Dead Rising: Case Equestria

Chapters

Prologue: Spike's Story
Prologue: Rainbow Dash's Story
Case 0-1: Explanations
Case 0-2: Shop N' Go
Case 1-1: Persecutions
Case 1-2: Securing the Press
Case 1-3: Suspicions
Scoop 1: Cashing in the Bits
Scoop 2: Taming the Beast Within
Scoop 3: Ponies Like Us
Case Derp-1: Return Postage
Case Derp-2: Going Postal
Case 2-1: Unmasking the Culprit
Case 2-2: Trains Keep A Rollin'
Case 3-1: Drilling for Some Answers

Prologue: Spike's Story

"Spike don't you think you've had enough yet?" Pony Joe, the manager of the local diner aptly named "Pony Joe's Diner," worriedly asked his customer as he surveyed the mess before him. Mugs, once housing a delicious brew of hot chocolate, now lay in piles on the floor, strewn about the table, and evidence of donuts with extra sprinkles lay randomly splayed across the diner. "This," Joe inwardly sighed, "is definitely going too far." Taking a deep breath, he prepared to confront his best, although currently messiest customer, Spike the dragon. Spike had always been a regular of Joe's, and as such any rowdy behavior from him was usually tolerated more so than other customers. However, Joe had had enough this night, he couldn't stand to see his loyal customer and friend in such a sorry state as he was.

"Enough? What the hay are you talking about Joe?" Spike spat harshly. Joe simply shook his head at the dragon in front of him, who would have looked nice considering he was wearing a suit that one would wear on the job, namely, a reporting job. However, tonight Spike may as well have been some random bum off the street. His suit littered with donut and hot chocolate stains and his eyes carrying a dull look. "I'll hic tell you when I...I's" Spike slurred as if inebriated.

"Cut the act Spike, I don't even serve any alcohol here, and if I did you're still a minor anyways." Joe replied unfazed by the display.

"Oh come on man!" Spike sighed, snapping back to a sober state in an instant. "Can't you just at least let me pretend to act drunk? Just for the sake of my life?" Spike pleaded to his "bartender."

"Nope!" Joe said, "It'll be bad for business if my customers come in and see a baby-"

"I'm not a baby..." Spike grumbled to himself.

"-dragon who's drunk, admittedly pretending." Joe said, ignoring Spike's words.

"Dude can you just get me another donut, heavy on the sprinkles?" Spike asked, tired of the lecture. "Oh and another thing man-" he cut off as he drank his hot chocolate all in one gulp, "-gimme another hot chocolate."

"No Spike!" Joe replied, not budging.

"What did you say?" Spike asked, his calm demeanor slowly growing angry.

"Spike, listen man, this is bad even for you!" Pony Joe said exasperated. "I mean I've seen you come here on a bad day and take 3-4 donuts and a couple mugs of hot chocolate, but this" he gestured to the pile of mugs and sprinkles, which now reached the bottom of the stool Spike sat on, "this is just ridiculous! Come on buddy, what's eatin' ya'?" He said, switching from frustrated to a worried tone of voice. Suddenly, the radio Joe had, which had previously been playing a news broad cast, suddenly switched to a song called "Halfway Dead." It had always been one of Spike's favorites on a rainy day, but right now Spike felt more relation to it than ever before.

"It was my job Joe," Spike solemnly said.

"Huh?" Joe said, surprised by the sudden reply.

"The reason I'm like this, I got fired..." Spike said.

"Is that it?" Joe asked, giving a sigh of relief, as he went to comfort Spike "Well there'll always be other job out there man! You'll see, I bet with your skills you'l-"

"NO MAN!" Spike cried out in frustration, startling Pony Joe. "You don't understand, I'm not sad because I was fired..." He said in a much quieter voice, leaving Joe to wonder.

"So then what happened?" Joe asked in curiosity.

"It was about a month ago," Spike said, recalling the story he was about to tell... "I had been freelancing as a photographer for the news team 'The Canterlot Express' which had been detailing the outbreak at Fillymette, and they wanted to use the pictures I had taken during my time there. Things were great, I had money, fame, fortune, everything..." Spike gave a small smile, which immediately changed to a frown. "Then...I let things get to me, I had heard rumors of people saying my shots were fake, and that they had been staged. They said 'how could a baby dragon do all of that?' Well, when somepony makes fun of my work...I take it to heart. I said things that were out of line, and that lead to my decline in reputation. People didn't even want my photos of anything after that..." Spike said, dejection filling his voice. "I lived on what was left of my finances in a ratty apartment until I couldn't even pay rent, and then, after the landlord kicked me out, I came here." Spike said sadly, as he remembered the lonely walk to Canterlot, not even having enough bits for a train ticket.

"But what about Twilight and the others? Surely they would have come to your aid in your time of need?" He said, baffled by his notion.

"That's just it!" Spike replied in frustration, "I went to their houses in Ponyville, looked everywhere, but the whole town is deserted!"

"Hm... maybe they all went up to Las Pegasus to see Rainbow Dash perform?" Joe speculated on the situation.

"Probably," Spike said agreeing, "after all, she is one of the best fliers out there, so it's only natural that she'd be in that performance, and also naturally I'd expect my friends to cheer her on from there." Spike rationalized with a sigh.

Suddenly, the song on the radio cut off and was replaced by an announcer's voice. "Breaking news!" The mare on the station said quite calmly, despite the announcement's urgency, "Another outbreak has started in Las Pegasus, coming from an unknown source in the Pegasium. More information to come as reported." The mare finished.

(Pause music 10 from Dead Rising 2: Off the Record)

"Zombies, in Las Pegasus?" Joe uttered, obviously shocked by what he has just heard.

"Oh no" Spike said to himself, remembering how all the ponies at Fillymette had become zomponies. "no no no no NO! It can't be happening again...not there, where my friends are!" He said, wishing this all to be a bad dream.

"Well Spike, what are you going to do about this?" Joe asked.

Startled, Spike replied "what do you mean?"

"Well" Joe explained, "the way I see it, not only do you have to make sure your friends are ok, but now I think you've got your next big story." He said with a grin.

"You know Joe," Spike said, an equally large grin growing on his face, "I think you've just gave my hopeless situation a good dose of much needed hope!"

"Well good luck Spike! Just don't go getting yourself killed for a story though, and make sure your friends are safe!" Joe said with a hint of hesitancy about Spike's task.

"Don't worry Joe," Spike said, putting on his shades that were remarkably similar to Rainbow Dash's, "I've covered wars you know."

Prologue: Rainbow Dash's Story

Earlier that same day, miles away in Las Pegasus, Rainbow Dash had been participating in a new competition that pitted the best fliers from all across equestria in trials that tested stamina, strength, agility, and cunning. Rainbow Dash of course, being one of the most well known ponies that was legendary in these aspects, was naturally asked to perform in this event. It was being held in the massive arena known as the Pegasium, a complex that could seat over 100,000 ponies in one quarter section alone. Rainbow was a bit shocked, and also a bit unnerved by the sheer mention of these numbers, but she assured her friends that she'd be "20% cooler than all the rest of those pegasi out there!"

"Oh man, I can't believe in five minutes I'm actually going to do this!" She thought with a mixture of excitement and fear. She knew that this competition would be tough, and the competitors tougher. In fact, she had found out that two of her idols, Spitfire and Soarin, had also been entered in the competition. She was practically shaking from the nerves of having to go against two ponies she honored so much, but she was determined to take first place. "After all," she said to herself, "I did promise my friends that I'd come out on top, and what better way to show off my element of loyalty than keeping a promise?"

"Rainbow Dash, you're on in three minutes!" A stage hand called from behind her.

"Three minutes...alright right, three minutes...three minutes before I go out there and rock this thing! ...Or before I get pulverized by the Wonderbolts...NO! I can't think like that!" Rainbow Dash thought with a sigh. She knew that she always had these bouts with pre-match jitters, but over time, with the help of her friends she had gotten better about them. Of course, that didn't mean she still didn't feel a bit scared, though she'd never openly admit it.

"Alright Rainbow, you're on! GO GO GO!" The stage hand prompted her.

"Alright here it goes!" She thought, her nerves getting to their most powerful stage as she sprinted towards the door before taking a leap into the air before taking a gasp of amazement at the sight her eyes beheld. "I don't believe it!" She yelled in amazement as she saw the arena from above. She knew that it was big from the ground, but had never quite thought it'd be this big! It was then that the crowd's cheers drew her attention to the other side of the arena, where she saw that Soarin and Spitfire had entered the match. "OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!" She squealed inwardly at the sight of them. However, after the initial excitement passed, she felt her nerves return, and it took all her willpower to not faint at the sight of them.

"Go Rainbow Dash! You can do it!" She heard an all too familiar voice cheer from below her. Hearing the voice, she felt all her confidence restored as she caught sight of where her friends were sitting. Applejack and Applebloom were hollering happily at the sight of her, while Pinkie Pie was giddily hopping up and down in her seat while cheering her on. Fluttershy of course was doing her best to cheer, but of course being the quiet soul she was barely audible up close, but Rainbow knew she was trying her best to cheer. Twilight of course was smiling and waving to her while taking in all the sights and sounds of the colesium. Rarity of course, was clapping and cheering, while still maintaining her aura of a "proper lady" as she called it. Sweetie Belle however was cheering just as loudly as Applejack and Applebloom, not being quite as refined as her sister. Rainbow smiled warmly at the sight of all of them, and her smile only grew at the sight of her.

"Good ol' Scootaloo," She thought happily at the sight of her sister, "she never fails to pick me up when I'm down!" She then felt her energy restored as she flapped her wings to gain speed. She did notice however that one more contestant had entered, one that she'd seen, but never expected to see here! "DERPY??? SHE'S HERE???" She thought bewildered as she had never thought that the clumsy wall-eyed pegasus would have qualified for the event. Then she shook her head, focusing on the competition that was to come as all of the fliers came in front of the main stage near the front of the arena. All of a sudden, the arena went dark as a spotlight lit up the positions of each of the contestants, the crowd in more of an uproar than ever. Suddenly, multicolored pyrotechnics lit up the stage.

"Ooo pretty! I should use those sometime!" Pinkie Pie said with glee from behind Rainbow.

"Heh, typical Pinkie Pie!" Rainbow said chuckling as the crowd's cheers came to a close.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" A voice rang out. "Welcome to the showdown of the century where fliers from across the nation come to compete! It's the AERO BLAST GRAND-PRIX!!! With your host, PRINCE BLUEBLOOD!" The voice shouted as the prince's figure was suddenly made known. Rainbow grimaced at the sight of the prince. She had never really liked him to begin with, but the fact that he had mistreated Rarity at the Grand Galloping Gala just made her dislike him all the more. "However," the prince continued, "what would a host be without his lovely mare assistants? That's right! Nothing! So give it up for the beautiful spa-managers Aloe and Vera!!!" Rainbow rolled her eyes at the mention of those two. In her eyes they weren't really all that great, but few knew that her dislike came from the incident where they had accidentally questioned her position on mares. Rainbow of course took offense to this, for she had never liked those types of mislead assumptions just because of her personality, or worse, the color of her hair.

"Oh wow the prince is looking great!" One mare in the crowd declared as several other mares agreed with her. Rarity of course, had to stifle a chuckle as she had once thought the same thing. "Oh dear! I do hope that Rainbow Dash will do alright," she thought anxiously,"she did seem a bit nervous at first!"

"Alright Equestria, it's time begin this competition of the ages, so let's here you SHOUT!!!" The prince said as the crowd obliged, cheering quite loudly. Rainbow of course, looked around at her opponents and saw Derpy right next to her.

"Hey Derpy how's it going?" She asked trying to ignore the rambling prince.

"Oh hiya Rainbow Dash!" Derpy replied, grinning happily as she turned, but her eyes not quite focusing properly as usual. "I'm doing pretty well myself, just glad to be here! It looks pretty fun huh?"

"Definitely!" Rainbow agreed heartily. "So how's Dinky doing?"

"Oh she's actually here right now, I think she was trying to find Fluttershy and the others!" Derpy smiled at the mention of her daughter. Rainbow turned around, and indeed she found Dinky Doo waving in their direction, no doubt cheering for her mother.

"Well that's great! Good luck to ya Derpy!" Rainbow said as she shook her competitor's hoof.

"Hey thanks Rainbow Dash! Good luck to you too!" The wall-eyed pegasus said returning the gesture happily.

By this time Prince Blueblood was announcing the first competition. An obstacle course. However, this course was featuring quite the amount of dangerous items. A list of these included flaming hoops, spiked balls, brick walls that moved up and down, and worst of all, a gigantic storm cloud in the very center, which was shooting out sparks. Rainbow gulped as she saw what lay ahead of her, but was determined to do her best, if nothing else for her friends's sakes.

"Alright, you daring fliers!" Prince Blueblood announced, "In this event you will be timed, having to pass all the obstacles and getting to the other end of the course. Once there, you'll go and grab the ring and throw it in the target at the center of the storm cloud. The winner will be the fastest one to complete the course." Once Blueblood was finished announcing the rules he drew ballots on who would go first. It turns out that the order would be Soarin, Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, and finally Derpy. The Wonderbolts, true to their name, finished with fast times being 2:53.23 and 2:53.34 respectively. Finally, it was Rainbow Dash's turn to try the course, and as she waited for the countdown she took a deep breath to get in her zone.

"Alright, get ready!" Blueblood called out. "10! 9! 8!" Rainbow felt a bead of sweat rolling down here face. "7! 6! 5!" Rainbow felt her heartrate begin to increase rapidly. "4! 3! 2!" Suddenly, she took a look at Scootaloo, "1!" And she shared a look, and she became completely determined. "GO!!!" Blueblood yelled as Rainbow Dash rocketed forward, dodging through each hoop, each ball, each obstacle with the utmost grace and agility. Finally, she had made it to the other side of the course, with a record breaking time of 1:57.32 seconds!

"No time to take a break." She thought to herself. "If I want to solidify a lead I've got to keep going!" As she grabbed the ring her teeth she rocketed back towards the storm cloud, and with a streak of rainbow she entered the thunderhead. "Man I can't even see in here!" She thought panicking, but luckily managed to spot the target in time. She raced for it, but as she was about to reach it a lightning bolt struck her, making her cry out in pain, and soon she fell unconscious as she spiraled towards the ground. The crowd gasped at this sight, and Scootaloo cried out to her sister.

"Rainbow Dash! No! Get up! You have to!" She said almost about to sob with tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. "Please! You've just gotta be ok..."

Meanwhile, in Rainbow Dash's mind, she could only feel the air rushing past her as she was berating herself for getting so careless. "Dang it! How could I have done that? Now I've gone and lost the first match!" She said sadly, thinking of how disappointed her friends would be in her.

"Rainbow Dash...Get up!" She heard a voice rang out in the dark, slowly bringing her back to reality.

"Scootaloo?" She whispered

"Please! You've just gotta be ok..." The voice said full of worry.

"..." Rainbow said nothing as she heard those words, but then she felt herself come to and realize that she was nearing the ground. "Oh hay no!" She cried out as she suddenly grabbed hold of the ring in her teeth once again and soared back up in an arc. The crowd cheered and her friends sighed in relief as they saw her recover. Rainbow took a quick glance at the clock and found out that she had 10 seconds left to beat the previous times. "Darn! The target is too far away to get to in time...unless... " She thought realizing there was only one way to come out of this situation on top. She'd have to do a Sonic Rainboom. "Here goes!" She thought as she gained more and more speed, the air resistance slapping her in the face. She almost lost ahold of the ring, but managed to keep a grip on it. Then, as she felt a wall air pushing her back, she finally broke through as a boom rang out behind her and launched her forward. She then threw the ring down as she passed the target and successfully hit it. The crowd roared in approval as they saw what she had done, and Rainbow Dash slowly came to a halt, panting as she took a look at the clock. It read 2:52.59. She had done it.

"Yeah Rainbow! I knew you could do it!" Scootaloo yelled at the top of her lungs full of joy and excitement.

"Rainbow Dash that was mighty fine if ah do say so mahself!" Applejack said whistling in approval.

"Most splendid performance Rainbow!" Rarity said clapping for her friend.

"YEAH RAINBOW YOU DID IT!" Yelled...Fluttershy? As all of her friends stared in shock at her momentary outburst. "Oops, I mean, you rock! Woohoo!" She said turning red from embarrassment.

Rainbow Dash smiled in satisfaction as she saw Derpy preparing for her turn. She felt worried for her friend though, she could get hurt, after all she wasn't the most coordinated pony out there. However, Derpy impressed her and everyone else by not only making it through the course, but making it in at 2:54.34, a time just behind Spitfire herself. "Maybe she's not as bad at flying as I thought." Rainbow said giving a pony shrug.

The next 8 challenges went by smoothly, Spitfire managed to win 3 challenges, Soarin won 2, Rainbow Dash won 2 more as well, and Derpy managed to win a challenge too, much to the surprise of everyone there. However, just as the final challenge was about to start, things got...out of hand...

[POV: Scootaloo First Person]

In my eyes the day couldn't have gone any better! My hero and adopted sister, Rainbow Dash, got to compete in one of the biggest flying competitions in the land, against the Wonderbolts no less! She truly was the most awesome pegasus in my eyes. However, as I was watching the competition I noticed that a pony behind me was complaining about a wasp sting she had gotten, but I ignored it and went back to cheering on Rainbow Dash. Later though, as the final challenge was about to start, I heard a scream in the stands behind me. I turned around and saw the same pony who had talked earlier actually biting into some pony! I thought she was pulling some kind of sick joke on her friend, but as I looked in her eyes they looked...animalistic, and hungry... Soon I saw that she wasn't the only one like that, because more ponies like her trudged out of our section's entrance tunnel, and soon I saw the ones that came out begin to attack other people as well. As soon as I got over the shock of seeing such a thing, I did the only thing I could do. I screamed.

[POV: Normal]

"Scootaloo!" Rainbow thought frantically as she heard her sister yell out as if terrified by seeing something. She looked down and saw a horrible sight. Ponies were actually eating one another in some kind of twisted beastlike fashion. "What the hay is going on down there?" She thought fearfully as she rocketed down to help her friends, seeing Soarin and Spitfire going to help random ponies out. She saw ponies who weren't attacking scattering in all directions as the stadium became a state of chaos that even Discord himself would be proud of.

"Dinky! Hold on!" She heard Derpy yell to her left. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her fellow pegasus go towards her daughter, who was running in terror from the rabid ponies.

"Quick ya'll!" AppleJack yelled out, gaining the attention of her friends and a few other ponies nearby. "They said that there's a safe room that way!" She pointed in the direction of the tunnel of the Pegasium's entrance. "Let's move!" She called out as she began running with Applebloom, with the others following just as quickly. Finally, the door to the safehouse was inside, and they were all inside while Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo at the back of the group keeping watch. However, just as Scootaloo was about to make it to the stairs leading down to the room. She tripped and fell to the ground.

"Rainbow Dash help me!!!" She yelled as she saw a pony with the strange eyes moving closer and closer. She found herself struggling to get up, her legs becoming like jelly as fear overtook her mind. The pony then lunged for her and managed to grab her leg in its teeth.

"NO!!! SCOOTALOO!" Rainbow Dash screamed as she saw her sister get bitten by that thing. She rushed over as fast as she could, arriving to help in no more than a second. "Go eat someone else freakbag!" Rainbow yelled in fury as she rammed the hostile pony off of her sister. "Scootaloo? Are you ok?" She asked, almost in tears.

"I'm fine thanks to you sis." Scootaloo said softly, visibly shaken. "He just got my leg!" She said gesturing to her leg, which had a nasty bite mark on it.

"Oh no! Please don't tell me..." She thought fearing the worst. "She can't turn into one of those...things!"

"Rainbow Dash look out!" Scootaloo yelled, breaking the cyan pegasus out of her thoughts. She swiveled around, only to meet the same pony that had attacked her sister lunging for her. She had no time to dodge as the pony tackled her to the ground.

"Scootaloo run!" Rainbow Dash yelled out, fearing for her sister as she tried to squirm out of the pony's grip.

"But-"

"No buts! Just go!" Rainbow yelled with a sad look in her eyes. Scootaloo sobbing as she ran to the safe room. She then turned her full attention on the pony, who was closing in to bite her. She closed her eyes as she thought, "well I guess this is it, so much for being the most hardy out of the group huh?" She thought grimly as she prepared for the bite, but no bite came. "But how?" She said opening her as as she heard the thwack of wood hitting flesh.

"Well Rainbow Dash I thought you would've been the last one to go out like this?" A voice, one that she found all too familiar, chuckled.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash thought bewildered at she turned and found the source of the voice, her mouth dropping open at the sight of who it was. "S-Spike?" She said almost failing to believe what was happening.

"The one and only!" He said with a smirk.

Case 0-1: Explanations

"Well Rainbow Dash I thought you would've been the last one to go out like this?" A voice, one that she found all too familiar, chuckled.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash thought bewildered at she turned and found the source of the voice, her mouth dropping open at the sight of who it was. "S-Spike?" She said almost failing to believe what was happening.

"The one and only!" He said with a smirk.

"B-But how? Twilight, actually nopony has heard from you in years! Where have you been?!?" Rainbow Dash inquired, still having an amazed look etched onto her face.

"No time for explanations right now Dash, we gotta move before more of those things show up!" Spike said as he ushered Rainbow into the safe room. As soon as they got past the two sets of doors they found the other five in their group of friends, plus the Cutie Mark Crusaders, anxiously awaiting their arrival. As soon as Rainbow walked into the room Scootaloo, who looked as if she had been in tears, burst into a look of joy and ran up to Rainbow Dash excitedly, hugging her leg with all her strength.

"Oh Rainbow Dash you made it! I wasn't sure if you were gonna be ok!" Scootaloo said snuggling further into Rainbow's leg.

"Heh, come on kid you know it'd take more than one of...whatever those are to keep a pegasus as awesome as me down!" She said as she gave her joyous sister a quick, but affectionate nuzzle. However, as everypony in the room was smiling at the warm sight in front of them, Spike cleared his throat while stepping out from behind Rainbow Dash.

"Heh, hey guys. How's everypony been?" He said giving a casual wave. However, he received no response as all the others, except Rainbow Dash, gave him a look of bewilderment, shock, or relief at the sight of seeing him after all this time. Twilight however, gave no look of response as she simply stared at him without saying anything. Pinkie Pie was naturally the first to recover as she began to bounce around Spike giddily while chattering non-stop about how they would have to throw him a "Thought you were lost but came back after a very very long time" party. Fluttershy was next as she flew up to Spike and gave him a quick hug and saying she was glad to have him back. Applejack simply tilted her hat while smiling and saying welcome back to Spike, but one could see that she was just as happy as the rest of the group. Rarity was next as she gave Spike a hug, that he very much enjoyed of course, and saying how she missed "her little gentledrake Spikey Wikey." The trio of Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all dogpiled on Spike as all four of them laughed, having missed the time they had spent running around Ponyville in the good old days. Twilight however, still gave no reaction as she sported an emotionless look. Spike saw this and smiled, walking up to greet her.

"Hey Twilight, how've you been all this time?" He asked with a warm smile on his face.

"How have I been?" She asked as if confused by the question. "HOW HAVE I *BEEN?" She shouted, startling everypony as her face suddenly contorting into a look of pure rage. "Just let me tell *you 'how've I've been' mister!" She said snapping at Spike.

"Woah Twilight, calm down now-" Spike said with a scared look on his face.

"CALM DOWN?!?" Twilight said cutting him off. "You've been gone for years on end without so much as a single letter, leaving me to worry day after day if my number one assistant was ok, and then you show up without so much as a warning and you expect me to CALM DOWN?!?" She said, practically shrieking in Spike's face.

"Well when you put it that way maybe I did mess up there." Spike said, weighed down by his guilt as he shifted uneasily.

"Yeah, you think?" Twilight retorted sarcastically.

"Twilight come on! I know I messed up but please just let me explain!" He pleaded.

"...Fine, let's hear it!" She said, but then warned, "Just don't think I'm not still angry with you though! We're definitely not done with this!"

"Phew! Glad that's over!" Spike thought in relief as he prepared to recount his memories of the past few years.

Well, he began as he delved into his memories, after I had told Twilight about my new job as a reporter, and left Ponyville, I did keep in touch for a while. The job started off pretty easily, with me doing nature shots, scenery takes, and photo shoots for some well known ponies. He sighed as he recalled the next part. Then...then it got to the part where I actually went into other places, such as Neighpon, Manehatten, Baltomare, even other species's nations like the griffons and dragons. That was the point I couldn't keep in contact anymore, because if the beings of those nations even caught a single letter being sent, magically or no, it'd compromise my position and risk everyone in Ponyville's, heck maybe even Equestria's safety. He said, shuddering to think of the possible outcomes. Anyways, a couple of months after those jobs, I had heard of something happening, I didn't know what it was, but it was something big going down, and it was definitely fishy. I didn't know it at the time, but it would be one of the most horrific events I would ever endure, and one of the saddest. Spike stopped as he bore a solemn look. After a few minutes of silence Applejack took a gamble.

"What happened?" She asked, seeing his countenance take a saturnine look. Spike sighed, knowing he had to continue on with the tale.

"It was the Fillymette outbreak," he said.

"Fillymette? But that's just a tiny town out in the middle of nowhere!" Rarity said in confusion. "Just what kind of outbreak could've happened there, and why didn't anybody stop it?"

"That's just it," Spike said, "nobody expected as small a town as that to have anything happen, and that's why the officials were caught off guard. As for what kind...well..." he didn't say anything as he gestured to the outside. Everypony else gasped as they realized what he had implied. Spike then continued on with the story,

It had started out just like any other job, a pegasus flew me into the town initially, and I told him it might take a couple of days to wrap the story up. However, nothing could have prepared me for what happened there. His eyes watered slightly as he began to tear up. **Nothing* could have prepared me for all the violence, the death, the tragedy of what had befallen that town. I saw good ponies, who deserved none of what they got, fall prey to those creatures out there, ponies just like you all, who wanted nothing more than to fulfill their special talent for the rest of their lives. I saw hearts broken as families had to repeatedly face one of their own that had gotten infected by those blasted zomponies.* He said now struggling to hold back sobs. It was horrible, but I knew I had to cover the outbreak for their sakes, and luckily I managed to do it. He said managing a small smile.

