“That's really her, right? My eyes aren't playin' tricks on me?” Apple Bloom whispered to her friends, the three of them – and Big McIntosh – sitting at a table in the O'Patty's on Queen's Avenue gaping at the young woman who had just walked in.
“If yours are, mine must be too cause I'm seeing the same thing,” Scootaloo whispered right back her eyes wide.
“I wonder what happened that caused such a drastic makeover?” Sweetie Belle wondered aloud. “She looked perfectly normal just a little while ago at the hardware store.”
“Well, whatever it was we're gonna have to wait to find out,” Apple Bloom answered, still transfixed by Sunset's short hair and leather jacket. She had gotten in line straight away, and was tapping her foot impatiently as she waited to get to the front of it. “For some reason she hasn't noticed us yet.”
“Maybe she's busy?” Sweetie suggested after a sip of her milkshake.
A thoughtful frown appeared on Apple Bloom's lips. “Hmm... maybe...”
“Mm... well...,” Scootaloo said between mouthfuls of the chicken nuggets and fries she was scarfing down. “I plan on getting the scoop the moment she walks over here.”
“But what if she leaves and doesn't sit down?” Apple Bloom asked.
Scootaloo forced herself to swallow, even pounding on her chest a few times to get everything down. Only then did she say, with a considerable amount of incredulity, “On her bike? How's she gonna carry her food like that, it'll blow away!”
“Or at least get cold really quickly,” Sweetie observed. The others stared at her until she shrugged and said, “What? It's true!”
“Still,” Apple Bloom said as the four turned their gazes once more to Sunset, who was still standing with her back to them. “We gotta get to the bottom of this. Somethin' might be wrong.”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac commented for the first time in minutes.
“Well, I for one would be happy to give her whatever help she needs,” Scootaloo said. “Or even just ask her where she got her bike,” she added with an eagerness that made her friends shake their heads.
The four continued their meal in relative silence until Sunset finally turned around with her meal on a tray. She noticed them looking at her almost immediately, and to their surprise stopped in her tracks and gave them an aggressive yet bewildered look.
“Heya, Sunset!” Apple Bloom ventured, offering her a friendly smile and wave.
For some reason, that only made things worse – the emotions on her face shifted quickly from shock, to dread, to anger, to an eerie blankness that unsettled three of the four.
“Where'd you get the cool bike?” Scootaloo added obliviously a half-second later, too enamored with the motorcycle parked out front to pay much attention elsewhere. “You didn't have that earlier when you... were...”
She trailed off as she noticed Sunset approaching, a dark and ugly scowl forming rapidly on her face. “How do you know that name?” she hissed through clenched teeth, looking straight at Apple Bloom.
Apple Bloom shared a confused and somewhat scared look with her friends, then looked back at Sunset and said, “What do you mean? Why wouldn't we know who ya are?”
“Did something happen?” Sweetie Belle blurted out. “We only saw you and Twilight a little while ago, and you didn't look at all like you do now!” She gestured towards Sunset's jacket, then looked up and focused on her hair and scar.
Though Sunset's eyes remained narrowed, for a few moments they seemed to be far more thoughtful than cold. But then the coldness returned, and she lifted her head and cast an imperious stare down at them. “I don't know what, or who, you're talking about,” she said at a low and dangerous whisper. “So if you brats know what's good for you, you'll stop staring at me like I'm an old friend or something and mind your own business.”
Then she spun on her heel, stuffed the burger she'd ordered into her mouth, and devoured it as she walked to the door. She paused for a length of time that quickly became awkward to down her soda and scarf her fries, then tossed her tray and trash aside and charged out the door.
The Crusaders watched her all the way back to her bike, only looking away when she noticed them through the glass, glared, and made a rude gesture with her finger.
Naturally, they began to talk about her the moment she put her helmet on. “So, what, was she like Sunset's long-lost twin or something?” Scootaloo asked first, scratching her head.
“Either that or she has a seriously weird case of amnesia,” Sweetie replied.
“Eeyup,” Big Mac said, nodding sagely.
