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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Jun 10, 2012 18:15:26 GMT -5
Night had befallen the city of Manehattan, the street lights flickering on just minutes earlier. Ponies who had spent the entire day shopping were heading in to rest. Those who had spent the entire day resting were heading out to party. This was one of the quieter sides of the city, though. With no parties to be found, the streets would hopefully be mostly barren.
Things were quiet around the Readmore Bookstore. The owner, an older gentlecolt whose mane was just starting to gray, had just finished closing up. Locking the side door behind him, the colt trotted slowly out of the alley, a pair of eyes watching as he made a left onto the main street. Hiding within a messy pile of cardboard boxes further down the alley, Klepto waited patiently for several more minutes, enough time for the store owner to be well on his way home. Now he was ready to begin.
Klepto Moonlit couldn't remember how long ago he had entered the city of Manehattan, but he did know that his luck had been for the worse since. So far he'd only completed one theft within the city, a pitiful accomplishment for a thief considering the time he'd spent here. As much as Klepto wanted to blame a string of bad circumstances, he knew he could only take the excuse so far. His lack of success in the thieving department was as much to due with himself as anything else. He hadn't taken enough initiative. He had been too picky, too lazy, too apathetic, and now he was paying for it. He was out of money and was either going to rob this store or end up living like a hobo. Ironic, considering his earlier conversations with a Miss Sea Swell. Where was she anyway? Last time he'd seen her was during the Grey Shadow Incident. The second one.
Deciding he had waited long enough, Klepto began to move out of the boxes. The sudden sound of hoof-steps approaching immediately forced him back into his hiding place. It was a Rainlock guard. The security guards had been patrolling the city ever since the Grey Shadow had broken into Rainlock Mansion. Lady Rainlock certainly must have had a bone to pick with the Shadow, because before Klepto knew it he couldn't take two steps without bumping into one of them. Whoever could fill an entire city with privately-hired guards certainly had too much wealth for their own good. Maybe Klepto could help relieve her of some of it. But not now. He needed to turn his luck around, and the best way to do that would be to start small. Besides, if the rest of the city now had guards, then the mansion itself was likely twenty times worse than before. Thanks, Grey Shadow.
As the hoof-steps got closer, the guard made his appearance at the entrance of the alleyway. He paused a second, right within Klepto's view, only to sneeze and continue his patrol. When the guard's steps had finally died away, Klepto quietly left the box pile and made his way to the side-door. A simple lock was now all that was standing between Klepto and the inside of the book store. The owner might as well have left a welcome mat. Reaching into his bag, Klepto pulled out a small metal lockpick. "Never leave home without it," Klepto thought to himself as he slipped it into the keyhole. With just a little fiddling, anything in the store would soon be as good as his.
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Post by splatterpaint on Jun 11, 2012 0:32:55 GMT -5
Spray paint cans sure did make a lot of noise. Splatterpaint shook up her purple stay paint can, cringing at the shattering noise it made and taking another quick sweep of the area. Rainlock guards were freaking everywhere, and Splatters didn't like that the slightest. She couldn't paint the walls of the alleys if they kept marching around. She sprayed at the wall, finishing her spray paint painting in a sweeping purple flourish. She stood back to look at her finished masterpiece, which she had been working on for a good four hours. It had turned out as she had imagined it. A talk tree, it's branches blossoming in pale pink flowers, stretched across the wall, with a faint purple tint. The tree looked so life like, it was surprising that the branches didn't swing as a small breeze picked up. The pink blossoms covered the entire wall, and Splatters smiled in pleasure, like she had just win an award.
"HEY, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING THERE?!" a booming voice rang out suddenly, sounding odd against the silence which had been resting upon the city. Startled, Splatters jumped, grabbed her bag, and skittered out of the alley, tripping over paint cans as she fled. Normally she would clean up all the cans and buckets, but she had to focus on escaping getting arrested for "damaging property." Which was stupid. She wasn't damaging it, she was making it look good for a change. But anyways...
Splatter's hooves pattered against the ground, sounding small compared to the thunderous clomping of the colt guard. She picked up speed as adrenaline raced through her body, turning right onto one street, left onto another, then right again, then... The colt's steps were slowly getting fainter and fainter, until they dissappeared in the night, as if swallowed up by the silence. Splatterpaint stopped running, and almost collapsed in her exhaustion. Breathing heavily, Splatters caught her breath and continued walking, looking for a landmark so she would know where she was so she could get home. But she hadn't a clue where she was. The street was empty, except...
Splatters hadn't noticed the faint clicking noise until then. Curiosity seized he immediatly, and she began to venture towards the noise, her ears pricked. After a couple meters, she finally spotted a dark shape on the street, in from of a book store. Oh, that's where she was! The pony, upon closer inspection, appeared to be tryin to get into the store. She spoke without thinking, "Hey, what are you doing?" Her voice rang out a bit too loudly, full of curiosity and free from an accusatory tone, but no guards appeared to have heard.
