Chorus of Lament: The Embrace

by Timbre Tone

Chapters

Chapter 1: They Can Never Know
Chapter 2: Make Me A Promise
Chapter 3: When We Bleed
Chapter 4: The Ashes Call My Name

Chapter 1: They Can Never Know

Part 1

"You said you would always be there for me."

“I need you now."

"I don't know what's happening to me!"

"I'm so scared."

"The forest — I'm in the Everfree forest!"

"Apple Bloom? You ok, darlin'?" murmured Applejack as she brushed long strands of messy blonde hair from her tired eyes and peered into her younger sister's room. The moon beamed a pale light in across the filly's bed and exposed her young, tear-stained face. She quickly turned her head over into her pillow away from her older sister's gaze.

"I'm sorry sis," the little one said, her voice trembling with sadness. "I didn't mean to wake ya."

Applejack trotted softly into the room, "Don'chu worry sugarcube, I wasn't asleep." she drawled out as she approached.

In fact in light of recent events, AJ hadn't slept in days. Her tone was as listless as her body but she didn't let that stop her from pulling her sister into her in a comforting, albeit exhausted embrace. "It's 'bout Scootaloo, isn'it?"

Sniffing lightly, Apple Bloom nodded into her sister's chest. "I hadda bad dream. I'm so worried bout'er."

"They'll find little Scoot, pumpkin'." The elder mare said reassuringly. "Every stallion, mare, 'n filly in Ponyville is lookin'. Plus I know you've seen all them fancy armor-wearin' royal guard from Canterlot in town. They're gonna find her."

Apple Bloom let out a dull sob, listening to all the same catering words of comfort she'd heard so many times already. She let out another one as thoughts of her dear friend entered her mind, the joy of their adventures together seemed so distant now. She squeezed her big sister tightly and spoke softly into her orange fur. "Please be right. I'm so scared I'll never see'er again."

Applejack lay her sister's head back down on her pillow and did her best to tuck her back into her tangled sheets. The filly's bed was as small as to be expected but it still allowed AJ the space to lay down next to her little sister. With a delicate hoof she wiped the tears from the little one's eyes. "I'm scared too." She admitted.

Silence crept into the room as Apple Bloom's crying finally ceased and she nuzzled against her sister once again. AJ pulled her close and held her there. Applejack could suddenly feel her eyes allow themselves to close. Her sister was safe. She was right there next to her. Nopony was going to take her away. She clung to that one sole belief as she and Apple Bloom were finally allowed the sanctity of sleep.

"I can't escape."

"I can't resist."

"Help me!"

"I just want to see your face again."

The town square of Ponyville had become a veritable mission control, but the energy it had less than forty-eight hours ago was waning. Armored guards and groups of civilian volunteers of every earth, wing, and horn were coming and going from a large tent complex set up by the royal guard detachment. Commanding officers gave their orders to their subordinates, and they intern organized the volunteers, but as the sun began to rise on the morning of day three, exhaustion was clear and heavy in the air and in the eyes of everypony. Grim mummers of fading hope for young Scootaloo slithered between ears and spirits began to dampen in the cold morning dew.

Search parties returned from inside the Everfree forest, empty-hooved as always. They trotted to their tents to steal an hour or two of rest. It was inside one of these tents where Rainbow Dash stood weary and exhausted from a full two days of nearly non-stop flying and searching. Across from her, on the other side of a fold-out desk covered in scrawled notes and reports sat Lieutenant Keen Eye, an ash grey unicorn clad in his armored uniform, the ranking officer commanding all the guards assigned to Ponyville.

"Thank you for coming so early, Miss Dash, I know how tired you must be. You can take a seat if you wish but I don't intend for this to take long." the lieutenant said as he rifled through the sprawl of paper on his desk.

"Yeah. No problem." She said, mustering a fatigued but earnest enthusiasm as she dropped her flank into the chair. "What's all this about?"

Keen looked up from his paper mess and peered attentively at the prismatic pegasus. "I need you to tell me more about you and the missing filly."

Dash rolled her eyes. "That's why I'm here?" She said, not sounding particularly impressed. "I already told you guys everything I know. I was with Scootaloo the day she went missing. We hung out for a few hours by the lake and then she left on her scooter to go play with her other friends. It all got written down, don't tell me you lost it!"

Keen's gaze slid briefly into a glare before he raised the transcribed statement in question. "No Miss Dash, I still have it all right here." He lowered the paper and folded his hooves across his desk. "I understand your frustration. Let me start by saying that my guard detail and I are both very thankful to you and your contributions to this search effort, but now I need your help in a different way. The nature of this search has changed."

"What do you mean?" Rainbow replied, quizzical and wary.

The guardstallion sighed. "We've canvassed every home in Ponyville, brought in and questioned over a hundred ponies, and recorded at least thirty different eye-witness accounts of ponies seeing this filly the day she went missing. Somehow, throughout all of this we still have no concrete leads pointing to her whereabouts."

"What about the Everfree forest?" Dash asked, hesitating. She wanted to approach the subject carefully.

Keen was silent, looking unsure for only a second before once again donning his mask of steely composure.

"A search party was attacked by timber wolves during operations last night." He said matter-of-factually. "They fended them off but a few of my stallions sustained significant injuries. As a result, I am putting an end to all search efforts within the forest."

"But she's gotta be in there!" Rainbow protested immediately, but then quickly reigned herself in. "I mean — we haven't found her anywhere in Ponyville. She must be out there, right?"

The lieutenant cleared this throat.

"This is not a runaway, nor is it a young filly lost in the woods. The fear has always been in the back of my mind, but now we are forced to face the inevitable truth that this was a premeditated abduction."

"A foalnapping?" The multicolored mare raised an eyebrow. "You honestly think somepony took her away? Why would anypony do that!"

"In this particular case, I don't know." Keen admitted readily. "I have my theories but you have to understand that crimes like this are not common in Equestria, certainly not in a small town like Ponyville. But they do happen and I have investigated them before. I know what I need to do and that's to take a closer look at the ponies who were close to the victim."

Victim. Rainbow Dash didn't like that word one bit. It reverberated in her brain and filled her heart with desolate sadness like it was already too late — like she had already failed. She also didn't like how the lieutenant was looking at her.

"Wait. You don't honestly think that I'm involved, do you?!" Her tone was harsh and incredulous. Her wings flared and her seven-color tail swished quickly. Already defensive, she looked ready to fight at the drop of a pin.

Keen ignored her riled up state.

"Nopony is accusing you of anything.” He responded calmly and professionally. “But I'm going to need you to better explain your relationship with the victim."

"Fine. Whatever.” Rainbow muttered gruffly, lowering her wings and sitting back down. “Just — could you not call her that?"

With a glow of his horn Keen produced a file folder from the stack of papers on his desk, opened it, and pulled a series of accounts from other citizens of Ponyville.

"My understanding is that Scootaloo had always been very fond of you." He peered at Dash from over the folder. "You even claimed yourself that you had taken her under your wing, so to speak."

"Well... yeah." Rainbow said listlessly. She let out a half hearted grin and felt a warm pride swelling in her voice as she continued. "I figured I could teach her to be as awesome as me. Don't let anypony say Rainbow Dash doesn't appreciate her fans." Her grin was brief and awkward, but the flash of self-adulation allowed her to momentarily forget the anxious churning in her stomach.

"So the two of you spent a lot of time together." Keen quickly reined in the topic.

"Well — not a lot a lot..." Dash said, nervously stumbling on her own words. "She honestly spent more time with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, they had some kind of club thing."

"Oh yes. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, was it?" Keen asked, examined the notes on another paper and scribbling energetically with a levitating quill.

Rainbow Dash grimaced. "I don't remember. I never really paid much attention to that."

"Yes I understand. But Scootaloo certainly paid a lot of attention to you. You are aware she organized a Rainbow Dash fan club with some of the other fillies and colts in town, yes?" The lieutenant seemed legitimately amused, but let nothing but a smirk betray his expression.

Rainbow let out a weak but honest chuckle.

"Yeah that.” She said, looking reminiscent. “It was short-lived but it was awesome while it lasted."

Keen peered hard right into Rainbow's tired magenta eyes. "I know you're the kind of mare who enjoys attention. A filly like Scootaloo must be really nice to have around."

"Well when you're as skilled as me attention comes with the territory." The pegasus said as another wave of semi-comforting pride washed over her. She pushed a hoof into her chest. "I had to learn to enjoy being in the spotlight from a very young age."

"Has Scootaloo ever been inside your home?" The lieutenant asked. Gone suddenly was the casual conversationality from his voice.

Anxiety rippled the mare's guts again. "Uhh no. Never. Whenever we hung out we would usually be outside and I'd be—"

"Would you be willing to allow some of my stallions to take a look inside your home." Keen cut in as sharply as his namesake would suggest and left Rainbow Dash's mouth agape, completely stunned.

Frustration boiled in Rainbow's core.

"W-Why!? I just told you she's never been in there! She's probably in the Everfree forest, but you guys won't even let me help you search in there!" She shouted back, her tail swishing once again. "And now you're giving up in there entirely and you're gonna start kicking in the doors of random pony's houses on a hunch she's been foalnapped?!"

"That forest is a death trap and lost cause!” Keen said, his volume quickly escalated to match the agitated pegasus sitting across from him. “How long do you honestly expect me to put the lives of my stallions at risk when you know as well as I do that a filly alone in that forest for this long would be dead! I absolutely will not be responsible for creating more corpses in an effort to recover one!"

"She's not dead!" Dash growled, gritting her teeth and glaring intensely at the lieutenant, but the throbbing lump in her throat prevented her from saying more.

"You need to be prepared for the worst case scenario, Miss Dash. I pray for Scootaloo's safety but I wouldn't be doing my job if I assumed it." Keen Eye continued, sounding calmer again. "Either way, I don't believe she's in the forest. Given the scale of the search and lack of results I find it very likely that an active effort is being made by some unknown party to hide this filly from us, from within Ponyville. We need to identify this unknown party immediately and as it stands right now, Miss Dash, you were the last pony seen with the victim."

That word again.

"No!" Rainbow barked out as she slammed her hoof down on Keen's desk and got right into the lieutenant's face. "Absolutely not! You're wasting your time and you're wasting mine! Scoot is still out there and you're gonna sit there at your desk, messing around with papers, calling her a victim like she's already gone, and point your hoof at me!? This is stupid! Get your guards back into that forest!! She's in there, I know it!"

"Rainbow Dash!" The lieutenant exploded, standing instantly. "You are going to sit down before you do something stupid and you're going to listen to me!"

With a flash of his horn the chair behind Rainbow glowed and lunged forward, scooped her off her hooves and back into it's seat. Hooves on table, Keen Eye glared intensely at the pegasus across from him, patience fully expired.

"First off, don't you ever tell me how to do my job.” He started, glaring eyes narrowed at her. “Second, do you have ANY idea what happens to an abducted foal? Do any of you bright-eyed naive backwater ponies here in Ponyville even know what kind of sickos are out there!?”

“You might be a self-obsessed hot-head but I don't think you're one of those monsters.” He continued. “However, that does not give you a pass! Your home will be searched just like every other suspect in this investigation. That's right, I said suspect.”

“And don't you dare talk to me about wasting time!” Keen ranted angrily, his tone continuing to escalate. “You may very well be innocent but I swear to the sun and the moon if you force me to waste any more time here while Scootaloo is out there being subjected to Celestia knows what at the hoof of some sick bastard then as far as I'm concerned, you've only helped kill her!"

Rainbow Dash glared back at the guardstallion as he completed his tirade. Her wings still flared, tail still swishing violently.

"Fine." She muttered between grit teeth before standing and trotting angrily toward the exit. "Do it! Search it! Do whatever you want! I'm outta here!"

"And where are you going?" Keen called out, thoroughly agitated, but Rainbow did not respond.

Outside the tent with the morning sun just above the horizon, Rainbow spread her wings and erupted forth from the ground in a flash of color, the fabric of the tents flapping violently as she soared into the air and off to the south.

Cold air washed through her mane and fur as she quickly passed over the rooftops of the Ponyville's tallest structures and continued to gain altitude, flapping her wings with aggravation. Her guts continued to twist with anxiety as the implications of Keen Eye's words settled in. The rainbow mare closed her eyes and tried to push the image of Scootaloo tied up in some psychopath's basement out of her mind. It wasn't possible. That's not what happened. Her mind was recounting a montage of interactions with other ponies from the last few days, trying desperately to pin some action taken or phrase spoken as suspicious, but nothing materialized. Nothing except—

"I don't want to die."

"I don't want to kill."

"Why is this happening?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm sorry Rainbow." Twilight Sparkle said from her seat at her study desk. "There really isn't anything I can do to overturn the lieutenant's decisions." She levitated a series of cartographic tools over huge map of Ponyville and the surrounding area. A veritable spaghetti platter of intersecting lines drawn in marked out the dozens and dozens of search routes patrolled over the last few days.

"Sure there is! Can't you get a message to Celestia?" Rainbow asked, frustration and venom boiling in her tone. "How about telling her that her royal guard is a royal joke!"

"How can you say that?" Twilight asked, starting to get upset. "Those guards have been working hard just like everypony else. They're Canterlot's finest and I'm grateful for their help."

"If they're so fine then where's Scootaloo?" Rainbow asked sardonically. "They aren't gonna find her by searching fewer places."

Rainbow blew a brief razz, punctuating her contempt. Twilight raised a brow before her pegasus friend continued. Riling further, Rainbow's tone rolled with some strange momentum.

"They should have let us go into the forest from the start.” Rainbow said, audibly graphing the entire thing out in her mind. “Yeah. You. Me. Maybe Applejack. I bet the three of us could handle anything that stupid forest threw at us."

"Why are you so convinced that Scootaloo's in the forest?" Twilight asked, trying to penetrate the heated pegasus's bravado. "Nopony even saw her near there the day she went missing. "

"Do you honestly believe Keen Eye's explanation is more likely? That some sicko pony has foalnapped her?" Rainbow replied, deflecting the question far too obviously for Twilight not to notice. "You might not have lived here as long as I have Twilight but you know there's nopony in Ponyville who would do something like that."

Twilight looked away, distraught

“I don't know, Rainbow. Ever since Keen Eye told me about his theory, I've been reading up on case reports of similar crimes." Twilight said grimly as she pulled out a bound newspaper periodical and floated it in front of Rainbow. "Ponies that commit these monstrous acts aren't always so easy to pick out in a crowd."

From the Manehattan Herald, dated eighteen years ago, the darkly simple headline read in a bold font like a punch to the stomach.

FAIR WEATHER CONVICTED OF SON'S MURDER

Dash cringed and felt the blood rush out of her head, but she scanned over the article with morbid interest. The front page went on to explain in detail how Fair Weather was a fine upstanding citizen, a member of the Manehatten city council with a bright future, and how nopony in the community imagined he could do such a beastly thing. Then were the police statements outlining the details of how divorce talks with his wife caused him to lose his mind. Then, how he picked up their son from school, lead him out into an abandoned house on the east end where he locked him in a tiny box for two days before finally strangling him and dumping his body into a reservoir on the outskirts of the city.

He was barely a colt.

He didn't even have his cutie mark.

"It's horrifying, but we can't ignore the possibility that something like this might be happening here." Twilight said, a present anxiety in her voice. "It might even be somepony we know."

Rainbow's heart started racing as she tore her eyes away from the gruesome article, they narrowed and she scowled at Twilight.

"Don't show me this garbage." Rainbow muttered scathingly as she knocked the paper away in disgust. It flapped to the floor, landing in a tangled heap. The unicorn was stunned.

