Equestria: Underground Assualt

"Scootaloo," There's that angelic voice again. It's always calling out to the young pegasus in her dreams. Scootaloo could feel the angel's hooves caressing her side, making her sigh with relaxation. "You have to get up."

"Don't wanna." Scootaloo mumbled, grunting as the hooves starting poking her. Suddenly, the dream didn't seem much like a dream anymore.

"She's not waking up, is she?" Who's that? It sounded like an older colt's, or a young stallion at most. 'Come to think of it,' Scootaloo thought, still sluggish as she tried to open her eyes. 'This doesn't feel like my bed either.'

"No, she isn't waking up at all Winky." A colt named Winky. That made Scootaloo snort with amusement as she stretched, yawning soon after. But then, she felt something pulling at her tail.

"Letsh just drag her outta bed then!" With a slightly painful tug, Scootaloo was hoisted into the air, somepony carrying her by her tail to... somewhere. She, meanwhile, was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she slowly felt around with her hindhooves. If this was somepony she knew closely, Scootaloo didn't want to end up apologizing later. Whoever was carrying her does seem to have quite the bulk. A stallion, not unlike Big Mac.

"Let's go you two. Welcome, to your new life." There's Winky again. And to a new life? How long has Scootaloo been asleep? It was then, when Scootaloo's memories of the previous night returned. Flashes of her in the clubhouse, zooming to the station and then being... picked up by two very strange stallions, one of which she was probably being carried by. Thinking, her panic evaporated. The two did seem to have good intentions, as they didn't hurt the Crusaders at all. Not yet anyway.

Just then, things got much brighter for Scootaloo's eyes, even though they were closed. The group must be just coming out of the train.

"Whoa!" That's Sweetie Belle, isn't it? Everything in Stalliongrad must be quite sparkly and clean, or maybe dreadfully dirty by the way she sounded.

"Everything's so... big!" Hm, Apple Bloom seems surprised. Maybe she has't been to any big cities like everypony else.

'Everybody.' A new, small voice inside her head whispered.' Don't want to be making that mistake of being racist, do you?''

Scootaloo shook her head. After what happened last night, she'll make a point to be careful about what she said from now on. There was only a spare few other species that even visited Ponyville, and that was for sure donkeys. There's even one that had been in Ponyville for years and that was Matilda. Matilda's a nice donkey from what the Crusaders heard from Pinkie Pie when she goes on a "never-stop-talking" tangent.

"Scootaloo, wake up." Hood Wink muttered, poking at the upside-down filly with a careful hoof. "Come on, Pap's coming, and she'll never accept you if you're asleep when she sees you!"

"Pap?" Came the muffled reply from Shady Deal while Scootaloo stretched, trying to wake herself up. "Surely you mean-Ooh!" The filly became confused at this. Pap? Now that name just doesn't make any sense at all. Usually, pony names are used so that it would match a cutie mark.

The next unwelcome surprise is when Shady dropped Scootaloo on what seemed to be cement. Nevermind her hurt pride at being carried by her tail, the new bump on her head feels like it could turn into a unicorn's horn if it gets any longer.

In a few quick seconds, Scootaloo had managed to get on her hooves and whirled around on the pegasus. "What the hay!? You don't just drop a filly on her head to wake her up!" Even with one eye open, Scootaloo could see that the stallion wasn't bothered by her words. As she opened her mouth to start yelling at him again, the filly noticed that he was partially hiding Apple Bloom behind him while Hood Wink spoke to her in a hushed tone.

"Don't talk at all until we say you can," He was saying, "we don't want you to get hurt." Things were getting weird. Well, weirder. Let's see, run away from home, get picked up by two stallions, go to another part of Equestria, the names, and now they don't want Apple Bloom to talk. 'Just what is the problem here?' Scootaloo asked herself mentally. 'It's not like nopo- nobody would hurt an innocent filly, right?

A mare's voice interupted her thoughts. "There you are! Starbuster sent me to force you two to get your motherfu- who are these three?" Scootaloo turned around more slowly this time to make sure she wasn't dizzy as she looked at the newcomer.

It was a neon green earth pony mare, with a midnight green mane that looked like it had highlights. The mane reminded Scootaloo of someone else's mane. It was strickingly similar to Apple Bloom's. Had this mare had a cream coat and red mane she would've mistaken her for Apple Bloom's older look-a-like sister. And if she had a cutie mark with something related to apples. This pony had a stethescope for a cutie mark, signalling she was a doctor.

