Chapter Five
All You Need is a Smirk
“How did this happen?” Apple Bloom asked, checking the sky again. The Sun shone through a layer of clouds; it was the middle of the day.
“Who cares? It sucks!” Scootaloo slammed her bare hoof into a nearby garbage can. “I lost my scooter, and then I didn’t get to keep that awesome armor, and now we’re a billion miles from home in the exact city where we’re too late to help anypony!”
“How long were we in that place, anyhow?” Apple Bloom glanced behind her. The hat store and its mirror were far away by then.
“Yeah, this doesn’t make sense,” said Sweetie Belle, peering at the sunbeams breaking through the clouds. “We got caught by that diamond dog around seven, didn’t we? And we couldn’t have been in his junkyard for more than an hour or two.”
“And I reckon it didn’t take us twelve hours to run down a hill ‘n’ find a boat,” added Apple Bloom.
“All right, so what? Time moves differently out here than it did in there?” Scootaloo shook her head. “Big deal. I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“What day is it, then?” asked Sweetie Belle. Her pupils shrunk. “Have we been missing for days? Or years?”
Apple Bloom hurried to a pair of young colts selling newspapers on the curb. She peeked above the headline and gasped, frozen in place.
“What? What is it?” Scootaloo pounced on her back to look at the paper around Apple Bloom’s head. “Did we accidentally travel hundreds of years into the future? Has Rainbow Dash been memorialized by renaming the entire country Rainbowdashia? And I missed the ceremony!?”
“We’re not in the future at all,” said Apple Bloom, pointing at the date. “We’re in the past.”
Scootaloo crossed her eyes. “Buh?”
“We’re back in the day we wanted to leave. The day your mom left to get the foals, Dinky.”
Dinky held her hooves up to her face. “You mean… Mommy’s here? In Manehattan?”
“If it’s around noon, I don’t think they’ve even left Ponyville yet.” Apple Bloom blinked. She smiled. “Which means we can find the foals first!”
Scootaloo gasped in ten lungs worth of air. “Then what are we waiting for? This is the best thing that’s ever happened! We have to find those Cake twins before Rainbow Dash shows up!”
“Where do we start?” asked Sweetie Belle. “I don’t think any alley cats to give us cryptic clues in Manehattan.”
“We just have to be vigilant,” Scootaloo said, pounding one hoof into another. “Keep your eyes are ears out, girls, for anything out of place. We’re looking for… a bad guy.” She grinned. “Yeah! A bad guy hiding stolen babies.”
“In that case, this should be a cinch,” Apple Bloom droned.
“Come on!” Scootaloo galloped forward toward the center of the city. “Hurry!”
Apple Bloom growled. “Scootaloo! Wait up!”
{-DD-}
“So… are we not going to talk about the crazy world behind the mirror?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“No time!” Scootaloo barrelled around another corner, only to slam into a couple of adult unicorns holding cigarettes in their magic.
“‘Ey!” one of them yelled, stumbling back from the impact. “Watch it, li’l runt!”
Scootaloo winced and inched around them. “Sorry!” she said, keeping her eyes away from their angry faces, before suddenly whipping and around to take off ― and running into more ponies. “Ow! Gosh darn it…”
“Cool your jets, kid!” yelled one of the smoking unicorns. “If you’re gonna gallop in Longacre Square, ya better look where ya goin’!”
Sweetie Belle came up from behind and helped Scootaloo to her hooves. “Longacre Square?” Sweetie repeated, then glanced over the heads of the disgruntled ponies Scootaloo had just run into.
Apple Bloom and Dinky caught up just then, and all four fillies stared up at the ocean of glowing billboards and giant advertisements crammed into every available space in their sights. Thousands of ponies navigated the wide sidewalks alongside yellow carriages on the busy streets. The music of various performers filled the air, and the fillies were struck with a sense of smallness.
“Wooow!” they breathed together.
One of the smokers laughed, threw his cigarette on the ground, and began to trot away, but not before saying over his shoulder, “Welcome to the heart of the world, kids.”
