//------------------------------// // Pestilentia (Part 2, Chapter 1) // Story: The Harbingers of the Apocalypse (In Preambulis De Apocalipsi) // by Matthebrony //------------------------------// As soon as the emergency team arrived on the scene, all the living crew members and passengers were ushered outside and checked off the attendance and passenger rosters. Somepony had rigged the ship to explode, planting bombs on all five engines. One bomb, the central engine's target, had malfunctioned and refused to go off, saving the lives of almost everyone on board. It was almost unheard of, acts of terrorism were never to occur in Equestria of all places. All the citizens on the flight wondered, “who had done it?”. The bombs were tied to a remote detonator. Explosive spells existed but were extremely illegal, and machinery of that caliber were used to demolish buildings. There were no means to acquire such explosives in any city. Inside the infirmary, the nurse was sitting in her restraint chair. She looked around at her three patients, they had been restrained beforehand and looked fine, but she didn't want to take any second chances. Abandoning her seat, the nurse walked over to the heart monitor of the pink filly that had been brought in earlier. It was still beeping away steadily, but she looked worse. As she stepped closer to her patient, the medic swore she heard a faint pounding coming from outside. She shook her head, thinking it was just another passenger and approached the pony, shaking her awake gently. Pinkie Pie's eyes flitted open. First, she tried to get her bearings, looking around her ward. After spending a bit of time taking in the hospital, she locked eyes with the pony attending to her. "Hey there nursie-lady!" Pinkie exclaimed, her voice still croaked slightly from her sleep. She reached for her restraints and pawed at them, wriggling and trying her best to sit up. The mare cocked an eyebrow, the patient was bouncy for her current state. "You should calm down ma'am, you seem to be suffering from a severe case of influenza, overexcitement might cause you to-" She was cut short by the pink pony snapping her hoof to her mouth very suddenly and then retching all over the floor. "-vomit." The mare finished, sighing and walking over to the counter in the center of the room to get a rag. She rinsed the rag then walked back over to Pinkie Pie, trying her best to cool the pony down. Her temperature had probably gone up since the excitement, it was above-average before and she had dealt with a few fevers in previous accounts. She grabbed a thermometer from the floor and dusted it off slightly, she was about to stick it in Pinkie's mouth when she was interrupted by a louder, continuous banging coming from the hall. She put the thermometer down on a table near her patient and walked over to the door. "Hey lady, I thought you didn't know anything about sick people-" The sick pony stopped to cough before continuing, "How do you know about my influ-whata?" The nurse frowned as she looked down both sides of the corridor; there was no one in the hall after all. She turned back to the bed and picked up the thermometer, trotting over to a sink and turning on the water. "The symptoms of influenza are common knowledge; I said I don't know what you have, which I still don't." She scrubbed the thermometer and shook it off, walking back to Pinkie's bed. "Hey, but you told Twilight-" Pinkie's sentence was cut off as her caretaker shoved the thermometer in her mouth. "What I told your friends wasn't a lie, the purple one looked smart. I figured I shouldn't tell her about things she could guess, like the fact that you were throwing up." As soon as she finished speaking, the banging from outside resumed, even louder and more frequently. "All right, I give up, what the hell is that banging?" She walked over to the source of the noise, but when she reached the center of the room a muffled explosion rang out and the door flew straight off its hinges. The metal door hit the opposite wall and sank to the floor, it was coated in a slick green substance that sizzled and ate away at the coating. Both nurse and patient turned to the now-empty doorway to see a bipedal figure stroll through slowly. As soon as Pestilence stepped in, he saw the pink mare on the bed and winked. Pinkie Pie felt herself slowly drench in a cold sweat, her mouth weakened and the thermometer slipped out. She swallowed nervously before jumping slightly when the nurse yelled; she had forgotten she was there. "What the buck are you and what the buck are you doing in my infirmary?" The nurse seemed more angry then scared, she was practically fuming. Pestilence gave her an unimpressed once over, then flicked his wrist lazily towards a large compound of equipment bolted to the right-hand side of the room. A large oxygen tank tore itself off the wall and flew over to the unsuspecting mare, smashing into her from behind and proceeding to crush her into the wall. Pinkie blanched as she saw a pool of blood spread out from underneath the equipment