"Ah can't believe Twilight banished us to the crystal empire!" Apple Bloom groaned as she put her head against the windows glass.
"Well it is kind of our faults" Scootaloo admitted, scuffing the carpet slightly. "If we didn't have a panic attack when Twilight had a foal, we would be able to be there when Rainbow Dash had hers!"
"Yeah" Sweetie Belle sighed, then perked up. "So, do you think it's gonna be a colt or a filly? I bet filly."
"Nah" Scootaloo waved her hoof. "Definitely a colt."
Four years had passed since The Cutie Mark Crusaders got their cutie marks, and two years since The Mane Six got married, and The CMC had grown up. They were, obviously,taller. Apple Bloom had pulled her red mane back into a plait and always wore a light green neckerchief. It was kind of like Apple Jack's hat.
Scootaloo's mane had grown longer and spikier, as well as her tail, which actually looked a lot lke Rainbow Dash's. Her wings had also grown out, and she could finally fly, much to her delight.
Sweetie Belle, like Scootaloo kept her mane and down, but it was much longer than the other two. Unlike her sister, Sweetie Belle didn't wear makeup, but that didn't change the fact that she was beautiful. She had also managed to perfect her magic.
The train stopped and the three friends leapt to their hooves. "It's amazing!" Scootaloo breathed, staring up at the crystal castle in the distance. Grinning mischievously, she launched into the air, and called behind her. "Race ya!"
"Ah can't believe how immature she is?" Apple Bloom sighed. She and Sweetie Belle stared at each other for a few moments, until Apple Bloom took off running.
* * * * *
"Princess Flurry Heart!" A chubby grey pony with a white mane and a white ball for a cutie mark, scowled at her charge. Said filly was standing on the balcony rails, looking straight down with interest. "Be careful! Your parents will banish me to the moon if you fall off!"
"Don't worry Ping Pong, if I fall off, I'll just fly back up!" The Alicorn filly responded cheerfully. Her moon necklace, a gift from Aunty Luna, swung around her neck as she stretched it out to see what was going on down below.
"Fine. It's your own neck that'll break" Ping Pong made to leave, she stopped in the doorway. "Oh, and by the way, your parents have some visitors coming down, and I for one expect you to be on your best behavior."
"Ah, have I ever let you down before?" Flurry Heart smiled slightly.
"Well there was the incident with the ruler of Saddle Arabia . . "
"I didn't know it was poison! Not my fault! Besides . . . . . he lived"
Ping Pong raised an eyebrow. "He was in a coma for three weeks!" She exclaimed, stamping her hoof.
"But he's out of it now, and he forgave me after I sent him that jewel!"
"That jewel tured out to be a stolen artifact, and now he's refusing to return t!"
"Well, he shouldn't. It's his now."
"Ugh" Ping Pong rubbed her face, annoyed. "Fine, just . . be nice okay?"
"You know me, Pingy, I'm always nice."
"Sure you are" Ping Pong walked out of the room.
Flurry Heart stayedd there for a few mnutes, until she heard three voices. "Ah, come on! If Sweetie hadn't teleported to the castle, I totalyy would of have won! She cheated!"
"Well, ah don't see how it's fair, you can fly, and she can teleport. I had to run the wwhole way here!"
"Scootaloo, me using y agic is exactly the same as you using your wings! It's not cheating! And besides, Apple Bloom, you kick our flanks in the iron pony competition."
"Tru,true" the three voices laughed together. Flurry Heart frowned. Almost all of her mothers friends were like Ping Pong, kind and free when near her parents, mean and uptight when their alone. In fact, Flurry once learned a spell especially for this.
Her horn glowed blue and instantly she could see the three ponies. Out of her left eye, they looked normal, out of her rght eye, Flurry could se their auras and intentions.
The yellow earth pony was strong, even by her species standards. Her aura was yellow light her coat, and t was deep and solid. So, she's dependable, Flurry Heart thought, before turning to the other two.
The Pegasus was a very strong flier.From what Flurry could gather, the magic in her wings got stuck when she was a filly, meaning she couldn't fly, so when she could, the energy came out strong . Her aura was bright orange, and it seemed to spike up and down infrequently. She must be a blast to hang out with.
The Unicorns magic was strong, but not by ability, by training. Her aura was two different colors, pastel pink and purple. And her aura was log and melodious. So, she's a singer.
Well, they all check out but still- Flurry Heart never got to finish her thought, as she shifted her position and her hoof slipped. In shock, all she could do was wait for the crash. Except just as she was about to fall, a bur leaped up and grabbed her.
