Chapter Two

The sun hung high in the sky, the landscape below it bathing its warm glow. The Apple family had long ago risen from their sleep to begin their daily work routine, tending to crops and harvesting fruit. One pony residing on the Apple Family's property had yet to rise; he had always been accustomed to sleeping his days away. He slept soundly inside the barn, letting the sun warm his coat as he slumbered.

Applejack made sure to check on the tiny foal before beginning her day's chores. She had planned on waking him up and having a nice little chat with him about the dangers of stealing, and how it was wrong to take what didn't belong to him, but when she stepped into the barn, she felt a little tug on her heart as she gazed at the tiny pegasus, curled up in a stack of having, the slightest smile across his face as he slept. She would deal with him later, he was just to adorable to wake up.

He was in a feeling of utter bliss as he slowed ascended to consciousness again. Hold on a second. Something doesn't feel right. I feel way too comfortable. His eyes shot open, his gaze meeting the red painted wooden planks that made up the barn. Suddenly the memories of the night prior came flooding back to him. What in Equestria was I thinking! I can't stay here! That mare is gonna kill me! His eyes shifted towards the barn door. He began to slowly rise from his makeshift bed, letting out a barely audible yawn as he did.

As much as it pained him to walk away from the best sleep he had in years, he couldn't just sitting around waiting for a certain earth pony to deal with him. He poked his head through the barn door, leaving it only wide enough for him to survey his surroundings. There wasn't anypony in sight. He could make a quick getaway without alerting anypony. Then again... When would he have another opportunity like this? He was, for the time being, a welcomed guest after all.

He could skulk around the house, looking for anything he could use, and if he got caught looking around, then they couldn't assume him of anything. He was invited to stay here, after all. Still though, better to play it safe. He exited the barn, taking another look around to make sure he hadn't missed somepony that could have been behind a tree or some such. The young pegasus wasted no time in trotting over to the Apple home. He tried pushing open the door, only to find it wouldn't budge. Rats. It's Locked!

His eyes glanced this way and that, trying to find an alternate route inside. Aha! That should do! He spotted an open window, trotting over to it. It wasn't all that high up. He could make it. All he needed was a running start. And so the blue foal took a few steps back, before charging straight at the window, leaping into the air, arms and legs flailing as he came careening through the air. His forelegs landed above the edge of the window, while the rest of him slammed directly into the wooden paneling of the house. Still though, he had a grasp on the window.

After pulling himself up onto the windowsill, he took a look around the inside of the home he would spend the next few minutes perusing. They didn't seem to have a whole lot themselves. From the looks of things, they all seemed quite content in making do with what they had. Everything had a cozy, country-style feel to it. It reminded him a lot of- No! Bad thought! Shaking his head to try and refocus on the task at hand, he dropped from the window, wincing as he made contact with the floorboards, which let out a loud squeak. Heart racing, he stood as still as he could, expecting somepony to have heard him and come running into the room at any moment.

But, no one did. In fact, the entire house was dead silent. They all must be out in the orchard right now. Perfect. Content that he wouldn't have to be so careful in his movements. He began to explore every room of the household,searching for anything of value he could swipe. For the most part, the house was devoid of any kind of items of monetary value. Before long though, he spotted a small bag on a night stand. he had wandered into somepony's room, that much he at least understood. It mattered not to him who's it was, he wasn't here to get to know these ponies.

Hopping up to the top, he picked up the bag in his hooves and gave it a quick shake. In doing so, his act was met with the sound of metal clanking together. Aha! A bag of bits! Just what I like to hear. Satisfied with his discovered bounty, he grabbed it in his teeth and turned to dismount from the night stand. Something caught his eye though, and he shirked  his head to see a framed picture. There were four ponies standing together, all of them with a big grin on their face. There was an elderly green mare, a large red stallion, a little yellow filly with a pink bow in her hair, and- the orange mare he had encountered earlier.

He stood there looking at the picture for a moment. It was quite a heartwarming sight, really. A happy family. Together, loving one another. The foal shook his head away from the warm thoughts. She has family. She won't miss a few measly bits. He hopped down from the night stand, and made his way down the stairs, back to the same window he had entered from. Climbing back onto the windowsill, he took a moment to enjoy his effortless triumph, looking out at the rolling green hills that stretched outward for who knows how long. He had made a clean getaway, and nopony got hurt. Well, not yet anyway.

"Who're you?"

The voice startled him. He hadn't heard anypony walk in, and he could already feel the nervous sweat beginning to form around his forehead. He turned to see the little yellow filly from the picture, staring at him from below, a wide eyed and innocent look of curiosity.

"I- I, um- Well you see-"

Words were never his strong suit. He took to his backup plan. Running. He quickly leaped from the window and began dashing back towards Ponyville. His heart was racing; he never really cared for the thrill of thievery. He preferred it when the deed went unnoticed. He was less likely to get caught that way. Once the tall red house was out of view, the pegasus foal slowed his pace, letting himself catch his breath. He had made his getaway, and now he was ready to reap the benefits.

