Blank Flanks

Chapters

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven

One

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Flanks

One

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were walking together out of the schoolhouse. Now that the school day was over they could go to their clubhouse and plan out their next attempt at finding their cutie marks. “Have we tried baking yet?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“I can’t remember, but it can’t hurt to try,” replied Apple Bloom.

“We can go down to Sugarcube Corner and see if we could help out Pinkie Pie,” Scootaloo suggested. They agreed and set out on their way, when suddenly a young colt ran into them and knocked the three over.

“Do you mind watching where the fuck you’re going?” he said, slowly picking himself off the ground. He was a green earth pony, about the same age as the other three, with a black mane and blue eyes.

“Excuse me? I do believe you’re the one who ran into us,” Apple Bloom stated very angrily. She looked at him and noticed that he didn’t have a cutie mark either. “Why are you in such a hurry anyways?”

“Oh, just fooling around with some very good friends of mine, although they probably don’t consider me a friend…considering they’re chasing me.”

“Why are they chasing you?”

“I honestly have no idea,” he heard some voices drawing near, “Well, I have to go now, see you around.” He ran off, and Sweetie Belle noticed that he dropped something.

“Hey, you dropped your cupcakes!” she yelled, but he wasn’t paying attention. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo also picked up cupcakes.

“I doubt he’d want them, they’ve got dirt all over them.” Scootaloo said. Just then Mr. Cake came running with three police ponies (almost the entire force considering how little crime happens in and around Ponyville). Mr. Cake and one of the police ponies kept after him, but two of the police ponies stopped in front of the crusaders.

“Where did you three get those?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo then realized what was happening but before they could answer, Sweetie Belle, who had yet to fully grasp the situation, calmly replied, “Oh, we got these from him.” She pointed towards the young colt, who had now been tackled by the police pony. “Alright, you three are under arrest as accomplices to thievery.”

The three fillies pleaded that they weren’t involved, but after running halfway across Ponyville over a few stolen cupcakes, the police ponies just wanted to get done with that case and arrested them anyway. They obviously weren’t going to jail since they were fillies and it wasn’t a huge offense anyway, but they were expecting at least a trial. As it turns out, Princess Celestia had been putting together an experimental new program over the previous few months that was supposed to be based in the new community center built in Ponyville. It was meant as a way of young troublemaking ponies from all over Equestria to come together and straighten out by doing things that benefitted the community. Ponies had finally invented the concept of community service, and Celestia saw four prime candidates right in Ponyville.

About two and a half weeks had passed since the cupcake incident, and Applejack was walking Apple Bloom to her first day of community service. “Applejack, do I really have to do this stupid community payback thing?”

“Yes Apple Bloom, Celestia herself said so. You know you have to give back for the crime you committed.”

“But I didn’t commit any crimes!”

“And I believe you, you’d never lie to me about something that serious, but Granny Smith and I were talkin’, and we think a little service for the community wouldn’t hurt.”

“But if I have to do this after school every day, I won’t have any time to find my cutie mark!”

“You’ll have time on the weekends, or maybe even you’re cutie mark has something to do with community service.”

They arrived at the new community center. “Well here we are,” said Applejack, “better get inside, I’ll see you later tonight.” Apple Bloom said good-bye and proceeded inside. She met up with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, and the three changed into the orange jumpsuits assigned to them. They walked outside through the back and stood with four colts, all about the same age as them, in similar jumpsuits, until a much older unicorn walked out to them.

“Ok, welcome everyone to your first day of community payback, my name is Onyx Stallion, and I will be the one giving you your assignments each day. Let’s start off with everyone introducing themselves. Let’s start with you.”

“Hi, I’m Scootaloo.”

“I’m Sweetie Belle”

“I’m Apple Bloom.”

“Hey there, I’m Daring Dual” said the young, light red unicorn with the brown mane. “Hey, that’s kind of like Daring Doo,” Scootaloo pointed out.

"Oh, I certainly don’t hear that all the fucking time,” Daring said very annoyed, “Yes my parents were big fans of the books, now shut up about it.”

“Jeez, I’m sorry I brought it up.” Everyone looked at the next colt in line, a brown pegasus who hesitated a bit, and then let out, “My name’s…Thunder Runner,” very timidly. Apple Bloom noticed this, and thought to herself that he reminded her a lot of Fluttershy. Next a grey colt with a shaved head and a very intense look on his face quickly blurted out, “Brightening Lightning,” as soon as thunder finished, and then went back to his own angry thoughts.

Lastly was a green earth pony with a black mane that the crusaders at first didn’t notice, but now recognized as they were filled with anger and frustration towards him. “My name’s Evergreen, and I will be your charming and handsome comic relief today.” Onyx was not amused. “Ok, today you all will be painting the benches outside of the community center…”

“Is that it?” asked Daring.

"Yes, for today, now shut up and don’t interrupt me again. Any questions?” Onyx asked.

"Yes, if a dragon and an ursa major had a fight, who would win?” Evergreen also asked. Onyx was furious now, “How about you all stop being a bunch of annoying brats, and get to work! I’ll check up on you later.” Onyx walked into the community center, and the seven ponies got to work. About three hours in, Brightening Lightening randomly flipped out, threw his paint can, and called the whole thing complete bullshit.

“What’s your problem?” Scootaloo asked.

“Well it’s simple really, I used to have a similar problem with my anger,” Evergreen said with a bit of false sincerity, “But that was all originating from when my parents sexually abused me…” Brightening was very pissed off and told Evergreen to “Fuck off!” At that point Evergreen’s voice lost all sincerity. “…And my dad was a unicorn, and he used to do this really weird thing with his horn and my anus. It left me scarred, mentally…and physically.” Brightening Lightening stormed off, knocking over cans of paint as he left. “What? You don’t want to hear about my anus?” Evergreen called out, but he was already gone.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were talking to each other while painting a bench. “A couple more weeks of this and I just might go insane.” Scootaloo said.

"Hey, have you girls noticed that no pony here has their cutie marks either?” Apple Bloom asked. “Maybe we can ask them to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” said Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom looked over at the other three ponies. Evergreen gave a smile and a wave back to her. “I don’t think they’d be crusader material,” she said.

“What about Thunder? He seems nice.”

“Well, he kind of creeps me out. He’s said barely anything and he just sits there, and sometimes he just stares at ponies.”

“Still, maybe if we get to know him a little better…”

Scootaloo wasn’t paying attention to their conversation. She was looking at the very strange, very massive storm clouds moving over Ponyville. “Ok, where did the one pony run off to?” Onyx asked, while walking back outside.

“Oh, him? He had to deal with some emotional trauma that we may or may not have brought up,” Evergreen said with a smirk. Scootaloo noticed that the clouds were black now. “Hey, what’s up with this weather?” she asked. Onyx started looking confused, and even a bit worried. “I don’t know, there was nothing scheduled for today.”

Right then, Evergreen got up from the unpainted bench he was sitting on, and walked some two feet away from it before a giant piece of hail fell and crushed the bench in two. “Today must be my lucky day,” he said, and then more hail of varying size, ranging from the size of snowballs to the size of chariots, started falling all over Ponyville. The seven ponies ran for their lives, and just reached the entrance to the community center before a massive lightning bolt stuck them, and as they were knocked back, volts of electricity flowed through their bodies.

And just like that, it was over. The storm cleared, and the seven ponies started getting up off the ground. “We should be dead after that,” Thunder said.

“OH GOD, I CAN’T FEEL MY LE- wait…ok, never mind, I’m good,” Daring let out a sigh of relief.

“Does this mean we get the rest of the day off?” Evergreen asked, still lying on the ground. Onyx seemed the most affected, he started uncontrollably twitching as he simply blurted out, “Fucker!” Evergreen leaned up, “Did you just call me a fucker?” Onyx’s twitching stopped, and he stood up perfectly fine. “Ok, your time was almost done anyway. Everypony go home and just come back tomorrow.” The six gladly obliged and headed into the locker room to get changed.

On her way out, Sweetie Belle noticed Onyx sitting down and wiping sweat off his face. “Are you alright?” she asked “Yeah, I’ll live, and you?” he replied.

“I’ve actually been feeling kind of funny after that storm.”

“And the others?”

“They seem fine. You know, some of the guys, I’ve never met anypony like them before. They seem a bit odd.”

“Well, every once and a while a family gets a bad seed. That’s why Celestia started this community payback program, I believe that we can straighten out those guys eventually. You know, you and your two friends don’t seem like the kind of ponies that belong here.”

“We actually didn’t do anything, it was all a misunderstanding.”

“Oh, so a wrong place, wrong time type of situation?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“I’d believe that. You three seem like normal ponies to me.”

“Thank you so much. I noticed you don’t like the other ponies that much. Especially Evergreen.”

“I’ve met his type before, and I don’t really dislike them, they just get on my nerves. Also, I’ve always had a bit of a temper. I’m sure I’ll just need time before I find the best way to sort him out.” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had just finished and were walking out of the locker room. “Well, it looks like I have to get going, see you tomorrow.”

“See you later, Sweetie Belle.” The three left, and then Thunder Runner walked out by himself. He was followed by Daring, and lastly Evergreen. On his way out, Evergreen looked at Onyx, and started imitating Onyx’s twitch from earlier before exclaiming, “Fucker!” He laughed and walked out, just as Onyx started twitching again. He felt pure, un-bridled rage towards Evergreen, but he was already gone and Onyx had a strange feeling that someponyelse was closer. A pony who stormed out on his community service, and decided to take a nap in a bathroom stall where no pony would find him. Onyx’s mind was gone, as he walked into the bathroom, dragging the ax he had just gotten from the building’s storeroom.

The three crusaders walked together for a while, but then went their separate ways. Scootaloo was walking by herself down a dirt road, when suddenly her idol, Rainbow Dash, came flying towards her from behind. “Hey! Rainbow Dash!” Dash stopped mid-flight next to Scootaloo. “What is it?”

“What’s up?”

“Is that it? What’s up?”

“Oh nothing much, how about you?”

“No, Scoots, I didn’t mean it like- ughh, I don’t have time for this, I need to go help Twilight out with something.”

“Ooooh, ooooh, can I come?”

“Sorry, but the library is halfway across Ponyville, and I need to get there right now. No offense, but…I doubt you could keep up.”

“Oh…ok.” Scootaloo sulked a bit as Dash headed off towards the library. Just then, Scootaloo started to feel an uncontrollable vibration all over her body that then shifted to her legs. Dash was flying towards the library, when the sight of a nearly colorless blur zoomed right past her and then instantly disappeared in the distance. “What the hell was that?” she said to herself as she continued on her way.

Scootaloo found herself reeling forwards faster than she thought possible. Everything blurred and she started to feel light headed, until less than a second later she felt her entire torso tighten up in pain. She lied on the ground in pain and soreness, until she was able to lean up and see exactly why she was in such pain. She had slammed into a tree, and broken it right in half…a tree that was on the opposite side of town than she was on a mere second ago.

The following day, Scootaloo was walking to the community center, still pondering what had happened earlier. What happened? How did I get there? What was that weird feeling I had? Did this have anything to do with that storm yesterday? All of these questions were stuck in her mind the entire day, and she couldn’t think of an answer to any of them. She finally snapped out of her thoughts when she walked by the community center, and noticed that someone had painted the words ‘I’M GOING TO KILL YOU’ on the side wall. Daring Dual walked by, stopped, and said to her, “Well that’s a bit…unnerving.”

“Who do you think wrote it?”

“I don’t know. We’re the only ponies who ever come by here. Yesterday, when we were working, I didn’t see a single pony walk by the building.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway, we’re probably going to have to clean it up today.” They walked inside and into the locker room where the other four ponies were changing.

“Where’s the other guy, umm…Brightening Lightning?” Scootaloo asked.

"Probably just ditching, you heard what he thought about all this yesterday,” Apple Bloom said. Scootaloo then stood close to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. “Hey, since the storm yesterday, have you two felt…weird, in any way,” she asked.

"Yeah, I was, and last night something really weird happened. I was sitting in bed trying to go to sleep, and my throat was really dry. I wanted a nice, cold glass of water but as I was getting up to get one, a glass of water just dropped right on my head and got me soaking wet,” Apple Bloom said, her face completely serious.

“Something like that happened to me yesterday, I ran from one side of Ponyville to the other in a second.”

Evergreen overheard their conversation and promptly butted in. “Ok, let me get this straight, you two say that after the storm, you could run incredibly fast, and you could make a glass of water appear out of thin air. That is the stupidest shit I have ever heard,” he said.

Apple Bloom was becoming fed up with this colt. “Nobody asked you!” she yelled. At this point Daring even got involved out of curiosity, and the five got into an argument over the whole thing. “Didn’t you two feel weird after the storm?’ Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah, but that was probably due to the fact that we were struck by fucking lightning,” Evergreen said.

While they argued, Thunder Runner looked on, wanting to say something. “I felt weird too,” he stuttered, but no one heard him over the arguing. Once again, he felt left out, unnoticed, and so alone. A sort of shiver was sent up his spine and into his head, and he briefly collapsed on the ground. When he got up he said a bit louder, “Hey, something really weird just happened.” They still didn’t notice him. He slowly walked towards them until he was standing right next to the circle of ponies. “Hey, I said something weird just happened to me.” At this point, they weren’t just ignoring him, they were completely oblivious to him. He walked in between them, right in their line of sight, and they still didn’t see him. “What’s happening to me?” he asked himself. He then yelled at the top of his lungs, “LOOK AT ME!”

Thunder Runner then appeared out of nowhere right in the middle of the group. They jumped back, with Daring letting out a “Holy Shit.”

"I was just invisible, none of you could see me, or hear me.” Evergreen seemed like he was getting annoyed.

“Ok, the invisible twat is where I draw the line. I’m gonna go wash some graffiti or something. Have fun with your magical powers or some shit.”

As he was walking out, Sweetie Belle saw a small spider on the floor and jumped back. “What now?” Evergreen asked.

“There’s a spider on the floor, I hate spiders!” Evergreen couldn’t believe these ponies. “If you hate it so much, just kill it.” She still stood back in fear. Evergreen sighed, and walked over to step on the spider. As he raised his hoof, Sweetie Belle let out a scream and it blasted him across the room and he slammed against a group of lockers.

“Ok, I’ll admit it, that was pretty fucking cool,” Daring said. The six of them at this point were convinced that the powers were real, with Evergreen now being painfully aware of it. He rubbed his aching head and other than that he felt fine, but he then noticed a pool of crimson on the floor. “Ahhh, I’m bleeding!” The others rushed over to him, and after checking all over his body, Evergreen had a brief sigh of relief that it wasn’t his blood, before a chill ran down his back when he realized it wasn’t his blood. He darted up and stood with the five.

“It’s coming from the locker,” Thunder said. They were all nervous, and Scootaloo finally built up the courage to open the locker. They all jumped back in disgust. They had found Brightening Lightning, with part of his neck hacked open along with his chest, his organs visible with hints of decay starting to set in. He lost almost all of his blood, which covered the locker and had slowly dripped onto the floor. “Ugh, he smells like over-cooked dogshit,” Evergreen said, nearly throwing up. All the ponies felt sick, and none of them had even seen a dead body before.

“We need to get to the police right now,” Apple Bloom said as they walked out of the locker room, which now stank of dead pony.

“Who would have done something like that,” Sweetie Belle asked. Evergreen was quick to answer, “I don’t know. It could have been any of us, but I think it was you.” He pointed his hoof at Thunder Runner. “Me? You…you think I did it?”

“Yeah, it’s always the quiet ones, they’re always the worst.”

“Why would I ever kill anypony?”

“Oh, you have the perfect motive, with the dead guy always making fun of you, calling you a twat.”

“Yo-You’re the only one who ever calls me a twat.”

“Oh yeah…well, how do we know you weren’t here when he was murdered, how do we know you even left the community center?”

“We left at the exact same time yesterday.”

“Look, Thunder, we’re trying to solve a murder here. Now is not the time to be a complete twat.”

“We’re not trying to solve anything here, we are just gonna go to the police and tell them what happened,” said Apple Bloom, trying to be the voice of reason. Just then Onyx finally showed up. He walked towards them slowly, and started growling, “Get back to work.”

Evergreen turned around, “Look, dickface, somepony just got hacked to pieces, I think we have more important thing to do than paint som-,” Evergreen noticed that Onyx was not himself. His eyes were completely white, he was covered in sweat and blood that was not his own, and he was dragging an axe behind him. “I think I know who killed the other guy.”

Onyx ran right at them, using magic to swing his axe around in the air. The six split up, all panicking and running for their lives in different directions. Daring ran into the stairwell, closed the door behind him, and sat down on the first step. He was out of breath, but gave a sigh of relief that he was safe now. Then Onyx’s axe busted through the door. “JESUS COLTS!” Daring exclaimed, and he started running up the stairs.

Of course the fucker goes after me. He thought, as he ran further up the stairs. He finally reached the roof, and he heard Onyx break through the door and start up the stairs. Daring looked over the edge, and saw it was too high a jump for him to survive. “Oh shit, oh Jesus, oh god.” Tears began to stream from his face. I don’t want to die. Not now, not like this. He started sobbing, his emotions were flying everywhere at once. He then had a very strange feeling. A tingling sensation went from his head, all the way down and started to churn his stomach. What the hell? Onyx burst onto the rooftop. Great, I’m going to die while having to take a shit. Onyx, consumed by pure rage, charged straight at Daring. Daring was frozen by fear, and couldn’t do anything but force his eyes shut, and wait for the end. All of a sudden, some unknown force pushed him to the left, and Onyx ran straight off the roof, and went splat on the ground below.

As it turns out, right as he was about to be hit by Onyx’s charge, Daring Dual split into two ponies, and Onyx ran right in between them. After the splat, Daring opened his eyes and looked over the edge. “Holy shit,” he said.

"I know, right?” said the other. Daring fell back, screaming. “Why the fuck is there two of me?!” he yelled.

“How am I supposed to know?” The others saw Onyx hit the ground, and were now on the roof to see what had happened.

“Umm, why are there two of you?” Evergreen asked.

"It must have been the storm,” Scootaloo said, “It’s changed all of us.”

"That’s all fine and dandy, but we still have a bit of a problem smeared over the ground downstairs,” Evergreen reminded everypony.

They all stood around Onyx’s body, trying to think of what to do next. “Ok, we just go to the police and tell them everything that’s happened,” Apple Bloom said.

"The police? So we just go to them and tell them we all have super powers and two dead ponies in the community center. I mean, when was the last time anypony in all of Equestria was murdered? This colt’s blood is on our hooves.” Evergreen had a very good point.

“Brightening wasn’t murdered by us, and Onyx’s death was an accident.” Just then Onyx sprang to life snarling, and the seven ponies instinctively bucked him until they were sure he was dead. “Ok, now his blood is on our hooves.”

