Scootaloo walked through the streets of Ponyville on the day that would've been Rainbow Dash's birthday today. She spent it with her adoptive mother and sisters. Now she wanted to be alone. She was 22 now. She was in a cider pub. It wasn't cider that came from the apple family, but it was still okay.
"You sure you don't want to go? You've had quite a lot. I'm surprised you can still read the poster" Smalltime said, gesturing to the humorous poster at the side That read "if you can still read this, then you haven't bought enough drinks". She chuckled, she and Smalltime had become acquainted with each other as she regularly drank here Every week.
"You know me, daring as always" she smiled "It IS my talent, after all" she was Ponyvilles daredevil. She often went into dangerous situations, even when the odds were stacked against her. She was a daredevil, but her job was as a mailmare. She would often deliver packages to places that weren't accessible via chariot. Most of those deliveries were to Zecora, though.
She looked at the clock. It was eight. She would get going soon. She got her coat on and had one more drink, before she prepared to go. She paid ten bits, swigged it down and left.
She looked around, no one there. Fine with her, as on as it actually WAS no one, and there was nopony hiding anywhere. She didn't have night vision, so she had to assume everything was alright, and walked on. Just then, a unicorn stallion rushed by her.
"Hey! Watch where you're-" she was cut off as some other ponies rushed past her. Something told her she should follow them. She ran after the group at full speed, knowing she wouldn't be able to see in front of herself if she took flight. They took a right and ran. Scootaloo, in her pursuit noticed something and stopped. A small passage in the road which the group had missed.
She heard heavy breathing coming from it. She walked in and saw him. He noticed her as well and backed away.
"What do you want? Why do you want this thing? What's so special about it!?" He was scared out of his mind.
"Caon down" Scootaloo assured "I'm not wih them. I'm just a curious mare. But why are they chasing you?"
"It's because of this" he levitated a piece of armor for the leg out of his bag. "I found it on a trip to Saddle Arabia. I took it back with me as a souvenir. It's design looked very old, so I decided to get some museum to look at it, I decided to wait until tomorrow. I never took it out of my bag, and they came up to me as I was about to go home. I threw my money at them, but they weren't looking for any bits. Instead they wanted this. Probably should have just given it to them when I had the chance. Hindsight, huh?"
"So what are you going to do now?" Scootaloo asked. He paused.
"Give it to you" he finally answered
"What?"
"In Equestria, anything old has the tendency to be extremely dangerous. I just felt like I shouldn't give it to them, as it could start another potential crisis" He gave it to her
"This thing?"
"I don't think It goes on its own, I think there are more pieces than this, out there somewhere"
"You're pretty smart, but what are you going to do now?"
"I don't know, probably leave as quickly as I can the next day, and pray to Celestia they don't know where I live"
She thanked him, then offered to walk him home. He politely refused, and she left.
It was another day, and Scootaloo didn't know what to do. She had the this apparent artefact, but she didn't know what she should do with it. She could find the other pieces, but she didn't know where to look. She didn't know how to find out who wanted it. She almost got lost in her thinking and forgot that she was meeting her friends at Sweet Apple Acres. She left, putting the legpiece away in her house and left.
She walked through the streets. In the night it was scary, and during the day it was unpleasant. It was as one would expect; dirty, littered and generally not aesthetically appealing. Well, this was the center of Ponyville. It was much nicer around the edges, where it almost looked like what it used to; a quiet and possibly nice place, but this was only in a select few places. Sweet Apple Acres was in one of those select few places.
She finally made it to the Acres. Applejack was bucking trees, it was all she ever did now. It made Scootaloo sad, and she knew how it had affected Applebloom. She didn't show it around her friends, but she knew when she did feel it. After all, she had known Applebloom for years.
"Applejack?"
"Oh, hey, Scootaloo" She sounded tired. It was Rainbow's birthday yesterday, after all. "Ah'm guessin' you're hear for Applebloom?"
"Yeah, she in her workshop?"
"Yup"
"Okay, thanks" Scootaloo left and went into their house. Once in, she found her way to the basement. She could hear a slight bubbling. She made her way down and saw her friend, just then the bubbling turned to fizzing.
"Hey, Applebloo-"
"Duck and cover!" She knew not to argue as she brought her head to the ground and heard an explosion. She looked up and saw an empty cauldron and it's owner get up next to it.
"You Alright, Applebloom?"
"Yeah, just lookin' at the different effects of poison joke. Apparently that's one of 'em"
"You really want to use that in your potions somehow, don't you" Applebloom nodded.
"Alright, I still think it's dumb, but you're the specialist on this"
"Hardly" Applebloom had gone to Zecora's and learned more about potion making in the process. It was only a matter of time before she tried it out herself. That had earned her a cutie mark.
