//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: The Backpack // Story: The Three Strange Ponies // by Kama and Hallie //------------------------------// The three fillies continued venturing towards the Everfree, passing Fluttershy's cottage which they could tell was empty. They arrived at the entrance of the forest, a little hesitant to enter at first, but decided to continue immediately. They ventured through the forest, unable to tell how long they've been doing it, but they knew they couldn't have been there too long, they needed to beat Question Mark anyway so they made sure it stayed that way. So far, they couldn't find anything, it was ridiculous to assume they could easily find an item like a backpack in a place like the Everfree, but they were determined to beat the white colt so they can teach him some manners, literally that is. Though it was a little odd how they saw no signs of the colt or his friends attempting to find the thing, they shrugged it off and focused on finding the backpack that Question Mark was looking for in the first place. "Ugh, this is taking forever! How are we gonna find Question Mark's backpack here? It could be anywhere." Sweetie Belle complained. "Sweetie's right, Scoots. How're we supposed ta find that thing? We could search fer days an' not turn up with anythin'." Applebloom backed up her friend's complaint. "Ugh. Look, I know it's gonna be really hard looking for that backpack, I'm really not enjoying this too. But if finding that backpack's what it takes to make that colt stop being a jerk and find out more about him and his friends then it'll be worth it." Scootaloo reassured. "Ah hope yer right, Scoots." Applebloom said with no enthusiasm. After who knows how long of the three fillies just checking behind every bush, rock, tree, but still couldn't find anything. They were considering giving up and letting the colt win, but a miracle happened. "Guys! Look! I found it!" Sweetie Belle shouted happily, poking out from behind a bush holding the backpack in her hooves. "Really?!" Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly, then she and Applebloom quickly rushed over to where Sweetie Belle was. "Are ya sure it's Question Mark's? What if it's somepony else's backpack that got dropped around 'ere?" Applebloom asked looking at the backpack as she and Scootaloo surrounded the backpack to take a closer look. "Yes! Look, it says so right here!" Sweetie Belle pointed out while smiling, in front of the backpack there was a green question mark surrounded by drawings of weird objects that the fillies didn't recognize, and below them was a small written note also written in green marker on the backpack that says: "(Do not touch or imma fuckin' kill you)", which kind of made the fillies wince a little, but then again most teenagers liked to write something like that on their personal property so it wasn't a big deal. "Boy, this bag is heavy. What's inside it, anyway?" Sweetie Belle said while trying to lift the bag up. Scootaloo just stared at the bag for a few seconds, thinking carefully before the words came out of her mouth. "How 'bout we check out what's inside?" "What? Scootaloo, it's rude ta look through a colt's property. Well, anypony, really, but especially colts." Applebloom decided against the orange filly's idea. "Yeah, but don't you guys also think that that colt and his friends are kinda weird?" Scootaloo asked in defense. "Well, they did say some things that don't make any sense. But just because somepony doesn't act like what we consider 'normal' doesn't automatically mean they're bad." Sweetie Belle reasoned. "Ugh, Sweetie Belle, you know that's not what I mean!" Scootaloo said. "I mean, I can't be the only one who feels like there's something off about them." "Yeah, they kinda are. They must be from outta town, 'cause Ah've never seen them before. Maybe when we see them again we can ask where they're from!" Applebloom suggested. "We could, but what if they don't tell us anything? From what I've seen, Question Mark seems pretty secretive, so even if we do ask, there's a chance they're not gonna say anything anyway." Scootaloo decided against it. "You're just looking for an excuse to look inside the backpack, aren't you." Sweetie Belle said with an unamused tone. "Alright, fine! I confess, I just really wanna know what's in there." Scootaloo admitted frustratingly. "Do y'all really think it's worth it? What if he finds out?" Applebloom asked, still very hesitant. "We'll just have to be really careful not to leave a trace. Simple." Scootaloo shrugged. "But don'tcha think it's better ta let Question Mark ta tell us 'imself? That way we can actually hear tha full story straight from the horse's mouth and we don' end up bein' untrustworthy and they won't wanna be our friend? Is looking in the bag really worth that much?" Applebloom asked. The three fillies looked at each other than at the backpack, as differing thoughts raced through their heads, deciding what to do next. At an outdoor restaurant