Twilight looked up at the starry night sky, pondering on the event that happened earlier in the day involving her and her friends' method of getting information about the pegasi. She sat on her porch, wondering how she became so crazed with catching the demons that she would go out of her way to scare a child into telling a secret. Well, Twilight only condoned the behavior. It's not like she actually did anything wrong, right?
"Who am I kidding?" Twilight sighed. "I should apologize to Sweetie Belle when she finally leaves her room."
It's been hours and the small unicorn hadn't even opened the door to take the food Rarity set out for her. When a red eyed, unkempt Rarity came knocking on Twilight's door for advice during the sunset, Twilight had absolutely no idea what to say to the distressed fashionista. She couldn't think straight because of all the guilt plaguing her mind. Applejack came by as well and said that she wasn't doing so well with Apple Bloom either. They are constantly at each other's throats because of this mess, and Applejack doesn't see why Apple Bloom wants to keep Scootaloo's secret even when Apple Bloom knows that Applejack knows that Scootaloo is still there. Somewhere.
Suddenly, a small voice came from behind Twilight, taking her back to reality. "Twilight? I made you tea."
Twilight turned around and accepted the tea from a little dragon. "Thanks, Spike," she said softly before taking a sip.
"Yeah, you seemed stressed out lately so I thought maybe it would help to talk about it over tea." The little dragon sat next to the unicorn, facing her.
"Oh Spike, I wish I could tell you. The story's a secret, though, and if I told anyone I'm afraid that they will get hurt."
Spike tilted his head in confusion. "Why would anyone get hurt?"
"Well," Twilight starts, "don't tell anyone what I'm saying, but there are these creatures the girls and I are trying to catch. I'm afraid that if we let anyone know what they look like, the people of Ponyville will try to catch the creatures themselves and get hurt while doing so."
Spike looked away from Twilight and at the town in front of them. It was peacefully quiet. All the children inside and snuggled up in bed while the parents cuddled and watched TV together. Or perhaps the mother read a book while the father ironed his clothes. Some pedestrians walked alone on this wonderful evening; they walked not to hurry into their houses, but to enjoy the starry sky in all of its shimmering glory.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just tell people just in case whoever it is that you're trying to catch shows up?"
Twilight took a sip of her tea and looked at the dragon. "I can't do that Spike. They could get hurt."
Spike looked back at Twilight. "But what if the creatures show up and get away with wreaking havoc because nobody knows who it is or what they do?"
Who it is or what they do...Wait a minute, that's it! Twilight thought. She abruptly stood up, spilling the tea and startling Spike as she picked him up. "Spike! That's it! I don't need to tell them everything about the creatures, just their powers and that they're very very very very very dangerous! You're a genius!" Twilight hugged the very confused Spike.
"Uh...Glad I could help. Can you let go now?" Twilight placed Spike back on the ground and used magic to clean up the spilled tea.
"But wait!" Twilight exclaimed. She then slumped down to her knees. "They won't know what their powers are because I don't know what their powers are..." Twilight sighed. "I'll ask the girls tomorrow and see what they think. Let's just go get some rest." The unicorn and the dragon walked back into the treehouse, preparing for their slumber.
Meanwhile, Scootaloo, who was currently in her demon form, was sneaking around Ponyville trying to find Sweetie Belle's house. She knew that it was tall and way too fancy and elaborate, but compared to Pegasopolis, all of Ponyville's buildings were elaborate. Maybe not so tall, but they were unnecessarily detailed. Finally, after 30 minutes of searching, Scootaloo found what seemed to be the place she's been looking for. It was a circular, two story building that was most likely inspired by a castle of some kind. Different patterns such as swirls and diamonds complemented the structure of the building, which was themed as a carousel, hence the name.
Disgusting. Scootaloo thought. At first, the colors were really amazing and wonderful, but now they just hurt her sensitive eyes and annoy her. Anyways, which one is Sweetie Belle's window?
"Um, excuse me, but what are you doing?" Scootaloo turned around to see a royal guard standing there with a questioning look. He looked to be older than the girls hunting her down and he wore purple and yellow armor. The guard had different shades of blue in his hair and tail and his expression made that question seem more like demand. His horn lit up with blue magic as his expression showed that he was now more irritated. Scootaloo was suddenly even more thankful that she was wearing Apple Bloom's sweater with the hood pulled over her head, masking her face. "Answer the question, kid."
Scootaloo looked at him and then grinned maniacally. "I'm just admiring the architecture."
