//------------------------------//
// Copycat 
// Story: Phantom Thief 
// by Phonyyx 
//------------------------------//

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."