Cloudsdale, in the Streets

As they'd done with Fluttershy's body, Pinkie carried Mayor Mare's body back to the balloon, while Scootaloo made sure it didn't slide off the pink earth mare's back.

After dumping the tan earth mare's body on top of that of the yellow pegasa, Scootaloo and Pinkie Pie slumped down into sphinx-style positions.

The pegasetta complained, “I still can't believe we weren't in time to save Mayor Mare. What's going on here, anyway?”

Pinkie rested her head between her front hooves as she answered, “I don't know. What I do know is that we need to find out. Just let me know when you're ready, and we'll go to the town hall and look for information there.”

Scootaloo asked, “You know where that is?” She then watched as her companion slowly raised her head, nodded, then lowered it again, before asking, “How?”

At this point, Pinkie raised her head again and turned to the filly before answering, “When you disappeared yesterday, just after we arrived, I went searching for you. I didn't search in any buildings, I just went along streets, calling for you. And, along the way, I saw all sorts of buildings, including the town hall. In fact, I found it on the first or second road where I was searching for you.”

At this point, the crusader rose to all fours before asking, “And, that'd be?”

Seeing her companion ready to continue their search, the representative of laughter also rose to all fours before answering, “Just follow me, and I'll show you.” And, she started trotting off toward the closest road.

Scootaloo, not wanting to fall too far behind the pink party pony, galloped to catch up to her, then trotted to keep at her side.

At the road, Pinkie turned to her right and headed as far down as that road went. After that, she turned left. Pointing to one building that stood out from the others, she turned to her companion and said, “See? There it is!” Then, turning again to see the ponies guarding the building, she added, “But, something's different. I know I didn't see all those ponies guarding it the first time I came.”

The crusader observed, “And, there's something else. Most of those ponies look like the ones I fought earlier. The only one that's different is somepony I recognize, a friend of Rainbow Dash's, I think. Uh, what's her name again?”

The fiery-maned pegasa, noticing the two, approached them and announced, “Commander Spitfire. What are you two doing here?”

The pink earth mare nodded uncertainly and said, “Uh, nice to meet you, Commander. Scootaloo and I are on our way to the town hall.”

Commander Spitfire shook her head and said, “I'm afraid we cannot allow you in there.”

Pinkie asked, “But, why not?”

The pegasa took a step toward the pink party pony and answered, “Because I said so.”

At this point, Scootaloo approached Spitfire and said, “Uh, excuse me, but this is the most ponies we've seen in town since we got here. I just wanna ask, why are there so many ponies here now, when, besides ourselves, there've only been two ponies around here that we've seen since we first came here? And, come to think of it, before now there've been so many pegasi here in Cloudsdale. What happened to them all?”

The fiery-colored pegasa glared down at the filly and growled, “That's classified information, and you're not allowed to enter the town hall!”

Unphased, Scootaloo stood her ground as she asked, “Can you at least tell me where Rainbow Dash is, or what happened to her?”

Commander Spitfire shook her head once before answering, “That's also classified information.”

At this point, Scootaloo growled as she hopped into the air, flapping her wings at the highest point of her jump to raise herself higher, as she said, “I can't just turn back now. I need to find out what happened to Rainbow Dash.” And, before the fiery pegasa could stop her, she flew off toward the town hall.

Focused on the flying filly, the pegasa turned and shouted, “You're not allowed to go in there! You get back here!” Then, groaning, she turned back to Pinkie Pie.

The pink earth mare, seeing her companion flying toward the building, made her decision. Lowering her head, she galloped forward, knocking aside mechanical ponies as she made her way to the town hall after the pegasetta.

By the time Commander Spitfire could call her troops to defend the building, Pinkie and Scootaloo were just a short distance from the door. And, before the army of mechanical ponies could follow their orders, the pegasetta and the earth mare were at the front door. The two were inside, and had the doors closed, before the fiery pegasa and her army could touch them.

The Town Hall

After barring the doors, Scootaloo and Pinkie started heading toward the room where the records were kept. Then Pinkie decided it was better for them to head to the library to look at recent newspapers. Perhaps something in the ones from the past month or so could give them a clue as to what had happened in Cloudsdale to make it change so much.

Both the pegasetta and the earth mare were surprised to find that the most recent paper had been published some two or three weeks ago.

Pinkie went to the most recent papers for information, while Scootaloo started looking at papers from a month ago, the time that Rainbow Dash had left for Cloudsdale.

