Post by Kiernan on Feb 8, 2013 4:22:38 GMT -5
[Late 46th, early 47th of Summer. Open only to my temps and Usutora/Turnkey]
"Hurry up."
Usutora waited in the alley next to the museum, already in his body suit. Why it took Frostbite so long to put his on was beyond any of them, considering he was the most practiced at fitting into tight spaces, and also the smallest. Tundra, who never wore a suit, partially because he couldn't find one his size, partially because if he did what he was assigned, the suit would give him away, was in the back already, chatting up the night guard, waiting for the signal from Usu that everything was ready for them to proceed to phase one.
Finally, after another three minutes or so of struggling with it, Frosty finally managed to slip his last leg into the suit. "Waitin' on you now," he said, making his way to the back corner. Usutora followed, then poked his head around the bend.
Tundra had gone a little overboard with the distraction, and had somehow hypnotized the guard into thinking he was a bowling ball. Now the guard was rolling around in the alleyway, and every once in a while saying "Strike." The only downside to this was that they needed Tundra to wear the uniform, which took a few minutes to remove from the guard's body.
Even though the guard had a key to the backdoor, Usu still picked the lock. why bring your tools along if you're not going to use them, he thought to himself, as the back door swung open.Tundra entered first, in case there were any guards around, which there weren't. It was, after all, a receiving room. Most of the guards would only be here during the day, and only on day when they would be receiving or shipping the artifacts for display. "The coast is clear," whispered Tundra, motioning to the others.
They pulled open a few boxes, and checked the contents. The item they were after was a recent delivery, and went on display the following morning. But alas, the crates were filled only with valuable treasures that would fetch a high price to the right fence...
After opening his eighth crate, and finding only the Pona Lisa, Tundra called out to the other two, "Hey, since it's supposed to be on display tomorrow morning, do you think it might be in the display case?"
Usutora and Frostbite stopped in their tracks, and thought about it for a moment. both were glad that their heads were inside of crates right then, because their faces both turned a bright red. Luckily, though, Usutora was able to catch himself in time. "Of course, I planned for that. Why do you think the two of us are wearing black leather body suits?"
"Aren't we wearing them for fun?" asked Frostbite, picking up on Usu's ruse. "And here I thought we were going to pick up some fillies afterward..."
"No," said Usu, closing up his crates, his face now back to being brown and fuzzy. "That's just you. Don't go getting too drunk and telling them what we did this time, 'kay? I don't want to leave this place for a while, and besides, there's a festival going on in two days. I don't want to miss that because you told three mares that we stole a priceless artifact from the local museum."
Frostbite scowled a bit at Usu. "That wasn't entirely my fault, you know!"
"Shh!" growled Tundra. "Do you want every guard in the building in here? I can only do so much to ensure that we were never here, and I'd appreciate it if we stayed within that border, thank you."They finished closing up the crates, and made their way into the internal hallway of the museum. This hallway was only used for maintenance, security, and other staff, to transport the artifacts from the receiving area to the display areas. Luckily, nopony was in the hallway, so the three of them made a dash for the maintenance closet, where, according to the building plans, they could find a fuse box, which they did. From there, it was no problem to cut the lighting in the hallway. Just for good measure, they pocketed the remaining fuses, so the lights would stay off. Furthermore, any approaching guard would be emitting light, either from their horn, or from a flashlight that was standard issue, so they would know when to disappear.
The triad continued down the hallway, diving into side rooms whenever a guard came close to them. In this way, they made it to the room that their target was supposed to be resting in. A low-grade smoke ball was set off at their hooves, revealing the laser security system. If anything broke the beams, an alarm would go off, and since it's power source was controlled only by the fuse box at the security checkpoint next to the curators office, that it was time for Frostbite to step up and do his job.
Each individual room had a switch to deactivate the lasers without tripping the alarm. It was put there so that guards could examine the display cases up close, without tripping the alarms. Of course, making it to the switch was a difficult task, unless the guard had a flitswitch, which would cause a path to open up in the lasers leading up to it. Of course, activating the switch sent a signal to the security checkpoint, which would alert them that three ponies, one an unnamed guard, the other two in black leather and spandex suits. No, it was better just to have an acrobat.
