The sun began its slow descent from the peak of noon, its heat intercepted by cooling autumn air and an unkempt cloud cover which continued to strain Ponyville's understaffed weather team. As the unattended clouds drifted and spread, the sky grew duller, tinting the world just a tad grayer. The inside of the library was becoming equally dim, and for the first time in recent memory Twilight Sparkle had to light a lamp in the middle of the day to help her read.
The studious mare had always prided herself on her hunches. Her regiment of mental exercise combined with years devoted to honing her mind to a razor edge left her intuition just as potent as her book smarts. As a result of this acute awareness, Twilight sometimes considered her gut feelings the most important key in solving a mystery. This mystery was no different, as much as she wanted it to be.
It just so happened that this time the unicorn's gut feeling was crying out a grim speculation that she'd have much rather ignored. It was a dreadful array of possibilities that seemed indeed a bit too possible. They defied everything she understood about the pony she called her friend, and her earlier meeting with the pegasus in question has only stirred up a consuming riot of conflicting thoughts in her mind.
"Here you go Twilight." Spoke the young voice of Spike from behind a swaying stack of unfurled scrolls.
The diminutive draconic assistant placed the pile down next to Twilight as per her request, gazing meekly into her worn, apprehensive, and grimly somber expression with concern as she immediately began to pour over the first document on the stack without response. The dragon ground his teeth nervously as he debated pursuing the issue plaguing his attention. He had only been away from Ponyville a day but it seemed the mare's mood had changed dramatically.
"How many of these reports do you need to read, Twi?" Spike asked quietly, doing little to veil his concern. "I gathered up all of the ones I could find in the Canterlot archives like you asked but this is some pretty morbid stuff."
Spike wasn't too surprised when Twilight didn't raise her muzzle from the parchment. Her eyes were darting across each page with a fixation the dragon recognized all too well.
"Maybe you should take a little break?" He offered up, clearing his throat as he prodded once more at her attention.
The unicorn's focus remained unbroken.
"What in Equestria are you looking for in all these reports anyway?" Spike asked, in a tone that expressed a tad more irritation than perhaps he intended
"Patterns." Twilight snapped firmly, quick and dismissive.
Rebuked, Spike's face twisted into shock.
"S-sorry." He muttered as he began to trudge away. Maybe if it would be less work to just let Twilight brood alone to her heart's content for a while. In the past, the unicorn did sometimes allow her extreme focus to leave her inattentive to the outside world, but this was the first time Spike had ever seen her act downright mean to him.
It would have been easy for the little dragon to become sour at Twilight's unappreciative attitude, but he was far too concerned for her well being to dwell on it. Uncertainty rained over him as he looked back to observe the mare again. She had finally tore herself away from the scroll she was reading, her eyes bloodshot from strain. She stared into nowhere, deep in thought, perhaps wondering if nowhere would stare back.
"Are you okay?" Spike asked, more timid this time.
Twilight looked past him, she inhaled in attempt to speak more than a few times, but had difficulty beginning.
"Spike." Twilight eventually addressed, in a stern and even voice. "You trust me, right?"
"Of course I do. More than anypony." He answered quickly, without an ounce of hesitation.
"And you trust our friends too?" She asked in turn.
"Absolutely." He affirmed.
"You trust they are good ponies?" Twilight inquired with a grim intensity, turning directly to her assistant and looking into his eyes with anxious desperation. "You trust they are who they appear to be?"
"A-absolutely!" Spike reiterated though it was obvious her sudden questioning was only disquieting him further.
Twilight's expression slowly softened as her eyes fell downward. She took a deep and labored breath and stared at the latest in the series of horrible police documents on her desk documenting every vile topic under the sun. She pushed them away gruffly and turned back towards the young dragon, producing a weak smile.
"So do I." She said, her voice trembling slightly. "I'm sorry Spike. I really have been spending too much time looking at these reports. I was letting my worries get the better of me again."
Spike returned a relieved grin, bouncing back from his previous alarm with youthful optimism.
"It's ok Twilight. I know how much stress you're under.” He said compassionately. “Let me throw some lunch together for you. I checked the pantry. You’ve been so wrapped up in this you haven’t eaten a thing since I left yesterday."
She smiled wider and thanked her assistant as he paced into the other room. For about twenty glorious minutes Twilight Sparkle felt as though things might actually be okay. The brooding fear in her guts had been dispelled, or at least brought into perspective.
However, as quickly as relief came, it crumbled to dust and scattered to the wind when a pounding and a familiar voice came rumbling from the library's front door.
"Miss Sparkle, this is Lieutenant Keen Eye!" Bellowed the commanding officer. "Open the door immediately!"
Rushing to her hooves, Twilight raced to the door and opened it without a second thought. She cast her eyes upon the unicorn guard stallion in his full armored suit, gasping as she realized an entire detachment of guards was in toe behind him, weapons in hoof.
"Step out of the house." Keen Eye commanded.
"W-what's going—" She began.
"Out of the house, Twilight!" He roared.
Twilight winced in fright and passed through the doorway, exiting her home as the dozen armed guards behind Keen Eye quickly swarmed into the library and secured it, room by room. The mare looked on in a daze to see the outside of her home surrounded, every door and window covered by no less than two spear-wielding ponies. The building was completely sealed off.
"What is going on!?" Twilight repeated herself angrily, more forceful this time.
Keen Eye remained silent, focusing only on the movements of his stallions through the mare's library home. Two of the guards brought out Spike, trembling in fear and confusion as he was ordered over next to Twilight. He quickly fell in line and hugged the mare's hind leg, completely bewildered.
"T-twilight!" He stammered loudly into her fur. "What are they doing here!?"
Finally one of the guardponies emerged from the library, a sizable dark blue pegasus, rank signifying him a sergeant.
"Negative, sir. Building is clear." He addressed his commanding officer, standing at attention.
