One for the Money

The halls of the Canterlot Library were also home many pieces of irreplaceable art, encased in glass and hung up for people to admire when they walked to and fro the vast book rooms that the library held. Its security was top of the line when it came to library standards: 24-hour surveillance cameras, laser trip wires, motion sensor, the works. Even though they had gone above and beyond the standard when it came to security, it was no match for a master thief.

Much less three master thieves.

Their planning, their luck, and their cunning were flawless. Their intelligence and their strategy were on the spot. Earlier in the day, the three girls staked the location, the ventilation shafts, the small buttons that were glued to the wall randomly, that indicated the tripwire. They even found the way to shut off the security system entirely, and to delay the “off” notification to the company running the after dark security so that they would have ample time to casually stroll in and take the portrait.

Using a rope gun, they climbed to the roof, where a few twists of a screwdriver later they were in the ventilation system of the library. They knew where to go, mapping out the system while they were visiting the library earlier in the day. The many intersections and "T- Intersections" were navigable.

They dropped out of the ventilation in front of the painting, which was a landscape portrait of the early days of Canterlot. With each girl taking a side, Trixie and Sunset lifted the glass encasement off the wall, exposing the picture.

"You know gals, something is bothering me," Sunset lamented as they set the glass on the ground.

"What is it?" Lighting asked.

"This robbery was easy," Sunset said.

"And?"

Lighting Dust looked around. "Almost too easy, makes you wonder..."

When Sunset took removed the photo from its frame, the first thing she noticed it was not on a canvas, rather on cardboard paper.

On the back, a bar code.

It was then when the trap went off. blinding spotlights beamed in from across the building. The speakers inside began to emit a sharp pitch tone, enough to bring the three would be thieves to their knees, using their hands to soften the ear piercing sound.

"Headphones, Girls!" Sunset cried.

All three fought the sound as they took off their backpacks and pulled out their noise canceling headphones. It didn't fully muffle the sound, but it helped. They ran deeper into the library and to the empty hallways that were reserved to the employees. Little known fact was that the building was old enough to have a manual passage to the sewer system, which doubled as an old bomb shelter system. The girls only needed to follow the black cast iron pipes above their head to guide the way. Eventually, after kicking down a janitor’s closet, they found the manhole they were looking for, but with something else.

"Look at this!" Sunset observed as they found an identical plastic tube. They were shocked when they twisted the cap off.

"That's the original piece?!" Trixie asked in shock.

"Why would they hide it here?" Lighting asked.

"I guess they were expecting us to look for it in the office," Sunset smirked. "I guess we can play this to our advantage!"

Trixie took the real tube, and they went down the manhole on by one, the sound turned off and the radio chatter of the police can be heard echoing down the halls. When it was Sunsets turn, she used a crowbar to forcefully drag the manhole cover over, hopefully, to buy them at least one more minute.

"This smells like shit!" Lighting complained as the ran down the ledges of the sewers, the filth of the city flowing down the concrete river beside them. the roaches and rats that called that place home retreated away from the fleeing three, their flashlights the only source of light.

"We should be able to pop out in a few minutes!" Sunset proclaimed.

They heard the sirens and the legions of police above them every so often when they ran under a manhole cover, and chose one that was well away from the blockade, in a dark alleyway.

"Trixie, hand me your tube!" Sunset said.

"Why?" Trixie asked.

"Head to the hotel and pack our shit up! We have to skip town. I'll take the tubes and cash out. Wait for me at the meetup spot, no matter what happens!"

They also began to strip. They were fortunate enough that the night was not cold enough to shiver since they had no time to mess around. The trade was made, and they split up. As Trixie and Lighting Dust walked out and to the streets in regular clothes, Sunset went to work moving between the abandoned buildings at the desolate side of town. It was at that time the police realized that the suspects were not in the museum, and began to spread out themselves, looking for the three thieves.

Sunset knew her time was running out and had to stash her prize. In an abandoned hotel is where her time ran out. It was bad timing and being in a bad spot where the police helicopter found her through a window. She ran out of the room and through the hallway, trying to get out through the roof. She ended up in a room on the top floor, a suite. The wall was molded out, the carpet was wet and sticky, and the ceiling was collapsing.

Behind the sliding closet door, covered in the broken glass, was a safe that hotels leave for their guests. Sunset wasted no time to open it up. She placed the real tube in, and closed the door and spun the dial. Free from the evidence, she knew she had mere seconds to find a way out, which she decided to go down the elevator to do it, it seemed that the place still had electricity.

Against her better judgment she did, hearing the police going up the stairs, hoping to walk out of the hotel with no opposition. When the door opened at the lobby, she found out it was a mistake, her cockiness catching up to her.

She soon was overtaken by many men in tactical uniforms, all with assault rifles aimed at her. She was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. When she looked up, the woman with different color eyes was glaring down on her.

"Good to see my plan worked! Well, take her away for my promotion!" She said with a smile.

As Sunset was led outside, she realized she was one street away from their hotel. she took a look up to her suite and noticed the two figures in the window. Trixie and Lighting were watching as Sunset was being placed in their squad car, crying because their leader was effectively gone.