Threads

A slightly singed and dazed Apple Bloom wobbled her way across the clubhouse, her path winding and ending in a stumble. Picking up some chalk she crossed a line through the little caricature of a pony being shot from a cannon. "Well, that-all didn't work."

"We didn't even get to try that one." Scootaloo pointed a hoof—that still had a wisp of smoke trailing from the tip—to touch another picture of a pony stomping on a changeling. "What can we do next?"

Sweetie Belle didn't even make it halfway across the room. Having worn a helmet, the little filly was clearer of thought than her friends, but there was clearly something wrong. "What time is it? I'm hungry…" Her belly gave a growl, making it two votes for a lunch break.

Not one to cause a tie in any referendum, Apple Bloom perked up. "Me too, we could visit Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner, I have some bits I saved."

Scootaloo flapped her little wings in excitement. "We need to return her cannon, anyway!" Decided in their plan, the three fillies hooked the cannon up to the back of their little cart, then the cart up to the back of Scoot's scooter. "You girls ready?" Scootaloo had her helmet on, her wings cocked and ready. A glance back over her shoulder revealed her friends both looking eager. "Let's go!"

Sweetie and Apple Bloom felt the slingshot as their friend's little wings buzzed like crazy. The scooter made short work of any distance, and it seemed like the little cart it was pulling didn't slow it down one bit. The tree-house, the farm, were soon lost to view. "Why is everything in front of us turning purple?" Apple Bloom tried to shout over the raw speed, but only got a mouthful of bugs for her efforts, not that either of her friends heard.

"What?" Sweetie shouted back, only just now realizing there was a problem. Scootaloo was pulling the cart with her scooter, then the cannon was attached to the back of the cart. "What happens when we try to slow down?" Her shout was lost in the wind.

It was about then, just as Scootaloo thought "It is time to start slowing" that the pegasus filly got the same idea that Sweetie had just had. "Hold on Crusaders!" She turned the scooter sideways, digging the wheels into the ground. It worked for her and the cart, both started to slow and she grinned wildly. This is my best stunt yet!

Then the cannon rolled past the little group, still aimed backwards, right at them.

The first Pinkie Pie knew that she was about to have visitors, was her back-left leg started to twitch, then more, and more, and more. Just as she thought it was going to just be another case of frog-hail, she suddenly did a forward flip, landing on her hooves. "Oh no… oh no!" Pinkie's eyes focused down to pin-pricks. "This is the worst one ever!"

A loud crash assaulted the mare's ears, followed by a thunderous bang. Pinkie looked up at the door in time to see three fillies, wheeling a recently discharged party-cannon behind them, all covered in confetti and glitter. Her tail twitching, Pinkie Pie was about to greet the "Cutie Mark Crusaders" when it felt like her tail was yanked and pulled. Gasping, she focused on each, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and at last Scootaloo. Her tail tugged—by fate—when she looked at each. "You have to stand absolutely still and not move…"

It was like telling the wind not to blow, or the sun not to shine. Sweetie Belle walked over to Pinkie Pie, leaving a trail of glitter and colored streamers behind her. "WHAT?"

"I just had the biggest Pinkie Sense warning ever, you shouldn't do anything!" Pinkie tried yelling, knowing how bad it could get after discharging a party cannon, particularly when you were in the path of the blast—as the fillies seemed to have been.

"WHAT?" Apple Bloom stepped forward as well. "WE JUST GOT SHOT OUT OF A CANNON, THEN WE CAME HERE AND THE CANNON went… off again." Her hearing had come back toward the end and she brought her voice back down. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Oh, that must totally be what my warning was about." Pinkie grinned and ignored an insistent tugging on her tail. "What can I get you girls?"

Scootaloo buzzed her wings, shooting forward and practically pressing her face against the glass cabinet. "Can I have one of those?"

Pinkie frowned. "See the price tag beside them?" Three little fillies looked up in sadness. "Well, that price only applies to the ones in the cabinet. I have these ones!" Pinkie raced into the kitchen and then came back with a pan of freshly baked cupcakes. "Who wants to help me ice them?" Giggles of relief and helping hooves came aplenty and soon enough each was munching on a delicious cupcake, spilling crumbs and getting icing all over their lips.

