Rainbow exited the auditorium and entered the hallway leading to Vice Principal Luna’s office, her head bowed low. “How could Spitfire do something so stupid?”

Getting to her locker a few moments later, she opened it up, taking out and pocketing a flash drive. Finished, she shut the door and headed to Luna’s office. When she got there, Rainbow saw Spitfire Angel, Lunar Jewel, Sugar Rain, Shadow Dancer, Snow Glacier, Misty Fireheart, and Midnight Star already present, sitting in chairs around Luna's desk.

“Are you sure this is necessary?” Rainbow asked, entering the office “I mean, we could just--”

“Miss Dash, I am only going to say this once,” Luna began, not taking her eyes off of Spitfire, who had her head bowed low. “This needs to happen. We cannot allow what has transpired to happen again, so please, sit down.” Luna gestured to an empty chair next to Spitfire.

Sighing heavily, Rainbow took her seat, placing the flash drive onto Luna’s desk just as six officers walked in. One was wearing a silver badge that had the letters D.E.A. on it. The other five simply wore patrol officer uniforms, the dark colors perfectly matching their dour expressions.

“Thank you for coming,” Luna began sternly looking to Spitfire. “I am sorry, Spitfire but even if all this didn’t come out how it did, we still would have had to bring you into this. I just wish it hadn't been this way.”

“Vice Principal Luna, I can explain,” Spitfire began nervously. “I didn’t know what was going on. At least...not at first.”

The silver-badged officer spoke up. “Young lady, I am Drug Enforcement Agent Winter Skies, and your vice principal contacted local police officers due to one of your fellow students winding up in the hospital from a nearly fatal drug overdose, so don’t tell us you didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Agent Skies, please, I can handle this,” Luna said. She turned her attention back to the teenagers. “Now, as you know, there have been drug tests performed on each of you as part of the procedure of joining our school's soccer team. Those tests came back positive for the following students: Shadow Dancer, Midnight Star, Snow Glacier, Misty Fireheart, and Lightning Dust. Not only this, but we have evidence of the aforementioned students selling their drugs on the side. While I do believe that Spitfire didn’t know anything about this until a few months ago, as team captain, she is responsible for your actions both on the field and off the field. Spitfire didn't report what you girls were doing and in so doing so she broke the law and school rules." She turned her gaze solely on Spitfire. "Why didn't you come forward with this when you first found out?"

“I...I wanted us to win. I was so tired of Crystal Prep beating us at every sport that I decided to look the other way if it meant we'd finally come out on top.” Spitfire didn’t look up from her chair as she continued, “But, I knew what they were doing was dangerous, and I wanted to get it out somehow, so after we won, I told what was going on to Anon-a-Miss. I don't know which of the three posted this, but I'm glad she did.”

With a deep sad sigh, Luna interjected, “So, you knew that the girls next to you were using performance-enhancing drugs, and you let them stay on the team for a stupid trophy!”

“Yeah. I admit that I screwed up. Royally screwed up.”

“Yes, you did. And you should know that even when I saw the post on MyStable, I was less than convinced; I was not only hesitant to believe that our very own team cheated to win the state championship but also hesitant to believe that Sunset Shimmer, who I thought was Anon-a-Miss at the time, wasn't just spreading lies to hurt people. However, when I saw Winter Knight’s sister Storming Dusk in the hospital from a drug overdose, I was finally convinced and helped to build this case against you all. But what I can’t understand is why you all thought it was a good idea to do this in the first place.”

“It's like Spitfire said: We wanted to win. And we did just that,” Lunar Jewel said not looking up.

“Well, I hope you're happy, because now, we have to give up the state championship and tell Crystal Prep that they were right about all of you!” Luna nearly screamed in anger towards all the girls causing all but Rainbow to whence in fear.

Sugar Rain looked up in shock, saying, “Hey, that’s not fair! Why should we have to give up the trophy, and why isn’t Rainbow in trouble while the rest of us are?”

“We have to give up the trophy because you cheated! That's what happens when you cheat: You're disqualified from the competition, even if it has to be retroactive," Luna yelled.

Winter Skies began, "And Rainbow isn’t going to go to jail because she helped us with this case.The district attorney offered her immunity from prosecution in exchange for her help with this case. Each time any of you sold drugs or made an attempt to, she would either take a photo of it or record it with her phone.” Winter Skies locked eyes with Spitfire, who gulped in return as he continued, “Her phone would then be given to one of the faculty members, who would compile the phone's material onto a hard drive. Rainbow was instructed not to talk about this until I told her it was time to deal with it.”

