The Robbery of the Canterlot Mint

It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. Twilight, Spike, and their friends had decided to take full advantage of this and hold a picnic. The food, which would have been rather blasé inside, was made three times as delectable in the fresh air. After they had stuffed themselves, they each decided to rest on the trees that surrounded the area. Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Twilight each took refuge on a branch, while those who couldn’t fly resided against the trunks. Applejack chewed on a stalk of wheat, as she was so often prone to do during these types of things.

“This is the life, ain’t it?” She asked, “no cares, no worries, just a group of good friends eatin’ a great meal and then beddin’ down under the azure sky.”

“Applejack,” Twilight said, “I never took you for being poetic.”

“Poetic?” Applejack asked, “nah, hon, I’m just observin’ my surroundings. I ain’t never bothered much with that there poetry writin’.”

Twilight chuckled and then fell asleep. The warm sun inflamed her fur, and it felt wonderful to forget all about her impending ascension to the Equestrian throne. Even though her coronation was still two moons away, she found that she spent many a restless night wandering the dark corridors of her castle. Being The Princess of Friendship was one thing, but taking over for Celestia, who had ruled for over a thousand years and was beloved of everypony, was a completely different prospect.

A few hours passed, and the group snoozed in contentment. Then, when the chilly air of eventide began to press through their manes, they awoke and realized how late it had gotten. Thankfully, it was Sunday, and all of their various occupations were slow that day. Rarity had closed her boutique for the day, and Pinkie had been let off from Sugarcube Corner. Rainbow Dash’s weather pattern had been set hours beforehand, and Applejack knew her farm was in good hooves between Big Mac and Apple Bloom. Fluttershy had proclaimed an “Animal Health Day” at her sanctuary, and all day long Dr. Fauna had been giving checkups to her beloved pets.

“Whew, doggy,” AJ said when they had packed up their things and were heading back to town, “I needed this more’n I realized.”

Twilight smiled as she walked at the head of the group. “You know, I don’t know what I’d do without you girls. It’s gonna be…difficult to move to Canterlot in two moons.”

“Darling, you aren’t kidding!” Rarity said, “I’ve been trying my hardest not to think about what’s going to happen after that.”

“Yeah, me too,” Dash said, “I mean, you’ve lived here for years, Twilight. We’ve gone on countless adventures together, and we’ve battled so many villains. I just can’t believe it’s all gonna end soon.”

“Aw, now, why’d y’all have to go on like that?” AJ asked, “I mean, we were havin’ such a nice time, and now you had to go gallivantin’ through the fields of sentiment!”

“I thought you liked sentiment, Applejack,” Dash said snidely.

“I do, but only at appropriate times. I mean, can’t we save all the weepin’ and howlin’ and such fer when Twilight actually MOVES to Canterlot? Don’t do no good to cry right now, does it?”

The ponies all nodded and voiced their agreement. They realized that they still had two wonderful moons left with their beloved friend, and they needed to make the most of them. Twilight’s spirit felt warm and soothed as they arrived back at her castle, because her friends had ensured that they would always be together. She knew their friendships were rock solid, and nothing in the world could ever break them.

The next morning, Twilight awoke and went to the kitchen for her traditional mug of tea. It helped relax and ready her for the day ahead. She shook out her mane a little bit and magically picked up the cup. Her sips were small and rather polite, even though nopony else was there. You have to practice royal etiquette every chance you get, she told herself, repeating the mantra Celestia and Luna had said.

“PAPER!” Came Spike’s sudden shout. It startled Twilight so much that she spilled hot tea all over her chest. She raced to the sink and ran cool water on it, reveling in the feeling of relief that it brought. That dragon, she thought as her mind turned to her assistant, I’m gonna have a talk with him about shouting in the castle so much.

Spike suddenly appeared in Twilight’s doorway with a shocked look on his face. Twilight turned to meet him. “Spike, listen. You know I love you like a brother, but you can’t yell all over the grounds like that! I spilled tea on my chest, and now it’s probably burned!”

She got no response from the dragon.

“Hey! Are you listening to me?!”

“Twilight…” he said, “…this is much bigger than spilled tea.”

These cryptic words peaked the inquisitive princess’s curiosity and she trotted over to where Spike held the latest issue of the Ponyville Gazette. She scooted herself next to him and read the headline. Her mouth also fell open as the capitalized title assaulted her eyes. “CANTERLOT MINT ROBBED! 500 MILLION BITS STOLEN!”

“WHAT?!” She screamed into Spike’s ear.

He rubbed his head a bit and gave her a look. “What was that you were saying about yelling over the grounds?”

“Forget it, Spike! This is huge! This is bigger than anything! I mean, the Canterlot Mint is the biggest bank in Equestria! Everypony in Canterlot, and everypony in the surrounding towns keeps their money there! If it was robbed, then that means…the very economic and social foundations of our nation are crumbling! Soon, there could be all manner of things! Anarchy, mobs, fires, murders! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!”

“Twilight, snap out of it!” Spike said as he grabbed onto his frightened friend, “I thought you said you were gonna cut down on the freak outs!”

“But this is so close to my coronation! I mean, what the hell would I do if I were to be crowned as ruler and then immediately have to deal with this?! I’ll lose it! I’LL LOSE IT!”

“Sh…” Spike said calmly as he pulled her into a hug, “it’s okay. We’ll get through this, but only if we do it together.”

Twilight realized that he was right and she snapped back into sanity. She remembered everything she had learned about friendship in all the years she had lived in Ponyville, and she found comfort in the memories. She felt that, with her friends at her side, she could face anything, even something as horrible as the complete destruction of what essentially amounted to the Equestrian stock market.

“Okay, Spike,” she said, “what does the article say?”

“Hm…let me see. It says, duh-duh-duh-duh, oh, police say that at 1:00 yesterday morning, a security guard caught the shadow of somepony lurking in the bank vault, duh-duh-duh-duh, the guard says that the shadow was tall and lanky and…uh-huh…”

“And what?! And what?!”

“…and it seemed to move in a graceful fashion. By the time he went in to investigate, the shadow had moved away…and all the money had gone with it. It also says that the prime suspect in the case is……Princess Celestia!”