Chapters The wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence was interrupted by an invasion of emotion eaters known as changelings. As Queen Chrysalis sent out her children to feed on the now defeated city of Canterlot, one changeling searched within the lower levels of Canterlot Castle for any hiding ponies. The changeling walked down the dimly light corridors, with only his eyes to know where the walls laid ahead. Da'rak, his name, sensed the emotions down in the halls but couldn't quite find it.
He was not a mere drone, no. He was a Psionic, a changeling bred to control large quantities of magic. The buzzing sound of a thousand voices swam through his mind. The corridor opened up into a room. A history of Canterlot. Murals and tapestries hung from the ceiling, detailing the founding of the city. The two royal sisters beginning their rule. One of the tapestries depicted one of the siblings, the white one, banishing her sister, the black one, to the moon. But one tapestry intrigued him more than the others. It depicted a cloaked, shadowy figure. Under the picture, stood a statue further depicting the figure, with a name etched into the statue. The Phantom Thief. Further below, the etchings described the Phantom Thief as a thief who was never caught, could bypass any security measures, and nopony knew the identity of it.
The voices suddenly called out in terror and fear. Da'rak looked up to see a wave of magic rushing towards him. Instinctively, Da'rak covered himself in a shield. The ground and walls around him violently shook. It seemed as if, at any moment, the entire castle would cave in on top of him. When the violent shaking seceded, Da'rak could no longer hear the voices of his brothers and sisters.
Only his own.
It took a few minutes for him to regain his composure. What was that? And, where is everyone? His ears perked up at a sound down the hall.
"Hello, is anypony down there?" A pony! If the pony found him, who knew what tortures lie ahead for him. The tales of the white demon and her sister surfaced in his mind. The nightmares that plagued the hive day and night, the nightmares of the two demons. He needed a disguise, but there wasn't anyone nearby for him to copy, and he couldn't turn invisible like the Infiltrators could.
The voice of the pony grew louder and Da'rak could now see him, faintly, but there. If he could see him, it wouldn't be long before the pony could see him too. Da'rak transformed into the only thing he could currently in the room. The statue of the Phantom Thief. Summoning his magic, a second skin grew on top of his body, covering and concealing his natural form and a hooded cloak fell upon him, covering his face and most of his body.
The royal guard walked into the room. A chill wind blew past him, the eerie silence pierced him as he laid eyes on the figure before him. An almost ghostly form stood in the center of the room, draped in a ghostly silver hooded cloak. And staring at him with cold, dead eyes. The guard dropped his spear as fear shot through him. He took a shaking step back, then another step until he burst into a run, screaming something about the Ghost of the Phantom Thief.
If he was searching down here for other ponies, then does that mean that we... failed...? Da'rak ran through the halls, coming out in a courtyard. He looked left, right, up, and down. No changelings. No changelings anywhere. He realized he was the only one left. He could still sense the love from the wedding, now stronger than before. Much, much stronger. Curious, he flew back up the wedding area. Wings buzzed as he flew. The wings of a changeling always buzzed. Sticking to the walls and out of sight, Da'rak latched onto the outer wall and slowly made his way to a window. Peering inside, he saw a crowd of ponies, with the princess Queen Chrysalis impersonated walking down the middle isle, lead by three filly's throwing flowers along the path. The truth struck a cord, they truly did fail. And now, he had no idea where the hive was or if any other changelings survived. As far as he knew, he was the last changeling.
How am I going to survive? I am going to die, a slow painful death. I'll be lucky if I die before the torturing begins. Thoughts of being captured and tortured filled his frantic mind. He tried to push the thoughts away, put they persisted. He needed a disguise, and this Phantom Thief he was currently using would stand out just as much as his natural form would. But he couldn't just make up a look, he needed to copy someone or something. He scanned and did his best to memorize the ponies in the isles.
After a good minute or two, he had a good deal of appearances in mind, but the best one would require him to concentrate on creating it. Changelings may not be able to create a disguise from scratch, but they could mix and match the looks of prey till they had a disguise. That meant he needed to find a quiet, secluded area to focus. The two newlyweds walked out of the building and into a balcony overlooking a crowd.
Welp, can't go that way. Taking flight, Da'rak flew off away from the crowd and landed in front of an alleyway. Tape lined the building to his left. Danger! Kept Out! Well. No tape was going to keep him out of... What was the name? Da'rak leaned around the corner and saw the building name. The Shrouded Drapes . A hotel. An abandoned hotel at that.
KA-BOOM!
The ground shook again. He looked back and up to see a circle of rainbow extending out and a line of rainbow leading out of the circle's center and upward. He hastily ran into the hotel and up a series of flights of stairs. When he finally stopped running, he started looking for a room to hid in. Coming across an empty room, as all the rooms were, with a window out looking another courtyard. How many courtyards do these ponies need? Sitting down in the center of the room, Da'rak visualized the disguise that he would use.
Quite a few things were needed to be sorted out first. Gender was easy, he was a dude, so naturally he would make the disguise a dude as well. (Unless one preferred a different look. Won't hold it against you.) Next was the race, he remembered back to the lessons he learned in subterfuge. "There are four races of ponies. Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns. Pegasi can fly and control the weather, while unicorns can preform magical feats, and earth ponies are immensely powerful when it comes to physical strength. The fourth race, the alicorns, are to never be used as a disguise as there are only about three or four of them in existence and disguising yourself as something that rare will only bring unwanted attention." He didn't want to lose either his wings or magic, but his wings would make a constant buzzing sound when he flew, So Da'rak went with being a unicorn. The actual appearance of him was easy enough, average height but extremely skinny. The only thing needed was a name. Right, a name.
He thought and thought and thought. He must have been sitting there for hours thinking of a name that would work. "Arghh!" Da'rak threw his hooves into the air, giving up. "Garrett, I'll use that." The name wasn't a pony name but he didn't care one bit. Now, with a disguise in hoof, Da'rak summoned his magic and peeled off the Phantom Thief look and replaced it with his new pony disguise. Once it was finished, Garrett looked himself up and down, with everything seeming to be in place. With one problem. No cutie mark. That stupid thing that appeared on a ponies butt for whatever reason. What was the point of them. Glancing out the window, Garrett saw the sun had set and the moon had replaced it in the night sky. Stars. That'll do. With that, a neon blue four-pointed star appeared as his cutie mark. It wasn't glamorous or unique in any way, it wasn't supposed to be any of that. All it was to do was trick the mindless masses of ponies he would be hiding among.
Tired from the amount of emotional energy he had used up, Garrett walked over to one of the corners and huddled down to sleep. A new problem presented itself then. It was cold. This became apparent two seconds after he laid down. At least he wasn't so tired anymore. With a thought, Garrett walked out of the room and into an adjacent one, and another room. Searching for something warm to sleep on or in. No such luck, but he did find a small lamp and a clock. Probably old possessions left behind by the previous owners. All manner of items were inside the hotel along with his findings. These included a drawer, a silver chained pocket-watch, (why this was left, he will never understand) two hairpins, and a couple of bits. The primary currency of ponies, but if Garrett didn't know any better he would've sworn that friendship was the currency they used and not bits. Carrying his treasure back to the room, he placed them in any appropriate spot. Placing the smaller items inside the drawer and walked over to window curtain and tore half of it off. Retreating to the corner he wrapped himself in it, and it was incredibly uncomfortable. But he finally drifted off to sleep.
For about two minutes.
A beat and music came from right outside The Shrouded Drapes. Very annoyed, Garrett peeked outside to see a party in action right outside the abandoned hotel. A large group was concentrated, consisting of lots of upper class looking ponies, the bride and groom, and... and... The Two Royal Sisters ! Are these ponies following me or something! If they are, just come get me and put me in the center of that event. At least it'll get this torture over with! Garrett should've been careful of what he wished for.
In the party, Pinkie looked up to see a pony, all alone, in a window looking out at the party. Hey, why isn't he joining in this wonderful party? He should join us. Without a second thought, Pinkie rushed up and into the building. When she finally found the lonely looking pony, she was cheered with joy. "Hello mister, my names Pinkie Pie, but you can just call me Pinkie. I noticed that you were up here looking all alone. You should come and join us down there. I'll help you meet some ponies down there," She spoke so quickly that Garrett hardly had time to comprehend her name before she was done talking. And after she finished talking, she grabbed Garrett and dragged (well dragged would suggest that Garrett had enough time to react and/or resist) him down to the party and the group of ponies. Including not just the two royal sisters, but also all six of the realms defenders, and the captain of the royal guard and his wife, another alicorn. If he could just stay quiet and not draw attention to himself, he could slip... "Hey, everypony, meet my new friend... Um-" Pinkie leaned closer to Garrett. "-you didn't mention your name." And there goes that plan down the drain. Now he had the eyes of the entire group attached to him. "Um, sir, you do have a name, right?"
He almost responded with his changeling name, but he caught himself before uttering the first syllable. What was his name again? Jarret, no. Barrett, no. Garrett, that was it. "Garrett."
"My friend, Garrett." Great. Now he had everypony looking at him and know his name and the face to associate it with. Not good if he wanted to slip away in secret. A few other ponies walked up to him, but most just carried on their way. I was almost like he was invisible. Garrett checked down at his hooves to see if he actually was invisible. He wasn't. One pony introduced himself as Fancy Pants, ponies have the weirdest names, and extended a hoof to Garrett. Confused, Garrett focused past Fancy Pants, two ponies were shaking each others hooves. With no better idea on what he was socially expected to do, he extended his own hoof to. While shaking hooves, Garrett tried to sense his motives behind presenting himself. Only to find there were none. He was entirely indifferent to it, he was introducing himself purely to be friendly. Odd. Another pony approached and also introduced herself.
"My name's Twilight Sparkle." Garrett also shook her hoof. Internally screaming while doing so. This was the Element of Magic in front of him. He had no doubts that she'd send him flying to kingdom-come with a single magical blast if she saw through his disguise. After her nopony approached him immediately. Taking the only chance that he likely would've ever got, Garrett took a few steps back, slipping into the crowd.
And right into somepony. Looking to his side, Garrett saw a long flowing mane.
