"Starlight has been captured!?" Gerardo nearly fell out of his captain's chair with a squawk, beak hitting the ground.
"Foalnapped," Maple sighed. "At the hospital. By a doctor who might have been a doctor, but probably was someone else disguised as a doctor. They teleported her northeast, Valey is flying after her, and we don't know anything."
"That sounds just like when Valey was captured and Shinespark left to find her," Nyala murmured from the side of the room, where she was plugged into the ship's terminal.
Shinespark shook her head. "This time, we're not out of contact. We can talk to Valey with the sound stone, and she knows exactly where her target is. If Starlight is resourceful enough to get away from whoever took her on her own like Valey was, we won't be running around in circles missing each other while we try to regroup. It's a much better situation in terms of communication."
Slipstream bit her lip. "But do you think she'll be able to get away? Valey is..."
"Strong, and so is Starlight," Shinespark finished. "Both of them did the impossible in Ironridge. She might have to blow out her horn to do it, but I believe in our friends."
Gerardo looked down. "Ironic if a trip designed to diagnose or heal Starlight's horn involves her further injuring it just to see herself to safety."
Maple gave a worried smile, trying to be confident. "I think that's the least of our worries, right now..."
"So what can we do?" Gerardo asked. "Even last time, we hardly sat around awaiting a call for action. Now that Miss Amber has restored our ship to the skies, could we not give chase?"
Amber paused him with a hoof. "We could, but it wouldn't be the greatest idea. First, Valey has several hours' head start and said she can outfly this ship, and I believe her. She's fast. It could let us all be there for a rescue operation and let her rest up, but at the cost of being later?"
Shinespark hesitated. "To be fair, you think she can cross the entire Empire in one go without stopping to rest? I think we might be able to help her get where she's going faster if we gave chase."
Amber nodded firmly. "We might. But second, think about what we'd do. Shinespark, you might be able to help, but most of the rest of us are dead weight in combat. Gerardo can hold his own, but probably not protect the rest of us. Nyala..." She turned her eyes to the suit of armor. "You still can't fight, can you? That's what I've been hearing?"
"I'm sorry." If Nyala's ears hadn't been metal, they would have folded. "I know this body is built to be a weapon, but I can't. Even if all of you find it easy, hurting other ponies to get them out of my way just isn't something I can do."
"That's alright," Amber assured, reaching up to put a hoof on her metal shoulder. "That's leading into my third point. If we can only help a little there... what could we do here, instead?"
Gerardo strummed his chin. "Sounds to me you're saying there's a mystery that needs to be solved."
Shinespark nodded firmly. "Anything we can tell Valey about who did this or where they're going could help her immensely. There's a hospital that needs investigating, and if their internal system isn't willing to do it as fast as we need, it's time to take matters into our own hooves."
"Is that really wise?" Slipstream looked uncomfortable. "We don't want things to be us versus the world, do we?"
"Oh, I hardly think we'll have to do this by ourselves," Gerardo hummed. "We have allies, after all, both unscrupulous and powerful. Worst comes to worst, we could take this as high as we like, having the connections to royalty and other figures of power we possess."
Shinespark raised an eyebrow. "That's true, but at the very least we need to figure out first who not to ask. Any smart criminal wouldn't treat us any differently knowing we were trying to do something about this, since it could draw attention to them, but we can't rule out who's smart and who isn't and someone could still try to sabotage us with bad information. We need some ideas on who definitely couldn't have done this and who is certainly safe to trust."
"Wallace," Maple instantly said. "He wouldn't, right?"
Gerardo winced. "Much as I hate to say it, Wallace did allow Valey to win this morning as a demonstration of what kind of hot water she could get in, blazing through this tournament in an unstoppable trail of victory and not thinking. It's entirely possible he orchestrated this to prove a point, depending on whether he has a secret penchant for brutal real-world lessons. That would also explain why there was no trouble at the hospital earlier today when we were there the first time, since he had yet to give Valey his lecture. But if that is the case, Starlight would certainly be safe, and we wouldn't come to harm by asking him."
Maple frowned at him. "But Valey is flying after her, and she's far enough away it might cause her to miss a battle in the tournament. Or even more. Wallace wouldn't disqualify her from the tournament in order to teach her how to do well in it, would he? Especially after dropping a battle of his own for her?"
"You drive a good point," Gerardo mused. "But then why did nothing transpire this morning?"
"That might not be significant," Shinespark countered. "The news could not have spread yet, the foalnapper could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time... Maybe they just couldn't get Starlight alone."
"Do you think Starlight was singled out?" Maple asked. "Or could it have been any of us?"
Shinespark pursed her lips. "Well, looking at everything that led up to it..." Her eyes slowly widened. "It was Senescey's idea for us to go there, wasn't it!?"
