My Little Proletariat

Cirrus woke with a start. The room was bathed in a light-blue glow. Which mean the crystal next to her bed was probably going off.

She shut her eyes, tight, counted to five, opened them again. Nope. Still glowing.

Eventually she sighed and rolled over. Sure enough, the piece of rock sitting upright on her bedstand was pulsing with a faint blow light. It was buzzing faintly, too, but Cirrus had found that noises never woke her up. Benefits of growing up in a family of four siblings, she figured.

She blearily reached out a hoof and hit the button on the top of the rock. That stopped the buzzing, at least. A fuzzy face appeared in the middle of the crystal.

"Hey, Cirrus?" said the face. The sound was tinny and scratchy. Goddess-damned newfangled unicorn technology, the pegasus thought to herself.

"Yeah," she said, "what's up? You know this is my day off, right?"

"Yeah, sure," said the face on the other end of the connection. "Look, we've got reports of a body in one of the outlying towns. No police presence to speak of, so we need someone out there fast."

Which means the Flying Police, Cirrus thought. "And I'm the only pony you can call?"

"Well, uh, you are technically on call." The other pony had the decency to look vaguely embarassed. "And to be honest, most of our reserves are busy beefing up security for the Gala."

"Cirrus? What's that?"

The pegasus looked over he shoulder. The conversation had roused Morning Drizzle, who, despite her name, was not looking the most photogenic right now. "Work stuff," she said. "Don't worry, I'll deal with it." She turned back to the crystal. "Yeah, sure," she said, "get me directions and as much of a run-down as you can on the situation. I'll be at the station in...about five minutes?"

The pony nodded, and the connection went dead. The blue glow faded, and the room returned to its usual drab colours, illuminated by the early morning sun.

"Work stuff, huh?" said Drizzle. She reached a hoof around Cirrus' body, trying to pull her back into bed. "When does work stuff finish and play stuff start?"

"As soon as I can afford to pay rent in Canterlot without holding down a job, that's when." And that day, Drizzle, she thought, is the day I'll retire.

They'd already put a cordon up by the time she landed. They may be incredibly harsh task-masters who yanked you from your bed on your day off, but if there was one thing the Greater Canterlot Flying Police were good at, it was getting ponies on the ground as fast as possible.

She landed just down the road, adjusted her cap, made sure her lanyard was showing, and walked casually toward the school. No sense in alarming everyone by landing in their midst. The pony manning the cordon glanced at her badge and nodded, raising the tape for her.

She'd not got five feet inside when she was accosted by a young, forest-green pegasus stallion. His lanyard marked him as an officer - which probably meant he'd been in charge of this until she showed up.

"You're Cirrus?" he asked.

"The hat makes me Inspector Cirrus," she said. She still hadn't got over her morning wakeup.

"Sorry, Inspector Cirrus. I'm Treetop." He led the mare further into the school. She counted at least four other policeponies, all busy doing the various tasks that bureaucracy required of them before working out exactly what happened at a crime scene.

"Central said you'd want briefing?" Treetop asked.

"Sure. I got about five sentences from them. I'm assuming you have something more detailed."

"A wee bit. We got a call in this morning - apparently someone found the body before school started."

"Thank the Princess for small blessings," Cirrus muttered to herself. "Anything of interest?"

"It looks like she was beaten pretty bad before she died. We're still waiting for forensics to get here, so we're just leaving the scene be right now, and making sure no one messes it up."

Cirrus made a quick mental calculation. Forensics would be entirely unicorns, and even with a murder on their hands, they'd still not be able to requesition a flying chariot. Which meant: train. Which meant: a matter of hours before they found out anything.

"You got teams keeping the clouds away?" Cirrus asked, glancing at the sky. "Rain messes up a body something wicked, I'm told."

"I'll get right on it," said Treetop, "also-"

He broke off as shouting erupted at the cordon. The two pegasi exchanged looks, and set off for the edge of the school at a canter.

Two of the policeponies had a third in their hooves: a civilian, Cirrus noted. The civilian was the one doing the shouting - a purple-coated unicorn with a nerdy-looking fringe.

Cirrus looked at Treetop. "No idea, sir," the officer said.

The policemare stepped up to the cordon. The unicorn was berating her two captors. "I'll have you fired for this!" she said. "I know Princess Celestia! I'll send a letter! She might even read it! You'll be cleaning stables for the rest of your adult lives!" The policeponies, to their credit, hardly seemed to notice her outburtst. As Cirrus approached, the unicorn looked up. "You!" she said, "you're in charge here, aren't you? What's going on? Why is this school cordoned off? Why won't these two let me in?"

