Where the Heart Is

by Portmeirion

Rating: everyone
Tags: Cutie Mark Crusaders, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Main 6
Length: 7401

After an unfortunate mishap, the Cutie Mark Crusaders attempt to run away from home.

An unfortunate mishap forces the Cutie Mark Crusaders to run away from home or else face the consequences of their mistake. Hijinks ensue, friendships are strengthened, and lessons are learned as the three of them try to make it on their own in the wild...for however long it lasts.

Published 2012-07-06 07:14:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-06 07:14:02 UTC

Where the Heart Is

Well, this was it. Now or never. Applejack was out bucking apples, and Big Macintosh was on his way into town; a chance like this one wasn’t likely to come around again anytime soon. Apple Bloom stole quietly down the hallway of her home and stopped just outside the living room. She peered around the corner: Granny Smith was napping in her chair, and didn’t seem to have heard the front door open. Having completed her reconnaissance mission, the yellow filly turned around and signaled to her friends with her foreleg. Seconds later, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle crept softly down the hallway and stood at Apple Bloom’s side.

“All right,” she said in a low voice. “There’s a closet in the hallway on the other side of the livin’ room. Big Macintosh takes me an’ Applejack campin’ every summer, and that’s where he keeps all the stuff we need: sleepin’ bags, a lantern, a tarp – ”

“Do you have any maps? I don’t want us to get lost,” Sweetie Belle interrupted in a loud voice. Apple Bloom shushed her just as loudly.

“Shhh! Can’t y’all talk quieter? We don’t wanna wake her up!”

“Apple Bloom, this is your granny we’re talking about,” said Scootaloo, keeping her voice just above a whisper. “She could sleep though a Sonic Rainboom. I don’t think we have to worry about waking her up.”

“Well…maybe,” Apple Bloom conceded. “But I don’t wanna take any chances.”

“Why are you so worried?” asked Sweetie Belle. “She doesn’t know what happened. It’s not like we’d get in trouble just for borrowing some camping stuff.”

“But if she wakes up, then she might ask us where we’re goin’, and….” Apple Bloom hung her head shamefully. “I’m sorry, y’all, but I just couldn’t lie to my granny. I’d have to tell her, and then we’d all get busted.”

Scootaloo sighed in frustration. Honesty, she realized, must run pretty strongly in the Apple family. “Okay, okay,” she said impatiently. “Let’s just get in and out as fast as we can. The sooner we’re out of Ponyville, the better.”

One after another, the three fillies made their way across the living room floor, treading lightly on the tips of their hooves. The closet contained all the desired items: a sheet of tarpaulin, a short length of rope, and a lantern. They even found a fold-out map of Equestria, as well as a compass, which Scootaloo immediately claimed for herself (“It’s important for pegasi to practice their navigational skills,” she insisted). There were only two sleeping bags, but each was large enough for all three fillies to share comfortably; they decided to take both bags as a precaution.

The map and compass they managed to cram into Scootaloo’s backpack. Sweetie Belle carried the lantern and the folded tarp in her elegantly embroidered saddlebags, which her sister had made for her as a birthday present the previous year. With great difficulty, and a little help from her friends, Apple Bloom managed to tie the two rolled-up sleeping bags onto her back with the rope. It made her look like a malformed tortoise, as Scootaloo was the first to point out, but they couldn’t figure out how else to carry the bags with them. At the very least, the other two fillies were gracious enough not to laugh at her. As soon as they were all set, they quietly made their way back through the living room, down the hallway, and out the front door. Once outside, Apple Bloom turned back to take one last look at her family’s farmhouse.

“I sure am gonna miss this ol’ place,” she said quietly. “And Applejack, and Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith….” Her eyes started to water a little. She blinked them dry.

“Will we ever be able to come home?” asked Sweetie Belle. She didn’t sound any happier than Apple Bloom did.

“I doubt it,” answered Scootaloo. “We’re wanted criminals now. I’ll bet the Mayor’s already put out a search warrant. We’ll have to leave Ponyville, and spend the rest of our lives on the run!”

“Do you think maybe that'sour special talent?” Sweetie Belle guessed. “Running away from the law?”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders…Convicts?” Apple Bloom suggested.

