//------------------------------//
// 1: New Arrival 
// Story: War Stories 
// by Guardian_Gryphon 
//------------------------------//

"Why does it always hafta be *tree saaap?*"  Apple Bloom's southern drawl turned the verbal complaint into a drawn out twangy whine that managed to elicit eye-rolls from her compatriots.

Sweetie Belle grunted, as she battled a creeping wave of the sticky amber substance, shoving a table against it to no avail, "In hindsight... we probably should've asked Applejack for help with this."

The clubhouse was covered in sap; it was seeping up through the floorboards, and in through every possible crack, crevice, and cranny in the walls and ceiling.  The interior looked like the site of a natural disaster, with tables overturned and materials from the Crusaders' various activities and escapades scattered to the four winds.

Scootaloo took a swipe at a glob of sap threatening to fall from the ceiling, and snorted, "How were we supposed to know that drilling into part of the tree would cause *this?*"

Applebloom shook her head, and snatched up a wad of waste paper from the trash, stuffing it into a seam between the floorboards and cutting off one of the slow geysers of gooey nastiness, "Well, if we can just stop the flow, maybe we can get cleaned up and go get Sis and Big Macintosh to help plug the leak fer good."

Scootaloo rammed her hoof into a knot in the wall, stopping a swiftly forming sap bubble from exploding into the club house, "Sounds great!  Any suggestions on *how* we're going to manage this?"  The sarcasm was evident in her tone, but it seemed lost on Apple Bloom, who was already deep in thought.

She placed a hoof to her chin, and squinted, weighing her options.

Just as Sweetie Belle was about to voice a warning, having nearly lost the battle with the sap she was trying to keep away from the door, Apple Bloom shouted, "Ah've got it!"

Scootaloo shook her head, "This better not be anything like the ping pong ball idea; that made it *worse!*"

Sweetie Belle snorted, "Anything would be better than your idea; drilling a 'relief hole' just made it *five times* worse!"

Apple Bloom stormed a hoof, "Girls! If We're gonna do this, we gotta do it *now!*"

The orange pegasus dipped her head, "Fine.  What's this big idea of yours?"





"You know, ahm thinkin' tomorrow mornin' we can start in on the back fields."

"Eeeeyup."

Applejack smiled.  Her elder brother's traditional monosyllabic response was a comforting constant of life on the farm.

She squinted into the afternoon sunlight, surveying all the bare trees that the day's bucking had left in their wake.  In the distance, beside the barn, row upon row of full-to-the-brim wooden apple buckets stood as a testament to the work the brother and sister had accomplished.

The farm was a textbook scene of pastoral peace and beauty; well tended apple tree fields dotted the landscape, their green leaves ever-so-slightly gilded by the late sun, and the remaining apples glistening so tantalizingly that it was practically impossible to resist the urge to snack on one every so often.

The barn itself had a new coat of paint, a much needed improvement after the damage done by unseasonably heavy spring rain.  The sheds had fared better, but AJ noted with some annoyance that several of the roofs' shingles were looking dilapidated.  That would have to be patched all too soon.

As her gaze came full circle to the path leading to the North fields, Applejack spied a trio of forms cresting the hill in bedraggled sap-caked capes.

She sighed and nudged her brother, directing his gaze to the sticky troublemakers, "Hmmm.  Ah reckon we might be spendin' tomorrow mornin' fixin' their new mess instead."

Big Mac shifted the sprig of straw clamped in his muzzle contemplatively, "Eeeeeeeyup."





"Whew!  It was nice of your brother to offer to put in the swing for us tomorrow!"  Sweetie Belle shook herself to remove a few clinging droplets of water from her mane.

Scootaloo looked up from the towel she had been drying her muzzle with and nodded emphatically, "I'll say!  Right now?  I'm just glad we got the sap off of *us.*"

Apple Bloom sighed contentedly, "You 'n me both.  I don't think I coulda' stood the knots in mah tail for one more second!"

Sweetie Belle tossed a damp towel into the dirty laundry basket, and snorted, "Next time?  We stay *away* from anything to do with drilling."