"How's Dinky?"
"She's just fine. She teaches with Cheerilee, now"
"Wow"
"Yeah. Sweetie should be here any minute"
"Oh, you're in here." They both looked up and saw their other friend. She had much longer hair than she used to, and more curls in her hair. Not to the extent of her older sister, whose hair was just one big curl. Her cutie mark had a heart with a music note. She looked around
"What happened here?"
"Poison joke"
"Ah"
"Why don't we all go upstairs? I'm sure it'll be much nicer, considering there was an explosion here just a minute ago" Applebloom suggested
"Agreed"
They left the basement and went up to her bedroom where they each took a seat.
"My sister's making a costume for Nightmare Night"
"You gonna go as that "Mare Do Well" character they created?" Applebloom asked
"No, I want to go as something else this year. Either of you want it?" There was a click in Scootaloo's mind as she got an idea.
"Well..."
The night sky was filled with clouds, with a moon sticking out. All was quiet on that night, and nopony even noticed the shadow up on one of the houses. The figure looked around as it patrolled the night. She had been doing this for a week now and no sign of those ponies who had been chasing that unicorn she met. She jumped from building to saw a couple of sketchy- looking ponies here and there, some in ones and twos, but no groups Like the one she had seen.
She was about to give up when something caught her eye. There were lights in the distance. She jumped on a couple more building to get closer to see from a distance. A chariot was coming in. A chariot, at this hour? This, she had to check out. She spread her wings and flew towards it. She couldn't fly as fast as she could, on account of the Cape. It was so difficult to fly with that thing, she didn't know how Fluttershy had pulled it off in this thing. Once she was close enough, she did indeed see a group. They were dressed in some quite suspicious clothing that didn't make them look very legitimate. Each wore black, with a shiny grey on the upper- bodies, with not many other details, other than a helmet on each of them. On closer inspection, the grey vests looked like metal armour.
They were receiving a package. It was fairly small, and she wasn't sure why it needed an entire chariot to carry it. She got in closer to listen.
"Remember, be careful with this package, you know Diamond will have our heads is there is so much as a scratch on it's contents" The largest one spoke, he was clearly the leader of the group, but it was the name he mentioned that got her attention. Diamond...
"We know, we know." The others talked amongst themselves.
"Hey, if this is meant to be so powerful, why would she be worried about the smallest thing happening to it?"
"She's just paranoid, and that doesn't matter right now. What matters is transporting it. Now just shut up and get it. We screwed up in last week's retrieval with that unicorn. We've still got to find him"
"Be quiet, all of you. Let's just deliver the thing" The leader spoke up and they all listened. The mention of that unicorn was all she needed. She jumped in and kicked one of the back ones.
"What was that?" They turned around and there was nothing except one of their team mates rubbing their head. She kicked one in the jaw where he didn't have armour. This time, they did see him, and this one she had knocked unconscious. Some of them rushed her, except the leader. One tried to hit her, but she blocked and threw a punch back, but it had little affect on account of the helmet, but it did knock him back. She took on another one in the meantime, this one was a mare. A blow to her chest did little as she gave a punch that sent her staggering back. She remembered, she had to hit in places the armour could not protect, and Scootaloo hit her in the jaw, sending her helmet flying, and the third one came at her, but he was sloppy with his blows, making them easily able to dodge. She hit him in his neck and he recoiled, then came at her again, and received the same result, only this time he was no longer standing. She turned around to see where the leader went but was greeted with a punch from the first pony would've been successful is she didn't move out of the way in time, and she knocked his helmet off and slugged him straight in the face. She looked around for the leader but he wasn't there.
He had left. She punched the wall in anger, and was about to confront one of those she had fought, when she looked at the helmet she had knocked off one of them. She looked at it under one of the street lights. There was a symbol on it. There was a crown on it above writing that read "Tiara Industries". She knew who she had to go after now.
Scootaloo woke up. It was a Sunday, so she could sleep in. She had a few bruises from the fight, one of which consisted of a black eye, so she didn't want to alert any of her friends. She looked at that artefact again, and got up to get herself something from the fridge. She looked through it's contents, when she heard a knock on the door. She quickly got some sunglasses and went for the door. It was Applebloom and Sweetie Belle again.
"Hi again, you two"
"Hey. Belle wanted to check if the costume was alright and ah decided to tag along"
"Oh, sure. Come right in, girls" She let them in when something caught Sweetie Belle's eye.
"Why are you wearing sunglasses?"
"Well, uh it's sunny outside"
"But you're inside"
"They make me look awesome!" she finally settled on that. Sweetie looked at her for a second, then turned back.