"You know what? I can't deal with you right now!" Twilight snapped angrily, trying and failing to keep herself levelheaded as she turned back to her map and began to race an ink-laden quill across it in hurried, emotional strokes. "I trust Princess Celestia's judgment and I trust Keen Eye. If you honestly care about what happens to Scootaloo then you need to trust him too! Keen is trying to make sure what happened in that article doesn't happen again. These are hard times and you're only making them harder!"

The floating quill snapped in Twilight’s overbearing magical grasp.

Rainbow fell silent as she looked back over at the discarded newspaper article, specificity the photograph of the father in custody. He didn't look like a monster, eyes not full of sadness or shame, nor sadistic glee or some other insanity. He just looked tired. He looked empty. She almost envied with him. It must feel great to feel absolutely nothing.

"I’m sorry. I've just been working so hard these last few days." Twilight said after a deep breath, her voice calmer but still wavering slightly in emotion. "I've been helping Keen Eye and the guards organize the search effort ever since it began, but no matter what I do, no matter what plan I devise, I can't find her!"

The was a long silence before the unicorn made one last admission.

"I'm so scared, Rainbow." Twilight said softly, tears dropping to the floor. "I don't know what's going on anymore."

Twilight looked over to see Dash still staring blank faced at the stallion's picture, completely spaced out. Her heart found a new, deeper depth to sink to as she inevitably felt ignored.

"Just go home." She muttered, crestfallen. “I have work to do.”

"I'm going into the Everfree forest." Rainbow announced, with an undaunted ring in her voice.

"Please don't." The unicorn plead morosely.

"I want you to come with me." Dash said, still undeterred.

"Stop it!" Twilight shouted, turning to her friend. "Please just—stop!"

Rainbow widened her eyes as her wings extended in surprise. She broke eye contact with Twilight instantly.

"What aren't you telling me Rainbow?!" Twilight begged desperately. "You have been acting really weird ever since Scootaloo went missing and I'm not the only one who's noticed! The guards have already come and questioned me about you several times. You're a suspect in this! How do you think that makes me feel, knowing that?"

Rainbow remained silent.

"And how am I suppose to honestly vouch for you to the guards when you act like this and you won't even tell me what's wrong?!" Twilight continued.

Dash looked toward the floor. She couldn't. She just couldn't.

"Why the Everfree forest, Rainbow!?" Twilight begged, her anxiety escalating exponentially. "Why are you so sure she's in there!? Why won't you tell me?"

Rainbow Dash took a very long pause as she considered deeply, staring at the floor the whole time.

"Well?!" Twilight barked impatiently.

The pegasus frowned as she turned and left.

"It doesn't matter." Rainbow uttered, "This will all be over soon. I'm gonna find Scootaloo, and I'm gonna find her today."

And with that, Dash passed through the door and exited the library. Twilight turned back to her desk, weeping openly as she picked up a new quill and once more and tried desperately to continue her work, hoping to distract from the icy dread passing over her heart.

Outside, Rainbow Dash took the the air once more with a vigor born from that special kind of determination she only got when it felt like all odds were against her. She settled into a glide and veered towards the tree line of the forest.

"Please come for me."

"I don't want to do it again."

"I want to go back."

"I don't want to be like this."

So far it had only happened at night. It wasn't constant. It came and went every few hours, only lasting a few seconds each time. The first time Dash heard it was shortly after dusk on the second night, she was on her way back to the royal guard command tents to report her lack of findings after a day of flying circles over the western grassland. The exhausted pony was startled but felt a brief and moment of happy relief thinking she had found her right there in the streets, that she had somehow been in Ponyville the entire time, and she was nearby.

She wasn't.

She was nowhere.

In one swoop that fleeting happiness became bewildered terror and pure unfettered helplessness.

Of course she questioned her sanity. Who wouldn't? The cries sounded so real. So desperate. So infinitely terrified. It started that night, and just kept going. Again and again she would hear her weep, scream for help, beg for Dash to come to her. It ground at her ears, her mind, and her heart like a millstone until sunrise, robbing her of what little sleep her constant searching gave her time to muster.

She spent the following day in a surreal haze, terrified she was going mad and uncertain if she should tell anypony, silently praying to herself that the disembodied voice would never return, but as the sun went down the following evening the waking nightmare started all over again. However, this time mixed in with the pleas for salvation was a specific location.

The forest. The forest. The Everfree forest. Again and again the Everfree forest.

Rainbow Dash knew. She didn't know how but she just knew she wasn't going mad. Scootaloo was calling to her, begging Rainbow to come rescue her, and she was somewhere in the Everfree forest.

Who in all of Equestria would ever believe her? Her closest friends maybe, but Dash hardly believed it herself. Even still, she had nearly worked up the courage to tell her friends what was happening to her, hopefully to march into the woods alongside them all and come to Scootaloo's aid, but everything changed a few hours ago after her meeting with the lieutenant.

She was now under investigation for the abduction of the same filly she heard screaming in her head. Not just Keen Eye, but her own dear friend Twilight had a wary suspicion of her. How then could she even consider telling them the truth? Dash had no doubt in her mind that she would be pegged insane on the spot. There was no other way to proceed but alone.

Find Scootaloo, and it will all be over.

During the initial days of the search effort Keen Eye had stated that none of the Ponyville volunteers would enter the Everfree forest during search operation for safety reasons. It was a twisted labyrinth of flora and a pony untrained in navigation might very easily find themselves joining the Scootaloo on the missing ponies list, not to mention the plethora of deadly creatures that call the dreadful place home. All of the forest search parties were made up entirely of guards, highly trained and heavily armed. Dash remembered rolling her eyes when she first heard this. She could handle herself inside there and was gung ho to search the forest even before the disembodied voice of Scootaloo hinted to her location. Keen however had, on top of safety concerns, a fairly rational objection to having pegasi searching Everfree. The thick canopy nullified the usefulness of their aerial vantage, and grounding them inside the forest was equally a waste compared to putting them where their eyes in the sky could be taken full advantage of.

Perhaps now it was misplaced paranoia but in light of all that had happened, including more than a few cries from a disembodied voice, Rainbow Dash really didn't like the fact that the guards never allowed her or any of her friends in to search inside the dark woods, even though they had all been inside the forest multiple times before and had even combated some of it's creatures. This time the airborne mare wasn't going to take no for an answer, and the best way to do that would be to not ask the question at all.

The there were many royal guards in Ponyville, but it wasn't like Keen Eye had them standing watch over the forest to enforce his restriction. In the end, Dash didn't even need to sneak in. She cruised quickly out into the middle of the forest and fell upon the tangled brier of the canopy as she skillfully made her landing on the damp soil.

She began to wander, calling out Scootaloo's name sporadically into the trees with heightening tension. She didn't need to do this long before she admitted to herself that she had absolutely no plan and no idea where to start in this massive multi-hectare mess of a forest. Discouragement would have come next but Rainbow suddenly recognized the neck of the woods she had wandered into and within half an hour had come across a familiar sight.

A particularly large and ghoulish tree fashioned into an abode, adorned with a wide array of exotic tribal decorations. Rainbow Dash hadn't been to Zecora's home many times in the past, even with all of the rumors surrounding her dispelled, she still found the zebra a bit creepy. That being said, Dash knew there were few that knew the forest as intimately as her. As always, a potent potpourri of odors came from the tree home, no doubt from the many concoctions being brewed inside. Rainbow's hoof rapped heavy on the hut's door and the zebra soon emerged to greet her.

"Rainbow Dash? What could it be, that brings you this far out so early?" She spoke rhythmically, in her exotic accent.

"Uh— yeah. Good morning, Zecora." Rainbow said, trying to sound polite even as the wall of odors assaulted her nostrils as the door opened. "I know it's early, but I really need to talk to you."

"Of course. Come in. If it pleases you." Zecora opened the door completely and beckoned her guest in. "I predict you inquire of poor Scootaloo?"

Rainbow trot into the treehome, nodding her head somberly.

"I'm looking for her here in Everfree.” The pegasus confirmed. “I need you to tell me anything you can that might help me find her."

Zecora scratched her chin in consideration.

"I can say to you what I told the guard, maybe you will hold my word in higher regard.” The zebra started, a hint of annoyance in her tone. “I have a theory of what fate befell her, but the guard doubted this foreigner."

Rainbow grit her teeth as she once again felt her blood boil at the failings of the guardponies, but she buried it quickly and tried to cut to the chase. She didn't want to be surrounded by those smells any longer then she absolutely had to.

"Please tell me, Zecora." She encouraged. "This might be exactly what I need."

"I have felt something dark in the air a stir, though what it means, I can't be sure.” The zebra said as she moved to one of the grimy window of her abode, peering out into the endless foliage. “A chilling fear and great unease, there is something unnatural amidst the trees."

Rainbow joined Zecora at the window, but wasn't entirely sure what she was looking at.

"Unnatural? Do you have any idea what it is?" Dash asked quickly, wanting information faster than the zebra's crafted stanzas revealed it.

Zecora turned trained her eyes back on the pegasus and shook her head.

"I sought the source but could not find where this evil was confined." Zacora admitted moved across the room quickly, apparently looking for something. "I think there may be deception at play, illusion magic may bar the way."

"This might be my only lead.” Rainbow Dash spoke adamantly. “If there really is magic at work out there, how am I suppose to deal with it? I'm not exactly Twilight when it comes to that kind of stuff."

"Do not take me for a slouch." The resourceful zebra called out playfully as she lifted up a small bag out from under one of her alchemy tables. "The key is here, within this pouch."

She carefully removed a corked vial containing a few ounces of some chunky liquid the horrid color and consistency of finely mashed wasps. She sloshed it around and observed its flow acutely.

"This brew helps the drinker pierce the veil, and see the world in true detail." She explained, smiling with pride.

"Woah. Awesome!" Rainbow Dash swooped in, excitedly looking into the yellow and brown ooze. Her closer observation killed her enthusiasm instantly, she didn't like the prospect of consuming the disgusting looking stuff one bit.

"You need but ask and it is yours, but I lack a critical ingredient from my stores.” Zecora said as she lowered the vial and addressed her guest. “Some bottled mist is all I need to make this potion do its deed."

Rainbow's eyes lit up instantly.

"Wait, bottled mist? I've got a bunch of that stuff back at my place! Ohh this is perfect!" She said excitedly, subconsciously hovering about a foot off the floor as her energetic flapping elevated her. "I really need this potion, Zecora. How much do you want for it?"

"Take it then. I don't need your bits. If you have the mist, just add and mix.” Zecora said, grinned as she passed the vial to her. “But please be careful. You must be wise. This brew may give you magic eyes, but some things dark should stay unseen. I hope your answer, you will glean."

"Thank you so much Zecora." Rainbow smiled earnestly and took the vial, morale and determination surging like fire in her veins. “I’m gonna save Scootaloo no matter what.”

"No matter what."

The sun was as it's highest in the sky now, hiding behind several dense clouds. Normally it would have been Rainbow Dash's job to clear them, but she and much of the Ponyville weather team had volunteered for the search effort, leaving the few remaining pegasi woefully understaffed for their duties. Rainbow was flying much faster than she normally would, her inner flame alight with renewed vigor. Just one stop at her house, then back to the forest. She knew it was almost over, she was gonna find Scootaloo and then everything would go back to normal. Finally. Her voice. It would finally leave Dash alone. The screams for help. The sobbing. Ringing in her ears from nowhere. Gone.

Her home appeared in the distance. In a remote corner of Ponyville, nestled in a valley to shield it from the wind, the pegasus's cloudhome came into view, floating a good fifty feet from the ground. She realized she hadn't been back home since this whole mess started, not even to sleep.

When the royal guards first arrived three nights ago the brash mare was first to make the bold and slightly cliche claim that she would not rest until Scootaloo was located, but as the hours turned into days, reality, and especially fatigue, inevitably settled in. Not wanting to fly all the way back to her house, what scant minutes of rest Rainbow Dash got over the last few nights had been atop any cloud she could muster together out over the fields she was assigned to search. Dash had slept on clouds outside plenty of times before, it was one of the little benefits that came with being a pegasi, but of course by the second night these precious attempts at respite were ruined by the haunting cries of Scootaloo's voice.

She flapped energetically up to her front door, Zecora's potion in hoof, and passed through into her foyer. Dash lived in Ponyville but was a Cloudsdale mare at heart, and her aerial home reflected it with the clouds shaped and condensed into the pillars and arches akin to the ancient pegasi architecture of her home city. She slammed the door closed and latched it shut before she rushed to her pantry, hoping she wasn't mistaken about her bottled mist. She growled in frustration as she pushed her forearms through a disorganized array of jars and bottles, scanning them all before her eyes lit up. She hovered slightly and reached into the highest shelf and pulled out the jar from the very back. Carefully lifting it down. The bottled mist swirled slowly in the jar from the disturbance before settling again. Rainbow wasted no time.

With the mist under one foreleg and the incomplete alchemy mixture under the other, Dash flapped into her kitchen to make her very first potion. She placed her ingredients down on the counter and pulled down a metal mixing bowl from the cabinet above. She briefly gazed into it's reflective surface as she held it.

Right there on the floor behind her, she might have missed had it not stood out in the rounded mirror of the bowl's stainless steel. She gasped a harsh intake of breath, dropped the bowl, and whipped around towards the other doorway into the kitchen. Metal clattered loudly on the counter before flipping upside down onto the floor. She felt blood rush to her head and her pulse quicken as she lay her eyes upon a single feather resting on the floor slightly outside the kitchen doorway, a peach-orange pegasus feather far too small to be an adults, a single plume the same color as Scootaloo. Dash approached it quickly. Before she even got close enough to pick the thing up she saw another over by the base of the stairs up to the second floor. She picked the first feather up and examined it before quickly going and grabbing the second as well.

"S-scootaloo?" Dash called out up the stairwell, stammering in anxious bewilderment. Her mind raced for an explanation. She ascended the stairs slowly as her pulse continued to accelerate and a chill rushed down her spine. She called out the filly's name a second time as she reached to top, still nothing. There lay two more feathers, one right at the top of the stairs and the other down the hall and resting in front of the doorway into Rainbow's bedroom. The door was open, and she approached it with swift urgency. She rounded the corner. She had no idea what to expect would be inside but never in her most twisted dream would she have imagined it would be this. Dash took in a long and horrified gasp as her eyes passed over the back wall of her bedroom.

Under my wing... Under my wing... Under my wing... Under my wing... Under my wing...

All across the the wall the singular phrase was scrawled in red, over and over in messy text at various angles and sizes. It was blood, Rainbow could smell it. The sun broke in from the room's single window and illuminated the disturbing scene in more detail. The deranged message was plastered overtop dozens and dozens of photographs, each one of the missing filly. Rainbow stared, completely aghast. Scootaloo riding her scooter. Scootaloo alone in a field. Scootaloo at home working on schoolwork. Scootaloo sleeping in her bed. Scootaloo using the bathroom. Scootaloo masturbating.

Dash grunted out in horror as her stomach violently wrenched in repulsion and looked away, trying in futility to unsee the last few images her eyes had darted across while examining the nightmare collage. Her chest heaved quickly as she began to perspire, her legs trembling under her body. Some pictures were circled, others crossed out, but all of them very clearly displaying a filly who did not know that her most private moments were being captured. Laying underneath it all, on top of the horrified mare's own pillow lay the wicked centerpiece to the terrible arrangement, a half dozen more peach-colored feathers, soaked in crimson, laying in a saucer of blood. She stared into the red fluid as she began to hyperventilate, completely overcome.

It was a firm knock, but to Rainbow it sounded like explosions. She yelped as the rapping on her front door sent her instinctively airborne in fright. A loud and authoritative male voice came from outside.

"This is the Canterlot Royal Guard! We've been ordered to search this residence! You will co-operate!"

