Trapped ( Hurr durr I fail at titles)

A hard knock coming from under a table. Shouting and yelling, coins clattering to the floor, a searing pain that feels like being doused in flames, and the sickening, thick stench of blood.

Finn's eyes snapped open, and a flurry of confusion passed through his mind. What the-? What happened? Where was he?The stallion attempted to sit up, and a searing pain ran through his back, and with a sharp gasp of surprised pain, he quickly laid back down. He looked around the room. It was painted a clear white, and a small white table sat across from his bed. He could see some kind of equipment nearby as well, though it was beyond him what it did or what was for. And what do you know- they were also white. It became painfully obvious where Finn was, judging by all the white, and medical equipment, as well as the clean, sterile scent in the air.

Oh no... not a hospital. The thief groaned. As far as his chances being caught went, they were pretty bad right about now. The employees here could find out his name no problem-and thus figure out his not-so good reputation, not to mention what he had previously been doing, and for that he could only hope they assumed he had nothing to do with it. If not, he would have to make something up- that was his only chance. Still, it didn't take away the fact that his usual last resort- running away and jeering at the authorities- wouldn't exactly work. Apparently, he was injured, which meant he was utterly vulnerable. And utterly trapped.

Great. Just great.

Erika masked a wince of pain as the doctor prodded at a cut in her hoof, examining it carefully. It was bad enough that she was stuck in the hospital... even worse that it was for a stupid cut, for Faust's sake.

She hadn't even wanted to be admitted in the first place, but her guardsmate, Burning Heart, had urged her to at least get the wound checked out. She had been in a brawl with a suspected con, and the damned pony had managed to get in a swipe before she, er, accidentally snapped a leg. There was blood everywhere, and though she persisted in insisting that it was merely a flesh wound, she had gone in to get stitches once she realized that loosing so much blood would both stain her coat and possibly kill her.

Now, that would be unfortunate, wouldn't it?

So, there she was, receiving shots and getting her hoof stitched back together.

"Could you be a little less rude?" she asked snappily. "I'm not in a torture facility. You're supposed to make the patients better, aren't you?"

The doctor snorted and continued stitching up the wound. With a chuckle, he tied off the thread and waved at her. Erika glared at the doctor.

"Then what is the point of you?" she asked, gritting her teeth. The doctor said nothing, exiting without a word, and Erika slumped back in bed. Oh, if only she could get her hooves over his pretty little neck...

A groan disturbed the sudden silence, and the elite guardspony glanced to her right to see an earth pony stallion lying in bed, his face contorting with pain as he attempted to sit up. She suppressed a grin at the pony's pain; it gave her evil glee to see somepony else in pain. Then she snapped out of it, lecturing herself silently.

You're a good pony, Erika. That's why you're a guardspony. This is a citizen. Just an ordinary... Upon further inspection, the relization hit her, and her eyes lit up with even more happiness. Ordinary con. HA!

Then she remembered where she was, and why she was there, and she slumped back into the hospital bed, a sour expression on her face. How freaking embarrassing, Erika.

Finn turned his head, now noticing voices, one female and sounding rather agitated. A doctor left the room, a thin smile across his face. He observed what seemed to be his roommate. She had a white coat, a blue-black mane, and startling blood red eyes. She's not too hard on the eyes... why does she seem so famil- Oh. The earth pony frowned for a moment. If he thought things were bad before, now they were even worse. Then again, she was just as helpless as she was. She couldn't do anything at all to him, at least for now.

For a moment, hatred boiled inside him. Finn couldn't stand guards or any authority figure for that matter- they claim they are all for justice, but it seemed to him that they only neglected those who needed their help the most. Not that this was his problem- his problem was they had absolutely no sense of humor, and were so serious it only made him want to annoy them more. Still, at least this one was somewhat pretty. Judging by the almost murderous expression on her face, she wasn't so happy to be here either.

" Well, well, well. You look like someone just killed your puppy," Finn said coyly, offering the guardspony a flirty smile.

" Actually, scratch that. I think that expression would probably kill the puppy all on it's own," he added, chuckling at his joke. In the corner of his mind, he was still hoping that maybe this mare didn't remember him, or at least wasn't sure.

