//------------------------------//
// All ponies are gray at night 
// Story: Short stories about ponies and whatnot 
// by shutaro 
//------------------------------//

	Of course she wanted to be a good pony. It wasn’t even conceivable to be anything else. And yet there was the temptation, the drive to be more than she was. But if the guards caught her this time there would be … consequences.
Most dire consequences.
She might lose her special privileges, her few friends, her most private possessions. Her guardians had promised her this: Should she be caught again, they would lock her away for a long, long time.
The threatened punishment seemed inappropriate, cruel even. But they were the guardians, their word would outweigh hers.

Besides, it was too late for this, she had already left her room. The first door had been a trivial task. A few words in the right ears and now it opened without so much as a whisper. She tiphoofed her way down the corridor and made it past the first real obstacle: The stairs that lead from the third floor down to the second had not once creaked.
The precise study of every single step had paid of. That had been the most daunting task.
For months she had tried to make a map of the whole stair. In fact that very map had been the reason her very first try had failed. The guards had found her secret plan and used it against her! The humiliation had been even worse than being caught. 
They had been condescending! They looked down on her because she was smaller, younger, inexperienced. At least they had paid respect to her intellect, to her devotion to the task at hand. Not that it made the punishment any less, but they had seen her potential. And she had learned from the experience. Not the lesson her guardians had hoped though. Be more cunning, more secretive. was probably not what they expected from their charge.

Not that it mattered. The first map had been flawed anyway. She had not factored in how the wood would expand during spring and would radically change the behavior of the stairs, rendering that first map useless. So the new map had been coded into a painting. She had even presented it to the highest authorities and they had commended her on her creativity.
If only they knew!

The second trial was now in front of her. A rectangle of light shined through the door as did some sound. Her guards amused themselves with a game of cards. She had often listened in to them and knew that sooner or later they would argue about some rule or another trivial matter. That was her window of opportunity.
She would sneak past the door and down to the first floor, then into the storage, get her first objective and then into …
No time for thought! She had missed the sentence and couldn’t care less about it, but they had started to argue!
This was her chance!
Like a bolt of lightning she jumped through the treacherous light and it was … done!
Her heart was beating like a sledgehammer and even though she knew that they could not hear her, she waited another, precious minute for it to calm down.

Now for the special equipment: From her back she pulled the special silent hoofshoes she had acquired for this mission. The stair to the first floor was made of stone and her hoofs would be heard through the whole house if she wasn’t careful enough. Step by step, slowly, like a cat, she crept down to the first floor. She moved every muscle like she was moving in slow-motion. Delicate, precise and without any unnecessary sound.

Once on the ground level the task was almost a joke. The storage was unlocked, she could even use her magic to get the objective. Nobody could see the shine of her horn and she had practiced difficult telekinesis for months.
Maybe she could take another... ? No, it would not pay to be greedy.
She had planned this for weeks, no months! Last minute alterations might put it all at risk.

Now for the last leg of the mission: The master workroom. The hinges would scream through the house unless she could mute them. I like it, it gives the room a rustic charm. Hah! He was probably hiding something, like all the others. She wondered every now and then what they did once she had been sent away, to her room. Probably something fun that she should not know about, something they did not want to share with her.
But it did not matter now.
Precise magic moved the cylinder, a level two silencing spell caught every sound from the hinges and … she … was …  in.
Now all there was left, was to pick one of the treasures. And start reading.


 ---


Shining Armor stood over the little unicorn. “Most impressive, Twily. Most impressive.”
He softly levitated his sleeping little sister to his back. “But now it’s really time for bed.”
Cadence was equally astonished: “‘On Magicks and Spells’ by Windwhistler. I wouldn’t read this if aunty paid me to. She even hid a blanket under the sofa. Isn't she just adorable in those socks!” A few crumbs fell to the carpet. “And we should check the cookie jar.” A brush and dustpan caught the evidence. She sighed. “We really should talk to your parents. Being grounded for a week doesn’t scare her much anymore.”