The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Check Your Culprits

Starlight grumbled under her breath as Jamjars pressed into her side, but for once and only once couldn't find it in herself to blame her. The Izvaldi rain pummeled down around them, and only a mushroom-like crystal umbrella Starlight had conjured on her back kept her safe from instant soaking. Had their roles been reversed and Jamjars carried the umbrella, Starlight probably would have shared it with her, too.

"Hmm hm hmm..." Jamjars hummed, her wig removed for the scouting mission, hooves squelching mud as she walked around the hillside behind Percival's manor. Starlight might have been willing to share her umbrella, but she wasn't about to make a second set of crystal boots, too. "It's almost like there are no guards out when it's raining. Now, you're sure you can get us up out of sight of any windows? I think we want to climb right about... here."

Starlight focused, holding onto five chunks of crystal at once already taxing her concentration. "Hold on," she muttered. "This is hard..."

With one action, she formed a disc of crystal on the ground just wide enough to hold them both, dropping her boots in the process and shivering as her hooves touched water. The strain on her horn lessened, she put a hoof around Jamjars, figuring it was much better than getting an earful if either of them fell off... and fired her horn again towards the ground.

In a perfect imitation of how Puddles had once used her ice, the crystal beneath them grew, Starlight pumping it larger until it formed a pillar and rose, taking her and Jamjars with it. The idea was unpracticed and cautious, and she had to raise them even slower than she normally could to make sure their hoofing held. Rising against the mansion, they passed one set of windows, two... and stopped just beneath a draining gutter, barely out of sight of anyone atop the roof.

"Perfect!" Jamjars whispered, giving her a shoulder bump. "Now, my visibility is about..." She took a small rock from her mane, held it in her aura, and floated it out into the storm, watching carefully as the brightness dimmed. "Hmm. I think we'll be safe from the two guard towers we mapped out last time if we move in plain sight, but are slow and don't have lights on us. That means horn out."

Starlight raised an eyebrow at her. "We're going to get wet."

Jamjars shrugged. "Only for as long as we want to listen. And if nobody's there, nobody's there. Then we can find a way inside, or else go to the administration building and ruin someone's day by shaking off all over the floor. Look, the window we need is right there."

Starlight stepped back enough to see a gabled window rising from the center of the broad side of the mansion, looking out across the river at the countryside. The act nearly made her slip, and she clung back to the edge before she could fall two stories to the ground below. "Okay! I see it. How do you want to safely walk across a roof this sloped when it's covered in rain?"

"Skill and determination." Jamjars crawled out from beneath Starlight's umbrella and hoisted herself over the gutter lip, several splashes and an unhappy squeak coming from above. "Starlight, come on!"

Dubiously, Starlight dispelled her umbrella, instantly regretting it. She had to push her dripping bangs aside twice before even trying to climb the gutter, hooking both forelegs across it and trying to brace herself and haul her back half up.

"No hornlight!" Jamjars whispered sharply, pinching Starlight's horn between her two forehooves from atop the roof and trying to snuff it out.

"Hey! Don't, I'm still standing on that!" Starlight squirmed, trying to keep her aura alight. "Jamjars, stop!"

Jamjars instantly shifted her grip to Starlight's forehooves, trying to pull her up. "Fine, then. I've got you. Now put it out!"

As little as she wanted to trust Jamjars to haul her up a watery cliff, Starlight obliged, dropping her light and the crystal pillar and soon after struggling onto the gutter. The metallic sluice was half as wide as her at best and filled with cold, fast-running water, but it was still the best purchase they had, and Jamjars started walking along it like a balance beam toward the window.

They reached the underside of the sill cold and miserable, Starlight already harshly regretting agreeing to this. "So now what?" she grumbled under her breath. "We hope they're here and we didn't come up here for nothing?"

"Yep!" Jamjars put on a soggy grin, though it was apparent she was cold and miserable too. "Hmm... Window's closed. That's dumb. So we won't be able to hear. But can we see...?"

Relying on the rain and darkness to conceal her, Jamjars stood on her hind legs, leaning up and peering through the window... and instantly dropped back down, grinning in victory. "Yes! They're there! I knew rain would be romantic enough. Starlight, look at this!"

