A Very Long Night
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stood together just outside the motel room. They exchanged looks frequently and, every so often, one of them would steal a glance through the window. Scootaloo did so and then turned her head away in disgust.
“You know I’m just as tough on bad guys as the next pony, AB,” Scootaloo said, “but there are some things that even I can’t stomach.”
Just then, the noise of a loud bang emanated from inside the room.
“No, no, please just stop it!” shouted their hostage from inside.
“Are you going to tell us where your friends got to?” Sweetie Belle’s voice asked. A few moments later, not getting a response, she said, “Okay then….”
And then there was another loud bang.
Scootaloo stole another glance into the room and then shook her head. “It’s just not right! There are some things which you should just never do, even to criminals.”
Another bang.
Apple Bloom stood there, trying to be stoic about the whole thing, but anypony could see from the look on her face that it was affecting her as much as Scootaloo. “I don’t like it either,” she said. “Ya know it makes me uncomfortable too, just havin’ to stand here an’ let it happen, but we got no other choice. There ain’t any other way of getting the information we need out of this crook.”
“I know, I know,” Scootaloo said. “But that doesn’t make me feel any better about it!”
“Just try an’ ignore it,” Apple Bloom advised.
At which point, there was another loud bang.
“Because that is so easy, huh?” Scootaloo said.
“Well, it can’t go on for much longer. Sweetie’s been at it for fifteen minutes. Most ponies would have already cracked by now.”
“Yeah, this guy’s tough, I’ll give him that. I don’t even know if I could have held out this long.”
A long series of increasingly louder bangs came from out of the room.
“Stop it, stop it!” screamed the bad guy. “I can’t take much more of this!”
“Sounds like our cue,” Apple Bloom said. Scootaloo nodded and together they burst into the room.
There, they found Sweetie Belle sitting innocently at the table, right where they had left her. She was staring up at the captured crook, a mournful, pleading, puppy-dog look in her large eyes. “Oh please, oh please,” she said, “won’t you help us out by telling us where all that other sugar went to?”
Gadabout turned away swiftly and punched the wall with his hoof, leaving a large hole to accompany the several other large holes he had punched into the other three walls. “I told you to stop doing that! Why won’t you stop?”
“Pleeeeaaassseee?” Sweetie Belle said, giving her voice a childish ring and opening her eyes a little wider.
Gadabout punched the wall again, but when he looked back to Sweetie Belle, he said, “Okay, fine. Just stop… just stop looking at me!”
Sweetie Belle smiled. Suddenly, the puppy-dog look was gone like that. She got up from the table and joined her fellow Crusaders.
“Yep, after all these years, I still got it,” she said.
“You’re sick,” Scootaloo told her as Apple Bloom took the now empty-seat at the table.
“Okay, get talkin’,” Apple Bloom said as Gadabout slunk down into the seat opposite her.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of rough types,” Gadabout said, “cops, bounty hunters, mob bosses, little punks who think they’re big-time, you name it. But I ain’t never met anyone could break me like that. You kids are either real good or real demented. That’s often the same thing in this business.”
“I meant, get talkin’ about the sugar,” Apple Bloom said. She nodded toward Sweetie Belle. “Or else.”
Gadabout looked up to catch Sweetie Belle once more giving him the puppy-dog look. He shivered and turned away. “Okay, what do you want to know?”
“Where’s it goin’?”
“Big-Shot has a warehouse, out on the other side of town, out by Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Sweet Apple Acres!” the three Crusaders said in shock.
“What’s he doin’ out there?” Apple Bloom said, growing defensive. “He’d better not have done anything to the place!”
Gadabout chuckled. “Big-Shot may talk tough, but even he’s not dumb enough to try to do something illegal on government property.”
“Government property?” Apple Bloom practically yelled. “Whaddaya mean, government property?”
“Hey, I thought you wanted to talk about sugar, not the property market,” Gadabout responded. “Or are you three mercenary real-estate agents?”
“Apple Bloom,” Sweetie Belle said quickly as Apple Bloom seemed about ready to explode.
“Keep it cool, AB,” Scootaloo said. “Just find out what we need to know.”
