Scootaloo locked eyes with herself in the mirror. She looked like a filly she had never met before. Her once glistening, purple eyes seemed dead and cold as stone with circular blackholes that sucked the breath out of her lungs; her coat, that was once vibrant orange, was faded and thin. She groaned with distaste and disgust at the drastic change in appearance.

Scootaloo bent over the sink and turned it on. She looked back up at the mirror, back at the stranger she had become. She splashed the cold water on her face and watched the water make her fur turn darker. She had almost hoped the new look would wash away like makeup, but of course, it wouldn't.

Was Scootaloo guilty? No. She was scared of where this path would lead. She knew this was the righteous way to go about the world, but nopony around her could understand it. They were weak. She was the only pony that could see that the sin of the world needed to be found and destroyed. They would try to stop her, try to tell her how just being "kind" and "friendly" can solve her problems. She knew better, though.

These thoughts of how great, smart, and virtuous she was brought a smirk to her face. Scootaloo could show everyone how amazing she was. She could teach them the way to cleanse Equestria of crime. Ponies would look up to her and think of how she had turned the world from sin to purity.

Scootaloo's train of thought was derailed by a loud knock at her door. Who the buck would be here at 8 in the morning?! She thought angerly. She jumped away from the sink and walked out of the bathroom. She waltzed through her house at a meandering speed before coming to the door. She unlocked it cautiously, unsure of what kind of horrible foe or cheerful friend lay behind the thick wood.

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"Please, Spitfire!" Rainbow Dash pleaded, her voice was whiney and her eyes were watery. "I need to see her! I'm all she has left..."

"I understand that, Crash, but we can't afford you leaving."

They were standing on a small, puffy, white cloud overlooking the horror scene of pegasi scrambling to destroy the black clouds. The pegasi lacked any enthusiasm or energy as they struggled to raise a hoof. At this point, many had given up on the idea that they could win against the endless supply of smoke-like clouds and just rushed around to act like they had a chance.

"Pleeeease..." Rainbow Dash looked down at her hooves, a single tear escaping from her eye and dropping onto her front leg. "I need to see her..."

"I thought you were tough!" Spitfire punched Rainbow Dash in the shoulder softly. "If she's half as tough as you, she can make it for another week."

"It's been nearly two!" Rainbow Dash spat, looking at Spitfire tearfully. "Let me do this, please!" She flapped her wings so that she was high enough to look down at Spitfire.

"If you leave or don't participate in this bucking charity of a group effort, I'll kick you out of Cloudsdale and destroy your reputation and career as a WonderBolt!" Spitfire hissed.

Foul-mouthed, hot-headed little- Rainbow Dash cut off her own thoughts and nodded. "Fine... I'll..." She couldn't find the words in her throat, so she turned toward the disaster taking place.

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Twist's mother was an old shrew of a mare and had locked her in her room with nothing but her mini fridge full of confections. After a less-than-pleasant argument Twist was grounded until next month, even after explaining the situation her friend was in. Even sweet candy couldn't wash the bitter taste of guilt away. What kind of awful friend doesn't even see their own friend on they day they are released from the hospital.

Twist curled up on her bed with a candy cane in her mouth and sobbed silently. Tears pooled under her head as she shook uncontrollably. She suddenly realized how pathetic she must've looked. Oh, how her mother must have been laughing to see her filly be such a pitiful waste of space.

Twist sat up and wiped away her tears before standing up. She turned to the window, which had been nailed closed from when she tried to escape when she was 7. She was struck with a marvelous idea and wheeled around toward her bed.

She clambered underneath her bed and felt the bottom of the frame. It was like a ladder of wooden planks. She reached her two front legs between a plank and the mattress. She heaved and pulled the piece of wood toward her chest. Tears welled in her eyes from the intense pain of the heavy mattress crushing her forelegs into the hard plank. The extremely strong glue that kept the wood in place abruptly gave way and the plank was freed.

Twist ignored the burning pain in her upper-body and grabbed the plank in her jaws. She backed out from under the bed and stood up. The agony threatened to make her legs give up, but she fought the temptation to lay down. She took her first step toward the window, sending a shock of pain up her leg and through her body. She cringed and bit down hard enough to shatter her teeth.

After many minutes of agony-filled walking, she had made it over to the window. Twist lined the plank up with the window and braced herself for the anguish that would come with her next movement. With the last of the energy in her body, she trotted at the window and impaled it with the piece of wood, shattering it to bits with the loudest crack she had ever heard.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Twist's mother's voice hollered. It was followed by the sound of her hoofsteps running toward Twist's room.

Twist shot out of the window with all the speed and energy she could have mustered. It burnt and it ached to run, but she couldn't be caught so far into her plan. All that she could do was run as fast and as far as her legs would allow. She dared not look back, for she did not want the image of her furious mother chasing her to throw off her concentration.

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Officer Asher's teeth were bared like a wolf threatening its prey as he circled the one he knew was behind so much needless death and pain. His horn was fired up and his chest heaved as he struggled to funnel copious amounts of energy into his magic. Each step sent more rage into his and his opponent's blood as they glared at each other.

"You little shit..." He grinned triumphantly. "I gotcha in the middle of a lil' planning session, didn't I?"

"So what? You're just one cop. You don't have any video evidence of my crimes or my plans." His enemy stated matter-of-factly.

Asher burst into laughter and stopped circling the foe. He walked up to the pony and stared them in the eye. "I've got evidence," he cackled.

