Chapter 17 The Wild West
The Crusaders woke in a flash when Eripio said it was time for them to put their plan into action. Eripio had only rented the room for one night and promised to be out early so she wouldn't have to check out with anyone in the morning.
In order to not attract any attention when they left, the four fillies exited through the window; luckily their room was on the first floor and it wasn't that much of a drop to the ground outside. They wore their capes once more and all four had saddlebags full of supplies for the trek into the desert. While they weren't sure how they were going to stop the Diamond Dogs, they knew they could figure something out.
As they snuck through the town, the fillies followed Eripio who led the way to the river; they knew that the fastest way to where the Diamond Dogs planned to lay the explosives was to follow the river all the way to where it split off the main one. As they edged around buildings and kept a low profile, watching for anyone who was staying up late, they discussed their plans and how long the trek would take.
“We're going to have to keep up a fast pace to get there in time to stop them... Unless you know of someway to get a ride or a faster way than just running.” Eripio kept an eye out for adults and missed the confident smirk the Crusaders shared.
“We might know ah way tah help...” Apple Bloom smirked as she and Sweetie Belle glanced towards the pegasus who raised her head proudly.
“Oh, really?” Eripio glanced back and saw the confident look on the orange filly; she silently raised a questioning brow at the confident look as the Crusaders all smirked back.
“Know where I can find a find a scooter?” Eripio looked towards the trio in curiosity before casting her gaze around the town, trying to think of where she may have seen a scooter.
“Nooo... But I do know where a cart is that can be pulled by someone, would that work?” Eripio watched as the trio glanced at one another before Scootaloo nodded that she would try.
Once she saw the agreeing nod, the green unicorn led the way to where several of the wooden carts where lined up waiting for somepony to pull passengers along. The carts were mostly too large for the young pegasus to pull; finally at the end of the line-up was a smaller one pony cart that was meant to haul supplies. The three fillies sat in the cart while Scootaloo attached herself to the harness; while she wasn't used to pulling three others with full packs of supplies, the orange pegasus saw this as a challenge and a way to get stronger.
The girls slowly made their way out of town before Scootaloo poured on the speed; within moments they were speeding across the desert, following the river through the orchards and beyond.
Since it was very late at night, the Crusaders had moments where they would nod off before jerking awake once more; Eripio took note of this and realized that they weren't as used to late night adventures or very little sleep as she was. What was more concerning was that she realized that Scootaloo wouldn't be able to pull them the entire way; not if she wanted to have energy for later that day.
“Hey guys...? How about we take turns pulling the cart while the others rest? That way everypony has about the same energy level and not one of us exhausted beyond helping.” Eripio was barely able to make herself heard over the buzz of Scootaloo's wings but could tell the others had heard the suggestion.
The girls pondered the suggestion while they continued on their way; Scootaloo was half-tempted to brag how she was able to keep going but could already feel the strain of pulling more weight than she was used to.
Almost in sync with one another, the girls gave their answer.
“Sure, I guess.”
“Alright...”
“Ah guess so.”
Eripio smiled at how they were such a close team that they could answer practically at the same time with the same decision. The purple maned filly was used to odd hours of sleep and awake to make sure that they did indeed take turns pulling the cart; something that wasn't needed as Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom seemed to sense when Scootaloo grew tired and the three others played 'water, fire, tree' to decide who was going next.
After that, the girls spent the next hour and fifteen minutes taking turns pulling the others. They made good time considering the distance they had to travel and found that they arrived before the Diamond Dogs set up anything or even before the Dogs arrived themselves. The four girls tried to search the area for the explosives just in case but couldn't find anything in the dark.
After the Crusaders almost fell asleep while they searched, Eripio suggested that they take a quick nap before facing their opponents in order to be closer to full strength when the time came. They pulled their cart off to the side and used it to give them some cover in case the Diamond Dogs came by earlier than they thought and settled down for a nap.
When the girls woke up later, they discovered the sun had risen already and Diamond Dogs were just finishing placing their explosives. Under the supervision of the dark blue pony, the four dogs had placed the gunpowder and TNT mixture along the hills that were on both sides of the river, with a second wave set to ensure that they blasted enough rubble to close off the river.
