Several days had passed since the hospital had burned down and Scootaloo never mentioned the topic. Technically neither did Apple Bloom, however there was no doubt what she meant the next time she found Scoots alone, walked up and said only, “I’m sorry.”
There also wasn’t much doubt as to why Apple Bloom suddenly seemed interested in restoring the old town hall. It wasn’t hard to guess that, although it wasn’t the hospital, it was another large building that could serve just about any utilitarian purpose the hospital could have.
While Bloom had been content to rebuild the town hall just as it had been in her youth, no pony dared to oppose Scootaloo when she insisted on adding covered firing positions to the second floor balcony. The result being that the balcony railing that ringed the building came out looking like the top of a castle with alternating high and low sections.
And right now, hiding behind that cover, as bullets struck nearby, she was thanking her lucky stars for Scootaloo’s decision. Speaking on her pegasus friend, she noticed that she’d lost track of her amid the fighting with the raiders who where currently besieging the half built town hall building.
“Where’s Scoots?” she shouted.
Sweetie Belle and Rumble both glanced around for a moment and then each shrugged, as the mare in question couldn’t be seen from their vantage points either.
That was when an ionic blast made the ruble of the old toy store smaller, along with silencing the raider guns that had been firing from amidst said ruined building. Almost immediately after that another blast went off behind that ruined shop and the alleyway just to the left side of it was filled with flashes of lightning and thunder echoed over the town hall plaza.
“Never mind, Ah found her,” Apple Bloom said sarcastically.
With a few more flashes of lightning, the reaming raiders broke cover and fled from the alleyways, apparently completely forgetting about the three ponies on the balcony of the town hall, who quickly took advantage of fact that their enemies were openly running down the main street in full view. The defenders on the balcony returned fire at those who’d had them pinned down only a moment ago, ending the fight.
As the dust settled and silence returned to the ruins of the small town’s center, a pegasus clad in light E.U.P. armor came to the edge of the alleyway and leaned against what was left of the toy store’s outer wall as she slumped into a sitting position. And empty flask still held in her mouth and a crimson stain could be seen on the sleeve of the otherwise blue and gray armor she wore. Her wings and muzzle were the only exposed orange of the mare underneath, although her violet tail was also visible.
“Scootaloo!” Sweetie gasped once she realized what must have happened. And she then bolted from her place to rush inside, down stairs, and out to her friend’s side.
Yet when she arrived only patches of fur and healthy skin could be seen through the bullet holes in the armor Scootaloo wore.
“Heaven I’ve missed these things,” she said as she finally put the flask down beside her and tried flexing the leg in the stained sleeve.
“Scootaloo,” the unicorn said in a much sterner tone of voice. “That’s the fifth healing potion in three days. It’s not healthy to drink potions that often!” Now that she was close, she could see Scoots raise an eyebrow through the visor of her helmet. “You know the magic gets used up way faster than the reagents used to make the potion, and once that happens the reagents are still junk in your system that your body has no use for. You really should give it more time to burn that stuff out of your system!”
“When good ponies stop needing help with dangerous things that get me hurt, I’ll stop using health potions to fix the damage.”
Sweetie only glared all the harsher at her friend. “That’s it! I’m putting you on bed rest, doctor’s orders!” she declared as she swept the pegasus up in her magic.
“You’re a doctor now?” Scootaloo asked as she was levitated into the air and hulled off toward the apple farm.
“I’m the only unicorn in town who knows healing magic, which you should have let me use by the way. So yes I’m the closest thing Ponyville has to a doctor, so you bet your flank I’m going to give the doctor’s order around here!”
By now Apple Bloom had arrived. She took the empty flask Scoots had left on the ground, put it in her saddlebag and watched as her friend was dragged off like a filly being forced to come in for curfew. A part of her was tempted to comment on how her friend was using the healing potions almost as fast as she could make them. But after the hospital, she wasn’t about to withhold anything she could offer her adventurous friend, especially not something so well suited to helping ‘the town hero’ survive the role she seemed to have found herself in.
