Reach For The "StarCrafts"

Chapter 3: Cutie Mark Crusaders Marine Training!

While crazy things were going on in the town of Ponyville, the fillies of the town known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, were in their treehouse on the edge of the Apple Family’s Orchard. Being there, they were in the process of thinking up of crazy and zany new ways to try to achieve getting their cutie marks, as was their regular schedule after school and days off. So far they had gone hoof-gliding, hockey, jousting, dark ritual summonings, and finally baking. How they got to baking after dark ritual summonings no one really knows.

“Ahhh, I’m so boooored!” Scootaloo complained as she rolled on the ground, trying to satisfy her boredom. It wouldn’t help at all though.

“I’m saying we should try baking again! I think we actually had something last time!” Sweetie Belle chimed in, only to be corrected by Applebloom right after.

“Do ya really think thats a bright idea? I mean, the fact that the apple fritters began devouring the muffins who were screaming in pain… I just don’t think that we have the talent to be making baked goods.”

“Oh, that was just the loose souls we summoned a few hours ago. There’s nothing to be afraid of now.”

“And how do you know that?” Scootaloo asked the confident white unicorn filly.

Unfortunately for the little filly, before she could come up with a rebuttal for her friend, all three began to hear various sounds outside. Sounds not exactly native to Equestria. To sate their curiosity, all three peeked their little heads out of the available windows in their tree fort. What they saw was too strange for words really.

A little blue bean-shaped humanoid figure, screaming its head off as it was being chased by numerous little brown and green monster things that looked strangely adorable. As they closed in on him, they would explode into a green, gooey mess, where everything touched by the goo would be instantly melted away. Oh the poor little trees that got caught in the crossfire, oh how they’ll never bear fruit again. Those poor, poor trees.

Soon enough, the bean man had somehow managed to outrun the monsters as the last one exploded, hitting Bloomberg Jr. The small sapling began to slowly wither away as it disappeared from existence. Sadly it meant the end of a new sex toy for Applejack if she never managed to find a mate in a few years.

With its heavy-breathing of trying to regain its stamina after all that running, the bean-man failed to notice the three little ponies watching him. Why they weren’t running away or looking for help was quite simply really. Exploding monsters and magical bean-men meant adventure! And adventure meant getting cutie marks! But all that didn’t matter to the blue alien, all he cared about was getting back home after running for so long. The fillies on the other hand, took advantage of the bean-man being oblivious to his surroundings, and all decided in a quiet manner, to follow the creature back to where it came from.

Walking not too far into the WhiteTail Woods, the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally managed to find the creature’s home, and boy was it a doozy. With a tapping motion on a metal structure on top of a hill, the fillies saw the structure quickly sink into the ground, allowing the bean-man to walk into place known as “home”, before the structure popped back up, blocking the way for anyone else.

Seeing how to get inside now, the Crusaders all agreed to a plan to get inside and seek adventure. It was simple too, just tap on the metal box!

Approaching it carefully, Applebloom was the first to strike it. In an instant, the structure sunk into the ground, allowing passage. The filly looked back her friends, who had been hiding in a nearby bush from a safe distance, a worried look on her face that said to them “I don’t want to do this.” She knew, however, that her friends would never let it go if she chickened out now. With a deep breath, and mustering up all her confidence, Applebloom took a step forward, then another, and another. She slowly began to make her way into the base, not knowing what to expect inside.

As Applebloom disappeared over the horizon, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle let out a sigh of relief as they believed their friend got in safely. That all changed however, as soon after they let out that sigh, a scream could be heard from within the base. A scream, belonging to Applebloom.

With quick reflexes and without thinking, Scootaloo jumped into action, charging at the metal structure with thoughts of rescuing her best friend. Sweetie Belle, hesitant, could only follow. Though she too wanted to save Applebloom from whatever fate she was in, she also thought it would be a great idea to go get an adult. She never spoke of her idea though as Scootaloo banged on the structure with panicked hooves, rushing in once the structure lowered. Sweetie could hear something along the lines of “At least I don’t have chicken.” when Scootaloo rushed in, thinking she misheard her friend.

As Sweetie Belle was the last one in, she could not see Scootaloo or Applebloom anywhere, only more buildings that looked like they belonged far into the future compared to the buildings in Ponyville, and the big blue sky above. She couldn’t see it all though, because as soon as she stepped into the alien base, she felt something wrapped around her arms. Something big and cold, and all she knew was that she didn’t like it. Letting out a high-pitched scream, she could only pray that somepony heard her back home. The chances of that were very slim though.

Soon after being captured, the three little ponies who all thought that horrible things were coming to them. That was both correct and incorrect though, as all three were put in a dark room with only a single light hanging above them, all three placed within school desks. They were confused, cold, scared, and all three began to quickly regret ever following the bean-man. When the entire room suddenly lit up though, what they saw both surprised them and scared them beyond Tartarus.

It was a classroom.

Yes, a classroom. A similar bean-man with a small cap on his head, a ruler in his left claw(?) as he tapped the chalkboard in front of the fillies with said ruler. Scootaloo let out a scream for help of her own while the other two Crusaders sat there, confusion in their eyes. That confusion only continued as the bean-man began to write on the chalkboard without saying a single word. After he was done, he turned around, revealing a problem of 2x2. He pointed the piece of chalk that was in his right claw towards Sweetie Belle, presumably telling her to come up and solve the problem he just put down on chalkboard.

Sweetie Belle, not really the one who was all that great in math, gulped in fear. What would happen if she got it incorrect? Would they bring her to some type of chamber to torture her? Would they eat her? What would happen? Trying to put all her fears to the back of her head, she slowly got out of the seat clearly meant for the bean-men, and approached the teacher. Picking the chalk out of the creature’s claw with her mouth, she began to ponder what the answer to the question was.

The fears however began to creep back into her mind, and as time slowly passed by, Sweetie Belle became more terrified of the creature standing next to her. Hoping to get the answer right, she quickly answered with the number “5”, before looking back at the creature for confirmation.

The creature looked at the answer, then back to Sweetie Belle, then back to the answer. As he stared at the blackboard, Sweetie began to sweat profusely in fear. But like everything else, what came next was unexpected, as the teacher simply shrugged at the answer before turning around to get something behind him. Once he faced Sweetie Belle again, he seemed to be holding some type of metallic device, to which he wrapped it around on the little filly before pushing her out of the only door that seemed to exist in the room. The same thing soon happened to Scootaloo and Applebloom, as all three were absolutely confused about everything that happened that day.

Needless to say, to get away from the non-adventure they had that day, all three of them took their new prizes(?) back home, none of them saying a single word the entire time. Without even saying goodbye to one another, they all went in the directions of their respective homes, still not saying a word to one another. All three eating dinner, taking their baths, mindlessly doing their homework, all before going to bed, still wearing those prizes… That’s where it all exploded.

“WHAT IN TARTARUS JUST HAPPENED?!”

All three were later punished for yelling in the middle of the night and for using the name of the underworld in vain.