Just Helping

by darjeeling

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Cutie Mark Crusaders
Length: 5935

The Cutie Mark Crusaders find trouble when they try their hand at stump removal.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders find trouble when they try their hand at stump removal.

Published 2012-02-13 09:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-02-13 09:44:01 UTC

Chapter 1

“TWILIGHT! We need to find a book.”

Three fillies entered the Ponyville public library on a cloudy fall day. There wasn’t anything obviously special about these fillies. They were all school aged, though not very old as none had received their cutie marks yet.

“Twilight? Are ya here?” The yellow filly with a bow in her mane shouted.

“Maybe we can find it ourselves?” The white filly started towards the shelves lining the room.

“Don’t be stupid, we can’t reach anything but the bottom shelves.” The orange filly began making a circuit of the room on her scooter. “We’ll just have to try to figure it out ourselves.”

Her voice squeaking, Sweetie Bell rebutted, “But we don’t know how!”

“Yeah, if y’all knew how to make a flamethrower, why did we come here?”

Skidding to a stop, Scootaloo sighed and said, “I know we don’t know how to make one, but if we figure it out, maybe we’ll get our ‘inventor’ cutie marks!”

Applebloom stopped inspecting the books and considered this for a moment. “Ya know, I heard that there’s a labro-, a labro-torie downstairs.”

“A laboratory,” Sweetie Bell corrected, “And I’ve heard that too! Rarity was saying something the other day about how Twilight spends too much time there. I bet she’s got all kinds of useful stuff down there that we could use!”

“Yeah! Come on, the door’s over here.” The small pegasus zoomed to the far side of the room, managing to cut off both her friends in the process. Stopping in front of the door, she leaped off her scooter and flung back the door. Revealed through the now open portal was a dark passageway leading to the unoccupied laboratory. “Last one there’s a fillyfiddler!” she yelled with glee as she scooted off into the darkness.

“Applebloom, what’s a fillyfiddler?” whispered Sweetie Bell.

“Ah’m not sure, but when I said it once, Applejack washed my mouth out with soap and made me promise to never say it again. For some reason, she was worried that I’d say it in front of Twilight or Miss Cheerilee. Whatever it means, it can’t be-”

A great crash of shattering glass from below interrupted the fillies’ dialog.

“I’m okay!” came a shout through the open door. Sweetie Bell and Applebloom glanced to the door, back at each other, then broke down giggling.

After they had recovered enough to stand again, they made their way into the dark basement, turning on the lights as they went. What they saw was nothing like what they had expected.

From their limited schoolwork in science class, they had expected a well-lit, clinically neat room with organized rows of tables and benches, cabinetry filled with glassware, and chemicals neatly lined up and labeled on shelves.

“It’s so, messy!” exclaimed Sweetie Bell, eyes wide, standing at the base of the stairs. Boxes filled with equipment lined the counter tops and open floorspace. Chemicals, equipment, and books filled the remaining space in a way that seemed to suggest that the space was, at the same time, both oft used and half forgotten.

Scootaloo was still extricating herself from a box containing what appeared to be large rubber tubing. The glassware her predicament had destroyed was strewn in pieces over the floor where she had knocked over the stand that had held it.

“Aw Scootaloo, whaddija have to go and break somethin’ for? Now we gotta clean this up.” Finding a short handled broom near a box half filled with other broken glassware, Applebloom began wrangling the fresh mess.

“Well I didn’t mean to! I couldn’t see anything. It was dark!” Scootaloo finally managed to free herself from the ravenous tubing. “Besides, I’m not the one who put it in the middle of the floor.”

“So what are we looking for?” asked the white unicorn.

“Well, we need something that will burn, right?” Moving to the nearest collection of filled bottles and tanks, she continued, “Something like this, I guess, but liquid.” She poked a brown glass bottle that contained a dark powder, and a label on the front that indicated the contents were nitrogen triiodide crystals suspended in a magical stabilization field. On its side were stickers with both a flame, and a stylized explosion.

