Babs Seed made her way quickly to the table and sat down next to Apple Bloom, who passed her a glass of cider. Babs took a gulp of cider, paused to blow her bangs out of her eyes, and then began to speak.
“Ya know,” Babs said as she looked around the room, “you guys should really consider getting a new hangout. The… uh… clientele they got here don’t exactly make a pony feel comfortable.”
“What, are you scared of it something?” Scootaloo mocked.
“Nah, I ain’t scared,” Babs said, “but I don’t know that it’s the best place to be conductin’ business when you three are supposed to be champions of justice an’ all. These ain’t the type of ponies to be rubbin’ hooves with if you want to be seen as heroes.”
But as this piece of honest advice failed to make an impression on the other three, so Babs added, “Besides, I hear the cops are gonna raid this place any day now. You don’t want to be caught in the middle of that, now do ya?”
“Point taken,” Apple Bloom said, “and we were actually thinking the same thing.”
“You were?” Babs asked, surprised that one of her ideas was being taken seriously for once.
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom continued. “We’re gettin’ too much attention round here. We thought we’d head out for someplace else until things get calm again. That’s why Ah asked before if ya could get us a gig outside-a Manehatten.”
“And do I ever got one for you three!” Babs said enthusiastically, though there was a slight hint of something in her voice that suggested another emotion. Concern, perhaps.
“Someplace far away?” Sweetie Belle asked, getting excited.
“And good paying, too?” Scootaloo added, getting even more excited.
Babs nodded. “Yeah, yeah, sure. Both.” And then a sly grin crossed her face. “But speaking of payment, you got my cut for me?”
Apple Bloom shrugged and sighed. “Sorry, Babs, but we didn’t get paid this time.”
“We told her she could keep the money,” Sweetie Belle added.
Babs looked like she was having trouble even processing the idea. After taking a moment during which she appeared to mentally digest it, she finally spoke. “Are you three bigger bozos that I took you for? That’s the second time in a row you’ve done this!”
“Hey, it wasn’t my fault!” Scootaloo protested. “I wanted to keep the money. It was Sweetie Belle’s bright idea to give it away!”
“Oh, so generosity’s a bad thing now?” Sweetie Belle replied defensively, sounding slightly hurt.
“It is when ya got a business to run,” Babs said.
“But our business is helpin’ folks, Babs,” Apple Bloom said, jumping in to defend Sweetie Belle.
“Yeah? I’d like to see you help ponies when yer all beggin’ for money on a street-corner,” Babs responded.
“That’s what I said!” Scootaloo interjected.
“Babs, let’s not argue about this,” Apple Bloom responded. “What’s done is done, and there’s no use worryin’ ’bout it now, as Granny Smith used to say. Just tell us about the job ya got for us.”
Babs suddenly became uneasy. “I wish I’d known about our cash bein’ so tight before I got this one worked out. It’s good pay, but–”
“How much ‘good’ pay?” Scootaloo asked.
Babs hesitated. “Four-thousand bits,” she said at last.
Babs could not help squirming and grimacing as she saw the looks on her compatriot’s faces. The three’s eyes had grown huge and Babs could swear that she could see a large pile of golden bits already reflecting in them. The three ponies’ mouths had all dropped and now they were licking their lips. They were hooked, and now Babs knew she had made the wrong choice in bringing them this job.
“But, I don’t think it’ll be right for us,” Babs said. “I probably should have just told her to get lost.” She then turned away from the others and drank an overly long swig of cider.
Apple Bloom put her hoof on Babs' shoulder. “Is there something wrong, cousin?” she asked.
“Who cares if there’s something wrong?” Scootaloo said. “Four-thousand bits would keep us in business for a long time!”
“With that kind of money, we could do anything we wanted!” Sweetie Belle added. “Who cares what the job is! We’ll do anything for that price!”
“Ay, it’s Fillydelphia all over again,” Babs muttered to herself.
Apple Bloom realized her friends were not making Babs any more comfortable, so she decided to take a softer approach. “Why don’t you just tell us what the job is, then we can decide for ourselves what to do?”
Babs looked back to Apple Bloom and they shared a smile. Babs was still uncomfortable, but she settled down somewhat due to her cousin’s encouragement. Finally, she spoke.
