“So what’s the plan for today?” asked Scootaloo. The Cutie Mark Crusaders sat in their clubhouse mulling over ideas about what to do for their next attempt at a Cutie Mark. After last week’s debacle with the chickens, the three fillies were in low spirits. They were running out of ideas.
“We could help around the farm maybe,” suggested Apple Bloom.
“We’ve done that already,” reminded Scootaloo.
“There’s always something to do around the farm.”
“No, way. I’m not in the mood to end up sore and/or dirty again.”
“Well, what do you suggest?” asked Apple Bloom in irritation.
“Have we tried whitewater rafting?” Apple Bloom shrugged.
“I don’t know. Besides, we don’t have any rafts anyway.”
“Oh, right.” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at Sweetie Bell who was being surprisingly quiet this whole time. The little unicorn seemed to be in deep thought about something. “Hey, Sweetie Bell.”
“Hm? What?” she asked looking up at her friends.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Oh, well,” began Sweetie Bell, “Rarity says she’s running out of gems for her dresses but she can’t go get more right now because she has a really big order to fill. I heard her say that some extra gems would make the outfits look better though. I was just wondering if there was a way I could help.”
“How does she usually get gems?” asked Scootaloo.
“There’s this place outside Ponyville that has a lot of them.” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom nodded. It was quiet again for a while. Suddenly, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom went wide-eyed and looked at each other.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?!” asked Scootaloo.
“You thinkin’ what Ah’m thinkin’?!” Apple Bloom parroted.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Gem Hunters!” they shouted in unison.
“Wait, what?” asked Sweetie Bell both confused and concerned. She had a bad feeling about where this was going.
“Let’s go get the gems ourselves,” explained Scootaloo.
“Yeah, maybe we can find some really rare gems even your sis hasn’t found,” added Apple Bloom jumping up and down in excitement.
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no!” said Sweetie Bell standing up. “We are not going there!” She slammed her hoof on the floor for emphasis.
“Why not?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Rarity says there are these really dangerous Diamond Dogs that live there,” answered Sweetie Bell. “She said she even got caught by them once. They’re mean and ill-mannered brutes. Her words not mine.”
“The let’s just avoid them,” said Scootaloo like it was an obvious solution.
“We don’t even know how to get gems,” argued Sweetie Bell hoping to dissuade her friends.
“Doesn’t yer sister have some spell that she uses to find ‘em?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Well. . .yeah.”
“And she never taught it to you?” chimed in Scootaloo.
“She did this one time but-”
“Then what’s the problem?” asked Apple Bloom.
“I’ve never used it. Plus, I’m still not very good at magic.”
“Aw, we’ll manage,” said Scootaloo.
“I-I don’t know,” said Sweetie Bell nervously. Her two friends were quickly at her side putting their hooves over her shoulders.
“Just think about though,” said Apple Bloom. “We can help yer sister and we might even get a Cutie Mark.”
“We don’t have to stay too long,” said Scootaloo. “Tell you what, the minute you think it’s getting too dangerous, we’ll pull out.”
“We won’t put up a fuss,” added Apple Bloom.
“Even if we don’t get any gems?”
“Even if we don’t get any gems,” said the other two in unison.
“Weeelll. . .I guess we could-”
She was being dragged out of the clubhouse before she could even finish her sentence.
***
The CMC soon found themselves overlooking the mountainous terrain that was Rarity’s usual gem hunting spot. Sweetie Bell was holding up a large shovel with her magic. A wagon containing two buckets was attatched to Scootaloo’s scooter.
“So are you ready?” asked Scootaloo.
“Yeah, but I need to put this down if I want to use the spell,” said Sweetie Bell. Her two friends nodded and let her place the shovel on their backs.
“It’s heavier than it looks,” remarked Scootaloo with a grunt.
“Aw, this is nothin,’” said Apple Bloom.
“You have the handle end, I’m the one carrying the blade. This thing’s heavy!”
“Quit arguing and let me focus!” snapped Sweetie Bell. She closed her eyes and focused on the spell. Her horn glowed bright green. “I think there are some this way,” she said leading her two friends who were still trying to figure out how to balance the shovel between them. Sweetie led them to a large rock sticking out of the ground. Her magic allowed her to see the jewels inside. “I found some!” she screamed excitedly.
“Great, now dig ‘em out,” said Scootaloo.
“Why me? Why don’t you do it?” asked Sweetie.
“We ain’t big enough to hold this thing!” argued Apple Bloom.
“Well I can barely hold it myself even with magic,” retirted Sweetie Bell. “Besides, I can only do so much magic before my head starts hurting.”