Applebloom trotted up to the pegasus, having finished with the glass. “Nitro..Nit-rohgen tree-ohdite.” She gave Scootaloo a confused look. “What is it?” Scootaloo just shrugged.

“Hey guys, what about this?” Sweetie Bell was standing on her hind hooves, forelegs stretched out above her and resting on the side of a tall rack of shelving. The shelves held many large brown jugs of various liquids, each with a small ring to fit a hoof through. Those look like what Applejack puts her applejack in when she’s done brewing it, thought Applebloom. The one jug that had caught the unicorn’s attention had a yellowed label on it and a sticker with a faded flame.

“This one says, ‘Methyl Alcohol.’ Think it will work?” The unicorn turned to look back at her friends.

“Alcohol? Ah bet it will! Applejack is always sayin’ that we gotta keep Big Mac away from fire whenever he’s been drinking.”

“Yeah, but this ain’t Applejack’s applejack.” Scootaloo giggled at the unintended alliteration. “It’s methyl alcohol. What do you think that means?”

The three fillies turned to the dusty bottle, staring as if they could somehow glean the knowledge from the bottle through the force of their gazes alone.

“Aww who cares. It’s got that big ol’ fire sticker on the front. It’s gotta work good if they had to put that on there.” Applebloom nudged the white filly out of her way and stretched up to try to reach the jug. It was just high enough that even stretching as far as she could, she could only reach to about the middle of the jug. Grunting in frustration, she stretched, straining her muscles, and standing on the tips of her hooves. All of a sudden, a greasy glow surrounded the jug, startling Applebloom, causing her to drop to her haunches. “Wha- Sweetie Bell? Ah didn’t know you learned how to do that!”

The white unicorn was sweating with her effort as she maneuvered the large jug off the shelf and onto the floor next to her. As the jug settled on the floor, and the glow winked out, she breathed deep, and gave a great sigh, smiling at her friends. “Rarity taught me.”

“If y’all can levitate things now, why didn’t ya just do that upstairs when we were lookin’ for books?”

“I’m not very good at it yet,” said Sweetie Bell, her expression changing to one of embarrassment, “It was pretty hard just getting this thing down; I don’t think I could get very many books down to look at them.”

Applebloom looked chagrined, “Oh, right. Sorry.”

Scootaloo began strapping the jug to the back of her scooter with some of the unused rubber tubing she had ‘discovered’ earlier. “Great! Now all we need to do is figure out some way to build the flamethrower part. Let’s get this back to the clubhouse first though. We’ve been down here for a while, and Twilight or Spike could be back anytime.”

At that moment, as if her words had conjured the pair, the three fillies heard hoofsteps and muffled voices from above. Applebloom’s eyes grew large as she hissed, “They’re back!”

Sweetie Bell’s eyes shot to the open door on the landing above. “The lights are on and the door’s open! They’ll know we’re down here, hide!” The three fillies rushed to find hiding places. Scootaloo managed to deposit her scooter between a couple of large boxes before she found herself a spot. They listened, trying to hear what was happening upstairs.

They heard muffled voices, but they could not make out what was being said. After a moment, hoofsteps made their way across to the door, and Twilight’s head poked through.

“Hello? Is anypony down here?” She stepped through the door, looking around the empty room. “Anypony?” Starting down the stairs, she shot back towards the open door, “Spike? Did you leave the lab open and the lights on?” A muffled response could be heard from upstairs. To herself, Twilight said, “Well I didn’t do it.” Then more loudly, “If there’s anypony here, you need to tell me now. It’s not safe down here. ”Twilight paused in her circuit of the cluttered room. Unfortunately, she stopped directly in front of Applebloom’s hiding place behind a complex piece of machinery. Applebloom felt her heart pounding in her chest, and could hear the blood rushing through her ears. She was certain that Twilight was going to find her just by the sound of her beating heart.

