Chapter 15: Crusader's Night Out
-Xavier's POV-
-Recap-
The day after the Young Flyer's Competition, as promised, I made sure Rainbow woke up with a plate of breakfast in front of her. Yeah, I got cooking lessons from Pinkie and Hiroto, the former somehow appearing in our house that morning. This'd make her a suspect for the case of my missing phone. I also added an a few ingredients like cinnamon and.. dandelions in the mix. Dash liked it, but she said she prefers violets. I can't tell the difference. Not like I eat flowers anyway. She had to leave for work earlier that day though so she couldn't enjoy it as much as she wanted to. Then Twilight stopped by to spend some time with me and Jack since nobody needed any help that day. For the first time, she played the Wii U with us. Pinkie joined soon after. It was fun teaching Twilight though. She kept wondering not only what the buttons do and how to play the game, but how it even worked. I gave her a look and replied with a simplistic answer.
"Ask Hiroto. He's the techno geek around here."
While we had managed to teach her how to play the game and what doesn't do what, after she's had enough fun, she decided to ask Hiroto on how 'wireless technology' worked. I wanted to see Twilight's reaction as he explained. He told her that their average tech was too primitive to comprehend wireless technology, especially when they haven't even invented the phone yet. I can't understand any of the gobbledygook he was saying, but it sure caught Twilight's attention and her quill and paper active. This is when I decided to introduce her to an invention called...
'THE PEN!'
Mom keeps a lot of pens. Too many pens actually. There are several bags and packages each that hadn't even been opened in the study. We let Twi take a few to use and to study how they're made so she could make them herself under one condition. She doesn't sell it. Reason being, Mr. Ink and Mrs. Quill would go out of business and they have a colt to feed. Featherweight I think his name is. Nice kid, but need braces. Twilight decided the nicest thing to do would be to share the invention with them too. Within a week, Ponyville became the founder of pens throughout Equestria.
I have been trying to spend more time with Twilight. She is my fillyfriend too, but lately she's been busy with her studies. Well, guess I could understand. She does have a lot of work on her shoulders with being the Princess's personal student and all. Either that or she really loves studying. Spike had to reassure me that it's just what she does. She's a studyholic. Knowing this, I had decided to feed my inner troll a bit and downright mess with her during her studies. This may or may not include excessive tickling, horn poking, spanking, falling on her randomly, more tickling, picking her up or a random piggy back ride, making Spike burp on the book she's reading(it got sent to Celestia. She shoved me out of the library.), more tickling, and cuddling. She found it cute most of the time, which is the first for me. No one's called me cute before. Maybe that's why she tolerated it mostly.
-Recap Over-
It's 02/28, Sunday. I was out and about almost all day today doing various tasks for the townsmen when I noticed something very unusual. Twilight was missing all day today. I normally see her at least once or twice today. Usually when she wasn't on any wacky adventures with her friends, or with me, or out to eat with anyone, she was in her library studying. I went there earlire today and she wasn't there. Spike was home alone dusting the place. I asked him what was up and he told me that she went out for research or something. I thought nothing of it at first until people started asking questions. I even started getting a few accusational claims against me saying that I had eaten her. When I denied it, they said that they'd find her remains in the garage or found her tied up there. Nice try. I'm glad AJ was there when I denied those claims.
As time went on, I was starting to worry just a tiny bit. It was around 8 o clock. It was getting dark. Really dark. I was going to have to search for her. I couldn't do it alone however. I got the rest of the crew to join me. Someone else was going to have to look after the kids though, and it wasn't Hiroto. As clever a kid he is, and he's thirteen, he's a hermit most of the time and won't really keep an eye on them. Brianna likes Fluttershy a lot. Guess I could leave them over there. I walked downstairs to get the kids and found the two crusaders air-guitaring again. It's their thing, Xavier. Just grab the kids and go. Hiroto decided to come with us for some reason. Probably bored. The walk seemed longer than it already was with Jonathan asking 'are we there yet' constantly. I was glad when we got there.
-HIROTO'S POV-
We were finally there. My little brother had finally decided to stop pestering Xavier and banged on Fluttershy's door. I cannot wait for him to grow older and more mature. He must've forgotten about Miss Fluttershy's timid nature. Fortunately for us, one of their friends opened the door.