"Oh, excuse me."
It took all of his willpower and some logical thinking to keep himself from running away in complete panicking fear and terror. Slowly, Garrett turned around to face the white demon. She was standing at an impossible height before him. In her presence, Garrett realized just how short his body was. In his natural form, he could stand almost eye to eye with her. But here, she held the physical dominance. "Are you okay?" the white demon asked. Garrett realized he had just been staring out to space.
"Umm, yes my-" He nearly referred to her as my queen , she wasn't even a queen, she was a princess and definitely not worthy of that reference "-mistake. I didn't mean to bump into you."
"Its okay, just try to look where you're going," with that, the white demon departed to talk to her sister, who seemed to almost be giving a death glare to Garrett. Unnerved, he returned to exiting the party. Until an overheard comment caught his attention.
"I'm telling you guys, I saw the Phantom Thief with my very own eyes. It's real."
Stopping in his tracks, Garrett turned to the source of the comment and found the guard pony Phantom Thief scared the daylights out of. Garrett approached the guard ponies. "What's the Phantom Thief?"
"Huh?" The guard turned towards Garrett. "I thought everypony knew the legend of the Phantom Thief. The Phantom Thief was a thief that lived almost a century ago here in Canterlot. It was said that it could steal anything from anywhere at anytime. And it could. It was never caught and nopony ever saw its face. The only thing about its appearance was that it was shrouded in a ghostly silver hood and cloak. Hundreds of rumors spread about it. Some say it was a vengeful ghost or spirit, angered over the disrupting of its resting place by the construction of Canterlot. Others say it was a just that, a thief. It was just a really good one.
"The Phantom Thief seemed to be unstoppable. But eventually one detective actually cornered it in the chasms found under the city. But the Phantom Thief wasn't going to give up without a fight. And that resulting fight caused a cave in, leaving the two trapped in there to die. Nopony actually knows if the Phantom Thief actually died, as the remains of either were never uncovered."
This all intrigued Garrett. This Phantom Thief disguise could come in handy later on. He wondered if anypony else knew anything about the Phantom Thief. "Well, that's quite the legend. Thank you for informing me." Putting off his previous goal of slipping away, he turned back to the mass of ponies. He could get some info on this Phantom Thief and learn some pony customs. He remembered one lesson on disguises said that a disguise is always more than a mere look and name. Kind of contradictory of his current disguise, which was in essence, just a look and name.
Garrett needed a different disguise for what he was going to do next. Slipping away into the alleyway, he shed the disguise and replaced it with one made not for permanent use. He decided to call this disguise Zak.
Returning to the masses, Zak began his search. He asked around and around again. He had to have asked at least half of everypony there and what he found out was... interesting, to say the least. Apparently, there was a pattern, but nopony ever mentioned or made a passing reference to some pattern. But it was a pattern, and it was there. And he noticed it. It seemed like the Phantom Thief never once killed anypony and never stole from the homeless or needy. Then again, it could've stolen from them, and it just didn't have a major enough effect to attract attention. Not only that, but the Phantom Thief left a calling card of sorts. A silver crystal. That was also where it got half of its name, the specific type of crystal was known as a Phantom Crystal. Zak now had what he needed. But, that wasn't all that he observed. Zak noticed that whenever some pony went to get a drink, they paid with bits. He knew that was the currency of ponies. What he didn't realize until that point was that he was probably going to need money to survive, and he hadn't the faintest clue as to how he could get it.
While forcing his way through the crowd, Zak found a unicorn who was incredibly drunk. Zak had seen him a few times, what was his name? Blueblood, that was it! He was boasting about his 100% unreachable pile of bits. Then it struck. There are other ways to make money, if a bit devious. Had Blueblood not just mentioned his vault of money then Zak probably wouldn't have thought about it much. But he bragged that it was 100% unreachable. That meant 100% it was going to be gone soon. A smug grin spread across his face. He could do it later, first, he wanted to establish himself.
"My unveachable vault issafe in my zection of Canterlot Castle," Blueblood moaned as he put down the mug of whatever it was.
With the information he gained, he returned to his makeshift home and changed back into his natural form, Da'rak laid down to rest. Only to realize the grave mistake he was making. He shot up and glanced around the room. After he was certain no pony had seen him, changed into Garrett. He didn't need a random pony stumbling upon him in his natural form whilst he slept. Berating himself for his near-fatal mistake, he let out a breath he didn't realize he had held. Garrett turned to the drawer he put his findings in. He hadn't thought to check any of the drawers other than the top one. Opening the middle drawer, there lay a journal. Curious, he cracked open the journal and found... nothing. It was entirely blank. Well, that doesn't help very much. Putting the journal back, Garrett moved to the bottom drawer. There was something in it. An ornate dagger. Why was this in there? There was also a sheath and belt for said dagger along with a satchel bag attached to the belt.
With the thought of sleep now pushed further back, Garrett pulled out the silver pocket-watch and opened it. He was glad he did. In it was not only a bunch of watch mechanisms but another mechanism on the front panel. A compass. Unfortunately, the compass wasn't working anymore. But the clock still kept the time. At least something works. Now he was practically wide awake. There was no chance of him getting any sleep anytime soon. I should at least do something productive, it'd be a waste not to.
In the Hive, everyone pulled their own weight and more. If one was found to not be performing any task of importance or productive reward, then they were shunned upon. And in the Hive, that was basically starvation. They could hardly survive off of each other's mutual relationship. That's why the Infiltrators were important. Their jobs consisted of hiding in pony society and extracting as much love as possible with as little risk then returning to the Hive with said love. A changelings life was all just an equation of responsibilities, risks, and rewards.
Walking through the hotel, Garrett found that there were lots of things he missed his first time searching. The biggest discovery was of an old, tattered pillow. Noting how comfortable the pillow has made him realize just how much he hated this pony body. His natural form would have no problem dealing with a rough and rocky place to sleep on. This pony body, however, was soft and squishy, it was easily susceptible to the cold and easily bruised. To actually make it comfortable enough to even sleep, he needed to make the makeshift bed soft. His carapace would easily deal with the uncomfortableness and he wouldn't complain one bit. But he needed to stay in this form.
The party outside was still going strong. How? After taking another look outside, Garrett saw Blueblood leaving if staggeringly, the party. It would be quite ironic if he was robbed right after boasting like that. Irony, probably the best form of adding insult to injury.
Making up his mind, Garrett grabbed the belt and put it on, slid the dagger into its sheath, and placed the hairpins into the bag, after all, he could use them as makeshift lockpicks. After that, he changed into the Phantom Thief. I'll just call this one Thief. After the names of his other disguises, something so practical felt nice. Thief raced up to the top of the building. Once there, he looked out to the streets below, easily finding Blueblood. That was the easy part, now was the hard part, ghosting him. All that ghosting consisted of was following the mark, unseen of course, until they are secluded enough to be ambushed and replaced by an Infiltrator. But here Thief was going to be ghosting Blueblood back to his house if that was even where he was going.
The fact that Blueblood was drunk helped Thief to remain unseen immensely. But it was a double-edged sword. He took forever ! He was constantly falling and getting himself turned around. Can this idiot walk any faster! I could probably go off and twiddle my hooves, terrify some random ponies, find out what a Phantom Crystal is, looks like, and find him before he finds his way home.
That one on Phantom Crystals doesn't sound too bad actually. He knew where Blueblood lived, he just didn't know what part of Canterlot Castle he lived in. So, he'd have to be fast. Turning his attention to Blueblood, who seemed to have moved a few feet away from his home. Maybe he didn't have to be fast. But he did have a deadline. Pulled out the watch and checked the time, he had until the sun rose to finish. That gave him at least quite a few hours to work with. Turning a full 360 degree, he saw that the castle had a library. I guess I'll start there. Leaping from roof to roof, Thief made his way towards the castle. There were guards posted at every post along the wall. He couldn't make a flame-portal, it would attract way too much attention. Plus the distance made him unsure if it was actually safe to use one to get past the guards. Planning his approach, Thief made a quick alteration to his appearances, making it darker. Once done with that Thief took off again. He snuck up to the walls, practically hugging it.
In front of him, the shadow of the guard walked by. He waited, not knowing if there were more coming. But there wasn't for a minute or two. Then another pony, or maybe it was the same pony from earlier, walked by. And again Thief waited. He timed the intervals between each shadow. Once the next guard walks by, I'll have a hundred and twenty seconds to climb up and back down the wall. Then the shadow appeared once more, exactly two minutes after the previous one. Punctual. Once he saw the shadow, he started his ascent up the wall. Allowing himself to partially drop the disguise for the bottom of his hooves, allowing his natural hooves to feel the smoothly cut stone. His natural hooves secreted a sticky substance that allowed changelings to climb pretty much any and all surfaces.
Thief reached the edge of the wall just as the guard walked into a tower. He pulled himself up and checked to his left, right, and up for each. Nopony in sight. He moved over to the opposite edge and scanned, yet another, courtyard. There were guards patrolling down there too. These ponies really don't let much go to chance when it comes to security, do they? Or maybe this was all just for the royal wedding and considering his kind just invaded Canterlot, he could see why there would be an excessive amount of security. The faint sound of hoofsteps came to his attention, he realized he had wasted enough time already. With little time left, he swung himself over the railing and descended. More like he was free falling and grabbing the wall for a bit. It was much further down on this side than the front. He let go for the last few feet and landed in a bush. Convenient. Looking out from his hiding spot, Thief found the library tower of the castle.
Whilst planning his approach to it, a dark shadow flew over him. Looking up he saw the younger of the royal sisters, flying to a balcony with a telescope on it. Well, that put a wrench in his plans. With her there, he wouldn't be able to tell if it would be safe to cross unseen. He needed a distraction, or create one himself. Something bid, loud, or impossible to miss.
A devious grin appeared when he saw his distraction. Something like that. It was a big bell. On the other side of the courtyard, at the top of a five-story building. All he needed to do was get it to somehow go off. He couldn't get closer to it. If he could, he wouldn't need a distraction. Picking up a rock, he thought about trying his luck at chucking it at the bell. He dismissed the idea when he realized that he couldn't reach it with a rock. He tossed the rock to his side, only to hear it clank and plop . "What the?" Thief looked back to where he tossed the rock. There was a grate. He lifted the grate and looked down the hole. He heard the sloshing and splashing of water. But what nearly killed him was the smell. It was abhorrent. A sewer.
