//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Aged Applewood 
// by Harp's'ong 
//------------------------------//

     Scootaloo watched a beetle crawl across the tree stump. She sat hunched beside it, a set of dents kicked in the wood, the lingering bark shorn off by her blows. Scootaloo felt… felt… she was a bonehead. She wanted to pound her skull against the stump, if only so somepony punished her for all the trouble she caused.
How could she ever think Applebloom felt that way about her?
She watched the beetle complete its trek across the stump and wondered what it must be like to walk off the edge of the world, alone and unnoticed. She sobbed once, then shook her head. No, this was not her. She didn’t have the courage to face Applebloom yet, and knew Sweetie Belle was not ready to see her.
She pursed her lips and smacked the stump. Like all her blows before, it sounded like the stump was hollow on the inside. Probably just rotted out or something. Not her problem. She just needed to get away from this stupid stump.
So she returned home.

Big Macintosh closed the door behind him and faced Applejack.
She stopped pacing in front of Applebloom’s door and asked, “Well?”
“I tried my best ta comfort her, but Applejack…” Big Macintosh shook his head. “Once ya hear what she’s gotta say you’ll understand why I can’t be the one ta handle this. It’s not… not my place.”
“But what happened?”
Big Macintosh shook his head and cracked open the door. He peeked inside and said, “Applebloom? Applejack’s gonna talk to ya. Don’t worry a bit now. She’s got the sense I don’t got ta settle things.”
Applejack heard a muffled slur of words creep out the door. Big Macintosh chuckled. “No, you’re not in the least bit trouble, okay? Ya could never be in trouble for this. How many times do I gotta tell ya, ain’t no pony’s fault for what happened. ’Specially not yours.”
Big Macintosh opened the door and said, “I’ll be right downstairs.”
Big Macintosh shuffled past and Applejack entered Applebloom’s cozy, yet tight bedroom. A candle on her nightstand filled the room with an apple cinnamon scent. Light spilled through the window and stretched across the room to the bed where a quivering filly wrapped herself in the quilt Granny Smith made for their mother.
She shuddered and dug her face into the quilt when Applejack walked into the room. Applebloom somehow covered herself in scratches and got her eyes puffed up from all the crying. Her hair was in a tangle and, for the first time since before Applejack knew when, Applebloom’s bow was missing. The older sister heart paused a beat when that thought skipped like a stone over her brain. She rushed to Applebloom’s bed and said, “Applebloom? Applebloom? What happened, sugar cube? Big Macintosh gone and grabbed me right before I was about ta leave for the cottage.”
Applebloom sobbed and said into the blanket, “I screwed everything up.”
Applejack climbed into the bed and wrapped her trembling sister in her embrace. She whispered in the filly’s ear, “Easy there, darlin’. You just focus on me restin’ against ya, okay? The rise and fall of my chest, my breath on your ear, that funny smell comin’ off of me…”
Applejack got a giggle out of Applebloom, cut short by a loud sniffle. They’d get her a hankie later.
Applejack said, “There, there. Now come on, tell your big sis everythin’ and we’ll see about settin’ the record straight.”

Sweetie Belle hesitated outside the door to the boutique. She raised a hoof to the door and hoped her sister would be horn deep in a mess of dresses. But the door flew open and Sweetie Belle sprang back. Spike paused in the doorway and said, “Oh, hey Sweetie Belle.” He walked around her and Sweetie Belle watched the bounce in his step almost become a skip when he left.
Then she heard, “Sweetie Belle? You’re home early, how did things go at Fluttershy’s cottage?”
Sweetie Belle shuffled her hooves and didn’t meet Rarity’s gaze. “Oh, you know, we got everything done…”
Rarity’s hoof dipped under her chin and gently tugged Sweetie Belle gaze to her sister’s. Rarity gasped. “You’ve been crying.”
Sweetie Belle backed away. “It was nothing, really.”
“‘Nothing’ rarely warrants tears,” Rarity said. “You come right in and we’ll get you cleaned up and then you’ll tell me what happened.”
The filly pursed her lips and didn’t budge.
“Sweetie Belle?”
“I… I…” Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and looked her sister in the eye. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Rarity gawked. “Ex-excuse me?”
“I don’t—I’m not ready to talk about it. I’m sorry, maybe later tonight? I just want to go to my room for now,” Sweetie Belle said. She walked past her sister and headed for the staircase. But Rarity jumped in front of her.
“Now see here. You can’t hardly expect me to let you just flee to your room when you are clearly a mess. I can see it everywhere now, you know. The dirt on your hooves, that scratch right above your flank, and then there’s a twig in your mane. Goodness let me get that.” Rarity reached around, careful of her sister’s horn and snatched the offending twig with her teeth. Sweetie Belle shrunk away and felt the twig pull a few stray hairs out with it.
She winced. “Please just drop it?”
“Sweetie Belle… I’m your sister, you can tell me anything—”
“Well I’ll tell you later, okay? Promise.” Sweetie Belle said.
Sweetie Belle felt her sister’s stare on her as she traveled up the stairs. She wasn’t ready—she didn’t need a lecture on how she screwed up. Not now, maybe not ever, but especially not now. She closed the door to her room behind her, and listened to see if her sister would try again…
Downstairs she heard the front door close. Sweetie Belle sighed, and went to her bed.

Applejack sat up. “Whoa now, Scootaloo said what to ya?” Applebloom blushed and hid her face in the bed again. Applejack just got her past that. She nuzzled her little sister’s cheek and said, “You’re done with that kind of talk, oaky?. I just got scared for a moment, is all. Ya know, with just findin’ out about your brother not too long ago and…” Applejack almost hit herself.
Applebloom’s right eye peeked out from the quilt and she asked, “Somethin’ wrong?”
Applejack tried her best to smile and reminded herself of what was still a family secret. She said, “Nothin’. Now how did ya feel when Scootaloo did… well did what she did?”
Applebloom shrugged and mumbled, “Awful—”
“Hey now, none of that. What I mean is how did ya feel when you realized she felt that way about ya?” Applejack asked.
Applebloom said into the quilt, “I’m not so sure…”
Applejack’s gut cinched… she prayed to Celsestia that her other only sibling wouldn’t be—
“I know I don’t feel the same. And I know I feel bad about it because my first thought is it’s just unnatural and nasty and—”
“Stop right there,” Applejack put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “Don’t think like that no more, okay? I don’t care what all the rearin’ in the world taught ya, it don’t measure up ta friendship.”
Applebloom shuddered. “But ain’t I bad for makin’ her…” Applebloom couldn’t finish the sentence.
Applejack sighed. “Sometimes it can’t be helped. But hey, it’s okay for you to have turned her away. Maybe we’ll apologize for the way we did it?”
Applebloom nodded.
“But there ain’t nothin’ wrong with you tellin’ her truly that ya can’t have the same feelin’s for her,” Applejack said. “It’ll hurt her, at first, that kind of stuff hurts anypony. But she’ll understand.”
“What about Sweetie Belle, though?” Applebloom said. “I still never once stood up for her and—”
“You let me worry ’bout all this for now,” Applejack said. She slipped out of the bed and added, “Don’t twist your tail in a knot over this. Get some rest, then we’ll see about cleanin’ up all those scrapes.” Applebloom nodded. Applejack nuzzled her cheek and whispered in her ear, “You goin’ ta be okay?”
“I think so…”
Applejack said, “You’re part of the apple family. Apples don’t think, they do.”
Applebloom giggled. “That doesn’t sound very smart.”
Applejack tweaked her ear. “Just get ta sleep, you.” She exited the room.
At the doorway she heard Applebloom whisper, “Thank you.”
Applejack turned around and said, “Of course, what else is family good for but bein’ there?”
She shut Applebloom’s door and trotted downstairs. Applejack nodded to Granny Smith, she would tell her what happened later. Applejack spotted the big frame of her brother through the kitchen window. She met him on the back porch. They both started for the barn, so Granny Smith wouldn’t hear anything.
Big Macintosh said, “I reckon ya know why I couldn’t be the one ta handle it.”
Applejack sighed. “Yeah, and I feel like a I failed our parents. How could we have raised Applebloom ta be so… well, like a bigot?”
“It’s how pa raised us, Applejack,” Big Macintosh said. “We’ve already gone over this ’til the sun’s gone down and the moon’s gone up.”
“Applebloom needs the truth told to her, Big Mac,” Applejack said. “Now more than ever.”
Big Macintosh said, “I’ll tell her. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Better you than me. She’s always found ya more approachable.”
“That’s because I spoil her,” Big Macintosh said as they reached the barn. He stared inside the large red building, his eyes lingering in the corners where one could pick out the stone foundation. Applejack followed his gaze; the foundation hadn’t changed at all, not in all the times they had to rebuild the barn. It still held the scorch marks from that fire…
Big Macintosh said, “You know, pa did you the same. That’s why he left me his harness but you his hat.”
Applejack looked away from the scorch marks. She braced herself against the typical wash of emotions. Sometimes she wanted to tear the barn a new one, rip away the wood and stone until there weren’t any more scorch marks. But she knew there’d always be scorch marks elsewhere, ones that she couldn’t ever get rid of.
Applejack mumbled, “I… I don’t want ta talk about this no more.”
Big Macintosh grunted. They shared a moment of silence, they did it every now and again. It felt like it had more meaning here than it ever did at their parent’s graves.
The silence didn’t last as long as usual. A jarring, “Applejack!” snapped her back into reality and both ponies turned around to see Rarity trotting up the trail. Sweat ran down the unicorn’s brow and dragged her mascara with it.
Rarity stopped a few paces away, panting. She raised her hoof and coughed. “A moment… please?”
Big Macintosh said, “We got all the time in Equestria, Miss Rarity.”
Applejack took a gander at why she ran all the way up here. “Troubles with Sweetie Belle?”
Rarity nodded. She sucked in air and said, “Sweetie Belle came home today all dirty with scratches on her. Which I suppose isn’t anything new for her, but then I saw that she’d been crying. When I asked her what was wrong she completely spurned my offers for comfort and help. She’s never done that before—I wanted to know if something happened between the girls.”
Big Macintosh and Applejack exchanged looks.
He said, “I’ll get back to what I was doin’ before I found Applebloom.”
Applejack nodded and asked Rarity, “Ya think your up ta walkin’ down ta Scootaloo’s home? I figure we’ll want ta talk to her aunt and uncle, too.”
Rarity said, “I can make it, if we take it a bit slow at first.”
“Then I’ll fill ya in on the way.”