“That’s a lame excuse!” accused Scootaloo.
“How about I hold it?” suggested a strange voice. A paw grabbed the shovel. The three fillies looked up to see two large Diamond Dogs standing over them. “Looks like we got some trespassing ponies, Spot.”
“Sure do, Fido,” said the other Diamond Dog. “You think we should take ‘em back to Rover?”
“Sure,” said Fido with an evil grin. “We could always use somepony to pull the carts around.” He grabbed Sweetie Bell who screamed. “This one looks like it can even find gems.”
“Let me go!” screamed Sweetie Bell as she kicked and squirmed in a desperate attempt to flee. “Let go of me!” Fido held her mouth shut with a paw.
“Ugh, I hate when they whine!”
“And what about these two?” asked Spot approaching the other two fillies. He tried to grab Scootaloo but Apple bloom knocked her friend aside and was grabbed instead.
“No!” screamed Scootaloo.
“Run!” Apple Bloom shouted. Immediately, Scootaloo took off running as fast as she could. Spot and Fido pursued but the wriggling fillies in their arms were determined to make it difficult. Spot passed Apple Bloom off to Fido and pursued Scootaloo himself. However, the orange Pegasus managed to make it to her scooter and ride off leaving Spot to eat her dust. She didn’t notice the two buckets in the wagon fall out.
***
Iron Ore and Applejack stood at the apple cart in the middle of Ponyville. Iron sighed in irritation at how boring this was. Hardly anypony had come by for apples and when they did, all he did was hand the customer the apple and let Applejack do all the talking. Living the dream.
“Are you sure there isn’t anything back at the farm I could be doing?” he asked. “That roof looks like it needs some repairs.”
“Fer the last time, we got everything done fer today,” said Applejack trying her best not to sound impatient.
“There’s no way that’s possible,” said Iron.
“Well with Big Mac gone fer the week and you still not quite better enough to do pick up his slack, this is about the only thing to do.”
“What about your friends?”
“All busy.”
“And Apple Bloom?”
“That silly filly ran off with her friends on some daggum crusade again.”
“You think it’ll work this time?” asked Iron. He had seen the results of Apple Bloom and her friends’ endeavors and hated seeing the three work so hard for nothing.
“No clue,” replied Applejack. Iron remained silent while Applejack tried to get the attention of the townsponies. “Come one, come all. My friend and Ah got the finest Sweet Apple Acres apples ya’ll could wish fer!” Iron smirked. He respected Applejack’s determination and how she was able to be genuinely pleasant despite how little she was making. “You know, ya’ll could say something,” she whispered to him.
“What do I say?” asked Iron. “I’m not a salespony.”
“Just wing it,” she told him. Iron thought for a moment before coming up with an idea.
“Promise not to get mad at me for this,” he told her.
“Whaddya mean?”
“Apples half off!” shouted Iron. Applejack’s mouth dropped at the announcement.
“What are you-”
“Also, buy two apples, get the third one free!” added Iron. Surprisingly, this actually worked as some ponies actually came up to take them up on the offer.
“We ain’t gonna be makin’ as much as we could be,” said Applejack between customers.
“Funny, last I checked we weren’t making anything,” Iron retorted. Applejack wasn’t amused. “Look, at least were actually turning up some profit now. Just add it to what I already owe you.” Applejack sighed.
“Naw, that won’t be necessary,” she said. “And yer right. We’re actually sellin’ apples now. Just warn me before ya’ll pull a crazy scheme like that, okay?”
“Deal.”
“You heard it here folks, one time offer!” shouted Applejack.
“Plus, we got all sorts of apples you could think of,” added Iron starting to get into the swing of things.
“We gots Red Delicious!”
“Golden Delicious!”
“Mouth waterin’ Fujis”
“Juicy Galas!”
“Crunchy Cortlands! And-”
“Applejack!” screamed a voice.
“I didn’t know Applejacks were a type,” said Iron.
“They ain’t,” said Applejack. The two were approached by an exhausted Scootaloo. She got off her scooter and walked up to the stand. Her wings were sore and she was breathing heavily. She plopped down in front of the stand to catch her breath. Iron and Applejack were at her side in an instant with a bottle of water. “Scootaloo, what’s wrong?! Where are Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell?”
“Let the poor filly get her breath, Applejack,” said Iron handing Scootaloo the water bottle. She gulped it all down quickly and took and caught her breath before speaking.
“Apple Bloom. . .and Sweetie Bell. . .were taken. . .by Diamond Dogs” she said between breaths.
“What?!” shouted Applejack. Iron looked surprised and a little confused.
“You have those here?” he asked.
