Sweetie Belle ran back to Carousel Boutique, dodging various objects and people along the way. When she walked into the shop and noticed the lights were all off, she quietly closed the door behind her and tiptoed towards the back room. When she was close to the door of said room, the lights came on.
"And where did you sneak off to last night, hm?"
Sweetie Belle flung her body around to face her very angry looking older sister. "O-Oh, uh, heh. Rarity, you're not sleeping in again? Um, I mean, the lights were off and-"
Rarity folded her arms and glared at Sweetie Belle. "Answer. the. question." she said through gritted teeth.
At this point, Sweetie Belle was shaking in fear. She had no idea that her sister could be so angry at her, and Sweetie Belle knew that she needed to find a way to get out of this situation very quickly. "I was just...going to the clubhouse. I forgot something there and needed to find it. It took me all night, though."
"It took you all night to find what, exactly?" Rarity questioned.
"Um..." Sweetie Belle looked around the room, trying to find an excuse or an exit but to no avail.
"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity snapped. "Look at me when I'm talking to you. Something is clearly going on and I'm disappointed that you don't at least have the decency to tell me the truth! I've already locked the windows in your room as that is where you will be staying all weekend."
"But-"
"No! I will not let you off the hook. You snuck out of the house to Celestia knows where and you come back the next day and lie to me! You think I'm going to let you off the hook so easily? Don't forget that you're still grounded from when you accused our new-" Rarity hesitated, and Sweetie Belle knew that Rarity was going to try to pretend that last night didn't happen, "friends of being pegasi! Disgusting creatures that want to only satisfy their bloodlust and hunger! Disgusting, terrible, disturbing creatures that just wanted to kill! They wanted to kill her!" Tears that gathered in Rarity's eyes poured out as she sunk to her knees. "Just go to your room, Sweetie Belle."
Sweetie Belle wanted to help her sister, but on the other hand, she needed to get back to the clubhouse with clothes for Scootaloo. If she sat here comforting her sister, she could ruin the trust that she and Apple Bloom had just developed with the pegasus. However, if she snuck out again, she would lose her sister's trust. Not to mention that she will be punished again.
She didn't know who she was supposed to choose, so she went to her room to think about it.
~Meanwhile~
Rainbow Dash wasn't having the best of luck looking for Fluttershy. Even at night with her senses heightened to be four times better than in her regular form, she still couldn't find her best friend.
"Fluttershy...Where are you?" Rainbow Dash had reverted to her regular form a while ago, but she was still able to heighten her sight as she ran through the forest. She noticed how some of the smaller animals cowered in fear, but Rainbow Dash only started questioning why when she reached a point where a chimera running from something in a clearing that was in front of her.
It can't possibly be Fluttershy...
Rainbow Dash hid behind a tree and crouched down so that the tall bushes on the ground could cover her tail and part of her wings. She looked through the leaves and saw the person standing there. He was a brown winged, brown skinned pegasus with dark green hair. He had on black pants with a long black cloak to cover most of his body. The hood was currently down, revealing his deranged facial expression and soulless black eyes. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as she started to shake nervously.
He's an assassin.
The assassin was looking down at his deceased target, most likely thinking of what to do with the body. From the angle she was in, Rainbow Dash could not see who the assassin killed, and she could only hope that it wasn't Fluttershy.
"I won't report this to the king. He wouldn't give me what I want." The assassin then smirked and said, "I'll just have to find out what place this thing crawled out of and take over it's homeland for myself. I need to plan this out, though." With that, he flew right above Rainbow Dash and towards Pegasopolis. Panicking, Rainbow Dash raced to the figure on the ground, but abruptly stopped when she saw the body clearly. The person had peach skin, black hair, and a white horn. What made even less sense to Rainbow Dash was that they had armor on, as if they were prepared to fight the assassin.
Is that a unicorn? Why is a unicorn so far out in the woods? Why were they trying to take that guy on? How did they know he was here? Rainbow Dash didn't understand what was going on, but she did see this as an opportunity. She took the person's armor off so that she could wear it and blend in with other guards in order to get to Scootaloo. Once she did take the armor off, however, the man's skin turned into a nice tan color, his hair turned brown and red, and his horn turned orange. "I see. So they use magical armor to hide their true identities."
"Yeah, I think it was this way. He said to meet up at a clearing, I believe."
Crap Rainbow Dash thought. She didn't have time to put the armor on, so she threw it all into a bush and flew up into a tree. As soon as she turned around to look back at the clearing, the two approaching guards, a female unicorn and a regular male, had seen their ally laying in his own pool of blood.
