Just Where Did They All Go?

Chapters

Accident
Conspiracy
Being Watched
Protection
Ambush
Pursuit

Accident

White Flash couldn't hear, the ringing in his ears drowned out all sound. He could barely see, everything was so dark, although he distinctly made out the outlines of his classmates, huddled over him in fear. He was confused, but did know that he had just fallen, HARD. He had attempted a loop-de-loop while flying to impress Scootaloo, his secret crush, but had lost control, and plummeted earthward in the middle of it.

"Alright, kids," he heard the coach announce, "Don't worry, an ambulance is on the way." He began to say more, but White Flash lost consciousness.

The crusaders watched the black Cadillac ambulance barrel down the road toward them in a cloud of dust. It was such a grand old car, they thought, a vehicle of mercy, devoting it's career to saving lives. The whine of it's shrill siren just seemed to say, "Don't worry, help is on the way," it's lights flashed like a beacon of sympathy to the injured, sweeping ribbons of red that spread justice and healing to all.

The old car slid on the rough, uneven surface, into the big field that was the Ponyville Pegasi School of Flight. The newly-opened school was underfunded due to the lack of pegasi foals in Ponyville, but the students learned what they needed to be successful fliers anyway. School had just gotten out, and Sweetie and Applebloom had walked over to meet Scootaloo there. They were quite surprised to see that White Flash had been hurt, and were relieved when the ambulance arrived.

Two ponies, one of which they recognized as Nurse Redheart, jumped out of the front, and loaded the injured colt onto a gurney, and laid him down in the rear of the car.

"So," the nurse queried, "How'd this happen?"

"Poor guy tried doing a loop-de-loop, and fell flat on his back!" the coach explained, "I think he's got a concussion."

"Well, just to be safe, we oughtta take him to Ponyville Hospital for some tests. Don't worry," she reassured, "He's going to be fine."

The big rear doors of the black Cadillac shut, and the old Miller-Meteor made it's way back off the dirt field, onto the road again. For a moment, it stopped near where Scootaloo was.

Scootaloo was puzzled as she watched Redheart and her companion scribble a couple of notes down, stare at her for a few seconds, and write some more before leaving. Surely, these life-savers couldn't have time to dawdle with HER, while White's wellfair was at stake.

"What are you WAITING FOR?!" She yelled, "GET WHITE FLASH OUT OF HERE!"

After that, the siren of the ambulance whirred to life as it peeled out on the field, leaving behind deep, rutted tiremarks, drifted sideways onto the road, and hurried away down the road.

"So." Scootaloo turned her attention to her two best friends, Sweetie and Applebloom, who were sitting on a fencepost. "What are we doing today, Crusaders?"

"Well," Sweetie Belle reported, "We've done about everything there is to do around here. We've played all our board games, finished all of our "Daring Do" novels, and visited everywhere in town where we could get our cutie mark."

"Actually," AppleBloom interjected, "We haven't been to the hospital! We could get our cutie marks as nurses, and visit White Flash at the same time!"

"But first, let's go play some Ponykart!" Scootaloo took off running toward town. "Last one to Sweetie's place is a rotten egg!"

After a couple hours of Ponykart, the three friends set off toward the hospital to see White Flash.

They walked into a big waiting room, which was empty at the moment, except for a mare behind a desk.

"Excuse me," Scootaloo asked her curiously, "Can you help us find our friend's room?"

"Yeah," she replied, "As a matter of fact I can. Would you care to state his name?"

"White Flash, and he's a pegasus."

The mare began typing something in on her computer, but her expression changed to that of somepony who was confused.

"I'm sorry, honey," she apologized, "There's no record of someone named White Flash ever being admitted. Do you know for SURE that he was taken here for treatment."

"Of COURSE we do!" Scootaloo was getting agitated at the mare's attitude toward them. "He was picked up by an ambulance!"

"What color was it, ma'am?"

"Oh, for the love of Celestia....Black."

"Any more details?"

This mare was annoying as hell.

"Okay, BLACK. 1959. CADILLAC MILLER-METEOR. FUTURA. COMBINATION HEARSE-AMBULANCE. IS THAT ENOUGH STINKING DETAIL?!"

"Ma'am, OUR ambulances are white, but CLOUDSDALE has black ambulances. What puzzles me, is what's a Cloudsdale ambulance doing in Ponyville?"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TELL ME, LADY!"

"Maybe they took him for treatment there? Cloudsdale DOES have better treatment for pegasi."

Exasperated, Scoot decided to give up on reasoning with the mare. She walked outside, and slumped over onto the hospital's front steps. Her two friends decided to join her, sitting on each side of her to comfort her.

