The Daughter Doo: Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader

by Ponky

7 - With Our Resources

Chapter Seven
With Our Resources

“Whoa… you speak Caballish?”

Apple Bloom sighed. “No, Sweetie Belle.”

“Oh.” Sweetie kicked a hoof at the sand. “Too bad. That would have been useful.”

“Eh, it won’t matter. Somepony in that town over there must speak Equestrian,” Scootaloo said. “Come on! Let’s go crash a Caballish party.”

“It’s gotta be something’ like five in the mornin’, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom reminded her. “I don’t think anypony’s awake, let alone partyin’.”

“Hey, look!” said Sweetie Belle. “A party!”

“Huh?”

The village was comprised of many quaint houses built among tall trees. Though the Cutie Mark Crusaders were at least a thousand feet away, they could see a very short stone wall ― more for decoration than protection ― bordering the village, facing the sea. Several colorful faces were gathering just inside the wall, staring at the four fillies washed up on the shore.

“Do you think they can see us?” Sweetie Belle whispered loudly.

Dinky waved. Some of the villagers waved back.

“Yup.” Apple Bloom trotted over the beach. “Come on. Feels good to be back on dry land.”

“Yeugh… sorta dry,” said Scootaloo, shaking wet clumps of sand from the bottoms of her hooves.

Moving quickly, the Cutie Mark Crusaders approached the village in a bouncy cluster. A small group of teenaged stallions and mares vaulted over the short stone wall and galloped down the beach to close the gap. The ponies reached each other in the sand several hundred feet from the village.

“¿Está todo bien?” asked a handsome young stallion.

Sweetie Belle instantly blushed. “What did he say?” she whispered to Apple Bloom out of the corner of her mouth.

“I don’t know, Sweetie Belle! I toldja, I don’t speak Caballish.”

“Equestrianas!” a mare with a long mane said. She cleared her throat. “Huh-loh!” she said with a smile, offering a tiny wave.

Sweetie Belle brightened immediately. “Do you speak Equestrian?”

The mare winced and glanced at her company for support. They all shrugged.

Scootaloo sighed heavily. “Hold on. I got this.” Her face screwed up in thought as she stepped to the front of her group. “Uhh… donday esta Haissan?”

A few of the older ponies giggled amongst themselves, but none of them seemed to really understand what Scootaloo had asked.

“Wow! You speak Caballish, too?” Sweetie stared at Scootaloo, bewildered.

“Uh, clearly not!” Scootaloo shot back at her.

“And I don’t speak it neither, Sweetie Belle!”

Sweetie glanced hopefully. “Dinky?”

Dinky simply shook her head.

A few of the young villagers spouted foreign questions that none of the Crusaders could understand.

“¿De dondé vienes?”

“¿Que pasó?”

“¿Donde está el barco?”

“Awwww…” Sweetie’s ears drooped in time with her bottom lip. “I wish I spoke Caballish. I have no idea what’s going on.”

Eyeing her expression with sympathy, many of the ponies beckoned them onward with encouraging tones in their voices. Hesitantly, the fillies joined them in a long trot back to the village.

Dinky watched them carefully. Their hooves were dirty, but not from sand. When they reached the wall of the village and entered through a narrow gate along the side facing the ocean, she saw large plots of dirt filled with carefully spaced sprouts and greenery. Some elderly ponies stood on the soil, though their eyes were fixed to the Crusaders.

Scootaloo gulped. “What’s the plan here, Apple Bloom?”

“Oh, so now I’m the leader, huh?”

“You have better ideas than me!”

“Aw, thanks, Scootaloo. That was nice.”

“How are we gonna get to Haissan?”

Sweetie Belle chimed in, “Let’s try to find somepony around here that speaks Equestrian.”

“Pretty sure that ship has sailed,” said Apple Bloom. “I reckon these folks don’t get out much.”

“It’s beautiful,” said Dinky as they entered the cobblestone streets of the village with their gentle, teenage escorts.

Scootaloo briefly glanced around at the reds and yellows of the city’s curving streets. “Yeah, it’s fine. So should we just make a run for it? I bet we could find a bigger city on the other side of these trees. Somepony’s gotta speak Equestrian somewhere in this country, right?”

