Sunset Scenario
Because of the broadcasts Dad set up, Mom was able to swoop in with her men to bust Raleigh and his crew for all his crimes, and we made a clean getaway without problems as we'd already made it back to the van by the time Mom arrived. Mom got credit for the bust, and we got the pages we needed, and the name and location of the next member of the Fiendish Five. Muggshot was based specifically in Mesa City in Utah.
It was a long trip there, during which Dad put a lot of thought into that conveniently placed page of the Thievius Raccoonus. He definitely felt there was something fishy about it, but for the life of him, he couldn't put together what. No matter how he tried to make sense of it, nothing beyond 'coincidence' fit in any known realm of physics we understood. Uncle Murray's suggestion - that this just meant that whatever explained it wasn't necessarily bound by the physics we knew - was far too disquieting to give serious consideration to as of yet, so we eventually accepted it as a lucky coincidence. That sometimes happened for Master Thieves, after all.
Instead, we turned our focus to researching Muggshot himself. I won't say much about what we learned of his past, but it did make me glad that there was no chance I'd ever end up in the public school system. Even so, it passed the time well until we arrived in Mesa City...
The van pulled to a halt at the end of the stable road winding around the stone pillar that led to Mesa City. Beyond there, a stone bridge stretched over the deep chasm below, not strong enough to support the van and everyone in it driving across it. While not the only entrance to the city, careful study showed it was the least guarded by patrols as nature did a good job keeping anyone from using this route. While an effective deterrent to law enforcement, a momentary obstacle at best for Coopers.
Climbing up to the top of the gate barring the path, Sly and Coco gazed out over the city as Bentley gave them information through the Binoc-u-com. "Sly...didn't you say Mesa City was going to be loud and boisterous?" he asked worriedly.
"That's what the papers said," Sly confirmed. "It was going to make it easier to sneak through the place."
Coco took in the damaged buildings, the dead signs, and the tumbleweeds. "It looks like a ghost town. ...are there such things as ghosts?"
"Normally I'd say no," Bentley began, "but since it's the pony from a world of 'magic' asking, I can only say that no one has ever reported a viable sighting."
"My thief training says that just means no one's reported one," Coco whimpered, clinging tightly to Sly.
"Don't worry, Coco," Sly offered comfortingly. "Look at all the poles sticking up out the top of the roofs. We won't even have to go into the streets to make our way in. We can take the high road with the Ninja Spire Jump."
"That's a relief," Coco breathed out, relaxing. "And I think I just spotted a thug, so it's not a complete ghost town." She reached for her needles.
"Don't knock him out unless we need to to get past him," Sly cautioned. "The longer we go without doing that, the longer it'll take before Muggshot learns we're here."
Sighing, Coco nodded and lowered her hoof. "Let's go, Daddy."
Hopping from strung light to strung light, Sly was able to make his way part way in. At one point, he had to hop down to ground level, which drew the attention of a large guard dog who sat up from his bone to growl threateningly. Sly got ready to act, but felt Coco leaping off his back, kicking off a stone wall near the dog to land at its side, scratching it behind one ear as she stuffed a plushy into its mouth. The dog began to pant happily, its tail wagging and its leg jerking as it worried at the plushy. After a time, its eyes slipped closed and it slumped to the ground, snoring. "Good puppy," Coco whispered softly, stroking its head before rushing back to Sly's back, slipping the plushy out of the dog's mouth in the process.
"What's in that plushy?" Sly asked curiously.
"Chemically enhanced turkey flavoring," Coco explained. "Makes the systems sluggish and encourages sleep. Between that and the relaxing caresses, it'll be out for an hour at least."
"Clever," Sly praised. "Just keep it away from Murray." Coco burst into giggles at that.
It wasn't the only guard dog the pair encountered on the way into the city, but each was dealt with the same way, and the scent of the other guard dogs' saliva on the plushy made each successive guard dog that much more trusting, as they all apparently came from the same kennel.
Before long, they caught sight of a passage lined with blinking lights on the floor. Coco immediately recognized it from Bentley's lessons. "Electronic floor sensors," she whispered. "They'll fry us if we step on them while they're lit up."
"Then we won't do that," Sly offered teasingly, moving swiftly past the obstacle.
At that point, the only path forward led past guards, forcing Coco to make use of her knock-out needles. "At least this way they won't know for sure where we entered from, since we left conscious guards behind us, right?" she asked hopefully.
"Very good, Coco," Sly praised, stroking her mane. "That's exactly right."
