I awoke to somepony violently shaking me, and I groaned and pushed them away, rolling over in my bed. "5 more minutes..." I breathed, pulling the covers back over my head.

"Myst, you have to come see this."

"Later..." I yawned.

"It has to do with your case, and it's damn important so get the buck out of bed and come take a look."

I opened my eyes, sitting up to look at Glaze. "Hm?"

"Come on, hurry up."

I shook myself and rolled out from under my sheets, following the pale yellow pegasus into his room.

He opened his laptop, where a video was already pulled up onscreen. "This video went viral on PonyTube this morning, and I was able to download it before it was taken down cause I knew it was something you'd want to see. It's only been a few hours since it was posted and the reports are already all over the news." He clicked the play button on the video and nodded towards the screen.

The shot looked as if it had been taken with a security camera, and by the looks of it, it was situated at the new Weather Factory. 4 workers were going around and minding their own business, doing their usual jobs. The scene looked so normal that I wondered what could ever go wrong. If it was taken down by PonyTube, something shocking must of happened in it...

"There. Look at the white mare."

My gaze turned to the pony that he had gestured to. She was carrying a large box across the view of the camera, before she tripped and fell, dropping the contents of the package across the floor. There was a loud crash as the box split open, and glass shattered everywhere. The white pony covered her head with her wings, blocking the shards from injuring her face. The three other ponies in the room yelped and took a few steps back.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Glaze cut me off.

"Wait..." He nodded at the screen.

One of the other ponies ran forwards to help the mare who had fallen. She pushed away the box, doing her best to sweep the shards of broken glass away from the scene.

"Are you okay?" The sound from the video wasn't the best quality, but the words were clear enough to hear if I strained my ears.

The white mare shook herself and got up, staring at the other pony in front of her with an intense gaze.

"Are you alright?" She repeated, but again, the white pony didn't answer.

Another stallion that had been shocked by the whole thing, finally came forwards and helped brushed the glass off of her wing. The white pony turned to look at him, then back at the mare. There was a strange grinding sound that resonated through the speakers. Then she struck the mare across the face, and the room erupted into chaos.

Everypony screamed at once. The mare that had been hit yelped and turned her face back towards the camera. Blood dripped profusely down her face, oozing out from a series of thick cuts that had appeared across the right side of her head. The white mare struck her again, and the other pony fell to the floor, half of her face torn open. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, trying to scramble back to her feet, but her right eye was gone, and her vision must have been distorted, as she fell back onto her side and instead settled for dragging herself away from the pony who had gone berserk.

The white pony stomped over to her, her hooves making strange clicking sounds across the tile floor. with one swift movement, she brought her hoof down on her stomach, and I cringed as the stomp somehow gouged out a massive cavity in her body. The poor mare's screams were cut off as blood poured out of her mouth, staining the pristine white floor with splatters of gore.

Drawing her hoof out of the lifeless mound of flesh, she turned to the other stallion, who had retreated to the far side of the room, and was watching everything go down with a look of pure horror. He yelped and dived in the other direction, scrambling to escape his coworker's fate. In a terrifying burst of speed, the psychotic mare darted towards him, catching him by the leg and and causing him to fall over flat on his face.

He screamed and frantically tried to get up, but the other pony was on top of him in seconds, and before he knew what hit him, his front leg had been crushed between her hoof and the floor, just below his shoulder. With a disgusting ripping sound, she jerked her foreleg to the side, tearing the entire limb off and throwing it across the room, where it came to a stop right in front of the third pony, who was hiding behind a box.

The white pony jammed her hoof down twice on her victim's head, and I watched in horror as his skull caved inwards, and there was an explosion of dull grey matter across the floor. She drew her dripping hoof out of the mess once again, and this time, there was a split second of reflection off of something metallic.

She shifted her gaze over to the third pony, who tried to hide himself further behind the box. He backed up and pressed himself against the wall, before throwing the box at the approaching pony, and getting up to make a break for the exit. She batted the box aside with her wing, then took off after him at a run, slamming him against the opposite wall. He gasped in pain as her hooves tore into his chest, pinning him to the wall in a death grip.