"It's alright, Scoots," Sweetie sympathized, patting her on the back, "There's no school tommorrow. Maybe we could get Twilight to cast that "Earth-ponies-and-unicorns-walk-on-clouds" spell on me and Applebloom, so we could all go to Cloudsdale!"

"Well, that is a good idea," Apple agreed, "but who'd drive us there?"

"Rainbow Dash could!" Scoot exclaimed, "This is going to be the best roadtrip EVER!"

Later that night, Rainbow Dash was watching her favorite show, "Harpflank and Sweets", when she recieved a call.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, Rainbow Dash! It's Scootaloo. Can you give us a ride to Cloudsdale tomorrow?"

Rainbow Dash froze.

"Well, sure, but promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"Don't laugh at my car."

"Um, okay. Thanks so much for the ride, you're so awesome!"

Scootaloo went on a monologue about her idol's awesome-ness, but Rainbow hung up before she could here HALF of it.

"She said yes!" Scoot reported to her fellow crusaders, "WE'RE GOING TO CLOUDSDALE! Cutie Mark Crusaders Road Trippers, YAY!"

They all cheered and threw their hooves up at the thought of a roadtrip. Little did they know that this little expedition would all put them in grave danger.

Conspiracy

The next day, Rainbow arrived at each of their houses, and drove them to Cloudsdale. Scootaloo soon saw why her mentor told her not to laugh, her car was a beige, ugly, decrepit 1974 Ford Galaxie. The car had a terrible exhaust leak, the interior was damp and moldy, and the horn stuck on when you opened the driver side door. You wouldn't think of the world's greatest pony to drive the heap.

Eventually, they made it over Hillard Bridge, a highway connecter to Cloudsdale made uniquely out of a mixture of steel beams, clouds and stone, and into Cloudsdale. When they arrived to the Cloudsdale Medical Center, they were shocked to find that White Flash had never set foot THERE.

"What are you talking about?" Dash argued, pointing to a black Cadillac ambulance parked at the Emergency Drop-off zone, which was visible out the glass doors, "One of YOUR ambulances picked him up!"

"We have no record of ANY of our ambulances going anywhere NEAR Ponyville!" a doctor insisted stubbornly, "Perhaps you saw a RETIRED ambulance, or maybe a hearse!"

"I think I'd KNOW if White Flash had died." Scootaloo paused for a moment to facehoof. "It had emergency lights, Nurse Redheart was driving!" she raged, pounding her hoof, "You're all MAD!"

The doctor's eyes lit up at the mention of the white earth pony. "Ponyville hospital employs her, or used to."

"What do you mean, USED TO?"

"She was fired a month ago."

"Something fishy's going on here..." Sweetie muttered as they left, "and I think we might just find out what if we look around that ambulance over there." She gestured to the black Cadillac in the Emergency lane, which was now unsupervised. "Wait, that might be the same one as YESTERDAY!"

Images of yesterday's ambulance flashed through Scootaloo's mind: A black Cadillac with a normal-height roof, and lollipop-style emergency lights. This ambulance had barlights, a raised roof, and no rear windows.

"No," she concluded, "This isn't the same one. Let's go try to find it around town anyway. Where's the place where a pony's most likely to get injured?"

"How about the skatepark?" Sweetie Belle proposed, "Ponies are always faceplanting there!"

"Good thing I brought my scooter!" the little orange filly chuckled.

A quick drive brought them to the Saint Calais Skatepark, which was jammed with all sorts of ponies, who all were trying their hand at jumps, railgrinds, and empty swimming pools. Scootaloo, having quite a lot of experience with her scooter, was far more successful than most of them, doing near-impossible tricks, and wowing the spectators, but that wasn't why she was here.

Eventually, their bait for the strange ambulance had come. Featherweight, a pony whom she recognized from school, attempte the trick. He hopped onto the ledge of a pool on his skateboard, used his wings to propel himself into high into the air, flipping over and over.

"I'M HIGHER THAN THE EQUINE STATE BUILDING!" He laughed carefreely, "FEATHERWEIGHT PEGASUS HAS ACHIEVED TAKEOFF!"

He had managed to get himself as high as he could when he realized he had no idea how to land correctly. The pegasus let out a high-pitched scream as he began to fall rapidly toward the cloud-ground mesh. He attempted to steer himself into the clouds across the road from the skatepark, but failed to, and landed in the middle of hard, concrete Cadence Avenue, head first.

After what seemed like half an hour, the Miller-Meteor in question arrived.

"There it is!" Scoot whispered to them, "I'm gonna follow it!"

"Be careful," Rainbow warned, "I don't want you to be hurt like rocketman in the road over there."