Apple Bloom nodded. She took a deep breath and continued. “Okay, so all the sugar’s out this warehouse. So what, he’s gonna start sellin’ it in Ponyville?”
Gadabout laughed again.
“What is it, buddy, ya think I’m funny or somethin’?”
Scootaloo quickly pulled Apple Bloom out of the chair and started to lead her to the door. “I think somepony needs some time to cool off. Sweetie Belle, take over.”
“No!” Gadabout shouted – or pleaded, actually. “No, don’t leave me here with her! I won’t make any more wisecracks or laugh no more! Just don’t leave me!”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked to each other, smiles forming on their faces. Scootaloo let go and Apple Bloom sat back down.
“I didn’t mean to cause trouble, kid,” Gadabout said. “It’s just that, you’re thinking way too small. See, Big-Shot’s gonna have enough sugar now to corner the market all the way down to Las Pegasus. And sugar’s only just the start. When he’s got that, he’ll branch out into other things until he owns all the crime this side of Canterlot.”
“So that’s what it’s about,” Scootaloo said. “Biggy wants to create his own criminal empire.”
“Oh, looks like one of you’s got a brain,” Gatabout responded.
Scootaloo shoved Sweetie Belle in his face. Cue puppy-dog look.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” he screamed as he threw his hooves over his eyes. “It just slipped out, I swear!”
“So, sugar’s just the start. Makes sense,” Apple Bloom said as Scootaloo withdrew Sweetie Belle. “Since the government outlawed it, I hear some ponies’ll do whatever it takes to get their hooves on it. And then he’s gonna use that to make himself into some regional kingpin or somethin’.”
“Regional? Try national!” Gadabout answered. “Big-Shot’s got big plans, alright. Once he’s got a syndicate on all crime in the southwest, then he’ll move into Canterlot itself and once he’s the big crime boss there, he’ll have enough authority to take over all organized crime in Equestria!”
“But… aren’t there already big crime bosses in places like Baltimare and Manehatten?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Not when Big-Shot gets through with them,” Gadabout answered.
“But they won’t give up their territory. Not without a fight.”
“And that’s what Big-Shot intends to give ’em. He’ll give ’em a choice, see. Either join him or get locked in the biggest gang war Equestria’s ever seen!”
“He can’t do that!” Scootaloo said. “Think of all the people that would kill!”
“Oh, not like Big-Shot’d care,” Gadabout said. “He’d just as soon drop a dozen people as eat breakfast.”
As the three Crusaders exchanged worried glances, each silently trying to come to terms with what they were hearing, Gadabout seemed to grow thoughtful and pensive. When he spoke again, he had a faraway look in his eye, like he did not even remember where he was or who he was talking to.
“This ain’t the way it used to be,” he said. “This used to be a civilized business. Oh, sure, you’d drop a guy here or there, because he was trying to muscle in on your turf or he didn’t want to pay protection money or he was fooling around with your mare. But that was just business. It wasn’t anything personal. People get out of line and they got to be taken care of, you know what I mean? As long as nopony stepped out of line, nopony got shot. Everypony knew it and that’s why business went so smoothly so much of the time.
“But this Big-Shot guy, he don’t play it like the old bosses did. He’ll shoot you ’cause he doesn’t like the look of your cutie mark and he’s not afraid of stepping out of line. He don’t follow the rules and he don’t care about running the business right or making a profit. He just wants to be on top, even if it means that every other pony in Equestria is dead. I don’t think he’ll stop till this whole world’s burned down.”
“Then why do you follow him?” Scootaloo asked. “Why not just put a bullet in his back or something?’
“You clearly don’t know Big-Shot, kid.”
“Not for a long time.”
“He’s had four mugs turn on him and try to do away with him. All four bigger, badder stallions than me. And all four ended up in holes out in the countryside. Now, Big-Shot may just shoot you for fun when you got your back turned, but cross him, and he definitely will put you in a grave somewhere.”
The three Crusaders looked silently at Gadabout. He looked back at them. Suddenly, the hint of a smile was once more visible in his features. “Who are you three kids anyway? Who do you work for?”
