Lost at Home

by Secondbestscribe

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe, Adventure
Length: 10733

When you're thrown into a crazy new - or maybe old as time - world with nothing but each other and someone who could possibly be the most insane pony ever, what do you do? Well, the Cutie Mark Crusaders become CMC alternate-Equestrians!

When Babs Seed comes back to Ponyville in order to stay there for the summer holidays, the entirety of the Cutie Mark Crusaders waste no time in revving up the old crusading gears. They don their capes and charge through Ponyville, with big smiles and blank flanks. However, not all is sunshine and rainbows, even in the small backwater town of Ponyville…

On Sweet Apple Acres, some bits have been stolen and replaced with a single coin of pure gold that could feed the Apples for a year…

At Carousel Boutique, random crates of emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds have been arriving at the door, with a note saying that it's all Rarity's…

Up in Cloudsdale, the only scooter in Ponyville has been mysteriously refurnished, giving it a weird kind of motor and a fresh coat of paint…

And the newest member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders has just found a sack of toys at her doorstep, filled to the brim with all the trinkets stolen from her by bullies…

Not only is this weird enough, but Rainbow Dash has found the latest Daring Do book, signed and brand-new, wedged into her favourite napping cloud and addressed to her; Fluttershy has received an all-new animal playground pen from an unknown stranger; Twilight Sparkle has been given a book of ancient Equestrian runes, signed to her and with nopony else's name on it; and Pinkie Pie has found a family photo album inside her pillowcase during a bout of homesickness.

All over Ponyville, ponies have had their woes and troubles soothed, their issues dealt with. Naturally, everypony begins asking the same question: Who's helping us?

Then a pony with a crazed expression and a low-hanging mane shows up in the middle of the night…

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-08 07:38:06 UTC

Prologue: The Legend of the Other Equestria

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

Prologue: Just A Normal Schoolday

"Good morning, everypony!"

"Good morning, Ms Cheerilee!"

The chant rang throughout the classroom, bright as a bell. Twenty-five eager foal faces faced the front, where a cerise-coated earth pony was taking her place at the front of the classroom. Celestia's sun shone in through a window, and, almost on cue, hit the teacher's flank, which sparkled, almost showing off the cutie mark it bore: three smiling flowers.

"Well, everypony, another fabulous day greets us, and what a fabulous day it is!" smiled Cheerilee, turning so that she faced her class. "Today is the final day of the school year, and as I'm sure you all are excited to get home and have fun, let's get this day started!"

A chorus of cheers greeted this particular announcement. The fillies and colts of the Ponyville Schoolhouse loved their teacher, but they loved having fun outside school even more.

The three fillies leading the cheer were none other than the locally famous - and slightly notorious - Cutie Mark Crusaders. They were arranged in a triangle, spread around the classroom, as Cheerilee knew that they would whisper non-stop about their crusading attempts to gain their cutie marks.

One of the fillies was a unicorn, with an alabaster coat that took after her older sister, Rarity. She had pale, harlequin eyes that caught the heart of anypony who first clapped eyes on her, coaxing out a breathy sigh and a little "Aaaaauuuuuaaaww!" She had a curled mulberry mane, streaked with a light rose. Currently, her tiny horn was alight with magical sparks the same colour of her eyes.

Her name was Sweetie Belle.

The next filly was a pegasus. She bore a spunky tomboy manestyle, which slicked up at the back and at the front, showing off the cerise colour of the hair. Her eyes were bright with eagerness and a kind of unshakeable determination, displayed almost intimidatingly in the greyish-purple of their colour. Her coat was a light yet brilliant shade of gamboge, and on her back two currently flightless pegasus wings whirred.

Her name was Scootaloo.

The final one of the fillies was an earth pony, and seated at the very front and centre of the class. She had a mane similar to her teacher, coloured a bright amaranth. Her coat was a light-olive, bordering on yellow, and her eyes were a brilliant gamboge. What was so noticeable about her, however, was the large bow that she donned, which was a light crimson and nearly dwarfed her entire head.

Her name was Apple Bloom.

Cheerilee waited patiently for the cheers to die down, then beamed a large signature smile.

"Okay, foals, don't get too carried away!" she trilled. "We've still got work to do today - "

A chorus of inevitable groaning followed this statement.

" - but it will only take up a bit of our morning, and then we can go out to play a rousing game of dodge-horseshoes!" she finished, which coaxed up more cheers and yells of delight.

Clearing her throat, Cheerilee ducked underneath her desk and brought out a large book, holding it in her mouth. Depositing the tome on her desk, she opened it up, which caused a large cloud of dust to emerge from it, cloaking the entire classroom and earning a lot of coughing and general exclamation from the thoroughly over-excited fillies and colts.

When the dust-cloud eventually settled, Cheerilee called order to her class by thumping her two hind hooves against the blackboard behind her.

"Calm down, children, it's only some dust!" she cried, and soon enough everypony quietened.

Cheerilee smiled again, and cleared her throat as she peered down at the large book before her.

"Now," she began, "today I am going to read to you a legend that has been handed down Equestria for generations! It is a mystical and almost certainly mythical tale, but it is also one that everypony should know; and, I think, you will all find it nothing short of spellbinding!"

A row behind Apple Bloom, a pale-magenta earth pony filly wearing a tiara on her head rolled her cornflower-blue eyes and whispered, in a voice so loud it could have passed through a megaphone, "Bo-ring! Nopony wants to read silly old mares' tales!"

Two seats to the left of the filly, a bluish-grey earth pony wearing outrageously-sized glasses and a pearl necklace that was almost certainly fake, giggled in assumed agreement.

"Diamond Tiara! Silver Spoon! Please do not distract the ponies around you, regardless if you think that the Legend of the Other Equestria is a 'silly old mares' tale'!"

Cheerilee's scolding gained a ripple of approving giggles and chuckles, and Diamond Tiara sunk down low in her seat, pouting and blushing at the same time. Silver Spoon ducked her head nervously, and mumbled a clumsy, "Sorry, Ms Cheerilee." Diamond Tiara gave the other pony an indignant glare, but kept her mouth shut.

"Now," said the apparently-satisfied Cheerilee, "if there are no more objections...?"

