The Museum, in the Front Room

As the two ponies entered through the front doors, Pinkie said, “Wow. It actually feels real comfy in here.”

Scootaloo replied, “I know. Isn't it great? You'd think these clouds'd make it so it was always cold. But, as it turns out, that isn't how it works after all. They keep out too much heat and cold, so it's the perfect temperature all the time.”

The pink earth mare yawned as she said, “Well, I say we stay here for tonight.” She then proceeded to settle into a sphinx-style position as she continued, “We can continue searching for the friendship problem tomorrow.”

The orange pegasetta ambled to the representative of laughter and settled into a sphinx-style position of her own as she yawned, “Good idea. I'm tired.” After that, she lowered her head next to Pinkie's closest forelimb.

The pink party pony smiled as she lowered her head next to Scootaloo's. Within minutes the two were asleep.

Perhaps an hour later, Pinkie heard a voice, a familiar one, say, “Pinkie, I want you to see something.”

Sleepily, the pink party pony raised her head slowly and started looking around. Yawning, she asked, “Rainbow Dash? Is that you?”

From the wall opposite her from Scootaloo, the voice answered, “Over here.”

Pinkie focused on the wall, and saw an opening she hadn't noticed when she and Scootaloo had first entered the museum. Which wasn't much of a surprise. After all, she and her crusader companion were so tired when they went through those doors, the only thing Pinkie really noticed was how pleasant the temperature was in that room. Any way, to her surprise, she saw her friend's head floating there. Not wanting to wake the crusader sleeping next to her, Pinkie stifled the urge to leap up and shout, which she would've done had she been alone there, and instead whispered, “It's so good to see you again! Scootaloo's here too! We're here to find and solve a friendship problem! Have you come across any lately?”

Rainbow Dash's head shook a couple times before she answered, “I'm glad to see you, too.” The opening grew in size, revealing more of the azure pegasa, and she gestured for the pink earth mare to join her as she continued, “Come over here, you gotta see this.”

Pinkie turned and looked down at the orange foal at her side, then back to her fellow element bearer, and asked, “What about Scootaloo? Don't you think she'll wanna see it too?”

The representative of loyalty answered, “You can just let her sleep. She can have a look at it later after she wakes up. I just thought you'd wanna see it first.”

Pinkie started slowly rising to all fours, being as careful as she could to not disturb the sleeping crusader. Then, when she was in all-fours position, she side-stepped a pace or two to make sure she didn't wake her companion. When she was sure she hadn't disturbed the foal, she turned and quietly ambled toward the azure pegasa. When she was close enough, she asked, one last time turning back to Scootaloo, “So, what's this thing you want to show me?”

Smiling, Rainbow Dash U-turned, then, once she had Pinkie's attention, gestured ahead of her and said, “Just follow me. I think you'll like it.”

Pinkie shrugged and sighed before saying, “Well, alright, if you say so.” And, she followed her friend, beginning to wonder if she was dreaming, through the door. Then, a few paces inside the hallway, she heard the door slam loudly behind her. Alarmed by the sudden sound and worried about her companion, she turned and galloped back toward the door. Pounding on it, she called out, “Scootaloo, wake up!” Realizing the door was refusing to open, the party pony pounded all the harder and screamed, “Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and I are trapped in here! You gotta get us out!” She then turned around to see that her azure friend had disappeared. Pushing away from the door, she whimpered, “Rainbow Dash?” She repeated the name a little louder, frantically looking around and still not seeing her friend. Finally, she collapsed into a canine-style position as she cried, “Rainbow Dash!”

In the mean time, the sound of the door slamming was enough to wake the sleeping pegasetta, who immediately leapt to all fours. She looked to her side where the pink party pony had been, but couldn't find her. Then she heard the earth mare's voice from the distant wall call out, “Scootaloo, wake up!”

Flaring her wings, the orange foal called out, “Pinkie? Is that you? Where are you?”

Again she heard the party pony's voice, this time calling, “Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash and I are trapped in here! You gotta get us out!”

Hearing the name of her heroine was all she needed. Excitedly, Scootaloo galloped to the wall where she heard the voice as she called out, “Rainbow Dash? You found Rainbow Dash in there?” Then, when she didn't hear anything further, she started to panic. Folding her wings again, she started tapping on the wall where she'd heard the pink earth mare's voice. Putting her ear to the wall, she thought she heard a muffled cry from her companion. Moving her head away from the wall, then pointing her nose to it, she called out, “Pinkie, are you in there with Rainbow Dash?”

Hearing the crusader's voice, Pinkie stopped crying and approached the door where she'd followed her friend into the hallway. Propping herself up against the door, she called out, “Scootaloo, is that you?”

From her side of the door, Scootaloo heard the pink earth mare's question. Answering, she called out, “Yeah, it's me!”

Pinkie, still frightened, called out, “I … I found Rainbow Dash in here, and … I think she trapped me! B-but, it's a hallway, so there's gotta be a way out! I'm gonna follow it to … wherever it goes, but I want you to search for a key or something, … just in case I can't find another open door here! Do you understand me!?”