Of course, throughout this story all of the mares that had been listening had been crying listening to him speak, even Rainbow Dash, who normally blanched at such behavior, and poor Pinkie Pie, she had fallen into a state of sadness that had deflated her normally poofy mane and made her gain a duller shade of pink. Applejack had taken off her trusty stetson, clutching it in her forehooves as she wiped her eyes with it. Fluttershy was doing her best to not breakdown completely, while Rarity supported her with a sad, but reassuring look. Twilight was also reduced to tears, but managed to speak.

"But why?" Twilight asked, choking back a sob, "Why in Equestria would something like this happen?"

"Why?" Spiked laughed bitterly. "Because of some grudge held by a crazed pony. I couldn't believe it myself, but I made sure he got put behind bars, permanently."

"Ain't nothin' wrong with that." Applejack said, "No matter what happened to him before, no pony can justify an act like that!"

"Yeah, but hey come on guys, what's done is done." Spike said trying to break them out of their tears. "Right now we need to focus on what we can do right now! There's not any point in moping when we have to make sure you guys are safe!" His words seemed to have a positive impact as everyone began to wipe their tears away and go back to a relatively calm mood. After everyone got settled, Twilight figured that they should tell the Princesses about what was happening, and Spike seemed to get in a nostalgic mood as he sent the letter using his fire breath. The letter surprisingly got a reply relatively quickly.

"Hm..." Twilight said as she read the letter. "It says here that the Royal guard will be here in 3 days at the minimum due to the uproar around Canterlot."

"Well then, ah suppose all there is left tah do is wait here." Applejack concluded.

"Uh sis..." Applebloom said in a tone filled with fear.

"What is it Bloom?" Applejack said seeing her sister's worried look.

"It's Scootaloo!" Applebloom said, "Ah don't know what's wrong with her!"

"What!" At this statement Rainbow Dash had rushed over to her sister, and gasped when she saw Scootaloo curled up in the fetal position. At the sight of her sister, the filly curled up to her older sister for security.

"Rainbow Dash...I don't...feel so good." She whispered, pain evident in her voice.

"Oh no! Not now!" Rainbow Dash thought.

"What's wrong with her?" Spike inquired. Rainbow took him and Applejack aside as she didn't want the fillies to hear this.

"Spike, on our way in, she got bitten by one of those zompony things!" She said, doing her best not to break down.

"Oh no!" Applejack said in a hushed voice. "Ya don't mean..."

"Yeah, she might...turn..." Rainbow struggled with the notion.

"No! She won't." Spike said, causing the mares to give him a confused look.

"What do you mean?" They both asked.

"Well, you see, I saw a poster for Ponybrex on the way in here." Spike explained.

"Ponybrex?" They both echoed.

"Yeah, it's a suppressant to the parasite that makes the ponies turn into zomponies. I didn't think it would have reached sales here thought but huh, go figure!" He said, making the other two get a hopeful look.

"So if we give it to Scootaloo, then...will she..." Rainbow tried to phrase her words carefully.

"Well, unfortunately, she won't be cured, because the drug is merely a suppressant to the parasite, but it'll be held at bay for 24 hours." At this information Rainbow Dash's smile fell a little bit. "However," he continued, "if we manage to find a steady supply at least until we get out of here, we can see about getting a full from somewhere I'm sure!" He said trying to reassure Rainbow Dash.

"Well that's all fine and dandy, but where do ya'll think ya'll can get some of that stuff?" Applejack said thinking. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie appeared in the midst of them, startling them and making them jump back in surprise.

"Did I hear you guys needed to find some stuff?" She said as cheerfully as ever.

"Pinkie, we were whispering how did you- oh never mind. Yeah we are looking for something." Spike sighed, deciding to let Pinkie just be herself, however enigmatic that may have been.

"Well that's good, because my Pinkie sense was going crazy when I looked at the map of this place!" She chirped happily.

"Wait, where did it go crazy at?" Rainbow Dash asked urgently. She knew that she and Twilight had not always been the most trusting of Pinkie's Pinkie sense, but it was the only lead they had to go on.

"It went crazy when I looked at this pharmacy over here!" She said pointing to a spot on the map.

"Hm," Spike mused as he studied the map intently, "it seems to be on the other side of the plaza that we're right next to!"

"Question though, how long does Scootaloo have before she..." Rainbow said, struggling to cope with the dreaded possibility. Applejack gave her a look of sympathy being an older sibling herself.

"Hm...well I only saw one bite on her, so at the minimum I'd say about 2 hours, so we should make it in time if we hoof it!" Spike said, chuckling at his pun.

"Alright...but how the hay are ya'll gonna get out of here without letting any of those darned zomponies in?" Applejack said not wanting her sister to be at risk.

Twilight had been listening in on their conversation and walked over to them. "Guys," she said gaining ahold of their attention, "there's a vent system that leads out in the direction you want to go. If you head through there it should give you time to spare to go there and back here."

"Thanks Twilight!" Rainbow said gratefully, "but I thought you didn't believe in Pinkie sense?"

"Well, I don't really," Twilight said in confirmation, "but right now it's all we have to go on, speaking of which you guys should get a move on." With this, she led them outside the room they were in and showed them the vent ducts. "Oh by the way before you head out, take these." She said handing them each a turquoise colored stone as she explained. "These go in your ears, they'll let us talk back and forth to allow me to update you on things that are happening while also letting you tell me what you see going on!"

"Thanks Twilight!" Spike said hugging his former employer. "You know, I really missed having you around!" He said with a grin. Twilight smiled at this and rolled her eyes.

"Spike...just be careful out there," she said taking on a soft tone, "I don't want to think I've lost you again."

"No worries Twilight! I've dealt with these things before!" He said taking on a confident smirk.

"Hey guys sorry to cut the sappy moment, well not really, but can we go now?" Rainbow interjected. Spike and Twilight shrugged as Spike climbed into the vent with Rainbow Dash and started to crawl. It took a couple of minutes of crawling in the dark, but eventually they managed to find the way out and into what looked like a maintenance area of a...

"Mall?" Rainbow said baffled. "They have an entire mall in front of the arena?"

"I'd say it's because they wanted a big gift shop but then that would be ridiculous." Spike joked.

"Heh yeah," Rainbow said chuckling a bit, "come on though, we gotta get moving!" she said trotting off towards a set of stairs in the distance. Spike matched her pace as they passed a room that flashed a blue "maintenance" sign above the door, and another door that just had some construction supplies in it. Finally they came to a set of double doors.

"Well, this is it!" Rainbow said, bracing herself for what lied ahead. "Ready to do this Spike?" She grinned and asked her companion.

"Of course I am!" Spike fired back with a grin. They both took a deep breath as they pushed open the doors, and immediately groaned.

"That..." Rainbow said her voice a little shaky at the sight of the sea of pony based abominations before them, "is a lot of zomponies..." She searched the crowd before giving an amazed look, "there's gotta be at least 100 here, and only two of us!"

"Heh..." Spike said with a grin, putting on his shades as he brandished a baseball bat. "How unfair for them."

Case 0-2: Shop N' Go

"Oh for the love of Celestia!" Rainbow Dash cried out, panting from exhaustion, "how many of these zomponies are there?" She said as she used her recently acquired MMA Hoof gloves to beat another zompony down.

"Well," Spike responded as he swung his baseball bat at the nearest zompony, knocking it away, "since there was bound to be a lot of people in the Pegasium at the time I'd say-"

"It was rhetorical Spike!" Rainbow said, growling in frustration.

"Sorry," he responded dejectedly. Rainbow shook her head at this, not meaning to hurt her friend in such a way. Suddenly Rainbow's ears perked up as Spike suddenly chimed in. "Hey look! I think think that's it!" He said pointing to a store in front of them called "Pony Mart Rx: Pharmacy and Groceries."

"Finally!" Rainbow cheered as she fell on the ground happily in front of their destination, "I thought we'd never get here!"

"Well come on!" Spike chuckled at his friend's antics, "we still have to get the Ponybrex from inside, we have about..." he paused as he checked his watch, "an hour and fifteen minutes! Hey that's time to spare!" He said cheerfully.

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Rainbow said as she hopped back to her hooves. "Let's go!" With that, they opened the door's and went inside. As they glanced around the interior of the small store, they noticed it was dimly lit and most of the food and medical supplies had been strewn across the ground.

"Most likely from the intial panic..." Spike thought as he continued looking around. All of a sudden, the both of them stopped as they heard voices coming from the back of the store.

"Other survivors?" Rainbow asked her companion as he simply shrugged in response. They then crouched down, intending to listen in on what was going on.

"Hehehe!" One voice let out a deep, gravelly laugh as if having accomplished something. "Small pony doctor trapped now!"

"I'm telling you," came a terrified voice, though much higher pitched and without a gravelly tone this time, "I don't know where they keep any gems or bits they get from here!"

"Little pony is lying!" Another gruff voice said, "I saw other guard ponies take shinies in here!"

"Well then," Yet another voice continued, still just as rough and deep as the other two, "if silly pony won't tell us now, we beat silly pony until she gives us what we want!" He said. A whimper soon followed this as the other two voices chuckled menacingly in their rough voices. However, having heard enough of this, Spike and Rainbow Dash chose this time to walk out from the shelves they were hidden behind. As Spike and Rainbow rounded the corner, they saw that three diamond dogs had a white pony with a Red Cross cutie mark with hearts at the corners of the cross, and a matching nurse hat to boot.

"Isn't that Nurse Redheart?" Spike whispered to his pegasus friend as she nodded, confirming his question. It was then that Spike and Rainbow decided to reveal their presence, but not before Spike grabbed a bottle of shampoo from the shelves.

"Hey Diamond Dorks!" Rainbow yelled out, instantly garnering the attention of the dogs from the trembling nurse pony. "Why don't you big jerks pick on somebody else!" The dogs simply snickered at her statement.

"Oh!" The biggest dog, who was obviously the leader of the group, said in mock surprise, "and who will stop us, silly blue flying pony and small purple lizard?" He said making Spike and Rainbow glare at his insults.

"Hah," Spike scoffed as he replied "and here I thought you neanderthals didn't even have enough brains to even form complete sentences, but I guess you guys proved me wrong!" This retort in turn made the diamond dogs glare this time while they simply smirked back at their adversaries.

"Big talk for such small prey!" The smallest diamond dog growled at them, about ready to charge at them, "You two are very scared if you make silly talk when outnumbered."

"Numbers don't win a battle Fido!" Rainbow said grinning as the dog growled louder.

(Dead Rising 2: Off the Record: Looter's theme starts to play)

"Argh! I will crush stupid pony and lizard!!!" He shouted angrily as he ran towards his foes.Spike had a plan however, as he had already undone the cap to the shampoo bottle and poured it's contents in front of him. The foolish diamond dog had no chance to avoid the slippery substance as he felt inertia carry him towards his smirking opponents.

"Wait for it!" Rainbow said getting into bucking position as the dog drew nearer.

"Almost..." Spike said in turn as he prepared his bat to swing.

"NOW!" They both yelled in unison as they simultaneously bucked and hit the poor diamond dog, who had been scrambling to avoid his fate, but to no avail. The force of the impact sent him sailing right into the shelves of the headache remedy section, the sign of which said "oh, that's gotta hurt!" After that was over, Spike and Rainbow turned towards the other two diamond dogs, who were obviously shocked that their comrade had gotten disposed of so quickly.

"Well now that the odds are evened out..." Spike said with a grin.

"...Let's have a little fun!" Rainbow said smirking as she flapped her wings in preparation for the fight. "I get the big one alright?" She said as she eyed her target.

"You sure you can handle it?" Spike asked jokingly.

"Psh!" Rainbow said waving him off with her hoof, "Please! This'll hardly be a warm-up!" She said as she sped off hooves-first at the group leader, who was unable to follow Rainbow's flight speed and got carried into the wall with a crash that sent boxes flying and bottles rolling.

"Well then," Spike said regaining his focus on the last remaining diamond dog. "I guess it's just you and me then?" He asked the dog, who simply gulped in response. Spike charged with a war cry as the dog yelped and ran from him. On Rainbow's side however, her opponent was putting much more effort into the fight than his lackey was currently.

"Hmph, you're stronger than I thought big guy!" Rainbow said grunting as she dodged a clumsy swing from the canine as she countered with a kick of her own, only to have it blocked.

"Heh heh heh, silly pony and lizard may have beaten other dummy dogs, but they can't beat me!" The dog said simply laughing confidently at her statement. As the battle wore on Rainbow managed to get a few good hits in on the lead dog but even with all her stamina training for the Wonderbolts, her body just couldn't match up to the energy output like the more massive diamond dogs's could. After she tried for one last aerial dive, the dog caught her and pinned her to the ground, making Rainbow cry out in pain as she felt herself slowly getting crushed by him.

"Urgh... where the heck is Spike when you need him?" She thought furiously trying to look for her companion, who seemed to have disappeared.

"Ha ha ha! Tonight I dine on winged pony soup!" The brute-ish canine crowed as he drew an arm back to deliver the final blow. Suddenly however, he heard a shaking of what sounded like a spray paint can, and afterwards felt a force drop onto his head. He then made the mistake of looking straight up, only to find a familiar purple dragon pointing the nozzle of a can straight at him.

"Yo what's up?" Spike asked him, casually waving as he then sprayed the contents of the can into the dogs eyes, which unfortunately for him widened in surprise.

"ARGH! Eyes BURN!" The dog yelped in pain, stumbling around as he furiously rubbed his eyelids in a futile attempt to remove the offending substance which plagued him.

"Hey Rainbow what say we finish this?" He said smiling as he helped his companion up.

"Took you long enough!" She said rolling her eyes, but returning the smile in question. Then they both ran at the diamond dog leader as Spike tripped him by swinging his bat at the dog's feet, while Rainbow swooped quickly under him and delivered a hard uppercut to their foe's jaw, instantly knocking him out. Satisfied, the duo grinned and gave each other a celebratory bro-hoof to one another. Then they turned to make sure Nurse Redheart was ok.

(Music Stops)

"Oh thank goodness you came!" She said in relief while returning to a calm attitude, "I don't know what I would've done if you two hadn't come along! Is there anything I can do to repay you?" She asked, eyes brimming with gratitude for her heroes.

"Well I mean I wouldn't mind a thank you ki- Ouch!" Spike yelped as Rainbow elbowed him in the side.

"What my friend here means is to ask if there's any Ponybrex here." She said as she gave a glare to her ally, who simply gave a sheepish grin in response.

"Hm..." Nurse Redheart replied thoughtfully, "Well I think I do remember there being one in the back...now give me a minute to unlock this door here." She said as she took a key off the counter and unlocked the door. "Ah yes there it is!" She said happily from the back as she shortly came out with a bright blue box labeled "Ponybrex: One a day keeps the Zompony away!"

"Thank you so much!" Rainbow cried out in triumph as she grabbed the box from the mare's hooves. "Now back to the safe room!" She said, about to blast off before the Nurse asked Spike a question.

"Um..." She said shyly, "Do you think...it's alright if I...you know...accompany you two back there?" Asking with a cringe.

"Well sure, you didn't even have to ask!" Spike responded nobly, "Anypony is welcome there, and we'd be glad to have a nurse around to help with any injured survivors we might have!"

"Then it's settled!" Rainbow said agreeing, "now let's hurry! We've only got like thirty minutes to get back!" She said dragging the two others behind her.

"Rainbow slow down!" Spike yelped, fearing for his life as he almost saw himself crash into a shelve on the way out. After that obstacle, the rest of the way back for them was uneventful, as the zomponies didn't give them too much trouble as they had cleared a path before. They all eventually made it back to the safe room vent with fifteen minutes to spare as Spike and Rainbow ushered Redheart into the the vent door. Rainbow made a beeline for the room where she found her friends and Scootaloo, the latter of whom was looking very pale as she slowly turned her head and gave a slight smile at her older sister.

"Rainbow Dash!" She said weakly as she gave a slight cough, "You're back!"

"Of course I am kiddo!" Rainbow said warmly as she gave a soft nuzzle to her. "Now let's hurry and give you this alright?" She said as Scootaloo nodded. Rainbow then opened the box as she eyed the small syringe inside, filled with a blue liquid. "Ready?" She asked her sister tentatively as her sister nodded in response. Rainbow then gently lowered the syringe and injected the dosage of the drug as Nurse Redheart made her way over and gave a quick look over the small Pegasus filly.

"Well," Nurse Redheart said, "the drug is working, and her fever seems to be going down, so I believe she'll be just fine, now just give me a minute so I can bandage up her leg properly!" She said as all the other ponies, and dragon, gave a sigh of relief at the news.

"Thanks a lot Nurse!" Rainbow said cheerfully, already noticing her sister beginning to gain back her vibrant orange hue.

"It's no problem at all Ms. Dash!" The medical pony said cheerfully, "It's all a part of my job!"

"Well now that that's over," AppleJack said gaining the focus of everypony else, "what should we do now?"

"Well I figure our best bet is to wait here until the Princess's guard arrives." Twilight reasoned as Spike and Rainbow shook their heads in disagreement.

"Do what you guys want," Spike said, "but I need to figure out what's going on here, and why this all started." he continued as he walked towards the vent entrance.

"Seriously Spike?" Twilight said groaning in frustration. "Is this about getting your story back, getting your big chance at fame again?" She said as Spike clenched his fists but said nothing and simply exited the room.

"Don't worry Twilight I'll go after him and make sure he's alright!" Rainbow said reassuring her book-ish friend as she began to trot towards the direction Spike went in.

"Wait Rainbow!" Twilight yelled out, making the pegasus turn. "Just...please tell him I'm sorry..." She whispered with a forlorn look on her face as a tear rolled down her face.

"Hey come on sugarcube!" AppleJack said, trotting up to Twilight and giving her a reassuring pat, "Ah'm sure he'll just need a moment ta clear his head and then he'll come back and you can apologize to him then!"

"Yeah!" Pinkie continued, "If there's one thing I know about us and our friends is that even though we get mad at each other when we say mean stuff, we'll never ever ever leave each other for good!"

"Pinkie's right!" Fluttershy said softly, but agreeing with the bubbly pink ponies statement, "Spike would never make the mistake of leaving you again, I'm sure of it!"

"Of course dear!" Rarity chimed in, "If there's one thing our little Spike-Wikey is and as always been it is loyal, and a real gentledrake." Twilight gave her friends a grateful smile as they all went into a group hug. As the hug eventually dissipated, Twilight gave a look of realization.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot!" She said pulling out a key and dropping it into Rainbow's hoof. "I found that key in the room we were just in, it seemed to come from the maintenance section!" She informed the cyan mare.

"Maintenance huh?" Rainbow whispered thinking back to the door with the blue sign that she and Spike had passed previously. She then shook her head to regain focus, and headed out towards the vents, but not before telling the others to take care of Scootaloo for her, to which her friends heartily agreed. As she made her way out of the vents she found that Spike hadn't gone too far and was sitting on the staircase leading out of the mall's maintenance area. He looked quite glum and barely noticed as Rainbow went and sat by him.

"Hey Spike," Rainbow said hesitantly, "are you alright there kiddo?" It took a while for Spike to respond, but he finally gave a sigh and spoke.

"Yeah I guess so," he said gloomily, "it's just that what Twilight said makes me look like I'm some kind of fame-hungry paparazzi photographer, and I'm not!"

"Hey it's alright!" Rainbow said trying to cheer him up. "I think she was just worried about you going back out here mostly, I mean, she was pretty sad while you were gone."

"You really think so?" He asked with a hopeful smile.

"Of course!" She said, happy to get some joy out of him, "And besides," she said jokingly as she gave a cocky grin, "if you were a fame-hungry member of the press, a couple shots of me is all it would take to rocket you to stardom!"

"Oh really?" Spike said with a smirk, "I guess that would certainly make the paper's headlines '20% cooler' huh?"

"Oh quiet you!" She said playfully punching him as they both laughed together.

"So wait what is that for?" Spike asked curiously as he eyed the key that Twilight had given Rainbow.

"Hm..." Rainbow replied in thought, hoof scratching her head, "I think it's for that door over there," she said gesturing towards the door behind them.

"Huh, well let's check it out then!" Spike said leading Rainbow over to the door. The pegasus then unlocked the door as they stepped inside the room, finding it to have multiple tools of sorts and a couple of items on the shelves.

"Wow!" Rainbow said in amazement, "You'd have to be really good with tools to work with all of these!"

"Hiya guys!" Applebloom said from behind them, startling them into giving screams of surprise. This display made the little filly giggle at what she had done.

"Applebloom what are you doing here?" Spike inquired as the initial shock wore off.

"Well Twahlight and mah sister figured that I could be of some help here after they saw what these rooms were for!" She said beaming at the two.

"Well what are they for?" Rainbow said as she shrugged at the red-maned filly.

"Well lemme show ya!" She said, grabbing the items from the shelves while grabbing some other tools off the racks they were on.

(Chuck's Workbench theme plays)

Applebloom quickly got to work as Rainbow Dash and Spike simply gawked in awe at the speed and precision that the filly was working with. The filly in question soon became a blur as she used duct tape, nails, hammers, and saws like a professional while all the while humming a rock tune (the tune mentioned above) that she knew quite well. By the end of it she had a few pieces of tape stuck on her coat, and a few nails were lying idly about, but she had done it, and didn't even have a scratch on her!

"Ta-da!" She exclaimed as she handed her older friends their new, and improved, weaponry.

"Aw yeah! I like this one!" Spike said smirking as he swung his bat, which now had nails hammered point-out sticking from the head of the bat.

"This is awesome Applebloom! Thanks!" Rainbow said with glee as she tried on her MMA hoof gloves, with now had nails poking out similar to Spike's bat.

"No problem guys!" The filly said proudly, "Though ah was kinda limited on what we had ta work with here, but if you fahnd more stuff in this place, just come on over her and ah'll have Twahlight teleport me here ta see what ah kin make outta it!"

"Will do!" The recipient's of the weaponry nodded happily as they waved to their friend, who walked back towards the vent room since the maintenance room had been close by.

(Music Stops)

"Man that Applebloom sure is handy!" Spike said looking at the departing member of the Apple family.

"Yeah!" Rainbow agreed. "She's always been pretty handy with tools and such!"

"Hey you don't think her cutie mark could be-" Spike was suddenly broken out of his train of thought as they heard Twilight's voice their ears.

"Spike! Rainbow Dash! Come quickly, we just found out something!" Twilight said, a worried tone evident in her voice.

"Alright we'll be there in a second!" Spike replied as he and Rainbow Dash sped back towards the safe room, wondering what would happen next.

Case 1-1: Persecutions

As soon as Rainbow Dash and Spike arrived at the safe room, Applejack ushered them towards the room that Scootaloo and the other ponies had been in before.

"Twilight is everything alright?" Rainbow asked panting a bit, "you seemed a bit worried when you contacted us."

"Well..." Twilight said pausing before pointing towards a screen towards the back of the room, " you'd better take a look for yourself..."

"Okay, if you say so..." Rainbow said a bit thrown off by the way Twilight was acting. "Come to think of it, everypony else here seems to be acting a bit strange..." she thought noticing that everyone else in the room was looking at her nervously or not at all. Spike had also noticed the strange tension that surrounded him, and decided to speak his mind too.

"What's up with you guys? It's like you've seen a ghost or something!" He said a bit annoyed by the silence.

"Well Spike, just watch with Rainbow and you'll see why." Twilight assured him as he shrugged and walked over to the screen. Suddenly, static came up before flashing to a mare holding a microphone. She had a light green mane color with an orange coat that was a bit darker than Scootaloo's, and on her mane she sported a sky blue headband. "Huh..." Spike thought with interest, "she's pretty cute..." he shook his head as he hastily chastised himself for not paying attention.

"Hello everypony!" The mare greeted the viewers with a slight bow, "This is Flash Dancer reporting live from a hotel in front of the Pegasium where as you can clearly see that the situation has grown dire!" She said, emphasizing her statement by gesturing behind her. "This is the result of the outbreak that started within the Pegasium itself, however, this was not the result of a tragic accident, this was a deliberate act of terrorism against our fellow ponies!" She declared passionately.

"What?!?" Both Rainbow and Spike cried out in shock.

"But why would somebody do such a thing?" Rainbow said turning to her friends. However, they said nothing, which made her a bit nervous as she turned to watch the rest of the report.

"The outbreak in question was believed to be caused by a rogue pony as shown in these images here." The mare said as images began to flash on the screen, depicting a pony releasing a small cage that held several zomponies into the tunnels below the Pegasium's crowd seating entrances. However, what was strange about the pony was that...

"Rainbow Dash??? Isn't that you?" Spike said bewildered as he turned to face the cyan pegasus.

"Wha- but that isn't..." Rainbow couldn't find any words at the new information she had just been processing.

"The pegasus," Flash Dancer continued, "is believed to be one of the contestant's of this year's competition: the Aero Blast Grand Prix, Rainbow Dash."

"That's not true!" Rainbow cried out desperately at the screen, wishing this all to have been some horrible nightmare.

"It is unknown what her motives have been, but the royal guard of Celestia herself is said to arrive in three days, and all questions will most likely be answered then. This is Flash Dancer, signing off!" The screen then went back to simple static as Rainbow Dash could find nothing else to say. Spike on the other hand, grimaced at this new information. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Rainbow Dash mustered up the will to speak.

"You guys believe me when I say I didn't do it right?" She said looking frantically to her friends, who at this query gained offended look on there faces.

"It's not that we don't believe ya sugercube! We know you'd never do anythin' like this!" Applejack said as she gave a reassuring pat to her rainbow maned pal, who in returned gave a sigh of relief.

