//------------------------------// // Emotions // Story: Secluded Once More // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Emotions "Fluttershy Fluttershy Fluttershy!" Scoots rapped her hoof on the door repeatedly, hopping around happily as she waited for the mare to open the door. "Come on, open up, I need to get to school!" She stopped hopping after a few more repetitions and sighed, waiting a while longer until Fluttershy finally opened the door and peeked out. "Oh, it's just you, come in, come in!" She said, her voice barely rising above low conversation. Scoots walked inside, waiting at the door for the still heavily breathing Rumble to follow her inside, which he did after a little hesitation. "Who's your new friend, Scootaloo?" Fluttershy asked as she sat back down in an armchair and cracked a book. "That's Rumble! I just wanted to tell you that I'm okay and not to worry, and I have to get to school soon or I'll be late." Fluttershy giggled. "Well go ahead, I don't want to keep you." There was a crash in the kitchen and the mare quickly ran out of the room. "Angel, that's not food!" Scoots smiled and shook her head, hearing Rumble let out a chuckle. She turned back towards the door and tapped the colt on the shoulder. "So, shall we?" She asked, breaking out into a trot as they left the door. "No way, for a close race here I pretty much used myself up. How do you even have so much energy?" "I have an edge..." She said, narrowing her eyes and smirked. "And that would be..." "Maybe we can organize a trade of information?" She asked, her smirk never going away. "Uh, what kind of trade?" Rumble replied, trying to read her face. "Simple, just tell me your deepest, darkest secret, and I'll show you what I'm talking about." His eyes bulged for a moment, and he averted his eyes to study a particularly noteworthy pebble. "Look, a pebble." He pointed for emphasis. She punched him in the arm. "Stop changing the subject!" "I'm not going to tell you anyway, your thing's not worth that much." "That's fine, I wasn't going to force it from you anyway. I'm not that annoying." She stopped, twisted around and pulled a crinkly bag from her saddlebag that had pictures of beans all over it. "I found a box with a bunch of bags of these a few days ago, and apparently they have caffeine in them." She handed the bag over to Rumble, who immediately scrutinized the package. "Coffee beans? How come I've never even heard of them?" Scoots giggled. "Because ever since Jason came here stuff's been coming from his country." "Pfft, I still would've heard of it." "Well it's really far away, try a few." He sighed and took a few beans out of the bag, tossing them into his mouth and crunching on them loudly. "These are really bitter." "You get used to it. And plus, you get all this energy! But if you don't eat any more of those things you're going to crash around three." "What do you mean crash?" "It's going to wear off." "Ah. So do you know anything about Jason's home, like where this stuff's been coming from?" She scratched her head. "I don't know much, he lived there up until recently, and--" "So did his parents come here with him?" "No, they kinda got killed." She looked away. "He was the only pony that really knew how I felt without my parents after all these years." "But if they were killed, does that mean they were...murdered?" He whispered the last word, looking around suspiciously. "Yeah, he said he killed one of the guys though. Other than that he hasn't said much about his country or anything, besides something to the extent of," She made her voice deeper to try to mimic Jason. "Maybe later Scoots, It'll be a long conversation when I tell you everything." She cleared her throat and returned her voice to normal. "And he was kinda busy before he left, so he never got to say any of that. It's too bad, really, he talked about a lot of cool stuff." "Like what?" Rumble asked, his curiosity suddenly piqued. "Weapons, bombs... He said they had these flying machines that went faster than Rainbow Dash. Not just by a little either, and they had weapons all over them. Sooo awesome." She reached into her saddlebag again as they walked, pulling out a magazine and handing it over. Look at page forty two..." Scoots realized her mistake and snatched it back. "Why'd you do that?" Rumble asked, looking at his empty hoof. "The pages are, uh, out of order, yeah that's it." She opened the thing to a the right page, which thankfully didn't have any humans on it, and passed it back over. "Wow, you were right, these things do look awesome!" He pulled the magazine closer to his face and studied it, making scoots worry that he'd found something bad. "How do they fly?" He asked a few seconds later. "I mean, do ponies pull them along?" Scoots giggled at the image. "No, these things on the back catch on fire or something and push the plane." "And the