Chapter 8
Applejack couldn’t say she was very happy with how things were going on this short vacation. Secretly the mare had hoped her sister and her friends would have slowed down after gaining their cutie marks, but that couldn’t be further from the truth as latest events could attest.
After Sunflower and she had dragged all four fillies back to Hooflyn, they had both given them an earful, scolding the girls for endangering themselves and losing the parcel Applejack had been entrusted with. The crusaders tried to protest, pointing out that they had been trying to relocate the parcel, but the two older cousins wouldn’t hear it and the fillies were grounded in their room for the rest of the evening.
The adult ponies then held a conference about the incident and it was agreed that the fillies would not go about Manehattan without an adult accompanying them. Applejack attested that her sister was as stubborn as she was and would probably try again to go and find the parcel, or Tango, if not both.
The apple-farmer then had an uneasy sleep. It had ruffled her quite a bit to meet Barricade, the mare still felt she owed him a hoof to the face for how he had treated Derpy. However, she had to concede to the very fact that the stallion had helped her find her sister, cousin and the other crusaders.
Applejack had been really surprised how helpful he had been; no condescending tone, no smarminess and no rudeness. The stallion hadn’t really acted at all how she remembered him. Of course she hadn’t met him that often long ago, but for her part it had been too many times.
As the night went on, she started to recall a briefing Twilight had given her and rest of their friends about an incident that happened north in the Crystal Empire. She hadn’t really paid too much attention on who had been involved as she had been more concerned that an old enemy had successfully managed to return. However, as she thought about it, she recalled the princess having mentioned Barricade being there.
Need to ask Twilight more about it when we go back to Ponyville, she had decided before finally drifting to sleep.
The next day promised to be uneventful. Sunflower and Babs took them around Manehattan to see the sights. The fillies made no mention of the parcel or Tango. Applejack couldn’t help but wonder though if they were planning something. Then around noon, Sweetie Belle realized she needed few things that were in the suitcases they were storing at her sister’s boutique. Applejack agreed to take them, Sunflower, however, said she would meet them at the next place they were going to visit. Babs would show them the way.
At the boutique, Applejack went to get the keys for the storage room while the fillies waited at the front. When she came back all four them were jumping up and down and started blathering about having seen Tango and Snow Heart with dangerous looking ponies. Before she could even file a protest, all four had rushed out.
“Ugh… Applebloom is going to be on cleanup duty in the pigsty for a week after this,” Applejack growled before running after the fillies.
Fortunately she caught up with them quickly, but even she was shocked to see who they were following. Snow Heart and Tango had certainly been expected, but not Caballeron and the three ponies he was with. Remembering back when she and her friends met Daring Do, Applejack was quick to usher the fillies out of sight, all scolding vanishing from her mind.
“Applejack, that’s the ponies we saw yesterday in that alley,” Apple Bloom told her.
“Yeah, they beat up a pony pretty bad. He might be dead,” Scootaloo added.
Applejack shushed them before all four fillies began talking, her mind processing what had just happened and trying to remember what the girls had been trying to tell her yesterday.
“Are you four absolutely sure it were those four ya saw?” she asked, sighing slightly when the Crusaders nodded. Horseapples.
Now Applejack and the fillies were in the diner, confronting Tango and Snow Heart. After seeing Caballeron leave, she had reluctantly agreed to let them talk with the couple. Considering what the girls had witnessed, it was quite possible they were in trouble.
I would say at least things couldn’t get any worse, but with my luck lately I might as well wish Tirek escaped again from Tartarus, Applejack thought.
“Right, let’s just get this over and done with,” she started before the girls actually could say anything. “Ah was supposed to deliver a parcel to you Mr. Tango, from Time Turner and Derpy. The girls took it and tried to deliver it themselves. Then managed to get it stolen, but you’ve probably heard that already.”
“Uh, no actually I hadn’t.” Tango arched an eyebrow, then glanced at Snow Heart who showed no reaction. Inwardly the mare was cringing.
“Oh, well at any rate, I’m sorry we lost your delivery,” Applejack said, before resuming a more serious expression.
“What were you doing with those four creepy ponies?” Sweetie Belle blurted out, before her friend’s sister could continue. Only Applejack glared at her, the other crusaders nodded, having the same thing on their mind.
“Creepy? Oh you mean Caballeron?” Snow Heart asked and now outwardly showed slight worry. She had hoped their meeting with her old friend would have gone unnoticed.
“Pardon us for intruding like that, Snow Heart. But Tango is a friend, and I have crossed paths with Caballeron before. Frankly he isn’t a pony I would recommend anyone to meet. Also the fillies saw him and his buddies beat a pony up,” Applejack resumed control of the conversation, pushing the fillies aside and stepping closer to the table, giving the couple a pointed look.