Snow Glacier looked over at Rainbow. “Why would you turn on your own teammates like this, Rainbow?”

“I did it because it was the right thing to do, Snow Glacier. I'm already gonna lose my scholarship because of this. I'm not going to jail for what you did, too.”

"Wait, that doesn't make sense, Rainbow," Spitfire injected. "Why would you lose your scholarship for something we did?"

Angrily, Rainbow replied, "I'm the reason Storming Dusk was sent to the hospital that day. You all used lemonade to take and sell your drugs, remember? I snagged a bottle without knowing what it was and shared it with Storming Dusk. She had a reaction to it and collapsed into my arms. Shortly after she and I got to the hospital, I learned what was going on, but it didn't matter. The university that had offered the scholarship to me caught wind of this and revoked it, not wanting to take their chances on whether or not I knew I was taking drugs. So, yeah, I'm already getting punished for your shit, but I'm sure as hell not going to jail for it."

After a moment of silence, Midnight Star looked down, saying, “What will happen to us now?”

“Well,” Luna began. “You all are expelled and you will face jail for what you did, but if you work with Winter Skies and not try to hinder the investigation, I am sure he’ll put a good word in to help you get a light sentence.”

Everyone except Rainbow stood up to be arrested and read their Miranda rights. Lightning Dust yelled out while she was being cuffed, “This isn’t over, Rainbow! You can bet my family will come after you! I'll make sure of it!”

Winter Skies picked up the flash drive and pocketed it saying, “Go ahead and make more trouble for yourself. It’ll make you're waiting around in a cell all the longer. So keep threatening Rainbow. See how long it takes to get that phone call.”

As the officers took each of the girls out of the office, Luna watched in sadness, saying to Rainbow, “Well, that's that. Thanks for your help, Rainbow. You should return to class.”

“Alright, but before I go, I have a question.”

“And that would be?”

“I heard rumors that you're going to have a dance to raise spirits after Sunset's death. Is that true?”

“Yes, but that dance is more for the new freshmen of the new year and an attempt to reach out to and increase rapport with the other schools. Why do you ask?”

“I would like to help out if that's alright with you.”

"I think that would be a great idea. We could use all the help that we can get. Please be here by five-thirty tonight to help us finish getting everything set up. Before you go, I have some tickets for you and your friends, since you all had a close connection to Sunset." Luna walked over to her filing cabinet and took out six tickets, handing them to Rainbow. "Don't lose those; they cost twenty-five dollars per ticket. And Rainbow?

"Yes?"

"I am sorry you had to lose your scholarship for what happened with the Wonderbolts. If you'd like, I can talk to the school board. Perhaps we can find some means of an understanding and get you back on the team. And I might be able to talk to the university as well. Just promise me you won't repeat that stupid mistake those other five did."

“I promise. Thank you, Vice Principal Luna. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“You're very welcome. Now, please go to class. We can discuss what you’ll be helping me with when you see me after school, alright?”

“Right.”

Rainbow headed out of Luna’s office. Soon, Luna headed out as well to go to her sister's office, stopping by Pearl Dusk's office along with the way. “Pearl, do you have the flyers ready for the dance-and-greet?”

“Yes. They're all printed and ready for distribution.”

“Good. I need to check over them, so it’ll be a little bit before I send them out. Oh, do you know how Vinyl is doing?”

“Last I heard, she still hasn't woken up.”

Her spirits falling even lower, Luna decided to get a coffee before meeting with Celestia. She needed something to calm herself down.

---

The ambulance screamed out of the alleyway with Dumbbell in back, the paramedics working furiously to keep him from flatlining. Jade, her work there done, got into her car, staring bitterly at the three other officers who remained behind at the scene. As her rookie partner got in as well, her eyes fell to the responding officer, the one who had stayed behind with Dumbbell.

“I should drag that idiot to Internal Affairs for what he pulled here today!”

“Internal Affairs?” the rookie began. “Sergeant, don’t you think you're overreacting?”

“Overreacting?" Jade snapped, her eyes slightly widening in shock. "Moonlight, he opened fire on an unarmed person! Do you know how serious that is?”