Starlight stretched upright as well, noticing that she and Jamjars were exactly the same height. It took a near-slip and two tries, but she got her head up to the window level... and frowned. One or two candles lit the room, and all she could make out was a feathery outline with another body, laying together on the bed.

"Jamjars, we can see even less than last time!" she quietly protested, trying to make anything out. "And we can't hear anything, either. Is this really something you think is going to be helpful?"

"Hmmm..." Jamjars tried to lift her ears, but they were pressed back by the sheer force of the rain. "Ugh. If we open the window, the rain will get louder in there and they'll instantly notice! But we could lure them here to close it... unless Percival is remotely chivalrous and gets it himself. Hmph." She huffed. "Ooh, they're petting. But I can't even make out body type. We'll just have to wait here until they move..."

Starlight gave her a concerned glance. "It's early in the night and they might go to sleep like this. And it's raining. I'm not staying here all night."

Suddenly, a door in the opposite side of the room cracked open, and the lights burst on. Jamjars instantly ducked down, yanking Starlight with her so they wouldn't be spotted. In the time it took them to stabilize and make sure the sudden motion wouldn't knock them off, a high-pitched screech of indignation echoed through the glass along with the shattering of a thrown object, and an angry griffon's voice started lecturing harshly.

"Ugh...!" Jamjars fidgeted, torn between safety and curiosity. "Can't see or hear what's happening...!"

Starlight held on beneath the sill, knowing she wasn't going to peak. "Sounds like someone walked in on them?"

"No duh," Jamjars muttered. "I want to know who! Are they stopping? Will they split up? Ugh, the lights are on..."

"Don't you have that camouflage spell?" Starlight tilted her head, shivering.

"Doesn't work on my eyes," Jamjars answered. "I have to look away or cover them when I use it, or it'll be an easy giveaway. Nnngh..."

The sound of a muffled door slam made it through the window, and no more noises followed it. Jamjars strained her ears against the rain, growled one more time... and lit her horn. "Forget this. It's worth it."

Her aura quickly unlocked the window, swung it wide open with a bang, and was gone before anyone not already looking would have time to see.

Starlight perked her ears as Jamjars dropped down beneath the sill again, pressing her back against the roof tiles. "Now's the time for camouflage!" she mouthed, covering Starlight's body with her own and turning the color of blue-gray stone.

An ugly sobbing that sounded like it could quickly give way to anger reached them from inside the open window, and it quickly snapped to stomping hoofsteps and dangerous breathing. Someone marched heavily up to the window, Starlight peeking out at the open pane from beneath her cover... and a mare's head stuck itself out, with nearly-black fur and a very long, dim aqua-green mane. She couldn't see the mare's eyes and knew she didn't want to as they glanced venomously at the wind, but there was a hint of fangs at the sides of their mouth... and then a leathery wing reached out, grabbed the window and slammed it closed.

Jamjars held her in place for a moment longer. "Who was it?" she whispered once she judged it was safe.

"I didn't recognize her." Starlight tried to shrug, but ended up trembling from the cold instead. "Batpony. Can't guess her age. Long, dull blue-green mane. Do you know anyone like that?"

"Batpony..." Jamjars still didn't detach from her position hiding them both. "Ugh. I knew I should have looked more into Izvaldi's batpony mares. Now, Starlight, show me your detective skills: was she the one who was with Percival, or the one who interrupted?"

"She was crying," Starlight instantly said. "She wouldn't have stayed there being upset after someone else left unless she had something to be upset over, and that would be getting interrupted."

"Nope! Could be either," Jamjars corrected. "I've seen tender moments get interrupted before. Mares get angry, mares get indignant, mares get frustrated, but they never get helpless. Not when it's their house and they can just kick whoever it is out. And that was helpless crying. So she could have been spending time with Percival when whoever else it was interrupted, and something could have come up that made her feel just that bad... but I bet she was the one who walked in, and saw Percival cheating on her with someone else!"

Starlight frowned.

"Of course, that means they were in it together either way," Jamjars theorized, not slowing down. "So we definitely need to investigate and find out who that was. Find her and see how she feels about Percival. That'll tell us what happened for sure, but if we're lucky, she's mad at him and will tell us something useful to betray him... Hmm hmm hmm!"

