They shared, but didn't take care.
Four crusaders, famous in the small town of Ponyville for their shenanigans, sat in their clubhouse in front of a fire to escape the cold that was threatening to capture them during the cold winter. Apple bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Babs Seed sat, giggling away and having fun just like any other normal fillies on a Hearths Warming morn, sharing gifts with each other as a testament for their generosity and friendship. They wore their Cutie Mark Crusader capes which stood out when around the Hearths Warming decorations a dark red standing out in an ice blue room. The crusader clubhouse was prepared for the holiday days beforehand. Cute ornaments stood on the shelves that resembled the fearsome Wendigo's, walls covered in an ice blue to capture the holiday theme, a flag was hung up on one of the walls in the room which presented the original equestrian flag with the two pony princesses on it. A paining hung above the four fillies, showing the leaders of the three pony tribes. Chancellor Puddinghead, Princess Platinum and Commander Hurricane.
"Okay, so did everypony follow our rules?" Apple Bloom asked in a commander's voice. "We all buy one gift that can be shared between all four of us that could potentially help us get our cutie marks." The other three ponies who were listening carefully to Apple Bloom nodded their heads. Apple Bloom gave a pleased smile. "Good. Now do you girls mind if ah give ya your gifts first?" The three didn't move their mouths once again but shook their heads. "Okay girls, unwrap it!"
Apple Bloom stood back as Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Babs Seed approached the wrapped-up box and started tearing the wrapping paper off. It revealed a plain cardboard box; they took the cardboard lid off the box to reveal the real gift hiding inside. Sitting inside the box was four packets each of various plant seeds and four watering cans.
"It's easy to guess what these are for. I guess you had the idea of getting our cutie marks by growing plants." Scootaloo spoke with an unenthusiastic tone. "That's so boring! Also, it's not just boring, it's lame! You wouldn't see me or Rainbow Dash doing this sort of stuff. I highly doubt that I'll get my cutie mark doing this sort of stuff."
Sweetie Belle frowned at Scootaloo's reaction to the gift. "Well, it's worth a try, don't you think? And aren't you meant to be grateful for gifts?"
Unlike Scootaloo, Babs was grateful for the gift and was already digging its contents out of the box. "Hey, it's not lame, Scoots! I bet Apple Bloom plants seeds all of the time here and so do I back at the farm in Manehatten. It's actually quite a fun thing to do!"
"Yeah, you'd think that because Apple Bloom is part of the Apple family and you are her cousin. You do this stuff all of the time! I don't want to do it!" Scootaloo huffed.
Sweetie Belle was starting to get annoyed with Scootaloo's moaning. She had to shut her up. "Then you may never get your cutie mark. You wouldn't like it if we refused to do whatever gift you got us, so don't moan for anypony else!"
"Thank you, Sweetie Belle." Apple Bloom stopped talking to stick her tongue out at Scootaloo. "Now let's get a move on. We can find some place safe to plant these lil' things. Maybe if we grow 'em right, we can make a salad out of these flowers."
The four ponies wondered around the outskirts of Ponyville for a while until they found a quiet place where the land was flat and wasn't populated with any ponies. A perfect place to plant flower seeds. Well... It would be if it wasn't winter, if the ground wasn't covered with snow and the seeds weren't sunflower seeds. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Babs Seed were starting to put pieces of logic together like a jigsaw puzzle and realized that Sunflower seeds wouldn't work in the current conditions. They were starting to wonder why Apple Bloom had chosen Sunflower seeds and another strange seed that neither of them recognized.
"Uh... Apple Bloom? We both know I don't know much about flowers, but why did you choose to grow Sunflower seeds... In the winter?" Scootaloo asked. "You do know they won't grow, don't you?"
Apple Bloom sighed and turned to her friend. "Scootaloo, why are ya being so negative today?" She thought about Scootaloo's past negative attitudes to see if it could be being caused by any of her past reasons. Then it came to her, it was one of the most common reasons. "Ah think ah know why you're bein' such a negative Nancy. Are ya bein' impatient and want to get to your gift? If so, ah bet it's because Rainbow Dash will be there waitin' for us to help us to do whatever Scoot's has planned. Is that true?"
"N-No!" She replied. She didn't want to admit it, but Apple Blooms guess was correct.
"Quit your bickering, you two and let's get started with what we're meant to be doing, but Apple Bloom, I'm asking the same question as Scootaloo is." Babs Seed turned her attention to Apple Bloom. "How are you going to grow Sunflowers in the winter?"
Apple Bloom smiled, none of them knew her plan. "That's a good question. We can all plant the seeds, but to get the results of our lil' experiment and see if any of our special talents is gardenin', we require Sweetie Belle."
As soon as she heard her name being spoken, Sweetie Belle started to pay attention. "Wait, what?"
Apple Bloom continued to explain the rest of her plan and why she required a unicorn. "We know that the Sunflowers won't grow in the winter, but ah know that Sweetie Belle has learned a new spell with Twilight at Twilight Time. She's learned an insta-grow spell that will grow the flower to full size in seconds! We will get our results with no in no time and maybe even our cutie marks!
"I'm not perfect at performing the spell." Sweetie Belle warned. Remember when I tried to grow a Dandelion? The spell was only half successful. I managed to grow it, but then my magic made its florets come to life and they tried to kill us. I'm willing to give it a shot though."
