"So you still crushing on Rarity?" Scootaloo casually asked her hands nestling behind her head, a smirk as wide as the sky on her face.

Spike rolled his eyes, "Like you want to know..."

Scootaloo shrugged, "Kind of. Friends confide in one another, at least that is what I heard from your crush anyways."

Spike clenched his jaw and nearly growled out his words, "Never thought you would know what confide means."

Scootaloo looked up above them for a second and commented, "It means feeling guilt right?"

"No that's contrite," Spike shrugged, "And yet another word I would not have expected you to know."

Scootaloo huffed, "Not everyone is roommates with the smartest person in all of Equestria."

Spike sighed, they had only been walking for maybe twenty minutes and Spike already wanted to bite a bullet. Swallow a barrel and wish for nothing more than to end. This girl was hilariously annoying. Spike could handle her only in small doses and even then she would drive him so insane that he wish he had a cup of bleach nearby. Seriously this chick ground his gears in the wrong way.

The air was heavy and humid, nearly choking the air from his lungs. Nothing he was not used to, strange weather patterns were apart of the gig when he moved to Ponyville with Twilight.

He sighed at the thought of the librarian, his sister in many ways and now he was on the opposite fence as her. Sitting in her room waiting for answers to be given to her, waiting with Rainbow Dash to relieve her stress. A little crude but Spike would always drown them out with a little Papa Roach and comics, nothing that couldn't be fixed, albeit temporarily. The creaking however could not be ignored.

He sighed again, warranting the attention of Scootaloo, "Quit sighing like a mildly pissed off teenaged girl."

Spike rubbed his eyes, his coat locking in the heat, "Scoots I have not been sleeping very well lately. With the whole murder thing and all."

Scootaloo smiled and looked over at him, not even breaking a stride, "Keep telling yourself that, I'm sure your girlfriend would say the same thing."

Teasing is one thing, it's another to be a complete asshole. Spike commented off handedly, "Bitch."

Scootaloo tuned, "Jerk."

Scootaloo felt a vague sadistic pleasure in teasing the hot headed assistant of one of the scholars of Equestria. She breathed with relative ease, a lot calmer than Spike was. This whole situation, while tragic, did not overly affect Scootaloo's mood. She felt for her best friend Sweetie Belle, but she was gone so it was not overly that bad. And likely, she would be on her way back home immediately after hearing her sister was missing.

The brush grew thicker as they continued along, their footsteps sloshing after the fresh shower of rain a few hours prior. They were a good day or two ahead of the rest of Ponyville, any of those guard patrols that the princesses had sent out. She twirled her hair as she continued along, tailing behind the ivory cat that lead the way. She knew something, what it was, Scootaloo had not the slightest guess in hell. But any other leads were dead in the water.

Scootaloo whispered to her friend, hands buried in his jacket, "Where do you think we're going?"

"We'll find out if you would just stop talking," Spike snapped, in a very passive aggressive tone.

Scootaloo barked, "Lighten up lover boy, it was just a question. Shit."

Spike sighed, "I'm sorry...just a lot-"

"Of stress?" Scootaloo looked aside at her friend, "Kind of underselling it don't you think? Two people died in the house of your "girlfriend", whom of which is missing, and along with a mildly insane girl. Nope, nothing stressful at all. Listen, I get it-"

"How could you possibly understand how I feel?" That bit harder to Scootaloo than anything else she had heard in her life. Now all of a sudden her world almost collapsed, her facade of a laissez faire attitude crumbled as she felt anger suddenly flair up.

She lowered her hands and growled, "Because, I saw my parents die in front of me..."

Spike stopped suddenly, now understanding the gravitation of the situation. Spike lowered his gaze and in a defeated tone he chided, shaking his head slightly, "I...I'm sorry Scoots, I didn't-"

"Listen," Scootaloo straightened her back and wiped down her jeans, "Let's just forget about it and just continue to follow the cat."

