“Are you sure Pinkie Pie won’t mind us borrowing her fireworks, Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle cocked an eyebrow while trying to eye her friend in the darkness. She went on: “I’m sure she has these boxes in the basement for a reason…” While scuffing the ground, her left hoof kicked up a small tuft of dust as it left a mark on the floor; the tiny particles were an welcome surprise and triggered a minor coughing fit.
“Oh, lighten up Sweets,” the orange filly replied sardonically while pushing a cardboard box in front of her. “We’ll only take the ones she won’t miss.” With a muffled grunt, she managed to slide the obstacle just enough so that she could reach what they were looking for. Her eyes lit up in the caliginous lighting as they gazed upon a flamboyantly colored explosion covered cardboard package that read “Gumball fireworks”. Grabbing an edge with her teeth, though almost instantly regretting it as her mouth was filled with the cloying taste of a bitter black powder, she pulled it out from underneath the shelf.
“Hurry it up Scootaloo, I think Ah hear somepony commin’!” Apple Bloom’s warning echoed eerily from the top of the stairs, adding to the tense atmosphere and making the three of them all the more nervous.
“Alright, Sweetie Belle, think you can levitate these out for me?” Scootaloo asked, a minor pang of fear settling in.
“I-I guess so, I’m not very good at it yet.” Furrowing her brow in concentration, the anxious filly began to attempt the most basic practice of unicorn magic. Surprisingly, to all three crusaders at least, she met some success as the box opened itself and three variegated fireworks were lifted stably out. “I got it! I got it!” She received a deplorable glance from her partner. In a softer tone, she repeated, “I got it...”
“Great work Sweets, now let’s get out of here before Pinkie sees us.” Before running off, she quickly hoofed up a box of matches on the shelf above and tucked it under her wing.
Still managing to hold the explosives, Sweetie Belle and company crept out the basement, wishing now that they had tied something to their hooves to silence them.
“Shouldn’t we put tha’ box back where we found it?” the farm filly asked while locking the basement door the way they had found it.
“Considering how gross it is down there I doubt anypony goes in there anyways,” she finished with a shrug, giving the door a final farewell kick, just to be sure.
~~~
“Well Ah just feel plum awful, I didn’t know ya’ll were gunna take ‘em. I never woulda stood watch if’ ya’ll had told me.” Apple Bloom hung her head low with a frown to match as she trailed behind her enthusiastic friends through the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres.
“It’s not like anypony’s going to miss them, we only took three; there was a ton more in the box,” Scootaloo argued, not even bothering to look back, not recognising the genuine concern in her friend’s voice. “It’s like apples on trees, Apple Bloom.”
“Fireworks don’t grow on trees Scootaloo,” the bemused farmer answered, in an even more wretched tone.
“Yeah, but do you harvest all of these apples?” She pointed out with her hoof at a generic area slightly to the right of her. Sweetie Belle looked around as well, while still levitating the colorful charges. They had deduced earlier that she only focused on raising objects before, and never really learned how to put them back down. Normally, the lapse of magic helped with that; unfortunately, this time around, she seemed to produce a steady stream of energy.
“Well…no. But some apples get taken by birds and a few of ‘em go rotten.”
“And do you miss those apples?”
“Well no, there’s just too many to get them all,” Apple Bloom had to admit.
“Exactly! We’re just taking the…uhh Sweetie Belle, what’s that word Ms. Cheerilee used?”
“Uhh, I think it was Egg-sess?”
“Sounds about right.”
“Ah dunno… so why are we shootin’ fireworks again?” Apple Bloom inquired with a sudden change of heart, while lifting her head to see something other than the same snow covered ground she’d been observing for the past few minutes.
“Well we’ve tried pretty much everything else, and it’s getting close to Winter Wrap Up, so imagine what everypony would say when they finished and saw these babies dazzle!”
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle added with her semi-usual voice crack, “and how cool would it be to have an explosion as our cutie marks!?” She bounced up and down with joy at the thought and the tubes of explosive powders and chemicals in her control did likewise.
“Careful, I wouldn’t want those to hit a tree or nuthin’. Applejack would get real sore if she saw part ah the orchard on fire.” She shuddered for a moment as she imagined the horrendous scolding she’d receive and the work that would follow replacing the trees.
