Equestria Noir Case 14 "A Glimmer of Hope"

by Jacoboby1

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Other, Romance, Fluttershy, Original Character, Tragedy, Big Macintosh, Adventure
Length: 22690

A kidnapping mystery in white tail woods, covers the return of one of Private's most vile enemy

A camping trip in White Tail Woods quickly turns deadly when Cheerilee's class is kidnapped. Desperate, Cherilee calls Private for aid in this endeavor. Accompanied by Twilight, Big Mac, and Fluttershy, Private ventures into the woods and finds a mysterious mansion. It quickly becomes apparent that Private and the group are not welcome in the den of a madmare. Meanwhile, Tailspin has to convince the class to work together to escape this evil place. But will the differences between the kids drive them apart before Private can save them?

Just who is behind this evil...?

Published 2012-11-04 10:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-11-15 03:17:44 UTC

Chapter 1 "Camping"

Equestria Noir

Case 14

“Glimmer of Hope”

By Jacoboby1

Edited by ShatteredIllusions

Chapter 1

“Camping”

Perspective: Tailspin

“So, that was how Equestria was founded,” Cherilee said, closing her history book.

I raised my hoof and Cherilee pointed at me. “Yes, Tailspin?”

“If Equestria was founded just by us, when did the princesses come?” I asked, and several of my classmates murmured in equal curiosity. “I mean, how did they become royalty?”

Cherilee shook her head. “Nopony knows where exactly they came from. The only thing known is that approximately a decade after Equestria was founded, Clover the Clever found Celestia and Luna.”

Applebloom spoke up, “If we were sufferin' because of that winter, why didn’t they help us?”

“Sometimes parents feel the need to distance themselves from their children to allow them to grow,” Cherilee explained. “You’ll understand when you all have children of your own.”

I put my chin on my hoof, it just seemed odd that something like this would happen and Celestia and Luna didn’t help us. Then again, maybe they wanted us to overcome the problem ourselves before they came back. I just wonder where they were.

Riiing!!!

The bell rang and Cherilee smiled at the class. “That’s all for today, class. Also, remember the fall camping trip is next week. Please pick up permission slips before you head out.” She gestured to a pile of papers she had on her desk.

Everypony cheered at the prospect of the fall camp out. All of the classes do it at different times of the year to learn by immersion in nature or something. What it meant for us kids was that we could have fun for a week without having to worry about homework.

I rolled over to the desk and looked at the permission slips. Dinky used her magic to pick one up and looked at me. “Something wrong, Tailspin?”

“I’ve never been camping before,” I admitted, as Diamond Tiara complained about the trip being mandatory.

“Never?” Dinky asked, with wide yellow eyes. “That’s right, you only came to school this year. Don’t you and Private go camping together, or something?”

I shook my head as I picked up a permission slip, and rolled outside. “Private and I don’t go on a lot of vacations together. When we do it’s usually just a run up to Manehattan. He and I have never set up a tent anywhere.”

Dinky frowned a little. “I think you should ask him if you can go.”

“You’re right,” I said, smiling at her. “I’ll ask him when I get home.”

“Besides,” Dinky teased, smirking slyly, “this trip will allow you to spend more time with you know who.”

My jaw dropped. “Who told you?”

“I saw you staring at Scootaloo all through math class, and I put two and two together. No pun intended.”

My cheeks reddened as I recalled how I kissed Scootaloo a while ago. She was determined to find some way for me to dance with her at Fall Semi Formal. So far we haven’t figured out a way for her to dance with a cripple like me.

Maybe Dinky’s right, this trip will be my chance to impress Scootaloo! I’ll show her how smart and brave I can be.

As I rounded the corner, I bumped into somepony, and fell out of my chair. I rubbed my head, pushing myself up with my forelegs to find myself looking right at Rumble. The grey Pegasus and I didn’t get along at all. The reason for that was Scootaloo. His violet eyes glared at me as he walked past. I was glaring back when I heard the voice of an angel speak…

“Tailspin, are you all right?” I slowly looked up to see Scootaloo looking down at me. I blushed furiously, as she gently helped me back into my chair.

“I’m fine, Scootaloo,” I replied, with a smile. “I just fell.”

Dinky stuck her tongue out at Rumble. She still remembered how he beat me up when he found out I wrote a note to Scootaloo. Rumble just continued walking without looking back at Dinky.

Scootaloo looked at me. “If you need anything on the trip, you just let me know, okay?”

“I’ll be fine," I said, rolling my eyes. This was starting to get annoying. Ever since the trip was brought up everypony was acting as if I couldn’t take care of myself. Then again, the same thing happened after Rumble beat me up. I guess everypony felt sorry for me or something.

I just rolled on hoping that maybe this trip will convince everypony I could do something by myself.

____________________________________________________________

Perspective: Private Eye

“A camping trip?” I asked, before biting into my veggie patty. “Now that you mention it, you have been talking about it for a while.”

“I really think it would be awesome!” Tailspin, said excitedly. “It’s a lot of fun, and everypony will be there! Private, you've got to let me go!”

I sighed, looking over at Tailspin. He certainly was excited for this trip. In all honesty, though, I was a little worried about the prospect. “Tailspin, you’ve never been on a camping trip before,” I said, with a shake of my head.

“So?” my brother asked, with a raised eyebrow “You’ve never been hang gliding before, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try it someday.”

“I really don’t think it’s a good idea,” I said, slowly. “Cherilee will have several kids to think about. I don’t know if you should go, because I don’t think you’ll be able to keep up with everypony. Especially in a chair…“

Tailspin slammed his hooves on the table and glared at me with slitted blue eyes. “I knew it! I knew you wouldn’t let me go because of this damn chair!”

“What have I told you about watching your language?” I admonished, glaring back.

“Well, it got your attention, didn’t it?” Tailspin yelled. “I’m not helpless! I can do things on my own!”

“You can’t walk, or fly on your own,” I pointed out. “What if you fell, or something, and some wild animal came and took you away? I’m saying you can’t go because I think it’s too dangerous for you!”

“You’re my brother, not my father” Tailspin shouted.

….

“Go to your room,” I said, slowly. “Now.”

Tailspin rolled out of the chair and towards his bedroom. That little ungrateful twerp! I can’t believe he honestly said that, after all I’ve done for him!

Hold on, Private.

I set down my veggie patty and walked to a nearby table. On it were pictures of Tailspin and I. I’m just worried about him. He’s all I've got, Mom’s gone and Dad…

I can’t believe he honestly compared me to dad.

I levitated up Tailspin’s dinner, and walked towards his bedroom. I reached up, knocking slowly on the door. “Hey buddy, can I come in?”

After a minute of just sitting there, he relented. “I guess.”

I opened the door and saw Tailspin sitting on his bed. His was staring fixedly at the cloud fabrics of his bed. I set his dinner in front of him, and smiled a little. “Look, I’m sorry for saying what I said.”

“I’m sorry for bringing up dad,” Tailspin mumbled. “I just wish you would let me do more things.”

I looked away from Tailspin. “I’m just worried that you’ll get hurt. You’re more than just my brother,” I said, climbing onto the bed and sitting next to my little brother, “you’re one of the best friends I have. I just don’t want to lose you.”

“It’s just,” Tailspin looked at me with tear filled blue eyes, “all the other kids are going! I just want to be with them! They're my friends, and I don’t want to be left behind!”

My grey eyes softened as I gently put a hoof around my brother. He leaned into my grey coat and pressed his muzzle to me. I looked down “I’m sorry, I know you just want what all the other kids have.” I picked him up in my hooves and set him in my lap “Tailspin, if you really want to go, I won’t stop you.” I finished my sentence with a smile.

His blue eyes grew wide. “You mean it?"

I nodded and held up a hoof in front of his face “However, if it ever becomes too much for you, call me and I’ll pick you up right away, all right?”

He nodded vigorously and gave me a tight hug. “You’re the best brother in the whole world!”

I hugged him back. “Hey, we’re bros; we have to look out for each other.”

“In that case," he said, glancing at me slyly.

“No, you can’t have a raise on your allowance,” I replied, as I held him.

“Drat!” he said, in mock frustration, and then he looked up at me. “Thanks, Private. I really want to do this.”

____________________________________________________________

One week later…

“Okay, have you got everything?” I asked Tailspin, as we packed up the only suitcase I own.

“Sleeping bag, a lamp, my journal, some snacks for the road.” Tailspin nodded. “Yep, I got everything.”

Tailspin pushed down on my suitcase to make it close better. It was then that I noticed something wasn’t among his items. I looked over and saw an old stuffed white tiger on Tailspin’s shelf. I looked back at my brother with a raised eyebrow. “You’re not bringing Sasha along?”

Tailspin looked at me. “No, I don’t want the other kids to see it. They'll make fun of me for sleeping with a stuffed animal.”

I levitated Sasha down from her perch on the shelf. “Are you sure you don’t want to take her along? She was the first toy I ever bought you. You used to sleep with her whenever you had nightmares…”

Tailspin looked at me for a long time. I guessed I just wanted some normalcy with this. I can’t explain why I wanted Tailspin to take along Sasha, just something to remind him of home. Tailspin relented with a long sigh, and stuffed the tiger deep down inside the suit case. He smiled at me, “I guess she would get lonely if I left her behind.”

I smiled, and put my brother onto his chair. “All right, let’s get going.”

_____________________________________________________

When we arrived at the train station the place was abuzz with activity. Parents were saying goodbye to their kids, and making sure everypony was packed up. Tailspin and I were greeted by a small yellow filly, Applebloom. She smiled upon seeing me. "Howdy, Private!” she said, with a wide smile. “Ya comin' on this trip?”

I laughed and shook my head. “Not this time, Applebloom. I’m just dropping off Tailspin”

I heard a chuckle and saw Applejack walking up to us “Applebloom’s just hopin' ya can come along tah keep all them scary woodland critters away.”

“Ah was not!” Applebloom retorted, her cheeks turning red.

Applejack simply chuckled watching as Tailspin and Applebloom joined the other students. She saw my expression and smiled at me. “Yer first time seein' Tailspin go ona campin' trip?”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding slowly. “I’m worried maybe he’ll have trouble.”

“That’s just nerves getting' tah ya,” Applejack replied. “Kids are a lot smarter than most give 'em credit fer. Tailspin’s a smart boy like his brother, he’ll be all right.”

“Thanks Applejack,” I said, with a small sigh of relief. “I guess I’m just overprotective of him, is all.”

She chuckled a little. “Ya ain’t the only one.”

She pointed with her hoof to where Rarity and Sweetie Belle were talking with each other off to the side. “Are you sure you have everything, Sweetie Belle?” Rarity asked, with worried eyes. “Will you be warm enough? Did you pack everything like I showed you?”

Sweetie Belle simply smiled, and hugged her sister. “I’ll be fine, Rarity, if any diamond dogs kidnap me I’ll just do what you do.”

Rarity smiled and hugged her sister back. “I don’t know whether I want to praise you or smack you. So, we’ll just hug and hope for the best.”

My eyes fell on Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo as the surrogate sisters smiled at one another. Rainbow ruffled Scootaloo’s mane. “Just take care kid, and keep practicing those wing techniques I taught you.”

“I will, Dash!” Scootaloo replied, happily.

Those two have gotten pretty close it seems. That’s good; they seem to be improving each other being together.

My grey eyes fell on Tailspin, who was deep in conversation with Pipsqueak and Dinky. I walked to the trio and spoke up, “All right you three, keep each other safe while on the trip, okay?”

Tailspin nodded. “I’ll be careful.”

Pip nodded in turn. “Leave it to us, we’ll stay safe.”

Tailspin smirked at Pip. “Pip has extra incentive to keep a certain unicorn safe.”

Pip blushed as Dinky giggled a little. “Tailspin!”

I just laughed at the trio as the conductor called, “All aboard!”

I watched as the colts and fillies hopped onto the train. They planned on heading to White Tail Woods this year. It wasn’t too far away from Ponyville, but that didn’t help my anxiety over Tailspin. Tailspin looked up at me. “Private, I just wanna say I’m sorry for yelling at you before.”

I shook my head. “I can’t blame you for wanting to be like everypony else. I’m proud of you for making this kind of decision by yourself.”

Tailspin hugged me tight around the neck. I hugged my brother back tightly. Some ponies looked at us brothers hugging, but I didn’t care. I was saying goodbye to one of the best friends I’ve ever had. I deserved a moment with him.

I let Tailspin go, and watched him get onto the train. I followed the train as it started moving,Tailspin waved his hoof out the window at me as he left. I ran to the end of the platform watching the train slowly disappear beyond the horizon.

I looked behind me as the moon was starting to rise for the evening. Luna, guard and protect him, please…

_______________________________________________________________

Two days later…

Perspective: Tailspin

I sat holding my marshmallow over the fire. We’d been on this camping trip for two days, and so far it was fun all around. We went on hikes, boat rides on the river, and now I was going to have my first s'more ever!

Sweetie Belle lifted her marshmallow out of the fire and frowned sadly as it literally burnt on the stick. “So much for s'more making cutie marks,” she said, tossing her stick in the pile of other burnt sticks.

Diamond Tiara laughed from her spot over on a log. “At this rate, you’ll be blank flanks until we graduate!”

I was about ready to pummel her, but then Rumble got up and glared at Diamond Tiara. “Back off, nopony likes it when you make fun of them.”

“What gives, Rumble?” Diamond asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rumble kept his angry violet gaze trained on Diamond until she got up, and moved to another log. She was muttering to herself about how daddy was going to fix us or something. I shook my head. Diamond was so spoiled. She would think that her dad, Filthy Rich, or Mr. Rich as he liked us calling him, could buy the moon if she asked.

Rumble gave me a long look. There are times I just can’t really tell what he’s thinking. One minute he’s beating me up over Scootaloo, next he’s telling Diamond off for making fun of somepony.

Maybe I'd misjudged him…

“Tailspin, your marshmallow’s on fire!” Pip’s shout pulled me out of my thought process.

I looked at my stick and sure enough the white treat was on fire. I waved it in the air to get it to stop burning. I frowned as I looked at the charred treat on the end of my stick. “Looks like I won’t get my cutie mark in s'more making either.”

I joined in the group chuckle. Then Dinky looked around “Miss Cherilee’s been gone an awful long time.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s not like her to leave us-“

I stopped talking as I heard a sound behind us. I looked over and saw only bushes. I definitely heard something though. Pip and I headed over to the bushes to check it out. I picked up a small stick as a means of defense should the worst happen.