Scootaloo’s aunt and uncle returned home in their usual fashion. They chattered endlessly about nothing. Rocks this, fossils that, none of it got close to touching Scootaloo. She stayed in her room, reading her comics. She let the window behind her headboard spill light over the pages and tried her hardest to lose herself in them.
She didn’t. Her uncle came up to her room, opened the door. His moustache bristled and he said, “Just checking to see if you were home.” He closed the door, and she listened to him trot downstairs. When he got there she heard a hoof knock on the front door.
Her aunt said, “Guest’s dear. The sisters of Scootaloo’s friends.”
“Bring them in! We’ll have tea and tell them about our latest exploits.”
Scootaloo felt her stomach knot up. She knew she’d be in trouble any moment now… They’d tell her aunt and uncle how she made both girls run home crying. She closed the comic book and snuck out the door. She crept to the staircase and listened to the hushed voices coming from below.
“—it’s fine, really. We appreciate your hospitality, but—”
“There’s more pressin’ matters ta deal with,” Applejack said.
Scootaloo winced. She considered her chances of distracting them. Maybe if she broke one of her uncle’s vases? She would just need to grab it from his room and chuck it down the stairs…
Her uncle asked, “Is there a problem?”
Rarity said, “More a dilemma involving your niece. We think she might need somepony to talk to her. If Applejack’s sister is to believe, she’s going through some turbulent emotions.”
“Whatever do you mean?” her aunt asked. “We haven’t noticed a thing.”
Of course they hadn’t.
Applejack said, “Scootaloo seems ta have a crush on my sister.”
Tea spat from somepony’s mouth.
Applejack added, “Now it’s nothin’ wrong. We just think she needs somepony ta talk to her about her feelings. This time in a filly’s life can be very confusin’ and we don’t want her goin’ down a wrong path.”
Her uncle scoffed. “I should certainly hope not. Thank you for this… revelation. It’s a good thing we caught it so soon. My lovely wife will see you out the door.”
“So ya’ll will talk to her then?” Applejack asked.
“Oh, we will talk to her. We will speak at length with her. Thank you ladies, good day.”
“Hope you visit soon,” Aunt Sandy chimed. The door closed, Scootaloo dashed back to her room and leapt into her bed. She clambered over the headboard and looked out the window. Applejack and Rarity were giving each other concerned looks. The earth pony said something and her companion shook her head.
The door opened and Scootaloo wheeled around. “Oh, hey.”
“Don’t play games,” Uncle Cliff-Hanger said as he entered the room and Aunt Sandy filed in after him. “Your aunt saw you eavesdropping, you’d do better to learn how to keep your wings down.”
Scootaloo grimaced.
“Is it true? What they said. Have you taken a liking to a… a… filly?”
Scootaloo stared at the two, legs trembling. But her defiance rolled through her and she stood up on her bed, her wings flared out, pinions raised. “I have. What does it matter?”
Aunt Sandy gasped.
Uncle Cliff-Hanger shook his head. “This is the exact kind of thing we tried to raise out of you.”
Scootaloo blinked. “What?”
Aunt Sandy muttered, “I thought we weren’t ever going to mention—”
“What does it matter now?” Uncle Cliff-Hanger said. “Besides, maybe it will scare her from pursuing such a horrendous past time.”
Scootaloo flared her nostrils. “I’m still here you know.”
Uncle Cliff-Hanger sneered. “Yes, we know, but adults are talking and how many times must we tell you not to interrupt?”
Scootaloo growled. “Don’t treat me like a foal. I’m practically half a year away from being a mare—”
Uncle Cliff-Hanger snorted. “Fine, Miss Mare. If you must know your mother isn’t dead. Just dead to us.”
Scootaloo’s wings drooped. “Wha… what?”
Aunt Sandy said, “We never talk about her.”
Scootaloo said lowly, “She’s alive and you kept her from me?”
Uncle Cliff-Hanger shrugged.
Scootaloo felt something drop inside her, like a drop of boiling water against ice. It sizzled and slipped through her, down her spine to her hips where she lost control. She bucked and felt her hooves hit the headboard. The wood snapped in half and slammed against the window. The glass cracked.
Cliff-Hanger pursed his lips, Sandy took a step back.
“How could you?”
He said, “It was for your own good.”
“She’s my mother!” Scootaloo screamed.
Cliff-Hanger finally raised his voice, “And you want to know the truth. Hmm? The truth behind her—you’d be better off thinking she’s dead but I see that look in your eye. Nothing could be wrong with her, can there?”
Scootaloo bared her teeth. “Bet she’d be loads better than you.”
“After all we’ve done for you?” Cliff-Hanger took a step to the foot of the bed. He was now face to face with Scootaloo. He said, “Fine. You’re mother? She found an interest in a passing pegasus and took him for the night. And we never saw him, my parents never knew the father of their grand-foal. But it gets worse, because once you were born, after a week of caring for you, your mother left you in your crib with a note for my parents. You know what it said?”
Scootaloo felt her whole body shaking. She couldn’t keep that tremulation from her voice. “Wh-what?”
Cliff-Hanger spoke like he read the note now, “‘I never wanted this child. I thought I’d force myself onto some colt and see if that would help. It hasn’t, do whatever you like with her. None of you will ever see me again.’”
Scootaloo’s trembling became too much. She felt her knees buckle and she fell back on her haunches. Cliff-Hanger backed away and said, “The last we heard of your mother she was chasing the tails of fillies in Manehattan. We sent a private investigator to bring her back home, but they couldn’t catch her.”
Scootaloo fell onto her stomach and pressed her hooves against her ears. She shook her head and said, “Stop it. Stop it stop it stop it.”
But Cliff-Hanger ignored her. “We had known, of course, about her ways. But she spurned every attempt for us to correct them and make her into a modest mare. A fault of hers. Just like abandoning you was her own fault. She didn’t own up to her responsibility, and even now she refuses to seek you out. Ponies like your mother, with their awful tendencies… they tend to breed awful habits.”
Scootaloo saw Sandy step out of the room, Cliff-Hanger stopped in the doorway and said, “You would be wise to hide this infatuation with that hick. Otherwise, if we hear anything else…” Cliff-Hanger shrugged. “You said you were a big mare, so there won’t be any problem for you to live independently, now will there?”
Cliff-Hanger slammed the door.

Sweetie Belle eventually got hungry. She went back downstairs and into the kitchen. She had settled on a simple daffodil sandwich when the front door opened. She ignored it and levitated the plate from the counter to their dining room table. It was a small part of the boutique, off to the side. The cramped space held a counter, sink, pantry, and a single round table with two wooden chairs. It was the plainest, most unused space in the whole boutique.
Sweetie Belle set the plate down, and scooted her chair back. When she did two white hooves wrapped around her neck. She smelt her sister’s familiar perfume and Rarity nuzzled her cheek. She said, “Oh Sweetie Belle, Applejack told me everything. I should have stepped in a few days ago when you first told me all about this.”
Sweetie Belle took a deep breath. “It’s fine, really. How’s Applebloom?”
Rarity let go of her. “Oh, she balled her eyes out, too. She blame’s herself for this whole tragic affair, but Applejack reassured her that it wasn’t.”
“Good to know blame isn’t going where it should,” Sweetie Belle said.
Rarity frowned. “Sweetie Belle… we shouldn’t blame Scootaloo for this—”
Sweetie Belle sat down and said, “I didn’t say it was her fault.”
Rarity studied her for a moment. Sweetie Belle had left her sister at a loss for words again. She said softly, “Sweetie Belle… darling? What’s wrong?”
Sweetie Belle felt the pit clustering in her stomach. In her head she treaded the edge of a frozen over pond, and knew the ice was too thin to hold her weight. It would just be one slip in the wrong direction. She wanted to fight against that, but at the same time…
Sweetie Belle lied, “I guess this whole thing is just still getting me down. I don’t mean to act this way, it’s just… we had a real big fight and we said a whole lot of hurtful things.”
Rarity wrapped her little sister in her embrace again and brushed Sweetie Belle’s mane with a hoof. “Now, it’s going to be fine. Come on, we’ll get you cleaned up and eat some real food. Go out to anywhere you want, okay? Just the two of us tonight and then tomorrow morning we’ll fix things with your friends.”
Sweetie Belle broke away to show her sister the smile she put there. “I’d like that, a lot.”
“Of course you would. Forget the bath, we’ll spend the rest of the afternoon at the spa. It would do us both some good.”
Rarity left the room, Sweetie Belle slipped off the chair and glanced at her plate. She studied the lonely table in the corner of the only room in the whole boutique not filled with her sister’s larger-than-life personality. She wanted to stay there and eat, but…
What was the point if she didn’t have an appetite?