After what used to be Featherweight was loaded into the ambulance, it took off down the road, doing about 60 Miles per Hour. Scootaloo floored it to catch up. The little scooter responded with a loud buzz of it's engine, a dirtbike-grade 2-cylinder she had found in Mel's Junkyard in Ponyville. She was an even match for the much more powerful, yet extremely heavy ambulance, which was driving increasingly irratically. It swerved in and out of traffic, siren blaring, sometimes dodging onto sidestreets, almost as if Redheart had noticed her. As they raced past the old Pegastopolis capitol building, Redheart checked her speedometer: 80 MPH.

Soon, the Cadillac slowed as it approached the gates of the Weather Factory. Scootaloo watched it rumble slowly up the narrow road that led to the main building, and disappear through the gates of a warehouse. She was about to jump the fence, when she heard the blaring of a car horn behind her. She turned to see Rainbow Dash quickly slamming her car door to silence the noise, which alerted their position to some guards.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Scootaloo yelled, "And now your car's stupid quirk's ALERTED THE GUARDS!"

"I just wanted to see if you were safe!" Rainbow confessed, "You're like, my PRODIGY!"

Scootaloo gasped in awe. "I am?"

"Yeah, now let's get out of here!"

They narrowly avoided being shot by the guards, barely missed hitting a garbage truck on the way out of the complex, and escaped onto the nearby freeway, heading toward the Hillard Bridge. There was a silence, until Apple Bloom broke it with a question that everypony in the car had.

"Whaddya think they're gonna do with an injured pegasus colt?"

"I don't know..." Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up for a moment. "Actually, once, I heard this rumour once....That rainbows are made of ponies...But I think that's just a rumour."

"Well, WHAT ELSE would they do with an injured pony there?" Scootaloo fired back.

Everypony went silent again, thinking of the horrible process that Featherweight would have to go through if this were true.

In the Weather Factory, many ponies milled about, checking that every machine was in tip-top condition. While many forms of weather were churned out in the main building, everything was silent in the Rainbow building, as two identical scrawny, white stallions with maroon manes, waited patiently for a 'special shipment'.

They heard 3 honks from a car horn, the secret signal, and opened a garage door at the end of the building. In came the Cadillac hearse, containing the ingredient they were missing.

"Well, it's about time, Redheart," one droned. They both had slightly disturbing monotone voices. "We've been waiting all day."

"Well, don't blame me," she sneered, pointing to her partner, "Red Cross here got the directions to the last target wrong!"

"Well, you're here, that's what matters," the other mused. "Now, shall we commence the process?"

Featherweight awoke from his coma to find himself tied up. He was being held by somepony behind him in front of a chute. At the bottom was a stretch of whirring blades and gears.

"What....Where am I?!" he panicked, "WHO ARE YOU?!"

"My name is Miller, and this is my brother, Meteor," he heard a voice behind him call out, "And now, you're going to be fed to that crusher down there, and converted into a liquid called "Eldarius Solicifius", otherwise known as Rainbows."

"Wait," he interrupted, "Is this like that book 'Rainbow Factory'?"

"Correct," Meteor answered, clapping, "You're a smart one."

"Oh, Celestia, PLEASE, HAVE MERCY!" Featherweight began to weep as a factory worker pushed him closer to the chute. "DON'T KILL ME! I WANTED TO BE A WEATHER PONY TOO!"

"Don't worry," Miller reassured, letting out an malevolent chuckle. "Nopony will miss you!"

Featherweight let out a scream when the worker threw him down the chute. He reached the crushers in no time, and began to wince in pain as they knawed off his rear legs, blood spitting everywhere, as if the machine was a hungry predator, begging for more. Eventually, his shoulders were all that was left above the crusher. His vision turned red as he disappeared below the gears. The last sounds he heard were Miller and Meteor's crazed laughter as blood splattered all across the walls.

After the end of the process, Redheart approached the twins, who were wiping the blood off their suits with handkerchiefs.

"Uh, sirs?"

"Yes?"

"I have some unfortunate news."

"Well, what is it?"

"Somepony knows."

The two twins exchanged worried glances.

"Are you SURE they saw the ambulance enter the compound?" Miller asked her frantically.

"I'm sure. Her name is Scootaloo Sanders, she lives in Ponyville, but nobody knows exactly where."

"Then," Meteor concluded sinisterly, licking the blood-soaked rag slowly, "She must be ELIMINATED at all costs."

The two interrupted in more hellish laughter, which bounced off the walls, and was echoed by the whir of the ambulance's siren starting up as Redheart and Red Cross backed it out of the building.

Being Watched

The next day, Scootaloo rode her scooter down to the Ponyville Police Department to talk about the disappearances. The secretary THERE was no trouble at all, and she was let into an office that read "Commissioner".

The room was smoky, she could barely see. The drapes were shut, but a few beams of sunlight filtered through the haze of the smoke. In front of her sat Commissioner Hermman Randolph of Ponyville Police. He nonchalantly smoked his cigar, not even agknowledging her prescence, until he reached out, and tussled her mane.