“That ain’t none of your business,” Apple Bloom snapped back. “We’re askin’ the questions here.”
Gadabout raised his hoofs. “Alright, alright. I was just asking because I was wondering if you kids had any idea what you’ve just gotten yourselves into. Since Big-Shot’ll kill me if he ever finds out what I told you, just imagine what he’ll do to you three if you keep trying to disrupt his plans.”
After a very long moment of silence, Apple Bloom said. “Ya say Big-Shot’ll kill you? Ah guess that’s a chance you’ll just have to take. Get out!”
Gadabout just sat there, unsure what to make of this.
“Ah said get out!” Apple Bloom yelled. “Get out or Ah’ll turn Sweetie loose on ya again!”
Gadabout did not need to be told twice. He galloped out of there as swiftly as possible, determined not to give Sweetie Belle a chance to look at him again.
Scootaloo made an attempt to stop him, but even she was not fast enough for the determined crook. He was out the door before she could even reach it. Scootaloo watched him disappear into the night for a moment and then turned on her fellows.
“Apple Bloom! Why’d you let him go?” she said.
Apple Bloom looked up at her, the anger in those golden eyes making even Scootaloo take a step back. “What ya ’spect me to do? Ya want to shoot him instead? Ya want to kill him in cold blood? We ain’t never done that, Scootaloo. We’ve done a lot of things, but we ain’t never done that.”
“No, I wasn’t going to shoot him,” Scootaloo said. “But we shouldn’t have just let him go like that. Now he’s going to tell Big-Shot about us and then Big-Shot’s going to come down here and shoot this place all up and us in it!”
“Not if we hit him first,” Sweetie Belle said, quietly.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked to her and then to each other. Gone was their anger. Now they merely faced each other with determination and resolve.
“It has to be tonight,” Apple Bloom said. “We can’t afford to wait till tomorrow.”
“Agreed,” Scootaloo said, “but we can’t just go barging in there with a pea-shooter and a couple of apples. This is serious. We’re gonna need the big guns for this one.”
While Sweetie Belle cradled her pea-shooter defensively, as though to protect it from the insult, Apple Bloom just sighed.
“Alright, Scootaloo,” she said. “Break out the heavy weaponry.”
A gleeful grin grew on Scootaloo’s face, the product of her preparations now paying off. As she approached the large bag sitting in the corner, she responded, “With pleasure.”
It was late, certainly very late. Double-Shot yawned. Even in his profession, he was not used to being out so late. Especially not for what was supposed to be a routine operation.
Beside him, Hot-Shot paced frantically. “Okay,” he said, “we got to get our story straight. Got to figure out what we’re telling the boss.”
“Just tell him the truth,” Double-Shot answered.
He was met by Hot-Shot’s glare, a glare that basically said, you’ve got to be kidding me.
Double-Shot shrugged. “Well, there ain’t nothin’ to hide, is there? I mean, they got Gadabout and there wasn’t nothin’ you could do to save ’em, right? It’s not like we just sped out of there without checking on him or somethin’.”
Hot-Shot stood there for a moment, as though stunned, before swiftly shaking his head. “No, no, of course not. There weren’t nothing we could have done, nothing we could have done, and that’s our story. You got that, that’s our story.”
“Our story? But I thought it was the truth?”
Hot-Shot stopped pacing now, but even though he was standing still, he was not quite motionless. Visible shivers went up and down his body. “Eh,” he said, “the truth never counted for much in this business.”
Double-Shot looked at Hot-Shot disapprovingly.
“What?” Hot-Shot said. “Have you ever heard of an honest crook? Not on my life, you haven’t. I mean, just take the boss, for instance.”
Suddenly, the shivers managed to migrate from Hot-Shot to Double-Shot. “We shouldn’t be talking about the boss like this,” Double-Shot said, his voice barely above a whisper, as though he thought Big-Shot could somehow hear.
But Hot-Shot’s confidence was growing with every word. “You think the boss is something else, that he’s something special? You actually believe that story of his he’s peddling, about rising up from nothing to be a major player? Eh, he’s just like the rest of ’em. I’ve worked for enough major players by now to know they’re all the same. They talk tough until they get cornered than they go to pieces. Big-Shot ain’t any different.”