before looking back at Pestilence, absolutely terrified. He calmly turned back to Pinkie and smiled, walking towards the bed and stepping over the growing bloodstain on the ground. The filly cringed and folded herself up, now shaking in the bed out of sheer terror. Pestilence sat down gently on her bed and leered down at the occupant. It was just a thin smile, but it was laced with malice and ill intention. "So, how is our little patient doing today?" He asked facetiously, Pinkie didn't respond, still curled up as tightly as she could compact herself. "I'm very sorry you had to see that... completely unnecessary, of course, but she was getting on my nerves a bit." He frowned and reached towards the party pony's face. She immediately shied away and he withdrew his hand reflexively, but after a moment pushed onward and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "There's no need to be scared Pinkie, do you mind if I call you Pinkie?" She hesitantly shook her head and he continued, "I won't hurt you, I don't need to." Pinkie Pie wondered what he meant and tried to get her voice to work, her dry throat and trembling made it hard. "Why-why would you do that?" She asked, her voice rasped slightly and Pestilence's brow furrowed in concern. "You sound thirsty; let me get you some water." He walked over to the cooler at the other end of the room, it was built into the wall so it didn't break from all the shaking. He grabbed a cup and started feeding water into it while humming something that sounded suspiciously like Foal Sinatra. "I used to be a doctor you know," He said over his shoulder, Pinkie jumped again at the sound of his voice, she was busy trying to figure out what tune he was humming. "Well, not a medical doctor, more of a scientist really," He pulled back the cup and walked over to the bed while reminiscing, "Celly was very interested in the subject of how things work, we would always do plenty of research together." He passed the cup to Pinkie Pie, who almost dropped it when her hooves slipped against the green substance smeared across the cup. "Twilight likes science a whole lot too..." She hesitantly tried to make conversation with Pestilence; she thought to herself, he was being sort of nice after all. Pestilence beamed at her when she spoke, then countered with a question. "Ah, Twilight, who would she be?" "A friend," Pinkie said, she felt a bit better after drinking some water and her voice was much clearer. "You said "Celly", is that short for Celestia?" "Why, yes, yes it is, my brothers and I knew the princess very well. Of course we had some slight arguments later on, I wanted to try some new experiments and she said they were...unethical." He casually waved his hands as he spoke, but Pinkie caught the momentary fear and indecision in his eyes. "Well, I don't mean to be rude, but I have some plague and pandemonium to wreak here in Manehattan." He turned as he said this and gave a slight smile and nod to Pinkie, and with that, stood up. However, he stopped very suddenly when he took a step and directed his gaze towards the ground. After some looking around on the floor, he leaned over and picked up a tool. "I believe this will do." He muttered to himself. Upon closer inspection, Pinkie Pie saw that it was a scalpel. He brought it up above his head then swung it down. About midway, the scalpel grew, the blade became much wider and sharper and the hilt turned fatter and more solid. He then brought it up and inspected it, letting Pinkie see it clearly. It looked like an altered kitchen knife; it had a well-polished handle that was naturally solid black. The wood broadened into a full curved blade with a neat, sharp tip. The entire thing was coated in what looked like an unlimited sheen of poison, making it shimmer light green and slowly drip liquid onto the floor whenever it moved. The dark color on the hilt extended out onto a thick coat of paint on the blade, the art ending in slow, neat curls and curves that were contrasted by a deep, venomous green. He threw the knife over his shoulder, magically making the blade point straight down at Pinkie Pie and letting it fall. She gasped and covered her eyes, resigned to the realization there was nothing she could do. Her eyes cracked open a few seconds later to notice that she was completely intact. The knife was hovering about an inch above her stomach in midair. Pestilence gave her another hearty wink then stood up, he closed his fingers along the hilt of the blade then ran them all the way up, gathering a fair amount of poison on the way. As soon as it been more or less cleaned, the coat came back, just as potent as before. The knife twirled in midair and the angel made his way to the door. Just as the pink filly was about to let out the breath she had unconsciously been holding, someone coughed at the other side of the room. The knife stopped mid-spin. Pestilence froze. Pinkie grew worried again, she had almost forgotten about the other patrons. Oh, no please...just leave them alone. she bit her lip in anxiety and heard whoever