* * * * * * *
In a way Scootaloo didn’t mind the excuse to just stay in her room for the day. Technically it was the room that had belonged to Apple Bloom when they were just kids, but now that the Apple had moved into the master bedroom, this room had been left to her.
Besides, it wasn’t like being here would stop anypony from coming by and asking for her help with the next wild animal or monster or raider attack to wonder into town.
No. Thanks to her heroic return to Ponyville, everypony in town seemed to think any problem that probably needed to be solved by an adventurer/warrior was to be brought to her. Although in all fairness it probably didn’t help that she didn’t even wait to be asked for help half the time, and just went off to solve such problems just by virtue of overhearing about them.
Still an excuse to rest was an excuse to rest. And now that she’d washed and patched her armor she’d run out of petty things to do in the confines of the house, so she was perfectly happy to use this one as long as the world would allow her the reprieve.
Thinking of her armor, it was the only thing she’d actually gotten for herself when trading with the Wonderbolts. Technically she’d tried to get armor for Bloom and Sweetie too, but being that the Wonderbolts was an all pegasus unit, it wasn’t that surprising that they only had one set of old scout armor they could spare on hoof. The poor thing had been rebuild so many times it had lost all of the usual enchantments normally present on E.U.P. armor. But it was still armor even if the protective magics were long gone.
Maybe next time she could get another set for Rumble seeing as he seemed keen on playing the part of town guard.
While she noticed it, the slam on the door down stairs didn’t being her out of her thoughts. Although Apple Bloom’s voice shouting shortly afterwards did.
“Hey! Scootaloo! Get down here! You’ll never guess who just showed up!”
When she arrived in the living room, she had to concede her friend had been right. She’d have never guessed that purple earth pony with a two-toned pink mane was who she was talking about. Although the purple bandana and combat saddle sporting a simple rifle was a stark contrast for the mental image she’d had of the mare from the past, although the mare was still recognizable.
“Miss Cheerilee.”
“Scootaloo,” the earth pony mare greeted the pegasus. “I’m glade to see you found your friends. And I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful when I got your letter asking about them.”
With a shrug, Scootaloo answered, “You saved me the trouble of searching Vanhoover for them. I’d say that was helpful.”
“Wait! You knew Miss Cheerilee was alive?” Sweetie Belle interrupted.
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell us?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Interjecting herself on Scootaloo’s behalf, Cheerilee said, “In all fairness I only sent her the one letter about seven years ago. That’s a long time to assume somepony’s still okay, even if Vanhoover is the safest city on the mainland, it IS on the mainland.”
Their old teacher’s response was enough to buy agreeing nods from the Bloom and Sweetie.
Then it was Apple Boom who spoke up.
“So, What are you doing all the way out here, Miss Cheerilee?”
“Easy. I’d heard that somepony had run the slavers out of the ruins of Ponyville and restored order. But the kicker of the rumors was that it wasn’t the Wonderbolts who’d done it but somepony called ‘the crusaders.’ I don’t think I need to explain why that phrase would ring a bell with me,” she answered, giving the trio a wink.
A blush graced Sweetie’s face when she responded, “Heh. No, I can imagine we might have left an impression when we were kids.”
After a round of laughs, Cheerilee finished by saying, “Needless to say, I felt the need to see if the rumor was true. And from the looks of it, I was right to guess you mean to rebuild.”
“You’re welcome to rebuild if you want. I don’t think anypony has claimed the rubble where you used to live, or the old schoolhouse,” Scootaloo responded. Then she placed a hoof under her chin and added, “Do we even have any school age ponies in town?”
Sweetie Belle let her gaze drop as she pondered the question.
But Apple Bloom answered, “There are two. They’re too young to have lived here before the war, but Ah think the slavers killed their folks when they captured them. So Ah don’t think they have anywhere else to go. Ah’ve been inventing chores for them to do whenever they want to earn some apples.”