“This is amazing!” Sweetie Belle said reverently. “I’ve never seen anything like it!”
The awe in Scootaloo’s eyes snuffed out with a snort. “Eh, it’s all right. Come on girls, we have to find those foals!”
“Now hold on just a minute.” Apple Bloom grabbed Scootaloo’s tail between two strong hooves. “What exactly is your plan here, hmm? We’ve been runnin’ around like chickens with our heads cut off, and now we’re just gonna squeeze through a million ponies goin’ about their business? How’re we s’posed to find the foals like that?”
Scootaloo grunted. “The longer you hold me here asking dumb questions, the more time the foalnapper has to escape! We gotta keep moving!”
“The only thing we gotta do is stick together,” Apple Bloom said, shaking her head. “Just how do you expect us to find you in this crowd if you run off by yerself?”
“Well, you guys need to keep up!”
“You need to remember who we got along for the ride!”
“I wasn’t the one that wanted to bring her!”
“Actually, I’m pretty sure you were! Besides, who made you Captain of the Crusaders?”
“Which of us was turned into an awesome knight?”
“Which of us is takin’ all this craziness seriously?”
“Stop fighting!” Sweetie Belle yelled, smacking Apple Bloom’s hooves away from Scootaloo’s tail. “If we wanna find the foals, shouldn’t we start asking all these nice Manehattan citizens if they’ve seen anything suspicious lately?”
Scootaloo harrumphed and crossed her forelegs over her chest.
“That’s a good idea, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom said, brushing aside her bangs. “Come on, let’s get started. ‘Scuse me! Mister! Could you help us with somethin’?”
Over the next few minutes, very few ponies stopped to talk with the Crusaders at all, and the few that did had no idea where to start looking for foalnapped babies. After several ignored attempts, Scootaloo dropped to her haunches.
“This is no use,” she moaned. “We need to get tons of their attention at once. Augh, I wish I had my scooter!”
Dinky’s ears perked at the sound of a distant rhythm. Through momentary gaps in the ever-moving crowd, she spotted a group of street performers dancing to a quick drumbeat. Several passerby had stopped to watch and listen to the show.
Dinky reached behind her ear and her little jaw dropped. The flute she had found behind the mirror in the diamond dog’s cavern was still there. She choked on a tiny laugh, held the flute in front of her mouth, and cleared her throat. “Umm… what if we did this?”
The Crusaders turned just as soon as she started playing a whimsical tune on her flute.
“What are you doing, Dinky?” Scootaloo hissed. “We don’t have time for an impromptu concerto!”
“What talent!” said a random mare walking by. “Bravo!”
Dinky nodded humbly and continued playing.
Scootaloo blinked and glanced at Apple Bloom. “Oh. I get it.”
Apple Bloom grabbed Sweetie Belle by the shoulders. “All right, resident musician. You help Dinky get some eyes on ya, and Scootaloo and I’ll take care o’ the rest.”
Sweetie beamed and nodded quickly, standing next to Dinky and adding a harmony with her voice.
“Laaa la laaaa! Laaa la laaaa! Iiiit’s my faaaavorite sooong!” she improvised, holding an elegant hoof to her chest.
“Oh, how lovely!”
“They’re adorable!”
“Doesn’t your cousin play the flute?”
“Well, that’s somethin’ new!”
Apple Bloom grinned at Scootaloo as a crowd began to form around the little musicians. They buzzed together like hummingbirds from one onlooker to another, asking, “Have you seen anything suspicious lately?” and “Where might a pony take a couple of foalnapped children?”
“Foalnapped children?” asked one stallion with a gruff beard and an even gruffer voice. “Whatta you talkin’ about, kid?”
“We’re from a little village in central Equestria,” Apple Bloom explained. “Yesterday… I think… uh, some twin babies were foalnapped by somepony from Haissan, and we’re tryin’ t―”
“Hold up, little filly, hold up.” The stallion raised a hoof and squinted down at Apple Bloom. “Did you say Haissan?”