“P-please, Hot-Shot, don’t say things like that,” Double-Shot pleaded. “The boss may hear. Let’s just get back to stacking the crates and get this job over with.”
Double-Shot quickly began removing the last of the crates from his unhooked wagon and stacking them with the others that were already placed in this little corner of the warehouse. But Hot-Shot did not move.
“Ah, leave ’em,” he said. “We got all night and they ain’t goin’ anywhere. Besides, who’s gonna tell the boss anything? You gonna rat me out?”
“No, Hot-Shot, of course not….”
“Yeah, and I ain’t about to go digging my own grave neither. So the boss ain’t ever gonna find out. The boss, he’s nothing but hot air!”
“You didn’t act like that today when we were with him.”
Hot-Shot sneered and stood up a little taller, and then proceeded to rub one of his hooves over his chest, as though wiping the insult right off of him. “Yeah, but that’s just ’cause I got to play the game if I want to get anywhere. That’s the difference between you and me. You really think the boss is something else. I just play the game.”
“Yeah, you play the game,” Double-Shot answered as he finished moving the last crate into place. “And what’s it ever going to get you?”
Hot-Shot now not only brushed his chest, but pounded it. “What’ll it get me? It’ll get me to the top. See, Big-Shot’s doin’ all this work cornering the crime business in these parts. But he’s not gonna be around forever. He’s gonna go down, just like they all go down. And when that happens, I just gotta step outta the shadows and into his place. He can get what’s coming to him and I can get rich and successful.”
“Without doing any of the work yourself?”
“See, that’s why I’m gonna get to the top and you ain’t. I got the brains to know how to use other people to my advantage and you don’t.”
“Yeah, some brains,” Double-Shot said. “You’ve got an answer for everything.”
“That’s right,” Hot-Shot answered proudly. “I know it all. That’s why ain’t nothing ever going to surprise me!”
The next thing, after the pleasing sound of his own voice, that Hot-Shot heard was a loud explosion. He turned just in time to see the large warehouse door falling to pieces in a wave of flame. And from that wave of flame burst three familiar figures on a very familiar motorized scooter.
“Hey, Hot-Shot, it looks like those three punks again!” Double-Shot said, his voice coming from behind the large stack of crates.
Hot-Shot lunged for his gun and just managed to miss a furious round of bullets.
“They’re a persistent bunch if they are,” he responded as he fired off a few rounds at the speeding blur.
The speeding blur became three non-speeding blurs as the assailants discarded their scooter and took cover under the other side of the crates. Hot-Shot quickly tried to reach Double-Shot’s position but found another stream of bullets blocking his path.
“Hey, Hot-Shot, didn’t we drop one of these goons back at the motel?” Double-Shot asked as he narrowly managed to duck out of the way of more bullets.
“I don’t know, maybe they heal quick or something. Not really a good time to be wondering about it,” Hot-Shot answered as he tried to scramble for shelter.
However, before he could find anything, everything went white. A nearby explosion had blinded and deafened him. He felt several bullets rip through him and fell to the ground. Then all was blackness.
When Hot-Shot recovered consciousness, he found himself slung across Double-Shot’s back as the big goon headed for the nearest exit, trading gun-fire with the enemy all the while. Somehow, Double-Shot managed to extricate the both of them from the building and together they soon disappeared into the haze that hailed the coming dawn.
Inside the warehouse, three figures finally halted their fire.
“Do you think we finally got one of them this time?” Sweetie Belle said as she lowered her rifle – now an assault rifle rather than a pea-shooter – and rose from behind a crate.
“Looks like one of them took a pretty bad hit,” answered Scootaloo, who was busy readjusting the two machine guns she had attached to her wings. “He might even be dead.”
“Who do you think was the one that took him out?” Sweetie Belle asked quietly.
“Well, judging from the overall state the place is in,” Apple Bloom said, surveying the warehouse – which now seemed to contain more holes than solid matter, “Ah’d say we all had a hoof in it most like.”
Apple Bloom set down her revolver to put away a grenade or two.
