//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 - "Wha-Ambulance" // Story: My Little Caboose II: Friendship is Fragmented! // by DarkWing //------------------------------// "So where's Rarity?" Grif asked curiously as he, Simmons and Fluttershy made their way down a path, nearing Rainbow Dash's home. "Does she just not care about this, or what?" "She went to go confirm with Applejack that the fragments are back," Simmons said, focusing on the cloudy house in the distance. "She said she'll meet us at the library with her and Sarge." "Great," he muttered. "We're still not even a hundred percent sure they're back. I'll be pretty pissed if it turns out getting up was all for nothing." "Well, it's not for nothing," Fluttershy said quietly. "I'm sure Church will be happy to see you all again. It's good to all come and say hello to him, and I'm sure he'll thank us for it." "Uh, Fluttershy? Church doesn't get happy, he gets neutral, so I doubt he'll thank us for bothering him," Grif said. "And besides, fifty bits says that Pinkie already offered to throw him a party, and since we don't know about the party yet, something tells me that he turned her down. That means that he doesn't want to be bothered by us, so we should just go back." "That's pretty likely," Simmons said. "If he doesn't want to talk to us, he'll say so. The worst thing that could happen is that we've just taken a nice walk. It's still a nice gesture to welcome him back, and I'm sure he'll appreciate our concern," she said with a smile. "But he knows I don't give a damn. We have a mutual understanding. He doesn't bother me when I'm asleep, I don't bother him when I'm awake. It's a pretty good thing we have going. And he'll know I just got dragged here by you guys," Grif mumbled, kicking a small clump of dirt. "Please, Grif," Fluttershy said softly. "I know you don't think it means a lot, but even the smallest gestures have the biggest impacts." "By that logic, me not showing up would be a pretty big gesture, so it wouldn't impact him that much," he chuckled, then sighed when Fluttershy frowned. "If it's so important to you, fine, dammit." "Thank you," she sighed. Within a few more minutes, the three of them came to a stop underneath the pegasi's suspended home. Grif let out a heavy sigh and flapped his wings, flying straight to the cloud. He slammed his hoof on the door a few times, wanting to make sure that they had heard them. Within a few seconds, the door swung open and a smirking Rainbow Dash stared ahead. "Sup, Grif?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Not too much," Grif said, squinting at her. "I'm, uh, not interrupting anything, am I?" "Heh, he wishes. We were just talking about going out soon," she said with a cool smile as she leaned against the open door. "So Simmons woke you up, huh?" "How'd you guess?" "Because you're generally sleeping by this time," she chuckled, glancing down. "That and I can see him with Fluttershy. Must have been something pretty important to get you out of bed. Wait, let me guess. He challenged you to an eating contest and you need us to judge, right?" "Pft, as if he would dare take me on," he snorted. "No, it's just, well, he says that Church isn't in stone anymore." "Wait, really?" Rainbow Dash asked, doing a double-take. "How..." "We're not sure, but he figured we'd tell you about it. If Church really is free, that means Discord is too. I don't really care either way if either of them were back, but Simmons convinced me that Discord could really mess with my schedule if he wanted to." "Who's at the door?" came Tucker's voice from deeper inside the floating house. "It's Grif," she replied, glancing inside. "Grif? What, did he sleep fly here?" "Give me a sec, I'll go tell Tuck and we'll be out in a sec," she said to Grif, then disappeared into the house. Grif shrugged and rolled off the cloud and began falling towards the ground, only to open up his wings at the last second so he could land on his hooves. Just a few seconds later, Rainbow Dash and Tucker emerged from the flying home and landed next to the others. "So what's this about Church being back?" Tucker asked with a non-caring yawn. "Did he get tired of being shat on by birds?" "Apparently," Grif sighed. "I gotta say, I'm really surprised to see you up," the blue stallion chuckled. "Really want to protect your right to sleep, huh?" "You got it." "Come on, let's hurry up!" Simmons said loudly, trotting in place. "We need to get there quick. I don't want to waste any time out here when Discord could be anywhere." "Yeah, yeah, don't get your panties that you probably knitted into a knot," Grif snorted, trudging towards Ponyville. The group of five set a reasonable pace to the library in Ponyville, and within a few minutes of relative silence, mostly due to Simmons neurotic hushing, they arrived at their destination. In a hurry, Simmons trotted up the the door and knocked on it a new times. Twilight opened the door a few seconds later. "Hey, uh, Twilight," Simmons grunted, trying to greet her as normally as he could muster. "Good evening, Simmons. What are you guys doing here?" Twilight asked, surprised by their sudden appearance. Looking back inside, she saw Church sitting at the table, so she pulled the door tighter, not letting them see him. "We heard that Church is back from the non-dead. Any truth to that?" Tucker asked, trying to peer through the door. "Yeah, there is," Church said from inside, noticing how Twilight was trying to let him have a moment's rest. "Let them in, Twilight. I'm worried that if you make them leave that they'll come back in greater numbers." Twilight nodded and walked to the side, letting the five of them walk into the library. Simmons entered first, followed by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, then by Tucker and Grif. Church remained seated at the table, watching them with suspecting eyes. He knew that they were there for a reason, but he didn't really care what that reason was. He just wanted to deal with them so they would leave. The others in the room saw that he was tired, but said nothing for a minute. "Hello, Church," Fluttershy finally said in her usual shy way, breaking the silence. "It's good to see you again." "Likewise," Church said, watching as the others walked towards him, not asking any specific questions relating to how he got free. "You guys seem to be taking the fact that I got out pretty well." "Hey, we've seen a lot of more surprising shit than this," Tucker said with a shrug. "You were bound to get out eventually. Just wish it had been a little longer. I was enjoying not hearing you bitch about everything at every opportunity." "You really know how to make a guy feel wanted," he grumbled. "What are you guys doing here? Are you worried about the fragments again?" "Not really. Applejack can watch them just fine with the others," Rainbow Dash said. "We're here about Discord." "What about him?" Church asked flatly, neck stiffening at the name. "Since you don't know where he is, we figured we'd make plans for if we ever see him again," Simmons said. "You know, so we don't have to scramble about doing god knows what trying to prevent any damage he'd do. He seems like the sort of guy who would enjoy taking revenge on us when we least expect it. We just have to wait for Sarge, and then we-" "I don't think now's the time to talk about this," Twilight interjected stiffly. "Church has been here for less than a day, and the entire month he was being tortured mentally, and then he got split apart again when he got out. I'm sure this could wait a bit." "No, it's probably better if we do it now," Church countered, surprising her. "As long as we're just talking about making plans for if he shows up, then I'm good. But we're not making any plans to go looking for him, deal?" "Deal," Grif said instantly, hopping onto one of the chairs. "Think you can get me something to eat while we wait? I'm starving."