Phantom Thief

by Phonyyx

Prologue

The wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence was interrupted by an invasion of emotion eaters known as changelings. As Queen Chrysalis sent out her children to feed on the now defeated city of Canterlot, one changeling searched within the lower levels of Canterlot Castle for any hiding ponies. The changeling walked down the dimly light corridors, with only his eyes to know where the walls laid ahead. Da'rak, his name, sensed the emotions down in the halls but couldn't quite find it.

He was not a mere drone, no. He was a Psionic, a changeling bred to control large quantities of magic. The buzzing sound of a thousand voices swam through his mind. The corridor opened up into a room. A history of Canterlot. Murals and tapestries hung from the ceiling, detailing the founding of the city. The two royal sisters beginning their rule. One of the tapestries depicted one of the siblings, the white one, banishing her sister, the black one, to the moon. But one tapestry intrigued him more than the others. It depicted a cloaked, shadowy figure. Under the picture, stood a statue further depicting the figure, with a name etched into the statue. The Phantom Thief. Further below, the etchings described the Phantom Thief as a thief who was never caught, could bypass any security measures, and nopony knew the identity of it.

The voices suddenly called out in terror and fear. Da'rak looked up to see a wave of magic rushing towards him. Instinctively, Da'rak covered himself in a shield. The ground and walls around him violently shook. It seemed as if, at any moment, the entire castle would cave in on top of him. When the violent shaking seceded, Da'rak could no longer hear the voices of his brothers and sisters.

Only his own.

It took a few minutes for him to regain his composure. What was that? And, where is everyone? His ears perked up at a sound down the hall.

"Hello, is anypony down there?" A pony! If the pony found him, who knew what tortures lie ahead for him. The tales of the white demon and her sister surfaced in his mind. The nightmares that plagued the hive day and night, the nightmares of the two demons. He needed a disguise, but there wasn't anyone nearby for him to copy, and he couldn't turn invisible like the Infiltrators could.

The voice of the pony grew louder and Da'rak could now see him, faintly, but there. If he could see him, it wouldn't be long before the pony could see him too. Da'rak transformed into the only thing he could currently in the room. The statue of the Phantom Thief. Summoning his magic, a second skin grew on top of his body, covering and concealing his natural form and a hooded cloak fell upon him, covering his face and most of his body.

The royal guard walked into the room. A chill wind blew past him, the eerie silence pierced him as he laid eyes on the figure before him. An almost ghostly form stood in the center of the room, draped in a ghostly silver hooded cloak. And staring at him with cold, dead eyes. The guard dropped his spear as fear shot through him. He took a shaking step back, then another step until he burst into a run, screaming something about the Ghost of the Phantom Thief.

If he was searching down here for other ponies, then does that mean that we... failed...? Da'rak ran through the halls, coming out in a courtyard. He looked left, right, up, and down. No changelings. No changelings anywhere. He realized he was the only one left. He could still sense the love from the wedding, now stronger than before. Much, much stronger. Curious, he flew back up the wedding area. Wings buzzed as he flew. The wings of a changeling always buzzed. Sticking to the walls and out of sight, Da'rak latched onto the outer wall and slowly made his way to a window. Peering inside, he saw a crowd of ponies, with the princess Queen Chrysalis impersonated walking down the middle isle, lead by three filly's throwing flowers along the path. The truth struck a cord, they truly did fail. And now, he had no idea where the hive was or if any other changelings survived. As far as he knew, he was the last changeling.

How am I going to survive? I am going to die, a slow painful death. I'll be lucky if I die before the torturing begins. Thoughts of being captured and tortured filled his frantic mind. He tried to push the thoughts away, put they persisted. He needed a disguise, and this Phantom Thief he was currently using would stand out just as much as his natural form would. But he couldn't just make up a look, he needed to copy someone or something. He scanned and did his best to memorize the ponies in the isles.

After a good minute or two, he had a good deal of appearances in mind, but the best one would require him to concentrate on creating it. Changelings may not be able to create a disguise from scratch, but they could mix and match the looks of prey till they had a disguise. That meant he needed to find a quiet, secluded area to focus. The two newlyweds walked out of the building and into a balcony overlooking a crowd.

Welp, can't go that way. Taking flight, Da'rak flew off away from the crowd and landed in front of an alleyway. Tape lined the building to his left. Danger! Kept Out! Well. No tape was going to keep him out of... What was the name? Da'rak leaned around the corner and saw the building name. The Shrouded Drapes. A hotel. An abandoned hotel at that.

KA-BOOM!

The ground shook again. He looked back and up to see a circle of rainbow extending out and a line of rainbow leading out of the circle's center and upward. He hastily ran into the hotel and up a series of flights of stairs. When he finally stopped running, he started looking for a room to hid in. Coming across an empty room, as all the rooms were, with a window out looking another courtyard. How many courtyards do these ponies need? Sitting down in the center of the room, Da'rak visualized the disguise that he would use.