Erika turned a silent glare on the pony beside her. How long was she going to be stuck in this bed? No longer than an hour, she should hope. She would kill both the con and herself if it lasted any longer.

Her hooves twitched. Even the stitches in one felt like nothing, and if it did, she blocked it out. What she really wanted was to get her hooves on her daggers, or her bow, or....

"Hey!" she yelled at the door, realizing that the doctors had taken all of her armor. When she realized she had spoken aloud, her scowl deepened. Carefully, she reached up to touch her horn. Satisfied to find no obstructions blocking her magic, she dropped her hoof and sat up. Screw hospital rules. Erika knew she shouldn't have come in.

"I've never had an expression kill anything before," she said, returning her attention to the pony beside her. If she had to wait it out, she might as well make use of her time. "Frighten, yes, but I've yet to find the face that would cause something to keel over from shock."

Finn snorted in reply to the mare's comments. She could at least pretend they were funny. Suddenly his eyes darted towards a small ring on the floor next to the mare's beds. It was golden. And shiny. And had a nice little diamond in the middle of it. He instantly wanted it. He could probably get himself a nice new vest after selling it.

His eyes glinted with desire, and quickly dimmed as he realized once again that he couldn't get the ring because of his unfortuanate information. There will be other rings, he assured himself. But maybe she could.it only looked like her hoof was injured, so maybe.... No, look at her! She knows who you are, do you really think she'll actually do anything, and you can bet she'll get you in... the small voice in the thief's head faded away as he grinned. Sure, it was a small thing. But every bit counted, right?

" Hey, could you lean over and pick up that ring? It's mine," he saidm his eyes focused greedily on the ring.

" With your magic," he added quickly.

( hurr durr I don't even know how a pony can wear a ring, so sorry if that doesn't make much sense!)

Erika looked down where he was pointing. Then back up at the stallion. Then back down again. Then back up once more. A wicked smile spread across her white lips, sinister and full of sadism. She was enjoying the idea of toying with her new plaything for a little while.

"This thing?" she asked, picking it up and examining it. A small part of her laughed on the inside when she saw that the 'diamond' in the center of the thief's object of desire was no more than a simple cubic zirconia, and a pretty convincing one at that. She had half a mind to just give it to him and wait for him to realize on his own that the gem in the center was fake. She could see the differences right away, though; the ring was considerably heavy to hold such a tiny stone, and, looking closely, she could see that the gem was too perfect to be natural.

Right off the bat, the guardspony knew that her roommate was lying. It was easy to see the greed in his eyes, and the ring was definitely a mare's piece of jewelry. Either he was in tune with his inner fashionista, or somepony was looking to drop it in the black market.

"It's rather pretty," she murmured, her expression softening. "You must have gotten it from a lucky pony. Something as pretty and rare as this should probably be kept a little safer, don't you think?"

She looked back up at him, still holding the ring between her hooves. Her expression was a little forlorn and sad, as if she were remembering some sorrowful memory of the past.

(Well, they had rings in the wedding episode. Unicorns wear them on their horns.)

( Oh, that's right! Sorry for short reply, by the way.)

" Mmhhmm...." he said, not quite listening to the guardspony. He was a bit confused as to why she was just toying with it in her hooves.

" So.... can I have it?" he asked, an almost eager tone creeping into his voice. By now, that small reasonable voice in his head had completely vanished- he wanted that ring- and he was going to get it.

" Because it's mine. Of course," he added quickly, his eyes still hungrily fixed on the ring.

Erika still seemed to be lost in thought, her eyes fixed on the ring. Gently, she rolled it between her hooves right before she noticed why she was so uncomfortable.

Her medallion was gone.

Blasted doctors. She leaped to her hooves, ring all but forgotten, and exited the room, leaving the pony to himself. Fire burned in her eyes, her own special version of that pansy pony's stare, as she galloped out of sight.

When she came back, there was a small gold medallion around her neck, and her hooves were dirtied with what looked suspiciously red and dark. The ring was still in her hoof, but she was seething, her mouth moving just slightly as she grumbled.

"Bucking doctors. Why can't they respect my things?" she asked herself, ignoring the pony for the time being. Gently, she looked at the little medallion, tied with a red ribbon, and her face softened just a little at the ideograms engraved into it before scowling again.