The tone of the gathering within Fluttershy's cottage had changed dramatically. The time for tears was over and everypony had agreed that as drastic as the plan was, it had to be done. Of course this was not a decision made without a degree of hesitance. Fluttershy in particular, as supportive of her friends as she wished to be, looked as though she would collapse into a puddle whenever talk turned to how this could potentially land any number of them in trouble with the guards. However, even with as little time to develop her plan as she had, Twilight had crafted one that minimized the chances of that happening, at least, for her friends.

"Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack, I need you three in the Everfree forest looking for Rainbow Dash." Twilight proclaimed.

"T-the forest— right." Fluttershy stammered. To nopony's great surprise, she failed to sound confident.

"We need you, Fluttershy." Twilight said supportingly. "The animals in there should be able to help you hone in on Rainbow."

"But Twilight, a lot of the creatures in there don't listen to me." Fluttershy said, anxious eyes falling to the floor. "I've tried before, some of them are just too wild. I don't think I'll be able to get them to co-operate."

"You're going to need to try your absolute hardest." Twilight said firmly as Fluttershy nodded weakly and attempted to hide behind her own mane. "Use the stare on them if you have to. Do anything you can to get those creatures to help out, they are our best chance."

"What about me?" Pinkie asked in bright contrast. "Need me to bring the party cannon? I'm a crack shot!"

"You're gonna be there in case your Pinkie-sense can in anyway help out. Maybe you'll pick up on something the others miss." Twilight said. "Just promise me you'll stay focused on the task at hand."

Pinkie bolted instantly into a mock up military stance, a stone cold look of discipline on her face as she stomped a hoof at attention and offered Twilight an energetic salute.

"AJ, I need you there for a few reasons." The leading unicorn said as she turned to Applejack. "Firstly, the wildlife. I need you to protect everypony. Hopefully with Fluttershy around that won't be necessary, but if you're there I know you'll all be okay if something goes wrong."

"I need you to get her to tell us the truth." Twilight explained. "I don't know what she's going to say or if she's even going to be cooperative but I need you to do anything necessary to get her to tell us what she's been hiding. It will be key in unraveling this mystery."

Twilight was asking a lot of difficult things of her friends, but this was without doubt the hardest.

"Anything." Twilight emphasized. "This is too important, if you have to get rough with her... I trust you."

"I hear ya." The farm mare confirmed, her voice wavering in equal parts disbelief and trepidation of what may come of all this.

"The same goes for you two as well." Twilight said as she looked upon Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in turn. "I know it won't be easy to but it's the only way we're going to get to the bottom of this."

"I'm sure there are going to be guards combing the forest for Rainbow Dash. Try your best to avoid them." Twilight warned. "If you do encounter any, they are going to be suspicious of why you're out there in the middle of the night. You're all going to need to come up with a believable excuse to shake them off."

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Pinkie Pie interjected loudly. "I could pretend to be sick and we could say Fluttershy and Applejack are taking me to Zecora's for a remedy."

"Oh for Celestia's sake, Zecora!" Twilight blurted out, her voice sparking in recollection. "I can't believe I forgot about her! Check with her while you're in the forest. She might be able to help."

"Ugh— I hope so." The earth pony groaned. "Because I don't think I'm going to need to pretend after all. I think something was off with those danishes."

This was normally when Twilight would have reminded Pinkie that she'd eaten eleven of them, but she had more pressing matters on her mind then a friend's indigestion.

"Either way, if you find Rainbow Dash, you have to make sure the guards don't discover you while you're with her." Twilight informed the trio. "That's guaranteed trouble, for her and for you. You need to be quick. Get her to talk as soon as you can and then, well..."

"You'll have to decide on what to do with her afterward." She said. "Maybe let her go."

"We can't possibly shelter her, Fluttershy. She's a fugitive." Applejack sighed painfully. "She wouldn't be able to set hoof anywhere in Ponyville righ'now without a whole platoon of them guards comin' down on top of'er."

"Precisely." Twilight said, nodding. "We can find out what she knows but we can't investigate this further if we get arrested for aiding her. Besides—"

"We still don't know for sure if Rainbow is innocent." Rarity finished grimly, clearly not a statement she wished to make.

There was a harrowing silence as everypony in the cottage attempted to stomach this unbearable fact.

"And what if she goes and confesses something t'me?" Applejack finally worked up the will to ask. "What if she really is responsible for all this?"

"Honestly, I don't know." Twilight admitted readily. "Just— try to be her friend."

"Yes. You and I are headed to the guard tents." Twilight explained. "I need you to create a distraction that will pull as many guards away from there for as long as possible. Then I sneak into Keen Eye's command tent and look for information about the evidence they seized from Rainbow's home."

"Not only that, I know exactly where in his tent I'm going to find it." Twilight stated, some amount of pride in her voice. "I sat in with Keen Eye a few times at meetings he held with his staff over the last few days. He kept all of his important papers in a secure filing box by his desk. I know for a fact that if evidence related to the case was found and transferred, that's where I'll find a document of some kind telling me what it is and where it went."

"I see." Rarity said, as her lips pursed and eye's narrowed. "How much time do you think you'll need?"

"I'll get you five, darling." Rarity asserted, her brow furrowed as the gears in her head turned. "More if I can make a stop at my boutique beforehand."

"Absolutely." Twilight nodded as she looked over her team. "Do what you need to do and meet me at town square in twenty minutes. The rest of you, quickly make your preparations and then head into the forest as soon as possible."

The group of ponies nodded, each face a different image of anticipation: Fluttershy a classic shade of pure anxiety, Rarity determined and confidant, Pinkie Pie coiled like a spring, and Applejack silently asking how it has all come to this.

Twilight peered out the window into the mire of tangled trees that lay beyond Fluttershy's property line. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she stood before the precipice, ready as she would ever be to take the plunge into the darkness before her.