“It’s not like anything would happen, they need to be lit. Besides, even if one did go off, it’s not like we couldn’t put it out with snow right? It’s just like water.”
Finding no loophole in her concise argument, Apple Bloom remained silent. She eventually walked next to Scootaloo, completing the line instead of the triangle formation they had earlier.
The most delicate crusader felt a small bead of sweat began to shape on her brow; lumbering through the frosty field with a seemingly interminable current of magic was initiating a new kind of fatigue she had yet to experience. Trying to take her mind off her plight, she asked “So, where we were headed again?”
“To a giant clearing at the back of Sweet Apple Acres. Normally it’s filled with other crops, but for now it’s wiiiiide open space, perfect for things like these babies,” she finished with a wide grin.
“Well, what if somethin’ happens? Won’t somepony hear ‘em?”
“So what? It’s close to the Everfree Forest, ponies will think it came from over there.”
“But won’t ponies see ‘em!? I mean, they’re only what? Huge, colourful, noisy explosives!”
“We’ll launch them at an angle so they won’t explode as high.”
“But what if-“
“APPLE BLOOM!” Scootaloo yelled while turning to face her overly curious friend.
“Sorry, I’m jus’ concerned is all…”
The crusaders trudged in uncharacteristic silence for a few minutes as they continued their trek through the plantation. The sun had only recently passed the high noon mark and was illuminating the pastel white ground with rays of gentle light, only to be occasionally interrupted by clouds drifting in the cool winter breeze.
As the minutes rolled on by, the three companions in trouble making noticed that the atmosphere above was definitely erring on the side of overcast, with no signs of letting up. Respectively, the seasonal breeze picked up the pace, sending shivers down each of the fillies’ spines.
“We should hurry this up Scootaloo, I don’t think I can hold these much longer,” Sweetie Belle admonished. The pink aura around the fireworks was showing signs of giving out entirely as the color and volume began to fade. With a subtle flicker of light, and a few buzzing noises later, the three explosives hit the ground with an airy “fump”. “Or apparently at all,” she added with scratching the back of her head with an eye roll.
“Well, it’s a good thing we’re at the clearing then, isn’t it?” Scootaloo pointed to a large circular opening, completely clear of anything apple or tree related. Like the adventurous filly had promised, it appeared to be spacious enough for the crusaders to place one in the dirt and get to a safe distance.
The three fillies charged towards the center, each with an explosive in their mouth.
“Alright, ready to get those Cutie Marks?” the eager pegasus cheered. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gave each other a passing glance of mild concern, considering this was perhaps one of their more dangerous forays into the realms of talent searching, but soon nodded to each other in agreement. “Ok, step one, aligning your firework…”
~~~
“Hey Applejack, what’s up?” Pinkie asked from behind the front counter at Sugarcube Corner. She waved her previous customer goodbye, and then refocused back on the farmpony.
“Hey, sugarcube. I was just wonderin’ if you’ve seen the girls anywhere.” She raised a hoof to half her height, indicating it was her little sister she was searching for. “I can’t seem to find ‘em, they’re more elusive than Rarity at a dirt farm.” She half-chuckled at her own joke before setting her face straight again.
“Actually, I can’t say I have, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they were playing hide and seek because that’s one of my favorite games!” the practitioner of parties face-hoofed for a moment, as if sudden realization was knocking at her front door step. “They must be trying to earn their hiding and seeking cutie marks! Oh, of course! Me and gummy play it all the time, you know he’s really good at hiding in the open, I sometimes check all the spots I would hide in but I never take a look at the rug an-“
Normally, Applejack might tolerate some of Pinkie’s nonsense, but having a missing sibling can be a little unnerving; she didn’t have time for meandering jibberish. “Fancy helpin’ me find ‘em? Apple Bloom needs to come home for some snow shovelin’.”
Hopping over the counter with joy at the prospect of a winter game, the goofy haired mare squealed with delight. “Oh boy! So where should we look first?”
“I was actually thinkin’ of heading to the library to pick u-“
“You’re right! They’re small enough to hide on book shelves! Come on! We don’t want to keep them waiting!” Grabbing the orange pony’s front hoof, Pinkie ran off to Twilight’s house with Applejack in tow, who was now wearing an understandably bewildered face.
