Guardian II: Conflict

It was a lovely August night, and the guys were outside, walking through the forest.

"Tell me, why are we out here again?" Phoenix asked, looking around. Black Swan turned to face him.

"To observe the beauty of Equestria, bro. Either that, or Mystery's forcing us to deal with his problems again." He looked back at Mystery, who was resting against a tree. "Hurry up!"

"All right!" he yelled, standing up. "It's just that, well, Phoenix's little filly keeps tripping over the roots and stuff, so I thought I'd stay back and help her out." Scootaloo peeked out from behind him.

"It's not my fault these things are everywhere..." she grunted.

"Come on up here with us, Scoots. We've got to stay together, you know." Phoenix stopped and extended his leg away from her, as if he were presenting something to the group. She quickly walked over and hopped on his back.

"Thanks, Phoenix," she said softly. He looked up at the moon for a while; long enough for her to notice him. "Phoenix?"

"Yeah?" he replied, still staring into the night sky.

"You never told me what you meant when you picked me up from the clubhouse two months ago." Phoenix looked down for a moment.

"I, uh... I don't remember..." he lied. He didn't like lying to her, but his mind wouldn't let him explain.

"Oh, okay..." Scootaloo frowned and curled up on his back. Phoenix sighed and was about to try and cheer her up, but Mystery cut him off.

"I'm bored; let's go home," he said, turning around. The other two stallions gave each other confused looks, then looked back at him.

"What?" Black Swan asked, his confusion turning into anger.

"You were the one that told us to come out here..." Phoenix took a step forward. "And now you want to go back home..."

"Yeah, you guys coming or what?"

"So we came out here for nothing?" Scootaloo tried to hide behind Phoenix's head; she didn't know what was about to happen, but she knew she wouldn't like it. Mystery gave then a wicked grin, getting Phoenix's attention.

"Don't say it..." he said, confusing Black Swan and causing Mystery's smile to get bigger. "Don't you even think about saying it, do you hear me?" Mystery nodded, hiding his smile and tricking the pegasus in front of him. "Good."

"You mad?" he asked. Phoenix shouted in anger and began to say something, but he quickly stopped himself.

"I ain't even mad, bro," he replied, putting on a smile of his own. "Come on, let's go." Black Swan grunted as the group turned around and headed back to their home. Upon arrival, he immediately closed the door and made sure it was locked. "Calm down," Phoenix said.

"I'm just making sure the door's locked this time. Last time, a certain filly almost got dragged into the void..." He glanced at Scootaloo, who gave a nervous laugh. Phoenix put his hoof on the door and looked straight at him.

"You've dealt with a lot today; don't worry about it." He then slowly walked upstairs to his room. Black Swan sighed and followed him. Scootaloo looked up at the last stallion in the room, Mystery.

"We've been walking around for a while; aren't you tired?" she asked.

"No, not really. Phoenix left me alone for most of the day, so I was able to rest for a while." He looked towards the staircase. "He's probably expecting you to be upstairs right about now."

"Oh, okay then. Good night." She was about to walk to Phoenix room, for she didn't have a room of her own yet, when Mystery stopped her.

"Hold on, I have to tell you something." She turned around.

"What is it?"

"Sorry for not watching you that one day when, you know..." He looked down. When he looked back up, Scootaloo was in front of him.

"It's okay, Mystery. I forgive you." She gave him a hug and went upstairs. He went into the living room and lied down on the couch.

"I don't feel like going upstairs just yet..." he said to himself.

Phoenix was sitting on his bed, looking out of his window. He heard hoofsteps behind him, but he didn't bother turning around. "Hey, Scoots," he said. "Time for bed."

"I'm not tired yet," she complained. Phoenix turned his head to look at her.

"It's 1 in the morning; go to bed."

"I don't want to! Besides, my bed is stupid." She pointed to a pile of fabric with a sheet lying over it. He shrugged and closed the door.

"It's all we had. We'll get a real bed for you eventually, but for now, you're just gonna have to deal with that," he explained. She ran over and jumped on his bed.

"Can't I sleep with you?" she asked.

"Aren't you too old for that?"

"Uh..." She paused to think. "... Please?"

