> Secluded Once More
>  by AgentSnail
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Two Days Later
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Two Days Later


"Scootaloo, pay attention!"  Cherilee reprimanded from the front of the room, tapping a hoof impatiently on the chalkboard.  Scoots groaned and looked up, forcing herself to look interested.  Ugh, math.  She honestly didn't know why Jason liked the stupid subject.  Sure, it wasn't hard, but it was soooo boring.  She sighed, sinking lower into her desk.  

Why did they have to leave?  It wasn't fair.  Now she was stuck here, not even able to come along.  And all she had to talk to them was this crummy pad of paper.  She debated pulling it out of her saddlebag to send them a message, but considering the message from last night about the mission, she figured they'd still be sleeping.  She cringed.  If they were even alive.  Sweetie giggled from next to Scoots; she had managed to balance a textbook on Snails' head without him noticing.  Scoots couldn't help but let out a chuckle.  She pulled out the pad of paper, resigned to at least sending them a message asking how they were.  

How did the attack go?  Did you save the ponies?  Are you okay?  Scoots stuck the pencil in her mouth for a moment, trying to think of something else to write.  

"Scootaloo, why aren't you paying attention again?"  Cherilee asked.

"Uh, I was, uh..."  She replied, unsure of how much she should say.

"You were doodling on this pad of paper?"  She walked over and picked the pad off Scoots' desk before the filly could react, bringing it back to the front of the room.  

"No, Miss Cherilee, you don't understand."  The teacher looked down at the pad, flipping a couple pages over, finding them all blank except for the words Scoots had written.  

"You're right, I don't.  Care to explain?"  She waved the pad of paper, waiting for an explanation.

"Um..."  Scoots replied.  Cherilee looked back at the paper and jumped as new words appeared.  

"Holy horseapples, what?!?!  How?  Scootaloo, explain this right now!"

She squirmed in her seat for a moment before relenting with a sigh.  "Fine.  My parents left to go fight in the war, and they gave me that so that I wouldn't be alone."  That seemed to throw Cherilee for a loop.  She looked at the pad again, then back at Scoots.  

"I see, magic.  You can have this back after class Scootaloo, I'm sorry they had to leave."  Cherilee set the pad on the corner of her desk before returning to her teaching.  

"Yeah, me too."  Scoots muttered, annoyed at her teacher.  She heard some characteristic giggling after some hushed conversation, where she distinctly picked up the words 'blank flank'.  Diamond Tiara...  

Scoots looked over at the clock, sighing a little when she realized that there were only a couple minutes left of school before she got to go out to recess.  And have no fun later today, she realized.  Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were both grounded after their 'Cutie Mark Crusaders Bomb Builders' experiment yesterday.  Scoots had just found an old, unexploded flash-bang in the house, and brought it over to her friends.  They had gone into the park to test it, and had thrown it a little ways away to no effect.

Then a crow came along and picked up the container, rising in elevation and coasting over the Ponyville town square.  At that point the crow seemed to recognize that the canister wasn't prey, and dropped its payload.  And so they watched, wide eyed, as the flash-bang descended behind a building and the square lit up in brilliant light.  A huge boom sounded slightly afterwards, leaving their ears ringing slightly.  It had taken all of thirty seconds for a disheveled Rarity and Applejack to make their way out of the square and over to the fillies, who were still just as wide eyed as before.  

She sighed again as she came back to reality, and rested her head on a hoof.  She couldn't stand school, and usually the things she was going to do after she left made waiting even harder, and the fact that Cherilee had taken the pad of paper didn't help.  She hadn't even told her what it said.  

The bell rang, and she got up, turning to pack away all of the things on her desk before she left.  She had already forgotten some things once, and even though she came back t get them, they had been stolen more than a few times.  Scoots turned away from her bag, moving towards Cherilee's desk to grab the pad of paper.  She froze.  It wasn't there.

"Miss Cherilee, where's my pad of paper?"

"Why, it's right--"  Her brow furrowed, and she dug around on the desk for a few moments.

"You let it get STOLEN?!?!"

"Scootaloo, I'm sure it's around here somewhere.  Besides, why would anypony want to steal that anyway?"

"I-- I don't know.  But it's gone so somepony must've taken it."  She felt her eyes start to tear up.  "And it's the most valuable thing I own."

"I'll ask around Scootaloo,"  Cherilee mussed up the filly's mane with a hoof.  "Nothing's going to happen to it."  The filly saw Cherilee bite her lip nervously.  So then it wasn't fine.

"What am I supposed to do then?  What if they're dead and I just don't know it?"  Cherillee hung her head, letting out a sigh.  

"All I can do is call them in tomorrow.  There's nothing I can do to get it back until then."  Scoots' eyes fogged over, and she opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.  She tried again, before turning and running out the door, past her friends.  

"Scoots, where are you going?"  Sweetie yelled after the filly.  Scoots didn't respond, there was nothing they could do anyway, considering they were still grounded.  And now she had to find the paper and get it back by herself.  It wasn't fair.  She choked back a sob, running into town.  She stopped to wipe her tears, she needed to be strong through this, not act like some kinda foal.

She broke back into a gallop, realizing after the fact that she didn't actually know where she was going.  At least she knew who she had to find, nopony else would have taken the papers.  But if she was going to get this back, she needed a plan.  Jason and Dash'd done that in Canterlot and things had worked out, so she may as well emulate success.  She pushed through the door of Sugarcube corner, wiping another tear out of her eye.  

Scoots jumped into one of the booths, pulling out a piece of paper and writing her name along the top out of habit.  She started drawing a few arrows and lines, assuming that Silver Spoon would be stuck to Tiara like glue, just as she normally was.  But whatever she did, even if there was favorable terrain or cover, she didn't know much about fighting, and taking on the both of them would be a longshot, if not impossible.  Even if only a little of Tiara's bragging about taking martial arts was true, that would only make things harder.

So what then?  Things were only looking bleak.  A glint of pink out of the corner of the filly's eye alerted her to Pinkie Pie's presence, and Scoots redirected her attention.  

"Can I getcha something?"  The party mare asked, bouncing slightly.

"No, I'm just trying to figure something out."  She said, trying to give Pinkie a hint.  She didn't want a repeat of the whole flat mane disaster.  

"Ooh, is it a brain teaser, I love those!  Lemme see!"  She grabbed the paper off the table excitedly and stared at it, her expression going from happy to serious in an instant.  She turned it sideways in her hooves, then upside down, trying to make sense the arrows and letters.

"Confused yet Pinkie?"  Scoots asked, trying to figure out an alternate reason that didn't involve telling the mare that it was for the purpose of beating up Diamond Tiara.

"What is it, a treasure map?"

"Yeaaaaah.  Let's go with that."  

"Oh, can I come?  Can I?  I like treasure."

"I would love to bring you along Pinkie, but I'm trying to get my cutie mark in following cryptic maps, and if you were to help I may not get it."  She warily watched Pinkie's mane.  Don't go flat, don't go flat...

"Okay!  Tell me how it goes!"  She bounced away, and Scoots let out a sigh of relief.  She picked up the paper, still unsure how she could even go about getting her only connection with her parents back.  No friends left, nopony that could help her.  Funny how she was just as lonely as before all this, but she only felt worse.  

She got up and left, pushing through the door slowly.  Scoots turned down the street, at more of a loss for a destination than she had been before.  She looked back up, narrowing her eyes as she caught sight of Daimond Tiara and Silver Spoon a ways down the street.  So suddenly, she had something to do.  

The pair moved down the street, laughing about some sort of inside joke.  Scoots moved behind a building, then across the street to a position behind a cart.  The owner gave her a snort before he started to move it down the street, giving her a lucky break as it moved closer to Diamond.  She could hear snippets of their conversation, quickly turning into a fairly easily discernible stream of words.

"Good job taking that thing, Tiara, that stupid blank flank didn't even notice."

"Like she even would, she's hardly the perceptive type."

"Why didn't you take something worth more than a pad of paper though?"

"Because, this is that little jerk's only connection to her moron of a father.  That makes it priceless."

"Ha, wow, she's going to be so sad when she finds out, it'll be great."

"Those little fuckers."  Scootaloo muttered under her breath, deciding to use one of Jason's words.  They were a lot more satisfying, at least in her opinion.  The cart stopped and the two fillies continued their trek, Diamond pointing towards a group of trees in the park.  

Scoots waited until they had disappeared into the trees before she moved from behind her cover and took off, fluttering into the air and quickly gaining altitude.  She navigated over to the copse of trees, landing carefully on one of the outer oak tree branches and making her way towards the trunk.  She could see Tiara and Spoon below, giggling as Diamond took the pad of paper out of her saddlebag and tossed it onto the ground in front of her hooves, knocking up a small cloud of dust.  

"The nice thing about this, Silver, is that we can kill two birds with one stone.  Think about how worried we can make that terrible excuse for a pony.  Or whatever he is."  She started scribbling away, just as Scoots slipped on her branch.  She caught herself with a couple wing beats, but the damage had been done.

"Did you hear that?"  Silver Spoon asked, looking around.  But Scoots was already gone, tears streaming down her face.  She flew for a while, not really keeping tabs on the time.  She landed in another small group of trees, curling up at the base of a particularly large one and letting herself finally break down.

She wept, still unable to get the loneliness out of her system.  She couldn't help but feel resigned, there was nothing she could do without help, and she didn't have any, whatsoever.  Even worse was the damage Diamond could do to make Jason worried about her.  It wasn't fair, why did she deserve to have this happen, especially with all she'd already been through.

"Scootaloo, is that you?"  She froze, wiping her tears away hastily as she looked around.  "Up here."  She looked upwards, into the branches of the tree she was slumped against, and watched as a foal from her class fluttered down.  Rumble, if she remembered correctly.  So great, another thing to add to the list of terrible things that had happened today, some boy saw her being weak.

"Why are you here?"  She asked, none too kindly.

"I dunno, I heard crying and I came over."

"Just leave me alone."

"But what's wrong?"

"You wouldn't understand!"  She yelled, her eyes tearing up again.  She turned away, prepared to make a break for it, until Rumble grabbed her tail in his mouth.  "Let me go!"

"Noht untir you terr me wharts wrong!"  She gave another flap of her wings, dragging him forward slightly but not loosening his grip, as far as she could tell.  Scoots slowed her attempts, landing back on the ground carefully.  

"They're gone."

"Who?"

"My parents, they left for the war, and now I'm all alone and I'm just so--"  She stomped on the ground, shaking free a couple angry tears.  She felt a pair of hooves wrap around her neck, and barely got past her immediate response to push him away.

"I understand."  She shoved him off, knocking him over onto the ground.

"No you don't, nopony does.  You don't know what I've gone through, and you never will."  That seemed to make him stop for a few seconds, as he tried to formulate a response.

"I know enough."

"How is that possible?!?!  You have a family!!"

"Sure, in Canterlot.  The only pony I've got here is my brother, Thunderlane."

"So then what's the problem?!?!"

"He left for the war too, I'm the only one here."  He looked to the side and sighed, and there was a lengthy silence.

"I-I'm sorry."  Scoots choked out, a few more tears sliding down her face.  "I'm selfish, I keep feeling like this is all about me, and-- I'm just sorry."  She drooped her head, watching a few more tears slide off her muzzle before those same hooves wrapped around her back.

"It's okay, Scootaloo."  She caught herself, still trying to hide her tears, although she wasn't sure why at this point.  Scoots pressed her muzzle into his shoulder, wetting her shoulders as she allowed the last of her emotions to break free.  They stayed there under the trees for quite a while, as Scoots' tears slowly halted.  

"Why?"  She asked after she was sure she had control over her voice again.  It still wavered a little, much to her annoyance.

"Why what?"  He asked, meeting her eyes shyly.

"Why do you care?"  Scoots tried again, wiping a hoof across her eyes.

"I dunno, I just-- you were always the one to go it alone, the toughest out of all of us.  I don't think anypony really noticed, and I know we haven't really had any contact with one another, but that doesn't mean I want to see you like this."

"Y-you really think I'm tough?"

"Well, yeah.  Y-you were on your own for almost as long as I've been alive, and you never asked for help or complained, you just took it in stride, and I kinda look up to you for it."  Scoots gasped.  He looked up to her?  

"Rumble?"  He looked over, briefly meeting her gaze.  

"Yeah?"

"I need your help."  She hated the words as soon as they left her mouth.  The four words that oozed weakness, that meant she wasn't able to do something on her own.  But Jason had constantly been toting up the idea of teamwork, and he hadn't been troubled in recruiting hundreds of ponies for help.  So is that what this was?  A strategic addition?  It sounded a whole lot better than 'help'.

"Y-you need my help?"  He paused, drooping his head.  "I dunno, I can't really do much of anything.  I don't have my cutie mark either."  Scoots giggled and stood up, offering him a hoof.  

"Jason says those don't really mean much anyway.  You have the talent, not the cutie mark."  The colt stared off into space, as it contemplating her words.

"Really?"

"Well, he doesn't have a cutie mark and he's commanding a bunch of ponies pretty well, so I'd say so."

"Wow, I just never thought..."

"Takes a lot of pressure off, right?"  She giggled again, glad that she was finally feeling better.  "So do you want to help me out?"  There was that word again...

"What do you want me to do, exactly?"  He asked, looking at her cynically.

"You know how Cherilee took away that pad of paper?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stole it, and I really need it back.  I just don't want to be as lonely as I was before, and at the same time be in the dark about their health."

"So we're stealing it back?"

"Well here's the thing, we may need to fight them, and I can't do that alone, so could you just back me up?"

"But I don't know how to fight!"  He complained, scraping his hoof along the ground nervously.  

"I'll teach you!  Dash showed me some stuff, it's more defensive, but it'll do."  She set her stance.  "Come at me."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I won't punch you too hard."

"That's not what I really meant..."  He paused, setting his footing as well.  

"Anytime today, Rumble." 

"Oh yeah, sorry."  He had a few false starts before he ran towards Scoots and threw a halfhearted punch towards her shoulder.  She awkwardly dipped out of the way, hitting him in the side and watching as he landed sideways.

"You okay?"  She asked.  The volume of the 'thump' when he'd hit the ground was a little unnerving.  

"Yeah, that was awesome!"  He got back up and dusted himself off, running back over.  "So what do you do, exactly?"

"Well, here's what Dash said, basically.  She uses knives, but that's more for killing than just beating somepony up, so that isn't a big deal.  We also won't need to do anything if it turns out they're bluffing."  She sighed.  "What she said, though, was that she basically watches the shoulder and torso, because they'll put weight behind a punch or thrust.  So it's basically dodging until they end up undefended like you were.  Then you just jab or punch."

"Your parents are so cool."  Rumble said, his eyes gaining that same far off look again.

"I know, right?  Now I'll throw one at you, remember what I said, watch the shoulder."  She lunged without warning, punching his shoulder as he managed to at least move his face out of the way.  "I'm going to keep doing this until you get it."  Scoots, said, giving him a second before lunging again.  They continued their lighthearted sparring for a while, as Rumble dodged more and more of the attacks, occasionally retorting with a light jab that she knew was unenthusiastic.  

"Rumble, when you're fighting them, don't hold back.  You can't dodge forever.  You should've seen Jason after he got stabbed, it looked horrible, and I was there a day after it happened."

"That's only a day, what could've possibly changed?"

"He heals fast.  Oh, and he heals other ponies, like he healed Applebloom, and Dash, and--"

"Okay, I get it.  We might want to get this stuff back before they move, if they haven't already."  She giggled.  "What's so funny?"  He asked.

"I just thought today was going to be so terrible, but I'm going to get that stuff back, and I have a new friend."  She went silent, as if contemplating something in her head.  "I'd have to run this past Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, but if you want to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders, I'd be happy to have you around."

"Weren't you the ponies that caused that explosion in the town square?"

"Ha!  Yeah.  It was supposed to go off in the park but stuff went wrong." 

"If you do stuff like that, it sounds like a lot of fun."  Scoots smiled, and clopped her hooves together.

"Great!  The clubhouse is just inside Sweet Apple Acres, you can see it from the road, kind of."

"Cool, tomorrow?"

"Yeah, tomorrow's the weekend, so Sweetie and Applebloom shouldn't be grounded anymore."

"So is there a plan in place for taking care of Diamond Tiara?"

"I'll explain it on the way, come on!"  She turned and took off, turning her head to make sure Rumble had followed.  She wobbled a little as she turned back forward, quickly flying towards the place Diamond Tiara had been.


___________________________________________________________


Scoots moved a little further along her branch, positioning herself directly above Tiara.  She looked up and checked that Rumble had taken his respective place above Silver Spoon, noticing his apparent nervousness.  She plucked a leaf off the tree branch, making sure Rumble could see the foliage.  She had made the signal that when she dropped the leaf, they'd spring.  Where it went from there, she had no idea.

"Who does he think he is, acting like I'm not the one with the power?"  Diamond asked.  

"He's probably just bluffing.  Either way he knows we have possession of this thing, and that means he doesn't know how Scoots is doing."

Scoots let go of the leaf, and they both sprang.  Rumble had mentioned that they could get in trouble, and she had to say he had a point there.  So let them strike first, she said.  'It's only self defense if they start the fight'.  

She landed heavily on the ground, scooping up the pad of paper, carefully tossing it behind her and taking a defensive stance.  

"Oh, look who it is.  Scootaloser.  What are you going to do, there's only one of you."  Rumble landed behind them, making enough of a noise for the pair to jump and quickly turn around.  Diamond only smirked wider.  "Two losers, you're still no match for either of us."

"Yeah, we know how to fight!"  Silver Spoon yelled, clearly a bit less confident.  

"You get Rumble, Spoon, I'll get this stupid blank flank."  Scoots shifted her stance, lowering herself a little further as the other filly approached.  Diamond stopped just in front of her, staring into Scoots' eyes.  She let out a giggle, before stepping forward and throwing a punch, which Scoots easily faded away from.  

She dodged several more, only serving to annoy Diamond Tiara further as her hooves only connected with thin air.  Rumble seemed to be doing about the same, before he planted his hind legs and ran his elbow into Silver's face, knocking her a few feet back through the air.  Scoots returned her attention to Diamond just in time to dodge another swing, before Scoots felt her hoof slip, and suddenly she was on the ground.  

She had stepped on the pad of paper and lost her footing, and managed to get up most of the way before a hoof finally connected with her muzzle.  She recoiled in pain, holding a hoof to her nose as another hoof hit her across the cheek.  Scoots watched a few drops of blood liberate themselves from her muzzle and fly a few feet before landing on the pad of paper.

Scoots hastily dodged a third punch before deciding she'd had enough and throwing a jab straight into Diamond's muzzle.  The bully recoiled, and Scoots struck again, hitting her across the cheek and under the chin immediately after.  Diamond threw a punch from the side, hitting Scootaloo's foreleg as she blocked the punch, before she turned on a fore hoof and bucked into the other filly, sending her flying.

