“I have some time,” Twilight told her aide as they stood in her office. “Is something wrong?”
Raven inhaled deeply before she chose her next words carefully. “I’m afraid you’re distracted.”
Twilight blinked. “What do you mean?” she asked. “I’ve made sure that any business that I’ve left behind has been taken care of, and I’ve always prioritized the business that only I could deal with. Have there been duties I’m missing?”
“That’s not quite what I mean, Princess,” Raven said.
“Then what do you mean?” Twilight asked.
Raven took a moment to glance away from the Princess, almost as if regrouping, before turning back to her. “I mean that I believe you’re losing sight of what’s really important concerning your rule, and...this thief.”
Twilight blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Mr. Night Silk is...well, let’s be honest; he’s a criminal. He really is, despite whatever good he’s done for the kingdom—”
“Like saving creatures from slavery?” Twilight asked.
“—like trying and failing to secure evidence against certain ponies, going so far as destroying it.”
“We just apprehended a rogue mage that’s been one of Equestria’s most wanted for years just last night,” Twilight said.
“And that’s not something that a Princess needs to be worried about,” Raven said. “I mean no offense, Princess, but your duty is to run the country, not go galavanting off to stop a minor problem.”
“And what do you think the Council of Friendship is for?” Twilight asked. “It’s exactly for when my friends and I need to go ‘galavanting’ across Equestria to stop world-ending threats.”
“And whatever a common thief can stop is certainly not world-ending,” Raven countered. “Princess, we need a ruler, not an adventurer.”
“I am an adventurer!” Twilight said. “I spent the better part of a decade going on adventures. It’s basically a part of who I am.”
Raven stared at the Princess for a moment before she sighed. “Princess. You may be an adventurer, but you’re above what he’s doing. It’s my advice that you recognize that, and remember that you are a Princess in charge of a country.”
“Noted. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do,” Twilight said.
The edge in her voice made it very clear that Twilight was dismissing her, and Raven didn’t need to be told twice, though she did scowl as she left. “By your leave, Princess.”
Twilight watched her go and sighed. “Well, there you go. I’ve lost all the steam.” She sat down at her desk and frowned before focusing down at the pages and forms covering her desk.
Not that it mattered. Night already had the next “event” scheduled for them: a little more counter thieving, this time in Las Pegasus.
At the very least, it was something to look forward to.
---$---
“They try this every year, like clockwork,” Night explained, as he stood in front of his blackboard. “The Grand Wing Casino and Hotel holds a charity event this time of year, where they show off some treasure or relic as a showcase for the event. Winners are supposed to earn something in the thousands of bits in the jackpot, and the biggest winner of the night wins an all-expenses-paid cruise across the Celestial Sea.”
Twilight nodded, a clipboard in her telekinetic grip as she listened with rapt attention.
“This year’s centerpiece is a jewel, on loan from a dragon that has come from the Dragonlands to figure out what a casino actually is. At least,” Night added, taking a moment to glance at Twilight in the eyes, “that’s what my sources say. Regardless, he’s interested in casinos and has brought a jewel from his hoard to show off. Now, if I had to bet my budget, that’s what Moon Light will be after tonight.”
“It’s so visible, though?” Twilight pointed out. “Wouldn’t that be incredibly difficult?”
“It would, but I can say with certainty that Moon has always been more interested in spectacle and infamy than money. That’s just a bonus as far as he’s concerned, the thing he needs to keep his ponies working. He wants the prestige.”
“So the gem then, in front of all the ponies gathered there, with an obscene amount of magical defenses, is the most valuable item he can get?”
Night nodded. “Lock it away, and he can say he earned it by overcoming such and such defenses, leave it out, and Moon will say he took it while a ‘hundred eyes were on it,’ leave it in a box that says ‘free to a good home,’ and he’ll turn his nose up.”
Twilight nodded. “So this has to be the target then,” she said.
Night nodded.
“So how do we stop a pony from stealing something so protected?” Twilight asked. “This would take weeks, even months, to prepare to find the weakness they can exploit, much less the one they’re going to use.”