"Understood." Keen Eye acknowledged. "Split off, send half your detachment to Carousel Boutique and the rest to Sugarcube Corner. Meet at the rendezvous point in fifteen for further orders."
"Yes sir!" The sergeant sounded off, throwing a hoof to his helm in quick salute.
Paired with a quick and exercised motion of his hooves, the sergeant waved the entire team out of the library with a series of shouts. Every last guard filed orderly out of the building and fell into formation as they moved on down the road.
"Miss Sparkle." Keen Eye turned to the flustered unicorn with a stern expression as the guards left the vicinity. "You were seen with Rainbow Dash earlier today."
"Yes?" She responded. It was as much an affirmation as it was a question, but somehow Twilight already knew the answer.
"A warrant has been issued for her immediate arrest." Keen stated matter-of-factually.
Twilight felt the wind leave her lungs as the crushing weight of anxiety fell upon her again, she stood aghast at the lieutenant.
"She fled her home less than an hour ago during a search of her property.” Keen explained with steely composure. “During which we discovered an alarming amount of evidence implicating her in Scootaloo's abduction."
The heat seeped out of Twilight's body. It started from the tip of her horn and ran down her like ice to the base of her hooves. It was like fate had just served her an entire platter of vile churning viscera and asked her to eat it. She looked back briefly at Spike and saw upon him a face as horrified as hers. She saw him beginning to protest, coming to Rainbow's defense immediately.
He was saying all the words Twilight wished she had the ignorance to say herself.
"There's gotta be some kind of mistake! There's no way Rainbow Dash could possibly be involved in this!" Spike asserted fearfully, sounding less confident than he did before. "Isn't that right, Twilight?"
He looked to her with desperate eyes for some kind of support. Once again, Twilight felt the grim speculation rattle in her mind like twisted bones. Once again, she wished she could ignore it.
"Spike." Twilight uttered. "I need to speak to the lieutenant alone for a moment."
It was heart-wrenching to see Spike so instantly crushed. He made to protest once again but he only needed to see the intensity in Twilight's eyes to know she had no intention of being swayed. He fell inward as his understanding seemed to collapse just a little more and trudged back into the library, swinging the door softly shut in his wake.
So many question flooded Twilight's brain all at once that they seemed to cry out in a chorus, with the twisted bones playing percussion. She wasn't sure which of the dozens she actually asked aloud at first, but based on Keen's response she must have asked why an arrest was being made.
"I believe that Rainbow Dash is responsible for the abduction. She is to be arrested and interrogated to find where the victim is located. The royal guard's number one priority is still to find Scootaloo." Keen explained before his expression hardened. "That being said we are more than prepared to prosecute charges against Rainbow Dash if the evidence seized from her home incriminates her, and I trust that it has."
"What exactly is this evidence?" Twilight asked, trying to keep her overwhelming emotions at bay and try to focus on absorbing as many facts as she could.
"I can't share that information with you." Keen Eye said, unapologetic. "The evidence has been taken to a secure crime lab in Canterlot for analysis and will remain there until further notice, but I have absolutely no doubt in my mind as to its relevancy to this case."
The mare signed and nodded. She was only a civilian volunteer after all, she knew enough about the legal system to know she wasn't going to hear anything about that evidence outside of a courtroom. She supposed she was merely hoping for the lieutenant to slip up.
What followed was a terse recounting of Rainbow's brief visit to the library earlier that morning. Twilight tried to answer Keen's questions as quickly and simply as she could in an attempt to deposit some of her own, but it was clear the lieutenant was not volunteering any information he didn't have to. He did however discuss his own meeting with the now fugitive pegasus which occurred prior, making note to mention her eventually agreeing to the search of her house.
"We have every reason to believe that Rainbow is currently inside the Everfree forest. I'm willing to bet she has the victim hidden in there somewhere as well." Keen announced. "She was oddly obsessed with that place the entire time we were conducting our search operations, always wanting updates on the search effort there specifically and often wanting to be involved herself."
"But if we're to assume, strictly for the sake of argument, that Rainbow really did abduct Scootaloo and put her in the Everfree forest like you say, why would she be so eager on steering us in the right direction?" Twilight projected emphatically. "Why wouldn't she be trying to cover her tracks?
Keen narrowed his eyes but Twilight continued before he could answer.
"And why in Equestria would she agree to allow the search of her house if it was, apparently, full of evidence that implicates her?" The mare added, her mind racing with the mess of loose ends left by the current explanation of events. "You say she gave consent to the search, but the search itself didn't occur until hours later. She would've had more then enough time to go home and destroy whatever this evidence is, yet she left it there to be found? This makes no sense!"
"I know you've been reading those old case reports." Keen replied firmly. "I know you're aware that mental illness is endemic among the ponies that commit these crimes.”
Twilight raised a brow.
"Look, I don't expect you to see what's going on here, Miss Sparkle." Keen said carefully. "Why would you? You're her friend."
"What's that suppose to mean!?" Twilight barked.
"Rainbow wants us to find Scootaloo, Twilight." Keen explained, his tone cool and steady. "I've seen plenty of abductors behave this way before. They want attention, recognition. They don't want to get away with it, they never did. When the time comes, they want everypony to know it was them."
"Are you kidding me?" The mare demanded incredulously. "Is that really the explanation you're going with?"
"Considering what we took from her home, Twilight, I have a very hard time believing anything else!" Keen reminded harshly, his agitation thinly veiled. "She wants to show off! Doesn't that sound at all like the Rainbow Dash you know?"
"The Rainbow Dash I know isn't a psychopath!" Twilight screamed, her voice breaking.
The words echoed in the afternoon air, paired only with Twilight's sharp and infuriated breaths.
Keen stared undaunted into the livid mare's gaze.
"You came to me the day I arrived in Ponyville, Twilight." He said calmly. "You came to me and told me that you would do anything— anything at all to help me find Scootaloo."
Twilight only glared.
"Later, I came to you." Keen continued. "I told you that I believed this was a foalnapping and I told you to be ready live up to your word."
