ECIS: Equestrian Criminal Investigation Services
S1 E01: What are Rainbows Made From?
Cloudsdale Coliseum
Scootaloo and her friend Orion Solstice arrived at the coliseum for their graduation test: a test they knew would be easy to accomplish. It would be very hard to fail the final test. It was a test of all they had learned over the years. They landed on a cloud in the middle of the Coliseum and waited for the head mare of the academy to begin her speech.
Somewhere in the back of the cloud sat a yellow filly with a green mane and tail. She sat there nervously as the graduation test began with a heartfelt speech. This was her only chance to pass and graduate. She has always been having trouble with her wings. She has always had a rare condition called brittle bone disease. She tried so hard to graduate from flight school, studying and practicing her flying. She could never fly fast enough. Then, it was time for the test.
A couple of hours turned into only a matter of minutes. Once Scootaloo completed her test, she landed next to Orion and a yellow filly named Aurora Dawn. Aurora had her wing bones snapped back into place, and bandaged. The three were quickly escorted out of the western gate to an awaiting sky wagon.
“SCOOTALOO!? WHERE ARE YOU!?” Rainbow Dash yelled out. She was confronted by a couple in mourning of their foal. That is when Rainbow learned that Scootaloo and her friend Orion had failed and been exiled.
Opening song
'What Are Rainbows Made From?'
Canterlot
“Well we can thank Jet Set for giving us his old home for our base of operations.” Applejack said to probation agent Pinkie Pie as they looked at the mansion that they were now calling their base of operations. The two ponies then trotted inside to the main hall, which had computers hooked up and placed on desks: one for each pony who worked with the Equestrian Criminal Investigation Services Special Operations team, as well as the division chief Rarity's office off to the side in the former study on the first floor. On the first floor was the gym for ponies to workout and train, plus a shooting range for their leg mounted firearms.
The second floor contained the Operations Center, where they held a briefing for each case. There were also some bedrooms in case a pony needed to get some rest.
Applejack showed Pinkie Pie to her desk, right next to the desk set up for Trixie. Trixie was a show magician who had finally, it seemed, found legit work. In fact, until Trixie had a place of her own, she actually lived in the mansion. She walked downstairs from a bathroom on the second floor, and immediately noticed the new pony joining their ranks.
“Hello!” Pinkie cheerfully exclaimed before running up the stairs to hug her partner tightly. “I'm Pinkie Pie and I've just transferred to your division. I'm so happy to be here that I'm nervouscited!”
Trixie, while trying to break free of Pinkie's tight grip, managed to say: “You know that is not a real word, right?”
Then a whistle was heard from the second floor. Spike, the baby dragon, looked over the railing and called for Applejack, Pinkie and Trixie.
“We have a special announcement from our Director: Twilight Sparkle.” Spike said before going back to Ops. The three trotted up the stairs, before their division chief, Rarity, followed them.
“Well, it looks like we're all here except for Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy said from her seat at her computer desk.
“We can start right now.” Twilight Sparkle, the alicorn princess said, as she came out of the shadows. “I know for a fact that Rainbow knows the current situation. But let me explain to the rest of you.”
Spike typed a few commands and several pictures of pegasus foals were shown onto a large computer screen.
“Just a few minutes ago, a small group of foals were exiled from Cloudsdale for failing their graduation flight test at each of the flight academies in Cloudsdale. However, word from an anonymous source has informed Princess Celestia that these missing foals were taken somehwere else in Cloudsdale.”
“Can we trust this source?” Applejack asked.
“I know we can.” Twilight replied.
“OF ALL OF THE...” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in both sorrow and disbelief. She threw open the door of the Ops Center during her tirade. “Scootaloo has failed her test! I don't know how she did it! The test is so easy too! I was told she lost her concentration? I didn't even know you can fail simply because of that!”
“Calm down, Rainbow.” Applejack placed a fore hoof onto her partner's shoulder. “Please continue Twilight.”
“I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash, but you will need to hear this. According to my source it seems Scootaloo isn't the only pony who failed today. From her academy alone, Orion Solstice, and Aurora Dawn failed too. Though Aurora failed because of an injury. Her wing bones broke in a compound fracture, causing her to fall onto the safety cloud in the last portion of the test. Orion failed because he flew to Aurora's rescue. What's more is that the body of a pegasus filly was found outside Ponyville just a moment ago. The coroner examined the body and found it be completely crushed. What's even more weird is that there is not enough color remaining. This shows that the blood and color was extracted from the victim before being crushed. Spike?”
