MLPFiM: 'Hush Now' Ch. 5 -PinkieDash-

"Hush Now"

Chapter Five: Avarice</b>

Once upon a time, there was a young earth pony couple. They were a simple and hard-working pair, not wanting for much beside the modest roof over their heads and enough food to feed them both. After a few years of trying to expand their family, the couple was blessed with a beautiful unicorn filly. She had a pale silver mane that glittered in the light and a soft and a periwinkle coat that felt like down beneath their hooves.

Unfortunately, their precious daughter was deformed. Her horn was curved under like hook, giving her a malevolent appearance. Unsure of how to handle the situation, the bewildered parents traveled to Canterlot with their filly in tow, in search of somepony who could give them guidance on how to handle their peculiar situation.

Every doctor that met with the frazzled parents was flummoxed by the abnormal deformity, unsure of what tactic to employ to remedy the infant's issues. The physicians hypothesized that if they removed her horn entirely and replaced it with a false one for aesthetic purposes, it would most likely compromise her future magical ability and they were hesitant to leave a unicorn hornless.

Eventually, the overwhelmed parents convened a conference with the alicorn princesses themselves, begging their trusted leaders for guidance. After observing the young filly, a grim-faced Princess Celestia explained that the only way to keep the magic of the child was to allow her to live with the horn she had been born with. The parents were saddened, but understood that separating a unicorn from her horn was akin to cutting off a limb and could not bear to harm their child in such a fashion. They could not imagine a life in which their precious daughter, who could feel a strong magical connection with the earth that all horned-equestrians shared, would be unable to utilize it. She would be a flightless pegasus, trapped on the ground and staring at her peers above. They could not bear the thought.

The couple thanked the alicorn princess for their help and returned home to raise their child as best they could manage, showering her with endless praise and love. The adoring parents doted on their daughter, telling her what a wonderful and talented mare she would grow up to be.

It turned out that her parents were not too far off, when the silver-maned filly began showing an aptitude for magic that none had expected from her. She was clever, quick-witted, and had a talent for illusionary magic that dazzled those around her. She became a bit of a show-off. She adored hearing the praises of those around her, accustomed to it due to her parents' constant veneration. She wanted to be famous and showcase her talents for the world to see.

The periwinkle filly soon became well-aware that she did not look like the other unicorns around her and this made ponies give her the types of looks she did not like, not ones of respect and admiration, but rather fear and often disgust. Despite her parents' reassurance, the child began wearing large, flashy hats that hid her horn from sight.

It was not until she entered Magic School that she had her first real taste of the type of exclusion awarded to one simply for looking different from everypony else. Her magical abilities, long admired by the schoolteachers in the small town she lived in had earned her a recommendation to an exclusive School of Magic in Canterlot. Unfortunately, it was a private school that required all of its students to live on campus and because she was there on scholarship rather than because of her parents' money, she could not afford a private room.

She had managed to keep her malformed horn a secret through kindergarten and most of grade school by wearing flashy hats and scarves that hid her deformity entirely. However, she did not sleep in these items and she could remove them in the safety of her own home without worrying about the probing stares of those around her.

For the first few months, she managed to hide her issues from her roommate, stringing up an elaborate canopy around her school-issued bed and waking up early to get ready and showering in the dead of night when nopony else was in the bathroom. Unfortunately, the ruse did not last for more than a few months. During a practical exam, she pushed herself a little too hard so that she could impress her peers, releasing a burst of magic that shredded her hat into confetti and left her standing in front of her class, naked and exposed. The abuse began shortly after.

Thus, the young unicorn filly, once so full of hope for the future, became a hollow shell of her former self. Her aspirations of fame and glory crushed, she withdrew into her own self-hatred and stewed endlessly in agony. It felt that no matter her accomplishments, nopony took notice, too preoccupied with her looks to actually notice her talent. She became cold and distant. She hated everypony.

She rationalized that things would be different if she looked like everypony else, but her parents had told her that cosmetic surgery of the horn would end her magical abilities. Unconvinced, the ambitious mare took to the Canterlot library and began what would amount to years of research on the subject.

