the end, grabbing the three silver rings it held.

He observed them, looking at the small gem that each held. Emerald, ruby, and sapphire glimmered in the mixed light from the moon and his flame. He made them disappear into the shadows, and moved on towards other displays. He snatched several bracelets, some of them encrusted, and stowed them away.

He didn't grab every piece he could find, though. The owner could probably take the loss, but, in the case he or she couldn't, he didn't want to single-handedly bankrupt them. When all was said and done, only about half the jewelry on the first floor was left.

He walked to the back of the room, where another set of stairs were tucked away, and crept his way up. The second floor was full of pictures of jewelry, gems, and other metallic luxuries. In the middle sat a large stool and a roll of measuring tape, along with a book propped up against the stools leg. It looked as if it was used for custom jewelry, so he simply walked over to the last set of stairs, and went up.

The third, and final, floor, was definitely more interesting. For a thief anyway. Paperwork and drawings were strewn about, covering desks, mannequins and a good portion of the floor. A large safe sat against the wall, with only a tumbler lock separating the inside from the outside.

Now just to find a key.

He began his search in one of the nearby desks. He pulled out drawer after drawer, only to find more drawings, paper, pencils, and scrapbooks. He looked for false bottoms in the drawers, and felt for anything that may be taped to the underside of the desks, but still found no key. He even moved them some, in case they were hidden on the back. He looked around the mannequins and under special looking papers, but still found no key.

Damn. If only I could pick a lock. Then I wouldn't need a damn key.

He guessed that if he hadn't found it already, it was either too well hidden, or not even there. He began descending the steps down to the second floor when something occurred to him.

Wait...that key downstairs...If it was to the store, it wouldn't be here, it would be with the owner! That's the key!

He rushed down the steps, then down the second set. He ran to the hook where the shiny key was, grabbed it, then began up again. He quickly reached the third floor again, and rushed to the safe, excited to procure something of use from within. He pressed it in, and turned it all the way, making audible clicking noises. He then pulled on the handle, opening the cursed gate that prevents him from getting his treasure. As it opened, the iron wall revealed...!

….an egg.

He grabbed the jet-black egg, which was sealed to and held by a golden frame, which reached down and created a four-leg base. On three of the legs, it read in a strange language. One looked like Greek, another seemed to be some kind of hieroglyphics, and one looked Russian, but Kestral knew it was not, lest it be deliberately spelled into gibberish. The last one, though, was English.

It read -at least the English portion- “Darkness- that which keeps the helpful light from harming”.

Huh. He looked it over. It was a peculiar piece, so much so that it even drew a longing interest from Kestral. He never really cared for jewelry or the such, but that piece caught his eye, and it didn't want to let go. I think I’ll keep this one. He thought, as he magicked it away.

He left the safe and key as they were, making his way down until he came to the basement. It was a good night, with much loot to be had, but he needed to get back before sunrise came. He once again walked through the heavy air of the basement, and made his way to the door. He pressed it open, looking for any danger, then opened it all the way, and walked out into the light of the almost setting moon.