The half-question hung in the air like a particularly menacing fly. Nopony said anything. Cheerilee, who knew this was the kind of reception her words would get, cleared her throat a second time, looked down at the dusty old book splayed open on her desk, and began to read...

Through the fabric of space and time, in a land that nopony knows, where the sun and the moon move, and where the weather changes, and where the animals live, and where the plants grow all on their own, is a land just like our own.

It is a land with earth ponies, who tend to the land.

It is a land with unicorns, who store the secrets of knowledge and magic.

It is a land with pegasi, who fly through the skies.

And it is also a land where the magical winged alicorns, known in our land as almighty princesses, and known in that land as a race as common as any other, walk and fly alongside the other pony races.

In this land, the sun and the moon move all on their own. There is no magic binding them, only their eternal course through the sky.

In this land, the weather is ever changing, with no ponies controlling and scheduling it, for here it is a wild, free thing, with a mischievous nature.

In this land, the animals live independently, without the care and consideration of the ponies, living in the forests and the seas and the deserts.

In this land, the plants grow and spiral up towards the sky, growing leaves without any help, bearing fruit with no assistance, staying alive against all logic.

This world is the same as ours, but it is also completely different. It is the 'other Equestria'. It is known as Ponytopia.

Chapter One: The Fourth Cutie Mark Crusader

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!"

Chapter Two: The First Day of the Holidays

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

Chapter Two: The First Day of the Holidays

If, at daybreak, one was to look out of the top window of the new barn at Sweet Apple Acres on the first day of the school holidays, one would see four filly-shaped silhouettes trailing cape-shaped silhouettes while running towards Ponyville with a chorus of "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER PARK RANGERS!" and a brief yet particularly loud four-way high-hoof.

One would also feel warned by some eldritch sixth sense that it would be a good idea to lock the doors and learn how to run away from lions.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Babs Seed were riding around Ponyville in the Crusader cart, being pulled by a currently-flightless pegasus filly. If anyone had been awake at this hour, they would have heard whooping and cheering, courtesy of the three other fillies that were riding in the cart.

"Aw, jeepers, Apple Bloom, this is awesome!" whooped Babs, throwing her hooves up in the air as her cape streamed out behind her.

"I know, right?" squealed Sweetie. "This is so fun!["

"HAH!" came Scootaloo's voice from up front. "You think this is awesome? This is awesome!"

With those words, Scootaloo kicked her wings into overdrive, giving the CMC a burst of speed. Screams of delight met the pegasus' ears, and she grinned as she propelled herself with her hind hoof, bits of rock being left behind as the clop of her hoof on stone tapped out a catchy-sounding tune.

Ponyville was now a mere multi-coloured blur enveloping the Crusaders. Babs and Apple Bloom whooped excitedly, while Sweetie hunkered down and screamed with a mixture of fear and ecstasy. Scootaloo threw back her head and yelled, "THIS IS SO AWESOME!"

Her hoof kept tapping out the beat, and the sound was whipped towards the other Crusaders by the speed of their riding. Sweetie's ear twitched as she heard the beat, and she straightened up, unsung words suddenly filling her mouth. The unicorn let four steady beats pass, then she suddenly jumped into the song with a grin, the familiar tune catching the attention of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo:

"Look, here, are four little ponies,

Ready to go and face the world,

Four fillies, each with a story,

Destiny waiting to be unfurled!"

Babs and Scootaloo looked at each other in confusion, but Apple Bloom was bearing a large grin. Suddenly, she jumped in to add a verse of her own, smiling all the while.

"When you're a younger pony,

And yer flank is really bare,

There's no need to wait fer sun-up,

In order to see what must be there - "

"So the four of us show the light,

So that everypony can see,

That we'll get our cutie marks,

And we'll do it as a team!"

Sweetie looped a hoof around Apple Bloom, and they started to sway in time with the beat that Scootaloo's hoof was now tapping out as if in a mantra.

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders,

On a quest to find out who we are,

And we will never stop the journey,

Not until we have our cutie marks!"

Scootaloo turned to Babs and slipped her a wink. Before the city filly could reply, the pegasus opened her mouth and let a mixture of harmonics and discords loose.

"They all say that you'll get your mark,

When the time is really right,

But the Cutie Mark Crusaders say,

That they can't wait through another night!"

"So we wake up in the morn," sang Apple Bloom, "and keep crusadin' 'till the sun goes down."

"And as we canter around with our capes," added Sweetie, "everyone knows that the 'saders are in town!"

Babs, having finally worked up the courage to do so, opened her mouth tentatively to sing along with the chorus.

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders,

On a quest to find out who we are,

And we will never stop the journey,

Not until we have our cutie marks!"

The Crusaders suddenly exploded in a lapse of giggling and general all-round high-hoofing. Babs in particular was feeling particularly flushed; she felt as if she had just passed a test or something, an entrance exam into the School of Cutie Mark Crusading.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle was chattering excitedly.

"That was so cool! That singing was so fun and we sounded so good and - "

While she gibbered, the unicorn's horn started to spark excessively with green magical aura. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at her in sudden horror. Scootaloo's hoof stopped tapping abruptly, and her wings came to a grinding halt.

"ABANDON CART!" screeched Apple Bloom. "ABANDON CART!"

Apple Bloom leapt out from the side of the cart, dragging a shocked Babs along with her. Scootaloo tucked and rolled, her head held between her hooves. The three fillies collapsed in a cloud of dust; when it cleared, they were revealed in the midst of it, coughing and wheezing.

"What," stammered Babs, struggling to her hooves, "was that?"

Apple Bloom dusted off her bow with the precision of one that absolutely hates a dusty bow. "Well, nopony actually understands it, but basic'ly Sweetie's going through this... erm... thing... ah reckon 's a unicorn thing. Anyway, Twilight says that - "

"Twilight?" interjected Babs, confused.

"Y'know," said Scootaloo airily, waving a hoof. "Newest princess, alicorn, Element of Magic and all that?"

Babs' face cleared of confusion. "Aw, ah-kay... wait, ya know her?"

"Yup!" grinned Apple Bloom. "Well, as 'Twi', most'y. Applejack introduced 'er to me!"

