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.