“Okay, but first things first. Ya gotta know where the job’s at, don’t ya?”
All three nodded their heads and voiced their agreement.
“That’s the tricky part. I guess I wasn’t thinkin’ when I talked to the client or somethin’, Guess the money kinda made me a little screwy in the head too.”
“And what is the place?” Scootaloo said, with subdued annoyance.
“You got a real bad habit of interrupting, you know that?” Babs snapped.
“Never bothered you before,” Scootaloo shot back.
“Neva was this big a pain before!” Babs responded.
“Please, please, no fighting!” Apple Bloom said. “Ya two just calm down. Babs, continue with what you had to say.”
Babs once more had to collect herself before she could answer. Scootaloo began to say something but was quieted down by the twin glares of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Finally, her courage up, Babs spoke. “Well, the thing is… the place is Ponyville.”
“Ponyville?” the three shouted, loud enough to cause the people at the surrounding tables to pause whatever dark dealings they were working on in order to look at them.
Sweetie Belle chuckled nervously. “Nothing to see here,” she said. “Go back to what you were doing, everypony.”
There was silence at the table while the four Crusaders waited for the various suspicious characters to lose interest in them and return to their own conversations. When this had finally happened, Sweetie Belle said in a voice at once quiet and full of anger, “Ponyville? Are you crazy? We can’t go back to Ponyville!”
“We said we’d never go back, not until we proved our innocence,” Scootaloo added.
“And that’s exactly what we’re goin’ to do, not go back,” Apple Bloom said. “Sorry, Babs, but Ah think we should pass.”
Babs, far from being sorry, looked relieved. “Smart thinking, cos. You three don’t need to go back there. Especially when everyone still thinks you’re guilty and all.” Then, suddenly, a darkness clouded Babs’ face, as though the words she had just said had reminded her of something.
Neither Sweetie Belle nor Scootaloo caught this sudden change in her, but Apple Bloom did. Babs was her cousin, after all, and cousins often sense things in each other which no one else can. “What’s wrong, Babs?” she asked.
“I was just thinkin’” Babs said. “That’s just the thing… ya see, she said… she said that she knew how you three could prove your innocence and all. She said if you took her gig, she could help you.”
Apple Bloom looked to her two friends, who stared back at her. None of them could find words to say, but none of them needed too. Each one knew that the other two were thinking the same thing – how sweet it would be to finally prove themselves innocent, to finally be vindicated before the world.
Thus, when Apple Bloom spoke, she knew she was speaking for all three of them. “We’ll take the job.”
“You sure?” Babs asked.
The three nodded. “Just tell us what we need to know,” Apple Bloom said.
Babs nodded in turn. “Well, the client is a mare by the name of Willow Tree. I’ll get you a picture before you leave. She’s blue, sorta, and has a dark mane, kinda greenish. She’s from Canterlot, actually, but she says that some rough types from Ponyville are causin’ her trouble an’ she needs someone to take care of them.”
“A few troublemakers should be easy for us to deal with,” Scootaloo said, “but I don’t get how that’s going to help us clear our name.”
“I don’t know, neither,” Babs responded. “Willow Tree’s been actin’ mysterious when I tried to talk to her. What I told you is all she told me. Says that she’s only tell the rest of it to the three of ya in person.”
Sweetie Belle spoke up cautiously. “Not to sound paranoid, but that almost sounds like a trap to me.”
“Sweetie’s right,” Scootaloo said. “That does sound like a trap.”
“It’s fishy, I know,” Babs responded. “Maybe we should forget about the whole thing. I’m sure, if they need to deal with some thugs, they can get the royal guard to do it. We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders; we ain’t Rent-a-Mob!”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded approvingly. Only Apple Bloom showed no response.
“So, I guess I’ll be tellin’ her to take her job and shove it you know where,” Babs said, once more clearly relieved.
“No!” Apple Bloom suddenly exclaimed, looking to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo for support. “Girls, this is a chance to clear our names! It may be our last chance! We can’t just pass that up!”