table in Ponyville, the three strangers were relaxing and enjoying the drinks they ordered while bathing in the sun. The white colt ordered a sweet iced tea, the pink filly ordered her third serving of milkshake (it seemed she wanted to try every flavor in the menu), and the scrawny stallion ordered a soda, although he barely touched it. The stallion seemed more interested in wooing any mare that was in his line of sight mostly to failure. The colt seemed to enjoy watching the events unfold. "Hey, check it out. He's gonna say something really stupid." the colt gestured to the filly toward the stallion on the other side of the table. The stallion spoke to a mare at the table next to them. "Hey, girl. Did you fall from Heaven?" he asked. "Oh, haha, thanks." the mare giggled, liking the fact a stallion was complimenting her looks. "'Cause your makeup is all messed up. Like jeez, you should get that fixed." the stallion pointed out, which did not make the mare happy. She grabbed her glass and threw it on the stallion's face, making his head all wet. Some of the mares who interacted with the stallion laughed, while most of the bar just gave disapproving glares and scolded the mare for acting that way toward a stallion who merely said something that was not even that mean. A mare walked up to the scrawny white stallion. "Hey, are you okay? That glass didn't hurt you too much, did it?" the mare asked. "Uh...no, I'm fine. It happens to me a lot." the stallion answered awkwardly, not knowing how to process this random mare's kindness to him. "Oh, dear. Well, be careful, okay? There's a lot of dangerous mares out there that could hurt you if you're not careful with who you talk to." the mare warned with a soft voice. "Boy, do a lot of people need that advice." the white colt said from behind the stallion. "Uh, sure. Thanks for the heads up." the stallion smiled, the mare smiled back before walking away. The skinny stallion turned back to his two foal companions. "Did you guys see that?! That chick asked me if I was okay! I think I'm making progress here!" he announced excitedly. "Nah, she just got lucky by cutting the interaction short. A second longer and she would've smashed a bottle on your head." the colt mocked, which gained him a smack on the shoulders by the pink filly. "I guess this proves if I keep trying, I'll find the right one! Sure it'll be the millionth attempt, but I'm sure of it!" the stallion said confidently. After some silence, the colt spoke this time. "Mmm, wow, this iced tea is good. I should steal this recipe and make it for my mom, she'll be so happy." "You make iced tea for your mom, that's so sweet." the pink filly said. "Eh, yeah, I guess. But once I make this one for her, she'll be complimenting me and asking me for more for a week straight, which I'd consider a big accomplishment." the colt said. "Wait, did you bring any money?" the colt asked the stallion. "No, I thought you had it." the stallion said nervously. "Me? Of course I don't have any! Paying for stuff is your job!" the colt scolded. "Oh, shit. I forgot to ask that purple unicorn chick for some money, I didn't wanna look bad." "You already did, asking for some extra cash wouldn't have made a difference!" "God, and all our money is in your backpack." "Even if we did have it, our money's useless here!" "God, what are we gonna do? They're gonna chase us down! I don't wanna go to jail!" the white stallion panicked. "Oh, wait! I have an idea! Hey, waitress! Can I borrow some pen and paper?!" the colt shouted at a waitress passing by, and she gave him what he needed. The colt tried writing on it but was having a hard time doing so. "For fuck's sake, how do you write?!" the colt growled under his breath, writing with his forehooves as best he could. "I saw some ponies who wrote with their mouth, maybe you could try that." the filly suggested. "Jesus, I look like a cripple now." the colt grumbled as he placed the pen between his teeth. It wasn't any easier, but he finally got the job done. He left the note on the table and got up, his two companions following his lead. "Let's get outta here!" As the three strangers leave, the waitress went up to the now empty table to collect the payment. But when she got to the table, all she found was a piece of paper with a sloppily hoof and moth-written note that said: "The iced tea is so good, money is not even worth rewarding its deliciousness" with a heart and smiley face at the end. The waitress groaned. "Damn customers, that's the sixth time this week." The three strangers ran as far away from the restaurant as they could, ending up in the middle of a wide street. "Man, that was close." the filly said, a little out of breath. "Hopefully they don't rely on tips to survive here too." the colt said. "Hopefully they don't throw us in jail for this. I don't wanna get raped in prison." the stallion said with a paranoid voice. "I'm sure you'll be fine." the colt said deadpan and frustrated. The stallion breathed a sigh of relief. "Phew, thanks. Wait