Three Little Fillies from Mars

They were always easy targets for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon’s cruel pranks. Nightmare Night, and the weeks leading up to it, were no exception. Although Scootaloo and her friends were subject to their shenanigans throughout the year (last April Fools was traumatizing), during October the duo had organized an elaborate system of cheap tricks until the end of the month.

The first week was for Apple Bloom. After sundown during that time, Apple Bloom was out in the orchard alone. Diamond dressed up as a monster, hiding behind the trees. She chose the right moment to scare Apple Bloom and chase her around the orchard. The second week was for Sweetie Belle. At school Silver put a plastic cockroach on her lunch when Sweetie wasn’t looking, then watched her dig through her spaghetti until she found it. She was so disgusted that she was excused from class to go to the nurse’s office. Rarity picked her up that same afternoon. On the third week, they made Scootaloo come face-to-face with her arachnophobia. They placed a toy tarantula on her head when she was taking a nap under a tree during recess. She screamed in bloody murder when she woke.

To pour salt into the wounds, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon created horrible taunts for their victims. When Diamond chased Apple Bloom in her monster costume she screamed at the top of her lungs Apple Bloom, why so gloom? Monsters are you friends, too! Silver Spoon snuck her nose through the door to the nurse’s office and whispered You want fries with that roach? The next day after Scootaloo suffered a blow from the fake starfish, they sang a parody of Incy Wincy Spider to mock her fear.

It was a month of torture for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They had no way of knowing it, but they figured that the final week of October, possibly on Nightmare Night itself, was reserved for all three of them. They could feel it when they saw their smug little faces.

Apple Bloom called for a special meeting on Friday after school at the clubhouse. She stood at the podium as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle took their seats. As usual she called row, in which all three of them awkwardly raised their arms.

“I call this meeting into order,” Apple Bloom said, banging her toy gavel on the podium. Her eyes moved from Sweetie to Scootaloo. “As y’all know, this has been a rough month for us,” she sighed.

“You can say that again!” Scootaloo said angrily. “I can’t believe they have the nerve to do something mean like that to me!”

Sweetie raised her hoof. “What about me? I actually got sick when I saw that roach in my lunch! Rarity had to pick me up early!”

“What are they trying to prove?” Scootaloo shook her head. For a moment she placed both of her hooves over her face, breathing into them. “Why are they doing this to us?”

“They’re doing this because they can,” Apple Bloom responded.

The fillies were silent. Scootaloo wanted to add something, but she held herself back. She was still upset over the fake spider prank. The fall breeze entered their clubhouse, blowing on their manes.

“What are we going to do?” asked Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom looked at her, then her eyes went down. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe we should tell an adult, like Applejack,” said Sweetie.

Scootaloo shook her head in disapproval. “That’s boring! I want revenge, not be a tattletale!”

“Then what can we do?” Sweetie asked in desperation. “We only have a week left before they do something really terrible to us! Maybe even less than that!”

That much was true. They didn’t want to spend the rest of the week looking over their shoulders for anything suspicious. And they didn’t want their Nightmare Night to be filled with fear and paranoia (if there wasn’t already fear and paranoia in the first place). Unfortunately, nopony inside the clubhouse had an idea of a counterattack.

Apple Bloom banged her gavel, calling the meeting adjourned. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sadly climbed down the clubhouse and returned home. Well, only Sweetie returned home. Scootaloo decided to stay out a little bit longer with her thoughts. More than anything she wanted the chance to get back at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon for what they did. Scootaloo hated spiders, even more than the two spoiled fillies. She wouldn’t as much look at a photograph of one. During a field trip to the Manehattan Museum of Natural History, she refused to step inside the arachnid exhibit.

Scootaloo entered the park and went down the trail to the playground. Her favorite spot was the swings. She sat herself down and moved it back and forth slowly, although she checked for spiders. Scootaloo shook her head again. This is all Diamond and Silver’s fault, she thought. She held her head on her hooves with a huge frown hanging on her face. She vowed that the final week of October will be payback week. She wanted revenge, but had no clue of how to get even.

She raised her head. The swing was being pushed. She turned herself around.

“It’s not called a swing if you’re not swinging,” said Rainbow Dash. “What are you doing here by yourself?”