Opening her eyes, she saw to red ones staring back. The yellow earth pony, seeing her fall, had used her strength to jump into the air and catch her. "Thank you!" Flurry threw her arms around the mares neck.
"No problem,Sweetie?" The mare asked.
Flurry Heart blushed. "Oh, I'm sorry" she cleared her throat. "My name is Flurry Heart, Princess Of The Crystal Empire, and all that."
"No, Princess Flurry, I was talking to my friend Sweetie Belle, we call her Sweetie" The mare grinned.
I was lifted off my hooves and placed down o the ground. "Mah names Apple Bloom. And this is Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Come on Queen Cadence is expecting us."
When the four walked in together, Cadence instantly saw her daughter. "Flurry! I thought you were upstairs in your room! And I thought you couldn't teleport near the castle. Wait . . . " Her face took on a suspicious edge. "Did you fall off gin?" She asked,frowning.
Flurry Heart looked down at her hooves, but then Sweetie Belle nterupted. "It's our fault. We got sdetracked, and kind of got turned around, so Flurry here flew down and helped us." She and her frends smiled their biggest smile,and,before Flurry Hearts very eyes, grew halos.
"Hmm . . Flurry, sweetie" Sweetie Belle and Flurry both turned to Cadence. "Coul you show our guests up t their rooms? Ther Twilight Sparkles friends."
Flurry Heart led them to three rooms that were all connected to eachother. "Um . . thanks for saving me back there" Flurry said, turning to the three mares.
Scootaoo shrugged. "No problem." An akward silence befell them. Flurry Heart wanted to go, but her mom would turn her nto a cloak if she didn't try to make friends.
"Hey" Sweetie Belle broke the silence. "Where did you get that?" She pointed at Flurry's necklace.
Flurry Heart peered at it. "Aunty Luna gave it to me for my birthday" she chirped. "She took a piece of an actual moo, and shaped it into a crescant moon for me."
"Cool!" Scootaloo exclaimed, leaning in to look at it.
"Hey, I like your cutie marks, what are they meant to mean?" Flurry asked.
Sweetie, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom backed up, and they began to shine. "We help other ponies find their special talent!" Apple Bloom struck a dramatic pose.
"We help all those who don't know what their cutie mark means!" Sweetie Belle announced, also posing in the exact same way as Apple Bloo, crouching down.
"And we help other ponies see the good in their cutie marks!" Scootaloo did that exact same pose.
As one, they all leaped up into the air, clearing about eight meters, and yelled in perfect sync "WE ARE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!"
After they landed, and once Flurry Heart finally got her hearing back, she smiled. "You help ponies find ther cutie marks? That's amazing! You ca help me!"
The three of them exchanged a look. "Actually Flurry, we found out that the best thing to do, is to ot tush thing, and actually think about what your good at. Once you know you can work from-"
"Oh no" Flurry shook her head earnestly. "I already know what I'm gonna get my cutie mark in, I've known about it for about twenty moons."
"What is it then?" Scootaloo demanded,curious.
"And if you've known about it for so long, and your so sure you'll get your cutie mark in t, why haven't you?" Sweete Belle asked, confused.
Flurry Heart sighed and got to her hooves. "Come with me." She led them into her own bedroom, a huge room with light blue and purple wallpaper and a crystal chandelier. She walked out to her own provate porch,climbed up onto the guardrails once more, and pointed "there."
If she stood on her porch guardrails, Flurry Heart had a great view of ponies being trained for the royal guard. "Ah think ah see the problem here" Apple Bloom announced, before turning to Flurry. "Your parents won't let you join the royal guard because your a princess."
"Noooo" Flurry Heart deadpanned. "Mom,dad,Celestia,Luna and everypony in the Crystal empire won't let me be on the royal guard because I'm a mare."
* * * * *
"You have to be joking!" Scootaloo exclaimed.
Flurry Heart looked straight into Scootaloo's eyes, and even though Scootaloo was almost five years older than her, she seemed to be the grown up. "Tell you what; I'll say that I'm joking IF you can name one royal guard member . . . that's a female." Scootaloo opened her mouth, closed it, thought for a second then shook her head.
"She's right. None of Princess Celestia,Luna's or Cadence's guards are mares. Not even Twilights."
"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Apple Bloom suggested.
Flurry Heart nodded, and teleported them all back into her throne room. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo didn't even look shocked. Flurry turned questiongly to Sweete Belle, who shrugged. "I was taught by Twilight for six years" she sid by way of explanation.
Flurry Hert took a deep breath and began her tale.