The slithering tendrils of complete panic began to spawn in her veins and ravage her body. There was no reason, no logic, no plan. She rushed to her wall and began to tear the pictures down, trying desperately to collect them—hide them—do something—anything! They fell to the floor faster than her trembling hooves could gather them.

The knocks become a pounding at the door, escalating in volume and intensity like the footfalls of a pursuer. The voice called again, agitated.

"We saw you enter your home, Miss Dash. We know you're inside. Open the door!"

Rainbow clenched her teeth as she hovered over her bed. It was no use. There was too much. Not enough time. At some point in her sheer panic she'd knocked the saucer off her bed, and the blood was seeping across the floor. She had only a quarter of the photos in her hooves and she didn't even know what to do with them. The rest of the photos were scattered about the room, too many to count. She could feel her vision tunneling. She couldn't breath.

For the third time the explosions at her front door made her flinch in panic. Rainbow threw the pictures to the ground and hurried to the window, grunting harshly as she pushed the heavy thing open. She looked out to the Everfree Forest in the distance and readied herself for a high speed take off. She let out another panicked cry as she quickly turned around and gallop through her halls and stairwell back into her kitchen to retrieve Zecora's potion and the bottled mist from her counter top, slipping them into a nearby saddle bag and throwing it across her back.

What happened next was no knock. Dash saw the entire door shift from the kitchen as it was slammed by an immense weight. Dash rushed back up to her room in full gallop and dove headlong out the opening into free fall, extending her wings just as she cleared the window frame and exploding into acceleration. She wasn't called the fastest in Ponyville for nothing.

By the time the royal guards had kicked in the door she was already long gone, her prismatic trail streaking briefly in her wake as she vanished into the distance.

Chapter 2: Make Me A Promise

Part 2

The sun was beginning its slow descent from the peak of noon, it's heat intercepted by cooling autumn air and an unkempt cloud cover which continued to strain Ponyville's understaffed weather team. As the clouds continued to shift and spread, the sky grew duller, tinting the world just a tad grayer. The inside of the library was becoming equally dim, and for the first time in recent memory Twilight had to light a lamp in the middle of the day to help her read.

The studious mare had always prided herself on her hunches. Her regiment of mental exercise combined with years devoted to honing her mind to a razor's edge left her intuition just as potent as her book smarts. As a result of this acute awareness Twilight sometimes considered her gut feelings the most important key in solving a mystery. This mystery was no different, as much as she wanted it to be.

It so happened that this time around the unicorn's gut feeling was crying out a grim speculation that she would have much rather ignored. It was a dreadful array of possibilities that seemed indeed a bit too possible, which defied everything she understood about the pony she called her friend.

"Here you go Twilight." Spoke the young voice of Spike from behind a swaying stack of unfurled scrolls. The diminutive draconic assistant placed the pile down next to Twilight as per her request, gazing meekly into her worn, apprehensive, and grimly somber expression with concern as she immediately began to pour over the first document on the stack, paying him no mind. The dragon ground his teeth nervously as he debated pursuing the issue plaguing his attention. He had only been away from Ponyville a day but it seemed the mare's mood had changed dramatically.

"You've been reading a ton on these old police reports, Twi." Spike started in quietly, doing little to veil his concern. "I gathered up all of the ones I could find in the Canterlot archives like you asked but this is some pretty morbid stuff."

Spike wasn't too surprised when Twilight didn't respond. Her eyes were darting across each page with a fixation the dragon recognized all too well. Clearing his throat he prodded once more at her attention. "Maybe you should take a little break?"

The unicorn's focus remained unbroken.

"What in Equestria are you looking for in all of these reports anyway?" Spike asked, in a tone that expressed a tad more irritation than perhaps he intended

"Patterns." Twilight snapped, so quick and succinct it came across harshly dismissive.

Spike fell silent and crestfallen. He began to trudge away and wondered if it would be easier to just let Twilight brood alone to her heart's content. Uncertainty rained over him thought as he looked back to observe her again. She was looking up from the scroll she was reading, her eyes bloodshot from strain, staring off into nowhere, deep in thought.

"Are you okay?" Spike asked timidly. Twilight looked past him, she inhaled in attempt to speak more than a few times but had difficulty beginning.

"Spike." Twilight eventually addressed him in a stern, even voice. "You trust me, right?"

"Of course I do. More than anypony." He answered quickly, without an ounce of hesitation.

"And you trust our friends too?" She asked in turn.

"Absolutely." He affirmed.

"You trust they are good ponies?" Twilight inquired with a grim intensity, turning directly to her assistant and looking into his eyes with anxious desperation. "You trust they are who they appear to be?"

"A-absolutely!" Spike reiterated though it was obvious her sudden questioning was only disquieting him further.

Twilight's expression slowly softened as her eyes fell downward. She took a deep and labored breath and stared at the latest in the series of horrible police documents on her desk. She pushed them away gruffly and turned back towards the young dragon, producing a weak smile.

"So do I." She said, her voice trembling slightly. "I'm sorry Spike. I really have been spending too much time looking at these reports. I was letting my worries get the best of me again."

Spike returned a relieved grin, bouncing back from his previous alarm with youthful optimism.

"It's ok Twilight. I know how much stress you're under.” He said compassionately. “Let me throw some lunch together for you. You’ve been so wrapped up in this it looks like you haven’t eaten a thing since I left yesterday."

She smiled wider and thanked her assistant as he paced towards the pantry. For about twenty glorious minutes Twilight Sparkle actually felt as though everything was going to be okay. The brooding fear in her guts had been dispelled, or at least brought into perspective. However, as quickly as relief came, it crumbled to dust and scattered to the wind when a knock and a familiar voice came calling from the library's front door.

It was an aggressive rapping, followed up by an equally aggressive yell.

"Miss Sparkle, this is Lieutenant Keen Eye!" Bellowed the commanding officer. "Open the door immediately!"

Rushing to her hooves, Twilight raced to the door and opened it without a second thought looking upon the unicorn guard stallion in his full armored suit, shocked as she realized an entire detachment of guards was in toe behind him, weapons in hoof.

"Step out of the house." He commanded.

"W-what's going—" Twi began.

"Out of the house, Twilight!" He roared.

Twilight winced in fright and passed through the doorway, exiting her home as the dozen armed guards behind Keen Eye quickly swarming into the library and secured it, room by room. The mare looked on in a daze to see the outside of her home surrounded, every door and window covered by no less than two spear-wielding guards. The building was completely sealed off.

"What is going on!?" Twilight repeated herself angrily, more forceful this time.

Keen Eye remained silent, focusing only on the movements of his stallions through the mare's library home. Two of the guards brought out Spike, trembling in fear and confusion as he was ordered over next to Twilight. He quickly fell in line and hugged the unicorn's hind leg, completely bewildered, his voice shook. "T-twilight what are they doing here?"

Finally one of the guardponies emerged from the library, a sizable dark blue pegasus, rank signifying him as a sergeant. He addressed his commanding officer. "Negative, sir. Building is clear."

"Understood." Keen Eye acknowledged, "Split off, send half your detachment to Carousel Boutique, the rest to Sugar Cube Corner. Meet at the rendezvous point in fifteen for further orders."

"Yes sir!" The guard pony sounded off.

The sergeant waved his team out of the library with a series of shouts. Every last guard filed quickly out of the building and fell into formation as they made their exit and moved on quickly down the road.

"Miss Sparkle." Keen Eye turned to the flustered unicorn with a stern expression as the guards left the vicinity. "You were seen with Rainbow Dash earlier today."

"Yes?" She responded. It was as much an affirmation as it was a question, but somehow Twilight already knew the answer.

"A warrant has been issued for her immediate arrest." Keen stated matter-of-factually.

Twilight felt the wind leave her lungs as the crushing weight of anxiety fell upon her again, she stood aghast at the lieutenant.

"She fled her home less than an hour ago during a search of her property.” Keen explained with steely composure. “During which we discovered an alarming amount of evidence implicating her in Scootaloo's abduction."

The heat begin to seep out of Twilight's body, like fate had just served her an entire platter of vile churning viscera and asked her to eat it. She looked back at Spike and saw upon him a face as horrified as hers. She saw him beginning to protest, coming to Rainbow's defense immediately, but her mind was a haze and she couldn't follow his words.

"Isn't that right, Twilight?" Spike asked, sounding less confident than he did before, looking to her with desperate eyes for some kind of support. Something the weary unicorn just couldn't muster after being hit with such a bombshell.

"Spike." Twilight uttered. "I need to speak to the lieutenant alone for a moment."

It was difficult to see Spike so instantly crushed. He made to protest once again but he only needed to see the intensity in Twilight's eyes to know she had no intention of being swayed. He fell inward once more and trudged back into the library without so much as looking back.

So many question flooded Twilight's brain all at once that they seemed to cry out in a chorus. She wasn't even sure which of the dozens she actually asked aloud at first, but based on Keen's response she must have asked why Rainbow Dash was being arrested.

"We believe that Dash knows where Scootaloo is, and that she was involved in her abduction. The arrest is for interrogative purposes. Our number one priority is still to find Scootaloo." Keen explained before his expression hardened. "However we are more than prepared to prosecute charges against Rainbow Dash should the evidence seized from her home incriminate her, and I trust that it will."

"What exactly is this evidence?" Twilight asked, trying to keep her overwhelming emotions at bay and try to focus on absorbing as many facts as she could.

"I can't share that information with you." Keen Eye said, unapologetic. "The evidence has been taken to a secure crime lab in Canterlot for analysis and will remain there until further notice, but I have absolutely no doubt in my mind as to its relevancy to this case."

The mare took a deep breath and nodded. She was only a volunteer civilian consultant after all, she knew enough about the legal system to know she wasn't going to hear anything about that evidence outside of a courtroom. She was hoping distantly that the lieutenant might slip up.

What followed was a terse recounting of Rainbow's brief visit to Twilight's library earlier that morning. Twilight tried to answer Keen's questions as quickly and simply as she could in an attempt to deposit some of her own, but it was clear the lieutenant was not volunteering any information he didn't have to. He did however discuss his own meeting with the now-fugitive pegasus which occurred prior, making note to mention her eventual agreeing to the search of her house.

"I think it's safe to assume based on what you're telling me that Rainbow is currently hiding inside the Everfree forest, and I'm willing to bet she has Scootaloo hidden in there somewhere as well." Keen announced. "She was oddly obsessed with that place the entire time we were conducting our search operations, always wanting updates on the search effort there specifically and often wanting to be involved herself."

"But if Rainbow really did take Scootaloo and put her in the Everfree forest like you say, then why would she be so eager on steering you guys in the right direction?" Twilight projected emphatically. "If we are really going to assume that Rainbow is a criminal then wouldn't she want to cover her tracks? And why in Equestria would she agree to allow the search of her house if it was, apparently, full of evidence that implicates her? You say she agreed to the search, but the search itself didn't occur until hours later. She would have had time to destroy whatever this evidence is, yet she left it there to be found? This makes no sense!"

I know you've been reading old case reports, so I know you're aware that mental illness is very common among the ponies that commit these crimes.” Keen replied firmly. “It could very well be that Rainbow wants us to find Scootaloo, maybe she's done something specific to her and wants to make sure we all see it, and is checking on our progress so to speak. Furthermore, considering the nature of what we took from her home, I get the impression that this is a pony that's oddly proud of what she's done and wants to show it off. Miss Dash isn't exactly humble."

"She isn't exactly a psychopath ether." Twilight spat, her tone alive with indignation. "There is absolutely no prior evidence or diagnosis supporting that theory."

"What are you, her lawyer?!" Keen barked, getting agitated. "You knew this was coming! When I told you that I believed this to be a foalnapping I also told you to be ready for anything and it doesn't sound like you're ready for this, Miss Sparkle!"

"Well you certainly sound like you’re ready to be calling one of my best friends a foalnapper!" Twilight fired back, her tone escalating. “You practically sound like you’re ready to judge and sentence her to.”

"This is the only break in the case we've had, and it's a big one." Keen Eye said through grit teeth and scowled at the mare. "I'm trying to save a little filly's life here, remember?"

Twilight fell quieter.

"I know." She sighed out in frustration.

"Well, up until now you've been helping me do that. But now that it's starting to look like your ego-maniac friend really is the culprit, you've pulled a complete one-eighty on me. Thanks a lot." Keen pressed, his sarcasm venomous. "As far as I'm concerned, you're involvement in this investigation ends right now."

Keen turned away from her.

"If you see Miss Dash I'd recommend, as her friend, you tell her to do the right thing and turn herself in." He took his leave immediately. Striding quickly the same way the guards had headed minutes before.

"This all seems a bit convenient, Keen. If you ask me." Twilight called out bitterly.

"I'm not." He reminded her as he turned a corner and vanished from sight.

Twilight sat herself down, breathing deeply and desperately fighting back an oncoming miasma of uncertainty in her mind. She pushed her hooves into her face and begin to tremble. Words. Images. Times. Places. Her mind was a cascade of thoughts, a barrage of questions and fear, broken down from a finely honed tool to a frightened animal. She didn't hear the door to the library open. She didn't hear the tiny foot falls on the grass that followed. But she did feel two small scaled arms wrap around her, and suddenly her mind was still.

She looked down to see Spike holding on to her once again, his tear stained eyes pressed into her side. She slowly draped a hoof over him and rocked from side to side. She could hear him breathing strangely, and immediately recognized it as those awkward gasps one makes when they're trying with every fiber of their being not to weep.

The unicorn continued to rock from side to side with the dragon until the shuddering sounds stopped. Twilight wasn't sure how much time had passed, but when she realized that during that time her mind had continued to be completely still, she wondered briefly who here exactly was comforting who.

At long last Spike pulled himself from Twilight's fur and spoke meekly. "W-what are we gonna do?"

"Something's wrong with all of this Spike. Something is very wrong. I need you to help me gather up the girls." Twilight said, a drastic course of action slowly manifesting in the core of her battered mind. "We are going to get to the bottom of this. We are going find Rainbow Dash and we need to find her before Keen does."

Late autumn saw the days getting shorter, and as the afternoon pressed on into the early evening, the sun had long passed over its pinnacle was in the midst of decent, creeping ever closer to the horizon. It didn't matter this far into the Everfree forest though, it was always dark here. The thick leaves of the twisted trees blanketed the sky like smoke and only sparse beams of light could penetrate it. Rainbow knew she had to stay beneath the canopy, flying above the trees would be a dead giveaway. She hated being grounded, especially at a time like this.

The mare came upon a large flat rock, covered in a thick moss and lay her saddle bag down next to it, breathing heavily and she opened it up and removed its contents. The bottle containing the swirling whiteness of mist, and the smaller vial of Zecora's unfinished vision potion.

The pegasi's fragile concentration broke at every crack and rustle the old forest let off. She spent a moment scanning, but shadow and tree blended in darkness into an expansive void that stretched in all directions. Thankfully the creatures that usually inhabited the forest had left her alone so far, but it wasn't the wildlife that had her fearful. Of course she knew the guards were coming for her as well, but that wasn't it either.

The pony that abducted Scootaloo was out to get her as well. The sick twisted pony that took those disgusting pictures was trying to ruin Rainbow's life. What frightened Rainbow most was knowing that as of right now, they were succeeding.

Rainbow doubted she could go back. Waltzing up to the royal guard now wouldn't end well for her, even if she did find and rescue Scootaloo. She wished she could be so single minded as to still only be fearful for the fate of the missing filly, but after discovering the terrible display left in her home, dread was engulfing her as imagines of prison cells and shackles and a world without the open sky assaulted her thoughts.

