Shinespark was back to flying, crisscrossing over the immediate coastline and the sea near it. There were just enough boats that visiting them all one at a time would be highly impractical, and this left her brimming with frustration. She was so close...
Puddles had been there! Valey had been there! And she was tempted to tie that sleazy bar owner to a wall to see if he had anything he hadn't told her, because all she knew now was that they had been seen with sailors. If he hadn't lied, and thought he could direct an official investigation onto a heated rival... But he did think she was official. Maybe. He could have read her like a book, and she would never be able to tell.
She growled, forcing her thoughts to slow down. She should have asked what Valey looked like; whether she was restrained or blackmailed or following of her own free volition. She needed another hint, and the only place she had to go for those was back to the tavern.
With a trail of sapphire light, Shinespark arrived in the skies over the building. She wouldn't bother the owner again. Someone inconvenienced enough by the incident to be willing to talk freely... that was what she needed.
In the side alley, crews were still hard at work carving up and removing the massive blockage of ice that cut off passage. She landed, loudly clearing her throat and keeping her horn lit. "This looks like a mess. Need a hoof?"
A griffon whose jowl was droopier than a turkey's gave her an upside-down stare, then righted his head. "I got here first!"
"No, no, please, by all means, hold on now," a suave stallion insisted, pushing past the griffon and showing off a level of personal hygiene that could make a noble jealous. "Attracting official attention, are we? Please, Madam, we are but humble entrepreneurs looking to help the city and make a profit at the same time. If you ask a claim to all this ice, we plead no contest, but we're under the impression clearing it is our civic duty!"
Shinespark blinked. She could smell his perfume from five paces away... "You can do whatever you want with the ice. I just need to know where it came from. I'm looking for the ponies responsible."
The stallion whistled and blew on his bouncy, curly golden mane. "Mere troublemakers, attracting the attention of someone as high up as you, Madam?"
"Mere troublemakers?" Shinespark asked, aware the workers were constantly throwing her curious and often-nervous glances. "Really. What makes you say that?"
The stallion seemed to realize he was heading for a hole and backpedaled swiftly. "Well, if you know more about them, I would never mean to contest that! Please, I speak only on what I know." He bowed. "I merely thought anyone who would use such powerful magic to carve out a statue of this size, depicting them physically enjoying each other's company..."
Shinespark nodded, cutting him off, keeping an eye on a cloaked, hooded worker who was very conspicuously trying to sneak away. "Two mares? One an earth pony, one a sarosian?"
"Indeed, Madame," the fancy stallion replied, holding his bow. He rose, his face turning to a fearful scowl. "Young, mixed-race lovers too infatuated to heed the law? Or provocateurs seeking to make a statement? Either way, I doubt their charade will last long with your kind in the mix."
Inside her helmet, Shinespark frowned. "So no sign of one being held captive by the other, then? Hmmm..." She thought back to Izvaldi, remembering the artwork Puddles had made of the fountain there. "Was anyone else involved? Anyone who might be easier to track?"
The stallion shook his head. "Oh, I wasn't there myself. Merely came running at the smell of opportunity. Perhaps someone else would know? Someone who makes a regular habit of patronizing bars and taverns like these. Some entertainment is so low-class..."
"Right," Shinespark absent-mindedly agreed, still watching the sneaky worker. She was paying closer attention to the sneaky worker, getting a strange sensation that they had already ran off once before and were closer now than they were then, yet were still trying to slip away... "Asking around. Thank you for your assistance, sir...?"
"Leeroy," the stallion replied nobly with a hint of satisfaction at being asked. "Leeroy Goldfeather. Ta-ta!"
Shinespark ditched Leeroy and made fast for the sneaker, who seemed to pick up the pace as soon as they knew they were being followed. She frowned as she ran, keeping to the ground instead of flying; this was suspicious. If it weren't for the fact that she was actively looking for trouble, she'd have fled the other direction... but before she could reconsider her course, her target tripped on their robe and tumbled, landing sprawling on their back.
Her eyes narrowed as the hood came off, revealing a unicorn with sunglasses askew over yellow eyes and a slicked-back multicolor mane. He flashed her a winning smile that could only have been achieved through hundreds of hours of dental work, or maybe magic if a mage was unlucky.
"Whoops!" He grinned, barely fazed by the armored mare towering over him. "Looks like someone caught themselves a decoy!"
Shinespark instantly backflipped, aiding herself with her flight magic, and landed with Gerardo's black sword drawn... but no attacks came whizzing through where she had been standing. Instead, the stallion started getting up, fixing his shades with his horn and adjusting his cloak as he rose. "Decoy, yo! Takin' the fall to let my companions escape! You've been flummoxed, imperial..."
He trailed off, eyes on the wing decorations at the sides of Shinespark's armor and the sapphire glow with which she held the sword. "Oooooh boy," he gulped, flipping the lenses on his shades back up to reveal eyes constricting in recognition. "You ain't no imperial, are you...?"
With a pulse of blue, Shinespark swung the sword. She had used it before; she knew how it worked: head, neck or chest, and you'd be paralyzed completely; limbs or extremities and only those would go. Reading his jump, she flicked upwards with expert fencing technique, just clipping one of his forehooves as he rose to avoid it. The stallion crashed back down, hoof limp, no longer able to use it to run. Hobbling on three hooves, he'd never be able to get away.
"No. I'm not. How observant of you," Shinespark growled, stepping forward. "I'm looking for someone else at the moment, but don't think I didn't read the reports I commissioned. I know who you are, Neon Nova. I know what you did in Blueleaf. I know what you did in the Flame District. And I can carry more than enough dead weight to take you-"
Neon Nova's horn flashed, and he vanished in a burst of teleportation.