Chapter 3: Studying the Symbol

"Now to start us off." Twilight Sparkle began. "What exactly happened?"

Rarity was the first to offer up her story. The unicorn took a deep breath. The unfortunate incident had affected Rarity tremendously but she needed to speak about it so they could figure out what to do.

"I was working on a design that I had previously made." the unicorn began. "I was hoping that I could perhaps tweak it a little so that it would look just a bit more refined. Then I heard a great crashing noise and I went to investigate. Oh the horror! My stockroom was a complete mess and there were so many supplies that were missing! Then there was that hideous mark. It did not match my boutique one bit. I was so upset that I must have fainted."

Twilight Sparkle nodded and made some notes. Then Applejack decided to speak up.

"Ah had just finished raking up a pile of leaves in East Field." the cowgirl said. "Took me a while but Ah got it done. Then I walked back to the barn and saw that all of the apples were just plain gone. Every single apple was stolen from every single tree. Whoever did it left that mark on the side of the barn too."

The alicorn nodded again and added some more notes.

"I was gonna launch myself out of my cannon." Lightning Dust said angrily. "Everything seemed fine, but when it went off the whole thing just blew up. Just ash and soot everywhere. The explosion completely messed up my stunt and my mane. Whichever haybrain did it left a bit of wood with that same mark on it."

Once again Twilight Sparkle repeated her process of making notes.

"I was just baking a delicious batch of super duper yummy cupcakes." Pinkie Pie said eagerly. "Then there was this huge crash and there was a bunch of frosting missing. The Cakes had been working on it for weeks and now it's all gone. Somepony used some of our icing to draw the mark on the wall. I think it was vanilla. No maybe coconut. But it might have been lemon. Maybe white chocolate."

Pinkie Pie rattled on about the different flavors of icing it could have been while Twilight Sparkle made more notes.

"I just finished feeding Angel." Fluttershy whispered. "Then I noticed that the chickens were making such awful noises. Somepony had stolen their eggs and left that mark on the chicken coop. I was scared. Who would do this?"

"I think we all want to know that Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash said in an aggravated tone.

Twilight Sparkle nodded and made some final notes.

"All right everypony." she said. "We've all been robbed today. Our only clue to the culprit is this mark." She held up a drawing of the symbols that had appeared at every single scene. "If anypony has any ideas about it then please share them with us."

None of the ponies in the room spoke. They had never seen the mark before that day. They had assumed that it could have been a different language and they had hoped that Twilight Sparkle could identify it and tell them what it meant. Now however it was obvious that the answer wouldn't be easy to find. At the alicorn's suggestion, everypony began looking through the various books that Twilight Sparkle had kept inside her castle. Though they all searched for hours, they found nothing that gave them any idea about the meaning of the mark or anypony that could be connected to it. Not even the library with its vast supply of books held a clue to what that mark could mean. Rainbow Dash left the rest of the group to their searching and went on her own hunt for Gilda. It was clear to her that the griffon definitely knew something about the mark that they were researching and Rainbow Dash was going to do everything that she could possibly do to figure out what was going on.

The rainbow maned pegasus knew that the griffon wouldn't be at any of her usual hangout spots. After a brief aerial search of the town, Rainbow Dash headed towards her cloud castle. The light blue pegasus knew that Gilda could be a tricky sort of griffon. Her instincts were proven correct as Rainbow Dash found Gilda lying in her bed inside the cloud castle. Gilda had hidden herself in the absolute last place that she felt that Rainbow Dash would look for her at. The rainbow maned pegasus instantly knew that the griffon was faking being asleep. She knew that Gilda was wide awake and she was just trying her hardest to fool Rainbow Dash into thinking otherwise.

Well that's not gonna work on me. Rainbow Dash thought determinedly. I know her too well.

"Hey G." Rainbow Dash called out. "I think I see a plate of bacon with your name on it."

The pegasus waited for a moment but Gilda didn't stir. This definitely struck Rainbow Dash as odd since normally the griffon would get very excited at the mere mention of the word bacon. Any other day the idea of that food would get her to literally jump out of bed, but right now it was like she didn't care about it at all.

Something's bugging her. Rainbow Dash thought to herself. Well with Princess Celestia as my witness I'm gonna find out what's wrong. If she knows something about this I am gonna find out.

"G I got prime tickets to a Wonderbolts show!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "We gotta get moving!"

Just like before there was no reaction whatsoever from the brown and white feathered griffon. She just kept up the appearance of being fast asleep. Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed as she looked at her best friend. Something was definitely wrong with Gilda.

Looks like I'm gonna have to do something drastic. Rainbow Dash thought. If Gilda wasn't going to wake up willingly then Rainbow Dash would wake her up with force.

She strode over to the griffon shaped bed and tried to shake Gilda awake. None of Rainbow Dash's pushes and shoves made any sort of progress. Gilda just kept on sleeping.

"Come on G enough of this." Rainbow Dash said in a firm tone. "We both know you're faking. Now get up."

Gilda still did not stir from her slumber. She was completely ignoring the rainbow maned pegasus. Rainbow Dash closed her pink and purple eyes and sighed before she spoke.

"I tried to do this nicely." she said in a weary tone. "But you're giving me no choice."

Rainbow Dash flew upwards towards the ceiling and then she dive-bombed Gilda. That move woke the griffon right up. She used her quick reflexes to deliver a forceful punch to Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus had seen that coming. She caught Gilda's fist with her hoof and then she forced the griffon out of her bed. Gilda was definitely annoyed by what Rainbow Dash was doing.

"Okay Dash I'm up." Gilda grumbled irritably. "Now what do ya want?"

"You know what I want G." Rainbow Dash said in a fiercely determined tone. "You've been acting weird ever since we saw that mark. You've been ignoring me and you've been randomly disappearing every time I try to talk to ya. You look so distracted whenever I mention the mark. What's the matter with ya?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." Gilda answered quietly. Her eyes did not meet Rainbow Dash's gaze and the rainbow maned pegasus could see that the griffon was troubled by whatever she was thinking about.

"Gilda we're best friends. You can tell me anything." Rainbow Dash said in a calm and soothing voice. "I won't judge ya. You know that. Now come on. What's eating ya?"

Gilda sighed a bit before she answered. Her tone was full of dread but Rainbow Dash could still hear her words.

"I guess I should tell ya." she said. "I just hoped I wouldn't have to see them again."

With that Gilda stood up, grabbed something out of her dresser and then she left the cloud castle with Rainbow Dash. The duo set off to Twilight Sparkle's castle so that the griffon could tell them what she knew. Gilda called the attention of everypony that was in the castle and said that she might be able to figure out who the thieves were.