HELLO it's been months, and everyone has probably lost interest in this story but here's a chapter because yes I am still alive (but only barely).

~~~

"This was a mistake," breathed Midnight as she stared down at the unconscious bodies of her family. Taking things out of their natural timeline is majorly against the law. I just brought back three entire ponies. I'm so going to jail. This is going to buck up the timeline so badly....

Or maybe it wouldn't. They were suppose to die in the current timeline anyways, right? And they could help her fix it. Make it so they wouldn't die at all.

And then what do I do with them? She thought awkwardly. They can't go back to their own timeline and they can't stay here or there would be two of each of them.

It was a problem that she would have to figure out later. Right now she had to move them out of the RPPA before ponies started coming in for work. James seemed to have been tending to Blueprint's injuries on the other side of the mission room, but now both of them were staring at her in shock.

"Midi, what did you do?!" James ran over, marveling at her soot and blood-covered jumpsuit. "What happened?!"

"Long story. What time is it?"

"It's nearly 6:00am. The janitor's already here. We have to get you guys out quick."

Midnight looked down at herself and grimaced. "There's no way I can put my equipment back without someone noticing I took it. Look at it." She slipped off her jumpsuit, and the fabric left an ugly smear of black across the floor. She tried to rub it away with her hoof, but since her hoof was just as dirty, it only made it worse.

"Forget it," said James, walking over to Amber and checking for a pulse. "I'll handle the cleaning. Are these guys okay?"

"Just unconscious from warping without proper gear." Midnight lifted her mother onto her back, struggling a bit with the weight. She gestured to Glaze. "Help me move them. Take my dad. Nick, carry Amber, she's the lightest."

"What the hell is your plan here?" Asked James worriedly as he struggled to pick up the yellow stallion. "Was it really smart to take them out of their timeline?"

"Not particularly," Midnight muttered. "But I did it, so now they need to get into my car before someone sees them."

The trio took the back door that led to the garbage disposal, creeping around the edge of the building until they reached Midnight's car.

"I thought you left," she said quietly as James dumped her father's body into the trunk.

"Well it's a good thing I didn't," he replied, brushing himself off. "I had a feeling you were going to get in some type of trouble. My shift starts in half an hour and you kept me here all night, so this better be worth it."

"Thanks," she muttered, setting Mystery down next to her dad and closing the trunk. "I'll make it up to you. Again. Gosh, I owe you like 4 favours at this point. I'm sorry." She pointed Blueprint towards the car door. "Put Amber in the back seat, the trunk is out of room."

"Meet me for lunch later today at The Grassy Café. I want a full explanation of what happened and 5 good reasons why I should help you cover this up."

Midnight sighed and nodded. "Okay, I'll be there." She turned to Blue. "Get in the car, Nickprint. I'll be there in a sec."

He did as asked, and she turned back to James. "I'm really sorry for pulling you into this. You don't have to help me any further. I'll take care of it from here on out."

He nodded, not believing a word she was saying. "Whatever you say."

Midnight got into the car and backed out of her parking spot, praying to Celestia that the hostages in the back wouldn't wake up before they got to her house. She didn't think her parents would take kindly to being locked in a trunk.

"How are you holding up?" She asked, turning to Blueprint. In the chaos, she hadn't had a chance to make sure he was alright. "After seeing... Y'know. That."

He shook his head. "I stopped watching when I saw the blood," he tapped nervously. "I only heard the rest of it. I can't say it was much better though. It was still kind of scarring to hear my own sister acting so... Evil. Even if I didn't see her kill anypony."

She nodded, knowing what he meant. She didn't really believe in the whole good and evil thing, but it was really the only way to describe Tyra in her last moments. She had been absolutely crazy.

"Mystery was suppose to kill Tyra as soon as she had the chance. I'm not sure why she changed her mind in this timeline. I think it may have had something to do with your lack-of-death."

Blueprint averted his gaze. "It's my fault, isn't it? I shouldn't have gone back and tried to warn Amber. It was a dumb idea."

"So was me bringing my past parents into the future but here we are. We all buck up sometimes." She glanced in the rear view mirror, craning her neck to see Amber's unconscious form in the back seat. "I don't know what I'm going to do with them. They don't belong here."

