Finding Scootaloo

It'd barely been a day since Twilight had escaped Rarity and Pinkie had tried to murder Rainbow. The Earth Pony had been thrown in jail the moment she awoke. By some miracle Twilight's ankle had healed, or so she claimed. John could see right through her act, and he knew that she knew that he knew. Mainly because he'd confronted her, but she'd threatened to change his wings into butterfly wings while he slept, so he'd backed off. Rainbow was mainly keeping to herself, and only really spoke to Twilight. Their conversations were hushed and rapid, as if they were keen on not letting John hear. This had been going on for a few hours, and the doctor was starting to get very annoyed. But being the gentlecolt that he is, he decided to leave them to their secrets and tried his very best to ignore them and his growing curiosity.

He went to bed grumbling about mares.

He woke up when the magenta aura closed the door.

Twilight was gone.

Twilight winced as the door closed rather loudly behind her, but before anypony in the library could stop her she took off running. Her horn blazed with brilliant magenta light and lit the way as she galloped through town. Her legs pumped as she sped past the market.

Past Sugarcube Corner.

Past Carousel Boutique.

Past Sweet Apple Acres.

She turned sharply when Fluttershy's house came into view, going along the edge of the forest.

Running through a dark and empty path.

Running towards the small house.

Bursting through the door.

Into the shadows.

John bolted up and ran upstairs, bursting into Rainbow's room. He shook the Pegasus awake, eyes wide and frantic. "Where's Twilight going!?" He demanded.

Rainbow pushed him off of her. "How the hell am I supposed to know!?" She snapped back, rubbing her eyes as she sat up.

John glared at her. "She just left, and you two have been talking all hush hush for the past day! What were you talking about!?" He shouted, his voice getting increasingly louder.

Rainbow's ears flicked up and she stared at him. "She left!? AND YOU LET HER!?" She screamed, chest starting to heave.

"WHAT DID YOU TELL HER RAINBOW DASH!?"

Rainbow's ears dropped as the realization sank in. Her eyes widened and her heart started beating in her ears, louder than the roaring of her blood. "We... We were talking about Scootaloo... I... I told her..." Her chest started heaving as terror gripped her with cold claws.

John gave her a terrified look. "You didn't tell her that... You couldn't have..." He breathed.

Rainbow nodded. "I told her where Scootaloo's old house is... Where she lived before I adopted her... On the edge of the Everfree Forest..." She replied, staring into space with her eyes unfocused.

John's heart plummeted. "She went to Scootaloo's old house... No... No, no, no, NO!" He bellowed, getting back to his hooves. He turned and leapt off the bed, wings extending and he flew out the bedroom door. He did a sharp turn and dove over the balcony and out the front door, into the cold of the night.

John beat his wings and took off towards his house.

He needed to get Sherlock.

Twilight was in trouble.

Sherlock was so close. So close to cracking the code, to finding the secret of the feather. The dye was fading away, just barely hiding the color beneath. But the damn dye refused to fade away enough for him to see the color, and it was beginning to piss him off. He was reading through a spellbook, trying to find a spell that would help him, when John suddenly flew in.

John nearly threw the door off the hinges when he flew through it. "Sherlock! Twilight's gone to Scootaloo's house, alone!" He exclaimed, landing next to his partner.

Sherlock looked up at him. "I'll be there in a moment, I need to finish this! Aha!" He found a spell that removed disguises, quickly read it over, before turning to the feather he was levitating and casting it, closing his eyes as he concentrated.

John groaned as Sherlock put his thinking face on and stomped one forehoof in frustration. "Sherlock, she's gone off to the house of a kidnapped filly who was formally in the care of abusive parents! Alone! She could be killed if she's not careful! PUT THE DAMN FEATHER DOWN AND HELP ME FIND HER!" He shouted angrily.

Sherlock didn't reply.

"SHERLOCK!"

The pale stallion finished casting the spell just as he heard John take in another breath to shout. John's breath suddenly escaped him in a shocked noise, and he opened his eyes to look at the feather.

He expected the lime green of Merry May.

It was pale yellow.

John and Sherlock both stared at the feather, eyes wide. The two of them barely dared to breathe. A moment of pure silence, just staring at the pale feather that levitated in Sherlock's magical grasp.

Then, quick as a whip, Sherlock grabbed Twilight's feather off of the counter where he'd left it and brought it up, bringing a ruler with it is as well. With a keen eye he watched them align perfectly, before measuring. His eyes narrowed as he double checked the feathers, making sure that the alignment was absolutely perfect.

The pale yellow feather was one point six centimetres shorter than Twilight's.

The Unicorn dropped the feathers as his eyes flew wide once more. "That doesn't make sense, Twilight and I measured and it was one point five centimetres shorter... Unless..." Memories flew at him and he closed his eyes, thinking.

Knock, knock

Sherlock opened the door with his blue aura, smiling slightly when Twilight greeted him. "Ah, Princess. Do come in." He offered, stepping aside as she came in.

Twilight smiled at Sherlock. "Hello Sherlock. And please, call me Twilight. Your letter said you needed me to be here for something?" She inquired curiously.

Sherlock nodded. "Come." He gestured with a tilt of his head and trotted towards the kitchen, hearing Twilight follow him. He stopped at the counter and levitated the feather over to her.

Twilight looked at the feather for a moment, before looking at him. "I don't understand." She stated.

Sherlock nodded. "I've been examining this feather for the past two days, and I need to take measurements. I highly doubt John will let me bring Rainbow Dash here, or let me near her after the incident at Carousel Boutique, so I must enlist your help. Your feathers are slightly larger than hers, by exactly one point five centimetres," He started. While she was listening, his magic gripped one of her feathers and with a quick tug he pulled it out, making her yelp, "And I need to see if this feather matches the size. Hold these together and make sure that the bottoms match up exactly." He ordered.

