They hopped onto the first Taxi that went past and took a short but rapid ride. Rags nodded to Trixie lightly. "This is right on the edge of that neighborhood I was tellin' youz about."

Trixie stepped down from the taxi, nodding in thanks to the stallion that bore them there. She was about to reach with her magic for her bit purse when Rags tossed a coin towards the driver, obviating that need. The driver tipped his hat and dashed off in search of other ponies wanting rides.

Rags pointed to a dull-grey little building of bricks. "This is where we'll be staying 'till we get this settled. Come on, I'll introduce you." He pulled a key out of his 'pocket' as he walked in an act that seemed a display of good balance and agility to Trixie. He had the key in the lock and twisted it and his head at once, being an earth pony.

Manehattan was not a unicorn city, unlike Canterlot. Trixie had seen other unicorns, of course, but earth ponies were the majority. It was a reminder that Ponyville was the odd place, for having all the types in close quarters, but even it had more earth ponies than any other tribe.

Those thoughts fell away as Rags opened the door and reclaimed his key in the same motion. "Head on in." He vanished inside with a spirited trot without hesitation.

Trixie moved up quickly and peeked inside. It looked like it had once been some kind of restaurant, but had long since lost that purpose. Abandoned, but clean, there was still a counter, and what looked like an oven behind it. There were stools arrayed for ponies to sit at the un-used counter. One of those stools held a mare, who was looking at her with a smirk. She waved at Trixie, beckoning her inside. "I don't bite," she assured. "Unless you ask nice like."

Rags slid his key away as he trotted past the mare. "Be nice, this is her first team job."

The mare waved dismissively at him. "All the better she learn how we banter. We're friends here, family really, so expect a few ribs, but they're in good spirit, right?"

Trixie stepped inside, her magic pulling the door closed behind her. She felt around with the same magic until she found the lock on the inside and rotated it closed, wondering how annoying that would be for an earth pony. "Nice to meet you? Trixie is Trixie." Her blush worsened as she mentally parsed what she just said. That sounded silly. "Who are you?"

She tapped her chest. "I'm Long Shot, and I live up to that on a few levels." She swiveled on the stool, the old metal squeaking in the motion. She didn't wear a skirt or pants, looking almost indecently nude compared to many other city-dwellers. On her rump was a big symbol of a slingshot, a pellet mid-flight projected from it as if just fired. "And you're a fancy wizard, right?"

Trixie flinched faintly, eyes darting to Rags, but he had already moved past, and vanished into a hallway leading further into the small building. "Yes, Trixie is Great and Powerful." She gave a strained smile, mentally beratting herself for feeling so awkward about the whole thing. "It's nice to meet you, Long Shot. May I call you Long?"

"Oh, so you can say I. I was starting to think you couldn't, and that woulda got annoying." She rolled a hoof in the air in Trixie's direction. "Long's fine, shorter, and sometimes that's all the time ya got, right?"

"Right." Trixie nodded as she hopped up onto another stool, or tried. She overshot the jump needed and sailed right over the stool, coming right back down in a thump of misplaced limbs and bruised pride.

Long winced in sympathy, even if it looked like she was ready to laugh. "Watch it. We want our backup ready to go. So youz know all kindsa spells?"

Trixie gathered herself up before more calmly climbing up onto a stool. "What she doesn't know, she can figure out." Magic was will, right? So long as she could clearly and precisely envision what she wanted, everything would be fine. "Do you... shoot slingshots a lot?"

Long coiled on herself, drawing a sling from her pocket smoothly. "When I haveta. Now, bear in mind, boss don't like us bein' rough with ponies. These slings ain't for bashin' skulls, even if they can do that." She pointed sharply at nothing in specific. "A good rock can bust an alarm panel, or a window, or lots of things we might want broke for whatever reason. Want a fire escape ladder to come down, I'll get it down, ain't no thing. They call me a unicorn sometimes, the way I make things move without being near them."

Trixie found a smile erupting on her face. It amused her to think anyone would think anyone would count that as enough to qualify Long as a Great and Powerful Unicorn. Still, she managed to not vocalize her mental scoffing. "That's a useful trick," she said instead. "We may need that." If Trixie was busy doing something else, she mentally added. "Do you know what we're doing exactly?"

Hoofsteps drew both of their attentions to the back hallway. Two stallions emerged, one of them Rags. The other was a big bruiser like him, but he wore a larger trench coat over his body and had squinty eyes. He was a dull-cyan color, but he had no visible tail, and his mane was hidden under a large fedora, so coloring those was impossible. "Trixie, right?"

"Right." Trixie nodded at the new stallion, her eyes lingering where a tail should be. It felt downright... alien for one to not be there. It made her think of her human days. Humans didn't have those. How did she already feel so odd at seeing someone without a tail? Ponies weren't humans, of course. They should have a tail.