“That’s all right, I didn’t expect to be a teacher again when I got here. But still I would like to rebuild the Schoolhouse if I could. Better to have it in place for when things do get back to normal.”
Sweetie Belle nodded. “I don’t think anypony has cleansed the old school grounds yet, but there are four of us around that can remove the taint. So let me know when you’re ready and I’ll make sure one of us gets out there to do that for you.”
“Thank you,” Cheerilee said to the white unicorn. Then turning to look at the pegasus in the room she added, “Oh, Scootaloo, I know you were only casual friends at best growing up, but I did heard a name you might remember from the caravan I traveled with part of the way here.”
Scoots raised a curious eyebrow, but said nothing.
“They’d heard that some crazed cult had captured a caravan out by Baltimare. Diamond Tiara’s caravan. From what I heard, it sounded like they had her locked up in the old steelworks on the edge of the city.”
Without a word, the orange mare got up and started to walk away.
“Scoots! Where do you think you’re going?” Sweetie demanded.
With hardly more than a glance, Scootaloo answered, “You heard her. An old friend needs help. If she’s still alive by the time I get there, I’m going to help.”
“Not without me you’re not!” Sweetie Belle insisted.
Apple Bloom gave a quick laugh. Then she turned to her old teacher and said, “We got plenty of apples, help yourself. For anything else, ask Rumble or Dinky. They’re basically in charge when we ain’t around.” And with that she hurried after the other two crusaders.
* * * * * * *
Three mares lay hidden in a bush, atop a hill. Although it might have been more accurate to describe the withered thing as a bunch of dead branches that just hadn’t bothered to fall over yet. If it had ever had leaves before, there was no evidence of it left in the world today.
Beyond the hill was the old foundry, and the ruined skyline of the sundered city of Baltimare. The bottom half of skyscrapers and a statehouse who’s dome had long since crumbled provided the shapes of that skyline now. Every now that then there might be a two or three story building that still had the square-like shape of being mostly intact, but the taller ones had all suffered some form of serious damage.
Even the fairly intact foundry building before them had a few wooden patches over what should have been concrete walls. Or more commonly over blown out windows. And judging from the insignificant about of smoke coming out of one of the chimneys, the main forge had never been re-lit, although the lights made it a good guess that the small amount of smoke coming from it meant that the backup generator was up and running.
The yard was littered with large stacks of ingots. Ten years worth of rust proved that they were the same ones that had been there when the steelworks had been abandoned during the war. A chain link fence marked the parameter, although it had several gaps thanks to the ware and tare of time and nonexistent maintenance. Although somepony had built two small wooden towers on either side of the main gate to the yard.
Not to mention that both of those hastily constructed guard posts had a pony sitting atop, surveying the old road leading up to the steelworks. They both wore a dark purple robe and a combat saddle.
Scootaloo breathed an annoyed sigh. She would never understand demon-worshipping cultists. Apparently fighting an entire war of survival against them wasn’t enough to convince everypony that making a deal with a demon never ended well.
Although the understanding of what they were facing did bring a new concern to her mind.
“Sweetie Belle How’s your stealth?” she asked of her unicorn friend in a whisper.
Sweetie just blinked and wore a confused look on her face.
With a flick of her tail toward a bush behind them, the pegasus whispered, “Try sneaking over to that bush and back.”
The white mare moved to honor the request, but she didn’t get more than three steps before Scootaloo spoke up again.
“That’s enough,” she said when she couldn’t take the crinkling of dried grass under her friend’s hooves any more. Clearly her friends had always relayed on the simple fact that they were smaller as kids to sneak around, and not any actual skill in the matter.
“What’s up? Why the odd questions?” Sweetie finally asked.
“Don’t worry about it. The plan is, you two wait here, I sneak in, find Diamond Tiara, and cause a distraction. When the guards turn to face the problem inside, that’s your cue charge in and hit them from behind.”
“Scootaloo, Ah know you’re the only one here with real body armor, but you don’t have to put yourself in danger like that.”