Scootaloo listened to the pink earth mare, then answered, “Yeah, alright!” She then pushed away from the door and started searching along the walls, away from the entrance, in search of either a key or a door that would lead further into the building.

In the mean time, Pinkie pushed away from the door and allowed herself to fall to all fours again. Still frightened, as much for herself as for her companion, she started sniffing at the walls, along the edge of the floor, hoping to find a door that might open.

The Museum, in the Commander Hurricane Room

It wasn't long before Scootaloo found a door, opposite the entrance, that lead into a huge room with what looked like military armor from a civilization that must've existed a few thousand years ago. And, in the middle of the room was a fellow pegasa, suspended between the floor and the ceiling by four chains attached to her hooves. And, those hooves were stretched out so that her chest and abdomen were fully exposed.

When the pegasa spoke, Scootaloo recognized her. She said, “Scootaloo, you need to get me out of here. Please, help me before she comes back.”

Curiosity and excitement coloring her voice, the pegasetta asked, “Fluttershy?”

Focused on the pegasa's face, Scootaloo watched the lips move. But, instead of the voice of the representative of kindness, she heard the voice of her heroine saying words that didn't fit the movement of the lips. What she heard was: “Scootaloo, will you kindly kill Fluttershy?”

Suddenly the crusader felt extremely relaxed, as though she was dreaming again. In that state, she said, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.”

As she turned away from the hanging pegasa, she heard the voice add, “And, when you're done, will you kindly clean off whatever you use to kill her? Leave no evidence of what you did.”

Again, Scootaloo, feeling as though she was in a dream, answered, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.”

When Fluttershy heard Scootaloo say, “Yes, Rainbow Dash,” she said, “No, wait, Scootaloo. I know you don't want to hear this. I can't believe I'm saying this. But, you can't trust her. I don't know what it is, but something's gone wrong up here. I don't know what she told you to do, but please, don't do it.”

All Fluttershy could do after that was watch as the pegasetta opened a pair of wings that were attached to her, yet obviously not hers, then flap them to rise into the air.

Seeing the crusader turn to her, hovering, and produce a blade from one of her hooves, the yellow pegasa smiled as she said, “Yes, you can use that to cut these things, you can free me from—” It was about then that she realized that Scootaloo wasn't targeting the cuffs with her blade, nor was she targeting the chains. Realizing that Scootaloo was targeting her, the representative of kindness said, “No. No, Scootaloo. Don't do this.”

The Ponyville Castle, in the Map Room

Twilight had been so worried about the party pony and the foal heading to Cloudsdale, she was unable to sleep. Hoping for any information on how the mission was going, she paced around the table, map still visible, hoping for some kind of update.

Suddenly, her cutie mark radiated a crimson light.

Seeing this, and knowing of no cutie mark that had never done such a thing before, Twilight began to fear the worst. Hopping into the chair closest to where the map was showing Cloudsdale, she propped herself up on the table and, shaking her head, started rapidly repeating the word, “No.”

She stopped when she saw Fluttershy's cutie mark of three butterflies with pink wings appear above the floating cloud city.

Grinning wildly, she said, “They found Fluttershy. That means they're rescuing her.”

Then her grin faded as the familiar cutie mark expanded and became fuzzy, unfocused, then faded and disappeared. And, only when Fluttershy's cutie mark disappeared did her own mark stop radiating.

Anyone observing Twilight at that moment would think she'd started melting as she collapsed onto her haunches. Her ears, devoid of strength, collapsed like trees over their openings; and the purple unicorn slowly shook her head as she whimpered, “No. Oh, Fluttershy, no.”

At that moment, Discord appeared with a wheezing pop and said, “Excuse me, but I just felt something … strange. Did something happen?”

The purple alicorn slowly turned to the draconequus, but said nothing. In fact, her only movement was her head.

Discord turned to the map, then back to Twilight, then grabbed her shoulders in his forelimbs and, shaking her, demanded, “Tell me what happened!”

All the representative of magic could stammer out was “F-f-fluttershy … m-m-map.”

The reformed spirit of chaos and disharmony released the purple alicorn, then disappeared for a moment. Then, when he reappeared, one would've thought he'd seen a ghost, or perhaps a perfect paradise, whatever could terrify a draconequus. He glided backwards against the wall behind him, as though an unseen force had thrown him, before saying, “No, not my Fluttershy. Not my Fluttershy.” And, immediately he started melting, literally.

The Museum, Starting in the Mares' Room

Scootaloo was meticulous in cleaning the mess from the yellow pegasa, a mess that had started to stain the blade she'd used. Meticulous, and yet fast. One might expect her job to take hours, but she had the job done in a minute, if that long. And, before heading to the mare's room, somehow she'd managed to use the pegasa's skin to close her wound, making it impossible to tell that Fluttershy had been stabbed at all, much less where she'd been stabbed. Scootaloo had managed to clean up the mess, all evidence of what she'd done there, in a matter of seconds.

As the blade disappeared back into that hoof, Scootaloo heard Rainbow Dash say, “Now, will you kindly wake up, and remember none of this.” And so it was. The dream ended, leaving behind no evidence of what had happened.

