• Published 11th Apr 2012
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PonyFall: Onward Valiant Crusaders - Fullmetal Pony



A man finds 3 familiar girls one day

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Sleepless in Arizona

Monday April 23, 2012

24 Hours Remain

A loud slam jolted me awake. For a second, I thought I was back in the guest house with Sweetie’s magic out of control again. My eyes readjusted to my darkened room and the haze of sleep and panic faded. A few slivers of light crept through the window frame. Outside my room, I could hear Rachel grumbling to mom about school. I swung my legs over the bed, itched my right side with a slight twinge of pain, and made my way to the shower.

The shower helped further clear my mind, but it also brought back more of the unpleasant parts of last night. Doug made me both scowl and fret. Something happened... maybe Fluttershy accidentally ate a burger.

Pinkie’s weirdness could be on the fritz too, I pondered as I stepped out into the hallway in fresh clothes. Today, there were no cinnamon buns for breakfast, so I had to make do with some Special K. At the table, mom was slowly eating some yogurt and working on sudoku while Rachel and dad were arguing about something, same old same old.

“Well, call an exterminator then!” Rachel complained.

Dad didn’t look up from his copy of the newspaper. “It might be nothing. You probably just heard your brother.”

“Oh.” Rachel didn’t just roll her eyes, but her whole head. She twisted around and glared at me. “Just add sleep-walking to his weirdness.”

“Rachel, can’t you just say good morning?” mom stressed.

Rachel jerked a thumb back at me. “Can’t he just stop freaking me out?”

“I can at least say good morning,” I sighed as I seated myself on the side of the table opposite of Rachel. I took a bite of my cereal and waved my spoon across the table. “Now, what’s all this about me sleep walking?”

Dad gave a small chuckle. “Well, sometime around three, Oxford started barking like the house was on fire. It wasn’t, but your mother and I did hear a sound from the kitchen. I got that old walking stick of mine and went to the kitchen. All I got for nearly having a heart attack was an open fridge and half of the tuna casserole gone.”

Loud hearty laughter escaped from my mouth. It helped conceal the chill that had gone down my spine. “Christ, I knew mom’s casserole was good, but damn! Does explain the fried onions in my bed though.”

“That’s disgusting,” Rachel mumbled.

“Whatever,” I replied before shoving another mouthful of cereal into my mouth. “Anyway, what’s the plan for today?”

“Work for me and your mother, and school for your sister.” Dad folded up the newspaper and picked himself and his dishes up. He rinsed the dishes off but feigned from putting them in the dishwasher like he always did, much to mom’s ire. When he was done putting the dishes away, he lightly gestured in my direction with a hand. “Rest for you.”

“Got it.” I nodded. “It okay if I go on a walk?”

Mom raised an eyebrow at me. “Where to?”

“Black Dog. I’m in town, I might as well get a chai.” I smacked my lips at the prospect of the delicious creamy beverage. There was also a nicely sized park near the cafe. On a school day, there would be virtually no one there, save for the occasional runner. I think a little detour there will be quite useful.

“I could pick it up for you,” mom suggested.

“I just don’t like being cooped up inside. It makes me...” My cast clunked against the top of the table and I threw my eyes to the ground. “... think about things.”

“As long as you don’t strain yourself, it’s probably for the best,” dad conjectured. “You need exercise anyway, and walking is the safest thing for you right now. I just wish you could take Oxford and Kloe with you. They love going on walks with you.”

Like a muppet, Oxford popped his head up over the table and looked at us. Below, I heard Kloe let out a guttural grunt. I bent down and gave her a rub on the head. “Yeah, I know.” I know that nothing calms a kid down like a cute puppy.

“He’d probably get Kloe run over,” Rachel droned. She picked up her plate, unceremoniously dropped it in the sink, and disappeared down to her room.

“Glad to see she’s her usual cheery self,” I sighed before picking up my bowl.

Mom tossed away her container of yogurt and made her way over to the sink. She grabbed dad’s plate and put them in the sink. “She’s just stressed.”

