Sapphire was playing with little Eclipse as a Light Fury. The two playfully flew around the yard under the minions watch since they could fly as well. Eclipse chirped happily and he nuzzled Sapphire, "Aww... you're so cute." she cooed.

Eclispe then started to fly in the direction of the city. "Hey, come back here." Sapphire called playfully and she flew after him and the minions flew after Sapphire. They were all flying over the city when Eclipse picked up something. "What is it?" Sapphire looked down and saw an elderly women, cornered by two younger boys, looking to be in their early twenties like her. "Hey!" Sapphire dove right towards the boys and knocked them away from the lady, "Back off!"

The boys got up and Sapphire let out a loud roar, frightening the boys away and they ran for the hills. Sapphire smirked and changed back into her human form, "Are you alright, ma'am?"

"Oh yes, thank you very much. My name is Penelope." the lady replied.

"Your welcome, Ms. Penelope." Penelope then reached into her purse and pulled out a one-hundred dollar bill, “I must thank you for what you’ve done for me.”

Sapphire was astonished, “Oh… no, no, I couldn’t. I really can’t take this. I’m only a volunteer here.”

Penelope insisted, “Now, now. You deserve it.” Just then, Eclispe came between them and tried to nudge Sapphire away, "Eclipse, what's wrong, buddy?" Sapphire asked. Eclipse flew behind her and tried to pull on her jacket hoodie, but he was still a baby, so his strength wasn't at it's peak yet. Anyway, Sapphire took the money and thanked her kindly for it. “I promise I will put it to good use.”

She then offered to walk Penelope to the bus stop, but Penelope insisted she could make it herself. “Take care of yourself,” called Penelope. She then turned, and began to walk rather strongly and skillfully, past the bus stop.

Along the way, she came into an alley way, and reached behind her, and pulled out a simple small black remote device. One click of a button, and she revealed herself to be Clone Sapphire in disguise all along. Then she called to her masters, “She took the bait, Masters."

“We’re aware of that.” said David, “Remember, we have you under our watch.”

Lucas agreed and said, “That hundred-dollar bill you slipped her-- the second she laid her hands it, an electronic signal built into it reacted with her DNA, and injected her with a small serum. Slowly but surely, she’ll start to feel its effects.” The two then instructed their own Sapphire to lay low until further orders and then they logged off.

---

Meanwhile, most of the gang hung out in the city park. Lightning was at Canterlot High teaching his class, and Krysta was most likely out on her daily flights, patrolling the island.

Twilight threw a Frisbee and Spike ran after it, leapt up high, and caught it in his teeth.

Spike barked happily, but was careful not to speak and give his secret away to prying eyes around the park.

Rainbow was doing stunts on the skate ramps, showing off for all the other skaters.

Buddy was checking the flower beds and the trees, hoping they were well-cared for. He really disliked it when people weren’t kind to the plants. Sapphire, Eclipse and the minions came into the park. "Hey guys." Rainbow called.

"Hey Rainbow." Eclipse chirped happily and flew over to her. "No, Eclipse, NO!" Rainbow ran around the park with the cheerful little Night Light following her. "Sapphire!"

Sapphire laughed and said, "Come here, little fella."

Eclipse stopped chasing Rainbow and flew right over to her, landing on her shoulder and licking her cheek. "Hehehe."

"Oh, you're so cute together." Fluttershy cooed.

Sapphire rubbed Eclipse's head. Fluttershy and Rhymey had finished setting things up at a picnic table.

“Come on over and have a bite,
A little lunch ought to put you right.” said Rhymey

Fluttershy nodded, and then all the friends came together for a good meal.

Twilight gave Spike a little bowl of kibble she always had with her.

Rarity was eating rather strangely-- reaching far across from herself to the table to pick little bits of food, and then slowly bring it to her face and chew very slowly.

“Um, what are you doing?” asked Applejack.

“I don’t want to get a single crumb on my new skirt.” answered Rarity, and she stood up for everyone to see the lovely white skirt with a touch of blue fading. Spike nearly fainted with hearts in his eyes. “It’s a crispy couture miniature, and I just got it today, and to ruin something as divine as this would be a crime against fashion!”

“Uh-huh…” said Applejack and she took a huge and rather messy bite out of an apple, promising Rarity to keep far from her. "Don't judge just because she wants to look fabulous."

"This coming from the drama queen." Keto deadpanned. "Just like someone I know."

"I beg your pardon!" Marla exclaimed, insulted.

"Guys, be nice to each other, remember what I said." Sapphire said.

The minions sighed and saw in unison, "Respect each other differences."

"Good." Sapphire grinned.

Still, the friends had a lovely meal, and after that went to get ice-cream from the vendor in the park, which Sunset offered to pay for with her hundred dollars, but her friends insisted she kept it. Sapphire reached for her ice-cream cone, but as she grabbed it she began to feel dizzy, and dropped her cone to the ground. Then she began to fall backwards.