Scootaloo trundled over to the other side of the basement, and dropped her own towel on top of Sweetie Belle's, before stopping to muse for a moment, "Drilling... hmmmmm! You know, Dash told me something about a friend of hers heading out West because they struck it rich on oil!  Maybe we could..."

"NO!"  The response from Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom was unanimous, simultaneous, and emphatic.

Scootaloo's ears drooped, "Cutie Mark Crusaders..." she faltered as her partners in crime glowered, "...Oil ...Tycoons?  ...No? Oh *fine.*"

The trio glanced sadly at their still-disheveled capes, which were stacked in a separate wooden bin beside the towels, before heading up the stairs and back into the Apple family home.

As they exited into the evening sun, Scootaloo squinted, and sighed, "Well, it looks like today was a bust.  And the clubhouse is gonna be out of commission tomorrow."

Sweetie Belle shrugged, "It's ok.  Rarity is going to be out all morning tomorrow gathering materials for a client!  I bet if I beg, she'll let us use the kitchen at the Boutique as our temporary meeting spot!"

Apple Bloom grinned and bounced once on her hooves, "Perfect! Ah'll see you girls at the usual time then?"

Scootaloo grinned, "You betcha!"

Sweetie Belle smiled, "Of course!"

The group was on the cusp of dispersing, when a shadow fell over them, momentarily blotting out the sun before passing as swiftly as it had arrived.  The three fillies turned their eyes skyward and gaped.

Slowly circling down towards the opposite side of the farmhouse was an enormous gryphon.  Even at a distance, his build identified him as a mature male; his fur and feathers were golden, with brown and off-white mottling in vaguely swooping patterns that gave him a fearsome and sleek aspect.

He was clearly intent on landing at the farm, and as the Crusaders continued to wordlessly marvel, he disappeared over the barn, touching down on the side opposite them.

For several seconds there was silence, which Sweetie Belle finally broke with a question, "Are we gonna...?"

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow, "Are you seriously even asking?"

As one, the trio darted back into the barn, and hurried across to the opposite side.  The door was shut, so Scootaloo gave it a light push to create a crack before the other two fillies could protest her brashness.

The maneuver paid off; the Crusaders were rewarded with a sliver of space through which to gaze, and the sound of muffled voices from the other side of the door.

Applejack, Big Mac, and the newcomer gryphon, were standing and talking some distance from the barn on the side of the hill.  It was impossible to make out the particulars of the conversation, but the Apples' expressions seemed amiable enough.  The gryphon, for his part, looked somewhat more sober.

He spoke for several minutes, and as he did so, Applejack's muzzle fell.  Apple Bloom gasped as, finally, her big sister appeared to teeter on the verge of tears.  Big Mac placed a comforting hoof across her shoulders, and said something brief to the gryphon, who nodded once.

Without further ado, the avian took flight once more, leaving Big Mac to try and comfort his sister as she did her best to keep her composure.

Scootaloo withdrew from the doorway slowly, face pensive and downcast, "Well.  I didn't expect *that.*"

Sweetie Belle exhaled slowly in shock and concern, "I wonder what he said that upset your sister so much Apple Bloom..."

The filly turned to her friends, clearly shaken by her sibling's display of emotion, "I dunno... but we *have* to find out!  If we can help, we gotta!"

Scootaloo nodded repeatedly, "Of course!  We won't rest until we find out what that mean ol' gryphon said, and make him un-say it!"

Sweetie Belle held up a hoof, "Um... we can't stay up all night.  Rarity says I have to be home before sundown.  And besides, we don't know if he's mean, or if what he said was either."

The brash orange pegasus grunted her recalcitrant assent.  Apple Bloom nodded, "Let me see how bad sis is in the mornin'.  If things are still awful, then we'll see what we can do."

The three fillies stuck out their right hooves, and layered them one of the other, shouting in unison, "aaaaaand... Break!"

Scootaloo noticed, with some concern, that Apple Bloom's enthusiasm and happiness seemed to have been entirely drained by the sight of her sister in tears.

As the girls went their separate ways, they each resolved internally; they were going to get to the bottom of things.  No matter what.





Sweetie Belle was up, and pacing the Carousel Boutique kitchen bright and early.  She had blazed through her breakfast, eating so quickly that she hadn't even spoken to her sister except to bid her 'good morning.'