The Diamond Dogs were just patting soil over the explosives when the girls had a moment of panic before huddling into a circle; even Eripio was panicking since she had not expected to oversleep so badly, she could normally dictate when she wanted to get up without the use of an alarm clock.
“What do we do now!? They're almost ready to blow it all up!” Sweetie Belle tried to keep her voice down as she squeaked to the others.
“How'd we sleep in?! Who was watchin' tah make sure we got up before the Diamond Dogs got here?” Apple Bloom questioned to which they all shrugged in ignorance; it seemed as though they all fell asleep together, never stating who was suppose to wake the others.
“Well, we're up now! What do we do? They're just about to begin and they're on both sides!” Scootaloo pointed a hoof to both of the edges to help illustrate her point.
“Shhh, shhh. I'll think of something, give me a moment!” Eripio frowned in concentration as she rubbed her temples with her hooves, things were moving rapidly and they needed to do so as well.
Noticing how the others were about to continue and lay blame on one another, the glasses wearing filly cut in with a stomp of a hoof.
“Alright already! Here's what we're going to do! There's four Diamond Dogs and four of us, right? So we'll split up and go after both sides at once. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, you two go after the ones on this side; Apple Bloom and I will go after the other side. We'll figure out some way to get the explosives over to THIS side and we'll... we'll... we'll put it all into the cart and send it away from the river! Come on, no time to waste!” Eripio took off before any of the others could even agree, making them run to catch up and get into position.
As the four girls rushed towards the demolition sight, the Diamond Dogs were just starting to put away the boxes and crates that held all the explosives into a large carriage that was their way out of the danger zone. The stallion in charge had looked back to their work and noticed the girls running to the waiting fuses and growled in annoyance.
“Dogs! Look there, stop those fools!” At the call and pointing hoof, the four dogs quickly ran towards the girls with growls of their own.
Apple Bloom and Eripio were confused at first at how to get across the river but soon found that the dogs had made a temporary bridge which they hadn't taken down yet. As the four girls rushed to gather the volatile mixture, they found that the dark stallion had lit the fuses from afar; making it more like a race against time than ever before.
The two fillies on the far side of the ridge didn't pause for a moment, with Eripio lifting all of the highly volatile explosives away from their original places and over towards Apple Bloom who grabbed some of the carts the Diamond Dogs had left and made a make-shift catapult rapidly; they then sent the explosives soaring through the air and which landed perfectly into the cart that the four fillies drove out with.
Such a feat was not witnessed by the other two fillies as they rushed over to their own pile of explosive mixture and tried to move it by hoof since Sweetie Belle couldn't use her magic as well as Eripio. Two of the black dogs caught up quickly to the pegasus and unicorn, distracting them from their task; though neither forgot as they watched from the corner of their eyes the fuse slowly winding down to set off the volatile load.
In desperation, Scootaloo grabbed Sweetie Belle's hoof and ran in between the two opponents to the half full cart; as soon as they reached it the pegasus hooked the both of them up and proceeded to run back to their side of the river. The Diamond Dogs, seeing that a cart full of lit explosives ride their way, dove into the river instead with a howl of fear.
As the two fillies moved the load of gunpowder and TNT into the cart, Apple Bloom and Eripio faced the other two Diamond Dogs on the temporary bridge. Not having taken training together, the two friends' didn't work as a single unit like the Crusaders often did; but this didn't stop them from giving the two dogs a sound thrashing. Being smaller and less susceptible to the desert heat, the two fillies were able to knock both of the opponents into the river before long and raced to meet their friends who had just finished loading the explosives into the last cart.
Just as they began to wonder what to do with their cart of highly explosive materials, the dark coated stallion jumped in front of the four fillies, startling them so much that they knocked the cart onto a new path; none of the ponies watched as the cart with ever shortening fuses headed straight for the Diamond Dogs' getaway carriage, being much too busy threatening one another.
“You foals have interfered one too many times! I shall deal with you myself; prepare to be defeated!” With this the stallion launched himself at the fillies who took defensive stances, ready to fight back.
