Trixie pulled down her new mask. It clung to her face and obscured her lovely features behind black gauze, concealing her identity. She wasn't wearing her usual pointed hat. She wasn't wearing her flowing cape. She was a ninja. A magical ninja, specifically. The only part of her that was visible was her tail.

Apparently, most pony clothes just got out of the way of tails, rather than trying to conceal them. Trixie was not a tailor, and she wasn't up to trying to zap the clothing. She had to save her magic. It was the big day, or night, as it were. Evening? Evening was the most accurate.

She nodded to herself as she looked around her apartment, going over the details in her head on last time. "Alright, you can handle this, Trixie." She smiled at a mirror, but she couldn't see the smile, hidden behind the cloth sock as it was. "You're a better wizard then the original."

Maybe not in showmareship, but in practical magic, she was reaching and taking all she would need to pull it off without being thrown in jail and them throwing away the key. Besides, she wanted to get paid, and then she could be free, and magic, and a pony. All the things she wanted, so long as she didn't mess up.

She looked aside at the clock. "It's time." She raised her head, visualizing the convention center. She could imagine herself walking in, towards the office with a purposeful stride. There it was, in her mind's eye. She walked just beyond the door, where no one would put anything for want of having the door be available.

That was where she wanted to be. No. That was where she was, or so she commanded it to be. With a rush, she could feel herself falling between Here and There, two very different places. She was getting used to it, and she swam through it instead of plummeting and burning.

With a shower of sparkles, she appeared somewhere else, her apartment long left behind. It wasn't nearly as dark as she imagined it might have been. The lights were on, but she didn't see any ponies. The room was much more cluttered than she originally saw. Besides papers being basically everywhere, she saw some stands and large signs propped up against basically everything.

What she didn't see in the crowded-feeling room was a cash box. She advanced into the room, looking around with a quiet grumble of concentration. Box, likely metal... probably... rectangular... She nudged a few things out of the way, knocking over a cardboard cutout of a smiling business mare in the process. She flinched at the noise and went still.

She could hear someone approaching. She dove under the closest table and thought as hard as she could, "I am invisible. All light passes through me. I am not even a shadow!"

The door swung open and a stallion poked his head in, peeking left and right with a frown. "Huh... I don't see anything."

Another, female, voice called out from behind him, "Is everything where it should be? Check the cash box. If we lose that..."

"Yeah yeah." He trotted inside, his hooves thudding the ground with a force that felt like thunder, too close to Trixie's face for for comfort. He buried his face in a mass of papers, pens, and buttons and came free with a grey rectangular box with rounded edges. "It's here."

A mare appeared in the doorway, frowning. "Good, put it down." The moment he released it, she waved him from the room. "We need to get that sensor calibrated. That's the third time it's gone off today."

"Yeah..." He trotted over to join her. "Where to?"

Trixie felt sweat trickling down her forehead with the effort of keeping the significant spell in place, but she dared not move. She wasn't even entirely sure if she was breathing.

"Patrol the third floor." She pointed up with a hoof. "Back to business as usual, but if the sensor goes off, you are coming back here. I don't care how many times it goes off."

"Yeah yeah." He walked past her and sped into a trot.

The mare peered into the room once more, her eyes scanning intensely. Trixie trembled faintly when it felt like their eyes met, but the mare kept looking right past her, not seeing the invisible unicorn. "Huh..." She closed the door, leaving Trixie alone.

Trixie sat perfectly still, only the sound of her thundering heart to keep her company. Only when it began to calm and she could properly hear that nothing else was moving did she dare to emerge, the spell fading and allowing her to be seen once again.

There was the box, no longer hidden beneath the clutter. She smiled with triumph as she quickly approached it. They had mentioned a sensor. Did it detect Trixie's teleporting? Had her knocking over the display only warned herself rather than any pony outside? It wasn't impossible. What if it could figure out where she teleported back to?

She shook her head. She was already there. She was already holding the box. She had to take it, and she'd have to teleport out. But... She didn't have to teleport home. She would give that stupid sensor somewhere else to worry about. With a triumphant smirk, she picked up the cash box in her teeth.

Ugh, it still had some spittle from the last pony that held it. How did earth ponies put up with it?! She shook her head, the box rattling dangerously, and heavily, in the motion. It was time to go. With a clear vision, she ceased to be in the office. She appeared in an alleyway.

It wasn't even a special alley. It was just one she had seen several times on her way around the city. It had stuck out in her mind for having a basketball hoop attached to one of the buildings, and for being otherwise empty. Poor ponies didn't sleep there at night. It was just half a basketball game someone had set up, and then nobody she ever saw actually used. It was almost a sad story.

But that wasn't a time for sad stories. Trixie set down her box and put her hoof on it triumphantly. She had done it! She had the cash box! That was when she realized she still had to get home with it. Her ninja-suit would only make her stand out instead of hiding her.

Or...

She could go naked. It wasn't like that was a crime with ponies. She felt heat rushing to her face considering it. She remembered her humanity. She remembered clothing being a default. Only perverts and the insane romped through the streets without anything.