Rarity had since finished her own meal, cleaned the dishes, and was in the final stages of preparing the shop for an all-morning closure.  Sweetie Belle noticed that she took a few extra precautions to put fragile or important items out of reach of a Crusader-sized filly.

She reflected that, while mildly insulting, her sister's actions were probably justified a thousand times over; the Crusaders had a tendency to wreck fragile things and cause enormous messes as part of their learning process.

As if on cue, Rarity poked her head into the room and clucked admonishingly, "Sweetie Belle!  Whatever is the matter?  Your friends will be here in due time! If you keep pacing like that you're going to wear a groove in our lovely floor tiles."

The filly grinned sheepishly, and slowed her pace slightly, "Sorry.  I'm just... errr.. excited.  We have a... 'special' day planned."

Rarity huffed good naturedly, "Well.  Just make sure none of your 'special' ideas have anything to do with the Boutique.  Keep to the kitchen please."  As an afterthought, the mare hastily added, "And no cooking experiments!"

Sweetie Belle nodded, "I don't think we'll be staying here long, but I'll make sure we stick to the rules."

"Thank you.  You have enough bits for lunch?"

Sweetie nodded.  Her older sister mimicked the gesture, and tossed her brilliant amethyst-hued mane, "Marvelous!  See you at dinner!"

The sound of her hooves on the shop's main floor was followed swiftly by the clunk of the door, and the click of the lock.

Sweetie Belle paced for several more anxious minutes, before a knock finally sounded at the door between the kitchen and the yard.  She dashed over to the entryway, nearly tripping over the kitchen chairs in the process, and yanked the door open.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom's dark expressions told her everything she needed to know, instantly, "That bad?"

Apple Bloom nodded wordlessly.  Sweetie stepped aside, and her fellow Crusaders moved to sit at the kitchen table.  She made a stop at the ice box to pull out some chocolate milk for herself and her friends.  She knew her sister wouldn't mind if she explained that it was for a good cause; judging by the looks of things Apple Bloom needed cheering up.

After some silence, and sips of the sweet beverage, Scootaloo spoke up,  filling Sweetie Belle in, "Apple Bloom said it's worse this morning.  Apparently Applejack didn't sleep a wink last night, she just stayed up in the barn staring at the sky and emptying a whole keg of cider."

Sweetie Belle winced, "Wow.  Sounds awful.  So what are we going to do?"

Scootaloo thumped a hoof down on the table, causing their drink glasses to jump slightly and instantly eliciting everyone's attention, "I'll tell you what!  I found out from Rainbow Dash where that gryphon is staying!  We're gonna follow him, and find out juuuust *exactly* what he's up to."

Apple Bloom looked up from the murky chocolaty depths of her glass, "Are you sure that's such a good idea?  gryphons are powerful-dangerous, and Big Mac says they're private creatures; they don't take kindly to pryin'."

Scootaloo snorted, "I'm not scared!  Besides, if he didn't want us prying, then he shouldn't have said whatever he did to Applejack!  I'm gonna shadow him until I know every dirty secret he ever tried to keep in his *life.*  Are you guys with me?"

There was an uncertain pause.  Scootaloo seized the opportunity, and put one hoof around Apple Bloom's shoulders, switching her expression from 'determined' to 'pleading,' "For Applejack?"

As she had predicted, that cinched it for her compatriots.  Apple Bloom nodded sullenly.  Sweetie Belle, still looking unsure, repeated the affirmative gesture, "All right.  But just so long as we don't have to get too close.  Did you see the *size* of his *claws?*"

Scootaloo bobbed her head in excitement, "I know, right?!  They looked wicked sharp! And.."  She trailed off at a severe glare from Sweetie Belle, who inclined her head at Apple Bloom.  The pegasus' words had returned a measure of fear to her expression.

Scootaloo blushed, "Ah... I mean... they didn't look *so* bad.  I bet we could take him if we had to."

Sweetie Belle grimaced, "Riiiiight..."





As it turned out, the mysterious visitor had been staying with Twilight in the library's guest room.  The Crusaders arrived in the bushes across from the enormous hollowed-out tree just in time to see their quarry departing.