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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Jun 11, 2012 1:00:17 GMT -5
Klepto quickly stopped fiddling with the lock and turned towards where the voice had come from, letting out an inner sigh of relief upon seeing it's source. Just a filly. For a second he had thought it was a guard, or at least some adult competent enough to notify someone. "I'm uh..." he said, looking back towards the door as he tried to think of something. "Picking up an order." It was a good enough excuse, considering who he was talking to.
Klepto went back to picking the lock, moving the tool around the keyhole in order to get the pins in place. He paused to look back at the filly for a second before returning to his work. Had he seen her before? Maybe once, and if so not for very long. Whatever. "Isn't it a little late for you to be out?" he asked, trying to find an easy way to get rid of the young pony. "Your parents are probably worried sick or something."
The lockpick was working it's magic, and he was already close to having the lock opened. Just one more pin to go. "Almost there," he thought to himself. And good too. The less time he spent out here messing around with a locked door, the less likely he was to get noticed by anypony else.
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Post by splatterpaint on Jun 11, 2012 1:31:15 GMT -5
Splatterpaint blinked at the colt's response, then scowled. He was lying. But she didn't want him to know she was suspicious. She kept her tone innocent, and let her words pry, "Well, if you're picking up the order, why do you have to pick the lock? Don't you have keys or something?" she plastered on the most innocent look she could muster, but her eyes twinkled with curiosity. Luckily that wouldn't give anything away. She pushed her mane out of her eyes and trotted up to the colt, trying to get a closer look at him.
Once she was a little less than a meter away from him she finally was able to make out his appearance. Orange coat, yellow mane, black bandana... "Hey, I know you!" She exclaimed in sudden realization. "You're the colt from the Grey Shadow scandal!" Wow, how odd they would run into each other at a time like this. Strange.
"It's not that late. My parents know I'm out here, so who cares?" Slatterpaint commented casually, her eyes on the lock. He was almost in. What was he doing? Was he trying to steal or something? Maybe she should find a guard... No, they would just arrest her too. Looks like she would have to deal with this on her own. Problem was, she didn't really know how.
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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Jun 11, 2012 11:23:49 GMT -5
"Mr. Readmore knew I was going to be picking this order up tonight but forgot to leave me a set of keys," Klepto stated, answering the filly's first questions. The story was simple, and easy to run with. "Luckily I've had some experience working at a locksmith's for a few years, so I can just-" All the pins were finally in place, allowing Klepto to turn the plug and open the lock. "Ah, there we go."
He then turned to notice that the filly was now standing right next to him, giving him a much better look at her. "Oh yeah, you." She was right, they had seen each other during the first Grey Shadow incident, but only for a few minutes at most. Their interaction had been minimal. "Well listen, regardless of how rebellious you're feeling, I'm pretty sure there's a curfew you're breaking. And I wouldn't want you to get into any trouble with the law."
Klepto gave the door knob a turn, opening the door with ease. "So you should probably be on your way home. Besides, it isn't all that safe out here at night. All sorts of criminals could be out and about." With that, Klepto trotted casually into the dark store, leaving the door to close slowly behind him.
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Post by splatterpaint on Jun 12, 2012 23:28:06 GMT -5
Splatters listened to his story, which was decently believable. Maybe he was just picking up stuff. But still, it seemed fishy. She watched him pick the lock, her eyes narrowed. Locksmith, huh?
She was about to open her mouth to say something when her eyes glinted with anger. He was talking down to her. "Oh, yes, talking to a random pony picking a lock to a bookstore. I'm feeling pretty rebellious right now." She retorted, her voice dripping with irritation and sarcasm. "How about I worry about me and you worry about me. Don't get on my case for being out at night while you're standing here, and for all I know, robbing poor Mr. Readmore."
He walked into the bookstore, closing the door on her. She scowled angrily, and stuck her hoof out just in the nick of time. She pushed her way in, trotting after the colt. "How about I help out with your order thing?" You're not getting away that easily. If he was telling the truth, then it would be fine and she would see he wasn't doing anything suspicious. If he was... well, then she would see that too and call over one of the guards. And then probably run, since she would probably get in trouble for painting.
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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Jun 13, 2012 19:09:54 GMT -5
Klepto had been fishing around in his bag for a flashlight when he heard the filly close behind. Had she really followed him into the store? "Great," Klepto thought to himself, rolling his eyes as he pulled out the flashlight. This filly was starting to become like the gum that gets stuck to the bottom of your hoof: really annoying and hard to get rid of.
