Twilight Sparkle and the Master Thief

by DungeonMiner

First published 10th of September, 2020

Twilight Sparkle meets a thief, supposedly in her employ, who opens her eyes to the dark world beneath her Kingdom.

On a peaceful night, High Princess Twilight Sparkle discovers a thief in her quarters, and while dealing with him, discovers that he is actually in her employ. She insists that he has no place in her Kingdom, and the thief, Night Silk, disagrees. Now, with his job on the line, Night strives to prove that he is exactly who she needs to work the underworld.

After all, he's not just a thief.

He is a Master Thief.

Cover art by ProvolonePone.

Chapter 1

Princess Twilight Sparkle, High Ruler of Equestria, sat in her throne room, listening to her unicorn advisor as she presented the latest item on her docket. They were currently breaking down the yearly budget, and while Princess Celestia had spared her by finalizing a budget before she abdicated, Twilight couldn’t put it off any longer.

The lavender alicorn sat, wings fluttering occasionally, as Raven Inkwell, one of Princess Celestia’s old advisors, continued to list the percentages of the current budget. That alone would have been bad enough, but Twilight knew that a new list of percentages that was mostly the same except for a few proposed changes threatened her time further.

The grey-colored mare smiled as neared the end of the first list. “And finally, security, as it stands now, is at 10%.”

“That seems a little high,” Twilight noted.

“Well, with you six retiring from adventuring, they have to make the difference up somewhere,” Spike said, sitting next to her.

The young dragon sat next to Twilight’s throne, reading a comic book, to the obvious annoyance of Raven. Twilight’s old friend, and famed “Number 1 Assistant,” frequently entertained himself during meetings, mostly because he had little to add, and these kinds of politics quickly bored him. Still, Twilight was growing more and more confident that he was playing it up to annoy his fellow advisor.

“The proposal to defund them was your idea!” Raven growled.

“We’ll get to that item,” Spike said, before continuing on with the comic. “I have a particular problem.”

Raven glared at him but nonetheless continued. “Now, your Highness,” she said with a sigh, “the budget as proposed is as follows.”

She began listing the new budget, and Twilight resisted the urge to sigh. Sure, Princess Celestia—or rather, Just Celestia these days—groomed her to be the new ruler of Equestria before she and Luna retired, but no amount of grooming could prepare her for how utterly boring the bureaucracy was.

Maybe she could hire someone to deal with it for her? Perhaps one of her old friends, like Rarity, she certainly had an eye for detail. She’d just...have to give up...the boutique business she spent so much time working on…

Okay, so no luck on that. Still, it would be hilarious to watch Pinkie Pie give a report.

“And finally, Mr. The Dragon would like to cut the security budget from 10 to 7.5%,” Raven said with a slight edge in her tone.

“Why the twenty-five percent drop?” Twilight asked, turning to Spike.

Spike closed his comic book and sat straight. “Because, when I asked Captain Azure about it, he replied that ten percent of the budget went to two ponies.”

Twilight blinked. “Two ponies?” she asked, before turning to her Captain of the guard. “Is that true Captain?” she asked, suspicious of the fact that millions of bits went to two ponies.

Captain Azure Heart, a large earth pony by most standards, glanced up from his position at the side of the throne room. “This is true, your Majesty, though I will say that the ponies in question are incredibly talented. One is the Royal safemaker, and is responsible for much of the research, development, designing, and building of the various vaults around the country for your use. And…” he suddenly trailed off. “I can vouch for their usefulness of the other.”

Twilight blinked, confused. “I...see,” she said. “Well, if they're as useful as you say, then I would like to speak with them.”

The Captain shook his head. “That will not be necessary. Your Highness, I can present papers to prove his usefulness.”

Twilight sighed before checking the time. It was getting late, and Spike was probably going to get hungry here in a few minutes. “Let’s...let’s finish this discussion later, I’m getting tired, and I’m not in the mood to think about meeting anypony.”

Spike, Inkwell, and Captain Azure nodded.

Twilight stood from her throne, feeling relief flooding her hind legs as she moved them for the first time in hours. Spike stood up beside her, ready to walk beside her. She sighed as they turned away, and she whispered as they began to head to the Royal Dining Room. “I miss my friends.”

“You’ll see them again soon,” Spike offered. “The next council of friendship will be in a few weeks.”

She nodded, but that wasn’t what she really meant. She missed being with them, going on adventures with them, talking with them, about the important things, and the trivial things. She missed…

She sighed, and went to eat, hoping that dinner would at least make her feel better.

A shadow climbed the side of Canterlot Castle. This wasn’t odd, except that this shadow had no caster, but it did have a name.

His name was Night Silk, and upon closer inspection, he was not, in fact, a shadow. Though, in fairness, his warm, dark-grey coat did disguise him against the darkness. Of course, the truth was that even this figure climbing the tower wasn’t actually Night Silk at all.

The real Night was climbing the outer wall, though it was impossible to tell. He liked to use “Control Image” spells to draw attention away from where he was heading, and, as the unicorn crested the wall, saw he managed to do precisely that. Guards were beginning to run for the tower, their torches little pinpricks of light in the darkness.

Night smiled before turning down the wall and whistling to himself. He had to say their reaction time was getting better, even if they were going the wrong direction, but they had plenty of time to fix that mistake.

He walked along, before spotting his target, the donjon, the tallest tower of the keep, with a light shining at the highest room.

“Our new Princess should be going to sleep any minute now,” he said, aloud, as if hoping someone would hear him. In fact, across the palace where his image now waited, having mimicked every move up to that point, repeated the words, meaning any guard next to the image would hear it.

He dropped the spell, giving himself a moment to breathe before he leaped down to the courtyard. He ran across the opening, unimpeded. Most of the ponies stationed there, especially the ones that should be watching for him, went off chasing his magical image, all the way to the far end of the castle.

He flattened himself against the Keep wall and glanced back up at the donjon, where the light at the very top went out. At the sight of the princess going to sleep, Night smiled to himself and slipped inside, confident that the entire place was his to ransack.

He whistled his way through the foyer and made his way to the open bridge that led to the donjon proper. Usually, a strategic chokepoint made for a great point to hold back invaders, but here, it only served as a place to watch the guards scramble as they tried to keep up.

Night shook his head and whistled across the bridge. Once in the tower proper, Night passed by a handful of tapestries, priceless pieces of pottery, and the occasional invaluable knick-knack. He trotted past these with a smile and an upturned nose, before making his way to the real treasures.

With a smirk, he approached the door that read, “Do Not Enter! Princesses Only!” before checking the lock.

The door opened without resistance, and Night rolled his eyes. Still, he slipped past and down the stairs, before finding his first target. A bell, much like the ones worn by the Goat people in the mountains north of Griffinstone, sat on a small pedestal, in a glass box. The dark blue metal looked bent, battered, and cracked, but the etching in it belied a faint glow of the power that still sat in it.

He glanced down at the bell and wondered how to take it best. He could theoretically make a copy of the bell, but it would drain his magic the longer he let it go, not to mention the teleport spell he’d need to make the switch, which was far beyond his capabilities. He could also try and lift the bell, but he couldn’t be sure what security measures were on the box.

Then again, considering that the Princess left the door open, he couldn’t put it past her to leave the bell without something to protect it.

He glanced around the case, trying to determine what was defending the bell, and wishing that he knew a perceiving spell. Finally, he decided that he didn’t have much choice, and if an alarm did go off, he’d just have to take the bell and run. If an alarm didn’t go off, then he’d get to have more fun.

He frowned before looking around the room. There was a large mirror, far too big for him to carry out with him, so pilfering that was out of the question, but he was sure he could find something else.

Another pedestal caught his eye, with several blue, crystal shards laying at its top. He smiled as he saw the little plaque underneath it reading “Key of Unfettered Entrance to be fixed with Relic Reconstruction spell.” He casually picked up one of the shards and wondered if it was worth grabbing the pieces. They didn’t have as much worth until the Key was back in one piece, but he was still here to make a point.

He set one down before checking the next pedestal. “The Animamulet,” its plaque read, which was as far as he got before Night slipped that into his bag. Along with the amulet on the next pedestal, which simply read “Time Twirler, WARNING: may explode in Equestrian atmosphere, do not use.”

He glanced around again, before figuring that there wasn’t much else that was dangerous enough to be worth stealing other than the Bewitching Bell itself.

He approached the case one more time, before glancing at the inside of the case once more. He didn’t see anything that suggested any “Perceiving” magic, but then again he hadn’t figured out how to work with alarms. He usually didn’t have to worry about it, because he’d just grab the item and go, but Night still had one more stop on this little heist of his, and with the guards slowly closing in on him, he didn’t have much chance to go up before coming back down.

There was no way he was passing this up, though.

So, without much choice, he carefully lifted the box.

There was no fireball, so Night took that as a good sign, before swiping the bell in a quick motion.

When nothing happened again, he smiled and slipped the bell into his saddlebags. “Well then,” he thought with a smile, “these ponies need a good talk about security.” Pushing that thought aside, he then looked up the stairs, where the real prize still waited.

Twilight Sparkle sat up.

“Someone’s touched the bell!” the thought crashed through her mind like a gong, waking her to attention. Her “Amethyst’s Silent Alarm” spell had woke her in an instant, and she checked the room as she got to her hooves.

The Royal Bed-chamber was silent, which offered her no comfort at the moment. She slipped out of her bed and felt her hooves faintly slapped against the tile below her. The sound rang in her ears, so she spread her wings floated across the room to land next to the door, which she cracked open with a creak.

“Princess?” the guard posted at her door asked. “Is something wrong?”

“I...” she began. “Somepony’s taken Grogar’s Bell. My alarm spell went off, and I…”

“I’m on it, your Majesty,” the guard replied, before rushing off down the stairs.

“No, wait, I—” she began, though the guard didn’t hear her. She sighed and turned back to her room. “No, go ahead, it’s not like I wanted to check it out or anything,” she grumbled, before mentally berating herself.

“It is his job, Twilight. He’s supposed to go and check on those kinds of things.”

Still, it seemed unfair that she was stuck in her room while her guards were heading to stop a possibly country-threatening situation in the bowels of her castle. It’s not like she couldn’t deal with the problem herself; she had saved Equestria what, nine times now?

She quickly double-checked.

No, it was ten times, she forgot to count the time Flurry Heart needed to have her Crystalling, the Crystal Heart broke, and nearly threw the Crystal Empire into a winter that would have caused the entire city-state to starve. Though that one did have a few stipulations like the fact that it wasn’t actually “Equestria” but an allied neighbor, and that Sunburst had done the research to fix the—

Her door creaked.

She spun, turning to face the door, which sat slightly open.

“Guard?” she called, wondering if he returned.

There was no answer.

“Guard?” she called again, staring into the dark.

Still no answer.

Tink!

The sound nearly made her jump a foot into the air, as it was, she immediately turned to the left to see where the noise came from.

A small marble rolled across her floor, having obviously bounced off one of the marble columns that lined the room. She blinked, before turning back to the door, which hung wide open.

Twilight felt her heart leap into her throat before turning. A shadowed figure stood behind her, and that’s when her body jumped into action. A shove of telekinetic energy slammed the pony into the wall.

The thief moved to dodge, but his hind leg was caught in the blast, leaving him spinning across the room.

Twilight caught him in a second, using Starswirls’ Net of Entrapment, which pinned the thief down with a magical force that forced him to the ground. He groaned under the weight before Twilight bore down on him, hoof on his throat. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

He gurgled, before holding out his hoof.

Her eyes went wide as she looked down at his hoof, which held an amulet.

More specifically, her amulet. The one that she used to focus her power to raise the sun and moon.

“Are you insane?” she screeched, grabbing the amulet and retreating from the still-pinned thief.

“Yeah, no, that one was on me. I should have stuck to the lower levels,” the figure said, gasping.

“Are you insane!” Twilight asked again, before bundling him together in the magical net.

This time, now that Twilight wasn’t stepping on this throat, he could breathe and answer her properly. Which was a change that he felt thankful for. “Hey, taking the bell was so simple that I had to try. Can you imagine the fame of the thief that stole the Princess’ ability to control the sun and moon?”

“Are you insane?” she asked once more.

“Your Majesty, what’s—” a guard asked, before seeing the thief bound together in a magical net laying on the ground.

“Arrest this pony!” Twilight said. “Throw him in the dungeon.”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” the thief said. “I’m doing this for you, after all.”

Twilight turned back to face him, confusion written on her face. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, Princess,” the thief said. “Don’t you know, you hired me?”

Twilight looked absolutely aghast and turned back to the guard. “Throw him in the dungeon right now, before I do something drastic.”

“Yes, Your Highness!” The guard replied before grabbing the thief.

The thief, for his part, had relaxed, almost completely. “Now throwing me in the dungeon is hardly fair. I mean, I didn’t even get to keep anything,” he said, reaching into his bag to pull the old metal bell. “I assume you want this back, too, at least.”

Twilight paled at the sight of it, before snatching it away. “Give me that! Do you even know what this thing could have done to us all?”

“Of course I did, that’s why I stole it,” he said, indignantly.

The Princess stared at him with eyes wide open, trying to decide whether she was confused, terrified, or furious.

“Take him away! Take him away right now!”

"Yes, Ma’am!” the guard said, before pulling the thief away.

“You’re going to throw me in jail before knowing my name?” the thief asked, sounding hurt.

“Yes!” Twilight said, still trying to piece the thief’s attitude to his actions. “Yes, that’s typically how being thrown in jail works! You get processed after being arrested!”

“Yes, but I snuck into your personal bed-chamber while you were still here. Surely the brazenness counts for something?”

Twilight glanced up at him. “You...you are actually insane,” she said. “You are actually an insane pony. That’s the only explanation for this.”

“Well, that’s a little rude,” the thief said, throwing back his hood to reveal his gold and ivory mane. “But that’s secondary to the point I keep trying to get at. My name is Night, Night Silk, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, your Majesty.”

Twilight didn’t say anything else. Instead, her horn lit as she began to push both Night and the guard out of her room before the door closed behind them.

Night smiled to himself as he was being led away, still with two artifacts in his bag. His next big challenge would be to sneak at least one of them into his cell.

Twilight, meanwhile, stood on the other side of the door and blinked.

“I...I’m going back to bed,” she said to no one in particular. She climbed back into her bed and took a deep, shaky sigh as she tried to relax back to sleep. She’d...she’d deal with the madpony tomorrow, right now, she was too wound up to even think about it.

She sunk beneath the covers of her bed and released a slow, shaky breath.

She could deal with this in the morning, right after raising the sun. It was going to be just fine.

Just fine.

Her door slammed open. “Twilight!” Spike’s voice called, scaring her from her bed. “Twilight, we’re being robbed!”

Twilight lay against the stone floor for a moment, then sighed.

Night was thrown into a cell and smiled to himself as he took a seat on the cot he had. Sure, prison cots weren’t the most comfortable things in the world, but he always found the cot in the castle’s prison to be the nicest.

He laid back, his bag and cloak gone, and the guards sealed his horn and magic by forcing him through the bubble-like doorway to his cell. Honestly, he wasn’t worried about that, though. The spell had been built for public events and would wear off on its own by morning.

More importantly, he was going to prove his point and get paid for it.

He reached up into his mane and carefully pulled out the small purple talisman called the Time Twirler. This was the one that he read could explode. It didn’t seem terribly dangerous, but that would only help him make his point. And he was going to make it a very loud point.

Chapter 2

Spike watched as Twilight sighed again.

Last night had not gone well, from what he learned. Not long after midnight, a unicorn managed to break into the castle, sent the guards on a wild goose chase, and then stole three incredibly powerful artifacts.

According to the report that…

Miss Inkwell

...gave him, the current count stood at the Bewitching Bell, which had the power to absorb magic from a pony; the Animamulet, which allowed ponies to speak with animals, and/or become enchanted into a feral state; and finally, Twilight’s own focusing amulet, the one she used to help her raise the sun and moon.

Any one of them was dangerous, honestly. Grogar’s Bewitching Bell had the most obvious effect. Most ponies still remembered last year, when three of Twilight’s enemies stole the power of Discord, the local primal manifestation of Chaos, and used it to terrorize the country. Though, if used correctly, the others were equally bad.

The Animamulet, for example, had enchanted their friend Fluttershy. The enchanted gem soon brought out the deeper, baser, animal parts of her brain to the fore, leaving her attacking ponies around Ponyville. Making the right pony go feral, then could be incredibly disastrous. Especially because they had no way of knowing how to break the Enchantment, and the only thing that they found that worked was eating the gem itself.

Normally, dragons could digest a gem easily enough, but the magic preserved it, much to Spike’s misfortune.

Then, of course, there was Twilight’s Focus amulet. Yes, Twilight had enough practice these days to lift the sun and moon on her own, but without the focus, she’d be basically useless for the rest of the day. Her magic reserves as an alicorn were huge, that was the point, but moving the sun and moon without the help would drain her of all of her energy to the point where she’d have to lay in bed and sleep until someone brought her meals to eat. She would roughly recover around sunset, where’d she have to do the whole thing over again.

Those three artifacts could be devastating to the Equestria as a whole, especially if put in the hooves of the right, or wrong, pony.

Which, apparently, was the point.

“So you’re telling me,” Twilight said, staring Azure Heart straight in the eyes, “that not only was he telling me the truth that he works for me but he was hired, specifically, to steal from me.”

Azure glanced down. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“Why?” she asked.

“He’s...” Azure began. “He’s what he would call an expert, Your Highness. He is frequently hired to test our defenses at random times to simulate an actual thief.”

Twilight nodded. “That part I understand,” she said. “The term is ‘White Hat’ right?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“The part I don’t understand is that you’ve confirmed for me that he is still actively stealing things in a criminal sense.”

Spike raised an eyebrow as he glanced over his report, expertly hidden by a comic book just for Miss Inkwell’s sake.

“It’s...complicated,” Azure said. “From what my predecessors tell me, Princess Celestia had a working relationship with him, and hired him because of his criminal activity.”

Twilight looked at him like he was growing a second head.

Spike simply shook his head. “Hope you came prepared, Azure,” he thought. “She’s going to want proof.”

“Do you have proof of this?” Twilight asked, and Spike mentally chalked up another point for himself.

“Unfortunately not, Your Highness,” Raven interjected. “Those records no longer exist.”

Twilight turned to her. “Why?” she asked.

Raven blushed. “B-because I...got rid of them, Your Majesty.”

“Did you now?” Spike said as he looked over to her, smiling. “That’s going to hurt your score there, Miss Inkwell.”

Raven glared up at him, anger burning in her eyes. “I did,” she said.

“I feel like a broken record here, but why?” Twilight asked.

“It was my mistake, Your Highness,” she said in a resigned tone. “I was making room in the archive and...underestimated the value of those documents.”

Twilight brought a hoof to her face and sighed. “Okay, so he was here to steal from us, but that’s because we hired him to do it. He’s a criminal, but Celestia hired him despite that, but we don’t have proof of that. Is that about right?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” both Raven and Azure answered.

Spike decided he’d finally speak up. “Well, if that’s the case, you should probably go talk to him.”

All eyes turned to him.

Spike shrugged. “Look, Twilight, if you’re going to have to make a call about whether to trust him or not, then you’re going to have at least talk to him to know what kind of person he is.”

Twilight nodded. “That’s fair.”

“I think it’s unnecessary,” Azure said. “He’s shown himself trustworthy under Celestia.”

“Competent, I can believe,” Twilight said. “Trustworthy? Well, I’m much less sure about that.”

Azure nodded.

Twilight stood. “Come on, Spike,” she said, “let’s go talk to our thief.”

Spike stood with a smile, before sending one more sideways glance at Raven, before following Twilight out of the small meeting room.

Raven glared at him. “I hate how smug he is.”

Azure sighed. “Spike the Dragon is a hero of the Crystal Empire, and one of Princess Twilight’s oldest friends. It’s natural to be jealous of the attention her Highness gives him.”

“I am not jealous of that runt,” she growled.

Azure nodded. “Of course not,” he said flatly.

Raven glanced at him. “I have served Princess Celestia for a decade; I have more experience at running this country than her Royal Highness herself. That little winged runt has nothing on me.”

Azure shook his head. He wasn’t sure how this mutual hatred between the two advisors began, but he certainly didn’t want to get caught between them. “I have some business to attend to. Best of luck, Raven.”

Spike followed Twilight down to the dungeon. She carried a light with her, down the stairs, and straight to the thief’s cell.

“And there she is!” Night Silk said as he got up from his cot. “I was wondering when we’d get a chance to talk properly.”

“Night Silk, was it? I heard you were hired to test our security.”

“That is correct!” he said, from behind his bars, smiling. “By the way, you need to seriously improve a few things.”

“Oh, do I?” Twilight asked.

Spike watched her as she spoke. She was definitely trying to keep a royal, imperious air. She worked very hard on, he knew, and he also knew that it gave her an edge when dealing with ponies that she wasn’t sure to trust.

“Oh, definitely,” Night replied. “For one, your guards were a little over-zealous. They all rushed in, ready to prove that they were competent, and in doing so, were easily distracted. That’s the main reason why I don’t tell the ponies I’m testing when I’m coming.

“The second problem was one that I’m sure is easily fixed, and that one is: lock the doors to your magical item vaults. You never know when somepony can just walk on in and take whatever they want.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that.

“Third,” Night continued, “your guards need to be more conscious of what they pass when moving through hallways. I wouldn’t have been able to get to your bedroom if the guard who’d been outside your door had: first, stayed at his post, but more importantly, if he had been aware of what was going on around him when he moved. I was hiding above him as he moved through the hallway, all he had to do was look up to catch me, but well…”

“I find it hard to take that advice when you have shown that you’re an illusionist,” Twilight said. “My guards reported that you used Thornoak’s Transposement—”

“Control Image,” Night said.

Twilight paused.

Spike could see the royal facade crack for a moment as her thought was interrupted, and smiled to himself when her inner nerd began to show itself.

“Y-yes...Thornoak’s Transposement does use the Control Technique with the Image Form, but to simplify Thornoak’s work to just the Technique and Form ignores so much of the astral geometry and refinement of the spell—”

“Princess, I’m no mage. I know Control, Create, Matter, and Image. That’s average for a unicorn, at best. Yes, I do have illusions that I can use, but when I’m with clients, I use them for distractions at most. I play fair, after all.”

“And you expect me to believe that a thief plays fair?” Twilight asked, returning to her colder mask.

“I not just a thief, Princess,” Night said with a smirk. “I’m a Master Thief.”

“And the difference is?”

“Why, Princess, I’m hurt,” Night said. “I would have thought you and Celestia would have discussed this.”

“We never got around to it, between saving the world and my coronation,” she replied.

“That’s a shame, but I understand,” Night said. “The difference between the common thief and me is that I steal from ponies that deserve to be stolen from.”

“And what makes somepony deserve it?”

“A few things. The challenge is one factor. That’s why I work for the castle, stealing from a compound with well-protected treasures and a full team of guards to work against. Speaking of,” he said, before reaching back into his mane to pull the Time Twirler free. “The fourth problem: your guards need to search your prisoners better.”

Twilight’s facade broke again. “Give me that! Don’t you know this thing can explode?” She grabbed the amulet with her magic, before pulling it into a magical bubble to protect it.

“Yes,” Night said simply. “That’s why I stole it, Princess.”

She glanced up at him.

“If I, a thief, can get a hold of something like that, then you weren’t protecting it well enough. That’s why I targeted the magical artifacts that I did. Each of these pieces could devastate the country if used properly, so each of these needs to be properly protected.”

Twilight put her facade back together, but Spike was sure that the thief had seen through it by this point. “So Challenge, what else then?”

“Well, the challenge is only a part of it. You’re a decent pony, at least from what I’ve seen so far, and that means I shouldn’t take from you in any permanent sense. You’re the kind of pony I return things to. No the ponies who deserve it are typically, well, thieves themselves.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You steal from thieves?”

“Of course, who better to steal from?” he asked. “At that point, it’s hardly even stealing. Celestia used to hire me to free all kinds of things from rival thieves.”

Twilight sent Spike a glance.

He shrugged.

Honestly, it was hard to say if that was a thing Celestia would do. It certainly had the mischievous flair that Celestia was known for, but the legality of it put it somewhere in the questionable realm. Spike wasn’t sure if that was the truth or not.

“And,” he thought to himself, “without the records that Miss Inkwell got rid of, we don’t have a real way of knowing for sure.”

“I also provide all kinds of espionage services and the like. Or at least I hope to,” Night added. “The deal I worked out with Celestia was rather profitable, with something like a few million bits from the security budget, and I would enjoy seeing that deal continued.”

Spike raised an eyebrow at that, and he looked at up the Princess, who was already returning his gaze.

“Well, that’s interesting to hear,” Twilight said. “Because I was going to have to call you about that security budget.”

“You were?” Night asked.

“Yes, specifically to say that I don’t think your services will be necessary for the future.”

Night blinked at her. “You’re only saying that because you don’t understand the services that I do offer.”

“No, I think I do,” she said. “Now, yes, you have pointed out the large problems with our current security set up, and I will be making moves to fix the problems you described. Yet your additional services, the ones that Celestia supposedly asked you take care of for her, are not something I’m interested in. At all. Honestly, Equestria, the Equestria I have been building since my coronation, is not the place for this kind of activity.”

Night blinked. “I’d laugh, but that statement actually, physically hurts me with how naive it is. Princess, what you want doesn’t matter. A country, no matter how well policed, or how filled with love and tolerance as it might be, will have a criminal element. That’s why it’s a crime.”

“And I have guards to take care of that criminal element,” she replied.

Night brought a hoof to his face. “Princess, I’m not talking about your common criminal. I’m talking about organized crime. Organized crime doesn’t fall because one pony was arrested.”

“It can if I arrest the right pony.”

“The right pony isn’t going to be arrested because they’re just hiring ponies to do the job for them. That’s how organized crime works!”

Twilight shot back with an argument, but Spike could already tell that it wasn’t going to mean anything to the stallion. Admittedly, he had a point, so shutting him down wasn’t going to be easy, but Twilight had a history of trying to argue a point she thought she was correct about, as though tearing a hole in one argument was all it took. He could tell that this was going to go nowhere quick.

“Twilight, can I make a suggestion?”

Both ponies, nearly in a full argument now, stopped to turn to him.

“I think what he needs is a chance to prove that he’s as indispensable as he claims.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “And what do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said,” Spike replied. “He can argue that the ponies he steals from deserve it, but without giving you the breakdown of how, you’re not going to believe him.”

“Well, yes, but…”

“So I think what he needs to do is show us how useful he is. He does some jobs, and if we think that it’s worth it, then we keep him. If not, we make him a security consultant.”

“How’s that supposed to help?” Night asked. “I can break down my jobs all she wants, but—”

“It’s fair, at the very least,” Twilight admitted. “I’m not the biggest fan of the idea, but it is fair.”

Night blinked. “You’re going to go with this?”

“Spike brings up good points, and if I’m going to end your job—which Celestia supposedly allowed—then the last I can do is offer you a chance to plead your case. That’s the fair and just thing to do.”

Night raised an eyebrow. “Alright. You want to make this a bet, let’s make it a bet. You’re going to let me go, and then I have three months to prove that what I do is indispensable. Any job I do during that time will have no legal consequences, because I’m sure that’s going to come up eventually, and I’m not going to be held responsible for stuff I did to try and make a point to you.”

Twilight blinked, before looking at Spike.