Rainbow placed the bottle and vial on to the rock before her, carefully opening them both. She retched as she uncorked Zecora's potion. The thick ooze somehow managed to smell more disgusting than it looked, reeking of what could only be described as a combination of fermenting oranges and feces. Without utensils or the fine manipulation of a unicorn's magic, she struggled slightly as she tried to pour an amount of the mist from the larger bottle into the much smaller vial with trembling hooves.

She cussed as she spilled more than a trivial amount out across the rock. The mist quickly spread out and vanished into the dry air, wasted. Gritting her teeth and trying to breath evenly she managed to fill the remainder of the vial with mist. She quickly recorked it and shook it vigorously to mix the concoction together and her eyes widened as the fluid began to emit a bright bluish light, illuminating an impressively large patch of the dark forest around her.

Into the liquid she gazed, her eyes transfixed on it's eerie glow. The light was warm and dynamic, swirling and flowing in the vial in beautiful, unknowable patterns. Looking at it was the closest things to a comfort Rainbow had felt in days and almost regretted having to drink it. She sighed and removed the cork, knowing what needed to be done. To the mare's surprise the smell of the potion had completely changed, becoming much less unpleasant. It now smelt something akin of freshly cut lumber and toothpaste, still not exactly something she was looking forward to drinking but most certainly an improvement, though she would have liked it of Zecora had mentioned to her that the potion glowed brighter than a lantern.

Shutting her eyes and screwing up her face she pressed the vial to her lips and tilted it back. The incandescent mix was warm and chunky with a consistency like melted ice cream, lumber and toothpaste-flavored ice cream. She struggled to swallow and the bizarre taste languished on her tongue before she finally plunged the mouthful into herself, feeling it slither down her esophagus slowly. After most of the potion was ingested she spat several times, hoping to expel the baffling aftertaste from her mouth, leaving flecks of semi-glowing saliva spattered across the moss-covered rock of a makeshift work table before her.

Rainbow repacked her saddle bag, slinging it over herself as she decided to keep moving, hoping that she didn't somehow botch the mixture of Zecora's potion. She knew the effects wouldn't be immediate, which is why it surprised her so much when she felt an overwhelming, piercing pain pass through her skull like she had just been cleaved between the eyes with the claw end of a hammer. She fell to her knees, crying out into the darkness in hideous pain as she pushed her face into her hooves, shutting her eyes as the sensation surged outward and pulsated throughout her entire head. She took quick, gasping breaths as the sensation dispersed as quickly as it came and she felt it replaced with a dull warmth. Rainbow opened her eyes to a world unlike anything she had ever seen, a world where she could see everything.

It was a world of steaming shapes and cascading colors. It roiled with life and forces she both did and did not recognize: heat, sound, time, velocity, memory, emotion, some contextless quality only describable as magnitude, some impossible bombardment of angles and calculations. She could see it all and it assaulted her mind like a tsunami of information, a cacophony of intellectual noise that had no hope of being meaningfully processed by one or even a hundred minds. In that split second before she closed her eyes again from sheer hyperbolic awe, she gazed upon every piece of information that existed in that particular small, simple patch of forest in her field of view. The complexity was terrifying, the breadth infinite. She knew Zecora could create remedies and lotions but this was a magic beyond the scope of anything Rainbow understood.

Eyes still tightly shut, Rainbow took several deep breaths. Her heart rate slowed and she tried to concentrate on one single topic, one thread of fabric from the spool of her wary mind. Find Scootaloo. Find Scootaloo. She repeated it over and over in head at first, and eventually, aloud. The pegasus opened her eyes again and found the information was less intense, she could stand to take in her surroundings and confirmed that yes, in spite of the strange visionscape, she was indeed still in the Everfree forest and still exactly where she was when she drank the potion.

She found that it was actually not that much different from how she often had to shut the world out and concentrate whenever she was about to perform a complex flying maneuver. She just needed to stay focused and ignore distractions, only this time there were quintillions of distractions she never realized even existed. She could easily forget about Scootaloo and get hung up on the fact that there were exactly sixty-eight thousand nine hundred and eleven leaves on the seventeen Cormish Lockbranch trees currently within her line of sight and that said leaves secret a resin containing a minor poison to deter insects when the leaves reach a temperature of thirty-five degree Celsius which was very common in direct sunlight during the summer months.

Rainbow stopped and closed her eyes once more, repeating the mantra of her goal, thoroughly frustrated as her concentration went into tailspin. This was going to take a while to get used to.

Fluttershy's cottage was the closest of all the pony's homes to the Everfree forest, so as Twilight and Spike spread the word to their friends across Ponyville, their meeting location was set. Twilight found herself consoling Fluttershy, who was still in ruin after finding out Rainbow was in trouble on top of having her home stormed by the royal guard. The usual diverse array of forest animals that lived on the property were quiet this evening, looking on to their caregiver with concern from every corner of the room as Twilight and Fluttershy conversed.

"This just can't be happening! First Scootaloo, and now Rainbow. This is a nightmare!" Fluttershy cried woefully into the tear-soaked cushion of her sofa. "Twilight! You don't believe these awful things the guards are saying about Dashie, do you?"

Twilight lay next to her devastated friend, thinking carefully on how to respond. "I don't know, Fluttershy. There's a lot I haven't known these last few days." She frowned. "What I do know is that there is more going on here then ponies are letting on, and I think it is time to take matters into our own hooves."

"Are we gonna help Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked, quivering.

Twilight was silent a moment. She wished so deeply that she could say yes with confidence. She couldn't bare look into the weeping pegasi's eyes at that moment. "We're going to find out the truth." She said.

They waited for their friends and one by one they arrived. Twilight stood to greet Rarity. She looked miserable but still impeccably prim as always. She pulled Twilight into a comforting hug. "I'm so sorry about this." she murmured softly into her ear mid-embrace before going and sitting next to Fluttershy, who had wrapped herself into a blanket on her couch. Rarity simply brushed a hoof through her pink mane again and again in slow and steady strokes, sitting close to her.

Pinkie Pie wasn't far behind. She was grinning slightly but her usual genuine cheer today was not so. The force of her expression was evident and it said more than a frown ever could. Her eyes betrayed the sullen state of her heart but her smile somehow persisted in some desperate defiance. She had with her a small pastry box from Sugar Cube Corner.

"Hi Twilight, hey girls." Pinkie said in quite possibly the quietest and least enthusiastic greeting she had ever extended to anypony as she entered the cottage, offering up her labored smile to each of her friends. "I umm... brought some danishes." She said, optimistically raising the box she'd brought. Everypony stared at the frizzy-maned earth pony for a moment, then looked to each other for some kind of indication on how to react.

"That's quite alright Pinkie, but thank you.' Rarity mustered as she continued to stroke Fluttershy's mane.

Pinkie's smile quickly grew awkward and she proceeded to place the box on the table and open it in the off chance anypony might change their mind. "I'm sorry if you don't like them." she apologized. "They were all we had left in the store so late in the day."

She flopped down on the other side of Fluttershy who was slowly emerging out from under her coverings. "I didn't really know what to bring. I'm better with happy occasions." Pinkie admitted.

"We know, Pinkie." Said Rarity, soothingly. "I think we all are."

It was nearly twenty minutes before Applejack arrived. Pinkie ended up eating most of the danishes herself in this time but seemed to be leaving the last one for Applejack, just in case.

Looking by far the most stressed and disheveled, Applejack trudged into the cottage. "Sorry to keep y'all waitin'." She sighed, frowning as she entered. "This whole mess is jus' been one disaster after another for us down at the farm."

"Why? What happened?" Twilight asked, concern evident.

"Big Macintosh got himself arrested, that's what happened!" She responded with a frustrated bellow.

The room gasped, transfixed on this new turn of events.

"Them guard ponies came stormin' in to our home, orderin' us out to see if we were hidin' Rainbow." The flustered mare started in. "The lot of us were co-operatin' fine 'cept for Granny Smith being her usual stubborn self. One of them guards started gettin' rough with her!"

The blonde mare paced about the room, her aggravation raising as she recounted. "Oh, Big Mac didn't like that one bit! I tried to calm everypony down but the guard went and put his hooves on Granny and before I knew it that fool-of-a-colt brother a mine clobbered him upside the head so hard, he knocked him right out!"

"Oh Applejack..." Twilight began in heartfelt cadence, "if you need to be somewhere else right now I'll completely understand."

"No Twi, it's alright." Applejack asserted gruffly, her eyes half lidded in exasperation. "I was at town hall all afternoon tryin' to sort out his bail. But I can't post nothin' till they process his charges. They said that won't be 'till tomorrow."

The country mare took a moment to calm down, a few deep breaths as she approached her friend with a sudden resilient determination, a fire in her eyes. "Look. Fact is, I'm here for ya now, Twi. I wanna see this come to an end, I need it to."

Twilight nodded, thanking AJ deeply before turning to address her gathered friends. The team felt painfully incomplete as each of the ponies took a moment to acquiesce the void of Rainbow Dash's absence. "It means a lot to me that you all agreed to meet up, especially under these extreme circumstances." She started.

"W-wait a minute!" Pinkie Pie interrupted. "Where's Spike? Aren't we gonna wait for him?"

"He's not coming." Twilight said plainly. "I sent him home."

"Sent him home? Why ever would you do that?" Rarity asked. "Nopony should have to be alone at a time like this."

"It wasn't an easy decision for me, but I don't want him get caught up in this." Twilight responded evenly. "He's still so young. I don't want to scare you guys, but I would never want to lie to you either. What I'm planning here might be dangerous, and if anypony would rather not be involved, I'll understand."

"What exactly is this plan, then?" AJ followed up, raising a brow.

Twilight took a deep breath. "As you all know, I was working closely with Lieutenant Keen Eye as a civilian consultant during the search for Scootaloo. After the first day of the search, he entrusted me with a fair bit of information about his criminal investigation, including a list of suspects."

She hesitated. "Girls. Rainbow Dash was at the top of that list of suspects from the very beginning."

Her friends murmured briefly and Fluttershy let out a dull sob, but the gathering quickly snapped back to Twilight's attention as the unicorn cleared her throat forcefully.

"I hate to admit it, but Keen Eye raised some very good points about her." Twilight conceded, "She was the last pony seen with Scootaloo, has no alibi for the evening she went missing, and her account of event's contradicts with a number of other ponies claims concerning times and locations. On top of all that, both me and Keen Eye noticed her behavior taking a very suspicious turn not long after Scootaloo went missing."

"I noticed it as well." Rarity said, nodding. "But I just dismissed it as her taking Scootaloo's loss harder than the rest of us."

"So you reckon she's guilty?" AJ cut in, her eyes narrowing toward Twilight.

She shook her head. "I'm not saying anything yet, Applejack. It's way too soon, and there's too many things I just don't know. But I have this sinking feeling that something's wrong with all of this."

"Heh. More than jus' one thing wrong." AJ muttered under her breath.

"How do you mean, Twilight?" Rarity inquired attentively.

"Keen Eye's reasons for suspecting Rainbow are sound." Twilight admitted. "I don't know what this evidence is they found but it's got Keen very confident that Rainbow is guilty. However the moment I made a reasonable observation that opposed him, he cut me out of the investigation without a second thought. Now I'm left on the sidelines feeling helpless and pathetic as something that might be important is being overlooked." Twilight felt the machinations of anxiety, once more bubbling in her mind as

The unicorn slipped into a harsher tone. "But I already spent three whole days sitting in my library feeling helpless and pathetic while Scootaloo's life hung in the balance. Now Rainbow's life is at stake too and every second that goes by I feel like things are slipping further and further away from me!" Twilight spoke, fully impassioned. "I can't take it anymore!"

She lowered her tone as she realized her elevated volume. "I have a plan and I need your help with it if I have any hope of succeeding." She swallowed nervously before admitting. "But it's not going to be legal."

The room went silent. Nopony, including the studious unicorn, ever expected the emergence of such a proposal. Those horrible seconds sapped at Twilight faster then she realized as she looked briefly into each of their eyes and began to doubt herself, seeing depth of their shock. Voices trickled into her mind.

What have you done?

What were you thinking?

How could you ask something like this of your friends?

How could they possibly see you the same way ever again?

Call it off.

Say you were just kidding.

How could you be so stupid!

"I'll help you!" Pinkie announced eagerly, as the entire room's attention spun in unison surprise.

"W-wait a gosh darn minute, Pinkie Pie! T-twilight!" Applejack barked out, bewildered and adjusting her hat which had fallen across her eyes. "This can't possibly be your first choice. Can't you get Princess Celestia to help out somehow?"

"I've already tried that." Twilight said, shaking her head. "Spike and I have sent her five letters today already but I haven't gotten a single response. I haven't heard from her at all since this mess began. I don't know what's going on over there but I can't just sit and wait."

"So what are we gonna do instead, Twi? Are we gonna become a pack of hard-boiled vigilante badasses and take the law into our own hooves?" Pinkie erupted, enthusiasm spawning from nowhere like it so often did. "Ohh! That sounds so exciting! Can I be the loose cannon?!"

"It's nothing like that." Twilight said as she let out a brief but surprisingly honest grin towards her mysteriously re-energized friend. "I know exactly how to approach this so there's as little risk to you guys as possible. In the worst case scenario, I'll take the fall entirely myself."

"Take the fall?" AJ started in incredulously. "Just what in tarnation are you playin' at here?!"

"Two things." Twilight stated, "First, to find Rainbow Dash before the royal guard does. I need to find out what she knows. She was hiding something from me when I spoke to her this morning and I whatever it is, it must be vitally important. Secondly, to sneak into the lieutenant's command tent and find some kind of documentation about the evidence they seized from Rainbow's home."

"But Twilight..." Fluttershy finally chimed in, her voice trembling. "If you get caught doing that... We don't want to lose you too. I don't think Ponyville can take any more tragedy."

"I need to do this, Fluttershy!" Twilight exclaimed, her emotions surging as she began to rant emphatically.

"There's a chance - just a small chance that if this works I might be able to help Rainbow Dash. I could be wrong, but I would never be able to forgive myself if I didn't do everything in my power to try! I know Rainbow wouldn't hesitate for a second to go the same lengths or even further for any single one of us."

"I don't know if Scootaloo is going to be okay. I don't know what role Rainbow has to play in all of this. I don't even know if I trust Keen Eye or the royal guards anymore. A filly might be dead. Our friend might be... what? A foalnapper? A pervert? A murderer? All of those? None of those? Something else entirely? I'm sick and tired of not knowing!!"

She took several uneven breaths as tears streamed down her eyes. "Even if I can't help her. Even if every horrible thing they're saying is real. Even if I get thrown in jail. Maybe I can still discover the truth. At the very least, just maybe I find the answers to some of these questions before they get buried forever. Ponyville deserves that much!"

The blanket of silence remained as Twilight meet the eyes of each of her dear friends in turn. "We deserve that much." She uttered, her voice broken.

The four looked about the room at one another, their weary hearts and minds rallied bittersweet by their beloved friend's cathartic words. She stood before them bearing the inner limits of her spirit, the pinnacle of her mental and emotional resilience, the last in her reservoir of hope, and the final relevance of her remaining willpower. It was only occasionally that Twilight Sparkle wore clothes, though never in all their time knowing her had those four ponies ever seen their friend as naked as they did in that moment.

"I'm sorry." Twilight apologized deeply. She spark of her conviction on the verge of oblivion. "Just... forget I asked."

Fluttershy emerged slowly from the couch, blanket sliding from her as her steps delicately fell upon the floorboards. She trot directly into Twilight, who's eye went wide as the pegasi's hooves fell around her neck and pulling her in. Twilight's tears fell harder as the remaining ponies quickly approached her and followed suit. She was held so close to each of them, and they refused to let go.