"However," Rarity said speaking up, "even though we know that you didn't do it, every other pony out there doesn't know that you were framed! They'll tear at you the first chance we get if you are allowed to remain..." she paused dramatically, "GUILTY!" She said as she flopped backwards, her ''fainting couch'' suddenly appearing to break her fall.

"Well just one problem though," Pinkie Pie said bouncing in place as everyone else turned to her, "we know that Rainbow didn't let all those meanie pants zomponies out, but if she didn't, then who did?" She said as her bouncing halted while she and the others gained a thoughtful look.

"Well, we may not know who did it..." Spike said musing, "but I think I know where to start looking..." he said as a grin began to appear on his face.

"What do you mean Spike?" Twilight asked her former assistant, who was now gaining a huge grin at his idea.

"Well, Flash Dancer was at the hotel right?" Spike said as everypony waited for him to continue, "and she had to get those pictures from somewhere, and so if we just head over to where she was, then maybe just maybe, she can tell us who her source was and where they got those pictures from!" He said finishing as he gained a proud smile at his deduction.

"Hey you're right!" Rainbow said, her face getting a look of renewed hope on it. "If we find her then she's gotta help us out right?" Spike nodded his head as they shared a smile. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She declared speeding off towards the exit, almost performing another rainboom in her excitement. Everyone chuckled at Rainbow's sudden change in attitude as Spike began to follow his newfound partner's lead.

"Spike wait!" Twilight said as the dragon turned around.

"Oh, Twilight what's wrong?" He said raising an eyebrow.

"It's just...about what I said earlier..." she said rubbing her shoulder guiltily.

"Twilight it's ok!" Spike said, breaking her out of her mood, "I know you didn't mean it!" He said giving Twilight a small smile to which she returned.

"Really?" She asked, her hope restored that maybe he wasn't as mad at her as she thought.

"Of course Twilight!" He said as he walked over and gave her an embrace. "I know sometimes we have our little squabbles from time to time, but I'll never really stay angry at you!" He said as he felt her begin to return the hug.

"Alright Spike...just promise me you'll be careful ok? I'll keep you posted on anything Pinkie's Pinkie Sense reacts to." She said as the embrace broke off.

"Hey come on Twi!" He said giving her a smirk as he playfully ruffled her mane, "I've cover-"

"Yeah yeah you've covered wars!" Rainbow's voice yelled out from the vent. "Can we please stop being so sappy now and get a move on?"

"...wars you know." Spike finished as his eyebrows furrowed in annoyance at his friend's outburst that had destroyed the tender moment between he and Twilight. Twilight giggled as she saw his look and simply told him to get a move on before Rainbow became anymore anxious to go. Spike hugged her one last time before climbing into the vent.

CASE 1-1: Engaged

Objective: Find Flash Dancer at the hotel near the Pegasium

Date: September 25th, 7:00 A.M.

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 72:00 Hours

"Rainbow come on!" Spike yelled at his friend in frustration, "I was having a moment with my sister/mother figure! Surely you can at least let me have that!"

"Nope! Sorry buddy!" Rainbow Dash said playfully as she stuck her tongue out at him, "too much of that sappy stuff will rot your brain out!" Spike simply shook his head as they climbed out of the vent and into the mall. "Hey by the way," Rainbow said, gaining her ally's attention, "where is that hotel located?"

"Well let's see," Spike said pulling out the map that twilight had given him. "It says that the hotel that Flash Dancer is across the 'Silver Strip.'"

"Well how do we get to the Silver Strip?"

"Hm...oh! An entrance is right across from Roy's Mart!"

"Sweet! Now let's go!" Rainbow said as she began galloping away, Spike running as fast as he could to keep up. As they neared a door that seemed to lead to another maintenance room, they heard a voice that just barely came through.

"Hey Rainbow Dash, do you hear that?" Spike asked his companion as he listened harder, trying to figure out where the voices were coming from.

"Yeah, it seems like it's coming from behind that door!" Rainbow said as they opened the door to find out. What they found however, was a hallway that lead to a maintenance room, and another path that apparently lead underground.

"Hm, it seems like the voices are coming from the underground!" Spike said as he started to go towards the hatch that lead down. However Rainbow stopped him before he could climb down.

"Hold on Spike, let's not get carried away." Chided Rainbow as she looked at the materials lying around. "Hm...i feel like we should collect some more weapons to at least be prepared for whatever is down there..."

"Good idea!" Spike said as he nodded, "We should also find a bag or something to carry any extra things we want to take."

"Alright, so let's split up and come back here." Rainbow said to her draconian friend as they temporarily parted ways. After a couple minutes they came back to the maintenance room. Spike and Rainbow Dash had managed to collect a variety of tools and weaponry, as well as some food while also getting a backpack and a saddlebag respectively. After they gathered up everything they told Twilight to send Applebloom to their location.

"Hold on, I need to know your location first!" Twilight said.

"How are we going to do that though?" Rainbow said as she had a confused look.

"Well...oh I know!" Twilight said as a lightbulb went on in her head, "Just have Spike take a picture of the surrounding area and point out the location on the map as well, and that should be enough to let me know where to send her!"

"Good thinking Twilight!" Spike said, "Alright now let's see I'll head out into the hallway and take a picture there." He walked out into the hallway and closed the door leading into the plaza just to be safe. Then he whipped out his camera and focused the shot.

"Hey Rainbow Dash!" He called out to his partner, "strike a pose!"

"Wait what?" Rainbow said clearly not ready for a photo op, and fell over in a frantic scramble to try and look her coolest for the photo, unfortunately, Spike had taken a shot just as she fell, which did it's main job.

"Hm...Good." Spike said as he listed the photo under the "outtake" category, and the rating it received was about 250 PP.

"Hey! Could have warned me earlier you know!" Rainbow said annoyed that she had taken a bad picture.

"Oh well, let's get this sent!" Spike said grinning mischievously as he pulled up the photo to be sent.

"Spike I swear if you even think abou-" Rainbow began to glare at him, but his grin simply widened as he pushed the send button. Seconds later the both of them heard what sounded like Twilight poorly trying to stifle a laugh. "That's it!" Rainbow shouted as she tackled Spike to the ground, with the purple dragon simply laughing the entire time. However, in the midst of Rainbow's attack, they both failed to notice that Applebloom was already there.

"Um...Spahke? Rainbow Dash? Should I leave or somethin'?" The filly asked confused at the sight in front of her. This sudden appearance jolted Rainbow Dash and Spike back to reality as they both realized that they were in a...compromising position. They both looked at each other, and turned as red as Big Mac's coat as they scrambled to get untangled from one another.

"Uh...h-hey Applebloom," Rainbow said sheepishly, "how are you?"

"Ah need an adult?" Applebloom said obviously stumped on how to proceed after witnessing what had been happening.

"So um the workbench?" Spike offered as he tried shifting the subject away from any awkward encounters.

"Oh yeah the workbench!" Applebloom shook her head as she regained focus on her original task. "So uh, what have you guys got for me this tahme?" She asked as Spike and Rainbow Dash handed over their bags.

"Alright, you guys may want to wait here, things are gonna get pretty hectic in here." Applebloom warned as she closed the door behind her.

[Inside the maintenance room]

(Chuck's Workbench Theme plays)

Applebloom took a deep breath as she prepared to start working, she grabbed a couple of tools she would need off the walls while taking out one of the best tools of building known to ponies...

"Can't go wrong with a lil' duct tape!" She said to herself as she pulled out a couple rolls of the stuff. She then began searching through the bags as she thought of various weapon combos, some deadly, some useful, some were novelty items. After settling on her designs she went to work, her hooves working at a breakneck pace as she used the utmost care and precision in her work. After a while of using duct tape, nails, a saw, and a various other tools, she sighed in relief at the completion of her last creation. Smiling proudly at the work she had done she went back to get the others.

(Music stops)

[Outside the maintenance room]

"So...um...yeah..." Spike trailed off awkwardly as he scrounged around his brain to come up with some decent conversation.

"...Yeah..." Rainbow said just as awkwardly as she rubbed her neck nervously. Suddenly she smirked as a thought came in. However, her train of thought was broken as she heard the doors behind her open to reveal Applebloom with a full saddlebag and backpack.

"Well gahs!" Applebloom said handing them their stuff, "it sure was a lotta' work, but ah think it turned out quite alrahght!" She said, nodding in approval. "Spahke, with your weapons I managed to create the knife gloves, which is the boxing gloves plus the chef knives you found, the blambow, which ah made by combinin' the bow and arrow with the dynamite you found, and another spahked bat for ya!'"

"Aw yeah this stuff is awesome!" Spike said as he looked over his new toys, a single tear of joy almost coming to his eye.

"For Rainbow Dash, I used the spitball launcher and motor oil to create the Fire Spitter, the cider bottles and construction hat to make a novelty cider hat, and the wooden sword and shield plus some nails to create the Holy Arms!"

"Man it feels like Hearth's Warming Eve came early!" Rainbow shouted equally as excited as her partner was.

"Ah'm glad you guys liked em'!" Applebloom said giggling at the way they acted. "Well, ah better head back, so ah'll see ya'll later!" She waved to them as she disappeared in a poof of magic, no doubt due to Twilight's spell. A little later Spike and Rainbow Dash had stopped drooling over their new weapons enough to realize that the handy filly had left a while ago.

"How the hay does that filly not have her cutie mark yet?" Spike asked his Rainbow-maned partner, who simply shrugged in response, now that they were ready to proceed, they headed towards the hatch that lead underground. Once they got to the bottom, they found themselves in a place that looked to be a warehouse of some sort. Suddenly, they heard the voices once again, and one sounded familiar.

"Hey, that sounds like Blueblood!" Rainbow said in realization.

"Hm...well this seems pretty fishy as it is, but him being here just makes it even worse..." Spike said, he then saw the prince himself and another figure walk out from the ground floor, right under the catwalk that Spike was on. Spike and Rainbow Dash gasped in shock as they saw who the prince was talking to.

"Hey, it's my doppelganger from the news report!" Rainbow said, a furious look overtaking her. She was about to charge in and beat the stuffing out of both of them, but Spike stopped her.

"Rainbow don't!" Spike said as he frantically held on to her.

"Why not?!? They deserve it!" She said in a loud whisper.

"Rainbow, use your head! This seems to be turning into something bigger than just the outbreak! If we want to find out what really happened here, we need to get evidence of what's happening!" He said trying to pacify her.

"Well what should we do then?" She asked with a mixture of frustration and impatience.

"Hm...you go hide in a safe spot, I'll try to see what they're talking about and get some photos while I'm at it!" Spike said as he shooed her towards a well-hidden corner of the room. She was reluctant to stand by, but she eventually agreed to wait there. After that, Spike turned his attention towards the prince and the Rainbow Dash imposter.

(Dead Rising 2: Off the Record Pause Menu 2 plays)

"Alright, gotta do this as quietly as possible..." Spike muttered to himself as he set the flash of his camera off. He then saw that Blueblood and the doppelganger were walking towards one of the aisles, and he followed, making sure to get a good angle for his shot.

"So you sure this will help us out right?" The doppelganger asked nervously as she...or he looked around wide-eyed.

"Of course!" Blueblood said reassuringly as he turned to face the Rainbow Dash look-alike. Spike snapped a quick photo of them while he had a direct side view of them talking.

"Yeah! It's a good one!" He said to himself happily as he filed it under the "special" category, the rating came out to be about 449 PP.

"In all seriousness chum," Blueblood continued, "you simply must stop worrying so much, it will take a toll on your health if it keeps up!"

"I'm sorry..." The doppelganger said sadly, "It's just that I'm really nervous about this whole thing..."

"Oh come now!" Blueblood said chuckling as he wrapped a hoof around the other pony, "Just don't let word of this little meeting get out and you'll be fine!"

"Oh ok Prince Blueblood..." The other pony said shakily, but smiled a bit, "I just feel like it was great that I got to help out with such an important job!"

"What the hay are you up to Blueblood?" Spike muttered to himself as he snapped another photo, filing under "special," and getting a rating of 329 PP.

"Alright, now take this," Blueblood said a bit more quietly to his companion, "this is a pass for free roam through Canterlot, it should give you enough clearance to do what I've asked you to. Let no one but the guards see that!"

"O-okay sir..." The imposter said shakily, not realizing that Spike had snapped another photo of the them, but with the pass this time.

"Unbelievable...what are you up to..." Spike whispered, his mind working furiously to figure out what they could be up to. However, soon he had to move across to another catwalk as the prince and his accomplice went out of his view. As he arrived he once again whipped out his camera, becoming ever vigilant to take a photo. Luckily for the dragon turned photojournalist, Blueblood seemed to give him a good shot.

"Now you just take this," the prince said as he handed the other pony what looked like a metal briefcase,

"What is that..." Spike wondered to himself as he took another photo, this one getting him a whopping 1023 PP in the "special" category.

"It has your first payment, with a little bonus considering the job well done. The rest will follow after we are done with Canterlot." Blueblood said as if answering Spike's question.

"Oh okay Sir...thanks!" The Dash doppelganger said happily as he took the case of bits.

"Nonsense my good fellow, it is the little people like you that I admire the most!" Blueblood said as he gave the pony another pat on the back, "those who rise up to the challenge set before them!"

Spike was just about to take another picture when he accidentally knocked over a box from the shelf he had been climbing down. The noise startled Blueblood and the other pony as their heads whipped around to face the direction he was in.

"Aw horsefeathers..." Spike said as he dove into a box in an attempt to hide.

"Hm...I suppose that it may have been a rat... filthy creatures..." Blueblood said in disgust as the other pony nodded in agreement. After hearing them trot away Spike slowly climbed out of the box and signaled to Rainbow Dash that the coast was clear.

(Music stops)

"So what'd you find out?" Rainbow asked him curiously as he showed her the photos.

"Well," he said starting to explain, "it seems that this pony that pretended to be you did indeed start the outbreak here...however, it turns out that Blueblood was paying him to do it!" Spike said, disgusted at the actions of the two he had seen.

"I knew he was up to no good!" Rainbow said furiously.

"That's not all though...it seems that they plan to start another outbreak in Canterlot, probably after the Royal Guard arrives here..." Spike said as he continued his theory.

"Well, then we have to stop them before then!" Rainbow said with a determined look on her face.

"Well, for now we should let them go about their business until we can find out more, but we should probably get back to finding that hotel and clearing your name!" Spike said as he shut his camera off.

"Right, let's do this!" Rainbow said in a mixture of excitement and anticipation. With this new information in their minds they set off to go find Flash Dancer, and hopefully a way to prove Rainbow Dash's innocence...

Time before Royal Guard arrives: 71:12:23 Hours

Case 1-2: Securing the Press

Time before Royal Guard arrives: 71:12:23

After Spike and Rainbow Dash had set off they went through the plaza without much trouble from the zomponies, and soon found themselves at the door that lead to the Silver Strip. However, the only problem was that a horde of zomponies were blocking the exit.

"Aw man and just when I thought things would be easier..." Rainbow sighed. Spike didn't reply as he had whipped out his camera and taken a picture of the zompony crowd. It was easily worth a good 340 PP under the "horror" section of his camera's memory.

"Uh huh!" He said to himself in satisfaction as he saw the rating. This left Rainbow Dash with a confused look on her face due to not understanding his act in full.

"Hey Spike?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"Yeah Rainbow?" Spike replied, shutting his camera back down and screwing the lens cap back in.

"Why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"That! You know, the picture thing!" Rainbow gestured to the camera.

"Oh that!" Spike said as he chuckled a bit. "Well you see in my business to have a good report on things you need to have some good photos to back your story up, and usually the photos we take are put into the categories of horror, outtake, brutality, erotica, drama, and 'Special.' After we get the initial category we also get a rating that shows how good our photo was overall, and the rating is measured in PP." He explained

"PP?" Rainbow said quizzically.

"Yeah, they're short for prestige points, but I call them picture points!" Spike said as he elaborated.

"What do those do for you?"

"Well the more PP you get, the higher ranked journalist you become, and your pay and notoriety as a reporter increase with each rank, and also I in particular get some good stuff!" He said with a grin on his face as he mentioned that last fact.

"What kind of good stuff?" Rainbow pondered, generally understanding most of what he had said.

"New moves!" Spike yelled happily while rubbing his hands together in delight, not unlike a child would do when confronted by his or her favorite snack.

"Whoa no kidding?" Rainbow said in amazement.

"Yup! But enough about that! Let's get a move on!" Spike said reverting back to normal as he took point in walking up to the crowd of zomponies. It was a bit of work, but they managed to get through relatively easy thanks to Applebloom's ingenuity in creating the combo weapons. "I've seriously got to remember to thank her for her work!" Spike thought cheerfully as he finished clearing the doorway. Spike and Rainbow took a minute to admire their handiwork, giving each other a celebratory hoof-bump before exiting the plaza. However, as they went outside, they groaned as they found another crowd of zomponies in their way.

"Oh come on!" Rainbow shouted in frustration. "How many more are there?!?"

"Hey Rainbow?" Spike said in realization, "can't you just fly us over them?"

"Oh yeah! Heh, sorry about that!" Rainbow said grinning sheepishly as she motioned for Spike to get on her back, which he was glad to do as he gave his feet some much needed rest. "Alright, hang on tight!" Rainbow said taking off as she flapped her wings, gaining height with each passing moment, which after a short time let her fly with ease over the zomponies, who could do nothing but stare at their would be prey.

"Hey, come to think of it Rainbow, why not try and see if we can fly out of the area at will?" Spike suggested. Rainbow obliged his request as she angled herself almost straight up towards the sky with Spike holding onto her neck as much as he could, but as they were flying, Spike felt himself thrown forward as Rainbow hit an unseen force that seemed to be a wall of some sort. Spike yelped as he began to fall towards the ground at an alarming rate, but luckily his friend came to his aid, picking him up before he hit the cement. Once they got settled back on the ground, Spike decided to call Twilight about this strange occurence. "Twilight!" He said still shaken.

"Yes Spike?" Twilight said, worried at his tone of voice.

"Do you know anything about an invisible wall covering the Pegasium and everything around it?" Spike said, breathing a little bit easier now.

"Well now that you mention it I saw another report mentioning that Celestia and Luna had covered the city in a magical forcefield in order to quarantine the area so the outbreak wouldn't spread..." She said in rememberance.

"Ah so that explains it! Thanks for the info Twilight!" He said thanking her as he turned back to his companion.

"So we're stuck here until the guard gets here?" Rainbow asked.

"Pretty much."

"Great." The two decided to get back to the task at hand as they searched around for the hotel. Finally after scouting out the area a bit, which turned out to be much bigger than they originally anticipated, they found their destination. To say that they were relieved to get there would be an understatement, because they dashed towards the hotel, laughing in triumph, and tore through the crowd of zomponies guarding the entrance without a second thought. The inside of the hotel they came to find, was pretty nice. The decor consisted of a beige and red combination, with a fair amount of light, but not overly bright. All in all, they both agreed they'd stay there a night or two if given circumstances. However, Rainbow Dash noticed an object on the ground.

"Hm...what could this be?" She thought to herself as she picked it up. Upon further inspection she noticed that it was a plastic card of some sort. She turned it over, revealing to be an ID card that had a photo and the name 'Flash Dancer: Field Reporter' written above the picture. This seemed normal at first, maybe having been dropped in the initial outbreak, but the bad part was that the card had spots of blood on it... "Hey Spike you better come look at this!" She said calling over the purple dragon.

"What's up Dashie?" Spike inquired, while Rainbow raised an eyebrow that questioned the sudden nickname. Spike noticed this and held up his hands in defense while saying, "what? I heard Pinkie Pie use it a couple times and I thought it sounded catchy so you know..."

"Ok..." Rainbow Dash shook her head at the explanation, figuring that to be the case, "Anyways, I found this ID card lying on the ground here..." she explained, showing him the card. Spike took the card in his claws and stared at it intently, brows furrowed.

"Huh...she must've been a rookie..." he muttered, shaking his head in pity. "Should've been more careful out here..." he said sighing as he was about to tell Rainbow Dash that they were going on, but Rainbow Dash suddenly gasped and pointed behind him in shock. Spike whipped around, finding a zompony with it's arms stretched out towards him, he yelled and tried to move away, but it was too late as the zompony took him down to the ground, and somehow, Rainbow also failed to notice another zompony sneaking up behind her as well, and it grabbed her, pinning her to the ground. As the cried out, trying to force their way out of the zomponies grip, suddenly, two bolts of magic shot out and knocked the zomponies off of both of them. Spike and Rainbow both had surprised looks on their faces as they turned to figure out just who had helped them out. Spike's jaw dropped as Rainbow gasped at the mare in front of them.

"You two should really be more careful out here..." she said smirking, "I wouldn't want to have to do that everytime now would I?" She then held out a hoof, "Flash Dancer, field reporter for the Canterlot Express." She was about to shake Rainbow's hoof, but stopped at the sight of her. "Wait..." She said, brows furrowed in thought, "aren't you Rainbow Dash, the one who started this outbreak?"

"I didn't start it, I was framed!" Rainbow said, gritting her teeth at the accusation.

"Uh huh, if you say so." She said skeptically as she turned to Spike, who still had his jaw dropped a little bit, and unbeknowst to the two mares, hearts were beginning to form in his eyes. Flash Dancer giggled at the sight of him, to which he recovered from his amazed state and shook her hoof.

"Spike the Dragon, photojournalist." He said, nodding his head at the mare while trying to maintain a cool, smooth composure.

"Wait wait...the Spike?" Flash Dancer said in a bout of recognition at the mention of his name. "You mean you're the dragon that supposedly covered the Fillymette outbreak, but had that scandal later on?" She said looking quite surprised at this fact.

"Yeah I don't really like talking about that last part..." the dragon in question muttered to himself as he looked a bit annoyed.

"Well isn't this a big surprise finding you here? Trying to get back into the limelight I suppose?"

"Maybe, maybe not? I don't usually like giving out that kind of info to people who could peg a bad image on me."

"Mhm...cute, well anyways, why exactly have you two come out here anyways?" Flash Dancer asked as she took the card back from Spike.

"Well I was hoping to find you actually!" Spike said almost a bit too eagerly, while Rainbow Dash nudged him a bit in order to correct his neglection of her. Flash Dancer smiled and rolled her eyes as she noticed his response.

"Is that so? Well I suppose you are kind of a cute dragon..." She said getting almost brushing up against Spike, who blushed noticeably at this. Rainbow Dash groaned and face hooved at his reaction, and wondered why it is that he could be this predictable.

"You think so?" Spike asked, a grin coming onto his face.

"Yup..." She said getting even closer than she already was, Spike was frozen as he felt her whisper in his ear. "And if you help me crack this case, maybe I'll consider you..." She said quite seductively. Spike now knew that if he had any doubts about his mission before, he sure as hay wasn't going to fail it now!

"Anyways!" Rainbow said cutting in abruptly, "Let's get back to the matter at hand..."

"Ah that's right!" Flash Dancer said recalling what she had been out here for, "I figured you of all ponies would have hit the road right now Ms. Dash, but since you're still here...care to answer a few questions?"

"Look lady, I'm not your story, I had nothing to do with starting the outbreak!" Rainbow said sighing in frustration.

"And the images that showed you at the cages before the competition?" Flash Dancer questioned as she raised an eyebrow.

"Fakes!" Rainbow countered sharply, "my sister and my friends barely made it out along with me!" She took a breath to calm herself down. "Look I just need to know where you got the images from!"

"It would also help to know who your source is as well!" Spike added as he had finally recovered from his love struck state of mind.

"Ah ah ah!" Flash Dancer said as she waved her hoof in a chastising manner, "Reporters don't reveal their sources Spike," she then added with a smirk, "well, not real ones anyways."

"Oh really?" Spike said with a smirk of his own, "well maybe I can convince you by telling you I have some very important photos that I've taken?" This worked as intended as the mare stopped in her tracks at the mention of a new lead.

"Really? Then let's see them." She said eyeing his camera, to which Spike simply hid it from view as he waggled a finger at her.

"Woah woah there!" He said with a grin, "you gotta throw the dog a bone if you want him to do any tricks!" He then realized the many connotations of that statement and decided to clarify, "meaning you get my pictures, if we get yours."

"Hm...ok" She agreed with a bit of thought, "I suppose I'll let you tag along with me to where I'm going."

"That's more like it!" Spike said as he and Rainbow Dash shared a triumphant smile.

"I can't tell you my source," Flash Dancer explained, "but there is a central security room that has records of everything that's happened, I bet you'll find what you need there."

"Alright then, let's get moving!" Rainbow Dash said as the three set off towards the South Plaza that was right behind the lobby of the hotel.

Case 1-2: Engaged

Objective: Now that we've found Flash Dancer, she's agreed to take us to a security room that should have proof of Rainbow's innocence.

Date: September 25th, 8:30 A.M.

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 70:29:49

They had little trouble with the zomponies seeing as how they were more than capable of taking care of themselves, however, since the South Plaza was still under construction, it creeped Spike out a bit. They also ran into a few Diamond Dogs along the way, but with the help of their new weapons, and Flash Dancer's magic, it was a much easier fight than previously. After a while, they saw another hallway that seemed a bit more lit up, and complete with it's decor.

"Just a little more to go!" Flash Dancer reassured her companions as they went onwards. However, much to Rainbow and Spike's dismay, they came to find that the doors to their destination were barred by a gate.

"Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash groaned as Spike simply grumbled under his breath as he hit the gate in a futile hope that the force of his tap would somehow destroy the gate.

"I have no idea how you two would get anything done without me here." Flash Dancer said chuckling as she had a visible smirk on her face. In response to this Rainbow and Spike's eyelids lowered in annoyance as they both knew what she was about to do.

"Just push the button." Spike grunted at her.

"Hope I don't have to do everything for you." She said with a playful glint in her eyes as she pushed the button next to her. Just as Huffy the magic dragon predicted, the gate opened up to let them pass through. "Well?" The orange mare prompted them, "what are you waiting for?" She then began to trot forward, as Spike simply looked at her retreating figure with a smile on his face.