Spike threw up the image of a crushed mess of a once-purple pegasus filly. The image made Fluttershy cover her eyes while letting out a yelp of shock. This only disturbed the others even more.
“Do we even have a name, Twilight?” Rarity asked.
“Not yet. From what little was left that could be gathered, the DNA has been gathered and several blood samples are being taken by the Royal Guards of Cloudsdale as we speak. It's being taken from every parent with an 'exiled' foal. Hopefully, we'll learn her name in no time. But it is your mission to find out what happened to these ponies, and shut down whatever operation is going on.”
“Well, you have your first case in a while. Let's get to it, darlings.” Rarity said before they all left Spike, Twilight and Fluttershy alone.
“You know, Twilight. I failed my test because I was still a weak flyer then. But I was only allowed to leave on my own free will. I never heard of these poor foals being forced out of Cloudsdale to some unknown location forever.”
“That is just it Fluttershy. My source tells me they are being flown for an hour and then are taken through a back door into the weather factory.”
"Why didn't you tell them that during the briefing?” Spike asked.
“Because I don't even know if my source was telling the truth.” Twilight replied.
Scootaloo, Orion and Aurora were escorted inside and lead into a massive theater room. They were told to take a seat before a pony wearing a mask walked onto the stage. The pegasus trotted up to the podium, cleared his throat and then began his speech. A large red curtain blocked anything happening backstage.
“Welcome, you miserable failures and rejects of pegasus society.” the pegasus stallion said in a clear male voice. “You may be failures and rejects, but you still have a use to the Flock! Today, you are here for that one use that you still have! Make the most of what time you have left! Because nopony has ever escaped their destiny. So, it is now time to learn what destiny has in store for you.”
Under the mask, the stallion grinned evilly, as he ordered the curtain to be raised. To every foal's horror, a machine that was removing the blood of other foal was exposed. Then the machine would crush them to death under a pulverization device once the foal was loaded onto a conveyor belt by workers. After being crushed to death, seperate colors of the rainbow would come out of the machine.
“That is right, you rejects! You get to be the only ingredient of rainbows! What a perfect use for rejects like you! But first I want to make an example out of you all. So, can I have a volunteer?”
Guards wearing masks stepped forward and grabbed Orion from his seat next to Scootaloo and Aurora.
“NOOOOO!!!!!!” Scootaloo screamed. She tried to take her friend back, but she was zapped by a taser worn on the hoof of the guard who wielded it.
“Sit back down, failure! You'll have to wait your turn!”
“I love you, Scootaloo!” Orion cried back to her, before he was pulled from the theater room.
“I love you too, Orion.” Scootaloo said to herself. She sat back down and cried on Aurora's shoulder. The masked manager grinned again. He was proud of himself for making a poor failure of a filly fall into despair. He knew it would be a message to the others that there was no hope in his rainbow factory.
The blood was drained from Orion by three needles stabbed into his little heart. His colorless, near lifeless body was then picked up and thrown hard onto the conveyor belt. He was weak, and could barely move. His fate was drawing near. As his body moved along the conveyor belt. He opened his eyes weakly. He saw he was now going to be crushed into rainbow spectra. He chose to mutter his last words under his breath.
“I love you always, Scootaloo.”
Then, the mere existence of Orion Solstice was extinguished forever.
It was decided that Rainbow and AJ should go to search the missing foals homes, and ask questions about them to their parents. First they chose to stop at the Solstice household and question Astro and Aster Solstice about Orion.
“We told you that he was exiled with Scootaloo earlier, Rainbow Dash.” Astro said. “We don't know where they go or why they're not allowed back. But it's clear in our laws that the only pegasi good for the Flock are the ones who can show who can pass the test.”
“Well I'm not from Cloudsdale.” Applejack said. “So please explain it to me please, Mr. Solstice.”
“I will.” Aster Solstice said. “The Flock is the way of life for pegasi. We all obey it and we never question it. We do only what is the good thing for the Flock. It's been that way for the last decade or two. Even you know this, Ms. Dash.”
“I know it all too well.” RD said. “Which is why I moved to Ponyville and became the weather manager there. It's because I don't give a pony's flank about the Flock. Neither did Fluttershy and she failed the test on the day of my graduation.”