Holding the flashlight in his mouth, Klepto turned it on with a gentle bite before shining it in the filly's face. "You really wanna help, huh?" he asked, his enunciation slightly obscured by the flashlight. Turning away from the filly, he moved the light out of her face and used it to indicate toward the bookshelves. "Find me a book called... uh..." Klepto tapped his hoof to his chin for a few seconds while making up a title. "...The... Incredible Adventures of Derby McRedmane."
Satisfied that the task of finding a non-existent book would keep the filly occupied, Klepto made his way through the bookshelves himself, scanning through the store's wares. He made a random stop by one or two books of no particular importance, looked at their covers for about two seconds each, and slipped them into his bag. "Just a few things here or there and then the register." He probably wouldn't be able to get much for the books, but hey, he was in a book store. Naturally, the polite thing to do was steal some books. The real prize, however, was the register, or more specifically the bits waiting inside.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 14, 2012 6:51:22 GMT -5
A loud crash stole their attention as a pair of pegasi wearing matching uniforms trumped into the store, turning on the lights. "We saw you coming in here, you think you're going to break in on our watch?" Said the first one, a rather slim but mean looking pegasus. Accompanied by a hulking behemoth of a pony, "Come out with your hooves up and we won't have to put the pain on you." The big one was now blocking the front door, while the other inched his way towards the back trying to box them in the middle.
"Come on, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." The leaner pegasus said with a thick lower Manehattenite accent.
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Post by splatterpaint on Jun 15, 2012 13:11:04 GMT -5
Splatters blinked as the flashlight was shone at her, and squinted so she could see. The Incredible Adventures of Derby McRedmane? "Well, that's a stupid name for a book." Splatterpaint mumbled, turning and looking at the rows of books. It would be hard to find it in all this.
"Hey, what's the author's name?" Splatters called out, glancing back at Klepto. He hadn't gone to the register and emptied it out or anything yet, just grabbed a few books. Maybe he was actually here for a delivery. Then again, he could be wanting to steal a few books and then the bits.
The sound of hoofs reps approaching made her freeze, and she shrinks back into the shadows, peering between the rows of books. Two Pegasi clomped in. What the... She held her breath, her eye trained on the colts. One went to the back, the other blocked the door. No way of escaping... Wait. She wasn't doing anything wrong. Sure, she might get in a bit of trouble if they found out she had painted on the wall, but she wasn't stealing or anything.
Splatters rolled her eyes at the threats, arrogant as usual. A little argument was forming in her mind, debating on whether she should step forward or not. She peered at Klepto through the books, allowing him to make the first move.
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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Jun 16, 2012 2:34:50 GMT -5
The sudden sound of two pegasi loudly entering the store instinctively pulled Klepto behind a bookshelf. "Dangit," the thief thought to himself, turning off the flashlight and throwing it into his bag shortly after the pegasi had turned on the lights. Rainlock guards. Of course. Who else would care about a book store of all things?
With the flashlight tucked away, Klepto quickly began scooping whatever books were in front of him into his bag. He may not have had time to go after the register, but he certainly wasn't going to leave this shin-dig empty hoofed. After securing a good amount of books, Klepto quietly made his way closer to the filly, staying out of sight of the guards.
The back door was certainly not an option, considering the hefty pegasi blocking it. Breaking through the display glass at the front of the store was a possibility, but one that invited heavy attention to his location and involved getting covered in shards of glass. What else was there? Playing dumb? Tackling the guards?
Klepto looked over towards the filly, who seemed to be waiting to see what he would do, and suddenly got an idea. "Stay close and keep your mouth shut." he whispered to her before turning towards the guard's voice. "Stay back!" he blurted out. "I've got a hostage!"
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 16, 2012 17:28:03 GMT -5
"Hear that? We have a wiseguy." Said the slim pegasus, chuckling at his friends, "Dispatch we have a break in at Readmore's." There was a moment of silence before a reply came in.
"Shadow?"
"No, just some bloke who thinks we're the police."
"Bring him in anyway, he might know something, I'm sending a few hooves your way."
"Alright wise guy, you come clean now and we don't break your legs." The pegasus said, smashing his front hooves together and cracking his neck muscles. "We're not the police kiddo, we don't work by the same rules, see? Better give up your game, unless you want to play <b>our</b> game."
The large pegasus laughed outright at this, "I'm sure he'll wisen up, just give the pony a second." He stated between laughs. It was obvious these two could care less if there was a real hostage situation or not. It would be their word against those of a thief and a little filly. It was obvious in what direction this was heading.
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Post by splatterpaint on Jun 16, 2012 20:45:19 GMT -5
Splatterpaint turned at Klepto's voice, listening and giving a tiny, discreet nod. She could pretend to be hostage. Oh, hold on. Technically she was a hostage. Wasn't she? Huh, she was. Look at that. It appeared that she had been right about Klepto. HA! Wait, was that seriously what she was thinking about? This was a dangerous situation. She plastered a look of fear on her face, trying her best to look the part, even though she wasn't particularly scared. She'd faced worse. Then again, this didn't seem like the best situation.