"We trust you Twilight." Applejack said, "And don't think for a minute we ain't gonna' help you."

"Thank you." Twilight wept.

"Thank you so much."

The sun spoke its farewell as it slipped under the distant skyline, purging the last fingers of daylight as the moon greeted the stars once more. Nestled in the mountains upon which the city of Canterlot was constructed there existed a number of tunnels cut through the rock which the Equestrian railroad used many times daily to reach their peak destination of the capital city. Most of the tunnels are only cut wide enough to accommodate the size of the train. This made the tunnel extremely dangerous to anypony who might decide to pass through it on hoof, and the numerous warning signs posted at each end only emphasized this risk.

Cut into the wall near the midpoint of one of the longer and older tunnels on the southwestern face of the mountain was a narrow passage, hidden in the tunnel's darkness. It certainly wasn't something a passenger on a train would notice as they whipped by at forty-five miles an hour. This claustrophobic path was just barely wide enough for a pony to trot through if they didn't mind getting their sides dirty on the cavern walls, but if they followed the path for a number of meters they would come across a reasonably spacious alcove. Whatever original purpose this side chamber had when it was fashioned by the ponies who dug this tunnel centuries ago has long since been lost to time, and considering after all these years it hasn't been bricked in or filled with cement, it seemed as though it's existence was all but forgotten as well.

It was for all these reasons that two pegasi, a stallion and mare, were awakening in this alcove. Two beds, ramshackle as they were, had been assembled in the dusty and dank cavern, the sheets thoroughly soiled and the mattresses reeking of mildew. Between them resting a single lantern, populated with a swirling array of dozens of fireflies in lieu of an actual flame, which filled the room in a subtle glow little more than a single candle in equivalency. Nothing else within that stark, cold, and heartless stone rang anything familiar to the comforts of civilization.

The stallion emerged from one bed, an orange furred lad looking about his early adulthood. Sitting up quickly, he passed a hoof through his messy red mane and tossed it out of his eyes. His hooves then quickly and urgently sunk into the pockets of the black jumpsuit he was wearing as he produced a pocket watch from it and leaned into the light of the fireflies, trying to read it. He returned it to his pocket as he heard the mare in the bed across from him stir.

"The next train goes by in four minutes." He said "Get up and get ready."

A groan emerged from the bed as the aqua green-furred mare turned over and let her light violet mane drape off the side of the bed, she stretched her wings strenuously. Opening her eyes, she grimaced at the stallion. "How do you always get up so quickly?" She murmured.

He chuckled quietly. "You don't make it in this business being slow. Come on now, I'd hate to fire you on your first hunt." He teased.

The mare emerged from under the sheets, shambling to her hooves. She wore the same black jumpsuit as her companion only fitted to her slightly smaller figure. "This isn't my first!" She protested.

"It's your first with me, and I do things a little differently." The stallion responded. "For instance, I would prefer for this not to end in bloodshed, for one."

"That doesn't seem very likely." The mare replied, raising her brow doubtfully. "The Sheriff said this one was dangerous. Shouldn't we be offing her before she decides to live up to her reputation on us?"

The stallion looked upon the mare in an unimpressed realization. "I'm sure you know there is more than one kind of danger in the world. You must not know what her actual reputation is."

"I've heard things about her if that's what you mean." The mare declared as she dusted herself off. "Just sounds like another stuck up, privileged, Canterlot socialite gone off the deep end to me."

"I wouldn't disagree with any of that, but it sounds like you haven't heard about her little obsession." The stallion continued as he lifted the firefly lantern in his teeth.

"What's that?" She asked, her head tilted in curiously.

"Fillies." he uttered around the iron ring of the lantern in his mouth.

The mare's eyes widened, struck speechless as the pegasus stallion scrunched in his wings and began to press into the narrow passage toward the railway tunnel.

"Why do I have to be related to ponies like this?" She asked through grit teeth, repulsed. "And you're honestly telling me you want to take her alive, knowing that? Screw that! We need to off this bitch."

"There's a difference between a bounty hunter and an executioner!" The stallion chastised "If you are going to work with me then I expect you to know that. If it's blood lust you fancy then you can just fly back home right now. I wouldn't mind taking your cut anyway."

The mare blew a razz as she followed the stallion into the passage. "You don't want to fire me. You need me to get to find her." She grinned, presumptuously.

"Correction." The stallion retorted. "I need you to get to her, if I want to get to her as quickly as possible."

"Yes of course, eye on the prize." She chimed out in a singsong manner. "Don't want to lose that lovely bounty to somepony else."

"It's not the bounty I'm worried about." The stallion sighed.

Soon the familiar rumbling could be heard, the not-so-distant thunder of steam and steel. "Stay down, wait for it to pass, then follow me." He commanded as he covered the lantern with his wing. "Once we're outside, you lead the way."

The train roared by. Car after car, it reverberated endlessly off the rock. The force of the wind and noise spewed dust and dirt into a flurry as the two pegasi stood patiently in the shadows. Each train car was a streak of dim light and color, blending into a formless wall only feet from them. The lights and colors danced but a few moments more and they were gone in as much an eruption of sound as they arrived. The stallion waited as he listened to the train continue down the tunnel and follow the bend of the tracks outward into open night air. He trot out on the tracks and spread his wings in full. In a powerful lift off, he accelerated down the tunnel and followed after the locomotive with his hooves extended. The mare responded in kind and soon the tunnel was alive with the sound of the heavy beating of wings before the pegasi hit sky under the kiss of Luna's light. The mare took point, and the pair veered toward the Everfree forest.

Deep in the southern orchard of Sweet Apple Acres existed a particularly large apple tree. For many years, this old tree had been the host of a lovingly constructed clubhouse which up until recently had been the headquarters of Ponyville's rambunctious trio, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Right now however, it was were the restless Apple Bloom had come to feel something close to the world she remembered. The filly trot around the interior, listless and insomniac, gazing sadly at all of the unfinished projects she had started alongside her friends. Every memory, every plan, every vision of the future, every hope and dream had Scootaloo in it. The world felt broken. Something the filly never realized she had inside her was gone, and she knew she would never get it back. She looked up upon the banner that she and her friends had made together as it stretched over the back wall of the clubhouse and closed her eyes. She ruminated on happier times until the chilling night air convinced her it was time to return home and try once more to go to sleep.

She turned to leave and looked upon Scootaloo standing anticlimactically in the clubhouse doorway.

Apple Bloom's eyes flared open in disbelief as she stared, stunned beyond accommodation, as her very real and very much so actually-standing-right-there missing friend looked back at her with a nervous expression.

"Uhh... Hi." Scootaloo said.

Apple Bloom felt the overwhelming tears of pure joy elating from within as she cried out her name and galloped headlong into the young peach-toned pegasus filly, pouncing on her and holding her close, barraging her with questions between taking excited gasps for air.

"What happened to you!? Are ya ok!? Where in Equestria did ya go!? We gotta tell everypony you're back! I was so scared you were gone forever!!" The filly hollered out in rapid succession, tearing up.

Scootaloo grit her teeth and swallowed hard as her friend got close to her. "SHHHH!" Scootaloo quickly and harshly hissed as Apple Bloom got louder and louder. "Q-quiet!" She whispered assertively.

Apple Bloom looked confused, then suddenly concerned. "W-what is it?" She uttered softly.

"You gotta follow me, quick!" Scootaloo breathed out drastically, her tone subdued.

"But- We gotta tell everypony-" Apple Bloom started, bewildered.

"N-no!" Scootaloo stammered out quickly. Her eyes darted around frantically.

"What's wrong!?" Apple Bloom asked, starting to get upset.

"Just... we can do that after, okay?" Scootaloo pressed, her tone getting progressively more uneasy as she turned away and beckoned the young earth pony to her as she started down the clubhouse ramp. "Just please, you gotta follow me. It's important!"

"Where are we going?" The perplexed filly asked as she trot alongside the pegasus.

"Just come on! It's not far." Scootaloo said as she vigilantly looked about her surroundings. She trot out into the apple trees, nothing more than the moon guiding the way.

"Why do we have to be quiet?" Apple Bloom asked, pacing next to Scootaloo.

The pegasus filly quickly and nervously took another glance around at the surrounding area, confirming they were alone. "I escaped." she said.

Apple Bloom's eyes widened.

"The pony who took me, I escaped from her. Now she's after me." Scootaloo said, a paranoid tone wavering in her voice.

The young earth pony was thunderstruck. "We gotta tell the guards!" she repeated pleadingly, trying to keep her voice down.

"No Apple Bloom, you don't understand. That's not going to help!" Scootaloo said, her pace quickening. "She isn't... a normal pony."

"W-what's that supposeta' mean?" Apple Bloom asked, a strange dread filling her.

"Look... I know how to stop her, stop her from ever hurting anypony ever again, but I need your help." Scootaloo said, her voice suddenly filled with determination. "We're gonna be heroes, Apple Bloom. Don't you think that would make an awesome cutie mark?"

"H-heroes?" Apple Bloom repeated. She didn't know what to say. It all seemed too crazy but she was too afraid that Scootaloo was going to disappear on her again if she didn't keep pace with her.

Scootaloo lead her deeper into the south orchard. The Apple family's substantial property stretched on and on in rows of neatly organized trees but they hit the property line before long, marked by an old wooden fence. The small ponies slipped under it without issue and continued south until they stood before the twisted treeline of the Everfree forest.

Apple Bloom stopped, looking into the notorious forest as hesitation began to spiral in her thoughts. Scootaloo turned around and said encouragingly. "Come on! It's not far in. I can see it from here!"

"See what?" Apple Bloom asked continued on forward, confusion and curiosity overriding all else.

She crossed the threshold into the wood and stood next to Scootaloo as she pointed her hoof forward. Just barely visible in the dim moonlight that passed through the dense vegetation was a body of water, not more than a bathtub sized pond set among the trees about twenty yards ahead. Soon the two fillies were upon it, with Scootaloo standing near to the edge.

"Here!" she beckoned once more as Apple Bloom approached. "Take a look into the water here!"

"The water?" Apple Bloom asked sounding completely dumbfounded, and even a bit unimpressed.

She lowered her head and stared into the tenebrus pool. The murky water cast no reflection, and in such poor light the little earth pony couldn't see anything within it.

It was a void.

It was nothingness.

Oblivion.

Apple Bloom squinted and tried one more time to make out what was so important about this, but she felt frustration kick in. "What in all of Equestria does some muddy water have to—"

The sickening thud of stone striking skull did not carry far into the trees, even the sound of Apple Bloom's limp body splashing into the shallow water seemed all but silent.

Scootaloo stood next to the pool with a blood-caked rock in her hooves, breathing in intense gasps. The heavy stone slipped from her grasp and splashed into the pond, sinking to the bottom of it's darkness. She kicked up water as she stumbled back and fell upon the roots of the tree behind her and gazed at Apple Bloom's motionless body, her mane matte with gore and her iconic red ribbon crushed at the area of impact. Scootaloo watched, transfixed as the flow of blood from the grievous head wound begin to slip down her fur and into the water.

Hoof falls echoed in the darkness as a pony approached, she spoke to Scootaloo from beyond the where the moonlight could reach, her voice soothing and motherly. "Very impressive, darling."

"T-thanks." Scootaloo said, breathing slower and sounding relieved as she got herself up.

A light blue magical aura engulfed Apple Bloom's bloody, wet body and hoisted it from the water. It levitated slowly into the darkness as the voice called out one more time. "Come on now, Scootaloo. Let's go home. It's time for your feeding."

Scootaloo followed the levitating form of her closest friend and they both vanished into the trees. Following behind them was a single mare, the same light blue magical aura emanating for her horn.

Rainbow Dash lay collapsed on the forest floor, gritting her teeth and covering her ears in vain as the torture went on and on. Scootaloo's screams of horror tore through her mind, and they weren't stopping.

Chapter 3: When We Bleed

Part 3

The tone of the gathering within Fluttershy's cottage had changed dramatically. The time for tears was over and everypony had agreed that as drastic as it was, this was what should to be done. Of course this was not a decision made without a degree of hesitance. Fluttershy in particular, as supportive of her friends as she wished to be, looked as though she would collapse into a puddle whenever talk turned to how this could potentially land any number of them in trouble with the law. However, even with little time to develop her plan, Twilight had crafted one that minimized the chances of that happening, at least, to her friends.

"Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack, I need you three in the Everfree forest looking for Rainbow Dash." Twilight proclaimed.

"T-the forest... right." Fluttershy stammered. To nopony's great surprise, she failed to sound confident.

"We need you, Fluttershy." Twilight said supportingly. "The animals in there should be able to help you hone in on Rainbow."

"But Twilight, a lot of the creatures in there don't listen to me." Fluttershy said, anxious eyes falling to the floor. "I've tried before, some of them are just too wild. I don't think I'll be able to get them to co-operate."

"You're going to need to try your absolute hardest." Twilight said firmly as Fluttershy nodded weakly and attempted to hide behind her own mane. "Use the stare on them if you have to. Do anything you can to get those creatures to help out, they are our best chance."

"What about me?" Pinkie asked in bright contrast. "Need me to bring the party cannon? I'm a crack shot!"

"You're gonna be there in case your Pinkie-sense can in anyway help out. Maybe you'll pick up on something the others miss." Twilight said. "Just promise me you'll stay focused on the task at hand."

Pinkie bolted instantly into a mock up military stance, a stone cold look of discipline on her face as she stomping a hoof at attention and offered Twilight an energetic salute.

"Aye aye!" The pink pony exclaimed.

"AJ, I need you there for a few reasons." The leading unicorn said as she turned to Applejack. "Firstly, the wildlife. I need you to protect everypony. Hopefully with Fluttershy around that won't be necessary, but if you're there I know you'll all be okay if something goes wrong."

Applejack nodded silently, her eyes narrow and focused.

"Secondly, is Rainbow Dash. If you find her..." Twilight hesitated. "I need you to get her to tell us the truth. I don't know what she's going to say or if she's even going to be cooperative but I need you to do anything necessary to get her to tell us what she's been hiding."

"Anythin'?" Applejack asked, cocking a brow.

Twilight was asking a lot of difficult things of her friends, but this was without doubt the hardest.

"Anything." Twilight emphasized. "This is too important, if you have to get rough with her... I trust you."

Another silence blanketed the room as Applejack took a long slow breath.

"I hear ya." The farm mare confirmed, her voice wavering in equal parts disbelief and trepidation of what may come if all this.

"The same goes for you two as well." Twilight said as she looked upon Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in turn. "I know it won't be easy but it's the only way we're going to get to the bottom of this."

"Waddaya reckon' we outta expect from the guards?" Applejack inquired.

"I'm sure there are going to be guards combing the forest for Rainbow Dash. Try your best to avoid them." Twilight warned. "If you do encounter any, they are going to be suspicious of why you're out there in the middle of the night. You're all going to need to come up with a reasonable sounding excuse to shake them off."

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Pinkie Pie interjected loudly. "I could pretend to be sick and we could say Fluttershy and Applejack are taking me to Zecora's for a remedy."

"Oh for Celestia's sake, Zecora!" Twilight blurted out, her voice sparking in recollection. "I can't believe I forgot about her! Check with her while you're in the forest. She might be able to help."

Suddenly Pinkie's eyes widened. She cringed as her stomach gurgled loudly. "Ugh... I hope so." She groaned. "Because I don't think I'm going to need to pretend after all. I think something was off with those danishes."

This was normally when Twilight would have reminded Pinkie that she'd eaten eleven of them, but she had more pressing matters on her mind then a friend's indigestion.