Tango frowned hard when hearing that, his police instincts screaming at him to interrogate the girls about what they had witnessed, then take it all to the nearest police station and report it. He managed to rein it in but, instead turned his head towards Snow Heart who was somehow turning whiter.
“Did they see them?” he asked Applejack, while never taking his eyes off the unicorn.
“Fortunately not, no,” the farmer answered. “Tango, is something goin’ on?”
“I don’t know, all I know is Caballeron is looking for his old acquaintance,” the former officer responded, still his eyes didn’t leave Snow Heart.
“I swear, Tango. I am not involved in anything with him. His arrival was just as surprising, but…” Snow Heart sighed. “But this does sound like something he would do, yes.”
High above the clouds that still lingered over parts of Manehattan, a lone pegasus flew, keeping out of sight of any other flying pony on the off chance that someone from the ground might spot him.
He was rather big and bulky for a pegasus, but his brown feathered wings were big enough to carry him. His silver-gray mane and tail were frazzled and unkempt and even torn in places. His silver-gray hooves were dirty and in places even cracked. His eyes were not focused and for brief periods, flickered green. An axe adorned his flank.
I’m not doing it, he thought. I’m not. I will not do it.
“I do not recall offering you any choice in the matter.” A dark menacing voice echoed in his head.
Get out of my head, the pegasus snarled.
“It’s not like you use it that much. Considering the mess it was in when I sprung you out of that institution. Seriously, killing children in a mad attempt to recreate the accident that killed your daughter because you wanted to try again to save her, that’s just sad,” the voice continued in a mocking tone.
I didn’t… I… shut up! The pegasus would have cried out, but invisible under his brown coat was a damaged throat so he was mute.
“I just need you for a simple task, be my eye in the sky, as it were. Need to keep an eye on a ‘friend’ of mine just for a little bit. Heard he’s been having a bad day, from what I gather it might even get worse, I wish to observe and hey if you get caught, ponies will just think you’re mad. Well they already know you’re mad, but you know what I mean.” The speaker chuckled slightly.
I will not do it. The pegasus landed on a cloud and shook his head madly. Inside his head the voice sighed tiredly.
“I could have picked any nutjob for this job but I just had to pick you. Well no matter, I’m stuck with you and unless you want to go back to your nice comfy cell, you’re stuck with me,” the speaker snorted.
The pegasus stopped shaking his head and looked up. For a moment, an expression of dread came over his face. Then his head lowered and his lips moved as if he was trying to whimper but no sound came out.
N-no I can’t go back… he cringed. Alright… alright I will do it.
“That’s a good boy. Now let’s do another flyby over the area my friend lives in,” the voice spoke.
The stallion just nodded slowly, spread his wings and taking to the air again, heading over Hoofington.
Applejack stared at the gravestone in heavy thought. Closer to it were Tango and Snow Heart. The stallion’s head was low and the unicorn mare had one hoof on his back. Behind the three ponies were the Crusaders and Sunflower.
Back at the diner, Babs had let slip the name Vanilla Cream, asking Tango if he was familiar with it. Upon hearing it, the stallion had gone pale and Snow Heart had frozen. Neither uttered a word in response for a while, it took Applejack some time to calm them back down, though it was more Tango than Snow who needed that.
Once Tango was coherent again, he had requested they step outside. He needed air. They complied and once there he had asked if they could go to the cemetery. Applejack agreed, but told the couple to go ahead first, she and the fillies needed to go collect Sunflower since it was already time for them to meet her at their next location.
On their way to the cemetery, Babs explained to Applejack about Vanilla. When they arrived, Snow Heart and Tango were already standing in front of her grave. So far nobody had uttered a word.
“She was the only pony who attempted to be friends with me, back when I was on probation,” the stallion finally broke the silence, his voice barely a whisper.
“I had no friends, though one officer in the Hoofington precinct was friendly with me, we didn’t associate much. Vanilla however… she knew everyone in the building, chatted with everyone, I think the only one she was ever not friendly with was our local former bully, Barricade.”
“After I helped Derpy and Time Turner and their friends escape from Barricade, he decided to rough me up for it. Vanilla stood up for me, he then decided to intimidate her and… well I stood up for her. I suppose we became friends, she helped me out when I needed it, often without asking.” Tango turned to look at the others, tears were slowly trickling down his cheek. “Then I pushed her away.”
“Snow Heart was still in jail and I was granted permission to visit her…” Tango halted, almost as if he couldn’t go on.