plane itself doesn't catch on fire?" "No, I guess not." "Well why would they make something that complicated if a third of the population can already fly?" "Uh, I dunno, you should ask." He nodded and turned away, allowing her to let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She didn't really want to do this whole charade for that much longer, hopefully Jason would get back soon and take over. From what he said he'd already gotten through the first battle, and the fact that they were moving further away only served to make her worry more. She'd felt a sort of comfort that even when they were at war, they weren't all that far away, and that it was a trip she could probably make on the wing if she needed to. And come to think of it, she could pinpoint the location on the map, but now they were moving somewhere else, and she just-- "You okay Scoots? You look a little..." He moved his hoof around, trying to come up with a word. "Depressed." "I just miss Jason and Dash... I wish they'd come back sooner." "It's only been four days though, how would they have finished already?" He asked. "I dunno, they're through one battle so says the paper. They've already battled through a whole town." "Aren't Jason and Dash in that crack military unit, what, Team Vegetable?" She giggled. "Team Green Bean, I think. The name was supposed to mislead the griffins, but it kinda stuck. Along with the nicknames, as far as I know. Jason named two of them Potato and Steve." Rumble laughed, "Potato..." He wiped his eye. "For such a military fighter, Jason seems to goof off a lot." "And complain, for that matter. But he's fun to be around, and so's Dash. It's funny, I looked up to her all these years, and now she's my mother. Funny how things seem to work out like that." "I guess. So are they, you know, married or anything?" "No. Jason's only been around like two months. You don't usually get married that fast, do you?" Rumble shrugged. "I just know that the stallion buys a really expensive ring. Really expensive." "Great, you're a cheap one." "Mares are expensive," He said matter-of-factly. "And how would you know?" She asked, shoving him lightly. "I have an older brother that likes to complain. And apparently attracts a lot of attention." He rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I'm glad that he's out of town." Rumble averted his eyes. "But only sometimes." "Hey, well to stop this depressing string of words, we're at school." She pointed forward, for once finding herself slightly eager to enter the dreary building. "Come on!" She ran over to the building, entering as the bell rang. Not late, she knew that she had enough time. She sat down in her regular seat, glancing at Sweetie who was giving her a confused glance. She pointed to Scoots' face and then at Tiara's, apparently noticing with a shock that Rumble was beat up as well. Scootaloo had never really taken much notice that the colt sat diagonally behind her, but found herself glad that he did. "Alright class, we're going to-- Scootaloo, what happened to your cheek?" Cherilee surveyed the rest of the room, picking out the three other injured ponies. "You four, see me at recess." She continued, pointing to the foals in turn, pausing for them to nod. The class let out an 'Ooh,' which was quickly shushed by the teacher. "Did you see the paper today, Scootaloo?" Cherilee inquired, grabbing a newspaper from her desk. "No, but I probably already know what happened." "Well here you go anyway." She tossed the paper onto Scoots' desk, the large front picture looking up at her. Another Step Closer: Windforge falls! The headline read, with a picture below of the city and a few silhouettes of some ponies on the ridge above. Pictured above: Five of the surviving members of Team Green Bean. From left to right by codename: Tank, Hawkeye, Archer, Hunter, Steve. She looked at the other pictures, small groups of the rest of the members, seven she didn't know, before she got to a picture of Dash and Jason. They were both some sort of battle wear, fairly similar to what they had worn in Canterlot. Dash was looking straight towards the camera, while Jason looked ahead, in the middle of some sort of conversation. One of his fangs reflected some light, creating a small flare in the camera lens. Several things were floating beside him, boxes and part of a drum were included in the shot. Jason's gun was easily visible, along with a few of the textured magazines that ran down his side. The only subtitle pertaining to them was, Right: Generals and leaders of Team Green Bean, Rainbow Dash and Jason. Weird they would give away their identities when they didn't with some of the other original members, but they were pretty iconic anyway, especially in the case of Dash. "Thanks, Mrs. Cherilee." She said, laying the paper back down on the desk. "It's a pleasure, Scoots." She turned to the