~~~
Knock knock knock.
“Hmm, a pony coming in on a day like today? Well, reading is another way to escape the cold,” Twilight pondered while going to answer the door. As she opened the door, she found a happy smiling Pinkie holding Applejack’s left foreleg. “Uh, what’s going on here?”
“Hi Twilight! We’re playing hide and seek! Wanna join in?”
Pushing her oblivious friend behind her, AJ stepped forward. “Actually, we’re lookin’ for Apple Bloom and her friends. We haven’t seen ‘em all afternoon and I’m getting’ a mighty bit worried.”
Seeing her friend’s pained face, though she was trying to hide it somewhat, immediately resolved her to accompany in the search. The dragon caretaker also found this to be an ample opportunity to aquire more medicine for her sickly companion. “Oh, of course, if I didn’t know where Spike was, I’d be worried sick too.” The librarian trotted back to the coat rack and grabbed her fuchsia scarf before yelling, “Spike, I’m going out to help Applejack, sure you’ll be alright by yourself?”
After a rough cough, a few sniffles, and a clearing his throat , the young assistant responded from upstairs, “yeah, I’ll just sleep here…”
The worried unicorn returned her attention to her friends at the door and, noticing that one of them was vibrating slightly, quickly turned away again. “He caught a bit of a cold, poor little guy.”
“I’ll totally make him one of our spicy cupcakes later Twilight! That clears my nosey right up!”
With an appreciative nod, Twilight walked out the door and promptly closed it behind her.
~~~
“Ok girls! I think that’s it!” Scootaloo stepped back to admire her hoofwork. Three vibrantly colored fireworks stood equidistant at an eighty degree angle in the ground, all facing away from each other in the exact center of the open field. In the center, all three fuses were tied together so they’d ignite at the same time.
“Who would have guessed there were so many steps to setting up a firework?” Sweetie Belle wondered aloud from her spot on the ground. The dense sky above began to look intimidating to the trio as the soft winter sun was no longer shining through enough to make decent light. The already grey sky was intermixed with various swirls of a darker hue, indicating a prevalent storm. The accelerating winds brushed the snow off of the Everfree trees in the distance, revealing the deep greens they hosted.
“I still don’t know about this, it doesn’t seem right.” Apple Bloom looked up at the menacing sky.
“Come on, it’s now or never!” Untucking the box of matches she had apprehended earlier, she reached in and grabbed the ignitable stick. With a swift scratch against the boxes friction patch, the small match came alight. Not wasting any time, she bent down kindled the combination fuse and ran away. The two other crusaders followed suit and waited near the edge of the apple orchard. They could see traces of the ignited flame traveling down the long strands to the base.
As if misfortune were a cruel mistress, the winds ferociously whipped up the puffy blanket of snow and created a impenetrable white haze, blocking the view of the eminent fireworks. The three fillies also couldn’t hear the cackles of the lines anymore.
They waited, in an uncomfortable silence, for something spectacular, something amazing, or maybe even for a dud to make a humorous flarp noise. And for a few moments, they suspected that the line was really long and it as just taking a bit longer than they had expected. They looked anxiously at each other, giving supportive grins and appreciative nudges, except for the youngest Apple family member who kept watch on the invisible spot, or at least what she hoped was the spot.
But nothing happened, absolutely nothing. Not even a flarp, a hoot, or the singe of an extinguished flame. Each held their head low in defeat, disappointed that the weather had destroyed their chances at seeing if-
CrackaBOOM.
From high above a radiant explosion of pink and purple, much like a gumball machine, dazzled the overcast sky. Directly following it, a second burst of red and blue highlighted the clouds and shone through even the thickening snowy fog. The excited friends joyfully gazed up at their momentary creations of beauty, and checked not moments later if any mark had appeared on their flank. Snow aside, all was as was expected: sadly, no such thing happened.
“Well, that was a bust,” Scootaloo confirmed with a sigh.
“Hey Scootaloo, didn’t we set up three?” Sweetie Belle calculated with a concerned frown.
