Lost at Home

Lost at Home: A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfic by the *Secondbestscribe*

Chapter One: The Ponyville Express

Rumble... rumble...

The rhythmic sounds of the wheels grinding against the rails reached the ears of one little filly, who looked up with a bored expression, probably praying silently to Celestia for something fun to happen.

Her mane hung down on the right side of her face, which she now blew out of her face. It was a light amaranth, with brilliant amaranth streaks in it, that complemented her brilliant gamboge coat well. Her eyes were droopy with boredom, but beneath the lids two circles of spring bud were visible. She yawned, which stretched the white triangular freckles on her cheeks. A closer look would reveal to an onlooker that she lacked any visible cutie mark.

The blank flank filly curled up on her seat, and felt her eyelids droop. Her ears fell, and she closed her eyes as she began to snore lightly, her mane fluttering as the breath of the filly hit it gently.

The conductor's voice rang out, as clear and loud as a church bell: "Arriving in Ponyville in five minutes! Five minutes to Ponyville!"

Babs Seed, cousin to Apple Bloom and Manehatten filly, woke up from her doze with a start. Her slight yell earned her the disapproving glances from posh Canterlot ponies that had been forced to return to their upper-class home on a working-class tin-can excuse for a train. Blushing, Babs' tail whipped instinctively over her bare gamboge flank, and she ducked her head and muttered an excuse in a heavy Bux accent until the Canterlotters turned away snootily.

The filly sighed, and looked at the letter that had been sent to her parents a month ago:

"Dear Babs,

We would be honoured to have you over for the summer holidays here at Sweet Apple Acres! Apple Bloom in particular has been asking us all if you're coming to stay, and we all hate to disappoint her.

If your parents say that it's fine, then you can send us a letter back with all your luggage and we'll make room for you.

Here's hoping to see you again!

-The Apples."

Of course, Babs had begged and pleaded and cajoled and whined to her parents, and eventually they had given in on the second-last day of the school year. Joyously, Babs had thrown together a haphazard inventory that she had called "luggage", and with the blessings of her parents and the worried safety lectures courtesy of her older sister, on the last day of school, after the final bell had rang, signalling the end of the school year, she had boarded the Ponyville Express for the second time in her life and set off for Ponyville.

Inside her "luggage", she had a manebrush, toiletries, a sleeping bag so that Apple Bloom could keep her bed this time around, some miscellaneous travelling paraphernalia, and, of course, her Cutie Mark Crusader cape.

Babs remembered the first time she had come to Ponyville. She remembered meeting the CMCs, and being introduced, and seeing the clubhouse, and seeing the float, and seeing Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She remembered, with a burning shame, how she had turned on her own cousin and bullied Apple Bloom and her friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, in order to avoid being bullied herself. The bullies back home at Manehatten had just teased her silly, what with her not having a cutie mark and all, and she had been determined not to have the same experience in that backwater town.

Well, the good thing was that everypony had been taught a lesson that day, featuring a haywire float, a plucky unicorn and a very wise cowpony. Babs was now friends with nearly everypony at her new school, and hadn't been bullied for a long time now. Better yet, she had easily managed to uphold her promise to start a Manehatten branch of Crusaders, and the two blank flanks at her new school had been happy, enthusiastic and above all eager volunteers.

Babs' reminiscences were brought to an abrupt halt as the conductor shrieked, "Boarding at Ponyville; repeat, boarding at Ponyville!"

The Manehatten filly leapt up from her seat and, carrying her luggage on her back, trotted through the opening doors of the Ponyville Express after showing her ticket to the ticket carrier. She emerged in a cloud of smoke and, coughing slightly, stepped onto the platform.

Looking around, Babs saw many unfamiliar faces of considerably friendlier-looking mares and stallions. She watched as an aquamarine unicorn met up with a beige earth pony with a cobalt-and-fuchsia mane; Babs eyes were wide as they grinned and high-hoofed before trotting away, chatting happily with each other.

Nothing like that ever happens in Manehatten, thought Babs.

Trotting through the sea of meeting-and-greeting ponies, Babs searched everywhere for a set of strong legs, listening hard for that familiar cowpony accent. And, sure enough...

"Excuse me! 'Scuse me, sir, have ya seen a lil' filly? Kinda lowish mane, brown colour, no cutie mark? No? Ah, 'scuse me, ma'am, have you - "

"Applejack!" Babs yelled, her voice getting swept up in the tumultuous swarm of noise.

"Babs Seed?" Beside her, emerging from the crowd like a ghost, a young earth pony mare extracted herself from in between two stallions and looked down on Babs, her mouth opening in a relieved grin.

"Applejack!" blurted out Babs.