"J-just take the thing."  Diamond said, putting a hoof to her split lip.  "You win, okay?"  

"Oh sure."  Scoots walked over to the pad of paper, flipping to the back page and picking up a pencil off the ground.  "Just sign that this was your fault and that we were acting in self defense."  She tossed over the pencil and held out the paper, which the filly signed resentfully.  "This better not happen again, got it?"  She nodded, a tear leaking out of her eye.  Scoots almost felt a pang of guilt before the pain in her muzzle flared up again.

"Scoots, you okay?"  Rumble asked, a bruise showing up on one of his cheeks already.  

"Yeah, we can go to my house to get ice and stuff if you want."  She took off, wingbeats behind her notifying her that he had taken off.

"Sure, thanks for having faith in me Scoots."  He said once he had caught up.

"What?  I'm just glad you helped me out, nopony else would've.  Thanks Rumble."

"It's no trouble, just helping a friend."

"Yeah...friend.  Thanks."

"For what?"

"Being there for me, you're not half bad, you know that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"
> Night Terrors
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Night Terrors


The duo landed on Dash's front yard, and Scootaloo took a moment to stomp a bit of loose cloud back into place before walking inside.  She turned and gestured for Rumble to follow with her hoof, giggling at his resistance to entering.  

"You're sure Dash or Jason won't get angry at me?"  He asked, tentatively taking a few steps forward.

"I don't see why they would, we aren't doing anything wrong."  She disappeared into the kitchen, some rumbling sounds filtering through the door.  Rumble shifted on his hooves, walking towards the couch to sit down before deciding against it.  A drop of blood made its way into his eye and he cringed, trying to wipe it out.

"Here, Rumble."  She tossed over a bag of ice, applying one of her own to her cheek.  She walked over to the couch and laid down, resting her head on the arm.  She stayed there for a moment before turning to look over at Rumble.  "Sit down, come on."  He sighed and walked over, gingerly reclining onto the cloud sofa.  He let out a sigh, apparently enjoying the softness.  

"I wish I had a cloud house."

"You don't?"

"No, my mom's a unicorn."  

"Well you're free to come by anytime, you've definitely earned that right."

"All I did was beat up Silver Spoon.  I kinda already wanted to do that."

"Yeah, but you did it for me, and you got pretty beat up because of it."

"I only took a couple punches, you were the one with the bloody muzzle."

"But nopony else would've done that for me, and you just did, with hardly even a question."  She moved the ice bag on her face, reminding Rumble to do the same.  There was a long silence, the only sound the occasional shifting of ice.

"Is someone watching you while Thunderlane's gone?"

"Yeah, Flitter is, I think.  One time Cloudchaser came by, so I don't really know."

"We should probably go tell them where you are, it's almost dark out."  Scoots said after some more silence.  "I don't have much to do, I guess I'll tag along if that's alright."

"It's fine."  He yawned.  "I'm really tired."  

"Yeah, same here."  She got up before she could fall asleep, walking over to Rumble and shifting him around to keep him awake.  "Come on, you know what ponies will say if we fell asleep together like this?"

"Probably that we must've been comfortable."

Scoots giggled.  "I'll start throwing ice at you..."  She warned.  He groaned and got up, getting to his hooves before turning and grabbing the bag.  They started to walk over to the door and he tripped, bumping into Scoots and causing them both to blush.

"S-sorry."  He said, looking away to hide his pink tinted face.

"U-uh, no big deal."  She got to the door first, letting out another yawn before she took off.  "Normally I'd ask if you want to race, but I guess at this point I'm not going to risk it."

"Since when did you become so careful?"

"I'm just not a very good flyer."

"What are you talking about?"  He lifted off, hovering next to Scootaloo.  "You've been flying for what?  Two weeks?  Two and a half?"

She blushed again.  "Well, when you put it that way..."  Scoots went into a little dive, pulling up before she hit the cloud.  Rumble let out a chuckle and simply started on his way, disappearing over the side of Dash's front yard.  She took chase, starting an unofficial race.  She got over the side to see that he had gone into a dive, and was already pretty far ahead.  She pulled in her wings, launching over the side after him.

She gained ground quickly, coming neck and neck with him more quickly than she would have expected.  Rumble looked over and grinned, speeding up his pace considerably and edging out a lead as she flapped her wings with more resolve.  She realized a little late that she had no idea where she was headed.  

She pulled behind Rumble, streamlining behind him as he banked to the right and dove a little further down, gliding over one of the streets.  He started to slow down, clearly headed for one house in particular.  Scootaloo grinned and waited a fraction of a second longer before she splayed her wings and decelerated, landing in front of a rather large house.  She excitedly turned to find Rumble, who had touched down maybe half a second after the filly.  

"I won, I won!"  She pranced around in a circle, stopping as she realized that a few ponies were staring.  Rumble grinned as her face turned red, and she leaned over to punch him.  "You're not supposed to be the one laughing here!"  She pouted.

"Okay, I'm sorry."  He pulled a key out from...somewhere, and unlocked his door.  "Wanna come inside?"  He asked, holding the door open and pulling a note off the front, reading it over.

"I'm not sure..."

"Come on, you can at least warm up before you go home."  Her wings gave an angry twitch, apparently annoyed at how much she had exerted them.  

"Fine, a few minutes."  She'd have to find somepony to take her up there, or sleep at Fluttershy's now, great.  Thanks a lot, brain.  "What's the note say?"

"Cloudchaser left it, she says she can't show up tonight because of some weather stuff, and if I do anything wrong or don't get to bed on time she'll--well, you can guess."

"She always was the vulgar one, huh?"  Scoots asked, earning a chuckle from the colt.

"You don't even know the half of it."

Scoots absentmindedly followed rumble through a few rooms, before he led her into what she assumed to be his bedroom.  Her jaw dropped slightly as she looked around.  There were posters everywhere about some of those rock groups that had sprung up recently, but were still mostly unpopular.  That was partially because of the popular power of Canterlot nobles and their irrational hatred towards the stuff.  She couldn't say she disliked the music, especially from what she'd heard Dash and Jason play.  

She focused on one of the posters, Metalli-pony, and tried to figure out why the bands ponies looked a little off.  Jason had said that the ones from his world took things called drugs, but from how few humans she'd seen out of his magazines, they all kinda looked weird, just in different ways.  Especially with their tiny little eyes.

"So, what do you think?"  Rumble asked.  "My brother got annoyed when I started doing all this stuff, but I think it kinda looks cool."

"Yeah, definitely."  She replied halfheartedly as she moved down the wall.  Her eyes came to a cork board, with brightly colored string stretching all over the place.  A newspaper cut out caught her eye, the headline read, Mysterious Changeling Takes Control of Canterlot Resistance.  She took a step back.

"What's this?"  She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I thought it'd be cool if I solved the whole changeling case your dad was part of, but that kinda solved itself."

"Oh, that's kinda awesome, actually."  She paused.  "So what's this yarn mean?"

"I have no idea, I just stuck it on there to make it look like I knew what was going on."  She heard him shifting his hooves nervously.  "I wasn't very good at detective work, I guess it's not my cutie mark."  Scoots giggled, before hurriedly pulling the pad of paper out of her miniature foal sized saddlebag.

"I need to send a message."  She said, sitting down and putting the pad on the ground in front of her.  "Uhh..."

I'm fine, I got it back with a little help from a new friend.  She wrote, sliding the paper back into her saddlebag before putting it back on.  

"So that really works?"  He asked. 

"What, the paper?"

"Yeah, I mean Cherilee kinda freaked out about it, it just seemed kinda weird."

"It works, yeah.  I'm really glad it does, it's way better than letters."

"I would imagine."  They were silent for a few moments.

"Okay then, I'll just be going.  Thanks for all the help."  Much to her annoyance, her wing twitched again as she turned to leave.  

"Is your wing okay?"  She sighed.

"Yeah, it's fine, it just does this sometimes."  It twitched again, a bolt of pain lancing down from the sensitive flight muscles.

"You're not fine, Scoots.  How're you going to get home like that?"

"I'll figure it out, I can go stay with Fluttershy."

"Her house is on the other side of town!"

"I can walk."

He let out a sigh.  "Why are you so stubborn?"

"About what?"

"Asking for help.  You can just stay here if you want, no one will mind.  You have a good reason."

"But-"

"You hungry?  I can go grab some dinner."  He walked out of the room and into what she assumed was the kitchen.

Scootaloo sighed.  At least she didn't have to ask...  But still, when did he become so assertive?  

She followed the sound of drawers being opened and closed into the room, barely reacting quickly enough to catch an apple as Rumble tossed it.  He got a few more things out of a cabinet before stumbling over to a table and setting them out in a pile. 

"This is all the snack food I have, so feel free to dig in."

"Not much of a cook, eh?"  She asked with a giggle as she grabbed an unopened bag of nacho flavored hay chips.

"I can be when I want to be.  I cook things like charcoal, carbon, and dust.  It's a pretty wide selection of stuff."  

"I can tell."  She took out a couple chips and shoved them into her mouth.  "Ahm sho healthry."  She said through her mouthful as Rumble reached in to grab a hoofful of chips as well.  Their hooves brushed past each other's and they both blushed, silence descending as they continued to slowly nibble on the snacks.  

"Hey, I got something we can do, hold on."  He turned and rummaged through a cabinet, before pulling out a bunch of grapes.  "Come on."  He ran out into his living room, standing at one end.  "Go over there and catch one of these in your mouth."

"Oh, I haven't done this for forever!  Go ahead."  He pulled off a smaller bunch, setting the rest down on the table before pulling off a specific grape and tossing it over.  It went a little high, and Scoots jumped up, watching as it maddeningly bounced off the end of her muzzle and rolled under the couch.  They both stared at the place the grape had just occupied before returning to their task with a shared chuckle.  She got a few, quickly improving on her initial screw-ups.

"Hey, you wanna switch?"  Rumble asked after a while.

"Ha, sure."  She walked over and pulled off a couple grapes, tossing one over.  

"I'm great at this, don't make it easy."

"Fine, you asked for it."  She grabbed a few more grapes, before lobbing one towards the ceiling and following it up with a lower shot.  Rumble snatched the lower one out of the air before jumping to the side and catching the other one as he slid across the hardwood floor.

"I told you."  He said with a smug look.

"How do you get that good at this?"

"Lots of grapes."  He said.  She giggled.

"Ready?"  She asked.  He squared up his footing and nodded, watching the grapes in her hoof intently.  She clamored up onto an ottoman, before chucking one to the right, then another to the left.  She jumped off the ottoman, tossing another one towards the middle as she lost her grip on the last one and it slowly arched through the air.  She landed heavily on her hooves, turning over to look at Rumble triumphantly.  He opened his mouth, showing her the four uneaten grapes.

"How did you even do that?!"  She asked, looking at him suspiciously.  He chewed for a moment before swallowing.

"I got the first two easy, then jumped up for the middle one and slid for that last one."

"Wow."

"And Thunderlane told me I'd never impress anypony with that."

"Is that why you learned it?"

"No, I just like grapes.  And throwing things."

Scoots giggled and yawned again, her wing twitching in annoyance.  "I probably shouldn't have tried so hard to beat you."  She said, stroking her wing with a hoof in an attempt to calm it down.  

"At least you succeeded, it would have kinda sucked to do all that and lose."

"You didn't let me win, did you?"

"No, I kinda thought you were further behind."  He blushed, scratching the back of his head.  "Probably should've tried harder."  He sighed.  "At least let me live it down."

"Hey, I may like winning, but I'm not a jerk about it.  Not that much of a jerk, anyway."

"That's good, I guess."  He yawned.  "Why'd you yawn, now I'm doing it!"  

Scoots giggled.  "Oh no, we're both..."  She paused, her face taking on a sinister look.  "Infected!"

"Aaaaah, I'm too young to die!"  Rumble yelled, shaking his hoof at the ceiling melodramatically.  

"And the only way to avert the sickness--quarantine!"  


_________________________________________________________________


"Do you see any infected, sergeant Rumble?"  Scootaloo asked, pulling her eye away from the paper towel roll she had turned into a telescope.  

"No infected attacking Fort Impenetrable, general."  Scoots leaned back from one of the walls of the pillow fort, squinting her eyes as she watched for any sign of the disease.  She saw movement as a piece of paper fell off one of the tables.

"It moved!  Hit it!"  She reached back and grabbed a smaller pillow, chucking it over the wall as Rumble followed suit.  Rumble's throw landed on the paper and they both sank down behind the wall, peering over the top at the enemy.  

"Target down, sir."  Rumble said, pulling up another pillow just in case.  Another paper slid off the table, and they quickly took care of the culprit.  Rumble leaned back and yawned.

"Noooo!  Rumble, you brought it here with you!  You've doomed us all!"

"I can--I can still fight!"  

Scoots stifled a yawn.  "It's all over, there's no hope!"  She swooned and fell over onto Rumble, leaving a pile of giggling foals on the floor.  

"We should probably get to bed though, Scoots, especially if you want to go crusading with your friends tomorrow."

She giggled and got up, nimbly hopping over the pillow wall.  "Cherilee might not like us being dead at our desks either."  She followed Rumble into his room, and watched him throw a pile of blankets onto the small couch.  

"You can sleep on my bed, and I'll just sleep here, okay?"  He asked.

"I don't want to keep you from your own bed..."  She replied.

"It's fine, I've slept here before."

"But--" 

"Scoots, it's fine."  He trotted over to the couch and laid down, worming into the blankets until only his head was visible.  Scoots smiled and looked at the pad of paper on the floor, finding a returned message: who?  She grabbed a pencil off the floor nearby, taking a glance at Rumble as she wrote his name.  She scampered over to his bed, laying down in much the same way as he had, making a cocoon of the covers.

"Thanks, Rumble."  She said as he got back up and the room was plunged into darkness. 

"For what?"  He asked as he landed on the couch again.

"Just, for everything.  For making this day a lot better then I thought it would be.  And being there when I needed somepony."  She felt a little pressure in her chest, like there was a yearning to say more, but that she couldn't find words to express.

"I was just helping out, it's not like it wasn't a lot of fun for me too."

"I'm glad, I wouldn't have wanted to take away anything from you."  There was a silence between the two.  "Do you want to come crusading tomorrow?"

"You want me?"

"Well yeah, you don't have a cutie mark, and you're a lot of fun to be around.  You fit the bill."

"I guess I'd have to ask Flitter or Cloudchaser, but I should be able to."

"Cool!  Hey, you have an alarm or something set so we don't miss school?"

"I'm surprised you care as much as you do."

"Jason told me not to miss school, he said he'd find out one way or another if I did."

"Ha, okay.  Night Scoots."

"G'night Rumble."  She shifted amongst the warm blankets and found an even more comfortable position as she quickly drifted off to sleep with thoughts of the day swirling in her head.  


_____________________________________________________________



Thud!


Scoots' eyes shot open, looking around in the darkness for the source of the noise.  She jumped out of bed and trotted over towards Rumble, keeping her eyes on the door.  

"Psst, Rumble."  There was some light clattering, and then...


Thud!


Scoots yelped and jumped onto the couch, hoping to take the high ground against whatever was out there.  She took a step back and stumbled as her hoof landed on one of Rumble's legs that was hidden below the blanket.  She fell backwards onto him, a fierce blush burning across her face as Rumble woke up and tried to figure out what was going on.  Before he could figure out why there was a filly on top of him, another thud sounded through the door.

"What's that?"  He asked, immediately going rigid and sitting up.  Scoots shook her head.  

"I don't know."  She breathed, returning her stare to the doorway.  


THUD!


"What the fuck is going on?"  Scoots whispered as she backed against the wall with Rumble.  They sat stock still, pressed against the corner of the couch for several minutes, finally breathing a sigh of relief after they thought the trouble had passed.  Scootaloo was the first to notice their positioning and eased herself away, blushing like a mad pony.  

"Sorry, I just--I was a little scared, sorry."  As far as she could tell in the light, Rumble looked about the same.

"I-it's fine, I was too."  He paused for a minute, as if debating whether he wanted to continue.  "AndI'mgladyouwerehere."  He let out a sigh, as if he had just finished a tongue twister in record time.

"What?"  She whispered, giggling as his demeanor reversed direction.

"I'm glad you were here, I--I dunno, I felt better, safer maybe.  Or at least, less alone."  He blushed and hung his head.  Scoots didn't know what to think, usually she had just thought of her own feelings about Rumble, not the other way around.  It made her feel empowered, though, to know that she, the filly that had been alone for so long, could actually make other ponies get the friendship they deserved.  Scoots had always thought herself more on the receiving end of problems rather than a help to others.

"You really mean that?"  She asked after what must've been a while.  

"Yeah, I wouldn't have just said it for no reason, I me--"


Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch


"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH"  They yelled in unison, retreating back to their corner, arms automatically wrapping around each other's form.  They became silent as the scratching continued, looking around the room and trying to find the source of the sound.

"It's coming from the window."  Rumble breathed.  Scoots looked over, catching a glimpse of what was indeed a claw of some sort swipe over the corner.  Rumble pulled a couple pillows towards them, setting up a somewhat futile pillow wall.  The scratching stopped, leaving a tension as the foals waited for the next noise that they knew would come.


Thump!



_________________________________________________________



Cloudchaser trotted happily, a few groceries carefully stuffed into her saddlebag.  She looked up at the gently rising sun, admiring the yellow light it cast across the landscape.  It was funny for her, usually she just ignored most of this nature mumbo jumbo.  But today seemed kinda intriguing.  She turned down a side street, setting her eyes on Thunderlane's house.  

It annoyed her to no end that he had left for the war, just when he was finally seeming to notice her.  It wasn't fair.  She'd taken this house-sitting job as a good sign, that he at least acknowledged her as a trusted friend.  That was something, at least.

She sighed and paused a moment to grab Thunderlane's house key out of her saddlebag before turning into his frint yard and walking past his dog.  Grey Thing, they called him.  Thunderlane had said Rumble came up with the name, actually.  Something about how fuzzy he was when they got him.  Guess Rumble'd forgotten to let the poor guy in last night.  She chuckled to herself as she put the key into the lock and turned it, opening the door.

The mess she found caused her jaw to drop, but not because of how messy it was.  It was just such a strange mess, so orderly.  A small pile of pillows there, a grape here.  She started to walk across the room, the pile of snack food in the kitchen catching her eye as she walked by the door.  Her hoof came down on a grape and she slipped, landing face first on a pillow.  She cursed under her breath and got up, carefully stepping over the pillow and checking out the little fort Rumble had made instead.

It was pretty complicated, for something made out of such simple blocks, she mused as she slipped on a pillow and landed face first on a grape.  More cursing followed as she scraped what was left of the berry from her forehead and onto the floor, deciding that she'd need to yell at Rumble for all of this.  Something that actually came as a surprise, given how quiet and introverted the kid seemed, and how usually things stayed fairly orderly.  