“It…kinda has a nice ring to it,” Scootaloo agreed. “Now c’mon, we’ve gotta get out of here. For all we know, they’ve already got royal guards out looking for us.”

Apple Bloom gulped anxiously. “Then we’d best not waste any more time.” She turned and broke into a run, though the sleeping bags weighed her down so much that she was incapable of anything faster than a light trot. The other two fillies, similarly burdened, followed close behind.

Several minutes of running brought them to the edge of Sweet Apple Acres. Out here the apple trees were few and far between, and the horizon stretched out for many miles into unfamiliar territory – unfamiliar, at least, to the young runaways. Already exhausted, they agreed to take a short break and decide where they were going to go from there (they also resolved to walk, rather than run, from that point on). Scootaloo pulled the map from her backpack and spread it on the ground, and the three of them gathered around it.

“How about Fillydelphia?” Sweetie Belle suggested. “It’s the closest place on the map to Ponyville.”

“How long d’ya think it’ll take to walk there?” asked Apple Bloom.

The unicorn filly squinted at the map. “I dunno. A day, maybe?”

“Lemme see.” Scootaloo nudged Sweetie out of the way and took a close look at the map herself. “It looks more like a two-day walk to me,” she said, and pointed to a spot on the map. “Plus, we’d have to cut through all those pine trees.”
Apple Bloom crowded up next to Scootaloo and looked at the spot she was indicating. “Those ain’t trees. Those are mountains.”

“Mountains? They don’t look like mountains to me.”

“O’course they’re mountains. They’re tall and pointy.”

“But they’re green!”

“Mountains can be green.”

“Nuh uh! Mountains are gray.”

“They’re green when they got trees on ‘em!”

“It doesn’t matter,” Sweetie Belle interceded. She wedged her way in between her two friends and pointed to another part of the map. “Whatever they are, there’s a road that goes right through them. See? All we have to do is follow it.”

“That’s a road?” said Scootaloo. “Looks more like a river to me.”

“That ain’t no river! It goes right through the middle of Fillydelphia!”

“But it’s blue!”

“Roads can be blue.”

“Since when can roads be blue?!”

Their discussion continued in this manner for some time. By now, the sun had begun to set and Apple Bloom knew her siblings would be home before long. Eventually, they all agreed to head south and make for Fillydelphia – whether they would have to traverse mountains or navigate through pine woods remained to be seen, but desperation pushed them into making a hasty call. Scootaloo looked at the compass and announced that south was “that-a-way,” so that-a-way they went.

The three of them walked for almost an hour. The going was very slow; this was due in part to the weight of their gear, but mostly to the terrain. Much time was spent clambering up steep hillsides, weaving their way through thick groves of trees, and hop-skip-jumping over rocky streams. Their conversation was sparse, and mostly on the subject of how tired they were, and how hungry they were, and how familiar those two trees or that one stump looked, and how they seemed to be going in circles, and how Scootaloo must be reading the compass wrong, and which way was really south, and so on and so forth. The pegasus filly insisted she knew what she was doing, claiming that Rainbow Dash had taught her everything she knew about navigation. This only made the other two fillies even more concerned.

After crossing what looked like the same stream for what felt like the hundredth time, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle demanded that Scootaloo let them take a look at the compass. Scootaloo sighed in frustration, but let them have a look anyway.

“That ain’t a compass,” Apple Bloom realized at once. “It’s my daddy’s old pocket watch.”

And so they were lost.

The remainder of the day was spent meandering about in a low-key sort of panic. The woods they wandered through weren’t particularly thick, but they were hilly and dreadfully unfamiliar and this worried them all greatly. Before long, they were very hungry, very tired, and (although none of them cared to admit it) more than a little scared.

The sun continued to sink lower and lower, painting the sky with red and orange hues. Sweetie Belle glanced at the horizon. “Do you think they know we’re missing yet?”

Apple Bloom also looked at the setting sun. “Applejack and Big Macintosh are probably back home by now,” she answered. “They’ll be wonderin’ where I am before long.”

“I wonder if anyone's out looking for us.”

“I hope not,” said Scootaloo. “Do you have any idea what would happen if they caught us? We wouldn’t just get in trouble for what happened at Sugarcube Corner – we’d be in trouble for running away, too! We’re double offenders!”

