Friendship is Everything

by Leathebluedrgon

Day 2 Part 3: What Just Happened?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sweet Apple Acres (Bull's POV)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bull still could not believe his robotic hind legs could buck soft enough to not take down a tree. Of course, it took him a while before he risked bucking hard enough to even shake the leaves. But after some encouragement and taunts from Applejack, he finally managed to get some apples out. But that was hours ago, now he was getting the apples out of trees with one hoof. It might be a robotic hoof, but it still counted. "Hey Bull!" a familiar voice shouted from above. Bull looked into the leaves of the tree next to the tree he was getting ready to buck. "What are you looking at?" White asked, standing right beside Bull, who turned towards him with a smile, as if it was a daily routine.

"Hey White, is it party time?" Bull asked, letting one of his robot legs kick the tree behind him. "If it was, you would already be there," White replied, rolling his eyes as if it was obvious. Bull just nodded at the statement before looking around. "Let's find Applejack and tell her that it's time to go," Bull explained, perking his ears up so he could be able to determine the location of the farm pony easily. "She's at the South Orchard, well she was anyway," White explained, turning and walking in a seemingly random direction. "So I take it you already told her?" Bull asked, looking back at his brother. "Yeah, and she said for you to drop the buckets of apples off at the barn, then meet us at the gate," White replied over his shoulder, now bouncing through the orchard.

Bull smiled and shook his head in amusement while seemingly shifting in his robotic legs. When he stopped shifting, the robotic legs seemed to open in some areas, allowing robotic arms to extend out and begin picking up the filled apple buckets near him. Bull began trotting towards the barn, the robotic arms picking up full buckets on the way. He wasn't that far from the barn to begin with, so it didn't take him long to get there, the buckets suspended in the air. After he set the buckets inside the barn, he shifted a little again and the arms retracted, and he headed towards the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. Bull's Eye smiled at White Out and Applejack, who seemed to be in a conversation.

Well, not seemed to be, they were in a conversation, Bull had heard it on the way to the barn in the first place. Apparently, AJ wanted to know more on how Bull got the robotic legs, which White always replied with "From A.I." She still had yet to word the question right. "Ready to go?" Bull asked, walking right by them. "Yep! Now we can get Snakescales and Fluttershy," White announced, hopping beside him. They both knew AJ was following, but she didn't choose to say anything, and was simply walking behind them, most likely to stare at the robot legs.

