Thanks to "NightShader" for editing. Thanks to "TexPony" and "multiple bronies" for proof reading.
After he was a good distance away from the house, Dim Shadow started talking to himself.
"Well that was interesting," he said. "It went better than expected and worked out pretty well." Dim Shadow turned into the alley and continued on his way to the orchard, it wasn't far now. I wonder how Heavy Weight and Rider are gonna react. I don't want to get my hooves dirty, but if they're gonna hit me, I'm gonna hit back. Aw what am I saying, I know they're gonna want to fight. Hopefully that won't be today. After a few minutes, the sweet scent of fresh apples began to fill Dim's nose, he knew he was pretty close by. Dim picked up his pace and began to gallop. In a minute or two he was at the entrance. Entering through the gate, he walked to the barn to see if they were in there. He opened the door and lamentably saw no one was there, Dim gulped knowing that they were probably in the clubhouse where he had that terrifying experience yesterday. Dim slowly walked to the entrance of the pathway to the club house. He stared at it for a while before slowly putting a hoof on the path, he immediately pulled his hoof back.
"There's no way-" Dim was interrupted by the memory of what Diamond Tiara said, 'You're such a pansy'. "No, I'm no pansy. I can do this." Dim took a few steps into on the path and continued to walk a little bit more. "Yeah, there's nothing there Dim, just keep walking, you'll be there in no time." he let out a fake chuckle.
After he was about halfway to the clubhouse he calmed down. "Okay, it's not that bad. I guess I was just seeing things yesterday." he said to himself reassuringly.
After another minute Dim came upon the clubhouse. Finallyhe thought to himself . He walked up the ramp and knocked on the door.
______________________________________________________________
"Where's Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo asked frustrated.
"I don't know Scootaloo, I told you. Maybe she's just running late or sleepin' in." Apple Bloom proposed.
"Can we just start without her?" Scootaloo strained,
"No, Scootaloo. That's one of the groups main rules. 'Nopony left behind.' You were the one who made the rule too!" Apple Bloom said reminding her friend of her deeds.
"Listen, I just think-" Scootaloo was interrupted by a knock on the door. "I got it." Scootaloo said, since she was closest to the door. She opened the door and was greeted by Sweetie Belle. "Sweetie Belle, what the hay?! Where were you?" Scootaloo asked, annoyed that her friend was this late.
"I-I'm sorry," she sniffled.
"What's wrong?" Scootaloo asked with a mellowed voice. Apple Bloom walked over.
"I'll tell you girls later," Sweetie shut the door. "But I have an idea." she said.
"What?" the other's asked.
"I think we should make Dim Shadow a crusader." Sweetie said with a smile.
Both of the other Crusaders face-hoofed "Sweetie Belle, he has a cutie mark. How could he be a Cutie Mark Crusader?"
"Yeah, I know that. But he can help us in our quest to get our marks." Sweetie said.
"True, but I think we should test what he can do first." Scootaloo exclaimed.
"That's not fair, we didn't test Babs and she became a Crusader." Apple Bloom said. "She was super mean to us and we still let her in, why should Dim need a test?"
"Because he has a cutie mark." Scootaloo said as if they should already know this, as if it were part of a rule.
"Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea, Apple Bloom." Sweetie Belle said, liking the idea.
"But why?" she asked
"I don't know. It just seems appropriate for that to have to happen in a group like this."
Scootaloo jumped, "New rule! If you want to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders and you have a cutie mark you have to take a test!"
"I mean okay, I just don't see the big deal." Apple Bloom said still wondering why this was a necessity.
"Like I said, it think it's appropriate. Now what kind of test should we do?" Sweetie asked.
"He has to steal a bag of gems from a dragon!" Scootaloo enthusiastically smiled
"I don-"
"He has to stay one night in the Everfree Forest!" Apple Bloom too enthusiastically smiled.
"Girls wait! We don't want to get him killed. How about he just helps out for a few days, if he can, then after that we can take a vote?" Sweetie proposed a better way to test Dim.
"Yeah that sounds better." Apple Bloom said, changing her mind.
Scootaloo pondered the idea for a moment before agreeing with a sigh. "Yeah, I guess that can work," she said a little bummed out that he didn't have to go on a life or death mission.
After a few minutes of talking about other things, Scootaloo brought up how sad Sweetie Belle looked when she entered the club house.
"If you have to know, I had a little run in with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and those other two. They were worse, much worse than usual. I had a surprise for you guys but they stole it." Sweetie said, looking at the ground with a sad expression.
"We have to get it back then!" Scootaloo yelled.
"It's okay Scootaloo, I told Dim what happened and he went to get it back." she said, perking up.
"Wait! You sent somepony to steal something back from those two?" Both of her friends stared at her with wide eyes.
"Do you know what could happen?!" Apple Bloom shouted. "If he gets caught he could get sued, and if he gets sued he gets taken away, and if he gets taken away that'll be your fault." Apple Bloom frantically said.
"We have to help him now!" Scootaloo was about to get her scooter and burst out the door before there was a knocking. "Who could that be at a time like this?" annoyed she opened the door, it was Dim Shadow holding a bag from Carousel Boutique. "You've gotta be kidding me... that's so cool!" she jumped, fluttering her wings with a teeth showing smile.
"I'm sorry, what did I do?" he cocked an eyebrow placing the bag just outside the door.