"Great!" Apple Bloom cheered. She picked up some sunflower seeds and gave one to each of her friends. "I think ya all know how to do somethin' as simple as this, plant the seeds."
Each of the four crusaders scooped a hoof-full of dirt from the ground; they placed their seeds in the center of their newly formed holes and covered them up again. They picked up their watering cans and they trotted to a nearby pond, gathered a little amount of water in each can, just enough for each of them to water their seeds, moved back to their Sunflowers' new growing area and poured the water above them. They waited until they could see that the area of each Sunflower seed had become completely moist with the pond water. Pleased with what they'd done, they placed their watering cans on the ground and turned their heads to Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Babs were all relying on her to finish the job.
Sweetie Belle sighed. "Here it goes. Girls, I'm sorry if I mess this up." She charged her magic and closed her eyes, she had never successfully completed the spell with no errors, and she would need to concentrate a lot here. She was already struggling with the amount of magic needed to be put into the spell at her low skill. She was sure she was going to fail, but it was Hearths Warming morning, she couldn't give up today, she couldn't disappoint her friends. Her friends would be less disappointed if she tried and failed rather than not trying at all. She gave herself one last push before she released herself from the strain of her magic that was used and fell to the floor. She soon found the strength to get herself back on all fours. "Ugh... D-Did I do it?" she mumbled. She opened her eyes wider so she could see her friends clearly. They all looked amazed.
"I take back what I said about growing flowers. Growing flowers with magic is AWESOME!" Scootaloo had a huge smile on her face that showed her teeth.
"Sweetie Belle, these Sunflowers are amazin'! Ya did the spell right!"
Sweetie Belle broke out a huge grin. She turned to see four magnificent Sunflowers in the ground. "I did it! I did it! I can't wait to show Twilight! She'll be so impressed!"
Apple Bloom released a small giggle from her friends’ reaction. "Ah'm sure she will, Sweetie Belle, but for now, lets get started on these other plant seeds!"
"Uh, Apple Bloom?" Sweetie Belle was concerned about planting the strange seeds that none of the crusaders recognized. The concern was very noticeable in her voice. "What type of plant seeds are these? I don't recognize them and have no guess of what plant seeds they are. They have no packaging to identify them. Are you sure we should use these seeds?" Sweetie Belle was right to be concerned. The seeds looked strange; they weren't like any other seeds she'd seen before. They were dark purple with tiny black spikes around them. Something about them shouted at Sweetie Belle, she knew these weren't going to be going on Apple Blooms salad.
"Sure! They're fine. Nothin' to be worried about. What could possibly go wrong?" Apple Bloom said with a bright smile. For some reason she was confident and believed her own words.
As soon as Scootaloo heard the words 'What could possibly go wrong?' come out of her friends mouth, her facial expression soon filled with worry and concern also. "Okay, I'm out, Apple Bloom! I agree with Sweetie Belle. Every time we sat 'What could possibly go wrong?', something does go wrong. We can't risk it."
"Maybe it won't today." Apple Bloom said, failing to try and reassure her fellow crusaders. "'Maybe it won't today?' C'mon Apple Bloom, ya can think of something better that that!
"You're not going to back down from this, are you?"
"Nope."
Sweetie Belle gave off a huge groan. "UGHHH! Fine! Since I'm going to strain myself once again to use this spell for this plant that is probably going to go wrong, all because Apple Bloom has no common sense, can we please go over the CMC emergency plans? Just so we know them?"
Apple Bloom smiled. She was getting what she wanted, but she was completely blind of the possible consequences of her curiosity. "Sure. But ah promise ya, nothin' will go wrong."
"Let's quickly go over these. What do we do if something goes wrong with a CMC planned experiment?" Sweetie Belle asked. She wanted to make sure everypony knew the emergency plan, especially Apple Bloom.
Sweetie Belle was pleased when Apple Bloom was the one to answer her question. "Run like buck?"
Sweetie smiled. "Correct! Second question; what do we do when there is an aftermath of our actions that needs resolving?"
Scootaloo was the one to answer the second emergency plan question. "Get Twilight!"
"Correct!" Sweetie Belle turned her head back towards Apple Bloom and gave a small nod. "We're good to go!"
Apple Bloom also replied with a nod. She moved over to a new area away from the Sunflowers and from any ponies around that we're not part of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Babs filled one of the watering cans with a small amount of the crystal clear liquid and waited until it was time to pour it on the seed. Apple Bloom repeated her method the four did with the Sunflowers. She dug a small hole in the ground by scooping out a hoof-full of dirt from the earth, dropped the strange seed in the dent in the ground and covered it up again. Babs moved forward and tilted the watering can so all of its contents were spilled on the ground so it could sink into the dirt and reach the seed. As soon as the seed was moist, the spell could be performed. The four ponies waited a while so they could be certain that the seed was soaked.
"Okay, Sweetie Belle, we're good ta go!" Apple Bloom cheered. She was getting more excited by the second. She wanted to see what flower the seed was going to turn into, what it looked like and what it would do, that was if the flower was meant to do something. Would it be edible? All of her questions would be answered shortly, providing that Sweetie Belle didn't listen to her instincts and wouldn't stop performing the spell half way there.
