Pegasus Device: Components

The door buzzed loudly before shifting to the side with a rapid whoosh, and Cloud Cover walked in, her bright yellow eyes narrowed in suspicious focus. The room within was sparse, with only a stainless steel table set against the wall and a squat metal bench beside it. The rest of the room was similarly shiny, solidified clouds with an extra layer of security in the form of woven steel. A light above her hummed softly, and briefly she considered how devastating that minor annoyance must get if it were your only companion for years.

She set her saddlebag down on the table, pulled out her notepad and a pencil, and then nodded at the bored-looking guard outside the door. There was another buzz, another woosh, and then nothing but the electric light.

A moment later, the mirror cleared, and a second room beyond the glass became visible. Cloud Cover smirked in amusement. With the two rooms being virtually identical, it had looked as if her reflection had morphed from a lilac mare with teal mane to a elderly pony, bald with only the slightest hint of a blue coat. The mare beyond the mirror blinked rapidly, supposedly just as surprised by her ‘transformation’, before locking her magenta eyes—the last real aspect of her with any colour left—onto Cloud Cover’s.

A scream of rage came through a small speaker built into the table, encrypting the raw shout into a staticy burst of tinny screeching. Curses and swears and unintelligible, primal words slipped from that hateful tongue, and all the while Cloud Cover waited patiently, a hoof resting on her saddlebag, never breaking eye contact.

“Her name is Scootaloo, right?” Cloud Cover asked, her expression as neutral as she could manage.

The screaming stopped, the mare herself frozen in time with one hoof paused mid-smash into the dented metal desk.

“I-is?” she asked, blinking wildly.

“Is,” Cloud confirmed, nodding.

“B-but… she was… she fell, and I… I! I killed her! SHE’S DEAD AND YOU—”

Cloud Cover rolled her eyes as the elderly mare started to froth at the mouth and pound her chained hooves into the desk, and then spoke again.

“Sure, but let’s say she’s still alive.”

“—RIPPED MY HEART FROM MY CHwait, we can just say that?”

“Why not? She’s still alive. Her name is Scootaloo, right, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash nodded slowly, musing. “Still alive. I like that. Okay. Yes. Her name w-is Scootaloo. …But how do you know her?”

Cloud Cover stepped over the bench and sat, shifting it close to the table while picking her pencil up in a wing. All the while, Rainbow Dash examined her. She squinted, tilted her head, stuck her tongue out in deep thought, and only after Cloud Cover leaned up to show off her cutie mark did her eyes widen in shock.

“You bitch.” Rainbow Dash spat, the glob of saliva smacking the glass directly between the two. “It was your fault. She’s dead, and it was because of you! YOU KILLED MY S—”

“She’s still alive,” Cloud Cover reminded her, annoyed. “Stick with me here. I’ve only got an hour.”

“Right. Still… okay.” Dash growled again but took a deep breath, held it, and let it out. “I hate you.”

“Likewise,” Cloud Cover said shortly. “You killed some of my friends.”

“Corona killed himself,” she said, scoffing. “And I mean that. The Corp had nothing to do with his death.”

“It had everything to do with it, but that’s not what I meant and not why I’m here. I have some questions for you, Rainbow Dash. I’ve got…” She checked a digital clock above the door before returning her cold gaze to the elder. “...Fifty-six minutes to ask them. Both of us want the other dead, right? So we have something in common. We’re like friends.”

Rainbow Dash looked away, though she couldn’t hide a small grin that had formed. “Gentle doesn’t let you have friends, does she?”

“See, like, that. Questions about weird shit like that.” Cloud Cover knocked onto the glass, motioning for Rainbow Dash to meet her gaze again. “You can foam at your mouth and live waking nightmares and lose your sense of self all you want, but I know you’re putting on a bit more of a show than it appears. You wanna talk to somepony, right?”

“A Failure is not a Pony,” Rainbow Dash said, baring her teeth.

“Well, then, I guess we can go back to Scootaloo being d—”

“Fine! Fuck! What do you want, you skank?”

“Just Cloud is fine, thanks. I want you to tell me about Scootaloo. Before the… “Incident”? Whatever that was.”

“How do you know about that? Those records were purged before the Inspection.”