"No." He quickly moved her off of his bed and got in. She slowly walked over to her makeshift bed, angered by Phoenix's decision. As she was getting in, however, she thought of one last plan. Trying as best as she could, she turned around and began to fake cry. "Come on, don't cry..."

"I...I..." She was close to her goal; she knew it. Phoenix sighed and got out of bed.

"If it will make you feel better, you can sleep with me," he said. All visible signs of depression quickly disappeared as Scootaloo jumped up and almost tackled him. "Alright, settle down. I don't want to have to deal with you not wanting to wake up in the morning; Black Swan and I already have enough trouble dragging Mystery out of bed."

"Okay." She got down and lied next to him. "Good night, Phoenix."

"Good night." A few minutes after they fell asleep, Scootaloo heard a noise coming from downstairs.

What was that? she thought. "Phoenix, wake up..."

"Huh... what is it?" he said, barely opening his eyes.

"I heard something; I think it came from downstairs..." She was worried; Phoenix could tell.

"It was probably...nothing..." Phoenix lazily sat up and got out of bed.

"Did somepony break in? Are they trying to rob us?"

"Relax; nopony's trying to rob us. If they are, then Mystery would have alerted us, and we would have dealt with it by now." He opened the door and slowly went towards the staircase. As he walked down the stairs, he could see a green glow coming from a spot not too far from him.

"Don't freak out..." a voice said from within the darkness. Phoenix took a step forward and then jumped back; he had stepped in broken glass.

"Mystery!" he tried not to shout. "What are you still doing down here?!"

"I didn't want to go upstairs at the time. I picked up a book, and I thought I could throw it onto the shelf, but I kinda missed and-" Phoenix finished his sentence for him.

"Hit the window."

"Well, yeah!" Phoenix turned on the light and looked at the damage.

"Could be worse. When you're done cleaning this up, come upst-"

"Uh..." Mystery stopped him. "I was kinda hoping you would clean this up," he explained, giving a weak smile. Phoenix frowned and turned to him.

"But this is your mess! Besides, what am I supposed to do, put the pieces back in place and hope for the best?" he complained. "You're the one with the horn; this is nothing for you!"

"Well, I'm kinda tired, so..." Mystery's horn glowed as Phoenix moved towards the window. "... Good luck!" Using magic, he teleported himself to his room, leaving Phoenix to clean up the shards of glass on the ground. He kicked the shards in anger, scattering them around and cutting his leg.

Normally, I'd deal with this is the morning, but I don't want Scootaloo to step in this on accident... He turned around to find a broom, but he soon realized something. "We don't have a dustpan anymore..." he whispered to himself. As he thought of something to do, he heard hoofsteps coming from above.

"Phoenix? What was that?" It was Scootaloo. Before she could reach the bottom of the stairs, he ran into her field of view.

"Everything's fine; go back to sleep." He could hear a small sigh escape her mouth as she walked away. Phoenix looked back to the shards and got an idea. What could go wrong? he thought as he slowly brought himself to the air.

The next morning, Mystery came downstairs to check on the window. When he saw what Phoenix had done, he gasped. Not only was the window still broken, but three others were as well. There were several new marks on all of the walls in the living room, the couch was torn in many places, and the lights wouldn't turn on. In the middle of the destruction lied the pegasus, who had many, many cuts across his entire body. "Phoenix! What happened?!"

"Everything. Everything happened..." he told him. Mystery ran over to him as he tried to stand.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking around the room to see if there was any more damage.

"Yeah, I'm...I'm fine..." he struggled to say. Besides the occasional sound of the windows breaking into even more pieces, the room was quiet. "Hey, can you and Black Swan take me to the hospital? I think there's glass in some of these wounds."

"Sure, Phoenix. Just... don't break anything else." Mystery went to wake up Black Swan; Phoenix tried to follow, but couldn't. When he reached his room, he dragged him out of bed.

"Mystery, what do you want? Do you know how early it is?" he said, annoyed.

"We have to take Phoenix to the hospital; there's no time to explain. Hurry up!" Black Swan's eyes went wide, and he quickly walked out of his room and down the stairs to find him. Mystery appeared by his side.

"What happened down here?!" he asked, concerned.