The girls leapt into action, trying to attack all at once to catch the older and more experienced stallion off guard. They soon found that they couldn't keep up and were slowly losing ground; the older stallion was ahead of their attacks and was slowly but surely gaining the upper hoof.
After an intense but short fight, the four girls stood panting as they faced the gray-white maned earth pony who hadn't even broken a sweat.
“Who... Who are you?” Eripio just barely panted out her question as the girls felt the strain and new bruises.
“I? I am Kobun, and you shall learn of the Red Dragon's wrath -!” At the last word, a large fiery explosion cut through the air, blowing everypony's mane back from the shock wave.
All five ponies looked towards the carriage to only find a smoldering mess where the dynamite and carts collided together. As Kobun looked at the mess, the four fillies signaled to one another to try and back away unnoticed.
Once they were several paces away the girls took off running, drawing Kobun's attention. He gave a roar and started to follow after them; in desperation, the girls searched their surroundings as they ran for anything that could help them get away.
Luck was with them as Eripio noticed that in the previous fight, the temporary bridge was dislodged from its location; with a quick jerk of her head and a shout of 'over here!' the girls barely made the jump onto the make-shift raft. They used some of the loose boards to paddle through the water leaving the dark-blue stallion in the dust as they continued down the river back to town.
Kobun waved a furious hoof into the air as he yelled to the skies, “I won't forget you four! I know your sign, we will find out who you are!”
The girls merely laughed in relief at their escape and high-hoofed one another; they sat tiredly on their raft and watched the scenery around them.
“Well that was pretty cool; do you guys do this often?” Eripio looked at the Crusaders who shared grins at how often their travels seem to get them into extreme adventures.
“Pretty cool? Try pretty awesome!” Scootaloo raised both fore-hooves into the air excitedly as the other two smirked at one another.
“We don't always cause explosions, but they can be really fun.” Sweetie Belle stated as Apple Bloom nodded along.
“Yeah, but we still just wannah get our Cutie Marks; it ain't our fault that bad ponies are trying tah ruin everything.” Apple Bloom nodded decisively before looking to her friends.
“You know, I've always wondered this but why do you wear those capes everywhere? They don't really help with sneaking around you know...” Eripio stated, watching in concern as Sweetie Belle seemed to deflate and tear up while the others gave dark stares to the filly; in an effort to reassure her friend the purple maned unicorn tried to cheer up the other.
“Not that they look bad, of course! I was just wondering.” At the reassurance, the tears dried within moments and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stopped glaring at the green unicorn who sighed quietly in relief.
“Sweetie Belle made these capes and they represent the Cutie Mark Crusaders; we wear them to show that we are a team and who we are.” Scootaloo proudly stated as her two friends energetically agreed, causing Eripio to raise a curious brow.
“I see... Did you know that the pony on your 'shield' is one that is from an old prophecy?” At the word 'prophecy' the girls perked up and stared intently at the knowledgeable filly.
At the blank but curious looks, Eripio continued with her statement.
“Yeah, that filly is from an old prophecy about a group of secret heroes. They went around Equestria saving others using their skills, wits and teamwork. They prevented a dark organization from ruining the land, though this was not known during their lifetime. A close friend to these heroes had written everything down and when they all died it was discovered along with a prophecy/threat that the dark organization would be back and a new group of heroes would be needed.” At the three blank tilted heads, Eripio could tell that her explanation went over their heads and they saw no connection to anything in present day.
“Huh, that's pretty cool that Sweetie Belle made our capes like that.” Apple Bloom conceded before turning her attention back to their surroundings.
Scootaloo glanced at the gray-white unicorn who shrugged at the actual backstory of the symbol.
“I saw it at the library and thought it looked cool; I didn't know that that's what it meant.” Satisfied with the answer, the two friends also turned their focus to their surroundings while Eripio only shook her head in amazement at how the trio lived a simple, unassuming life.
The ride back to town took a little longer than when they first left and Apploosa was well on its way to become completely awake; including a curious Braeburn who was checking that Apple Bloom and her friends weren't still in town. As the four fillies hid behind a couple of trees near the start of the town, Eripio turned to the others in curiosity.