The unicorn mare closed her eyes and continued to take long, calming breaths.
"It doesn't sound like you're ready to do that, Miss Sparkle." The lieutenant posited bluntly.
"So that's it?" Twilight asked, her voice audibly shredded from her previous outburst. “That's all you need to call one of my best friends the culprit?"
"Twilight—" Keen growled.
"You sound like you’re ready to judge and sentence her too!” She scathed over top of his words.
"This is the only break in the case we've had, and it's a big one." Keen Eye said through grit teeth, scowling at the mare. "I'm trying to save a little filly's life here, remember?"
Twilight fell quiet, tears welling in her eyes.
"I know." She sighed out weakly.
"Then help me do exactly that, Twilight!" Keen said, an honest plea in his voice. "I know this isn't easy for you, but you have to accept the truth here. Rainbow Dash is not the pony you thought she was."
Twilight's flank fell to ground heavily. The weight was unbearable. There was only one thing, one thing in all of Equestria that Twilight knew she could have faith in, even at time like this.
"I'm not going to help you." Twilight said, flame alight within. "I can't turn my back on Rainbow."
Keen Eye took a long breath in and turned away from her.
"So be it." He uttered. "A friend to the bitter end."
The lieutenant began to walk away, armor plates clattering slightly with each step. He stopped, turning his head over his shoulder to stare deeply into Twilight's pained face.
"If you see Rainbow Dash, I recommend, as her friend, you tell her to do the right thing and turn herself in." He spoke darkly. "I pray your decision here doesn't cost little Scootaloo her life."
He took his leave immediately. Striding quickly the same way the guards headed minutes before.
Twilight pushed her forelimbs into her closed eyes, breathing deeply and desperately. Every ounce of her will was spent fighting back an oncoming miasma of uncertainty. She trembled, gasping as the wetness of her tears washed over her hooves. Words. Images. Times. Places. Her brain was a cascade of thoughts, a barrage of questions and fear, broken down from a finely honed tool to a frightened animal.
She didn't hear the door to the library open. She didn't hear the tiny foot falls on the grass that followed. But she did feel two small scaled arms wrap around her, and suddenly her mind was still.
She looked down to see Spike holding on to her once again, his tear stained eyes pressed into her side. She slowly draped a hoof over him and rocked from side to side. She could hear him breathing strangely and immediately recognized it as those awkward gasps one makes when they're trying with every fiber of their being not to weep.
The unicorn continued to sway with the dragon until the shuddering sounds stopped. Twilight wasn't sure how much time had passed, but when she realized that during that time her mind had continued to be completely still, she wondered briefly who here exactly was comforting who.
"Twilight." Spike spoke meekly at long last, pulling himself from the unicorn's violet fur. "W-what are we gonna do?"
"I need you to help me gather up the girls." Twilight said, a drastic course of action slowly manifesting in the core of her battered mind. "We are going to get to the bottom of this."
Spike swallowed hard.
"We need to find Rainbow Dash." She announced. "We need to find her before Keen does."
-----
Late autumn saw the days getting shorter, and as the afternoon pressed on into the early evening, the sun had long passed over its pinnacle. In the midst of decent, the blazing orb creeped ever closer to the horizon. None of it mattered this far into the Everfree forest though. It was always dark here.
The thick leaves of the twisted trees blanketed the sky like smoke and only sparse beams of light could penetrate it. Rainbow knew she had to stay beneath the canopy, flying above the trees would be a dead giveaway. She hated being grounded, especially at a time like this.
The mare came upon a large flat rock, covered in a thick moss and lay her saddle bag down next to it, breathing heavily as she opened it up and removed its contents: The bottle containing the swirling whiteness of mist, and the smaller vial of Zecora's unfinished vision potion.
The mare's fragile concentration broke at every crack and rustle the old forest let off. She spent a moment scanning, but shadow and tree blended in darkness into an expansive void that stretched out in all directions. Thankfully the creatures that usually inhabited the forest had left her alone so far, but it wasn't the wildlife that had her fearful.
Of course she knew the royal guards were no doubt coming for her as well, but that wasn't it either.
The pony who abducted Scootaloo was somehow out to get her as well. The sick twisted monster that took those disgusting pictures of Scootaloo was trying to ruin Rainbow's life. What frightened Rainbow most was knowing that as of right now, they were succeeding.
Rainbow doubted she could just go back. Waltzing up to the royal guard now wouldn't end well for her, even if she did find and rescue Scootaloo. She wished she could be so single minded as to still only be fearful for the fate of the missing filly, but after discovering the terrible display left in her home, dread was engulfing her as imagines of prison cells and shackles and a world without the open sky assaulted her thoughts.
Rainbow placed the bottle and vial on to the rock before her, carefully opening them both. She retched as she uncorked Zecora's potion. The thick ooze somehow managed to smell more disgusting than it looked, reeking of what could only be described as a combination of fermenting oranges and feces. Without utensils or the fine manipulation of a unicorn's magic, she struggled slightly as she tried to pour an amount of the mist from the larger bottle into the much smaller vial with trembling hooves.
She cussed as she spilled more than a trivial amount out across the rock. The mist quickly spread out and vanished into the dry air, wasted. Gritting her teeth and trying to breath evenly she managed to fill the remainder of the vial with mist. She quickly recorked it and shook it vigorously to mix the concoction together and her eyes widened as the fluid began to emit a bright bluish light, illuminating an impressively large patch of the dark forest around her.
Into the liquid she gazed, her eyes transfixed on its eerie glow. The light was warm and dynamic, swirling and flowing in the vial in beautiful, unknowable patterns. Looking at it was the closest things to a comfort Rainbow had felt in days and she almost regretted having to drink it. She sighed and removed the cork, knowing what needed to be done. To the mare's surprise the smell of the potion had completely changed, becoming much less unpleasant. It now smelt something akin of freshly cut lumber and toothpaste, still not exactly something she was looking forward to drinking but most certainly an improvement. That being said, she would have liked it of Zecora had mentioned to her that the potion glowed brighter than a lantern.
