Pinkie Pie is literally tossed out of the Town Hall of Ponyville by a couple of oversized stallions, with Mayor Ivory Scroll standing between them, looking worse for wear. Pinkie Pie sits on her haunches and holds her forehooves up pleadingly.

“Please, Mayor, you have to listen! You’re in danger!” says Pinkie Pie frantically.

“Pinkie Pie, there have been no threats made against me, or Ponyville, and the Town Hall is clean. So do everypony a favor, and stop with the conspiracy theories!” says the Mayor angrily.

“But they never make threats or give any warnings! They just do it!”

“Oh, for the love of Celestia, this is getting ridiculous. Can somepony please send Pinkie Pie home?”

And right on cue, Twilight Sparkle, unicorn extraordinaire and proud student of Celestia, gallops to the Mayor with Spike following close behind her, both of them are panting and sweating from their run. Twilight is carrying a saddle bulging with scrolls and other trinkets while Spike is carrying a backpack that probably has adult magazines in it. Over the past decade, Spike’s gotten bigger and he has an odd walking style where sometimes he’ll walk on two feet or on all fours, and his tail and snout have grown too.

“Sorry I’m late, Mayor,” says Twilight in between heavy breathing, “I just got back from Canterlot. The train was late and the Guards were searching everything and everypony because of what happened in Barnville.”

The Mayor merely dismisses Tara’s reason for being late with a wave of her hoof. “Yes, I heard about what happened. It’s tragic, but I’m glad you’re here. Pinkie Pie needs to leave and sleep off her sugar rush. She is losing it.”

“I’m not losing it!” snaps Pinkie Pie, her mane and tail now flat.

“Pinkie Pie, please,” Twilight says sternly while holding up a hoof, then she smiles nervously at the Mayor. “I’ll have Spike take Pinkie Pie home, and I actually have a note from my brother addressed to you. Perhaps we should discuss this inside.”

The Mayor looks at Twilight skeptically when she summons the scroll, and after a moment of awkward silence, she nods and motions Twilight to follow her. “I’m sure I know what this is about. We can’t be too careful nowadays.”

“Funny, that’s what my brother said!” chirps Twilight.

She giggles awkwardly and when the Mayor looks at her unamused, her awkward giggling fades away and ends with her clearing her throat.

“Let's get inside,” says Twilight sheepishly.

“Yes, lets,” says the Mayor unenthusiastically.

“Spike, take Pinkie Pie home. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Spike does a cheesy, two fingered salute. “Sure thing, Twilight.”

When Twilight, the Mayor and the guards walk inside the Town Hall, the doors slam shut and Spike and Pinkie Pie stare at it for a few seconds before looking away. Spike looks at Pinkie Pie while she looks at the ground.

“Are you okay?” asks Spike carefully while putting his hand on her shoulder.

Pinkie Pie pulls away. “No, I’m not okay! Nopony is listening!”

Pinkie Pie stands up and shuffles back to the Sugar Cube Corner with Spike following close behind. She rambles on and on about a mysterious organization attacking the criminal underworld with extreme prejudice, and she talks about what she had found with just newspaper clippings and how she believes that the Mayor is the next target. Her ranting causes some heads to turn; most were quick glances, but others struck up a brief conversation with other ponies in regards to the Element's babbling.

“Why do you think the Mayor is a target for... assassination?” asks Spike uneasily. He’s fully aware of all the stuff that has been happening, but he still has a hard time believing that something horrible like an assassination can happen in Ponyville.

Once outside the Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie Pie stops walking and looks into Spike’s eyes, making him slightly uneasy when he sees the genuine fear in her eyes.

“They think the Mayor’s corrupted,” says Pinkie Pie, her voice trembling a little bit.

Pinkie Pie leads Spike to her room and when she pulls out her map and scrapbook of newspaper clippings, Spike facepalms and grumbles something under his breath about the party pony turning into Twilight. Pinkie Pie pushes the map against the wall and as Spike halfheartedly studies the map, Pinkie Pie opens up the scrapbook to show Spike her findings.

Pinkie Pie starts flipping through the pages. “This organization has been around for a very long time. Like thousands of years long time.”

“So this is an ancient group of assassins?” says Spike unconvinced.

“Well, they weren’t always assassins.”

There is a loud banging noise, making Spike jump slightly and when he turns around to see what made that noise, he sees Pinkie Pie searching through a large encyclopedia in the middle of the room.

“Some of their largest operations took place during the Lunar Revolt. Then they had little spikes during famines, wars, and general times of chaos.” Pinkie Pie closes the encyclopedia and leaps towards her map. “They didn’t kill anypony, or at least they didn’t try to kill anypony. Their targets were specific, like the high ranking jerks in the criminal underworld.”

“Right... so what makes you think this same group is responsible for all that is happening now?” asks Spike while sitting down like a dog, and scratching his ear like one too.