The fact that these pegasi were so worked up over a break in at a bookshop was a bit alarming. But, then again, they didn't look particularly upset. In fact, the look on there face was a bit... sickening to Splatterpaint. Not the police, huh? The fact that they said that indicates the fact that they won't treat a burglar and a hostage like the police. If they would, they wouldn't have said that. So that can only mean that this is a worse situation than I had anticipated... Splatters quickly analyzed the situation, offering her no relief. This was so not good. And heading to an even worse direction....
Her analysis was proved correct by the pegasus' next few statements, which easily sent a shiver up her spines. She'd rather be facing some more of those ferals right now... She didn't like the look in their eyes.
Splatters stayed near Klepto as he had told her, doing her best to continue to act like... well, a hostage. She cowered away from the others, her mind racing. She didn't know what the plan would be, or if she would follow it. Any sensible pony would think to just give in to these pegasi. Splatters wasn't sensible. If they came near to her, she would just yell. Loudly. Hopefully some sensible pony would hear or something. Yeah, that would work. She tried to convince herself. Right now, it appeared she was trapped in a bookstore with two lunatics and a criminal. Not good.
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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Jun 16, 2012 22:59:25 GMT -5
Klepto scowled at the guards' response. It was bad enough that they had interrupted a perfectly good break-in, but their arrogant "we've already caught you" attitude was rubbing him like sand paper. They were certainly right on not being police. Police had more tact. That, and they would be treating even the possibility of a hostage situation with seriousness, something that would have given Klepto some much needed wiggle room.
As the more vocal of the guards continued his parade of threats, getting closer to the two's location, Klepto took a few steps backwards towards to the filly, aiming to give her instructions as quietly as possible. "Start making your way to the light switch over on the wall, but stay hidden." he whispered, indicating towards the switch over on the far wall. The same wall containing the side door the other pegasus was blocking. "Once I take out the first of these blockheads, make a break for it and kill the lights.[/color]"
After telling the filly what to do, Klepto slowly began moving himself, being cautious to have the booksheves blocking each guard's view of him. "Two grown colts who would be so quick as to disregard the safety of a poor, helpless young filly? Maybe we need to stop and reevaluate who the criminals are." By now Klepto was advancing towards the slimmer, mobile pegasus, still maintaining a bookshelf between him and the guard. "You break into a store uninvited, start threatening unassuming pony folk," Continuing to speak, Klepto procurred the unlit flashlight from his bag, holding it in his mouth. "Why, if I was the jury, I would say you two are already-"
Once the guard was just opposite Klepto on the other side of a bookshelf, Klepto quickly turned to give the shelf a powerful kick, sending it tipping in his direction ready to fall over. Hopefully it would take care of the first guard. Getting rid of the second would depend on the filly.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 18, 2012 14:57:09 GMT -5
The guard however was quick on his hooves, as soon as he saw the bookshelf tilting in his direction he instantly slammed into it with his entire weight, reversing the trick and causing it to crash down on Klepto instead.
"Hostage eh? Let me tell you something about hostages you little small-time." Said the Pegasus as he climbed atop the bookcase. "Burglars don't take them before they break into an empty store. You know what that means don't you? Means your filly friend is either an accomplice, or stupid."
"What's a grown colt even doing with a little filly after dark?" Said the larger one from the doorway, "Seems pretty wrong to me." The leaner one nodded in agreement.
"Now are you going to come in quietly?"
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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Jun 23, 2012 17:48:59 GMT -5
Klepto, not expecting the bookshelf to begin reversing directions, found himself without a moment to react. The bookshelf quickly landed right on top of him, eliciting a groan as he spat out the flashlight. Just before he was going to attempt to move out from under the bookshelf, he felt the guard climbing on top of it, only further pinning him to the floor. "Stupid Manehattan," he thought to himself. "Stupid bookshelf. Stupid guards. Stupid, stupid, stupid!!"
This was it. If there was any sign that this city just hated him, it was this. The easiest heist in the world, robbin' a stinkin' bookstore, and he still failed. But this wasn't just failure. This wasn't just having to make a getaway without the goods or even gettin' caught by the popo. This was humiliation. Gettin' busted by two no-goods who aren't even cops and were likely havin' the time of their lives. Two no-goods who shouldn't even be here, but were. All because of that stupid Grey Shadow. Yes, it was all his fault. Every sore moment Klepto had had in this city could be traced back to him. And even if it wasn't, it probably was anyway.
Klepto was so busy going on his inner tirade that he hadn't paid attention to what the guards had said. The only thing he caught was the guard's last question. "If I were you I'd be more concerned about other things," he spoke from under the bookshelf, his tone much more tart. "Like how ticked off the store owner's gonna be when he finds out you knocked over his bookshelf."
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