Long Story trotted down the street as casually as possible. She could see the bank rising tall to the right as she went. It was getting close to closing time, which is when they would act. She had to get to just the right place, walking along at the pace she was going.

What she wouldn't give for a heads-up display of the timing as she went. Alas, Equestria didn't have that technology and she had to work with her internal timer. She saw two employees step out of the bank as she walked. They looked happy and relieved. Was it the end of their shift?

That was a sign to move. She vanished. It was a brief trip through the space between Here and There that allowed her to slip out into a hallway she had never seen before. She normally avoided jumping to places she hadn't seen at least once, but Number's instructions had been so specific, she jumped with reasonable confidence.

She was inside. She had no time to marvel at getting that far. She strode forward on purposeful, yet quiet, hooves. She placed each carefully, trying to make as little noise as possible. The first guard she'd run into would hear her otherwise. One, two, three... There.

She leaned around a corner and the guards-mare was exactly where she should be. Number had predicted she would pause for exactly two seconds at exactly that spot. She would swing her flashlight to the left, then the right.

Trixie blinked past the opening in the hallway, skipping the guard and proceeding on stealthy hooves. She had to proceed forward at that pace for five seconds, then that guard could be considered neutralized.

Trixie allowed herself a smile. Perhaps everything would work out just as planned. It had thus far. The next obstacle wasn't alive, but she didn't predict much of a problem either. A simple closed door was little for a talented magical mare as herself. She approached the metal door and nodded at it calmly. She didn't even slow down as she walked towards it, that wasn't on the schedule.

With a puff of smoke, she vanished to appear behind it, as if she had simply kept walking, ignoring the door that should have stopped her. She liked being a magical pony.

A bright light shone across her field of view. Right. Hazard 3 was much more perilous, and was not to be skipped past. The next hallway was a confusing mess of laser trip-wires. She had instructions for getting past them. One step forward. Left. Jump and roll. She was halfway down the hallway, and she didn't hear any alarms blaring.

Was that any assurance? She took a slow step forward. Then it was a slide to the right? No left! She slid into position and ducked down just as a beam swept towards her. She was advancing steadily, on time, she thought.

She focused on her veil of invisibility, fading from sight just in time for a beam to slice right through her, passing unhindered to the other side just as the plan had predicted. Part of her wondered why she couldn't invisibly dash across the room, but she figured that answer out quickly. Being invisible was a lot of work. Moving while doing it multiplied the effort.

Long let go of the spell just as the beam passed her and dove between two lines coming together in front of her. She was past them! She couldn't help but give a little relieved laugh at it all. She hadn't been sure she could make that, but there she was, on the far side. Her assigned two seconds of victory were over. How had Number Runner known she would need a moment to savor victory?

"Get the money out of here," came a stern male voice. "Not by next week, by tonight."

"Y-yes sir," came a meeker male voice.

Long froze. That was not in the plan! She resumed walking almost as quickly. She had to have faith. If they were not in the plan, they were to be ignored. They would not cross her path. She had to have faith in Number and her meticulous plan.

Even if that same plan's precision meant even the slightest deviation would throw it all off.

Even if... No! She clenched her teeth, advancing forward towards the voices. There was an intersection. She would pass right through it without delay. No one would see her, and she would be-- "--Who are you?" She turned, her face a mask of horror at the sound of the smaller stallion that was peering at her with confusion.

The hallway suddenly became purple. The larger stallion spoke from out of sight, "She ain't going anywhere. Grab her!"

"U-um, yes, sir." He stepped towards her, looking quite unsure.

Abort abort! screamed in Long's head as she concentrated on a faraway place. She vanished with a sparkle, but did not appear where she had intended. It was a small room with a single door. She rushed over to the door, willing it open, but the handle only jiggled a little. It was locked. The room was filled with the same purple light as the hallway. She rested a hoof on the door. "Be calm..." She focused on skipping past the door. Doors were not a problem!

She appeared in the middle of the room. "Or..." She sank a little. "Or I'm stuck..." There had to be another way out. She hurried back to the door and pawed at the handle with her hooves in a panic before she remembered a trick. She reached into the handle with her magic, a grin growing on her face. She'd pick it and be out of there in--

A bright jolt of electricity jumped from the lock into her horn and she fell back with a startled cry. That had hurt! Looking up, she could see the end of her horn was singed black and stung fiercely. The bank had anti-unicorn measures, and they were a lot better than what the convention had failed to use. She was trapped.

She was caught.

Tears began to well up in her eyes. "No... No no no no! This can't be happening!" Maybe it was all a terrible dream that she'd awaken from at any moment in a cold sweat, to laugh and berate herself on being so silly.