Big Macintosh woke Applebloom with a dinner. A hot apple tart they shared in her room. Her brother didn’t let it be a quiet affair. He got a smudge of it on his nose and screwed up his face trying to reach it with his tongue. When Applebloom laughed at him he scoffed and rubbed it on her cheek, which made the indginant filly yelp and the remaining tart fell victim to a food fight.
Her brother helped her clean up the mess they made, and he took her outside and walked her to the creek. When they reached it Big Macintosh stopped and said, “There we are. Thought it might be nice ta get out here. Your mane still needs washin’, missy.”
Applebloom touched the creek with a hoof and recoiled. “But I’ll freeze my poor tail off.”
“I’ll be here ta grab it, come on.” Big Macintosh stepped into the creek. When he got all four hooves in the water and faced his sister, “Well?”
“Your tail’s shaking like foal in the dark.”
Big Macintosh quirked his brow.
“Okay,” Applebloom pouted. She took a deep breath and hopped into the water, splashing her brother.
“Hey!”
Applebloom giggled. “Sorry Big Mac.” Big Macintosh huffed and pointed where the creek fell off at a small rise. This provided a miniature waterfall for the filly to take advantage of. She trotted to the spot while the cold sank into her hooves and her shivering faded. Applebloom stuck her mane underneath the water, and after overcoming the initial splash down her back, began to wash out her mane.
Her thoughts flowed back to her and Big Macintosh and the girls. Her tail slouched when she thought of the gulf between the past half hour and the past few months. With her brother it was like nothing changed, but with the girls…
Applebloom finished, when she faced Big Macintosh she found him standing on the bank of the creek. She shook herself dry best she could and stepped out the water. “Hey Big Mac?” she asked.
“Yes Applebloom?”
“When did you know you were grown up?”
Big Macintosh said, “Seems a silly question.”
Applebloom whipped a tussle of hair out her eyes. “But when did you? When did ya stop playin’ little foal’s games and started walkin’ around like you was somepony, huh?”
“If I had ta pin it to a time…” Big Macintosh said, “It’d be when the farm came into my hooves. Now, mind you I wasn’t ready for half of it, nor was your sister. We had ta grow up faster than an apple rots or pretty soon the farm would’ve been filled with rotten apples.”
Applebloom asked, “And didn’t somepony help you, though, like Granny Smith?”
Big Macintosh said, “Course she tried, but Applebloom, I don’t think there’s a time where a pony does get ta thinkin’ she’s fully grown. I know I’m still discoverin’ somethin’ new ’bout myself every day, specially lately, but I’ll tell ya all ya need to know about that tomorrow mornin’. I don’t want ta keep ya up all night.”
“Aww, now I gotta know!”
“Ya will,” Big Macintosh said. “Just like someday you’ll realize your becomin’ a mare, it’ll seem sooner than ya think.”
“But I miss bein’ a filly already—”
“I won’t be hearin’ none of that. No pony’s makin’ me feel old as Granny Smith.”

Scootaloo wanted to wind back sun and moon. She studied the crack in her window and the moon hanging on the cusp of it. Luna rose it while the last rays of sunlight slipped off the opposite horizon. Scootaloo wished she could fish the sun back and just tug it through the sky where the moon was now. She’d give her wings, her scooter, her cutie-mark to.
She ruined her friendships, and she had no one here. She had no one at all.
She squeezed her eyes shut and grit her teeth. She grunted, and thought and thought with all her might until her head hurt—picturing the moon going down and the sun arcing over the sky like a shooting star until it sat on the eastern horizon again. When she opened her eyes the moon had ascended along her window pane.
“Dumb moon,” she said.
She climbed down from her bed and went to the comics tucked halfway under her bed. She knew she should get rid of them, that they belonged to a once awful pony, but it wasn’t that pony she saw when she looked at those comics. It was an amazing, daring mare who was at once awesome yet caring and gentle. That mare would forever be the one Scootaloo thought of as her mother.
She realized then, though, she couldn’t stay. She couldn’t bottle up her feelings, she’d never been able to. Maybe if she was more like Sweetie Belle she could fake some relationship with a stallion, but the thought made bile rise in her throat. She would not be like the mare who birthed her.
She needed to take care of some things first, then she would leave Ponyville forever.

Applebloom didn’t sleep a lick. Not for a want of trying, course she already snoozed away her whole afternoon. Her thoughts kept revolving around the girls and how unprepared she’d been for both of them. She didn’t feel old enough, ready for all the fighting, but she knew better because ponies relied on her blank flank to do things now. She thought long and hard on that absence, too.
She knew that maybe if she didn’t spend so much time hunting her cutie-mark that she’d probably stumble across it like every other pony. But she didn’t want to ever stop the crusader’s adventures. She thought now more than ever that she wouldn’t be able to keep her friends together when the mark appeared.
The filly wrestled with her thoughts until her head hurt. The night stretched into that moment where only the crickets broke the stillness. Applebloom decided she couldn’t sleep and slipped out of bed. At first she just thought she’d trot downstairs then back, just to stretch her legs, but when she got downstairs she couldn’t help herself. She needed to stretch her legs some more, she went out onto the porch, then down to the barn.
Her thoughts then turned to the clubhouse on the other side of the farm. The tug of nostalgia led her through the orchards, a few acres over where the club house’s silhouette climbed out of the darkness. Moonlight illuminated the roof, which cast the ramp to the clubhouse in shadows. Applebloom paused outside to reminisce on the day she spent repairing the place and the quite pleasure she got from patching holes and applying primer and paint to the woodwork.
She approached the clubhouse and made out the sudden appearance of a slim shadow. A long neck with a “T” shape, and Applebloom froze when she recognized Scootaloo’s scooter. She took a step back and almost turned around.
She shook her head. “Come on Applebloom. This ain’t no Everfree Forest. There ain’t any monsters creepin’ in the dark, it’s just you and Scootaloo.”
Applebloom walked into the clubhouse. The night painted the room so black she was sure coal would shine there. She knew they kept a flashlight in the chest along the back wall. Applebloom crept across the floor, sweeping her hooves low and making sure she didn’t hit anything that would make her trip. She nudged something firm and warm.
Scootaloo groaned and asked, “Who’s—” the pegasus yelped. Her hooves scrabbled over wood, she tripped on something and fell.
“Don’t come a step closer. I’ll… I’ll… I got a flashlight.”
“It’s me Scootaloo.”
“Applebloom?” Scootaloo asked. Applebloom heard Scootaloo scramble for something, then a flash of light stabbed her eyes.
Applebloom turned away. “Hey, watch where ya point that thing.”
Scootaloo said, “Sorry.” She placed it on the floor. The flashlight stood between them and cascaded light across the ceiling. Scootaloo said, “What are you doing here?”
“You’re the one trespassin’. Why ya out here by yourself?”
Scootaloo said, “I don’t think it really matters.”
“So ya thought a sleep over by yourself would be a good idea?”
Scootaloo said, “I didn’t mean to sleepover. Look, I didn’t know where else to go. And what do you care, anyways? I’m not natural, am I?”
Applebloom bit her lip. A moth perched itself on the flashlight and blotted the ceiling with its shadow. Both fillies used it as a welcome reason not to look at each other. Applebloom said softly, “I didn’t mean ta call ya that. I just… the whole thing got the better of me and…”
“Just forget about it.”
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t feel the same.”
Scootaloo said, “It’s fine, really. Won’t matter tomorrow, anyways. I wanted… I wanted to say goodbye, not like this, though.”
“You’re leaving?” Applebloom took a step closer and the moth fled. Light flashed into the filly’s face and made her blink.
Scootaloo said, “Cliff-Hanger told me my mother was alive.” Applebloom gasped. “Don’t get excited. He said she abandoned me, said she did it because she was like me. That ’cause she liked mares she was bad, and well… that makes me bad, too—I don’t want to talk about it. I’m just leaving.”
“Scootaloo…”
“There’s nothing here for me, okay?” Scootaloo snapped. She smacked her tail against her flank and turned away. Applebloom barely heard her say, “I don’t think I can believe in friendship being the only thing that will make me happy. When my only family despises me, when this town’s so small I can’t do a thing in it without getting somepony mad at me… what do I have? Not a dream, not love. I have your friendship, and maybe in another Equestria that would be enough but…” Scootaloo faced Applebloom. “Seeing you here—it’s tearing me apart knowing that for the first time in a long time the thing I want more than anything don’t exist anywhere but in my head.”
And what could Applebloom do or say to comfort her? She couldn’t cross the space between them and nuzzle her cheek and lie to her. Scootaloo wouldn’t believe it for a moment. Neither would Applebloom.
Applebloom said, “I don’t know what ta say.”
“You don’t have to say anything, then,” Scootaloo said. “I’ve made up my mind.”
“But could I change it?” Applebloom said. “Ya know, could I if I showed ya somethin’ worth stayin’ for?”
Scootaloo didn’t answer. She went to the flashlight and turned it off. “I’d like to get some sleep.”
“Just stay ’til tomorrow night, kay? That’s all I need. I’ll think of somethin’.”
She heard Scootaloo lie down. Applebloom waited for an answer of some kind. She felt if she left now it meant she gave up on her friend. She wouldn’t abandon her like this.
“Applebloom?”
The filly leaned forward. “What is it Scoot?”
“Can you leave, please?”
“Oh… right.” She left.

