“So let me get this straight.” Applejack said eyeing the three fillies standing on the porch in front of her, flicking between their faces and their strange new and matching Cutie Marks. “Y’all were hangin’ around your clubhouse and talkin’ amongst yourselves about how great your friendship is and how wrong it was to try and find your Cutie Marks by doing potentially dangerous activities. And then when y’all decided to just let your Cutie Marks come naturally and had yourselves a big hug they appeared?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

“That is exactly what happened yes.” Apple Bloom nervously confirmed to the nods of her fellow Crusaders.

“So y’alls special talent is… what exactly?” Applejack asked.

“Uhhhh,” they droned together, “…our strong friendship?” They answered with big smiles to Applejacks confused expression. “The three arrows are us and the circles join us together!” Sweetie Belle tried explaining, using their limited knowledge of the metaphorical qualities of Cutie Marks. They began to sweat bullets, silently praying that the thrown together story they had come up with would hold up under scrutiny.

“That sounds familiar.” Big Mac said and pointed to Applejacks own Cutie Mark when she turned her confusion to him.

“Yep.” Granny Smith agreed from her rocking chair not particularly bothered by the perplexity of her granddaughter and her friends all having the same strange Cutie Mark. “Ya didn’t get yours until after you came back from hognobbing with your Aunt and Uncle Orange in Manehattan and realized you belong here with your family after all. Then poof! Ya got three apples right on your tuckus.”

“Really?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Ah never told ya that story?” Applejack asked, scratching her head. “Well when ah was about- wait no.” She started then stopped herself. “Ya don’t think it’s mighty weird that they all have the same Cutie Mark?”

“Shoot that ain’t so strange.” Granny Smith answered again with a smile. “Ya got that stallion and dentist mare in town with the same hourglass Cutie Mark for starters. Back in my day there was these four stallions who all had the same firefighting Cutie Mark they all earned at the same time, made up the entire Fire Department.” A sly smirk came to her face that immediately set Applejack and Big Mac on edge but was lost on the three young fillies. “Ah used to be sweet on one of them and when we was gettin’ serious he talked me into a-” A hoof suddenly shut her mouth.

“Nope.” Big Mac said, shaking his head to clear any horrible images that may have taken seed.

“Well ah guess that’s that.” Applejack quickly decided before moving to hug her little sister. “We are so proud of you sugarcube.” Apple Bloom nervously returned the hug, sharing quick glances with her friends. They knew that lying to their families about their Cutie Marks would be difficult but until they knew just what was going on and could prove it without a shadow of a doubt, or rather without magic, they’d have to go with it. “But just so we’re clear, ah ain’t gonna be hearin’ about any accident involving bows and arrows am I?”

“What?! No!” They answered shocked.

“Oh good.” Applejack said relieved. “Cause after the zip-line thing and the arrows pointing into a target on your flanks I was worried y’all were doin’ something dangerous again.” She explained as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or rather the Former Cutie Mark Crusaders now, began to form voices of protest at the implication that they couldn’t handle themselves or be trusted to. But after some minutes of back and forth it was decided to let the subject drop for now.

After all they still had Sweetie Belle and Scootaloos family to inform and tell Pinkie Pie of the three Cute-ceañera’s she would insist on planning. As they walked off the farm to spread the good news the three young fillies cast one last glance at their club house and then to each other.

“So,” Scootaloo whispered, “when are we gonna, you know, deal with it?”

“Let’s, let’s just enjoy this for a while.” Apple Bloom suggested. “After everything has settled down again we’ll deal with it.” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded in acceptance, they had been trying for so long to get their Cutie Marks after all. It would be nice to just sit back and relax in the knowledge that they had found their place in the world.

They just had to figure out exactly what it was.

The next week and a half passed in more or less a blur. There was time spent in celebration with family and friends, deflecting questions about the exact nature of their Cutie Marks, listening to every other pony’s own Cutie Mark story (which led to some weird connectivity between their sisters and their friends but that was an entirely different and “sappy” matter), preparing for their Cute-ceañera’s, having their Cute-ceañera’s, and of course dealing with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who had easily switched their bullying from them being “Blank Flanks” to them having useless talents and ugly Cutie Marks. All in all things more or less stayed the same, they went to school, did chores, and played together in their free time.