"Why, there y'ar, lil' filly!" grinned Applejack the cowpony. "Been lookin' all over for ya, sugarcube! Follow me, 'n we'll get to the Schoolhouse. Ain't Apple Bloom gonna get the shock 'o her life, hoo-wee!"

Applejack led Babs through the crowd, and the duo emerged out into Ponyville. Babs smiled thankfully as Applejack hefted the young filly's luggage onto her own orange back. Her blonde mane and tail bounced energetically as they trotted, while her bright sap-green eyes sparkled as she talked happily.

"Aw, shucks, Apple Bloom's been askin' 'n askin' about ya, Babs, always goin' on about if ya comin' tah stay or summin'. Well, 's a good thing none o' us told her that you were comin', eh? Heh heh, she'll be absolutely thrilled tah see ya again, Babs! So how was th' train ride?"

"Er, it was good," said Babs in her low voice, smiling sheepishly.

The workhorse nodded enthusiastically, her brown cowpony hat dipping and swaying on her head. Her signature white triangle freckles, almost identical to Babs' own, stretched slightly as she continued chatting.

"So, how's Manehatten been for ya? Have the bullies been leavin' ya be?" Suddenly, her voice was full of concern as she tried to hide her three-apples cutie mark while simultaneously not hiding her three-apples cutie mark.

Babs smiled. "Eh, s'no trouble, Cousin Applejack. Mah big sis's dealt with all the bullyin'. There's been a lotta angry 'n apologetic mothers stormin' in an' out o' our house, lemme tell you!"

Applejack laughed, and gave Babs a friendly punch on the shoulder. "Well, guess that whole float incident really helped ya, eh? And I betcha just trippin' tah see all ya Crusader friends again, huh?"

"Yeah! Hey, so how's Apple Bloom been?"

"She's been absolutely fine," Applejack assured the filly, as they trotted through town, drawing ever nearer to a schoolhouse in the distance.

Babs and Applejack continued with their pleasant small talk until they finally came to a halt in front of the schoolhouse. Almost on cue, the bell rang, and almost immediately, a swarm of fillies and colts emerged from the schoolhouse doors. Babs began jumping up and down, much to the amusement of the cowpony standing next to her.

"Where is she? Where is she?" yelped Babs, looking to and fro. "Where's mah cousin?"

"I don't get it," said Sweetie Belle, as the Cutie Mark Crusaders emerged from the schoolhouse doors. "If nopony knows anything about Ponytopia, how can they know that the plants grow all on their own and stuff?"

"It's a legend, Sweetie Belle," explained Apple Bloom. "It don't hafta make sense!"

"I still don't get the whole thing about the alicorns and stuff," remarked Scootaloo, her wings whirring in her confusion. "I mean, what the hay? I thought alicorns had wings because they were super-magical and stuff! And I bet that if Rainbow Dash became an alicorn, she'd be the fastest pony in Equestria!"

"Or Ponytopia," added Sweetie.

"Or Ponytopia," agreed Scootaloo, nodding seriously.

Apple Bloom scratched her head. "We-ell, Twilight became a unicorn, so ah don't see why Rainbow Dash couldn't."

"Or Rarity!" exclaimed Sweetie happily.

"Wait a second!" said Apple Bloom slowly. "Didn' Rarity al-ready become an alicorn? Y'know, durin' the Best Young Flyer competition? Applejack told me!"

"Yeah!" shouted Scootaloo eagerly, leaping into the air as her wings buzzed. "That was when Rainbow Dash did that super-cool Sonic Rainboom, right? To save Rarity!"

Sweetie's brow furrowed in concentration. "But I thought that that was an old mares' tale, like Ponytopia!"

"Well, Applejack saw it and Applejack never lies," said Apple Bloom, in a tone that suggested that that was the end of the matter.

"Rarity told me about the wings," said Sweetie, "but she never said anything about getting saved."

"Rainbow Dash did it," said Scootaloo matter-of-factually. "Rainbow Dash did that Sonic Rainboom!"

"But how did Applejack get up to Cloudsdale?" continued Sweetie, frowning at Apple Bloom, who frowned in turn and scratched her head.

"Erm... I reckon that Twi did a funny kinda spell or summin'," explained Apple Bloom, though there was a definite tone of uncertainty in her voice. "AJ never did say..."

Scootaloo suddenly stopped jumping around and praising her idol. "Wait... where is AJ?"

That was when they heard the familiar voice of one Manehatten blank flank filly. Three filly heads turned to face the direction of the voice, which was yelling out "Cousin? Scoots? Sweetie?" like a mantra. Three pairs of eyes widened, and three sets of hooves started cantering towards the Bux accent, where three voices screamed the same word at the same time with the same amount of boundless excitement and unbridled surprise.

"Babs!"