The Cutie Mark Crusaders in Operation: Shoot for the Moon
“Apple Bloom, do you really think it’s a good idea to try your hoof at making a Greater Inferno Potion?” Twilight said. She was sitting in the library with the Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Spike, and a tray of nachos.
“Well, Applejack asked for one so that Pinkie can try and work on a new recipe. They said that there’s a very real chance that it won’t explode, but just to be safe, Pinkie will be workin’ in a safe, secluded spot,” Apple Bloom said. “So I figured I could help out my sis and work on my potion-brewin’ skills. It’s win-win!”
“You are aware that this potion has a habit of catching fire, right?”
“I know, I know,” Apple Bloom said. “I can handle it.”
Twilight gave Apple Bloom a stern look. “A third-degree burn on your flank does not count as a cutie mark.”
Apple Bloom looked dejected for just a moment. “I’ll make sure I won’t get any third-degree burns.”
Twilight frowned at Apple Bloom.
“I’ll make sure I won’t get any burns,” Apple Bloom said. “Now please will you teach me? Pleeeease?”
Apple Bloom gave Twilight her best pleading look. Apple Bloom was very good at giving pleading looks, Twilight reflected. She briefly entertained the mortifying thought that it might be Apple Bloom’s special talent. The scholar inside her wondered what a Puppy Dog Eyes Cutie Mark would look like. The rest of her hoped she would never have to find out, for no one filly should have all that power.
“Fine, I’ll teach you how to make the potion,” Twilight said. “Just promise not to tell anypony, because I’m breaking at least seventeen laws by providing you with the materials and instructions to brew that potion.”
“I promise!” Apple Bloom said.
“Good,” Twilight said. “Spike, could you get Ten Thousand Very Volatile Potions and How to Make Them by Swirly Shell from the Forbidden Knowledge section? And don’t touch any of the grimoires! We don’t want you to get bitten by one. Not after what happened last time[1].”
“Coming right up!” Spike said, and ran off.
“So Sweetie Belle, how are your magic exercises coming along?” Twilight said.
“I just keep making sparks that fizzle away,” Sweetie said. “What’s the point of those exercises, anyway? How often will I really need to shoot a burst of energy at something?”
“Probably rarely if ever,” Twilight said, “It can be used to trigger certain reactions in specific mechanisms and potions, but for the most part, these exercises are simply helpful to learn to control your magic. If you master this assignment, we can use it as a stepping stone to more useful, complex spells.”
“Oh, all right. How much longer is this supposed to take, anyway?” Sweetie said.
“It should be any day now,” Twilight said. “You can practice on some empty cups. Why don’t you put a few on the table? I’ll try to guide you when you cast your spell.”
Sweetie got to work scattering cups across the table, while Twilight turned to Scootaloo. “So, did you manage to take apart and reassemble everything I told you to?”
“Yeah!” Scootaloo said. “Everything’s in working order!”
“Really? Even that spare Friendship Express locomotive?”
“Well, I may have cheated a little on that one,” Scootaloo said. “I’m not supposed to use two hundred and forty thousand rolls of duct tape, am I?”
“You’re not,” Twilight said. “Still, I’m very proud of your progress. I honestly didn’t expect you to fix everything in just a week. And at least now I know why the region’s entire supply of duct tape is depleted.”
“Heh, sorry about that,” Scootaloo said. “Anyway, what’s next? Airships? Mining drills? Superweapons?”
“I’m not teaching more than one filly at a time how to build superweapons,” Twilight said. “Honestly, I think you’ve gotten pretty good at fixing things. I was thinking we could mix it up a little and have you build something from scratch for a change.”
“Really? Like what?” Scootaloo said.
“Well, I have a few blueprints ready for you over there, along with a large box of parts. I’ll let you decide what to make.”
Scootaloo jumped into the stack of blueprints. “Sewing machine? Nah. Grandfather clock? Boring. Oh hey, a rocket engine! That might be fun!”
She trotted out of what was once a neat stack of blueprints, placed the party cannon blueprint on the floor, and studied it closely.
Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle had finished setting up cups on the table.
“Right,” Twilight said, “just focus your magic into the tip of your horn, and send a jolt at that cup over there.”
Sweetie Belle managed to shoot a few small sparks from her horn.
“You have to focus,” Twilight said. “Just imagine magic flowing from within you to the cup. Try to think of nothing but that jolt of magic.”
Sweetie Belle scrunched up her face in concentration. Slowly, the sparks became more numerous, and with a grunt of effort, she forced the sparks to coalesce into a concentrated beam. The cup cracked and burst, and the magic dissipated.
