Hello Mares and Gentlecolts and welcome to my story, while Carnage is still determined to get answers from Celestia, he has arrested Pinkie Pie but this has caused anger from half of the elements of harmony, including Rainbow Dash.

Chapter 8: A Silver Lining

It hadn't exactly been a comfortable sleep last night for Mr. Carnage, he missed sleeping on the clouds at Rainbow Dash's house however yesterday he lost a friend, a place to stay and although he wouldn't admit it he may have lost something more.

The thought of getting up and actually doing stuff was not something that really crossed his mind as he had nothing to do today, however he promised Whooves he would leave the Tardis in the morning as he was allowed only one night there and Carnage was a man (now pony) who kept his promises.

He remembered when he went to Lyra and Whooves about being kicked out of the house, they laughed to themselves and said that they had a lovers tiff and that it should blow over in a couple of day however the look that rainbow Dash gave him was one of pure hate and he didn't see it blowing over anytime soon, the two of them seemed a lot happier now especially as it seemed that Whooves had officially moved in, hell even Lyra forgave Carnage for putting him in jail.

He finally got off the couch on springs which he had called his bed the previous night and looked around the TARDIS for a moment, if it wasn't the ponified version of the Doctor Carnage probably would have nerded out slightly about being in the presence of one of his heroes, however the Tardis looked exactly the same as it did for the tenth doctor's regeneration and the idea came to him that he could hijack it but he had no idea how to control it and despite his current living conditions he still had a job to do, unfortunately that meant he would probably be known as 'the homeless detective' Yeah cause that's a name that will strike fear into the hearts of criminals everywhere he thought to himself, the reason being that he was only allowed one night in the TARDIS as Whooves was very protective of it.

He left the TARDIS and locked it with the key that Whooves gave him, he went to the front of the now deceased Bon-Bon's shop and put it under the mat like he was instructed to do by Lyra and Doctor Whooves, he pouted to himself as it kept hitting him that not only did he have nothing to do now but also that he had nopony to even talk to, the one pony he really wanted to see was Rainbow Dash but she probably hated him now.

It was then that he realised that he still had the ticket to go see the Wonderbolts, in fact he brought it out with him subconsciously, his mind always had a funny way of doing that to him and it also had a weird thing where it would go off on a tangent of how hot someone (or somepony) was and he made a mental note to sort that.

He examined the ticket again and saw that the show was on in twenty minutes and it took place just beyond the Apple family ranch, as he had nothing better to do today he headed off towards the Wonderbolts show…

---

When Carnage got to the destination on the ticket he was now looking at what appeared to be a recently constructed stadium, everything looked like it had just been put together so he assumed that the Wonderbolts set up this stadium when arriving in a new town, the stadium was just on the edge of the apple orchard and he could see Applejack and another group of ponies picking apples but they were far away from the stadium as he could see some guards who appeared to be stopping them approaching any further.

A number of the ponies helping Applejack were the other elements of harmony and he imagined the news of what he did to Pinkie Pie had reached them by now so he decided to just enter and avoid any sort of awkward contact however he swore that as he was entering Applejack spied him and gave him a death glare that could have put fear in anyponies heart.

He went through the large door and saw the place was packed, he showed his ticket at the entrance and made his way through and he appeared to have made it just in time as the show was about to begin.

He looked at the seats and saw that they had numbers and letters so when he looked at his ticket again he couldn't believe that he had actually missed a seat allocation on it 'E12', Damn this whole thing is messing me up if I only just noticed that the fourth time I looked at this bloody ticket, I can't let anything else phase me, he thought to himself.

E was near the top so he thought that he would have a good view of the show, the way Rainbow Dash had described them to him they sounded like an air show back on earth, he reached the row of seats and saw that he was at the far end as he was at 'E30' so he carefully stepped his way to his seat while trying not to step on anyponies hoof, he eventually made it to his seat and sat down ready for the show but he looked at the pony siting in seat 'E11' and he immediately wished that he hadn't.

Sitting beside him was a very familiar rainbow haired pony who was giving him the dirtiest look imaginable; Carnage could actually feel a trickle of sweat coming down from his brow as she continued to stare evilly at him, it looked like that she had the intention to kill, she finally spoke "What are you doing here?"

The way that Rainbow Dash had said it made him cringe, "I came here as I didn't have anything else to do today, honestly I didn't expect to be sitting next to you."

"Yeah well this was supposed to be a da…" she turned her head away from him; Carnage was oblivious to what Rainbow Dash was about to say, "Never mind, forget I said anything."