"We have run out of things to do for our cutie marks…" Apple Bloom admitted, between one bite and the next. "Now we have nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon!"

"Oh, OH!" Pinkie rushed to the front window of the shop, gulping down the rest of her cupcake as she did. Tugging down a piece of paper she spun around. "Look! Cheerilee needs somepony to help her."

The three fillies agonized over their lunch and going to find a potential cutie mark gaining event. In the end all three stuffed their cupcakes into their mouths and charged. "Whaff if if?" Apple Bloom was fighting with the cupcake to be able to talk, finally having to just gulp it down. "What is it?"

Pinkie Pie thrust out the notice to the adorable yellow filly. "You will have ta go ask her!"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

Cheerilee was painting the door-frame of the huge house. Behind her, on the lawn, Big Mac was pushing the lawnmower around, the spinning blades slicing up the grass and leaving a nice trimmed lawn behind. Having spent over a year now, working as a teacher, she suddenly got the urge to turn around. Something was wrong.

"Hi Miss. Cheerilee!" Apple Bloom beamed up at her teacher. "We got your note about needing help."

"Cutie Mark Crusaders, helping cutie mark!" Scootaloo lifted a hoof up in a salute.

Sweetie Belle was beside herself with excitement. "What do you need us to do to help?"

It was a trap and Cheerilee stepped right into it with her little "help wanted" sign. "Of course you did, girls." It was easy to put on her warm smile. "I have just the thing for you to do, too!"

The three fillies followed Cheerilee into the huge house. "Don't you live in your little cottage?" Scootaloo turned her head this way and that, eying off all the expensive—but dust-covered—furniture.

"Of course I do; but I do love this old place. It was where we came in the winter, when Canterlot was just a mite too cold." Cheerilee remembered the times fondly, snuggled up in front of a fire, with a good book.

"Yer family must'a been rich!" Apple Bloom sneezed as some dust got to her. "Ah mean, look at all this!"

"Still are." Cheerilee offered the filly a handkerchief. "But I love you all so much I want to help you grow up and be the best ponies you can be." The words came right from Cheerilee's heart, it was why she had gone against her father and studied to be a teacher, why she had taken this post, after he passed. "Besides, if I wasn't your teacher, who would be?"

It made complete sense to all three fillies. "Thank you!" Cheerilee had to stop as Sweetie, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo all dived in, hugging their teacher. The moment was the sort that made every hour of time spent teaching worthwhile, especially the tiring parts.

Now it would be terrible to turn them away without something to do, and Cheerilee had just the thing. "Here, you can clean out the basement in here." She gave each filly's mane a little rub with a hoof and pointed down the stairs into the dark basement. Advancing down, she found the light switch.

Junk, lots of junk. But there might be something useful in among it, and so little hooves would find something to do for an afternoon, or so Cheerilee hoped. Besides, if they broke every single thing here it shouldn't be a problem.

"Wow…" Apple Bloom's eyes were wide as she used the height of the stairs to look out over the room. "What do you need us to do?"

"Oh, just go through everything, find all the things that look important and make a pile over there." Cheerilee gestured to one uncluttered corner. "I will have to get rid of the rest. You need to look for things like paintings, little statues, fancy things."

"Got it!" Three voices chorused and, giving each a pat on the head again, Cheerilee left them to it. She got almost to the top of the stairs when she heard, "Cutie Mark Crusaders, Artifact Discoverers!" yelled by the girls.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

"Hey girls, Ah found something!" Apple Bloom pushed the book to the edge of the big desk with her nose. "Looky at this!"

Scootaloo buzzed her wings and beat Sweetie Belle by a moment. Lifting her hooves up she could barely see over the edge of the desk. Buzzing those wings again she scrambled up on the desk with Apple Bloom.

"Wait for me." Sweetie dove upwards as she reached the side of the desk, her two friends leaning down to pull her up. "Thanks."

"It looks like one of Twilight's old books." Scootaloo rubbed the ancient-looking tome. "Even feels old."

"Hold on, Twilight always says that really, really, really old books are fragile." Sweetie Belle nods. "I should use my magic to open it." Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other and just shrugged. Narrowing her eyes, Sweetie began to focus her magic with all her will. Great powers raged in her horn and, slowly, the cover of the book lifted up and flipped over. "Got it!"