Granted they hadn’t even been near their own club house for that week and a half but it wasn’t like they needed to go in there. Apple Bloom had the key to the chest holding the cup of dice so unless somepony decided to steal a young filly’s toy chest out of her tree house there was no way it was going to hurt anypony. Still, the topic of the dice or the club house had noticeably never come up in the past week.

And it probably would have gone on longer if they hadn’t encountered the clown.

The Former Cutie Mark Crusaders, they really needed to come up with a new name for their group, milled around with the rest of Ponyville as they waited for the start of The Centennial Meteor Shower, their eyes flicking up to see if any stars had started to fall from the sky. It was a pleasant night of hanging out with friends and family under the beautiful night sky and for the three young fillies tonight had the added benefit of that they got stay up way past their usual bed time. They had promised their families that they wouldn’t stray too far and would stay together as they wandered around, saying hello to the familiar faces of Ponyville.

Ponies were setting up their picnics under the night sky, generally just conversing with each other and occasionally somepony would be playing music like Lyra. But then there was the clown.

“Well hey kids!” The clown said when they walked over to him, joining the crowd of colts and fillies laughing at his juggling of two green balls, a picnic basket, three apples, and a phonograph. “I’m Bit Savvy, The Dancing Clown! Although dancing right now would be a bit troublesome.” The light orange stallion admitted. When the picnic basket fell into his left fore hoof instead of throwing it back into the air he used it catch the falling apples, his right fore hoof catching one of the green balls while the other landed on and balanced itself on his nose. It would have been rather impressive if the phonograph didn’t crash on top of his head a moment later.

The children giggled as his multicolored and puffy mane maintained its shape of surrounding the phonograph even after he took it off his head. He had the traditional white face paint of clowns, with a small blue triangle above and below each eye, bright red lips, and a classic red round rubber nose. But despite his name his clothes didn’t look like they’d belong to somepony who was wise with their money, it being a colorful patchwork of cloth that looked like a clean and far more colorful version of what a hobo would wear but it didn’t cover up his clown horn Cutie Mark.

“Boy kids,” Bit Savvy panted, suddenly very tired, “you’d never expect it but juggling takes a lot out of you. I need a drink.” He picked up a spritz bottle that had been lying on the ground and held it up to his face, opening his mouth wide. The kids snickered as they anticipated what was about to happen, his hoof pressing down on the lever slightly and a torrent of water shooting out of the nozzle, completely drenching him.

“There you girls are!” A familiar and peppy voice said behind them. They turned to find Pinkie Pie bouncing up to them. “Oh hey Juggles!” She said to Bit Savvy.

“Hey Pinkie, but its Bit Savvy right now.” He smiled to her, the water doing nothing to ruin his face paint.

“Bit Savvy? I thought your performance name was-” Pinkie asked confused.

“Not anymore.” He cut her off still smiling and cheerful.

“Well as long as you informed The Equestrian Clown Association it should be fine.” Pinkie said happily. “They take image and name copyright very seriously.” She nodded sagely. “But come on girls the shows about to start! Twilight and Spike just showed up and they brought punch and cookies!” At the news all the colts and fillies wandered off back to their own families, Bit Savvy waving goodbye to all the kids, his wet colorful hair dripping down his dry painted face and onto his dry clothes.

The Former Cutie Mark Crusaders all stopped mid step and looked back at Bit Savvy. His face paint was perfect but it could have easily been water resistant, his clothes however were clearly dry and they had seen the water he had sprayed on his face drench the front of his hobo suit. For that matter the big red nose that he had covering his own was dry too and was even shining a little in the moonlight. They all glanced at each other before a call from Pinkie Pie sent them back on their way.

It was probably nothing.

“So,” Scootaloo started as they stared at the toy chest that held the cup of dice, “maybe we’re just really really good at locking chests?”