it was coughed again. Pestilence didn't move a muscle, but the knife spun and honed in on the direction the noise came from. She saw a stallion tiredly raise his head over the half-toppled curtain and unbuckle his chest restraints. He sat up fully and rubbed his head with a hoof. "Oh, Celestia my head...what's going-" His statement was interrupted as the knife flew straight towards him, he saw it coming at the last second and dropped into the bed, the knife piercing the headboard only centimeters above his muzzle. A few drops of poison fell from the blade and landed on the colt's nose, making hissing noises as they dissolved against his skin. He bit back a yell, but let a frightened whimper escape as Pestilence walked over to him and grasped the knife. He sat there, just staring at the stallion and holding the handle until he yanked the blade out with a small tug. He let the blade go and it hovered exactly where he had released it until, ever so slowly, it started tilting down towards the victim. The patient started pleading quietly and trying to release the restraints around his legs. Pestilence let a grin tug at the sides of his mouth as he continued leisurely revolving the weapon. Pinkie Pie let out a small whimper of tension and fear and the horseman looked towards her. "Oh, I'm so sorry Pinkie...you shouldn’t see this." He flicked his wrist in her direction and the curtain immediately flew around her bed. She could still see the shadows of the victim and angel however, and she noticed the knife was almost completely vertical now. "Patient prepped..." Pestilence said to himself, she could hear the smile in his voice, and it sickened her. The stallion called out to anyone for help, his voice growing louder and louder as the knife turned more and more. And then, suddenly, the knife stopped moving, now pointing directly down. "Making primary incision..." Pinkie saw the knife fly down and heard a piercing scream as a few tiny red flecks dotted the curtain in front of her. The patient let loose with fresh screams when the outline of the handle dragged down his form. The pink filly couldn't stand anymore and turned around, burying her face in the bed and squeezing the pillow over her head to drown out the cries as her eyes filled with tears. ----- The other five elements on the opposite side of the wreckage were busy bartering with one of the emergency personnel, Pinkie Pie hadn't come out yet and they were getting increasingly worried. "I'm sorry girls, but I can't let you in quite yet. We'll go get your friend if you give us a room number." There were a few nods across the group and Twilight gave the number of the ward Pinkie was in. After the pony had written it down, a commotion broke out on the other side of the airship, there were several voices speaking at once and many of the staff and passengers had gone to see what was wrong. "What? What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked to no one in particular, one of the passing colts stopped and pointed in the direction all the noise was coming from. "Someone found a couple bodies on the other side of the airship." He said, sounding anxious to get on his way. "What's the problem then?" Rainbow Dash asked, frowning slightly. "The bodies were members of the emergency crew." He replied, continuing to trot to his destination. Rainbow Dash wasted no time in spreading her wings and flying over the airship's husk with a few other pegasi. The other four followed suit with the crew member they were taking to earlier shadowing them closely. They arrived at the small crowd now gathered around an unseeable something. When their crew member managed to break up the group, she walked over to the center of the congregation and looked down. "Get the chief." She said to a pegasus wearing the emergency team uniform, he nodded and ran off. Her face was stern and set, all the ponies in the crowd knew what the insinuation was. If a crew member was dead, then the crash couldn't have killed them, meaning something, or somepony else had. Twilight , who was one of the first to come to this realization, turned to try to get the attention of her entourage. “Girls...” She said, trying to rally their attention without drawing too many eyes or ears. Apparently to no avail; the chatter continued, without any realization that Twilight had spoken. "Girls!" She called over to them, with a note of desperation apparent in her voice. The four mares perked their ears up and turned to their distraught friend. “Yes, darling?” Rarity asked quizzically, mimicking Twilight's undertone. “Something really bad is happening, I can’t exactly say what, but I don't think we can’t rely on the emergency crew to find Pinkie in time.” The group exchanged worried looks, each attempting to think of some way to get their bubbly friend back. "What do we do then? We can't just leave her in there!" Applejack whispered, furrowing her eyebrows is concern. "Of course not. I don't like saying this, but we might have to sneak in." "Can we really do that? Just walk into an emergency