“Now what do we do?” Scootaloo said nervously.

"Face it, we’re already considered troublemakers, even if we told everypony the truth, nopony would believe us. Celestia would probably banish us to the moon, or the sun maybe.” Evergreen started getting nervous too, when Thunder Runner finally spoke.

“If there’s no body, there’s no crime. We find a secluded spot… one where nopony would ever go…and we bury them. We can put the bodies in some wheel-barrels and if anypony asks…we’re just making a delivery for somepony.” The ponies looked at each other.

“I really don’t like the idea of lying about something like this,” Apple Bloom admitted.

“Well,” Scootaloo sighed, “What choice do we have?”

The seven ponies cleaned up all the blood they could find in the community center, and then put the two bodies in wheel-barrels, and covered them with cloth. They walked to the outskirts of Everfree Forrest, took the shovels they had brought along, and started digging. They dumped the bodies, and began covering them up. “So how long do you think this whole, two pony thing will last?” Daring asked the other him.

"Well, I could try going back into you, I mean it would make sense that I would be able to go in and out,” he replied.

"When you are out, what should we call you?” Scootaloo asked. They both stopped digging and pondered this. “Oh, I know,” said the original, “I’ll be Daring, and you’ll be Dual. Together we make Daring Dual!”

“That’s fucking stupid,” Evergreen pointed out, although Dual liked it. “Hey, I just noticed,” Evergreen said, “It seems like Everypony except me can do something now. I mean, half of you get A-list super powers, and I don’t get jack shit.”

"Maybe you do have a power…you just don’t know what it is yet,” Thunder suggested. Evergreen thought about it, and already started thinking about possible powers he might have.

The seven finished burying the bodies, and stood there, contemplating all of the recent events that have occurred. “Remember,” Thunder said, “Tell nopony what happened the past two days. We act like nothing out of the ordinary happened. If anypony asks…neither Onyx or Brightening showed up today.” The group started on their way back to the community center.

“What do we do now?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I don’t know about you, but I just want to finish this stupid community payback,” Evergreen said.

"Do you think there’s a reason we got these powers?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Maybe we’re supposed to become superheroes or something,” Thunder said. The others looked at each other for a second, and then started laughing. “Come on,” Evergreen said, “I am fucking starving after that. Let’s get a bite to eat.”

The next day, Twilight Sparkle was asked by Princess Celestia to come to the castle so they could talk privately. Twilight thought this was a bit strange, but she happily agreed. When she got to the castle she met up with Celestia, and they exchanged the usual formalities before getting into the real conversation. “Twilight, you’re probably wondering why I called you here today to talk.”

“Actually, yes, I am.”

“Well, I have two very important tasks in Ponyville that need to be done, and I thought you and your friends were perfectly suited for these tasks.”

“Of course, we’d be happy to help your majesty.”

“Good, firstly, you know the community payback program I recently started in ponyville?”

“Yes?”

“Well, the probation worker in charge of it hasn’t checked in for two days, and nopony has seen or heard from him either, and I want you and your friends to look into it.”

“Us, isn’t that more like a job for the police?”

“Well, that’s not all. I want you and your friends took look into it, but also take his place. I understand that a few relatives of your friends are in the program, and I thought bringing in you six could greatly help with those young ponies’ progress.”

“That sounds like a great idea your majesty, I’m sure they’d be happy to help.”

“Great, now secondly, something more serious, I’ve been getting reports that a very strange storm went through Ponyville two days ago.”

“I know, my friends and I were lucky we didn’t get caught in it, but many other ponies all over town were. Luckily, nopony was hurt.”

“Yes, but that’s not all. I’ve been hearing stories about ponies suddenly being able to do amazing, impossible things. I want you to look into this. Can you do these tasks for me Twilight?”

“Of course Princess Celestia, I would do anything for you.”

To be continued…

Two

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Two

Apple Bloom sat there staring at the empty basket, trying as hard as she could to make apples appear in it. She strained her mind for several minutes, trying to picture apples in her head as clearly as possible. “Uh? Why are ya’ just starin at an empty basket?” her older sister asked. Apple Bloom couldn’t think of an answer, and she merely shrugged. “Well, hurry up, it’s almost time for school, and ya need to get goin’,” Applejack said. Apple Bloom set off for school, but before she left she looked back at the basket one last time, and sighed at the fact it was still empty.

Later at the community center, Apple Bloom had just arrived since school ended, and was puzzled to find several mattresses set up on a spot next to the entrance. She was then surprised when Evergreen landed on them after jumping off the roof.

“Ow, that really fuckin’ hurt.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to find out what my power is. I’m on flying right now, but I don’t think that’s it.”

“Well you shouldn’t being testing it like that; you could have gotten yerself killed; besides flying isn’t that special.”

“It is when you’re an earth pony.”

“Maybe you don’t have a power.”

“No, I know I have a power, I can feel it in my balls, and it’s like a soft vibrating feeling. Do you get that?”

Apple Bloom couldn’t believe what an idiot he was. As it turns out, all six of the ponies were experimenting with their own powers, and all have been about as successful as Apple Bloom and Evergreen. Nopony could control their powers, and nopony could use them whenever they wanted. Unfortunately, these were the least of their worries. The investigation into the disappearance of their now late probation worker and also Brightening Lightning was now being spear-headed by the smartest pony in Ponyville.

“Hello everypony, some of you already know my friends and I, but for those who don’t, I’m Twilight Sparkle, and these are Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. Oh, and this little dragon here is Spike.”

“Hey everypony, I’ve never met some of you, so we should throw a big party for you, it’ll be like a ‘Happy First Day on the Job’ party. Ooh, I’m looking already looking forward to it. I better start planning right now.” Pinkie said with bubbly excitement as she ran out of the room. Evergreen raised his hoof to ask a question.

“How comes there’s seven of you now when at first we only had one probation worker?”

“That’s a really good point.” Rainbow Dash said very annoyed, as it was obvious she didn’t want to be here.

“Well, we all will be rotating days in which we act as your probation workers, while the rest of us work on other things. Also, your old probation worker is a topic I’d like to talk about with all of you,” Twilight said. The ponies all focused their attention on her as a feeling of nervousness settled in among them.

“Neither Onyx Stallion or Brightening Lightning have been seen by anypony for the last three days. If any of you know anything about this, or have seen anything, you have to tell us.” The young ponies just looked at each other. “If you know anything, just tell us the truth,” Applejack added. She looked at Apple Bloom, giving her the kind of look like she was waiting for her to say something, and hoping that because they were sisters she’d be comfortable sharing anything with her. Rarity also gave Sweetie Belle the same look, but the ponies just stood in silence for a few moments. The young offenders then just shook their heads and said no.

Twilight wasn’t happy that her investigation started off so poorly. She was hoping to get some critically important information from the ponies and nicely wrap it all up fairly quickly, but now she wasn’t sure what to do. She had sent them on their assignment, to pick up some litter around town, and all her friends left as well to go do things that they saw as being more important. Twilight stood in the community center with spike as she pondered to herself.

“Well, it looks like we’re still at square one with the investigation,” Spike said. Twilight was still deep in thought, “They’re hiding something, and I just know it.”

“They seem alright to me.”

“Still, it’s a gut feeling I have. Also, that storm that Celestia also wanted me to look into, I can’t help but think that had something to do with it too.”

“Huh, the last time anypony saw them was the day that the storm happened.”

“Yes, right now I have Rainbow Dash looking into the storm for me. Hey Spike, when they get back, I want you to try to hang out with them, see what you can learn.”

“Cool, like a secret agent?”

“No, just talk to them and keep a close eye on them.”

“Like a secret agent?”

Twilight giggled a bit. “Fine, call it whatever you want, but right now I need your help. Some puppeteer is using the community center for his show tomorrow, and he’s coming by later today so we have to help him set up.”

“Why do we have to help?”

“Because we’re not only probation workers, but we are also officially volunteering to help out in the community center. Come on; let’s get started before he gets here.”

It was a blisteringly hot that day in Ponyville, and the six ponies were walking all over town picking up litter. “So how is everybody doing with their powers?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Well, turns out Dual is a completely annoying prick. He just pops out at random times, and he’s either telling me I shouldn’t do something, or bringing me down by reminding me about everything that makes me sad. I’m telling you, that storm gave me a problem, not a power.” Daring said. The others all had similar issues. Thunder is too nervous when people are watching him for him to turn invisible, Scootaloo can’t stop running into things when she uses her power, and Sweetie Belle has yet to create another sonic scream. The situation couldn’t get worse.

And then a way for it to get worse just landed in front of them. Some poor pony jumped off the roof of his house and landed right in front of the other ponies, subsequently freaking them out. Other ponies around them also screamed, fainted, and panicked around them. The police were quickly on the scene. “What is Equestria coming to?” one of them said. All the ponies eventually went back to their own business, and the six ponies were no different. Although, as they walked away, Sweetie Belle looked up to the roof the unfortunate pony leapt from, and thought she saw the form of another pony standing there just for a brief moment, but she shook it off and didn’t think much of it.

The suicide became the talk of the town in no time, considering an act such as that happened very rarely. By the time the six came back to the community center an hour later, Rarity was already there telling Twilight and spike all about it.

“Did you hear about what happened,” Rarity asked.

“Of course, he landed right in front of us,” Evergreen replied.

“He did, did he?” Twilight said, staring at them while she thought to herself. “It’s strange, Big Bell always seemed so happy and full of life whenever I saw him around town.”

“Yes it is very strange,” said the middle-aged unicorn that walked out of the main area of the community center. “Oh, this is String Puller, he’s a puppeteer who’s using the community center for his show tomorrow, he just came by today to help set up,” Twilight told them. Evergreen let out a bit of a chuckle.

“A pony who makes his living playing with dolls in front of little foals?” String Puller suddenly got very angry, and very intense. “They’re not dolls,” he said.

This is what Evergreen lived for. In his so far short life he found no greater joy in anything besides sarcastically chastising those he thought he was better than. “Of course they’re not, I mean, calling puppets dolls is just absurd, like saying grass is green or water is wet.” String was only getting angrier and angrier. “Excuse me for a moment, Miss Sparkle.” He walked back into the center’s main area. “At least you’re not a pedophile; you only get a bunch of foals alone in a room with you so you can show them your dolls!” Evergreen yelled out as he walked away, and Twilight used her magic to grab him by the ear and pull him to the side.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m just having a bit of fun.”

“You could have hurt his feelings.”

“It’s not my fault he can’t take a few jokes.”

“You’re going to go in there and you’re going to apologize to String Puller, right now.”

“You can’t make me do tha- ow, ow, ow,” Twilight lifted him in the air by his ear. “Ow ow ow ow ow ow, ok, ok, I’ll go apologize to him!”

“That’s better.” Twilight said very pleased with herself. All the other ponies tried to hold in their laughter as Twilight let go of Evergreen. “Alright everypony, I need to go run some last minute errands and seeing as you all have already finished cleaning up the litter, you might as well get changed and head out, come on Spike, I’ll need your help with these.” “Oh…I thought I’d hang out with these guys for a bit,” he gave a sly wink to her. Twilight rolled her eyes, smiled, and then calmly said, “Don’t worry; there’ll be plenty of time for that later.”

They left with Rarity, and four of the young ponies walked into the locker room to change, but Evergreen and Apple Bloom stood by themselves for a few minutes. “Can you believe her, what a bitch,” Evergreen said. Apple Bloom looked at him in a bit of confused amazement. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“Nothin’ anypony could ever say to you would ever really hurt you, but ya’ just don’t get it that not everypony’s like that. Other ponies can get hurt in those ways.” Apple Bloom went into the locker room, and Evergreen went into the main area of the community center. It was set up with several chairs on one side, and a central area where String Puller was sitting and messing around with some puppets in a large case.

“Look, I came here to talk to you,” Evergreen said. String got up. “I was hoping you’d come here.” He looked behind Evergreen and out into the hallway. There was nopony there.

“Well, I wanted to say,” he sighed, “I’m sorry about what I said to you earlier.”

“Oh, you’re…apologizing. Huh…now I may actually feel a bit bad about what I’m going to do.”

“Why, what are you going to do?”

“Well, you know about the pony who killed himself earlier today?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Do you know what he did right before he died?”

Evergreen thought to himself for a moment. “He jumped?”

“No, he made fun of my puppets.”

“You must be really obsessed with those fucking dolls-,” String lifted his right hoof, and Evergreen’s body began to stiffen up and contort, as he lost all control over it. Ok, I definitely prefer Twilight over this colt. Evergreen started walking as his limbs, torso, and neck all tightened and twisted a different way each step, all to make the walk as painful as possible.

“All my life, ponies have all made fun of me for one reason or another. I’m always either I’m weird looking, I smell funny, I’m a pedophile, or I play with dolls,” String tightened his grip, and Evergreen tried to let out both a scream of pain and a cry for help, but his vocal cords clinched, and he couldn’t manage anything above a whisper.

“That’s a very- aagghh- interesting life story. Let’s sit down and you can- ugghhh- tell me some more.”

“You’re not going to talk your way out of this one,” String Puller walked Evergreen over to the case, and had him grasp a rusty pair scissors with his hoof, and press the point against his neck. Despite all the stress on his body, Evergreen looked at String Puller, his eyes narrowed and his face stone cold, and calmly said, “I am sorry for everything I’ve ever done to you.”

“I know you are,” String said, as he was about to make the final flick of his wrist. Then he was struck on the back of the head, and fell to the ground. Evergreen’s body was released, and as he breathed heavily, he looked at the scissors and threw them across the room. He then saw that it was Apple Bloom who hit String Puller with a baseball bat. Just moments ago, Apple Bloom had come to check on how the apology was going. She then saw what was going on, and a baseball bat appeared next to her out of thin air. She knew exactly what to do with it.

“Ok, for the record, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too fucking close.”

“Sorry, but that doesn’t sound like a ‘thank you for just saving my life Apple Bloom, I really appreciate it’ to me.”

“Hey, being nice to somepony just almost got me killed, so I’m never going to be nice to anypony ever again, that includes you.”

“Fine then, have it your wa-,” Their bodies suddenly tightened and contorted. They hadn’t noticed that String Puller had gotten up and was now balancing himself on his hind legs, now controlling their bodies with his two front hooves. “Did you really think a bump on the head would stop me?”

“Well it was worth a shot,” Apple Bloom choked out. Evergreen smiled at that, despite what was about to happen. “You know what, I’m just going to snap your necks and be done with all this bullshit.” He once again tightened his hooves, when Daring popped his head through the doorway.

“Ok, does anypony here have change for the vending machine?” String Puller looked at him in confusion. “Alright, soooo, what’s going here?”

String Puller used his left hoof to grab Daring to prevent him from getting help, and Apple Bloom was free. In the brief instant before String could react and stop her, Apple Bloom took the bat and swung with all her might. It hit String square on the head, and she knew he wouldn’t be getting back up. Daring walked over to where the other two were standing, and looked down at String. “So, another one we have to take care of?”

“Yeah.”

He sighed. “I’ll get the shovels.”

After Twilight finished her errands, she realized there was nopony to lock up the community center, so she sent Spike to do it. Since it was already night, she assumed nopony would be there. Spike arrived at the community center, but was surprised to see a light was still on in the locker room. What? He thought. Must be the fillies, but why would they still be here. Whatever, I’ll just tell them I’m locking up. The six ponies were all changing out of their now muddy orange jumpsuits.

“Hey Evergreen, what do you think you learned today?” Apple Bloom asked.

“What did I learn?”

“Yeah, whenever something big happens to my sister and her friends, they always learn a lesson at the end that they report to Princess Celestia.”

“Ok, I’ll have a go at this. I learned that you shouldn’t make fun of ponies you don’t know, because they just might be psychotic…or have superpowers…or both. You should only make fun of ponies you know either don’t care or won’t do jack shit about it, like Thunder.”

Thunder said, “Well I learned that-,”

“Shut up twat, you didn’t do anything today.”

“Guys, this is all nice, but we still have a major problem with Twilight that we can’t just keep avoiding,” Scootaloo interrupted.

“Twilight? She has no leads what-so-ever, as long as we act like nothing happened, she’ll never be able to prove that we killed the probation worker. Case closed,” Evergreen said very smugly. Although he was confused when their only reaction was that of complete shock. He then realized they weren’t even looking at him, and he turned around to see Spike standing in the doorway. “Oh shit.”

Spike bolted towards the community center entrance, but Scootaloo used her power to knock him down in a second, before slamming into a nearby wall. She didn’t break right through it, so she was getting better at using her power.

“Well, he’s not dead. Just knocked out,” Apple Bloom said with much relief.

“What do we do with him?” Sweetie Belle said.

“We can’t kill him, he hasn’t done anything wrong,” Thunder stated.

“Well, if we let him go, he’ll tell everyone what we did,” Scootaloo pointed out.

There was a long pause of thought. “My house is pretty close to here, and my parents keep rope in the basement,” Daring said. The ponies looked at each other and agreed. They’ll tie Spike up in Daring’s basement until they can figure out what to do with him.

To Be Continued…

Three

Blank

Flanks

Three

The six ponies arrived at the Dual residence with their special cargo and proceeded inside. "What's going on down their?" Mrs. Dual called from her bedroom. "Nothing mom, just...um...having a sleepover with some friends of mine. Just go back to sleep." Daring replied. Mrs. Dual was more than half asleep already, so she didn't pay any mind to what they were doing and went back to sleep. Daring then motioned for the others to come in. Thunder came in first with Spike being carried on his back, and he was soon followed by the others.

"Was that your mom?" Evergreen asked.

"Eeyup." Daring said.

"Is she hot?"

Daring hit him in the shoulder and Evergreen flinched in pain for a moment. "Is your dad here too?" Sweetie Belle asked. Daring shook his head, "No, just my mom."

"Well, where is your Dad?"

"Gone." Daring was obviously trying to avoid the question and followed Thunder and Apple Bloom down to the basement to help tie up Spike. The others, having nothing better to do, started looking around Daring's house. They saw knick-knacks, dirty dishes, the occasional family photo. Evergreen looked at one picture and determined the answer to his previous question was a no. The three other ponies came upstairs and they all met in the kitchen to discuss their current predicament.

"He's still knocked out, but when he does come to, what should we do with him?" Apple Bloom said. She yawned, and realized it was getting pretty late. I'm gonna have to come up with a good excuse to tell Applejack and Granny when I get home. She then remembered what Daring said to his mom, and she thought that would do.

"Well, he knows about the probation worker now, and he's Twilight's right hoof pony...er, dragon. If we let him go, he'll tell her. I say we kill the little cunt now and get it over with," Daring said with a surprising lack of remorse.

"I still don't like all of this," Sweetie Belle said.

"All of what?"