Quite a few things were needed to be sorted out first. Gender was easy, he was a dude, so naturally he would make the disguise a dude as well. (Unless one preferred a different look. Won't hold it against you.) Next was the race, he remembered back to the lessons he learned in subterfuge. "There are four races of ponies. Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns. Pegasi can fly and control the weather, while unicorns can preform magical feats, and earth ponies are immensely powerful when it comes to physical strength. The fourth race, the alicorns, are to never be used as a disguise as there are only about three or four of them in existence and disguising yourself as something that rare will only bring unwanted attention." He didn't want to lose either his wings or magic, but his wings would make a constant buzzing sound when he flew, So Da'rak went with being a unicorn. The actual appearance of him was easy enough, average height but extremely skinny. The only thing needed was a name. Right, a name.

He thought and thought and thought. He must have been sitting there for hours thinking of a name that would work. "Arghh!" Da'rak threw his hooves into the air, giving up. "Garrett, I'll use that." The name wasn't a pony name but he didn't care one bit. Now, with a disguise in hoof, Da'rak summoned his magic and peeled off the Phantom Thief look and replaced it with his new pony disguise. Once it was finished, Garrett looked himself up and down, with everything seeming to be in place. With one problem. No cutie mark. That stupid thing that appeared on a ponies butt for whatever reason. What was the point of them. Glancing out the window, Garrett saw the sun had set and the moon had replaced it in the night sky. Stars. That'll do. With that, a neon blue four-pointed star appeared as his cutie mark. It wasn't glamorous or unique in any way, it wasn't supposed to be any of that. All it was to do was trick the mindless masses of ponies he would be hiding among.

Tired from the amount of emotional energy he had used up, Garrett walked over to one of the corners and huddled down to sleep. A new problem presented itself then. It was cold. This became apparent two seconds after he laid down. At least he wasn't so tired anymore. With a thought, Garrett walked out of the room and into an adjacent one, and another room. Searching for something warm to sleep on or in. No such luck, but he did find a small lamp and a clock. Probably old possessions left behind by the previous owners. All manner of items were inside the hotel along with his findings. These included a drawer, a silver chained pocket-watch, (why this was left, he will never understand) two hairpins, and a couple of bits. The primary currency of ponies, but if Garrett didn't know any better he would've sworn that friendship was the currency they used and not bits. Carrying his treasure back to the room, he placed them in any appropriate spot. Placing the smaller items inside the drawer and walked over to window curtain and tore half of it off. Retreating to the corner he wrapped himself in it, and it was incredibly uncomfortable. But he finally drifted off to sleep.

For about two minutes.

A beat and music came from right outside The Shrouded Drapes. Very annoyed, Garrett peeked outside to see a party in action right outside the abandoned hotel. A large group was concentrated, consisting of lots of upper class looking ponies, the bride and groom, and... and... The Two Royal Sisters! Are these ponies following me or something! If they are, just come get me and put me in the center of that event. At least it'll get this torture over with! Garrett should've been careful of what he wished for.

In the party, Pinkie looked up to see a pony, all alone, in a window looking out at the party. Hey, why isn't he joining in this wonderful party? He should join us. Without a second thought, Pinkie rushed up and into the building. When she finally found the lonely looking pony, she was cheered with joy. "Hello mister, my names Pinkie Pie, but you can just call me Pinkie. I noticed that you were up here looking all alone. You should come and join us down there. I'll help you meet some ponies down there," She spoke so quickly that Garrett hardly had time to comprehend her name before she was done talking. And after she finished talking, she grabbed Garrett and dragged (well dragged would suggest that Garrett had enough time to react and/or resist) him down to the party and the group of ponies. Including not just the two royal sisters, but also all six of the realms defenders, and the captain of the royal guard and his wife, another alicorn. If he could just stay quiet and not draw attention to himself, he could slip... "Hey, everypony, meet my new friend... Um-" Pinkie leaned closer to Garrett. "-you didn't mention your name." And there goes that plan down the drain. Now he had the eyes of the entire group attached to him. "Um, sir, you do have a name, right?"

He almost responded with his changeling name, but he caught himself before uttering the first syllable. What was his name again? Jarret, no. Barrett, no. Garrett, that was it. "Garrett."

"My friend, Garrett." Great. Now he had everypony looking at him and know his name and the face to associate it with. Not good if he wanted to slip away in secret. A few other ponies walked up to him, but most just carried on their way. I was almost like he was invisible. Garrett checked down at his hooves to see if he actually was invisible. He wasn't. One pony introduced himself as Fancy Pants, ponies have the weirdest names, and extended a hoof to Garrett. Confused, Garrett focused past Fancy Pants, two ponies were shaking each others hooves. With no better idea on what he was socially expected to do, he extended his own hoof to. While shaking hooves, Garrett tried to sense his motives behind presenting himself. Only to find there were none. He was entirely indifferent to it, he was introducing himself purely to be friendly. Odd. Another pony approached and also introduced herself.