“But what if it’s a trap?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“That don’t matter much. Even if it is, if we don’t take the job, we’ll never know if it was a real chance to prove our innocence or if it wasn’t. We can’t just walk away from an opportunity like that!”
“There’s no way that attitude could possibly get us into trouble,” Scootaloo said sarcastically.
The tone of Apple Bloom’s voice became more desperate as she realized she was losing the other two. “Ah know it’s dangerous. But when has that ever stopped us before? We’re tough enough, right? Whatever we get ourselves into, we get ourselves out. If we got out of Fillydelphia, we can get out of anywhere.”
“That’s right!” Scootaloo said. “No one beats the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”
Sweetie Belle still looked undecided. “Are you guys really sure? I still don’t like it.”
“None of us do, but we have to take that chance,” Apple Bloom said. “Besides, think of the money.”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged glances.
“4,000 bits is a lot of money….” Sweetie Belle said dreamily.
Scootaloo added, “It would make up for not getting paid the past two times. Hey, we would never need to be paid again!”
“Maybe you’re right,” Sweetie Belle said, snapping herself back to reality. “But, we gotta be careful. I’ve still got a bad feeling about this.”
“As long as we stick together, we’ll be okay,” Scootaloo said confidently. “Always have been, always will be.”
Apple Bloom nodded happily. “A’right, it’s settled. “Let’s get back to the hideout and get everythin’ ready. We’ll head out tomorrow.”
Babs sighed. “There’s no convincing you three when you’ve got your minds set on somethin’ is there?”
The other three considered for a moment, and then shook their heads no.
Babs could not help but smile despite herself. She figured she would never get used to how quickly the three could come to a firm decision. “A’right, then I guess I’ll come with ya. You might need someone else to watch yer backs.”
“No, Babs, it’s fine,” Apple Bloom said. “Not that we couldn’t use your help, but you’re not a fugitive like we are. If it is a trap, and someone’s tryin’ to catch us, you’d have too much to lose. You’ve got a life. We don’t have families or responsibilities anymore, so we got nothin’ to lose.”
It did not take much to make Babs angry sometimes. And this was one of those times. Apple Bloom realized that too late as Babs exclaimed, “You and me are family, Apple Bloom! Ya think I’m just gonna let my cousin walk into a trap without doin’ anything to stop it?”
“No, Ah didn’t mean it like that! I just meant, you’re needed here! You’ve got a family and a business that you can’t afford to lose.”
“I’m still not gonna let you get yourself killed….”
Sweetie Belle decided it was her turn to repay Apple Bloom for earlier and come to her defense. “Babs, if you want to help us out, we need you here. You can do all the investigating that we can’t. Find out all you can about Willow Tree and see if your connections can dig anything up. You know, detective stuff. You’ll be able to do that a lot better from Manehatten.”
Babs considered this for a moment. When she spoke, she was calmer. “I guess you’ve got a point. I still don’t like it….”
“Come on,” Scootaloo said, “what’s the worst that can happen?” She smiled bashfully as the other three gave her knowing looks. “I just meant that we’ll be able to take care of ourselves,” she said, trying to recover. “We won’t do anything rash.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Babs said.
“Don’t worry,” Apple Bloom said. “If it’ll make you feel better, Ah’ll promise that we’ll get outta town at the first sign of a trap. How’s that sound?”
Babs thought about it. She still felt uneasy, but she did not want to doubt her cousin’s sincerity in making a promise. “Okay, I guess,” she said at last. “You three can go. I’ll see what I can find out around here. But first thing I turn up sayin’ somethin’ ain’t right with this Willow Tree character, I’m on the first train to Canterlot.”
“We wouldn’t expect anything less of ya, Babs,” Apple Bloom said. She then gave Sweetie Belle a look of thanks.
Scootaloo gulped down the last of her cider. “Then what are we waiting for? We’ve got a lot to get ready. Let’s go! The Cutie Mark Crusaders, defenders of the weak and innocent, heroes of the roads and back-alleys, are on the job!”
She threw her hoof into the air. It was met by three others.
The other three added their voices to Scootaloo’s, “Cutie Mark Crusaders forever!” And then, after a few moments of silence, this was followed by a collective “Yay!”
What did this new client have in store for our heroes?
Read on.