No way am I going down there. Then again, it could run under the castle. With a defeated sigh, Thief plugged his nose and climbed down the hole, placing the grate back.
The smell truly was going to be the death of him. The worst part? The sewer went in the direction opposite the castle. With the small chance that it might lead to somewhere with better positioning. Eventually, the sewer ended at another hole leading up. Climbing up, Thief lifted and moved the grate over. Peeking out of the ponyhole, Thief found himself alone in a spacious concrete area. Wooden boxes were everywhere. Some small, most his size, and some were bigger than his natural form. Deciding that it was safe, Thief climbed out of the sewer and took a closer look at the boxes. Lots were labelled This Side Up and some were labelled Fragile .
Then it hit him. He was in a museum storage area. Museum, those had lots of valuables. Deciding to reap the benefits, Thief walked over to the closest box and unsheathed his dagger. He wedged it between the side and top of the box and pushed down. To no avail. No matter how much force he put on the dagger, it just wouldn't open the box. Then he saw why it was the wrong side. Moving to the other side, he found a lock. Annoyed at the safety mechanism, he leaned into it for a closer look. He could easily just blast the lock to the badlands. But that would be loud, and he wasn't sure if whatever was in it would be worth the risk. There was a note attached to the lid, but it didn't state what was in the box, just that it was labeled A15, and from another museum in a place called Manehattan. Looking into the opening for the key, Thief saw it was a tumblr lock. If there was a key here, he could probably find it. But then the problem of if it went to this box. There were a few dozen boxes throughout the room. He pulled out the hairpins and bent one of them to a ninety-degree angle at the center, using the dagger, he scraped off the plastic at the straight end of the pin. This would be the actual pick. Next, he put the pick into the lock and forced it slightly to the side. This caused the end of the pick to bend. Then moving on to the second hairpin, Thief bent it so that the pre-bent section would fit into the lock, while the rest of it went down the outside of the lock. This served as the lever and force of tension.
When one thought about it for a minute, lockpicking isn't all that difficult to understand. In this particular type of lock, a standard pin and tumbler lock, there was a series of pins in the lock, each at a differing length. First, Thief inserted the lever in the bottom half of the lock, and then the pick into the upper half. All Thief had to do was force the barrel to turn using the lever, and fail at that purposefully. Now with friction to exploit, Thief could feel through the lock. He felt five pins. Now, here comes the tedious and tricky parts. Due to inherent imperfections in all locks, only one or two pins would ever bind against the barrel at the same time. Those are the seized pins. Moving the first pin up and down was easy, it gave no resistance. That wasn't the seized pin, as that was the one he needed to focus one. The freely moving ones could be ignored for the time. Moving on to the next pin, he began to push it up and felt resistance. That was the seized pin. Now he had to be quiet. Using only the feel of the pick against the pins and audible aids, Thief carefully forced the second pin up until he heard a soft click . That signified that the pin was set above the barrel, now a new seized pin was created. Thief made sure to keep constant pressure on the lever, keeping it forced to turn.
A sense of pride filled him as he heard a click! That was the sound of success. The lock now turned, it took him longer than expected as he mucked up and had to start over, but it was done. Opening the box he was disappointed to not find jewels or gold artifacts, but a black bow. A BOW! REALLY! What use do I have for that! He was about to slam down the lid when he remembered the bell. Taking a moment to think about it, he decided it could work. Taking the bow out, he dug through the box until he found it. A quiver full of arrows. He strapped the quiver to his belt and wrapped the bow around his back. He closed the lid, removed his tools, and reset the lock. He turned back towards the ponyhole.
Thief placed the grate back over the ponyhole and returned to his hiding spot in the bushes. Luna was still looking through the telescope. Pulling out the bow and notching an arrow, Thief aimed for the bell, pulled back the string, breathed in. And let go.
BBBOOOONNNNGGG!!!
The arrow flew true, and now with a distraction, he dashed across the courtyard and pulled himself up and into the window. The halls seemed empty enough. He walked up to the door. It was also locked. He pulled out the lever and pick, then stopped. Putting them back, he focused his magic, trying to sense if there was any pony in there. He sensed no emotions, none. Satisfied that it was safe, he focused his magic into a flame-portal. Green fire licked around him as the world looked as if it was tearing itself apart and reforming itself in front of his very eyes. The flames seceded and he found himself on the other side of the door. It worked! Thief had been able to flame-port himself onto the other side of the door. Now in the Canterlot library, Thief ran up to a shelf of books and started searching for a book on crystals. Then he found it. Titled Canterlot Crystallography. Cracking it open to the index, Thief scanned down until he found the Phantom Crystal's page. Oh please have a picture. Please have a picture. He flipped to the page, with a picture right there. Thank you. The picture depicted a small silver crystal. They got their name from when in ancient times, ponies believed them to be phantoms, not real, as they are extremely fragile. They are also completely useless, aside from being used as a light amplifier. They would crack as soon as somepony tried to cut or polish one, and they held no magical energies. Odd considering that was how crystals were formed. Another slight yawn escaped him.
A muffled voice from the hallway reached Thief's ears. "Prince Blueblood, do you need any help?" It was a rough and scruffy voice. So he got back quicker than I thought. Now with his mark nearby, Thief put the book back where he found it and turned his attention to the door. Once again focusing his magic, he could sense two different sets of emotions. One was of protectiveness, while the other was greed.
"No, I'm just fine on my own!" Blueblood responded. He seems to have sobered up. The sound of two sets of hoofsteps started and both grew ever softer. In different directions. Returning his attention to ghosting Blueblood, Thief looked around the room for another exit. He found an unlocked door and saw Blueblood walk past it, with his head up and a smug sense of superiority set about himself. Oh, Thief wasn't going to feel sorry for this jerk one bit. Once Blueblood had left his sight, Thief checked behind himself in case anypony was watching him. But what he saw was something better. On a pedestal, sat a small Phantom Crystal, it was keeping the room lit. Carefully using his magic to grab it, Thief softly placed it into his satchel.
He opened the door, slipped out, and closed it behind him. He lowered himself to the ground and slowly walked behind Blueblood. Keeping a decent enough distance from him to stay hidden, and close enough not to lose sight of him. When Blueblood turned around a corner and down a staircase. Hugging the wall, Thief watched him and, once he was out of sight, snuck up to the staircase. The stairs went down for a bit. Not wanting to be heard taking the stairs, Thief latched onto the wall and crawled along it. Eventually, the stairs ended and the floor was in sight. Sighing, Thief silently jumped down the last bit and checked his surrounding. Nopony in sight, expect for Blueblood. Grinning, he followed Blueblood into a vault of bits. Lots and lots of bits.
He may have been extremely tired, but Thief was more than overcome at the sight of all the bits. And in his excited state, he ran over to a pile of bits on a table and started to dump them into his bag. The bits made a loud jiggle when they fell.
"Uh?" Blueblood turned to face the sound. "A thief! Guards! I'm being robbed!" Thief looked up and realized his folly. He grabbed the Phantom Crystal and placed it on the table he just relieved of bits. Luckily, Blueblood was too cowardly to do anything. But the guards were not. Soon the sound of a dozen hoofsteps thundered down from the stairs, his only way out. Thief ran into the center of the stairs and looked up to see an army of guards charging down. Sweat dripped down from his head as he hastily tried to find a way out of this. Summing his magic, he tried flame-porting, but he couldn't concentrate, the thundering of hoofsteps rang through his ears. If I could move quickly enough and put enough force into each jump, I might be able to wall-jump up the open space in the center of the stairs. Hopefully. So, he started jumping from one railing to another. It was working, and he was quickly closing the distance between himself and the top of the stairs. He jumped over the last railing and took off towards the open window. But the sight of another group of guards standing out in the courtyard deterred him form the escape route.
All he could think of was putting as much distance between himself and the guards. He ran up a staircase and across another hallway, turning a corner, and seeing Luna blocking his path. "STOP!" she shouted out to Thief but he, obviously, didn't listen. Instead, he lowered his head and summoned a flame-portal. This way of using the portal was tricky, and he only saw some of the Zukal do it a few times. But at this point, it was the only viable option at his disposable. All he needed was a flat surface. The green flames licked around him. He focused on the alleyway by the Shrouded Drapes . Speeding up, Thief charged past Luna, who held a bewildered look, and right into a wall. A green flash emanated and Thief was gone. "How?"
The alley beside the Shrouded Drapes was quiet. A flash of green, with flames licking outward from a wall. Then Thief came charging out of the flames and skirted to a halt. Feeling himself all over, Thief jumped with glee. He had succeeded and now... and now he felt tired. The sun rose above the horizon and the adrenaline worth off. This left Thief tired and hurting all over in places he didn't know could hurt. With the little amount of energy he had left, Thief made his way back to his room. A flash of green and Garrett opened the door, put away the things he had, and plopped down onto the makeshift bed. Finally sleep. Sweet sweet sleep.
Tough Locke sat up and let out a yawn. The steel blue earth pony turned to his sleeping wife; the most beautiful mare in Equestria in his opinion. Smiling, he got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom. His black mane and tail were both all scraggy and messed up. "Hmm." Locke's brown eyes spied a single grey hair. His cutie mark consisted of a magnifying glass focusing on a broken lock.
"Well, look whose up already. And here I thought that was my job."
Locke looked back to his now awake wife. "Morning honey." He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "And, well today's my free day. I was thinking about taking the kids out to the park about lunchtime. What do you think?" A comb encased in an orange aura floated past Locke.
"I think that sounds great. I know you and Lily went out to the theater a few days ago, but when was the last time you spent some time with Max?" The comb pulled on Locke's mane.
"Uhh, I can't remember. He hasn't talked to me since the move. Has he talked to you any?"
"Hardly any. I think he just needs some time to adjust. He just had to move from all his friends in Manehattan after all." The comb now moved onto his tail, straightening it out nicely.