Then, to both my surprise and that of the victim's, her mouth opened at an unnatural angle, and blood began to pour from her jaws as all 36 of her teeth fell out onto the floor. There was another brief gleam of metal and she tilted her head in a strange way, and bit down hard on the young stallion's neck. She jerked her head to the side, ripping apart the skin and crushing his trachea.

Throwing the bloody corpse to the side, she padded to the center of the room and looked around, as if searching for more prey. There was a loud bang as the doors to the room slammed open, and several ponies flooded in, trying to see what the source of the commotion was. I cringed as the white mare went to town on them, tearing them apart with lightning speed.

Then, randomly, out of the blue, she exploded in a flash of bright light. Every pony within five feet fell to the floor, unmoving, some of them missing limbs, or in one case, her entire lower half. There was nothing left of the white mare, except for a massive circle of blood that dyed the coats of the surrounding ponies bright scarlet. A few droplets sprayed across the camera, and the video cut to static.

I stared blankly at the screen for a few moments, shocked. "Oh my god..."

"Cloudsdale's in a riot. Bet you all my money that the police haven't made any sort of connection to the Prototype case."

I paused, nodding slowly. "It's got to be related. That pony went berserk, just out of the blue. It's like Flare all over again..."

"Yeah. Not to mention the metallic gleam that appears for a few seconds in certain spots."

"You saw too, huh?" I leaned up against the table, rewinding the video until I caught one of the mentioned flashes of light. "There. Right on her hoof. There's got to be something there, an ordinary hoof wouldn't do that much damage."

Glaze frowned and skipped forwards a few frames, to where the mare's teeth had begun to fall out. "Here too. It's like her teeth were replaced with fangs."

"They probably were..." I marveled. "Well... If my theory's correct in thinking that the pony behind this is trying to form some kind of an army, I don't think hundreds of robotic wings like Flare's would be at their disposal. That was Flare's main weapon, and since this mare didn't have wings like him, she'd need some other kind of weapon in order to kill effectively."

"Yeah, I can't say an ordinary pony has great killing abilities. Hooves only go so far, but those gashes," he rewound the video to the spot where the other mare had first gotten hit, "those gashes aren't  from an ordinary hoof. They look like the were caused by both blunt force, and something sharp at the same time..."

"Hm..." I zoomed in on the wounds, looking them over carefully. "Spikes, maybe. Short, thick, sharp spikes, that would both cut and stun at the same time."

"Yeah... Yeah that would make sense. So they can crush and tear simultaneously. Explains how her eye was ripped out so easily. It would certainly be an effective weapon."

"The only thing..." I paused, thinking. "Hide activated Flare with voice commands... Yet I didn't hear any in the video."

Glaze rewound the video and replayed the beginning, right before the mare went berserk. There was silence.

"Hmm..." He rewound it again, playing it for a second time, then paused it quickly. "Listen. Right there. Hear the whir of that machine in the corner?"

I listened, then nodded. "Yeah."

"And as she walks across the room, you can hear the glass clinking together inside the box she's carrying. But listen to these few seconds, right before she drops it."

He played the clip, and I saw exactly what he meant. The audio cut out, just for a split second before the mare tripped and fell, and came back the second she hit the ground, when the shattering of glass could be heard clearly.

I frowned. "Who posted this video?"

"Their username was 'RevoeKateFirtS'." He slid me a slip of paper where he had written down the name. "I'm drawing a blank on who it could be, but my guess is that they're in league with whoever's behind this whole thing. I mean, if they went out of their way to hack the Weather Factory security cameras and knew to cut out the audio in those parts, they must be involved."

"RevoeKateFirtS...? What kind of username is that?" I thought for a few moments. "Somepony named Kate?"

"I did a bit of looking, and discovered a company called Revoes. They manufacture flying gear for Pegasi and are based in Fillydelphia. Fillydelphia, Mystery."

Fillydelphia. That's where Rainbow Dash is imprisoned...

"That's impossible. Dash. can't be involved, her sentence isn't finished yet..."