When we got to the bushes, I realized, I should’ve brought a bigger stick…

Something big shoved past us, knocking me out of my chair. The other kids screamed as I saw a huge monster in front of me. It certainly looked like a pony, but it was at least twice the size of Big Mac. His eyes were a sharp yellow, his mane long and bright red. His coat was pure scarlet as well. What is he?

It turned to me and snarled low, I noticed it was an earth pony, for it lacked a horn or wings. Those eyes, though, they looked… scared?

A strange fuzzy feeling came over me as I slowly slipped into unconsciousness. The last thing I saw was an old, grape colored unicorn pony looking down at Dinky.

“The thing has come it seems,” she said, in an evil whisper.

Private, help me…

Chapter 2 "Captivity"

Chapter 2

“Captivity”

Perspective: Private Eye

I was sitting in my office with my head lying on my desk. It had only been three days since Tailspin left for the camping trip. I tried everything I could think of to occupy myself. I tried reading, fixing up the house, anything to get my mind off my little brother. To say I was worried about him was like saying the sky was blue.

Nopony was even asking me to solve any cases. Usually my mind is so occupied by a case, that Tailspin isn’t something I had to worry too much about. Now however, I can’t stop thinking something’s gone terribly wrong. I felt something on my back and looked up. Twilight was nuzzling me gently. She smiled at me. “Still worried about Tailspin?”

I lifted my head up, and nodded. “I just can’t shake the feeling something’s gone wrong.”

Twilight looked at me sympathetically. “Private, I’m sure Tailspin will be fine.”

My grey eyes looked down at the various papers on my desk. “It’s just; he and I have always had each other. When he’s gone, it feels like I’m missing a part of myself.”

Twilight smiled at me, and kissed me on the cheek. “It just shows how much you care about him. Tailspin’s lucky to have a brother who cares so much.”

I turned to Twilight and planted my lips on hers. I kissed her deeply, desperate for something to distract me from this. As I held Twilight in my forelegs, she kissed me back. I loved this ma-

Riing!!!!

“Did you hear bells?” I asked, as we broke our kiss.

Twilight shook her head no, and let go of me, pointing to the phone. I lifted the phone with my magic and spoke into the receiver, “Private Eye Detective Agency: Solving crimes in the blink of-“

“Private, is that you?” I heard an almost hysterical female voice ask from the other end.

I recognized that voice…”Cherilee, what’s wrong?”

“Private! I was going back to get some supplies from my tent last night, when I was hit by something on the back of the head. By the time I came to, the kids were gone!”

“Somepony kidnapped your class?” my voice betrayed my worry.

“Not all of them, just the group staying over by the pond! Tailspin was in that group!”

Tailspin? Somepony had the gall to kidnap my little brother? I had to get down there!

“Where’s your campsite?” I asked, levitating out my notebook.

“White Tail Woods, by the little pond just off the main road. Please Private, you have to come! I already called the police but they won’t be here for a while! Hurry!” Cherilee sounded as though she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“I’m on my way!” I exclaimed. I hung up the phone, and looked at Twilight. “It seems like my worries about Tailspin weren’t unfounded.”

Just then the door opened to reveal Big Mac. The large stallion practically charged inside, and looked at me with serious green eyes. “Cherilee called me an' said that Applebloom was taken.”

“Cherilee told you?” Twilight asked, getting up from her desk.

The large stallion nodded, “She called me an' tole me she was going to get Private tah help out. Cherilee and ah are good friends, ah can’t let mah sister stay kidnapped.”

I got up from my desk, and walked to the stallion. “Are you sure you want to do this? It could be dangerous.” I offered the standard warning. I don't know why, nopony ever listens.

Big Mac glared at me with eyes I’ve only seen one other time on the stallion. That was months ago, when his family was threatened. “Ah’m goin', whether ya like it or not, Detective! Ah ain’t leavin' mah sis in some sick monster’s hooves!”

“Does Applejack know?” I asked.

Big Mac slowly shook his head. “Ah hate lyin' to her but, Ah just couldn’t bring myself to tell her. As far as she knows, Ah’m just goin tah check up on Applebloom. “

Big Mac would lie to his own sister, if it meant protecting his family? That’s dedication to your family, right there. Big Mac was right though; we didn’t need a bunch of panicking parents running around the woods, if we wanted to find the kids. I nodded firmly “All right, Big Mac, but I have to make sure your one hundred percent dedicated to this. I can’t have you panicking if things get too rough.”

Big Mac gave me a firm green eyed stare, and simply said, “Eeyup.”

That was all I needed to hear…

_____________________________________________________

Perspective: Tailspin

“Tailspin!” I felt somepony nuzzle me trying to rouse me. Slowly my blue eyes opened to see Scootaloo’s beautiful violet eyes looking down at me with concern. She smiled wide upon seeing me wake up, and threw her forelegs around me, holding me tight. “You’re okay!”

I hugged her back, tightly. “What happened?”

“Something took us,” Scootaloo explained. “Look around.”

I looked around and saw I was in a rather large cage. In my cage were Scootaloo, and Rumble. On the cage was a small label that read “Pegasi” I saw that there were two other large cages as well. In the one labeled “Earth Ponies” were Applebloom, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Truffle, Pipsqueak, and Twist. The one labeled “Unicorns” contained Sweetie Belle, Dinky, Snips, and Snails.

I looked over at Rumble. “Where are we exactly?”

Rumble shook his head. “I don’t know, that freaky monster thing brought us here."

I looked over at the Earth Pony cage, and spoke so the unconscious ponies could hear. “Applebloom! Pip! You guys gotta wake up!”

Slowly Applebloom’s orange eyes opened, along with the others. Diamond Tiara bucked the bars of her cage and frowned. “Not funny Cherilee!” She shouted at nopony in particular. “This has gotta be the dumbest game since the bunny hopping!”

“Hey!” Applebloom said, glaring at Diamond. “That is a legitimate way of making Zap Apple Jam!”

“Well, of course, you would consider it legitimate!” Diamond said, glaring back at Applebloom. “Cherilee is about as crazy as your granny!”

“Don’t ya go insultin' mah granny now!” Applebloom looked ready to pummel Diamond. I had to act fast!

I got Pip’s attention with a wave of my hoof. “You and Truffle break them up!”

Pip nodded in agreement and poked Truffle, indicating he should grab Diamond. Truffle was a pretty fat pony with a grey coat and a fork and knife cutie mark. His family owned a restaurant back in Ponyville, which explained his rather large girth. I knew he would be strong enough to break up those two girls.

Pip went behind Applebloom and began to pull her away from Diamond. She struggled in my best friend’s grip. “Lemme at her, Pip! She deserves tah get smacked around!”

“Fighting isn’t going to help!” Pip said, as he struggled to maintain his grip.

Diamond too struggled in Truffle’s grip. “Typical blank flanks, sticking together!” She glared back at the fat earth pony holding her. “Let me go, fatty!”

Twist, who was just getting up, shook her head. “Diamond! Don’t make fun of Truffle!”

“What are you going to do about it, brace face?” Diamond asked, glaring back at her.

This was going nowhere! Diamond wasn’t going to make things any easier. Slowly Silver Spoon got up. She looked back and forth between the two fighting ponies. She looked almost conflicted…

Wait! That’s it!

“Silver Spoon!” I shouted. “You gotta get Diamond to back down!”

Silver Spoon turned up her nose at me. “Why should I do anything for you, blank flank?”

I crossed my forelegs. How was I going to persuade her to get Diamond to stop antagonizing everypony?”

Rumble smirked beside me and whispered, just loud enough for Silver to hear. "If you don’t, I’ll tell everypony about that Hearts and Hooves day gift you gave Snails!”

Silver’s jaw dropped, and she looked over to see Snails who was still unconscious. Everypony else was too busy with the fight to have heard it. Silver glared back at Rumble. “You wouldn’t!”

“Stop Diamond, and I won’t tell,” Rumble said, with a smug smile.

Silver sighed in defeat and walked to Diamond. “Diamond! Stop fighting everypony!”

Diamond stopped struggling in Truffle’s legs, and looked at Silver in shock. “Silver Spoon?”

Silver kept her violet gaze trained on Diamond, and eventually the pink earth pony stopped fighting. Diamond may be crazy, but she’ll listen to Silver Spoon. “Fighting like this isn’t going to solve anything,” Silver stated, firmly. “We can make fun of blank flanks after we get out of here.”

I looked at Applebloom who stopped struggling as well. “That goes for you too, Applebloom. No fighting until after we get out of here.”

The country filly sighed, and Pip let her go. Applebloom walked to Diamond and the two glared at each other. Pip got between them and smiled at them both. “Truce?”

Slowly the two enemies shook hooves. “Truce…”

I nodded with approval, and looked at the unicorn cage. Slowly Dinky and the other unicorns got up. Dinky looked around. “Where are we?”

Sweetie Belle’s green eyes scanned the room as well. It was a simple square room with a window on one side. Daylight was leaking through the window. “You think this is a game by Cherilee?”

“Well, if it is a game, I don’t want to play,” Snips said, looking around. “This place is too scary.”

I looked at the cages; they each had an old padlock on them. I wonder…

I looked over at Diamond. “Can I borrow your tiara?”

“What for, blank flank?” Diamond asked, not trying to hide her venomous tone.

“I’m going to try and pick the lock” I replied, pointing at the lock. “Not mine, but if I can get to yours then I can unlock it.”

“I didn’t know you could pick locks,” Scootaloo said, looking at me.

I smiled at her. “I picked it up from Private.” I looked at Rumble. “Do you think you could fly up off the ground?”

“Who put you in charge?” Rumble asked, glaring at me. “I don’t remember electing you or anything.”

“Do you have a better plan to get out of here?” I replied, firmly “If not, I think my plan is better than no plan.”

Rumble looked ready to argue, but one glare from Scootaloo got him to shut up. I looked over; the nearest cage was only a few feet away. If there was no weight in the cage, then we could push it over!

I looked at the other two pegasi in my cage. “All right, everypony fly just high enough off the ground.”

Scootaloo looked a little nervous. “I don’t know if I can stay in the air that long.”

I smiled at her. “Don’t worry; I know you can do it.”

Scootaloo nodded and flapped her wings so that she was hovering a few inches in the air. Rumble did the same and the two pegasi left the floor just enough that the cage only had my weight to worry about. I pushed against the edge of the cage, acting as a dead weight on it. The cage toppled over and I repeated this process until I was at the earth pony cage.

Diamond reluctantly handed me her tiara. Looking at the other ponies in the cage, I asked, “Anypony got bobby pins?”

Twist tossed me some and I smiled at her in gratitude. I took the tiara, and broke off one of the ends with my hoof. Diamond glared at me. “I hope you’re willing to pay for that when we get out of here!”

“I’ll get around to it after I buy the next Daring Do book,” I said, with a roll of my eyes. I then stuck the broken piece inside the padlock, and began picking at it. I’m not as good at lock picking as Private, so I lost a bobby pin in the process, but eventually the lock clicked open.

Applebloom opened the door with a smile. “We’re out!”

I looked at Pip. “Look around for a key.”

Pip nodded and left the room with Truffle beside him. The pair returned shortly with a set of keys. “We found them on a chair outside. Let’s get you guys out of here!”

Dinky smiled wide at the pinto. “You’re amazing, Pipsqueak!”

Pip blushed, and rubbed the back of his head. “Well, anything for my friends.”

Sweetie Belle began singing softly, “Pip and Dinky, sitting in a tree-“

“Don’t even start!” Dinky said, glaring at Sweetie, who giggled along with the other girls in the room. Pip inserted the key into the lock on the unicorn cage. The lock clicked open and the unicorns were set free. He then came and unlocked the pegasi cage.

Scootaloo and Rumble flew out, and I was about to join them. Sadly, I forgot I was crippled and fell on my face. Diamond and Silver laughed at my clumsy display, and I flushed in embarrassment.

Then I felt something on my stomach, and saw Scootaloo lifting me up onto her back. Everypony stared as she walked back to the group with me slung over her back. “I’m not going to leave him.”

“He’s a dead weight,” Rumble pointed out. “He’ll only slow us down.”

“Shut up, Rumble!” Scootaloo retorted. “Tailspin is my friend, I’m not leaving him! Besides, if it weren't for him none of us would be free.”

I flushed at being called Scootaloo’s friend. I then looked around at the group. “Listen everypony, we need to calm down. Whatever grudges we have against each other can wait until after we get out of here.”

I met everypony’s eyes and slowly everypony nodded. I only hoped this truce could last long enough for us to get out of here…

________________________________________________________

Perspective: Private Eye

We walked in the darkest part of White Tail Woods. Cherilee pointed out where the campsite was, and we found strange tracks leading away from it. Big Mac looked down at the hoof prints that were highlighted by Twilight’s tracking spell. “What kinda creature made these?”

They certainly looked like hoof prints, except they were huge. They looked more like they belonged to an Alicorn than your average pony. Did an Alicorn make them? What Alicorn would take a bunch of kids, and for what reason?

“HEEEELPPP!!!”

I heard the scream and looked around the woods. “That sounded like Fluttershy!”

“Shy!” Big Mac took off into the woods towards the scream. Twilight and I followed in hot pursuit. Big Mac plowed through bushes and foliage, clearing a path for Twilight and I. There was no stopping this guy once he got going it seems.

We came into a clearing and saw Fluttershy cowering before the biggest earth pony I’ve ever seen. It was red as blood; its mane was equally red, and fell around his yellow eyes, which were glaring at Fluttershy. Big Mac outright tackled the monster, and the two began wrestling, as I ran to Fluttershy.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, the cowering Pegasus.

“Private?” Fluttershy asked, looking up at me. “I was going to help a squirrel family find a new forest home, when that weird creature attacked me.”

I watched as the beast attacked Big Mac. The work horse slammed his hoof into the beast’s muzzle, sending the monster flying. Dang! I knew Big Mac was strong, but to see him in action was something else. The monster recovered from being flung into a nearby tree and growled low at Big Mac.

“Ya stay away from her, ya hear?” Big Mac said, lowering his head into a fighting stance. “Ah’ve faced off Timberwolves that were scarier than you!”

The beast was about to tackle Big Mac again, but I pulled out Blackbird in the span of a millisecond, shooting it in the leg. The beast howled in pain and fell several feet away from Big Mac. Then it looked at its hurt leg, snarled at me, and took off deeper into the woods.

Big Mac ran to Fluttershy, his eyes betraying his worry. “That thing didn’t hurt ya did he?”