“I don’t know,” said Apple Bloom. “I know we thought nopony’d believe it was an accident, but….”

“But what?”

“Well, now that I think about it…I bet Applejack would believe us. She always listens to me whenever I’ve got a problem. If we all told her it was just an accident, I reckon she’d listen.”

“Oh, come on Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo protested. “We’re criminals now! It doesn’t matter how nice your sister is – as soon as she saw us, she’d turn us over to the Mayor, and then she’d turn us over to Princess Celestia, and then she’d probably throw us in a dungeon!”

“Really? Ya think so?” asked Apple Bloom, her eyes wide in terror.

“Well…maybe she wouldn’t do anything that extreme,” Scootaloo admitted. “But I don’t wanna take the chance. I know my parents wouldn’t let us off the hook that easy. Trust me, we’re better off just going it alone: no parents, no sisters, no Mayor, no Princess. Nopony telling us what to do, or getting us in trouble for something that wasn’t our fault.”

“Yeah,” agreed Sweetie Belle. “Rarity would probably explode if we tried to tell her what happened. She’s not a very good listener.”

“I…I guess y’all are right,” Apple Bloom conceded glumly. The three of them continued to walk, arguing occasionally about where they were going, until the sun had nearly set.

Eventually, their aching legs and growling stomachs forced them to settle and make camp. They found a nice, secluded spot in the midst of a dense grove of trees. Apple Bloom was happy to finally take the sleeping bags off her back; the instant her friends finished untying the rope, she collapsed in a groaning, exhausted heap.

The other two fillies shared a concerned glance. Of the three of them, Apple Bloom had been carrying the most weight, and it was clear that she was suffering far more than either of her companions. Scootaloo fished through her backpack and found a stale old chocolate chip cookie, which she offered wordlessly to her tired friend. Apple Bloom accepted it gratefully and ate it without complaint.

While she rested, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo did their very best to set up some kind of shelter. With the help of her wings, the little pegasus managed to climb a short way up a couple of nearby trees and string the rope between them. The tarp was thrown across it and pinned down on either side with some small rocks, forming a functional tent. It was pretty flimsy, and left a lot to be desired in terms of aesthetics (it certainly wasn’t going to earn them tent-pitching Cutie Marks), but they all agreed it was better than nothing.

They had just finished unrolling the sleeping bags when a soft rumble of thunder echoed across the landscape. Startled, the trio turned in unison and stared in the direction from whence the sound had come. All along the horizon, dark, brooding clouds were piling up into a huge squall line. In the fading light of the late evening they looked menacing and monstrous, and were growing ever nearer.

“I didn’t know there was a thunderstorm scheduled for tonight,” said Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo gulped nervously. “Me neither.”

“It looks like a fierce one, too,” added Apple Bloom.

As one, the three fillies slowly turned their heads and looked back at their feeble shelter. Had the tent been a pony, it would’ve shrunken timidly under their gaze and shivered like a nervous Fluttershy. As it was it did a pretty good job of looking meek anyway.

“We’re doomed,” said Apple Bloom. It wasn’t necessary, though – they were all thinking it.

Applejack raced frantically through the evening. Just up ahead, she could see dozens of pegasi piling together a massive, anvil-shaped thunderhead – a cumulonimbus, if she remembered her meteorology correctly. The cloud towered so high that those closest to the top of the “anvil” appeared as nothing but colored dots to her. The farm pony hoped desperately that the pegasus she was looking for was nearer to the ground.

“Rainbow Dash!” she called out once she had reached the base of the thunderhead. The air here was noticeably cooler and bristled with a slight electrical charge. Applejack’s eyes darted this way and that, scanning the space above her head for her friend’s distinctive rainbow-colored mane.

At last she spotted it – luckily, she was near the bottom of the anvil. “Rainbow Dash!” she shouted again, this time getting the pegasus’s attention.

Rainbow turned and spotted her friend. “Oh, hey AJ,” she shouted back. “Listen, unless this is really important, can you come back some other time? We’re kind of in the middle of something here.”

“This is real important,” said Applejack. The wind was really starting to pick up now. She threw a hoof over her head to keep her hat from being blown away.