"All of this! All the killing, and the lying and...and Spike's our friend...he hasn't done anything to us...it was all just..."

"Wrong place, wrong time," Scootaloo added. Daring looked at Sweetie Belle, her face was filled with sadness, he looked directly into her eyes, which were on the verge of filling with tears. He began to feel it too, when suddenly he grabbed his stomach in pain, and out popped Dual.

"She's right, you know." he said. "You know, I don't think I'm ever going to get used to you doing that," Evergreen pointed out as he munched on some snack's from Daring's pantry.

"First off, you, stop eating my food, and you, you have no say in this."

"I have just as much say as anypony, I'm part of the group too." Recently, Daring had grown accustomed to this, literally arguing with himself.

"No, you're not. I'm part of the group. You're just an annoying little dick who pops up every once and awhile. Now shut up and get back in me."

"No."

"No?"

"No. You're not the boss of me."

"Um, excuse me? Last time I checked, it was my body that you go in and out of."

"I'm still my own pony practically...well, almost...close enough."

"Well then, maybe we should just stay split then." Dual paused, surprised he would say that. He was definitely Daring's more sensitive side, and was still a bit frightened by the thought of being alone; he just wasn't used to it. Daring knew this.

"Look, I didn't really mean that, it's just everything going on, I'm a bit scared to be honest."

"Yeah, me too."

"That's real nice guys, but we still have a problem tied up in the basement," Scootaloo said, bringing everypony back to reality. Daring looked back at Dual, and again at Sweetie Belle. "Alright, I say he lives," Daring finally said, and a small smile came across both Dual and Sweetie Belle's faces.

"Ok, we're all agreed that Spike lives, but what should we say to him when he wakes up?" Apple Bloom said. They all thought to themselves for a moment, and Scootaloo got an idea.

"Ok, in the morning we take him back to the community center, and when he wakes up we act like he hit his head and dreamt the whole thing."

"Genius! No...wait...oh yeah, that's completely retarded," Evergreen said.

"I have to admit Scoots, that plan is kind of stupid..." Apple Bloom said.

"Retarded," Evergreen corrected her.

"I wasn't gonna say that cause it aint polite."

"Why do you talk like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like that, with an accent and everything."

"I don't know, it's just the way my whole family talks."

"Ok, so the Apple family has been in Ponyville for generations, and during that entire time you're the only ponies who talk like that, and the accent has stayed relatively the same, without any generation mixing with a normal Ponyville accent."

"This isn't important right now, and I'm pretty sure you're the only pony who thinks about that."

"Actually, i thought about that sometimes, and i was going to bring it up but i kept forgetting," Daring said. Apple Bloom let out an annoyed sigh. The ponies kept arguing while Sweetie and Dual, who weren't involved in the conversation very much at all, started a conversation of their own.

"So when did you get to Ponyville?"

"Last week. We just finished unacking yesterday."

"Do you miss your old home?"

"Not really...i mean... my mom and I weren't doing so well for ourselves back in Manehatten. I guess you could say me getting in trouble was a bad thing, and a good thing. One minute we're barely scraping by,never making ends meet and living day by day, then the next minute Celestia herself gave us a nice house in Ponyville. It has more than two rooms, and it's ours while I'm doing...or we're doing our community service."

"Wow, it must have been hard, but I wouldn't know what it's like," she looked at Daring, "He's certainly never mentioned all that before."

"Well, he'd rather live in the now, he doesn't like to remember the then. He's never wanted to deal with any of it, hurts too much. Now that I'm here he seems to care even less. He feels like i can do it all for him now." Dual sat there looking at his hooves while he rubbed them together, and Sweetie Belle took one of his hooves in her own.

During all of this, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Daring, and Evergreen were all throwing ideas across the room.

"Ok, so then Spike was given a rufee at the party, and raped in his drugged state, so he imagined the trauma of us attacking him in place of the real trauma of being anally violated. It's fool-proof...but in order for it to work one of us is going to have to take one for the team, and actually rape Spike. Just in case they do a seed check when he wakes up."

"Evergreen, that is the worst plan i have ever heard," Scootaloo said.

"Also, how exactly would we convince Spike that he went to a late night kitten themed birthday party?" Daring asked.

"Ok, it doesn't necessarily have to be kitten themed."

"I like my plan better, with the probation worker becoming a werewolf so we had to kill him."

"Now that is stupid, it won't be weeks until the next full moon. That's why we should go with the rape story, it could happen any day of the week."Besides, where would we have gotten wooden stakes to kill the werewolf?"

"Stakes are vampires...werewolves are silver...bullets," Thunder said, but he was being ignored. Thunder was tired of standing around doing nothing. The ponies were all coming up with ridiculous plans as a sort of easy way out. Thunder decided to take the hard way out, to do what none of the others even considered. He was going to talk to Spike...and tell him the truth.

Thunder was alone in the basement with Spike. Spike had been tied to a beam supporting the floor above. Thunder waited awhile until Spike began to stir. He was a bit dazed, and had dried blood on his face from a nose bleed he got whem Scootaloo knocked him out.

"Where am I?"

"You're in Daring's basement, we thought it would be bad to leave you at the community center."

"Wh-what are you going to do with me now?"

"Well...um...they're deciding that upstairs, I just came down here to give you a glass of water."

"Oh, well... I'm going to have a free hand to drink it."

"There's a...There's a straw." He placed the cup next to Spike.

"Well, aren't you clever." He leaned over and took a few sips. "So, what exactly is going on?"

"Upstairs, they're trying to come up with an excuse...to try and cover up everything. I wanted to tell you the truth."

"And that is?"

"The storm that happened a few days ago...it...changed us. All of us. Onyx, went crazy...and killed Brightening and went after us. We didn't mean to kill him, we were just trying to stay alive."

"When you say the storm changed you...it changed you how?"

"Ever since the storm, we can do these things...we call them our powers, like super heroes. We each have one, well...except Evergreen, he doesn't seem to have one."

Spike seemed very interested, more than Thunder expected. "Can you show me yours?"

"I can't do it with other ponies watching me."

"Can you at least try? I really want to see it."

Thunder gulped, and tried as hard as he could. At first he didn't think anything would happen, and nothing did, until he had the thought of really wanting it creep into his mind, and he felt a familiar rush of pain to his head.

Spike's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He was at a loss for words as Thunder reappeared.

"You're the first pony...I mean, dragon, I've ever been able to do that in front of." Spike didn't say anything. "I know it's a lot to take in and..."

"No, it's just that...she was right."

"Who was right?"

"When Twilight first asked us to help her with the community payback stuff Celestia assigned her, she told us that Celestia also asked her to look into the storm. Celestia said that rumors were going around about the storm changing ponies in really weird ways, but we haven't found anything to prove it yet."

"So you're saying that...Twilight isn't just trying to find out what happened to the probation worker, but...but she's also looking for ponies, who have powers like us."

"If she finds out about either of those things, you'll all be in a whole lot of trouble." Thunder was letting it all sink in, but then he remembered the incredibly important question he had to ask Spike. His answer could change everything and what-ever it was no pony would be the same afterwards.

"Spike...if we let you go...if we trust you enough to let you go...would you tell Twilight everything I told you."

Spike was silent, and he stared directly into Thunder's eyes. "I want to know something first. You don't seem anything like the other ponies, even Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle, why are you sticking your neck out for them?"

"Because...they're the only friends that I've got."

"With everything that I've heard, and everything that I've seen, i can believe that the storm changed Onyx. Also, none of you seem like cold-blooded killers to me. I don't know if I'll regret it later, but right now, I don't think any of you deserve to take the fall for that. I won't tell anypony." Thunder smiled, and he untied the ropes that were holding Spike.

Just like Thunder hoped, Spike didn't try to knock him out or run away. He just drank the rest of his water and the two walked upstairs.

"Alright colts," Scootaloo said, "The two of you will each pick a straw, and whichever pony picks the short one has to rape Spike." Apple Bloom scoffed, still not being able to believe they were going through with this plan. Daring drew a straw from Scootaloo's hooves and it was long. He pointed at Evergreen and exclaimed, "Ha, Fuck You!"

"Well, it is your plan Evergreen, you might as well do the dirty deed," Scootaloo commented.

"That's it," Apple Bloom interrupted, "I've had enough, I say we just go downstairs and tell Spike the truth. Maybe we can get him to see things our way."

"Too late," Spike said standing next to Thunder in the kitchen doorway. The six ponies jumped back in surprise. "Woah, it's alright, Thunder told me everything."

"Even the stuff about the puppet guy?" Evergreen asked.

"No, what happened with the puppet guy?"

"Oh, nothing."

"How do we know we can trust you to not tell anypony?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Pinkie swear?" Spike said, holding out his little finger.

"We don't have pinkies," Daring said.

"Then you'll have to take my word for it. Look, Thunder told me about the powers, about the storm, everything. I'm willing to believe your story and, until you prove otherwise, that you all mean well and didn't want any of this to happen. I won't tell anypony what i know, but at the same time Twilight is the best friend I've ever had, and I won't outright betray her. The most I can do for you is maybe help point her in the wrong direction if she gets close to finding out. Hell, she already asked me to spy on you guys for her..."

"The bitch...sorry, sorry, I'll stop talking," Evergreen went back to listening.

"Anyway, if she does find out, there's nothing I can do for you. You'll be on your own. I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I'm on your side."

"You're sure are quick to trust us," Apple Bloom said, very skeptically.

"Let's just say it's a gut feeling I have, and I always go with my gut." After that, a heavy burden was finally lifted off of everypony's shoulders, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"So...what now?" Spike asked.

"Well I told my mom that this whole thing was just a sleepover so that's what we're going with. Everypony's spending the night and telling their parents that they just forgot to mention it."

"Alright, I can do that. I have to try to sleep off this headache anyway."

"Yeah, sorry," Scootaloo said, "but I think it's pretty cool that you'll get to be our very own double agent now."

"Huh...double agent... I like the sound of that."

To Be Continued...

Four

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Flanks

Four

On the morning after the "sleepover" the ponies (and Spike) all went home and the ponies (and Spike) all received lectures about how worried all of their loved ones were when none of the showed up until the next morning.

"A sleepover?!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Well, you told me to hang out with them, find out what I could, so when they asked me if I wanted to come to their sleepover I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to do that." Spike said.

"You could have at least told me before you went. I was worried about you."

"Sorry, it just slipped my mind."

"Ok then, what did you find out?"

"Nothing really. They all seem alright to me."

"That's not good enough. I know they're hiding something, I just know it."

"Don't you think you're worrying about this a bit too much?"

"Celestia personally gave me this assignment. I'm not going to her empty-hooved."

While the two talked upstairs, three familiar faces entered the library downstairs. "So are you sure this library has one?" Evergreen said.

"Well, I don't know for sure, but the Manehatten public library has one," Daring said.

"So does the Trottingham one. Why am I here again?" Thunder said.

"Because, you seem like the loner who reads a lot type. You may be able to help us find it," Evergreen answered.

"Yes I do read a lot...b-but I don't think I could help find it. Besides, is it really important enough to be looking for it this early in the morning."

The other two ponies froze and looked at Thunder in amazement and Evergreen backed up to deliver an inspiring speech he just thought up.

"Gentlecolts, since we arrived in this desolate intellectual wasteland known as Ponyville, our needs as pubesant young ponies have gone unfulfilled. That is, until last night rumor has reached my ears that public libraries have secret porn stashes. I don't know whether or not this is true, but if there is even the slightest chance that we could be sitting on top of a literal treasure trove of pornography, then by Celestia I will seek it out. Gentlecolts, our thirst for clopping shall be quenched!"

"What's going on down there?" Twilight asked as she and Spike walked downstairs.

"Hello Miss Sparkle, it really is a lovely morning this...er, morning. We are here to find some very engaging books to spend our off time reading and bettering our lives with the lessons learned in said books."

"What are you all doing here?"

"I just said we..."

"No, I mean what are you doing here? You three should be heading of to school soon."

The three each had blank expressions on their faces. "Oh, I personally had assumed that because of our community service, we were sort of...exempt from the whole school thing." Daring said.

* * * *

"Good morning class," Miss Cheerilee said.

"Good morning Miss Cheerilee," the class repeated.

"Today is a very special day my little ponies. We are getting three new students today."

"Great, just what this class needed, more blank flanks." Diamond Tiara said. The class (except for Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle) burst into laughter.

"Oh boy! A complete bitch! I was hoping this class would have on of those," Evergreen said. Now the entire class (except for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon) was laughing hysterically.

"Evergreen! We do not use that kind of language in this classroom. Now please take your seats." Miss Cheerilee ordered. The three took their seats, Daring and Thunder were sat around the middle near the three fillies and Evergreen was sat right in the front row so Cheerilee could keep an eye on him.

After school was over the six blank flanks walked outside together. "That was easily the most boring experience of my life. The cruel irony is that I'm going to have to go there everyday before community service, the second most boring experience of my life," Evergreen complained.

"It isn't all bad. Miss Cheerilee is a really nice teacher," Sweetie Belle said.

"I guess so, but she kept giving me this evil look, you know," Evergreen said.

"Maybe because she can tell you're a troublemaker," Apple Bloom said jokingly.

"Maybe..." Evergreen noticed a filly sitting by herself reading a book, and he nudged Thunder to get his attention. "Hey, I think I just found your future special somepony. Weird, brooding loner that doesn't fit in with normal society. It's like she was made for you."

"That's Chiller Mane, she spends all her time reading by herself. She's really into those morbid monster books at the library." Scootaloo said.

"Oh, you mean the ones with the zombies, and the vampires, and werewolves?" Daring asked.

"Yeah, those are the ones."

As they walked away, Chiller glanced at them, then grabbed her belly with her hooves. She was getting hungry.

Later, at the community center the blank flanks were mopping the floors while Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were supervising them, but mostly talking to each other.

"Where is Fluttershy? She's supposed to take my shift so I can get out of here." Rainbow Dash said.

"Why are you so eager to get out of here anyway?" Twilight asked.

"Because, Twilight, tomorrow night The Wonderbolts are going to have their first ever performance in Ponyville! I'm going to have to work on some new moves to show off."

"Ugh, whenever The Wonderbolts are putting on a performance, you go off to come up with new moves to impress them so that you can join. Why don't you just go up to a Wonderbolt and tell them 'Hey, I'm a big fan of you guys and I'm also the only pony alive that's ever broken the sound barrier. Also I did it three times, so can I join your team'."

"Wha- you can't just go up to a Wonderbolt and...you see they're very picky and...um...shut up Twilight. I'm gonna go anyway, I'm not waiting up for Fluttershy." Just then Fluttershy burst into the community center, breathless and very frantic.

"Twilight... I just saw... there were these... my animal friends...they found...they found..." she said in between breathes.

"Calm down Fluttershy..." Twilight looked over to the six young ponies cleaning the floor. "Come on, let's talk about this somewhere else."

The three ponies stepped out into the hallway. "What do you think that's about?" Scootaloo said. "I don't know and frankly I don't care. I'll be right back, I'm gonna go get a drink." Daring said. He stepped out in the hallway and got a water from the vending machine. While drinking it he noticed the three mares (although they hadn't noticed him) and he listened in out of curiousity.

"Are you sure that's what you saw." Twilight said.

"Oh, I'm sure of it. Some of my rabbits got out this morning, so I went looking for them. Then I found the bodies outside Everfree forrest. I came here as fast as I could."

"Creepy...but Fluttershy, why didn't you go to the police?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Oh... I'm sorry...it's just that...I came here first because I remembered the pictures you showed us the day you asked us to help with the community service... I thought you'd want to know that... the bodies were the probation worker and the other young colt in the program."

Daring spit out his water out of sheer surprise, and the mares quickly turned to face him. "Oh...umm... th-this water tastes like shit!" He threw the water across the room and, unable to think of what to say next, he quickly walked back into the main area of the community center.

"We'd better go now. I just want to take a look at the bodies, then we go straight to the police." The two mares followed Fluttershy to the patch of earth outside of the Everfree forrest. The whole way there Twilight kept looking over her shoulder, expecting to be followed. Deep down, she might of even hoped she was being followed.

"Ok...here they are." Fluttershy said. She tried to keep her distance. The smell kept Dash and Twilight from getting too close either. "It looks like they were dug up by some kind of animal. I read some books on pony anatomy. By the looks of it, they've not only been dead a few days, but they've been completely drained of blood too." Twilight said.

"Oh Celestia, are you sure?" Dash asked. Twilight nodded. "Come on, let's go to the police." They left quickly, none of them wanting to stay at the gory scene. After they were long gone, six younger ponies emerged from their hiding spot behind some nearby bushes.

"Well we're right fucked now." Daring said. "There's only one thing to do." Thunder said. They all looked at each other. "Move the bodies and re-bury them."

"Oh, right right." They all said. Daring and Thunder balanced Brightening on their backs while Evergreen carried Onyx all by himself.

"You know, you three aren't really contributing anything right now." Evergreen said under a lot of strain.

"We're looking out for anypony that might see us. Besides, three respectable fillies like ourselves shouldn't have to deal with corpse management. That is a job for good strong colts such as yourselves." Sweetie Belle said with a sly grin on her face.

"Since when have you had a sense of humor." Evergreen said.

"Coping mechanism I guess," she said jokingly. She did seem calmer about all of this than she did last night.

"What do you think dug up the bodies?" Apple Bloom asked. She seemed more curious than worried when she asked this.

"You heard Twilight, it was some kind of animal. It was probably hungry and it must of smelled the bodies." Daring concluded.

"But it drank all of the blood that was left in them. If it was just some hungry animal, why didn't it eat any of the bodies? It just drank the blood."

"That is pretty strange, but we have more immediate problems to deal with." Daring said as they arrived at a spot much further from where they started.

"Alright," Scootaloo said, "who brought the shovels?"

"Ohhh... fuck." Evergreen said.

* * * *

Spike burst into the community center and started searching for the six young ponies, until he entered the main area where they were all sitting together. "Hey, Twilight just told me about the-"

"Oh don't worry, we moved them." Scoots said.

"Oh, you did?"

"Eeyup, re-buried them far enough away so no pony could find them."

"Oh, well I'm officially useless now."

"Ah, don't worry. You'll have plenty of chances to be our own double agent." Scootaloo smiled, and Spike sat down with them and they started talking. About an hour later Twilight had returned with Fluttershy, but Rainbow Dash had left to practice her moves. "I can't believe it!" Twilight said. She punched the vending machine out of rage. "They moved the bodies! I should have stayed with them. Ugh! Now we're back at square one! Now, because of my stupid mistake, we still have no real proof that those foals killed them!"

"Well, Twilight, I don't think they would have done something like that. Like you said, they're just foals. Plus, we know them... I mean, two of them are Applejack's and Rarity's sisters. They would never do something like that," Fluttershy said.