"Ah Pap!" Hood Wink hastily walked up beside me, bearing a strange smile. "These three are called Scootaloo," He ruffled Scootaloo's mane, which earned him a glare from the small pegasus. "The little unicorn is Sweetie Belle. And the earth filly is called-" He hesitated for a moment. "Crimson Cream."

'Pap' raised an eyebrow at the stallion, and looked over the three fillies. "Crimson Cream huh? I thought -ahem- somebody took care the Crimsons a few years ago." Her eyes lingered on Apple Bloom, who seemed to stiffen up at the attention. "Doesn't seem to be one of them by just judgin' her body language and coat." After a few seconds she rolled her eyes. "She's young yet, and could possibly be a distant cousin. She passes. For now anyway."

Hood Wink relaxed at that moment as Pap grumbled, searching through her saddle bags which surprised Scootaloo. She swore she didn't she them before. But then again, Scootaloo was just waking up after all.

The mare threw a large pouch over Hood Wink to Shady Deal. "There's your motherf-feathering pay for your mission. Don't spend it all in one place." Does she always stutter like that, or was she going to say a bad word? 'Hard to say,' The voice said, 'You shouldn't trust her anyhow. You're out of Central Equestria remember?'

'You talk as if we're on a whole 'nother continent.' Scootaloo replied to the voice. To her surprise, it talked back to her. 'You are on another continent. You'll be surprised at how much is different.' It paused, before letting out a sigh. 'You can only hope that you'll be able to survive.'

'Wait!' Scootaloo called out to whoever was speaking. But wether the voice heard her or not, it wasn't letting her know. It bothered the speedster, just knowing she had heard the voice before, even if it didn't remotely sound like anyone she knew. But there were more pressing matters at hoof, as the mare called Pap was looking straight at her expectedly.

"W-what is it?" Scootaloo asked, the penetrating gaze making her feel so... vunerable. And much smaller than she already was. Was this how Apple Bloom felt when the mare was staring at her?

"I asked you, is it true that you can't fly despite your age?" Ah, Scootaloo must've missed a big part of the conversation if she was asking about her wings. Not eager to possibly annoy this intidating mare, Scootaloo nodded.

"Tch," Wrong move, Pap already sounded irritated. "Why did you even bring these three here? They won't be of any use."

Shady Deal stepped up on Scootaloo's other side, his wing hugging the filly protectively. "They are just fillies, you can't expect them to have especially spectacular talents." He rolled his eyes at Pap, who shook her head at his words.

"You also can't expect Starbuster to accept them and possibly risk blowing the whole thing up!" Pap raised a fore hoof making Scootaloo flinch further into Shady Deal's wing clutch, which seemed so much more welcoming than this dangerous mare. The voice was right, Pap could not be trusted. It was also wrong to have run away. Why didn't they just have stayed in Ponyville? They were safe from any sort of harm there.

Scootaloo's fears were unfounded as Pap simply came closer to the pegasus so that she was right in his face. "Even if they were recommended by you two pyro dancers, she'll never think to put foals in dangers anyway." She snorted, backing off. "She's a total sap like that. Put something that remarkably resembles cute in her path and she'll make sure it doesn't get hurt."

"And there's your answer." Hood Wink said, a smug look on his face. "They won't be in any sort of danger if they are just going to train. Also, it's pyromancers." Pap had a look of shock, before it gave to anger.

"You're going to be sorry when they get killed on their first mission." She smirked when the stallions showed the signs of shock and slight panic. She turned her back on the now fearful group, snickering as she trotted away.

But before she got out of hearing range she turned her head back towards them. "Get a move on before Cheer Seed closes his resturant. He'll want to meet the new dogfood as well." With that, Pap left. Scootaloo felt she wasn't supposed to her that hushed arguement, even though Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had heard that last part.

Suddenly, what little excitement at moving Scootaloo felt had disappeared, leaving a sense of dread and longing for Ponyville, where there was no danger to behold, and everyone was trustworthy. Mostly anyway.

There wasn't anything to be done now, as it was too late to go back to the way things were. That was true for the ones back at Ponyville, where everybody was hurrying to solve this case, and all the evidence was pointing to The Crusaders as the biggest criminals on that continent.