Elements
-honesty-
Lyra skidded to a stop at the edge of the cliff, shivering. The night sky was an impenetrable pitch black, and the air was chilly. Lyra breathed heavily as she tried to regain her breath. The breeze was uncomfortable; Lyra’s fur stood up on end as she stared down over the edge of the precipice. She could only faintly recognize the Pearl River raging beneath her hooves. The hoofsteps behind her were getting louder— she hadn’t much time. Lyra shut her eyes and counted, One. Two. Three. They were getting closer. Fourfive! Lyra jumped, plunging into the numbing waters of the Pearl River. She flailed her limbs, struggling to resurface, when a hoof reached out and pulled her onto a small wooden boat.
“Next time,” Bon Bon said, with a hint of annoyance, “could you try to land in the stupid boat? I can’t lug your fat flank everywhere, ya know.”
Lyra rolled her eyes. Her teeth chattered as she shivered. “Y-you t-try jumping into a freezing cold river in the m-middle of the night,” she replied tiredly. She shook her fur, sending water flying in all directions.
“Isn’t there like a spell for things like this?” Bon Bon groaned.
Lyra’s glare was lost to the darkness.
Bon Bon fell silent for a moment before asking, “Well? Did you lose them?”
Lyra winced.
“I can’t trust you with anything, can I?”
“H-hey!” Lyra pouted. She was still shivering. “You t-try evading the whole police force!”
“So like...” Bon Bon put a hoof up to her muzzle. “Five or so ponies?”
Lyra felt her cheeks grow warm. “W-well, more like s-seven or eight....”
“Here. Paddle.” Bon Bon hoofed Lyra a wooden oar. “You’ll be happy to know my end of things went quite swimmingly. It's right here.”
Bon Bon produced a small mint-green saddlebag with a golden lyre emblazoned on it. Lyra’s horn glowed a soft green as she cast a subdued illumination spell.
“G-good,” said Lyra. “Celestia knows what we’d do without that. Leave it to Chief Saddlewig to completely ruin things, huh?”
Bon Bon sighed. “We’re not completely home-free yet, are we?”
“Yeah, I guess not,” Lyra muttered.
In the Everfree Forest lies a clearing. Small and secluded, the land is flat and the grass is a deep luscious green— tall and healthy. The sky is a calm blue, and the sun shines down brightly, but not harshly. And in this clearing, an orange pegasus filly lies contently, her gaze held towards the sky. She watches, as a cyan blue blur whizzes around: looping, turning, corkscrewing. She gapes in awe, as her idol maneuvers through sky with grace.
Someday, the orange filly decides, she’d learn how to fly. Someday... it’d be her up there. Someday, she’d be as good as Rainbow Dash. Someday, she’d make the Wonderbolts. Just like Rainbow Dash. The filly nods to herself vigorously. The cyan blotch explodes into color. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet: Rainbow Dash’s signature Sonic Rainboom. The orange filly sighs. Yep, someday, she’d be just like Rainbow Dash.
"Scootaloo? Scootaloo? Wake up this instant!" a voice demanded.
"Buh?" Scootaloo managed as her eyes shot open. "Anything... anything for you... Rainbow Dash...." Scootaloo smiled dreamily. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash's wings disappeared. Her ruby eyes turned a deep green, and her cyan coat turned purple as she slowly morphed into another pony.
"Ms. Cheerilee...!" Scootaloo mouthed. Scootaloo could faintly make out Diamond Tiara's spiteful laughter from the back of the classroom.
It was dawn in Ponyville. The sun's soft tendrils stretched just across the horizon, providing a faint, reddish-orange glow. The air was chilly, and there was a light breeze. Ponyville was eerily silent; most everypony had not yet awaken.
However, the town's librarian, Twilight Sparkle, was far from asleep. She had woken up before sunrise, struck by a flash of inspiration. She stared expectantly at a flask, which she held in her lavender aura. Examining the flask, she laid it back down in a small rack— in which she stored a multitude of other vials. She then picked up another vial, in it, a deep orange-hued liquid. Twilight trotted over to a potted plant that sat near a window, and carefully poured the liquid into its soil. Quite suddenly, a halo of golden light engulfed the plant before it caught on fire.
