• Published 1st Sep 2011
  • 2,134 Views, 15 Comments

Paradiso - Wheller



After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone.

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Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Scootaloo? Ah been thinkin.’”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were camping out in their clubhouse, deep into Sweet Apple Acres; two of the bedrolls were occupied, while another one, Sweetie Bell’s sat empty.

“What is it?” Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom could see her eyes for the first time today, as she had finally taken off the goggles she’d found earlier today.

“About Cutie Marks... and what Nightshadow said about ‘em... he’s wrong, right? He’s gotta be!”

Scootaloo frowned; she’d been having the same debate in her mind for the last several hours. If cutie marks didn’t matter...

“Ah think maybe we should ask Twilight about ‘em, she’s smart! She’s gotta know somethin’!” Apple Bloom said.

Scootaloo nodded in agreement, they had almost gone right then and there, but they realised just how late at night it really was, they decided that they’d wait until morning, visit Sweetie Bell first, and then ask Twilight what she knew about them.

...

At eight in the morning, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walked into the Ponyville Clinic. There was a blue unicorn sitting at the desk, reading a magazine, her nameplate said: “Colgate.”

“Something I can help you with?” Colgate said uninterestedly.

Apple Bloom opened her mouth to speak, however was interrupted by the door opening.

“Ah! Toothpaste! There you are!” said a brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark.

Colgate’s eye twitched slightly in anger. “Doctor, if I have told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, do not call me toothpaste!

“Yer a doctor?” Apple Bloom said excitedly.

“I am a not only a doctor, I am the Doctor!” the Doctor said gleefully. “Something I can help you with?”

“Yeah! Our friend Sweetie Bell is a patient here, we came to see her!” Scootaloo said.

“Ah I see! Well, Miss Toothpaste can surely direct you to where your friend is,” the Doctor said. “That is more her specialty.”

Colgate opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor merely smiled, pointing at the children, and she promptly shut it again.

“Yes... please, follow me children, I can take you to her,” Colgate said. She rose from her desk and walked down a hallway muttering quietly to herself. “And to think, I finally thought I could get away from him here... but no!”

Colgate left them at Sweetie Bell’s room, the two fillies went inside.

“Oh hey!” Sweetie Bell said. “It’s... you girls!”

“Sweetie Bell?” Scootaloo asked.

“Who? Oh! Wait, that’s me! I’m Sweetie Bell, I forgot!” Sweetie Bell said enthusiastically.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo glanced at each other, Sweetie Bell had always been a little... spacey, but this was bad for her.

“Sweetie Bell... you know who we are, right?” Scootaloo asked.

“Of course I do!” Sweetie Bell said. “You’re... Alooscoot! And Bloom Apple! No... Wait, that doesn’t sound right. What’s going on?”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other.

“Uh... you’re really tired, and were about to go to sleep?” Scootaloo suggested.

“Huh? I’m not tired! Actually, now that I mention it... I kind of...” Sweetie Bell dozed off and began snoring very loudly.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo backed out of the room quietly, leaving their friend behind.

“Tha’ may ‘ave been the worst moment of mah life,” Apple Bloom said. Scootaloo only nodded in agreement.

...

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom knocked on the door to the Library. Twilight Sparkle opened the door.

“Oh! Well hello girls! Please come in!” Twilight said stepping aside and allowing the fillies entry. “What can I do for you?”

Twilight paused for a moment and looked at Scootaloo oddly. “Where did you get those?”

“Get what?” Scootaloo asked, then remembering that she was wearing the goggles she’d found. “Oh you mean these? I found them in Whitetail Wood! Pretty cool huh?”

“Uh... yeah, certainly!” Twilight said, looking around nervously, which the fillies did not pick up on. “Is there something I can do for you girls?”

“We wanted to ask ya about Cutie Marks!” Apple Bloom said.

“You’re not going to try and make them appear with magic are you?” Twilight asked suspiciously.

“Nah nothin’ like that! We wanted to know if ya’ll know of any older ponies without Cutie Marks!” Apple Bloom asked.

Twilight searched her brain for anything that might be of use. “There are a few cases, yes. It’s usually rare for a pony my age or older to be without a Cutie Mark... come to think of it, I used to have a friend who didn’t have a Cutie Mark... didn’t really notice that he didn’t before...”

“Used to have a friend? How come you’re not friends anymore?” Scootaloo asked.

Twilight looked up in surprise. “Oh... uh, he... died.”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were caught in surprise, “Oh! We’re sorry ta hear that,” Apple Bloom said, mimicking a response that Applejack likely would have given at the same bit of information.

