It was the dawn of the second day since the squad arrived in Equestria and Hat Trick and Stinger were currently patrolling the area around the camp. They had encountered a few threats during this, like some wolves made of wood that just put themselves back together once shot, but they couldn't do any real damage through the duos armour so Hat Trick and Stinger won the war of attrition. Now however, they just encountered something that they had actually received a warning about the night before while talking with Scootaloo, a cockatrice.

Hat Trick had spotted it from a distance and picked it off with his rifle before it even noticed them, he was sceptical about Scootaloos claims that it could turn things it looked at to stone, but given what they had only recently faced, he decided to play it safe.

"Think it'll safe to eat?" Hat Trick asked while taking the magazine of his rifle out and replacing it with a fresh one.

Stinger just gave him a shrug. "How would I know? If you wanna know take it to Raven. But I'm not carrying it for you."

Hat Trick walked over to the carcass. "Alright, alright." he said as he picked the cockatrice up by the feet, letting the remaining blood drain from the stump where it's head used to be. "You think this'll taste like chicken or more like a reptile?" He asked.

"You do know that most lizards taste like chicken already right?" Stinger responded. When he saw his friends face he could see a look absolute devastation.

"What!" Hat Trick shouted. "God damn it, you just crush a childhood dream you know."

Stinger began to laugh at his friends overreaction. "How does telling you that lizards taste like chicken 'crush a childhood dream.'" He asked once he got his laughing under control.

Hat Trick glared at him. "You know how I hate chicken right?" Stinger nodded, interested in seeing where this was going. "When I was younger I always wanted to know what a crocodile tasted like. I imagined that it tasted something like beef but stronger and maybe with a bit of a fishy after taste, or something like that. But now I know that it tastes like chicken! My dreams have been ruined." There was silence for a moment before Stinger burst out into a much stronger bout of laughter.

"Firstly that is the dumbest childhood dream I've heard of, no offence but couldn't you come up with something better? And secondly I didn't choose how it tastes so don't shoot the messenger." Stinger managed to say through his laughter.

Hat Trick initially looked at his friend with a look of betrayal in his eyes, but soon the laughter got to him as well and he began to laugh along with Stinger.

A few moments passed until the two could finally stop laughing, after which Stinger decided to ask. "Hey aren't you from Nigeria? I thought Crocodile was fairly common thing to eat over there, so how come you never got to try it?"

"Aliens." Hat trick answered simply.

With that silence fell between then and the two continued on, mostly in silence. That is until Hat Trick stopped dead in his tracks, a look of dread on his face. “Did we ever tell Scootaloo not to mention us to anyone?”

“…”

“…”

“… Fuck.”

(Meanwhile in Ponyville)

The school bell rung, signalling to all the colts and fillies that they were free from the drudgery of their lessons. A wave of foals erupt out of the school house, each going of to hang out with their friends or to simply relax at home. Applebloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo were some of the last ponies to exit the building. "So did either of your sisters tell you when they'll be back?" Scootaloo asked.

"Sis sent me a letter sayin' they'll be back in two days." Applebloom answered.

"So in two days we can get beck to crusading!" Sweetie Bell cheered.

Large grins spread across the faces of the other crusaders faces. "Alright, I've got tons of Cutie Mark ideas we can try." Scootaloo said as she grabbed her scooter and wagon.

Wordlessly, Sweetie Bell hopped into the wagon. Applebloom meanwhile turned in the opposite direction of town towards Sweet Apple Acres and said her goodbyes to her friends. Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell gave their own goodbyes before heading off towards town.

"Hey Scoots?" Sweetie Bell called out as the pair made their way into the town. "What have you been doing while we cant go crusading?"

Not taking her eyes of the road Scootaloo responded. "I made some other friends recently, I'm gonna hangout with them.”

Sweeties Bells was shocked to hear this and felt somewhat betrayed. “But what about me and Applebloom?! What about the Crusaders?!” She screamed prompting Scootaloo to stop and turn to look at her friend.

“Whoa, calm down Sweetie. You and AB are still my best friends, I’m not replacing you guys.” Scootaloo said as reassuringly as possible. “And I’m definitely not leaving the Crusaders. I’m just hanging out with somepony else for a bit.”

“B..But-“ Sweetie Bell stammered before being cut off.

“Alright think about it like this.” Scootaloo said. “Rarity and Rainbow Dash are friends, right?” Sweetie Bell nodded. “But they also have friends that the other isn’t friends with that the other isn’t friends with, not because they don’t like the other’s friends, but because they just don’t really know them that well, right?” Sweetie Bell nodded again. “Does that mean that Rarity’s and Dash’s friendship is in danger because of that?”

Sweetie Bell contemplated Scootaloos words for a while before giving her answer. “I guess not.” She said meekly. “Sorry, I guess I got scared that you weren’t going to hang out with us anymore.”

Scootaloo smiled and started racing along the streets of Ponyville. “Good, I’ll always make time for you two when I can. Remember that.”

The rest of the ride continued with Sweetie Bell asking Scootaloo about her new friends. Scootaloo wanted to tell her everything about them, but she decided to withhold some details. She did say that they were soldiers, which Sweetie Bell was very surprised by, but she didn’t mention that they were alien soldiers in a war with different aliens. No she would much rather leave that as a fun surprise if she were to ever introduce them.

Eventually the duo arrived at Carousel Boutique, where Sweetie Bell hopped out of the wagon, and the two waved goodbye to each other. Scootaloo then looked into the wagon and reached for her saddle bags, she was about to pull out the comm when she looked at her bit pouch.

She had about seventy bits in there, months worth of saving up as much as she could from her merger pay she got from helping with chores at the orphanage. Scootaloos original plan was to buy a brand new scooter and replace her current one, but right now there were some humans and a hybrid who she did want to help out... and she had grown attached to her current scooter.

With her mind made up Scootaloo rode off towards the market.

(On the outskirts of the Everfree)

Raven looked down onto the quaint town, taking in every detail she could see from her vantage point up in the trees and jotting them down on to a crude map. Singer had tasked her with creating this map, the only explanation her gave being "it's better to not need it and have it, then need it and not have it." When Raven had first started working with XCOM Stingers insane over preparedness had been soothing that drove everyone he worked with mad, Raven included.

However this tendency had managed to save the lives of everyone who criticised him, even in the most improbable ways, like the time he brought an inflatable dinghy with a small elerium powered motor built into it. So no one really questions what he asks to be brought or done anymore, it was part of the reason they had so much ammo after all, the average Skyranger only held half the amount they currently had.

So here Raven now was, drawing a map they may not even need to use. She had just finished the rough outline of the town as well as some of the landmarks on the outskirts of town. All of a sudden her comm crackled to life. “Raven, come in we have a situation.” Stingers voice called from the other side.

“I copy, what is the problem?” Raven asked.

“It looks like with all the stress from yesterday we forgot to tell Scootaloo to keep us a secret. She’s not answering the comm we gave her too, so we’re gonna need you to infiltrate the town and find her.”

“Affirmative, it will be done.” Raven replied before jumping down from the canopy of the Everfree. The only cover between her and the town was the scattered trees and bushes, meaning that her approach would have to be a series of dashes form cover to cover through open areas, not ideal but Raven was a Reaper, she had made worse work before.

Author's Note

I now know what writers block is like… I hate it.