area?" Fluttershy asked. "We can if we're doing it for Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash quietly announced, trying to rouse some enthusiasm out of the group, ”Something weird is going on and it's up to us to get her out of there, we're not abandoning her, even if it means breaking a few rules." With newfound determination, the others nodded their heads and started towards the airship. As soon as the pony that had been was standing in front of the entrance was preoccupied attending somepony else’s wounds, the group of mares silently trotted through the wrecked, crooked doorway one at at time. The inside of the ship’s husk was dark and almost silent. Since the interior investigation hadn’t started yet, the only sounds that roused in the foggy darkness were distant metallic impacts that echoed through the halls. As they walked along the halls, the yawning passages before them were almost pitch black, only several lights and generators survived the crash, and sparking light-bulbs were still trailing along the doorways and corridors. The five continued in relative silence, too absorbed in the silence and eeriness of their surroundings to speak to one another. Lagging in the back was Fluttershy, who was looking a bit under the weather, considering the pony’s past experiences with these sorts of environments though, it came as no surprise to the rest of them. The relative silence was suddenly shattered by a swear, making the rest of the group jump, Applejack was wincing slightly and holding her hoof up, which was colored slightly red. “What? What’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked, backtracking to hover over her friend’s injury. “Nothin’, I just stepped on some glass.” The orange pony replied, yanking the shard out with her teeth and spitting it out before taking another careful step forward. The ground was covered with scattered bits and shards of glass, what with all the windows and lights, combined with all the shaking the ship had done, the floor needed to be searched extra carefully with every step they took. Fluttershy trotted up to Twilight, who was taking point and cleared her throat very quietly to get her attention. “What’s the matter Fluttershy?” She asked, taking notice almost immediately. “Umm, nothing, it’s just, who do you think did all this?” “I don’t know, but what I do know is that they hurt Pinkie, when I find out who’s responsible for all this...” Twilight left her statement open-ended as she walked to the end of the cafeteria. Fluttershy, instead of looking comforted, shifted guiltily in place before hovering over to her companion, who was trying to pry the door open. “Nnng, this isn’t working, Fluttershy, could you come over here and lend a hoof?” With their combined efforts, the door slid open, pushing aside the blockade of furniture that surrounded it and making a body that was resting on the pile of furnishings slide over the door and fall on the floor in front of them. “EEP!” Fluttershy exclaimed, jumping a few feet back from the body and tripping over a bunched up piece of carpet. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, you’re fine...” Twilight trotted over to reassure the crying pegasus, who was trying to shield her eyes from the body. “I am but...he isn’t.” She stated morosely. Twilight wrapped her arms around the pony’s neck and squeezed. “Hey, calm down all right? We’re going to rescue Pinkie Pie, right? Everything’s going to be a-okay.” “Promise?” Fluttershy asked, sniffling a few times before looking up at Twilight. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Twilight responded with a comforting grin. Apparently, the memetic phrase used by their friend cheered Fluttershy up because the next thing Twilight knew, her friend had returned the embrace with almost enough gusto to knock her over. After a few moments they managed to move on, though Fluttershy still whimpered when they had to step over the colt’s body. The six continued through the wreckage until they came to the ward's approximate location. The hallway looked about the same as the rest of the Lucitania did now, flickering and shattered lights, jagged, broken metal walls and beams, doors hanging off their hinges, most either bent or completely blown in. Just as they were starting down the hall though, Rarity noticed something on the wall, a deep green smear the trailed all the way to their destination, the doorway to the clinic was empty, letting the room’s light filter through freely. Twilight remembered the nurse's quick recap of Pinkie's illness green stuff on the walls she had recounted, whatever had happened to Pinkie, it had come back. Abandoning all pretense of stealth, Rainbow Dash charged for the doorway and flew right through, making their target occupant jump, scream, and throw her blanket over her head for good measure. As soon as she came to her senses, the monochromatic pegasus sped over to Pinkie and nearly slammed into her, apologizing and stroking her mane to calm her down. The moment was only slightly ruined when Pinkie Pie vomited