“Yet, Fluttershy is living in Ponyville?” Aster asked.
“Yeah. I don't know how she escaped being banished to a far away land.” RD said. “Enough of this! AJ and I are trying to find out where your child is! Already a pegasus filly was found crushed to death earlier this morning! So we believe the murder and the exile of your son are connected. I'm here trying to get answers from you! So please tell us anything that may help us solve this case.”
Astro stood up and glared at Rainbow Dash. “I'm sorry we've said too much. You have to get out of here before the pegasi guards of Cloudsdale notice you're asking questions about test failures.”
“We just want to find them all before it is too late.” Applejack said. “We're going to do the best we can to bring your son home alive.”
“That's the problem. If he is ever found to have returned, then he, my wife and I are going to be put to death for harboring a failure.”
“Then I suggest that you get some things together and stay at the Ponyville Inn while we find your son. Once we bring him back, you'll have to be put into witness protection until the mastermind is sentenced.” Applejack put her cowboy hat back on, then stood and left with Rainbow Dash.
Once the two left the house, Dash turned to AJ. “Well what do you think? Think they're telling the truth about all of this nonsense?”
“Probably.” AJ said as she noticed a group of five pegasus stallions wearing armor appraching them. “Maybe they were telling the truth after all.”
“You two.” said the leader. “You are under arrest!”
“On what charges?” AJ asked.
“We're part of the Royal Guard of Equestria you know?” RD said. “You can't just arrest us like that.”
“We can arrest anypony we damn will please. Especially they go around asking questions to the loyal faithful of the Flock.”
“Sugercube, I'm going to make you eat those words.” AJ looked at her partner. “Let's do this Rainbow.”
“You bet!” Dash and AJ held up their forelegs and aimed their weapons at the five guards. The guards charged the two as they opened fire.
“Anything on the Jane Doe, Zecora?” Trixie asked, entering the morgue. Zecora was the medical examiner for the Royal Guard of Equestria, which the ECIS is a part of.
“I think we may have a match to the identity of our poor little foal.” Zecora snatched the paper from the printer. On it was the DNA profile of the foal and two parents that seemed to be a match of the foal DNA. It is a perfect match. Zecora showed the name written on the bottom of the page to the two mares.
“The name is Cloud Cover.” Zecora said. “A filly who had most likely failed her final flight test as a possiblility.”
“Thanks, Zecora.” Trixie said as she and Pinkie left the morgue. Trixie brought out her cell phone with her magic and dialed a number.
“Hey, Spike. We have confirmation on our Jane Doe. Her name is Cloud Cover. Did she fail the flight test?”
Back in the Ops Room. Spike searched for information on Cloud Cover. Fortunately he found information on her. “Yep! She definitely failed her graduation test! Same reason why Scootaloo failed it seems.”
“A lack of concetration?” Pinkie said loudly into Trixie's phone.
“Exactly.” Fluttershy said. “I'll notify Applejack and Rainbow Dash to swing by her parents home and give her parents the bad news.”
“OH CELESTIA! WHY!!!!!????” Cloud Cover's mother wailed and cried on her husband's shoulder as the two mourned the loss of their deceased daughter. “We just thought she was exiled to somewhere else. We had no idea she was murdered! How could this have happened?”
“We're still investigating that, ma'am.” AJ said. “What do you know about the 'failures' that don't pass their test?”
“Just what we were told as foals.” Cloud's father said. “That anypony failing their flight test is banished and not allowed to return.”
“From the information we gathered, your daughter failed due to a lack of concentration. Since when did that become a failing factor for these tests?” RD asked.
“Oh, it shouldn't. I didn't think they could make it a failing factor.” Cloud's father replied.
Cloud's mother the screamed out. “It shouldn't be! What is going on here!?”
“Please calm down, Mrs. Cover. We're looking into this and we'll have more information as it develops.”
“Thank you Agent Applejack and Agent Dash.”
Scootaloo had cried herself to sleep. Her nightmares consisted of Aurora, Orion and her all suffering the same fate of many other foals their age. However in her nightmares they all died together. She woke up from her nightmare and noticed she was locked in a holding cell with Aurora and another colt. She breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that she was still alive and learned her new friend Aurora was too.