Locke turned back to his wife. "Thanks, Rosie." He gave her another quick peck on one cheek and the other cheek. "I'll go fix up some pancakes."
"Oh, no you don't have to..." But Locke was already down the hallway ready to fix up breakfast for his family. "I hope the kids aren't to hungry this morning," Rosie muttered to herself.
Locke flipped the pancakes for the last time and slid them onto a pair of plates. He placed them at the ends of the table along with the other two plates of pancakes.
"Mmm, I smell pancakes."
Locke turned around to see his daughter Lily standing in the doorway. She held her stuffed teddy bear and wiped the sleep out of her blue eyes with one hoof.
She hadn't gotten her cutie mark yet. Her coat was lime green, like her mothers, while her mane and tail were both white.
"Well, you smelled right," Locke looked past Lily and around the room "Where's your brother?"
"Still asleep I think. Want me to go wake him up?"
"Yeah, go wake up him up." Lily turned towards Max's room with a visible sense of pride in her stride, like she just got an order from the Princess's themselves.
"Max. Wake up." No response was given. Lily tried again, but still no response. Curious, Lily opened the door and stepped into his room. She walked over to his bed, incased the bedsheets in a blue aura, and yanked the sheets off the bed. Max gave a disgruntled groan.
"Lily..." came from Max in a sleep-deprived moan.
"Get up. Dad made breakfast." Max responded by grabbing the bedsheets back in his own blue magic and covered himself back up.
"I don't want to get up. I'm still sleeping."
"Maybe you wouldn't need to sleep in so late if you actually went to bed on time." Another groan. Lily yanked the window curtains open, letting the sunlight seep into the room. Max merely turned over and put his back to the window. Feed up with his reluctance, Lily clambered onto his bed and jumped up and down. The bed shock and shock, until she felt herself stop in mid-air.
"Fine, I'm up." Max looked his younger sibling in the eyes.
"Good." Lily gave a smug grin of victory. Max just rolled his eyes and set his sister down. Yawning, he followed her to the kitchen, where a serving of pancakes with black, burnt splotches was on the menu.
"Look who finally decided to join the land of the waking," Locke joked. Max gave no response, he didn't even look to his father. He just sat down at the table and started half-heartedly eating. Locke looked over at his son. It wasn't getting any better. He had been like this for almost a month and he wouldn't tell anypony what was bothering him. "Hey. Lily. Max. I was thinking that later today, a bit around lunch, the three of us could go out to the park together. What do you two think?"
Lily's eyes lit up at the suggestion. "We're going to the park! Yippee!" She practically jumped in her seat. Max, on the other hoof, gave no such response. No response at all.
"Max..." Locke began, but he was cut off by a knocking at the door. "Hmm? Who could that be?" Locke went to the door. The mailmare didn't bring the mail or deliveries until Sunday, not Saturday. Locke opened the door to find not the mailmare, but a pegasus from the precinct.
"Detective, I'm sorry to bother you on your day off, but there was a burglary at the Castle, and the commissioner wants you to examine the crime scene."
"Okay." The pegasus gave a nod and took off to the Castle. Locke closed the door and returned to the kitchen.
"Who was that daddy?" Lily asked, wiping some milk from her mouth.
"It was a co-worker from the precinct. The commissioner needs me at a crime scene today. So, I'm afraid we won't be able to go out to the park today Lily."
Lily put her head down and gave a disappointed "Aw."
"Hey, sweetheart, we'll still be able to go out somewhere for dinner tonight. How about that new cafe that opened up last week?" That lifted Lily's spirits.
"You just can never get away from work can you?" Rosie called from behind him.
"Well, duty calls. It was probably just another delinquent roaming around the Castle after public hours. See you later honey." Rosie gave Locke a kiss on the cheek.
"Good luck for my good Locke." With that, Locke was out the door and on his way to the precinct.
"Mommy, can you... um?" Lily shyly looked at Rosie.
"Make you some non-burnt pancakes? Sure." Rosie turned the oven back on and grabbed the pancake mix, humming all the while.
Tough Locke took a look at the crime scene, as in the whole of Canterlot Castle. The castle had been blocked off from the public for the investigation. The guards had been patrolling the entire castle when the burglary took place.
The commissioner led Locke to Blueblood's vault under the castle. "The perp made its way down here unseen and made off with a few hundred bits."
"Its?" Locke asked.
"Nopony got a good enough look at them to tell if it was a mare or stallion, or even a pony."
"Why such a small amount? I mean there's got to be a few tens of thousands of bits in here. Possibly more," Locke asked.
"Well, Prince Blueblood said he heard the perp behind him and turned to see them pouring the bits into a satchel bag and placing a small, clear white crystal in place of the bits it stole. CSI's looking over the crystal right now back at the precinct."
"Right, I know what to do, thanks for bringing me up to speed Steele." Locke turned and walked back up the stairs and over to the witnesses.
"We heard Prince Blueblood shouting about a thief and ran down the stairs, trying to cut it off. Only, when we got halfway down, the thief jumped from one railing to another and right past us. It ran down the corridor and turned a corner. I don't know what happened after that." the guard pony finished his recount of the incident.
"Thanks for corroborating," Locke said in a friendly tone. This was the third witness and all of them had practically the same thing to say. A pony in a dark cloak somehow evaded them and made its way to the upper parts of the castle and just disappeared. Locke let out a sigh, this was the weirdest case he had ever done. Or at least, it was high up there on the weirdness list.
"Detective," a voice asked from behind him.
"Yes," Locke turned to the voice and... it was Princess Luna. "Princess Luna!"
"I believe I have some information on the burglary that occurred last night. Would you follow me?"
"Can you give me a moment Princess?" Luna nodded. Locke turned to the forensic and motioned for him to follow. He turned back to Luna and nodded.
"I saw the thief it turned a corner and came into my sight, running as if its life depended on it. I ordered it to stop, but all it did was encase itself with green flames and ran right past me. I had never seen anything like it, and certainly nothing like what it did next. It kept running, right into a wall; in a flash of green fire, it disappeared. Here, this is where I saw it." Luna motioned to an empty hall.
"Hmm," the forensic mumbled confusedly.
"What is it? What did you find?" Locke turned to him.
"It's not what I found, but what I didn't find. If the perp was using a fire spell to mask themselves, then there should at least be some residual evidence. Like scorch marks and the likes. Only, none of that's here." The forensic pony turned to Locke.
"Nothing? None at all?" Locke asked in disbelief.
"None." He shook his head.
"Odd. Anyways, thank you for the information Princess Luna."
"There's one more thing, before the thief was seen, the bell out in the courtyard was rung. I'm not sure who did that, but I have the feeling that it was the thief. I have to get back to my sister now, good luck on the investigation." With that, Luna walked off.
The forensic pony looked over to Locke. "I'm Blazing Magnify, by the way, everypony calls me Blaze." Blaze was a red unicorn with an orange mane.
"Tough Locke, every pony calls me Locke. Did you check out the crystal that was left behind?"
"Yeah."
"What did you find out about it?"
"Well, it's a Phantom Crystal. But that's about it. We should probably check out that bell."
"Yeah."
Locke and Blaze had the guards section off the area around the bell. They were looking for something, anything that could give them a clue. The clue was found by Blaze. It was a black arrow. The two headed back to the precinct, where Steele was waiting for Locke.
"Locke, can I talk to you in my office?" Steele asked in an almost concerned way.
"Uh, sure." Locke wasn't sure what Steele was concerned about. Steele closed the door and sat down at his desk.
"Please, sit down." He motioned to a seat opposite himself. Locke took it. "I had a sketch artist work with multiple witnesses, and well, this is what she came up with ever time." Steele handed him a drawing of a cloaked figure. And another picture of the same cloaked figure, only in color and a name the Phantom Thief . "The colored picture was from a library, the records state that it had been there for a century or two. I know the history your family had with the Phantom Thief. Now, the reason I brought this to your attention is simple. I don't want you going obsessively after him like your great-grandfather did." Locke couldn't believe it. The Phantom Thief was the criminal that cost his great-grandfather his life, and now he was still alive. How? He just didn't understand.
Garrett blinked one eye and then both eyes. The sun was burning pain to them. No, it was really more of an annoyance than anything painful. He had woken up not too long after passing out, but that didn't matter, he didn't need to sleep for long to feel refreshed and revitalized. Last night's endeavor netted him a decently large number of bits. Now, what to spend them on? The question had been lingering in his head since he woke up. All he knew was that to survive here, he needed bits, but it only now occurred to him that he didn't know what he had needed them for. He didn't need to eat pony food to survive. Nor did he have any reason to waste them on fruitless and quickly-lost endeavors like personal comfort or entertainment. I need to do something though, it'd be a shameful waste not to do anything.
Deciding to explore Canterlot; Garrett put on the belt, removed the quiver, placed a bag of bits in its place, opened the door, and walked down the stairs. If he wanted to survive here, he would also need to memorize the layout and make connections. Without connections to sustain him with emotions, he would surely die. That pink pony from the party last night gave him a boost of emotions, but he'd burned right through them when making the flame-portals. Now, he was nearing an empty tank. While, yes he could survive without any intake of emotional energy for almost a full month before it affected him physically, it would completely cut off his magic; and that magic was what sustained his disguises. Unsurprisingly, it was rather difficult to drain ponies of their emotional energy when he looked like a giant evil bug. He turned down the cobblestone road and headed to the marketplace.
In his basic infiltration training, Garrett was taught to start building relationships quickly and efficiently. The best places to do this was in public places like the market or a park. As he thought back to his training; start simple, work on them consistently, but always plan out everything . The most powerful weapons to any changeling, be them simple a drone or the Queen herself, were their words and ability to sense emotions. The most skilled changelings could weave any conversation under into their grasps. The key was to catch on to the emotions of the others and use this knowledge to your advantage, something Garrett did fairly well, despite not being an Infiltrator. Ponies were naturally friendly, so Garret would have to mimic this attitude. Ugh. This is ridiculous. We changelings are the perfection of nature incarnate. I shouldn't have to butter up to them.