“He…” Spike began. “He does kind of have a point. He’s literally going to be admitting to you about breaking and entering.”

She nodded. “That’s...fair. Why give yourself a time limit, though? I was going to assign one myself, but you offered one on your own.”

“I never work without a time limit,” he said. “Typically, because the security teams have a few minutes before they peak efficiency.”

“Alright, three months then,” she said. “If you don’t manage to convince me by then, we’ll arrest you for any thefts you make that aren’t to help us improve security. Though, if I’m honest, I don’t know if we even need you then.”

“Princess, you’re going to have to be able to catch me for anything that’s not testing your security systems, and even then, you’re going to have a hard time.”

“Do we have a deal?” Twilight asked.

“We have a deal,” Night said. “I assume the guards will come by with the key to my cell?”

Twilight nodded. “I'll send somepony.”

“Wonderful. In the meantime, I suggest a decent lock on your artifact door in the donjon.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Noted.”

Night smiled. “Until we meet again, then, Princess.”

“Until then,” she said, before turning and leaving.

They marched up the stairs for a bit, but once Spike was sure they were out of hearing range, he spoke up. “That wasn’t a bad meeting.”

Twilight sighed. “I didn’t keep my cool as much as I wanted to.”

“No, but to be fair, one of those times, he revealed that he was basically holding a bomb.”

She sighed again, before holding up the Time Twirler. “I really should just return this to Sunset,” she said. “Keeping this in Equestria is too risky at this point.”

Spike grimaced. “I-I think that was kind of his point.”

“Yes, Spike,” she sighed, exasperated. “That is his point, and it’s a great point, and he’s right about this one thing. He’s not right about robbing ponies blind, though.”

“I didn’t say he was,” Spike said.

Twilight sighed, and Spike could see her shoulders relax. “I know, he just...He gets under my skin for some reason.”

Spike shook his head.

Twilight turned to one of the other guards. “Go release the prisoner; he was here to test our security.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” he replied before he disappeared down the stairs.

“Do you think it’s because he’s a criminal?” Spike asked.

“I don’t know what it is,” Twilight said. “Not that it matters. By the end of three months, he’s not going to be a problem anymore.”

Spike smirked. “You still did a good job,” he said. “I’d bet Celestia would be proud of how you handled that.”

She nodded. “Unless, of course, she actually did hire him.”

Spike frowned before the sound of armor clanking sounded behind them. They both turned to see the guard coming up behind them. “Your Highness! Your Highness!”

“What?” Twilight asked.

“He escaped!”

“What?”

The guard held out a small piece of parchment. “He left this.”

She took it and glanced at the page.

P.S., you should also try better locks on your cell doors.

Until next time, Night Silk.

Twilight sighed.

Chapter 3

Night Silk took the first train to Manehatten, where his favorite hideout waited for him. The safehouse itself wasn’t impressive by any stretch. The small room was barely a closet by comparison to some of the nicer places he robbed but was close to his best informant, Newsie.

The parchment-colored pegasus mare stood on a street corner, next to a stand of newspapers. The Manehatten Tribune didn’t officially hire her, what with being fourteen, but she had to make cash somehow, and the Tribune needed a bit more sales, so they forgot the fact that she was so young and ignored her blank flank.

She glanced up. “Well, well, if it isn’t Night Silk. Haven’t seen you in a bit.”

“Hey, Newsie!” Night said with a smile, as he flipped her a coin and grabbed a paper off her stand. “Ya heard the news?”

“That some coin-flanked moron tried to rob Princess Twilight blind, only to be thrown in the dungeons? Yeah, I’ve heard that.”

“At least he’s a handsome, coin-flanked moron,” Night said, referencing the coin cutie mark he wore. “Can you imagine if he didn’t have the charm to talk his way back out of the dungeon?”

She glared up at him. “Look, I’m glad you’re okay, but I’ve got bills to pay, so if you need info, get to the point.”

Night nodded. “Well, let me catch you up on a few things,” he said. “Part of getting out of Canterlot’s dungeon meant that I had to make a bet with Princess Twilight.”

Newsie frowned, showing an emotion besides annoyance for the first time. “A bet?”

“Surprise, Princess Twilight doesn’t trust me for some reason. So I’m going to have to prove that what I do is worth it.”

“Ew,” Newsie said.

“Tell me about it,” he said. “So I need something to start messing up. Got any news?”

“Ponies to steal from that the Princess would approve of?” she asked. “I don’t…” she began. “I don’t know what the bit—”

“Hey, hey!” Night said. “The Princess is a good pony. An idealist and naive, maybe, but a good pony.”

“Alright, alright,” she groaned. “Okay, so something an idealist would think is great.”

Night nodded, flipping through the paper.

“Do you think messing with Blackjack’s Protection racket would work?” Newsie offered.

“Blackjack’s back up and running again?” he asked.

“She’s started on the bad side of town again, now that the guards have relaxed out there.”

“That’ll be good. Showing her that her guard isn’t quite as competent as she thinks should help show her why I’m useful.”

“Sounds like a plan then, doesn’t it?”

He nodded. “I’ll have to hit up the old warehouse then.”

“Give the guards a swift kick for me.”

“Probably not going to happen, but I’ll be thinking about it.”

Newsie shook her head and waved him off.

“Hey, Newsie,” Night called to her, getting her attention one last time. He tossed her a small bag of bits. “Keep the change.”

She nodded her thanks.

Twilight sat at a table with her advisors. “So, that is our plan. He has three months to prove that he offers the service that we need.”

“Three months seems like a long time to give him,” Raven noted.

“He suggested the time,” Twilight said, “but I’m probably going to come to my decision long before that. In the meantime, I would like to talk with all of you about Night himself, and why no one told me about him.”

Captain Azure answered first. “His work was beneath your notice, Your Highness,” he said. “His work was to test our security, you needn’t know about him at all. The only reason you learned of his existence was that he managed to get into your bed-chamber, and I take the blame for allowing such to happen.”

“And when I asked about the security budget, you didn’t think that was a good time to mention that one of the two ponies that receives a tenth of that budget was a thief?”

“I maintain that he was beneath your notice, Your Majesty,” Azure said. “I said as much in the budget meeting.”

“You did,” she replied, “though I have to wonder if your insistence that I shouldn't meet him has an ulterior motive?”

Azure didn’t reply.

Twilight sighed before turning to Raven. “As for the evidence that you managed to get rid of, we’ll hopefully have an answer sometime this week. I sent a message to Celestia this morning, just after I met with Night Silk. With luck, we’ll have a response within the week.”

“I thought Spike could send a message directly to her?” Raven asked.

“His method of sending messages means that he sends messages to the crown, and the pony wearing it,” Twilight said. “She can send a message to Spike, but I have to rely on the mail system right now. Regardless, we’ll have an answer soon.”

“Now that we’ve covered that," Twilight continued, "we need to talk about what you did know. Because, as you have frequently pointed out, you have worked with Celestia before, so how much did you know of Night before last night.”

“Honestly, Your Majesty, I never knew,” she said. “I dealt with more of the bureaucracy, and this was certainly not something that Celestia shared with me.”

“So you were the only pony that knew about this, Azure?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, Your Highness,” he replied.

“So the point stands that you didn’t tell me about him,” Twilight said. “How do you expect me to rule when you’re hiding things like this from me?”

“It would not have hindered you, your Highness,” Azure said. “I simply did not mean to distract you.”

Twilight sighed. “I think we’re done with this topic for today,” she said, before standing. “I have to hold court; in the meantime, Raven, can you bring me anything you can find on this pony?”

“The ones that—”

“Any records you can find. Where he was born, who his parents are, if he has a criminal record or not. Whatever you can find,” Twilight said, standing. “If I can’t know about the jobs he’s done, then I want to know everything else I can know about this pony.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she said with a bow.

Twilight frowned before she made her way out of the council room and toward her throne room.

Night stood in his safehouse, glancing up at his chalkboard.

No safehouse was complete without a chalkboard, as far as Night was concerned. How else were you expected to gather information on your target and organize it properly? He stuck another page to the chalkboard with a magnet and took a step back to glance at what he had.

Blackjack ran the largest gang in Equestria, though saying that didn’t give the full picture of what was going on. The truth was that Blackjack’s crew was closer to being a mafia, with herself as the don. Though honestly, Night almost wished she was more like the kind of mafia you’d see in the movies. It’d certainly make her more exciting.

Each and every gang member was a professional criminal. Some were blackmailers, thieves, and she even had a few murderers in her employ, but the guard wasn’t terribly concerned with arresting them. Not because they were lax or anything, but Blackjack’s gang had enough influence in the prison system that the only thing the guard managed to charge members with were minor crimes like petty theft or littering. If a guard did catch them for something more substantial, a member would just sit in jail, in a nice, cushy cell before somepony came to bail them out.

Most guards just didn’t bother because they didn’t stay in jail long enough.

The trick was trying to prove this to the Princess.

Proving guard attitudes was going to be tough. He could steal the arrest records, but that seemed excessive when he considered that he could probably ask the Princess to pull them up. Even still, that would only prove that there were ponies that were using the jail as a revolving door, which considering that the gang members were only getting pulled on misdemeanor charges, didn’t prove much.

What he needed to do was prove that these crooks were up to something more nefarious.

He currently had a map of Manehatten hanging on the board, with Blackjack’s warehouse marked. He knew that more professional criminals sometimes kept records, but Blackjack did her best to only to be as organized as she needed to. Finding a ledger of some kind would be ideal, but unlikely.

He had the protection racket route laid out. He could grab the collection and split it between the victims, but that didn’t give him the proof he needed.

He had a basic layout of the warehouse picked, so he could infiltrate and grab everything from the lair if he wanted to, and that probably had his best chance to find any proof they carried.

He didn’t like his chances on this one, to be honest, but it had to be the best chance. Not only that, but until somepony like Boot Legger or Moon Light started making larger moves, Blackjack was the biggest threat he had to work with.

He narrowed his eyes before sighing.

He had to hit the warehouse. By the time that the gang members got back to the warehouse, they would have processed it and started to distribute the cash amongst the gang members, making it nearly impossible to return the money. Unfortunately, that would be the best time to hit the warehouse, because the members would be spending their payday on booze.

“Well, Princess, I hope you’re happy,” he said. “I’ll get you evidence, but it’s going to cost some ponies their paychecks.”

He’d have to do some rudimentary scouting tonight, and with luck, he’d be able to hit them in a couple of days with the scheduled thunderstorm. Still, scouting was important here, mostly because these were the kinds of ponies that didn’t toss you in jail when they caught you.

He silently admonished himself for trying to hit Princess Twilight’s bedroom, but he was trying to make a point. Still, that was a dumb move for him. Sure, if she had been asleep, then he might have been able to slip past without waking her, but she was a powerful mage. Of course, she would have an alarm spell on the bell.

Anyway, he had to do some scouting.

“This is all we have, Your Highness,” Raven said, setting a folder in front of Twilight.

Twilight opened the folder and began to search through the pages. Most of the material did seem to match what she saw, a pony about 28 years old, a warm-grey coat, gold and ivory mane, gold coin cutie mark.

So far, the only thing the file did was prove that his name was, in fact, Night Silk.

“The first record of him appearing was back twenty-five years ago when he showed up at an orphanage,” Raven explained. “Once he became a teenager, he was in and out of several juvenile correction facilities, then once he turned twenty, he disappeared.”

“How exactly?”

“No financial records, no new criminal records, no higher education records, and no name for a mortgage. You would have almost thought he died if not for the lack of a death certificate.”

Twilight flipped through the file. He had a few counts of petty thievery, but nothing too serious. “No birth certificate, either?”

“No, Your Highness,” Raven replied.

Raven placed down another file. “These are reports of a pony that matches Night’s description at various crime scenes, though there’s no direct evidence linking the two.”

Twilight opened the new folder and quickly perused the contents. A pony of Night’s description was seen at a warehouse that held several illicit substances and a few illegal magical items. The items themselves weren’t incredibly dangerous, but they were illegal nonetheless.

Twilight mused for a moment, wondering if Night owned the warehouse, or if he had been useful in revealing the location to the guard.

She glanced at another one, where a pony of his description was seen at a privately owned museum. Apparently, this particular photo was the only suspect in an incident where a pony had stolen a relic.

“Oh yes,” Twilight thought, “Just stealing from those who deserve it, aren’t you?”

Raven stood beside the table, waiting for instruction.

Twilight sighed. “Alright, thank you, Raven. I appreciate it.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” she replied before stepping out of Twilight’s room, where Azure was waiting for her.

“Well, what’s she thinking about doing?” Azure asked.

“I think she’s seriously considering this bet.”

Azure sighed. “Wonderful, I suppose that means that Night will be speaking with the Princess more often now.”

“Why are you so against the Princess talking with Night?” she asked.

“She doesn't need to associate with a pony like him,” he replied. “Not so soon into her reign, at least.”

“I'd hardly call what she's doing “associating,’” Raven said.

“We know that,” he said, “but will the ponies out there know that? What if the press found out that a known thief continues to appear before and speak with the Princess? At best, you have whispers of favoritism in Justice; at worst, she becomes a tyrant that uses criminals to punish those she cannot reach within the law.”

“That’s the craziest thing I’ve heard,” a new voice said as both of them turned to see Spike make his way down the hallway toward both of them. “If she wanted to be a tyrant, she would just change the law.”

Raven sent Spike a glare, which the dragon returned.

“I agree with your sentiment, Master Spike,” Azure said. “Though ponies have a way of ignoring certain information in favor of others. Celestia had the benefit of ruling for so long and so well that if a pony said she was becoming a tyrant, they would be labeled a madpony. Princess Twilight does not have the benefit of more than a thousand years of ruling to defend her.”

Spike nodded. “That’s fair, I suppose.”

“But if the Princess wishes to humor this bet of his, so be it,” Azure said. “I would much rather the Princess be a mare of her word than to turn against him for her own gain.”

Spike sighed. “I think this got way too complicated.”

“Honestly, Master Spike,” the Captain said. “I think that’s something we can all agree on.”

Night landed softly on the rooftop as softly as he could. Climbing up to the roofs was always the most challenging part of these scouting missions, but they were almost always worth it. Very few ponies bothered looking up, so sitting on top of a roof helped hide him far better than shadows.

Still, what he wouldn’t give for a Transform Body spell to make climbing easier. Increasing the power of his muscles for a good jump would be amazing, though it would probably take him a week to recover from casting it.

He crouched against the roof, glancing down from his vantage point. Blackjack’s warehouse stood like a shadow against the reflected light of the moon on the Celestia Sea, looming on the docks like some kind of massive beast. From his lookout several stories up, Night could see lights dancing inside from the windows, betraying the seemingly abandoned facade.

Looking down, he could see that he didn’t have a good angle on getting into the warehouse covered. The building was isolated, across the street from his small apartment building, and the walled-in yard left a long stretch of open space with such little cover that he wouldn’t have a chance of hiding without using spells.

The only good news concerning the courtyard was that it had several storage containers that hugged the walls. He could see the open doors of a few, and even a pony on watch sitting in one of the empty boxes.

The warehouse itself didn’t seem too promising either. The large, sliding door at its front was no doubt guarded and would only lead to him getting caught if he tried to go through there. His best shot would be the broken windows along the sides, but he couldn’t guarantee that the other side of the windows would have a platform to land on.

His knowledge of the inside of the building was outdated. His options to get inside was limited. The chances of crossing the courtyard to get to the building were slim. He didn’t even have a promise that the inside of the building had what he was looking for.

He smiled.

This was the kind of challenge he was looking for.

Night quickly found himself musing on ways across the courtyard. He could try the “Transposement” spell he used to climb into the castle, but that just meant that the guards would see him approach from the opposite side at best. The guards would still know someone was here, and that someone was trying to break into the warehouse, which did not have the sprawling grounds to keep ponies away long enough to get his job done.

Besides, since control spells took continual energy to fuel, he would be tiring himself out before he got to the warehouse proper. No, his magic would not give him the answer here; he would have to find another way in.

Maybe approaching from the water? Or perhaps he could try using the storage boxes somehow? How could he best use the downpour? Would it be thick enough to make something of a smokescreen? Did he dare hope for some mist?

He tapped his chin as he thought, and continued to smile as he watched the warehouse.

Again, a Transform Body spell would be great. Just a Transform Image would make this easy, but he’d have to worry about that another day. Besides, he could do this.

These ponies wouldn’t get close to catching him. They weren’t even in the same league as he was.

After all, he was a Master thief.

Chapter 4

Night whistled to himself as he wandered through Canterlot Castle’s hallways. According to his previous scouting, he knew that the Princess would be taking her lunch in the castle solarium. He continued to whistle, taking a left into the large, open room with the glass roof. “Hello, Princess,” he said as he took a seat opposite her.

Twilight glanced at him, looking over her Hayburger Hay meal, with enough decency to look ashamed over being caught with ketchup on her lips. “You weren’t announced,” she said, pointing out the fact that seemed more pressing for her at the moment.

“By the way, you did a better job on the door to the magical, world-ending artifacts. Of course, now you need to actually protect the normal valuables,” he said, placing a vase on the table. “2nd era piece, very nice,” he said casually.

Twilight blinked. “Excuse me?”

Night smirked, before reaching for one of Twilight’s hayfries.

That got the first real reaction out of her, as she snagged the fry back. “Do not touch my fries!” she warned. “Why are you even here?” she asked suddenly.

Night smiled and set a book in front of her. “This is the ledger of none other than Blackjack, a leader of a gang. Specifically, it deals with allocating funds taken from ponies that have been forced into a protection racket by that gang leader.”

Twilight set her burger aside before carefully picking up the ledger.

“It took quite a bit of work to get this book, you know,” Night said. “A decent job, if I do say so myself.”

Twilight began scanning the lines in the book.

“Yup, I managed to nab this thing just last night.”

Night watched from the alley next to the small apartment building, as the rain poured down around him. The warehouse stood like a wraith in the distance, hidden by the curtain of the storm. Night smirked as he glanced at it before he prepared his equipment. A small grappling hook, made of left-over rebar, hovered next to him in his magical control matter grasp. The old thing was one of his first pieces of proper thieving equipment, and while he felt that he mostly had grown beyond it, he occasionally broke it out of his old storage shed for a job or two.

This was going to be one such job.

He slipped across the street, avoiding the occasional carriage that rattled by, before pressing himself against the wall. Working carefully, he slowly lifted the hook to the top of the storage container and secured it.

Sure, he could have thrown the hook, it certainly would have drained his magical reserve less than lifting it up the entire way, but he wanted to make as little noise as possible right now. Hooking the rope on tight, he began to climb, using the knots he tied into the rope beforehand to give him a grip as he rose.

He pulled himself over the edge of the storage container, grabbed the hook, and then jumped down into the shadows, rolling into cover. He quickly coiled the rope into a small bundle, as he began to glance around the courtyard.

He could barely see either side of the courtyard from where he stood, though the building was far easier to see by now. More importantly, he could just notice the open container where a pair of ponies played cards by lantern light.

He slipped up next to it and listened carefully to the conversation.

“...heard that she’s on the warpath again. Something about the 6th Street Gang in Baltimare cutting in on their turf.”

“Match,” a female voice said with a sigh. “That’s what you get for listening to Shoeshine. That stallion’s got less brains than a parakeet.”

“Parakeets are actually considered to be some of the most intelligent birds out there, Pearl,” the first one said with a sigh.

“And I didn’t ask you, did I?” Pearl asked back. “Now, play your damn cards.”

Night frowned.

They certainly didn’t sound like they hated each other, even if they were on each other’s nerves. He could use Control Image to literally put words in one of their mouths, but it wouldn’t change the face to match. Changing their face to look angry would take a different spell, and while an incantation could exist to change both, he didn’t know how to twist his soul to get that.

Starting a fight like that was a little too risky. He’d have to try a different one.

He reached out with his magic, using Create Matter to form a small item on one of the pony’s sleeves.

“What’s that?” Pearl asked.

“What’s what?” Match asked back.

“Is that a card?”

“What?”

“There, in your sleeve!”

“What? H-how’d that—”

“You cheater!”

“I wasn’t cheating!”

Night peeked his head around the corner, where he saw the mare barking into the slightly smaller stallion’s face.

“That’s a load bullsh—”

“I wasn’t cheating!” Match yelled back, pulling the card from his sleeve. “I didn’t put this here!”

Night grit his teeth, focusing on keeping the paper together.

“Then how’d it get there? Huh?” Pearl asked.

“I don’t know!”

This was going to be the only real shot he got, he realized. So, still concentrating on his spell, he stepped across the open storage container and slipped across the courtyard. Once there, he gave himself another fifteen seconds before dropping the spell, letting the card disintegrate into pure energy.

Create Matter spells were always a little draining, but making something that large for that long was beginning to tire Night out, and he still had the warehouse to get to.

It’d be fine though; he wasn’t a Master Thief for nothing.

He got out his hook, again, before using his magic to lift it up to the roof of the warehouse proper, and quickly climbed the rope onto it. The top of the warehouse, little more than corrugated steel sheets, groaned slightly under Night’s weight. Still, the sound would go unnoticed compared to the clattering of the rain against the metal.

He glanced back for a bit as he gathered his rope, watching the open storage container for any sign that the pair in there noticed that the card disappeared.

Other than the occasional yell that cut through the storm, they didn’t make a sound.

He smirked, before glancing around to check for sentries. When he found none, he took a second to relax and try to rest and recover from his spell. He sat in the rain for a moment before he got up and pushed forward. He needed to keep moving if he didn’t want to get caught.

He moved across the roof, doing his best to move without causing the sheets of steel to bow under his weight. Finally, he found a window whose broken glass left a hole large enough for him to squeeze through and slipped inside.

As he assumed, the windows did not have a stable place to stand once he got in. However, he was pleasantly surprised to see one of the steel rafters nearby. Smiling, he slipped onto it, carefully balancing his way across the warehouse, giving him a near-perfect view of the layout.

The floor was filled with gang members. They walked across the floor, singing bad drinking songs as they drank their fill of lousy beer. The main room was divided into a bunch of smaller spaces, with the help of stacked crates and the occasional storage container. Glancing around, Night also saw a long catwalk that hugged the sides of the building. His gaze followed it’s winding paths all the way to the stairs that led up to it and the suspended office space.

More specifically, an office from which it would be incredibly easy to see him.

He quickly cast his Control Image spell to transpose his image directly above the office, where it would be safely out of sight. The spell wouldn’t last long with him still recovering from the card trick, but he would have to make do long enough to get over there. His magical reserved was running low, though. He’d begin cutting into his physical energy if he kept up his spells, so Night needed to move as quickly as he could.

Taking a moment to steady himself, he leaped over to the next rafter. His chest rammed into the rafter, knocking the air from his lungs as he focused on just trying to keep his spell up and stationary over the office. He clambered up back onto the rafter and then leaped again, onto the next.

His magical reserve was spent, and now his body was beginning to compete with his spell. His legs were starting to shake, and he silently cursed that he had to waste so much energy on making a card. He released another, long, shaky exhale, and then leaped across to the last rafter.

Finally, above the office, he released the spell and laid across the rafter. He breathed a moment, taking a rest as he tried to ready himself for the rest of the night’s thieving.

He took a few minutes before he hung his hook on the rafter and slid down the rope. He landed softly on the top of the room and began to move carefully toward the office’s edge, before pulling out a set of mirrors. Holding them in his magic, he carefully arranged them into a simple periscope and glanced into the office.

A large earth pony mare with a dull red coat and a purple mane sat at a table, apparently writing in a large book. The large brown club on her flank marked her as Blackjack herself, and she apparently had taken up log keeping.

She stood suddenly, and Night pulled the mirrors back up and out of view. The clatter of the rain meant he still couldn’t hear anything that was going on, so he had to carefully angle the mirror at the ground. That way, unless Blackjack was crawling an inch above the floor, he’d see her hooves before she would see his periscope.

Sure enough, her hooves appeared in his view. He carefully watched them as she slowly approached the window, no doubt to make sure her gang members didn’t get too rowdy as they celebrated the end of a long night of “hard work.”

Her hooves turned, and she began to walk away. Night followed her with his mirror the whole way, watching her as she slowly approached the door in the back of the office. She opened the door and walked through, leaving the book alone on the desk.

Night smiled, and he made his move, slipping across the office roof until he made it just above the door. The door did have a guard, a single pony that glanced about occasionally, and stared down the stairs that led to the ground floor.

Now, this would be the most challenging part of the entire operation. He didn’t have the strength to take out the guard himself, nor could he use sounds to distract him, because of the rain. All of his real solutions for taking care of him would very quickly devolve into a fight and get a lot of attention on him very quickly. So he had very little that he could use to deal with the guard.

Or it would if it weren’t for the noise.

He cast a “Create Image” spell, and an illusionary blindfold covered the pony’s eyes. He turned back and forth suddenly, trying to find something. He reached for his eyes, but his hooves slipped through the blindfold. Night could see the pony begin to breathe wildly, and Night smiled as he started to panic.

Honestly, he could watch him do this all night, but he didn’t have the energy to keep the spell going. Night dropped, kicking the guard in the back. The guard let loose a yell that was barely heard over the rain, and he tumbled down the stairs.

Night knew he wouldn’t have much more of a chance, so he rushed into the office and checked the book. A list of names met him, and he knew he found precisely what he needed.

“From there, it was a simple matter of getting back onto the roof and getting out before they could notice me,” Night explained, having finished recounting his night’s story. “Normally, I like to work a little quieter, but considering I couldn’t distract him with some noise, I thought it was a rather elegant solution.”

There was silence at the table for a second, before Twilight spoke up. “That’s it?”

Night blinked. “Excuse me?”

“That’s it?” Twilight repeated. “You snuck into a warehouse, exhausted yourself by casting a few spells, and then grabbed a book of names and numbers?”

Night bristled. “I snuck into a warehouse filled with at least a hundred ponies, and only one of these was even aware that I was there because I blinded him. I cast a powerful Create Matter spell, which would exhaust any number of unicorns off the street. Then I managed to grab a ledger that proves that a pony is running a protection racket in your city, and your guards can’t do anything about it!”

“A hundred drunk ponies, according to your own account,” Twilight noted before she held the book up. “But beyond that, look at this. This could be a normal business ledger. This isn’t proof that you uncovered a ring of highly-organized criminals running a protection racket. Besides, if they were, my guards could take care of that.”

“They try!” Night said. “They try, and then the criminals get out for nearly nothing! If your guards had this book, they could begin the biggest arrest of the decade!”

Twilight shook her head. “Look, before I was Princess, I used to go out on adventures with my friends. We could have done something like this. In fact, we had a time where we were competing to get past the palace’s security ourselves. We managed to get into the throne room, and we are by no means 'Masters' at thieving. If you want to impress me, you’re going to have to do better than that.”

Night felt his eye twitch. “I know you used to adventure, that’s why I thought you’d be a better judge of how difficult a job is.”

Twilight shrugged and set the book back down on the table. “Sorry, Night, I’m just not impressed.”

Night took a deep breath and stood. “I see. I’ll return then, hopefully with a better job for you, Your Highness.”

“Actually, since I have you here, I’d like to discuss something with you.”

“Would you?” Night asked.

“I would. I have unfortunately not been able to corroborate your story with Celestia as of yet,” Twilight said. “I’m expecting a letter from her within a few days, but I do want to hear what kind of jobs you’ve claimed to have done for Celestia.”

Night glared at her for a moment before he spoke. “I would love to be able to discuss this with you, Princess. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time right now. Can we discuss it in the tea room in an hour?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with now?”

