Chapter 15
Chapter 15.
The sun was already well on its way down beyond the horizon when Apple Bloom returned to Sweet Apple Acres. She and Scootaloo had come to the library closed, locked and neither Twilight nor Spike anywhere in sight. They had spent a while to go all over Ponyville to search for the librarian but no avail. Finally they both had to admit defeat and return to their respective homes for dinner.
The young Earth Pony was trying to think up all kinds of excuses to give Cheerilee tomorrow about why she hadn’t finished her homework. The girl sat down on the front porch with a sigh, trying to find the foalnappers sounded legitimate enough but would her teacher accept that?
“Apple Bloom?” Applejack appeared in the window calling, it took the mare a moment to realize that her sister was sitting right there on the porch. “Oh you’re there, dinner is ready.”
“Coming,” the filly said and rose up. She entered the house and just missed her older sister returning to the kitchen. The girl followed, still mulling over what to do about her homework.
“Hi Apple Bloom.”
The familiar voice snapped Apple Bloom out of her thoughts. Looking up the girl blinked when seeing both Twilight Sparkle and Spike sitting by the dinner table. Granny Smith was putting the last tray with food on the table.
“What? Ya where here all along?” the filly groaned in frustration. Twilight, Spike and Applejack shared confused glances.
“You were looking for me?” the Unicorn asked uncertainly.
“Yes, Scootaloo and Ah came to the library to borrow history book to finish our homework for tomorrow,” the filly explained and almost regretted it when her older sister scowled.
“What the hay, ya haven’t finished yer homework yet?” the orange Earth Pony snapped.
Apple Bloom realized she had to explain more quickly or Applejack would send her right to her room to finish her homework, even if she right now had no reference material. The filly opened her mouth and sped out:
“Yes ya see, Sweetie Belle and Ah promised Scootaloo to help her with her homework, which is to write about an important pony through pony history. Sweetie Belle didn’t have any history books, Ah know Scootaloo don’t have any and she can’t write about Rainbow Dash again. But then we got all caught up in the whole searchin’ for the foalnappers and the whole mess around that and we didn’t realize we hadn’t written anything until just now and so Scootaloo and Ah went to the library to get history books and take them back to Sweetie Belle and finish our reports with her, but Twilight wasn’t there so we gave up and went home because it was almost dinner time anyway.”
When Apple Bloom finished she closed her mouth and waited. Everyone in the kitchen had been listening without a word. Applejack’s scowl did ease a bit much to the girl’s relief, though it still could mean anything at the moment.
“If I think I got that all right, you three need some reference material to be able to finish your homework,” Twilight spoke up, she sighed when receiving a blank look from the filly. “You need a book about important ponies from pony history to finish your homework.”
“Yes exactly.” Apple Bloom bounced on the floor.
“Well I think we can fix that, we can go to the library after dinner if Applejack doesn’t mind,” the librarian offered.
“None at all,” Applejack shook her head and gave her sister a strict look. “As long as this does not happen again.”
“Yes sis, Ah promise,” the filly assured her sister with a furious nod.
“Well that’s settled then, let’s dig in,” Granny Smith declared and those still standing sat down around the dinner table.
They hadn’t been eating for too long when there was a knock on the front door. Applejack excused herself and rose up, but didn’t really need to go out to see who it was. Rainbow Dash suddenly popped up in the half open kitchen window.
“Hey guys,” she greeted them. “I found Gilda and talked with her again.”
“Rainbow, we were just sittin’ down to eat, ya wanna join us? We can talk about Gilda after that.” Applejack offered.
“Don’t mind if I do,” the Pegasus Pony accepted, not one to turn down a dinner invitation at Sweet Apple Acres with its reputation of good food. She opened the window fully and simply flew through it before the farm pony could protest this way of entering the house.
Applejack grunted but said nothing, knowing she had pretty much asked for it when inviting Dash inside. Twilight just shook her head with a smile, Apple Bloom and Spike chuckled and Granny Smith seemed to have fallen asleep. A gentle nudge from the orange Earth Pony woke the elder back up.