Sweetie Belle crouched down, pointed her horn at the buried seed, closed her eyed ready to concentrate on the spell and charged her magic. This time, the spell was even harder to perform on the one seed than it was to perform on all four Sunflowers. Something wasn't right about the seed she was experimenting on, but Apple Bloom wanted it so badly. Her curiosity was getting the best of her, but she didn't want to let her friend down. Just like last time she performed the spell, she gave herself one last hard and powerful push. The spell was completed. She once again fell to the ground and the hard landing was saved by the bright green grass from the meadow beneath her. When she managed to get up on allow her legs once again, she first turned to her friends faces. They weren't looking behind her at the place where the seed was planted with amazement like last time, but with worry. Even Apple Bloom looked worried by the sight behind Sweetie Belle that the white unicorn had yet to see like she regretted having Sweetie Belle perform the spell.
"Uh, Sweetie Belle? I-It would be a good idea to m-move away from that t-thing." Apple Bloom stuttered.
"Why? What’s wrong?" Sweetie Belle asked. There wasn't much worry in her voice, but when she heard a loud noise that threatened to burst her eardrums, she turned round to witness the horror standing behind her. The noise was a screech she'd never heard before, but the source of the sound was even stranger than the sound itself. She'd never seen a plant like it before. She'd never seen a plant that could make that noise, or a plant that had a mouth, or a plant that had legs. It was hard to tell how the plant looked around, there were no eyes or ears, but it was still looking directly at the four fillies. It started to churn something up in its mouth like when a pony is about to spit saliva, but this plant didn't spit saliva. It spat out a purple bubbly fluid right in front of Sweetie Belle's hoof, probably trying to aim for her, but failed. It landed on a dozen blades of grass at most. The fluid started to melt the blades of grass like acid would. Sweetie Belle's eyes went wide. She realized the damage the purple fluid could have done to her hoof if she was just a little closer. "Yeah, I agree with you there, Apple Bloom." Sweetie Belle backed away from the strange, terrifying plant that was once a harmless seed. The plant screeched again, this time taking leaps towards the fillies.
Scootaloo was the first to start talking again. She ordered her friends to do the most sensible thing at the time. "Girls, I think we should RUN!"
"Get back to the clubhouse!"
The four girls rushed towards their clubhouse at lightning speed. Not daring to look back to see if the monstrous plant was following them. Once there, they climbed the ladders, leaped through the door and into the room. They locked the door and started to move the furniture in front of it. It would act as a barricade if the plant came to seek them out. Apple Bloom moved toward the window and stood on top of a crate so she could see out of it. She lowered her head so her eye was level to the lens of the telescope that was sitting on the crate. She desperately searched for the killer plant until she saw it clear as day, moving away from the clubhouse.
Apple Bloom sighed in relief. "Good, it's movin' away from our clubhouse. It's goin' into the forest. Its somepony else's problem now and there's no need to call for Twilight."
Babs looked confused at her cousin’s statement. "Don't you think that's a bit irresponsible? We can't just leave it out there."
Sweetie Belle remembered numerous accidents in Ponyville that Twilight had always seemed to resolve. For some reason she was always dragged in. "Don't worry about that, Babs. Twilight will probably run into it and get rid of it at some point, she always does. Now let’s get started on my gift!"
The gift-wrapped box was slightly bigger than the box Apple Bloom's gift came in. The wrapping paper was the same colors as her, purple with a white ribbon that came together at the top of the box to create a decorative bow. The ponies didn't hesitate to open the box to see what was sitting inside, waiting to be used for getting a cutie marks, hopefully. It surely couldn't be worse than Apple Bloom's gift. When the wrapping paper and ribbon was removed from the box, it revealed another cardboard box with a warning label printed on the side of it. According to the warning label, there were sharp tools within the box and needed to be handled with great care, something that all four crusaders lacked. The crusaders choose to ignore the warning. Instead of carefully opening the box by tearing the tape holding it shut, they decided to rip it sides of the box clean off. Multiple safety helmets and pickaxes tumbled out of it.
"Uh... Sweetie Belle. Why did you get us a bunch of stone pickaxes and safety helmets?" Babs asked. She was hoping that she didn't need to use them to work. Mining was a hard thing to do in real life. Just because it's easy in games didn't mean it would be easy in reality. Hearths Warming existed so ponies could learn to care for each other, not to do hard labor in a cold winters afternoon.
"We're going mining! Why else? It's going to be so exciting!" Sweetie Belle squeaked as a sign of excitement and happiness.
"Damn it!" Babs thought to herself. She was thinking about making up an excuse to why she couldn't do it, but she was more interested in why she wanted the crusaders to go mining. "I know what the pickaxes are for, Sweetie Belle, but why are we going mining in the middle of the winter? Do you know how hard it'll be to mine out there in these conditions? Plus, what if that killer plant thingy returns and we're trapped in our own little mine?"
Sweetie Belle knew she was just making excuses to get out of the work, but what if her cutie mark was mining, she'll never get it! Sweetie Belle also realized she hadn't told her friends why they were going mining. It would probably be a good place to start for an explanation. "The reason why we're going mining is because I know that Rarity has a spell that can detect gems underground. I found the spell in a book and how to perform it. I've now mastered the spell and I thought it would be a good idea to see if any of our special talents in mining for gems. Plus, if we find a ton of gems, we'll be rich!"
As the words came out of Sweetie Belle's mouth about being rich, the three other crusaders eyes lit up gold. They all loved the sound of being rich, who wouldn't? "Ya know? This isn't such a bad idea than what ah thought it would have been. Bein' rich beyond our wildest dreams is much better than bein' killed by a chaotic plant." Apple Bloom praised Sweetie Belle's idea of mining.
