The next few days of westward travel go by fairly smoothly, save for one niggling detail—the unsolved mystery of Rambling Ridge’s sugar thief, the pony who sought to frame poor Silver Shine for the crime. However, the herd has two useful tools at their disposal. One, a chipper unicorn from Canterlot who possesses powers of divination once per day, when the sun is at its apex. Two, the ruined bag of sugar from the outhouse—which at least one of the ponies may be flippantly referring to as “the poocloth” at one time or another—which in theory has a strong link to the pony who framed Silver. And so, every day before lunch, the herd stops to divine more information about Rambling Ridge.
Of course, as Dawn Star explains to the group, there are limitations. The stronger the connection that the subject has toward the bag of sugar, the stronger the vision. If the subject only held the bag once, the divination would be vague or completely inaccurate, whereas if the bag was a treasured heirloom, the divination would be strong and clear. But the object itself is just a focus. The divination must address properties intrinsic to the subject, so a divination like “which pony touched this last” are less than ideal.
After reflecting on the limitations, on the first day the herd asks to see the pegasus with the strongest sympathetic link to the bag. Through the sun's splintered rays, a vague shape can be seen. Swirls of smoke, and a feathered wing. The image is uncommonly hazy, and takes some time to clear, but finally, they see a glittering house of clouds, above a series of rainbow pools. The image lasts only for a moment, and then fades.
Naturally, Azure launches into an angry rant about how she “knew it all along” this, and how she “shouldn’t have let that blasted weathermare off so easy” that. She eventually calms down after Virtue and Moonlight speak to her, convincing her that such a hazy vision is hardly indemnifying. So they march west, waiting for the next augury.
On the second day, the herd asks Dawn to divine on the pony who holds malicious intent that concerns the sugar sack. Yet again, the image is very hazy, but they do see an image for a moment… Flickering outlines of strange creatures, too foreign to be ponies. The outlines of a very large room—a great hall, perhaps. Certainly made of stone A pony in armor. A bed with someone in it.
The vision ends.
Dawn Star bites her lip, trying to remain optimistic. “Well, hmm. Maybe that request was too vague. But then again, sometimes these visions are really metaphorical, so we shouldn’t get hung up on the details. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen a pony represented as some mysterious creature.” She looks upward, thinking a moment more. “Oh! It's entirely possible that it's some sort of pony wearing a disguise."
"That as well. They've proven their usage of disguises already." Azure Charger hums. "We did already once ask about a pony touching the cloth, matching Silver's description. It puts all our eggs in one basket, but we could attempt that again, with a different pony..."
Virtue rubs her chin. "Whom?"
"If there were any ponies who lived in such a castle that we suspected.” Azure massages the base of her wing. "Any particular pegasi from Rambling Ridge."
Virtue nods half-heartedly. "We could ask what Lightning Glass's involvement was, yes..."
Moonlight Meadows frowns and rubs her chin. "Wait a minute… Those tiles weren't only cracked where the thief landed. They were cracked where they started the jump too."
"True," admits Azure.
"Who do we know who's got that kind of leg power?" Moonlight asks.
Azure Charger frowns, looking to the group. "We are heading for the griffon kingdon. We could inquire if"—she waves her hoof in a circle—"anygriffon touched it."
Therefore, on the third day Moonlight proposes they augur about a creature with enough leg strength to leave cracks in roof tiles when jumping.
They’re shown a blur of images. Multiple ponies, stallions and mares, all earth ponies, all shown hauling the sack this way and that. As the image dances on the ground though, a warm summer wind picks up, and the shadows from the rustling tree branches seem to blot out the image one at a time. First, a stallion vanishes, then one of the mares, until soon, only a single, flickering image of a pony is left. The image is very vague, her face just a mass of sunlight—but it's definitely a mare, and an earth pony, of a surprisingly slight built.
Virtue frowns. "Well, that wasn't terribly useful."
Azure Charger taps at her temple. "One augury shows an earth pony. Another shows a cloud house, and a third, a castle."
"Could it be some sort of clever illusionist we're seeing?" Silver Shine ponders.
"The cloud house was when we asked about a pegasus who touched it, right?" Moonlight tilts her head. "But none of the pegasuseses who touched it could've broken those tiles, looks like."
"I suppose it wasn't a pegasus then." Azure Charger gives a begrudging sigh. "So the first augury is no longer relevant. Female earth pony, with possible ties to a knight."
"She appeared quite thin though,” says Silver. “Could it really have been her that cracked the roof tiles and moved the goods? And then there's the question of who impersonated me."
"Well, if she had bags of sugar, I guess she could have. I mean, being thin doesn't matter too much.” Dawn Star tilts her head this way and that. “Like, if I believe hard enough I'm strong, I get strong. She could be like me, except not believing in nice things."
Silver rubs his chin. "That's fair, but the cracked tiles? The fact that there seems to be someone out there who manages to look like a dead ringer of me, then disappears into thin air? I'm suspicious. I don't want to underestimate our opponent's capabilities."
Moonlight Meadows wiggles her nose, and scrunches a bit. "Hazy creatures. Kind of wispy."
"What's that, Moonlight?" Virtue asks.
"The second one. We saw a big stone room, a pony in armor, a bed with someone in it, but before all that, we saw hazy creatures. Wispy creatures." Moonlight Meadows gets up and starts pacing. "Mare, earth pony, small build. Wisps. But she didn't see Silver, she saw Melody, I thought." Azure Charger blinks at her.
"Yes. There's that as well,” Silver grunts. “Not many ponies would have seen me before Virtue disguised me as Melody."
"Lightning Glass was one of them, wasn't she?" Virtue asks.