Fluttershy pressed her head into Big Mac’s chest. The large stallion gently held the shy pegasus in his forelegs. “It was so scary! I haven't seen such a scary creature since Nightmare Moon.”

“Shh,” Big Mac said, gently stroking her back, “he’s gone now. Private, and ah gave 'em somethin' to remember us by.”

I looked towards the direction the beast had escaped in. For some reason I couldn’t shake the feeling I’ve seen it before, and the way it was flung about….

It was like it didn’t know how to handle its own body…

Chapter 3 "Flight"

Chapter 3

“Flight”

Perspective: Private Eye

Fluttershy broke her embrace with the work horse and flew over to me and Twilight. “What’s going on, Private? I haven't seen anything so scary since that dragon.”

Twilight put a hoof around her shoulder. “Fluttershy, we came here because a group from Cherilee’s class was kidnapped.”

“Oh dear!” Fluttershy said, in shock. “That’s horrible! Who would kidnap a bunch of poor dears?”

Honestly, I had my suspicions. There were a lot of child predators out there. This, however, didn’t match the M.O. of anypony I’ve ever heard of. What kind of a giant monster pony would take a bunch of kids anyway? For that matter, what was that thing?

I turned towards Fluttershy and spoke firmly, “You should head back, Fluttershy. Cherilee’s already called the police, so they should be here soon.”

The butter yellow Pegasus slowly shook her head. “I’m not letting those poor things get hurt.”

Big Mac smiled warmly. “That’s Shy fer ya, she ain’t gonna let us go alone.”

I sighed, relenting; gosh these ponies don’t know when to listen. I looked at Fluttershy. “All right, but you leave the fighting to me and Big Mac. Between my marksmanship and his strength, we can take on anything.”

Twilight smiled. “Don’t forget about me, my magic can be useful.”

Fluttershy nodded her head, “I’ll do my best to help too.”

I nodded and I looked down at the tracks; for some reason they looked… smaller.

___________________________________________________________

Perspective: Tailspin

We were walking down a very long corridor. Well, I should say everypony was walking except me. I was slung over Scootaloo’s back, like some dead weight. Our group was moving quickly but quietly, we didn’t want anypony hearing us.

Snips looked at one of the many old paintings on the walls. “Whoever lives here sure has a thing for creepy pictures.”

“And old pictures,” Sweetie Belle added, looking up at the paintings. “I’ve seen some of these in those boring art museums Rarity used to drag me to. Some of these are older than Granny Smith.”

“That’s sayin' somethin,” Applebloom said, with a nod. “Ah just hope somepony finds us before whatever tried to get us comes back.”

Rumble rolled his violet eyes. “That thing will probably catch us, with Tailspin slowing us down."

“Shut up, Rumble!” Scootaloo hissed.

Rumble shot me a vicious glare and just kept walking.

Scootaloo glanced back at me. “Are you all right, Tailspin?”

“I should ask you that,” I said, looking back at her. “You’re the one carrying the cripple on your back.”

“Don’t say that,” Scootaloo said, softly. “I’m strong enough to carry you, and I will keep carrying you for as long as you need.”

“Scootaloo,” I said, my cheeks flushing brightly.

“You two quit lolly gagging and get over here” Diamond Tiara ordered as she stood by a door. “I think I found our bags!”

All of us walked to the door, and peeked into the room beyond. We were looking into a large dilapidated study. There were some old couches and overturned chairs scattered about the room. There, piled in a corner, were all of our saddlebags. I recognized my own blue one with a cloud buckle on it. However, I also saw somepony standing over it.

It was the same red creature I remember seeing before I fell unconscious. The only difference was he was…smaller. He was now about the size of an average adult pony. Maybe a few inches shorter than Private. He paced in front of our bags, clearly standing guard.

We all huddled in a circle in the corridor far out of earshot. Pip spoke up, “We can’t get to our bags with that thing guarding it.”

“Has anypony noticed how small he looks?” Applebloom pointed out. “Ah don’t remember him bein' that small the last time ah saw him.”

“Does it really matter?” Snips asked. “What matters is that he has our bags, and we can’t do much without them.”

Snails nodded. “Yeah, all my snacks are in there!”

“Even if we got our bags, where would we take them?” Rumble asked. “We don’t have any place we can run. We need a plan…”

“Guys!” I heard Dinky whisper loudly, looking out the window. “I think I found a place to hide!”

We all ran to the window and saw the overgrown back garden. There among the weeds and old trees, was a garden shed. It still looked relatively sturdy. Dinky smiled. “If we can get down there then we can hide in that shed!”

“One problem, Dinky,” Applebloom said, looking at the unicorn. “We’re on the second floor, and only two of us can fly.”

Sure enough, we were on the second floor. None of us could jump down, it was too far. Rumble shook his head. “I don’t think Scootaloo or I could carry everypony down.”

Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “If we could somehow soften the fall, then we could all just jump down.”

“Maybe Scootaloo and Rumble can carry somepony down together,” I thought, aloud, “but they would need to use a net or something to catch anypony jumping down.”

Applebloom’s eyes grew wide and she pointed back at the study. “Mah blanket, Ah have it in mah bag!”

Diamond smirked. “You keep your blanky around in your bag?”

Applebloom blushed as Diamond and Silver Spoon giggled. Applebloom looked ready to tackle the pair, but one look from Pip reminded her of the truce.

“We need some way to distract that monster, if we can get the blanket then Scootaloo and Rumble can fly down with it. Then they can act as a net and catch anypony jumping down,” I said, quickly. I pointed at Diamond. “You try and get that monster’s attention.”

“Why do I have to be the bait?” Diamond whispered incredulously.

“You have the most experience being an obnoxious brat” I replied, flatly.

Diamond glared at me. "I am not an obnoxious brat and I will not be your bait!" she declared, snorting and tossing her head.

“Fine, once 'somepony'," I said, looked meaningfully at Diamond, "has that thing distracted, everypony grab your bags and run for the window.” I looked at Scootaloo and Rumble. “You two take the blanket and carry one of us down in it.”

Rumble nodded slowly. “You've done okay by us so far, Tailspin. I guess we can take a chance on this plan.”

“All right, let’s move!” I said, firmly.

We all walked back to the study, and Diamond walked inside; or should I say she was shoved inside by us? Ah details, all that matters is that the crimson beast started growling upon seeing her. Frankly I can’t blame him, this was going perfectly!

Diamond frowned at the monster, “Listen here, you stinky dolt!”

The monster was taken aback at this sudden outburst from Diamond.

“I’ve had an incredibly long and ridiculous day! I had to camp out in some dumb tent! I was caged! My classmates are trying to get me killed!” Diamond ground her teeth, and stamped her hoof at that last bit. “Now you can say I’m royally ticked off!”

The monster shrank away from Diamond’s constant whining. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle grabbed their bags first. They ran back out as Diamond kept ranting and complaining about everything. Rarity would have been impressed. When they got back out, Applebloom reached in her bag and pulled out a large blanket.

Scootaloo set me down on the wall and looked at me. “I’ll come back for you, okay?”

“Get the others out first” I said, looking beyond her at Diamond. “I don’t know how long Diamond can keep it up.”

Scootaloo nodded and picked up the blanket with Rumble. Applebloom looked around. “Who’s first?”

“Get the girls down first,” I said, with a firm look at Rumble.

He nodded and gestured for Applebloom to get in. The yellow filly hopped onto the blanket and the pair of pegasi gently lowered her down. I looked at the group. “Okay, everypony jump out, Scootaloo and Rumble will catch you”

Twist was the first up and looked down. She looked a little hesitant at first, but when Truffle gave her an encouraging look, the ginger maned pony leaped out. I heard a quiet cry come from below. “Tailspin! Applebloom’s working at getting us in the shed! Send down everypony else!”

Pip, Snips, and Snails came out with the last of the bags and chucked them out after Silver Spoon went. Soon Sweetie Belle followed, but that’s when I heard it.

“We got a problem!” Diamond shouted, from the study.

“What kind of problem?” I called back, hoping the pony was gnawing one of her hooves.

“The big and really ticked off kind!” Diamond shouted, as she burst out of the study, with the monster right on her tail. Truffle was the next one to jump out, and he didn’t need much incentive.

The monster looked over at Dinky and began growling low. It started to advance on the unicorn, as Snips and Snails jumped out of the window.

Pip suddenly came out of nowhere and leaped onto the beast. He wrapped his tiny hooves around its neck and held on tight. The beast leaped around like a bucking bull. Pip looked at Dinky, “Run!”

“I’m not leaving you!” Dinky shouted, as Pip struggled with the beast.

“I’ll be fine!” Pip shouted, punching the beast in the muzzle. “Go!”

Reluctantly Dinky was the next one to go. She gave one last look back at Pip, before leaping out the window. I looked at Diamond. “You go next!”

“Gladly!” Diamond replied, as she leapt out of the window.

Suddenly, Pip was thrown off the monster and slammed into the wall. The monster was growling low, baring its large teeth at my friend. He wasn’t getting my friend on my watch!

I shouted at the monster, “Hey big and ugly!”

The beast turned his yellow eyes towards me.

I glared at it. “Why don’t you pick on the pony that can’t run?”

The beast started charging right at me. I kept my blue gaze on him, despite the fact I was trembling inside. Private always told me to be brave. Well, I’m doing it right now!

Suddenly the monster was sideswiped by a grey blur. Rumble was wrestling with the monster, slamming his hooves on its head. He looked at me. “Go! I’ll hold him off!”

“Rumble…” I was surprised he of all ponies would save me.

Pip ran to me and lifted me onto his back; then he ran to the window sill and pushed me off. I fell like a dead weight onto the blanket. I saw that Sweetie, Snips, Snails, and Dinky were holding it. I rolled off the blanket and looked up as Rumble flew out of the window. Pip followed seconds after and landed on the blanket.

Rumble landed beside me, and looked at me. “You all right?”

“I’m fine,” I said, slowly. “Why’d you save me?”

Rumble looked down. “Look, I’m sorry about beating you up, okay? I just got so jealous that Scootaloo liked you more than me. When I remembered you were trapped in there, I knew she would hate me forever if I just left you.”

“Rumble,” I said, putting a hoof on the colt’s shoulder. “Thanks for saving my flank back there.”

“You aren’t so bad, for a cripple,” Rumble said, with lopsided grin.

I returned the smile and looked up as Applebloom cleared her throat. She stood in the open door of the shed. “Everypony! Let’s stay 'ere fer the night.”

I looked up, somehow in our struggles I failed to notice the sun was lowering. I guess we had to stay here for the night.

Everypony went with their bags into the shed. Scootaloo picked me up again. She looked back at me as we headed to the shed. “Tailspin, I think you were very brave for staying behind, and making sure everypony else was safe.”

“Don’t thank me,” I pointed out. “Thank Pip.” I pointed at Pip who was walking beside Dinky.

Dinky looked at Pip with shining yellow eyes. “That’s right! You jumped on that monster, and saved me! That was so cool!”

Pip blushed and tried not to look embarrassed. “Well, I would’ve done the same for any of my mates.”

Dinky then planted a kiss on Pip’s already red cheek. She smiled at him, and blushed a little herself. “I thought it was amazing.”

“Thanks, Dinky,” Pip said, his cheeks turning even more red.

Everypony in the shed was giggling, and the girls started singing in chorus, “Pip and Dinky sitting in a tree-“

“Shut up!” Dinky and Pip shouted, at the same time.

We all laughed as we entered the shed and closed the door.
_________________________________________________________________

Perspective: Private Eye

Luna’s moon shone in the sky as we walked in the woods. I swear this place was as confusing as Everfree at night. Luckily, we had Twilight’s tracking spell to help us.

The tracks were easier to follow now, thanks to being so recently made. I noticed that the tracks kept getting smaller and smaller in size, though. It was like the creature was shrinking as it ran along.

My thoughts were interrupted as my eyes beheld the building in front of me.

It was a three story mansion, right out here in the middle of nowhere. The building was bigger than my dad’s back in Manehattan, and that was saying something. Windows were broken and the place looked abandoned. The large rusted gates looked recently opened. Somepony was here…

Fluttershy cowered behind Big Mac and whispered, “What a scary place.”

Twilight tapped her hoof on her chin, “I don’t remember anypony building all the way out here.”

“It was probably before our time,” I guessed. “This place looks like nopony has lived here in years.”

“It looks like somepony decided tah come knockin'.” Big Mac pointed out the hoof prints leading into the mansion. “Whatever that thing was, it sure wanted tah get 'ere ina hurry”

I nodded and walked past the open gate and up to the door. The door was slightly ajar; I pulled out Blackbird and gently pushed the door open…

Chapter 4 "The Mansion"

Chapter 4

“The Mansion”

I entered the foyer with Blackbird levitating beside me. Looking around, I saw the place was covered with a layer of dust almost an inch thick. All of the paintings and furniture had cobwebs on them. I prayed to Luna that none of the spiders stuck around…

I hate spiders okay, what of it?

Twilight entered, her horn glowing to light up the room. She was closely followed by Fluttershy and Big Mac. Her violet eyes scanned the room and she let out a whistle. “What a mansion…”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac said, his green eyes looking around as well. His eyes fell on an old picture; he wiped some of the dust off it. “Private, ya may wanna take a look at this.”

I walked over to the picture, my horn glowing like a flashlight. It depicted a pony family, all unicorns, a mother, a father, and a child. I looked at the child, those violet eyes, that violet coat…

Glimmer?

Crash!

I heard a noise coming from upstairs. Fluttershy squeaked and hid behind Big Mac. He gave a bemused chuckle at Fluttershy’s timidness. I simply rolled my eyes, and motioned for the group to follow behind me. We crept up the stairs quietly and headed down the hall. More old art was adorning the hallways. The crash I heard had seemed to come from the first room on the left.

I gently pushed open the door with my gun levitated beside me. I looked inside, and saw that the room was a library. The crashed object was a lamp on the floor. It must have been knocked down when somepony bumped the table. I looked around, I didn’t see anypony inside-

Suddenly, something fell on my back. I jumped a couple feet and I shook to knock it off. Standing before me, was some kind of monstrosity… Oh, thank Luna it wasn't a giant spider.

It looked like a pony, or what used to be a pony. Only it looked like a corpse sewn together with string. It had a golden coat, and its eyes were something I recognized…

“Dawnbird!” I exclaimed, as I backed away from the monster.

Months ago, Dawnbird's filly had fallen down a well. Originally she was thought to have been the murderer until I revealed that her sick mother, Glimmer, was the one who killed her granddaughter. Glimmer escaped by using Dinky to keep me from her. After the whole business, Dawnbird left Ponyville behind and disappeared.