"Howdy Johnny!" Apple Bloom greeted.
"Apple Bloom! Don't answer the door for strangers!"" I heard a meek voice come from behind her. "Oh.. Hello Xavier. What brings you here?"
"I was hoping you'd look after the kids, Flutters." Xavier explained.
"Ehem!" Why do I have to remind everyone that I'm not a kid anymore.
"And Hiroto. Since he's not a kid anymore."
"I'm sorry but... i'm a little-"
"Hi girls what're you doing?!" Jonathan said not so quietly.
"We're about to play a game!" Scootaloo shouted.
"GAME!!! I WANNA PLAY!" Brianna and Jonathan said in unison before rushing in.
"Thanks for taking the time to look after them too. You really are the Element of Kindness."
I walked in after the two. I noticed there was a tower of wood nailed together on upside down table stand. Someone had tried to make a table out of it. Someone should put that thing out of its misery. Or atleast get it repaired. I knew I was the boy for the job. As I was working on the table properly, Miss Fluttreshy came back in.
"Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, how about that game?" She said.
"What's it called?! What's it called?!" asked my loud hyperactive brother.
"It's called 'ssssssshhhh!'"
"I WANNA PLAY!!!" Exploded Jonathan, causing Miss Fluttershy to flinch.
"I've heard of that game. Humans call it 'The Quiet Game' while I call it the 'Shut up so I can hear myself think' game. Not a fair game, Miss Fluttershy. My little brother is going to lose." I told her, half done with restoring her table.
"I WILL NOT!" Jonathan protested.
"You just did."
"Ah'm bored!" Said Applebloom
"Me too!" Scootaloo added. "What do we do now?!"
Apple Bloom somehow came out of the chimney. "How about Cutie Mark Crusaders Coal Miners?"
The other two pony crusaders joined her in the chimney. "YEAH!"
"NO!!"
"Aw..."
I had put the table back to where it was when Miss Fluttershy attempted to put them to bed.
"You go to bed too, Hiroto." She said from atop the stairs. "Little colts like you should be in bed at this time."
What did she just say? I turned to her.
"Miss Fluttershy, I understand you don't mean any harm, but I am not a colt and I am not a kid! I am a teenager now. Not a kid." I thought up of a clever idea. "Besides, human teens are allowed to stay up as late as they want."
"Oh.. well, I guess it's okay if you stay up late then..." I waited for her to go back to check on the others when I fist pumped. Yes!!! It was but a few minutes of peace and quiet until I heard one of the girls singing like she belonged with the Jackson 5. She was pretty loud too that it woke the chickens. I couldn't help but to chuckle. When the singing stopped, the girls and boy rushed out of the door to the chickens. Jonathan and I watched the kids chase the chickens. Miss Fluttershy was trying to calmly stop the kids but was failing. So she stopped being calm.
"KIDS!!!"
This stopped the girls right in their tracks. Miss Fluttershy went to gather the chickens and put them back in their coops, but they wouldn't have it. That is until she leered at them. They backed away slowly into the coop. Everyone went back up stairs. Except for me. I think I was just gonna chill here on the couch. A few minutes later, Miss Fluttershy came downstairs.
"Hiroto, do you need anything?"
"No thanks, Miss Fluttershy."
"Oh.. okay.. And you know there's no need to be formal. You can just call me Fluttershy... if that's okay with you.."
"Since you were so kind enough to have us over, is there anything you'd like for me to do?" I asked, readjusting my glasses.
"No, no.. You're a guest. You don't have to do anything for me. Besides, you already fixed my table."
"Alright. I'm starting to see why Brianna likes coming here to see you."
"Well she has been pretty helpful with the animals and it's been easier having her around. N-not to mention fun.."
"Ah. She is an animal person."
"Yeah. She was telling me about all types of animals that I've never seen before. Even ones she don't like. Like the muss-kee-toe."
"Yeah. I'm not too fond of those either."
"What is it?"
"It's an insect that sucks blood for a living. They have no blood themselves. If you kill it and it leaves blood behind, it's not theirs. It's someone else's."
Miss Fluttershy seemed uneasy at this."W-why kill it? You can tell it to go to a hospital and get blood there."
"One, they spread diseases. Two, you can't talk to them like you can with your animals. Don't you know this since you're an animal expert?"