"What did I say? No time to explain, now come on!" He lifted Phoenix into the air with magic and ran out of the building, Black Swan closely behind him.

"Mystery, I can still walk, you know..." Phoenix said.

"Yes, but we need to get to the hospital as soon as possible." Phoenix grunted and tried not to think about what had happened. After walking through the forest, the three finally reached Ponyville.

"Ponies are gonna wonder what happened to him, you know," Black Swan whispered. "Just be cool; we'll make it." He looked up into the trees. "Alright, we've got to be quick, but careful. Understand?"

"Yeah, yeah..." Mystery mumbled.

"Ready?" Black Swan took a step forward, then stopped. "Ponyfeathers. Guys, we left Scootaloo home alone!" he exclaimed. When he didn't get a response, he became frustrated. "Guys? Are you list-" It didn't take him long to notice that he was talking to nopony; Mystery and Phoenix had already gone ahead.

"Do you know where we're going?" Phoenix asked.

"Nope!" Mystery replied joyfully.

"Neither do I!" They both laughed, despite everypony around them looking at the injured pegasus with concern. "Wait, I see it." Phoenix pointed a hoof at the hospital, and Mystery walked faster.

"Thanks; I completely overlooked it."

"No problem." At that moment, Black Swan came running up from behind them.

"There you guys are! How come you just walked off like that?" Mystery and Phoenix looked at each other.

"We got bored," Mystery said. Phoenix nodded his head, leaving Black Swan confused.

"How could you get bored that fast? We were... it was literally..." He shook his head quickly. "Whatever. We left Scootaloo home alone. Mystery, could you go back and check on her?"

"Why do I have to go back? I'm the one who carried Phoenix here, so why don't you go back?" he complained. Black Swan walked towards the hospital.

"I'm not walking through the entire forest to check on a filly that's most likely still asleep. You can fly, it'll be easy for you."

"Black Swan, I think you should go back," Phoenix chimed in.

"Majority rules, bro. Hurry back." Mystery walked past him and through the doors. Black Swan wanted to rush through those doors after his two friends and confront them, but he knew that would just cause more drama. He turned around to head home; the entire way back, he was thinking of ways he could have convinced Mystery to go.

When he arrived, he slowly opened the door in case Scootaloo was still asleep. He took one step inside, looked around the living room, and noticed that besides the broken windows, Phoenix hadn't done as much damage as he originally thought. It was as if somepony came in and cleaned up the place while they were gone. "Hello?" he called out into the building. Nothing but silence. He walked up the stairs and into Phoenix's room, where Scootaloo was staring at his bed in confusion. She turned around once she heard him.

"Where did Phoenix go? He never told me he was leaving." Black Swan was about to tell her 'He and Mystery had to go to the hospital,' but he stopped himself.

I don't want her to worry too much... he thought. "Uh, he and Mystery had to go finish some things for our boss; they might be gone all morning," he answered. She stood up and took a step towards him.

"Well, why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be with them?" she asked.

"I came back because..." He stopped to think of an excuse. "... because I forgot something," he said with a smile. Before Scootaloo could respond, he rushed into his room, grabbed a book, and ran back. He dropped the book in front of her so he could speak. "Phoenix asked me to get this book for him."

"Um, the title says 'How To Please Your Stallion.'"

"... Wait, did I say Phoenix? I meant our boss." He laughed nervously. "Well, I should get going. Do me a favor and stay upstairs until we get back. I left food in my room; you can have some if you get hungry, but please, don't go downstairs. Okay? Bye." He picked up the book and ran outside, leaving Scootaloo home alone again.

"What took you so long?" Mystery was sitting in the middle of the room when Black Swan arrived; the doctors were treating Phoenix's wounds.

"Scootaloo was wondering where you guys went, so I had to come up with something. Look, I had to bring this book with me so she wouldn't find out I was lying." Mystery took the book from him and read the title.

"Isn't this the book that the boss gave you that one time she thought you were a mare?" he asked, trying not to laugh.

"Uh, yeah," Black Swan replied, embarrassed. Mystery couldn't hold back his laughter anymore.

"Why haven't you gotten rid of this yet?"