Now what was left of her bore its fangs at me. I held up Blackbird. “Dawnbird, what happened to you?”

“Murderer,” the monster said, slowly. “Murderer…”

It started to crawl to me; I had to put this thing out of its misery.

It leaped at me and I fired a shot into one of its legs. It let out a shriek of pain, and crashed into a bookshelf. The monster bore it’s fangs at me again right before getting tackled by a red streak. Big Mac held the beast in his large hooves. “Private! Shoot it now!”

I ran to the beast and put my gun to its head, pulling the trigger with my magic.

The blood that came forth didn’t show on Big Mac’s coat, He gently set down the monster after it died, again. Twilight and Fluttershy came in. Fluttershy looked about ready to shriek at the sight of the monstrosity. Big Mac went to her and hugged her tightly. Fluttershy didn’t care that he was covered in blood; she just wanted the large stallion here.

Twilight looked down at the beast and her horn glowed. She shook her head. “This magic, I’ve never felt such ugly magic before.”

I gently set Dawnbird on a rug and rolled it over her so nopony could see her as this monster. I looked at Twilight. “What magic did this?”

“Necromancy,” Twilight said, with a shudder. “Dawnbird was already dead, somepony shoved life into her to act as a puppet.”

“How awful,” Fluttershy said, while wiping the blood off of Big Mac with dusty curtain remnants. “Why would anypony do this?”

“Somepony must know we are here,” I replied, slowly. “Big Mac, you move the couch and barricade the door.”

Big Mac nodded and went to move the old couch in front of the door. I admired how such strength could come from the workhorse. No wonder Sweet Apple Acres relied on him so much.

Twilight began levitating books off of the shelves. She cleaned a space on an old desk and began sifting through the books. She muttered to herself as she kept reading the books at lightning speed.

“All of these books,” Twilight said, as she went through the fourth book. “I’ve seen them in restricted sections at the library at Canterlot. You have to get special permission from royalty in order to even touch them.”

“What do they contain?” I asked, a large part of me not really wanting to know.

“Life binding spells,” Twilight answered, turning a page with her magic. “According to this history book, Alicorns once used these kinds of spells to reanimate the dead.”

“Which explains Dawnbird,” I said, grimly, as Fluttershy prayed over the body of Dawnbird. Big Mac put a hoof around his special somepony for comfort.

“There’s more, this practice was banned centuries ago when a group of magicians betrayed the Alicorn empire,” Twilight said, reading out of the book. “They defected to… Discord?”

“Discord?” I asked my jaw dropping. “You mean to tell me that Discord had an army of undead at his disposal millennia ago?”

“It says here Discord couldn’t use the magic himself,” Twilight said, with a sigh of relief. “I don’t know what we could’ve done if Discord summoned zombies to attack us.”

“So Discord had these guys at his disposal? What did the Alicorns do to counter it?” I asked, nervously.

“It doesn’t say!” Twilight said, slamming her hoof on the desk in frustration. “There are some passages about a red eyed beast, but then it just cuts off.” She showed the tears in the book. “I’m guessing these pages were gone ages ago, by rats or something.”

“If somepony is experimenting with this kinda freaky magic,” Big Mac said, grimly, “we can’t let it continue. We gotta shut em down.”

“I agree,” I said, firmly, “but what should we do about Dawnbird?” I gestured to the corpse.

Twilight looked at the fireplace that was in the corner of the room. She levitated Dawnbird’s corpse with her magic and put it inside the fireplace. Then she levitated some old furniture on top of her and lit the pile with her magic. Dawnbird’s corpse was soon enveloped in flames.

She looked back at me with those beautiful eyes of hers. “Now they can’t use her corpse anymore.”

I nodded. “Let’s get out of here, we have to move on.”

Twilight nodded, and levitated the couch out of the way. Big Mac and her walked out together. I noticed Fluttershy was still looking at Dawnbird’s burning body. I walked to the Pegasus, and put a hoof on her shoulder. “You okay?”

She shook her head. “It’s just so evil, to have somepony's life treated like it’s something you can just throw away, and do whatever you like with their body.”

“I know, Fluttershy. We have to stop this monster before Equestria is filled with more Dawnbirds”

Fluttershy nodded and hugged me. I hugged the Pegasus back, and for a minute we just sat there. Fluttershy held a special place in the hearts of everypony in Ponyville, including me. She’s always trying to remain kind in a world that was turning steadily towards evil.

There’s a lot to admire about that….

___________________________________________________________

Perspective: Tailspin

We settled into the shed, it was large enough to hold our entire group inside it. Inside were all sorts of tools and old boards, I could imagine this used to be where all of the tools were kept. Scootaloo set me down against the wall at the back. She looked a little tired from lugging my big flank around all day.

I looked at her with a little bit of guilt in my blue eyes.

She just smiled, able to understand what I was thinking. “I’m stronger then I look, Tailspin. It’s nothing.”

Applebloom was looking at the boards with a keen interest. She looked at me, “We should probably use them boards tah board up the door, in case the monster comes back.”

“Good idea,” I said, with a nod. “Everypony, let’s do a little inventory.”

“Inventory?” Snails asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“He means we should see all the stuff we have,” Sweetie Belle explained.

“There’s Sweetie Belle, the dictionary again,” Scootaloo said, with a smile.

Everypony snickered a little as Applebloom went about sorting all of the piles of wood and nails. I crawled over to my bag and opened it, inside was my small lamp. I pulled it out and turned the little nob with my hoof, lighting up the small shed so we all could see better.

Applebloom smiled at her work with sorting. “All right, that’s eight pieces of plywood, six four by sixes, two boxes of nails, three hammers, and one big screwdriver.”

“Yeah,” Pip said, with a frown, “but what are we going to do with all of this stuff?”

Applebloom smiled and lifted a piece of wood to the shed’s door. “Nail it, this way no monsters can git in.”

“All right,” I said, with a nod. “Everypony who’s good with tools get that wood up, everypony else start looking through the saddlebags for any food.”

“That is if Snails doesn’t eat it all,” Snips said, opening his bag.

“You’re still sore about the carrots?” Snails asked, rather dumbly. “Look, I told you we should’ve ate before we did the show.”

Everypony just rolled their eyes and set to work. Truffle, Twist, Applebloom, and Scootaloo went about nailing the wood on the door. There were no windows inside the shed, so we didn’t need to worry about that. There were some cracks in the walls that Pip and Rumble managed to patch up.

I dug through my bag and pulled out my candy bar. “Score!”

Diamond pulled out a wide array of foods, all canned and I was amazed at how much she packed. She glared at everypony. “Don’t think I’m going to share this with all of you! Get your own food.”

“Don’t be a brat, Diamond,” Dinky said, glaring at her, “or did you forget that we saved your flank back there?”

“You guys used me as bait!” Diamond growled. “Why should I help any of you after that?”

Dinky was about to retort when I held up a hoof for her to keep quiet. I crawled my way to Diamond and looked at her right in her own blue eyes “Diamond, I picked you to be the distraction because I trusted you. I trusted that you could handle a job when asked to do it. Now, that food is for all of us to share. Everypony here is hungry, and do you really want to deal with everypony hounding you to get what they want?”

“Nopony talks to me like that!” Diamond fired back.

“Well, I am!” I said, firmly. Diamond was taken aback by this. It’s as though she'd never gotten chastised in her life. “Now quit your stupid whining, and start acting like you have a heart!”

Diamond looked ready to retort, but then, her expression softened as she gazed at me. I got a pretty uncomfortable feeling from this new look she was giving me. She slowly pushed her bag full of all the food in front of me. “There’s a can opener inside, help yourselves.”

“Thanks, Diamond,” I said, with a smile.

Did her cheeks flush a little? She shook her head and went back into brat mode. “Just take the food, before I change my mind!”

Truffle walked up to me and looked at the food. “I think I can make something out of all of this, if only we could get a fire going, we could cook.”

“Too bad we can’t inside a wooden shed,” I pointed out. “Just hold the can on my lamp, it’ll have to suffice.”

Truffle nodded and took the rest of the food to the lamp. He used the heat provided by the lamp to warm the food a little. Thank goodness the lamp was oil powered and not electric. We would never be able to cook anything at all otherwise.

Applebloom put the finishing touches on our barricade. She smiled at her work. “There, I’d like tah see that monster get through that.”

“You think it’ll hold?” Rumble asked, looking at the barricaded door.

“Let’s hope so,” Pip said, worriedly. “I don’t want that monster coming around here.”

I looked around at everypony. “We should all just try and relax until morning.” I pulled my bed roll off my bag. “We’ll worry about getting to safety tomorrow.”

“Ya think anypony is coming tah look fer us?” Applebloom asked, after setting up her bed space.

I nodded. “My brother is probably on his way now, I’m sure Cherilee would’ve called him.”

Applebloom gazed off somewhere else for a minute. “Yeah, Private’s amazin'.”

“Are you pining for my brother Applebloom?” I asked, with a raised eyebrow.

She blushed bright red “Ah’m not! Ah’m just sayin' he’s somepony tah admire!”

“I know, I was just kidding,” I said, with a smile. “Just wait, Private’s going to come here and save us all.”

I opened my bag a little more and there she was. Squished in my bag was Sasha; I brought her along more to humor Private than anything else. I’m ten years old, and yet he still thinks I would sleep with a doll. Still, it was the only thing aside from the camping gear I had of him. I pulled Sasha out of the bag, not thinking I was in a room filled with ponies.

“Is that a doll?” I heard a voice speak up behind me. To my horror it was Silver Spoon.

“No, it’s nothing!” I said, defensively, trying to stuff Sasha back in the bag. Before I could, however, Silver Spoon snatched it, and held it up for everypony to see.

“Hey everypony!” Silver shouted, holding the doll out of reach. “Tailspin’s sleeping with a dolly!”

“It’s a stuffed animal!” I retorted, my face bright red, as everypony was trying not to laugh. “There’s a difference!”

“Do you also suck your hoof at night as well?” Silver taunted, while everypony was laughing.

“I stopped sucking my hoof when I was five!” I shot back, angry and embarrassed.

Everypony was just laughing at it until-

“Silver, stop it!”

Everypony looked at Dinky who stomped over to Silver, and snatched Sasha away. She gave the stuffed animal back to me with a small smile. “Its okay, Tailspin. Here you go.”

I took Sasha back, and returned her smile. “Thanks, Private gave me this when I was two. It’s all I really have of him right now…”

Everypony got quiet for a moment. Even Diamond kept her mouth shut, then Applebloom pulled out her blanket from before. “Applejack gave me this when I was six.” She held the blanket to her chest and looked at me. “Ya ain’t the only one who has somethin tah remind 'em of their siblings.”

Everypony nodded, Sweetie Belle reached into her bag and pulled out an old doll that looked just like her sister. “Mom made these for me and Rarity’s birthdays. Rarity has one that looks like me.”

Rumble pulled out a small keychain with a lightning bolt on it. “Thunderlane got me this when we went to a Raiden Bolt concert. It was before mom left us.”

“You don’t have a mom?” I asked, looking at Rumble.

The grey Pegasus shook his head. “Our dad died a long time ago, when I was born. Mom kind of fell off the deep end after that. Thunderlane’s been raising me ever since she left us.”

“Rumble, I’m sorry,” I said, slowly. “I know what it’s like to have no parents around.”

He gave me a small smile. “I’m fine, as long as I have this.” He pointed to the key chain. “Thunderlane is here with me, I know it.”

I guess we aren’t really alone…

Then I heard sniffling. I looked over and saw Dinky crying. My blue eyes looked at her with sympathy. “Dinky, are you okay?”

The periwinkle unicorn shook her head. “I just remembered, I didn’t bring along something to remind me of mommy.” She wiped her eyes. “She’s probably worried sick about me…”

Tears came to other ponies eyes as we were all reminded about our families. Diamond looked down, and spoke softly for once, “Daddy is probably freaking out right now.”

Pip looked down too and spoke just as softly, “Mum and dad probably called the police by now. They’re probably worried sick about me too.”

Dinky just began crying, I hated seeing her cry, and so did Pip. Pip walked to Dinky and allowed her to press herself into him. Scootaloo looked over at me with a frown. “We gotta do something to cheer everypony up.”

That’s when the singing started…

Come stop your crying

It’ll be all right…

I looked up to see Sweetie Belle walking towards Dinky as she sang. Wow, she had an amazing voice!

Just take my hoof,

Hold it tight…

I will protect you from all around you..

She took Dinky’s hoof, and smiled at the periwinkle colored unicorn.

I will be here don’t you cry…

We all knew this song thanks to Disneigh flicks. I began to join in and soon we were all singing around crying Dinky.

For one so small, you seem so strong

My arms will hold you keep you safe and warm

Everypony else began to sing along as well.

This bound between us, can’t be broken…

I will be here don’t you cry…

Pip wiped Dinky’s eyes of her tears. The pinto smiled at Dinky. “It’s all right, Dinky. As long as we have each other. We’ll get through this.”

“Thanks,” Dinky said, hugging the pinto tight. Pip blushed at being held by Dinky, but slowly returned the hug.

I looked over at Sweetie Belle with a smile, “That was amazing Sweetie Belle! You have an awesome voice!”

“I… do, don’t I?” the white unicorn said, slowly “I just wanted to stop Dinky crying the only way I knew how…”

A light shone on Sweetie Belle. We all shielded our eyes as slowly but surely a mark formed on her flank. It was a musical note, with a pair of bells crossing them. Sweetie Belle stared at her flank for almost a minute before leaping in air for joy. “My cutie mark!”

“Ya got yer cutie mark in singin'!” Applebloom exclaimed.

Scootaloo raised her hoof in the air. “The first among the cutie mark crusaders to get her cutie mark is Sweetie Belle!”

Everypony went to look at Sweetie Belle’s flank, Snips raised an eyebrow at it. “What’s with the bells?”

“I know those bells!” Twist said, knowingly. “They’re wedding bells! My cousin had these big bells that sounded after the wedding!”

“I think it means that Sweetie Belle has a talent for using her music to bring comfort and celebration,” I said, sagely.

Sweetie Belle looked around smiling. “I always knew I could sing well, I just didn’t figure it was my special talent.”

“You would’ve saved us a lot of grief at the talent show if we’d known that sooner,” Scootaloo said, laughing at the memory.

We all laughed at this joyous occasion, but then Applebloom frowned. “Do ya guys hear that?”

We all got quiet for a second, and Applebloom pressed her ear to a crack in the door. “Hey, Ah think Ah hear somepony crying.”