Night smiled. “Well, that’s the easy part, Princess.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, interested in hearing exactly what he had in mind.
“We just have to steal it before them.”
Twilight blinked. “Th-that’s a terrible idea. That’s starting a race to find a weakness in their security when we’re already who-knows-how-far behind! We’re—”
“We’re not stealing it there,” Night said. “You’re right; trying to beat them when they’ve been planning this for nearly a year is stupid. Which is why we’re going to steal it before it gets to the casino, and more importantly, before it’s under all that protection.”
Twilight blinked again. “But...surely they’ve thought of that?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, of course,” Night said. “But I know Moon Light, and he would throw the biggest fit if they tried to take it before it was out in the open. Moon’s ponies have more sense than he does.”
Twilight sighed. “Okay,” she said. “So we steal it, then what?”
“Plant a fake, let Moon take the fake, and then return the real gem by the end of the night,” he replied.
“And how do we get a fake?” Twilight asked.
“Think you can make one, Princess?” he asked.
Twilight sighed. “If I make one, then it’s going to wipe me out, and it very well could be just as valuable.”
“Okay, okay,” Night said. “I guess my paper mache idea doesn’t work either?”
Twilight glared at him.
Night just smiled. “In all seriousness, though, I know a glass-blower that can get us a fake, but I’ll have to see the gem first, which is the bigger problem.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Do you know which dragon is going?” she asked.
Night shrugged. “His name’s on the brochure,” he said, pointing to a parchment pinned to the board by a magnet. “Why?”
“Does it have a picture?” Twilight asked, reaching for it.
“Yeah, but why?” Night asked.
Twilight didn’t answer him but simply plucked the brochure down and began to read it carefully before she found precisely what she wanted. A pale green dragon with piercing yellow eyes stared back at her from the oval portrait on the second to last page. “With special guest Inferno of the Dragonlands.”
Twilight smiled, memorizing every feature she could, before closing her eyes and preparing her spell.
“Why?” Night asked before her hearing faded, add her senses were carried away by magic.
Scrying was an old spell, one of the first built when the words Perceive and Body were discovered. Her hearing and sight were whisked to her target, and she could see him sitting, staring off to his left. She could see him perfectly, as though she were standing not five feet away, but she needed to see more.
She pushed her magic, opening her sight more and more. He was on a bench, she could see, padded with red cushions as his elbow rested on a window sill. She could hear the clacking of train tracks and could feel the car’s movement beneath her hooves.
She pushed farther because she knew a vital fact about dragons. Most were ruled by greed, and most of them could not and would not trust anypony with the safety of their belongings. She pushed until a box came into view.
She “moved” closer to the box, peering down into its open face to see a large, marquis-cut diamond.
She cut her spell, and her consciousness returned to the safehouse where they were planning, a smile on her face.
“Princess, Equestria to Princess, hello?”
She raised a hoof and slipped the brochure back under its magnet. “I saw the gem we’re looking for,” she said. She quickly cast an illusion of the gem in front of her. “It looks like this.”
Night blinked before smiling. “Well, that makes that easy! Maybe I should have studied magic more.”
“Thinking magic solves all your problems is not a healthy outlook on life, trust me,” Twilight said. “I tried, too.”
“Why, what’s the worst that can happen?” Night asked.
Twilight stared at him for a long second. The images of her friend turned into a vampire, parasprites that ate buildings, and everyone in the town chasing after a doll flashed across her mind. “It’s... it’s just not pretty,” she said. “Trust me.”
Whether Night recognized that trauma in her eyes or the answer satisfied him, Twilight wasn’t sure. Instead, she watched as Night glanced down at the sizeable illusionary gem that sat on Twilight’s hoof. “This is going to make this easy,” he said.
“More importantly,” Twilight asked. “When are we going to grab it? Inferno is already on his way there, coming by train, and taking a gem from a dragon while he’s standing next to it is suicide.”
Night nodded. “Very astute, my young apprentice.”
“You’re like a year older than me,” Twilight noted.
Night ignored her. “If we can’t grab the gem while the dragon’s carrying it, and we can’t get it while it’s on display, then our best bet is to grab it between those times.”