“Sapphire!” cried Keto as he threw down his own ice cream to catch Sapphire in his arms.

“The ice cream!” cried Pinkie. She hated seeing sweet food wasted, but she actually more worried about Sapphire.

“Are you alright?” asked Starla “What’s happening to you?”

Sapphire rubbed her eyes again, and blinked twice, “I… don’t know.” she said sounding groggy “I just felt really dizzy all of a sudden.”

Fluttershy touched her hand to her forehead, “You don’t feel warm, but I hope you’re not getting sick.”

"Oh please, she got every single vaccination, yesterday!" Marla exclaimed.

"Really?!" Rainbow exclaimed. Sapphire nodded. At that moment, she had another dizzy spell.

“Sapphire?” said Bronc.

“Hold on, let me try something.” said Twilight, and she reached into her backpack and pulled out her med-scan-- one of her own little invented devices.

She waved it over Sapphire's body like a magnifying glass, and the screen revealed the problem to Twilight.

“What’s wrong with her?” asked Buddy.

Twilight gawked at the results, “Her energy levels are dropping.”

“What?!” snapped Artie.

“Shh!” snapped Twilight, not wanting to be overheard. “We better get her to the base.” she whispered to the others.

The team agreed, and Sapphire began to wake up, but she felt weaker than ever.

“Can you walk?” Artie asked.

“I think so.” Starla and Artie helped her to stand, and then the team left the park, and headed for a small clearing, away from all the prying eyes, and Twilight used her passcodes to uncover a jump-tube hatch located behind a large tree.

Everyone jumped in and headed straight for the base.

---

Meanwhile, the men had observed everything over the monitors, and now the team was out of sight where they couldn’t be seen or tracked.

Lucas turned off the monitors, and snickered, “That girl fell for our little stunt, excellent. Still, their friends-- their suspicions are beginning to show. Remember, they are already onto our little agent, still out there.”

“Even if, by some miracle, they manage to track us down there won’t be able to stop us. They are helping us complete our little project.” He spun round in his chair to face the computer on his desk, and viewed the images of the screen of magical energy levels increasing-- stolen from Sapphire. “Oh, boys: just imagine the possibilities we can create with all this. The entire world can be at our fingertips."

The boys chuckled, liking the idea.

---

Back at Team Base,

Twilight had called Celesto and informed him of the problem, and came as soon as he heard.

Nothing was more important to him than the health and safety of his students, his friends!

Sapphire was resting on a bed in the sickbay. She was so tired she could barely keep awake. Eclipse was chirping in worry while Fluttershy rubbed him.

She had been thoroughly checked out by the base’s doctor.

“What’s the deal, Doc?” asked Artie “Is she okay?”

The doctor went over his notes, “Her blood pressure is fine, and her heart is stable, but her energy is still dropping. It’s as if something is siphoning it from her body, but exactly what it is, I can’t be sure.”

Artie looked and felt really worried. “Can’t you do anything for her?”

The doctor explained he already had Sapphire hooked up to an I.V that would help give her strength, “The trouble is, the energy drain is continuing. I’m not sure how to stop it.”

The minions gazed down with worry at Sapphire. Starla came up to them, “We’ll find out what’s wrong with her.”

The others all agreed.

Celesto and Twilight were at the lab computer, running over all the X-rays and scans made on Sapphire earlier.

“Nothing…” Celesto said “It all seems ordinary. What could be draining Sapphire's energy?”

Then, almost immediately, “Hey,” Twilight said “I think I’ve got something.” Some of the others huddled by round the console.

Twilight then showed a spinning polygraph of Sapphire's form on the screen, and a code of letters and numbers next to the body.

“This is an unknown substance detected in Sapphire's bloodstream. I can’t determine what it is, but I’m positive it’s the cause of her weariness.”

“Gosh,” said Spike “But how she did get it in her?”

Twilight typed up more images for the polygraph of Sapphire, the image zoomed in on Sapphire's right hand, showing small trace elements matching the code of the substance.

Celesto observed the images and concluded, “Sapphire must’ve have come into contact with an object or person that may have passed on substance to her-- a bit like a virus entering the body.”

“But Sapphire told us she was vaccinated.” said Rainbow “She said she couldn’t get sick or anything like that.”

Buddy then corrected, “Actually, she said it wasn’t likely for her to get sick.”

“Is there some sort of antidote?” asked Rainbow.

Twilight shook her head, “Without knowing what this stuff is, I don’t know if anything would be safe to try on her.”

“We’ve got to do something!” cried Spike.

Celesto snapped his finger, “Healing magic, it just might exterminate the substance out of the bodies, but we’ll need to be gentle with them.”

Everybody turned to Fluttershy and she rolled her eyes back and forth at everyone. “Um… okay, I’ll try.”