Pinkie Pie frowns at Spike’s careless attitude on the situation. “A lot of stuff, but these ponies followed a pattern, and because of that pattern I was able to track them all the way to their origins from Pre-Lunar Revolt to now. Do you remember what happened to Eclipse?”

Spike snorts. “Yeah, how can I forget that guy. Last I heard he got tossed out of his loft in Canterlot. The newspapers wouldn’t stop talking about it for weeks!”

“Do you remember what he was accused of?”

“Besides trying to take over Ponyville ten years ago?”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes become half lidded and her ears droop, obviously not impressed with Spike’s answer in the slightest sense.

Spike chuckles nervously and scratches his chin while searching his brain for anything related to the deceased criminal lord. When he comes up with nothing, he silently shrugs and Pinkie Pie turns the pages in her scrapbook until she reaches a ten year old, small article that talks about a mysterious fire at the home of a small business owner in Fillydelphia. The summary of the small article is that three dead pegasi were found in the ruins of the fire; a mare, and two fillies. The owner and his third child were nowhere to be found and presumed to be dead. Eclipse was the prime suspect of the atrocity, but further articles showed that there wasn't enough evidence to hold a case against him.

After finishing reading the article clips, Spike rubs his forehead, mumbling: “Oh man.”

Pinkie Pie stares at the map, specifically, at all the attacks the mysterious group has made. “Eclipse’s murder was a declaration of war, and not just against criminals, but against corrupt government officials. And he wants everypony to know what happens when they are on the wrong side of the law.”

“But isn’t vigilantism, you know, illegal? Especially this kind?”

Pinkie Pie sits on her bed and nods in agreement. “Yeah, but whoever this guy is thinks that they are doing Equestria a favor.”

“So how do you plan on stopping this guy?”

“What makes you think I’m going to stop him?”

Spike smirks. “C’mon, Pinkie, I’ve known for a while now. You got all this stuff, and you obviously got the smarts to track this guy down and you aren’t the kind of pony to sit around while that nut is on the loose.”

Pinkie Pie smiles devilishly at Spike and her mane and tail inflate to their cotton candy look. “Oh, Spike, you do know me.”

“So what’s your plan? I’m sure Twilight can help.”

“No, Spike, I don’t want any of my friends getting involved.”

“But they can help.”

“The less they know, the better. This guy means major business and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if any of you guys got hurt because of me.”

Spike walks over to Pinkie Pie with the scrapbook in his claws and gently tosses it on the pink pony’s bed. “But I know or at least have an idea of what you plan on doing. So you might as well use my help.”

Pinkie Pie drags the scrapbook closer and taps her chin a couple of times. “Well, there is one thing you can do...”

Fluttershy is sitting in her living room, reading the depressing newspaper while her radio plays some soft orchestral music. She needs the soft music to help calm her down. With all the attacks going on, she’s afraid to go out of her cabin, and barely has enough courage to walk around Ponyville. At least in her cabin she feels safe and has Angel and the other animals to keep her company.

“We interrupt this music session with a message from Princess Celestia,” says the radio suddenly.

Fluttershy glances at her radio for a second, disappointed that they would interrupt her musical therapy. But since it is Princess Celestia speaking, she decides that she should not be upset by this. The Princess always has nice things to say, after all.

“Hello, my little ponies, this your Princess speaking,” says Celestia, her voice retaining its calm, motherly tone. “I know many of you are scared about what is happening and I cannot say when the attacks will end. But I promise you it will all be over soon. Every branch of the Equestrian government is working in full cooperation with each other in finding those responsible.”

Fluttershy turns the page and reads a blurb about Shining Armor’s response to the most recent attack. He’s calling for a massive joint operation with every level of the Equestrian government to find the terrorist leader, but they don’t have a name and finding those who work for this particular group is like chasing shadows. Or so the rumors go.

“But we cannot let these terrorists divide us. We must remember that a united Equestria is a strong Equestria. We must be strong.”

There is an energetic knocking on the door that makes Flutteshy jump and squeak. When the knocking resumes, she cautiously approaches the door, suspicious as to who would be coming by her cabin at this time of night.

“We must remember what it means for Harmony to reign.”

Fluttershy takes a deep breath and then opens the door. Her eyes widen when she sees who’s standing in her doorway with the always present smile. “Oh, hello Pinkie Pie. What are you doing here?”

Pinkie Pie greets Fluttershy as she bounces in the cabin. Fluttershy peeks out out of sake of putting her paranoia to ease before closing and locking the door. When the door is locked she turns around and sees Pinkie Pie going through her closet.

“And above all else...”

“Um... are you okay, Pinkie Pie?” asks Fluttershy, head cocked slightly.

“I’m fine, I just need to grab something real quick,” says Pinkie Pie cheerfully.

Pinkie Pie’s smile broadens and she pulls out her Mare-Do-Well costume, looking just as good as when she and her friends retired from this sort of business ten years back.

“We must be vigilant.”

