//------------------------------// // Part 3 // Story: The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Griffon Gala // by ElvenAngel //------------------------------// Part 3 The Library was quiet when they went in and they found Spike awake again, tidying up Twilight’s workspace. “Hi Twilight! Sorry I fell asleep earlier. I read your speech, it looks great—“ the little dragon started, but then saw the grave expressions of the ponies. “Whoa, what’s going on, did something happen?” “The Sun Opal was stolen—“ Twilight started. Spike wheeled around, holding scrolls. “What!?” “But we recovered it, it’s fine,” she assured him. “Look, I’ll tell you about it later. Now—“ Quills interrupted her in turn. “Do you have a copy of Valeriana’s Historia Trottika in the Library?” Twilight blinked at her. “Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything? I know you wanted to look at some—“ “No, no, this has nothing to do with my research,” Quills said patiently. “It’s just that Valeriana, besides being a somewhat overlooked author of Trottikan pony history, is also one of the few solidly reliable sources of information about ancient griffon history because she traveled to their lands. And she happens to have actually seen the Griffon Sun Opal before its disappearance, and wrote about it in her Historia Trottika.” Twilight blinked at her again but then a light-bulb seemed to go off in her head. “I…I think I see what you mean. Give me a moment.” Twilight dashed off among the shelves and then returned with a thick tome. She thudded it down on the table and started to flick through it. “Let’s see, her Historia is split into books – which one is the one about the Griffon Kingdom again…” “Book IV,” Quills interjected. “Oooh, right!” Twilight blurted. “You know this book pretty well, Quills.” “Well, I am from Trottika,” she sighed. “Most foals will read this brick in school.” “Oh, I have it!” Twilight blurted and read aloud from the book. “This is what Valeriana writes about the Sun Opal: ‘At length, my guide led me past a troop of griffon guards. These were the biggest, fiercest soldiers I had beheld; tall in stature, with steely eyes and talons that put the best pony steel to shame. These fearsome guardians serve the King and – as my guide explained – stand guard over the King’s treasury. I was conducted inside where I had the honor to behold the griffons’ most prized treasure, the emblem of the sovereign rulers. The Griffon Sun Opal is the most beauteous gem the world has seen; its shine defeats any jewel worn by pony or griffon. Its body is pale like the face of the moon and light flashes upon it, igniting fires of color on its surface. Every hue can be seen upon its face, but the red and yellow glow of the sun, which give this jewel its name, reign supreme upon its polished eye—'“ Twilight stopped with a gasp and her jaw dropped with a pained expression on her face. “What?!” Codex blurted. Quills just stared at them calmly. “You see what I’m worried about, now?” Twilight nodded, the horrified expression fixed on her face. “The jewel we saw, the jewel found in Velvet’s bed – it’s a fake!!” she shrieked. “A fake!?” Codex and Spike blurted together. Quills stamped on Twilight’s tail, handily stopping her from bolting to the door. “Hold it,” she said. Twilight slumped on the floor with a look of agony. “Why didn’t I notice!? The opal we looked at reflected all the colors equally; red and yellow weren’t dominating the spectrum! How could I be so blind!?” “So it’s not the real Sun Opal!” Codex said, stunned. Then he bumped his head with his hoof. “Of course! There have been a dozen fake Opals over the years!” Quills smiled patiently. “The captain is an excellent soldier who follows the book, I’m sure. Twilight here is a veritable genius, but neither of them, I’m afraid, knows all that much about jewels. And Rarity, for all her expertise on them, hasn’t read the Historia. Nopony is at fault. I consult the Historia Trottika on a frequent basis for inspiration for my books, so I’ve memorized a good deal of it – except dates, obviously, you know how horrid I am with numbers.” Twilight jumped up. “Come on! We must tell Cadence and Captain Mist at once!” “I think not,” Quills said placidly, still sitting on Twilight’s tail. “But that poor maid—and Cadence!” “Exactly. Twilight, you can’t afford to bumrush into this. The fate of a pony and the