"Wait!" a doctor said, revealing he was taking a sample of Sapphire's blood to study the substance. When he was done, Fluttershy was ready to transform, but before she could...

"Hey... what's going on with her crown?" Marla asked, pointing at Sapphire's crown which was glowing brightly. "What the-?" Rainbow said.

The crown made Sapphire's entire body glow. "What's happening?" Starla asked.

"Hey! The substance is disappeared from her bloodstream!" Twilight cried.

Sapphire's body and her crown stopped glowing and the substance was completely gone from her system. "Unbelievable! That Element is awesome!" Rainbow quietly exclaimed. Celesto smiled especially, but he still wanted to know what started all this.

While Twilight and Professor Brain analyzed Sapphire's blood containing the substance, Sapphire had her rest, and the others pondered what could have caused their friends to contract this substance.

“All we know is it’s something she must’ve touched.” said Starla.

“Oh, that makes it easy.” groaned Pinkie “She only touched practically everything.”

“Easy, Pinkie…” said Dyno, “We can still narrow it down to when they started feeling tired.”

Myte nodded “Now let’s think. Sapphire was already feeling tired when she came to the park, just after she came from helping that old lady.”

“It has to be something new that Sapphire touched recently." Applejack said.

Rarity suddenly had the idea, “That hundred dollar bill.”

“What was that, Rarity?” asked Celesto, but Rarity had gone over to Sapphire, who was still asleep.

Much as she didn’t like to pry and take things, Rarity took Sapphire's wallet from her jacket pocket and using a pair of eyebrow tweezers she got from her own handbag, she pulled out the hundred-dollar bill, careful not touch it herself.

“Sapphire came into contact with this.” Rainbow thought that silly, “It’s just a money bill. How can it cause the problem?”

Celesto felt differently though. “Put it under the electronic-scanner.”

The scans all read positive.

“This isn’t any ordinary bill.” said Celesto “It’s equipped with microscopic chips that electronically inject the serum into the body of anyone who touches it.”

The team all felt their features hardening.

“Somebody set Sapphire up.” said Pinkie.

Starla clenched her fists, “And I bet I know who!” and all the others agreed with her.

---

Meanwhile, Cara was still lying low, outside Canterlot City. She kept uppermost area of the island where people wouldn’t be likely to see her, but she was growing irritable with all the waiting around. Her employers told her to wait for further instructions, and she couldn’t hang around in town where people would spot her; not even with her disguise gadget.

Just then, her radio beeped.

"Yes Master?" Cara said in a monotone voice.

---

Sapphire had awoken, and she was most disturbed by what the others had told her. “So I was duped into taking that phony money?” Eclispe landed on her lap, “Now I know why you were pushing me away from that lady, sorry boy." The little Night Light dragon nuzzled Sapphire.

“To think,” said Pinkie Pie “You met your clone right in front of you all the time.”

Applejack gave her a straight look, "She can change her appearance, remember."

"Oh right." Pinkie said. Applejack sighed.

Sapphire looked worried, “I don’t get it. What does she want with me?”

“I’d like to know that myself.” said Bronc. "Maybe she's not doing this for herself."

"What do you mean, Bronc?" Rainbow asked.

"I mean maybe someone is forcing her to do all these things. Remember the people in the lab forced Sapphire to undergo the tests. It may be the same situation with her clone. When she was created, she automatically listens to those who created her, like a robot."

"That is a possibility." Twilight said.

"But first we have to actually find her.” said Rainbow “And she’s still undetectable by our instruments.”

Twilight and the Professor had analyzed the fake bill, and were both mesmerized by such a gadget. Still, they hoped whatever they could find about it would lead them to who was controlling Sapphire's clone. “Strange… most strange.” said Brain.

“What is it?” asked Twilight.

“The artwork is horribly wrong. The brush strokes in Dr. Franklin’s hair have smudged, and the printing of the code-- the spaces are too narrow between digits.”

Twilight and Spike groaned.

“Can’t you uncover anything we actually seek?” asked Spike.

“Well, now that you mention it, I do have inkling. Just have to run a few simple calculations.”

He typed into the computer, muttered scientific gibberish to himself, and finally, “Ahh… Satisfactory, Most Satisfactory…the paper of which the money is made of, and the ink of which is used is traceable all the way to England.”

“England?” said Spike “That’s where Clone Sapphire tried to rob that bank.”

"You mean forced to rob the bank." Marla corrected.

“Indeed,” said Celesto “We’ve narrowed down the field, but we still need to know who made it, what they really want our Sapphire, and why.”

“Whatever it is, it can’t be good.” said Twilight.

Celesto pondered deeply, and he had a thought, “This may sound risky, but it just may help us draw the other Sapphire into the open.”

…And he explained his plan to the others.

Next Chapter: Episode 6: Confrontation Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 7 Minutes