"Oh dear Celestia!" the unicorn cried out. They rushed to his side and hopelessly tried to look for a heart beat and somehow revive him. Once they realized the futility of the situation, they cried.
What wimps. Rainbow Dash thought to herself. She would've killed them right then if she didn't have a more important task at hand. Speaking of which, she was about to leave to continue her search, until the male guard spoke. "It must have been the same monsters that attacked the Bearers of the Elements. It couldn't have been anyone else."
"You mean, the one with the pink and black hair?" the female guard asked.
"Yeah, that or the rainbow one they were talking about."
Rainbow Dash couldn't decide whether she wanted to kill them first or find Fluttershy first, but she did know what she needed to do.
I'll find you guys later. Right now I need to find Fluttershy and then stop that assassin from reaching Ponyville.
~An Hour Later~
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom weren't having the best luck either.
"Scootaloo, calm down, Sweetie Belle will be here soon! Ah promise!" Apple Bloom had been trying to get a restless Scootaloo to stay still for a few minutes, but she couldn't get through to the pegasus.
"Calm down? CALM DOWN?! I need to fly! Or run! Or do SOMETHING!" Scootaloo has been jumping off of things all morning and tried to fly out of the clubhouse multiple times. The clubhouse was covered in burned and torn up ropes, the fire proof goo, various objects that were used to cover the windows to keep Scootaloo inside the treehouse, and all of the paper that fell off of the walls and onto the floor when Scootaloo kicked it down or when Apple Bloom hit it whilst trying to catch Scootaloo. It was a miracle that Apple Bloom was able to keep Scootaloo from flying away for this long.
"Not to mention that it has been forever! What if Sweetie Belle left us? What if she told your sisters that I was here?" Scootaloo flew up to the ceiling and held herself up with her arms and legs in a corner. Her eyes darted around and started to glow. "What if she left to get poison or bring back a weapon? What if she never actually did like me? She wants to kill me, then!"
"Scootaloo, listen to me! Sweetie Belle is not like that at all!" Apple Bloom reasoned, but Scootaloo was still too worked up to pay her any attention.
"I shouldn't have trusted anyone." Scootaloo attempts to fly out of one of the windows, but before she could open it, Apple Bloom grabbed her by her legs and pulled her back. Scootaloo rolls backwards and jumps to the door. Apple Bloom tackles her before she gets there, but by the time Apple Bloom got back up Scootaloo was already back on the ceiling. "I shouldn't ever trust anyone."
"Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom tried to get her attention, but it still didn't work. Fortunately, she had an idea. "What about Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy? You trust them, don't you?"
Scootaloo finally snapped out of it and looked at Apple Bloom. "What? Of course I do."
"Well, then you should trust Sweetie Belle and me! Ah have been here the whole time and Ah haven't hurt you. Trust me, Sweetie Belle would never abandon us unless something really really important happened. Maybe Rarity held her back! Yeah, that has to be it." Scootaloo slowly descended to the floor. Apple Bloom walked towards her slowly.
"We don't know that for sure though..." Scootaloo mumbled.
"Hey," Apple Bloom put her hand on Scootaloo's shoulder. "Trust me. Actually, trust us."
Scootaloo looked up at a smiling Apple Bloom. "I'll try to."
"Good. Now, maybe we can find a way to-"
"APPLE BLOOM! YOU BETTER GET DOWN HERE BY THE TIME AH COUNT TO THREE!"
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo's eyes widened.
How in the world did Applejack know that we were in the clubhouse?
Oh no! Ah forgot to go back to my room and pretend to wake up!
"Oh Celestia," Apple Bloom muttered under her breath.
"ONE!"
"Listen, Scootaloo, you hide and I'll go outside to deal with this." Apple Bloom got up to leave, but Scootaloo grabbed her arm.
"TWO"
"You're sister's going to kill you! Stay here and hide with me!" Scootaloo pleaded.
"Scootaloo, trust me. I'll be okay."
"THREE!"
"Hide, Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom pushed her into a pile of pillows as Applejack kicked down the door. She and Big Mac marched into the clubhouse and glared at Apple Bloom.
"Who were you talking to?" Applejack questioned.
"What are ya talking about? Ah wasn't talking to anyone." Apple Bloom directed her gaze away to the ceiling.
"Stop lying. You always look up when you lie. Ah'm going to ask you again and if you don't tell me the truth, you will never speak to Sweetie Belle again."
Apple Bloom's breath hitched. She needed to keep Scootaloo safe, so she made sure to look Applejack directly in the eyes and said, "Ah'm not lying. Ah wasn't talking to anyone." The two sisters stared each other down.
