I slept far better that night than I had during the one before. Hell, I already preferred this world to my world! Making friends was easy; no one seemed too sketchy or had a hidden agenda, my little squabble with RD was solved with a handshake and an apology, and I even got to flirt with a Princess! No matter how cool all of that was, however, I still lacked a way of getting revenue. From what Twilight had told me, crime was rare in this part of the world, so it would be awfully hard to find an employer that dealt in my line of work. That, and I never actually enjoyed stealing; it was just a necessity.

My dreams… I don’t want to commit my dreams to paper, on the off chance that someone finds my journals. Shaking the terrors of the night from my mind, I sat up and stretched. It was still dark out, but working in the dark was kind of my specialty. I felt my way to the bathroom without any real trouble and took a nice shower. Twilight had been generous enough to loan me a towel and a washcloth, so the only thing I actually needed was more clothes. Rarity had promised me a few new outfits to repay me for bringing Steven Magnet’s gift, so that was taken care of, but I still needed money. If I had money, I could pay Twilight for rent, Rarity for the clothes and buy whatever else I needed.

I sighed as I finished, feeling like I wasted half of my life learning skills I couldn’t use anymore. I just… I needed to get out and do something, plain and simple. Staying inside my first and second days in Ponyville had been making me go stir crazy, so getting a job would most likely help more than I’d thought. Feeling like I finally had a goal to start looking forward to, I dried off and started looking forward to the true beginning of a new life when I heard the door swing open. A half dressed Twilight and a fully naked Kaid made eye contact, though her eyes happened to slide a little downwards. Mine remained above chest level, mind you.

“Do you ever knock, or did you just want to sneak a peek?” I quipped. I’ve never been afraid to show off what I’ve got, but being stared at was more awkward than I was willing to admit.

Twilight didn’t appear to hear me, so I grabbed my towel and tossed it at her. The look on her face when she got it off was absolute gold. She sputtered for a few moments before backing out of the bathroom. I swear, Twilight makes it far too easy sometimes… I dressed quickly and stepped out to see Twilight snap to what she thought was a natural stance, with one hand behind her and the other gripping the hem of shirt like it was a life-line. I wondered what she’d been doing before I stepped out.

“H-hey, Max! It’s a p-pleasant morning, isn’t it?” Twilight blurted out. Her smile creeped me out a bit…

“You could say that, though there’s a perv running around, spying on folks when they get out of the shower. You should be careful, Twilight. Pretty woman like you could be a target~” I said with a wink. I had no intention of sneaking a peek, but Twilight didn’t need to know that.

She didn’t have anything to say to that, so she slipped into the safety of the bathroom. I watched with a smirk as she went, not bothering to avert my eyes, but the hand she’d kept behind her caught my eye more so than her lovely bottom; I swear I could see a hint of dampness on her fingertips. I shrugged thoughts of impurity out of my mind and continued to the kitchen. Spike had taken Twilight's place as the late riser this morning, so I had plenty of time to tease her. I think I’m starting to rub off on her, seeing as how she blushed less and less and even started flirting back, albeit poorly. I was starting to enjoy my time with Twilight a bit more than I had been. It felt like she was finally starting to really open up to me, but I think that I was more relieved that she forgave me for treating Celestia as an equal.

Breakfast passed without incident, and plenty of chuckles. Spike collected the dishes after we were finished, so I started off to go find the herbiary I had been reading yesterday when Twilight stopped me.“Hey, Max? Can you help me with something later today? Pretty please?” She inquired. She clasped her hands together and tried to give me puppy dog eyes.

I laughed at her antics. I’ve been given ‘The Eyes’ far too many times for them to work anymore. “Twilight, you don’t need to do that, I’d help you regardless.” I replied. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate the cuteness, it’s the way her arms were squeezing her breasts together in such a delightful way. Very distracting.

“Thanks! I really appreciate you help!” Twilight hugged me out of nowhere, almost causing me to fall. These ponies were surprisingly heavy for being shorter than me and about as slim as I am.

I hugged her back, waiting for her to pull out of the embrace.

Thirty seconds passed before she finally let go.

I looked at her with a raised brow. “Fond of hugs, are we? Or am I just that sexy?” I smirked at her and awaited her response. I wasn’t expecting her to reply as she did.