"That's great," Starlight hissed, shuddering again from her wetness. "Now can we get out of this rain? Please?"

"Absolutely. But we're not done for the night." Jamjars crawled out from under the windowsill's safe alcove, beckoning Starlight to follow. "All that just whet my appetite."

---

High Prince Gazelle strolled in through the main entrance to the Stormhoof General Hospital, shaking rainwater from his coat and blinking with interest at a gaggle of commotion around the front desk. "I smelled reporters," he announced, striding forward and making his presence known. "Good to know my instincts are sharp. Hello, fellows! What's all the fuss?"

Griffons, mares and stallions turned at his presence and gasped, notepads immediately primed and a recording device or two thrust his way. "High Prince!" a mare with a fantastic manecut and an authoritative voice gushed. "If you're here, that must mean the rumors are substantiated! The hospital has no information for us, but do you have word from on high?"

"Oh? Information?" Gazelle raised an eyebrow. "Seems I'm in the dark. Care to enlighten your Prince as to anything that's happened?"

A tiny stallion with a round face and a waffle-pattern insignia on his petticoat scribbled furiously, an entire spare notepad tucked between his hat and an ear. "Unofficial word is that Prince Geribaldi Stormhoof was brought in less than an hour ago and is being treated for what was described as an attempted suicide! Administration not forthcoming with details..."

"Attempted suicide?" Gazelle's face stretched in surprise and horror. "My academic study buddy and close pirate-hunting companion? Tell me you're joking! He would never!"

"Do we look like we're joking to you, sir?" The waffle stallion adjusted his plaid hat. "Everything we've heard is he slashed his neck, but didn't cut deep enough to hit any vital arteries before passing out from shock."

Gazelle brushed him aside, forging a path through the reporters with sheer force of presence. "Yes, yes, you do you. I have an apparently-suicidal friend to visit. Ahem. Receptionist?" He banged a paw on the desk. "Room number, please!?"

A medical mare regarded him coolly from the other side. "Prince, do you really think I'm going to just tell you when all those reporters are listening right there?"

Gazelle cleared his throat. "Ahem, yes. Shoo, all of you. I suppose I'll find my way on my own, thanks. Good luck covering stories!" His strained cheer dropped, a look of grim worry replacing it on his features.

Two staff ponies who were keeping the reporters from going any further stood aside for him, bowing. "It's terrible to almost lose a friend," one said as he passed. "My condolences."

Gazelle ignored him and hurried on, keeping his face stony and impassive through several flights of stairs, far more interested in finding an empty hallway or waiting room or even closet to take a moment and drop his mask. Finally, fate was on his side, an unoccupied bathroom passing by.

Ducking inside, Gazelle flipped the lock, took several deep breaths, listened for any sign of hoofsteps... and silently pumped a clenched paw, hissing under his breath. "YES!"

He giggled almost audibly, but managed to stop himself, pacing up to the mirror and regarding his expression. "Eat it, Stormhoof! That's why you always check the body!" he mouthed, grinning fit to burst. "Who knows your son better than you do? Who knows your son better than an heir-stealing hussy? Haha! Brilliant work, Baldy. Always knew your cowardly streak would come through for you at the best possible time. Mmm, let's see, now..." He strummed his chin with a paw. "Probably still owe old Baldy a visit just to get the first word in, don't I? Felicity can't cross me and Stormhoof cares too much about not destabilizing his country... Still, probably best to get this out of the way and lay low in Izvaldi for a while. Haha. Yes, I like this very much..."

Comments

[Mini-Joe]

thought gazelle mightve been a good guy. nope. so much nope.

[Zapdroid]

9474151
I’m warming up after last chapter now. Gazelle seems to have known Geribaldi wouldn’t of had the guts to kill himself, and so I downgrade him from a heartless murderer back to a malicious manipulator. Still unsure what his end goal is, however, so there is always a chance he has good intention but is willing to do almost anything to fulfill his plans.

[Mini-Joe]

9474236
eh. causing a new person to be born through manipulation will always be unforgivable to me. you cant just mess with life like that, making a broken family is a horrible thing.

well, that at least means we have a good villain on our hands!