Eq Renaissance Part 13 (Ed)

    “Nuh uh!” Apple Bloom shouted.
    “Yuh huh!” Scootaloo shouted right back.
    “You guys.  Stop fighting, you guys,” Sweetie Belle tried to chime in.
    “Take it back!” Apple Bloom ignored her.
    “Why don’t you make me?”
    “Maybe I will!”
    “You and what army?”
    “Guys!” Sweetie Belle was getting scared.
    “The Major and the Colonel!” Apple Bloom held up both her fists in front of her face.
    “You wouldn’t dare!”
    “You wanna back that up?”
    “You’re too scared!”
    “That’s awful big talk, coming from a chicken!  Bawk ba gawk!”
    Scootaloo was the first to throw a punch.  It came out like a flash.  One quick jab that connected with Apple Bloom’s cheek.  She never even saw it coming.  What it delivered in speed, it lacked in power.  Sure, Apple Bloom’s head snapped back, but she wasn’t really hurt except when it came to her feelings and her pride.  Apple Bloom took just long enough to ball up all of that hurt emotion into the haymaker she swung back at Scootaloo.  It was a slow, telegraphed punch, but Scootaloo had never learned how to throw a punch, let alone dodge one.  For such a young girl, Apple Bloom was rather strong.  She did a lot of manual work around the farm.  She could almost lift a hay bail without any help.  The fist landed on the bridge of Scootaloo’s nose, sending her reeling back a few steps, but was she quickly on the balls of her feet, ready to deliver more.
    “Stop it!” Sweetie Belle screamed.  Then she opened her mouth wide and let out a high pitched wail as she started to cry.  Her friends froze in their tracks.
    They were both shocked.  “Whoa, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said.  “Are you OK?”
    “Yeah,” Scootaloo said.  “What’s the matter?” They both dropped the fight and came over to comfort her.
    “I just hate it when you fight!” Sweetie Belle sobbed.  “Oh my gosh!  Scootaloo!  You’re bleeding!” Sweetie started to cry harder.
    Scootaloo noticed the little trickle of blood running out of her nose.  She wiped across her forearm.  “Oh this?  This is nothing.  It’s just a bloody nose.  I get ‘em all the time.  Are you OK though?”  Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had been about to tear each other apart, but were actually only worried now that one of them was really, genuinely upset.
    “Just stop fighting!” Sweetie yelled.
    “Okay, okay, we’ll stop fighting,” Apple Bloom said.  “We’re sorry, Sweetie Belle.”
    “Yeah, we’re sorry, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo repeated, most sincerely.
    Sweetie wiped away the tears with her own forearm and tried to smile.  “I don’t even remember why we were fighting in the first place,” Apple Bloom said.
    “It was because I made fun of your sister leaving you alone all the time,” Scootaloo reminded her.
    “Oh yeah.”
    “And I said you’re starting to act like a real brat now that your sister and brother aren’t babying you any more.”
    “Oh yeah.”
    “And I was saying your sister’s going to go crazy if you brother doesn’t come back.”
    “OK, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said, with anger in her voice.
    “Stop fighting!” Sweetie Belle screamed, getting upset all over again.
    “Okay!” both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo said simultaneously.
    “Geez,” added Scootaloo.
    “Just don’t talk about anybody’s sister,” Sweetie whimpered.  “Cause my sister’s going away too.”
    Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other, wondering if they had just hit a nerve they didn’t even know existed.  “What do you mean she’s going?” Scootaloo asked.  “Going where?”
    “I dunno,” Sweetie said.  “But I don’t get to stay with her tonight.”
    “Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said, “I thought you were staying at your mom’s house tonight.”
    “I am staying at my mom’s house.  But I was supposed to stay at Rarity’s house.  We’ve been planning it all week.  I was going to stay the night at her house, and we were going to put on some cartoon movies and make a big bowl of popcorn and eat the whole bowl and watch the movies and then we were going to do each others' hair and then we were going to stay up real late until we fell asleep and then we were going to sleep in the next morning and then spend all day together.  But then Rarity said she wasn't going to do it any more and she told my mom I had to stay at my mom’s house.”
    “Oh,” said Apple Bloom.
    “It sounds like it’s probably important,” Scootaloo said.  “I’m sure Rarity wouldn’t just ditch you if it weren’t something important.  She didn’t say where she was going?”
    “Nuh uh,” Sweetie sniffed.