The number of ponies at the market was astonishing, Garrett knew that Canterlot, as the country's capital, had a large population. He just didn't realize it was this big, The streets were filled with so many ponies that it was impossible to walk through the sea of ponies without bumping into somepony. The sheer number daunted him. Maybe I should try somewhere else. Somewhere less... occupied. The park could do. Garrett turned and... realized he had no idea where the park was, or if Cantelrot even had one. Throwing away that plan, Garrett just headed into a cafe. At least, he thought it was a cafe. He realized his mistake when he opened the door and found an empty room, with just one in there. This wasn't a cafe, it was a pub. It was slightly dark in there. Honestly, Garrett liked it darker, it eased the pain his eyes felt when out in the sun. The place looked like it was falling on hard times, the only other pony there was probably the owner.
If a pony looked in here, they would see a business falling on hard times, but Garrett saw an opportunity. He thought it through his head. If he could help the owner, then he would be incredibly happy. Garrett could establish a connection and means to garner even more connections. The more connections he held, the more emotional energy he could feast on. Garrett walked over to the bar and plopped himself down on a stool. The other pony came over and introduced himself. "Welcome to The Pub Down By Moonlit Water. Now, what can I do for you?" The way he said that was a monotonous tone like he'd done this countless times before, and couldn't but accept the truth of it almost being the end of it.
Garrett quickly scanned the menu hanging behind the pony and chose something he could safely ingest. "Water... please."
"Three bits," Garrett pulled out three bits and placed them in front of himself. "One glass of water" -he took the bits "-coming right up," he turned behind him and levitated a cup near him as he selected the water tap. Water and other simple substances were harmless to ingest. Garrett took the time to look around the bar, seeing small cobwebs here and there, the barkeep put a cup of water in front of Garrett, pulling his attention away from the surrounding to the drink.
"Doesn't seem like business isn't booming?"
"Nope, hasn't been for a long time. The names Taproot."
"Garrett." Garrett took a sip of water.
"Well, that's an odd name." Not as weird as Taproot. Seriously, who names their children that?
"You from around here?"
Garrett looked up from his drink. "Huh? Oh, no I'm not."
"Where you from then?" Where am I from? I don't know any pony cities! Great, I'm about to... No, wait. I'm not from anywhere. I've traveled the world.
"I'm not from anywhere specifically. I've traveled the world mostly, not to any cities mind you, no I've gone to the hidden and more remote places in the world," Garrett took another sip of his drink to add in some drama. That was always good for a hidden backstory. "I've actually just moved here to Canterlot and looking for a place to work." He was partially truthful. If he didn't have a job but had a steady income of bits apparently from the ether, it would bring suspicion. And preying eyes was the biggest thing he wanted to avoid.
"Well I would say you could work here, but as you can see, there really isn't any business to afford the building's upkeep." That was just what Garrett wanted Taproot to say.
"What if I could convince someponies to come here for service?"
"Well, if you could do that, then yeah, I'd employ you." Upon hearing what he wanted to, Garrett put down his drink and got up.
"Well, you might want to get ready, I plan on bringing some customers."
Garrett already had a plan on how to get ponies into The Pub Down By Moonlit Water . All he needed was to run into somepony. Specifically, somepony with a drink and not surrounded by a group of others. Garrett saw them. Another unicorn he was... Fancy Pants! With a smug grin, Garrett went to get his "friends" attention. It would be easier to convince somepony he already knew to check out the pub than a random pony from the street. Timing his trot, Garrett knocked Fancy Pants right over. "Ow, sorry, I didn't hurt... Fancy Pants?"
"Garrett, I didn't expect to see you again this soon. But its a welcome surprise. What brings you out to the market today?"
"Just browsing," -Garrett gave a happy smiling, scolding himself internally for smiling, then pretending to now notice Fancy's spilled beverage "-Ohh, I'm sorry about your drink?"
"O don't worry about it, I'm fairly certain I can get another soon."
"No, I'm the cause of it spilling, so I owe you a new drink. Come with me, I know exactly where I can get you a new drink." Garrett turned and led Fancy Pants to the pub. Opening the doors, Garrett held them open for Fancy.
"A pub. Seems a bit informal doesn't it."
"Well, sometimes informal is good. Come on, your drink is waiting." Garrett paid for a sweet tea, whatever that was, and got a conversation in the pub started between himself, Fancy, and Taproot. It wasn't too difficult to subtly bring up the future of the pub if the business didn't start to go better. Now, all Garrett had to do was wait.
Tough Locke exited Steele's office, more confused than he had ever been in his entire life. Was this a vengeful spirit, the actual Phantom Thief survived the cave-in, or was this somepony else completely taking up the identity to use as a cover. He didn't know. The Phantom Thief cost his great-grandfather his life, then why was he alive when his great-grandfather dead?
"Hey, Locke." Locke looked up to see Blaze waving a hoof to him.
"Hey, Blaze. What is it?"
"I was wondering if you could help me unpack a few things in my lab upstairs. Nothing too big." Blaze gave a smile.
"Sure." That should help me think about something else.
The two of them spent almost an hour organizing the boxes themselves. Blaze had insisted on it; he claimed that if they first organized the boxes, then it would make the actual unpacking a whole lot easier. And it was. Once they organized everything they started to unpack the boxes of... science stuff. They made small talk all the while.
"Locke, have you been living here in Canterlot long?" Blaze asked.
"Hm. Oh, no. My family and I recently moved here from Manehatten."
"What for?"
"I was offered a higher pay for working here than back in Manehatten. Plus my daughter, Lily, is incredibly skilled at magic; she was able to perform a teleportation spell at just five. Granted, it was just an apple from the opposite side of a table, but still. Anyway, my wife's brother offered to teach Lily in magic and he lives here in Canterlot."
"Oh. Well, how was it? Living in Manehatten I mean."
"It was nice once you get over the constant sound of wagons, carts, and ponies walking day and night. My wife, Rosie, grew up in Manehatten; I grew up on my family's farm not too far away from Appleloosa. I moved to Manehatten to attend college there. That's when I met Rosie, she helped me find my way around Manehatten." Locke finished his story and placed a clear, dry-erase board beside one of the tables.
"I think that's the last box," Blaze looked around the room for any more boxes, finding none. "Yep, it is."
"So, Blaze" -Locke leaned back onto a table desk- "how long have you been a forensic scientist?"
"Not long. Actually, this is my first job as one."
"Hmm, our last forensic scientist had to move to Baltimare to be closer to his family. I'm guessing that because he was our only forensic, you were assigned here when he left. Am I right?"
"Yep."
"What school did you attend for forensic training?"
"Well, first I attended college in Cloudsdale, where I majored in Chemistry and Biology; then, after I graduated, I attended the nearby University of Cloudsdale and received my masters in forensic science there. It helps that my mother is a biologist and my father is a chemist."
"It's like you were made to be a forensic scientist."
"Yeah, it does seem that way."
"Anyway, it's been nice to meet you Blaze. But I've got to go, I'm supposed to be meeting my brother-in-law in a while."
"Alright, see you later then."
Lily fell back onto Max's bed, groaning. Her brother was sitting in his desk chair, mixing up a Rubik's Cube. "I'm bored. Let's go do something Max," Lily said, breaking the silence.
"Dad said he was going to take you to the new café later. I'm pretty sure you can wait," Max retorted to his little sister. "And he just left. It's going to be a few hours before he gets back at best. Here," Max tossed the Rubik's Cube over to Lily. She caught it in her magic and examined it closely. Max looked over at the clock on his desk, watching it. "And-" Max stared at the clock until the seconds' stick hit the twelve "-go."
Lily immediately set at twisting and turning the cube's sides. "Do you think we'll be able to see Uncle Crocus soon?"
"I don't know. He works at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, so he probably has work to do," Max replied. The older unicorn picked up a dart and took aim at the dart board. Throwing the dart to hit the thin line between the center circle and the ring layer beside it.
"Done." Lily held up the Rubik's Cube triumphantly. As soon as he heard her say it, Max looked back at the clock.
"Oh, it took you one minute and thirty-two seconds. Just four seconds away from a new record. Sorry, sis." Max looked back to Lily.
"It's okay." Lily tossed the cube back to her older brother and laid back on the bed. "You know, since its going to be a few hours before Dad gets back, you and I could go to the park." She looked eagerly at her older brother. Hoping that he would say yes. Please say yes, please say yes.
Max looked over at Lily, who had practically had puppy dog eyes. "Sure," Max said affectionately rolling his own eyes at this ridiculous attempt of an emotional tug at his heart. It was a nice-looking day after all. Max placed the Rubik's Cube onto his desk. Lily hopped off his bed. No, not hopped isn't right. It was more like she bounded off the bed with an amount of exuberant energy only found in stars. Yeah, that's more like it.
"Mommy," Lily called out.
"Yes, Lily. What is it?" Rosie replied back.
"Max and I are going out to the park."
"Okay, thanks for telling me. And stay with your brother. And Max, don't let her out of your sight, okay?"
Max shifted his legs slightly, thought about something for a moment, and opened his mouth to reply. Lily, took notice of all this and cut him off before he could utter a single syllable. "Don't worry mommy, I won't let him out of my sight." Max let out a sigh and looked over at her. Mouthing the words thank you . Lily skipped over to the door and opened it easily. Max followed her out the door, closing it behind him.
Max and Lily walked around the park for a good while. The two didn't exactly know what to do there. Lily just wanted to do something other than laying down doing nothing. Max wanted to get out of the house for a while. Neither of them knew anypony there and nopony interacted with them. But, they didn't mind.
The two walked in silence along a trail, with Lily following the birds chirping and flying. Trees stood tall and proud on both sides and a cool wind blew past them, bending and waving the trees. Soon the dirt trail gave way to an opening with a playground set with a dozen or so foals climbing all over it. Lily's eyes widened into continents. She turned to Max, behind her, gleefully. Max nodded.
Lily bounded into a run towards the playground set. Max taking a personal pace himself. Lily reached the playground and started to climb up the stairs to the slide, only to be stopped by a trio of fillies. All were a little older than Lily but still younger than Max.
"And who said you could come onto our playground." one filly spat.
"Huh?" Lily asked confusingly. "What do you mean?"
