With a yawn Rainbow woke up. The sun beared down on her sleepy form. The slightest peek burned her eyes. She stretched like a cat while her pupils adjusted to the blinding light. She blinked trying to remember what was going on.
She stood on a cloud, not in her hotel room. It didn’t take a moment longer for everything to come back to her. The city wasn’t immediately in sight. Looking around she found it. “Oh,” she frowned as she realized Scootaloo and her friends probable had no clue where she was. With that thought she took off, bursting the cloud she’d been on.
Reaching the hotel she quickly flew in and up the stairs, the elevator would take too long. Quickly reaching her floor she streaked through the empty hallway to her room. It didn’t open, she forgot to grab her key. Knocking gave no answer so she flew to Applejack's room for much the same result. She sighed. Of course they wouldn’t be at the hotel, but that also meant she had no clue where they’d be right now. She left the hotel in a hurry.
Her next stop was the restaurant they ate at every morning. Not finding them there, she flew high into the sky intent on sweeping the streets for them. After a quick glance at the city buildings around her, she noticed billowing smoke not too far from her. Curious she made her way towards it while keeping an eye out for them.
It didn’t take long to make it. The building that was smoking looked like it had exploded on one side. Down below she spotted Twilight and Sweetie and a bunch of ponies arguing behind a large column of road that was between them and Sweetie. Twilight was clearly being held in place by the filly for some reason. She quickly spotted Applebloom on the opposite side of the trapped ponies. A row of trees that trapped them from Applebloom's side. She couldn’t find Scootaloo.
Twilight was closest so she flew to her, “Where’s Scootaloo?” Twilight seemed frozen in place and out of it. No answer.
So she moved to Sweetie, “Where’s Scootaloo?”
“Wha-huh?” Sweetie asked opening her eyes, “Rainbow? Where’ve you been?”
“...ee,” Rainbow cringed. How’s she supposed to explain that she felt like everypony was lying to her and even felt Scootaloo was out to betray her. It didn’t matter right now, “Well, do you know where she is? I can’t find her.”
Sweetie gasped, “Rainbow you have to help her! She’s fighting that mare!”
“What mare!?” Rainbow asked looking around.
“That mare brainwashed all those ponies and Twilight,” Sweetie continued pointing in the direction of the road wall. “An-and for a moment I thought she died.”
“WHAT!?” Rainbowed screeched grabbing the fillies shoulders, “what happened?” she asked shaking Sweetie.
“Sc-Scootaloo was hit into that building up there,” Sweetie said tilting her head towards the building that attracted Rainbow to this area in the first place, “and I-I…” She stopped as tears began falling.
“But she’s okay right?” Rainbow asked urgently shaking Sweetie more. Sweetie shrugged off Rainbows hooves and gave her a look that clearly says ‘I don’t know.’ Eyes dilated Rainbow shot to the sky to investigate the ruined building more thoroughly. A foreleg covered direct sunlight as she escalated towards the embattled skyscraper. It was empty. She flew above the buildings and looked everywhere.
Sharp eyes soon spotted something in the blue sky. A small orange dot. One she’d gotten familiar with spotting over the last week of flight training. She bolted towards the dot. She flew up and up and the dot quickly became more and more of a figure. Slowing down as she approached and got a good look at her sister.
She embraced her sister who latched on tightly. She kept her eyes wide open for anypony who may approach them, as they descended.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Applebloom gave a sigh of relief at the sight of Scootaloo. Alive and moving. That left her with the matter of her stolen bow tie. She had really wanted to hurt that old donkey, badly, moments ago. She’s glad that he avoided her attacks like Fluttershy does nightmare night. The image of Twilights oblitorated machine flashed through her head. Regardless, she still wanted her bow tie back.
Weakness nagged at her body and the heat of the sun didn’t make it any better. She wiped away some sweat and addressed the thief, “That’s my bow tie,” she said pointing to her bow tie trapped under the old donkeys tie dye T-shirt, “Give. It. Back.” The old donkey smiled in a playful manner that annoyed her to no end.
She wasn’t in the mood to deal with this. She felt weak and she was starting to get a headache. Those blasted trees were so stubborn about growing some extra limbs. Now she was acting like her sister, treating trees like ponies or pets. With that thought she no longer felt annoyed, just worn down.
She reached for the bow tie ignoring her aches and he backed away. She advanced as he kept backing away. She took a swipe for it every chance she got. This went on for what seemed like forever to her.
He just kept finding new ways to evade her. It remained trapped under his tie dye T-shirt, so close yet somehow constantly out of reach. Every once in awhile he’d strategically knock her down or redirect her hoof.
He wasn’t relenting to her continued child like attempts. She had hoped he’d give pity to her clearly pathetic attempts. She should’ve expected the opposite from somepony, or donkey in this case, who was brainwashed, or at least partially brainwashed.
