Cloudsdale in the Fall

Chapters

Chapter 1: Called on a Friendship Mission
Chapter 2: First Day in Cloudsdale
Chapter 3: "I Can Fly Now!"
Chapter 4: Fluttershy's Mysterious Death
Chapter 5: The Mayor of Ponyville
Chapter 6: In Just One Month
Chapter 7: The Party's End
Chapter 8: That Miserable Cat
Chapter 9: The Fallen Hero
Chapter 10: Back Home Again

Chapter 1: Called on a Friendship Mission

Cutie Mark Crusaders Headquarters, Sweet Apple Acres

Scootaloo felt she should've been excited to join her friends in helping other ponies either earn their cutie marks or, if they already had them, learn to understand them. But, how could she be? Her heroine, Rainbow Dash, had gone to Cloudsdale about a month ago, and hadn't been heard from since. What had happened to her?

Then there was Fluttershy, who had also gone to Cloudsdale a week ago. She'd gone there with Mayor Mare to assist her. For some reason, a problem had arisen in the cloud city, the home of the pegasi; and Mayor Mare thought she could help solve it. And, knowing that Rainbow Dash had disappeared and that Fluttershy was a friend of hers and a fellow pegasa, she'd thought that bringing the representative of kindness along would help her solve whatever problem she might encounter. But, the two of them had also disappeared.

The orange pegasetta had been unable to focus, unable to think about anything else, since she'd heard the news about the disappearance of Ponyville's mayor and the representative of kindness. And, her friends weren't much help.

That day, there was one thing that finally snapped her out of her state of thought, and that was a glow that seemed to be coming from her hips. Looking down at one of them, she saw that her cutie mark was glowing, radiating.

It wasn't long before her two friends noticed. They looked at their own hips, but it was clear that Scootaloo's was the only cutie mark that was glowing.

Seeing this, Applebloom said, focusing on her two friends, “Well, looks like Scootaloo's bein' called by th' cutie map in Twilight's castle. So, Ah hereby call this meetin' to an end.” And, she took a nearby wooden mallet in her mouth and struck the podium in front of her with it twice.

Focusing on her orange pegasetta friend, Sweetie Belle asked, “So, Scoots, would you like us to go with you?”

Scootaloo slowly turned to each of her friends, then back to her glowing, radiating cutie mark, before answering, without emotion, “Sure. Let's go.” And, she rose and ambled toward the door.

As soon as she got out from behind the podium and was next to her unicorn friend, Applebloom exchanged a worried look with her, after which the two followed their friend, calling after her.

Ponyville, On The Way to the Castle

Since they'd left their headquarters, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had said nothing to each other. With Scootaloo so withdrawn, so worried about Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom didn't know what they could say, or even if they should say anything, to try to cheer her up.

But, as the castle came into view, Sweetie Belle's curiosity got the better of her; and she said, “I wonder where you'll be going, Scootaloo.”

The silence now broken among them, Applebloom added, “And, what you'll be a-doin'.”

As though it was an everyday, inconsequential occurrence, Scootaloo said, “Likely, I'll be going somewhere to find and solve a friendship problem.”

The yellow earth filly tilted her head as though what Scootaloo had said was common knowledge (which it was) and said, “Of course.” She then added, “But, how are you a-gonna find the friendship problem? And, once you find it, how are y'all a-gonna solve it? Is sompony else a-goin' with yeh?”

Irritated with the earth filly's questions, Scootaloo glared at her and snapped, “I don't know.” Then, seeing her friend's reaction, she calmed down and said, “I'm sorry, Applebloom. I'm not really angry at you. I'm just worried about Rainbow Dash.”

The saddened earth filly sighed before nuzzling her pegasetta friend and saying, “Ah know. But, yer not th' only one who's worried 'bout Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, 'n' Mayor Mare. All of us are. We all wanna know what happened to 'em all.”

It was about this time that the three of them reached the castle.

On the porch, the three took a few seconds to nuzzle each other, or for Applebloom and Sweetie Belle to nuzzle Scootaloo and for her to nuzzle each of them in return, before the orange pegasetta entered the castle, with her friends calling encouragement to her.

Once the door to the castle closed, separating them from their fellow crusader, the earth and unicorn fillies looked at each other; and Sweetie Belle asked, “Do you think it's something serious?”

Applebloom sighed before answering, “Ah hope it ain't gonna be nothin' too hard for her. Yeh remember when th' three of us was a-called t' th' home o' th' hippogryphs?”

Distraught by the memory, Sweetie Belle answered, “Yeah. We almost made things worse when I got caught up in the gardens; and Scootaloo got caught up in swimming, which is like flying underwater.”

Applebloom nodded before adding, “Ah tried t' stop y'all fr'm fightin', but Ah weren't much help.”

Sweetie Belle concluded, “Thank Celestia Twilight was there to get us back on track. Otherwise, Scootaloo and I would still be fighting, you'd still be talking between us, and we wouldn't be getting anywhere.”

The yellow earth filly nodded, then sighed before settling into a sphinx-style position. There, she said, "Let's jes sit here 'n' wait fer Scootaloo t' come out 'n' tell us 'bout where she's a-goin, 'n' who's a-goin' with 'er."

The white unicorn filly said nothing, just nodded before settling into her own sphinx-style position.

In the Map Room

Once Scootaloo made her way through the hallway to the map room, she saw that just over half of the available chairs were occupied. If there was one thing she didn't need, it was yet another reminder that the pegasa she idolized was missing. And, seeing Fluttershy's empty chair didn't make it any easier for her. But, where was Pinkie Pie? Had she disappeared too?

The answer to her questions came when the familiar voice of the party pony behind her asked, excitedly, “Scootaloo, the map called you too?”

The orange pegasetta started as she turned to face the pink earth mare. Then, after gaining her composure again, she said, “Uh, yeah.”

Again from behind her, but this time to her right, Scootaloo heard Twilight's voice say, “Pinkie got here ahead of you.” She turned to focus on the purple alicorn, who continued, “Well, now that you're here, let's see where the map wants you to go.”

Scootaloo, still devoid of enthusiasm, ambled a few steps to the crystal table and propped herself up against it, with the help of Pinkie Pie.

A copy of each of the glowing, radiating marks from the two ponies flew off of them, shrunk, and flew over the map. Then, as the five ponies watched, the marks drifted over a giant cloud, where it settled at approximately the center.

The orange pegasetta perked up with excitement that felt long overdue as she turned to Twilight for confirmation.

The purple alicorn, turning to her, said, “Well, it looks like the cutie map's calling you and Pinkie to solve a friendship problem in Cloudsdale.”

Seemingly just as excited was Pinkie Pie, who shouted, “Yes! Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” and bounced around in a circle at the rate of one bounce per yes.

The three other remaining element bearers and Spike chuckled at the pink party pony's response before Twilight focused on Scootaloo again and said, “Now, this is extremely important. There's no telling what you'll find up there. For all we know, it could be Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, or Mayor Mare that's the source of the friendship problem. Or, it could be all three of them.”

For a moment the pegasetta's excitement dwindled as what the purple alicorn had said started to sink in. What if Rainbow Dash, her heroine, was the source of the friendship problem? What could she do to help solve it? On the other hoof, what if Fluttershy and/or Mayor Mare were the source of the problem, and Rainbow Dash was just being controlled by one or the other, or both? Or, even worse, what if the three of them had joined forces in some kind of friendship-destroying conspiracy?

The orange pegasetta was snapped from this train of thought by Twilight asking her, “So, Scootaloo, what do you say? Are you ready to accept?”

The crusader took a moment to think about the coming mission. The map had called her to go to Cloudsdale to find and solve a friendship problem. And, for all she knew it might not even involve Rainbow Dash. And, if she did come across the azure pegasa, maybe she could help her and Pinkie Pie. After all, the map had called the pink party pony as well. Whatever the problem was, it must have a solution; and the cutie map had called her and Pinkie Pie because they were the best equipped to solve it, right?

Scootaloo looked up at the representative of magic, saluted her, and nodded as she said, “You can count on me. Princess Twilight, whatever the friendship problem is, I'm sure Pinkie and I can find it and solve it.”

The purple alicorn chuckled again before saying, “You can just call me Twilight. And, I hope you can solve the problem.”

Presently, Pinkie approached the two and asked, “So, shall we make preparations and come back in, say, an hour to get to the mission?”

Scootaloo turned her smile toward the pink party pony and said, “Sure, Pinkie, I'll go get ready. We can meet back here in an hour.”

Pinkie smiled sincerely as she nodded in confirmation, then turned and bounced out the door, on her way to Sugar Cube Corner, no doubt to gather supplies.

As Scootaloo followed the pink earth mare out of the room, she heard Twilight Sparkle call out, “Be sure to be ready to leave in an hour!” But, the door closed on her before she could respond.

Outside the Castle

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, still seated sphinx-style, waiting for their orange friend, rose to all fours when the doors opened, hoping to see their pegasetta friend again. But, they were immediately disappointed to see Pinkie Pie bouncing out, evidently heading for Sugar Cube Corner. They settled into their canine-style positions, when they realized that the doors hadn't closed yet. Still, not wanting to be disappointed again, they just sat there and waited to see who would exit the castle next.

They only rose to all fours again when they saw Scootaloo exit the doors. And, while they couldn't tell how much, both the earth filly and the unicorn felt relieved to see the orange pegasetta smiling again.

As the two approached her, Applebloom asked, “Good news, Ah'm a-guessin'?”

Scootaloo closed her eyes and nodded vigorously a couple times before opening her eyes again and answering, “I'm going to Cloudsdale!”

The earth filly and the unicorn exchanged looks of puzzlement, then turned back to their friend, before Sweetie Belle asked, “Cloudsdale? Haven't three ponies from here already gone there and disappeared?”

Her excitement undeterred by her friends' lack of enthusiasm, Scootaloo answered, “Isn't it exciting? Maybe I'll see Rainbow Dash again!”

Applebloom, worried, asked, “Ain't nopony else a-goin' with y'all?”

Still excited, Scootaloo answered, “Yeah, Pinkie Pie!” It was about this time that she noticed the worry in the voice of her earth filly friend. Now starting to feel concern, she asked, “What's wrong?”

Again Applebloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged looks, then turned back to the pegasetta; and Applebloom answered, “It's just that, well, a-startin' with Rainbow Dash, ever'pony fr'm here that's gone there's disappeared. 'N', well, now you 'n' Pinkie are a-goin' there. Sweetie Bell 'n' Ah, well, we can't help a-worryin' that you two'll be next to not come back.”

At first the orange pegasetta started to say, “Well, they were just …” Then, she realized that her argument about the missing ponies being adults wasn't going to help anything, as she'd be going with an adult. After a momentary pause, she started to say, “Well, none of them were …” But, again she trailed off as her second argument about the missing ponies not being unicorns wasn't going to help either. After all, neither she nor Pinkie Pie were unicorns. After a few more seconds of thought, she finally said, “Look, the map called me and Pinkie Pie to Cloudsdale to find and solve a friendship problem. And, I don't think we'd be going there if there wasn't a way to come back, if it was a problem we couldn't solve.” Smiling reassuringly at her friends, Scootaloo continued, “I hope I can find Rainbow Dash again, and maybe we can also find Fluttershy and Mayor Mare and bring everypony back to Ponyville.” Her excitement finally started to fade as she continued, “I guess it's possible that my search for the friendship problem won't involve them at all. Or, maybe it's all about them.” More resolute, she concluded, “But, we just need to work and find out what it is. As long as Pinkie and I don't give up, we'll succeed.”

The orange pegasetta, not to mention the earth filly and the unicorn, were surprised when they heard Pinkie's voice from outside their circle say, “Yeah, that's the spirit!”

The Crusaders started and screamed for a second or two, after which Scootaloo turned to the representative of laughter and said, “Pinkie, where'd you come from?”

Evidently thinking it was just part of how they talked to other ponies, Pinkie screamed for another second or two. She then answered, “I just got back from Sugar Cube Corner.” She then leaned in conspiratorially and asked, “Have you been talking with your friends instead of getting ready?”

As her other two friends covered their mouths with a front hoof and started snickering, Scootaloo answered, “I just had to talk with them about where I was goin' with you, and they had some questions about the trip we were taking.”

Pinkie winked before saying, “Oh, now I understand.” She then said, “Well, like Scootaloo said, as long as the two of us don't give up, we'll succeed.” And, she turned and bounced off in a different direction.

For a moment the three of them watched as the pink party pony bounced off. Then, Applebloom turned to Scootaloo and asked, “So, how much time do yeh have t' git ready?”

Scootaloo answered, “Twilight said I had an hour to prepare and get back to the castle.”

Sweetie Belle began her stroll toward the outside of town, in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, as she said, “Well, let's get you ready, then. The sooner you get there, the sooner you can come back.”

In agreement, the pegasetta and the earth filly followed their unicorn friend.

Outside the Castle, About an Hour Later

The three fillies, each carrying bags of apples and other food items, made it back to the castle. Out of breath, they collapsed at the steps.

Not long after that, the doors opened; and Pinkie bounced out. Stopping just in front of Scootaloo, she looked down and asked, “Why're you just lying there? You're ready, right? We gotta get going to Cloudsdale!”

Looking up at the pink earth mare, Sweetie Belle asked, “And, how are you going to get there?”

Pinkie giggled to herself before answering, “Twilight's letting us borrow her balloon, silly. Not as fast as sling-shotting, but it's easier and more likely to get us there.” She then proceeded to pick up, in her teeth, the package that Scootaloo had been carrying.

At first the orange pegasetta followed the representative of laughter to the balloon. Then, when she was herded into the basket with only the supplies she'd been carrying, she said, “Oh, wait, what about the rest of the stuff? The stuff Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were carrying?”

Pinkie just giggled for a second or two before answering, “We don't have time to get that stuff, silly. We gotta get to Cloudsdale so we can find and solve that friendship problem.”

As the pink earth mare released the ropes from the basket, Scootaloo only had time to wave to her friends before the balloon lifted off.

In the mean time, as the two remaining Crusaders peered out from under the bags of supplies they'd gathered, Applebloom turned to her unicorn friend and asked, “Well, Sweetie Belle, what're we a-gonna do with all this stuff we packed fer Scootaloo?”

The unicorn, helpless to do anything else, did her best to shrug.

In fact, that's all either of them could do until they could get their strength back, or until somepony could help them out, or both.

Chapter 2: First Day in Cloudsdale

On the Outskirts of Cloudsdale

Scootaloo had tried to convince the pink party pony that they were leaving behind the majority of the supplies she and her friends had gathered. But, Pinkie had refused to listen, and instead decided to play some game where one of them would pick out something they could see, and the other was supposed to guess what it was. And, to start the game, Pinkie decided to be first to pick an object. Unfortunately, because of their hasty departure, as well as the fact that Pinkie refused to listen to her, Scootaloo didn't feel like playing any games.

As the balloon settled on the surface of a cloud, Scootaloo took the opportunity to complain, “I still think we could've brought all the supplies my friends and I gathered, not just the bag I was carrying.”

As Pinkie bounced out of the basket, she said, “Silly, I brought enough supplies for both of us. We're okie dokie lokie.”