rest of the class. "Now, put your homework in the box, and we'll do a few practice problems." She smiled and returned to her desk as a couple of the foals groaned. The air was filled with the sound of crinkling paper as everyone removed their papers and turned them in, minus a few that had either forgotten or blown off the assignment completely. "Are you ever going to turn in a homework assignment, Snails?" Cherilee asked the colt in the back of the room, a heavy thump as his head hit the desk a clear answer. Snoring floated up to the front of the room, and a quiet giggle flowed through the students. "Okay then, students," she turned to the board and started to write with a hoof. "We've got a simple quadratic here, X^2+4, and we need the slope at X = 3. Please do that at your desks now and I'll see what you get in a couple minutes." There was a brief silence. "Six!" Rumble and Scootaloo yelled out at the same time. Cherilee looked up at the board, then back down at her papers. "That was rather fast," She said, eying the foals. "The rest of you, add a two X to the middle and keep working." She walked over to the foals, looking between the two of them as they giggled. "Scootaloo and Rumble, try this one." She passed them a couple pre-prepared papers with a quartic function across the top and smiled again. "Solve that, and I'll be impressed." "Yeah, hold on a sec." Scoots said, writing down the new cubic function and quickly running the given value 2 through the equation. "Rumble, did you get eight?" "Yup." "How are you getting the answers that quickly?" "I dunno..." Scoots said innocently, twiddling her hooves. Rumble stifled a laugh. "You aren't cheating, are you?" Cherilee asked, narrowing her eyes. Scoots' expression immediately hardened. "No, it's just simple calculus." She paused, scratching her chin. "That's what Jason called it, anyway." "Well that explains it then." Cherilee sighed. "When he comes back, you should tell him to come in, teach a little himself." She started to return to her desk, sitting back down as the rest of the class began to get answers. _______________________________________________________ The bell rang for recess, and Scootaloo slowly packed up, not particularly excited to talk to Cherilee. When she finally got to the teacher's desk though, she had to stifle a laugh that after all of her stalling she was still the first one there. Rumble slowly walked up next, hanging his head in shame for some reason. Eventually they were joined by the two perpetrators. "I'm disappointed in you four. But especially you, Rumble." She looked at the foal, and he gulped. "Usually you're a model around here, but I guess not." "Mrs. Cherilee, hold on a sec." Scootaloo spoke up. "You don't even know what happened." "I suppose I don't. Go ahead, tell me what happened." She said, straitening a paper on her desk. "Okay, well Diamind Tiara stole my only communication system with my parents, and then tried to make them worried." She paused to pull the pad out of her saddlebag. "As evidenced by this conversation." She handed over the paper to Cherilee, who studied it for a moment. "Okay, go on..." "I knew she was doing this, and I didn't want them to worry. They've already got enough to worry about, they need to at least know that I'm okay. So I wanted it back, it's not like it isn't mine anyway. Rumble agreed to help, and we went over there. Flip to the last page." She said, watching as Cherilee followed her directions. "Now read it out loud." "Okay, Scootaloo." She took in a breath. "I, Diamond Tiara, concede the fact that I threw the first punch and Scootaloo and Rumble were acting in self defense. Therefore, I agree to all blame and accept all punishments." Her signature followed. "Okay then, this makes my job easy." "But-" "They have indisputable evidence, Diamond Tiara. I've seen your signature before and this matches almost perfectly." "But-" "Now then, I suppose I can't punish you two for defending yourselves, that would be more than a little hypocritical. So you and Rumble are free to go, Scootaloo." Her gaze hardened. "But you two, on the other hand..." Scoots quickly took her lead, still feeling anxious to leave. She had expected things to go well, but getting off with no punishment, and getting a few punches in on Diamond Tiara? It was a good day. A slight pounding of hooves from behind her proceeded Rumble's arrival, and he slowed down to her pace as they continued across the schoolyard, through at least a few stares. Scoots felt her face heat up, although she was unsure whether her classmates were looking at Rumble as a colt friend for her--which he definitely wasn't--or if they were just curious about the fight. She liked to think it was the second, and her thoughts started to turn to those of pride as she approached the other Crusaders, chatting loudly under a tree. "How's it going Crusaders?!" She