"Can't you just... Put them back?" He asked slowly.

She grimaced. "And send them to their deaths? I know what's going to happen to them if they enter that room. I saw it with my own eyes. I don't know if I could live with myself."

She pulled into her driveway and got out of the car. Without James' help, it took Midnight two trips and Blueprint one to get the other ponies into the house.

"It has been far too many times this week that I've come to find unconscious ponies in my house," she muttered under her breath as she retrieved a damp cloth from the kitchen and began to wipe the layers of grime from her parents' bodies. Undoing the clips, she slipped off her mother's bulletproof vest and lay it on the floor beside them. Mystery had quite a few scratches and bruises and she was covered in blood, but she didn't actually have too many injuries. Most of them would have been sustained in her final battle with Tyra... Which hadn't happened yet when she pulled them out of their timeline.

That also meant that she hadn't confessed her feelings for Glaze yet, so she supposed she had to be careful. She had no idea whether to tell them she was their daughter or not. It would just freak them out... But how else could she explain why she had gone to them for help, or why she cared so much about their future?

And what about Blueprint? This version of FEARED had no idea who he was, and she was worried that it would make him feel bad. He hadn't seen how torn up Amber was after his death. Now he would only see the fear she felt when she looked as his terrifying new appearance.

"Vortex sickness usually only lasts for an hour at most. They should be waking up soon. I have no idea what to tell them," she said quietly, looking up at Blueprint. "They're going to think I'm crazy."

She slowly unwrapped the saddle bag from Mystery's shoulder and dumped it out on the floor, picking up her gun and inferno grenade. "I'm going to lock these upstairs in my work briefcase. Can't have them armed."

She sifted through the rest of the contents. There was a stun gun, which Midnight also threw to the side, a small med kit, matches, a utility knife, a taser (her mother sure carried a lot of weapons for one pony), and a length of rope. The thought of tying her parents up crossed her mind, but she shook it away just as quickly. It was crazy to even think about. Why would she need to tie her own parents up?

She moved on to Glaze's bag, which contained most of the same supplies. She assumed that the bags must have been issued as a standard from the Rainbow Factory, as Amber's turned out to have similar contents, minus the inferno grenade.

"Keep an eye on them for a second," she said to Blueprint, gathering the insane amount of weapons. "I'm taking these upstairs."

Upon arriving in her room, she pulled her work briefcase out from under her bed and unlocked it, stashing the firearms inside. The tasers and utility knives went into a nearby drawer, and she threw the three bloodstained bulletproof vests into her closet for safekeeping.

As she descended back down the stairs, she heard voices coming from the living room, and her heart sank. Had they really woken up in the few seconds while she was gone? Poor Blueprint.

She flung open the door, gaping at the awkward scene unfolding before her. She bounded in between her mother and her Prototype friend, who was pushed up against the wall and being threatened with a lamp.

"Woah woah woah! Put my lamp down!" Midnight snatched the appliance from Mystery and set it gently on the table. "Really? You had to go and wake up in the two seconds I was upstairs?"

She looked quickly around the room to find that Amber and Glaze were thankfully still unconscious. Hopefully she would have time to convince her mother that she wasn't the enemy before they woke up and overpowered her.

"Where am I?!" Mystery demanded, grabbing for the lamp again. Midnight slapped her hoof away.

"Stop it. You're in my house. It's a long story, sit down."

The black pegasus drew back, narrowing her eyes. "You teleported," she said in disbelief. "You were behind us and then you were in front of us-"

"No, there were two of her," came a voice, and Midi looked over to find Amber sitting up across the room. "She was both behind us and in front of us. And the one in front appeared out of nowhere, I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Yeah, I'm a time traveler," she said as if it was obvious. "We went over this already, remember? I predicted your future."

"Which was bullshit, I don't even want kids," spat Mystery, and Midi shank back, offended.

"Excuse you. You can think I'm a fake all you want but it won't change the fact that you're literally in the future right now. This is my timeline, right here." She tossed her mother that morning's paper, which she had grabbed on her way in. "See for yourself."