"Sorry, ma'am, school grounds are currently off-limited to non-authorised personell. This is a crime scene right now. Could I ask who you are and what you're doing here?"

"Crime scene? What happened? Is this about Sweetie Belle again? We know she doesn't mean to break things."

"Ma'am, please answer the question," Treetop said. He'd produced a notebook from somewhere and was busy writing down something in a jagged scrawl, brow furrowed with concentration. He was doing a very good job of talking while he wrote.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, I'm the librarian. I'm here to drop off some books to Cheerilee."

"Is Cheerilee your daughter?" Cirrus asked.

"My...? Cheerilee's the teacher."

Cirrus and Treetop exchanged glances. "Cheerilee," Treetop said. "Earth pony? Purple coat? Sunflower cutie mark?"

"Yes, of...hold on. What happened? Why do you know who Cheerilee is?"

"We'll be holding a press briefing here later this afternoon," said Cirrus. "Until then, we're legally obliged not to disclose any further information."

"What? What happened to her? What happened to Cheerilee?" The unicorn threw herself forward. The two policeponies grabbed her, holding her back. Her horn glowed and one of the ponies found himself enveloped in a purple light. He found himself slowly drifting into the air. The unicorn slipped out of the second pony's grasp and made a bolt under the tape, into the school ground. Cirrus made a dive towards Twilight, catching her hind hoof and tripping her. Twilight's concentration broke as she hit the ground, and the momentarily levitating policepony dropped to the ground. The unicorn struggled, but Cirrus had restrained far bigger ponies than this one.

Treetop galloped over to help - more a show of support than a tactical move. "Treetop," Cirrus said, "get her back home, make sure someone's looking after her." The unicorn kept struggling under her, growling wordlessly. Her horn started to glow again, but Cirrus gave her a sharp rap on the end of her nose, extinguishing it. "None of that now," she said, "or we'll have to start charging you."

The unicorn looked up, met Cirrus' gaze, and then gave up, sullenly lying there on the ground. Treetop helped her up, muttering something about helping her home and asking her some questions. He guided Twilight back past the cordon and onto the road, although every few feet she glanced back behind her - whether to try to catch a glimpse of her friend, or to shoot a glare at Cirrus, she wasn't sure.

As soon as the pair were out of sight, Cirrus let out a breath. She looked up to find the rest of the squad watching her. "Well?" she snapped. "Don't you have things to do?"

Order restored itself around her, but Cirrus felt a weight on her shoulders already. It looked like today was going to e one of those days.

Everything was divided into one of three piles: Not Very Incriminating, Only Sightly Incriminating, and Very Incriminating. The third pile was depressingly large.

Rarity hadn't followed her own advice. After telling Fluttershy to make sure her house was clean of party-related materials, Rarity had gone home, planted the signal that meant "meet me tonight" to whoever it was who was her current Party handler, and then decided that rather than burn evidence, she should set up a number of intricate bells and whistles in case someone entered her house through unorthodox means, Unfortunately, Carousel Corner had been designed as a fahion boutique first, and a criminal safe-house second: there were a number of ground-floor windows that could easily be jimmied open from the outside, and there were at least three routes from the boutique proper to her room.

Which meant that she'd gone to the meeting with a sense of dread. All it would take is for Twilight to start talking to ponies about her suspicions, and for someone to think about searching the shop...

And the the meeting itself. Fluttershy was as nervous as ever, of course, but there was...something...about the way their contact talked, the way he phrased his sentences. Rarity couldn't help but feel like something was up, something he wouldn't tell them. And try as she might, she could only draw one conclusion from that:

They were going to cut her off.

Sure, it was mabe a bit paranoid, but she was working for a nation-wide conspiracy to keep the god-princess Celestia in power. She figured a bit of paranoia was a pretty good thing to have.

Which was why, right now, she was working out the best way to dispose of about two drawers' worth of documents that linked Rarity of Ponyville to the Party.

Fire, of course, was an old favourite. Fire fixed most things, in fact, but people would talk about a fire just past mid-summer, and there was just too much to burn discretely. She could always try shredding, but that still left a bunch of paper to dispose of.

No, she thought to herself, she'd have to dispose of the evidence the same way Ponyville got rid of most of its problems - by burying it somewhere in the Everfree.

She'd just finished packing her saddlebags when a bell rang downstairs. Rarity froze. That meant someone was trying to sneak in through the laundry window - which was, Rarity thought, the way she'd try to sneak into Carousel Corner if she was trying to ambush herself. It seemed the Party weren't going to let her make any more mistakes before the day was out.