asked as she approached, noticing that Rumble had started to lag behind. "Ah'd like ta ask you tha same question, Scoots." Applebloom replied, staring at one of the bruises on Scoots' face. "Well I thought yesterday was going to suck, but it turned out awesome! Rumble here--where'd he go?" She looked around, finding the foal a little ways away behind a stump. She trotted over and sighed, having a brief argument with him that the other crusaders couldn't make out before dragging him over. "Uh, hi." He said, refusing to meet either of the other girls' eyes. "Aaaaanyway, Rumble helped me beat up Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, because they stole that thing from me." "Woah, and you're not in trouble?" Sweetie asked. "They threw the first punch, and we had proof." "Doesn't that hurt though?" "No, it's not too bad. Nothing I can't handle." She studied a hoof, before Rumble nudged her in the side. "Oh yeah, is it okay if Rumble joins the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Her friends shared a glance. "If ya want him to, ah guess. Not ah problem for me." "I guess I'm okay with it if she is." Sweetie agreed. "We could use another member anyway." "Well, uh, thanks." Rumble replied, managing some eye contact. "I've never been in a club before." "Well it's great that you started with this one!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "This is the best club in existence." She paused. "After Team Green Bean, I guess." Sweetie snickered. "That's always funny!" "So what are we plannin' on doin' later today?" Applebloom asked. "I dunno." Scoots scratched her chin. "What haven't we done yet?" "Well I guess pyrotechnics experts is out of the question." They shared an uneasy laugh. "All the dazed ponies were pretty funny though." Sweetie ventured. "Rarity was a little scary after that. Apparently she'd had exposure to those things before." "Yeah..." Scoots robbed the back of her head with a hoof nervously. "Dash kinda threw one of those at Celestia, Twilight, and the rest of her friends. And then broke Jason out of imprisonment." She looked back up at the other foals' shocked expressions. "Ah-- that was Jason?! Mah sister said some stuff about a changeling, but she was pretty silent about Rainbow Dash." "I think public opinion held that she was a traitor. She wasn't, for the record, not really." They lapsed into silence, a rare occurrence when all three crusaders were present. "So have they... killed anypony before?" Sweetie asked quietly, as if fearing the answer. "No, but I know they've killed some griffins, they are in a war against griffins after all." "Oh, that's kinda scary." "It's not like they're stone cold murderers, they act just like you or me. Except they're probably a lot more courageous and better at fighting." "And probably smarter if they came up with that bomb thing." Rumble said. "Hey, maybe we just aren't thinking like he does, we're trying to get our cutie marks in things that are pony things, when maybe we need to do things that haven't been done before!" "But didn't Jason give you a hint or something, that we've already done the thing that's our special talent?" Sweetie asked. "Ugh, you're right. How can he know when we don't?!" "Ya don't think he's fibbin', do ya?" "No, we've done enough things for that to seem plausible enough." Scoots said, tracing her hoof on the ground in thought. "But wouldn't we have seemed good at something then? I mean most things end in disaster or a coating of tree sap." "So that's why there was a pony shaped sap mark on my window last week!" Rumble exclaimed, making the other three giggle. He blushed, although he didn't take a step back or try to shrink away from the attention. "I think that maybe if we--" The bell rang, and they all groaned. "We'll meet in the treehouse today and make a list, alright?" She received three affirmative answers before they turned to walk back. Cherilee was still talking to Diamond as they got inside, and continued in hushed tones for another minute before she handed the student a slip of paper and told her to sit down. The bully stared at Scoots as she passed by, turning her head to stare at Rumble as well. He cast back a large smile, which seemed to enrage her further. "Class, I hope you brought your free-reading books, because I'll be coming around to check that you have them. Otherwise, grab one from the back and read until, say, lunch." There was a groan as a few foals got up to get books from the limited selection in the back. Scoots smiled, she'd brought one for the first time last week, and hadn't taken it out. She went through the pile of human junk that Jason had stashed in a room, and had extracted the books into a separate pile. She didn't really know what most of the other stuff was, so she figured she'd just leave it alone. After all, she didn't know what Trojans were, but they