"Apple Bloom, Ah warned you." Applejack took Apple Bloom's arm and dragged her out of the clubhouse. "Ah wish Ah didn't have to do this, but you know how Ah feel about my family lying to me." The door slammed. Scootaloo immediately jumped out of the pile of pillows and ran to the window. She slowly and quietly unlocked it and opened it so that she could listen to the conversation.
"...told me that Sweetie Belle also snuck out last night and we know ya'll are up to somethin'. Ya better tell me right now what's going on and Ah might let you see Sweetie Belle."
"Applejack, please listen to me. Ah can't tell you the truth." Apple Bloom says.
"Apple Bloom-"
"If Ah told you, you'd hate me and jump to your own conclusions! Ah won't tell you anything!"
"This has gone too far." Applejack made her way up to the clubhouse again. Scootaloo hid in her previous hiding spot.
"Applejack, stop!" Apple Bloom tried to run after her, but Big Mac held her back.
What do I do? I can't hurt her sister! Clearly, she has power over Apple Bloom and must be at a higher rank. However, their system must be different since I'm not in Pegasopolis. I could at least scare her away...but how can I do that without giving myself away?
"Hello? Who else is here? C'mon, you're little trick is done and it ain't funny. Come out now before Ah start searchin' for ya."
I wish I had Fluttershy's power. Illusions would be really useful right about now...Wait a minute, that's it!
Scootaloo looked around at the pieces of goo that were scattered around the clubhouse. They were in pieces small enough for Applejack to not notice them, but they were big enough for Scootaloo to spot.
"Alright, I'm gonna start looking for ya."
She focused on one of the pieces of goo and lit it on fire. Only the goo, she thought. Not the wall. Scootaloo did this to a few pieces of the inflammable substance by the time Applejack started to smell a strong scent of smoke.
"What in tarnation?" Applejack turned around and saw the walls were lit up with purple fire. She panicked and ran out of the clubhouse, screaming at her siblings to get water or help. Applejack and Big Mac ran off to find help and Apple Bloom had gone back to her room to get Scootaloo a sweater. When she made it back to the clubhouse, the smoke inside had grown. She knew she couldn't go back in until her sister and brother came back with help.
"Psst! Apple Bloom!"
The small red head looked around for the source of the voice.
"Up here!" In the tree behind her, Scootaloo was waving her over. Apple Bloom climbed up the tree and gave Scootaloo the sweater.
"Ah probably should have been the one to get you something to cover your wings in hindsight, but now we have a bigger problem. Ah probably won't be able to leave my house for a long time and Sweetie Belle is probably also trapped, so we won't know how to help you get back to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy." Apple Bloom put her head down in shame. "Ah'm mighty sorry Scootaloo. Ah thought we could help, but..."
"Don't worry. Besides, do you really have to go back to your home?" Scootaloo asked her.
"Yeah. As much as they are annoying me right now, Ah really do love my family and Ah can't leave them."
Scootaloo sighed is disappointment. "Oh well, I guess. I could always sneak into your house and Sweetie Belle's house, though. That way, we can all still communicate. It'll have to be at night when I have all of my powers."
Apple Bloom smiled and was about to respond, but was interrupted by sirens.
"Ready! Aim! Fire!" Water shot up from the ground and at the clubhouse. It washed away the fire, the smoke, and everything inside the treehouse. Papers floated out of the doorway with some of the water and landed on the ground. In the stream of water was also goo, the ripped up rope, crayons, parts of costumes, and various other things that were either burnt, ripped, or broken.
"I'm sorry, Apple Bloom. Everything I touch seems to always be destroyed." Scootaloo looked at a crying Apple Bloom and hugged her. Scootaloo didn't mind that Apple Bloom's tears stung or that some of the water from the hoses made her skin steam because her friend was sad and she needed to be there for her.
~Later~
"One of them is still here! They burned down the CMC clubhouse and brainwashed my sister!" Applejack exclaimed and she paced in front of her three friends.
"I think Applejack is right, Twilight. Sweetie Belle refused to talk to me about why she snuck out last night. Even when she's in trouble she owns up to what she does when she has no other choice. This is most definitely out of the ordinary for Sweetie." Rarity said.
"At least no one was hurt, right?" Pinkie Pie tried to look at the bright side, but glares from her two polar opposite friends had shut her up.