The unicorn stuffed the last of the documents into her saddlebags. Was that the sound of hoofs on the stairs? She gave the room a quick once-over - grabbed a scarf and a cloak, because who knew what the weather would be like in the Everfree? - and slipped the saddlebags onto her back.

A floorboard creaked, somewhere in the house. She trotted nervously, quietly, to the window. She hadn't yet got around to repairing it from the break-in. As Twilight had noted, there was no ledge below the window to catch an escaping pony, but if one were desparate enough, there was a good thick tree-branch within leaping distance.

Rarity scrambled onto the sill, not bothering to open the smashed-out frame, and balanced precariously. She tried to judge the distance - feet? Yards? Her hooves shook. This plan has seemed a lot more robust when she was standing in her room gathering her things.

A door slammed somewhere downstairs.

Rarity jumped.

She landed, half-in, half-out of the tree, forehooves scrambling desparately for purchase. She secured her grip, managed a half-shimmy to the trunk, and somehow slide down the trunk, branches whipping her as sche descended. She hit the ground, green streaks covering her flanks, twigs in her hair, and her rear left hoof gave a twinge. Stifling a cry, she looked down - she'd caught herself on one of the shards of broken window and was now bleeding. It wasn't that serious - but she was going to have to do something about it.

"No time for field surgery," she muttered to herself. She glanced up nervously at the window of Carousel Boutique, and then up and down the street. Surpringly - amazingly - no one had seen her slap-dash escape. She might still get out of this.

Limping slightly, Rarity galloped towards the edge of town, and freedom.

Pinkie hadn't expected the wires. Who put tripwires in a laundry? It took her a good minute or two to untangle - a minute or two she was aware she couldn't afford to spend.

"Raaaaaaarity!" the earth pony called. She'd lost the element of surprise now, she figured, might as well try to spook the unicorn into giving her position away.

She crept up the stairs. A breeze stirred up, giving life to the veils and laces displayed on the shop floor. No sound in the house except for her muffled hoof-steps on the stairway.

"Rarity!" she called again. "Rarity! Are you hiding from me? You don't need to hide from me!"

She reached the top of the stairs, gently opened the door to Rarity's room, and peaked inside.

Empty.

"Well," Pinkie said, her body un-tensing. "Drat. And after I went to all that effort." She bounded around the room, humming to herself - examining the papers strewn on the unicorn's desk, lifting up discarded pieces of material.

She stopped when she got to the window. Blood glistened on the frame. The earth pony poked her head outside and surveyed the view. "Ah-ha!" she said quietly to herself. "You're running away! That's no good!"

Several minutes later, Pinkie Pie emerged from the ground floor of Carousel Boutique. She inspected an oak tree that grew close to the house, whose branches all but scraped the woodwork in some places. She sniffed at the ground.

Then, at an easy pace, she bounced off towards the Everfree Forest.

"But ah don't wanna stay here."

Applejack tilted her hat back. "Well, looks like y'ain't got no choice. Unless you like wandering the Everfree on your lonesome."

If Apple Bloom weren't in such a mood, she'd have had to admit that the place was amazing. The Apple family's old still - a relic from a parliament who'd been a touch stricter about Earth Pony discoveries like alcohol - stood in the middle of a clearing on a hill overlooking one of the tamer branches of the Everfree forest. The Dragonspine mountains rose up behind, sheltering it somewhat from the cold easterlies that would bring rain and show to Ponyville. The village itself was just visible, a day's travel away - and past that, the open plains of Equestria proper.

Which made it a breathtaking place to spend a day or two when you weren't secretly mad at your older sister.

Applejack grabbed the rake in her teeth and continued to clear the ground. Apple Bloom sighed.

"'ook," said Applejack around the rake. Thinking better of it, she dropped it to the ground. "Look," she repeated. "I don't know why Pinkie Pie said I should wander up here and took a look around, but, well, she's an Earth Pony, an' us Earth Ponies stick together. If she thinks somethin's happening up here, then I guess she thinks somethin's happening up here, an' you know what she's like with premonitions an' all."

"But-"

"An' while we're up here, I figure we can do a bit of cleanup. Celestia knows, the place needs it." She cast a judgemental eye over the ramshackle hut they'd slept in the night before, and the tarnished distillery kit.

Apple Bloom wasn't ready to back down yet. She stalked over to the rake. "But ah should be in school, learnin' numbers with Miss Cheerilee!" she said, before grabbing it and continuing her sister's work.