"It says Star Swirl on there, does that mean he wrote it?" Scootaloo was poking at the inside cover of the book.

"No, it says 'dedicated to', that means that whoever wrote this thinks he is gosh-darned important." Apple Bloom blushed at using such language, but it felt right at the time.

Satisfied that the page was well read by all, Sweetie Belle started to turn the next page, feeling her horn start to fizz and pop. "Uh, girls, I am not sure I should-"

The page flipped over as Sweetie began to waver, she had never felt her magic actually pulled on before, but something felt like it had grabbed on to her horn and was sucking. "A-A-Apple Bloom… Scootaloo… we should run…" She stared down at the book, transfixed as the page flipped over to reveal what looked like a magic scroll, pressed flat. Given clear line of sight to the source of its power, the spell increased its drain on the filly tenfold.

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened as she felt suddenly emptied of power, drained to nothing in the blink of an eye. The words on the scroll started to flicker and rise up off the page, swirling around the three and getting brighter. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo tried to lift their suddenly exhausted friend.

Then there was a flash, and the sensation of movement. But only a little. The world twisted just a fraction to the side and all three fillies blanked out.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

Apple Bloom's head felt like the time three apples had fallen on it. She was seeing spots and things felt strange, but not just her, it was like the world itself felt a little strange and off-center. "Uh, girls?"

The book before the fillies was still open, but the scroll was gone. "Don't talk so loud, ohhh this feels worse than the time Rarity was using that special wood paint and didn't open any windows…" Sweetie Belle didn't dare lift her head. She just closed her eyes again.

"Not yet, I don't want to go to school today…" Scootaloo curled a little tighter around herself, pulling her wings down for warmth. "Wait, the book!" She jumped up, too quickly, her head holding perfectly still as the room seemed to spin. Dizziness was par for the course for pegasi, and so she was the first to really look around. "What happened?"

Something was really odd, Apple Bloom tried to think on it but it just kept slipping away. "Sweetie, are you alright?"

Realizing that she couldn't just tuck herself up more and more and fold into a box, Sweetie Belle lifted her head from under her forehooves. "Barely, what did it do to us?"

"Ah don't know. Let's go get Miss. Cheerilee." Apple Bloom looked to her two friends, not sure what was off about each. Maybe it is just me.

Trotting up the stairs, she galloped through the house, back to the front. Apple Bloom found Cheerilee and her big brother, sitting together at the bottom of the front porch. "Uh, Miss. Cheerilee, Big Mac?"

Both ponies spun around at Apple Bloom's tone. "What's wrong?" Cheerilee was on her hooves and trotting up the stairs.

"We were cleaning up and found an old book and Sweetie opened it and we were reading it and then there was some kind of loose page and then we blanked out and woke up and everything feels just wrong!" Apple Bloom was panting by the end of the tumble of words. "Oh, and Sweetie seems worn out!"

"Sweetie?" Cheerilee looked a little confused for a moment, but quickly followed Apple Bloom into the house. Heading down the stairs she spotted the other two. "What happened? Oh wow, I remember this book. Grandpa would read stories from it!"

Apple Bloom looked up at her two friends. Her brain kept slipping and sliding off some facts about the two, some strange little things. "But Sweetie Belle, is she alright?"

Cheerilee was too distracted, having seen that the foals were all fine. She lifted her head and blinked a little blankly.

"I'm feeling better now." Sweetie Belle did feel a little better, but still a bit odd. "We are going to need to take a break, sorry Miss. Cheerilee…"

"Oh it is perfectly fine, dear." Cheerilee reached up and gave each of her charges a little pat on the head. "Run along then, and thank you for finding this old thing."

Departing from the adults, the three fillies drew in ranks. "So what are we going to do?" Sweetie was still distracted by something; something that felt a little not right about herself.

"Did you notice anythin' strange about the house?" Apple Bloom struggled with her memory, trying to think what it was. "Like, when we'all went in, it was old and run down, but-"

"But when we came out, it was all polished and like new?" Scootaloo blinked a few times, then turned to look back at the mansion. "Wow…" All three turned and looked; and shared the sentiment.

"Your big brother must have done a lot of work!" Sweetie Belle shook herself a little, trying to work out what was odd. Nothing felt odd. But everything does.