Cloud Cover smirked. “Everything’s digitized these days, Dash. It’s all on a computer somewhere, even if it’s under a folder titled ‘Destroyed’. Most of the records uncovered in the Inspection are public, if you know where to look.” She pulled a small document out of her saddle bag and pressed it up against the glass for Dash to examine quickly, and then put it away. “Kid fails her test and you go discordic, lock her up for twenty years until I break her out. I know that story, Rainbow Dash. Frankly I’m tired of knowing it. Tell me about Scootaloo before then.”

Rainbow Dash sat back, her withers slumped and head drooped. “I… I don’t remember much before then, honestly… I remember training her so, so hard. I remember the nights I’d wake up soaked in sweat thinking about her, after my promotion. Thinking of coming home from work and seeing her empty room, knowing it was my fault for not helping her enough. Not preparing her enough.”

She sniffed, and Cloud Cover noticed two small tears run over the dusty coat, revealing a much brighter blue beneath for only a moment.

“For bringing her here in the first place…” she muttered, her throat closing up.

“What made you bring her to Cloudsdale?”

Dash’s ears perked up, and she brought her head back up, wiping her nose awkwardly with the chain in the way. “The company, obviously. They transferred me here from Ponyville because I was doing such a good job.”

“Uh-huh,” Cloud Cover said, scribbling some notes down while still looking at Dash. “But why did you bring her?”

“We called each other sisters. We weren’t, but basically everyone assumed we were. I was her hero at first, especially after we saved Luna and after my Sonic Rainboom, but after I saw her—like, actually saw her as more than a fan, I felt compelled to protect her. I would do anything for her, Failure.”

Cloud Cover nodded, jotting more down. “Makes sense. Thank you. So she survived with your help, good to know.”

“Well, and her friends.”

Cloud Cover grunted, paused, and then asked, “How about your friends, Rainbow Dash?”

The mare winced as if she’d be slapped, and she turned back to Cloud Cover, shaking. “Friends?”

“Yeah,” Cloud Cover said slowly, curious. “Your friends. You had friends, right?”

“Friends mean jack shit,” Dash said, her wrinkled neck twitching. “If you mean a friend as in ‘somepony who’ll be there for you and support you through the tough times and bring happiness into your life’, I’ve never had any friends.”

“You pretty famously had five friends.”

She started shaking harder, the chains around her forelegs rattling against the cold metal table.

“Then if by ‘Friend’ you mean ‘Pony who uses others for their own benefit and stops the moment it stops being beneficial’, then yeah, I had five friends.”

Cloud Cover leaned in close, quickly fishing a tape recorder out of her bag and placing it on the desk. She swept her notepad to the side, laying her forehooves on the table before her, before whispering into the microphone.

“What happened between you six?” she asked, her voice no longer cold but demanding, interrogative.

“Ahh, I see. You got me talking about her so I’d answer the burning question about ‘What caused Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty, Best Young Flyer, Fellow Savior of Princess Luna, Defender of Equestria, to suddenly give it all up and go work in a factory’?”

“Did it work?” Cloud Cover asked, still leaned down low, her question poised like a mouse reaching for cheese in a trap.

Rainbow Dash leaned back, chuckling. “Yeah, it worked. So long as you tell me Scootaloo is alive, I’ll answer anything you want to know.”

“She’s still alive,” Cloud Cover confirmed.

“It’s silly, you know? How such a small thing can cause such huge ripples in your life.”

“Like failing a test?”

“Fuck off. Yes. Let me talk before your timer runs out, Failure.”

Cloud rolled her eyes again and motioned for Dash to continue.

“It was something so petty, so insignificant, but it was more important to them than anything else about me. Some days when the light stops buzzing I find myself thinking back to that year and how my life might have gone if we didn’t fight. If they laughed it off. If…”

She leaned down, resting her head onto her hooves.

“If they forgave me.”

“So it was your fault?”

Rainbow Dash growled again, a low and rumbly thing which Cloud Cover had only ever heard from a timberwolf.

“Sorry. Shutting up. Go on.”

“Like I was saying, I wonder a lot about what my life would have been like had they forgiven me. How much longer would we have stayed friends? Would it have been us six called to save the country over and over again? Bonds forged in fire, becoming better friends as we passed through each tragedy? But maybe some other stupid thing would crop up and somepony would leave the group, and we’d be right where we ended up again. Who knows.

“What happened happened, anyways. Yes, it was my fault. To start with. We had just defeated Discord, trapped him in his new stone prison. He had done some major fucking with our brains while we did it though. I saw Cloudsdale crumbling to pieces and left to save my parents, my other friends, but it was just an illusion. I guess the others started not to trust me after that.”