Applebloom yawned.
“Almost there. Come on, don’t nod off now.”
It was a little past dawn, Big Macintosh woke her and took her outside to a part of the farm. Her head was too fuzzy to follow where they went, she got about as much sleep that night as a barn owl, what with her doubts crawling through her brain. She didn’t tell anypony about Scootaloo staying at the clubhouse, she feared they might scare Scootaloo away and then she’d never come back. She still had no clue what to do.
Applebloom bumped into Big Macintosh’s flank. “Oof.”
“Easy there,” Big Macintosh said. He stood in the sunlight, the only patch of it around. It was beside that one tree Applejack said Big Macintosh kicked over. He said, “Reckon I took ya here ta explain this.”
“Huh?”
Big Macintosh turned around and faced Applebloom. “Remember what I said last night?”
Applebloom nodded.
“Well sometimes ya find out something ’bout yourself that ya just aren’t ready ta face. And a while back, when I kicked over this tree here, I wasn’t ready ta face somethin’ myself.”
Applebloom said, “But what was it?”
Big Macintosh said, “Shucks Applebloom. It’s like this, ya see. I’m not your normal pony because… I’m like Scootaloo.”
“Scootaloo?”
“Eeyup.”
Applebloom giggled. “Ya can’t fly, silly—” she stopped. “Oh…”
Big Macintosh sat down beside her. He laid a hoof over her withers and said, “Now, I don’t want ya thinkin’ any different of me because there ain’t a thing different.”
Applebloom stared the torn tree. The bark on it was flaking off, the wood long since dead. The top remained twisted, slender pieces of it blew in the wind like spiky hair. She wasn’t sure what to say.
Her brother kept a silence from falling between them: “I know. We was raised our whole life ta think differently. But it looks like different’s been thinkin’ ’bout us instead. I’m sorry I brought this on ya now, but I couldn’t keep it from ya forever.”
Applebloom thought about all that happened and all she and Scootaloo said the night before and sudden question wormed its way up her throat. “What’s it feel like?”
“Hmm?” 
“Ta know your that kind of different.”
Big Macintosh said, “Don’t feel much like anything else, ’cept I suppose when ya are out lookin’ for somepony, or ya have somepony in your mind who may or may not be that way. Uh… I’m not the best pony ta ask. I know one who could answer that question for ya lickety-split, but he happens ta live a ways away from here.”
Applebloom nodded. “I think I know who.”
“Then ya know when all this started. It still ain’t easy for me. A lot of the times it just feels like I’m tryin’ to plow stone.”
Applebloom said, “That’s how Scootaloo must feel.”
Big Macintosh removed his hoof. “Eeyup.”
“She’s not as strong as you, though.” At this Big Macintosh chuckled. Applebloom furrowed her brow.
He shook his head. “Forget it. You was sayin’?”
“Scootaloo’s gonna run away forever.”
Big Macintosh stared a moment, then realized she was serious. He demanded, “Who told ya that?”
“She did. I snuck out last night and went to the clubhouse and there she was. I begged her ta stay just for the day but she wouldn’t answer me.”
For the first time in a long time her older brother was stern with her. “If she’s still there I’m gonna hogtie her myself. Stay here.”

Sweetie Belle rolled over in her bed and yawned. She stretched her legs and enjoyed the feeling of her sheets against them. A thread of sunlight snuck through the curtains in her room and rested across her brow. She wrinkled her nose and rolled over.
A hoof knocked on her door, “School Sweetie Belle. You need to leave in half an hour, darling.”
Sweetie Belle groaned and said, “Five more minutes.”
She heard a tap at her window. “Hmm?” Sweetie Belle crawled out of bed and pulled aside the curtain. Scootaloo hovered in the air outside.
She said, “Can I come in?”
Sweetie Belle nodded and unlatched the window. With a tiny grunt she pushed it open. Scootaloo floated inside and rested beside her bed. She glanced at the vanity in the opposite side of the room and asked, “When that get there?”
Sweetie Belle said, “Few months ago. My sister bought a new one for herself so she gave me that one.” Sweetie Belle tugged her window closed and drew the curtain. She turned on Scootaloo and noticed the pegasus favored her right side. Sweetie Belle asked, “What happened to you?”
“Huh?” She straightened her posture. “Nothing, you know how hard my bed can be. Woke up stiff.”
Sweetie Belle nodded. “Right… hard bed…” Sweetie Belle had a whole mess of feelings stewing around in her. But she didn’t know which to wrestle up, so she stood there by her window and waited on Scootaloo to tell her why she snuck up there.
Scootaloo said, “I’m sorry about the way I treated you. It was like you said, I was being a total featherbrain.”
Sweetie Belle said, “I should’ve said something. Don’t worry about it.”
Scootaloo said, “No, it’s my fault for everything. I just wanted to say so before I left.”
“Where are you going?”
Scootaloo shrugged her wings. She went back to the window and opened it. She whispered, “You know, I think I always took our friendship for granted.”
Scootaloo hopped into the air. Something in Sweetie Belle finally clicked and she knew she’d never see Scootaloo again if Sweetie Belle didn’t stop her. The unicorn reached for Scootaloo as the pegasus left and grabbed her tail. Sweetie Belle yanked her back inside, the orange filly crashed into her friend and both went tumbling. Scootaloo separated herself from Sweetie Belle and Sweetie Belle saw her blush rising underneath her coat.
“What was that about?”
Sweetie Belle stood and told her, “Don’t you see what you’re doing? I don’t know what you think it is you’ll make better by running away, but you’re doing just like you said, taking us for granted.”
Scootaloo opened her mouth, closed it. She thought for a moment and asked, “What are you trying to say?”
Sweetie Belle pursed her lips. “Suppose this is what I get for saying that. No, I don’t like you like that, Scootaloo. But I do know what you’re doing is wrong. Abandoning your friends and family like this—”
“It’d just be you and Applebloom,” Scootaloo said. “My family abandoned me first.”
Sweetie Belle felt if she could just get Scootaloo comfortable and make her talk everything would be fine. She patted her bead. “How about you take a seat on something comfy, featherbrain? Tell me what happened.”
“It’s not—”
“You don’t want to take me for granted, do you?”
Scootaloo glared at her. “Using my own words against me.”
“I learned it from my sister.” Sweetie Belle went to a plush ottoman that matched the violet in her mane. She pushed it to her bed and said, “Come on. You get the bed, I’ll sit here, and we’ll do something we haven’t done in a long time. We’re going to talk.”
Sweetie Belle had her, she knew she did. Scootaloo began to slink over to her bed. They would talk this out and solve both their problems.
Sweetie Belle’s door swung open. “Sweetie Belle?” Rarity froze in the doorway. “Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo mumbled, “Sorry.” She bounded across the room and leapt out the window.
“Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle ran to the window and saw her friend glide to the scooter waiting across the street. She fastened on her helmet and Sweetie Belle watched her ride away.
“Sweetie Belle? What in heavens was that about?”
Sweetie Belle stared at the plume of dust Scootaloo left drifting in her wake. “Guess she just wanted to say goodbye.”

Big Macintosh returned with Applejack. Applejack grilled Applebloom for answers and Applebloom didn’t hide a thing of the encounter. Her big sister ordered Big Macintosh to travel to the boutique and let Rarity know. Her sister went to Scootaloo’s house. They told Applebloom to stay at the farm and left her in the orchard again.
Applebloom stared at the tree Big Macintosh ruined. She knew her brother was strong, but she didn’t think nothing could get him that riled. Then again, she didn’t think anything would make Scootaloo leave forever. She felt futile, she couldn’t change her nature nor the nature of things.
Applebloom watched a piece of bark fall off. Like a boulder peeling off a mountainside after a thousand years, it tumbled off and chipped away more flakes on its way down. And when it hit the ground it occurred to Applebloom that no pony could change the way ponies felt in their hearts. But she could reshape what they saw, and maybe, like how Mrs. Cherilee said wind smoothed a mountain down, what they saw could reshape their hearts.
She didn’t care, either way. She knew what she wanted to do, not just for Scootaloo, but for her brother. When an apple was bad you made it good again by pressing it into cider.
Applebloom marched back to the farmhouse, she passed Granny Smith and told her, “I’m gonna borrow some tools and paint and stuff.”
Granny Smith rocked away in her chair and said, “’Bout time you took to that.”

Applejack galloped all the way to Scootaloo’s house. She pounded on the front door until it opened and almost smacked her hoof against Sandy’s face when it did. Applejack said, “Thank goodness. Have ya’ll noticed Scootaloo missing?”
Sandy said, “Of course—”
“Who is it, dear?”
“Applejack.” Sandy almost closed the door and said through the crack she left, “She’s probably just causing trouble somewhere, good day—”
Applejack slammed a hoof against the door and forced it open. “She’s not stirrin’ up trouble—she’s runnin’ away.”
Now Applejack saw Cliff-Hanger reading the paper inside. It snapped shut against his will and Sandy said, “Dear…”
“Oh, all right.”
Applejack said, “‘All right?’ Don’t ya’ll care even a string a straw ’bout your kin?”
“Her mother abandoned her in the same fashion she’s leaving,” Cliff-Hanger said. He crossed the room to Applejack and said, “She obviously doesn’t want to be ‘kin’.”
Applejack shook her head. “Ya’ll ponies crazy? Nah, forget it. I’m gonna let the Mayor know. We’re goin’ ta find her with or without you.”
Cliff-Hanger said, “Whatever you think’s best.”
“This ain’t over.” Applejack threatened, but sprinted for the mayor’s house.