"Either way, if you find Rainbow Dash, you have to make sure the guards don't discover you while you're with her." Twilight informed the trio. "That's guaranteed trouble, for her and for you. You need to be quick. Get her to talk as soon as you can and and well, you'll have to decide on what to do with her afterward, maybe let her go."

"Let her go?" Fluttershy squeaked.

"We can't possibly shelter her, Fluttershy. She's a fugitive." Applejack sighed painfully. "She wouldn't be able to set hoof anywhere in Ponyville righ'now without a whole platoon of them guards comin' down on top of'er."

"Precisely." Twilight said, nodding. "We can find out what she knows but we can't investigate this further if we get arrested for aiding her. Besides..."

"We still don't know for sure if Rainbow is innocent." Rarity finished grimly.

There was a harrowing silence as everypony in the cottage attempted to stomach this unbearable fact.

"And what if she goes and confesses something t'me?" Applejack finally worked up the will to ask.

"Honestly, I don't know." Twilight admitted readily. "Just... be her friend."

Another extended silence came and went like the night are through the windows.

"Twilight." Rarity began again. "That leaves the two of us."

"Yes. You and I are headed to the guard tents." Twilight explained. "I need you to create a distraction that will pull as many guards away from there for as long as possible. Then I sneak into Keen Eye's command tent and look for information about the evidence they seized from Rainbow's home."

"And you're sure that's where you'll find what you need?" Rarity asked.

"Not only that, I know exactly where in his tent I'm going to find it." Twilight stated, some amount of pride in her voice. "I sat in with Keen Eye a few times at meetings he held with his staff over the last few days. He kept all of his important papers in a secure filing box by his desk. I know for a fact that if evidence related to the case was found and transferred, that's where I'll find a document telling me what it is and where it went."

"I see." Rarity said, as her lips pursed and eye's narrowed. "How much time do you think you'll need?"

"Two, maybe three minutes." Twilight replied.

"I'll get you five, darling." Rarity asserted, her brow furrowed as the gears in her head turned. "More if I can make a stop at my boutique beforehand."

"Absolutely." Twilight nodded as she looked over her team. "Do what you need to do and meet me at town square in twenty minutes. The rest of you, quickly make your preparations and then head into the forest as soon as possible."

The group of ponies nodded, each face a different image of anticipation: Fluttershy a classic shade of pure anxiety, Rarity determined and confidant, Pinkie Pie coiled like a spring, and Applejack silently asking how it has all come to this.

Twilight peered out the window into the mire of tangled trees that lay beyond Fluttershy's property line. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she stood before the precipice, ready as she would ever be to take the plunge into the darkness before her.

"Ok, quickly now." She uttered. "Time is not on our side."

The screams were horrid. They just kept going and going. Protracted, agonized, unintelligible, overwhelming horror. The visionscape was on fire, alight in an inferno of chaotic energies, emotions, and forces echoing off of every fiber of reality and shattering upon Rainbow Dash's scenes like artillery shells. The cascade of torment hammered her eyes, even as she clenched them shut, while the screams and sobbing battered her ears. Seconds stretched into minutes and each minute went on for an eternity.

Eventually the wailing faded, decaying into a pure silence so terrible and empty that is was nearly as painful as what came before. Rainbow realized, as her vocal chords rippled in pain and tears streamed down her face, that she must have joined in the screaming at some point.

She couldn't think. She couldn't breath. She couldn't bring herself to open her eyes, let alone pick herself up. She could only tremble in the wake of whatever assault had brought Scootaloo's tortured cries to her mind.

"Please..." Rainbow wept to nopony. "Please. No more."

"I can't take this anymore."

"Scootaloo..."

The mare exhaled slowly and painfully, pulling her hooves into her chest and shaking in defeat, gritting her teeth and feeling the warmth begin to melt away from her. The world went quiet as she drifted into the abyss, her mind releasing momentarily into the fickle respite of unconsciousness.

"I'm sorry Rainbow."

"I don't deserve to be saved."

"Not anymore."

"Go home."

"Forget about me."

"I'm already gone."

Rainbow awoke sometime later, opening her eyes as the sound of Scootaloo's voice rang out again in her mind, heavy this time with sorrow and resignation. She gazed, bewildered, into the morphing visionscape. The twisted barrage of information displayed something different now. Passing through the trees and the air, waves of yet another energy the pegasus could not qualify appeared before her, carrying Scootaloo's words with them.

The mare was right all along. As convinced as she was before, now the evidence was right in front of her. She knew it then when as she gazed on those shimmering waves as they washed over her and passed the young filly's words to her mind. She wasn't insane. These disembodied calls were coming from the outside, and if she understood what the vision was telling her correctly, from somewhere nearby.

Dash urgently got to her hooves as a spark of hope reignited within her. Suddenly the world flickered.

She gasped as she witnessed the vivid, writhing world of information begin to slip back into the darkness of the world she knew. Her heart throbbed in her chest as she flapped her wings and took off, racing as fast as she could, a few feet off the ground, weaving through the trees. Franticly she followed the faded traces of Scootaloo's voice through the dissipating visionscape. She didn't have much time, her saddlebag flapping against her side as the air whipped through it, she prayed silently with each stroke of her wings for the vision to guide her just a little bit farther.

Just a little bit closer.

Just the tiniest bit more.

The vision distorted one last time before finally vanishing, leaving Rainbow Dash both figuratively and literally in the dark. Not a single strand of Luna's light could reach her now; she couldn't see her hoof in front of her face. The blindness forced her to ground and her intense momentum carried her a few paces before she came to a complete stop. She braced herself against what felt like a tree and stood there a moment, breathless.

She understood completely what had happened but couldn't believe how impossibly bad the timing was. Her one and only asset in this increasingly dire struggle had just expired. Once again, she was on her own.

"No." She muttered.

"No. No. No! NO!" She hollered, gritting her teeth and growling in savage frustration as she slammed her hooves into the thick tree trunk again and again and again, flecks of bark scattering from her strikes.

She was so close! But there in the blackness she somehow felt farther from her goal than ever before, lost and isolated in a desolate fog of unending nothingness, her future began to look as dark as her present.

Yet it was not so. Not yet anyways.

Her ears flicked in attention to the sound of distant voices.

Dash went dead silent, hoping that whoever was nearby hadn't heard her earlier cries of anguish. She held her breath and honed in. She could barely make out the words over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears, but as she crept closer and closer to where the voices were coming from, she could make out three ponies talking, no, arguing. There were sounds of two mares and a stallion, and they were coming from a clearing up ahead.

The scene took place in a break in the canopy and was barely illuminated, giving Rainbow more than adequate conditions to sneak closer. She settled in around the perimeter of the clearing, concealed, and began to eavesdrop.

The clearing was small, but the open patch in the trees exposed the three ponies below in a dull, pale light. Two pegasi, an orange-furred stallion and aqua-green mare dressed in black jumpsuits, stood opposite a single unicorn. The confronted unicorn mare was a sea foam green, similar in color to the the pegasus across from her, but a darker shade. A long and tangled mane of blue and black hair partially obscured her eyes, and a willow tree wreathed in a blue flame marked her flank. The tension and anger in the unicorn's stance was obvious, that in her voice even more so.

"Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to believe something like that!?" The unicorn barked at the pegasi pair.

"And do you honestly think I would waste my time extending you this offer if my intention was to kill you?" The pegasus stallion responded, much calmer in contrast. "Come on now Willow, you know me. I'm not the type to beat around the bush. How about you stop thinking about yourself for once and consider the well being of your childer."

"How dare you!" Willow snapped back at him. "I sacrificed everything for them! I gave them a mother! I taught them how to survive!"

"Then why have so many of them found Final Death?" The stallion fired back evenly.

"Their blood is on Rosary's hooves!" Willow growled furiously, taking a step forward.

"Bullshit!" The pegasus mare interjected loudly from a length behind the stallion, also taking an aggressive stance. "Your little hobby is putting every single one of us at risk. You forced her to take action! It's your own damn fault so many of your precious pets are gone!"

"Calm yourself, Wind." The stallion uttered, annoyed, placing a hoof on her shoulder as she leaned in.

"No! Screw this, Fighter!" Wind said, tossing her partner's hoof aside, still glaring at Willow. "This bitch is delusional."

"Oh! And you're calling *me* delusional? And who under all of Luna's light are you? Fighter Flight's personal bloodhound?" Willow spat, sneering at Wind as her partner made further attempts to hold her back. "I can see why a Savage like him would take up this miserable line of work, but you? I can't believe my own clanmate is so eager to sell out her kin for a pat on the head. Pathetic!"

The violet-maned pegasus grunted in fury before quickly turning her head to her shoulder. With a rush of metal scratching metal she producing a long curved knife from a sheath hidden beneath her wing and grasped it at the ready in her mouth, teeth clenched around it.

Fighter extended his wing in front of the wrathful mare. "Put it away!" He commanded fiercely between grit teeth. "I swear to Luna, Wind Shear. I can deal with both her and you if you force me too."

Wind stood her ground.

"Put. It. Away!" The stallion said in slow, punctuated growls.

Wind remained motionless, her eyes still fixed on the unicorn across from her. Her teeth grinding on the hilt of her blade.

"NOW!" Fighter barked, his lips curling into a snarl, narrowing his eyes toward his partner.

The mare scowled and reluctantly resheathed her weapon, looking away from the both of them to hide her anger.

"This is your last chance, Willow Wisp!" Fighter called out as he lowered his wing and returned his calculating gaze upon the unicorn. "Seems I'm here with somepony that doesn't like you all that much and I really can't say I blame her."

"I could still run." Willow hissed.

"But I know you're not that stupid." Fighter chimed in, nearly smiling. "You know we'd catch you. Just like you know that if you try to fight, you'll lose."

Willow continued to glare at the amber-tone pegasus, unshaken by his words.

"But..." Fighter continued, trying to sound reasonable. "If you come quietly I can put in a good word with the Sheriff, maybe even get the Prince to shave a couple decades off your sentence."

"I will NOT live by Rosery's will!" Willow hollered.

"So you'd rather die by mine?!" Fighter barked incredulously, cocking a brow.

"SO BE IT!" The unicorn snarled. In a flash, her horn glowed a sapphire blue and she took aim at the stallion, channeling all her rage into one spell.

"What the fuck kind of mother are you?!" Wind Shear yelled ferociously as she stepped in front of her comrade, directly into Willow's aim.

There was a silence, partnered only by the crackling of Willow's magic.

Eventually the unicorn stayed her spell and her eyes fell upon Wind Shear. Willow inhaled to speak but the pegasus beat her to it.

"You might actually be able come away from this alive, but you'd choose Final Death? WHY?!" Wind fired with brutal indignation, her breathing heavy and erratic. "Pride? Principles? Because you think you're just too good to play by the rules!? You would choose Final Death and abandon the childer that you to claim to love so much rather than admit to yourself that you fucked up?! You miserable, disingenuous piece of shit!"

Willow Wisp could not speak. Rage collided with a very real guilt in her throat leaving only ruin through which no words could pass.

"Arrangements can be made, Willow." Fighter said as he paced alongside Wind with an uncanny sincerity in his words. "While you serve your time, I can make sure there is somepony to look after your childer."

Willow stared back silently, still visibly stunned, her eye's unmoving and her expression of malice sobering hesitantly.

"Y-you can't promise that." She stammered.

"I can, and I do." He returned.

Willow shook her head. "No! No you CAN'T!" she barked in frustration. "R-rosary does what she pleases! Always has! Always will! If she wants them dead, they die! Am I so wrong for wanting to get away from her?"

"She doesn't want them dead!" Fighter growned out, agitated. "She wants them kept under control, something you haven't proven yourself capable of doing."

"I'm doing just fine keeping my childe out of trouble out here." Willow retorted smugly, thought it was clear her resistance was failing.

"But don't you think they deserve something better than an existence on the run?" Fighter asked. "Living out here in what? Trees? Caves?"

"Some provider you are." Wind muttered softly, though it seemed Willow didn't hear her.

"Even if you did somehow escape us, which you won't, how long do you honestly think you can keep this up?" Fighter continued. "How long before another hunter finds you? One that's not as understanding as me."

Willow didn't respond.

"How many have you sired, out here in the forest?" Fighter asked.

There was pause. "Just the one." Willow responded slowly. "A filly."

"And she means the world to you, doesn't she?" Fighter asked, taking a step forward.

There was a longer silence as Willow swayed gently as a light breeze passed across the clearing, bathing the sounds of the forest in a wash of rustling leaves.

"She is my world." she uttered, with dead eyes gazing wistfully up into the naked night sky.

"Then do the right thing for her." The orange pegasus stallion encouraged, his voice compassionate. "Don't just stand there and tell me you'd sacrifice everything for her. Show me you'd actually do it."

Willow chewed the bottom of her lip as her look of rage continued to cave further and further into a sorrowful resignation. She sighed and looked backward into the trees behind her.

"Scootaloo? You can come on out now, darling." She called out in a soothing tone. "We're going to be going with these ponies to Canterlot."

The peach-toned pegasus filly trot slowly out of the shadows, purple hair tangled with twigs and leaves from her hiding spot in the bushes. She trot up next to Willow and brushed against her hind leg. A sadness was etched upon her face.

Fighter smiled and turned to Wind. "See? It doesn't always need to be a bloodbath." He said quietly to her, teasingly.

Willow looked down at Scootaloo, her harsh eyes suddenly awash with tenderness. Scootaloo returned her gaze, tears forming in her young eyes.

"Are you going away?" the filly asked, sniffing.

Willow let out a pained sigh as fractured memories trickled into her mind.

"It will be ok." Willow cooed and she draped a hoof over the little one.

It happened so quickly, not a pony of those gathered had any hope of seeing it coming. A flash of color flew in at velocities unheard of. It came from just beyond the woods behind Willow and Scootaloo. In the blink of an eye and a crash of hoof on bone a tremendous flying high speed kick landed upon the back of Willow's skull. The world spun as she was launched towards the jumpsuit-clad pegasi who both recoiled in shock and looked up at the attacker, eyes widening.

Rainbow Dash sprung back as the strike hit. With a flourish of her legs, she righted herself and landed next to Scootaloo, hooves already extending toward her as she reached out in preparation to grab up the young filly and fly to safety.

Dash didn't have much time to think of a plan, but in her mind, this one was perfect.

Just in and out like a flash.

Rescue Scootaloo.

These chumps won't even know what hit them.

No problem.

She most certainly had the element of surprise, and Rainbow most certainly was fast enough to pull it off. Given the circumstances and the improvised nature of it all, it really did seem like the perfect plan.

But it went wrong. So impossibly wrong.

Just as Rainbow's hooves began to close around the little filly she heard a screech of fear and winched in pain as suddenly two powerful strikes landed across each one of her outstretched hooves. Hot with pain, she felt them blown back by a powerful force. She stumbled, thrown completely off-balance. She flapped her wings reflexively to stop herself from falling over.

Did that really just happen? It was one of the other ponies that had hit her, right?

No.

Scootaloo had thrown her off. Not only that, but she was backpedaling away from her with a look of unfettered terror on her face. Her mouth agape and her wings trembling.

"S-scootaloo, it's ME! Come on!" Rainbow hollered as she advanced toward her, dumbfounded and tense as precious seconds ticked away.

Dash stared wide-eyed at the frightened, retreating filly as her own confused fear began to mount quickly and violently inside her. Scootaloo spoke as tears began to flow from her eyes. Her words signaled the beginning of the end.

"W-willow." She stammered in paralyzing panic, before breaking out a ear-splitting scream.

"WILLOW! IT'S HER! H-HELP!"

"HELP MEEE!"

"It's Rainbow Dash! Oh Sweet Celestia, it's her!" Rarity screeched dramatically, her voice penetrating harshly through the nighttime silence of Ponyville's town square. "Guards! GUARDS!! Come quickly! She's getting away!"