The filly was the first to speak up, saying, “This isn't much of a surprise. The headline here reads, “Rainbow Dash Returns to Cloudsdale.”

The pink party pony turned to her companion, looking up from the paper she was reading, and said, “Well, this paper just talks about Mayor Mare and Fluttershy arriving here. No details.”

After looking at a more recent paper, Scootaloo said, “Here's something interesting: 'Our Three Elected Leaders Found Dead in Town Hall.'”

Curious, Pinkie asked, “'Three leaders?' Who could those be?”

The crusader shrugged as she answered, “I'm not sure, there's no picture of them. I wonder if they had something to do with Rainbow Dash coming here in the first place.”

Pinkie hummed with interest before saying, “Maybe you're right. I'd like to see that paper.” And, she snatched it from her companion.

Free from the paper, Scootaloo went to a shelf to search for an earlier edition. And, it wasn't long before she found one, from which she read aloud, “'Three Stallions Elected Cloudsdale's Joint Governors.'”

Pinkie turned to her companion. Her curiosity piqued, she asked, “Is there a picture of those three stallions?”

After a brief search, the pegasetta nodded, then held the paper out to the earth mare as she said, “Here it is.”

Pinkie recognized the trio immediately. It'd been a few years since she'd been to Cloudsdale, to support her friend in the Best Young Fliers' Competition. Rainbow Dash'd taken her and the rest of the element bearers on a tour of the weather factory, where they came across three stallions who seemed to have a vendetta against the azure pegasa.

Remembering how they picked on her friend, it was suddenly clear to the representative of laughter why Rainbow Dash'd returned to the city of the pegasi. But, what happened to her after that? What happened to those stallions? The headlined report she'd been reading from the paper she'd taken from Scootaloo didn't have any pictures, like Scootaloo had said, and only talked about the three stallions having been found lying dead in their own blood. Then, in a paper dated a day or two later, a headline read, “Rainbow Dash Elected Governor of Cloudsdale.” And, there was something about that headline that started to worry the pink earth mare. Had her friend, the representative of loyalty, Rainbow Dash, been responsible for the deaths of those three stallions? And, if so, had she intended to replace them? If so, then why?

The pink earth mare's thoughts were interrupted when Scootaloo lowered the paper she'd been holding and asked, “Pinkie, is something wrong?”

Nervously, Pinkie shook her head and answered, “Uh, no, everything's j-just f-fine.” And, just as nervously, she forced a chuckle and a smile before going back to looking at the paper.

The filly looked down at the picture, which from her perspective was upside down, then looked back up at her companion, before saying, uncertainly, “Well, uh, alright then?” She then dragged the paper back to where she'd found it. After putting the paper back in its place, she said, “I was just wondering, you were looking so worried.” And, it was about that time when she heard the door to the library room close. Turning quickly to the door, she called out, “Pinkie!?” She continued to look around to see if she could find the pink party pony. When she realized she was unable to find the representative of laughter anywhere in the room, she screamed, “Pinkie!”

Somewhere in the Weather Factory

Rainbow Dash sat there human-style, her front hooves flat on either side of the keyboard in front of her, glaring and growling at the monitor she'd been watching.

In a few seconds, a sheepish, fiery-maned pegasa entered through the door behind the azure one. Ambling a few steps, head lowered, she said, quietly, “Commander Spitfire, reporting for duty, Ma'am.”

The representative of loyalty rose and pushed herself away from the keyboard, settling to all fours on the floor. She then turned to her fellow pegasa and marched toward her, demanding, “What were you thinking? Why didn't you just try and lure them away from the town hall instead of focusing their attention on it?”

Commander Spitfire stammered, “Y-you w-were right, Ma'am, I should've d-done what y-you said. I shouldn't've g-guarded the t-town h-hall.”

Rainbow Dash emitted a sighing groan before asking, “So, you at least got Pinkie Pie?”

The fiery-colored pegasa saluted and answered, “Yes, Ma'am.”

The azure pegasa nodded and said, “Good.” She then trotted past her fellow pegasa as she said, “I'm going to interrogate her, find out as much as I can about what she learned. Then, after that, I want you to take her and hang her by her hooves in the bank. I'll lure Scootaloo there, and she'll deal with my former friend.”

Commander Spitfire waited and watched as the rainbow-haired pegasa exited the room, and only relaxed from her salute when she couldn't see Rainbow Dash. Resting that front hoof under her again, she looked down and sighed, uncertain if, after her failure, she still had a career.