Babs did nothing except for shake her head and blow her mane out of her face. "Well, anyways, what's up with Sweetie, eh?"

"Some kinda unicorn life-phase with pent-up magic or somethin'," explained Scootaloo. "She's learning how to use magic or something. I think. Erm, you know how earth ponies can get stronger as they grow older? And how pegasi can, ahem, fly?"

Babs nodded.

"Well, Twi says that Sweetie's body is kinda... gettin' used tah magic, ah guess," added Apple Bloom, shrugging.

Babs thought with a hoof cupping her chin. Then, eventually, she said, "Well... a'ight. Seems tah make sense."

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo nodded in unison.

"In fact, AJ says that Twi - " began Apple Bloom.

A large, sparking, green and above all magical explosion cut the bow-clad earth pony off. The remaining Crusaders looked at each other, shocked, then chorused the name "SWEETIE BELLE!" in horrified unison. They turned and ran towards the site of the explosion, each with a cape leading their tails, each one fearing for their magic-stuffed unicorn friend.

Chapter Three: Seven Days

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

Chapter Three: Seven Days

CMC Park Rangers

CMC Librarian Assistants

CMC Buskers

CMC Doctors

CMC Tour Guides

CMC Street Painters

CMC Teachers

CMC Photographers

Down and down the list stretched, up until the very last inch of the paper, which was taken up by the tentatively-written words, "CMC Foalsitters".

Almost on cue, as the mind's eye read this wishful exclamation, the door to the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse opened up, and in trotted four fillies that looked as if they had been through the Everfree Forest and back. Multiple times. In a row.

Frazzled manes played a big part. So did the black bags under their eyes that could have held the entirety of Applejack's apple stand. The stumbling gait helped to get across the message of sheer sluggishness that was currently coursing through the fillies' bodies. Drooping eyelids and miscellaneous groans filled the air with their tiredness.

Exhausted, all four Cutie Mark Crusaders collapsed in a heap in the middle of the Clubhouse.

"We," grumbled Apple Bloom, "are never doin' that again."

"Never!" burst out Sweetie.

"Pound Cake," muttered Scootaloo, as if the words were sour in her mouth.

"Ya'll didn't tell me that foalsittin' was gunna be like... like... well, like THAT!" exclaimed Babs, blowing her hair out of her face as she turned to look at the other Crusaders.

"Well, we didn' know that foalsittin' was gunna be like that!" retorted Apple Bloom, staggering upright as she slumped forwards in a lethargic parody of walking, moving her legs towards the piece of paper stuck up underneath the map of Ponyville. "An' Scoots, where'd ya put t' pencil?"

"Somewhere," replied the pegasus filly, waving her hoof in a general skyward direction and yawning hugely.

"Now I understand why Rarity never wants to help the Cakes out with their foals," muttered Sweetie, getting up as well and attempting to comb her mane with her hoof.

Meanwhile, Babs was feeling her flank being poked resolutely by something. Turning, her tail clamped protectively over her hindquarters, she saw that a pencil-like bump was raising the carpet up. She looked underneath the dusty woven furniture piece, and drew out a battered-looking yellow pencil.

"This whatcha lookin' for?" asked Babs, handing her cousin the item.

"Yeah, thanks!" said Apple Bloom, her face collapsing into something reminiscent of relief. The bow-wearing filly took the pencil in her mouth and, with a lot of finality and mixed emotion, crossed out "CMC Foalsitters" with a single dramatic strike.

Then the CMC collapsed in a four-way facing heap, backs against each other.

A week. A whole week. Sure, it took time to get a cutie mark. Sure, it came naturally. But they had felt so close. With Babs on their side, now, they couldn't have possibly not gotten a cutie mark, right? Right! And yet... and yet...

And yet Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon still teased them. Well, not to their faces, not with Babs around, but they did it behind the Crusader's backs; nopony had actually caught them at it, but everypony knew. The CMC weren't losing hope, but they were losing energy. A whole week.

At least Sweetie Belle had survived the explosion, though.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Babs Seed ran towards the site of the explosion, capes streaming out behind her. They leapt over ponies, ran underneath ponies, dodged ponies, and in one case accidentally pushed over a baby dragon carrying a heap of scrolls.

"Sorry, Spike!" Apple Bloom had called.

"We-we're almost there!" panted Babs, pointing with her hoof.

The eyes of the Crusaders were directed towards the site of a smoking explosion. The three sets of hooves sped up, and soon they were running past Fluttershy's cottage, and into the shade of the Everfree Forest. The CMCs tried to stop running, but the momentum they had built up carried them further and further, until they cannoned into each other and fell down a dip in the land, yelling and shrieking.

When the resulting dust had settled, and the Crusaders had stopped coughing, they had leapt up and fanned out, yelling for Sweetie Belle. Only when they had finally homed in on the actual site of the explosion did they find her.

Sweetie's horn was coated in soot, and her eyes were spinning in a way that forcefully reminded you of a grey pegasus mare. Her entire coat was somewhat sooty, which reminded you of a dalmatian. Sweetie's mane was now a purple-pink-and-black afro, while her tail was a bunch of blackened fur between her hind legs. Her horn was feebly sparking, and the remains of the cart - and Scootaloo's scooter - were scattered around her. She was also upside-down, against a tree.

"Sweetie Belle!" yelped Apple Bloom and Babs in relief.

"My SCOOTER!" shrieked Scootaloo, her eyes widening in horror.

"Are ya'll alright, Sweetie?" asked Apple Bloom, as her and Babs trotted forwards, leaving Scootaloo to curse over the remains of her vehicle. "Nothin' broken?"

"I-I'm fine," stammered the stunned unicorn. "J-just a bit... shaken."

"We all saw ya!" burst out Babs. "Ya'll were so excited that ya jes'... well, ya exploded!"

Babs finished her sentence with another signature mane-blow. Apple Bloom nodded firmly and offered a hoof to Sweetie Belle, who took it gratefully and allowed herself to be pulled upright.

"Well, the upside ah all this is that we know that we ain't CMC singers," joked Apple Bloom, which earned her a giggle from Sweetie.

Meanwhile, Scootaloo gave a wail of despair that sounded faintly like, "MY SCOOOOOOOOOTERRRRRRR!"