“Who knows how far we’ll have to go?” Apple Bloom sighed. “Why didn’t the mirror just spit us out in Haissan?”

“Because the foals were in Manehattan,” said Sweetie Belle.

“Not in the future, they weren’t!” argued Scootaloo.

“Ustedes tienen hambre?” asked the long-maned mare, lowering her neck toward the fillies and rubbing her own belly.

“We want to go Hai-ssan!” Scootaloo said, loudly and slowly. “Do you ponies know how to get to Haaai-ssaaaan?”

“Here-a they call it Jassaino.”

The voice was charming, smooth, and distinctly accented; if the color of chestnuts had a sound, this voice was laced with it. The fillies looked past their teenaged guides, for the voice belonged to somepony who had seen the world.

The villagers, too, reacted to the voice. The handsome young stallion looked ahead and rattled off something like, “Encontramos estas potras por el agua. ¿Sabes hablar equestriano también?”

The chestnut voice spoke again, this time in Caballish. “Sí, sí, yo sé equestriano. Espera un momento. Ahem.” He cleared his throat, brushed the white stallion aside, and smiled down at the fillies. “Welcome-a to Sillín Montar, little friends. You are many far away from home, no?”

The stallion was quite tall. Lean, prominent muscles flexed under a dark grey coat, shining with occasional silver hairs. His violet mane was dark, short, and wavy. It spilled over his forehead and nearly reached his clear, peach-colored eyes. Wrinkles around them, together with the veins in his legs, showed signs of age, but the stallion positively glowed with liveliness.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders tilted in unison for a look at his Cutie Mark. It appeared to be a sliver of the Moon, turned on its side like a bowl so that its pointy ends faced upward.

“My name is-a Zoccolo Leggero,” he said, bowing briefly with a wry smile. “Or simply Zoccolo, if you prefer. What’s-a this I hear about Haissan?”

“We’re trying to get there!” Scootaloo blurted. “Please, Mister Zoccolo, can you just tell us how to get there? We don’t have much time.”

“Are you Caballish?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“No, little friend, I’m-a not.” With animated hooves, Zoccolo gestured to the village and then pointed eastward over the farthest buildings. “Infatti, I’m-a far from home myself. I come from the beautiful Icodalia, or as you call it, Itaily, a peninsula beyond il Mare Ballafieno!”

“Itaily!” Sweetie Belle gasped. “Wow! I’ve seen pictures of Itaily. It looks so beautiful!”

“And it is! It is!” Zoccolo laughed. “I am a traveller, you see. I want the whole world to hide no secrets from me. I’ve-a been here in Sillín for many time, and I was-a ready to leave when eccovi!” Zoccolo opened his forelegs toward the Crusaders. “Le sorprese non finiscono! Surprises never end.”

Sweetie Belle’s jaw nearly hit the cobblestone. “You speak Itailian, too?”

Scootaloo smacked herself in the forehead.

“Where were ya headed, Mister Zoccolo?” asked Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo sat up. “Yeah! Any chance you could take us to Haissan?”

Apple Bloom shot her a dirty look.

“Hmmm… an interesting idea,” Zoccolo said, rubbing the stubble on his chin. “Infatti, I do need to make-a my way to Haissan for a… business opportunity.”

“Perfect!” Scootaloo shouted, tossing up her hooves. “We’ll just tag along, then. We won’t get in your way, swear.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom muttered under her breath.

“But alas, purtroppo, I must-a return home,” he said, draping a hoof over his forehead. “My sweet niece, Nipota, has taken-a very ill. She rests now at the hospital di Pelola, a little city in northern Itaily… just south of Haissan.”

Scootaloo’s eyebrows rose. “Just south of Haissan…”

“Indeed. To follow the River Pon northeast takes us to the Wailing Gate just outside the Sultan’s palazzo.”

“The River Pone?” repeated Sweetie Belle.

“One of the longest in Icodalia!” Zoccolo sighed heavily. “Yet its beauty will go unnoticed to me, as I shall feel nothing but-a sorrow for the fading health of my sweet Nipota!”