a minute..." the stallion just realized the implication of what the colt just said. "Hey, those three kids are coming back! It looks like they've got the backpack with them!" the filly pointed to three little forms running toward them. "Quick! We gotta make ourselves exhausted!" the filly commanded. "Why?" the colt asked. "So it looks like we actually tried looking for the backpack too, dummy! Now let's duck behind this building." the filly ran behind a nearby structure and her two friends followed. Once they were hidden, she told them what to do. "Okay, now run in place! Make yourselves sweaty!" Then all three of them ran or actually attempted to run in place, though the other two weren't really enjoying themselves. "Are you serious right now?" the colt asked grumpily. "Yes! We should make sure they feel good about themselves for finding it and don't feel cheated!" the orange-haired filly answered between breaths. "Hey, you know what? We should also make ourselves injured!" the colt exclaimed with a smile. "What?" the tall stallion asked before a hoof from the colt struck him. "OW! What the hell?!" "Bahahaha!" the colt laughed hysterically. "Were you just looking for an excuse to hit me?!" the stallion asked furiously. "I'm pretty sure that's a question that doesn't need to be asked." the colt answered, unfazed by the stallion's anger. "You little shit!" the stallion smacked the colt in the head in return. "Did you jos fookin' hi' me, ma'e?!" the colt shouted, changing his accent for no understandable reason as he hit the stallion back. Then a fight broke out between the teenage white colt and the young scrawny stallion, while the filly just watched in frustration and disappointment. "Guys, can you stop fighting?!" "Shut up, fatass!" the colt hit his filly friend in the head, which actually caused the filly to display a very rare look of rage. "Oh, that's it!" the filly shouted before joining in the fight, as all three ponies just fought dirty with each other. The Crusaders looked all around the street for the ponies they were supposed to meet, they swore they saw them from a distance a minute ago. Then they heard some commotion from an alleyway behind a building nearby, they even saw some ponies looking in to see what in Celestia's name was going on. When they arrived in front of the alleyway, they saw a sight they weren't expecting to see. The three ponies they were supposed to meet were in a pile getting into a brutal hooffight with each other, they could even see some blood on them. "Hey! Stop!" Scootaloo yelled, which did the job of making the three stop fighting and look up at her, it seemed like they were completely oblivious to their surroundings, then they stood up. "What are you doing? Doofus, why are you fighting foals?" "Hey, he started it!" the stallion accused the much younger colt next to him, which gained some weird looks and snickers from the ponies watching the whole ordeal. "Yeah, go ahead! Laugh! You won't be laughing if you had to deal with this kid every day!" "Okay, okay, calm down." Sweetie Belle reassured the tall young stallion. "Let's just all relax and apologize for whatever you guys said to each other." "There's only one guy who needs to apologize around here." Doofus glared at Question Mark, which was surprisingly joined by Smiley Face. "What, man? I was just messin' around, man." the colt said innocently. "Apologize..." Smiley Face ordered slowly, which made Question Mark accept. "Fine...Doofus, I'm sorry. I'm sorry...that you're such a short-fused simpleton! Bahahaha!" the colt laughed hysterically. "I'm short fused?! You're the one who yells at us all the time, you fucking...!" Doofus was about to yell before Sweetie Belle cut in to prevent another fight from happening. "Okay, okay! Let's not fight again!" Sweetie Belle said panicked. "Hey, Question Mark! Guess what? We've found it!" Scootaloo shouted victoriously while holding the colt's backpack high up in the air. "Y'know what that means?" "I can finally get away from you three?" Question Mark said. "No, it means you're gonna stop being such a big jerk! You're gonna stop insulting others and calling ponies names, and the first thing you're gonna do is apologize to Doofus!" Scootaloo pointed at the skinny stallion who smiled smugly at the colt. "Yeah, no. No way." Question Mark said plainly and walked toward his backpack. "Well, too bad." Scootaloo said confidently as the backpack is suddenly enveloped in a light green aura and levitated high enough beyond the colt's reach. Question Mark stared in shock and he looked back to see Sweetie Belle crossing her forehooves and smiling smugly at him as well. "Hey! What are you doing, Marshmallow Brat?! Give that back!" Question Mark yelled as he jumped up attempting to grab the floating backpack a few times before quickly up. "You're gonna have to say sorry to your friend Doofus first, and since you just insulted Sweetie Belle you're gonna have to apologize to her too." the pegasus filly said. "Oh, for fuck's sake! I