“Uhhh… yes.” Apple Bloom smiled weakly. “I don’t really know where that is, to be honest, but this lady back in Ponyville ― we’ve got her daughter with us ― see, she said that the foals are bein’ taken to Haissan and that we gotta catch ‘em in Manehattan.”
“Is that right?” The stallion looked around warily. “Well, then, let me tell you one little thing I know.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stood up straighter. “Yeah? What is it?”
The stallion bent down and whispered, “If you’re lookin’ for ponies tied to Haissan, you’re gonna wanna go to the docks out east. There’s an airship that flies across the ocean every couple o’ weeks, but I’ve heard of, ehhh… alternative methods.” He wagged his eyebrows. “Got it?”
“The docks! Of course!” Scootaloo saluted the stallion. “Thank you very much, and we’ll be on our way.”
Apple Bloom opened her mouth to speak, but Scootaloo grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back to Sweetie Belle and Dinky.
“Wrap it up, Haulin’ Oats!” she whispered to them loudly. “We’ve got our lead!”
Apple Bloom blinked. “Haulin’ Oats?”
“They’re this band my dad listens to. Whatever.” Scootaloo sighed. “Hurry it up!”
“And thaaaat was the eeend ooof ooouur soooooong!” sang Sweetie Belle. Dinky did a little trill on her flute, and the crowd applauded enthusiastically.
“Off we go!” Scootaloo planted herself behind the fillies and began to push them eastward through the middle of Longacre Square while their crowd dispersed into the throng.
{-DD-}
“It’s quiet over here,” moped Sweetie Belle. “I liked it better in the city.”
“Well, the foals weren’t in the city, so shut up,” hissed Scootaloo, climbing up a stack of large wooden boxes.
“Don’t look like the foals are out here, neither.” Apple Bloom regarded Scootaloo’s ascent with a cocked eyebrow. “You think they might be on top o’ those crates?”
“I’m trying ― to get ― a better ― view!” With one final jump, wings a-buzzing, Scootaloo hoisted herself onto the highest box and peered out over the pier.
There were dozens of docks stretching out into the ocean. A few small vessels loaded with cargo bobbed up and down in the water. Gristly ponies intermingled with tired travellers between the water and the edge of the city.
“Darn it…” Scootaloo shielded her eyes. “Everypony looks the same. How am I supposed to pick out the bad guy?” She turned her head in disappointment and noticed Dinky leaning over a rail next to the ocean. “Hey! Don’t fall in, Dinky!”
The periwinkle filly nodded up at Scootaloo with a small smile before turning back to stare into the water.
“Do you think she’s okay?” Sweetie Belle whispered to Apple Bloom.
“She’s just scared.” Apple Bloom gulped. “Makes sense. We’re used to this kinda stuff, but Dinky? Seems to me she’s been pretty sheltered.”
Sweetie Belle sighed. “I hope we’re not, like… corrupting her.”
Apple Bloom laughed and patted Sweetie on the back. “Don’t worry. Once we get on home, I doubt she’ll ever wanna leave Ponyville again.”
Dinky, meanwhile, was struggling to keep her eyes open. Her hoof rested on a short, rusted railing, and her chin rested on top of her hoof. She sighed heavily, watching her dark reflection swell and break in the ocean water just below the dock. Her mind swam with images of her mother, and the talking cat, and herself… her pegasus self.
Her reflection moved as if on cue. It darted out farther into the water. Dinky’s head popped up: though the water was choppy, she could make out a pair of wings in the reflection.
“Hey!” Dinky called out. “Wait! Who are you?”
“What was that?” Scootaloo shouted back from above.
Dinky ignored her, squinting at the blurry filly in the water. She thought she saw a smile under the pony’s golden eyes, and then ― quite clearly ― the pegasus pointed to a nearby dock. It was a long, skinny, wooden thing that stretched quite a ways into the water. Safer and more modern docks stood above the ocean beyond it, but the pegasus’ point led Dinky’s eyes directly to a pair of bearded stallions, dressed in black raincoats, pushing something along the dock. The giant object was heavy and covered by a large grey tarp.
