//------------------------------// // 91 - Scoping it Out // Story: New Endings, Old Starts // by David Silver //------------------------------// "So..." Comforting looked to the other souls with her in that bush, most wielding binoculars. "Is this a bad time to ask a silly question?" Diamond scrunched her nose. "Depends. If this is about 'Oh, you didn't really see what you for sure saw,' not interested." "Not that." She brought up her binocs for a look. That was a grade A creepy house. It had just enough wear on it to be super abandoned without looking like no sane person would trust it to not just collapse at any moment. A delicate edge, that, and it was doing it effortlessly. "It has nothing to do with the house... This will probably sound super dumb." For however creepy it was, the house was doing nothing in the middle of the day. "Go ahead. Probably more interesting than this stake out." Diamond set her binoculars aside. "You know a lot and know nothing. It's kinda funny." Silver swatted at her fellow upper crust. "Don't be mean. She's here to help us." "Right." Comforting moved to sit on her bottom instead of her belly. "Cutie marks." None of the others seemed to get that as a question. "What's the deal with them?" Diamond waved over Comforting's side. "Yours is right there." Stitched on Comforting's school clothes, just as they had come. "Just about everyone gets one, like a birthmark. It's just a specific birthmark." She grabbed for her own skirt, raising her own cutie mark into easy view. "Like mine, love it." This set off a cascade of all the others showing off their mark. There was no taboo about showing that off, it seemed, but they were all displaying the one on their clothes, not the one on their skin. There were limits. Comforting rolled a hand. "Yep, get that, but--" Apple Bloom poked Comforting from the other side. "Not to be offensive or nothin', but ya got one. Didn't you ask yer parents what that was about? Ah know ah was fulla questions when it happened." "Or didn't happen," taunted Silver Spoon with a giggle. "You got past that." All the crusaders colored, called out on their late mark. That was still true in another world. Comforting took quiet internal note of that. The crusaders hadn't changed that part. "N-no... My parent is... a long way away." Pony Fluttershy was a world away, and didn't have that answer. "So, do you know?" Sweetie blinked owlishly. "Wait... are you an orphan?" All the kids gasped with shock. "How awful. I'm sorry!" "Yeah, sorry." Scootaloo patted Comforting on the shoulder lightly. Diamond rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "And you got to book learning and got math and stuff down and didn't bother with the, uh, humanities... That sorta makes sense, actually. Well, don't worry! You can trade with us. But, right now." She pointed to the creepy house. "Right." Creepy house dead ahead. Maybe emphasis on dead? Comforting considered how she could get to the bottom of it... "Well... Any reason I can't just walk in there?" Diamond raised a brow. "You could get hurt." "Yeah, like, I'd feel pretty bad sending a kid in there to get hurt while we hid back." Silver sat up, crossing her arms. "Also, I'd feel like the biggest chicken basically ever." Comforting hopped up to her feet. "I'll just take a quick peek. I'm little and fast." Yay for youthful dexterity. "If I hear anything, I'll run in the opposite direction, promise. Just a look." Apple Bloom set a hand on Comforting's shoulder. "That's real brave of you, but we ain't gonna let you do that without at least one'a us with you. "Okay, who's with me?" Comforting looked along the line of teens sitting up, most looking uncomfortable with the idea. Scootaloo thrust a hand up. "I will not be outdone by a little kid! Let's do this!" She grabbed Comforting's surprised hand and pulled her towards the house. "We'll get this taken care of in no time." Comforting yanked her hand away. "Calm down!" Being grabbed like that, not on her list of things she wanted. "Let's take this... calmly." She looked left and right. The road was largely abandoned, no cars parked on it in sight. That only made it creepier. "Straight in the front." "Y-yeah! It's the middle of the day. It shouldn't be... too creepy." Scootaloo and Comforting advanced on the house, Scootaloo shivering faintly with moderately concealed fear. "I ran away from this place once... Not again..." Comforting patted the side of the larger teen. "Hey. If something dangerous shows up, we run. We don't even worry about being 'brave'. We run." Scootaloo snorted at her smaller companion. "Great, now I'm being psyched by a little kid." She swatted at Comforting, but she lacked malice, smiling even. "Thanks. Fine. We see something super spooky, we get out of there..." "Right." Comforting stepped across the boundary. The light of day dimmed, concealed by the roof over her, the walls on all sides. Only the door and dirty windows allows light to spill in. It was suddenly dark. Not too dark to see at all, but dark enough that seeing was no longer a given. Woulda been handy to yank out some night vision goggles. A pity she was on a chaos break. Still... tempting. She reached into her pocket and produced a single stick of gum, the last from the pack she started with. "Hey." Scootaloo looked over. "Split?" Splitting that last stick with Scoots felt like a good ending for it. Scootaloo laughed nervously as they pressed deeper. "It's like a plane... chewing gum while you do it helps a little..." Comforting cocked her head. Oh, the directional ears of ponies were nice for that kind of thing... But she had heard... something... "That way, I think?" She pointed off into the gloom. "Let's find a ghost... or a mouse. Either/or." "Hey, look... If we find a mouse, great... Let this whole thing just be us being