After a minute of peering around, Twilight continued on her way. She finished her circuit, shut off the lights, and left the basement. Once the door closed, darkness descended on the room once more.

After a moment, a voice whispered, “Where are you guys?”

Some shuffling sounds came from nearby and another voice said, “I can’t see anything!”

A third, “Hold on, nopony move. Ah saw one of Twilight’s light gems earlier. Ah think Ah can get to it without breaking anything.”

The first voice grumbled at this, but nothing understandable was forthcoming.

Applebloom inched her way out of her hiding spot, feeling along the cabinet and creeping along until she found its end. She then raised her hooves to the top of the wide counter top, moving from object to object. She felt the cool, angled surface of the gem she had seen earlier. Picking it up in her teeth, she felt the magic with which it had been imbued. It was like a soft skin wrapping the hard gem, ethereal, yet tangible; and for some reason, it felt... orange? How the hay do you even feel ‘orange’? she wondered. She bit down through the magical covering until a soft glow began to emanate from the crystal.

In the light thrown from the gem, she moved back to where her friends had hidden. Holding the light for them both until they extricated themselves from their hiding spots, she said, “Naaa huut?”

“Huh?” asked Scootaloo.

“Naaa houut?”

The unicorn and pegasus just looked at each other and snickered.

Dropping the gem to the floor and throwing their shadows onto the ceiling, Applebloom repeated, “Now what? How are we gonna get out ah here? Ah can still hear them up there.”

At this comment, though, Sweetie Bell’s ears perked up and swiveled in the direction of the sounds. “It sounds like they’re in the kitchen. If we hurry-”

“Ooh, I bet they’re making lunch!” Scootaloo interjected, “We can sneak out while they’re busy!” She scooped up the gem in her mouth and started for the staircase.

“Wait!” hissed Applebloom. “What about the stuff?”

Scootaloo skidded to a stop and ran back past the other two and pulled out the hidden scooter with its inflammable cargo. “Aaf oo doo...” She dropped the gem. “If you two can get this, I’ll take point and make sure the coast is clear.” Scooping up the gem once more, she headed towards the stair; the other two close behind trying to not be left in the dark.

She bit down on the gem, piercing the skein of magic, and the light winked out. Creeping forward, she opened the door a crack and peered out. What the small pegasus saw through the narrow gap made her gasp and jerk back. “What’s she doing here?” she whispered and put her eye back to the crack.

“What? Who?”

“Cheerilee! She’s right there talking to Twilight.” Scootaloo watched as the two mares talked.

“What are we going to do now?” whined Sweetie Bell. “We’re trapped!”

Applebloom shushed her and said, “Ah guess we’ll just have to wait.”

Fortunately for the three fillies, they did not have to wait long. Twilight and Cheerilee soon moved out of the main room and into the kitchen to join Spike.

Scootaloo waited a few seconds then hissed, “Okay, the coast is clear; let’s go!”

Trying to make as little noise as possible, the three crept through the room towards the door. They managed to leave the building without alerting anypony to their presence, but as soon as they were outside, they high-tailed it to the clubhouse. It wasn’t until they were ensconced in their clubhouse that they stopped long enough to talk.

“What are...” Applebloom gasped for breath, “...we going...to do...now?”

Somewhat less breathless from their adrenaline fueled gallop, Scootaloo replied, “We need to figure out some way to spray this stuff. We need a pump or something. Where can we get a pump?”

The three fillies sat for a few minutes recuperating and thinking. After some time, Sweetie Bell moved to the windows, opening them to let the breeze in. At the second window, she stopped and stared at something the other two fillies couldn’t see. “What about the water tower?”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea, Sweetie Bell!” exclaimed Applebloom as she joined the unicorn at the window. “They gotta get all the water up there somehow. They must pump it up.” Running to the door, she continued, “Come on, let’s go-”

“Oh ponyfeathers, it won’t work.” Sweetie Bell fell to her haunches, her excitement evaporating with her realization. “If we take the pump from the water tower, then the water tower won’t work. We’ll break it!”