Twilight blinked. “I think we’d have an easier time getting it from under guard,” she said.
“That, dear Twilight, is exactly why it’s the best place to steal it.”
Twilight sighed. She knew she wasn’t going to like the sound of this plan. “Okay,” she said. “Again, how?”
“That, my dear apprentice,” Night said with a smile, “is the fun part.”
---$---
The Grand Wing Casino exuded wealth from every pore. The central, hexagonal atrium reached up nearly seventeen stories and sat capped by a dome of gold and glass. Running down the balconies on each of the six sides, a large, red banner ran down the building’s length, embroidered with gold and edged with tassels.
Statues of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies surrounded the bottom floor, carved in pristine marble, as a fountain murmured in the room’s center. Opposite the entrance that Twilight just came through, a rich red carpet led inside to the casino proper, where she could already hear the ringing of slot machines and the roar of roulette tables.
Twilight felt strangely put off by it all, though. The opulence reminded her of the palace, of course, but it felt more like the ballroom during the gala. That struck her as a little odd, considering that the big charity even was another three days away. Still, she supposed this place was allowed to emulate her own home, though...much gaudier…
Of course, not that it mattered right now, because she certainly wasn’t dressed for anything like a ball.
Changed by the changeling medallion, Twilight appeared as her usual thieving persona, though she took it a step further by wearing some clothes. Tourists’ clothes.
Despite her inner-Rarity wailing and gnashing her teeth, Twilight looked every bit the wide-eyed, over-eager, obvious, and oblivious tourist. Complete with denim capris that clung a little too high on her waist and did nothing to help her figure, a loose blouse with a horrendous floral pattern, a visor strapped around her head and horn, and even a camera to hang around her neck.
Somewhere, Twilight knew, her fashionista friend was having a heart attack.
Night looked no better.
In fact, Twilight would bet money that he looked worse. The stallion almost seemed eager to get in ‘disguise’ as he broke out a pair of cargo shorts, a floral-patterned silk shirt, and bright white socks that nearly came up to his elbows, tied together with some open-toed sandals and a fanny pack.
Twilight felt ashamed to stand next to him.
“And why have we dressed like this again?” Twilight asked, knowing full well that he’d already answered it.
“Because ponies will take one look at us before doing everything in their power to try and forget we exist.”
It was a great answer, and when he first answered, it seemed plausible, if silly. Now though, she just felt like she wanted to die.
Of course, then she would literally be caught dead in this outfit, which almost made the whole thing worse.
Twilight frowned before pulling up her camera to take a picture and leaned into the tourist disguise.
“Any sign of our dragon yet?” Night asked as they moved through the opulence around them.
“Not yet,” she whispered back. “Though you still haven’t explained how we’re going to get it from the said dragon.”
“That’s not going to be as hard as you think, Twilight,” he said, before patting the fanny pack. “The real trick will be getting this into the dragon’s claws without him noticing.”
Night kept the glass fake, hidden by what most would call “the ugliest means of storage ever,” close to him since they got to Las Pegasus, though much to Twilight’s annoyance, he kept his play even closer to his chest.
“You know, I thought that since we were working on this thing, together, that you’d be a little more open to sharing the plan.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about it,” he said. “It’ll work perfectly.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” she whispered, as a pair of ponies glanced their way. Night gave them the biggest smile he could and waved before the bystanders quickly looked away and didn’t dare glance back. “I just don’t like being left out of the loop,” she said.
Night nodded. “I get that, but I wouldn’t worry if I were you, Twilight,” the thief said as they stepped into the casino, and his voice was quickly drowned out by the clattering of a thousand different machines.
He pulled her to the side, to a small, empty blackjack table. “Just keep an eye out, and let me know when you see him.”
“And, what, you’re just going to gamble?” she asked.
“Ponies not gambling in a casino is more suspicious,” he whispered back. “Just be the annoyed wife who wants to try and move on.”
Twilight rolled her eyes but acquiesced, taking the occasional photo as she waited around. The ponies roaming around the casino were all going from one place to another, trying to figure out which machine would give the biggest payout.