“Oh yeah…maybe the snow got to it?” She held a hoof just above her eyes, trying to see through the steadily increasing winds. “It doesn’t look like it’s going off anyt-“
CrackaBOOM.
The three fillies covered their ears in a reflexive reaction as a clamorous and resounding boom resonated a lot closer than it should have.
With an agitating ringing reverberating in her ears, Sweetie Belle attempted to communicate, “That was...” momentarily dazed by the explosion she carried on, "a little close don’t you think?”
“WHAT?”
“I said, that was a little close don’t you think!”
“WHAAAT?”
“I SAID!”
“GIRLS! Look!” Apple Bloom furiously shouted over the arguing friends. “The firework’s still goin’!”
Following her gaze, they saw that there was indeed a large splotch of red still glowing in the distance, however it was unclear if it was an extended magical effect or something else entirely. As if to prove a point, misfortune released her gusts of buffeting winds to reveal that, no, that was definitely NOT a firework. Rather, there was there was a meaningful absence of work; only fire, and a roaring, ravenous, insatiable one at that, spreading over the Everfree Forest.
“Scootaloo, remember when I asked if somethin’ might happen?”
“Yeah?”
“I think somethin’ just happened…”
~~~
“Wow, these girls are good,” Pinkie concluded as she popped out a barrel clearly too small to fit her entire body. She lowered herself back in and shut the lid before popping out of another just across the street. Not wishing to question the metaphysical goings on of a universe in which Pinkie Pie inhabited, Twilight and Applejack continued searching the rest of the town square. Outside of looking through every nook and cranny, they had searched through most of the Crusader’s usual hide outs and hadn’t met any success. The wind whipping up snow as of recent wasn’t lending a helping hoof either.
“Hmm, the weather ponies didn’t tell us a storm was coming in today,” Twilight mentioned, readjusting the pink scarf around her neck. She walked towards a bench and sat down, giving herself a moment to think of every location they had checked so far. She would have a check list, but she was out of parchment out of the moment.
“Ah’m gettin’ awful worried Twi’,” Applejack relented while approaching the mare who seemed deep in thought. “Never mind the shovelin’, we need to find these fillies before it gets dangerous out here. I don’t even wanna think of havin’ my little sister out alone in a storm like that.” She held her iconic hat to her chest out of depression, fearing that the chilling breeze would blow it away.
“Hey Twilight! I think I found something!” a blithe cry came from behind Sugarcube Corner. Applejack charged towards the location of the sound-off, perhaps more haphazardly than she should have as she figuratively danced through a slim crowd of pedestrians.
When she arrived moments later, she found the party pony pawing at an unusual trail in the snow. Trailing anon at a less panicked pace, Twilight arrived and promptly noticed the beaten track in the ground.
“That’s odd; it looks like this was scuffed out with something. Whoever did this, he didn’t do a good job of covering his hoof steps up. There’s a zig zag going through all of this.”
“Yeah! And what’s even stranger is that it starts at the cellar door to the basement! At first, I thought it was me, but then I said ‘wait, I haven’t gone into the basement for years.’ So that’s when I looked at the door and I noticed it had that recently opened smell!”
“It…smelled recently opened?” Twilight attempted to see the logic, even though it was probably hopeless and most likely non-existent.
“Yeah! You know like when you open a box full of photos after like a bagillion years? Kind of like that, except dustier and it doesn’t make you cry because of the memories, but because of the dust. Anyways, I opened it and looked inside and saw that a box was out. Not only that, but tiny hoofprints were everywhere. So I said ‘that’s weird, those can’t be my hoofprints, those are too small.’ So-”
Partially annoyed with her energetic demeanor and elongated explanation, the panicked bigger sister interrupted, “alright, simmer down sugarcube, what’s the point of all this?”
“I was getting to that, duh! So I looked inside the box and I noticed it was the firecracker box I have.”
“You own fireworks?”
“Hey, do you want the story or not?” Pinkie unexpectedly snapped. “I mean sheesh, you ask for a story and then ponies keep interrupting you.”
“Oh, sorry, please do go on,” Twilight sarcastically remarked.