“Bad dream?” Aurora asked, and Scootaloo nodded her head. “Don't worry. They haven't come for us yet.”
Then they heard a cell being opened at the north end of the room. The guards had to drag the poor colt out by his legs in order to get him to the machine known as the Pegasus Device.
“PLEASE! DON'T! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! PLEASE LET ME GO!” the blue and fiery red colt said.
“Too bucking bad, kid.” said the head guard. “You should've paid more attention to your test. So now you have to die! And stop kicking and screaming, you little squirt!”
Just as the guards reached the exit of the holding room, the colt finally broke free and ran away from them. However he was running in the wrong direction. So the head guard tackled the colt, and stabbed him several times with his taser, at least until the colt was considered dead.
“Sweet Celestia!” a subordinate mare told her boss. “We are to keep them alive at all costs! If Dr. Atmosphere ever learned what you did, you're going through the Device for sure!”
“Couldn't help it. The little snot-nosed bastard had it coming! Besides he's still alive. I just checked his pulse.” the head guard said, as his subordinate checked the colt's pulse as well, and confirmed the colt was alive but unconscious. “At least he won't be able to resist for a while. By that time he is good as officially dead.”
Scootaloo had lost all hope of ever surviving and escaping this hellish place. No one would come to rescue her. Not even Rainbow Dash. By now Rainbow Dash was most definitely disappointed in her. She must be angry at Scootaloo for failing a simple test. Now, Scootaloo was going to die in this factory. For the good of the Flock.
Dash and AJ returned to the mansion and entered Ops, just as Trixie and Pinkie followed after them.
“We have a new development.” Fluttershy said.
“Another body was found.” Spike said. “In the same place as Cloud Cover was found.”
“That's a pretty stupid body dump site.” Pinkie said.
“Precisely why I called you all back here.” Fluttershy said before showing an image on the main monitor. “From what Spike and I deduced, it seems that the reason why bodies are dropping in the same area is because the weather factory is hovering right above the same spot.”
“How does the weather factory tie into this?” Dash asked.
Spike cleared his throat. “Actually it has more to do with the basement of the factory, rather than the entire factory as a whole.”
“There is reason to believe that the basement of the factory may be doing illegal things to form rainbows.”
“Rainbows!? That is impossible! Everyone knows that rainbows aren't made from ponies!” Dash retorted.
“Yet it looks like they are.” Spike said. “Zecora just discovered this about Cloud Cover: her entire hue was stolen.”
“It seems they crush the bodies of the weakened ponies to extract the last bit of magic to form the spectra needed to create the rainbows.” Fluttershy said. “We're thinking maybe there might be a way to find out what is going on there exactly. If we gained a search warrant and searched the place.”
“That is a terrible idea, Fluttershy.” Rarity said. “If we do that then they will shut down the whole operation and skip town before we can even find the missing pegasi. What we need to do is find an employee who works in the basement section of the factory, or at least another factory employee.”
After some time searching through the factory roster for someone with the know how about the basement level, the search finally came with the right suspect. He was named Dr. Gentle Breeze: an engineer who maintained the various machines within the entire factory. Rainbow and Applejack got their search warrant. They took AJ's auto-wagon: a vehicle that could fly at fast speeds, in order to reach the crime scene faster, if a pony was in trouble and they needed to get there in a hurry. In order for a non-pegasus to walk on clouds, they needed a special magic spell. Fortunately for the non-pegasus members of the team, each was given a special saddle equipped with their cell phones, holsters for their weapons, and the cloud walking spell integrated within the circuitry of the saddle itself. Rainbow had one but is missing the cloud spell, as she was already a pegasus.
So the two travelled back to Cloudsdale. Upon reaching Dr. Breeze's house, they noticed several pegasus guards watching over the house itself. They werre no dount hoping to finally capture the ECIS agents that were meddling in the Flock's affairs.
“Well, we need a way to get past all of those guards.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Why get past them, sugarcube, when we can just go through them?” AJ replied. A devious smile appeared on Rainbow's face. AJ set the autopilot to land the wagon nearby, as the two opened their doors and leapt out. Luckily the were low enough to land safely, so low in fact, that the guards drew their attention to the two mares.
“Let's rock!” Rainbow said as she and AJ charged at the guards.
Trixie lead the Solstices into the morgue. They were there to reclaim the body of their son after Trixie told them the bad news. She lead them into the room with Zecora, and Zecora pulled back the white cloth covering the crushed and drained body of Orion. Zecora and Trixie left the two alone to mourn.