The visionscape was on fire, alight in an inferno of chaotic energies, emotions, and forces echoing off of every fiber of reality and shattering upon Rainbow Dash's scenes like artillery shells. The cascade of torment hammered her eyes even as she clenched them shut, while the screams and sobbing battered her ears. Seconds stretched into minutes and each minute went on for an eternity.

Eventually the wailing faded, decaying into a pure silence so terrible and empty that is was nearly as painful as what came before. Rainbow realized, as her vocal chords rippled in pain and tears streamed down her face, that she must have joined in the screaming at some point.

She couldn't think. She couldn't breath. She couldn't bring herself to open her eyes, let alone pick herself up. She could only tremble in the wake of whatever assault had brought Scootaloo's tortured cries to her mind.

"Please..." Rainbow wept to nopony, each word heavy under her woeful heart. "Please. No more. Scootaloo. I can't take this anymore."

The mare exhaled slowly and painfully, pulling her hooves into her chest and shaking in defeat, gritting her teeth and feeling the warmth begin to melt away from her. The world went quiet as she drifted into the abyss. Rainbow saw the lost filly behind her eyelids, her young face awash with reverence as she looked upon her.

There's Rainbow Dash, she must think. There's the mare that promised to protect me. There's the mare that took me under her wing. There she is, crying, alone in the woods. There she is, twisting in the dirt. There she is, taking a nap while I'm in danger.

She's just a ghostly image now, she swirled like smoke in the wind and bled away, leaving Rainbow's mind with only the fiery agony of her peril. No body to protect, no heart to comfort, no loving admiration to ease her.

Rainbow's mind releasing momentarily into the fickle respite of unconsciousness.

Rainbow awoke sometime later, opening her eyes as the sound of Scootaloo's voice rang out again in her mind, heavy this time with sorrow and resignation. She gazed, bewildered, into the morphing visionscape. The twisted barrage of information displayed something different now. Passing through the trees and the air, waves of yet another energy the pegasus could not qualify appeared before her, carrying Scootaloo's words with them.

The mare was right all along. As convinced as she was before, now the evidence was right in front of her. She knew it then when as she gazed on those shimmering waves as they washed over her and passed the young filly's words to her mind.

These disembodied calls were coming from the outside, and if she understood what the vision was telling her correctly, from somewhere nearby.

Rainbow gasped as she witnessed the vivid, writhing world of information begin to slip back into the darkness of the world she knew. Her heart throbbed in her chest as she flapped her wings and took off, racing as fast as she could, only a few feet off the ground, weaving through the trees.

Frantically she followed the faded traces of Scootaloo's voice through the dissipating visionscape. She didn't have much time, her saddlebag flapping against her side as the air whipped through it, she prayed silently with each stroke of her wings for the vision to guide her just a little bit farther.

The vision distorted one last time before finally vanishing, leaving Rainbow Dash both figuratively and literally in the dark. Not a single strand of Luna's light could reach her now; she couldn't see her hoof in front of her face. The blindness forced her to ground and her intense momentum carried her a few paces before she came to a complete stop. She braced herself against what felt like a tree and stood there a moment, breathless.

She understood completely what had happened but couldn't believe how impossibly bad the timing was. Her one and only asset in this increasingly dire struggle had just expired.

"No. No. No! NO!" She hollered, gritting her teeth and growling in savage frustration as she slammed her hooves into the thick tree trunk again and again and again, flecks of bark scattering from her strikes.

She was so close. But there in the blackness she somehow felt farther from her goal than ever before, lost and isolated in a desolate fog of unending nothingness, her future began to look as dark as her present.

Dash went dead silent, hoping that whoever was nearby hadn't heard her earlier cries of anguish. She held her breath and honed in. She could barely make out the words over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears, but as she crept closer and closer to where the voices were coming from, she could make out three ponies talking, no, arguing. There were sounds of two mares and a stallion, and they were coming from a clearing up ahead.

The scene took place in a break in the canopy and was barely illuminated, giving Rainbow more than adequate conditions to sneak closer. She settled in around the perimeter of the clearing, concealed, and began to eavesdrop.

The clearing was small, but the open patch in the trees exposed the three ponies below in a dull, pale light. Two pegasi, an orange-furred stallion and aqua-green mare dressed in black flightsuits, stood opposite a single unicorn. The confronted unicorn mare was a sea foam green, similar in color to the the pegasus across from her, but a darker shade. A long and tangled mane of blue and black hair partially obscured her eyes, and a willow tree wreathed in a blue flame marked her flank.

The tension and anger in the unicorn's stance was obvious, that in her voice even more so.

"Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to believe something like that!?" The unicorn barked at the pegasi pair.

"And do you honestly think I would waste my time extending you this offer if my intention was to kill you?" The pegasus stallion responded, much calmer in contrast. "Come on now Willow, you know me. I'm not the type to beat around the bush. How about you stop thinking about yourself for once and consider the well being of your childer."

"How dare you!" Willow snapped back at him. "I sacrificed everything for them! I gave them a mother! I taught them how to survive!"

"Then why have so many of them found Final Death?" The stallion fired back evenly.

"Their blood is on Rosary's hooves!" Willow growled furiously, taking a step forward.

"Bullshit!" The pegasus mare interjected loudly from a length behind the stallion, also taking an aggressive stance. "Your little hobby is putting every single one of us at risk. You forced her to take action! It's your own damn fault so many of your precious pets are gone!"

"Calm yourself, Wind." The stallion uttered, annoyed, placing a hoof on her shoulder as she leaned in.

"No! Screw this, Fighter!" Wind said, tossing her partner's hoof aside, still glaring at Willow. "This bitch is delusional."

"Oh! And you're calling me delusional? And who under all of Luna's light are you? Fighter Flight's personal bloodhound?" Willow spat, sneering at Wind as her partner made further attempts to hold her back. "I can see why a Savage like him would take up this miserable line of work, but you? I can't believe my own clanmate is so eager to sell out her kin for a pat on the head. Pathetic!"