“We’ve locked plenty of things before,” Sweetie Belle argued, “maybe it was adding the note?” She pondered, tabbing a hoof to her chin. “I’ve never added a warning to anything before and our Cutie Marks do kinda look like a warning symbol.” They all looked to the symbol on their flank, pondering what two circles and threes arrows pointing inward would be a warning against.

“Maybe it’s a bit of both.” Apple Bloom said. “Or… it’s what we locked away.”

“What our special talent is locking away evil sets of dice?” Scootaloo asked.

“Maybe it’s just, y’know, weird stuff.” Apple Bloom responded.

“Or,” Sweetie Belle interjected, “it could just be dangerous stuff in general. What we did could apply to anything that needs to be kept away.”

“How is that any different?” Scootaloo asked.

“…We get to deal with stuff that makes sense?” Sweetie Belle answered hopefully.

“…Ah can’t think of anythin’ else we did.” Apple Bloom confessed after a moment of silent contemplation.

“Me neither.” Scootaloo agreed.

“Oh! You gave a sort of dramatic “Well that’s that” when we finished putting everything away!” Sweetie Belle said to Apple Bloom. “Maybe our Cutie Marks are for dramatic final sentences?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo just stared at her and she looked down. “It’s just a possibility.”

“So our special talent is at least containin’ dangerous stuff,” Apple Bloom decided, “or maybe it’s lockin’ stuff that don’t make any sense. So what do we do now?”

“We’ve had it,” Scootaloo gestured to the toy chest, “for like two weeks now. We were only supposed keep it here until we decided what to do with it.”

“Well keeping it locked up here seems to be working fine.” Sweetie Belle reasoned. “Let’s just keep doing that.”

“Whoa whoa!” Scootaloo stopped. “We kept it because we couldn’t decide on destroying it or putting it down a deep hole.” She reminded. “I still say we just chop the cup up and break the dice.”

“And like I said two weeks ago that could just make it mad!” Sweetie Belle argued. “We don’t know what exactly it can do, if we ran some tests or something-”

“And if we mess with it we could make it do something else that hurts or kills us!” Scootaloo countered.

Apple Bloom sighed as her friends started going back and forth on why the others’ choice of action was more dangerous than their own. She trotted to the only window of the clubhouse and gazed out at Sweet Apple Arce’s orchards. Big Mac and Applejack would be in the south fields right about now, Granny Smith would either be napping or doing something inside, and Winona was off barking at something…

“What do you think Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle asked at the same time. Apple Bloom thought about how suddenly things had gone wrong when the cup of dice had accidently fallen over, seeing Sweetie Belle so effortlessly and suddenly pulled into the air and flung against the wall.

“I just want that thing,” Apple Bloom started watching Winona suddenly bolt out of some bushes and bark at the direction she came from, “to not be able to,” it was hard to confirm from this distance but those bushes were rustling something fierce, “hurt anypony aga- BY CELESTIA!” She cried as the target of Winona’s ire walked out of the bushes.

Perhaps walked was a bad term, as it was closer to a stagger, but it was clear that it was a pony whose name escaped her until she saw the colorful patchwork hobo suit he was wearing. Apple Bloom raced out of the club house as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle rushed to the window to see what was wrong, bolting after Apple Bloom as soon as they saw the staggering shape of Bit Savvy as he stumbled to the ground, Winona growling mere inches from his face.

“hey, kids…” his hoarse voice said as they approached him. They stopped about three feet from him, the smell of feces, urine, and rot too strong for them to bare getting further, as he tried to get upon on his feeble legs with his ankles bruised, bleeding, and dripping with the pus of infection. His coat, mane, and tail were dirty, filled with leaves, twigs, and matted in dirt and mud. “it’s me… Bit Savvy The Dancing Clown!” He announced his eyes wide, red, and sunken as his tongue, horribly oversized inside his mouth, formulated the words.

His patchwork hobo suit, face paint, and red rubber nose all looked clean and new. As if he had just put them all on before emerging from the bush.