"Just admiring the...view." He said grinning as Rainbow rolled her eyes at the subtle, or not so subtle, implications of his statement.

"Let's get a move on ya pervert!" She said punching his shoulder, to which he glared at, making her snicker in return. As they continued on to the Pegasium's interior, Rainbow Dash found herself trying to shake the memories of the events that had occurred a few hours before. However, before she could contemplate more on the subject, they arrived at their destination. However they found that the door to the room was locked.

"Darn!" Spike mumbled, "Guess I'll have to break it down with something..." he then started to look around for an object that would suit ramming purposes. However, Flash Dancer smiled as she once again had the situation covered.

"Here, let me take this one!" She said as bent over to get a better look at the lock. Then her horn began to glow while the faint sound of tumblers being fiddled with was heard. Rainbow simply watched the display while Spike watched... "the display," and muttered something along the lines of: "they didn't teach me that in journalism school..." Rainbow rolled her eyes at his actions and shook her head. Finally, Flash Dancer finished with a triumphant smirk, "you went to journalism school?" she asked Spike, "could've fooled me..." she mocked giggling as she walked past him. The merriment however, came to an abrupt halt as they walked in and saw the state the security room was in.

"What happened here?" Rainbow said gasping in shock as she surveyed the room. All the screens that were supposed to show different Pegasium halls were broken or malfunctioning, and many of the files in cabinets were torn and strewn about. Worst of all the bodies of what looked like two ponies, a unicorn and a pegasus, were laying on the ground, having met their end here.

"Looks like someone didn't want us to see what really went down..." Spike deduced as he looked around. He then noticed something strange on the ponies. They seemed to have a couple of marks on them that seemed to be burn marks of some sort. He called the two mares over and showed them his find.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Rainbow said, obviously confused, "but I don't think zomponies can use magic can they?"

"No they can't." Spike said, confirming her theory. "But regular ponies can."

"Hm...then that proves it!" Flash Dancer exclaimed, "someone really is covering this up from us!"

"Yup, not a bad lead at all..." Spike said as he mulled over this new information. All of a sudden, Rainbow and Spike heard Twilight's voice come to them.

"Spike! Rainbow Dash!" She exclaimed worriedly. "You better come back to the safe room! There's some mare here that seems pretty suspicious..."

"On it!" Spike said to her as he and Rainbow began to leave.

"Hey wait what about those pictures?" Flash Dancer called out to him.

"Just come back to the safe room in the Royal Flush Plaza when you're done here!" He called out to her as he and Rainbow began heading towards the Plaza once again. As they left, Flash Dancer simply smirked.

"They're not going to ditch me for long if I can help it!" She said as she began to go after them.

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 70:11:14

Case 1-3: Suspicions

Case 1-3: Engaged

Objective: Twilight came and told us that a suspicious mare had come across the saferoom, and asked us to came back to check out the situation. Man I sure hope things don't get worse from here...

Date: September 25th, 9:10 A.M.

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 69:49:57

As Rainbow Dash and Spike left the Pegasium's lobby and went outside to the Silver Strip, they noticed that they were at the other end of the strip and decided to fly so as to not encounter too many zomponies. Spike climbed onto Rainbow's back and she took off at a moderate speed so as to not make the dragon on her back too nervous. Once they were in the air they flew for a while in silence until Rainbow decided to strike up a friendly conversation.

"So what do you think of Flash Dancer Spike?" Rainbow Dash asked her companion innocently, who turned a bright shade of red and tried to hide it in vain.

"I-I have no idea what you mean!" He stammered as his words betrayed his emotions. Rainbow saw this and began to snicker at what her teasing had done to him. "Anyways!" He said trying to change the subject, "What do you think Twilight meant by a 'suspicious' mare?"

"No idea!" Rainbow said as she pondered on the subject, "knowing her, by 'suspicious,' she could have meant that the mare had insulted Celestia even a tiny bit." They both got a laugh out of that statement.

"Yeah, I'm sure she would have in that case!" He said chuckling, "in fact, sometimes I even feel like her relationship with Celestia isn't just 'student to teacher!' Heck I wouldn't be surprised if she was crushing on the princess at this moment with the adoration she's shown for her!" This cause them to burst into another fit of laughter until they heard a voice over the communication stones.

"Ahem!" The voice said clearing it's throat, and with that the chuckles came to an abrupt halt as Spike and Rainbow shared a nervous glance.

"Um...hey Twilight..." Spike started out a bit lamely, "what's up?"

"Oh nothing really." She said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice, to which Spike and Rainbow flinched a bit, "you know just listening in on you guys to see what you're talking about, and when I did gee wasn't I surprised at what I found out."

"Now Twi-" Spike tried to interject hastily, but to no avail as Twilight had gone into full on rage mode, ranting about many things, all of which hurt Spike and Rainbow's ears due to the volume. They quickly tried to find a solution to the problem.

"Hey uh Twilight?" Rainbow asked tentatively.

"WHAT?!?" The obviously enraged mare said as she fired back a question.

"Uh we're kinda um..." Rainbow said as she looked for something, anything to use as an excuse. "losing your signal -krschh-" The mare said imitating a static noise.

"Wait what? I hear you perfectly fine!" Twilight said, obviously baffled by the cyan pegasus's statement.

"Yeah -kfrregls- you're cutting in and out!" Spike said as he too imitated a static noise, although much less believably. Rainbow noticed it and gave him a look that said "-kfrregls-? seriously?" Spike simply shrugged in response.

"Wait but what do you-" Twilight said desperately trying to respond.

"Yep -Krsck-!" Rainbow continued, "you're -shhcik- fading in and out!"

"But-"

"Call -Gshhh- you back -Krschiunk- later!" Rainbow said hastily as she ended the conversation abruptly.

[Back at the Safe Room]

To say that Twilight Sparkle was confused about what had just occurred was an understatement. Her train of thought was accurately comparable to trying to load a PC game made in 2012 on a Windows 98 computer, simply put it just wasn't working. However, her brain finally managed to process one thought after a few moments: "Magic doesn't have static cutouts like that."

[At the Silver Strip]

Spike and Rainbow smirked as they heard a roar of fury that belonged to none other than Twilight herself. They burst out laughing as the pegasus struggled to keep herself flying a midst all the chuckles.

"She seems pretty mad huh?" Spike said as he finally recovered from his bout of laughter.

"You think?" Rainbow said snorting at the understatement.

"...Worth it?"

"You bet!" Rainbow said as they grinned and gave each other a bro-hoof. The rest of the way back to the safe room was uneventful as they made their way back through the Plaza and fought through a minor amount of zomponies. Unfortunately, one of Spike's spiked bats broke on the way, which he mourned greatly while Rainbow gave a comforting pat on the back and assured him that Applebloom could make him another one. However, just before getting through the door to the safe room, they saw a familiar pony at the cafe known as 'The Dark Bean.'

"Hey isn't that Bon Bon?" Spike inquired as he spotted the blue and pink maned mare calmly sipping a cup of joe, not even paying attention to any zomponies around her.

"Hey yeah it is!" Rainbow said in surprise. As they walked up to her Rainbow cheerily greeted her, "hey Bon Bon what are you doing here?"

"Oh hey Rainbow Dash!" Bon Bon said as she gave a happy wave to the two. "Oh and Spike what a surprise to see you back after all this time! I was just wandering around getting supplies with Lyra, but then she ran off and I've been trying to find her!"

"Oh really? Well where do you think she is?" Rainbow asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Hm..." The other mare mused as she rubbed her chin in thought, "Well she just ran off a little while ago so she should be around here somewhere! Maybe we should check in one of these shops!" She suggested as Spike and Rainbow agreed. As they looked around they noticed a couple of clothing stores as Spike decided to change out his duds as did Rainbow. Spike decided to wear a Dark Blue T-Shirt with an image of a Pony DJ that said ''Music is my life!" along with some khaki shorts and a pair of black sneakers.

"Handsome devil!" He remarked grinning as he examined himself in the mirror. He turned to Rainbow Dash and saw her outfit, which consisted of a Wonderbolts T-shirt (go figure) and that's it. "Hm... I wonder why ponies never wear any pants..." He thought to himself. He shrugged it off as they left the store and continued to another store nearby. This one seemed to be a mare's clothing store and in it they found a familiar aquamarine unicorn that Bon Bon knew all too well.

"Lyra! There you are!" Bon Bon exclaimed happily as she galloped over to her friend, who in turn gave a look of surprise at the sudden appearance of her best friend and roommate.

"Oh hey Bon Bon what's up?" Lyra asked casually.

"Nothing much, we were actually just looking for you right now!"

"Aw that's sweet of you to worry, but I was alright over here considering I was just browsing through these clothes here." The unicorn explained.

"Ah trying to be more 'human' I suppose?" Bon Bon teased as her friend blushed slightly.

"No! ...Maybe..." The unicorn sighed as she had been found out.

"Ah it's alright Lyra, just try not to go too far the next time you do something like this!" Bon Bon said patting her friend's back in a comforting manner. Meanwhile while this was occurring Spike and Rainbow were still dwelling on one small factor.

"Hey what's a human?" Rainbow asked nudging Spike to get his attention.

"I'm not sure, I think I read back in Canterlot that it's some type of mythical ape of some sort, but I didn't find much on them." Spike said recalling a bit of the studies he had done when he was younger. "Apparently they were said to have lived in another world called 'Earth!'"

"Earth huh?" Rainbow inquired as she absorbed the information.

"Yup, and that's not all!" Spike said continuing on, "Apparently the planet didn't have pegasi controlling the weather, and get this, they didn't have any magic at all, or anybody to raise the sun and moon!" He said a bit freaked out by his description.

"That's terrible!" Rainbow said in horror, "It's like some huge version of the Everfree forest!"

"I know!" Spike agreed, "The texts I read also said that a lot of them wanted to come to Equestria to start new lives here!"

"Well why wouldn't they after living on a planet without any weather control or magic?" Rainbow Dash said nodding her head in understanding.

"Yeah, that's not the weird part though, apparently they used to write stories about Equestria, some far-fetched, and some were pretty accurate, and I mean scary accurate." The dragon added.

"Hm... how weird..." Rainbow Dash said trying to wrap her head around these ideas.

[In the Safe Room]

Twilight and Pinkie Pie were waiting around casually to see if the Pinkie Sense would act up, when suddenly Twilight noticed that Pinkie had a distant stare, and remained frozen. "Uh...Pinkie? You okay?" Twilight inquired to her friend in a worried tone of voice. This question however cause Pinkie to snap back to herself, but with a grim look on her face.

"Twilight, I must go." Pinkie said with a determined tone of voice.

"Go, go where? We're stuck here remember!" Twilight reminded the usually bubbly mare.

"Hold on! Can't talk! The fourth wall needs me!" The pink mare declared as she jumped into a nearby drawer with ease, and disappearing altogether. Twilight, baffled by this, attempted to look in the drawer that her friend went into, only to find filing folders that were commonly found in such an area. Twilight, having already been stressed enough couldn't handle this mixture of shock, stress, and lack of logic in one sitting.

"Twilight.exe has stopped working." Her brain said to itself as it tried to cope with the situation, "Please reboot system and try again."

[Back in the Plaza]

"Well anyways ladies we've got a safe place we can take you to." Spike offered, breaking out of his previous discussion with Rainbow. "It's not that far and we were heading towards it anyways so you girls can come if you want."

"That sounds great! Thanks!" Lyra replied happily as the four set off for the safe room. It wasn't that far of a trip since the store Lyra was at was literally like a minute's walk away from the maintenance vents. When they got back in the safe room Lyra and Bon Bon thanked them for helping them out and Lyra thanked Spike with 15,000 bits. Needless to say, Spike and Rainbow almost fainted at the sight of this amount of cash.

"Where in the world did she get this much cash?" He whispered to Rainbow, who was equally confused.

"Don't look at me!" She replied, "I don't know her that well, just keep it for now and we'll see when it comes in handy!" After that they agreed to just keep as an attachment to Spike's backpack for cash purposes. Then they went up to the room where Twilight and the others were. Rainbow swiftly went over to Scootaloo to check on how she was doing and found that she was back to her old self. The two sisters happily shared a nuzzle of affection as the others in the room watched with full smiles. Spike on the other hand wasn't so lucky as he walked in only to find Twilight glaring at him and giving the silent treatment. Spike nervously tugged at the collar of his shirt while deciding to turn to AppleJack instead.

"So AppleJack?" He inquired to the Orange mare of the Apple family, "who was that mare that you said seemed suspicious?"

"Well little buddy, " she answered with a low tone of voice, "she seemed normal enough at first, telling us she needed a safe place to hide from those zomponies, and naturally we let her in, but..."

"But?"

"Then she started asking questions...and that wouldn't be weird but she seemed to want to know everything about us, and it got creepy."

"Hm..." Spike grunted while rubbing his chin in thought, "That does seem pretty weird. I'll go check it out for ya AJ!"

"Thanks Spahke, it means a lot to us here!"

"Hey it's no problem!" Spike assured the mare as he headed into the hallway. After a bit of searching around through the rooms he saw a mare he hadn't seen before in the cafeteria section of the safe room. It was a mare with a dirt brown mane that was shaped not unlike Rainbow's mane-style, and a bit darker brown coat. Her tail oddly enough was quite poofy and consisted of the dirt brown shade, but also had another shade of light green put into it. Her hooves were colored a strange lime-green color. Spike noted her appearance and walked in to talk to her. "Hello there!" He greeted her casually, holding out his hand to shake her hoof.

"Why hello there!" She said with a smile that seemed a bit forced as Spike noticed, and also a bit too happy tone of voice. "You must be Spike!"

"What?" Spike paused in surprise, "How did you know my name?" He asked in suspicion while narrowing his eyebrows. This seemed to catch the mare off guard for a split-second, but she recovered, which Spike was quick to catch this reaction.

"W-Well who else would be the only dragon that Twilight and the others were telling me about?" She said a bit too hastily. "Anyways, enough of that!" She said quickly changing the subject, "My name is Sugar Song!" she introduced herself while shaking Spike's hand.

"Hm...AJ was right..." Spike thought to himself, "everything about her simply gives off the impression that she's hiding something, I'll let it pass though, don't want her to catch on..." He then shook her hoof in return while giving a casual smile. "Well it's nice to meet you! If you need anything don't hesitate to ask!" He said turning to leave as he waved to her.

"It was nice to meet you too Spike!" She said waving in return. "I hope to see more of you soon!"

"Weird mare..." Spike muttered to himself as he returned to the room where Twilight and the others were. As he walked in everypony turned toward him to hear his opinion of the mare in question. "Well..." he began, "She really is suspicious alright, there's no question about it!"

"So what should we do with her?" Rainbow asked, giving quick looks to the others around the room.

"Well..." Twilight began, eyebrows furrowed in thought, "she hasn't done anything yet, so I guess she can stay, but if she does anything suspicious we'll call you back her Spike!"

"Alright then." Spike confirmed. "Maybe we shou-"

"You could've told me the front door was locked!" Flash Dancer cut in, startling everypony in the room. Spike surprisingly was the first to recover from the shock as he managed to reply.

"Heh...sorry about that!" He said with a bit of a blush, "but well you didn't really tell us you were coming either to be fair."

"Hm...fair enough I suppose." Flash Dancer shrugged as she glanced around the room at the other mares. "Well well Spike you didn't tell me you had an entire harem of mares in here!" She said with a teasing smirk. Everypony in the room except for the crusaders, who didn't know what a harem was, turned tomato red at the mare's statement.

"B-bu-wha-HUH?" Was all Spike could vocalize as he tried to deny the accusation. Flash Dancer however giggled at his speechlessness and turned to the other mares, who gave mixed reactions to the scandalous statement. Pinkie Pie was confused, not knowing what to make of it, Twilight and Applejack simply glared at her, showing her their disdain, poor Fluttershy was as red as could be she hid her face behind her mane, while Rarity was downright offended by it, and looked about ready to give the mare reporter a piece of her mind. Rainbow Dash, already having experience with the mare, simply rolled her eyes at the comment.

"Hey sis, what's a hair-em?" Applebloom asked curiously as Applejack let out an 'eep' and quickly turned to her sister with a nervous look on her face, and saw her younger sister along with her friends waiting eagerly for her answer.

"Uh well...uh..." the older Apple sibling fumbled through her words as she tried to think of an explanation. "Well ya see...it's a group a mares that have...oh horseapples!" she thought to herself, cursing the fact that she was the element of honesty, and as such couldn't lie worth well... poop.

"Relax everypony I was only joking!" Flash Dancer said cracking a grin that did little to shift their dispositions towards her. However, this did distract the younger trio of fillies from Applejack, who gave a sigh of relief at her stroke of luck. Flash Dancer simply shrugged and turned towards Spike once again. "Anyways did you tell them what we found?" She said, her statement piquing everypony's interests.

"Not yet, but I was about to." Spike said. "Well, Rainbow and Flash Dancer managed to make it to the central security room with me, but there was a problem!"

"What problem?" Twilight said with worry.

"All the records were either destroyed or erased, and the guards at the station were both dead." The dragon said glumly as he recalled the grim state he and his companions had found the room in.

"Ohnothisisn'tgoodatallguys!" Pinkie Pie said while bouncing in her usual hyper state albiet with panic, "Thisisn'tjustnormalbadthisis super-duper-not-good-at-all BAD!" She finished, emphasizing the word bad by stretching her arms out in alarm.

"Pinkie's right darling!" Rarity agreed, "If you couldn't find any record of what happened how are you supposed to prove that Rainbow Dash is innocent?"

"I don't know..." Spike said gloomily while deep in thought, "We don't really have any leads right now so I can't tell you what to do..."

"Well...I'll keep looking for things to find, while you guys can try doing anything you think would help!" Flash Dancer chimed in helpfully.

"I guess that's as good a plan as any!" AppleJack agreed. The orange mare then turned to address Spike and Rainbow, "while she's doin' that ya'll should keep on the lookout for more survahvors and anything else that's suspicious, Twi will keep ya posted on anythin' Pinkie's Pinkie Sense turns up."

"Will do AJ!" They both nodded in agreement. The group then went back to their separate activities as Spike, Rainbow, and Flash Dancer left to go about their business. As Spike and Rainbow passed the cafeteria Spike turned to give one last look to Sugar Song, and found her staring right at him. This unnerved Spike greatly, and continued to do so as she gave him a smirk that was filled with something Spike just couldn't put his finger on. Spike shuddered and slowly turned to keep going into the vents.

"What is it Spike?" Rainbow asked, noticing his discomfort.

"Nothing..." he replied, still a bit shaken by the previous event, "just a bad feeling that things are about to get a lot worse..." he muttered bitterly as they headed towards the great expanse of the mall once again.

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 69:09:12

Scoop 1: Cashing in the Bits

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 68:49:58

(Dead Rising: Mall Music 3 plays)

Having nothing else to do, Rainbow and Spike simply decided to hang around the plaza for awhile, grabbing a bite to eat as neither of them had eaten anything since the outbreak had started. They decided that seeing what the dark bean had to offer would be a prime candidate for such a venture, and indeed it was. Spike had grabbed himself a couple of brownies and a mug of cold milk to wash them down, while Rainbow went for a few slices of chocolate cake and a cup of coffee herself. Needless to say, aside from the occasional zompony, it was pretty peaceful.

"This is nice." Rainbow said sipping her coffee as Spike simply nodded in agreement, preferring to munch on his brownie rather than answer her. After they ate for a few more minutes, they decided to walk around the plaza a bit. Nothing was really happening, until suddenly Twilight contacted them.

"Hey Rainbow? Spike?" The unicorn said getting there attention.

"Yeah Twilight?" They responded, thinking something was up.

"This may sound a bit weird," Twilight said a bit hesitantly, "but Pinkie says that her Pinkie Sense told of a new shop opening up on the Silver Strip."

"A shop?" Spike asked with a mix of curiosity and confusion, "But who would open up a shop at a time like this?"

"No idea... but that's what she told me." The lavender unicorn said, a shrug evident by the tone of her voice. "You should probably check it out just in case they have something useful.

"Alright thanks Twilight!" Spike said as he turned to Rainbow. "What do you think?" He asked raising an eyebrow towards her.

"Why not?" Rainbow said with a shrug. The two zompony slaying companions then set off towards the Silver Strip, fighting through a couple waves of zomponies, but aside from Rainbow's needle-holding MMA Hoof gloves breaking, nothing else noteworthy happened on the trip there. Once they got to the Silver Strip, they immediately saw the shop Pinkie had referred to, as it was one they hadn't seen before on their previous trips there. As they walked/trotted up to the store, they noticed that it had obviously been a different store that had been hastily remodeled with cardboard signs, christmas lights, and a bell to signify a customer's entrance and exit. However, they noticed a diamond dog standing in front of the entrance that was barred shut.

(Music Stops)

"Wait what's a diamond dog doing here?" Rainbow questioned, her voice laden with surprise.

"No idea." Spike replied, "let's ask him and see." As they walked up to the gate that enclosed the store, the diamond dog noticed them, and actually looked a bit excited to see them.

(Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Shop Music plays)

"Ah welcome!" The dog greeted them in a gruff, but welcoming tone while giving a smile not unlike the one a sleazy salesperson would give. "Welcome to Diamond Dog Delights! Where we, and by that I mean mostly me, but we sounds better, have quality goods at affordable prices!" He said, gesturing to his store while Spike and Rainbow shared a look of confusion, not expecting the dog to be this friendly towards them.

"Um, you do know that we took out a couple of your friends right?" Rainbow said questioning the intelligence of the dog.

"Oh I know that already!" The dog said simply waving the inquiry off, "However, unlike most of my brethren, who are quick to distrust all outsiders, I let the customer's bits speak for themselves." He said emphasizing his statement by opening the gates and ushering Spike and Rainbow, who were hesitant, inside the store.

"Well what exactly do you have for sale?" Spike inquired, curious as he spotted many items around the store.

"Oh I sell many things my friends!" The dog said walking over to the counter, "I have weapons, food items, and even a rare stash of the ever so helpful Ponybrex!" He declared pointing out each one as he listed them off, the last item gaining the utmost attention of Spike and Rainbow. "Provided you have the bits, any of these good items are yours!" He said gesturing to the price tags, which upon inspection, made Rainbow and Spike gasp in shock.

"20,000 bits for ONE dosage?" Rainbow cried out in horror, "That's terrible pricing!"

"Times are tough, silly pegasus, and as such I must adjust to this lot of life we've been given!" The dog replied, unfazed by the pair's reactions.

"You're a real con artist you know that?" Spike replied, annoyance evident in his voice.

"I prefer the term, 'charming and adaptive businessdog,' but whatever you say." The canine salesman said with a hearty chuckle. Disgusted by the prices, Rainbow and Spike walked out of the store and agreed only to use the store in times of desperation.

(Music stops)

"You know Rainbow, maybe we should gather up the 20,000 bits we need..." Spike said after giving the matter some thought.

"You think so?" Rainbow said giving him a questioning look.

"Yeah I mean, we already have 15,000 bits from Lyra as it is..."

"True..."

"And we did say to buy from it in times of desperation..."

"Yeah...I guess you're right..." Rainbow said with a hint of skepticism. "But how are we going to come up with 5,000 more bits for the Ponybrex?"

"Well...there are a lot of slot machines around here..." Spike said, voicing his thoughts.

"No offense Spike, but I don't want to gamble to get the bits we need for my sister." Rainbow said scoffing at his idea.

"Actually I was thinking of smashing some of the machines open for the bits." Spike said, which made Rainbow stop mid-trot and give the idea some actual thought.

"I suppose it could work..." Rainbow agreed, "but can we cover enough ground in time? What if Twilight finds something before then and we can't make it?"

"Hm..." Spike said, concentrating deeply on the problem presented before them, "I suppose we'll have to split up then to cover more ground...you okay with that idea?" He asked the cyan mare.

"Of course!" The athletic pegasus said cockily, striking a heroic pose in the process, "I wouldn't be 20% cooler if I couldn't handle things myself now would I?" She said as Spike chuckled at her antics. After that, the two agreed to meet back here in about 3 hours after gathering what items they could find, with Spike going off to the Yucatan Casino, and Rainbow Dash going off to the South Plaza to see if some Ponybrex couldn't be found there. Unbeknowst to them however, an all too familiar figure was watching the both of them as they left.

(Dead Rising 2: Off The Record: Pause Menu Music 8 plays)

"Hm...I better tell the Prince..." The pony muttered as she flew off to the other side of the Pegasium. After landing in the middle of the arena, the unknown pony walked near the stage, and opened up a hidden trap door that led to a different area of the underground tunnels that Spike and Rainbow had found before. However, this section of it was much more furnished than the rest, seeming to be a hideout of some sort. As the pony presented itself before it's comrades guarding the door, it walked into the interior of the hideout towards a familiar pompous unicorn sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. "Prince Blueblood sir!" It said, speaking with a hint of worry in its voice as the Prince turned to reveal himself.

"Yes what is it? Be quick! I don't have time for whatever follies you may have to share!" The Prince said with obvious annoyance.

"Well sir, it seems that the Dragon and the Rainbow mare are trying to figure out your plan!"

"Hm..." Blueblood said, furrowing his brows as he set down his cup of tea that he'd been drinking, "...this is troubling, but I do not think they would be able to find out enough to be accurate even if they do know about us." He said as he dismissed the possibility.

"But sir, that dragon is obviously craftier than he looks, and the Rainbow one's motivation to protect her sister may prove to make her a hindrance in our mission!" The pony said arguing back.

"Hm...interesting, that...Rainbow...Dash is it? She's the one you impersonated correct?" He said inquiring to the pony in front of him, who simply nodded in return. "Interesting..." He said muttering to himself, eyebrows furrowed in deep thought, before suddenly giving an evil smirk before continuing. "Interesting indeed..."

"Sir?" The pony asked a bit nervously.

"Yes?" Blueblood said a he paused in his thoughts.