"Rumble, where are you?  You forgot to let Grey Thing in!"  Cloudchaser walked down the hallway leading between the living room and the bedrooms, entering his door at the end of the hall.  She looked around, her eyes scanning across Rumble against the corner in the couch.  She took half a step towards him before her eyes caught the orange and purple filly that Rumble was leaning against.

"Rumble!"  She yelled, causing the duo to react in what looked like more fear then was necessary.

"Please don't eat me!"  He paused as his vision came into focus.  "Cloudchaser?"

"Yeah, it's me, what're you doing with a filly in your bedroom?"

"W-well, she--"

Scootaloo spoke up.  "I'm Rumble's friend, Scootaloo."  She looked around suspiciously, worried that the thing from last night would come back.  "And he let me stay here after I kinda killed my wings racing him.  So he took the couch here, and let me sleep on his bed, but then there were all these thunks, and something was scratching on the window, and we got scared."

Maybe she'd misjudged the situation, Cloudchaser thought.  Hopefully she'd misjudged the situation, anyway.  "So if you're friends, how come Rumble's never mentioned you before?"

"Probably because we kinda became friends yesterday..."  She twiddled her hooves, blushing a little given the fact that she was still leaning against Rumble.  But she wasn't embarrassed enough to move, she kinda liked it, in fact.  "It's a long story."

Cloudchaser grabbed a chair from the desk behind her and pulled it into the middle of the floor.  "Oh, do tell."  She sat in the chair and alternated staring between them, waiting for one of the foals to speak.  Eventually Scootaloo started.  

"I was in class, writing my parents on this little magical pad of paper that sends the text automatically.  It's that right over there, actually."  She pointed to her discarded saddlebag and the pad that had fallen out next to it.  

"Okay, Rumble's mentioned a student with something like that.  Go on."

"Diamond Tiara stole it, and I--"  she hung her head.  "I couldn't handle the loneliness.  Rumble found me in the park crying, and he cheered me up.  I asked him if he would help me get the paper back and he agreed, so we went over to Tiara and took our stuff back."

"So that explains the bruises, I guess.  You're okay, I take it?"  

"Yeah, we're fine."  She paused, waiting until Cloudchaser seemed to be done studying their injuries before continuing.  "Anyway, then we went to my house and got some ice, and I ended up accompanying Rumble here, mostly because I wanted to race him.  But I kinda overdid it, and Rumble let me stay here."

"What about the grapes and pillows?"

Rumble shrugged shyly.  "We played some games."

"The grape thing, really?"

"We had fun, leave me alone!"  He yelled, his face turning slightly pink.  Cloudchaser snickered.  

"Fine, you're off the hook.  Go get ready for school, you little lovebirds."  Their faces turned a brilliant shade of red, as Rumble stumbled over a few words of denial.  

"W-we aren't--"

"I'm just joking with you, make sure you clean up before you leave, though."  Rumble nodded and started to get up before was stopped by Scoots. 

"We have time.  And you're soooo comfortable."  Rumble blushed again.  She eventually got up, stretching a few times before jumping to the floor and quickly putting her saddlebag back together.

"Hey Scoots, did you get the homework done?"

"Yeah, took me like five minutes, why?"

"How'd you do that?  It took me forever to do half of it!"

"Oh yeah, you had to estimate."  She scoffed.  "Grab it, I'll show you something cool."  Rumble pulled a saddlebag out from under his desk and extracted a folder, sliding a piece of paper out of that.

"But how'd you skip the fractions here?"  He pointed to one of the problems that asked for the estimated slope.  "The best we could do was take close numbers."

"Wanna see what Jason taught me?"  She asked, grinning like a mad pony as Rumble nodded.  "See this equation here, 2X^2 +6X?"  

"Yeah..."  He replied, not seeing where she was going.  "Well you take the exponents and multiply the number in front by whatever number the exponent is, and then you subtract one from it."  She scribbled on the paper.  "So it becomes 4X+6"

"Where'd the second X go?"  

"It's to the zero power, so it equals one.  One times six is six."

"Okay, so what are you supposed to do with this?"

"You plug in the X, so in this case 4.5, and Y is the slope."

"So Cherilee doesn't know this?"  Rumble asked, a smirk dawning on his face.  "This is going to be fun."  He hunched over the paper and started working on the rest of the problems.

"I can go start to pick up..."  Scoots offered.

"No, it's fine.  I'm the host, you're not supposed to do anything.  I guess I can't stop you though."

She giggled and walked into the hallway, taking a sniff and smelling some breakfast.  Her task forgotten, she turned to walk into the kitchen, but was taken out as Grey Thing tackled her over, slobbering all over her face as he bounced around in the normal happy go lucky dog fashion.

"So it was you!"  She poked the dog in the chest, and he tilted his head comedically.  "You were the one making the noise!"  She heard the clattering of a food bowl and Grey Thing bounced away into the kitchen, nearly taking out Cloudchaser's hind legs as he ran past.  

"Why you little--"  Cloudchaser mumbled as she turned back to the stove, breaking an egg into one of the pans.  "I see you're awake,"  she said, not turning away from the pan.  "You better hope that you told the truth back there."

"I did, I--"

"I know the story, and I know how hard it is to be away from your parents, especially with them in the position they are.  I don't want to come over as mean, but you did kinda make it look like you two were involved, so to speak."  Scoots blushed.

"I'm sorry."

"Oh, there's nothing to be sorry for, it was just Rumble being a nice kid.  Usually he's pretty shy, I'm not sure how he had the courage to keep you around."  She chuckled.  "You think you know somepony..."  They became silent, the only sounds emanating from the pan as Scoots moved over to the table and sat down, feeling slightly out of place.  

"You like eggs?"  Cloudchaser asked.  "I can't really make them in any form specifically, but at least they don't burn."  She scraped one out of the pan with a spatula.  "This looks like over medium, that okay with you?"  The filly nodded quietly, still feeling weird around the strange mare.  Cloudchaser slid the plate across the table to her, following it up with a glass of milk and a jar of salsa.  

Rumble walked through the door, immediately lessening the tension as far as Scoots was concerned.  He sat down across the table, being met with the same set of plates and cups.

"I cleaned up the room."  He said quietly, picking at his food with a fork.  

"Already?"  Scootaloo asked, disbelief clear in her voice as she turned towards the door.  "How could you--"  She paused, blinking as she stared at the clean room.  "How'd you do that?"

He shrugged, a smile breaking out on his face.  "I dove for grapes, is this really that different?"

"Well yeah, it is."

"Okay, I just clean things up quickly.  Because I dropped a lot of grapes."

She giggled.  "I see."

"You gonna finish those eggs?"  She turned back to look at his empty plate.

"How are you finished already?"

"I ate a lot of grapes." 

"Is everything you do tied to catching grapes?" 

"No, just those things."  He reached across the table and grabbed part of her egg, bringing it over to his plate before she could react.  "And I'm hungry."  He paused to swallow.  "What happened to your scooter?  Don't you pretty much always have it?"

"I forgot it yesterday, I was worried I'd be late for school."

"Sooo, isn't a scooter faster, at least for you?"

"Well yeah, but I can't fly it down from the house, so I asked Pinkie if I could keep it at Sugarcube Corner, and that was a little out of the way when I could just fly over."

"Rumble, you can get to school on time, I hope?"  Cloudchaser asked,  "I have to get to work on the weather, we have to make sure a cloud bank doesn't float over the Everfree."

"Sure, we have a half hour, it shouldn't be hard to get there on time."

"Okay, don't be late."  She walked by and pinched at his cheek, causing the kid to squirm as Scootaloo giggled.  

"You don't have to embarrass me every chance you get, Cloudchaser!"

"You make it too easy!  I'll see you later, alright kid?"

"Sure, I'll be waiting with a few hundred fillies this time."

"Funny."  She replied.  He heard the door open and close again as Cloudchaser left the house.  He turned in time to watch Scoots swallow her last bite of egg and take a sip of milk.  

"So,"  He twiddled his hooves.  "Are we crusading today?"

"I think so, I think Sweetie and Applebloom aren't grounded anymore.  I guess we should stop by Fluttershy's before we go to class, I told her I'd be staying over at a friend's house because I knew Diamond's thing would take a while, but I never really expected to actually stay over.  So just a quick check in, I guess."

"You think Diamond's going to act differently?"

"I dunno, maybe a little.  Doesn't seem like something she would do, but at least we can make threats."

He chuckled.  "I'm already getting benefits from this."

"It's nice, huh?  We should get going, though, Fluttershy's house is only kinda on the way."  Rumble got up from the table, leaving the room.  He returned a few seconds later and tossed over her saddlebag, putting his own over his back.  "So how exactly did your dog make that noise last night?"

He blushed.  "You figured out it was him too, huh?  Well he kinda bumps into the door when he wants to get in.  He's not really that smart, and he's also pretty heavy, sooo..."

"But what about the scratching?"

"He's really determined."

"Yeah, we were afraid of a dog, I'm embarrassed."

"At least we're the only ones to know.  Besides Cloudchaser I guess."  Rumble paused.  "How're your wings?"  He asked, leaning slightly to try to get a glimpse.

"They're better, I'm just going to be safe and not use them though, we have time to walk anyway."

"Okay then."  He opened up the door, letting her outside before locking the door behind himself. 

"But you know..."  She continued, "We can always just race on foot."

He smirked.  "Oh, I see."  

They stared at each other a few more seconds before sprinting off down the road.
> Emotions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Emotions


"Fluttershy Fluttershy Fluttershy!"  Scoots rapped her hoof on the door repeatedly, hopping around happily as she waited for the mare to open the door.  "Come on, open up, I need to get to school!"  She stopped hopping after a few more repetitions and sighed, waiting a while longer until Fluttershy finally opened the door and peeked out.  

"Oh, it's just you, come in, come in!"  She said, her voice barely rising above low conversation.  Scoots walked inside, waiting at the door for the still heavily breathing Rumble to follow her inside, which he did after a little hesitation.  "Who's your new friend, Scootaloo?"  Fluttershy asked as she sat back down in an armchair and cracked a book.

"That's Rumble!  I just wanted to tell you that I'm okay and not to worry, and I have to get to school soon or I'll be late."

Fluttershy giggled.  "Well go ahead, I don't want to keep you."  There was a crash in the kitchen and the mare quickly ran out of the room.  "Angel, that's not food!"  Scoots smiled and shook her head, hearing Rumble let out a chuckle.

She turned back towards the door and tapped the colt on the shoulder.  "So, shall we?"  She asked, breaking out into a trot as they left the door.

"No way, for a close race here I pretty much used myself up.  How do you even have so much energy?"

"I have an edge..."  She said, narrowing her eyes and smirked.  

"And that would be..."

"Maybe we can organize a trade of information?"  She asked, her smirk never going away.

"Uh, what kind of trade?"  Rumble replied, trying to read her face.

"Simple, just tell me your deepest, darkest secret, and I'll show you what I'm talking about."  His eyes bulged for a moment, and he averted his eyes to study a particularly noteworthy pebble.

"Look, a pebble."  He pointed for emphasis.

She punched him in the arm.  "Stop changing the subject!" 

"I'm not going to tell you anyway, your thing's not worth that much."

"That's fine, I wasn't going to force it from you anyway.  I'm not that annoying."  She stopped, twisted around and pulled a crinkly bag from her saddlebag that had pictures of beans all over it.  "I found a box with a bunch of bags of these a few days ago, and apparently they have caffeine in them."  She handed the bag over to Rumble, who immediately scrutinized the package.

"Coffee beans?  How come I've never even heard of them?"

Scoots giggled.  "Because ever since Jason came here stuff's been coming from his country."

"Pfft, I still would've heard of it."

"Well it's really far away, try a few."  He sighed and took a few beans out of the bag, tossing them into his mouth and crunching on them loudly.  

"These are really bitter."

"You get used to it.  And plus, you get all this energy!  But if you don't eat any more of those things you're going to crash around three."

"What do you mean crash?"

"It's going to wear off."

"Ah.  So do you know anything about Jason's home, like where this stuff's been coming from?"

She scratched her head.  "I don't know much, he lived there up until recently, and--"

"So did his parents come here with him?"

"No, they kinda got killed."  She looked away.  "He was the only pony that really knew how I felt without my parents after all these years."

"But if they were killed, does that mean they were...murdered?"  He whispered the last word, looking around suspiciously.

"Yeah, he said he killed one of the guys though.  Other than that he hasn't said much about his country or anything, besides something to the extent of,"  She made her voice deeper to try to mimic Jason.  "Maybe later Scoots, It'll be a long conversation when I tell you everything."  She cleared her throat and returned her voice to normal.  "And he was kinda busy before he left, so he never got to say any of that.  It's too bad, really, he talked about a lot of cool stuff."

"Like what?"  Rumble asked, his curiosity suddenly piqued.

"Weapons, bombs...  He said they had these flying machines that went faster than Rainbow Dash.  Not just by a little either, and they had weapons all over them.  Sooo awesome."  She reached into her saddlebag again as they walked, pulling out a magazine and handing it over.  Look at page forty two..."  Scoots realized her mistake and snatched it back.  

"Why'd you do that?"  Rumble asked, looking at his empty hoof.

"The pages are, uh, out of order, yeah that's it."  She opened the thing to a the right page, which thankfully didn't have any humans on it, and passed it back over.

"Wow, you were right, these things do look awesome!"  He pulled the magazine closer to his face and studied it, making scoots worry that he'd found something bad.  "How do they fly?"  He asked a few seconds later.  "I mean, do ponies pull them along?"

Scoots giggled at the image.  "No, these things on the back catch on fire or something and push the plane."

"And the plane itself doesn't catch on fire?"

"No, I guess not."

"Well why would they make something that complicated if a third of the population can already fly?"

"Uh, I dunno, you should ask."  He nodded and turned away, allowing her to let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.  She didn't really want to do this whole charade for that much longer, hopefully Jason would get back soon and take over.  From what he said he'd already gotten through the first battle, and the fact that they were moving further away only served to make her worry more.  She'd felt a sort of comfort that even when they were at war, they weren't all that far away, and that it was a trip she could probably make on the wing if she needed to.  And come to think of it, she could pinpoint the location on the map, but now they were moving somewhere else, and she just--

"You okay Scoots?  You look a little..."  He moved his hoof around, trying to come up with a word.  "Depressed."

"I just miss Jason and Dash...  I wish they'd come back sooner."

"It's only been four days though, how would they have finished already?"  He asked.

"I dunno, they're through one battle so says the paper.  They've already battled through a whole town."

"Aren't Jason and Dash in that crack military unit, what, Team Vegetable?"

She giggled.  "Team Green Bean, I think.  The name was supposed to mislead the griffins, but it kinda stuck.  Along with the nicknames, as far as I know.  Jason named two of them Potato and Steve."

Rumble laughed, "Potato..."  He wiped his eye.  "For such a military fighter, Jason seems to goof off a lot."

"And complain, for that matter.  But he's fun to be around, and so's Dash.  It's funny, I looked up to her all these years, and now she's my mother.  Funny how things seem to work out like that."

"I guess.  So are they, you know, married or anything?"

"No.  Jason's only been around like two months.  You don't usually get married that fast, do you?"  Rumble shrugged.  

"I just know that the stallion buys a really expensive ring.  Really expensive."

"Great, you're a cheap one."  

"Mares are expensive,"  He said matter-of-factly.

"And how would you know?"  She asked, shoving him lightly.

"I have an older brother that likes to complain.  And apparently attracts a lot of attention."  He rolled his eyes.  "Sometimes I'm glad that he's out of town."  Rumble averted his eyes.  "But only sometimes."

"Hey, well to stop this depressing string of words, we're at school."  She pointed forward, for once finding herself slightly eager to enter the dreary building.  "Come on!"  She ran over to the building, entering as the bell rang.  Not late, she knew that she had enough time.  

She sat down in her regular seat, glancing at Sweetie who was giving her a confused glance.  She pointed to Scoots' face and then at Tiara's, apparently noticing with a shock that Rumble was beat up as well.  Scootaloo had never really taken much notice that the colt sat diagonally behind her, but found herself glad that he did.

"Alright class, we're going to--  Scootaloo, what happened to your cheek?"  Cherilee surveyed the rest of the room, picking out the three other injured ponies.  "You four, see me at recess."  She continued, pointing to the foals in turn, pausing for them to nod.  The class let out an 'Ooh,' which was quickly shushed by the teacher.

"Did you see the paper today, Scootaloo?"  Cherilee inquired, grabbing a newspaper from her desk.

"No, but I probably already know what happened."

"Well here you go anyway."  She tossed the paper onto Scoots' desk, the large front picture looking up at her.  Another Step Closer: Windforge falls! The headline read, with a picture below of the city and a few silhouettes of some ponies on the ridge above.  Pictured above: Five of the surviving members of Team Green Bean.  From left to right by codename: Tank, Hawkeye, Archer, Hunter, Steve.  She looked at the other pictures, small groups of the rest of the members, seven she didn't know, before she got to a picture of Dash and Jason.  

They were both some sort of battle wear, fairly similar to what they had worn in Canterlot.  Dash was looking straight towards the camera, while Jason looked ahead, in the middle of some sort of conversation.  One of his fangs reflected some light, creating a small flare in the camera lens.  Several things were floating beside him, boxes and part of a drum were included in the shot.  Jason's gun was easily visible, along with a few of the textured magazines that ran down his side.

The only subtitle pertaining to them was, Right: Generals and leaders of Team Green Bean, Rainbow Dash and Jason.  Weird they would give away their identities when they didn't with some of the other original members, but they were pretty iconic anyway, especially in the case of Dash.

"Thanks, Mrs.  Cherilee."  She said, laying the paper back down on the desk.

"It's a pleasure, Scoots."  She turned to the rest of the class.  "Now, put your homework in the box, and we'll do a few practice problems."  She smiled and returned to her desk as a couple of the foals groaned.  The air was filled with the sound of crinkling paper as everyone removed their papers and turned them in, minus a few that had either forgotten or blown off the assignment completely.  

"Are you ever going to turn in a homework assignment, Snails?"  Cherilee asked the colt in the back of the room, a heavy thump as his head hit the desk a clear answer.  Snoring floated up to the front of the room, and a quiet giggle flowed through the students.  

"Okay then, students,"  she turned to the board and started to write with a hoof.  "We've got a simple quadratic here, X^2+4, and we need the slope at X = 3.  Please do that at your desks now and I'll see what you get in a couple minutes."

There was a brief silence.  "Six!"  Rumble and Scootaloo yelled out at the same time.  Cherilee looked up at the board, then back down at her papers.  

"That was rather fast,"  She said, eying the foals.  "The rest of you, add a two X to the middle and keep working." She walked over to the foals, looking between the two of them as they giggled.   "Scootaloo and Rumble, try this one."  She passed them a couple pre-prepared papers with a quartic function across the top and smiled again.  "Solve that, and I'll be impressed."