“Oh, don’t worry about it; it was a long time ago!” Twilight said, “It’s not like... I carry it around with me... every day.”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders couldn’t help but notice that Twilight seemed unsure about that, but chose not to press the issue.

“I have to ask, what brought this on?” Twilight asked.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other, they had made a promise to Nightshadow not to talk about him to anypony... but they couldn’t lie to Twilight either, could they? No, lying was wrong... but so was breaking a promise.

“Uh... Twilight, we have a problem,” Scootaloo said. “See, we made a promise not to say, but we don’t want to lie to you either.”

Twilight gave the two a worried look, she figured that this was important, she really needed to know, but she had been backed into a corner, if she pressed the issue, and made the crusaders tell her, then it would plant the idea in their minds that promises don’t matter.

“I think you should keep your promise, after all, losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend,” Twilight said, half expecting Pinkie Pie to burst through the door shouting “forever!” and was ultimately disappointed when she did not. Thought the more she thought about it, it was probably for the best. Pinkie Pie wasn’t exactly stable right now.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo nodded, they thanked Twilight for her help and soon afterwards departed from the Library. Though they had discovered that Twilight hadn’t been nearly as helpful as they had hoped, the fate of Twilight’s friend bothered them very much, he had died without a cutie mark, he would never have one, and never could. It made the two fillies uncomfortable to know that this was even possible.

They wandered for a little while throughout town, talking about the day’s events. Still particularly disturbed by Sweetie Bell’s condition, she hadn’t remembered who they were.

Eventually they had found themselves wandering through Whitetail Wood again, though neither of them was sure that they’d find anything useful.

And then they did. Scootaloo practically tripped over a large metal canteen that was lying on the ground. Upon examining it, it had the letters “CSI” printed in large, white letters on the side. Oddly enough, it was full.

“Don’ even think about it!” Apple Bloom said. “You got the last thing we found, ah’m takin’ this one.”

“Fine,” Scootaloo said with a huff. “These goggles are way cooler anyway.”

Apple Bloom strung the canteen around her neck, noticing that there were more letters on the back. “Tpr. B.W.”

“T.P.R.B.W?” Apple Bloom repeated.

“What?” Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom showed her the letters on the back of the canteen. “What does it mean?”

“Ah dunno!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

“Maybe Rainbow Dash would know! She’s cool, maybe she’ll know about all kinds of cool stuff that we found!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

It was a long shot, but they didn’t really have anything better to be doing, the two fillies departed to find Rainbow Dash.

...

“Where did you get those?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed after looking at Scootaloo, pointing at the goggles.

“Oh these? I found them!” Scootaloo said. “Pretty cool huh?”

Rainbow Dash frowned, and opened her mouth to say something, but Twilight shushed her. They had once again returned to the Ponyville public library where Rainbow Dash was now living with Twilight.

“Girls, we need to take a look at everything you’ve found in Whitetail Wood.”

Scootaloo sighed, lifting the goggles off her head; she then opened her saddlebag dumping out 30 brass casings, and the kangaroo submachine gun.

Apple Bloom gasped. “Scootaloo! You been walkin’ around with that thing this entire time!?”

“Didn’t want to take the chance that we couldn’t find it again!” Scootaloo said justifying her hoarding.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were certainly more worried about a young filly with a submachine gun than anything else.

“Didn’t your last experience with guns teach you anything?” Rainbow Dash said condescendingly.

“It’s empty! I promise! We checked!” Scootaloo said.

“You checked?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Twilight lifted the submachine gun up with her magic, she removed the magazine from the submachine gun’s side, and checked it, and it was indeed empty, she pulled back on the bolt to check the chamber. It was in fact empty as Scootaloo had proclaimed.

“Girls, despite the fact that this is empty, that doesn’t make it safe!” Twilight said. “Always treat a gun as if it’s fully loaded, because it might be!”

“Even if you know it’s empty?” Scootaloo asked.

Especially if you know it’s empty!” Rainbow Dash said.

“Wha’ about the other stuff? Do ya know where it came from?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Yes,” Twilight said. “These goggles belong to our friend Vinyl Scratch, who left to go to Manehattan a few days ago... I’ve never seen her take them off...”

“That gun and canteen are Trooper Willoughby’s. He went with her,” Rainbow Dash added. “Something happened to them.”

“Can we help you look for them?!” Scootaloo asked excitedly. “We found their things! We can find them!”

“I think you girls have done enough, let us handle it from here,” Twilight said. “We’ll be sure to let you know when we find them though. Vinyl loves these goggles and she’s going to be very happy that you found them.”

Twilight smiled at the two fillies, and sent them on home.

“I guess we’re done then?” Scootaloo asked.

“Don’ be stupid!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “We ain’t even started!”