Mystery checked the date and rolled her eyes. "You easily could have printed this yourself."

"Yeah." Midnight sighed. "Just like this hologram." She pulled up the holoscreen on her wrist com and held it out for the two ponies to see, sticking her hoof through it for emphasis. "This didn't exist in your time period did it?"

"That's so cool!" Amber exclaimed, and Mystery let out a huff of indignation.

"You can't seriously believe that. There's no such thing as time travel. We're not stupid."

Debatable, thought Midnight internally.

"Give her a chance, Myst," protested Amber, and Midnight nodded thanks. "The last thing I remember before waking up here was you saying that we couldn't go into the room where Tyra was. What was in there?"

Midnight shifted nervously. "Err... See... Well... You were sort of... Going to die in there."

Mystery scoffed. "Psh, how would you know?"

"Because I saw it with my own eyes," she spat back. "All three of your blackened corpses laying in ashes. It's why I took you out of your timeline. There was no other way to stop your deaths."

The room fell into silence for a few seconds.

"Tyra shot Mystery in the head and as a result, Glaze set off one of those fire bomb things you had in your bags. You managed to kill her but still died. That wasn't how it was suppose to go." She explained.

Mystery looked away. "I thought you said that was what you were trying to fix, or something."

"Well yes, but..." Midnight shifted nervously. "That was a different death. How should I explain this..." She thought for a moment, gathering her facts. "You met Blueprint already. He was suppose to come along with you, and since he's a Prototype, he was going to self destruct in the middle of a fight and kill all of the ones you were fighting. A few days ago, the timeline was disrupted and he fell through a portal before he had time to self destruct, so the Prototypes overran you and you all died. The second time we killed off all of the Prototypes for you to escape, but something else went wrong and you hesitated before shooting Tyra and she shot you instead."

"Killing Tyra was never the plan," said Mystery quickly. "Dash and I were going to turn her in to Celestia together."

"I think... Originally..." Midnight said carefully, "Blueprint's death caused you to change your mind about that. You didn't want to give her a second chance. When you didn't see him die this time around, I guess you wanted to keep her alive."

"Forgive me for not understanding," Mystery sighed. "I have never met him in my life." She gestured to Blueprint. "I don't particularly want anyone to die, but I don't think his death would have swayed my plans that much."

Midnight frowned. "Well yes, you don't know him in this timeline but--" she trailed off. There was really no easy way to explain the whole multiple timelines thing. Time travel was not easy to understand, especially to someone who didn't previously know it existed.

"I have... An idea..." She rummaged through her bag and produced a bluetooth headpiece. "Er... I might have two more upstairs..."

"What is that?" Glaze asked, taking the headset from Midnight.

"It's a Viewer," she replied, scrolling through her wrist com. "My communicator has a video recorder on it and so does my time bracelet. The time bracelet records automatically every time I time travel for security reasons, and sends it to my communicator. And also my ex-boss, but that's a problem for later."

"It's getting sent to your boss?!" Exclaimed Blueprint, but Midi waved him aside. "Like I said, problem for later. Here."

She pulled another Viewer out of a nearby drawer and handed it to Mystery. "I like watching my missions over after I complete them, but I also kept losing the headsets so now I have like 4 of them. Let me find another one."

She went into the kitchen and began rummaging through another drawer. "Here we go. Take this one, Amber."

Amber took the headset and reluctantly put it on. "It's just one earpiece though. How are we suppose to see video footage from this?"

"Sweetie, it's the future. Everything is holograms," Midnight muttered, scrolling through her communicator to find the video files.

She cursed under her breath when she realized that the videos would contain information about the family connection between her and the three other ponies. If only she had time to edit the footage a little...

Edited Footage For Parents
(You're welcome. Sincerely, future you.)

Midi did a double take. The label was there, clear as day.

"Huh. Thanks, future me, I guess."

She motioned for Mystery and Glaze to put in the earpieces and pressed play on her communicator, broadcasting the signal to all three.

