Just Where Did They All Go?

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...."