"Ohh, but what will Rarity say?" fretted Sweetie, as they began trudging back home.

"Ah'm sure that Rarity - she yah sister, right? - ah'm sure that she'll understand," assured Babs. "Mah sister always does."

"Mine too!" grinned Apple Bloom. "And ah'm definite that AJ'll be able tah explain tah Rarity 'bout this 'hole mess, a'ight?"

Sweetie Belle sniffed, but offered up a small smile at her friends.

Babs now turned to Scootaloo. "As fer yeh scooter... well... that can't be helped, ah s'pose."

"Yah c'd talk tah Caramel 'bout it," suggested Apple Bloom, while Scootaloo gritted her teeth.

Sweetie's face creased with confusion. "Who, that poor stallion who broke up with that other mare and who looks like that doctor and stuff?"

Apple Bloom raised no objection to this less-than-adequate explanation of the blacksmith, and settled for nodding exasperatedly.

Chapter Four: Sisterhood and Silhouettes

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

Chapter Four: Sisterhood and Silhouettes

To Rainbow Dash, aspiring member of the Wonderbolts and professional daredevil, the world was a blur. Two weeks into the summer holidays and foals were running around left, right and centre. It was really tiring, and they tended to get in Dash's way on the ground. But in the air, she was free.

Zipping and zooming around, diving like a territorial magpie and letting her wings burst out at the last minute, then riding the thermals with Celestia's sun looking down on the rainbow blur with approval. Wings beating, adrenaline coursing through your veins, tail whipping in the breeze, cerise eyes narrowed against the wind. There was really one word to describe the whole feeling, and that word, like the rainbow, had seven letters.

Awesome.

Dash saw two incoming weather ponies, and executed a flawless mid-air tumble in order to avoid them both. Giving them a cocky salute, she turned to face Canterlot, the wind whipping her spectrum-coloured mane. Then, a small voice caught her attention.

"Rainbow Dash...!"

Dash ground to a halt, looking around with a confused expression. There was nopony but the sky, the town and the clouds. Slightly unsure, she hazarded a "Squirt?" and looked around some more.

"Rainbow Dash! Over here!"

The cerulean pony turned and saw, far below her, the tiny figure of her sister-by-adoption, Scootaloo. Grinning to herself, the pegasus dove with ease, drawing upwards right in front of the blank flank, who had somehow climbed up onto a low-floating cloud. She looked nervous and sheepish as her older sister approached, her ears flattened against her head.

"Hey there, Squirt," smirked Dash, landing on the cloud. "Scooch over, wouldja?"

Scootaloo did so, looking up at Rainbow Dash with a mixed expression of apprehension and awe.

"Erm... hi, Rainbow Dash," said Scootaloo quietly.

Dash chuckled and punched Scootaloo lightly on the shoulder. "C'mon, Squirt, you're my sister now! No need for all that uptight 'Rainbow Dash' stuff. Just call me 'sis', 'kay?"

Grinning, just because her sister was too, Scootaloo shuffled around on the cloud and said, "Okay... okay, sis!"

"So," said Dash, looping a friendly hoof around her sister's shoulders, "what's gotcha down, Squirt?"

Scootaloo sighed and shuffled some more. "It's... well, it's not exactly nothing..."

"Then what's up?"

Another sigh came from the filly. Then...

"Well... on the first day of the holidays me and the other Crusaders were on the cart and we were singing and it was awesome and then Sweetie Belle's horn started sparking and then we bailed and then the cart crashed and there was a big explosion and then we ran to Sweetie and then she was all sooty and stuff and then my scooter was all broken!"

The last five words were spoken with an underlying sob punctuating each syllable, so that Rainbow Dash felt inclined to give Scootaloo a little hug with her wing, which she did.

"C'mon, Squirt," said Dash comfortingly, while Scootaloo ducked her head and sniffled. "How bad was it?"

"A-all in little b-bits!"

Dash frowned as she pondered how best to approach the situation. Nothing like this had happened to her when she had been a little filly. No, she had mostly flown around, racing colts and having to apologise for getting into hoofticuffs. Her dad had ruffled her hair whenever she had fallen down or something, and she had always gotten up again. She had been a single child, too, but now, as an older sister, she had responsibilities. What did she do now? Then, suddenly, she brightened up as she figured out just how to do so.

"Well, I know a pony who could probably fix it," she whispered, lowering her voice conspiratorially.

Scootaloo's head jerked upwards. "Wh-what? Wh-who?"

Rainbow Dash grinned and punched Scootaloo on the shoulder again. "He's a... um... he..."

The daredevil frowned. Scootaloo suddenly decided to hazard a guess.

"Is he... that stallion who got dumped by that mare?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, brightening. "That guy! Caramel, or something!"

Scootaloo pouted, which was a rare occurrence in itself. "Well, I tried to go to ask him to fix my scooter, but he wasn't there! And then I went there the next day, and he wasn't there either! In fact, he hasn't been in Ponyville for a whole WEEK, Pinkie Pie told me!"

At this, Rainbow Dash saw a flaw in her original plan, which went along the merry lines of find-that-Caramel-guy-and-MAKE-him-help-my-sister-and-if-that-doesn't-work-then-ask-him-nicely. Faced with this new-found dilemma, Dash decided to go ahead and draw her trump card.

"We-ell," she said in a wheedling tone, "if Pinkie said that Caramel hasn't been in for a whole WEEK... then he's gotta be back today, right?"

Confused, Scootaloo looked up at her sister. "Erm... how does that work, exactly?"

"Aw, it's simple logic, Squirt," said Dash, waving a hoof around in an airy manner, which is where Scootaloo had gotten the idea to do exactly that in order to make herself look smarter and awesomer. "Y'see, everypony knows that all random trips start at the start of the week, right?"

Scootaloo frowned as she thought about this, and had to conclude that this was, in fact, accurate in every Equestrian town, city, village or other. She nodded.

"We-ell, it only stands to reason that they all END at the END of the week, ri-ight?" Dash waited impatiently for Scootaloo's exclamation of "Rainbow Dash, you're so smart!", but got nothing more than a, "I gue-ess..."