"So, kid," he queried,"Whadd'reya here for?"

"Commissioner, ponies I know have been disappearing. An ambulance picks them up, and I never see them again.

"Hm, how long has been happening?"

"Two days, sir."

"Have you checked the hospital yet?"

Scootaloo facehoofed at his stupidity.

"Of COURSE I've checked the hospital! Strange things are happening, Commissioner. A Cloudsdale hearse in Ponyville, Nurse Redheart's unemployed, but drives it anyway, taking Featherweight to the Weather Factory.... and the victims are always pegasi!"

"Kid," the old officer soothed, "I think you're just paranoid, honestly. Now, run back to your parents,you don't have to worry about it...."

Talking with Randolph certainly didn't give her much help. The little pegasus left the Police Station, flustered at the commissioner's dissmissal of concrete evidence. She decided to help blow off steam, she'd go scooter around town.

After racing around town for a while, she found herself in an unfamiliar alley. She screeched to a halt as several burly colts in baseball caps blocked her way.

"Well, well well," one remarked smugly, flicking out a pocket knife, "You're in our neighborhood, get out."

"Yeah?" she countered, anticipating a fight, "Why should I?"

"I dunno... If you don't, we'll FUCK YA UP...."

Scootaloo wasn't a coward, but this wasn't a good place for her. She raced away on her scooter, but slammed into the side of a passing pickup as she exited the alley. She flipped, and landed on her back, blacking out.

It didn't take long for somepony to call an ambulance. Scootaloo awoke to find herself strapped onto a gurney, being loaded into the rear compartment of the black car by Nurse Redheart.

"Well," the nurse pointed out menacingly, "You wanted to find out more about us, and now you will."

Scootaloo tried to scream for help, but one of the leather straps was across her mouth. She was forcefully placed in the rear compartment, and the big doors shut.

The only thing she could hear while she devised was the roar of the car's engine, and the rattling of the medical equipment to her sides. After a while, she devised a plan.

She was sitting facing the doors, so maybe she could shake the gurney loose, and roll it out the rear doors?

Scootaloo began rocking back and forth steadily, until the stretcher's wheels hopped out of the wells which kept them in place. Free of the wells, the little orange pegasus was able to build up enough momentum to open the push-button door latch. Now, all she had to do was to wait for a hill.

What she recieved was no ordinary hill.

As the Cadillac started up the Hillard bridge, the steep incline caused the gurney to fall right out of the rear of the car. The huge incline made Scootaloo gain a huge amount of speed, as she coasted straight down the elevated highway. It was a terrifying experience, having to dodge cars coming at her at 60 miles an hour, but she made it to the bottom unscathed, and rolled into some bushes.

After the little predicament, she took some time to make sure she was still in one piece. The straps had broken off in the crash with the bushes, which left her free to move. Her scooter had also been loaded into the ambulance, and a chorus of blasting car horns signalled that it too was racing down to meet her in the bush. She ducked as it flew past, running straight into the wreckage of the gurney.

She inspected the scooter to find that no major damage had been inflicted on her prized machine, and began to ride the long journey back into town, when she heard a familiar siren coming up being her, FAST.

****

She twisted the handlebar as far as she could, and the scooter responded instantly with a burst of extra speed, putting some distance between her and her pursuer, but that distance was given up easily, as the Cadillac's massive engine propelled it forward, closing the gap between them. Scootaloo held her breath as she felt the huge chrome bumper of the ambulance settle on top of her scooter's rear end, rendering her trapped. She shook the scooter about to free it, but the car's bumper just wouldn't lift away. Finally, she managed to squeeze the rear end of her scooter out from underneath the car, and pulled away, leaving the ambulance in the dust.

The death ride was over, Scootaloo was safe for now. She made her way back to her house, just as lunch time was about to begin.

Randolph was on his way home that night. He was driving along, listening to his John Hiat tape, when he saw a Cloudsdale ambulance blast by in the opposite lane. Remembering Scootaloo's story, he slapped a portable siren light on his car's roof, and took off after it.

Surprisingly, it stopped almost immediately.

Randolph got out of his car, and drew his gun.

"Come out with your hooves where I can see 'em!" he ordered, but instead of complying, Redheart started the ambulance, backed up, and squashed the high-ranking officer against the grille of his own car.

As the ambulance sped away, Randolph concentrated the last moments of his life shooting at the car in a vain attempt to stop it. It turned out, the Cadillac's metal was too thick for the puny pistol. He ran out into the street to get a better shot, but they turned around, and ran him over again.

After they were sure he was dead, Red Cross picked up his body, and was going to load him onto the gurney, when he realized a key factor.

"THAT LITTLE FILLY'S GONE! AND SHE TOOK THE GODDAMN GURNEY WITH HER!"