She needed to do something else. She stopped and looked around. They ended up closer to the line of trees, now surrounded by vines, some of which were cut down by this donkey’s katana. The katana he thankfully no longer had. An idea sprang to life in her and although it sounded draining, she acted on it.
The master martial artist watched questioningly as she stopped the chase and stood in place. She brought up one forehoof then firmly back to the ground. His eyes wided a moment later before he made to jump to the side only a little to late as a vine quickly ensnared him, restraining him.
Applebloom shaked and she let out a weak breath before stumbling to the ground with a smirk. She felt worse than when she tried out for her marathon cutie mark after that stunt. She gritted her teeth, struggling to stand.
Without any style she took back her bow tie from the trapped donkey and put it back where it belonged.
Exhausted, she walked away from the donkey and flopped to the ground. She was still worried about her friends, but she was fighting to stay awake.
…
“Plebloom, hey are you okay?” she heard as she got nudged on the shoulder, "huh?" She groaned as her answer.
“Release me, so I can arrest her!”
“That’s not happening Twilight, Sweetie don’t let her go unless I say so.”
“Okay.”
“GRRRR RELEASE MEEE~!”
“Twilight please stop struggling! I-I don’t want to do anything accidently!”
*gasp* she felt a fore hoof lifted up and fur moved aside along with several other areas of her body soon after.
“What is it sis? ...Is that blood?" Rainbow asked alarmed.
“Oh thank Celestia,” Scootaloo whispered. “Maybe, she doesn't have any cuts. I think, she’s going to be okay. Applebloom if you can hear me, I’ll find your sister. You get some rest,” her friend said patting her on the shoulder. She mumbled an answer before sleep took over.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Life had taken another one-eighty for Dream Catcher. Once he made it to Manehatten he went to work looking for work. It became quite obvious to him that ponies did in fact find his new suit as great as he did. All he had to do was mention who made it once to realize he could use it to get a good job. Rarity was apparently some kind of important fashion show winner and set a new trend that thankfully didn’t last, from the pictures he saw. Either way, it opened the doors to many different job opportunities.
He aimed big and got shot down if only for lack of experience.
He settled for a desk job that was all about paperwork at a privately owned paperclip sales company, aptly named Paperclips.
He swiftly and unexpectedly got promoted to assistant manager. Now he made more bits than he knew what to do with. Well, besides pay the ridiculous price for a small apartment room in Manehatten.
At any rate, he and his boss, Mister Clips, got back to Manehattan from a paper factory near Trottingham today. They had an important meeting with the corporate CEO of said factory. If everything went right they’d gain a huge partnership and earn some shared sales.
He was given the responsibility of making it happen. He was more than a little overwhelmed and honestly didn’t feel up to the task. Luckily, he had help from several employees who were glad to fill in several gaps in his knowledge of his new job. He also had time to prepare. The visit to the paper factory allowed him to finalize his ideas and get his bosses approval.
Unable to find a taxi-cart, they trekked through the oddly empty Manehatten streets towards their meeting, “You got everything?” Clips asked.
“Ya, right here.” Dream answered moving the briefcase encased in his magic forward slightly, before moving it back to his side.
“Okay good, get ready because that’s the pony we need to impress.” Clips said pointing to a well dressed earth pony ahead of them looking around impatiently, before spotting them. “Mr. Sheets sorry if we kept you waiting we couldn’t find a taxi-cart.”
“Who’s that?” Sheets asked rather suddenly.
“Oh, my apologies. This is Dream Catcher he’s my new assistant manager.” Mister Clips answered.
“Hello Mr. Sheets,” Dream offered his hoof for a shake only for Sheets look at it oddly, almost as if he was frightened by it. So he lowered his foreleg.
“You know, I was very tempted to just stay home today, thieves have been out and about you know?” Mr. Sheets explained.
“Is that why the city feels empty?” Mr. Clips asked.
“Lets go,” Mr. Sheets said ignoring his question, walking away rather swiftly. They quickly caught up to him but he managed to keep his distance. He was strangely insistent on keeping his distance so they made sure to respect that. This was too important a meeting to screw up. “So you visited our factory near Trottingham?”
“Yes, and I must say I was very impressed with the setup you have there, It sure was something. My own factory is different, so seeing another one was quite the experience.” Mr. Clips answered.
“I see,” Mr. Sheets answered as they continued their walk down the oddly empty streets. “Alright, we’re almost there. You know, I was only expecting you and Evasion your former assistant manager. What happened?” he asked in a rather forward almost hostile manner.
“Well, lets just say he was a bad egg, and leave it at that.” Mr. Clips answered.
“Really? I was under the impression that he’s been working for you for years. You had nothing but good things to say about him.” Mr. Sheets replied, “So, if you want this partnership to continue any further, then how about you retry that answer.”
“What? But both companies only stand to gain from this partnership! Why-” Dream protested, only to be cut off by his boss holding up his hoof.
