//------------------------------// // 5: Of Naughty and Nice // Story: Equestrian Adventure 2! // by DerpyHooves320 //------------------------------// With a cute little yawn and some outstretched arms, Applebloom was finally awake after a well deserved rest. After she was fully awake and done stretching, she started looking around, only to see the Everfree Forest all around. Not knowing why she was here or how she had gotten here, she got up quickly while throwing her view all around for anything out of place, so to say. But she didn't realize she was stomping on something soft, which was now awake and not very happy. "Stop stomping on me you crazy lady!" She heard someone grumble in a very angry tone, before finding the source of the grumbling coming from right underneath her. Seeing that she was currently standing on their leg, she felt bad for all that accidental stomping. Hopping off of the leg right away, she bent down to apologize and see just who it was. "A'hm sorry, I didn't mean to," she quickly said, only to see that she wasn't looking at one of her friends nor a fellow pony, but rather the face of the one human she knew. "Zach?" She pondered out loud, wondering what he was doing out here with her, but shook those thoughts to the side before helping him up off the ground as he gave a small grunt of acknowledgement. Getting another look at him, she saw that he was slightly taller than the last time they met, but if only by an inch or two. Or maybe she was getting shorter, one of the two. "So, how does it feel to be, well, yourself again?" Zach asked, which she went to answer, but hesitated and began thinking it over. "What do ya mean by that?" She asked him, getting a nervous chuckle from him as he started thinking about how to explain it, but she noticed him rubbing at his wrist a little, which she noticed looked just a little bruised. "What happened to yer wrist?" She asked him, to which he gave a crazed chuckle. "You did. Well, not you exactly, but still you in a sense," he wasn't making sense, just making her feel bad for hurting him. "Don't worry about it though, it's when you were.....uh, 'not yourself', if that helps. But I stopped that from ever happening again, uh, hopefully," he still wasn't making sense, but at least he was trying. With that said, he turned towards the forest edge and began walking. "So, where are we going?" Applebloom asked, as she started following after him. Not really knowing what was going on, especially since he wasn't being very helpful, she decided this would be the best thing to do for now. "To Ponyville, obviously. I'd like to see if I can find Spike again! Or him finding me, since that's how I first found him," he explained where they were headed and kind of why they were as he picked up his pace to a slow jog, which wasn't all too fast nor very helpful. Throwing the pointlessness of his terrible communication skills aside, they soon found themselves in an awkward silence as they slowly jogged their way to town. "Soooo....." Applebloom began after a while of unbearable silence, earning Zach's attention from the oh so interesting ground he was looking at, "what'd I miss while I was, uh.....'not myself'?" She asked, unsure of what she was asking at this point, earning a small sigh from Zach. "Just you kicking my ass a lot, that's all," he said, feeling slightly ashamed for being beat so easily. Whatever. Well, at least no one saw what happened nor would they remember, he hoped. They continued their journey back to Ponyville, exchanging some idle chat between each other, like how they're doing, the lovely weather, some small explanations here and there, followed by more silence. The silence came at random, usually after an explanation that was usually quite a bit to take in, which left them both on an awkward note every time. They slowly entered Ponyville after a while, the town was dead. Figuratively speaking. Continuing their slow pace, they went along the path that Zach recognized, but if only somewhat. Reaching his house again, they both decided to ignore the new doorway in the wall, minus the door part, and walked around to the front door. Opening it up, they both called out for Spike while entering, only to be met with more silence. "Guess he got caught," Zach said glumly, seeing no signs of the drake returning anytime soon, before flopping down on a couch and letting out a sad sigh. Applebloom stood there for a second, still trying to piece together some of what he explained earlier, but she knew what had happened and joined in on the slightly sad silence. Eventually, she fell down next to the sad mass of Zach who was mumbling something about Spike's great tasting sandwiches. "Welcome to club sad, population us," he took a shot at a joke, but didn't hear any laughing from his audience, before another wave of silence fell upon them. He hated the silence, for he believed that when you have company over, you should always be talking and never let things get silent and stale. But it seemed proper right now, so he let that emptiness of sound hang arounnd them. After a while, he found himself drifting to sleep, and saw Applebloom about to do the same. Until she did something unexpected. She went to cuddle with him, but he resisted the cuddle for fear of upsetting someone, or some people, earning a confused look from the young mare. "Why resist a simple cuddle?" She asked him, to which he gave a shrug with a chuckle grunt mixture, since that's all he ever does for a quick response anymore before actually using words. "I've been one to avoid cuddling. Don't know why, but cuddling just isn't my thing," he said while letting a nervous smile slip onto his face, before he let it go blank. "Besides, I'm gonna get cleaned up before we go looking for Spike some more," he said while getting up and away from her as quickly as possible, then heading straight to the bathroom, leaving a lonely young mare on the couch. Letting out a sad sigh, Applebloom sat there by herself as he disappeared into the far reaches of the hallway. After a minute or two she