"Where's the costume?"
"It's in the cupboard" They went and saw it hung up. Sweetie looked at if for a second.
"Have you been wearing this?"
"Well, I tried it on, if that's what you mean?"
"It looks kind of dirty"
"I guess I haven't been taking good care of it, then" Scootaloo was looking away. Sweetie tried to make eye contact and saw what looked like a black eye. She was shocked, but didn't show it.
"Scootaloo, is everything alright?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked a her friend through sunglasses.
"Alright, see ya" She said and she and Applebloom left. Their friend wasn't telling them something.
Scootaloo put the costume on. She was going to infiltrate Diamond's company and find out more. She contemplated how to get in and saw a window open a couple of stories up. She spread her wings and flew to the window. She looked through the day indie and there was no one there, so she entered, not knowing who was looking at the cameras at the time.
"Are ya sure we should be doin' this, Belle?" Applebloom asked as she watched her friend pick her other friend's lock.
"Scootaloo's keeping something from is, and I think it might be putting her in danger. I saw she had a black eye through her sunglasses. She didn't have one yesterday. Besides, we did knock and there was no answer." Applebloom still didn't look convinced. "I know it might be meddling, but if she's getting hurt, we need to help her as friends. If we find nothing, I'll apologise to her in the next morning."
"Alright" She sighed as Sweetie successfully broke in to her friends house. Maybe she was just being paranoid, Applebloom had every right to call her that, but she was worried about her friend. Some lights were on, but not all of them. Sweetie crept up, and the first place she went was Scootaloo's bedroom. She instinctively looked in the wardrobe. Just as she thought.
"The costume isn't here, and neither is she"
"She could be getting it looked at, it was dirty, after all" Applebloom reasoned.
"At this hour?"
"It still doesn't prove she's doing anything dangerous, she does do dangerous things"
"If it was just another one of her stunts, she would be open about it. She's never hid an injury before" Sweetie explained as a dim light in the corner of the room caught her eye. A lamp was on, and she saw two objects. Both looked like pieces of armor, except one looked old. The other was a helmet, turned upside down. She looked at the logo that the light was focusing on. It was one of Tiara's. There was also a picture of the building, there as well. She realized what her friend was doing.
"Oh Celestia, she's not..."
"What?" Applebloom asked.
"Scootaloo's gone to Tiara industries"
"What? But she knows that mare is pure evil. Always has been, always will be"
"I still don't quite know why, but we have to ask her."
"Ah know we have to go after her, but how?" Sweetie thought for a moment, then got an idea
"My sister made more than one costume"
She ran through the rooms, being careful not to be noticed. It had been very quiet and she had seen little to nopony. Maybe this would be easier than she thought. She arrived in what she guessed was a testing room, to test their new products, and weapons. She took another step and the lights turned on. It was that big pony that got away yesterday.
"Hello there." he said "it's you again" He had more ponies with him than before. "You got me in a lot of trouble, you know. Not as much trouble as my outing before that, but trouble nonetheless" She glared at him as he continued
"But I digress. One interference is one too many. It was very convenient of you to come to us. Saves us the trouble of coming prepared. Now..." he pointed at her "Get her" They rushed forward. each had some sort of weapon with them, unlike before. They all thrust their weapons at her, and she darted out of the way of each. They all wore armor but she couldn't hit them in their blind spots. Soon, they had her cornered.
A cloud of smoke fell on the room. Nopony could see anything that wasn't a couple of inches in front of them. Scootaloo lliked momentarily shocked, theno saw two ponies dressed in the same costume as her.
"Let's go!" Scootaloo recognised that voice.
"Applebloom?"
"No time to explain, let's just get out of here, though you're the one with the explaining to do" Scootaloo didn't have time to argue as she went with both of them. The smoke cleared, and she was gone, they looked around until they all suddenly felt itchy And started scratching themselves vigorously.
The three rushed out of the building and went to Scootaloo's house, she explained everything on the way. Once home, they each took their masks off.
"Thanks, girls. I don't know what would've happened if you weren't there. I'm not going to stop. Whatever Diamond is planning, we all know it won't be good. That being said, I also know that I can't do this alone. One pony won't bring them down, and I think don't that they're the only ones we need to bring down. Will you two help me?" Applebloom and Sweetie Belle merely stood there, staring at her, then looked at each other. They held out their hooves to her.
"Okay, but we'll need do some training, first" Sweetie said. And that was it, the forming of the Crusaders
"Also, y'all might want to go to Zecora's. That smoke bomb was poison joke"
Next time:
"Some ponies have been saying there's a monster in the sewers. It's meant to be huge, with glowing green eyes"