The orange pegasetta climbed out of the balloon, groaning in frustration. Since they were in, or at least about to enter, Cloudsdale, it was too late for Scootaloo to try to convince the pink earth mare to go back for the things she'd wanted to take with her, that her friends had been carrrying. It wasn't until she decided to turn and get what supplies she had been allowed to take with her out of the basket that she realized that Pinkie was bouncing on the surface of the cloud. Now more interested in the pink party pony's unexpected ability than getting her supplies, she asked, “Uh, Pinkie, why aren't you falling through the clouds?” It wasn't until she finished asking the question that she remembered who she was talking to.

To her surprise, though, Pinkie answered, “Before we left, Twilight cast a spell on me so that I could walk on clouds. Isn't it great?”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes as she thought to herself, "Of course."

The representative of laughter continued, “So, let's get into town so we can find a place to stay until we find and solve the friendship problem.” And, she reached into the basket and grabbed the bag she'd removed from the orange pegasetta's back and placed in the basket, as well as her own saddle bags. She passed the bag to Scootaloo, then strapped on her own saddle bags, before leading the crusader into the floating city.

In the Streets of Cloudsdale

As the two looked around the city, the first thing they noticed was the lack of pony life. It was as though Cloudsdale had become a ghost city. And yet, there were several buildings that looked like they'd been taken care of, at least up until the arrival of the crusader and the pink party pony.

The orange pegasetta remarked, “The last time I was here, pegasi were flying everywhere. That, or trotting along the streets. They'd stop and talk, there was just a lot happening here. Where did everypony go?”

Pinkie, looking around just as worriedly, answered, “I don't know, Scootaloo." More resolutely, she added, "But, until we find out, we should better stay close together.” She continued on a few steps until she realized the orange pegasetta wasn't answering her. She wasn't even making any sounds. Pinkie stopped and looked behind her, but only saw the bag the filly'd been carrying. Confused and worried for her companion, she called out, “Scootaloo!?” But, there was no answer. Now even more worried, she started to dig in the road where she'd last heard the crusader, whimpering, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no.” After digging as far as she dared, she crawled out of the hole she'd dug, growling to herself, “Great. Not even here an hour, in an empty city, and you manage to lose your companion. Now what?” Not knowing what else to do, she just sat there canine-style in the middle of the empty street.

In a Dark Room

Unconscious, the pegasetta wouldn't have been able to hear the conversation going on around her. And, having been anesthetized, she wouldn't be able to feel parts of her being removed, then replaced by machinery.

In the mean time, as the surgeon ponies continued to work on the crusader, mostly they removed four of the filly's limbs, replacing them with machines of some kind: a multipurpose energy mechanism for her right hoof, functional prosthetic metal wings for her natural ones that weren't helping her to fly, another multipurpose mechanism for her left hoof, and various mechanisms designed to receive her brain signals and transmit them to her parts that had been replaced.

The process took hours. Then, once it was complete, Scootaloo was dropped outside in the streets to wake up on her own.

In the Streets of Cloudsdale

The pink earth mare had decided, after an hour, that she couldn't just sit there in the street and hope that Scootaloo would come and find her. So, she rose to all fours again and retraced her steps, making her way back to the balloon to see if the orange pegasetta had gone back there to return to Ponyville for the rest of the supplies she'd said she and her friends had gathered. But, the balloon was still there when she got to the cloud, where she and the crusader had left it.

She wondered to herself, 'Where did Scootaloo go?' So far, as much of the place as they'd explored was empty. But, that didn't necessarily mean anything. Then again, Scootaloo was right; there should've been lots of pegasi flying or trotting around the city. Where had everypony gone? Did they suffer the same fate as Scootaloo? Did they just disappear? Were they just zapped into another dimension?

Pinkie forced a chuckle as she thought about that. Of course they weren't. Such a thing could only happen to her, couldn't it? Wait, is that what happened? Was she somehow zapped into a parallel world? No, that didn't make sense either. The Cloudsdale she'd left was apparently empty, save for her and Scootaloo. Why would she be zapped to a world so similar to the one she'd left, except that she was the only one alive? No, something had gone wrong, very wrong, here in Cloudsdale, something involving friendship; and it was up to her and Scootaloo to figure it out. The only problem they'd run into so far was that the little orange pegasetta had disappeared. Figuring that she couldn't go back to Ponyville without solving the problem she'd been sent to solve, Pinkie turned around and headed back into Cloudsdale, hoping to find some kind of evidence of life in the city of the pegasi, hoping to find Scootaloo, somewhere.

Back in the city, Pinkie was less interested in finding a place to stay than she was in finding her companion. And, each street she explored, the city felt more and more lifeless. For hours she ambled, becoming more and more worried and fearful, until she arrived at the weather factory. Having seen no sign of Scootaloo, she sat down on the steps of the structure.

This city, which should've been alive and buzzing with pegasi, felt like her worst nightmare come to life. She was alone, nopony to make smile or laugh, all evidence pointing to life having existed here, but having abandoned their creation. And, the filly she'd arrived with had disappeared.

Not knowing what else to do, the representative of laughter collapsed into a canine-style position, then sphinx-style, then buried her face in her front hooves and started sobbing.

As Scootaloo woke up, she realized she was alone. Remembering where she'd last been with Pinkie Pie, she rose to all fours and started looking around.

The street where she woke up ended in two opposing directions in three-way intersections, with what appeared to be apartments of maybe two or three levels connected to each other by their walls.

Ahead of her was the Cloudsdale bank, while behind her was a grocery store.

The pegasetta rubbed her chin with a front hoof as she thought, 'Wait, Pinkie and I never got here. So, what am I doing here, alone?' Then, realizing that she was indeed alone, she decided that the first thing she needed to do was find Pinkie, let her know that she was alive and well. But, being where she was, she realized that she had no idea where to find the pink earth mare.

Thinking of where they'd been, the crusader decided the first place she should look would be back at that cloud where they'd arrived, where they'd landed. But, all she knew was she was on the street between the bank and a grocery store. Still, if anypony knew their way around Cloudsdale, it'd be a pegasus.

Scootaloo ambled her way along the street, every now and then calling out the pink earth mare's name. She knew Pinkie wouldn't abandon her in a place that was empty, not as long as she had somepony she could make laugh, or at least make smile. And, remembering where the sun was when they arrived, Scootaloo proceeded to search away from it, turning at that intersection in each direction to see that the road seemed almost endless. But, there were other intersections; so she continued on her course, looking down each intersection to see if she could find either Pinkie Pie or a road that lead out of town. And, while she didn't find her companion, she did manage to find a road that lead to openness.

Taking that route, she made her way along the road until she found herself at its end. Looking in each direction, she saw that she had indeed reached the outskirts. The only problem was she couldn't see the balloon she and Pinkie had arrived in. Settling into a canine-style position, she wondered to herself, 'Where am I?'

Then, from behind her, she heard the sound of sobbing. And, recognizing the voice, she called out, “Pinkie Pie!?” Leaping to all fours, she turned to the sound. At first, all she saw was the weather factory. Then, she saw a spot of pink start to move. Letting her instincts take over, the pegasetta galloped toward the factory and its only apparent occupant. And, it wasn't long before she noticed that it was indeed the pink party pony, just a split second before the two collided.

The pink earth mare gripped the crusader tightly in a hug as she sobbed, “Oh, Scootaloo, I missed you! Where did you gallop off to, anyway?”

The orange pegasetta knew how the earth mare was feeling. She was feeling it, too. But, her question puzzled her. Pushing away from the representative of laughter, Scootaloo answered, “I didn't. I was just following you the whole time, or at least until I woke up in the streets, alone between the bank and a grocery store.” She then tilted her head and asked, “What happened to you?”

Pinkie answered, “You disappeared when we were looking for a place to stay. I'd thought you might've gone back to Ponyville, so I went back to the balloon. But, when I didn't see you there, I just started wandering through Cloudsdale, looking for you. I couldn't find you anywhere. For that matter, I couldn't find anypony. There wasn't even anypony at the weather factory.”

Hearing the news, Scootaloo hopped away from the pink earth mare and asked, “Wait, you didn't see anypony at the weather factory?”

Pinkie, now too puzzled to feel sad, answered, “Uh, no.”

The orange pegasetta asked, “And, you didn't go inside to have a look?”

The pink party pony chuckled, sincerely this time, which felt good to her. She then answered, “Of course not, silly. If Rainbow Dash'd been there to guide me, then I would've gone inside to have a tour.”

Pinkie's suggestion that she, one of Rainbow Dash's friends, hadn't seen the azure pegasa, hit Scootaloo harder than she expected. Still, not wanting to give in to her emotions, she shook herself out and said, “Well, we need to see if we can get into the weather factory. Rainbow Dash works there, or at least she used to. If anypony is still in this floating city, and if we can find anypony with the answers to our questions, it's gotta be her.” And, she galloped past the pink earth mare and on toward the building.

Not knowing what else to do, and thinking that Rainbow Dash's greatest fan could be right, Pinkie Pie followed her to the weather factory. And there they ran into their next obstacle.

Chapter 3: "I Can Fly Now!"

The Weather Factory, at the Front Door

The two looked at the door, then each tried to push it open. Then, when that failed, they tried pushing it together.

When the door refused to budge, the earth mare and the pegasetta backed away from the door; and Scootaloo turned to her companion and said, “This doesn't make any sense. It's not like anypony's gonna break into the weather factory and steal a lightning bolt, or any weather-generating equipment, or anything like that.”

Pinkie, looking down at her companion, said, “Maybe we should knock?”

The orange pegasetta shrugged as she answered, “Makes as much sense as the factory being closed. But, it's not as if we have anything to lose.” And, she reached out and lightly tapped on the door.

For a few minutes afterward they waited. Then, when nothing happened, Pinkie reared up on her hind legs and proceeded to pound on the door with her front hooves. This she kept up for maybe half a minute until she'd tired herself out, after which she backed away from the door and dropped down to all fours again.

Worried, Scootaloo said, “I don't understand. The weather factory's always been open. Why would it be closed now?”

The pink earth mare panted for a few seconds before answering, “I don't know, Scootie. Let's go back into town and see if we can't find a place to stay.” And, she proceeded back down the steps and back toward the cloud city.

The crusader positioned herself parallel to the door. She looked at the pink earth mare ambling away, then back at the door. Then, when she looked back at the earth mare, she decided there was no point trying to get into the weather factory anymore, and followed her companion back into the city.

In the Streets of Cloudsdale

While they remembered how successful they'd been at even finding life in the city, still they decided they had nothing to lose by searching for a friendship problem while at the same time looking for a place to stay.

At Pinkie's request, Scootaloo lead the way to where she'd awakened, in the street between the bank and a grocery store. And, while they did see several apartments, each of them made the two ponies feel uncomfortable, like they shouldn't even try to enter those buildings.

When they made the turn to the place where Scootaloo first woke up, to their surprise there seemed to be two ponies very aggressively arguing about ... something. Maybe this was the friendship problem they were supposed to find? But, as they approached, they immediately sensed something wrong, something unnatural, about the situation. And, it didn't help that the sun had moved far enough that the shadows of the buildings were covering not only the streets, but the two arguing ponies as well.

Against Scootaloo's protests, Pinkie decided to approach the two quarreling ponies. When she figured she was close enough, she asked, “Uh, could I ask you a few questions?”

In response, the two ponies turned and glared at her with glowing red eyes.

Suddenly struck with fear, Pinkie started backing away from the two as she called behind her, “Scootaloo, I think we'd better leave, find another street!”

The two ponies with the glowing red eyes kept pace with the pink party pony, and she wasn't sure if they were keeping their distance, or closing the space between them and her.

The crusader immediately took action. But, instead of turning and running away, she ran toward the two ponies. In a second or two, she was between them and Pinkie Pie.

Frightened, Pinkie asked, “Uh, Scootie, what're you doing?” in the most innocent tone she could muster.

The orange pegasetta answered, “It's alright. I'll handle this.”

As Pinkie continued to back away, for some reason she found herself unable to grab the little filly, who galloped ahead of her.

In the mean time, one of the suspicious ponies opened its mouth and growled. And, it was a growl unlike anything they'd heard before. It wasn't low or deep enough to be frightening on its own, but it seemed to echo in a small space. And, the pony that growled didn't shape its mouth for growling, just opened it.

As alarmed as the pink party pony was, she couldn't help but wonder about the bizarre vocalization.

Then, Scootaloo growled back, just before running and tackling the pony that had growled at her.

The tackled pony stumbled back a step or two before regaining its balance.

And, that was another thing. Neither pony seemed to have a discernible gender. Neither Pinkie nor Scootaloo could tell if either of these two ponies were male or female. They began to wonder, or at least Pinkie did, if these two were even ponies.

The other pony took a step toward Scootaloo and swatted at her with a front hoof.

In response, the orange pegasetta jumped, then opened her wings and flapped them, rising higher into the air than her normal jump could take her.

Now more confused by her companion's ability than scared of the two red-eyed ponies, Pinkie stared at her and said, “Scootaloo?”

But, the two ponies opposing them allowed no time to act on their surprise, as the one Scootaloo had attacked proceeded to lunge at the representative of laughter.

Presently, the crusader shouted, “Pinkie, look out!” and aimed a front hoof at the attacking pony.

Obediently, the party pony jumped out of the way of the attack, then turned and galloped off.

Seeing that the earth mare was safe, Scootaloo turned back to the attacking pony and said, “Nopony attacks my friends.”

At that point, a sphere of energy developed in front of the hoof she was aiming at the aggressor. Then, a second later, it leaped off, flying to and exploding in the face of the growling red-eyed pony.

The energy sphere exploded on contact, tearing the pony into debris that flew off in all directions for a second.

Seeing this, Scootaloo had to stop and have a look at the hoof she'd been pointing at the pony, who was now raining in pieces all over the street. How did she do that? Could she do it again?

The other pony, seeing its companion destroyed, growled, then leaped up at the orange crusader.

In response, Scootaloo felt her instincts, if she could call them that, take over as she pointed that hoof at the remaining pony; and another energy sphere developed, then left the hoof, this time consuming and exploding the remaining pony.

As soon as the debris settled, the orange pegasetta descended and once again had a look at the forelimb from which she'd fired those energy spheres. How had she done that? Then she extended a wing and had a closer look at it. How did the feathers to her wings get so long, and how did her wings become so well developed? They must be hers, or they wouldn't be obeying her, right? Right? But, had they been hers all along? No, that was impossible. Her natural wings had always been underdeveloped, never allowing her to fly. These wings that she had now were different. They looked … unnatural. So, if they were not natural, how were they responding to her very thoughts?

Scootaloo decided that was a mystery she could wait to solve. After folding her wings next to her back, she went to work looking at the remains of the two ponies that had attacked, or tried to attack, her and Pinkie. And, there was something else different about those two ponies. Scootaloo watched as the glowing red eyes in the head of one of the ponies darkened to black, after which there was a sound, fast yet somehow constant for a split second, then lowering in tone until it ended. This was not normal for a pony. And, the remains. Scootaloo knew that they should've smelled bad to her, should've been a lot messier than they were. But, when she sniffed at them, they had no smell at all. It was as though they were made of metal, steel or something like that. Scootaloo wondered aloud, “What were these creatures?”