Dash, however, still hadn't fully flourished her trump card yet. She leaned close to Scootaloo and whispered excitedly, "Then, how about you and me go for a... a preliminary search of the town for Mr I Have No Marefriend, eh?"

Scootaloo's eyes lit up immediately, and her wings buzzed in instinctive agreement.

"Would I!" she squealed.

"Well, I dunno," grinned Dash, slipping her a wink. "Would you?"

If one were to look up into the skies of Ponyville as Celestia's sun crept below the horizon, one would see a pony-like silhouette emerge from a hitherto thought-uninhabited cloud, powerful wings beating at the air as it zoomed through the sky. However, the odd thing about this silhouette would have been the fact that it was carrying another silhouette, this one smaller and with less-able wings, though they were a-buzz all the same.

And, if one would have had the time, one would have listened, and one would have heard an ecstatic scream of, "Wa-HOOO!"

And then a second voice would reply, in a tone charged with adrenaline, "You think THIS is awesome, Squirt! HAH! You ain't seen nothing yet!"

Then one would have looked up at this point, this time actually looking, and they would see the two silhouettes dive in unison, both whooping and cheering in excitement and pure freedom. Then, if one watched even more, one would have seen the two silhouettes pull up out of the dive neatly, the smaller silhouette struggling slightly.

By this time, one would have been rooted to the spot, mouth agape.

Then the larger silhouette would have caught the smaller silhouette with one hoof, and held the latter aloft while it buzzed its wings and threw back its head, laughing with the joy given to a pegasus that has just learned to fly.

But this silhouette hadn't learned how to fly.

Well... not yet, at least.

Chapter Five: Rough Patches

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

Chapter Five: Rough Patches

It was the third week of the holidays, and Applejack, the loyalest and most dependable of all ponies, was beginning to worry.

Normally, business was booming. Well, figuratively, at least. And not so much booming as it was gently pulsating. But at least it was moving.

Now, however, business was going along at a snail's pace. No, that was a lie. Even Snails could have beaten business in a race. It was getting to that point.

Applejack sighed and fanned herself with her hat. Celestia's sun was being particularly harsh this summer, and that was probably one of the reasons that the trees weren't giving them as much fruit as usual. AJ remembered, with a slight shudder, how she had harvested the apples a week or so ago, and had been met with a mere two-and-a-half cartfuls.

Two and a half! Normally, the family raked in five... at least. During Zap Apple season, it was even better, and the money really did spike up around there. This time of year was the flattest for the family, but they had far more up for sale regardless.

But this year...

AJ sighed again and replaced her hat on top of her mop of blonde hair. The apples weren't even that crunchy. Or sweet. In fact, she had checked one of the bigger trees this morning, and had been met with a WORM!

A worm, out of all things! Well, it was a good thing that Apple Bloom didn't know, at least. Big Mac knew just how to deal with this kind of stuff, being on the farm and taught in its ways for his entire life, and Granny was... well, she was Granny. AJ was confident that the old mare, bless her heart, could have stared at the apples with an angry look in order to make them grow better, never mind hoofwork and harvesting and applebucking and the like.

Another sigh escaped the lips of the mare. AJ knew that, regardless of the heat and the steady stream of hope leaking out of her, she had to keep up a jaunty personality for the customers. Even these were sparse, which really took the morale out of a pony, but AJ had learned how to deal with this kind of thing.

Raising her voice above the cacophony of the other marketers, she bellowed, "Getcha lovely apples right here! C'mon everpony, getcha apples, lovely apples, farm-fresh! Getcha apples...!"

As she advertised for her stall, AJ reflected on the morning's bearings (no pun intended). Waking up, showering and brushing her teeth had not been much of a stray off the beaten path; no, it was breakfast that had surprised Applejack. After listening to the obligatory Apple-Bloom-and-the-CMC chatters, the cowpony had turned her attention to Big Mac, who had some very surprising news. When Apple Bloom had left, the Crusaders having been waiting politely for her outside, the crimson stallion had turned to his sister and delivered the news.

"Yer WHAT NOW?" Applejack had spluttered, after rejecting the milk she had had in her mouth and spraying it out onto the table.

"Applejack!" Granny had scolded her. "Don' spray all over the table, now! That's bad manners, that is!"

"But... but... but..." AJ had gestured helplessly with her hooves, then had burst out, very loudly, "But she's Apple Bloom's teacher!"

"At least it ain't that little librarian with that dolly he's taken a fancy to," smirked Granny, nudging her grandson slyly.

"Granny!" Mac had exclaimed, jumping backwards. He was more talkative in the morning, if "talkative" was the right word.

"And ah can't believe that yah didn't tell us before!" AJ had muttered, shaking her head. "Well, ah wouldn't have guessed it. Hah! Cheerilee 'n' Big Mac, eh?"

Big Mac had said nothing.

"Well, at least ya've got somepony, now," AJ had remarked, mopping up her milk-spray and nodding slightly suggestively at her brother.

"Is she good?" Granny had asked, earning a blush from her grandson that showed up on his crimson coat.

"How much would this be?"

"Hmm?" said Applejack, coming out of her reverie and nearly biting on her tongue as she forced herself to stop advertising for her goods. "Oh, hang on jes' a sec, an' ah'll weigh that for yah..."

Applejack took the bag of apples from the pony and plopped it on the scale. The numbers came up, and she did the calculations, and she offered up the price, and without any haggling or negotiating, the money was handed over.

The cowpony looked at the amount of money in her hoof in surprise. These days, nopony would willingly pay the right amount for anything. It made her angry, watching ponies haggling in the streets over petty items, but even she had started doing it. It was infectious, and had become a habit, and now here was this pony giving this money to her without so much as a tut of complaint.

Applejack, not even bothering to look up at her client, tipped her hat apprehensively and said, "Erm... thanks, partner."

"No problem!" the pony grinned, and trotted away with the bag of apples in her mouth.

Applejack frowned after the pony, then looked back down at the bits in her hoof and counted them. Then she did so again. And again. Then, for good measure, she bit down on them just to make sure that they were genuine, which they were. AJ hated ponies who did this, but times were desperate, and this weird mystery pony had just given her...

...twenty-five genuine bits...

"But ah only asked fer five..." she muttered.