on her friend's mane, who then expressed her displeasure, making a scene of it and trying to illicit a giggle from her sickly counterpart. When she didn't so much as chuckle and still hid under the blanket, it was officially confirmed that hell had broken loose. Pinkie Pie wasn't laughing. Disturbed by this, Rainbow flew out and alerted the others as to what happened. When they walked in, many embraces and sighs of relief were exchanged, with a rather deflated pink mare still looking terrified, but much more at ease than before now that her friends were here. The only one who wasn't in on the group hug was Rainbow Dash, who was currently trying to wash Pinkie puke out of her mane. "All right girls, don't crowd her, we don't want her throwing up again." Twilight said, now extremely worried about their hospitalized element's state. "Pinkie, what's wrong? What did you see? Why are you so pale? Do you have any medecine? Where is it?" Not knowing the first thing about medicine, she bombarded the mare with questions either focused on her welfare or the situation at hand. Each question was punctuated by a frantic attempt to answer it herself, either by erratically opening cabinets in search of the nonexistent medicine or by squishing Pinkie's cheeks together in hope that some color would somehow force itself back into her pale face. "Where...where is the nurse?" The exhausted unicorn finally breathed out, Pinkie cast a sad and disgusted look at the oversized oxygen tank that lay about twenty feet away, and the puddle of blood that had formed underneath it. "What Pinkie? Where is-...oh." The other five each understood at their own pace, with a similar look of realization and dismay etched on their features every time they looked at the body. "Pinkie, darling, why aren’t you speaking?" Rarity asked the mare, walking over next to her and fixing her with a hurt look. "She's probably in shock, I don't want to sound like a hypocrite, but we should probably save the questions until later." Twilight said, looking over at her nightstand for something useful. "Hey, maybe she's just thirsty!" Applejack said, reaching for a cup of water sitting on the shelf. Pinkie immediately slammed her hoof down on the orange pony's and fixed her with a fearful expression. "Err, okay, no water." "Maybe she's trying to tell us something?" Rainbow Dash suggested, Pinkie thought for a moment then nodded slowly. "All right Pinkie, what do you want to say?" Asked Fluttershy, who was perched at the foot of her bed. "Let's just hope she's not in the mood for charades..." Murmured Rarity, remembering the disastrous last game where Pinkie had misconstrued the rules and, instead of a word or phrase, tried to mime a battle with forty cyber-ninjas while wielding a sword made of ice. It had ended disastrously, with many things broken by the heroine, who was very engaged in her part and decided that the furniture and decor in their playing area was not to remain neutral in the conflict. "Bad luck Rare, ah'd say Pinkie's always in the mood for charades." Applejack said as they waited for a response from the ill mare. To their surprise though, instead of signing something obscure and likely mundane, she just sat there and cocked an eyebrow, her ears twitching every now and then. "What's wrong Pinkie? Do you hear something?" As soon as Fluttershy finished her question, a cough came from the right side of the room. As soon as her suspicions were confirmed, Pinkie Pie decided that this was obviously the time for panic and buried her everything as deep as she possibly could in the bed, surrounding herself with blankets and stuffing the pillow over her head. "Should we go check it out?" Rainbow Dash asked the pile of blankets. Making it shake it's pillow back and forth very quickly. After a few seconds of silent debate between themselves, Rarity nodded, stepped to the right tentatively. As the silence continued, she took another step, but just as her hoof hit the floor, the coughing came back, this time being much more lengthy. After a few seconds of the noise, Pinkie Pie sat up and looked around, the blanket still draped over her head. The two miniature tents on her head, her ears turned in the direction of the noise, a moment later, the coughing stopped and she pulled the blanket off her head. "What is it Pinkie? Is it safe?" This elicited a nod from the pink pony and had them all release a sigh of relief. Applejack opted to investigate this time and cautiously trotted towards the drawn curtain at the other side of the room. She pulled it back and revealed a magenta-colored mare, who was massaging her head with a hoof and wearing a pained expression. When she heard the curtain drawn back, she looked over and saw six ponies staring at her. "Uuuh, hi," She said, staring at them in bewilderment, "do any of you have water? There's a bunch of dust in the air for some reason." To emphasize her point, she let out a small cough and looked around the room. "Daaaamn, what happened here?" "Somethin's tellin' me that you're a little late to the party