“Oh, Ah didn’t think of that.” Applebloom shut the door and returned to sit by her now despondent friend. “That’s okay, Sweetie Bell, it was still a good idea.” she said, nuzzling the unicorn.

Scootaloo, who seemed to have heard nothing the other two had said, gasped, “Sweetie Bell! Applebloom! I got it. What about those things your brother uses to spray the apples?”

The tool that the orange pegasus was referring to was a set of pressurized tanks that were hung across the hindquarters. The tanks were connected to each other and to a long thin wand that could be held in a pony’s mouth, or levitated by a unicorn. The set up was designed so that the tanks could be filled with pesticide and pressurized with an integrated pump. Once pressurized, the spray could reach any part of the trees from the ground.

The three fillies filed out of the clubhouse, making their way to the barn. Seeing neither hide nor hair of anypony else, they began to feel rather optimistic about their project. Applebloom led them straight to the sprayers that were stored in the barn, resting on hooks along one wall.

Applebloom’s eyes widened at this suggestion, and she face-hoofed. “Now why didn’t Ah think of that? Of course those would work, and gettin’ one’s easy. All we hav’ta do is get one out of the barn!”

“Wow, they even look like flamethrowers!” exclaimed Sweetie Bell.

They wrangled one of the heavy sprayers down, began adjusting it and mounting it over Scootaloo’s back. On a full grown pony, the tanks would have rested over the hindquarters. On the small pegasus, though, they covered the entirety of her hindquarters and flanks and pinned her wings to her side.

With their prize in hoof, they made their way back to their clubhouse, keeping close watch for anypony that might catch them in their larceny. Their luck held, and they again saw nopony the entire way.

“Okay, we’ve got alcohol, and we’ve got the sprayer. Now we just gotta figure out some way to light it.”

“Could we just spray it, then light it?” offered Sweetie Bell.

“Nah, that’s so uncool.” Scootaloo complained. “Might as well just pour the stuff straight on the stump and light it. We gotta figure out how to make a flamethrower! ‘Else there’s no talent involved. I mean, who wants a,” Scootaloo pitched her voice low and as silly as she could, “‘I poured some stuff on the thing’ cutie mark?”

Sweetie Bell just rolled her eyes. “Okay, then how are we going to do it?”

Nopony had any ideas. They sat and stared at each other for a minute, each trying to come up with an idea. Then they started searching the room, looking for anything that might work, or that might help. They searched and searched, but found nothing. A few ideas were put forward, and each was dismissed as unworkable. A couple hours later, Applebloom, sprawled upside down on a table, said, “What about a match?”

“Argh, we’ve already had that idea.” Scootaloo said as she banged her head against the wall she was resting against. “You wanna be the one that has to get close enough to light it?”

Applebloom stuck out her tongue at the pink-maned pegasus. “No no, that’s not what Ah mean at all. Ah mean, we could strap a match t’ the nozzle, and light it before. It don’t need t’ be lit long, right? Once we get started, it’ll just go on it’s own.”

Scootaloo replied, “But that’ll only work once. Once the match goes out, that’s it.”

“Oh... Right.” Applebloom sighed. “Ah don’t know.”

“A candle!” exclaimed Sweetie Bell and all three fillies’ faces lit up with excitement.

“Yeah!” agreed Scootaloo. “That’s perfect! You guys have candles, right Applebloom?”

“Of course! We’ve got tons of them.” Rolling off the table, she headed out the door. “Come on!”

Once again, the three fillies bolted from the clubhouse and made their way to the farmhouse. With ease, they found their prize and were headed back out the door when a voice stopped them.

“And just where do y’all think you’re off t’?”

Fearing they were caught, they turned and saw Applejack standing down the hall, watching.