“Well, for one,” Night said. “Your guard is currently looking for me.”

“What?”

“Oh, I snuck past them for this audience. That’s how I managed to grab the vase there.”

“What?” Twilight asked again, sounding scandalized.

The smile on Night’s face was beginning to return. “As I said, Princess, I’ll see you in an hour.” Then without another word, he walked out of the room.

Twilight didn’t even have the time to return to her now-cold hayburger before the guards burst in, Captain Azure at the lead. “Your Highness, we’ve had reports that Night Silk infiltrated the castle again. I hate to interrupt you during your meal, but have you seen him?”

She frowned and pointed toward the door he just left through. “You just missed him, Captain.”

The Captain’s face darkened, and he barked at his guards. “After him! He is not going to get away with this in broad daylight!”

“Yes sir!” came the guards’ chorus, as they all began to pile through the door.

Twilight hesitated a moment before calling out. “Captain?”

“Yes, Your Highness?” he replied, coming to her side instantly. “Captain, can you tell me anything about a group of ponies known as Blackjack’s gang?”

The Captain hesitated for a moment. “They’re very dangerous ponies, your Highness. Ones that have been a plague all across Equestria for too long.”

“So why haven’t you dealt with them?” she asked.

“We lack evidence, Your Highness.”

Twilight frowned, as though lost in thought for a long moment. “And if you had proof that they were running a protection racket in Manehatten?”

“It would be a start, Your Highness. One that I feel is long overdue.”

Twilight nodded. “Would this help?” she asked, sliding the ledger over to him.

He glanced at it and picked it up, flipping through the pages for a moment, before he nodded. “Did Night bring this in?”

She nodded.

“This would be enough to launch an investigation, certainly,” the Captain said. “Unfortunately, as it has been obtained by illegal means, it’s not something that I can use. Especially because I can’t prove that it came from Blackjack’s gang.”

Twilight nodded. “I see,” she stared at the door that Night had escaped through. “Thank you, Captain. Can you do me a favor?”

“Anything, Your Highness,” Azure said.

Twilight picked up the vase from where she hid it under the table. “Can you put this back where it belongs? I’m afraid I have no clue where it should be.”

The Captain looked down at the vase with a scowl that Twilight would admit was not too different from the expression he usually wore. “Of course, Your Highness. I assume Night is responsible for this as well?”

Twilight nodded.

Azure sighed before carefully taking the vase in one hoof and walking away.

Twilight watched him go for a second, before finishing her burger and fries. “There’s one more thing that’s bothering me about all of this,” she thought to herself. “Why does he keep calling spells by their Techniques and Forms?”

Chapter 5

Twilight Sparkle waited in her tea room, sipping at a small cup of raspberry tea. She always preferred fruitier teas to Celestia’s classical oolong. The Princess figured that it was a holdover from her time as Celestia’s student, specifically when she was young and tried to cover the bitter taste of leaves with sugar and honey.

She checked the large standing clock against the wall, one of the hundreds that dotted the castle grounds. Night had a minute and a half to fulfill his hour deadline, and Twilight felt exceptionally punctual today.

In retrospect, the abundance of clocks seemed obvious. However, one time, many years ago, she questioned why Celestia had so many clocks. She once assumed that Celestia had a near-perfect sense of timing, or at the very least, a very reliable alarm clock. Though Twilight had to admit, that having clocks almost literally everywhere had its advantages. Especially after the one time she accidentally had an all-nighter in the Castle’s archive.

She wondered if ponies were still upset about the time the sun rose at 10:30 in the morning.

The minute hand clicked over, and just as it did, Night entered the room. “There you are, Princess.”

“You’re late,” Twilight said simply.

“I’m on time,” he argued.

“On time is late,” Twilight said. “Early is on time.”

Night raised an eyebrow. “If you say so, Princess.”

Twilight glanced at him before motioning to the spot opposite her, a cup of tea waiting. “Go ahead, and take a seat, Mr. Silk.”

“Mr. Silk?” Night asked, taking the seat indicated. “I wasn’t aware this was a formal meeting.”

“Let’s focus on the matter at hoof, please,” she said.

“Yes, let’s,” he said, sipping at his tea, before adding some cream.

“The question is simple. What kind of jobs did you do for Celestia?”

“Directly to business?” Night asked. “No preamble? No small talk?”

Twilight set down her cup of tea and summoned her best, unamused glare.

Night smiled. “As you wish,” he said. “I did what her guards could not. If Celestia needed something stopped, and couldn’t legally send her soldiers in to deal with it, she sent me.”

“So you’ve claimed,” Twilight said, “but you haven’t given me any actual examples or evidence of that.”

Night glanced up at her. “Doesn’t the ledger prove that I get things the guards cannot?”

“It proves that you can bring me a book,” Twilight said. “One that I can’t prove you spent two days writing names in, to blame it on some criminals to make a point.”

“You think I counterfeited a ledger?” Night asked. “I mean, I grant you that would be a great way to beat the bet without really trying, but that’s going a little far.”

“I don’t think it is,” Twilight said. “But let’s not get distracted. Tell me about one of these jobs you’ve done, so I can get a better grasp of what exactly Celestia hired you for.”

Night sighed. “Alright, let’s start with…” he began, trying to decide which story to tell. “Let’s start with Boot Legger.”

“And who is this Boot Legger?” Twilight asked.

“A smuggler, as his name suggests,” Night answered. “He specializes in anything and everything that needs to be moved without your guards finding out.”

“Does he?” Twilight asked.

Night nodded. “Anything from drugs to slaves.”

“Slaves?” Twilight asked.

“Weren’t you aware, Princess? There’s a full-on trafficking economy in the underworld.”

“I’ve been to the underworld,” Twilight said, “and there most certainly is not!”

Night blinked. “The criminal underworld?”

“Oh...my mistake. Continue.”

“For the most part,” Night said. “I’ve worked very hard to kill that economy, mostly at Celestia’s request. You can almost say she commissioned me for it.”

Twilight frowned. While stopping a trafficking ring was definitely something Celestia would do, she wondered why she didn’t do something about it herself.

“You don’t think she’d do that?” Night asked.

“No. I’m wondering why she just didn’t bring down the full fury of the solar guard. They would crush any kind of effort to keep the venture going and discourage anyone else from doing the same. I suppose the question is, why would she bother sending you when she could nip this in the bud.”

“That’s incredibly innocent of you to believe that ponies would stop after that,” Night said, “but you’re right, in a way. You see, I was leading the guard to them. Celestia typically hired me to find them, grab all of the keys so they couldn’t move the creatures without ripping the cages up. That typically gave the guard enough time to come in, make the arrests, and release the creatures from bondage. It was a pretty sweet gig, all things considering.”

“You’re not going to make a comment about how arresting them was pointless because they just got out?” Twilight asked.

“Oh Princess,” Night said with a sip of his tea, “Celestia didn’t give them a chance to get out. She executed them.”

Twilight blinked.

“She wiped out the slavers cell by cell,” Night said. “All she had to do was hire me to find them and slow them down to keep them from escaping.”

Twilight frowned again.

“Boot Legger,” Night continued, apparently missing her frown, “keeps sticking around somehow. Though he has, for the most part, stopped dealing in sentient creatures. He still manages to move hundreds of pounds of drugs, endangered animals, and who-knows-what other contraband to anyone with the coin. He even works with Blackjack at times, smuggling in items to prisoners for resale.”

“And how do you fit into all of that?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, pure sabotage,” Night said with a smirk. “I mess with his couriers and occasionally set some of his warehouses on fire. Or make sure the animal cages open suddenly, that kind of thing.”

“I see,” Twilight said, lifting her cup to her lips for a sip. “Anything else?”

“I do some counter thieving as well,” Night said. “There’s this noble’s son named Moon Light that goes around trying to steal from perfectly respectable individuals. He’s young and likes to play a crime boss, and he usually wouldn’t be an issue. Still, he’s managed to hire several competent thieves to go with him on these inane ‘adventures’ of his.

“They’re mostly in it for the money, which Moon Light has in droves. In fact, Moon manages to frequently bail out his little crew with the funds he collects from his father, and whatever he sells to the stallion that acts as his fence. I typically try to steal it all back before Moon gets that far, but I do what I can.”

“And you don’t bring the guard with you to catch them?” Twilight asked.

“So I can copper and silver them to death?” Night asked. “Moon’s young, but he’s not dumb. All of his targets are just under felonies. He just collects so many of them that when he’s caught, it doesn’t cut into his profits, and he is always good for the money.”

Twilight frowned further. “So what about this Blackjack you mentioned. How do you normally deal with her?”

“Typically, by making sure she loses more money than she makes,” Night replied. “I don’t have a good way of dealing with her more physical crimes, so the best I can do is sabotage her gang’s infrastructure. It’s not the most effective method, but it’s the one I’m best at.”

Twilight nodded.

So far, these explanations sounded plausible, even reasonable, at times. Though, this still didn’t explain all the jobs that Twilight had read about when she had Raven bring her the file.

“Any other jobs?”

“Some relic stealing, you know, the kind of things that don’t belong in the hooves of normal ponies.”

“Like the amulet you took from the museum eight years ago.”

Night frowned. “In my defense, my intel was bad on that one. I thought that was this little thing called the Alicorn Amulet. It’s a dangerous thing, increasing one’s magical reserves, expands their knowledge of spells, and begins to corrupt the soul all in go. I thought for sure the museum had it, but that was apparently a fake.”

Twilight blinked.

“I still don’t know what happened to the real one.”

Twilight sipped her tea.

The clock ticked quietly away, pendulum swinging softly back and forth.

“Well,” Twilight began, “I suppose that answers all my questions.”

“Then I best take my leave,” Night said with a smile. “Your guard’s still after me, and I need to be moving before they start crawling up this side of the tower.”

“Before you go,” Twilight said. “I do have a more personal question.”

“Oh, do you?” Night asked.

“I do. Why do you keep referring to spells by their Form and Technique? There are all kinds of spell names to help specify how they’re being used, and how to properly position one’s will to build the spell matrix. Why do you keep calling them by the broadest possible terms?”

“I told you that, already, Princess,” Night said, smiling. “I’m not a mage. I figured out what I know on my own, and it’s taken several years to figure it out.”

Twilight frowned. If what Night said was true, then chances are he was blundering about with his matrix building. He was probably wasting a large amount of energy every time he tried to cast something. That meant that he would be able to cast far, far more spells if given proper instruction.

“I see. Thank you, one last thing, though,” Twilight said before her horn lit up, and the doors behind her opened. Revealing a pair of guards. “I’m not letting you walk out that easy.”

Twilight smirked as Night dropped into a crouch, eyes wide. He glanced between the two, eyes darting wildly before landing on the Princess. “Well played,” he said simply before rushing out the opposite door.

“Just escort him out,” Twilight said before her guards behind her rushed forward after Night. Then, with a sigh, she sipped her tea.

“I don’t like this,” Raven said.

Azure watched the grey-coated mare as she paced in the middle of the room. He wasn’t entirely sure why she called the meeting, but nonetheless, he was here. What surprised the Captain of the Guard more was the fact that Raven had also invited Spike to join them.

“So you’ve said,” the dragon said, flipping through a comic book. “Three times now, without really bothering to explain why.”

Raven shot him a glare. “I wasn’t sure if I needed to repeat myself or not, considering that you don’t seem to be paying attention.”

“Well once you’ve got something worth paying attention to…” Spike muttered under his breath.

“Excuse me?” Raven yelled.

Azure sighed. If he wanted to get anything done today, he’d have to nip this in the bud now. He stood and used his deep, commanding voice to get the attention of both of the advisors. “Master Spike, Miss Inkwell, please. This is not the time to bicker.”

The two continued to glare for a second before Raven backed down, and Spike reluctantly put his comic aside.

“I don’t like this,” Raven repeated, “because the more research I put into this Night person, the less I trust.”

“Night Silk is perfectly trustworthy to complete the job,” Azure said. “I’ve worked with him since before I was promoted to Captain of the Guard. He will do what needs to be done, as we ask.”

“So you say, but I’ve been running the numbers,” Raven said. “This is a pony that’s been receiving millions of bits a year, but he still manages to line his pocket with bits for his own.”

“You don’t know that,” Spike said, “and from his talk with Twilight, it sounded like he doesn’t really like stealing from normal ponies.”

“But can we trust him on that?” Raven asked. “He claims that he doesn’t want to hurt normal ponies, but can we believe him when he says that? He could be taking bits and coin purses anywhere he goes.”

“Well I like him,” Spike said. “I think he’s a great guy!”

Raven glared at him. “Oh, do you?”

“Yeah? And what’s so great about him, Master Spike?”

“He’s…” Spike began, before trailing off. “There’s just something about it. I like the cut of his jib.”

Raven’s eyes narrowed, and she raised an eyebrow.

Azure sighed. “Miss Inkwell, I appreciate the suspicion. However, Mr. Silk has proven himself trustworthy for many years.”

“You were the one who tried, multiple times, to make sure that the Princess never even knew of his existence,” Raven said. “If he’s so trustworthy, why haven’t you introduced him to the Princess earlier?”

“Because she did not need to know,” Azure said. “He is beneath her notice and should remain beneath her notice. If I brought every single matter of crime up to the Princess for her review, she would spend three years on Manehatten alone. As the Captain of the Guard, dealing with crime and security is my job. It’s for me to worry about. Would you like to waste her time with every single parking violation in the country, Miss Inkwell?”

The glare he sent Raven’s way actually managed to make her wilt a bit, though his face still betrayed no emotion. She backed up a bit, before nodding. “I see, sorry…”

Azure sat back down and nodded for her to continue.

“I...I…” Raven began before shaking her head. “Look, I just think trusting a pony whose entire career is based on stealing is not necessarily the smartest idea.”

“Well, if Celestia trusted him, then surely it’s not the worst idea,” Spike said.

“Yes, but...well…” Raven began. “At the same time, Princess Twilight doesn’t...well...she doesn’t inspire her subjects the same way Celestia did.”

“Oooooh! Talking bad about the Princess!” Spike said with a massive smile on his face.

“I’m not talking bad about Princess Twilight!” Raven yelled. “I’m merely stating that Celestia had a different effect on the populace than Princess Twilight did. He may have been trustworthy under Celestia, but can he still be trustworthy now? Maybe Celestia intimidated him, and with the change of ruler, he’s taken the opportunity to try and take more power?”

“Now that actually sounds like a decent criticism,” Spike said. “Of course, if we get a letter from Celestia anytime soon, it may prove to be unnecessary. After all, having her as a character witness would carry a lot of weight with Twilight.”

Raven nodded. “I know that much.”

Azure nodded as well. “If Celestia returns with a letter, the Princess may simply allow Night to continue with or without a bet.”

Spike shook his head. “I don’t know about that,” he said. “Celestia told her, many, many times to be her own person and make her own decisions. She’ll probably take the advice, and trust her that he’s mostly harmless, but she’ll make her own decision. In fact, she might turn him away just to prove to herself that she’s making her own decisions.”

“You honestly think so?” Azure asked.

“Oh, yeah.”

Raven shook her head. “I still don’t like this.”

Spike belched.

Raven paused and sighed. “Master Spike, I’ve come to expect some immaturity out of you but to dismiss an opinion with a belch is hard—”

She cut herself off as she turned.

On the table in front of Spike lay a scroll, carefully rolled and sealed with red wax, in Celestia’s old emblem.

All three advisors looked at each other before turning to the letter.

Celestia had finally answered.

Twilight stared down at the letter as it sat on her desk. She had studied it several times, now, and read it thrice. The script was definitely Celestia’s, and Spike confirmed three times that he had burped up the message himself. It was definitely a bonafide letter from Celestia.

The header of “Dear Princess Twilight,” still felt weird coming from her.

It corroborated everything that Night had claimed. She met him eleven years ago, one year before his disappearance in official records when he was trying to rob from the palace.

“He was young at the time, only a couple of years older than you. He looked so small in the room, and the way he looked up at me with shame spoke of a desperate stallion that would rather be anywhere else,” the letter said, in pure black and white. “When I asked him why he came to my home, he replied that normal ponies didn’t deserve to be stolen from. So, considering his talents for getting into buildings undetected, and the place his heart was in, I offered him a job.”

Celestia described a few of the jobs he’d done, and sure enough, they matched the descriptions that he gave that very morning.

He was telling the truth.

He did help Celestia’s guard catch slavers, he did secure dangerous magical artifacts, and he did rob almost exclusively from thieves. Twilight almost didn’t believe the words as she read them. Nearly every instinct she had screamed that Night shouldn’t be trusted. Something about the way he talked, the way he walked, the way he smiled, even.

Yet here were Celestia’s words herself, saying that he was stealing for her a year before she left for Ponyville. He was sneaking around warehouses while she was stopping Nightmare Moon. He was freeing creatures from slavery while she was saving the town from Parasprites. It was all right there in black and white.

She sighed.

Celestia just made this complicated now, and she wasn’t quite sure how to move forward.

She turned to Spike, who stood nearby. “Go send a letter back to Celestia, tell her ‘thank you,’ and ask her if she’d like to come by for her tea sometime.”

“Alright, can do,” the dragon replied, pulling out a quill and page. He began to wander out of the room, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts.

“Well, he has three months,” she said to herself, before turning to her balcony to raise the moon.

Chapter 6

Twilight sat in court, listening to the pony in front of her as he complained.

“And that, Your Majesty, is why you should allow an extra hour of darkness at the end of the day. This would allow ponies like me to walk home without being blinded by the setting sun.”

Twilight sighed. “So in review, you want me to speed up the sun as it goes through the day so that there is typically at least one more hour of night than sunlight, affecting the growth of plants, seasonal patterns, and general climate of the northern and southern hemispheres. All of that, just so that you don’t need to stare at the sun as you walk you home after a meal out?”

“Yes,” the pony said.

“Buy a hat,” Twilight said, before dismissing him.

The stallion blinked as if the idea hadn’t occurred to him, before the guards escorted him from the throne room. Twilight sighed and slumped into her throne for a bit. Requests like that left her exhausted, and she needed a rest to ready herself for the next pony to appeal to her.

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Spike said, sitting next to her. “We’ll get through this.”

Twilight sighed. “I know…”

“Having fun, Princess?”

Twilight snapped to her left to face the speaker and instantly narrowed her eyes as she saw Night. “Back already?” she asked.

“It’s been two days,” he said in his defense.

“Two days is not enough time to recover from having to see you,” Twilight said.

“Glad to know I’ve had such a strong effect on you, Princess,” Night said.

“For the record, ew,” Spike said, before giving a non-committal wave. “Hello again, Night.”

“Hello, Master Spike,” Night said with a smirk before dropping a small gold statue of Celestia into Twilight’s lap. “That one’s a nice piece, made by a goldsmith that gifted to Celestia back before I got here. Solid gold, did you know?”

Twilight sighed before waving a guard over. He obeyed, and Twilight handed him the statue. “Find where this belongs and return it.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” he replied before running off.

“Also I’m upset with you,” Night said.

“Oh, really?” Twilight asked, a smile growing on her face.

“Yes, really.”

“Well, why on earth is that?”

Night pointed to the poster of his face stuck to the wall, with the words “has open invitation during normal business hours,” written beneath him. “Why do you think? You’re ruining my fun.”

“Ah,” Twilight said. “Well, I guess you’ll have to sneak in at night if you want to get the guards chasing you now. Instead of, say now, when I’m supposed to be holding court.”

Night frowned. “Well, maybe Celestia did teach you a thing or two,” he said.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the comment but turned to focus on the matter at hoof. “Why are you here, Night?”

“I came with another report,” he said.

“Well that was fast,” Twilight said.

“Well, you see, I was heading to my Canterlot hideout when I saw something last night…”

Night glanced up at the night sky, enjoying the full moon that Princess Twilight gave them that night as he walked through the streets of Canterlot. He began walking toward the poorer side of town to sleep in his Canterlot hideout when he caught sight of something.

A single figure leaped across the street, trailing a split cloak behind him as he crossed over the moon in a dark silhouette.

Night smiled.

There was only one kind of pony that would wear a cloak like that while jumping between buildings. Night might get some business tonight, after all.

He ducked down an alleyway, rushing up to the roofs after the pony with the cloak split down the middle. He only knew a handful of ponies that wore that stupid piece of uniform, and each belonged to Moon Light’s pack.

The jumping they performed was a more advanced permutation of “Control Matter,” the form and technique that every unicorn knew intrinsically. Instead of using the magic to telekinetically hold a thing, Moon’s pack managed to perfect a catapulting method or pushing themselves off the ground to cover great distances. Night still hadn’t figured that one out, but he knew he was getting close.

For now, though, he had to deal with dropping back down to the street to try and cover the same jumps or moving laterally to find smaller ones to leap across. It meant his progress was slowed slightly, but he’d still follow the thief as he made his way to the more affluent part of town.

Night rushed behind him, trying to keep up before he lost sight of the unicorn. Night, breathing heavily, cursed quietly to himself as he tried to find any sign of the stallion until his eyes landed on an open window.

Night smiled.

He prepared his old hook, and using his own telekinesis to lift it to the edge of the building’s roof, Night quickly climbed up beside the window and glanced in.

The curtains inside wafted through the air, billowing in the soft breeze. Night slipped in, his hooves not even making a sound as he touched the ground. This definitely had all the marks of a target of Moon Light’s victims. Someplace rich, with several smaller nicknacks to be stolen, all of which could be stuck into a curio shop without anypony thinking twice about it.

Night slipped down the hallway, keeping his eyes and ears open, paying careful attention to every possible sound or sight in the manor. The long hallway came to a t-intersection, and Night poked his head down the left and right wings.

A pony stood at the end of the left hall, filling a bag with small porcelain figurines. Night had a passing knowledge of the collection and knew that the thief’s bag was quickly going to start racking up cash with every one of the little pony-shaped figures he added.

The thief would take just less than a thousand bits worth of new “merchandise” to sell, but he could still get out with just bail until he hit that thousand-bit mark. That’s what Moon Light counted on, hundreds of smaller crimes to build up business with only a minimal legal risk.

Night backed away slightly, prepared to transpose his image before the thief began to move on. Just as the thief began moving past him, Night moved his appearance behind the other thief and pressed himself against the wall.

Made virtually invisible, the thief didn’t notice as he walked past Night and began heading down the right hall, where a set of stairs waited for him. Night dropped the spell and began to follow behind, keeping another spell matrix for another transposition ready to go, until he needed it.

The two made their way down the stairs, neither making a sound as they moved. They quickly moved down to the ground floor, where the thief took a few plates off the wall. Shortly after that, the pony paused and glanced down at the bag, casting a silent spell.

“And what spell was it?” Twilight asked.

“You know, for the longest time, I never knew,” Night said. “Then, one night, I snuck in and listened on one of their meetings, and found out it’s a spell to appraise the value of goods. A “Perceive Matter” spell, I think.”

“Pennypincher’s Pricetag,” Twilight muttered. “One of the few spells to come out of the commercial sector.”

“Twilight, you’re interrupting his story,” Spike said.

Twilight sighed. “Fine, continue.”

The thief nodded to himself and began to look around for something else to steal. He must have been very close to his limit for this trip. Night, meanwhile, was checking over his pockets. He didn’t bring a knife with him tonight, so he needed to come up with something to try and make his plan work.

The thief continued to prowl along the ground floor, occasionally glancing about to look out for ponies trying to go for a midnight snack.

Night followed closely behind, using his transposing spell to move his image out of eyesight whenever he needed to. By only using his magic in short bursts, he was able to keep going while only draining his magical reserves in the smallest amounts possible. He was basically invisible to the thief, as he continued to move his image’s position back and forth across the house, whenever he might get caught.

Following behind, Night watched as the pony kept glancing at every little nicknack, and presumably casting the appraisal spell whenever he needed to check on an item. A plan was already starting to form in Night’s mind, and he smiled at the thought of unleashing chaos just as the stallion thought he was going to get away.

Finally, the stallion found his target and plucked another small porcelain figurine off a shelf, and slipped it into the bag.

Night glanced around as he looked for a blade once more. He had to choose carefully, though, once he started focusing on his telekinesis, he wouldn’t be able to cast a different spell at the same time. It would take far more power than he had to do that, and he heard only a select few mages could pull that off.

He slipped into a side passage as Moon’s thief began to turn around and begin to climb back up the stairs to the window where he came in. Night crouched by the door and mentally cursed that he didn’t bring his knife with him that night, until he glanced around and realized that he stood in the kitchen, with several carving knives sitting in a block waiting for him.

Night smiled and grabbed one before following the thief as quickly and quietly as he could.

The thief had already made his way to the window, and he began carefully tying his bag to his back so that he could cast his catapulting spell without losing concentration on his haul. That’s when Night struck.

The knife shot forward, slashing at the rope which secured the bag and grabbed it in his telekinesis, splitting his focus between the two objects, a feat much more manageable than casting a second spell.

The next second passed by like an eon, as a dozen things happened at once. The bag lifted off the thief, and the thief turned to see a knife at his throat. Night carried the sack back behind him, placing a relatively great distance between the haul and the thief who had stolen it. The thief glanced up, staring at Night, who smiled at him with the smuggest look he could gather before he pulled the knife back, till it sat perfectly between them.

“You,” the thief whispered.

Night kept smiling before he pointed the knife point-down and dropped it. Switching spells in a blink, he cast another Control Image spell, targeting the sound that would soon echo off the knife. It struck the tiled floor, clattering against the stone, but ringing like a church bell and waking every pony in the house.

The muffled shouts of now-awake ponies began to sound in the room, and both thieves knew that they had seconds to get out before they were caught.

So Night moved first.

He rushed forward, throwing his shoulder into the rival thief, and slamming him against the wall. With Moon’s thief dazed, Night turned to the window, jumping out of it, and pulling his rope to his hoof. He swung out and around, hitting the building wall before quickly scaling it to the roof. The other thief leaped out of the window just behind him, and Night took a second to look back and smiled when he saw that the pony did not have the bag with him.

“After that, I sat on the roof until the guard came by, and then made my escape.”

“I see,” Twilight said. “And do you have any proof of anything you said you did?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” Night said, before pulling something from a bag at his belt. “I brought the thief’s cloak.”

Sure enough, he produced a dark grey cloak, split down the middle, almost as if to form a pair of wings. He laid it out for the Princess’s approval and revealed the massive, frayed slash from where Night had cut through it and the rope that secured the thief’s bag.

“And what am I supposed to do with a cloak?” Twilight asked.

“Well, I can say for certain that I am not a seamster, so unless you have a different explanation as to how I came about such a specific piece of clothing, I’m willing to hear it. Besides, you do have a guard report you can check which will report a break-in, but nothing missing, even though a few hundred bits worth of their belongings were sitting in the middle of their hallway in a bag.”

“Sure, but a cloak like this could come from anyp—”

“Princess,” Night said with a sigh. “I don’t need to remind you that you’re a very powerful mage. I’m positive you have a spell that could trace it back to the real owner. In fact, I know you do, because of this letter you sent to your Captain asking about the legality of such a spell for the ledger I got you.” He produced said letter with a flourish, pulling it from his bag and holding it up for the Princess to see the broken, golden wax seal.

She bristled as she grabbed the letter back. “That is highly classified information, that is not for you to read.”

“Then, with all due respect, Princess, why did you write it out? Letters are easy to steal, words less so. If you have a chance to speak with somepony, that’s probably what you should go with.”