A brief detour from the main path to a distant pinnacle led the pair to the Vault, which Coco was able to easily open. This revealed yet another page of the Thievius Raccoonus, this one covering Rob McCooper's 'Explosive Hat' technique, which involved infusing inner energy into copies of one's hat to turn it into a mine that could be lobbed out where guards might stumble across it, knocking themselves out from the release of energy.
As the pair made their way to the end of the path where - once again - the first Treasure Key was right in front of the locked gate into the rest of the city, Coco voiced a curious question. "How come they leave these things out like this? The vaults with the pages, I mean."
Sly stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Not sure. But it's helpful for us, isn't it?"
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Because villians don't understand that if it's shiny, the protagonists are gonna take it.
…Uh… what? Where did she get that, and why?
"Oh, dogs exist. I have no idea whether there's dogs on my next mission, but I'm going to rig up a drugged, turkey-flavored chew toy just in case." The needles, I get. That's a lot more general-purpose. This… isn't.
I think I just saw Coco play with a lamp shade.....
BECAUSE GAME MECHANICS!
Coco, sweetie, please stop poking holes in the perfectly good net.
Theory time: The reason the body temp control technique was where Coco needed it the most is because it's a Bootstrap Paradox created by Future!Coco leaving it there in Thieves in Time, assuming Thieves in Time incorporates time travel.
7666259 Or Seft is doing it. He did mention he was disappointed with Sly's performance in that duel; he wants Sly to learn all this stuff so he can have his epic showdown against a true Cooper.
7666232 Uh...because Guard Dogs are a cliche' for a reason so being prepared is a good Idea?
Well here's a thing Coco, there's a saying known as 'hiding in plane sight'. While it seems pretty stupid to someone that actually looks and is careful while for others don't see it even though it would be ten feet away from them. But also another thing would be because they didn't expect a pony to immediately figure out every combination just by putting her hoof on it.
7666259 Thieves in Time's main gimmick that makes it special is time travel. So your theory is about as sound as literally everyone else saying 'time travel shenanigans'.
7666232
There is a chemical in turkey that makes people drowsy. Just a fun fact that got slipped into the story for our enjoyment.
7666266 That would be fine, if it was known who created the technique. See, the bootstrap paradox works like this, to use my theory: Coco finds the secret Cooper technique of temperature control, and later takes it back in time to put it in that very same safe for Coco to find to take back. The item in question has no known true origin, which is why it's a paradox, despite being a stable time loop.
The 'Explosive Hat' technique was always my favorite.
Hay Tats, I think you dropped this...
zoom-images-1-1.lampsusa.com/lite-source-lamp-shade-ch5046.jpg
7666278 Oooor... Coco could be the original author of the technique, writing it down "Originally" before slipping it between the pages when time-shenanigans ensue and thus giving the page an origin point and keeping the page they found in the completed Cooper Grimoire in their possession.
well, this will be interesting; also, two things: 1)
nice touch with all the meta-humor; 2) 
not going to lie: Muggshot always drew out a bit of sympathy from me: as someone who was bullied as a kid, and was even beaten up a time or two, I actually shared the guy's desire to get stronger and can even understand his thirst for revenge: didn't actually indulge in the latter, but still... 
that said however, I'm not going to claim I want Coco and her parents, either one of them, to go easy on the gangster: whether he's a tragic villain or not, he's taken a path that I personally HATE to see when it happens: the one where the victim of bullying becomes a bully themselves... 
Coco, do me a favor: if Muggshot tries to block, show him that you ROCK!!! 
...eh, without losing your head later on: we don't need a repeat of "Putting your Hoof Down"... 
I'm rambling again, aren't I?
7666259 Or, it could be that during the events of Thieves in Time, Future!Coco ended up in the past during the time that page of the Thievius Raccoonus was created, jotted it down and then hid the page in secret, so that the only time it'll reveal itself, was when Coco's Past self finds that same particular hidden page in a steamed up Saferoom... Along with any other page that she'd stumble upon with convenient techniques.
Tatsurou's done this before, noted in You Can't Spell Slaughter without Laughter where it was revealed that
After The Titans left earth, they settled down in another Galaxy where they created the World of Equestria and it's race of Ponies in memory of Pinkie Pie's Kindness and wishes to win via Joy rather than rage. This results in a Closed Loop Timeline, where Pinkie Pie basically ends up helping create her own homeworld though her Quirky actions, via extending a hand of friendship to the Titans that the Gods never gave. 