    “That’s kinda... weird,” Apple Bloom said, distracted in her own thoughts.
    “Where do you think she’s going?” Scootaloo asked. “I mean if you had to guess.”
    “Canterlot,” Sweetie said.
    “Really?” Apple Bloom asked.
    “I bet she’s going to one of her dumb parties.  Or one of her dumb galas.  Or one of her dumb whatevers.  And she doesn’t care about me at all.”
    “She wouldn’t do that,” Scootaloo said.
    “I don’t think it’s that at all,” Apple Bloom said.
    “Why?”
    “Because my sister’s going too.”  They both turned to look at Apple Bloom.  “At least I guess that’s where she’s going.  My sister’s been acting real weird lately.  Like, awhile ago she just took off into the Everfree Forest.  She wouldn’t tell me why.  An tonight she’s going somewhere but she won’t tell me where neither.  If Rarity’s going to Canterlot, I bet my sister’s going with her.  They’re best friends after all.  If one’s sneaking around, I bet they both are.  Kinda sounds like something we would do.”
    “My sister’s been acting weird too,” Sweetie said.
    “Hey, you know who’s been acting weird?” Scootaloo asked.
    “Rainbow Dash,” Sweetie and Apple Bloom groaned together.  Scootaloo would never shut up about her personal hero.  It had become a running gag between the three of them, a subject that they teased her over.
    “Well,” Scootaloo kicked at a rock lodged in the dirt, “she has.  I bet she’s going to Canterlot with your sisters.”
    “I wonder why they’re going,” Apple Bloom said.
    “Um.  Maybe this is pretty stupid,” Sweetie said, “but I wonder if they’re going to look for Twilight Sparkle.”
    “Hey, yeah,” Scootaloo said.  “Where is Twilight Sparkle anyway?  I haven’t seen her in a long time.”
    “I think she’s in Canterlot,” Sweetie said.  “But I don’t know.  She left Spike.  Isn’t that weird?  I’ve seen him a couple of times but he’s only by himself.   Maybe he knows what’s going on.”
    “So Twilight goes to Canterlot,” Apple Bloom thought out loud.  “And then our sisters, and maybe Rainbow Dash, who’s their friend, go to Canterlot too.  But they’re acting really weird about it.  You know what I think, girls?  I think we’ve got a mystery on our hands.”
    The three young ladies smiled at the each other with the promise of fun and adventure on an otherwise boring day.  They placed their right hands on top of each others', palms down.  They tried to think up a name for their little trio, like the “Cutie Detectives,” or the “Cuteastic Private Eyes.”  Nothing stuck, so they simply took off from the beneath the shade of their treehouse, and headed off to interrogate the only person who might have the answers.
    Ten minutes later they were knocking on the door of Ponyville’s little library.  There was a hand-written sign out front that read, “Closed.  Indefinitely.”  They waited patiently, and after awhile the door was unlocked and slowly pulled open.
    “We’re closed,” Spike grumbled.  “Indefinitely.  Oh, it’s you.”
    “Spike, are you feeling alright?”  Apple Bloom asked.  “You don’t look too good.”  Spike was particularly pale and sluggish.  He didn’t exactly have bags under his eyes, but of all the boys their age, they had never seen one look so old.
    “I’m fine,” Spike said.  “But listen, we really are closed and right now I’m not really feeling like having any... is that blood?” Spike noticed the streak of reddish-brown blood, now dried on Scootaloo’s forearm.
    “Oh, yeah,” Scootaloo said.  She had forgotten all about it.  “It’s OK, though.  It’s just nose blood.  It’s stopped.”
    Spike sighed.  “Well, come on in.  Get yourself cleaned up.  You’re not checking out any books though.”  He led the girls inside the gloom of the closed library and pointed Scootaloo in the direction of the bathroom, where she could wash herself off in the sink.  The library looked worse than they had ever seen it.  Normally Spike spent most of his time organizing the books on the shelves.  Now most of them were off the shelves, and piled high in stacks.  There were notes and bookmarks sticking out of many of them.  Whatever Spike had been doing in here, he had been very busy.
    “We’re not here for books, though,” Apple Bloom said.
    “You’re not going to play one of your tricks?” Spike asked.
    “Nuh uh.”
    “We’re detectives!” Sweetie cheered.
    “So it’s one of your games?” Spike asked without any humor in his voice at all.  It seemed very strange for a usually playful boy like Spike.
    “Actually, this is pretty serious,” Apple Bloom said.
