“So where does Bellboy live?” Accident asked, as Sky spread her wings and took off.

“Well, it’s kinda embarrassing…” Sky replied sheepishly, gaining altitude, “he actually lives in my attic.”

“Did you kidnap him?” Accident asked, taking a few experimental leaps at the drainpipe in an effort to follow her.

“Yeah, I did,” Sky giggled, “though I like to think I saved him, instead. See, when I first met him, some fashionista bitch had him tied up in her parlour as a display piece. Every day she’d come out and beat him, and...well...I thought he was too good-looking to treat that badly.”

With a shrug, the little white mare pulled aside a few roof panels, coming in to land and tucking her wings in by her sides.

“Is he friendly?” Accident pressed. “He’s not gonna shout at me, is he?”

“Nah, he’s a sweetie,” Sky snickered. “I don’t reckon he has it in him. He’s sorta noisy when you get on his nerves, though. Just so happens that that’s the whole point.”

With a grunt, Sky pulled a large stallion-shaped mannequin from the hole in the attic. Hundreds of little bells all over his body jingled like a sleigh at Hearth’s Warming as she lowered him down onto the ground. Accident hopped off of the drainpipe, making her way over to the jingling little mannequin with wide eyes.

”This is Bellboy?” She asked, placing a hoof on his painted wooden flank. A few more bells jingled at her touch, making her recoil in surprise with a tiny squeak

“Yeah, he taught me how to pickpocket,” Sky repeated, nodding. “Here, check this out…”

Sky threw a pair of saddlebags over the bell-clad pony’s back, strapping them down and tossing a bag of coins into one of them. Finally, she dropped the flap back down over the saddlebag, stepping to the side and grinning at her little protege.

“Okay, here’s the rules,” She explained, “you’ve gotta get the coins out of the saddlebag…but...if you make any of the bells jingle, you’ve got to run away and hide until they stop, okay?”

“I can do that!” Accident nodded. “I’m great at hide and go seek! Well...except for my wings...they kindas stick out of things. Mum always used to be able to find me! Er...except for that one time.”

“Yeah, well, don’t focus on that, sweetie.” Sky smiled, nuzzling Accident’s cheek. “Come on, give it a go. I bet you’ll be great at it!”

“You really think so?” Accident asked, looking up at Sky with a tentative little smile.

“I’m sure of it, kid,” The little white mare replied, kissing her on the forehead and giving her an encouraging push towards Bellboy. “Just remember, be quiet, be careful and take your time. You’ll be a kick-ass burglar in no time!”

“Okay!” Accident squeaked, hunkering down with her tail flicking from side to side as she crept up on the mannequin. When she reached out with her forehoof and bumped the saddlebag, however, the jingling began again.

Accident yelped and galloped for cover, diving into a nearby cardboard box and tucking her wings in by her sides. Sky looked after her, shaking her head with a little chuckle as she spotted a telltale little tail poking out of the box.

“Kid…” Sky sighed.

With a flick of her tail, Accident hid herself completely. The box shuffled a little as she shivered in excitement, then went totally still.

“Not bad,” Sky said, nodding, “Just remember, you don’t have to hide forever. It’s like a game of hide and seek, then a really intense game of tag. As soon as they’re not looking anymore, run away until you can find an even better hiding place, okay?”

“Okay!” Accident squeaked, a pair of little filly hooves appearing over the rim of the box as she peeked out at Sky with an enormous smile on her face. “Did I do okay?”

“You’re pretty fast and pretty super-sneaky,” Sky replied with a wink, “you’ll be great when we do this for real. Now, have another go! If you practice extra-hard, we can even pull our first big heist today!”

“Didn’t we steal all of those cookies?” Accident asked.

“Well yeah, but the evidence was all eaten, so I don’t reckon that that counts.” Sky chuckled. “This one’s gonna involve real money and coins and shouting guards. You’re gonna have to be smart and fast and really good at hiding.”

