//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Cat burglar 
// by fedback 
//------------------------------//

Prologue

Not everything that shines is gold, but better check in any case because gold is crazy valuable:  


It happened shortly after earning her cutie mark, the young Rarity was walking around Poniville thinking about fabulous things and such, then she saw it, just as she was imagining a beautiful diamond on her mind the ground beneath her hoofs began to glow, curious she dug a little (with telekinesis mind you such perfect hooves are not easy to keep) and she found it, it was not a diamond but one does not look a gifted horse in the mouth, it was an emerald a bunch of them actually and a golden watch and as any filly her age she took it all and went home to brag about it.


Soon after she came to know that the emeralds and the watch belonged to Meadow Old, Meadow Song´s grandfather who was already old during that time (Rarity´s dad used to say he was already old when he was a colt and if anything he expected the old bat to outlive him), the important thing being they were reported stolen a week ago. Being the nice young lady she was she turn it all over to the police and explained what happened, the hunt for the thief lasted two weeks before Meadow Old in a fit of clarity remembered he was the one who buried it in the first place, for reasons he could not remember…   but it may have been important so he buried it again in the same place.


With a new power come new responsibility so Rarity took upon herself to plunder the soil till nothing of value was left, during this phase of her childhood she collected many knick knacks which along a nice sales pitch really helped her start her own boutique, but that was years after. She became a real master of her “gem locating” spell, which did not really locate gems but anything of valor, alas ”anything of valor locating” spell did not sound nearly a fabulous so a little liberty was taken when naming it. She came to love this spell, it was unique (not exactly unique, but pretty rare and actually difficult but her cutie mark being gems she had a little advantage there) and made her horn glow in such a faint beautiful way, she learned how to control it and focus it, she could make it recognize certain items only, set a minim or maximum value for the objects to be recognized by it (being  a little filly strange shaped rocks ended up more valuable than actual bits but she was happy with it), she became a really industrious filly and practiced every day, she was such a pro that her parents tough of sending her to Celestias´s academy for gifted unicorn but alas she could not lift a phone directory with her telekinesis (but had no problem juggling around fabrics, needles and gemstones with a combined weight well over her own) so she stayed on Poniville.


Since very little Rarity showed a great disposition towards generosity, and loved dotting her baby sister with gifts and accessories (most made by herself mind you, some of her macaroni hair pins are still circulating in the market and surprisingly fetch a very high price, when asked why she never started a macaroni fashion line all she said was that glue gets everywhere and being covered in fur makes that hazardous). One day, shortly after Sweetie bell´s third birthday a virus came to Ponyville, mostly harmless but Sweetie took the worst of it, she fell sick very sick and Poniville did not have the facilities to properly take care of her, she needed to be moved to Canterlort´s hospital (which was the nearest one with the proper equipment). Health care is provided by the crown in equestrian, but a little filly needed her parents or at least one of them to be with her least the experience turn completely traumatic, sadly the family was going through a little economic problem and none of Rarity´s parents could take time off work least they  get fired. This was a turning point of Rarity´s life, she learned two valuable lessons one: the value of money, if only her family had money they could all go with Swetie and help her in her recovery, but they did not and she could do nothing about it or so she thought until she remembered a certain buried watch.


It was really easy, all she had to do was focus on the watch and follow the glow which being at faint as it was it was no problem for Rarity to follow it, she was used to it. She came back home with the watch hidden on her saddlebag, she knew her parents would not accept it but she had a plan, her parents would not be home until later so she could pull it. She turned on the stove and levitated the watch inside little did she know that levitating something into a fire actually hurt, not as much as touching the fire but bad enough to make a pony cringe. But she had a mission and a little pain was nothing, she kept doing this for the best part of an hour levitating the incandescent object carefully so it would not touch the walls of the stove, she kept this until the watch was nothing but a lump of very hot gold.


Later that day Rarity told her parents a very suspicious history about lost leprechaun gold and a cockatrice which they believed (if Rarity ever found a fault on her parents was how naïve they were, that and their fashion sense.  GOD THAT HAT).  Right after that her parents went to their respective bosses and presented their reseing, her mom with a polite talk and a minimum of bitter remarks and her dad with a tackle (he had a hoofball cutie mark after all) , they went to Canterlot and came back when Sweetie bell got better and live off the gold for a few months and by the time her parents got a job (after that her dad carrier as a hoofball coach became legendary and would often make demonstration on the players on how to properly tackle) they still had a little left (to put things in perspective, gold contrary to gemstones is really rare in Equestria and sought after by many a mage and rich lady with a thing for shiny) which went towards the emergency found.


And that was Rarity´s second lesson, on one hoof we had Meadow´s watch, sitting in the dirt and not being used for anything and on the other her family who actually needed the money, so why was it wrong to take that which was not being used to help those she loved?, sometimes generosity means doing what is right no matter if it is wrong.