The stallion approached Trixie at a determined walk. "You can stop staring. Unless yer fallin' at first sight, I'm pretty sure what yer gawkin' at."

Long put out a hoof, partially blocking his passage with it hovering at about face level. "Don't get angry at her. You know everyone has to look a little when they fist meet you. Just how it goes."

He looked over and up at Long, scowling at her. "Don't mean I haveta like it!"

Trixie wrenched her eyes away from the odd anatomy. "Is there a story behind it?"

He scoffed. "None of your damn business!"

Rags suddenly thumped him, driving a hoof into his rump. "Hey! We're a team, a family. Ain't no reason to shout at her. Just tell her so we can move on."

The disciplined stallion sank to his haunches, looking at Rags as if feeling betrayed a moment. "Fine fine, whatever. Lost it in a scrap. Other pony got my tail, I got his ear. I say I won out for the exchange." He pointed a hoof at Trixie. "Boss said yer good. Only did one job, right?"

Trixie was busy wincing, imagining the brawl that resulted in two ponies literally tearing pieces from one another. "That was Trixie's first, but I'm ready for the second. What will we be doing?"

Long jumped over the counter in an easy bounce. The force of it made the stool she once sat on swivel with squeaks a moment. On the other side of the counter, she grabbed something and rose up, slapping it down on the counter. With sweeps of her hooves, she spread it out wide. "We know where those jokers are hiding, and where they keep the goods. We've been watchin' them good, and they ain't subtle."

The new stallion tapped his own chest. "I'm Big--"

Rags nudged him. "Ain't nobody calling you that."

"What?" The stallion frowned. "Whatever. They call me Sudden Stop, but that ain't my name. Don't matter none, call me what you want." Sudden reared up, his forehooves resting on the counter and his eyes sweeping over the paper. "Yeah, we know where they are. We just gotta get what they got, maybe rough 'em up a little..."

Trixie leaned up and over to get a better look. The diagram looked like a sketch of a city block, with entrances and exits plotted for each building, and other lines connecting many of them. She couldn't place the specific meaning of each mark, but it looked detailed. One of the buildings had a big red circle around it. Trixie pointed at it. "Is that them?"

Rags reared up as Sudden had, standing beside him. "That's the one. There's six of them, but they'z thugs, like I tolja. They ain't nothing special, just rely on intimidating ponies who ain't lookin' for trouble. Trick is, we are looking. They get in our way, we won't be scared like that poor pony was. Damn shame, good guy. You'll meet him after this job's done. Pretty sure he'll want to thank the mare that helped get his dignity back."

Trixie smiled a little at that. "I will do my best. He sounds like he was just doing his job." A mental image of a snapping bone brought a shudder to her. She hadn't suffered that awful of an injury before, as a pony or a human. "So, where do they keep their bits?" She leaned in as close as she could, balancing precariously on her stool.

Long tapped at a smaller yellow circle. "I'm pretty sure it's in here." She ran her hoof in a little circle around the indicated room. "They always stop in here after they make trouble, come out without their bags. Gotta be where they stash their goods. We take it, all of it if we can. That's your job, get it. Our job is the other six. That makes two to each of us. We'll keep 'em busy while you do your thing, and maybe teach them a lesson or two, right?"

Sudden clopped a hoof down on the counter in an angry swing. "Right! Damn idjits will regret even glancin' at our turf."

Trixie swiveled an ear towards Sudden, even as the motion made her think of who he fought, who was missing an ear. The idea was ghastly. She loved her cute pony ears. The way they could focus in on sounds had rapidly become part of her life. The idea of... losing that... She shuddered softly, trying to regain her thoughts. "Don doesn't want us hurting ponies, right?"

Rags shook his head. "We don't hurt our marks. We don't hurt ponies just trying to survive. We don't hurt ponies that owe Don bits even, just their stuff." He tapped at the red-outlined building. "These ain't any of those. They hurt an innocent pony, so Don ain't gonna lose no sleep if we leave them with some marks."

Long smiled across the counter at Trixie. "Don't you worry a bit. You ain't gonna be fighting with us, we know that. You just do what you do, and do it good. You focus on here." She moved her hoof in that circle around the room that was but a small portion of the larger building of their target.

Trixie shook her head. "I'm ready, but I will want to see it, and if you're all going to beat them up, why not just take it after that?"

Long wrinkled her nose, but Rags answered first, "Principle. We want it obvious that taking from us is a bad idea. If we do it all by force, they'll just come back with more ponies. If they come back from the scrap with us and see we got through everything they had and made off with their goods, they'll think twice, 'cause we coulda done that even without roughin' them."

Rags fell back to all fours. "I'll show you by the place. Ain't a bad idea to get your eyes on it 'least once before we start."

Author's Note

We meet our team-mates. Nice group, hm? Sudden seems to have some anger issues... Long seems nice enough? Typed on a tablet. Tomorrow, I will be home, to craft typos on my computer once more!

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