“Exile to a far away cloud city is better than what he must have suffered.” Trixie said.
“True. But remember, we're not dealing with ordinary pegasi. We're dealing with a whole civilization built on indoctrination with the phrase 'failure is not an option'.” Zecora said. “So, we have to change the system and inact a better system without the sacrifice of little foals that have failed.”
“I know Zecora. It's just that this entire case is completely wrong. We normally investigate normal crimes. Here we're investigating a entire conspiracy that, if revealed, will shake an entire government to it's knees.”
“Yet it is for the best that we shake the Cloudsdale government to it's knees. For if we leave it as it is, the circle of death will only continue. Nopony wants that happening for an eternity. Especially not Princess Celestia.”
Twilight Sparkle waited in a nearby park, watching some foals playing with their mother. She smiled as there was so much joy, light and hope in Equestria. She wasn't about to let darkness, sorrow or despair take over. She looked over and saw a pegasus mare wearing a disguise to hide her identity, even her identity of being a pegasus. She motioned for the mare to sit down beside her on the bench.
“What do you have now, Spitfire?”
“I have actual information on what actually goes down in the basement of the weather factory. Plus I know who is behind it.”
Rainbow and Applejack burst through the front door. Rainbow took the first floor, while Applejack took the second floor.
Applejack moved cautiously through the halls, always opening doors from the door frame in case somepony popped out with a ranged weapon. Once Rainbow finished her sweep of the first floor. She cried out “CLEAR!”
Applejack found the door to the master bedroom closed and locked. Applejack bucked the door open with her hind legs, using the strength she had gained from apple bucking for so many years. When she entered the room she found the suspect in question.
“Rainbow Dash! Up here!”
Rainbow joined AJ and looked on in horror and disappointment. Their suspect had killed herself in her own bedroom.
“Well, what now?” Rainbow asked AJ. Just then Rainbow's cell rang. She pressed a button to have it pop out and slide next to her ear.
“Yeah, Dash here.” Rainbow listened intently to Spike on the other end. “We already found her and she won't be telling any tales ever again.”
Rainbow and AJ returned from Dr. Breeze's home, defeated and unsure how they could continue this case even further.
“Well, with the CEO of the factory dead, we don't have anything else to go on.” Rainbow said.
“We actually might have something else.” Spike said as he showed another profile on the main monitor. It was of a blood red stallion with a brown mane. “His name is Hide Atmosphere, PH. D in engineering. Turns out he is actually the one in charge of the Rainbow Division of the weather factory. So he is the mastermind behind all of this. Plus Princess Celestia already sent us an arrest warrant with the Royal Guard to back us up in the raid.”
“Good work there, Spike.” AJ said. “Call Trixie and Pinkie. Tell them to meet us at the factory entrance. We're going to end this right now!”
“Hold tight Scootaloo, Your hero is coming.” Rainbow thought to herself.
Scootaloo and Aurora looked up from the floor of their holding cell as the door to the holding room was opened. They heard a stallion speaking to his guards.
“Well, now that Dr. Breeze is dead,iIt looks like the Royal Guard of Canterlot is on their way here to end my glourious operation.”
“Yes, Dr. Atmosphere.” said one guard.
“We have to double our efforts and extract spectra from every last one of these failures before the Guard comes to shut us down.”
“The Cloudsdale Guard will keep them occupied while we extract the spectra doctor.”
“Good! Let's start from the back of the room and work our way down. Once a cell has been emptied, go on to the next one.”
“Yes, Doctor!”
Then began the screaming of a cell full of foals being dragged out of their cell and placed onto a cart. The cart was caged so the foals couldn't escape. Cell by cell, foal by foal, the guards moved their way down towards Scootaloo and Aurora's cell. Both fillies huddled together, shaking visibly out of fear. They knew that the Royal Guard would never make it time. They were going to die today.
The wagons landed near the entrance of the weather factory. Already the Royal Guard had broke through the barricade outside and were already waiting for ECIS to lead the raid on the basement of the factory. However there was still fighting going on outside. So the team landed nearby and galloped past the fighting and inside the building.
“Hurry!” Flash Sentry said. “I think the secretary sounded the alarm once the fighting outside broke out.”