"Clearly your sisters are the only ones who know Scootaloo's location, but I doubt they're going to tell us if we ask...Maybe we need to do some investigating of our own." Twilight suggested. "I might have to write to the Princess sooner than I expected, but it's for the best. SPIKE!"
After Twilight wrote to the princess about the monsters they were hunting down, the girls went to Rarity's Boutique to search for any clues in Sweetie Belle's bag. When they found nothing, they went to Sweetie Belle's room.
"Sweetie Belle, open the door. We need to ask you some questions." Rarity demanded.
"No."
Rarity was shocked. "Did you just- Open this door right now, Sweetie Belle! You are already in a lot of trouble!" Twilight put her hand on Rarity's shoulder to calm her down.
"Sweetie Belle, please open the door. It's really important that we talk to you."
"No."
"We promise that we'll keep everything a secret from the guards," Twilight said.
"You won't keep it a secret from Princess Celestia, and she has no obligation to keep it a secret from the guards," the small unicorn retorted.
"How about you just tell me?" Twilight offered. "I'll only tell everyone else only what they need to know."
"No."
Rarity was fed up with Sweetie Belle. "What has gotten into you, Sweetie Belle? You were never-"
"Rebellious? I don't care, Rarity. I'm not telling you or your friends anything." Sweetie Belle snapped.
Twilight looked to Rarity and Rarity looked to Applejack. Applejack nodded and was about to kick the door down, but Pinkie Pie stood in the way.
"Pinkie Pie, move." Applejack said.
"Don't you girls see what you're about to do?" Pinkie Pie looked at Rarity. "You are about to break into your little sister's room and threaten her into telling you a secret she clearly has a reason to keep. And Applejack," Pinkie Pie looked at the farm girl, "you are about to break down her door, her only protection from her angry sister and her angry friends. Can't you at least let her have one place where she feels safe?" Then Pinkie looked to Twilight. "And Twilight, I can't believe you of all people are condoning this behavior! What happened to the Twilight I know and love? The one who tried to keep everyone out of trouble, not starting it purposely!"
The three girls that were the target of Pinkie Pie's outburst were taken aback. Then they realized that Pinkie Pie was right. They were doing this all wrong. They hung their heads in shame.
"Erm...Sweetie Belle?" Rarity started. "How about you come downstairs when you're ready..."
Rarity never received an answer.
Fluttershy was frantically searching around the forest for Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. She knew that at least one of them would go after her, but she had no idea which way Ponyville was anymore, and if she flew too high, someone else might find her. However, she had an idea of how to get Rainbow Dash to know where she was. The problem was that if she messed up or made it seem unnatural, a pegasus might recognize the illusion. She decided to give it a try.
Just picture it in your mind, Fluttershy. You can do it! Make a storm...
Dark clouds started to fly in from the east, and Fluttershy internally cheered. Slowly but surely, the clouds were on their way to covering the whole forest. Once they got close to Fluttershy's location, they started to drizzle, then rain. The animals hid in their homes, so Fluttershy took that as a sign to hide as well. If anyone saw her from a distance, they might realize that she wasn't an animal since they were all hiding.
Once she felt safe, Fluttershy created pink lightning. It only struck around the area she was in, but it didn't strike often enough to be suspicious looking.
Soon, a rainbow sliced through the clouds and landed in front of her hiding spot. She jumped out and hugged Rainbow Dash as hard as she could without hurting her.
"Thank goodness you came! I thought I'd be lost!" Fluttershy said.
"I'm glad I found you, too, but we can't celebrate right now." Rainbow Dash took Fluttershy's hand and started to run through the forest. "An assassin killed a unicorn guard and now they want to find where he came from. The guard's friends found him dead and probably went to tell someone. They suspect it's us, but I still don't think Scootaloo is safe. We need to stop them from reaching Ponyville," Rainbow Dash explained.
"Well, by foot it takes about three hours to get from Pegasopolis to Ponyville, so depending on where they started, we might be able to catch up by flight," Fluttershy thought out loud.
"They weren't too close to Pegasopolis, but they must've been close enough that the assassin sensed them. Either that or they were just unlucky and happened to run into him. Wait a minute!" Rainbow Dash stopped running. "The assassin probably sensed me! He must've known I was there! Why didn't he kill me?"
"I'm not sure, but maybe we can worry about that later. We kinda need to catch up to the other guards," Fluttershy reminded her.
Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Hehe, oh yeah." Both pegasi took off towards Ponyville, hoping that they could find the guards before they reached the town.
Scootaloo climbed out of the tree and tried to blend in with the other citizens of Ponyville. She copied everyone else's movements so as to not seem out of the ordinary, but she still seemed suspicious somehow because some people kept looking at her. Eventually, someone came up to her. She was a pale skinned person that had long brown hair tied back and green eyes.