This kid isn't normal. The guard thought. Any kid would tremble in fear because of my actions. I was even about to apologize, but now I know something is totally wrong. Not to mention, there's a feint purple glow from under the hood and her smile doesn't look right.
"Is something wrong, guard?" Scootaloo asked as she walked towards him slowly.
What's wrong with me? Why can't I move? The guard tried to take a step back, but his legs refused to listen to him. "S-Stay back! I can-"
"Arrest me? Seriously, you guards need to start being original with your last few words," Scootaloo said. I want to have fun with this one. Maybe I can summon a weapon on him. Which one, should I choose? Hmm...
"Scootaloo, no!" Scootaloo heard the voice from behind her and sensed that the person was above her. The pegasus turned around and saw Sweetie Belle leaning out of her broken window, looking at Scootaloo. The guard took that chance to run away from the small demon.
"C'mon Sweetie Belle, you let him get away! I was gonna have fun, too." Scootaloo pouted and crossed her arms.
"Scootaloo-" Scootaloo interrupted Sweetie Belle's statement by running up the side of the boutique and holding herself up with her arms on the ledge of the window, startling the unicorn back into her room. Scootaloo climbed into the room and looked at the window. She then figured that it was locked before and Sweetie Belle couldn't open it.
Sweetie Belle stared at the pegasus with wide eyes. "What in Equestria was that?! You had super speed or something! And you ran up a building! Who does that?"
"I do, and from now until something bad happens, I will be your form of communication with the outside world!" Scootaloo spread her arms out wide for emphasis. Then she added, "By outside world, I only mean Apple Bloom, of course." Sweetie Belle simply stared at Scootaloo. "Um...Hello?"
"..."
"Sweetie Belle?"
"..."
"I think I broke her."
Suddenly, the unicorn broke out of her trance and jumped up. "Oh my Celestia, Scootaloo!"
"Ah!" the pegasus immediately went into a defensive stance and looked at Sweetie Belle with a threatening gaze. Sweetie Belle shrunk back and Scootaloo realized what she did, so she relaxed herself. "Don't scare me like that, especially at night time."
"Sorry...Scootaloo..." Sweetie Belle mumbled apologetically.
"Anyway, what do you want?"
"Oh!" Sweetie Belle pulled out two chairs from a corner and gestured for her to sit down. Scootaloo stared at the chair unsurely. Then, after seeing Sweetie Belle sit on the chair across from the one in front of her, very cautiously, she sat down. "I've had a lot of time to think today and I thought that it would be a good idea to get to know each other more. Maybe we could tell each other more about where we're from?"
"Um...I don't know about that..." With Pegasopolis constantly being at war, there are plenty of secrets that need to be kept secret. Most of the time, royalty doesn't let citizens in on what goes on beyond the battlefield, but plenty of the pegasi Scootaloo has been around have known very sensitive information. Sharing it with a unicorn didn't seem like the best idea.
"Aw, c'mon Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle pleaded with the saddest, cutest face she could make.
What the heck is this? She's all...squishy and adorable and it makes me really uncomfortable!
"Fine! Fine! Whatever! I'll talk about stuff for a bit." Geez, that's one weird power. I guess telling her some vague things won't be too harmful. "What do you want to know?"
Sweetie Belle perked up and said, "Great! We can go back and forth, okay? How about we start simple. What food do you guys normally eat?"
"Well, we-" Scootaloo paused but quickly caught herself and continued her sentence. Something's not right... "Uh, we normally eat food that falls into categories."
"What food do you guys normally eat?"
Rarity leaned closer to the door, hoping that it wouldn't squeak nor that her hair rollers would hit the door and blow her cover. The curly haired unicorn couldn't actually see inside the room, but she could hear inside pretty well. When Rarity heard the commotion outside and saw Scootaloo, the unicorn knew her little sister would be involved somehow.
If Sweetie Belle refuses to tell me about those horrid creatures, I shall just find out myself.
Rarity did admit to herself that she felt a little guilty about sneaking around- which is certainly not ladylike- but sacrifices had to be made to get a mission done.
"Well we- Uh, we normally eat food that falls into categories."
"Categories? Like protein, vegetables, and things like that?" Sweetie Belle questioned.
Scootaloo seemed to relax and smiled. "Yeah. Although, we don't have as much sugar stuffed into our food as you guys seem to."
"Alright, your turn!" Sweetie Belle said excitedly.
Scootaloo thought for a moment and decided to ask, "Um...Why do you guys have so much extra...well, everything?"
"What do you mean?"