“Weren’t all six of you corrupted by his magic? How come you were singled out?”

“Because his magic wasn’t making me unloyal. It only made me hallucinate Cloudsdale falling. I suspect even a Failure like yourself knows what it’s like to fear a fall, no? Ah, I’ll take that as a yes. Don’t look at me that way, bitch, you’re a Failure and you have been since the day you screwed up. At least you’re not a rainbow.”

“I can take her away at any moment.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Right. Right. You win. Sorry.”

“You were saying?”

“So, what they had seen was that my loyalty ‘shifted’ from them to Cloudsdale. They wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to explain that one could be loyal to, could be faithful and care for and want to protect, multiple aspects of their lives. If that weren’t the case, I could only be loyal to Twilight, or Applejack, or whoever, not to the five of them. And of course I was loyal to my home town! Like, as far as I had considered it at the time, Cloudsdale was plummeting to the ground, Cloud! The rest of them were just annoyed because it was raining chocolate milk. And yet I’m somehow the asshole for ‘abandoning them in their time of need’?”

She started to shake again, and Cloud Cover said nothing while the elder mare suppressed what must have been decades of bottled anger and pain. The digital timer ticked down several minutes before Rainbow Dash continued.

“So they didn’t trust me as much after that. Kept a touch bigger distance between us, always wondering if they would be the one I neglected to help if I had to choose between two of them. And I tried so hard to show them that I was there for all of them. I skipped work most days to help at the farm, to deliver stuff for Rarity and Pinkie Pie, to make sure Twilight left her library once in a while, and even spend time with Fluttershy, doing nothing, just being there for her in silence while she worked.

“But despite all the extra work I put in to be the best friend I could be for all of them, they never gave me a godsdamn inch. I had to be perfect, all the time, less I earn some sort of talking too or hoof slapping or something I had to apologize for to keep these ‘friends’ in my life.”

Cloud Cover sat back, hooves down off the table while she watched the geriatric mare rant. The more she spoke, the more exhausted and depressed she sounded, and Cloud got the impression Rainbow Dash had never been able to talk about this issue before.

“So a couple months after we pack Discord away, I’m feeling pretty good, right? Sun was shining, I actually had the day off work, and we’re all hanging out by the pond together. We were chatting, joking, playing around… I’m starting to feel like they all trust me again. Like we’re back to how things used to be. So I turn around, right?”

“Right,” Cloud Cover replied, engrossed.

“And I see Fluttershy standing by the edge, on a little outcropping towards a deeper spot, super focused on some butterfly or some shit, I don’t remember. I know she can swim. She hasn’t got her saddlebag on her or anything. Now normally the general rule is you don’t mess with Fluttershy, but what harm could there be with a quick unexpected dip, right?”

“Right.”

“So I bucked the rock from the bottom, just a single kick, and a moment later there’s a gasp and a splash, and I’m laughing. I flip up top, see Fluttershy paddling, all spooked and cold and wet and shocked, right? She’s swimming fine, making it to the edge of the pond no worries. She’s fine. Perfectly. FINE.”

“Stick with me, Dash.”

Rainbow Dash vibrated, grinding her jaws together, her hooves rapidly tapping against the desk but shaking as Dash held them back from slamming into it.

“She made it out fine. I’m laughing, on my back. And that’s when their accusations start coming. The other four, they rush to Fluttershy, and suddenly she’s not breathing right. Hyperventilating. Crying. Full on panic attack, like she was reliving some foalhood abuse. Just sheer terror in her eyes, like she can’t see the world around her, and her eyes meet mine.”

Rainbow Dash blinked slowly, staring not at Cloud Cover but at the glass in front of her, seeing a different world from a different time.

“I see the look in them. They recognize me for a moment, and in them I’m a monster. Some irredeemable demon from the lowest levels of Tartarus.” Dash looked up, meeting Cloud Cover’s eyes. “Same way you look at me, too.”

Cloud Cover coughed, looking away, and Rainbow Dash laughed a dry, weak laugh, sending chills down the reporter’s spine.

“We fought. Shy had to go to the hospital for her anxiety attack. The rest of them pulled me into the Carousel Boutique and had a field day with me. Each of them, taking turns running me up and down about everything wrong with me that I needed to change. Slow down, pay more attention to others, start taking life seriously for once, work harder, talk less, and always, always treat other people the way they want to be treated. And then… I think it was Applejack, mighta been Rarity, but whatever. One of them said to me, ‘What sort of Element of Loyalty are you, anyways?’”