"I was roughly two years old when I first noticed them. I was playing on the roof of the castle,like any filly does. I had a perfect view of the whole training, and much to my surprise, I found that I could copy almost all the moves that my dad did easily. And it wasn't just that; when I did it, I felt. . . complete. When I pulled off a partculary challenging spell with ease, I felt very proud of myself, but this was pure and utter pleasure.
But I knew my parents would think that it was just some kind of phase. I wanted to prove to them that it wasn't. So, I ran laps, I broke into a gym and used the equipment, but don't tell my parents that, and I secretly took self defense lessons.
My parents found out, of course. It wasn't by some grand mistake, I told them. I went straight up to them and told them straght up 'I want to be part of the royal guard.'
They have excuses. I was a princess, I was to young, I was just a filly. But I knew they were going to say this, and had already planned for it. I told them that mos recruits are round my age, and that I wasn't to young. I also told them I wasn't interested in being a princess. All they seemed to do was sign papers and make bg descisions. They were never able to play. Okay, they were, but they rarely had time. And they weren't allowed to skydive, do obstacle courses, fly for the fun of it, or play pranks, you know, the part that makes life worth living!
They still said no. It took me a whle to understand, until Luna drew me aside and explained to me that back in the old days, mares were considered to fragile to fight and that sterotype carried through to this century. There's a reason Luna's my favorite. Turns out, she's great a battle tactics, but she's not allowed to fight, which I find stupid.
Actually, the whole idea is stupid, all the alicorns so far are female, and the are, by far, the most powerful beings, so souldn't we be allowed to fight? So,yeah, that's my cutie mark problem. Any ideas?"
Apple Bloom looked thoughtful. "Maybe you just have to prove that being a mare doesn't mean your weak?"
"I get that, but how?" Flurry Heart demanded.
"Don't you guys have a library? Maybe we could find something there that can help u" Scootaloo suggested.
The three others stared at her. "Is she coming down with something?" Flurry Heart asked.
Sweetie Belle noddd her head. "Ah yes, Twilitis, a rare and horrible disease."
Flurry Hearts light blue eyes widened. "Really what does it do?"
Apple Bloom pretended to check Scootaloo's temperature. "If you spend to much time with Twilght, you start to turn into . . . an egghead."
"NOOOOOOOO!!" Scootaloo cried, while the others laughed.
"Lets go! Race ya!" Scootaloo cried, flying away as fast as she could.
Apple Bloom looked between the alicorn and unicorn and did her best puppy dog face. "Come on" Sweetie Belle said, and they all teleported away together.
* * * * *
The four ponies were in the library,browsing through the books. "Anything?" Apple Bloom called, as she read through the book of Equestria laws, trying to find a loophole in the whole 'no mares' thing.
"Nothing" Scootaloo yelled back from the other side of the library. The librarians 'hush' could be heard. Sweetie Belle and Flurry Heart didn't listen,they were to busy using their magic to read several books at once.
A guard burst into the library. " The Crystal Empire is under attack!" He yelped,looking around the library. Apple Bloom,Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Flurry Heart were hidden inside the libraries passages.
"Attacked?" The librarian looked surprised. "By what?"
"Chrysalis" the guard replied grimly. "She somehow managed to make it that instead of being repelled by Shining Armour and Cadence's love, she grows stronger from it! Some kind f spell . . . But they want Flurry Heart out of the kingdom immediately."
Apple Bloom took a step back, and accidently knocked over some books. The guard turned the corner. All Apple Bloom saw was a flash of blue, and suddenley she,Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Flurry Heart were all in some kind of tunnel. "Where are we?" Scootaloo asked, lookng around.
"The Canterlot Caves" Flurry replied absently, taking out a book from behind her. "Nopony really knows of this place, so we're safe here."
"Ah don't think ah'm following" Apple Bloom said, confused. "Aren't we meant to be out there, fighting?"
"We are" Flurry Heart turned the pages of the book. "Ah! Here we go. One of my own spells. This spell gives the subject Armour and a weapon specifically designed for them that they can use, if only for four hours."
"Seriously?" Sweetie Belle asked excitedly.
"Yep, now hold still. I don't want this going wrong" Flurry concentrated, and soon all four mares were being surrounded in a light blue aura. A few seconds later, The Cutie Mark Crusaders and Flurry were back on the ground, this time with a little something extra.
"Wow!" Scootaloo said, as she admired her amour, a steel plated outfit that slotted over her wings and went down all the way to her hooves and covered her from tail to neck, where there was a helmet.It was decorated with orange and purple.
"Neat!" Sweetie chirped. Her amour was like Scootaloo's, except it covered a horn from attacks. It was decorated gray and pink.