“I don't know, I think the twin thing is more likely,” Scootaloo said.
“True,” Sweetie admitted. “I guess my amnesia idea doesn't really account for her suddenly having a scar. Unless Sunset had it all along and has been hiding it under make-up this whole time.”
“Who'd hide such a cool scar?” Scootaloo asked. “If it were me, I'd show it off every chance I could get.”
“Yeah, but that's you,” Sweetie countered. “Obviously Sunset cared more about her appearance. At least before the amnesia, anyway.”
“She didn't get amnesia, though,” Scootaloo countered right back. “That was obviously just her long-lost evil twin.”
“She totally could have gotten amnesia,” Sweetie said, crossing her arms defiantly.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes and looked at Apple Bloom, who was looking down thoughtfully. “Back me up here, Apple Bloom. That was Sunset's twin, right?”
“Hrmm... maybe...,” Apple Bloom answered without looking up. “But I don't know...”
“See?” Sweetie told Scootaloo almost triumphantly. “I'm not the only one who thinks it could be amnesia!”
“No, that don't sound right either...,” Apple Bloom said before Scootaloo could respond. Her friends and brother looked her way when she finally looked back up. “Remember how there's two Twilight Sparkles? The one that transferred from Crystal Prep and the one that saved us from all that magic stuff last fall?”
The others shared a look, and Scootaloo said, “Yeah? What's that got to do with anything?”
“Well, the one from last fall was some kinda magical Princess from another dimension or somethin', right?” Apple Bloom said.
“Are you saying the Sunset we just saw was from another dimension too?” Sweetie asked, brow raised skeptically.
“Maybe,” Apple Bloom shrugged. “I mean, Sunset has been involved with all that magic stuff from the start. Call me crazy, but I think that might be a possibility here.”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shared a look. “I don't know, that sounds a little farfetched if you ask me,” the former said.
“Maybe, but I'm gonna ask Applejack about it and see what she says,” Apple Bloom replied, already typing out the message.
“You really think she's gonna have any better idea about this than we do?” Scootaloo asked.
“Well yeah,” Apple Bloom said, eyes glued to her phone as she waited for the reply. “She does know Sunset better than us, after all. And if nothin' else she can ask Sunset herself.”
As if on cue, her phone went off. “'Really',” Apple Bloom read off it, deadpan. She looked up at her friends. “Really?”
“What did you tell her that she's saying 'really' to?” Sweetie asked.
“I just asked if there might be another Sunset running around like with Twilight, on account of us havin' run into a girl who looks just like here!” Apple Bloom explained.
Once again, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shared a look. “I don't think she believes you,” Sweetie said.
Apple Bloom groaned. “Well she better believe me after I tell her how all of us saw her,” she said, angrily typing out her next text.
To the group's collective surprise, the response came almost immediately. “Now she wants to know what the other Sunset was like,” Apple Bloom explained at her friends' questioning looks.
“Cool-looking,” Scootaloo said immediately. “Like, biker cool.”
“And mean,” Sweetie Belle added. “Like, as mean as the Sunset we know used to be. Maybe even meaner.”
Apple Bloom just stared at them. “I know what she was like,” she said. “I was there, remember?”
“Just making sure you get down everything,” was Scootaloo's smiling reply.
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, then moved them back to her phone. “I'm gonna tell Applejack how the other Sunset didn't recognize us, too,” she said before sending off the message.
Once again, it didn't take long at all for the response to come – and it took even less time for Apple Bloom to grin triumphantly upon reading it. “'Thanks',” she read from her phone. “'You're right that the Twilight from last fall was from elsewhere, and Sunset – the Sunset we know – is from the same place. I reckon the one y'all saw was from around here.'”
“Around here?” Scootaloo repeated, sharing a questioning look with the others. “Then how come we've never seen her before now?”
“Maybe she only just moved here?” Sweetie Belle suggested.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo shared a look. “Sounds reasonable to me,” Apple Bloom said, shrugging.
“Guess so,” Scootaloo said, mirroring the gesture. “Question is, what do we do about it?”