“Hi Applejack.” said Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell.

“Uh, well, we uh, just needed these candles for the clubhouse. It’ll be dark soon and we, um, we gotta have some light if we’re gonna go crusading.” Applebloom gave her most innocent smile while the other two nodded.

“Ah ain’t worried about the candles, ya silly fillies. I was wonderin’ where y’all were headed at dinnertime. Now drop those candles and get your flank upstairs t’ warsh up. Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell, y’all are welcome to stay and eat too.”

“I’m in!” yelled Scootaloo as she raced up the stairs.

“Hey, wait up!” said Sweetie Bell and she rushed to follow the other two.

Applejack watched them as they rushed to clean up. Under her breath, she said, “Heh, crazy kids. Ah wonder what they’ll be tryin’ for their cutie marks tonight.”

“All right! Lets see what this baby can do!”

Dusk fell over Sweet Apple Acres and found the Cutie Mark Crusaders back in their clubhouse. They had finished their project and were struggling to lift the heavy tanks onto Scootaloo’s back.

“Oof!” exclaimed the pegasus as she was knocked forward by the tanks. “We shoulda waited to fill the ta- OW! Watch it!”

Applebloom mumbled an apology through the strap in her mouth as she and Sweetie Bell continued trying to mount the heavy apparatus across Scootaloo’s back. After a few more minutes of effort, they had it mounted and the straps cinched down.

Scootaloo took the wand, which now had a long white candle strapped to its end, in her mouth and headed out the door. With the other two crusaders close behind, she made her way across the farm to a large tree stump along a fence bordering the southernmost field of Sweet Apple Acres.

The stump was splintered and broken where the tree had torn itself apart when it was struck by lightning. Big Macintosh and Applejack had been discussing removing the stump and repairing the fencing that had been destroyed by the tree. Nearby, a neat line of round hay bales followed the fence for a distance.

Oblivious to the nearby danger, the walking fire hazards approached the tree stump and the pegasus called for a flame. Applebloom produced one as requested and lit the candle. Once the candle was burning with the flame dancing in the falling light, Scootaloo bit down on the actuator and released a hissing stream of alcohol.

The resulting spray of inflammable liquid did not light immediately. It soaked the side of the stump while the fillies looked on in disappointment. Then, with a whoosh, the flammable vapors caught, and fire raced from the flamethrower to the stump to meet the dead wood.

Three pairs of eyes widened in glee at finally seeing the success of their work, then in horror as the magnitude of what they were doing hit them. The fire danced and dripped from the stream of alcohol, hissing where it fell. Burning an ethereal blue, it was difficult to see even in the fading twilight, but the fillies could feel the heat radiating from it. This was far more dangerous than they had ever imagined it to be.

“Ah, uh, Ah think you can stop now, Scoot.” said Applebloom. She was starting to tremble from the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

With the wand still in her mouth, Scootaloo said nothing, but continued to spray the crackling stump. She was terrified as well, but she swung her head from side to side until the remains of the tree were covered in a shifting sheet of pale blue flame. By then, the three fillies were sweating from the heat being thrown off the flaming wood. The jagged edges began to glow as the wood turned to embers.

Feeling like her veins were filled with ice, the white unicorn squeaked, “It’s working!”

Scootaloo grinned; the wand still clutched between her teeth, and kept the stream centered on the burning stump. But just then, the wind picked up, blowing the flames and making them rustle and pop. A strong gust took the stream of burning alcohol, pushed it away from the stump and carried it onto the nearest hay bale.

Pupils turning to pinpricks, Scootaloo relaxed her mouth, stopping the stream of fuel, but it was already too late. The three fillies turned to each other with abject horror flashing in their eyes.

The hay was burning.

Scootaloo was the first to move. “Hey, get this thing off me! We gotta put out the fire!” The pegasus tried to reach the buckles with her teeth, but she couldn’t. “Come on!”