7666229 I take things that aren't shiny too!
7666386 Actually, Can't Spell Slaughter had a double paradox with one nested inside the other like Russian dolls.Remember what happened with the Box?
7666448 That was the key. With the Box Opened by anyone other than Kratos and in a land full of sickeningly excessive whimsicalness, Pinkie was summoned there when Misery warped her mind and made her believe she'd broken her promise. That power sent her to the Furies, which resulted in Orokos leading Kratos to her Oath Stone, resulting in the Furies' downfall, the Titans finding a home and the creation of Equestria. A Closed Loop in my opinion.
I wonder how Coco will react to the ghost collecting mission in 2.
Hopefully the gang got a good Muggshot of their next target.
Coco is probably gonna ghost right through this area right quick.
Coco is just plush full of ideas isn't she?
Hahaha, the comments are awesome in this one.
Nice update!
7666232 Maybe it's a small hint, that she wants a dog of her own.
7666232
Ah.
Is it less so if I make it clear that Muggshot is a bulldog?
7666272
Actually, I think Mythbusters busted that one. It's actually the fact that people eat so much at Thanksgiving dinners (the event most closely associated with eating large quantities of turkey), possibly coupled with a bit of placebo effect, that makes them drowsy; there was no noticeable difference in the effects of similarly-sized meals with or without the turkey.
Of course, it could just be that gnawing on something tasty, coupled with the relaxing putting, was enough to ease the dog into a light nap. It's not like Sly was going to make enough of a ruckus to wake it.
7666873 vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/sly/images/e/ef/Contessa_Artwork3.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/270?cb=20130903003703 You mean this girls levels? Man I hated her levels.
7666386 Actually, I think it may be Sly who left it and potentially others, given the ending to 4.
7667036 Good point. Sly would have been trying to avoid accidentally killing his and Coco's past-selves by not leaving them with info needed to stop Seft once and for all. Then again, Coco or anyone of the crew could also have put it down, but since the only ones who memorized the pages were Coco and Sly, the two of them are the likely culprits for the added hidden pages.
Also, what's to say the two of them couldn't have edited the Thievius Raccoonus at the same time? I'm saying there are likely several more hidden pages in the book, not just the temperature control ability.
As pointed out, Seft is too dangerous to be left alive if his option of gaining a power source for his portal was the life energy of a child. It was already stated that had Coco been plugged in, she would have died.
7666941 Was she planning on asking Sly if she could keep him or something?
7666941 PLEASE TELL ME WE GET TO SEE COCO SCRATCHING MUGSHOT'S BELLY!!!
Coco's such a clever filly. Also, how she's pointing out the game mechanics
HOLD IT. I just thought of something. Several PWNY stories (off the top of my head, Technomare, Batmare, and My Little Fortress) have included some Suri-bashing in the epilogue bit after they returned to Equestria.
I wonder how Coco will deal with Suri when she's a Master Thief with ninja skills.
Nice chapter, though I kind of want to see Cocco win a massive jack pot on a slot machine she triggers by accident. I can totally see Sly then trying his luck only to get nothing while Cocco is practically buried in coins.
7666229 Even if it isn't shiny, almost every videogame hero is a kleptomaniac.
7666229
Until you encounter a villain who does realize that and leaves out a shiny that you really don't want...
7673648 Well...
Ask and ye shall receive.
7666232 It also works on alligators?
7666259 Answer: There is time travel involved. Theory Time! The safes are where they are to improve natural selection in the thieving community. An idiot would fall from large heights or drown or be caught before they could give up. But a Cooper isn't any of that.
look up bentlys magic bad mojo bomb made of traped evil souls
You... infuse your energy... into replicas of your hat... and it explodes after you throw it...
Sure. I guess I accepted the spin around a guy in stealth mode real fast to cause a dimensional portal to open up and remove a person from existence, so... what's a little funky ninjustu explosive partial shadow clones to that?
7746428
magic was a cannon thing in the main story the next foe ms ruby had voodoo king panda could light his hands of fire for attack in the third game you ride a dragon that was original a statue magic was a thing
Good ghosts would be bad
8748195
I was just thinking that. Strange.
8748195
If there's no magic, then explain Mz. Ruby.
I say more, I'll spoil the story.
is that word in bold the correct one? reading this again and seeing this has me wondering if that is supposed to be something else.
10960953
It is, in the sense of a dog worrying a bone, meaning to gnaw on or play with the object in question.