"Come on Fluttershy, open your eyes! They were the last ones to see the two alive, they're always acting like they now something I don't, and they're the only other ponies who could have known about the bodies. They must have overheard us talking. You see Fluttershy, it's obviously them!"

"I'm sorry...it's just that I thought...oh i'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm just a little stressed out from all of this. Come on, I'm sure those guys'll be happy to get out of here."

The young offenders were overjoyed at their arrival, because the rules stated they couldn't actually leave until a probation worker said they could.

The six ponies changed and departed, each of them already thinking about the upcoming weekend.

"Finally, two whole days without school and without community service. I'm ready to just sit around in my own filth and do absolutely nothing." Evergreen said smiling, just imagining the joy of not having to do any actual work for two days.

"Well, if you guys aren't doing anything tomorrow, you could hang out with us." Sweetie Belle said. The three colts turned and looked at the three fillies. "You see, have our own very exclusive club that we like to call..."

"The Cutie Mark Crusaders!" they said in unison.

"We basically just hang out and try different things to find our special talents and get our cutie marks. Since none of you guys seem to have yours either, we can search together."

"Well, I was looking forward to wallowing in my own filth, but sure, why not?" Evergreen said. The other two agreed as well.

"Great," Apple Bloom said. "Consider yourselves honorary Cutie Mark Crusaders." The ponies continued walking until Scootaloo noticed Rainbow Dash practicing her flying nearby. "Hey guys, I gotta go, I'll see you later." she said.

"Alright, see you tomorrow," they said. The five continued on their way and Scootaloo walked over to Rainbow Dash.

"Hey there Rainbow Dash."

"Hey there Scoots. What's up?"

"Not much. So, getting ready for the Wonderbolts show tomorrow?"

"You know it, I'm gonna blow them all away with my moves and then I'll become an actual Wonderbolt."

"Hey, do you think you could teach me a few moves?"

Dash was surprised by this. She liked Scootaloo and liked showing off even more, but there was a fact about Scootaloo that Scootaloo herself must have forgotten and Dash wasn't sure how to bring it up without possibly hurting her feelings.

"Ummm...Scoots...you know you can't fly."

"Yeah, but I've been practicing. Here, watch." Scootaloo backed up, then ran a few feet and jumped in the air. She landed face first but she wasn't going to give up. "Hang on, I almost got it that time." She jumped again and fell again. It was after the third time that Dash couldn't stand it any longer.

"Look, Scoots, how about tomorrow you and me go to the Wonderbolts show together."

"Really? You really mean it?"

"Yeah. So, i'll see you tomorrow. I need to keep working on my moves."

"Ok. See you later Rainbow Dash!"

That got rid of her, Dash thought. She thought about how nice it'll be to get to know Scootaloo a bit more. After all, Scoots idolized her and Dash loved every minute of it. The least she could do was let Scoots hang out with her a bit. Although right now she doesn't need distractions from Scootaloo trying to impress her, not now and definitely not when she shows of for the Wonderbolts. She'll spend time with Scoots, but when the time comes she'll have to be completely focused.

Scootaloo stood outside her home that night with a helmet firmly attached to her head and a scooter beneath her hooves. When practicing her power she had this idea but had yet to try it out. Now she felt a sudden urge, a drive to try it out. She put one hoof to the scooter and one to the ground.

At times it was still wild and unpredictable, but recently she gained more control than ever before. When she wanted, it seemed like time had slowed and almost stopped. She pushed her Scooter forward and shot out onto the road. She whizzed all over Ponyville, making sharp turns and even going in between the occasional pair of ponies having a chat. She did a few more laps around town and headed back home. Not even a minute had passed. As she slowed to a stop she lost control for the first time and landed on the ground with her scooter next to her.

"Still gotta work on the dismounts," she said to herself. She was incredibly proud of herself. She had thought long and hard about it but now she was both sure and confident. She can't impress Rainbow Dash with her flying, but tomorrow she was going to blow her away when she told Dash about her power and gave her a live demonstration.

* * * *

The oven of Sugarcube Corner suddenly burst into flames as the six young ponies continued to scramble around the kitchen. At that point the Cakes didn't want anymore damage done and despite Pinkie insisting that they didn't mean to do it, the six were tossed out anyway.

"Hey, let's do baking! Great fucking idea Sweetie Belle." Evergreen said as he wiped the dirt off his body.

"Ok, so maybe baking isn't any of our special talents, but I'm sure we'll find em sooner or later," Apple Bloom said.

"Well it was still pretty fun. So, what should we try next?" Daring said. The group began walking back to the club house.

"How about oragami," Sweetie Belle said.

"What the hell is oragami?" Evergreen said.

"It's this thing Rarity showed me where you take a bit of paper and fold it so that it looks like an animal or a pony or something like that."

"As riveting as that sounds I don't really want to be known for being good at folding paper. Is there anything cool we could try like slaying dragons, or blowing stuff up, or maybe-" Another pony bumped into Evergreen and the group stopped.

"Hey Chiller, what's going on?" Scootaloo said. Chiller had been in a hurry and didn't see Evergreen at first when she ran into him. She had a saddle bag with a couple books in them and was fully clothed for some reason. They thought to themselves about how strange it was. It was an especially hot and sunny day and it seemed like Chiller had every bit of skin covered up.

"Oh, nothing much really just returning some over due library books," she said. She opened her saddle bag and showed them some of the books.

"Wow. You're really into monster books, huh?" Daring said flipping through one of them.

"Yeah, I just love a good scare. It makes me feel...really alive or something like that. I don't know, I just always get a kick out of scary stuff and the monsters in those books are scarier than the stuff in Everfree forest."

"I don't know about that." Apple Bloom said, "We've been to the Everfree forest, and the stuff there is a bit more fright'nin than some made up monsters."

"I like to read those books too...sometimes," Thunder said a little meekly. Chiller's shrouded face brightened up. She obviously loved talking about that stuff.

"Really? What's your favorite monster?"

"I'd have to say vampires. They're definitely the coolest."

"Oh my goddess, don't even get me started on vampires. I love them. They're so mysterious and deadly, how they pose as normal ponies but then at night they strike when you least expect it. It gives me chills."

"They sound like real charmers," Evergreen said closing the book he was looking at and tossing it back to Chiller. She caught it and turned back to Thunder.

"Hey, if you want we could hang out sometime...that is if it's ok with you." she said.

Thunder smiled. "I-I'd love to. By the way my name's, ugh...it's umm...it's Th-Thunder. Thunder Runner." Chiller started smiling too as she stood there awkwardly.

"Well, he can't do it right now, he's got crusading to do." Scootaloo said surprisingly quick after they finished talking. Chiller gathered up her books and Daring started staring quizzically at one of her legs.

"You know, you should probably get that looked at by a doctor." he said. She looked down at her right foreleg. A patch of her clothing had been torn by something and her skin had begun to blister. She hadn't even noticed it until now.

"Oh, that...um, that's just the...ugh..." there was a scream a little ways behind her and it caught the attention of the others. "Excuse me, I have to go." She ran in the opposite direction that the scream came from. The others walked towards it. A large crowd of ponies were gathered around the entrance of a nearby alley. The six young ponies were able to push their way through the crowd and saw the body of a young mare. The side of her neck had been bitten and torn open, giving a clear view a clear view of the inside. It was strange though, her throat was torn open but there wasn't a single drop of blood anywhere. No blood was coming out of the wound as she laid there either.

The crusaders were once again walking towards their club house but now they had a new topic to discuss.

"This town is fucked up," Daring said. "Shit like that never happened in Manehatten."

"It wasn't always this bad," Sweetie Belle said.

"It was the storm, it's always the storm. Ever since the storm everything's changed in Ponyville." Apple Bloom said.

"Well, what are we going to do about this one?" Thunder asked.

"Do? We're don't have to do anything. For the first time ever we don't have to get involved with every pony that's brutally murdered in this town. The police will handle it." Evergreen said.

"Come to think of it, it would be kinda nice to have normal lives, without all that weird stuff." Apple Bloom said.

"Yeah, lately the weirdest thing to happen to us is Thunder getting that weird fillyfriend whose obsessed with vam-" Evergreen stopped in his tracks.

"What is it?" Apple Bloom asked.

"I just had a thought."

"Well that's a first."

"Shut up Apple Bloom. Like I said, I just had a thought. Corpses drained of blood, the recent attack happened too fast for anypony to see it, and we have a creepy filly whose really into monsters and her skin burns in the sunlight."

"And yer point is?"

"That Chiller Mane girl is a vampire."

"What? That's just silly."

"Oh yeah? Remember the puppet guy. He was really into puppets and the storm gave him the power to control other ponies. This Chiller girl is really into vampires, so now she is one. I think we are beyond silly at this point."

"She seems fine to me," Thunder said.

"Another thing, she's supposedly attracted to Thunder. Considering that is a statistical impossibility she must be using him and saving him for later, like take out at a restaurant."

"Wait, are you saying just because a filly likes me that means she's some kind of...of monster," Thunder said with a subtle flush of anger that you could tell by his face was slowly building to heights the others had never seen in him before, and Evergreen wasn't helping.

"No, no...ok yes but there are other reasons too. It's just a big indicator of abnormal behavior since you're a twat and all..."

"Hey, quit it. There's no real proof of anything yet and you insulting Thunder isn't helping," Scootaloo said annoyed but with a hint of anger. Evergreen backed off, surprised by the fact Scootaloo was so quick to defend Thunder. Thunder himself didn't notice this, and still very mad he stormed off on his own.

"It's gonna get dark soon, so we should probably call it a day," Apple Bloom said.

"No way, we need to got to the library and do some research stuff."

"Why? What happened to the whole not needing to get involved thing?"

"Well if i'm ever pissing and or clopping in a dark alley somewhere and a vampire tries to take my blood, i'd feel better with full knowledge of how to kill the fucking thing."

"When would you ever...actually I don't want to know. Besides, we're not even 100% sure Chiller is a vampire."

"Considering all the weird shit that's been happening lately I say it's better safe than sorry." The others agreed and started on their way to the library. While walking there, Sweetie Belle slowed her pace a bit so that she was walking right next to Scootaloo.

"So, Scootaloo...what was all that earlier?"

"What was what?"

"You know, you and Thunder."

"I'm still not following."

"I'm just saying you were awfully quick to defend him back there."

"So, I was merely being a kind and thoughtful pony. You are seriously reading way too much into this."

"Just admit it, you like him."

"I do not. I mean he's a nice guy, he's a lot easier to get along with than the other colts, and he's kinda cute and..."

"Ha, I knew you had a thing for him."

"I wouldn't say it's a thing persay...it's just that...I've never really paid much attention to colts before this." her cheeks starting growing red.

"Face it Scootaloo, you have your first crush, and it's on thunder."

"Scootaloo has a crush on Thunder?!" Apple Bloom said. She had noticed the two talking and came in to join the conversation. Scootaloo almost tackled her.

"Shhhhh, do you want all of Equestria to know?"

"Pretty soon you two will be going on dates to restaurants, picnics, sporting events..."

"Sporting events? Oh no, I completely forgot! Sorry guys, I have to go."

"Go? We have to do book stuff." Daring said.

"I'm sorry, I just really have to go to the Wonderbolt show. I'm sorry." And with that she was gone, determined to show Rainbow Dash and everypony else just what she was made of.

It was finally night and Thunder was walking alone, still angry over what Evergreen said. What does he know anyway? he thought. First time a filly has ever been interested in me and he just has to try to ruin it. Why can't I ever have anything?

"Hey! Thunder!" a familiar voice called out. Thunder turned to see Chiller standing there smiling. Now that she wasn't covered in clothing he could see her fully for the first time. She was a young pegasus filly with light gray fur and flowing hair that had stripes of a pinkish purple in between stripes of white hair. She had violet eyes and a cutie mark of a blood red book with three bats flying around it. She basked fully in the light of the moon.

By Celestia, she's beautiful, he thought as he stared nervously at her.

"Thunder, are you alright?" she asked after a few moments of silence. He quickly snapped himself out of it and smiled with very red cheeks.

"Oh, ummm...sorry for, umm...staring..."

"Oh, it's alright. Hey are you doing anything right now?"

"Wha- right now? Ummm...no not really."

"Oh, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me to see the Wonderbolts show tonight. It's dark so they'll be starting soon."

Thunder stammered for a moment then agreed. They both smiled and headed to the open field outside of town where the show was being held.

Meanwhile at the library four young ponies each were looking through different books on the subject of vampirism. "Here's the book you guys wanted to see," Spike said entering the room carrying a large book. "Put it in the pile," Evergreen said. Spike dropped it on the large pile of books sitting on a nearby table.

"What exactly are you all researching for?" Twilight asked when she walked in the room.

"Ugh...homework." Sweetie Belle said.

"Oh really," she looked at the pile, "what subject?"

"The hard one," Evergreen said.

"Huh, well hurry up. It's already dark and I don't won't you all out too late with everything that's been going on."

"Ok, let's convene on what we know," Evergreen said. They came together but before they spoke they looked over at Twilight, who was still in the room waiting patiently to hear what they had to say.

"Umm, Twilight, I need you to help me with the thing in the other room, it's really important." Spike said as she pushed Twilight into the next room.

"Ok, what are some killing methods that we know?"

"Do we have any holy water?" Daring asked.

"We could send a letter to Celestia and see if she could send us some." Sweetie Belle suggested.

"No, we don't have time for that, what about silver? Do we have any of that?" Evergreen said.

"I have some forks and spoons at my house."

"Ok...that leaves garlic and wooden stakes."

"Well we don't have any garlic but there are plenty of sharp pieces of wood lying around all over the place," Apple Bloom said.

"Alright then, let's go kill us a vampire. I'm sure we have all the information we'll need." Evergreen said, throwing the book he was holding onto the large pile of books they didn't even open.

"We're still not entirely certain Chiller's a vampire," Apple Bloom pointed out.

"Well, we'll stab her in the heart with a wooden stake and if she doesn't turn to dust then she's not a vampire." They exited the library waving to Spike on their way out and went to fetch the needed supplies.

* * * *

"There you are, I was worried you weren't going to show up," Rainbow Dash joked. Scootaloo had just arrived at the Wonderbolt derby where Dash had been waiting patiently.

"Well, i'm always fashionably late."

"Then you kind of messed up Scoots, you maybe later than I expected but the show still doesn't start for another thirty minutes."

"That's still technically late, right?"

Dash laughed. "You crack me up Scoots, we should hang out more often."

"Really? That would be so awesome."

"I'm flattered," Dash looked over at Soarin and Spitfire who were talking over by the field. "Hey, go find us some seats. I have a date with destiny." She walked over to them, and Scootaloo took a deep breath. This is it, she thought.

Meanwhile, Chiller and Thunder arrived at the derby.

"We're here. Are you a big fan of the Wonderbolts?" she asked him.

"I'm not a big fan, but I always like seeing them perform."

"Same here. So...I'm really glad we get to go on this date together."

"D-Date...it's a...a date?"

"Of course silly. What did you think it was." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He blushed and smiled, and she smiled back. Then she suddenly clinched in pain and grabbed her stomach.

"Are you alright?" he asked. She looked up and smiled again. "Yeah, I'm good. Hey I have to take care of something real quick, why don't go find us some seats. I'll meet up with you." She hurried off and he turned to go to the stands, when he noticed Scootaloo stand a little while away from him.

Scootaloo? he thought. She turned away and disappeared for a split second, and reappeared a split second later, this time with a scooter and helmet. What is she doing? Scootaloo put on the helmet, got on the scooter, and took another deep breath.

"What are you doing?" Thunder asked. Scootaloo nearly fell off her scooter.

"Thunder. Umm...what are you doing here?" she asked defensively.

"I'm here with Chiller to see the show."

"Oh...well then, you shouldn't keep her waiting."

"I asked you...what are you doing?"

"I'm ugh...I'm just..." she looked over to Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts.

"You're going to show off your powers, aren't you?"

"So, maybe I was."

"Scootaloo, we can't just go around showing off our powers to everypony."

"Well why not? What's the point of having these stupid powers if we can't even use them for anything. This is my chance to show everypony just what I'm made of, flight or no flight."

"Nopony will understand you, they'll be afraid of you, they'll..."

"Look, I know they won't understand it, but that doesn't mean they'll be afraid of me or hate me. They'll love me, they'll think what I can do is amazing. You can't take that away from me."

"Scootaloo...I..." Then suddenly a scream came from the Wonderbolts tent that was quickly muffled. Nopony else seemed to notice it, but both Scootaloo and Thunder heard it and ran towards the tent.

The four ponies arrived at Chiller's house. "Ok, you were pretty wrong. I did not see a single piece of wood that was stake worthy on our walk over here." Evergreen said.

"Hang on, I've got this." Apple Bloom said. She closed her eyes and a moment later a wooden stake for each of them appeared.

"Have I ever told you how much I love your power?" They walked towards the door and knocked, only for it to already be open. They walked in and split up. Daring walked into the living room and jumped back in disgust. "Oh shit, that's not good." he said. Sweetie Belle came in second. "Oh my goddess." The other two walked in and found Chiller's parents, their necks ripped open and drained of blood.

"Alright, I think it's safe to say Chiller's a vampire. The only question is, where is she?" Evergreen said. Apple Bloom walked into the kitchen and picked a flier off of the counter. "Look, a flier for the Wonderbolts show. It starts in about forty five minutes. Oh no, Scootaloo's there." They ran out of the house and headed to the derby.

At the derby, Thunder and Scootaloo entered the tent and found two Wonderbolts on the floor with bite marks on their necks, and a third being drained by Chiller. She looked up at them and dropped the Wonderbolt.

"Thunder! I-I...I didn't want you to see me like this."

"How could you," he said softly, still in disbelief.

"I didn't mean to, I didn't want to...it's just, after that storm we had a couple days ago, I couldn't control myself. I didn't want to hurt anypony, at first I smelled the bodies and drained them, but it wasn't enough. I kept getting hungrier and hungrier, and my powers kept changing and just getting worse. I didn't want any of this."

Thunder didn't know what to say. "But Thunder, what I mean when I say my powers keep changing..." The three dead Wonderbolts suddenly shot up and the two ponies jumped back in surprise. "I can make you like me, and we can be together, for all of eternity." Her mind seems to have completely left by then and all that remained was the demon. Scootaloo was worried but Thunder stood more confidently than he ever did before, and very sternly said, "No."

"No?"

"No. I'm truly sorry for what happened to you Chiller, I am, but I'm not going to become a monster." He stood his ground, and a tear rolled down Chiller's cheek. "Then...I'm truly sorry...Thunder." The three vampires advanced, and Thunder confidence slowly diminished as one tackled him and the other two went for Scootaloo.