The pegasus of the trio shook her head.
“This has nothing to do with armor.”
With that she began to flap her wings slowly and methodically. Not fast enough to fly, but when she took off faster than anypony had the right to run the sound made the meaning of her words clear. Or rather the absence of sound, as she moved balancing the use of all of her limbs to thread the line between running and flying in such a way that only the faintest whoosh of moving air could be heard as she left.
As Sweetie Belle crouched back down behind the bush she couldn’t help but smile and whisper, “It’s kind of funny isn’t it? The stealthiest pony we know is also the one who uses the loudest, flashiest weapon I can think of.”
Apple Bloom giggled before whispering back, “Yeah, but seeing as she survived the wastes alone for a year, apparently ‘sneak in and blow stuff up’ works.”
It was Sweetie turn to breath a whispered laugh at that comment, as the two of them lay there and watched an orange blur dart from on hiding place to another before running up the side of the building completely unnoticed. Even the guards on the roof didn’t seem to notice the roof access stairwell door open and close.
After a few minutes, Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but think out loud, “So what do you think the distraction will be?”
“Probably something blowing up.”
* * * * * * *
Inside Scootaloo stood in the rafters, between the highest beam and the ceiling, well out of sight of any of the robed ponies below.
A part of her wondered why no pony ever bothered to look up. Sure she’d heard that pegasi had taken the worse in the war, but living on a remote island Wonderbolt base she hadn’t lived it. Being one she obviously couldn’t even look in the mirror without seeing a pegasus, but even when she finally got back to the mainland she still figured she ran into one pegasus for every twenty non-pegasi.
The more focused part of her pondered how to execute her plan. Finding Diamond Tiara and the makeshift cages in the far corner of the foundry area wasn’t hard at all. But the best place to cause a distraction for the guards outside would clearly be from the offices in the front half of the building.
Causing a distraction and being in a good position to get at Diamond before anypony realized what was going on seemed to be exclusive ideas.
And then there was the fact that Tiara was shouting incoherently at… well pretty much everything near her cell. It seemed clear to Scootaloo that the pink mare in the cage was suffering form taint poisoning, yet the fact that she was still using words meant she wasn’t completely corrupted yet. Although the more she thought about it, the worse her first plan of grabbing DT and pincer attacking the cultists on the way out seemed.
With Tiara in her current state she was likely going to fight her rescuers. That thought sealed the deal. Bringing Tiara to Sweetie just wasn’t practical, she would need to bring Sweetie Belle to DT if she was going to get the captive earth pony out of the cage without seriously injuring her.
Swiftly and silently she moved along the support beam, toward the offices.
* * * * * * *
“How long do you think we should wait? Do you think something went wrong?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Truthfully Apple Bloom’s patience was running thin too. But she was going to see Scootaloo’s plan through. At least she wasn’t going to brake cover as long as everything continued to seem normal at the steelworks, and so far nothing had happened. The ponies on the roof continued to patrol and the ones manning the posts by the gate just kept sitting there looking board. No signs of commotion what so ever.
Bloom was about to respond, but that idea fell by the wayside when a blast of lightning tore open two of the windows on the second floor. The blast was unmistakably one of Scoots’ storm cloud grenades. So instead, the yellow earth pony grinned and said, “Show time!”
As one would expect, the two guards at the gate spun around to see what had just happened behind them, neither of them noticed the pistols wrapped in green magic float up behind their heads. As soon as the pistols rang out, Apple Bloom took a shot with her hunting rifle and one of the robbed ponies on the roof also fell.
Just as the two crusaders charged past the gate, the front door swung open and two more cultists came flying out. Not because they were pegasi, because they weren’t, but because they were crackling with lightning fired by the orange pegasus now in the doorway.
As soon as she saw Bloom’s eyes were still locked on the roof, Scootaloo darted off to the side and flipped to face the sky. But before she could find the target, two shots rang out. One from the roof, that grazed Bloom’s leg, and one from the farm mare, that sent the pony in the robe falling from his perch.
