Chapter Fifthteen: Running All The Way
"So are you going to let me in or what?" Lyra began to push John's limits; he really wanted to shout at her. But now that Derpy, Bon-Bon and even Luna were watching him he couldn't do a single thing, he couldn't let these women play to his mind and nerves.
"Nah, yer' not gettin' in." John crossed his arms, leaning away from Lyra keeping himself from ending up victim to her again.
"Why? Is it because you got loads of kids down in there or something?" Lyra raised her voice, John saw from the corner of his eye that Bon-Bon quickly stood up and walked over to Lyra and grabbed her by the shoulder.
"Scuse' me?" John quickly responded to what the green haired woman had just said; he craned his head down closer to Lyra.
"Yeah! You're hiding something! Just spill it out!" Lyra began to shout; she kept her hands on the sides of her hips and tried her best to not hit him in the face.
"Lyra... what are you doing?" Bon-Bon nudged Lyra in the shoulder; she turned around to look at her partner.
"I'm giving him a piece of my mind." Lyra turned her head to look at her partner; she turned back round to see that John had moved to the side now holding his shotgun, ready to aim it at Lyra.
"Ah' said no." John lifted up his shotgun and placed his sights on Lyra, she and Bon-Bon quickly took a few steps away from John; the look on their faces could have caused them to make themselves cry. They had never had such a dangerous weapon pointed at them before, especially by a drunk foreign rancher.
"Woah!" Lyra yelped, she stumbled a bit and backed herself away from John as much as possible, Bon-Bon gasped having knots wrap around in her stomach and Derpy still didn't understand what was going on. John lowered his gun as soon as the women moved away and pointed the barrel of the weapon at the floor.
"Ah' don' wan' ya' wakin' up me' horses..." John slurred, leaning against the door feeling very tired.
"Jeez... you're really going to point a gun at us for wanting to look at some horses!?" Lyra yelled at the other side of the room, John looked back up at the green haired woman and groaned to himself.
"Ah' don' care, yer' tryin' t'look at ma' property without ma' dang consent!" John took a step forward, walking over to Derpy who was still caressing Luna. He saw that the blond haired woman was still stroking the blue mare and giving her attention was making him pretty angry, John leaned down and reached out for the back of Derpy's collar and grabbed her, pulling her up which caused her to stand on her feet. He dragged her over to the other side of the room where Lyra and Bon-Bon stood; he pushed Derpy into the two women and lifted up his shotgun once again.
"What's wrong with you?" Lyra tried to reason with John, trying to take another step back from John's dangerous shotgun.
"Ah' want all've ya' t'get outta ma' shack an' don' come back!" John walked over to the shack door and turned it wide open, he looked back at the three cowering women and they all obediently walked out of the shack without talking.
"I'm sorry Mr. Rancher..." Derpy tried to apologize for what she had done to Luna, John didn't reply and he just glared at Lyra and closed the door, leaving them all out in the dark night.
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"That's just great!" Lyra swung her arms into the air. "What are we going to do now? We just had a gun pointed at our faces like idiots!" Lyra shouted at the group, unable to believe what had just happened.
"Lyra please... there might have been reasons to why he did this..." Bon-Bon butted in and tried to stop Lyra from shouting.
"A reason?!" Lyra exclaimed. "We just got kicked out of that hill billie’s wooden shack and we lost our only possible lead to Dinky's whereabouts!" Lyra explained.
"Dinky? Where?" Derpy added; she frantically looked from left to right to try and find her daughter.
"Lyra, we need to head back home and... well... I don't like saying this... but we should use Carrot Top's plan, she might have been right about the whole thing..." Bon-Bon sighed, feeling terribly tired and aggravated about the whole situation.
"We can't call the authorities! We can do this on our own!" Lyra shouted back at her partner. "There has to be one last place that we can look before we head home and kick the bucket!" Lyra demanded for another option, she couldn't let defeat ring round in her mouth.
"We've covered most of the town Lyra, I don't think there is anywhere else we can look other than... well... it's dangerous... but... we could look inside the forest... Dinky might have wandered away from the town path and maybe have gotten lost inside the forest..." Bon-Bon speculated more of the whereabouts of Dinky.
"C'mon Bon-Bon, even I know that she ain't that dumb." Lyra quickly replied back, walking up and down in a fast pace trying to think of what to do next.
"Then what do we do?" Bon-Bon asked her partner.
