The Equestrian Odyssey - A Tale of Two Worlds

by Kamahido


Chapter 9 - Stallion Against Stallion

Having showered, Scootaloo and Arc head back to the Sheriff’s Office. Entering, they find him behind the desk going over a stack of papers. The stallion from earlier lies in a cell. He calls out angrily.

“YOU!”

Scootaloo mock salutes him. “Hi. Enjoying your stay?”

“When I get my hooves on you…!”

The sheriff frowns at him. “You already had your chance.”

Scootaloo nods. “Right. Give somepony else a turn.”

She turns to the sheriff.

“In any case, I think you have some posters for me.”

“They’re over there on the desk. Help yourself.”

Scootaloo turns to see a stack of posters.

“There must be a hundred here!”

“A hundred and twenty five actually. The gang’s been growing lately. Or at the very least… trouble has.”

“Why now?”

“Trouble in Canterlot I imagine. There’s been less guard patrols out here, so they’re becoming more brazen in their schemes.”

“Anypony hurt?”

The sheriff shakes his head. “Nothing serious. But we shouldn’t wait until that happens to act.”

“So what are you doing about this?”

“Not much admittedly. I contacted Canterlot for help some time ago, but received word that their forces were needed elsewhere. Whatever that means.”

Scootaloo takes the stack of posters and turns to leave. “I’ll see what I can do. No promises though.”

The stallion in the cell laughs. “Your funeral!”

Scootaloo and Arc return to their room at the inn. She sets the stack on the table and frowns.

“This is going to be a LOT of work.”

“That it is. Admittedly I wasn’t planning on staying here longer than it took to earn enough money to buy supplies though.”

“We going after these marks?”

“Probably should. You want a nap first though?”

Scootaloo shakes her head. “Nah, I’m good.”

“Okay. Let’s go over these then.”

Sitting at the table, the pair skim the posters. Scootaloo frowns.

“Looks like the sheriff was right. Nothing here is really too serious.”

Arc sighs. “I suppose not. But there are a few really bad apples in here.”

“Oh?”

Arc holds up a paper. “This one put someone in the hospital.”

Scootaloo gasps. “Are they okay?”

“Yeah. But next time this individual might go farther. Let’s stack the posters from most dangerous to least.”

“How?”

“By bounty amount.”

They set to work. As Scootaloo finishes she looks at the top poster.

“That should do it.”

“The top couple are little more than errand boys.”

“So we skip them, right?”

Arc shakes his head. “Nope. If anything, we start with them.”

“Why? You said they weren’t dangerous.”

“They’re not. But if we can interrupt communication between the gangs, it’ll cause them trouble.”

“How so?”

It’ll either force them to send others with messages, or cut off communication with their other camps.”

“What makes you think they have numerous camps?”

“Over a hundred criminals in one place would be easy to spot. But spread out and it makes the job of tracking them down that much more difficult. And if we can make them waste time communicating they’ll have less time to act.”

“So we should head out and looks for what?”

“Paths. We find the messengers, and they’ll lead us to the camps.”

“Clever, Big Brother. When do we leave?”

“This evening at dusk.”

“What about Miss Ruby and cherry picking?”

Arc sighs. “We’ll run down to the ranch now and tell her our plans. Then we should head for the store for a quick purchase before returning here to rest until dusk.”

“But I thought you said we were going after these messengers.”

“That we are. However I don’t want to go into this tired.”

Scootaloo shrugs. “Okay.”

Arc cloaks and follows Scootaloo to Cherry Hill Ranch. Spotting Ruby in the orchard with her workers they walk over to them. Ruby smiles at their approach.

“Hello again.”

“Hi, Miss Ruby. Big Brother wanted me to tell you that we won’t be around for a while.”

“Oh?”

“We’re working on ideas to stop a group of bad ponies from hurting anypony else.”

Ruby gasps. “You are?!”

Scootaloo nods. “Yes. We’ve already taken down two of them. But we don’t have time to do that and work on the ranch. Sorry.”

“It’s alright, dear. But I do wish you wouldn’t do this. Those stallions are nothing but trouble, yes. However you’re just one filly!”

“I’ll be okay. Big Brother will be with me.”

Scootaloo yawns before continuing.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to work. I need to get some rest for tonight. Bye!”