"My name's Twilight Sparkle." Garrett also shook her hoof. Internally screaming while doing so. This was the Element of Magic in front of him. He had no doubts that she'd send him flying to kingdom-come with a single magical blast if she saw through his disguise. After her nopony approached him immediately. Taking the only chance that he likely would've ever got, Garrett took a few steps back, slipping into the crowd.

And right into somepony. Looking to his side, Garrett saw a long flowing mane.

"Oh, excuse me."

It took all of his willpower and some logical thinking to keep himself from running away in complete panicking fear and terror. Slowly, Garrett turned around to face the white demon. She was standing at an impossible height before him. In her presence, Garrett realized just how short his body was. In his natural form, he could stand almost eye to eye with her. But here, she held the physical dominance. "Are you okay?" the white demon asked. Garrett realized he had just been staring out to space.

"Umm, yes my-" He nearly referred to her as my queen, she wasn't even a queen, she was a princess and definitely not worthy of that reference "-mistake. I didn't mean to bump into you."

"Its okay, just try to look where you're going," with that, the white demon departed to talk to her sister, who seemed to almost be giving a death glare to Garrett. Unnerved, he returned to exiting the party. Until an overheard comment caught his attention.

"I'm telling you guys, I saw the Phantom Thief with my very own eyes. It's real."

Stopping in his tracks, Garrett turned to the source of the comment and found the guard pony Phantom Thief scared the daylights out of. Garrett approached the guard ponies. "What's the Phantom Thief?"

"Huh?" The guard turned towards Garrett. "I thought everypony knew the legend of the Phantom Thief. The Phantom Thief was a thief that lived almost a century ago here in Canterlot. It was said that it could steal anything from anywhere at anytime. And it could. It was never caught and nopony ever saw its face. The only thing about its appearance was that it was shrouded in a ghostly silver hood and cloak. Hundreds of rumors spread about it. Some say it was a vengeful ghost or spirit, angered over the disrupting of its resting place by the construction of Canterlot. Others say it was a just that, a thief. It was just a really good one.

"The Phantom Thief seemed to be unstoppable. But eventually one detective actually cornered it in the chasms found under the city. But the Phantom Thief wasn't going to give up without a fight. And that resulting fight caused a cave in, leaving the two trapped in there to die. Nopony actually knows if the Phantom Thief actually died, as the remains of either were never uncovered."

This all intrigued Garrett. This Phantom Thief disguise could come in handy later on. He wondered if anypony else knew anything about the Phantom Thief. "Well, that's quite the legend. Thank you for informing me." Putting off his previous goal of slipping away, he turned back to the mass of ponies. He could get some info on this Phantom Thief and learn some pony customs. He remembered one lesson on disguises said that a disguise is always more than a mere look and name. Kind of contradictory of his current disguise, which was in essence, just a look and name.

Garrett needed a different disguise for what he was going to do next. Slipping away into the alleyway, he shed the disguise and replaced it with one made not for permanent use. He decided to call this disguise Zak.

Returning to the masses, Zak began his search. He asked around and around again. He had to have asked at least half of everypony there and what he found out was... interesting, to say the least. Apparently, there was a pattern, but nopony ever mentioned or made a passing reference to some pattern. But it was a pattern, and it was there. And he noticed it. It seemed like the Phantom Thief never once killed anypony and never stole from the homeless or needy. Then again, it could've stolen from them, and it just didn't have a major enough effect to attract attention. Not only that, but the Phantom Thief left a calling card of sorts. A silver crystal. That was also where it got half of its name, the specific type of crystal was known as a Phantom Crystal. Zak now had what he needed. But, that wasn't all that he observed. Zak noticed that whenever some pony went to get a drink, they paid with bits. He knew that was the currency of ponies. What he didn't realize until that point was that he was probably going to need money to survive, and he hadn't the faintest clue as to how he could get it.

While forcing his way through the crowd, Zak found a unicorn who was incredibly drunk. Zak had seen him a few times, what was his name? Blueblood, that was it! He was boasting about his 100% unreachable pile of bits. Then it struck. There are other ways to make money, if a bit devious. Had Blueblood not just mentioned his vault of money then Zak probably wouldn't have thought about it much. But he bragged that it was 100% unreachable. That meant 100% it was going to be gone soon. A smug grin spread across his face. He could do it later, first, he wanted to establish himself.

"My unveachable vault issafe in my zection of Canterlot Castle," Blueblood moaned as he put down the mug of whatever it was.

