Part VII

As Terra and Little D walked towards town he couldn’t help but smile. “Well here’s some good news,” he thought. “Two of the element’s like me, I got a cool new pet, and it’s going to rain soon,” he looked up and smiled. “I love the rain,” he whispered to himself. “How about you, Terra? Do you like the rain?” She responded by ruffling up her feathers and letting out a low croak. “No?” he asked her, making her shake her head again. “But it’s so relaxing,” he protested. “It sounds amazing and leaves the world looking all nice and clean.”

Terra tweeted again. “Come on, lightning isn’t that scary. In fact, I rather like lightning, really pretty, nice and bright, and I’m having an argument with a bird,” he said and slapped himself. “I need more social interaction with regular people,” he mumbled. Terra looked at him and pecked his ear. “AH! Hey!” he yelped, more out of annoyance than in pain. “Why’d you do that?” he complained with a slight laugh. She looked at him skeptically. “Yeah, ok, ok,” he said with a nod. They kept walking down the simple dirt path in relative silence. D stopped in his tracks when he heard a twig snap in the brush to his right.

“Hmm?” muttered D. “Eh. Who’s there?” he asked the shrubs lazily. He uttered a low sigh and started back on his walk. “Guess it was just an animal or something. What do you think Terra?” D asked his bird as he kept his pace back towards town, all the while talking to Terra.

“Dammit!” cursed a man to himself. “I can’t believe I was almost spotted, just when I was about to get the jump on ‘em too.” He popped his knuckles, a nervous habit that he never could quite kick. “Those glasses must be worth a fortune, and that bird would fetch a handsome price too.” He grinned to himself, confident of his own abilities. “Now, where are you gonna be?” he thought aloud and began creeping after his future victim.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“Come one, come all!” shouted Applebloom. “Only a few apples left, and at a great price too!” In a rare occurrence, the apple stand was almost completely empty. Only three shiny red apples and one apple turnover remained. “Sis, can ya believe it? We’re almost completely sold out!” Applejack chuckled and smiled.

“Sure are, Applebloom,” she said happily. “An’ it’s all thanks ta’ Lil’ D.” After what D had done for them Applejack couldn’t even remember why she felt so poorly towards him. She was reminded quickly, however, when she spotted him walking towards her. “Oh yeah,” she shuddered. “That’s why.”

“Hey ladies,” he shouted cheerily. “How’s it going?” Applebloom, Scootaloo and a new girl beamed at him. “Hello there young lady, who might you be?”

“I’m Sweetie Belle,” she said. “You’re Little D right? Applebloom and Scootaloo have been talking about you all morning. You brought in all this business, right?”

D looked at the now empty stand and chuckled. “Yeah I guess so,” he said. “Oh right, girls, this is Terra,” He gestured to his shoulder to his bird, only to see her hiding in his long bangs. “What are you doing in there, dear?” he asked her as he reached in and grabbed her. “No need to be shy.” he held the terrified bird in front of the Crusaders, making them gasp in awe.

“Woah!” ooed Applebloom. “Ah’ve never seen a bird that big before.”

“Yeah!” chimed in Scootaloo. “What kind of bird is it?”

“Looks like a really big raven,” said Sweetie Belle. “She’s beautiful.” Terra looked at Sweetie Belle for a second before she plucked a black feather out of her wing and held it out for Sweetie. “Awww, thank you Terra,” said Sweetie kindly as she examined it. “Wow. It’s so shiny.” She put the feather behind her ear and scratched Terra under her beak, causing her to make little cooing sounds.

“Now where in tarnation didja get that bird, D?” asked Applejack skeptically.

“‘Where’d I get this birdy?’” he repeated, chuckling a little at his cheap pun. “Well I was taking a little break in a meadow when this little rabbit stole my sunglasses, so I ran after him and found this really cool animal sanctuary thing ran by this really cute girl named Fluttershy and-”

“You met Fluttershy?” Applejack asked alarmed. “You, uh, didn’t scare her or anything right?”

“Course not,” replied D with a smile as he let Terra hop back up his arm and rest on his shoulder. “In fact I think we really hit it off. So anyway, I went up to her and we started talking and she mentioned that she had this shy little bird hanging around her yard and she just flew down to me and started singing. Didn’t you girl?” In response, Terra let out several sweet notes and looked up at D happily. “Yeah, just like that,” he said and patted her on the head.

“So, you just took this bird outta’ Fluttershy’s yard?” asked Applejack suspiciously.

“No, I asked Fluttershy if I could take Terra here off her hands and Fluttershy really seemed to be all for it, and that’s the story of how I got a rare giant raven as a pet.” He beamed proudly at his bird. “So anyway, what happens now that the stand is empty?” D asked.

“Oh, well, uh, I guess we can pack things up and head out,” said Applejack as she stood up from her chair. She gathered up the empty baskets and handed them to the crusaders. She walked over to the chest full of bits and tugged at the handle with a grunt. “Well look at that,” she said with a smile. “Did so well today that I can hardly move the chest.” D smiled and walked over to her.

“Here, let me help you out with that,” said D helpfully as he pushed past the farmer. He grabbed both handles and lifted it up without so much as a grunt. “Heh, collected a fair bit of cash huh?” he said as he shook the chest with a jingle. “Let’s go,” he smiled and took a few steps in a general direction before stopping. “I completely forgot that I have no idea where anything is,” he said with a sheepish smile. The crusaders let out a series of giggles before Applebloom walked up to D and grabbed him by the arm.

“Th’ farm’s this way,” she said as she led D away from the booth. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed after them. Apple looked at the girls quickly flocking around D and smiled a bit.

“He ain’t too bad Ah guess. Least he ain’t violent,” she said to herself, but she still couldn’t shake that bad feeling from earlier.