The orange pegasetta was startled to hear a voice, a familiar one, answer, “I don't know, Scootaloo.” Quickly turning, she saw the pink party pony staring at the piles of debris, evidently just as puzzled by the situation as she was.

The crusader sighed before saying, “Let's just get going. We can try to figure this out later.” And, she proceeded past the destroyed ponies, or whatever they were, to the next intersection.

Frightened and confused beyond the point of natural thought, Pinkie silently followed the orange pegasetta.

The two companions reached the intersection, turned, and started ambling along the road.

It took a minute before Pinkie felt herself composed enough to ask, “So, uh, Scootaloo, where did you get those wings?”

The orange pegasetta froze for a moment before answering, “I don't know. I don't even know what happened to the wings I used to have.”

Pinkie sighed before saying, “Well, I don't know about you, but I don't wanna stay out here after dark. We'd better find a place to stay until morning.”

The crusader nodded as she said, “Agreed.” Then she went back to ambling until she happened to notice a building down one street they were passing. More animated than she expected to be, she said, “Hey, why don't we go to that building down there? It looks like a safe place to stay!”

The pink earth mare followed her companion's gaze along the street until she saw a building that stood out from the others. Not unlike the bank, other than being a slightly different color, it was almost like a cave that started behind the nearby buildings. Pinkie didn't like the feeling she was getting from the building, but she had to agree that there was no other place to stay that felt any better. She responded, “Well, alright, if you think that building's best.” And, she followed her companion to and into the building.

In the Weather Factory, in the Shadows

In the near darkness, nopony would've been able to identify the azure coat or the messy rainbow-colored mane and tail of the pegasa who was watching the two ponies from a vantage point of safety, observing them on a monitor while hidden cameras tracked their every movement. But, that didn't stop her from recognizing them as she thought aloud, “Scootaloo, Pinkie, you should've stayed back in Ponyville. Why did you have to come here?” Then, thinking about it further, she said, "Cutie Map, this is your doing, isn't it?" She then pushed a nearby button and called, “Spitfire, Cloud Cover, I want you in here, now!”

A few seconds later, two pegasae, one a mare, orange with darker orange mane and tail with highlights the same color as her coat, and one stallion of varying shades of gray with carbon-gray mane and tail, entered the dark room.

The orange one saluted with a wing and asked, “You called for us, ma'am?”

The pegasa at the controls slowly turned to her visitors and said, “I did. I want you to take the yellow pony and bind her in place in the museum.” Then, after the two visitors vocalized acknowledgement and departed, the azure pegasa turned back to the controls and said, “I'm sorry it had to come to this, Scootaloo. If only you hadn't come, or if the two of you'd just gone back to Ponyville, I wouldn't have to make you do this. But, at least you'll save me the trouble.”

Chapter 4: Fluttershy's Mysterious Death

The Museum, in the Front Room

As the two ponies entered through the front doors, Pinkie said, “Wow. It actually feels real comfy in here.”

Scootaloo replied, “I know. Isn't it great? You'd think these clouds'd make it so it was always cold. But, as it turns out, that isn't how it works after all. They keep out too much heat and cold, so it's the perfect temperature all the time.”

The pink earth mare yawned as she said, “Well, I say we stay here for tonight.” She then proceeded to settle into a sphinx-style position as she continued, “We can continue searching for the friendship problem tomorrow.”

The orange pegasetta ambled to the representative of laughter and settled into a sphinx-style position of her own as she yawned, “Good idea. I'm tired.” After that, she lowered her head next to Pinkie's closest forelimb.

The pink party pony smiled as she lowered her head next to Scootaloo's. Within minutes the two were asleep.

Perhaps an hour later, Pinkie heard a voice, a familiar one, say, “Pinkie, I want you to see something.”

Sleepily, the pink party pony raised her head slowly and started looking around. Yawning, she asked, “Rainbow Dash? Is that you?”

From the wall opposite her from Scootaloo, the voice answered, “Over here.”

Pinkie focused on the wall, and saw an opening she hadn't noticed when she and Scootaloo had first entered the museum. Which wasn't much of a surprise. After all, she and her crusader companion were so tired when they went through those doors, the only thing Pinkie really noticed was how pleasant the temperature was in that room. Any way, to her surprise, she saw her friend's head floating there. Not wanting to wake the crusader sleeping next to her, Pinkie stifled the urge to leap up and shout, which she would've done had she been alone there, and instead whispered, “It's so good to see you again! Scootaloo's here too! We're here to find and solve a friendship problem! Have you come across any lately?”

Rainbow Dash's head shook a couple times before she answered, “I'm glad to see you, too.” The opening grew in size, revealing more of the azure pegasa, and she gestured for the pink earth mare to join her as she continued, “Come over here, you gotta see this.”

Pinkie turned and looked down at the orange foal at her side, then back to her fellow element bearer, and asked, “What about Scootaloo? Don't you think she'll wanna see it too?”

The representative of loyalty answered, “You can just let her sleep. She can have a look at it later after she wakes up. I just thought you'd wanna see it first.”

Pinkie started slowly rising to all fours, being as careful as she could to not disturb the sleeping crusader. Then, when she was in all-fours position, she side-stepped a pace or two to make sure she didn't wake her companion. When she was sure she hadn't disturbed the foal, she turned and quietly ambled toward the azure pegasa. When she was close enough, she asked, one last time turning back to Scootaloo, “So, what's this thing you want to show me?”

Smiling, Rainbow Dash U-turned, then, once she had Pinkie's attention, gestured ahead of her and said, “Just follow me. I think you'll like it.”

Pinkie shrugged and sighed before saying, “Well, alright, if you say so.” And, she followed her friend, beginning to wonder if she was dreaming, through the door. Then, a few paces inside the hallway, she heard the door slam loudly behind her. Alarmed by the sudden sound and worried about her companion, she turned and galloped back toward the door. Pounding on it, she called out, “Scootaloo, wake up!” Realizing the door was refusing to open, the party pony pounded all the harder and screamed, “Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and I are trapped in here! You gotta get us out!” She then turned around to see that her azure friend had disappeared. Pushing away from the door, she whimpered, “Rainbow Dash?” She repeated the name a little louder, frantically looking around and still not seeing her friend. Finally, she collapsed into a canine-style position as she cried, “Rainbow Dash!”

In the mean time, the sound of the door slamming was enough to wake the sleeping pegasetta, who immediately leapt to all fours. She looked to her side where the pink party pony had been, but couldn't find her. Then she heard the earth mare's voice from the distant wall call out, “Scootaloo, wake up!”

Flaring her wings, the orange foal called out, “Pinkie? Is that you? Where are you?”

Again she heard the party pony's voice, this time calling, “Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and I are trapped in here! You gotta get us out!”

Hearing the name of her heroine was all she needed. Excitedly, Scootaloo galloped to the wall where she heard the voice as she called out, “Rainbow Dash? You found Rainbow Dash in there?” Then, when she didn't hear anything further, she started to panic. Folding her wings again, she started tapping on the wall where she'd heard the pink earth mare's voice. Putting her ear to the wall, she thought she heard a muffled cry from her companion. Moving her head away from the wall, then pointing her nose to it, she called out, “Pinkie, are you in there with Rainbow Dash?”

Hearing the crusader's voice, Pinkie stopped crying and approached the door where she'd followed her friend into the hallway. Propping herself up against the door, she called out, “Scootaloo, is that you?”

From her side of the door, Scootaloo heard the pink earth mare's question. Answering, she called out, “Yeah, it's me!”

Pinkie, still frightened, called out, “I … I found Rainbow Dash in here, and … I think she trapped me! B-but, it's a hallway, so there's gotta be a way out! I'm gonna follow it to … wherever it goes, but I want you to search for a key or something, … just in case I can't find another open door here! Do you understand me!?”

Scootaloo listened to the pink earth mare, then answered, “Yeah, alright!” She then pushed away from the door and started searching along the walls, away from the entrance, in search of either a key or a door that would lead further into the building.

In the mean time, Pinkie pushed away from the door and allowed herself to fall to all fours again. Still frightened, as much for herself as for her companion, she started sniffing at the walls, along the edge of the floor, hoping to find a door that might open.

The Museum, in the Commander Hurricane Room

It wasn't long before Scootaloo found a door, opposite the entrance, that lead into a huge room with what looked like military armor from a civilization that must've existed a few thousand years ago. And, in the middle of the room was a fellow pegasa, suspended between the floor and the ceiling by four chains attached to her hooves. And, those hooves were stretched out so that her chest and abdomen were fully exposed.

When the pegasa spoke, Scootaloo recognized her. She said, “Scootaloo, you need to get me out of here. Please, help me before she comes back.”

Curiosity and excitement coloring her voice, the pegasetta asked, “Fluttershy?”

Focused on the pegasa's face, Scootaloo watched the lips move. But, instead of the voice of the representative of kindness, she heard the voice of her heroine saying words that didn't fit the movement of the lips. What she heard was: “Scootaloo, will you kindly kill Fluttershy?”

Suddenly the crusader felt extremely relaxed, as though she was dreaming again. In that state, she said, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.”

As she turned away from the hanging pegasa, she heard the voice add, “And, when you're done, will you kindly clean off whatever you use to kill her? Leave no evidence of what you did.”

Again, Scootaloo, feeling as though she was in a dream, answered, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.”

When Fluttershy heard Scootaloo say, “Yes, Rainbow Dash,” she said, “No, wait, Scootaloo. I know you don't want to hear this. I can't believe I'm saying this. But, you can't trust her. I don't know what it is, but something's gone wrong up here. I don't know what she told you to do, but please, don't do it.”

All Fluttershy could do after that was watch as the pegasetta opened a pair of wings that were attached to her, yet obviously not hers, then flap them to rise into the air.

Seeing the crusader turn to her, hovering, and produce a blade from one of her hooves, the yellow pegasa smiled as she said, “Yes, you can use that to cut these things, you can free me from—” It was about then that she realized that Scootaloo wasn't targeting the cuffs with her blade, nor was she targeting the chains. Realizing that Scootaloo was targeting her, the representative of kindness said, “No. No, Scootaloo. Don't do this.”

The Ponyville Castle, in the Map Room

Twilight had been so worried about the party pony and the foal heading to Cloudsdale, she was unable to sleep. Hoping for any information on how the mission was going, she paced around the table, map still visible, hoping for some kind of update.

Suddenly, her cutie mark radiated a crimson light.

Seeing this, and knowing of no cutie mark that had never done such a thing before, Twilight began to fear the worst. Hopping into the chair closest to where the map was showing Cloudsdale, she propped herself up on the table and, shaking her head, started rapidly repeating the word, “No.”

She stopped when she saw Fluttershy's cutie mark of three butterflies with pink wings appear above the floating cloud city.

Grinning wildly, she said, “They found Fluttershy. That means they're rescuing her.”

Then her grin faded as the familiar cutie mark expanded and became fuzzy, unfocused, then faded and disappeared. And, only when Fluttershy's cutie mark disappeared did her own mark stop radiating.

Anyone observing Twilight at that moment would think she'd started melting as she collapsed onto her haunches. Her ears, devoid of strength, collapsed like trees over their openings; and the purple unicorn slowly shook her head as she whimpered, “No. Oh, Fluttershy, no.”

At that moment, Discord appeared with a wheezing pop and said, “Excuse me, but I just felt something … strange. Did something happen?”

The purple alicorn slowly turned to the draconequus, but said nothing. In fact, her only movement was her head.

Discord turned to the map, then back to Twilight, then grabbed her shoulders in his forelimbs and, shaking her, demanded, “Tell me what happened!”

All the representative of magic could stammer out was “F-f-fluttershy … m-m-map.”

The reformed spirit of chaos and disharmony released the purple alicorn, then disappeared for a moment. Then, when he reappeared, one would've thought he'd seen a ghost, or perhaps a perfect paradise, whatever could terrify a draconequus. He glided backwards against the wall behind him, as though an unseen force had thrown him, before saying, “No, not my Fluttershy. Not my Fluttershy.” And, immediately he started melting, literally.

The Museum, Starting in the Mares' Room

Scootaloo was meticulous in cleaning the mess from the yellow pegasa, a mess that had started to stain the blade she'd used. Meticulous, and yet fast. One might expect her job to take hours, but she had the job done in a minute, if that long. And, before heading to the mare's room, somehow she'd managed to use the pegasa's skin to close her wound, making it impossible to tell that Fluttershy had been stabbed at all, much less where she'd been stabbed. Scootaloo had managed to clean up the mess, all evidence of what she'd done there, in a matter of seconds.

As the blade disappeared back into that hoof, Scootaloo heard Rainbow Dash say, “Now, will you kindly wake up, and remember none of this.” And so it was. The dream ended, leaving behind no evidence of what had happened.

Scootaloo shook her head to clear it, then looked around. Seeing all the facilities, she wondered aloud, “What am I doing in the mares' room?” Now growing concerned, she left the room and headed back toward the front room where she and Pinkie Pie had slept. Then she realized that Pinkie had wanted her to go back for a key to that door that had locked on her. She'd found a door that would open, opposite the entrance to the museum. She entered, and then, … and then, … she couldn't remember. Had something happened in that room? What was it?

Then she entered one room, where a strange and frightening smell assaulted her nostrils. Something bad had happened in this room, something really bad. But, what was it?

The crusader approached an object in the center of the room, a display she'd never seen before. Then, she realized the smell was coming from that display. What was it? And, why did it smell so bad?

As the pegasetta circled around the display toward the door, she caught a glimpse of part of it, a silhouette, shaped like a pony's head. At first she thought it was just a wax display, but then she realized that a wax display wouldn't smell like that. Who is, who was, this? She, she isn't alive anymore, is she?

The Museum, in the Hallway

Pinkie had managed to find her way to the opposite end of the hallway, one that had turned gradually, until she found another door. Actually, the fact of the matter was she'd found maybe ten doors between the one at the beginning of the hallway, the one that had trapped her, and the one at this other end. But, she hadn't been able to open any of them. This was the last door, and the pink earth mare pushed at it, hoping it'd open.

At first the door didn't open, and the representative of laughter was left with the hope that Scootaloo could find a key, or a set of keys, that would be able to open either this door, or the door to that front room.

As Pinkie rested her head against the door, she heard a high-pitched, muffled scream from the other side. Remembering how these doors only seemed to allow sound through them as long as a pony was propped up against, or perhaps at least touching it, Pinkie propped herself up against the door and called out, “Scootaloo, is that you?” And, that's when the door collapsed.

The Museum, in the Commander Hurricane Room

What frightened Scootaloo more than anything wasn't the fact that the mare was dead. It was the fact that she recognized her as the bearer of the element of kindness, Fluttershy. But, how had she died? She looked healthy, so she hadn't died of sickness. And, there were no visible injuries. Had the shock of being unable to move, of being suspended by those chains, been too much for her? Highly unlikely. In general, ponies were more sturdy than that. So, how had Fluttershy died?

Scootaloo was about to check for unseen injuries when she heard a crash on one side of the room, but not from any of the doors where she'd entered. Panicking, she flew to the door where she'd first entered the room, hoping to escape whatever was about to attack her.

