Rainbow Dash watched quietly from the afterlife as the search for her corpse dragged on back in the world of the living. Now it was exactly three weeks since the day she had disappeared and the entire town was on high alert. Rumors spread like wildfire and some ponies even began debating on whether or not Rainbow was even alive anymore. Stormflower, Sunkick, and their parents had now made Rainbow's house their permanent-temporary residence for their time in Ponyville. Aaron and his fellow investigators worked like clockwork in their quest to interrogate everypony in town. Even Zecora got a visit from the brute unicorn. Missing posters appeared throughout the town and Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity began meeting together more often. Applejack began to fall back with her work on the farm and began taking long walks around the town. Stormflower gradually became more and more depressed as time progressed and she turned to Joan for comfort. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle began crusading for their cutie marks again but Scootaloo seemed out of it most of the time due to Rainbow's absence in the town. Irena, Vinyl, and Octavia began giving small performances throughout town to help everypony feel better, though the uplifting effects of their music didn't last long.

Only one pony in the town was officially happy through and through. Pinkie Pie sung happily to herself each night as she snuck down to her killing chamber to pack everything up in a series of boxes. It pained her to pack up all of her hard work but it was necessary in order to prevent her from being found out. Rainbow found herself spying on Pinkie a lot from the afterlife. Pinkie was now Rainbow's third viewed pony right behind Twilight and Stormflower. Rainbow was still angry at the pink pony but something about her killer constantly confused her. That voice. What was that voice? Who was speaking to Pinkie? Rainbow wondered this as she watched Pinkie bury her boxes of death under a patch of apple trees in Sweet Apple Acres. The trees would take care of the evidence, Pinkie thought as she finished filling in the hole. Nopony would find those boxes. Now there was one last thing to take care of.

As usual, things refused to change in the afterlife. The Ponyville of the dead remained in its silent, calm, somewhat foggy state. The only thing in the afterlife that Rainbow found interesting was the mysterious gray filly. Who was she? What was her story? Rainbow had tried to approach and talk to the filly several times but she always seemed to disappear just before Rainbow could reach her.

"You're not going to get anything from her," Ridley would say. "We've all tried."

"Well I'm not going to give up so easily!" Rainbow would reply.

"Don't waste your breath, Ridley," Gilda would say to the blue pony. "It's a lost cause."

Rainbow was now sitting on top of the Overlook again. She was alone this time and was happy for that. She wasn't in the mood to talk to anypony at the moment. She raised her head at the sight of the mysterious filly heading off towards Sweet Apple Acres. Rainbow wanted to chase after her but she decided against it for she had already done it two times that day. She put her head back down and closed her eyes, her mind focusing on that of her happy-go-lucky murderer.

It was the night of the three week anniversary of Rainbow Dash's disappearance. It was extremely late and most ponies, if not everypony, was asleep by this point. Well, at least one pony was awake. She was quietly slipping amongst the buildings, hugging the shadows and evading the light. She had to be careful for it would look bad for her if she were seen sneaking throughout town this late at night. A somewhat heavy black bag was hung over her back. It was time to say goodbye to Dashie forever. It was time for the truth to come out. Dashie was dead. The search would end, the investigators would head back to Canterlot, everypony would eventually get over her death, and Pinkie Pie could get back to playing with more ponies. It was about time too for she was almost out of her secret ingredient.

Rainbow opened her eyes and appeared deep within Sweet Apple Acres. The trees rose high into the nighttime sky and the night lights of Ponyville lit up the sky from the distance. She looked around until she saw her. There she was, sneaking her way to the dumping ground. The spot where Pinkie had buried her dark treasures was not too far from this spot. Pinkie placed the black bag on the ground and leaned against a nearby tree. After taking a few minutes to breathe, the pink pony got up and got to work. She pulled the Rainbow dummy out of the bag and sprawled it out on the ground. She reached into the bag and pulled out a series of rags. Pinkie quickly wiped the dummy down to get rid of any possible hoofprints. Rainbow watched as her killer proceeded to cover her vandalized body with small mounds of dirt, apples, and tree leaves.

"There. There should be no trace of me left on this dummy," Pinkie whispered happily to herself. She reached down towards the dummy to kiss it but she pulled away at the last second. A couple tears fell from Pinkie's eyes but she quickly wiped them away. "What is this? I'm happy! Why am I crying?!"

"It's not you who's crying," said the voice. Pinkie rolled her eyes and shook her head violently.

"She's dead! Dashie is dead! She's been dead for three weeks! Get over it you weak little bitch!"

The voice didn't respond. The only thing that Rainbow and Pinkie heard was a series of muffled cries and sniffles.

