POP pop popop popopopop pop...............pop

Kestral curled up into a ball and popped several segments of his spine by rolling down on them. He cracked his fingers and proceeded to get up onto his feet. Several feelings hit him at once. The first one was the urge to take a piss, and the second was the more overwhelming urge to find something to drink. Perhaps water would be best.

The survivor skills in his head were adding up those two feelings into something he'd rather not do.

Taking out his last bottle of water, he took a swig and drank about half the bottle in only a few short gulps. Quenching his thirst, he realized he did all this in the darkness of whoever's basement he was in. He flicked on a flame, one good enough to see in almost total darkness.

He decided that he could hold his bladder for a while, given there was no good place to go in that room. He just hoped he could find a place before long, or it might be a painful wait. He looked over at the barrel. It was probably distilling alcohol, though why it already had a faucet on was beyond Kestral. Perhaps the owner came down every once in a while to snag a cup before throwing it in the ice-box to kill off the yeast, or whatever they used there to make alcohol.

He looked over to the other side and observed the pile of tools he remembered earlier that day. He walked over and began picking through the mess of metallic objects.

Most of it was gardening tools. Rakes with rusted tines and a few shovels with broken tips were stuck on top. He tossed them off to the side and dug through more. For some reason a pickaxe was in the mix, but he threw it aside nonetheless. He was about to give up on finding the one tool that he could find useful in the situation he was in, but right at the bottom of the pile he saw it. He reached out and picked up the wide piece of metal, bringing it close to the light so he could see it.

What he then held in his hands the single most useful tool he could think of; A flat-bar. He observed the beautiful device, feeling the smooth curves; One broad turn near one end and a sharp turn at the other, allowing for maximum leverage.

He slid the metal down behind the straps that held his machete sheath in place on his leg, hooking the heavily bent end on the top strap. Kestral smiled at his turn in luck. He may have already been seen, but that piece of equipment made his thieving life an awful lot better.

Now to see if I'm good to leave.

He turned back to the entrance of the basement, and noticed the bright line across the steps making its way from the top to the bottom. He could already tell what that meant. It was midday, and hours before he could move around the town with relative ease. Of course, he still needed to relieve himself, and the basement was not the place for it.

He pressed under the doors and gently lifted on one side. Light poured in as it slowly went up, and he quickly got enough room to witness the outside world. From what he could see, not a single pony was lollygagging around his surroundings. This was good, but not unusual for an alley way. As far from the end as he was, he could not tell if there were many ponies in the streets. It didn't matter much though, since the distance would make it just as hard for them to see Kestral.

He forced himself up more, making sure that the area really was clear, before stepping out completely. He spotted a pegasus fly over the row of houses in the distance, but not near enough to panic him any. He closed the door and looked to the side of the house it was attached to.

Kestral smiled at what he saw. A large set of colorful shutters were on the wall, begging to be pried open. He moved under them and, to his mild surprise, opened them with ease. What greeted him was a clear glass window with a lot of darkness on the other side. Typically, that meant no one was home.

He pulled out his new toy and stuffed the end under the window, prying it open. After a small crack resounded, it let up, so he pushed it all the way open. He crawled through the opening, and landed with a small thud on a wooden floor. He stood up and let his eyes adjust to the lower light levels. Before anything else, though, he closed the shutters from the inside, just to make sure they don't arouse suspicion.

He was in. He immediately set out to find that bathroom. When he found it he went in without another thought.

Kestral came back out after he washed his hands. He still had his flame lit up because he couldn't find a light. After exiting, he nearly had a heart attack. He heard a tiny voice from upstairs call out 'Mom' as if it were a question. He quickly bolted across the living room and into the kitchen. He leaned against the wall and around the corner enough to watch the staircase.

A small pony came out from above, one just barely tall enough to be eye level Kestral's knee, and it stood there at the bottom of the stairway.

“Hello?” The colt called out, sounding as if his nose was stuffed. He looked around for a few seconds, then shrugged when no answer came back. He walked back up the steps with impatience.

Kestral let out a small breath. A kid being there could complicate things, but not if he could be stealthy enough about his actions. He padded around with slow footsteps into the kitchen. He began rummaging through the cabinets to find some food that would last him until that evening.

He found some fresh fruit, and stuffed what he could into his satchel. He didn't want to be in the middle of a meal if the kid came back. He went through other parts of the kitchen, trying, at least a little, to make his meal a bit balance, which was more difficult without any meat. Among the things he nabbed was a jar of peanuts, which could supplement the lack of protein.

When he was done stealing food, he went over to the sink and pulled out his water bottle. He filled it up and placed the container back into the bag. With provisions taken care of, Kestral moved on out of the kitchen and looked for a bedroom that would be used by an adult. None were visible, so he could only assume that it was upstairs.