“Well, what do you guys want to do? We still have some supplies left; did you want to do something else or just head home?”
“No way are we going home!” Scootaloo stood on her hind-legs as she smirked to her friends.
“We only got to try one thing yesterday AND we didn't get a Cutie mark for blowing stuff up! So we have to try at least one more thing!” The other Crusaders agreed Scootaloo's logic while Eripio managed to not face-hoof before giving in.
“Alright, what would you want to do? All the Apple Family would be ready and waiting for you guys. Is there something else you can think of that you want to try?”
The trio sat in a circle with their other friend and put a hoof to their chins in thought. Soon Apple Bloom jumped up in excitement as she grinned to the others.
“Ah know! What about that salt mine that they opened up? We could try an' be salt miners!” Sweetie Belle tilted her head in confusion at this suggestion.
“But, didn't we do miners in the Koopa Kingdom?” Apple Bloom waved a dismissive hoof.
“That was for makin' tunnels, not minin' salt!”
“Yeah, totallllyy different!” Scootaloo joined in the conversation before all three looked to their last friend.
“Hmmm? Oh, well, whatever you guys want to do. Besides we should try and make sure that the Diamond Dogs or that Kobun stallion don’t come back to bother the townsfolk again...” With this the four girls made their way to the salt mines in the north; on the way Eripio had the girls explain what they meant by 'Koopa Kingdom'.
By the time they got to the mines, Eripio had a whole new respect for the trio; they had loads of adventures before they met, explaining how they were able to handle themselves so well during their missions.
While the older ponies who worked at the mine were unsure about letting foals help, they give in after being subjected to puppy eyes and pleading; soon the four fillies were outfitted with pickaxes, hats and trailing a cart behind them for anything they dig up.
Eripio noted with interest how the Cutie Mark Crusaders knew how to mine properly and got the most out of their swing but couldn't seem to handle putting the mined salt into the cart. They lifted the axes right, but had trouble lifting the blocks of salt; they would crash into one another and more often than not they crushed the salt instead of storing it away. With so much salt in the air, the four girls became goofier and goofier before they realized that they just weren't cut out for salt miners and returned their supplies.
Eripio could see how the girls could try so many things and know a lot but still not find their special talents; they just weren't meant for any of it and therefore things went wrong to show that they weren't the talents they were looking. And while the green unicorn didn't need to find her special talent, doing things (even non-threatening stuff) with the Crusaders was fun and bound to be amusing to watch. The filly would try to help her friends figure out what their talents actually were but due to the very nature of their trips and crusading, she didn't know what they were meant to do and could offer no help to them.
The four girls edged around town to the train station; they couldn't put off going home anymore, especially since anything else they would want to do would involve others who were more than likely to know that they didn't belong there by themselves. By this time, it was just before noon and while the train station was slightly busier, it was out in the desert meaning that there still weren’t that many others using the trains at the time.
“Well you guys, guess this is goodbye for now. Good work out-” Eripio was trying to keep her farewell short when she was cut off by firm voices nearby.
“What in the hay are y'all doin'?”
“What do you have say for yourself?!”
At the two voices, the three Crusaders gave a large flinch and crouched down; they spent a moment wondering if they could run for it but noticed that it wasn't just two older sisters waiting for them. As the four fillies faced the group of older mares, they saw that not only were Rarity and Applejack waiting for them, but Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and even Twilight Sparkle had came along as well.
“Hey, uh, sis'...”
“Hi Rarity...”
“Uh, hi...”
Eripio watched in surprise and wonder at the three fillies being yelled at by three of the older mares before she realized she may be able to help them by covering for why they were in town.
“Do you know the kind of trouble you're in?”
“Ah got ah letter from Braeburn sayin' y'all were running around Apploosa!”
“Running away is not cool squirt; what would your parents think of that?”
The three fillies froze before turning to the young pegasus who looked stricken at the question; the older mares waited for any kind of response after saying their bit and watched the foals closely, waiting for an answer. The girls weren't going to say anything on behalf of Scootaloo, instead waiting to see what she wanted to say about the subject.
“I don't know what either one of them would think of that; they've been dead for over five years now.” Scootaloo replied flatly before taking off into town as fast as she could.
