Tale of a Lost Scoots

by RDfan27

Chapter 14 - Danger Lurking

“Follow me, dearies, your room is right up here.” Firefly trotted up the stairs with a spring in her step, as the two Crusaders followed behind her. “Ahh, here we are,” she said as she stepped through the door into a bedroom. “This is where you two can sleep tonight. Sorry, we only have one bed, but we weren’t exactly expecting company.”

“That’s okay,” chimed Sweetie Belle. “We understand. We’ll be just fine in one bed.”

Applebloom’s face reddened as she thought about the events of that evening when they had woken up in the woods together. She pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind though, at least for the time being. She could figure out what all of that was about later.

Snapping back into reality, Applebloom followed Sweetie Belle, who had already trotted forward and jumped up onto the bed, collapsing into a snoring heap on one side. A light chuckle escaped Applebloom’s lips as she too trotted towards the bed. ”Well that didn’t take long.”

Applebloom jumped up, and got underneath the covers, making herself comfortable. When she was all set to go to sleep, she looked up towards the doorway, where Firefly was still standing. She looked strange though. She wasn’t looking at the two of them, but rather down at her hooves. Her mouth was moving like she was saying something, but Applebloom couldn’t hear words coming out. Only faint and indistinct ramblings. “Uh, are you okay?”

Applebloom’s words seemed to snap her out of her trance. She instantly snapped her mouth shut, and jerked her head up to meet the eyes of the small filly. “Uh… yeah, I’m okay. It’s all good. Get some sleep, I’ll see you in the morning. Goodnight.”

“Goodni—” She was already gone, and had closed the door. “Huh... okay. That was wierd.”

Applebloom closed her eyes and tried to get to sleep, but what she had seen would not leave her. Everything that had happened that evening was off. Something was not right, and she knew it. It just did not set well with her. The way the two adult ponies had been running at them was confusing her. It was almost as if they had known they were there.

She tried to dismiss these worries and get some sleep. Eventually, she was able to slip into a restless and anxious sleep.

***

Applebloom jolted awake. Something wasn’t right. She couldn’t see anything in the darkened room, but something had woke her from her sleep, she just didn’t know what.

She carefully slipped out from the bed, making sure not to wake Sweetie Belle. At least not yet. She creeped over to the door and quietly cracked it open, craning her neck to see out into the hall. She couldn’t see much in the darkened upstairs hallway, but she could see a faint glow of a light from somewhere downstairs. She silently slinked her way down the hall, and over the the balcony railing overlooking the downstairs area.

She could see the light more clearly now. It was coming from the kitchen downstairs. She could hear muffled whispers coming from the kitchen. Still too far away to hear what was being said, she quietly tiptoed her way down the stairs, and into the living room. She creeped her way along the wall, careful not to make a sound. Something about all of this did not sit right with her, and she was growing more suspicious by the minute. Once she was close, she could only just make out the conversation going on in the other room.

“—eed to make this work. It is imperative that we do not fail again.” it was Cinnamon talking. He sounded much more intense than he had earlier. There was an unmistakable determination in his voice. “The last one got away, we can not let that happen again.”

“But there are two of them.” This time it was Firefly. There was also determination in her voice, but there was also a hint of concern. “We’ve never had a haul this big before.”

Applebloom’s stomach dropped when she figured out who they were talking about. ”I knew there was something off about all of this!”

“I know, but it will be okay. We will use the same trick as the last one, oil on the stairs never fails us.”

“And what if one doesn’t go down the stairs? Or if they figure something out?”

“Then we will just have to do it ourselves. One thing is for certain. We will deliver both of them on time. We cannot fail again.”

As the conversation ceased, Applebloom was having to bite down on her own hoof to keep from screaming. She quickly started making her way back over to the stairs, and up to their room. As she walked, she could hear footsteps following behind her and making their way to the bottom of the stairs. She walked as fast and as quietly as she could. She darted inside the room, taking extra care to make sure she shut the door without a sound. Once she was inside, she bolted over to the bed, where Sweetie Belle still remained, undisturbed, and completely oblivious to the events that had just transpired.