"Big Mac is good, and a real hard worker… but I don't think he could have turned that rundown ol' place into… that." Apple Bloom eyed the mansion suspiciously. "Maybe that scroll did something to the place?"

"Oh, sort of like when Twilight uses her magic to clean up?" Scootaloo gave her wings a flick, spinning around with the momentum. "We never thanked Pinkie Pie properly for borrowing her cannon."

"You just like the muffins she makes!" Sweetie Belle turned and trotted alongside her friend. As she turned to follow suit, Apple Bloom felt a really odd sensation, a vibe, from the pair.

"Ah don't like this one bit." Apple Bloom murmured under her breath, before joining up with her two best friends. "Do you think the potion is still affectin' 'em?"

Sweetie Belle blinked at the question. "Big McIntosh and Cheerilee?" Her friend nodded. "It can't be, the cure was not to see each others eyes for an hour. They haven't slept together all the time since then have they?" The filly realized her mistake in phrasing a few moments before her friends did. She wouldn't have learned all these odd things if she didn't hear her big sis gossiping about them.

Three blushing fillies followed the street, turning the last bend toward Sugarcube Corner, and then stopped. All three looked in shock. "Where… where is Sugarcube Corner?" Scootaloo's wings had flared up high. "And what is that?"

" 'On the Rocks'?" Apple Bloom looked at the sign above the long, low building that stood where Sugarcube Corner should have. "Crusaders… I…" Suddenly she had no words, the filly felt her friends press in tight on each side.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shored up their friend's flagging courage.

Bloom blinked, puffed out her chest and strode forward with her friends. Pushing open the door to the strange building, none of the fillies was tall enough to see the little sign that stated "foals must be accompanied by an adult".

"Pinkie?" Apple Bloom, her confidence restored, looked around the interior. To the right an open area with high tables and little seats around them, to the left another room sprawled, looking like a dining room for a lot of ponies.

"And who do I have here?" Pinkie Pie stepped into the vision of the three fillies. Something was off with the mare. Her mane was combed straight, but it still had a little body to it. She had sharp, twinkling eyes and she didn't seem so manically… bouncy. "Do your parents know you are here? Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, S-"

"Pinkie Pie, something really odd is happening!" Apple Bloom blurted, gesturing all around. "This should be Sugarcube Corner, Cheerilee's old house looks new and… and…" She puffed for breath.

"Come on, there is nopony in the bar right now, having three little foals shouldn't hurt. Besides, you are with an adult." Pinkie reached a hoof out to gently stroke Apple Bloom's jaw. "Please, don't frown."

"But-" Sweetie tried to cut in, but Pinkie had already turned and was leading the way. Glances flew between the three fillies. "She is our best bet for working this out. Pinkie would never lie to us about something like this!"

"Right!" Scootaloo flicked her wings and turned, with her friends, to follow the pink pony.

"Maud, three light ciders for three adorable foals." Pinkie gave her sister a smile. "Now, you three, why don't you tell me all about this. Start at the start, don't leave a single thing out."

"Well, first we borrowed your party cannon." Scootaloo used a wing to pull her drink closer without thinking, once Maud had brought it over. "Then-"

"Slow down." Pinkie distributed the rest of the drinks. "Thanks Maud, you rock."

Dressed sharply in a black suit jacket, Maud stared blankly at the three before, to their absolute shock, pulling a silly face at them. She lifted a hoof up, pushed her nose high and stuck out her tongue. If it wasn't for the shock of the afternoon they would have cracked up laughing. "Maybe they need something stronger?" Maud's monotone was firmly in place as she settled at the bar nearest the little group.

"Right, so party cannon. I don't know where you got it from, I certainly don't have one." Pinkie Pie sipped at her own drink, the same cider the others were having. "But anyway, go on."

There was silence, three little minds trying to digest how different this Pinkie and Maud Pie acted. "So we got your party cannon." Sweetie Belle took over from her friend. "We were trying to get our cutie marks in 'being shot out of a cannon'… it didn't go well. So we brought your cannon back to Sugarcube Corner."

"Wasn't that the name of the old place that was here? Before the fire?" Maud's voice was low, her eyes half closed.

"Yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Cake owned it." Pinkie smiled. "You three should get your families to bring you over for dinner one night, the Cakes make the most amazing apple strudel."