"Sure," said Applejack, "and it's good you're so dedicated. But what're you gonna do with numbers, Apple Bloom? You think they'll hire an Earth Pony to do their accounts in Canterlot? I hear even the ponies who muck out the stables in Canterlot are unicorns. 'sides, who's gonna run the farm when I get old an' tired?"

Apple Bloom dropped the rake, letting it fall in between the two of them. "That's all ah'm good for, is it? Runnin' the farm? Is that why you're so pleased you have a little sister, so one day you can pass the whole thing onto me?"

"Now, sugar, that's not-"

"Well," she continued, raising her voice, "maybe ah don't wanna run the farm! Maybe ah think ah can do somethin' better with mah life than muck out barns!"

"Oh, yeah?" said Applejack, rising to the bait. "An' where in tarnation you think you'll get a job in Equestria that ain't diggin' the ground? You think anypony'll hire you, an Earth Pony who talks like she's from out West?"

"At least ah can try!" A tear traced its way down Apple Bloom's cheek. "Ah'm not gonna spend the rest of my life pushin' dirt in Ponyville! What about Cheerilee? Or the Mayor? They're busy not pokin' around on some dumb farm!"

The door to the hut slammed closed as Granny Smith tottered out. She cast a wary eye over the clearing. "Was somepony shouting?" she asked. "I thought I heard somepony shouting."

Apple Bloom ran to Granny Smith's side, tears streaming down her face. "AJ won't let me go to school and ah don't know what ah want to do with mah life but ah don't want to spend it running Sweet Apple Acres but AJ says no one'll take me 'cause ah'm a hick and ah'm an Earth Pony an' they don't hire hicks an' Earth Ponies an' ah got named after a disease!" And then she collapsed into the old mare's side, nearly knocking her over.

"There there," said Granny Smith, somehow managing to both keep her balance and give the young filly a reassuring pat on the head. "Don't fret, I'm sure everything'll be peachy."

"Apple Bloom," her sister started, "you-wait. A disease?"

"Ah looked it up. Y'all named me after a disease!"

Applejack walked over to the pair of them. "You keep cleaning the shack," she said to Granny Smith, "I'll take care of her." She extricated the two and walked the old mare back to the hut. Apple Bloom stood where she'd been left, unsure of exactly what was happening, and whether she should continue to yell at her older sister or run off crying.

Applejack returned, walking right past Apple Bloom. The filly watched as she climbed the hill to its highest point, and sat down, looking out over the valley. She looked down at her sister.

"Well," she said, "you joining me?"

Apple Bloom hesitated, looked back at the hut, but finally followed her sister up the hill.

The view was amazing. You couldn't help but gawk. Apple Bloom's mood was forgotten as she paid attention, really paid attention, to what you could see from here.

"It looks even better in the fall," said Applejack. "The leaves all turn orange an' yellow, an' the sun catches on the river...sometimes I think they put Ponyville in the wrong place, down there on the plains."

Apple Bloom looked at her hooves. "Ah'm....ah'm sorry 'bout speaking to you like that."

"Aw, s'nothing," Applejack said, giving her sister a quick hug. "We all get the feeling Ponyville's a bit too small for us at some point in our lives. You think you're the first Apple who's run off t'seek her fortune?"

Apple Bloom looked up. "Wait..." she said. "You ran off from home?"

"Maybe I did once, back when I was young and foolish. Thought I was too big for this country life, thought the city would be a place I could grow."

The mare trailed off, eyes no longer focussed on the landscape in front of them. Apple Bloom waited patiently as silence descended over the pair, broken only by the sound of crickets from the forest proper.

"...and?" she said finally.

"Huh?"

"And then what? You headed off to the city, and then what?"

"Oh," said Applejack, "it wasn't really my thing. Turns out the ponies who live in Manehattan, well, they're just ponies, same as anywhere. It's no magical place where you suddenly become a starlet or anything."

"You lived in Manehattan?"

"Only for a month or two, sugar. But, well, Ponyville's in our blood. It'll take more'n a bit of teenage longing to make you stray from her, trust me."

Applejack tilted her hat forward. "Anyway," she continued, "weren't we gonna talk about you?"

Apple Bloom blinked. "We were?"

"You wanted to know about your name."

"Oh, right."

"To be honest, it's a mite embarassing. Y'see, yer ma - our ma - she'd told Granny Smith that she'd get to name one of her grandchildren. I think Aunt Orange moving out to Manehattan was a bit of a blow to Granny, actually. She wanted both her daughters here in Ponyville, see. Of course, her an' Uncle Orange have their own kids, but-"

"Uh," said Apple Bloom, "wasn't this story gonna be about me?"