Sweetie Belle’s eyes now glanced around. “Huh, you think anypony’ll notice all the damage?”
“Yeah, Sweetie, something gives me a feeling they will,” Scootaloo answered. “But it’s not our problem. It isn’t like we own the place or anything.”
“They could sue us, I suppose,” Sweetie Belle responded, “but then they’d have to catch us first.”
“Let ’em try,” Scootaloo said. “Let ’em just try, eh Apple Bloom? Apple Bloom?”
Scootaloo looked to see that Apple Bloom was already pacing around the pile of crates, placing grenades here and there at intervals more-or-less randomly determined.
“We ain’t got much time,” Apple Bloom said. “It’s almost mornin’. We gotta get this done and get outta here before those ponies have a chance to tell their boss what we’re up to. Ah’m plantin’ the bombs. Sweetie, you take a little sugar to give to Willow Tree back in Canterlot.”
“Will do,” Sweetie Belle responded as she took an envelope from her saddle-bag.
“It seems a shame to blow up all this sugar,” Scootaloo said as the other two got busy with their work. “Selling that could set us up for life.”
“In more ways than one, Scoots,” Apple Bloom answered. “But don’t think about it. Crime doesn’t suit you.”
“You’re right about that,” Scootaloo said. “I cut a much too heroic figure for a criminal.”
“Okay, that should be enough,” Apple Bloom said. “You done, Sweetie?”
Sweetie Belle nodded, but her attention had shifted once more to the sorry state the Crusaders’ antics had left the warehouse in.
“Do you girls ever think we might accomplish more if we used another plan besides barging in and shooting everything?”
“Don’t talk crazy, Sweets,” Scootaloo answered.
“What would make you say that?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Just a thought,” Sweetie Belle said. “It seemed like something to bring up, since we did pretty much cover one whole side of this place with bullet-holes and all.”
“Actually, I think I see one area of the wall that’s still relatively intact,” Scootaloo said. Then, her eyes lit up. “Say, Sweets, if you want to do something useful while AB’s finishing up with those bombs, how about leaving a little ‘calling card’ for the bad guys?”
“I don’t have any cards,” Sweetie Belle said. “We never carry around cards.”
Scootaloo shook her head. “No, I mean, how about you shoot up that wall?”
“Why didn’t you just say that?” Sweetie Belle asked. “And why would I want to do that?”
Scootaloo spread out her hooves to the wall. “I can see it now! The villains walk in and what do they see?”
“Total destruction?”
“No! Well, yes, but no. They see, written on the wall completely in bullet-holes, the giant words ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’!”
Sweetie Belle looked at the wall and tilted her head. “So, basically… you want to tell the psychotic bad guy and his heavily-armed lackeys exactly who we are.”
Scootaloo shrugged her wings. “Well, it’s not like they won’t know what we look like and where we’re staying after tonight.”
Sweetie Belle hesitated. “I still don’t know, but all right… I guess….”
At this moment, Apple Bloom finished her preparations.
“Okay, girls, stand back,” she said.
Sweetie fired the shots into the fall and then the three quickly backed away to a safe distance and Apple Bloom prepared a final grenade to destroy the rest.
“Wait!” Scootaloo screamed, a surprisingly panicked scream.
“How am Ah supposed to wait?” Apple Bloom yelled out, starting to panic herself. “I already pulled the pin out of this one!”
A frenzied movement of orange blew past her, toward the blast zone. Apple Bloom could barely make out Scootaloo’s voice saying, “I left my scooter over there!”
“Apple Bloom, that thing’s about to explode!” Sweetie Belle said.
“I know, but I can’t blow up Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom responded.
“You can’t blow us up either!” Sweetie Belle said as she started putting distance between herself and Apple Bloom.
Apple Bloom could feel the sweat beginning to drip down her forehead as she looked back and forth between the grenade in her hoof and the pile of sugar. Soon, she felt it falling into her eyes, making everything blurry. She thought to herself that it should go off any second. It should have already gone off, or so the rational part of her mind told her.