"I've never seen one before."
"Wait... there aren't any mosquitoes here?"
"I don't think there is.."
I was grinning. Never again would I have to deal with those parasites sucking on my blood and possibly injecting me with West Nile disease.
"That's great!"
Her ears twitched as if listening for something. "The kids have been really quiet upstairs. I think I'm going to check on them to see if they're " She flew upstairs. She zipped back down not more than a few seconds later. "The kids are missing!"
"WHAT?!?"
I rushed upstairs, and sure enough, the bed sheets weren't on the bed, but tied to the leg of the bed and leading out the window. I looked out of the window and saw hoof, foot, and talon prints going into the Everfree Forest. Those little brats. I'm going to tell Jack about this. I knew that Jonathan had something to do with their escape. That's the same trick Jack did when he went to escape to sneak off to his ex girlfriend's house. The old cloth rope trick.
Miss Fluttershy was in a panic when I got downstairs.
"They were my responsibility! Oh I let everypony down!"
"Calm down! You didn't do anything wrong. You'd never taken care of human kids before. Ponies can't tie knots without magic, and Sweetie Bell isn't too good with that at the moment. They went to the Everfree Forest chasing an escape chicken."
"We need to go after them! Stay here!"
"You're not going out there by yourself."
"I said, stay here." She tried giving me the same look she gave the chickens to cooperate.
I tilted my glasses again causing the reflection from the light to hit her eyes. "I'm sorry Miss Fluttershy, but I am not a chicken, and with that said, that trick will not work on me. Going there alone would be suicide. I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. We're wasting time discussing this."
Her ears went down a little as she gave out a sigh in defeat. "Okay..." So both of us ventured into the Everfree in search of the missing younglings while Miss Fluttershy was mumbling about her biting off more than she could chew.
-Brianna's POV-
"Good escape plan, Johnny!" AB said walking beside Jonathan. It really was. I was impressed that he even came up with it.
"Aw it was nothin'. Just somethin I learned from my big brobro." He said proudly. We were following the tracks to find Fluttershy's chicken. AB even started 'chicken calling'.
"What are you doing?" Scootaloo asked.
"Calling for the chicken."
"That is not how you call a chicken!" Scootaloo objected.
"Oh and you know how to call a chicken?" Asked AB.
"I know that's not the way."
"Then show me." Dared AB
"I don't have to show you!"
"You're just chicken."
"Am not!"
"Oh wait! Now I know how to call a chicken!" AB said before 'Scootaloo calling'.
"SHHH! Did you forget that there are monsters in this forest?!" I hissed
"Girls! We won't find the chicken or our cutie marks by arguing." Sweetie Belle continued.
"She's right. The quicker we move the quicker we can get out of here!" I added in. I didn't like this forest. Not after the close call with the wood wolves. I went ahead with Sweetie Belle.
-Hiroto's POV-
Fluttershy and I were following the prints left by the crusaders. I was trying to calm her down. Not only was she worried for the girls, but she was also spooked by the forest. I couldn't blame her. This forest didn't seem right, especially during the night. She was tense. It showed when she stepped on a branch.
"EEP! What was that!?" She said, backing into a tree which scared her too. She darted off in a random direction.
"Miss Fluttershy! Wait up!" I had to run after her. I wasn't the athletic type, but being alone in this forest wasn't a good thing for me either. While I was running after her, I saw something further head. It looked like a familiar pony.
"Twilight? Is that you?" She said, sounding hopeful.
When we got closer, we found out it was her. Only a statue version of her.
"Twilgiht... what's happened to you? Oh no! If you've been turned to stone than that must mean... Oh no! The girls!" WIth that, she zipped off, leaving me behind. I was now alone with the turned-to-stone unicorn.
"She's been like this for a while now..." A new voice said.
I turned around. "Xavier! What're you doing here?!"
"I was looking for Twilight... I found her.. She asked for my help with her research, and we split up for a bit. I heard her scream, rushed back, found her like this... I saw some chicken-headed lizard rush off into the bushes. And now, she's stuck this way... I should've never left her alone."
"Where are the others?" I asked him.
"Hell if I know. And might I ask what you and Flutters were doing here?"
"You remember when Jack once snuck out of his house to see Rachel?"
