The Wrong Stallion

Wright awoke suddenly when the door to the guest room opened. He sat up to see 3 shadowed figures standing in the doorway, “Don’t make a sound” said a muffled voice. “Did Flim and Flam send you?” Wright asked as they stepped forward into the light protruding through the window. They were masked and they wore ridiculous capes with some sort of logo inscribed on the cape.

“No, we are here to take you in” one of the figures informed Wright, Wright simply chuckled “So Celestia sent you, shoulda known it was stupid to stay too long in one place” Wright muttered. They walked up to the edge of the bed “Come with us… oh and try not tah wake any-pony, sis gets made when we’re up late” said a southern voice. “Wait… Applebloom?” Wright exclaimed, “Ah said hush” she ordered him and Wright chuckled “Alright… take me away” he muttered and they all snuck outside.

Closing the front door behind him he looked to the 3 cloaked figures “Alright, what’s the deal?” Wright asked curiously, wondering why exactly Applebloom and 2 other fillies had ordered him to go with them. “Follow us” one of the figures said and Wright obliged willingly, still wanting to know what exactly the meaning of all this was.

They led him far away from the farm house and into a forested area, then finally they came to a stop in front of a wooden tree fort. “Nice place” Wright commented, “Inside” Applebloom ordered, Wright rolled his eyes and followed them inside.

They closed the door behind them and a dimly lit light somewhat illuminated the play house, they all removed their masks, revealing to be Applebloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo. “You are now in the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse and you will” Sweetie Bell began but Wright flicked on a light switch and the entire clubhouse lit up. “Hey turn that off” Scootaloo yelled, Wright shrugged and flicked the light back off.

“As I was saying, you are now in the sacred Cutie Mark Crusader” Sweetie Bell began “We have brought you here tonight because you are blank flanked”, Wright let out an embarrassed sigh. He was indeed blank flanked and was teased about it during the war, because every other soldier had their cutie mark but Wright had never gotten one and just figured that he’d never get one and eventually when he became a hero the teasing stopped but now 3 fillies were teasing him.

“Hey, don’t you dare start this crap, I’ve been teased about it before and I don’t need to be reminded that” Wright began but the 3 fillies flipped their capes up, revealing that they too were blank flanked. “You see Mr. Wright our cause is to help ponies without their cutie mark to find the thing they’re good at” Scootaloo said, “And we” Sweetie Bell began but Applebloom interrupted her “Will yah join us” she blurted out. Sweetie Bell shot her an annoyed look “Applebloom, you interrupted me” Sweetie Bell said with an annoyed tone. “Oops sorry” Applebloom apologized, “It’s okay” Sweetie Bell turned back to Wright who had begun to drift off. “HEY” Sweetie bell scowled and Wright immediately sat up in attention “What… wait I… oh yeah” Wright said in confusion as he remembered what had happened.

“As we were saying will you join the Cutie Mark Crusaders in their quest to find our true special talent” Sweetie Bell asked, “Yeah sure whatever can I go back to sleep now” Wright agreed to the terms rather bluntly. “No” Applebloom began and Wright rolled his eyes, “Ah know that yer goin tah fight Flim and Flam and from what ah heard they ain’t exactly unarmed” Applebloom informed Wright. “Hey I told you that” Scootaloo argued, “Well duh, ah just said ah heard it, not ah seen it” Applebloom argued back then turned to Wright. “We have a deal for you if you agree to come back when you’re done and help our cause” Sweetie Bell offered, “Alright… what’s the deal?” Wright asked and they pointed outside a window to a pile off metal and a body frame for some sort of carriage.

“We’ll help you defeat the brothers so they can’t hurt no-pony anymore” Scootaloo said and they all proceeded
outside. “What is this… what’re we gonna do drop this on their building and hope it kills them?” Wright asked sarcastically, “No, we’re going to make a trap” Scootaloo informed Wright. “Okay how?” Wright asked curiously as he started sorting through the scrap metal. “Well yah see, back when the brothers came here they were interested in our farm, so we figured send them this giant apple as a sign of truce… with yah inside it” Applebloom informed Wright who chuckled “A Trojan horse… brilliant” Wright laughed.

“No… a Trojan apple” Applebloom laughed, Wright laughed as well. “Okay… so how do we do this?” Wright asked curiously and out of nowhere Scootaloo pulled out a welder. “We build a giant apple outta all this” Applebloom said and Wright picked up a piece of metal scrap, “Alright… let’s do it”

* * *

Within a few hours they had completely built a fine looking apple carriage out of scrap metal and even painted it. “Only one problem, once I’m inside I’m gonna be seriously out gunned and when those sides on the carriage flip down it ain’t gonna be a sitting duck” Wright told them. “Oh don’t worry yourself, I have just the thing” Scootaloo said as she led Wright back to the clubhouse, but rather than go inside she led him underneath to a secret passageway in the tree itself. “Fluttershy showed us how to make the inside of the tree into an addition of the clubhouse, but this part is really secret and only we know about it… well and Fluttershy” Sweetie Bell informed him as they entered the secret passageway.

Scootaloo moved a small bookshelf revealing a small room with an object that was covered by a tarp. “Alright I’ll bite… what’s the object under the tarp?” Wright asked suspiciously, figuring it would be some stupid contraption, like maybe self-propelled wings or something. Scootaloo ripped the tarp off revealing an old 10 barreled crank-operated Gatling gun.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… okay where the hell’d yah get that thing” Wright asked, confused in how 3 young fillies owned a friggin Gatling gun. “Oh well we were crusading through the Everfree and we found this thing in an old military base that was abandoned so we decided to take it” Scootaloo informed him. Wright looked at the Gatling gun and cranked it, it worked like it was brand new.

He picked up the gun and put it on his shoulders “Got any ammo?”