Shutting her eyes and screwing up her face, she pressed the vial to her lips and tilted it back. The incandescent mix was warm and chunky with a consistency like melted ice cream, lumber and toothpaste-flavored ice cream. She struggled to swallow and the bizarre taste languished on her tongue before she finally plunged the mouthful into herself, feeling it slither down her esophagus slowly. After most of the potion was ingested she spat several times, hoping to expel the baffling aftertaste from her mouth, leaving flecks of semi-glowing saliva spattered across the forest floor. She repacked her saddle bag, slinging it over herself as she decided to keep moving, hoping that she didn't somehow botch the mixture.
Dash knew the effects wouldn't be immediate, which is why it surprised her so much when she felt an overwhelming, piercing pain pass through her skull like she had just been cleaved between the eyes with the claw end of a hammer.
She fell to her knees, crying out into the darkness in hideous pain as she pushed her face into her hooves.
Bolting her eyes shut, the sensation surged outward and pulsated throughout her entire head.
She took quick, gasping breaths as the sensation dispersed as quickly as it came and she felt it replaced with a dull warmth.
Rainbow opened her eyes to a world unlike anything she had ever seen.
It was a world where she could see everything.
It was a world of steaming shapes and cascading colors. It roiled with life and forces she both did and did not recognize: heat, sound, time, velocity, memory, emotion, some contextless quality only describable as magnitude, some impossible bombardment of angles and calculations. She could see it all and it assaulted her mind like a tsunami of information, a cacophony of intellectual noise that had no hope of being meaningfully processed by one or even a hundred minds.
In that split second before she closed her eyes again from sheer hyperbolic awe, she gazed upon every piece of information that existed in that particular small, simple patch of forest in her field of view. The complexity was terrifying, the breadth infinite. She knew Zecora could create remedies and lotions but this was a magic beyond the scope of anything Rainbow understood.
Eyes still tightly shut, Rainbow took several deep breaths. Her heart rate slowed and she tried to concentrate on one single topic, one thread of fabric from the spool of her wary mind.
Find Scootaloo. Find Scootaloo. Find Scootaloo.
She repeated it over and over in her head at first, and eventually aloud.
The pegasus opened her eyes once more and found the torrent of information was less intense, she could stand to take in her surroundings and confirmed that yes, in spite of the otherworldly nature of the visionscape, she was indeed still in the Everfree forest and still exactly where she was when she drank the potion.
It was not much different from how she'd have to shut the world out and concentrate when she was about to perform a flying maneuver. She just needed to stay focused and ignore distractions, only this time there were quintillions of distractions she never realized existed.
She could easily forget about Scootaloo and get hung up on the fact that there were exactly sixty-eight thousand nine hundred and eleven leaves on the seventeen Cormish Lockbranch trees currently within her line of sight and that said leaves secret a resin containing a minor poison to deter insects when the leaves reach a temperature of thirty-five degree Celsius which was very common in direct sunlight during the summer months.
Rainbow stopped and closed her eyes once more, repeating the mantra of her goal, thoroughly frustrated as her concentration went into tailspin. This was going to take a while to get used to.
-----
Fluttershy's cottage was the closest of all the pony's homes to the Everfree forest, so as Twilight and Spike spread the word to their friends across Ponyville, their meeting location was set. Twilight found herself consoling Fluttershy, who was still in ruin after finding out about Rainbow's plight, not to mention having her home stormed and searched by the royal guard not long before.
The usual diverse array of forest animals that lived on the property were quiet this evening, looking on to their gentle caregiver with concern from every corner of the room as Twilight conversed with her.
"This can't be happening! First Scootaloo, and now Rainbow! This is a nightmare!" Fluttershy cried woefully into the tear-soaked cushion of her sofa. "Twilight! Please don't tell me you believe these awful things the guards are saying about Dashie!"
Twilight's eyes fell half lidded as she broke eye contact with her devastated friend.
"I don't know what I believe right now, Fluttershy." She frowned. "What I do know is that there is more going on here then meets the eye and I think it is time to take matters into our own hooves."
"Are we gonna help Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked, quivering.
Twilight paused a moment before releasing a pained sign. She wished so deeply that she could say yes with confidence. She couldn't bare look into Fluttershy's weeping eyes and disappoint her.
"We're going to find out the truth." She eventually settled on.
The canary-furred pegasus went silent in response, not particularly comforted by the ominous answer. The silence persisted as the two waited for their friends and one by one, they arrived.
Twilight stood to greet Rarity at the door. The pure white unicorn looked wholly miserable but still impeccably prim as always, with never a hair from her curled and styled mane out of place. She pulled Twilight into a comforting hug as she passed through the door.
"Twilight, darling." She spoke softly in her distantly transatlantic accent. "I'm so sorry about this."
"It's ok." Twilight responded, lethargy heavy in her voice. "How are you holding up?"
"Oh! Those royal guard ruffians came thundering though the boutique!" Rarity chimed in loudly and contemptuously. "It was certainly quite alarming, but right now I just can't believe what vile things they're saying about dear Rainbow Dash! It's outrageous! Absolutely slanderous!"
Twilight found herself only able to give a temperate nod back to Rarity. There was certainly more to be said, but not until the others had arrived. Rarity eventually took a seat next to Fluttershy, who had wrapped herself into a blanket on the couch. Rarity simply brushed a hoof through the fearful pony's mane again and again in slow and steady strokes, trying to clam her nerves.
Pinkie Pie wasn't far behind. She was grinning slightly but her usual genuine cheer today was not so. The force of her expression was evident and it said more than a frown ever could. Her eyes betrayed the sullen state of her heart but her smile somehow persisted in some desperate defiance. Curiously, she had with her a pastry box from Sugarcube Corner.