Sweetie Belle thought for a minute, she was forgetting something. Once she remembered it, she frowned. "There's just one little problem though."
"What's that?"
"We have nowhere to mine and nopony in a billion years would ever let us mine on their property."
While everypony else looked down with their ears down on their heads, disappointed, Apple Bloom didn't see the problem as a problem as she had a solution. "We can mine on Sweet Apple Ares! Ah'm sure ma sister wouldn't mind it. Plus, that's not the best part. The best part is that nopony has ever mined in Sweet Apple Ares before. Whatever we find is ours to keep. Ah bet there is carriage loads of gems there."
"Really Apple Bloom?!"
"Really."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Grab your pick and your safety helmet and lets get going!" Sweetie Belle cheered.
It took the four fillies a while to get to their destination while carrying the heavy pickaxes, but they got there. Luckily, they got there without anypony seeing them or some questions would be asked. The destination was outside Applejack's big red barn that she had demolished and raised countless times in Apple Blooms life. The ground beneath their hooves would be the patch of land that would be assaulted by their pic-axes. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Babs were all excited to mine for what would soon be theirs. Everypony but Sweetie Belle was starting to shake, they were so eager to get their hooves on just one little gem.
"UGH!" Apple Bloom whined. "Can we just get started already? Ah' gettin' sick of waitin' around!"
The worried expression that Sweetie Belle had on her face when she said the crusaders had nowhere to mine had returned and for good reason. This was somepony else's property and the place where they'd chosen to mine was extremely close to a weak building that had been rebuilt time after time, but there was one other thing that worried the unicorn. "Apple Bloom? Do you think it's a good idea to mine in front of the barn doors, you know, the barn your sister uses every day and could potentially be harmed by the position of the mine?"
"Yes ah'm sure!" Her inpatients were getting the best of the earth pony. "Applejack is a pony who is always careful. She'll avoid it easily. She won't mind us minin' here so quit ya worryin' and let's get ta work!" Apple Bloom raised her pickax over her head. She was ready to swing and bring it back down to earth, but just before she was about to swing the pickax, a voice yelled at her forcing her to delay her swing.
"Stop!" Scootaloo yelled. "What are you doing? We need Sweetie Belle to perform the spell to find gems first."
"Oh yeah. Okay Sweetie Belle, do ya magic!"
"I wonder how much magic I'm going to have to use today." Sweetie Belle thought to herself. She charged up her horn, not as much as she did before to grow the Sunflowers and the strange plant that tried to kill them, but just enough for the spell to work. The spell wasn't as complicated and didn't make her tumble over either. A relatively easy spell. When the spell was completed, she knew the answer to either start mining or to keep looking for areas to mine. "I have detected gems, they are somewhere underneath Applejack's barn. I don't know how many, but I know they're ther-"
"WE'RE GONNA BE RICH! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS! RICHER THAN FILTHY RICH!" Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Babs shouted in an extremely loud volume that it harmed Sweetie Belles inner ears.
Sweetie Belle sighed. "I hope there are some pain killers under here for my inevitable headache. My friends drive me crazy!" She thought to herself. She started to speak again. "Come on, girls! Let's start digging!"
They didn't know how long they'd been digging. They didn't know how long they'd been sweating their flanks off. Hours? Days? Weeks? There wasn't any way to keep track of time underground, but it should be at least a few hours since they'd managed to mine out everything from under Applejack's barn. The barn was built on shallow ground and the fillies started to wonder if it was a good idea to stay underground.
"Girls? Ah'm exhausted. Can we stop? Please?" Apple Bloom pleaded. Her mouth was dry, she'd been working non-stop and without any food or drink, way longer any filly should work without a normal ponies needs. It was like she was forcing herself into slavery. Scootaloo and Babs felt the same way as Apple Bloom did, but Sweetie Belle was the determined one now. They others wanted to be rich, she just wanted to be proud of herself and let herself know she could do the gem finding spell properly.
"NO! I can do this! I did detect a gem. I will find it. I will prove to ponies I can do something with my magic!" Sweetie Belle screamed. It was obvious that she was stressed out.
Scootaloo decided to side with Apple Bloom and try and persuade Sweetie Belle to get out of the death trap that was their mine and soon would be their graves if they didn't leave. "Nopony said you weren't good at magic, Sweetie Belle. You've already proven to us how good you are with that plant growing spell."
Sweetie Belle continued to mine away at the dirt. "Look! You want to be rich, don't yo-" She stopped mid-sentence. She saw something shine in the dirt. She pulled it out with her magic and lifted it to her eyes. "Oh my gosh! Girls! I was right! I've found a gem!" Sweetie Belle squealed with happiness. Suddenly, the ground started to shake and the roof of the mine started to collapse. "RUN!" Sweetie Belle screamed as the four fillies made it out of the mine alive before the hollow ground that the barn was built on collapsed and sank into the ground. The barn sank with it. When the hole of the mine was filled the sudden stop impacted the barn and it collapsed quickly into multiple pieces with a huge band that lingered around the area. Ponies from Ponyville must have been able to hear it. Luckily, Applejack was a heavy sleeper. Hopefully she didn't hear it.
"What the hay was that?" The orange earth pony asked. Her voice sounded like a bullhorn on the farm.
