In the broad daylight

by Askre


Chapter 5

Chapter 5.

“Scootaloo, I’m sorry I was cross with you this morning,” Parasol said. She sat by the window her daughter peeked out of. The orange filly still stared at her with an annoyed angry face.

“I just don’t want to think I raised you to be hateful. Hate is such a strong emotion honey, if it’s allowed to fester deep within it can cause you to do things you will later regret,” the mare continued and reached to touch her daughter on the cheek with a hoof

Scootaloo didn’t say anything, her eyes trailed downwards and the scowl eased a little. The filly still looked unhappy but she didn’t move her head to remove the hoof from her cheek. Her mother sighed slightly and edged herself as close as she could and began gently caressing the girl’s mane.

“Dear, I’m not asking you to like them. I realize that Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara are not your friends, not by a long shot. But I want to ask you to consider their families. If someone attacked you and threw you into a dumpster or foalnapped you I would be horrified and heartbroken. I’m not sure I would be able to eat or sleep until you were brought back to me,” the mare explained. Her daughter’s unhappy face slowly became sadder.

“I… guess they would be feeling pretty awful,” Scootaloo whispered and slowly traced circles with her hoof on the wall under the window. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

“You have nothing to apologize for my little Wonderbolt,” Parasol assured her and kissed the filly on the forehead before mock glaring at her. “Except for almost killing your mother with worry by disappearing out of your room like that.”

“Heh, yeah… sorry about that,” her daughter giggled and blushed slightly in embarrassment.

“It’s alright, just as long as you are safe,” the mare said and reached through the window to give her daughter a one leg hug. Scootaloo hugged her mother back. “We still friends?”

“Yes mom.” The Pegasus filly nodded and the two parted.

Parasol rose to her feet and unfolded her wings. For a moment mother and daughter stared at each other, both smiling and a feeling of relief washing over them, especially Scootaloo who felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her mind.

“I won’t disrupt your time with your friends any longer, just remember not to stay out too late,” the yellow Pegasus said.

“I won’t mom.” Scoot said and waved her mother goodbye when the mare flew off with a wave of her own.

Now where have the girls gone off too? the orange filly wondered and looked around. She scurried out to the platform and looked down from the railing. The girl thought she heard distant chatter and jumped down from the clubhouse. Spreading her little wings the best she could the young Pegasus managed to glide for the most part down before crashing to the ground.

“Still need to work on the landing, ugh,” she complained and rose up. While dusting off herself the filly was certain she heard chatter come from the picnic table further off.

Scootaloo headed over there and found her suspicions to be true. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat by the table and spoke with each other. They looked up when hearing their friend arrive.

“Howdy Scoot, how did yer chat with ya mom go?” the Earth filly asked.

“Great,” the orange filly jumped to sit beside Sweetie Belle. Her friends could clearly hear on both her voice and see it on her that the Pegasus was really feeling great now.

“Super, how about we get some proper crusading going then?” the Unicorn suggested and was met with sound agreement from her friends.

“So what should we do?” Scootaloo asked excited.

“Um, Ah dunno. Let’s go to the farm, maybe Applejack has any ideas she can give us.” Apple Bloom shrugged. Since the other Crusaders couldn’t come up with anything better they jumped down from the table and headed off to the farm proper.

After a bit of walk through the trees they finally arrived on the dirt road leading to the farmhouse. But the fillies didn’t need to look for Applejack long; the orange Earth pony was already heading down it, since this road also went to Ponyville. The Crusaders rushed over to the farmer once they spotted her.

“Hey Applejack, where ya goin’ sis?” Apple Bloom asked curiously.

“Howdy Crusaders,” Applejack greeted the girls with a small grin. “Ah was just headin’ over to Mr. Rich, wanted to offer him mah condolences and see if he be needin’ anythin’. Ah was goin’ to do it when Ah walked with Rarity to town, but plum forgot and was already at Sweet Apple Acres when Ah remembered so Ah was just turnin’ around and headin’ back.”

“Rarity was here?” Sweetie Belle asked cocking one eyebrow.

“Yes, she was just checkin’ if you were around these parts with yer friends,” Applejack told her with a wink. The little Unicorn tilted her head as she considered the answer but shrugged it off.

“Ya all can tag along if ya want,” the mare then offered the Crusaders.

“Might as well, until we get an idea for a cutie mark crusade,” Apple Bloom whispered to her friends who agreed. They hurried to catch up with Applejack again who had gotten ahead of them.

