The Trotting Dead

Twilight woke to find the familiar presence of Scootaloo gone.  Sitting up in her bed, she looked around the cramped tent. There was still no trace of the orange pegasus.  Now where could she be? thought Twilight as she slipped her back legs over from her mattress to the hard tent floor.  After stretching her legs and unzipping her tent's door, Twilight Sparkle stepped outside.

It was a foggy morning, with Twilight barely being able to see the camp's edge.  She did, however, notice a hooded figure leaning against a tree to the left of her.  Twilight turned and cast a glance at the shady character.

The mysterious mare had a black hoodie on in such a way that Twilight couldn't see her face, but she could see the small horn poking out from the shadow that was her face.  Underneath her hoodie, the stranger had a mint green coat with a light blue and white mane.

"Excuse me?" Twilight Sparkle asked cautiously.

The mint green mare looked up to face the purple mare.

"Have you seen an orange filly around here, about this tall?"  Twilight raised one of her hooves to the height she imagined Scootaloo was.

The hooded pony nodded her head and pointed further into the camp.

Twilight thanked the strange pony and headed towards where she had pointed.  As she was trotting, she encountered another pony, who she recognized as Roseluck.

"Hey Roseluck," Twilight started.

Roseluck turned to face the lavender mare.

"Who's that strange mare over by the tree?" asked Twilight.

Roseluck glanced over towards the tree Twilight was pointing towards.  "Oh," she said, recognizing the hooded pony, "that's Lyra Heartstrings."  Then, looking around suspiciously and lowering her voice, she quietly added, "She's been acting weird ever since Bon Bon died."

Twilight was curious.  "How so?" she inquired.

"Well, for one thing she's only been walking on two legs, and she hasn't been talking, either,  It's..."  Roseluck paused, choosing her words carefully.  "It's unnatural, not socializing like that."

Twilight thought for a bit, and eventually questioned, "Who did you say died again?"

"Bon Bon.  Just last month, too.  It was tragic."

Twilight realized how insensitive her question had been.  "I'm..." she paused, not really knowing what to say next.  "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," Roseluck stated.  "She died fighting."  With that, she walked off.

"Scootaloo! I've been looking all over for you!"

Scootaloo and Twilight were standing on the outskirts of the camp (exactly where Lyra had pointed to) with Applejack.  Twilight rushed forward to the small filly, hugged her, and then asked, "Where have you been?"

Scootaloo suddenly beamed.  "Applejack's gonna teach me how to shoot Trotters!"

Twilight looked at Applejack and declared, "Absolutely not!  Do you know how dangerous those things are? I swear, they could probably-"

Twilight was interrupted by Applejack, who was waving her hoof dismissively.  "Nah," she assured Twilight, "we were gonna use targets, y'know, just for practice."

"Oh," said Twilight with a sigh of relief.  After a moment of consideration, she asked, "Can I come along, too?"

"Sure!" Applejack responded.  "Jus' make sure to bring yer-"

Before Applejack knew it, Twilight Sparkle had teleported back to her tent, grabbed her revolver (and holster), and teleported back.

"Well," Applejack said, a little startled by Twilight's display of magic, "Yer...  Yer all set now, aren't ya?"

BANG!

"Yer better than I'd thought you'd be, Twilight; that's a perfect headshot!"

Twilight smiled at her friend, Applejack.  They, and Scootaloo, were all at the firing range, shooting at dummies.  "Thanks!"

"Ooh!  Ooh!  I wanna try!"

Applejack looked at Scootaloo, who jumping up and down in a mixture of excitement and anticipation.  "Now hold on there, nellie!  First, ya need to know some things."

Scootaloo stopped jumping and listened to Applejack.

"Scoots, Ah know yer probably real excited, but this thing here," Applejack glanced at the rifle she had brought, which was poking out of her saddlebag, "it's not a toy.  Now I want ya to know that if Ah -er any of the other adults- catch ya usin' this like it was one, then you'd be in a whole mess of trouble, no kiddin'.  It's dangerous, and it can -and will- kill.  Ya got that?"

The orange filly nodded her head and delivered a slightly comforting, "Yeah, okay."

Applejack apparently thought that that was good enough, and, with her mouth, brought her rifle out from its storage.  Handing it to Scootaloo, she taught the young filly how to hold it in her mouth and fire with her tongue.