Just then Daring entered the tent. "Oh, there you are and oh, there's more than one...great. Don't worry, I came prepared." He pulled out his stake and charged one of the vamps. The others came in and helped with the other two. Scootaloo saw Chiller exit out the back of the tent and followed her.

The young ponies eventually over powered the vampires and staked them all. They proceeded to burst into ashes all over the ponies. "Great, they exploded, that's just fantastic." Daring said, wiping the ash off of himself. "Hey, where's Scootaloo, and Thunder?"

Chiller was running behind the stands when Scootaloo used her speed to knock her off her hooves. "Ok, rule one, don't even think about hurting Thunder. Rule two, don't just start killing ponies in my town. That really pisses me off." Chiller got up and swung at Scootaloo, but she easily dodged and hit back. She then ran at her hit her, then ran again from the other side hitting Chiller, and continued doing this for a minute. Scootaloo might of been faster, but Chiller was much stronger. She waited for the right moment and with one full swing Scootaloo was on her back with the wind completely knocked out of her.

"Guess I wasn't the only one hit by the storm," she pinned Scootaloo down. "It was a nice try, but nopony can beat me. You know, for some strange reason, I think this is going to be the first time I'll actually enjoy feeding." She opened her mouthed and bared her fangs. Scootaloo closed her eyes as Chiller reached down to her neck, but she then was knocked off of Scootaloo. Chiller prepared herself for anything, but it looked like nothing was there, although she could smell something.

Then, the sharp pain in her chest. A wooden stake appeared, with Thunder attached to it. She fell over and sat against one of the beams supporting the stands. Thunder helped Scootaloo up, "Are you ok?" he asked. She nodded and they both walked over to Chiller. She was sobbing heavily, then looked at the two of them. "You know what," she said. Tears streamed from her eyes and the faintest smile appeared on her face. "I'm scared."

With that her body went limp and faded to dust. The others arrived and after looking at Thunder and Scootaloo, none of them felt like celebrating.

"Sorry, we couldn't find them anywhere."

"Great, the race starts in five minutes and we're missing three racers." Spitfire said.

"Technically we can still do it with three racers. Rainbow Dash, how would you like to help us out of a jam?" Soarin asked.

"Oh, my, Goddess! I'd love that! That would be the most amazing thing ever!" she exclaimed.

"Alright, go get a uniform and meet us at the starting line," Spitfire said. Rainbow Dash rushed off to the tent, not even noticing the six ponies when she walked by them.

"At least somepony's having a good time." Evergreen said.

"Well, we don't have anything else to do tonight, we might as well stick around and watch the race." Apple Bloom said.

"I'm leaving, I don't feel like watching a race tonight," Thunder said.

"Here, I'll walk you home," Scootaloo said. The two departed and the others watched as they left.

"You know, I think there may be something going on between those two," Daring said.

Thunder and Scootaloo arrived at Thunder's house later.

"Well, here we are," Thunder said.

"Oh, by the way...I never did thank you for saving my life. It was very brave of you."

"Oh, it was nothing."

"Also, I've been thinking and, it was pretty stupid of me to almost reveal my powers to all those ponies. I didn't think it through very much."

"Well, I can understand why you did it. Sometimes we just don't want to be left out. Well...bye. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, bye." She began backing away, but then on complete impulse she ran up and kissed Thunder right on the lips. She held it for a few seconds and then backed up again. Thunder froze in shock. "Ok, let's never speak of this again."

Thunder nodded and Scootaloo walked off. Thunder walked inside and smiled to himself, very surprised and very happy about what just happened. Scootaloo was doing the same.

To Be Continued...

Five

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Flanks

Five

"Daring! Wake up!" said Miss Cheerilee. Daring's head shot up from his desk.

"I'm up, I'm up."

"Would you like to repeat what I just said to the class."

"Umm, no. I'm good actually."

"Since you obviously weren't listening the first time, I was telling the class about the science fair coming up this friday."

"How could you have possibly fallen asleep during that?" Evergreen asked sarcastically. Cheerilee gave him a nasty look. Just after two and a half weeks she was already thoroughly fed up with him. The look only seemed to make Evergreen smile even more.

"As I was saying, science is a spectacular new field of study and we hope that this fair will encourage several of you to pursue it." Miss Cheerilee walked over to the other side of the classroom, and Daring laid his head back on his desk. As he drifted back into sleep he heard her words grow fainter and fainter.

"With all the new breakthroughs in many different scientific fields, it holds endless possibilities for an infinite number of benefits for all of ponykind..."

* * * * *

"It's bullshit," Evergreen said as he closed the door of his community center locker, "why do we have to do a 100 point project on something as fucking stupid as science. We should be applying ourselves in a more beneficial way for our educations."

"Ya have no idea what ta do fer your project, do ya?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Of course I do... ok I don't."

"See, this would be a lot easier if ya weren't such an idiot."

"Coming from miss 'don't insult other ponies it hurts their feelings' you hypocrite."

"Well, yer an exception to the rule. Besides, it's not an insult, it's a very well known fact."

"She's right. So far you've failed every single assignment Miss Cheerilee has given you," Sweetie Belle added.

"I'd say that's more from my lack of trying rather than my overall stupidity."

"So, you realize that you're so fucking stupid that you don't even try?" Daring laughed.

"At least I'm awake during class."

"I was tired after being up all night, if you know what I mean." Daring said slyly.

"Oh, another romantic evening with your right hoof I see."

"Fuck off."

Evergreen laughed as the four exited the locker room. As they left, Thunder and Scootaloo stayed.

"Hey, Thunder?"

"Yes?"

"I can't help but notice that you've been avoiding me ever since the Wonderbolt derby." Thunder's body tightened nervously. He tried to say something while avoiding eye contact with Scootaloo. "Look," she said, "It's okay if you don't like me like that. It's just that... I wanted to see... you know what, forget it." She started to leave with a hint of anger now manifesting in her. She wondered why she even bothered.

"Wait." She stopped and turned back to Thunder, who was still standing there nervously. "Would you...um...would you...would...you..." Fuck it. he thought. "Would you like to go out...with me?"

"Go out?"

"Yeah... like on a date." Scootaloo grinned. "Oh I don't know..." she purposefully trailed off. Just before Thunder's heart sank completely she said, "I'm kidding, of course I will you big idiot." They both smiled and walked out together, rejoining the other four who were standing by the vending machine.

"How is that even possible?" Daring asked Evergreen.

"Well I had a very spicy dinner that night, and it was a few hours later so part of the food was digested while part of it wasn't. So I'm sitting there feeling terrible, so naturally what I do when I feel bad is I masturbate. So I'm going at it and all this work has gotten me feeling even more uneasy and bam! I shat, came, and puked all at once."

"You actually tripled yourself."

"Ya know, ah never would have believed that there were ponies as disgustin' as yerselves that really existed, and then ah met you two." Apple Bloom stated.

"I'm really glad I missed most of that conversation," Scootaloo said. That very disgusting conversation was suddenly interrupted when the six ponies noticed Dual casually entering the building.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" he asked.

"What the fuck are you doing here?!" Daring asked, looking around to see if any of the probation workers were around. Fortunately none had arrived yet.

"I had nothing to do at the house so I came here."

"What?! Somepony could have seen you around town while I'm supposed to be here. You are the stupidest fucking pony I've ever met."

"Technically he's you." Evergreen pointed out.

"Fine, fine I'll go back in you. It's just that I never get any time outside and when I do I have to stay in the house all the time."

"Well that's because you're an annoying prick now get back inside me."

"At least I'm not a big jerk." Dual said under his breath.

"Is that seriously the best you can come up with."

"Alright! You're a...cunty faced...cunt." Daring stood there for a moment with a blank expression, then grabbed Dual trying to tackle him. "Ok, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, ow, ow, ow." They kept fighting while Apple Bloom, Thunder, and Sweetie Belle tried to pull them apart. Evergreen and Scootaloo just stood there.

"If those two got into a real fight, who do you think would win?" Scootaloo asked.

"I'd say the ugly one." Evergreen replied. This all continued until three older ponies and a dragon came into the community center.

"Hey! What in the world is going on here/!" Twilight said. The ponies all froze, unsure what would happen next or how they would react to Dual. "Who the hell is that?" Twilight asked pointing at Dual. They all just stood there, worried about what to say next.

"He's my auntie, who the hell do you think he is?" Daring said calmly.

"I didn't know you had a twin brother." The young ponies let out small sighs of relief.

"Obviously because he's never around here, this community center, this place, because he's much less of a trouble maker, you know, he's into things... besides making trouble," Daring stammered on while trying to keep his cool.

"Ok, well I'm just here to tell you all that I won't be here today," she laughed but nopony else did, " I'm going to be busy today reorganizing the library, so I asked Applejack to take my place and help Rarity and Spike today with supervising you guys. So they'll give you your assignments and you guys can get started," Twilight said as she quickly left the building.

"Ok, y'all have to clean all the graffiti on the left wall, get to it." Applejack said. She and Rarity started to leave.

"Wait, you're not going to supervise us?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Ya see, we were all doing this as a favor to Twilight, but ah just have too much work on Sweet Apple Acres to do this anymore."

"And I also have work piling up at my boutique. Besides, you all have Spike here. I don't know what Twilight was thinking, you certainly only need one pony supervising you." On that note the two left to take care of their own business.

"First off, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that he's not your twin brother." Spike said. For the sake of demonstration Dual reluctantly faded back into Daring. "Ok, that, is a cool power."

"It's not that great." Evergreen said, still worked up over the fact that he didn't seem to have a power. "You guys know the drill, clean the graffiti, then you can go home."

* * * * *

"I can't believe we completely forgot about this for so long," Evergreen said while scrubbing the O in TO in the message I'M GOING TO KILL YOU.

"Yeah, considering we've walked by it everyday for the past three weeks." Scootaloo said. The six each scrubbed a section of the message.

"This was written by the original probation worker, whats-his-face." Evergreen said.

"Onyx," Thunder pointed out.

"You know his name? What, were you in love with him?'

"No, he told us his name... a couple times."

"Oh...well you don't have to be a twat about it." Thunder just went back to scrubbing but Scootaloo leaned in and gave Evergreen a swift hit on the side of his head. "Owww, what was that for?"

"For being annoying." They all continued to scrub in silence for a few minutes, until Evergreen broke it.

"It's just not fair." The group ignored him at first. "I said, it's just not fair." Apple Bloom sighed. "What's not fair Evergreen?"

"Each of you jerks have pretty much mastered all your powers, and I haven't even found mine yet."

"Maybe yours is being an annoying prick," said Thunder.

"Look, I'm happy that you're coming out of your little socially awkward shell and everything but remember something, I'm the funny guy around here."

"Some ponies think I'm pretty funny." Daring said.

"Shut up."

"Hey Sweetie Belle, ah've been meanin' to ask, how far have you come along with your power?"

"Oh... I don't like to use my power."

"But yer not gonna get any better unless ya practice."

"But last time I used it I blasted Evergreen into a wall. What if next time I hurt somepony I actually care about."

"Oh yeah, thanks, and I thought we really bonded...you." Evergreen interjected, but the others just ignored him. After a bit of silence they went back to cleaning the wall. Daring finally decided to interrupt it.

"Well, it's that time of day again, time to ignore our power problems and deal with the rest of the shit in our lives, particularly school. What are we doing for the science project?"

"Ms. Cheerilee said we can be in groups as big as we'd like so all six of us can work together although Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are the only ponies here smart enough to come up with something," Evergreen said. Scootaloo voiced her resentment of that statement. "You hit me, I'm not complimenting you."

"It doesn't really matter if we're smart, cause fer one ah don't know anything about science," Apple Bloom said.

"Me neither," Sweetie Belle said.

"But I thought... ok, does anypony know a single thing about science?"

"I've heard that... if you mix baking soda and vinegar and put them in a little fake volcano... it looks really cool," Thunder

said.

"Well we're fucked."

"Let's face it, Ms. Cheerilee's lessons went over all of our heads," Apple Bloom said.

"I'm am shocked, shocked! You guys were supposed to understand that shit so it's ok if we couldn't, or more realistically, didn't care."

A few hours later they finished cleaning and went inside and started changing. As they exited the locker rooms Twilight arrived back at the community center. "Hey guys, where's Rarity and Applejack?" she asked.

"Oh, they left because they realized how stupid it is to have several different ponies just to supervise us," Evergreen responded.

"Huh, that is pretty stupid come to think of it," Twilight said. "Another thing I've been meaning to ask, Daring, has your brother been going to school with you?"

"Umm...yes," he lied.

"Good, so you guys are done for today?" They all nodded. "Great, so... have you all got plans?" They stared at her for a minute, surprised and a tiny bit creeped out when it came from Twilight.

"Well, we were about to work on some school stuff," Sweetie Belle said.

"Oh, that's great! I can help you if you want. What do you guys have to do?"

"We have a science project that we have to do," Evergreen said. Twilight's smile faded.

"Oh, I only know a little about science, and what I do know mostly deals with stuff like astronomy, or sciences related to magic in some way," she said.

"Sounds good to me, with that we should get at least a B," Daring said.

Twilight thought to herself for a moment, "You know what," she said, "There may be a pony in town who'll be able to help you guys out more than I can."

"Really?"

"Yes, there's a scientist who lives here in Ponyville, an old stallion named Dr. Felix Data. He may be able to help you guys get an A+ science project."

"A+? That's awesome," Daring said. Twilight levitated a nearby pen and paper with her horn. "Here's his address, I'm sure he'd be delighted to help you all with your project." She wrote it down and gave it to Apple Bloom, who put it in her saddlebag. They thanked her and left, and Twilight walked into the office where Spike was sitting. Although he had been napping before she arrived at the community center.

"What was all that about?" he asked.

"I'm going to get friendly with them, and I'm going to find out what they know."

"I thought that was my job."

"Well three weeks and no results. No offense but that seems like a pretty lousy job."

"Maybe it's because they're innocent."

"I don't buy it I-"

"You have this gut feeling that it's them. You just know it. It's the only logical explanation."

"It is the only logical explanation! All the clues point to them."

"What clues? What evidence do you have that confirms this? I keep telling you maybe you're just wasting your time looking in the wrong place. I mean, do you really think a couple of teenagers would do something like this?"

"Maybe you just don't want to get your new friends in trouble since you love them so much!" Twilight was getting angry. Spike had never seen her like this before.

"I'm just saying you should be a bit more open-minded."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry for snapping at you, it's just-"

"It's alright. I'm just worried you may be getting a little obsessed." They sat in silence for a moment. "So, why didn't you just help them with their science project yourself?"

"Ah, that's part of my plan. Just hanging out with them right off the bat, that would be suspicious. I first gain their trust by helping them in different ways, then I go into full on spy mode."

"You sure have put a lot of thought into this," Spike said, getting up and walking towards the xit.

"Spike." He stopped in the doorway. "Remember... you'll always be my best friend."

"And you'll always be mine."

* * * * *

"Alright here's his address," Apple Bloom said, "Ah don't know, ah've never heard of this pony before."

"Ah, a recluse. He may need a bit of convincing to help us out. Don't worry, I've got this." Evergreen said. He walked up to the door and knocked on it. Soon after, a young stallion opened the door. "Dr. Data. I thought you'd be shorter." That was an understatement. This stallion was built like a house. Easily as tall as Big Mac, if not taller. He was muscular too, being ripped all over, but his muscles weren't too big and bulgy either. They were all sculpted and toned to lean perfection. This was certainly a very handsome stallion. The girls blushed when they saw him (except for Scootaloo, who was talking with Thunder in the back, neither of them paying any real attention).

"Oh, I'm not Dr. Felix Data, I'm his son, Felis Data," the stallion said.

"No offense but your parents were kind of shit in the naming department." Felis wasn't amused.

"Might I inquire why you are looking for my father? He doesn't like guests."

"Oh, excuse us," Apple Bloom said shoving Evergreen out of the way, "our school is having a science fair this Friday and we were wondering if yer dad could help us, considering he's a scientist and all."

"I'm sorry, but my father doesn't like visitors." He started to close the door but stopped, leaning over in pain. "Are you alright?" Daring asked. "Yes, I just pulled a muscle earlier today. You said you needed help with a science fair project?"

"Yessir we did," Apple Bloom said.

"My father doesn't like visitors, but he always enjoys helping other ponies when it comes to science. Anything particular in mind for your project?"

"Not really, we're just hoping for a good grade," Sweetie Belle said.

"Alright, you all can come inside and wait while I go get my father."

"Sounds great," Apple Bloom said, "thank you so much for letting us- ok, where the hell did Scootaloo and Thunder go?" They all turned around and saw that the two were gone, most likely to go on the date they talked about earlier. The others shrugged and were about to go inside until the next interruption.

"Hey, I'm glad I found you guys," Spike said. He had been walking down the road and noticed the ponies standing outside. "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, can I talk to you two for a minute?"

The two ponies looked at each other and then back to Spike. They nodded and turned to the doctor's son.

"We'll catch up later to help out with the project," Sweetie Belle said.

"Do hurry back," Felis said. Spike, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle started down the road and Daring and Evergreen went inside with Felis.

"So what'cha wanna talk to us about Spike?" Apple Bloom asked, walking next to him. Spike's face turned more serious than the two fillies had ever seen it.

"I'm worried about Twilight, the whole murder investigation has taken it's toll."

"She has been acting strange lately," Sweetie Belle said.

"No, it's more than that. She's obsessed. I mean, she's easily the smartest pony in Ponyville, and after three weeks of non-stop investigating she hasn't come up with any hard evidence what-so-ever. She suspects the truth, she just can't prove it, and it's tearing her up inside. She hasn't slept for more than two hours at a time for a week."

"But how can we help?"

Spike gave a deep sigh and stopped in front of them. "I think we should tell her the truth." The two fillies looked at each other nervously.

"Well Spike, we would do that... but as soon as we do she'll turn us over to the police," Sweetie Belle reminded him.

"I don't mean we go right out and tell her. I mean do what you did with."

"You want us to tie her up in Daring's basement?"

"No, let her get to know you guys. Show her you're not a bunch of cold-blooded killers, then explain everything to her."

"We don't know that that will solve anything," Apple Bloom said.

"No, no we don't, but at least she'll be content. I can't stand to see her like this. I wanted to ask you two and Scootaloo first because you've known her longer. You're friends with her too. Please... just let her in."

* * * * *

Daring and Evergreen sat on the sofa of Dr. Data's living room. This was definitely Felis' parent's house, judging by the decor. The style was about 60 years old with tacky green and white wallpaper, old worn furniture, and the only things adorning the mantle were various science awards. There seemed to be a surprising lack of pictures for a family home. There was a smell lingering in the room, neither of the young colts knew exactly what it was, but they did know it was musty and all over the sofa. Speaking of the sofa, it was a faded pink and also very worn. It was uncomfortable to the point where the two ponies constantly fidgeted in place trying to find a position that didn't hurt their flanks.