The wind continued to blow along the line of hay bales, fanning the flames and guiding them from one bale to another. Two bales were already burning. Sweetie Bell was rooted to the ground, trembling. Applebloom managed to pull her gaze from the flames to help the pegasus out from under her burden. It took some effort, but she managed to loosen the straps and remove the tanks from Scootaloo’s back.

The two ponies ran toward the first of the hay bales. “How do we put it out!?” wailed Applebloom. “There’s no water!”

Scootaloo turned around, tail to the fire, and began flapping her wings as hard as she could. Applebloom saw the fire waving and snapping in response, but it wasn’t enough to blow out the flames. If anything it was feeding them.

“Stop, Scoot. That ain’t workin’. We gotta try something else.” Applebloom rushed to the nearest bit of burning hay and began slapping it with her hooves. Not only was this painful, the filly’s hooves smarting from the heat, it was ultimately ineffective as neither filly could reach every part of the large bales.

As the two fillies worked frantically, neither noticed the absence of their white-coated friend.

The front door to the Carousel Boutique burst open and banged against the wall. Startled, the proprietor looked up from her work to see what disaster was about to take place in her shop. All she managed to see, though, was a flash of white shooting up the stairs.

“SWEETIE BELL, GET DOWN HERE NOW!” If that child was going to be so disruptive, she was at least going to give an account of herself. Rarity heard hoofsteps from upstairs, but it was obvious that her sister had no intention of complying. She sighed and set aside her work glasses and materials. Closing the door with her magic, she made her way upstairs. “Sweetie Bell? What in Equestria has gotten into you?” She opened the door to her younger sister’s room, but the unicorn was nowhere to be seen.

“Sweetie Bell, I know you’re in here. Come out and speak to me.” Rarity made her way to the closet and peered inside.

A muffled response came from under the bed, “No! Go away!”

Rarity sighed and sat on the bed. “Okay, you stay there, and I’ll sit right here. Now please, tell me what is wrong.” Rarity listened to the sniffling coming from under the bed and waited for the young unicorn to respond.

“We, we didn’t mean to!” she sobbed. “We were just trying to help. Now Applejack and Big Mac and everypony else is going to hate us.” Her soft crying continued.

Rarity was beginning to worry now. She thought that the problem would be normal childhood drama, but it sounded like the crusaders had made trouble...again. Sweetie didn’t seem to be offering anything more so she prompted, “What happened Sweetie Bell?”

Shuffling sounds came from under the bed as the filly wriggled her way out of the tight space. Once free, she sat on her haunches and stared at the floor. Her tears had soaked her face, matting and darkening the fur under her eyes. “Scootaloo had this idea for how we could get our cutie marks. We were going to be Cutie Mark Crusader Inventors! We’d just have to build something and we’d get our cutie marks!” She sniffed and wiped at her wet muzzle. “Applebloom said that we should invent something to help Big Mac get rid of this tree stump they have. She said it was too big and he couldn’t do it himself. So we-”

“Sweetie, wait. Where are Applebloom and Scootaloo? Is everypony alright? Did somepony get hurt?”

“No!” Sweetie Bell looked aghast. “Nopony was hurt. I don’t know where they are, really. I guess they’re still putting out the …”

“The what? Speak up dear.”

Sweetie Bell swallowed against the knot in her throat as her tears began to flow again. “The fire?”

“WHAT? Oh my goddess, what did you do? You set the tree on fire?!”

“Well yeah. But that’s what we wanted to do! But then... then we kinda, we kinda caught the hay bales on fire.

“You ‘kinda’ set Applejack’s hay on fire!?” She stood and rushed to the door. “Come on!”

“What?” Sweetie Bell dropped her head, crouching. “I don’t want to.”

Growling in frustration and fear, Rarity wrapped her sister in a shimmering cloak of magic, picked her up and ran downstairs. “We don’t have time for this, Sweetie Bell! We’ve got to tell Applejack right NOW!” They raced out of the shop and Rarity tore through town towards Sweet Apple Acres.