She turns and hurries back toward town. One of the mares picking cherries turns to Ruby.

“What was that all about?”

“She’s been coming here at night to pick cherries. Quite a strong little filly.”

“Her brother too?”

Ruby shakes her head. “I’ve never seen her with anypony else before. Don’t tell her this, but I believe her so-called ‘Big Brother’ is either just a figment of her imagination or an imaginary friend.”

Meanwhile, Arc and Scootaloo head back to town. Entering a store, Arc directs her on what to purchase before they return to the Inn to rest. As the sun sets the pair head out of town together. Arc looks around before pointing.

“That looks like a good spot.”

“The cliff? But anypony could see us up there. Well, me anyways.”

“By the time we walk all the way over there it’ll be nightfall. You’ll be practically invisible at that point.”

Heading to the vantage point, they look up at the sheer cliff before them. Arc turns to Scootaloo.

“Look at the moon and fly up there.”

“Yes sir. But what about you?”

“I’ll climb, I guess.”

“You sure you can’t fly?”

Arc nods. “Pretty sure, yes. I mean, I think I’d notice if something grew out of my back.”

“Maybe you could get up here another way.”

“How?”

“Crimsons have some limited magical abilities.”

“Magic?”

Scootaloo nods. “Yeah. Well, I don’t myself. I mean, I don’t know how to anyways. But some of them can ‘Blink’. That means disappearing and reappearing somewhere else.”

“I could try it, I guess. Nothing to lose.”

Taking a deep breath, Arc concentrates as he looks up to the cliff above. In a moment he vanishes and reappears on top of the rock formation.

“I… I did it!”

Scootaloo grins as she flies up to join him.

“That was great! I wonder what other things you can do!”

“Thanks. But let’s focus on the task at hand. Looking for our quarry.”

“Where from though?”

“Could be any direction really. But these might help.”

Reaching into Scootaloo’s saddlebags he pulls out a couple pairs of binoculars. Handing her one, Arc kneels down to show her how to use it.

“These are really cool! I can see so far!”

“Just keep an eye open for movement of any kind.”

“Okay. But I don’t understand one thing. What makes you think they’ll be traveling at night?”

“That’s the safest way to see to it no one intercepts their messages or follows them to the camps. You see…”

Arc suddenly stops talking and looks around.

“You hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Sounds like a pony running.”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“It’s coming from that direction.”

Scootaloo spreads her wings. “Want me to check it out?”

“Sure. Fly overhead though. I’ll watch through your eyes.”

“Right!”

Taking flight, Scootaloo streaks off into the night. Arc focuses and takes in what she does.

“You were right, Big Brother. Somepony IS running down there.”

“Good. I’ll head over there now.”

“Try Blinking to me.”

“Um… okay. But I want you to fly over the stallion first. With any luck we can get the drop on him.”

Doing as she is told, Scootaloo drops in elevation and flies over the stallion.

“Ready!”

Arc concentrates and Blinks. Reappearing next to Scootaloo, he falls onto the stallion. Looking all around the pony attempts to escape, but cannot see what is holding him down. Scootaloo lands in front of him and calls out.

“Right here!”

Pulling her cowl back, she looks at him with her blood red eyes. A long moment passes as the stallion’s struggling becomes weaker. Eventually he stops moving altogether.

“You can let him up now, Big Brother. He’s under my control.”

“Wait! You can do that?!”

Scootaloo nods. “I guess the rumors about the Crimsons were true.”

The stallion stands and looks at Scootaloo silently.

“We can ask him to do anything now.”

“Anything?”

Scootaloo nods. “Yup.”

“Hop on one foot?”

He does so, albeit rather shakily. Scootaloo giggles.

“We should have no trouble taking him back to town now.”

Arc shakes his head. “Wait. First I want to know what his message was.”

“Give me your saddlebags.”

The stallion does so. Scootaloo opens them and pulls out a note.

“Looks like they were organizing with another group to rob the train tomorrow morning at dawn.”

Arc gasps. “What?!”

Scootaloo holds up the paper. “These were the final coordination plans. But now that we have them, they won’t be able to…”

“I have an idea. Give him the note back.”

“What? But he’ll just…”

“…deliver it? Of course.”

Arc turns to the stallion.