The violet-maned pegasus grunted in fury before quickly turning her head to her shoulder. With a rush of metal scratching metal she producing a long curved knife from a sheath hidden beneath her wing and grasped it at the ready in her mouth, teeth clenched around it.

"Put it away!" He commanded fiercely between grit teeth. "I swear to Luna, Wind Shear. I can deal with both her and you if you force me too."

Wind remained motionless, her eyes still fixed on the unicorn across from her. Her teeth grinding on the hilt of her blade.

"Now!" Fighter barked, his lips curling into a snarl, narrowing his eyes toward his partner.

The mare scowled and reluctantly resheathed her weapon, looking away from the both of them to hide her submission.

"This is your last chance, Willow Wisp!" Fighter called out as he lowered his wing and returned his calculating gaze upon the unicorn. "Seems I'm here with somepony that doesn't like you all that much and I really can't say I blame her. I'm not gonna hold her back forever."

"But I know you're not that stupid." Fighter chimed in, nearly smiling. "You know we'd catch you. Just like you know that if you try to fight, you'll lose."

"But—" Fighter continued, trying to sound reasonable. "If you come quietly I can put in a good word with the Sheriff, maybe even get the Prince to shave a couple decades off your sentence."

"So be it!" The unicorn snarled. In a flash, her horn glowed a sapphire blue and she took aim at the stallion, channeling all her rage into one spell.

"What the fuck kind of mother are you?!" Wind Shear yelled ferociously as she stepped in front of her comrade, directly into Willow's aim.

Eventually the unicorn stayed her spell and her eyes fell upon Wind Shear. Willow inhaled to speak but the pegasus beat her to it.

"You might actually be able come away from this alive, but you'd choose Final Death? Why?!" Wind fired with brutal indignation, her breathing heavy and erratic. "Pride? Principles? Because you think you're just too good to play by the rules!?"

"Oh yeah!" Wind bellowed sarcastically. "Big hero here, throwing her life away and abandoning the childer she claims to love so much! That sure is a lot easier than admitting to yourself that you fucked up! You greedy piece of shit!"

Willow Wisp could not speak. Rage collided with a very real guilt in her throat leaving only ruin through which no words could pass.

"Arrangements can be made, Willow." Fighter said as he paced alongside Wind with an uncanny sincerity in his words. "While you serve your time, I can make sure there is somepony to look after your childer."

Willow stared back silently, still visibly stunned, her eye's unmoving and her expression of malice sobering hesitantly.

"No! No you can't!" She barked in frustration. "R-rosary does what she pleases! Always has, always will! If she wants my childer dead, they die! Am I so wrong for wanting to get away from her?"

"She doesn't want them dead!" Fighter groaned out, agitated. "She wants you to follow the proper procedure and she want's them kept under control, something you haven't proven yourself capable of doing!"

"I'm doing just fine keeping my childe out of trouble out here." Willow retorted smugly, thought it was clear her resistance was failing.

"But don't you think they deserve something better than an existence on the run?" Fighter asked. "Living out here in what? Trees? Caves?"

"Some provider you are." Wind muttered softly, though it seemed Willow didn't hear her.

"Even if you did somehow escape us, and you won't, how long do you honestly think you can keep this up?" Fighter continued harshly. "How long before another hunter finds you, one that's not as understanding as me?"

"And she means the world to you, doesn't she?" Fighter asked, taking a step forward. "Like the others?"

There was a longer silence as Willow swayed gently as a light breeze passed across the clearing, bathing the sounds of the forest in a wash of rustling leaves.

"She is my world." she uttered, with dead eyes gazing wistfully up into the naked night sky.

"Then do the right thing for her." The fiery-maned stallion encouraged, his voice compassionate. "Don't just stand there and tell me you'd sacrifice everything for her. Show me you'd actually do it."

Willow chewed the bottom of her lip as her look of rage continued to cave further and further into a sorrowful resignation. She sighed and looked backward into the trees behind her.

"Scootaloo? You can come on out now, darling." She called out in a soothing tone. "We're going to be going with these ponies to Canterlot."

The peach-toned pegasus filly trot slowly out of the shadows, purple hair tangled with twigs and leaves from her hiding spot in the bushes. She trot up next to Willow Wisp and brushed against her hind leg, an uncanny sadness etched upon her face.

"See?" He said quietly to her, teasingly. "It doesn't always need to be a bloodbath."

Willow looked down at Scootaloo, her harsh eyes suddenly awash with tenderness. Scootaloo returned her gaze, tears forming in her young eyes.

"It will be ok." Willow cooed and she draped a hoof over the little one. "Momma's still here."

It happened so quickly, not a pony of those gathered had any hope of seeing it coming. A flash of color flew in at velocities unheard of. It came from just beyond the woods behind Willow and Scootaloo. In the blink of an eye and a crash of hoof on bone a tremendous flying high speed kick landed upon the back of Willow's skull. The world spun as she was launched towards the flightsuit-clad pegasi who both recoiled in shock and looked up at the attacker, eyes widening.

Rainbow Dash sprung back as the strike hit. With a flourish of her legs, she righted herself and landed next to Scootaloo, hooves already extending toward her as she reached out in preparation to grab up the young filly and fly to safety.

Dash didn't have much time to think of a plan, but in her mind, this one was perfect.

She most certainly had the element of surprise, and Rainbow most certainly was fast enough to pull it off. Given the circumstances and the improvised nature of it all, it really did seem like the perfect plan.

Just as Rainbow's hooves began to close around the little filly she heard a screech of fear and winched in pain as suddenly two powerful strikes landed across each one of her outstretched hooves. Hot with pain, she felt them blown back by a powerful force. She stumbled, thrown completely off-balance. She flapped her wings reflexively to stop herself from falling over completely.

Scootaloo had thrown her off. Not only that, but she was backpedaling away from her with a look of unfettered terror on her face. Her mouth agape and her wings trembling.