diplomatic peace of two nations hang in the balance,” Quills said with unusual calm. “Princess Cadence will have a better night believing all is well, and we can assure Midnight Velvet’s innocence by finding the real thief before the Gala. Alerting everything to the falsehood of the jewel may cause the thief to do something worse.” “But won’t the thieves escape with the jewel in the meantime?!” Spike interjected. “Think about it,” Quills carried on. “How do we know that the Opal that Cadence locked up carefully before going to dinner was the real one? How do we know that the true robbery hadn’t already taken place? No, the robbery is now known and the guards will be on high alert. If somepony tries to leave the palace as things are they’ll raise too many red flags.” “Oh!” Twilight said, bewildered. “Exactly,” Quills concluded. “We must start again. In fact, Twilight, I will insist that you get back to your work. I know you’re terribly worried about this, but it is imperative that the thieves think they’re safe.” “But then who’ll investigate!?” Twilight said, getting up. “I’ll do it,” Quills said calmly. “With Codex.” “Huh!?” he blurted. “Are you sure?” Twilight said dubiously. “I am. I know this is a long shot, Twilight, but I really believe I have an inkling about what’s happened. If I can’t find the Opal before the Gala, I’ll take full responsibility,” she replied. “Crazy Quills…” Twilight said hesitantly. Codex squirmed a little and, blushing, looked at Twilight. “I-I think you should listen to her, Twilight,” he stammered. Twilight looked at him curiously, then at her hooves and then shut her eyes and nodded sharply. “Alright. Do what you think is best, Quills. I’m going to try and keep this from coming down around our heads.” “Just keep calm and get back to work as normal,” Quills advised. “Oh, and write me some permit or something that’ll let me go around the palace so the guards don’t have a hard time.” “I can do that,” she said and grabbed a quill. “I’ll just write down that you’re on business from me with the preparation of the Gala.” She scribbled down that note and handed it to Quills. “Well… good luck. Let me know if you need anything.” “I will. Go and remember to keep. calm. Don’t breathe a word about the fake opal to anypony,” Quills warned. “I know you don’t like it, but it’s really for the best. The calmer we keep everypony the easier this will go.” “Okay,” Twilight said and with a last, dubious look she left the Library. “Are you sure about this?” Spike asked Quills, with a tone of disbelief. “I am,” Quills said solemnly. “What are we going to do first?” Codex asked. Quills thought for a moment and then remarked: “I want to see the room next to Princess Cadence’s.” Puzzled, Codex followed her out of the Library, leaving Spike to his chore of tidying Twilight’s workspace, and they headed back upstairs to the living quarters. The guards gave them no trouble and the door wasn’t locked. They entered the room, which was a large room similar to Cadence’s and unoccupied. Dust lay about rather noticeably. Codex, with a sensitive nose, immediately started to sneeze and shook his head with a cringe. He ran his hoof along one of the drawer chests and cringed at the layer of dust on them. Quills mirrored his sentiment with a cringe, wandering straight to the door connecting the two rooms and inspected a rectangular mark in the dust on a table near the window. “My mom would have a fit to see this room,” she joked. “The service does leave a lot to be desired, which is surprising for the palace.” She fell to staring out of the window and seemed to have fallen into one of her usual brainstorming sessions, when she could be gone from the world. “Well?” Codex demanded a little impatiently. “What did you want to see in here?” She turned around. “Sorry, I just had a thought. Tell me, how long do you think this room’s gone without a dusting?” Codex sneezed again and rubbed his nose with his hoof. “Judging by the musty smell, maybe a week or two. Nopony’s bothered to open the windows much and refresh it, either. Why?” “I’m just wondering,” she said vaguely and tested the bolt on the door connecting the room to Cadence’s. “Locked and bolted indeed. But I wonder…” She paused thoughtfully again and suddenly turned and rummaged around in her saddlebag, which she always wore. Then she led the way out of the room. “Come with me,” she said