With the information he gained, he returned to his makeshift home and changed back into his natural form, Da'rak laid down to rest. Only to realize the grave mistake he was making. He shot up and glanced around the room. After he was certain no pony had seen him, changed into Garrett. He didn't need a random pony stumbling upon him in his natural form whilst he slept. Berating himself for his near-fatal mistake, he let out a breath he didn't realize he had held. Garrett turned to the drawer he put his findings in. He hadn't thought to check any of the drawers other than the top one. Opening the middle drawer, there lay a journal. Curious, he cracked open the journal and found... nothing. It was entirely blank. Well, that doesn't help very much. Putting the journal back, Garrett moved to the bottom drawer. There was something in it. An ornate dagger. Why was this in there? There was also a sheath and belt for said dagger along with a satchel bag attached to the belt.

With the thought of sleep now pushed further back, Garrett pulled out the silver pocket-watch and opened it. He was glad he did. In it was not only a bunch of watch mechanisms but another mechanism on the front panel. A compass. Unfortunately, the compass wasn't working anymore. But the clock still kept the time. At least something works. Now he was practically wide awake. There was no chance of him getting any sleep anytime soon. I should at least do something productive, it'd be a waste not to.

In the Hive, everyone pulled their own weight and more. If one was found to not be performing any task of importance or productive reward, then they were shunned upon. And in the Hive, that was basically starvation. They could hardly survive off of each other's mutual relationship. That's why the Infiltrators were important. Their jobs consisted of hiding in pony society and extracting as much love as possible with as little risk then returning to the Hive with said love. A changelings life was all just an equation of responsibilities, risks, and rewards.

Walking through the hotel, Garrett found that there were lots of things he missed his first time searching. The biggest discovery was of an old, tattered pillow. Noting how comfortable the pillow has made him realize just how much he hated this pony body. His natural form would have no problem dealing with a rough and rocky place to sleep on. This pony body, however, was soft and squishy, it was easily susceptible to the cold and easily bruised. To actually make it comfortable enough to even sleep, he needed to make the makeshift bed soft. His carapace would easily deal with the uncomfortableness and he wouldn't complain one bit. But he needed to stay in this form.

The party outside was still going strong. How? After taking another look outside, Garrett saw Blueblood leaving if staggeringly, the party. It would be quite ironic if he was robbed right after boasting like that. Irony, probably the best form of adding insult to injury.

Making up his mind, Garrett grabbed the belt and put it on, slid the dagger into its sheath, and placed the hairpins into the bag, after all, he could use them as makeshift lockpicks. After that, he changed into the Phantom Thief. I'll just call this one Thief. After the names of his other disguises, something so practical felt nice. Thief raced up to the top of the building. Once there, he looked out to the streets below, easily finding Blueblood. That was the easy part, now was the hard part, ghosting him. All that ghosting consisted of was following the mark, unseen of course, until they are secluded enough to be ambushed and replaced by an Infiltrator. But here Thief was going to be ghosting Blueblood back to his house if that was even where he was going.

The fact that Blueblood was drunk helped Thief to remain unseen immensely. But it was a double-edged sword. He took forever! He was constantly falling and getting himself turned around. Can this idiot walk any faster! I could probably go off and twiddle my hooves, terrify some random ponies, find out what a Phantom Crystal is, looks like, and find him before he finds his way home.

That one on Phantom Crystals doesn't sound too bad actually. He knew where Blueblood lived, he just didn't know what part of Canterlot Castle he lived in. So, he'd have to be fast. Turning his attention to Blueblood, who seemed to have moved a few feet away from his home. Maybe he didn't have to be fast. But he did have a deadline. Pulled out the watch and checked the time, he had until the sun rose to finish. That gave him at least quite a few hours to work with. Turning a full 360 degree, he saw that the castle had a library. I guess I'll start there. Leaping from roof to roof, Thief made his way towards the castle. There were guards posted at every post along the wall. He couldn't make a flame-portal, it would attract way too much attention. Plus the distance made him unsure if it was actually safe to use one to get past the guards. Planning his approach, Thief made a quick alteration to his appearances, making it darker. Once done with that Thief took off again. He snuck up to the walls, practically hugging it.

In front of him, the shadow of the guard walked by. He waited, not knowing if there were more coming. But there wasn't for a minute or two. Then another pony, or maybe it was the same pony from earlier, walked by. And again Thief waited. He timed the intervals between each shadow. Once the next guard walks by, I'll have a hundred and twenty seconds to climb up and back down the wall. Then the shadow appeared once more, exactly two minutes after the previous one. Punctual. Once he saw the shadow, he started his ascent up the wall. Allowing himself to partially drop the disguise for the bottom of his hooves, allowing his natural hooves to feel the smoothly cut stone. His natural hooves secreted a sticky substance that allowed changelings to climb pretty much any and all surfaces.

Thief reached the edge of the wall just as the guard walked into a tower. He pulled himself up and checked to his left, right, and up for each. Nopony in sight. He moved over to the opposite edge and scanned, yet another, courtyard. There were guards patrolling down there too. These ponies really don't let much go to chance when it comes to security, do they? Or maybe this was all just for the royal wedding and considering his kind just invaded Canterlot, he could see why there would be an excessive amount of security. The faint sound of hoofsteps came to his attention, he realized he had wasted enough time already. With little time left, he swung himself over the railing and descended. More like he was free falling and grabbing the wall for a bit. It was much further down on this side than the front. He let go for the last few feet and landed in a bush. Convenient. Looking out from his hiding spot, Thief found the library tower of the castle.