"Trixie?!" came a voice from the other side of the door. It was Rags. "Was that you? Hold on! Bloody mane, this is all going to... horseapples!"

Long banged on the door. "I'm in here! Please, get me out!"

But she heard other clops coming closer, loud angry voices, and then hoofsteps rapidly retreating. She would not be rescued. She sank to the floor, shivering softly. Surely there was something she could do? She was a magical pony. She rooted around in her memory for tricks that would get her out of that room.

"Teapot!" she exclaimed, pointing at the door. Magic flared brightly from her scorched horn, zapping the door only to bounce back and strike her. Everything went dark.

She had lost all sense of time, space, or even being. She had no idea what had happened. The next thing she knew, she was waking up on a cot, bolting upright with a startled gasp. She had hooves, she could see them shaking in front of her. She had a nose, she could feel her cute ears twitching and her tail swaying as she fell out of the cot.

She looked around with dazed eyes, taking in the cement walls and the bare floor. She was... in jail? She sank miserably towards the floor.

"I thought you wouldn't ever wake up." The mare that spoke those words ruffled her wings. It was Bell Tailslide, the pegasus Long had run into a few times before. "Welcome to the slammer." She smirked a little. "It never gets easier, but at least this time, they put me in with someone I know."

Long sat up on the cold floor, looking over her new roomate. "Oh, um... hello? Bell, right?"

Bell flashed a smile. "That's me. And you're Trixie."

Long pointed at herself. "Long Story, actually. Um..." She glanced around, noting the other cells that held other quiet ponies. "Are we... Will he get us out?"

"Maybe." Bell patted the space beside herself on her cot. "Maybe not... He's a great guy, but he don't always rescue us when we end up in here. Making moves on jails isn't on his 'to-do' list."

Long pulled herself up beside Bell and sank with a tired sigh, though she shook with nervous energy. "Are we... staying together? At least we're..." Were they friends? They were co-workers at least. She felt safer with Bell than some random criminal mare. "I'll be nice to you if you return the favor."

"That's a deal I can take." Bell gently pat Long's back. "Is this your first time? You're acting like it."

"Yeah..." She clenched her teeth, thinking about where things had gone wrong. "Did they... bring me here as a teacup?"

"Huh?" Bell raised a brow. "You were asleep, but not a teacup. They said you'd wake up eventually, but that was two days ago. I was losing hope and thought I'd just have a vegetable for a bunkmate forever."

Long nervously laughed. "For just... a moment I thought I'd never be anything but a teacup ever again. My life flashed before my eyes and... At least I don't have that." She leaned against Bell gently. "Is this one of those... rough prisons? How scared should I be, because I'm pretty terrified right now."

Bell swished her tail, brushing up against Long. "The food's blah, but if you don't break the rules, it ain't all bad." She leaned back against Long. "At least we have company, right? So what job were you doing, you know, when it went bad?"

Long sighed slowly. "I should have run away... I'd rather be telling stories than breaking laws anyway..."

"Long ones?" prompted Bell with a grin. "Hey, you don't need to tell me. You think I like being a thug? It pays the bills, but sucks outside that." She spread her wings wide with a languid stretch. "And now we get to wait for days to pass until we're let out. It's boring and long and we pay the price for being naughty with a bit of our life we never get back."

Long cringed, imagining days of sitting passively beside Bell. Not that Bell seemed to be a bad pony, but just that, for days, weeks, months... "Do I get a trial?"

"Mm?"

"A trial?" Long tilted her head. "To prove I'm guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and all that."

"What are you talking about?" Bell lifted her shoulders. "If they weren't sure you were being naughty, you wouldn't be here. You're here, so there's no point beating around the bush. They caught you, red-hoofed I bet."

Long imagined them opening the door to the magic-proofed room to find an out-of-place teacup that had once been a unicorn. It would have been pretty clear what happened. "Don't I get to plead my side of things?"

Bell smirked softly. "You're free to argue with the warden if you want, but he gets angry quick-like."

Long threw a hoof wide. "Do I at least get to know how long I'm in here for!?"

Bell set a hoof on Long's head, petting her soft silvery mane. "I'm sorry... You can ask about that. I'll show you where, when they let us out for yard time."

Long smiled a little. "I'm glad you're here, at least. Let's... be friends, alright? We'll watch each other's back."

"Yeah, that sounds good." Bell nodded. "Even if I'm not sure how good you are at that, since this is your first time. I won't leave you flapping in the wind though, promise." She curled a wing, wrapping Long in it. "We're in this together, all literal like."

Author's Note

It's all going according to... plan? Long ends up where she didn't want to be. What went wrong?!

Want this story updated faster? Want to get your own story written? Want to just support the author in his writing? Join the atreon!

Join my discord to chat!