“You did it!” Twilight said.
“Wait, I did? Huh, so I did. Holy mother of Celestia, I did!” Sweetie Belle was jumping up and down.
Spike came running into the room, followed by a pack of roving grimoires. He quickly scrambled onto a bookshelf, grabbed a feather duster, and started thwacking the unruly tomes.
Twilight sighed. “I really need to make sure the grimoires are chained to the shelves properly.” She grabbed a spray bottle filled with holy water, and started spraying at the tomes. “Back! Back, I say! The power of harmony compels you!”
Five minutes later, the tomes were once again safely chained to their shelves (sorted by author in alphabetical order, of course). When she returned from the Forbidden Knowledge section, Spike and Apple Bloom were looking through Ten Thousand Very Volatile Potions and How to Make Them.
“Hey Twilight,” Spike said, “do we have any flame sacs of a Flame Hydra? It says here that the flame sacs of regular Swamp Dragons are insufficient for the potion.”
“I just ordered a dozen,” Twilight said. “Honest Silksoft’s Used Organ Emporium had a bargain sale. I also got enough Changeling goo to last us a lifetime.”
“Well, in that case, we’ve got all the ingredients,” Spike said.
“All right!” Apple Bloom said. “Let’s get to it!”
“Sorry Apple Bloom, but we’re not brewing any highly unstable extremely flammable potions inside the library,” Twilight said. “You’ll just have to brew the potion in your own time. I’ll let you have the necessary ingredients and the book as long as you promise to be careful and to return the book undamaged.”
Twilight glanced at the clock in the back of the room. “Wow, time flies when you’re having fun. I’m afraid that’s all we have time for today. You’ll just have to do the rest at home.”
The Crusaders hung their heads in unison.
“Well, thanks for the help, Twi,” Apple Bloom said.
“I’ll be sure to have finished that rocket engine next week!” Scootaloo said.
“I’ll work on that spell some more!” Sweetie Belle said.
“Goodbye, Twilight!” the Crusaders said.
“Bye girls! See you next week!”
===
A few days later, the Crusaders were gathered not too far from the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ clubhouse. Apple Bloom was busy mixing ingredients for her potion, while Sweetie Belle was practicing her magic and Scootaloo was working on her rocket engine.
Apple Bloom was about to put the final ingredient into her brew. She put on her goggles, and sprinkled a tiny amount of ground-up dragon scales into a container of boiling water, then mixed the solution with the rest of her brew. She grabbed one of the cups Sweetie Belle was practicing on and filled it with her potion. She looked around for something she could use to test if her potion worked. Finding nothing, she put the cup down for now, wiped the sweat from her brow, and sat down to rest.
Unfortunately, Sweetie Belle had rather failed to noticed that Apple Bloom filled one of her cups with her brew.
The potion reacted rather violently to the burst of magic, and the resulting explosion could be seen from Cloudsdale. A small chunk of the cup, with an inscription reading “Made in Crystal Empire” would, several millennia later, be the very first pony-made object to land on another planet.
The Crusaders were covered in soot (and a number of potion ingredients, including rainbow extract, phoenix feathers, and tree sap). Apple Bloom was the first one to start trying to clean herself off.
“Well, I guess that means that the potion works,” Apple Bloom said. “Good thing Twilight gave me an extra flame sac so I can make more.”
“Wait,” Scootaloo said, “I’m working on a rocket engine, and you’re working on a compound that can blast stuff into space…”
“Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?” Sweetie Belle said.
They were silent for a moment, as certain thoughts were being processed by their minds at the same time.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ASTRONAUTS, YAY!”
===
It was a bright, starry night. The Crusaders were gathered inside their tiny, cramped, rickety rocket ship.
“Helmets?” Apple Bloom said.
“Check!” Scootaloo replied.
“Oxygen tanks?”
“Check!”
“Equestrian flag?”
“Check!”
“Well, looks like we have everything we need!” Sweetie Belle said.
“Begin countdown!” Scootaloo said.
Apple Bloom took a deep breath. “Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Lift-off!”
Sweetie Belle shot a beam of magic at the ignition mechanism.
The fuel exploded, instantly accelerating the rocket ship to a speed that could only be matched by Rainbow Dash. A bright rainbow wave filled the night sky as the ship breached the sound barrier.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had just recovered from their sudden launch when their rocket crashed straight into the moon.
===
Luna was presiding over the night court in Canterlot Castle, when she suddenly felt a strange tingling sensation. She thought nothing of it, and ushered the next petitioner in.