That is, until she heard a familiar voice call out, “It's alright, it's me.”

Turning to the source of the voice, the crusader said, “Pinkie Pie?”

The pink party pony smiled and nodded her head as she answered, “That's me!” Then, she noticed the smell and stopped nodding immediately. Using a front hoof to cover her nose, she groaned in disgust and asked, “What's that smell?”

The orange pegasetta pointed to the hanging corpse and answered, “It's Fluttershy.”

Pinkie gasped as she approached the hanging body of her friend. She reached out and touched the pegasa's chest with the front hoof that wasn't covering her nose, then collapsed into a canine-style position. Turning her sad look to the pegasetta, she asked, “How did she die?”

Scootaloo shook her head as she answered, “I don't know. I couldn't find anything that'd indicate how she died.” She stopped shaking her head as she continued, “All I know is I came in here after you told me to search for a key to open the door. Then, next thing I knew, I was in the mares' room. I came back in here, and I found Fluttershy hanging there, dead.”

Again Pinkie turned to the hanging body of her friend. Realizing that the smell was coming from the dead body, she reached out, this time with the hoof she'd used to cover her nose. A tear leaked from each of her eyes as she touched her friend's abdomen, then quickly pulled the forelimb away. Turning back to her companion, she said, “Scootaloo, w-we … w-we need to g-get F-fluttershy's b-b-body down from th-there. W-w-we … can't j-just l-l-leave her l-like that.”

The crusader approached the pink earth mare and agreed, “You're right.” She then added, “But, how are we supposed to do that?”

Pinkie, struggling to keep her emotions in check, answered, “W-well, you c-can fly, right? And, you also h-have w-w-weapons in your h-hooves. C-c-can't you … can't you use th-those weapons … t-t-to … t-t-to …”

Scootaloo knew that Pinkie and Fluttershy were friends. And, she also knew what Pinkie was asking. Flying up and over to the chain that held the yellow pegasa's left forelimb in place, she said, “Just give me a moment.” She then raised the hoof that had fired the energy spheres and aimed it at the closest chain.

Immediately a sphere of energy started to form. But, it exploded on contact with the chain, and destroyed it.

Scootaloo, seeing the attempt was successful, drifted to the chain holding Fluttershy's right forelimb in place and repeated the procedure.

Again the energy sphere appeared, again it exploded on contact with the chain, and that chain was destroyed.

With nothing holding her in place, Fluttershy's body collapsed forward onto Pinkie Pie.

The representative of laughter caught her friend's body, and immediately forfeited her battle with her emotions.

As her companion started sobbing over the death of her friend, Scootaloo went to work freeing the corpse from the remaining chains. Only afterward did she join the pink earth mare in mourning the loss of the representative of kindness.

Chapter 5: The Mayor of Ponyville

The Museum

After mourning the loss of the yellow pegasa, Scootaloo had helped Pinkie Pie drag the body as far as the middle of the front room. And there their strength failed them. Fatigue took over, and the two of them collapsed into sphinx-style positions and slept the rest of the night where they lay.

The next morning, Pinkie Pie decided to carry the corpse of the yellow pegasa back to the balloon, and Scootaloo followed along, making sure the dead body didn't fall off of Pinkie's back.

The Outskirts of Cloudsdale

With everything lit by the sunlight, the two had no problems finding their way back to the balloon, where they dumped Fluttershy's body into the basket.

As the two settled into canine-style positions next to the balloon's basket, Scootaloo turned to Pinkie and asked, “So, now what do we do? Wh-what if w-we find R-rainbow D-dash, and she's … she's also … also …?”

Pinkie, watching the little filly try to form her thoughts into words, and knowing what she was trying to say, nodded and said, “I know what you mean, Scootie. It bothers me, too.”

Scootaloo couldn't keep her thoughts from troubling her as she continued, “And, and wh-what about M-mayor M-mare? What if we find her d-dead, just like F-fluttershy?”

The pink party pony took a moment to sigh before answering, “We can't allow ourselves to think like that, to just give up. I don't know what happened to Dashy, but I don't think she's dead. And, as for Mayor Mare, well, we can only hope we'll find her alive. If not, … if not, … well, … at least we'll have a good idea of what happened to her. We need to keep looking for that friendship problem. But, I wouldn't be surprised if, somehow, Dashy is connected to it. I hope she isn't connected, I especially hope she isn't the cause of the problem. But, I can't help thinking she is connected somehow. We just need to keep searching. We can't give up now.”

After listening to the pink earth mare, Scootaloo looked down and took her own moment to sigh. Afterwards, she said, “Yeah, I know you're right.” Then, she looked up at Pinkie again and added, “I just hope we don't get separated again. And, I hope I don't wake up in a mares' room again, wondering what I'm doing in there, only to go into another room and find another pony ... another pony dead.”

Pinkie nodded and, stroking the pegasetta's mane with her closest front hoof, responded, “Same here. I don't wanna see Rainbow Dash dead and strung up the way Fluttershy was, or any other pony for that matter. We just have to do a better job of sticking together.”

The crusader simply nodded and said, “Agreed.”

At that point, Pinkie rose to all fours again and said, “Now, let's go back into the city. We have a friendship problem to find and solve.”

The orange foal rose to all fours as well, but couldn't stifle a loud, noisy sniffle. Yet, afterwards she said, resolutely, “Yeah, let's go.” And, with that, she followed her companion back into Cloudsdale.

In the Streets of Cloudsdale

It had been decided between the two of them that Scootaloo should take the lead, and that they should head to the spot where they'd been attacked by those two strange ponies, between the bank and the grocery store.

There, they looked around for the remnants of those strange ponies. But, aside from sunlight, the roads, the sidewalks, and the buildings, there was nothing. The remains of those ponies that Scootaloo had battled had disappeared.

Still hoping to find even a scrap of metal indicating the existence of their attackers, Pinkie wondered aloud, “Do you think we just imagined those ponies?”

The orange pegasetta, also looking around, answered, “Well, if they didn't even exist, then what was I fighting?”

Pinkie had to pause and think about that for a moment. When she did speak again, she answered, “That's a good question.” Then, Scootaloo heard her say, “Ooh, what's that?”

The crusader turned to where she'd heard Pinkie last speak and asked, “What's what?” only to realize that her companion had disappeared again. Starting to feel panic return, she looked around and said, “Oh no, not again.” Then, seeing the store nearby, she began to think aloud, “Maybe she went in there?” Figuring she had nothing to lose, being once again by herself, and knowing that Pinkie liked pastries, Scootaloo turned and entered the building.

The Grocery Store

As the pegasetta entered through the double doors, she called out, “Pinkie, are you in here?”

From what seemed to be everywhere at once, she heard her companion answer, “I'm over here!”

Not knowing what else to do, Scootaloo flapped her wings and rose into the air. For a moment she let herself wonder about the wings she'd been given, how easily they worked for her even though she'd only had them for less than a day. And, here she was, hovering. But then, she started looking for some sign of the pink party pony: a trail of confetti, pink hairs, anything that'd let her know where the pink earth mare had gone. Then, when she looked directly under her, she realized that using her wings to hover was not such a good idea after all; as the draft her wings were creating was causing any dust on the ground, and debris that might help her track down her companion, to glide off under surfaces where it'd be hidden. So, she landed again and folded her wings, then decided to start ambling around the store. Fortunately, when she'd looked around her, she'd noticed a few long, pink hairs disappearing under one of the display cases nearby.

As Scootaloo started her exploration in the direction of the pathway where she'd seen the pink hairs, she noticed various signs of the party pony, signs she would've expected, oddly placed with convenience at certain intersections, leading her to the back of the store. While she began to wonder what was going on, she still decided to follow the trail where it led her, hoping to meet up with the representative of laughter again.

The sparse trail led her to a door in the back, where it seemed to go underneath and inside.

Presently, the orange pegasetta stopped. Adults might be allowed through that door, but would foals like her be allowed to go through? There was no picture indicating it'd be a bathroom for mares or stallions, and that made it all the more worrisome for her. This could only be the entryway to the storage room, where items to be sold would be kept until there was space for them in display cases and shelves in the main room where she was. But, every shelf she'd passed up to this point had been fully stocked, with every indication being that this store was ready for business. What could've lured Pinkie to a storage room, when the place was already stocked? Didn't the two of them have more important things to do than explore this part of the store? Then again, what if the friendship problem was here? Whatever Pinkie's reason was for entering this store and going into this room, not to mention luring the pegasetta there, Scootaloo had to find out. So, she used her wings to open the door and entered.

The Grocery Store, the Storage Room

As soon as the crusader closed the door behind her, she heard a familiar voice. It wasn't Pinkie's, but it was the voice of an earth mare she recognized.

The voice sounded alarmed as it called out, “Who's there?”

The orange pegasetta turned in the direction the voice came from and answered, “It's me, Scootaloo!”

The voice asked, “Scootaloo? What are you doing here?”

Suddenly it dawned on the crusader which mare that voice belonged to. She asked, “Mayor Mare, is that you?”

The earth mare answered, “Yes, it's me, Scootaloo. I'm over here.”

The pegasetta continued to approach the voice, although slowly, as she asked, “What are you doing here?”

Suddenly a light turned on, illuminating the location of the earth mare, who winced as though in pain. Just as Fluttershy had been, Mayor Mare was suspended between the floor and the ceiling by chains, which spread her limbs so that her chest and abdomen were exposed.

Scootaloo blocked the sudden light with a wing until her eyes adjusted to it. Then, when she looked up at the mayor pony, she heard Rainbow Dash's voice once again, this time asking, “Will you kindly kill Mayor Mare?” And this while the one she was instructed to kill was evidently saying something different.

Scootaloo, once again feeling as though she was in a dream, folded her wings again and answered, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.”

Surprised, the mayor pony tilted her head and grunted in confusion and curiosity. But, that only lasted for a second. After that, she straightened her head again and said, “No, Scootaloo, you've gotta listen to me. Rainbow Dash is not the hero you think she is. I don't know what happened to her, but she's not somepony you can trust anymore.”

But, all the crusader could hear was, “And, when you're done, will you kindly clean up the evidence? Leave no sign of how you killed her.”

Scootaloo answered, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.” And, she hovered in front of the earth mare, pointed a front hoof, and extended a blade from it.

Now frightened, Mayor Mare pleaded, “No, Scootaloo, don't do this. Please, don't.”

The Ponyville Castle, in the Map Room

Three of the element bearers, Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle, were in their places around the map.

Rarity was saying, “Darling, are you sure Fluttershy's dead?”

Twilight answered, “I hope not. I … I just can't help thinking … that she is.”

Applejack added, “We all hope she's 'right. 'N', we know Rainbow Dash ain't th' cause if she ain't. After all, why'd the pegasi wanna kill each other? 'N', one element a-killin' 'nother? Tha' don't make no sense. 'N', Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, 'n' Fluttershy's friends. Pinkie wouldn't kill one o' her friends. Whatever's a-goin' on up there, it ain't 'cause o' Pinkie 'r Scootaloo. Somepony else's 'volved, we just don't know who it is yet.”

It was about this time that the cutie marks of the three started to glow and radiate crimson red again, causing the three of them to scream in alarm.

After glancing at her own cutie mark, Twilight looked at the map, at the huge cloud that was floating near Rarity, and again started repeating the word, “No.”

As the white unicorn and the orange earth mare focused on the representation of the cloud city, they noticed something different about it.

A scroll tied with a blue ribbon, or the image of such, had appeared above the city.

Pointing at the image, Applejack said, “Th-that's Mayor Mare's cutie mark.”

Presently, Twilight stopped repeating the word “No,” and concluded by saying, “It's happening again.”

Applejack and Rarity looked in wonderment, then in horror, and Twilight only in horror, as the image above the cloud grew and blurred, and eventually disappeared.

For a few seconds, the three mares sat there in silence as their cutie marks stopped glowing and radiating crimson.

The first to break the silence was Applejack, who reached out a front hoof to the image of the floating cloud city and said, “M-m-mayor M-m-mare was m' f-friend.” And, she looked down in front of her, but focused on nothing.

Rarity tried to say that Mayor Mare's death hadn't been confirmed, but all she could do was stammer.

In the mean time, Twilight just sat there, ears drooping on each side of her head, staring at the miniature representation of the cloud city.

The Grocery Store, in the Mares' Room

As she'd done with the representative of kindness, Scootaloo had taken great pains to clean up the mess she'd made after killing Ponyville's mayor. And, just as she'd done with Fluttershy, she'd used the mayor pony's skin to sow up the wound she'd made. After that, she'd gone to the mares' room and quickly, but thoroughly, cleaned the blade she'd used.

Only when she was done did she hear Rainbow Dash's voice say, “Now, will you kindly leave this room and remember none of this?”

Obediently the orange pegasetta ambled to the door as she said, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.” And, as soon as the door closed behind her, she awoke and forgot what she'd done. She shook her head for a second to clear it, then looked around, wondering what she was doing there. Looking behind her, she saw that she was just outside a mares' bathroom. Well, the good news was she didn't wake up inside the bathroom. But, that didn't keep her from the feeling of foreboding that something had once again gone wrong. But, where was it this time?

It took her tapping her head with a front hoof, first of all to realize that wasn't such a good idea, not with hooves made of steel. But, second of all, it helped her remember that the last place she'd been to was the storage area of the store she was in. At the same time wanting to and not wanting to, the crusader marched forward toward the storage room, then opened the door and entered. And, once again, there was that smell.

The Grocery Store, in a Closet

When Pinkie Pie woke up, she found herself in a really small room. She tried to shake the cobwebs out of her head, but ended up hitting her nose against a wall. She groaned in pain, then tried to move a front hoof to rub her now aching nose; but she quickly realized she couldn't even do that. Then, the pink earth mare started to remember what had happened.

She'd been following Scootaloo along one road in Cloudsdale when she'd been attacked, and so fast that she'd had no time to react. Not even her Pinkie sense'd had time to warn her. That, or if it had warned her, she didn't recognize it in time. Whatever the case was, the next thing she knew, she was in this tiny room; and she needed to get out of there as soon as possible.

Carefully maneuvering her front hooves, as well as sensing with her back, she was able to tell that one of the walls was different from the other three. Was there a door there, or was the wall just not as solid as the others? There was just one way for her to be sure. Carefully positioning herself using all her legs, she used all her strength to hop against the wall that was directly behind her.

As a result, the wall, as soon as her back made contact with it, burst into a cloud of splinters.

The Grocery Store, the Storage Room

Suddenly unimpeded by the wall, Pinkie, groaning in surprise, stumbled backward until she fell onto her back. One piece of good news was that she was out of that tiny room now. Another piece of good news was her backward fall hadn't hurt her, and neither had the cloud of splinters. But, there was one piece of bad news: that smell.

Rolling onto her front again, Pinkie rose to all-fours position before taking one forelimb and covering her nose, then started looking around for the source of the smell. The memory of how that smell had lead her to Fluttershy's corpse frightened her, even slightly nauseated her, as she began to wonder who she'd find dead this time. And, she didn't have long or far to look before she got her answer.

Before she could identify the body, she heard a door open in another area of the room. Starting for a second, she turned to the sound and called out, “Who's there?”