“Why not both?” She said, walking her fingers up my chest. When she met my collar bone, she moved her hand to my chin and gave me a kiss on the cheek. We looked at one another for a few seconds, my face was pleasantly surprised, and hers was sultry and lustful.

I booped her nose and she looked at me like I’d grown horns. She blinked rapidly for a few seconds and flushed red, looking down and noticing that she’d never changed from her blouse/panty combo for the first time. She rushed upstairs faster than Pinkie Pie had run off the other day, leaving me awfully confused; Twilight had been fine with the harmless flirting earlier, so what changed?

I decided to go job hunting a little earlier so I could have some time to ponder the matter. I stepped outside and took in the magnificent array of colors in front of me, inhaling that crisp, clean air again. My day was looking up the second I got outside! I pranced my way into the town square, a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I garnered plenty of strange looks, but I didn’t really care; it was going to be a good day if I had to make it good!

There were ponies of all the colors of the rainbow in the town square. I don’t know why Twilight called it Town Square if it was more circular than anything, but I digress. The Town Circle seemed to double as the marketplace where stalls were set up and businesses in buildings surrounded them. I saw a decent variety of shops, but there were few I could do anything with. I walked around Town Circle looking at a few of the shops that I’d like to work at when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

Behind me stood a tallish mare with long pink hair and butter yellow fur. She was wearing worn denim jeans and a baggy green sweater that did little to hide her sizable bust. She put off a general vibe of shyness or nervousness, something I always found attractive in a girl. The buttery mare mumbled something to me while looking at the ground, so all I heard was the background noise of the market.

“Beg pardon, love?” I asked, keeping my voice low and calm. It felt like I was talking to a frightened animal.

“T-Twilight asked me to t-tell you to c-come back t-to the library a-around n-nightfall.” She mumbled again, barely loud enough to hear.

“Thanks, love. I appreciate you coming to tell me. I’m Max, by the way. Who are you?” I asked with a gentle smile. I offered my hand to her slowly so I wouldn’t scare her. She looked up, trembling, and took my hand.

“I’m Fluttershy…” She whispered, just a mite louder than before. I think she was beginning to warm up to me a bit, but she still hid behind her hair.

“Your name’s Fluttershy?” I got a tiny nod. “That’s a good name, love. It suits you quite well, I believe.” I kissed her hand and withdrew.

“T-Thank you…”

“There’s no need to thank me for the truth, love. If you must, though, I’d very much appreciate some information”

“I-Information?”

“Yes. You see, I’d rather like a job, seeing as how I’m staying with Twilight at the moment. I want to be able to repay her kindness and generosity in turn.” Fluttershy seemed to be a lot less wary of me after I mentioned paying Twilight back. She told me about a few jobs that were available around town, though I still struggled to hear her for most of them.

One of the local farms, Sweet Apple Acres could always use an extra hand. The Mayor of the town needed a second secretary, and the resident locksmith needed a partner to help him with requests.

It doesn’t take a savant to know what I went with, knowing my past life.

I said my goodbyes to Fluttershy and meandered in the general direction Fluttershy had given me. Sadly, the locksmith was on the other side of The Town Circle, so it was going to give me far too much empty time. Time I would most likely be using to think. Eww… I decided to take a preemptive strike and think about Fluttershy. She was a nice enough girl whenever you could actually hear her, and she was a mutual friend of myself, Rainbow, and Twilight, so there was a good chance we’d talk again.

I pondered my situation for the last few minutes I had before ending up at the locksmiths. The shop itself was rather plain, but quaint. I wasn’t surprised, seeing as how Ponyville was even smaller than Wiltshire, but I think I was expecting… More, I guess. A bit more color to liven the place up. As it were, The Lock Pad was easily discernible from the rest of the vivid assortment of shops that made up The Town Circle, so I’d never have to look too hard.

I stepped inside to see a drab grey counter manned by a surprisingly dainty woman. She was rather short and thin with charcoal grey hair that was a few shades darker than her coat. She was… incredibly unremarkable in any way. I approached the counter with all the class my Classy Mode could muster.