Rainbow Dash stared on in shock, not having expected the response and no idea of what to say. Fluttershy gave her a small nudge and whispered to the cyan mare, trying to help her friend be a better pony.
“Go after her.” At the soft command, Rainbow took off in a flash; chasing after the filly before anyone could move or say anything.
The two remaining Crusaders would have tried to chase after their friend as well but felt the presence of their sisters and knew that any attempt to leave would be seen as them running from the problem and lead to worse punishment. Before anyone could think of anything else to say, Eripio stepped forward.
“Please, don't be too mad at them; I asked them to come here. I wanted them to try making some of the pie here and they didn't really want to but I managed to convince them to come out this way.” Eripio tried to look sad and properly ashamed of her actions to sell the bit, unfortunately the older sisters weren't willing to accept that at face value.
“An' how did y'all meet in the first place if ya live here?” Applejack stared sternly back as she kept an eye on her younger sister, looking for signs of trouble or lies.
“We met when I visited Ponyville during summer break, back before I got my Cutie Mark.” Eripio firmly replied, sounding rather convincing to the other fillies who knew it to be a lie but tried to look like they knew it to be true.
“That was rather irresponsible of you girls; what if somepony got hurt? We didn't even know you had left Ponyville until this morning; something dreadful could have happened and we wouldn't have known in time to help.” Rarity stomped a hoof as she frowned at the girls who looked properly chastised.
“We're sorry...” The girls droned as one while they hung their heads, secretly hoping that this was the end of it and that they wouldn't dig too much further into the matter.
Their luck was not with them as the two older siblings continued to scold and chastise the fillies for their actions. Fluttershy had left to find Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo shortly after the cyan mare took off, she wanted to provide support since the other pegasus was almost notoriously short-tempered; this left the other two mares to whisper among themselves as they kept an eye on the scene before them.
Twilight was barely able to keep her whispering to a low level as she spoke with her marefriend; Pinkie Pie tried to reassure the lavender mare to little effect.
“Pinkie, I thought you said you would watch over them!” Twilight frowned at the baker who looked almost as downtrodden as the fillies being scolded.
“I was/did/have/am! I knew they were safe and that they wouldn't get into any kind of trouble they couldn't handle and-” Pinkie tried to defend herself and the girls as she stared at the purple unicorn with big pleading eyes and flat ears only to be cut off as Twilight realized the possible implications.
“What do you mean 'trouble they couldn't handle'?! Does this mean that they've been in trouble before and we didn't know about it!? Pinkie, that's dangerous! What if they got hurt?” Pinkie flinched as Twilight used educated guesses and made assumptions that were rather close to the truth; the baker knew that the girls didn't want anypony to find out what they had been doing and felt as though she had Pinkie Promised not to tell.
“Don't worry, I made sure that they were safe! Promise!” Twilight tried to remain suspicious, but Pinkie was firm and sincere in her assurances that the girls had been safe; and while she felt that there was more going on than being told, she also felt that she wouldn't be able to get more out of the pink mare out in public.
“.... Alright, but we're not done talking about this. Come on, let's see what they decided...” The lavender unicorn gave the pink earth pony a quick nuzzle before they stepped forward to listen to more of the siblings' discussion to find that it came to an end with the girls grounded for the foreseeable future; and no amount of pleading, begging, or puppy eyes would convince them otherwise.
Further into the desert town, a sky-blue pegasus watched from around the corner as an orange filly stared dejectedly at the ground behind a few of the buildings. Due to her speed, Rainbow Dash was able to find the young pegasus easily; now the issue was what to say after learning about such a fact. Fluttershy made her way over to her best friend and looked at Scootaloo with her.
“Hey.”
“H-hi... Um, were you able to …?” The shaking of a rainbow mane silenced the cream-yellow mare.
“What would I say to something like that?” Fluttershy nuzzled her friend; finding no reaction to this the shy mare realized how disturbed Rainbow Dash was. The cyan mare wasn't all that willing to be nuzzled, even from her oldest friend; and to find no reaction, not even an eye roll, showed just how serious she was at the moment.
