Little Redd: the Lost Concept of Peace

Chapter Seventeen

Heavy Relations, Part Three

The food came out, balanced on Bon Bon's hip as Redd sipped her coffee and Scootaloo took a swig of her Monster.

"A dandelion grilled club for you," the waitress said, tipping Redd's sandwich platter onto the table.

"... Aaand a tomato sub for you."

The foot-long sub slid onto the table along with it's ovular plate, sending a wave of anticipation through the orange mare.

"You two enjoy.  I'll be back in a few minutes if you need anything."

Redd thanked her again as she walked off, and took a bite out of her sandwich.  Glancing up, she saw that Scootaloo had taken such a large bite out of her sub that she couldn't close her mouth.  She flushed.

"Phorry.  Caa cgho mah ouph," she said, hiding her mouth behind a forehoof.

Redd smiled at her supposedly starving friend, and continued work on her own meal.

Redd took another sip of her now-lukewarm coffee as Scootaloo filled her in on her most recent whereabouts.

"And then after he finished taking up for me, we walked for awhile and just as we were about to split up and go home, he goosed me!  I knocked him out and checked his wallet, and found out that he was Arthur Whooves.  Doctor Whooves' son!  I picked him up, took him to a bar, wiped some liquor across his mouth and left.  The next day he came around the market rubbing his head, talking about the worst hangover he's experienced in his life.  He supposes he got into a bar fight, what with the welt on his head."

Scootaloo pushed her empty plate to the center of the table, an action Redd replicated, glancing out the window.  It was around four o'clock, the sun about three-fourths across the sky.  She admired the quiet afternoon, watching the birds flit through the trees, the fillies chasing the butterflies, or, in the Crusaders' case, setting up something potentially dangerous that looked an awful lot like a firecracker.

"What the hay is that?" Scootaloo asked, turning around and hooking her foreleg over the back of her seat.  She had her glasses back on, though there wasn't anything abnormal to be seen in that direction.  Redd's ears perked up, and detected a faint disturbance coming from the front of the resturaunt.

"What is... "

The sound grew a bit louder, now recognizable as an argument.  At that moment, Bon Bon came up to them.

"We all done here?"

Nodding somewhat slowly, Scootaloo's gaze remained on the front of the building.  A few words seeped through the walls, clearly audible to the two mares.

"Luna's crazy!"

Scootaloo frowned, and looked back at Redd.

"Where've I heard that voice before?"

Redd's eyes were wide, a faint blush plastered across her cheeks.  Bon Bon cleared their plates and giggled at Redd before trotting back towards the kitchen to deliver her load.  Scootaloo stared incredulously at her friend, realization soaking into her features as she turned back to the front door.

"Oh, you have got to be buckin' kidding me."

Redd checked the bill and left her bits on the table, along with a three bit tip.  Then she got up and followed Scootaloo to the front door.  Pushing it open, they found a bit of a crowd around Hawk Eye and Eagle Eye at a table just outside the door in a fierce hoof-wrestle, their teeth bared at each other.  Hawk looked particularly strained, his canines glistening lower than the rest of his teeth, and the siblings were donned in the trademark Royal Guard armor.

"Luna's... awesome... knows... no... bounds!" Eagle grunted, gaining some ground on his brother.

"Celestia's... beauty... puts... Luna's... to... shame!" Hawk groaned, a sudden surge of power reversing their situation.  Suddenly realizing that a crowd was gathering, Eagle grinned, and snickered through his teeth.

"Hey, bro... we're... being... watched!"

Hawk glanced around and gasped, his brother taking advantage of his hesitance and slamming his foreleg into the table, causing a cheer from roughly half of the ponies there as bits quickly exchanged ownership.  He glared at Eagle, before getting up and walking back towards the resturaunt.  His dark blue eyes locked with Redd's, and he rubbed the back of his head, chuckling.

"Suppose you caught that, huh?"

Redd stood there with a cocked brow, her blush present nevertheless.

"Why're you following us?" Scootaloo asked before Redd could respond.

The question caught him off guard.

"Did-- didn't the Captain tell you that you would be monitored?  He said he had let you know."

Scootaloo scoffed.

"What a coincidence that you two would be ordered on the job," she said sarcastically before releasing an unexcused belch.

Redd elbowed her friend a little harder than she originally intended.

"Leave him alone, Scoot-- Hot Wheels," she quickly corrected as she straightened her face.

Hawk chuckled again.

"I know who she really is.  In fact, I know everything about both of you.  I don't suppose you share the same level of knowledge against us though, so I would like for my brother and I to speak with you two, if it isn't any trouble.  I always want to know those I serve."

Redd's eyes widened.

"I-- uh, okay.  Sure," she stammered, ignoring Scootaloo's distinct Ugh! as Hawk smiled.

He turned around.

"Oi!  Eagle!  Get over here!"

Eagle Eye shot him a dark look from around a mare he was talking to, and excused himself before strutting over to where his brother was.

"'Sup?"

Having returned to Cafe Du Mane's interior, Hawk Eye and Eagle Eye sat side by side on one end of the booth, Redd and Scootaloo on the other.  After sitting down, Hawk again took off his helmet, and shook his head a bit to loosen his unkempt mane.  He caught Redd staring, and grinned.

"What's up?"

Somewhat flustered, she met his eyes before looking down, flushing.

"It's-- I, er... don't know if... n--nevermind."

A flick from Scootaloo's hoof to her head knocked whatever screw had come loose back into place.  Redd glared at her before igniting her horn and pulling on her ear.

"Ow, ow ow owww.  Let go.  Redd, I swear, let go."

Her ear released, Scootaloo hit the seat somewhat unsteadily, nearly falling off to the side.  When she straightened back out, her glasses were crooked, and she blew a few strands of her mane out of her eyes.  She shot Redd a dark look, rubbing her ear with no small amount of disdain.

"So," Redd began.

"What do you already know about me?"

"Well for one, I know you're an Element of Discord.  Specifically Chaos.  I also know you're Eastern, a mare, a Unicorn, and like to shoot things."

He looked down for a moment.

"Otherwise, I know nothing about you."

Redd was about to reply when Scootaloo cut in.

"You guys hungry?  I'm hungry."

Redd's jaw dropped.