"I take it overheard me and Jackie's conversation," White Out commented, making sure that Applejack didn't overhear. "Eeeyup," Bull responded, not really caring if she heard him say anything, as long as it didn't ruin any future surprises. "So when she asks the right question, will you answer, or should the pony she asked answer for you?" White continued to whisper. Bull turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "You know the rules," was all he said as he faced forward again. "Okay, okay, I just wanted to make sure you were going to be comfortable talking about it," White responded, no longer whispering. "Are any of us comfortable with talking about what happened to us?" Bull asked, much more somberly than before. White just nodded in agreement to the question, and the conversation turned into a calming silence.

~~~~~~~~~~~Flutershy's Cottage (Snakescales' POV)~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Snakescales placed Diablo back in one of his wings, shutting the ashamed rattlesnake in. Snake motioned his wings in his way of apologizing, but of course Fluttershy still didn't understand how he 'spoke', but she wasn't looking at him anyway. "Now Angel, you should know better than to start a fight with another animal," she scolded at a little white rabbit that looked rather angry. Snake let out a sigh, and turned to look at the forest that Fluttershy feared, but lived next to. He sort of understood why she did, being away from the judgmental eyes of other ponies, and to be closer to some of these animals natural habitat. That's when something caught his eye. One of the bushes closest to the cottage seemed to be moving unnaturally. Snake crept closer, but kept his robotic wings out in case it was a dangerous animal.

As he got closer, a familiar face greeted him. It was a Timberwolf with a couple chips in its muzzle. Snake retracted his wings and let out a sigh of relief. But by the look in the wooden wolf's eyes, it seemed to be grieving, and scared. Snake did some small movements with his wings and head, asking what was wrong. The wolf did small movements with its head and legs, and halfway through the wolf's movements, Snake let out a silent gasp. When the timberwolf was done, it bowed its head, as if out of shame. Snake patted its head a little, moving his wings to comfort the wolf.

"Hey Snakescales, what are you doing?" an energetic voice asked behind him. Snake made a metallic screeching noise as spun around in terror. Upon seeing it to only be White Out, Snake placed a hoof over his heart and did small movements with his wings. "Whoops, didn't mean to startle you," White apologized, rubbing the back of his head. Snake looked back at the bush where the timberwolf just was, but to find it empty of any creatures. "What are you looking at?" White asked, walking right next to Snake to look at the bush. Snake gulped, remembering what the wolf had signed to him.

He tapped White's shoulder gently with one of his wings to get his attention. When he got it, he started telling White what the wooden wolf had informed him of. The more Snake kept signing, the more distraught White seemed to become. After Snake finished signing with his 'I am sorry' movements, he pulled White into a hug, which he really needed. Apparently this didn't go unnoticed by the other ponies not far from them. "White?! What's wrong?!" Bull asked worriedly, galloping to his upset younger brother. "Fr-freezer's g-g-gone," White stuttered, switching from crying on Snakescales to crying on his brother. "What?" Bull asked, shocked. He looked at Snake with a look that pleaded, 'Please tell me it isn't so'. Snake nodded joylessly, much to Bull's horror. "Oh Celestia, I'm so sorry. I wish I could've done something," now Bull had tears in his eyes as he tried to comfort his distressed brother.

Before now the two mares only stood in confusion and concern, but seeing two ponies crying spurred them to action.. "What the hay in goin' on here?" Applejack asked Snakescales. "Oh, um...h-he doesn't t-talk," Fluttershy mumbled. It surprised all of them when White Out immediately stopped crying, and looked at Fluttershy in disbelief. "S-so w-what if h-he c-can't s-say w-words," he began, though there were still stutters in his words that showed he had yet to actually calm down. "H-he talks t-to us u-using movements," White motioned over to Snake, who was currently asking Bull's Eye what caused such a drastic change in White. Fluttershy was now cowering away from the angry stallion, which set off alarms in the other ponies' heads. But Bull got to White first. "What's gotten into you?" he asked, as he turned White away from Fluttershy. White Out looked into his brother's eyes to see an angry looking white pony being reflected back at him. He closed his eyes and started taking deep breaths.

When White became calm, he opened his eyes and looked apologetically back at Fluttershy. "I'm sorry I snapped, but it sounded like you were calling Snake stupid in the nicest way possible," he explained, now looking at his shuffling hooves. Fluttershy gasped and started shaking her head. "I would never say anything of the sort," she said, surprised that White would think such a thing. "I know, I know, but I just found out our boss killed my best friend, so I wasn-" White was cut off. "Wait one applepickin' minute! The pony you work for killed another pony?" Applejack asked, completely stunned by this revelation.

"Well, it was actually a Windi-" White received his brother's hoof to his mouth before he could finish the last word. "Yep, our boss killed another pony, nothing new. Now don't we ha-" it was Bull's turn to get cut off. "Wha' do ya mean by 'nothin' new'?" AJ asked. Snakescales face-hoofed and let Diablo out to hide his embarrassment. "Um... Well, you see-" Bull was thankfully cut off by the master of distractions himself. "Would you look at the time?" White asked, looking at a watch that had suddenly appeared on his hoof. "If we don't leave to get the others now, we'll be late to our party," White continued as he started back to town. "Don't want to be late for a party," Bull nervously stated, galloping after his brother. The mares looked at Snake questioningly, but Diablo had wrapped himself around Snake's head, though he kept the eyes in clear view. Snake looked at both the mares and trotted after his friends. Begrudgingly, Applejack followed, with Fluttershy not far behind. Snake made a noise no organic thing should've been able to create, which got Diablo to release Snake, and go back into Snake's wing. 'I hope we can manage to complete our job without another incident,' Snake thought as he saw the mares giving him weird looks.

Author's Note:

Hints are being dropped from here on. Hints focused on the stallions' past, and current predicament. Eventually all will be explained... mostly with flashbacks. But those will probably begin at the party or the next day.