"Because, I kinda...read it a little, and-"

"Wait a minute, you actually read this?" Black Swan quickly realized his mistake and gasped.

"No! No, of course not! I mean, why would I read this?" he blurted out, panic setting in. A few ponies looked over to where they were sitting, annoyed.

"Forget the book for a second; we've got to talk," Mystery said, suddenly completely serious. Black Swan glanced at one of the doors.

"Shouldn't we wait for Phoenix first?" he asked.

"He'll understand. Now, we can't leave Scootaloo home alone all the time; one of us should stay behind whenever we have to leave."

"I agree, but who?" While they were deciding, Phoenix came into the room, followed by a doctor carrying a clipboard.

"You should really be more careful, Phoenix Flame; you could end up here again."

"Phoenix's last name is Flame?" Black Swan quietly asked.

"The more you know, huh? Now be quiet, I wanna hear this."

"I already know I'm gonna end up here again," he said, laughing. The doctor set the clipboard down and looked at him.

"Still, do you really want to spend your day here? I don't think you do." He directed his attention to Phoenix's friends. "Before you go, tell me about your friends," he said.

"Just give me the bill," Phoenix demanded. The doctor placed a piece of paper on a nearby desk and angrily returned to his office. He noticed Mystery and Black Swan looking at him, and he took the bill over to them. "Hey, guys."

"Hello, Mr. Flame," Mystery said. Phoenix gave a fake laugh and showed him the bill. He looked it over, and he dropped the paper upon seeing the cost. "400 bits?!"

"Luna would not be happy," Phoenix said, shaking his head.

"Well, one of us has to pay," Black Swan reminded. Phoenix and Mystery looked at each other, then back to him.

"You're paying," they both said in unison. At the same time, Phoenix took off into the sky, and Mystery vanished in a bright green flash of magic. Black Swan just stood there, unable to process what his so-called 'friends' had just done to him.

Phoenix landed close to home; he decided to walk the rest of the way. When he opened the front door, he looked around in confusion. "Mystery, what happened to all the glass?" he asked.

"Oh, after thinking about it for a while, I decided to put everything back to normal. By the way, how did you cause so much damage?"

"I just flew around the room a few times, and I guess the broken glass hit a few of the windows, creating more problems." Mystery sat down on the couch and picked up a book.

"Before I forget, we need to talk." Phoenix closed the door and walked over to him. While the two ponies were talking, three were listening. Without them knowing, Scootaloo was above them, listening through Black Swan's floor. "We can't leave Scootaloo home alone."

"Well, why not? Scoots can take care of herself; she doesn't need us here all the time."

"Phoenix, we can't even clean up one room in the entire house without you injuring yourself, or Black Swan getting roped into doing something else by the boss, or me damaging everypony's possessions," he said. "Do you really think that a filly who's about seven years younger than us can do that on her own?"

"Who said she would be cleaning?" Phoenix asked.

"Well, uh.... Whatever! We need somepony to stay here." Silence filled the room; neither of them could think of anypony. Minutes passed by, then Mystery finally spoke up. "Let's make Black Swan do it."

"Yeah!" Phoenix shouted, rising to the air. "We've just gotta wait for him to come home." He flew upstairs and into his room; Scootaloo came in after him. "There you are."

"I heard what you two were talking about," she said, walking to her bed. "I'm old enough to stay home alone."

"I know that, but Black Swan doesn't want another incident like last time."

"But we won't! I'll be careful! Please?"  she begged.

"I would love to let you stay home alone, but it's not my call. I may be the one who brought you into our home, but we're all responsible for you." Phoenix sat down on his bed and looked through the window. Black Swan was walking up the path. "About time." He turned and walked downstairs.

"I'm back, guys," he yelled, opening the door to see his two friends standing there, waiting for him. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Phoenix and I talked; he agrees with me," Mystery said.

"That's great! What did you guys decide on?" Phoenix pointed to him.

"You're staying home." Black Swan looked at Mystery, who nodded his head.

"This is some kind of joke! Nice try, guys, but I'm not falling for it!" He looked back at Phoenix, and his facial expression told him all he needed to know. "Guys, I can't stay home; the boss always has stuff for me to do!" he complained.