The a young filly who was sitting next to Rainbow Dash poked her slightly, she had an orange body and a purple mane, "Hey Rainbow Dash is this your Coltfriend."

"What? No… well yes but…"

Carnage cut her off, "We've had a little argument but yeah I guess I'm her Coltfriend, anyway what's your name sweetheart?"

"I'm Scootaloo and I'm the leading member of the Rainbow Dash fan club."

Carnage couldn't help but smirk, "You have a fan club?"

"Yeah it's no big deal it's just a load of the foals look up to me is all, nothing special they just hold their meetings in the cutie mark crusaders clubhouse."

"I'm sorry but what are the cutie mark crusaders?"

Scootaloo and a white pony next pony next to her jumped up on their seats and said in unison "We will not rest until all three of us have acquired are cutie marks!"

He remembered a cutie mark was something that he had which was a magnifying glass, Rainbow Dash's was a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt but the two fillies didn't have one so it appeared that it was something that one had to gain, he asked the filly, "What's your name little filly."

"I'm Sweetie Bell and I'm Rarities sister."

He remembered that Rarity was the only friend of Rainbow's that he had not met yet and she was the element of Generosity, Sweetie continued "Yeah there's normally three of us but Applejack wouldn't let her come and is making her work at the ranch, she was pretty mad at Rainbow Dash going because…"

Suddenly Dash returned to being angry, "Don't tell him, he doesn't deserve to know anything else about my friends as he'll probably just have them arrested to just like he did Pinkie Pie."

Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell looked at each, Scoots was the one to speak, "Mister, why did you arrest Pinkie pie?"

"Well you see little one, I don't imagine you to completely understand but there was a motive and evidence showing that Pinkie may have killed Bon-Bon and Owloysius and…"

Sweetie spoke out, "No way mister, Pinkie would never do anything like that, she just likes to see ponies smile, I mean she sang a whole song about it once and…"

"Please let me finish and Dash you might want to hear this too."

Dash turned her head ever so slightly towards Mr. Carnage but was focusing on the show that was now underway, "You see I cannot say for certain if Pinkie was the killer or not however Pinkie did confess to the crimes of stealing food supplies from other ponies."

Dash was shocked to hear this, "What? That can't be you must be making it up she wouldn't…"

"Rainbow Dash you know I'm not a liar, she was stealing the food because the cakes didn't have enough money for supplies and although her intentions were noble they were still wrong."

Rainbow cursed herself in her head, she was still very angry at Carnage but she should have at least heard him out yesterday, she wondered if she did what she did because she was afraid of being in love, both her and Carnage wore soft expressions on their faces and Carnage noticed that the fillies were to focused on the show to notice their conversation.

Carnage knew that he at least cared for Rainbow Dash, he got his fore hoofs and held Rainbows face up to him, Dash was shocked by this action but didn't fight it, "Carnage…I…"

Carnage gently put his left hoof on her lips, "Shhhh, don't think about this because honestly I don't even know what I'm doing."

The two of them instinctively drew closer but before their lips could make contact a large gust of wind came from above them and a Pegasus pony with a fiery mane was flying just above them, "Hey Rainbow! Haven't seen you in a while, how you been babe."

Babe? Did she just call Rainbow babe? He thought to himself, "Oh hey Spitfire! Haven't seen you in a while, is Soarin still trying to get under your costume, you really should tell him you're a lesbian you know."

"Yeah but let me have my fun, listen I got to get back so I want to meet up tomorrow kay?"

"Okay."

"It's a date then."

Spitfire then placed a kiss on Dash's cheek then flew back to the show, Carnage was jealous of this and showed it, "What the hell was that?"

"Oh right… well I met her a the gala a year back and some things happened and it kinda ended in a shambles, she met me again the next day and said that the only reason I haven't got a place in the Wonderbolts is because their full but she could help in the future, and then things kinda went off from there."

"But you were adamant that you weren't a lesbian and you told me that you had no time for a relationship."

"Well admittedly the whole thing is kind of a way to get me into the Wonderbolts and I'm not really proud of it… were technically still together."

His heart sank, in his mind whatever was between the two of them was officially over, "Fine, lets change the subject why did you come here despite Applejacks protests?"

"Well this is Silver Linings last show; he was one of the judges at my young flyers competition and I wanted to see it, she didn't want me to go because as a safety precaution they can't pick the apples near the show and the apples are just right, so that will set them all back a little bit"

There was an awkward tension now hanging in the air around them, neither could say anything to get rid of it and Dash felt guilty for not telling him and leading him on like she did, "Anyway… I'm still mad at you."