"We are distracting them again." Maud pointed to their guests.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Pinkie sipped her drink, looking at Apple Bloom now, as if expecting the next part of the story to come from the earth pony filly.

"Okay," Apple Bloom suddenly had to think of where the story was up to, "so we brought the cannon back, and mentioned we were bored and out of ideas for cutie marks. You took a note off the window, that Cheerilee needed help with her house, cleanin' it." She looked at Pinkie Pie, expecting the mare to refute the claim. "So we did get that from you?"

"There is a public message-board outside. I have no doubt you three could have worked out how to reach up that high and get the notice." Pinkie sipped her drink. "But I don't see anywhere so far that could have resulted in this strange tale."

"Getting to that." Scootaloo took over again. "So we got to Miss Cheerilee's house, and it looked all old and banged up." She paused to wait for another interjection.

"Excuse me!" Sweetie Belle, who had finished her drink, suddenly raced off her stool, looking around frantically. Maud pointed to the sign for the restroom and the white unicorn was off at a gallop.

"So we went in, started cleaning up. Cheerilee just wanted us to find anything that looked important and move it to the side. We found a boo-" Scootaloo was interrupted by a scream, blasting from the direction Sweetie Belle had run off to.

Four heads turned to look, seeing a shocked Sweetie walking from the restrooms, trembling, looking like she had seen a ghost.

Maud was the first to move, she had a bar towel with her and reached Sweetie with blinding speed. "Are you alright?" Even in a rush, her voice was even.

"I'm… I'm…" Sweetie couldn't say it, he just couldn't say it.

"You're what?" Maud's dry tone was oddly soothing, it let the little unicorn slow down and take a deep breath.

"I'm a colt!" Sweetie Belle's eyes were wide, his body quivering. Staring at his two friends, all Sweetie Belle could think about, was needing to relieve himself and then… I'm a colt...

Thankfully, Maud caught Sweetie as he fainted dead away. "I didn't expect this to happen today." She looked to her sister, Pinkie. "You had better get your friend, tell her, her little brother is here."

"Right." Pinkie looked at the two fillies who were frozen, jaws open, staring at their friend. "You just… chill here with Maud, okay?"

The words were enough to snap the two fillies from their fugue and they bolted over to their friend as, like his big sister was wont to do, stirred. "Sweetie!" Apple Bloom reached out to her friend to give him, and she could definitely tell now that he had a distinctively colt-like body, a hug.

"It's really not nice to pick on him, you know." Maud looked at Apple Bloom, her expression lacking the disappointment she clearly intended. "His name is Svelte. Sweetie is a filly's name."

"But… but…" Scootaloo tried to cut in, seeing that there was a misunderstanding. "This is one of the strange things, the different things!" Her wings flared up in agitation. "Sweetie…"

Hearing his name helped pull Sweetie Belle from the odd swirling, spinning place the world had become. He took a slow, steadying breath. I'm a colt. He didn't dare say it again, saying it had made him pass out. "Please, I want to be with my friends… we need to explain this…" Tears threatened, something Maud feared more than anything else.

"Come on then, maybe get them some hay fries, Pinkie?" Maud left the little colt with the towel to dry his dampening eyes. "Something to distract little minds." Pinkie nodded to her and slipped out to the other room.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom walked beside their friend. "Yer gotta relax, Ah'm sure we can get this fixed quickly." Bloom's drawl seemed heavier, accompanying her stress. "You'll see, in an hour or two somepony will do something and it will all be back to normal!"

Sweetie blinked. That does sound about right for things.

"Besides, you get to tell us how it is for colts." Scootaloo put a wing over her friend's back. "But later," she whispered, looking up to Maud, "when we are out of here."

Seated back at the table, Sweetie Belle had to think long and hard about what he had seen. I am a colt, but that doesn't mean I have to act it. I can be myself, Rarity always told me I can be anypony I want to be, and I want to be a filly! It was as simple as that, besides, this would all be fine, probably tomorrow at the latest. "Where were we, then?"

Just then Pinkie Pie returned with two bowls of hay fries and a bowl of fruit. "Here you all are." She had been carrying the food on her back, tilted to the side and aimed one leg at the table. All three slid down, the fruit landing before Scootaloo.