“What’s somepony doing crying out here?” I asked, slowly.

“Ah’ll ask,” Applebloom said, quietly. She spoke through the crack, “Hey there! Why are ya cryin'?”

“Applebloom!” Diamond said, warningly. “What if it’s the monster again?”

“Ah ain’t gonna just let somepony cry all day,” Applebloom said, firmly. “Ah wanna see if we can help.” She spoke through the crack again, “Hey, what’s yer name? Why ya cryin'?”

Applebloom looked out through the hole as a voice spoke, “I’m crying because I’ve never met ponies who act so friendly…” The voice sounded about the same age as us I could guess, probably a guy.

Applebloom spoke gently, “Come on out. We ain’t gonna hurt ya.”

After a minute Applebloom looked away from the crack, her expression quizzical. “Everypony, it is the monster from before”

“Then why are we letting that thing get closer?” Diamond demanded. “What could possibly make you think he’s safe?”

“Cause he ain’t big no more,” Applebloom said, slowly. “He’s a colt, just like us.”

Chapter 5 "Tyran and Genova"

Chapter 5

“Tyran and Genova”

Perspective: Tailspin

“Run that by me again,” I asked, slowly. “You’re saying the monster isn’t a monster anymore?”

Applebloom nodded. “Ah ain’t lyin'. He’s out there, and he’s a little guy, not big like he was.”

“Now that you mention it,” Pip said, tapping his chin in thought. “He did seem smaller when we saw him the second time. It was like he went from being a giant monster to being a normal sized monster.”

“Does it matter how small he’s gotten?” Diamond asked, looking around. “We can’t let him in! Who knows what he’ll do to us!”

"Ya'll heard 'em crying!” Applebloom pleaded, as she looked at me. “Come on, Tailspin. Ya gotta believe me when I say we should at least hear him out.”

“Why are you asking me?” I inquired.

“Cause yer the one with the plans” Applebloom said, knowingly. “Ya gotta hear him out and see he doesn’t look scary anymore.”

“It could be a trick,” Rumble pointed out. “He could just be a monster that looks like the other one to trick us into letting him in.”

“He could just be somepony who needs our help!” Sweetie Belle argued.

“Are we all forgetting that thing almost ate Dinky for lunch?” Pip fired back.

Arguing began to break out as some supported the idea, while many openly shot down the idea. This wasn’t getting us anywhere. I needed everypony to calm down. It was time to put my hoof down.

“EVERYPONY SHUT UP!” I shouted, quieting the group.

“Look, I know we are all scared right now,” I said, gently, “but the fact of the matter is, we can’t judge somepony we haven’t even really talked to. I’m going to talk to this guy, see if he really means us harm.”

“Tailspin!” Pip started to argue.

“I know what he almost did to Dinky,” I said to my best friend, “but you just gotta trust me on this one okay?”

Slowly the pinto nodded, “I’m sorry, Tailspin, I was just thinking about Dinky.”

The periwinkle unicorn blushed bright red at this. She smiled and nuzzled Pip on the cheek affectionately. Pip returned it slowly as I began to crawl towards the opening in the door.

I looked back and Scootaloo gave me a look. “Be careful, Tailspin.”

“Hey,” I said, with a smile. “I’m an Eye; we do stuff like this all the time.”

I put my mouth to the opening, “Hey, are you out there?” I put my ear to the opening waiting for a reply.

“You were arguing about me,” I heard the voice speak. It definitely sounded like a kid. “I’m sorry for scaring all of you.”

I spoke through the crack again, “Who are you? You got a name?”

“Tyran,” the voice said. “My name is Tyran.”

That’s an odd name, must be short for something. I decided not to beat around the bush. “Hey, why’d you attack us?”

“I didn’t mean to hurt anypony,” Tyran said, his voice laced with guilt. “I only wanted to get you guys back in the cages. Grandma would get very mad if she found out you all ran out,”

“Who’s this Grandma?” I asked.

“Grandma is the pony who raised me,” Tyran explained. “She left for a while, but now she's back. She's been taking care of me again for the past few months. I didn't like being here by myself. She told me to bring you guys here.”

“Why did she bring us here?” I asked, slowly. I could tell some of the group was getting anxious about hearing the answer.

Tyran’s response was odd, “I don’t know. She just said she needed… components I think the word was.”

I didn’t like that; I did not like that at all. Why’d she capture a bunch of kids for components? This was like something out of some weird horror story. I spoke slowly to Tyran, “Does Grandma know we are here?”

“No, no she doesn’t,” Tyran said, “I didn’t tell her because I was afraid she’d hit me or something.”

She certainly isn’t what I’d imagine a grandma to be like. Then again, I guess old ponies can’t all be Granny Smith. I looked out through the crack with my blue eye. “Come out, I want to see you.”

Slowly the overgrown bushes rustled and out stepped a small colt. His coat was the same scarlet as before, his mane was wild and overgrown. I noticed he was rather skinny too. His yellow eyes were not scary, but looked like everypony else’s eyes.

We were scared of just a normal kid in a big kid’s body.

“Are you gonna take us to Grandma?” I asked, slowly.

Tyran shook his head, “No, you guys don’t seem like bad guys. Grandma told me all these nasty things about ponies, but after hearing you guys talk things out and help each other, I’m… moved.”

“How old are you?” I asked, curiously.

“I’m eleven years old,” Tyran said, with a nod. “I’ve lived here my whole life.”

“Why were you big before?”

“Grandma gave me this medicine to make me big,” Tyran explained. “I didn’t mean to hurt anypony. I only wanted to help Grandma.”

“You look hungry.” I noticed his skinny body. You could almost count the ribs on his stomach. No colt should be that skinny.

Tyran looked down, and flushed in embarrassment. “Grandma hasn’t fed me yet, so yeah, I’m hungry.”

Just then Applebloom spoke behind me, “We got food in here! We can give ya some grub!”

Everypony looked at her like she was crazy. Then again they didn’t see the pitiful creature in front of me. They didn’t understand this guy was probably going to starve if we didn’t feed him.

I spoke through the crack “All right, we’ll give you food, but you gotta promise not to tell Grandma.”

“I promise,” Tyran said, with a nod. “I promise I won’t hurt anypony either. I only want to be with other kids.”

I nodded and backed away from the door. I looked at the group and said slowly, “Unbolt the door.”

“Are you nuts?” Rumble’s jaw dropped. “Did you hit your head or something? He’s the one who tried to capture us, again!”

“I agree with Rumble!” Diamond argued. “In case you forgot that thing attacked us!”

I had enough! I glared at Rumble and pushed him to the crack of the door. He protested a little, but I spoke firmly, “Take a good look at him, Rumble! Do you really think this is the same monster that attacked us?”

Rumble stopped struggling and took a good look out of the crack. The grey Pegasus slowly turned to me. He stared at me for about a minute before looking over at Pip. “Come on, give me a hoof.”

Pip looked at me; I nodded for him to help. My best friend sighed, and walked to the door. “I only hope you guys know what you are doing.”

Honestly, I hoped so too.

Slowly but surely the boards were pulled out using the hammers. When the last board came off, Pip opened the door. Everypony saw Tyran for the first time. Not as the scary beast he was before, but as just a hungry looking kid.

He looked at us slowly. “I’m sorry for scaring everypony, I really am.”

Applebloom was the first one to approach the colt. She gently smiled at him. “It’s alright; we ain’t scared of ya no more.”

Rumble and Pip closed the door behind Tyran as the colt entered. He sat down and the group just stared at him. That’s when I noticed Snips digging inside his bag. “What’s up Snips?”

The squat unicorn pulled out a pair of scissors and a comb. “He needs a mane cut bad. I’m hoping to exercise my skills on him.”

“I wondered what your cutie mark meant,” I said, smiling; I looked at Tyran. “Would you object to a mane cut?”

Tyran backed away slowly. “Will it hurt?”

Geez, this guy was sheltered. He’s never had a mane cut before? I gave him a gentle smile. “Nah, Snips here will take care of that wild mess of a mane.”

The scarlet stallion nodded and sat on his rump as Snips went to work. I was surprised that the short unicorn had quite a bit of skill with his magic. He handled the scissors on Tyran’s wild mane well.

I wonder if he'd be willing to look at Private’s hat mane once in a while. I crawled over to Truffle. He was just finishing up some stew in a makeshift pot he brought along. “How’s the grub coming?”

“Well, it’s not perfect when all you have is canned carrots, and some noodles, but I think this’ll get everypony’s stomach full.” He dug a spoon into his creation and offered me a taste.

I gladly tasted it and smiled. “It’s great, Truffle, let’s hope everypony can get their fill.”

The fat earth pony nodded and went back to work. Everypony was pulling out candy bars and potato chips as the feast began. We just shared all we had together. Whether it was some cookies that Sweetie Belle brought along, or some great crackers that Twist brought along, we all got to taste and enjoy it.

Tyran looked at all of us; his mane was certainly shorter now. It was cut into a short and windswept style that made him look like he belonged in No Direction. He smiled at Applebloom as she came with some of the stew inside one of those water bottle cups. He looked at the grub and then at her, then took a spoon and began digging into it.

Applebloom’s eyes went wide as she saw how much the weird colt ate. “Wow, were ya starvin' or somethin'?”

“I've just never tasted anything so good,” Tyran explained. “Far better than any of the food Grandma would give me.”

“What exactly did she give you to eat?” Applebloom asked, slowly.

“A bunch of these vitamins” Tyran explained, as he dug into a candy bar provided by yours truly. “She never cooked anything like this.”

“Thanks,” Truffle said with pride, as he started to clean up the empty pot with a rag he brought along in his bag.

“You know you aren’t so bad,” Pip said, with a smile at Tyran. “You just needed some food in you.”

“I’m sorry about throwing you about,” Tyran apologized. “You just caught me off guard when I went for the unicorn.”

“Hey, it’s nothing,” Pip said, slapping Tyran on the back. “Just make sure you stay in normal colt form so we won’t have to deal with it.”

“Yeah,” I said, with a smirk, “because if you really hurt Dinky, you’d bet Pip would get very mad.”

Pip blushed furiously as Tyran raised an eyebrow. “Your cheeks are turning red; maybe you should see a doctor.”

“I’m fine, really!” Pip said, way too fast.

“He’s just thinking about a certain unicorn shaped angel of his,” I said, laughing.

Everypony in the room laughed, except for Dinky who just giggled at Pip. Pip blushed furiously and looked away. Slowly Dinky walked to Pip and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I think it was very brave, don’t let anypony say otherwise.”

Tyran looked at the pair oddly, then he looked at me. “What’s gotten into them?”

I rolled my eyes and smiled, “They've been twitter patted.”

“Twitter patted?” Tyran asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“You really need to see more Disneigh movies,” I said, chuckling.

______________________________________________________________

Perspective: Private Eye

We walked down a long corridor for a few minutes. Twilight walked beside me closely, her coat pressed against mine. I looked over at Twilight and her troubled eyes met mine. “What’s wrong?” I asked, slowly.

“I just can’t stop thinking about Dawnbird,” she replied, sadly. “I can’t believe magic can be used so perversely.”

I pressed my head into Twilight’s, and gently nuzzled her, “It’s all right, Twilight. We’ll put a stop to this, I promise.”

Crash!

“Hey guys!” Big Mac shouted from up ahead. Big Mac was standing next to a suit of armor with Fluttershy on his back. The suit of armor had been knocked over, probably by the Pegasus, if I had to venture a guess.

Fluttershy got off Big Mac and looked at me “I knocked it over while I was looking out for spiders and, well…” She blushed in embarrassment.

Big Mac just smiled at her. “Well, if you hadn’t we wouldn’t have discovered this!” He pointed to a button on the stand where one of the armor’s boots was.

I pressed the button and a door opened in the wall. It was dark inside but I could see there was a staircase leading down. We were on the bottom floor; this had to led to the basement. I wondered what was down there.

I pulled out Blackbird and slowly began walking down the stairs into the darkness. After nearly ten minutes of walking downstairs I saw light coming from the passage way.

When I entered, I shuddered at what I saw. There were large floor to ceiling glass tubes everywhere. All filled with a strange blue liquid. That, however, was not all there in the tubes. Each also contained a corpse…

My companions all walked inside the strange lab. Liquids bubbled inside the beakers. Lab notes were everywhere, in some seemingly random system. I walked up to one of the corpses and stared wide eyed as I recognized it.

It was Tangerio… His corpse showing where Scarwing killed him by bucking him in the face. He was the first victim I’ve ever had to deal with in Ponyville. His father assassinated him in an attempt to frame Big Mac. Not only that, but it was also so Mandarin Orange could cover up the fact that Tangerio was illegitimate.

What is his corpse doing here?

“Private! Dustmane’s corpse is right here!” Twilight said, looking at another tube. “It looks like he’s been dissected.”

“Who would do something so horrible?” Fluttershy asked, looking at the corpse of Dustmane. He was a stalker of Rarity’s. He had assisted Blueblood in kidnapping Sweetie Belle as revenge. He had a change of heart during the operation and tried to send Rarity clues as to Sweetie Belle’s whereabouts. He paid for this with his life. Now he was floating in a tube, with his eyes gone.

“This is sick!” Big Mac said, bucking a wall in frustration. “Who would defile all these dead like this?”

“Somepony looking for test subjects,” I said, slowly. It was then that I noticed a smaller tank, farther in. My eyes fell upon a small filly floating inside it. It was a unicorn; it had a yellow coat, a periwinkle and pink mane, a long sleek tail. Wait, it looked like it was mashed together from various ponies.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders…

I saw a label on the tube and read it aloud, slowly.

“Genova, Izanami to the master race.”

“Izanami?” Big Mac asked, with a raised eyebrow. “What’s that gotta do with anything?”

Twilight spoke knowingly, “In some historical records, the first unicorns were named Izanagi and Izanami.” She looked at us. “Whoever is doing this, believes this filly is the mother of some new race.”

“What race?” I asked, slowly.

That’s when I noticed, she wasn’t a unicorn.

This filly, was an Alicorn….

Chapter 6 "Bonds of Madness"

Chapter 6

“Bonds of Madness”

Perspective: Tailspin

It was about an hour after Tyran arrived when I heard it. I lifted my head from the wall where I was trying to sleep. Everypony else was getting some sleep after all that’s happened. I looked over to my left and saw Scootaloo sleeping soundly next to me. I flushed when I realized how close we were.

Gosh, she’s very pretty

Boom!

