We’re Here For You, Cozy

by HenBasket

Appleoosa

Trouble Shoes was taking his usual early morning walk in the outskirts of Appleoosa, it helped clear his head before the days work. He was about to head back into town when he noticed a hoofcart and caboose abandoned on the train tracks. That’s weird, he thought before heading over to take a look. As he got closer he saw two fillies asleep on the hoofcart, one he recognized, the other he had never seen before. Gently, he moved the two fillies into the caboose without waking them and started pumping the cart towards Appleoosa.

As he pulled into the station, he saw the sheriff walking towards the jail.

“Sheriff!” Trouble Shoes bellowed. “Get Braeburn,” he added in a normal volume.

---

Apple Bloom was the first to wake up. She stretched her hooves and pushed the covers off her body. Her eyes shot open. There weren’t any blankets in the caboose, just a couple of hay filled mattresses. As she came to her senses, she realized she recognized the room she was in. They had been caught. Quietly, she shook the other fillies awake and told them they needed to escape. They quickly got out of bed and went to open the window, but when they did, a loud clang came from outside. Seconds later, the bedroom door slammed open, revealing Braeburn who appeared to be quite peeved.

“Uh, howdy?” Apple Bloom asked.

“What were you four doing out there all alone?” Braeburn asked firmly.

“Well, you see,” started Scootaloo. “We’re on a mission for the Elements of Harmony, and Twilight didn’t take the news so well.”

“So you went off on your own in the middle of the night with nopony to look after you?” Braeburn responded.

“We had each other!” Sweetie Belle piped in.

“You were found asleep on the rails in the outskirts of town,” Braeburn yelled. “You’re lucky the trains going down here are cancelled.”

“But that’s why we took the hoofcart,” Diamond Tiara interjected. “We needed to take a train to Doge Junction so we could get to the Badlands!”

“Are you crazy?! Why would you go there alone without an adult?!” Braeburn replied, becoming more engaged.

“Because the Map of Harmony sent us,” Apple Bloom spoke up. “It says we need to go to Tartarus.”

“Still, why didn’t you bring an adult with you?” Braeburn pried.

“They don’t exactly agree with the map,” Scootaloo said. “They think it’s wrong.”

“So it was either go against your sisters’ wishes, or go against the map’s?”

The Crusaders nodded, followed by Diamond Tiara a few seconds later. Braeburn sat down, he knew what the map was and that it worked in mysterious ways. But he couldn’t figure out why it would send four fillies in a quest their guardians would disagree with. He put his head in his hooves and groaned.

“Y’all are in quite a predicament, aren’t ya?” Braeburn asked the four fillies. “The elements of Harmony telling you to do one thing, and the ponies in charge of you saying another. Must be pretty hard, huh?”

Before the fillies could answer, Braeburn decided what to do. “You know what? Tonight we leave for the Badlands. I know where they put the hoofcart and caboose, so that will make it a lot easier. You missed the junction to get to Dodge Junction, so we’ll need to head towards Ponyville for a bit. Luckily because of our direction, I can tell them I’m taking them back to Ponyville. Y’all on board?”

The fillies exchanged glances before returning their attention back to Braeburn to give him their answer.

---

It had been an hour since the sun had set, and the fillies were starting to get anxious. Despite Braeburn having given them a full day of activities to do, it was hard for them to sit still and wait for the cost to be clear. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Braeburn made the announcement.

“Okay, I’m gonna go get the train ready. You four wait a few minutes and then sneak your way to the station. Got it?”

With the fillies nodding in response, Braeburn left the house and started towards the train station. On the way, he ran into the sheriff who happened to be heading home from the jailhouse. Braeburn started to worry that the sheriff would notice him or the girls and gig would be up. Much to his relief, the sheriff kept on walking home away from the train station. Braeburn wipes his forehead and continued on his way to the train station.

When he finally got to the station, the four fillies were already there. The stallion couldn’t help but shake his head, he could never understand how they could get places so quickly and quietly.

“Okay girls, you’re gonna need to be quiet, okay? We can’t risk getting caught.” Braeburn whispered to the fillies, who nodded in return. “Okay, into the caboose you go.”

The stallion helped helped his cousin and her friends into the caboose and closed the door. He then made his way to the hoofcart, hopped on, and started pumping the miniature train north to the junction that split between Ponyville and Dodge Junction.

---

Inside the hoofcart, the fillies were getting tired. It had been a long day for them, between the rodeo activities Braeburn has set up for them to do on his farm and discussing their plan to get Cozy Glow out of Tartarus. They didn’t have much luck on the latter. The four fillies were stuck to one bed, they were hoping that they could use both beds, but since Braeburn was with them, that had to stick to the one bed. Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara decided to make the most of it by snuggling up next to each other, while Apple Bloom was busy preening Scootaloo. Eventually, the four fillies fell asleep to the sound of the caboose’s wheels rolling on the tracks.

Author's Note:

Okay, originally I planned on releasing chapters every week, but that was starting to stress me because I’m not good with deadlines. So now I’m just releasing them when I’m done

Comments

[Dxinsider]

awww so cute ^_^

[Pete100]

I don’t know what kind of adult would allow this, but the fact he’s willing to do this for fam says something about him.