"S-scootaloo, it's me! Come on!" Rainbow hollered as she advanced toward her, dumbfounded and tense as precious seconds ticked away.

Dash stared wide-eyed at the frightened, retreating filly as her own confused fear began to mount violently inside her.

"W-willow..." The little filly stammered in paralyzing panic, before breaking out a ear-splitting scream. "Willow! It's her! Help! Help Me!"

"It's Rainbow Dash! Oh Sweet Celestia, it's her!" Rarity screeched dramatically, her voice penetrating harshly through the nighttime silence of Ponyville's town square. "Guards! Guards! Come quickly! She's getting away!"

Tent fabric flapped and armor rattled as nearly a dozen guardstallions mobilized from in and around the tent village, including more than a few who were off-duty. A bleary-eyed staff sergeant who clearly had just been torn away from a peaceful slumber quickly rallied the impromptu squad and they galloped toward the opposite side of town hall where Rarity has set up her little charade.

Twilight stood in shadow, a dark navy blue raincoat covering her fur. Her tail was tucked under the garment completely, and a large hood was pulled high over her head. It wasn't exactly the best choice for infiltration as the synthetic material rustled slightly as she moved but it was the best the mare had to conceal her identity if she was seen. At least she would stay dry if the nightshift weather team decided to drop a surprise downpour on her.

The alleyway on the southern end of the square served as both an effective hiding spot and good vantage point to observe the guards leaving their posts as Rarity initiated her distraction. It seemed that all of the guards who were going to leave the tent village had now done so. It was now or never.

Along with the moonlight, the unicorn had a number of lit street lamps to contend with which illuminated the space between the alley and Keen Eye's tent. The modest flame dancing within the frosted glass enclosure made the most direct route to her objective a bit too well lit for the unicorn's liking, but one simple cantrip of a spell later saw the lamp extinguished, leaving the scene much darker.

Taking a deep breath and making one last scan of the town square, Twilight Sparkle cantered toward Keen Eye's tent. It was a moderate pace, she want to keep her time unconcealed as brief as possible but didn't not want the rough material of her not-exactly-stealthy-but-better-than-nothing raincoat to make too much noise from moving quickly. Thankfully, Rarity's distraction had indeed gotten the alarm of what appeared to be all of the guards at the tent village, with all of the remainder presumable already off searching the Everfree forest for Rainbow Dash. Also thankfully, Twilight needed neither much time or even much effort to break, or in this case zip, into a tent.

The command tent was the same size as the other barracks tents, however instead of housing bedding accommodations for eight guards, it held that for just one, the commanding officer. The remaining space inside was used as a meeting and briefing space, with long fold-out tables and some lightweight collapsible chairs. At that time of night the inside of the tent was lit only by what light could pass through the fabric from the outside, which wasn't much. Twilight paced slowly and silently over to the single cot, Lieutenant Keen Eye's. It was empty, as she predicted. He was no doubt still leading the search effort for Rainbow Dash in the Everfree forest.

With the lieutenant's absence firmly established, Twilight focused her magic into a light from her horn. She made sure to keep the beam focused and pinned only on to the ground. Any light source that touched the walls of the tent would be clearly visible from outside and the unicorn would hate to botch things up after what seemed to be a flawless entry.

The magical light glided over the ground, passing over innocuous furniture in a brief search that turned up the good lieutenant's secure filing box from under his cot. Twilight reached in and pulled the bulky thing out, her hooves visibly shaking as her ears listening carefully for any signs of trouble. The box was heavy duty, made of super thick material, the kind of thing that could be pulled out of the wreckage of a house fire unscathed. The lock on it was equally serious, but Twilight wasn't concerned.

When one is as obsessed with learning as Twilight is, you don't really care about the topic. The unicorn's mind drifted back to her time reading 1001 Locks: A Complete Guide to Unlocking Your Inner Locksmith, she hadn't had much opportunity to put to practice any of the skills taught in that particular book, but she was able to handily identify the lock she was dealing with as a standard deadbolt with four separate bolts all controlled by a single cylinder. It would certainly be a difficult task to brute force one's way past such a device, but Twilight had a much more subtle approach.

The mare extinguished the light from her horn and lowered the spiral appendage down, resting it against the keyhole as she closed her eyes and begin to concentrate. The feeler spell required a great deal of focus to be used with such minute dexterity. A thin strand of magical thread, barely visible to the naked eye, sprouted from the tip of Twilight's horn and wormed ever so slightly into the keyhole of the strongbox. Upon entering the slot, the thread slowly expanded to fill it entirely. Twilight could then feel the resistance of the lock's many tumblers as if they were pressed against her own body, and with each delicate flexion of her will she manipulated the magical feeler thread and felt the shuttering of invisible mechanisms against her. Nearly a minute passed, but in time the unicorn felt each tumbler fall into place, and the lock gave way with a satisfying clack.

The box opened and Twilight instantly reignited her horn, shining it into the box as she flipped frantically through the documents therein. Profiles, staff reports, suspect information with attached photos, victim information with attached photos, transcripts from interrogations, plans for search patterns Twilight herself remembered drawing up. The mare grit her teeth as perspiration slid into her eyes, she had seen this already. All of it. There was nothing new. There was absolutely nothing inside concerning any evidence found anywhere.

Twilight pulled the documents out of the strong box and placed them hastily aside, levitating the entire box up into the air and turning it about as she felt around inside for anything else. Her eye's widened as her hoof passed over a seam, awkwardly set against the rear panel of the box.

With a careful prying motion she felt the entire panel loosen as a single folded parchment slid from the thin compartment exposed therein.

Holding her breath, Twilight placed the box down slowly and levitated the parchment up before her eyes, the focused beam from her horn trained tightly to it.

Twilight unfolded the mysterious paper to find a few paragraphs of plain machine-typed text.

-------

Your services are required in Ponyville immediately. We realize this is short notice but you're the only operative in range with the resources to deal with this particular situation. You will have the full co-operation of the royal guard and enclosed are all of the necessary identifications and background files you will need to pass as one of them.