“Awwww!” Sweetie Belle’s eyes brimmed with tears. “That’s so sad!”

Apple Bloom merely squinted.

“Allora!” Zoccolo composed himself and stood up straighter. “Piacere to meet you, little friends. Perhaps we shall meet again, or perhaps not! I may soon die of a broken heart.” He moved to turn around, but dramatically froze in place. “Unless…”

“Unless what?” asked Dinky.

“Hmmm…” Zoccolo rubbed his chin again. “My sweet Nipota has always wanted to visit Equestria, the land of the Sun Goddess! Che bella meraviglia, la principessa del sole!” He brought his forehooves together at his chest and waved them back and forth. When the gesture was over, he leaned closer to the fillies and asked in a quieter voice, “Tell me… have any of you seen-a the Princess with your own eyes?”

Dinky’s face lit up. “Yes! Princess Celestia comes to Ponyville all the time!”

“I really don’t think we oughtta be―” Apple Bloom tried to say.

“Ponyville, hmm? What a cute-a name!” Zoccolo chuckled to himself. “If a little on the muzzle.”

“Look, I-I think we oughtta get goin’, y’all,” Apple Bloom said to her friends. “It was nice to meetcha, Mister Zoccolo, but we’re on a mission here. We don’t got time fer distractions.”

“Hold up! What’s that!?” Scootaloo pointed at a purple lump crawling out of Zoccolo’s mane.

Apple Bloom gaped while Sweetie leapt backward, guarding Dinky with her body.

Zoccolo glanced upward and smiled. “Ah! Zuka!” He held a leg straight out from his body. The thing crawled down his neck, over his chest, and scurried to the end of his hoof. Its color changed from purple to gray as it moved over his coat.

“Whoa!” Sweetie Belle leaned forward. “Is that what I think it is?”

The little animal sat on its scaley haunches. As its tail swung back and forth behind its head, its body took on a rich orange color, interrupted only by enormous green eyes.

“Little friends, meet my littlest friend!” Zoccolo laughed at himself. “This is-a Zuka, my, ehh… how do you say? Chameleon.”

“Woooow!” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle said together. “Awesome!”

Apple Bloom momentarily eyed the critter with interest, but soon shook her head. “All right, girls, hop to it. We gotta head east.”

“Northeast,” Zoccolo corrected her with a smile. “But simply ‘heading east’ won’t-a help you. A single direction isn’t much of a goal, true?”

“We know where we need to go,” Apple Bloom said, “and it ain’t Itaily.”

“Ma dai!” Zoccolo brought the hoof holding Zuka to his chest. “It is, how do you say… a match made in heaven! I am a seasoned traveler, and I know the safest ways to get from anywhere to anywhere. I will take you to Pelola, you can tell stories of the Princess to Nipota and lift her sinking spirits, and then-a the journey to Haissan is as easy as finding a boat-a!”

“I love it!” Sweetie cheered. “We get to help so many ponies at once!”

Apple Bloom waved her forelegs. “This is a bad idea!”

“I’m in,” said Scootaloo.

“Scootaloooo!” Apple Bloom whined in her face.

“Come on, Bloom, he seems cool! And seriously, with our resources, this is probably the fastest way to Haissan.”

“Grrr!” Apple Bloom turned. “Dinky, how do you feel about this?”

Dinky’s eyes shifted from Zoccolo’s dark purple mane to his expectant smile. “You’re… familiar,” she said to him.

“I am? Eh, that is-a disappointing.” Zoccolo shrugged. “I like-a to think of myself as unico.”

A tiny smile lifted one half of Dinky’s mouth. She looked at Apple Bloom with an almost apologetic expression. “I think we should go with him.”

Apple Bloom glared daggers at Zoccolo. “Are you gonna drug us and sell us into slavery?”

Zoccolo’s eyes bulged and he took a step back. “Porca vacca! Why would you think that, little friend?”

“Yeah, Bloom. Holy crap.” Scootaloo gave Apple Bloom a wary glance. “Was paranoia a side effect of your mushroom?”