don't want to!" Question Mark refused. "Apologize." Scootaloo commanded again. "No means no, Bill Cosby!" Question Mark shouted. Scootaloo didn't know what the colt just called her, but it obviously wasn't anything good, so she decided that was the last straw. "Oh, well, then. Guess you won't mind us spilling out the stuff in your backpack." the orange filly gestured to Sweetie Belle as the white unicorn filly used her magic to slowly unzip the backpack. "NO! Alright, jeez, fine, man! I'll do it! God, I'm pretty sure legally...this is blackmail." Question Mark exclaimed. Scootaloo gestured to Sweetie Belle to stop what she was doing to let the colt speak. "Okay, I'm sorry, okay? I was acting like a total dickhead and I shouldn't have, now can we please just move on from this?" Question Mark said to Doofus Dweeb, who looked at him skeptically. "That wasn't a really good apology. But honestly, the fact you actually attempted to apologize for something for once should be considered a miracle in and of itself." the stallion said, which caused the colt to breathe a sigh of relief. Smiley Face even looked at him proudly, as if what he just did was a massive accomplishment. "I suppose that's good enough," Scootaloo said. "Well, here's your backpack." Scootaloo ordered Sweetie Belle to give the backpack back to its rightful owner and the unicorn levitated it back softly on the ground in front of Question Mark. "Yes, my backpack! I knew it could be found!" the colt exclaimed happily and hugged his backpack tightly. This was the first time the fillies saw Question Mark display a genuine form of happiness, Smiley Face just smiled at him while Doofus rolled his eyes tiredly. Suddenly, Question Mark's happy demeanor ceases as he turned to the fillies who were now standing together in front of him and gave them a cold glare. "You didn't look inside the backpack, did you?" he asked with a sinister voice. "Uh, no! Of course not!" Sweetie Belle answered nervously. "Don't lie to me! Did you touch anything in my backpack?!" Question Mark asked again, his voice getting louder. "N-No...honest! We didn't wanna look inside! It's rude ta look inside a colt's bag!" Applebloom answered nervously as well. "Are you sure...?" Question Mark asked yet again, his voice sounding borderline villainous. "Well, I did wanna look inside at first, but Sweetie and Applebloom stopped me. We didn't look inside at all." Scootaloo answered this time. "Really? You didn't see or touch my makeup palette, porn magazines, or ultra ancient alien death ray that has the ability to destroy entire planets?!" Question Mark asked again, aggressively this time. "Wait, what? You have those things in your backpack?" Sweetie Belle asked, the fillies just looked at the colt confused this time. Question Mark then dropped his sinister demeanor and changed back to his normal self in the blink of an eye. "Oh, so you really didn't look inside? Wow, I'm actually surprised, I did not expect that." "Y-yeah, see? We didn't look inside. We figured it's best to respect your privacy and just let you show it to us when you actually want to." Scootaloo said wisely, still stunned at Question Mark's quick mood change. "Okay, glad we got this over with. I'm just gonna head back to the castle and..." Question Mark said before getting nudged on the withers by Smiley Face. "Hey, remember what we talked about?" Smiley Face said as a mother would to a foal. "Alright, fine. Look, I'm sorry I acted like a complete asshole to you guys..." Question Mark said with a sincere voice. "And me too!" Doofus protested. "Shut up. Anyway, it was wrong of me and I wish to fix that. Do you think maybe we could uh...hang with you and you can tell us more about Ponyville and help us understand what's going on around here?" Question Mark asked. The fillies were genuinely surprised by the colt's sincere apology, but they were happy with it. They all grinned cheerfully at the three strangers. "It would be tha Cutie Mark Crusaders' honor!" Applebloom spoke up. Then the three fillies bumped hooves in the air. "YEAH!" they all exclaimed. Smiley Face smiled at the Crusaders, and she was happy for her friend for actually managing a genuine apology. "So, you wanna take us somewhere?" the pink teenage filly asked. "Oh, maybe we should take them to Sweet Apple Acres an' show 'em our clubhouse!" Applebloom suggested excitedly. "I think we should show them the School of Friendship! They'll love it there!" Sweetie Belle came in with her own suggestion. "Girls, why don't we decide along the way?" Scootaloo said. "Okay, then!" Sweetie Belle said happily. "C'mon, guys!" the unicorn gestured to the three strangers and the three of them followed the Crusaders. "Oh, jeez..." Question Mark said as if out of breath. And all six ponies walked through the streets of Ponyville for their next destination of Adventure. "By the way, did you actually have all those things you said in your backpack?" Sweetie Belle asked the white colt. "No, of course not, I was just bluffing."