"Load him anyway!" Redheart instructed, "He's a pegasus, we might be able to get some Eldarius out of him!"

At home base, after recieving Redheart and Red Cross's report about Scootaloo's escape, Miller and Meteor were beginning to realize that this was the beginning of the end for their buisiness.

"It's all coming crashing down now," Meteor fretted, still licking the dried blood on his handkerchief, "We've gotta finish the job! Prepare the one they call White Flash!"

"He's escaped!" a guard reported, gesturing to a smashed window in the cell.

"We need MORE TEST SUBJECTS!" Miller roared, stomping his hooves, "If those two can't do it right by sneaking, we're going to have to come to a major event, and run them all down!" He picked up a newspaper, which had been laying on the cloud floor. "Nightmare Night's next week. There's going to be a party at Ponyville Town Hall, a perfect chance to strike!"

"But, brother, what about the two pegasi foals? They KNOW!"

"We'll get them to," he reassured, "Little foals LOVE parties...."

Protection

At the Ponyville schoolhouse, which she had to attend as well as Flight School, Scootaloo walked down the hall casually toward her class. She tried to forget about the incident. She tried to convince herself that they wouldn't keep coming after her, but she couldn't. And now, she couldn't find her two best friends. Had the ambulance ponies captured THEM, too?

As she felt a prescence behind her, she panicked, swung around and hit whoever it was in the face with her hoof. She was surprised to find that it was WHITE FLASH!

"White Flash.." she choked, hugging him, "How did you escape?!"

"There was an old window," he elaborated, "They thought since I had a concussion, I couldn't get the coordination to fly out. They thought wrong. You're not gonna BELIEVE what they did to Featherweight, Scoots!"

"They....Grinded him into rainbows?"

"HOW DID YOU KNOW?!"

"Nevermind that," she whispered in his ear comfortingly, "You're safe now. Besides, we can forget about this entire thing at the Nightmare Night dance at town hall tonight!"

"B-but," he stuttered, "What if they COME?"

"They killed the police commissioner, White, it was in the paper, the cops will be looking for them."

The day went on as usual, except for one key factor: Where were Applebloom and Sweetie? Surely, they hadn't gone home sick! She didn't want to sit by herself, so she sat with White Flash's friends, a black earth colt with an orange and red mane named Southern Pacific, and a lanky brown unicorn colt named Fleetline. Fleetline went on, and on, about his dad, his mom, and how beautiful he thought Diamond Tiara was, until everypony was sick of him.

"I shouldn't even be GOING here!" he continued, chugging down a chocolate milk to try and look like his dad, "I should be going to a private school in CANTERLOT! After all," he paused to straighten his bowtie cockily, "I AM the son of royalty..."

"Oh, he's a son of something, alright...." Scootaloo giggled softly to White Flash, "A son of a BITCH!"

The two burst out, laughing, and interrupted the airhead's rant about his royal blood. He gave them a harsh look, but they didn't care.

After school, Scootaloo was scootering home, when she was intercepted by none other than Applebloom and Sweetie Belle! She waved hello, and turned around to race back toward where they were standing.

"Where were you today?" she asked them, "I had to sit next to FLEETLINE!"

"Fleetline?!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed in horror, "Yuck. Well, anyway," she began to unlatch her saddlebag, "Look at what WE got! It took us ALL DAY to find the pony who sells them."

Sweetie opened her saddlebags to reveal three UZI sub-machine guns.

"Just for protection."

"Sweetie, HOW'D YOU GET AN UZI?!"

"Easy! Just go down to Roy's Guns, draw a fake license, and they look the other way while they slide them over the counter to you!" She took one out, and posed like a bond girl, holding it close to her chest. "THIS oughtta stop any old ambulance!"

"Well," Applebloom mutteredwarily, "Ah still don't like the idea of illegal guns..."

"Just don't shoot at anypony who isn't attacking us, or sho it to anypony," Scootaloo reassured her, "If the police can't protect us, We'll protect ourselves."

As this happened, Redheart and Red Cross watched from an alley in their ambulance.

"They have UZIs," Red Cross radioed in, "What do we do?"

"Then, bulletproof the ambulance!" Miller ordered, "There's a sheetmetal shop on the South Side, go there. I know a pony who can help you out."

"And hurry up," Meteor added, "My thirst for spilled blood is UNBEARABLY strong...."

White Flash was walking over to join the girls, and was just informed about the guns, when he saw the ambulance pull out of an alley. He hid in a bush, anticipating it to come immediately after him, but instead, it just drove off, sirens on, as if responding to an emergency call. The crusaders weren't quick enough to start shooting at it, and it disappeared around a corner.