"I also came to inform you that they have split up to search for anything of value that they can find." The pony said explaining what she had seen earlier.

"Is that so? ...Perfect..." The Prince said as his smirk grew wider. "Where is the pegasus headed to?" He asked as the pony informed him of Rainbow Dash's whereabouts. "Bring her to me, unconscious preferably!" Blueblood said in a commanding tone.

"Not to question you sir, but what do you plan to do to her?" The pony asked with genuine curiosity.

"Oh? I simply plan to squash this little threat to our plan before it has even begun." He said giving a grin full of malice which made the pony shiver a little as she left to go do her master's bidding. "Oh yes Rainbow Dash, I have plans for you! Plans indeed..." He said laughing darkly as he calmly went back to sipping his tea.

(Music stops)

[Yucatan Casino]

"Hm... I wonder where I should start?" Spike muttered to himself as he eyed the many slot machines around the casino. Not willing to waste AppleBloom's good weapons, he grabbed a guitar out of one of the display stands and was about to begin smashing some machines, but he saw a stallion looking around the casino, a look of terror etched on his face. "Hey there! Are you alright?" Spike called out to him as he began to walk towards him, but suddenly the stallion's visage of terror grew even more horrified as he then galloped away from Spike. "Huh...I'm not that ugly am I?" Spike said chuckling at his small joke, not even noticing the giant shadow of a pony looming towards him until it was too late. "What the!" Spike said whipping around as he noticed a change in light, but reacted too late as he saw a hoof fly towards him before falling into a state of unconsciousness.

[South Plaza]

"Man I wonder if Spike's having more luck than I am?" Rainbow Dash thought in a huff as she searched another box she had come across, still finding nothing of use. "Man nothing useful in here! No bits, no Pony brex, no anything!" She said giving out a cry of frustration, "you'd think since this place is under construction that maybe they'd leave stuff behind but *nooo*...." she thought irate as she decided to continue looking around, the unfinished plaza remaining dark and dim. "Man this place gives me the creeps!" She thought with a slight shudder as she decided to quicken her pace, showing a bit of fear that would otherwise not be shown around her friends.

Suddenly, the sound of a box being knocked over caught her attention as she whipped around in shock, her heart racing as she frantically looked around, seeing nothing but the occasional zompony skulking around. "H-hello!" She called out, silently hoping it to be another surviving pony, "anypony there? Spike? If this is your idea of a joke this isn't funny at all! Pretty good, but still not funny!" She said hastily correcting herself. Then, she heard the sound of wings flapping rapidly as she whirled around to look behind her. "What-" was all she had time to say before she felt a hoof connect with the side of her head, knocking her to the ground and leaving her at the edge of consciousness. "Scootaloo...stay safe..." Was her last thought as she saw the figure trot towards her and blacked out...

TIME BEFORE THE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 68:03:23

Scoop 2: Taming the Beast Within

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 66:56:10

"Where am I?" Spike thought to himself as he slowly regained consciousness. "Oh man my head hurts like heck!" He thought wincing in pain as he opened his eyes and began to look around. He noticed that he was still in the Yucatan Casino, and that he didn't seem to have been hurt in any form or fashion, "well I haven't been hurt *yet** anyways,*" he thought with a bit of fear. However, he then noticed to his left a large earth pony stallion, who rivaled the size of Big Macintosh himself, with a beige coat and a sky blue mane and tail, though his mane seemed unkempt, he looked like he meant no harm. However, Spike noticed that the stallion didn't seem to be focused on him, but rather something in front of him.

"Look what I found you pretty girl!" The stallion said, his voice denoting that whatever he was talking to, was obviously important to him. "Fresh meat!"

"What!" Spike's eyes widened in alarm at the implications of the statement. The stallion then turned around to face Spike, having a smile on his face that under different circumstances, would lead the purple dragon to believe that he wouldn't hurt a fly. However, Spike's eyes then fell to what was behind the earth pony. "You've gotta be *kidding** me*!" He thought in horror as he saw a fully grown tiger, sleeping peacefully with a couple of bones from what was obviously its previous meals. "Hey uh mister!" Spike said gaining the stallion's attention. "There are plenty of zomponies around here! Maybe she could eat those?" He said with a hopeful smile.

"NO!" The stallion shouted angrily, which startled Spike at the suddenness of the outburst, "NO! NOT ZOMBIES! That meat is rotten like all her food now!" The stallion then gestured to some piles of meat that had obviously gone bad, as they were a sickly green and left untouched by the tiger. The stallion then continued on, tears almost in his eyes, "It's gone bad! She needs fresh meat!"

"Sure! Sure!" Spike said, feeling a little sympathy for the stallion, who's tiger obviously meant the world to him. "Reminds me of Fluttershy in a way!" He thought. "Hey listen!" Spike began, attempting to reason with the pony, "I can go find some meat! Like some fresh..." Spike stopped, realizing that Equestria didn't really have much use for meat products, "...fish?" He offered, remembering that griffons usually ate the aquatic animal as part of their diets, and that this being a place to serve all manner of Equestrain guests, there had to be some type of meat around.

"NO!" The stallion shouted hesitantly, showing that he had considered the offer at least briefly. He then gained a look of sadness and pain on his face. "Other ponies...not been very good to Thunder Tumble..." He said glumly, Spike noting that he must be Thunder Tumble, "not like Snowflake, " he said with a small smile as he began to gently pet the tiger, who purred in response to this act of affection. "Snowflake my friend..." he said quietly as he continued stroking the tiger's fur.

"Well listen Thunder Tumble..." Spike said, feeling sad for the poor stallion, who had obviously been made fun of many times, "let's talk this over ok buddy?" he said giving Thunder a reassuring smile. "We just need to talk this over nice and slow okay?"

"NO!" Thunder Tumble bellowed, making Spike jump back in shock, "Me not slow!" He shouted at no one it seemed like, "They all said that! Stop saying that!" The stallion said continuing on with tears now in his eyes. He then turned to the tiger, who had woken up amidst his cries of fury and had begun emitting a low growl. "You see!" Thunder Tumble said addressing his pet, "other ponies not nice!" His sadness then changed to a look of anger. "Snowflake..." he began in a low, threatening voice, "go and eat your fresh meat...it's time for supper!" He suddenly yelled out pointing to Spike. The tiger then roared once, it's eyes trained on its new prey.

"Aw *hay*!" Spike thought with unease at the situation presented before him.

[Pegasium Underground Tunnels]

Prince Blueblood sipped his tea calmly. "This day has gone quite perfectly if I do say so myself." He thought happily as he recalled the days events. "Step 1: Gather everypony possible into a setup in a giant arena, Check! Step 2: Release zomponies on said crowd, Check! Step 3: Create mass panic, Check! Step 4: Revel in your victory before looting the city senseless, Check! Step 5: Burst into random song out of sheer joy? Wait a minute..." He thought with a grimace at that last step before turning to a guard pony. "Guard?"

"Yes Prince Blueblood sir?" The pony gave a salute while heading to attention.

"Who wrote step 5 on the agenda?" Prince Blueblood asked with a good amount of annoyance evident in his voice.

"That would be Fancy Scribbles sir!" The guard replied almost immediately.

"Well have him fired!" Blueblood ordered, "...and get me a bottle of AppleJack Daniels, I feel as if I'm in a celebrating mood!"

"Yes sir!" The guard saluted the Prince once more, and then galloped off to go fulfill his orders.

"Ah, it feels quite good to be me!" The Prince chuckled as he began to relax in his chair. Suddenly, the doors opened and the Prince turned around to find the pony who had posed as Rainbow Dash carrying her real self on her back trotting in before setting the pegasus mare down.

"Sir, the mare Rainbow Dash has been retrieved as you have ordered." The mare said giving a salute to the Prince.

"Ah good! Now my plan will finally unfold!" Blueblood said with a malovent grin.

"Sir...just out of curiosity, what do you plan to do with her?" The pony asked seeing the look on Blueblood's face.

"Oh I simply plan to take care of our draconian and pegasus friends," He said nonchalantly, " and what way to get rid of a group, than to turn them against each other?" He smirked.

"B-but how will you do that?" The mare behind him said, voice mixed with nervousness and curiosity.

"It's quite easy really, all I need to do is alter her memories to make her think that she has never known that draconian pest of ours!" He explained, then asking, "you've heard of the 'want it, need it' spell have you not?"

"Y-yes sir!"

"Well then I am simply reversing what I want her to feel towards the dragon, by casting a 'hate it, scorn it' spell, and with her altered memories, she'll have no questions about why she needs to hate the dragon in question!" The pompous Prince said triumphantly. "For a bit of added fun, I'll also place a lock on the 'hate it, scorn it' spell until the dragon says his name, and then things will get...interesting..." Blueblood chuckled darkly as he said this.

"So will you perform it now?" The mare questioned.

"Yes, and afterwards you must take her back to the spot that the dragon and her agreed to meet up, and then we will watch as our two greatest threats take care of each other like a pack of rabid, cannibalistic, wolves." The Prince affirmed as he began preparations to cast the spells. Rainbow Dash however, could only lay on the ground limply, not knowing the fate that was about to befall her and Spike...

[In Rainbow Dash's Mind]

(Dead Rising 2: Off The Record: Pause Menu Music 3 plays)

"Oh man what happened?" Rainbow groaned as she struggled to get up, feeling quite tired. She looked around to see that she was back at the Safe Room where Scootaloo and all her other friends were. "What the- how did I end up here?" She wondered remembering that she had been on the other side of the mall practically before she had woken up. However, as she walked around she noticed something, everypony was gone! "What, but where did they go?" She thought worriedly as she checked all the rooms she could find. "I know that the other definitely wouldn't go anywhere with the younger fillies that would be dangerous!" Rainbow rationalized, "so why can't I find anyone?" Suddenly, a scream broke her out of her thoughts. "That came from downstairs!" She whispered to herself in shock as she galloped towards the source of the sound.

When she got down there, a horrible sight met her eyes. It was her friends, brutally beaten and bruised and they lay on the ground in pain. Huddled against the corner was Scootaloo, and trapping her there was...something she couldn't quite make out. Oddly enough the shape seemed to be that of a dragon, but for some reason she couldn't quite focus on the individual, though she could see everything else perfectly fine! However, she knew that whoever it was, they wouldn't harm her sister under her watch! "Hey you! Stop right there! Don't you dare touch her!" She yelled out angrily at the captor.

"Ah Rainbow, what a surprise!" The figure said, shifting to turn towards her.

"I know that voice! It's...it's...right on the tip of my tongue..." Rainbow thought, frantically, but fruitlessly trying to remember who the voice belonged to. However, she decided that it didn't matter and focused on protecting her sister.

"Why did you do this to Twilight and my friends?" She demanded of the figure, who simply chuckled in response.

"Oh Rainbow, you simply wouldn't understand!" The figure said waving her off as if she were a foal asking a silly question to its parents.

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow said in a challenging manner. "Try me!"

"Oh...if you insist." The voice said relenting, "They simply...got in the way."

"What?" Rainbow gasped in disbelief, "what could they have possibly gotten in the way of that justified this?" She yelled gesturing to her gravely wounded friends.

"Well you see, I am an individual who simply wants the means to get my life back." The figure said casually, not even bothering to acknowledge the beaten ponies. "You see a lot of ponies mocked me back when I should have had the fame I deserved, and instead of getting the praise I so greatly desired, I only had scorn. Since that day, I decided to set my priorities straight. That means, you get in my way, and you'll pay for it!" The figure explained with a bit of harshness at the end.

"You're crazy!" Rainbow scoffed, "Just because of that now you've hurt my friends and family! That's sick!"

"Ah speaking of sick!" The figure cut her off with a voice filled with realization, "Your sister here, needs this doesn't she?" It asked pointing at Scootaloo, who shrank back from the attention.

"You stay away from her you b-" Rainbow was cut off by the sound of a bell. It rang once, twice, thrice, until finally ringing a total of seven times.

"Ah seven A.M.!" The figure clapped its hands together and rubbed them in delight. "It's about time for Scootaloo to take a dose of this don't you think?" It asked her as it pulled out something Scootaloo desperately needed: A box of Ponybrex.

"Give it to me! Now!" Rainbow ordered, narrowing her eyes at the figure, who simply shrugged in compliance.

"Whatever you say!" The figure then looked as if it was about to throw the box to the pegasus mare, but then threw it on the ground, and crushed it with it's foot, much to Rainbow's horror. "Oops!" It's voice filled with mock surprise, "I should really be more careful when handling things like that!" It then chuckled evilly.

"How could you?!?" Rainbow roared furiously at the figure, who gave no visible reaction, "She needed that to survive!" At her outburst the voice simply laughed mockingly at her, making her rage overtake her as she rushed towards the figure, intending to utterly obliterate him. However as she got close to the figure, her dream, or memories in her mind, began to fade suddenly as she woke up.

[In the Silver Strip]

Rainbow gasped as she woke up suddenly, drenched in a cold sweat and panting furiously she looked around and sighed in relief noticing that the horrible scene was gone from her mind. Noticing that she was back in the Silver Strip, she checked the time on a nearby clock and realized that a whole two hours had passed since she had been in the South Plaza. "Man I napped for a while didn't I? She thought to herself as she simply sat down, recalling the dream she had had. "It was so vivid! Did it really happen?" She pondered as she then thought of something else. "Just who *was** that figure, I swear I knew him from somewhere..." She then gained of look of anger mixed with determination, "well whoever it was, if I *ever run into them again, they're going down." she vowed.

[Yucatan Casino]

(Dead Rising 2: Snowflake Boss Battle Music Plays)

"It's-a-tiger-It's-a-tiger-IT'S-A-TIGER!!!" Spike shrieked in terror as he ran through the many slot machines, trying to shake the orange jungle predator. However Snowflake, the tiger, being trained for this sort of situation, stalked him relentlessly as he ducked and weaved through the slot machines frantically. After a while Spike dove behind a counter, holding his breath as he heard the overgrown feline growling, and gave a sigh of relief as he heard the tiger run off to search elsewhere. He then called Twilight to see what he could do about this situation. "TWILIGHT!" He whispered rapidly as he hoped desperately that she would answer soon.

"What is it Spi-" She was suddenly cut off by Spike as he tried to hastily get to his point.

"Can you teleport Fluttershy over to my position please?"

"Uh sure just hang on a second!" Twilight answered as Spike began to hear talking in the background as the unicorn was telling the pale yellow pegasus what she was going to do. Spike then heard a crash and a primal roar near him as he gulped, knowing the tiger to be near.

"Come on Twilight hurry it up!!!" He thought in terror as he began trying to look around for another hiding spot. Suddenly much to his relief, Fluttershy appeared in front of him in a flash of light.

"Spike what is-"

"No time to explain come on!" He yelled hastily as he grabbed her hoof, pulling her away from the current spot they were in.

"O-Okay..." She said, her usual shyness entering her voice as she complied. As they ran/galloped away for a while, Spike decided they were finally a safe distance from Snowflake's keen senses. "Spike w-what's going on?" Fluttershy asked him with a worry-filled voice.

"Okay here's the deal, " Spike took a deep breath before explaining. "There's a tiger named Snowflake out there that's trying to eat me!"

"O-oh goodness, but why would it want to do that?" Fluttershy gasped at his explanation.

"Because this stallion named Thunder Tumble told her to, it seems that Snowflake was his pet and probably his only friend, because he was made fun of a lot as a young colt or foal I think. So I'm thinking that if you can get Snowflake to warm up to you and bring her to Thunder, then he'll see that we are at least a bit friendly and maybe talk him out of making the tiger eat us!" Spike said as Fluttershy thought it over, and then nodded.

"A-Alright, I'll do it." She agreed, flying off to find Snowflake, while Spike followed her, just in case Snowflake got a bit too rough for her to handle. Soon the mare sighted the jungle cat looking around in frustration for the dragon that it had been chasing after. However, it then detected her presence and roared at her as Fluttershy calmly walked up to the tiger, not letting it's aggressive stance faze her in the slightest.

(Music Stops)

(Fluttershy's Lullaby - Music Box Version plays)

The tiger was crouched, and prepared to pounce on the poor pony, but then something it didn't expect happened...the pegasus walked up to her, began stroking her fur, and spoke in a sweet, soothing voice. "There there!" Fluttershy said to the feline, who had stopped pouncing, but still maintained a stance of attack. "It's ok Snowflake, you'll be alright!" She continued stroking the fur of the feline, and noticed it's belly, which was skinny and and emaciated, "Oh my, you haven't eaten in quite a while have you?" She said gasping in shock, "You're not angry at all! Just hungry aren't you?"

As the yellow pegasus mare continued talking to the behemoth of a cat the feline slowly began calming down, gradually warming up to the yellow pegasus. Finally, Fluttershy successfully calmed the tiger into a calm state of purrs after much effort. Spike, who had been busy leading Thunder Tumble to this spot, ran in with the stallion chasing him angrily.

"I'll get you stupid...dragon?" He paused noticing the sight of Fluttershy and Snowflake together in a peaceful state. "Snowflake? You like yellow pegasus?" He questioned as the tiger gave an affirming lick to the mare next to her, to which Fluttershy smiled warmly at the feline.

"See Thunder?" Spike said, smiling as he watched the scene. "We didn't want to hurt you guys at all, we just wanted to be friends!"

"You wanted to be...friends?" The stallion echoed in wonderment as a huge grin crossed his face as he wrapped Fluttershy and Spike in a bear hug. "Friends!" He repeated happily, cherishing the notion of it.

"Eep!" Fluttershy squeaked in a terrified manner, turning a bright red as she was unaccustomed to such displays of affection, and from a stallion no less!

"Woah big guy!" Spike chuckled noticing his friend's reaction to the embrace. "Easy now! Don't want to crush us!"

"Oops, sorry!" The stallion grinned sheepishly while letting go of the pair.

"It's alright, just glad that's over!" The three shared a smile at the fact that a new companionship had been formed. "Listen Thunder, " Spike addressed his new ally, who turned to him, "how'd you like to come back to the safe house with us, I'm sure we can find Snowflake something to eat there!"

"Well, if you think we can then sure!" Thunder yelled happily as Spike and Fluttershy smiled at his joyful demeanor. However, Snowflake, who had noticed the talking that had been going on, had awoken from the nap she had been taking, and looking she noticed the one thing she still thought was food: SPIKE. She gave out a low growl as she began to slowly walk up to Spike, licking her lips in anticipation at the thought of a new meal.

"Oh hey Snowflake!" Spike said cheerfully as he noticed the tiger walking up. "What's going on- wait...why is she growling at me?" He asked nervously as he noticed the feline eyeing him hungrily.

"Uh oh..." Fluttershy and Thunder Tumble both said simultaneously , knowing the look that Snowflake was giving the dragon.

"What?" Spike said, confused as to why they spoke with such foreboding tones, "Why is she drooling? And licking her lips! And- oh you've gotta be kidding me..." He groaned as the tiger roared, lunging at her prey. "AW COME ON!" Spike yelled as he once again ran from the starving tiger.

(Dead Rising 2: Ted and Snowflake Theme plays again)

"Ok Spike, think fast, gotta feed a hungry tiger quickly..." He muttered as he frantically searched for a place to grab a slab of meat. Suddenly, he noticed that there was a restaurant on the other side of the casino. "Well, guess I gotta make a break for it!" He yelled, sprinting towards the diner as fast as he could with Snowflake right on his tail. Suddenly, he heard Snowflake coming from his right as he tried to jump out of the way, but still got tackled to the ground by the tiger. "Get offa' me!!!" He yelled, trying to keep the tiger from mauling him. He successfully managed to break free and keep running after a couple seconds of struggling.

He then managed to make it the rest of the way and dove for the cupboards that were sure to house some food. "Come on come on!" He muttered in a hasty manner, "Where's all the MEAT!" He cried out in joy as he found the object he was looking for. Not one, not two, but three fresh fish right at the back. "Sweet! Now how do I feed her the fish and not me?" He wondered as he suddenly heard Snowflake barrel into the restaurant, knocking over plates and cups before sighting him. "Hope this works..." He gulped as he lay the fish down in a trail leading to him, this enticed the tiger, who began to eat each of the fish one by one, with Spike taking a picture of the scene, figuring he might as well take a picture of the moment. This netted him a picture worth 2000 PP in the "Special" category. "Fantastic!" He yelled out proudly as the tiger finished her meal, looking around for more food before growling at him once again. "B-but I don't have any more..." He said nervously as Snowflake approached him, intent on finishing her meal.

Suddenly, as if by a grace from God, Spike noticed one slab of raw beef sitting untouched on a plate. "Well isn't this a nice coincidence!" He thought happily as he grabbed the piece of meat and held it in offering to the tiger, who graciously accepted the meal by hungrily chowing down on the beef. Then, the tiger looked up at Spike, and seemed regard him with a more...accepting look, walking up to him and giving him a light nuzzle, as if saying thanks for the meal. "Um...you're welcome I suppose." Spike said relieved that he didn't end up being dinner. Then a confused look crossed his face as he had a thought, "wait a minute...you're an orange tiger named Snowflake?" The tiger simply growled as if to say "yeah, and your point?"

(Music Stops)

Just then Fluttershy and Thunder Tumble came running up, half expecting Spike to be devoured, but were surprised to find Spike perfectly fine.

"Spike!" Fluttershy said happily, "thank goodness you're alright!" She then hugged him, relieved that he hadn't ended up lunch.

"Yeah Fluttershy I'm just fine!" The dragon reassured her. Just then, he looked at the clock in realization, before seeing that almost three hours had passed since he and Rainbow had split up. "Aw hay!" He thought, remembering that he still hadn't gotten any bits while in here.

"Spike? You ok little buddy?" Thunder Tumble asked Spike, noticing the dragon's guilty look.

"Well, not really." Spike said with a sigh. "You see, I promised my friend that I'd get at least 5000 more bits when I came here, but I haven't even gotten any, and we're supposed to meet up in a couple of minutes!"

"Oh..." Thunder Tumble said nodding as he concentrated on something, "Bits..." he echoed as he rubbed his chin in thought, before a look of realization found its way onto his face, "You mean like these?" he asked pulling out a good sized bag of the gold coins.

"U-uh yeah!" Spike stammered, not believing his incredible amount of good luck.

"Well, since Thunder and Snowflake don't really need these anymore, you have them Spike!" The stallion said smiling as Spike remained speechless, taking the bag into his hands.

"Thanks Thunder...I don't know what to say..." He said with a grateful smile. Suddenly, he remembered he had to leave. "Hey Fluttershy, can you help Thunder back to the safe room for me?" He asked pleadingly, knowing that he didn't have much time to spare.

"Of course Spike, don't worry about it!" Fluttershy said smiling, "You just hurry along and get back to Rainbow Dash ok?"

"Will do!" Spike said nodding as he ran back towards the Silver Strip. However, as he began to head back, he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen...

[Pegasium Underground Tunnels]

"And now, we wait..." Blueblood said with a smirk as he watched Spike running towards Rainbow Dash on the many screens he had in his hideout, waiting for his plan to come to fruition...

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 66:01:19

Scoop 3: Ponies Like Us

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 65:59:34

"Oh man where is she?" Spike muttered to himself. The draconian reporter was currently searching for his good friend Rainbow Dash due to the pair previously agreeing to meet up in the Silver Strip once they had at least 20,000 bits. However, as the purple dragon looked around he couldn't seem to find any trace of the pegasus. He took a look up in the sky to check if she had taken flight, but the skies were clear. "Did something happen to her? I hope she's ok..." he thought in anxiety as he got more and more frantic at the idea that his friend could be in danger. However, he suddenly noticed a peculiar item lying on the ground, it looked something like two saws duct taped to a metal rod to form a double-bladed staff of some sort. He gasped as he realized something, "that seems like it would be one of Apple Bloom's combo weapons! ...So Rainbow *was** here!*" He went up to the staff to inspect it when a voice startled him.

"Hey!" The source of the voice called out angrily, "You get the hay away from my stuff!" Spike turned around quickly, and sighed in relief at who it was.

"Whoa chill Rainbow! Sorry I didn't know it was yours!" He chuckled as he held his hands up in apology, he then turned back around to admire the weapon, "but it's a nice weapon though." As he faced Rainbow he jumped back in surprise as the cyan pegasus had ended up directly in front of his face. "Uh...you alright?" He asked with a hint of nervousness.

"Who is this dragon, and how does he know my name?" Rainbow thought as she gave a hard stare, furrowing her brows as her mind worked on the problem, "I know I've seen this guy somewhere before, but...I-I just can't...remember..." Deciding that the dragon was friendly enough she stepped back a bit and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey sorry buddy, I thought you might be one of those crazy psychotic type of guys!" Rainbow said with an apologetic smile.

"Uh yeah I would hope you'd think so..." Spike said confused as he saw the meaning hidden in his ally's words. "Did she hit her head or something? It seems like she doesn't remember me..."

"Yeah, you seem alright, but you'll have to forgive me I've just been dealing with a lot of nutbars all day." She said continuing on.

"Wait...that can't be right." The dragon thought skeptically, narrowing his eyes at her words. "Rainbow?" He said as the mare didn't seem to hear what he'd said. "Don't you remember who I am?"

"All these zomponies, they're annoying, but easy to kill..." she went on as she ignored his question, "the real threat, are the other ponies out there...traumatic situations like these...it does things to you." she gave a sad look as she trailed on, "the violence, the death, seeing loved ones die, and change..."

"Rainbow..." Spike tried to speak, but could could not as he was taken aback by her sudden shift in attitude. He then saw a lone zompony coming right towards the unprotected back of the pegasus, and his eyes widened. "Rainbow!" He cried out in alarm, but to his shock, Rainbow simply grabbed the zompony and held it back without bothering to turn around.

"These things...the horrific tragedies..." she continued as she turned to face the zompony, "they can make ponies SNAP!" Spike cringed as Rainbow effortlessly snapped the neck of the zompony, not even seeming fazed by what she'd just done, "Just like that! Ponies just like you and me..."