This matter is made more sensitive due to the presence of a number of significant ponies who reside in Ponyville, I trust you're aware of who they are. Please be aware of them and remember to do your homework before you make your decision on how to proceed. Involving them might complicate things but as always, you have full autonomy to proceed however you deem necessary. One unicorn in particular has a very curious mind. If anypony there is going to cause issues, it's her. Be wary.

Our contact in Ponyville is engaged in operations elsewhere but has offered you the use of their workshop and equipment. Instructions were given to mark the entrance with the insignia so you'll know where it is. Once phase one is complete, you'll find everything you need there to begin phase two.

Our drop off point has changed. Deposit all resulting materials at the Bank of Equestria in Canterlot, safety deposit box number 1108. Make sure you're speaking with a pony named Pin Code, he will provide the key. The phrase is, "Spitfire was flying at her best." Afterward you are to return to Ponyville and await further instruction. Canterlot operatives will arrive to pick up the materials soon after to prepare for phase three.

You will be informed if your task changes.

-------

The message wasn't signed, but was emblazoned with a symbol of a sundial positioned in front of a sun, eclipsing it.

Twilight gasped for air as she read and re-read the document, cold sweat dripping from her. Her mind reeled at the implications of each word, dread clutching her as her eyes passed over every letter.

There were no answers, only questions. No illumination. Her voice rang in her mind, outraged and terrified, crying out for an explanation that she knew she wasn't going to get by reading the document a third time, but she couldn't stop herself.

Twilight quickly dropped the parchment on the ground, aimed her horn upon it, and focused her magic. The photographic memory spell had come in handy plenty of times in the past, and now she needed it more than ever.

A shimmering violet beam of light struck the paper and began to dance across it's surface as it committed every iota of what it passed over to memory. It only took a few seconds to pass the spell over the entirety of the small page. This was good because as she carefully refolded the paper and slide it back into the hidden compartment of the filing box, the sound of rattling armor began to creep into her ears.

"Hard to say." Another stallion responded, the pair getting closer and closer. "Keen seems to think this Dash mare is loose in the head. Maybe she's crazy enough to come back into town."

Twilight anxiously placed the other files back into the case, gritting her teeth as the guards trot closer.

"Honestly I think Keen's the crazy one." The first guard spoke again. "What kind of commanding officer just takes off to Canterlot right after issuing an all-points bulletin?"

"I'm sure he just had to make an official visit to the higher ups." The other replied. "Besides, he made it back here in good time, at least."

Twilight carefully closed the filing case and slide it back under the cot. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the silhouettes of two armored ponies passing across the fabric of the tent's walls.

"Ok fine." The first guard admitted. "But what about all the silent alarm spells he peppered the command tent with? Doesn't that seem a bit paranoid?"

They were faint. Laid upon the door, the floor, the walls, designed to be subtle by nature, expertly cast so that only the full and undivided attention of an eye deeply trained in magic could ever hope to detect them. Twilight's eyes were indeed deeply trained, but her attention had been far from undivided.

She gasped for air, trying desperately to keep her panicked breaths quiet. She crept toward the entrance, but the guards had rounded the corner in front of the tent. They would no doubt see her if she left though there. Twilight pushed her hooves against her mouth. Her eyes clouding up as she tried with all her might to stifle the sound of her presence.

Then came the galloping, closer and closer, frantic hoof falls thundering through the night.

With the discipline that could only come from a life devoted to magical prowess, she pushed away the terror in her mind and instead envisioned the safety of her home.

"Lieutenant? Is that you?" One of the guards outside said as his silhouette turned. "Lieutenant!? What's wrong!?"

"Out of my way!" Keen Eye's voice hollered in ferocity as the two guard's parted to allow the sprinting officer past.

Twilight knew the resulting flash would give her away, but teleportation was the only way out now. The tent burst into bright white and violet light as the mare dematerialized, leaving not but the crackling stench of ozone where she once stood.

Keen Eye ripped open the flap of the command tent, his eyes alive and intense. He flooded the interior with light from his horn.

The two guards galloped up behind their commanding officer and peered in alongside him, ready for action.

Rainbow's attention bolted to the aqua-green pegasus mare swooping in, positioning herself between her and Scootaloo, her wings fully extended to block Rainbow's sight of the fearful filly.

"I'm taking Scootaloo back to Ponyville and you're not going to stop me!" Rainbow yelled as she leapt into the air, wings propelling her skyward as she attempted to fly around the blocking pegasus.

Scootaloo stumbled and turned, crying out desperately as she raced toward the downed unicorn and the stallion kneeling next to her.

"Hey!" Wind Shear cried out as she jumped back, flapping once to give her an extra boost in midair. She repositioned herself, again blocking the approaching Rainbow Dash from getting to Scootaloo.

"You're in way over you head, punk!" She hissed at Rainbow. I'm gonna give you one chance to turn around and fuck off."

Rainbow snarled and beat her wings hard as she gained altitude before grunting savagely. She divebombed Wind Shear at full speed, pulling her legs up and twisting into a spin, launching a kick with her hind leg swinging for the side of Wind's head. Wind raised her hoof to her mane and blocked the attack, taking the full force of Rainbow's leg into her own limb before swinging her other foreleg down and catching the attacking pegasi's hindquarter, grunted loudly as she threw her down.

With a painful thud, Rainbow struck ground backfirst. Her eyes focused just in time to see Wind's front hooves trampling down toward her. Rainbow tucked in her wings and rolled to the side, evading the stomp as her saddle bags slid off and on to the ground. Now on her stomach and facing away from Wind, she swiftly hopped to a crouched position and kicked out a hind leg. It planted satisfyingly into Wind's chest and she staggered backward a step as Rainbow flexed her core fiercely to quickly pull herself around and follow up with a devastating haymaker strike to the head. Wind Shear's vision blurred as she was smashed just inches from her left eye, her head snapping back from the blow.