"I don't know..." Lyra yelled, placing her hands on her head trying to frantically think of what to do next.
"Bon-Bon... where is Dinky?" Derpy finally turned back to her friend and latched onto Bon-Bon's shoulder, she shook her a few times to try and get her attention like a little child.
"I'm sorry Derpy, but Me and Lyra are trying to figure out what to do next... We'll find Dinky, don't worry." Bon-Bon wrapped her arm around Derpy and gave her a small hug in comfort; Derpy did the same thing and rested her head on Bon-Bon's shoulder.
"Maybe if we go around the edge of the forest and call out for Dinky, if we can't find her, let’s go home and do that stupid plan that Carrot Top came up with." Lyra began to think up of her small plan; however, she cringed at when she had to talk about the plan about calling the authorities.
Bon-Bon paused for a moment and looked away from Lyra, knowing from experience that Carrot Top was an over the top snob coming from Canterbury and trying live the high life in a small town. Lyra also paused and walked over to Bon-Bon to see what was wrong, she could see that Bon-Bon was holding back her tears which she had built up since the beginning of the search for Dinky.
"What's wrong?" Lyra asked her partner, placing her hand on her shoulder to get a better look at her face.
"I'm really sorry Lyra..." Bon-Bon quickly rubbed her eyes to prevent tears from falling down her face.
"About what?" Lyra quickly responded.
"I'm sorry about my ideas and directions... I shouldn't have suggested going into that man’s house or else we would have been shot..." Bon-Bon began to sniffle, her face turning a slight red.
"Hey, you didn't do anything wrong. If theres one to blame, it should have been me." Lyra got up close to her partner and lightly kissed her on the forehead.
"I'm really sorry that I caused all of this trouble, we wasted all of this time when we could have called the authorities!" Bon-Bon carried on.
"Forget Carrot Top." Lyra whispered, wrapping both arms around Bon-Bon, tightening her grip on her. "Just hold it together, it ain't your fault."
"Wake up kid, we're movin' out." John whispered.
"Huh?" Dinky raised her head and looked up to see John standing right in front of her, she was strangely lying down on the hay in the middle of the stables right next to Fluttershy and Scootaloo who had climbed through her t-shirt and snuggled up inside of her.
"Get up now, we're skippin' some of th' plan an' now we're goin' into th' forest." John leaned down and picked up the golden tiara and stuffed it under his arm, he patted Dinky on the top of her head to try and wake her up.
"Wha- The forest?" Dinky leaned up and yawned, she looked up and firstly noticed that Scootaloo had climbed into her t-shirt and fell asleep on her chest, she slowly slided Scootaloo out from under her t-shirt and neatly placed her on the soft hay.
"Ah'm not hollerin' around anymore kid, ya' better hurry up, ah'm jus' gonna get th' other leashes from th' cupboard!" John quickly rushed out of the room and ran back into the shack, leaving Dinky to try and wake up Fluttershy and Scootaloo.
"But what about my choice?" Dinky said to herself, just realizing that she had a choice whether to stay with John or run back home. But in the back of her head, she still wasn't able to make up her mind; she needed the comfort and love of her mother. Yet she wanted to find out what the magical tiara could do and what John was trying to explain to her, it was tearing her apart.
Fluttershy opened her eyes and raised her head to see that Dinky was now awake; Scootaloo was still lying down on the hay where she remembered her being. There was some ruckus going on and she could hear noises and clanging sounds in the other room where the evil man had taken Luna, she stood up on all fours and stretched her legs to relieve some of her pain. She walked over to Dinky and politely nuzzled her in an attempt to get her off from the ground; Dinky looked up and saw Fluttershy standing over her trying to nuzzle her.
"Hello Fluttershy..." Dinky yawned; she got up on her feet and shook her head from side to side.
Fluttershy gave off a little smile to the child and then focused on waking up Scootaloo, firstly with a small tap on her hoof and then secondly with a nice big nuzzle that instantly woke up Scootaloo in a slight panic. She quickly shot up and checked her surroundings to try and find Dinky; she turned right behind her to see that Dinky was standing up. The orange filly quickly shook her head and playfully pounced onto Dinky's leg in an attempt to climb up her body.
"Scootaloo... stop that!" Dinky childishly giggled out loud, Scootaloo's little hooves were tickling Dinky to no end, and she leaned down and picked up the orange filly and held her in a position so that she was able to stroke her mane. Scootaloo dug herself into the Childs arms and cuddled up enjoying the sudden attention.
