What's Yours Is Mine

Chapter 3- Fishing

"Oi, Swift, get up 'ya lazy git."

Swift Hoof waved off the annoying interloper into his dreamland, the interloper however was stubborn and proceeded to punch the slumbering scoundrel on the foreleg in a none too gentle manner. Groaning Swift opened his eyes to reveal slightly grinning face of Treasure Runner.

"Morning Princess" he said in his usual gruff tone "Come on and grab some food, you ain't slacking off on my watch." Giving the Stallion another friendly bump, Treasure trotted away out of Swifts view, yawning the young thief dragged himself upright, rubbing the scruff around his chin and neck, he headed over the stone path to the bar table that they had set up down there.

Treasure Runner was already sitting down there, munching away at a muffin, a plate holding a similar breakfast pastry, Swift sat down a for a few minutes the two scoundrels ate in a state of peace and content, until the lack of other patrons in there impromptu bar formed a question in Swifts mind.

"Where's everypony else?" He asked as Treasure poured him a mug of hard cider.

"All out on assignments, Goldy said to give you something to do when you woke up."

"Well? You got anything?"

"Nope, couldn't turn up anything up your alley."

"Really? Well what are you doing for today?"

"Don't you know? Today's market day, you know what that means."

Swift smiled at that "Sure do, I'm sure you'll have fun."

"Hey, tell you what, you want to join me?"

"Really? I thought you liked running solo?"

"Usually I do, but I could use some company and we can bring in a larger haul together. So what do you say? Up for a little fishing?" Treasure offered his mug.

"You bet" Swift clanked his mug against his companions, and they both gouged down their respective intoxicants before slamming their mugs on the counter.

                                                                 ~~*~~

The Unicorn was that of the upper class, that fact being advertised by his attire; a fine brown vest of the best material, another obvious trait of his wealth was of the sizeable bit bag that was strapped to his vest, clinking merrily with his every step.

The Stallion himself had a light blue coat that wheat nicely with his white mane and red eyes. The Unicorns name was Regal Stone, he often visited the market like this to browse for cheap items and products or to check up on his investments, not that the aristocrat would ever admit to doing either.

Regal was heading towards one of said investments, a vendor who sold both jewelry and artifacts from across the land, some of those raided from ancient sites of great magic, as an aristocratic Unicorn who was a player in the political game of Canterlot, Regal Stone understood the importance of enchanted and magical items from abroad, and made sure he secured the best contacts in that corner of the market.

The noble scanned the crowded marketplace, both sides of the street lined with stalls selling everything from produce to apparent omni-cures for all ailments, but Regal was looking for the distinct purple tent that market his contact, squinting through the tightly packed crowd.

As the blue Unicorn turned a corner he caught a glimpse of the tent through the crowd, and be attempted to head towards it, unluckily for him the mass of Ponies suddenly surged around him, everypony heading every which way, some even daring to bump-albeit lightly-into Regal Stone.

One such lowlife smashed none to gently into the Unicorns side, the noble glared at the offender, a brown Earth Pony wearing a soiled cloak of an equal colour, his face hidden under some tacky hood.

Regal looked down on the ruffian "Do look where you going will you?" He said annoyed, the Earth Pony responded with a gruff "Sorry mate" before he disappeared into the crowd.

Glaring in the direction of the insolent worm, Regal gave a uptight 'harrumph' and continued on his way, the noble had barely taken four steps before he immediately noticed it; the lack of a familiar weight and jingle as he walked. With a shaking hoof Regal reached back and groped for his bit bag, only to discover that it was missing.

Suddenly he remembered the cloaked Earth Pony.

"Bastard" Regal said angrily "Damn bucking Pickpocket!"

                                                               ~~*~~

The cloaked Earth Pony slipped into a nearby alleyway where the sun did not reach and both he and his companion would go unnoticed.

"So how'd you make out?" Swift Hoof stepped out of the shadows, pulling his hood back in the process "I think I got a big one" Swift produced three decently sized bit bags from his saddle bag which all jingled musically. Treasure Runner pulled back his own hood, revealing his brown bearded face.

