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 rather than use 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.”
👀Immediately adds to favorites/following👀
10462579
I wouldn't expect anything less.
Another flaw I've noticed with Azure is, with the exceptions of giving his true opinion on the matter of employing Night's tactics, he seems subservient to the princess to a fault. And there is a rhyme a reason to that--he's not the one who makes those sort of final calls after all--but there are times where he's too reliant on that approach and makes him seem too reliant on the princess's commands, unwilling to act for himself. I'm actually surprised Twilight puts up with it, seeing she's never been one to really allow that, knowing she doesn't always know best and could use the outside input. Really, it makes Raven the better servant in a way, because she's clearly not afraid to push back on the princess's commands should she feel a need, and its part of the same reason why Twilight wanted Spike as such a close advisor, as he's long served the same purpose (indeed, Spike's probably the one who's been best at keeping Twilight more grounded, otherwise she probably would've flown off the deep end years ago).
In short, Azure shouldn't be so afraid to both voice any issues he has on a matter, or to step up and take more involved action in a matter unbidden if there should be a need. Within reason, of course, but hopefully you see my point. As I myself once wrote in one of my own fics, anyone can do as they're told, but it's those who think and act for themselves who truly stand out.
Heck, that's probably what Celestia thought made Twilight so worthy to be her successor as princess in the first place.
And can spit some fire back, for that matter.
That said, it's a shame Raven and Spike are at such odds with each other all the time. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that not only are they not so unalike as they think, they'd make for a great team if they'd just join forces.
Had a thought--not to say Azure needs replacing or anything (though I still feel something's amiss about him)...but what if Night was given his job, or at least something similar with similar authority? I mean, Night probably knows better than anyone the challenges that would face the guard doing their job than anybody, so imagine what he might be able to do if he had some degree of control over how they operated.
Of course, it wouldn't be without risk--how could you guarantee Night wouldn't use the guard to fall back into the shady sort of practices Twilight dearly would prefer to avoid, for example?--nor do I think such a thing should be given to Night just willy-nilly without making darn sure first that he's earned it, or even that this is the direction the story needs to go in...but its an intriguing possibility nonetheless...assuming one could guarantee it goes as well as my head thinks it could. And ah, there's the rub...
There you go bringing it up in every conversation again, Night...
Yeah, this might be a little out of your league now, Night. If this is indeed the stuff Bootlegger's trying to move, then you can't possibly not let the guard get involved. That's something that has to be shut down completely and entirely, no questions asked. Help, of course, with the logistics of doing this, Night, but this is kinda bigger than what sounds like your usual fare. Heck, even that pony trafficking thing you said you helped Celestia bring down doesn't quite compare, because this is now a matter of national security. You're not doing this alone. I don't think Twilight will let you. Nor will Twilight be satisfied letting the culprits of this get away, even if you stop the goods from getting moved, because then that'd just leave them free to try it again, and if this is the sort of stuff they're dealing with now? Kinda ups the stakes, man.
Nooooo, wrong answer, Night! Either she goes to Vanhoover or she's siccing Azure and the royal guard on Vanhoover. She is not going to go hooves-off on this one, so which would you prefer to have to deal with, eh?
Oh, hang Azure! This is kinda a big deal, and you don't know how much time you have to act. For all you know, they might be trying to move this stuff tonight. And you might be willing to take that risk, but Twilight sure as heck isn't.
Oh. You. Okay, first, you've got it backwards--it is you that's going to have to acquiesce to Twilight's requests. That's kinda how a monarchy works, dude. Second, no. Just...no. You're lucky Twilight doesn't just banish you to the sun and let you sort out the "problem" directly yourself.
And this time don't come back! Azure? Make yourself useful for a change and make that happen please.
10462636
I just think you're being too hard on Azure.
Honestly, though, I will point out that he's not a Yes-man, nor is he incapable of thought. I've mentioned it in a few chapters now, but Azure does his job well. Twilight has hired him because he can run the guard. The revisions that he put forward were his idea, and before this whole thing went down, he was basically running the guard without any input from Twilight for at least a year.
Now, whether he's hiding something or not...
Well, we'll just have to see.
10462697
In my defense, I have wondered more than once the past couple chapters whether or not I've been too hard on the guy. I certainly didn't plan on making him my favored punching bag in my comments.
Still, his "it's not our place to question" thing does legit bug me from time to time, especially in situations where it would be totally normal for him to question, and he ought to feel free to do so, because he's just as much an advisor to Twilight as he is running the royal guard--questioning things is part of the job description. And at times it feels like he's just passing up those opportunities to do so just because, so he claims, he doesn't feel it's his place to do so, and to me that's a poor excuse, especially in many of the situations that have come up through the course of this story. Personally, it'd aggravate me to no end, so maybe it's a good thing he doesn't have to deal with the likes of me.
10462714
I mean, he believes it's his job to secure the Princess' safety, and run her guard/army. If it doesn't deal with those, he doesn't have a say. And if does have something to do with those, she has the final say. Which she does. Furthermore, he did ask her if she felt this was a good idea when he found out, but she waved it off and said it was fine.
He is going to have a talk to someone about it, though.
10462720
I guess my point with all of that is it's really plain to all that he has way more problem with all of this than he lets on, and yeah, Twilight would still have the last say no matter what he says on the matter, but the thing about that is that Twilight absolutely would want to hear his thoughts on the matter in full, and has already, repeatedly, tried to get him to voice his thoughts on the matter in full.
But he hasn't really, and when he does, it's usually only under heavy duress and even then he might be keeping it only to the basics and won't really get specific or detailed about it, even made it clear that he'd rather leave it all unsaid altogether if permitted, and all despite Twilight and others repeatedly encouraging him that it's okay to really get into it anyway. Twilight has even indicated that she'd rather he do that than not.
What makes it even more frustrating is that he's yet to really give a good reason or excuse to, which is why I keep thinking there's far more to the matter than has yet been revealed, and that all of this is some sort of cover for something else (and a bit of a flimsy one, honestly, but in Azure's defense, there'd really be only so much he could do about that without risking unwanted attention getting drawn to it)--it'd better justify his actions throughout all of this than it would without.
Typo for "on".
Way too many uses of "before". There were already three in the preceding paragraph!
Stray capital letter.
Typo for "only just then noticed".
Typo for "took it over to the camping stove".
Typo for "tenants".
Typo for "you're" (you are).
Typo for "others".
Accidentally a word.
Missing "them"?
10464856
Yes, that's much better! The problem with leaving the explanation "off-screen" is that it left me wondering who the second pony was for the whole story, which is why I immediately assumed the silver-coined mare was the long-awaited unexplained second pony. The change you made completely resolves that.
Spike: This is workplace harassment!
Raven: Deal with it! You job stealing fire breathing lizard!
In the wise words of Leonard Snart, “Make the plan. Execute the plan. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Throw away the plan.”
lmaoo
One thing that I really love about this is Twilight and Night’s banter. Their personalities and opposing views just bounce off of each other and they have such a great chemistry. Night Silk is growing on me, if he’s being stubborn at the moment.
And also, love the sun-hat-sunglasses pony coming back! Brick Jokes are always nice.
And now for the heist of a lifetime...