I heard something hit the door. I nudged Pip who was asleep nearby He slowly opened his brown eyes and looked at me groggily “Tailspin, what-“

“Shh!” I said, with a hoof on my mouth. He nodded and I pointed at the door and whispered, “Somepony is trying to get in.”

Pip got up slowly and stepped over the various sleeping ponies. The booms got louder and louder steadily. Pip peaked through the crack in the door and a boom got louder as he did. He looked back at me frantically. “Some lady is trying to get in by kicking down the door! She’s a unicorn so it won’t be long before she starts using magic!”

“What does she look like?” I asked, while crawling towards the door.

“She’s purple and very, very, mad!” He said, as another boom hit the door.

Not good! I spoke, loudly. “Everypony wake up! We got trouble!”

Rumble slowly got up and looked at me. “What now, Tailspin?”

“Some crazy lady is trying to get in! I think she’s the same one who kidnapped us!” I explained, as I crawled to the door and tried to nail more boards on it quickly. Rumble got everypony up. Together we tried desperately to hold the door back, but whatever was hitting the door kept getting stronger and stronger.

Finally, one last blast hit the door, flinging me back like a dead weight into the far wall. Everypony looked up as the smoke cleared and standing before us was Glimmer, the lady Private tried to stop when I came to Ponyville.

She looked horrible, her violet coat was ragged and she stank. She must not have bathed for a while. Her grey mane cascaded down her side and her violet eyes showed nothing but contempt.

I put myself protectively in front of Scootaloo who, along with the others, had made their way to the back of the shed to avoid this crazy unicorn. I glared at her, trying to look brave. “I know who you are! Private told me all about you!”

“I see my reputation precedes me,” she said in a mocking voice, “and what, pray tell, did Detective Eye say about me?”

“That you’re the crazy witch who tried to murder Dinky!” I fired back; Pip put himself in front of Dinky to protect her. “Not only that, but you murdered your own granddaughter!”

Glimmer laughed manically and looked down at me. “You brats should learn to respect your elders.”

“I give respect where it’s earned!” I stuck out my tongue at her. “You aren’t getting my friends!”

Then Glimmer’s eyes looked at Tyran, who was trying not to be seen, sadly his efforts didn’t help “Tyran! I thought I told you to guard these brats! Yet here you are, among them.”

“I’m sorry Grandma!” Tyran said, walking away from us and to Glimmer. “They didn’t seem all that bad, I thought it would be nice to play with-“

He was cut off when she slapped him across the face. Sweetie Belle held Applebloom back from tackling the witch. Glimmer glared down at Tyran “Know your place child, your sister died because she proved useless to me.”

“Sister?” I gasped in realization. I did notice the striking resemblance Tyran had to Cardinal. ”Tyran is Cardinal’s brother?”

“Indeed boy,” Glimmer said in obvious contempt. “A twin, born for one reason only, that was to provide for Cardinal should she need organs or anything else. Originally I didn’t plan on Tyran being born, but he was a useful twin, until this.”

“You’re nothin' but a bully Glimmer!” Applebloom spat at Glimmer. “Ya better quit pickin' on him and treatin him like an object right now!”

“What are you going to do about it?” Glimmer asked, with an evil laugh. “You are all but tiny insects.” Her horn glowed suddenly. “Now let’s see, which should I exterminate first?”

“You won’t get any of them,” Tyran said, as he slowly got up. “They’ve treated me better than you ever have!”

“Stay down Tyran!” Glimmer commanded. “Do you wish to get hit again?”

“If it means you won’t hurt them, then so be it!” Tyran leaped to try and tackle the witch, but he was hit midair by a spell fired from her horn. He fell in front of us, his side visibly burned by the spell.

Applebloom rushed past us and picked up Tyran. “It’s gonna be okay, Tyran. We’ll get ya somewhere safe!”

Tyran smiled up at Applebloom slowly. “Thanks, I’m happy to have met you guys…”

Glimmer’s horn glowed even brighter, “I’ll deal with you trash myself, I already got what I needed from all of you.”

Slowly I felt my head getting fuzzy again. I fell over along with the entire group, giving Glimmer on last glare. “Private will…get…you…”

Glimmer just smirked at me. “Oh, I got plenty of surprises in store for your bastard of a brother.”

___________________________________________________________

Perspective: Private Eye

“That there’s an Alicorn!” Big Mac exclaimed, in shock. “She looks just like mah sis, but with Sweetie Belle’s hair.”

“That’s not the only thing she’s got,” Twilight said, looking at some lab notes. She pulled up some and her violet eyes scanned them “Says here, that whoever did this took bits of DNA from all of the kids to make her.”

“What did she get from whom?” I asked, while staring at the sleeping Alicorn.

“Looks like he took bits from all of the cutie mark crusaders,” Twilight said, after looking through the notes. “She has Applebloom’s strength, Sweetie’s magic, Scootaloo’s agility in air, lots of other things are listed here as well.” She looked up at me. “Whoever did this was trying to create another Princess Celestia.”

“Is that even possible?” I asked, looking at Genova. “Is she alive?”

“She’s just asleep, according to this lab report.” Twilight said, with a nod.

Fluttershy looked at Genova and put a hoof to the glass. “Hello there, Genova. My name’s Fluttershy.”

“Shy, Ah don’t think she can hear ya” Big Mac said, slowly.

“Yes, she can,” Fluttershy said, keeping her eyes on Genova. “It’s like she’s in a glass womb, she can hear me.”

“Well, maybe you can ask her what’s going on.” I said, half-jokingly.

Fluttershy just smiled at Genova “It’s all right little one; we’re going to find the bad pony who created you, and stop her from doing bad things to everypony.”

I swear I saw Genova move, she swayed her head slowly.

Fluttershy smiled at me then back at Genova. “It’s okay, Fluttershy is going to get you out-“

“Do not touch her!” I heard a voice scream behind me.

I whirled around and there standing before me was Glimmer. I quickly pulled out Blackbird and aimed it at the Madmare. “I should’ve known you’d be behind all this.”

“So this is how you greet old friends, Private?” Glimmer asked, in a sickeningly sweet tone.

“I wouldn’t count you as one of my friends, you witch,” I said, threateningly. “Why did you kidnap those kids? Was it to create Genova?”

“Indeed,” Glimmer said, with a nod. “I had those brats brought here so that Genova would have the necessary components to be born.”

“Why, Glimmer?” Twilight said, her horn aglow. “Why are you doing all of this? What purpose could you have to do such an evil! thing?”

Slowly Glimmer turned; I noticed for the first time, she had a blank flank. She was an adult without a cutie mark. Such a thing was rare beyond belief, though not unheard of. “I was never given my special talent, at least none that would earn me my cutie mark. My parents were rich and famous. I believe you’ve heard of the Thatcher family, Private.”

“They were a noble family in Canterlot,” I said, knowingly. “This was their home,” I gestured to the mansion we were in, “but it’s since fallen in disrepair. Why?”

“My mother, Morning Star Thatcher, was the one who caused all of this,” Glimmer said, with a glare. “I was a teenager when it was discovered I would never earn my cutie mark. It’s a rare disease that happens to only one in every billion ponies. When it happened to me, my mother feared my father would leave her. So, the bitch planned on replacing me with some stupid foal.”

“How dare ya slander yer family like that!” Big Mac spat.

“Family?” Glimmer laughed. “They weren’t my family! They were my handlers! They groomed me to be the best, but when I proved not enough, they tossed me out like trash. That’s when I realized, the useless are tossed aside to make way for the strong.”

“What happened to them?” I asked, slowly.

“I made sure my mother never had her child,” Glimmer grinned.

“You murderer!” Big Mac growled. “How could ya do such an evil thing?”

“To make sure the mistake was never repeated,” Glimmer said. “I spent my family’s fortune to set up that abortion clinic you found, Private.”

I still remember the stink of the place.

“I eventually married and had a child of my own,” Glimmer explained “Dawnbird, however, proved to be useless to me. All she ever did was whine and complain about her wretched coltfriend leaving her.”

“Cobalt Masquerade,” I said, slowly. “Dinky’s dad.”

“When dear Derpy Hooves found out she was pregnant I told Dawnbird to try and persuade her to give up the baby. So she directed Derpy to the abortion clinic, where I told her that her daughter would be born just as stupid and weak as her.”

“How dare you!” Fluttershy said, with a fury I’ve rarely seen in her. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that!”

“Sadly, Derpy had a change of heart when her boyfriend came rushing in, saying he’d raise the baby. He threatened to shut down the clinic by going to the police. I knew he wouldn’t go immediately, I was far too influential.”

“Then when Dawnbird had a child with Scarlet Mane,” I said slowly, “you eventually discovered Cardinal had dyslexia.”

“Dawnbird couldn’t bear a good child if she tried,” Glimmer said, venomously. “Then you had to go and ruin my plans to frame her for Cardinal’s little ‘accident’.”

“You really are a monster,” I said, with contempt. “I’m placing you under arrest for every crime you've ever committed.”

“You have to worry about your own brats first” Glimmer said, smirking. “They are upstairs, getting ready to be burned.”

“You monster!” Big Mac tried to rush her when Glimmer’s horn glowed. Suddenly, Tangerio came to life and broke out of the glass intercepting Big Mac. The workhorse stood and faced his undead cousin. “Tangerio…”

“Murderer,” Tangerio hissed at Big Mac.

“Ah ain’t the one who killed ya! “Don’t do this, cuz,” Big Mac pleaded.

“He’s not talking about you!” I shouted “He’s talking about Scarwing; they remember when they die, and see everything as the murderer!”

“Quite perceptive aren’t you?” Glimmer asked, mockingly.

“How else could you get them to feed?” I aimed my gun and fired at her.

The bullet hit Glimmer in the leg and she teleported away. No! I’m not letting her get away again!

I looked over as Dustmane broke out of his tube and tackled Twilight. Twilight fell to the ground and pushed with her hooves at the monster. “Dustmane! I’m sorry!” Her horn glowed, and the beast was hit in the stomach with a blast of magic.

Tangerio was on top of Big Mac, the workhorse trying his best to knock the beast off. Suddenly a yellow blur came out of nowhere and hit Tangerio in the side. Fluttershy was wrestling with the undead monster. She grabbed his hind leg and pulled it back in an angle it wasn't supposed to go.

Big Mac stared at Fluttershy as she went all Buck Lee on the undead monster. I looked at Big Mac with a bemused smile. “Close your mouth, you’re drooling.”

Big Mac shook his head to focus, and then tackled Dustmane. “Ya go and get the kids! We’ll hold em here!”

I nodded as Twilight fired another bolt of magic at Tangerio. I had to hurry!

_______________________________________________________

I leapt up the stairs, seven at a time. When I got back to the central foyer I smelled the smoke. I saw a small fire, and hanging over it was a large cage with the kids inside. As I looked up with tear filled eyes, Tailspin spotted me.

“Bro!” He shouted.

“Tailspin!” I shouted back. “Hold on I’m going to get you down!”

“Hurry, Private!” Applebloom cried, pointing to the rope holding up the cage. “That there candle’s gonna burn the rope any minute now!”

I noticed the candle she was referring to. The flame was slowly burning through the rope holding the cage above the flame. I wasn’t going to let these kids die!

I ran to the rope just as it snapped. I caught it in my teeth and used all the magic I had in me to decrease the weight inside the cage by levitating it. I held the rope in my teeth, and looked at the top of the foyer. I saw Glimmer laughing, a shotgun levitated in her magic.

“So, we meet again, Private, only this time I’m not planning on running.”

I would’ve sworn at her but the rope was in my mouth and there were kids in the building. I just gave her a steely grey eyed glare.

“Your precious life gets in the way once again, it seems,” Glimmer said, aiming the shotgun at me. “Now, you will see the foalishness of your precious morals.”

Just then, I noticed Tailspin commanding the kids to push on the sides of the cage. When did Tailspin become a leader? I smirked a little and pulled, so the cage could keep swinging.

“What are you doing?” Glimmer asked, oblivious to the cage above her.

Dropping a package.

“Private, now!” Tailspin shouted, as the cage swung above Glimmer.

I let go of the rope and the cage plummeted towards Glimmer. The Madmare jumped out of the way, dropping the shot gun as she lost concentration. As the cage landed safely on the carpet, I levitated the shotgun up, aiming it at her. “You’re done, Glimmer!”

“Not yet I’m not,” she exclaimed, teleporting away. I took this opportunity to run to the cage, and drag it away from the growing fire. When we were far enough away, I picked the lock until it gave way.

“Private!” Tailspin cried, with tear filled eyes as the door opened.

“Tailspin!” I exclaimed grabbing my little brother and hugging him tightly. “Tailspin, I thought I lost you…”

“I’m fine, Private,” My little brother said, as I held him close. “I’m okay, don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it,” I said, looking down at him. “You seem to have grown a little.”

He smiled up at me. “Well, sometimes kids need to venture on their own to grow.”

“How quaint” I heard Glimmer say from on top of the stairs, she had reacquired her shotgun. “Now you can all die together!”

“OVER MY DEAD BODY!” I saw a red blur tackle Glimmer and knock the shotgun away from her. I saw the monster from before, only he was the size of your average colt. He was wailing on Glimmer with both hooves.

I pulled the shotgun to me with my magic and tossed it to Pip “Get this to Big Mac in the basement! You’ll find the doorway by a crashed suit of armor! He could use it.”

He nodded and carried the weapon down towards the basement with a sure speed. The red colt got knocked away from Glimmer by her magic and landed in front of me. Applebloom ran to the colt and looked at him worriedly. “Ya all right, Tyran?”

“Tyran?” I asked, looking at Dinky quizzically.

“A new friend of ours” Dinky replied, looking at the red colt fondly. “He’s the one who took us, but only because that crazy witch made him.”

Tyran opened his yellow eyes to look at Applebloom “I’m glad to have met you all, you are the greatest friends I have ever had.”

“We are your only friends,” Applebloom said with a small smile, “but yeah, we are sure glad to have met you.”

Diamond glared up at Glimmer who was recovering from the beating “Listen lady! I’ve had a very rough night! I demand you let us go! I’m tired! I’m hungry! I had to listen to Tailspin all night!”

“For once I’m glad she’s yelling at somepony,” Tailspin said, smiling at me.

Glimmer laughed maniacally “Oh this is cute! You children think you have a chance against me? You are nothing but pawns to us adults. You’re all too stupid to even comprehend the situation you are in.”

“Never underestimate the young, Glimmer!” I fired back. “They are smarter than you think.”

“Well, they will all die before the perfect child,” Glimmer said, as she hit a button on the wall.