Kestral was willing to take a look up there, but would leave without a thing if he thought it was too risky. He walked over to the stairs and started an ascent. Slowly, he crept up and made it to the top. He saw a long hallway with two doors on either side. A soft thumping could be heard from one of the closed doors, which meant that the kid had closed himself in, giving Kestral basically free reign of the floor if he could stay quiet.

He crouched down and walked to the nearest door,after cutting off his flame again. He put his ear to the entrance, to make sure it wasn't the one the thumping was coming from, before opening it. It was another bathroom, though it looked more personalized than the other one. He closed it again, to remove any proof of his presence.

He walked on past the one with the continuous noise and opened the next door. It was a closet, filled with cleaning material of all kinds. He shut that door also, and moved on across the hall. He opened the last door that wasn't occupied and closed it upon entry.

He scanned the room, looking for any place where cash would be kept. There was a nightstand with a vase on top, a wardrobe and a closet, aside from the bed and colorful rug next to it. He went for the closet first. Not much was in there except for stuffy looking dresses and odd looking horseshoes.

Nothing of interest was there, so Kestral made his way to the dresser. He pulled open the drawer on the bottom. In it was a gold band with a navy blue jewel on one side. He scrutinized it closely, looking for any kind of indicator of whether or not it was a legitimate gem or a fake one. He couldn't tell, so he put pressure on the band, testing it's strength. It didn't give, so it definitely wasn't plastic.

Deciding that Discord could take it in place of coins, Kestral stuffed in a pocket of his coat. Nothing else was useful, so he closed the drawer and opened the main wardrobe. Only more clothing greeted him, so he closed it as well. He walked over to the nightstand and pulled open the top of the tree drawers on it. A small bag of gold welcomed him, which he gladly took.

He pulled open the next one, and saw a few personal items, none of which were useful in stealing. He closed that one too and tried the last one. Only a stack of paper and a feather greeted him. He was about to close it when he realized something.

The last drawer's bottom ended only about halfway down the height of the whole thing.

He dug through the papers and pulled on a string at the bottom. The false bottom came up and reveals three sacks, each full to the brim with dosh. He grabbed the strings on each of the leather bags and tied them tight to his belt. It was a good find for him that day, but it was time he left.

He closed the drawer, harder than intended, and shook the nightstand, sending the vase off balance. He grabbed for it and fumbled a bit before he got a solid grip, and placed it where it had started.

In that time though, Kestral had failed to notice a slight creaking of the door.

“Hello?.... What are you doing here?” The colt said to him.

Kestral immediately threw his hood over his head. As long as he could keep the kid from panicking, he had a chance to get out of this. Still crouching, and keeping his head down so the child could not see his face, he went over in front of the kid.

“Well... I’m here...because....I... was told...that there were teeth under the pillow.” A stupid lie, if he had never heard of such fairy tales, but a child would hear of such things in most places.

The colts eyes widened a little, though Kestral could not see it. “You mean you're the tooth fairy? Oh my gosh! … I thought you were supposed to be a pony with butterfly wings...”

“Ah,” Kestral quickly covered his tracks as well as he could, “Normally, yes. But we're...short ha-...short hoofed, so I’m helping the usual fairy.” He gestured back to the bed with his hand. “I could not find any teeth here. Would there be some under your bed?”

“Uh...no, I haven't lost any for months. I'm sorry.” The kid sounded rather dejected for some reason.

Kestral reached into his bag and pulled out a coin, handing it to the colt. “Thank you for the help anyways.” The colt took it and just stared at Kestral's hand. As if it were something to behold. “If you can keep this a secret,” he continued, “I promise that you will get an extra special gift next time I visit you. Okay?”

“Mhmm!” The pony nodded vigorously.

“Alright.” Kestral patted the little child on the head. “You have a good time kid. Stay in school, it's where all the cool people are.”

Head still down, he made his way over past the kid and to the stairs. He started going down when he noticed the clopping behind him. “Hey kid,” It stopped just a bit behind him, “just so you know, I can't leave if anyone is watching.”

The pony backed up to the top of the stairs. “Oh uh, okay. Sorry.”

Kestral then continued down the stairway, without any followers. He went over to the living room again, and stood under the window he entered. He pulled it up and quickly fit his body through, shutting the glass pane completely. He then took the shutters and closed them as well, removing proof of his entry.

He walked over to the basement, no longer crouching, and pulled open the door. He looked around to make sure there weren't any ponies spying him, before he descended and closed the door.

With not much else to do, Kestral pulled out some food and began eating his lunch. It would be several boring hours before he could get the freedom to walk outside, so he sat down and began to count the minutes.