Chapter 80 – The Bad News

Her face fell and her eyes widened in fear at the sight of the eye, it was bigger than she was while standing on just her hind legs. In a panic, she turned and flew off, ducking behind a large boulder, the pain in her wings and legs now dullened by the adrenaline that was flowing through her. She carefully peeked out from the stone wall, eyeing the large beast as it lay there, curled up around itself. The beast once again turned to look at her, a curious and kind gaze in its eyes as if studying her. The thing was long, like a serpent. The light shining from it hid its scales. The long dragon face tipped with a sharp beak and adorned with a mane of fur that shined even brighter and a set of six whiskers that flowed in the air like the mane of Celestia herself sprouted from the sides of its nose. It had six legs, three on each side spaced evenly along its impossibly long body, it was both terrifying and majestic all in one being. The only flaw at the moment had to be the broken gate on its back. She ducked back behind the boulder, "What is that thing?" she asked herself, "And do I have to get past it to get out?" She then shook her head, "But then, why does it look hurt?" she asked, "Maybe I can take advantage of this." She turned back, seeing the large serpent dragon having disappeared.

Her face fell again, "Why would you take advantage of an injury?" she heard from her side. She turned, fully expecting to see the head, or at least the eye, of the large beast, but was surprised to find the same creature, just smaller, more pet-sized to her and now with two golden rings that hovered around its body, one near its head and the other near the tip of its tail.

"WAH!" she called out, and once again fell to her back, "Ow."

"Oh my, have I startled you, Rainbow Dash?" the thing asked in a smooth and somewhat angelic voice.

"Wait…" the pegasus said to herself in a bit of surprise, "You know my name?"

"How could I forget it?" the thing asked, "The pony from another world, beating the odds in a race that never concerned her until she arrived?"

"Yeah well…" she said as she stood back up, "I AM pretty awesome."

"The pony who saved us from the dark serpent's fangs?" it said.

"Wait, that wasn't a dream?" she asked, "To be honest, I'd forgotten most of that, but I remember that part." She then registered its exact words, "Wait…US?" them more of what it was saying began to register, "Are you…the EGAS?" she asked.

"I am but one of four." it said, "Call me Egas-Bacrus."

Rainbow Dash's jaw hit the floor, "THERE ARE FOUR EGAS'?" she asked.

"There are." the now tiny dragon said, "When you last saw us, though time would not allow you to remember, we were but one being, the four merged together to fight off a dark evil that threatened not just the four planets, but the universe itself."

"Whoa!" she said in awe, "I'm being praised by a god! I must be awesome!"

The Egas simply chuckled, "You ponies never stop amusing me." he said, "I have waited thousands of Cycles for you to return." She turned to him, a questioning glance on her face as she silently asked her question.

Blade stood there, watching as the rescue team used a crane to haul up what could only have been the remains of the Rainbow Trail MK.2. He had hoped that Rainbow Dash was still inside, unconscious. He also hoped that she wasn't inside, signaling to him that she had indeed not been hurt, and was searching for a way back. The cliffs below were covered in fog so dense that he was sure they would have counted as clouds. Yet every time he wished to help; the rescue team insisted that they were doing their best. As of now, they were hauling something up using a crane that Blade was more than confident that he could outlift and outpace. "Come on!" he whispered to himself, Fluttershy nearby to comfort him. Suddenly they saw the ship, the nose had been ripped from the rest of it and the windshield had been smashed to powder. "There it is!" he said as it came into view. Once the back end appeared, they could finally see the damage, the entire back half was destroyed, all but a few of the panels from the gunner room left. It was unsalvageable.

They set it down, and began their inspection, "We've got blood." the inspector, a female Treeopon with an official uniform and blue hair, said as he looked inside, "And lots of it."

"Oh no." Fluttershy said and turned to bury her face into Blade's shoulder.

"I'll take it to the lab for analysis and see if there's anything else." she finished up.

"I'm telling you I can help!" Blade said again, "I can…"

"Sorry bud." a male Treeopon officer said, "This isn't your job, let the professionals {snort} handle it."

"Let him at least clear the fog." Twilight said.

"We've got machines that are designed to do {snort} that." the official said, "You really want to help then stay {snort} out of the way."

Blade growled at the sourness of the Treeopon, but held his tongue so as not to anger anyone, though he had some choice words to say. The investigative team continued, the lead investigator watching intently as the guard grunted and growled, "Hey!" she called out to him, "Give them some slack ok! Their friends just got attacked."

"No sense painting a rusty frame, the two of them {snort} are dead." the Treeopon said gruffly.

Blade growled audibly, so loudly in fact that the Treeopon guard turned to him in fear, almost as if he had been stalked recently by a demon or something just as frightening. The look on the pegasus' face could have killed the alien instantly. A gulp of fear was his only response. "We're still searching, so no definite yet. Get that through your steel trap." she said harshly.

"Yes mam." the guard squeaked out and refused to take his eyes off of the grey-furred pony with wings, fear of what the pony might do keeping his eyes glued to him.

The inspector then made her way to them, removing the gloves from her hands and placing them into the same bag some of the other evidence when into. "Sorry bout him." she said with a smile, and then let her eyes fall to a more serious tone as she turned back to the guard, "Seriously, take those therapy sessions, you'll need them."

"After this?" the guard asked as he pointed his open palms towards the dark pegasus, "Absolutely!"

"I'm not very receptive to news like this." Blade said as his anger died down.

"I can see that, that scowl could stop someone's heart and leave no evidence behind." she said, "And I mean that in a good way."

"There's a 'good way' to take that?" Twilight asked as she stepped up next to them.

She simply smiled at the alicorn, "We're going to run some tests while the rest of the team keeps searching. Despite the amount of blood, I want you to keep hope." she told them, "We're doing the best we can to help."

"What about Mirikka and her team?" Blade asked, "They just committed a crime in the middle of the Terranuilian Race, that was far more dangerous than anything we've been accused of."

"The punishment will be up to the Council, but from everything that's happened, I'm certain they'll get justice." the inspector said, and winked at him, "Don't worry, they'll get what's coming to them." After that, she turned to leave.

"I hope so." Blade said, "I'm still nervous about Mirikka saying that she's untouchable."

The inspector stopped, turned to him, and lifted a questioning eyebrow, "Why would she say that?" she asked, "This is a clear violation of the rules."

"Don't know." was all he said.

"We have a theory, but it's still missing some pieces." Twilight said.

"Letting me know beforehand will make this a whole lot easier to handle later on." the inspector said.

"We know, but we need to be careful about who we trust right now." Breeze said as he limped up to them.

"And you need to be in bed!" his brother scolded.

"I can't just float there and wait for Rainbow Dash to present herself." the unicorn announced, "I have to help if I can."

"And Rainbow Dash won't have you to watch her back if you don't get healed up!" Blade said, "Have faith, Rainbow Dash will be alright."

Breeze scowled at his brother, a sight that very few had seen. He didn't say a word, instead, he just grunted and turned, his head lowered to the ground as he slinked away. "He's as stubborn as you are!" Twilight said.

"We are brothers." was all he said and watched as his younger brother hobbled his way back to the transport vehicle, and boarded it, before sitting down and glaring at his brother, then sticking his tongue out at the pegasus. "He just has a bit more growing up to do."