"Mystery can do your work; the boss never asks him for anything," Phoenix suggested.

"Well, what about groceries?"

"Phoenix can do those; he has to take Scootaloo to meet her friends every week anyway." Black Swan was speechless; he could only look back and forth between his friends.

"Well... fine then! I don't care!" he shouted, giving off an angry whine. He didn't mean to, but admitting it would only make things worse for him. As he ran to his room, Mystery and Phoenix laughed uncontrollably.

"Did you see how angry he was?" Mystery asked.

"I wonder how long he'll stay up there."

Scootaloo walked to his room, unaware of what had happened. When she opened the door, she found the purple stallion lying on his bed, ready to cry.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Phoenix and Mystery are making me stay home," he muttered. She sat down next to him.

"That's not so bad; if anything, they did you a favor."

"It's not just that," he said. I didn't want to say anything about this downstairs because that would give them another reason to exclude me from their plans, but-" He was interrupted by a loud thud coming from the floor below.

"You should probably go check that out," Scootaloo suggested. Black Swan walked halfway down the staircase and stopped. There, in the middle of the living room, sat a giant vine.

"What happened?!" he asked, shocked.

"Mystery found this thing in the Everfree Forest. Amazing, right? I didn't even know it was there!" Phoenix exclaimed.

"How did you get it here in less than 10 minutes? Do you know how far away the forest is?" Mystery stopped what he was doing and turned to him.

"First, it's not really that far; Phoenix can look out of his window and see the animals running around on the ground." He pointed to his horn. "Second, I'm an alicorn; how do you think? Don't be stupid, bro."

"Yeah, and aren't you supposed to be upstairs right now?" Phoenix asked.

"Oh, yeah! You are!" Phoenix and Mystery laughed again as Black Swan dragged himself up the stairs and back to his room.

"Well? What was it?" Scootaloo asked.

"Nothing they want me to be a part of..." He got back on his bed. "Anyway, their cutie marks actually mean something, while mine is just this dumb black swirl."

"It can't be that bad, can it?" she asked.

"Phoenix got his from setting trees on fire, Mystery got his from the Everfree Forest, and I can't even remember how I got mine!" Tears were falling from his face.

"At least you have yours." She turned to show him her blank flank.

"I...I guess..." He stood up and walked to his door. "Thanks."

"No problem!" Scootaloo skipped away, leaving Black Swan alone in his room. She went downstairs, where she saw Phoenix and Mystery dragging the vine around the living room. "Phoenix, Black Swan's really upset."

"He'll get over it; don't worry, Scoots," he said.

"Phoenix is right, you know. Black Swan always gets upset, and he always forgets about it the next day," Mystery added. "Hey, do you know how long he's gonna be up there?"

"No, why?" she asked.

"Just wondering." Phoenix chuckled a little, and Scootaloo began to walk back upstairs.

"Wait a minute," Phoenix called, and she stopped. "You're headed back to school in a few days; someone's gonna need to drop you off and pick you up." Mystery dropped the vine and stood next to him.

"I can't do it; I have to do Black Swan's work."

"Well, I can't, either; I have my own work to do. Scootaloo, we can't." Scootaloo brought her face to her hooves in frustration.

"Isn't there one pony you know that doesn't do anything? Maybe you've seen him recently?" she asked, looking towards the top of the stairs. Phoenix and mystery stared at her for a while, then Phoenix quickly rose to the air.

"Black Swan!" he shouted.

"What?" he asked.

"You're taking Scootaloo to school."

"You're picking her up, too," Mystery yelled. They heard hoofsteps and a muffled cry, striking fear into Scootaloo. Phoenix noticed her trembling, and he flew down to comfort her.

"Don't be so paranoid, Scoots, Black Swan's just crying into his pillow," he said.

"You don't know that," she answered.

"I'm with Phoenix on this one," Mystery spoke up.

"You and Phoenix are always agreeing with each other; Black Swan never has a say in anything!" She was yelling now, which caught the two stallions off-guard.

"We're good friends; of course we agree a lot!" Mystery replied. "We vote on things based on majority; Black Swan matters just as much as the rest of us."

"No he doesn't," Phoenix whispered in his ear.