Chapter Six: Diamonds in the Rough

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

Chapter Six: Diamonds in the Rough

"Why, thank you, darlings!" cooed an alabaster unicorn, on the outskirts of Ponyville. She flipped her extravagantly-curled indigo mane and gave them a grateful look with her azure eyes, the cornflower of her eyeshadow complementing the look perfectly.

"Don't worry, Rarity, it was a pleasure for Spike and I to help!" This had come from a mulberry-coloured alicorn, with a somewhat unnaturally-straight dark-sapphire mane and tail, striped with violet and rose.

"Yeah..." This particularly deep and insightful contribution to the conversation was courtesy of a baby purple-and-green dragon, who was currently gazing at the unicorn with a soppy, love-saturated expression.

Rarity laughed again, using the tinkling tone used only by aristocrats and those who know that they can be aristocrats, but aren't in this moment of time.

"Why, thank you, Twilight!" cooed Rarity, as the trio turned to go back to Ponyville. "It was a pleasure for me, too. I would think that Equestria's newest alicorn princess would have something more to do than help a simple seamstress like me in my diamond-gathering!"

"Well, I'm always looking to further my magical knowledge," said Twilight Sparkle, the newest Equestrian alicorn princess. She shifted her wings, which were temporarily trapped by the large wooden cart that she had been hitched up to, which was in turn bearing a heaping pile of assorted gemstones. "Besides, I still haven't perfected your gem-finding spell yet."

"You'd think that you would, seeing as you've done any number of magical spells!" remarked Spike, earning himself a glare from Twilight.

"Well," said Rarity, who had been hitched up to a cart-and-gemstone-pile of her own, "it took me quite a while to perfect it myself, darling." As an afterthought, the unicorn flipped her mane again.

Twilight shook her head and sighed, frustratedly. "No, Rarity, Spike is right. I should be able to perform this spell easily!"

As Celestia's sun crept across the sky, Spike shifted the load of crystals that he was carrying in his arms. It wasn't so much of a physical test as it was a mental one. He was constantly salivating, gazing at the gemstones eagerly and fantasising about their taste, their crunch...

"But you managed it perfectly fine while you were a unicorn!" exclaimed Rarity. "Why should it be any different now, hm?"

Twilight sighed again. "I don't know. Princess Celestia thinks that it's because of me becoming an alicorn, but I don't see how that's supposed to affect my magic. If anything, it's made my magic stronger!"

Rarity thought. "Well, darling, I won't pretend that magic is my forte, but I can't see how your magic has gotten any weaker. You've been teleporting left, right and centre! The Golden Oak library has been positively sparkling with magic ever since that cutie mark hullabaloo!"

Spike chuckled.

"What's so funny?" asked Twilight suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing," said the baby dragon, turning away to hide his toothy smile.

The princess sighed and shook her head yet again. "The gem-finding spell isn't all, though. I'm finding it hard to use simple spells like the cloud-walking one. It's a good thing that I have wings now!"

"Well, your levitation and illumination is fine," remarked Rarity. "We did see a spectacular display of lights and floating down in the caves!"

"Thanks, Rare," smiled Twilight sheepishly. "But... well, I don't know. It might just be a phase or something that us unicorns are going through..."

"Well," said Rarity, "I did have some trouble cooking breakfast today. My magic just didn't seem to be in it, if you know what I mean."

"The levitation?" Twilight hazarded.

Rarity nodded, and added, "But that's not all. Oh, no, I've half a mind to ban Sweetie from any more crusading for the rest of the month. She had a magical explosion incident a few weeks ago! Would you believe it?!"

"Fluttershy told me about that," mused Twilight. "She heard the explosion from her cottage."

"Yes, the poor darling," sighed Rarity. "Do you know, it turns out that all her animals are on edge because of it? They won't even listen to her, and that ruffian Angel isn't making matters for her any better. Oh, did I give Sweetie Belle such a scolding...!"

"A phase," repeated Twilight distantly. "Just a phase... a magical phase? Hmm, I think I should write to Princess Celestia about this. It's probably nothing, but it pays to be safe, don't you think?"

"Poor girl, she deserves a quiet little cat like my dearest Opal..." Rarity was saying. Then, she said, "What?" and "Oh, yes, of course, dear!"

"Thank you, Rarity," smiled Twilight. "It's nice to have somepony else's honest opinion once in a while."

"Oh, whatever do you mean, dear?" said Rarity, still slightly flustered.

Twilight's eyes narrowed angrily. "Well, just yesterday, I was out getting some extra quills from Sofas..."

"Ye-es?"

"And then the stallion there tried to sell me the whole load for fifty bits! Fifty bits! What an insult! The whole thing was worth fifteen bits at MOST!"

Twilight's mane began to smoke at the edges, a sure sign that she was beginning to get angry. Tentatively, Spike tugged at her tail and muttered, "Erm, Twi? Your mane..."

"You are looking a bit... frazzled, dear..." added Rarity, nervously eying her friend's hair.

"I'm a PRINCESS!" exclaimed Twilight, at no-one in particular. "How DARE he! How DARE!"

The last word was practically screamed, and the surrounding cliffs propelled the sound back towards the trio, echoes bouncing around everywhere.

DARE-are-are-are...! DARE-are-are-are...! DARE-are-are-are...!

"The echoes are echoing themselves...!" marvelled Twilight, her rage completely forgotten. "Fascinating! I didn't know that they could do that!"

"Well, darling, I'd much rather we get back to Ponyville quickly," said Rarity, even more nervously.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to start a rock slide or something!" exclaimed Spike, which earned him a "Don't jinx it!" look from Rarity and a thoughtful look from Twilight.

"Oh... oh, yes, of course!" said the alicorn, as they picked up the pace, Ponyville beginning to crest the rise of the rocky hill they were on. "I must mention that to Princess Celestia in my letter, as well..."

Meanwhile, above the outskirts of Ponyville, riding the thermals with outstretched wings, Ponyville's newest resident looked down at the trio with interest.

"We-ell, I can't believe it!" she crowed. "An alicorn, eh? Hmm, those guys aren't exactly the commonest around here... this is in-ter-esting!"

The pony dived, enjoying the pleasant lurching feeling in her stomach. She pulled up right before the ground met her, and watched the trio walk towards the carousel-shaped place with interest.