Finally, she came across a practice that would allow one pony to receive the horn of another without compromising the receiving party's magical ability. It was a black magic, banned for centuries by the alicorn princesses. In the past, it had been used during times of war using captured prisoners as guinea pigs to save the lives and magical abilities of wounded Equestrians. It was all very simple, really. She wondered why she hadn't considered it before.

All you needed was a living host…

- 0 -

When Rainbow Dash arrived back at the Equestrian Bureau of Investigation, she found her fellow agents waiting for her in the conference room and they were not as happy to see her as Pinkamena Pie had been.

"This had better be good, Dash." Agent Heartstrings spat, golden eyes flashing with annoyance.

Dash didn't miss a beat, "Oh, it's definitely good." she reassured her, parading toward the front of the room and arranging herself behind Twilight's podium, much to the unicorn's obvious chagrin. "I just got back from Appaloosa National Prison. I had another visit with Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie." Dash announced, grinning slyly. She was met with a collective gasp and the cyan mare did not bother to hide her obvious pride, puffing out her chest in satisfaction. Not only had she managed to brave a meeting with the Cupcake Killer twice, but she had come back with valuable information. She was beyond awesome.

Expecting veneration and praise for her bravery and initiative, Rainbow Dash was sorely disappointed when Twilight Sparkle rose to her hooves in anger. "What where you thinking, Agent Dash?" the bespectacled unicorn asked, exasperatedly. "I did not authorize this interaction. What if something had happened to you?" the special agent inquired, her voice squeaking uncomfortably in her distress.

Refusing to be deterred by what she considered unfounded criticisms, the cocksure pegasus waved off the senior agent's disapproval and flashed her a winning smile. "Don't be such a worrywart, Twi!" Dash laughed, shrugging her shoulders and placing her fore-hooves on the podium. "The fact is, I managed to figure out the riddle and I went to the prison to confirm it." the mare explicated, smirking and flipping her rainbow-colored mane with a swift flick of her neck. The team glanced at one another, their astonishment evident in their expressions. Twilight Sparkle drifted slowly down into her seat, her eyes wide behind her glasses.

"What did you find out?" the dual-maned unicorn asked flatly, giving Rainbow Dash a skeptical look. The pegasus beamed at the plum-colored mare, her rose-shaded irises glittering with an excitement she could no longer contain. Deciphering Pinkamena's clue had given the haggard Rainbow Dash a much needed confidence boost. Combined with the encouragement of the cotton-candy serial killer herself, the pegasus was walking on air. She could not help but draw out her answer, basking in the other ponies hanging on her every word.

"Those ponies were marked." the cyan mare drawled, quoting the psychotic murderer's riddle. "The end result isn't very sweet." she nearly sang the rest but stopped herself, fearing that perhaps Pinkamena Pie was rubbing off on her. Rainbow Dash turned back to the others, leaning on the podium nonchalantly, as if decoding the twisted musings of convicted felons was something she did every day. "Marks. Sweet. Cutie marks." the spectrum-maned mare stated matter-of-factly, leaning forward over the podium and smiling coolly at her teammates. She leaned back and crossed her fore-legs over her chest, waiting for the inevitable praise she felt she so rightly deserved.

The room was silent for a moment while the other ponies processed her statement. Suddenly, conversation erupted around the room like wildfire ripping through a forest. When her long overdue admiration did not come, Rainbow Dash pouted and stepped down from the podium, trotting towards the end of the table and plopping into the empty seat next to Fluttershy. She leaned back in her chair, lacing her forelegs behind her head and observing the scene, unable to keep the smile off her face for too long.

"Well, that certainly makes sense." Applejack mused in her heavy, Appaloosean burr. She ran the tip of her hoof across the rim of her hat and took a sip of the coffee sitting in front of her. Blowing a wisp of her flaxen-mane from her eyes she began shuffling through the giant stack of papers she had brought with her to the meeting, extracting a copy of the case file and flipping it open. Applejack slid her hoof across a stack of pictures, spreading them out like one would cards in a poker game. The orange earth pony began examining the pictures of the victims, her brow furrowing in concentration.