“I’m just tryin’ to be careful!” Apple Bloom snapped. “Bad things’ve happened to ponies in Stirrope, y’know.”

Zoccolo, eyes still wide, shook his head with a pale face. “I make-a the most promise, I would not dream of such a terrible thing.” He bowed sincerely. “I will not harm a hair of your tails, little friends. You have-a my word. My only thoughts are for my Nipota. You would do wonders for her.”

Apple Bloom took a deep breath through her nose and snorted it out. “Fine. We’ll come with you to wherever and take the River Pon up to Haissan.”

“After we meet Nipota, of course,” Sweetie Belle added with a smile.

“Perfetto!” Zoccolo clapped his hooves together, and Zuka climbed onto his back. “Allow me to retrieve-a my things, and we’ll be off.” He looked at the sky, still orange from the slow Sunrise. “How do you say? Bright and early!”

He turned to the patient group of Caballish teenagers and rattled off several sentences of explanation. Though she couldn’t understand them, it was clear to Apple Bloom that their escorts were sad to see Zoccolo go. She chewed on her lower lip and tentatively followed the group to a quaint hotel on a corner.

The crowd said their goodbyes to the fillies and went back to their gardens.

“What did you tell them?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“That I’ve been waiting for you,” said Zoccolo, “and it’s time for us-a to go.”

Apple Bloom frowned. “That ain’t true! You just met us.”

“They had-a much questions about you, little friends,” Zoccolo said. “I did not-a want to frighten them.”

“What kinda questions?”

“How you crossed-a the ocean without an airship. I told them you arrived-a last night, and were only playing in the water this morning.”

“So you’re a liar!” Apple Bloom threw at accusing hoof at him while they entered the hotel.

“No,” said Zoccolo with a playful smile. “I am a peacemaker.”

“Calm down, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said while Zoccolo climbed a tiny staircase. The Crusaders stayed in the dim, cozy lobby. “I think he’s a pretty cool guy!”

“And he doesn’t afraid of anything!” Sweetie Belle said. “Er… isn’t afraid of anything. Sorry. I’m tired.” She yawned.

“Y’all don’t know the first thing about him. And I find the way he’s actin’ more than a mite fishy.” She turned her head to Dinky. “Whadju mean back there, that he looks familiar?”

“Well… he doesn’t really look familiar,” Dinky said. “He just is familiar. I think I’ve met him before.”

“Really? Where?” asked Scootaloo.

“I don’t know.” Dinky scratched her head. “I’ll try to remember.”

“Gracias, gracias,” Zoccolo said to a maid as he and she descended the stairs side by side. “Yo tuve una noche estupenda también.”

The maid giggled and scuttled off down an adjacent hallway. Zoccolo adjusted a dark brown saddlebag hanging on only one side of his back.

“That looks uncomfortable,” said Sweetie Belle. “Doesn’t it get unbalanced?”

“Hmm? Oh, mia borsa!” He patted the flat bag against his ribcage. “No, it’s-a many secure. How do you sayyy… strapped down here.” His hoof tapped near his belly. “Very comfortable.”

“Neat!” said Sweetie.

“Bene, little friends, thank you for your patience. Let’s-a go!” He paused by a small table lit by a lamp and stooped to get a better look at a glass sculpture of a fat blue bird in its light. “Che bello! I think this was made in Mulerano! Beautiful craftmanship, no?”

“Yeah, real pretty.” Apple Bloom headed for the door. “Come on, then, if we’re gonna go.”

“Brava! She understands the urgency.” Zoccolo trotted after her. “Andiamo, little friends! That means ‘let’s-a go’!”

“On the ommo!” repeated Sweetie Belle, trotting shoulder to shoulder with Dinky as the group left the hotel and headed for the eastern edge of the city. The ocean vanished behind buildings.

Zoccolo trotted to a small stable on the narrow roadside leading out of the village and retrieved a decently sized wooden cart, the likes of which Apple Bloom had often seen her siblings take to Ponyville to sell apples.

Zoccolo harnessed his grey body into the front of the cart and rolled it out of the covered stable. He stopped in the middle of the dirt road and smiled at the fillies. “Come on now, little friends! How do you say? Hop it!” He frowned. “No… uh… hop in!”