quickly. “But let me do any talking.” “I don’t understand, where are we going?” Codex said, puzzled. She led the way out of the room, and then walked down to the end of the corridor, stopping outside of a small service room, where the chambermaids and some guards of the floor went for their breaks. Peach Melba appeared to be holding a small court there, relating her experience to an appreciative audience. Finally she caught Quills standing at the door and stopped in the middle of a sentence. Quills smiled disarmingly at everypony. “Hi. I’m sorry to bother you, Peach, but would it be possible for you to unlock Princess Cadence’s room for me? I seem to have dropped something in there,” she said innocently. “Yeah, not a problem,” said the mare and got up willingly enough. She accompanied Codex and Quills to Princess Cadence’s room and unlocked it with her passkey, from a ring of multiple keys, probably for rooms on different floors she was responsible for. As she was about to leave, Quills suddenly tripped over a fold in the room’s carpet and went tumbling onto the floor with a thud. Her saddlebag, not properly buttoned, spilled papers and writing implements everywhere. “Oof!” Codex cringed. “Quills! Are you okay?” The mare wobbled to her feet and immediately inspected her glasses. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry about that, I seem to have my head in the clouds today,” she said meekly and looked at the scattered papers. “Oh dear, I left my saddlebag open again. I’m so sorry for the mess.” All three started to pick up the various papers, parchments and pens. “It’s alright, miss. Are you sure you’re alright? That was quite a thud you took,” Peach said kindly and levitated a piece of paper that she stepped on. “Yup, don’t worry about me. I’m a bit on the clumsy side when I’m thinking about writing. Now let’s see, where’d I drop my lucky pen? Did I really drop it here?”she said, looking around after arranging her papers in her bag. The three of them had a close look around the floor of Cadence’s room but could find nothing. “Ah, darn it. It must have fallen out somewhere else,” Quills said with a whine. “Thank you anyway, Peach, that was awfully kind of you after what happened earlier.” Peach Melba locked the door after they got out. “Ah don’t mention it, miss. Say, I’m quite a fan, d’you mind if I bring you a book to sign for me?” Quills smiled at her. “Certainly. I’m kind of busy helping Twilight Sparkle with the Gala right now. When it's all done, I’ll be happy to sign your book. Where can I find the guards who patrol this hallway? I want to ask them to keep an eye out for my pen; I’m rather hoping I lost it somewhere here.” “Oh down the hall miss, there’s their post. They take turns patrolling the hallway every hour.” “Thank you. Come on, Codex,” Quills said and they watched the peach mare trot off. Codex was peering at Quills curiously while they started down the hallway to the guards’ normal post by the stairs. “You tripped on purpose,” he said accusingly. Quills laughed. “The upside of falling over all the time in my foalhood is that I know exactly how to flop when I have to,” she cackled. “Yes, I did. And I’ll do it again so act surprised.” He looked at her irritably. “Is there a point to this?” “There is, but I’ll explain in a moment. Let me enjoy the acting for now.” Just as they approached the post where the two white pegasi stood guard by the stairs, Quills called out to them and moved forward. “Excuse me, sirs, I was wondering—gah!!” True to her warning, Quills seemed to trip over her hooves and slammed flat on the floor, again spilling the contents of her saddlebag everywhere in the hallway. Codex did his best to act surprised and with the guards joined in helping her get up and pick up her papers and writing materials again. “Is this part of your next book, m’am?” one of them asked, staring at a page of notes. “Hey, focus,” the other one scolded, gesturing him aside, in order to pick up a piece of paper from under his hoof. “Ahaha, I’m sorry boys, but I can’t say. I can’t have spoilers getting out so soon,” Quills chuckled. “Anyway, I wanted to ask you to keep an eye out for a pink pen, could you? I may have dropped it in this hallway but I haven’t got time to search. Would that be alright?” “It’s not a bother, m’am,” one of them said, a tall, dashing colt with blue eyes. “Great, thank you very