"Yeah. He regrets ever being with that slag. What of it?" He asked me.
"Jonathan learned from it and snuck out of the cottage with the girls.." I do not like breaking bad news.
"...Brianna. Is she with them?"
"Yes?"
"MOTHERFUCK!!!" He started pacing around a bit before he stopped infront of me. He reached in his jacket and pulled out a handgun. This wasn't the Smith and Wesson handgun he usually brings. This was an Uzi. "You stay here and protect Twilight I'm going after them."
"Xavier WAIT!!!" It was too late. He was already gone. There I was. Alone with the stone unicorn.
-Brianna's POV-
We were walking while Scoots and AB were arguing with each other until Fluttershy found us.
"Kids! Thank goodness I found you! You have to leave the forest at once!"
"But we hadn't found the chicken yet!" Sweetie argued.
"There's no time for that! There's a cockatrice on the loose!""
"What's a cockatrice?" I asked her.
"It's a frightening creature with the head of a chicken and the body of a snake! Now come on!"
Seriously? We walked past her. A head of a chicken and a body of a snake? Is it gonna peck us to death?
"That doesn't sound scary! That sounds silly!"
"If Ah ever saw one of these cockatrices, I'd look it in the face and tell it how silly it is!"
"No! Never look a cockatrice in the eyes You look a cockatrice in the eyes-!"
She was cut off when we spotted the chicken. We ran after it. We cornered it in a bush. That's when we saw another chicken. Two escaped chickens! Fluttershy'll thank us big for this!
When we got close, the first chicken dropped. The second lifted its long snakelike body out of its bush. It cocked at us and flew after the other chicken. All it did was stare at the chicken and it turned into stone right on the spot. It turned to us. Every girl shrieked and hid behind me. Why?! I'm scared of that thing too!!! Jonathan on the other hand reached in the back and under his pants pulled out a hammer. He must've snagged it from downstairs! And then he started singing.
"Dud du-dud du-dud dud dud DUD DU-DUD DU-DUD DU DUD~"
"Johnny! What're you doing?!?" AB shouted!
-Jonathan's POV-
The chicken snake made me mad! I'm gonna smash its brains out! I was holding my hammer. I knew the chicken can't turn me to stone! I'm stone proof! If he tries to turn me into stone, I'm gonna tell my body to not turn into stone! And my body knows that I know best! The cockatrice was staring at me with its red eyes!
"Dunna du-dunna dudunnananana dunna du-dunna du-dunnananana~" I kept up that fight theme from that game Jack plays for morale! He hurt the poor chicken! I jumped at the chicken, swung my hammer at it but missed! I jumped back so I could get a good aim next time! It just squawked at me. It tried staring at me like Fluttershy but I wasn't gonna let it get away with it! I STAND FOR JUSTICE!!! I swung at him again! I missed again! DANGIT! He tried to hit me with the claws on his feet but I BLOCKED IT WITH MY SLEEVES FROM MY FAVORITE JACKET!!!
"I AM INVINCIBLE!!!!"
"You get 'em Johnny!" I heard. AB and the other Crusaders are rooting for me! I CANNOT LOSE!!!
" What are you doing?!?" Miss Butterfly called me! But I was too busy in the heat of battle to pay attention to riff-raff on the outside! I HAD JUSTICE TO DELIVER!!! But I couldn't do that because Miss Butterfly was standing in between me and the chicken snake monster! She was giving it that leer! The monster leered back at her turning her into stone.
Wait! This is my chance! It's distracted!!! With all the strength I could muster, justice screaming from the DNA of my body, I lifted the hammer, jumped up and BROUGHT THE HAMMER DOWN ON THE CHICKEN MONSTER'S TAIL!!!
I bet I did tons of damage! It squawked in pain from my JUSTICE BLOW! I hit it in the head really hard to knock it down and I kicked at it!
"Jonathan! Stop!" Miss Butterfly cried.
"He hurt the innocent chicken! I AM THE JUSTICE DELIVERER-ER!!!"
"But it can turn the stone chicken back to normal!"
I looked at the chicken snake monster. "DO IT OR SO HELP ME IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE I WILL HIT YOU AGAIN!" The chicken snake monster was looking at me like 'you're not my dad so you cant tell me what to do'.