"Rainbow that's enough!" Spike tried to protest, but his efforts remained fruitless as she just continued to ignore him.

"But I won't let that happen! I've got a sister to protect, and I won't let anything get in my way!" She declared as she turned to face Spike.

"Your sister?" Spike feigned innocence as he decided to play along to see if he could reason with the amnesiac mare later.

"Yeah, my sister Scootaloo...she's the sweetest little filly you'll ever meet..." Rainbow said giving a soft smile as she pictured the image of her sister in her mind.

"Well um, if you want I can take you both back to the safe room?" Spike said, knowing this would be the only chance he'd get to get her back the safe room and hopefully let Twilight or the others restore her somehow. Rainbow seemed grateful for the offer, but chose to walk up and put both hooves on Spike's shoulders.

"Scootaloo needs her Ponybrex every 24 hours." She explained, Spike nodding to let her continue, but she walked a short distance away and turned with her back to the drake, tears threatening to spill, "do you know what would happen if she didn't get her Ponybrex every single day?" She then paused to shake off her sadness, "but I won't let that happen, I've still got some time, and I'll find some, even if it kills me..." She vowed to herself. Spike himself had had enough of this and knew he had to try to get her to remember before she went off and seriously injured herself.

"Rainbow come on!" He said a with a bit of frustration, "it's me Spike! Don't you remember who I am?!?" He said desperately, searching the mares eyes for a sign that she recognized him.

"Spike?" She repeated, the memories of her dream beginning to flow back to her. The figure in the dream who had been unknown to her in the dream was suddenly made clear. The figure who had caused her so much grief and anguish had been revealed to her in a moment of clarity. "Spike..." she repeated, this time her voice filled with the sound of recognition.

"Yeah that's right! It's me! You know who I am right?" The dragon eagerly asked, relieved that he had gotten the mare's memories restored...or so he thought.

"Oh I know exactly who you are!" She said giving the dragon a sudden harsh glare.

"What? Rainbow what's wro...Oooh crap!" He said realizing what the sudden hostility towards him meant.

"You're that dragon that hurt my friends, and tried to hurt my sister!" Rainbow roared vehemently as she threw a few punches at Spike, who narrowly dodged them in surprise, "You just want to keep her from getting her Ponybrex!" She accused as she faked out Spike with a kick, which set him flat on his back. She then picked up the double-bladed saw staff and she flew back a distance and turned to face Spike, giving him an intense glare. "Nobody messes with my sister!"

[Pegasium Underground Tunnels]

Prince Blueblood couldn't be more delighted with how the current situation was going. The pegasus had just turned against her former partner, and the dragon had no clue as to why it was happening! "Now the real fun begins." He said with a smirk.

[Silver Strip]

(Dead Rising 2: Off the Record: Firewater plays)

Spike leaped out of the way, narrowly avoiding Rainbow as she whizzed passed him, intending to slice him in two with her saw staff. Spike furiously tried to think of a place to hide so he could contact Twilight about what was going on, and saw a decorative rock wall in the shape of a small canyon in the middle of the strip. Spike knew that one hit from the staff meant game over, and sprinted towards the rock wall as fast as he could.

"I'm right on your tail!" Rainbow's voice called out as he heard the sound of whistling wind coming directly behind him. He ducked just as the sound reached its loudest and saw Rainbow fly over his head at a blinding speed, her staff held horizontally so the blades would cut down anything in their path, and it did, much to the misfortune of many a zompony in her way.

"Dang it! She's too fast! She'll just cut me off at every turn!" Spike thought in frustration as he tried to think of a plan. He suddenly remembered that he still had a can of hair spray from when they were at Pony Mart. "Sorry Rainbow," he whispered apologetically in advance as he spotted the pegasus taking another dive at him. "And...NOW!" He thought timing his jump perfectly as he landed on Rainbow's back, who furiously tried to shake him off while cursing his name profusely. Spike hung on though, and managed to get the hair spray to her eyes, and with a bit of guilt sprayed the substance into her eyes.

"Argh! You stupid dragon, when I find you you'll be sorry you ever did that!" Rainbow threatened, obviously in pain from the offending substance in her eyes. She hovered in the air, the staff discarded below her as she rubbed her eyes furiously to clear them. Spike, being a smart dragon, picked up the staff and ran as best he with it while his former partner was distracted. He managed to make to the rock wall canyon's interior, which held a small bathroom and another maintenance room. Having no need for the maintenance room however, Spike simply went into the bathroom immediately, and just in time it turned out, for seconds later he heard the sound of wing beats and wind breaking coming from around the area.

"Freaking dragon...taking all my stuff...I'm gonna rip his..." she muttered bitterly as she plotted on how she would enact her revenge, which seemed to be a gruesome and painful thing judging by the tone of her voice.

"Twilight? Twilight you there?" The dragon whispered nervously, doing his best to keep quiet in order to hide from the furious pegasus who remained outside.

"Spike what is it? Why are you whispering?" The unicorn responded, much to his relief.

"Well it's Rainbow Dash! She's gone crazy or something!" He said explaining the situation. "She doesn't even seem to remember who I am, and she got angry at me when I tried to get her to remember...what's wrong with her?" He asked, his voice suggesting that he had a hard time coping with his situation.

"I don't know Spike, the best thing I can think of is that you'll just have to incapacitate her somehow, and bring her back here so I can check on her state..." The unicorn suggested a bit hesitantly, not one to usually suggest the prospect of harming one of her friends.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do, thanks Twilight!" He said as he went back to his current problem. Figuring that without her staff she'd be less of a threat, he left the saw-staff in the bathroom and went back outside. He looked around the immediate area for Rainbow, but could find no sign of her. However, his search was ended abruptly as he got promptly tackled from his front side and got slammed against the rock wall.

"Nobody touches Scootaloo!" The cyan mare yelled angrily at Spike. She then began to throw many punches at her cornered prey.

"Look nobody is gonna' hurt your sister!" Spike yelled, trying to calm her down as he blocked all of her swings.

"Liar! I know you would! As long as your precious story is in jeopardy there's nothing you wouldn't do for it!" She said venomously as she continued to attack him.

"What are you talking about?!? I've never said anything like that!" Spike yelled out, having no idea what to make of her accusation.

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow said, challenging his ideas, "then tell me that you didn't come here just get back the fame you'd lost before, tell me that you wouldn't hesitate to choose to save a life if it meant not having your story!"

"Well I..." Spike was rendered speechless as he began to think about what she'd said, "No...of course I'd save a life...I'm not that heartless...right?" He thought confused as he couldn't figure out what he'd do.

"I knew it!" Rainbow said, shaking her head disappointed at his silence, which she mistook for a silent confession, "You really don't care about others, only about yourself..."

"No...you're wrong!" Spike countered as she raised her head in shock, "I do care about others! I'm not doing this for fame or fortune, I'm doing this because the other ponies who's lives were destroyed because of this outbreak deserve to have the truth known. I'll save everyone I can, and I'll certainly save you from yourself right now!" He declared passionately.

"I don't need saving." Rainbow said as she went in for another barrage of punches, but Spike managed to time a well-aimed kick to her stomach, which made her double over in pain at the blow.

"Thank goodness for my boss teaching me this move!" Spike thought gratefully as he rushed up to the pegasus and grabbed her left hoof, twisting it around her neck as he put her in a sleeper hold. The pegasus scrambled furiously as she tried to kick the dragon behind her, but Spike held strong and gritted his teeth as he took the blows. Finally, after a few minutes, Rainbow had stopped struggling and Spike let her go, revealing her to be unconscious, much to his relief. "Twilight! I'm heading back to the safe room with Rainbow in tow!" He said, letting the unicorn be aware of his status.

"Ok Spike, we'll be ready when you get back. ...Be careful..."

"Thanks Twilight, I will!" Spike nodded as he pulled Rainbow into a nearby wheelchair and headed off towards the safe house.

(Music Stops)

[Pegasium Underground Tunnels]

(Dead Rising 2: Off the Record: Pause Menu 8 plays)

"Hmm...that little dragon is smarter than I gave him credit for..." Blueblood said, gaining a little bit of begrudging respect for the dragon's abilities as he watched Spike cart off Rainbow. "This may prove to be a problem...no matter! That little pest will get what's coming too him sooner or later, I'll make sure of it!" The Prince vowed darkly as he began sipping a small shot of Applejack Daniel's...

(Music Stops)

(Kid Icarus Uprising: Magnus's Theme Plays)

"Mommy, are you sure you want to go out there?" The gray, yellow-maned unicorn filly asked her mother skeptically.

"Yes Dinky, I'm sure!" The older mare, whose coloring was the same, replied with confidence, giving her child a soft nuzzle of reassurance. "Don't worry, I'll protect you from those zomponies out there!"

"Okay momma, I believe in you!" The little filly said, confident in her mother's abilities despite the small problem she had.

"Alright then, let's go!" The mare cried out, her wall-eyes staring determinedly at the mall outside as she pulled her filly onto her back. "Don't worry Dinky! I'll protect you to my last dying breath, or my name isn't Derpy Hooves!" The mare vowed, glaring at the zomponies outside. With one final sigh, she galloped into the mall, her filly hanging on tightly to her mane...

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 65:01:23

Case Derp-1: Return Postage

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 64:58:31

Derpy Hooves had never been a mare to avoid danger. In fact, she usually found herself quite often in the thick of dangerous situations, either due to her own natural clumsiness, or by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, even though most ponies knew her as the wall-eyed mare who couldn't do many jobs right, one thing was very well known, "you put her daughter in danger and Derpy will show you what she's capable of." Naturally, in a zompony apocalypse, as opposed to her usual self, Derpy became a lot more precise and directed in her movements for the sake of protecting her daughter Dinky. In fact, any zompony who tried to get close to her was promptly met with a hoof to the face or a good old fashioned buck.

"Man there's just no end to these things!" The gray mare thought exhausted as she had taken up a temporary shelter with her daughter in a nearby grocery store called "The Bazaar." It was a pretty generic name, but the mother and daughter weren't complaining since they were now hungrily chowing down on a couple of blueberry muffins along with some orange juice.

"Mommy?" Dinky said as her mother turned her attention to her, "Why are those things trying to hurt us, and where did they come from?"

"I don't know Dinky," Derpy said gaining a thoughtful look, but then gave the filly a reassuring hug, "but I promise I won't let them hurt you, no matter what!" At this, the little unicorn filly seemed to perk up as the pair began to get ready to go back out again. Currently they were searching for signs of other normal ponies that might have been around, but hadn't had much luck in doing so so far. However, Derpy had looked at the map of the building and figured out that a safe room had been made for emergencies, and figured that her best bet would be to look in the Royal Flush Plaza for a way in there. So with that thought in mind she marked the spot on her map, and proceeded to head out, Dinky clinging on to her mane once again.

As the pair traveled through the mall Derpy stopped as she put a couple of items into her saddlebags, some food and drink in case Dinky or herself got hungry or thirsty, and a couple of makeshift weapons, such as a frying pan, a fire axe, a flashlight, and a soccerball.

As she went into the thick of the mall she came to a huge area that held a giant fountain that also doubled as a bar for those willing to travel inside it. She then noticed a couple of stallions hanging from opposite railings, and from her mail runs throughout Ponyville she recognized the two to be Big Macintosh and Caramel. The two were trapped by a crowd of zomponies and the both of them looked to be getting tired from holding the railing...

"Help somebody!" Caramel called out terrified as he felt his grip beginning to slip. Big Mac however, locked eyes with Derpy and motioned over to Caramel, indicating his willingness to have her take care of Caramel first. Knowing that if she flew to save them she would most likely only be able to save one, Derpy was faced with a difficult choice: save Caramel and leave Big Mac to his fate, or vice versa? After a minute of deep contemplation Derpy decided upon her choice. She'd save both. Spotting a nearby toy store she saw a giant stuffed bear sitting in the corner of the store. Hastily she flew over and grabbed it and went to the spot she thought the scarlet stallion would land.

"Man I really hope I've got this position right..." She worried as she flew back over to help Caramel, and as his last hoof gave way she caught him just as he began to fall. Seconds later she heard the satisfying sound of a stallion having a soft landing, confirming her success to save Big Mac. Afterwards, she flew back across the fountain and set Caramel down next to Mac.

"Thank you kindly Ms. Derpy! We don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come along!" Caramel thanked the mare whilst shaking her hoof.

"Eeyup!" Mac affirmed the statement heartily as he gave a nod to his savior.

"Aw it's no problem you guys! Anything to help a couple of fellow ponies out!" Derpy blushed in slight embarrassment as she simply waved their praise off, always having been a humble mare. "But hey if you guys want I'm searching around for a safe place to wait this thing out, and I'd be glad to have a couple of partners to help me protect Dinky!"

"Sure thing ma'am! I'd be glad to help out!" Caramel said, willing to make good on his debt to the wall-eyed mare. "You in too Mac!"

"Eeyup!"

"Well then lets get going!" Derpy declared as she helped Caramel find a good weapon to fend off the hordes with, Mac needing nothing else except his brute strength. Caramel decided to work with a sledgehammer, having natural earth pony strength the weapon was easier for him to wield. Before they headed out Derpy made sure to make a quick check on Dinky, who reassured her mother that she was fine for now, and with that they went into the Silver Strip. Much to their horror, they found that many more zomponies awaited them. However, Derpy was a mare on a mission, and with a look of determination she nodded to Caramel and Mac, and together they tore through many zomponies throughout the strip.

"Man this is horrible!" Caramel commented, "All these good ponies, transformed into whatever these things are..."

"Eeyup..." Mac solemnly agreed, head bowed in a moment of silence for all the ponies who had fallen.

"What do you think might've cause this?" Derpy asked the stallions, who had looks of thought.

"Not really sure...I only know that this all started in the Pegasium during the Grand Prix they had there." Caramel said remembering the inital panic and the waves of ponies who had ran amuck.

"I know...I barely made it out with Dinky here..." she said gesturing to her daughter, "but the weird thing is that I know that's only part of the story of what happened, but I wonder how it all started..."

"Hmm...well I figure for now it's best just to get a move on, and when we get to a safe spot we can look into it more." Mac said in a moment of elaborate speech, which surprised the other members of his group. "What?" He said with a questioning look, "'Eeyup' and 'eenope' aren't the only things I say!" They all shared a small laugh at this and continued onward with a little higher spirits. After a bit more trotting they noticed another mare wading through a crowd of zomponies, the undead being a bit too slow to catch up with her even though they surrounded her. As the new mare neared the group she gave a look of surprise, obviously not expecting anymore survivors to be out and about.

"Ah hello there!" The mare said happily, "it's good to see that some other ponies are still alive out here!"

"Likewise Ms...?" Caramel said as he stopped, waiting for her to give her name.

"Flash Dancer, ace photographer and reporter! I'm covering this outbreak currently and I was searching for some leads in my investigation!" The mare explained as she introduced herself. "You guys wouldn't happen to know of anything I could use in my search do you?" She asked with a curious look.

"Sorry lady," Derpy said with an apologetic look, "we don't really know anymore than you do! We're just trying to get to a safe place! Know of anything like that?"

"As a matter of fact I do!" The mare confirmed, bringing smiles to the group's faces, "There's a safe room on the other side of the Royal Flush Plaza, it should be a maintenance area, and the way inside is through a ventilation duct, so don't worry if it looks like a dead end."

"Thanks for the help Ms. Flash Dancer!" Caramel said as he shook her hoof, Mac nodding while uttering a small "eeyup" in agreement.

"No problem, now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to my investigation!" The mare said as she left the group, off to conduct her search for clues elsewhere. With now renewed hope the group forged on towards their destination, and mowed down all opposition in their path. Caramel's sledgehammer took a beating, and was close to breaking, so he simply chose to switch off to a machete instead, and Derpy got out a fire axe she had found before. Together with these weapons and Mac's know how of fighting, the zomponies posed little threat to them, though the exhaustion did get to them at some points and they had to rest for a while.

Finally, after much effort, Derpy's goal: the Royal Flush Plaza, was in sight. However, a zompony managed to sneak up behind Caramel, and with a cry he was tackled to the ground as he struggled to fend it off. Luckily, before he could be bitten anywhere, his fellow stallion picked up the zompony in a hoof, slammed it into the ground a couple times, and threw it at another crowd of the undead, effectively bowling them over.

"Phew! Thanks Mac! I thought I was gonna' be zompony chow there for a second!" The tan stallion sighed in relief as he gave a grateful look towards the eldest Apple sibling.

"Eeyup!" WIth that incident taken care of, the group continued their trek as they managed to make it through the hordes without much incident, and eventually made it into the Plaza they were headed for. When they made it inside, Derpy saw a familiar face, one she hadn't seen in quite a while.

"Spike is that you?" The mare gasped in surprise as the aforementioned dragon turned around surprised.

"Oh hey Derpy! And Caramel and Big Mac too! It's good to see you guys!" Spike said grateful to see more of his friends had survived this pandemic.

"Good to see you as well little guy!" Caramel returned the gesture as he slapped the baby dragon on the back heartily. "Say, why have you got the rainbow one in a wheelchair?"

"Oh...it's a long story, but I need to head back to the safe room now or else Rainbow Dash could be in trouble!" Spike said with a sense of urgency.

"Oh really?" Derpy inquired with surprise, "What a coinkydink! We were headed over there as well!"

"Sweet, then let's get going!" With the group now in agreement they set of quickly, following the dragon's lead as he carted his pegasus friend towards the safe room. However, as they were nearing the plaza area that Spike knew lead to the maintenance vents, they noticed something, it was a red pegasus stallion wearing glasses and a mailpony's attire. However, he seemed to be yelling at a store in frustration.

"Hello! Special delivery! Somepony? Anypony? This package requires a signature to be accounted for!" The stallion's annoyed look increased further at the lack of response. The group of Spike and co. simply shrugged at this before stepping forward.

"Um, hey buddy? I don't think anypony is home!" Spike called out the mailpony, who turned around, startled by the voice. However, the pony shook off his surprise and smiled, flying eagerly up to the group.

"Ah sir!" He said eyeing Spike, "maybe you can sign for this package?" Spike was surprised at this offer and looked at the package, which was labled "Ponybrex." Not believing his luck, Spike decided to jump at the offer.

"Sure buddy, whatever you want, if it'll make you happy." The dragon then signed his name in the appropriate boxes before gesturing to the package, "I could use that anyhow." He then finished signing his information and handed back the clipboard and paper to the stallion, and reached for the package. However, the stallion looked at the paper intently, and just before Spike took the package he pulled it away.

"Wait one minute sir!" He said glaring at the dragon's signature, "you aren't the designated recipient of this package!"

"Wait b-but you just-" Spike sputtered, trying to tell the pony that he didn't actually specify that detail,

"You do realize sir, that mail fraud is a federal crime?" The pony cut him off with a harsh glare.

"It's true Spike!" Derpy confirmed, having been a mailmare herself, "Stealing other people's mail is never justifiable at all really!"

"Ah, a fellow mail pony such as myself!" The pony smiled at this, however he then turned his attention back to Spike.

"Actually, it turns out I do have a package for you! One moment sir!" The pony then reached into his bag and handed it to the dragon. He then eeped and ran back towards his mail cart that he had stationed in front of the store. Spike and the group were confused by this, and the dragon held up the package to his ear and shook it.

"Wait why is it ticking?" The dragon thought puzzled, "wait *ticking?***" he thought wide eyed as he threw the package away with a grunt. Much to his expectations, the package landed inside the cart of mail just before the mailpony reached it, and exploded, knocking the mail pony a couple feet away, dazed but quite angry at this new developement.

"You sir, are becoming a hinderance to the mail service itself, now all my rounds for today are behind, and you shall pay the price for interfering with the Equestrian postal service!" The stallion said hatefully as Spike, Caramel, and Big Mac tensed up. Derpy however, showed a rare look of fury as Dinky trembled a bit at the stallion's attitude.

"Spike, Caramel, Big Mac!" Derpy addressed the others quietly as they turned to her. "Take Dinky and get back to the safe house."

"What?" Spike looked incredulous at her order, "Are you sure about this Derpy? This guy seems like he's lost it!"

"I know!" Derpy said, her glare only intensifying, "It's bad enough that he endangered our lives with that stunt he pulled...but when he messes with the integrity of the postal service..." she paused, taking out the mail pony's hat she wore during her rounds and putting it on, "he just makes it personal!"

"Alright...if you're really sure..." Spike said, taking Dinky as he and the other stallions headed towards the safe room along with Rainbow Dash.

"Be careful momma!" Dinky called out to her mom, who gave a reassuring smile to the filly. Once she made sure they had gotten to a safe place, Derpy turned back to the crazed mail stallion with a determined look.

"Ma'am, I thought you of all ponies would understand a fellow mail pony's duties!" The stallion chastised her and shook his head in disappointment, "but it seems you need to be reminded exactly what your duties are!" He then pulled a bowie knife out of his bag, brandishing it.

"Bring it!" Derpy countered, unfazed as she pulled out the frying pan she'd found earlier, preparing herself for the ensuing fight...

Case Derp-2: Going Postal

Author's Note: Sorry about the wait you guys! I would've had this posted up yesterday but I was at a friend's house and my computer didn't get internet there! I was actually back in my hometown visiting my old high school buddies for the day, but fear not! For I managed to write a chapter while over there! So hooray!

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 64:01:23

“Twilight! We’re back!” Spike called out in an urgent tone as he and the stallions burst into the safe room.

“Oh thank goodness Spike! I was getting a bit worried!” Twilight said as she trotted over to the dragon, giving him a quick hug before noticing the other ponies he had with him. “Oh hello Big Mac, and Caramel too…and is that Dinky Doo?” She asked as the ponies nodded in response to hearing each of their names. “Wait, but if Dinky is here where is Derpy?” She asked confused, knowing that in a situation like this that the wall-eyed pegasus would never leave her young one alone.

“Well she’s holding off this mail pony that tried to kill and told us that she’d be alright.” Spike informed her as she nodded.

“Alright, tell me the whole situation, but first we’d better figure out what happened to Rainbow Dash. If what you said is true then the moment she wakes up then she’ll be after you again!” Twilight said as the ponies took the rainbow-maned pegasus into the main room. As they brought her into the room everypony rushed over to see what had happened. However, Applejack and Applebloom were more surprised to see her brother and Caramel, and rushed over to give their brother a quick nuzzle.

“Big Mac you’re alive! We were worried sick about ya’!” She said with a couple of tears as her brother chuckled slightly and ruffled her mane as he felt Applebloom jump onto his back and give his neck a big hug, to which the siblings all got a laugh out of.

“Big Mac you’re okay!” The little filly cried out happily as she buried her face in Big Mac’s mane.

“Aw come on little sisters!” He said, his heart warmed by his sister’s actions, “you and I both know it’d take more than a couple of those things to keep me down! Especially when I had Ms. Derpy and Caramel to help me out!” He said tilting his head towards the tan stallion, who smiled and gave a wave.

“Well even so that didn’t stop us from worriyn’ about ya’ none!” Applejack wiped her tears as Applebloom nodded in agreement. She then looked over to Caramel, “thanks for helpin’ out Big Mac Caramel! It sure means a lot to us!” she said as she tilted her Stetson hat towards him in a gesture of thanks.

“Hey it’s no problem!” Caramel said as he waved off the thanks, “I’ll always be glad to help out another pony in need! It’s really Ms. Derpy you should be thanking! She saved both of our lives believe it or not!” As this was going on, in the other half of the room everyone else was gathered around Rainbow as Spike began to explain what had happened.

“So is Rainbow Dash going to be…ok?” Scootaloo said worriedly as she looked upon her unconscious sister.

“Yes Scootaloo, she should be just fine, she’s just unconscious, but she hasn’t really gotten injured as far as I know, so she should be just fine.” Twilight assured the filly, which seemed to calm her a bit.

“Spike darling, could you please tell us what exactly happened to you though, you look positively exhausted!” Rarity asked the dragon as he nodded.

“Well you see,” he started, “before I had last seen her we had agreed to meet up in three hours or so to collect some more bits in order to buy some Ponybrex, and I had agreed to go to the Yucatan Casino, and she decided to go to the South Plaza. Of course, we know what happened to me because Twilight and Fluttershy were there.” He said as both the aforementioned mares nodded, remembering how they had ended up befriending Thunder Tumble, the hulking stallion, and his pet tiger Snowflake due to Fluttershy’s kind nature.

“So after that what happened next?” Twilight asked as she scanned over Rainbow, who seemed to be having a bit of a nightmare, as she was tossing and turning.

“Well after that I left the Casino and went up to the scheduled meeting place, and as I looked around for her I couldn’t find her. I noticed on the ground a staff of some sort. It looked like some sort of combo weapon that Apple bloom would make.” He recalled. The red-maned filly heard her name being mentioned walked over and joined the conversation.

“What’s going on ya’ll? What happened to Ms. Rainbow Dash?” She asked confused as she didn’t know what was going on exactly.

“Well you see, Spike was just telling us about what happened in the Strip with Rainbow Dash, and he said that he might’ve found one of your combo weapons.” Her friend Sweetie Belle said, filling her in on all she’d missed. The yellow filly frowned as she heard this, and scratched her head as she began to remember second.

“Wait, was it a couple of chainsaws mounted onto a steel rod?” She asked Spike who nodded to her as she gasped. “Then it was one of mah designs! Rainbow had come up to me and asked me to build it for her!” She said remembering what the pegasus had given her to work with.

“Well, that proves that she got it from Applebloom.” Spike said as he turned to continue the story, “anyways, as I went to check out the weapon, she suddenly yelled at me to stay away from it. I turned to find that it was her, and I laughed a little, thinking that she was just playing around or something, but…something was wrong…” he said as he grimaced.

“What was it?” Scootaloo asked him as she held an anxious expression on her face.

“Well, she didn’t recognize me. It’s like she had never met me before. She apparently still knew everyone else, because she mentioned Scootaloo and you guys, but me, she acted as if I was a stranger.”