Something about the smell of the fruit salad had the filly's full attention suddenly. Three little bellies rumbled and the Cutie Mark Crusaders: Food Devourers began their work.

"I told you, he felt hollow when I caught him." Maud gave an even, emotionless look to her sister, before booping Pinkie on the nose, out of sight of the three foals.

Pinkie giggled at her sister's antics. "You were up to, I believe, cleaning up the richest mare in Ponyville's basement." Three little heads gaped up at Pinkie. "What?"

"Richest… but, what about Filthy Rich?" Apple Bloom, and all the Cutie Mark Crusaders, knew well the parents of Diamond Tiara; how could they not?

"Oh, yeah he is pretty well off, but Cheerilee is old-bits, from Canterlot. She got the lot, every last bit, just before moving out here to teach. I have to admire a mare who loves teaching fillies and colts so much she would do it for free." Pinkie sipped at what was left of her drink.

"She is… but then…" Scootaloo looked to her friends, grinning. "Right, so we found the," she looked particularly to Sweetie, "book." No scream was to be made this time. "And there was a scroll in it, some sort of magic scroll."

"I was turning the pages with my magic, on account of not wanting to damage the book with our hooves. It… it sucked on all my magic!" Sweetie looked for another drink, realizing his was empty. Maud—ever the professional barkeep—had one already sliding across the table to him. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome." Maud didn't smile, she seemingly never smiled. Just when Sweetie was looking away from the drab mare, she caught Maud winking at her.

Apple Bloom tried to push the story ahead. "When we all came to, the magic thingy was gone and… things were different." She gestured around, ending up putting her foreleg around Sweetie and giving her friend a hug.

"Oh… kay…" Pinkie inhaled deeply. "So our bar and bistro wasn't here, the house was, though?" She pinched a fry from one of the bowls.

"Of course, but it was newer. When we first got there it was all run down and beaten up. Now…" Scootaloo gestured wildly toward the rough direction of where the mansion was, in relation to the bar. "And now we find out that we have changed too!"

"You have?" Maud squinted at the three. "Let me guess, she," Maud pointed at Apple Bloom, "was an alicorn?" The Cutie Mark Crusaders, now at least a little used to Maud's brand of humor, snorted and started giggling. They were all amazed when Maud smiled to them. "That's better."

Once his giggling was under control, Sweetie shook his head. "No I… I was a filly." His revelation had both the adult sisters looking at each other seriousness etched in at least Pinky's expression. "It's… It's not a problem, really! I am sure I will be fine." Brave face, just like Rarity said.

"There is nothing the Cutie Mark Crusaders can't deal with together, is there?" Apple Bloom looked at her two friends. It was impossible not to see the slightly sharper features of Sweetie's now, but she looked beyond that, at the filly she had grown up with.

"Right!" Sweetie and Scootaloo, both boosted by Bloom's declaration, lifted their hooves and the three copped them together.

"Alright, that is the most adorable thing I have seen for a while." Maud gathered up the empty glasses and bowls. "But I really should get ready for the afternoon rush."

"Right." Pinkie ruffled the manes of all three Crusaders. "You three scamps had better run, and don't forget, you are perfectly fine no matter what you look like." She measured her glance to each evenly, not wanting to single out the odd behavior that Svelte had been showing. She tucked away a reminder to have a word with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo's families. Little fillies and colts are fine to play when they are younger, but any of the three are of an age to start noticing colts and fillies are different.

"Thanks Pinkie! Maud!" Their three voices still melded well into a chorus, together, the three Crusaders stepped out of the bar and into the afternoon.

"Ah think we need to head back to the clubhouse to think about what is goin' on." Apple Bloom looked between her friends. Her eyes fell on Scootaloo. "Uh…" The more she looked the more a few things became apparent, she had been so focused on what was wrong with the world she hadn't thought to really look at her friends. "Your ears…"

His attention pulled from self-examination, Sweetie Belle looked at his friend. At the urging of Bloom, he looked closely at Scootaloo's ears. "They look like… bat ears… but soft and fuzzy…"

"What? What is going on with me?" Scootaloo balanced on her back legs and lifted both forelegs up to the top of her head. Her ears felt longer and a little broader than they should and, from the tips, tufts of fur appeared to have grown. "These aren't pony ears…"

"And those aren't pony wings!" Apple Bloom pointed to Scootaloo's back.