Caramel slapped his forehead in irritation, "That's so obvious, why didn't any of us get it?" the azure-eyed earth pony moaned, covering his eyes in his fore-hooves in aggravation.

"I think we complicated things unnecessarily." Doctor Whooves offered, "We were so caught up in trying to figure out the deeper meaning behind the Cupcake Killer's riddle we forgot that the simplest solution is often the correct one." the cream-colored stallion noted, patting the younger male on the back. Caramel looked over at Doctor, pursing his lips in consideration for a few moments before nodding in agreement.

"Isn't that called Odom's Laser?" he asked.

"Actually, it's Occam's Razor." Twilight Sparkle corrected him immediately, instinctually drawing upon the enormous amount of innocuous facts she had amassed over the years she had spent voraciously consuming thousands of texts in the Royal Library in Canterlot. Caramel blushed at his mistake, averting his eyes from his superior. Twilight gave him a strange look, almost as if she had not realized that she had spoken to correct him, spitting out information like a machine.

"Who gives a buck about somepony's toiletries?" Lyra snapped, running her hoof through her snowy mane in frustration, leaving her usually perfectly coifed bangs sticking up at an odd angle. "We have work to do, like figuring out what these cutie marks have in common." the sea-green unicorn reminded them, slapping her hoof against the piles of photographs on the table.

"Well, " Cheerilee piped up, her huge bottle-green eyes glimmering like chips of emerald against her mauve coat. "If you recall, our first victim was named Bitter Sweet. She was a paralegal in Canterlot." she noted cheerfully. The jolly psychologist placed her hoof on a picture of a shy looking mare with a deep chocolate-colored coat and a vibrant mane that was a mix of neon blue and lime green.

"I remember her," Fluttershy whispered, looking down at her own case file and tugging out the picture of Bitter Sweet, which was worn around the edges, like she had taken it out many times before. "She didn't have anypony. No family. No coltfriend. We didn't know who to notify." the bubblegum-maned pegasus murmured sadly. She patted the picture softly, tears welling in the corners of her soft, aquamarine eyes. "I paid for her funeral." she admitted.

Rainbow Dash turned to the yellow mare at her side, gazing at her with newfound admiration. Fluttershy was such a gentle soul. The cyan mare rarely considered what happened to the victims after the coroner took them. That mare must have been sitting in cold storage for at least a month with nopony to release the body to, scheduled to be buried in a nondescript pine-box when Fluttershy intervened and put forth her own money to give her a proper burial. She had a feeling that the shy pegasus was not the type to forgo a headstone. Agent Dash bit her lip and reached out to clumsily pat the other mare's shoulder.

"Her cutie mark looks like the dial on a safe." a scratchy voice drew the attention of the agents. They turned towards the end of the table where the young purple dragon met their gaze. Spike rarely spoke during meetings, if he was present at all. He was usually far too busy taking complicated notes for Twilight's meticulous files or off performing some other errand for the particular pony. Spike's voice was high and awkward sounding, like a colt going through puberty. Twilight Sparkle had informed Dash in the past that he was a baby dragon and his size as well as his voice would mature as he grew older.

Spike turned his laptop around to face the team. On the screen was a photo of the sewer drain in Manehatten where Bitter Sweet's body had been discovered. He had zoomed in on the victim's flank and enhanced the resolution on the picture so that the victim's cutie mark was clearly visible. He tapped the edge of the screen with one of his pointed nails, "It's one of those old fashioned dials for a safe, see?"

The agents leaned in closer, studying the image diligently. He was right. "Wow! That's really awesome, Spike!" Caramel exclaimed, "Do you think that you could do that with everypony?" he asked, eagerly. "We don't have great pictures of all the victims."

Spike grinned mischievously, twirling a slick, black USB cord in his chubby fingers. "I'll see what I can do."

- 0 -

Two hours later, Spike had managed to produce eight clear images of the victim's flanks, which he had arranged in chronological order and displayed via Special Agent Twilight Sparkle's projector on the screen on the far wall.