The sun is barely setting by the time Nurse Redheart enters her home. As much as she is happy to be home, she is too exhausted to show it. Her new task is eating away at her like a swarm of termites on rotten wood, and the paranoia closing in around her is not helping her mood. She is certain someone has been watching her, and she knows she got some strange looks from the mingling townsfolk when she returned with the metal casing on her back.

Redheart wearily locks the door behind her and peeks out her window to see if anyone is watching before she shuts the curtains tight. She then carries her belongings up to her room, moves her bed out of the way and puts the weapon in a large, hidden safe built into the floor. After locking her gear away and pushing the bed back in place, she goes to her kitchen to make some tea, despite her body telling her to take a nap instead. But before she can get the water prepped, she hears a frantic rapping on the door.

“That better not be Pinkie Pie...” grumbles Redheart to herself.

She peers through the peephole and her eyes bulge when she sees Twilight’s number one assistant standing in front of her, panting and sweating.

She opens the door and just a bit so only her face can show. “Spike? Are you alright?”

“Redheart! Ye-You gotta come quick! There-There’s a uh a poor pony who’s hurt really bad and-and needs your help!” says Spike urgently.

Redheart doesn’t hesitate to follow Spike. They oddly run through the alleys, like Spike doesn’t want to be seen with her. Redheart’s gut is telling her that she’s being led to a trap, but she pushes aside the doubt since Spike is a trusted member of Ponyville. Besides, why would he lie about someone being injured? However, Redheart’s nagging doubts become more vocal when she realizes that they are on the outskirts of Ponyville, and when they are in Whitetail Wood, she skids to a stop and orders Spike to stop. He immediately stops and looks at Redheart innocently.

“We’ve been running for a while now, and I’m starting to think that this whole injured pony thing is fabricated!” accuses Redheart.

“You’re right, I made it up,” admits Spike.

Suddenly, a familiar masked purple vigilante drops out of a tree and lands next to Redheart, prompting the nurse to leap back and coil her body in a defensive stance.

“Mare-Do-Well,” sneers Redheart.

“Spike, you can go. I got this under under control,” says Mare-Do-Well in an obviously disguised voice.

“You sure?” asks Spike.

Mare-Do-Well nods and Spike hesitantly runs away without another word. When Spike’s out of sight and earshot, the two ponies start circling each other, each of them ready to pounce in an instant.

“You were the one following me, weren't you, Mysterious Mare-Do-Well?” says Redheart coldly.

“Team effort, actually, but I don't want to fight you or anything. I just want to talk.”

“What makes you think I’m going to talk?”

“Intuition.”

Redheart scoffs. “Wow, great answer there. Bravo. Bra-vo!”

“I know that you’ve been given an order to assassinate the Mayor.”

Redheart stops walking and glares at Mare-Do-Well. How this vigilante wannabe figured out her mission is beyond her, but that just adds to the number of threats she has to deal with now. There’s no telling how much she knows.

“You aren’t a killer, Redheart. I am begging you, don’t carry out the order. Ponyville is one of the few places where your organization-”

“I have no choice!” snaps Redheart. She coils her body in preparation to charge Mare-Do-Well, who, in turn, braces herself for the coming attack. “Ponyville is my responsibility and I let things slip up, and now I have to fix it!”

“Redheart, there is another way to do it, though! You don't have to do this!”

“Yes I do!”

Redheart screams and charges Mare-Do-Well, and the masked vigilante gracefully side steps the charge and does a flip that defies the laws of physics. She lands on Redheart’s back, kicking up mulch when the nurse's body is slammed into the ground. Redheart squirms underneath the masked mare, but when a hoof strike her on the neck, she feels all of her muscles become lax and she finds herself unable to move. Now she starts panicking. If she wasn’t paralyzed she’d be shaking right now.

“You can’t stop us, Mare-Do-Well,” chuckles Redheart anxiously as she’s turned on her back, her body covered in leaves and twigs. “You may have captured me, but they’ll just send somepony else. And after they deal with Mayor Scroll they’ll come after you for meddling with our business.”

Mare-Do-Well presses her hoof against Redheart's collar. “Tell me where your boss is!”

“Not going to do it. As much as he has changed, I will never give him up.”

“Ponies are dying! Doesn’t that mean anything to you!?”

“Of course it does! I’m a nurse for Celestia’s sake! The last thing I want to see is a dead pony!”

“Then why continue to work for him?”

“I have no choice... commitment is lifelong and besides... it’s for the Greater Good.”

Mare-Do-Well steps off of Redheart, and she tries once again to move. She can move a little bit, but not all she can manage is a wiggle, but that is enough to give her just a little bit of relief, knowing that the damage isn’t permanent.

“I’m handing you over to the guards,” says Mare-Do-Well as she stands next to the nurse's head, “and maybe while you’re there you’ll think about how expensive this ‘Greater Good’ is.”

The last thing Redhart sees before her world goes dark is a boot to her face.

Author's Notes:

Edited 10 Aug 2014