"Dsh ish rely herd!" admitted Scootaloo as she attempted to hold the semiautomatic weapon in her mouth.  It seemed ridiculously disproportional compared to the filly's small head.

"Ya get used to it eventually.  Go 'head, try to hit that target over there."

Scootaloo swiveled her head over to the target until the barrel of the rifle was lined up with the target's head.

"Okay, now just stick out yer tongue, find the trigger, and-"

BANG!

Scootaloo had fired.  Given her nature, she had thought that she'd be some sort of prodigy.  The reality, however, did not agree with her thoughts; the purple-maned filly had missed by several meters, hitting not the target, but instead a tree off to the side.

"That's great!" exclaimed a cheerful Applejack.

Twilight chimed in, "Better than my first shot!"

Scootaloo couldn't tell if they were being sincere or just trying to lift her spirits.  She, in fact, had been disappointed with herself; she wasn't getting a marksmanship cutie mark anytime soon.

"Oh, don't look so down," said Twilight.  Apparently Scootaloo's disappointment had shown on her face.  "That was a great shot, especially for someone your age."

The small pegasus looked up to the mare that was smiling down at her.  "You really think so?" she asked nervously.

"Of course I do!  Everything takes practice!  Now, come on, let's try that again."

Scootaloo picked Applejack's rifle back up with her mouth, lined the barrel up with the target's head, and, with a new found confidence, fired.

BANG!

This time, the bullet did manage to find its way into the target.

"Hey, Applejack, what's that over there?"

Applejack glanced over to where the lavender mare was pointing.  "That's a..."  She strained her eyes to see whatever Twilight was pointing at.  "Oh, that's a Trotter!"

Twilight had to fight the urge to run away from the whole situation, and instead levitated her revolver out from her holster.  She was preparing to fire when Applejack spoke.

"Wait, Twilight, let Scoots try."

"Huh?"  Twilight was confused.  "Isn't that dangerous?  I thought we weren't going to use live targets."

"Don't be such a hardflank, Twi.  Plus, Ah can always jus' shoot it in the head if it gets too close."  Applejack then looked at Scootaloo.  "Come on," she prodded, "go 'head an' shoot it!"

Scootaloo once again picked up the rifle and fired three shots.  The first one missed completely, hitting a nearby bush.  The second hit the Trotter in the chest, pushing it back a little bit (the rifle did have some stopping power).  The third hit the Trotter in the head, effectively killing it.

"Good job, Scoots!" exclaimed Applejack.  "Ya might even be good enough to be a guard one night, give Dash a break!"

"Did you see that?  Did you see that?  I shot a Trotter!"

Twilight sighed.  Scootaloo and her were in their tent, and, once again, she was exhausted; Twilight may be a superior unicorn (in magic terms), but levitating objects all day had taken its toll.  "Yes, Scootaloo," she patiently said, "I was there."

"Wasn't it great?!"

Twilight briefly wondered, Why is she this excited?  It wasn't that great of an achievement...  Then she remembered that her orange friend had never been good at much of anything.  She suddenly felt guilty, dismissing her shot like that.

"Well?" Scootaloo asked.

Twilight had a habit of getting lost in her own thoughts, and right now it wasn't helping.  "Yes, Scoots," Twilight said, adopting Applejack's nickname for the small filly, "I think that that shot was even better than Applejack's shots.  But please, right now can we get some sleep?"

"Not until you tell me what happened yesterday at the search party."

Twilight was reminded of what she told the filly the other night.  "Can't we do it some other day?" she asked.

Scootaloo was persistent.  "No, you promised!"

The unicorn sighed.  Scootaloo wasn't letting up.  She was going to have to tell her that story, no matter how tired she was.  "Well, fine then.  But after this you're going to have to go to sleep."

Scootaloo nodded her head and urged Twilight to tell her about the search she had conducted.

"Wow, can I come along next time?"

Twilight thought about this.  She had just finished telling her story, and while it was boring in her opinion, in Scootaloo's it was apparently very interesting.  "Sure," she agreed.  "I mean, if it's okay with everypony else.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo yelled.

Twilight shushed the filly.  Once she was quiet, Twilight opened up the covers for Scootaloo to slide in.  After the young pegasus had gotten in, she got in as well.  They prepared to go to bed.

"Good night, Scoots."

"Good night, Mom."