"Willow!? Can you hear me?" Fighter called out, kneeling beside the fallen unicorn away from the brawl, looking worrisomely upon her semi-coherent form.

"Willow! Willow!" Scootaloo sobbed tearfully as she dove in next to the downed mare, shaking her with both hooves. "You gotta get up!"

Splayed out on her stomach, the blue and black mane of Willow now had a noticeable patch of red, the pinpoint force of Rainbow's kick more than sufficient to leave a horseshoe shaped gash embedded into her flesh. A groan emerged from the disoriented unicorn and she rolled over to gaze upon the little filly.

Then her bleary eyes began to focus on the scene playing out behind the filly. That foul-mouthed pegasus from before was fighting with—

"R-rainbow Dash..." She uttered under her breath, venom coating her throat as she spoke her name.

Willow's eyes locked up on her, swirling with fire, with hate, with death. They tracing over every facet of that cyan-furred pegasus with the multi-coloured mane with baleful malice. She inhaled sharply as a fury older than the sun and moon exploded inside her like the apocalypse itself.

Convulsing on the ground, Willow screamed hysterically in wordless madness, her ear-splitting cry propelling Fighter and Scootaloo both back, staggering in shock. The terrified filly covering her ears as the unicorn's screech turned to a ruthless growl. Willow grit her teeth and dragged her hooves violently through the dirt and grass as she attempted to stand. Each growl surged lower and lower, falling into bestial sounds no normal pony could ever make.

Fighter's face twisted briefly into a very real panic as he recognized the signs of a condition he knew all too well take hold of the unicorn's mind.

With a flap of his wings, Fighter Flight positioned himself over Willow, quickly ramming his hooves into her shoulders, forcefully holding her down.

"Everything's going to be ok!" He said clearly and intensely. "My partner is taking care of it!"

Willow responded with a long and protracted roar that shattered the night air. Scootaloo yelped, terror-struck, and stumbled back from Willow. The filly watching horror as she thrashed against Fighter, struggling to stand.

"W-what's happening!?" Scootaloo sobbed to the stallion. "What's wrong with her!?"

"Wind!" Fighter screamed out to his comrade. "Get that mare out of here! Willow's going into frenzy! We don't have much time!"

Rainbow pushed the advantage on her staggered opponent and moved in to take another swing. She lunged in, a powerful beat of her wings popping her just high enough into the air to launch another kick toward her target, still reeling from her previous strike.

Rainbow had barely enough time to touch back down after her kick, let alone comprehend what had just happened before the sound of metal scraping metal filled her ears and she suddenly felt two hooves scoop under her forelegs and lift her into a grapple. Yelping and trashing out with her legs and wings in tandem, Rainbow struggled against the impossibly strong grip before feeling the cold of a long curved blade resting on her throat.

She gasped and went still, the knife laying right atop the lifeline of her pulse. Her eyes pressed to the side of her head and she saw Wind's snout in the farthest corner of her peripheral vision, the blade gripped in her teeth.

"Here's what's gonna happen." Wind Shear followed up commandingly. "I'm gonna let you go and you're going to fly away and get on with your life. Anything else and I carve you out and leave you for the timber wolves."

"Y-you're bounty hunters, right!?" Rainbow asked strenuously, every few words punctuated by a labored gasp for air.

"Oh I'm sorry." Wind spoke with scathing sarcasm, tightening her grip. "Do you think I give a fuck about anything you have to say!?"

"P-please!" Rainbow begged as the razor edge of Wind's blade lay poised to end her. "If you want the unicorn, t-take her! But I'm begging you."

Tears began to form around Rainbow's eyes as she gazed out upon the little filly, standing off to the side, alone and afraid, her face twisted with confusion and sadness as her eyes darted from Rainbow, to Willow, back to Rainbow.

"Please don't take Scootaloo!" Rainbow pleaded, her mind broken. "Please just let me take her with me back to where she belongs!"

"No can do, punk." Wind grunted, twisting the blade firmly against Rainbow's neck. "Doesn't seem like she wants to go with you anyway. So I guess you're shit outta luck."

"We don't have time for this!" Fighter called out, now fully grappling with Willow as she struggled to throw him off of her. "Wind! Get her out of here! Now!"

Willow Wisp raved out, her voice twisting into something barely recognizable as pony.

Rainbow tore her eyes away from the frenzied unicorn, her mind lost in desperation as she looked upon Scootaloo. The young pegasus mirrored her tormented stare as Rainbow's words poured forth in one protracted scream to the filly she thought she knew.

The filly's voice was cut short. Fighter Flight grunted as a sudden colossal force launched him back through the air like a bullet. With a sickening crash and a pained yelp he struck a tree at the edge of the clearing with enough force to split the trunk. He fell to the ground, limp and motionless. Willow Wisp finally emerged, her eyes twisted and unnatural, a vision of insanity, rage, and hunger all rolled into one. A monster lost in her own power.

Wind Shear's eyes widened as she immediately let go of Rainbow Dash and held her blade at the ready, facing Willow. The pegasus made to charge at the frenzied unicorn but had barely moved an inch before Willow's body displaced. The unicorn began easily ten yards away, yet she instantly stood before them with no transitional movement whatsoever, not even a flash of magic. In one equally unseeable motion, she drove her hoof into Wind Shear's chest with a horrifying impact and the mare was sent soaring through the air, blade sent spinning off as she landing in a heap several yards away, limp body rolling a few times as it crashed down.

All she was able to process was the unimaginable pain in her chest as she careened backward through the air.

She felt her wings shatter and her spine bend as her body slammed horrendously against the tree behind her. The wind expelled from her before she could even cry out in agony.

Before she could even be allowed the finality of falling to the ground, the unnatural power had Willow instantly appeared before her again. The beast drove her hoof into Rainbow's chest a second time, ramming into her with the force of a battering ram, pulverizing her already fragmented ribcage and pinning her broken body up against the tree.