Twilight’s face nearly turned red as she glared at him.

“You know, Twilight, he does have a point,” Spike said.

Twilight, face still red, turned to face the dragon.

He weathered the glare as only someone who had seen it so often could, and continued. “Captain Azure does live here; you didn’t need to write him a letter for a private conversation, especially one you didn’t want to leave a record of.”

Twilight continued to glare at the dragon before she took a deep breath and exhaled. “Sure, that’s fair. But that is not something you’re supposed to be reading,” she said, turning back to face Night.

“In my defense, Princess,” Night said, “‘supposed to’ had never stopped a thief before.”

Twilight sighed. “Fine. I suppose this is what you’ve called your counter-thieving?”

“Exactly,” Night said. “I keep them from stealing, while also trying to make sure that they get caught, though that is secondary to stopping them.”

“Is that enough, though? Just stopping them? If what you’ve said is true, and these ponies just pay their way out of jail, then surely making them pay would be the better result. It would drain their resources more to jail them and fine them.”

“Sure,” Night said. “But I can’t guarantee that someone gets arrested each time. The best I can do, every single time, is to make sure they don’t get away with it. Of course, corrupt nobles is just going to be one of those problems that we’ll be dealing with forever.”

Twilight shook her head, and Spike stood up before walking off. “I’ll let you deal with that, Twilight. I’m going to talk to Azure about matters of national security.”

“Fine,” Twilight said, barely acknowledging the dragon before she quickly descended into another debate with Night.

Spike made his way down to the Castle’s outer wall, to the barracks. He entered to the guards’ usual cheer, the ones he knew at least, and gave his customary smile and jokes in return. “Hey, guys! How’s it going!”

“Oh, you know, Spear’s cheating at cards again,” one of the guards said.

“I’m not cheating!” Spear insisted.

“Sure, you’re not, Spear,” Spike said.

“Hey, Spike!” another guard said. “Do you have any more room at your Thursday O&O game?”

“I already have like, seven players, man. Maybe next campaign.”

“Sure, sure,” came the disappointed reply.

“Hey, is the Captain in?” Spike asked the six guards there.

“Yeah, he’s in the office, like normal,” Spear said, before laying out a straight flush.

“You are so cheating!”

“No, I’m not! I’m telling you, if I weren’t good at polearms, my Cutie Mark would be cards!”

Spike left them to bicker with some good-natured ribbing and walked into the back office, where the large, navy-blue coated earth pony worked. “Hey, Azure.”

The Captain looked up. “Master Spike, what can I do for you?”

“Not call me Master Spike, but you’re not going to change your mind on that one now,” the dragon said before he flew up to the desk. “I do have a few things I need to talk to you about, though. Do you have the time for that?”

Azure looked down at the papers that Spike was standing on. “It doesn’t seem that you’re giving me a choice, Master Spike.”

“You’re right on that one, but you’re all business, so I’ll cut to the chase,” Spike said, leaning forward to look the massive stallion in the eye. “What’s up with you not wanting Twilight to know about Night?” he asked.

“He’s beneath her notice,” the Captain.

“Now, you say that, but he wasn’t beneath Celestia’s attention, was he?”

Azure looked up at the dragon with a raised eyebrow. “Celestia discovered him. She had to know. But even then, he was beneath her notice.”

“And breaking up trafficking rings was beneath her notice as well?” Spike asked.

Azure didn’t answer that.

“What’s really going on?”

Azure glanced up at the dragon. “Master Spike, I have a lot to take care of right now. I have guards I need to post, I have records I need to go through, and I have a country to protect. If you would be so kind as to allow me to get back to my work, I would appreciate it. And I would much rather not have to have you escorted out of my office.”

Spike stared down at him. “Alright, you don’t want to tell me right now, fine. But we’re not done with this conversation.”

As Spike flew off his desk and walked out, leaving the Captain to watch him as he went. “No, I believe we are.”

Chapter 7

Twilight Sparkle sat in her council room, making sure that everything was ready. She had seven chairs pulled up around the table, with seven memos set and ready. She had the kitchen prepare some snacks for them and drinks set out of course, and she thought about getting some board games ready.

Then she remembered that this was a meeting to discuss national security.

Well, that was the excuse. She could probably get away with it, couldn’t she?

“Are you stressing out about the Council again?” Spike asked as he walked into the circular room. “You have been doing this for a year now. You know that, right?”

“Yes, but…” Twilight began. “I haven’t seen them in a month, Spike. What if things have changed?”

“They probably have,” he replied, before taking a quick count of the chairs. “You think Starlight’s not coming?”

“It’s a school day, Spike,” Twilight replied.

“I mean, yeah, but she’s the Principal, how much work does she actually have to do?”

Twilight turned to shoot Spike a look.

“Sorry, sorry,” Spike said, taking his seat.

She nodded. “That’s right,” she muttered under her breath.

“You could break out the Colonists of Saram game. We have the expansion for five to eight players,” Spike suggested. He proved his point further by pointing to the box, where it sat on the enormous, towering shelves that lined the room’s circular wall, filled with board games, books, and other things to discuss. “It’s better than Oligopoly.”

“Almost anything is better than Oligopoly,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, so let’s play Saram,” Spike said.

Twilight sighed. “You have three games that you run weekly, Spike. Why not play Saram with them?”

“Because Rarity and the others are my friends too.”

Twilight sighed. “Yes, I know…”

“I dunno, I like Colonists!” a new voice said, and both Spike and Twilight turned to see Pinkie Pie, standing not a foot away from the dragon. “Hiya, Spike!”

“Pinkie!” the dragon cried, before hugging the earth pony mare. “You’re here early.”

“Of course, I am! If there a party to plan, then I will be there!”

“This isn’t really a party, Pinkie,” Twilight said.

“It’s party-adjacent, and that’s all that matters!” the pink mare said, before bounding to her place, where a cupcake waited for her. “Now, to taste test the snacks!”

“Wow, you’re just going to let Pinkie dive into the snacks without the rest of us?” another voice said before the Princess turned to see a rainbow-maned pegasus enter the room.

“Let’s see you get between Pinkie and party snacks,” Twilight said. “Or sharing them for that matter.”

“Eh, no thanks, I still remember the pie incident,” Rainbow Dash said, before taking her own seat. “How’s it hanging, Pinkie?”

“Super!”

“Um, hi, Twilight, it’s good to see you,” another voice said.

Twilight turned to see the butter-colored pegasus that somehow snuck up next to her. “Hey Fluttershy, how’s the animal sanctuary?”

“Oh, it’s just wonderful,” she replied, smiling wide. “I’ve managed to get a license to have some endangered species come in, so hopefully, I can make sure they’re protected.”

“That’s great!” Twilight said. “And of course, remember that if you need any help trying to get new licenses, or paperwork through, well. I am a Princess or something.”

“Now Twilight,” a thick, southern drawl cut the air. “Are you offering your friend a back-door deal?”

Twilight rolled her eyes as Applejack came in, smiling all the way. “Well, what’s the good of being a Princess if you can’t practice a little cronyism? You’re making it sound like I’d have to be responsible or something,” Twilight asked.

Applejack chuckled and shook her head. “Now see what politics has done to such an honest mare like you? I guess it’s true what they say, power corrupts.”

Twilight rolled her eyes at the joke.

“Well, I hope I’m not late!” another voice said, belonging to a white-coated unicorn.

“Only fashionably,” Spike quickly answered.

“Always, Darling, always,” Rarity said, smiling and giving the Princess a hug. “Oh, it’s so good to see you, Twilight. I hope the palace life has been treating you well?”

“It’s been treating me fine,” Twilight said.

Rarity nodded before looking at Twilight again. “You know, dear, I could swear you’ve gotten taller.”

Twilight sighed. “I hope not. The first growth spurt was bad enough.”

“Oh, nonsense, dear. It gives you a noble bearing. You appear more regal with the height.”

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better,” Twilight said.

“Is it working?” Rarity asked with a sparkle in her eye.

“Only slightly.”

“Then I must be losing my touch,” Rarity said with a laugh.

Twilight smiled with her as she the mare back to the table, where the others were quickly taking their seats. “I guess without further ado, I call this Council of Friendship to order!”

“Woo!” Pinkie cheered.

Twilight sighed. “Pinkie, you don’t cheer for the start of an important meeting.”

“Well I do,” she said with a smile.

Twilight smiled. “You know, that’s fair enough. So, if you check the schedule I prepared, there are some things we need to talk about today to justify the meeting to the yearly budget, so we will need to discuss that. First, though, I want to hear how you’ve ladies have been.”

“Why do you need to justify anything?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You’re the Princess.”

“Rainbow, I don’t need a good reason,” Twilight said. “I just need a reason.”

“But like, why, though?”

Twilight sighed. “Because everything gets recorded down somewhere. The Council itself technically falls under the security budget because we are heroes of Equestria who can and will do everything we can to take out some of the bigger threats to the country.”

“Well, why do you have to write it down?” Dash asked again.

“Because anypony can ask to look at the budget to track where taxpayer money goes,” Twilight said. “Look, can we move on to the fun parts of the meeting first? I don’t want to waste time talking about politics when I only have a few hours to see you.”

“Alright, alright, alright. I’ll ask later.”

“Thank you, how have you been, Rainbow?”

“Oh, it’s been great! I’ve been getting ready for the new Wonderbolts tour that we’re going to take this summer. It’s been going well, and Spitfire’s been trying to incorporate a Sonic Rainboom in with a new routine.”

“I thought you already had a Rainboom routine?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, but this one has Two Rainbooms in it,” the pegasus asked with a smile.

“Really, are you going to be able to pull off two back-to-back?”

“Of course, I am!” Rainbow said.

Twilight shook her head. “What about you, Applejack?”

“Well, the farm’s been going alright. The pegasi have scheduled a bit of a dry spring, so we’ve held off on harvesting till Midfall, hoping that the late spring showers would fatten up the crop.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, apparently, that has something to do with the reservoir collection from the fall before not meeting the deadline.”

“Ooh,” Rainbow said, grimacing.

“Yeah, somepony dropped the ball, and they had to wait for the reservoirs to melt before they could get the rain collected again,” Twilight explained. “Spring was a little dry for everypony.”

“Well, I wasn’t taking it personal,” Applejack said with a good-natured smile. “What about you, though? I bet you’ve got the most interesting report over the past month.”

“Oh, not really,” she said. “I mean, I only one thing I really want to discuss, and it’s on the docket anyway.”

“Nonsense, dear, that doesn’t mean we can’t hear what’s going on beforehand,” Rarity said.

“We’re here to help,” Fluttershy added.

“And I don’t doubt you will, girls, honestly,” Twilight said. “I just don’t want to monopolize the whole time. We’ll get to it, I promise.”

“Alright, but I’ll hold you to that, Darling,” Rarity warned.

“I know,” Twilight said. “How about you, Fluttershy? You were telling me that you were about to expand your animal shelter?”

“Oh, yes!” the yellow pegasus said before she launched into a long explanation of what she was doing.

Twilight listened and nodded, following along with every word she said. It was nice to hear from her friends again. She could feel her shoulders relax and felt her breathing ease somehow as she listened to first Fluttershy and then to Pinkie. Both of her friends explained what they had done over the past month since they last saw each other, and it made Twilight smile to see them.

Twilight was so relaxed, she almost, almost, didn’t notice the figure at the top of the room, watching them from the shadows.

If she were honest with herself, noticing Night perched on one of the bookshelves was a pure accident. While feeling herself relax, she stretched, arching her back in her seat and staring up in the room’s ceiling.

Where Night sat waiting and smiling as he watched them.

“Is something wrong, dear?” Rarity asked.

Twilight blinked and focused her stare back down at her friends. “No, everything’s fine, I just had a thought is all, keep going.”

Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy all glanced up to where she’d been looking, but saw nothing. Night had no doubt used his transposing spell to hide his form somewhere else as they glanced, and sure enough, he reappeared the moment they all looked away.

“More importantly, why are you hiding him from your friends?” Twilight asked her self.

It was a great question, honestly, and she didn’t have an answer. Letting the others know about Night might force him to reveal himself. Still, he’d just say something about how such an important meeting needs proper security.

Because that why he’s here…

Of course, it was. It had to be. Night was making another point, for the purposes of making a point. She mentally sighed as she tried to figure out how to handle this situation in the best was possible.

On the one hand, he wasn’t going to hurt anyone. He was just a pain who was trying to make a point. Even if she called him out, he wouldn’t cause any trouble, but she might not need to.

She glared up at him and watched him smile from his perch.

“So what’s this problem you have, Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“What’s the meanest meany problem?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight glanced up at them before her eyes shot up at Night, who merely waved his hoof to say, “Go on.”

Oh, it. Is. On.

“As it happened, Spike brought up one of those budget issues a few days ago and showed me that somepony was being paid a few million bits to steal for the crown.”

The other mares at the table began to gasped in confusion. “What do you mean by that?” Applejack said.

“Exactly what I said,” Twilight said. “He’s a thief, who apparently had been helping Celestia deal with a few things.”

“Like what?” Pinkie said.

“Good things,” Twilight admitted and knew that Night was smiling wider on his perch. “He helped deal with some very unsavory criminals, and he apparently specializes working against thieves by stealing from them, but he’s still a thief.”

“I think that sounds pretty cool, actually,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Yeah, but do ya need him?” Applejack asked. “Or more to the point, I suppose, do ya want him?”

“What do you mean by that, dear?” Rarity asked.

“I mean, is that the kind of ruler you want to be? Using subterfuge and the like to get yer way?”

“Well that depends on what exactly he’s done,” Rarity said. “After all, if the good he’s done is worth the underhanded nature of his work, then can you afford not to have him?”

“Why don’t you send in your guards to take care of it?” Pinkie asked.

“Well, he specifically targets ponies that either can get out of prison easily,” Twilight explained, “or deal with ponies that no one can prove has done anything, at least from what both Celestia and he himself said.”

“So he does what the guard can’t do?” Rainbow asked. “That sounds exactly like the kind of thing Daring Do would try, you know if she weren’t an archaeologist.”

“I ain’t the biggest fan,” Applejack said.

“He does a good job, though,” Spike said. “He’s managed to stop a bunch of trafficking rings for sentient creatures and manages to save normal ponies a lot of trouble by stopping robberies as they happen. He’s helping, and there’s no doubt about that.”

Twilight said nothing.

“Huh,” Applejack said. “Well, why does he need so much money?”

“You know, I was more concerned by the fact that he was a thief, but I’m sure he’ll give me an itemized list if I ask.”

She glanced up at Night, who appeared to be chuckling silently to himself.

Twilight resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

“Well,” Applejack said. “I suppose that’s a call you need to make, Twilight. And I can say I don’t envy having to make that call.”

“Thank you.”

“Well,” Pinkie said, “I think we can talk about this over some games!”

“That sounds just fine, Pinkie,” Twilight said with a smile.

Azure frowned.

Apparently, nopony knew how to respect his office space.

“I just don’t like this, Azure,” Raven said, pacing across his office.

“So you’ve told me, several times, Miss Inkwell,” he replied, trying to focus on the report in front of him.

“I don’t like the idea of Princess Twilight using a thief to get what she wants.”

Azure glanced up at her. “Celestia did the same,” he said, echoing Spike’s argument that he gave before.

“Yes, but...well, if Celestia wanted something, she could get any way she wanted to. She was specifically using Night as a method to get what she needed to get done quietly.”

“And what’s the problem with Twilight using the same method?” Azure asked.

Raven didn’t answer him.

“Miss Inkwell, I think you definitely have a reason to not trust Night Silk. However, I think you’re adamant about it more to argue with Master Spike than anything.”

“What?” she asked. “Why on earth would you think that?”

“Because you hate each other, and he is currently for Night succeeding in the bet.”

“I am not against him just because Spike is for him,” Raven said. “That’s such a childish thing to do.”

“Well, you haven’t offered any new arguments for it.”

“That’s rich, coming for you.”

Azure raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t come to your office to discuss it. My opinions are my own, and my reasons are my own, and I would rather not discuss them with anyone.”

Raven sighed. “We’re Princess Twilight’s advisors. We’re supposed to talk with each other.”

“And we have all discussed our views on this with the Princess, and she has come to her decision. She’s given Night three months, and as her advisors, we need to respect her decision, and stand by it.”

Raven glared at him and sighed. “Unfortunately, you make a wonderful point, Azure.”

“I’m aware. Now I’m sure if you want to discuss this with somepony, Master Spike would argue with you ad nauseam.”

Raven snorted and walked out of the Captain’s office.

“And that’s an eight!” Pinkie said, pointing at the forest tile with the eight token on it, and then the field tile. “That’s those two!”

“So that’s a wood for me, Fluttershy, and one for Twilight!” Spike said, handing out the cards, before pulling a few wheat cards. “And these for Pinkie.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Being the youngest sucks in this game,” she said, staring at her two settlements surrounding the tile marked 12.

“It ain’t my fault that you put your other settlement on a three-to-one dock,” Applejack said.

“Honestly, It wouldn’t even be that bad if Pinkie didn’t have literally every single wheat tile,” Dash complained.

“How else am I going to bake cakes for everypony!?” Pinkie asked, placing the new wheat cards into her hand. “I can trade a few, though,” she said with a smile, almost waving them around the table.

“I have a brick I can get you,” Rarity said, holding up her hand. “I’ll even give you a two to one.”

Twilight snuck a glance up at Night, who watched from his perch. He lay there, relaxed, and watching as they played their game, quiet as ever.

She focused back on her cards. She was focusing on a development card-heavy strategy that had served her well in the past, and while she had plenty of ore and wool, she didn’t have the wheat she needed. “I can get you some wool, Pinkie. You need those for development cards.”

Pinkie gave Twilight a glance. “I do...but I need to build more roads…”

Rarity held up her brick cards.

“A deal’s a deal!” Pinkie said, before passing a single wheat card over for both bricks. Once she had them, she immediately turned the cards into a pair of roads with some earlier wood cards. She placed them carefully, continuing to expand her empire before she passed the dice. “Your turn, Twilight!”

Twilight took them with a pout, before rolling. They landed on a seven, and the entire table went quiet. All eyes went to the small, black, pony-shaped figurine on the table that Twilight picked up with a smug smile of satisfaction. “Well, well. As it happens, I need a lot of wheat.”

Pinkie’s ears flattened. “Oh, well...what a shame, huh?”

“No offense, Pinkie, but this is the only way I’m getting any wheat.”

“Oh, come on…” Pinkie said with a frown.

Twilight placed on the little black token down on the wheat tile that Pinkie had surrounded, blocking all of its production and allowing Twilight to use the “robber” to steal two cards. Twilight smiled as she picked two cards from Pinkie’s hand, both wheat cards, and instantly turned them in for the development cards she needed.

“Your turn, Spike,” Twilight said before handing over the dice.

She glanced back up at Night, who stared back at her with a raised eyebrow and a hoof under his chin, still smiling all the way.

She stared back, confused.

He motioned to the board.

She looked back down at it.

And then it clicked.

She had just used underhanded, less-than-legal tactics to get what she could not secure by legal means. In a single turn, she had made his exact argument, for him, in a game setting.

“Horseapples…”

Chapter 8

“Bye, girls. See you next month!” Twilight said, waving as her friends left.

“Goodbye, Darling! Best of luck with the thief problem!” Rarity called as she gave Twilight one last hug before leaving the room, leaving Twilight and Spike alone in the circular room.

“Are you sure you want to stay behind?” Spike asked, “I know I ask for help to pick things up, but you normally escort everypony out.”

She gave Spike a small smile before turning to face the bookshelf behind them. “If you’re done being smug up there, I assume you have something to talk about?”

Spike looked confused before following her gaze up. There he saw the figure of Night laying on top of one of the bookshelves. “Oh,” he whispered. “You know what, I think I’ll escort the others out for a change.”

Spike slipped out, leaving Twilight and Night in the room, with the latter still on top of the bookshelf.

“You know,” Night said. “That was a nice meeting you had with your friends. It was a nice time out, and you played some games, learned how to move a robber around…”

“If you mention the game again, I will have you buried alive,” Twilight said.

Night smiled before he dropped to the floor, using a rope that he anchored somewhere that Twilight couldn’t see to slow his descent. “Alright, I won’t mention it,” he said, “but I will mention that I have completed yet another job for you.”

Twilight sighed. “Fine, but you didn’t need to stalk the time I have with my friends to do it.”

“Oh, Princess, you misunderstand, I was providing security.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Were you?”

“If I’m watching it, then I can make sure nopony else can,” he said with a smirk.

“Sure…”

“Believe me or don’t that’s up to you, Princess.”

“Yes, yes it is,” she said, watching Night as he walked around and picked a seat. “So, what is this story you want to tell me?”

“Well, I took a train to Fillydelphia to check up on my hideout there. Which, by the way, is where most of the money that you pay me goes. Owning property in every single major city and making it look as trashy as possible, and then making sure that nopony tries to buy your property or condemn your building takes a lot more bits than you’d think.”

“Noted. You were saying Fillydelphia?”

Fillydelphia was soaked. The pegasi had been dropping as much water as possible, wherever they could to try and make up for the dry spring the country suffered from earlier.

Night checked the property, looking for any water damage even though it would probably keep the small building from being sold. The night was clear, though it had rained most of the day, leaving the grass beneath Night’s hooves spongy and soft.

The Fillydelphia safehouse was the most neglected of them, Night would hesitantly admit. The house was a small storage shed on the docks, which used to be the outdoor storage lot’s headquarters. The lot had been sold to a competitor, but the old shed remained behind, the three feet of grass surrounding it free-standing, much to the lot owner’s annoyance.

So far, everything looked solid, and he was about to slip in for a good night’s sleep after he took one final glance around to check for anypony watching him.

What he found instead was light in a warehouse a few docks down.

As Night watched it, a few thoughts entered his head. The first being that the warehouse had a good security guard, but unless someone bought it and began filling that building with supplies in the past week, it shouldn’t have anything worth guarding. The second thought that entered his head was that maybe it was a few teens sneaking into the abandoned warehouse to have some fun.

He pocketed his key, raised the hood on his cloak, and began to head toward the warehouse with a sigh because his third thought was that it could be something far worse than a few teens.

He moved as quickly as he dared, sticking to the streets. The roofs were too slippery to try and jump between them, so he had to stay low if he was going to make decent progress. He slipped over the warehouse’s outer wall and slid up next to it. He’d rather climb the building, but without scouting the building to know if the roof was strong enough to hold him, he couldn’t take that risk.

Slowing his breathing, he glanced down the wall, looking for any sign of a way in. There didn’t appear to be any doors on this side, so he would have to try to get to the other side and check there if he didn’t want to try to go through the main door.

He slipped around to the other side of the warehouse, always making sure he stayed on the wet ground, so he didn’t leave any hoof-prints. There he found a single side door, and sure enough, it was unblocked.

With a smile, Night checked inside, and when he found no one there, he pulled a small cloth from his bag and stepped inside.

“You just carry a cloth around?” Twilight asked.

Night pulled one out. “You never know when you might need one. It’s a rag, towel, makeshift breathing filter, and you can use it to muffle tools. They’re incredibly useful.”

“You don’t just silence things with magic?”

Night raised an eyebrow. “You think ponies like me have access to Destroy?”

Destroy was an incredibly dangerous Technique. Create, Perceive, and Control all needed energy continually supplied to them to keep the effect going. This was not true for Destroy. Destroy was permanent, always. A Destroy Mind spell could do several terrifying things, like making a target forget a memory, permanently lose the ability to feel a specific emotion, or break someone’s sanity and consciousness until they were rendered catatonic, little better than a vegetable.

Destroy Image was perhaps one of the least damaging family of spells. It could render someone invisible, but true invisibility was more of a sacrifice of one’s visible form. Creating a new, permanent, visual form required a pair of spells, which made the whole process far more complicated, but they could still be heard and felt.

Sound was, oddly, an exception to the rule. The temporal nature of sound meant that the sound made by an object was erased entirely, but if a new sound was created, it could be heard. Silence spells were good for singular sounds, a single hoofstep, or a single word of a sentence. Some silence spells could last longer, cutting all sound in an area for a time, but those took far more power in the initial casting.

No, she should have expected Night not to have the Destroy Technique. That was too strong a tool to have in the hooves of the public. “That was a dumb question. I forget that most ponies don’t have the same magic schooling as I did. Continue.”

Night nodded but didn’t comment.

Wiping his hooves dry with every step inside, Night found a place to hide, keeping the larger part of the warehouse out of sight. He climbed up onto a set of old, worm-eaten crates that groaned under his weight. He picked his way up carefully before poking his head out and finally took a chance to look around.

And the moment he looked, he knew that the third thought that went through his head was right.

Four ponies were patrolling the room, each of them walking around eight pallets of white plastic, a standard MO for Boot Legger’s merchandise. He was happy to see that it wasn’t sentient merchandise, but that didn’t make it much better.

The question that Night was more concerned with was what exactly he was moving here. He’d have to get close if he wanted to find out what he was moving, which, while not necessary, was undoubtedly useful for figuring out how to deal with the problem.

The four guards were going to make this fun, though. The question was how to do the job?

It didn’t take him long to settle on a little fun.

He moved, dropping back to the ground, and rushing to the back of the warehouse where there was less light to hide from.

He began to work, casting “Create Image” to make small, illusionary sounds. They started as small, little clicks that only one of the ponies could hear. Each one got progressively louder with every cast Night made.

“Do you guys hear that?” his target, a large, green pegasus pony, asked.

“What?” a purple pegasus guard asked.

“That clicking sound?”

The pegasus glanced at the other two ponies, one burnt orange, one yellow, both earth ponies, glanced between each other, swinging their flashlights about. “No, what are you talking about?”

“You don’t hear that clicking?” the first pony asked, his flashlight sliding across the back of the warehouse.

“Have you been digging into the stuff here, man?”

“What? No! Don’t you hear that?”

Night smiled and clicked again.

“I’m going to check that out,” the first pony said.

He walked forward, into the shadows, his flashlight scanning for any kind of sign of life. The other three glanced at each other. “Do...do you think he’s alright?”

“I don’t know, man,” the yellow one said.

The three continued to patrol for a moment or two before the first pony screamed.

All eyes and flashlights turned to the source of the cry, and they found the guard, standing confused. “That…” he said. “That wasn’t me. My flashlight just went out, and then I heard that…”

The other flashlights went out.

They clicked the buttons on the flashlights frantically as the darkness suddenly surrounded them.

“Come on. Come on!” One of the ponies said in the darkness.

One of the lights came on.

“There we go!” the purple pegasus said, as his light shone directly at the ceiling.

The other three ponies went pale.

“What?” the purple pony said before turning around.

A charred face stared back at him. It opened its mouth, its skin cracking with each movement. “You…” is said in a long, wispy breath, “should not have come here…”

The purple pony dropped his flashlight.

He was running for the door.

“Hey! Hey! Don’t leave me behind, man!”

The others were running behind him as fast as their legs could carry them, and once the door closed, Night shook his head and smiled. “Sometimes, it’s too easy,” he said, dropping the rest of his spells before picking up one of the flashlights to look over one of the crates. He held up the light as he pulled his knife to stab into the package to see what exactly was inside.

He finally pried open a package and found a fine, white powder. He took the flashlight and passed it over the powder, revealing an iridescent glow of reds and blues.

Feydust.

Night frowned in disgust. Feydust was a known performance enhancer, specifically a mental enhancer, though it pushed its users to use it for simpler and simpler tasks. Night knew more than one college dropout who had a significant chunk of their life ruined by the stuff. They typically wound up as beggars, nearly unable to nearly speak without a dose of the powder.