Scootaloo then went into explaining about how the pegasi only used the absolute bare necessities. There were shower houses that filled clouds with a certain amount of water so that they didn't waste any water, they had to go to food stands to sign in and get a previously prepared meal (and if they didn't go to their designated food stand, they would be punished), and there were battles upon battles upon battles. To Rarity's horror, the fighting never stopped in whatever strange land the pegasus came from.
"One time," Scootaloo started, "I was sparring with my TBP, Rumble, and-"
"What's a TBP?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Temporary battle partner. It's a term we use in what would be the equivalent of school, which is-" Rarity accidentally stepped on the floor where the wood made a tiny creak. No normal person would have been able to hear it, let alone a ten-year-old distracted by a conversation.
However, Scootaloo was on alert and looked at the doorway. Sweetie Belle followed her gaze, and Rarity hid by flattening herself next to the doorway and praying that the children wouldn't walk out of the room.
"Rarity, are you out there?"
I swear, she never gives up!
Sweetie Belle marched to the door and turned to where Rarity was hiding. She crossed her arms and glared up at the sheepish unicorn.
"O-Oh, um, Sweetie Belle. Fancy seeing you here, how's it going?" Rarity rambled.
Sweetie Belle's expression did not change. "Rarity, I thought that after what happened you'd give me some privacy for once! Scootaloo trusts Apple Bloom and me to keep her safe from you and your friends! Can't you just leave us alone, she isn't doing anything bad!"
Rarity came back to her senses and looked at Sweetie Belle incredulously. "Nothing bad? Are you blind, Sweetie Belle? She was about to hurt Shining Armor a few minutes ago!" Wait a minute, Rarity thought. If she's in the other room, I can catch her and bring her to Twilight. However, that might be difficult to do... Maybe I can try that telepathy spell she taught me after the Diamond Dog fiasco. "You know what, Sweetie Belle? I'm leaving and by morning she should not be here, do you hear me? That monster-"
"She's not a monster!" As Sweetie Belle said this, she didn't realize that Rarity's horn started to glow.
Twilight! Can you hear me? "Oh, excuse me," Rarity said sarcastically. "That demon will not ever set foot or claw or wing or whatever in this Boutique ever again!"
Rarity? What's wrong? Are you okay? Shining Armor came over just now and explained everything and-
"That isn't fair, Rarity! You're being unreasonable!"
Twilight, Scootaloo is at the Boutique. She's in Sweetie Belle's room. Hurry over so that you can catch her! "I'm not being unreasonable, I'm just doing what I need to do to keep you and the rest of Ponyville safe!"
I'm on it!
Sweetie Belle was about to argue until a loud noise was heard from the bedroom. The little unicorn panicked. "Scootaloo!" She ran in and saw that Twilight and Shining Armor had appeared in her room. They both were looking around for something.
"Twilight? What are you-" Sweetie Belle then understood that Twilight and her brother weren't looking for an object. They were looking for a person. She turned to Rarity, livid. "How could you?!"
"Sweetie, I'm-"
"No! You're not!" Sweetie Belle started tearing up, angry at the fact that Rarity and Twilight refused to listen to her. "You are not keeping Ponyville safe, you are not helping me, you are not making things better, and you are certainly not being a good sister! I told you that Scootaloo wasn't doing anything bad! Yeah, she might have been angry at Shining Armor, but that's because everyone keeps threatening her! Wouldn't you not trust everyone if they were all against you for being different?"
The older unicorns in the room were silent, until Shining Armor spoke up. "Look, Sweetie Belle," he began calmly. "I know that you want to protect Scootaloo, but she can kill you. I've seen her up close and that thing is terrifying! Trust me, a royal guard that is only looking out for you, when I say that Scootaloo needs to go."
Sweetie Belle backed away from the three other people. She shook her head and looked around for her friend. For a second, it seemed as if she left, but then Sweetie Belle spotted the tip of Scootaloo's tail sticking out of her giant toy box. Sweetie Belle needed to find a way to stop the other unicorns and lead them away from Scootaloo.
"I know where she probably went, but I don't want to go there with you. I wouldn't be able to look her in the eyes."
"Oh, Sweetie Belle," Rarity cooed as she walked over and hugged her sister. "I'm glad you finally came to your senses, and I'm sorry we had to scare you like that."
Twilight kneeled to Sweetie Belle's height. She asked softly, "Can you tell us where Scootaloo is?"
Sweetie Belle wiped her tears away, "She's in the apple orchard. Most likely where the clubhouse is. She goes there for food because she can't get any anywhere else."