much,” Quills beamed at them. “Say, that was an awful little business with the Opal, wasn’t it? Good thing it got resolved quickly.” “Certainly, m’am,” one of them commented. “Captain Grey Mist had the situation under control.” “Indeed. Well, I’ve kept you long enough. Thanks again, gents. Come on Codex! To the Library, we’ve got work to do!” Quills herded Codex downstairs and eventually into the Library. Hurriedly, she grabbed a piece of paper and a quill and frantically wrote on it. “Okay, what the hay just happened?” Codex asked, sharing a puzzled look with Spike. “Did you find anything?” the little dragon asked. “Yes. And in fact, I have a job for you, Spike,” Quills said with a grin and carefully pulled three sheets of paper from her saddlebag, rolled them together with the paper she’d written on and tied them off with a ribbon she pulled from her saddlebag. “I want you to take this to Sunny. He’s helping Applejack and Pinkie Pie with the catering. He’ll know what to do. Don’t wait, just come straight back. Understood?” “Uh, yeah,” Spike said hesitantly. “But what is it?” “Let’s just say it’ll either solve this case or bury us all,” Quills said bluntly. “Spike, trust me, I need you to be quick with this. Twilight’s depending on it. Now get going. I’ll explain later,” she added and gave him a little push with her head. Spike hurried out of the library as fast as his small legs could carry him. “Please explain to me what just happened,” Codex groaned. Quills threw herself on a sitting pillow and chuckled. “Oh Codex, I will, but you’ll start grumbling that I made you look silly. I want to hear your thoughts on this, first.” Codex squinted at her. “You’re making me feel silly right now,” he said with a surly frown. “I get the feeling you’ve somehow already solved this and that’s pretty irritating.” “Only because you’ve been carried along the excitement and haven’t thought it through,” Quills said. “You saw everything I did but you haven’t put together the pieces. I’m still waiting for the last piece of this puzzle but I think my theory will bear results.” Codex plopped down on a cushion himself and frowned with thought. “I don’t think I can see what you’re driving at.” Quills scratched her front leg with her other hoof and suddenly showed him her front leg. “Here, another piece for you – see this white powder on my coat? You noticed me inspecting Princess Cadence’s dressing table earlier, right?” Codex stared at the smudge of white powder on Quills’ dark purple coat. “I saw you hovering over it, what did you actually do?” “I opened the drawer where the Opal’s case was. Codex, really; you’re a very smart colt but you sometimes just don’t use your eyeballs,” she sighed. “I opened the drawer with my hooves and checked out the underside. I got the powder on me then.” “But what is it?” Codex asked and bent closer to sniff it. “Huh, it smells almost sweet. I think it’s talcum.” “Because it is. It’s also called chalk of Prance by cabinet-makers. It makes drawers run smoothly.” “That’s all? I thought you were driving up to something exciting,” Codex said and sulked. “You and your sense of drama,” Quills chuckled. “I’ll give you one more hint. Remember what I said about the dust in the room and the table next to the connecting door.” “You said something about your mother – your mum’s a neat-freak, isn’t she?” “That’s putting it very lightly,” she laughed. “If my mom saw a dust void like that in my room she’d know I’d been lazy with the cleaning and chase me down with a broom.” “Dust void…” Codex repeated and cocked his head. Quills laughed and stood up. “Well then, I think I’m going to let you stew over it. Seriously, think about it. You’ll get what I mean. I’m going to go beg Twilight to let us crash at the Palace tonight because I want to see the resolution to this. You wait here for Spike, I’m sure he’ll want to hear about the whole thing.” Quills trotted out of the Library, leaving Codex on his cushion with a sour look and he frowned in thought. Sometimes Quills was truly very irritating and he never felt that more than right then as he mulled over what he’d seen and heard today, comparing it to what Quills had done and then suddenly, he had a light-bulb moment. He started, sat straight and his jaw dropped. “Oh!! Of course!!” he blurted and then laughed, half with derision and half with affection. “Oh, I am silly! I see how it happened!”