Tent fabric flapped and armor rattled as nearly a dozen guardstallions mobilized from in and around the tent village, including more than a few who were off-duty. A bleary-eyed staff sergeant who clearly had just been torn away from a peaceful slumber quickly rallied the impromptu squad and they galloped toward the opposite side of town hall where Rarity has set up her little charade.

Twilight stood in shadow, a dark navy blue raincoat covering her fur. Her tail was tucked under the garment completely, and a large hood was pulled high over her head. It wasn't exactly the best choice for infiltration as the synthetic material rustled slightly as she moved but it was best the mare had to conceal her identity if she was seen. At least she would stay dry if the nightshift weather team decided to drop a surprise downpour on her.

The alleyway in the southern end of the square served as both an effective hiding spot and good vantage point to observe the guards leaving their posts as Rarity initiated her distraction, it seemed that all of the guards who were going to leave the tent village had now done so. It was now or never.

Along with the moonlight, the unicorn had a number of lit street lamps to contend with which illuminated the space between the alley and Keen Eye's tent. The modest flame dancing within the frosted glass enclosure made the most direct route to her objective a bit too well lit for the unicorn's liking, but one simple cantrip of a spell later saw the lamp extinguished, leaving the scene much darker.

Taking a deep breath and taking one last scan of the town square, Twilight Sparkle cantered toward Keen Eye's tent at a moderate pace, wanting to keep her time unconcealed as brief as possible but not wanting the rough material of her not-exactly-stealthy-but-better-than-nothing raincoat to make too much noise from moving quickly. Thankfully, Rarity's distraction had indeed gotten the alarm of what appeared to be all of the conscious guards at the tent village, with all of the remainder already off searching the forest for Rainbow Dash. Also thankfully, Twilight needed neither much time or even much effort to break, or in this case zip, into a tent.

The command tent was the same size as the other barracks tents, however instead of housing bedding accommodations for eight guards, it held that for just one, the commanding officer. The remaining space inside was used as a meeting and briefing space, with long fold-out tables and some cheap, collapsible chairs. At that time of night the inside of the tent was lit only by what light could pass through the fabric from the outside, which wasn't much. Twilight paced slowly and silently over to the single cot, Lieutenant Keen Eye's. It was empty, thankfully as she predicted. He was no doubt still leading the search effort for Rainbow Dash in the Everfree forest.

With the lieutenant's absence firmly established, Twilight focused her magic into a light from her horn. She made sure to keep the beam focused and pinned only on to the ground. Any light source that touched the walls of the tent would be clearly visible from outside and the unicorn would hate to botch things up after what seemed to be a flawless entry.

The magical light glided over the ground, passing over innocuous furniture in a brief search that turned up the good lieutenant's secure filing box from under his cot. Twilight reached in and pulled the bulky thing out, her hooves visibly shaking as her ears listening carefully for any signs of trouble. The box was heavy duty, made of super thick material, the kind of thing that could be pulled out of the wreckage of a house fire unscathed. The lock on it was equally serious, but Twilight wasn't concerned.

When you're as obsessed as learning as Twilight is, you don't really care about the topic. The unicorn's mind drifted back to her time reading "1001 Locks: A Complete Guide to Unlocking Your Inner Locksmith", she hadn't had much opportunity to put to practice any of the skills taught in that particular book, but she was able to handily identify the lock she was dealing with as a standard deadbolt with four separate bolts all controlled by a single cylinder. It would certainly be a difficult task to brute force one's way past such a device, but Twilight had a much more subtle approach.

The mare extinguished the light from her horn and lowered the spiral appendage down, resting it against the keyhole as she closed her eyes and begin to concentrate. The feeler spell required a great deal of focus to be used with such minute dexterity. A thin strand of magical thread, barely visible to the naked eye, sprouted from the tip of Twilight's horn and wormed ever so slightly into the keyhole of the strongbox. Upon entering the slot, the thread slowly expanded to fill it entirely. Twilight could then feel the resistance of the lock's many tumblers as if they were pressed against her own body. With each delicate flexion of her will, she manipulated the magical feeler thread and felt the shuttering of invisible mechanisms against her body. Nearly a minute passed, but in time the unicorn felt each tumbler fall into place, and the lock gave way with a satisfying clack.

The box opened and Twilight instantly reignited her horn, shining it into the box as she flipped frantically through the documents therein. Profiles, staff reports, suspect information with attached photos, victim information with attached photos, transcripts from interrogations, plans for search patterns Twilight herself remembered drawing up. The mare grit her teeth as perspiration slid into her eyes, she had seen this already. There was nothing new, absolutely nothing inside concerning any evidence found anywhere. But that's impossible. It would be here, it HAD to be!

Twilight pulled the documents out of the strong box and placed them hastily aside, levitating the entire box up into the air and turning it about as she felt around inside for anything else. Her eye's widened as her hoof passed over a seam, awkwardly set against the rear panel of the box. With a careful prying motion she felt the entire panel loosen as a single folded parchment slid from the thin compartment exposed therein. It landed softly on the ground before her.

Holding her breath, Twilight placed the box down slowly and levitated the parchment up before her eyes, the focused beam of her from her horn trained tightly to it. A broken wax seal decorated the outside, but was too damaged to identify. Twilight unfolded the mysterious paper to find a few paragraphs of plain machine-typed text.

She read it.

Her eyes widened.

Your services are required in Ponyville immediately. We realize this is short notice but you're the only operative in range with the resources to deal with this particular situation. You will have the full co-operation of the royal guard and enclosed are all of the necessary identifications and background files you will need to pass as one of them.

This matter is made more sensitive due to the presence of a number of significant ponies who reside in Ponyville, I trust you're aware of who they are. Please be aware of them and remember to do your homework before you make your decision on how to proceed. Involving them might complicate things but as always, you have full autonomy to proceed however you deem necessary. One unicorn in particular has a very curious mind. If anypony there is going to cause issues, it's her. Be wary.

Our contact in Ponyville is engaged in operations elsewhere but has offered you the use of their workshop and equipment. Instructions were given to mark the entrance with the insignia so you'll know where it is. Once phase one is complete, you'll find everything you need there to begin phase two.

Our drop off point has changed. Deposit all resulting materials at the Bank of Equestria in Canterlot, safety deposit box number 1108. Make sure you're speaking with a pony named Pin Code, he will provide the key. The phrase is, "Spitfire was flying at her best." Afterward you are to return to Ponyville and await further instruction. Canterlot operatives will arrive to pick up the materials soon after to prepare for phase three.

You will be informed if your task changes.

The message wasn't signed, but was emblazoned with a symbol of a sundial positioned in front of a sun, eclipsing it.

Twilight gasped for air as she read and re-read the document, cold sweat dripping from her. Her mind reeled at the implications of each word, dread clutching her as her eyes passed over every letter. There were no answers, only questions. No illumination. Her voice rang in her mind, outraged and terrified, crying out for an explanation that she knew she wasn't going to get by reading the document a third time, but she couldn't stop herself.

Lies.

Secrets.

What in Equestria is happening here in the town she loved?

Twilight quickly dropped the parchment on the ground, aimed her horn upon it, and focused her magic. The photographic memory spell had come in handy plenty of times in the past, and now she needed it more than ever.

A shimmering violet beam of light struck the paper and began to dance across it's surface as it committed every iota of what it passed over to memory. It only took a few seconds to pass the spell over the entirety of the small page. This was good because as she carefully refolded the paper and slide it back into the hidden compartment of the filing box, the sound of rattling armor began to creep into her ears.

"Do you think she really saw her?" A distant male voice spoke.

"Hard to say." Another stallion responded, the pair getting closer and closer. "Keen seems to think this Dash mare is loose in the head. Maybe she's crazy enough to come back into town."

Twilight anxiously placed the other files back into the case, gritting her teeth as the guards trot closer.

"Honestly I think Keen's the crazy one." The first guard spoke again. "What kind of commanding officer just takes off to Canterlot right after issuing an all-points bulletin?"

"I'm sure he just had to make an official visit to the higher ups." The other replied. "Besides, he made it back here in good time, at least."

Twilight carefully closed the filing case and slide it back under the cot. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the two guard's silhouettes passing across the fabric of the tent's walls.

"Ok fine." The first guard admitted. "But what about all the silent alarm spells he peppered the command tent with? Doesn't that seem a bit paranoid?"

Twilight's heart stopped. She looked about the tent in mute panic. They were faint. Laid upon the door, the floor, the walls, designed to be subtle by nature, expertly cast so that only the full and undivided attention of an eye deeply trained in magic could ever hope to detect them. Twilight's eyes were indeed deeply trained, but her attention had been far from undivided. All she could see at that moment was that she had clearly triggered at least five of them.

She needed to get out.

Now.

She gasped for air, trying desperately to keep her panicked breaths quiet. She crept toward the entrance, but the guards had rounded the corner in front of the tent, they would see her if she left. Twilight pushed her hooves against her mouth. Her eyes clouding up as she tried with all her might to stifle the sound of her presence. She needed to concentrate. Just one last spell. She pushed away the terror in her mind and instead envisioned the safety of her home.

Home. Home. Home.

Then came the galloping, closer and closer, frantic hoof falls thundering through the night.

"Lieutenant? Is that you?" One of the guards outside said as his silhouette turned. "Lieutenant!? What's wrong!?"

"OUT OF MY WAY!" Keen Eye's voice hollered in ferocity as the two guard's parted to allow the sprinting officer past.

Home. Home. Home!

Twilight knew the resulting flash would give her away, but teleportation was the only way out now. The tent burst into white and violet light as the mare dematerialized, leaving not but the crackling stench of ozone where she once stood.

Keen Eye ripped open the flap of the command tent, his eyes alive and intense. He flooded the interior with light from his horn.

Nothing.

The guards galloped up behind their commanding officer and peered in alongside him, ready for action.

"What was that all about, Lieutenant?" One of them asked. "W-what was that light?"

Keen's eyes passed over his cot.

"No idea." He lied.

"Who are you!? What do you think you're doing!" A mare's voice bellowed out.

Rainbow's attention bolted to the aqua-green pegasus mare swooping in, positioning herself between her and Scootaloo, her wings fully extended to block Rainbow's sight of the fearful filly.

"I'm taking Scootaloo back to Ponyville and you're not going to stop me!" Rainbow yelled as she leapt into the air, wings propelling her skyward as she attempted to fly around the blocking pegasus.

Scootaloo stumbled and turned, crying out desperately as she raced toward the downed unicorn and the stallion kneeling next to her.

"Hey!" Wind cried out as she jumped back, flapping once to give her an extra boost in midair. She repositioned herself, again blocking the approaching Rainbow Dash from getting to Scootaloo. "You're in way over you head, punk! I'm gonna give you one chance to turn around and fuck off. Are you gonna be smart, or are you gonna die?" She hissed at Rainbow.

Rainbow beat her wings hard as she gained altitude before grunting out savagely. She divebombed Wind at full speed, pulling her legs up and twisting into a spin, launching a kick with her hind leg swinging for the side of Wind's head. Wind raised her hoof to her mane and blocked the attack, taking the full force of Rainbow's leg into her own limb before swinging her other foreleg down and catching the attacking pegasi's hindquarter, grunted loudly as she threw her down. With a painful thud, Rainbow struck ground backfirst. Her eyes focused just in time to see Wind's front hooves trampling down toward her. Rainbow tucked in her wings and rolled to the side, evading the stomp as her saddle bags slid off and on to the ground. Now on her stomach and facing away from Wind, she swiftly hopped to a crouched position and kicked out a hind leg. It planted satisfyingly into Wind's chest and she staggered backward a step as Rainbow flexed her core fiercely to quickly pull herself around and follow up with a devastating haymaker strike to the head. Wind Shear's vision blurred as she was smashed just inches from her left eye, her head snapping back from the blow.

"Willow!? Can you hear me?" Fighter called out, kneeling beside the fallen unicorn looking worrisomely upon her semi-coherent form.

"Willow! Willow!" Scootaloo sobbed tearfully as she dove in next to the unicorn's body, shaking her with both hooves. "You gotta get up!"

Splayed out on her stomach, the blue and black mane of Willow now had a noticeable patch of red, the pinpoint force of Rainbow's kick more than sufficient to leave a horseshoe shaped gash embedded into her flesh. A groan emerged from the disoriented unicorn and she rolled over to gazed upon the little filly.

"S-scootaloo..." Willow murmured. "You're... You're..."

Then her bleary eyes began to focus on the scene playing out behind the filly. That foul-mouthed pegasus from before was fighting with-

"R-rainbow Dash..." She uttered under her breath, venom coating her throat as she spoke her name. Willow's eyes locked up on her, swirling with fire, with hate, with death. They tracing over every facet of that cyan-furred pegasus with the multi-coloured mane with baleful malce. She inhaled sharply as a fury older than the sun and moon exploded inside her like the apocalypse itself.

Confulsing on the ground, Willow screamed hysterically in wordless madness, her ear-splitting cry propelling Fighter and Scootaloo both back, staggering in shock. The terrified filly covering her ears as the unicorn's screech turned to a ruthless growl. Willow grit her teeth and dragged her hooves violently through the dirt and grass as she attempted to stand. Each growl surged lower and lower, falling into bestial sounds no normal pony could ever make.

Fighter's face twisted into a very real panic as he recognised the signs of a condition he knew all too well take hold of the unicorn's mind.

"No!" The stallion called out. "No Willow, calm down!" Fighter pled nervously as he positioned himself over her, actively holding her down. "Everything's going to be ok! My partner is taking care of it!"

Willow responded with a long and protracted roar that shattered the night air. Scootaloo yelped, terror-struck, and stumbled back from Willow. The filly watching horror as she thrashed against Fighter, struggling to stand.

"W-what's happening!? What's wrong with her!?" Scootaloo sobbed to the stallion.

"Wind!" Fighter screamed out to his comrade. "Get that mare out of here! Willow's going into frenzy! We don't have much time!"

Rainbow pushed the advantage and moved in to take another swing at Wind, not wanting her to have a chance to recover. Dash lunged in, a powerful singular beat of her wings popping her just high enough into the air to launch another kick toward her target, still reeling from her previous strike.

But Rainbow struck nothing.

Her hoof passed through empty space.

Wind had vanished in the blink of an eye.

Rainbow had barely enough time to touch back down after her kick, let alone comprehend what had just happened before the sound of metal scraping metal filled her ears and she suddenly felt two hooves scoop under her forelegs and lift her into a grapple. Yelping and trashing out with her legs, Rainbow struggled against the impossibly strong grip before feeling the cold of a long curved blade resting on her throat. She gasped and went still, the knife laying right atop the very lifeline that was pounding alongside the race of her pulse. Her eyes pressed to the side of her head and she saw Wind's snout in the farthest corner of her peripheral vision, the blade gripped in her teeth.

"Move and you die." She uttered around the hilt.

Rainbow could only gasp for air. Her mind raced. Fear clouded her thoughts.

"Here's what's gonna happen." Wind followed up commandingly. "I'm gonna let you go. You're either going to fly away and get on with your life, or you're gonna try something stupid and I'm gonna carve you out and leave you for the timber wolves."

Sweat poured into Rainbow's eyes.

"Y-you're bounty hunters or something, right!?" Rainbow asked strenuously, every few words punctuated by a labored gasp for air.

"Oh I'm sorry." Wind spoke with scathing sarcasm, tightening her grip. "Do you think I give a fuck about anything you have to say?"

"P-please!" Rainbow begged as the razor edge of Wind's blade lay poised to end her. "If you want the unicorn, t-take her! But I'm begging you..."