“Scootaloo get on your scooter and head to the south fields and get Applejack and Big Mac!” Apple Bloom ordered and the young pegasus filly nodded and bolted back to the clubhouse. “Sweetie Belle I’m going to go get Granny Smith, stay here with him and calm down Winona!” Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure if that was an actual order or Apple Bloom just yelling at her sister’s dog who had begun barking right into the clowns face but Apple Bloom took off a moment later, leaving her to hold Winona back by her collar as Scootaloo zoomed off into the orchards.

“Do you, do you need some water?” She asked and immediately mentally kicked herself, looking at his cracking lips and oversized tongue. How long had he been like this? A distant shouting could be heard from inside Apple Blooms house, it seemed her grandmother had been napping and needed rousing.

“i could… go… for a… drink.” He wheezed as he leaned to his side and a spritz bottle fell out of one of his pockets. He strained to get it in front of his face and opened his mouth wide while he propped it against the ground and pressed down, a torrent of water dousing his face. Sweetie Belle took a step back at the gag as the water ran down his face, his face paint completely unaffected, and he spit out the water that had landed in his mouth instead of swallowing it. She cast a glance at Apple Blooms house and towards the orchard fields, looking for her friends and when she turned back his suit and face were dry while his mane and the ground around him remained soaked.

Blinking she confirmed that yes his clothes were suddenly dry again, just as they thought they had seen the night of the meteor shower. Her heart pounding at the possibility that she was alone with… something weird like the dice again Sweetie Belle stepped forward carefully, Winona held firmly in place. “Sir? Are you OK?” She asked rather redundantly given his condition but it was his response that she wanted.

“i’m… always fine… when i’m… entertaining… children.” He wheezed and smiled, his cracked red lips, the fresh face paint covering the cracks very well, revealing teeth jutting out of pale dried out gums.

“How long have you been doing, I mean how long have you been performing as Bit Savvy?” She asked, remembering Pinkies comments half way through. Pinkie had noticed some irregularities but had brushed them off, maybe with the right questions Sweetie Belle could figure this out.

“i’ve been… performing… for… three… days now.” He answered. “ever since… i got my… new nose… in.” Sweetie Belle leaned in, the stench of him making her head spin, and looked at the round red rubber nose over his real one, the slight shine on it in the sun. With a quick slap of her hoof, Bit Savvy being far too weak to move out of the way, she knocked the nose right off his face and sent it sailing away into some bushes. The effects were immediate.

Bit Savvy, or rather Juggles now, gasped and started breathing hard as he wrapped his lips around the nozzle of his spritz bottle and pushed down on the handle, flooding his mouth with water. Sweetie Belle backed away, Winona no longer growling or barking but whimpering against her, as he tried to drink as much as he possibly could. She watched as his patchwork suit dragged against the ground and came up dirty and stayed that way, his face paint not drying as quickly but no longer looking freshly applied.

“What in tarnation is going on here?!” Granny Smith demanded as she slowly walked over to them, Apple Bloom anxiously trying to hurry her up. A yell and a stampede announced the arrival of Applejack and Big Mac as Scootaloo skidded to a stop on her scooter. The adults quickly moved the children to the side as they worked on getting the clown off the ground and onto a wagon to take him to the hospital.

“Geez look at him.” Scootaloo said looking at the stallions’ ruined form. “What has he been doing?”

“Ah don’t know bu-” Apple Bloom started until she noticed Sweetie Belle edging away from them. “Sweetie Belle? What’s wrong?” With a quick glance at the adults Sweetie Belle dove into the push and motioned her friends to follow her. Once they were far enough in she gather up the red rubber nose carefully from its resting place under some low branches. She held it up for her friends to see and took a breath before speaking.

“I think we have another one.”

Author's Note

For anyone whose curious Bit Savvy's Nose is based off of, sort of, SCP-1545. Just instead of a Llama suit its a clown nose. It does do more than mind control though, given that mind-control is a type of magic in the show, but like the dice its a nonmagical object but this is all for the next chapter. When the Testing begins and the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally decide what to do with their growing collection.

Also to the people who asked the dice are an original creation but I made sure to make is as bland as possible, literally all they do is hurt people when rolled and can't be separated (how is for next chapter). Granted numbers 27 - 29 are [DATA EXPUNGED]. Number 30 is... special.