sounded kinda scary. So she'd brought this book, with the words The Dresden Files displayed prominently along the top. It had taken a while to get used to reading about hands and firearms, and whatever kind of weird magic this was, but she had seemed to get the hang of it. At least all the 'someones' were easier to read, considering how many times Jason had said weird things like that. But it was hard wrapping her head around the size of this city, with more people then there were in Equestria, and all these giant buildings. She was interrupted as a paper airplane hit her above the eye and fell to the desk, it's tip crumpling slightly in the collision. Scoots looked up and caught a glance from Applebloom and unfolded the airplane, finding a message inside. She stuffed it into her book before Cherilee could look up and call her on note passing, she'd had a few problems with reading the notes out loud before, although the one insulting Cherilee sure was comedic justice. She flattened the note inside her book with a hoof, attempting to iron out a crease she had just created. You like Rumble? Scoots frowned, before looking back over at Applebloom, who was smirking down at her book. Scoots pulled the paper back out of her book and crumpled it up, chucking it back and watching it bounce off Applebloom's head and onto Cherilee's desk. The two foals immediately went back to reading, trying to act innocent. "Alright class, very funny. Who threw this?" The class was silent, interrupted only by the sound of Snails' head hitting the desk. Scoots sighed, that was like the eleventh day in a row. "So I know it wasn't Snails, not that he knows how to crumple a piece of paper up anyway. She mumbled under her breath. "I did it." Rumble said, raising his hoof. "While I admire your confidence, Rumble, this is your last warning for today, I can't have you disturbing class like this." "Okay Mrs. Cherilee..." He mumbled, slouching down into his desk sadly. He'd just--taken the blame for her. Rumble, the shy foal, the one that hardly even stood up for himself had just stood up for her. She felt a swell of gratitude towards him, but she could've sworn there was something else. She didn't really like him, did she? It's not like she didn't understand the whole system by now, especially with Dash and Jason always acting all mushy towards each other. But as time went on with those two, she really found she didn't mind, she kinda liked seeing them that way. And that bothered her. Things were becoming so simple, why did all this have to happen while Dash and Jason were gone? He could at least tell her what she was feeling, because with the conflicting emotions she could hardly begin to make sense of what she was supposed to do. Funny how she had the largest resources in town when her parents were around, and yet... She focused back in on reality and noticed that she was staring at Rumble, and he was staring back. She blushed and looked away, not before catching a glimpse of his shiny grey eyes--what? Brain, shut up! She knocked a hoof against her forehead, trying to knock the thought out of her head. But he's so cute, Scoots No, scumbag brain! I--no! I don't like him! You can't lie to me, I know what you're really thinking. "You don't know anything!" She yelled out, drawing stares from the entire classroom. Cherilee looked up and frowned. "Is there something you'd like to say to me, Scootaloo?" "No, uh, the main character's just being a moron, sorry." Cherilee nodded and rolled her eyes, writing a note on one of the papers she was grading. That was too close, stupid Scootaloo! Stop blowing things like that! She looked back at her classmates, most of which had returned to their books. Rumble looked up and met her gaze, and it held for a few moments before she broke it off again. Why's he looking at me? Why am I looking at him? If he's looking at me does that mean he's thinking about me? Blargh, brain, what's that supposed to tell me? He likes to stare? Dash and Jason stare at each other sometimes, but--no, we're not them, right? But they look so happy, would that really be a bad thing? She ground a hoof into the desk, watching as the minutes slowly drew on towards lunchtime. She snuck a look back at Rumble again. He looked calm, a little more calm than she expected him to be. Maybe he wasn't thinking the same things? Maybe she was just the weirdo drawing something from nothing? His eye twitched, and she looked away. As far as she was concerned, that was sign enough that he wasn't all together. And he hadn't turned a page in fifteen minutes. Neither had she, now that she thought about it. Might as well get some reading done, she might have to write a report on this later. Something that was going to be hard to make if everyone needed to be ponified. They could all be unicorns, but Jason was a changeling, and he came from there... She sighed and