As they left the baron's office, they suddenly collided with a young woman carrying a load of clean sheets, with the sheets dropping to the floor upon impact.
"Oh no!" Twilight exclaimed, "We are so sorry!" she, Spike, and Sunset started to pick up the sheets and started to fold them up again.
The woman gave a warm smile, "Thank you, although I'll have to wash these again as my mistress is very fussy about clean sheets to sleep in."
Sunset chuckled, "We know what you mean; our castle housekeeper is very strict when it comes to tidiness."
"Castle? Why that means… you're from Canterlot!"
Spike smiled, "Guilty as charge."
The woman looked confused, "But you don't act like anyone who's from Canterlot… I should know, my master and mistress have had to entertain many guests from Canterlot."
Twilight replied, "That's because Spike and I were originally from here."
"Wait… Are you the son and daughter of Sir Night Light of the noble house of Sparkle?"
Both Twilight and Spike were surprised to hear that with the purple-haired girl slowly asking, "Yes… do we know you?"
"Well, not me; per say, but you might have know my parents, they were your estate's gardeners."
"Oh!" Twilight gasped out, "I think I remember now, they told us they had two children."
"That's right, me and my brother. I'm Gloriosa Daisy." she curtsied with Twilight and Sunset curtsying back and Spike bowed.
Twilight stated, "It's an honor to meet you, Gloriosa."
Sunset offered, "If you want, we can help you with washing those sheets to make up for getting them dirty again."
Gloriosa shook her head, "Don't worry about it, I got this." grabbing hold of the sheets, "And I believe you were on your way out to attend to your business."
"You're sure we can't stay to help?" Spike asked.
"Believe me, I got everything under control but it was so nice to meet you at last. Bye!" She walked away.
Once they were outside they headed for the carriage where their entourage was waiting for them.
Flash asked, "So what do we do now?"
Twilight instructed, "We wait until nightfall to leave the food for the villagers, in the meantime, Spike and I are going to look up some old friends that might still be around."
Spike said, "I suggest we go to the Apple farm first because we know Applejack will still be here given her family has lived here for a long time." and he secretly thought, And maybe by seeing her, my dreams of her will finally be over…
Twilight and Sunset exchanged cringing looks as Twilight calmly told her brother, "Um… Spike, maybe we shouldn't, it is the harvest season after all and she's going to be too busy to visit with us."
"I find that hard to believe, Twilight, we haven't seen her in like six years, so I doubt she would mind seeing us. If anything, she'll be thrilled, all of our old friends will be."
"I-I know that, Spike, but maybe…" her brain rattled for a good excuse, "But maybe we should focus more on our mission of feeding the needy and that's something Applejack would want us to do, now that I'm thinking about it, that's what the others would us to do too. So how about this, we start scouting the village to see who needs food the most and once we're done there, we go on to the next town and the next until we run of supplies and then we come back here to visit our old friends. How's that?"
Spike thought it over, what his sister said made sense but at the same time it did seem rather suspicious that she would put off seeing their friends after being away from them so long.
Sunset could tell that Spike was finding his sister's statement to be strange that she knew he needed a distraction and fast, "And you know, those bandits that had rob Baron Filthy Rich could still be around here somewhere that it might not be a bad idea if you tracked them down and report them to the Sheriff's men so they can be dealt with all the while the baron and the village will be safe from them."
Spike's eyes widen in realization and commented, "You're right, Sunset, and as a knight of the realm it is my swore duty to find those criminals and bring them to justice."
Sir Spitfire volunteered, "We'll come with you, sir."
"No, this is a job for one. I will not engage them unless I have to. I will simply find their hiding place and report my findings. The rest of you will stay with my sister to feed the needy."
Twilight took his hand, "Just be very careful, Spike…"
He grasped it, "You know I will…" then he let go as he gave a salute to his men and started heading to where the Everfree Forest was, figuring that's where the bandits would be to find cover from the law.
Applejack wiped her brow from the sweat it produced. She stopped with pulling the wood up and took a breather by resting against the tree. She relaxed and closed her eyes for a moment until she heard the snap of a twig and quickly got her feet. She checked her surroundings and saw nothing there. Figuring it was just an animal scurrying around she sat back down next to the tree and started to relax again until another snap happen followed by another. But this time the snapping was accompanied by the sound of footsteps and that made her on edge and quickly put up her hood and mouth cover. While it could be Rainbow Dash or any of the other girls she just couldn't take that chance of being recognized by the Sheriff's men.