"Yeah, hold on a sec."  Scoots said, writing down the new cubic function and quickly running the given value 2 through the equation.  "Rumble, did you get eight?"

"Yup."

"How are you getting the answers that quickly?"

"I dunno..."  Scoots said innocently, twiddling her hooves.  Rumble stifled a laugh.  

"You aren't cheating, are you?"  Cherilee asked, narrowing her eyes.

Scoots' expression immediately hardened.  "No, it's just simple calculus."  She paused, scratching her chin.  "That's what Jason called it, anyway."

"Well that explains it then."  Cherilee sighed.  "When he comes back, you should tell him to come in, teach a little himself."  She started to return to her desk, sitting back down as the rest of the class began to get answers.


_______________________________________________________


The bell rang for recess, and Scootaloo slowly packed up, not particularly excited to talk to Cherilee.  When she finally got to the teacher's desk though, she had to stifle a laugh that after all of her stalling she was still the first one there.  Rumble slowly walked up next, hanging his head in shame for some reason.  Eventually they were joined by the two perpetrators.

"I'm disappointed in you four.  But especially you, Rumble."  She looked at the foal, and he gulped.  "Usually you're a model around here, but I guess not."  

"Mrs.  Cherilee, hold on a sec."  Scootaloo spoke up.  "You don't even know what happened."

"I suppose I don't.  Go ahead, tell me what happened."  She said, straitening a paper on her desk.

"Okay, well Diamind Tiara stole my only communication system with my parents, and then tried to make them worried."  She paused to pull the pad out of her saddlebag.  "As evidenced by this conversation."  She handed over the paper to Cherilee, who studied it for a moment. 

"Okay, go on..."

"I knew she was doing this, and I didn't want them to worry.  They've already got enough to worry about, they need to at least know that I'm okay.  So I wanted it back, it's not like it isn't mine anyway.  Rumble agreed to help, and we went over there.  Flip to the last page."  She said, watching as Cherilee followed her directions.  "Now read it out loud."

"Okay, Scootaloo."  She took in a breath.  "I, Diamond Tiara, concede the fact that I threw the first punch and Scootaloo and Rumble were acting in self defense.  Therefore, I agree to all blame and accept all punishments."  Her signature followed.

"Okay then, this makes my job easy."

"But-"

"They have indisputable evidence, Diamond Tiara.  I've seen your signature before and this matches almost perfectly."

"But-"

"Now then, I suppose I can't punish you two for defending yourselves, that would be more than a little hypocritical.  So you and Rumble are free to go, Scootaloo."  Her gaze hardened.  "But you two, on the other hand..."  

Scoots quickly took her lead, still feeling anxious to leave.  She had expected things to go well, but getting off with no punishment, and getting a few punches in on Diamond Tiara?  It was a good day.  A slight pounding of hooves from behind her proceeded Rumble's arrival, and he slowed down to her pace as they continued across the schoolyard, through at least a few stares.  Scoots felt her face heat up, although she was unsure whether her classmates were looking at Rumble as a colt friend for her--which he definitely wasn't--or if they were just curious about the fight.  She liked to think it was the second, and her thoughts started to turn to those of pride as she approached the other Crusaders, chatting loudly under a tree.

"How's it going Crusaders?!"  She asked as she approached, noticing that Rumble had started to lag behind.  

"Ah'd like ta ask you tha same question, Scoots."  Applebloom replied, staring at one of the bruises on Scoots' face.  

"Well I thought yesterday was going to suck, but it turned out awesome!  Rumble here--where'd he go?"  She looked around, finding the foal a little ways away behind a stump.  She trotted over and sighed, having a brief argument with him that the other crusaders couldn't make out before dragging him over.

"Uh, hi."  He said, refusing to meet either of the other girls' eyes.  

"Aaaaanyway, Rumble helped me beat up Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, because they stole that thing from me."

"Woah, and you're not in trouble?"  Sweetie asked.

"They threw the first punch, and we had proof."

"Doesn't that hurt though?"  

"No, it's not too bad.  Nothing I can't handle."  She studied a hoof, before Rumble nudged her in the side.  "Oh yeah, is it okay if Rumble joins the Cutie Mark Crusaders?"  Her friends shared a glance.  

"If ya want him to, ah guess.  Not ah problem for me."

"I guess I'm okay with it if she is."  Sweetie agreed.  "We could use another member anyway."

"Well, uh, thanks."  Rumble replied, managing some eye contact.  "I've never been in a club before."

"Well it's great that you started with this one!"  Scootaloo exclaimed.  "This is the best club in existence."  She paused.  "After Team Green Bean, I guess."

Sweetie snickered.  "That's always funny!"

"So what are we plannin' on doin' later today?"  Applebloom asked.

"I dunno."  Scoots scratched her chin.  "What haven't we done yet?"

"Well I guess pyrotechnics experts is out of the question."  They shared an uneasy laugh.  

"All the dazed ponies were pretty funny though."  Sweetie ventured.  "Rarity was a little scary after that.  Apparently she'd had exposure to those things before."

"Yeah..."  Scoots robbed the back of her head with a hoof nervously.  "Dash kinda threw one of those at Celestia, Twilight, and the rest of her friends.  And then broke Jason out of imprisonment."  She looked back up at the other foals' shocked expressions. 

"Ah-- that was Jason?!  Mah sister said some stuff about a changeling, but she was pretty silent about Rainbow Dash."

"I think public opinion held that she was a traitor.  She wasn't, for the record, not really."  They lapsed into silence, a rare occurrence when all three crusaders were present.  

"So have they... killed anypony before?"  Sweetie asked quietly, as if fearing the answer.

"No, but I know they've killed some griffins, they are in a war against griffins after all."

"Oh, that's kinda scary."

"It's not like they're stone cold murderers, they act just like you or me.  Except they're probably a lot more courageous and better at fighting."

"And probably smarter if they came up with that bomb thing."  Rumble said.

"Hey, maybe we just aren't thinking like he does, we're trying to get our cutie marks in things that are pony things, when maybe we need to do things that haven't been done before!"

"But didn't Jason give you a hint or something, that we've already done the thing that's our special talent?"  Sweetie asked.

"Ugh, you're right.  How can he know when we don't?!"

"Ya don't think he's fibbin', do ya?"

"No, we've done enough things for that to seem plausible enough."  Scoots said, tracing her hoof on the ground in thought.

"But wouldn't we have seemed good at something then?  I mean most things end in disaster or a coating of tree sap."  

"So that's why there was a pony shaped sap mark on my window last week!"  Rumble exclaimed, making the other three giggle.  He blushed, although he didn't take a step back or try to shrink away from the attention.  

"I think that maybe if we--"  The bell rang, and they all groaned.  "We'll meet in the treehouse today and make a list, alright?"  She received three affirmative answers before they turned to walk back.  Cherilee was still talking to Diamond as they got inside, and continued in hushed tones for another minute before she handed the student a slip of paper and told her to sit down.  The bully stared at Scoots as she passed by, turning her head to stare at Rumble as well.  He cast back a large smile, which seemed to enrage her further.

"Class, I hope you brought your free-reading books, because I'll be coming around to check that you have them.  Otherwise, grab one from the back and read until, say, lunch."  There was a groan as a few foals got up to get books from the limited selection in the back.  Scoots smiled, she'd brought one for the first time last week, and hadn't taken it out.  

She went through the pile of human junk that Jason had stashed in a room, and had extracted the books into a separate pile.  She didn't really know what most of the other stuff was, so she figured she'd just leave it alone.  After all, she didn't know what Trojans were, but they sounded kinda scary.  

So she'd brought this book, with the words The Dresden Files displayed prominently along the top.  It had taken a while to get used to reading about hands and firearms, and whatever kind of weird magic this was, but she had seemed to get the hang of it.  At least all the 'someones' were easier to read, considering how many times Jason had said weird things like that.

But it was hard wrapping her head around the size of this city, with more people then there were in Equestria, and all these giant buildings.  She was interrupted as a paper airplane hit her above the eye and fell to the desk, it's tip crumpling slightly in the collision.  

Scoots looked up and caught a glance from Applebloom and unfolded the airplane, finding a message inside.  She stuffed it into her book before Cherilee could look up and call her on note passing, she'd had a few problems with reading the notes out loud before, although the one insulting Cherilee sure was comedic justice.

She flattened the note inside her book with a hoof, attempting to iron out a crease she had just created.  You like Rumble?  Scoots frowned, before looking back over at Applebloom, who was smirking down at her book.  Scoots pulled the paper back out of her book and crumpled it up, chucking it back and watching it bounce off Applebloom's head and onto Cherilee's desk.  The two foals immediately went back to reading, trying to act innocent.  

"Alright class, very funny.  Who threw this?"  The class was silent, interrupted only by the sound of Snails' head hitting the desk.  Scoots sighed, that was like the eleventh day in a row.  "So I know it wasn't Snails, not that he knows how to crumple a piece of paper up anyway.  She mumbled under her breath.

"I did it."  Rumble said, raising his hoof.

"While I admire your confidence, Rumble, this is your last warning for today, I can't have you disturbing class like this."

"Okay Mrs. Cherilee..."  He mumbled, slouching down into his desk sadly.  He'd just--taken the blame for her.  Rumble, the shy foal, the one that hardly even stood up for himself had just stood up for her.  She felt a swell of gratitude towards him, but she could've sworn there was something else.

She didn't really like him, did she?  It's not like she didn't understand the whole system by now, especially with Dash and Jason always acting all mushy towards each other.  But as time went on with those two, she really found she didn't mind, she kinda liked seeing them that way.  And that bothered her.  Things were becoming so simple, why did all this have to happen while Dash and Jason were gone?  He could at least tell her what she was feeling, because with the conflicting emotions she could hardly begin to make sense of what she was supposed to do.

Funny how she had the largest resources in town when her parents were around, and yet...  She focused back in on reality and noticed that she was staring at Rumble, and he was staring back.  She blushed and looked away, not before catching a glimpse of his shiny grey eyes--what?  Brain, shut up!  She knocked a hoof against her forehead, trying to knock the thought out of her head.

But he's so cute, Scoots

No, scumbag brain!  I--no!  I don't like him!

You can't lie to me, I know what you're really thinking.

"You don't know anything!"  She yelled out, drawing stares from the entire classroom.  Cherilee looked up and frowned. 

"Is there something you'd like to say to me, Scootaloo?"

"No, uh, the main character's just being a moron, sorry."  Cherilee nodded and rolled her eyes, writing a note on one of the papers she was grading.  That was too close, stupid Scootaloo!  Stop blowing things like that!

She looked back at her classmates, most of which had returned to their books.  Rumble looked up and met her gaze, and it held for a few moments before she broke it off again.  Why's he looking at me?  Why am I looking at him?  If he's looking at me does that mean he's thinking about me?  Blargh, brain, what's that supposed to tell me?  He likes to stare?  Dash and Jason stare at each other sometimes, but--no, we're not them, right?  But they look so happy, would that really be a bad thing?

She ground a hoof into the desk, watching as the minutes slowly drew on towards lunchtime.  She snuck a look back at Rumble again.  He looked calm, a little more calm than she expected him to be.  Maybe he wasn't thinking the same things?  Maybe she was just the weirdo drawing something from nothing?  His eye twitched, and she looked away.  As far as she was concerned, that was sign enough that he wasn't all together.  And he hadn't turned a page in fifteen minutes.  Neither had she, now that she thought about it.

Might as well get some reading done, she might have to write a report on this later.  Something that was going to be hard to make if everyone needed to be ponified.  They could all be unicorns, but Jason was a changeling, and he came from there...

She sighed and read a few paragraphs, blushing at a word she thought wasn't supposed to be in a book.  Bastard was like the worst word she knew, and these guys were throwing it around like common conversation.  It wasn't taken lightly when you implied that a pony was illegitimate, she'd been called a bastard more than a few times.  Bastard pony.  Blank flank paled to that.

Jason'd used bastard before about the pony that'd tortured him, that seemed fairly well used.  But if they were throwing this around, then Jason's swear words must be way worse.  She smiled at the thought, glad that she had a hoof up, even if nopony would understand.  

Scoots returned to the mythical world for a few more minutes, trying to determine in the back of her head just how mythical it actually was.  He would probably find it hilarious that she found the most logical part of the book in its magic.  At least it wasn't overly technical, the fact that the guy made mechanical devices falter by being in the vicinity tended to help keep things like Jason's computer away.  It was a pity, she'd seen so little of that thing before they had to leave.  

The bell rang and she jumped, amazed at how lost in her thoughts she had become.  Lunch.  Should be interesting, considering she had a new idea on how to get their cutie marks.  Scoots shoved the paperback into her saddlebag and got up, happily slinging the packs over her flank.  She moved it to one side a little to balance before she trotted out of the classroom after Sweetie.

Scoots caught up to her friend just as they were nearing their usual lunch spot, a slightly secluded picnic table that they had initially chosen because of it's distance from Diamond Tiara, something that they had foolishly hoped would keep her away.  She sat down after Sweetie, grabbing a paper bag out of her saddlebag with her lunch inside.  Or, at least, she realized with some disappointment, what was left of her lunch from yesterday.  She'd never gone home besides to get lunch.

Applebloom sat down across the table and smirked at Scoots from her spot next to Sweetie, followed shortly by Rumble, who awkwardly sat down next to Scootaloo, with a blush that didn't go completely unnoticed.  She changed the subject before her friends could notice though, and pointed at Applebloom's lunch bag.

"Could I have an apple or something?"  She asked, "I kinda only have--some grapes and half of a hay sandwich."

"Whell wha didn't ya pack more food?" Applebloom asked, crossing her hooves.

"I never went home yesterday, so I didn't pack anything."

"Well why didn't you go home?  Is something wrong?"  Sweetie asked, her eyes going wide.

"No, but you wanna see something cool?"  She smirked at the girls.  "Rumble, you wanna catch some grapes?"

"I-I dunno, I--"

"Come on, it's awesome!"  She protested, wiggling the grapes in her hoof.

He gave her a slight smile.  "Fine, you win."  He set down his saddlebag on the table and took a few steps away before turning back.

"What's he gonna do with grapes?"  Applebloom asked.

"Just watch.  You ready Rumble?"

"Yeah, go ahead."  She smiled and plucked off a few grapes before throwing them in quick succession.  Rumble dipped his head to the side to catch the first before he jumped backwards, bouncing the grape off his nose and into the air as he dove for the last one, grabbing it and turning his head to catch the final grape, realistically the second one Scoots had thrown.

"So how about that?"  Scoots asked, looking at her dumbfounded table mates.  "That's enough Rumble, come on."  She said to the dusty foal, watching him happily as he walked back over.  These feelings...

"How'd you learn to do that, Rumble?"  Sweetie asked, pushing a lock of mane away from her face with a hoof.

"Lots of time, and nothing to do."  He chuckled dryly, something that made him seem a little pathetic if anything.  There was a long silence as Applebloom and Sweetie exchanged a glance, before the former started up conversation again, biting into an apple pastry of some kind and rolling an apple across the table to Scootaloo.

"So what were we goin' ta do for our cutie marks agin?"  Applebloom asked, scratching her neck.

"Oh, well I was thinking, and if what Jason said was true, and we've done it before, then what if our special talent is pranks?"

"Whell--"  Applebloom paused.  "Ah guess we have done that before."

"Exactly!  We're just not going far enough, we need to get a prank that's hilarious and yet doesn't actually hurt anypony like some of our past attempts.  This is going to take some planning, guys, so do you think we're up for it?"

"CUTIE MA-Rumble you're supposed to join in."

"What do I say?"

Scoots shrugged.  "Cutie Mark Crusaders *insert name of destructive activity here*."

"Oh, so pranksters?"

"Sure."

They all clopped hooves together over the table.  "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS PRANKSTERS YAY!!!!"  

Scoots sighed.  "Probably shouldn't have yelled that..."
> Distractions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Distractions


"How can it be Sunday already?  We haven't even done anything since we said we were going to do this on Friday!"  Scootaloo yelled out to nopony in particular, her voice reverberating slightly off of the treehouse walls.  Rumble shifted from his position sprawled on the floor, and tried to wet his mouth a little before answering.  

"We couldn't come up with anything for the prank, and then we just kinda brainstormed for what time we did have.  It wasn't that bad, really."  

"But Ah thought we'd at least figure somethin' out, but we're no closer than when we started!"  Applebloom complained, shaking a hoof angrily into the air.

"Maybe we're going about it all wrong."  Sweetie piped up, sitting up against a wall.  "We've been too busy thinking, we haven't actually acted!  Maybe that's all we need to do, we haven't gotten our cutie marks in thinking up pranks, and honestly, I don't know what that would even look like.  But come on, let's get going!"

"Where?"  Scoots asked.  "We were trying to plan so that we could start acting.  Jason always says that something without a plan is, well, fucked from the start."

"He said that?"  Applebloom asked, her mouth slightly open.  "Like, all tha time?"

"Well actually he said that once in another room, but he still said it."

"But in order to have a plan we need supplies, right?"  Rumble asked.  "How are we supposed to prank Cherilee without stuff to prank her with?"

"But we don't know what we want!"  Sweetie yelled, catching them all a little off guard.  

Rumble scratched his chin, pulling himself off the floor into a sitting position.  "But it would be easy to go looking for things that we did want, right?  We can just choose from them later."

"We could go grab some explosives, that could work."  Applebloom mentioned, gesturing to a blown casing she'd recovered from the square a few days before.  "Ah'm sure we could come up with something funny.  And, ahem, non-letal."

Scoots pressed her hooves to her forehead and dragged them down her cheeks with a groan.  "Fine, whatever.  We'll see if we can find anything else on the way."

Sweetie took a deep breath, "Cutie Mark Crusaders Prank Item Prospectors..."

"YAY!"  They yelled as their hooves bumped together, a board on the roof visibly shaking as they cheered.  They broke the huddle and ran towards the door, before they all stopped and returned to grab their saddlebags.  Scoots was the first to exit, abandoning the stairs and gliding directly to her scooter.  

She loved the way it gleamed, the way it didn't feel cheap or like it was going to break every time she took a hard lancing.  Sure, that was partially due to the care she treated it with--she cleaned it almost every day--but it was also genuinely awesome craftsmanship.  Scoots latched the wagon to the back of the scooter before she hopped on and gave her wings a test flap.  She looked backwards and saw the three other crusaders staring at the wagon awkwardly.  

"I'll just fly, I guess."  Rumble said to the other three, before walking towards the front of the caravan.  "That really is a nice scooter, Scoots."  He said, blocking its glint with a hoof.

"Yeah, you've said that a lot.  You want a ride?"  She resisted the urge to shove a hoof in her mouth.  Where'd that come from?  A ride?  How would that even work?