“Well she also says that the Sunset we know will be happy to hear we've found the other her,” Apple Bloom continued. “So I reckon we oughta try and find out even more about her.”
“How?” Sweetie Belle asked, the girls oblivious to the look of alarm that was growing on Big Mac's face. “She's gotta be long gone by now!”
“Yeah, but how many motorcycles do you see in this city?” Scootaloo replied. “It shouldn't be too hard to track down, especially since I got a good look at it.”
“You really think we can track down Sunset's doppelganger just like that?” Sweetie said, still skeptical.
Scootaloo grinned. “Sure!”
“We can just ask folks if they saw her, there's tons of people walkin' around this mornin'!” Apple Bloom said, growing excited. “A bunch of 'em even have cameras and stuff!”
Sweetie put a finger to her lip in thought. “...huh. Yeah, in that case it does seem doable... Especially since we have the truck...”
Big Mac coughed into a fist, immediately getting the girls' attention. “Got somethin' to say, big brother?” Apple Bloom asked, hope shining in her eyes.
“I think y'all are gettin' ahead of yourselves with this,” he said with a blunt sort of eloquence that took his sister off-guard. “Wantin' to help Applejack's friend is all well and good, but I'm not about to go drivin' us all over who-knows-where on some wild goose chase when we still got chores to do. Especially when that other girl made it clear she didn't wanna be found, and even threatened all four of us to leave her alone!”
“But Big McIntosh!” Apple Bloom whined in protest. “We're the only ones that can track her down! Sunset might never find her long-lost clone sister from outta town if we don't get movin' like right now!”
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo echoed.
“I don't care!” Big Mac replied, looking sternly at his sister. “If Sunset wants to look for that girl, then fine. But I'm not gonna risk the three of you gettin' hurt over this. And that's final.”
Apple Bloom hummed in displeasure and looked away defiantly, her friends doing the same. But while Big Mac thought that was the end of it and returned to polishing off his meal, the Crusaders had another plan: they stealthily caught each other's eye, and gave their patented Crusaders Signal #2.
Three phones were whipped out and turned to silent without their chaperone's notice, and the text deliberations began.
Apple Bloom had already gotten a request for more information about the other Sunset, and that made their conclusion quick and simple: Ask Applejack to overrule Big Mac's ruling, so that they could do just that. And, while they resumed eating to divert Big Mac's suspicion, the reply came in, the gist of which was that Applejack wanted to consult Sunset before deciding.
And, they soon decided in the course of their silent discussion, since Sunset was obviously going to want them to go after the other Sunset, the proper course of action was to go after her before they were asked to do so. Granted, Big Mac wouldn't be happy about it, but with Applejack on their side Apple Bloom was sure her brother would cave.
Though she wasn't confident enough about it to meet her brother's increasingly suspicious gaze for long.
But the trio was decided, and they soon found their chance – all four had finished their lunches and after a stern but silent look from Big Mac were following him back out to the truck. The Crusaders had already come to the conclusion that they wouldn't be able to use the truck for their pursuit, and as such had opted for a different course of action.
One that started with them trailing behind the older boy more and more with each passing step without him realizing it, and ended with them breaking out into a sprint away from the scene when it seemed he was least expecting it.
Of course, it didn't take him all that long for him to realize they were running away, or for him to yell for them to stop and come back. Hastily getting into his truck so he could chase them was a little different, as it involved him banging his head on the roof and quite a few swears before he could slam the door and start the engine. Once he finally pulled out of the O'Patty's parking lot, he quickly realized that he couldn't see any of the girls anymore.
He swore again.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, this was not as good an idea as I thought it was,” Apple Bloom muttered frantically to herself, forced down into hiding behind an alleyway dumpster by two firm hands on her shoulders. “He's gonna be so mad at me, and he's gonna tell Granny, and she's gonna be mad too, and—”
“Ssh! Quiet!” Sweetie Belle hissed into a single raised finger in front of her mouth. “Everything will work out once we find the other Sunset!”