sugarcube." Said the hat-clad orange pony standing at her bed. "What makes you say-...what is THAT? It smells like something died in here!" Their new occupant covered her snout with a hoof and looked around the room. "I don't mean any disrespect towards him, but I think it's because something did." Twilight said, poking her head out of the curtain at the left side of the room. All the non-bedridden ponies walked over and looked behind the curtain. "Hey! Wait, what's back there? Someone help get these...” she paused to struggle with them, gave up and became frustrated, “bucking straps off me!" The newest addition to their number in the room was currently writhing around and trying to reach the straps that were binding her legs. When the other four looked around the corner, their eyes grew out of shock and they all backed away, most of them hitting the blood-stained wall. "Come ON! What is it?" "I'll go help her." Rarity said, edging away from the gore-soaked curtain and over to the bed. "Thanks, sorry about all the complaining, I just hate being left out of the loop." She gestured to the two buckles that had trapped her thighs and back hooves to the bed. "Would you mind?" Rarity walked over and pressed the release strap, which seemed to be broken. "Yeah, tried that already, apparently I accidentally activated that locking thingamajig and now I'm pinned here." "All right, hmm, this is difficult." The purple-maned mare was trying to pry out the restraint with her hooves, to very little avail. "Yeah, these things can be tough, try using your mouth...now just ease it in, then jerk it out! Okay, uhh, try tugging near the crotch area." "With my MOUTH?!" "Okay, maybe not." "What are you two DOING back there?!" Came Twilight's voice from around the corner. "NOTHING!" Rarity called, going about four different shades of red. "Okay, uhh, I was wrong, the hooves were working. They seem to be loosening." "Oh. Good. In the meantime... oh, that just won’t do... darling, why don't you tell me your name?" Rarity said as she fought against the straps. "Guinevere Arils at your service!" She flung a hoof to her forehead and shook Rarity's with the other. Once the straps were undone, she beamed at the fashionista and flung herself out of the bed. "Thanks! That sure was tiring, have you ever gotten strapped to a bed against your will?" Rarity gave her an uncomfortable look and Arils thought about what she just said. "Y'know what, don't answer that." The white-coated pony nodded slowly, with a quizzical look on her face, and accompanied her to the other side of the room. "How did you get out of the upper buckles?" Rarity wondered out loud. "Whoever invented these things has no bondage experience whatsoever, I've gotten out of much tighter fixes then this!" Rarity paused for a moment, considering the implications, but shook her head to try to clear out those thoughts. "When I went down to do my legs just now, I hit the lock by accident and thats when it got stubborn." "That's a rather odd name, where does it come from?" "My family trade, Arils are those funny little red things you find in pomegranates, I found the business boing so I quit. Did I mention I worked for a short stint as a magician?" "You didn't, is that where you got the experience with the buckles?" "Nope! That was from my short stint as a call-mare. I learned a BUNCH of useful things from that job. Mares and stallions can get kinda rough with the ropes, it's fun, but when you've gotta go you've gotta go know what I mean?" "Oh...and what are you doing now?" Rarity asked, almost dreading the answer. "Stock market." Arils said over her shoulder. ----- "Now, if you look here, no, not there...there! See? It's inflated, it was injected with something." Twilight said, pointing at various places on the unseen bed. "All right, now what was it? What was back-oh." The look of excitement was very promptly wiped off of Arils's face as she saw what lay behind the curtain. It was a stallion, or at least it used to be, now it was a mangled husk, with several of his organs glowing a fluorescent green. A liquid of similar shade was pouring out of his eyes and dripping off the bed, puddling on the floor. "I have absolutely no idea what happened, but it wasn't before the crash. I haven’t the slightest what that liquid is and the nurse had said Pinkie's condition was the most serious thing on the ship." The purple unicorn started to walk away, "We should let the professionals take care of that, in the meantime, let's get Pinkie out of here." "Hey, Twilight," Rainbow Dash flew up next to her and landed, "Have you noticed something weird about the color scheme around here?" She asked, gesturing back to the body. "I did, green seems to be a recurring theme." She cast a worried glance at Pinkie and thought about all the evidence presented so far. "I'm sure Pinkie will be able to tell us something once she's in the mood." After some thought, she turned to her rainbow-maned friend. "I almost forgot, could you go outside and tell the emergency crew that there are people aboard