“You’re gonna cart us to Itaily?” asked Apple Bloom skeptically.

Zoccolo laughed. “No, no! We go like this to the next-a big city, and then we take-a the train to Pelola.”

“I love train rides!” said Sweetie Belle. “This is gonna be so fun!” She jumped into the cart and sat back, sighing as if she’d just slipped into a hot tub. “That’s nice. My hooves hurt.”

“Surely you are much tired. It was a long swim from Equestria, no?” Zoccolo chuckled to himself.

Apple Bloom took a step back. “Sweetie, are you sure about this? I mean, think rationally for a second.”

Sweetie Belle responded with snoring. Zoccolo glanced back at her and put a hoof over his mouth. “Che carina!” he cooed, then gestured quietly for the others to join her in the back.

Scootaloo helped Dinky into the cart, then leapt in herself. Apple Bloom groaned, clambered up a wheel, squeezed herself into a corner, and stared unblinkingly at Zoccolo. “I ain’t fallin’ asleep, just so you know,” she hissed. “If you try to pull any funny business, I’ll get the lot of us outta here.”

“You are wise to be wary, little friend,” Zoccolo whispered. “But I promise you, I am no enemy. I will help you get to Haissan. This, I promise.” He nodded once, then looked straight onward, carrying the cart and its passengers eastward across Caballos.

“You better,” said Apple Bloom with a deep frown. “But I ain’t takin’ any chances.”

{-DD-}

Dinky woke with a start when the cart hit a bump in the rode. Their path was bright: gorgeous fields of swaying, yellow grass splashed outward from the dirt road like a bleeding stroke of paint. Zoccolo whistled a soft tune up ahead; checking her group, Dinky saw that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were fast asleep. Apple Bloom’s head had fallen limply into Sweetie Belle’s lap, as the latter had been resting on her back. With her head propped up against a wall of the cart, Sweetie Belle was playing with Apple Bloom’s bow, smiling sleepily.

“You awake?” Dinky asked her softly.

“Mmm hmm,” said Sweetie Belle. “Isn’t this nice?”

Dinky took another look at the dry, rolling scenery. Strange red plants, like skinny crimson pine trees, poked out of the ground in clumps of twos and threes in random spots across the countryside.

“Yeah,” said Dinky, smiling. “It’s pretty.”

“Look at the mountains over there,” Sweetie said, pointing behind her.

Dinky turned around and gasped at a long, blue mountain range topped with sparkling snow in the distance. “Wooow!”

Sweetie Belle giggled. “I knew you’d like that. You’re so cute, Dinky.”

Before turning back to Sweetie Belle, Dinky stole a long glance at Zoccolo. His wavy purple mane and charcoal grey coat shone cleanly in the Sunlight.

She plopped onto her haunches and leaned closer to Sweetie Belle over Apple Bloom’s sleeping head. “I think she might be right, Sweetie,” Dinky whispered, pointing down. “I don’t know if Zoccolo is a good guy.”

“Me neither,” said Sweetie Belle, “but everything’s been working out for us so far, right? I think we need to get as close to Haissan as we can if we wanna find those foals. And if a weird Itailian stallion is fate’s way of getting us there, then, well…” She shrugged, smiling. “I’m okay with that.”

“I hope you’re right,” said Dinky with a hesitant smile of her own.

“Hey ― don’t you worry, Dinky. I’m on your side.” Sweetie’s facial features somehow softened even more than usual. “Calupan said something really nice to me out on the ocean. He said that… that you and I are kind of like sisters.” She sighed. “My big sister, Rarity, is really smart and pretty, and even sometimes fun! But… she’s a lot older than me and we don’t get to spend much time together.” She looked to the side. “And sometimes we don’t get along.”

“I’m sorry,” said Dinky.

“It’s okay. It really is.” Sweetie Belle grinned while she added, “Because I’ve always wanted to try my hoof at being an older sister, and this is the closest I’ve ever gotten.”

Dinky blushed. “You’re so nice to me, Sweetie Belle.”