"Who are you?" Rainbow asked, as if the voice would respond. Pinkie shook her head again and the cries slowly faded away. Pinkie grabbed the black bag and rags and quickly ran off into the night. Rainbow looked down at the dummy constructed from the remains of her body and silently cried. She placed her hoof on the exposed cheek of the dummy and looked into its lifeless eyes. It was too much. Rainbow began crying madly again. She fell to the ground and curled up into a ball as she began a long period of uncontrollable sobbing. She didn't know how long it lasted but she eventually regained her composure and stood up again. She looked back at the dummy and walked around it. It looked so lonely, just laying there under a thin layer of dirt, apples, and leaves. Rainbow thought of heading back to her place in the afterlife but she decided against it. Somepony would come across it the following morning but that was several hours away. She couldn't bear to leave it alone for it to await its ultimate discovery. "Don't worry, Rainbow Dash. I'll wait with you." Rainbow sat down next to where the dummy lay and looked up towards the starry night sky. "I'll wait here with you."

Applejack woke up early the following morning. She trudged her way out of bed and headed out of the house. She looked out amongst the seemingly endless orchard of apple trees and suddenly realized that it had been ages since she had just simply taken a stroll through it. She shrugged her shoulders and began her trek when she noticed somepony standing by the front gate. It was that investigator from Canterlot that Twilight had told her about. He wasn't looking at her but rather at the orchard. He casually nibbled his way through a red apple and smiled coldly as the light of the sun slowly began to creep its way over the horizon. Applejack approached the black unicorn cautiously.

"Can ah help you?" she asked. Aaron looked at the farm pony and smiled. "Let me guess. You're here to interrogate me."

"No. I'm just looking for somepony to talk to," Aaron replied.

"Well why come here? There are plenty of other ponies in town to talk to. Hell, you're practically living with Twilight at the moment!"

"I'm not living with her. I'm just using her home as my temporary headquarters while I search for your friend."

"Don't ya try to use your fancy Canterlot talk to confuse me! I may be a farm pony but I'm no dummy!"

"I never said that you were. You seem irritated. Did I interrupt something?"

"Nah. I was just goin' to take a walk around the orchard."

"Well why don't we?"

"What? You want to walk around the orchard with me?"

"Why not? It's a nice morning for something like that."

"Alrighty then. But no detective tricks. Ah got my eyes on you!"

"Good to know."

Applejack opened the gate and Aaron casually walked inside. The two ponies then headed off into the trees.

They walked in silence for a while. It wasn't until they had been walking for a good ten minutes that they decided to start talking to each other again.

"So you take care of this entire orchard?" Aaron asked with an impressed grin.

"Well it's not just me. Ah have my brother, Big Macintosh, my sister, Apple Bloom, and old Granny Smith to help me out. My friends also help me out when they get the chance," Applejack replied.

"Did Rainbow Dash help you out a lot?"

Applejack chuckled.

"Yeah, when she wasn't busy napping or practicing to become a member of the Wonderbolts."

"From my time here in Ponyville, I can see that you, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and the others are all really close."

"Yep! We're all one big happy family!"

"To be honest, I'm kind of jealous of you mares."

"How so?"

"You're all so close to each other and you all go out of each other's way to help each other. I haven't really been the friend type."

"You don't say?"

Aaron gave Applejack a polite shove and the two ponies laughed. Aaron looked past Applejack and suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Applejack," he breathed.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Rainbow Dash's mane consists of the six colors of the rainbow, right?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

Aaron pointed towards a nearby tree. Applejack looked and her eyes widened for wrapped around the edge of the tree was a rainbow-colored tail.

Rainbow looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching. This was it. The truth was to come out. She had been discovered. Applejack and Aaron quickly ran up to the tree and instantly came across the Rainbow dummy.

"Rainbow!" Applejack croaked. Aaron leaned down and examined the body. He knew she was dead from the moment his eyes fell upon the skin. He didn't realize the state in which the body was in until he noticed the stitch and cut marks on the body and the overly happy face of the corpse. "Mr. Crop, is she alright?"

Aaron turned back to the anxious farm pony, his face nearly as green as grass and his eyes sunken in with horrific disappointment.

"I...I'm sorry, Applejack. She's gone. She's been gone for several weeks now," he replied sadly.

"It...it can't be! No! NO! RAINBOW!"

Applejack fell to the ground and crawled her way towards the body. She placed her hoof on the corpse's chest. There was no heartbeat, there was no breath, there was just...nothing. Rainbow stood up and watched as her close friend broke down into a mess of dirt and tears.

"RAINBOW! NO! RAINBOW! OH SWEET CELESTIA WHY?! WHY?!" cried the orange earth pony. Rainbow couldn't take the sight anymore. She returned to the afterlife as Aaron reached over to try and comfort the broken Applejack.