Stressed and suspicious. Over by the sink there was a window and, in the corner, I could see the guest house. Already made them eat chicken, I’ll have to apologize for tuna now, too.

~~~

The house was empty save for me and the dogs when I went outside with them on leashes. They both eagerly tugged forward, but my grip was good enough to hold them for the short trip over to the guest house. Near the door, Oxford fell behind and seated himself a few feet away from the guest house. I gave him a pull, but he didn’t budge until I yanked and he reluctantly came, resisting all the way.

I knocked on the door with my cast and waited. It slowly creaked open, revealing Scootaloo behind it. She rubbed an eye and nearly lost her balance when Kloe bounded up onto her. “Huh? Wha?” She pushed Kloe off while I yanked her back. “Oh, morning, John.”

“Morning, Scootaloo.” Oxford continued to pull against my grasp the further I went into the guest house. Kloe let out some guttural grunts and ran around in circles. I ignored them and focussed on the girl with the slumped back. “Looks like you had a little trouble sleeping.”

“No I didn’t!” Scootaloo hastily replied. She slid her hands away from her face and hid them behind her back like she’d pilfered from the cookie jar.

I chuckled, hoping to lighten up the mood. “It’s fine, you were just worried about Sweetie, right?”

“Y-yeah...” Scootaloo stuttered. Her head suddenly darted up and she stared at me with wide slightly bloodshot eyes. “S-sorry about the food.”

“Was wondering which one of you it was.” Scootaloo being the culprit at least made my worry a little less deep. “I did forget to get dinner for ya’ll last night.”

Apple Bloom walked over to us with an apple in one hand. She took a bite of it and talked with her mouth half-full. “Well, at least we had these apples in the fridge. Not quite as good as home, but your ma still grows ‘em pretty good.”

“The yogurt was nice too,” Sweetie whispered. Oxford turned his muzzle to her and pounced up onto his legs. He didn’t growl, but he was definitely alert. Kloe tilted her head at Sweetie and squeaked.

I noted the dogs’ odd behavior, but pushed it aside. Sweetie appeared much better this morning than she had last night. She’d changed out her dirty clothes and replaced them with some new ones, and she’d brushed her hair as well. It was fully back to its original color and style, but at least it wasn’t unkempt. Her face had a healthier complexion to it as well. All these things could have meant very little in the face of magic though. “You’re feeling better?”

“I... I think so.” Sweetie bent down to give Kloe a rub but she shied away from Sweetie’s hand. Sweetie frowned and stood back up. “I’m still a little scared about stuff, but if Rarity and other unicorns got through it, I can too.”

“That’s the Crusader spirit!” Apple Bloom clasped Sweetie on the back and smiled at her.

“Plus, I have an idea for dealing with your magic, Sweetie,” I said.

“You do?” all three of the girls asked at once.

“Yep.” I gestured over to the bags that still had a majority of the clothes from yesterday’s mall trip in them. “Pull on your socks and shoes. We’re going for a walk.”

~~~

The air outside held a slight chill to it, but it didn’t feel like it would hold for the rest of the day. The rising sun alone made the areas it touched a few degrees warmer than those in the shade. Just as a precaution, I’d had the girls wear their new sweaters. Apple Bloom had on a simple blue jacket that matched up with mine, Sweetie wore a white cardigan with frilled ends, and Scootaloo wore a thick orange sweatshirt. If she’d draped the hood over her head, she’d make a pretty good Kenny impersonator.

Apple Bloom also had Oxford’s leash in one of her hands. I’d offered her Kloe, since I knew I couldn’t hold both both dogs for the whole walk, but she’d insisted on Oxford. Maybe his larger size reminded her of Winona.

We turned around a corner and out onto the main street. Cars zoomed by, their owners off to school and business. I stood closest to the street as a barrier for the dogs and the girls. I trusted Apple Bloom with Oxford, but it never hurt to be a little protective.

Sweetie turned her head up at me while we walked. “I still don’t get how going on a walk will help me with my magic.”

“It’s not just the walk. We’ll go to a park and you can try doing anything you think you need to do with magic,” I explained. “The walk is also good for all of us because we’ve got a long trip tomorrow.”

“To see Pinkie and Fluttershy?” Sweetie asked.