"She was?" Azure taps her hoof on the ground. "So if our tile-cracking pony wasn't working alone… And, if Moonlight Meadows is thinking what I think she's thinking..." She blinks. "I think."
"Rather puzzling, isn't it." Silver Shine scratches his chin.
Moonlight reaches down and grabs a mouthful of grass, idly chewing while she thinks.
On the fourth day on the journey to Van Hoover, Dawn Star divines upon the pony who would desire to frame Silver Shine.
Dawn’s glass orb flickers once, and then goes dark. The poocloth, in its aged and magically drained state, finally succumbs and crumbles into dust.
"Well..." Virtue draws her lips tight, watching the dust fly off in the wind. “That was ridiculous.”
"I guess that's it," Dawn Star says, apologetic.
"Curious..." Azure rubs her chin. "So, it was nothing personal then? Silver was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?"
Moonlight Meadows nods. "So maybe whoever did it had something against Sugar Cane or Sweet Tooth instead.”
Virtue sighs. "Unless we wanted to go back and interrogate Lightning Glass directly, there's no way we're finding out now."
Silver Shine smirks. "I doubt she'd take that well."
"Much as I'd love to, she doesn't seem the talkative sort," Azure grumbles in agreement.
Virtue looks equally annoyed. "I could have persuaded her."
Azure puts a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "Regardless, we now know a fair bit more about their relation... and a possible tie to a noble. We can keep a watchful eye forward in our travels."
Virtue stomps a hoof down. "You know what? No, I don't think we're done here!"
Azure casts a reluctant eye to the west and works her jaw, before looking back at Virtue. "You really want to see this through, don't you."
"Ponies were hurt over us," Virtue says, plaintive.
"Yeah, but, like, what'll we say?" Moonlight draws her lips. "We know it was you because tiles and hazy pictures? And we know it wasn't Silver because he's actually Melody who was with us the whole time?"
"We'll need a way to turn this into concrete evidence," Azure agrees. She smirks at Virtue. "While I appreciate the chance to force a confession out of our dear Lightning Glass, I doubt that will be tolerated a second time."
Virtue grinds her stomped hoof against the earth. "We shouldn't have left until this was solved."
Azure Charger blinks. Twice. "Virtue. How... effective is your manepin?”
"Extremely. I can disguise anypony to look like anypony. Even nonponies."
She arches an eyebrow. "To look like anypony."
"Indeed," Virtue replies.
"We suspect that these two ponies were in cahoots, yeah? Perhaps the two traitors could arrange a face-to-face meeting?"
Virtue looks to Azure thoughtfully. "What do you have in mind?"
"If we were to impersonate one of the pair... set up a meeting..." Azure taps a hoof to her teeth. "Maybe they would let loose some piece of incriminating evidence?"
Moonlight shrugs. "I'm not very good at digging for skulls."
Virtue looks to the others. "Does anypony have an objection to us doing this? The Griffin Kingdom has already waited for some time, after all."
Azure Charger gives one more look to the west. She looks back to the group and nods. "We'll just have to be quick about it then. Clean and elegant, without waste, and whatnot."
Moonlight shrugs again.
Silver Shine: "Alright.” Silver nods. “I'll admit I'm curious about the whole affair."
"Well… I guess,” says Dawn Star. “I mean, we did promise we'd find it, but I guess taking some time off is okay?"
"We will," Virtue assures Dawn. "I have not forgotten my duty."
Azure tightens her jaw at Dawn Star. "Aye, we did promise."
"But making sure that this pony doesn't do things like this again is important too.” Dawn Star nods enthusiastically. “So, I'm okay with it."
“So,” asks Silver Shine. “What’s the plan?”
"Well, I can certainly draw our friend Lightning Glass away," Azure says with a smirk. "But admittedly, we know a bit less about her. Wisp Will, we know more about, but would be harder to drag her from the shop."
“I volunteer to play the role of insider.” Virtue levitates her manepin out, twirling it in front of her eyes. “Perhaps it would best to confront Wisp Will. She would be easy to meet in private, inside her storefront, after all.”
“And I can see to Lightning Glass's needs," says Azure, grins widely.
Virtue glances at her sideways. Moonlight coughs, while Silver simply shakes his head.
Azure looks back at them, blinking, gears whirling in her head. Three… two… one… She jolts upright. “Uh! For fixing her attitude. With force. I didn't—” She blushes.
Dawn Star looks confused. "Um, you didn't want Azure?" Virtue laughs.
Azure Charger coughs loudly. "We should probably get moving. Long trek back, burnt a few days, chop chop."
"How do we explain why we came back?" asks Moonlight.
"We needn't, not yet," says Virtue. "I don't see a need to reveal ourselves."
"Only myself, for now,” adds Azure. “The rest can remain in disguise, or outside the town."
Silver Shine nods. "Good thinking. Better to remain concealed."
And so, the herd doubles back, trekking back down the wooded paths they’ve traveled these past four days. The port town of Van Hoover and its ships toward the griffon kingdom will have to wait. For now, the herd needs to travel back to the town of Rambling Ridge, to set things right.
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Moonlight: as a side note I would never act on evidence this flimsy in actual life
Dawn: yeah, I'm in law school, this would never stand up in court :D
Virtue: Good thing this is premodern
Azure: yes but auguries and magic and stuff :P
Moonlight: a good half of my reasoning is based on "who's been named in the plot so far
Virtue: And we're also vigilantes
GM: In actual life you are not a pastel pony with magical powers!
GM: ...I think. If you are, tell me
Dawn: HOW DO YOU KNOW?!
Azure: says you.
GM: brb kidnapping ADD
Moonlight: crap ... I knew this character was too close to home!
Back on the trail! It’s time for the herd to put this mystery to rest!
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