"Watch me fly, girls," said Frostbite, jumping into the air and landing on his front hooves a few feet away. He arched his back from there, transferring to his left back hoof, sliding his right low to the ground and through a gap. His entire body flew through the motions, doing flips and spins, and even doing the splits. As his left leg swung out, his right behind him, he looked back at the other two, just standing by the wall, staring off in other directions. "Oy," he said, loud enough to grab their attention. "I've been practicing this new move for a few weeks, I want you to see it."
Starting out with his hips to the ground, he brought his legs together, launching himself high into the air. After performing a quadruple salchow, he pulled an immelmann turn, and ended with a half backflip, landing on his front hooves right next to the switch. After a small bout of applause from his audience, he lowered his back legs to the floor, then flipped the switch, disabling the lasers.
"Well done, Frost," said Usu, trotting to the center of the room. One look into the display case, and he saw exactly what he wanted to see. "This is what we came for, boys. Let's break her out."
A quick look at the lock revealed that it wasn't of his design, but rather, a competitor. That meant that he wouldn't be taking the pins out of the hinges, but picking through the lock instead. It was an incredibly simple lock, only four pins, three with spacers for masterkeying. Usutora frowned. He could build better locks in his sleep. In less than five seconds, he had raked the lock open, and the lid was lifted. He carefully lifted out his prize, tucking it away safely into a small pouch on his hip, and leaving in it's place, a note:
Dear Whinnyapolis Museum Curator,
First off, let me say that it was an honor to steal from you. I've always found your exhibits to be fascinating, and your reading material to be correct at every turn. I even adore those bobbleheads in the gift shop. Yes, I love your museum. In fact, there is only one thing I would change. I would upgrade the security, because if this note makes it to you, and I'm not behind bars, that means we've succeeded in our plan to rob you of a priceless artifact, and believe me, I know how bad that is for business. Here's hoping that the next time we break in, that you'll have at least made it more of a challenge.
Sincerely, Trium Fures
It had been Frostbite's idea to give them a name, and leave behind these letters. At first, Usu had thought poorly of it, thinking that if they were ever caught, all of their thefts would be obvious, and they couldn't plead innocent. But the media loved it, and Usu decided to do it every time, outright telling his victims to upgrade their security. After all, it was the right thing to do, in case an actually harmful thief, who wasn't doing this because it was fun, came along.
They made their way back to the maintenance closet, where Tundra stayed behind. While Usu and Frostbite made their way out back and into the alley, Tundra trotted into the maintenance closet, where three other guards were, trying to find the fuses to restore the lights. He placed them silently on top of the fuse box, then left without any of them knowing he was there.
Finally, they had all left the building, and had tucked their suits into their saddlebags, except Tundra, who gave his to the guard, who had been set to sleep for ten minutes before waking up without the idea that he was a bowling ball. It was time for a bit of Celebration.
Frostbite tossed his saddlebags onto Usu's back, then took off for the nearest tavern, a full purse of bits. Tundra left to find a field of flowers to frolic through, leaving Usutora with the burden of cleaning up.
It didn't take him long to make it home. The Everfree forest may have been blocked off , but they happened to exclude the small outcropping of trees just outside of it, where their tent was.
It was a space-saver tent, in that it was larger on the inside. It had a few rooms, despite that it only seemed to have one from the outside. It even had a working kitchen, though it wasn't used very often. Usually, Usu would either eat at a restaurant, or mooch off of Kai, but really, since he was a poor cook, it was better that way.
He tossed Frost's saddlebags onto his bed, then walked into his own room, and sat down. He reached into the pouch he had placed his new found treasure in, and pulled it out. It sparkled in his hooves, even though it was a few thousand years old. Usu smiled, for he now held the black sun amulet.
[Trium Fures means 'the three thieves' in Latin, for those of you who don't speak dead languages. Also, more importantly, the black sun amulet is a blatant Eclipse-related object, that I made up, so that Usu would have a reason to join Eclipse later on.]