Night glanced around before he looked to the old crates.

“The crates went up in smoke pretty easily,” Night said. “The rest of the warehouse should have been safe given how soaked it was, but the drugs went up in smoke.”

Twilight sighed. “Why did you set them on fire?” she asked.

“Because that’s the best way to deal with drugs,” Night said. “If they burn, then the only ponies that get hurt are the ponies that were trying to sell. Besides, it fit the theme I built with my illusion.”

“Yes, but I can’t use that as evidence.”

“What’s up with you and evidence?” Night asked.

“What’s up with you and burning it?” Twilight asked back before she noticed Night’s grin. “Look, my guards can’t do the job without evidence!”

“If they did their job, it wouldn’t matter,” Night said. “Boot Legger doesn’t care what happens to his runners. His position is if you get arrested, that’s on you. If your guards came in, they would have arrested four nobodies, who would have spent the rest of their lives rotting in prison while the responsible pony would just shrug and try again.”

“So you burned it down, instead, so he still has those four ponies, can shrug and try again.”

Night shook his head. “No, Princess, he has four ponies who claim they were haunted by a ghost. He has four ponies he has to deal with now because they left his merchandise. Those four ponies, if they know what’s good for them, will get out, and try and to make a plea deal, because that’s the only way to get into a normal life after failing Boot Legger is to get into witness protection.”

Twilight blinked.

“It’s literally the best way to try and get Boot Legger locked up. Getting ponies to quit and turn him in is the best way to gather enough witnesses against him to make a case.”

“And...how long have you been working at this?” Twilight asked.

“A few years,” Night said.

“Then it’s obviously not working, is it?”

“No,” Night began. “The problem is right now that Boot Legger has enough ponies around him to work in cells. I have taken out cells this way, which hurts his lieutenants, the only ponies he actually trusts. The dream is the day when he doesn’t have any more ponies to take the fall for him.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow and sighed. “That is such a sad excuse.”

“Pardon?” Night asked.

“With the other ones so far, you’ve pointed out that my guard either has a poor position to move from or that the arrests don’t matter. Here, they may as well get arrested, because they can turn on this Boot Legger either way. You’re causing chaos and property damage for no reason at all.”

“No reason? They only have a reason to turn on Boot because they let his merchandise go. If they get arrested, they have hope of Boot Legger getting them out. He won’t, but they don’t know that.”

“You’ve obviously never written a paper before,” Twilight said.

Night blinked. “What?”

“Everyone knows that when you write an argumentative essay, you present your strongest argument last. This strengthens your position the most, and makes it seem like you are building to a more solid position.”

Night shook his head. “Wh-what does that have to do with anything?”

“All of your arguments have been becoming weaker and weaker since you’ve started. Your best statement was when you brought me the ledger, which was decent evidence of criminal activity. However, when you brought me the ledger, I could no longer use it, since you obtained it illegally and made it inadmissible in court.

“Then, you proceeded to speak of this inane counter-thieving. The idea, I suppose, has merit in the sense that you stop ponies from being robbed. However, instead of actively protecting an area, you wait for a house to be broken in. This allowed a family to be traumatized by letting their home be broken into before you finally did something. Meanwhile, you let the pony who’s guilty of theft and breaking and entering to get away without more than a slap on the fetlock.

“Finally, now that you have revealed that your method of dealing with black market sellers and movers, you’ve shown me that your greatest weapon is property damage. You’ve actively admitted to destroying evidence that my guard can use in favor of trying to make moves against the politics of criminals, which by your own admission is a slow process with no real end in sight. Therefore, I find your arguments to be simplistic, and they fail to produce any real hope in me that you are doing what is right for the country.”

Night blinked as Twilight smiled, having delivered her reasoning.

“What was that?” he asked.

“It—”

“No, no!” Night interrupted. “What was that? You just spent the last two minutes telling me that I’m awful at my job while ignoring the fact that your precious guard didn’t even tell you these things were happening!”

“My guard, if given the proper tools and time, could easily do the same thing you could,” Twilight said, “and if they did, they could bring me all the evidence I need to get these ponies behind bars. They could do better than property damage.”

“Property damage is what hurts them the most!” Night cried. “It costs them money! You know, the thing they turned to crime to get? You’re suggesting, at best, a fee to do what they want.”

“What?”

“Currently, your gardens have a fine for littering,” Night said. “350 bits per piece of litter. That’s basically nothing to a pony like me. If I sold all my properties and walked, I could wreck your entire garden and still have enough cash to walk out and eat at a five-star restaurant. It means nothing. Your system of justice is little more than a tax on crime!”

“You’re doing the same exact thing!”

“I’m hurting their income! Every time they send a pony out, and he comes back with nothing, that’s a full loss for their business.”

“They’re criminals, it’s not a business.”

“Crime is their business! Why is that so hard for you to see?”

Twilight sighed. “We’re obviously not getting anywhere with this.”

“No, obviously not,” Night agreed.

“You’re dismissed,” Twilight said, before walking out of the room.

“Gladly, You Highness,” Night said, before leaving.

Twilight ignored the thief as he climbed back up the wall like an insect, before walking straight to her royal bedroom. There, Twilight paused, taking a few deep breaths before turning to her writing desk. There she pulled out her royal, golden sealing wax, her inkpot, and quill. She wrote quickly, penning the letter that she had already tried wording in her head a few times now.

“Dear Mr. Night Silk,

After much deliberation, I have decided that your request for continued aid with this venture is inane and counter-intuitive. Your funds from the Crown are hereby to be redistributed to more deserving programs. Furthermore, any further activity which may be regarded as criminal will be treated as such to the furthest extent of the law…”

That was as far as she got before her anger began to sputter out. She was going a little far, she would admit, especially considering Night did offer her a service to her own security, which he did point out to be lacking in a few places.

Still, she finished the letter, checked it over for any obvious mistake, and wrote a second draft.

Night was not as useful as he thought he was. That was the main problem. Yes, his smug little smile made her want to punch him in the face, but he was mostly that way because he thought he was worth it.

And maybe he was. Considering how easily he dupped her guards in broad daylight, he certainly could get in anywhere he wanted. However, he wasn’t doing the good he thought he was, and she was going to make sure he stopped.

She would still honor the deal, though. She had to give him the full three months.

Her mind was just already made up.

Spike wandered back up through the corridors of the castle, after having seen everypony else out. It was good to see the girls again, and while seeing Rarity was always a treat, he bemoaned the fact that Starlight couldn’t come.

Starlight...well...the nice way of putting it was that she was the newcomer to Twilight’s circle of friends, and she managed to shake up the dynamic a bit. While the girls had always made efforts to include him, he was still somewhat outside the group.

Spike personally always chalked it up to sleeping through the return of Nightmare Moon.

But when Starlight came, she brought with her the idea that Spike was just as involved as everypony else. She stuck with the group, and by proxy, dragged him up onto the same pedestal like the others.

And well, can you blame a dragon for liking that?

His thoughts were cut short as he nearly flew face-first into Night. “Woah! Sorry about that.”

Night sighed. “Don’t worry, I’m used to ponies not seeing me.”

“Well, I am not a pony, so I get to apologize anyway,” Spike said with a smile.

Night shook his head. “Thanks, I guess.”

“So how’d the meeting go?”

“Not great,” Night said. “I’m probably out of a job now.”

“I don’t know about that,” Spike said. “She may disapprove of what you’re doing, but Twilight gave you three months. She’ll stick to that deadline.”

“Really, because she seems to me to be the kind of pony that turns work in early, and then reminds the teacher there’s homework.”

Spike grimaced. “Well... you’re not wrong...but she also spent a few years as a teacher. She gave you the deadline; she’ll stick to it.”

Night shrugged. “So I have three months to find a new job then.”

“Hey, hey, don’t knock yourself out just yet,” Spike said, walking along with him as he began to head out. “You’ll figure something out, I’m sure.”

“And why are you rooting for me?” Night asked sardonically. “Not that I don’t appreciate the moral support, but you’re on her side.”

“I am,” Spike said, “but if Celestia thought you were a good pony, and you did good work, then that’s reason enough for me to believe.”

Night glanced down at the dragon. “Well, thanks, I guess,” he said, his voice softening slightly.

Spike nodded. “I’m just trying to help.”

The two walked in silence for a while, until Night found himself at the door of the Keep. “Hey, Night,” Spike said, getting the thief’s attention. “As someone who’s known Twilight for my entire life, let me tell you that if you really want to win her over, and your stories aren’t working, then you might need to show her what you do.”

“Show her?” Night asked.

“Twilight likes to get caught up on small details like ‘do this alone,’ or ‘write to me about friendship problems,’ but forgets to look at the whole picture like ‘saving the Crystal Empire is more important than the test,’ or ‘if there’s not a problem, then that’s okay.’ If she’s hung up on the details, you might need to show her the important thing.”

Night blinked. “I’ll be honest, I’m not quite sure what you said there.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Did you not read the friendship book the girls published?”

Night shrugged. “Haven’t really been much of a reader.”

“Okay, but you get the big picture, right?” he asked.

“She can’t see the forest for the trees sometimes?”

“Yeah, so show her the forest.”

Night frowned and gave a grunt to acknowledge that he heard the dragon.

“Well, anyway, best of luck to you, alright?” Spike said as he waved and began to head back inside.

“Yeah, thanks. You too,” Night said, before frowning again.

“Show her the forest, huh?”

Get her to focus back on the big picture.

“Well, the big picture is that I’m trying to get ponies in jail, but she didn’t like that one. Is there...is there a bigger picture I’m missing too?”

As he moved across the courtyard and out of the castle, he racked his brain an answer. What was the big picture? The one, the Princess of all ponies, would get behind no matter what? If the law and punishing ponies weren’t enough, what was?

He thought, going back to try and remember something, anything that he could to try and convince the Princess.

And just as he thought about one of his jobs releasing slaves that he found the answer.

His eyes widened, and his smile returned before he began to head for the train station.

He needed to head for the coast.

Chapter 9

Twilight worked through her anger in drafts. Each time she re-wrote the letter, it became more reasonable, more professional, less like a rant.

"Mr. Night Silk,

"After much deliberation, We have decided that the efforts you deploy to deal with the criminal element of this country to be inefficient, though well-meaning. Your actions do not solve long-term issues but instead solve short-term problems at the cost of long-term solutions.

"That is not to say that what you do is without merit.

"Your motives are obviously built on a need for justice. However, in your need to enact justice, you're ignoring the more significant problem at hand. These solutions you offer are short-sighted and fail to attack the source of the problem. Thus with Our most generous sympathies, We decree that you cannot continue in this way.

"Your salary from the Royal treasury is to be reduced to one-tenth of its current amount. You shall continue to act in your advisory role in castle security, as your talent in this area is undeniable. However, any further criminal activity will not be tolerated and shall be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.

"Thus do We decree,

"High Princess Twilight Sparkle, Keeper of the Skies, The Archmage Ruler, Protector of the Tribes, Lady of Friendship."

Twilight still felt uneasy about signing her name with all of her titles at the end. Unfortunately, she was the Princess now and needed to commit to the quote-unquote majesty.

Finally, she gave the letter one more read-over before pulling her gold sealing wax and lighting the candle. She poured the wax carefully over the rolled-up scroll and brought her signet ring down. She rolled it and pulled her seal free, leaving her Royal signet, a six-pointed starburst, impressed in the seal.

With a final, careful smile, she placed the scroll up on her shelf, to be used in a few months. She would honor her deal. She would wait the full three months before handing it to Night.

She felt this was the best compromise she could offer. It meant that Night would still need to help her castle and guard better themselves, but she wouldn't let him continue to work beyond the law.

Besides, she already had plans to expand his advisory role in helping security. In fact, she was about to start outlining that plan here in her office, and she quickly began to run through another mental checklist before she began.

A knock sounded at her door.

"Come in," Twilight called.

Raven entered the room. "Your Highness."

"Hello Raven, what can I do for you?" she asked as she prepared a fresh page of parchment.

"I have a request from Azure, Your Highness, along with my opinions on this request."

Twilight glanced at her. "And Azure didn't want to bring them to me directly?"

Raven sighed. "Azure...is loyal. He also heavily believes that it is his solemn duty to wield your guards as you see fit, Your Highness. He does not wish to intrude upon your decision."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I hired him specifically because of his experience in the guard. His knowledge of the castle, morale, and strategic expertise is why I want him to advise me on these things."

"Yes, Your Highness, though I think he wanted to leave this decision completely in your hooves," she said, before handing over the folder.

Twilight took it and began to read through the pages. The packet was a proposition and layout for starting a new training regimen for stealthier guards.

"Okay," Twilight said, glancing through it. "This shouldn't be too hard to enact, and this shouldn't cause a large change in the budget. This looks great, why doesn't he want to add his opinion to that."

"I don't know," Raven said. "You'd have to ask him, and if you do, he very well may give you an answer, but he doesn't want to give me one."

"Okay...and what about you?"

"I think this is the answer to all your problems. This takes the power of this counter-thieving out of a single individual and puts it in your hooves. You would be able to do whatever you needed without any issues."

"So you're in favor of this?"

"Absolutely," Raven said. "It's all of the upsides, with none of the downsides."

Applejack's words echoed in the back of her mind. "Is that the kind of ruler you want to be? Using subterfuge and the like to get yer way?"

"I see," Twilight said.

"If I may speak freely, Your Highness, I have not been able to trust this Night character. There's something about him that I just don't like."

Twilight nodded. "I'll have to take this into consideration. Thank you for delivering this, Raven."

"Of course, Your Highness," Raven said with a bow before she stepped out of the room.

Twilight glanced back down at the proposition and frowned. It wasn't like Azure to keep his expertise on military or law enforcement matters to himself. He almost always had something to add to the discussion. This silence was unlike him.

She frowned before looking out the window of her office. Just outside in the courtyard stood Captain Azure, inspecting the palace guard.

Now that she had eye-sight of him, she cast "Midnight's Mental Message," one of the Create Mind spells, to leave an order in Azure mind. "See me in my office as soon as possible, Captain," the magic said in her voice, and the Captain blinked and looked up at the tower.

Twilight nodded, satisfied that her message was received before opening up the proposition again for a quick re-read.

She was going to get to the bottom of this.

Silver Shoals was bright, cheerful, and smelled of salt. The remote, coastal town, also named Seaward Shoals by "the tourists," had a small, but tight-knit community of ponies, who smiled and waved at each other as they moved through the streets under the houses propped up by stilts.

Night smiled as he walked through, nodding at the few ponies who gave their best smiles, hoping he would buy something or the ones who frowned at a pony they didn't recognize.

Nigh passed by a few stalls and a food truck or two, every one of them laden with beach paraphernalia. Shells, sand dollars, rope nets, and more hung from every facade, as ponies hawked their wares, most taken from the North Luna Ocean.

Night had to ask a few questions and had to go to a few great lengths to get directions before somepony finally pointed him in the direction of a small estate on the hill. The humble, gated manor house was surrounded by a large fence of wrought iron. Posted to the gate in a small mountain of papers and gifts, a simple plaque bore the owners' names.

Night waited for a handful of the tourists to come by, and snap a picture of the house, and leave before casually hopping the fence, and making his way up the well-mowed lawn, past the perfectly trimmed hedges, before knocking on the large door.

From inside, Night heard a sudden shuffling and banging before the door opened, with the force of a hurricane wind. "Who does so dare to intrude upon our home! We are…"

Night barely recovered from the sonic onslaught, before looking up at ex-Princess Luna. The alicorn's dark blue coat stood in stark contrast to the white house, and while her glare narrowed, her brow unfurled. "Oh, it is you. I suppose you're here for Celestia."

"Yes, Lady Luna," Night said, standing. "I shouldn't take much of your time, though."

"Take it. It doesn't matter to us," Luna said, walking into the house. "It's not like we have anything important to do."

Azure walked into Princess Twilight's office with barely a sound other than the clink of his armor. "You wished to see me, Your Highness?

Twilight looked up from her chair and pointed to the other one across her desk. "I did. Have a seat."

Azure obeyed.

Twilight finished her work by signing the document at the top of her stack. Then with a smile, she slid the whole packet into her "out" basket. Then, with a cast of a spell, she closed the door to her office and dropped the proposition that Azure wrote up onto her desk. "I wanted to talk to you about this."

Azure's face remained impassive.

"According to this plan, and the details you provided, we should be able to move nearly half of the guard into this specialized training, and no major increase in cost, within the year. Is that correct?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"With this, we wouldn't even have to drop Night from the payroll."

Azure nodded.

"So why haven't you made this proposal earlier?" Twilight asked.

"Because until you learned of Night's existence, you hadn't expressed interest in this avenue, Your Highness," Azure replied, matter-of-factly.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "But you knew about Night. You knew what he could do and the kinds of things he had done. You knew that we could get results this way. So why didn't you make the argument before?"

Azure hesitated for the first time.

"Azure?" Twilight asked.

"Your Highness…" Azure began. "With all due respect, Your Highness, you're not Celestia."

Twilight blinked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Your Highness, if Celestia began to mobilize a sector of the guard that could move as they wished, act as they wished, and ignored the law and due process to get results, there would be an outcry. There would be pushback, there may even be riots, but these would eventually die out because if Celestia wanted to become a tyrant and a despot, she would have done several centuries ago."

Twilight nodded. "So...you're saying that—"

"What I am saying, Your Highness, is that this would be a tricky move for a mare that has been considered above reproach for centuries. Forgive me for saying so, Your Highness, but you are new to the throne, and as such, ponies are still not sure what direction you're going to take this country. Ponies don't like change, and there's already been enough in the past few years. A move like this could be devastating to the country."

Twilight brought her hooves together and brought them to her lips. "So you believe that mobilizing the guard this way will cause problems?"

"The advantage of Night Silk is that he is one pony. If he decided to go rogue, he could be caught and prosecuted. He would not be attached to the crown in any way, which means that if he were discovered, he could be done away with."

Twilight blinked. "But if I started my guard this way, I would have to answer for them."

"Yes, Your Highness."

This...this was an angle that Twilight hadn't thought about.

Again Applejack's words echoed in her head. "Is that the kind of ruler you want to be? Using subterfuge and the like to get yer way?"

But maybe it wasn't a matter of using subterfuge or not, but rather, just whether ponies knew you did or not.

"I see," Twilight said. "And what is your personal stance on this proposal?"

Azure hesitated again. "I think enacting this would cause a great outcry for Celestia to return to the throne. And when she would not, then you would have hooves full trying to earn the trust of the populace once more. You do not have the reputation of Celestia to defend your actions, and they will beg for it. That being said, whatever you decide, Your Highness, I will do my best to enact your will."

"Thank you, Captain, I...hadn't considered this," she said. "You're dismissed."

Azure nodded and took his leave.

Twilight sat in her chair and glanced down at the folder again. She needed to consider these things more carefully, that much was evident. Here she was about to rush face-first into an incredibly dangerous decision without thinking about how it appeared from the outside. If she saw Celestia doing this, she would wonder what on earth she was thinking.

Having guards that were above the law? Sure, it could stop these criminals that could apparently get away with whatever they wanted, but it was a position so easily corruptible that Twilight was shocked she hadn't thought of this first.

She glanced up at the scroll she wrote earlier, sitting on its shelf.

She just might need to take the three months to make a decision all on her own.

Night's train rattled into the station, just as the sun was beginning to set.

Night stepped out of the car and smiled as he glanced around. The castle loomed over him, its towers piercing the sky like knives. No doubt, the Princess stood on the balcony of her royal bed-chamber, getting ready to raise the moon. The City would soon be growing silent and sleepy, and the criminal underworld would quickly be coming to life.

Best of all, though, visiting hours were over.

Night made his way to the Castle as quickly as he could without appearing suspicious, taking the alleyways to sprint closer to the walls, before slowing down to a simple trot through the streets. Then, just as the sun dipped under the horizon, and the shadows grew long, Night found himself at the base of the castle walls.

Night moved silently, moving along the wall before he quickly found the main gate into the castle. The door was still open, but Night could see the guards beginning to lower the portcullis. He needed to move quickly if he wanted to get inside, and he would have to use the transposing spell to get through unseen. He had to be sparing though, he had a big night ahead of him.

He cast Control Image, moving his visible image behind him, where without a doubt, a pony just saw him appear in their living room. It would cause some chaos over there, but that would be enough right now.

Night slipped through the gate, just squeezing under the dropping fortification, and dove into the Castle's shrubbery to hide before cutting his spell.

Already, he could hear shouts behind him of ponies calling for guards. He didn't have long now. Once his description was described and recognized, they'd know he was going for the palace.

Night took a second to breathe before he rushed for the Keep, slipping in as the guards moved out to defend the castle as the guards were called.

Night didn't make his way to the stairs. If he was going to do this the way he wanted to, Night would have move quickly, and he didn't have time to play fair. He took an immediate left and searched for the fifth brick beneath the third painting's center and pressed it.

The secret passage opened to him silently, and Night slipped in. Celestia had told him of all the secret passages years ago, and Night had always done his best not to use them. Now, though, he needed to get to the Princess and convince her of this before the night truly began.

He moved through the tight passages, climbing up to the donjon where the Princess' room sat perched above the palace. He squeezed through carefully, before finding the exit, hidden in the stairway.

He slipped out into the habitable parts of the castle, straightened out his cloak, and knocked on the Princess' door.

The door opened, and Night was surprised to see Spike open the door. "Ah, Hello Master Spike, may I come in?"

"Uh…What are you doing here, Night?" Spike asked, getting Twilight's attention as he opened the door wide.

"Looking for you, Your Highness," Night said, coming in.

Twilight sighed. "Look, I'm sure you've done another great heist, but I'm not in the mood for a bedtime story."

"I'm afraid you're incorrect, Princess." Night said. "I have not done a great heist. Yet."

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

Night reached into his belt and pulled out an amulet and a cloak. "These are for you, Princess," he said, handing them over.

The Princess took them both. "What am I doing with these?"

"Let me re-phrase what I said earlier," Night said with a smile. "We have not done a great heist, yet."

"Pardon?" Twilight asked.

"I'll be honest, Princess, I'm not the best speaker in the world. So I'm not going to anymore. Instead, both of us are going to go out, and I'm going to show you exactly what I do."

Twilight blinked. "There is so much wrong with that statement, I don't even know where to begin."

"The amulet is on loan from Celestia. She apparently reached out to the King of Changelings or something to get something that will transform her into something else for a 'vacation,' but she said it should be fine for you to use it for now."

Twilight glanced at the amulet. In fact, it did look like the one that Celestia had used to physically change her body during her annual walkabouts around the kingdom. More specifically, the one she destroyed because it ran on pre-redemption Changeling magic and could corrupt those who weren't prepared to fight that influence.

"This is a terrible idea," Twilight said. "Where'd you even get this? Celestia destroyed hers."

"Yeah, she had a new one made. She wants it for when she goes on vacation, or so she said."

Twilight sighed, before casting Ivory's Identify, a Perceive Energy Spell. Sure enough, the Transform Body matrix in the amulet was clean, and Twilight couldn't see any residual Mind magic in it.

"Okay, she has a new amulet, but I'm not using this. I'm not going with you on this stupid trip to do who knows what."

"It's going to give you a perfect chance to stop me from 'messing up' a perfectly good chance for your guards to put some ponies in jail."

That caused her to pause.

"Not only that, Princess, but it lets you see exactly why I'm doing this. You'll be able to make the clearest decision."

Twilight paused, before looking over to Spike.

He nodded at her.

Twilight took a deep breath through her nose and sighed. "Fine. But one wrong move and the whole bet is off."

It was a bluff on her part, but it was the only leverage she had.

"Oh, don't worry, Princess," Night said as she slipped on the cloak. "I don't make bad moves."

Chapter 10

Twilight picked a unicorn body. The Changeling amulet had a Transform Body spell matrix for a pony-shaped polymorph, and while she could have picked anything, her magic was her most potent weapon.

“So, where are we going?” Twilight asked as she followed Night down the alleyways of Canterlot.

Night smiled. “We don’t have a lot of time, so we’re going Counter-thieving.”

“What?” Twilight asked.

Night rushed down another alley before he found one of the larger buildings. Then he pulled out his hook. “They’re going to be more active in this area, though Legger might have a shipment moving into the city in a few days.” He lifted his hook to the top of the building before he quickly began to climb.

Twilight watched him climb for a moment or two before teleporting with a Control Body spell. She appeared up at the top of the tower, where Night’s hook was secured. “And you want to climb this tower why?” she asked from the top, looking down at Night as he climbed.

Night glanced up at her. “Vantage point,” he said, “so we can see if any of Moon’s pack as they’re making their way to their marks.”

“And so we’re just going to watch for them all night?” Twilight asked. “You call me out here, and you don’t even have a proper job lined up?”

“Yes, because I have crimes scheduled,” Night said with a heaping dose of sarcasm, continuing to climb. “Chances are, though, they’ll be out tonight. Since I messed up their last hit, they’ve had to wait a few days for the heat to die down, but they need to make some cash tonight.”

He just came up over the lip of the building and began to search the skyline.

“So we’re just going to stand up here and watch for anypony who might be doing something wrong?” Twilight asked.

“For a bit, but it shouldn’t take long before somepony shows up. Moon doesn’t like it when his plans are messed with, and he tends to push ponies back out into the streets to make up for it as soon as he can,” Night said before he began staring out into the darkness.

Twilight shook her head. “This is a bad idea.”

“Nonsense. We’re going to be fine.”

“I’m going to be caught.”

“And what makes you say that?”

“The last time I tried to steal anything, I was caught.”

Night raised an eyebrow. “And when did the Princess of Equestria, she who upholds the law, try and steal something, and from who?”

“It’s a long story,” Twilight said. “Let’s just say it happened during the Storm King’s invasion and leave it at that.”

Night raised an eyebrow. “Well, now you have me curious, but alright. As for getting caught, that’s because you didn’t have me with you.”

Twilight rolled her eyes.

They stood on their vantage point, glancing across the city, as they quickly fell into silence.

Twilight’s new body felt strangely familiar, yet incredibly uncoordinated to her. She suspected that it had to do with not giving herself wings, but if this was going to be a good disguise, she had to limit herself in some way. Luckily, she could use the Transform Body matrix to make some additional changes to her body without using much of her magic. With that in mind, and considering she would dive directly into the darkness, she gave herself a little bit of night vision.

That’s why she saw a figure leaping from rooftop to rooftop before Night did, and she frowned when he proved himself right.

“Someone is moving that way,” she said, pointing.

Night followed her hoof to the shape of the pony leaping in the distance. “Alright, then we need to go, let’s climb down and—”

Night was halfway through his statement before Twilight rolled her eyes and teleported them both across the way to another roof.

“...Or that. We can do that,” Night said, before searching the sky for the thief once more. “I told you, by the way.”

“I could just drop you in the river, you know,” Twilight said.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have time to go swimming, Princess, we have work to do,” Night said.

Twilight continued to follow him with short flashes of teleportation before their target found the house. They stood a few yards away, watching as their mark pulled up to one of the windows of the building. The Princess watched as he began to carefully work on the third-story window, prying it open with a set of specialized tools.

“Okay, Princess,” Night said, “we have a couple of options here. You can go with me inside, and we’ll try to stop him as he works. Or, you can stay out here if you don’t think you’re up for it.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Are you implying what I think you’re implying? You know I’ve saved Equestria nearly a dozen times now, don’t you? I can take an adventure.”