"Fine, why don't you just slut out again as it appears to be the one thing your good at."

RD was about to slap him again for that comment but Carnage stopped her, "Wait! Is that Princess Celestia."

Both of their gazes turned to across the stadium where Celestia was sitting next to a black pony who was presumably Princess Luna, the two of them were sitting in a large both and Celestia and Carnage's eyes met as she winked at him, anger boiled inside Mr. Carnage and he started to trot towards her, "I'll be back Dash."

She called out to him, "Where are you going?"

"To have a little talk with Princess Celestia."

---

Carnage had to pass a lot of ponies on his way to Celestia, "Damn this is tough to navigate."

He eventually made it to the royal booth but was stopped by two guard ponies who simply put their spears in the way however an unfamiliar voice called out and he guessed that it was Princess Luna, "You may let him through guards, he wishes to talk to us so he may."

The guards allowed him passage and Carnage thought about what he was going to say but Luna spoke first, "Hello Marty Wright, how are you today?"

"Don't use that name, you have no right no matter who you are."

"Oh don't get cross with me, Tia could you tell him what you wanted to say?"

"I would be glad to sister, you see Carnage I know that Pinkie is not the killer."

"What? Then who is it?"

"I don't know, all I know is it definitely isn't her, this isn't the first time she was accused of murder, Rainbow Dash went flying to Trottingham to visit her family but forgot to tell anypony, at that same time Pinkie started making rainbow cupcakes and a horrible rumour started spreading that she killed Dash and turned her into the same cupcakes."

Luna gagged a little at the thought, "What a sick rumour, what deranged mind would come up with something like that, I've met her and she's a very loving soul."

"Exactly sister, anyway that's why I've taken the liberty of setting her release for tomorrow morning; I would have made it sooner but…"

Carnage thought he was going to literally going into meltdown, "What do you mean you're going to release her? You can't just do that!"

Luna interjected, "Yes we can because although we have a parliament we can override any decision."

Celestia continued, "Anyway I thought you would like to know, farewell Marty we shall…"

"I told you not to call me that and how do you know my name."

Celestia and Luna looked at each other and nodded at each other, Luna spoke, "That shall be revealed in good time, now don't make us use our guards to escort you out the building 'Mr. Carnage'."

He knew that he couldn't win so he decided to just leave, his anger was over flowing and it felt like he couldn't stay in the building and as he ran out the nearest doors he looked behind to see that he was being followed by Rainbow Dash, "Why are you following me?"

Dash looked upset, "I'm here to see if you're alright idiot."

"I thought you should be more concerned about your marefriend."

"Hey don't use that as…"

"YOU LED ME ON!"

There were no more words said between the two for what felt like hours but what were in reality minutes, finally Dash spoke, "Listen, all I came out here to say was that I was a little hasty about throwing you out yesterday so if you would like to, you can come stay at my place."

Carnage calmed down at this proposition, "Thank you Rainbow Dash, I promise not to bring it up anymore."

"You're welcome but I saw you talking to the princesses and you got really upset with them, why was that."

"Look, I can't tell you what it is exactly but they know something about me that is supposed to be a secret and its putting me in a difficult position."

"Why can't you tell me? Do you not trust me?"

"It's not that but let's just say that even if I was allowed to tell you then I wouldn't because you wouldn't even understand, look I'm tired so I'm going home, you enjoy the rest of the show with the girls for me, I'll see ya later."

"Bye Carnage…"

As Carnage walked away he wasn't able to hear the last words Rainbow Dash muttered from her mouth, "…I love you."

---

That Night…

And finally for Silver Lining it was over, his very last show with the Wonderbolts and now it was finally time to retire and live the rest of his days with his family, he could think of worse ways for it to end, he just had his party and he was taking off his costume for the last time when he heard a sound behind him, "Whose there?

He couldn't see anypony there until they were right in front of him, it was almost if they grew in size, a sharp object was held to his neck but he thought against his assailant, whoever this was had a piece of paper in their hands and Lining accidently ripped a bit of the paper off but it did no good to help him.

Eventually he was overpowered and like the others the last sound he would hear was a low cackling chuckle…

Next chapter, the killer has claimed another victim.

Again say what you liked and what you didn't like, it will only help me get better as a writer ;) and a like would also be greatly appreciated, thank you.