"Damn!" Apple Bloom thought to herself. "Hopefully she doesn't mind the damage, but if she does, we're in serious trouble." She warned her friends as she saw her sister run out of the Apple family home.
When she walked closer to survey the damage that she just knew was there and immediately knew it would be caused by the crusaders, but what she saw wasn't on the list of things that she thought was possible for four little fillies to do. Where her barn used to stand, there was nothing and there was mass damage in a whole that didn't exist before. Giant shards of painted red wood were sticking out of it. Applejack's left eye twitched. "W-What? How did ya? WHY?!"
Sweetie Belle leaned over to Apple Bloom and started to whisper to her. "I thought you said she wouldn't be mad."
Apple Bloom started to worry and whispered back. "Ah didn't think she would. She said she was going' to knock it down and rebuild it again like she normally does in about a week."
Applejack heard her little sister’s conversation which only fueled her rage even more. "A week! Just because ah was goin' to knock it down in a week doesn't mean you can knock it down now! What were ya thinkin'? Ah need ta use that barn every day! What am ah gonna do tomorrow or the next day?! Plus, that barn had tons of bits worth of valuables in there, some aren't even replaceable! And there is a huge hole there! How in tarnation did that happen?"
Apple Bloom knew she couldn't lie to her sister, she was too smart for that nonsense and how was she going to be able to lie anyway? How quick did she need to be to quickly make up a lie on how a whole in the ground suddenly appeared? Apple Bloom was about to open her mouth to explain the truth when Sweetie Belle beat her to it. "Please don't blame her, Applejack! It's my fault, not hers." she admitted.
"And how in Equestria is it your fault?" Applejack asked with a stern face.
"It's my fault because we've been getting each other gifts for us to all use and see if they help us get our cutie marks. So far we've done Apple Blooms gift which was a bunch of plants and mine which was mining. We were mining for gems because I mastered Rarity's gem finding spell and we wanted to find some so we could be rich. I detected some gems here and we all decided to mine. After it all, we only found one gem when the top of the mine collapsed which turned out that the hole we dug just happened to be under your barn and it collapsed with it." Sweetie Belle took a deep breath after the long hour explanation.
"Hmm. Ah guess ah can understand that, but it was still a bit extreme. Sweetie Belle, ah do understand, but ah'm still gonna have to speak ta Rarity about this. Now, get off mah property!" Applejack yelled at the top of her voice while still trying to keep her rage inside.
It took the four fillies fifteen minutes to return to the clubhouse. "I'm really worried now!" Sweetie Belle was shaking in fear. "Rarity yelled at me when I used her rare ocean blue gems to draw a picture of us both. I can't imagine how mad she'll be when she finds out that I destroyed a building that properly cost thousands of bits."
Apple Bloom stood next to Sweetie Belle, frowning. She couldn't help but feel guilty. "You should have let me take the blame, Sweetie Belle. Applejack would have gone easier on me. I know it was your idea to mine for gems, but I was the one who said you could mine on Sweet Apple Acre grounds when I didn't have my sister’s permission."
Babs was getting sick of the two ponies debating over that should get the blame. She had to step in before they wasted any more time on Hearths Warming day. "At the end of the day, mining wasn't any of our special talents, but I think we should all take the blame since we all knew better than what we did. We all know that it's bad to do something on somepony else's property without their permission and none of us objected."
Sweetie Belle smiled. "Yeah, thanks Babs. That'll solve this debate. At least we have the one gem to exchange for bits."
Apple Bloom was the one carrying the supposed gem. Her face suddenly turned into a huge frown. "Yeah... About that." She took in a deep breath, not knowing her friends reaction to what she was about to say. "Do ya remember that hoof-ring with the plastic red gem in it that Twist brought in a few weeks ago, then came to Sweet Apple Acres, lost it and she cried for a week about it. Well ah discovered that this gem is the ring. It's worthless."
Sweetie Belle had a tear growing in her eye. She took a deep breath and exhaled. "If any of you need me, I'll be outside the clubhouse calming her down." With that, Sweetie Belle left the club house and shut the door behind her gently. She was in there for about half an hour, no sound from here during the time she was out, before she came back in. "Ok, I'm calm again and my rage is gone. How about we move onto Scootaloo's gift now?"
Scootaloo loved back while the other three girls shredded the wrapping paper. This time it didn't reveal a cardboard box, but a crate. Apple Blooms eyes became wide. "What have ta gotten us that requires a crate?!"
Scootaloo smiled. It was going to be something that none of the girls were expecting. "Open it to find out."
Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Babs Seed all worked together to open the lid of the crate. It was heavy so imagine how heavy it was to get in the club house. "Scootaloo, what did you use to get this thing in here?!" Sweetie Belle asked. Scootaloo didn't reply and kept sipping her juice box. The three fillies managed to get the lid off but had to climb into the crate to see what was inside because of the size. Sweetie Belle looked at what was under her hooves. Mountain climbing gear? Don't tell me we're doing this. We almost killed ourselves with the mine and now we're getting dangerously close to deadly experiments to getting our cutie marks. How are we going to do this anyway? Who's helping us?"
Scootaloo started to explain her crazy gift to her three friends. "This is gear that adventures wear. We'll get our cutie marks in adventuring. We'll be climbing the mountain deep into the Everfree forest. We'll need to wear this stuff at all times and always make sure we have out tools with us at all times. Rainbow Dash will-"
"I called it!"