“I’m talking more about sneaking,” Night said.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “With just this amulet, I could shrink myself to the size of a mouse and hide in your hood, and that’s not even mentioning any of the other spells that I personally know.”

“Well, what’s your choice then, Princess?”

“Well, I thought I could go with you, but I have a better plan.”

“And what’s that?” Night asked.

“I’ll stay out here, and when that thief comes out, I’ll catch him and have him arrested since he’ll be very obviously breaking the law.”

“Then, that’s probably one you should do as the Princess,” he said. “Then, it would just be bad luck that you were flying by when he came out.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “But doesn’t that undermine your entire point?”

“No, because you can’t be everywhere either, Princess.”

Twilight frowned before using the amulet, transforming back into her lavender, alicorn self.

“Go ahead and fly up there, and come up with a reason as to why you’re here. Just have something prepared for some plausible deniability,” Night said, pointing to the roof of the building.

Twilight stared at him before she went along with Night’s plan. She flew up, carefully landing on the roof, and watched as Night slipped into the house behind the thief.

Twilight watched and waited, unsure of what to make of this move. Here, Night said that he wanted to prove that he was useful, but here he was, offering her a chance to let her guard deal with the problem.

She supposed that he would argue that her guards wouldn’t make it in time, which did have a point, but if she altered Azure’s proposition, she could at least get some of her guard to act as lookouts during the night, that could change.

Surely he knew that. So what was his point?

Twilight didn’t have a good answer on that.

Instead, she sat around and waited, wondering what on earth he was up to.

Night slipped into the house and moved as quietly as he could, this time, with a completely different job in mind. This time he wasn’t going to wait for the thief. He had to switch up his strategy.

This time, he had a guaranteed guard coming by, which meant that he had to make sure that the pony he was stopping would go away for a long time. This was a more satisfying job, and one he had done several times. Better yet, while it didn’t keep ponies from feeling violated at having their homes broken into, it did give them immediate closure.

Night slipped into the house, searching for any sign of the thief. He stuck to the walls, his transposing spell ready to go in case the thief found him. He didn’t see him on the third floor where he entered, so he quickly dropped to the second floor with careful movements to keep the steps from creaking. He moved as silently as he could, keeping his ears open in case something—

Ceramic scratching wood sounded down the hallway, and Night froze as he slowly started to peer around the corner.

The thief stood there, not ten feet away, carefully holding up a small, gold-leafed teapot. He cast a spell, probably Pennypincher’s Pricetag, before slipping it into the bag. He shouldered the bag again, and Night quickly searched for something small.

He quickly picked up a small statue and followed close behind. He would have to do this carefully if he was going to do it, and it would take a lot of luck on his part to pull this off. He followed the thief through the house, watching as he continued to stuff things into the bag.

He kept checking his bag with the pricetag spell, and with every item added to it, he knew the bag was getting closer and closer to being filled. Nigh watched him slip another piece in the sack, before casting the spell one last time and then pulling what he had back out to replace it.

Night moved. Dropping the statue into his hoof, he Created Image a small sound on the other side of the thief, who glanced in that direction. With a quick cast of Control Image, Night nearly silenced his movements, making them barely perceptible as he rushed the thief and slipped the statue into the thief’s bag.

The thief turned back around, and Night smiled at him as their faces were suddenly inches from each other.

For a brief second, the two thieves stared at each other, and then Night took a deep breath.

The other thief cast a spell, and Night’s voice was destroyed. It wouldn’t last long, but the minute the thief just bought was invaluable. The thief dived for Night, drawing a knife and slashing at him. Night baked up quickly before he slammed his entire body into the wall of the hallway.

Moon Light’s pony slashed again, forcing Night to leap back. He turned and bucked the opposite wall, the thick bricks rumbling with the blow.

“Stop that!” the thief hissed quietly, slashing wildly as Night could feel his voice beginning to return.

“No,” Night croaked, trying to speak before he ran up the stairs, stomping the entire way.

“Stop that!” the thief hissed again.

“Thief! Thief!” Night cried, his voice getting stronger and louder with each passing second. “Thief!”

Moon’s pony followed after, his dagger zipping through the air as he tried to catch up to the pony.

“Thief! Thief!” Night could yell now, and ponies were starting to stir in the house.

The intruder cursed before sheathing his knife. He didn’t have time for this. He turned around, heading back down the stairs before Night leaped off the landing and slammed onto the second floor again. The house nearly shook as he threw his weight around, and the thief suddenly had his exit blocked off.

“Thief!” he yelled again.

Moon Light’s pony cursed and turned, heading back up to the third floor, where the only way out was the window. It would be a big jump to the other side, but with his catapult spell, he’d be able to pull it off.

He ran, hooves thudding against the floor as ponies began to wake, and peek out into the hallway. He didn’t have the time to think about it. He just needed to get out of there. He leaped through the open window and out into the open air, free as a bird.

And then he felt magic slam down on him. He froze in mid-air, his body paralyzed by an unseen force. He stared about wildly before he was slowly picked up, and his eyes, the only part of him that he could control, locked on to the figure holding him.

Princess Twilight Sparkle herself stared back at him. “And just what do you think you’re doing?”

“He went that way!” A voice called inside before a few ponies peeked out from the window. “Wo-Woah! It’s the Princess! Someone called.”

“Your Highness!” one of them called. “I…”

“Hello, my subjects,” Twilight said, looking down at the ponies who stared up at her. “I was taking a quick flight around town when I noticed this thing coming out of your window. Further, since he is neither pegasus nor going through your door, I assume that he is not your guest?”

“No, your Highness,” one of the ponies confirmed.

“Then we’ll take care of this,” Twilight said, before firing a flare into the sky with a quick spell. “I do apologize, but I’ll need you to stay awake for just a little bit.”

“Of course, Princess!”

Twilight nodded as she looked down at the smiling faces staring up at her.

She glanced around, and Night stood on the building, who looked down at the Princess and nodded.

The guards soon arrived and began to process the thief, who immediately told the guards of the second thief inside the house.

Of course, they found no evidence of such a thief. They even searched the building to be sure, but there was no sign of any teammate to the soon-to-be incarcerated thief. And he was going to go for quite a long time. Princess Twilight herself had cast the spell to determine how much the thief had taken and found he had stolen thirty bits over the threshold for Grand Larceny.

The guards managed to finish the process within a few minutes and carried the thief away, leaving the family to go back to sleep, a little shaken, but happy that they still had all their possessions and that everyone was safe.

Unbeknownst to them, Twilight and Night watched them go, the family returning to their beds, and the guards carrying the thief away.

“Well, what was the point?” Twilight asked. “All you really did was prove that my guard is exactly what I needed to fix the problem.”

“I never said the guard was bad, or unnecessary,” Night said. “But the real truth is that your guard wasn’t there. If we hadn’t come here tonight, that family would have been robbed blind.”

“But, my guard arrested them.”

“And I made sure that he would be arrested for a long time. He made Grand Larceny.”

“And my gua—”

“Princess,” Night interrupted. “That isn’t the point. Your guard may have tracked him down, and this was ideal, which can happen at times when I’m on my own, but rarely. But none of that is the point. The point is that a family could go back to bed after having their home broken into. They didn’t need to wait months for the guard to take statements, track him down, find the items he took, work with their insurance, none of that. They could account for everything taken from them and go to bed with only a little scare in the middle of the night.

“And honestly, that’s why I do this. I do this for these ponies. I do this for them. And, if you’ll agree to it, I hope to show that several times over. After all, this was all just spur of the moment, right?”

Twilight stared down at the house and the family that was slowly trying to sleep. “I’ll think about it, Night,” Twilight said.

“That’s all I ask, Princess,” Night said with a bow. “I’ll take my leave.”

He left her, standing on that roof, watching as the lights slowly winked out, with the faces of the family still fresh in her mind. They appeared so relieved to see her catch the thief red-handed, so grateful to know that they had everything accounted for.

So that’s his argument then? He’s just out here protecting ponies? He’s just trying to help?

Well…

Well, it was indeed a good argument. One Twilight didn’t have a good answer for.

The large earth pony hit the ground hard. He rolled, groaning as he felt one of his broken ribs give under his weight, and pushed himself back up.

The alehouse, one owned by Blackjack, had never been this messy before. Sure, fights broke out, but the bouncer typically brought order back or threw them into the fight pit to sort things out. Sure, somepony occasionally made a mess, but breaking furniture naturally came out of a pony’s hide, or at least his paycheck.

Chairs sat shattered, tankards lay scattered, and ponies groaned and rolled on the floor as the brown-coated pegasus with a long, silver mane danced in the rafters, whistling to herself. “So this is it? This is the best that Blackjack has?”

She jumped to the next rafter, wings spread and smiling, as a key on a ring spun around her hoof. “I mean, I suppose you can say I didn’t play fair, huh?”

The stallion on the ground rolled again, his head still spinning. Someone had spiked every drink in the place, and even though it hurt to think, he was pretty sure this mare did it.

“Then again, what’s a little thing like me to do against such, big, strong ponies like you?” She laughed at that, a harsh, biting laugh that echoed over the bar. “Really, though, you should be blaming that lieutenant of hers. What’s he called? Barrel Tap or something like that? He just made it too easy to get the key to your cellar.”

She leaped down from the rafters, landing on the large pony’s broken ribs, revealing her wicked grin. “The good news is that I’m not here for you. I’m here to get your boss’s attention. The big one that is.” She ground her hoof into the stallions rib, causing him to grit his teeth and growl. “So you go and tell Blackjack that I want to talk, and you better do it quick. Cause if you don’t, I’ll come back, and I’m going to going to have to take off the kiddie gloves.”

She leaped off of the pony and gave him a smile as she went for the door. “I’ll see you all soon,” she said. “Promise.”

The stallion that laid on the floor glanced up, looking at the mare as she walked away, revealing the silver coin that marked her flank.

Chapter 11

A week passed.

Twilight hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Night Silk, but that just meant that she had more to think about.

Night doubled down on his point, this time focusing on the help that it gave the individual. Twilight could argue that if her guard were more vigilant, they could have noticed and caught the thief, and done something, but this rang hollow even in her own ears. He had a point about the immediate help, and it was an immediate help that she now knew was just as vital as the long-term help.

The thief that she caught last night already had his charges handed down to him with a bail of ten thousand bits posted. If left unpaid, he had a fine of the 1,100 bits and an additional two years in jail. Twilight sat, happy with the ruling, all the way up until she heard that the bail had been paid.

Twilight nearly destroyed her teacup at the news and asked for all the details. Azure himself reported that a noble, Moon Light, offered to pay his bail because of a favor that he owed the stallion.

Twilight asked why the bail was accepted.

“Why wouldn’t it be accepted, Your Highness? This is the nature of bail.”

“Because! Because he... He’s obviously just going to turn around and steal again!”

“Then we can only hope to arrest him once he does it again,” Azure said.

“I…” Twilight began. “That’s not—”

“That’s how it’s always been, Princess,” another voice said, and both ponies turned to see Night walk into the Princess’ office. “By the way, I found this key on your bedside table, and while I haven’t checked it yet, I’m pretty sure it goes to your vault.”

Twilight sighed and took the key back. “Thank you, Night.”

“Look,” Night said, “if you learn nothing else from me, you need to make sure your bedside tables are clear. That’s where most ponies keep their important documents and such.”

“Noted,” Twilight said before she watched as Azure suddenly look away. “Why are you here, Night?”

“I have another job for us, Princess.”

Azure frowned.

“Well, what’s your plan?” Twilight asked.

“We’re going to Manehatten. We have a job there that I think will do a lot of good, but it’ll take a while to get there.”

“Alright,” Twilight said, standing. “When do we leave?”

“You wish to go with him, Princess?” Azure asked.

“I do. It is definitely his most powerful argument, and one that I feel does need proper exploring.”

Azure shifted on his hooves. “Do you think that is wise?”

“I do,” Twilight said. “Mostly because Night is terrible at arguments, and this seems to be the best way for me to understand exactly what he actually means.”

Night shrugged.

Azure frowned. “I...assume, you have a way to disguise yourself?” he asked.

“I had that taken care of last time,” Night said, “but she wound up not needing it.”

“There was a last time?” Azure asked.

Night turned to Twilight. “You didn’t tell them yet?”

“It’s how I caught the thief last week, Azure,” Twilight said. “We’ll be fine.”

Azure nodded. “Of course, Princess.”

“Have Raven and Spike hold any business until I return. I need to get ready for the trip.”

Night smiled and began to head out behind her before a heavy hoof fell across his back. “Mr. Silk,” Azure said, nearly whispering into the pony’s ear, “I just need you to understand one thing. If anything happens to her—if anything hurts her persons or reputation—I will hunt you down. Am I understood?”

Night slipped out from underneath the stallion. “I understand perfectly well, Captain. Don’t forget, my job’s already on the line. My life’s just another reason to make sure things go well.”

Azure glared at the unicorn as he slipped out of the room and followed behind the Princess. He watched them leave, and once he was sure he was alone, Azure sighed and made his way to his quarters.

He had to clear out his bedside table.

“And welcome to Casa Chez Night,” Night Silk said as he led Twilight into the small room.

“I’m not sure why you’re trying to impress me with both this ‘safehouse’ and your proficiency at butchering two separate languages,” Twilight replied.

If you could call it that, the room was situated between the crawl spaces of a few apartments in a Manehatten tenement building. Apparently, when the flats were first built, the first few rooms had been divided into tight sections. Supposedly this was so that they could fit as many ponies as possible into the building. When Celestia later ruled about the proper sizes of livable spaces, many of the dividers had to be knocked down to make larger living spaces. The room that Twilight and Night occupied now would have given the previous tenements a larger room for the same rent as everypony else, so these tight spaces remained, though unlived in.

So when Night offered to take the place, at full price, if the landlord kept quiet about it, he simply took the money and forgot about the room.

Twilight found the place a little claustrophobic, though, given the place’s history, she wasn’t terribly surprised at that. “How on earth does a pony live like this?” Twilight asked, glancing up at the dusty chalkboard, the cot to the side of the room, and the table with the single chair that dominated the center.

“Fairly well, though the neighbors are a little loud, and these walls are thin,” Night said, “but be it ever so humble…”

Twilight shook her head. “So, ignoring the fact that there’s barely enough furniture in here for just you, I imagine we’re going to be staying here until nightfall?”

“Oh, no, Princess,” Night said with a smile, before hanging up his cloak. “We’re only staying long enough to get a few things in order.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “We’re not going to wait for it to get dark out?”

“Some crimes don’t happen at night,” the thief replied before he pulled out the chair. “Take a seat.”

Twilight did.

“So, as we’ve discussed before, Blackjack works in this area and frequently runs protection rackets with her gangs. We’re going to grab their collections as they go through and return bags when we have them.”

“Okay,” Twilight said.

“Now, we do have to be careful with this one,” Night continued, “because this one has the greatest chance of backfiring on us. If the gang members found out that the ponies they just shook down got their coin back too fast, they might shake them down again. Our best bet then is to make sure that we take the cash, and then sneak it back into their homes.”

“Okay,” Twilight nodded.

Night paused for a second. “You seem rather okay with all of this.”

“I’m letting you make your argument.”

Night nodded. “I see, then I guess I should point out that your guard can’t do much for this kind of job, as Blackjack typically calls this ‘collecting donations.’ The ponies that she’s extorting are typically too afraid to tell the guard otherwise, so they get very brazen with this.”

Twilight frowned but nodded.

“Anyway, I can handle returning the coin to these ponies, but the first part has a great chance of succeeding with both of us.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“Well, while I certainly can pick pockets, having someone to watch me, and if needed, distract ponies, will make this a cakewalk.”

“Distraction?” Twilight said. “Need I remind you that I literally went to the Underworld, several times.”

“I remember, Princess.”

“Then why do I get the feeling you don’t believe me?”

“No idea, Princess,” Night said, before grabbing an eraser and wiping the chalkboard clean. “Now, I do want to run a few things past y—”

Night blinked and suddenly found himself outside, facing a black, slate door with red patterns inscribed on it. “F-first…” Night trailed over, before turning around to see Twilight standing on the center head of a three-headed dog.

“Night, meet Cerberus,” Twilight said, as the massive bulldog towered over him.

“Uh...good boy?”

Twilight smiled before another flash of teleportation magic took them back to the apartment in Manehatten. “I will be fine, Night. I have been adventuring.”

Night blinked for a second before nodding. “Of course, Princess. Um...well…” he said, trying to collect himself after staring death’s guard dog in the face. “Well...there is one more thing we need to talk about.”

“And that is?”

“Well…” he said, still collecting himself. “Y-you have a disguise, but that’s not enough.”

Twilight glanced at the changeling amulet. “And why not?”

“Because,” he said, finally back in his calm, smug tone. “I’m not calling you Princess out on the street. I need something that I can call you.”

Twilight blinked and nodded. “Um...I...I guess you can call me Twilight…”

Night blinked. “Really?”

“What? Plenty of ponies have that name,” Twilight said. “It’s not like I’m asking you to call me ‘Twilight Sparkle, that mare from Ponyville’ or anything.”

Night sighed and shook his head. “Let’s... let’s just talk about what we need to do when we get down there. First and foremost, we need to talk about one thing. Getting the money back.”

“Can’t you just steal it all back at their hideout?” Twilight asked.

“I could, but that’s more work that we need to worry about.”

“Is it?” Twilight asked.

“We can’t take the bags as they go, they’ll catch on. We’ll have to grab the bag at the end, and we need to take it in a very spectacular way, so they know we stole it, and the ponies that paid up are innocent.”

Twilight smiled. “That sounds like something we can do.”

Strong Arm was a large pony, though that surprised no one. No one was then further surprised when he grew up into a thug, who was better at punching ponies than thinking. Strong Arm walked down the street of one of the more impoverished neighborhoods of Manehatten, along with his excellent buddy Black Mail.

Black Mail, the small pegasus that he was, walked in the shadow of the larger pony, smirking and growling as he spoke to his friend, though neither of the ponies watching them on the roof could hear what he said.

Twilight frowned as she watched the two move, walking from door to door in broad daylight. “This should not happen in my kingdom.”

“Well, you’re normally not here to stop them,” Night said.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “He’s just added another sixty-five bits to the bag.”

Twilight was keeping a modified Pricetag spell on the bag. Night typically split up the money into even shares and spread them out best he could. “Well, that’s very admirable of you but horribly inefficient,” Twilight had said, before coming up with this plan. Perceive spells did not drain magic like the others, and Twilight’s reserve was big enough that she could run this kind of spell for hours.

Night flipped open a notebook. “Sixty-five to Mrs. Caramel, good to know.”

“How many more buildings are they going to hit?” Twilight asked.

“As many as they feel like,” Night said. “Like I said, the guard can’t do much about this one.”

Twilight sighed. “This isn’t right.”

“No argument there, Ms. Twilight.”

“Just Twilight, please,” the disguised unicorn replied.

“If you say so.”

They continued to follow the two thugs on the street, shadowing their movements. They moved as quietly as they could, leaping from building to building needed, making sure that they kept the ponies in their sight.

“I hate waiting on them.”

“Waiting is half of what I do, Twilight,” Night said. “You’d be surprised how much waiting is in sneaking around.”

They continued to watch as the two thugs kept collecting, smiling, and smirking all the way before they finally turned away and began to head the other way down the street. “And that’s our cue, Twilight,” Night said. “Do you still want to go with your plan?”

Twilight smirked. “It’s going to be too much fun not to.”

“Honestly, I have to agree with that.”

Twilight made the first move then, as she cast a Control Matter spell, “Gem’s Gravity Well.” The bag, its physical weight suddenly increasing one hundredfold, rolled off of Strong Arm’s back, where it landed hard on the cobblestones.

“Something wrong, Strong?” Black Mail asked.

“Bag’s heavy all of a sudden,” Strong Arm replied.

“Yeah, it’s because of all the coins we got in there,” Black Mail said before he went to pick up the bag. He grabbed the bag and went to lift it, only for his body to slip out from beneath him. He turned around and tried to lift the bag again, but it didn’t even come off the ground.

“Alright, I’ll see you in a few, Twilight,” Night said before he hooked his rope to the side of the building. He leaped down the side of the building, sliding down his rope at incredible speed, before hitting the sidewalk.

Both thugs glanced at him before Night moved, running past them. They moved to avoid him, standing back as Night dove for the bag. He grabbed the sack, and both thugs charged him in that exact second, not daring to let him get away with all of their hard-earned cash. Strong Arm bucked, wildly, missing Night by inches as he dived back, away from the sack. Black Mail shot forward, drawing a blade, but Night sent a kick into the pegasus’ jaw.

Black Mail’s skull was ringing, but Strong Arm had recovered and charged Night again. The Master Thief backed away from another powerful blow, as both ponies tried to stop Night from grabbing their bag.

In fact, they were so dedicated and focused on keeping Night away from the bag that they didn’t notice a sunset-colored unicorn mare pick up the sack and begin walking away.

Night waited for Twilight to move out of sight from the street, before he leaped back, smiling. “You know, Gentlecolts, you need to pay more attention to what’s going on around you,” he said, before pointing to where their collections had been.

They both turned back to the bag and found nothing.

And when they turned back around, Night, or at least his image, was gone.

“That went off without a hitch,” Night said as he returned to his apartment to rendezvous with Twilight.

The sack of coins sat on Night’s singular table, along with the small notebook that Night wrote the entries in. Twilight was already sorting through the bags when Night joined her, and she casually looked. “So you did make it, I was starting to wonder.”

“It’s good to see that the Princess has such care for her servants,” Night said.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Are you going to help me sort all of this or not?”

“I will, I will, but I have a better question for you. What did you want for dinner?” Twilight glanced up at him as he held a bag of coins. “The guys we’ve been following all day offered to pay for us.”

“Now, that is just a crime. There’s no need for that,” the Princess said.

“Well, you say that, but they are also sponsoring the purchase of another chair so I can help you with that mess,” he said, pointing over at the bits that covered the table.

Twilight sighed. “Fine.”

“Again, though, what do you want?” Night asked. “There’s a decent Chineighes place nearby, but of course, this is the place to get Manehatten-style pizza.”

“Hayburger,” Twilight said.

“Hayburger?”

“They’re everywhere, they’re cheap, and they’re delicious.”

“Well...yeah...but it’s Hayburger.”

Twilight glanced up at him. “Hayburger. Number 3, extra pickles, hold the mustard.”

Night shook his head. “Alright, guess I’ll go get some Hayburger, and a chair,” he said. “I’ll be back in about half-an-hour.”

Twilight nodded before splitting another pile of gold. The door closed, and Twilight glanced up at it, before sighing.

Honestly, this was going to make things better for both of them until Twilight came to a decision, and if he didn’t need to learn new words, he should be able to pick them up pretty quickly.

She stood out of her chair and suddenly popped into the Castle back in Canterlot.

This was her third long-range teleport today, and her body was starting to feel it. As an alicorn, her reserves were massive, but even they had a limit.

She appeared in the Royal Library, one of the most familiar locations in the entire Castle for her. When she was simply Celestia’s apprentice, she had spent so many hours here, it was her home away from home. She barely had to think before she was already heading down the magical studies branch and plucked a book about Matter and one about Image from the shelves. She flipped the book open before casting a second spell, “Shillouette’s Speed read,” a Perceive Matter spell that Twilight frequently used to get the basic gist of a book.

Both books had exactly what Night needed, and she carefully slipped them into a saddlebag before teleporting back to the apartment.

She pulled the saddlebag and set them on what passed for a kitchen counter by Night’s surprisingly well-stocked fridge, before sitting back in her seat and picking up exactly where she left off.

When Night did return, he almost didn’t notice that she left. He handed her a greasy bag of fast food, unfolded a camping chair, and was about to get to work when he saw the books. “Did...did you bring those?”

“They have a few spells you might want to learn,” Twilight said without even looking up. “The Catapult spell is in there, and it should help you get around, without having to rely on that piece of rebar you have.”

“Hey, I like my hook, thank you very much.”

“It’s literally a piece of construction debris,” Twilight said.

“And Hayburger is a step up from eating garbage, but I was willing to eat it quietly.”

“I will have you hung for treason with that kind of talk,” Twilight said with a glare.

Night sighed. “Get some sleep tonight, Twilight,” he said, sardonically using her name, “I’m going to introduce you to Newsie tomorrow.”

“Who?”

“The mare who’s going to give us our next job.”

Chapter 12

Twilight was trying to sleep.

The past year she spent in the Castle, and the near-decade she spent in Ponyville, left her used to quiet, nearly soundless nights in soft beds. Right now, she had neither. Manehatten earned the name “the city that never sleeps,” and for the first time in her life, Twilight appreciated precisely what they meant by that.

The rumble of late-night carriage traffic nearly roared outside her window, and it continued to ring in her ears into the early morning. She stared up at the ceiling of the criminally small apartment and sighed. She didn’t even need to see a clock to know it was two or three in the morning.

The cot didn’t help her any, either. The simple bed felt like it was digging into her at any possible angle. She rolled onto her side and felt the ribs beneath the thin cloth stab into her. She moved back on her back and felt them crush against her wings. She rolled onto her stomach, but that lasted about a breath or two before she rolled onto her back.

What made it worse, though, was Night.

Despite buying another chair to sit in so they could count coins, Night had not bought another place to sleep. Not even so much as a sleeping bag. When Twilight pointed that out, Night shrugged and said he’d take the floor.

And he did. He lay there on the hardwood floor, sleeping like a rock. His low, quiet snores that emanated from where he lay only proved that he was getting the full night’s sleep Twilight would have killed for right now.

“This is so unfair,” she muttered, rolling again to her side before laying down again.

Wheels clattered outside, and a drunk yelled on the streets. Electric lights buzzed, and somewhere a clock ticked.

Twilight rolled again, facing Night as he lay on the floor, and glared a few daggers into his back out of jealousy.

Maybe she should try the floor? It had to be more comfortable than this if he was sleeping that well. She sighed, before getting onto the floor, and closing her eyes, trying to fall asleep.

Azure woke that morning and slowly prepared for the day. He made sure that his mane was straight before slipping on his royal purple armor. As soon as it was on, he checked his posture, turning his back into the habitual ramrod, before getting his coffee. He took it black, no sugar, drinking the beverage for the pure bitter caffeine. He downed it as quickly as possible without burning his throat before setting his mug down in his dishwasher.

He took a step out of his living quarters and stepped into his office before his routine was soundly interrupted.

“Azure! Azure!” Raven cried, nearly tearing down his office door. “Where’s the Princess?”

Azure glanced at her before sitting in his chair. “Somewhere in Manehatten last, I heard.”

“What?” she asked, shocked by his overly-calm demeanor.

“Night Silk has decided to show the Princess what he does.”

Raven went pale. “He...he what?”

“He and the Princess went off to Manehatten to deal with a job he had. That’s why the Princess had you hold all of her meetings yesterday.”

“Yes...but...I moved them to today!” She said. “What am I supposed to tell them?”

“Tell them that the Princess is unavailable,” Azure said.

“And cause a panic?” Raven asked. “Princess Twilight, for all her faults, has always kept her meetings! The tabloids are going to latch onto this like a fly to honey. Worse still, she’s not here! There are documents that need signing, court to hold, and nobles to deal with, how am I supposed to take care of all of that?”

“You don’t. You just need to stall until the Princess returns, which I imagine should happen sometime today.”