stupid..." Her bravery was wearing down rapidly in the darkness. "I'm alright being wrong!" She was edging closer and closer to Comforting, but the little girl was a bit too small to offer any real protection or comfort in that situation. A faint glimmer. If there had been any more light, easily missed. In that gloom, Comforting could see it, a faint trail leading towards a door. The door was closed up. She reached for the knob, just to get Scootaloo grabbing her. "Where are you doing?" she hissed frantically. "We were just looking, remember? Not... Let's go back!" Comforting looked between the panicked Scootaloo and the door. She wanted to get past it, but Scootaloo looked pretty shaken... "Go and tell them I went in there. If I don't come out in ten, then you can all panic." "I'm panicking right now!" Scootaloo casually grabbed Comforting, lifting her by the armpits. "As the adult in this situation, I'm getting you out." Comforting's wiggling did little to stop her from being bodily carried free of the house, back into the light of day. Scootaloo didn't slow down, in fact speeding up as she hurried across the street to where the others waited. She flumped to the ground, heaving for breath. "I hate it!" Comforting fell from Scoot's numb grip. The others were crowding in around them, asking if they were alright. "I'm fine." Blaming Scootaloo for chickening out was an initial urge, powerful even... but Scootaloo was a kid, a real kid. Tossing them under the bus for getting scared felt... kinda bad. Despite what Scoots said, Comforting was the adult there. "It was just way too dark in there. We shoulda brought a flashlight." Diamond flipped out her phone and raised a brow. Comforting clapped a hand to her face. Right! Everyone had a flashlight. It was literally the default. "I didn't think of that..." She dug out her forgotten phone. "That was dumb of me..." Scootaloo grabbed Comforting firmly on the shoulder. "You were super brave..." Sweetie giggled at that. "Aw, that is nice of you. You kept her safe. Good job!" In her mind, the one that urged the retreat was clearly Comforting. "Okay, flashlights! We have those." She dug out her phone to compare to everyone else's. They all had one. They could all glow brightly. "This isn't a stunt. No reason not to bring light with us." A loud slam drew their attention sharply to the house. The door had slapped shut. Diamond fell back. "W-what did that?! Was someone looking?" Alas, they had been looking at Scootaloo and Comforting. Well, except Snips. He was tapping at his phone, pulling up the recording. "Oooo.... Woah..." In the moment before the door closed, a hand grabbed the handle. The hand wasn't attached to anything. It didn't look spectral, as much as could be seen. It was like someone's severed hand just casually grabbed the knob and pulled, despite having no arm or body attached to it, and the door was drawn shut with that loud bang. Silver screamed. Was there a better response? "Nope! No! Like, no way!" She scrambled to her feet. "Getting out of here!" Diamond grabbed the wrist of her friend. "Hold up. First, we have to be super clear. That was... strange... but not impossible with tricky CGI or something. We can't run off with that video and expect anyone to take it seriously. Now, don't get me wrong. I was there. That wasn't a special effect... But can we prove that to anyone else?" The panic of the group diminished. Depressed admission of failure could do that... Snips pointed to his phone. "So, this is useless? Lame..." "It's not useless. Keep it... It just won't solve the case on its own." Diamond took a slow and shaking breath. It had rattled her like anyone else there. "Alright... Let's call this off for today. I don't think any of you are eager to push more right now." Silver tapped at Comforting. "Want a lift home? Thanks for coming with us. Like, super brave for such a little kid." Comforting smiled, feeling awkward. She was the youngest and also oldest, person there. "Thanks. I'll take that offer." She looked over at the house, closed. A part of her wanted to just burst back in for a peek... "Let's go." "Yeah." Silver waved at the others and led Comforting off to a plush ride back to Sunset's place. "Hey." Comforting looked over. "Don't feel bad, about the orphan thing, like, you know? You're still awesome. Maybe more awesome? Like... just don't get awkward about it. See you tomorrow at school?" Comforting smiled gently. Silver was a good pony, human or not. "I'll be there, promise." She half-pounced Silver in a hug, which wasn't resisted. With a shimmy, she slipped free of the big car and waved at Silver was driven away. "Comfort?" There was Sunset, in the doorway. Her house was way less creepy, especially all cleaned up. "Welcome back." "Good to be back." Comforting rushed up towards her caretaker. "Have fun?" "I did homework." Sunset rolled her eyes. "Speaking of which, how's yours doing? You were out, not doing it." Comforting squeaked, called out. "On it!" She rushed past Sunset, but not without getting a hair-ruffle on the way. "Had a feeling you'd get on it." Sunset drew the door shut gently, unlike that strange hand. "I'll be making some food myself tonight. I hope you're ready for my best." Comforting peeked at the small kitchen. She knew the supplies there. Nothing could come out of it that was that fancy... Still.. "Thanks." The thought was nice, and it'd be neat to see what Sunset made. "I'll get tomorrow." Sunset blinked as she headed into that same kitchen. "You're a kid, relax." "I'm a responsible kid," retorted Comforting, not sounding as mature as she planned to be. "I'll do my part." "Thanks." Sunset didn't sound like she took it super seriously. She got to work making dinner. "You get that homework done. I won't let any borrowed students of Twilight slack off."