With a quick look around Scoots confirmed that her friends had dealt with all of the targets outside. So she spun back around and dove into the first office on the right for cover. Firing off two shots at the first ponies to come from deeper inside the building. The sound of a heavy thud told her that the covering fire had scored one hit and one miss. A rifle shot from the entrance sounded out and another thud told her that Apple Bloom was becoming quire the marksmen.
“So, what’s the plan?” Bloom asked as she and Sweetie joined their pegasus friend.
“Cages are in the back right corner of the foundry. We’re going to need Sweetie to purge her of taint before we can get her out of there.”
The locals had scrounged together a few huts and such that added to the clutter of the foundry’s smelting equipment, conveyer belts and such of the work area. Having already scouted the area, Scootaloo indicated to the right wall. Not only was it the most direct route, but it had plenty of cover to fight from.
It also meant that when the fighting intensified, several cultists took cover behind a heavy metal tank on the left side of the room. A reasonable thing to do if you were looking for cover from bullets. Although Scoots couldn’t help but wonder if the flammable sign on the side of the smallest of the fuel tanks was still valid after all these years. With a punch of her cloud she sent a lightning bolt through the small tank hooked up to one of the welding machines.
KABOOM!
It definitely still had fuel it in. Of course now half the room was on fire, and the flames were spreading toward the larger fuel tanks. While the thicker metal of the larger tanks should hold, it was still an unintended risk she’d placed herself and her friends in. Given how big the blast from the small fuel tank had been if any of the big ones went off it’d demolish the entire building.
On the upside, the confusion also provided enough cover for Sweetie Belle to find some cover close enough to the cages to start her cleansing spell on Diamond Tiara.
The other two crusaders took up positions on either side of the cage and laid down suppressing fire in the general direction of the robed ponies. Well as suppressing as lightning can be given its tendency to arc around near the target point and the shots from a riflepony who seemed determined to hit an enemy with every shot could be anyway.
For her part, Tara was swearing up a storm as the light green magic wrapped around her. But as soon as the spell completed, the pink earth pony collapsed and passed out on the spot.
Apple Bloom wasted no time blowing the lock off with a shot from her rifle and kicking the cage open. As soon as she’d thrown the former school bully turned friend onto her back, Apple Bloom called out, “Ah got her! Let’s get out of here!”
With that the crusaders made a brake back toward the front of the building. But they didn’t get more than a few feet from the cages before something emerged from one of the huts.
If she didn’t know better Scootaloo’s first guess as to what the newcomer was would have been a minotaur. But this standing creature also had large bat-like wings on its back and dark purple runes coving its body like tattoos but they were glowing with dark magic.
“A demon!” Apple Bloom gasped. “They have an actual demon!?”
The obvious guess would have been a survivor from the war. The demon war had been declared ‘won’ years ago, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any demons left. It only meant that the demons had realized they’d lost too many numbers to win fighting as an army out in the open. The last remnants of the demon army had simply disbanded and slipped into the shadows, hiding spreading taint… and apparently starting cults for some reason.
In a way Scootaloo could understand her friend’s confusion. So far every demon worshiping cult she’d run across was either still trying to summon a demon, or had already been slaughtered by the demon they had summoned. Hence her guess that this wasn’t some freshly summoned demon, but one that was trying to regain some semblance of power and had learned better than to attract the attention of the Wonderbolts and E.U.P.
And judging from the black orbs now hovering just above its hands, such pondering could wait.
“Run!” Scootaloo commanded. Yet she moved toward the demon. At the same time she used her left wing to pull her saddlebags forward, folded her right wing and slipped it into the sleeve on the back of the saddlebag where she’d rigged up the firing mechanism for her silver pistol.
Her friends got a few steps before they noticed the pegasus of their group hadn’t bolted for the front door.
“Scoots! What about you?”
“Go! I’ll be right behind you!”