From the open door, the crusader heard the two words from a familiar voice. Relaxing for a moment, she called out, “Pinkie, is that you?”

The pink party pony opened her mouth, preparing to shout that she was Pinkie, Pinkie Pie. Then, remembering the smell, and deciding that she wouldn't want somepony else to have to breath that in too deeply, she decided against the joke. Instead, she called out, “Scootaloo?”

Hearing the voice of the element bearer, the crusader galloped toward where she heard it come from and shouted, “Pinkie!”

Presently, the pink earth mare hopped up to all fours and started galloping toward where she heard the pegasetta's voice, shouting, “Scootie!”

The two met and hugged approximately behind and to the left of the hanging corpse of Ponyville's mayor, and remained that way for a few seconds, crying about how they'd missed each other.

After that, again Pinkie took notice of the scent in the room. Turning, she saw the earth mare hanging there by her hooves. Hoping for good news, but at the same time fearing what she suspected to be true, Pinkie let go of Scootaloo and approached the hanging corpse. Circling slowly around the body, she said, “Mayor, that's you, isn't it? Scootie and I are gonna get you down from there, you'll see.” And that's when she saw the mayor pony's head, just hanging there. Still hoping for a sign of life, Pinkie propped herself up on the mayor's body and nuzzled her chin. Then, when that failed to get results, Pinkie rested her head on the mayor pony's chest, hoping to hear some sound from inside. Then, after a few seconds of hearing nothing, she pulled away, taking a few steps back until she could drop back into all-fours position again.

Scootaloo, in the mean time, ambled to a position so that she could see what Pinkie was doing. And, when she could see the two from the side, she slumped into a canine-style position and watched for Pinkie to check for signs of life. When she saw her companion back away from the body and drop to all fours, she asked, “S-so, h-how is she?” And, when the pink earth mare turned to her, the expression on the pink pony's face was all the answer the orange pegasetta needed.

Which was just as well, as, even when Pinkie opened her mouth to answer, she suddenly found herself unable to say anything. All she did was close her mouth again, look down at the ground in front of her, and close her eyes; and tears started leaking from them.

Seeing Pinkie starting to grieve for her fellow earth mare, Scootaloo grumbled, “First Fluttershy, and now Mayor Mare.” Angrily raising a front hoof, she continued, “What's going on here? Why weren't we in time to save them? And, who's gonna be next, huh? Is it gonna be Ra— … Ra— …” But, no matter how much she tried, Scootaloo couldn't bring herself to say the name of her heroine. She couldn't bare the thought of seeing the rainbow-haired pegasa, the pony she looked up to, the representative of loyalty, her closest friend, dead, hanging there the way she'd seen Fluttershy, and just now Mayor Mare. Using both hooves, she covered her mouth, trying to keep her emotions from escaping. But, she couldn't help inhaling through her nose in a long, unexpectedly loud sniffle.

Pinkie, seeing the filly in a losing battle with her emotions, slowly rose to all fours and ambled to her companion, then grasped her in another hug as soon as she was close enough.

Feeling the pink earth mare wrap herself around her, Scootaloo looked away and allowed the tears to fall from her own eyes as she whimpered, “Wh-what'll we d-do now?”

Pinkie answered, “We'll d-do with M-mayor M-mare's body wh-what we d-d-did … with F-fluttershy's. W-we'll j-just get her b-body … d-down and … c-carry her b-back to the b-balloon. B-but, I think … I think th-there's something … something worse h-here th-than a … a friendship p-problem. T-t-two p-p-ponies … d-dead … and b-before that, ponies that weren't p-ponies attacking us? Wh-when we're d-done t-t-taking M-mayor M-mare's body b-back … back to th-the balloon, w-we need to g-go to the … the Town Hall. M-maybe w-we can find some information there about wh-what's happened in the past m-month.”

Scootaloo didn't say anything more, just used her wings to hover above the ground and a front hoof to fire a sphere of energy at each of the chains holding the body of Ponyville's mayor in place. Then, when she lowered herself to the ground again, all it took was for her to look into the mayor's lifeless face, and she lost her battle with her emotions.

Somewhere in the Weather Factory

Rainbow Dash sat there, canine-style, looking at a monitor, watching the scene play out before her. She said nothing, just watched her two friends grieve for the loss of Ponyville's mayor.

After a few seconds, a door opened behind her; and Spitfire took a few steps through the door. Saluting, she asked, “Do you think those two will get the message and leave Cloudsdale, Ma'am?”

The azure pegasa sighed before answering, “I doubt it. The map back in Ponyville sent them here, and the only way they'll go back is if they find and solve whatever 'friendship problem' they were sent here to find and solve. That, or if they're both dead.”

The fiery-orange pegasa dropped under her the front hoof she'd used to salute, then took another step or two toward the representative of loyalty as she asked, “Do you want us to kill them, then?”

Immediately, Rainbow Dash turned to the leader of the Wonderbolts and, glaring, shouted, “No!”

Seemingly unphased, Spitfire asked, “Do you know where they'll go next?”

The rainbow-haired pegasa turned her glare back to the monitor she'd been watching before and said, “They'll be heading for the town hall.”

The fiery-orange pegasa asked, “If you don't want us to kill them, should we at least send robot ponies to guard the town hall?”

The representative of loyalty grumbled, “That'll only make them more determined to find out what they want to find out. No, the best we can do is lure them somewhere else. And, since they're in the grocery store across from the bank, maybe we can lure Pinkie to the pastries. She's always looking for new ideas for cakes and stuff for her parties.”

Spitfire paused for a moment before asking, “And, what if that fails, ma'am?”

Again Rainbow Dash sighed before answering, “Then, you may capture Pinkie Pie. I'll question her, then you can leave her in the vault at the bank. I'll have Scootaloo deal with her, then clean up the evidence so she'll never know what she did.”

Chapter 6: In Just One Month

Cloudsdale, in the Streets

As they'd done with Fluttershy's body, Pinkie carried Mayor Mare's body back to the balloon, while Scootaloo made sure it didn't slide off the pink earth mare's back.

After dumping the tan earth mare's body on top of that of the yellow pegasa, Scootaloo and Pinkie Pie slumped down into sphinx-style positions.

The pegasetta complained, “I still can't believe we weren't in time to save Mayor Mare. What's going on here, anyway?”

Pinkie rested her head between her front hooves as she answered, “I don't know. What I do know is that we need to find out. Just let me know when you're ready, and we'll go to the town hall and look for information there.”

Scootaloo asked, “You know where that is?” She then watched as her companion slowly raised her head, nodded, then lowered it again, before asking, “How?”

At this point, Pinkie raised her head again and turned to the filly before answering, “When you disappeared yesterday, just after we arrived, I went searching for you. I didn't search in any buildings, I just went along streets, calling for you. And, along the way, I saw all sorts of buildings, including the town hall. In fact, I found it on the first or second road where I was searching for you.”

At this point, the crusader rose to all fours before asking, “And, that'd be?”

Seeing her companion ready to continue their search, the representative of laughter also rose to all fours before answering, “Just follow me, and I'll show you.” And, she started trotting off toward the closest road.

Scootaloo, not wanting to fall too far behind the pink party pony, galloped to catch up to her, then trotted to keep at her side.

At the road, Pinkie turned to her right and headed as far down as that road went. After that, she turned left. Pointing to one building that stood out from the others, she turned to her companion and said, “See? There it is!” Then, turning again to see the ponies guarding the building, she added, “But, something's different. I know I didn't see all those ponies guarding it the first time I came.”

The crusader observed, “And, there's something else. Most of those ponies look like the ones I fought earlier. The only one that's different is somepony I recognize, a friend of Rainbow Dash's, I think. Uh, what's her name again?”

The fiery-maned pegasa, noticing the two, approached them and announced, “Commander Spitfire. What are you two doing here?”

The pink earth mare nodded uncertainly and said, “Uh, nice to meet you, Commander. Scootaloo and I are on our way to the town hall.”

Commander Spitfire shook her head and said, “I'm afraid we cannot allow you in there.”

Pinkie asked, “But, why not?”

The pegasa took a step toward the pink party pony and answered, “Because I said so.”

At this point, Scootaloo approached Spitfire and said, “Uh, excuse me, but this is the most ponies we've seen in town since we got here. I just wanna ask, why are there so many ponies here now, when, besides ourselves, there've only been two ponies around here that we've seen since we first came here? And, come to think of it, before now there've been so many pegasi here in Cloudsdale. What happened to them all?”

The fiery-colored pegasa glared down at the filly and growled, “That's classified information, and you're not allowed to enter the town hall!”

Unphased, Scootaloo stood her ground as she asked, “Can you at least tell me where Rainbow Dash is, or what happened to her?”

Commander Spitfire shook her head once before answering, “That's also classified information.”

At this point, Scootaloo growled as she hopped into the air, flapping her wings at the highest point of her jump to raise herself higher, as she said, “I can't just turn back now. I need to find out what happened to Rainbow Dash.” And, before the fiery pegasa could stop her, she flew off toward the town hall.

Focused on the flying filly, the pegasa turned and shouted, “You're not allowed to go in there! You get back here!” Then, groaning, she turned back to Pinkie Pie.

The pink earth mare, seeing her companion flying toward the building, made her decision. Lowering her head, she galloped forward, knocking aside mechanical ponies as she made her way to the town hall after the pegasetta.

By the time Commander Spitfire could call her troops to defend the building, Pinkie and Scootaloo were just a short distance from the door. And, before the army of mechanical ponies could follow their orders, the pegasetta and the earth mare were at the front door. The two were inside, and had the doors closed, before the fiery pegasa and her army could touch them.

The Town Hall

After barring the doors, Scootaloo and Pinkie started heading toward the room where the records were kept. Then Pinkie decided it was better for them to head to the library to look at recent newspapers. Perhaps something in the ones from the past month or so could give them a clue as to what had happened in Cloudsdale to make it change so much.

Both the pegasetta and the earth mare were surprised to find that the most recent paper had been published some two or three weeks ago.

Pinkie went to the most recent papers for information, while Scootaloo started looking at papers from a month ago, the time that Rainbow Dash had left for Cloudsdale.

The filly was the first to speak up, saying, “This isn't much of a surprise. The headline here reads, “Rainbow Dash Returns to Cloudsdale.”

The pink party pony turned to her companion, looking up from the paper she was reading, and said, “Well, this paper just talks about Mayor Mare and Fluttershy arriving here. No details.”

After looking at a more recent paper, Scootaloo said, “Here's something interesting: 'Our Three Elected Leaders Found Dead in Town Hall.'”

Curious, Pinkie asked, “'Three leaders?' Who could those be?”

The crusader shrugged as she answered, “I'm not sure, there's no picture of them. I wonder if they had something to do with Rainbow Dash coming here in the first place.”

Pinkie hummed with interest before saying, “Maybe you're right. I'd like to see that paper.” And, she snatched it from her companion.

Free from the paper, Scootaloo went to a shelf to search for an earlier edition. And, it wasn't long before she found one, from which she read aloud, “'Three Stallions Elected Cloudsdale's Joint Governors.'”

Pinkie turned to her companion. Her curiosity piqued, she asked, “Is there a picture of those three stallions?”

After a brief search, the pegasetta nodded, then held the paper out to the earth mare as she said, “Here it is.”

Pinkie recognized the trio immediately. It'd been a few years since she'd been to Cloudsdale, to support her friend in the Best Young Fliers' Competition. Rainbow Dash'd taken her and the rest of the element bearers on a tour of the weather factory, where they came across three stallions who seemed to have a vendetta against the azure pegasa.

Remembering how they picked on her friend, it was suddenly clear to the representative of laughter why Rainbow Dash'd returned to the city of the pegasi. But, what happened to her after that? What happened to those stallions? The headlined report she'd been reading from the paper she'd taken from Scootaloo didn't have any pictures, like Scootaloo had said, and only talked about the three stallions having been found lying dead in their own blood. Then, in a paper dated a day or two later, a headline read, “Rainbow Dash Elected Governor of Cloudsdale.” And, there was something about that headline that started to worry the pink earth mare. Had her friend, the representative of loyalty, Rainbow Dash, been responsible for the deaths of those three stallions? And, if so, had she intended to replace them? If so, then why?

The pink earth mare's thoughts were interrupted when Scootaloo lowered the paper she'd been holding and asked, “Pinkie, is something wrong?”

Nervously, Pinkie shook her head and answered, “Uh, no, everything's j-just f-fine.” And, just as nervously, she forced a chuckle and a smile before going back to looking at the paper.

The filly looked down at the picture, which from her perspective was upside down, then looked back up at her companion, before saying, uncertainly, “Well, uh, alright then?” She then dragged the paper back to where she'd found it. After putting the paper back in its place, she said, “I was just wondering, you were looking so worried.” And, it was about that time when she heard the door to the library room close. Turning quickly to the door, she called out, “Pinkie!?” She continued to look around to see if she could find the pink party pony. When she realized she was unable to find the representative of laughter anywhere in the room, she screamed, “Pinkie!”

Somewhere in the Weather Factory

Rainbow Dash sat there human-style, her front hooves flat on either side of the keyboard in front of her, glaring and growling at the monitor she'd been watching.

In a few seconds, a sheepish, fiery-maned pegasa entered through the door behind the azure one. Ambling a few steps, head lowered, she said, quietly, “Commander Spitfire, reporting for duty, Ma'am.”

The representative of loyalty rose and pushed herself away from the keyboard, settling to all fours on the floor. She then turned to her fellow pegasa and marched toward her, demanding, “What were you thinking? Why didn't you just try and lure them away from the town hall instead of focusing their attention on it?”

Commander Spitfire stammered, “Y-you w-were right, Ma'am, I should've d-done what y-you said. I shouldn't've g-guarded the t-town h-hall.”

Rainbow Dash emitted a sighing groan before asking, “So, you at least got Pinkie Pie?”

The fiery-colored pegasa saluted and answered, “Yes, Ma'am.”

The azure pegasa nodded and said, “Good.” She then trotted past her fellow pegasa as she said, “I'm going to interrogate her, find out as much as I can about what she learned. Then, after that, I want you to take her and hang her by her hooves in the bank. I'll lure Scootaloo there, and she'll deal with my former friend.”

Commander Spitfire waited and watched as the rainbow-haired pegasa exited the room, and only relaxed from her salute when she couldn't see Rainbow Dash. Resting that front hoof under her again, she looked down and sighed, uncertain if, after her failure, she still had a career.

Chapter 7: The Party's End

The Town Hall

Since Scootaloo's only clue to the disappearance of her companion had been the door closing, and since it was the only way out of the library, the only one she knew of anyway, she decided to exit the room through the door they'd entered. After that, the pegasetta began to wonder if perhaps the pink earth mare had needed to use the mares' room, or maybe went to get something to eat, and had simply decided to leave the crusader to continue looking for information on her own. With no other ideas to work with, the crusader started looking at doors, beginning with the library and continuing toward the back of the town hall, searching for one with a picture of the silhouette of a mare's head on it. After all, between the library and the entrance to this building, she hadn't seen any doors with the silhouette of the head of a mare or a stallion.