"What do you think you are doing, young lady?" she questioned. Scootaloo noticed that she had a strict tone, but she didn't know how to answer the question. She must be scolding me. Scootaloo thought. She bowed her head.
"Look at me when I talk to you!" A very confused Scootaloo looked up at the lady in front of her. I thought that when you-oh wait. I'm not in Pegasopolis. What did Apple Bloom do?
"I didn't do anything wrong," Scootaloo said.
The woman scoffed. "Don't talk to me like that! Why aren't you in school?" Scootaloo's heard the term before, but couldn't remember where.
What was school again? Is that where they train? "Um, I was...on my way?"
The woman deadpanned. "It's almost eleven o'clock! Why would you be on your way to school so late? And you aren't even rushing! Nor do you have a backpack!"
I'm over this "I told you I was on my way, didn't I? You're preventing me from getting there."
"Am I?"
"Yes. Yes you are."
Before Scootaloo could take a step, the woman told her, "It might be helpful to you if you were going the correct way, kid." Scootaloo froze. Then she ran.
"Hey, get back here! I'm telling the authorities that you're cutting class!" Scootaloo did not care who "the authorities" were or why cutting class was such a big deal to them, so she kept running through the town and towards the cottage that was her hideout. When she reached the hideout, Scootaloo tried to think of a way to contact Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy. However, that thought process was abruptly stopped when she heard footsteps heading towards her location.
Could it be them?
Scootaloo walked out of the cottage and walked towards the back. She saw that the footsteps were not caused by her honorary sisters, but they were from guards, presumably the ones from the morning.
"Hey, kid!" the female unicorn guard called out to her.
Great, is she going to scold me about school as well?
"Yeah?" Scootaloo said as the guards ran towards her.
"Have you seen any pegasi flying around recently?" the male asked.
Apple Bloom said that we were myths here, so I should laugh, right? "Hahaha! What? Pegasi?"
"Now we know that it might seem funny," the female began, "but we are serious. There has been an encounter with those monsters and we need to find them and take them to the princess to lock them up."
Scootaloo stopped laughing. "Wait, you aren't going to kill them?"
The guards gasped. "No! Why in Equestria would we do anything so...so...so barbaric! What is wrong with you?!" the male exclaimed.
"Oh, erm...Where will they go, again? I wasn't paying attention." Scootaloo innocently smiled when the guards gave her funny looks.
"They're going to be locked up in Canterlot in the Royal Castle..." the unicorn said warily. "Are you okay, kid?"
Scootaloo stared at them. They have useful information. I need to get it and then kill them. "So, you didn't catch them?"
"No, unfortunately." The man said.
"Oh, well. Have you seen them?" Scootaloo took small steps towards the two distrustful guards.
"You know, kid, you should back up a bit. We don't need to tell you anything," the woman said defensively. She and her comrade took a step back from the advancing girl.
"Have you hurt them?"
"Not yet! Now leave us alone. You're making us uncomfortable and we can arrest you!" the man said. Scootaloo was standing right in front of them, her eyes focused intensely on the guards. The unicorn charged up her magic, but Scootaloo held onto her horn and stopped her from casting any spell.
"'Not yet' was the wrong answer."
Scootaloo pulled her hand down quickly, snapping the unicorn's horn off. The woman cried out as blood ran down her head, and Scootaloo took the opportunity to stab the guard between her eyes with her own horn. The man was frozen still until Scootaloo turned to him. He tried to run, but Scootaloo grabbed his arm and flipped him over so that his head hit the ground behind her. He was still alive but losing consciousness. Scootaloo held him up by his neck so that he was kneeling in front of her, but she didn't choke him enough that he couldn't speak.
"You're going to tell me what I want and I'll consider sparing your life. Did you see a pegasus?"
"N-No."
"How do you know about them, then?"
"Twilight told me. She encountered them."
"How much did she tell you?"
"Only that one has dark rainbow hair and blue wings while the other has pink and black hair and yellow wings."
"Are there more of you in the forest?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"Two more."
"Are any coming from another place?"
"The others coming from Canterlot either aren't going into the woods or haven't arrived yet."
"That's all I need to know. Have fun in Tartarus."
"W-Wai-" Scootaloo stabbed him. His body slumped and fell to the ground, leaving Scootaloo all alone with blood covering her hands and body.
"Dang it. Now I have to clean up the mess." Scootaloo sighed and started to drag the bodies into the cottage.