With no further interruptions the ponies and one dragon finished eating. When they were done Applejack told Apple Bloom to help Granny clean up, Spike also offered to help. The three remaining mares headed out to the front porch to talk there.
“So I found Gilda bit outside Ponyville, she couldn’t get too far in her condition really and was resting on a cloud,” Rainbow Dash began telling her friends.
“I talked with her about her cousin and she did say he said something funny before she passed out. Something along the lines of ‘that you think you won even if you rescued the filly’ or something like that.” The Pegasus shrugged, she couldn’t recall the Gryphon’s exact words.
“Now that is strange,” Twilight said thoughtfully, tapping her muzzle with a hoof. “Now why would he say something like that… unless Diamond Tiara was meant to be found?”
“Maybe he figured he won because he was paid the ransom?” Applejack suggested.
“No, the ransom was given back to Mr. Rich after Tiara was returned to him since nopony came to claim it,” the Unicorn shook her head.
“Well this guy is claiming the credit; even if it makes no sense that he’s the brains behind it. Gilda had free run beating him up, she said Silver Axe barely raised a hoof to help him,” Dash mentioned, her friends both nodded.
“I’ll run this by Officer Mulberry when he comes over to the library, I’ll maybe get a chance to ask either Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo about what they overheard when I help Apple Bloom with the books as well,” Twilight said.
“Huh? What books?” Rainbow Dash asked. The purple pony explained the homework dilemma of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“What? She can’t write about me again? That’s straight A+ material there,” the Pegasus Pony huffed but only received amused giggles from the other mares.
“So this is your room?” Snow Heart looked around questionably.
Scootaloo had been given the task of showing the Unicorn around the house after dinner. Right now they were in the filly’s bedroom. It was an obvious shrine to the girl’s adoration to a certain rainbow maned Pegasus. There were homemade posters of Rainbow Dash and various other smaller drawings hung up on the wall, some even depicted Scootaloo flying alongside her hero and on the bedpost hung a blue colored headwear with a rainbow colored mane decoration.
There were some exceptions, the bedding was official Wonderbolt merchandise and there were some posters depicting the famous air show team around. It was still minimal compared to all the items the filly seemed to have on her idol.
“Yeah,” Scootaloo responded, her mind was a bit absent as she was still wondering what to do about her homework, without letting her mother know she hadn’t really finished it yet.
They walked back out and headed to the living room where Parasol was just sitting down after finishing in the kitchen. Scootaloo’s bedroom had been the last stop on the tour.
“It’s certainly a nice house you have got here Parasol,” Snow Heart complimented.
“Yes it is, but we still need to work our tails off to pay for it. Silver Script had to go yesterday to Canterlot to help with a play there and won’t be back until next week,” the Pegasus Mare explained.
“Dad writes plays and is sometimes asked to be an extra too if they can’t fill all the roles,” Scootaloo clarified.
“Yes I recall,” Snow nodded while she got seated.
Scootaloo turned away and headed back out of the living room. She figured the two adult mares would begin talking about various adult subjects she was not interested in so the filly intended to go back to her room and see if she could salvage her homework somehow.
I wonder if someone from the Wonderbolts would count, she mused. If the Pegasus couldn’t write about Rainbow Dash, maybe she could at least write about another subject she liked.
The filly was about to enter her room when she heard a knock on the front door. Almost immediately her mother’s voice rang out:
“Scootaloo, can you see who it is?”
“Fine,” Scootaloo grumbled and changed course to the front hall.
The young Pegasus opened the door a crack and peeked outside. The filly had expected many to be there but not Officer Tango. The skinny gray Earth Stallion was out of uniform now and his baton Cutie Mark was thus clearly visible on his flanks. He smiled nervously at Scootaloo and hesitated before speaking.
“Hello Scootaloo, is Snow Heart in?” he asked.
“Yeah I guess,” the girl responded and opened the door fully. She turned around and trotted out of the front hall and to the living room. Tango waited on the front porch, glancing around as if he was afraid someone was watching him.
“It’s Officer Tango, he wants to talk with Snow Heart,” meanwhile the filly was informing the mares who had arrived.