“I can do that!” Accident nodded. “I’m the fastest filly in the west!”

“Oh yeah?” Sky asked, cocking her head, “how fast is that, then?”

“This fast!” Accident giggled, scrabbling her way out of the box and trying to gallop across the cul-de-sac as quick as she could. As her wings flopped down by her sides, one of them managed to work its way underhoof, sending Accident tumbling head over hooves and skidding to a halt right next to the elder pony. She gave an innocent little smile as she looked up into Sky’s eyes.

“Heh, you look kinda funny from down here,” she noted, pawing at Sky’s nose with her little forehoof.

Sky cocked her head, placing a hoof of her own on Accident’s belly and idly tickling her.

“Well, perhaps we won’t start you off on anything that requires you to run very fast...at least until we get those wings of yours sorted out.” Sky thought aloud, as Accident writhed and giggled under her tickle assault. Her hooves, inlaid with padding to silence her hoof-falls, were softer than anypony else’s in Canterlot, and Accident simply couldn’t take it. Her squeaky little giggles descended into a noise that was at once both a laugh and a neigh.

“Stoooooop!” Accident squealed, trying to get all four of her hooves under Sky’s to push her off. It was no use. The mare had her trapped and had no qualms exploiting her fluffy ticklish belly.

“Sorry! Can’t hear you!” Sky giggled, continuing her tickling as she thought back to the kind of jobs a filly who can’t run without tripping over her hooves.

As an idea struck her, she loosened up on the tickling and looked down at the squirming young pony. She looked so pathetic like this, almost like…

“What?” Accident asked, as she caught Sky’s expression.

“Kid…” Sky said, a sly little grin spreading across her face, “how would you like to be hit by a carriage?”

A team of eight strong stallions strained against their chains, pulling an armoured carriage along through the streets of Canterlot. Within, guarded by one of the Royal Guard themselves, sat an enormous chest loaded with bags upon bags of coins.

The Royal Guard jumped as the carriage went over a very big bump indeed, then jumped again as everypony out in the marketplace beyond screamed. Her ears perked at the sound of a crying filly behind the carriage, and a realisation finally struck her.

Oh no…

The carriage pulled to a halt, and the guard jumped out to tend to the little pony it had struck. A few of the driving stallions had already wriggled loose of their harnesses, surrounding the pony’s broken little body.

“She must’ve run right out into the street,” one of them spoke up as the guard shoved him aside. “I never saw her. None of us did. It’s not our fault…”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” the guard said, dismissing him with a wave of her hoof and looking down at the victim.

She was curled up into a ball, her huge wings sticking out at odd angles as she lay in the street. The poor filly was inconsolable, crying her little heart out and struggling to breathe.

“Please…” she whimpered. “Please...I don’t wanna die...I didn’t mean to...I didn’t wanna get hurt.”

“You’re not going to die, little one,” the guard said, splaying her ears back as she gestured for the others to back away and give her some space. “Where are your mother and father?”

“They...they’re gone…” the filly sniffled, wiping her running nose on one of her tiny hooves. “They...they’re gone forever…”

“You idiots! You hit an orphan!” the guard scolded, raising her forehooves time and again as she tried to work out just how to pick the poor pony up without damaging her. “I’m sorry, little one. Do you have a name?”

“My...my name’s...Shadow…” she whispered.

“Shadow, huh?” the guard nodded. “Well, we’ll make sure we get an ambulance for you. Where does it hurt?”

“Er...erm…” Shadow winced, inventing wildly. “My everything hurts! Especially my wings! Erm...I see a light!”

“Oh Celestia, really?” The guard blanched, growing more panicked by the second. “Well...er...don’t look into it, okay? We’ll get you some medical attention...there’s no need to be alarmed…”

“I’m really alarmed! I want my mummy…” Shadow said softly, tears running freely down her cheeks. “I want my mummy and my daddy and I don’t wanna die but it hurts so bad and I…”

“It’s okay...Shadow, was it?...We’re going to get you the help you need and everything will be alright.” The guard said with a nod. “What were you doing playing in the road, anyway?”