Whilst planning his approach to it, a dark shadow flew over him. Looking up he saw the younger of the royal sisters, flying to a balcony with a telescope on it. Well, that put a wrench in his plans. With her there, he wouldn't be able to tell if it would be safe to cross unseen. He needed a distraction, or create one himself. Something bid, loud, or impossible to miss.

A devious grin appeared when he saw his distraction. Something like that. It was a big bell. On the other side of the courtyard, at the top of a five-story building. All he needed to do was get it to somehow go off. He couldn't get closer to it. If he could, he wouldn't need a distraction. Picking up a rock, he thought about trying his luck at chucking it at the bell. He dismissed the idea when he realized that he couldn't reach it with a rock. He tossed the rock to his side, only to hear it clank and plop. "What the?" Thief looked back to where he tossed the rock. There was a grate. He lifted the grate and looked down the hole. He heard the sloshing and splashing of water. But what nearly killed him was the smell. It was abhorrent. A sewer.

No way am I going down there. Then again, it could run under the castle. With a defeated sigh, Thief plugged his nose and climbed down the hole, placing the grate back.

The smell truly was going to be the death of him. The worst part? The sewer went in the direction opposite the castle. With the small chance that it might lead to somewhere with better positioning. Eventually, the sewer ended at another hole leading up. Climbing up, Thief lifted and moved the grate over. Peeking out of the ponyhole, Thief found himself alone in a spacious concrete area. Wooden boxes were everywhere. Some small, most his size, and some were bigger than his natural form. Deciding that it was safe, Thief climbed out of the sewer and took a closer look at the boxes. Lots were labelled This Side Up and some were labelled Fragile.

Then it hit him. He was in a museum storage area. Museum, those had lots of valuables. Deciding to reap the benefits, Thief walked over to the closest box and unsheathed his dagger. He wedged it between the side and top of the box and pushed down. To no avail. No matter how much force he put on the dagger, it just wouldn't open the box. Then he saw why it was the wrong side. Moving to the other side, he found a lock. Annoyed at the safety mechanism, he leaned into it for a closer look. He could easily just blast the lock to the badlands. But that would be loud, and he wasn't sure if whatever was in it would be worth the risk. There was a note attached to the lid, but it didn't state what was in the box, just that it was labeled A15, and from another museum in a place called Manehattan. Looking into the opening for the key, Thief saw it was a tumblr lock. If there was a key here, he could probably find it. But then the problem of if it went to this box. There were a few dozen boxes throughout the room. He pulled out the hairpins and bent one of them to a ninety-degree angle at the center, using the dagger, he scraped off the plastic at the straight end of the pin. This would be the actual pick. Next, he put the pick into the lock and forced it slightly to the side. This caused the end of the pick to bend. Then moving on to the second hairpin, Thief bent it so that the pre-bent section would fit into the lock, while the rest of it went down the outside of the lock. This served as the lever and force of tension.

When one thought about it for a minute, lockpicking isn't all that difficult to understand. In this particular type of lock, a standard pin and tumbler lock, there was a series of pins in the lock, each at a differing length. First, Thief inserted the lever in the bottom half of the lock, and then the pick into the upper half. All Thief had to do was force the barrel to turn using the lever, and fail at that purposefully. Now with friction to exploit, Thief could feel through the lock. He felt five pins. Now, here comes the tedious and tricky parts. Due to inherent imperfections in all locks, only one or two pins would ever bind against the barrel at the same time. Those are the seized pins. Moving the first pin up and down was easy, it gave no resistance. That wasn't the seized pin, as that was the one he needed to focus one. The freely moving ones could be ignored for the time. Moving on to the next pin, he began to push it up and felt resistance. That was the seized pin. Now he had to be quiet. Using only the feel of the pick against the pins and audible aids, Thief carefully forced the second pin up until he heard a soft click. That signified that the pin was set above the barrel, now a new seized pin was created. Thief made sure to keep constant pressure on the lever, keeping it forced to turn.

A sense of pride filled him as he heard a click! That was the sound of success. The lock now turned, it took him longer than expected as he mucked up and had to start over, but it was done. Opening the box he was disappointed to not find jewels or gold artifacts, but a black bow. A BOW! REALLY! What use do I have for that! He was about to slam down the lid when he remembered the bell. Taking a moment to think about it, he decided it could work. Taking the bow out, he dug through the box until he found it. A quiver full of arrows. He strapped the quiver to his belt and wrapped the bow around his back. He closed the lid, removed his tools, and reset the lock. He turned back towards the ponyhole.

Thief placed the grate back over the ponyhole and returned to his hiding spot in the bushes. Luna was still looking through the telescope. Pulling out the bow and notching an arrow, Thief aimed for the bell, pulled back the string, breathed in. And let go.