“Yeah!” Scootaloo echoed. She was crouched furthest from the wall, and as such was leaning out just far enough to get a peek at the street at the end of the alley. She spotted what looked like Big Mac's truck passing by, gasped, and got back into hiding.
“What? What is it?” Sweetie Belle quickly asked.
“It's my brother, isn't it?” Apple Bloom moaned.
Scootaloo shushed them both, and the three waited with bated breath for what felt like ages. Until, eventually, Scootaloo whispered, “Okay, I think we're in the clear.” She slowly leaned back out from the dumpster...
There was nobody there.
“Yup, we're in the clear,” Scootaloo repeated after breathing a sigh of relief. She stood up, Sweetie Belle followed, and after a moment they pulled Apple Bloom back up as well. “Come on, Apple Bloom. You came up with this plan, and we all agreed to it. There's no going back now,” Scootaloo told her.
“Yeah there is!” Apple Bloom countered, reaching into her pocket. “We just gotta call Big Mac and apologize, and it'll be like nothin' happened!” She pulled out her phone, but Sweetie Belle grabbed her wrist before she could use it.
“No, Apple Bloom,” she said with a stern look. “You said it yourself, Applejack's practically guaranteed to be fine with us looking for the other Sunset. As long as we stay out of trouble, we have nothing to worry about!”
“But we're already in trouble, that's the thing!” Apple Bloom protested. “Just tryin' to hide from Big Mac made me realize that Applejack ain't gonna be happy that we ran off without him before she even said it was okay to go look! This is exactly the sort of thing that always gets us into trouble!”
“You're only realizing this now?” Scootaloo asked, hands on the back of her head and brow raised in disbelief.
Apple Bloom looked at her, dumbfounded. “Are you tellin' me you knew this was gonna get us into trouble no matter what, and you didn't try to stop it?”
Scootaloo grinned. “Are you kidding? This is exactly the sort of cool stuff I've been wanting to do all day! Who cares if we get grief for it later?”
“Like you got anything ta worry about,” Apple Bloom muttered, face falling into a flat stare. “I'm sure Rainbow Dash will just give you a high five when she finds out!”
Scootaloo chuckled and rubbed her nose. “Yeah, she totally will...”
That earned a groan from Apple Bloom, who shook her head and looked at her other BFF. “You understand me, don'tcha Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie responded with a shrug. “Actually, I'm fine with all of this.”
Apple Bloom stared at her, gaping and dumbfounded. “You can't be serious! Yer sister and parents are gonna be furious!”
“True,” Sweetie conceded, “but since we're gonna be sophomores in a couple months, I figured it was high time to try my hand at teenage rebellion.”
Apple Bloom could only face-palm at that, and even Scootaloo did too.
Then Scootaloo shook her head, sighed, and went back to smiling confidently. “Well, at a vote of two to one, it looks like we're gonna keep going!”
“Yeah!” Sweetie cheered.
Apple Bloom groaned. “Me and my dumb ideas...”
An approximate consensus reached, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo cautiously shepherded their friend back out into the open. And once they grew confident that Big Mac wasn't just about to show up and bust them, they began the next phase of their operation.
“Pardon me,” Sweetie asked of a businessman with pale blue skin as he was walking past, “but have you seen a woman on a motorcycle come through here? Wearing a black leather jacket and black helmet?”
The man paused, clearly taken off-guard by the sudden query. But the girls' pleading faces made him think, and after a moment he shook his head and said, “No, sorry.”
He went on his way without another word, leaving the three girls to stand around disappointed.
But only for a moment. “Come on,” Scootaloo said, waving for her friends to follow as she headed down the sidewalk. “We gotta keep trying. Maybe find somebody who's been walking around out here for a few minutes.”
Sweetie Belle followed quickly after her, but then stopped and went back to drag Apple Bloom along with them.
Another businessperson, an old lady, a cyclist, and a pair of hippies later, and the Crusaders were no closer to finding the other Sunset than they had been when they started.
Then they spotted a greasy-looking man operating a hot dog stand, and shared a look. “He's probably been out here awhile, right?” Scootaloo suggested before the three approached him.