"B-But, you saw what she did to that kid. She was clearly dangerous!"

With a light sigh, Jade said, "Yeah, I saw what she did. The problem is, the board hasn't, and they may not be as understanding. In my ten years on the force, I've seen good cops go down for what that officer pulled here today, and if I don't dole out consequences for his rash actions, then I look bad, too." She paused, then continued. "Maybe I can get away with just chewing him out and leaving it at that. Lucky for us, he missed. If he had actually shot her, that would have opened up a whole can of worms that our department doesn't need right now."

Jade started up the car, pulling out of the alleyway into the street towards the hospital. Getting there twenty minutes later, Jade was just about to step out of the car when she heard over the radio, “Car Three-Four-Six, come in, please.”

Slightly rolling her eyes in irritation, Jade picked up her dash radio, saying, “This is Officer Jade. Go ahead, Dispatch.”

“The EMT reported in. The victim is DOA.”

Jade’s eyes widened with anger as she replied, “What!? Repeat that last transmission!”

“Roger. The EMT reported in. The victim is DOA.”

Throwing the dashboard radio into her dashboard, Jade screamed out, “Fucking hell!” causing Moonlight to jump slightly.

Getting out of her car Jade slammed her door shut, and rushed into the hospital, followed by Moonlight, both finding the receptionist desk a few moments later. After getting Vinyl's room number from the receptionist, Jade headed down the hallway towards Vinyl's room with Moonlight in tow. Entering Vinyl's room, Jade said to Moonlight, “I want you to stay here and keep an eye on her. Let no one--and I mean no one--in this room unless I approve of it. Do you understand me, Moonlight?”

“Yes ma’am, but why?” Officer Moonlight looked at Vinyl as her heart monitor bleeped out its dull monotone. “Is she a witness of some sort?”

“Dumbbell is dead, which means his father will want to know what happened to him, which means he'll do whatever it takes to get that information from anyone that he feels has that information. At Dumbbell's preliminary hearing, his ass of a father made several verbal threats against Vinyl and Octavia.” Turning to leave, Jade continued, “I need to go to CHS to get Octavia. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“I understand. I’ll make sure that no one enters this room unless it's a medical team.”

Nodding her reply, Jade headed out of the hospital, getting back on the road several moments later, headed for CHS.

---

Pinkie nervously walked down the hall towards Celestia office, a rough draft of an article she'd written clutched in her hands.

“I hope Principal Celestia lets this go in the paper. Someone has to speak out for Sunset,” Pinkie muttered to herself, not noticing Brushed Jade coming in through the front doors as she approached the principal's office.

Pinkie's musings were cut off when Jade said, “Hey shouldn’t you be in class?”

Looking up from her paper, Pinkie said, “Oh, uh, hi, officer. Can I help you find someone?”

“No, I just need to see Principal Celestia. Thanks, though.”

"What a coincidence! So am I," Pinkie said, giggling a bit. The two continued to head towards Celestia's office. They knocked on the door and waited.

Soon, the two heard Celestia said, “Come in.”

Pinkie entered the office, seeing Celestia scrunch her eyebrows their eyes met. Pinkie quickly said, “I have something I'd like to place in our school's news---”

“Shouldn’t you be in class, Pinkie?” Celestia interrupted. Turning her attention to Jade, she continued, “Jade, I’ll be with you in just a moment.”

Pinkie said, “I know I should be in class right now, but this is really important.”

“More important than getting a proper education? I find that hard to believe.”

Handing over her work, Pinkie sniffed, fighting back her tears. “It’s for Sunny. I wanted to do this for her, so I'd really appreciate it if you could add this to the school's newspaper.”

Getting up from behind her desk, Principal Celestia replied calmly, opening her door, “I’ll look this over in a little bit. Now please go to class. I’ll call you in during lunch hour, alright?”

“Alright. Thank you, Principal Celestia.”

Seeing her out, Principal Celestia sat back down, saying to Brushed Jade, “Now that she's gone, what can I do for you, Jade?”

“I came here to get Octavia and to talk to you about something. It's...rather disturbing, but I feel that you should be the first to hear it.”

“Alright. Let me call Octavia in, then we can talk.”

“I would rather you wait till I've said my piece.”

Seeing a worried look on Brushed Jade's face, Celestia gulped, saying,

“A-Alright. What do you need to tell me.”