"How would that even work?  Not that I don't want to go..."  Rumble asked, looking at the scooter.  Well you've made your bed, now you've got to sleep in it...

"Just--can you stand behind me?"  She asked, moving her beck hooves forward.

"Do-do you want me to?  It's fine if you don't..."

"No-"  Sweetie said something about a forgotten item and galloped back to the treehouse.  "Just jump on before I change my mind, kay?"

"Y-yeah, sure."  He mumbled, trotting over and jumping on the back, attempting to fit all four of his hooves on the back of the scooter.

"Rumble, just grab onto something."  She heard a sigh as she turned back around, before his hooves wrapped around her lower midsection.  

"I'm ready!"  Sweetie yelled from behind, giving a few taps on the side of the wagon.  

Scootaloo ignored the reddening in her cheeks and started to accelerate, struggling with all the extra weight.  Suddenly, it got easier, and she got up to top speed.  Or, what she thought was top speed with the wagon.  But they kept speeding up, and she looked behind herself in a panic, bumping her muzzle against Rumble's as he looked over her shoulder.

She looked away with another blush, but at least she had found the source of the phenomenon.  Rumble'd been helping her out, and although she felt like arguing that she didn't need it, there was something else that she felt needed saying, like she was glad that he was helping.  Teamwork maybe?  She'd worked in a team before, but that'd usually been  because she was in a game or task that needed more than one pony.  

She quite liked this though, the extra speed as they raced through the short stretch of apple orchard, the feeling of his hooves around her waist...

Another blush crossed Scoots' face at the thought.  Sure, it felt nice, but that didn't mean anything, right?  Of course not.  But she hadn't even noticed when one of her other friends had been in the same position.  So he was different because why?  Did she want to try to answer that?  If she always felt like this around him, then maybe she actually-- 

"Scoots, look out!"  She snapped to attention, jerking the handlebars to the side in an effort to swerve out of the way of an oncoming tree.  The cart and scooter started to skid sideways, sliding skew to the slope of their previous approach.  

"Rumble, flap your wings harder!"  She yelled, straining her own as the wagon and scooter caravan continued to drift, something she hadn't expected it to do without flipping.  Applebloom and Sweetie were a lot of help, screaming and yelling as they narrowly missed the tree Scoots had been trying to avoid.  

Their rag tag vehicle rotated around until it was backwards before stopping its slide and beginning to slowly roll.  She stopped the movement with a few more flaps, before she stepped off the scooter and collapsed, panting heavily.  Rumble's fore hooves hit the ground behind her, and she could easily hear his own breathing.  

"What was that, Scoots?!"  Applebloom shakily yelled over.  "We coulda' hit that tree!"  

"I'm...sorry...I got...distracted."  

"But-"  She was silenced by Sweetie, who shook her head slightly.  

"Hey Scoots...come on, we're at the edge of town anyway."  Rumble said, taking a few slow steps into her field of vision.  He offered her a hoof and she quickly took it, pulling herself to her hooves.  

"I...know we're all tired and all...and you two almost got hurt...but that was still pretty cool."

Applebloom frowned as Sweetie giggled next to her, before she got up to stretch a little, running a hoof over her blank yellow flank.  "Ya know," she started, her normal upbeat attitude starting to return, "If we did hit that tree, ah'd say that we'd have a pirdy good chance at gettin' our cutie marks in bein' crash test dummies."

"And get the little yellow and black circle, right?"  Scootaloo said with a grin.

"It's not just for buggy testing anymore!"  Sweetie burst out, causing the four to break out in laughter.  Scoots took a few more deep breaths and calmed herself before climbing to her hooves and grabbing the scooter, wheeling the now emptied cart and tow car towards town.  The other three caught up and trotted along with her, accompanying her as they moved towards the blacksmith.  

Scoots passed by an alleyway and shivered, before she left the scooter leaning against a completely splintered bench across the street.  She walked around the building, before she arrived at a pile of debris and missing wall. 

"What is this, Scoots?"  Sweetie asked, kicking a piece of rubble.

"This is a hole Dash blew in the wall to get Jason back.  Like when he was being tortured."

"In there?"  Applebloom inquired, squinting her eyes.  "I can't even see inside, how did they know he was in there?"

"I guess you'd have to ask Dash or Luna."  She turned and started walking back to the wagon.  

"Sorry, did ya say Luna?  As in, Princess Luna?"

"Yeah, she got sent out here or something to help get Jason back."

"They sent a Princess for Jason?"  Rumble asked, his mouth ajar.

"Yeah."

"How important is he?"

Scoots smirked.  "He's just under Shining Armor in military command.  Higher, when it comes to planning.  Dash is the same."

"Wow."  Sweetie breathed.  "I never knew it was like that..."

"Yeah, it'd be a lot better if it didn't mean that they were gone fighting this thing."  She grabbed the scooter and started to push it, blushing slightly and relenting as Rumble insisted he take over.  

"So they're in the griffin empire someplace?"

"Yeah, I think they just moved camps on Friday or something.  So they're getting closer to winning, I guess."

"I guess that's good."  Sweetie replied matter-of-factly.  "My sister really hates griffins, I'm not really sure why."  She giggled.  "Maybe they're uncouth."

They all shared a laugh, coming to a halt as they reached the blacksmith.  "Okay, Crusaders, all we need is a few of the nonlethal smoke ones.  I don't even want to deal with the other ones."  Scoots paused, looking back at them as she pushed open the door with a hoof.  "Now let's get those explosives!"


____________________________________________________________


"What do you mean we can't get any explosives?!"  Scoots yelled, looking up at the blacksmith as they all made begging expressions.  

"Very funny kids, but I'm not giving you any of these to you.  I'm pretty busy with orders anyway."

"Like what?"  Rumble asked, trying to peer over the counter.  

"Specifically for a changeling, of all clients."

"Jason?" 

"Your father, huh?  He's said a lot about you, wrote specifically in his letter,"  He pulled out a piece of paper, simultaneously putting on a pair of reading glasses.  "Do not give any of these explosives to the Crusaders."

"But-"

"Wait, it goes on."  He looked back down at the paper.  "Under no circumstances should she be allowed to have fun or frolic with her friends, after the incident."

"What?  He wrote that?"  She asked, flabbergasted.

"No, I'm just having a little fun.  The first part was real though."

"But-"

"I've heard of what happened last week, I'm not letting you near these things.  But this is a nice break from making all these 'bullets'."  He put air quotes around the word.  "Most annoying thing I've ever done.  At least I'm getting paid, whether in bits or advertisement."

"So no explosives?"  Sweetie asked, looking downtrodden.

"Nope, sorry.  Maybe when you're older, okay?"  They all dipped their heads.  "Don't hurry to grow up, once it's gone, it's gone.  Now get out of here, your dad sent you a package, by the way."

"He did?!  Come on, we gotta go check it out!"  She sprinted for the door, quickly bowling through it with the rest of her friends after Rumble disengaged himself from staring at the blacksmith's work in awe.  

They piled onto the rag tag caravan again, speeding off towards the grassy knoll that currently sat under Dash's house.  She was at least able to concentrate with Rumble's hooves, although the thought never left her mind.  Scoots fanned her wings backwards, slowing them to a stop before she got off and stretched out her wings.  

"We'll be right back."  She said back to Sweetie and Applebloom, who were extracting themselves from the wagon happily, their manes completely blown back from their foreheads.  Rarity was going to have a fit, she realized with a giggle.  "You coming Rumble?"  She asked the other foal, unable to keep from blushing as she watched him struggle ever so slightly to get his wings to cooperate.  

"Sure, let's go."  He replied with a slight grin, taking off in front of her and quickly gaining altitude.  Scoots grinned back and caught up, her wings starting to get that slight burn to them as she pushed herself.  Rumble kept pace with her, no matter how she tried to get ahead, and before she could stage a successful push they had already arrived.  Scoots curved off towards the door, spying the package laying on a small wooden platform and landing next to it on the wood.  The sound echoed out as she tried to figure out how she was going to get this thing down.

"Rumble, yell down and tell them it might be a little bit."  She said, watching him go over to the edge of the house and start to yell downwards.  She walked inside, looking around for anything that would allow her to either support or move a box  that was almost as big as she was.  They'd obviously expected her to open it up here, but she didn't want her friends to miss out...especially if it was something they could use to get Cherilee.

She looked around, her eyes coming to rest on something sticking out of the corner of the room.  Scoots walked over and investigated the thing, not entirely sure what it was.  It popped out of the corner when she pulled on it, boasting the name:  Cloud house disguise, canister 8/15.  She turned the smoke bomb over in her hooves, unsure of when Jason had apparently booby trapped the house, but more importantly unsure of whether she should leave it here.

"Meh, there were fourteen others."  She said to herself, stowing the canister in her saddlebag.  Honestly though, she didn't know how she could move this thing, she thought to herself as she walked back outside.  Rumble was sizing the box up, testing its weight and durability, apparently.

"So I was thinking,"  He started.  "We couldn't lift this alone, but what about as a duo?"

"I dunno, I was stuck at how we would get it off here."

"That's easy.  Get to the side of the cloud over there, and be prepared to meet this midair."  He backed up a few feet, preparing to give the box a shove.

"No wait-"  But it was too late, he'd already pushed it off and started his flight to the side before diving over.  Scoots did the same, diving and meeting up with him next to the box.  He put his hooves against one side and motioned hurriedly for her to do the same before he started pushing upwards with his wings, slowing the descent.  It was a slow and rather scary process, if they slowed too fast the box would slip, but if they slowed too slow they would hit the ground.

Luckily, they ended up ten or so feet above the ground, and lowered the box carefully into the wagon.  Sweetie and Applebloom managed to squeeze back in as Rumble resumed his blush inducing position, which she had decided was quite nice, and they set off.


________________________________________________________


"There's probably some sort of futuristic technology in there!"  Sweetie exclaimed, looking at the box.  "It's so heavy, it could be anything!"  

"I guess there's only one way to find out!"  Scoots replied as she cut the tape open with a pair of scissors.  They al huddled around as she opened the lid and revealed...

A few bricks.  One of them was labeled 'ha.'  

"Looks like Jason pranked us!"  Applebloom exclaimed, bursting into laughter over the concept.  

"But-but-"  She pulled out the bricks, setting them on the floor.  There had to be more to this, Jason wouldn't do this, right?  Dash wouldn't let him go through with it anyway, she thought.  Scoots directed a kick at the box, hearing things shift around.  Wait...  She looked back into the box, which she now noticed had a bottom that was much closer to her face then the floor was.

"Oh, very clever Jason."  She said with a chuckle, carefully turning the box over.  

"What?"  Rumble asked, walking back over with renewed interest.

"It's a fake bottom."  She replied, cutting open the back of the box and opening it to a much better pile of things.  She pulled out a green plastic thing with buttons all over the back, labeled with a piece of blue tape.  Calculates math problems, it said.

She handed it to Rumble, who looked at it a little longer than she had before setting it down.  Some books, a few slightly flattened board games that she'd never heard of.  A 'hackisack', which came with a brief page of attached directions and a multi tool came next, followed by a rock with googlie eyes and a small bottle of pills, which had huge writing on a paper that was firmly taped to them.  

Scoots read the pill bottle immediately, too intrigued by the warnings Jason had made all to evident.  Ibuprofen, it read, Painkiller, for use with headaches, muscle pains and other miscellaneous pain relief.  Scoots, take one or two every six hours, no more unless you're really hurt.  Don't give this out, besides to close friends, or sell it.

"Hey, this says it heals headaches.  I thought only sleep did that!"  Scoots exclaimed, shaking the bottle in her joy.

"No, that's impossible."  Applebloom retorted.  "Ah wouldn't trust it anyway."

"But it's from Jason, I trust him."

"Good point.  We'll just have ta see it 'n action then."

"Touché."  Scoots replied, a smirk on her face.  

"But, none of this helps us with Cherilee."  Sweetie groaned, sifting through the pile of things.  "I like this rock though, he's a little cutie."  She reared up on her hind legs, pushing the rock onto a shelf.  "Do we have a mascot?"

"What, a rock?"  Applebloom asked, chuckling to herself.  "What's so good about a rock?"

"Uh, nerves of steel?"  Scoots ventured.

"It doesn't need to mean anything, I just like the little guy."  Sweetie replied, tapping a google eye and watching it move around.  

"But back to that thing about Cherilee, I have a better idea."  She pulled the canister out of her saddlebag, showing it to the other three.

"Is that...what ah think it is?"  Applebloom asked, a smile spreading on her face.  "Ah guess this means we have a plan after all."

"Yeah."  Sweetie confirmed, still looking at the rock.

"Hey, guys, you wanna camp out here, get our stuff together that way?"

Sweetie turned and shifted nervously.  "What, do you mean overnight?"  

"Yeah, why?"

"It's scary in here at night."

"But there'll be four of us, we can take on whatever's out there."  She struck a heroic pose.  "Plus, I said earlier that we need a plan, and this is a good way to make sure we all know what we're doing.  School's tomorrow, we may as well be prepared."

"Ah'll have ta ask Applejack, but ah think ah can."

"I dunno about Rarity though, she's been kinda weird since we let Rumble into this whole operation."  Sweetie mumbled, shooting a nervous gaze at the other foal.

"I can just go home, I don't want you to miss out on your own thing."

"No!"  Scoots erupted before she could catch herself.  "I mean, it's either all or nothing, no crusader left behind."

"Maybe we need a slogan more than anything else."  Sweetie mumbled, distracting herself with the calculator.  

"Ya got anythin' from Jason?"

"No, he didn't talk all that much about stuff back there.  We could probably ask him when he gets back."

"Don't you have that thingy?  Rumble asked, gesturing to her saddlebag.

"Oh yeah, I'll see if I can get a hold of anypony."  She pulled it out and looked worried for a moment bewrote a few words, before a silence stretched on.  Her face suddenly lit up, and she wrote some more.

"Who is it?"  Sweetie asked, squinting at the new numbers when she pressed the equal sign.

"Dash, the army got attacked last night.  Jason wrote the first message."  She moved her face closer to the pad and squinted.  "They're both fine, well Jason's passed out because he healed some pony, but that's pretty close to fine, anyway."

"How is that close to fine?"  Sweetie asked, "One of them's passed out, that can't be good, right?"

"I'm beginning to think Jason's to tough to actually die."  Scoots said triumphantly.  "You remember when Diamond was punching at him, right?"

"Yeah, and he was jus' laughin'."  Applebloom shivered.  "That was creepy."

"Well he's like unbelievable, he was walking around on a hoof with the end cut off on day two."  They all stared.  "It's really painful or something."

"Ah can guess."  She sighed.  "Anywho, what're we gonna do with this?"  She asked, picking back up the smoke grenade.

"If I may?"  Rumble asked, sticking out his hoof.  Applebloom handed it over, watching him expectantly.  "If we're going to use this in a prank, we need to figure out how it works."

"Well you just pull the pin, and then--"

"I mean what happens inside."

"You know, that doesn't look like one of the old ones..."  Scoots piped up, scratching her head.  

Applebloom nudged Sweetie, gesturing towards the door.  "We can go ask permission while you look at this, does that work?"

"Sure, just don't tell them about the prank."  Sweetie replied, nervously watching Rumble as he started to take the bomb apart.

"No problem, mah lips are sealed!"  She made a zippering motion across her mouth, before looking between the Rumble and Scoots and stifling a giggle.  Scoots felt her cheeks heat up as she assumed the meaning of Applebloom's look, before her friend turned and left.  

Scoots turned back to Rumble with some annoyance, how was it their place to tease her about this?  She didn't even know what she wanted, they didn't need them to make it harder for her...

"Scoots, you okay?"  Rumble asked, waving a hoof in front of her face.  "You zoned out for a second there."

"Oh, yeah sorry."  She stuck out a hoof and brushed part of his mane out of an eye.  This was getting ridiculous!  How was she supposed to think about this when she kept letting herself wander like this, brushing hair out of his eye like what?  His mare friend?  She turned away, making herself look distracted at something Jason had sent.  She noticed a note at the bottom of the box, and grabbed it, happy for the non-Rumble related distraction.

Scoots,

I know it's been a while, and that maybe things won't go as well as we want them to, but I want you to know that we're both going to make it back, hopefully before The Running of the Leaves.  So stay strong, Scoots, I know you are, just don't let people make you think you're a pony that you aren't.  You're a good kid, just don't grow up too much while I'm gone.  I already missed having you as a daughter for most of my life, another day at this point is torture.  Even if Dash hasn't made it obvious already, I know she feels the same way.

Love you Scoots,

Jason

Scoots smiled and hugged the letter to her chest, almost able to feel as though Jason had been talking to her in person, given how much feeling he seemed to put into the letter.  It was a real pick me up, a morale booster that reminded her that even over the large distance of separation, she was still loved.  Scoots blinked away a tear and put the paper carefully away in her saddlebag.  This was going up on the wall in her bedroom for sure.  Even when they did come back, she knew it would always hold some kind of meaning for her.

"Hey Scoots, I--"  Poof!  Rumble started coughing and she turned around, laughing as she saw his face, covered in white dust.  "I got the thing open."  She broke into laughter, rolling around as she felt her worry almost float away.  Eventually she recovered and got to her hooves, looking at the container that Rumble had set down a little too hard.

She rubbed her hooves together, taking on a malicious expression.  "Guess we better get to work."

	
> Clarity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Clarity


Applebloom and Sweetie trotted down the path from the treehouse, wasting no time in making the way to their sisters.  

"Hey Applebloom?"  Sweetie asked, slowing down slightly.

"Yeah?"

"Do you thing Rumble'll figure out how that thing works?"

"Ah think so, he may be pretty shy, but he ain't stupid."  Sweetie nodded and looked away, until Applebloom continued.  "But what do ya think about 'im and Scoots?"  She asked, a smirk spreading across her face.  

"I dunno, I didn't really think about it."

"I think they like each other..."  Applebloom continued, giggling.

"I just hope Scoots doesn't grow distant."  

"Wait, that's what ya care about?  I thought you'd find this hilarious!"

"Yeah, but Rarity says that relationships take a lot of time, and if they're in one that means..."

"But they're not, Scoots just looks like she can't figure out what to do, and I'm not sure if Rumble's the same."

"How can you possibly know all that?"

"Mah sister taught me ta read ponies.  Says it helps with business, gotta know how to read a poker face."

"Oh, okay then."  They got to the road that led between Sweet Apple Acres and Ponyville and waved before splitting apart.  It wasn't far to the Apple family house, and she got there in only a couple minutes.  Applebloom knew that Rarity probably wouldn't pose much of a problem in getting this little crusader campout together, but her sister on the other hoof, probably wouldn't take to the idea.

She walked inside and looked around, before walking into the kitchen and pouring herself a glass of water, which she quickly gulped down.  

"Hey Applebloom, Ah see you're back already."  Applejack mentioned, leaning against the doorjamb and wiping her forehead with a hoof.  "Man, those apples sure are a lot of work, but Ah guess with winter so close..."  She looked down at the foal, and they stared at each other for a few moments.  "So..."