“It’s easy to be nice to you. You’re… just so cute!” Sweetie tilted her head in a sincere smile. “I’m glad you came along. You’re the best Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader ever.”

Dinky scrunched up her face in thought. “What if… hey. I have an idea. What if you and I become honorary sisters?”

Sweetie Belle’s jaw dropped. “Do you mean it?”

“Yeah!” She glanced at the two sleeping ponies. “We could make a promise, right now. It’ll be a secret. You and I, honorary sisters, for the rest of the adventure.”

Sweetie Belle beamed. “For the rest of forever! All right, Dinky.” She pointed her snout higher in regal seriousness. “I, Sweetie Belle, promise to be your sister, and to protect you as best I can.”

Dinky nodded firmly. “And I, Dinky Doo, promise to be your sister, and to learn from what you teach me.”

“Perfect!” Sweetie Belle slowly extended a hoof, so as not to wake Apple Bloom in her lap. “Shake my hoof to seal it!”

Dinky grabbed Sweetie Belle’s hoof in both of hers and wiggled it gently. They both laughed, and happily watched the yellow countryside blend into the feet of the great, dark mountains beyond.

“Yeesh…” Sweetie Belle mumbled after a while. “Our trip really has been exhausting.”

“Mommy used to tell me travel was the hardest part of traveling,” Dinky remembered.

Sweetie Belle laughed, snorted, and suddenly fell asleep again.

Alone, warm, and happy, Dinky followed suit.

{-DD-}

A tall metal fence.

Dinky trots forward in somepony’s shadow. She is scared.

A row of grey towers.

Why are they here? Who are they coming to see?

A shimmer in the distance.

They made this place too pretty. It ought to be sad.

A name.

Dinky gallops down the hill. Her eyes are blurred with tears.

The shimmer swallows her, and she can’t breathe.

A broken beam of light above.

Dinky reaches to the surface for help. A pair of golden eyes phase into view beyond the warping water. Their hooves inch closer, but time slows down, and Dinky has to breathe ―

{-DD-}

Dinky sat up, gasping for air.

“All is well, little friend?” Zoccolo asked.

The Sun still shone in the clear Caballish sky. The cart was stopped on the side of the road in a small, wooded valley between two steep hills; Zoccolo was eating a granola bar nearby, unhitched from his harness. He looked tired and his mane was damp with sweat, but he bore a calm smile as he gazed at Dinky.

She spun around in the empty cart. Panic lingered from her dream. “Where are my friends?” She screamed so loudly that her voice cracked.

A warm wind swept through the valley, shaking the branches of the nearest trees and tossing Dinky’s mane about wildly.

Zoccolo lifted his eyebrows. “Cavoli, ragazza…” He swallowed a bite of granola and pointed into the woods. “They needed a bath-a break.”

Shivering slightly, Dinky took a deep breath and composed herself. “Bath break?” she repeated.

“Er…” Zoccolo squinted hard. “Bath… bathroom! Bathroom break.” He smiled successfully and took another bite. “You need-a some food? Or water?”

Dinky licked her dry lips. “Umm… water would be nice.” She looked at the line of trees to her right. “But I want to see my friends first.”

“Of course! Go, go; they should not-a be far.” Zoccolo closed his eyes and tilted his face toward the glow of the Sun.

Dinky jumped out of the cart, cast a furtive glance at Zoccolo, and galloped as fast as her stubby legs could carry her into the shady woods.

“Sweetie Belle!” she called out when she could no longer see the cart through the trees behind her. “Sweetie Belle! Apple Bloom!”

“Dinky?” Sweetie Belle’s voice was nearby. “Dinky, oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!” Her head poked out from behind a thick tree nearby. “I-I didn’t think you’d wake up! You must have been so scared. I’m sorry!”

Dinky breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m just glad you’re all safe.”

“Whoops. Sorry ‘bout that, Dinky. We needed a potty break,” Apple Bloom said, approaching from another angle. “And Zoccolo said he needed to rest. He looked dang tired, so I wasn’t scared of him runnin’ off with ya.”

Sweetie winced. “I didn’t even think of that. I really had to go. I’m so sorry!”