"Don't worry, White Flash," Scootaloo promised him, "Stick with us. If they try to get you, then we'll give them a SURPRISE!"

Little did they know that their surprise would prove unaffective later that night....

At the shops at Ponyville Cadillac-Buick-Chevrolet, very dastardly deeds were occurring. The main mechanic, Mel, watched in horror as the mechanics covered the ambulance's windows in sheet metal, backed up by slabs of iron beneath it. A bull-bar off a police cruiser was fastened to the front, and a small hole for seeing where they were driving was cut in the frontal armor.

"What the HELL are you doin' to this car?!" he asked them, "Turning it into an ARMOURED TRUCK, or somethin'?"

"Yes," Redheart replied calmly, "Yes we are...."

Ambush

That night was Nightmare Night. Ponies lined the streets trick-or-treating as their favorite characters. Scootaloo had dressed as her idol, Rainbow Dash, Applebloom as a pirate, like last year, and Sweetie Belle as leading model Fleur de Lis. Nobody really KNEW what Fleetline was dressed as.

"I'm Harley Earl!" he tried to convince them, "You know, FAMOUS CAR DESIGNER? My dad always talks about him!"

Sweetie, Applebloom, Scootaloo and White Flash (who was dressed as a Wonderbolt) all made their way around town, collecting huge loads of candy, until they all decided to join the party at town hall.

Once there, they were told to lay their saddlebags on the far wall of the building, due to issues with safety.

"But what if someone ATTACKS US?!" White Flash protested to the guard, "We NEED what's in those saddlebags!"

"Sorry, kid," the guard grunted back, "No guns allowed in here. Don't worry, the police station's just a couple blocks away, we're safe."

The little pegasus didn't believe him.

Everyone had a good time, until Derpy Hooves, sugar-crazed beyond comprehension, launched herself off the balcony that overlooked the entire main floor, flew through a stained-glass window, and crashed into the dirt street outside.

"Oh, dear," The mayor called, "Can somebody call an ambulance?!"

The mood between the four foals became tense with fear as they anticipated the possibility of the phony paramendics arriving. They were pleasantly surprised to see that a white Chevy van ambulance arrived first.

As soon as they thought they were safe, they heard the familiar whine of a Super Chief siren. A behemoth of a car, bearing a small resemblance to the Cadillac which they had feared, sideswiped the white ambulance, burst through the doors, and began plowing through the sea of foals, most dodging the car safely. The black blur attempted to do a u-turn, and come back around, but slid on the marble floor of the town hall, and crashed into the stage.

As it lay there, the three finally got a clear look at the vehicle. It was the same Miller-Meteor, but large areas of window had been covered by sheet metal, reinforced with iron slabs. There was barbed wire and a push-bar from a police cruiser attatched to the front section. The windshield only had a small hole for seeing where they were going, as it too was covered with a thick iron slab. They all began to sprint away from it as the sound of the engine firing up again met their eardrums.

Then, a familiar black earth pony with a red and orange mane, Southern Pacific, came running up to them.

"HURRY, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" He hollered, "All we can do is run away!"

Just then, Scootaloo remembered something:

"THE UZI'S!"

They ran to the wall with the saddlebags, and hurried to find their's. They shot away from the wall as the ambulance came plowing past, scraping the wall as it went, throwing all of the saddlebags into the air. One burst open to reveal the three UZI"s. It was a Rainbow Dash collectible, with the mare in question's cutie mark on the latch. This was Scootaloo's.

White Flash raced over, and picked one up. He pulled the trigger, but was surprised that there was no ammo.

"WHO FORGETS TO BUY AMMUNITION?!" He screamed angrily.

By now, most of the ponies had either been ran over or had fleed the town hall. All accept the five little foals.

As they dodged the car YET AGAIN, they heard the sound of a siren winding down outside. After a few moments, eight armed police officers burst into the room, guns drawn at the car.

"FIRE!" Scootaloo heard one yell.

As soon as he gave the command, the officers began firing off their shotguns at the car, but unsurprisingly, the bulletproofing kept it from doing any damage.

Redheart and Red Cross turned their attention to the only way out, a set of huge doors at the end of the building. The only thing standing in their way of breaking through them were the police officers. Engaging the siren, the two nurses propelled the huge car toward them, willing to commit murder to get away unharmed.

Between the few seconds that lay between him and being ran over, Officer Loose Cannon aimed expertly at the small hole for seeing in the iron. He squeezed off a shot, and ran out of the way. Most of the bullets from the scatter shotgun splattered over the iron plating, but one bullet soared through the hole with pinpoint accuracy, smashing through the glass windshield, and landing directly in Redheart's right eye.

The earth pony howled in pain as the blow landed, but kept on course, blew straight through the doors of the town hall, and left everypony in the rubble of the party to comprehend what had just happened.