"-Be helping us out along the way. She'll be making sure that we know what we're doing at all times and watching us to make sure we're getting stuff done correctly. She'll also be guarding us and she'll be trying to get us off the mountain with no injuries. I chose her because she's awesome and is really sporty."
Apple Bloom started to laugh at Scootaloo's description of the orange Pegasus’s idol. "Yeah, we know she is. We learned that the last time ya started praising her and fantasizing over becoming her daughter." Scootaloo glared at her. Apple Bloom soon calmed down. "Okay girls, let's get this stuff on, grab our tools and meet Rainbow Dash at our early graves."
The four fillies made it to the two mountains in the freezing cold through the snow. They made it through the Everfree forest without any commotion. They spotted Rainbow Dash at the base of the mountain while Scootaloo could see her a mile off. When they were in hoof-shaking range of her, they noticed Rainbow Dash was also in the same type of clothing that the crusaders were wearing. "Good afternoon crusaders! How are my favorite four fillies today? I see you're all ready for our small adventure." Rainbow Dash kept her smile on. She seemed really happy today, but Scootaloo knew Rainbow Dash was always like that on Hearths Warming because it was one of the mare’s favorite holidays.
"We're fine, Rainbow Dash. But we're extremely chilly right now. Ah'm not even sure if this was a good idea to go through with." Apple Bloom admitted, glancing over at Scootaloo who seemed to have a stare. The stare was aimed directly at Rainbow Dash. "She'll be fantasizing again." she thought. She knew her guess was right.
Rainbow Dash chuckled. "Really? A big tough earth pony like you being defeated by a couple gusts of wind?" She asked rhetorically. "Don't worry, that chill will be gone as soon as we start moving. This exercise will warm us up." She turned back to the three fillies. "So? Who's ready for this?!"
As predicted, the experiment to get their cutie marks that was badly planned by Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo, failed. There was an accident during the rock climbing session and Rainbow Dash didn't do much to help. In fact, she got out of the accident completely unharmed while Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Babs gained a couple of bruises. Their session finished a couple of hours ago and they would've been back earlier, but they had to go to Ponyville hospital to get a cast on Scootaloo's leg as she broke the right hind leg on impact of the fall. Scootaloo didn't cry or anything, she only hissed in pain. She had to remain strong for Rainbow Dash. Luckily, Rainbow Dash was intelligent enough to know that she needed to go to the hospital immediately. Scootaloo slowly waddled off to the couch in the corner of the club house, still in a little pain, but not much. She lay down to rest. "Thank Celestia that we only have one more thing to do. I hope it isn't to extreme, Babs." She said with a frown. Even though it was Hearths Warming, the day of being with friends and family to share with each other, she wanted the day to be over quickly.
"Don't worry; it isn't as bad as your gift. Well... It won't be if everything goes to plan." Babs smiled.
"What do ya mean by that, Babs? What have ya got?" Apple Bloom asked. The words, 'If everything goes to plan', didn't excite her much.
"All you need to of it open it to find out." She replied. The box was even bigger than Scootaloo's gift which told them that it would be another crate. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle opened the gift while Scootaloo rested on the couch. With a huge struggle, the two ponies managed to open the crate to reveal what was hiding inside. They looked inside and noticed that there was a pile of stuff starting from three quarters from the top of the crate downwards. Whatever Babs had gotten the crusaders; it was big and supposedly, so was the job the gifts were going to be used for.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle jumped in and started throwing the contents of the crate outside of it into the interior of the clubhouse. There was tons of different stuff. There were sacks, bats and ski masks, along with bullhorns for each filly. Apple Bloom looked at her cousin nervously. These were the tools that a criminal would use to... Rob a bank? Surely, Babs didn't get the equipment to rob banks! That was illegal and most likely not the way to get their cutie marks, but she had to be sure. "Uh... Babs." Apple Bloom asked, narrowing her eyes. "What is all of this stuff for, exactly?"
"Isn't it obvious? To rob Ponyville bank!"
"Care to explain why?"
Babs started to recall her memories from a few weeks ago in Manehatten. She took in a deep breath, ready to blur out her explanation. "A few weeks ago in Manehatten, I went to the cinema to watch a film about a full grown stallion who didn't have a cutie mark. Because of all of the teasing he got while in school for being so old and not having a cutie mark, it lead him to a life of crime. One day he joined a heist to rob Manehatten bank which is one of the biggest banks in Equestria. He successfully robbed the bank and when he escaped with all of the cash, he got his cutie mark in bank robbing." Babs finished her explanation and started to pant for air to return to her lungs.
"You do know not all films are true, don't you? Just because he successfully got away with the cash doesn't mean we will. Besides, the film was probably fiction." Scootaloo stated. "How do you know that the film was true?"
"Because it said at the end of the film, 'based on a true story.'"
"You know they only put that on to make the film more dramatic." Scootaloo laughed at Babs gullible self. Scootaloo had never seen a full grown pony with no cutie mark. Scootaloo would have been able to talk Babs out of the chaos, but the others started to disagree with her.
Sweetie Belle started to join the conversation at the point of Scootaloo's statement. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes."
"I don't think so, Scoots. I think when they say the film is based on a true story, they mean it."
"How would you know? You've never been to a cinema!"
"Neither have you!"
Scootaloo was starting to get frustrated. She started huffing. "Whatever! I don't think the film was true, but if you three want to go ahead and rob a bank then so be it, but I'm not going because of two reasons. I don't want to get into that sort of trouble and I have a broken leg!"