Raven sighed and growled. “I don’t like this.”

“It’s not our duty, nor our privilege to like, or even approve of the Princess’ choices,” Azure said. “We simply need to make what she wishes a reality.”

Raven sighed. “Easy for you to say, you don’t have to deal with the nobles.”

Azure’s face softened slightly, which is to say that his deadpan glare turned sympathetic in the way that a stone can erode into a different shape. “I can assign you some guards if you think it will help.”

“No, but thank you. I’d much rather put Spike out in front. He’s at least fireproof.”

Azure raised an eyebrow as Raven began to smirk darkly, but he said nothing as she walked away. His emotionless state returned to his face, and he sat down, starting to work through the papers he had to get through by the end of the day.

He really hoped Spike made it out in one piece.

Twilight woke up to her alarm, feeling stiff. She slowly rolled onto her hooves and stood, feeling her back pop as her spine realigned itself. She blinked, wearily, and only then just noticed that she was covered in a cloak that someone had draped around her like it was a makeshift blanket.

She picked up the small gem, whose Perceive Matter spell allowed her to hear her alarm clock all the way in Canterlot, and deactivated it. Someone back in the Castle would no doubt turn it off at some point, especially after she raised the sun.

Pulling her amulet from the saddlebag she packed, she focused her power and pulled the sun over the horizon, starting its movement through the day.

Her duty done, she glanced back at the cot and wondered if it would still be so uncomfortable through the fog of fatigue that hit her mind.

The door to the “apartment” opened, and Night stepped through with a small carton of milk. “Ah, good morning, Princess.”

Twilight mumbled something in response.

Night simply strode to the small refrigerator and pulled out a few eggs. “How do you like your eggs?”

Twilight muttered something again.

“What now?”

Another grumble.

Night shrugged. “Scrambled it is.”

He pulled out a pan and took it over to the camping stove he had set up on his countertop, before he began to cook away, cracking the eggs expertly as he began to make breakfast for the two.

Twilight, meanwhile, stumbled over to the table, with all the bags of the separated money laying next to it, and slumped into the folding chair that Night just bought, whose cloth body seemed more comfortable than the wooden stool.

“Didn’t you get the coffee?” Night asked, before pointing to the machine that sat right next to the fridge.

Twilight blinked as she noticed it for the first time, before bringing the whole coffee pot over to her. She opened the lid, set it aside, and sipped at the still-hot pot.

“I have a mug, you know,” Night said.

“Just one?” Twilight shot back, with her first intelligible words.

Night let it rest, as he had some eggs to focus on. “It sounds like you had a rough night, or are you always such a bright and cheery morning pony?”

“It would help if your cot were at least as comfortable as a stone slab.”

“You were on the floor when I got up.”

“Because the floor was more comfortable.”

Night nodded before he slid the eggs onto two paper plates and handed one over to the mare.

Twilight ate them, quickly but not impolitely, as Night ate across from her. After a long minute or so, he spoke. “Hopefully, we’ll get you back on the train to Canterlot before tonight. While that happens, I’ll pass out the coins, before beginning to plan the next job.”

“We’re not doing the job tonight?” Twilight asked.

Night shook his head no. “Never jump into a job without making a plan,” he said, before pointing over the chalkboard. “Knowing the when and where is important, but not as important as having a way out.”

Twilight glanced back over at the chalkboard and quickly read the details. She read the street names that they followed along yesterday, along with names of tenants that they’d meet. Night had everything planned down to the detail, each facet of the plan chosen with care. He had escape routes laid out, backup plans, and ways to get herself out of danger if things went very poorly.

It...well...it was almost impressive.

Twilight shook her head. She was being unfair. What he had here was impressive, no “almost” about it. Yes, it wasn’t work that she necessarily approved of, and she felt that this much work, if pointed in a different direction, would result in a far more respectable career path for him.

“That’s a lot of planning.”

“Not that much,” Night said. “The plan was mostly just having you run distraction while I got the loot, and you made the very brilliant move of switching the two. No, that is just background information.”

“Background information?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, I mean, take Mrs. Caramel, for example,” he said, pointing to the mare’s name. “See, I know from past experience, and a little bit of espionage, that Caramel’s more concerned about her kids than some money. Instead, she’d make sure that Blackjack’s gang stays away from their door then uses her extra cash to help buy things, including renovation to her apartment. She’s not going to say anything if the guard gets involved. Now that I know that, I know I shouldn’t count on her to help me if I say, wanted to get the guard involved and have the two thugs arrested.

“Then there’s also possible escape routes. If they have a pegasus, which they did, then trying to run along the rooftops like we did when we stalked them, wasn’t going to work. They’re too open, so they’d spot us immediately. Our best bet then would be trying to cut into the alleyways and make our way down into a more crowded street section. That way, even if the pegasus followed, they could very quickly lose us in the crowd. Now, we didn’t have that option; there weren’t many crowds out in that part of town yesterday. Instead, when you suggested that I be the distraction, I knew I had to take the subway out. The earth pony would have a hard time following me down into the tunnels, and the pegasus didn’t have a chance of tracking me out, especially if I ran down the rails instead of riding the train.

“These are all things I need to take into account if I’m going out there,” Night said. “No plan survives contact with the enemy, so knowing as much as you possibly can means you can make better split-second decisions when you need to.”

“That…” Twilight began. “That is surprisingly well thought out.”

“Dumb thieves don’t make it long, Twilight,” Night said. “Master Thieves can’t afford to be dumb.”

Twilight nodded.

“Also, are you sure you want to go with ‘Twilight’ as your alias? It’s really, really obvious.”

“Which is why no one will see through it,” Twilight replied.

“Sure,” Night said.

Twilight, in her “normal unicorn persona,” with her orange coat and teal mane, and Night walked down the street toward a newsstand. It was being watched by a young mare who sat next to the stand, looking bored. The parchment-colored pegasus gave the two of them a glance before she spoke up. “Well look who’s back. Who’s the chick?”

“Twilight, meet Newsie. Newsie, Twilight,” Night said, making a quick introduction.

“Okay, I’ve got a name, but who is she?” Newsie asked. “You don’t typically bring your marefriend to meet your informants.”

Twilight blinked. “I don’t even know him. Not really, we met like a week-and-a-half ago.”

“I’m just that charming,” Night said. “You remember what I told you last time?” he asked.

“Something about the Princess riding your flank to prove you're useful or something?”

Night sighed and didn’t even dare to look at Twilight’s expression, though he knew she was staring at him. “Not in those words.”

“Okay, and—Oh. Oh, horseapples. I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I—”

“Don’t. Don’t worry about it, please,” Twilight said. “I’m supposed to be somepony else right now anyway.”

“Right, right, a disguise, cause that makes sense. I can’t believe I just said that in front of you.”

“Well,” Night interrupted, “if you want to make it up to her, you can tell what you have on basically anything else.”

“Yeah, yeah! Sure! Um!” Newsie tried to collect herself for a moment before she spoke up. “Uh, I’ve heard that Boot Legger has some stuff he’s trying to move to in Vanhoover.”

“What kind of stuff?” Night asked.

“Something about rocks that used to be a throne or something?” Newsie said, shrugging. “I didn’t get much on what they had.”

“Chrysalis’ throne?” Twilight asked, in a shocked yell.

Night stared at her. “Well, now everypony thinks that, don’t they Twilight?”

“No, this is bad. Those shards can eat unicorn magic. They can destroy so many wards and seals almost easily. Those could open the doors of Tartarus, or, if they can be used right, maybe recreate the day magic nearly died.”

“So then we should probably take care of that, as soon as we can,” Night said, before turning back to the pegasus. “Thanks, Newsie, here’s your pay.”

He tossed her a bag of coins and nodded before the two of them walked away.

As they moved, Twilight gave another glance back at the pegasus, trying to recover from insulting the most powerful pony in the country to her face. “Is she alright?” Twilight asked.

“What do you mean?” Night asked.

“She’s pretty young to have a job at a newsstand, to begin with, but also being an informant? Not only that but she...well...she doesn’t have a cutie mark either.”

Night gave her a glance before sighing. “It’s hard to figure out what your calling in life is when you’re just trying to survive.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s…” Night said. “She’s had a rough childhood, and that’s really all I should say about it. Her history isn’t mine to share, after all.”

“What happened?” Twilight asked.

“Bad foster homes,” she replied. “She got off mostly lucky, compared to some other I know, but it’s still messed her up a bit.”

Twilight blinked. “That’s... I’m sorry to hear that.”

Night nodded. “It happens. But don’t let her hear you. She won’t take your pity. Honestly, I think it’s because she scared of you that she apologized.”

“What do you mean?”

“She has a lot of anger in her, and it takes a lot of effort for her to get over it,” he said, before shrugging again. “Anyway, I’m not going to talk about her history anymore. That’s not my business, and it’s too late to do anything about it now. More importantly, we need to get to the train station.”

“We’re heading to Vanhoover?” Twilight asked.

“I’m heading to Vanhoover,” Night said. “You need to head to Canterlot.”

Twilight felt her heart sink when he said that.

“I’ll meet you at the station in two days,” Night continued. “That should give me enough time to find the warehouse and formulate what we need to get the materials out of there in time.”

Twilight sighed. “Yes, I probably should head back to Canterlot. I have a kingdom to run and stuff like that.”

It felt good to stretch her legs, though.

“First, though, you need to get the money back to those ponies,” Twilight said.

“Yes, but, as your Captain of the guard pointed out, your safety is my primary responsibility. I need to make sure you get to the train station safely, first.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “I can take care of myself.”

“I know,” Night said. “You can just make a pony weigh more than they can carry. Kicking a butt or two’s no big deal. Still, would your Captain be alright with even a papercut?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at him before nodding. “Alright, that does actually make sense.”

“Told ya. I see you off, get those bags returned, and then head off to Vanhoover for the next job.”

“And I’ll meet you there in two days,” she said, “but next time, I want to see your process.”

Night glanced at her. “You want to see me spend three days scouring every other square foot of area around a target for escape routes?”

“As somepony who spent most of their life as a scholar, I believe you can tell a lot about a pony by how they research something.”

Night shrugged. “If you say so, Twilight.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle returned to the castle to find a long line of ponies waiting on her. The line went out the keep door and trailed into the courtyard, and the alicorn was left to wonder how as she followed the gathered ponies back up to her throne room.

Many of the ponies in the line tried to get her attention, claiming that they had been waiting for hours, and she needed to hear them immediately. Twilight gave them her best Princessly nod and assurances that she would listen to them, but she needed to see what the source of the problem was.

Following up the line, she found a very annoyed Spike, listening to a singular pony that looked vaguely familiar complain on her floor. “I must speak with the Princess! She is the only one who can deal with my problem.”

“And Princess Twilight isn’t—” Spike began before he noticed her enter. “Has just now arrived.”

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked.

“Ah, Princess,” the petitioner said. “I’m glad you’ve finally arrived. I wished to speak with you about your ruling last week.”

“My ruling?” Twilight asked, confused as she made her way to her throne, which Spike sat next to, appearing relieved.

“He’s been here for hours,” he whispered.

“As you requested, I bought a hat, but it did not solve the problem. Now I hope you will see my previous solution is indeed the sane one, and thus acquiesce to my request.”

Twilight closed her eyes, as though she were in physical pain, and took a deep breath. “Have you tried sunglasses?”

The petitioner blinked in surprise and brought a hoof to his chin in thought. “No, I don’t believe I have.”

“Buy a pair, and get out.”

Chapter 13

Night and Twilight slipped next to the Vanhoover warehouse, filled with the stone they needed to secure. Night told Twilight exactly how to get in, over the chain-link fence, and down next to the storeroom proper. Night pointed carefully toward the door, and Twilight cast a Perceive Body spell, “Ruby’s Rites of Life-Seeking,” to see that eight ponies were inside the warehouse, and three were slowly making their way around the perimeter.

“We have three coming this way. We have a few seconds,” she whispered.

“How many inside?” Night asked. “Eight.”

Night shook his head. “Too many for the front door. We’ll have to go up.”

Twilight nodded, and they each cast their own catapult spell to launch themselves up onto the roof. Twilight landed softly, but Night, who was still new to the spell, sent himself straight into the air. The Princess caught him, though, holding him in the air and slowly bringing him back down to the roof without breaking any of his legs. “Thank you, Twilight,” he whispered.

Twilight nodded back as they both quickly made their way to the skylight. They both glanced down into the warehouse below, where the eight ponies they saw were posted around a single chest. Inside that chest, both ponies knew, lay a shard of Chrysalis’ throne.

Further research by Night and Newsie revealed that a shard of this size, just by itself, would sell for millions of bits on the black market, and Boot Legger was in line to make nearly a million on his own from moving it from seller to buyer.

Twilight glanced over to Night. “So how are we going to do this?” she asked.

“Couple ways,” he replied. “We could try scaring the ponies away with illusions, and secure the chest once everypony’s gone. We could try distracting them and grabbing the stone while they’re looking the other way, my favorite. The last idea would be for you to lift the chest up here while I transpose the Image of the chest where it’s sitting right now.”

“The last one seems like the easiest,” Twilight said. The chest would undoubtedly be large enough to use a lot of her magical energy in one go, but she could certainly do it. With Night focusing on the Image, they could probably grab the stone before either pony noticed.

“Or it would be, but the stone might actually make it impossible for me to lift the box. It’d probably eat the magic as soon as it gets close.”

“Fair enough,” Night said. “Distraction then?”

The smile on his face said that he really wanted to run a distraction.

And, for some reason, so did Twilight. “Distraction,” she agreed. She glanced back down through the skylight. “Can you put an image of yourself behind that one right there?”

“The one in the east corner?” Night asked.

“Yeah, put your image there, and try to run him into the shadows that way.”

“What if I run him outside?” Night asked. “There’s more places for a pony to hide out there. With luck, it’ll keep a few of them outside while we grab the rock.”

“That could work,” Twilight agreed, smiling wide as she began to plan over the warehouse like it was a chess match. “But, we don’t know how many would follow it. So we should have a follow-up distraction ready.” She glanced up at Night. “Can you make a pony illusion, one that isn’t your image?”

“I can,” he said. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that they’re going to find a team of ponies attacking them,” she said.

“Okay, the problem with having a team is that they’d expect someone to try and grab the case while everyone’s distracted. No matter what, they’ll leave at least two ponies behind to watch the case.”

Twilight frowned and pursed her lips.

And then she smiled. “Do you have your hook?”

Night pulled it free. “Always.”

Twilight used the amulet, and her muscles bulged. “Here’s the plan.”

Bronze Bouncer stood in the warehouse and sighed.

The large earth pony carried a baseball bat over his shoulder and a bored expression on his face. A pegasus nearby, Gale Glider, stared in another direction, equally bored. At least, Gale had some gum to chew, but the constant smacking of his jaw made Bronze tighten his grip on his bat.

Another pony, the rookie, yawned, before speaking up. “So...what’s in the box?”

Gale sighed. “You don’t get to know, Rookie,” he said. “You only get to know if you’ve been running with the crew long enough.”

“And...how long does that take?” the Rookie asked.

“As long as it takes,” Gale said.

“Both of you, shut up,” Bronze said. “Can’t hear nothing for all your talk.”

Both ponies went back to silence.

For a second or two anyway.

“But like, why don’t I get to know.”

“Because we don’t trust you yet—”

“I said, shut up!” Bronze yelled, turning to face both of them. “You want to know what’s in this box, Rookie? A life sentence. And the only thing standing between us and that is making sure the guard don’t get to us. So shut up, so I can hear them coming. Because if somepony’s going to get that life sentence, it’s not going to be me.”

A rock slammed into the back of Bronze’s head, and he turned to see a dark-grey unicorn. He blinked before the unicorn ran out to the door leading to the courtyard. “Gale, grab him!” Bronze ordered, and the pegasus, along with two other ponies, ran out.

Another rock slammed into Bronze, and he turned to see a pegasus mare flying above him with a blue coat, blowing a razzberry. The pegasus dove for the door, almost begging to be followed.

Bronze frowned. This was too obvious. They couldn’t let those ponies go if they reported to the guard, but they were also obviously leading everypony away. “Rookie, grab some ponies and go after her, Rock, stick here with me.” Another earth pony nodded as Rookie and another pair of ponies both chased after the mare.

Bronze and Rock, the other earth pony that stayed behind both, stood back-to-back with the chest in between them. They stared out into the darkness of the warehouse, daring anything from the shadows to charge them.

Bronze readied his bat, sure that another pony would make a dash for it. The good news was that the chest had something in it that made it immune to unicorn magic, so whoever had to grab the chest needed at least a large earth pony to move it. So there was no way that—

“Well Gentlecolts,” a voice said behind them, and they both turned to see a grey-coated unicorn standing on the chest with a hook attached to its handle. “It’s been a pleasure.”

The rope snapped taut, and both unicorn and chest went flying up toward the skylight. They both shot through the roof, the chest smashing through a still closed skylight, and Bronze cursed. “Get to the roof!” he yelled.

He and Rock rushed for the stairs that led to the roof access. They stormed up the stairs and burst through the door just in time to see two figures, one a unicorn launching himself into the night, and the other a pegasus flying away. The chest lay in front of them, open and empty, without a single sign of any stone left behind.

Bronze curse again before dropping his bat and turning around.

“Bronze, Bronze, where are you going?” Rock asked.

“Anywhere but here.”

“Why?”

Bronze glanced back at Rock. “We just lost Boot millions in a deal he had lined up, and he’s going to have to pay the buyer to make it up to her. So why do you think I’m leaving?”

Rock stared back at him. “Room for one more?”

Night landed on a skyscraper rooftop, his catapult spell throwing him into the roof a little hard, but he was getting better. Twilight landed right next to him, changing back into a unicorn, the changeling magic of her amulet immune to the stone’s influence. “Good job, Twilight!” Night said, “Wonderfully done.”

Twilight smiled and bowed. “High praise from a master, I suppose.”

“I may be a master, but you, dear Twilight, you are a natural! You may have very well missed your calling as a thief.”

Twilight’s smile faded. “This is saving the world, not thieving.”

“Same difference, Twilight. Same difference.”

Twilight shook her head. “Sure.”

“More importantly, did you remember what I said about the buyer?” Night asked.

“Yes, yes,” Twilight said. “I need to wait a week before I receive the ‘anonymous tip,’ that Lady Orchidshade is moving these. That way, Boot Legger pays her back to save his reputation before we arrest her.”

Night nodded. “Do as much damage as possible. Will I be seeing you again next week?”

“All the way up until Saturday,” Twilight said. “The Gala runs Saturday, and I need to attend.”

“I’ll see if I can get anything before then,” Night said. “And who knows, maybe I’ll get the hang of this spell by then.”

Twilight nodded. “You did pretty well,” she said. “You figured out the basics in a day.”

Night shrugged. “Well, it’s not like it’s a new word or anything,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean you didn’t do a good job.”

Night blinked. “Well,” he said, “I’ll hopefully see you before the end of the week then,” he said with a smile before he secured his hook on a vent. He slipped the rope into the harness beneath his cloak and slipped down to the side of the building.

His magic unhooked his rope a bit later, and he was catapulting his way across the city.

Twilight watched him go before she used the amulet to drop her disguise. She took to the sky, carrying the shard of the throne in her hooves, heading for the train station. She had a letter to write to King Thorax when she got back to the castle, and she needed to talk to him about securing the shards better if they were being sold on Equestria’s black market.

That was a problem for tomorrow, though. Tonight, she just had to worry about coming back home after a great night’s work.

Spike closed court that night and jumped off of his advisor’s seat with a smirk. Things went by so much easier when you didn’t have an idiot who literally could not understand that the Princess was unavailable.

Twilight left earlier that day, and she was supposed to return by morning with the long train ride from...Vanhoover, was it? Spike wasn’t super sure. Ah, well, he had a dinner to eat right now, and that was far better than thinking about where Twilight was coming back from.

Spike’s mood was immediately ruined when Raven Inkwell stood in the doorway between him and the kitchen. “There you are.”

“Can I help you, Miss Inkwell?” Spike asked.

“You can help us,” Raven said, revealing Azure behind her.

The Captain didn’t appear as angry as Raven did. In fact, other than a slight frown to his bearing, he seemed normal, but the fact that he was frowning at all meant enough.

Spike sighed. “Can I at least get a meal while you yell at me?” he asked.

Raven didn’t move, but Azure stepped to the side to make sure the dragon had enough room to move past.

“Was this your idea?” she asked.

“What?” Spike asked, walking past.

“This stupid idea the Princess got into her head, about rushing out into who-knows-what to steal!”

“No, it was Night’s idea,” Spike said, “and honestly, it’s a great idea.”

“How, on earth, did you think this is a good idea?” Raven asked, nearly shrieking. “She is literally going out there, working with criminals, and putting her life in danger!”

“That is not something I appreciate, either,” Azure said, calmly. “It is difficult to secure the safety of the Princess when she runs across the country, in the company of a thief.”

“And don’t tell me you actually believe she needs to be protected?” Spike asked. “It’s not like she’s called the ‘Archmage Ruler’ for nothing. Not to mention the years she spent dealing with world-ending threats. I mean, be honest, the palace guards are more here to guard her stuff than anything.”

Azure gave Spike a look that made it clear he didn’t appreciate the comment, but his lack of an answer made it clear he didn’t disagree.

“That’s not the point!” Raven said. “She’s affiliating herself with thieves and criminals! If somepony found out, it would be devastating to the country! Can you even imagine what would happen if the press found out Princess Twilight Sparkle was moonlighting as a thief! She would lose all respect! Nobles everywhere would be using it as leverage, the entire country could fall apart!”

“And that’s why Celestia gave her an amulet which physically changes her body,” Spike said. “That’s why she used them when she went out and pretended to be a normal pony on her yearly walkabouts, which, if anything, just sets this whole thing up under precedent.”

“The point is that you told the Princess that this was a great idea,” Raven said. “When obviously this just puts her in more danger than she needs.”

Spike shrugged as the three of them walked into the dining hall, where a bowl of gems was waiting for him, as usual. “And if you think that Twilight isn’t totally on board for unnecessary danger, then you don’t know the mare.”

“What are you talking about?” Raven asked. “She’s the most careful and most thorough mare I know! She’s always talking about reducing risk, and limiting danger for ponies.”

“She also spent nearly a decade as a pony who dealt with all kinds of problems, of all kinds of danger levels, doing all kinds of risk. She loves it, even if she doesn’t realize, or admit it,” Spike said. “She makes friends while being in danger. She misses it, and being Princess, where she has none of that is what’s going to drive her insane before anything else.”

“So you tell her to join a thief. One who is galavanting across the entire countryside, on a one-pony crusade to fix the justice system?” Raven asked. “Night is barely functional, and certainly not stable.”

“He’s trying to do his best,” Spike said, “and trying to help us, at that.”

Raven snorted. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“You may not want to, but it’s the truth.” Spike grabbed an enormous sapphire before popping it into his mouth. “He’s trying to deal with ponies that are doing their best to take advantage of the system. He’s trying to take care of the ones that we can’t deal with. That’s important, and that’s a service we can’t ignore. Celestia didn’t, after all.”

Raven scowled, before turning to Azure. “Are you going to back me up or not?”

Azure shook his head. “I told you that I did not like the decision that the Princess came to, but I also told you that there was not much that I think could be done about it. As Master Spike has said, there is nothing the Princess has done that does not have precedent.”

Raven ground her teeth together. “So you’re going to ignore the fact that this lizard here is abusing his relationship with the Princess to make her do stupid things?”

“And you’re abusing the fact that you’re a ‘professional’ at this to make Twilight miserable,” Spike said. “So stop being a hypocrite for a second, and realize that you’re going to drive her to an early grave.”

Azure stepped between them. “Alright, alright, that’s enough. Both of you need to calm down and remember your stations. You have the dignity of the Princess to uphold. You can’t devolve into petty arguments.”

Spike grabbed his bowl. “Then I am going to eat my dinner in my room.”

“Sounds fair enough to me,” Raven said, before walking away.

Spike walked the opposite way, leaving Azure in the dining hall alone.

He stood there for a long second, making sure that no one else was nearby before he slammed his legs into the table, teeth clenched. He gave a barely-suppressed roar before he dropped his hooves, and then made sure the table was undamaged. He set it back into place, straightened his armor, and walked away.

Night slipped into his Vanhoover safehouse and smiled as he made his way to his cot.

That last job went by perfectly! Having the Princess nearby to help him with these jobs almost made it too easy. Her knowledge of all things magical opened up so many opportunities.

The rocks she threw, she made with a Create Matter spell. She made those stones, with their velocity, all in such a way that no pony at the warehouse would know they hadn’t been thrown. Combine that with his illusions, and there was no way anyone could spot the problem.

He glanced up at the large slate board that hung on his wall, trying to think of what to do next. He needed to come up with something that the Princess could plan with him, or at least something he could arrange with her watching over her shoulder in a reasonable time.

A proper plan would take too long, and he wouldn’t make the deadline. He couldn’t risk doing anything half-way, if he wanted to keep his hide, anyway.

Maybe...maybe he could do some counter-thieving with her? Those were more crimes of convenience anyway, so he could probably get away with a little less.

Yeah, he could probably do that. He grabbed a bottle off of a shelf filled with green fire and a rolled-up parchment. He quickly wrote a message to Newsie, asking for any news on Moon Light’s movements before he rolled up the scroll and opened the bottled, magical fire. The flame consumed the parchment, turning it to a subtle, green magic smoke that flew off toward Manehatten and Newsie.

Yes, he and Twilight were going to have a great time.

Chapter 14

The next time Night met Twilight, he brought a few gifts for her.

She sat at her desk, reading over a new trade offer from Abyssinia, asking for some more magical defenses to protect them in the case of another Storm King, in exchange for some more of their exotic resources.

And that’s when Night strode in and dropped a spherical gem into her lap. “Hello, Princess!” he said. “That is one of the power gems for the castle’s emergency wards.”

Twilight sighed before she picked up the gem and passed it to one of the nearby guards. “Take this back, please.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” the guard said.

“And this,” Night said, sliding a sheet of parchment her way, “is a receipt for an enchanted jar and some bottled dragon’s breath.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. “And why do you need an enchanted jar of bottled dragon’s breath?” she asked, glancing at the receipt.

“For last-minuted messages across the country,” Night said casually, taking a seat that he had not been offered. “That one specifically went to Newsie, because that’s the only way we’re getting a job done before the Gala.”

Twilight glanced up. “Alright, what’s your plan?”

“A little more counter-thieving,” Night said. “And this time, maybe you’ll get a chance to spread your figurative wings.”

Twilight slipped the receipt into the rest of her papers. “So what’s your plan?”

“Well, there are two options,” Night said. “The arrest option and the scare option.”

“And why isn’t it just the arrest option?” Twilight asked.

“Because I can’t guarantee to have guards around to do the arresting,” he said simply. “Which is fine, honestly. The scare option wastes time and energy while keeping ponies safe, just like anything else. The arrest option is just a bonus, one I prefer to have, but sometimes you have to make do, and if Celestia had the power to post a guard on every single street corner, I’m sure she would have by now.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Well, I could have a guard posted nearby.”

“You could,” Night said, “but you do need to remember that you’ll be a random unicorn that was also in somepony else’s house, and that could cause some problems. That being said, if you want to do that, we can certainly try.”

Twilight frowned before a smile began to creep onto her face. “Well, maybe we can figure something out then.”

Night leaned forward. “I know the look of someone planning something. What have you got in mind, Princess?”