Pursuit

The smoke and dust cleared.

Tire marks stained the marble floors, with debris,(such as chairs, tables, etc) strewn willy-nilly across the ballroom.

Scootaloo could see White Flash glancing nervously around the room, expecting them to return. Sweetie Belle stared at the ground, remorseful for expecting that ammunition came with the guns. Applebloom had gone to get their backpacks, and Southern Pacific had disappeared.

"Alright," one of the higher-ranking cops instructed as he got up, and dusted himself off, "We're going after them. Loose Cannon, you come with me, and Quince, Stetson, you take the foals. We need to keep a close eye on them."

The four were hustled into the back of an awaiting cruiser, which Scootaloo identified as a '92 Chevrolet Caprice. The car took off down the road, accompanied by a another Caprice. The four survivors were silent, while the stallion in the car, apparently named Stetson, chattered away on the radio.

"No, Dispatch," he answered, responding to a call from dispatch, "Still no sign of that 10-38. We need units to spread out, and search the vicinity, over."

"Uh, yeah," a voice rasped over the c/b, "This is Charlie 2-4, we've spotted the suspects, Southbound, toward Equestrian Highway 18, all available units are advised to intercept."

"Well, kids," Quince muttered, "We found them..."

Engine roaring, the car sped up drastically as they raced through the crowded dirt streets of Ponyville, toward the freeway onramp. Foals dressed in costumes scattered as the cops came thundering through. The Crusaders and White Flash huddled together in fear as the cruiser slid sideways on the gravel-dirt surface, barely avoiding destroying a gypsy wagon parked on a streetcorner, and drifted onto a new street.

Eventually, the highway intersection was in sight. Just before they turned on, the Cadillac sailed past, bogged down by the tremendous weight of it's armor. on the blacktop onto which they were to turn onto, 3 Plymouth Fury cruisers following at a distance.

While the police kept their distance, and assessed the situation, Redheart was bleeding severely from her eye.

"FIRST AID KIT!" she wailed, gesturing to the entrance to the rear, patient-compartment of the ambulance, "GET THE FIRST AID KIT!"

"We don't have one," Red Cross warned, opening the curtains of the compartment to reveal an empty space, "If you want medical assistance, we're gonna have to stop."

"We CAN'T!" the nurse fired back, "I won't survive in prison, Cross, I look to sweet! I didn't even WANT this job!" She broke down, sobbing. "I'd rather die than keep on living with the burden of knowing I delivered innocent foals to their deaths!"

"Neither did I, Red, but you've gotta stop, you're gonna BLEED TO DEATH if you don't."

"NEVER."

"Alright then, I'm COMING THROUGH!"

Red Cross scooted over on the bench seat, unfastened Redheart's lapbelt, and opened the driver's side door.

"Uh, Sarge?!" a voice exclaimed over the C/B, "This is Wilcox, up front, right behind the suspects. They've opened their driver's side door, I think they're gonna shoot!"

"GET OUTTA THERE, WILL!" a voice, presumably the police sargeant, yelled back, "Evasive actions!"

Stetson decided to assist Wilcox, who was in the lead Plymouth Fury, and slammed on the gas to pull up alongside him. But, instead of seeing them shoot, The Crusaders saw Nurse Redheart flung out of the ambulance, and land on the hood of Wilcox's cruiser.

"Yeah, uh, Dispatch?" Wilcox continued, "Disregard that last statement, this mare needs medical attention, taking her into custody, over."

Being the only one remaining in the Cadillac, Red Cross immediately set to work trying to shake off the metal armor. He attempted to loosen it by making the car traverse a zig-zag pattern along the two-laned highway, but, after a while, it was obvious that his strategy wasn't working.

Drawing his peppergun, he engaged at firing at the weld points between the armor and the carbody. This was far more effective, as Mel the mechanic had not had time to do a quality job on installing the panels.

One by one, the panels were blasted away, police cars swerving each time they came tumbling off, until there were no more, except for the back window's protection, which couldn't be reached.

****

Suddenly, the cops found themselves chasing the old Miller-Meteor at speeds above 100 miles an hour, which became increasingly dangerous, as there was no time to stop traffic anymore.

"We're near the Hillard Bridge, guys!" Scootaloo whispered to the rest of the foals, "Except for Scootaloo and me, you and all of those cops can't walk on clouds, they're not pegasi! And their cars can't either!Cloudsdale's cars are modified to not fall through, but OTHER cars aren't!"

White Flash was confused. "But what about Redheart and Red Cross? They're earth ponies, and they've done it just fine!"

"They probably have that spell Twilight put on US," she explained, "I have a plan! When I say, 'jump', we jump out!"

"Dispatch," Stetson reported, "The pursuit is nearing the Hillard Bridge, alert the Cloudsdale Police, over."