"What do we mean? Did you hear that Teri." one of the fillies retorted.
A pegasus, presumably Teri, smirked. "Yeah, this little baby hasn't even earned her cutie mark. She probably needs to be told the rules. Des, why don't you tell this blank the rules."
"The rules are simple. If you don't have a cutie mark, you don't get let in," Des, an earth pony, glared at Lily.
"You can just turn your little blank flank back around and run on home to your mommy and daddy." the final bully, a unicorn, pushed Lily down the small set of stairs. Lily was fighting back tears now. Her foreleg let out a tiny trickle of blood. The group of bullies laughed at her misfortune.
"HEY!"
"What now?" Teri stopped laughing long enough to see a very angry Max, stomping over to them.
"You do NOT hurt my sister like that." Max put himself between Lily and her tormenters. "She did nothing to deserve that."
"Oh. He didn't just tell you what to do, did he Lotus," Des mocked to the other bullies.
The one who pushed Lily, Lotus, simply smirked. "Oh, he is going to regret that," Lotus whispered. "Oh, but she had every reason to deserve that. She was trying to get into our playground without a cutie mark. And you don't have one either. So, what are you going to do? Side with the loser or walk away."
"Nopony hurts my sister," Max said through gritted teeth.
"So be it. Your mistake." with that, Lotus encased Max in her magic and tossed him to the ground. Hard.
"You are nothing but a... a... Lily?" Max turned to his sister. Sniff . She was crying. "Lily." Max reached a hoof out to her, but she was up and running before he could comfort her. Max gave chase, following her blindly through the trees.
Lily finally stopped running and fell to the ground. She then just let it all out. She sat there sobbing alone. She stayed there alone for a few minutes. "Oh my," a voice near her called out. Lily looked up to see a unicorn looking back down to her. "Are you okay, my dear?" He noticed her bleeding hoof. "No, you're hurt. Here, let me help you with that." He bent down and pulled out a small rag out of the satchel he was wearing. He wrapped it around her scrapped leg. "There, better now?"
Lily stopped sniffling long enough to nod. "Yes, thank you, mister."
"Don't worry. Can you move it?" His voice was calm and assuring.
"I think so." Lily moved her leg forward and back, wincing at the pain. "It hurts when I move it though."
"Does it hurt inside or on the skin?"
"On the skin."
"Good, that means you didn't twist anything. Now, how did this happen?"
"A group of meanies wouldn't let me play on the playground set because I don't have a cutie mark, then the pushed me down. After that, my brother told them to quit it, but they just bullied him too."
"Well, is that your brother?" he pointed a hoof to something behind Lily. She turned around to see Max running over to her.
"Lily, are you okay?" Max asked as soon as he reached her.
"I am now, thanks to this nice mister."
"Thank you, mister... Uncle Crocus."
The unicorn shifted his glasses and his eyes widened. "Max!" Crocus then looked down at Lily. "That means you must be Lily." Crocus smiled at the two. "I haven't seen either of you in... who knows how long. The last time I saw you, Lily, you were still learning how to crawl." Crocus looked around. "Is Rosie with the two of you?"
"No, just me and Lily here." Max rubbed Lily's head. "What are you doing out here Crocus?"
"Oh, I always take a walk down here. It helps me clear my mind."
"Uncle Crocus, Max said you worked at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, do you?" Lily asked her uncle, looking at him with wonder in her eyes.
"Yes, I do. Would the two of you like to see my classroom?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Lily responded excitedly.
"Max?"
"Sure," Max answered.
"Well, follow me."
Turns out, Fancy Pants holds a large amount of sway over the popular opinion of the ponies of Canterlot. Once a few ponies noticed him in Taproots pub, they were attracted to it like moths to a flame. Ponies are simple-minded enough that all it takes is a well-known face for them to praise a place like a holy site.
Taproot taped on Garrett's shoulder. "I really didn't think you could actually do it, but you somehow did." The feelings of appreciation coming off of him were tasteful. "Well, you held up your end of the bargain so I'll hold up my end of the bargain. You can start helping me out tomorrow."
"Okay," Garrett answered back. Taproot returned to serve his patrons. Now, on to some other things. Garrett exited the pub and made his way down a street side. He wasn't searching for anything in particular, just... something. Something of interest. Something... like that. It was a library. He didn't remember a single thing about pony history, a library would be the perfect place to rectify that. Garrett walked into the old building. The building was wasteful. There was a big open spot that reached up to the top of the building, about three stories, and had nothing occupying it other than a circular shelf/desk thing that shorter than his abysmal disguise.
Everything about this place was wasteful, many books just stated the same thing over and over again, and others just copied the one before it. There were entire sections of the building dedicated to fashion, one for sports, architecture, geology, geography, linguistics, mathematics, science, literature, nature, biomes. You name it, there was a section for it. All except for the interesting subjects. Destructive and complex magics weren't even in the library. Those were held somewhere else. It didn't matter, that wasn't what he was searching for. Garrett finally found the section on history and... it was vague and complex. Equestria wasn't formed until the three different tribes united to fight off the windigos. The ponies were actually quite hostile and aggressive to one another in the past. The princesses united Equestria under a single ruler. Changelings weren't all that different in how they acted. If the Queen died, then the Hive would fall into disarray and chaos as changelings grabbled for the leader position left vacant in the power vacuum.
An entire section on Equestrian Military? Yes, please.
Garrett searched through the many, many books on the Equestrian Military. They were... pathetic to put it lightly. But that was when they were individuals. The ponies greatly outnumbered every other creature in the world. And what they lacked in strength, they made up for in ingenuity. They didn't need to overpower their foes, just outlast them. They created ships that flew in the air with wings or magic, and the train could transport goods or ponies to a variety of locations. What would it be like if ponies went to war? Garrett didn't want to think of that anymore. He had no doubt that the ponies were a formidable prey.
Crocus opened the door to his classroom and Lily gasped. The place was amazing.
"I take it that you like it?" Crocus asked jokingly.
"Wow," was all Lily could manage.
"Well, first let's take a closer look at that scrap," Crocus picked up Lily and sat her down on his desk. Max walked up to a blackboard with dozens of theories and laws written all over it. "That's tomorrow's lesson," Crocus opened a drawer and pulled out a small first-aid kit. He unwrapped the bandage from earlier and applied some sort of cream to it and wrapped a new bandage over it. "There."
"Thanks."
"You know, I was supposed to meet the two of you and your father at a cafe later today."
"Daddy's at work right now. They called him in because of an emergency."
"Hmm, what time does he get off?"
"We don't know. It was his supposed to be his free day off and they called him in last minute," Max replied.
"Well, I say we go see him at the cafe in a bit. You two don't go anywhere, I've just got to get a few things."
Crocus led his niece and nephew through the crowded streets of Canterlot. They finally came to a stop and Crocus led them into a building.
"Alright, this is where your father should be." Crocus looked at the ponies sitting at tables. None looked like Locke.
"Crocus, its good to see you. The usual?" one of the waiters asked.
"Uh, oh. No, I'm just waiting for somepony." The three ponies took a seat at a booth. The waiter came up to Crocus again.
"Well, who are these little ones?"
"There my niece and nephew. Lily and Max."
"Well, it's nice to meet the two of you. I'm Hill Song." Hill smiled at the two foals. "Crocus, why do I get the feeling that you didn't offer them anything to have while they're here?"
"Well, what do the two of you want?"
"Are there frosty's?" Lily asked as if she'd been waiting all day for one, which, she probably was.
"Yes, they have frosty's. What about you Max?" Crocus asked. Max politely shook his head no.
"So, one frosty. What flavor?" Hill asked.
"Chocolate!"
"One chocolate frosty coming right up." Hill turned around and left towards the kitchen.
"Uncle Crocus, how come you never visited us before?"
"Well, I'm just always working and working at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns doesn't leave me with a whole lot of time for anything else," Crocus answered. A younger blue pegasus walked up to the table with a chocolate frosty.
"Sorry, but my sister is dealing with an obnoxious customer. But, here's your chocolate frosty," the pegasus said. Both Lily and Max looked confusingly at her. "What?"
"This is Rain Song, Hill's little sister. She helps her sister work here. Thanks, Rain," Crocus quickly cleared up the confusion.
"Oh," both Lily and Max said in unison. Lily focused her attention on the treat in front of her. She quickly started slurping up the frosty, forgetting what happens when you quickly drink something ice cream.
"Does your family not feed her?" Crocus asked jokingly.
"Nope," Lily answered, humoring Crocus for a while. She then returned to the frosty.
"We do feed you."
Crocus looked back towards the entrance to see Locke standing, smiling.
"Come on over and sit down." Crocus motioned for Locke.
"AHH, brain freeze."
Locke hadn't expected to see his children at the cafe when he met up with Crocus. When he sat down, he couldn't help but chuckle at Lily's brain freeze.
"So, when did you two meet Uncle Crocus here?" Locke looked over to his children.
"We ran into him at the park earlier. Ahh," Lily squeezed her head in a vain attempt to relieve the cold pressure she was experiencing.
"What were the two of you doing at the park?"
"We went to do something, anything other than sitting around doing nothing." The brain freeze finally seceded and Lily returned to enjoying the frosty, slowly this time.
Garrett walked down the street back to his makeshift home. The sun was lowering herself in the sky. He had spent Queen knows how long looking up anything in that library. Most of it was junk. The books about something useful were far and few while the number of those books that weren't outdated and held any actually prudent information were even fewer. He eventually gave up on finding anything that way and headed on to his home.
A new problem presented itself to him. The Shrouded Drapes was marked for demolition. The crews of workers and demolition experts made that evident enough. He couldn't let them see him going inside. That would lead to a multitude of questions, like why was he living in there, who was he, and how long he'd been living there. Those were questions Garrett had rather leave unasked. He dipped into an alleyway and focused his senses. The world around him darkened and the only sight was of glowing colors of emotions in the shape of the ponies. They were going from room to room, clearing them out and were getting close to his room.