"Hurry up."
Usutora waited in the alley next to the museum, already in his body suit. Why it took Frostbite so long to put his on was beyond any of them, considering he was the most practiced at fitting into tight spaces, and also the smallest. Tundra, who never wore a suit, partially because he couldn't find one his size, partially because if he did what he was assigned, the suit would give him away, was in the back already, chatting up the night guard, waiting for the signal from Usu that everything was ready for them to proceed to phase one.
Finally, after another three minutes or so of struggling with it, Frosty finally managed to slip his last leg into the suit. "Waitin' on you now," he said, making his way to the back corner. Usutora followed, then poked his head around the bend.
Tundra had gone a little overboard with the distraction, and had somehow hypnotized the guard into thinking he was a bowling ball. Now the guard was rolling around in the alleyway, and every once in a while saying "Strike." The only downside to this was that they needed Tundra to wear the uniform, which took a few minutes to remove from the guard's body.
Even though the guard had a key to the backdoor, Usu still picked the lock. why bring your tools along if you're not going to use them, he thought to himself, as the back door swung open.Tundra entered first, in case there were any guards around, which there weren't. It was, after all, a receiving room. Most of the guards would only be here during the day, and only on day when they would be receiving or shipping the artifacts for display. "The coast is clear," whispered Tundra, motioning to the others.
They pulled open a few boxes, and checked the contents. The item they were after was a recent delivery, and went on display the following morning. But alas, the crates were filled only with valuable treasures that would fetch a high price to the right fence...
After opening his eighth crate, and finding only the Pona Lisa, Tundra called out to the other two, "Hey, since it's supposed to be on display tomorrow morning, do you think it might be in the display case?"
Usutora and Frostbite stopped in their tracks, and thought about it for a moment. both were glad that their heads were inside of crates right then, because their faces both turned a bright red. Luckily, though, Usutora was able to catch himself in time. "Of course, I planned for that. Why do you think the two of us are wearing black leather body suits?"
"Aren't we wearing them for fun?" asked Frostbite, picking up on Usu's ruse. "And here I thought we were going to pick up some fillies afterward..."
"No," said Usu, closing up his crates, his face now back to being brown and fuzzy. "That's just you. Don't go getting too drunk and telling them what we did this time, 'kay? I don't want to leave this place for a while, and besides, there's a festival going on in two days. I don't want to miss that because you told three mares that we stole a priceless artifact from the local museum."
Frostbite scowled a bit at Usu. "That wasn't entirely my fault, you know!"
"Shh!" growled Tundra. "Do you want every guard in the building in here? I can only do so much to ensure that we were never here, and I'd appreciate it if we stayed within that border, thank you."They finished closing up the crates, and made their way into the internal hallway of the museum. This hallway was only used for maintenance, security, and other staff, to transport the artifacts from the receiving area to the display areas. Luckily, nopony was in the hallway, so the three of them made a dash for the maintenance closet, where, according to the building plans, they could find a fuse box, which they did. From there, it was no problem to cut the lighting in the hallway. Just for good measure, they pocketed the remaining fuses, so the lights would stay off. Furthermore, any approaching guard would be emitting light, either from their horn, or from a flashlight that was standard issue, so they would know when to disappear.
The triad continued down the hallway, diving into side rooms whenever a guard came close to them. In this way, they made it to the room that their target was supposed to be resting in. A low-grade smoke ball was set off at their hooves, revealing the laser security system. If anything broke the beams, an alarm would go off, and since it's power source was controlled only by the fuse box at the security checkpoint next to the curators office, that it was time for Frostbite to step up and do his job.
Each individual room had a switch to deactivate the lasers without tripping the alarm. It was put there so that guards could examine the display cases up close, without tripping the alarms. Of course, making it to the switch was a difficult task, unless the guard had a flitswitch, which would cause a path to open up in the lasers leading up to it. Of course, activating the switch sent a signal to the security checkpoint, which would alert them that three ponies, one an unnamed guard, the other two in black leather and spandex suits. No, it was better just to have an acrobat.
