"Um... okay. But be back by dinnertime," Mrs. Dash agreed nervously. "If you aren't back by an hour after dinner, I'll call the police," she joked.
At least Twilight thought it was a joke. The main thing was that Mrs. Dash said it was okay.
"Okay, Mom! Be back soon!" Rainbow gave her a small hug, than ran out the door. Mrs. Dash gasped when she saw her daughter's wings, but then rubbed her eyes and shook her head like it was nothing.
"Thank you, Mrs. Dash," Twilight said.
"Yes," added Rarity. "We'll make sure Rainbow comes back in one piece," she half-joked, and Mrs. Dash laughed.
"Good luck, girls!" she waved as they went off into the city.
"Ok, Twilight! Where to?" Rainbow was flapping her wings in excitement. Some of the neighborhood kids were looking at her funny.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight hissed. "Keep your wings tucked! We want to act as normal as possible."
"Ah, come on, Twilight. We're going on a top secret mission through town, right? We want to fly to get a best view!" Rainbow protested.
"No! We're going to do it the human way!" Twilight insisted.
"I'll go let the other girls know about their ears and such," offered Rarity. "They probably don't even know about it yet!"
"Right," Twilight said, not really listening. "Rainbow, we should try to be as undercover as possible. If they see two flying girls with wings, they'll capture us with Rainbow!"
"True," admitted Rainbow. "Fine, we'll take a cab!"
"Yay!" Twilight looked enthusiastic about this. "But first one thing."
"What?"
"What's a cab?"
* * *
A long cab ride later, the girls were standing in front of a massive building with five security droids guarding the entrance.
"Isn't that a bit extreme?" Twilight asked.
"This is the most heavily guarded building in town," Rainbow looked at the building with disgust. "It helps that the owner is a ba-gilionaire."
"Wow."
"So now what?"
"Now we go inside and look for Rainbow."
"And if she's not there?"
"We wait around until she shows up."
"Fine with me."
So the two girls walked inside. They folded their wings and tried their best to conceal their ears, but it was still pathetic.
They made a beeline for the back. Rainbow said that was where they kept all of the pets. Twilight was horrified from what she saw there. All the animals were in cages, and there was a gunk in little bowls that was who-knows-what. There were little toys, but the little pets looked so bored and tired that Twilight couldn't look. She tried to imagine Rainbow Dash cramped in one of those little cages, chewing a plastic bone while waiting for someone to take her home. Twilight wiped a tear from her eye.
The girls didn't see a blue horse anywhere, so they went outside to wait.
They didn't have to wait for long. Soon a black truck pulled up, and a bunch of mean looking men came out and unloaded the trunk.
There, a trickle of blood coming from her mouth, was Rainbow Dash.