As he set off down the street, he turned and delivered parting words to Twilight.  The purple mare seemed unusually sober, and the Crusaders did not fail to notice.

Scootaloo nudged Apple Bloom, "See?  We'll be fine!  I wonder what he said to Twilight though..."

Sweetie Belle shook her head, "Nothing good, I bet.  Come on; we're losing him.  If we have to do this, we might as well do it right."

The three fillies watched in silent anticipation as the gryphon strode away towards the edge of town that bordered the Everfree.  The Crusaders kept to the bushes as much as possible, only daring to cross into the open when they were sure their target was far enough ahead not to notice them.

When he arrived on the edge of town, he took to the air, then dove down into the cover of the twisted, menacing foliage, before his pursuers could even think to react.

Scootaloo squinted up at the clear blue expanse, "Huh.  Wonder why he went in there?"

Apple Bloom shuddered, "Miss Cheerilee told me that gryphons hafta eat *meat,* or else they'll starve."

Sweetie Belle shivered involuntarily, and made a twisted face, sticking out her tongue, "Ewwww!"

The oddity of the avian's diet was, predictably, lost on Scootaloo, who grinned, "Cooool... You have to be pretty brave to just fly into the Everfree without breaking a sweat.  Especially if you plan on attacking something in there..."

Apple Bloom turned back to the path leading home, "Oh well.  We can't follow him, so we might as well go on and find some lunch..."

Scootaloo nabbed her friend's tail in her mouth, clamping down before the earth pony could break into a trot.  She spoke around the thick tuft of hair, "Oh no you don't!  We're staying *right* here until he comes back out of there."

Apple Bloom frowned, but reluctantly took a seat on her haunches, sighing.

The three friends spent nearly half an hour waiting, splitting the time between pacing, arguing, and debating where to hide when their quarry inevitably returned.

Finally, the three settled on a spot behind a row of hedges, and settled down to wait.  Their timing was fortuitous; it was less than a minute between the time the selected their hiding spot, and the time they caught sight of the gryphon.

He crested the treeline, flying low, dipped into a shallow turn, and landed at the edge of the forest.  He was clearly clutching something in his claws, which the fillies quickly realized was an enormous fish.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle averted their eyes, but Scootaloo watched in fascination as the predatory avian neatly scaled, gutted, and de-boned the fish before devouring it swiftly and cleanly.  The entire process took only a matter of minutes, and the gryphon completed it with a stunning degree of precision and civility.

While off-putting to most Ponies, a carnivorous diet was not considered immoral per se in Equine society, simply undesirable.  Animals that lived in close proximity to Ponies tended to become domesticated and semi-sentient over a few generations, but animals from the wilder parts of the world were free for carnivores to eat without any moral reservation.

As the crusaders watched, the gryphon cleaned his claws in the tall grass at the edge of the forest, before setting off down the path towards town.

The moment he crested the hill and dipped out of sight, the three fillies tumbled out of the hedge, and began loping off towards the path themselves to avoid putting too much distance between them and their target.

Scootaloo was the first to reach the hill.  She flattened herself to the dirt path, and inched along to the crest of the hill, peering suspiciously over the edge and down the length of the path towards ponyville.

A moment later, she recoiled in shock, then stood up outright, to the consternation of her friends, "I don't get it!"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom dashed to join their confused compatriot, swiftly discovering the reason for her concern; the gryphon was nowhere to be seen.

The little hill afforded a complete view of the surrounding area.  There seemed to be no possible way that the mysterious visitor could have vanished, but vanished he had.

Sweetie Belle cocked her head, "Where did he go?"

Scootaloo shrugged, "Beats me."  She began ruffling her under-sized wings in consternation, "Unless he... oh no..."

Sweetie Belle stiffened, "Unless he decided to fly."

Apple Bloom gulped, "We're in trouble, aren't we?"

"Indeed."  The depth and resonance of the voice lent it a deeply ominous air.

The three fillies whirled simultaneously, cowering instinctively into a tight huddle as they beheld the object of their discussions standing over them, peering down with his piercing golden eyes, and a severe frown affixed to his beak.

As one, the Crusaders gulped.  Of one thing they were now sure; they were done for.