“Oh… I like to come here and, you know, think about stuff,” said Scootaloo.

“Like your own private sanctuary?”

“Something like that.”

“Yeah I get that. Sometimes I just like to sit on a cloud after a long day. Nothing wrong with a little bit of chillaxing, you know what I mean?”

“What’s does that mean?” Scootaloo asked.

“Chillax. Chill, plus relax. Made it up myself. Clever, huh?”

“I guess.”

Rainbow Dash kept pushing the swing until Scootaloo took control of it, then she joined her on the other one beside her.

“Nightmare Night is next Saturday,” Rainbow said. “You ready?”

“I don’t even have my costume ready,” Scootaloo said. “I’ll probably just wear a white sheet and pretend I’m a ghost.”

“No way! You want ponies to give you rocks all night?”

“... What do you mean?”

“Nevermind. Don’t worry, I don’t have my costume ready, either.”

Rainbow, while sitting on the swing, opened her saddlebag and stuffed her face to search inside. After a short while she found what she was looking for - a book. Scootaloo skidded to a stop. She had never seen Rainbow read a book before. In fact, she never seen her read anything.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“This? It’s a book I got from Twilight. I read all the Daring Do books a gazillion times already, so she lend me this one. By the way, Daring Do is an amazing series! You’ll love it!”

Scootaloo looked at the cover of Rainbow’s book. On the cover was a great machine that stood on three legs over a city that was on fire against a red sky. On opposite sides of the tripod were little cannons that shoot beams of light that destroyed the city. It was strangest thing she had ever seen. Usually the aliens come in flying saucers, she thought.

“What’s it about?”

“It’s about aliens from Mars attacking Earth with these giant machines and wipe out all life,” Rainbow said. “Twilight said it was one of the first major alien invasion stories ever made, and the greatest. If you ask me, if aliens came to take over Earth, I can kick their sorry tails right back to whatever planet they came from!”

“Is it any good?”

“I don’t know. Let’s read and find out.”

So they did. Rainbow Dash opened to the first chapter and read aloud. Scootaloo listened closely as the book explained that for nearly a century nopony had realized, or even cared to believe, that they were being watched by intelligences greater than their own. That as they busied themselves about their little affairs, the Martians observed and studied, like a pony with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Rainbow chuckled as she went deeper into the first chapter, but Scootaloo paid full attention as the book warned of how the Martians were ready to draw their plans against Earth.

****

It was a crisp and cool late-Saturday autumn morning, the perfect time for a Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting. Scootaloo paced around clubhouse, occasionally glancing at her watch. They should be here any minute, she said to herself. At least she hoped they’d be here soon. Scootaloo knew Apple Bloom had chores to do, but she’s not sure of what Sweetie does in the morning. Then, she heard somepony climb up the ladder.

“Sweetie Belle, you made it!”

“Uh-huh, I’m here.” Sweetie looked around the room. “Where’s Apple Bloom?”

“She’s coming, I hope. I have something very important to say, but I need all of us here!”

Sweetie Belle nodded. The two stood a few inches from each other in uneasy silence. Scootaloo disliked how often she found herself in situations such as this, being alone with only one of her friends. She wasn’t a very good conversation starter, or a conversation holder. However, she needed something to break the silence. Anything until Apple Bloom arrived, which she hoped was very soon.

“So… what’s up with you?”

“Me? Oh, nothing much,” Sweetie said. “Rarity was helping me with my Nightmare Night costume.”

“Right, right. What are you going as?”

“You know that book series about this princess that travels to different dimensions and fights evil and stuff?”

Scootaloo nodded sideways.

“Oh… it’s a good series.”

Scootaloo didn’t know what else to say. By some miracle she heard somepony familiar climb the ladder. A pink bowtie peek through the door, then a yellow face with orange eyes.

“Apple Bloom, you’re here!” Scootaloo said.

“Yep, I’m here alright. So what is it?”

“You’ll see.”

Scootaloo stood behind the podium while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle took their seats. It was very strange for her to be holding the gavel this time around. “Is everypony present?” Apple Bloom and Sweetie exchanged looks, then slowly raised their hooves. “Good. I now call this emergency meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders into order.” She bang the gavel on the surface of the podium. What a lovely sound, she thought.