“If you really must know,” Mr. Clips began, “Dream Catcher here found proof that leech had been siphoning money from my company for years.” Mr. Clips answered.
Mr. Sheets looked at Dream Catcher like he was about to bit off his head or something, “and how long has Dream Catcher been working for you?”
“About two to three weeks.” Mr. Clips answered.
Mr. Sheets eyes boggled then targeted Dream, as if he was a cheesy martial artist actor about take on an opponent, “and how do you know he didn’t frame Mr. Evasion?”
“WHAT?,” Mr. Clips yelled in shock of the outrageous suggestion, “if you really must know then it’s simply because that stallion kept all his deceiving papers at work in his personal safe, while he hid the real papers. Dream catcher here got done with the workload handed to him far sooner than the leech could’ve anticipated. So when he went to turn it in he saw the real numbers from the monthly sales on the desk. When next he saw that same months numbers he noticed they were off by a couple thousand bits. And then-”
“Okay, okay I get the picture,” Mr. Sheets exclaimed, “You trust he didn’t frame him because he’d have to know the safe’s combination and years of faked monthly reports, but then why did you make him the new assistant manager? Surely there’s other ponies who’ve worked for you that were far more deserving than this upstart.” He sounded upset.
“Are you calling into question my judgement!?” Mr. Clips yelled clearly offended.
“What if I am?” Mr. Sheets agued, “You clearly trusted somepony who stole from you for years! That doesn’t seem like sound judgement to me! Maybe a partnership isn’t the best idea with your company.”
“Now who’s the one lacking sound judgement? Both companies can only profit from this partnership. Don’t act like it’s not true.” Mr. Clips argued back.
“Fine. That’s true,” Mr. Sheets conceded, “but do you know anything about him?” he said pointing at Dream Catcher in a hostile manner. “Have you checked his history for any clashes against the law?”
“I uh, Evasion said he-” Mr. Clips began.
“So you’re going to believe the pony who STOLE from you to be a good source on that ponies background?” Mr. Sheets argued.
“I’m right here, you could just ask me!” Dream Catcher tried to intervene, but they just ignored him. He sighed, as they walked.
“Why’s it matter to you anyways?” Mr. Clips countered. “It’s not like he works for your corporation, but if it’ll get you to back off so we can get to business I’ll look into- ooof,” something colliding with him.
“Owww,” said a small raspy voice complained as he got up from the sudden impact to his side.
“Oh my, are you okay little filly?” he asked as he held out a hoof to the orange pegasus filly. The filly took his offered hoof and got up.
Dream recognized her from somewhere. She really looked like one of the fillies who destroyed his food cart back in Ponyville. No way it was her though. She was in Ponyville. “I’m okay, sorry,” the filly said. She looked at all of them embarrassed then noticed him and smiled, “Oh hey, I know you!” She said excitedly pointing at Dream, his jaw dropping slightly.
“You know him?” Mr. clips asked moving his head in Dreams direction.
“Yeah, that’s Dream Catcher. Me and my friends got covered in his white stuff! It tasted so good to, have you tried it?” She exclaimed all to happily, much to the confused looks of the business ponies.
“Uhhh,” Dream said in utter disbelief. That was one of the same fillies who wrecked his food cart along with his dreams of traveling across Equestria selling cinnamon rolls dipped in a large vat of icing.
“Anyways, we’re sorry if you felt chased out of town after what happened. We didn’t mean it. I- actually, I got to go, sorry again!” She yelled as she quickly ran away from them.
“Alright! I’ve heard more than I’ve ever wanted to. Mr. Clips I think you know what must be done.” Mr. Sheets exclaimed challenging Mr. Clips in a face off.
Mr. Clips stared briefly before relenting. He gave a sigh of defeat before his expression hardened.“Dream, give me the suitcase,” he commanded. The suitcase levitated to his outstretched forehoof. “I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with that filly, but after what my future business partner and I just witnessed, I can’t take any risk on my good name. You’re fired.”
Dream’s jaw dropped in shock. “Bu-wh huh? But why?” It made no sense.
“I’d rather not say. You were there, figure it out. Good bye,” Mr. Clips said before walking off with Mr. Sheets following. They walked to the building they’d been walking to and entered.
Dream watched, trying to figure out what went wrong. Was his boss mad that some filly he supposedly knew knocked him to the ground? That couldn’t be it Mr. Clips wouldn’t fire somepony for something that frivolous.
Then he thought about Mr. Sheets and his suggestion that he framed is brief manager Evasion. He dismissed that thought as Mr. Clips did defend him.
The conversation they were having just before the filly head-butted in came to mind. Mr. Sheets was asking about a background check. Like a light bulb, something the filly said suddenly made sense within the context of a background check. She suggested that he might’ve been ‘chased out of town,’ and if he was chased out of a town for any reason it couldn’t be a good one. One of his eyes twitched, before he slouched down defeated.