There was silence for several minutes. Amber started crying. There was a point when a shocked Mystery raised a hoof to her right eye. Glaze shifted uncomfortably throughout the entire video.

Blueprint enhanced a worried glance with her. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

She shook her head. "No, but I think at this point it's the only way to make them understand. Time travel just goes over their heads. You're lucky you're so smart."

As the footage was completed, Midnight switched off her communicator. She checked the time. It was nearly 8:00am, which normally would have caused her panic, but now she had no job to be late for.

Amber ran to Mystery and latched onto her, sobbing into her leg, much to the older mare's disgust. Midnight felt slightly bad for her. It wasn't fair to keep her in the dark, but at the same time, she probably hadn't wanted to see her friend get brutally murdered.

Glaze was uncharacteristically quiet as he slipped off the ear piece and handed it back to her.

"I get why I didn't shoot her," said Mystery slowly, attempting to detach the hysterical Amber from her leg. "But why the hell would I turn away from her? It's like I was... Asking for her to stab me in the back."

Probably because the love of your life almost died in the seconds before and you had to turn around to check if he was okay, and maybe make out with him in the process, thought Midnight inwardly, but all that came out was "she shot you from the back, not stabbed you."

All three of them shot her an angry glare. On second thought, that might have been a slightly insensitive thing to say.

"This is what I'm trying to fix," she reassured quickly. "I'm just not really sure how." She checked the time again. 8:30. She wondered if Haze had seen the recordings yet. If she hurried, there was a possibility that maybe she could get them off his computer before he came into work. She had his schedule memorized, and on that particular day, he began work at 10:30. Then again, she didn't want to just leave her parents and Amber alone in her house while she did something slightly illegal.

She felt a little bit guilty. Before this whole incident, Midnight had been an upstanding Cloudsdale citizen with a great record. Now she was stealing and time traveling illegally. This wasn't how she imagined her life would turn out. Hopefully, once she saved the world and the timeline was back to normal, everyone would forget about all of the illegal things she had done, but she wasn't going to count on it. She wasn't exactly expecting her job back, and the prospect of not being able to time travel made her really sad.

She briefly debated asking James for help, before remembering that she had promised him no more favours. She'd either have to risk getting arrested, or take her family out into public... She didn't know which was worse.

Ultimately, she reasoned that if she got arrested, she'd never get to fix the timeline and that would be very bad for everyone involved... So she instructed her parents to go take a short shower and get themselves cleaned up.

"You're kidding me, right?" Blueprint gave Midnight a very skeptical look as she shoved her mother into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. "They barely know where they are, and we're taking them on an illegal heist?"

"I don't exactly have a choice." She grimaced, listening through the door to make sure the shower turned on. "If Haze sees that footage, he's going to put out a warrant for my arrest. In fact, we'd probably all be arrested, or worse. The Agency doesn't take kindly to ponies out of their timeline. Until we figure out how to fix things, we need to lay low."

"You call stealing from your ex-boss laying low?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, if it stops him from finding out that I made an illegal time jump and accidentally changed history in the process."

Blueprint frowned. "How severe exactly is the punishment for what we just did?"

Midnight shrugged awkwardly. "Err... It's a criminal offense under the Time Act of 2030, soo... Life in prison, at least. They'd revoke my time travel license, which was pretty much already revoked by Haze when he fired me, so I'd probably also be charged with illegal time traveling without a license and... This version of Mystery, Amber and Glaze would all be executed and the timeline would probably never be fixed. You'd probably also be executed. So that sucks, I guess."

Blueprint didn't speak much after that.

The car ride to the Royal Paradox Prevention Agency was awkward. She had shoved Amber and her parents into the backseat which she and Blueprint took the front, but regretted it when Mystery and Glaze started a loud argument over Tyra while Amber gushed about how cool Midnight's hover car was. By the time they reached the Agency, she was about ready to drive the car off a bridge, but instead she forced everyone out and showed them around to the back of the building.