The little orange filly spread her wings suddenly. Purple in color, the same as her mane and tail, Scootaloo's wings were leathery and stretched tight over long, thin bones. At the leading edge of each a little hooked claw sat, then twitched as Scootaloo reached through her muscles to them. "That… they…" She closed her eyes and looked at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Both her friends nodded to her.

"You gotta try it." Apple Bloom grinned wide.

"Go for it Scootaloo!" Sweetie bounced from hoof to hoof in excitement.

Okay, these are wings, feel a bit different… BIGGER! It was hard for Scootaloo to keep her excitement in check. Lifting the two odd limbs up, she swept them both down hard.

"You gotta push up!" Apple Bloom was excited for her friend, for the first time in Scootaloo's life she might get to fly with her own wings.

"More! More!" Sweetie Belle forgot all about his own problems, only his friend mattered.

Scootaloo squirmed a little, this was the real thing, she had big (to her) wings and so, she started to flap them. One beat, two beats. She kicked off from the ground and flapped a third time. Something was wrong, instead of going up, or just forward, she pulled hard to the left and had to tuck quickly to protect her new wings, as her snout bopped down into the ground. "Outh!"

"You got off the ground!" Sweetie was too busy bouncing around his friend to notice a little blood on Scoots' lip.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Apple Bloom was concerned about her friend until Scootaloo smiled up at her. Fangs. Long and sharp-looking fangs. No wonder she hurt her lip.

"I really got off the ground?" Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle, leaping to her own hooves and starting to dance with her fellow Crusader. "I got off the ground!"

One of her friends, bursting with enthusiasm, Apple Bloom could resist. But with both of them dancing, she had no possible way to stop her legs from dancing along too. "Woo, you should talk to somepony about learning to use them, you seemed okay at getting up."

"Yeah, it was the 'sideways bit' that was a letdown…" Scootaloo looked backwards, first one side, then the other. "They are really different, maybe I should ask Rainbow Dash-"

"Rainbow Dash wouldn't know, though, would she?" Sweetie Belle tapped her chin with a hoof.

"Excuse me?" An orange unicorn with the most amazing two-tone, yellow and crimson, mane-tail combo trotted up to the three Crusaders. "Hi, I am Sunset, I don't suppose you know the way to the library?"

"Hi!" Apple Bloom's nature overrode any annoyance she might have felt at being interrupted. "Sure can, Miss Sunset!" She lifted a hoof to point. "Big tree in the middle-ish of town, over that way!"

Sunset Shimmer smiled widely. "Such helpful little ones." She had to fight the urge to lift a hoof and rub the adorable filly's mane. "Guess I will see you around… uh?"

"Apple Bloom." Bloom held her forehoof up to herself. She moved the hoof to point at Scootaloo. "The amazing Scootaloo, Master of the Skies." Her friend blushed a little at the title. "And of course," she pointed to Sweetie Belle, "Sweetie Belle, Arch-mage!"

"Oh wow!" Sunset danced from hoof to hoof in mock excitement—although it was good enough to get a giggle out of the foals. "The Master of the Skies? And an Arche-mage, here?" The two fillies and the colt started laughing at her antics. "Of course you will be, one day. Just keep working at it and you can reach any dream, or my name isn't Sunset Shimmer!"

Apple Bloom was amazed, her friends hadn't had the best of days, but the silly unicorn had perked them all up beyond belief. "Are you moving here?"

"Sure am. Princess Celestia herself sent her best student ever," Sunset leaned down low and nudged Apple Bloom conspiratorially with a foreleg, "that's me," she backed off again, "to help a fellow student with defending the town!"

"But… Twilight Sparkle is-" Sweetie Belle had a yellow hoof pressed to her snout, silencing her.

"That will be awesome!" Apple Bloom was sweating. It wasn't lying, it was just agreeing! "Oh, look at the time, we have to go!"

Turning tail, but still giving a wave, the Crusaders made haste for Sweet Apple Acres. It seemed like barely a moment before their pounding little hooves had them at the clubhouse in no time, however the sky was getting darker as they climbed the ramp.