“I was… not in the best of mind back then… I was unhinged and therapy was still not working for me,” Snow Heart added. “I’m afraid Tango didn’t take it too well to see me in that condition. His depression about our situation got the better of him and he tried to ease his pain with drinking.”
“This Vanilla, came around when he was still drunk, depressed and angry. He said things he shouldn’t have said and scared her away. I don’t know quite all the details after that, but the following night, Vanilla wandered into the wrong part of Hoofington and got caught in the crossfire of a gang fight between Barricade’s gang and a rival one,” Snow looked at the other ponies, she was frowning heavily. “You can see the result in front of you.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Applejack said. She would have removed her Stetson, but had already done so upon arriving at the gravesite. Sunflower nodded sympathetically and the fillies were all cringing.
“Actually…” Tango had recovered his composure. “Barricade’s marefriend, Barbell was trying to escort Vanilla safely back home. They came across the rival gang, they tried to run away, but they caught up with them. Barbell had to go and get Barricade and his gang for help. Barricade was actually trying to save her. They even took her to the hospital.”
“Guess that solves that mystery then,” Sweetie Belle whispered to her friends. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo nodded. Babs frowned but for now didn’t say a word.
“Look Tango and Snow Heart, Ah’m sorry for any trouble we caused you. Will you two be alright?” Applejack wondered. The couple nodded. Satisfied with that answer, the apple-farmer turned around and nodded to Sunflower and the fillies to start walking.
As they started walking, Babs dragged a little behind. The filly glanced back and saw that Tango and Snow Heart were heading to the exit on the other side. It made sense, that one led to a street that had the subway back to Hoofington. Sighing, the filly hurried back after the others.
“What do you mean?” Sunflower asked, just as her sister caught up with the group. She was addressing Applejack.
“I mean, they didn’t tell us the whole story here. You saw how shaken up Tango was, even Snow Heart was nervous, considering she didn’t witness any of this and only learned it second hoof after getting out,” Applejack explained. “Then there is Barricade, cuz. I have met that pony and judging from what I’ve heard afterwards, Ah have a hard time believin’ he would lift a hoof to help anypony.”
“Yeah, I know he helped us find the girls, but I’m tellin’ ya, that was a completely different pony than I remember.” The orange pony snorted.
“Ponies can change, Applejack,” Apple Bloom pointed out.
“I know, sugarcube, but remembered what Tango said. This event with Vanilla happened shortly after Barricade tried to mess with Derpy, Turner and their friends, being the same jerk I recall him being. I doubt he had changed back then,” Applejack turned to look at her sister.
“You’re right, back then Barricade was still a jerkface,” someone addressed them. The ponies glanced over only to see Paper Scribbler standing there waving.
“Huh, Paper Scribbler, right? What are you doin’ here?” Applejack wondered.
“Oh, I wander around Manehattan as a hobby, then I saw you guys and I remembered I wanted to talk with the fillies about that mare they mentioned. I recalled more information about her,” the colt explained and trotted over to them. Around his neck dangled his camera.
“Really?” Babs said, though she doubted he would add anything new.
“Yeah, but then I overheard you talking with Tango and you already know what I was going to tell you,” Paper grinned uneasily.
“You were snoopin’ on us?” Applejack wasn’t very impressed.
“Nooooo…well accidentally…. I just happened to be visiting my parents gravesite and well you were nearby…. Okay sorry I can’t help it,” the colt hung his head, clearly a bit ashamed for listening in.
“It’s okay,” Apple Bloom assured him. The other Crusaders nodded. The adult mares shrugged since they hadn’t really been speaking any secrets it wasn’t hard for them to forgive the colt.
“But I can confirm to you that back when Vanilla died, Barricade was still running a gang, controlling Hoofington with it. He wasn’t at all like he is today,” the colt said, his unease vanishing when seeing that none of the ponies were really angry at him.
Applejack arched her eyebrow, having to admit she was becoming mildly curious about this. She blamed the many years she and her friends had saved Equestria one way or another or helped other ponies in need. It sounded to her that trouble was brewing and she could use all the information she could get.
Glancing around she spotted a small café. Remembering what Barricade had said about Paper Scribbler, she realized he might actually be able to provide her with more information on how things were going in Hoofington.
And this was supposed to be a vacation, she thought ruefully.
“Tell ya what, Paper, let’s go over there and have a sit down and you can tell us all about Barricade’s sudden attitude readjustment,” she said, gesturing to the café. She earned surprised looks from her cousins, sister and the rest of the crusaders, but Paper merely shrugged, nodded and followed the group.
End chapter 8