“You must have felt pretty bad after all that.”

“Bad? I felt furious. You’ve read about the Elements, you probably know about my ego. I wasn’t about to just sit there and take it. I had to defend myself.”

“So what did you say?”

“What didn’t I say? I remember shouting “ENOUGH!”, which got their attention and gave me a gap to get in, and I did not give it back after that. I called them out on their bullshit, one by one.” A frown settled in as her eyes focused elsewhere, locked on the memory.

“Tell me about them. What did you say?”

“I started with Rarity. Asked her what sort of fucking Element she was supposed to be, being the most avaricious of us all. All she would ever do is demand we give her our time to help her business be a financial success. Generosity my ass.”

“I’ve read about that. Seems she managed to expand her business to Canterlot a couple years after you moved away.”

“And not a single godsdamn bit moved from her to charity, I guarantee you. At least the Corporation gave back. Locked living wages. Frequent charity drives and fundraisers.” She met Cloud Cover’s eyes again and sighed, shaking her head a bit. “I’m guessing you want to hoofwave all that based off all the evil we did, though.”

“No, no, credit where it’s due,” Cloud Cover admitted. “Even before the Royal Inspection the company did a lot for Cloudsdale. I’m after facts, Dash, not trying to support emotions.”

“Hmmph,” Dash scoffed, shrugging.

“Who was next?”

“Applejack and her Honesty. Sure, she might famously have never lied, but there’s more to being honest than that. It’s about being honest about who you are. Applejack refused to ever accept she could be wrong or not doing something the best way. Stubbornness doesn’t begin to describe it. Everything she did was right and you had better be prepared for a day-long argument if you cared enough to try and correct her.” Dash slumped down in her chair, seemingly exhausted just from the memory of all the fights. “Not telling a lie does no good if you refuse to change your mind when faced with facts.”

“Bit of a mouthful for a sudden temper tantrum,” Cloud said, raising an eyebrow.

“What, you want the transcript?” Rainbow Dash laughed. “It’s been a while, but if I remember correctly, what I said was ‘What the fuck makes you fucking Honest if your constant denial makes your friend’s lives worse? I need to change? You’re the cunt who needs to unhitch her fat ass from ‘Tradition’ and accept when you’re wrong!’”

“Yeesh. I can’t imagine that went over well.”

“I didn’t give her time to react. By the time that dumb bitch realized she had been insulted I was already ripping Pinkie Pie a new asshole.”

“Laughter, right?” Cloud Cover dropped her notepad and pencil onto the table and kicked back in the chair, smirking. “This I gotta know exactly what you said.”

“There’s no denying that Pinkie Pie knew how to get people to laugh, sure, but she didn’t know a goddamn thing about when Laughter is necessary. She was the most annoying pony on the continent. You’re having a bad day, shits going wrong, you’re frustrated, and maybe you just wanna stew and be miserable a bit? And then suddenly this pink fucking demon shows up out of a godsdamn barrel trying to pull the corners of your mouth up.” Dash’s shaking had started up again, her voice quavering as each memory sprung to her attention like a ripped scab. “Maybe read the fucking room, Pinkie, huh? Realize that Laughter doesn’t mean jack shit if it’s all you do! Means fucking nothing if there’s nothing to compare it to! Realize ponies don’t like being laughed at for their insecurities—”

“Like Fluttershy?”

Rainbow Dash froze, spittle dripping from her elderly lips. Her eyelid twitched and she slowly swiveled her neck to face Cloud Cover.

“What the fuck did you just say to me?”

“That was her big thing, right? She didn’t want to be laughed at for her insecurities.” Cloud Cover met Rainbow’s gaze and crossed her forehooves, holding the line.

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes, and as several minutes ticked down on the clock, the two of them said nothing. Finally, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and exhaled, hunching over in exhaustion.

“I think,” she said, the words oozing out of her muzzle like tar, “I’ve made it pretty clear… that none of us are perfect.”

Cloud thought about this and then bobbed her head. “Alright. Good point.”

“You care for the rest of the story or would you rather make more snide remarks about my character?”

“I think I’m good for at least fifteen minutes.”

“Make it twenty and I’ll keep talking.”

“You wanna shake on it?” Cloud asked, offering a hoof towards the thick glass wall.