"Y-Yeah, well..." The pony stopped to consider. They were in a position that didn't cater toward them being the victim or the criminal as it depended on how somepony were to look at the situation. Asher's light blue magic had essentially hog-tied them and placed them in the middle of the room. "Who's to say that you didn't just fake the evidence?"

"Oh, honey, haven't you been to a court case before? There's always a possibility evidence was faked, but it usually isn't!" They grinned up at him and he shot the adversary a scowl. "You're going to Hell with the rest of the murderers, ya little shit." He stood over the smug pony before continuing walking in circles around them.

"I'm the righteous one here!" They shot back. "I'm too moral to go to Hell!"

"You're a murderer and a liar and you're gonna see the consequences." Asher's tone was harsh and uncaring.

"What kind of qualifications do you even have to be coming into my home and attacking me?" This statement made Asher pause mid-step and grit his teeth. They continued after they noticed how much this irked him, "Who solved this case? I know for a fact that you don't have the bucking rank to solve a crime. You only arrest people, isn't that right?"

Asher searched for the words needed to tell off the pony but found nothing intelligent. Instead, he trotted up to the pony and put his hoof in their mouth to silence them. He growled at them and sat down. The backup he called for was taking an awfully long time to get here.

The pony saw his alert expression and his eyes darting from window to window. "Perhaps that storm is holding up your boyfriends."

Asher snarled and punched the pony across their face. He kicked them hard enough for them to roll to the other side of the room. He walked up to the window and peered outside before stumbling back and falling to the floor. There was a scrawny, peach filly with a curly, orange mane and tail bolting down the street with Jay flying after her.

Asher's magic gave out and his opponent wasted no time in running at him and attacking him.

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"Stop! Stop, please!" Jay shouted at the top of his lungs. "Stop! I want to help you!"

Twist looked over her shoulder at the white stallion that pursued her. Her eyes were wild with pain and fear and she felt like she was on the verge of passing out. The pegasus looked so angelic as he flew after her. She turned her head to look forward and pushed herself to go faster.

Jay's mind was being overpowered with two decisions as he chased the filly past Scootaloo's home: Check in on Asher to see if he really had caught a murderer or continue pursuing the filly that had escaped a presumably abusive home. He knew about Asher's obsessive idea that Scootaloo was a killer and maybe he had found her doing something and overreacted. But there was always the idea that the murderer had broken into Scootaloo's home. If he didn't continue following the pale filly, though, they might get lost.

Jay no longer needed to decide as Twist abruptly collapsed onto the grass and passed out. Her body twitched erratically as Jay approached her. He breathed heavily and put the filly on his back before beginning to fly back to the station.

The original group of 10 officers was split when they saw Twist running from her mother. 4 went after Twist and the other 6 stopped the mother. Then the 4 that were chasing Twist was split further as she went into a rocky part of Ponyville that no fully-grown earth-pony or unicorn could go through. It was left to just Jay.

He flew over toward the police station, but he passed over Scootaloo's home. He didn't want to leave Asher alone with a murderer, even if it were more likely he was overreacting. Jay swooped down in front of the house and laid Twist gently on the grass. He walked up to the door and, when he tried to knock on it, it swung open. He was met by a sight that he struggled to comprehend.

Asher was curled up in a pool of his own blood with pieces of wood jutting out of his flesh. His horn was broken in half and the other half had impaled his eye. He was tied up with curtains and had a pencil going up through the bottom of his muzzle and propping his mouth open.

Then there was Scootaloo. She was sitting at a table in the living room part of the front room. She was dyed crimson with Asher's blood and grinning wildly. She stood up and started walking toward Jay.

"W-What..." He was at a loss for words. Out of all of his years as a cop, never had he seen something as disturbing as this. He had dismissed Asher's claims about the filly as paranoia or lack of sleep, but he was right. He had been partners with Asher for at least three years and knew him to be intelligent enough to be a detective, but he didn't trust in his abilities.

"Shouldn't've taken so long to get here," Scootaloo sang as she approached Jay.

Jay was torn between choices once again. If he stayed still Scootaloo would surely kill him and then he would die knowing he did nothing to stop a murderer. If he rescued Twist and took her to the police station, Scootaloo would kill Asher. If he rescued Asher, he would have to leave behind Twist and Scootaloo would kill her.

Jay suddenly recalled hearing about Rainbow Dash and Scoolaloo being connected. He remembered the case file for Scootaloo: She looked up to Rainbow Dash... Dash was her idol. Scootaloo wants to be a... He could possibly "talk her down".

"Is this what Rainbow Dash would want you to do?" Jay took a cautious step back.

"You shut the buck up about Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo ran toward Jay and jumped onto him.

Jay's wings opened and he hovered in the air as soon as she hit him. To his surprise, she held on with her forelegs and clambered onto his back. He shook and spiraled at top speed, realizing the lucky circumstances. He made sure that she would not try to jump off and bolted out of the door.

"S-Stop!" Scootaloo cried as she held on for her life.

Jay shot into the air and hovered far above the ground. He reared up and bounced rapidly in the air and tried to knock Scootaloo off of his back to her demise. She dug her teeth and hooves into his pearly white back. She was frantic and almost sure that she was going to die, but she didn't want to die in vein. She saw his rapidly beating wings and wrapped her foreleg around one, making Jay go lopsided before plummeting toward the ground.

Before he and Scootaloo could hit the ground, they were caught by something and flown back upwards toward Cloudsdale.

Author's Note

Holy Jesus, I'm making an interesting cliffhanger for the first time in my life.