When she came to one door that had the silhouetted image of a mare's head on it, looking up at the image brought back memories of the past twenty or so hours, memories she'd rather forget. She remembered how she'd awoken once in one mares' room, then once in front of another one; and each of those times had lead to her finding somepony dead, suspended by chains between the floor and ceiling of a room. But, she hadn't awoken in front of or inside this one. And, that gave her hope that she'd find her companion, or at least somepony, alive. So, she went through the door and called out, “Pinkie Pie, are you in here?” But, there was no answer. In fact, aside from those she knew were coming from herself, there was no sound at all.

Knowing that she shouldn't, still Scootaloo looked under the door of each stall, hoping to find somepony, hopefully her companion, in that stall. But, each stall she checked she found empty. Then, after checking the last stall, she came to a realization: all these toilets available, and she needed to use one of them. Considering there was nopony in this mares' room, perhaps nopony in the building at all other than her, although she was still hoping to find Pinkie Pie alive, the filly decided to make use of the toilet in the last stall she'd checked. And, since she was the only pony in there, she felt no need to close and lock the stall door.

It didn't take very long. She hadn't had anything to eat since she and the pink party pony had gotten to Cloudsdale, so that all she needed to do was pee. And, when she was finished, she left the stall and proceeded to climb up onto the sink across from it, to wash her front hooves. But, when she got a look at her reflection in the mirror, to her horror she saw not her own face, but the face of Fluttershy. Yet, there was something wrong with the pegasa's face. Her eyes were wide open, but missing. That, or they were completely black. Either way, they made her sockets look like pitch-black caves. And, her mouth was open too, revealing another cave, one as black as were her eyes.

Scootaloo's fight-or-flight instinct took over, and she screamed and retreated from the sight. But, because in her panic she'd forgotten to use her wings, the lack of friction on the sink's surface joined forces with gravity against the crusader, causing her to fall, and land hard on the floor. Still, neither the impact nor the sudden pain stopped her from backpedaling away, back into the stall behind her, until she hit the bowl of the toilet she'd used. Finally stopping, she hid within her wings. And there, in that position, she waited for at least a minute, hiding from the monster she saw while at the same time struggling to get her breathing back under control.

When she dared open her wings again, she realized she was still alone, which made her feel better. But, she had to wonder, why did she see Fluttershy's face that way? As far as she knew, she'd done nothing to the yellow pegasa that'd cause her to haunt her that way. Still, it seemed as though washing her front hooves wasn't going to be such a good idea after all, not so long as she was going to have to see the yellow pegasa's face in the mirror. Scootaloo decided to leave the mares' room.

And, just outside the door, as the pegasetta turned to her left, she saw Mayor Mare, facing away from her. Surprised, she called out, “Mayor, is that you!?”

The image the filly saw made no sound, just turned her head to look at her. But, what Scootaloo saw was not unlike what she'd seen in the mirror. Except, it wasn't Fluttershy's face with the pitch-black caves for eyes and mouth, it was Mayor Mare's.

Again the crusader panicked, retreating from the monster she saw. And, as she ran, turning at each corner until she got to the front door of the town hall, she remembered what she'd said to Pinkie Pie: “First Fluttershy, now Mayor Mare.” And, indeed, first it was the representative of kindness with that face, haunting her, then Ponyville's mayor. But, what had happened, what had she done to them, that they should want to haunt her?

As Scootaloo burst out of the town hall's double doors, she jumped from the top steps and used her wings to fly off. And, she didn't stop until she was back at the balloon, where this whole nightmare had started. She didn't dare look into the basket, she just dropped into a sphinx-style position in front of it, buried her face between her front hooves, and sobbed, “Why, Mayor? Why, Fluttershy? Why do you hate me?” And, she continued to sob.

Cloudsdale, in the Streets

It was several minutes later, perhaps even a whole hour, before the crusader had her emotions under control again. And, when she looked up, she saw one of those ponies again, one like the two she'd seen in front of the grocery store, like the army of ponies she'd seen lead by Commander Spitfire. And, seeing that pony, Scootaloo suddenly felt herself filled with rage.

Ponies hadn't died, hadn't been suspended in buildings, before things like that bizarre pony started showing up. And now, and now, there were two dead ponies; and Pinkie Pie had disappeared. Scootaloo didn't know why. She didn't need to know why. All she knew was that this strange pony was, had to be, responsible for the whole thing, perhaps even for the two waking nightmares she'd experienced. And, this strange pony had to pay for it.

Scootaloo galloped a few steps before opening her wings and flying toward the strange pony. But, before the crusader could get up off the ground, that strange pony disappeared behind a building.

The crusader flew to the last point where she'd seen the strange pony, then looked around to see if she could find her. And, she spotted the strange pony when she looked to her left, away from the path that had lead her and Pinkie to the town hall. Still furious with the strange pony, she flew towards it, only for it to disappear behind another building. Before she knew it, Scootaloo found herself following the familiar course to the weather factory. And, at the doorsteps of the factory, she found the culprit.

The battle didn't take long, it just took one sphere of energy from Scootaloo's left hoof; and the strange pony was a shower of metal fragments around her. And, it was only then that Scootaloo took notice of where she was. Why had the strange pony lead her here? What was so important about the weather factory?

Then, Scootaloo heard Rainbow Dash's voice in her ears, asking, “Will you kindly go into the bank?”

Again the filly felt herself falling into the realm of dreams. And, in that state, she said, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.” And, from the steps of the weather factory, she turned away and made her way to the road where the bank was on one side, and the grocery store on the other. And, at the steps of the bank, she turned and entered through the double doors.

The Bank

As the doors closed behind her, the crusader heard her heroine ask, “Will you kindly go to the bank's vault?”

Again Scootaloo said, “Yes, Rainbow Dash,” before making her way to the vault, in the back of the main room of the bank.

Seeing her companion again, Pinkie Pie started struggling against her chains as she said, “Oh, Scootaloo, I'm glad to see you again. Listen, you've gotta get me out of here. We've gotta stop Rainbow Dash. I'm sorry to have to say this, but, … she's not my friend anymore, not your friend anymore. She's the bad guy. Don't you understand, Scootaloo? Rainbow Dash is the villain! She's turned against us!”

Scootaloo looked up at the pink earth mare, suspended between floor and ceiling by chains, and watched her speak. But, all she heard was the azure pegasa ask, “Will you kindly kill Pinkie Pie?”

Still seeing things in a dream state, Scootaloo answered, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.”

The voice of her heroine added, “And, when you're done, I will guide you to the mares' room. Will you kindly clean up the mess you make? Leave no sign of what you do.”

Again Scootaloo answered, “Yes, Rainbow Dash,” before opening her wings and flying up to the suspended mare.

The representative of laughter didn't need her Pinkie sense to tell her that she wasn't going to make it out of this situation alive. But, still, she had to try to let her companion know, she had to try to free her companion from her hypnosis. So, she stopped struggling and said, “Listen to me, Scootie. I know why Rainbow Dash did what she did. I know what happened. Rainbow Dash killed those three stallions. She said so herself. It was her idea, her intent, to become the governor of Cloudsdale. But, she's not good anymore.

“She's the one that gave you those fake wings you're using. She had doctor ponies remove your wings and your forelimbs and replace them with fake ones. And, she's the one controlling you, telling you to kill me. But, you've got to fight it. Scootaloo, you've got to wake up. You don't want to do this. You don't want to be a murderer. You don't want to follow Rainbow Dash's example, not this way.”

The Ponyville Castle, in the Map Room

Three element bearers and one defecated draconequus (Discord had shriveled and changed color so that he literally looked like one big, lengthy, living bowel movement.) were seated around the table where the map of Equestria was displayed, waiting for news of how Pinkie's and Scootaloo's friendship mission was going. None dared speak, they just sat there and waited for something to happen, hoping it'd be something good for a change.

But, whatever good thing they were hoping would happen never would. The cutie marks of the three ponies again started to flash with crimson red light.

Seeing the glow, Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity screamed in alarm, then focused on the representation of the cloud city. And there above it they saw the image of three balloons, two blue and the middle one above them yellow, appear above the city.

Each of the three expressed her own disbelief in the impending death of the pink party pony, but they watched on helplessly as the image grew and blurred, then faded and eventually disappeared.

The three mares sat there, staring at the miniaturized cloud city, but only for a few seconds before their strength failed them.

Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony, felt something he'd never felt before, something that filled him with terror. He felt powerless. But, at the same time, the dose of chaos around him powered him so that he couldn't collapse as the ponies in the room with him had.

His favorite pony, the pegasa that had first shown him true friendship, the pony that had reformed him, had been the first to die, the first to be killed. Then there was that mayor pony. But, she was meaningless. But now, Pinkie Pie, who represented the element he favored the most, laughter, was dead.

His external appearance became only a faint shadow of how he felt inside. He didn't dare grieve, not yet anyway. He knew, he thought he knew, who was responsible for the three deaths; and he was going to wait for that filly to return so he could punish her. And, only after that little filly was adequately punished would he mourn over the loss of his two favorite ponies. But, for now, he would stay and watch until the little pegasetta returned.

The Bank, Starting in the Mares' Room

As had been the case with Fluttershy and Mayor Mare, Scootaloo had managed to clean up the mess she'd made, and had used Pinkie Pie's skin around the wound to sew it closed, in just a matter of seconds. After that, she'd made her way to the mares' room, following Rainbow Dash's instructions, and cleaned up the blade she'd used to kill the pink earth mare.

When she was done, she heard Rainbow Dash say, “Now, when you leave this room, will you kindly wake up, and remember no more what you did under my instructions? Will you kindly even forget my instructions?”

Scootaloo nodded and headed for the door to the bathroom, saying, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.” A few seconds later, she was outside the bathroom, where she woke up from her hypnosis. After shaking herself out, she turned around and saw the silhouetted image of the mare's face on the door behind her. The memories of the previous situations flooded her mind, and the crusader shook her head, repeatedly whispering the word, “No.” Fearing what she somehow knew to be true, she ran around the building, taking a break from repeatedly whispering “No” to say, “Please, Rainbow Dash, don't let it be you this time.” Then she entered the vault, and what she saw there filled her with relief and horror at the same time.

To her relief, it wasn't Rainbow Dash that was suspended between the floor and the ceiling. What horrified her was that it was her companion, the representative of laughter, Pinkie Pie.

Scootaloo collapsed into a canine-style position, unable to believe what she was seeing. Fluttershy had been the first, Mayor Mare had been the second, now Pinkie Pie. Who would do such a thing to two element bearers and the mayor of Ponyville, and why? Then, unbidden, the pattern became apparent to the little filly, followed by one thought that made her freeze in terror greater than she was already feeling, greater than she thought she could ever feel: what if she was next?

This was followed by a feeling of isolation that threatened to consume her. Scootaloo was familiar with loneliness, it had been a companion to her much of the time until she became friends with Applebloom, and then Sweetie Belle. But, they weren't here now. Pinkie Pie was, had been, but she was dead now. Who was going to help the little crusader? The only other pony she'd met, that she knew was alive, was Commander Spitfire. But, she didn't seem all that friendly.

The pegasetta reached out a front hoof toward one of the chains, the one holding Pinkie's right forelimb in place, and fired a sphere of energy at it, destroying the chain, and creating a burn mark on that limb. She then turned her forelimb to the chain keeping Pinkie's left forelimb in place, and fired another energy sphere at it, destroying the chain and part of that hoof. Scootaloo followed quickly by firing one energy sphere at each of the chains holding Pinkie's rear limbs in place before the pink party pony's body had time to drop to the floor in front of her. After that, she closed the distance between her and the remains of her companion, collapsed on top of it, and started sobbing once again.

Chapter 8: That Miserable Cat

Weather Factory, Entrance Hall

Commander Spitfire had made her last report to Governor Rainbow Dash, and been shown Scootaloo in action, killing Pinkie Pie. And, seeing the little filly reacting to seeing the dead body of her companion, and not remembering that she'd been the one that had done it, she'd begun to wonder about the azure pegasa's motivations. Killing those three stallions who had been elected joint governors over Cloudsdale was reasonable in a way. After all, how they won on their political platform, expelling Rainbow Dash from the Wonderbolts, was a mystery that might never be solved. But, when Fluttershy and Mayor Mare came, the order to imprison them was something she hadn't expected. Still more bizarre was the decision to turn this visiting pegasetta, Scootaloo, the governor's closest friend and greatest fan, into a puppet so she could kill without getting her hooves dirty. That being the case, what game was Rainbow Dash playing, that she'd have the little filly clean up her mess after killing each victim? Did she want her little friend to not suffer guilt if she'd ever found out what she'd done?

The fiery-colored pegasa shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts away before using her wings to set up a board. Using pins, she placed a picture of Rainbow Dash, at what she'd call her awesome-est, at the top; then a piece of scroll with the words, “Will You Kindly,” on it. Under that, she placed three pictures, each one with the image of one of the ponies Rainbow Dash had manipulated Scootaloo into murdering, strung up in that humiliating position. After that, she took some string and connected the picture of Rainbow Dash to the three-word phrase, then three more pieces of string to connect the phrase to each of the pictures, one piece of string per picture.

As Commander Spitfire set up this board, she began to wonder to herself why she was doing this. Was she trying to absolve herself from the crimes Governor Rainbow Dash was committing? If so, why torture a little filly with the restoration of these memories? Certainly letting the little filly know that Rainbow Dash was no longer the friend she'd been before she'd come to Cloudsdale had some value. But, how far was too far in this matter?

Years of training helped the military pegasa keep control of her emotions while she put up the display. It was only when she was finished that the thought struck her, were emotions governing her decision to place this display in the entranceway to the weather factory? But, then again, she felt that this was something that needed to be done. For the good of Cloudsdale. For the good of Rainbow Dash. For the good of Scootaloo. And, most of all, for the good of all ponies that might become involved later on. If her emotions were her main motivation for doing this, then they had to be good emotions. Thus were her thoughts as she went to the front door and unlocked it as carefully and quietly as possible.

The Bank, Starting in the Vault

Scootaloo had been in the bank's vault for hours, crying for Fluttershy, crying for Mayor Mare, crying for her companion Pinkie Pie. All three were dead now, strung up like strange display items or decorations. What was Scootaloo going to do now? Should she try and take Pinkie's body back to the balloon, then go back to Ponyville again? No, that would've made the sacrifices of those three ponies meaningless. And, besides, how was she going to carry her companion's body all the way back to the balloon? Would she be able to carry the pink earth mare's body all the way back to the balloon without collapsing, or literally falling apart?

She remembered how the pink party pony had taken the body of Fluttershy, then later the body of Mayor Mare, back to the balloon; and she'd been there to make sure each one didn't fall off of her back. And, they hadn't. Pinkie was able to take each of the two mares' bodies back to the balloon without them falling off. And, tossing them into the basket, while not the most sensitive and dignified treatment, had been, or at least seemed, like a very simple job. But, Pinkie Pie was an adult. Could Scootaloo do that? Or, was she too small, too weak, to carry the body of an adult back to the balloon and toss it into the basket?

It took a few minutes, but Scootaloo made her decision. She was the only one left, that she knew of, and she was going to take the body of her companion back to the balloon.

