Pocket Change

Segment Music

Change

As boring as school could be from time to time, it was actually one of the best opportunities to take a breather from my life of crime. Right now, I'm sitting in Professor Whoove's Algebra 2 class allowing my mind to wander a bit. I spent the entire weekend borderline-stalking the Dazzlings through practically every median I could find, but I wasn't able to find them. Oh, well, I can always look for them later. Even though I was a thief, even I had a code of conduct.

• [Only keep cash, and jewelry, no credentials]
• [Never show your face to victims]
• [Do not speak to your victims]
• [Return any other belongings ASAP]
• [Never actively harm anyone, I'm just a petty thief]
• [No robbing elderly, poor, disabled people, or children]
• [Do NOT take any electronics, you never know what can be traced]
• [Never wear the same outfit two days in a row]
• [No thieving at school]
• [Never take too much money from a single person, return excessive amounts anonymously]

"Mr. Change," Professor Whooves said in an authoritarian tone, causing me to perk up and snap out of my trance.
"Yes?"
"Would you please answer the problem on the board?"
"Yessir," I stated before standing up from my seat at the back of the class and making my way to the board upfront. I stared at it for a while to get a feel of what I was dealing with.

"A license plate begins with three letters. If the possible letters are A, B, C, D, and E, how many different combinations of these letters can be made if no letter is used more than once?"

So it's permutations...I know how to do this.

"If you don't know-" Professor Whooves began before being interrupted.

"Done. There are sixty possible combinations." I placed the whiteboard marker down in the ceil, going back to my seat after doing so.

Professor Whooves looked down at his clipboard then back up at the whiteboard. "That is correct. If you're paying attention, please making it seem so."

I guess I should focus more.

Next Period...

Physical education was a class I was mostly indifferent towards. Although, it did serve to keep my physique up, especially important given my line of work. The teacher didn't really care what you were doing, so long as you worked up a sweat. I usually just stuck to basic physical training in the corner, mainly using the monkey bars. As I was finishing a rep of situps, I saw someone approaching from my upside-down position, it was Flash Sentry. He's Sunset Shimmer's ex, but they're friends now from what I've seen. I'm pretty sure she also tried to brainwash the school, but I wasn't there during the Fall Formal, so don't quote me on that. I'm just not a huge fan of parties or anything along those lines.

I wasn't there though, not a huge fan of dances or parties, so I guess that worked out for me.

"Hey man, you're Change, right?"

I removed an earbud, still hanging upside down. "That's me, need somethin'?"

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that had been hiding a basketball behind his back. Crap, I knew what this was. "We need one more player for our team, could you help us out? Rainbow Dash has been talking a lot of game lately, and I don't feel inclined to let her get away with that," Flash said, smiling and pointing a thumb at a group of people.

Rainbow Dash, superstar, and magical girl extraordinaire, allegedly. She's like the god of sports or something, why would he ask me to join his team?

There were clearly a ton of other options, some even looked like they were made for basketball.

"Why me?"

Flash raised a hand to his chin, as if deep in thought. "Well, it's been going around that you have some monstrous dexterity dude. I was hoping that applied to sports as well."

Who the hell is spreading rumors about me? I hardly show my dexterity at school, I guess the cat's out of the bag. Anyway, it was like I was in any position to refuse. I wasn't particularly busy, and if you know anything about school politics, refusing an offer from the junior basketball captain won't look good for my reputation at all. Even if he's fine with it, the stans won't let me live it down. Okay, maybe I'm overreacting, but I still felt obligated to accept.

"Alright man, I'll spot you for one game."

Sometime later...

I'm not a very good defensive player, but the offense is in my essence, at least in basketball. Ball-handling skills are like second nature to me, it was part of my training regiment after all. It was a narrow victory, but it only seemed like my team kept throwing me the ball, I'm exhausted. Good thing, I keep my marksmanship up as well. Rainbow Dash really lives up to her titles, she would not let me breathe. In the end, the score was 30 to 28 in our favor.

Heading over to the bleachers, I took a seat, wiping my sweat with my towel. It wasn't long before Flash approached me again.

"That was awesome man! You actually made Rainbow Dash break a sweat. You gotta try out for the team," Flash enthusiastically encouraged.

Before I could reply, Flash was promptly shoved aside by Rainbow Dash herself. "Hey, don't get the wrong idea, I could have easily won if I went all out. I was just giving my teammates their time to shine is all. Say, why don't you enjoy my team? We could use a player like you," Rainbow Dash said pridefully.

Flash sighed. "We're on the same basketball team and I'm the captain, remember?"

Rainbow Dash's eyes seemed to widen a bit in surprise. "Oh...yeah."

I chuckled to myself a bit at this but joining the basketball team...I wasn't so sure about it. "I'll have to get back to you on that."

Rainbow Dash was shaken up by my indecision while Flash was more understanding. The rest of that period was spent talking to Flash and Rainbow Dash about hobbies and such.