Luck was with them that evening. Rarity saw a pair of mares walking close together in front of her, lost in conversation. As she caught up to them, she skidded to a stop and gasped, “Twilight! Cheerilee! Thank...Celestia...you’re...here!

“Hello Rarity.” said Twilight while Cheerilee shot a confused look at the filly who was now floating upside-down behind Rarity. “What’s the rush?”

Still heaving, Rarity managed, “Cutie...Mark...Crusaders. Fire...Applejack’s!”

Twilight looked horrified. “Oh no! Cheerilee, can you go round up the fire brigade? I’ll go with Rarity and see what I can do.”

Without a word, Cheerilee turned and galloped towards the center of town. Rarity and Twilight set off towards the farm, the floating filly trailing behind.

Before long, they reached the Apple family farmhouse. They could smell smoke, but with the daylight gone, they couldn’t see well enough to tell where the fire was. Rushing through the door without knocking, they startled Granny Smith who was napping in her rocking chair.

“What’s all this now? Didn’t anyone teach you fillies how to knock?” She leaned forward giving them a harsh stare.

Rarity gasped for breath, “Emergen...cy...Applejack...”

Twilight was in no better shape, barely getting out, “Applejack...Quick!”

“Oh alright then, but Ah don’t see what’s gotten yer saddles in a scrunch. APPLEJACK! YER FRIENDS ARE HERE TO SEE YA.” The old mare proceeded to ignore the three ponies as she picked up her fallen embroidery.

Mere seconds later, Applejack came down the stairs and saw her exhausted friends standing in the entryway. “What in tarnation? What is goin’ on?”

Twilight said, “Applejack, fire!”

Applejack tensed. “Fire? Where!?”

Rarity replied, “We don’t know. Sweetie Bell will tell you.”

“Sweetie Bell?” said the orange mare, confused. “Ah don’t see...” She cut off as she noticed the dour filly still floating a short distance outside the door. “Sweetie Bell. Where’s the fire?”

“South field. By the dead tree.”

Her task accomplished, Rarity slumped to the floor and dropped her sister in a heap on the porch. Trying to catch her breath, she watched as Applejack yelled for Big Macintosh and raced out the door. Twilight asked her if she would be okay, and she nodded in the affirmative. As Twilight followed after the two Apple siblings, Sweetie Bell came up to Rarity with tears once again welling in her eyes.

“Rarity?” she whispered, “I’m really, really sorry.” The first tear began to roll down her face and she began to sob.

“I know, dear heart.” Rarity cooed as she wrapped the trembling filly in an embrace. “I know.”

“Oh Rarity, I never realized.” Fluttershy was on the verge of tears herself as she said this. “She must have been so upset about the whole thing.”

“Oh yes, the poor dear. She really took it hard. She was mortified by the thought of hurting Applejack or Big Macintosh.” Rarity took a sip of her cider. “Sweetie Bell is a sweetheart, but she hasn’t really learned yet to think things through.”

“Oh, I see. Is she okay though?” asked the butter-yellow pegasus.

“Oh yes, she’s fine. Children, you know, they tend to bounce back quickly.” The white unicorn rose to place her empty plate in the trash.

“If I ever did anything like that to one of you, I... I can’t even imagine how bad I’d feel.”

“I can!” laughed Rainbow Dash as she lounged on one of Applejack’s patio chairs.

“Oh hush, you.” said Rarity.

Rainbow Dash responded by blowing a raspberry in her direction.

The six friends were enjoying the beautiful day and each other’s company with a backyard barbecue at the Apple family farm. The preceding night had brought quite a bit of excitement, and those involved were sharing the tale with the rest.

