//------------------------------//
// Unlocked 
// Story: Locked and Unlocked 
// by Pony Professor 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie spent the next couple hours deciphering Starswirl the Bearded’s Eighth Lost Tome and unlocking the mysteries of the enigmatic metal, thaumaturgium.
“So Starswirl was the one who designed this vault in the first place!” Twilight said after Pinkie read a paragraph to her, “That explains why this book had the same scrambling spell as the others.  He didn’t want the wrong ponies reading this, so it was protected.  Who knew it’d be among a bunch of his private journals, though?”
“That guy had a lot of marefriends!” Pinkie giggled.
“Yes, Pinkie, that’s the fifth time you’ve pointed that out,” Twilight rolled her eyes.  It was true, though.  That guy had a lot of marefriends.
“Say, Twilight,” Pinkie started.  Twilight perked her ears and looked up from the new equations and notes she was scribbling down.  “A lot of things had to go right for all this to happen, didn’t they?”
Twilight was perplexed.  They had been locked inside a vault with no way out for almost half a day now.  If anything, that’s a lot of things going wrong that had to have happened for them to end up where they were.  As she learned earlier, though, it was best to listen to Pinkie, not just dismiss her.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.
“Think about it.  We wouldn’t know the things we know about each other now if we hadn’t been trapped in here.  Now you know I’m into science, and I know you’re constantly tormented by a looming shadow of uncertain immortality.”  Pinkie’s smile was incredibly unsettling.
“You know, we still have to address that.  It really upsets me…” Twilight said.
“It’s all right, Twilight.  I’m sure that problem will be center stage in another story.”
“What?”
“The point is, being locked in this vault is the best thing that could have happened for the two of us.  I think after this we’re closer than ever!”  Pinkie accentuated her line with a big hug to Twilight.  Twilight chuckled,
“You’re right, Pinkie.  I’m glad I got stuck in here with you.”  She returned to her thaumaturgium research.
“All right, Pinkie, I think we have enough info to craft something to bust us out of here!”  Pinkie bounced up and down in anticipation.
“Ooh, what are you gonna do?”
“Well,” Twilight began, “According to Starswirl’s notes, thaumaturgium isn’t magic resistant, it’s actually a metal that’s full of magic.  It’s very atomic structure acts like a counter-spell to, well, everything else magical that it encounters.  That’s in addition to being the strongest material known to ponykind.  So, given all of this data, I should be able to formulate a spell that disturbs thaumaturgium’s structure enough so that magic can actually act on it.  If I do it just right, I—”
Click.
Twilight’s monologue was interrupted by the sound of the vault door beginning to move.  The twenty-four locks disengaged in sequence and the massive door swung open, allowing the full might of the day’s sunlight to pour into the vault and assault Twilight and Pinkie’s eyes.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” Twilight’s eye twitched.
“Huh, I guess we were so caught up with all that introspection and trying to get out we didn’t even notice it was morning already,” Pinkie said with sunglasses on.  The guards who opened the vault were startled.
“Sweet Celestia,” one of them gasped, “You two… haven’t been in here all night, have you?”
“We sure have!” Pinkie replied chipperly.  The other guard put her hooves to her head,
“We locked a Princess in the vault!  We are so getting fired for this!”  Twilight walked over and put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry, you’re not getting fired,” she smiled, “You’re getting arrested.” The smile disappeared immediately.  “Such an oversight on the job is unforgivable!  That was the most stressful night of my life!”  Twilight looked over at Pinkie, who was cramming all the stuff she didn’t need back into her safety-deposit box and packing her recipes into her saddlebags.  She breathed a wistful sigh,
“And also one of the best,” she whispered.  “Come on, Pinkie!  Let’s get back to Ponyville; the rest of Starswirl’s Eight Lost Tomes aren’t going to decipher themselves!  Plus, you owe me something from one of those recipes!”
Twilight and Pinkie left the bank as Royal Guards entered to put the negligent vault-watchers in custody.
Over the past day, two ponies were locked, both in vault and in heart, but they found ways to free themselves through a little misfortune and the power of friendship.