"Sis?  Can we camp out in the Crusader treehouse overnight?"  She asked unable to meet her sister's eyes.

"Whell Ah guess that depends, is that new crusader there?"

"Yeah..."

"Well Ah just don't know if Ah want a colt hanging around with my sister while she's asleep."

"But sis..."

"Ah'll think about it.'

"But Rumble's so shy, he'd never try anything!  Besides, he's already got a kinda almost existent relationship with Scoots!"

"Oh really?  And how much would Jason or Dash like to know about that?"

"I think they do know.  Scoots keeps up communication with them, I'm pretty sure they caught on."

"Then why didn't they try to do anything?"  She thought out loud, scratching her chin.

"Cuz they know Scoots is her own pony, you know, like I am!"  Applebloom shrunk back.  "Sorry."

"Ya better be, yellin' like that!"

"What's with all the ruckus?"  Big Mac asked, slowly walking into the room.

"Applebloom wants to have a campout in the clubhouse with the rest of the crusaders."

"So?"  

"Whell there's a colt in their club now."

"Is he pinin' after Applebloom?"  Mac asked, flicking a leaf off his shoulder.

"Well, no, Ah don't think so.  She thinks it's Scootaloo."

"So then let 'er go, we can check up easily enough."  He said slowly, emphasizing the syllables.

"But-"  Mac frowned, and Applejack sighed.  "Fine, you win.  Go ahead Applebloom.  But if there's any funny business you better come get me, ya hear?  And don't let Rumble try anythin' with Scootaloo."

"Sure, sis."

"Well then get your stuff and go have fun.  Take some apple fritters for your friends, Granny Smith went crazy making them this morning."

"Yeah, Ah'm jus gonna grab mah sleepin' bag and stuff."  She said, trotting up the stairs to her room.


________________________________________________________


Sweetie trotted into town slowly, lost in her thoughts about Scoots.  She wouldn't abandon them, would she?  No, of course not.  She hadn't become any more distant after Jason and Dash adopted her, and that had sucked up a lot of time.  But those were parents, that was hardly a good example, especially with how short of a time they'd stuck around before being sent away.  

What if they acted like Cherilee had with Big Mac?  She shivered at the thought.  At least they were under the effect of a potion, but that didn't mean Scoots wouldn't act the same.  Wait, no way.  This was Scoots she was talking about, the most hardcore crusader they had.  She wouldn't turn into something like that, right?

Sweetie bumped into the front door of the boutique while she was still lost in her thoughts, and yelped in pain as her muzzle started to hurt.  She opened the door and walked inside, looking around for her sister.

"Rarity!"  She yelled, becoming silent to hear her response.  

"Just a moment Sweetie!"  Came her sister's muffled voice, with it's annoying Canterlot accent as usual.  Sweetie sighed and shifted on her hooves, sticking a hoof out to touch a roll of fabric that looked particularly interesting.  As her hoof made contact it started to roll off the basket it was balanced on, bouncing and unrolling as it crossed the room.  She cringed as it knocked the base of a mannequin, which started to tip, losing it's precious cargo: a dress.  Rarity walked in as the dress fell over her head, causing her to stumble into a pile of fabric and spools of thread.

"Sweetie!"  She yelled, trying to maintain a measure of her pride.

"I didn't touch anything!"  She lied, taking a few quick steps away from where she had poked the fabric.  Rarity extracted herself from the pile with a sigh, brushing a few threads from her face.  

"Where are your partners in crime?"

"We were asking if we could camp out in the Cursader clubhouse!"  She yelled back happily, as Rarity tried to block the sound with a hoof.

"I don't see a problem with that, so long as you make sure to bring everything you need."  Her face broke into a huge smile.  "Don't you know a colt now?"

"Yeah, Scoots brought Rumble into the group."

"And are you getting a little flushed because you like him?"  Rarity asked with a slight smirk playing across her face as she poked Sweetie.

"No, it's between Rumble and Scoots."

"And you're jealous, aww..."

"No I'm not!"  She paused, as her face turned more into one of longing.  "I'm just worried that Scoots'll forget about us."

"Oh Sweetie, she'll still be your friend, especially while you're all still Crusading."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, you're one of the most important ponies to her, there's no way she'll forget about you."  She jumped a little as Sweetie leaned forward and hugged her, before wrapping her arms around her sister in response.  

"Thanks Rarity."  She said quietly, before breaking the hug and running upstairs, back to her regular happy state.  Rarity smiled up after her, starting to lose herself in nostalgia.  

"Ah, young love.  I remember the feeling."  She said happily to herself, reveling in memories as she relaxed on a couch.  Sweetie ran by a few seconds later with a nearly bursting saddlebag and a sleeping bag that she had barely tied to her back.  She awkwardly reached for the doorknob, shifting her things around to attempt to get a better reach before Rarity opened the door for her.

"Have fun Sweetie!"  She yelled after the foal as she ran outside.  

"I will!"  Sweetie yelled back, turning down the road.  There was no way that Applebloom wasn't way ahead of her at this point, with how much time she'd been wasting.   But as she ran out of town and got to the trail that led to their treehouse, Applebloom was nowhere to be seen.  Maybe she had gone on ahead?  Oh well, she could wait a little bit just in case, that wouldn't be that big of a deal.

But Rumble was taking that thing apart, and she really didn't want to miss anything about that...  She bit her lip, before turning and setting off towards the clubhouse.

"Sweetie, hold up!"  Applebloom yelled as she galloped down the road from Sweet Apple Acres, equally loaded up with stuff.  The other foal slowed down to a walking pace, panting as she moved alongside Sweetie.

"Why did you take so long?  I figured you'd be the first to get approval."

"Why would ya think that?  You know my sis, right?"

"I also know your brother."  Sweetie replied with a grin.  

"Okay...  Well the real reason why Ah was late was because Ah was thinking about Rumble and Scoots."  She said, speeding up her conversation.  "And Ah thought, they're both our friends, and they're never going to do anythin' at this rate, why don't we...speed up the process a little?"

"Why?"

"Because, Ah want ta see if she's actually serious about this whole, likin' colts thing.  Ah mean, it's kinda weird, but you know..."

"No, I don't."

"Well maybe it could lead to any of us gettin' cutie marks."

"How would that even happen?"

"We're doin' a lot of plannin', right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well Ah'm sure either that or the things we do will get us a step closer.  And besides, what if we make Scoots happy?  She's still been lookin' kinda depressed lately."

"Fine, we'll help her.  As friends."

"And fellow crusaders."  Applebloom pointed out, before they pounded a hoof against one another's and got to planning.


_________________________________________________________________________________


"Hey Rumble, how's it going?"  Scoots asked, looking over at the mostly taken apart bomb.  Rumble scratched his head, picking up a piece and putting it back down again.  

"From what I can tell from the-"  He rotated the cartridge, reading off some yellow lettering.  "Smoke Grenade Mach II, is that I somehow managed to take it apart without setting it off, which was a miracle."

"How come?"

"Well this pin thingy primes it, I think, but then there's like--a thing over here that seems to keep the timer or fuse from burning or something.  That's all I have, it's hard to know if I didn't build it."

"Yeah, I guess.  You can put it back together though, right?"

"I think so, it only has a couple parts, it couldn't be that hard."

"Say's the colt with powder all over his face."  Rumble blushed  a light red, before trying to sweep the rest of the dust from his face.  

"You're just smearing it around, hold still."  She leaned forward and swept at the dust, coming away with a white tinged hoof.  "There, see?  Much better."  She moved a few stray hairs from his brow and continued to look into his eyes, unable to turn herself away.  Rumble blushed and looked at the floor, breaking her stare.  

"Hey Rumble?"  She asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have your stuff?"

"No, I kinda don't own a sleeping bag."  Scoots furrowed her brow.  Who didn't own a sleeping bag?

"Okay, that's fine.  I have two, you can just use the one I have at Dash's house."

"Where's the other one?"  He asked, looking around.  Scoots giggled, before jumping and grabbing a string that was hanging from the ceiling.  The hatch came down, as did a sleeping bag and a pillow.

"Any more questions?"

"No I'm good."

"Okay, I'll be back in a minute."  She said, before trotting over to the door and taking off.  Rumble watched her gain speed before she banked and started on her way.  She really was a cute filly, and it would have been nice if his cheeks didn't make that so obvious all the time.  

He sighed, shaking his head as he tried to concentrate on the task at hoof.  It was a nice fantasy, at least, but she was way out of his league, to use a term his brother had said a lot.  Somepony like her though?  He felt kinda depressed that she almost showed a restrained interest in him, if anything at all.  Not like he'd had enough of a backbone to ask her anything outright, or that he wanted to, it'd just be a disappointment for him.

What a fantasy though, a filly like her, and they had so much in common...

"Scoots?  Rumble?"  Rumble jumped and tried to work through the sight stiffness in his wings, which only made him more embarrassed.  Flitter sometimes got like that around his brother, and she sometimes just left in disgrace after that.  What would they think of him if he was like that?  Would they call him a mare, kick him out?  He folded up his wings just as Applebloom walked in, sighing gratefully that he had kept from showing off his wings like that.  

"Jeez, ya look like ya committed murder."  Applebloom's giggle caught as she looked around.  "Where's Scoots?"

"She's getting a sleeping bag from her house for me, I don't actually have my own."

"Oh, okay."  A smirk broke onto her face.  "Say, what's your opinion on Scoots?"

"U-uh, she's pretty cool."

"Is that it?" 

"Uh-"

"Hey guys, I'm back!"  Scoots yelled from outside as the three cleared from the door.  She landed and started to unload, stacking another pillow and sleeping bag in the corner.  "So with this plan, I was kinda thinking that if we just use the smoke to do something, that could be just as funny."

"Oh, like do a prank that we couldn't do in plain sight?"  Applebloom grinned.  "Ah like it."

"Wait."  Rumble started.  "We don't need to be creative at this point, all we need is to set up a bunch of small pranks and let Cherilee set them off.  That way we could have laughs through the entire day, as long as she doesn't notice too many of them."

"Oh man, I can see it now."  Sweetie said with a laugh.  "You still got all that prank stuff Scoots?"

"Yeah, hold on."  She jumped into the air, floating through the same hatch and into the small space they called an attic.  "I got everything here."  Scoots packed the supplies into a bag, before lowering them down to Rumble.

Applebloom nonchalantly kicked Scoots' old sleeping bag backwards, turning to watch it roll down the ramp and disappear over a slight slope.  "Phase one completed."  She whispered to Sweetie, before they both shared a giggle.

"What's so funny?"  Scootaloo asked as she hopped down, giving her wings a heavy flutter to slow her descent.

"Just, uh, what we're going to do to Cherilee."

"Oh yeah, I can see it now.  But listen, these things don't last that long, we're going to have to get our paths totally planned."

"Yeah, I know."  Applebloom replied, reaching backwards into her saddlebag to pull out a large folded piece of paper.  "That's wha I brought this."  She said proudly, spreading out the giant square on the floor.

"Where'd you get paper this big?"  Sweetie asked.

"Pinkie had some, don't ask me why."

"Like there'd be an answer."  Scoots pointed out with a chuckle.

"It'd be nice if we could get that mare to help us though."  Rumble pointed out with a sigh.  "We wouldn't even need to plan this."  He looked at the paper, where there was a fairly nice drawing of the classroom.  "You drew this?"

"Yeah, I did a while ago actually.  It was for a project with Sweetie, but we ended up doing somethin' different."

"What project?"  He asked.  

Applebloom scratched her head.  "Ah don't really remember.  But hey, we have it now, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so."  Rumble replied, pulling a cup of pencils from the shelf next to the pet rock.

"I guess we better get started then, huh?"  Sweetie asked, a rather out of character smirk playing across her face.  

"I guess so."  Scoots confirmed, setting to work.


_________________________________________________________________


"Scoots.  We should probably...go to sleep."  Sweetie said with a yawn, stumbling over to the window.  "The moon's all the way up there, it's late."

"I'm almost done."  She pointed something out to Rumble, who facehoofed and fixed his own mistake, before she drew in a last line.   "Alright, we'll finish this in the morning."  She said triumphantly.  "Hey, where's Applebloom?"

"She's already asleep, I think."  Sweetie yawned again.  "Come on."

"Okay, I just- where's my sleeping bag?"

"I thought you put it right here."  Rumble said, pointing to an empty patch of floor.

"Yeah, so did I."  She walked over towards the door.  "Do you know what happened, Sweetie Belle?"

"No!"  She said, a little too defensively.

"Alright..."  Scoots sighed and walked out the door, skidding slightly on the ramp in her tired state.  "You want to help me look, Rumble?  You're the only other one here with wings."

"I'll give it a shot."  He replied, before jumping off the ramp and gliding into the air.  "What's it look like?"  He asked Scoots, who was testing her wings out before trying to fly.  Probably a good call since they were so tired, better than what he'd tried.  His wing rhythm stalled and he dropped a few feet before catching himself, letting out a yelp of surprise.

"Don't kill yourself Rumble."  Scoots said, looking up at him with a smirk.  She held his gaze for long enough to make him blush a light red, and she looked away with the same embarrassed expression.  All this time and she still couldn't get her feelings straight.  Even if- Even if she did like Rumble, and he liked her back...  Well then what was the problem?  Her mind tried to think that one over.

If he liked her, and she worked through the wad of emotions she kept feeling, well then maybe she would start something.  But didn't stallions start these things?  Urg...

Her foot fell in water and she jumped, running an elbow into Rumble's muzzle as he landed.  He grunted and fell backwards, holding a hoof over his face as it started to darken, presumably bleeding, although it was hard to tell in the moonlight.  

"Oh my god, are you okay?"  She asked, crouching down next to him and putting a hoof behind his head.  She didn't know why she'd done this with his head, but it just seemed like the right thing to do.  

"Yeah, it's not a big deal."  He said, wiping away a rather large amount of blood.  

"But- you're bleeding pretty badly, I mean-"

"Ah, this happens even without getting hurt, it's fine."  He said, smiling up at her.  Scoots felt a slight wave of relief wash over herself before pulling the colt into a hug.  Part of her brain was screaming at her to stop, whether it was because of the blood or that it was a boy or whatever, and yet for the first time the other half had won out.  She held him a few more moments before he shakily returned the hug, wrapping his soft hooves over her back.

"I'm glad you're okay."  She said, hesitating a moment before nuzzling into his mane and letting him go.

"Uh."  He said, his face even darker than before, although graced with a slight smile.  "Before we landed, I found your sleeping bag, but it was kinda in the pond here."  He pointed over, and sure enough, her sleeping bag was partially submerged at the edge of the water.

"Oh no!  I loved that sleeping bag!"  She reached out and grabbed it, rolling the sodden fabric onto the dirt.  "No, come on, you're okay little guy..."

"It's just a sleeping bag, Scoots.  It's not the end of the world."  He put a hoof on her shoulder, but she shook him off.

"It's not just a sleeping bag, it's the only thing that kept me warm at night when I was alone.  I kept it because..."  Tears started to well up in her eyes.  "Because it always made me feel safe and warm, and nopony had ever been able to do that before."  She put her head in her hooves as a few tears fell, glinting in the moonlight as they fell.

Hooves went around her shoulders and Scoots jumped, before leaning into Rumble as he sat by her side.  "You don't need to feel so alone anymore, you've got friends, parents..."

"But they're gone, and I'm only around friends so much in a day!  It's just- it's not enough to cover up how lonely I feel when all of you aren't around."  Rumble didn't respond, besides to put his hoof more tightly around her back as she quietly wept, tapping a hoof on her sleeping bag to make sure that it was still there.

"Let's just get back Rumble."  She said.  "You're not supposed to see me like this."

"It's not a big deal, it just show's that you have feelings.  It's not like I'd be in better shape in your situation."  He replied, still holding her.  "And the sleeping bag'll be fine, we can just dry it off."  Scoots smiled shakily up at him, and he returned the notion.  

"Fine, you win."  She got up and let him go before sticking a few rocks under the sleeping bag to keep it from rolling back.  They'd never get that into the treehouse with how heavy it was right now.  The pair stumbled inside and stared at the last remaining sleeping bag as Sweetie lightly snored in hers.  

"I can sleep on the floor."  Rumble said, moving over to the corner.

"No, that's not fair, you take the sleeping bag."  She responded, kicking it across the floor towards him with a blush.

"It's your sleeping bag, you choose."  He kicked it back, and she stared, before unrolling the bag and wiping her face.  Her hoof came off with a bit of blood, probably from Rumble.  And for some reason that didn't disgust her.  

She stared at the sleeping bag again.  What if they could both...  No.  Wait, why not?  She quite liked the idea of having a warm body next to her at night, it reminded her of that time she'd confessed to a bad dream and ended up sandwiched between Dash and Jason.  What was so bad about that?

"We could...share?"  She asked, her face feeling hot as blood pounded in her ears.  Why was she so nervous, this wasn't an attempt to be more than friends, was it?  Worry started to manifest itself in her mind, before Rumble's voice broke through.

"Sure."  His face was just as red.  "But only if you're positive."

No backing out now...  "Yeah."  She walked over to the sleeping bag and placed herself inside, waiting for Rumble to follow.  He did after a little hesitation, and she put her arms around him in a hug.  "Thanks for being there, Rumble."  She said.  

"It's not a problem, Scoots."  He said, swiping some hair out of her eyes.  She smiled and put her head into his shoulder, trying to slightly mimic how Dash and Jason slept.  She wasn't disappointed, as her hooves warmed up and a soft heat started to make it's way into her chest, reminding her of how she felt the first few days with Rumble.  

But as she closed her eyes she knew she couldn't deny it anymore, she liked Rumble.  And for the first time, the idea made her feel the opposite of sickened, as her heart started to soar and her mind drifted off.


________________________________________________________________________


"Scoots, Rumble, ya ready?"  Applebloom asked, shaking her saddlebag slightly as they waited outside the classroom.

"Yeah,"  Scoots started.  "I got the bomb, the prank stuff, I got it all."

"Good, you too?"  She asked Rumble.

"Yup."  Applebloom looked between them with a smirk.  Finding them asleep together this morning had really been telling, especially after all of Scoots' talk of not being interested.  But she'd been right, and even though she hasn't received her cutie mark, well, she still felt happy for her friend.

"So Scoots, are you and Rumble going steady?"  Sweetie asked with a smirk.

"No..."  Not yet...  

Rumble had turned fairly red, although she didn't know if he was disappointed or just embarrassed.  He sighed as they walked in, getting a bored looking demeanor on his face before they took their seats.  Scootaloo sat down and pulled out the smoke grenade, holding it gingerly under the desk.  

"Okay class," Cherilee started as she got out of her seat.  "I'm handing back the homework from yesterday.  Some of you did well, but some others..." She looked at Snails, frowning.  "Anyway, we-"


POP!