Sweetie Belle watched from the kitchen while Rarity and Big Macintosh talked in the boutique. She eavesdropped on the story Big Macintosh retold until Rarity told him about Scootaloo’s visit. This prompted Big Macintosh to get the story out of Sweetie Belle. She told them how she almost convinced Scootaloo to stay, but her sister scared her off. Rarity apologized for that, but hope lit up in Big Macintosh’s eyes. He said, “Then she may just be waitin’ on somepony ta catch her.”
Applejack showed up soon after. She spilled out how she got the Mayor organizing a search, but she asked both ponies to come with her to help look.
They left Sweetie Belle behind with instructions to leave for school.
But the way Sweetie Belle figured there wouldn’t be any school today. There would just be gossip. She didn’t want to listen to worthless gossip, she’d buck Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara in the face the moment they said something. So when Sweetie Belle left the boutique she didn’t head for the quaint schoolhouse outside of Ponyville. Sweetie Belle knew Scootaloo would go where no pony would find her, a place only the pegasus knew about.
And it struck Sweetie Belle where that place might be.
Sweetie Belle headed for the Everfree Forest.

Scootaloo didn’t know how she could fit her scooter through the cave entrance. So she hid it in the nearby brush and returned to the jagged cut of rock bordering the Everfree Forest. The ragged breath of the cave exhaled, damp and chilled, the musty smell made her nose wrinkle. Scootaloo decided she would stay another day and give Applebloom a chance. She had a satchel over her shoulder wherein she removed the flashlight from the night before.
She shined it down the cave entrance and studied the striations along the walls. She took a deep breath and crawled inside. The rock scraped her hooves at first, and she found the whole mess a bit overwhelming. Claustrophobia settled in while she hugged her wings to her body and felt the pinions brush rock. She clutched the flashlight in her mouth and scooted down until the ground leveled out. Once inside, she twisted her body around to face a tunnel and illuminated it with her flashlight. It opened into a chamber that she hustled into.
Scootaloo couldn’t help but admire the wicked stalactites and stalagmites dotting the chamber. It made it seem like she weaved through a thin forest of stone. The rock was a waxy clay-red interspersed with limestone striations. The chamber was large enough for a pond to tuck itself away in the corner. After indulging herself by ducking and weaving between stalactites, she settled beside the pond and observed the ceiling of the chamber. The whole thing played out in an egg-shape, most if it worn smooth. Scootaloo noticed if she skirted the pond she could reach another opening into a tunnel that wound down into darkness. The water ran right up to the opening, but the lip of rock kept it from spilling.
Scootaloo felt the urge to explore, but decided getting lost too risky. She took some apples she snuck from Applebloom’s cellar and ate. When she finished she tossed the cores into the pond and watched the ripples crawl across the water to her hooves. The water nipped them and Scootaloo shivered. “Blugh, that’s cold.”
“-at’s cold.”
Scootaloo perked up. “Sweet! Echo!”
“-et! Echo!”
“You’re stupid.”
“-u’re stupid.”
“Don’t you talk that way to me.”
“-way to me.”
Scootaloo scoffed. “Copy me will you?”
“-will you?”
Scootaloo grunted, snorted, squealed. She stomped her hooves and flapped her wings and a cacophony of sounds swirled around the chamber. Scootaloo rose onto her hind legs and whinnied, came down and slapped her hooves against stone with a loud clop!
Clop!
-lop!
-op!
For moment, all she heard was her panting. She wiped a dollop of saliva hanging from the corner of her mouth and said, “All right, you win.”
“-win.”
“Don’t rub it in.” While the cave answered her again, Scootaloo came to the sudden revelation that waiting was boring. She thought about just leaving for good, but she didn’t. Oh she was featherbrain alright, because she stayed for all the wrong reasons. A small part of her clutched the tiniest hope that Celestia did grant wishes and when she returned to say goodbye Applebloom would beg her to stay because she knew in heart that… that…
But Scootaloo knew that wasn’t true.
She shook her head. “Enough thinking. Let’s do something.” Scootaloo collected her flashlight and decided she had every right to go exploring.

Mayor Mare surprised Sweetie Belle. After breaking her weather vane, the unicorn didn’t expect the mayor to get ponies organized so quickly for Scootaloo. But twice pegasus ponies stopped her and asked if she’d seen Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle told them no and continued her trek to the Everfree Forest.
Scootaloo told both of them, mostly Applebloom, where the cave was on their way into Ponyville the day before their fight. It was west of the typical beaten trail into the forest, nestled next to an overgrowth of lemon bushes with thorns that could grow as long as filly’s hoof was wide. Sweetie Belle found those bushes first, and thrown in them a scooter Sweetie Belle knew a certain pegasus would never abandon.
She found the cave next. Oh it was terribly dark, but Rarity long since taught her how to cast a candlelight spell. “Should you ever get trapped someplace dark and musty. I never want you to be lost, darling.” Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and focused on the sun’s rays on her horn. She let its warmth spill down her horn and into her, she felt it course through her body and mingle with her own energies before she thrust those energies back into her horn. The result made her horn glow.
Satisfied Sweetie Belle peered down the hole.
She hesitated.
The unicorn muttered, “Right… spelunking. What were you thinking, Scootaloo?”
She clambered into the darkness.

“Whoa…”
The tunnel she followed opened into a chamber as long as the last one, but this one fell off into a pit deep enough that she could pile three Sweet Apple Acres’ barns on top of each other. On the opposite side of her was another opening where a stream of water spilled out and cascaded down the rock face to the bottom, where water collected and ran into another tunnel.
Scootaloo painted the chamber with her flashlight, admiring the carpet of lichen and moss on the opposite wall, a deposit of jagged quartz beside it, and a narrow ledge that wrapped around the cave wall beside her and spiraled down across the chamber. She whispered around the flashlight, “This is so awesome.”
She swept her flashlight over the ceiling next, to see if she could catch anymore cool stalactites. There was a patch of them, sprouting from the ceiling like the rough spines of a hedgehog. Scootaloo cocked her head when some of the rock quivered.
She squinted and wondered if one was going to fall for her. But the stalactites flexed and fell back, like carefully arranged strips of paper folding into place to make the paper whole again. Only these were rough hewn wings. She noticed a pair of rat-like ears perk up, and the head they were attached to twisted around without the body. It was a bat, its eyes large, milky orbs. The bat hissed and revealed a set of yellow fangs. It screeched.
The bulb on Scootaloo’s flashlight shattered.

That screech made Sweetie Belle’s blood ice over. Scootaloo’s high pierced scream saved her from total petrifaction.
“Scootaloo!”
Sweetie Belle ran into the fleeing darkness. She skirted around a boulder and scrambled up a steep incline. And saw Scootaloo running towards her, her eyes bigger than the moon. She shouted, “Run!”
Scootaloo blew past her, Sweetie Belle peered down the tunnel a moment. Her breathing slowed. She braced herself for anything to come crawling from the darkness. She listened best she could, to the scrabbling of stone, but the sound was hard to trace. The cave was confusing, she noticed a whole other network of tunnels above this one. Then she heard the slap of massive paws against stone and gasped. It built and built, the monster on a course to trample Sweetie Belle. But the sound of its passage went overhead, she felt like the ghost of a beast went through her, but a clutch of dirt on the tunnel’s ceiling fell onto her nose.
She wheeled and around and yelled, “Scootaloo stop.”
Scootaloo did, Sweetie Belle saw her tail right around the boulder. Scootaloo demanded, “Don’t you hear it coming?”
“Yes but its—”
Too late. The ceiling collapsed ahead of them. Scootaloo disappeared in a cloud of dust. Another screech made Sweetie Belle’s ears pop. She flinched and saw Scootaloo burst from the dust cloud, covered in dirt and scratches. A massive claw swiped out of the darkness and clipped off the end of her tail. Sweetie Belle watched the beast clamber around the boulder. It was hunched over, its arms held massive wings, and ended in a clawed paws that reminded Sweetie Belle of a sloth. It reared its ugly head at her and she saw drool spill from its mouth onto the cave floor.
Scootaloo snatched Sweetie Belle’s mane between her teeth and tugged her around. Sweetie Belle yelped and let the pegasus spin her. “Stop staring and run.” Sweetie Belle couldn’t answer her, she realized the knot her throat was bigger than a cantaloupe.
The beast chased them. Scootaloo led Sweetie Belle into a chamber and scrabbled to a stop. Sweetie Belle slid along the rock when she applied the brakes, and almost flew off the edge of a pit. Scootaloo caught her tail between her teeth and wrenched her back from the brink. She jabbed a hoof at a nearby ledge and said, “This way.”
Sweetie Belle said, “But he’ll catch us. Look, you can fly—”
“It’s my fault you’re down here and what the heck can I do without a light?” Scootaloo shoved her. “I can hear it coming. Go.”
Sweetie Belle went. She sidled along the edge and felt the wall of rock shake as their pursuer pounded to them. They were sure as dead. They couldn’t do a thing to a monster this big in its environment. It was going to swipe them up in its claws and gnash their bones to dust between those awful teeth.
Tears sprung to Sweetie Belle’s eyes. She sobbed.
“Come on. I see ya, I’ve fought a hen ten times scarier than you.” Sweetie Belle craned her neck and looked behind her. Scootaloo didn’t follow her, she still stood at the lip of the pit, her wings out and her whole body trembling.
And Sweetie Belle saw the jaws of the monster spring from darkness, its whole body surged forward, its fangs snapped down on Scootaloo. But the pegasus ducked away and kicked off into the air. The beast hissed and lumbered over to the edge. Scootaloo swept to the other side of the cave wall with Sweetie Belle tracking the pegasus with her horn.
Scootaloo said, “What are you doing? Run!”
Sweetie Belle couldn’t move, though. The monstrous bat bounded across the chamber to Scootaloo. Its talons outstretched and reaching for the pegasus like an eagle’s would. Scootaloo disappeared behind the bulk of the bat. They struck the other side of the cave wall, water spilled down the bat’s back. Sweetie Belle gasped and stepped back. Her hoof slipped and slid down the rock wall; one of her hooves caught on a niche in the rock and stopped her from tumbling to her doom.
Sweetie Belle struggled for hold when she felt a pair of hooves sweep under her shoulders. “Dang it I told you to run.”
Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Not without you.” Scootaloo pulled her back onto the ledge and hovered in front of her.
“This isn’t up for debate—”
“Scootaloo!”
Their monster had leapt from its spot onto the cave and sailed to them. It planted itself over the rock before them, its massive head hanging right over Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle felt rocks slide loose and one smashed into her shoulder and left a gasp. She gasped. The beast was close enough that Sweetie Belle could smell it, and her eyes watered. The beast reminded her of a skunk spraying a pile of manure.
It gnashed its teeth. Sweetie Belle didn’t need encouragement, this time she did skirt the ledge. She ducked under the claws sunk into stone and ran. Scootaloo dodged another snap and flew across the chamber, climbing until she reached another passageway where water ran down the pit.
She kicked a rock on the ledge at the bat. The rock bounced off its head and the creature snorted. It twisted its neck all the way around and screeched again.
Scootaloo held her ground. “Come on you dumb rat with wings!”
Sweetie Belle reached an unnatural bend in the rock wall. When she sidled past it she discovered a small tunnel, barely big enough for a regular pony to squeeze into. Sweetie Belle spun around and shouted, “Over here!”
Scootaloo shook her head. “I mapped out this tunnel already. I know where it goes, I’ll be fine. Find a way out!”
The bat leapt across the pit and smashed against the rock wall. It began to clamber up to Scootaloo. Scootaloo rolled another stone off onto the bat’s head. She said, “I swear I’ll be okay. There’s some light up ahead of this tunnel. I can see it. If you can’t find a way out stay here and I’ll bring help.” Sweetie Belle saw Scootaloo hesitate. Sweetie Belle knew she never lied as well as her. The bat clambered over the edge and its hiss filled the chamber.
Scootaloo fled into the tunnel. Sweetie Belle slipped into her own.

