January 13, 07:00
Wonderbolt Academy
Spitfire's Office
***
"So, let me get this straight," said Blaze after I had concluded my briefing. "This weirdo saves Misty Fly's life, sneaks into your office in the middle of the night, and tells you that someone is trying to kill us."
"That's the long and short of it," I said as we walked into my office.
Blaze's expression drooped. "No wonder you couldn't sleep last night. You were worried about us."
"Yeah, that's part of it," I said, making my way to my desk. "The other part is that I don't know who this Mysterious Mare-Do-Well is, or why she's telling me all this."
"Or why she doesn't just do it herself," added Blaze. "She clearly knows more about what's going on."
"You think I didn't already tell her that?" I groaned. "Apparently, I have to be the one to track down the prick who attacked Misty Fly. She's only here to help."
"But, you're not a detective."
"I'm painfully aware of that Blaze," I sighed. "Still, I don't see any other options right now. Problem is, I also don't really know where to start."
"Didn't you say that Mare-Do-Well gave you a clue?" asked Blaze.
"Yeah, if you call this a clue," I scoffed, pulling the cloth out of my drawer and tossing it over to Blaze. Blaze looked over the red cloth for a moment and raised an eyebrow.
"Not much to go on, is it?" she said.
Thank you, Captain Obvious. "Yeah. I would've bitched to that Mare-Do-Well weirdo about it, but she disappeared on me."
"Creepy," said Blaze, giving the cloth back to me. "So, what? Are you gonna trust her?"
"I don't know," I confessed. "She's being overly cryptic and mysterious, but she also saved Misty Fly. I think the safe thing to do is hedge my bets and assume she's right."
"So our next course of action is, what exactly?"
"I have no idea."
Blaze struck a thinking attitude. "Well, let's go back and review what we know so far. Maybe something new will come up," she suggested.
"Yeah, I was planning on doing that after breakfast, anyway," I said. "At the very least, it'll kill some time before Crescent Moon gets here."
"Sounds like a plan," said Blaze with a nod. "Okay, let's start at the beginning. We were in the middle of the training session and running the obstacle course you had Crescent Moon set up."
"Right," I said. "Now, we went five laps, and nothing happened. On the sixth time around, that thunderbolt hit Misty Fly."
"That seems rather arbitrary," Blaze mused. "Unless you were in the thundercloud patch, that shouldn't have happened."
"But that's the thing. We weren't," said I. "If I remember correctly, we were actually circling around for our seventh run-through; nowhere near the thundercloud patch."
"Hmm," said Blaze as she knitted her brow. "That's pretty sloppy."
I raised an eyebrow. "Sloppy?"
"Think about it, Sis," Blaze explained. "When that thunderbolt struck, you knew right away that something was wrong. If I were the assassin, I would've struck from the thunderbolt patch. Not only would that get rid of the evidence, but it would've taken you longer to react, thus increasing the chance of Misty Fly biting the dust."
Something about what Blaze said got the wheels in my head turning. "Wait a minute, Blaze. I think you're onto something here."
"What is it, Sis?"
"Let's consider the obstacle course for a minute," I said. "As you know, it's comprised of four sections: The vapor cannons, the rings, the thundercloud patch, and the precision turbines. At what point would you position a thundercloud meant to unleash its payload on those running the course?"
"Like I said, the thundercloud patch," said Blaze with a shrug. "That way, it could be easily written off as an accident."
"Wrong," I said.
Blaze tilted her head. "Wrong? But why?"
"First, let me ask you this. Did you see what angle the thunderbolt was striking from?"
"Well, no," said Blaze, shaking her head. "Surprise and I had just gotten through the turbines when Misty Fly was hit. But I did ask High Winds, and she said she saw the strike while going through the rings."
"And what did she say?"
"She didn't get a good look at it, but she thinks the thunderbolt came from above."
"Right. Just as I suspected," I said with a nod. "Now, look at the course from a bird's eye view. Specifically, look at the thundercloud patch. What's the problem with striking from there?"