“No time fer that!” Applejack snapped at him. She looked at Scootaloo. “Scoots, go tell Rarity! Iron, yer comin’ with me!” Iron nodded and followed Applejack as the two galloped to the mountains.
***
“So this is the place?” asked Iron as the two ponies entered the cave.
“Eeyup,” replied Applejack in a manner similar to her brother’s. “Problem is how are we gonna find them.” Iron started walking further into the cave.
“Just keep moving forward until we run into them,” he said.
“It ain’t that easy,” said Applejack as she walked up next to him. “These caves got all kinds of twists and turns. We’ll get lost before we find them.”
“Leave it to me,” said Iron. “I’m pretty good at navigating my way around caves.”
“How’s that?”
“My brother and I used to explore caves when we were colts,” explained Iron. “Eventually, we got pretty good at finding our ways through them even if we hadn’t been there before.” Applejack wasn’t really paying attention. She had tuned him out after that first sentence.
“You have a brother?” she asked. Iron sighed in annoyance that that was all she had gotten from his explanation.
“No,” he said solemnly. Before Applejack could follow up, he raised a hoof to silence her. “You hear that?” Applejack listened and heard what sounded like shouting.
“That’s gotta be them!”
“Let’s not waste time then!” The two galloped down the cave as fast as they could until they came to a fork that branched off in three separate directions.
“Which way?” asked Applejack panicky.
“Sh! Be quiet!” said Iron. He closed his eyes and focused on the shouting. It still sounded distant but it was enough for him to work with. “This way!” he said taking the left most route.
“How do ya know?” asked Applejack following behind him.
“Just trust me!” he shouted to her. Applejack remained quiet not having much choice. She hoped that Iron was as competent as me made himself out to be. He led her through the caves stopping every now and then to figure out what path to take next. Eventually, they found a large open are where three diamond dogs had Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell hitched up to carts and leather straps wrapped around their muzzles to keep them from talking. Sweetie Bell was using her magic to find gems.
“Let go of my sister!” shouted Applejack as she charged the Diamond Dogs. Iron was quick to back her up as the two rammed into Spot and Fido. Rover growled in frustration.
“Gah! Big ponies!” he snarled. Iron looked over his shoulder and glared at him.
“Yep,” he said turning to face him. “Much bigger than you.” He charged at Rover who jumped to the left. Iron quickly turned his head to try and get the dog back in his sights. However, just as he did, Rover tackled him throwing all his weight into it, ramming into Iron’s left side. The stallion grunted in pain as his wounds were irritated and he fell over. Rover was up first and got ready to strike.
“Ah’m a comin’ Iron!” shouted Applejack as she ran up to Rover. She quickly turned around and bucked him as hard as she could sending him into the cave wall. Rover tried to get up but was too dizzy and just fell down. Iron got up wincing at the sharp pain in his side. “You alright? He didn’t open the wounds did he?”
“I’m fine,” grumbled Iron as he headed to the captive fillies and freed them. “You two alright?” Sweetie nodded trying to fight back tears in her eyes while Apple Bloom ran straight to her sister who scooped her up in a hug.
“Applejack!” cried the scared filly. “It was so scary! They said that they were gonna eat us if we didn’t find ‘em enough gems” Tears started streaming down her face. “And, and, they kept makin’ Sweetie Bell use her magic even though she was tired and-”
“Shh, it’s okay now. Ah gotcha,” Applejack said softly holding her sister tight. Iron lay down on his stomach and looked at Sweetie Bell.
“Can you climb on?” he asked. Sweetie nodded and climbed onto his back. He slowly stood up so as not to disturb the exhausted filly. “How do you feel?”
“My head hurts,” groaned Sweetie.
“I’ll bet,” said Iron. He looked at the Apple sisters. “Come on you two. We need to get out of here while these dogs are knocked out.” Applejack nodded and out her sister on her back. She followed Iron as the two made their way out of the cave as fast as possible. Much to the farmer’s amazement, Iron was able to retrace his steps perfectly and the four were out of the cave before they knew it. Iron and Applejack stopped to catch their breaths.
“What were. . .ya’ll thinkin’?” asked Applejack still breathing heavily.
“We were tryin’ to help Sweetie Bell find gems fer Rarity,” explained Apple Bloom.
“So ya’ll went into Diamond Dog territory?”
“Sweetie Bell did try to warn us,” said Apple Bloom sounding ashamed, “but we were too stubborn to listen to her.”
“Did you find anything for your troubles?” asked Iron.
“We were caught before we could get them.”
“Hm.” Iron looked at the unicorn on his back who looked like she was about to fall asleep. “I hate to ask but do you remember where you found them?”