Flash handed Rainbow Dash the keycards to access the basement.
“Don't worry. We'll take the lead.” Flash said before they all ran to the elevator. Rainbow used the proper keycard, identified as “RAINBOW FACTORY". It was slid through a card reader. Then once access was granted, the raid party were taken down to the basement level.
Aurora and Scootaloo were the last to be taken to the machine, where they witnessed the horror of their fellow foals being shoved through the machine one by one.
They listened to the horrific screams of their fallen allies as their blood and spectra were forcibly removed. The line of foals was getting lower and lower by every scream let out. Soon the two were next in line. Scootaloo noticed the head of the rainbow division was not wearing his mask. He had a blood red coat and a brown mane in a crazy type style. He looked at the two fillies and laughed maniacally. His crazed expression on his face showed he had finally lost his mind.
“Let's give the last of the group a brief moment of life.” Dr. Hide Atmosphere told the technicians. “Let's put these two fillies next!”
Atmosphere reached down and grabbed Aurora by the wings. She screamed in pain and tried to resist. Unfortunately Atmosphere tore them clean from her body. This made the yellow filly scream even louder. Hide grabbed her again and this time threw her onto the conveyor belt. Aurora lost a lot of blood from her wings being torn off. She was feeling weak. She was going to die and it didn't matter if she didn't have her wings with her anymore. She would have them in the next life.
Scootaloo was next, of course, and she put up even more resistence than Aurora did. However, the door burst open and Scootaloo caught sight of her hero. The one and only Rainbow Dash entering with Applejack, Trixie and Pinkie Pie.
Rainbow took off like a bullet and nailed Hide in his face with her back hooves, knocking Scootaloo loose and sending the evil doctor to the floor. Applejack ran over to the techicians and aimed her gun at them.
“Stop this machine now or I'll decorate the walls with your brains!” she ordered. They complied and put their hooves up behind their heads.
Aurora was in the middle of being drained when the machine stopped. The needles in her chest stopped draining whatever was left of her blood. She was still weak from the drain and her injurie,s though. She was still going to die. Even though Trixie and Pinkie managed to free her from her bindings, Aurora was still going to die. Despite that paramedics ran in and put her on a strecher, she was still going to die. Despite Trixie attaching her wings back on with her magic. Despite the paramedics bandaging up her wings and inserting a blood IV into her. She was still...
Actually hope returned to Aurora Dawn as the blood entered her system. She could feel alive again. However she realized that her wings were torn clean from her body. There was the slightest chance she would fly again. But the odds of her being a earth pony for the rest of her life were overwhelming. So much that it left her in tears and uncontrolable sobs as the paramedics wheeled her out to the ambulance wagon.
“Oh, Scootaloo.” Rainbow Dash said. “I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. Maybe if I was there you wouldn't have failed your test.”
“You're not angry that I failed you?”
“Failed me!? You did not fail me. No, the government of Cloudsdale failed you. They're the ones that added the insanely stupid stipulations that nopony knew about. To me you never will fail me.”
“What will I do now?”
“Let's wait and see what the aftermath is first, squirt.” Rainbow said as she ruffled up Scootaloo's mane playfully.
It was a time for celebration in Canterlot. Especially for the Royal Guard. However they couldn't celebrate for long. As there was a time of mourning for those dead foals found inside a disposal room, which was practically full from over the years. It was no wonder why Cloud Cover and Orion's bodies fell onto the earth.
Scootaloo and Aurora attended the mass funeral. All of the foals indentified were given their own gravesite. However, the unidentified foals were interned in a mass grave and given a single monument of foals flying in a V formation. Princess Celestia presided over the funeral. The ECIS team was present, along with the families of deceased loved one. Even the Wonderbolts showed up to mourn such a tragic loss.
Once the funeral was over and the new Cemetary of the Heavenly Foals officially open to the public, Twilight Sparkle and Spike walked out ahead of everyone else.
“Well, I managed to sort through the files that were gathered.” Spike said. “However, there is a bit of bad news.”
Spike handed over his tablet computer to show his boss, who looked at the document in question. This made her hand the tablet back to Spike and rush back into the cemetary, where Spitfire was standing alone in front of the monument.
“This isn't over Spike! Tell the others to arrest Spitfire.”