Fillydelphia’s skyline did not have the towering heights of Manehatten, but it still struck an imposing figure. Twilight and Night stood on a tower just on the edge of the city’s dense urban areas. They both stared out, Night using a pair of binoculars while Twilight used the changeling amulet to physically alter her eyes to perfect magnification and night vision levels.

The tower they stood on, a small radio tower to boost the signal across the city, flashed with a red light to warn low-altitude, night-flying pegasi that it was there. Night didn’t really appreciate it at the moment, though, as it kept blinding him in the darkness, despite his best attempt to keep his night vision. The only saving grace to the blinding signal was the red filter over the bulb, which barely saved him.

“See anything yet, Twilight?” he asked.

“Not yet,” she replied.

He glanced out across the darkness again, toward a single office building in the city proper. Behind them, Twilight watched the gated community that sat on the edge of the city’s urban heart. The smaller buildings were fairly dense as far as wealth was concerned, but if Night had to put money on it—which in a way, he was—he’d say that Moon would probably try to hit an office building. Office supplies were surprisingly easy to sell, and they could very quickly rack up a price tag, which would help Moon recover from the expenses that the others had gathered. Additionally, fewer ponies lived in office buildings than houses, which meant fewer witnesses that the thieves needed to avoid.

“See anything yet?” Night asked.

“Not yet,” the Princess replied, staring down at the houses. “I have no movement in the houses. Everything seems quiet.”

Night nodded before he glanced back at the office building, searching its face for any sign of movement.

The light flashed again, incredibly bright, despite the red tint to it. He tried blinking with the flash, closing his eyes as he tried to synchronize with the blinking signal.

It wasn’t working.

He sighed and dropped himself a little lower in the darkness before continuing his vigil.

He froze. “I have movement,” Night said.

Twilight jumped through onto the other side of the tower before she followed his gaze to the building.

“Fifth floor,” Night said, letting Twilight know where he’d seen the thieves. “There are three of them.”

“Three?” Twilight asked.

“They do that occasionally,” Night said. “Typically to make sure I don’t stop them. With two ponies watching the back of the third, they can typically get away with stealing more, especially when I can’t stop them.”

“So does this change anything?” Twilight asked.

Night smiled. “Only that we don’t have to set them up for Grand Larceny. They’re going to do that themselves.”

Twilight smiled. “That is something that I like to hear.”

“Come on, let’s go.”

And with that, they both Catapulted themselves into the darkness. The pair arced toward the building, flying over the streets with carefully calculated paths. They made their way to the office, landing on a building just across the way before the trio of thieves made their way inside.

“Alright,” Night said, “With three of them, we’ll have to be a little more careful.”

Twilight nodded. “I got it,” she said. Then she cast a Transform Image spell to shrink her visible form to an inch tall. “Trust me, I’ve got this.”

Night shrugged before he Catapulted himself across the street below, landing on the office building, only five feet away from the window the trio opened to get inside. Twilight landed beside him, pressing against the wall, her miniature form mimicking her unseen actions.

“Alright, Twilight,” Night whispered. “Let’s go.”

Mystic Haze already hated this assignment.

Moon Light, the little punk with too much cash and not enough sense, was furious about the failure last week. Star Hunt had not only been caught by ‘The Eternal Rival’ that seemed to follow Light’s Pack wherever he went, but Star also was charged with Grand Larceny, and cost the Pack some money.

To make up for the loss of funds, instead of the normal breaking-even that Moon typically met with, Moon ordered that they go for a bigger target, a prospect that Mystic already didn’t enjoy. The real appeal to working in the Pack was that anything they grabbed wouldn’t have lasting effects. The sentences were minor, with minor fines, that left them with nothing but a small mark on their record.

This wasn’t the case here. This would easily be a felony, which would drain Moon Light’s coffers more if they were caught, not to mention what would happen if all three were arrested.

Of course, the only thing Moon Light said concerning the situation was, “Then don’t get caught.”

With the Wisdom of the Ages thus passed, Mystic found himself stuck with Star, the idiot who started this whole mess, and Silver Blaze, an idiot thug that could barely cast Telekinesis, much less Pennypincher’s Pricetag.

Surrounded by incompetence, Mystic moved forward, slipping into the offices of the building. The trio of them was focused on the typewriters. They were large and cumbersome, to be sure, but that meant that they were expensive. More importantly, so were the ribbons in them.

“Alright, Silver, you grab a typewriter or two, Star and I will focus on the smaller things,” Mystic ordered.

Silver raised an eyebrow before he began looking for the nicest-looking typewriter before Mystic turned to Star. “I need you to focus on the ink ribbons and anything else you can find that we can carry out of here. I need to find the office and see if I can’t find a safe or something.”

“The safe?” Star asked. “Moon doesn’t like it when we steal money.”

“And Moon is a child, who only has my quote-unquote loyalty because he has money to get me out of jail,” Mystic said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to steal enough to make my bail.”

Grumbling, Mystic left, casting Tango’s Treasure Finder as he moved, a cousin spell to Pennypincher’s, which revealed the largest currency source in the area. Sure enough, a large square was highlighted through the walls of the offices. That had to be the safe, and Mystic’s target.

He walked across the floor, occasionally glancing in at a few offices to see if they had a few knick-knacks worth stealing.

Finally, he made his way to the stairs. He climbed up to the next floor and followed his spell to a large office that had to belong to some kind of higher up. The outlined treasure was behind the bookcase, expertly hidden, but not immune to Mystic’s magic.

He glanced up and down the bookshelf, trying to figure out how to open the secret before he started clearing books. There was a lever behind them. He could only see it once they were out of the picture. He grabbed an entire shelf’s worth of books and pulled them to the ground. When he saw nothing, he pulled down the next.

He smiled. There was the latch, waiting for him. He quickly pulled it, and the bookcase seemed to pop out of the wall slightly, and sure enough, he slid it to the side with a slight push.

There was the safe, exactly as the spell revealed. He prepared his Sapphire’s Safecracker, another of the Perceive Matter spells, and glanced into the lock’s inner workings. He casually spun the knob to the safe, watching the pins fall into place. Honestly, this spell made getting into safes like this too easy. All somepony needed was Perceive and Matter, and they would make an incredibly comfortable living as a locksmith.

“Mystic!” Someone yelled, and for a second, Mystic felt his heart leap into his throat. Who was yelling? Was something happening? Were they found out?

Star ran up the stairs onto the next floor. “Mystic!” he yelled again, his voice echoing in the empty office.

“What? What?”

“Silver’s gone!”

Mystic blinked. “What do you mean, gone?”

“He just disappeared! I could still hear him, but he was gone, and...and something got him, man!” Star said. “It sounded like he was screaming.”

“Screaming?” Mystic asked, furrowing his brow. He would have heard screaming. The building wasn’t so big that he wouldn’t be able to hear Silver. Something...something let Star listen to him. “I think we have a mage on our hooves, Star,” he said.

“No, no, this is worse than that!” Star said. “Ever since I’ve run into the Princess, I’ve been cursed, man! Cursed!”

Mystic rolled his eyes. “You’re being stupid. This is probably just that Rival pony, or whatever Moon calls him.”

“The Rival’s never been able to do stuff like this, man! This is serious trouble!”

“I hear you, Star,” Mystic said, “but we can’t—”

“Leave…” a voice said, tickling Mystic’s ear.

“Did you hear that?” Star asked, jumping.

“Yes, yes, I did,” Mystic said, “and it’s very obviously a mage using illusions to rile us up.”

Star began to turn back. “Are you sur—” He cut himself off with a scream.

“Star?” Mystic said, wincing. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Mystic? Mystic, where are you?” he asked.

“What are you talking about? I’m right here!” Mystic said. Star glanced about wildly, trying to find some sign of the pony.

“What is wrong with you?” Mystic yelled, before slapping Star up the backside of his head.

Star stumbled forward, yelling as he took the blow and began to run. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Princess! Don’t kill me, I’m sorry!”

“What are you talking about?” Mystic yelled at him as he ran. “The Princess isn’t here!”

“Oh, really?” a voice said behind him, and Mystic turned to see a massive figure standing behind him. She towered over him, a living shadow whose coat was as black as night. The creature, obviously female, stared down at him with two reptilian eyes the color of freezing ice. Her wings shadowed him, eclipsing him completely, and her horn crackled with power.

Mystic glanced up at the figure. “You’re not real…” he said, staring up at her. “You’re not the Princess…”

“Well,” the figure said, smiling wide with pointed teeth and fangs. “You’re right on one account.”

The figure stepped forward, revealing not Princess Twilight, Princess Celestia, nor Luna, but Nightmare Moon herself.

Now there was a perfectly rational part of Mystic’s brain that knew—knew beyond a shadow of a doubt—that this was an illusion. It had to be. Nightmare Moon was defeated, Princess Luna returned. It wasn’t even October when Princess Luna occasionally dressed the part on Nightmare Night.

But every other cell of his body screamed that he needed to run. The part of him that listened to ghost stories as a foal knew the truth. The part that still remembered how bad fillies and colts would be swallowed by the Nightmare Moon knew. The part of him that feared what he could not know, the part that felt the mare’s breath on his face, felt the chilling stare, cowered before her physical form, that part knew. And that part took over.

Mystic ran. He ran for the open door to the stairs, galloping at full speed, only to knock himself unconscious.

Night stepped out from behind a desk and shook his head, before dropping his control image spell, revealing the door had in fact been closed, and the unicorn had just run into it face-first. “Well, that went better than I could have hoped.”

Nightmare Moon smiled before she transformed back into Twilight’s disguise with a burst of green flame. “That, I will admit, was fun.”

“Really?” Night asked sarcastically. “I couldn’t possibly believe that you were having fun with that. ‘You’re right on one account?’ That was almost trying too hard.”

Twilight shrugged. “It is what Nightmare Moon would have said.”

Night shook his head, before looking over the unicorn, let’s get this one tied up.”

Twilight nodded, before Creating a chain of wooden blocks around the pony, before using a Transform Matter spell to change the wood to steel.

In Celestia’s opinion, Transform was one of the most powerful techniques a pony could know, so it was no wonder that Twilight had continued to develop and practice this magic in particular throughout her career. Transform, along with physically transforming an object, allowed a Created thing to become permanent. Though she would admit, this particular skill was locked behind the ability to cast two spells at once, no easy feat, especially compared to the relatively simple task of splitting a spell between two targets.

The only limitation there was that a Transform spell could not work outside of the Form of the original material. Transform could not turn a pony to stone, for example, as Matter, which can be touched but is not living, and Body, which lives, were two separate Forms. That’s one of the reasons that artifacts like the Elements of Harmony were so powerful.

With Mystic now secured in chains, they went to go collect the other two.

Star lay at the bottom of a flight of stairs, which had been Transformed into soap. Another chain wrapped around him and it too was turned to steel before they collected Silver, who had not seen his assailant knock him out with a powerful blow to the temple. With all three thugs collected, Twilight and Night led them outside. There, they hung the criminals on the outside of the building. Within seconds, they were ready to be found by the guards, all their ill-gotten gains hanging next to them.

“Well, Twilight,” Night said, looking up in approval at the three ponies. “I have to admit, this is a much better way of dealing with these kinds of ponies.”

Twilight nodded.

“Of course, if I was going to use it, you’d have to let me learn Transform.”

Twilight didn’t immediately reply. “That is a fair point.”

Of course, Transform was also the door to several other dangerous abilities, like making coinage, shape change, and a thousand other abilities that could destabilize the country. That’s why Celestia had kept Transform so well protected, the only spellbook that taught it within the Royal Library’s restricted wing, to be handed out at her discretion.

And even that wasn’t enough, considering that an incredibly dedicated pony could learn the word from studying other mages.

Letting Night learn Transform was...well, it had far-reaching consequences that she wasn’t sure she wanted to deal with.

“I’ll have to think about it,” she said.

“As you wish,” he said.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Come on before they wake up.”

Night nodded, and they both slipped away toward Night’s safehouse.

When morning came, Twilight yawned and climbed out of the air mattress that Night bought her. Of all the purchases he had made so far, this one definitely earned her seal of approval.

Night groaned at her alarm clock and rolled over on his cot, stuffing his ears with his pillow.

“I thought you were a morning pony?” Twilight asked.

“Too much magic,” Night muttered.

Twilight gave a slight nod before she fished out her amulet and raised the sun. “I get that,” she said, before turning off the alarm she brought with her and crawled back onto the mattress. “Get me up in ten minutes, I need to start heading back to Canterlot. I have a Gala to prep for.”

“Bold of you to assume I’ll be awake in ten minutes,” Night muttered.

Twilight smiled at the comment but didn’t say anything else.

After all, if Night missed her wake up call, then it wasn’t her fault that she was late.

Chapter 15

Twilight silently wished she were anywhere but here.

The Grand Galloping Gala was the event of the year. Ponies from all across Equestria gathered here at Canterlot Castle specifically for this night, and this night alone. Beyond the prestige of being invited to this event with the golden-leafed ticket, this party was where new deals were struck between nobles, and ponies rubbed elbows to meet new faces, or rather, new contacts.

Twilight spent this night, much like she had spent it last year, at the top of a set of stairs, meeting ponies, nodding in understanding, and offering her hoof for the occasional, polite kiss. Keeping her face the perfect mask of politeness, she inwardly bemoaned the fact that she was stuck here. A few years back, the infamous Smooze Gala, as it was called, was the last time that Twilight managed to move around at all during this event.

She would much rather be anywhere right now.

Even breaking into a warehouse.

“I’m sure this year has been great for business,” Twilight said to the mare in front of her, “but I’m sure that you don’t want to spend the whole night speaking with me. Go and enjoy the party.”

The mare nodded and left, and Twilight smiled at the next pony in the line.

The good news about this Gala was that the long line of ponies typically scared away the other creature delegations that had since been invited. Her current conversation was interrupted by a yell across the way of “Yak approve of hor’s d ‘oeuvres!” before she continued as though nothing happened.

Though, now that Twilight thought about, she probably should track down Thorax and Pharynx, the changeling king and his brother, for a quick discussion about the shards of Chrysalis’ throne.

“Well, enjoy the Gala,” Twilight said with a grin, before turning to the next pony in line, only for her voice to catch in her throat.

“Princess Twilight, it’s so good to see you,” an all-too-familiar voice said as a white-coated alicorn stood before her.

“P-P...Celestia,” Twilight said. “It’s good to...see you…”

Twilight blinked, trying to make sure that what she was seeing was right. The retired princess wore a dress, but that was standard procedure at the Gala, and while it looked lovely, the more frightening thing was that...well…

Celestia had shrunk.

“It’s not that big of a surprise, is it?” Celestia asked, smiling mischievously, before taking the princess in a soft embrace.

“I-I’m so sorry!” Twilight said, as though the hug shocked her brain back into motion. “I just wasn’t expecting this. Are you okay?”

“Okay? Princess, I’m wonderful!” Celestia said with a grin. “Look I’m re-wearing a Gala dress, and nopony cares.”

It was an older dress. The one from the Smooze Gala, though obviously taken in for her new height, but she still looked beautiful in the gradient of pinks that ran down her flank. “I guess your right, surely that’s enough cause for celebration,” Twilight said, trying to regroup her manners in front of every important pony in her kingdom.

“Just enough,” Celestia said, “and how are you doing?”

“Oh, fine. The normal problems with running a country, but nothing too big, you know,” Twilight said with a smile.

“Wonderful, I’m glad to hear that you’re taking to your role.”

Twilight nodded, before glancing at Celestia one more time. “Um, Pr...Celestia, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but...is this normal?” Twilight asked, realizing with concern that she could nearly see over the top of her old mentor’s head.

“Oh, Twilight, I have no idea.”

Twilight blinked. “Sorry? I don’t—”

“Princess Twilight, how many alicorns do you know?” Celestia asked in her gentlest teaching voice.

“Including myself, five?” Twilight said, not quite sure where she was going with her point.

“And how many alicorns do you think there have been?”

It took Twilight a second. “Don’t tell me five,” she said.

“Twilight, there haven’t been enough alicorns for us to know if anything we do is normal,” she said. “You can grow three feet tomorrow, I could shrink to the size of a walnut, your mane could change color, who knows what might happen! For all I know, I could die of old age here at this party, at any moment!”

The way she said it, with a slightly excited tone to her words, didn’t put Twilight at ease. “And you’re okay with that?” she asked, some panic in her voice.

She shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter if I am, Twilight. What will happen, will happen, regardless of what I do about it.”

“That…” Twilight began.

“Princess Twilight,” Celestia said with a smile. “Don’t worry about me. There’s nothing that can be done, so worrying will not help. Besides, you have a kingdom to run, my wellbeing isn’t important anymore.”

“But...Celestia…” Twilight said, trying very hard not to call her “Princess.”

“Not another word about it, Princess. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have always wanted to go to a Grand Galloping Gala and get completely drunk,” she said with a smile before she slipped away. This left Twilight to face the rest of her line, with the next well-dressed stallion staring after the retired alicorn with a look of concern on his face.

Twilight was sorely considering following her, just to chase her down and finish the conversation. Unfortunately, she had a pony line to greet, and it would be dangerous to “snub” them. So, unfortunately, she let them go.

“Drink, Your Highness?” a pony said, holding up a tray with a champagne flute.

“Thank you,” she said, before doing a double-take.

The pony holding the tray was none other than Night, smiling wide.

Twilight’s eyes went wide before she turned to the massive lines of ponies.

They couldn’t know!

She couldn’t let them know!

She panicked, a spell hanging on her horn before she cast it. Major Thorn’s Modify Memory washed over the line, and all of the ponies in it suddenly felt that they had already spoken with the Princess. In fact, they could remember that they talked to her not ten minutes ago. Why were they wasting time in this line?

The line began to dissipate, and the stallion at the top of the stairs nodded. “It’s been a pleasure to speak with you, Princess.”

Twilight nodded frantically, smiling wide the entire time.

The stallion left, and Twilight spun to face Night.

But he was gone.

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Oh, he is not getting away with this,” she muttered to herself, before she followed after him, descending into the party below.

Despite what she said, Celestia was not trying to get drunk. Quickly, at least.

She waltzed her way through the party, smiling and nodding at the ponies around her before she quickly retreated the moment they started to talk about politics. So far, she had managed to avoid most of those conversions, catch up with some old friends, dance wildly on the dance floor specifically to make a scene, and empty the punch bowl at least once.

“A drink, Lady Celestia?” A voice said beside her, and she turned to see a very familiar pony masquerading as a servant.

“Night Silk, is that you?” Celestia asked, knowing full well it was. “What are you doing, dressing up as waiter?”

“Showing Princess Twilight a weakness in her security,” Night said with a smirk. “To help with the whole ‘proving my worth’ thing.”

Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid Twilight isn’t aware of what she started, insulting your skills like that.”

Night smirked to himself.

“I hope the amulet has proved itself useful?” the alicorn asked.

“Oh, yes. It’s helped a bunch. That thing is incredibly useful, you know.”

She nodded. “I do, that’s why I had it commissioned. You know I’m going to have to burn another favor with Thorax to get a new one now, don’t you?”

Night nodded. “I suppose. Sorry, Your Ladyship.”

Celestia gave him a good-natured eye-roll before she glanced across the room. “Is that Twilight coming toward us?”

Night followed her gaze. “It appears so.”

“I thought she still had a bunch of nobles to greet.”

Twilight approached quickly, trying desperately to not appear like she was rushing. “What are you doing here?” She asked through a forced smile.

“Serving ponies, Your Highness,” Night said with a smirk.

She glared at him. “You know what I mean.”

Celestia sighed. “Princess, if I may?”

Twilight glanced up at her. “Yes?”

“I’m about to retire to one of the smaller balconies. Would you care to join me?”

Twilight blinked, obviously not catching on.

Celestia then turned to Night. “If you would be so kind as to serve the Princess and me when we’re out there?”

Night smiled and gave a slight bow. “Of course, Your Ladyship,” he said, slipping away.

Celestia gave him a nod, before slipping a wing around Twilight to lead her out toward the balcony. “You know, you shouldn’t have threatened his job,” Celestia said. “That’s only made him worse.”

“You mean he didn’t act this way with you?” Twilight asked.

“No, he simply sat in the shadows until I was mostly alone before reporting.”

They stepped into the Night air on a private balcony, and Celestia closed one of the doors behind them. “But I still have to wonder why you’re trying to get rid of him. Did something happen?”

Twilight sighed. “Honestly, Princess, I didn’t even know he was in my employ until about three-and-a-half weeks ago. And when I did find out, it was when he was robbing me, in my bedroom.”

“Ah, that would do it.”

“Besides, I’m not sure he’s worth it,” Twilight said.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, he’s only really effective at doing what he sets out to do when I go with him,” Twilight explained. “I mean, sure, he can do the job, but we’ve only been effective when we’ve been working together. Otherwise, he just kind of…”

Celestia waited.

“He does what he sets out to do, but it’s not enough,” Twilight said, finally.

“So, he’s only able to do a great job if you work with him?” Celestia asked.

“Yes.”

“Can you give me an example?” Celestia asked.

“Sure! The second job he told me about, he was doing some ‘counter-thieving’ he calls it. Well, the best he was able to do was keep the stallion from stealing things, but when I went with him a few nights back, we managed to get three arrested for grand larceny.”

“You went with him?” Celestia asked knowingly. “I’m sure that was fun.”

“Well, I mean…” Twilight said with a blush.

“So, I suppose I have to ask why weren’t you working with him, to begin with?”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“Did you ask for a description of the pony Night caught? Did you post wanted posters for information about him?”

Twilight grimaced. “N-no…” she admitted.

“Why not?” Celestia asked. When Twilight didn’t answer her immediately, she continued. “Princess Twilight, you are in the unique and perfect position to work from the side of the law. Night is in the perfect position to work from outside it. The point is to work from both sides.”

“I...I see, Princess.”

“I’m not Princess anymore,” Celestia gently reminded her.

“Right, sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Besides, since you have been going out on these little excursions, you might be able to see things I have not. After all, getting three ponies arrested at once isn’t something I was able to do.”

Twilight nodded.

Night slipped through the door at that moment, a trio of drinks on his tray. “Your Ladyship, Your Highness, your drinks have arrived.”

Celestia took one, as did Twilight.

“Oh, my,” Celestia said. “It seems there’s an extra drink. Why don’t you take a quick break with us?”

Night smiled before taking the last glass. “If you insist. So have you been talking about me?”

Celestia shook her head. “You know, I thought I taught you better, Night.”

Both ponies glanced up at her.

“I thought I told you that you should never take a mare to work on a first date.”

Night glared up at her as Celestia smiled smugly. “Hilarious.”

“But yes, we have been talking about you. I hear that you’ve been doing some good in the eyes of our Princess,” Celestia said.

“I’ve been trying,” Night admitted, the smile returning to his face. “What do you think, Princess, have I been doing good?”

Twilight nodded. “You’ve certainly have been giving me a lot to think about.”

“A glowing recommendation,” Celestia noted.

“Thank you, Lady Celestia,” Twilight noted.

“Honestly, though, it is good to see you two working together.”

Night frowned at that. “I wouldn’t go that far, Lady Celestia. I’m just showing her the ropes.”

“That’s still more social interaction than you’ve had in five years,” Celestia said with a smile on her lips.

“Now you’re just pushing it.”

Celestia chuckled. “Well, I think you two have a conversation to have about the Gala, and since that’s a matter of national security, I best see myself out,” and with that, she left the two on the balcony.

Twilight waited a moment. “So you’re here why?” she asked.

“Proving another point,” Night said. “You need to have a better way of checking your waiters. Like your guards know who I am, and I still managed to sneak in, and all I needed was a jacket and bow tie.”

Twilight sighed. “Alright, I’ll look into that. Are you going to stick around?” she asked.

“Oh, no. This place is too…” he trailed off. “I don’t like parties.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You don’t like parties? Then I guess it’s a good thing you and Pinkie have never actually met.”

Night flashed her a quick smile. “Well, I’ll leave this ‘normal’ event to you. I just wanted to check out your security tonight; make sure your guards are doing what they need to be doing. Oh, and I think I found a job you’d enjoy.”

“Another one?” Twilight asked.

“There’s no rest for the wicked, Princess. Which means there’s no rest for the ponies who have to stop them. Of course, the good news is that you should be able to join in on the planning like you wanted.”

Twilight nodded. “Alright, it sounds like a plan.”

Night nodded. “Then I take my leave, Princess,” he said with a bow. “I’ll meet you in Baltimare in, let’s say, two days?”

Twilight nodded.

“Wonderful,” Night said before he catapulted himself off the balcony and over the castle.

Twilight watched him go before she sighed and faced the party once more. She didn’t...she didn’t want to go in there into a room full of ponies that only wanted her approval so they could buy favors later. She didn’t want to deal with ponies that smiled nicely, only to stab her in the back later.

She stood on the balcony, looking in before she stared up at the night sky. Somewhere in that darkness, Night was leaping across the city, heading for the train station on...well, on an adventure.

Sure, the Grand Galloping Gala was fun when Twilight was much younger and hadn’t actually been to it, and the Smooze Gala had its own appeal, but these ones had been slowly driving her mad. Always smiling, always grinning, and always waiting for the party to be over.

Twilight glanced back up at the darkness above her, before staring at the light of the party inside.

And then, with a flap of her wings, she flew up toward her tower.

Maybe if she invited her friends back again.

Or at least invite Discord.

Blackjack’s legs shook underneath her. “You...you little bi—”

A kick to her jaw sent her tumbling backward, leaving the small brown pegasus with the silver coin on her flank standing on the ground behind her. “Now, now,” she said, “that’s no way to talk to the mare that offered to buy your company.”

Blackjack knew what happened. She’d been poisoned somehow. Her drink had been spiked with something, and now she could barely stand much less fight.

“You know, this isn’t even your fault,” the pegasus said. “No, this stupid system of the one who can fight the best wins the gang was started by, oh, what was his name? Ramrod?”

Blackjack rushed her. She couldn’t let this mare take everything she worked for.

“I mean,” the pegasus said, sidestepping Blackjack, “sure, it’s how you took power back in the day, but you could have made it so that nopony else could, or at the very least made it so that nopony could poison you as part of the rules.”

Blackjack stumbled back to her hooves and swung again, only for the mare to casually step to the side.

“Honestly, this is almost embarrassing, Blackjack,” the brown mare said, “and that’s why the first thing I’m going to do is make sure this can’t happen again.”

Blackjack made two powerful swipes, only for the pegasus to leap above her blows and slam down on the earth pony with her entire body. Blackjack’s body buckled, and she went sprawling to the floor.

The pegasus with the coin on her flank, watched as Blackjack tried to push herself back up. But the poison she had used had done its work. The earth pony forced her body up, only to fall again. Then again, and again, and again.

“I have to admire your spirit, Blackjack,” the pegasus said as she walked on the outside of the ring that Blackjack’s crew had cleared for them. She walked past the thugs and gangers, staring them in the eyes as they all watched Blackjack desperately try to get back up. “Unfortunately, you’re just not going to be enough.”

Blackjack tried one more time, but her arms wouldn’t move.

The pegasus watched her for a second, before smiling wide. “Don’t worry, though. I am more than enough to make up for it.”

She approached the mare, lying still on the floor, before she stood on her body, causing Blackjack to grit her teeth.

“Well, boys,” the pegasus said. “It looks like you work for me now. My name is Gleaming Coin, but you can just call me ‘Boss.’”