Dinky finally managed a smile. The fear of her dream was subsiding. “It’s okay. I wasn’t scared. I had a bad dream, that’s all.”

“About Zoccolo?” Apple Bloom asked.

Sweetie shook her head. “No. It was… just random.”

Apple Bloom stretched her back. “Figured out how you know him yet?”

“Mm-mm,” Dinky hummed in the negative. “Sorry.”

“Ah, don’t be. I don’t mean to put pressure on ya.” Apple Bloom yawned and glanced around. “Where’s Scootaloo? You see her, Sweetie?”

“Um… no.” Sweetie Belle smiled weakly. “And I’ll, uh… I’ll still be a minute.” Her head vanished behind the tree.

Apple Bloom chuckled. “Well, Dinky. Zoccolo says we’re about halfway to Maredrid. That’s where the train is. You doin’ all right?”

“Yeah.” Dinky rubbed one eye with her hoof. “I miss my mommy.” The words came out of her mouth before she even thought them.

Apple Bloom’s mouth curved sympathetically. “I’m sure ya do. And we got secrets to solve, remember? Soon as we find the foals, we’ll all be hurryin’ on home. I promise.”

“How?” asked Dinky. “How will we cross the ocean again?”

“Uh…” Apple Bloom smiled and tapped the flute behind Dinky’s ear. “We’ll call upon the sea pony, o’ course.”

Dinky giggled. “Oh, yeah. That’s lucky.”

“Very lucky.” Apple Bloom gave Dinky a curious once over. “Usually our luck is pretty rotten, to be honest. Maybe you’re a good luck charm.”

Dinky beamed. “As long as I can help.”

“Done!” Sweetie leapt out from her hiding spot and posed. “And I feel amaaaaziiiing!”

“Ugh.” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “You really don’t need t’announce that, Sweetie Belle.”

“Darn it!” Scootaloo’s voice came from deeper in the grove.

Apple Bloom took off immediately. “What’s up, Scootaloo?”

The others followed her in between trees until they found the orange filly in a tiny clearing, surrounded by organized sticks and vines. A stream of light pierced the canopy of leaves overhead, falling directly on her resourceful creation.

“Whoa, Scootaloo…” Sweetie Belle gasped. “Are you building a new scooter?”

“Pff. At least you can tell what it is,” Scootaloo grumbled, poking at the wooden thing. A straight branch made up the steering shaft while several sheets of thick bark, bound together with sap and vines, comprised the board on the bottom. The handles were made of long pine cones, but wheels were entirely missing.

“That’s really somethin’, Scoots,” Apple Bloom said, patting her on the back. “Good work.”

“It’s good for nothing without wheels,” Scootaloo said, gesturing to the scraps around her, “and I can’t figure out what the heck around here will spin.”

“Have you tried acorns?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Too small,” said Scootaloo, slumping. After a moment of silence, a devilish smile slithered over her face. “You know… we could always―”

“We’re not stealin’ the wheels off Zoccolo’s cart, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom droned.

Scootaloo slumped lower.

“Speaking of Zoccolo, we should probably go back,” Sweetie Belle said to the group. “The sooner we get on a train, the better.”

“You can bring your scooter along, if ya want,” Apple Bloom said to Scootaloo.

“Nahhh. It’s too flimsy, anyway.” Scootaloo gave the handles a hard turn, and the entire scooter collapsed into its woodland pieces. “Let’s just go. I’ll try again later.”

Saddened by Scootaloo’s resignation, the Cutie Mark Crusaders emerged from the woods with frowns across the board.

Zoccolo, already reattached to the cart, grimaced. “Hmm… that-a bad, huh? What is the bathroom like in Equestria?”

“It’s not that,” said Sweetie Belle. “It’s just… we’ve come a long way and… lost a whole lot.”

“I just hope it’s worth it,” Scootaloo grumbled.

“You want to rescue infants, no?” Zoccolo smiled as he stood up, leveling the cart with him. “It is a noble desire. I’m-a sure you will succeed.”

Dinky smiled. “Thanks, Zoccolo,” she said as Apple Bloom helped her into the cart.