The world snapped back into focus and Garrett peeled his false skin off, and in its place grew Thief's skin. Thief put his hooves against a wall. Forming a flame-portal, he transported himself into his room. Now, all he had to do was get his stuff out of the room quickly and, preferably, without being seen. Easier said than done. Much easier. The biggest obstacle was the drawer, it was too big to flame-port.You know, I really don't need that anyway. Thief dumped all the bits and belongings into the satchel bags and put the quiver of arrows on the satchel belt along with the bow. He could hear the hoofsteps now. And they were getting closer. Rushing himself, he formed a flame-portal. Thief could see the door open and one worker look inside right as Thief's surroundings changed from the hotel room and into the alleyway across the street. "Great, now I don't have anywhere to hide," Thief muttered to himself.
The housing problem would need to be remedied fast. He could just hide in another abandoned hotel but ultimately decided against it. He was lucky enough to make it back in time to get his stuff out and he didn't want to tempt that luck any more than needed. The universe could be a cruel, cruel mistress. I need to hide somewhere in Canterlot and near the pub. And the Phantom Crystals, I'll need to find a supply of those too. And I can't be seen near the castle, it would be suicide to do so. Too many guards. So, he needed to find a secure location that was out of the way of the pony population, yet still close enough to them for food. The pegasus of Canterlot were placing clouds in the sky around the city. Probably for a rainstorm. Why do these ponies need to regulate the weather? Us changelings easily lived without controlling nature. Let the rain come when it wants to, not when you want it to. Stupid ponies. Thief took in a look of his surroundings and found himself staring at a small black bird that was staring back at him. A raven. "Shoo," Thief motioned for the raven to go away, but it remained. "Shoo, go away. What do you want?" It actually responded.
The raven flew up and onto Thief's back and pulled out one of the arrows. It then took off with it. "Hey, that's mine!" Thief gave chase, following the raven down the street and into another alleyway. This alleyway lead right to a dead-end. The mountain that Canterlot was suspended on. I've got you now. Only, he didn't have it. The raven flew down a crevice in the side of the cliff and into a dark abyss. Really! Thief followed the raven down the darkness and into a... a mine. An abandoned mine. Thief couldn't see two feet in front of himself. He closed his eyes, and reopened them, now with his natural eyes. The darkness faded away to reveal the raven perched on a rock, with the arrow still in its mouth. "Now, stay still and give me back my arrow." The raven flew a bit further away and placed the arrow down in front of a crystal. Thief walked over and retrieved his arrow. And then he saw what the raven was trying to show him.
A Phantom Crystal. No, many Phantom Crystals. "Wow."
Three months. Three months had passed since the first robbery by the mysterious Phantom Thief. It hadn't been long before the next, and then the one after that, so-on and so forth. Always done in the dark of night and every time all that was left behind was a Phantom Crystal. Thief got better and better at the entire thing. After the first few times, it started becoming easy, too easy. Borderline boring, at least for that first month.
And while Thief was robbing the ponies of Canterlot blind, Garrett was learning the ins and outs of pony society. He learned, the hard way, that there were a plenty of things that were socially acceptable, socially unacceptable, and twice as many social expectations as those previous two combined. The number was ridiculous. Garrett had to appear clean, smell clean, and keep himself clean. He was expected to be friendly at all times and to not lash out in fury, even when the pony was being incredibly stupid. He was constantly screaming in his own head. Then there were the things he was not to do. He wasn't to pick on foals, the elderly, the poor, really anypony. He was to give to the poor. That last one was difficult. For a while, he couldn't tell if who was poor and who wasn't. And he couldn't ask, as that was socially unacceptable, and so the cycle continued. But, the reward for being generous was well worth it. The ponies practically radiated affection when Garrett gave them bits. And as the days turned to night and day again, Garrett found himself actually getting better and better at the cunning social manipulations found in Infiltrators. And he wasn't even an Infiltrator. Taproot's pub did better and better as well. Business boomed, and that made Taproot quite happy, which made Garrett happy at receiving a nice meal in turn.
Lily had started seeing Crocus more and he was teaching her how to use her magic in incredible ways. She loved it. Mainly spending time with her uncle, but the magic tutoring was nice also nice. Max, however, was just the same. He didn't talk to Locke and barely talked to anypony else as far as Locke knew. In truth, Max talked to Lily regularly and Crocus too. While his two kids were enjoying themselves, Locke himself hadn't been so lucky but he was managing. Every burglary now seemed to be caused by the Phantom Thief. Like the Phantom Thief was haunting him, but he refused to allow himself to become obsessed but he wasn't going to ignore the burglaries either. He had a map of Canterlot and pins at every location the Phantom Thief hit. He couldn't see a single sliver of a pattern on it. The only thing in common was that the Phantom Thief was getting bolder with each successful strike.
One thing he didn't know was that there was more than one Phantom Thief.
One day, about two months ago, Garrett walked into Taproot's pub and started to get to work. It wasn't all that much, he just went around to tables, taking the orders of the patrons, and serving them; rinse and repeat. Was it monotonous? Mostly. He did meet some interesting ponies while doing it. Was it humiliating? Yes, but he didn't let that show. Was it worth the food given? Absolutely. Strangely enough, even just by serving the ponies their food, they gave off large amounts of affection. And not all of it was bad. It was a good way to catch up on the latest news and occurrences in Canterlot. Only one bit of news had caught him way off guard.
"I heard the Phantom Thief robbed the museum over on Belford Dr.," Garrett nearly tripped over himself when he heard that. I didn't rob any museum last night. In fact, I didn't rob anyplace last night. They must be mistaken.
"Were they sure it was the Phantom Thief?"
"Positive, one of the guards got a good look at him, and swears that it was the Phantom Thief." Okay, I need to find out more about this. Of course, he couldn't just ask them about it, that would be suspicious. Then he started digging. Not literally. Garrett found out quite a bit. This copycat thief had robbed a museum last night, during the last parts of the open hours. The time when there were the most guards during the night other than sunrise. They then stole a golden diamond-eyed cat statue. It was stupid, whatever it was. During the middle of a tour no less. It was a humiliation. So, another Phantom Thief. And they're trying to upstage me? I don't think so. So then began the glorious thievery rivalry! Well, not that glorious but still. Garrett decided that he was going to go bigger. He was going to steal a diamond from a museum and place it in the princess's bedroom. That ought to show them who's the true Phantom Thief.
After his shift was done, Garrett headed straight home. He walked along a sidewalk for a few minutes and turned down an alley. He almost passed a group of homeless ponies. He stopped and looked at the family. None of the ponies were related to each other, but he noticed that they looked out for each other almost more than an actual family would. In a sense, they were just like changelings. No changeling knew who their biological father was, only that the Queen was their biological mother but they still looked out for one another. Garrett looked to his satchel and pulled out a handful of bits and gave them to the ponies. They graciously accepted the donation without saying a word. In fact, they didn't need to. Even without the ability to sense emotions, anypony could understand everything by the looks. Those looks of unfortunate ponies receiving such a gift said things that no words never could. No matter how many times he saw it, it always fascinated him. An entire conversation told in the span of a few seconds using only two or three looks. That was the best part. Garrett walked on and turned down another corner.
"Officially", the room wasn't being rented. Garrett just took all the keys to the room, dropped a small pouch of bits in their place, and stayed there. He never met the landlord face-to-face, and they never tried to meet him. It was a mutually-beneficial relationship. Garrett had a place to stay and hide his stuff that wasn't under any threat of inspection or demolition and the landlord got a free worker for the building's systems. They'd occasionally leave a note under the door to the room that would detail problems, like the water heater not working or the electrical system was on the fritz. Garrett stopped before a dead-end with dumpsters on the sides. He checked around to make sure nopony was able to see him. Once satisfied, he moved a dumpster over and revealed a locked basement door. Garrett pulled out the key and unlocked the door.
Garrett locked the door behind him and closed his eyes. The eyes of a changeling replaced them. Now able to see, Garrett walked over to the actual front door. He never used it. He pulled out a paper from underneath it and turned to light a candle. A green flame sprouted up and Garrett reverted to pony eyes.
The water pipes aren't working at full force again. The lights on the second floor won't turn on.
Garrett placed the note on a desk and put away the bits he earned. He kept the bits he earned from the pub and the bits he earned from thievery separate. He mainly paid for things with the stolen bits. He had more of those and didn't really need anymore to gain from stealing. The legitimately-earned bits were for emergencies. Garrett opened another door and pulled out a wrench. He walked over to the water pipes and took a look at the pressure. He knew the problem was from a pipe that could only be reached down here. The landlord had other workers for the rest of the building, and Garrett kept the things in the basement working. If it was from a different pipe, they would've gotten it fixed already. The pressure was too low. He tightened the nozzle a bit and the pressure returned to normal. The nozzle occasionally loosed itself, it was that old. With that done, he turned to the electrical panel. He flipped open the door and saw the problem, one of the wires had burned out. Garrett pulled out the two ends of the burnt wire and pulled out a box of other wires. He compared the burnt wire to the others, finally finding one that was the same type as the burnt one. Connecting the new wire, Garrett threw away the burnt wire and closed the panel. He turned to note and burned it up. No loose ends.
Da'rak, disguised as a random pony, walked through the museum doors and made mental notes of everything. Using his natural Psionic abilities to sense for magical barriers and hidden runes, the security guards and their paths, the security cameras, and the location of any possible points of entry.
That night, Thief made his way into the museum and replaced the diamond with a Phantom Crystal. The glass separating him from the diamond was enchanted. If he tried to physically remove the glass, alarms would blare. Instead, he telekinetically rose the entire podium. Once it was high enough, he moved the podium down, leaving the glass alone. No alarms. Slipping the diamond into his satchel and a Phantom Crystal onto the podium, Thief placed everything back and crawled out through the sewer system. That had become his favorite means of escape, nopony ever went down there. Now, he just needed to place it in Luna's room. Luna was awake during the night, more of a challenge. He flame-ported close to the castle and climbed the wall. The courtyard again. Good memories. He sprinted across it and hugged the tower wall. Placing one hoof in front of the other, he climbed up the tower.
