Picky Locks And The Three Coppers
One day in the middle of the Everfree Forest a gray mare was walking at a leisure pace, however this was no ordinary pegasus this was Picky Locks, world renowned thief and at this very moment she was on her way to the late Zecora, Alchemist extraordinaire’s house at which she planned to steal 3 things She didn’t know exactly what she was going to steal but her fence, Half Mind, took anything he could get his hooves on”the silly Colt” she thought. “He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box that’s for sure” she chuckled at her own joke quickly covering her mouth for dread of giving away her position, although to whom she was giving her position away to was unknown as hardly anypony came in here. She had seen a blank flanked filly with a pink mane and bow come in on occasion but that was a problem for later. Locks didn’t particularly think she would be a problem anyway the damned Zebra was the real brick wall in her plan Locks had seen the magic Zecora was capable of and it wasn’t the petty spells that any unicorn could do. She still hadn’t found out the source of Zecora’s power Zebras were a rare sight in the Country of Equestria and as such information on them was below the 0% level.
Coming upon Zecora’s house when she wasn’t home was rare lucky for Locks, Zecora’s had left earlier that day to attend some spoiled filly’s birthday. Coming upon the door Locks was surprised to see that it was unlocked, thinking nothing of it the stealthy mare snuck inside lighting a few candles along the way. The first thing her beady eyes landed on were three safes, coming upon the biggest one she quickly grabbed a lock pick from her saddlebag. Unlike most ponies Picky Locks found it easier to use her hooves it was also more sanitary, in her opinion anyway. However within the first two minutes of trying it became apparent that she wasn’t going to get it open fumbling twice and busting the picks. Being as ego- tistical as she was, she surmised that “this lock is too strong”. The medium chest wasn’t much better the lock itself broke within the first fifteen seconds due to Locks applying way too much pressure but she again assumed that it wasn’t her fault and grumbled “this lock is too weak” under her breath. The smallest one however opened without a cinch being what she called a ‘Just Right’ lock reaching inside to see what she had gotten her hooves on she was disappointed to find nothing but an old star amulet, “whatever” she thought using her mouth to put it in her bag. Moving on she noticed a few strange masks three had caught her eye especially! The first mask was a little on the weird side, Locks thought “This one’s too ugly” and moved on to the next this one however was pretty pleasant but To Locks being not much of an art critic found it amusing and nothing more when asked later on
She quoted “It was fine, not pleasant humph”. The final mask was actually pretty mediocre but Locks found that it was “Just Right” for the snobs that actually buy the junk from Half Mind and as long as she was getting paid it didn’t really matter to her what the buyers thought. Oddly enough Locks didn’t seem to hear the machine that opened a secret wall to the second floor and upon turning around she simply assumed the stairs had always been there she carefully snuck up the stairs and upon lighting the room she found three chairs however they were encrusted with diamonds. Each one appeared to be made at a different time, Locks attempted to chisel the diamonds of the nearest one however it was nearly impossible and she spent almost half an hour trying to rip them off. Finally giving up, speculating that the chair was “too new” and wasn’t going to give way. The next Chair was really easy but the diamonds on it were fakes Locks realized that the Chair was “too old” recognizing that the discovery of diamonds in Equestria happened only 30 years ago and this chair was probably older than that. The final one however gave way with a little bit of effort being made in a time that was “just right” for Locks interests in spite of this however the diamond came off so easily it stunned Picky Locks causing her to fall backwards and consequently be knocked out.
Roughly 1 Hour Later, Zecora came home to realise her home had most definitely been robbed she quickly called upon PonyVilles Finest, the PVPD and The Cops showed up within the first 15 minutes. Upon entering the cottage it was apparent To the Oldest cop with his years of experience that the biggest of Zecora’s Safes Had Been tampered with “Somepony has been meddling with this safe!” the middle age cop also noticed the broken lock of the medium safe exclaiming loudly “Some Pony Has been meddling with this Safe!” the youngest cop wasn’t that much of an idiot but nonetheless wanting to fit in cried “Somepony has been meddling with this safe” and then quickly adding as to look smart “and its empty now!” the eldest of the cops sighed examining the wall noticed that one of the masks on the wall was crooked and jutted as if Somepony had tried to pry it off or look underneath to which he looked at his partners explaining “Somepony has been moving this mask!” To this the middle age cop replied that “Somepony has been moving this mask!” then the youngest of the three examining the wall realized that a faint outline of a mask and a nail was next to the other two, again not wanting to be left out the young colt officer Yelled “Somepony has been moving this mask and its gone!” This time both cops looked at they’re youngest partner exclaiming with sarcasm “You Don’t Say!?” As the other two looked round the youngest noticed that a strange staircase had opened from behind a wall when he touched the nail! Desperately the colt grabbed the eldest with his front hooves and showed him to what he had found. The other two were somewhat surprised by his discovery and followed him up the stairs.
Upon reaching the top the eldest cop examined the nearest chair perceiving that the gems had most definitely been chiselled off by some pony or at least they had attempted to. At this he exclaimed loudly “Aha! Somepony has been prying at this chair!” the middle cop had noticed the same thing of the older chair however he also noticed that one of the gems had actually been torn off an promptly said so “ Somepony has been prying at this chair!” the youngest having been quiet for some time noticed that a gem was missing from the chair he was sitting on and following it he seen the limp body of a mare, this frightened him so much he practically shrieked “Somepony has been prying at this chair and they’re still here!” at this both cops spun around and gasped at the sight. At this point Picky Locks started to come too upon seeing all the cops in the room she promptly jumped up and ran down the stairs dropping both her saddlebags, containing her ID, Address and the stolen goods along the way! It wasn’t long before she was caught and brought to The Canterlot Medium Security prison. When asked what she learned from her misadventures she sarcastically replied “always wear a helmet!”