“Yep,” I responded, “but it’ll take a bit to get there, so we need to stretch our legs today.”

“We’re not gonna be stuck in a car again, are we?” Apple Bloom complained.

“Nope.” I gave Apple Bloom a cocky grin. “We get to be stuck on a plane. Don’t worry too much, I’ve got plenty of stuff to keep everyone bu—”

“What’s a plane?” asked Sweetie.

“Oh... right.” You don’t need planes when you have a society capable of natural flight. “It’s kinda like a car, only much bigger and, most importantly, it can fly.”

Scootaloo’s legs got tangled up and she nearly lost her balance. She recovered in time to avoid a fall, but her chest rapidly rose and fell from the news. “It can what?”

“Fly,” I repeated. “Not like pegasus flight, but like an imitation of it. It’s more about going fast enough that you lift right off the ground... it’ll make sense once you see it.”

“Okay.” Scootaloo went silent once more after that.

The rest of the walk remained relatively quiet. We made occasional stops to let the dogs do their business, but, other than that, we kept walking. Apple Bloom began whistling a tune sometime during the final half of the walk. Even for a whistle, it had a very southern drawl to it. It called to mind banjos and whatever that washboard instrument was called as accompaniments. When I spotted the cafe a block away, I broached the question on the song. “What’s that tune’s name?”

Apple Bloom stopped whistling and brought a hand to her chin. “I don’t know. We sometimes sing it when we’re doing work in the morning. We sing other songs too, but that one is everypony’s favorite.”

“I like it,” Sweetie said with a grin. “Your family always has great songs.”

“Yeah...” Apple Bloom’s face drooped a little. “I guess.”

“Oh...” Sweetie’s expression tightened. She gently place a hand on Apple Bloom. Oxford shied over to me while Sweetie got closer to her friend. “Sorry, I didn’t...”

Apple Bloom reached up with her free hand and patted Sweetie on the shoulder. “It’s okay. Ma family is way tougher than all of us combined. Why, I bet Applejack is racing around, high on everypony else’s hooves.”

“I wouldn’t put it past her,” I said with a reassuring smile.

We crossed the street and and entered the strip mall the cafe was located in. Black Dog was open with its windowless and doorless entrance that let the smell of coffee and breakfast drift outside. I held a hand out to stop the girls from going in. “Hmm, not sure if they’re good with dogs inside.”

“You can bring them in!” shouted a barista from behind the counter. I smiled and led the dogs and the girls inside. Oxford and Kloe raced in all directions, save for Sweetie’s, happily running up to people before I pulled them back to us. The girls didn’t run around, but they certainly looked around the cafe, taking in the blocky drawings on the wall and the alternative music that hummed in the background.

“Thanks.” I walked up to the counter with girls behind me. All of our eyes traced over the pastries and muffins under their glass display cases, but only mine read the menu above the counter.

“They’ve got so many breads here!” Apple Bloom said with awe.

Sweetie stood on her tiptoes and peered closer at the food. “It’s just like Sugarcube Corner!”

The barista chuckled a little. “Cute, my kid likes that show too. So, what can I get you?”

“Three small chai lattes and one medium one please, all skinny.” I tilted my head over to the breads and muffins. “What foods have you got today?”

The barista’s hand glided over the glass displays. “We’ve got zucchini, lemon-poppy seed, banana-nut, and pumpkin bread; we’ve also got chocolate muffins and pecan bars.”

“I’ll have the banana-nut bread... please,” said Apple Bloom.

Sweetie’s left index finger pointed to the lemon-poppy seed bread. “Can I have that one, please?”

There was a beat of silence after Sweetie. Scootaloo’s head was slumped down and her eyes were shut. “Um, Sc... Sarah, you okay?”

Scootaloo’s head violently jerked up with such velocity that it tilted the rest of her body back. Sweetie’s arm darted out and kept Scootaloo balanced. She twirled her head around before focusing back on the food in front of her. “Huh? Oh, uh, I’ll have the pumpkin bread.”

“She could use a little espresso too,” the barista joked.