“Ah take it they haven’t found Diamond Tiara yet?” the yellow filly addressed her big sister.

“No, it’s not very easy and it only happened yesterday. The two hoodlums Scoot and Sweetie saw could fly and thus could be anywhere in Equestria,” Applejack explained. “Ah heard Silver Spoon’s parents came back to Ponyville via the midnight train, so at least she has her parents now with her. Heard also that her mother had a very bad case of hysteria.”

“What, she was laughing?” Sweetie Belle frowned in confusion.

“No, it means she panicked Sweetie Belle,” the mare corrected her. “And Ah don’t blame her, don’t reckon ya want to hear yer little girl was attacked while yer outta town.”

“True, that must have been awful for her,” Appla Bloom nodded and her friends agreed.

As they arrived near Ponyville and saw the first buildings of the little town, the four ponies immediately noticed something different. Several large white Pegasus ponies in golden armor were flying around in the air above.

“What in tarnation?” Applejack raised her brow.

“Wow look at all those royal guards,” Scootaloo gasped in awe.

“What are they all doing here?” Sweetie Belle wondered.

“Ah reckon we’ll find out once we get into town,” AJ said and resumed her trot, the fillies following.

When they reached the town center, they spotted Twilight Sparkle come out of town hall. Applejack immediately headed towards her but the Crusaders stopped for a moment to look at the royal guard ponies that were walking around town.

“Hey Twi, what the hay is goin’ on? What’s up with all these guards?” the orange Earth Pony asked when catching up with the Unicorn.

“They were sent by the Princess. They are here to assist the Ponyville police searching for the kidnappers,” Twilight explained. “She’s also sent her guards to other places in Equestria to search.”

“Sounds like she is taking this foalnapping case pretty seriously,” the farm pony nodded and looked around.

“She is, the Pegasus guards were only the first ones to arrive since they could fly straight to Ponyville, we are expecting the non-flight guards with the train later today,” the librarian explained.

“At the very least the presence of the guards will help ease some of the parents’ worries,” Applejack remarked.

“You noticed the increased amount of hovering parents too?” Twilight chuckled, her friend nodded.

“Can’t fault ‘em for it though, this whole ugly business has everypony shakin’,” the Earth Pony looked around and spotted where the Crusaders where still admiring all the shiny armored ponies. She glanced back at the purple Unicorn. “Well Ah better git goin’, was goin’ to drop by at Mr. Rich’s to offer him my condolences.”

“Oh I think I saw him heading for the hospital. He was with Silver Spoon’s father, they are probably going to check on her and her mother,” the purple mare informed her.

“Well that saves me the trip to the other side of Ponyville,” Applejack chuckled and glanced over where the Crusaders had managed to corner a hapless guard and were raining him with questions.

“Crusaders, Am a goin’,” she called and had to hold down a laugh when seeing the guard breathe a sigh of relief when the three fillies darted away from him.

“Say, what were ya buggin’ the guard about?” Applejack asked, peering at the girls when they arrived.

“Just how he got his cutie mark big sis,” Apple Bloom grinned innocently as did her two friends. Her older sister and Twilight looked at each other before shaking their heads.


“Hey Axe, you got any of those muffins left?” Paul asked and stretched, newly awoken from his nap. He looked at the burly Pegasus and grunted in disappointment when seeing him shake the head no.

“Great,” he scratched his back with his talons and stretched the wings. “What time is it?”

Silver Axe just shrugged his shoulder. The large pony hadn’t really moved much for the past hour or so. He was rather content on just staying by the dresser. The Gryphon frowned and walked over to the door to peek out, but it was hard to make out the sun past the trees. The best he could gather was that it was daytime.

“I need to stretch my wings, watch the brat.” Paul disappeared out without even looking at the annoyed Pegasus.

That is what I have been doing anyway, he thought. The pony glanced towards the cage. Diamond Tiara had finished her muffin and now lay down with her forehead resting on the bars. Her front legs stuck out between the bars, resting on the wooden floor. The filly looked angry again but there was more sadness over her, she didn’t look at him and only stared down.

Wish I could talk, Silver Axe silently sighed and raised one hoof up to touch his throat. The coat concealed the scars from his old injury that robbed him off his speech. Not everyone understood the hoof signals and sometimes he just didn’t bother with them.

Being the literally silent one could get quite annoying and frustrating. Clicking your hooves on the ground or together in complicated signals wasn’t always very effective way to communicate when only many understood it.