"Watch me fly, girls," said Frostbite, jumping into the air and landing on his front hooves a few feet away. He arched his back from there, transferring to his left back hoof, sliding his right low to the ground and through a gap. His entire body flew through the motions, doing flips and spins, and even doing the splits. As his left leg swung out, his right behind him, he looked back at the other two, just standing by the wall, staring off in other directions. "Oy," he said, loud enough to grab their attention. "I've been practicing this new move for a few weeks, I want you to see it."
Starting out with his hips to the ground, he brought his legs together, launching himself high into the air. After performing a quadruple salchow, he pulled an immelmann turn, and ended with a half backflip, landing on his front hooves right next to the switch. After a small bout of applause from his audience, he lowered his back legs to the floor, then flipped the switch, disabling the lasers.
"Well done, Frost," said Usu, trotting to the center of the room. One look into the display case, and he saw exactly what he wanted to see. "This is what we came for, boys. Let's break her out."
A quick look at the lock revealed that it wasn't of his design, but rather, a competitor. That meant that he wouldn't be taking the pins out of the hinges, but picking through the lock instead. It was an incredibly simple lock, only four pins, three with spacers for masterkeying. Usutora frowned. He could build better locks in his sleep. In less than five seconds, he had raked the lock open, and the lid was lifted. He carefully lifted out his prize, tucking it away safely into a small pouch on his hip, and leaving in it's place, a note:
Dear Whinnyapolis Museum Curator,
First off, let me say that it was an honor to steal from you. I've always found your exhibits to be fascinating, and your reading material to be correct at every turn. I even adore those bobbleheads in the gift shop. Yes, I love your museum. In fact, there is only one thing I would change. I would upgrade the security, because if this note makes it to you, and I'm not behind bars, that means we've succeeded in our plan to rob you of a priceless artifact, and believe me, I know how bad that is for business. Here's hoping that the next time we break in, that you'll have at least made it more of a challenge.
Sincerely, Trium Fures
It had been Frostbite's idea to give them a name, and leave behind these letters. At first, Usu had thought poorly of it, thinking that if they were ever caught, all of their thefts would be obvious, and they couldn't plead innocent. But the media loved it, and Usu decided to do it every time, outright telling his victims to upgrade their security. After all, it was the right thing to do, in case an actually harmful thief, who wasn't doing this because it was fun, came along.
They made their way back to the maintenance closet, where Tundra stayed behind. While Usu and Frostbite made their way out back and into the alley, Tundra trotted into the maintenance closet, where three other guards were, trying to find the fuses to restore the lights. He placed them silently on top of the fuse box, then left without any of them knowing he was there.
Finally, they had all left the building, and had tucked their suits into their saddlebags, except Tundra, who gave his to the guard, who had been set to sleep for ten minutes before waking up without the idea that he was a bowling ball. It was time for a bit of Celebration.
Frostbite tossed his saddlebags onto Usu's back, then took off for the nearest tavern, a full purse of bits. Tundra left to find a field of flowers to frolic through, leaving Usutora with the burden of cleaning up.
It didn't take him long to make it home. The Everfree forest may have been blocked off , but they happened to exclude the small outcropping of trees just outside of it, where their tent was.
It was a space-saver tent, in that it was larger on the inside. It had a few rooms, despite that it only seemed to have one from the outside. It even had a working kitchen, though it wasn't used very often. Usually, Usu would either eat at a restaurant, or mooch off of Kai, but really, since he was a poor cook, it was better that way.
He tossed Frost's saddlebags onto his bed, then walked into his own room, and sat down. He reached into the pouch he had placed his new found treasure in, and pulled it out. It sparkled in his hooves, even though it was a few thousand years old. Usu smiled, for he now held the black sun amulet.
[Trium Fures means 'the three thieves' in Latin, for those of you who don't speak dead languages. Also, more importantly, the black sun amulet is a blatant Eclipse-related object, that I made up, so that Usu would have a reason to join Eclipse later on.]