“You know what it's like, to lose somepony you care about from an early age...” Sensing that Rainbow needed all the support she could get, Flutterhsy kept up the nuzzling.
“Yeah, but I never knew my mom; you know that she died giving birth to me Fluttershy. The squirt knew her parents and lost them both....” Scootaloo remained unaware of her surroundings, not even noticing the two older pegasi talking quietly not that far away.
“Yes but... your dad died... and you had gotten to know him...” Fluttershy was even more hesitant as she brought up this point; she was sure the cyan mare buried the pain of losing her father deep down and even to this day didn't like to talk about it. The flinch and shifting afterwards was proof that it was indeed still painful for the brash pegasus.
“Yeah, but Scootaloo is at least nine if not ten years old; much younger than I was but still close enough to remember them. Why don't you talk to her? You lived in an orphanage, you know what it's like...” Rainbow tried to push her friend towards the filly only to find one of the rare moments of strength from the timid mare.
“No; she wouldn't listen to me about it. She looks up to YOU, Rainbow Dash, not me. You should be the one to talk with her.” At the shy mare's unusually firm stare, Rainbow sighed in defeat before nodding.
It was at this last part that Scootaloo became aware of her surroundings once more; the argument between the two pegasi had gotten loud enough to notice though not enough for the young filly to hear. Upon seeing who it was, Scootaloo was torn between leaving and seeing what they wanted; she remained in place wearily as Rainbow Dash walked up to her with a hesitant smirk on her face.
“Hey squirt...” Seeing no change in Scootaloo's face, the smirk dropped from the older pegasus' face as she pawed the ground lightly.
“Uhhh... I just, wanted to say that... I know what it's like to not have parents and all... And you're doing a good job for yourself!” At the soft hiss of 'Rainbow!' from the mare behind her (which Rainbow Dash felt more than heard since it was so soft), the rainbow maned pegasus backtracked slightly.
“Uh, but what I mean is that ah, even if you're doing ok, you can come to any of us for help or if you're in trouble. I know Derpy cares about you...” Rainbow trailed off slightly as she noticed Scootaloo's face turn more pensive and annoyed, and could practically feel Fluttershy's encouragement to keep going on this kind of thought and speech.
“Ugh! Look squirt, I'm not very good at sappy but you have good friends and ponies who care about you so don't think you're on your own or alone, alright...? Come on, let's get back to the others; your friends are probably worried for you.” Rainbow made no move in order to see what kind of reaction she would get from the filly and sagged in relief when Scootaloo got up and started for the train station.
Rainbow Dash followed the young pegasus and once they reached where Fluttershy timidly waited, the quiet mare joined the parade by the sky-blue mare's side; they then engaged into a quiet 'conversation' while Scootaloo tried to ignore them.
“Rainbow...”
“Look Fluttershy, you know I don't do sappy! And that was getting WAY too sappy for me. I tried, you saw that!” Rainbow was more than willing to take off into the sky at the muted sigh from the mare next to her but could tell that it would be seen as a move worse than she meant; especially considering how neither of the other pegasi she was walking with could fly much at all.
“Do you think... She's living by herself?” Fluttershy could barely contain her shudder of sympathy if that was the case; having grown up alone and afraid to make friends gave her a good understanding of what it was like.
“I dunno, I thought she was staying with Derpy; she was concerned about Scoot before, so I thought that she was taking care of her or was a relative or something...” Rainbow Dash felt Fluttershy's eyes bore into her with a question that she couldn't get out but felt like it should be asked; thinking about what had just happened, Rainbow could guess at what the timid mare wanted to know.
“Sigh... All right, Fluttershy; I'll ask Derpy about it when we get back...” Fluttershy gave a large smile before turning to face forward once more.
The three pegasi were quiet as they rejoined the others who hadn't moved far from the train station; which was done as both a way to make sure the girls didn't try to escape and as a way to make it easy for the pegasi to find them once more. Once the group was reunited, they went in search of Braeburn to get a complete explanation of what happened. The four girls hung back slightly (though not enough to draw attention to themselves) as they compared notes and stories told.