"I know that, but do you see how angry she is?" he whispered back.

"There's three of you," Scootaloo narrowed her eyes.

"Yeah, but we have some common sense. If one pony can't do the job, he doesn't count."

"Really?"

Four Days Ago

"Okay, Scoots, what did you want to tell me?" Phoenix asked, sitting down next to her.

"Phoenix, I, uh..." Scootaloo couldn't tell him; she just couldn't.

"Are you okay? Do I need to go find Mystery?"

"No, I'm fine. I just...can't...fly," she finally said. Phoenix stood up and spread his wings.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier? I could teach you!"

"No; you already do enough around here; I don't want you to tire yourself out trying to help me." She stood up and walked out of his room, and he flew down the hall to find Mystery.

"No, I can't teach Scootaloo how to fly," Mystery didn't hesitate to say.

"Why not? You have wings, just like me."

"Don't you need a teaching license for that, or something?" he asked. "Wait, didn't Black Swan get his teaching license?"

"Oh, yeah, he did... Where is he?" They went downstairs and found him sitting in the kitchen.

"Good morning, guys. How are you?"

"Teach Scootaloo how to fly," Phoenix commanded.

"What? Are you serious?" he asked.

"Completely," Mystery said. Scootaloo walked past them and into the living room.

"I don't even have wings! Mystery, you're an alicorn, why can't you do it?"

"Yeah, about that. Exactly how are you an alicorn?" Scootaloo asked.

"Genetics, or something. I'll tell you later," he answered, not breaking eye contact with Black Swan. "And you're the one with the teaching license!" After a few more minutes of the same excuses being thrown at him, Black Swan finally stopped arguing.

"Fine, okay? I'll teach her how to fly."

Present Day

"He didn't even teach me!" Scootaloo shouted. "Unless he magically changed into a pegasus, he could nev-" She was interrupted by a figure running through the shadows away from the house. The three caught a glimpse of him when he stepped in daylight, and gasped. It was Black Swan.

"I told you he was just crying into his pillow," Phoenix said to the filly next to him, as if he was oblivious to the situation.

"We have to catch him!" Scootaloo jumped on his back and pointed to the door. "Hurry up!"

Black Swan kept running as fast as he could, unaware that Phoenix, Mystery, and Scootaloo had already seen him. When he looked back and saw nopony, he slowed down and walked until he reached a large rock.

They aren't my real friends; they're just jerks... he thought.

"Hey!" Black Swan quickly looked around, startled. "Up here!" He looked up and saw Phoenix circling above him, with Scootaloo sitting on his back. The pegasus landed on the rock and smiled. "Aren't you supposed to be trying to get away from us?"

"Leave me alone, Phoenix!" he shouted, holding back tears.

"Calm down; we just want to talk to you," Scootaloo said.

"No!" Suddenly, Mystery appeared by his side.

"Chill," he whispered. Black Swan moved away from him.

"I will not chill! I'm tired of you guys always teaming up, making me do everything!" Scootaloo tried to say something, but Phoenix stopped her.

"Let him speak." Black Swan noticed him.

"For once, you're on my side!"

"We're always on your side," Phoenix explained, and Mystery nodded in agreement.

"You guys are Team Orion; a team has to stick together, no matter what."

"Scootaloo's right, Black Swan. We may mess with you a lot, but you're still important to us," Phoenix looked up to the sky. "I can't believe it took you trying to run away for me to realize this... Luna, what's wrong with me?"

"We're sorry; don't leave us," Mystery said.

"Well..."

"Hold on. Phoenix, should Black Swan stay with us?" he asked.

"I think so, do you agree?"

"Yes, yes I do." Mystery turned back to Black Swan. "Majority rules, bro." Black Swans eyes widened, and a single tear of joy fell to the ground below.

"Okay, I'll stay," he told them, giving Mystery a hug. He slowly returned it.

"You know, the day before we had to take Phoenix to the hospital, he and I had a hard time deciding who was going to fix one of my mistakes," he said quietly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. We don't always agree on things after all. You know what else?"

"What?"

"Your name never came up." Black Swan smiled and closed his eyes.

"Let's go home, friends..."