Rainbow's lungs collapsed. Her torso was ravaged with trauma. In one pathetic choke, the blood pooling in her esophagus gushed from her lips and spilled out across her belly. Wheezing uselessly for air, her vision tunneled. Her terror-stricken eyes looked on in wordless fear upon the monster who held her life in her hooves.

The thing was smiling, and an entire mouthful of teeth greeted Rainbow's unfocused eyes.

"What are you now?" Willow Wisp repeated back Rainbow's question, her voice hissing psychotically through her clenched jaws. "You are nothing."

Willow's mouth bolted open and she lunged forward, closing her wicked fangs like a vice across Rainbow's throat. The mare's last terrified breath was stolen from her as it leaked through her shredded windpipe. The creature's fangs sunk deep into her neck and found torrent upon torrent of her blood rupturing forth from her perforated artery. The beast greedily devoured it by the mouthful as Rainbow's vision grew darker and darker still, sucking away at her hated prey as the pressure began to lessen.

There was only the abyssal blackness encroaching upon her sight, edging in from the sides like claustrophobia crushing her closing moments of existence into dust.

The last thing Rainbow Dash saw was Scootaloo in the distance, silently watching her die.

Taken her fill, Willow Wisp violently ripped her fangs free, tearing out Dash's throat in the process. What little blood remained within the pegasus sprayed out across Willow's muzzle in a fine mist. She lowered her hoof and finally let the rainbow-maned corpse hit ground with a weighty thud.

Willow peered down at the husk of a pony at her hooves, her smile widened, finding fresh new insanity as her cheeks curled and a low, throaty cackle escaped her bloody maw. Her eyes lucid as the fires of hate within them spiraled into hysteria. She turned, face plastered with crimson smears of death, flecks of cyan fur and foreign tissue hanging from her teeth. She looked upon her filly.

Scootaloo was paralyzed. Her mind trapped in its own twisted maze as she bore witness to the murderous scene that had played out before her. Something inside her was trying escape, but she had forgotten what it was. The sensation left her unsettled, as she stared at the dead body in the distance trying to feel something.

"I did it, darling." The unicorn said, blood drooling from her maw, her voice dreary and deranged. "I saved you from her."

Scootaloo stared at the approaching pony, each of her hoofsteps were labored and heavy, her psychotic smile still slapped across her cheeks.

"She's never gonna hurt you again." She continued, getting closer and closer to Scootaloo. "You're safe now. Safe with me."

"I did it all for you, my dear!" She shouted suddenly. "Everything for you. Everything for you..."

Willow continued to mutter the line over and over as she drew closer and closer.

"Aren't you happy?" She asked after a time, suddenly looking concerned at Scootaloo's distant expression. She was merely a yard from the filly now.

"Why aren't you happy?" She asked, her voice tensing as her hooves fell upon Scootaloo's shoulders.

"Aren't you proud of your mother?" Willow said, now practically whispering a few inches from Scootaloo's face, each syllable punctuated with stolen blood dripping from her mouth.

"You love me, right?" The tension and volume in her voice escalating as her trembling hooves put more and more pressure and weight down on the young filly's shoulders, her hooves digging in to the young one's bones.

"You're hurting me." She breathed, barely audible. Her voice dead and listless. "S-stop. Please."

"Right?" Willow repeated as her expression sunk, dejected and sorrowful. Tears forming in her eyes as her hooves moved in around the tiny pony's neck, her muscles tensing as she began to push the filly's airway closed.

Scootaloo was trapped in her grasp, her eye's transfixed in a near hypnotic daze on Willow. The unicorn wept openly and continued to choke her, yet Scootaloo didn't feel the urge to breath.

The first spike erupted forth from the center of Willow Wisp's chest, thrusting through her with the sickening sound of flesh ripping, stopping just a few inches from Scootaloo's body. Willow released the filly and instead guided her hooves across the sharp, bone-like protrusion, looking down at it not in pain, but disbelief.

The second spike burst through her flesh a few inches to the left. Willow let out a pathetic sob as she reached out and tried to touch Scootaloo one more time when suddenly in a swift and violent stroke, the two spikes slashed outward, tearing the unicorn's body apart as they eviscerated everything in their path.

In the blink of an eye, Willow's body disintegrated into ash as she was rent asunder. Nothing remained but a pile of black and grey smolder on the forest floor.

Fighter Flight panted heavily, exposed after the dust of the unicorn's slain body fell to ground. His wings beating to keep him slightly aloft, the cartilage of his front hooves somehow grown out, extending nearly two feet in length into wicked spikes. His expression was grim as he raised his weaponized limbs into air, they slowly retracted, slipping back into normal hooves as the behest of some unknown magic. He touched down and folded his wings neatly against his body, looking down at the pile before him with disappointment.

Scootaloo too blinked at the ashen mound before her. The wind picked up slightly and it began to dance into the air. As the cinders flew, something inside Scootaloo was fading, like a memory of something that had never happened, some artificial semblance of satisfaction and love that was too good to be true. It was like some beautiful idea had been planted within her, an idea that had guided her heart, mind, and hoof up until that very moment, an idea that had been planted by Willow.

However, it was all an array of lies. The lies of a monster, a monster that bore down on the filly only moments ago. Yet even with her dark mother exposed as the monster she was, it was as if Scootaloo hadn't noticed or didn't care. It was warm. It was comforting. It somehow felt like everything she could ever want. Something unnatural and foreign inside had arrested her and smothered away who she was before, leaving only obedient affection. She would have followed that monster down to whatever depths it would have taken her and she would have loved every minute of it.

But now, Willow Wisp was no more. The lies she planted were dissipating from the poor filly's mind in the wake of her obliteration, and they left ruin in their wake. Scootaloo looked with her true eyes reopened upon the bloody body in the distance, still and lifeless, ravaged with grotesque savagery.