She then climbed up another tree to get a good look at who was walking around in the forest. Much to her dismay she spotted a man wearing armor with his helmet visor covering his face.
He'll have to leave at some point… All I have to do is wait and-
Her thoughts were cut off when the branch she was standing on suddenly broke and she fell to the ground.
Spike was alerted by the noise and swiftly got his sword out as he went toward the sound. He found a figure lying on the grass and when it sat up he could see his face was covered. He immediately knew this was one of the bandits he was looking for.
"Stay where you are." he ordered while pointing his sword.
The masked person scowled and muffled through his covering, "I think not…" and out of nowhere the bandit drew his own sword and clashed it with the knight's sword.
The bandit quickly got on his feet making a break between them. Both of them held their swords out at arm's length.
The knight inquired, "Are you one of the bandits that stole from Baron Rich?"
The masked figure stated in a gruff tone, "Depends on your definition of bandit."
"What is that suppose to mean?"
"That's not your concern."
"Then why didn't you tell me that in the first place?"
"Again, not your concern."
He grunted in annoyance, "Ugh! Look, I just want to know if you are one of the bandits that's been terrorizing this village!"
"Terrorizing? Ha! You would know a lot about terrorizing! Ever since you and those other knights came into our town, you've been making the people suffer by forcing them to give up their money and all for that selfish prince!"
"We don't have a choice! We have to follow his stupid rules!"
"No, it just means you're cowards for not standing up to him!"
He gasped, "You take that back!"
"Why don't you make me then?" the figure readied himself in an en garde position.
The knight glowered, "If that's the way you want it… Fine." he also readied himself in the same position.
Neither of them moved for awhile until the bandit taunted, "Just as I thought… you are a coward…"
That did it for the knight as he advanced in on his opponent with a yell. The bandit went into a combat stance and locked swords with the knight as each struggled to get the upper hand. They circled around as the metal clashed against each other. This went on for some time, making the knight question.
"Had enough?"
The bandit merely scoffed, "I could do this all day!"
They went back to clashing but they were also slowly getting tired. After a few more parries, the knight commented.
"I will admit, in all my years of swordfighting, never had I had a more worthy opponent."
The bandit said in a mock sincere tone, "Why thank you, I learned from the best."
"Oh yeah? Well so did I!" he lunged at the person.
The bandit managed to block him in time as he said, "I will say this, you do fight well, but I was hoping for something…" he cocked a brow while saying in a smug tone, "more…"
The knight's eyes widen in shock before he scowled deeply as he proclaimed, "You want more?! I'll give you more!" he fervently swished his sword at the bandit.
But the bandit was quick on his feet avoiding swipe after swipe. But he was getting more exhausted by the minute and so was the knight. But the both of them refused to give up the fight. They kept this up for the longest time until their arms grew weak and began to pant a little. There was a break between them as they kept staring at the other with hatred.
The knight then spoke, "Bandit, I believe we are at an impasse. It seems neither of us can defeat the other."
"For once we agree…" the mask man panted.
"I still must arrest you but you have fought with honor today so I will let you go for now."
"You're too kind, sir knight. I will admit, I am surprise to see that coming from one so cowardly."
He uttered in irritation, "I will take that as a compliment. Still, it would be nice to know who my worthy rival is."
"Nice try, you won't get my real name, however you may have the honor of calling me… Robin Jack."
"Robin Jack? That's the phoniest name I've ever heard of."
"Well you can take it or leave it, which is what I am doing right now, leaving." the bandit put his sword back in his scabbard and ran deeper into forest making him disappear into the trees.
Spike took his helmet off to wipe his sweat away from the battle. He still looked at where the bandit ran off to and thought, Who is this Robin Jack…?
Meanwhile, when Applejack was sure it was safe enough, she removed her hood and face cover before cupping some stream water in her hands to cool and clean her face off. All the while she thought, Who was that knight…? And why was he so noble enough to let me go…? But she was too tired to think on it further as she composed herself and made her way back to the camp.