“Continue to your destination. But inform them that the one whom sent you is planning to go it alone and keep all the train’s cargo for themselves. Then return to whomever sent you and tell them the same thing. Do you understand?”

The stallion nods.

“Good. Now be off.”

Arc watches as the stallion hurries away. Scootaloo sighs.

“Not sure if the others will believe him.”

“Maybe not. But we can still follow him there.”

Scootaloo grins. “And take them out?”

Arc shakes his head. “Not yet. Fly after him and make sure he does as we told him.”

“Okay.”

Scootaloo takes flight and follows the stallion. He delivers the message and hurries off. The stallions there stomp around angrily.

“They look mad.”

“I can see that.”

“I guess they’re not taking the news too well.”

“With luck neither will the other group. Now keep following that stallion and we’ll figure out where the other camp is.”

Keeping watch on the stallion below, Scootaloo observes him entering a cave some distance away. Creeping up to it she hears the sound of angry ponies ringing out.

“Looks like you were right. Now what?”

Arc chuckles. “Wait for it…”

A short time later the stallions dash out of the cave and down the path.

“Where do you suppose they’re going?”

“They’re probably on their way to take on the other group.”

Scootaloo gasps. “What?!”

“Yes. They just left as well. I’m guessing they’ll meet each other half-way.”

“But won’t that be too many for us to take on?”

“Probably. However, I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Tail them again and watch what happens.”

Doing as she is told, Scootaloo flies behind the group. A cloud of dust in front of them indicates the approaching, but opposing, stallions. Running headfirst at one another they begin to fight savagely. Arc calls out to Scootaloo.

“Land in those bushes nearby.”

Scootaloo does so as Arc Blinks to her. They look through the foliage to watch the battle before them.

“They’re going to destroy each other!”

Arc grins. “Exactly.”

“Huh?”

“Think about it. Why should we fight them if they’re willing to do it for us?”

“Ah! Good idea!”

A short time later the fighting ends with both sides bruised and bleeding. Scootaloo hops out of the bushes and walks over to them.

“Okay, everypony! Now that you all have THAT out of your system, please follow me to Dodge Junction and the sheriff’s office.”

They chuckle as a large stallion approaches her.

“We… ain't going nowhere with you, short-stuff.”

Scootaloo looks at him evenly. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Is that your final answer?”

“It is.”

“Okay.”

Turning around, Scootaloo bucks the stallion in the face just as Arc’s fist connects with him. Flying over the group, the stallion lands in a heap a short distance away.

“Anypony else want to disagree?”

The others quickly raise their front hooves in surrender. Scootaloo grins.

“That’s better.”

Sometime later the townsponies of Dodge Junction awaken to the sound of many hooves walking down the street. Looking out their windows they see a hooded figure leading the stallions by a rope toward the Sheriff’s Office. They cheer at such a sight as the sheriff walks toward them with a couple others.

“Thanks. We’ll take them from here.”

He turns to the stallions.

“Hope you boys don’t mind sharing cells. We’re short on space with all the newcomers.”

Groaning, they allow themselves to be led away. Scootaloo giggles.

“I don’t think they have the strength to cause you any more trouble for a while.”

“Probably not, but we’ll watch em good and close.”

Scootaloo turns to leave. “Good idea. I’ll come by tomorrow morning for the bounties.”

The sheriff calls out after Scootaloo as the sun slowly rises.

“Wait! Just who are you exactly?!”

Scootaloo stops and looks back. “Like I said before… I’m the Scarlet Filly. Good night.”

Returning to their room at the Inn, Arc closes the door behind them. Scootaloo looks to him happily as she removes her cloak.

“That was a night and a half!”

Arc sighs. “Yeah.”

“Something wrong, Big Brother?”

“Maybe. Do you think I overdid it?”

“What do you mean? We got them sent to jail before anypony got hurt.”

“That we did. But now that I think about it, the rest of them won’t take this well.”

“You mean they might try to free their friends?”

“It’s a possibility, yes. So I think we need to rest for a bit and head back out there. Maybe we can take a few more of these stallions down before the rest come knocking.”

“Thin their numbers a bit?”

“Exactly.”

Arc looks across the room at Scootaloo as she lays down on the bed. Blinking over to her, he sighs.

“I wish I knew more about what powers I have.”

“They’ll certainly be of use in the coming days.”

“At least they WILL be… if I can figure them out.”