"Fine by us, we'll do it ourselves as a team of three!" Sweetie Belle turned to the rest of her friends. "Come on, girls. Let's get prepared and get going."
The three fillies who were now dressed as professional bank robbers stood outside in the open of the front doors of Ponyville bank. Not exactly the most efficient place to start the robbery, but they planned it out and it was good enough for them. A bank robbery planned by three desperate fillies to get their cutie marks obviously wasn't going to be an efficient one, but they were desperate. With their curiosity and idiocy, they believed they could do anything. They were already wearing their ski masks, bats in their hooves and sacks on their backs ready to be filled with cash. There was one problem that alarmed them. They had been standing there to long and they were already been eyed at by a mare behind a counter in the building.
Apple Bloom gave a slight smile and started to whisper to her friends standing either side of her. "Are we ready? Three... Two... One... NOW!" The three fillies burst through the glass doors of the bank ready to attack the first pony to come near them. "Okay everypony! Get the money in the buckin' sack before I start whackin' ya's!"
Only three ponies were on open counters in the bank while there were only a few ponies waiting in the bank to be seen by the bankers. Luckily for the bank robbers, it would be easy to take over the bank since there were only a few ponies to control. Well... It would be easy if the ponies would take them seriously. The three ponies behind the counters burst out laughing while the banks customers started I doing the same shortly after they began.
A brown mare with a cutie mark of a stack of bits came close to Apple Bloom. "Oh, look at the little fillies. Aren't they cute? Where's your parents?!" The mare said with a smile. "A bank is not a place for three young ponies like your selves to play dress up. Come on, out you go."
At that point, Babs stepped forward and whacked the bat. It hit the mare in the middle of her leg and she fell on the floor, screaming and rolling in pain. "Are you taking this seriously? She said put the money in the bucking sack! This is a robbery. MOVE!"
Sweetie Belle was shocked by her friend’s actions. "Sweet Celestia, Babs! I didn't know we were actually going to use these to harm ponies."
Babs had just finished tying the pony that she hit with the bat in the corner and gagging her. "What else do you think we were going to use them for?" She moved away from the trapped pony. "Don't talk to her, she's a hostage. Help me tie the rest of them up and gag them too. They're all hostages."
Pretty soon the three new criminals had took over the entire building. A very good result for three amateur fillies on their first heist. They'd managed to tie up all ponies within the building and gag them; they were hostages to three fillies. Some of the ponies had given up squirming while others continued. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Babs had managed to move all hostages to the back from of the bank to keep them away from the royal guards that somehow got information that Ponyville bank was being robbed and decided to move out of Canterlot immediately. The fillies had also managed to crack the code of the banks vault. They now had about four million bits in each of their sacks. Now all they had to do was negotiate with the royal guard. They would give the fillies what they needed or ponies would get hurt. The royal guard was keeping back the crowd of Ponyville citizens that had gathered to see what all of the commotion was about.
One of the royal guards stepped forward with a bull horn. "You three thief’s! What will it take for you to stop this and what will it take for you to promise not to hurt any pony?"
Sweetie Belle, still wearing her ski mask shouted back a reply. "We told you! Let us go free and get our cutie marks or we'll start harming ponies."
The armored pony was starting to get annoyed. He was trying to negotiate with a filly. That's when it came to him. They were fillies. Specifically, desperate fillies trying to get their cutie marks. They could be easily tricked. "Sorry, I can't hear you. If you take your mask off I might be able to hear you better!"
"Ugh, okay."
Babs realized what the guard was trying to do. "Wait! Don't!" But it was too late.
Sweetie Belle had taken her mask off and repeated her statement, but this time, everypony knew who said it. One white pony with a purple mane barged through the crowd and the guard when she saw who one of the criminals was. It was Rarity. "Sweetie Belle! What do you think you're doing?! How dare you attempt to rob Ponyville bank? Stop this nonsense at once!" She screamed. Her anger level was rising higher and higher by the second. Sweetie Belle had never been in so much trouble.
Babs sighed. "Well done Sweetie Belle..."
"Uh... Sorry."
Babs started to think rapidly. She knew she had to think up something new to make the guard continue to think that the hostages were still in danger. "Sweetie Belle, don't give in just because your sister told you to stop. You might get your cutie mark if you succeed." Suddenly, an idea came to her mind. "Sweetie, say these exact words to the guard."
Sweetie Belle heard the word clearly and Babs made her confident to say them, no matter how much more trouble she'll get in. She turned back to the guard. "I told you we were serious! Apple Bloom! Go get a hostage and well show them how serious we are by harming them like we said we would!"
Babs eyes went wide. "You stupid unicorn! Don't say her name for Celestia's sake!"
Another pony jumped out from the crowd. This time it was Applejack. "Apple Bloom?! Get ya stinkin' flank out here now! Take that dumb mask off!"
Babs couldn't believe she had to go through the same crisis a second time in only five minutes. "Ugh! For Celestia's sake! Screw it!" Babs took her own ski mast off. "I give up."
Now, it wasn't just Applejack's eyes that were wide, it was now her mouth too. She was gob smacked. "B-Babs too? What the heck are you two doin' there. What possessed ya to rob a bank?"
"It doesn't matter anymore, Applejack. We were trying to get our cutie marks, but these two ponies are just plain useless." Babs looked like smoke was about to burst through her ears. She approached the guard with her head down in disappointment in herself and her idiotic allies. She stopped in front of them and presented her two font hooves to the guard. "I give up. Surrender. Take me away."