Dinky stole a final glance at her strange reflection before yelling up to Scootaloo, “Look there! What do they have under that tarp?”
Scootaloo peered at the dock in question and watched the stallions struggle to slide their cargo to its easternmost edge. “I don’t know…. Looks too big to be a couple of foals, though.”
“They look pretty darn suspicious to me,” said Apple Bloom from the bottom of Scootaloo’s. She tilted her head. “See the way they’re lookin’ around all shifty-like?”
“I’m sure there’s a lotta shifty stuff that goes on around here,” Scootaloo grumbled, but her eyes were stuck to the stallions and their tarp.
None of the Cutie Mark Crusaders said a word for another minute while the stallions finished their job. They got the huge object to the end of the dock, glanced around, and pulled the tarp off quickly. For just a moment, the fillies caught a glimpse of the thing: a sideways rocketship with a giant fan built on the flat end. In unison, the stallions heaved the vessel over the long edge of the dock. It splashed into the water and floated there, despite being made of a dark, shiny metal.
“What the hay are they doin’?” asked Apple Bloom.
The stallions dropped to their bellies and reached over the edge with a pair of long hooks. They dragged the vessel closer to themselves through the water. Then, with much effort, they managed to tuck the thing underneath the wooden dock, effectively hiding it from any passerby. They stood up, sweating, and nodded to each other, raising the hoods of their raincoats.
“All right, fine, that’s weird.” Scootaloo hopped down from her perch and beckoned to her friends. “Come on, let’s try to catch what they’re saying.”
Apple Bloom nodded. Sweetie Belle briefly beamed and clapped her hooves together before donning a serious expression. Dinky gulped and followed their lead, crouching low and tip-hoofing closer to the wooden dock alongside piles of salty nets and molding crates.
“―and frankly, I’m just glad they paid us up front.”
As soon as one deep voice reached their ears, the fillies flattened themselves against a nearby mound of stinking seaweed.
“How many bits are Stirros worth, anyways?”
“I dunno. What do I look like, an exchange rate expert?”
“Hey, you were the one that struck the deal. I hope you didn’t screw us all over!”
“Shut up. It’s plenty of money; I know that much.”
“Are you sure that was the right dock? I mean, there are older ones down by the―”
“It’s the right dock. Now shut up and stop thinkin’ about it. Our job’s done. Those Haissanic weirdos can do whatever they want with the submarine now.”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders refrained from gasping and looked at each other with wide eyes. Scootaloo peaked around a tall barrel and waited until the raincoated stallions were out of sight before pumping a hoof.
“Yyyesss! Did you hear that? ‘Haissanic weirdos’! Haissan is that country your mom mentioned, right, Dinky?”
Dinky gulped again, but found a smile. “Yeah, I-I think it is!”
“It definitely is,” said Apple Bloom. “We’re on the right track, girls.”
“So that rocket thing was a submarine?” asked Sweetie Belle. “What for?”
“To take the foals back across the ocean!” Scootaloo wiped a brow. “Whew, this is lucky! The bad guy isn’t here yet, so we can just stake it out and wait for him to find his submarine. Then we can strike and get the foals back!” She jabbed a couple of punches at the air in front of her.
“Those stallions made it seem like there’s more than one foalnapper,” Apple Bloom said in a flat tone. “Not sure we’d stand much of a chance in an all-out brawl.”
Sweetie Belle nodded. “She’s right. We have to be sneakier than that.”
Scootaloo huffed. “Okay, fine, just shoot down all my ideas. What’s your brilliant alternative, then, Apple Bloom?”
“I’m not tryin’ to shoot yer ideas down, Scoots,” Apple Bloom said with a sneer. “I’m tryin’ to think o’ the Cakes’ twins. This is a big operation and I don’t wanna mess it up.”