“What'll it be, kids?” he asked with a pleasant smile when they reached the stand.
“Actually we were wondering if you'd seen any motorcycles come by recently,” Sweetie asked.
“Motorcycles?” the man replied, raising a brow in confusion. “What're you lookin' for motorcycles for?”
The girls shared another look. “It's... a friend of ours, kind of,” Sweetie eventually said. “She's been acting weird lately, and we're worried she might be doing something she shouldn't.”
The man narrowed his eyes and hummed in thought, prompting Scootaloo to lean forward in a very sly manner, at least as far as she was concerned. “There's something in it for you if you tell us what we wanna know...” she said, waggling her eyebrows as she slid a few small bills from her pocket across the counter of the cart.
That only got the man to raise an eyebrow. “Uhh, okay then. I did see a motorcycle turn east onto the Parkway a few minutes ago,” he answered, pocketing the cash and pointing a finger to the east. “Haven't seen any others this morning, so that's probably your friend.”
“Thanks, mister!” Scootaloo beamed at him, leading her friends off down the street moments later.
The man watched them go for as long as he could, then looked down at his cart and sighed. “Wouldn't have minded if you'd actually bought a hot dog,” he muttered to himself.
It was only a few blocks after the hot dog stand that the Crusaders encountered something peculiar – a group of people, mostly young men, carrying cameras that were milling about on a street corner. Most looked to be preoccupied by their phones.
“Err, excuse me,” Apple Bloom said with no small amount of hesitance. “Have any a' y'all seen—”
“No,” said the gray-skinned young man closest to her with a sharp glare to match his tongue. “Now scram!”
Apple Bloom recoiled a bit, but before she could say anything another man put a hand on the first one's shoulder. “Dude, chill,” he said. “They're just a couple of kids. Let 'em ask questions.”
“Uh, dude,” the first man mimicked, sounding supremely annoyed, “I don't care if they're kids! We already gotta compete with all these other guys for the scoop of the century,” he motioned to the rest of the group, who were starting to turn and shoot curious or annoyed looks at him, “I don't wanna add three random little brats too!”
“Hey, we're not brats!” Apple Bloom protested, puffing up in anger. “We're just lookin' for someone!”
“Yeah, well join the club,” the first man said bitterly before turning away with a huff.
The second man gave an awkward sort of laugh, then looked at the girls. “Well, if it's those superheroes that have been turning up around here lately, I'm afraid we've lost track of them too. But we're expecting word from some of the other hero trackers soon, so if you like you can wait around with us.”
The Crusaders shared a confused look. “Superheroes?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“They probably mean Rainbow Dash and that Mare-Do-Well character,” Scootaloo answered, unaware of the attention she'd suddenly attracted – even from the prickly first man.
“Well, we aren't lookin' for those two,” Apple Bloom said, addressing the second man. “We're lookin' for a girl on a motorcycle wearin' a black leather jacket. You seen someone like that come through recently?”
“Motorcycle?” the second man repeated, the word echoed by several other members of the group as they turned to each other. “We've seen someone on a motorcycle... a couple times, right?”
“Yeah, and it was always the same person,” said a third man.
“Wasn't she doing the same thing we are?” asked a fourth. “That's what it seemed like, anyway...”
“H-hold on,” the first spoke up, stepping forward and holding out a hand for the others to stop. “What was that you said? Rainbow Dash?” A round of murmurs rose up among the men again. “Knowing Mare-Do-Well's name is one thing, but you said that other name like it was obviously the Armored Rainbow's name...”
“Well yeah, that's cause it i—” Apple Bloom began to say, cut off only by Scootaloo – who was grinning deviously as she covered her friend's mouth.
“So... you guys wanna know more about Canterlot's latest and greatest superhero, don't you?” she asked.
Someone in the back of the group immediately said, “She's not a superhero if she doesn't do anything but fly around!” And just as quickly he received dirty looks from several others, Scootaloo included.