Almost immediately, hoof-cuffs were locked around her hooves. She was then moved to a carriage that was being guarded by two other royal guards. The royal guard turned two the other failures of criminals. "Now, are you two going to come quietly too, or are we going to have to use force?"
The two fillies looked at each other, making a decision. They were going to say no before Babs yelled at them and disturbed their thinking. "Girls, there is no point anymore. Just stop before we get into more trouble."
"Wise move." the guard mumbled.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle lowered their bats and stepped forward. Two royal guards stepped forward with hoof-cuffs and locked them round their hooves. They escorted them to the same carriage that Babs was taken too. The royal guard that seemed to be the captain climbed on board of the carriage that two Pegusi were strapped two and were about to take off with it. "Take us to Golden Oaks Library. We'll wait there for Princess Twilight until she returns from her social life."
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Babs were now standing in the middle of the main room in Golden Oaks Library. They royal guard said that Twilight wouldn't be long. They didn't know just how much trouble they were in, but they guessed that it was a lot if the royal guard was involved... on Hearths Warming day!
Suddenly, the door to Golden Oaks opened slowly. The three fillies thought it was going to be Twilight, but it wasn't. It was Scootaloo, slowly making her way in, being extremely careful with her broken leg with the plaster cast around it. "So I guess I was right?" she beamed.
"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah! Suck it up, Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom grunted. Her mood had fallen negatively dramatically in the past hour.
Suddenly, the library door slammed wide open. Twilight, the royal guard, Rarity and Applejack made their way in with the Mayor. The Mayor was the first to speak out of the lot of them. "These Cutie Mark Crusader disasters are becoming more and more frequent. I know that you attempted to rob Ponyville bank. What possessed you to do that?!"
"We were trying to get out cutie marks."
"How would robbing a bank help you get your cutie mark?"
Babs decided to speak up. The reason they robbed the bank was because of her persuasion anyway. "It was my fault, Mayor."
"Do you want to explain how?"
"I saw a film about a pony that had no cutie mark. He joins a group of criminals to do a heist and rob the bank of Manehatten. When they succeed, he gets his cutie mark. It was based on a true story; we know it was because it said it was. So we wanted to see if we could get our cutie marks in bank robbing."
The Mayor's expression didn't change. In fact, she expected the truth to be stupid. It always was with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "I know what film you're talking about. Criminal Life of a Blank Flank. I watched it with my grandson. I enjoyed it, but you do know that they just say that the story is based on real events to make it sound more dramatic, right?"
"I knew it!" Scootaloo yelled. "You should have listened to me!"
The Mayor frowned at Scootaloo for interrupting her speech. "Yes, thank you Scootaloo. I'm very glad that you were intelligent enough to think before you acted and decided not to join in on this charade, but please, don't interrupt and let me continue. I still need to get to the punishments for your friends."
The three fillies who robbed the bank gulped. "P-punishments?" Apple Bloom stuttered in fear. "What kinda punishments?"
They Mayor sighed again. "Look, I'll cut to the chase to avoid a long boring speech. Even though you deserve to be punished, I don't think I should be that harsh on you. Me, Applejack, Rarity, the royal guard here and Princess Twilight Sparkle have all decided that we shouldn't be too harsh on you, so we decided to give you a weeks’ worth of community service."
"A week?!" Apple Bloom started hyperventilating. The Mayor thought it was an over-dramatic reaction. "But its Hearths Warming holidays. Our time off school! Ya can't do that!"
"Oh, we can! Do you want it to be longer?"
"No..." The three ponies hung their heads low, realizing that they couldn't win. "We'll do the community service."
"Good." The Mayor turned to the exit of Golden Oaks library. "Now, I'm going back to town hall. I need to speak with some ponies to hire more security for the bank. If three fillies can break in, who knows who else could." She shut the door behind her.
Rarity was the next to speak up to the three fillies who still hung their heads in shame. "Sweetie Belle, you're also grounded. Do NOT miss the community service!"
Next was Applejack. She looked as angry as Rarity. "Same goes ta you, Apple Bloom. Don't miss it." She turned to Babs next. "And Babs, Ah'm contacting ya parents to tell 'em what ya did. Ah'll request that ya equally punished as these two fillies." Applejack and Rarity made their way out of the library and slapped the door hard behind them.
"Great. Just great..."
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Babs were all outside of town hall shoveling snow. They were clearing the area around town hall of snow. They were all wearing brown leather vests that had "COMMUNITY SERVICE" stitched on them in big letters made by Rarity. Scootaloo was beside them, sitting on a deck chair and resting her leg. She was relaxing and had already drunk seven juice boxes. She had borrowed Rainbow Dash's big black sun glasses to wear as she bathed in the sun. The others were frowning at her as she just dropped her juice boxes beside her on the ground and they needed to clean it up. They felt like she was mocking them. "So girls, how hard is what you're doing?"
"Hard. Especially when you keep deliberately dropping your juice boxes. I feel like you're doing it just to rub your relaxation in our faces." Sweetie Belle moaned.
Scootaloo finished her eighth juice box; she threw it at Sweetie Belle's head. It was a direct hit and the juice box was impaled through her horn. "No I'm not. I'm just saying you should have listened to me."
"I hate you." Sweetie Belle growled.