Slowly, the tube from below rose out of a hole in the floor. I saw Genova floating in the liquid. Glimmer teleported to her and grinned. “Arise, my child. Show your true power, and kill these foals!”

Genova’s eyes opened, I noticed they were blue, like Diamond Tiara’s. A bright flash came and before me appeared an Alicorn. Her mane was long and flowing, her eyes a slitted blue. Her body was equal in size to Princess Celestia. I was staring at a monster.

“Kill them all, Genova, Glimmer ordered, evilly.

“Yes, mother,” Genova said, woodenly, before charging towards us…

Chapter 7 "Element of Kindness"

Chapter 7

“Element of Kindness”

I leaped out of the way as Genova tried to tackle me. She glared at me and hissed angrily. I looked at the kids. “Get out of here! Go to the police!”

“I’m not leaving you!” Tailspin shouted as I set him down.

“I’ll be fine” I smiled at him “I’m an Eye; we do this kind of thing all the time”

“That’s my bro,” Tailspin said as Scootaloo picked him up, and the kids ran out the main door.

“Don’t let them get away, Genova!” Glimmer shouted, from her position at the top of the stairs.

Genova was about to run, but I aimed Blackbird at the Alicorn, and shot her in the leg. She let out a howl of pain, and glared at me again. “You aren’t going to get my brother on my watch.”

Genova growled and charged at me, but this time she was hit in the leg by a buckshot. I looked over and saw Big Mac, shotgun in his hooves, smiling. “Came tah save ya, Private.”

“Where’s Fluttershy and Twilight?” I asked, while reloading Blackbird.

“They’re right behind me, we took care of 'em zombies with this bad boy.” He held the shotgun proudly.

“You know how to use that?” I asked.

“Eeeyup,” he looked as Genova started to get up. “She’s just a really big Timber wolf.”

Genova growled again. She flapped her enormous wings and flew towards me. I fired a couple of shots that missed, but Big Mac had better luck, hitting the beast in the wing. Genova howled in pain and came crashing down on the smoldering carpet. As she got to her feet slowly, her horn was beginning to glow.

I aimed Blackbird and hit her in the horn. Whatever spell she hoped to cast, it didn’t matter if her horn got hit. The bullet grazed the horn and Genova screeched in pain.

“You useless thing!” Glimmer shouted. “You can’t even kill two stallions?”

“Mother, I’m sorry…” Genova said slowly.

“Kill them now!” Glimmer pointed at us. “Prove you are worthy of being called my daughter!”

Genova growled and slowly rose to her feet. She looked ready to tackle me. I aimed my gun at her heart…

Genova was stopped as Fluttershy jumped in between us. Big Mac looked at Fluttershy in shock “Shy?” He asked, looking confused.

Fluttershy’s aqua eyes looked at Genova with sympathy “Geny, I know you don’t want to do this.”

“You,” Genova said, looking at Fluttershy, her eyes slowly returning to normal. “You said you were going to help me…”

I tried to aim my gun at the distracted beast but Fluttershy got between my gun and the Alicorn. “Fluttershy! Back off!”

She shook her head. “No! She doesn’t know what she’s doing!”

“In case you failed to notice,” I pointed out, “that thing is the reason all those kids almost got killed!”

She looked at me with soft aqua blue eyes. “Stop trying to be a vindicator, and try and be a healer”

I slowly understood, if I killed Genova, I’d be no better than Glimmer. Genova didn’t deserve to be killed for not knowing another way of life.

Kindness….

A healer…

Fluttershy…

Chanting…

A bright light came from my horn and a cord of light shown from it and met Fluttershy’s chest. Fluttershy closed her eyes and a necklace formed on her, a pink butterfly like her cutie mark. Slowly we rose into the air and Fluttershy turned to Genova. Her voice and mine seemed to be in sync…

Little one, do not be in pain anymore. You will soon be free…

We lifted our hooves together and Genova seemed to be growing smaller. Her wounds began to heal as she slowly turned back into the filly she once was. Her eyes opened, no longer the evil ones of the monster she was., but those of a normal frightened filly.

When we landed back on the ground, Genova ran to Fluttershy. She hugged the pegasus’ legs tightly “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry”

Fluttershy gently nuzzled Genova on the head “It’s okay, you aren’t a slave anymore.”

“You bitch!” Glimmer shouted. “You destroyed my plans!”

“YOU!” Fluttershy said with all the rage of an angry bear “HOW DARE YOU! YOU WHO WOULD ENSLAVE THESE CHILDREN FOR YOUR OWN SICK GAIN!”

“No!” Glimmer shouted “I will not be denied!”

Glimmer pulled a strange syringe from her pocket. “If you want something done right, you should do it yourself. I’ll kill you all!” She stabbed the syringe into her leg.

I watched in horror as Glimmer transformed into a huge black and violet Alicorn. Her mouth opened to reveal sharp teeth inside. She extended her large mutated wings, her eyes reflecting her true madness.

I looked to Fluttershy “Get out of here!”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I’m not letting her get away with this!”

“Private!” I turned to see Twilight coming out with Pip. She saw in horror that Glimmer was advancing on me. “We gotta get out of here,” She cried, gesturing to the fire, “Before that hits the gas!”

I nodded “Come on!”

Fluttershy scooped up Genova, and we all made a break for the door. Big Mac turned and fired the last of his buckshot at Glimmer’s leg. Once more he scored a hit and Glimmer let out a screech of pain. Big Mac slammed the door behind him, and we all were outside, just as the sun was starting to rise.

I saw all of the kids among the trees and Fluttershy placed Genova with them. “Take good care of her,” she instructed them, softly.

All four of us looked on as the mansion burned. I turned to the kids. “Go get help kids! Tell them where the mansion is!”

Rumble nodded. “We’ll hurry, Private!”

The kids ran into the woods at blinding speed. I looked as the door burst open and out came Glimmer. She howled madly, and fired a bolt of magic at us. All four of us dodged and I returned fire with Blackbird. Both shots hit the beast in the chest. She screeched in pain even though the bullets didn’t penetrate into her flesh.

“Damn!” I cursed loudly, as I started to reload.

Twilight fired her own magic at Glimmer, hitting her in the chest. The beast howled, and howled even louder when Big Mac tackled her. He slammed his hoof into her face and yelled, “Nopony takes mah family ya hear! Nopony!”

Glimmer kicked Big Mac off her and the workhorse slammed into a nearby tree. Glimmer roared as a strange claw formed out of her hoof. She swung it towards me and the claw cut me across the chest. I yelled in pain as Glimmer bucked me into a tree.

Twilight ran to me and looked at me worriedly. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine” I said, getting up, I saw Big Mac get thrown off again by Glimmer. The mad Alicorn pressed her hoof down on the stallion and raised her claw to stab him…

All of the sudden, Fluttershy tackled Glimmer, knocking her off Big Mac. She flew to her special somepony and looked at him lovingly. “Are you okay, Big Mac?”

“Ah’m better than okay,” Big Mac said, smiling up at her. “Ah think Ah’m in love.”

“Oh, Big Mac,” Fluttershy said, a blush coming to her cheeks.

“Uh, guys!” I interrupted, looking at Glimmer. “Big scary Alicorn still here!”

Fluttershy stood protectively over Big Mac. She glared right at the Alicorn and spoke firmly “HOW DARE YOU!”

Glimmer was taken aback by the Pegasus’ sudden aggressiveness.

“LISTEN HERE! JUST BECAUSE YOU HAD A SORRY LIFE DOSEN’T MEAN YOU CAN HURT OTHERS! I’M SICKENED BY THE FACT THAT I EVEN SHARE THE SAME AIR AS PONIES LIKE YOU! YOU MAY BE BIG AND STRONG, BUT YOU DO NOT, I REPEAT, YOU DO NOT HURT MY FRIENDS!!!”

My jaw dropped, Twilight just closed it with a bemused smile.

Glimmer fell back as Fluttershy’s eyes opened wide. The power of the stare was disabling Glimmer. This could be my chance!

“Private!”

I looked up and saw Shining Armor on a sky carriage, with a pair of royal guards pulling it. He looked down at me with a smile. “The Calvary has arrived!”

“No time for flashiness, Shining!” I shouted. “Do you have any heavy weapons?”

Shining nodded, and threw down a rocket launcher. It landed at my hooves. “Destroy the monster with this! Twili, Your magic can amplify the rockets to take that thing out!”

“Right!” Twilight affirmed, nodding.

I levitated the rocket launcher as Glimmer snapped out of her stupor and advanced on Fluttershy once again. Suddenly a barrier formed around Glimmer, trapping her inside a pink ball. She tried to slash at it with her claw, but to no avail. I looked up and saw that Shining was causing that shield to hold.

Twilight’s magic entered the weapon, and I aimed it at Glimmer. If I aimed it just right…

“Hey, old hag!” I yelled.

Glimmer glared at me with reptilian violet eyes .

“Say hello,” I smirked, as the Rocket launcher loaded a missile, “to my little friend!” I used my magic to pull the trigger.

The missile fired out of the launcher and hit the ball, causing an explosion that shot the pink barrier inside the burning mansion. Shining jumped down from his carriage and we all huddled around him. A shield came up just as I fired a second rocket into the mansion. Glimmer gave one last screech of pain before the entire mansion burst into an inferno.

After almost five minutes under Shining’s Shield I looked on. The mansion was nothing but smoldering ashes. Ironic really, fire almost destroyed me. Now it destroyed Glimmer. I guess it got tired of being used by her as well.

Fitting…

________________________________________________________

“This is all so crazy Private” Shinebadge said after the cops came “Zombies, crazy unicorn bitches, and some kid who’s a clone? Here I thought your other cases were crazy”

“It’s all true, Chief,” Shining Armor said, as he stood beside me. “My men have found the remains of the lab in the wreckage. We couldn’t recover any of the lab notes or equipment, but I think its best that way.”

Shinebadge nodded his head and looked at me. “Never thought I’d miss the days of simple lost fillies in cake shops.”

“At least Glimmer is truly gone,” I said, with a nod. “I would’ve liked to have arrested her, but some things can’t be avoided.”

Shinebadge turned and went to talk to some more uniforms. The police and royal guard would continue to investigate the charred remains of the mansion. As Shining and I walked together, he turned his alabaster head to me. “Look Private, I just want to say thanks for looking after Twili.”

“It’s my pleasure,” I said, smiling at him. I ran a hoof along the bandaged area where Glimmer clawed me. Rarity was going to be ticked that she would have to fix my trench coat, again. I’m going to need to find a secondary tailor at this point. “I’d do anything for her”

“Not many guys would throw themselves at monsters to protect kids like that,” Shining said, with a small smile. “Wish I had more guys like you on the guard.”

“You flatter me” I said, closing my grey eyes. “I just do my job.”

“Just make sure Twili doesn’t get hurt too much okay?” He winked at me. “I wouldn’t want you to have an accident, now would I?”

Still remembering how Shining had just as much magical potential as his sister, I smiled nervously. Shining and I may be friendly, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t scared shitless of him at times. I guess it just came from being a big brother.

I wonder if I would be like that if I had a sister?

Shining turned to see a guard beckoning him over. “I gotta go, Celestia will want to hear about all of this.”

I nodded. “Say hi to Cadence for me, will you?”

“I will, and,” he just smiled, “thanks.”

“For what?” I asked, tilting my head.

“For making sure I had a wife to come home to,” he replied, as he walked off.

I guess in his mind he will always owe me for freeing him from jail like that. Not one of my prouder cases, but I did get two very good friends out of it.

I left the police and royal guard to their investigation and walked to where Twilight was standing. She walked to me and looked past me at Shining “What were you guys talking about?”

“Oh, you know, guy stuff.” I shrugged.

She rolled her eyes “Stallions…”

____________________________________________________________

“Miss Cherilee!” All of the kids shouted, as we brought them back to their teacher. Cherilee looked at them and ran to them with open hooves. The kids ran over to her. Everypony gave the teacher a group hug as Big Mac, Fluttershy, Twilight and I watched.

Cherilee looked down at all of the kids, tears were in her eyes. Sweetie Belle was the first to speak up, “What’s wrong Miss Cherilee?”

“I couldn’t stop that monster from taking you all,” the grape earth pony said, wiping her eyes. “I’m your teacher; it was my job to look out for all of you.”

Diamond was about to say something, but everypony gave her a glare that got her to shut up. Tailspin slid off Scootaloo’s back and looked up at Cherilee. “You did look out for us.”

“Tailspin?” Cherilee said, looking down at my brother.

“You got my brother over here, didn’t you?” Tailspin asked, with a smile. “You also called the police, and Twilight’s brother to help us. Sure you may not have stopped Tyran when he took us, but you helped put an end to Glimmer's evil schemes.”

Applebloom spoke up, “Yer our teacher, Miss Cherilee. We still love ya, no matter what happened. You’re still the best teacher in mah mind.”

Everypony else nodded in agreement and Cherilee pulled all of the kids into a tight group hug. That’s when I noticed Tyran looking on nervously from behind me. I looked up at Cherilee. “Cherilee? You got a minute?”

She let go of her kids and I slowly revealed Tyran and Genova. The Alicorn child was hiding behind Fluttershy’s legs. Fluttershy gently pushed Genova into view before Cherilee. I looked at the teacher with a smile. “This is Genova and Tyran, victims of Glimmer’s cruelty.”

Tyran looked up at Cherilee then bowed his head in shame. “I’m sorry I took everypony. Grandma was very mean for making me do that. I’ll accept whatever punishment you could think of.”

Cherilee simply smiled at the colt and patted him on the head. “From the stories I heard, it was you who helped save the children in the end,”

“Ya should’ve seen him, Miss Cherilee!” Applebloom shouted. “He came out of nowhere and whammed Glimmer, just like Big Mac!” She then looked concerned at Tyran “Shame he ain’t got a home now…”

“Is that so?” Big Mac said looking down at Tyran “Well, if ya ain’t got a place tah stay, we could use somepony like you on the farm.”

“You’d take me in?” Tyran asked, looking up at Big Mac with wide eyes.

“Eeyup!” Big Mac smiled at the colt. “Ya deserve better than what that witch put ya through.”

Tyran ran and hugged the big stallion tightly around the leg. Big Mac bent down and nuzzled the colt on the head. Tyran looked over at Applebloom with a smile. “Thank you Applebloom, I wouldn’t have gotten this chance without you!”

“Nuh problem,” Applebloom said, suddenly looking at the ground. I noticed a faint blush on her cheeks.

“What about you, Genova?” Cherilee asked, looking at the Alicorn with concern.

