CSI: Equestria

Flack felt a lurch, like he had been shoved, and then he opened his eyes to a completely different tableu.

He was standing at the opening of an alley, and he stood stock still, trying to figure out in the name of the dark and powerful savior Cthulhu had just happened. Flack identified voices, and relaxed slightly, but continued listening.

Flack frowned when he realized that the voices seemed rather combative, and he continued listening, frowning when the words 'Cutie Mark' and 'blank flank' were thrown around, in a rather derisive tone.

Coming to the conclusion tha someone was bullying someone else, especially from the terms 'you'll never amount to anything' and 'don't even bother trying!' And he decided to do something.

He stepped out of the alley, and was confronted with the visage of a one-story schoolhouse, complete with bell. Flack directed his attention to the voices, and was confronted by the appearance of five horses, apparently on different sides, judging by the way they stood and looked at each other. Shaking off his system shock, he addressed the one wearing a … silver crown? and her friend, who had a tattoo of a spoon on her rear.

"Excuse me, but why are you two bullying these three?" Flack asked, his voice edged with steel.

"I- I- I tried to get her to stop," the silver-spooned one squeaked, and he heard she spoke the truth.

"I believe you, but you," he said, glaring at the silver-crowned one, whose arrogant mask wasn't slipping; yet, "that was inexcusable. Bullying these three? That's not right, and I expect you to apologize. Now." As he ended, her sneering mask returned, as she looked him up and down.

"Who are you? And what are you going to do to me, tell my parents? And besides, you don't know my parents, nor do you have any right to intrude on our conversation, so I I were you, I would keep your muzzle out of this," she sneered, turning back towards the other three, who were wearing identical faces of confusion.

"Oh, challenge accepted," he said, reaching out and yanking her ear with a … hoof? accepting it, he moved on and ignored her protests and turned to the other three.

"Where do I go?" Flack asked the three, and they recovered, enough to giggle at his continued clenching of her ear, and for them to trot past the schoolhouse, with Don in tow.

"Over here, mister!" The orange one said, as they approached a large group of ponies. Flack shrugged, and carried her over, and dropped her when she was near.

"Parents, I believe this young lady has something to say about her behavior," he announced, feeling odd, as he listened to the giggles of the three who had been bullied, as well as the silent horror of the silver-spoon'd one. As he was saying that, a pair of older ponies came racing down the street, apparently at the sounds of their daughter, but were bearing down upon Flack with looks that only parents with children who they think are eligible for sainthood can bear.

"Here come the drums!" Flack said, as they glared at him thunderously.

"What have you been doing to Diamond Tiara?" The father asked, obviously in reference to the little one he held in his mouth.

"Little three, how long has she been doing that to you?" Flack asked, ignoring the parents' indignation.

"About two months," said the one with a white coat and purple-pink mane.

"I hope you understand that your daughter has been bullying these young fillies. I don't know what was going on between them, but I know it was wrong nevertheless. I leave her in your custody," he said, releasing the little bully and pushing her towards her now thunderous parents.

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The team watched with amusement as the little filly was hauled off, and the three little ponies turned to Flack.

"Thanks, mister! She was being really mean to us, but her parents sure will put a stop to that," said one of them, with a thick southern accent.

"Hey, do you ponies want to join our club?" One of them asked, a pegasus with a slightly idiosyncratic helmet.

"And what club might this be? I'm assuming it's something for blank flanks, since us new folks don't have them, nor do you," asked Danny, with an odd amount of foreknowledge.

The three little ponies stared in shock, their plan collapsed without them saying a word. Twilight Sparkle arched an eyebrow at him, wondering how he could have known that. He caught the look they were all giving him and shrugged, lifting up his shoulders.

"What can I say? I was an enterprising little spy before I joined the army, so I'm used to knowing that. Plus Danny and Adam's reaction kinda gave it away." Mac explained, and Hawkes gasped.

"You saw"

"Yes, Hawkes, hard to believe, but I did." Suddenly, flack spoke up after Mac had finished speaking.

"Rainbow Dash for the win!"

"She suits you, you old blue boy. Personally, I always preferred Twilight, since she was always into books and following the rules," Mac confessed, a small smile gracing his muzzle. Twilight glanced at him, and then at flack, who suddenly had a sheepish expression and an interest in his new hooves.