"A dragon and a unicorn, too!" she remarked, shifting her position in the tree she had decided to land in. "Cool..."

Then the sound of laughing fillies caught her attention.

Turning her head in an engrossed manner, the pony saw four fillies running towards the trio and the carousel-house. One of them was a unicorn, one was a pegasus and the other two were earth ponies.

All of them had capes on!

"Capes?" whispered the pony, joyfully. "Oh, they have CAPES on! This is great!"

While she watched the fillies and the trio disappear, she made a vow to find out just who had made the capes.

She wanted a cape, too!

Chapter Seven: That Guy Who Used to Have a Marefriend

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

Chapter Seven: That Guy Who Used to Have a Marefriend

Sassaflash... Golden Harvest, or "Carrot Top" as she was being called nowadays... Rarity, too, for a month or so...

Next to Carousel Boutique, in a smallish blacksmith's store, a large hoof-written sign that proclaimed "Horseshoe Blacksmiths: Metalworking, Repairs and Tool Sales!" nearly fell off of its already-precarious perch on top of the roof, propped up against some scaffolding.

Inside Horseshoe Blacksmiths, a stallion with a light amber coat and three blueish horseshoes for a cutie mark was casting down his saddlebags, each one customised with a horseshoe clasp and light amber colour, and running a hoof through his mop of chocolate-brown mane while huffing, his cerulean eyes closed as he heaved a large breath.

What was wrong with him? It wasn't that he couldn't get a marefriend, unlike some stallions that he could name, it was just that he couldn't keep them with him. They would always turn out to be cheating on him, or tolerating him just because he was nice, or staying by his side just so that they could gain access to his meagre assortment of scanty belongings.

And then, when he had served his purpose, like an old workhorse that had lived on a farm and had suddenly gone lame, he would get dumped.

He huffed again, this time putting more of his sheer anger at the world into it, and slammed his hind hooves against the anvil.

This normally helped, but it would occasionally render his hind ankles mildly sprained. It was a good thing that Monny Tore, Ponyville's best doctor, was his twin brother, otherwise Caramel would be broke because of hospital bills alone.

The good thing about jobs, Caramel thought dully as he unpacked his saddlebags, is that they're easier to keep down than mares.

Being the head of an independent establishment had its perks, as Caramel had discovered upon moving from Baltimare. For one, it meant that there was nopony you had to pay, no-one's responsibilities but your own. For another, you felt in charge, which you technically were. It was freedom, of a kind. It got a bit lonely, though, but that was what brothers on leave were for.

Caramel finished unpacking his tools for his trip to Canterlot, where he, along with a hoof-full of other blacksmiths from all four corners of Equestria, had been summoned to forge the weapons for the castle guards. He had felt honoured, worthy even, but after the trip he reflected that while the princesses were really nice ponies, the guards could have almost beaten Big McIntosh in a game of "Shhh!", copyrighted by Fluttershy.

The key word was "almost".

Again, Caramel sighed, this time almost sadly. Maybe it was because he was a four-hoofer...

Well, it wasn't as if Equestria was a homophobic nation or anything. In fact, a lot of famous ponies were four-hoofers, even fillyfoolers and coltcuddlers. And, really, everypony liked Caramel. It wasn't an eager kind of liking, but it was a general one; Caramel was the kind of colt who wasn't the life of the party, but made up a fairly acknowledged percent of it.

Unlike Monny Tore, however...

Monny was the life of the party. By day, he was hard-working and honest; always got his paperwork in, and even as a colt he had finished all his schoolwork and homework to a T. By night, he was a crazy party-goer, and yet he never seemed to do something like get drunk. Although he was the life of the party, as aforementioned, he was also the safest pony around, and yet wasn't known as a goody-four-hooves like other ponies.

Monny was, in short, the perfect stallion. He was safe, and strong, and had a very steady income. He was smart, and talented, and friendly, and about a million other things that Caramel wasn't.

You see, Caramel was boring and clumsy and anti-social and leaning towards the poor side of the equation and a bit dim and weak-hoofed for a blacksmith and so on and so forth.

Caramel sighed, and stationed himself at the anvil. It wasn't as if he hadn't completed the sparse few jobs he had accumulated in the past month, but he was bored. Oh, so bored...

The bell hung above the front door tinkled.

The earth pony looked up in sheer shock, dropping the hammer he was holding in his mouth and making it fall on his hoof. He bit down hard on his tongue, which started to bleed. He swore.

"Buck-buck-buck-buck-buck..."

"Oi!" came a spunky, tomboyish voice from in front of the anvil.

Caramel looked up from his half-cowering position behind the anvil, and was greeted by the narrowed cerise eyes of a blue pegasus that he knew as Rainbow Dash only by the spectrum-striped mane she bore. Riding on the mare's back was a small filly that he recalled as being called Scootaloo; Caramel only knew this because she was the only pegasus filly in Ponyville who couldn't fly.

"Erm," he said, "hello."

Rainbow Dash glared at Caramel, two cerise ovals flashing him the evil eye. Her wings flared with evident irritation, she growled, "Now, look here, Caramel. What's the deal with not being in Ponyville for a whole week, eh?"

"Wh-what?" stammered the stallion, backing away as the mare advanced.

"Some ponies have things to get fixed, you know!" raged Rainbow Dash, her eyes dilating.

"Wait, no, wha-at?" Caramel instinctively tucked his tail between his legs.

"Look at this filly!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, gesturing towards the filly called Scootaloo. "She has a broken scooter that needs to be seen to! And what do you do instead of helping an innocent little child out? Go out and frolic around with the mules, I guess!"

"Actually, I was just - "

"Rainbow Dash," piped up the filly Scootaloo, "I think that Pinkie Pie said that he was at Canterlot."

"Ah-HAH! I knew it! I just KNEW i- wait, what?"

The spectrum-maned mare looked in surprise at the little filly riding on her back. "What... wait... what? What did you just say?"

Slightly bemused, Scootaloo said, "Well, Pinkie Pie said that Caramel was out at Canterlot to forge weapons for the castle guards. Pretty awesome, huh?"