First Applebloom peeled away the bark, then went to work removing the ragged top of the trunk. The image she had in mind required her to saw the trunk down to the remaining aged applewood. The work made her neck and legs ache, but the oldest part of the tree would provide a lasting piece once she applied a sealant.
Applebloom finished with the first part and found the day stretched to mid-morning. She didn’t have much time, so she ignored the growing paunch in her stomach and returned to cutting out the rough figure she already had in mind. It would be so simple, but would stand for everything it meant to be a crusader.

The water chilled Scootaloo’s hooves to the bone. There was no telling how far she went or where she did, but she knew she could count on following the water to some kind of destination. The smell of water mingled with that of the beast and reminded Scootaloo of a festering swamp.
A hiss.
Scootaloo gasped and blazed ahead. Right into a solid rock wall. Otherworldly lights burst in her eyes and she fell back. She groaned and heard the slap of paws coming right to her. Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom! They disappeared. Scootaloo could hear the bat’s breath. She whimpered and listened to the shape slink to the right. The shuffling of wings while the bat circled her.
It snorted and came to a stop.
Scootaloo knees almost buckled. She couldn’t keep still. She tried to face the bat.
A hiss from behind.

Sweetie Belle shook water from her mane and looked back down the tunnel she came from. The last half of it was filled to her shoulder with water and the filly couldn’t stop her shivering. She turned and faced the chamber before her. Its walls bent and wound like a river. It followed a rough slope of rock to an entrance large enough for another one of those bats. Sweetie Belle looked up and saw the ceiling covered in patchy spots of stalactites.
She didn’t waste time site-seeing. The little unicorn traversed the chamber and came into the next one, a tunnel followed that wrapped around and went in the same direction as the one she waded through moments ago.
A noise rocked down the tunnel and brushed past Sweetie Belle’s ears like wraith. It was Scootaloo’s scream.
Sweetie Belle’s horn flickered.
The unicorn gasped and squeezed her eyes shut. She concentrated until it made her head hurt to bring the spell back. She released breath and for a brief moment came the awful thought of being trapped in this cave forever.

Scootaloo felt a claw go over her head. She ducked and screamed, she heard the slash gouge into stone. The bat grunted when its claws got stuck. Scootaloo ran for it, but the bulk of the beast leapt in her way. She felt the ground shake. Her hooves spilled across stone and she fell. The bats jaws snapped close above her, she gasped when she felt the top three feathers on her left wing ripped out.
She leapt up and bounded away. Into the air. She cleared whatever rock she ran smack into. It couldn’t have been taller than stallion. She landed and broke into a gallop. The bat screeched and lumbered after her. It had a taste for the filly now.
The cut of water bent beneath her. Scootaloo followed it until she felt the air above her open up. It was a little thing, but it suddenly wasn’t so musty and in the distance she saw a swathe of light slash the dark. A strangled piece of joy tumbled out her mouth. She kicked into the air and beat her wings fast as she could towards it.
She heard the bat’s wings open up behind her, the sound like a sail blowing open in a storm. Scootaloo pushed herself harder, closing the gap between herself and the single ray of light. She reached it. The column felt warm, soothing on her back. She felt like she won some victory ’til she spun around and saw the massive shadow swooping down.
Scootaloo squeaked and forgot to fly. She fell to the ground, but caught herself on her right fore-hoof and sprung away. She felt the rush of wind and saw talons sweep by and scoop up the stone from where she landed. The bat hissed while Scootaloo leapt into the air again. While it bumbled around trying to turn itself, Scootaloo ascended. She flapped her wings and dared not to look behind her. The ray in her eyes stung and almost blinded her. But she ascended, and ascended. The height thirty ponies, fifty, eighty… She reached it.
“No!” She cried.
The cut of rock was big enough to allow light, but it was too narrow for Scootaloo to squeeze her shoulders in. She tried anyways, desperately clawing at the rock, her dangling back legs bucking into the air. No good. She heard the bat screech again, and the beat of its massive wings made Scootaloo moan.
“No, please Celestia, no!”
She spun around and saw the beast flying right for her. She couldn’t see it that well because of the daylight just in her eyes, she hadn’t adjusted—
That was it!

All that stone began to blend together while Sweetie Belle ran. She didn’t know if she headed for Scootaloo or not, she lost track of the twists she took. So it came as a shock when the tunnel exploded into another massive chamber. This one she stood at the floor of and when she entered she heard, “Let’s do this!”
Sweetie Belle looked up to see the tiny figure of Scootaloo hovering at the roof of the cave. Their bat rose straight for her, its neck outstretched and fangs barred. Scootaloo darted to the side and beam of light blasted the bat. It cried out and shrunk away, but its momentum rocketed the monster straight into the cave ceiling.
Scootaloo spun in the air and pumped her hoof. “Take that.”
Slabs of stone peeled away. The ceiling shook and boulders rocked loose. They fell with the horrendous monster. The cavern opened with sudden shafts of light that spread over the cave walls like sun peeling through a window. The bat struck stone, the crunch of its wings reminded Sweetie Belle of bugs and made her shudder. Rocks followed the bat and buried the monster.
With the cavern opened up she saw how bizarre this chamber became. The walls bristled with spines, like a spiked throat, only these spines shuddered when the sunlight touched them. Sweetie Belle could care less, she shouted, “Scootaloo.”
The pegasus filly looked down and saw her. She dove for the unicorn and said, “Sweetie Belle, you’re alive!”
Sweetie Belle braced herself and Scootaloo crashed into her. The two went tumbling across the rock and came to a stop with Scootaloo hugging her close. She nuzzled Sweetie Belle’s cheek and talked faster than a Sonic Rainboom, “I was so scared and terrified and then I saw you with your light in that tunnel and I felt awful that after everything I did you’d still run down here after me and I realized how great of a friend you are and how I wouldn’t ever want to see you get hurt so I led that thing away and… and…”
Sweetie Belle laughed. “Breathe, featherbrain!”
They both laughed for the simple joy of hearing their voices. The laughter bounded off the cave walls and seemed to make the darkness edge farther into its warren. Scootaloo finally let go of her and rolled onto her back, gasping for breath. Sweetie Belle closed her eyes, she got ready to release a sigh when Scootaloo’s breath suddenly cut short.
“Oh no.” Scootaloo jumped to her hooves.
Sweetie Belle sat up. “What is it?”
Scootaloo pointed out a particularly dense cluster of those curious wall stalactites. She said, “Th-th-those.”
She watched the things shudder and one of the spines closed. Sweetie Belle felt all of her dread return. Scootaloo tugged on her tail and said, “We need to go. We need to go. We need to go!” But Sweetie Belle watched a massive bat head twist around and fix its blank stare at them. Its nose wrinkled, the bat took a deep whiff of the surrounding cave, even from where she stood Sweetie Belle could hear it. “Sweetie Belle!” The bat licked its chops, opened its mouth and screeched.
The cavern came alive.