And then, the sound of a motor and another burst of orange. A thought, one of those funny random thoughts that occur at the direst of moments, popped into Apple Bloom’s mind, telling her that since everything was a blur now, Scootaloo was lucky that her body color stood out so well. Apple Bloom knew she could not wait any longer. She threw the grenade.
She did not even have time to run away. The grenade exploded in mid-air, just far enough away from Apple Bloom to set off the other grenades but still too close for her to avoid the incoming blast on her own. But just as the flames were about to engulf her, she felt herself being tugged away. An instant later, she found herself standing on the back of Scootaloo’s scooter.
Apple Bloom wiped the sweat out of her eyes just as Sweetie Belle jumped onto the scooter behind them. Scootaloo increased the speed and soon the three had burst through the nearest exit, as flames shot out of the warehouse behind them.
Apple Bloom sighed in relief as she saw the morning sun rising over the nearby foothills. Then she smacked Scootaloo in the back of the head.
“What was that for?” Scootaloo yelled.
“Ya nearly got us killed in there!” Apple Bloom said. “All three of us nearly got blown up because of you!”
“Okay, sorry!” Scootaloo responded. “But it’s not like neither of you have never done anything that nearly got the three of us killed.”
“It wouldn’t be a Cutie Mark Crusader adventure if it didn’t nearly end with all three of us dead,” Sweetie Belle said.
Scootaloo now adjusted the speed to a more comfortable level. As she did so, Apple Bloom turned to see a familiar sight. She let out a loud gasp.
Sweet Apple Acres. They were driving by Sweet Apple Acres. Apple Bloom now remembered that Gadabout had said it was down this way. But she had not been prepared to see it again, especially not in this state. Not with the barbed-wire fence surrounding it or with the grey walls that seemed to have spread up everywhere between the barn and the various orchards. Apple Bloom once more felt water coming into her eyes. A couple of tears fell down her cheeks.
“Home,” she said quietly.
“We don’t have time to worry about that,” Scootaloo said without taking her eyes off the road. “We’ve got to get out of here!”
Apple Bloom shook herself out of her sad mood. “Right, a’course. Thanks for remindin’ me, Scoots!”
“Any time,” Scootaloo said. Just then, she herself happened to glance over at Apple Bloom’s former home.
Scootaloo’s eyes immediately zeroed in on the silhouette of the barn that still dominated the view of the farm. Then they widened as she noticed that, atop the barn, there stood a familiar figure. A familiar pink mare with a uncontrolled mane was just standing on the roof, with cold eyes watching the Crusaders go by.
Scootaloo quickly brought the scooter to a dead stop, nearly sending all three of its passengers flying.
“Scoots, what in tarnation did ya do that fer?” Apple Bloom snapped.
“Look, up there. Up on the roof of the barn!” Scootaloo said, pointing her hoof.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s eyes followed Scootaloo’s hoof.
“See, I told you that I saw Pinkie Pie! There she is!” Scootaloo said, thrilled to be vindicated.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked to each other and smiled.
“Somepony’s getting obsessed,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Ah, we might have to see if Nurse Redheart is still in town,” Apple Bloom added. “Say we got a friend hallucinatin’ things.”
“What?” Scootaloo snapped.
Then she looked to the roof of the barn again. There was no one there.
Scootaloo’s jaw dropped, but she quickly shut it. Stepping off the scooter, she began to approach the fence. She was determined to find out what was going on and she thought that surely even Pinkie Pie could not get out of Sweet Apple Acres so quickly.
“Scootaloo, ya said it yerself. We don’t have time to take a look round here,” Apple Bloom said.
“I don’t think it’s gonna take Big-Shot too long to get down here when he hears what we’ve done,” Sweetie Belle said. “I’m not ready for another fight yet.”
Reluctantly, Scootaloo turned back. She got back on the scooter and brought it roaring to life. Soon, the three were moving down the road once more.
As they were moving, something occurred to Scootaloo, something she deemed very important.
“So, Sweetie, did you take my advice?” she said. “Did you leave our signature for them to find?”
“Well, sorta,” came Sweetie Belle’s nervous response.
“Sorta?” both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom asked together.