"Hi Twilight, hey girls." Pinkie said in quite possibly the quietest and least enthusiastic greeting she had ever extended to anypony as she entered the cottage, offering up her labored smile to each of her friends. "I uhh— brought some danishes."
She raised the box optimistically into the air. Everypony stared quizzically at the frizzy-maned pink earth pony for a moment, their faces all adapting an awkward smile, similarly forced like the one Pinkie wore herself. They soon looked to each other for some kind of indication on how to react to the rather unexpected offering.
"That's quite alright Pinkie, thank you." Rarity mustered politely as she continued to stroke Fluttershy's mane.
Pinkie's smile quickly grew even more awkward and she proceeded to place the box on the table and open it in the off chance anypony might change their mind.
"I'm sorry if you don't like them." She apologized, her struggling smile starting to slip away. "They were all we had left in the store so late in the day."
She flopped down on the other side of Fluttershy who was slowly emerging out from under her coverings.
"I didn't really know what to bring." Pinkie admitted. "I'm better with happy occasions."
"It's ok, Pinkie." Twilight said soothingly. "I think we all are."
It was nearly thirty minutes before Applejack arrived. Conversation was nearly non-existent, sourced mostly from Rarity announcing her intention to write up a formal complaint against the royal guards for putting her delicately arranged boutique out of order. Fluttershy managed to pull herself out from under the covers and Pinkie ended up eating most of the danishes herself at a rather startling pace. It seemed she left the last one for Applejack, just in case.
Looking by far the most stressed and disheveled, Applejack trudged into the cottage.
"Sorry to keep y'all waitin'." She sighed, frowning as she entered. "This whole mess is jus' been one disaster after another for us down at the farm."
"Why? What happened?" Twilight asked, concern swelling.
"Big Macintosh got himself arrested, that's what happened!" She responded with a frustrated bellow.
The room gasped, transfixed on this new turn of events.
"Them guard ponies came stormin' in to our home, orderin' us out to see if we were hidin' Rainbow." The flustered mare started in. "The lot of us were co-operatin' fine 'cept for ole Granny Smith being her usual stubborn self. One of them guards started gettin' rough with her!"
The blonde mare paced about the room vigorously, her aggravation raising as she recounted.
"Oh, Big Mac didn't like that one bit! Ah tried ta calm everypony down but the guard went and put his hooves on Granny and before ah knew it that fool-of-a-colt brother 'a mine clobbered that armor-clad creep upside the head so hard, he knocked him right out!"
"Oh Applejack." Twilight began in heartfelt sympathy. "If you need to be somewhere else right now I'll completely understand."
"No Twi, it's alright." Applejack asserted gruffly, her eyes half lidded in exasperation. "Ah was at town hall all afternoon tryin' to sort out his bail. But ah can't post nuthin' till they process his charges, won't be 'till tomorrow."
The country mare took a moment to calm down, a few deep breaths as she approached her friend with a sudden resilient determination, a fire in her eyes.
"Look. Fact is, Ah'm here for ya now, Twi. Ah wanna see this come to'n end." Applejack affirmed. "Ah need it to."
Twilight nodded, thanking AJ deeply before turning to address her gathered friends. The team felt painfully incomplete as each of the ponies took a moment to acquiesce the void of Rainbow Dash's absence.
"It means a lot to me that you all agreed to meet up." She started.
"W-wait a minute!" Pinkie Pie interrupted. "Where's Spike? Aren't we gonna wait for him?"
"He's not coming." Twilight said plainly. "I sent him home."
"Sent him home? Why ever would you do that?" Rarity asked, shocked. "Nopony should have to be alone at a time like this."
"It wasn't an easy decision for me, but I don't want him get caught up in this." Twilight responded evenly. "He's still so young."
Twilight paused, taking a moment in her mind to confirm that she'd made the right decision.
" I don't want to scare you guys, but I would never want to lie to you either." She continued. "What I'm planning here might be dangerous, and if anypony would rather not be involved, I'll understand."
"What exactly is this plan?" Applejack followed up, raising a brow.
Twilight took a deep breath.
"As you all probably know, I was working closely with Lieutenant Keen Eye as a volunteer consultant during the search for Scootaloo." Twilight reminded, many of her friends nodding back. "After the first day of the search, he entrusted me with a fair bit of information about his criminal investigation, including a list of suspects."
She hesitated briefly, her anxious audience looking to one another.
"Girls." She said, pulling their attention back in. "You have to understand. Rainbow Dash was at the top of that list from the very beginning."
The group murmured in shock and Fluttershy let out a dull sob, but the gathering quickly snapped back to Twilight's attention as the unicorn cleared her throat forcefully.
"I hate to admit it, but Keen Eye raised some very good points about her." Twilight conceded, "She was the last pony seen with Scootaloo. She has no alibi for the night she went missing. Even her account of events on that night contradicts with a number of other ponies."
Twilight grit her teeth as Rainbow's innocence continued sound more and more unlikely.
"On top of all that," Twilight continued with difficulty. "Both me and Keen Eye noticed her behavior taking a very suspicious turn not long after Scootaloo went missing."
"I noticed it as well." Rarity said, nodding. "But I just dismissed it as her taking Scootaloo's loss harder than the rest of us. They were always so close, those two."
"So you reckon she's guilty?" Applejack cut in, her eyes narrowing under her stetson.
The unicorn shook her head.
"I'm not saying anything yet, Applejack." Twilight returned. "There's too many things that just don't add up. I have this sinking feeling that something's wrong with all of this."
"More than jus' one thing wrong." AJ muttered under her breath.
"How do you mean, Twilight?" Rarity inquired attentively.
"Keen Eye's reasons for suspecting Rainbow are sound. I can't deny that." Twilight admitted. "Now he's telling me there's some kind of damming evidence linking Rainbow Dash to all of this, though I haven't seen it myself."
"Evidence?!" Rarity cried out. "I'll believe it when I see it! It's absolutely impossible. No friend of mine could be such a beast!"