“Woah!” exclaimed a squeaky high-pitched voice. Twilight let out a squeak as she jumped in surprise and fell onto her back. A blue pegasus hovered over to where she lay and grinned wickedly. “That was totally awesome!”
Twilight frowned. “Rainbow Dash!”
“The one and only!” Rainbow Dash shot back.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Twilight demanded, getting back up onto her hooves.
“Better question would be: what are you doing?” Rainbow chirped, swimming the backstroke in midair.
"For your information," Twilight replied, trotting back to her vials of chemicals, "I'm studying the effects of various substances on organic life."
"So you're just blowin' up plants? Awesome!" Rainbow Dash hovered over to her. She lifted a small vial. "Hey, can I have this?"
Twilight glanced at the pale pink substance, and then towards Rainbow Dash. "Whatever would you need with that?"
"I need it for... my super secret special soup!"
"Th-that's in the recipe?" Twilight stared at Rainbow Dash questioningly.
"You bet it is!" Rainbow flashed Twilight an assuring grin.
"O-okay...." Twilight said. "But be careful!" Rainbow's grin grew wider. Twilight may have been an egghead, but she sure was gullible.
octavia scene
“Did you find anything else?” Lyra asked, weighing the saddlebag in her hooves.
“No. Looks like that’s all the evidence they got.”
“How unfortunate,” Lyra muttered. She opened the saddlebag and peered inside. "It's empty." Lyra ran her hoof along the inside of the bag and inspected her it. “And it’s... all burnt inside!”
“Burnt?” repeated Bon Bon. “What in Tartarus happened to it?”
“The real question is: when exactly did the saddlebag go missing...?”
“The last client we had was...” Bon Bon thought for a second, “Scootaloo, right?”
“Yeah. Something about a missing cat.”
“Do you think... she did it?”
octavia scene
“Who else coulda done it?” Lyra shook her head. “Must’ve been her.”
Bon Bon gasped. “You think... Scootaloo killed her?”
Lyra grinned. “It’s an interesting thought, innit?”
“Lyra...! You can’t be serious!”
“Mmmm... do you have another idea?”
“Then... how? How’d she do it?” Bon Bon demanded.
“We'll figure something out." Lyra replied.
"What in Tartarus do you mean?" Bon Bon hissed.
"Listen, Bon Bon," Lyra leaned towards her companion, "the sooner we convince Saddleface it wasn't us, the sooner we can figure out what really happened. Chief!" Lyra screamed out into the night, "Chief! I solved the case!"
Bon Bon grabbed Lyra by her mane and put a hoof to her mouth. "Just what in Tartarus do you think you're doing?" Bon Bon growled.
Scootaloo's house sits upon a large hill. A dirt path meanders up to the peak of the hill, covered in weeds and dead moss. The house itself is quite old; most of the shingles have fallen off and in one spot, the roof has collapsed in. The wood is old, musty, and moldy. On the porch, lays a faded old sign, fallen over, and on it, in large red print says: “FOR SALE BY OWNER.” The front door is brittle and its hinges barely hold; the bright yellow paint has long peeled off of it.
Scootaloo pushes the front door open carefully, making sure it doesn’t fall over. She slips into the house and trots into the kitchen, slipping off her book bag near the entrance. She opens the refrigerator door and stares at its contents. Scootaloo scowls, realizing that the food is going bad. She sighs, grabbing a bottle of apple juice with her mouth and popping it open. She tosses the cap and downs the bottle’s contents.
lyra & scoots interrogation
"You're kidding," Lyra muttered under her breath. She swerved around and met Chief Saddleshoe with pure, unbridled rage. "You're kidding, right?"
Chief Saddleshoe flinched. "What... what is it? Did we miss something?"
"Did you miss something? Did you miss something?" Lyra screamed, her face turning a bright red. She gestured to the body that hung from the ceiling from a noose.
octavia & scoots scene
climax(?)