The demon pitched the balls of dark magic at the orange pony. She darted between the shots, letting them explode on the floor behind her and returned fire with the pistol.
The first three hits where freebies, but once the demon recovered from the surprise he leaped for cover and fired a few wildly aimed shadow-bolt spells.
“Light infused bullets. I didn’t expect a random wanderer to be armed with such a thing. But no matter, once I’m done with you I’ll be feasting on your soul just the same!”
The demon attacked, forcing the mare to abandon her hiding spot. Scootaloo was just as content to dart between the dark spells and shoot back with her best anti-demon weapon.
The exchange was quick, yet she raised an eyebrow when she’d counted out her seventh hit. Seven had always been the magic number when she’d fought demons in the past. But this one was still alive. And worse, she missed three times in the fight too. Although technically her silver pistol could hold fourteen bullets, if she remembered correctly…
Click.
Yep, she’d only had ten bullets left the last time she’d reloaded it.
A wicked grin appeared on the demon’s face. “How ironic,” he gloated. “You came to save one sacrifice, but instead you only brought me three more!”
Her friends were clear of the building by now, but Scootaloo only needed a glance at the demon’s wings to know what he meant. His wings weren’t badly injured and that meant nothing could outrun him on hoof.
A shiver ran down Scootaloo’s spine. For the first time in a long time she felt the edges of panic clawing at her mind. Then her eyes fell on something else and she sighed. It was a lousy idea, but she knew the only way her friends survived the day was if the demon was defeated right here and now.
She pushed her saddlebags back, unfurled her wings, and pulled out two cloud puffs from her belt.
“You think I can’t take a little lightning! Ha! Go ahead! Show me what you’ve- What are you-?” the demon cut off his own boast when the pegasus mare squeezed the clouds tightly into to sparking orbs.
Before he could finish, Scootaloo pitched the storm grenades, one at the demon directly, one at the large fuel tanks right behind him.
* * * * * * *
“That’s an awfully long ‘right behind you’,” Apple Bloom muttered when she’d counted off ten full seconds since they’d made it out the front door and her friend still hadn’t emerged.
Before Sweetie could say anything back, light and sound filled the space behind them. In horror they watched their shadows dance on the ground in front of them and a roar that put every train ever made to shame drowned out all other sound. Heat washed over their backs and blow past them with enough force to make them take a staggered step to keep from falling.
Slowly the two friends turned look at pyre behind them. The top half of the building was gone. Anything that wasn’t derbies flying though the air was on fire. They even managed to catch sight of a secondary blast of black flames, heralding the demon’s death.
“SCOOTALOO!” Sweetie Belle cried out.
Tears also flowed from Apple Bloom’s eyes as she beheld the destruction.
Sweetie cried out again and tried to run back toward the burning ruins, but she could only get within a few feet of the door before the heat made her back off again.
“Scootaloo!” she cried out again.
Apple Bloom placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Sweetie Belle, Ah don’t think anypony could survive a blast like that…”
“Scootaloo…” Sweetie whimpered as she collapsed to the ground.
The fires crackled for a moment, then a jet of flames shot out of the burning doorway. The flames parted and a figured appeared among the flames inside the ruins. Wings buzzing like a hummingbird were kicking up the winds that had parted the flames, and a scorched orange hoof came into view.
Scootaloo walked out of the flames, and spit a glass flask from her mouth to the side. As she fully emerged from the flames she shifted the angle of her wings, sucking back the cold air from in front of her to wash over herself and snuff out the flames still clinging to her. Even as she walked forward, her skin could be seen closing sealing away the muscles that had been exposed from where the burns had stripped away the skin. The newly forged skin quickly sprouted new fur among the singed spots.
“Sweetie Belle, I’m sorry, but I seem to have used all of the healing potions again,” the pegasus said.
Dragging her winged friend further from the burning ruins with her magic, Sweetie pulled her into a hug and between her sobs managed to respond, “Oh… Scootaloo… I don’t care about that!… I thought we’d lost you!…”