“But what did you, Big Mac, and Twilight do next?” asked Pinkie Pie. The pink earth pony was oblivious to the fact that she had a spot of mustard on her muzzle; the yellow standing out surprisingly well against her pink hide. “How’d you get the fire put out? And what happened to the crusaders? And what about the flamethrower? Rainbow Dash and I wanted to use it to make a Sonic Flameboom to see if we could bake a hundred cakes all at the same time and-”

“Woah now, hold on there missy.” Applejack interrupted. “We were just gettin’ to that.”

Pinkie Pie looked expectant as Twilight continued, “As soon as we made it to the fire, we could tell right away that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. In fact, only a few of the hay bales had caught fire. We have been having plenty of rain recently,” Rainbow Dash preened at this oblique compliment, “so there was no real danger of the fire spreading to anything except the hay bales, and even those were taking slowly.”

“Yeah, and me and Big Macintosh took care of that problem right quick. All it took was bucking a couple o’ the bales out of the way and there wasn’t no more danger to our hay.” She paused to take a deep pull from her mug of cider. “In all, we only lost four bales.”

“I was more worried about what the girls used for the fuel. I have some pretty dangerous chemicals in my laboratory. Thankfully, what they picked was not one of the more dangerous ones. Methanol is dangerous in its own right, and it is impossibly hard to see when burning, but if they had found something else like the diethyl ether...” The purple mare grimaced and shivered. “Let’s just say that I’ve started locking my lab door and setting wards against trespassers. I was hoping I’d never have to do anything like that.”

“But what about the flamethrower?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I’ve gotta see it. I still can’t believe those fillies made something so cool!”

“We took it apart. There wasn’t much to it really, just one of our sprayers. I’ve got three more just like it in the barn, if you want to see them.” Applejack waited for Rainbow Dash to respond, but the cyan pegasus just shook her head and flopped back in her chair. “Though, I will say, the girls may have done us a favor in the long run; but don’t y’all go and tell them that. They’re still being punished.” She paused to take another drink. “Ya see, Ah was thinkin’ about the whole dang thing last night, and Ah think that we can use a couple o’ them contraptions this fall when we need to burn the fields. We usually have to stop at a bunch of points around the field we’re clearin’ to set fires, but with one or two o’ them things, it’ll be a breeze to clear any of the fields.”

“Ooh can-”

Applejack interrupted before the pegasus could get any more out, “Yes, Dash, you can help.”

Rainbow Dash looked ecstatic as she yelled, “Score!”

“What about Cheerilee?” asked Fluttershy.

“Oh, Cheerilee got there a little after Applejack, Big Macintosh and me. But by that time, we had everything under hoof.” Twilight giggled, remembering. “You should have seen all the fireponies that came out. I guess the way she made it sound, they thought all of Sweet Apple Acres was on fire! And the Chief, oh Goddess, I thought he was going to have a stroke when he realized that there was nothing for them to do.”

“Yeah,” Applejack interjected, laughing, “Ah felt so bad for them, Ah asked them to do what they could to put out the ones that were still goin’. Told ‘em some nonsense about burning the field down.” She chuckled again and took a drink. “Ah don’t think Ah fooled a one o’ them, though, what with the looks they were givin’ me.”

“That’s okay Applejack, I’m sure that they were happy to be able to help.” The yellow mare beamed at Applejack. “Oh, and what happened to the Crusaders? I hope they’re all okay?”

“Oh yeah, they’re fine, though Ah don’t think they’ll think so anytime soon. Ah put them to work helpin’ with chores around the farm. They’re gonna be spending the next few weeks helpin’ us out.”

“Yes, and I have given Sweetie Bell quite the talk. But I expect that she has learned her lesson.”

Rainbow Dash gave a mock shudder and said, “Anypony would learn their lesson after a ‘talk’ from Rarity.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity yelled and threw a balled up napkin at the laughing pegasus.

“Oh come on you two, knock it off.” Applejack said, joining the laughter. “Now, who wants apple pie?”

The End