“Get fucked.”

“Haven’t the time. So how about Twilight Sparkle?”

Rainbow Dash hung her head, chuckling softly towards her chest.

“Her? Well, by then they were all starting to inch closer towards me. Hooves were going to fly that night, no way there wouldn’t be a fight. I didn’t have much time to say everything I wanted to to Twilight.”

“So what did you say?”

“I said, ‘And what the fuck does Magic even mean?’ and then spat on her face.”

“...Ah.”

“Yeah, like, I know. Not my proudest moment, even if they all needed to hear it.”

“You know, Dash,” Cloud Cover said, her words tentative and carefully chosen, “I wasn’t there, and can only get so much from a single interview and some researched documents, but… I can imagine other ponies saying the same things if they were treated that way.”

Rainbow Dash slowly closed her eyes and dropped her head, drooping as if decades of tension had wafted away in the instant.

“Thank you,” she muttered. Her voice was hoarse and quiet, and Cloud Cover gave her a moment before picking her notepad back up and clearing her throat loudly.

“Right, so, you tell all your friends to eat shit after they tell you you’re worthless. And then you fight?”

“Nah,” Dash said. She shook her head, still staring at the table. “Nah, I walked away. First time in my entire life I ever walked away from a fight.” She sniffed and finally raised her head, wiping her nose as she did so. “I’ve always fought for what I believed in. Fought for what mattered to me. Fought for my friends and my friendships. That’s what Loyalty is, isn’t it?”

“You’d know better than I.”

“I don’t know if I know anything about it. I haven’t for a long, long time.”

Cloud shrugged and rolled her hoof, inviting Dash to continue speaking.

“Well, whatever it is, there wasn’t any left of it after that. It wasn’t that it felt like an unwinnable fight—even then in the past I’d dive headfirst into them, because it wasn’t about the winning but of the trying—but that… It didn’t feel worth fighting for. I walked away. The last thing I said was that I hoped I never saw any of them again.”

Cloud Cover rubbed her muzzle, letting the revelation soak in. She had had her fair share of friendships end over her life. Some of them had collapsed violently, while most had faded away like a cloud left out in the sun. None of them felt as important as the friendship the Element Bearers shared, though. She leaned back, feeling dizzy.

“How do you recover from a thing like that?”

“Honestly? I probably couldn’t have on my own. In another world I might have drank myself into oblivion or clipped my wings over Ghastly Gorge. But I wasn’t alone, at least. There was still one pony left in my life who loved me because of who I am, not in spite of it.”

“Scootaloo.”

Dash nodded, tears now welling up in her eyes that she didn’t even bother to hide from Cloud.

“Yup. I had pulled up some cloud outside of town, as far away and out of view from any of the others' houses as I could get, and was just huddled up in it bawling my eyes out. I heard my name being called a couple times but ignored it, figured they had just shown up to insult me some more. And then there was this thump.”

“Uhhuh?”

I stuck my head down and saw her hanging on by one hoof to the underside of the cloud. Had used a ramp with her scooter to launch herself up to me and was barely hanging on. I was up high enough that if I let her fall, she would have been seriously injured, so I pulled her up.”

“Wait, what? Why didn’t she just fly to you?”

Rainbow Dash winced.

“She had—has stunted wings. Couldn’t fly at all most her life in Ponyville, until I took custody of her.”

“Custody?”

“Keep up, would you? I thought you researched her.”

“All the records I was able to get showed she had top marks in class and incredible pre-test flight skills. She w—is also registered as your daughter. I thought the ‘sisters’ comment earlier was weird but didn’t touch on it.”

“I officially adopted her when we moved to Cloudsdale, just for legal purposes, but it was always more like a sisterly bond. Her parents left town the day they found out she wouldn’t likely be able to fly, leaving her with her aunts, who subsequently abandoned her and tossed her around town to whoever they could guilt trip to watch her for a week or two.”

“Yeesh.”

“Yeah. Fucking awful shit, and she didn’t deserve any of it.”

“Whatever happened to her actual parents once she did develop the ability to fly?”

“I had them marked as Ponies of Interest with the Corporation and coincidentally they had a terribly tragic workplace accident not too long afterwards.” Dash grinned, and Cloud Cover recoiled from the steely glint in the rose-coloured eyes. “When she found out, you know what she did?”

Cloud Cover shifted nervously in her chair.