"It's getting late," Scootaloo yawned, it had been a pretty eventful day, after all. "I should head home…"

Apple Bloom hated seeing her friend so down at the end of each day. "You can ask your uncle and aunt if you can stay here again?"

Sweetie Belle was already at the blackboard. He started drawing new cutie marks. There was one that showed the world turning inside-out, another of bat wings spreading wide, he thought for a moment and added one of two ponies kissing. He blushed at that and quickly scrubbed it out.

"New cutie mark ideas?" Scootaloo trotted up beside Sweetie. "Oh wow, I want those wings, that would be so awesome!" The filly started flapping her wings, like she used to do with her feathered ones. They couldn't go nearly as fast, but she lifted off the ground again, just a bit.

Coming up on Sweetie's other side, Apple Bloom could see one scrubbed out. "What was this one?" Her friend blushed suddenly and took a step back. "Whoa now, relax Sweetie, we are still Cutie Mark Crusaders! If you have an idea for a cutie mark you want to try, we should give it a shot!"

Sweetie Belle blushed hotly and shook his head. "Maybe later. First, we can try to get this one!" He pointed at the first of his new offerings. "Cutie Mark Crusaders: World Repairers!"

"Apple Bloom!" The voice of Applejack, Apple Bloom's big sister, came from outside. "Y'all gotta pack up now, dinner time!" As if on call, all three of the Crusaders' bellies rumbled at once.

"Coming!" Apple Bloom called.

"Bye!" Sweetie and Scoots both chorused back to their friend. Leaving the clubhouse, the three went their separate ways.

"Come on ya little rascal!" Applejack beckoned Apple Bloom from the main house. "Ah'm so hungry, been a long day'a work in the barns. Dang little squirmers are all hatchin'."

Apple Bloom blinked. In the twilight, she could see huge barns where, normally, the nearest field would have been. "Squirmers?" She trotted toward her sister on autopilot.

"Yeah, little bugs are so cute when they hatch." Applejack's warmth toward "squirmers" was quite apparent in her voice. "Scootaloo's dad was workin' with me, already picking out the best ones for his kin." The world seemed a little wobbly for Apple Bloom, too many facts, too many new questions. "Well dang, little 'un was plum tuckered out." The strong mare hefted her little sister on her back and took her inside.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

"Sorry Uncle Sweeps, I am a little late—" Scootaloo froze as she opened the back door to the house. It wasn't her Uncle Sweeps, or her Auntie that were inside, at the table. The two ponies there looked familiar, but sort of not. Both had bat wings, tufted ears and vertically slit eyes.

"Heya there, how's my filly doing?" The stallion trotted over to Scootaloo and extended one big wing around her, hugging the shocked filly.

"D-D-Dad?" Scootaloo looked up at the parent she had lost, in the real world. She suddenly didn't care if her wings were odd, or if she would never be able to fly. "DAD!"

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

"It isn't seemly." Rarity had Sweetie Belle laying down before her, brushing his mane slowly. "You really should try to find other colts your own age, why, those young lads Snips and Snails would certainly be more suitable friends." At least until Apple Bloom and Scootaloo's parents stop poking me about my little brother and their little ones.

"But Rarity…" Sweetie turned his head, looking back at his sister. Everything started to come unbuckled, she was a he, it didn't seem possible to fix at the moment. Tears came quickly and Sweetie dove toward his sister.

Rarity hugged her little brother close. "It won't be so bad, Svelte, they will still be your friends but just—"

"No! We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and they are my best friends!" Sweetie was still crying, but she needed to fight her sister on this. "I just… I just want to be their friend…" Rarity stopped hugging the colt and looked down in his eyes.

"Do you promise me you will be the responsible one? You will have to be their little white knight, their champion. If anypony tries to do anything wrong, you guard them?" Rarity's words carried weight for Sweetie, he wasn't sure exactly what was meant, fully, but he felt it had something to do with the cutie mark he had drawn.

Then it hit him. "Wait, you think I want to… to…" he blushed hotly, "I don't want to be their coltfriend!" Sweetie's blush was furious. "I am too young… they are too young!"

"Good, that is just what my little brother should say. For you, Svelte, I will go to their families and tell them what you told me. You understand?" Rarity gave Sweetie a look, it was an important look, as Rarity-looks went. He nodded. "Good, now get to bed."