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. Night 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 backed 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 cried.
“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.
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Another enjoyable chapter.
With every chapter I just want more~
If we're talking lookouts like in the same manner Night does lookout, then yeah, it's not a bad idea.
Maybe...but the thing is Twilight's still right too, in fact, Night has still just proven her own point that the guard can be made to do this too, if adequately equipped and positioned to do so. If you had groups of the guard out doing some of the same things Night does, then you could achieve this same sort of thing but on a grander scale--get the thieves that not even Night can because he can't be everywhere at once either.
By all means, keep Night around to serve as part of these groups--might as well since he would have the most experience at this and could teach the guards how to do it and do it right--but if I were Twilight? This would only motivate me more towards using the guards for this same purpose. In the long run, you'd get the more tangible results than letting one freelancer try and do it all himself.
Hmm.
You forgot Shining Armor and the Geese.
Accidentally a word.
Typo for "where he climbed", or perhaps "as he climbed".
Malformed sentence. Probably should be "so we can see any of Moon's pack as they're making their way to their marks".
Typo for "what".
Also, the other coin just dropped and that's great, but it exposes a big plot hole. Right at the start in Chapter One Twilight was told that there were two highly-paid ponies on the payroll, but despite being curious and detail-oriented neither she (nor Spike) expressed any interest in who the second pony might be.
10464496
The second pony on the budget and the silver-coined mare are actually unrelated I've gone back and explained who the second pony is a little better, and that conversation could have happened off-screen.