“Oh?” Snow Heart raised an eyebrow and rose up. Parasol frowned in confusion and tilted her head.
“You want me to come with you?” she offered but the Unicorn shook her head.
“I’ll handle this,” Snow Heart assured her and left for the front door.
The white mare assumed a questionable expression when seeing the stallion. She glanced back and saw that everything was wide open to the living room. The Unicorn snorted before returning her attention to the officer.
“Yes?” she finally asked.
“Hey Snow Heart, I’m not here on business. I just wanted to um… talk with you, maybe in private? We could take short walk,” Tango said, furtively eyeing to his sides as he mentioned the walk.
“I guess there is no harm in that,” Snow shrugged and glanced back into the house and called. “Parasol, Tango wants to talk with me in private, we are going to take a short walk. I won’t be long.”
“Alright,” the yellow Pegasus responded before adding with a slyer tone of voice. “Have fuuun.”
“Oh hush you!” the Unicorn snorted and did have to suppress a giggle before she walked out, closing the door behind her.
“Let’s go this way, it’s the most quiet and private at this time of the night,” Tango instructed and lead the way from the house. Snow Heart followed without word, holding her head high and with a confident expression.
They walked for a bit in silence; Tango kept looking around as if he expected something to leap at them from every shadow. Snow Heart’s brow began sinking into a scowl as they entered the more secluded and sparsely populated area of Ponyville
Tango finally stopped near some bushes and began walking in circles while checking to make absolutely sure they were alone. The stallion then faced Snow Heart and cringed when seeing her scowl, he huddled down under the stinging glare the mare was giving him.
“I thought you were going to be making sure the search parties stayed clear of Whitetail Woods until we were ready,” the Unicorn hissed.
“I was, but the mayor began gushing so much over how Princess Celestia sent royal guards to help us that she just gave them free reign. They even began recruiting civilians from the town to help with the search instead of just using designated rescue workers,” Tango whispered.
“Ugh, just great. I was going to torment that little brat for at least two more weeks before allowing them to find her,” Snow Heart snorted and restrained from stomping on the ground.
“I’m sorry, I tried everything I could. The best I’ve managed is keeping the reins on Mulberry, he’s suspicious of you but we have closed the case and the investigation,” the police officer apologized and hung his head.
“Good and Paul had enough brains to do what he was supposed to do when captured; Silver Axe seems to be on the level too so this operation can still be salvaged. Diamond Tiara is going to have to watch as I’m welcomed and adored here in the town despite her knowing I ripped her away from the comfort and security of her home. She’ll suffer that much at least,” the Unicorn smirked nastily.
“Yes, yes and you’ll forgive me for… um you know… accusing you of that crime you never committed years ago?” Tango slowly looked up with a hopeful smile.
“Why of course I will,” Snow Heart purred and approached the stallion.
The Earth Pony held down his breath as the Unicorn reached forward with her head and gently rubbed it against his. He felt a tingle go across his spine and didn’t breathe out until the mare pulled herself back slowly.
“Once I’ve found new place here to live in, I believe I will need some help to warm the place up,” she said with a very suggestive tone in her voice.
“Uh huh…” Tango nodded smiling wider but then dropped it as he remembered something. “Uh… about Silver Axe… there isn’t anything between you… is there?”
Tango wasn’t quite sure how to interpret it when Snow Heart laughed heartily. He did feel a small tinge of hope though when the mare began shaking her head.
“No, no dear, nothing at all. I’ll be giving the sob story that he was so in love with me that he stooped down to foalnapping to try and help me get a horn operation, but that’s about it. The guy is just means to an end, heck he didn’t even know he was being hired to a foalnapping until it was too late to back out,” the Unicorn explained. The stallion sighed in relief and became more relaxed.
“How did you manage to get him to agree to it?” the officer asked. “What we found out about him doesn’t exactly point to a typical foalnapper.”
“I flashed enough money at him, that seemed to do it and he turned out to be surprisingly reliable so far,” Snow Heart shrugged and turned around. “I better head back before Parasol begins to worry, she’s been rather protective of me since I returned.”
“Well the two of you were the best friends,” Tango pointed out, the mare nodded in agreement.