“Alright, so what’s this about?” Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo cleared her throat. “As you know, we are nearing the end of October, and in the past month Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon have been pranking us.”

“I think we talked about this yesterday,” said Sweetie. “Didn’t we agreed to watch our backs?”

“We did, but that’s not good enough,” said Scootaloo. “We need to fight fire with fire, and last night I thought of a way to do it!”

“Wouldn’t fighting fire with fire cause more fire?” asked Sweetie.

“... May I please finish? Anyway, on Nightmare Night I thought the three of us can dress up like, wait for it… aliens! And we make them believe an invasion is happening! Cool, right?”

Scootaloo grinned widely, expecting a positive reaction from her two friends. All she received was silence, along with confused looks. Apple Bloom sighed, turning her head sideways. She raised her hoof to speak, but lowered it, instead shaking her head.

“... Aliens?” Apple Bloom said blankly.

“Yep.”

“Like outer space, take me to your leader type aliens?”

“You got it.”

“Okay.” There was silence again. She tried to comprehend what was explained to her. “Here’s the deal - Diamond and Silver might be dumb, but they ain’t stupid. You really think they’re that gullible to believe that aliens are in their backyard?”

“They made you believe you were being chased by a monster!” Scootaloo snapped back. “Come on guys, I know this can work!”

“I don’t know,” said Sweetie. “How are we going to convince them that aliens are real?”

“Simple.” Scootaloo went to a drawing board and presented to them a vessel of her own design. “We build a war machine with three legs! We’ll call it, the Tripod!”

“... How the heck are we going to build that in one week?” Apple Bloom asked sharply.

“We made that booby-trapped float for the Summer Harvest Parade in one night when Babs Seed came to town,” Scootaloo said. “I’m pretty sure we can get this thing build in one week!”

“What about us?” Sweetie said. “How are we going to look like aliens?”

“That costume store is still open. We can probably get green makeup and alien masks or something.”

Apple Bloom couldn’t take it anymore. She slumped on her chair, putting her hoof on her face, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but this has got to be the dumbest idea I ever did heard! We don’t have a chance in Tartarus of pulling this off!”

“How do you know?” Scootaloo asked accusingly. “Have you been to Tartarus?”

“... I’m outta here.”

Apple Bloom removed herself from her chair in a desperate attempt to leave the clubhouse in a huff. She was almost to the doorway, but Scootaloo stopped her. Apple Bloom was going to force her hoof off of her, but she stared at her deeply with pleading eyes. She looked over to Sweetie Belle, who only shrugged her shoulders. Then she sighed, surrendering to Scootaloo’s pouting lips and puppy dog eyes.

“Alright, we’ll help you build your little spaceship.” Scootaloo leaped for joy, flapping her tiny wings. Apple Bloom looked to Sweetie again, who only shrugged her shoulders a second time. “So when do we start?”

“If we start building it now, we can get it done by next week,” Scootaloo said.

“Where are we gonna get the tools from?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Your house, where else?”

****

The Cutie Mark Crusaders spent the rest of the day inside a shed in Sweet Apple Acres building the war machine from space, or at least trying to. They gathered inside the family shed in Sweet Apple Acres, but they didn’t know where to start.

“Okay, what do we do now?” asked Scootaloo.

“You should know,” said Apple Bloom, “this was your idea.”

Scootaloo put her hoof on her chin. There has to be something in the shed that could be of use to them. She heard whistling outside, followed by deep humming. Her eyes widened. She knew who it was outside. Scootaloo ran outside just in time to find “Big” Macintosh passing by the shed.

“Hey Big Mac,” she called. He turned to see little Scootaloo rushing toward him. “Umm… me and my friends are trying to build a spaceship so we can get back at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon for pranking us all the time. Do you have anything we could use to build one?”

Macintosh kept his eyes on Scootaloo, who grew a little nervous. There was no sign of emotion in his face. He glanced toward the inside of the shed to see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle standing around. Now Scootaloo wish she hadn’t say anything. Then he looked down at the worrying filly.

“... Yep.”

That was easy, she said to herself.