Scootaloo shook her head to clear it, then looked around. Seeing all the facilities, she wondered aloud, “What am I doing in the mares' room?” Now growing concerned, she left the room and headed back toward the front room where she and Pinkie Pie had slept. Then she realized that Pinkie had wanted her to go back for a key to that door that had locked on her. She'd found a door that would open, opposite the entrance to the museum. She entered, and then, … and then, … she couldn't remember. Had something happened in that room? What was it?

Then she entered one room, where a strange and frightening smell assaulted her nostrils. Something bad had happened in this room, something really bad. But, what was it?

The crusader approached an object in the center of the room, a display she'd never seen before. Then, she realized the smell was coming from that display. What was it? And, why did it smell so bad?

As the pegasetta circled around the display toward the door, she caught a glimpse of part of it, a silhouette, shaped like a pony's head. At first she thought it was just a wax display, but then she realized that a wax display wouldn't smell like that. Who is, who was, this? She, she isn't alive anymore, is she?

The Museum, in the Hallway

Pinkie had managed to find her way to the opposite end of the hallway, one that had turned gradually, until she found another door. Actually, the fact of the matter was she'd found maybe ten doors between the one at the beginning of the hallway, the one that had trapped her, and the one at this other end. But, she hadn't been able to open any of them. This was the last door, and the pink earth mare pushed at it, hoping it'd open.

At first the door didn't open, and the representative of laughter was left with the hope that Scootaloo could find a key, or a set of keys, that would be able to open either this door, or the door to that front room.

As Pinkie rested her head against the door, she heard a high-pitched, muffled scream from the other side. Remembering how these doors only seemed to allow sound through them as long as a pony was propped up against, or perhaps at least touching it, Pinkie propped herself up against the door and called out, “Scootaloo, is that you?” And, that's when the door collapsed.

The Museum, in the Commander Hurricane Room

What frightened Scootaloo more than anything wasn't the fact that the mare was dead. It was the fact that she recognized her as the bearer of the element of kindness, Fluttershy. But, how had she died? She looked healthy, so she hadn't died of sickness. And, there were no visible injuries. Had the shock of being unable to move, of being suspended by those chains, been too much for her? Highly unlikely. In general, ponies were more sturdy than that. So, how had Fluttershy died?

Scootaloo was about to check for unseen injuries when she heard a crash on one side of the room, but not from any of the doors where she'd entered. Panicking, she flew to the door where she'd first entered the room, hoping to escape whatever was about to attack her.

That is, until she heard a familiar voice call out, “It's alright, it's me.”

Turning to the source of the voice, the crusader said, “Pinkie Pie?”

The pink party pony smiled and nodded her head as she answered, “That's me!” Then, she noticed the smell and stopped nodding immediately. Using a front hoof to cover her nose, she groaned in disgust and asked, “What's that smell?”

The orange pegasetta pointed to the hanging corpse and answered, “It's Fluttershy.”

Pinkie gasped as she approached the hanging body of her friend. She reached out and touched the pegasa's chest with the front hoof that wasn't covering her nose, then collapsed into a canine-style position. Turning her sad look to the pegasetta, she asked, “How did she die?”

Scootaloo shook her head as she answered, “I don't know. I couldn't find anything that'd indicate how she died.” She stopped shaking her head as she continued, “All I know is I came in here after you told me to search for a key to open the door. Then, next thing I knew, I was in the mares' room. I came back in here, and I found Fluttershy hanging there, dead.”

Again Pinkie turned to the hanging body of her friend. Realizing that the smell was coming from the dead body, she reached out, this time with the hoof she'd used to cover her nose. A tear leaked from each of her eyes as she touched her friend's abdomen, then quickly pulled the forelimb away. Turning back to her companion, she said, “Scootaloo, w-we … w-we need to g-get F-fluttershy's b-b-body down from th-there. W-w-we … can't j-just l-l-leave her l-like that.”

The crusader approached the pink earth mare and agreed, “You're right.” She then added, “But, how are we supposed to do that?”

Pinkie, struggling to keep her emotions in check, answered, “W-well, you c-can fly, right? And, you also h-have w-w-weapons in your h-hooves. C-c-can't you … can't you use th-those weapons … t-t-to … t-t-to …”

Scootaloo knew that Pinkie and Fluttershy were friends. And, she also knew what Pinkie was asking. Flying up and over to the chain that held the yellow pegasa's left forelimb in place, she said, “Just give me a moment.” She then raised the hoof that had fired the energy spheres and aimed it at the closest chain.

Immediately a sphere of energy started to form. But, it exploded on contact with the chain, and destroyed it.

Scootaloo, seeing the attempt was successful, drifted to the chain holding Fluttershy's right forelimb in place and repeated the procedure.

Again the energy sphere appeared, again it exploded on contact with the chain, and that chain was destroyed.

With nothing holding her in place, Fluttershy's body collapsed forward onto Pinkie Pie.

The representative of laughter caught her friend's body, and immediately forfeited her battle with her emotions.

As her companion started sobbing over the death of her friend, Scootaloo went to work freeing the corpse from the remaining chains. Only afterward did she join the pink earth mare in mourning the loss of the representative of kindness.