“Yeah,” said Sweetie Bell weakly. “Go this way,” she pointed a hoof westward. Iron followed her directions until they found the rock they were looking for. They also found the buckets and shovel that were abandoned.
“So that’s where those went,” said Applejack. Iron walked up to the rock and tapped it a couple times with his hoof. “I don’t think that shovel well getcha in there.”
“I know,” said Iron. “But I wasn’t planning on using it.” He turned around. “Hang on Sweetie Bell,” he warned. He lifted up his right hind hoof and with three strong kicks broke the rock open. The three mares looked in shock with their mouths hanging open.
“H-How’d you do that?” asked Applejack.
“Practice,” Iron answered. “Pass me a bucket.” Applejack didn’t reply simply handing him one of the buckets. Iron scooped up the gems. “Now, this trip wasn’t a waste,” he said. “There are only enough to fit into one bucket though.”
“That’s okay,” said Sweetie Bell. “Thank you.” Iron smiled.
“You’re welcome, Miss Bell. Now get some rest.” Sweetie nodded and quickly fell asleep. Apple Bloom was out before too long as well leaving the adult ponies to carry them back. Applejack held the buckts while Iron took the shovel.
“Tht wuz mghty kand ov ya,” said Applejack, her words muffled by buckets held in her teeth.
“It was nothing,” said Iron meekly. Applejack watched the large stallion as he gently carried Sweetie Bell. She had learned a lot about him in just one day but she also knew that the more she figured out, the more she was confused.
Just who are ya? She asked herself.
***
Sweetie Bell was safely returned to Rarity who wouldn’t stop expressing her gratitude. She bombarded Iron and Applejack both with offers of various rewards but was shot down each time. It didn’t set well with either pony to be rewarded for something that any decent pony would have done. They brought Apple Bloom home and Applejack put her in bed. Meanwhile, Iron let Granny Smith look over his wounds.
“Well, they didn’t seem to harm nothing,’” she said. “Must have been mighty painful though.”
“You don’t have to check,” said Iron. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t be givin’ me lip, boy,” warned the old mare. “Long as yer under my roof, it’s my duty to make sure ya’ll don’t go hurtin’ yerself again, understand?” Iron chuckled.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. Now how about some vittles?” she offered.
“Sounds great,” said Iron. Granny smiled and went into the kitchen.
“Ya really should stop arguin’ with her,” said Applejack as she came down the stairs.
“I’m nopony worth fussing over. Besides, I owe you all, remember?” Applejack shook her head.
“Ya’ll are just stubborn,” she told him Iron shrugged.
“Guilty as charged. So, how is she?” he asked. Applejack sat next to him on the couch.
“She’ll be fine. Ah’m givin’ her the lecture of a lifetime when she wakes up though.”
“I bet Rarity is probably going to so the same.”
“Ah feel kinda bad fer Sweetie Bell. Can you imagine what a lecture from a drama queen like Rarity is like?”
“I think I’d rather go back to the Diamond Dogs,” joked Iron. The two laughed a little.
“Thank you for helpin’ me,” said Applejack. “Apple Bloom was the last gift my parents gave this world before they passed away. Ah don’t know what Ah’d do if that filly got hurt or worse.”
“Don’t mention it,” said Iron. “I owe that much.”
“You owe money not riskin’ yer life,” said Applejack.
“I wasn’t talking about owing you,” said Iron. He stared at the wall with a mixed expression of sadness and anger. Again with the secrets. Why did he have to be so elusive?
“Hey, Iron?” asked Applejack.
“Hm?”
“Today you asked me twice to trust you without much reason too.” Iron nodded.
“I know,” he said. “I shouldn’t put you on the spot like that. Thanks.”
“Yer welcome but that’s not quite what Ah’m getting’ at.”
“What do you mean?”
“Yer askin’ all of us to just trust ya but ya don’t seem to trust us in return,” she said. Iron’s first instinct was to protest her statement but he knew Applejack was right. He didn’t really open up to anypony. Every time somepony tried to peel back his layers, he pushed them away yet at the same time, he expected them to trust him without question. He couldn’t go on like this forever. If he continued keeping everything to himself, it’d only be a matter of time before everypony stopped trusting him. He’d be alone again.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m acting like a foal. I was being honest when I said my past wouldn’t hurt you or your family but I guess bottling it up is hurting me.”
“Ah just want you to know that ya’ll can trust me is all,” said Applejack. “Ya don’t have to go into detail if ya don’t want to.” Iron shook his head.
“No, I’m done bottling it up,” he said. He took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. “It started when I was a colt. I had an older brother. His name was Copper. . .”