“That’s terrible Spike, it must have been such an awful experience to have her not remember you!” Fluttershy interjected sadly as she felt sorry for the dragon, who nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, but that’s not even the worst part. After that I tried to get her to remember me, and even tried to tell her my name, but immediately she just became hostile towards me, and began to attack me!” He said remembering how Rainbow had lashed out at him.

“What! But why would Dashie act like that? You’re one of her friends, and she’d never try to hurt one her good friends, and I mean never ever ever!” Pinkie Pie said in disbelief at his statement, trying, and failing to fathom how Rainbow Dash could actually hurt her friends.

“Well, I didn’t catch much of what she said, as she was going after me with a chainsaw staff, but I seem to recall that she thought that I’d hurt Scootaloo somehow…” He said trailing off as he tried to recall her exact words. You’re just one of those nutbars! You just want to hurt her! You want to keep her from getting her Ponybrex! He gave a look of sadness at the memory of her accusations.

“Wait, but you never hurt me at all! Why would she say that?” Scootaloo said confused as everyone shrugged.

“Wait Spike…” Twilight interjected as he turned toward her. “You said that her hostility began as soon as you said your name right?”

“Yeah but I don’t see what that could possibly-“

“Wait a minute, let me think…” Twilight said she began to recall one of the books she had said. The other ponies and Spike simply shared a look of curiosity, and wondered just what it was the lavender unicorn was thinking about. Before long however, Twilight gave an “ah-hah” of triumph and turned back to the group.

“What is it Twilight? Did you figure it out?” Fluttershy asked her book-ish friend.

“I believe I have!” Twilight said as she nodded in confirmation. “You see, after I heard Spike mention that Rainbow only became hostile after she heard his name, I began to recall that you can place locks on a spell so that they only activate after certain keywords or phrases are said. I think that Spike’s might’ve been a keyword that unlocked whatever spell was placed on Rainbow!”

“Hm, yeah that would make sense!” The dragon agreed. “However, that still doesn’t explain why she thought I hurt Scootaloo.”

“I think it was a memory alteration! Something must’ve happened to her in the South Plaza, and altered her memory, but the only thing that could’ve altered her memory that drastically would have to have a high level of magic…” She said puzzled, having no idea what kind of pony could have done this to the athletic pegasus.

“Hm…what about Blueblood?” Spike asked as he recalled the time he had seen the prince with the doppelganger of Rainbow in the underground.

“Yes I suppose he could do it, but what makes you think that he might’ve done it?” The unicorn asked bewildered by his question.

“Well…” Spike told everyone about the time he and Rainbow had seen the prince talking to Rainbow’s doppelganger in the underground tunnels.

“Hmph, so he’s a narcissist and an evil mastermind as well!” Rarity said indignantly, “now I feel foalish for even falling in love with him in the first place!”

“Well if we’re going to treat Rainbow, we better do it now before she wakes up.” Twilight said, to which the others all agreed. As the unicorn began to scan her over she took a moment to go and take a look at the memories of what had happened from Rainbow’s point of view. “Oh my…” the mare gasped as she took a look at the memories.

“What is it Twilight?” Spike asked with worry.

“Her memories were tampered with, and she was made to believe that you had hurt all of us and Scootaloo because we got in the way of your story…” She explained in a hushed voice, as everyone went silent, feeling a mixture of sadness and pity for their pegasus friend.

“…It’s no wonder she came after me then…” Spike said quietly, “is it reversible?”

“Yes a simple memory restore spell should take care of the tampered memories, so that part should be easy, but working around the locks Blueblood placed will take some time.”

“Alright, then I’ll go check on Derpy, she may need some help after all.” Spike said turning to leave, but not before Big Mac and Caramel stopped him.

“Hold it Spike, we’re coming with you!” Caramel spoke up, while Mac let out an “Eeyup” of agreement, much to everypony’s surprise.

“Are you sure guys?” Spike asked, the stallions simply nodded their heads in return. However, Applejack objected towards the decision.

“Now hold on Mac, ya’ just got back and now yer’ leavin’ again?” She asked in disbelief.

“Now sis’, “Mac said in a calm tone, “me and Caramel owe Ms. Derpy our lives, and it would be mighty disrespectful of us if we didn’t go to at least check on her.” The stallion rationalized as Caramel nodded in agreement.

“But Mac, me and Bloom were worried about ya’, ya’ can’t just keep on makin’ us worry like this!” She said with a bit of anger, but it was only masking the worry she felt underneath, which Mac suspected. Mac simply chose to scoop up both his sisters into a gigantic hug.

“I’ll be fine, I promise, ‘sides I got Spike and Caramel to help me out so I’ll be fine.” He said in a reassuring tone.

“…Alright…” Applejack agreed hesitantly, “but I swear if ya’ll come back with so much as a bite mark on ya’ I’ll buck you so hard you’ll wish ya’ll would’ve been getting punished by Celestia herself!” Applejack warned, to which Mac chuckled and promised that he’d be ok. He gave his sisters one last nuzzle as he, Spike, and Caramel went to leave.

“Be careful big brother!” Applebloom called out as they left, the stallion smiled and gave her a nod as the trio crawled into the vents.

[Underground Tunnels]

The Rainbow Dash imposter rubbed her hooves together nervously. Blueblood had summoned her after his recent plan hadn’t worked, and didn’t seem too pleased with her.

“Now my good mare, I ask you once again, why did you not do anything to stop that dragon after he defeated that pegasus you’re impersonating?” He asked in a frustrated tone.

“W-well s-sir I just figured that if I revealed myself then he might call for help!” She tried to explain, but he simply scoffed at her statement.

“Any help he would have had was a good ways away, and you probably could have stopped him before they had gotten there!” He yelled, making the mare flinch. “Now because of your failure, they’ve probably traced the memory alteration back to me, and suspect my involvement now more than ever.”

“P-please sir I never intended-“

“That is why I’m giving you one, and only one more chance!” He said, cutting her off as she tried to defend herself. “You must find a way to stop that dragon once and for all!” He ordered. “I’ve gotten reports from some of the guards that in the Royal Flush Plaza that one of the mares from Ponyville, that wall-eyed mare, Derpy was it, is currently fighting one of the psychopaths that have sprung up during this time. I’m betting that if you capture this mare, you can use her to lure that dragon out and you can finish him off!” He said to the mare, who tried to respond.

“Y-yes sir I will do that.” She said, gulping as she sensed his annoyed tone.

“Good, oh and one more thing…”

“Y-yes my lord?”

“If you manage to fail this mission…don’t bother coming back, do I make myself clear?” The prince said in a menacing tone.

“Y-yes sir.” The mare responded as a bead of sweat trickled down the side of her head. She then turned back into her Rainbow Dash disguise and immediately left for her destination.

[Royal Flush Plaza]

(Dead Rising 2: Carl Schliff’s theme plays)

“Bring it!” Derpy said, trying to goad the stallion on as she brandished her frying pan. The stallion rushed her, swinging the bowie knife he had in his hoof at her face, fully intending to cut her as much as he could. However, Derpy was ready for this and blocked the clumsy swing with the pan’s circular face, the knife bouncing off harmlessly as the stallion was thrown off by the change in force. The gray pegasus took advantage of this as she managed to make a good swing with her pan, hitting the stallion directly in his face as he got knocked to the ground by the impact.

“Urgh, you’ll be sorry you messed with me.” He said after pulling himself up. He then took a package out of his bag and threw it at Derpy. “Special delivery!” He cried out in glee as he saw the mare gasp at the package, noticing it was the same type that Spike had gotten before. She managed to dodge the explosion’s blast radius, but the force threw her into a wooden display case, disorienting her. As she tried to regain her bearings the stallion took advantage of this and ran over to her. The stunned mare tried to dodge, but still got cut on her side, making her grunt in pain as she flew away, creating some distance between her and her opponent.

“Oh man that smarts!” She thought to herself as she felt the sting of the cut coming in. “I gotta be smarter about this!”

“Here comes another package for you, express this time!” The stallion said with a smirk as he threw another explosive gift. Derpy however, grinned as she came up with a quick plan to combat the threat. She switched over to the soccer ball she had found earlier, and using quick thinking she launched it into the air with a mighty kick, and her aim was true as the ball sailed towards the package and knocked it back towards its sender. The insane mail pony was obviously surprised as he didn’t expect his package to be returned to its sender, and got burned by the explosion that ensued.

“Bingo!” Derpy thought as she rushed towards the stallion with her frying pan at the ready. She managed to get a couple more hits in, but over swung the last one as the stallion rolled out of the way and managed to get a couple of more cuts on her. Derpy however knocked the knife out of his hands, and knocked him to the ground with a mighty buck. The stallion cried out as he was knocked down.

(Music Stops)

It took a second for Derpy to realize that the fight was over, but after the stallion didn’t get up she remembered that Spike had said that he needed the Ponybrex that the pony had carried. Trotting over to the mail pony’s bag, she searched around a bit, being careful not to set off any of the other bomb packages inside the bag. After a bit of rifling through, the bag finally yielded the item she desired, and she pulled out a package labled “Ponybrex.” She smiled, but then heard a groan coming from the pony next to her.

“Just gotta get this checked off…” he said as he struggled to check off something on his clipboard. Derpy realized that he had been watching her the entire time, and felt pity, as he was only trying to finish his last job. She remembered how hard it had been for her in Ponyville as a mail-mare, and took the clipboard from the stallion and checked off the item for him. He gave a grateful smile to her, his disposition finally reverting back to the state that he’d been in before he had ever gone crazy, before closing his eyes one last time.

“I’m sorry it had to end like this…” Derpy said sadly as she saluted her fellow mail-pony, taking the hat that he had worn and wore it, placing the Ponybrex and her own mail-carrier hat into her saddlebags. She then began walking towards the place she had seen Spike and the others walk off towards, but before she left, something tapped her shoulder. She whipped around as her eyes widened, her irises almost straightening from shock. “Rainbow Dash?” She asked as the pegasus didn’t repond, only proceeding to swing the lead pipe at her, and knocked her unconscious as the gray mare was caught off guard.

“All too easy…” The doppelganger said as she smirked and left a note near the spot she had taken Derpy. She then lifted the mare up onto her back and left quickly. A couple minutes later, Spike, Big Mac, and Caramel came running into the area.

“Hey…where’s Derpy?” Caramel wondered aloud as the trio searched around, but could find no trace of the mare. Big Mac then saw something out of the corner of his eye and went to pick it up, he glanced over it and frowned. Noticing this, Spike walked over to him.

“What’s up Big Mac? Find something?” The dragon asked curiously.

“Eeyup.” The stallion responded as he showed Spike the note, who showed it to Caramel in turn. If you ever want to see this wall-eyed friend of yours, the note read, then you’ll come to Uranus Zone as quickly as you possibly can. I’ll be waiting… The trio frowned as the read the note, noticing a map that lead to the spot that they were to meet at.

“Alright guys, you up for a little rescue mission?” The dragon asked the two stallions.

“Eeyup.” They both responded as the three set off to the Uranus Zone, fully determined to get their friend back at all cost…

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 63:45:34

Case 2-1: Unmasking the Culprit

Case 2-1: Engaged

Objective: Find and rescue Derpy from her foalnapper.

Date: Sept. 25th, 1:15 P.M.

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 63:45:00

Spike, Big Macintosh, and Caramel made their way across the Silver Strip, taking care to grab a couple of weapons for Caramel on the way since his sledgehammer had previously broken. So they ended up having the stallion carry a soccer ball, a 2x4 plank, and an electric guitar. Spike still had a couple of his combo weapons left, including one spiked bat, the blambow, and a fire extinguisher that he'd picked up along the way. Big Macintosh stuck to his good old hooves and managed to find a magazine that made him more knowledgeable about hoof-to-hoof combat, and he brought that with him.

"So where is this crazy captor again?" Caramel asked after dodging a zombie's bite and countering with a buck.

"Well the note said in the Uranus Zone, which according to the map should be through that tunnel over there!" Spike said pointing to a tunnel that was decorated with the head of a creature remembered as something called an "alien." Going into the tunnel they prepared themselves for whatever lay beyond the door, just in case of a trap, and they proceeded with caution. Going into the zone they saw that it was a giant amusement park themed around the concept of space travel. Many arcade games and carnival activities lay around, and they even noticed a VIP cider bar over to the left.

"Man, I wouldn't mind coming here if it weren't for the whole outbreak deal!" Caramel said whistling in amazement as he scouted the area.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac said as he calmly looked around, but was just as equally impressed.

"Alright guys, I know this place can be astounding, but we gotta' be on the lookout! That criminal who kidnapped Derpy could be anywhere!" Spike said in warning as his companions nodded in agreement.

"Criminal is a bit harsh don't you think?" A voice said, startling the trio into a state of aggression. The voice seemed to notice their change in demeanor and chided them, "now now what's with the hostility? Don't you want to see that precious mare of yours?"

"Let Derpy go you fiend!" Caramel cried out to the voice, frantically looking to find its source as the voice simply chuckled and spoke again.

"My my, a bit feisty, normally I wouldn't really deal with rude stallions such as yourself, but today I'll make an exception!"

"We don't really make deals with foalnappers!" Spike said as he narrowed his eyebrows.

"Well it's either that or I leave you wondering where Ms. Derpy is, and who's to say a group of zomponies won't get her before you do if that happens?" The voice said, clearly having a smug look from its tone of voice. Spike and Caramel gritted their teeth as the voice asked once more, "so, will you cooperate with me?"

"Eeyup." Big Mac answered, stunning the other two partners of his.

"Big Mac, are you sure? We don't know if we can even trust this pony!" Caramel asked, clearly not liking the decision that was made.

"Ah know Caramel, but it's the only lead we have on where she could be!" Big Mac responded calmly, and his two friends sighed as they nodded in understanding, now willing to go with the plan.

"Ah, a lot smarter than he looks that one!" The voice said with a chuckle, "now who's to say brains and brawn can't come in one package? Oh well! Now if you want Ms. Derpy she will be in one of the bathrooms around this area, but hurry up, you only have minutes to do so! After that...I get rather...impatient..." The voice finished its statement with a dark laugh. After it went silent for a while, the trio sighed and began to think.

"What are we going to do guys?" Caramel asked with a defeated tone, "we can't all possibly check the three bathrooms in time, and we can probably only get to one in five minutes as it is!"

"Wait...I've got an idea..." Spike said, eyeing a nearby stand. He then went over to it and grabbed a firework set from the stand.

"Spike ah know that this is an amusement park but this ain't no time for celebratin' the fourth a' July!" The red stallion told him in confusion.

"No no! You see, what if we split up and check one bathroom each? That way we can't be wrong!" The other two looked at each other, seeing that it was a good plan, but with one problem.

"What if it's a trap though, and the one with Derpy in it has us get caught or something?" Caramel asked worriedly.

"That's why we each take something that we know can make a loud noise, that way if one of us is in trouble we can give a signal!" Spike explained as he gestured to the fireworks.

"Ohhhh..." The stallions mouthed as they agreed with his plan. After that, they each took a noise maker, and went off in their separate directions. Spike went into the first bathroom cautiously, making sure not to make a sound so as to gain the element of surprise. However, as he looked around he found that nopony was in there save for him.

"Rats..." He said in frustration he then sighed, "well as long as I'm here..." he then went over to a stall to relieve himself, not having done so in quite a while. With Big Macintosh, he found that the lights were flickering on and off, making it hard to see in the room. However, he saw a silhouette in the corner and galloped over.

"Don't you worry Ms!" Big Mac reassured the figure as he got to its position, "I've come to rescue you Ms-" his eyes widened as he saw what he was rescuing, "cardboard cutout..." he finished lamely as he saw that tied up was a big cardboard picture of a mare sitting down. "Well that was anticlimactic..." he muttered as he went to leave the room.

"Hello! Ms. Derpy? You in here?" Caramel asked tentatively as he went inside. He saw a figure in the corner that came into his view, making his eyes widen. "Ms. Rainbow Dash? What are you doing her-" he was cut off as the mare swiftly turned around and punched him in the face, knocking him down. "Wait Ms. Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?" He asked holding his jaw in pain as his attacker simply smirked at him. The mare then pushed open a nearby door that revealed the presence of Derpy, who was bruised and battered by this point and was having a hard time breathing. Caramel knew what he had to do, he pulled out a whistle he had found in one of the vending stalls and blew as hard as he could.

A high pitched whine rang out across the amusement park as Spike and Big Mac whirled in the direction that the sound came from. In both of their minds they were thinking the same thing: "Don't worry Caramel I'm coming!" Back with Caramel, the mare kicked away the whistle from the stallion's grip. The tan pony then glared at the alleged Rainbow Dash as he heard Spike and Big Mac come into the room as he gave a sigh of relief now that he had backup. The mare didn't seem fazed by this though, and merely smiled.

"Well well," she said, revealing herself to be the voice from before, "I wanted to take you out one at a time, but it seems now that you're all here I'll just have thrice the fun killing you all!" The mare smirked after she said this and pulled out Derpy by her mane.

"Ms. Rainbow Dash why are you doing this?" Caramel asked with anger and confusion, knowing that though the mare would get annoyed with Derpy's clumsiness at times, she'd never resort to these acts.

"That's not Rainbow Dash!" Spike interjected angrily as the two stallions turned toward him in confusion. "That's an imposter, she's the real pony responsible for the outbreak!" He declared as he pointed a claw at the Rainbow Dash impersonator. The pony in question simply laughed at this.

"Well well, looks like the jig is up then!" The pony said with a smirk as a cloud a smoke enveloped her, and as it disappeared, the true form of the pony was revealed, making the trio's eyes widen in surprise.

"I-is that a..." Caramel asked, not believing what he'd just seen.

"It is..." Big Mac confirmed, his eyes narrowing.

"...A changeling." Spike finished, "of course, why didn't I see that before?"

"B-but I thought they were all gone after Shining Armor's force field took care of them?" Caramel said still in shock at seeing one of the black buglike equines. This made the Changeling chuckle.

"You ponies are so naive!" She said grinning darkly, "just because the changeling army in Canterlot was taken out, doesn't mean that they were the only changelings! No, we're everywhere! In places you might not even suspect." The changling mare then changed the subject, "but back to business, I believe we are here for the survival of this mare here no?" She said as she held Derpy by her mane, grabbing a shard of glass from one of the broken mirrors in the room and holding it near Derpy's throat.

"You wouldn't dare!" Caramel growled at her.

"Oh wouldn't I?" The changeling returned with a smug smirk.

"Caramel, the soccer ball..." Spike whispered to the tan stallion as the male pony nodded lightly and let the soccer ball drop out.

"Oh what are we here to play a couple rounds of soccer?" The mare laughed evilly at the sight of Spike with the soccer ball. The dragon smirked at her statement, making her stop laughing as the trio didn't retort.

"We sure are!" Spike said in agreement, "in fact you could probably say that this is the direction that this is headed!" he then emphasized his pun by kicking the ball with precise aim at the changeling's head. However, the black shelled pony saw this and simply ducked, watching in satisfaction as the soccer ball sailed past her and went into one of the stalls in the back.

"Was that really you only plan?" The mare asked with a slight laugh, but was surprised as she suddenly found Big Macintosh directly in front of her.

"Eenope." He answered simply as he punched her in the face, sending her sprawling to the ground as he picked Derpy from her grasp, the wall-eyed mare still unconscious.

"Alright Big Mac!" Caramel cheered as the red stallion smiled in satisfaction at his handiwork. The changeling however, simply picked herself up from the ground and cracked her neck a couple of times. The trio gasped in disbelief at the nonchalance the mare displayed towards taking a hit of that magnitude.

"B-but most stallions would have been hospitalized from a hit like that!" Spike said in shock. He then turned to the stallions. "Big Mac, get Derpy back to the safe room, we'll handle things here!" The eldest Apple sibling nodded as he left the bathroom in haste. With the threat of Derpy's safety taken care of, the tan stallion and the purple drake turned back to their current foe who was currently growing angrier at the situation, which was slowly slipping out of her hooves.

(Chrono Cross: Boss Battle Theme plays)

"You two..." she said glaring at them intensely, "will not be leaving here ALIVE!" She cried out as she leaped towards her two enemies, who sidestepped and got out their weapons of choice: the Spiked bat and a 2x4 plank. The mare then gave them a sadistic smile and transformed, taking the form of a zompony as she leaped into one of the stall doors. Spike went to open the stall door she went into, but found it empty.

"But where did she-"

"Spike behind you!" Caramel cried out as Spike ducked just in time to see the changeling land right in front of him. Spike then chose this time to counter and swung his spiked bat at the fake zompony, who dodged, but still got grazed on her side, giving her a few cuts.

"You'll pay for that!" The shape-shifter said angrily as she went into another bathroom stall. This time however, Caramel and Spike stood back to back, making sure to watch every stall door, and as they expected, a zompony eventually came out from the far side of the room. Spike and Caramel rushed it and beat it to a pulp, but were disappointed as they saw that it was a real zompony instead of the changeling they were looking for.

"So she sends out real ones as well? ...Clever girl..." Caramel said, almost impressed by the cunning of his enemy.

"Don't worry I got an idea!" Spike said with a smirk. He then waited for another stall door to open, and once it did he sprayed the zompony that came out in the eyes. Much to Caramel's surprise the zompony gave a yell of pain and rubbed its eyes furiously. The duo then began attacked the revealed changeling as much as they could, leaving her with many gashes and cuts all over. The mare then roared in fury as she pulled Caramel into a stall, who gave a yelp of surprise, dropping his 2x4 plank in the process. Spike then gave a look of astonishment as not one but two Caramels came out of the stalls and faced him. The Caramel on the left gave a look to the one on the right a look of disdain.

"Ok I know that I'm pretty handsome but copying my looks is just despicable!" The stallion said looking at his double, who answered back in the same voice just as annoyed.

"Me? Copying you?" The other Caramel said in offense, "yeah right! If anything you're the one copying me out of jealousy!"

"Oh that's it!" Left Caramel cried out as he prepared to beat the tar out of other Caramel, who returned an equally angry look.

"Ok both of you stand still now or you both get it!" Spike yelled at the twins, making them stop instantly as they returned to their former positions, still casting looks of disgust at each other. The confused dragon rubbed his chin in thought at how he could possibly reveal which one was the real Caramel. Suddenly, an idea hit him as he grinned before addressing the two Caramels. "Hey Caramel, you dropped your grass seeds!"

"I did? Wh- hey! That's a low blow man!" The one on the left said in distaste at the joke that was thrown at him. The one on the right however gave a look of confusion. This was all Spike needed as he threw the 2x4 at the Caramel on the right, knocking him out and revealing the changeling's unconscious form.

(Music stops)

"And that's a wrap!" Spike said happily as Caramel walked over to him.

"Hey good job and all with that, but did you really have to bring that up again?" The tan stallion whined in annoyance.

"Oh come on man, cheer up! We got Derpy back safe and sound and now we can head back!" The dragon reassured his friend as he took a picture of the mare's unconscious form.

"What's with the picture Spike?" Caramel asked confused.

"Just taking a little photo, for evidence. I think whatever is going on here, just got a lot bigger if the changelings are getting involved..."

"Yeah no kidding..." Caramel said as they left the bathroom, giving the body of the mare one last look before they exited the bathroom...

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 62:23:04

Case 2-2: Trains Keep A Rollin'

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 62:20:34

[In the Underground Tunnels]

(Dead Rising 2: Off the Record Pause Menu Music 8 plays)

"So...that foalish little mare has failed me has she?" Prince Blueblood said calmly, doing his best to hide his frustration at the news that had been delivered by one of his spies throughout the mall.

"Yes my lord, she failed to stop the dragon and his companions that were with him." The mare responded quite casually, as opposed to everypony else, who usually cowered or was very uptight around the royal unicorn because they knew that at a moment's notice that he could give the order to end their lives if he so chose. However, this mare in particular knew that she would be spared any wrath the prince would have, because she was one of his greatest allies...for now.

"Hm...give Captain Spearhead the order to have her taken care of, immediately!" Blueblood ordered coldly, "I do not want any loose ends being left strewn about this operation!"

"Yes my lord!" The mare saluted the prince as she turned to leave, but was stopped by one last question from her superior.

"Oh and Sugar Song, or whatever it is you call yourself?"

"Yes my liege?"

"Have those pitiful commoners from Ponyville suspected anything about you during your time with them?"

"No my lord."

"Good, we would hate to have another failure to add to the...body count now wouldn't we?" The prince asked with menace hidden in his voice.

"No sir, we wouldn't." The mare responded, unfazed by the threat thrown at her. She then saluted the native of Canterlot once more and left the room to go fulfill her orders. "However Blueblood," she smirked as she thought one last thing, "I think you might have to be more careful in order to ensure that *you** don't end up in that count...*"

(Music Stops)

[In the Safe Room]

"Twilight we're back!" Spike called out as he, Big Mac, and Caramel walked in with Derpy, who was now conscious again.

"Momma!" Dinky cried out happily as she galloped over and jumped into her mother, giving the mare a firm embrace. "You're okay!"

"Of course I am Dinky! Thanks to these three over here!" The mare smiled warmly at her child and gave her light nuzzle. Dinky then turned to her mothers rescuers. "Thank you for saving my momma!"

"Hey anytime Dinky!" Spike replied grinning, the stallions nodding and sharing an equally large grin on their faces. However, Spike suddenly remembered that he had to tell everyone what he had found out, and gathered everyone in the main room.

"So Spike what have you found out?" Twilight asked as the dragon looked around the room, taking a quick pause to see how everyone was doing. He was hit with a pang of sadness when he saw that Rainbow Dash was awake, but refused to look at him.

"She probably feels a little guilty about what happened...I'll have to speak to her later..." he silently vowed as he opened his mouth to begin speaking. "Well everypony, I've just found something that changes this case completely." He spoke with a serious look on his face, "after Caramel, Big Mac, and I went to rescue Derpy, we found out that her captor was the one impersonating Rainbow Dash!" Everypony gasped at this bit of news, not expecting this piece of news to come forth so soon.