Using one hoof to cover Sweetie Belle’s mouth, Applebloom placed the other on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder and violently shook her awake. Sweetie Belle’s eyes shot open, and a scream was muffled into Applebloom’s hoof. “Shhh!” Applebloom whispered loudly. “We gotta go! Now!”

Sweetie Belle did not get a chance to protest, as she was practically thrown out of the bed by a frantic Applebloom. “What’s going on?!” she asked in a forced whisper, matching that of Applebloom’s.

“No time, just go!” Applebloom said as she was already opening a window. She put a hoof out and began to climb out of the window before she was stopped by Sweetie Belle’s hoof on her shoulder.

“What, are you crazy?! We’re on the second story!”

“Just go!” Applebloom screamed, a lot louder than she had originally intended. Both of their hearts sank as they heard shouting from downstairs, followed quickly by frantic hoofsteps pounding on the stairs. There was no more time to think. They just needed to go, and they needed to go now. Without a second thought, Applebloom jumped from the window.

Sweetie Belle watched in horror as the fractions of seconds ticked by like hours. Everything moved in slow motion as Applebloom soared through the air. The slow and dull drumming of hoofsteps in the background faded from her mind as she watched Applebloom’s hooves make contact with the ground. All sound around her faded, replaced by the loud and sickening crack of bone, as Applebloom’s right rear hoof broke on impact, snapping to the side and almost making Sweetie Belle sick at the sight alone. She collapsed onto the ground and bit down on her forehoof to stifle a scream. She sat up on her haunches and turned towards the window, stretching her forehooves up to a still reluctant Sweetie Belle.

“JUMP!” Applebloom screamed. “I’ll catch you!”

Sweetie Belle shot one last glance back to the door behind her. Right as the door burst open, her decision was made for her. In one swift motion, she turned and leaped from the window, straight for her friend’s hooves. She crashed straight into her friend, and they both tumbled forward, rolling across the ground.

Applebloom seethed through her teeth in pain as pressure was put on her injured hoof. Quickly, Sweetie Belle jumped up and helped Applebloom to her hooves as well. Allowing Applebloom to lean on her shoulder for support, they quickly began to make their way away from the house. “We gotta hurry!” Sweetie Belle said. “They’ll catch us at this rate!”

“Leave me! I’m hurt, go on without me!”

“No! Never, I’m not leaving you!”

“You have to! They’ll catch both of us!”

“Then we’ll hide!” Sweetie Belle shouted as she pointed with a hoof towards a nearby cluster of bushes. “There! Come on, let’s go!”

They quickly ducked into the bushes, hearts pounding in their ears, and adrenaline pumping through their vanes. Their heavy breathing, now the only sound permeating the dull silence of the night air. Slowly, their breathing began to slow, and the blood pounding through their ears died down to a steady beat.

The silence of the night returned, and their racing minds began to calm. That was until they heard hoofsteps. Heavy hoofsteps, steadily growing louder as their pursuers grew closer. They grew louder until they were eventually right next to them, and then they passed. They slowly began to grow quieter as they gained distance. Eventually, there was once again, nothing but silence.

Applebloom let out a breath that she hadn’t known she’d been holding. After a few minutes, they were able to calm their breathing down enough to talk. “What was that all about?!” Sweetie asked in a very harsh whisper, still worried about being heard.

“I’ll tell you later, just trust me. We really needed to get out of that house. Now come on, they could still be close. Let’s go!” As soon as Applebloom was done talking, they jumped up and began to head back the way they had come. Applebloom still had to use Sweetie Belle as a crutch, so they were significantly slowed by this.