In no time at all the shed was filled with scrap metal and other objects Macintosh had kept through the years. Now the Cutie Mark Crusaders have to find a way to put it all together.

“You really think we can get this done by Nightmare Night?” Sweetie asked.

“I know so,” said Scootaloo. “We just have to focus and work hard.”

From the early afternoon from dusk they assembled every piece of metal to form the first part of their otherworldly war machine. Apple Bloom helped Sweetie and Scootaloo nail the pieces together, but Scootaloo suggested using the electric power tools to get the job done at a fast rate.

“Nuh-uh, we ain’t supposed to use those,” Apple Bloom warned. “Applejack said they’re off limits! Besides, I’m gonna get in a mighty heap of trouble if she catches us using them!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, but she complied and went back to work with the regular hammer and nails. Sweat dripped from their foreheads and their hooves were moist from labor. Once in a while they stopped for snacks and drinks, or to take a five to ten minute breather, then resumed working on their alien ship. At sunset Apple Bloom decided it was time to call it a day. Scootaloo took a few steps back to inspect the ship. It hardly resembled an extra-terrestrial war machine, just a bunch of scrap metal and junk that was nailed together.

“I’d say we’re making progress,” Scootaloo said.

****

The weekend drew to a close and Fright Week was on full progress (Fright Week was just a another way of saying the week of Nightmare Night, as coined by Pinkie Pie). The Cutie Mark Crusaders took caution going to school on Monday morning. They stood by the decision to watch out for each other if Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were to prank them again. The poor fillies couldn’t turn their backs for one second without seeing Diamond and Silver giggling and laughing. They could be laughing at a joke or plotting their latest scheme against the trio. They couldn’t tell, although Diamond and Silver had been making glances at them a lot.

Everyday after school on that week The Cutie Mark Crusaders met at Sweet Apple Acres to complete the work of their Martian war machine. They took a couple of hours of the afternoon to build it, then going home to complete their homework. On Thursday the warship looked like a giant golf ball with a little door on the side and a see-through horizontal gap on the front.

“Great, it’s almost done,” Scootaloo said. “Now we have to make those legs.”

Apple Bloom examined the golf ball-shaped alien warcraft with squinted eyes. “To be honest, I don’t think we’re gonna get the legs done.”

That wasn’t the news she wanted to hear. Her hopes for the alien vessel to resemble the one from Rainbow’s book were dashed. “But we have to build the legs!” she whined. “It was part of my design! Now everything’s ruined!”

Sweetie Belle stepped out of the shed to get some air. However, from the corner of her eye she saw an old jalopy sitting on the field. It didn’t look like anypony was using it, and it still had perfectly good wheels attached to it.

“How about we use wheels?” she asked.

Scootaloo imagined the ship having wheels with a feeling of indifference. It wasn’t what she wanted, but wheels will have to do. They pulled the wheels from the old jalopy and placed them on the front and back sides of their war machine.

“At least it’s coming together,” Scootaloo said.

“What do we do now?” Sweetie asked.

Scootaloo was deep in thought. Looking back at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle an idea formed in her mind. “Costumes!” she exclaimed. “Do you guys still have those costumes we wore at the talent show?”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie awkwardly nodded heads, with the former asking why.

“We’re going to need them, plus we need alien masks! Get them ready by tomorrow, then we’ll discuss battle plans!”

Scootaloo excitedly rushed out of the shed, leaving Apple Bloom and Sweetie behind. They watched with uncertainty as she disappeared into the sunset.

“We’re going to be the silliest looking aliens in the world, I tell you what,” Apple Bloom said.

“You’re telling me… I wanted to wear my Princess Andromeda costume this year,” Sweetie whined.

****

Scootaloo couldn’t believe her revenge fantasy was almost becoming a reality. Her alien war machine was almost ready to go, although she didn’t get the three legs she wanted. It didn’t matter anyway. On Nightmare Night they will roam the streets and then Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon will feel the same fear and humiliation the Cutie Mark Crusaders felt all this month.

She closed her eyes and thought about the looks on their faces when they saw their spaceship. She skipped on the road merrily, giggling when she thought of how Diamond and Silver will cry like newborn foals, believing that aliens are here to destroy civilization. In two days her revenge will be complete.