"When are your friends getting back?" Felis asked. The two shrugged in response. "I think they should be here when my father gets back. He wouldn't want to start your project without them." There was an awkward silence about them, so Evergreen attempted to break the ice.

"Sooooooo, are you a scientist too, or something else?"

"Your friends are taking so long," Felis said as he went into the kitchen. "Oh, that's alright, just go ahead and ignore me," Evergreen said. Felis then came back out with three cups and a tea kettle. "Well, I think that while we're waiting, we might as well have a drink."

"Oh, I'm not thirsty," Daring said. "Please," Felis said, pouring tea into the three cups, "I insist." He took one of the cups and drank from it. The other two colts took a cup and each sipped from it. "So, the...six of you is it? You're doing all this for school, right?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, I didn't want to start until your friends got back, but I guess we'll just fill them in when they get here. So... shall we begin?" The colts were about to respond, but they felt a very sudden light-headedness and they both passed out.

Meanwhile, in another part of Ponyville two fillies and a dragon had come to an agreement. "Spike, we all know how dangerous this is, but yer right. Twilight's our friend, and she has the right ta know."

"Remember, we have to do this carefully, or it may just backfire." Spike said. They all agreed. They stood there for a moment, but the tension was quickly diffused when Spike let out a deep breath and laughed. "Well, how about we move onto a lighter subject on our walk back," he said, and the three started to walk, "So, you guys are working on a school project?"

"Eeyup. We were getting help from that scientist fella Twilight told us about," Apple Bloom said.

"Oh, Dr. Data. Twilight's told me about him. You guys should get plenty of help."

"Yeah, right now we've just met his son, he seems pretty nice, and very handsome," Sweetie Belle said trailing off towards the end.

"Huh, that's weird."

"What?"

"Twilight once told me that he never married... or had a family." The three quickened their pace towards the house, and an unknown fear of what was to come began to build in the bottom of their stomachs.

Daring and Evergreen woke up in a dusty concrete room with a steel door and cobwebs all over. "Great, this is just fantastic," Evergreen said, "How did we not pick up on this. I mean with everything going on lately. The fucker only changed one letter of the name! How stupid are we?"

"Very."

Evergreen sighed and sat back down. "What do you think it is? Maybe he's some sort of... brain eating thing that came from space, and killed the doctor... and it's using his basement as a place to farm ponies for their brains and..."

"Evergreen, shut up."

"Hey I'm just making suggestions here as to what we're in for."

"No, I mean... this room has light in it," Daring said, standing up. Evergreen looked around in an over exaggerated manner. "By Celestia it is! This is an amazing discovery you've made Daring!"

"No... there aren't any lamps. It's sunlight." The two looked up, and they saw a small open window several feet above them. It looked just big enough for a pony to fit through.

Spike, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle slowly opened the front door of the Data residence. "So," Sweetie Belle said in a low whisper, not knowing what could be inside, "What do you think we're dealing with?"

"Maybe," Apple Bloom said, also in a whisper, "it's some sort of brain eating thing that came from space, and killed the doctor... and it's using his basement as a place to farm ponies for their brains."

Spike and Sweetie Belle turned and looked at Apple Bloom dumbfounded. "You've been spending way too much time with Evergreen, you know that?" Spike said. Suddenly the door slammed shut behind them. They each spun around to find Felis Data standing nonchalantly by the door.

"I'm so glad that you finally made it," he said. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stood in attack positions and Spike readily raised his fists... or claws? Whatever they're called. "Alright, we don't know what's going on, but a lot of weird stuff's been happening, so we're not taking any chances. Now where's Daring and Evergreen?!" Sweetie Belle said.

"I somewhat knew this would happen, or at least something like this," Felis sighed.

"Well, way ah see it, it's three against one, odds are stacked against ya, so how 'bout you tell us where our friends are," Apple Bloom said. Just then the very skin on Felis's right front leg began to shift and open to reveal a metallic cannon with an electric blue light emanating from within it, and he proceeded to point it directly at the trio.

"Okay then, that'll even it up a bit."

"Come on! Stop being such a panzy and lift me!" Daring said. He was standing on top of Evergreen while trying to reach the open window. "Well if you weren't such a fat ass then I'd be able to lift you!" Evergreen replied. They both fell over. "Can't you just teleport us out or something?"

"I've already tried that, but the fucker's done something to the house so my magic doesn't work."

"Well we can't reach the window by ourselves... and that means the only way out is to break down the door." Evergreen charged shoulder first into the iron door of the cell, and immediately backed up and grasped his shoulder. "Mother fucker. oowaugahagh." Evergreen collapsed on the floor, still writhing in pain. Daring looked around still trying to find a way out when a familiar feeling of indigestion swept through him, and Dual popped out.

"Where the fuck have you bee-" Daring was about to ask when Dual shushed him.

"You owe me after this, big time. Come on, when you get out go for help as fast as you can," they turned when they heard a noise coming from outside the cell, "We'd better hurry." Evergreen was on the bottom (since he was closest to the ground) and Dual got on his shoulders (which he wasn't crazy about) and Daring climbed up onto Dual. Daring grabbed onto the edge of the open window and climbed out. Just as Daring had gotten out Dr. Data opened the door and the two ponies promptly fell to the ground.

"Hmm, you two seemed to have been reaching for that window. I had forgotten it was there. I will have to fix that," Felis said. He shoved Spike, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle into the room and closed the door behind him.

"Quick, the window!" Dual said. He stepped on Evergreen again and motioned for Sweetie Belle to get on him, but then the window was sealed by some kind of foam that quickly hardened, making escape through there impossible.

"Damn he's fast," Evergreen said, shoving Dual off of him, "but there's one thing he didn't count on. Our powers. Daring's already out and hopefully help will be arriving soon. In the meantime Apple Bloom, can you get a key or a drill or something to get us out of here."

"Okay, back up," she said. She then took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and clinched her body. After a few moments she opened her eyes, "Anything?" They all shook their heads. "Oh, this may not be the best time to tell y'all this but...my powers have always been kinda ify if you know what ah mean."

"No Apple Bloom, we don't. Please elaborate," Evergreen said.

"Well, they don't always work, persay."

"They've always worked before!" Evergreen finally exploded.

"Well that's because y'all were never there for the dozens of times I couldn't get them to work."

"Dozens?!" Evergreen sat back down against a wall. "You can't even materialize a light or anything, I can barely see shit in here. So, any guesses on what's this guy's deal?"

"Oh we already know," Sweetie Belle said, "he's a robot." Evergreen stared blankly at her. "He's a what?"

"A robot, a machine. Well half a machine. He told us everything on our way down."

"He sure does love to talk," Spike interjected.

"He told us how he was the scientist, Felix Data, but the storm made him super smart and stuff, even smarter than before, but it did something to his body, and he was dying, so he built himself a new body, and put all his organs into like his brain and heart and lungs and stuff, but now those are starting to die too, so he's going to take our's, our organs. And also kill us."

"That was kind of implied."

"Well, the only thing left to do is wait, I guess," Spike said.

They all gave what seemed like a unified sigh, when Evergreen said, "Since there is a pretty decent chance that we all may die, and we're in a small dark room, who wants to have sex?"

"No." The others said in unison.

* * * * *

Scootaloo and Thunder Runner were sitting at a cafe having just recently finished their meal. "Mmmm, I don't know about you, but that was awesome," Scootaloo said. Thunder nodded and smiled. "So," she asked, "you never told me what you got arrested for," she asked bluntly.

Thunder choked a bit on his water and after a bit of coughing, tried to change the topic. "So, (ack) the water here is really nice... um... it's refreshing...and..."

"Neither of us are leaving until you tell me," Scootaloo said with a smile. Thunder relented eventually as Scootaloo continued to press him. At first he couldn't find the words. He knew he should tell her, but he didn't know what it would mean to her, what it would mean for where they were going, if they were going anywhere. He knew the truth would turn away most fillies, but he also knew that Scootaloo wasn't like most fillies.

"Well...uh... back in Trottingham... I was friends with this one colt, who was my neighbor, since we were both foals. But, when we got to being teenagers... he stopped hanging out with me... him and his other friends even made fun of me. One day... they played a prank on me at school... a really bad prank. That night, I made sure neither him or any of his family were home... and I tried to burn his house down. I took a bit of newspaper, lit it, and put it through their mail slot, but I didn't realize their cat was there. The door was locked, so to put it out I... I got on my hind legs... stuck my... you-know-what through the slot... and I tried to piss it out. That's when his mom got home and called the police."

For a few seconds they both just sat there, although for Thunder it felt like an eternity. He almost certain that she would be disgusted with him, that she would run off and never even speak to him again. He was certain he blew the best thing that had ever happened to him. Scootaloo's reaction was not what he had expected, and at first he couldn't decide if it was better or worse.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA," Scootaloo burst with laughter. Thunder thought she was laughing like the ponies in Trottingham laughed at him, but that wasn't the case. There was something about her laugh. It wasn't mocking or cynical, it was more... infectious. Thunder soon found himself laughing along with her. They laughed together for a good minute before calming down.

"That is just... oh, you shouldn't have been afraid to tell me that."

"I didn't know how you'd react. Since we're on the topic, why did you get arrested?"

"That? That can be summed up pretty quickly. You know that guy in our group, Evergreen?"

"Yeah."

"Fuck that guy. He got us blamed as accomplices to his shit when we didn't even do anything," Thunder laughed a bit to himself, "What's so funny?"

"That's the first time I've ever heard you swear. You're the only girl in the group who would."

"Yeah, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle would never talk like that. I on the other hoof, always just speak my mind."

The two smiled, but this was quickly interrupted by the arrival of Daring. He ran to the table (almost knocking it over in the process) and breathed heavily while attempting to form words. "What's wrong?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well, I don't exercise very often, so after running for a while I get really..." Scootaloo looked at him, "Right, not what you meant. We've got trouble. Big trouble."

* * * * *

Dr. Felix was standing in front of the operating table in his basement laboratory, assembling his tools, thinking about which parts he should take from which pony. The one filly seemed to be in the apple family, judging by her accent. They're always from good, hard working stock. I think I'll take her heart. Now, I wonder how the implication of dragon parts would-

Felix suddenly turned and fired his hoof canon at what first appeared to being nothing, but manifested as a young stallion once he was struck by the canon. The stallion was blasted against the wall and fell to the ground severely dazed. Felix walked over to him and crouched in order to get close to the stallion's face. "You little foals sure are stupid. Even if I didn't have thermal trackers, did you honestly think that would work?"

"No." Thunder said. Felix raised an eyebrow, and was clonked on the head with what felt like a metal pipe. He turned around to Scootaloo and Daring, the latter of which was holding said pipe and was likely expecting it to do more damage than it actually did.

"No, give it here," Scootaloo said. Daring did so and she said, "You've got to do it more like this." She swung the pipe at her accelerated speed and knocked Dr. Data across the room into a wall of shelves holding many beakers and various other glass objects. Scootaloo grabbed the nearby keys on a counter and tossed them to Daring.

"Free the others. I've got this guy." Daring went into the next room to look for the cell, and Thunder grabbed the pipe and stood next to Scootaloo across from Data. He stood up, various bits of glass tearing his artificial skin, exposing the metallic components that lied beneath. "Holy shit, he's a robot!" Scootaloo exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes," he said, arming his hoof canon, "I'm a robot." He fired and the two ponies ducked out of the way. Scootaloo ran at him and struck him at super fast speeds and continued to circle the room and hit him. Data quickly calculated her average speed and likely approaches each time she struck, and swiftly extended his hoof, which Scootaloo sped right into and spun into the far wall.

Thunder charged at him with the pipe but was hit in the stomach and then again on the back, promptly sending him to the ground. "Your abilities really are fascinating. Do all of you have one?" Thunder looked up in anger at Data, blood trickling from his mouth. "Well, I very much look forward to dissecting you each to find the cause of these phenomena. Although, against my better judgement, you have made me very irritated, so I think I'll cause you a bit more pain before I end your life."

"Let 'im go," Apple Bloom said. "Now, fer lockin' us up, we're gonna have to beat the livin' daylights outta ya, and it's eight against one, and those odds are lookin' mighty-" Data armed his hoof canon, but also revealed that his other hoof could turn into a tazer-like device. "Oh... to be honest, that plan sounded a lot better when ah started that sentence."

"Look," Evergreen said, "Maybe we don't have to fight. I don't know about you, but I seem to be the only pony here who's considered diplomacy. Look, scientist guy, you seem like a nice pony, and we're not bad kids. Well, besides killing our probation worker I guess." Spike kicked Evergreen in the shin. "Ow... my point is, what do you say? Truce?" Evergreen extended his hoof to Dr. Data. Data proceeded to blast him off his hooves with electricity from the tazer.

"That's it!" Apple Bloom shouted. She got on her front hooves and bucked Data right in the chest. Each pony then proceeded to charge and tackle Data, but he was too strong, and beat them down all the same. Daring looked to Sweetie Belle, who was cowering in a corner. "Sweetie Belle. We could use a little help here!"

"I can't, I'm... I'm just..."

"You've got power, use it!"

"What if I hurt..."

"Would you rather we be hurt, or dead!" Data grabbed Daring and threw him against the wall. Sweetie Belle suddenly let out a high pitched shriek that caused all remaining glass beakers in the room to break, which cause several chemicals to mix and combust. All the ponies covered their ears and Dr. Data, having the sound directed at him, literally fell to pieces under the extreme sonar attack. "I did it. Ha! YES!" a part of the flaming ceiling then fell directly in front of Sweetie Belle. "AAH!"

"Come on, we have to get out of here," Spike said. The young ponies ran out of the back of the burning house to avoid being seen, and only when they were far enough distance that they could barely see the smoke, they stopped to catch their breath. "Ok, it's official. No more school projects," Evergreen said.

The group began their walk home, and after a few minutes Spike remembered a topic he wanted to discuss. "Hey guys, I was talking with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle earlier, about how I thought it would be best if we... you know... bring Twilight in on our situation."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like a terrible fucking idea at all. Let's take the crazy mare who's been hunting for super powered ponies, and obsessively trying to prove we killed our probation worker, and tell her that we're a bunch of super powered ponies who killed their probation worker," Evergreen said.

"I mean more like ease her into it, show her you're all good ponies, then explain to her what's going on. She's really a nice mare, she's just a bit obsessed because she really wants to prove to Celestia that she can handle more serious assignments, and it's eating her up that she's so close to solving her case but she can't prove anything. I'm just hoping that we can help her let go."

"I'm ok with it." Scootaloo said. Thunder approved as well, and so did Daring and Dual. "Fine, we'll let her join the club."

"Now," Daring announced, "while we're sharing thoughts and feelings, I would like to acknowledge the MVP of that little nightmare we just had, Sweetie Belle, who did fucking beautifully back there." Sweetie Belle's cheeks began to turn a bit red.

"You have the power, and the only way you can make it your own is if you use it. We're all proud of you Sweets," Scootaloo said. Sweetie Belle's cheeks were crimson now. "Please stop with the mushy stuff, you're going to make me cry... or puke," Evergreen said.

"Wait..." Thunder said. They all stopped and looked at him, "What are we going to do for the school project?" They all thought for a moment. "Fuck it, we'll make a volcano."

* * * * *

That night Spike was walking up the stairs of the library to go to bed when he noticed Twilight fiddling around with something on the first floor. "Hey, Twilight, what'cha doing?"

"Oh, nothing. Just examining some stuff I found at that burnt out house earlier today."

"Oh, anything interesting?"

"No, not really."

"Well, I'm going to bed, goodnight."

"Goodnight." Spike went upstairs and Twilight turned back to what she was doing. Spike hadn't noticed that Twilight was working on the head of a certain cyborg, using tools to uncover the data held in... well, Data. This is amazing. This technology is so advanced. I can barely work with it. Some of the head was burnt, but she thought she could access most of the memory banks. Let's see if I can get a projection through the optics onto that wall. I know the ponies went there, because I sent them there, I just need to know what happened. Just as components of the head began to turn on, Twilight analyzed the thought she just had, and put her head in her hooves.

Oh Goddess, I sent them there, to some robotic freaks house that burnt down later. It's a miracle they weren't hurt. What would Rarity or Applejack have said. Oh, they could have been killed for all I know. Just then, a picture appeared on the wall. At first it was just static, (most likely due to fire damage) but eventually a clear picture appeared of a small group of ponies and a dragon. "Look, scientist guy, you seem like a nice pony, and we're not bad kids. Well, besides killing our probation worker I guess."

Oh. My. Goddess

To Be Continued...

Six

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Flanks

Six

Spike walked down the stairs the next morning to find Twilight shuffling something into a saddlebag. "Hey Twilight," he asked, "Did you, you know, sleep at all last night."

"What? Oh, I don't know."

"You'd think you would notice something like that." Spike laughed.

"Yeah, well, you'd think I would notice a lot of things, but sometimes they slip by me for a while, but when I finally notice those things it feels like being stabbed in the heart a couple dozen times." Spike started picking up on the bitterness of Twilight's voice. "Twilight, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's nothing, are the kids at the community center?" she said as she loaded up her bag. "Yeah, they don't have school so they should be there by now," Twilight headed out the door, "Where are you going?" Spike yelled to her.

"I'm going to try to do the right thing."

* * * * *

"You know what, I really hate that storm," Evergreen said to Apple Bloom while the two mopped the floor of the community center. "Really, why?"

"Why? Why not? All the bad shit that happens to us is because of it. One psycho after another gets some freaky power. The probation worker, the puppet guy, the vampire bitch, and a fucking robot stallion. It's ridiculous... also why is it I'm the only one without a fucking power. It's bullshit. If I knew who caused it I would right him a very strongly worded letter, and punch him in the throat while delivering that letter."

"I think you're actually the lucky one. If you ever wanted to, you could just walk away from all this and still be normal. Us, on the other hoof, just have to deal with what we've got."

"Well, even without a power I'm not exactly what you'd call normal, now am I?"

"No, no you ain't," Apple Bloom laughed.

"Besides, I can't leave now. You guys would fall apart without me."

"What'dya mean by that?"

"it has become a sort of norm for us to face life threatening situations, and without your leader you all wouldn't last a minute."

"Excuse me?! Leader? You are definitely not the leader."

"Well then who is?"

"Nopony, nopony is. Despite how cool it sounds, we're not a super powered team from some adventure book, constantly fighting evil. We're just... at the wrong place at the wrong time I guess."

"So, all the good we've done was mostly in self defense. So what? We've got something, something that makes me think about the situation."

"What's that then?"

"Potential. We could be great, we should be great, we can do things that no mere mortal pony could ever do before. We can't just sit on our asses all day doing nothing with them. There's got to be a reason why all this shit's happened to us. Maybe it was all right place at the right time."