"Oh," said Applejack, "right. Where was I?"

"Granny Smith naming one of us."

"Right. Well, see, Ma named me an' Big Mac, just like she wanted. Big Mac got named after the type of apple we grow up on the hills outside Ponyville, an', well, I kinda got named after what they used to put out of that contraption over there." She nodded towards the remains of the distillery proper. "Ma liked naming her kids after what the orchards made."

"So Granny Smith named me?"

Applejack snorted. "I'm gettin' there, settle down. Anyway, when you were born, well, Ma made good on her promise. Granny Smith got to name one child. Now, she wasn't much into the orchards herself, understand - she did running the business, of course, and keeping the place in order, but it was your parents - an' later on, Big Mac an' me - who actually did the plannin' and the plantin' and the harvestin'. So when she did the naming, she thought and thought about what me an' Mac and your parents would talk about, an' when she came up with the perfect name, she got the doctor to write it straight down on the birth certificate."

"And she picked a disease?"

"She thought it was the blossom, she really did. She said it sounded like such a nice name - like what you'd see in spring, when the apple trees were just starting to bud. Not, well, creepy or anything." Applejack sighed. "She really didn't know."

"Huh," said Apple Bloom. The two of them sat there, staring out at the landscape. A slight breeze picked up, rustling the trees.

"What d'you mean, creepy?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Well, it's how the disease works, right?" Applejack said. "There's this moth, see, it creeps into the apple when it's just a flower, and it lays an egg right in the middle. And then when the apple starts to grow, the egg ends up in the middle of it. An' then when the apple is ripe the egg hatches and this little bug crawls out and starts to eat away at the inside of the apple, but he doesn't break the skin, so all you know about it is if you look real hard you can see these yellow marks on the skin - that's why we call it Apple Bloom. But then, when you go to pick the apple, the whole thing crumples in your hoof, 'cause by then it's mainly skin and core and the grub at the centre."

Apple Bloom's eyes went wide. "Ah...ah'm not sure ah want ta be named after it now."

"Yeah, well, we had a look-see about what we could do about that, or at least, your ma did. Turns out if you want t'change a pony's name after they're born ya gotta fill in even more forms, an', well, your ma wasn't her best at readin' and writin' and such."

"But if ah learned how to read an' write proper, then ah could get mah name changed, right?"

Applejack scratched the back of her neck with her hoof, looking back down the valley. "I guess you could," she said. "But then there'd be nothing in this world makes the phrase "Apple Bloom" mean something nice."

Apple Bloom stared at her hooves. "Aw, sis," she muttered.

Applejack cleared her throat. "Anyway," she said, "I'd better check how Granny Smith's doin' inside the hut. You join us when you want."

The cowpony stood and walked down the rise to the hut. Apple Bloom sat on the hill, looking down at the valley in silence. It was so peaceful here - she could hear Applejack open the door to the hut and call out to Granny Smith, but apart from that, it was just her, the cicadas...and silence.

"Psst."

Apple Bloom's ear twitched. Obviously the silence was getting to her. It had sounded like one of the bushes, on the far side of the rise had gone-

"Pssssst."

Apple Bloom looked back to the hut. Then down the hill to the conspiratorial bush. Then she got up and walked cautiously towards it.

"What is it, bush?" she asked the bush.

"It's not a bush," the bush said, "it's me!"

"And me!" the bush said, in a different voice. "Is anypony watching?"

"Well, ah'm watching," said Apple Bloom.

"Is anypony else watching?" the bush asked.

"Nope."

The bush rustled, and disgorged two fillies. Scootaloo was smeared with mud and grass, while Sweetie Belle at least looked like she'd had a bath in the last month.

"Hah!" said Scootaloo, grinning wildly. "Toldja we could do it! Got within ten yards of her, no sweat." She turned to Apple Bloom. "If I was a real ninja, you'd be dead! Like that! Bam!"

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, and continued combing sticks out of her mane.

"Hey girls!" Apple Bloom said. "What're you doing here?"

"I figured since my name didn't mean anything, that meant I could be anything I wanted!" Scootaloo replied, still grinning madly. "So I decided we should become ninjas."

"And also, it was more interesting than school," Sweetie Belle added.

"Ninjas?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Turns out Scootaloo's dad's got a bunch of trashy novels he got when he was serving abroad in the air force," Sweetie Belle said. "When Scootaloo said we were learning Equestrian-"

"They're not trashy!"

"That's not what Rarity says."

"Oh yeah? Well-"

"So!" said Apple Bloom, heading off any potential conflict. "What do ninjas do?"