===
“I can’t believe it!” Apple Bloom said. “We actually made it to the moon!”
Upon crashing, the Crusaders had been flung from their ship, landing into the lunar dust. High above them was their home planet, surrounded by countless thousands of stars and the pitch-black of space. Below them was the barren, grey landscape of the moon. It was, all things considered, an awe-inspiring sight.
Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo’s flank. Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle’s flank. Sweetie Belle looked at Apple Bloom’s flank.
“Still no cutie mark,” Apple Bloom said. The Crusaders hung their heads in disappointment.
“Maybe we should plant the flag,” Sweetie Belle suggested.
“Yeah, I guess that might be worth a shot,” Apple Bloom said. She entered the rocket, which was stuck nose-first into the surface, and grabbed the Equestrian flag. “I declare this natural satellite part of Equestria!” she said, and planted the flag into the ground. “It’s a small step for a pony, but a giant leap for the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”
She did not get her flag-planting cutie mark.
“So now what do we do?” Scootaloo said.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Apple Bloom said.
“Wait, how are we going to get home?” Sweetie Belle said.
They looked at the remains of their rocket.
“Oh, horse apples,” they said in unison.
===
Explosions in the middle of the night weren’t anything too unusual in Ponyville. An explosion accompanied by a sonic rainboom, while far from ordinary, was still not unheard of - Rainbow Dash’s stunts could get pretty crazy. That said, even she had to admit that for all her awesomeness and daredevil attitude, she couldn’t pull off a sonic rainboom while comfortably asleep in her bed. The trail of smoke going straight up was unusual as well.
It didn’t take long for word to spread, especially when it was discovered that Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were missing. Twilight Sparkle put two and two together. She had to save the Crusaders, and she knew just who could help her. She took off, and set course to Canterlot Castle.
===
“At least the lunar rover survived,” Apple Bloom said. She and Apple Bloom were currently sitting in the passenger compartment of said lunar rover, which looked suspiciously like Scootaloo’s scooter.
“Where are we even going?” Sweetie Belle said.
“I have no idea,” Apple Bloom said. “But there’s not much point in just sitting here doing nothing, so we might as well explore to surface.”
“Remember where we parked our rocket!” Scootaloo said. She started flapping her wings, and they were off.
===
“I realize this may be a bit of a difficult subject matter for you, but you can send ponies to the moon, right?” Twilight said.
Celestia raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe I should explain why I’m asking this,” Twilight said.
===
The Crusaders had stopped, and Apple Bloom was studying a rock.
“What’s so special about that stupid old rock?” Scootaloo said.
“It’s got an inscription on it,” Apple Bloom said.
“Really?” Scootaloo said. “Let me see! ‘Nightmare Moon woz here, Celestia can go suck a -’”
“What’s that drawing supposed to be?” Sweetie Belle said.
“I think it’s supposed to be Celestia, but what’s that in her mouth?” Apple Bloom said.
“It sorta reminds me of some of the stuff I saw in those magazines I found under Rainbow Dash’s bed once,” Scootaloo said.
“I do not think these scribbles are suitable for fillies your age to look at.”
The Crusaders turned around, and found themselves face to face with Princess Luna.
“My sister told me of three little fillies lost on the moon. I would imagine she meant you three,” Luna said. “I have come to bring you home.”
“Well so much for Lunar archaeologist cutie marks,” Sweetie Belle said.
“On the bright side, at least we won’t be stuck on the moon for the rest of our lives,” Apple Bloom said.
“I guess that is a silver lining, yeah,” Scootaloo said.
Princess Luna’s horn glowed, and she and the Crusaders vanished in a flash.
===
Twilight was sitting in the library with the Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Spike, and a tray of nachos. “I suppose I don’t need to ask if you kept busy last week,” she said. “For the record, I’m not teaching you any particularly powerful potions from now on, nor will I let you build any massive machines. And we’re no longer testing spells on any item that can be used to hold dangerous substances.”
The Crusaders hung their heads in shame.
“That said, I’ll admit I’m impressed that you managed to make it to the moon. You’ve all made some very impressive progress, so what say you we go and grab some hayburgers instead of studying just this once?”
“You’re the best, Twilight!” the Crusaders said in unison.
[1] The ponies of Ponyville preferred not to talk too much about the time Spike was possessed by an Elder God; Celestia herself had to come over for an exorcism, and the process involved so much screaming that most ponies didn’t get any sleep at all that night - to say nothing of all the ectoplasm that ended up all over the place.