After settling her family down with some snacks she had brought from home, Midnight turned to Blueprint and handed him an object. "This is my old cell phone. My new number-" she held up her wrist communicator, "-is in the contacts. I shouldn't be long, but you need to stay here and watch them while I'm gone. Call me if anything goes wrong, alright?"

Blueprint looked a little nervous about the whole situation. "They aren't going to listen to me," he said awkwardly. "I don't even think they trust me."

"Well, we don't have much of a choice," she shrugged, gritting her teeth. "Unless you want to try going in there to delete the files without being caught."

He shook his head vigorously. "I'd be the worst thief, but you can't expect me to take charge here. What if they turn on me?"

"They won't, I know my parents. Ditching you, on the other hoof... Well, just keep an eye on them, okay?  I don't want them getting into trouble. I'll only be gone a few minutes, you'll be fine."

The cyborg nodded slowly, still not convinced. He could see that he didn't have much of a choice. Midnight was the one who knew how to get around unseen in the RPPA. He wouldn't survive one second in there.

He turned back to the three other ponies as Midnight headed off towards the back door of the agency.

"So... Goldfish, anyone?" He pushed the leftovers from his and Midi's time trip over to the rest of the group.

"Are you really Tyra's brother?" Cut in Amber, ignoring the snacks. "You don't seem anything like her."

Blueprint shifted awkwardly. He hadn't expected them to ask questions. He wasn't sure how much Midnight wanted them to know. "Yeah. We were... Pretty different. I honestly don't know what drove Tyra to such a state. I'm sorry she caused you so much trouble."

"This doesn't feel right," growled Mystery. "How we were just pulled out of the middle of it all. I feel like we should be back helping. What if Tyra's still trying to take over Cloudsdale in our timeline as we speak?"

"Midnight's got it under control," he said reassuringly, grateful that his new voice synthesizer hid the uncertainty in his words. "She know what she's doing."

"Sure doesn't seem like it," muttered Glaze. "We're not suppose to be here, are we? If taking us out of our timeline was so illegal, why would she do it?"

Blueprint figured he better leave that part of the explaining to Midi.

"Just... Try and relax, okay?" He thought back to what past Amber, back when she still knew who he was, used to say to him. He wasn't the most mentally stable pony himself, but she had been really good at calming him down. "It's going to work out. You'll be back in your own timeline in no time, and Tyra will be defeated, and everything will be okay." He thanked his voice synth once again for making him sound calm when he was freaking out on the inside. "What do you normally do to calm down?"

"I make music," said Glaze, lying down on the pavement. "Not like i can do that now."

"I play video games," replied Mystery. She closed her eyes. "I hate to say it after all I've been through, but shooting virtual monsters makes me feel in control."

"I find shopping really calming." Amber gave him a halfhearted smile. "Even if I don't actually buy anything."

"You know, there's a mall across the street," said Mystery, gesturing to a large stylized building on the far side of the parking lot.

Alarm bells blared in Blueprint's head.

"Oh! Don't you think that would be nice? It would certainly help us forget about Tyra," Amber said with excitement.

"Er... Midnight said to stay here!" Blueprint said quickly. "What if someone sees you?"

"Let's be honest here," said Mystery, rolling her eyes. "If we're dead in this universe, who's going to recognize us? Who's going to look at us and be like, 'well shit, those ponies should be dead.' Nobody's going to do that."

Blueprint bit his lip, then regretted it as a trickle of blood began to drip from his sharp teeth. "But... Midnight said-"

"Midnight can suck it," spat Mystery. "I barely even know her and I should be back saving Cloudsdale. Now excuse me, I'm going to the mall to get some cookies, and if you want to stop me, go ahead and try." She turned and began to stalk away towards the large building and Blueprint screamed internally as Glaze shrugged and began to follow.

He turned to Amber, who was looking at him expectantly. "Pleeaaassee, Blue?"

He was caught off guard by her begging. She always did this when she wanted something. He had hated it, but he always gave in eventually. He cursed her for pulling this on him now. She didn't even know him enough to know how weak his willpower was. What a cheap move.

Midnight's going to kill me, was his last thought as the four of them headed off towards the mall.