“For the last time, Press, that's not the point!” the first man said before sullenly looking back at the girls. “But yeah, we're looking for them,” he admitted with a vague gesture to the others around him. Then he muttered, not quite under his breath, “Though who isn't these days?”
Scootaloo grinned. “Thought so! Well, tell ya what: you tell us what we wanna know, and I'll tell you a bit about Rainbow Dash.”
Before anyone could say anything else, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom pulled Scootaloo off to the side and into a huddle. “Are you sure you should be saying that?” Sweetie hissed.
“Yeah, this is the sorta thing you'd think Rainbow Dash and them would wanna keep secret,” Apple Bloom added.
“Relax!” Scootaloo told them, her grin wide. “If Rainbow Dash didn't want people to know, she woulda put a mask on or something before flying around where everyone can see her. And it's not like we have to tell those guys about anyone else!”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle shared an uncertain sort of look. “Well...” Sweetie began.
“...I guess,” Apple Bloom finished. “And the longer we spend searchin' the more trouble it'll be to find her, so we might as well get this over with...”
“Awesome, I knew you'd see it my way!” Scootaloo beamed. She broke the huddle and walked back towards the group of men, asking, “So do we have a deal, or what?”
“Fine, fine,” the first man said impatiently. “You wanna know about that biker chick or whatever, right?”
“That's right!” Scootaloo answered. “Specifically, how long ago did you see her last and which direction did she head in.”
“Tell us what you know about the Armored Rainbow first,” the man countered.
“Hey, that's no fair!” Apple Bloom protested, both her friends riled up too. “We're barely askin' for anything and you want us to tell ya so much more!”
“Like I care!” the man said. “Either spill the beans or stop wasting our time!”
The second man smacked him upside the back of the head. “Dude, stop,” he said when the first man looked at him, gaping in outrage. “If you don't wanna tell them anything, then fine. I will.” He turned back to the girls. “So the Armored Rainbow's real name is Rainbow Dash?”
“Yes...,” Scootaloo answered after a moment, looking at him suspiciously.
He stared at her for a moment, then nodded. “Okay then. That's all we really need to know. That biker chick you're looking for rode by a few minutes before you three turned up. We thought she might be on the case of that, uh, friend of yours so we followed her a bit before we got word that she was nowhere near the Armored Rainbow. Best I can figure is that she was headed somewhere southeast, though obviously I don't know where.”
And, as one, the Crusaders began to grin. “Thanks, mister!” Apple Bloom told him.
“Yeah!” Scootaloo chimed in before turning to her friends. “Alright, let's get moving!”
“Crusaders for Justice Forever!” the three cheered – loudly – raising their hands together. They ran off bearing south moments later, leaving the group of men wincing a little and staring a lot.
After a moment, the second man smirked and pulled out his phone. “And now to dredge up everything we can about this 'Rainbow Dash' character...”
Big Mac was getting worried. It had been over an hour since he'd last seen his sister and her friends, and neither he nor Applejack had been able to get through to Apple Bloom's phone. He knew the big city was, well, big, and that his sister and her friends had a knack for getting into trouble without anyone knowing, but not being able to find them after driving around looking for so long just felt ridiculous.
He couldn't help but worry that something bad had happened to them. Like one of them had been hurt, or all of them had been hurt, or they'd been kidnapped by creeps, or...
He quickly shook those thoughts away as he came to a stop at a red light. It wouldn't do for him to lose focus while driving and cause an accident. The last thing he need was for poor Granny Smith to have to hear that two of her grandkids had been hurt today...
Granny Smith... She wasn't going to be happy, Big Mac knew that for a fact. The best he could hope for was a scolding when he came back with Apple Bloom for having let her run off to begin with. And if something were to actually happen to her... Well, knowing her, she wouldn't blame him. Not out loud.
But he could just imagine the expression that would be on her face when she thought he wasn't looking. It made his lip tremble just thinking about it...
A loud honk came from behind him, startling Big Mac back into reality. He pressed down on the gas, and continued on in search of his missing sister. He wasn't about to let anything happen to her, not if he could help it.