"Maybe she's still in prison... She could somehow have gotten outside communication with this "Kate" pony." He shrugged.

I studied the username. "Maybe it's time to pay a visit to Fillydelphia..."

"There's no way you're going off alone again-"

"Then come with me." I shrugged. I hadn't wanted to get him involved, but I guess a little help may be nice. I mean, he did find the video for me...

"But Amber's coming to visit tomorrow. There's no way we'll be back in time..."

I paused, remembering. "Wait a second... Amber..." I frowned slightly, and left the room. Amber can help.

"Where are you going..?"

I ignored him, trotting back to my room and dialing Amber's number on the landline. She picked up after a few rings.

"Mystery?"

"You're still coming to visit tomorrow, right?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"About that case... Do you think you can invite Blueprint to come with you? I want to investigate him a little."

"Come with me? That's weird! Why would he have any reason to come with me?!"

I shrugged. "Dunno. Say I want to meet him or something."

"Myst, he's my tutor, not my boyfriend! Literally, why would you be so eager to meet him?! I can't just invite him wherever, that's weird!"

"C'mon, you're friends right? Should be easy to ask him over. Tell him whatever, I don't care. I just want to talk with him. By the way, change of plans, we're taking a trip to Fillydephia while you're here."

"Mystery..."

"It'll be fun."

"You mean you'll have fun investigating your case... What am I going to do in Fillydelphia?"

"It's just for a day. Don't worry, you can go off on your own or something. There must be some neat sight seeing places."

"You're crazy. You have no clue what you're doing, do you?"

I sniffed disdainfully. "Course I know what I'm doing. I have to investigate a company, then visit Dash in prison."

"Visit Dash?" I could almost hear Amber facehoof. "You do realize that she's kind of in a high security prison, right? Like, those things don't exactly allow visitors unless they're direct relatives or friends."

"I'll figure something out." I shrugged, leaning back against my bed. "I've got it covered."

"You most definitely do not."

"Come on, just work with me here. If you can get Blueprint to come here, I'll be able to get some valuable information out of him."

Amber sighed. "Mystery... Maybe it's time to stop with this case thing... I know I said I'd support you and all, but... I'm coming to visit so that we can spend time together. Not so that we can go off searching for clues in Fillydelphia... There hasn't been a mention of this case since that Silver Spirit pony. I don't think it's going to go any farther than that-"

"Wait, you haven't heard?" I was a little surprised.

"Heard what?"

"About the attack at the Weather Factory? Glaze said it had been all over the news..."

"Huh? You think that's related too?"

I nodded vigorously, even though I knew she couldn't see me. "I'm assuming you didn't see the video in time, and they probably didn't say much on the news. Glaze downloaded the video that was uploaded to PonyTube before it was taken down, and man, it's gruesome. Definitely the work of a Prototype, and I think we've got somewhat of a lead."

Amber paused. "Oh... Hmph, I'll see what I can do."

"Trust me Amber, when this case is over, and I get a full time job, we'll actually have money to go places. Fun places, like the waterpark, or Equestria's Wonderland."

"Ugh... Fine..." She sounded disheartened, and I couldn't help feeling a little guilty. I know I'm kind of neglecting my friends and all, but this case is really important... In the end, if I don't figure this out, I'm going to lose them anyways. Nopony wants the burden of a full grown mare who can't support herself. Glaze is going to leave either way, and Amber surely wouldn't support me. She's 12. She doesn't have that kind of funds. If I don't get a real job, I'm screwed, and I don't think they realize that...

"I'm sorry... I said quietly, but the tone of the receiver told me that she had hung up a long time ago. I sighed. I don't even know if she's going to ask Blueprint anymore. Maybe that was a dumb idea... Yet at the same time, it would be so helpful to get his input on things... He's a genius. Even if he's not involved, he'd surely be able to help us with figuring out the details of the Prototype...

I sighed, crawling onto my bed and sprawling myself out across the sheets.

"What are you doing?" Glaze padded into the room with a questioning look.

"I'm wallowing in my own stupidity." I muttered angrily. I'm so bipolar about things. I'll think up a great idea, then regret it seconds after I mention it to somepony.