Applebloom stepped back and admired her work so far. She’d cut out the rough shape she wanted. Standing before her were the makings of a proud wooden filly, facing the eastern horizon with its gaze looking towards what would become tomorrow’s sunrise. She slanted the western half of the stump, to give the look that this filly just climbed the rise of a mountain. She wanted it to be clear that this filly overcame something.
She stowed all her saws and returned to the farmhouse for a quick lunch and long draught of water. She snagged a set of carving tools her brother sometimes used. She returned to her little wooden filly and began with its blocky head. The work’s monotony helped her relax.
All of Applebloom’s fears bled away with the work. With every shave of wood came a measure in satisfaction that for the first time in a long time she felt like she was doing something worthwhile. Too long had she allowed others to do things for her and give her gifts and try their best to make her happy. She wanted to change that today, by making the best thing she could for her friends, for her family.
She did the whole project alone. Not once did she see Big Macintosh or Applejack. Scootaloo didn’t sneak up on her. Sweetie Belle never visited, but Applebloom supposed it was a school day and she probably didn’t want to miss the chance for some calm after the past two days.

“In here!”
Sweetie Belle ducked down and squeezed into an opening in the tunnel the unicorn came from. Scootaloo waited behind her, muttering, “Come on come on come on.” She heard a chorus of hisses travel down both sides of the tunnel. With Sweetie Belle’s horn on the other side Scootaloo couldn’t tell how close she was to getting eaten.
“I’m stuck.”
“Oh no you aren’t,” Scootaloo said and groped in the darkness until her hoof found Sweetie Belle’s flank. She wheeled around and said, “Sorry if this hurts.” Scootaloo kicked her friend in the rump. Sweetie Belle yelped but Scootaloo heard hooves scrabble over stone while she crawled into the small opening. Scootaloo came right behind her. The stone chafed her knees and scraped her wings. She didn’t care. All she felt were those monsters getting closer and closer to dragging her out and eating her whole.
Sweetie Belle got her hooves underneath her and drew back. Scootaloo scrambled into the safety of their tunnel—
It was a dead end.
The chamber was a little bigger than a broom closet. Sweetie Belle asked, “What now?”
Scootaloo opened her mouth but felt claws scratch against stone. The monsters found them. Scootaloo whispered, “Turn off your horn and be quiet.”
Sweetie Belle nodded and her horn dimmed until black surrounded them again. They both waited in the chamber while the bats outside clambered around the hole. They heard all manner of grunts, snorts, and hisses. One of the creatures snapped and another howled. Scootaloo wished there was a way to make them all start fighting with each other.
One of the monsters pressed its nose to the hole and sniffed it like a dog. It stopped and screeched. Scootaloo flinched while the sound bounced around the chamber and made her ears ring. One of the bats on the other side snarled. It seemed like some command, for the creatures slowly stopped their jostling and noise. The leader uttered a few hisses punctuated by a grunt.
The tension winding up Scootaloo’s whole body began to drain as she heard the monsters begin to shuffle away. When the tension faded she was left with an empty hole where all her energy used to be. Scootaloo didn’t care anymore. She allowed herself the chance to collapse.
Sweetie Belle knelt beside the exhausted pegasus and shook her with a hoof. “Scootaloo, you okay?”
Scootaloo nodded and said, “Tired.”
“I know. Me too.”
“Do you think it’s safe to leave?”
“We should give it an hour or so,” Sweetie Belle said. “They might be setting up a trap or something.”
“Oh… rest then?”
Sweetie Belle nestled right beside her and said, “Yes.”
Scootaloo never fell asleep. The situation ground her nerves raw. Scootaloo knew she’d be afraid of the dark for the rest of her life. However long that was. She tried to forget about that, she focused on Sweetie Belle’s breath and felt her creeping despair slow; Scootaloo felt awful for Sweetie Belle, it was like getting the unicorn trapped in a hurricane. She swore if it came between her life and Sweetie Belle’s, she would make sure Sweetie Belle got out of this cave alive.
Scootaloo draped a wing over Sweetie Belle and Sweetie Belle snuggled closer to her. The unicorn mumbled, “Don’t get used to this. It’s just cold and you’re the softest thing around.”
Scootaloo said, “I’m sorry you’re down here. I know it’s all my fault.”
“Forget it. It’s not worth the worry now.”
“I’m still sorry. I know you must think I’m something awful. I do, after everything I’ve done to you, and now this. And yet you’re still here… gosh I was a fool—”
“Featherbrain,” Sweetie Belle corrected.
“Fine, featherbrain. It was all sorts of stupid for me to come down here, but I didn’t want no pony finding me and dragging me back.”
“Why didn’t you just leave like you said?”
“Because Applebloom begged me to stay another day and…” Scootaloo blushed. “A secret part of me wanted her to have a change of heart. But… now I think I’m the one having a change of heart…”
Sweetie Belle snickered. “Not the most faithful pegasus, are you?”
Scootaloo said, “Guess I’m not.”
“Don’t take it like that—”
“No, it’s okay. I just need to learn what fillies will like me back. I know you don’t… but you’re pretty awesome Sweetie Belle. More awesome than Applebloom, even.”
“Scootaloo…” Sweetie Belle nuzzled her cheek. “If I was I’m pretty sure I’d think you were more awesome than Applebloom, too.”
Scootaloo thanked Celestia Sweetie Belle couldn’t see how crimson she became. Her heart fluttered and for moment she couldn’t breathe.
“Even if you can be a big, dumb, featherbrain sometimes,” Sweetie Belle added.
Scootaloo managed a smile. “It’s what I have to live with, since Celestia made me so graceful.”
“I still couldn’t believe it when you got your cutie-mark. I remember thinking, ‘Knowing how to balance can be a special talent? Then I want mine to be sleeping in!’”
“It’s more than just balancing.”
“Sure it is.”
“What about yours? How many ponies in Equestria do you think have ‘singing’ as their special talent?”
“Singing’s not my special talent.”
Scootaloo was taken aback. “It’s not? But your cutie mark is a microphone. I’ve seen it, its sparkling all over and its—”
“I’m good at singing, just like my sister is good at making dresses, but singing isn’t my special talent. A unicorn’s cutie-mark tends to be some kind of magic. Like how my sister can find gemstones like nothing.”
“Well what is it then? When I saw it I just figured—”
“I told you and Applebloom once before!”
“Oh…”
Sweetie Belle sighed. “You were too busy ogling Applebloom, weren’t you?”
“Probably, maybe—yes. I’m sorry, look, I promise I’ll only ogle you from now on.”
“I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“I’ll do it at a distance.”
Scootaloo felt Sweetie Belle’s head bob. “Better.” The unicorn said, “Alright, so what happened was during that week where I helped Rarity cut fabrics there was a small show outside of Ponyville. This one pony from out of town named Free Bird was doing a blues jam thingy and I snuck in there to get away from all that dumb fabric and maybe sing. I knew I couldn’t go to you guys because then Rarity would’ve figured out where I snuck off to.
“But I was at this blues concert, thingy, right? And towards the end of it they asked if there were any singers in the audience who wanted to sing. At first I wasn’t going to say a thing, but then Bon-bon picked me out of the crowd and yelled that I knew how to sing, on account that I used to take music lessons from Lyra. So every pony started to heckle me and they threw me up onto the stage.”
Scootaloo nodded. “Uh-huh.”
Sweetie Belle said, “And at first I was scared, but Free Bird asked me what songs I knew and I said the closest one to a blues song I could think of. And Free Bird said, ‘Shoot, Fool in the Rain? We played that one a week ago.’ So the band began to play and I started singing and everything started going great. I got to feeling real good, like I was meant to perform. I swayed a little to the music, but I didn’t want to go too far because of the microphone on the stage.”
“It was right after the bridge that I discovered the microphone cut out. It wasn’t no pony’s fault, you know sometimes these things happen. But at first I froze, then Free Bird shouted from the side of the stage, ‘Big finish!’ So I tried my best and thought to sing as loud as I could. But my voice wouldn’t come out any louder because I felt my horn getting wrapped in this weird magic and all I wanted was for everypony to hear me because the band was playing too loud for me to sing over. Then my voice burst out and it felt so natural, like I hadn’t tried to sing any louder, but at the same time it was like the microphone never cut out. In fact it seemed even louder. And I realized I was working a spell that was making my voice like a microphone and the crowd went crazy. And after we finished Free Bird swept me up and pointed at the cutie-mark on my flank and I’ll never forget what she said.”
“Ohhhh… what’d she say? What’d she say?”
“She said, ‘You’re amazing kid. If you ever come to Fillydelphia find me and I’ll make sure everypony everywhere here’s that voice of yours.’”
“That’s awesome! Why didn’t you go?”
Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Rarity would never let me. I think Free Bird would be way too seedy for her. But Free Bird treated me to a meal with her band and then sent me home. She excused herself, saying if she didn’t get back Sweet Apple Acres Applejack would tan her hide.”
Scootaloo said, “Man that’s awesome. When we get out of this I want to hear you sing.”
Sweetie Belle said, “That’s a first.”
“What?”
“You’ve never cared for my singing.”
“Well now I do,” Scootaloo said. “I want to hear just how loud you can crank it up—” Scootaloo gasped and sprung to her hooves. “That’s it!”
“What’s it?”
“I know how to get out of here.”