"They sneak," said Scootaloo, "and they hide, and they have cool throwing stars and smoke bombs and they try to kill people!"

Sweetie Belle sniffed. "You'll never get your cutie mark in being a ninja," she said.

"Oh yeah? Why not?"

"If you have a cutie mark in being a ninja, everyone will know you're a ninja. That's not hiding."

"Huh," said Scootaloo. She sat down, thinking hard.

"So you followed us out here?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Like I said," Sweetie Belle said, "it had to be more interesting than school. I'm pretty sure Cheerilee's going to take us through geography again."

"Ah-ha!" said Scootaloo. "What if when you're a ninja, your cutie mark's hidden? Then no one could see it, and they couldn't tell you're a ninja." She blinked, then gasped. "I could have it already!" She craned around, inspecting her flank. "I can't see it! I can't see it! I'm a ninja!"

Sweeie Belle gave Apple Bloom a weary look. "She's been like this all day."

There was a call from up the hilltop. "Apple Bloom? Is that you?" It was Applejack, peering down into the undergrowth.

Scootaloo's eyes went wide. "We've been spotted!" she cried, as she dove into the nearest bush.

"It's OK, sis," Apple Bloomed called back. "It's Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They followed us from Ponyville."

Applejack made her way down the slope. "They did what now? We're still in the Everfree here, you can't just-" She paused, staring down the valley.

"AJ?" Apple Bloom called.

"All of you," her sister called, "get up here."

Apple Bloom exchanged glances with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who was still hiding under a bush. Then she trotted up the slope, her two friends in tow.

Once she cleared the treeline, she saw what her sister was staring at. Circling Ponyville were dark smudges, several pony-sized, a couple somewhat larger.

"What're they?" she asked.

Applejack squinted. "Trouble," she said. "Grab your stuff, we're headed back to town."

"I'm a terrible pony, it's time I faced the facts."

Rainbow Dash was reclining on a low-flying tuft of cloud, balling up bits of moisture, shaping them with her hooves, and chucking them over the side. Occasionally she'd roll over to peer off the edge of the cloud, looking down on Ponyville. Fluttershy was sitting primly on the densest corner of the cloud, looking concerned. She was getting really good at looking concerned.

Dash tore off another piece of cloud, rolled it between her hooves. "I can't believe I just flew off like that! You don't do that to your friends."

"You could just apologise," offered Fluttershy.

"I mean, I could have just told her that she was wrong and at least give her a chance to correct herself, but nooooo, Rainbow Dash knows better than that, I should just make a scene about it all and then fly off in a huff, that'll fix things for sure!"

"Uh, you could apologise?"

Dash spun over and buried her face in the cloud. "Now she probably thinks I'm a monster or something!"

"Rainbow?"

The pegasus removed her head from the cloud. "Yeah?"

"You could, yknow, just apologise to her."

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh, her body going limp. "She won't take it," she said. "She's the personal student of Princess Celestia! She doesn't need a friend like me, somepony who ditches her just whenever she says something out-of-place." She batted the cloud-fragment between her hooves, before hurling it over the side.

"She was feeling bad about it too."

"Well, of course she was!" Dash pulled off another tuft of cloud with her teeth, and started pulling it to bits.

"I'm sure if you just found her and said sorry you could fix this whole thing."

Rainbow Dash glared at the yellow pegasus. "I'm not going to get you to leave me alone unless you see me say sorry in person, am I?" Then she blinked. "Argh, see? I'm horrible! Now you're trying to cheer me up and all I can do is be mean to you too!" She dove headfirst back into the cloud.

Fluttershy sighed. Sometimes, you needed to be assertive.

She stood up, picked up her friend by the shoulders, and dragged her off of the cloud. The two of them half-fell, half-flew, to the road below. They landed in a heap, but Rainbow Dash was soon back on her feet, looking bedraggled.

Fluttershy stood, brushing some dust out of her coat. "Sorry," she said, looking at her feet.

Rainbow Dash shook herself. "Nah, thanks," she said, "I kinda needed that, didn't I?"

The two surveyed the town. It was relatively quiet today - nopony was wandering between stores or watering the gardens. In fact, it was quiet enough to set Rainbow Dash on edge.

"And what're you two doing out?" said a voice behind them. Rainbow Dash jumped several feet in the air and spun around in place. A guard was standing behind them - full metal barding, with the sigil of Canterlot on his breast.

"We were...visiting a friend," said Rainbow Dash.

"Oh yeah?" the guard said, eyes narrowed. "And if I asked your friend, would they know about this visit?"