"... So you cut me off in the middle of a sentence to come do that?"

I sat up, glancing over at him. "I called Amber. And she hung up on me." I laughed a little. "I think everypony's just about done with me for today... I really need to work on being less stubborn."

He shrugged. "Stubborn isn't a bad thing, you know. It does help you get what you want."

"But what about what other ponies want? ... Maybe the problem isn't that I'm stubborn, it's that I'm selfish..."

"Oh please, you've dedicated yourself to saving lives. You can't always make everyone happy.. Stop being so hard on yourself."

I rolled over onto my face. "Hmm mhphh mmh mhph mm hmph."

"... I have no clue what you just said." Glaze laughed, a wide grin spreading across his face.

I couldn't help laughing too, and I rolled onto my back and covered my mouth to muffle the sound. "I said, 'but I want to please you and Amber.' I don't really care about anypony else. I mean, if I can't make you guys happy, then why should I deserve to be your friend?"

"Since when do you care about making us happy?" He gave me teasing grin, hopping up beside me on the bed.

"Since I realized that we're not going to stay friends forever if I don't..." I shrugged slightly, my smile fading. "I mean... I already failed once. I already lost you. You'd at least think I could keep Amber on board..."

Glaze's expression went blank. "... You haven't lost me. Not yet, anyways. You still have three weeks before I said I would leave."

"Three weeks to what, convince you to stay? Psh. I don't even know how to do that. You're practically already out the door, for all I know."

"Yeah, well, step one, we haven't had that talk. What exactly were you doing in Cloudsdale? And what did you do to my phone? Who's Silver Spirit?!" He held up his cell, where it seemed he had started a text conversation with Silver, asking him who he was. Both stallions appeared very confused in their messages.

I gritted my teeth. "Ugh. Well, I went to check out this place called Strife.ink, which I thought could house some suspects. I'll explain why later... And I also went to meet Silver Spirit, who was the victim of the first incident. He gave me pictures of the start of a Prototype that he got removed."

Glaze nodded slowly. "... Hmph. Alright. You still should have told me first, but I guess your reasoning is decent... Though I'm still pissed at you for taking my phone." He flicked me across the face with his tail, and I glared at him disdainfully.

"I suppose I deserve that. Though I honestly thought you would beat my ass a little better than that."

"What, do you want me too?" He laughed. "You're a idiot for thinking you can pull this police thing off."

"Yeah, well I guess that makes you an idiot too, since you volunteered to come to Fillydelpia with me."

"Hey, I never answered that."

"Well then? You coming or not?"

"I'll come to make sure you don't get into trouble."

"Oh please, you know it's going to happen anyways."

He laughed again, closing his eyes and reaching over to ruffle my mane. "Course it is. It always does."

I grinned, meeting his gaze, a spike of fire spearing my chest once again. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

"Yeah, well I wouldn't have a problem with it if you'd stop getting arrested." He hopped off the bed and made his way back to the door.

"Psh, I think I've learned my lesson."

"Doesn't help that you look like shit all the time. You always look menacing, like a criminal. You should smile more often. It's cute."

"Excuse you, I do not look like shit." I faked a glare, but his stupid complement kind of made me feel better. I hate complements, and above all I've always hated ponies criticizing my smile, but somehow this was strangely okay, and I decided not to call him out for it.

"Well, it's an improvement. Least you grew out that stupid mane of yours." Annnndd, there goes the moment.

I scoffed. "Stupid mane?"

"You looked like Flare. Had me wanting to murder your ass 24/7. Not to mention the way he marked up your stupid face."

I gave him a disgusted look. "Can we, like, not talk about my 'stupid face'?"

"Your stupid face has a scar across it because of him."

"You can barely see it. It's not even noticeable. Why the hell is it such a problem? You have such a grudge against Flare, geez." I growled.

"If anything, you should be the one with a grudge against him. I mean, he did try and kill you."

"... I honestly don't think it was completely his fault... He spent all that time helping me, and yeah, he did try to kill me, but I think Atmosphere played a part in it too. Messed with his head, made him think we were the enemies. You can't blame him for something that wasn't his fault."