Smoke quickly filled the room and enveloped Cherilee as the smoke bomb went off and several of the students spluttered and coughed.  The four immediately got to work, installing a thing here, unscrewing another thing there...  Cherilee stumbled backwards until she bumped into the wall, as the foals brushed by, being as silent as they could.  Rumble tripped and almost hit her, until Scoots dove into him and pushed him out of the way before he could blow their cover, and pulled him out of the way as the smoke started to die off.

They slid back into their desks and resumed neutral expressions as the room started to clear, wisps of gray wrapping around their ankles as the remaining smoke circulated.  

"Children!  Who was that?"  Sweetie shrugged as the rest of them watched and a few giggled.  Cherilee put a hoof to her forehead.  "This isn't a laughing matter, somepony could've been hurt by that."  She stared over the foals for a good minute, meeting Scootaloo's eyes enough to make her think Cherilee knew.

But eventually she went to sit down, moving her swivel chair slightly as she kept her gaze.  She sat down and the sounds of a whoopee cushion rang out, causing the room to erupt into laughter.  Cherilee frowned and stood back up, kicking her swivel chair across towards the door.  Its wheels fell off in close succession, rolling all over the room.  One rolled into a tripwire, spraying ping pong balls across the room and all over Cherilee's desk, setting off a mouse trap under a stack of her papers and sending them flying all over.  

Cherilee watched the papers fall, before turning her head to look at Scootaloo again.  The filly was too busy to notice, rocking on her seat in laughter like most of the others.  She wasn't supposed to set off everything within a minute, it was supposed to be a day or two of laughs, not a minute of side splitting, almost painful laughter.

"This has Crusaders written all over it."  She said, and Scoots' laughter started to slow.  "You've got detention for the rest of the week, all four of you."  Cherilee's expression softened.  "Credit where it's due though, that was pretty well done.  I'll cut off twenty minutes of detention each day, at least you've learned something, whether it's from me or someone else."

Scootaloo giggled a few more times, grabbing a ping pong ball from under her desk, looking at the other three who all seemed to have no regrets.  But as she looked at Rumble, his cheeks flushed with a few tears of laughter running down his face, she found, well...  She wasn't sure how much she minded spending a little extra time with him.

In fact, she got a little excited just thinking about it.
> Finalities
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Finalities


"Psst, Sweetie, where's Rumble been these last two days?"  Scootaloo asked, leaning over as Cherilee left the room.

"I dunno, I think he's sick."

"Ah, I hope it's not bad."  She felt a swell of worry and yearning, already missing the colt.  Well, that wasn't true, she'd missed him yesterday as well, but the feelings hadn't been as strong.  She looked up as the clock struck another minute later and sighed.  She could go visit him after this stupid thing was over, tell him what he missed and all that.  Although there wasn't really much, school was starting to get more than a little repetitive.  Sometimes she thought she learned more from Jason in a few days than she had from Cherilee in the last month.  

Speaking of Jason,  Dash and he'd moved next to the Capitol, which hopefully meant that they'd be home soon.  She felt a slight wave of nervousness wash over her, what if they didn't approve of Rumble?  She bit her lip.  It wasn't like they were dating or anything, but she just felt like Jason wouldn't want to have her dating somepony new while he was away.  He hadn't exactly warned her about things like this, but he'd also said that young love was overpowering.

And from her experiences so far, that was true.  At the same time, she knew she was a smart filly, and didn't want to disappoint either of them when they got back.  They wouldn't say no, right?  She wouldn't be kept from Rumble for some reason like Applejack wasn't comfortable with him even being near her sister, she didn't think, but that didn't mean she was right.  No, Jason and Dash wouldn't do that, they had to know how she felt, at least partially.  

She was getting ahead of herself again, dammit!  This all assumed that Rumble was interested.  She thought he was, but he could just be acting shy or something.  If he didn't, then where would she be?  Scoots scratched her head in thought, a seed of doubt coming to rest in her stomach.  If he didn't... then what?  All this had been for nothing?

Rumble seemed like more than a friend though.  He was always there to make her feel better, and he seemed to act differently.  She couldn't explain it, almost like he opened up to her more than he had before.  And that meant something, something big?  It seemed to, but she hardly knew her own feelings, let alone his.  

She let her head hit the desk.  What she wouldn't give for some of Jason's changeling emotion sensing powers right now...  That would make it so easy too, just walk up and know, at the drop of a hat, which one it was.  The bell rang and Scootaloo got up, sighing as she walked past her friends.  

"Where're ya goin', Scoots?"

"I just--want to think about some stuff.  I'll meet up with you two tomorrow, okay?"  They nodded and she let out a sigh, before grabbing her scooter and slowly accelerating.  They waved as she meandered down the small schoolhouse hill, impatient to get to Rumble's, but at the same time trying to delay any revelations.  

Scoots cut around town, sticking to a packed dirt path that circled halfway around Ponyville, and returning to her thoughts.  She found them relatively empty, which only served to distress her further.  Apparently all the good things she could think about had already been exhausted durning detention, and now she was just left with the depressing ones.  

Then her thoughts took another turn, forcing her into thoughts of the future.  If this did work out, if she ended up with a colt-friend, then what would happen?  She could look at Dash and Jason, but her mind kept drawing a blank at what kept them together.  They did stuff with each other, kissed a lot, and loved one another, and she could imagine that with Rumble, kind of.  Not that she loved him, that wasn't it.  But she always seemed to be drawn to the colt.  

"Ugh, this is IMPOSSIBLE!!"  She yelled out, throwing her head back in annoyance.  Why was it this hard?  Jason'd just seemed to--

That was it, he just dove in, went for the proverbial kill.  She wasn't committing herself for the rest of her life, she was just finding a colt and checking if he actually liked her.  The more time she spent around him, the better a chance he would say something.  And better yet, she could spend time with him.

Scoots skidded to a halt and changed direction, speeding up as she established a goal.  Town started to blur by as she accelerated, her scooter wheels clacking along the smooth cobblestones.  She turned again, weaving between a few townsponies.  A wall of ponies came into view, at least something she couldn't get around at this speed, and she flitted her eyes back and forth before settling on a target.  

Scoots jumped and fluttered her wings harder, sticking the scooter wheels against the wall as she cruised over a stall, landing back on the ground a few seconds later as ponies looked on slack jawed.  She smiled, forgetting her stress for a moment as she soaked up the fame.  A few seconds later Rumble's house came into view and she skidded to a halt, leaning her scooter against his fence.

She walked up and knocked, shifting uneasily on her hooves as she waited.  One, two minutes, and no sign of answering.  Scoots knocked a final time before walking away, her head hung low.  He hadn't left town because of her, right?  No, that was overreacting.  Get a hold of yourself.  Next plan of action, find someone that knows stuff.

She thought for a moment before replacing the helmet on her head and jumping on her scooter, buzzing her wings and accelerating away.  Twilight knew things, it wouldn't be hard to ask her a thing or two, and if anything bad had happened, she'd be one of the first to know.  

Scoots accelerated, swerving around ponies this way and that as she approached the town square.  The number of ponies suddenly increased and her dodging became more frequent, as well as the annoyed comments from the villagers.  She exited mostly unscathed and turned towards Twilight's library, making a critical mistake as she approached.  A set of wheels caught as she tried to skid to a stop, sending her into the door at a speed much faster than she would've liked.  

Her head ended up resting against the door as parts of her body checked in.  Everything seemed to be in orde- ow!  Twilight opened the door and Scoots' head hit the ground, leaving what would probably be another lump.  

"Scootaloo!  What happened?"  She knelt down and picked up the filly, dusting her off and leading her back inside.

"Just a crash I guess."  Scoots responded, trotting back to the door to grab her scooter.  

"That was some crash.  You aren't hurt, right?"

"No, I don't think so,"  She paused.  "OH MY GOSH!"

"What!"

"Nothing."  She giggled.  Twilight facehoofed, walking back over to a pile of junk.  Human junk.  Oh shit.

"Hey Scootaloo, you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Uh..."  Just act natural... "Sure, go ahead."  

Twilight sighed, bringing over a magazine and opening it to a page with scantily clad women.  Actually, as she took the magazine into her hooves and sat down, flipping through some more of the pages, they were all like this.  "You know what these are, Scoots?"

"Pointless amounts of clothing?"

"No, the life forms."

"Oh the hoe-mons, right?"

"Humans, Scootaloo.  Anyway, if this stuff's coming through from Jason's world then why hasn't any pony stuff come through?  Or changeling stuff?  Why would it only be human things, unless there's something he isn't telling us, you know what I mean?"

"I--guess?"

"Exactly."

"Jason's committing really elaborate fraud?!"

"Yes--wait, no!  I think he's a human."  She put on a apologetic face, like Scoots was about to start crying.  The opposite occurred as she started laughing, and Twilight suddenly decided to imitate the perfect confused expression.

"Ha, oh my god.  I know you don't trust him, but this is ridiculous."

Twilight's face went red.  "It's the truth.  I do trust Jason.  But--he lied."

"Okay, so even if this was true."  She giggled again.  "Even if it was, wouldn't he be human now?"  

She stuck up a hoof to rebut.  "Well--"  Her hoof drooped, before it rose again.  "You know why magic works, Scootaloo?"

"No, not really."

"Well honestly, neither do I.  Not completely, anyway.  But we know it works that way, right?"

"Yeah..."

"We take it on faith, because there's sufficient information to back it up."

"Okay..."

"And Jason's the same way right now."

"Fine, whatever.  Have you seem Rumble?"

"No, not in the last couple days.  He came by here the other day, checked out a book."  She walked over to a book on a pedestal, sweeping her hoof down the list until she got to about the middle.  "On--romance?"  Twilight blushed a little, rubbing at her chin.  "I wonder if he made a mistake?"

Scoots felt her face heat up.  "Do you know where he is now?"

"Well...no."  

Scoots facehoofed.  "You were supposed to know this."

"I don't keep tabs on the townsponies."

"Ugh, alright."

"Why are you looking for Rumble, Scootaloo?"

"He wasn't home, and I haven't seen him for a couple days."  She shrugged, trying to hide her slight lie.  "Anyway, I'll see you later."  Scoots walked back outside with a sigh, grabbing her scooter as she left and hopping back on.  She pulled the pad of paper out of her saddlebag, writing Twilight's onto you guys. before putting it back away and buzzing her wings.  She sped off, skidding to a halt again as she caught sight of Cloudchaser, who was trotting quickly towards the center of town.

"Cloudchaser, have you seen Rumble?"  Scoots asked, pulling up alongside the mare.

"Yeah, I was going to visit him right now.  I'm sure he wouldn't mind a visitor."

"Huh?"  She asked, her blood cooling as they moved up to the Ponyville hospital.  She ditched her scooter and followed the mare inside, not sure if she wanted to ask what had gone wrong.  Okay, positives.  He was being visited, he must be conscious.  That was good, he was going to live.  But what if he was paralyzed?  Could Jason heal that?

"Well, we're here."  Cloudchaser said, walking inside a small hospital room after a quick knock on the door.  "Hi Rumble, how's your arm?"

"Bett- Oh hey Scoots."

"What happened to you?!"  She asked, running over to the bedside and placing her fore hooves on the bedspread.

"I was at the, uh, library a couple days ago, and then I was running through the park,"  He paused, "To find a place to read the book, and long story short I stepped in a hole and broke my leg like this."

Scoots was lost for words for a moment.  That had been a book for her, she assumed, and he'd ended up breaking his leg just to try to read it.  And he wasn't even mad.  

"Then what happened?"  She asked, wiping a slight fog out of her eyes.  

"A lot of yelling happened.  I dragged myself a ways before Cloudchaser found me and flew me over here."

"You're a tough little guy, Rumble."  The mare said from a chair in the corner.  

"So how long are you stuck in here?"  Scoots asked, reaching out a hoof and touching at his cast.  

"I get to go home tonight, walking around and all."

"After only two days?"

"The cast heals it faster, I think.  And it was only a hairline fracture, so..."

"Yeah, you had me worried..."  She said, smiling up at him.  He smiled back and shifted, pulling the covers back and sitting up more straightly.  

"Sorry, I was kinda embarrassed about this."

"Why?  You hurt yourself, that's not embarrassing."  

"I stepped in a hole.  That's like as pathetic as it gets."

"Oh shush."  A pony walked in a few steps and muttered something to Cloudchaser before she hurriedly got up.

"Sorry you two, weather stuff.  Try to get home before too late, Rumble."  The foal jokingly saluted, before the two other ponies left, their galloping steps disappearing down the hall.  

"So can you walk right now?"  Scoots asked, her worried expression returning.

"The doctor has to come by, then I'm released."

"Does it still hurt?"  

"No, not really.  It was pretty bad while they were putting the cast on, they kept bumping it and stuff."  He replied, wincing at the memory.  Scoots jumped up on the bedside next to him, wrapping her arms around his body.  Rumble smiled and put his good arm around her shoulder, leaning his head on top of hers.  

"You doing anything tonight?"  He asked, his face turning a light red.  

"No, why?  What did you want to do?"

"You want to--go on a date with me?"  He asked, looking more nervous than she'd ever seen him before.  Scoots hugged him a little tighter, and he seemed to calm down a bit.  Her heart soared, he was into her, she had been right about him, even with all of the worst-case-scenarios that had gone through her head.

"Sure."  She replied, giggling at the volume of his sigh.  Another knock sounded at the door before a doctor walked in, looking at the foals and chuckling to himself.  

"I'm sure you're pretty bored, let me just make sure you can go and I'll release you."  The doctor grabbed Rumble's arm gently, tapping the cast in various places and watching Rumble's face.  "Does any of this hurt?"

"No, just feels normal."  Rumble replied, watching as his hoof was surrounded in a magical aura.  

"The swelling's down, that's always good.  Hold your leg straight for a moment."  Rumble complied, and the doctor started to gently push against the bottom of his hoof, leaning more and more into the push until Rumble grunted in pain.  "It hurts?"

"Yeah."

"Well that was a lot more than it should take to walk, so you're good to go.  I'm leaving the cast on for a couple days, you can come in and get it off the day after tomorrow.  And no jumping off of things or sprinting."

"I'll try."  Rumble said, chuckling at the doctor.  

"I'd hope so, unless you want to be stuck back here for another day or two."  The doctor wrote a few words on his clipboard, before he gave a quick wave and left, grinning at the foals.  

"So this date..."  Scootaloo started as Rumble shifted in the bed, moving towards the side and flapping his wings as he jumped to the floor.

"Yeah, I set it up two days ago.  I'm not giving it away though, just meet me in the park."

"Where are you going?"

"It's not much of a date without other things, right?"  He asked, smirking back at her.  "Just meet me there, okay?"

"Yeah, do I need anything?"

"Just your good looks and personality."  He replied, watching her blush at the compliment.  "I'll be there in a few minutes, just find a place that you like, okay?"  Rumble broke into a careful run as he went down the hallway and out the door, leaving her in the room alone.

"Yes, yes, yes!"  She squealed, blood pounding in her ears as excitement started to work it's way through her system.  But at the same time, her nervousness grew, and she was left feeling conflicted.  What if she screwed something up?  She shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts as she left the room and followed Rumble's path to the door.  

Her ride to the park was much longer than she remembered it, as her mind thoroughly thought through everything that could easily go wrong.  There were so many things, it'd be lucky if she sat down without setting off a mine or something.  Scoots stopped at the edge of the park, taking off her helmet and dragging the scooter behind herself as she looked around for a spot to set up camp.  Eventually she decided on a nice rounded hill, and dragged the scooter to the top before sitting down.

It was almost sunset already, putting a slightly dark filter on the surrounding environment as the sun sank lower over the horizon.  She stared at the red tinged clouds for a while, admiring their beauty, before a tap on her shoulder pulled Scoots out of her reverie.  

"Hey Scoots."  He said, quickly laying out a picnic blanket.  "Sorry this isn't a fancy dinner or something, but I don't have enough money for that."

"It doesn't matter to me..."  She said, nuzzling at his neck.  

"Well it still kinda bothers me."  He replied, shrugging his shoulders.  

"Oh you, always the romantic."

"I read a book on it, so I better be."

She giggled.  "I heard.  I still feel bad for being the reason you broke your leg like this."

"It's not your fault.  I wasn't looking where I was going."  He pulled out a few plates of food and set them around, smiling lightly at her.  "Now come on, enjoy yourself a little."  Rumble said with a chuckle, handing her a plate with an assortment of food piled on.  

"Thanks, this looks delicious."

"Don't say anything until you eat it, like I said, I put this together a couple days ago."  

"There're grapes on here, I never would have guessed."  She set down her plate, leaning towards him and putting her arms around his shoulders in a hug.  "Thanks though, for all this.  It's really nice."

"I was kinda worried that you wouldn't accept, actually.  I couldn't tell if you liked me back."

Scoots giggled.  "I had the same problem."  She let go and ate a few bites of a rather pristine looking sandwich, taking a bite and grinning.   "Rumble, what is this?"

"Uh, some daisy..."  He opened up his sandwich, leaning against Scoots' shoulder in the process.  "Daffodil, romaine, some pepper, a little mustard, and little bits of pickle."

"Whell irts derricious."  Scoots said, her mouth completely full.  

Rumble chuckled, blushing slightly at the compliment.  "I didn't know what you liked, so I went through a fair number of sandwich ideas looking for something."

"Just how much time did you spend preparing for this?"

"A few hours."  He said, staring over at her.

"You didn't even know if I was going to accept, and you spent all that time on this?"

"I guess, but it's not a big deal."  He took another bite of his sandwich.  "Big downside with this food though, it makes your breath smell terrible."

"Good thing we're both in the same boat."  She paused, taking off her saddlebag and looking through one of the pockets as the contents spilled out.  "Hey Rumble?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I sign your cast?  I know it's kind of foalish and all, but-"

"Sure, go ahead."  He replied with a grin, watching her take a marker to his cast, writing her name in looping letters.

"There, now your cast is like five times cooler."  Scoots said with a chuckle, looking back up towards Rumble's face.  He seemed to be hesitating about something, before his injured hoof went to her brow, sweeping a little hair to the side. 

"You like me Scoots?"

"Yeah, wh-"  His lips met hers, and for a moment her mind panicked and her muscles stiffened, before she managed to calm herself and let the kiss start to sink in.  It was sloppy and inexperienced, but she couldn't care less as her eyes gently closed and her mind started picking up the subtleties.  The softness of his lips, the ever so slight taste of citrus behind the sandwich flavor, the slightly scratchy fur on his muzzle.  Rumble pulled away only a moment later, looking nervous again.

"Did I go too far?"  He asked after a moment.  