“Then I saw that three firecrackers were missing, and we’re missing three fillies-“
“Please don’t say missin’…”
“Well, to make a long story short, I think this is their trail! And it leads out to Sweet Apple Acres! That’s genius! Hide in an orchard behind a bunch of trees; it’s so original.”
“So why did they take those out of the b-“ Crackaboom. “…ox.”
~~~
A barrage of slush and snow hit the searing fire, temporarily extinguishing the crimson flame enveloping the tree. And for a few moments, the tide of war seemed to be on the crusader’s side.
“Keep pelting it with snowballs!”
“It’s spreading too fast!”
“How did I get talked into this again?”
The compressed balls of semi frozen water continued their relentless onslaught. But unlike fire, the three friends had physical limitations and could only keep it up for so long. Despite their best efforts, an atramentous plume of consolidated smoke rose into the dreary sky. It was, quite literally, a smoke signal advertising to the entirety of Ponyville, and indeed to all of Pony civilization, that there was trouble ahoof.
As they continued their barrage, three familiar silhouettes rose above the horizon. Immediately recognizing one of them as Applejack (that or somepony had stolen her hat) the younger sister said morosely, “We’re so dead.”
~~~
With a sizzle, the final embers of the once rampaging fire were doused as Twilight telekinetically dropped another mound of snow on the singed ground. Wiping her brow, she affirmed that the immediate danger was completely gone. Along with an exasperated Pinkie, who had joined in snowballing the fire, and Applejack, who didn’t seem winded from controlling the spread of flames, the three make-shift firefighters gathered near the cheering fillies.
“I don’t see why ya’ll are cheerin’,” the stern farm mare huffed. “What just happened here was dangerous; most of the edge of the forest was completely burned down, lots of animals have to find new homes, and we’re very lucky that nothing from inside the forest came out to attack us. Not to mention you stole Pinkie’s things. I’m ashamed of you three, especially you Apple Bloom.”
As if her bigger sister’s words were a sedative, Apple Bloom drooped her head. Scootaloo, unwilling to let her friend suffer, stepped forward.
“It wasn’t her fault, me and Sweetie Belle overheard Pinkie Pie talking about her next big Winter Wrap Up party and how she wanted to use something special. We thought that if, maybe, we had fireworks as our Cutie Marks, we could really liven up the party. So we asked Apple Bloom to watch the door while we looked inside her cellar for some ‘cool party favors’.”
“But what I don’t get is why ya’ll felt the need to steal ‘em.”
“I think I can answer that one AJ,” Twilight disrupted. “They probably thought that we’d say no if we asked them for our help.” The two original offenders nodded their heads in shame. “Girls, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for supervision if you know something is going to be dangerous.”
“And Apple Bloom, if you know you’re doin’ something wrong, that doesn’t always mean you should go along with them just ‘cause they’re your friends.”
All three looked down in unison and forced out a humble apology, in unison, “we’re sorry.”
“Well, sorry ain’t gunna get these trees growin’ again. I want ya’ll three to help me replant some of these when spring comes back around, yah hear? And I imagine your parents will have much more to say to you that I haven’t already.” The three crusaders looked at each other in an unspoken agreement that their lenient punishment was fair. “Good, now let’s get you all home.”
~~~
Dear Princess Celestia
Today I learned that we should always ask for adult supervision if we know something could be dangerous. Sometimes, things can go wrong and we can’t always handle it by ourselves. Also, we shouldn’t have been bor- err, stealing something, even if we knew somepony wouldn’t miss them. Maybe we should relearn that again sometime. But I got to use a lot of my magic for the first time!
And Ah learned that even if they’re your best friends, it doesn’t always mean that what they’re doin’ is right. Ah should always remember to keep a clear head and not do somethin’ if it doesn’t feel right. Replantin’ a dozen trees this next spring and helpin’ Ms. Fluttershy find new homes for some critters will help me learn that...
And I learned that I shouldn’t be earf-...uhh...eaves dripping...Oh! Eavesdropping on ponies. It kind of gave me the wrong idea and it put my friends, and some of the forest, in danger. Also, Princess Celestia, if you’re ever in a fireworks store, I recommend “Gumball Fireworks”. Those are AWESOME.
Yours truly,
~The Cutie Mark Crusaders.