"Let's go over the victims one more time." Twilight insisted, magically removing her glasses and cleaning them with a rag before replacing them back on the end of her snout. She was met with a collective groan from the other agents. She responded with a strict glare.

"Come on Twilight, we've gone over this like a million times!" Rainbow Dash moaned, throwing her forelegs across the table dramatically. Twilight was unimpressed, dismissing the other mare with a quick toss of her dual-colored mane. Dash glowered at her, pouting like a filly denied dessert for not finishing her vegetables.

"Then let's make it a million and one." the purple unicorn said, tapping her stack of papers on the edge of the table compulsively, checking to make sure the edges were even before placing them in a neat pile on the table and addressing the other ponies, "Let's start from the beginning." she suggested, glancing at her case file. "Bitter Sweet was the paralegal in Canterlot. She was single with no obvious connections to anypony. She disappeared leaving the law offices of Coltstein, Colstein, and Swine for lunch around twelve and resurfaced four weeks later in a sewer drain in Manehatten. Her cutie mark resembles the dial of a safe." the plum-colored unicorn rattled off the facts without taking a breath.

"The second victim was a mare named Jubilee." Doctor Whooves noted, picking up where Twilight Sparkle left off. He gestured to the display on the wall, indicating the second photograph, which featured the flank of a beautiful unicorn mare with a periwinkle-colored coat and wavy white-blonde mane. "She was a debutant in Manehatten, who went missing after abandoning a party thrown by her parents when she had a fight with her coltfriend. She was discovered in a riverbed near Fillydelphia." the birch-maned stallion stated, stroking his chin as he spoke. "Her cutie mark was a pearl necklace."  

"After that was Amethyst Shimmer, the jeweler in Fillydelphia." Cheerilee said, her voice far too cheerful. "He was taken from his shop in the city and disposed of in a Las Pegasus landfill." the ever-exuberant psychologist reminded them, giggling inappropriately. She drew lazy circles with her hoof over a photo of the violet stallion. "His cutie mark was a fancy set of glasses, I think they're jeweler's lenses." the maroon earth pony observed, pointing to the golden spectacles that adorned the unicorn's hearty flank.

"The fourth v—victim was another stallion, Kill Joy." Fluttershy stammered, clutching a photograph in her hooves. She lay the picture on the table, revealing a stallion with a coat as red as fresh blood and a shaggy blue-black mane that fell over piercing green eyes. "He was a male str—stripper in Las Pegasus who disappeared after his set at the Moldy Pony and was later discovered dismembered in a pile of refuse outside a Ponyville bakery. His cutie mark was a pile of bits."

"Ah remember that case runnin' across mah desk." Applejack mused in her characteristic twang, glancing at the piles of photographs on the table, stripped from everypony's case files and tossed haphazardly across the table. She tugged out one of the ones featuring a shy-looking mare with a primrose colored coat and a chestnut mane that nearly reached her hooves. "About three weeks after we realized it was the Hawker an' turned it over to the feds, a mare named Silver Lace up n' disappeared while walkin' her dog near the Everfree Forest, turned up two weeks later in a scrap heap in Oatland." the orange earth pony cringed at the memory, taking a calming sip of coffee before continuing. "She was in antiques, high quality stuff too. Had a silver coin on her flank."

"The sixth case was a stallion named Golden Medallion," Lyra muttered in her husky voice, picking up a coffee-stained photograph of an overweight stallion with a marigold coat and pale green mane. "He worked in Oatland as an accountant. He never came home from work and when his wife went to his office she found it torn apart," the sea-green unicorn said angrily, "He was barely missing three days before he ended up in a shallow grave in Kensington."

"The seventh victim was Midnight Sun. She was a bank teller in Kensington." Rainbow Dash said, her voice cracking slightly as images of the badly beaten mare filled her head. This particular case still irked her for some reason. "Midnight disappeared when she was leaving her job and showed up three months later in Canterlot dumpster." Agent Dash recited the case file from memory, glancing towards the photos projected on the far wall. Even without her entire body in the frame, Rainbow Dash recognized the flank of the maroon unicorn with the lovely red and orange sunset-colored mane. "She was the victim he kept the longest." the cyan mare mumbled, "Her cutie mark was one of those weird egghead calculators, the ones ponies used before we had digital ones."

