(Canterlot) A puppet show and fireworks [PM for invite]

[FlimFlam]

The streets of Canterlot always tended to be a busy place. Everyday, it seemed as thought the streams of ponies in the streets would never end as they went to their jobs, or stores, or favorite cafes. There was hardly ever a spot where the hustle and bustle died down. That being said, it was most certainly a different kind of 'busy', then, say, the nigh-overpopulated streets in Manehatten or the simple small-town feel of Ponyville. No, the ambiance in Canterlot was usually one of elegance; it is the built around the Princesses' castle, after all.

This fancy lifestyle was exactly why a certain Unicorn loved the city. She may have had limited experience elsewhere, but elsewhere wasn't Canterlot, so she was fine with that. To her, the jobs bespoke of the upper-class, the stores spoke of profit, and the cafes had excellent pastries. Maybe she'd get one later. The day was still young, after all. Speaking of which, she herself had a job to do, though it was a very different job indeed. The young mare, none other than the certainly-less-than-infamous Marionette Charade, made a living with puppets. That is to say, street performances with puppets. She was quite skilled with them, and loved the fact that they could be operated anonymously - if she stood a distance away, few people tended to take heed of her. Most prefer the mare in front of the curtain anyways.

Marionette had woken up earlier in the day with a specific goal in mind. She was running a bit low on bits, and her performances hadn't quite earned enough to make up for the cost for making the puppets, so a plan was formed. It was a simple plan, Marionette would go a perfect street she had scouted out, one not to far removed so as to reduce traffic, but certainly not a main road. From there, a nice, shady, isolated spot would be found: optimally near the mouth of an ally. From there, she took out two of her particularly favorite puppets. They both looked like small ponies, one being rather lavishly decorated with various colors and even a few gems, the other a simple grey horse with no features.

From there, the plan was fairly easy: Set up the fancy puppet in a spot where it would get attention: which it often would. Thanks to her magical talent, it operated seemingly autonomously as she stood hidden. The second one would wait until a crowd had gathered, then slip around "borrowing" a few trinkets nobody would miss. It was perfect in that nobody was really a victim: things could be replaced, and people who stopped to watch a street performer should be prepared to "donate" a few bits anyways. The most Marionette ever saw was someone get angry, but never upset.

She smiled in the corner of the street. A simple two-pony job, done masterfully by a single mare. Why, if all her heists and plots were this well done, she might become a bit egocentric. A small, dull glow surrounded her horn as the two puppets sprung to life. Still with the slight grin, she muttered under her breath "Showtime".

As the fancy one took its position in the middle of the street a distance away. She entertained the thought of getting that pastry afterwards.

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro walked around Canterlot, searching for something to do. He had already finished everything he had needed to do for the time being, so he found himself with free time and nothing to do. Pyro looked around at the stores and various businesses on either side of the street before sighing at the crowds around him. It's not that he didn't like crowds, but this city seemed a little too busy for him sometimes. You kind of had to be fine with crowds if you were to help with performances and things like that. Not to mention being a guard sometimes involved controlling crowds. "At least it's not as bad as what I heard about places like Manehatten." Pyro said to himself before continuing down the road. Pyro turned onto another road, almost immediately noticing a colorful pony standing around in the middle of the street. Pyro tilted his head a bit before making his way closer. As he got closer, Pyro started to realize that the 'pony' was actually a puppet decorated with bright colors and some gems. Pyro stopped a little ways away from the puppet, examining it. Pyro couldn't see any kind of strings to control it with, so he figured it must be controlled using magic. Pyro looked around at this realization, but didn't see any unicorns that looked like they were casting any sort of spells. Pyro shrugged to himself before turning his attention back to the puppet.

[xXDashieXx]

Flamewing had been walking around many times. She was looking around the square and the city. "What a nice place!" Flamewing said. She wasn't looking where she was going so she ran into a stallion. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" Flamewing apologize "I didn't see you there!" Flamewing exclaimed. She looked at the stallion. He was staring at something in the distance. He was staring at a puppet, with lights and everything. She though it looks like a show. Proabably is! Flamewing though to herself. She was trying to what was going on when a big group of ponies walked up in front of her.