"Well, if ya think about it, the thing that makes the most sense is if there's no reason. Besides, with our powers, we would be the worst super team ever."

"Probably, but it still would be cool. Maybe that's what our cutie marks are."

Apple bloom thought about this for a moment, "Yeah... Scootaloo! Sweetie Belle! Come in here!"

They entered with Thunder and Daring. "How does super hero cutie marks sound?" Apple Bloom asked. "What would that even look like?" Scootaloo asked. Just then, a light yellow mare with a pink mane rushed into the community center. Even though you could tell that she was in a hurry, she seemed to make an effort not to make too much noise, lest she be a bother to anypony.

"Umm... excuse me... have any of you seen Twilight? It's urgent and I really need to talk to her," Fluttershy said in a hushed voice.

"Sorry, we haven't seen her today," Sweetie Belle said. Fluttershy started to look even more worried than before.

"Oh... okay, sorry to bother you." She rushed out of the building at almost blinding speeds.

Almost immediately after she left, Twilight burst into the community center, much louder than Fluttershy did.

"Oh, Twilight, Fluttershy was in here a second ago and-" Sweetie Belle began, but Twilight quickly cut her off. "Ok my little ponies, I've got-"

"We're not little," Evergreen interrupted.

"What?"

"The youngest of us is fifteen, and most of us are taller than you."

"Ok, you're not little. I'm trying to say that I've got an ultimatum for you. Turn yourselves in."

"Turn ourselves in for what?"

"Don't bother trying to cover it up, I know you killed your probation worker. I have proof, I'm just saying that if you turn yourselves in, the punishment might not be as bad. I'm doing this because of our friendship, but I'm completely willing to give the evidence to the police if you don't turn yourselves in."

"And what, pray tell, evidence do you have that we committed such a crime?" Daring asked. Twilight then took a large piece of metal out of her saddlebag. "What is that?"

"It's the head of a mister Felix Data. With all the fake skin melted or peeled off, it turns out it was completely robot. In it's memory banks is a little confession from one of you, telling the truth about what really happened to your probation worker," the ponies glared at Evergreen, "also proves that you six were there the day his house burned down. That, and the fact that he was a robot will make a very interesting story."

"Twilight," Apple Bloom said, with a tone growing in seriousness, "You have to understand. Whatever happened was an accident. None of us ever meant to hurt anypony, it was just an accident."

"Then why didn't you go to the police, tell somepony?"

"Nopony would have believed us."

"Then come to me, or your sisters. Don't you trust us at all?" Twilight's voice began to become despondent at the thought of losing friends she's known for years. As she finally started thinking about it, the feelings of betrayal began to cut deep.

As if right on cue, Fluttershy exploded into the community center and ran straight up to Twilight. "Twilight, sorry to bother you, but we have a pretty big problem."

"Sorry Fluttershy, I'm in the middle of something-"

"Too late, they're here," she yelped. Three dogs slammed against the doors of the community center and barked ravenously at the ponies inside. The group was taken aback by this, with Daring sounding off a, "What the fuck?!" out of surprise. Twilight, after absorbing the recent turn of events, looked to Fluttershy for an explanation.

"Fluttershy, what are those?"

"Oh, they're just some puppies I found near the Everfree forest. They were sick, so I started caring for them. I was looking for you to see if you could help me treat them," she said in her naturally soft tone despite the situation.

"Fluttershy... what disease do the dogs have?"

"Well, at first I thought it was just rabies, but there was something different about them, but yeah, mostly rabies."

"Fluttershy! I can't just magic up a cure for rabies! Why didn't you take the dogs to a doctor to have them put to sleep."

"Twilight! I could never do that to an innocent little critter," one of the dogs slammed his head into the glass door, creating a massive crack, "especially one that's sick." Two of the dogs ran around the back while the one dog started backing up to charge the door. At that point, there was no doubt that he would shatter it and be able to enter the community center.

"Quick, everypony into the main hall," Twilight told the others. They did as she said and barricaded the doors with various chairs and other objects. As they did this the dog burst through the glass door and rammed himself into the barricaded door several times, but to no avail. After the failed attempts, the dog started to simply pace around the floor, waiting for the ponies to come out.

"What's it doing?" Scootaloo asked.

"It's waiting to see what we'll do next," Thunder said.

"Those fuckers are smarter the the average rabid dog," Evergreen said, "I mean, the fucking dog is strategizing. Pretty soon he'll be talking and wearing clothes, like a top hat... or even a monocle."

"Three things," Apple Bloom said, "One, waiting for us to do something isn't a very complex plan, two, strategizing isn't a real word, and three, a dog learning to talk and wear clothes is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of."

"Ponies please!" Twilight said, trying to calm them all down, "We need a plan."

"Well that's easy," Daring said, "just teleport us out of here."

"Right," her horn lit up, but almost immediately it fizzled out, "Oh... that's not good."

"What's wrong?"

"I... I haven't really... exactly... been sleeping recently. I'm actually incredibly tired right now."

"Well that's just fucking brilliant that is, now our only way out is through the rabid dogs."

"Okay, hang on... let me just think." Twilight sat down, clearly exhausted. "I have an idea," Evergreen said. He grabbed a chair and broke off one of its legs. The others took the cue, and grabbed various blunt objects lying around; a fire hydrant, a mop handle, and a few chair legs. Neither Twilight nor Fluttershy grabbed anything, as they had yet to grasp the situation. "What's going on," Fluttershy asked nervously, as if she already knew the answer.

"Simple, we carefully remove the barricades, wait for the fucker to turn around, and beat the shit out of him until he dies." Fluttershy fainted, and Thunder was able to catch her and put her into a chair that hadn't been broken yet. "Look, I don't like this idea," Twilight pointed out, "It's dangerous, and also a bit inhumane..." her tone and face turned serious, "but its not like we have any other options."

"We... you mean just us right, certainly not you. You accuse us of murder and then you can't even teleport us out of here. Now we have to clean up an incredibly violent mess all over again," Scootaloo said, frustrated over the situation.

"Woah there everypony, we have to keep a cool head. It's the only way that the nine of us are going to get out of this in one piece," Apple Bloom said. The tension began to diffuse, until Daring froze in realization. "Wait! One, two, three...," he counted while pointing at each pony, "four, five, six, seven..." he pointed at himself, "Eight. Oh shit biscuits."

* * * * *

Dual was walking up the road towards the community center carrying a box of donuts. For sure, daring's rigged those straws somehow. There's no way in hell that I could pick the short one that many times in a row. He thought to himself. As he approached the community center he noticed two ponies he really didn't want to. "Oh look, one of the blank flanks," Diamond Tiara said in a very mocking tone.

Silver Spoon laughed with Tiara as Dual tried to simply ignore them and keep walking. "I really think Ponyville's gone downhill since the blank flank population's doubled," she said.

"What are you even doing out here?"

"Silver Spoon and I were simply on a refreshing morning walk, until we ran into you, Daring."

"I'm not Daring."

"What?"

"I'm Dual, his brother."

"Are you serious? Is this some kind of trick?"

"What? What possible reason could I have to trick you two into thinking I'm a non-existent twin brother?"

"Why don't we ever see you in school?" Silver Spoon asked.

"Cause I don't feel like it."

"Alright, how about you prove it," Tiara said.

"Ok, the community center is literally right there. We can just go in and see my brother who's in there right now."

"Fine."

"Alright." The three walked in silence towards the community center. Dual kept wondering why he was even doing this. He'd never actually met Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon before, but Daring and Evergreen both give detailed descriptions of how they act on a daily basis, and he had no desire to spend too much time with them. As they entered the community center, Dual noticed the broken door and starting to get worried.

"Hey, guys! I've got the donuts... and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, unfortunately." The two mares frowned at him, when the dog that had been waiting outside the main hall approached them.

"Why is there a dog here?" Silver Spoon asked. The dog walked toward them slowly getting in an attack position, until they heard somepony shout "Now!" and several ponies ran out of the hall and towards the dog. All of them were carrying blunt objects, but only Evergreen, Thunder Runner, and Scootaloo actually struck the animal, and beat him to death.

"What the fuck guys? That would have been a lot quicker if you'd actually help," Evergreen said, covered in blood.

"I'm sorry. Even if it has... well, had rabies, I couldn't just kill a poor little dog," Sweetie Belle said. The others agreed then turned their attention to the ponies standing in front of them. "What are they doing here?" Apple Bloom asked, obviously not happy to see them there.

"Oh, they didn't believe that I was Daring's twin brother. So, ladies, say hi to my brother..."

"Hello cunts," Daring said as he gave a little nod.

"So, now that we're all acquainted, I believe it's time for you two to leave."

"You all just... just killed that dog!" Tiara exclaimed, still shocked by the unexpected violence.

"Eeyup, and there's two more that we have to take care of," Evergreen pointed out. "And you expect us to leave?! They could be right outside for all we know," Silver Spoon said.

"Well, that is a pretty strong possibility, almost a certainty even," Apple Bloom said, "Well, have fun!"

"Apple Bloom, this is no time for jokes," Twilight said, emerging from the main hall.

"Who says I was joking."

"What are they doing here?" She asked. They explained it, but she really didn't care. At that point in time, all she cared about was resolving the situation without anypony getting hurt. "Ok, here's the plan. We need to split into groups and search for the dogs. We need to cover every inch of the community center if we're going to find them."

"Found one," Sweetie Belle said. One of the dogs rushed from behind and pounced on Diamond Tiara. As she frantically screamed "Get it off! Get it off!" Dual reacted before anypony else could. He broke the glass to the case that contained a fire axe on the nearby wall, and with one fell swoop killed the rabid animal. He pushed it off of Diamond Tiara and helped her up onto her hooves.

"Holy shit my friend, when did you become a badass?" Daring asked with a smile on his face. "You... you saved me," Tiara said to Dual.

"Oh... um... you're welcome?" Dual replied, not really knowing how to reply to that. "Ok," Twilight said, "new plan. Dual, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and Scootaloo, take Fluttershy and go find help. The rest of you, see if you can find the last dog." They all complied and left to do their duties. Before leaving, Thunder looked back at Twilight, who was looking for something.

"Ok, I put the head right here, but where is it?" She said to herself. She looked around and saw that the door to the stairwell leading to the roof was open. "Oh no." She dashed up the stairs and burst onto the roof, and found Evergreen smashing the mechanical membrane to bits with a brick. "Now hear me out," he said, standing up and dropping the brick, "I'm going to turn myself in."

"What? Why?"

"Well, I'm not exactly what you'd call a good pony. Some may even go as far as saying I'm an asshole, even though I prefer the term brutally honest. I have never once done anything in my life for anypony besides myself. It's about time that changed. The others... they had nothing to do with it. It was all me, and I'll come quietly." Just as he finished talking the last dog lunged against him then turned and pinned down Twilight.

Evergreen lost his balance and tumbled backwards to the edge of the roof, standing on his hind legs trying to keep from falling. Thunder became visible and grabbed Evergreen's front hooves. "Pull me up! Pull me up!" he yelled, but it was no use. Thunder's hold slipped, and Evergreen fell, screaming, onto the community center garden's metal fence, with one of the spikes going straight through his chest.

Twilight killed the dog with her horn, and looked over the side at Evergreen's lifeless body. Guilt flooded her as she thought of every possible reason this could have been her fault. This was exactly what she didn't want to happen. The others heard his screams and rushed outside to investigate. Once they all got outside, they gasped almost in unison. "Oh my Goddess," Tiara said. Sweetie Belle, with tears in her eyes, turned away, unable to even look at the body. Daring said something along the lines of "oh shit" softly, under his breath.

All while this was happening, Apple Bloom ran straight to the body. She yelled, "He's not breathing! Somepony get help! Get a doctor, just get somepony! Anypony! Just get help!" her eyes began to well up as she slowly started to sink onto the ground. "You can't be dead, not you. Evergreen, why did you...why did you have to be such an idiot, and get yourself..." She couldn't say the words, and she broke out into a full on sob. Scootaloo left to get a doctor, and Sweetie Belle held Apple Bloom as she sat there crying.

The doctors recorded the time of death and sent Evergreen's body to the hospital morgue. Twilight explained to the police what happened, and they believed her. She arrived back at the library shortly after, and Spike was waiting for her. "What's going on?" he asked, the whole town is worked up."

"Something terrible has happened Spike."

"Twilight, you're covered in scratches, and blood. What happened?"

"Evergreen's dead. We were on the roof, he admitted to committing the crime, then a rabid animal attacked us, and he fell. Case closed." she walked to the bathroom to wash up, and all Spike could do was stand there stunned and speechless.

Twilight levitated a washcloth up to her horn and began rinsing herself. For a moment, she looked at herself in the mirror. Blood was on her horn, and some of it ran down her face with the water. She put the washcloth down and decided to take a shower instead. Afterwards, she walked up to her room and collapsed in her bed. She slept from the afternoon of that day to late morning of the next.

* * * * *

A few days later, the funeral was held. The six ponies were there, obviously, and so was Spike because Evergreen was his friend. Evergreen's parents were there, and so was Twilight, for her own reasons. They were the only attendees. That night, Spike, Apple Bloom, Thunder Runner, Scootaloo, Daring and Dual, and Sweetie Belle sat around a table that was set up in the Apple family barn.

"I got the hard cider from the basement," Apple Bloom said,"I know we're not exactly old enough..."

"It seems strangely appropriate, considering it was Evergreen," Daring said. They each took a glass of the cider. "He always was such an idiot..." Apple Bloom said, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"To Evergreen," Spike said as he raised his glass, "it won't be the same without him." They all gave of a "To Evergreen", all except Apple Bloom. As they drank, they each told stories of Evergreen, how much he got on their and everpony else's nerves, how vulgar he could get at times, and all the crazy "adventures" they all had together. After a while it became less about Evergreen and more about the whole group. They never realized how close of friends they all became over such a short time, never realized until one of them died.

Out in Ponyville cemetery, six feet below the earth, Evergreen lied cold and lifeless, no longer the pony he was before. Now, he was just a corpse, an empty shell that would stay underground for the rest of eternity- HOLY SHIT! Evergreen thought as he gasped for air inside his casket. He felt his chest where the fence spike had gone through, and it had completely healed. "I'm immortal."

He laughed joyously. "Ha! I have a power! Ha ha ha ha! Yes! Immortal." He then just realized his situation. "Help! I'm alive!" He yelled as he banged his hooves against the coffin, "Help! I'm alive down here!" He stopped, realizing nopony could here him. He let out a deep sigh. "You buried me alive you dicks!"

To Be Continued...

Seven

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Flanks

Seven

Two ponies entered the Ponyville cemetery very late at night. They carried shovels, a cart, and flashlights. "Which one?" the first pony asked. "This one over here, the poor bastard was buried yesterday," the other responded. They walked up to the grave and started digging. "So you haven't told me."

"Told you what?"

"Who paid us for this job?"

"That's for me to know, and you to...uh... not know."

"Who made you the boss? I thought this was a partnership."

"Ok, to be honest I don't exactly know. All I was told upon being paid that a big Manehatten company wanted our services, and judging by how much they paid us, they don't want questions."

"Yeah, but...we've been asked to get all sorts of shit that isn't exactly legal, but bodies? What would they want with a bunch of rotting ponies?"

"I don't know, I don't want to know, and I got a feeling that I'll sleep better at night not knowing." Their shovels struck the top of the casket. They opened it, and found a green pony with black hair and his eyes closed lying stone dead. "See, not so bad...it doesn't even seem like he's rotting yet. Come on, help me get him out." He was just about to grab the late colt when he suddenly shot up screaming. The two ponies also screamed as they scrambled out of the hole, but calmed down when they noticed that the dead pony's screams had turned to laughter. "You should see the looks on your faces," he laughed.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"Thanks for digging me up. I was eventually going to just break through the lid and dig myself out of course, but thanks anyway. Also, why did you dig me up?"

"Umm...that's for us to know, and for you to not find out...ever."

"Fair enough." Evergreen pulled himself out of the hole and walked out of the cemetery. "Ok, what the fuck just happened?" one of the ponies asked.

* * * * *

"Class, I'd like to just say something before we get started today," Cheerilee said. It was the first day back to school since Evergreen died. Cheerilee stood by the empty desk at the front of the room. "As you all probably already know, one of our own, Evergreen, has sadly passed away recently. I think it would be best for us to take a moment of silence for him and his loved ones." They all bowed there heads in silence, until a familiar colt burst through the classroom door. "Hey, sorry I'm late," Evergreen said, "it's just that I got home and I had to take a massive fucking shit. Seriously, I was on the toilet for like an hour. Then I had to eat breakfast, get my school stuff, then come here, so...sorry I guess."

The entire class just stood still with their jaws on the floor. Apple Bloom fainted, but nopony noticed enough to think to catch her. Evergreen calmly walked to the front of the classroom and took his seat. "Evergreen?" Cheerille said, finally regaining her wits, "I-I...I thought you...I thought you were..."

"Dead? I've been getting that a lot recently. No, I'm not dead. As you can see I'm perfectly fine." Diamond Tiara leaned over and whspered to Daring, "That doesn't make sense, we saw him die, right in front of us." Daring wasn't listening. He was just smiling and thinking to himself, You finally found your power you cheeky little fuck.

"So, Evergreen...since you're fine, I'll just put you back on the class list," Cheerilee said.

"Wait, I'm not on the class list?"

"No, everypony thought you were dead."

"So, if I just didn't show up to school, I'd never have to go ever again?"

"Technically, yes."

"Well fuck me."

Eeyup, Scootaloo thought, It's still Evergreen. After what was surely a very long and very awkward school day, the class walked outside. Apple Bloom, followed by the other four ponies, ran up to Evergreen and punched him right in the face. 'What was that for?!" he yelled.

"I thought you were dead!"

"Well, I was for like, a day."

"Don't ever do that again."

"Well it wasn't exactly my idea."

"So what happened," Sweetie Belle asked.

"Well, one minute I'm on a fence with a fucking spike through my chest, the next I wake up underground. A few hours later these two stallions dig me up."

"Why did they dig you up?" Thunder asked.

"Don't know. Afterwards I went back to my house. My mom fainted and I had to tell my dad that I faked my death for insurance money. Then I came here." Sweetie Belle noticed something different about Evergreen's appearance. "Hey, what's that on your flank?" The group gazed at Evergreen's rear, amazed at what they found.

A cutie mark! The first of in Cutie Mark Crusaders history. Evergreen's mark looked like a tombstone, with his birth date on it, a dash, and a lemniscate where the death date would be. "How come we didn't get our cutie marks when we first used our powers?" Daring asked.

"What is your power anyway?" Scootaloo asked.

"Isn't it obvious. Immortality! I'm immortal, I can't die."