"An abacus," Twilight Sparkle corrected her, sighing. "And of course, the eighth victim is Miss Rarity," she added, "She is a dressmaker and the personal confidant of Princess Luna. Rarity is currently dating our own Chief Applejack. She went missing after an argument with her fillyfriend at the Mare-E-Go-Round two nights ago in Canterlot and is presumed alive. Her cutie mark is three diamonds." the studious mare noted, glancing at the slide on the wall. "So," she finished, closing her case file and looking at the other agents expectantly. "What do these ponies have in common?"

Everypony looked down at their respective case files.

"Uh," Applejack mumbled, shuffling through the piles of photographs on the table. "Ah hate to be the one to bring this up, but has anypony noticed how attractive all of the victims are?" she asked, blushing slightly and looking around at the other agents. Everypony paused for a moment and then began going through the pictures themselves, scrutinizing the victims. When they had initially come across them, they had been so brutalized it had been difficult to recognize them as ponies at all, but now that Applejack had pointed it out it seemed so obvious.

"Oh my Celestia, you're right! They're hot!" Caramel gasped, waving his picture of Silver Lace at the others. "How did I not realize this before?" he wondered aloud, grasping at the photograph of the pale pink mare with eager hooves. Lyra snatched it away from him and gave him a disapproving look.

"You're right, Chief Applejack." Fluttershy agreed, ignoring Caramel and Lyra and observing her photos closely. "All of these ponies had a high level of esthetic consciousness. If you look closely, you can see how much each one cared for their outward appearance." she pointed out, "Not a single hair out of place. Especially their horns, they all have beautiful horns." the yellow pegasus stated, looking up at the others.

"That has to be part of why the Hawker chose them," Rainbow Dash said, nearly hopping up and down in her seat in excitement. After all of these months they were finally getting somewhere with the case. "He wouldn't want a shoddy horn." she insisted, pointing to her own horn-less forehead.

"That certainly makes sense, but how do their cutie marks relate to it? The Cupcake Killer's riddle was about cutie marks." Twilight reminded them, indicating the photographs projected on the screen. "We have a bunch of attractive unicorns being abducted. Why?" the purple mare asked, the lines in her forehead deepening as she stared fixedly at the slides on the wall.

"Let's look at their marital statuses one more time." Doctor Whooves suggested, "Maybe we missed a pattern." the cream-colored stallion said, flipping through his case file and muttering to himself. Rainbow Dash liked to watch the gears in his giant egghead brain turn when he spoke.

"Single. Dating. Married. Single. Married. Single. Dating." Cheerilee sang, interrupting Doctor's thought process. Dash twitched unintentionally when the mauve mare sang as images of the cotton-candy pink psychopath filled her. Her cheeks flushed involuntarily and she rubbed her cheeks as if trying to wipe the blush from them like rogue. Why was she even thinking about Pinkamena at a time like this?

"Well that's a dead end," Lyra sniped, tossing her case file over her shoulder. It crashed into the wall, sending papers fluttering into the air like pieces of confetti. "This is so bucking frustrating! I don't see a connection between these cutie marks! They're all different!"

"You know, I feel like cutie marks can have more than one meaning." Fluttershy said, tucking a strand of her bubblegum-mane behind her ear. "They're more than just your special talent. They can also represent who you are as a pony." the others looked at her quizzically and she baulked, flushing a deep crimson. "W—what I mean is… well, look at somepony like Princess Celestia. She has a sun on her flank. I know she has a talent for raising the sun, but I feel like it also represents her as the guiding light of Equestria." the timid pegasus stammered, looking down at the table rather than at the other agents and blushing in embarrassment. The others paused in shock unable to consider Fluttershy's words immediately because none of them had actually ever heard her say so much at one time. Finally, they began to contemplate what she was saying and slowly the dots began to connect.