But, that was before she heard Rainbow Dash's voice in her head, asking, “Will you kindly go to the weather factory?”

Again the pegasetta felt herself falling into a dream state, and she said, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.” And, with that, she moved away from the body of the pink party pony, out of the vault, through the main room of the bank, and out the front door.

For all the little filly cared at the moment, the streets could've been crowded with all types of ponies, or completely empty; it didn't matter. She had a job to do, and she was going to do it. That was her frame of mind as she marched through the streets, to the intersection connecting the road in front of the bank to the road leading to the weather factory. And, it wasn't long afterward when she found herself at the double doors to that building.

As she reached out for the door, she heard the voice of the azure pegasa say, “Wait, and I'll unlock the door so you can enter.” Obediently the crusader waited, forelimb outstretched, for a minute before the voice said, “Now, will you kindly enter and proceed to the end of the hallway?”

Still in her dream state, Scootaloo nodded and said, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.” Then, she reached out and pushed the door open, then proceeded into the building.

The Weather Factory, in the Hallway

The little filly, after entering through the double doors, proceeded to close each one, when she happened to catch sight of a bulletin board, with images that were familiar to her. And, there was a message under the image of her heroine, Rainbow Dash: “Will You Kindly.”

Presently, she heard the azure pegasa's voice in her head, asking, no, demanding, “Scootaloo, will you kindly proceed to the end of the hallway?”

But, seeing those words on the board, she was snapped out of her dream state, and found herself uninfluenced by them anymore. At first, her eyes were attracted to the image of Fluttershy, and the memories of her murder invaded her thoughts. Scootaloo remembered stabbing her with a blade from one of her own hooves. She remembered sowing up the wound with Fluttershy's own skin. She remembered cleaning up the mess, then going into the mares' room to clean the blade she'd used. And, all this at the museum.

Next, Scootaloo turned to look at the picture of Mayor Mare, and the memories of her murder invaded the little filly's thoughts. Just like she'd done with Fluttershy, she'd stabbed Mayor Mare, sewn up her wound with her own skin, cleaned up the mess she'd made, and gone to the mares' room and cleaned up the blade she'd used. The only difference was it had taken place in the storage area of the grocery store.

Finally, the pegasetta's attention was drawn magnetically, almost instinctively, to the image of Pinkie Pie, her companion; and she remembered everything that had happened at the bank. Just like what she'd done with the two other mares, she'd stabbed Pinkie Pie, sewn up her wound with her own skin, cleaned up the mess she'd made, and gone to the mares' room to clean up the blade she'd used. But, there was more. She remembered what the pink party pony had said about her fellow element bearer, that the azure pegasa was no longer the representative of loyalty, she was a traitor.

Scootaloo looked up at the image of her heroine, and saw the three words written under it, words that now torturously echoed in her mind: “Will You Kindly.” And then, everything started to make sense.

Remembering what she'd done, what Rainbow Dash had made her do using those three words, she stopped wondering why she'd seen Fluttershy's image in the mirror of the town hall mares' room the way she had, then Mayor Mare there in the hallway, just outside that room.

Scootaloo and Pinkie hadn't eaten anything since they'd gotten to Cloudsdale. And right now, considering what she was feeling, Scootaloo was glad for that. If she had eaten anything, she'd have to see it again, liquefied and all over the floor in front of her. She couldn't believe it. Had her friend, her heroine, Rainbow Dash, really done those terrible things, made her do them? And, she was still trying. Again she heard the words in her head, “Will you kindly proceed to the end of the hallway!?”

The three words, which she knew had been used to control her, no longer had their power over her. But, did Rainbow Dash know that? If she did, would she still be calling her, demanding that she proceed to the end of the hallway?

Scootaloo slumped into a canine-style position. For once, she didn't want to see her heroine again. But, at the same time, she needed answers to her questions. Yes, she'd already gotten answers to some of the questions in her mind, the answers about why she'd found Fluttershy dead in the museum, Mayor Mare dead in the store, and Pinkie Pie dead in the bank. She also knew that Rainbow Dash had come to Cloudsdale to rid its leadership of the three stallions that had tortured her as a filly. But, there were a few more questions that needed answering. Why did Rainbow Dash use her as a killing machine? Why did she give her these mechanical wings, these mechanical forelimbs? Why didn't she just return to Ponyville?

After a minute or two, the crusader made her decision. Rising to all fours again, but unable to keep her emotions under control, she stammered, “Y-y-yes, R-r-rainbow D-d-dash.” And, she turned and walked away from the entrance, away from the bulletin board, and toward the double doors at the end of the hallway.

Chapter 9: The Fallen Hero

Weather Factory, the Control Room

As Scootaloo stopped at the door, she began to wonder if she really wanted, or needed, to know the answers to the questions she still had. Thus far, what she'd learned, both about her former heroine and about herself, had been horrifying.

What Rainbow Dash had been doing was quite the opposite of friendly, and she'd been anything but loyal. Now, the crusader was going to confront her. Clearly, the azure pegasa was the source of the friendship problem. If there was any chance of solving the problem without killing the representative of loyalty, the pegasetta knew she was going to have to find it now. But, then again, Rainbow Dash had already killed six ponies, had made Scootaloo kill three of them. Was there any chance of salvaging a pony like that?

The pegasetta's thoughts were interrupted by the doors sliding open in front of her. And, as she watched, she saw a pegasa in shadows, sitting in front of what looked like some kind of enormous, bizarre desk. There was a wall where she saw pictures that glowed and moved, or at least flickered. And, she wasn't entirely sure what all was on the floor part of it; she was too small, and that floor surface was at the wrong angle.

Scootaloo slumped into a canine position, at the same time wondering if the mare at the desk was Rainbow Dash, and hoping she wasn't. Then, the mare started turning to her, and the crusader caught glimpses of her face highlighted by the light from the pictures, indicating azure body fur and mane of different colors, at least red, orange, and yellow.

The pegasa, once facing her visitor, said, “Scootaloo, it's so nice to see you again. Will you kindly come in?”

There was no doubt now, it was indeed Rainbow Dash.

The pegasetta felt sharp pain shoot through her stomach as she heard those three words that had started the question. Still, even though they no longer had the power over her they'd had before, she rose to all fours and proceeded to amble into the room. And, once she entered and was clear, the doors slid closed behind her.

Alarmed, she jumped and turned a hundred eighty degrees to defend herself.

But, she was startled again when she heard her former idol say, “Oh, you don't need to worry about those doors. They won't hurt you.”

Again facing the azure pegasa, Scootaloo took a minute or two to calm herself, then swallow, drily, before saying, “I-I-I … w-w-was …”

Rainbow Dash immediately interrupted her by saying, “I know. You were called by the cutie map back in Ponyville to come to Cloudsdale and find and solve a friendship problem.”

The pegasetta stammered, “M-m-me and P-p-pinky P-p-pie.”

The representative of loyalty asked, “And, did you find the source of this 'friendship problem'?”

The crusader slumped again into a canine-style position. She couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face as she nodded, then pointed to her heroine.

Pointing to herself, the azure pegasa asked, “Me?” She then scoffed before continuing, “I'm one of the elements of harmony. How could I be the source of a friendship problem?” And, she started to cackle.

Scootaloo rose to all fours again and said, still pointing at the azure pegasa, “You killed ponies. And, you made me kill ponies. How is that friendly?”

Rainbow Dash scoffed again and shouted, “Those three stallions? They didn't deserve to be governors! They couldn't even control themselves!”

The crusader put down the hoof she'd been pointing at her heroine before shouting in response, “And you're any better!?” Under her breath, she said, “I can't believe I'm saying this,” before shouting out, “but, you don't deserve to be a governor either!” And, she immediately covered her face with a front hoof, maybe to defend herself from an attack she'd almost guaranteed to get, perhaps in a desperate attempt to prevent sobs from escaping. At the moment, she wasn't sure.

And then came the azure pegasa's response: “How dare you. I came here to rescue Cloudsdale from making the biggest mistake of its existence.”

With all the anger she could muster, Scootaloo spat, “And a great job you did of it.”

The representative of loyalty continued, “And, do you really think I wanted to kill Fluttershy, Mayor Mare, and Pinkie Pie?”

The pegasetta shouted, “You know that one of those was the mayor of Ponyville! And, the other two were your friends!”

Rainbow Dash continued, “That's why I had you kill them, so their blood wouldn't be on my hooves!”

The crusader retorted, “I only killed them because you were controlling me! I had no choice!”

The pegasa immediately asked, “Well, isn't that the difference?”

Scootaloo paused for a moment, confused, before asking, “What?”

Rainbow Dash answered, “A real pony makes decisions. A slave pony simply obeys.” After a momentary pause, she continued, “I gave you those wings because you weren't going to fly with the ones you had before. Isn't that friendly enough for you?”

Presently, the little filly shouted, “This isn't what I wanted! Yes, I wanted to fly, but I never wanted to kill another pony!” Unable to contain it anymore, she sobbed, “I thought you'd always be a pony I could respect. B-but, … b-but, you're not. You've become a monster, and you've turned me into one! You're not loyal anymore! You're not friendly anymore! You're not even a pony anymore!”

The azure pegasa retorted, “Well, if I'm not a pony, then neither are you. I gave you those wings, and those forelimbs; and I can take them away again. I just can't give you back the ones you had before.”

The crusader sobbed, “I wish I'd never used any of these things.”

Presently, Rainbow Dash asked, “Will you kindly—”

But, before she could finish her request, Scootaloo shouted, “No, I will not! You can't make me do anything anymore, not with those words, never again! I'm not your slave anymore!”

At this point, the representative of loyalty started to grin; and she took a step toward the orange filly as she said, “Oh, I can get you back.”

Suddenly fearing for her life, the crusader instinctively pointed a forelimb at the approaching azure pegasa and said, “P-please, R-rainbow D-dash, d-don't m-make m-me d-d-do th-this.”

Presently, a sphere of energy started to form at the end of her hoof.

Rainbow Dash took another step, continuing, “A real pony makes decisions.”

The sphere of energy leapt from the fake forelimb and across the left side of the azure pegasa's face, burning away the skin and eye on that side of her head, exposing the bone underneath.

Another sphere of energy formed as again the pegasetta plead, “Rainbow Dash, n-n-no.”

The representative of loyalty took another step as she continued, her voice almost masculine now, “A slave pony simply obeys.”

The second sphere of energy leapt from the forelimb, this time across the right side of Rainbow Dash's face. Now, all that was left of her head was her skull.

At this point, the azure pegasa reared up on her hind legs, then collapsed forward on her visitor, roaring in an unnaturally deep voice, “Obey me!”

At this point, Scootaloo rolled onto her back. Thrusting her forelimbs up to prevent the impending attack, she screamed, “No!”

The Castle, in the Map Room

Discord and the three element bearers sat in their places around the cutie map, waiting for evidence of what was going on in Cloudsdale. Knowing that three ponies had already died, two of their own among them, since the map had sent Scootaloo and Pinkie Pie to the home of the pegasi; the four waited around the table, wondering who would be next, hoping the mission would end before there could be any further loss of life.

It was late in the afternoon, and, in spite of Spike's insistence, none of the four had eaten anything. Whatever had happened up in that city in the clouds, something had gone horribly wrong, enough that ponies' lives had been lost. The cause was, as yet, unknown; and every pony wanted to know what it was.

Discord felt he already knew, and just wanted the little filly to come back so he could understand why his favorite element bearers had to be killed. And, after that, well, he wanted to decide the fate of that little orange brat.

Then the thing they dreaded happened again: the cutie marks of Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity started to glow crimson.

Too spent to really react the way they had before, the three ponies simply looked at their hips before turning to the map, to the cloud that was at this point closest to Rarity; and watched as a white, outlined cloud appeared above it, one with a lightning bolt under it, colored red, yellow, and blue.

Spent as they felt before, the three element bearers couldn't help feel a flood of grief as they watched the cutie mark of the representative of loyalty flicker, then expand and fade, then disappear. But, then, another cutie mark appeared in its place: a shield of red, white, and reddish-purple, with a pink wing, outlined in the reddish-purple, in the middle of it. This image radiated and flashed crimson.

The friendship mission was over, and was more-or-less successful. It just hadn't gone the way it'd been intended to go. Not even one pony was supposed to die, much less three. Scootaloo and Pinkie Pie were sent to Cloudsdale to find and solve a friendship problem. Apparently, the problem had been found and solved, but at a cost that shouldn't have occurred.

There were going to be questions to answer, at least from the remaining element bearers and Discord. The princesses would have to be notified about what had happened, and there'd likely be an investigation into the matter. But, for the present time, their waiting was at an end. They could look forward to Scootaloo's return, or so they hoped. And, in the mean time, at least Spike hoped, the three remaining element bearers, and maybe even Discord, might finally eat something.

Weather Factory, the Control Room

As the body of the azure pegasa slumped and collapsed to the side, forcing the little filly to roll with her, Scootaloo was afraid to push away from it. She knew what had happened this time. She'd felt the blade leap out from that one front hoof as she touched the chest of her heroine with it. That close, there was no way Rainbow Dash could've avoided it. She'd felt the pulsating muscle inside the chest against the metal, knew that muscle would damage itself against the blade. She even felt that muscle's pulsating slow down and eventually stop.

The head, now devoid of anything that could display emotion, had simply dropped in front of the pegasetta and hung there, forcing her to look into those hollow eye sockets if she dared to look up.

Scootaloo didn't want to be there any longer. But, at the same time, she was afraid of retracting that blade. She knew that if she did, if she moved her hoof away, that dark red fluid would spray out, covering her. Yes, she'd killed her heroine. But, she didn't want everypony to know that she'd killer her. And, even though Rainbow Dash had stopped being the awesome pony she'd once been, she still had been a heroine to so many foals. How was Scootaloo going to face them, how was she going to tell them that Rainbow Dash had stopped being a superheroine?

Then Scootaloo noticed that one of her hips was glowing again. Turning to look at it, she saw that her cutie mark was glowing and radiating again. Her mission was over. But, something was wrong. Shouldn't her cutie mark be glowing white? So, why was it glowing crimson red instead?

Then, memories of the past two days returned to her, and she knew the answer. During this mission, four ponies had died, including her companion. In no other mission before this one had any pony, any creature at all, lost their life. And, she'd been the one to cause four ponies to lose their lives. Yes, Rainbow Dash had been in control when she killed three of those ponies, but was that an excuse? She couldn't answer yes or no, not for certain. All she knew was that she felt responsible for all four deaths, including the one she'd just caused.

Was the nightmare over now? She'd found the source of the friendship problem here, and she'd solved it. But, at what cost? Well, she could answer that question at least. If she counted those lost on this mission, those lost from the moment she and Pinkie Pie had set hoof on Cloudsdale's cloud, it'd been four pony lives. If she included those three stallions that Rainbow Dash had killed before the friendship mission, it was seven. But, would there be further cost after this? Having caused the death of three element bearers, not to mention Ponyville's mayor, could Scootaloo be sure that she wouldn't be killed next? Perhaps she deserved to die, for all the deaths she'd caused. But, were those deaths her fault? After all, she wasn't in control when she caused them.