The two ponies began trotting back the way they came, once more in silence. Snow Heart was once again with her head high and confidence both in walk and face. Tango was more relaxed and didn’t look around nervously anymore. As they approached Parasol’s house they heard voices.
“Hey Scootaloo, here is a book that should help you finish your homework.” The stallion recognized the voice of Twilight Sparkle.
Snow Heart halted before they turned the corner and were revealed to the librarian, the two ponies continued to listen in.
“Oooh thanks Twilight, what are you going to do Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo’s excited voice responded.
“Twilight suggested Ah do Smart Cookie, ya know the advisor of Chancellor Puddinghead the leader of the Earth Pony tribes,” Apple Boom answered.
“Have you been to Sweetie Belle yet?” Scootaloo asked.
“Not yet, say Scootaloo while I got you here. Remember back on Friday when you and Sweetie Belle witnessed the foalnapping?” Twilight’s voice got lower but not low enough to be missed by the two eavesdroppers.
“Yeah,” the Pegasus filly said.
“You don’t remember the Gryphon saying anything strange, like say that he and his partner might be working for someone else?” the librarian asked.
“Huh…nooo not that I remember, Sweetie Belle might have heard, I think she was closer,” Scootaloo said.
Snow Heart turned her head to Tango who was mentally cursing. “Shut off the case, hm?”
“Mulberry must have decided to continue on his own with Twilight’s help,” Tango whispered and seemed just as annoyed as the mare. “Don’t worry, I’ll deal with him.”
“You better,” the white Unicorn narrowed her eyes before returning her attention back to the conversation they were listening on.
“Well we are headed to Sweetie Belle next, goodbye Scootaloo, good luck with your homework,” Twilight said.
“Yeah see ya tomorrow Scoot,” Apple Bloom said.
“Alright, they are going, you go deal with that idiot. I’ll see what I can do here,” Snow Heart whispered to Tango when hearing the hoof steps going away. The officer nodded and didn’t follow as the mare turned around the corner and headed to Parasol’s house.
The Unicorn saw Scootaloo on the front porch examining an old book. The filly looked up when the mare approached and put the book down.
“Hey, where is Officer Tango?” she asked.
“Oh he’s gone home, we were just catching up on old times. We were old friends too back when I lived here,” Snow Heart told her, “What is that book?”
“Just old history book Twilight Sparkle loaned me,” Scootaloo sighed and looked down at the old tome with disinterest. “I’m supposed to write one page about a famous pony in pony history for school tomorrow.”
“Ah I see,” the Unicorn nodded, she could easily see that this was not a subject of great interest to the filly. She would rather be doing something else, anything else. “You know, I could help you with that, I do like history.”
“You could?” Scootaloo perked up.
“Sure, sure, but let’s go inside and see what we can find in this book.” Snow Heart reached down to pick up the book into her mouth.
The filly nodded and sprang to her feet and lead the way back in. The Unicorn followed but before she closed the door she glanced back. She frowned and could almost have sworn seeing something in the shadows across the street. But nothing was moving so Snow Heart shrugged and shut the front door with a back hoof.
Mulberry jumped out of the bushes and galloped away the moment the front door shut. The stocky Earth Pony headed straight for Twilight’s Library with a panicked look and deep in his mind he could only repeat: Oh crud, oh crud, oh crud.
End Chapter 15.
Quick Author's note: Silver Script is apparently the placeholder name for the background pony that appears with Parasol in the Heart's and Hooves Day episode, so due to that he gets to be Scootaloo's father in this story. I really do love how I can just pick up background ponies to use when writing pony stories.
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How does this only have 23 likes? It should be much higher!
Uh-oh, now we get some nice betrayal... I demand the next Chapter PRONTO!
1491961 Wow even the police are not safe, this just goes to show how dangerous polotics are when power is given to someone who decides to abuse the system.
1491851 I've been pleasantly surprised by the likes I already have, never really paid too much attention to it
1491961 I'm working on it I just need to work it around this sleep thing, apparently I need to do that despite my protests
1492266 Glad you liked it
1492565 Yes indeedy
Um, did I miss something? ô_ò