"Um, where do you know us from?" Twilight asked, her hostess manner shifting to one of curiosity. Her question evoked a paralyzed response in Mac, and Flack decided to examine the nearest cloud. There were several seconds of silence as Mac pondered the feeling of death, his wife, and how he was going to avoid causing a paradox of some sort.

"Let's go to Pinkie's party, huh? She should be done setting up," Mac said, and the rest of the team nodded, all of them aware of what the pink party pony was capable of.

Sure enough, as they walked down the street, the little town seemed almost deserted, despite the relatively short amount of time that had passed.

When they reached the library, it was dark and the team, plus Twilight, plus Fluttershy, who had apparently finished feeding her animal critters filed in, and they shut the door behind them.

"SURPRISE!"

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"Why don't you lift up your, ah, front things so I can measure you?" Rarity asked Danny, as he watched his friends and colleagues, in pony form, through the front window.

Danny did so, and the fashion designer reeled a tape measure into her magic, using it to measure just about everything; she wasn't sure exactly what she might need to know, but it's always good to be prepared.

Rarity saw the small of Danny's back, which had an odd lump on it about the size of bitcoin, but a little bigger. And rather hideous looking, too. She paused, and poked at the skin, which had been revealed when Danny's shirt rode up a little high.

"Please don't touch that. It still hurts," he said, surprising her. To all appearances, it was merely a rather horrendously ugly lump, but it obviously meant something rather significantly more than that to him.

“Whatever happened, my dear?” Rarity asked, not really thinking, just marveling at what could have happened.

“I was shot protecting someone I loved. I still love her, though I am not sure where she is or if I’ll ever see her again. Doesn’t mean I can’t love her, and hope to be back with her." Danny finished his speech by turning back towards the shocked Rarity, and continuing, "And for four months, I was in a wheelchair, and when I started to walk again, every step was like a fiery agony. But pushed through it, for me, my family, and my friends. Any other questions?"

"Yes, what is that odd discoloration on your shoulder? That unnatural black formation cannot be normal! My dear, I must get you to a hospital!"

And with a sigh from Danny, and a BAMF of teleportation from Rarity, they were in the lobby of the hospital.

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Celestia was at day court, when her friend and secretary Noteworthy approached her. She gently silenced the currently speaking griffin ambassador, and took the note Noteworthy proffered. The ambassador squawked loudly, but he finally quieted down enough for Celestia to read the note-

My dear sister Celestia,

We were resting when we felt a shift, a change, in the magical energies. We didn't want to interrupt your friend Silvertongue, but we feel this is of import.

We weren't sure what exactly it was, but then we recognized it. It is an old and dangerous magic that has been long forgotten, by apparently has been resurrected. We concluded that it came from the general direction of the Everfree, where the Elements of Harmony reside. Since it could be potentially dangerous, we are going to take a company of night guards to investigate.

If we find anypony, they shall be dealt with diplomatically. Believe it or not, sister, we have learnt to be polite. And we try to reserve the Royal Canterlot Voice for nopony, since calmness and patience seems to work better than anything else.

Celestia sighed, and resigned herself to hoping that Luna would do her best. She had indeed been getting better at diplomacy, though very few ponies chose to petition her at her night court, which probably bored Luna right out of her crown, but at least her little ponies were getting used to her.

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Luna frowned, turning to her commander as she did so.

"Commander Glass Sight, are your men sure that they have found no sign of the being?" She inquired, wondering how much more of the Everfree they would have to tramp through before they found the source of that evil death-magic. She wanted to protect her subjects, and decided to continue searching, instead of wondering where it could have come from. Luna could not have mistaken that signature, but was hoping that she was wrong. Bone-spelling was a dangerous thig, and the last pony to do it unleashed an unspeakable evil.

"Princess, we are quite sure. However, we will continue searching until we find it." His two glass eyes-- his namesake, for he had been lost his eyes in a horrible training accident and had opted to have enchanted glass eyes made -- twitched slightly towards a bush, which momentarily was shoved aside by a pony, who reported in the continued absence of anypony, or thing, for that matter, that could possibly have had done that.

"So it goes," Luna muttered, and the search continued.

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With a lurch, Sid felt a movement. He blinked, and upon opening his eyes, he was faced with what looked like a continent, though it was most assuredly not one he recognized.

As the enviable reliability of physics and gravity took its unshakable hold, he began falling. It wasn't long before he reached terminal velocity, but took awhile longer before he hit the ground.

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