Two guards stood in front of Luna's room. They needed to be removed. Thief peeked his head over the window ledge and levitated a small rock up to himself. Tossing it down the hallway gave the desired result. The two guards checked it out, leaving the door unchecked. Thief pulled himself up and pulled out his lock picking tools. One would think that the princesses would have custom designed and unique locks to their rooms. They don't. Instead, they use standard issue locks. Unlocking the door, Thief slid in and quietly closed the door behind him. Turning back to the room... he could see Luna. She was sitting on a balcony right outside her room. Well, that makes things harder. I think. Maybe. Thief walked over to a table, wrote a small note and placed the diamond on top of it. He heard the hoofsteps behind him. Spinning around, he could see the flowing mane before the head attached to it became visible.
Frantic, he looked around the room for someplace to hide. The wardrobe was too far away. The door was in her line of sight. Then he saw the bed. The idea was stupid, but considering his other options, he went for it. He dropped to the floor and crawled under the bed. He saw four dark blue hooves walk towards him. She saw me! I'm dead. I'm dead! She hadn't seen him. Instead, she yawned and got into her bed. With Thief hiding underneath it. Well, this is just perfect! Thief propped his head up on one of this hooves and waited, and waited, and then... he waited some more. He didn't want to risk crawling out from under the bed and find that Luna wasn't asleep, so he was stuck. Great, I'm stuck under the bed of the Dark Demon. Just great. Eventually, out of pure boredom, Thief drifted off the sleep.
Thief woke up and nearly hit his head on the bed above him. It took a few moments for him to remember where he was. The sun shone through the open balcony doors and, deciding that it was worth the risk, Thief puts his hooves on the floor and formed a flame-portal leading right to his house. After Thief passed through the flame-portal, Luna shot up groggily awakened.
"Who's there?" Luna asked.
Finally home, Thief hastily peeled off his skin and replaced it with Garrett's skin. Garrett placed the bows and arrows in their hidden spot and put some bits into his satchel. He ran to the door and opened it, hiding the entrance back as well. He was running late. Making his way to Taproot's pub, Garrett wondered what the royal guards will think once they find the recently-stolen diamond on the princesses desk. He stopped in front of Taproot's pub and walked in to start his work day. He made it just in time. He didn't get much affection from being late after all.
"Garrett." Taproot waved to Garrett.
"Hey, Tap." Garrett walked over to the tables and started to move the chairs down to the floor. The daily routine was good for Garrett. It allowed him to think on other things, will still appearing to the ponies to be doing something. The two worked in an silence only they could understand. Tap found out pretty quick that if Garrett had something on his mind that he wanted to talk about, then he'd tell him. Once all the chairs were set, Garrett flipped the door sign. A new workday begins.
Locke sat down in Blaze's workspace, starring at a map of Canterlot. Dozens of pins covered the board. Blaze walked over and placed a pin. Between that pin and the one at antiriot Castle, he strung a single string. "What connection is there between those two robberies?" Locke jumped up and over to the board. Blaze nearly jumped at Locke's franticness with the question.
"This museum was robbed, and they found the diamond, in Princess Luna's room. And a note was attached to it," Blaze answered.
"What did the note say?" Locke asked confused.
Blaze turned to Locke. "It said, and I quote, This castle needs better security, this is the second time I've broken into it on a whim. "
"On a whim? So, you're telling me that neither this break-in nor the first were planned. They were both done on the spot?"
"Sounds like they weren't."
"You've got to be kidding me." Blaze shook his head in response.
After that one burglary, Thief and the Copycat formed an unspoken rivalry; each one trying to one-up. It got to a point where neither of them were stealing for the monetary values of them, and instead they stole them simply because it was difficult. When that became easy, they started to steal and then put the stolen items in hard to reach places. An antique diamond-encrusted necklace on top of Canterlot Castle; a new type of uncrackable safe being shown at an expo-a, empty one minute and a Phantom Crystal found in the next minute and it was closed and locked tight. But no matter how many times Thief went out at night to steal, he never once saw the Copycat.
Their rivalry could've gone on for years and it seemed like it might. Until one day last month.
Garrett was passing a newspaper stand when the front article caught his eyes. He took a closer look and did his best to hide his shock. No, no, no, NO!
Locke entered the precinct and was nearly trampled by a sudden influx of officers into the elevator. He squeezed out of the elevator and looked around. The entire place was in what could best be described as a hysterical panic. Locke made his way to the commissioner. "Steele, what's going on? What's with all the ruckus?"
"Officer Shield is no longer with us," Steele stated with a bold but clearly shaken tone. He had seen too many of his men fall in their line of work and Officer Shield had been his good friend, with him all the way from kindergarten to the police academy. "Now Locke, I want you to come with me to the scene."
Locke and Steele ducked under the police tape and looked up at the rope hanging from the balcony. A cover was placed over the body, small puddles of blood lay beneath the rope. "Officer Shields was found up there-" Steele pointed to the rope, "-at 0-716 today." Locke did his best to bury a gag. He never wished to see a body, especially not one of his fellow officer. Blaze approached the two ponies. He had gloves covering his wings and hoofs.
"W-where is the witness that found him?" Locke asked, his face felt cold and his stomach constantly lurched.
"He was taken to the precinct earlier," Blaze answered.
"Steele, why did you bring me here? I'm not Equicide. I don't investigate... I don't deal with this."
"I know Locke. I brought you here not because of what happened here, but because of who did it." Steele looked back to face Locke. "We believe the Phantom Thief is the perpetrator."
Thief snapped his bow and quiver to his belt and slid his dagger into its slot. He looked at himself in a mirror. "Hmmm," he mused to himself. He altered his disguise a bit. He made himself equal to his natural height.
Princess Luna entered her room. It was dark, all the lights were out and it was night outside. She closed the door behind her. Then she saw it. The Phantom Thief standing in her room. She turned to call out to the guards when the Phantom Thief spoke in a deep commanding voice, "Call for any help and you will never know the identity of the one that killed the officer last night."
"You were the one to kill him. You..." Luna started.
"That was not me." He declared without Think about it. If I had been the one, why would I come to you defenseless?" Luna then took notice of the bow and quiver of arrows in front of her, along with an ornate dagger. "Listen to me. I am not the killer."
"All evidence points to it being you, how do you explain that?" Luna paced around the room, circling the Phantom Thief.
"I am many things; a thief, archer, and only one of my kind, but I am not a murder. And I'm not the only Phantom Thief. There is at least one other Phantom Thief, a Copycat. I know not who. But I plan on finding out. And you are going to help me."
"And why should I believe you, much less help you?" Luna asked with disdain.
"There is no reason for you to believe me. I have nothing to use against you, nor anything you desire. But you do have my word."
"A thief's word means nothing !" Luna nearly shouted out. The two silently stared at one another; listening for any ponies that could possibly be checking on the disturbance. A minute passed by, then five more minutes.
Phantom Thief spoke again, "Princess Luna, I am not trying to making you help me. I am asking you. But if you do not agree, the true killer will simply roam free, unhindered."
"And why do you care so much about them killing? Wouldn't them remaining loose just divide the attention after you?"
"I have a code. High on that code is to never kill, I may knock-out or injury but never fatally wound; puts too much heat on me. If you want to help me, meet me at the museum on 3rd Hooves Avenue tomorrow night. I'll be waiting. And come alone, I'll know if you have others with you." The Phantom Thief retrieved his weapons and arrows and walked to the balcony.
"And what makes you so certain that I won't simply tell the police?" Luna quickly asked.
"Nothing." He jumped up onto the balcony railings and turned his head to face Luna. "I'm taking a 'leap of faith' if you will." With that, he jumped off the balcony and to the dark ground below. Luna stood in her room, contemplating on what to do. On one hoof, she could alert the police and they'd be able to capture the Phantom Thief; on the other hoof, if he was right and she helped him then they could find the true killer.
Thief slumped his back against the door to his living space. Numerous small beads of nervous sweat trickled down his face, his breathing was heavy, and his heart was racing. He could clearly hear it thumping in his chest. He took a few minutes to steady his breathing and heartbeat. "Alright, time to get to work." Thief lit a candle and pulled a map of Canterlot out of a box. He pinned it against a wall and floated up two small boxes of grey and red pushpins. He placed a grey pushpin at each location he burgled and a red one at every location the Copycat did. He marked each pushpin with a number. He placed a small table under the map and grabbed a small journal. He wrote the date of each burglary and its corresponding number, what was stolen, along with any and every detail he knew. If there was a pattern to the Copycat, he needed to find it; Fast. Almost everything that was stolen was found the next day. Almost. The first stolen object; the golden cat statue from an ancient culture, was still missing. Thief sighed. This was going to be harder than he originally thought.
Princess Luna sat in her room. The day was retreating and the night was slowly taking its place in the sky. It was tonight that the Phantom Thief wished to meet with her. Unfortunately, she still had not made a definite decision. "He could very easily be leading me into a trap, or he could actually be telling the truth." She had to make a decision and fast. She wasn't sure that she could get another chance if she didn't make the decision tonight. Reluctantly, she made her decision and took flight to the museum.
Luna landed atop the museum and looked around. The Phantom Thief wasn't anywhere in sight. This is idiotic. I'm out alone on a dark rooftop. Okay, if it really is a trap I can just teleport back to the castle. She thought to herself.
"I'm glad that you took my offer."
Luna spun around. The Phantom Thief stood near the edge of the museum, looking out at the city. "Tell me, Phantom Thief, why are you trusting me?"
"Call me Thief. And like I said yesterday; I have no reason to trust you, I'm simply taking a chance." Thief turned to face Luna and walked forward. "Princess Luna-" Thief pulled out a small journal, "-this is a list of every burglary that I've made, and every one that the Copycat made. Along with details on each one." Thief handed the journal to Luna. Luna flipped through the journal, quickly scanning over each entry. "Do you notice any kind of a pattern? Anything at all?" Luna's eyes widened when she saw the golden statue's entry.
"This statue, I've seen it before." Luna showed Thief the entry.
"What is it? You look like you've seen somepony betray you."
"I just hope that I'm wrong in if this is the same statue. In my sister's school for gifted unicorns, one of the professors specializes in ancient, historical artifacts. He has a statue that looks identical to this one."
"What is his name?"
Luna sighed. "Professor Crocus."