“I’ll have a slice of pumpkin bread too,” I ordered. I wasn’t lying earlier about going here if I was in town. I’d be damned if I wasn’t getting a good chai and a delicious pumpkin bread. That held especially true if it was my last day in town.

“That’ll be nineteen-eighty-nine,” said the barista after she clacked in the numbers onto the register. I dug out a twenty from my wallet to cover the charge and let her keep the small change that remained. “I’ll have your order right up.”

The barista moved away from the ordering area of the counter and disappeared behind a hodgepodge of various machines and containers. While she was at work, I turned my attention to Scootaloo. I pointed out a to a corner of the cafe where there were four large empty leather chairs. “Why don’t you take a rest over there?”

“Y-yeah... that sounds good.” Scootaloo drooped her head again and slumped over to the chairs.

“Sweetie, why don’t you join her, too?” I asked.

Sweetie nodded and headed over to the chairs as well. Apple Bloom made a move to follow, but I grabbed her shoulder. “Hey, I didn’t want to worry Sweetie, but is Scootaloo feeling alright?”

“I think she had trouble sleeping last night,” Apple Bloom sighed. “She was tossing and turning a lot and muttering about something. I got a little fed up with it and asked her what was wrong, but she said it was nothing. I felt bad afterward though. I don’t think I’d sleep well after eating a chicken either. We have so many on the farm, they’re practically family.”

And I was so focused on Sweetie that I didn’t even talk to Scootaloo. I felt like groaning, but I kept my face a false cheery. “I’ll talk to her at the park after we get started helping Sweetie.”

The drinks arrived a minute later. I picked up the tray they were in while Apple Bloom grabbed the bag full of the bread slices. We made our way to Sweetie and Scootaloo and took up the two empty seats. Scootaloo was rubbing one off her eyes while the other one twitched a little.

Apple Bloom and I set the drinks down on the small table in between the pair of chairs. I was the only one to take a drink. “Something wrong?”

“I’ve never heard of a ‘chai’ before, is it good?” Sweetie put her hands on the table and leaned over the cardboard tray of drinks. Thin wisps of steam rose out of the small drinking vents at the top of the cups. She took a whiff and breathed in the scented steam. She smiled but then scrunched up her face. Her head reeled back before it plunged forward as she unleashed a massive sneeze.

My glasses flipped up and the only thing that stopped them from zooming off my head was my thick hair. Newspapers and magazines that were on the table spread open and a few flopped onto the ground. Apple Bloom’s hair was completely blown back and left a little frizzy. I slipped my glasses back down and saw that Sweetie had shrunk into her chair and that Scootaloo’s jaw hung near to the ground. The customers all turned to look at us but quickly went back to whatever they were doing. One of them grunted about the wind.

“Lets walk and drink,” I nervously suggested.

We quickly gathered ourselves up and made our way outside. The Crusaders all took a cup and their bread slices. Sweetie carefully blew on her drink and took a small sip. “Mmm, it’s really good, kinda like warm cinnamon milk!”

“Tastes creamier than that,” Apple Bloom said after taking a swig of her own drink. She picked at the cup’s lid and popped it off with a small yelp before I could stop her. The lid clattered to the ground and we all stopped for a second. “Sorry.”

I stooped down to pick up the lid, but Kloe got to it first and happily licked the foam off of it. I pulled it away from her, relieved that I hadn’t ordered hot cocoa. The lid went into a nearby trashcan and we resumed our walk.

Apple Bloom’s eyes were now on the chai every time she took a drink, which was more frequent now without the lid in the way. A white mustache had popped up onto her upper lip as well. “It kinda looks like milk too, but it’s darker. What exactly is it?”

“You’re half-right about the milk,” I explained before pausing to take a sip of my own drink. “It’s milk and a tea called chai. Black Dog makes the best in town.”

Sweetie took another gulp of her drink and then bit into her bread. “Mmm! This is good too!”

Apple Bloom took a chunk out of her slice and swallowed it. “Granny makes her banana bread a bit better, but Sweetie’s got the right of it. That cafe person must be really talented to run all those fancy machines and bake that much by herself.”

“They actually get their food from another store,” I chucked. “Doesn’t make it any worse and they still make their own drinks.” My attention drifted away from Apple Bloom and to Scootaloo, who was at the tailend of the group. “How’s your stuff, Scootaloo?”