~~~

This isn't going to be as easy as I thought, Midnight realized as soon as she entered the agency. It wasn't like when she had snuck in to use the warp room in the dead of night. It was only slightly before noon now, and several ponies were milling about, doing their work. Getting to Mr. Haze's office without being seen would be a challenge.

She secretly wished that time agents wore some kind of fancy uniform that she could disguise herself in like in the movies to go unrecognized, but no such luck. Jumpsuits were only worn on missions and it wasn't like they covered the face anyways.

Her chance to move came when an announcement came over the PA telling time agents to report to the warp room for a mission, and though Midnight was slightly disappointed that something exciting was happening without her, she took the moment of chaos to slip out into the hall and make her way down towards Sun Haze's office.

She ducked into a storage closet halfway down the passage to let two more agents pass by. Quickly, she checked her wrist com for any recent messages, but nothing came up. She sighed in relief. The last thing she needed was for something to go wrong outside.

She closed the distance to the office in a few bounds and quickly shut the door behind her. She let out her held breath and leaned against the door, relieved that she hadn't been spotted.

"Midnight? What are you doing?"

Midnight jumped and spun around, relieved to find that it wasn't Haze. So much for not getting caught, but being caught by Haze's intern grandson Sky Hawk was much better than getting caught by one of the other time cops or Haze himself.

"Err... Please don't tell Mr. Haze I'm here, I just need... I need..." She slowly scooted her way over to the computer behind the desk while Sky watched her awkwardly.

"What's going on?"

She sighed. "Okay look, I need to get some files off your grandpa's computer. Just let me do my thing and I'll leave, okay?"

He nodded and watched her curiously as she typed. "What's this about, exactly? Does this have to do with you getting fired?"

"Oh, so everyone knows now. Great." She scoffed. "And no, not really. Well, sort of. It's complicated. Best not to think about it too much. The important thing is that I'm not suppose to be here, and you're not going to tell him I was, right?"

"Er... Okay. I won't tell him. He's been acting kind of strange lately, you know. Do you think you're involved?" Sky walked over to look over her shoulder at the computer, and Midnight glared at him and attempted to cover her work.

"Oh, so I'm not the only one who's noticed. That's a relief. I suspect he might have caused a Time Shock."

"Why would he do that?"

"Psh, how would I know? I'm not going to tell you the whole story, but basically he's been covering things up lately. You wouldn't know the difference, since you're not a time traveler, but a bunch of things have changed and basically I've been wiped out of existence."

He stared at her blankly.

"Okay, not literally. Well, literally yes, but not physically, I'm still here, I just don't exist- I mean- I do, physically, but-- okay, never mind. It's too confusing for an intern, forget it."

Sky frowned. "But grandad runs this place with the intent to stop Time Shocks from happening. He'd never purposely make one."

"That's what I don't get," said Midnight, pulling her usb stick out of the computer with the files she needed. Mission success. No more incriminating video evidence. "He's hiding something, for sure, but I don't know why he'd risk ruining the entire fabric of space-time."

She slipped the stick into her bag and stood up, before checking her messages again. Still nothing. She realized that a chance like this might not come up again. "Er... Will you tell Haze if I search his office?"

