//------------------------------// // Back to the Forest // Story: My Little Caboose: Blue is Magic! // by DarkWing //------------------------------// Everypony soon arrived back at Twilight’s place, where Grif was starting to doze off on the table. "Hey, what took you guys so long?" Grif asked. "Well I heard you were in pain, so naturally I hesitated as long as I could before coming here." Sarge said. "Gee, thanks Sarge." Grif said, swinging his back hooves off the edge of the table. Sarge looked at Grif’s infected leg seriously, slowly examining it. Before Grif asked what he was doing, Sarge promptly punched the infected area which caused Grif to fall back in pain. "What the fuck was that for?" Grif yelled. "I was just making sure you weren't faking it." Sarge said. "Well at least now you know." Grif muttered. "I don't know, that didn't seem genuine to me." Sarge said. "Don't hit him." Fluttershy said quietly, placing herself between Sarge and Grif. Sarge just kept staring at Fluttershy, seemingly looking right through her. He then grunted and started towards the door. "Let's just get this show on the road." Sarge said. Church walked up to Grif and helped Fluttershy hoist Grif up. Grif nodded gratefully and started to make his way forward. "I think I can do this by myself." Fluttershy said. "You sure?" Church asked. Fluttershy nodded so Church let Grif’s other leg down. "Hurry it up ladies." Sarge called from outside. "I want to make it there before Grif dies." "You are a true leader of the people Sarge." Simmons said. "Hey Simmons..." Grif said. "What Grif?" "When did you get your mark?" Grif asked. Simmons walked behind Rarity, breaking Grif’s view of him as he responded, "Oh, I got it at Rarity’s Boutique." "For what, sewing?" Grif asked, chuckling lightheartedly. "Of course not." Simmons said, laughing weakly. "That would be totally womanly." Sarge, confounded by the delays, walked back into the room and saw Simmons as he retreated around Rarity. "Hey Simmons, did you get your mark for sewing?" Sarge said. "Fuck." Simmons grunted, then looked to Sarge. "Yeah, I guess I did." Grif doubled over with laughter. He would have fallen had it not been for Fluttershy holding him up. "Fuck you Grif. It's no better than yours. How about you Sarge? You going to yell at me for feminizing the team?" "Not at all." Sarge said. "I think it suits you just fine." "Oh, ha ha Sarge." Simmons said sarcastically. "I mean it." Sarge said. "You always had an eye for details. Almost half of the plans I came up with you would point out their flaws." "Bullshit, if you told Simmons to jump, he would jump, then get on his knees and promise to jump higher next time." Grif said. "Screw you Grif." Simmons muttered sourly. "Well, he may not have spoken out, but I'm sure he saw the flaws in my plans, as few as there were." Sarge said. "That's because your plans didn't have flaws, they were flaws thus eliminating the possibility of finding multiple flaws in each plan." Simmons said. "And it wasn't half the plans, it was basically all of them." "See? Even now you still recall the flaws." Sarge said. "I would be surprised if that wasn't your special talent." "Oh, well thanks Sarge." Simmons said happily. "Let's go, we don't want Grif to die now, do we?" Simmons promptly turned and walked out the door with Rarity. Grif, with the aid of Fluttershy, walked over to Sarge. Grif leaned over to Sarge, "We're still going to rip on him later for being a woman, right?" "Son, we're the red team." Sarge said. "Did you really even need to ask that?" "Glad to hear it." Grif said. The group soon found themselves at the edge of the Everfree Forest. For a few minutes they just stood there, staring into it trying to discern any dangers that might be lurking as soon as they entered. "So, uh, should we get going?" Grif asked. "Not that I'm against standing around doing nothing." "Hold on." Applejack said, scouring a bag she had strapped to her side. "What are you doing?" Twilight asked. "Jus' checkin' t' make sure I have my supplies in order." After a few brief moments Applejack stopped. "Alright let's go." Applejack then started to make her way into the forest. The others quickly followed her lead, trying to hold a steady pace. From behind a bush, a small filly’s head poked out. "Why are they going in there?" Scootaloo asked. "Ah don't know." Applebloom said. "It was hard t' hear 'em from so far away." "I think it had something to do with that Grif guy." Sweetie Belle said. "What makes you say that?" Scootaloo asked. "Well, at the farm the blue stallion mentioned Grif’s name." Sweetie Belle said. "And Fluttershy seemed to be carrying him." After a couple seconds of silence, one of the crusaders spoke again. "So should we follow them?" Scootaloo asked. "I don't know Scoots." Applebloom said. "I told mah sis I would never go back in there 'less I was bein' accompanied by an adult." "What do you think Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo asked. "Are you too scared to go in?" "I din't say I was scared." Applebloom protested. "I said that we'd be safer with an adult." "Being an adult is the whole point Applebloom." Scootaloo said. "Sarge said he would help us. What if he needs our help and we don't go and lose a chance on getting our cutie marks." "That's true. He did say he would help us." Sweetie Belle said, thinking for a brief moment. "I think we should follow them." "So are you in Applebloom, or are you a chicken?" Scootaloo asked. "Am not! You're the chicken!" Applebloom said. "Prove it." Scootaloo said. "Let's go in and trail them." Applebloom looked into the forest and felt like she was being watched by something from within. "Fine." Applebloom said, putting on a thin veil of courage. "Let's just hurry up an' try t' keep outta harm’s way." The Cutie Mark Crusaders then hastily followed the group's tracks, deep into the Everfree Forest.