Spike sighed, in defeat once more. He could sense the anger that still lingered after her explosive outburst. And it still roared inside of her, a lingering ember of rage that he had the audacity to accuse her of ignorance towards her eternal pain. She shook her head, beating back the images of her parents hanging by their ankles and blood slowly draining down their exposed bodies. Truly horrifying, but she muscled through the pain and beat it back down.

They cleared the brush and Opel promptly sat on her haunches and looked to her followers and stated simply, "Mreow."

Scootaloo looked at what she mewed at and slumped her shoulders, "Really? Zecora's hut? Are you serious?"

Opel rolled her eyes and continued towards the hut and Scootaloo shrugged her shoulders and said, "What, are we supposed to pick up some potion that can reveal the way to our missing friends?"

Spike shrugged, "Why do you have a problem with Zecora?"

Scootaloo shivered, "Because I swear to the princesses that she has some sort of weird sexual agenda with me."

"You're too paranoid Scoots."

"Yeah, and you're too obsessed with Rarity, seriously a creepy doll of Rarity? We all have our problems Spike. Zecora's is that she is a a creepy lesbian pedophile."

Spike fumed, "Let's just see why Opel lead us here."

Scootaloo growled as they moved closer to the house, they took a few steps before they heard a twig break. Scootaloo snapped her head in the direction of which it came from. Scanning her eyes over the field she could see through. It was late and the sun was hidden past the large canopy cover.

She sidled her way towards the hut with careful steps and drug Spike with her, gripping his arm hard and monitoring the woods around them. She tread carefully, making sure that it was likely just some wild animal. Spike barked, "Hey! Careful would ya?"

Scootaloo snapped, shoving him towards the make shift pelt door on the hut, and shushed him, "Shut up! Be quiet."

She listened carefully for a minute or two to try and subside her fear that they are not alone. After those fearful moments Scootaloo shoved the nailed pelts out of the way and voiced her greetings to the adult that crushed on her, "Hey Zecora, we just had a few-"

Her words were cut short as she stopped when she stepped in, looking down in horror at what lied on the floor.

Spike soon followed behind Scootaloo and asked, "What why did you-oh my sweet Celestia..."

They both gazed down at a shivering, and curled form on the floor. Hands and feet tied, bound in tight cords of hempen rope. Tears draining out of her eyes and her breathing coarse and rough as she exhaled through her mouth against the ground. Her clothes torn and ripped from the stitching she had made or perhaps Rarity herself. Her dark light hazel skin glistening in the dim light on the floor of the hut, her breasts on partial display as she lied there. Scootaloo looked closer and saw she was even lying in a pool of mysterious fluid. Scootaloo wrenched her stomach and felt something rise up, she choked it back at the smell of the hut. She knew the smell, it was the embodiment of filth and gross. She knew the smell from a building just in Ponyville, the brothel.

It all clicked together in her mind, Zecora was violated. Scootaloo choked back the vomit once again and asked, her voice cracked as it came out, "Z-Zecora?"

She flinched and turned to find Scootaloo and Spike standing there, fear spreading over her bright yellow irises. She scrambled to her feet, her legs trembling as she did so. Sputtering something in a foreign tongue.

Scootaloo raised her hands and attempted to calm the older woman, "Zecora. Hey, it's alright. It's me and Spike."

She looked between Spike and Scootaloo, her gaze becoming less wild and her breaths coming easier. Deep breaths as she saw who it really was, focusing it seemed on their faces. She breathed, "What. What...oh...what...what are you doing here?"

Spike answered this time, "We came looking for Rarity and Pinkie. Have you seen them?"

She curled in her legs and shook her head, "No! No...I...I have not seen Rarity and Pinkie."

Suddenly her eyes grew wide and pointed, shouting in warning, "Behind you!"

Scootaloo spun around hard and saw a shrouded man raise his arm and come down hard over her head. Her world grew dark as she felt the rest of the world melt into shadows.