"I don't think you went far enough."  Scoots replied, putting her arms around his back and rejoining her muzzle with his as the sun continued to set.  Her heart was racing, but she wasn't scared or afraid.  No, she felt the same thrill that she got when she flew or did something extreme with her scooter.  And she couldn't seem to get enough of that feeling, as the kiss stretched on.  She broke it off a while later, and laid down on the blanket, motioning for Rumble to do the same.  

"Wow."  Scoots said simply.  "I've never done that with anypony before.  But I'm glad you were the first."  She continued, putting a hoof over Rumble's chest.

"Yeah, me too."  He replied.  "I've had a crush on you for a long time, and during all that I never thought that I'd be anything more than just another pony.  But I'm so glad I kept with it."  Rumble leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.  

"And look at the results, your very own mare friend."  Scoots said with a giggle.

"The perfect mare friend."  He corrected.  She smiled and hugged his side, watching as the stars started to come out overhead.  Scoots started to doze off, the stress from the day suddenly evaporating into a gentle contentedness that seemed to seep from Rumble's body to hers.  He put a hoof around her head and smiled, his own eyes getting heavy as the last sliver of orange on the horizon dissipated.  

Scoots heard his breathing steady, and hardly took more than a few seconds to fall asleep.  Her parents were coming home in a few days, and Rumble was her colt friend.  She couldn't be happier.

  
> Jealousy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jealousy


Scootaloo shivered in her sleep, rolling to her side slightly as she tried to get warm.  This wasn't right, had she rolled off her bed?  She opened her eyes and the sleeping face of Rumble came into view.  Her heart started to beat harder as memories returned, and she grinned.

"Rumble, hey, wake up."  She said, poking gently at his face.  His eyes fluttered open, and he started to smile at her before his eyes went wide, and he jumped up. 

"We were supposed to get back earlier!"  He yelled, immediately starting to pack up the remains of the picnic.

"Rumble, it's not a big deal."

"What if I get grounded, that wouldn't be good, would it?"

"Well, I guess not."  Scoots replied, shrugging before another shiver passed through her body.  "It's cold out here."

"Yeah, hold on."  Rumble put the basket on his back and grabbed the blanket, quickly tying it around Scoot's torso and pulling the improvised knot tight with his teeth.  He stumbled around for a moment as he tried to decide on a direction before taking off and pulling her along, running towards his house.

"Why are you bringing me?"

"Because, I made you something."

"Yeah, but today, right now?"

"Well if I get grounded it could be a few weeks."

"What about school?"

"Fine, three days, but still."  He skidded on the cobblestones as he entered the town, quickly arriving at his house and unlocking the door.  "Now just be really quiet and stay here."  He said as Cloudchaser came to the door behind him.  Rumble turned back and yelped, falling onto his flank and pushing himself back a few feet.

"Jeez, one day and you're already sneaking back into the house."  Cloudchaser giggled, pulling the foal inside.  "You may as well come in, you look like you're cold enough as it is."  She said to Scoots, who walked inside as well.  Cloudchaser sat down on a couch, staring at the two with slightly limited hostility.

"I don't really care if you stay out late, but at least tell me that you're going to."  She said with a slight smile.  "Rumble, you didn't do anything, right?"

"Well, we uh-"

"He kissed me!"  Scoots exclaimed, bouncing in place.  

"Oh Rumble, you seriously managed to get her?"

"I guess."

"And it's only taken what, a year?"

"No, it wasn't that long!"  He sighed.  "Maybe it was a little close, but still..."

"I guess I probably shouldn't let her stay the night then, if she's your mare friend."  Cloudchaser said, biting her lip slightly.  

"Yeah, I actually have to go see Fluttershy about why I never checked in tonight."  Scoots brought up, turning around to leave, before stopping and briefly kissing Rumble on the lips.

"Well I guess you're not lying."  Cloudchaser said.  "You two are so cute together."

"Can we be awesome?"  Scoots asked.

"Huh?"

"Awesome together?  I don't really like the word cute, makes me feel all weak.  Bleh."  She made a face, and Cloudchaser giggled.  "Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow Rumble, crusading as usual."

"Yeah, I'll look forward to it."  He replied, blushing heavily.  

Scoots took off the blanket and left with a spring in her step, happily running along the cobblestones and through the park again.  She picked up her scooter and hopped on, tightening the helmet under her jaw before speeding off.  Her mind was abuzz, it was a wonder that she had drifted off earlier, with all this in her head.  A stick entered into her vision and she ducked, narrowly avoiding the low clothesline and the resulting painful crash.

This was ridiculous, she needed to stay at least a little concentrated.  She could dream and muse to herself all she wanted once she was in bed, or needed to tune out an adult.  Yeah, that would account for nighttime and school.  Speaking of school, history had become pretty boring once they got past the wars and stuff.  It was just boring old peace in Equestria for like, the last four hundred years.  And the Changeling invasion and the griffin war weren't taught, they were too new.

Scoots skidded up the path to Fluttershy's house, carefully slowing herself to a stop and disembarking, knocking on the door loudly.  Several minutes later, the paranoid face of Fluttershy greeted her, eyes flickering around at the darkness.  

"Sorry Scootaloo, Angel was just telling me a scary story."  She ushered the foal inside, and Scootaloo sighed when she read the time, ten fifteen.  So they hadn't been too late.  "So why are you here this late?  It's not safe for a filly like you to be out."  The mare asked, before she turned and viciously kicked an animal, making it explode all over the wall.

Scoots rubbed her eyes and looked again, seeing that everything was back to normal.  Maybe she wasn't getting enough sleep, all that caffeine couldn't be good...

"Are you alright?"  Fluttershy asked, a concerned look on her face.

"Yeah...  Just a little tired, I guess."  Tired enough to make stuff like that happen?

"You want to sleep here?  I have a guest room that's always open."

"It wouldn't be a big deal, right?"  Scoots asked, starting to feel a little nervous.

"No, not at all.  I mean, unless it is for you..."  Fluttershy replied, looking down at her hooves.

"That one there?"  

"Yeah, the bed's made and everything, so just tell me if you need anything."

"Okay, thanks, I'll make it again in the morning!"  She bounded off into the room and flopped onto the bed, pulling the covers into a big blob and climbing inside so that only her head was exposed.  Fluttershy let out a muffled giggle at the spectacle, pulling an extra pillow from a chair just inside the door and tossing it over gently.  

"Good night, Scootaloo."  Fluttershy said, before casting the room into darkness.  Scoots stuck a few pillows under her head as she started to warm up, getting to a comfortable temperature as her thoughts shifted elsewhere.  Unsurprisingly Rumble came to the forefront of her mind, and yet as soon as he popped up, she realized she didn't have a lot more to think about him.  

There was that obscure feeling of pressure in her chest still, and yet after all this, she didn't know exactly how she felt towards him.  Sure, she knew she liked him, but she'd never done this before, she was just making stuff up as she went along.  But Rumble always seemed to have planned everything, which made her feel a little inadequate.  

But if it was for her, should she feel guilty?  Besides Dash and Jason, nopony had ever gone out of their way like this for her.  Scoots let out a groan of annoyance.  Next time she saw him tomorrow, she'd have to thank him, let him know how much of an impact he'd caused for the express purpose of making her feel better.

Scoots finally let herself doze off, a few visions of her parents flickering through her head.  She was really starting to miss them, not that she hadn't before, but it was really starting to sink in.


_________________________________________________________________________


Scoots got off her scooter and leaned it against the edge of the ramp of the schoolhouse, walking away a step before it started to fall over and she caught it with a hoof.  Rumble peeked out of the clubhouse door, smiling when he saw her.  

"Hey Rumble."  Scootaloo said, putting her arms around the foal as she met him on the ramp.

"Hey Scoots."  He replied, giving her a little squeeze.  "You got any ideas for today, Saturday and all?"

"I dunno, are the others here yet?"

"No, I don't think so.  Not unless I'm totally blind."  They went inside and looked around; the treehouse seemed a little quiet and empty without the others.  

"So Rumble, I'm sorry I haven't exactly been living up to all the stuff you've been doing for me...  So I should at least thank you again, because it made everything better."

"It's not a big deal Scoots, it's not a contest."

"But it doesn't seem fair..."

"I don't care if it isn't.  I like doing things for you.  And that doesn't mean you have to pay me back."  He replied with a smile, as they both became silent.

"So when do your friends get here?"


________________________________________________________


"So bored..."  Scoots said, tossing a ball against the wall for the millionth time.  "How could they possibly be this late?"

"I don't-"  Rumble cleared his throat.  "I don't know."

"Hey Scoots!"  Came Applebloom's voice from outside.  "Ya in there?"

She walked to the door with Rumble, peering out at her two friends.  "Yeah, why are you two so late?"

They started to ascend the ramp.  "Applejack made me do some stuff, and Sweetie had the same thin' going with Rarity.  We can't all be Woah!"  She slipped off the ramp and fell, before one of her hind legs caught in a light blue aura and she decelerated before hitting the ground.

"Sweetie, did you just do magic?"  Scoots asked, looking at her friend wide eyed.

"I did, I did!"  She yelled, bouncing up and down on the board.


Crack!


Sweetie hardly had time to scream before she hit the ground with a thump next to Applebloom, who was busy rolling around laughing.  

"Way to ruin the moment."  Sweetie said, knocking Applebloom's head with a hoof.

"Ah think ya pretty well did that yerself, breakin' the board like that!"  She cracked up into a new round of laughter, as Scootaloo frowned down at them.

"How are we going to get up here now?"  Scoots asked, waving a hoof around.  

"Uh..."  Applebloom started, her laughing suddenly not as important as she looked up at Scootaloo.  "You could pick us up?"

"I couldn't hold that much weight!"  She responded loudly before Rumble tapped her on the shoulder.  "But maybe we both could..."  They glided down, landing next to the other two and standing around awkwardly.

"Whell..."  Applebloom started, staring at the two pegasi.

"I don't know how to do this."  Scoots said, as Rumble confirmed the notion with a nod.  "We can't really do it, our wings would be too close together."

"Well great, so we need a new board?"  Sweetie asked, pulling herself from the ground.

"I guess so."  Rumble said slowly, scratching his head.  "Anypony here good at carpentry?"

They all shook their heads.  "Looks like an easy fix though, two inches thick two and a half feet wide composite with iron nails into plywood supports."  Applebloom shrugged.  "Couldn't be too hard."  The other three stared, before Scoots shook herself out of her stupor.

"Alright, good.  We have a game plan then."  She said, smacking her hooves together.  "Now where can we get something like that?"

"We can get the nails from mah barn, but we don't have any boards that size after we fixed up the barn."

"Okay, see if there's any way you can fix this, and we'll go get the nails."  She said, gesturing between herself and Rumble.  Sweetie nodded happily, grabbing a pebble and shakily levitating it a few feet off the ground before it fell back down.

"Hey wait, why do you have that cast, Rumble?"  Sweetie asked.  "Is your leg broken?"

"No, well it was... It's fine now, anyway."

"Alright, if you say so."  She replied, going back to her pebble lifting.

Scoots took off first, enjoying the blast of air that came from her wings as she lifted into the sky and over the apple trees, banking for the barn as Rumble caught up.  It was a short trip, and they landed quickly and received the nails, as Rumble carefully placed them in his saddlebag before trotting back towards the door.  Applejack darted around the side of the door and Rumble yelled out as he jumped backwards in fear and fell onto his back.  

"Ah, there ya are."  She said, poking him with a hoof.  "Ah took the liberty of checkin' up on you foals the other night, and ah saw that you two were sharin' a sleepin' bag.  Now, ya snake..."  Her expression suddenly brightened, and she started to laugh.  "Oh, that was too easy!"  Applejack yelled, bracing herself against the door.  "Ah saw the soaked sleepin' bag anyway, no biggie.  Sides, neither a you's mah kin anyway." 

"Yeah, that was hilarious."  Rumble said sarcastically, holding a hoof to his chest.  

Applejack chuckled.  "So what're ya in here for?"

"Nails."  Scootaloo answered.  "We need to fix the treehouse ramp."

"Ah, just holler if there's somethin' ya need help with."  She said, chuckling again as she walked back to a tree she had apparently been bucking.  

"God damn, that mare..."  Rumble said, slowly getting to his feet.


________________________________________________________________________


"So we need a board, and then we can fix this thing up."  Applebloom said from the wagon as they cruised through town.  "Hey, stop up here."  Scoots pulled over and disembarked, pulling off her helmet and balancing it atop the handlebars.  Applebloom started chatting with a pony behind a stall, and he pointed inside a nearby store.  

"Ah'll be right back, just stay out here and Ah'll call ya when Ah'm ready."  She said, disappearing into the building and leaving the other three outside.

"Well look who it is."  Diamond Tiara said as she walked across the street with Silver Spoon.

"I guess that didn't last too long."  Scoots whispered to the other Crusaders, who nodded in response.  

"So, you losers still don't have your cutie marks, huh?  Pity, but I guess they'll never be as awesome as mine or Silver's anyway."  She noticed Rumble, and her expression soured.  "This one's still with you too, huh?"  She smirked.  "Just another loser in the club, right?"

"He's not a loser!"   Scoots yelled, taking a step forward.  

"Oh, you two, huh?"  Diamond looked over at Silver, before they broke into verse.  "Scootaloo and Rumble, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-"  Scoots grabbed Rumble around his neck and pushed his muzzle into her own, before she broke it off and smiled at the two flabbergasted foals.  Even Sweetie seemed pretty surprised, and she had at least partially known.  Rumble, on the other hand, just looked kinda smug, and she chuckled, nuzzling at his chin.  Funny, how she didn't seem to care much about what anypony that'd happened to be looking over thought

"You and..."  Diamond paused, looking again.  "Him?"  Her expression became less surprised, turning slightly angry.  

"What, jealous?"  Scootaloo asked, smirking.

"No!  I wouldn't be jealous of a couple of losers like you!"  Diamond took a slightly concerned look at Rumble, who didn't seem to have any regrets or surprise on his face, besides what had been there initially, and she raised her chin and walked off.

Sweetie waited for the pair to get a ways away before she squealed, putting an arm around each of them.  "I didn't know you two were dating!"  

"Well, as of last night, anyway."  Scoots said with a grin, poking Rumble in the ribs. 

"Congratulations!"  Sweetie replied, hugging them tighter.

"So I got the board, and- what?"

"They're dating!"  Sweetie exclaimed, looking over at Applebloom.  

"Pfft, like Ah didn't see that comin' a mile away."  She responded, smirking.  "Now come on, we gotta get this installed!"


______________________________________________________________


"Applebloom, it's good enough!"  Sweetie yelled, watching her friend pound a nail into place.

"Fine, Ah'll finish this later.  Now what do you want ta do, crusadin' wise?"

"Well, it's dark out already, so I don't think we have much that we can do."  Scoots said, shrugging.  "But there's always tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, Ah guess."  She paused.  "Hey Scoots, do you by chance know when Jason's comin' back?  Ah think Ah can get another hint out of him."

"Uh, I can see if they said anything."  She replied, pulling the pad of paper out of her saddlebag and frowning, before her expression worsened still.  "Yeah, they're coming back today."  She replied, her mouth dry and her eyes already wet.  "And Jason's got the nightmare in him!"  She yelled, crumpling on the ground in a fit of sobs.  

"He's what?"  Rumble asked, grabbing the pad of paper.  "Oh my god, she's right."  He said, the color draining out of his face.  He knelt down and propped Scoots up, watching her continue to sob as he wiped off her eyes with a hoof.  "Scoots, you can't cry now, we have to get Twilight and her friends together, otherwise what help are we going to do?"

"I don't-  It's not fair, Rumble!  This always happens to them, everything goes wrong!"

"So then shouldn't we even things out a little, make them go right for a change?"  He pulled Scoots to her hooves and she quieted down.  

"Fine."  She said, wiping her nose.  "I'll get Twilight and Pinkie, Rumble gets Fluttershy, Applebloom gets Applejack, and Sweetie, get uh... Rarity, okay!  Meet in the town square."

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DAY SAVERS!"  They yelled, although the moment was bittersweet as they all took off in seemingly random directions.  They had said one to two hours, so she had time.  She skipped using her scooter and simply galloped away, avoiding possible injury, she figured.  

The fence passed under her hooves as she took flight, honing in on Twilight's library within a few seconds.  Scoots landed just outside and started banging on the door as hard as she could, trying to get the mare to the door faster.  

After ages the door finally opened to Twilight's worried face, and Scoots found that she was too out of breath to talk.  She wiped away a few more tears as an afterthought and simply grabbed the pad of paper from her saddlebag, holding it up for Twilight to see.  She gasped as Spike ran over with a scroll, sticking it into Twilight's face hurriedly.  She read the other one and nodded; it was probably the same message from a different place.  

"We need to get the rest of my friends together."  Twilight said, floating over a saddlebag rather quickly.  

"We're already going around, it shouldn't be long.  Town square, by the way."

"I'll grab the elements, just get Pinkie!"

"Aren't they in Canterlot?"

"No, those are fake, display things is all."  She gave Scoots a nudge with her magic and the foal took off, running across town.  She was almost to Sugarcube corner when Pinkie came vibrating out the front.  Literally vibrating around a half foot off the ground.

"My piiiiinkiiiie seeennnsee!"  She yelled, her words becoming slightly jumbled before the shaking suddenly stopped and her normal manner returned.  "Scootaloo, I'm so glad you're here, something terrible is-"  

"Jason's possessed by the nightmare, we need to free him with the elements!"  

"Oh, that makes sense."  She paused, staring happily at a rock.  "Wait, what?!   What do you mean he's possessed?"

"Pretty much what I just said."

"Come on, we need to get going!"  Pinkie yelled, throwing Scoots over her back as they suddenly arrived in the square and started the long wait for the rest of the elements.


__________________________________________________________


"Come on, take me with you!"  Scoots yelled, following after Twilight.  "I want to see Dash!"

"It's too dangerous, you can't come."

"But please..."  She said, starting to tear up.

"Darling, she's just a kid, let her come along."  She walked into the Boutique as they passed by, coming back out with a sleeping bag.  "We'll just wake her when Dash arrives, and then send her on her way, alright?"

"Fine."  Twilight mumbled, pushing her element further onto her head.

"Wow, I wonder what she looks like!"  Scoots yelled, trying to at least act positive.  It didn't seem to be helping.  "Maybe she's like, a total badass now or something!"  

"A what?"

"A badass.  It's a better way to say awesome, but it's a noun!"  Okay, enough of that.  She let out a sigh as they left the paved roads, moving into a clearing.  

"We'll wait here, alright everypony?"  Twilight asked, watching Scoots lay out the sleeping bag.  One thing she definitely didn't want to do was worry for another hour if she couldn't help it.  She was too young for this kind of stress.  The sleeping bag started to warm up as Twilight started a fire, and her mind surprisingly cleared.  Well, mostly.  All she could think of was how angry she was, at the world, at the Nightmare...  And that felt good, one thing in her mind, so simple, so hostile.  

Maybe it would do her good.