Glaze sighed. "Hmph. Whatever. Think what you want, but it doesn't change the fact that you have a stupid scar across your stupid face." He grinned slightly.

I scoffed. "Leave, horse."

He stepped out of the room and laughed, flicking the door closed with his tail. Oh, how he loves to annoy me. And oh, how I've come to enjoy it...

~~~

Amber frowned when Blueprint didn't pick up the phone right away. She knew he had been out of it the last few days, but he since the day that Mystery first came to Cloudsdale, he had vowed to pick up right away to help her with whatever she needed. And he had. He had, for the last few days. But now... Now it was almost 4 rings until he picked up, and as soon as he did, Amber knew something was terribly wrong.

"Hello?" His voice seemed to shake nervously as he said the word.

"Uh... Hey Blue."

"What do you need? Is it the quadratic equation again?"

She could hear the uncertainty in his voice, like he was trying to keep down his worry, but wasn't doing a great job of it. "Not this time, no. Uhm, remember Mystery, that pony that showed up to Strife.ink with me to talk to your sister?"

"Yeah. She wanted a tattoo, right?"

"Well, not exactly. But I'm going to visit her tomorrow and she wants to meet you really badly for some reason. I know it's short notice, but she'd like you to come with me."

"Oh my god..." Blueprint's breathing increased. "Thank Celestia. Yeah... Yeah, I'll come. I need to get out of Cloudsdale... I'm... Terrified right now..."

"What? Why?" Amber's expression evolved into something of worry.

"I... I'll explain everything later, but you have to promise not to tell anypony... Long story short, I think I may be in deep trouble for something that I didn't cause..." She heard him take a deep breath. "Not only that, but I don't feel safe with somepony doing the thing that I might be framed for... I... I could turn into a victim and-"

"Back up, back up, I'm confused..."

The colt laughed nervously, the fear obvious in his tone of voice. "Oh, I'm in way over my head... I'll explain everything tomorrow, where should I meet you?"

"At the station, platform 3. Train leaves at 7:30."

She heard a sigh of relief. "I'll be there."

"...okay..." She didn't have time to say goodbye before the call was hung up from the other end, and the line went silent. Mystery was right. He was definitely acting strangely.

She had assumed his metal breakdown earlier in the week had been due to stress. Overload of school work maybe, or family problems. Amber herself had had a few run-ins with those, and they weren't pretty.

However, now she was starting to get the inkling that it was something bigger than that. He sounded so nervous just a few minutes ago. Might be in deep trouble for something he didn't cause?

Deep trouble... What kind of trouble would sweet, innocent Blueprint get himself into? He could he overly curious sometimes, but he was smart enough to not get in over his head.... Maybe it had finally gotten the better of him.

She didn't quite believe that he was responsible for the Prototype outbreak, but he could have actually been involved in some way. He thought he could become a victim of whatever he was afraid of... So he couldn't have manufactured it, or designed it in any way. He'd never have done something like that if he thought it would harm ponies. Amber knew Blueprint; he couldn't hurt a fly.

He's hiding something... She thought. And if it's so serious that he feels like he has to leave Cloudsdale; so serious that he's taking up my offer of visiting my grumpy Manehatten friend who'll probably do nothing but interrogate him, he's sure not to tell me everything. But he can't keep secrets forever...

It's my job to help ponies. If he's having a hard time, I have to help him out. He's not going to tell me everything, I know he won't. But that doesn't mean I won't find out. I'm going to get to the bottom of this, if it's the last thing I do.

~~~

Well, here we go. I'm sorry if there's mistakes, I was half asleep while editing it.

Anyways, does anyone have opinions on how this book is going so far? I feel like it's gotten a little boring, save for the little gory incident at the beginning of the chapter. Then again, I always worry that my writing is getting boring. In the end, I can't tell, cause I'm not the readers, and it's the readers who decide if it's boring or not, so I'll leave it up to you. I can tell you, it's going to get a lot more intense from here on forwards, but it might be a little slow in the next few chapters. I dunno. Just felt like warning.