The foal wandered through the town, gazing at various shops and stands where he could spend his bits. He stopped, however, as he passed by the local schoolyard. On the other side of the chain link fence were little fillies and colts, all laughing and playing. He stood there for a few moments, bag of bits still clenched between his teeth, watching all the little foals enjoy themselves.

He was beginning to smile as he watched them, until he saw that some of them had noticed his staring. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but there was pointing, laughing, and whispering between the group of unknown foals. They all shot him wicked grins, fueling a rage inside the pegasus.

"You got something to say to me!"

The burning anger in his voice was evident, the group of foals jumping back as he pounded a hoof against the fence. He could feel the burning in his eyes from the glare he was giving them. Suddenly he noticed that everypony seemed to have stopped what they were doing, each of them now staring at him. He couldn't bear to look at all the bewildered and scared faces he saw. He grabbed the bag of bits in his mouth again and ran off. he didn't pay attention to where he was headed. He just wanted to get away from the awful voices of ponies laughing at him.

After a long walk through town, he had forgotten all about the school ponies and continued searching for an appropriate use for his bag of bits, which jingled with each step he took. Stupid ponies. They're all stuck in school. Sure glad I don't have to be there, wasting my time learning, or- or making friends! That is just dumb. I don't need anypony! Okay, so maybe he hadn't completely gotten over it. But he was still feeling a lot better than he had at the time.

Trying to refocus on perusing shops, he had shut his eyes to clear his thoughts for a moment, and as a result crashed right into somepony. Quickly realizing what had just happened, his eyes darting around, looking for the bag that had been knocked from his mouth, completely ignoring the pony he just ran into.

"Well hiya! Sorry about that! I should really watch where i'm going! You're okay, right?"

Having already retrieved the bag, he looked up to see a pink earth pony looking down at him, an enormous smile looking upon him.

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Don't worry about it." He said flatly. He didn't like conversing with anypony. It was just another distraction. Rather than waiting for a reply, he started to trot past the bubbly pony, who was bouncing on the spot, still grinning ear to ear.

""Okie dokie lokie! Say, wanna cupcake?"

The blue pegasus stopped. He never could turn down free food. He stepped back in front of the earth pony, wherein she pulled a cupcake seemingly from out of nowhere.

"How did you-"

His sentence was cut short though, as the confection was being shoved in his mouth by the cheery earth pony.

"It's good right?! I made them myself!"

He had to admit, it was a very tasty cupcake. It made him wonder about what the cupcake he had tried to grab yesterday would have been as good.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! You should come by Sugarcube Corner! I would loooove to have somepony help me make more cupcakes!"

The name of that accursed bakery caused him to spew the remains of the cupcake from his mouth.

"Um, no thanks. I have somewhere I have to be." Phew. Dodged a bullet there.

"Aaaaaw." The pink mare's smiled disappeared momentarily, but sprung back onto her face as fast as it had disappeared. "Oh well! Some other time then!" The pink mare said cheerily as she bounced down the street.

"Wow, that is a strange pony." He muttered under his breath, glad that he was able to get back to his task at hand. He was at least glad he could now cross 'food' off the list of things to buy. As easy as it was to just take things, he always felt a sense of pride in knowing he had paid for what he bought, even if it was with somepony else's money. He continued down the street, before turning a corner and bumping into another pony.

"Hey! Watch where you're- Well, well, well. Look what we have here."

The pegasus foal knew that voice all too well. He didn't even have to look at him, instead opting to keep his eyes on the cobblestone street below.

"Hello, Baritone." His voice carried no emotion. This was not a pony he liked seeing. Especially not at a time like this.

"C'mon now, can't you at least pretend to be excited to see me, runt?"

He could already guess what was coming next. No point in fighting it, he had down that before, and it had taken weeks for the bruises to heal. The blue foal dropped the bag of bits from his mouth, and looked up to meet the eyes of a  grey earth stallion, much older than himself, with an even darker grey mane, and bright orange eyes glaring down at him. An evil grin had formed on the stallion's face.

"You know what day today is, don't you?"

He let out a heavy sigh before responding.

"Payday." He hated that word. Having to scrounge around for food was bad enough without having to waste his time stealing bits for Baritone.

"That's right! So these must be for me." Baritone grabbed the bag of bits in his hooves and shook it. "Really? This is all you got this week? You're holding out on me again, aren't you?"

The stallion began to advance on the little foal. Oh no. I hate when this happens. Think fast, dangit! The pegasus had started backing away slowly.

"No no no! I swear, this is all i've got!"

Still the stallion persisted in walking towards the helpless foal. He knew what was coming next. Baritone wouldn't listen, but the blue pony wasn't going to be a punching bag today. He darted towards the nearest alleyway, hearing a shout of "get back here, runt!" from behind. He could hear the hooves of Baritone slowly gaining on him as they both weaved between alleyways and in between ponies in the streets. But Baritone was faster than he was, they both knew that. The foal needed somewhere to hide, and quickly.

That was when he spotted the open doors of Ponyville's library. Next Chapter: Chapter Three Estimated time remaining: 47 Minutes