“It’s okay,” Scootaloo muttered. She brought her slice of pumpkin bread to her mouth and nibbled on it. The act was simple but it appeared to make her breathing a little heavier and her eyelids droop.

“When we get to the park, why don’t you take a seat on some benches?” I jerked my cast across the street. On the other side was a large rectangle of grass that stretched for quite a good distance. Its sides were lined with benches, as was the sidewalk that branched through it. In the middle of the park stood a weathered jungle gym, just as it had stood since I was a kid. “There’s plenty there.”

We walked across the road, over to the park, and stopped by one of the benches near the jungle gym. The road was a few yards away, and between it and the park’s grass was a strip of gravel. There were some nice small pebbles that would hopefully help. “Alright, here’s what I think we should do. Sweetie, I want you to try and move a pebble.”

Sweetie looked at the gravel and back at me. “But I don’t know how to.”

“Hmm...” I paused for a moment and thought over how exactly magic could work. The most I got out of it was a tiny green alien puppet. “Think of it like a third arm. Heh, hands actually help in this case. Just try to poke the pebble.”

“I...” Sweetie clenched a fist tight. “I’ll try.”

“That’s the spirit!” Apple Bloom encouraged. She and Sweetie then walked over to the gravel. They both squatted down and Sweetie narrowed her eyes onto a single black pebble.

I stayed behind and kept Scootaloo on the bench with my cast. “You need to rest.”

“I’m fine,” Scootaloo blurted out.

“You’re not,” I urged. “Scootaloo, you’ve been through alot lately and I know it’s been hard on you. I didn’t help you yesterday and now you’ve lost sleep over it. It’s not the end of the world though. Sweetie is gonna be fine and the chicken yesterday didn’t turn you into a monster, right?”

Scootaloo said nothing and stared at the ground. I was about to say something more but she suddenly grabbed at me and wrapped her arms around my torso. Her whole body shook and I felt my shirt turn wet with tears.

“Hey-hey.” I placed my cast on Scootaloo’s back and gently patted her with it. For all it was worth, Kloe also got up on her forelegs and paws at Scootaloo’s side. It didn’t help to quiet her sobs. “It’s not that bad. We all just got a little scared because we didn’t know what was happening, but now we do. Plus, you didn’t even get sick from the chicken. That’s good, right?”

Scootaloo’s hands clenched around my shirt. “You don’t understand! It’s not just that! It’s...”

I bent down and stared her in her puffy eyes. “It’s what?”

A whole wave a tears cascaded down Scootaloo’s cheeks. Her entire face looked like a tomato. My heart sped up. What if the chicken or the tuna had done something to her? “Scootaloo, just tell me what’s wrong.”

“I... I...” she hiccupped. “I saw something bad.”

“What?” It couldn’t have been something on TV, I blocked all the bad channels... even the news.

“I t-thought it was like Darring D-do.” Each word made Scootaloo shake like a leaf. Her hold on my shirt somehow tightened more. “It... it was, but then...”

Like Daring Do? What’s li— Oh no. “Scootaloo, was there a man with a hat and a whip?”

“Y-yes. I t-thought he was c-cool, but at the end... the box and the... the heads!” She fell into my shirt and sobbed again. “I turned it off, b-but it was in my dreams! I just want it to stop!”

“Scootaloo, it’s okay.” I ran my hand up and down her back to comfort her, but her shaking didn’t lighten. I’d never seen a kid after watching Raiders, but I imagined melting and exploding heads could mess them up pretty good. “It’s just a movie. I know some of the stuff you saw was really scary, but its not real. You know, I actually laughed when I found out they used a jello head to make the melting effect. Can you imagine eating a jello head?”

Scootaloo’s grip on my shirt loosened. Her sobs receded and she managed to look up at me. Her face was a mess of red, tears, puffy eyes, and snot. “S-so, it’s not real?"

“No,” I sighed in relief. “I can even show you another film the guy who played Indy was in. See? It’s just like a play. None of it’s real and none of it can hurt you.”

“T-then... what does that make me?”