“She asked me what we were having for dinner that night. Threw the letter away. Didn’t even go to the funeral.” Dash laughed, clenching her belly as guffaws entirely unfitting of a geriatric pony echoed in the empty room. “Serves the bastards right. She deserves the universe.” Rainbow Dash leaned back in her chair—so far as the chains would allow her to—and smiled. “She deserved the universe,” she corrected, the beam instantly turning to a grimace.

Cloud Cover raised an eyebrow at her change of phrase, questioning the shift silently.

“…Why are you here, Failure?”

“To get a good scoop for a slow news day.”

“Bullshit. Why are you actually here? I don’t know how many years go by and suddenly you’re craving the life story of the psycho bitch who ruined your life? You just decided to have a friendly chat with the engineer of all your suffering?” Dash glowered at Cloud, her frail form suddenly menacing. “What the fuck’s your endgame?”

Cloud Cover narrowed her eyes at Dash, her pupils suddenly cold and suspicious. Gone was the friendliness she normally used to get information out of ponies, replaced instead with a cold gaze that lowered the temperature of the room.

Dash, however, did not seem perturbed by the stare down. She smirked, glancing up at the clock. “Tick tock,” she muttered, the voice echoing out of the little speaker. “It’s not my time you’re wasting.”

Smoothly, carefully, Cloud Cover reached into her saddlebag and pulled out another stack of documents. She tore her eyes away from Dash’s magenta irises, looking down at the reports she had gathered.

“Summer, 1006. One year after you assumed the head of the company,” she began to read, her voice neutral. “Former Element Bearer Rarity found dead in the badlands near Ponyville. It was ruled an accident. Cave in while the mare was surveying for gemstones.” She glanced up at Rainbow Dash, studying her face. “She was found three days after her time of death.”

Rainbow Dash betrayed no emotion. “Dangerous places, those mines,” she said casually. “You want me to care about her or something?”

Cloud switched to the next page.

“Spring, 1007. The remains of former Element Bearer Fluttershy are found in her home. No cause of death was ever determined, due to the advanced state of decay. She had been…” Cloud paused, swallowed, and continued. “Consumed by a number of different animals on her estate. Forensics estimate she had been dead for nine days before anyone thought to check on her.” She looked to Dash again.

“Can never be too careful when you work with wild animals, I suppose,” she sneered. “So two of my old friends died. So what?”

Cloud ignored her, flipping the report over.

“Fall 1006. Former Element Bearer Applejack found dead on her farm. Crushed, beneath a tractor. Autopsy indicated it took her four hours to die.” She met eyes with Dash, speaking without reading. “Neighbours reported they couldn’t hear anything over the storm that took place the night she died.”

“Dangerous work, farming is, I’ve heard. Surprised she made it that long, to be honest.” She inspected a hoof, bored.

“I don’t think you are,” Cloud Cover whispered, pulling the next report out.

“Fuck did you say to me?”

“Summer 1008. Former Element Bearer Pinkamena Diane Pie found dead in her room above Sugarcube Corner.”

“Let me guess. She ate too much and exploded? Laughed until she suffocated? You want me to grieve for these assholes?”

“She died of a heroin overdose,” Cloud replied. “Her landlords claimed they had never noticed a drug habit. Neither did her acquaintances. Regardless, a number of paraphernalia was found stashed in her apartment. Her death was ruled an accident, like the others.”

“I always wondered where she got her energy from,” Dash laughed. Cloud Cover frowned at her, but it did nothing to dissuade the mirth on the geriatric’s face. “Go on, then. Tell me about Twilight. I wanna hear it.” She licked her lips, leaning in towards the glass.

“Beginning of Spring, 1010. Same year of The Incident,” she added as an aside. “Former Element Bearer Twilight Sparkle murdered in her library. Signs of a struggle, with hostile magic involved. She was beaten to death. Horn crushed, legs shattered, before finally having her skull smashed in.”

“The whole country heard about that one. Lead Savior of Luna, Defeater of Discord, taken out by an old friend with a grudge. Moondancer, was it?”

Cloud Cover took a deep breath and set her reports down. Dash was beaming, practically dancing in her seat. To Cloud, it looked like Dash was having the most fun she had had in decades.

“What happened to that nerd, anyways?” Dash asked, her head tilted as if in anticipation of the punchline to a joke.