"It's, uh, it's a surprise visit," said Fluttershy.

"Huh," the guard said. "Funny that." He eyeballed the two of them. "Scram, both of you. If I see you round here again, I'm locking you up on principle."

The two pegasi trotted away in the direction of the library. As soon as they rounded a corner, Rainbow Dash let out a breath and collapsed against a nearby wall.

"They're after me," she said.

"They're what?" Fluttershy asked.

"They're after me! They've found out who's behind all the anti-Celestia propaganda in Ponyville and they're after me!"

Fluttershy looked around. "...what propaganda?" she asked.

"Well, OK, we never got around to the propaganda, but the protests!"

"Uh, we never had any protests."

"Oh, right, I guess we never got around to the protests either. But, well, you know how a few months back Celestia visited and the Cakes baked her that massive cake and then, mere minutes before it was about to be served to her, it disappeared?"

"Yes?"

"That was me."

"You?"

"Well, there's a couple of us. But I masterminded it."

"I bet that startled her."

"But see? They're after me! For being a resistance cell!"

"That's good?"

"No! It isn't! If they find me, I'm glue!" She grabbed fluttershy by the shoulders. "Somepony's sold me ut, Fluttershy."

"But if they knew it was you, why didn't that guard just arrest you on sight?"

Dash paused. "Huh," she said. "You're right. Maybe...maybe they know it's someone, but they don't know who yet." She straightened up. "This makes it even more important that we find Twilight! Come on!"

The Library was under guard. Two big burly pegasi in Canterlot guard barding lounged on either side of the door. Neither looked very receptive when Dash and Fluttershy trotted up.

"We're here to talk to Twilight Sparkle," Rainbow Dash said, in her best I-know-what-I'm-doing voice.

"No one's to interact with  Miss Sparkle," said the guardpony on the left. "Captain's orders."

"Um," said Fluttershy.

"What?" said the guard on the right.

"I'm not sure you can just forbid ponies from talking to their friends."

"Sure can," said the one on the left. "She's under house arrest, and that means no outside contact."

"House arrest?" said Dash. "What's she under house arrest for?"

"Miss Twilight Sparkle is being held on suspicion of murder," said the one on the right.

"Murder?" said Rainbow Dash.

"Murder?" said Fluttershy.

"That's what he said," said Right.

"Could we talk to Spike, then?" asked Rainbow Dash. "He's her assistant."

"Spike the Dragon is also being held under house arrest, on suspicion of murder," said Left.

"The same murder?" asked Dash, "or a different one?"

"As per the Lawful Retainment Act of 873AC we are not required to give you any further information," said Right, reciting from memory.

"There's suddenly a lot of ponies around here who're under suspicion for murder," said Rainbow Dash, glaring at the two guards.

"Yup," said Left, "and there's about to be two more if you two don't clear off."

"Oh yeah?" said Dash, mane bristling, "I reckon that constitues abuse of police power. I know my rights!"

"Uh, Rainbow," said Fluttershy, trying to merge with the ground.

The two guards went tense. Their wings flared. "Hey, lookie here," said Right. "This pony knows her rights. You know what we do to pipsqueak pegasi who know their rights in Canterlot?"

Fluttershy grabbed her friend, yanking her out of the air. "We weren't looking for trouble," she said to the guards. "My friend here is just a bit enthusiastic, but she's really nice when you get to know her, honest!"

Rainbow Dash struggled half-heartedly against her bonds, glaring at the two guardponies. "I've been in protests before!" she shouted back the the guards. "I know what you brutes do when you think you can get away with it! I saw the crackdowns at Everfree Dam with my own eyes!"

Left growled, pawing the ground with his hoof. "Clear out, you two," he said. "If we see you again round here, we'll make sure you regret it."

She managed to get Rainbow Dash around the corner of the next building before the blue pegasus thought of anything particularly clever or vindictive to throw back at the guard.

"Rainbow," she said, quietly but urgently, "we're not going to help Twilight by getting arrested ourselves."

Rainbow Dash glared at her, but then she slumped. "You're right," she said. "They've got her well and good in there. But...murder? Twilight?"

"You're right," Fluttershy said, "Twilight wouldn't do that. They've got it wrong."

"Something's up," said Rainbow Dash. She stood up and started pacing, wings twitching. "Suddenly there's guards everywhere and Twilight's under arrest and so's Spike and, well, Rarity's been acting strange recently, and I know Pinkie's hiding something from me and I don't know what..."

"We need to rescue Twilight," Fluttershy said.

Rainbow Dash whirled to face her. "We need to what?"