"All I know about the evidence is that it was found in Rainbow's home and that it's got Keen very confident that she's the foalnapper." Twilight spoke, feeling the machinations of anxiety tick like clockwork in her mind. "He wanted me to help him find and arrest her, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. So now I'm left on the sidelines, left while the royal guard storm through our homes, left while our friend is a fugitive, left helpless and pathetic as things spiral more and more out of control!"
The unicorn slipped into a harsher tone, frustration roiling under her breath.
"I've already spent three days in my library feeling like an absolute failure, trying to help with all my might while Scootaloo's life hung in the balance!" Twilight spoke, fully impassioned. "Now Rainbow's life is at stake too and every second that goes by I feel like things are slipping further and further away from me! I can't take it anymore!"
"Ah know you're upset, Twi." Applejack responded quickly and empathetically "But what in Equestria can we do? As much as ah don't want to admit it, even with mah brother in a holdin' cell right now, the guards are just doing their job."
"I have a plan and I need your help with it if I have any hope of succeeding." Twilight swallowed nervously. "But it's not going to be legal."
The room went silent. Nopony was expecting this. Several brutal seconds of disbelief sapped at Twilight faster then she realized as she looked briefly into each of their eyes and began to doubt herself, seeing depth of their shock. Voices trickled into her mind.
What have you done?
What were you thinking?
How could you ask something like this of your friends?
How could they possibly see you the same way ever again?
Call it off!
Say you were just kidding!
How could you be so stupid!
"I'll help you!" Pinkie announced loudly, as the entire room's attention spun in unison surprise.
"W-wait a gosh darn minute, Pinkie Pie! T-twilight!" Applejack barked out, bewildered and adjusting her hat which had fallen across her eyes. "This can't possibly be the only way. Can't you get Princess Celestia to help out somehow?"
"I've already tried that." Twilight said, shaking her head. "Spike and I have sent her three letters today already but I haven't gotten a single response. In fact, I haven't heard from her at all since this whole mess began. I don't know what's going on over in Canterlot but I can't just sit and wait."
"So what are we gonna do instead, Twi? Are we gonna become a pack of hard-boiled vigilante badasses and take the law into our own hooves?" Pinkie erupted, enthusiasm spawning from nowhere like it so often did. "Ohh! That sounds so exciting! Can I be the loose cannon?!"
"It's nothing like that." Twilight said as she let out a brief but surprisingly honest grin towards her mysteriously re-energized pink friend. "I know exactly how to approach this so there's as little risk to you guys as possible. In the worst case scenario, I'll take the fall entirely myself."
"Take the fall?" AJ started in incredulously. "Just what'n tarnation are you playin' at here?!"
"Two things." Twilight stated. "First, I need to find Rainbow Dash before the royal guard does. I need to find out what she knows. She's been hiding something from me for a few days. She's obsessed with the Everfree forest and I need to find out why! Secondly, I need to sneak into the lieutenant's command tent and find some kind of documentation about the evidence they seized from Rainbow's home."
"But Twilight!" Fluttershy finally chimed in, her voice trembling. "If you get caught doing that— We don't want to lose you too! I don't think Ponyville can take any more tragedy!"
"I need to do this, Fluttershy!" Twilight exclaimed, her emotions surging as she began to rant emphatically.
"There's a chance— just a slim chance that if this works I might be able to help Rainbow Dash. I could be wrong, but I would never be able to forgive myself if I didn't do everything in my power to try!" She cried. "How many times has Rainbow been there for us?! I know she wouldn't hesitate for a second to go the same lengths or even further for me or any of you!"
Her friend's remained transfixed and the unicorn's voice continued to fill Fluttershy's cottage.
"I don't know if Scootaloo is going to be okay! I don't know what role Rainbow has to play in all of this. I don't even know if I trust Keen Eye or the royal guards anymore." Twilight continued to monologue. "A filly might be dead. Our friend might be— what? A foalnapper? A pervert? A murderer? All of those? None of those? Something else entirely? I'm sick and tired of not knowing!"
She took several uneven breaths as tears streamed openly down her eyes.
"Even if I can't help her, even if every horrible thing they're saying about her is real, even if I get thrown in jail, maybe I can still discover the truth! At the very least, just maybe I find the answers to some of these questions before they get buried forever. Ponyville deserves that much!"
The blanket of silence remained as Twilight met the eyes of each of her dear friends in turn.
"We deserve that much." She uttered, her voice broken.
The four looked about the room at one another, their weary hearts and minds rallied bittersweet by their beloved friend's cathartic words. She stood before them bearing the inner limits of her spirit, the pinnacle of her mental and emotional resilience, the last in her reservoir of hope, and the final relevance of her remaining willpower. It was only occasionally that Twilight Sparkle wore clothes, though never in all their time knowing her had those four ponies ever seen their friend as naked as they did in that moment.
"I'm sorry." Twilight apologized deeply. She spark of her conviction on the verge of oblivion. "Just— forget I asked."
Fluttershy emerged slowly from the couch, blanket sliding from her as her steps delicately fell upon the floorboards. She trot directly into Twilight, who's eye went wide as the winged mare's hooves fell around her neck and pulling her in. Twilight's tears fell harder as the remaining ponies quickly approached her and followed suit. She was held so close to each of them, and they refused to let go.
"We trust you Twilight." Applejack said, "And don't think for a minute we ain't gonna' help you."
"Thank you." Twilight wept. "Thank you so much."
-----
The sun spoke its farewell as it slipped under the distant skyline, purging the last fingers of daylight as the moon greeted the stars once more. Nestled in the mountains upon which the city of Canterlot was constructed there existed a number of tunnels cut through the rock which the Equestrian railroad used many times daily to reach their peak destination of the capital city. Most of the tunnels are only cut wide enough to accommodate the size of the train. This made the tunnel extremely dangerous to anypony who might decide to pass through it on hoof, and the numerous warning signs posted at each end only emphasized this risk.