“Ya’ comin’ sis?” shouted Applebloom.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in just a second!” she hollered back. She double checked everything to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything, then set off after her sister’s friends. When she caught up with them, the crusaders were throwing a volley of questions at Little D, to which he would answer vaguely. The questions themselves were rather vague to begin with, being about where he’s from or what he’s been doing. It wasn’t until they got a half mile away from the gates of town that they started asking him about his mark.

“When did you get your cutie mark?” Asked Applebloom.

“A while ago,” he responded pleasantly

“What was it in?” asked Sweetie Belle

“Wasn’t fishing I can tell you that,” he said with a smile.

“What do you mean?” inquired Scootaloo

“It just means I’m no fisherman, but my brother and I did try once,” he said with a dark chuckle. “The bastard used me as bait.” The girls gasped at that. “What? Oh right, pardon my language.”

“Your brother used you as shark bait?” asked Sweetie in horror. “That’s terrible!”

“Nah,” he chuckled. “It would only be bad if I died, but I came out just fine, both physically....” he paused and tilted his head. Terra shuffled a bit in place a looked about nervously. “Well that’s not right,” he said quietly. He turn around and frowned deeply. “That’s not right at all.” The girls turned around to see what D was looking at and found a short thin man dressed in all black clothes and a black hat roughly ten yards away. “And just what are you?” D asked the man.

“I’m Swift Hand!” he sneered. “Master thief feared throughout all of Equestria. Now gimmie all your cash.” The crusaders shrank back in fear.

“Well that’s a little blunt, don’t you think?” asked Little D as he set down the chest of bits. “Sneaking up on us,” He looked at the girls and started walking towards the thief, “three little girls, and two adults that can surely best the likes of an unarmed thug.”

“A fool like you would think I was unarmed.” Swift Hand chuckled grimly. His hand shot to his side and grasped a knife that was hidden in it’s sheath, pulling it out and pointing it threateningly at D.

“Right, so you thought you could just rob five people with your dinky little knife, and run off into the trees, is that it?” he smirked a little. “Have you ever done something like this before?”

“Wha-OF COURSE I HAVE!” screamed the thief. “I’m standing here pointing a knife at you and you dare mock me? What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with you?” D asked coldly. “I’ve met thieves pal, and you’re no thief. You’re a mere roadside thug.” He kept his pace towards the thief, who began shuffling back nervously. “A thief would’ve already made off with my money right now without me even knowing. A thief would know better than to steal from an unknown target in broad daylight. A thief wouldn’t dare wave a knife as a threat. You are no thief.” D was roughly a foot away from Swift Hand and towered over him. “You are a thug with no refutable talents. Now it’d be in your best interests if I don’t see your mug again,” he warned, eliciting another cocky sneer from the ‘Master Thief.’

“Oh yeah, and just what are you going to do about it?” Swift boasted.

“Plenty,” said D cooley as he popped neck. “But I would just hate to ruin my spotless reputation in front of my new friends.”

“Oh, afraid to get violent huh?” asked Swift with mock pity. “Then it’s good luck for me!” The thief lunged out at D with his knife quickly, but D grabbed his wrist and twisted it sharply, forcing Swift to drop the knife.

“Yeah, I don’t like spooking people like that, but if you insist,” said D as he peeked over his shoulder. “Hey girls, wanna see a magic trick? I can make this guy disappear.” Before anyone could answer, D shifted his weight to his back foot while at the same time he reached down and grabbed Swift’s ankle. “Hope you’re not afraid of flying,” said D as he began spinning in spot.

“What are you doing?” shouted Swift as he tried to fight his rising nausea as he was spun faster and faster. “Let go!”

“Well, since you asked so nicely....” With one final spin, D let go of Swift’s arm and leg, sending him flying far, far away with a classic fading yell. D lifted a hand to his eyes and smiled widely. “Dang. How far would you girls say he went? One, maybe one and a half miles?” He let out a hearty laugh then sighed deeply. “Ah, let’s go.” The girls looked at him mouths agape as he casually strolled past them and picked up the chest.

“Woah,” gaped Scootaloo. “THAT WAS SO COOL!” She ran up to D and looked up at him with eyes full of awe. “Where’d you learn how to do that?” she asked.

“Physics 101 and advanced gym class,” D replied with a sarcastic smirk. He resumed his leisurely pace and looked back at Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Applejack. “Did I really leave you girls too stunned to move?” he chuckled to himself.

“Come on girls,” said Scootaloo excitedly as she pulled on the arms of her fellow crusaders. “Let’s get going. Maybe we can get him to teach us how he threw that guy so far.” Sweetie and Applebloom grinned ear to ear and followed after D again, asking him even more questions.

“How did you spin that fast?” asked Applebloom.

“How did you do that?” Scootaloo inquired.

“Are you some sort of superhero?” quizzed Sweetie Belle.

“Too many questions!” D yelled humorously. “What about you Applejack? I’m sure you have plenty to ask me.”

“What are you?” she asked almost in a whisper making D stop in his tracks and look behind him with a sly little grin.

“That’s a secret,” he replied softly. Applejack could swear that she saw fire flickering behind those lenses. “But don’t worry Applejack. If you’re patient, you just might find out. But that time won’t come any faster if we just stand around here, so let’s get going, eh?” He faced forward again and set of back down the path. “Come along everyone. It’ll rain soon and I’d hate to have you all travel in poor weather and risk getting a cold.”

“Ok D,” replied the crusaders happily as they trotted next to him.

Applejack lingered for a second because, for a split second, she thought she saw something bulge out underneath the back of his shirt.

“Things are gettin’ stranger and stranger,” she muttered to herself as she set off towards her farm.

Author's Note

I has an update for all four of you.