But she wasn't human. She was a pony, a magic pony. She nodded to herself, trying to convince herself even as she scooted behind a garbage dumpster and began divesting herself of her suit. Soon she could feel the chill breeze of the night wafting over her exposed form. She had fur, certainly, but she could still feel the wind, and it ran over her in ways it had not when she wore her cloak and hat.

She was exposed, and she didn't much like it. She grabbed the cash box in her magic and took a slow breath. She just had to act natural and trot home. She glanced aside at the floating box. "Right, that's not suspicious at all." It looked like a cash box. It couldn't be many other things.

Ponies had pockets, right? She reached a hoof back and patted herself down, trying to find hers. "Why didn't I practice this?" She had worked so hard to get all the other angles down. The need for a pocket hadn't been one of those angles she considered.

She couldn't find it, no matter how much she pushed and pulled at her blue sides. There was no time to keep looking. That alarm had gone off. They were likely finding their money was gone. They would go looking for it, and the thief, whoever they may be. The police may be called, however effective or not a pony cop was.

Ah ha! Inspiration struck her with a broad smile. She rushed over to her abandoned suit and quickly wrapped it around the box. Now she was just holding a bundle of cloth. No box was in sight. With a giggle of joy, she emerged from the alley and began trotting her way home. That had worked, and she hadn't even left the suit behind. Did ponies have genetic forensics? She doubted it, but no reason to leave the suit if she didn't have to.

She took a few turns she didn't have to, looped a block or three out of the way. She felt silly for doing it, but one couldn't be too sure after stealing some unspecified but large amount of bits. She jumped like a startled cat when a car went racing past, red and blue lights flashing before it turned swiftly at the next corner and was gone, leaving Trixie to slump against a wall, panting.

"Are they looking for me?" It wasn't impossible that they were. The police were racing to the convention center, probably, to hear what had happened, and then begin investigating. She picked up her pace, her route becoming much more direct in her haste to get back in the relative safety of Don's building.

When the building came into view, there was an easily identified pony standing out in front, with a mare hanging from him. Don smiled with a big grin that only seemed to get wider the closer Trixie got. His eyes darted between her and the bundle that floated beside her. "Here she is, hero of the hour. C'mon." He turned, holding his marefriend close as he ascended the stairs towards the building.

Trixie met eyes with that marefriend, but she looked about as happy as Don, no longer glaring daggers at her.

Everyone loves a winner? Trixie felt the smile infecting her, striding up the stairs with triumphant steps. "It's good to be home."

As they rode the elevator up to Don's party and lounge floor, he faced her. "You're all over the news, at least, what you did is, get it? They have no idea who did done it, exactly the way I wanted it."

The mare laughed, leaning towards Trixie while keeping a leg around Don Keyworks. "You've got those stuffy ponies running 'round in circles." She flashed her teeth. "They say they're considering if it's an inside job."

Don nodded somberly. "Turns out their security was behavin' on the fritz before you even showed up." Trixie nodded in remembrance of that, but he continued, "Sounds too much like someone was trying to cover for you. Don't suppose you sweet-talked some pony into talking the fall?"

Trixie shook her head quickly. "No! No... I just practiced what I needed, and... I did it." She smiled as her chest fluffed out. "There she was, Great and Powerful, but also Stealthy and Subtle. They almost found her! But she vanished like a lost shadow." She waved her hooves to emphasize just how hidden she was, blocking her face with her arms a moment. "When they left, so did she, and poof, she was gone, with not a hint left behind for them to find later."

With a chime, the elevator door opened out into the lounge floor. Don pulled his leg free from around his mare and strode out. "And here she is," he boomed. "We got ourselves a magic operative, and she struck gold. Drinks are on me tonight, boys!" The room erupted into cheers even as he turned around. "Now then, Trixie, lessee what you got out with." He held out a hoof expectantly.

Trixie floated over the bundle of clothes even as she began pulling them free, letting them rain to the floor and reveal the box to the room's eager eyes.

He tried to open it, but it was, perhaps predictably, locked. "Unless you have an unlocking spell, you're gonna have to share a little with one of our lock jocks."

Trixie frowned without thinking at first, but forced it away. There was nothing for it. She did not know how to pick a lock, and she didn't want to hurl magic at the thing that held her payment. "Very well, but Trixie did most of the work. She could bash it open if she had to."

Don waved it away as he turned to the eager sea of eyes. He pointed to one lanky stallion, who rushed up immediately. "All yours, make her sing." Don shoved the box into the chest of the stallion.

"You got it, boss." He set it down and seemed to spit out a lockpick from within his mouth to dangle at his lips. He proceeded to kiss the lock of the box in a passionate display of larceny. With a loud click that made everyone's heart jump, he twisted his head, and the box popped open, revealing glittering gold, gems, and other bits of value for all to see.

Author's Note

Trixie is victorious! After planning and practice, she executed things fairly well. A pony or three may be fired... A typo of justice.

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