“...An anonymous tip was called in to the Royal Guard. Specifically to her brother, Prince Shining Armor. With motive, and no alibi, she was immediately arrested by the vengeful prince. She died in questioning, before any trial. Prince Shining was soon after relieved of his post in the Guard, though Princess Celestia personally stepped in to ensure his discharge was honorable.”

“Love it. What a great story. I had the headlines for that one framed in my office, did you know?”

Cloud Cover spat, shoving her papers back into her bag. “You’re a sick fucking mare, did you know? You think you’re pretty fucking clever, making them all accidents?”

“Whoah!” Dash shouted, all the joy leaving her face, falling away like a dropped mask. “I’ll be damned if I’m gonna take any accusation like this from a Failure. Come back when you have a real Pegasus to investigate it. And some evidence, maybe.” She glared at Cloud.

Cloud ripped out one last paper and slammed it onto the table. “Every single one of those deaths occurred the night of a severe thunderstorm in the local area. Thunderstorms you personally ordered. Thunderstorms that were so unnecessary they caused your Logistics department months of headaches correcting for them. I have official reports and internal memos available to me, Dash.”

“What, the head of a company screwing with operations has never happened before?”

“In this case, no! No it hasn’t! According to what I’ve found you only ever interfered with weather planning on twelve separate occasions. I’m willing to bet one of those other times will also match up with the “tragic workplace accident—” she flexed her hooves, miming quotes— “that claimed the lives of Scootaloo’s parents. Nevermind what other deaths I’d be able to find on those dates.”

Dash snorted, but said nothing. She only glanced at the clock.

“Joke about all you like, bitch, but you’re not escaping this one. Not any longer. This report will be heading directly to the Princesses, as soon as I’m done with my interview with Gentle.”

Rainbow Dash twitched, turning to face Cloud. “Wait, you have an interview with the Executive Director?”

“In less than a week. Believe it not, Dash, but there are more important things than you out there. I’ve got another fish to fry, but rest assured the moment I’ve gotten it cleared up, your other crimes are going to be exposed.”

“Pfft, and what? They gonna lock me away for life?” She gestured around herself, to the empty walls, to the humming light. “Keep me from seeing every pony except for the Failure that led to my forceful resignation? Just what do you hope to accomplish with your little fantasy?” She huffed, but crossed her forelegs and looked away, an ear twitching.

“Justice,” Cloud answered. She reached over and clicked the stop button on her recorder and packed it away, though she never turned her head from Rainbow. “Justice for Corona, and Fluttershy, and Applejack, and all the other Element Bearers. Now I have your motive, I can get justice.”

“Death would just be a relief at this point in time.”

“Oh, no,” Cloud laughed as she stood up, turning her back to the mare. “No, there’s no death penalty in Equestria, not even for treason. No, you’re heading straight for Tartarus, where the magic there will keep you alive for hundreds of years. Starving, bored, alone. Alone with only yourself and the weight of what you’ve done, and what you’ve given up. Forever.”

Dash growled again, though the shakiness in her voice cut the threat short. “It—it hasn’t bothered me for forty years. You’re wasting your time.” She blinked, and then the corner of her lips pulled up in a sneer. “An interview with Gentle, you say? Must be very important.”

Cloud froze on her way towards the door. Something about the ice in Dash’s voice caused her mane to stand on end. “Nothing you’ll be able to interfere in, though,” she said, keeping her back to Dash.

“Oh, she won’t need me to interfere. Let me give you some advice, Cloud Cover.”

Cloud shivered at Dash’s deliberate use of her name. She hadn’t called her a failure.

“Honestly. Even though you just threatened me with eternal suffering, I’m willing to do you a solid. I hate Gentle that much. Look at me. Just one little tip.”

Cloud turned her head, just enough so she could see Dash through the corner of her eyes.

“I hope you’re not planning on accusing her of anything like you just did to me,” she said with genuine concern. “I’m only a retired Executive Director. But Gentle?” She shook her head. “I know what the position used to be capable of. Who knows how she’s expanded it in her tenure. Here’s my advice. Be a good little bitch and keep your nose out of her business. If there is anything she’s not, it’s gentle.”

“Even if it means the fate of Equestria?” Cloud asked, trying to find some attempt at snark to keep her composure.

“Even if it means the fate of the world.”

Cloud Cover dropped her head and sighed. She shook her head, and then finally turned back to fully face Rainbow Dash, just as the door buzzed and shifted open.

“Were I only that disloyal,” she said, stepping back through the door.