Twilight took the feathers in her own magical grasp and lined them up, keeping a close eye on them to make sure that they were perfect. She looked up when she was done to see Sherlock standing there, levitating a ruler. She held them still in the air while he placed the ruler against them and measure them up.

Unbeknownst to both of them, the weight of the ruler just gently misaligned them.

"By exactly point one centimetre..." Sherlock breathed, eyes flying open. His head snapped up and he turned to John. "We measured wrong. Rainbow Dash is innocent." He told him.

John stared at him. "I know that, but who's the criminal?" He demanded.

Sherlock closed his eyes and pressed his hooves to his head, going into his mind palace. The Everfree Forest flew up to meet him, a cheery little cottage surrounded by animals, a stretch of grass and then an insignificant little house.

His eyes snapped open.

"Twilight."

"Twilight's the criminal?"

Sherlock threw his trench coat on. "No, she's in grave danger! We need to get there now!" He shouted, bolting out the door with John following in the air.

Above their heads, the sky split apart with a loud boom and rain pelted the small town.

Twilight walked down the corridor, keeping her side pressed against the wall to shield herself in darkness. Her eyes glowed dully as they reflected the faint light pouring in through the three broken windows. Thunder rumbled outside, and the pouring rain that came through the windows soaked her pelt.

Flash!

Light flooded the corridor, and in that brief second it illuminated something on the wall. Twilight gasped and turned to the wall, trying to make out what she'd seen but failing in the darkness. She charged up a faint illumination spell to keep the light down and walked up to the wall, eyes narrowed as she read the two messages, both written diagonally and crossed together like an X. She placed the tip of her hoof and slowly made out the letters. Her eyes widened and she jumped away from the wall, biting down on her hoof to keep herself from screaming.

For there, on the wall, written in blood, was the message;

GET SCOOTALOO

"I can hear you~" A quiet, singsong voice came from the darkness, echoing in the small hallway.

This time, Twilight did scream and she looked around wildly."Please, whoever you are, stop it!" She begged, eyes starting to tear up.

"I'm gonna find you~" The voice taunted. There was a rustling and a whip of movement right in front of Twilight's face.

The Princess started breathing heavily as she backed herself against the wall, eyes wide with fright. "Give me Scootaloo! I need to prove Rainbow Dash innocent!" She cried, struggling to keep her sobs at bay.

"Guess what Princess?" The voice was so close, so terrifyingly close.

Twilight began to cry. "PLEASE! PLEASE STOP!" She sobbed shrilly, chest heaving.

"I'm right beside you." The voice was right in her ear.

In her panicked state, the Alicorn's horn flashed when she shrieked and illuminated the whole corridor briefly.

And in that brief moment, she saw the mare standing right beside her.

Twilight Sparkle screamed once more.

Crack!

The magenta light gave way to darkness.

Sherlock and John stopped outside the house, both of them dripping rainwater and soaked to the bone. The tall stallion lit up his horn and pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket.

John stared at him. "You brought a gun?" He asked.

Sherlock looked back. "You didn't?" He retorted, before opening the door with his magic and making sure it slammed loudly against the wall. He stomped inside and held the gun up, eyes blazing. "COME OUT WITH YOUR HOOVES UP!" He shouted.

A dark figure crept to the top of the staircase, but the shadows masked her face. It was clearly a mare, and she had her wings flared. Lightning flashed brightly from behind her from an open window, briefly illuminating her eyes.

Cold, teal eyes.

"Come out to play." Came her singsong voice.

A huge gust of wind blew through the open window, slamming the door shut behind them and cloaking the room in darkness.

Rainbow Dash waited until she heard John leave before throwing her blankets off. She ran out of the room and practically leapt the stairs in her haste to get out of the library, heart pumping and eyes wide. She tucked her head in and broke right through the door, wincing as her injured wing was jostled with the impact. She skidded a bit on the ground before stopping, and she took a moment to shake the splinters out of her mane. She looked up again to see that a lot of lights had turned on, meaning she had minimal time to leave before the town set upon her like piranhas.

And so she ran.

The Pegasus knew exactly where she had to go, and there was no force in all of Equestria that would stop her. The past few days had been the worst of her life, and she wasn't going to stand by and watch it happened anymore. No more of that cowering, pathetic mare that clung to anything and cried her heart out. No more of that weak and frail Pegasus who let a cowardly fashionista break her wing.

No. More.

Rainbow was brave. She was powerful. She was fire and ice and rage, and she planned to show it. Her little sister had been kidnapped and she had been framed by the kidnapper. Her friends and the entire town had all turned their backs on her. Pinkie Pie had tried to kill her, and was in jail because of it. And now her only friend was in terrible danger, alone.

The sky broke apart above her and rain poured down on her, slicking her spectrum mane to her neck and forehead. she ignored it.

Twilight was risking her life for her out there in the cold and the dark. Going right to the heart of the issue, an old house by the Everfree Forest. Scootaloo was missing, Twilight was in danger.

No.

No more hiding.

No more crying.

No more running, no more fear and NO MORE WEAKNESS.

She was Rainbow Dash, she was strong.

She had to be.

For Scootaloo.

For Twilight.

For herself.

The Element of Loyalty took a turn and went straight past Fluttershy's house, hooves beating the soggy grass as she galloped with all her might. Eyes narrowed as rain dripped down her face and the wind whipped through her drenched pelt, struggling to see the path in front of her. She blinked rapidly, clearing her vision just in time to see the house coming up on the horizon.

Twilight was getting closer. Scootaloo was getting closer.

Whoever had taken her little sister better be afraid.

Because she was Rainbow Dash.

And she was coming.