Maple winced, and Gerardo frowned. "Before you go too far down that line of thought, keep in mind that a hospital is an extremely unusual place to stage a foalnapping. Consider it: there would have been hundreds of prying eyes, and an administration that will inevitable investigate the doppelganger and determine something was out of place."
"So?" Shinespark looked at him.
"Mmm." Gerardo nodded. "So, a skilled sarosian who is an able enough fighter would have to be beyond foolish to engage a foalnapping in such a way. It would leave too many leads, be too tempting for many investigators to follow. When you could merely stun her when no one is looking and vanish into the shadows?" He tilted his head. "The only reason you would make such a noise is to either cause a spectacle or distract from yourself, and this would do nothing to distract from her if she is the culprit. I don't get the impression Senescey would be smart enough to organize this, yet also foolish enough to think it would be a good idea."
Maple's ears pressed back. "It would be that easy for any batpony who wanted to? They could just..."
Gerardo shrugged sadly. "You've noticed the city's general lack of lighting at night. I'm frankly amazed they haven't had more trouble in this way, what with how they treat our bat-winged friends. The only explanation I can guess at is that their dusk statues bid them leave Stormhoof in peace, and not do more to further their bad reputation."
"Not just this city," Slipstream added. "Izvaldi, too. I remember someone said it was because mana energy to light things with is expensive?"
"Indeed," Gerardo agreed. "It's torchlight or bust, all too frequently. And that comes with its own host of issues as a system."
Shinespark brushed it aside with a wave of her hoof. "But that's a tangent," she said. "So what you're saying is that Senescey would never foalnap someone in such a complicated way while still leaving such an obvious trail back to herself? Are you saying she could have been framed?"
Gerardo blinked.
"Framing is something that happened a lot in the political game between the districts in Ironridge," Shinespark went on. "I'm very familiar with it. But if that's correct, it means whoever did this cared about hitting Senescey. Starlight could be a casualty and the tournament and Valey might not even have been a consideration..." Her eyes shadowed. "Or they could have targeted both. What do Valey and Senescey have in common that lots of creatures here don't like?"
Maple slowly wilted. "They're batponies..."
"Hold on, now," Amber cut in. "You think someone arranged to foalnap Starlight at the hospital just because Senescey suggested we take her there in order to make us suspicious of Senescey? That would be possible, but..." She sighed. "How would they know? How would they know she even suggested that, never mind setting this up at such short notice? You think our boat is being spied on?"
Gerardo gave her an alarmed look.
"Ohhhhh..." Maple buried her head in her forehooves. "This reminds me of that breakfast when we were trying to guess what Selma was doing with the dam..."
Amber wrapped a foreleg around her back, looking up at everyone else. "Anyone think we're getting anywhere, here? Maybe Maple's got a point and all these guesses aren't going anywhere..."
Shinespark sighed. "I remember that. It was stressful for me, too. On the bright side, this time the lives and livelihoods of thousands of ponies aren't at stake." She touched Maple's shoulder. "Can't be a whole lot easier when it's your kid at stake, though."
"I-If you're uncertain," a shaky mare's voice came from the doorway, "I can save you some guessing."
Everyone turned to see Senescey, standing meekly in the doorway with a couple of dried tearstains on her face. Amber's ears rose in alarm. "Woah, girl! You look... bad."
"Senescey?" Maple folded her ears. "You... um..."
"Sorry for eavesdropping," Senescey sighed. "I've been listening for a while. I was worried... and... I wanted to tell you it was my fault."
A chill settled over the room. "Go on." Gerardo nodded, no one making a move to cut her off from the exit.
Senescey swallowed, looking miserable. "Someone I trust with my life told me to suggest you return to the hospital. They didn't specify Starlight or any reason, or say anything about why, and I didn't have any reason not to. I didn't know it would lead to your filly getting taken. I thought it was going to help you! And now I feel terrible about it, because I was..." She wiped her eyes with a wing. "Sorry. Asking for a pity party while apologizing is bad form. But I wanted to tell you because I am sorry and do want you to get her back."
Shinespark have her a look. "If you're telling the truth and want to apologize, a good way to do that would be to tell us who told you to do that."
"I..." Senescey's ears pressed back. "I can't. I... um... can't. I trust them with my life, I told you. And now I'm conflicted because doing what they asked made me cross you when I was looking forward to you being my friends. I'm sorry, but my loyalty isn't to you. But I still just wanted to let you know and help, and I hope she gets back okay."
The room was silent and tense, nobody sure who wanted to answer first. Ultimately, Senescey stepped back out and no one stopped her, completely missing the camouflaged filly who had heard every word, standing guard outside the bridge door.