"Not bad..." he said neutrally, before pulling out his own haul which consisted of not only three-larger than Swifts-bit bags, but several necklaces and horn rings that could have only come off of married Unicorns.

"But 'Ya still have much to learn young Dragonfly" Treasure said in a mystic voice, which was horribly butchered by his accent. Swift Hoof rolled his eyes and the two scoundrels moved over to a nearby barrel and placed their haul on the top of it to appraise.

Treasure Runner moved the necklaces and rings into their own pile "These will probably fetch us a good price, probably won't even need to appraise them or even fence 'em, could probably even sell them to the store they were bought from." The roguish pair then proceeded to dump their bit bags onto the barrel, creating a sizeable pile of gold as they went. It was only when Treasure Runner unloaded the bad that he had swiped from a certain noble Unicorn did they find anything interesting.

Amongst the gold, a sealed letter could be seen, bearing a strange symbol as it's seal; a sun standard with the image of a half lidded eye inside of it, the other half of the sun filled with the likeness of a half moon.

" 'Ello, what do we have here?" Treasure swiped the letter and ripped it open without pause, pulling it's contents out he read:

The item is being delivered at sundown today, the location this time is the east side of the Canterlot Public Gardens, the deliverypony and the third party will be arriving there as well, make sure you bring the proper equipment to appraise the item.

Burn this letter after you read it.

Treasure Runner passed the letter to Swift, who raised his eyebrows after reading.

"So what do you think?" The Pegasus asked, passing the letter back "Worth checking out?"

"Damn right" Treasure said, folding up the letter and storing it away "This prissy clearly went through a lot of trouble to get this item and keep it a secret, which in turn means we should go through equally as much trouble to relieve him of said item" the two rogues shared a laugh before Swift gained a concerned look on his muzzle, looking at something behind Treasure Runner.

"Well we best go now, we got company" the Pickpocket turned and saw through the crowd; a squad of Royal Guards filtering through the market-goers, clearly searching for somepony, stopping to ask passerby every now and again, each of them carried spears and their golden armour shined brightly in the midday sun. It was then that they noticed the unarmoured blue Unicorn clearly directing the search.

"Find them!" Regal Stones voice could be heard over the din of the market "Find that filthy pickpocket and hang him for his crimes!"

"Stupid git" Treasure said, annoyed "Can't just accept defeat can 'ya?" Quick as a flash the two thieves swiped up their gold and jewellery before storing it away and pulling their hoods back up.

"Forward or back?" Treasure asked, staring at the guards as they neared the alleyway.

"I'd say forward, the street behind us isn't nearly as crowded as the one in front of us. Chances are they have more patrols looking for us, we can slip past these guards through the crowd and make our way to the garden" Swift answered.

"Can't you fly away?" Treasure asked.

"Bad idea, the sky patrols would be on me in a second. No, better to keep this to the ground until I can be sure the Sky Guards won't get me."

Without another word the two rogues exited the alleyway and fazed into the crowd like ghosts, taking opposite sides of the street. Swift found a sizeable group of market-goers that were heading his way, hiding himself amount them Swift hugged the wall as the line of guardsmen passed by. Swift held his breath as the nearest guard scanned the group he was in, luckily a larger Pegasus put himself between the thief and the guard, allowing him to slip past.

Swift Hoof noticed Treasure through the crowd, he had passed the patrol as well, they headed towards each other, assured that they were home free.

"Stop right there, criminal scum!" The thieves turned to see one of the guards pushing Ponies aside to chase them, the rest of the patrol slowly noticing too and joining the chase.

"Bail" Came Treasure's command, and the pair took of through the streets, shoving anypony that was in there way.

"Split up! Meet me at the garden!" Swift nodded and headed down a nearby alley, the majority of the guards followed Treasure but four of them gave chase to Swift. The Pegasus came out on the other side of the alley into a street with no such crowd as the market in it. Swift galloped down the street, his hooves echoing of the cobblestone and off the walls, his natural sounds were soon joined by the metallic galloping sound of metal-covered hooves that marked the Guards arrival in the street.