Tears began to form around Rainbow's eyes as she gazed out upon the little filly, standing off to the side, alone and afraid, her face twisted with confusion and sadness as her eyes darted from Rainbow, to Willow, back to Rainbow.

"Please don't take Scootaloo!" Rainbow pleaded, her mind broken. "Please just let me take her with me back to where she belongs."

"No can do, punk." Wind grunted, twisting the blade firmly against Rainbow's neck. "Doesn't seem like she wants to go with you anyway. So I guess you're shit outta luck."

"We don't have time for this!!" Fighter called out, now fully grappling with Willow as she struggled to throw him off of her. "Wind! Get her out of here! Now!"

Willow raved out, her voice twisting into something barely recognizable as pony.

Rainbow tore her eyes away from the frenzied unicorn, her mind lost in desperation as she looked upon Scootaloo. The young pegasus mirrored her tormented stare as Rainbow's words poured forth in one protracted scream to the filly she thought she knew.

"Why, Scootaloo!?"

"Dammit, Why?!"

"Why did you call me out here!?"

"Why are you afraid of me!?"

"What did I do!?"

"I thought I was your friend!"

"I thought you wanted me to be your big sister!"

"What am I now!?"

Scootaloo stared back, words fighting to leave her lips.

"I..." The filly mustered quietly, gasping for air. "I-"

It all happened over the span of a few seconds.

The filly's voice was cut short. Fighter Flight grunted as a sudden colossal force launched him back through the air like a bullet. With a sickening crash and a pained yelp he struck a tree at the edge of the clearing with enough force to split the trunk. He fell to the ground, limp and motionless. Willow finally emerged, her eyes twisted and unnatural, a vision of insanity, rage, and hunger all rolled into one.

Wind Sheer's eyes widened as she immediately let go of Rainbow Dash and held her blade at the ready, facing Willow. The pegasus made to charge at the enraged unicorn but had barely moved an inch before Willow's body displaced. The unicorn began easily ten yards away, yet she instantly stood before them with no transitional movement whatsoever, not even a flash of magic. In one equally unseeable motion, she drove her hoof into Wind Sheer's chest with a horrifying impact and the mare was sent soaring through the air, blade sent spinning off as she landing in a heap several yards away, limp body rolling a few times as it crashed down.

Rainbow Dash wasn't given enough time to run.

She wasn't even given enough time to think.

Not even enough time to feel the primal terror in her heart.

All she was able to process was the unimaginable pain in her chest as she careened backward through the air.

She felt the blood leaving her mouth.

She felt her wings shatter and her spine bend as her body slammed horrendously against the tree behind her. The wind expelled from her before she could even cry out in agony.

Before she could even be allowed the finality of falling to the ground, Willow had instantly appeared before her again. The beast drove her hoof into Rainbow's chest a second time, throttling her already fragmented ribcage and pinning her broken body up against the tree. Rainbow's lungs collapsed, her torso stricken with trauma. In one pathetic choke, the blood pooling in her esophagus gushed from her lips and spilled out across her belly.

Wheezing for air, her vision tunneling. Her terror-stricken eyes looked on in wordless fear upon the monster who held her life in her hooves. The thing was smiling, and an entire mouthful of teeth greeted Rainbow's unfocused eyes.

Set among them protruded two massive fangs.

"What are you now?" Willow Wisp repeated back Rainbow's question, her voice hissing through her clenched jaws.

"You are nothing."

Willow's mouth bolted open and she lunged forward, closing her wicked fangs like a vice across Rainbow's throat. The pegasi's last terrified breath was stolen from her as it leaked through her shredded windpipe. The creature's fangs sunk deep into her neck and found torrent upon torrent of her blood rupturing forth from her perforated artery. The beast greedily devoured it by the mouthful as Rainbow's vision grew darker and darker still.

There was no myriad of past events flashing before her eyes. No soothing light to step into playing beacon to her passage. There was only the abyssal blackness encroaching upon her sight, edging in from the sides like claustrophobia crushing her closing moments of existence into dust.

The last thing Rainbow Dash saw was Scootaloo in the distance, watching her die.

Taken her fill from the captive vessel of her hatred, Willow Wisp violently ripped her fangs free, tearing out the pegasi's throat in the process. What little blood remained within Dash sprayed out across Willow's muzzle in a fine mist. She retracted her hoof and finally let the rainbow-maned corpse hit ground with a weighty thud.

Willow peered down at the husk of a pony at her hooves, her smile widened, finding fresh new insanity as her cheeks curled and a low, throaty cackle escaped her bloody maw. Her eyes lucid, as the fires of hate within them spiraled into hysteria. She turned, face plastered with crimson smears of death, flecks of cyan fur and foreign tissue hanging from her teeth. She looked upon her filly. So precious.

Scootaloo was paralyzed. Her mind trapped in its own twisted maze as she bore witness to the murderous scene that had played out before her. Something inside her was trying escape, but she had forgotten what was it. The sensation left her unsettled, and she stared at the dead body in the distance trying to feel something.

Willow took a pace toward her little pony.

"I did it, darling." The unicorn said, blood drooling from her maw, her voice dreary and deranged. "I saved you from her."

Scootaloo stared at the approaching pony, each of her hoofsteps were laboured and heavy, her psychotic smile still slapped across her cheeks.

"She's never gonna hurt you again." She continued, getting closer and closer to Scootaloo. "You're safe now. Safe with me."

Tears began to roll down Willow's face as she started to laugh.

"I did it all for you, my dear!" She shouted suddenly. "Everything for you. Everything for you..."

Willow continued to mutter the line over and over as she drew closer and closer.

"Aren't you happy?" She asked after a time, suddenly looking concerned at Scootaloo's distant expression. She was merely a yard from the filly now.

"Why aren't you happy?" She asked, her voice tencing as her hooves fell upon Scootaloo's shoulders.

"Aren't you proud of your mother?" Willow said, now practically whispering a few inches from Scootaloo's face, each syllable punctuated with stolen blood dripping from her mouth.

"You love me, right?" The tension and volume in her voice escalating as her trembling hooves put more and more pressure and weight down on the young filly's shoulders, her hooves digging in to the young one's bones.

Scootaloo winced as she looking into Willow's twisted eyes.

"You're hurting me." She breathed, barely audible. Her voice dead and listless. "S-stop. Please."

"Right?" Willow repeated as her expression sunk, dejected and sorrowful. Tears forming in her eyes as her hooves moved in around the tiny pony's neck, her muscles tensing as she began to push the filly's airway closed.

Scootaloo was trapped in her grasp, her eye's transfixed in a near hypnotic daze on Willow. The unicorn wept openly and continued to choke her, yet Scootaloo didn't feel the urge to breath.

The first spike erupted forth from the center of Willow Wisp's chest, thrusting through her with the sickening sound of flesh ripping, stopping just a few inches from Scootaloo's body. Willow released the filly and instead guided her hooves across the sharp, bone-like protrusion, looking down at it not in pain, but disbelief. The second spike burst through her flesh a few inches to the left. Willow let out a pathetic sob as she reached out and tried to touch Scootaloo one more time when suddenly in a swift and violent stroke, the two spikes slashed outward, tearing the unicorn's body apart as they slashed through everything in their path.

In the blink of an eye, Willow's body disintegrated into ash as she was rent asunder. Nothing remained but a pile of black and grey smolder on the forest floor.

Fighter Flight panted heavily, exposed after the dust of the unicorn's slain body fell to ground. His wings beating to keep him slightly aloft, the cartilage of his front hooves somehow grown out, extending nearly two feet in length into wicked spikes. His expression was grim as he raised his weaponized limbs into air, they slowly retracted, slipping back into normal hooves as the hest of some unknown magic. He touched down and folded his wings neatly against his body, looking down at the pile before him with disappointment.

Scootaloo too blinked at the ashen mound before her. The wind picked up slightly and it began to dance into the air. As the cinders flew, something inside Scootaloo was fading, like a memory of something that had never happened, some artificial semblance of satisfaction and love that was too good to be true. It was like some beautiful idea had been planted within her, an idea that had guided her heart, mind, and hoof up until that very moment, an idea that had been planted by Willow. However, that idea became an array of lies, and those lies had given way to a monster, a monster that bore down on the filly only moments before. But even with her dark mother exposed as the monster she was, it was as if she hadn't noticed or didn't care. Something unnatural and foreign inside had arrested her and smothered away who she was before, leaving only obedient affection. She would have followed that monster down to whatever depths it would have taken her and she would have loved every minute of it.

But now, Willow was no more. The lies she planted were dissipating from the poor filly's mind in the wake of her obliteration.

Scootaloo looked with her true eyes reopened upon the bloody body in the distance, still and lifeless, ravaged with grotesque savagery. With that, the flood gate opened. The image rushed into her mind, hitting her with every ounce of trauma those beautiful lies had forced her to ignore. It would have been too much for a pony of any age to handle, for the young filly, it was like waking up to realize that every nightmare she could ever dream was real and ready to claw out her sanity.

"Rainbow...?" She murmured softly, her voice weak and teetering as if she were begging fate for mercy.

The corpse did not respond.

"Rainbow Dash!!" She screamed, her voice rupturing in pure anguish. She broke into a gallop and came to stand before her fallen friend, gaped with terrified revulsion over Dash's butchered throat, fresh with blood caked into the surrounding fur. Scootaloo's eyes misted over as she stepped closer.

"No..." Her futile plea escaped her lips. "No... p-please. No!" She sobbed out loudly into the night air, falling to her knees next to the dead pegasus.

"Wake up!!" She screamed, pushing her muzzle against Rainbow's body, smearing tears and snot against her face as she rammed her front hooves into her side, trying in some frantic denial to rouse her. "Don't leave me!!"

Scootaloo pulled back and looked one more time into Rainbow Dash's sparkless eyes, open and dry, cloudy and still. The little filly collapsed against the mare's flank, wailing in inconsolable misery as the last of her strength escaped from her in one grievous scream into cold blue fur.

Fighter watched silently as the tragic scene played out. He chewed his bottom lip and looked away, barely able to watch, discontent crawling across his face as he let out long and weary sigh. He swallowed hard and approached the weeping filly, her erratic breathing overwrought with hysterical sadness. He remained silent, only a few feet behind her.

Scootaloo turned her head and locked eyes on the stallion, gasping as she turned around quickly and backpedaled hastily away, tripping to the ground over one of Rainbow's legs.

"You." Scootaloo said fearfully, her face a mess with tears. "You killed Willow."

Fighter nodded slowly.

"Are you gonna kill me too?" She followed up.

"No." Fighter answered plainly while scanning the treeline in the distance, his eyes unable to stay locked with hers for long. "No. You're safe but..."

Fighter trailed off. Scootaloo continued to stare up at him, trembling.

"Look..." He continued, still avoiding eye contact. "I know what happened to you. I can help you but you're going to need to come with me."

Another wave of sorrow gripped Scootaloo as she shook her head in refusal.

"No! Please!" She wept out. "I want to go back to Ponyville! I just want to go home!"

Fighter took a long slow breath and tried to remain calm.

"You can't." He said plainly.

"Why!?" She pleaded.

Fighter closed his eyes. Willow Wisp's destruction might have freed the little one from her enthrallment, but Scootaloo was not truly free. She would never again be truly free. She was twice cursed by her dark mother. While one curse may have scattered along with Willow's ashes the other was eternal. It was coursing through the filly's veins by the drive of her unbeating heart and her unbreathing lungs. Animate as they seemed, they were indeed as still and lifeless as those within the pony she clung to.

Forever of the Kindred.

Forever of the Damned.

Forever lamented by the rays of the sun.

Forever to dance on in the Requiem after true life has ceased until she too joins her sire in the ashes of Final Death.

"It's complicated." Fighter eventually offered. "You... Uh. You're..."

Fighter shifted uncomfortably. He'd dealt with fledglings before. It was never easy explaining the nature of Kindred and Kine, of the Blood and the Beast, but this new scenario proved even more difficult than usual. She was just scared little filly, literally clinging to the shattered remains of her former life. The stallion had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that Willow would have at least filled her childer in on the basics, but it seemed that Scootaloo's sire saw it more fit to just enthrall her and let her figure out or not figure out whatever her leashed mind allowed.

How do you explain to a child that they will never see the sun again?

How do you explain that they will never get a chance to grow up?

Left alone in a strange new world. Not just any world either, a world Fighter knew all too well. With no guidance or protection her new life was doomed to end as unjust and cruelly as her old one. Gears turned in the stallion's mind and as much as the idea disquieted him, it seemed like the right thing to do.

"Scootaloo, right?" The stallion asked.

She nodded slightly, otherwise motionless.

"You can call me Fighter Flight." He said, trying without success to sound conversational.

Scootaloo remained silent.

"Tell me something Scootaloo." Fighter started in. "This pony, Rainbow Dash you called her. She's somepony you trust, yes?"

Scootaloo released another forlorn sob and tried to awaken from the nightmare, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't banish reality.

"Uh huh." She managed in response.

"Somepony you can depend on no matter what?" He followed up.

"Why do you even care!?" Scootaloo snapped, a powerful hostility lashing from her. "S-she's gone!"

"I care because I can bring her back." Fighter replied calmly but firmly.

Scootaloo's eyes widened, her words catching in her throat.

"T-that's impossible." She murmured. "You can save her?"

"I didn't say save." Fighter correctly quickly. "I said I could bring her back."

A twisted hope dangled before the filly's eyes, and her expression displayed a pony too weary and desperate to ask questions. The possibility, however insane, of expelling the gaping hole in her heart was too tempting, too much a beacon of warmth on this cold night to dismiss.

"But..." Fighter added. "I'm only going to do this if you agree to come with me to Canterlot."

"Please." Scootaloo begged, her eyes tearing again. "I'll go to Canterlot. I'll do anything. Please just bring her back."

Fighter swallowed hard and motioned wordlessly for Scootaloo to stand aside. She moved away from Dash's body with some hesitation and watched with unbreakable fixation as Fighter positioned himself directly overtop of the lifeless mare. The stallion turned his head and looked upon Scootaloo staring at him. He frowned. His wings flared out and obscured his face from the little one's sight.

"I don't think you want to watch this." He spoke from the other side of the wall of fiery orange feathers.

"S-sorry." Scootaloo's sight fell to the ground immediately.

Fighter looked over the corpse beneath him. The sight stirred little within, it was something he'd seen so many times before. It was just another reminder that the Kindred exist always in death's domain. Fighter had already learned to accept this as fact, though to this night he still wished it not so. So desolate and dark a world they call home, how could anypony ever consider inviting another into it's depths? That's the real mystery isn't it? And yet, perhaps the answer is obvious. Existing in death's domain means embracing death itself, letting it wash over you like ice water. Most ponies need only experience this once before their time on this world is over, but the Kindred must reawaken knowing they must face that death again and again until Final Death claims them. When you must die a thousand deaths, the old adage rings truer than ever. Nopony should have to die alone.

Fighter took a deep breath and closed his eyes. In a swift motion he placed his hooves on Rainbow's head and pressed his muzzle against hers in some profane kiss, pulling her mouth open carefully with his hooves as he concentrated and summoned forth the Blood. Fighter gagged briefly as it surged and roiled up his esophagus, a spiraling dark crimson worm of viscous Vitae that slithered slowly and into the cyan mare's mouth. It passed visibly by her shredded throat but stayed within, instead falling deeper and dissolving into her body. So simple an action as it seemed, but the stallion pulled his muzzle free, panting harshly like he had just strenuously exerted himself. He shook, looking light headed and weak.

The Embrace was complete.

"Welcome to death's domain, Rainbow Dash." Fighter muttered between deep breaths as he wiped the blood from his muzzle.

Chapter 4: The Ashes Call My Name

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