and that someone's been killed?" "Someone's dead?" A yellow stallion walked in, followed closely by the emergency crew member they had met earlier, who threw them a slightly irked look, which faded in intensity when she saw Pinkie's condition. The stallion that had entered was wearing a reflective vest like the other ponies, but instead of silver tape, he had gold. His cutie mark matched the vest he wore perfectly and he exuded a sense of calm and control. His voice was deep and gruff, but somewhat comforting. "I would expect that, seeing as it's an airship crash." "Hi there! Ah'm assumin' yer the chief of the emergency crew?" Applejack held out a hoof, which was shaken by the chief with an amused look on his face. "So I am, and I'd assume that I would be the last person you ponies want to see considering you're currently trespassing in a restricted area." He cast a displeased look over the group before returning to his previous demeanor. "But desperate times call for desperate measures don't they? Now then, what seems to be the problem?" "Our friend Pinkie Pie was in the clinic when the ship crashed, but the nurse never escorted her out. We were going to wait for your crew to extract her, but when them crew members out there, well, y’know...we decided-" "-to come into a dangerous, unsecured area that is exactly where the killer might have gone instead of letting the professionals handle it? Sounds like me when I was younger." He grunted, then took a moment to look around the room. "Wait, killer?" Fluttershy asked, sounding very unsure. "Did you see those ponies out there ma'am?! They didn’t croak of old age that's for sure!" He sounded incredulous that they didn't know what was going on, but all they did was exchange confused glances. "But...Equestria hasn't seen a major crime like that for centuries!" Twilight said, looking just as surprised as the rest of them. "I'm aware, yes, but unless one of them tripped onto a knife and somehow poisoned himself and the other exploded into corrosive biological toxins then we're going to assume they were killed." He smiled at his joke then looked downtrodden, "Ah, I shouldn't joke about them, they were great ponies, it's just easy to treat this kinda stuff so casually when you spend so much time around it y'know?" "I understand sir, but in that case I think we may have another victim and maybe even an eyewitness." At the mention of this, the chief perked up significantly. "Perfect! Oh, before I forget, whoever was in the clinic, register your reason for coming with my assistant here."He gestured to the pony they had met earlier, who pulled out horn-rimmed glasses and put them on, then magically pulling a clipboard out of a pocket in her vest. "Name please." She said, trotting up to the deep red unicorn. "Guinevere Arils." She answered, holding out a hoof. The crew member looked at the name and shook it absentmindedly. "I think I saw one of your magic shows once." She said eyeing the mare in front of her. "Well, as you might have seen, it's more illusion than magic, I'm not too good at conventional powers so I stuck more with card tricks than the standard unicorn stuff." She sat back and leaned against something as she talked. The emergency crew member's eyes flicked to the floor then back to the idly chatting pony. "What ARE you leaning against?" She asked, still looking down. "Wha-? An oxygen tank, why do you ask?" Arils said, reading the label on the side of the giant cylinder. "Your oxygen tank is bleeding. Profusely." The crew member responded, frowning and walking over to the tank. Arils looked down and saw that there was indeed a thin coat of blood on her hooves now. "Holy-Chief get over here." The leader of emergency ream, who was about to look behind the curtain, turned and headed over to the oxygen tank which was now surrounded by a magical glow as it was moving. "No, wait!" Fluttershy flew over and put her hoof on the crew member's shoulder, trying to stop her from shifting the tank. "Why? Who's under there?" The chief asked casting furtive glances at the oxygen tank. "A sack of bones and the puddle that used to be a nurse." The entire room turned their attention to the new voice, which belonged to a bedridden pink mare. Pinkie Pie's hair was flatter, it's curly, gravity-defying stature started to fade, making it sag and deflate. Her expression was a mixture of anger and sadness that reflected her sour mood. "Pinkie! What happened?" Twilight asked her, referring to both her hair and the event. "Uh-oh." Whispered Rainbow Dash, eyeing Pinkie apprehensively. "Someone cheer her up, quick!" Pinkie heard though and glared in her direction. "What was that? You don't want silly, naive Pinkie Pie to get all sad because then she won't disclose the all-important secret of what happened here?" She paused to cough, doubling over from her shuddering and waving off Applejack when she stepped forward to help. Once she straightened up, she reached over to the last few buckled restraining her back hooves and undid them one by one. "As you can see, I'm