"OH YEAH?!?" I was about to hit him with the hammer.
"STOP IT THIS INSTANT, JONATHAN SHELBY WILSON!!!" Xavier ran out to us out of nowhere with his gun drawn aimed at the chicken snake monster. HE'S GONNA SHOOT IT! YES! IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE!!!
"You say this thing can turn Twilight back?" He asked Miss Butterfly.
"Yes."
It started staring at Xavier to try to stone him too but it wouldn't work because he's stone proof too!
"Fluttershy. You can talk to animals. Tell it to turn Twilight back or else this will happen." He shot a branch off of his tree with his gun! AWESOME! WE'RE GONNA WIN FOR SURE!
Miss Butterfly gave the chicken monster that look again and started talking to it and she got in its face! The monster was shaking! I gripped my hammer harder! IT HURT MISS SPARKLE TOO!!! The chicken snake monster did it. I stepped on its tail so it couldn't run away.
"NO you don't! You're going to chicken jail!" I said to it. "You lose! I win-i mean WE WIN!" I yelled! "DU-DU-DU-DUUN DUUN DUUN DU-DUDUUUUUUN!!!!"
-Xavier's POV-
It's been a while since I face-palmed so hard to the point where it left a mark. This kids picked up some bad habits and watch too many video games. The cockatrice was struggling to get its tail out from under Jonathan's foot.
"Wha... What happened?" That voice...
"Twilight?" It was her! IT WAS ACTUALLY HER! NOT STONE! I ran over there and tackled her, giving all of my hugs, ignoring the Asian with glasses behind her. "You're okay!!!"
"Xavier, please! You're squeezing me!" Holy crap I was. I let go of her. "Thanks... Now can anypony tell me what happened? Xavier, why're you crying?"
Was I crying? No. They couldn't know that. "I'm not crying! I have allergies!" I lied.
"Xavier and Twilight sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Jonathan teased.
I turned to him and smiled. "Jonathan in his room sitting in a corner. G-R-O-U-N-D-E-D. You too, Brianna."
"WHAT?!?" They said in unison.
"You heard me. No Wii U or games or anything." I had the authority, and when I tell Jack and Traevon what they did, they'd do the same. We all walked safely back to Ponyville I had explained to Twilight what happened.
"You really stayed by my side when I was turned to stone?"
"Yeah, until Hiroto came along. I told him to guard you while I went after my sister."
She started walking closer beside me, nuzzling my hand. "Thanks."
"No problem."
"I can't see through this forest!" Brianna complained.
"I'd help you but I don't have my phone. Where is that thing? I hadn't seen it in months!"
"Oh. I forgot to tell you. I have it. I found it in between the couch cushions at the library. I had to resist the urge to study it." She joked.
"Yeah. Taking apart alien tech can be dangerous. It could explode." That made her stop in her tracks.
"It's not going to explode, is it?"
"No. That part was a joke."
"Good... The very last thing I need right now is for a blown up library."
"I promise I won't blow up your library." I chuckled.
We reached my house. "I think I should head on back to the library as soon as I can. Spike's probably worried sick."
"I know I was." She jumped up on her hind-legs and kissed before going on her way.
"Bye Xavier. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Be sure that I do." With that, she left. I went inside after a long day. Jack was in the living room.
"Hey dude. Didja find her?"
"Yup." So far, Jack is the only one that know about herding and that Twilight and I are a thing. I told him earlier about it a week ago. His reaction? I got a huge grin from him. He's gonna try to catch 'em all, isn't he? "And please don't ask where and how because it's a really long story and I'm tired."
"I wasn't gonna ask, dude."
"Fine. I wasn't gonna tell you anyway."
"Whatever dude."
I went upstairs and found a blue rainbow-maned ball of fluff instead of a pillow on my bed. Rainbow... I found the pillow on the floor. Didn't feel like using the bed today anyway. I took out the sleeping bag from my closet and set it up before crawling in and hitting the sack. I fell asleep shortly, only to be woken up a few hours later to Rainbow snuggling herself in the bag with me. I grit my teeth refraining from gushing at the cuteness. The manliness in my body wouldn't approve, and I'd have to wrestle a manticore with Jeff to get it back.
I wrapped my arms around Rainbow before closing my eyes again and going to sleep for good this time. Today was a long day for me.