BBBOOOONNNNGGG!!!

The arrow flew true, and now with a distraction, he dashed across the courtyard and pulled himself up and into the window. The halls seemed empty enough. He walked up to the door. It was also locked. He pulled out the lever and pick, then stopped. Putting them back, he focused his magic, trying to sense if there was any pony in there. He sensed no emotions, none. Satisfied that it was safe, he focused his magic into a flame-portal. Green fire licked around him as the world looked as if it was tearing itself apart and reforming itself in front of his very eyes. The flames seceded and he found himself on the other side of the door. It worked! Thief had been able to flame-port himself onto the other side of the door. Now in the Canterlot library, Thief ran up to a shelf of books and started searching for a book on crystals. Then he found it. Titled Canterlot Crystallography. Cracking it open to the index, Thief scanned down until he found the Phantom Crystal's page. Oh please have a picture. Please have a picture. He flipped to the page, with a picture right there. Thank you. The picture depicted a small silver crystal. They got their name from when in ancient times, ponies believed them to be phantoms, not real, as they are extremely fragile. They are also completely useless, aside from being used as a light amplifier. They would crack as soon as somepony tried to cut or polish one, and they held no magical energies. Odd considering that was how crystals were formed. Another slight yawn escaped him.

A muffled voice from the hallway reached Thief's ears. "Prince Blueblood, do you need any help?" It was a rough and scruffy voice. So he got back quicker than I thought. Now with his mark nearby, Thief put the book back where he found it and turned his attention to the door. Once again focusing his magic, he could sense two different sets of emotions. One was of protectiveness, while the other was greed.

"No, I'm just fine on my own!" Blueblood responded. He seems to have sobered up. The sound of two sets of hoofsteps started and both grew ever softer. In different directions. Returning his attention to ghosting Blueblood, Thief looked around the room for another exit. He found an unlocked door and saw Blueblood walk past it, with his head up and a smug sense of superiority set about himself. Oh, Thief wasn't going to feel sorry for this jerk one bit. Once Blueblood had left his sight, Thief checked behind himself in case anypony was watching him. But what he saw was something better. On a pedestal, sat a small Phantom Crystal, it was keeping the room lit. Carefully using his magic to grab it, Thief softly placed it into his satchel.

He opened the door, slipped out, and closed it behind him. He lowered himself to the ground and slowly walked behind Blueblood. Keeping a decent enough distance from him to stay hidden, and close enough not to lose sight of him. When Blueblood turned around a corner and down a staircase. Hugging the wall, Thief watched him and, once he was out of sight, snuck up to the staircase. The stairs went down for a bit. Not wanting to be heard taking the stairs, Thief latched onto the wall and crawled along it. Eventually, the stairs ended and the floor was in sight. Sighing, Thief silently jumped down the last bit and checked his surrounding. Nopony in sight, expect for Blueblood. Grinning, he followed Blueblood into a vault of bits. Lots and lots of bits.

He may have been extremely tired, but Thief was more than overcome at the sight of all the bits. And in his excited state, he ran over to a pile of bits on a table and started to dump them into his bag. The bits made a loud jiggle when they fell.

"Uh?" Blueblood turned to face the sound. "A thief! Guards! I'm being robbed!" Thief looked up and realized his folly. He grabbed the Phantom Crystal and placed it on the table he just relieved of bits. Luckily, Blueblood was too cowardly to do anything. But the guards were not. Soon the sound of a dozen hoofsteps thundered down from the stairs, his only way out. Thief ran into the center of the stairs and looked up to see an army of guards charging down. Sweat dripped down from his head as he hastily tried to find a way out of this. Summing his magic, he tried flame-porting, but he couldn't concentrate, the thundering of hoofsteps rang through his ears. If I could move quickly enough and put enough force into each jump, I might be able to wall-jump up the open space in the center of the stairs. Hopefully. So, he started jumping from one railing to another. It was working, and he was quickly closing the distance between himself and the top of the stairs. He jumped over the last railing and took off towards the open window. But the sight of another group of guards standing out in the courtyard deterred him form the escape route.

All he could think of was putting as much distance between himself and the guards. He ran up a staircase and across another hallway, turning a corner, and seeing Luna blocking his path. "STOP!" she shouted out to Thief but he, obviously, didn't listen. Instead, he lowered his head and summoned a flame-portal. This way of using the portal was tricky, and he only saw some of the Zukal do it a few times. But at this point, it was the only viable option at his disposable. All he needed was a flat surface. The green flames licked around him. He focused on the alleyway by the Shrouded Drapes. Speeding up, Thief charged past Luna, who held a bewildered look, and right into a wall. A green flash emanated and Thief was gone. "How?"