“Well, well, well if it isn’t Scootaloo,” a filly said.

The smile on her face disappeared. She knew that mocking tone. Blocking her path were the two devils in disguise as fillies, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She hated that look they had whenever they cornered her. “We hope we didn’t scare you too much with that fake spider,” Tiara said. “You must be so humiliated.”

“Not as humiliated as you’ll be when Nightmare Night comes!” retorted Scootaloo.

“Oh really? And what pray tell do you have planned for us?”

“I’m not telling you, but let me say that you two are going to be sorry for pranking us all this month!”

Diamond and her minion gave each other questionable glances. Then they turned their attention once again on Scootaloo, and bellowed with cruel laughter. She expected that kind of reaction from them. Scootaloo gritted her teeth, growling under her breath.

“Yeah right, like you and your two loser friends could ever prank us!” Diamond laughed. Scootaloo was ready for her back legs to be acquainted with Diamond’s teeth, but she restrained herself. “It was fun talking to you, but we have to go now. We have more important things to do than waste time with you.” The two spoiled brats held their noses in the air walked pass Scootaloo without another word.

Scootaloo sent a death glare to their backs. If she focused her energy and hatred for them long enough, maybe they’ll burst into flames. She read it in a comic book once. Sadly, the two fillies did not spontaneously combust. Oh well. She couldn’t stand around being miserable. She had to get home by ready for her big night of revenge. She couldn’t let anything get in her way.

****

Finally, after a week of hard labor and sweat and a few tears, the war vessel from the red planet was completed. Scootaloo stood proudly in front of it, admiring the amount effort she and her friends put. They gave the ship a nice coating of dark grey, some of it staining the hair and manes of the fillies. Apple Bloom pumped air into the tires, seeing how they weren’t used for a long time. In the early hours of Saturday morning, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom included additional features, at the request of the former and at the annoyance of the latter, to be used later during the night.

“So, what do you guys think?” asked Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie examined their completed model ship; scanning every inch, every line of nails, the width, the length; like how an art critic inspects a sculpture or a painting.

“I still think this is a dumb idea,” Apple Bloom said. “How are we going to even find Diamond and Silver with this hunk of junk?”

“Simple - just ride this thing into town and hope we catch them. And with the new stuff Apple Bloom and I added, it won’t be that hard.”

“New stuff? What new stuff?” Sweetie asked.

“All sorts of stuff! Like lights, sound effects, cannons that shoot those little suction dart thingies…”

Sweetie wanted confirmation from Apple Bloom, who rolled her eyes and said, “We just wrapped Hearth’s Warming lights around it, and I attached a tape recorder with a megaphone on the top of the ship.”

“And the cannons?” Sweetie asked.

“There are no cannons, we just have those toy dart guns.”

“Way to ruin the surprise,” mumbled Scootaloo.

She shook off Apple Bloom’s snarkiness and continued to gaze at the newly-completed ship with a gleam in her eyes. Everything around her vanished, including her friends, only herself and the “war machine.” She returned to reality when a hoof tapped her head.

“Earth to Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom called.

“Earth… more like Mars to Scootaloo.” Scootaloo rubbed her hooves and chuckled deviously. Everything was about to come together. She called for Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to help her push their ship out of the shed, but it was too heavy for their little hooves.

“What in the hay is that thing?” Applejack said.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders stopped pushing and Applejack standing in the doorway of the shed, with her mouth open.

“This is something we build for Nightmare Night,” Scootaloo said. “It doesn’t look like it, but it’s supposed to be a alien spaceship.”

“... And y’all did this all by yourselves?”

The fillies nodded. Applejack took more time staring at the their work, her mouth moving but no words coming out. Then she smirked. “I’ll be darned. So that’s what you three been doing in the shed all this week. I’m mighty impressed.” Applejack joined them in pushing the ship outside. “So what is this for, anyway? Some kind of costume contest?”

“... Something like that,” Scootaloo said.

“Well, I sure hope you girls win.”

“Oh we’re going to win alright,” Scootaloo said in a malicious tone. Apple Bloom wondered why her sister did not hear her laugh like a comic book villain.

TO BE CONTINUED…