//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Good Crusader Hunting 
// by Flutter-Spark 
//------------------------------//

The trio traveled in silence. It wasn't that they didn't want to talk, more that none of them had anything to say which hadn't already been said. Thus, the silence remained, and grew steadily more tense for each of the three fillies as they marched in single file.
Apple Bloom led the way, but she would never presume to know where she was going. The only thing she knew about their road–if blindly picking a direction and trying to stick to it could be called having a "road"–was that she was set against going back, in a circle, or towards Zecora's house. She wasn't sure if the zebra shaman even read the newspapers, but she didn't want to take the chance. After how Applejack, her own sister, had acted, she wasn't eager to learn how bad her reception would be with her "mentor". That was the truth, as sure as her sister bore the Element of Honesty.
Behind her trotted Sweetie Belle, her head bowed so she could only see her friend's tail and hooves. She sighed softly, and pictured in her head the scene of Rarity as she'd discovered her little sister's betrayal of trust. She had known what she was doing, she had known it was wrong, and yet she had ignored everything her heart had tried to tell her in favor of listening to her head and the fear of being humiliated by Diamond Tiara. It was selfish, completely unbefitting of both a lady and the little sister of the Element of Generosity, and, more to the point, it was no one's fault but her own. She could have refused, taken her lumps from being ridiculed by her friends and neighbors in Rarity's stead, but she had made her choice. As wise ponies would say it, she had "made her bed".
Scootaloo, however, was perhaps the most despondant, trailing behind her friends so slowly that she had to jog every other minute to keep them in sight, and spent every minute between with her head and wings nearly dragging the ground. While usually the second-toughest, least dramatic of the group, she was struggling the hardest to hold back tears. Rainbow Dash, her idol, her mentor and–most painful of all–her surrogate sister in all but official papers–had frowned upon her, cast her aside and even drenched her with rain. While the latter, any other time and with a chuckle or a grin, would have been an easily accepted prank, the sheer disgust in Rainbow's eyes had broken the filly's heart. 
She wanted to blame Diamond Tiara. She wanted to claim loyalty to her friends. She wanted to admit and confess over and over that she had simply been too scared of humiliation to go against a bully. They all did, really, and Scootaloo knew her friends well enough to know it. But she, just like them, knew that it was their fault. Real Loyalty would have been to stand up to Diamond. True Honesty would have been to state that they didn't want to accept her deal. Genuine Generosity would have been to endure the humiliation instead of humiliating others, and doing so in silence with dignity.
But now they walked, each knowing it was far too late. They had messed up, and the only way to fix it was to leave. After all, if they weren't there to make things worse, it'd be easy to clean things up, right? And none of them wanted to stay and endure the pain anymore than they had.
Finally, Scootaloo fell behind and simply stopped walking, planting her plot in the dirt and sighing heavily, a hoof reaching up to wipe the petulant salty water from her eyes. "This stinks," she said. "Why'd we do it? Why?"
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both stopped and turned to their friend, but it was the latter who asked, "'Why'd we play Diamond's game,' or 'Why did we leave town?'"
Sniffing, Scootaloo shrugged. "Either, or both. I don't really care anymore."
"Ya know the answers already, Scoots," Apple Bloom said, and for the first time her voice was lacking of its usual energy as she sat in front of her friend. "We all did it 'cause we didn't have no nerve to stand up fer ourselves or our friends. We left 'cause ya'll know same as ah do we don't wanna deal with Diamond or face the town no more. It's-" She swallowed hard as tears began to bead her own eyes, refusing to let them fall. "It's better this way. Ya'll know that. An' so do ah."
Sweetie Belle hiccuped a little as she joined them, forming a triangle between them, and whimpered, "Doesn't make it hurt less..."
"Nah, ah... Ah guess not."
Once again silence fell over the trio, and was disturbed only by the occasional sniff or sigh as they simply stared at the ground, lost in thought. Birds chirped overhead and squirrels chattered back and forth, but nothing was able to lift their spirits for even a moment. Not even when a rabbit, it's curiosity outweighing the usual fearful nature, walked up to and almost brushed itself against Sweetie's leg did they move, only turning their heads or eyes enough to watch as it, in turn, watched them. For a moment, they imagined it replaced by a butter-yellow Pegasus, and all three choked back heavy sobs, the noise startling and sending the rabbit running.
"Sh-she was so upset," Sweetie said, and neither of the other two fillies needed her to clarify who she meant.
"An' Twilight... A-ah ain't ever seen her p-put up a shield on the library a'fore..." A long sniff, and Apple Bloom swiped angrily at her eyes. "Spike looked ready to spit fire if'n we'd managed to get through the shield..."
"He's a dragon," Sweetie murmured, trying to smile but failing miserably. "He's always ready to s-spit fire..."
Understandably, no one laughed. If anything, it made them all feel worse.
"I-I'll bet P-Pinkie was g-going gray," Scootaloo said. "L-like when she had th-that p-party craze g-going on, rememb-ber? She was s-so upset when she th-thought everyone was t-trying to avoid her..."
Each paused a moment, glancing from the filly to the left to the one at the right. Then all three threw themselves forward and wrapped forelegs around one another as they burst into tears, each one finally succumbing to the pain and sorrow and regret. They stayed that way, even after their throats started to hurt from the vocal part of crying, and simply let the tears fall until they were all but blinded.
Finally, Apple Bloom sniffed and broke the hug, and all three sat back again as they struggled to wipe away and contain their anguish. "W-well, n-nothin' else we can do but c-carry on, ah guess... One way or another..."
She didn't finish her sentence, but they all three knew what was left unsaid. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded to their club's unofficial leader and stood with her as she took one final swipe at her tears. Then, once more falling into line, they set off, keeping closer together but with no less of an ache in their hearts, each one weighed down by what had been left unspoken, whether it meant the road ahead or the cause of their hurt.
We can never go back.