"Alright! So you finally stopped that no good copycat for good right?" Scootaloo asked with excitement, which dwindled a little when Spike's expression didn't change.

"Well yes I believe we did stop the culprit for good, but something came up that was pretty worrying..." He said, pausing to take out his camera and setting it to let the others view the pictures he'd gotten. Once he'd found the pictures he'd taken in the bathroom, he turned the camera and put it on the table so that they could see. As the group studied the pictures their eyes widened in shock.

"It can't be..." Twilight said first, breaking the silence.

"...I thought we got rid of them varmints back at the royal wedding?" Applejack asked Spike with equal surprise.

"That's what I thought too, but what was even worse was that the changeling said that there are probably more throughout Equestria still, and I quote 'where you least expect it.'" He replied frustrated, slamming his fist down on the table. "Darn it! Even though I know I have to find out the truth I still have no idea where to go for answers!" He then sighed and slumped down in a chair while laying his head down on the table, mind working furiously on where to proceed.

"Um...if you don't mind me asking Spike..." Fluttershy said quietly, making the dragon lift his head up, "couldn't you have just asked the changeling what's going on?"

"I thought of that..." he answered just as quietly as she did, "but then I figured that she wouldn't be the type to give out answers...people like that never do in my experience..."

"Oh..." Fluttershy trailed off as this led everypony into another silence filled with deep thought. However, after a few minutes the noiseless space was suddenly filled with the sound of Pinkie's surprised reactions.

"Woah! Ah! Hey!" The pink-mare squeaked as the others looked at her, knowing that her Pinkie Sense was reacting to something.

"Pinkie what is it?" Twilight asked curiously.

"I just took a look at the map again and my Pinkie sense was showing a doozy in one of the underground tunnels under this spot right here!" The mare pointed at the location on the map.

"Hey...that's the place I came from before!" Derpy said as she saw where Pinkie was pointing.

"The Palisades mall eh?" Spike asked, finally spurred back into action with this new piece of evidence. "Guess we finally got a new lead!" He said with a smile.

"Looks like it!" Twilight said as she nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, I'll head out for the underground tunnels!" Spike declared, but then paused, "but first...Rainbow Dash, can I speak to you outside for a sec?" He asked pleadingly as he motioned to the pegasus to come outside with him.

"...Fine..." The cyan mare reluctantly agreed and slowly followed him outside. Once they got out there, Spike turned to face her, and sighed as he noticed that she still refused to look at him.

"Rainbow Dash..." He said, scratching the back of his head guiltily, "please...look at me." There was a moment of stillness between them, before Rainbow finally did look at him, albeit with a huge look of sadness etched on her face.

"I'm sorry..." She whispered out, Spike barely managing to hear it, "I'm so sorry Spike!" She repeated, this time with in a much louder voice as she began to tear up. Spike, seeing his friend almost about to cry, wrapped her in a comforting embrace while he tried to console her.

"Rainbow Dash it's ok, it's not your fault!" He whispered to the mare.

"Yes it was...I shouldn't have believed all those horrible lies about you..." The mare sobbed into his shoulder, "so much for being the element of loyalty eh?" She asked sadly.

"Rainbow Dash stop blaming yourself!" Spike ordered, making the mare look up at him curiously, "Blueblood rearranged your memories so you saw things differently. You were only doing what you thought was right!" He proclaimed loudly, but dropped his voice to a quieter tone as he continued, "your loyalty was never forgotten, because you stayed loyal to those you cared about, and some messed up memory doesn't change that! So please...forget about it...let's move on." He said, extending his claws out to the mare in order to seal the deal.

"...Thanks Spike...I needed that." The mare said, finally mustering up a small smile on her face as she took his claw into a firm shake. "Though if it's all the same to you I'll sit this one out since I'm not feeling one hundred percent yet."

"Hey it's no problem! Just be ready to kick some butt the next time I come back here alright?" The dragon told her with a grin that she returned.

"Hey come on! Remember who you're talking to?" She asked jokingly as they shared a small chuckle.

"Alright, well I should probably go then, catch you later Dashie!" He said, adding the nickname with a smirk, the mare rolling her eyes at his actions. As Spike went to the vents to leave Twilight walked up to him and stopped him.

"Hey Spike I was just wondering..." The mare said, rubbing her hoof nervously, "if maybe you'd let me...tag along with you this time around?" This question seemed to take the dragon by surprise as his eyes widened a bit.

"Well uh...sure Twilight!" He responded after recovering from his initial surprise. "Though if you don't mind me asking, why the sudden desire?"

"Because! I'm tired of sitting behind the side lines and just worrying if you'll be okay or not!" The unicorn said loudly, making Spike flinch a little at the force behind her voice. "If I'm going to worry about you, I at least want to know what you're up against first hand if only for this one time!"

"Well...I suppose that's fine, but be careful, one bite from these guys and you're pretty much done unless we find some Ponybrex!" Spike warned as they began to head into the vents. After emerging from the other side Spike and Twilight headed towards the other side of the complex, and after wading through hordes of zomponies finally themselves at the entrance of the underground tunnels that Pinkie had specified.

"Well this is it!" Spike said, looking down into the dimly lit staircase that led down. "Let's go!" He declared, and with that the duo went downstairs, and found that the tunnel was mostly empty except...

"Spike look over there!" Twilight whispered to her former assistant, pointing a hoof in front of them. As the dragon looked in the direction she pointed he couldn't believe his luck! It was Blueblood and a couple of his lackeys moving a couple of suspicious looking packages. Spike knew what he had to do.

"Twilight, stay hidden, I'm going to check this out!" He ordered as the mare nodded and went behind a shelf that was well out of the way of Spike's targets.

(Dead Rising 2: Off the Record Pause Menu Music 2 plays)

"Now careful with those packages you foals!" Blueblood hissed, "these packages are vital to our plans! Now hurry up! Time is of the essence!"

"Yes sir!" The three unicorns saluted him as they went and picked up the packages using their magic.

"Whatever this is...I'm gonna need some evidence!" Spike said to himself, taking a spot behind some boxes that were relatively close to the unicorns. He took one picture of a unicorn lifting up a package, managing to get a clear view of what the containers looked like, which appeared to be sturdy grey cases meant for holding components of machine parts of some sort. "Blueblood what do we have here?" He muttered as he took the shot, getting 432 PP in the "special" and "drama" categories.

"Careful dummy!" One of the work ponies chastised another that had dropped one of the cases. "Didn't you hear the boss! This stuff is important!"

"Alright alright already I get it!" The other unicorn said waving off the verbal punishment, "it won't happen again!" Spike then had to move a bit closer as they moved further and further away towards a train that was stationed behind Blueblood. After settling in once again, this time behind a shelf, Spike took another shot of a pony struggling to lift up a couple of particularly heavy packages and almost dropped them in the process.

"Hey man, you got it?" One of his fellow workers asked him with concern.

"Well, if you could take one of these I think I've got it!" The stressed pony replied.

"Hey no problem, I got this one!"

"Thanks." Spike then took a picture just as they were trading over possession of the package and managed to get spectacular shot, rating 1523 PP in the "special" category. "Fantastic!" He said to himself with pride at his accomplishment. However, his joy soon faded as he saw the workers getting further and further away, and with no real cover left in sight, Spike had to depend on his luck to try and make it behind one of the pillars that lay only a short distance away. After waiting a bit, he leaped out from behind the box and sprinted towards his destination. Unfortunately, just as he was about to make it one of the unicorns caught a glimpse of him and began firing a couple of magic bolts, thus ending Spike's chance to take any more photos.

"Unbelievable!" Blueblood sighed in annoyance, "it's that little washed up photographer Spike! It looks like the little cretin is trying to hinder our operation! Well unfortunately for you Mr. Spike, we have a schedule to keep and we cannot stop to take any photo ops at the moment." The prince then motioned to his underlings. "Come along boys, let us leave this amateur paparazzi behind!" The workers then followed their boss onto the train as the front end of the locomotive let out a whistle, and began to roll down the track.

"I'm not done with you Blueblood!" Spike shouted as he ran towards the train, and jumped just as the platform he was on had ended. It seemed that luck was on his side as he managed to successfully make the jump in time and found himself landing on the caboose of the train.

He then began to make his way towards the front of the train, picking up a regular bat, a sledgehammer, and a traffic cone on his way. As he made it to the next car he saw that a couple of unicorns were blocking his way. Spike knew that charging at him would only end up in getting hit by magic blasts, he chose to lead them back to the first car, and hid behind a spare slot machine stashed on the car. As soon as he saw their shadows nearing his position he sprung up from behind the slot machine and put the traffic cone onto the first unicorns head, blocking his vision and effectively preventing him from magic use. Taking advantage of the other unicorn's surprise, Spike then proceeded to deliver a somersault kick to the blind unicorn, knocking them into one another and rendering them unconscious.

Without much trouble Spike advanced up the cars and eventually came to the walkway that lead to the conductor's car. Much to the dragon's surprise, Blueblood calmly trotted out and stomped his hooves in mock admiration. "I say, that was quite the show you put on over there Mr. Spike, I am indeed impressed by that performance."

"What the hay are you up to Blueblood?" Spike shouted harshly as he glared intensely at the royal unicorn.

"Oh me?" The prince looked around casually, as if he were a student that had just gotten called on by the teacher during class, "why, I'm just enjoying the fruits of my labor dear dragon!"

"You payed that changeling to frame Rainbow Dash didn't you!"

"Now now sir Spike there is no need to dwell on the details...especially when everyone involved comes out ahead?" The prince said giving an innocent smile, only serving to intensify Spike's look of anger.

"Come out ahead?!? *What the hay?" Spike spat in a disgusted tone of voice, "thousands* of ponies are dead, and you're not going to get away with it!"

"Oh do calm down little dragon, you're giving me a migraine just listening to your whining voice!" The unicorn said as he feigned a headache, "and besides, wasn't it this outbreak that gave you another chance at the fame you so desired? Where is the thanks for that hm?" The prince chided as he pushed down a lever in the car, which disconnected the car that Spike was currently on from his car. "Goodbye, Spike!" The nephew of Celestia bid the dragon as he charged up a single bolt of magic, making the dragon dive for cover as a huge bolt of magic whizzed overhead.

Without the conductor's car, which held the engine of the train, the rest began to come to a halt, and as the car's speed slowed down, Spike occupied himself with a bit of thought. "Well I guess I did get some good shots of the packages he had, but I just wish I knew what he planned to do with them..." Finally, he rose from the sitting position he had taken, hopped back onto the ground. Moments later, Twilight poofed in, making Spike yell out in shock.

"Sorry about that Spike!" Twilight said in an apologetic tone, "I didn't mean to scare you like that!"

"Hey no worries." Spike said, taking a couple of deep breaths to get his heart rate back down, "just warn me the next time you do that. I swear you almost gave me a heart attack!" The dragon joked, giving the mare a light punch as she giggled.

"So what did you find out?" The mare asked as they began to walk back towards one of the train platforms.

"Well, I do know that Blueblood plans to do something soon, so we'd better keep an eye out..."

"Spike, you just have to take that charlatan down! He not only started the outbreak on purpose, but he also tried to pin it on one of our closest friends as well!"

"No worries Twilight!" Spike declared, "There's no way that guy is coming out of this unscathed!" This seemed to satisfy Twilight, as they continued walking. Spike however, made a silent promise to himself. "That's right Twi, I'll do whatever it takes to bring him to justice! The ponies that were here deserve that much at least...so Blueblood, get ready! The next time you show your muzzle, we're coming for you..."

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 60:53:23

Case 3-1: Drilling for Some Answers

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARD Arrives: 59:54:34

To say that Spike and the group were tired was an understatement. A more appropriate description would be that they were all downright pooped! Of course, this was understandable due to all the adventuring and investigating they had done over the past day, Spike especially, and as the dragon mulled over the case files he had built up so far he was glad that at least he had a nice place to rest and stock up on supplies in the safe room. In fact, at the moment he was actually taking a quick nap to recharge his batteries while the others kept watch for anything out of the ordinary, Applejack and Rainbow Dash being the most vigilant of them due to their younger siblings being on the line.

"You know it's weird," the cyan mare said to her partner on the watch.

"What do ya' mean RD?" Applejack gave the pegasus a questioning look.

"Well I'm just saying that all this doesn't make sense, if Blueblood is just in this for the money why didn't he just take the payment for being the announcer of the Grand Prix. I mean, sure robbing a place sounds like a high payout but the service awards they give out at the stadium aren't dirt cheap either!"

"Hm...you know what...you've got a point there..." The farm-pony was beginning to question the prince's motives herself now that her friend had brought up the topic. However, as the farm-pony was about to give her own thoughts on the matter, Pinkie bounded up and interrupted the conversation.

"Hiyah Applejack and Rainbow Dash, whatcha' doin'?" The bubbly pony asked, her never ending reserves of energy keeping her going when even the hardiest of stallions would drop from exhaustion.

"Oh hey Pinkie," Rainbow greeted the bouncy mare with a nod, "me and AJ were just talking about what Blueblood's motives for causing this are, but we really haven't come up with much."

"Hm...well I don't think I'd know much about that..." Pinkie said as she rubbed her hoof under her chin in thought, somehow gaining a trench coat and a fedora not unlike a detective would commonly wear. As she continued to contemplate the matter she slowly pulled out a pipe, and blew into it softly, a stream of bubbles emitting from the other end in response. After a few minutes of thinking she shrugged and threw off the clothes, "well anyways I just came to warn you that my Pinkie sense was warning me about something in several places at once!"

"Wait really? What do you think it might be?" Rainbow asked with both curiosity and worry mixing into her voice.

"I dunno! But instead of it being in one spot, it's coming from the three casinos located across the Pegasium Mall!" She cried out as she stretched her arms out wildly.

"All of them huh? Well ah think we better wake Spike back up then. Poor guy hasn't had a rest, but this sounds like it could be pretty bad!" Applejack said hesitantly, but ultimately remained steadfast and found the dragon in question, who was currently sleeping in the cafeteria with his chair tilted back and his legs planted on the table top. He was sound asleep as the three heard him snoring lightly as they walked up to him. Grinning a little bit Rainbow Dash decided to pull a small prank on the sleeping dragon, if nothing else but to make his day a little more surreal. She quietly got a paper bag and began blowing it up until it was filled with so much air that any contact would result in a very loud bang. Holding it up to Spike's ear, she braced herself for the incoming noise and slammed her hoof on the air filled container.

"WAH TWILIGHT I DIDN'T FORGET TO ORGANIZE IT I SWEAR!" Spike cried out frantically as his brain was having a hard time realizing that his dream was over during the initial shock. Needless to say, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie all got a kick out of his reaction and had quite a large fit of laughter as a result. Once Spike got ahold of himself he gave a small glare at them before giving a small chuckle himself. After the mares had calmed down he proceeded to ask them what was going on, and they explained to him what Pinkie had sensed earlier. "In all three of the casinos eh?" He asked with an eyebrow raised, the mares nodding back to him. "Well then we've got no time to lose girls! Let's get moving!" He declared as they all ran to where the vents were and climbed in.

As they left the maintenance portion of the plaza, they saw that surprisingly enough, the portion of the plaza that served as the entrance to the Equestricana Casino was cleared completely of zombies.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Rainbow Dash said quietly as she eyed the casino's entrance.

"Ah agree with Dash on this one, this entire situation is just givin' me the creeps..." Applejack said, narrowing her eyes in suspicion as she scanned the path ahead.

"Well, unfortunately it looks like we're going to have to go in if we want to figure out what's going on..." Spike told the skeptical mares.

"Well alright, but we better be on guard at all times ya'll." Applejack said begrudgingly.

"Right." The rest of the group chorused as they advanced into the casino. Upon entering, they found that much of the zompony populace was still present in the area, instead of missing like in the plaza they had seen before. However, Pinkie suddenly began getting a familiar twitch in her tail.

"Twitch-a-twitch! Twitch-a-twitch!" She cried out, alerting the rest of the group to what she was feeling. Since the group was pretty knowledgeable about most of the Pinkie signs and combos, they immediately looked up, and much to their surprise, a zompony fell down with a splat, and lay on the ground un-moving while the group awkwardly looked on.

"Well...that was...random..." Spike said puzzled by the phenomenon.

"You said it..." Rainbow agreed with an equally confused tone of voice. After Pinkie poked the zompony a couple of times couple of times to see if it'd wake up, they turned their attention to what Pinkie said was the source of her Pinkie Sense combos from earlier. It turns out that it was coming from the other side, namely, the casino's vault area where all the bits that customers paid, won, or most frequently lost when visiting.

"This is it guys! This is the place that was driving my Pinkie Sense up and off the walls!" Pinkie said, pointing a hoof to the closed door that lead to the cashier's office.

"Alright then..." Spike said as he wrapped his claws tentatively around the doorknob, pausing for a moment to brace himself for whatever might be behind the door. "You guys ready?" He asked looking back at his team, and they nodded, signaling him to open the door. He took one last moment of preparation and suddenly flung the door open. The room behind the door looked to be a long hallway leading to the casino vault, with a side room that looked like an employee break room. As Spike took a peek into the room through the window nearest him and saw 5 earth ponies, presumably some of Blueblood’s men, pretty much just lounging around and raiding the fridge. The dragon then silently motioned the others to come and take a look, and they crowded around the window while silently listening in to see if they could find anything out.

“So when do you think the drill will finish up its work?” One of the ponies casually asked his partner while taking a bite out of the slice of veggie pizza he had grabbed.

“Drill?” Spike thought puzzled but soon remembered something, “wait, that’s the stuff Blueblood and his goons were loading on the tram in the underground!"

"What's the plan Spikey?" Pinkie Pie asked eagerly, almost breaking the group's cover with her loud whisper and bouncing, "ooo are you gonna burst through the window and take em' all out like one of the action movies? Speaking of which I saw this really great action movie last wee-"

"Actually Pinkie," Spike interrupted her as a sly smirk found a way onto his face, "I've got a better idea!"

Seconds later, the five earth ponies snapped to attention as the door to the break room swung open. What they saw was a small purple dragon looking quite smug.

"Hey what are you doing here!" One of the ponies yelled out to Spike, "you're not supposed to be in here!"

"Hey, aren't you that dragon Blueblood was looking for?" Another one asked as a look of recognition crossed his face.

"Hey yeah it is!" Another one confirmed, and the group of guards then began to advance upon their master's most wanted enemy. "Alright buddy claws in the air! We don't want no funny business from you." The guard ordered, and Spike obliged, the smug look never leaving his face.

"Huh, I don't know what the boss was so worried about, this dragon ain't so tough!" One of the group chuckled, "he practically gave himself up."

"Oh I wouldn't say that guys." Spike said with a chuckle of his own, making the group snicker at his words.

"Oh yeah?" One of the guards challenged, "what are you going to do? there is five of us, and only one of you!"

"Wrong." Was all Spike said before the lights went out.

"H-Hey!" A guard yelped shakily, "w-what happened to the OH MY CELES-" he was suddenly cut off as the lights flickered back on, revealing that the stallion had gone missing.

"What the?" Another one said puzzled, "but where did he-" he was cut off as the lights again switched off another time. "Aw crap the lights went out agai-OH CRA-" another yell was heard, and this time the faint echo of a cannon was heard shortly thereafter. The lights flickered dimly, revealing the group's total to be cut down to only three stallions.

"Ok just what the hay is happening!" The lead guard demanded, turning to Spike with a fearful look on his face. The dragon only giving a shrug as if he didn't have a clue, while the smile on his face said otherwise. The lights then went out a third time, and this time the leader felt himself suddenly get pulled up by an unknown force. He gave a short yelp, and found himself in the clutches of something horrible, and as he opened his eyes back up timidly he found a pair of light cerulean eyes looking back at him.

"WHERE WERE THE OTHER CUPCAKES GOING?!?" A deep voice bellowed in demand, making the stallion cower before the sheer volume of the words.

"W-what?" The stallion said bewildered, his fear clouding his ability to think. However, he hastily spoke up as the eyes began to glare at him, "I-I never knew I swear to Celesti-"

"SWEAR TO ME!" The voice roared, and he yelped once again as he felt himself being swung around and pushed into a small space.

"W-who are you?" He asked, his voice wavering despite his attempts to calm himself down.

"...I'm Pinkie." Was all he heard before the thunderous boom of a cannon rang in his ears, and was launched all the way across the casino, landing perfectly into a garbage can, which, surprisingly was the spot that held his comrades that had disappeared before him.

"What just happened..." He asked himself as he fell unconscious, the mysterious pony's words still ringing in his ears.

After Pinkie had dealt with most of the group, Spike had an easy time taking care of the rest of the group as Rainbow Dash and Applejack dealt with the drill, which was easy enough to destroy given the proper tools, and the group all shared a laugh between themselves as they headed out to their next objective.

"Shoot Pinkie, the way ya'll dealt with them stallions was a real hoot!" Applejack congratulated the party planner, who was busy taking a mask type of device off of her muzzle.

"Yeah, man you should've seen the looks on their faces, it was hilarious!" Rainbow Dash said, cracking up as she recalled the scared looks the stallions had gained after the first member of the group had disappeared.

"Aw, thanks girls!" Pinkie said happily, "good thing I had this voice changer lying around though, and had it set to 'Batmane' as well!"

"Alright, now that that's out of the way, time to head over to the next casino!" Spike declared as he pulled out a map of the Pegasium's mall. "Hm, it looks like the nearest one would be the Slot Ranch casino, so let's head there!" He told the group as he put the map back into his pocket.

"Oh hey Spike hold up!" Rainbow said as he began to walk off, making him stop and turn towards her.

"Sure Rainbow what's up?" He asked his friend curiously as she held out a metal briefcase that looked like it probably held item, or items of importance. "What's in the case?"

"I don't know, I just found it lying around the drill we destroyed." She explained, and gave it a couple of shakes, "I tried opening it, but it looks like it's locked!"

"Shoot, lemme' see that!" Applejack told the pegasus as she took the case into her hooves and looked it over. "Just gotta' give it the ol' Apple family one two!" She muttered as she lined up the case near her back legs, and gave it a good kick with one of her hind hooves. The lock shattered, letting the case swing open and letting the group take a look inside. Their eyes widened in shock at what the case contained.

"Oh mah stars!"

"I've never seen that many bits before!"

"This could buy a whole lotta' cupcakes!"

"Woah, now that is a lot of cash!" Spike whistled as he saw that the case was filled to the brim with bits. "We should probably put this back in the safe room with Twilight, but I don't think we'll have enough time..."

"No worries Spike, I've got it covered!" Pinkie said as she suddenly sped off, leaving the rest of the group looking at each other with confused looks, before they finally shrugged, knowing that Pinkie was yet again defying logic.

[Safe Room]

"Oh man, thank Celestia that this coffee is almost done!" Twilight said as she eagerly waited for the caffeinated beverage to finish brewing. She was tired from the events of the day so far and needed a drink to recharge her mental and physical functions. A small ding signaled that the coffee was done, and she happily grabbed a cup and waited for her energy-booster to pour into the pitcher underneath the dispenser. She waited...and waited...and waited... "Ok what's wrong?" She sighed, irritated that she was being denied the drink she so needed. "Did this thing jam or something?" She muttered as she gave it a few whacks, finally seeing a few drops of coffee begin to trickle out of the machine again. "Ah-ha!" She exclaimed as she perked up once again.

"Hi Twilight!" The unicorn screamed as Pinkie popped out of the coffee dispenser with a grin.

"Uh Pinkie how did you-"

"No time to talk, just take this!" The party planner cut her off as she pulled out a metal briefcase and placed it into her hooves, the poor librarian's tired mind still not registering what had just happened. "Bye Twilight!" Pinkie said, giving a short wave before she popped back into the coffee machine, which then started dispensing coffee like it normally would.

"..." Twilight couldn't respond as only one look was etched upon her face now that the mixture of confusion, stress, and worry for Spike's safety had finally gotten to her.

"So how'd it go Pinkie?" Rainbow asked the pink mare as she rocketed back to the group.

"Oh I'd say Twilight took it pretty in my opinion!" The mare giggled.

"Say, do ya'll smell...coffee?" Applejack asked the group confused as she sniffed the air a couple of times.

"Now that you mention it..." Spike trailed off as he took a whiff of the surrounding area.

"Hey guys so the Slot Ranch Casino right?" Pinkie interrupted them quickly, bringing their attention back to their current mission.

"Oh right the Slot Ranch!" Spike snapped back to reality as he shook his head a couple of times to clear it. "We better get a move on if we're going to make it in time!" He said, beginning to speed up as his walk turned into a run as the rest of the group followed him. "Come on guys, whatever Blueblood is planning with those drills can't be good!"

[Underground Tunnels]

"Prince Blueblood sir, you wanted to see me?" An earth pony guard tentatively made his way to the room in which the royal unicorn resided.

"Ah yes, I need an update on how the plan is going so far." The prince said as he swiveled his chair around to face the messenger.

"Yes sir, drills 1 and 2 are making good progress, but..."

"But?"

"The team from drill 3 hasn't reported in on schedule, I feel that something may have came up..." The pony gulped as he noticed a look of anger flash across the prince's face.

"That blasted dragon!" The prince whispered harshly to himself, almost certain that Spike and his friends had been behind the disappearance of his men.

"Uh sir?" The guard was getting worried that maybe he had done something wrong, until Blueblood looked up with an icy gaze, which made him gulp nervously.

"Tell the teams on the other drills to double their security, I do not want that dragon or his little partners to ruin anything else!" He ordered.

"Yes sir!" The guard galloped out of the room to carry out his task, and left Blueblood to contemplate what to do next.

"That dragon is becoming too much of an annoyance..." He thought to himself. "I'll have to take matters into my own hands if he keeps this up. I've worked too much for my plans to fail now...it'll be a cold day in Tartarus before I let you win, mark my words *dragon.***" He then turned back around, thinking about what to do next.

TIME BEFORE ROYAL GUARDS Arrive: 58:34:09