“Excuse me,” a small voice brought the Pegasus partly out of his thoughts. The prisoner had turned her attention to him once again.

“I was just wondering…” Tiara nervously clicked her hooves on the ground. “When will you let me go home?”

Still half lost in his thoughts; Silver Axe just automatically began signaling by clicking his right hoof on the ground. He stopped when realizing that but the filly didn’t look at him with a blank confused expression.

“Well, go on,” she urged gesturing to him with a hoof.

‘Wait you understand hoof signals?’ Silver Axe signaled mildly surprised.

“Well… yeah. Dad always feels you must understand everypony, so I’ve been learning to understand hoof signals in private classes,” Diamond Tiara admitted and looked down for moment.

Huh, that made things conveniently easier, the Pegasus thought but shrugged it off. He instead returned to his previous explanation:

‘As I was saying, it all depends on how quickly your father pays your ransom.’

“And what makes you think you’ll get away with this?” The girl frowned; she felt a little better to talk with someone, even if it was one of her jailors. And at least he doesn’t seem as hostile as the Gryphon… or Snow Heart.

’I don’t know,’ Axe responded to her question. The stallion was beginning to wonder if he should be “speaking” with the prisoner. Then again Snow Heart hadn’t said they couldn’t.

“You don’t know? I thought your type were always so confident in your schemes, convinced that the authorities would never grab you,” Diamond Tiara said with a raised eyebrow.

‘Snow Heart is the one with the plan, I just implement it,’ the Pegasus simply said.

“Well that was insightful,” the filly muttered sarcastically.

“Should I even bother asking why you are working for that witch?” she asked. Silver Axe didn’t respond and just assumed his usual silent unfriendly expression. They were interrupted by the Gryphon who looked inside from the entrance of the cottage.

“Hey Axe. I have to quickly fly back to my apartment and pick something up. Snow Heart wanted it for this job. I completely forgot about it until just now,” Paul explained and left without a further word. Silver Axe scowled, snorted and glared at the entrance.

Do I really want to know what he is getting? Diamond Tiara wondered worried. Anything that horrible Snow Heart wants can’t be too good for me.

She glanced towards Silver Axe who was in the process of lying down. The Pegasus stretched out one wing and began preening the feathers. Now the filly couldn’t help but watch. She had never seen a Pegasus in the process of grooming the wings.

I would have thought they would use a brush though, Diamond Tiara made a face; the thought of using her mouth to groom herself was not appealing.

The Earth filly watched for a bit before her eyes drifted once more to the floor. She sighed sadly and wished she was home. The girl had been looking so forward to spend an entire weekend with Silver Spoon; they had even been preparing a small private party.

I hope Silver Spoon is alright, she thought allowing a small tinge of worry towards her friend to slip through. Diamond Tiara hadn’t really seen what happened to her, having been stuffed into a bag very quickly.

Something shining on the floor caught her attention. The sun was on a downward move outside and managed to send few extra beams through the cracks on the boards covering the windows. Some of the light landed on the floor near the cage and reflected on a small thin strip of metal.

The girl held down her breath and eyed the stallion that was still busy with his wing. Slowly the filly reached for the strip and managed to drag it over. She almost squealed in delight when recognizing it as a piece of her old tiara. Carefully the girl managed to maneuver it into her cage without Silver Axe noticing.

All that is left, but at least it is something, Diamond Tiara thought as she balanced the metal on her hoof.

Sorry mom… it’s broken now… the filly sighed and hugged the metal to her chest. Small tears began crawling down her cheeks. After a moment she reached for her tail and pulled it closer, carefully the girl weaved the metal strip into it and made sure it was secure and hidden.

Having concealed what was left of her precious tiara, she glanced back to Silver Axe. He didn’t appear to have noticed anything and was now working on his other wing. He had already gathered a bit of brown feathers around himself.

“Is there anything more to eat?” she asked. The muffin had helped a bit but it wasn’t exactly a proper meal.

Silver Axe stopped preening and eyed the girl. The stallion rose up scattering the feathers as he moved. He walked over to a closet on the other side of the cottage and opened it. After rummaging through it for a bit he pulled out two carrots. Those he took over to the cage and dropped them in front of it.

Diamond Tiara reached for the vegetables and pulled them in. Two carrots weren’t much and she almost opened her mouth to voice it. But the filly fell silent, Snow Heart had already demonstrated to her that no amount of whining and complaining would work. Instead the girl began munching on the food, though she really wished they were cleaned, steam boiled and served with mashed potatoes and parsley.

End chapter 5.