"This is dispatch, we need to you to break off pursuit, Cloudsdale's not sturdy enough to support your units, I repeat, nor sturdy enough to support your units."

"It's held up those heavy marble buildings for centuries!" Stetson reasoned, "I'm SURE it can hold us."

Dispatch began to protest, but Quince flicked off the radio before they could clearly hear the message.

"Sometimes, I think Lyra signed up to dispatch just to be a stickler," she chuckled.

Rapidly approaching the end of the bridge-span, Scootaloo concentrated with all his might to time the jump right. Fortunately for them, Stetson and Quince had been in such a hurry to go after the ambulance, that they had left the safety lock for the rear doors disengaged. Spontaniously blurting out "NOW!", she flung open the door, and the four lept out.

Sweetie and Applebloom were lucky, but Scoot and White Flash had put too much power into their leaps. They flew over the bridge's edge, missing the railing that protected them, and began to fall, the ground rapidly advancing to meet them, and crush them on impact.

"WHAT DO WE DO NOW?!" Scootaloo screamed, holding the grey pegasus tight, "WE'RE GONNA DIE!"

"WE'VE GOTTA FLY!" White Flash told her, "IT'S OUR ONLY HOPE!"

"BUT, I CAN'T!" she protested, weakly flapping her wings, "I DIDN'T PASS MY FLIGHT TEST!"

"I KNOW YOU CAN!" He staired over at her, emotion flooding his gaze. "I BELIEVE IN YOU, I LOVE YOU!"

Their eyes met, and when Scootaloo looked into his emerald green eyes, tearing up with his true feelings for her, she believed him.

Flapping their wings hard, the two managed to regain control of their freefall. The wind that swirled past their eardrums died down, as their descent slowed, and they landed.

The two took a moment to realize they were still alive, and appreciate the gift of living, until they heard the whooping of a police siren, and looked up to see a familiar Caprice screaming down from above them.

When it hit the ground, it was destroyed instantly. The car was thoroughly crushed, but, curiously, the gas tanks didn't ignite. The other officers had heeded their superior's warning, and had stopped short of the end of the bridge.

"They're...they're dead...." White flash whispered, "Gone....Just like Featherweight...."

"It's alright," she soothed him, giving him a hug, "It'll be over soon."

"BUT, YOU'VE BEEN SAYING THAT EVER SINCE I ESCAPED!"

"I have a feeling that it's true this time."

The two took a moment to remember the duo of earth pony officers, before beginning the journey back up to Sweetie and Applebloom.

While Scootaloo and White Flash began the flight back up to the bridge, Red Cross had evaded the Cloudsdale police, and had returned to the Weather Factory, day beginning to dawn.

When he got back, Miller and Meteor were shocked at his newest proclamation:

"You and Redheart are QUITTING?!"

"You....You must be kidding us!" Meteor stuttered, wiping his glasses nervously, "You're the CORNERSTONE of our operation!"

"It's true," he admitted, "Me and Redheart never wanted to have to kill innocent foals. The Hippocratic Oath states, "You shall do no harm." We BROKE THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH, Meteor! And, unlike YOU, we TOOK IT when we were in med school! You two didn't even GO to med school, either, you're just two greedy buisinessponies who hold profit over foals' lives." He threw them the keys to the ambulance, and began to stomp away. "I'm telling the police EVERYTHING you did here, and SO WILL REDHEART!"

When they left, the two disturbed pegasi began to scheme.

"Well," Miller proposed grimly, "We'll have to turn in a final profit to meet the City of Cloudsdale's demand for Eldarius next year. Since that last raid didn't go well, we're quite behind in production, but I have a plan."

"And what would that be, brother?"

"We need a pony with all the colors of the color spectrum in their hair," he explained, "If we can find somepony like this, we might be able to water the Eldarius down, because instead of just one, drab color, we have a miniature rainbow!"

"Good idea," Meteor mused, "But where will we find this special, "Rainbow Pony"?"

Miller flicked through some files of the office above the factory floor. "Theres a pony by the name of Rainbow Dash. She lives in Cloudsdale, and she's very close to that little chickenhawk that's been snooping around here. If we can get all three; the escapee, Rainbow Dash, and the little detective, NOT ONLY will we meet our order, we'll dispose of all the witnesses as well!"

"The plan," Meteor whispered in cold delight, "It's EXCELLENT!" He grabbed two M16's lying on a gun rack on the wall. "This time, if we can't subdue them, we'll SHOOT THEM."

It was all over for these two madmen, and they knew it. With the odds stacked against them, they still had to turn in a profit, or the City of Cloudsdale might send an official to inspect the privately-owned plant, and their secret would be spilled. The two brothers, hunger for blood in their eyes, climbed into the ambulance, and sealed their fate.