"So," Apple Bloom said, "I think that with our first crusader to get his cutie mark, the least we can do is have a celebration."

"We should talk to Pinkie, it is her specialty," Sweetie Belle said, "but first we have our community service." The group sighed at that and were about to leave for the community center, until Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon abruptly stopped them in their tracks.

"So, what was the deal with you dying and everything?" Tiara asked. Both her and Silver Spoon had no knowledge of the storm or the powers it had provided many Ponyville residents with, and like almost everypony else, were very confused about Evergreen's apparent resurrection.

"Oh, I faked my own death."

"Why?"

"For insurance purposes."

"What does that mean?"

"It means none of your business," Scootaloo interjected.

"Well, if nothing else you at least have a cutie mark now, but despite that, you still insist on hanging out with these loser blank flanks. I guess even with a cutie mark, you're still pretty lame." Tiara and Silver Spoon snickered. The ponies didn't feel like dealing with them, so they just went on their way. Tiara then stopped Daring as the rest walked ahead. "Daring, hang on," she said, her tone having completely changed.

"Yeah?"

"Can, um...can you tell your brother I said hi."

"Dual? What for?"

"Just do it, ok?" she said, her tone of voice now reverting back to it's original state. Daring agreed, and the two parted ways. Just as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were out of sight, Daring felt a familiar pain in his gut and Dual popped out of him. "What was that about?" he asked.

"I think she likes you. Celestia help you."

"You know, I don't think she's all that bad. Definitely not as bad as you guys describe her."

"Are you kidding? You've seen her. On a bitch scale of one to ten, she's twenty fucking thousand."

"Sure she can be mean, but I doubt that's all there is to her."

"I don't know how you could think like that."

"Well, technically, I'm you so it's how you think as well."

"Hey, don't get fucking technical on me. It might have seemed like we were the same at first, but now I think you can agree that we are two completely different ponies."

"Maybe."

"No, not fucking maybe. Definitely different." The two caught up with the rest of the group, and they continued on into the community center.

Right as they walked in Twilight approached them with a sad look on her face. "Look, everypony, I wanted to talk to you about the other da-" She looked up and directly at Evergreen. "You...you...you..."

"Yeah?"

"You...died."

"Oh, yeah. That. You see I faked my death for insurance purposes."

"No, I mean...I watched you die..." Images of him falling flashed in Twilight's mind. I was 100% sure he was dead, she thought, there's no way he could of survived. There's no magic known to ponies that could do that, and scientific means are complete fiction. The only possibility that was even remote was if he had a... She stopped. No, Celestia herself said they were just rumors to look into, and no evidence of the was ever found. Could Evergreen really have a power, one that could bring him back from the dead?

"Are you okay Twilight?" Apple Bloom asked. Twilight didn't respond.

"Umm...Twilight? Twilight!" Sweetie Belle said. Twilight snapped out of it, and stammered for a quick excuse to get alone. "I-I-I think I should...put you back in the system. I'll be in my office, doing that." Twilight sped off into her office in the community center.

"Wait...oh fuck," Evergreen said, realizing he made the same blunder twice, "Here too? Goddess I'm stupid. I could've been a free stallion."

Twilight entered her office and locked the door behind her. Finally alone, she started planning her next move. Okay, she thought as she had begun to pace around the room, what do I know? About a month ago, Onyx and Brightening went missing. That was the same time that Celestia wanted me to investigate the storm that occurred in Ponyville. No weather ponies knew how it happened or who caused it. Celestia said there were rumors that the storm somehow gave ponies powers or enhanced abilities, something like that. How did she hear rumors a day after it happened? No, that's not important.

She shook her head and focused her thoughts. After the storm, strange things had happened, but none of them were ever connected to powers. Then the robot showed up. Even in its condition, the technology was amazing. Nopony alive could have been smart enough to make it, not even Felix. Certainly nopony is crazy enough to turn themselves into that thing either. Yet Felix did, so something must have changed him, and now this. Evergreen's alive, and I guess there's only one thing I can do, even if I don't want to do it.

* * * * *

Evergreen laid on his bed, unable to go to sleep. He looked at his clock, three A.M. it said. He tossed and turned. He finally stopped and laid on his back, looking straight up at his ceiling. He closed his eyes and crossed his hooves over his chest. After a moment he simply sighed and got up to get a glass of water. When he opened the door, a fairly large pony clad in black struck him in the face and Evergreen fell into unconsciousness.

* * * * *

The next morning Spike heard loud knocking on the library door, and walked over to open it. He opened it and saw six of his friends standing in the doorway with a shared look of worry on their faces. "Have you seen Evergreen?" Apple Bloom asked him.

"No, why?"

"We were supposed to go to a party with him today, but he's disappeared. We've tried everywhere, but we didn't find him. Nopony's seen or heard from him since last night, not even his parents."

Spike thought to himself for a moment. "I think you should all come inside. They did as he said. Once they were all inside he closed the door behind them and locked it before beginning to speak. "By the way, the whole him being alive thing, is that his power?"

"Uh-huh"

"Hmm, cool. Okay, yesterday Twilight came home from the community center and almost immediately started packing. I asked her where she was going but for some reason she didn't want to tell me."

"So?" Daring asked.

"Well, luckily as she was leaving, Rainbow Dash stopped her and asked where she was going. Twilight was definitely in a hurry, but I did manage to overhear that she was going to Canterlot."

"And your point is...?" Scootaloo interrupted.

"My point is that the only reason Twilight would go to Canterlot on such short notice, would be related to Celestia somehow. Since she could just use me to send a letter to her, she wanted to talk to Celestia privately. So I find it interesting that on the same day that Twilight goes to see Celestia, the pony who gave her the assignment to investigate rumors of ponies getting powers, Evergreen, a pony who miraculously rose from the dead, goes missing."

"This little dragon is a god damn fucking genius!" Daring exclaimed.

"But what does this mean?" Apple Bloom asked.

"It means that Evergreen is in Canterlot, probably being held prisoner in Celestia's castle." Thunder said.

"What, that's insane," Sweetie Belle said, not wanting to believe that something like this could happen, "Why would Twilight do that? Why would Celestia do that? It doesn't make any sense." She walked over to a wall and leaned against it, going into deep thought. The others exchanged looks, asking those same questions without saying a word. Sweetie Belle broke the silence.

"Let's say he is being held prisoner in Canterlot castle." She turned and faced the group. "What are we supposed to do about it?" They thought to themselves. They looked at the ground, around the room, at each other; all whilst trying to think of a solution that wouldn't get them killed or in massive amounts of trouble. Thunder spoke first.

"We have to save him."

"What? Are you fucking serious? We are on probation, a misdemeanor could land us in juvy, and you think we should break into Goddess knows what kind of government facility and steal a pony back?"

"I'm in," said Apple Bloom.

"If Apple Bloom is doing it, so am I," Scootaloo said. Sweetie Belle nodded, showing she felt the same.

"I'll help...if I can," Dual added.

"There's no way I'm missing out on this," Spike said. They all looked at Daring, waiting for an answer.

"You know, you all are the craziest fucking ponies I have ever met. I'm game."

"So what's the plan?" Spike asked.

"Right... we do have a plan, don't we?" Scootaloo asked.

""Of course we do, it's the same plan we always have," Apple Bloom said.

"So, improvise with our powers and hope for a fucking miracle?" Daring asked.

"Basically."

* * * * *

Evergreen regained consciousness, and noticed that the room he was in didn't look much different with his eyes open. He noticed that he was in a chair, with his forelegs chained to the arms, and his hind legs chained to the legs. Suddenly, a light turned on. He was blinded for a moment, but it passed, and he was greeted by the last pony he expected.

"Princess Celestia?" he said, "What's going on?"

"Don't worry my loyal subject, there is nothing to be afraid of."

"Well I know that. If there was something to be afraid of, I wouldn't of come here on my own free will," he said, lifting his chained hooves.

"I understand that you experienced an unusual event recently."

"And what would that be?"

"You died."

"Oh. That."

"Yes, we would like to understand more about your very special talent." Three Canterlot guards entered the room. One of them walked right up to Evergreen and impaled him with a spear he was holding. Evergreen gasped in pain before quickly bleeding out and dying. "Start the timer and make note of how quickly he heals and when he wakes up," Celestia said as she walked out the door.

The princess walked into her throne room, which was empty aside from Twilight Sparkle and her brother. They both shared an unpleasant look of concern. "What's the matter?" Celestia asked.

"Well, princess..." Armor started.

"Neither of us agree with your methods," Twilight finished.

"Twilight, Shining Armor, you must understand that I am merely taking necessary precautions, and to the extent of our knowledge, we do not believe that we are causing any permanent harm to young Evergreen."

"Still, that doesn't take away from the cruelty of the situation."

"I know. It pains me to have to resort to this, but we must learn more about these powers. That means doing whatever it takes to find out more information."

"But-"

"That's the last I want to hear about it." The Princess walked out of the throne room and up to her personal chambers. Twilight had never seen Celestia like this before. She seemed to be constantly avoiding Twilight's questions, and even told her earlier to leave Canterlot and return to Ponyville. Twilight, of course, refused, despite the direct order from her teacher. Celestia realized that her student was far too stubborn to obey this command, and allowed her to stay during Evergreen's interrogation.

Shining Armor was worried about the Princess as well. This was the first time he found out about the situation, and he definitely didn't understand it, at least not fully. Powers, young ponies being tortured to death, and coming back from the dead. It was all so strange to him.

Yet he didn't go against Celestia's orders. He questioned them of course, just to establish his moral standing in the situation if nothing else, but at the end of the day he was still the captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard. What really worried him was how the princess herself was reacting to the whole thing. She seemed agitated, and her methods were very unlike her. His sister felt it too. Celestia definitely telling them something.

* * * * *

It was late at night outside Canterlot Castle, as six ponies and a dragon looked upon the walls, thinking of a way in past the guards. "So what are you thinking?" Scootaloo asked Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom scanned the castle wall and saw a small hole in it's base that they could crawl through. "There." She pointed at the hole. "Wait until none of the guards are looking."

"What if Evergreen isn't in there?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Well, if that's the case, then we'll just have to ask Twilight where he is."

They dashed towards the wall while none of the guards were looking. The hole was small enough that nopony had really noticed it before, so saying it was a tight fit is an understatement. After the last of them squeezed through, Spike guided them to the section of the castle where the dungeon was located. They came up to the door, where two royal guards stood.

"So what now?" Daring asked.

Scootaloo ran towards the two guards, disappeared, and a split second later the guards collapsed, unconscious, and Scootaloo reappeared, standing over them.

"Well that works."

They entered the building and made their way to the holding cells. They spied a guard sleeping at a table across from an occupied cell, but they couldn't tell who was in it. "I think he's asleep," Scootaloo said.

"Can we just sneak past him?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"We don't want to risk waking him up," Apple Bloom said.

"But we don't want to knock him unconscious if we don't have to," Thunder said as he vanished right before their eyes. They looked to the sleeping guard, and saw a fork begin to levitate next to him. The handle end poked the guard in the face and he did not stir. Thunder poked him a few more times, then, sure that he was asleep, checked him for a cell key. After finding no key in the guard's pockets or on the table, Thunder took him and dragged him into a nearby broom closet.

"Uuggghhh, what the..." the guard muttered as Thunder slammed the door and reappeared. "He didn't have a key."

"Doesn't matter," Apple Bloom said. She walked up to the cell door, and closed her eyes. Her face scrunched up as she focused her thoughts on a solitary object. A key materialized in her hooves, and she tried it on the cell door. It didn't fit. "Damnit!" she yelled as she threw it across the room. She breathed, cleared her mind, and concentrated again. A new key materialized, and she put in the lock. The cell door open and she entered it.

"Evergreen?" she asked. A green stallion who was laying on his side turned over and looked at Apple Bloom. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Evergreen said, clearly out of it. He was alive, but covered in bruises, cuts, and newly aquired scars. Apple Bloom rushed over and hugged him as the others entered the cell to see their friend.

"What did they do to you?" Dual asked.

"Well, essentially, they wanted to see how well I could die. So they got creative. Apparently I've been waking up faster and faster each time. The only problem is that all the non-fatal wounds still take a while to heal, so the assholes just threw me in here until they were ready to kill me again. You'd think they'd at least buy me dinner first."

"Can you walk?"

"No."

"Pretty quick to answer, aren't ya," Apple Bloom said. The guard in the closet was now fully awake and yelling for help from the others. "Okay, time to go. I'll carry you." Apple Bloom threw Evergreen's right front leg over her shoulder so that he could walk with her. The others exited the cell, and Apple Bloom looked to see if they could see the two of them. When she was sure they couldn't, she turned a kissed Evergreen. "If you tell anypony that that happened, I swear by Celestia I will skin you alive."

"Fair enough."

The group made their way outside past the two still unconscious guards. "You know, you'd think Canterlot Castle of all places would have better security," Daring said. As if on cue, a dozen royal guards circled them and readied their spears. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

"Freeze! Don't move and no harm will come to you," said one of the guards.

"Everypony," Sweetie Belle said, unusually serious, "cover your ears."

The young ponies who knew what was about to happen obligied. The guards, however, had no clue as to what she meant by that statement. Sweetie Belle screamed, and the guards fell to the ground, heads in their hooves as nearby windows and other glass objects shattered. More guards blocked the direct path to the hole in the wall, but the ponies figured that they could cut through the main ballroom and and avoid the guards entirely.

They ran to the ballroom and when they entered, at least a hundred guards surrounded them, weapons brazen. "Ok, admittedly not our best idea," Evergreen said. As the ponies stood in the center of the room, Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, and Shining Armor entered.

"Spike?! What are you doing here?" Twilight exclaimed almost immediately.

"Oh... hey Twilight. Um... how's it going?" Spike responded nervously. He had hoped that they wouldn't run into Twilight.

"I just want to say," Celestia interjected, "that I am very disappointed in all of you. That is a prisoner of Equestria, and aiding in his escape is a felony of the highest order."

"What did he ever do to deserve that?" Apple Bloom demanded an answer.

"His imprisonment is essential for Equestira's safety. This power epidemic could spell doom for all the land."

"How do you know the powers are so dangerous anyway?" Scootaloo asked.

"Actually, what I want to know is..." Twilight began. The ponies looked to her, with Celestia paying extra attention. "How exactly did you find out about the powers at all?"

"Twilight! What is the meaning of this?"

"I'm just asking a simple question Princess. The way I see it, you knew about them immediately after the storm occurred. You said you heard rumors about powers, but I noticed that rumors and stories about powers didn't emerge until at least a few days later. How did you know about it all so quickly?"

"Twilight Sparkle. I hardly think I need to explain myself to my own pupil."

"Actually Princess, I think you do," Shining Armor said.

"What?! Shining Armor, you too?"

"I'm sorry Princess, I still don't fully understand the situation, but if what Twilight says is true, you at least owe us an explanation."

The princess of the sun stood in anger, but eventually let out a sigh of compliance. "Very well. About seven hundred years ago, a storm swept through Equestria. It gave ponies special powers, and they did whatever they wanted with them. There was much suffering. It took decades for us to resolve the crisis. We tried to sweep all of it under the rug, forget it ever happened and try to maintain a thousand years of peace. The storm came again, and I had to make sure that it was the real thing. I was assigning Twilight a special task to complete, and thought that she was the perfect pony to uncover information without arousing suspicion. After I heard of Evergreen's power, I ordered his capture so that we could study him to find a way we can use to combat this inevitable crisis."

"Hey, can we go? We're just sort of sitting here doing nothing so I was just wondering..." Evergreen said.

"Well, now that you've heard all that, I am ordering your immediate executions." The guards readied to attack, and the ponies readied to fight to the end. They weren't thrilled about it, but they were still willing to do it. "WAIT!" Twilight yelled.

She ran to the ponies and stood with them. "These ponies may not be moral ponies, but they're still my friends, and I won't let you kill innocent ponies."

"Or dragons," Spike said. They gave each other a comforting smile before Twilight returned her focus to Celestia. "I'd have to agree with Twiley," Shining Armor said, joining the ponies in the center of the room. "This has gone too far Princess."

They all stared Celestia down, and she stared back, unflinching. The guards began to waver upon seeing that their captain didn't agree with their orders. Finally, Celestia spoke up. "Look at all these ponies. So young, so very young. All ponies in the wrong place at maybe just the right time." She looked at them with a much softer gaze. "You're all free to go. I realize now the error of my methods. I was too caught up in protecting Equestria, that I didn't think about the ponies in it."

"Does this mean we're done with our community service?" Daring asked.

"No. That's unrelated to this."

Although disappointed by that, the ponies all shared a sigh of relief. They thanked Princess Celestia, and headed out on their way back to Ponyville with Twilight. On their way out, Celestia stopped them one last time. "Oh Twilight," she called out.

"Yes Princess?"

"I've been meaning to ask you about your special assignment. What did you find out about the deaths of Onyx Stallion and Brightening Lightning?"

Twilight looked over at Evergreen, then back to Celestia. "I haven't been able to come up with anything on the investigation, and to be honest, I don't think I ever will."

"So you're saying that you failed?"

"No, I wouldn't say that."

"Very well. Good-bye Twilight. I hope to see you again soon."

The ponies exited the castle and headed to the Canterlot train station. "Shining Armor?" Celestia asked.

"Yes Princess?"

"Remind me tomorrow to set up a meeting with my administrators."

"Of course Princess. Do you mind me asking why?"

"Not at all. I simply would like to make some changes to our Youth Community Payback program."

* * * * *

The eight ponies and dragon were walking down the path towards Canterlot. "You know," Evergreen said, "you guys spend a lot of time saving my ass."

"Well that's because you're the most useless pony in the group. Even your power only benefits yourself," Apple Bloom said as she chuckled.

"You know, overall this has been a major learning experience for me," Twilight said.

"I think it's been one for everypony," Sweetie Belle said.

"We all learned how to control our powers," Scootaloo said.

"I learned that everypony has something special about them," Spike said.

"I learned not to judge a book by it's cover...again," Twilight said.

"I learned that dying fucking sucks," Evergreen said.

"I didn't even exist until recently, so I've learned so much," Dual said.

"Wait, what?" Twilight asked.

"We'll tell you later," Daring said.

"I learned," Thunder said, "Well I learned that...even if their not what you expected or even wanted, true friends will always be there for you...no matter what happens."

The group gave a collective awwww and continued on. "You know guys," Twilight said, "I really do want to get to know all of you a lot better. Don't be afraid to just come by and talk to me if you want."

"Oh, Twilight, you know we can't stay mad at you," Evergreen said.

"So guys, what next?" Scootaloo asked.

"I don't know about you," Apple Bloom said, "but I just want things to go back to normal."

"Please," Evergreen said, "Knowing us, things going back to normal would be a fucking miracle."

The End
...of Series 1