Those thoughts of hers were interrupted when the double doors slid open, and Commander Spitfire took a step through them. Seeing the little filly there, she asked, “Scootaloo, are you alright?”

The crusader, alarmed by the intrusion, immediately retracted the blade from the azure pegasa's chest, then pushed away from her. Rising quickly, not aware of the fountain pouring onto her closest hoof, she asked the fiery-colored pegasa, “What do you want? Haven't you done enough?” Not waiting for any answers, she ran out through the open doors and out of the weather factory. And, there on the steps, she looked at the front hoof and willed the blood-covered blade to reveal itself. Sickened by the sight of the object, and not wanting it to be a part of her anymore, she swung her hoof against the edge of the step, breaking the blade with ease that surprised her. And, after that, she galloped back to the bank to see if she could move Pinkie Pie's body back to the balloon.

Chapter 10: Back Home Again

The Bank, in the Vault

Scootaloo only landed when she was at the door to the bank. Then, after pushing the door open with her head, she galloped to the vault, at the same time hoping for and dreading finding the pink party pony's body there. After all, how was she going to carry that big, heavy thing all the way back to the balloon? But, to her surprise, the pink earth pony's body was missing.

The orange pegasetta looked around, confused. What had happened to the pink earth mare's body? The crusader knew she'd been there before. Had she already carried the body to the balloon? That seemed highly unlikely. Had her body gotten up and walked off? Equally unlikely. Then again, this was Pinkie Pie. Maybe she'd come back and hauled or walked her own body back to the balloon? Or, had she taken it back to Ponyville?

Scootaloo thought about searching the empty cloud city for the wandering body of the representative of laughter. On the one hoof, save for having to keep out of sight of Commander Spitfire, who was likely still there with an army of those strange ponies, Scootaloo likely had plenty of time to go searching through the city, looking for a wandering earth pony corpse. On the other hoof, what if the body was in the balloon's basket with the bodies of Fluttershy and Mayor Mare?

Considering she really had nothing to lose at that point, Scootaloo made her decision and left the bank, heading for the balloon to be sure before her companion's dead body was in the balloon's basket she'd go searching through the city.

On the Outskirts of Cloudsdale

Having flown from the bank to the balloon, Scootaloo stopped in midair to look into the basket. And, again to her surprise, she saw the body of the pink earth mare, on top of the bodies of Mayor Mare and Fluttershy.

Gruesome as the sight was for the little filly, still she wondered to herself, did Pinkie Pie possess her own body just long enough to trot it to the basket and dump it in there? Maybe the pink earth mare could do that, maybe she couldn't; there was really so little the orange crusader knew about the pink earth pony. But, was her Pinkie sense capable of that?

One thing Scootaloo knew was that she didn't have to carry the pink party pony's body back to the balloon. But, what about Rainbow Dash?

In order to fly, pegasi were light-boned. And, their strength was in their wing muscles. Their wings had developed so that they were like a third set of forelimbs. They'd developed feather-shaped digits at the end of each wing which they could use the way a raccoon, for instance, could use its front paws. And, because those digits were shaped like feathers, they could be used for flight. But, that didn't necessarily mean they could carry bodies, live or dead, for long distances. Scootaloo knew of one pegasus that could carry such lifeless bodies easily; but he wasn't here right now, not that she knew of anyway.

So, she wondered, how was she going to carry Rainbow Dash's body back to the balloon? And, even if she did, how was she going to get it into the basket?

Flying back toward the weather factory, Scootaloo decided she'd figure that out when she got to that point.

In the Streets of Cloudsdale

As the little filly drifted over the street, between the bank and the grocery store, she saw what looked like a two-headed pony. But, when she got a closer look at the odd creature, she recognized the mane of one of the heads, which just hung there, as having the six colors of the rainbow. Yet, there was something familiar about the other head, the one that was clearly still alive. Wanting to get a still closer look at the odd pony, Scootaloo circled around, then came in for a landing next to the pony. Looking up at the face that was suddenly familiar to her, she asked, “Commander Spitfire?”

The fiery-colored pegasa turned to her and said, “Yes, ma'am.”

The crusader took a moment, trotting to keep pace with the Wonderbolt, to look at the body she was carrying. Recognizing the color of the fur, she turned back to the pegasa and asked, “What are you doing with Rainbow Dash's body?”

Commander Spitfire answered, “I'm carrying it back to your balloon, ma'am. I assume you'll want to take it back to Ponyville for a proper burial.”

Scootaloo slowly nodded and answered, “That's right,” before tilting her head and asking, “Are you the one that set that display up in the weather factory hallway?”

The Wonderbolt simply answered, “Yes, ma'am.”

The pegasetta then asked, “Why?”

Not stopping, Commander Spitfire answered, “I thought you deserved to know what Rainbow Dash had been doing to you. And, I didn't want you to be her slave anymore.”

Something about that word, “slave,” really stung. But, it wasn't that much of a surprise to the crusader. After all, without knowing it, that's exactly what she'd been to the azure pegasa. After taking a moment to shake herself free of the feelings of shame and guilt, she asked, “You were the one that carried Pinkie Pie's body back to the balloon, right?”

The fiery-colored pegasa answered, “Yes, ma'am.”

The crusader asked, “Why? And, why carry Rainbow Dash's body back to the balloon?”

At this point, Commander Spitfire stopped. After taking a moment to sigh, she focused on the pegasetta and answered, “Those friends of yours, Fluttershy, Mayor Mare, Pinkie Pie? You weren't responsible for their deaths. You weren't even responsible for Rainbow Dash's death. Rainbow Dash was.”

Scootaloo took a moment to swallow, noisily, the lump that had formed in her throat. When she spoke, she found herself stammering, “B-but, I … w-was … r-responsible f-for th-them, especially R-r-rainbow D-d-dash.”

Again the fiery-colored pegasa sighed before saying, “Rainbow Dash stopped being the pony you knew when she took over governing Cloudsdale. I don't know what happened to her, but she started acting, I don't know, different. She stopped being loyal to her friends in Ponyville. She stopped being loyal to her heritage here in Cloudsdale. She stopped being loyal to Princesses Celestia and Luna. I'm not altogether sure she was even loyal to herself after she became governor here. What I do know is, whatever she made you do, you're not responsible for her death, nor for the deaths of your friends. She is.” And, with that, she resumed her trot.

More than anything, what the fiery-colored pegasa said confused the little filly. But, she found herself with no further questions to ask. So, she simply trotted along side the Wonderbolt, back to the balloon. And there, Commander Spitfire set the body of the azure pegasa on top of the body of Pinkie Pie. She then offered to put Scootaloo into the basket.

But Scootaloo refused, opting instead to guide the balloon by one rope back to Ponyville.

The two said their farewells, after which Scootaloo, following her plan, guided the balloon from its position near Cloudsdale back to Ponyville.

Ponyville, at the Castle

On arrival, Scootaloo was surprised to be greeted by a group of six creatures: the three remaining element bearers, one draconequus, and her two fellow crusaders.

As the pegasetta landed next to the balloon, Twilight approached her and asked, “So, what happened up there?”

The crusader shook her head as she answered, “I don't wanna talk about it.”

The purple alicorn looked into the basket, and saw the four bodies. After taking a moment to cringe, she turned to the filly and said, “I … understand. But, there's going to have to be an investigation. Ponies died during this mission, and we're going to need to know how and why.” After watching the filly amble away, she added, “But, that can wait. When you're ready, please feel free to—”

Suddenly, Scootaloo glared back at Twilight as she growled out, “I said, I don't want to talk about it!” Turning ahead of her again, she added, “I just want to be alone right now,” and proceeded to amble off of the platform.

Stunned at the orange pegasetta's response, the representative of magic watched the orange crusader amble away. After sighing, she turned to the other two crusaders and said, “Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, you're dismissed. Please keep an eye on Scootaloo.” She then turned to her fellow element bearers and said, “Let's get these bodies out of this balloon, then see about getting burial arrangements made for them.”

Discord glided forward toward the balloon and said, “I wish to take care of Fluttershy.” Then, not waiting for a response, he snapped his fingers.

Presently, the yellow pegasa's body appeared in front of him in a wheezing pop.

The draconequus once again snapped his fingers and disappeared in another wheezing pop.

As the princess of friendship opened the door to the basket, revealing the remaining bodies, Applejack made her way onto the platform and said, “Ah'll take care o' Pinkie's body.” She then turned so that she was facing away from the basket and waited while Twilight levitated Rainbow Dash's body first, then the pink earth mare's body out and onto the orange earth mare's back. After that, the farmer pony ambled off toward Sweet Apple Acres.

Next was Rarity, who volunteered, “I shall take care of Mayor Mare's body.” And, like Applejack, she turned and waited, this time while Twilight levitated the body of Ponyville's mayor onto her back. After that, she ambled off toward Carousel Boutique.

Watching the white unicorn amble toward her home, Twilight sighed before saying, “I guess that leaves me with Rainbow Dash's body.” And, she levitated the body of the rainbow-haired pegasa onto her own back. After that, she used her magic to close the balloon, after which she ambled to the castle to make arrangements for a mass funeral for the four ponies.

On the Train from Ponyville to Canterlot

It'd been a day or two since the close of the mission to Cloudsdale. As Twilight had warned, an investigation had been started concerning the deaths of the three ponies. There had also been appointments made for an interrogation for the only known survivor of the mission, Scootaloo, to be conducted by the princesses in Canterlot.

None of this was a surprise to the orange filly.

Sitting there in that car, though, looking out the window and trying to ignore her fellow crusaders pestering her, Scootaloo began to remember that time when she still had that blade in Rainbow Dash, up until Commander Spitfire had entered that room. When she finally withdrew that blade from the body of her heroine, she remembered feeling … something. She couldn't say for sure exactly what it was, but she knew she felt something enter her through that blade she was removing from Rainbow Dash's body. And, not knowing what it was, she was worried about it. Was it the same thing that had caused Rainbow Dash to become a traitor to Ponyville, to Cloudsdale, to the princesses, to herself? Was it the same entity that had caused Rainbow Dash to kill those three stallions, then use her to kill Fluttershy, Mayor Mare, and Pinkie Pie? She didn't know; and that, more than anything else, bothered her. What if that thing was going to try to control her?

Should she tell somepony about it, maybe Twilight? Would her friends understand what had happened, what was going to happen, to her?

Scootaloo might not be responsible, at least not directly, for the deaths of the four ponies; but she felt responsible. She didn't feel as though not being in control would be an adequate excuse for what she'd done. And, looking at the draconequus, the look he was giving her was just validating her feelings on the matter. She didn't know what was going to happen to her. Likely she was going to be punished. And, whatever she was going to get, she felt she deserved it, if not worse.

Canterlot Castle, in the Judicial Chamber

In the closed-off room, which functioned as a courtroom, were Princesses Celestia, Luna and Twilight, along with Discord, Applejack, Rarity, and Scootaloo.

While Scootaloo got the feeling that every other pony was just trying to look like they weren't judging her, Discord made his feelings quite obvious.

Princess Celestia, taking the position of judge, asked questions, while trying to be as kind and gentle about it as possible.

Discord, Applejack, Rarity, and Princess Twilight served as witnesses to the trial, while Princess Luna served as lawyer and guide for Scootaloo.

The little filly, as much as she could, tried to answer Princess Celestia's questions, although frequently the crusader struggled with her emotions.

As she told, from her perspective, about what happened, Discord became the greatest hindrance when it came to the subject of what had happened to Fluttershy. Indeed, as soon as the yellow pegasa's name was mentioned, the draconequus disappeared from his position among the witnesses, appearing in a wheezing pop in a suit and tie, nose-to-nose with the crusader, demanding to know why Scootaloo would murder his friend. He effectively silenced the pegasetta before he was banished from Canterlot for the rest of the trial, which had to be postponed until the next day when Scootaloo would hopefully be willing to try to talk again about the events.

While indeed she was willing to talk about her experiences that next day, Scootaloo's greatest struggles were talking about what happened to Pinkie Pie, and what she'd been forced to do to Rainbow Dash. Talking about how what the azure pegasa had forced her to do to Fluttershy, Mayor Mare, and Pinkie Pie had been revealed to her, it helped that she hadn't eaten anything, hadn't even felt like eating anything, up to that time. While she gagged on that part of the story, it seemed like a mercy to her that all that came out of her was saliva. With the help of Princesses Celestia and Luna, she was able to give the details of what she saw on that board, the images of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Mayor Mare, and Pinkie Pie; and that message Rainbow Dash had used to control her, “Will You Kindly.” She even talked about Commander Spitfire, how she'd said she'd been the one to put up that display to help the crusader remember what she'd done under Rainbow Dash's control.

Details of the other crimes of the representative of loyalty were another struggle for the orange filly. Perhaps not as much so as having to kill her heroine, but still a side of the azure pegasa Scootaloo wished she'd never had to know about, and wanted desperately to forget.

In her final statement, Scootaloo testified that, had it been her choice, she'd never have killed the four ponies she'd been forced to kill. She wished she'd never been called by the map to go to Cloudsdale, or that she'd refused the mission. She was offered to take over the right to hold the element of loyalty; but she refused, considering herself unworthy to bear an element of harmony after having been the cause of the death of three of the bearers. Indeed, while she didn't say so in the courtroom, she began to feel as though she had no place in pony society.

After the trial, the orange filly was given a room in the castle; and Princess Luna was put in charge of her care for the rest of that day and night.

The Following Days

That next day, Scootaloo had mysteriously disappeared; and searches for her had turned up nothing.

A mass funeral was held the following day for the three element bearers and Ponyville's mayor.

In the week following, three ponies were chosen to replace those that had been lost: Pinkie's sister Marble took over the element of kindness, Cheese Sandwich took over the element of laughter, and Applejack's brother, Big MacIntosh, took over the element of loyalty.

In order to best represent the ponies they were replacing, Marble and Big MacIntosh even did training in flight and pegasus magic so they could earn their wings. But, it was only after they earned their wings that they learned that they were to represent the elements they'd been given rights to, not the ponies that had previously held those rights.

Not long after the new element bearers had been found and given their elements, Twilight received a letter from Cloudsdale. The letter read:

“To Princess Twilight:

“We hope you haven't forgotten about us here in Cloudsdale. We have certainly not forgotten about you. The following is a list of demands.

“First, you will hand over the body of Rainbow Dash so that she may be properly buried here in her home.

“Second, you and your map will send no more ponies here.

“Third, your earth ponies will give us half of what they harvest.

“Fourth, Discord will never come here again.

“If you refuse our demands, we, the pegasi of Cloudsdale, will attack your town and destroy it.

“Signed, Scootaloo, leader of Scootaloo's Gang of Pegasi.”

Not long after reading the letter, the Princess of Magic heard screaming from outside. All she needed was to look out of a window, and she saw spear-helmeted pegasi dive-bombing ponies and buildings all over Ponyville. Whether this was just a demonstration of the capabilities of the pegasi, or perhaps a demonstration of impatience on their part, she didn't know. All she knew was that the village that had been her home for a few years now was under attack. And, the leader of the attacking force, now nose-to-nose with her, was a former crusader, the last survivor of the mission of friendship to Cloudsdale.