Twilight watched them all with a sigh. Sometimes ponies didn’t make any sense. Gambling was a tax on ponies that couldn’t do math as far as she was concerned. Anypony that thought that they could walk away from a table in the black with entirely fair odds must also believe that they’re likely to be struck by wild lightning in a forest while dressed in a rubber suit. Then, of course, the house cheats.
She took another glance around before she spotted exactly the creature she was looking for. Inferno looked every bit the dragon that Twilight saw through her spell, and the wooden box in his arms was definitely the same one with their target. Over his other shoulder hung a suit bag, probably filled with his formal wear for the event.
She snapped a picture at nothing important before nudging Night. “Hey, Night, I think—”
Her voice caught in her throat as she saw that he had already amassed a small fortune’s worth of chips. She made a quick count and found that he had already gathered more than a thousand bits in chips, with another small pile to the side.
“What, dear?” Night asked, playing it up for the dealer, no doubt.
“I...uh...I think the show’s going to start,” she said, hoping he would catch her signal.
He nodded. “Alright,” he sighed before turning to the dealer. “Happy wife, happy life, right?” he said. The dealer nodded before handing Night a tray to take his chips, while Night pushed the smaller pile over toward him. “That should make a nice bonus.”
“Absolutely, thank you, sir, and come again,” the dealer said.
Twilight glanced down at the chips in Night’s tray as he stepped away from the table. “How...how did you make that much?” she asked.
Night smirked. “The trick is to keep the dealer from reshuffling the deck,” he said with a wink. “Of course, that’s not important right now. The important thing is, you need to go speak with Inferno.”
“What?” she asked.
“Just make small talk,” he said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
Before she could say anything, Night abandoned her, leaving her alone and still feeling ridiculous in her outfit. With a sigh, though, she slowly began to approach the dragon, trying to find the best way to get close.
She put her back to Inferno and began backing up, taking pictures of a statue as she moved until, inevitably, she backed into the dragon. “Oh, I’m sorry!” she said, turning sharply. “I didn’t see you there!”
Now Twilight considered herself something of an expert on dragon expressions, having lived with one for most of her life, and she immediately read a restrained fury in the dragon’s face, before it softened. “Oh, it’s not a problem, little pony. It’s my fault.”
“I’m so sorry,” Twilight said again, trying to stall before she saw Night approaching. A bulge in the carpet appeared in front of him, and she realized a second too late exactly what he was doing.
“Look out!” she cried, trying to pull the dragon aside, just as Night tripped, showering the dragon in chips that spilled every which way before Night body-slammed Inferno. There was an explosion of chips and bodies as the three of them tumbled together before they landed on the carpeted ground. The dragon rolled, grabbing his box instantly, and his eyes went wide as he searched for his gem.
It lay just out of leg’s reach of the stallion, and the rushed for it, scooping it up and cradling the gem. “What is wrong with you?” he demanded, the fury from before no longer restrained.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Night said, picking himself up, still smiling.
The dragon grabbed Night by the throat. “Do you know what you could have cost me?” Inferno yelled.
Night’s eyes went wide, a genuine and terrible fear rushing through his eyes, and Twilight knew it went too far.
She moved quickly, casting a create mind spell to implant a thought into the dragon’s mind. “Hurting him is dangerous. Dragonlord Ember will not approve if you cause an incident.”
The dragon breathed heavily through his nostrils before he slowly set Night down. “Sorry, I forget myself sometimes.”
Night didn’t answer. He was shrinking into a ball, eyes still wide as he stared up at the dragon. The dragon picked up his bag and his box and sighed. “Again, sorry. I will take my leave.”
Twilight slipped up next to Night, and she began to lead him out. “Are you alright?” she asked.
“I...I...I am,” he said.
“Did you get the gem?”
Night shook his head. “I...I did what I needed to.”
Twilight nodded. “Let’s get you out of here,” she said, leaving a slowly frantically-growing crowd of ponies behind them, all of whom were scrambling for the discarded chips left on the carpet.