heard the shower start, then her stomach started rumbling. It wouldn't hurt to get something to eat real quick. Making her way from the couch to the kitchen, she saw the damage that had been done, but passed it by as she grabbed some of the cereal in the cabinets alongside a bowl. Pouring herself a bowl of some 'Cheerilee-O's, she got some milk out and poured it into the bowl. It's a good thing she knows how to make cereal, but why was she going through the steps in detail in her mind? Waving the thought away as simply filling in the silence, she began to chow down. It didn't take her long to finish, since she had grabbed one of the smaller bowls in the cabinet. Returning to the couch of vast loneliness, she listened to the sounds of the shower for a few minutes before it stopped, followed by a loud thump. "God dammit!" she faintly heard Zach yell from the bathroom, causing her laugh as she imagined him smacking straight into the floor. Then she heard some more thudding, before she realized what was happening back there. Racing down the hallway, she followed the sound of the thudding coming from the door in the middle, before trying to open it. But alas, it was locked. Thinking quickly, she got into position to kick down the door. "Watch your head!" she yelled out, before sending her foot into the door. It didn't do much, besides falling flat on the floor and revealing the occupants of the bathroom. "Do you mind?" Masquerade the cat asked, watching as Applebloom's cheeks turned a bright red color. "Try knocking next time, alright?" Zach asked her, his face equally red, towel fallen and standing strong in two places. Turning herself away from the sight, she covered her face and left, Applebloom decided she had seen quite enough for the day and settled for napping alone on the couch. For sure. The loneliness didn't last long though, since Zach was quick to dress before returning to the front room. Sitting on the other couch, they both sat in absolute silence while occasionaly glancing at each other before throwing their head to the side. "You know, I think she liked it," said a certain smug cat, who had found a comfy place up on the back of Applebloom's couch. She wasn't there for much longer though, since she had to quickly dodge an incoming couch pillow of doom, thrown by the tyrant of couch number two. "You shut it! It was all your fault!" Zach screeched at her, causing her to laugh as she returned to the same spot before licking her fur. Taking a quick second away from that, she looked at him with the smuggest look any cat could give. "If anything it was a compliment, not many ladies would stare that long with what you've got," Masquerade had gone there, causing both of their faces to turn a deep crimson. This time, she had to dodge two couch pillows, which was really hard for her to do. Unfortunately, one of them just barely caught her back leg, sending her into the large bag of catfood in the kitchen. Cats always win. With a few select words and a sigh, Zach was back on the couch and quickly collecting himself. Applebloom, on the other hand, was having a harder time doing that. Settling herself back onto the couch, she had something reappear in her mind, before she shook her head and covered her face. How awful. They both sat there, doing their best to forget it all, but then they heard something faint. Looking at the window, they saw three figures of varying size talking. "We should just grab them now, they won't expect it," the medium one said quietly, before getting smacked by the smaller one. "We wait, you idiot! They might fall asleep, and when they do, we grab them then," the small one said, releasing a low throaty evil dog chuckle. "But isn't it rude to take people in their sleep?" The biggest one of them asked, causing the small one's eyes to widen a bit. "When have we ever played fair?!" The medium one asked, before smacking the big one, who just mumbled a small apology and whimpered. "Alright, now if you'll excuse me, I'll get everything ready" the small one continued on, before disappearing from the window. The others slowly followed after, the window now giving a clear view of the disappearing sunset. "They weren't very stealthy," Zach grumbled in annoyance, not wanting to deal with anything else right now. Keeping his eyes on the window, he slowly got up and started sneaking towards the kitchen to grab that cat. "You'd think they'd at least try," Applebloom said with a small shrug, as she got up as well and followed Zach. Now that they were in the kitchen, they both looked around for Masquerade. They finally saw her on the top shelf of the pantry, where she was looking at them with eyes filled with amusement. "I see my horrible plan to create a relationship crashed and burned," she purred, before she jumped into Zach's arms. "Now let's go before those dogs actually try to grab us," she said, finally finding a comfortable way to lay in his arms. "Dogs?" He asked her, to which she looked up at him. "Big dogs," she said back, before letting out a yawn as she tried to nap in his arms. "Hey, don't take a nap after giving me terrible answers!" He said, before shaking the cat awake, who just hissed at him in response. "Don't tell me it's those diamond dogs," Applebloom said, looking slightly annoyed at the thought of them. "Diamond dogs?" He asked her, before dropping Masquerade right onto the floor, getting a quick slash from her on his ankle. "What are diamond dogs?" He continued, even though it should've been obvious to him at this point. "Big dogs that enslave others to do their mining," she answered, before all three of them proceeded to the hole in the wall. "Sounds lovely," he sarcastically said before they all hopped out into the open night air. "No kidding," a new voice said from right behind them, causing them to turn around while visibly shaking. Right there where they were a second ago, was a figure was leaning against the house right next to the hole. Seeing more figures at the figure's feet, they saw some similar sizes to them. "Diamond dogs are a real drag, darling."