“Are you sure we're going the right way?” Scootaloo asked Sweetie Belle as they and Apple Bloom jogged down the sidewalk. “Cause it doesn't feel like you know where you're going.”
Sweetie Belle looked over her shoulder and gave Scootaloo a Look. “Well, seeing how nobody we've talked to for the past twenty minutes has been able to give us a solid lead, I'd have to say duh. Obviously we don't know where we're going right now.”
“Yeah, Scoots, we're just runnin' around hopin' we catch sight a' her,” Apple Bloom added with a frown. “I thought you realized that by now!”
“Oh, sorry,” Scootaloo told them with a dopey sort of grin. “I guess I just sorta zoned out once we started running.”
Her friends continued their stares until she laughed and said, “Jeez, I said I was sorry! I'll pay attention from now on!”
Sweetie sighed, then turned her attention back forward. “You'd better. I don't wanna have to keep explaining what we're doing when you should already know.”
“Right, totally, don't worry about it,” Scootaloo reassured her. Then, a moment later, she added “So, uh...”
Sweetie Belle skidded to a stop and wheeled around on Scootaloo, forcing her – and Apple Bloom a split second later – to stop as well. “Everyone that we've talked to who's seen that other Sunset lately has either said she's been driving around following Rainbow Dash, or was heading southwest. And since Rainbow Dash isn't around here, obviously we need to check out what's southwest first to see where she might have gone.”
“Isn't that, like, a lot of ground to cover?” Scootaloo questioned.
“We're hopin' we find her before too long,” Apple Bloom said.
“Well if she's still looking for Rainbow Dash, I guess I could always just call her and let her know what's up,” Scootaloo said. “Maybe we could try and trap her or something?”
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom shared a look, then looked at Scootaloo. “That's actually a pretty good idea,” Apple Bloom said.
“Yeah,” Sweetie echoed.
Scootaloo gave them a sour look. “Well why are you saying it like that?” she asked them. “Like I've never had a good idea before.”
“Well you have been zonin' out for a while now,” Apple Bloom said, deadpan. “Ya can't really blame us all that much for thinkin' your head isn't in the game.”
“Well,” Scootaloo said, crossing her arms defiantly, “my head's in the game now. So let's just do my idea and call Rainbow Dash.”
“But what if the other Sunset isn't looking for her anymore?” Sweetie said. “I mean, it's not like she was actively looking for her when we met her back at O'Patty's.”
“Well where else is she gonna be right now?” Scootaloo asked. “It's not like she's still looking for something to eat, either!”
“She's gotta be at her home, right?” Apple Bloom said. “Or apartment, or hotel room, or wherever else she's stayin'.”
Scootaloo looked around at their surrounding with a thoroughly skeptical expression. They were currently in one of the visibly poorer sections of Canterlot, the buildings around them old and worn around the edges. More than one window was broken or boarded up, and graffiti peered out from the walls of several alleyways. “Why would she live around here?” Scootaloo asked.
“Cause it's cheap and she can't afford to stay anywhere else?” Sweetie answered.
“She could also just be passin' through to somewhere else,” Apple Bloom pointed out. “We won't rightly know until we find her.”
“Well, I'm guessing she was just passing through,” Scootaloo said with something like a knowing look. “No way would someone as cool as her live in a place like this.”
Her friends shared a look. “I don't think that's really how it works, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said.
Scootaloo crossed her arms and sniffed. “Well, whatever. Let's just keep moving, the sooner we find her the better.”
Sweetie Belle sighed. “We know, we know,” she said as the trio resumed walking towards the end of the block. Their walking pace quickly escalated into a jog, all three eager to find either their target or someone with information thereof as quickly as possible.
What they found was something else entirely.
“A-Apple Bloom?!”
“Sweetie Belle!”
“Rarity!”
“A-Applejack!”
“Well, this was pretty unexpected,” Scootaloo remarked as her friends stared slack-jawed at their sisters – the expression returned in full by the two older girls idling in the convertible at the intersection they'd come to. “I thought for sure it would be Big McIntosh that found us first.”