“Well, I was trying to write ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’ but I ran out of bullets,” Sweetie Belle confessed.
“You ran out of bullets?” Scootaloo said. “How can you run out of bullets?”
“I’ve been shooting at anything that moves for the past thirty minutes. What do you think?” Sweetie Belle responded.
“Then what in Equestria did you write?” Scootaloo asked.
Hot-Shot, his arm covered in a makeshift cast, and Double-Shot looked up at the wall, where – as though they were at the infamous banquet – countless bullet-holes spelled out giant letters before them.
“Cutie Mark Crusa,” Hot-Shot read. “What in Equestria is a ‘Cutie Mark Crusa’?”
“Maybe it’s a secret code or something,” Double-Shot said. “It could be in a foreign language. Or maybe it’s a cypher of some sort.”
Hot-Shot tilted his head. “A cypher, huh? Then how do you decode it?”
Double-Shot also tilted his head. The two silently tried to piece together the puzzle.
“I really am the only smart guy in the whole town, ain’t I?” said a voice behind them.
Both immediately jumped. They scooted away from the message as Big-Shot Bigsby approached it.
“So, it looks like they did a real number on the place,” Big-Shot said as he looked up at the words. “That’s gonna set us back. The Baker won’t be happy if I have to reschedule our meeting. But they got guts, I’ll tell you that. Coming directly after one of my storehouses and all.”
“But who were they?” Double-Shot said. “Who but us has that type of firepower around these parts?”
“They aren’t from these parts,” Big-Shot said. “Well, they were, but they ain’t been around for a long time.”
“Then who are they?” Gadabout asked, coming up beside the other three.
Big-Shot smiled. “Boys, it looks like some old friends of mine are back in town.”
What would Big-Shot do now?
Read on.
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- StarlightFeather · 14k words · 32 4 · 5.1k views
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Yay!
An update!!
And a good one in my opinion. Keep it up
Sweetie Belle is best pony.
Okay, whoa! Hold the haywagon here! What the heck has happened to Sweet Apple Acres?! Where's Applejack and the rest of the family?! What the heck happened, period?! Why the heck is the farm government property?!
Okay, hoss, you got a lot of 'splainin' to do! Next chapter! Soon!
Why in hell has this not gotten to the Popular Stories at least!?
4795379
Thanks! Hopefully the next chapter won't take three months to write.
4795552
She's so awesome it hurts!
4797013
Yes, yes I do. All will be made clear in good time.
4797477
I'm flattered that you think the story is good enough for that. Thanks.
4800750 Yes, you do, indeed..
And I'll keep an eye out for it. A lot has happened in the intervening 10 years, it seems.........
Update=happy.
this is a rather unique and intresting story, pleas continue it.
i like this(translateted to a easer english.)
Nowthan... ahem, WHAT THE BUCK BUCKEN F
HAPPENED IN PHILLY DAMMIT!!!
4802343
Thanks!
As for Fillydelphia - quite a lot happened, and much will be revealed over the course of the story.
You might even get the first real information within the next few chapters, if my current plan stays the same.
4805585 ok! You have been rewarded.
and have you ever heard about a prospersus family living on a 150 a month budget?
cuponers man, they are op.
anyway ok on the philly thistime. And pleas update on a stedy bassis pleas.
Reviews
3
Amusing irrelevant thought: if 4k bits, split four ways, is still enough that they might “never need to get paid again”, then what is the value of a bit? Exchange rates? Partial unit names for stuff that costs less that one bit? Random thoughts
“And then, after a few moments of silence, this was followed by a collective “Yay!””
This story could have started dark and stayed there without keeping the charming nature of the cannon. Instead, it's a clever hybrid with stuff like this. I approve.
So, given babs’s intense family loyalty, how might applejack act if she meets the crusaders in ponyville? I'm picturing her either coming to the rescue or helping them fight out of someplace, all while launching into an impressive tirade filled with loads of thickly ak-sented pseudo-cussing and applejack-isms, expressing her disapproval of their disapearence etc, followed by a tearful reunion, all while kicking ass. possibly literally. do donkeys exist? i never did get any further into the cannon.
4
Their combat dismount was awesome. I want to see this again at some point.
