//------------------------------//
// Zoop, There It Is 
// Story: Appledashery 
// by Just Essay 
//------------------------------//

	Swooooooosh!

Rainbow Dash made a swift landing in the middle of the junk yard.

"Listyyyy?!"  Rainbow trotted across the dusty space between rusted objects.  She frowned.  "Dang it, Listy!  Have you any idea what kind of a fool I had to make out of myself just now?!  Girl, you shoulda warned me that those buffalo were so... so... diet buffalo!  I mean... argh!  I'm cringing just thinking about it!  Listy, you owe me."

Silence.

Rainbow blinked.  She looked around.  "Listing?"

All was still.  Limp tendrils of cloth danced in the wind.  Metal chains and joints rotated, creaked, and were still again.  The door to the stagecoach hung open... empty.

"Listing...?"  Rainbow trotted limply across the compound.  She looked every which way.  "For Pete's sake... where have you gone off in such a—"  Her ears drooped.  Paling, she spun around.  "—hurry?"

Her eyes fell on the open stagecoach.

Biting her lip, Rainbow rushed forward on blurred wings.  Fwooosh!  She knelt inside the stagecoach's interior and began rummaging around.  Her breaths came out in panicked bursts.  The longer this went on, the more she shook... trembled... hissing curses under her breath.

Then... at last... she froze... and looked behind her on the seat.

A familiar bit bag lay in open view.

"...!"  Rainbow seized it, immediatelly yanking the thing open.  Once she felt the weight, and after she saw that the nine hundred odd bits were still there... she finally exhaled a breath of relief.  She slumped against the doorframe of the carriage, smiling stupidly—

"What are you doing?" Listing's voice asked.

Rainbow jumped, lightly hitting her head on the doorframe of the stagecoach.  She winced, squinting into the sunlight as Listing hobbled over.  "Uhhh... I was just..."

"Is everything okay?" Listing craned her neck.  She saw the bit bag.  "You... weren't planning on leaving, were you?"

"What?  No!  I just came back from warning the buffalo and I thought... I-I thought that..."  Rainbow gulped, then squinted once more at her ex.  "Just where were you right now?"

"Doing business."

Rainbow's brow furrowed.  "What kind of business?"

"Do you really want the grisly details, or would you rather hold your breakfast in?"  Listing smirked at her tail flicked.  "Better yet, fly south of me and you'll get an even better picture—"

"Eww!  Listy, just..."  Rainbow waved her forelimbs, looking away.  "Ew."

"Hahahaha... what?  Come on, booger."  Listing chuckled, trotting away.  "That sort of shiet made you laugh all the time."

"I'm not here to laugh," Rainbow muttered.

Listing cleared her throat, her smile fading.  "Right.  I get it.  Guess there's no point in delaying."

Rainbow gulped.  She placed the bit bag securely into the stagecoach yet again.  "Look, Listy... I j-just—"

"What did the buffalo say?"

"Huh?  Oh... uhm..."  Rainbow gulped, rubbing the back of her neck.  "They already were planning to avoid the Hump Gang's hideout.  So... like... false alarm."

"Heh.  Figures."  Listing shrugged while gathering a saddlebag full of bulky material.  "Mrmmmff... still... never can predict with buffalo, huh?"

"That's for darn sure."

"Well, I know you're chomping at the bit to go back to Las Pegasus and rise from the dead before your friends."  Listing huffed, flapping her wings.  "So... let's get this junk over with, huh?"

"How long until it's go-time?"

"Long enough.  Come on..."  Listing gestured.  "I know the best vantage point to scout out the compound."

"If you say so."

"Jee.  Thanks for the confidence."  Listing took to the air.  "Zoop!"

Rainbow sighed, soaring after her.  "Zoopage it is..."