[FlimFlam]

Marionette couldn't help but continue a slight grin in the corner. So far, everything was going according to plan. And why shouldn't it? Twas her plan, after all. Though, to be honest, she wasn't expecting quite a crowd to gather as it had, but if anything that simplified the process. Took a whole lot of waiting out, though, at this point, she was a little torn. On one hoof, the quicker you accomplish the task, the less likely you are to get caught. On the other hoof, they crowd was watching her talent! How can you not be a little proud to draw in such a crowd with a (she chuckled mentally at the pun) charade so elegantly simply?

If any pony were standing next to her - which as far as she could tell nopony was - they might have possible heard the slightest mutter emanate from the red unicorn. That whisper would have almost certainly sounded like "I could probably make a days worth of honest pay right now... but... then again... I could make a week's worth of dishonest pay as well. C'est la vie, I suppose."

With that, phase two of her plan was put into action. Right next too her, a small grey figurine nonchalantly rose up as the bedazzled puppet started dancing about in an even more distracting fashion, doing cartwheels and flips. Scanning out the crowd, Marionette looked for some more isolated ponies. If she went directly for the main group, one could lose sight of her grey puppet. You can't really rob what you can't really see after all. From a brief scan, Charade found two particularly good places to start: One a white unicorn with fiery hair and sunglasses standing a distance away, the other a dark Pegasus cut off from the show by a crowd.

After neighing - excuse her - weighing her options, she decided to go for Mr. Sunglasses. Someone with shades that fancy must have a few bits to spare, not to mention he seemed much more aware of her jeweled marionette, and therefore much more distracted by it. The aura around her horn grew ever so slightly brighter as the grey puppet sitting next to her slowly started trotting towards the intended mark. It blended in with the street very well, and everypony was already so intently focused. It took perhaps a minute or two (any faster and she risked detection) but eventually the second puppet snuck behind Mr. Sunglasses and extended a careful hoof in preparation for a pickpocket attempt. Meanwhile, the first puppet did a particularly distracting maneuver.

Despite her confidence, Marionette always found herself holding her breath on the first mark.

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro kept watching the puppet as it stood there, seemingly serving no purpose. Pyro felt somepony bump into him from behind and heard the pony apologize. "It's alright, my fault for standing around in the middle of the street." Pyro said, chuckling a bit. By the time he turned around to look at the pony, a crowd cut them off from each other. Pyro shrugged and turned his attention back to the puppet, who had started to dance.

Pyro watched the puppet do various acrobatic moves, becoming somewhat entranced by the colorful puppet. "Well this is sure an interesting show so far." Pyro said to himself as the puppet continued to dance around the area. "Wonder who's controlling this puppet? Why don't they want to be seen?" Pyro said, glancing around a bit. He almost missed the pony-like shape next to him, but he just caught it as he started to look back towards the colorful puppet. Pyro looked back to the shape and saw that it was another puppet,this one being a grey that blended very well with the street. Pyro looked down at the puppet's hoof as it reached for the small amount of bits that he had actually brought with him on his walk.

Pyro picked the puppet up with levitation and examined it closer. It was, just like the colorful puppet, without any obvious means of controlling it, which meant it was also controlled with magic. "Who's controlling these things? Obviously not a good pony if they're pick-pocketing their audience. Where are they?" Pyro mumbled, looking around the area again. This time, he noticed a slight glow coming from one of the alleys around the street. Pyro walked towards the alley, dragging the gray puppet along behind him as he walked. Pyro found a unicorn mare in the alley and dumped the gray puppet next to her. "Care to explain what you were planning to do to me with that?" Pyro asked the mare, gesturing towards the puppet.

[xXDashieXx]

Starwing looked at the puppet carefully. "Wow!" Starwing sighed. "What is he doing??" Starwing asked. "It looks like he's pick-pocketing somepony!" Starwing gasped. She looked over to where the puppets were and watched them carefully. They would sway from side to side in elegant moves. "Wow! They're graceful!" Starwing exclaimed, watching them do twirls and flips. She looked over to her side but the stallion was gone. She noticed that he was across the rode talking to a unicorn mare. She trotted over to see what was going on. She saw the puppet in the garbage can lying with all the trash. Starwing was confused. "Um, what is going on exactly?" Starwing asked.