That said, I was twitching a bit reading it. How have they remained even mostly under the radar if they are prone to this when they think someone is onto them? And then not bothering to conceal their weapons afterward?
I love the bit with the grenades. And for some reason I especially love that its a recurring problem.
So many wonderful little difficulties in a universe without thumbs.
Random crossover idea: the thumb-thumbs from spy kids appear in mlp. They are all thumbs. The ponies have no thumbs.
Apple blooms loyalty to her families apples is charming. I like this detail.
“where a broken-hearted Sweetie Belle was staring at the spot where the apple-cart had once been.” lol
‘He's probably the one who framed you’ is a long way from ‘he's definitely the one who framed us so we should kill him’. They jump to that conclusion oddly quickly on willow trees suspicions alone. It's not necessarily out of character. I wonder if all is really as she says?
“My cutie mark…. Yes…. Sometimes I even forget I don’t have one!” hmmm… I think she has one, and is hiding it. Calling my shot: willow tree is diamond tiara, who survived and went into hiding, learning survival skills along the way and then becoming a merchant.
“don't get distracted by anything else” … ? That's suspicious.
5
“Though it was rather clumsy in his hooves – there was a reason why most of Equestria’s shooting homicides were unicorn-related and most of its accidental shootings Earth pony-related” lol, still love a universe without thumbs.
“But I was ‘civilized’ about it, and soon Pops didn’t complain anymore!” this is tied as my favorite line so far.
Ok, gadabout is an awesome name, and he has me intrigued. ..
Also, drugs? Gritty. Nice.
I'm surprised we got confirmation on bigsby’s actions/guilt so quickly.
“looked at Sweetie Belle, who was scrubbing the rifle harder than ever. “Do you two need to be alone?” she said.”
Wait wait, what?? HAHA! I take it back, this one is my favorite line. Mainly because it surprised me so much. Nicely done.
Cue the drill sergeant from full Metal jacket: “this is my rifle, this is my gun!”
Takes on a slightly different meaning when it's a female character who might conceivably use the same tool for both purposes, firearm safety be damned.
Ok, I'll stop now. Moving on.
“Seein’ as how Ah’m the only one who’s not in a committed relationship with a piece of offensive weaponry” never mind, I'm still laughing. Ammosexual pairings.
Fans jokingly shipping characters with inanimate objects always amuses me.
Jason/brick from the PJO Fandom,
Jay/stick from Warriors
Ruby/crescentRose from rwby, etc.
Hell, scrat/acorn from ice age, although that one's cannon.
It can get even funnier if such pairs go through a rough breakup.
“Somehow, Ah’m losin’.” lol
Oh good, scoot isn't getting herself captured. Phew. Aaand, their cover is blown. .. or is it? Why would pinkie not want to be recognized? Hmmm.
I knew you'd have some creative method of interrogation but puppy dog eyes was. .. unexpected, and priceless. Nice misdirection with the “bang” noises.
“Do you girls ever think we might accomplish more if we used another plan besides barging in and shooting everything?”
“Don’t talk crazy, Sweets,”
“i already pulled the pin!”
The baker. .. pinky pie seems to be involved somehow, possibly as an antagonist given that last encounter…
and what happened to the farm!?
Nicely done, i like how this story keeps a lighter childlike feel while still dealing with a dangerous compelling story. Wolves on film impressed me in a similar way if i remember right.
Shame this is cancelled, it was one of my favourites.
Usually I'm not one for an underground crime story, but this grabbed me immediately; most stories in this genre make things dark and grim, and thus lose a lot of the characters' charms. But seeing as the CMC are still relatively young, the tone and style compliment this, with the bad guys plan involving something most people wouldn't think twice about, and all the girls' tactics and weaponry reflecting their current characteristics.
If by some chance you return to this story, that would be brilliant. But if not, that's fine. I'd much rather have a story that's great despite being unfinished, instead of one that was forced out without any passion put into it for the sake of completion.
10681003
Yep.
Sabia que tenia la etiqueta de cancelado, no se por que lo lei, pero hey fue divertido y intrigante aunque faltara su final