The alley beside the Shrouded Drapes was quiet. A flash of green, with flames licking outward from a wall. Then Thief came charging out of the flames and skirted to a halt. Feeling himself all over, Thief jumped with glee. He had succeeded and now... and now he felt tired. The sun rose above the horizon and the adrenaline worth off. This left Thief tired and hurting all over in places he didn't know could hurt. With the little amount of energy he had left, Thief made his way back to his room. A flash of green and Garrett opened the door, put away the things he had, and plopped down onto the makeshift bed. Finally sleep. Sweet sweet sleep.

---

Tough Locke sat up and let out a yawn. The steel blue earth pony turned to his sleeping wife; the most beautiful mare in Equestria in his opinion. Smiling, he got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom. His black mane and tail were both all scraggy and messed up. "Hmm." Locke's brown eyes spied a single grey hair. His cutie mark consisted of a magnifying glass focusing on a broken lock.

"Well, look whose up already. And here I thought that was my job."

Locke looked back to his now awake wife. "Morning honey." He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "And, well today's my free day. I was thinking about taking the kids out to the park about lunchtime. What do you think?" A comb encased in an orange aura floated past Locke.

"I think that sounds great. I know you and Lily went out to the theater a few days ago, but when was the last time you spent some time with Max?" The comb pulled on Locke's mane.

"Uhh, I can't remember. He hasn't talked to me since the move. Has he talked to you any?"

"Hardly any. I think he just needs some time to adjust. He just had to move from all his friends in Manehattan after all." The comb now moved onto his tail, straightening it out nicely.

Locke turned back to his wife. "Thanks, Rosie." He gave her another quick peck on one cheek and the other cheek. "I'll go fix up some pancakes."

"Oh, no you don't have to..." But Locke was already down the hallway ready to fix up breakfast for his family. "I hope the kids aren't to hungry this morning," Rosie muttered to herself.

Locke flipped the pancakes for the last time and slid them onto a pair of plates. He placed them at the ends of the table along with the other two plates of pancakes.

"Mmm, I smell pancakes."

Locke turned around to see his daughter Lily standing in the doorway. She held her stuffed teddy bear and wiped the sleep out of her blue eyes with one hoof.

She hadn't gotten her cutie mark yet. Her coat was lime green, like her mothers, while her mane and tail were both white.

"Well, you smelled right," Locke looked past Lily and around the room "Where's your brother?"

"Still asleep I think. Want me to go wake him up?"

"Yeah, go wake up him up." Lily turned towards Max's room with a visible sense of pride in her stride, like she just got an order from the Princess's themselves.

"Max. Wake up." No response was given. Lily tried again, but still no response. Curious, Lily opened the door and stepped into his room. She walked over to his bed, incased the bedsheets in a blue aura, and yanked the sheets off the bed. Max gave a disgruntled groan.

"Lily..." came from Max in a sleep-deprived moan.

"Get up. Dad made breakfast." Max responded by grabbing the bedsheets back in his own blue magic and covered himself back up.

"I don't want to get up. I'm still sleeping."

"Maybe you wouldn't need to sleep in so late if you actually went to bed on time." Another groan. Lily yanked the window curtains open, letting the sunlight seep into the room. Max merely turned over and put his back to the window. Feed up with his reluctance, Lily clambered onto his bed and jumped up and down. The bed shock and shock, until she felt herself stop in mid-air.

"Fine, I'm up." Max looked his younger sibling in the eyes.

"Good." Lily gave a smug grin of victory. Max just rolled his eyes and set his sister down. Yawning, he followed her to the kitchen, where a serving of pancakes with black, burnt splotches was on the menu.

"Look who finally decided to join the land of the waking," Locke joked. Max gave no response, he didn't even look to his father. He just sat down at the table and started half-heartedly eating. Locke looked over at his son. It wasn't getting any better. He had been like this for almost a month and he wouldn't tell anypony what was bothering him. "Hey. Lily. Max. I was thinking that later today, a bit around lunch, the three of us could go out to the park together. What do you two think?"

Lily's eyes lit up at the suggestion. "We're going to the park! Yippee!" She practically jumped in her seat. Max, on the other hoof, gave no such response. No response at all.

"Max..." Locke began, but he was cut off by a knocking at the door. "Hmm? Who could that be?" Locke went to the door. The mailmare didn't bring the mail or deliveries until Sunday, not Saturday. Locke opened the door to find not the mailmare, but a pegasus from the precinct.

"Detective, I'm sorry to bother you on your day off, but there was a burglary at the Castle, and the commissioner wants you to examine the crime scene."

"Okay." The pegasus gave a nod and took off to the Castle. Locke closed the door and returned to the kitchen.

"Who was that daddy?" Lily asked, wiping some milk from her mouth.

"It was a co-worker from the precinct. The commissioner needs me at a crime scene today. So, I'm afraid we won't be able to go out to the park today Lily."

Lily put her head down and gave a disappointed "Aw."

"Hey, sweetheart, we'll still be able to go out somewhere for dinner tonight. How about that new cafe that opened up last week?" That lifted Lily's spirits.