Genova looked down for a minute, and then over at Fluttershy. She looked up at Fluttershy and blue eyes met aqua ones. “Mommy?” She asked, pleadingly.

Fluttershy looked at me nervously. I simply smiled. “Looks like you have a very different kind of critter to look after.”

“I guess she’ll need somepony to look after her until we can find her a good home,” Fluttershy smiled and nuzzled the Alicorn child. “It’s all right, Geny, I’ll give you a nice warm home.”

I looked around; everypony was just coming together after this hell of a day…

Still I wonder, where did Glimmer get those bodies…?

__________________________________________________________

Perspective:???

“My master!” The pitiful creature in front of me cried plaintively. The poor thing had lost its ability to transform into an Alicorn. All of this whining and groveling was really getting quite annoying. No wonder dear Celestia can’t stand it.

“I see you failed to kill that bothersome detective,” I growled.

“Give me another chance master!” She begged, groveling before me. “I promise, I won’t fail you again!”

“Funny,” I said, with a smirk. “You just read my mind. I really have to stop being so predictable. It's so unbecoming.”

“So, you’ll give me a second chance?” she asked, hopefully.

“No,” I said, smiling wider, “I’m just going to make sure you can’t fail me again…”

My magic lifted Glimmer into the air and with a flick of my wrist, I snapped her neck. I tossed her body aside with my magic, my thoughts already moving on to more important matters.

This Detective was really becoming bothersome. Always ruining my plans before they even have the chance to take off. Oh, but it won’t be long. He may have faced Nightmare Moon and come out on top, but he has yet to face me. After all, I came closest to defeating those bothersome Elements…

Time to sow a little Chaos…

Epilogue

Epilogue

Perspective: Private Eye

We got back just as the week at camp wrapped up. Some parents protested continuing the camping trip after what happened, but we still had the area reserved. So I spent the next four days with my brother and his friends. It was fun actually, camping with my brother. I should have taken him on camping trips more often.

The train took us back, and I found myself almost trampled by frantic parents, and siblings. I simply stepped aside and let the guardians get their kids. Big Mac walked out with Applebloom beside him. Applejack ran to her sister and hugged her tightly. “Yer all right!”

“Ah’m fine, Applejack!” Applebloom said, hugging her sister back tightly. “It’s great tah see ya'll again.”

“Our little bushel got back an apple,” Granny Smith said, rubbing the filly on the head. The old mare looked over at me and smiled. “I trust you are to thank fer getting her back.”

“I can’t take all the credit ma'am,” I said, tipping my hat and looking at Big Mac. “Introduce our other hero.”

Big Mac gestured with his hoof and Tyran walked nervously up to the rest of the Apple family. Granny looked over at Tyran, then at Applejack, “Get yer shotgun Applejack, we got a wedding' tah plan!”

“He ain’t mah colt, granny!” Big Mac answered frantically. “Ah swear!”

“Ah’m just messin' with ya,” Granny Smith said, smiling down at Tyran. “What’s yer name, sonny?”

“Tyran,” the scarlet colt said, after swallowing. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

Applebloom looked up at Applejack “Tyran here helped save us! You should’ve seen 'em come out and smash up that mean ole witch!”

“Did he now?” Applejack asked, smiling down at Tyran. “Sure could use a colt like ya on the farm.”

“You’ll take me, even though I’m not one of your family?” Tyran asked, with wide yellow eyes.

“Blood don’t always make a family young man,” Granny said, rubbing Tyran’s scarlet mane. “Now we’ll give ya a home if ya don’t have one, but we expect ya tah pull yer weight”

“Yes, ma'am!” Tyran exclaimed, hopping in the air in joy. “I promise I won’t ever forget your kindness!”

I left the Apple family to their new addition, and saw Rarity looking through the crowd of fillies and colts coming off the train. Her eyes fell on Sweetie Belle, and the sisters ran to each other. Rarity hugged Sweetie Belle tightly. “I feared I lost you again, Sweetie!”

Sweetie Belle smiled up at Rarity. “I’m fine, Rarity! Look at my flank!”

Rarity’s blue eyes fell on Sweetie Belle’s flank. My own grey eyes grew wide. There was a black musical eighth note on her flank. Sweetie Belle got her cutie mark!

Rarity nuzzled her sister affectionately. “I always knew you had a talent in singing! I just didn’t know it would be what would earn you your cutie mark.”

“Had you told me that earlier, I would’ve saved you from Gabby Gums,” Sweetie Belle said, with a grin.

“Again, I don’t know whether to hug you or smack you.” Rarity simply held her sister.

I smiled at the pair and I watched as Tailspin rolled out of the carriage. We managed to find his old wheelchair. Some of the steel was going to need replacing though. That’s going to take up most of the fee I earned today.

I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind when I saw Tailspin stop when Scootaloo walked beside him. He looked at Scootaloo a little guiltily “Hey listen, sorry you had to carry me around all day”

Scootaloo shook her orange head. Reached up onto her hind legs and planted a kiss on Tailspin’s cheek. My brother turned as red as a tomato as Scootaloo said, “I’d do it any day of the week.”

The orange filly went to join Rainbow as I walked to Tailspin. He was smiling dumbly at Scootaloo while rubbing his cheek. I smirked at him. “So, it seems the great Tailspin still has the touch.”

“Aww, stop it,” Tailspin said, rubbing the back of his head. I walked around him and began to push him away, levitating our luggage in my magic. Tailspin looked back at Scootaloo. “She’s amazing.”

You got some pretty amazing qualities yourself little brother.

I’m glad I kept you…

_________________________________________________________

I caught up with Fluttershy after everything settled down. I sat in her garden as Genova chased around Angel Bunny. The little Alicorn laughed and Luca watched from nearby. For some reason the wolf was looking awfully intently at Angel.

It might have something to do with the fact that damn rabbit kicked me in the leg when I tried to pet him. In that case, Luca can have him.

I looked over at Fluttershy. “So I sent a letter to Celestia about everything that happened at the mansion. She trusts you to hang onto Genova until further notice.”

“Oh I’m so glad she’s put such trust in me,” Fluttershy said, with a shy smile, “especially after Philomena.”

“Fluttershy,” I said, looking at the yellow mare, “how do you do it?”

“Do what exactly?” She asked, with curious aqua eyes.

“Be so,” I fought for the right word, “kind. Even with all that was going on you were only thinking about Genova. Despite her trying to hurt us you were going to give her a second chance without hesitation”

Fluttershy simply looked at me. “Private, not every animal is a monster you know. Luca proved that more than anything.” She looked over at my wolf, who was now licking Genova, affectionately. “Sometimes even the most evil of creatures can be tamed with a gentle hoof.”

“You really are something else,” I said, closing my grey eyes. “I don’t know if I could’ve done what you did in there.”

Fluttershy hovered and landed beside me. She put a hoof on my shoulder and looked at me with a smile. “Private, sometimes ponies don’t need vengeance thrown on them. You catch bad ponies all the time, but you have to remember, sometimes ponies only do bad things because they have no choice.” She looked down “Oh, I’m getting too heavy aren’t I?”

I shook my head. “Nah, if anything, you’re right. I guess it’s just easier to see the world in black and white. You and everypony else in this town showed me the grey areas…You’re a great friend to have Fluttershy.”

“Oh.” She blushed at my praise. “I’m nopony special really. I just try to do what I can.”

“Good thing you do,” I pulled her into a gentle hug. “You saved a life by doing what you do.”

I felt the Pegasus return the hug. Fluttershy really is something else, such a kind and gentle creature living in a slowly darkening world.

I only hope others can live by her example in the future…

_________________________________________________________

“That’s what happened,” Tailspin said, as I set his lunch on the table. He dug into his grilled cheese with a happy face. “You have no idea how good this is after having to live off chips and chocolate bars,”

“From the accounts of the others,” I said, sitting down opposite him, “you showed a lot of courage and leadership during the crisis.”

“I just did like you would do, bro,” Tailspin said, smiling. “You wouldn’t have sat in that cage all day.”

“I’m proud of you," I said, digging into my own grilled cheese.

“Hey, Private…”

“Yeah?” I asked, after swallowing my bite.

“It’s about the dance…” Tailspin said, suddenly putting down his sandwich.

“That’s a few weeks away,” I said, knowingly. “Scootaloo still on your mind?”

He nodded. “How am I going to dance with her?”

“I know you’ll think of something,” I said, encouragingly. “An Eye never lets anything stop him.”

“I know, but,” my brother’s blue eyes looked down, “what if I screw up, and she doesn’t like me anymore? I can’t do anything without legs or wings…”

I walked to my brother and looked at him with my grey eyes. “I got something I want to show you.”

We headed out to the living room and I pulled an old photo album and opened it. Inside was a picture of us two. Tailspin pointed to it and saw himself as a little baby. “That’s me.”

“Yep,” I said, smiling at him. “That was taken around the time we went to live at Potso’s place.”

“I loved that place,” Tailspin said, smiling. “It always smelled so good. Much better than the hospital I was at half the time.”

“I didn’t tell you this before,” I said, looking at Tailspin. “About three months after you were born our grandparents, on dad’s side, tried to claim custody of you.”

“They did?” Tailspin asked, looking up at me. “I’ve never met them.”

“You wouldn’t have liked them,” I said, frankly. “Grandpa Eye only wanted one thing only, an heir to the family. Dad broke tradition by marrying mom and having me. When I said I didn’t want to take over the family business. Well, Dad became obsessed with you, and that led him to do a terrible thing…”

“What do you mean?” Tailspin’s eyes grew wide.

“Tailspin, you’ve grown up enough. So, I figure you deserved to hear the whole story about how you came about,” I said, looking down. “Unless, you don’t want to hear it.”

“No,” Tailspin said, firmly. “I want to know everything.”

I sighed. “Well, Dad had mom take this nasty medicine called Mandrake, thinking it was ginseng root. It was supposed to help a baby grow strong while it’s still in the womb. Even though the two roots look similar they do very different things.”

Tailspin’s blue eyes held to my every word.

“The mandrake poisoned moon and induced labor.” I looked at him. “You were born premature, and Mom… died in childbirth.”

Tailspin looked at me and his eyes started to well up in tears. “Mom died because of me?”

“No,” I reached over and lifted him into my forelegs and holding him tightly. Tailspin clung to me tightly, burying his muzzle in my chest. “It’s not your fault how you were born. Tailspin, don’t blame yourself.”

“It’s hard.” Tailspin’s voice was muffled against my grey chest. “It’s hard hearing all of that.”

“I know it’s hard. I suffered as well when mom died.

“Then dad kicked us out.”

“Yeah.”

“What was he like?”

This was a hard question to answer. Three months ago I would’ve called my father a bastard and railed about how evil he was, but now that I thought about it…

“He was a good pony, that’s all I’ll say…”

“So what happened after all that?” Tailspin asked, after he'd calmed down

“I tried to leave you at an orphanage,” I said, frankly, “but I couldn’t do it. I loved you too much to leave you in there. Besides, you were all that was left of mom. So, I brought you to Potso’s place. He gave us a place to stay and me a job during high school.”

“That’s how you provided for me,” Tailspin said, looking down.

“Then, three monthes later...”

__________________________________________________________

Ten years ago…

“Your Honor, it’s perfectly clear that this boy is incapable of taking care of a child.” A grey stallion with a long white mane spoke from his position beside his lawyer. I noticed Dad wasn’t here, figures…

My lawyer, a tall black Pegasus with a combed back black mane looked over at me with a small smile of encouragement. This was Raiden’s brother, Sandā Bolt, Raiden managed to persuade him to help. He got up and spoke to the judge before me. “Your Honor, the only thing that’s perfectly clear is that my client actually cares for Tailspin’s welfare, unlike Adamus Eye.”

The Judge, a middle aged earth pony with a greying mane, looked at Sandā. “On what grounds do you base this, Mr. Bolt?”

“It’s obvious, judging by the records and reports from several schools, that Adamus Eye has a clear pattern of showing little love for his children.”

My grandfather glared at me, and I gave him a glare back. This jerk thinks he can just take Tailspin away from me? Fat chance, you geezer.

“This boy," Adamus Eye said, pointing at me, “is only just entering High School! How could he hope to provide for my grandson?”

“YOUR GRANDSON!” I cried, getting to my hooves. “You didn’t care about him one bit until he came out! Don’t you dare call him your own!”

“Private,” Sandā said, looking down at me, “don’t make things worse.”

The judge slammed his gavel down. “Order!” He looked right at me “Preventus, “

“Your Honor, I’d prefer Private, please.” I said, solemnly.

“Very well,” he said with a nod. “Why do you think I should place Tailspin in your custody?”

“I’ve already got a job lined up for myself,” I stated, firmly. “Also, I’m taking night classes to cover my school work. I swear, Your Honor, I’m doing everything in my power to make sure Tailspin has a good home.”

“You can vouch for this, Mr. Bolt?” the Judge asked, turning his gaze to my lawyer.

Sandā nodded. “I have confirmation of his position with the Rolls at their pizzeria. Your Honor, Tailspin is in capable hooves. Were he to live with Adamus, Tailspin would be little more than a pawn to his grandfather.”

“Your Honor, I object!” Adamus’ lawyer spoke up.

“Overruled,” the judge said, glaring back at the lawyer. “I want to hear if this boy capable.”

The lawyer sat back down grudgingly.

“Are you able to continue to provide for him, and include your school work?” the Judge asked me, skeptically.

“I’m an Eye, Your Honor,” I said, with a firm nod. “We don’t let anything get us down.”

“Very well,” the Judge said. “I’m giving custody rights to you Private. On paper, Tailspin is temporarily adopted into the Roll family, until you are of age. When you reach the age of 18, full custody rights will be handed to you, conditional upon your graduation from High School and your maintaining steady employment.”

“I promise, Your Honor.” I looked over at Adamus, who was clearly not happy with the results. “I won’t let my brother down.”

_________________________________________________________

Present Day

“Since then, I’ve looked after you every step of the way,” I said, with a smile. “If I can raise such a wonderful colt on my own, you can dance with Scootaloo at the dance.”

Tailspin smiled wide as he held me, “I can’t thank you enough for taking good care of me.”

I held my brother tightly. “Tailspin, you're my brother. I wouldn’t let you go for anything.”

Tailspin looked up at me. “I promise I’ll figure out a way to do this, and make you proud.”

I lifted my brother into the air, and fell on my back on the couch. He laughed as I flew him through the air in my hooves. I held my brother on my chest. “You already have, Tailspin, more then you’ll ever know…”

__________________________________________________________