As he was running, Swift Hoof was searching for an escape opportunity, it was then when he noticed one of Canterlot's many bell towers, with a smirk the Pegasus increased his speed and closed the distance to the tower, the Royal Guards hot in his tail. Skidding around the corner, Swift entered the alley next to the tower, which lead to a dead end brick wall.

Not soon after the guards ran in as well, blocking off the exit and pointing their spears at the thief.

"You have committed crimes against Equestria and her people, what say you in your defence? " one said, Swift Hoof smirked from under his hood and slowly raised his right hoof in the air.

It was then that the Guards noticed the small round object in their quarries hoof.

"Wait.." The one who had spoken said "Don't you.." His sentence was interrupted by a small explosion and massive amounts of smoke filling the tight alleyway, causing the lot of them to cough and splutter. The smoke didn't last long though, it dissipated as quickly as it he accumulated and the Guardsponies were met with an empty alleyway.

"Buck it.." The leader said "Where'd he go?"

Swift looked down at the Guard patrol as they headed out to look for him, the thief sat back next to the large brass bell, pulling his hood back mad catching his breath. He looked out towards the horizon where the sun was slowly reaching it's eventual end for the day.

"I got a package to pick up" Swift said to himself.

                                                              ~~*~~

The building was quite a tall one, not as tall as any of Canterlot's many spires, but still sizeable, one could see almost the entire garden from that point, all the way to the the vast hedge maze in the distance, this suited the rogues purposes perfectly.

Treasure Runner sat motionless, wrapped in his brown cloak, watching the garden below with keen eyes. The soft swish of Pegasus wings could be heard and a similarly cloaked Pony landed softly next to Treasure.

"You took your bloody grand time" the Pickpocket said, not taking his eyes off of the garden.

"What can I say? Those Guards are persistent" Swift looked down into the garden as well, glancing to the horizon to see the sun beginning to disappear into it.

"Anything so far?" Swifts question wasn't answered, rather Treasure shushed him and pointed towards a flat patch of grass that was only decorated with a few flowers. In the quickly dimming light Swift could make out three figures standing near each other, it was only a moment after he noticed them that their voiced reached him.

"...Heard you ran into some trouble Regal Stone" a cloaked Pony addressed the other figure in the shadows, this one wasn't cloaked but the low light made his features essentially invisible.

"Some common pickpocket, it is of no import, what is though is the item we came here for"

"That's the bugger who got those guards on us, the one I got the letter from." Treasure whispered.

"...Indeed, show us our prize my good Stallion" the cloaked one said, now addressing the third figure, who didn't speak rather produced a round object wrapped in old cloth from his saddlebag and presented it to the cloaked one.

"Unwrap it" he commanded and in no time the item was revealed to be a rounded, polished ball of some sort, it swirled with strange mists and gave off a fair foreboding green light.

"By the Ancients..." Regal said softly "It's truly it, this shall grant us fortune and glory beyond measure."

"Oh yes" the cloaked Pony said "But it is only one piece to the puzzle, come. Reward it and it can be put away for safe keeping" the orb was quickly covered and the three headed towards the gardens exit.

Treasure and Swift exchanged a glance, the former giving a nod to his companion. Swift pulled out one of his signature smoke bombs with a grin, he pulled the string with his mouth and dropped the hissing ball right in front of the group below.

Regal Stone barely had time to react "What in the.." Before the thing exploded, throwing thick smog around them, Swift glided down and tackled the holder of the orb into the ground from above, snatching the sphere from were it had been dropped, Swift took off into the night, Treasure Runner following from the rooftops.

When the smoke cleared the thieves were long gone, Regal Stone immediately turned to the one who had been holding the artifact.

"The Orb... Where is it? Where is it?!?!" The Pony shook his head and the furious noble stared off into the darkness where the thieves had escaped.

"Damn you all to the seventh spire of Tartarus"

                                                            ~~*~~

Swift Hoof and Treasure Runner burst through the entrance of the Den in laughter, priding themselves on their catch for that day, they where met with an annoyed-looking Golden Shine sitting at the bar.

"And where have you two been off to?" It was then that Treasure produced their haul of gold and jewellery and Swift presented the glowing orb.

"Oh you know.." Swift said casually, tossing the orb into the air and catching it again "Just out fishing..."