“I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Dumbbell Stallion has passed away about an hour ago. He was viciously assaulted earlier this morning."

"That's horrible!" Celestia said. "Do you have any idea who did it?"

"Well, that's the difficult part. I think the person that did this to Dumbbell was...” Looking down with worry showing in her eyes, Jade continued, “Sunset Shimmer.”

Celestia took a moment to take it in, then said angrily, "I never took you for the joking type, Jade. Maybe you should keep it that way."

"I'm serious!" Jade protested. "I saw her clearly as I see you now. I didn't want to believe it either, but It was Sunset."

Celestia, still incredulous, saw the sincerity in Jade's eyes, and several emotions raced through her, mostly anger over what was either a very poorly timed joke or a very obvious mistake and fear at the implications of Jade being correct. Frowning deeply, Celestia forced herself to remain calm as she pressed a button on her intercom, saying, “Octavia Treble Clef, come to the principal's office, please.”

“Celestia, please. You can’t just ignore this.”

Despite Jade's words, Celestia remained silent for the few minutes it took for Octavia to arrive, forcing Jade to change the subject. Instead, Jade forced a professional face and said. “Hello, Octavia. I’m glad to see you today.” Seeing the blue cast on Octavia's right arm, Jade continued, “How's your arm doing?”

“Hello, Officer Jade. My arm should be healed within a few weeks. However, the doctor said that...I might not be able to play the cello again.” Looking down as a look of profound sadness came over her, she continued, “It was my elbow, forearm and wrist that broke, and if they don’t heal correctly, I could lose the sensitivity and dexterity a cellist needs to play.” Octavia glanced from Jade to Celestia and back as she changed the subject. “May I ask what is this all about?”

Cutting to the chase, Jade said, “I need to place you into protective custody, at least for a little while. Would you like me to call your father about this?”

“No, I can take care of that. How are you going to protect Vinyl while she's in the hospital?”

“I have already taken care of that. There is a police officer watching over her now.”

With nothing else needing to be said, Jade escorted Octavia back to her squad car. Getting in, she heard over the radio, “Dispatch to all units. Officer down at Canterlot Hospital. Repeat, officer down at Canterlot Hospital.”

“Copy that, Dispatch. Three-Four-Six responding. ETA: fifteen minutes.” Jade said to Octavia, “Get up front, buckle in, and hang on.”

Doing as she was told, Octavia quickly sat in the passenger seat and buckled in. Jade started up the car, turned the sirens on, then careened out of the parking lot, headed for the hospital, leaving twin streaks of burnt rubber on the pavement.

---

Principal Celestia, having seen the scene from her office window, sighed, returning to her desk as her sister walked into her office.

“Tia, we need to go over what you are going to say at the school board meeting this Thursday.”

“I know, Lu. I just don’t have the stomach for it right now.”

“Are you worried about what was in Sunset's letter?”

Looking for a diversion, Celestia picked up Pinkie’s paper and handed it to her sister, saying, “What do you think Lu? Should we publish this in the school newspaper?”

Quickly looking it over, Luna’s eyes slightly widened with concern as she said, “Did Miss Pie really write this?”

“Yes, she did. I find the title to be kind of fitting for all that happened here over the last six weeks.”

“Yes, I think this would be something everyone needs to see. You could also use it to help prevent something like this from happening again.”

“Really? How so?”

“We have a new group of freshman coming in at the end of next month. During orientation, show them this article and make it clear that this really did happen and that bullying of any sort will not be tolerated at all.”

Celestia got up and looked outside of her office window again, saying just as the bell rang, signalling the end of the first period, “I told Pinkie I would look over her work and get back to her by lunch. Instead, take that to Pearl and have it printed right away in the school's paper. Get the newspaper club to have it copied and ready to go by tomorrow.” Turning around as her sister was about to walk out of her office, Celestia continued, “If Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon give you any trouble at all about this, send them to me. They often need to be reminded that I have final say in what goes into the school's paper and what does not.”

“Will do. I will have the first print ready for you by tonight.”

“Thank you, Luna. Now, I need to get some work done. Please send Twilight in when you get the chance to do so.”

“I will.”

Luna exited the room, leaving Celestia to ruminate over the upcoming school board meeting and Jade's ominous news. Celestia was not at all looking forward to the coming week.

Next Chapter: Next on the List (Edited and Titled by Icecreammac) Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 18 Minutes