Cut into the wall near the midpoint of one of the longer and older tunnels on the southwestern face of the mountain was a narrow passage, hidden in the tunnel's darkness. It certainly wasn't something a passenger on a train would notice as they whipped by at forty-five miles an hour. This claustrophobic path was just barely wide enough for a pony to trot through if they didn't mind getting their sides dirty on the cavern walls, but if they followed the path for a number of meters they would come across a reasonably spacious alcove. Whatever original purpose this side chamber had when it was fashioned by the ponies who dug this tunnel centuries ago has long since been lost to time, and considering after all these years it hasn't been bricked in or filled with cement, it seemed as though it's existence was all but forgotten as well.
It was for all these reasons that two pegasi, a stallion and mare, were awakening in this alcove. Two beds, ramshackle as they were, had been assembled in the dusty and dank cavern, the sheets thoroughly soiled and the mattresses reeking of mildew. Between them resting a single lantern, populated with a swirling array of dozens of fireflies in lieu of an actual flame, which filled the room in a subtle glow little more than a single candle in equivalency. Nothing else within that stark, cold, and heartless stone rang anything familiar to the comforts of civilization.
The stallion emerged from one bed, an orange furred lad looking about his early adulthood. Sitting up quickly, he passed a hoof through his messy red mane and tossed it out of his eyes. His hooves then quickly and urgently sunk into the pockets of the black flightsuit he was wearing as he produced a pocket watch from it and leaned into the light of the fireflies, trying to read it. He returned it to his pocket as he heard the mare in the bed across from him stir.
"The next train goes by in four minutes." He said "Get up and get ready."
A groan emerged from the bed as the aqua green-furred mare turned over and let her light violet mane drape off the side of the bed, she stretched her wings strenuously. Opening her eyes, she grimaced at the stallion.
"How do you always get up so quickly?" She murmured.
"You don't make it in this business being slow." He chuckled teasingly. "Come on now, I'd hate to fire you on your first hunt."
The mare emerged from under the sheets, shambling to her hooves. She wore the same black flightsuit as her companion only fitted to her slightly smaller figure.
"This isn't my first!" She protested.
"It's your first with me, and I do things a little differently." The stallion responded. "For instance, I would prefer for this not to end in bloodshed."
"That doesn't seem very likely." The mare replied, raising her brow doubtfully. "Seems like she has a bit of a reputation. The Sheriff said she was dangerous."
The stallion looked upon the mare in an unimpressed realization.
"Dangerous to me, no. Dangerous to you, maybe. Dangerous to the Masquerade, definitely." He explained dryly. "What do you even know about her reputation anyway?"
"I've heard things, not much. I don't really care to be honest." The mare declared as she dusted herself off. "Just sounds like another stuck up, privileged, Canterlot socialite gone off the deep end to me."
"I wouldn't disagree with any of that." The stallion continued as he lifted the firefly lantern in his teeth. "Sounds like you haven't heard about her little obsession though."
"What's that?" She asked, her head tilted in curiously.
"Fillies." he uttered around the iron ring of the lantern in his mouth.
The mare's eyes widened, struck speechless as the pegasus stallion scrunched in his wings and began to press into the narrow passage toward the railway tunnel.
"Why do I have to be related to ponies like this?" She asked through grit teeth, repulsed. "And you're honestly telling me you want to take her alive, knowing that? Screw that! We need to off this bitch."
"There's a difference between a bounty hunter and an executioner!" The stallion chastised "If you are going to work with me then I expect you to know that. If it's blood lust you fancy then you can just fly back home right now. I wouldn't mind taking your cut anyway."
The mare blew a razz as she followed the stallion into the passage.
"You can't fire me. You need me to get to her." She grinned, presumptuously.
"Correction." The stallion retorted firmly. "I can fire you. I don't need you, and I never did. I just want to find her as quickly as possible."
"Yes of course, eye on the prize." She chimed out in a singsong manner. "Don't want to lose that lovely bounty to somepony else."
"It's not the bounty I'm worried about." The stallion sighed.
Soon the familiar rumbling could be heard, the not-so-distant thunder of steam and steel.
"Stay down, wait for it to pass, then follow me." He commanded as he covered the lantern with his wing. "Once we're outside, you lead the way."
The train roared by. Car after car, it reverberated endlessly off the rock. The force of the wind and noise spewed dust and dirt into a flurry as the two pegasi stood patiently in the shadows. Each train car was a streak of dim light and color, blending into a formless wall only feet from them. The lights and colors danced but a few moments more and they were gone in as much an eruption of sound as they arrived. The stallion waited as he listened to the train continue down the tunnel and followed the bend of the tracks outward into open night air. He trot out on the tracks and spread his wings in full. In a powerful lift off, he accelerated down the tunnel and followed after the locomotive with his hooves extended. The mare responded in kind and soon the tunnel was alive with the heavy beating of wings before the pegasi hit sky under the kiss of Luna's light.
The mare took point, and the pair veered toward the Everfree forest.
-----
Deep in the southern orchard of Sweet Apple Acres existed a particularly large apple tree. For many years, this old tree had been the host of a lovingly constructed clubhouse which up until recently had been the headquarters of Ponyville's rambunctious trio, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Right now however, it was were the restless Apple Bloom had come to feel something close to the world she remembered.
Long after her bedtime, she snuck out of the farmhouse. With Applejack out late and Big Macintosh behind bars, the filly only had ole Granny Smith to watch over her. Apple Bloom had gotten very good at sneaking outside when she wasn't suppose to be, and with only Granny at home, it wasn't even hard.
The filly trot around the interior of the messy clubhouse, listless and insomniac, gazing sadly at all of the unfinished projects she had started alongside her friends. Every memory, every plan, every vision of the future, every hope and dream she drempt had Scootaloo in it along side her. The world felt broken. Something the filly never realized she had inside her was suddenly gone, and she knew she would never get it back. She looked up upon the colorful banner that she and her friends had made together as it stretched over the back wall of the clubhouse and closed her eyes. She ruminated on happier times until the chilling night air convinced her it was time to return home and try once more to go to sleep.