"You actually got the, whatever it is! I was just about to try and help you." she said shocked.
"Oh, she told you?" he asked.
"Yeah, just a minute ago," Scootaloo said.
"Speaking of," Dim picked up bag and walked over to Sweetie Belle. "Here you go Sweetie." he placed the bag in front of her and nuzzled her. Apple Bloom smiled while Scootaloo made the motion of throwing up.
"Dim why do you have a mark along your back?" Apple Bloom asked.
"I was under a table for a while." Dim answered.
"Why?" Apple Bloom asked slowly.
"When I reached to get the bag I knocked over a patio table and Silver Spoon thought it would be a good idea to sit on it." Dim explained.
"What?" Apple Bloom asked, still unsure as to what happened.
"When I went after the two and was at Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon's house, I'm not sure which one's house it was. I reached under the table when they went inside to get a drink, I knocked over a bunch of patio furniture and I was trapped under it for a while, or so they thought." Dim got three confused facial expressions ."Let me explain," for a few minutes Dim explained from beginning to end the story of what had happened, however he left out a few things that he thought were a little personal. "Any questions?" he asked the group.
"So she just let you go? Just like that?" Scootaloo asked in disbelief.
"Basically; don't ask why, I don't know myself." Dim answered rubbing the back of his head.
"If that were one of us, they would have probably taken pictures and shown it to all the ponies at school." Scootaloo said kicking the ground.
"I guess they didn't think of it at the time." he said. Dim was looking over to his filly-friend. "You might want to show them what it is." he said nudging her.
Sweetie Belle unfolded one of the sashes and displayed to the others. They both observed it for a while, not saying anything. Dim was a little nervous about what was about to happen, Sweetie was nervous even more. None of them had approved it although none of them had said they didn't like it. After a while Apple Bloom finally spoke up.
"I like it." she said but with no emotion so Dim couldn't tell if she was gonna say there was one thing wrong with it or if she actually liked it completely.
After another few seconds Scootaloo told her opinion. "They're cool," she said.
"So you girls like them?" Sweetie asked.
"Yeah, nice job making the design Sweetie Belle. How long did it take? Must have took a while." Scootaloo said, putting on one of the sashes.
"I actually didn't make them." Sweetie said, looking over to Dim. The other Crusaders looked at Dim.
"Rarity?" Apple Bloom asked putting a hoof under her chin.
"Seriously?" Sweetie said face-hoofing, "he did." Sweetie pointed to Dim, who smiled proudly.
"Nice job Dim." Apple Bloom said. "So how long did it take you to make this?." she asked.
"Couple seconds,"
"No way, I don't believe that." Apple Bloom chimed.
"No, I watched him draw it, didn't take that long." Sweetie said, assuring her friend he wasn't lying.
"That's cool and all but we're behind on our Crusading." Scootaloo brought up.
"Okay, so what were you planning on doing today?" he asked.
"You'll see when we get there." Scootaloo said.
"Why does it have to be a surprise?" Dim questioned.
"So you don't back out." Scootaloo said walking out the door. Dim looked over at Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom who just shrugged. Dim and the others followed Scootaloo out the door. Dim didn't think that the other two knew what Scootaloo was planning to do either or why she was keeping it a secret. Dim wasn't the one who would back out of something as long as it was within reason. If Dim knew it was clearly unsafe or could easily hurt him he wouldn't do it, even if others said he was scared. After another few minutes of silence and following Scootaloo they finally came to a small dock with a raft, oars, life jackets, and helmets.
"Scootaloo, where did you get these?" Dim asked.
"That doesn't matter. Get a life jacket and helmet on, today Crusaders and Dim Shadow, we are rafting." Scootaloo said as if it were some extreme sport.
Dim did as told and put on a life jacket and helmet. "You girls done?" he asked.
"Almost," Sweetie Belle said, strapping on a helmet. "Now we are." she said now starting to walk to the raft.
"Okay," Dim picked up an ore and walked towards the raft, as did the others. They pushed the raft so most of it was in the water; they hopped in and began to use the ores to push the rest in.
"So, you girls like rafting?" Dim asked as they started to row.
"We don't know, we've never done it before." Scootaloo said.
"So, you've never been rafting before?" Dim asked.
"Nope." she answered.
"Well, neither have I." Dim said. Oh yay, an adventure! he thought.
"All we know is that the water gets bumpy and fast, and rocks lots of rocks."
Soon the water began to get faster and faster. "I think the bumpy fast part is gonna happen soon," Sweetie Belle said excited.
"Adventure!" Dim shouted with a smile. The others couldn't help but laugh as Dim broke from his apparently serious nature.
____________________________________________________________
"And so that’s why Cheerilee is probably a spy from the Griffin nation." Rider said to Heavy Weight as they walked along the river.
"Diamond Tiara was right, you are some type of special." Heavy Weight said looking at the river.
"You can't prove me wrong!" Rider yelled.
"It's a stupid idea in the first place! Why would you even-" Heavy Weight was cut as he heard somepony yell something that sounded like the word 'adventure'. "Did you hear that?" he put a hoof to his ear.
"Hear what? I don-"
"Adventure!" he heard a voice yell from what sounded like the river. "Is that..." Rider said as a raft with some familiar faces came thrashing down the river. "You've gotta be kidding me."
"I have an idea," Heavy Weight said, staring at them as they passed by with a half grin. "Get some rocks," he said.