Applebloom only had about two more hours of work before she finished. If she didn’t count painting her creation, too. Her absence of sleep caught up to her now, and when she wasn’t setting knife to wood she found her whole body would wrap itself in exhaustion. Her head drooped, her eyelids dropped, and her knees wobbled like a newborn foal’s. But it was almost done. She just needed to finish.
Then rest.

“There’s no way I can do this,” Sweetie Belle whispered. “For one I’m not good with spells. I don’t know if I can keep my horn lit at the same time.”
Scootaloo said, “I know you can. Besides, it may be our only way out of here.”
Sweetie Belle said, “And if it doesn’t work?”
“At least neither of us are alone.”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both marched into the cavern, where the hive of bats seemed to wait for them. The light of Sweetie Belle’s horn faded and what remained was the now dimming light from outside. The walls came alive, the monstrous bats bristling with rage. They gnashed their teeth, gouged the stone with their claws and hissed.
Sweetie Belle listened to the noise rise like she just fell into a pit of rattle snakes.
Scootaloo said, “It won’t happen. You’re not going to fail.” Sweetie Belle glanced and saw the faulty smirk Scootaloo put on.
She was just as afraid. That helped. Anypony could be afraid, Sweetie Belle was afraid of so much so often lately she just let Equestria walk over her. She didn’t want that, she wanted to face her fears, stand up for herself, speak and be certain everypony heard her.
Several of the bats dropped from the wall and began to lumber to the fillies. More swept through the air, gliding with talons extended. Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and tried to recall that feeling where everything disappeared but the one desire for everypony to hear her. It was almost giddy, feeling that familiar energy spill from her horn and warm her body. She felt a ball of it collect at her throat, it left the impression of a knot there and her body swallowed in natural response.
One of the bats dropped from the ceiling and landed in front of them. The force of its landing shook the ground and both fillies almost fell over. The bat crouched low until it came face to face with Sweetie Belle. Its breath washed over her and she felt her mane dampen. Sweetie Belle took a deep breath, eyes watering as the monster’s breath filled her nostrils. Scootaloo clapped her hooves over her ears. The bat screeched.
Sweetie Belle screamed.
The unicorn seemed to be immune to the volume of her noise, but she knew it was loud, and only amplified with the tight space of the cave bouncing the sound of her voice all around, like standing inside a massive, bonging cathedral bell. The bat before her shrieked, the sound drowned out by Sweetie Belle’s voice. The creature fell backwards and scrambled to get away. The bats sweeping through the air panicked. They tried to swing around and retreat but collided into each other. They tumbled to the ground. The force of the scream stunned the beasts on the wall, they fell off and hit the cave floor. The cavern filled with the thrashing bodies of those bats, caught in the throes of agony.
Sweetie Belle emptied her lungs.
Scootaloo let go of her ears and shouted, “Told you.”
One of the bats screeched. A panic flight occurred, all of them preferring to dare the light outside the cavern than face Sweetie Belle’s voice. Scootaloo jumped into the air and waved an angry hoof at the clumsy retreat. “Yeah, run suckers, you got nothing on us!”
Sweetie Belle exhaled, the magic faded and she fell back on her haunches. The bats kept fleeing, there seemed to be an endless amount of them.
“Whoo-hoo!”
“Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo didn’t hear Sweetie Belle. She kept throwing taunts at the bats, awful puns like, “Bat you didn’t hear that one coming—” or “Better get out of here before my friend drives you batty—” and “Na-na-na-na-na-na Bat-babies! Where ya goin’? You wussies.”
Sweetie Belle chuckled and let her friend have her moment. When the last bat flew out of the cavern, Scootaloo spun around and tackled Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo wrapped Sweetie Belle in her fierce embrace and kept talking in an exceptionally loud voice, “You were amazing! Those bats were all like, ‘We’re gonna eat you—’ but then you opened your mouth and did you see the way they fell from the walls and crashed into each other?”
Sweetie Belle said, “Not so loud, I’m right here Scoot.”
Scootaloo clambered off her and frowned. “What? I can’t hear you. Hey, is it a bad thing if my ears can’t stop ringing?”
Sweetie Belle said, “Yes but—”
“Huh?”
“Yes but it’ll stop sometime!”
“Oh, okay,” Scootaloo said. “So how about we find a way out of this dumb place?”
Sweetie Belle said, “Yes, please.”
“What?”
The unicorn rolled her eyes

Since the entrance they took got caved in by the first bat, the two had to hunt down a new way out. They decided if worse came to worse Scootaloo would fly out the same way the bats did and get help, but she insisted staying with Sweetie Belle until both of them were safe. It didn’t come to any of that. They stumbled upon a passageway of tunnels that wound to the surface. The markings in these tunnels revealed a long since abandoned Diamond Dog mine.
The girls found their exit as a cleverly disguised, hollowed out tree stump. Scootaloo held Sweetie Belle on her shoulders while Sweetie Belle unlocked the latch over the stump and pushed it open.
Sweetie Belle said, “No way.”
“What is it?”
“Just a sec.” Sweetie Belle climbed into daylight. Scootaloo followed and gasped when she got her head out from underground. They were in the hollow of brush where they first had their fight.
Sweetie Belle stared at all the brush and said, “I didn’t realize we went so far.”
Scootaloo got her hooves on sweet grass and said, “Here we are again, then.”
“Do you still plan on leaving?” Sweetie Belle said. She faced Scootaloo, “Because if it’s what you really want I won’t tell anypony or stop you, but you should know everypony in town is looking for you, Scootaloo. I know you think no pony could ever care for you, but we all do.”
Scootaloo said, “That’s great and all but…”
“But you don’t want to stay?”
“I still want… I don’t know…” Scootaloo’s face flushed. “After everything we went through, I really want to just hug you and hold you and well… maybe do other things.”
Sweetie Belle cleared her throat. “Um… that’s very… sweet?”
“But it just stinks, you know? Because it still feels like I’m running against a wall because I can’t get my feelings settled on either of my friends and it feels like I might—I think a fresh start might be best for me.”
“Featherbrain,” Sweetie Belle said. “You’re way too young to be thinking about that stuff. Besides, if it really bugs you I’ve heard rumors at school that Twist is—”
“What? Blegh, no way—I mean, have you seen her?”
Sweetie Belle laughed. “What I’m trying to get at is that you have plenty of time, featherbrain. How about for now we go back to Applebloom and just for the rest of the day try to be Cutie-Mark Crusaders? After all, our quest isn’t done yet, is it?”
Scootaloo thought about how badly she wanted to rewind the clock and start over. Sweetie Belle didn’t understand how much that offer meant to her. Scootaloo’s eyes teared up, but she brushed them off with her hoof. “I’d like that. A lot.”
Sweetie Belle said, “I’ll lead the way.”
Scootaloo watched her head to the exit of the hollow. When she reached it Scootaloo said, “Sweetie Belle?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks.”
“No problem,” Sweetie Belle said. She reached into the brush, tangling her mane in thorns to retrieve something. It was the length of red ribbon from Applebloom’s bow. Sweetie Belle trotted back to Scootaloo and draped it over her shoulder. She said, “There. You should be the one to give this back to Applebloom.”

Applebloom stepped back and admired her work. Still needed some touch ups, paint and a coat of sealant to keep it preserved. But, well she couldn’t think of a prouder creation. She brought to life the crusader stitched on Cutie-Mark Crusaders’ capes.
The little filly was half the size of Applebloom, posed like she just climbed her mountain while she carried a fierce look of determination. Her cape was carved like it billowed in the wind. She held her left fore-hoof up as if she still marched forward. Applebloom couldn’t help but carve in the initials of the three crusaders for the figurine’s cutie-mark. Despite how proud she was with it, it felt like it missed something.
She sighed and thought she could lay down right there and sleep a whole week, amongst the tools and wood shavings, with the autumn leaves blowing overhead. She didn’t because, “Applebloom?” jarred her thoughts.
Applebloom turned around and faced Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle stood a few paces behind her. Both were coated in dirt, mud, and scratches. Sweetie Belle had a nasty gash along her shoulder, Scootaloo a dry trail of blood that leaked from one of her ears. Scootaloo held in her mouth Applebloom’s ribbon. She carried it to Applebloom and offered it to her.
“This is yours.”
Applebloom glanced at Sweetie Belle, who smiled and nodded. Applebloom took the ribbon and said, “Thanks.” She stepped out of the way of her creation and said, “Um… I made this—wait a minute.” She realized what her creation missed and darted beside it. She draped the ribbon over her wooden filly and tied the tattered ribbon off like a scarf.
When she did she felt a tingling warmth spread over her flanks, it lasted as long as a summer breeze, then disappeared.
Both of her friends gasped. Sweetie Belle said, “Applebloom your flank…”
When Applebloom looked down she saw the ribbon across her flank, tied across the handle of a plain carving knife. Applebloom laughed. A hysterical little thing cut short when she tried to speak. “I… I-I-I—” she looked up at her friends and she exploded. “I did it! I got my cutie-mark!”
She leapt in the air and her friends joined her in her joy. They laughed and hugged her and bounced together in circles. Chanting, “We gott’em. We gott’em. No such thing as blank flank no more! We gott’em. We gott’em!”
They tumbled into a fit of laughter and play. And for that one moment, there was no thought of what they would do. Of the looming challenges of adulthood, or the fears of acceptance, there were no doubts to their voice. They completed their crusade, and by its end their bonds were stronger. They held no fear that a blank flank was the only thing they had tethering them together.
And the crusader made of aged applewood watched while the fillies danced and laughed. A silent tribute to the spirit of triumph.