“Excuse me, Madam, but I’ve heard that you’ve an opening? If it’s no trouble, I’d like to apply.” I tried with every ounce of my gentlemanly prowess. The woman behind the counter took one look at my disheveled clothing, messy black hair and general scruffiness and scoffed.

“You just want this job so you can creep around and steal things from honest ponies, don’t you? I can see it in your eyes, you creepy monkey. I saw little cretins like you when I lived in Manehatten nearly every day, you purse snatching lout! Ponies like you never learn; you know you won’t because all you want to be and all you’ll ever be is a low-down, filthy-”

“Bitch, if you don’t shut your stupid fucking ignorant whore mouth, I swear to all you hold dear I’ll paint this goddamn place in your filthy fucking blood!” I shouted back at her. The sheer hatred I felt for this, this, blob of flesh and fur burned hotter than the flames in the Blacksmith’s forge. A man can only take so much abuse, especially from a stranger.

She was staring at me wide-eyed and horrified before a large pink stallion opened a door from the opposite side of room.

“Mineral Zeal, what did I tell you about enraging the customers?” The big pink bastard asked. Don’t quote me on this, but I was betting that it was more of a rhetorical kind of question.

The grey mare looked between the two of us, not sure who she should be more afraid of. She settled on me and tried to suck up to the fellow.

“B-but! Daisy Carnival! You can’t possibly be taking his side over mine! I’m your first employee!” She sputtered out. If she was his first employee, and only, employee, there were no questions as to why he would seek fresh blood.

“I’ve told you time and time again, to never call me by that name. My name is Onyx Lock.” He replied evenly. This guy kinda scared me, even if he was bright pink… He looked like he could crush coconuts with his pinkies.

He looked to me, “You want a job, kid?”

“Y-Yes Sir.”

He looked back to Mineral Zeal. “You’re fired. I’ll mail your severance to you. Get out.”

She looked like she’d just been slapped across her face. Zeal made some weird fish-like motions before she walked out of The Lock Pad in a daze. Daisy and I watched her go without a word.

“So… Is it alright if I call you Onyx?” I asked.

“Perfectly fine. Now how much do you know about locks?”

We spent the next couple hours talking about my shady past, oddly enough. Onyx seemed to accept everything I said without judging me, which was greatly appreciated, though I couldn’t help but remember what Zeal had said earlier: Did I really just want to work here so I could learn to pick more locks? Or was I here so I wouldn’t have to? Onyx seemed to read my mind and started me off with some busy work on testing locks. He had a massive set of picks that he used to do the same job that I was doing, so I picked out fifteen that were somewhat familiar to me.

We ended closing up shop around at seven or so, and I had blown through most of the more advanced locks in the place. As a bit of payment in advance, Onyx gave me about twenty golden bits. They were casted coins, but they were still high quality and seemingly pure, which confused me. Why use precious metals as literal currency? I voiced my query to my new boss who just shrugged at me. With that, I started my walk back to the Treebrary.

About half way on my trip back, I realized that I’d forgotten about Rarity and her offer to make new clothes for me. I was getting desperate at this point: The Lock Pad was very warm and sweating was a common occurrence, so I’d have to sort that out as soon as possibly possible.

When I arrived at the Treebrary, I noticed that all the lights were out. I had a bad feeling about what was going to happen, so I took Route B. I climbed the tree onto the balcony that jutted out of the side of the tree. I’d never been upstairs, before, but judging by the assortment of bras and what not that littered the area around the laundry bin, it was safe to assume that this was Twilight’s room. I snuck to the stairwell when I heard assorted mutters.

Looks like someone threw me a party. I was rather touched, or I would have been if I was absolutely positive that it was for me. I didn't want to ruin Twilight's or Spike's Surprise, so I stealthily slipped down the stairs, not making more than a scuff or two that couldn't be heard over the few mutters still going on.

Author's Notes:

This Chapter took sooooooo long to write; I just took a shot to my motivation after a thousand or so words and kinda gave up. I don't know If I'll finish chapter 5 very soon, so my apologies

Stay Frosty m80's

Edit: I don't see how this took that long to write, but then again, I spend days on chapters now. Fixed the formatting and some indentation issues. This was probably the worst so far for smushed paragraphs and what not.