read a few paragraphs, blushing at a word she thought wasn't supposed to be in a book. Bastard was like the worst word she knew, and these guys were throwing it around like common conversation. It wasn't taken lightly when you implied that a pony was illegitimate, she'd been called a bastard more than a few times. Bastard pony. Blank flank paled to that. Jason'd used bastard before about the pony that'd tortured him, that seemed fairly well used. But if they were throwing this around, then Jason's swear words must be way worse. She smiled at the thought, glad that she had a hoof up, even if nopony would understand. Scoots returned to the mythical world for a few more minutes, trying to determine in the back of her head just how mythical it actually was. He would probably find it hilarious that she found the most logical part of the book in its magic. At least it wasn't overly technical, the fact that the guy made mechanical devices falter by being in the vicinity tended to help keep things like Jason's computer away. It was a pity, she'd seen so little of that thing before they had to leave. The bell rang and she jumped, amazed at how lost in her thoughts she had become. Lunch. Should be interesting, considering she had a new idea on how to get their cutie marks. Scoots shoved the paperback into her saddlebag and got up, happily slinging the packs over her flank. She moved it to one side a little to balance before she trotted out of the classroom after Sweetie. Scoots caught up to her friend just as they were nearing their usual lunch spot, a slightly secluded picnic table that they had initially chosen because of it's distance from Diamond Tiara, something that they had foolishly hoped would keep her away. She sat down after Sweetie, grabbing a paper bag out of her saddlebag with her lunch inside. Or, at least, she realized with some disappointment, what was left of her lunch from yesterday. She'd never gone home besides to get lunch. Applebloom sat down across the table and smirked at Scoots from her spot next to Sweetie, followed shortly by Rumble, who awkwardly sat down next to Scootaloo, with a blush that didn't go completely unnoticed. She changed the subject before her friends could notice though, and pointed at Applebloom's lunch bag. "Could I have an apple or something?" She asked, "I kinda only have--some grapes and half of a hay sandwich." "Whell wha didn't ya pack more food?" Applebloom asked, crossing her hooves. "I never went home yesterday, so I didn't pack anything." "Well why didn't you go home? Is something wrong?" Sweetie asked, her eyes going wide. "No, but you wanna see something cool?" She smirked at the girls. "Rumble, you wanna catch some grapes?" "I-I dunno, I--" "Come on, it's awesome!" She protested, wiggling the grapes in her hoof. He gave her a slight smile. "Fine, you win." He set down his saddlebag on the table and took a few steps away before turning back. "What's he gonna do with grapes?" Applebloom asked. "Just watch. You ready Rumble?" "Yeah, go ahead." She smiled and plucked off a few grapes before throwing them in quick succession. Rumble dipped his head to the side to catch the first before he jumped backwards, bouncing the grape off his nose and into the air as he dove for the last one, grabbing it and turning his head to catch the final grape, realistically the second one Scoots had thrown. "So how about that?" Scoots asked, looking at her dumbfounded table mates. "That's enough Rumble, come on." She said to the dusty foal, watching him happily as he walked back over. These feelings... "How'd you learn to do that, Rumble?" Sweetie asked, pushing a lock of mane away from her face with a hoof. "Lots of time, and nothing to do." He chuckled dryly, something that made him seem a little pathetic if anything. There was a long silence as Applebloom and Sweetie exchanged a glance, before the former started up conversation again, biting into an apple pastry of some kind and rolling an apple across the table to Scootaloo. "So what were we goin' ta do for our cutie marks agin?" Applebloom asked, scratching her neck. "Oh, well I was thinking, and if what Jason said was true, and we've done it before, then what if our special talent is pranks?" "Whell--" Applebloom paused. "Ah guess we have done that before." "Exactly! We're just not going far enough, we need to get a prank that's hilarious and yet doesn't actually hurt anypony like some of our past attempts. This is going to take some planning, guys, so do you think we're up for it?" "CUTIE MA-Rumble you're supposed to join in." "What do I say?" Scoots shrugged. "Cutie Mark Crusaders *insert name of destructive activity here*." "Oh, so pranksters?" "Sure." They all clopped hooves together over the table. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS PRANKSTERS YAY!!!!" Scoots sighed. "Probably shouldn't have yelled that..."