dying. *click* I've been through an airship crash strapped to this Celestia-forsaken hospital bed. *click* I've watched or heard two ponies get murdered in cold blood within the span of one hour. *click* And I've had a nice, friendly conversation with the bucking monster that did it." At this point, she stood up shakily, barely standing on her hooves. Still glaring at all of them vehemently, her mane now completely flat and straight, she made her way over to the blue pegasus that had addressed her and spoke in an icy voice. "I think I have quite a few reasons to be a bit upset." ----- Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few tense seconds. None of them broke the silence however, that was taken care of by Fluttershy. The yellow mare started sobbing uncontrollably and flew over to Pinkie, who had a half-second to throw on a stunned expression before she was tackled off her feet. “I’m SORRY!” She shouted right into Pinkie’s face. “If I had come with you I could have helped…it’s my fault you’re sick.” Pinkie Pie sat, stunned for only a moment before Rainbow Dash came up. “No it’s not. If I hadn’t asked Pinkie to meet me on the roof she wouldn’t have run into…whatever it is she ran into. I should be sorry.” Pinkie’s hair gradually started curling up, not like last time, when it sprung up immediately, the sad expression still stayed on her face. But a new determination started to break through. “Stop apologizing! C’mon guys, it’s no one’s fault. I don’t need you to worry on my part.” She said with what may have been Equestria's most subtle of smiles. “But we do worry, sweetie!” Rarity said, walking over and throwing a hoof around Pinkie. “Why, if the ship hadn’t crashed last night, we would have stayed with you all the way until morning, right Applejack?” “Darn tootin’, we do care about you sugarcube, we’ll stay with ya until you get better!” Applejack joined the hug and Pinkie’s hair grew a few more curls. “Pinkie, I’ll do everything I can to find out what happened and to make sure you feel better!” Twilight threw in, also wrapping her arms around the greenish-pink pony. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stayed where they were, but Pinkie Pie, whose hair was now back to its normal state of being, waved them over. “Come on you guys! Don’t leave me hanging!” She grinned warmly at them, but all they did was grumble something a bit forlorn. Pinkie simply held up a hoof and gave a comical disapproving look. “Sush Dashie, you too Fluttershy. I was being a silly-head before, thinking my friends didn’t care about me.” With slightly lopsided grins, they wandered over and wrapped their arms around Pinkie too. “I love you guys, and I know you care about me too.” With her natural mood-lightning effect, Pinkie Pie got everyone in the room smiling. Especially Arils, even though that was less involved with Pinkie’s speech and had more to do with the grey emergency team member’s hindquarters, which she was currently eyeing surreptitiously. “I love a happy ending.” The dark pink unicorn said, suddenly coughing lightly. “Does anyone have anything to drink?” “I saw some water back there.” Said another crew member, Arils thanked him and grabbed the cup, taking a deep drink before feeling something trickling down her hoof. “Eww, what is this stuff?” She asked, trying to scrape some green fluid off of her now filthy hooves and unceremoniously throwing the cup into the trash. “Chief, maybe one of them could join up?” Suggested the assistant, the stallion grinned and nodded, then spoke up. “Hey, if you want to chip in for your friend, you could always volunteer for the emergency crew.” The Chief chimed in from the sidelines. “We just called for a medical carriage, but we still need to sort out everything here, anyone want to lend a helping hoof?” They all looked at each other, trying to decide who would offer the most help. “Is anyone good with tools?” Another clueless exchange was traded throughout the group. “We could always use someone for the forensic investigation team. Anypony pass high-school biology?” Asked his assistant, this time, another glance was passed around, but instead of simply trading looks, all eyes were locked on Twilight. “I guess I’m pretty good at that sort of stuff,” Twilight admitted, “But I don’t really want to leave Pinkie…” “Don’t worry sugarcube, we’ll keep her safe.” Said Applejack, nodding at her reassuringly. “Yeah, if anyone can find out who did this to Pinkie it’s you!” Rainbow Dash added. “All right,” Twilight said, walking over to the crew members in the center of the room. “Who am I working with?” “Me,” Said the unicorn, stepping forward. “Lisa Antonia Noire, or Detective Noire when I'm on duty. I’m the head of the investigation team.” She extended a hoof, which Twilight shook, then proceeded to walk her over to the far end of the room. “Once the ambulance comes, we’ll get you suited up. How’s your deductive reasoning doing today?” Twilight grinned and gave Noire a sidelong look. “All I need now is a detective’s cap and a pipe." she said with a small giggle.