    “Yeah,” said Scootaloo as she walked out of the bathroom, drying her hands on her orange t-shirt.  “Their sisters are missing.”
    “Missing?” Spike asked, now alarmed.  “Really?”
    “No,”  Apple Bloom said.  “It’s not that they’re really missing.  But they’re leaving.  And they’re acting really weird.  So I guess we want to stop them from being missing.”
    “Ah,” said Spike.
    “Like Twilight,” Sweetie added.
    “Yeah, I get it,” Spike said, sitting down on the soft couch in what was normally the library’s reading room.
    “You do know where Twilight is, right Spike?” Apple Bloom asked.  He ignored her question.
    “She’s in Canterlot, isn’t she?” Scootaloo asked.
    “Well, she ain’t in the Everfree Forest,” Spike tried to laugh, and failed.
    “Well, then that’s where our sisters are going,” Apple Bloom said.  “And Twilight’s other friends.  Probably.  They’re going to look for Twilight.”
    “You should stop them,” Spike said.  “They won’t help anything, and they’ll only land themselves in trouble if they do anything stupid.”
    “That’s what we want to do,” Apple Bloom said.  “Stop them from getting into trouble.  Only they won’t listen to us.  Because they’re bigger than us and think they’re so smart.  So if they won’t listen to us, then... then maybe we’ll just have to follow them and make sure they don’t cause any problems.”
    This time Spike genuinely did laugh.  “Follow them?” he asked.  They nodded.  “Into Canterlot?  You really think that’s a good idea?”
    “Sure,” said Scootaloo.
    “Yeah, no,” Spike grumbled.  The smile dropped from his face.  He couldn’t believe his ears.
    “Why not?” Sweetie asked.
    “Listen, girls.  You don’t know the Princess like I know the Princess.  If they’re in Canterlot, there’s nothing bad that’s going to happen to them.  The Princess wouldn’t allow that.  Whatever weird plans she has, it’s not for us to get involved.  Maybe it doesn’t make sense, but it’s not supposed to make sense to you.  You’re just three little girls.  There’s nothing you can do.”
    “Well if you’re not going to help us, maybe we’ll just go ourselves,” Apple Bloom said.
    “You’re going to go to Canterlot by yourselves?” Spike asked.
    “Eyup.”
    “And how are you going to get there?”  Apple Bloom didn’t have an answer.  “What are you going to do when the guards stop you at the gates?  How are you going to explain it to them?  Or your sister when she finds out you followed her?  How are you going to get back to Ponyville when they turn you away?”
    “Well, maybe we’ll break in,” Sweetie Belle said, in an expression of unlikely confidence.
    “Pff,” Spike snorted in laughter.
    “And you would too if you cared about Twilight,” she added.
    “What did you just say to me?”
    “Isn’t that Twilight Sparkle always teaching you about friendship?” Scootaloo asked him.  “Don’t you know that friendship is the most important thing there is?”
    “Yeah,” Apple Bloom said.  “And Applejack’s my sister.  And that’s even more important than friendship.”
    “Yeah,” Sweetie said.  “And Rarity’s my sister too.”
    “Twilight is your friend, ain’t she Spike?” Apple Bloom asked.
    “More than you know,” Spike growled.
    “So then why aren’t you doing anything to help her?” she asked.
    “Yeah,” said Scootaloo.  “And aren’t you always complaining about how Twilight and her friends never take you anywhere on their adventures?  Are you really going to sit here on your butt while we have an adventure without you?”
    “Listen, this isn’t any adventure.  It’s stupid.  You’re just going to get in trouble.  Twilight told me to stay here, no matter what happens.”
    “Whats the matter?” Apple Bloom asked.  “You scared of getting in a little trouble?”
    “Yeah,” Sweetie said.  “You afraid Twilight’s going to yell at you?  Like you’re just a little kid?”
    “Yeah,” Scootaloo said.  “You a chicken?”
    Spike fumed.
    “I think she’d want you to go by now, even if she once told you not to,” Apple Bloom said.
    “What if she really needs your help?” Sweetie asked.  “I bet we’re going to need your help.”
    “Spike, it’s time to step up to the plate,” Scootaloo said.
    Spike let out a long, exasperated sigh and clasped both hands to his face.  He tried to rub out all the stress and frustration and fear he had been feeling these past lonely weeks.  “Fine,” he finally told the three excited girls.  “So what’s the plan?”