Sometime Later...(Segment Music)

Now was easily my favorite time of day; it was lunch. To my benefit, I qualified for free-reduced lunch, meaning I didn't have to pay for the standard meal set. I didn't mind the cafeteria food, it was better than nothing. It always frustrated me to see so many kids throw their food away because they had experienced better. It's whatever though, I can't control their lives. On the bright side, this meant that there was hardly ever a line. Taking a tray, I walked up to the servery, sliding it under the glass. As per usual, Granny Smith greeted me with a familiar warm smile; I smiled back.

She served me up without saying a word. I had ordered the same thing so many times, she probably knew it by heart. Taking my tray back, I waved goodbye before heading for the cafeteria door. I hardly ever ate in the cafeteria itself, instead, opting to eat in the theater room. Why the theater room? Well, that's where Trixie is more often than not. I met her in middle school, where we quickly bonded over our love of the illusionary arts. I wonder what she'd think of me if she knew what I was using my talents for...

The theater room was dark, this was almost a one hundred percent confirmation that she was here. Walking toward the closest row to the stage, I took the center seat waiting for what I knew was to come. As if on queue the spotlights focused on a single area on the stage as a large cobalt blue cloud of smoke erupted from seemingly nowhere.

"Introducing The Great and Powerful Trixie!" Trixie self-announced through the cloud of smoke.

She's always so extra, I love it. That smoke bomb though...might come in handy later. Maybe I'll whip something up in the science lab when I get the chance.

For about the past forty minutes, we've just been catching up. Honestly, I was surprised to learn that she had participated in the battle of the bands that I was absent for. I couldn't help but curse myself for this. Then I remembered that everyone was likely brainwashed. Luckily, someone uploaded the video online. Honestly, she should have won just off of her confidence alone. Her performance was just full of the exaggerated swagger of Trixie Lulamoon, but I guess that's just me.

"You killed that performance, Trix, should've won if you ask me," I said after the video finished.

Trixie placed a hand to her chest, puffing it out slightly. "I know, right? No one can outperform yours truly."

I chuckled to myself. "Speaking of bands. You wouldn't happen to know anything about The Dazzling's next gig, would you? Asking for a friend."

"The Dazzlings? No, I haven't heard anything about their next concert, but I did attend their last," Trixie admitted, dwelling on the thought.

"Happen to know where that was at?"

"Actually, I think it was in a concert hall in Downtown. The Serine Display, I believe."

Bingo. I'll be sure to take a look after school gets out.

"Thanks, Trix, you always seem to have the answers," I admitted while smiling at her.

Before she could respond, the five-minute bell went off. "Guess we should start heading to class, talk to ya later, Trixie," I said before heading off.

More time passes...

School got out about an hour ago. Since then, I returned home exchanging my backpack out for my tool kit. The drone would come in handy for this mission especially. I stuffed the money I planned to return in an envelope. As for the wallets, I would be dropping those off at the Canterlot City Police Department. I learned to not stop by too frequently inside the department as it would arouse suspicion, so I usually just litter the wallets around the parking lot. More often than not, the wallets would be taken into the lost and found and returned to their rightful owners anyway.

Throwing myself out of my bedroom window and down the fire escape, I slipped on a disposable surgical mask. The surgical mask was something I wore to hide my face to some extent during the day without looking like a complete weirdo.

So, this is the place, the Serine Display. It looks a bit different than I had imagined; it had more of a punk rock aesthetic than the name would suggest. I wasn't about to head inside though. If the Dazzling's really performed here, then their tour van, or limo, or whatever, should be parked nearby. Upon scanning the parking lot, there was nothing suggesting artistic performers. If I were a group of artists, where would I park outside of my performance spot? Ah, an alleyway. Long behold, there was a tour van parked some ways down the alleyway to the right of the building.

Now, I wasn't just going to waltz up on this van and say, "Hey, here's your money I stole."

Instead, I walked into the alleyway on the left of the concert hall and stationed myself behind a dumpster. Pulling out my drone, phone, and envelope, I attached the envelope to hook on the drop wheel. Starting up my remote viewing/control app, I began flying the drop over the building from the alleyway to the other. Zooming in with the camera, I took a closer look inside the van. No one was in the front, but there was someone in the back of the van.

That hair...it's Aria.

I wasn't sure whether or not to be relieved that I found her, or scared that I found her. Maneuvering the drone over the van, I adjusted the drop wheel, allowing the envelope to fall onto the hood.

I couldn't help but sigh in relief. NIce.

Calling my drone back, I pocketed it and my phone. Now all that's next is to drop these wallets off at the police station. Maybe I'll visit Flim and Flam's pawnshop while I'm at it.The Everything Under the Sun Emporium was where I managed to buy my drone, mask, and a few other gadgets.

It was surprisingly cheap. However, that might be because a lot of the stuff there was acquired through shady means. They don't even ask questions during transactions. They inspect what you have, give you a price, and that's about it. I usually feel like I get ripped off when selling though; I guess they make up for it in cheap prices. Oh well, who am I to judge? At least what they're doing is somewhat legal.