Soon, they passed the house and began to make their way in the other direction, this time heading towards the beach, instead of inland. Eventually, their hooves made contact, and the bright light of the moon over the beach allowed them to see much clearer. They could still make out hoofprints in the sand. Some of them belonged to the two crusaders, Firefly, and Cinnamon, but there were also six pairs of prints that continued on down the beach. “Look! That must be from the others!”

“You’re right! Come on, let’s follow ‘em.”

The silently walked down the desolate beach. This silence did not last long though. “So… do you mind explaining to me what the hay all of that was about!? Those ponies were nice enough to take us in and give us a good place to rest! Why were we running from them?”

Applebloom let out a long and drawn out sigh. “Sweetie, I never fully trusted those ponies from the start. Something was off about them. I wasn’t sure what, but I knew something was wrong.”

“Wait, so you’re saying we jumped from a second story window, you broke your leg, and we’ve been running from them, just because you had a bad feeling about them!!” Applebloom winced as Sweetie Belle’s words cut into her. ”Yeah, I could’ve explained that better.”

“No, not just because of that. What I was trying to get at was that I couldn’t sleep well that night. I don’t know what it was, but right before I woke you, something woke me up. I got curious, so I peeked out into the hall.” Sweetie Belle had calmed down and was now listening intently.

“Where are you going with this?” Sweetie Belle asked with trepidation.

“I saw a light coming from downstairs, and went to investigate. When I was pretty close, I could hear them talking in there. They said… they were speaking about us like a catch. One that they couldn’t let go.” Sweetie Belle’s gasp of terror did not stop Applebloom, who just continued on. “That’s not even the worst part though. They said they had to make sure we were delivered on time. That their last one got away, and that they needed a big haul to make up for it.”

“Oh my gosh! That’s horrible!” Sweetie Belle said as she had now stopped walking and was shaking with fear.

“I know, but we need to keep going. If we want help, we need to find the others. I don’t really trust anyone here anymore.”

“Wait a minute! Scoots came this way too! What if she was the last one? The one that they said got away!”

“Then we really need to find the others. It means that Scoots is still out there, and if our escape was anything to go by, then she’s probably not in the best shape. She needs our help.”

With this inspiration, they continued to trek down the beach, following the moonlit hoofprints in the sand. About an hour later, they came across the sight that they had so desperately needed to see.

The hoofprints lead to a group of six ponies, spread out on the sand, getting some sleep.

“There they are!” Sweetie Belle said as she jumped up in excitement, nearly throwing Applebloom to the ground in the process.

“Whoah! Careful Sweetie!”

“Oops, sorry! Now come on, hurry up!”

“Applejack!” Applebloom yelled as they ran, or tried to run, towards the group of sleeping ponies.

“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle called, mimicking her friend.

They could distinctly make out the image of two heads bolting upright from the group. “Sweetie?! Applebloom?!” Rarity yelled as the two mares jumped up from the group of sleeping friends. They galloped towards the two fillies, running with their full power to their sisters.

They reached the two fillies and instantly wrapped them each up into a bone crushing hug. They all cried as they held their supposedly-lost sisters in their hooves on the beach.

Author's Note:

Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed this next chapter. As you can probably tell, a lot Is going to be happening very soon. Specifically in Ch15 we will be approaching a major point in the story. That’s all the spoilers you get for now! Feedback is greatly appreciated as always, and please leave a like if you enjoyed. See you all next week!

Comments

[Dashie04]

I love myself some good Scootalove

And this is some great Scootalove, also, my first story got 60 views, and this one has 840, so obviously you’re doing something right.

[Silentwoodfire]

Interesting.
Just 'what' are those two ponies trying to accomplish? It's clear its something not good, or at the least is so ambiguous at this time.

[RDfan27]

9356827
Thanks so much! I’m glad to hear that!

[RDfan27]

9356857
You will see soon enough.

[Silentwoodfire]

9356864
Tease

[RDfan27]

9356975

[RDfan27]

9368502
Working on it, I know its late... I really suck with schedules. Twi must hate me... Ugh. Anyway, gimme another hour or two, ill get it to ya.