"That makes a lot of sense, Agent Fluttershy." Twilight said, smiling at the other mare gently. Fluttershy returned the smile with just a hint of pride, twirling the ends of her mane around hr hoof awkwardly and dropping her gaze from her superior's face. "For example, if we look at Bitter Sweet, we see that she specialized in the secrecy required to work on law cases. She also was a very solitary pony."

Rainbow Dash patted an embarrassed Fluttershy on the back encouragingly, causing the fragile mare to wince from the strength of the gesture. The cyan pegasus smiled sheepishly in apology, then tried to re-focus her thoughts on the case in a meager attempt to push any remaining thoughts of the Cupcake Killer from her mind. She flipped through her case file and looked from the photos of the victims' faces in her hooves up at the cutie marks reflected on the far wall. She glared at the pictures in silence, her own thoughts drowning out the chatter of those around her. Finally, she set down her photographs and spoke, "What about money?" she asked. The other agents turned to face her.

"Money?" Caramel inquired, looking up at the line of cutie marks on the wall and back at Rainbow Dash quizzically.

"All of the victims cutie marks have something to do with money, if you really think about it." Rainbow Dash said, pursing her lips. "A safe holds money. Pearls are expensive. Glasses that examine jewelry. A big freaking pile of money. A fancy coin. A checkbook. An egghead calculator and diamonds?" she listed them, checking them off with her hooves. The others nodded slowly.

"Now that Ah think about it," Applejack said, propping her cheek on her hoof and gazing at the projector with unfocused eyes. "Everypony had jobs that involved something that other ponies might think was greedy in some way, like monetarily-minded?" she pointed out, running her hoof across the brim of her hat again. The other agents looked at her strangely and she sat up, puffing out her cheeks angrily, "What? Ah can't use big words too?" she asked, her voice irritated. The other ponies remained silent. "Ah ain't stupid, ya know." Applejack whined, pouting and turning away from her fellow agents.

Special Agent Twilight Sparkle smiled in mild amusement, "Chief Applejack makes a point," she said, magically lifting a quill off the table and jotting down some notes in the open case file in front of her. "Bitter Sweet worked with three lawyers, which would already rub many ponies the wrong way, add on the fact that her firm was notorious for accepting wealthy clientele and you have a recipe for disaster. Jubilee did not have a job per se, but she was the daughter of a very affluent couple and never wanted for anything. Amethyst Shimmer was a high-class jeweler." the plum-colored mare stated, scribbling down a few more notes as she spoke. "Kill Joy did not have a high paying job, being a stripper, but his entire line of work is centered on money and tips. Both Gold Medallion and Midnight Sun worked in banks while Rarity and Silver Lace had careers in high-paying industries like fashion and antiquities." the studious mare twirled the pen magically before tucking it behind her ear and turning to face the other ponies. "I think the Horn Hawker has a fixation with being rich."

Suddenly, a loud ringing filled the room and the agents looked towards the speaker-phone in the middle of the table. Spike leaned across the conference table and pressed the speaker button, a booming voice filled the room. "Hey party ponies, what's shakin'?" Red Secret's husky voice filled the room and despite the previous tension in the room, Rainbow Dash could not stop herself from smiling when she heard the crime-scene investigator's playful banter. "Is my darling Dash there?"

"I'm here, Red." Dash said loudly, leaning over the table and speaking directly into the phone's speaker. "Do you have some information for us?" she asked and was greeted with the deep-throated chuckle of the tomato-red stallion on the other end of the line.

"Of course, mi amore." he reassured her, clucking his tongue. "If I had called without any, I am sure that Agent Heartstrings would have murdered me." he laughed and the other agents looked at Lyra, who smirked in a fashion that did nothing to dispel their fears that she might actually have done it. "Why don't you come down to the lab and I'll show you. It's probably better if you see. Plus, I miss my Dash! Come visit!" Red Secret cooed, clicking the phone off. A dial-tone filled the room and Spike flipped the telephone off. The other agents glanced in her direction and Dash rolled her eyes, but her stomach once again dropped into her hooves as she heard Pinkamena's voice singing to her in her head, "Come back soon, Dashie!"