Sky looked reluctant, but slowly shook his head. Midnight was pleasantly surprised. She didn't know the intern very well, but it seemed like he was just as concerned about what was going on with his family as she was with hers.

She started rummaging through the drawers in the desk, finding nothing but office supplies and in one case an overwhelming amount of Equestria Daily Tabloids. The shelf next to the desk only held file folders, and she would rather die than search through all of them. However, she did open the drawer labeled J-M and sifted through to find her own folder.

"Hmph. He really wasn't lying about this being my file... Unless he shredded the old one, or something," she muttered, staring down at the pictures of her imposter parents.

"What do you mean?" Sky peered over her shoulder at the file.

She pointed to the two photos. "These aren't my parents, yet Haze has been insisting that they are. It's a result of the Time Shock, but Haze should be immune to it since he's time traveled several times."

Sky frowned. "So he's been lying about it?"

"Along with everyone else. No one in this agency seems to know what's going on, and I'm not sure why. He called a meeting a few days ago and invited all of the time agents except for me. If that isn't suspicious, I don't know what is." She returned the file to its casing and closed the drawer.

"Why would he lie about that? Were your old parents significant, or something?"

"Yeah, kind of. But it had nothing to do with him, so I don't know why he'd need to cover up their disappearance." Midnight walked over to the shelf on the opposite wall. It was mostly filled with books and odd trinkets that she payed little attention to until she got to the line of photos.

"Is this you?" She asked, picking up the first in the line. It showed a small colt playing in a sandbox at a park.

Sky shifted nervously. "Yeah. I keep telling him to take that photo down."

"Nah, it's cute." She laughed and pointed to the next picture. "What about this one?"

"That's my mom and dad on their wedding day."

"Her dress is really pretty." Midnight set the photo down and picked up the last on the line. "Family photo, I'm guessing?"

"That's right. From last Hearth Warming's I think. Almost the entire extended family got together for once." He came up beside her. "There's grandad. My mom, my dad. Me." He pointed at each in turn.

Midnight studied the picture, noticing Haze's contented expression. It was weird to see him off the job. "Hold on..." She squinted, a pony at the back of the group catching her eye. Her heart skipped a beat when she recognized the face. "Who is... That...?" She breathed, even though she full well knew who it was.

"Her? Oh, that's grandad's cousin Rainbow Dash. I'm surprised you don't recognize her actually. She saved CloudsDale once."

Midnight narrowed her eyes at the cyborg in the photo. "Haze is related to Dash?"

Sky nodded. "She's kind of known as the pride and joy of our family. She saved a lot of ponies, you know."

She scowled, resisting the urge to throw the photo across the room and calmly put it back down on the shelf. "Dash didn't save Cloudsdale. My parents did. This is all part of the Time Shock. Is that why he's trying to cover it up? For reputation's sake? Did Dash's wrongdoings taint his family or something? What the hell is this about?"

Sky just looked really confused now, and Midnight got the feeling that she should leave before she made things worse. "I've got to go," she said quickly. "Can you keep an eye on Haze and tell James from accounting if he does anything weird?"

"What's going on?"

"I told you, don't think about it. Just update James. Please, I need this."

Sky sighed. "Err... Okay, I can try."

"Thank you, I'll make it up to you someday, I promise." She patted the stallion on the shoulder and unlocked the window, sliding it open. "Mind closing and locking his behind me?"

He nodded and she slipped through, landing in the bushes below. Hearing the window shut behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back against the wall. That went smoother than expected, she thought with satisfaction. But now I have a million more questions. Is Dash's heroism the reason why Haze is covering up my parents' disappearance? Why?

She frowned and checked her wrist com again.

3 missed calls.

Shit, she cursed inwardly, navigating to her messages. Three missed calls and two texts from Blueprint.

So... We're at the mall.....

Help.

She growled under her breath. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me..."