Rainbow Dash was clearly confused by this, but rallied semi-magnificently. Drawing herself up in self-righteousness, she glared at Caramel with flared wings and muttered, "You are SO lucky my sister's cool enough to let you off..."

Caramel gulped, and managed a weak smile. Scootaloo seemed to be somewhat in awe of him... no, no, he couldn't think like that. He would start getting ideas above his station, and THAT had always led to bad things in his life. The stallion sighed.

"So," he said bemusedly, "you mentioned something about a broken scooter?"

Chapter Eight: Seeeeeeeen-sational! OW!

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

Chapter Eight: Seeeeeeeen-sational! OW!

Ironically, right next to Caramel the blacksmith, one seamstress unicorn was in shock.

"Wha-wha-wha-whaaaat?" Rarity stammered, her eyes big round discs of pure surprise.

Standing in front of her was a pale-gold earth pony, who was slightly taller than normal and with heavy-lidded amber eyes. Her cobalt mane was similar to Pinkie Pie's, striped with azure. She was clad in a garment that Rarity herself had made, which was completely and skilfully covered in diamonds. The alabaster unicorn was held in awe and apprehension as the famous pop star replied with a wide grin.

"Why, ye-he-hes!" sang Sapphire Shores, the Pony of Pop, putting musical inflections into her voice because old habits die hard. "Five garments, like you did before, Miss Rari-TY! Ow!"

"Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu..." gabbled Rarity, her red designer's glasses slipping off her nose. Nervously, she pushed the glasses back up and, clearing her throat, repeated, "But... five garments? For each gem?!"

Sapphire waved a hoof around casually. "Oh, Miss Rarity, I'm SURE that you'll be able to accomplish this deee-signer feat, no pa-roblem!"

The Pony of Pop directed her hoof towards the piles of neatly-sorted gems in a corner of the Boutique. "Besides, Miss Rarity, I can cleeeeearly see that you, oh yes YOU - " The pale-gold hoof swung around to face Rarity's muzzle. " - have gathered more than enough gems for - "

"One suit for each gem, Miss Shores!" exclaimed the seamstress, cringing.

Sapphire frowned, but the downward inflection of her mouth was dashed away as she beamed widely and patted Rarity on the head. "We-ell, don't you worry your pretty horned head about it, Miss Rari-TY! I am SURE that YOU - " Rarity was poked in the stomach, not unkindly. " - oh yes YOU, will be able to ee-OW-saly be able to find the resources, amahright?"

"Well," said Rarity, unsure of herself, "there might be just enough gems around for them all, but... oh, but... no, no, never mind!" Suddenly, the unicorn was beaming widely. "Miss Shores, I would be honoured to make the suits for your new tour!"

Sapphire's amber eyes lit up and she whooped, in a voice that belonged to nopony but a pop star, "Seeeeeeeen-sational! OW!"

Twilight sighed, and looked down at the letter Princess Celestia had sent her.

"To my dearest and most faithful student,

Never once in the past have I doubted your skills and your instincts, and your previous letter heralds no difference. Luna and I have, after much assistance from Princess Cadence, scried the entirety of Equestria, and have come up with a particularly fearful result."

Twilight frowned as her eyes fell upon the word "scried", but she soon remembered its meaning. It was a rarely-practiced branch of magic, that loosely translated from its runic name as "seeing across the distance". Basically, it meant that the caster would be able to see something that was happening from somewhere else. It could be channelled in many different ways, from through reflecting surfaces to directly into the caster's mind's eye. Satisfied that she had unpacked this minor mystery, the newest alicorn princess read on.

"It would appear that a rip in the dimensional fabric of space-time has opened up, worryingly close to Ponyville. Although Luna and Cadence are firm in their belief that your magic is more than enough to close the rip, I am still enlisting your sister-in-law to visit Ponyville and assist you in the closing of the rip.

None of us have any idea how the rip opened up, or how we are going to close it; however, Luna has dealt with things like this before, and as such will also be visiting. I myself must remain here in Canterlot, but rest assured that I will be constantly reporting to you on matters once the closing has taken place.

I will not sugar-coat this, Twilight; the closing of the rip will be hard. Very hard. It will be trying and taxing, especially as you must be in close proximity to the rip, and that the rip in question is the source of the magical draining that is going on in Ponyville. Nopony has any idea where the rip opens up into, and so Cadence will be casting a protection spell - her specialty, as you know - around you and Luna as you take part in the closing.

I also request that you and the rest of the Element bearers be present, along with the Elements of Harmony. There is no telling what will possibly come out of the rip, and as such the chance of danger is high.

I know how much I am asking of you, faithful student. I ask you now, princess to princess as it were, to take up the mantle of responsibility Equestria has presented you. I turned you into an alicorn for good reason: you have potential. You, Twilight Sparkle, can close the rip, if anypony.

Yours ever faithfully,

Princess Celestia."

There wasn't enough.

There wasn't enough.

THERE WASN'T ENOUGH?!

The pony watched from her aerial position as the pretty-maned unicorn bowed her head. She thought that she could hear sniffles.

Well, THAT wasn't how it was supposed to go! The pretty one was supposed to find a secret hoard of gems or something, or maybe get the help of those funny dog creatures. She wasn't supposed to... to FAIL!

Almost on cue, it started raining.

The pony snorted to herself. Scheduled weather... who'd ever heard of it? It was much more fun to wait for the weather, to see what the day would bring.

Life had to come with its risks, after all.

Through the thin film of rain, the pony watched as the pretty-maned unicorn's pretty mane turned flat and soaking-wet, plastered to her pretty head as her bottom lip wobbled. The pony sighed, sympathetically. Poor, poor pretty-maned unicorn. Back home, there was TONS of gems.

Emeralds and sapphires and rubies and diamonds and topazes and amethysts every which way you turned. The dwarf-ponies were unwilling to give them up, of course, but if you had enough gold you could normally work out an agreement.

Or, if you weren't that rich, you nicked 'em.

The latter rarely worked, of course, but the pony was a well-known dwarf-friend. She knew that dwarf-friends were considered "pretty much dwarves" by dwarf-ponies, and as such she had free access to all dwarf hoards.

The pony grinned.

No saddy-waddy for you, pretty-maned unicorn...!