Rainbow Dash pushed herself up, "I'll go see the boys in the lab." she asked, tossing her spectrum-colored mane and starting for the door. She stopped and turned to the other agents "Anypony want to come with?" she asked, watching as both Applejack and Fluttershy stood up to join her.

"Ah'll come," Applejack said, trotting towards the door and standing beside the cyan pegasus. "I want to make sure Rarity wasn't drugged." she frowned, her emerald eyes flashing with unexpressed worry.

Fluttershy shuffled up to the other two mares, her face hidden beneath her bubblegum-colored mane. "I—I hope you don't mind my tagging along. I wanted to speak with the entomologist." the timid pegasus apologized, looking up through her lengthy lashes ruefully. Rainbow Dash shrugged and she smiled, delighted.

"Is it cool with you, Twi?" the confidant mare asked, gesturing towards her two companions. Her superior nodded curtly, brushing aside the piles of photographs and checking a few notes on one of her many notepads.

"Yes, why don't the three of you go down to the lab and talk to the crime-scene investigators and the entomologist." the violet unicorn agreed, her red spectacles sliding down the bridge of her snout as she searched her impeccable scribbles. "Meanwhile, Agents Heartstrings and Caramel will take a second look into the financials of the victims. If the Hawker is interested in money, I want to know why." she directed, not taking her eyes from the papers in front of her as the two ponies nodded at her wordlessly, standing up from the table and walking past the others and out of the room. She turned towards the mauve psychiatrist, "Agent Cheerilee?" Twilight asked, receiving one of the pink-maned mare's signature smiles. "I would like you to do another psych-eval of the victims, taking into account their monetary related careers and the dual-meanings of their cutie marks. Please do this as quickly as possible."

"Right-o!" the exuberant mare responded cheerfully, collecting her papers and skipping from the room with far too much enthusiasm for somepony who had seen as much death as she. The ponies blocking the door moved out of her way entirely.

"Doctor Whooves, would you mind staying here with Spike and myself and looking over something I noticed while we were speaking earlier?" Twilight Sparkle asked, turning towards the cream-colored stallion. Doctor Whooves smiled at the younger pony gently, his sapphire eyes crinkling up in an almost fatherly way.

"You're the boss, Twilight." he reminded her, getting up and moving into the chair beside hers. She returned his smile, though hers was much less confident. Spike cracked his knuckles and placed them over his keyboard at the ready.

"Contact me as soon as possible," the tired-looking special agent reminded the other three mares, looking up at them. Agent Dash winked at her in reassurance and began to push the other two from the conference room, closing the door behind her with a loud click.

- 0 -

The three mares strode down the dull hallways of the EBI offices towards the elevators at the far end. When they reached the gray, metal doors Rainbow Dash placed her hoof on the down button and all three looked upward, watching the arrows expectantly.

Applejack turned to the shy mare on her left, smiling mischievously. "So Fluttershy, Ah hear mah brother asked you out to dinner?" she giggled evilly, in a fashion that only suited younger siblings. Fluttershy gasped, nearly jumping out of her skin. Rainbow Dash turned towards them, watching the display with interest.

"I—I am so sorry. Is that alright? Is it alright that I said I would go? I am so sorry." the yellow pegasus stammered, jiggling her legs in agitation and looking everywhere but at the orange mare in front of her. Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked at one another over the display, both fighting back the urge to burst out laughing.   

"Settle down, sugarcube." the flaxen-maned earth pony said reassuringly, patting the spastic pegasus on the head with her hoof. Fluttershy looked up at her with wet eyes and once again, Applejack found herself trying not to giggle at the obvious overreaction of the adorably sensitive mare. She could not deny there was a part of her that wanted to keep messing with her, but she really didn't like to lie. She was terrible at it in fact, even in jest. "Ah'm fine with it. Ah think it's cute. Promise." she said, making a cross over her heart.

Almost as if on cue, there was the pleasant ding of the elevator opening its doors. The three shuffled into the empty cab and Dash leaned forward to hit the button with the large L next to it. The doors closed immediately and the elevator jerked into life, beginning its decent into the bowls of the building.