Spike nodded before looking back at the document. It was a legal decree to the weather factory, more importantly to Dr. Hide Atmosphere, who was deemed unfit to stand trial. It was to use the basement level for the Pegasus Device. The machine that murdered hundreds of Pegasi foals. What was really noticible was who signed the document. It was Mayor Spitfire or, as she was known by everybody else, Captain Spitfire of the Wonderbolts who was standing in front of the monument as ECIS closed in on her.
“Don't move, Spitfire!” Pinkie said.
“How could you sign a document that lead to the death of so many foals?” Rainbow asked, her gun raised and aimed at Spitfire's head.
“It's simple.” Spitfire said, putting away her sunglasses. “I didn't want our failures to stain the reputation of Cloudsdale and the pegasus race. My father was mayor before he died. I took over when I first received my cutie mark, and graduated from flight academy. I was even offered to join the wonderbolts the same day. However, I had to take over duties as the new mayor of Cloudsdale. So I chose to do both. However the document in question was mailed to me during boot camp. I knew I couldn't sign it with my real name. So I had every document mailed to me, for my mayoral duties.”
“Whatever happened to exiling them? Why in tarnation did you abandon that?” said AJ.
“Oh because like the case with Fluttershy. All exiled pegasi are stationed in a town to help with weather or enter a career with their special talent. They were still a stain on the reputation of Cloudsdale. They were allowed to come back and visit their families or watch a sporting event. There was nothing stopping them from doing that. But I found a way to stop this cycle. A proposal from Dr. Gentle Breeze of the Weather Factory was all that was needed. But the point was to only draw some blood from the failures and send them off to who knows where in Equestria. Then get more blood from volunteer blood drives all over Equestria. I changed all that and signed the proposal with my new additions. It was going so perfectly until you stuck your muzzles where they don't belong.”
“That's no excuse!” Trixie said. “You murdered hundreds of young ponies! All of whom could have done something better despite failing their tests! Instead you took it upon yourself to murder everyone of them for your own benefit!”
“Not my benefit. For all of Equestria. You know it's really hard to extract spectra. I just saw an opportunity to kill two pegasi with one stone. So I took that chance and I never regretted it since. But I'm ready to leave and go on vacation.”
“Put your hooves on the back of your head right now and kneel!” Rainbow said.
“Not going to happen.” Spitfire pulled out a smoke bomb and throws it at the agents. By the time the smoke cleared. Spitfire was gone.
“Damnit! She got away!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“No, she hasn't.” Twilight said. “I'm having Spike send an all points bulletin all over Equestria. Even if she leaves the country, pegasi can still report her in.”
Then Twilight shook her head in disbelief. “I can't believe she was the one behind it all, and she was my most trusted source too.”
“It's okay Twi.” AJ comforted Twilight. “We'll get her someday.”
Rainbow looked over and saw Scootaloo crying at the tombstone for her friend Orion. She trotted over to see if she could comfort the poor filly. Scootaloo noticed Rainbow Dash coming her way.
“Rainbow Dash, what will happen to Aurora?” Scootaloo asked.
“From what I've heard she is in a Cloudsdale hospital. Doctors said they re-attached her wings to her body. But now it is only a matter of time to see if she can fly again. If she does, she will have to take it slow and not fast.”
Scootaloo nodded. She knew Aurora being cooped up in her house for several months was not something that thrilled Aurora one bit.
“Don't worry. Things will turn out well for her in the end.”
“I miss Orion. His last words to me were 'I love you'.” Scootaloo wiped a tear from her eye. “I don't know what to do without him.”
“You move on and never forget him, Scoots.” Rainbow pulled Scootaloo into her wings and Scootaloo cried on Dash's shoulder.
All agents gathered in the main foyer of the mansion. Twilight used her magic to levitate a picture of Spitfire onto a frame for the number one most wanted criminal in Equestria. She then used her magic to pound in a couple of tacks.
“Alright, listen up!” Twilight said. “We have a new number one most wanted. Her name is Spitfire. She is wanted for multiple counts of murder, along with promoting chaos to Equestria. She may be armed and extremely dangerous. If she is found in another country, we are to work with that nation's governmental law enforcement to apprehend her and extradite her back here. Let's get to it!”
Next Episode: When a new magic spell is stolen from the Department of Magical Research and Development. Zecora becomes the prime suspect. However the team is quick to rush to Zecora's aid, and by Twilight's orders, start their own investigation into the theft of the “megaspell.”