It didn't take long for Blaze to get my point. "Oh yeah! That area's completely opaque! It would be impossible to aim!"
"Exactly," I said. "And not only that, but none of the other obstacles are ideal vantage points, either."
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"Thunderbolts might be quick, but you still gotta aim them," I explained. "And the way we fly through the obstacle course, that's impossible."
"Hmm. I see what you're getting at, Sis," said Blaze with a thoughtful nod. "We pretty much move like the wind. There's no way an assassin would be able to draw a bead on us while we're flying."
"Unless he knew where we were going, to, be..."
I trailed off as an epiphany began to dawn on me. It wasn't much, and I didn't have any way to prove it. Nevertheless, I felt like I had just barreled through a thick fog and was now basking in the sun's rays.
"That's it!" I exclaimed.
Blaze jumped. "Whoa! Wh-what's it?" she inquired, surprised by my outburst.
"When we loop around for the next pass, we don't do any fancy flying," I clarified. "Therefore, an assassin armed with a thundercloud can watch us loop around and safely presume that we'll always be in relatively the same spot every lap."
"Oh~! Yeah, that makes sense," said Blaze. "That's why he waited to strike. He wanted to gauge our positions before attacking."
"You got it," I said. "And that means Crescent Moon can check the obstacle course all he wants, but he's not gonna find crap. Because technically, Misty Fly wasn't attacked on the obstacle course."
"But, now what do we do?" asked Blaze. "That thundercloud could be gone by now."
I smirked. "Not if the assassin planned to use it more than once."
Blaze raised an eyebrow. "I dunno, Sis. Do you really think he's that stupid?"
"It's all we've got," I said with a shrug. "Unless you want to try to get answers out of the cloth."
"Yeeeeeeeah, we'll go with your theory," said Blaze. "I just hope it's not a dead end. If that Mare-Do-Well character is right about there being more attacks in the future, we should catch this guy before he strikes again."
"Glad to see we're on the same wavelength," I said with a smile.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
"That must be Crescent Moon," I said. "It's open!"
Sure enough, Crescent walked in. He marched right up to my desk and laid his clipboard in front of me.
"I just got the diagnosis on Misty Fly's condition from the infirmary," said he. "The doctors say that she's going to be fine, but she'll be out of action for at least a couple of weeks."
"I see," I said, looking over the clipboard. As I read the report, a warm smile formed on my face. Inside, I was jumping for joy. This was exactly what I needed to hear. Even though Misty Fly was gonna miss the Ghastly Gorge Gauntlet, I could at least take comfort in the knowledge that she'd be okay. "Make sure to schedule some time for me to visit her."
"Of course." said Crescent. "Oh, and, um..."
"What is it, Crescent?"
Crescent sighed and shook his head. "I went over the obstacle course again, like you said. I still haven't found anything."
My smile broadened. "It's alright, Crescent. You did what you could," I said.
Crescent blinked. "I'm sorry, Captain?"
"I had you waste your time looking for something that wasn't there, and I apologize," I said sincerely. "I'll find a way to make it up to you later. For now, you may resume your normal duties."
"Um, right," said Crescent, still a bit confused. "Th-thank you, Captain. L-let me know if you need anything else."
"Of course," I said with a nod. Crescent responded with a salute and went on his way.
"You'd think he'd be used to that by now," said Blaze.
I chuckled a bit. Honestly, I was with Blaze on this one. Crescent has been working with the Wonderbolts for a while now. I would figure that by this time, he would realize that even I make mistakes. I'm not a perfect pony, nor do I claim to be. I just do the best I can and take my lumps when I mess up.
"Glad to see you're feeling better, Sis," said Blaze with a giggle of her own. "So, what now?"
"Now, we go see if my theory is correct," I said as I got up from my desk. "Let's get going, Blaze. It's high time we got this investigation underway."
"Right behind you, Sis," said Blaze. With that, we left my office and made our way to the training ground.