She turned to leave and looked upon Scootaloo standing anticlimactically in the clubhouse doorway.
Apple Bloom's eyes flared open in disbelief as she stared, stunned beyond accommodation, as her very real and very much so actually-standing-right-there missing friend looked back at her with a nervous expression.
"Uhh— Hi." Scootaloo said.
Apple Bloom felt the overwhelming tears of pure joy elating from within as she cried out her name and galloped headlong into the young peach-toned pegasus filly, pouncing on her and holding her close, barraging her with questions between taking excited gasps for air.
"What happened to you!? Are ya ok!? Where in Equestria did ya go!?" The filly hollered out in rapid succession, tearing up. "We gotta tell everypony you're back! Ah was so scared you were gone forever!"
Scootaloo grit her teeth and swallowed hard as her friend got close to her.
"SHHHH!" Scootaloo quickly and harshly hissed as Apple Bloom got louder and louder. "Q-quiet!"
Apple Bloom looked confused, then suddenly concerned.
"W-what is it?" She uttered softly.
"You gotta follow me, quick!" Scootaloo breathed out drastically, her tone subdued.
"But we gotta tell everypony—" Apple Bloom started, bewildered.
"N-no!" Scootaloo stammered out quickly. Her eyes darted around frantically.
"What's wrong!?" Apple Bloom asked, starting to get upset.
"Just— we can do that after, okay?" Scootaloo pressed, her tone getting progressively more uneasy as she turned away and beckoned the young earth pony to her as she started down the clubhouse ramp. "Please, you gotta follow me. It's important!"
"Where are we going?" The perplexed filly asked as she trot alongside the pegasus.
"Just come on! It's not far." Scootaloo said as she vigilantly looked about her surroundings. She trot out into the apple trees, nothing more than the moon guiding the way.
"Why do we have to be quiet?" Apple Bloom asked, pacing next to Scootaloo.
The pegasus filly quickly and nervously took another glance around at the surrounding area, confirming they were alone.
"I escaped." She said, grimly.
Apple Bloom's eyes widened.
"The pony who took me, I escaped from her." Scootaloo said, a paranoid tone wavering in her voice. "Now she's after me."
The young earth pony was thunderstruck, a very real terror surging in her veins.
"We gotta tell the guards!" she repeated pleadingly, trying to keep her voice down.
"No Apple Bloom, you don't understand! That's not going to help!" Scootaloo said, her pace quickening. "She isn't a normal pony."
"W-what do you mean?" Apple Bloom asked, a strange dread filling her.
"Look, I know how to stop her, stop her from ever hurting anypony ever again, but I need your help." Scootaloo said, her voice suddenly filled with determination. "We're gonna be heroes, Apple Bloom. Don't you think that would make an awesome cutie mark?"
"H-heroes?" Apple Bloom repeated. She didn't know what to say. It all seemed too crazy but she was too afraid that Scootaloo was going to disappear on her again if she didn't keep pace with her.
Scootaloo lead her deeper into the south orchard. The Apple family's substantial property stretched on and on in rows of neatly organized trees but they hit the property line before long, marked by an old wooden fence. The small ponies slipped under it without issue and continued south until they stood before the twisted treeline of the Everfree forest.
Apple Bloom stopped, looking into the notorious forest as hesitation began to spiral in her thoughts.
"Come on! It's not far in." Scootaloo turned around and said encouragingly. "I can see it from here!"
"See what?" Apple Bloom asked continued on forward, confusion and curiosity overriding all else.
She crossed the threshold into the wood and stood next to Scootaloo as she pointed her hoof forward. Just barely visible in the dim moonlight that passed through the dense vegetation was a body of water, not more than a bathtub sized pond set among the trees about twenty yards ahead. Soon the two fillies were upon it, with Scootaloo standing near to the edge.
"Here!" she beckoned once more as Apple Bloom approached. "Take a look into the water here!"
"The water?" Apple Bloom asked sounding completely dumbfounded, and even a bit unimpressed.
She lowered her head and stared into the tenebrus pool. The murky water cast no reflection, and in such poor light the little earth pony couldn't see anything within it.
It was a void.
It was nothingness.
Oblivion.
Apple Bloom squinted and tried one more time to make out what was so important about this, but she felt frustration kick in.
"What in all of Equestria does some muddy water have to—"
The sickening thud of stone striking skull did not carry far into the trees, even the sound of Apple Bloom's limp body splashing into the shallow water seemed all but silent.
Scootaloo stood next to the pool with a blood-caked rock in her hooves, breathing in intense gasps. The heavy stone slipped from her grasp and splashed into the pond, sinking to the bottom of its darkness. She kicked up water as she stumbled back and fell upon the roots of the tree behind her and gazed at Apple Bloom's motionless body, her mane matte with gore and her iconic red ribbon crushed at the area of impact. Scootaloo watched, transfixed as the flow of blood from the grievous head wound begin to slip down her fur and into the water.
Hoof falls echoed in the darkness as a pony approached, she spoke to Scootaloo from beyond where the moonlight could reach, her voice soothing and motherly.
"Very impressive, darling." The dulcet voice spoke.
"T-thanks." Scootaloo said, breathing slower and sounding relieved as she got herself up.
A light blue magical aura engulfed Apple Bloom's bloody, wet body and hoisted it from the water. It levitated slowly into the darkness as the voice called out one more time.
"Come on now, Scootaloo. Let's go home. " The shadowy form encouraged. "It's time for your feeding."
Scootaloo followed the levitating form of her closest friend and they both vanished into the trees. Following behind them was a single mare, a light blue magical aura emanating for her horn.
-----
Rainbow Dash lay collapsed on the forest floor, gritting her teeth and covering her ears in vain as the torture went on and on.
Scootaloo's screams of horror tore through her mind, and they weren't stopping.