"Now aint this fancy?" Apple Bloom held out her hoof. Her armour was double plated for her back legs, so if she kicked out, it wouldn't shatter. It was decorated yellow and pinky-red.
"You like?" Flurry grinned. Her armour was like the others, but with all three extensions. It was decorated blue and purple. "Check out your weapons!" She called.
Scootaloo pulled out a slingshot. She seemed dispointed until Flurry Heart spoke up. "From the height and speed you will be moving at, that slingshot will be just as deadly as a arrow." Scootaloo perked up, and regarded the purple slingshot with newfound respect.
Sweetie Belle was given a bow. It was crystal clear, with a slight grayish pink tint to it. "The arrows you carry are normal, fire and, of course ice, from the Equestrian games." The CMC exchanged proud smiles, remembering their flag presentation.
Apple Bloom was puzzled by hers. It was a piece of metal, curved slightly and sharp, with a yellow handle and red blade. "What . .. what is this?" She asked, baffled.
Flurry Heart gave her a puzzled look. "Don't you recogonise a billhook?" When Apple Bloom shook her head, she muttered "right, apple farmer, I forgot" before clearing her throat "sorry, I thought you were a grain farmer. That is commonly used to chop wheat down, which is why I thought you'd recognize it. It is actually extremely deadly, so be careful."
"So Flurry, what did you get?" Scootaloo asked, taking a break from practice to turn to her. Flurry Heart drew her weapon, and the CMC's jaws dropped for a few seconds.
Flurry had in her possesion, a Roman Gladius, aka a small sword. It was made from iron, with a handle possessing three gems, purple, pink and blue. Flurry seemed to overcome to notice her only three friends pick up their jaws from the floor. Tears entered her eyes as she stroked it. "It's just what I always wanted" she choked.
Scootaloo frowned. "You. Are seriously messed up."
"I'm trying to have a moment" Flurry retorted, before pulling herself together. "Okay, lets do this."
* * * * * *
They teleported into the plaza and were almost immediately overwhelmed. Hundreds of thousands of changelings rushed them. Sweetie and Scootaloo's weapons weren't good in close combt, so Apple Bloom and Flurry Heart fought side by side to defeat them.
At the very last changelng, Apple Bloom was about to bring her Billhook down, but Flurry's magic stopped her. "No!" She cried. "It's okay! This is my friend, Thorax!"The changeling was wrapped in chains, which Flurry quickly broke. "What happened?" She asked of her oldest friend.
"I tried to share friendship with the hive, but they wouldn't listen. Oh, Flurry I am sooo sorry!" He cried, tears springing to his eyes.
"Ah, it's okay Thor" Flurry hugged him, before turning to the other three. "Okay, new plan. Sweetie Belle,Scootaloo, Apple Bloom you three stay here and try to defend the heart. Try to find high ground. Thorax, the changelings don't know your free, so try and do a simple recon. Ready go!"
"Wait, what about you .. . ." Sweetie trailed off as Thorax and Flurry spit up.
"Are you ready crusaders?" Apple Bloom challenged.
As one, the three mares leaped up into the air and shouted CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CHANGELING EXTERMINATORS, YAY! A changelng nearby heard this and trotted over. His eyes widened, when, for a split second, the mares seemed to trandform, back into fillis with blank flanks, before landing on the ground, mares again. Terrified, he ran away.
"So . . . how do we tell which us is the real us?" Scootaloo asked, and Sweetie grinned.
"Simple!" She held up three pieces of material. "Staches! Button gave them to me for hearts and hooves day!"
"Your coltfriends weird" Scootaloo grumbled, taking the brown one.
"Hey, I didn't judge you when your coltfriend tried to teach you how to ly by droppin you off a cliff!" Sweetie retorted, fondlin the white mustache on her nose.
Scootaloo winced. Yeah, Rumble could be a bit. . . . yeah.
"Or when Apple Bloom's coltfriend said he hated apples, and she thought he meant the apple family!" She accused.
"You leave Pipsquek out of this!" Apple Bloom snapped.
"Uh guys, I hate to interrupt, but we're kind of, I don't know, surrounded!" Scootaloo gestured to the army of bugs surrounding them from all sides.
"What do we do?" Sweetie asked,scared.
"We fight" Apple Bloom responded, before throwing herself into the mob.
Without hesitation, Scootaloo picked up Sweetie Belle and flew her a couple hundred metres in the air. "You ready?"
"Ready!"
As soon as she said it, Scootaloo dropped Sweetie Belle, and pulled out her slingshot. Moving as fast as she could, Scootaloo took aim and fired, turning at least twenty changelings to dust.
Apple Bloom was cutting through the changelgs like a hot knife through butter, but there were still to many
