Ghost of the Everfree

by David Silver

18 - Inductions

Scootaloo tossed her mane back into shape, clearly feeling way better. "Say, when does Dry become official?"

Sweetie blinked softly. "Official what?"

"Official Lumie priest?" Apple Bloom waved at the hopeful Silver Spoon. "Reckon as soon as he wants ta be and learns the ropes."

Scootaloo shook her head. "Nah, not that." She grabbed her fellow crusaders. "He lives in our clubhouse. How is he not gonna be a crusader?"

Sweetie and Apple Bloom looked simultaneously floored at the idea, even if it made sense in hindsight. Diamond, on the other hoof, began to laugh at them. "You three are something else. He already has a cutie mark." She pointed at the mark on Dry's rump. "So what would he even do?"

Scootaloo waved that away. "So what? We have cutie marks." The girls turned without prompting to display their marks in unison, coordinated as they were. "And we're pretty good crusaders, last I checked."

Sweetie nodded quickly. "Oh yeah. Most of the official crusaders have marks, these days, or as much of a mark as they're gonna get." She burst into giggles. "Like that griffon!"

"You have griffons?" Dry asked with wide eyes. "Are they mean?"

Apple Bloom snorted. "Some of 'em. A lot of 'em, really, but not this one. Gabby's a sweet thing. Why we let her in. Hey, Scoots, who's watchin' ya?"

"Oh." Scoots pointed towards the front of the house. "Aunt Holiday was just getting some supplies."

Silver snickered softly. "Bet she's gonna be real surprised when she comes back to you being, like, all better."

Scootaloo bounced in place with a silly smile. "Surprised in a good--"

A door opening could be heard. "Scoots, I'm home!" came the kind call of her caretaker. "Feeling any better?"

"There she is!" And there went Scootaloo, hurrying to display the good news to her aunt.

Dry brought his hooves to the camera dangling free of him. "I would like to capture an image, of the Everglow Survivors. May I?"

Diamond inclined her head at Dry. "You asked that time. You're learning. Sure, but you're going to have to get Scootaloo first."

All the foals spilled out of Scootaloo's room to see what she was up to, to find her in the hug of Aunt Holiday. Holiday was smiling and crying a little, holding Scootaloo tight. "It's a miracle. I thought you'd be sick for a little longer than this."

Scootaloo waved a hoof back at Silver Spoon as she came into view. "It's her fault."

"Well." Aunt Holiday gently set Scootaloo down. "I'm not sure how that works, but I'm going to guess she'll tell me. Helpful little fillies deserve a treat." She rose and headed off into the kitchen on a mission.

Silver Spoon giggled, trailing after. "So, like, I'm a priest." She pointed at herself. "Which has a lot of complicated stuff, but, to bottom line it, I can ask a nice book god for power, and use that power to heal ponies."

"I see." Aunt Holiday likely did not see, but she was smiling and busily preparing that treat she promised. "It must have worked, considering how lively Scoots is now."

"All better!" called out Scootaloo, looking ready to tackle another bone devil if the need came up. "She's an Everglow Survivor, like me."

"Ohhhh." Holiday looked over at the smiling Silver Spoon. "That actually brings it into focus I think. Now, do Everglow Survivors like cookies?" A swift nod was a good answer. "Then you go join your friends while I make some."

Silver Spoon abandoned her explanation of how priests worked to join her friends. "She seems nice."

Scootaloo pumped a hoof. "She's the best, um, except Aunt Lofty. They're tied."

Diamond's eyes half closed, a smirk on her face as she leaned in. "Have either of them been to Everglow?"

Scootaloo paled at the idea. "I hope that never happens! Oh, gonna take a picture?" She saw Dry lining up a shot. "Get my good side." She struck a dynamic pose with a big grin.

"Actually..." Dry waved downwards gently. "If you could all get together, like a team?"

Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara threw a leg over one another, smiling for the camera.

The crusaders reared up and met with their hooves over the duo's head. A soft click came from the camera, a picture slowly emerging. Dry let it fall to hang from him as he waited nervously for the picture to emerge. "I think this will be good."

"Your little friend's a photographer?" came Holiday's voice from the next room. "He better get a picture of these. Only proof left that they ever existed after I let the rest of you at them." She giggled, clearly not upset at the impending doom of her cookies.

Diamond got the photo first, casually chomping the edge of the photo and pulling it the last little bit out of the camera and setting it down on a low table. "Let's see." She eyed the portrait, but she wasn't the only one, the rest of the fillies rushing over to see how it came out. Calls and cheers rose with approval of how it turned out. "Not bad." Diamond tapped at it. "But I'm keeping it, at least long enough to get this one framed too."

Sweetie thumped Diamond, swatting her across the back. "It can be quite beneficial at times to have wealthy friends."

Diamond frowned at the swat. "Watch it. I'm not your source of bits, but I do like this picture." She tucked it away in the pocket that all equestrian ponies had. "You meet Featherweight yet? You two would get along. He loves taking pictures too."

"Oh, like, totally." Silver bobbed her head at the idea. "He's a thin thing just like you. Like, maybe he's what you would have been if you were born in Equestria."

Dry blinked with wide eyes at the idea. "Is he scared of things too?"

Apple Bloom waved that away. "Nah! He can get scared, but he ain't livin' scared. That's yer thing." She giggled softly, hoof raised to her mouth. "No offense or nothin'. Ya make it look good."

"Thanks?" Dry as not entirely sure how to take that.