Twilight stood back up and said, "Thank you, Sweetie Belle. You're really helping everyone. Trust me." She then turned to Shining Armor. "We should take care of this. Rarity," Rarity looked to Twilight, "you stay here with Sweetie Belle in case the pegasus comes back. The others might show up to be with her, and that won't be good." Rarity nodded and Twilight left with Shining Armor.
"I'm really proud of you, Sweetie Belle. Now, since we're both very much awake, I'll take these curlers out of my hair and we can have fun playing board games and things like that!" Rarity left to go to her room and Sweetie Belle watched Rarity until she closed her bedroom door, leaving a small crack that let light escape the room.
Sweetie Belle whispered, "Okay, Scootaloo. You can come out now." Scootaloo climbed out of the toy box and hugged Sweetie Belle. The unicorn was surprised at the action, but eventually hugged the pegasus back. Once they broke the hug, Scootaloo whispered quickly.
"I'm going to go to Apple Bloom's room. I know that it's risky, but I need to tell her that you didn't actually give me away. I'll leave immediately after I tell her and wait at the hideout." Scootaloo then ran to the window but turned as she as about to leave. "Nice acting by the way." With that, Scootaloo jumped out of the window and used a burst of speed to reach Apple Bloom before the siblings could reach Applejack.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had finally made it back to Ponyville after killing another guard in the forest and hunting his partner down. Even with Fluttershy's ability to sense other living creatures being better than both Rainbow Dash's and Scootaloo's sensing abilities combined, it was still very difficult to find the remaining guard. They knew the pegasi were hunting them down when they saw their friend lying on the ground, so of course that particular guard had to be the only one prepared to run and hide from demons who could sense them. They were good, Rainbow Dash gave them that. However, their flaw was that they ran out of the energy to use magic to conceal their presence from Fluttershy.
Upon arriving, the two pegasi were in their demon forms because it was still night time, so they hid behind a cottage that was closest to their location. When Rainbow Dash looked down, she noticed a faint trail of dry blood leading into the small home. She and Fluttershy went inside and found the bodies of the guards Rainbow Dash left alone to find Fluttershy.
"I guess Scootaloo took care of them. She never did learn how to kill without getting blood everywhere," Fluttershy said.
Rainbow chuckled. "Please, Fluttershy. Sometimes you're messier than she is."
"Not true!" Fluttershy faked a pout, but soon giggled at Rainbow Dash's "yeah, right" face. "Let's just go find Scootaloo."
The two pegasi put their hoodies on and walked out of the cottage, looking for their little sister.
Apple Bloom paced around her room, angry at everyone.
"Stupid Big Mac. Stupid Applejack. Stupid Twilight. Stupid Rarity. Stupid me!" Apple Bloom let out a loud grunt of annoyance and plopped herself onto her bed. She was currently locked in her room and desperately wanted to help her pegasus friend out of the situation she had put her in. "Why did Ah ever open my big mouth? Ah should have been the one to tell Sweetie Belle that they didn't do anythin' wrong!"
"C'mon, Apple Bloom, stop moping. You won't fix anything that way."
The farm girl jolted up and came face to face with the glowing eyed demon in the room. Apple Bloom smiled. "Scootaloo!" She threw her arms around her friend, thankful that she was alright. "Ah'm so so so so so so so so sorry that this is all happenin', Scoots. Ah feel just awful."
"It's fine, really." Scootaloo said as the hug was broken. She put her hands behind her head and gave Apple Bloom a goofy smile. "I've been through multiple battles and two wars. This is nothing but a tiny bit of drama." Scootaloo laughed for a bit until she suddenly became serious. "Although, Sweetie Belle lied to them and said that I was hiding in the orchard. I'm probably not going to last too long if I visit her every night..." Apple Bloom put her head down, but Scootaloo simply smiled. "Haha! Challenge accepted, then! I'll make sure you can communicate with Sweetie Belle even if it kills me! Which honestly, the guards couldn't do even if they tried."
Apple Bloom was confused more than anything. "Why are you risking getting caught to let Sweetie Belle and me talk to each other?"
"Cause it doesn't matter to me." Scootaloo said. In reality, I'm terrified that they will catch me, but I can't let Apple Bloom know that. She'd worry about me even more. Apple Bloom was a bit hesitant to believe Scootaloo considering the fact that she was terrified when they first met, but she didn't push the matter any further.
"Anyway," Scootaloo starts, "I'm gonna go. They guards will be here soon looking for me, so I'll see ya tomorrow!" Scootaloo then ran out the window and to her hideout.