"You just can never get away from work can you?" Rosie called from behind him.

"Well, duty calls. It was probably just another delinquent roaming around the Castle after public hours. See you later honey." Rosie gave Locke a kiss on the cheek.

"Good luck for my good Locke." With that, Locke was out the door and on his way to the precinct.

"Mommy, can you... um?" Lily shyly looked at Rosie.

"Make you some non-burnt pancakes? Sure." Rosie turned the oven back on and grabbed the pancake mix, humming all the while.

Tough Locke took a look at the crime scene, as in the whole of Canterlot Castle. The castle had been blocked off from the public for the investigation. The guards had been patrolling the entire castle when the burglary took place.

The commissioner led Locke to Blueblood's vault under the castle. "The perp made its way down here unseen and made off with a few hundred bits."

"Its?" Locke asked.

"Nopony got a good enough look at them to tell if it was a mare or stallion, or even a pony."

"Why such a small amount? I mean there's got to be a few tens of thousands of bits in here. Possibly more," Locke asked.

"Well, Prince Blueblood said he heard the perp behind him and turned to see them pouring the bits into a satchel bag and placing a small, clear white crystal in place of the bits it stole. CSI's looking over the crystal right now back at the precinct."

"Right, I know what to do, thanks for bringing me up to speed Steele." Locke turned and walked back up the stairs and over to the witnesses.

"We heard Prince Blueblood shouting about a thief and ran down the stairs, trying to cut it off. Only, when we got halfway down, the thief jumped from one railing to another and right past us. It ran down the corridor and turned a corner. I don't know what happened after that." the guard pony finished his recount of the incident.

"Thanks for corroborating," Locke said in a friendly tone. This was the third witness and all of them had practically the same thing to say. A pony in a dark cloak somehow evaded them and made its way to the upper parts of the castle and just disappeared. Locke let out a sigh, this was the weirdest case he had ever done. Or at least, it was high up there on the weirdness list.

"Detective," a voice asked from behind him.

"Yes," Locke turned to the voice and... it was Princess Luna. "Princess Luna!"

"I believe I have some information on the burglary that occurred last night. Would you follow me?"

"Can you give me a moment Princess?" Luna nodded. Locke turned to the forensic and motioned for him to follow. He turned back to Luna and nodded.

"I saw the thief it turned a corner and came into my sight, running as if its life depended on it. I ordered it to stop, but all it did was encase itself with green flames and ran right past me. I had never seen anything like it, and certainly nothing like what it did next. It kept running, right into a wall; in a flash of green fire, it disappeared. Here, this is where I saw it." Luna motioned to an empty hall.

"Hmm," the forensic mumbled confusedly.

"What is it? What did you find?" Locke turned to him.

"It's not what I found, but what I didn't find. If the perp was using a fire spell to mask themselves, then there should at least be some residual evidence. Like scorch marks and the likes. Only, none of that's here." The forensic pony turned to Locke.

"Nothing? None at all?" Locke asked in disbelief.

"None." He shook his head.

"Odd. Anyways, thank you for the information Princess Luna."

"There's one more thing, before the thief was seen, the bell out in the courtyard was rung. I'm not sure who did that, but I have the feeling that it was the thief. I have to get back to my sister now, good luck on the investigation." With that, Luna walked off.

The forensic pony looked over to Locke. "I'm Blazing Magnify, by the way, everypony calls me Blaze." Blaze was a red unicorn with an orange mane.

"Tough Locke, every pony calls me Locke. Did you check out the crystal that was left behind?"

"Yeah."

"What did you find out about it?"

"Well, it's a Phantom Crystal. But that's about it. We should probably check out that bell."

"Yeah."

Locke and Blaze had the guards section off the area around the bell. They were looking for something, anything that could give them a clue. The clue was found by Blaze. It was a black arrow. The two headed back to the precinct, where Steele was waiting for Locke.

"Locke, can I talk to you in my office?" Steele asked in an almost concerned way.

"Uh, sure." Locke wasn't sure what Steele was concerned about. Steele closed the door and sat down at his desk.

"Please, sit down." He motioned to a seat opposite himself. Locke took it. "I had a sketch artist work with multiple witnesses, and well, this is what she came up with ever time." Steele handed him a drawing of a cloaked figure. And another picture of the same cloaked figure, only in color and a name the Phantom Thief. "The colored picture was from a library, the records state that it had been there for a century or two. I know the history your family had with the Phantom Thief. Now, the reason I brought this to your attention is simple. I don't want you going obsessively after him like your great-grandfather did." Locke couldn't believe it. The Phantom Thief was the criminal that cost his great-grandfather his life, and now he was still alive. How? He just didn't understand.

Comments

[The Gemini Guy]

So far the story is great and I can also see the similarities to the Phantom thief Anime trope. I'm also wondering if there is any relation to a certain Anime specifically if so which and if not how did you think of this story?