“Oh, because I’m just a big screw up, is that it?”
“This ain’t about you, Scootaloo!”
“Isn’t it? I’m the leader here!”
“Excuuuse me? Who said you were the leader? I’m pretty dang sure we’re a team.”
“Yeah! A team with an awesome leader!”
“Stop it, stop it! You already argued about this!” Sweetie Belle slid both hooves down her face. “Look, I’ve never really thought about which of us is the ‘leader’ before, but it doesn’t matter. The only pony who’s luck hasn’t seemed to run dry is Dinky.” She smiled to her side at the littlest filly. “What do you think we should do?”
Scootaloo opened her mouth to argue, but a few recent memories of Dinky’s success flashed before her eyes and she sat in silence.
Dinky tapped her front hooves on the ground. “Ummm… I think we ought to hide somewhere until the foalnappers come.” She squinted hard. “Then… when we’re sure they have the foals, two of us could try to distract them while the other two get the babies back.”
Sweetie cheered. “See? Isn’t that a perfect plan?”
Scootaloo spat, “Yeah, but where are we supposed to hide around here?”
“We’re hidin’ right now, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said, gesturing to the tall barrel in front of them.
“No, I mean… what if we get caught!?” Scootaloo peeked around the barrel again. “And what if we mistake the wrong ponies for the foalnappers?” Her pupils shrunk and she pointed to the ocean. “And what if they have some cool underwater way to get to the submarine?”
Apple Bloom sighed heavily. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it? We just escaped a nonsense island behind a mirror!!” Scootaloo yelled. “Come on, there’s only one way to do this right.” She snuck around the barrel and scurried down the wooden dock.
“Scootaloo, no!” Sweetie Belle squeaked.
“Ugghh!” Apple Bloom jerked her head. “Let’s not leave her alone.”
Dinky’s heart rate picked up as they chased Scootaloo to the end of the dock. She kept glancing over her shoulder, nervous the foalnappers might show up any second.
“What do you think yer doin’?” Apple Bloom whispered harshly as Scootaloo stood at the edge of the dock. “We don’t know how to sabotage a submarine, stupid.”
Scootaloo’s mouth formed an adorable O shape. “Sabotage! That’s a great idea! I was just thinking we’d hide inside.”
“What?” Apple Bloom’s forehead turned red. “Are you outta yer mind? I’m startin’ to think maybe you haven’t recovered from bein’ a blockhead knight yet.”
“Actually, Apple Bloom, this might be a good idea.”
Apple Bloom spun around, flustered.
Sweetie Belle shrugged with a tiny smile. “The bad guys have to come to their submarine, right? And it’ll be a good place to hide.”
“Ha! See?” Scootaloo put a leg around Sweetie Belle. “At least somepony believes in me.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe in ya, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said, “it’s just that we’re not even positive that this submarine belongs to the same ponies that foalnapped the twins!”
“How many Haissanic ponies have you met in your lifetime, exactly?” Scootaloo asked. “It all fits together perfectly!”
“Manehattan is a very different place than Ponyville,” Apple Bloom argued.
Dinky cleared her throat. “I’m pretty sure this is the right submarine,” she said quietly. “Or that it has something to do with the Cake twins, at least.”
Apple Bloom’s jaw dropped in sync with Scootaloo’s, though only one of them was bearing a smile.
“Why do you think that, Dinky?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Umm…” Dinky shifted on her hooves. “Well… I just know it. The same way I went through the mirror the first time.”
“See? See!?” Scootaloo pointed at Dinky with two hooves, entreating Apple Bloom with wide, wide eyes.
“Oh, yeah, ‘cause you loved goin’ through that mirror so much.” Apple Bloom snorted.
Scootaloo shook her head. “Three against one. Let’s do this. Wish me luck!” She took a deep breath and dove over the side of the dock.
The other three fillies panicked immediately.
“Oh my gosh!”
“Scootaloo!”