“Good to see you happy again, little friend,” Zoccolo said over his shoulder. “Next-a stop, Maredrid!” He began to whistle, and the cart bumped onto the dirt road once again with all four fillies in the back.

Sweetie Belle suddenly screamed. “There’s something in here!” she shouted, pouncing sideways into another corner.

A wood-brown shape raised its head, turned orange, and glowered at Sweetie Belle, whose terrified face switched instantly to a smile.

“Awww… it’s Zuka!” She bent down to see the small chameleon better. “Hi, little guy!”

The animal’s tiny claw slapped Sweetie Belle on the cheek and scurried along the edge of the cart to Zoccolo’s flank.

“Ha ha!” Zoccolo laughed merrily. “Zuka is a girl, little friend. And easily offended, at-a that.”

Zuka flicked her long tongue in Sweetie Belle’s direction and disappeared into Zoccolo’s dark purple mane.

“Whoops.” Sweetie’s one cheek turned red and she rubbed it, frowning. “Duly noted.”

Apple Bloom and Dinky couldn’t help but giggle. Scootaloo didn’t notice a thing, staring back at the woods in defeat.

{-DD-}

“How much longer?”

“We’re almost-a there.”

“I’m hungry!”

“We’ll have a nice meal in the city.”

“This is so boring…”

“Look-a for pretty birds!”

“Does Zuka live in your mane?”

“Often, yes.”

“Nyeugh… doesn’t that feel super gross?”

“I’m-a ― rrghh ― used to it.”

“Golly, this is a steep hill. You gonna be okay?”

“Yes, little friend. Thank you for ― hnngh ― asking-a!”

“My name’s Apple Bloom.”

“Aaahhh…” Zoccolo breathed a sigh relief at the top of the hill. “I was-a wondering when you’d tell me. Piacere, Apple Bloom.”

“I’m Sweetie Belle!” The unicorn’s eyes grew wide. “Hey Zoccolo, how do you say ‘Sweetie Belle’ in Itailian?”

“Errr… hm.” Zoccolo stopped at the hill’s highest point and breathed deeply. “It is-a not easy to translate-a the names. But a close translation would-a be, ‘Dolcina Campanella’.”

“Dull-chee-na Compa-nella,” Sweetie Belle repeated in an exaggerated cadence. “I love it! Apple Bloom, call me Dolcina Campanella from now on.”

“No.” Apple Bloom looked at Zoccolo with a hopeful tilt in her brow. “Uh… how would you say Apple Bloom?”

Zoccolo smiled. “Fiore di Mela,” he said with a richness in his voice. “Bienvenute a Maredrid.”

“Wow, that’s even longer than mine!” said Sweetie Belle.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes.

Zoccolo chuckled and pointed down the hill. “‘Fiore di Mela’ means Apple Bloom, yes, but the rest means: Welcome to Maredrid.”

The fillies peeked together over the edge of the cart, and even Scootaloo’s eyes glistened as the Sun set over the sprawling Stirropean city below.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

Nice work!

You’re the best Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader ever.

Indeed you are Dinky. Did you take language courses for this chapter?

[Ponky]

8373606
I speak fluent Italian. I got help for the Spanish. Thanks for reading!

[Bronycommander]

8373624
You're welcome, keep up the good work!

[FanOfMostEverything]

“Northeast,” Zoccolo corrected her with a smile. “But simply ‘heading east’ won’t-a help you. A single direction isn’t much of a goal, true?”

Hey, it works for Rainbow Dash.

Apple Bloom has no patience for side quests or suspiciously helpful NPCs. I hope her skepticism is unfounded.

[terrycloth]

8373651
GMs hate her! Derail the plot of your adventure with this one simple trick.

[FloydienSlip]

This is amazing so far, keep it up!

[EchoWing]

Aww. I know I should expect such cuteness with Dinky involved, but still...d'awwww!

[KMCA]

I keep thinking of this whenever the train is mentioned.

[Kiri92]

""""Apple Bloom glared daggers at Zoccolo. “Are you gonna drug us and sell us into slavery?”"""

I can soooooo understand her conserns!
I mean its not that long since they wher folenapped themself, by a dog who wanted to sell them o.o