"Right now... jus' wake up Ditzy, an' we be settin' off to th' forest where we'll meet th' master." John poked his head through the door, raising his voice and alerting Dinky of what is currently happening. Fluttershy quickly cowered at the sound of his voice and stood behind Dinky trying to make herself scarce.
"Master?" Dinky replied back; really confused at what John was talking about.
"Yeah, wer' gonna meet him t'night and see how that magical do-hickey works." John revealed more of himself as she walked out of the doors way, Dinky saw that he was holding a very long piece of rope and some collars which were attached to the rope. She didn't like what was going to happen, but she didn't have any choice or say in what to do.
"What's his name?" Dinky politely asked, feeling curious about this "Master."
"Discor- Nevermind, we're goin' ta' see him soon, jus' wake up Ditzy and ah'll put th' leashes on th' horses." John ordered the child; he opened the gate into stable and walked in, waiting for Dinky to wake up Ditzy.
Dinky looked around and noticed that Ditzy was lying down on a separate pile of hay away from everyone else; she slowly walked over to the gray mare and gently tapped her on her ear. The first thing that Dinky noticed about Ditzy is that the drained colours had disappeared and more colour was back into her mane and body and she looked a little less sad.
"Ditzy... are you awake?" Dinky leaned down with Scootaloo in her arms and whispered into the gray mare’s ears, Ditzy slowly opened her eyes and raised her head to look at Dinky. It took the mare a second to realize who it was, but before anything could happen Ditzy was immediately smiling again.
"You're smiling! You're smiling!" Dinky pointed out, she wrapped her spare arm around the mare and hugged her.
"Dinky, jus' bring Ditzy over here an' ah'll put th' leash on her." John yelled; he put one of the leashes on Fluttershy by attaching one of the collars around her neck while the rope was still connected.
"Will it hurt her?" Dinky asked; feeling very worried about Ditzy and her recent magical change of colour.
"Is' jus' a rope, it ain't gonna hurt anyone." John groaned he first walked over to Fluttershy and leaned down to grab the yellow mare by the neck; he placed the collar around her neck and clipped it together so that it would stick to her. He pulled on the rope which caused the collar to tighten, the mare choked for a moment as the air was taken right out of her.
"C'mon Ditzy, we need to go somewhere now... do you wanna go to the forest?" Dinky waited for Ditzy to get up from her pile of hay, but it seems that she didn't want to. She wasn't moving, she refused to do so.
"Outta ma' way..." John pushed Dinky out of the way and quickly wrapped the collar round her neck, without any time to think, Ditzy was immediately pulled around as John connected the two ropes that held Ditzy and Fluttershy together so they wouldn't escape. Dinky frowned a little at John's rough housing and how he choked the mare until they were out of breath, she didn't like it at all.
"Wait... what about Scootaloo?" Dinky asked John, she still had the little orange filly in her arms that was still digging her head into her chest. John turned his head and looked at Scootaloo then up to Dinky and just groaned out loud, he stood up and made sure that the ropes were strong and tied together perfectly.
"Jus' hold her, ah'm sure ya' can walk through th' forest with no problem." John started to move himself out, he dragged Fluttershy and Ditzy out of the stable and into the shack, he walked over to where Luna was still tied up and he undone the rope that Luna was connected to and then proceeded to tie a knot in the big rope which connected all three mares. Luna struggled a little bit and tried to break out of John's bonds but he was much stronger and he immediately put her in the ropes without much of a problem.
Dinky walked into the shack still holding Scootaloo in her arms and stood next to John while he checked the ropes, she didn't say anything but she kept her eyes on Scootaloo the whole time. John quickly tapped her on her shoulder which caused her to somewhat look up at John.
"Did ya' get th' head band thingy from th' stable?" John politely asked, still trying to keep the mares on his leash under control.
"Uh..." Dinky thought for a second. "No..." Dinky nodded.
John paused for a moment and cursed under his breath, Dinky leaned to the side a little to try and catch what he was saying, but she had no luck. John quickly placed the rope back on its original place and dragged the three mares back onto the pile of hay where Luna had been lying on. John quickly walked into the stable and hopped over to the gate to pick up the golden tiara and walked out of the stable in a hurry. He walked over to Dinky and leaned down to her level.
"Keep it in ya' sight an' don' lose it!" John scolded Dinky. "We're movin' out now, jus' don' talk t'me an' stay close."
To be continued...