“She’s gone plum crazy…”
Scootaloo’s matted purple mane popped up out of the water above a pained expression. “Shhwaaappadoodles! This water is c-c-cold!”
“And disgusting!” Apple Bloom growled. “Get out of there at once!”
Scootaloo smiled, winked, and dove back below the surface.
“What is she doing?” Sweetie Belle ran a hoof over her mane.
Seconds later, the submarine bobbed up to the surface of the water like an apple on Nightmare Night. Scootaloo burst up alongside it, gasping for air. Her eyes were red and her breath came quickly, but she was still smiling.
“Okay… that was pretty cool,” Apple Bloom said joylessly, “but how are we gonna get it back under when we’re in?”
“M-m-m-m-magic!” Scootaloo stuttered, clambering back onto the dock with the help of Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom’s hooves. She turned around immediately and jumped onto the top of the submarine.
“Don’t slip!” yelped Sweetie Belle.
“Hrrnngh!” Scootaloo struggled with the hatch on the top of the craft. With an extra grunt ― “Heagh!” ― a wheel turned loose, and the hatch popped open with a hiss. Laughing to herself in a mixture of delight and exhaustion, Scootaloo tumbled down into the bowels of the vessel.
“Eee! She did it!” Sweetie Belle squeaked.
“Hurry up!” Scootaloo’s voice called from within. “Jump in here!”
“Dinky first,” Sweetie Belle said, offering the filly a hoof.
Balanced between Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, Dinky hopped gingerly off the dock and dropped through the open hatch with a gasp.
“You next, Princess,” Apple Bloom said, nodding to Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie giggled and bowed. “It’s Bishop, actually,” she said, and jumped into the submarine.
Apple Bloom swept her eyes over the Manehattan docks. Nopony seemed to be paying them any mind. Confidently, she leapt directly into the hole and nearly landed on Sweetie Belle’s head.
“Jeez, it’s cozy in here!” she said, taking in the submarine’s tiny interior.
“That’s one way to put it,” Scootaloo said, her cheek smashed against a nearby wall. “Okay, Sweetie, you and Dinky get up there and pull us back under the dock.”
“What?” Sweetie guffawed. “Why us?”
“Duh!” Scootaloo flicked Sweetie’s horn.
“Ouch!”
“Oh, uh… I can’t use magic yet,” Dinky said, shrinking.
“Of course you can!” said Scootaloo. “You’re a unicorn!”
“Well, yeah, but… I don’t know how.” Dinky’s lower lip began to quiver.
Scootaloo squeezed around her friends and looked straight into Dinky’s eyes. “Look, Dinky, you’ve already done some amazing things on this adventure. I know I’ve been harsh, and I’m sorry, but I’m proud to call you an honorary Cutie Mark Crusader.” She put a hoof on Dinky’s shoulder. “Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you’ve done something before, okay? All you need is a smirk and a lot of confidence.”
Dinky sniffed. “A smirk?”
“Like this.” Scootaloo’s eyelids lowered a bit and she showed off a devilish half smile. “Think you can do that for us?”
Giggling, Dinky said, “I-I can try.”
“Good, because those bad guys could be here any second.” She grabbed Dinky and shoved her upward toward the hatch. “Go on, Sweetie Belle! Work your magic!”
“Oohhh…” Sweetie whined, climbing a short ladder until her head poked out of the circular hatch.
Dinky followed, climbing to the left of Sweetie Belle and staring at the dock. “So, um… how do we do this?” she asked quietly, inches from Sweetie’s ear.
“I have no idea,” said Sweetie, “but Scootaloo’s right about one thing.” She grinned. “A smirk usually helps.”
Dinky blinked, studied Sweetie’s face, and put on her best smirk. Together, they leered at the dock, envisioned what needed to happen, and channeled as much thought into their horns as they could.
A greenish aura flickered around the submarine, and it immediately began to sink.
“Keep going!” Scootaloo shouted. “Don’t stop yet!”