Not that it mattered. He smelled something good, and saw it an instant later. A tray of fresh cookies bounced on the back of the round earth pony mare that bore it into the room. Holiday leaned to the side, letting the whole thing slide onto a larger table. "Get that picture before I let them touch it."

"Good idea!" He hurried forward and sat down, considering the picture a moment.

Silver burst into giggles. "We want to get some, Dry. Go ahead."

With an alarmed squeak, he got his eye up to the viewfinder and snapped a quick shot of the frosted delights. Each cookie had an image painted on with a thin layer of frosting. Their brands of destiny! Even his. Each cookie was meant for a specific foal. Destined! "All done."

That was the go signal. The fillies were upon him, and past, snapping up the cookie with their cutie mark and soon leaving only Dry's behind. He leaned in, taking up the cookie with his lips. "Thank you... Holiday?"

"That's my name." The mare was sitting on her haunches, pleased with how happy the foals were chewing at her creations. "And what's yours, little colt?"

"Dry Whisper." He took a big bite out of his held cookie, managing to balance it with his lips even as his teeth pulverized the sweet deliciousness. "Mmm! It's really good."

"I'm glad to hear that." She reached for the curiously shaped but still adorable colt, mussing up his mane without objection. "Are you friends with Scootaloo?"

"Uh huh." He brought up his hooves to steady the cookie as he nodded. "Are you her mother?"

Scootaloo laughed even as she crashed into Dry's side, almost knocking his cookie away. "I called her Aunt Holiday, duh."

"Oh yeah..." She had done that. "I forgot. Um, where is your sister then?"

"Woo, that's a big question." Holiday set a hoof against her own cheek. "She's busy saving the world, in her own way."

Scootaloo crossed her arms. "Not here. Neither of them are here. But I have a lot of other ponies that are super awesome and help me out. Like Aunt Holiday--" She waved eagerly at said aunt. "And Aunt Lofty."

"You have two aunts, that's nice." Dry nodded swiftly. "It's good to have a large family."

Apple Bloom sat up with a cocky grin. "Pretty sure ah got y'all beat on that front."

Sweetie shook her head with a low whistle. "I can't imagine any of us can beat the Apples. They're everywhere!" She threw out her hooves to emphasize that, her cookie held in her magic for easy nibbling at.

Diamond poked Apple Bloom, no fear in her eyes. "Why go for numbers when you can go for quality? My family, all Everglow Survivors." All the ponies peered at her, apparently even Silver Spoon finding that to be surprising news. "What? Oh, right, never mind." She turned away with an innocent whistle.

Silver Spoon was on her in an instant. "You have to finish that story right now! When did your parents go to Everglow? And, like, they got back alright. I mean, I saw them." She looked quite confused, but so curious. "Tell us!"

"I would... but they aren't being super talkative about it." Diamond shrugged emphatically, hooves turned up. "Just know they went there, and got back. Big ole adventure. They were worried about me." She snickered softly. "But I am already a survivor, and I had Randy. I was fine! I didn't even bring it up."

Silver prodded at Diamond. "When?! After we got back? Are they alright?! Are they scarred, like, on the inside?!" She began to shake her friend vigorously. "Do they need help?!"

Diamond shover Silver back onto her haunches. "Chill out. My parents are fine." She adjusted the collar she didn't have. "They're not foals," she decried, despite most of them being exactly that. "I'm sure they were fine. Not that they told me much." She shrugged. "Must have been super easy, not even a big deal."

Apple Bloom raised a hoof. "Applejack's been there."

That got a fresh scowl from Diamond. "Hard to forget! She's the one that sent us there with that crazy scythe! She... doesn't have that anymore, right? I didn't go checking."

Holiday's eyes darted from foal to foal as they expressed snippets of their exploits. "Oh my... You've all certainly been through a lot. I'm just glad you're all alright. Is this where you went to, Scootaloo?"

"I told you about it." Scootaloo stuck out her tongue in defiance. "It was great, and scary, but we got a lot out of it."

"Yeah," admitted Diamond. "We did kind of get a lot out of that..." She huffed, turning her nose up. "Guess I can forgive her, if she's done with that scythe?"

Apple Bloom crossed her arms. "All gone."

Silver clapped her hooves together. "Well, good for that." Her cookies was gone, devoured save for a few stray crumbs on her little snout. "So, what do you think?" She wheeled about to Dry. "Sound exciting?!"

Dry blinked at that sudden conversation turn. "Um." Well, what could she mean...? "Is this about Princess Luminace?"

"Yep." She nodded once firmly. "Just checking in. If you don't wanna, not going to, like, force you. She'd be annoyed if I did that. What kind of friendship would that be?" She sank to her haunches as she shrugged. "Not a good one."

"That would be bad," agreed Dry with a quirk of a smile. "I will agree to this. I would like to hear more about your god. Will you tell me about her?"

Silver's face brightened with resplendent joy. "With pleasure. Oh, can you read? I thought I saw you making notes." Once that was confirmed, she hopped back up to her hooves. "Then I will tell you, but also show you. I have a nice book all about her I'll gladly lend you."

Author's Note:

Oh no, Dry's being recruited to a cult! This can't be good. At least we can be fairly sure Lumie's book is free of typos.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

AJ got rid of the scythe cos it was no good at just wheat?

[badninja]

As long as it is as crazy as the Church of Happyology Dry should be good.

[harts fire]

so many fun times everypony so super happy.

a grate chapter.

[howard035]

I love the idea of Silver teaching theology to Dry.