“I...I wanted to...play...Scootaloo...with the carriage…” Shadow squeaked. “I didn’t think...it’d hurt this bad…”

The guard looked her over again. Wheel tracks criss-crossed her enormous wings, unpreened and messy as they were. Her head was already freshly bandaged. Perhaps this was an accident-prone filly, or maybe she just made a habit of playing chicken with carriages.

“I’m having your jobs for this, you bastards,” the guard said, glaring at the drivers around her, approaching Shadow with caution and brushing a hoof over her shoulder.

“Don’t...don’t take their jobs…” Shadow shook her head, clawing at the cobblestones with her weak little hoof. “They didn’t mean...they didn’t mean to...to…”

“Stay with me, Shadow,” the guard pressed.

“No! I can’t!” Shadow wailed, reaching out dramatically. “I’m done for! A write-off! A goner! My poor little filly life has been snuffed out forever, and it’s all my fault! Gr...grandma? Is that you?”

The drivers began to look at one another in concern, and the guard rolled her eyes. “I don’t think that’s your grandma, little one.”

Shadow paused, biting her lip as she tried to come up with something else. “Er...well, it’s a really old lady, anyway! I guess that means I’m dying! Oh no! Whatever will I do without my body! What a cruel world to snuff out a little filly’s life! All I wanted to do was play in traffic, but...but…” She trailed off into a coughing fit, too weak to continue.

The guard was about to pick Shadow up, when her ears perked at a jingling noise just behind her. Wheeling round, she caught a glimpse of a little white pony with a red tail disappearing into the crowd, weighed down by huge bags of coins. Her eyes darted to the carriage door, which she realised too late she’d left open. It took a moment longer for her brain to put two and two together.

“Wait...how did…” she said slowly, turning back to Shadow...or rather, where Shadow had been moments earlier. “Where did she go?”

“She said something about making a miracle recovery!” one of the drivers shrugged.

“And you let her go?” the guard blanched, realising all of a sudden that her own job was on the line.

“I wasn’t about to question it! Fillies are weird!” the driver yelped, flailing his hooves. “She really could have made a miraculous recovery for all I know!”

The guard grinded her teeth, staring at the assembled drivers. “Call it in. I want the Captain informed of what happened here...and you’re to explain to him that you let the bait filly go.”

The drivers looked between one another with increasingly worried expressions. It seemed that, today, everypony involved with this little robbery was going to end up on the streets without a job.

Sky and Accident peeked around the corner, sparing a look back at the marketplace to see if anyone had tried to follow them. When they saw that the coast was clear, Sky gave Accident a teasing smirk.

“Really? A great big light?” Sky asked.

“Well, it’s what I read you see when you die!” Accident shrugged. “I haven’t been dead before! I wouldn’t know!” She paused, and after a while added “That was a great idea, you throwing that big bag of potatoes under the wheels of the carriage, though. I thought you were gonna actually throw me for a while there. You kind of had me pretty scared.”

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t do a thing like that,” Sky chuckled, tussling Accident’s mane and pulling her into a tight hug. “And hey, how’s that for your first successful job? That was one hell of a show you put on for them back there.”

“I still think the cookie one was my first job ever,” Accident giggled. “Besides, this is just money, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Sky nodded, “but you can buy cookies if you’ve got enough money, right?”

Accident took a moment to process this realisation. A great big smile spread across her face. “So...so there’s still a cookie reward at the end of every job?”

“Yeah, but you know what I really like after a job?” Sky beamed. “Ice cream. Ever tried it before?”

“N...no?” Accident shook her head. “What’s ice cream?”

Sky blew her mane out of her face, wrapping a wing around her new little partner in crime and trotting off towards the Middle District.

“Kid...you’re going to love this.”

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_hFR54R19U