“Aaaahhh!” Sweetie and Dinky screamed together as their heads slowly approached the side of the short wooden dock.
“Okay, shut the hatch, now!” Scootaloo yelled. “But don’t stop your magic!”
Sweetie Belle wrapped her left foreleg around Dinky, grabbed the metal hatch with her right, and dropped into the belly of the submarine with her eyes shut tight. The hatch closed above her glowing horn.
Scootaloo hurdled over the unicorns and onto the ladder. She reached overhead and spun a wheel to the right, locking the hatch door in place.
Sweetie let out a pained breath and her horn stopped glowing. They heard a resounding thump from above… and all four erupted in cheers.
“We did it!” Scootaloo yelled.
“That was absolutely amazin’!” Apple Bloom bounced up and down.
“Wait until I tell Twilight!” Sweetie Belle said, her voice cracking.
Dinky giggled uncontrollably, leaning into Sweetie Belle’s unbroken embrace.
“This is the best adventure we’ve ever had!” cried Scootaloo triumphantly.
{-DD-}
“Okay, this is getting boring,” Scootaloo droned, lying on her back, flicking a section of her mane that hadn’t dried yet. “What’s taking so long?”
“Just focus, Scootaloo, and remember the plan,” Apple Bloom said. “As soon as we feel the submarine move, we all have a hidin’ place, right?”
Sweetie Belle poked her head out of an empty garbage can. “Right!” she said, diving back down.
“Right!” squeaked Dinky’s voice from a closed cabinet overhead.
Scootaloo sighed and bumped a tiny bunk bed with her hoof. “Right.”
“Then me and you’ll make a run for it, distractin’ the foalnappers outside,” said Apple Bloom, “while Sweetie Belle and Dinky rescue the foals.”
“And hopefully we don’t accidentally hit the ‘speed off toward Haissan’ button,” Sweetie Belle’s muffled voice said through her hiding spot.
Apple Bloom covered her eyes with a foreleg. “Don’t… don’t even joke about that, Sweetie Belle.”
Scootaloo sat up with a gasp. “Oh! Sabotage!” She got to her hooves and hurried toward the front of the ship. “I bet I can figure out how to make sure this thing goes nowhere, even if our plan goes to crap.”
“Consarn it, Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom growled. “Be careful up there!”
“Yeah, no problem!” Scootaloo hurried along a narrow corridor and found the controls. “I’m good with this kind of stuff.”
Just then, the entire submarine shook under Apple Bloom’s hooves. She paled, and her eyes magnetized to the hatch overhead. “Scootaloo!” she hissed.
“Hold on, hold on!” Scootaloo’s hooves were a blur up ahead. “I can do this!”
“Scootaloo! Get back here! Now!”
“I’m scared!” said Dinky.
“I’m almost done! I just have to―”
The hatch opened. Apple Bloom dove under the bunk bed. Scootaloo froze, threw her eyes every which way, and eventually just curled into a ball under the submarine’s control panel.
Two tall stallions crawled into the submarine. Apple Bloom could only see their hooves ― and one of them only had three. They spoke to each other in quick, quiet words that she didn’t understand. Suddenly, they set a basket down right in front of Apple Bloom. She could hear the quiet whines of infants within.
Before she even had a chance to yell for Scootaloo, she heard the hatch close and felt the submarine descend. Her heart sunk into her abdomen as the foreign words grew louder, shouting over a hum that shook the submarine from behind. Suddenly, the craft rocketed forward, and Apple Bloom slammed her head against one of the bunkbed’s metal legs. She stifled a scream and pressed her hooves over the forming bruise.
Sweetie Belle was hyperventilating. Dinky shivered in her cabinet. The Haissanic ponies breathed a sigh of relief and said some strange words to each other in a comforted tone.
“Hey, bozos!”
Scootaloo’s voice boomed through the tiny submarine like cannonfire. The foalnappers turned to see her standing on top of the controls, holding a long wire in her hooves.
“Going up!” she shouted, and bit the wire in two.