The image rushed into her mind, hitting her with every ounce of trauma those beautiful lies had forced her to ignore. It would have been too much for a pony of any age to handle. For the young filly, it was like waking up to realize that every nightmare she could ever dream was real and ready to claw out her sanity.

"Rainbow?" She murmured softly, her voice weak and teetering as if she were begging fate for mercy.

"Rainbow Dash!" She screamed, her voice rupturing in pure anguish. She broke into a gallop and came to stand before her fallen friend, gaped with terrified revulsion over Dash's butchered throat, fresh with blood caked into the surrounding fur. Scootaloo's eyes misted over as she stepped closer.

She sobbed out loudly into the night air, falling to her knees next to the dead pegasus.

"Wake up!" She screamed, pushing her muzzle against Rainbow's body, smearing tears and snot against her face as she rammed her front hooves into her side, trying in some frantic denial to rouse her. "Don't leave me!"

Scootaloo pulled back and looked one more time into Rainbow Dash's sparkless eyes, open and dry, cloudy and still. The little filly collapsed against the mare's flank, wailing in inconsolable misery as the last of her strength escaped from her in one grievous howl into cold blue fur.

Fighter watched silently as the tragic scene played out. He chewed his bottom lip and looked away, barely able to watch, discontent crawling across his face as he let out long and weary sigh. He swallowed hard and approached the weeping filly, her erratic breathing overwrought with hysterical sadness. He remained silent, only a few feet behind her.

Scootaloo turned her head and locked eyes on the stallion, gasping as she turned around quickly and backpedaled hastily away, tripping to the ground over one of Rainbow's legs.

"G-get away from me!" Scootaloo barked in hysterical, primal fear, her face a mess with tears.

"No." Fighter answered plainly while scanning the treeline in the distance, his eyes unable to stay locked with hers for long. "No. You're safe but..."

"Look—" He tried to continue, still avoiding eye contact. "I know what happened to you. I can help you but you're going to need to come with me."

Another wave of fearful sorrow gripped Scootaloo as she shook her head in refusal.

"No! Please!" She wept out. "I want to go back to Ponyville! I just want to go home!"

Fighter closed his eyes. Willow Wisp's destruction might have freed the little one from her enthrallment, but Scootaloo was not truly free.

She was twice cursed by her dark mother. While one curse may have scattered along with Willow's ashes the other was eternal. It was coursing through the filly's veins by the drive of her unbeating heart and her unbreathing lungs. Animate as they seemed, they were indeed as still and lifeless as those within the pony she stood next to.

Forever to dance on in the Requiem after true life has ceased until she too joins her sire in the ashes of Final Death.

Fighter shifted uncomfortably. He'd dealt with fledglings before. It was never easy explaining the nature of Kindred and Kine, of the Blood and the Beast, but this new scenario proved even more difficult than usual. She was just scared little filly, literally clinging to the shattered remains of her former life. The stallion had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that Willow would have at least filled her childer in on the basics, but it seemed that Scootaloo's sire saw it more fit to just enthrall her and leave her in ignorance for however long.

Left alone in a strange new world. Not just any world either, a world Fighter knew all too well. With no guidance or protection her new life was doomed to end as unjust and cruelly as her old one. Gears turned in the stallion's mind and as much as the idea disquieted him, it seemed like the right thing to do.

"You can call me Fighter Flight." He said, trying without success to sound conversational.

"Tell me something Scootaloo." Fighter started in. "This pony, Rainbow Dash you called her. She's somepony you trust, yes?"

Scootaloo released another forlorn sob and tried to awaken from the nightmare, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't banish reality.

"Why do you even care!?" Scootaloo snapped, a powerful hostility lashing from her. "S-she's gone!"

"I didn't say save." Fighter correctly quickly and cynically. "I said I could bring her back."

A twisted hope dangled before the filly's eyes, and her expression displayed a pony too weary and desperate to ask questions. The possibility, however insane, of expelling the gaping hole in her heart was too tempting, too much a beacon of warmth on this cold night to dismiss.

"But." Fighter added. "I'm only going to do this if you agree to come with me to Canterlot."

"Please." Scootaloo begged, her eyes tearing again. "I'll go to Canterlot. I'll do anything. Please just bring her back."

Fighter swallowed hard and motioned wordlessly for Scootaloo to stand aside. She moved away from Dash's body with some hesitation and watched with unbreakable fixation as Fighter positioned himself directly over top of the lifeless mare. The stallion turned his head and looked upon Scootaloo staring at him.

"I don't think you want to watch this." He spoke from the other side of the wall of fiery orange feathers.

Fighter looked over the corpse beneath him. The sight stirred little within, it was something he'd seen so many times before. It was just another reminder that the Kindred exist always in death's domain. Fighter had already learned to accept this as fact, though to this night he still wished it not so. So desolate and dark a world they call home, how could anypony ever consider inviting another into it's depths? That's the real mystery isn't it?

And yet, perhaps the answer is obvious. Existing in death's domain means embracing death itself, letting it wash over you like ice water. Most ponies need only experience this once before their time on this world is over, but the Kindred must reawaken knowing they must face that death again and again until Final Death claims them. When you must die a thousand deaths, the old adage rings truer than ever.

Fighter took a deep breath and closed his eyes. In a swift motion he placed his hooves on Rainbow's head and pressed his muzzle against hers in some profane kiss, pulling her mouth open carefully with his hooves as he concentrated and summoned forth the Blood. Fighter gagged briefly as it surged and roiled up his esophagus, a spiraling dark crimson worm of viscous Vitae that slithered slowly and into the cyan mare's mouth. It passed visibly by her shredded throat but stayed within, instead falling deeper and dissolving into her body. So simple an action as it seemed, but the stallion pulled his muzzle free, panting harshly like he had just strenuously exerted himself. He shook, looking light headed and weak.

"Welcome to death's domain, Rainbow Dash." Fighter muttered between deep breaths as he wiped the Blood from his muzzle.

Chorus of Lament: The Embrace

by Timbre Tone

Chapter 3: When We Bleed