“Why'd ya say all that Eripio? It was all a lie, from start tah finish.” Apple Bloom whispered to her friend, after explaining to the pegasus what had been said while she had left. Eripio rolled her eyes before answering; she had hoped her friends knew her well enough to know why but she supposed she would just have to explain it anyways.
“You guys are my friends, and friends always come first in my book. As much as I follow my Clan's morals of justice and harmony, I'd do just about anything for friends; including lie for them.
“My family has thought for years that I was a 'black sheep' of the family for lying and getting into trouble; they never realized WHY I did all of that or how it was actually for the right reasons... So I went on my own 'crusade' to find my place in the world. Helping others from the shadows like we have is what I like doing... Sure shocked my folks when I came back with a rescue Cutie Mark.” Eripio kept her explanation to a whisper as she smirked, not wanting the older mares to find out that they had been doing more than just visiting a different town.
The trio pondered this new information about their friend before tackling her in a hug of gratitude and friendship.
“We like helping others too. You can count on us to help when you find more ponies who need our special style of flank kicking -” Scootaloo smirked to the others who added their own adjectives.
“-Mystery solving-” Sweetie Belle smiled back as she recalled the adventures they've had so far fondly.
“- Grand adventure but secretive-” Apple Bloom looked to the others as they realized that they may never be able to tell others what they were doing but wanted to help all the same.
“-help!” As usual, the trio finished together, bringing forth an amused smirk from the green filly.
As the older mares found the yellow stallion talking with Little Strongheart, the fillies realized that in order to keep more of what they did and planned to keep doing a secret, Eripio would need to leave right away; finding out that her parents weren't actually from Apploosa would open up a whole new can of trouble that they couldn't answer without giving up everything.
“Eripio! Quick, while no one is looking, you have to leave!” Scootaloo glanced to the older mares as she gave the bespectacled unicorn a nudge away from the group.
“Yeah, if they find out that you don't actually live here we're all going to be in more trouble!” Sweetie Belle gave a push of her own as Eripio realized what they were talking about and started to edge away.
“But what about you guys?”
“Don't worry about us! We promise tah not tell them anythin' about we've been doin'!” As one the Crusaders mimed the motions for a Pinkie Promise which, while Eripio didn't really know anything about, she could feel the seriousness of the promise. The filly nodded before slowly edging away, taking off once she was out of sight.
They were just in time, for the next moment the older ponies (and buffalo) turned to the fillies for more of an explanation; at the sight of the missing unicorn they grew more upset and started to scold them once more.
The next half hour was filled with accusations and demands for the truth which left older siblings frustrated and young fillies in serious trouble as nothing new was discovered. The group made to return home while Braeburn and Little Strongheart gave a moment of thought to the Diamond Dogs before heading their own ways as well.
Eripio watched the argument from a distance for a minute longer before taking the first train back to Manehatten without notice; she felt bad for not being able to help her friends but knew that finding the truth of how they met along with everything else was not going to help them.
“I promise to find out about the Red Dragons you guys. Then you won't have to hide what you're doing anymore as soon as we take them out of the picture...” Eripio stared blankly out the window as the train left the desert for greener lands before the sight turned more industrialized, already planning ways to dig up information about the Dojo.
“Tono, those fillies were back and ruined our plans to gain the salt mines of Apploosa...” Kobun stated with a bowed head to the figure hidden in shadows. While the room was dark, Kobun knew his master sat on the only chair in the room and could feel his annoyance at being stopped once more.
“... Do you have any knowledge of these, these fillies that prevent our success?” Came a dark and gravelly demand from the shadows; Kobun straightened slightly as he actually had some good news to give.
“Yes, they wear a cape with a certain symbol of a rearing foal on it. I have our best working on discovering and finding these fillies and their intentions.” Kobun didn't raise his head fully, but stood straighter as he knew preemptive actions pleased his boss.
“Good, good. For now, we shall slow down our advancement until we are sure of who these 'fillies' are. You are to tell me at once when anything is discovered.... You have my leave to go, and remember Kobun; do not fail me again.” A flash of red light shown through the darkness as Kobun flinched at the tone before giving one last full bow and edging out of the darkened room.
“Yes Tono....”
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