"We need to rescue Twilight," Fluttershy repeated.

"But...but she's under arrest! They have guards watching her!"

"No they don't. They have guards watching the door. If we can get in through a window, they don't even need to know we're there." Fluttershy drew herself up, gathering speed. "And you said you wanted to do something, something important? How about this? You think this many guards just come by Ponyville every day? This is something to do with the Princess, and you know it is. Twilight's mixed up with it. But if they've put her under arrest it means she's on our side. If you can rescue her, imagine how that'll help your cause." She looked down at her feet. "Besides," she added, "Twilight's our friend, Rainbow. We should at least try to help her out."

Rainbow Dash sat down on the road with a quiet thump. After a moment, she looked up. "You're right," she said. "I've been trying to avoid it, but you're right. We do need to rescue her. Why couldn't I have gotten you on board with the resistance earlier on? That's the sort of spirit we've needed for ages."

"Oh, I don't think I'd be a very good-oof!" said Fluttershy, as Rainbow Dash physically lifted her fellow pegasus with her into the air. "Uh, Rainbow, what are we doing?"

"Bucking the system," said Rainbow Dash. There was a determined look in her eyes. "Come on," she said. "Let's be bad-asses."

Storm took a moment to survey the town.

An imposing pegasus in civvies, the regalia of Guard Captain made him all the more threatening. The two guard pegasi on either side of him seemed almost unnecessary. You had to wonder, if a fight broke out here, who would be protecting whom.

The raid had gone well - surprisingly well, as far as he was concerned. If it wasn't just a weekend milk-run at the command of the Princess, he'd have said: suspiciously well.

They'd landed on the outskirts first, and made their way inwards by hoof. Some of the outer farms were abandoned - maybe the workers had fled at the first sign of Canterlot forces, into the Everfree - but that simply a chance you had to take.

Anyway, they hadn't been after farmers.

One of the guard trotted up and sketched a hasty bow in front of Storm.

"What is it?" he snapped. He always snapped while on duty. He found it helped instill discipline.

"Perimeter secured, Captain, although we have reports of a unicorn seen escaping and entering the Everfree."

"A unicorn, eh? What colour?"

"Guard says white, purple mane, Captain."

"Send a couple of scouts after them. They might have information."

"Yes, Captain. Anything else?"

"As you were."

"Yes Captain."

The guard bowed again, and trotted off, issuing orders. Everything was going to plan. Or at least, everything involving his guard. Which just left...

"I'm afraid we can't take orders from the guard," Cirrus said. "Division of authority and all that."

...the other problem.

"Inspector Cirrus," Storm said. "I understand you have a crime scene on your hands here, but I've been ordered by Her Majesty to secure this area as a matter of national importance. A murder is nothing to sneeze at, but we have the whole of Equestria to worry about."

Cirrus remained silent. She was staring into the mid-distance. Goddess-dammit, Storm thought, we both know how this is going to end, do we have to keep dancing around each other like this?

"Inspector," he said, walking over to the policepony. He tried to look her in the eye, but she was having nothing of it. "You've got your orders, and I've got my orders, and the higher-ups probably don't give a flying damn how things go down on the ground as long as everything gets sorted out and the press doesn't get hold of the mixup.

"So here's what we need to do: we need to sort this mess out so they don't have to deal with any political fallout. Now, if you have any bright ideas, this would be your chance to air them." He paused, looking at her. "No? OK. Look, you need the school grounds, yes? I'll extend my cordon to include it. Nopony has to enter or leave, just as long as we have control over the area. You and your ponies can make sure we don't do anything that affects the crime scene. Then, once this is all done with, you can continue your investigation. Deal?"

Cirrus' mouth twisted. She knew she was being shoved aside in as diplomatic a manner as Storm could manage. But, she thought, orders are orders. Plus, it was still technically her day off.

"If you say so," she said.

Storm paused. "It'd help if I got a straight 'yes' or 'no' from you, Inspector."

"Yes," she sighed.

"Excellent. I'll have some of my ponies go with you. You can set the boundaries. If any of them set hoof inside, come see me."

Storm watched the policepony stalk off, flanked by guards. It was a problem - not one he really wanted to have to deal with - but with any luck, he'd managed to contain it.

Yet another guardpony trotted up. The good thing about being a Guard Captain was, you got lots of minions.

"Captain," the guard said, sketching a quick bow. "We're in position."

Storm smiled. He felt a Guard Captain shouldn't smile, but sometimes you just had to break protocol.

"Excellent," he said. "Start the roundup. And get me Sparkle."