The cyan pegasus gave some quick instructions to a nearby co-worker, then glided down and landed at her friend’s side. “What’s up?”

“Apple Bloom’s gone missin’,” Applejack explained. “Rarity said her parents can’t find Sweetie Belle neither, and Scootaloo’s folks are sayin’ the same thing. I’m worried that, after that whole incident at Sugarcube Corner, they decided to run away from home.”

“Huh? Why would they do that?”

“They probably thought they were gonna get in trouble.”

“For that? But it was just an accident!”

“’Course it was. But you know what kinda reputation those three have around Ponyville. They probably didn’t think anypony’d believe ‘em if they said so.” Applejack eyed the growing storm with concern. She turned back to Rainbow. “Look, can ya help me out or not? If they are out there, they might get caught in this storm y’all are brewin’.”

“Oh yeah, the storm!” Rainbow said excitedly, seizing the chance to boast. She leapt up and hovered lightly just above the ground, making grand gestures. “It’s one of the biggest in Ponyville history! Hay, it’s the biggest, or at least it will be once we get under way. We’re gonna go down in the record books as the weather team who managed the most massive thunderstorm to ever hit Ponyville! It’s gonna be so awesome!”

“Rainbow!” Applejack shouted in anger. The pegasus cringed, recognizing her friend’s tone; it was the voice Applejack usually reserved for when she wanted to deliver a severe verbal flank-whoopin’. “Somewhere out there, my sister, Rarity’s sister, and Scootaloo are wanderin’ around on their own. And if y’all don’t call off this here thunderstorm, then they….” The earth pony suddenly paused and lowered her head. Her stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots. “I…I don’t even wanna think about it,” she said in a trembling voice. “If somethin’ were to happen to Apple Bloom, well, I…I don’t know what I’d…I’d….”

Rainbow Dash was shocked to see a few tears drop from Applejack’s face. Applejack never cried. She was always so tough – at least as tough as Rainbow, if not tougher. Seeing her break down like this was almost surreal, not to mention really disheartening.

And besides…Scootaloo was out there, too. That little filly looked up to her so much. Rainbow would never be able to forgive herself if something happened to Scootaloo just because she wanted her name in some stupid record book. Letting down her biggest fan was the worst feeling she could imagine, and it left a sick feeling in her heart. She realized that this must be how Applejack felt about her sister, and all at once she understood why the earth pony was in tears.

She briefly considered giving Applejack a hug, but…nah. Hugs weren’t her style. When one of her friends was in trouble, Rainbow Dash didn’t just stand around hugging and crying. No, she did something about it.

“Just wait right here, AJ. I’ll be back in ten seconds flat. Promise.” And with that, Rainbow soared back into the sky and called her weather team into a huddle. While they discussed, Applejack waited patiently and tried to compose herself. She couldn’t make out what was being said, but she could tell by Rainbow’s animated body language that she was making an impassioned argument about something. After a minute or so of debate, the pegasus flew back down and landed beside her.

“Okay, here’s the deal,” she said. “We’re gonna cut down on the wind speed, cancel all the thunder and lightning, and flatten the whole thing out into a nimbostratus. But the rain’s non-negotiable – sorry, AJ, but you know even better than I do how much we need it.”

The farm pony slowly nodded at the truth in Rainbow’s words. Ponyville had been going through a rather dry spell lately, and Sweet Apple Acres was in need of rain just like the rest of the town. She still didn’t like the idea of her sister being caught in a downpour, but at least now she didn’t have to worry about them getting blown away or struck by lightning or something awful like that. Even so, she couldn’t stop a few more unwanted tears from trickling down her cheeks.

Rainbow Dash grinned, softly and sympathetically – it was an expression she rarely wore, but she wore it gladly for Applejack’s sake. “Look AJ, everything’s gonna be fine, all right?” She placed a hoof under Applejack’s chin and tilted her head up until they were looking one another in the eye. “We’ll find them. Don’t worry.”

Applejack sniffled quietly and smiled back at her friend. Then she threw her forelegs around Rainbow’s neck and gave her an appreciative squeeze. The pegasus was taken aback for a second, but then smiled again and leaned into the embrace.

Okay, so maybe hugs were her style after all.

When the rain finally came, it was little more than a drizzle. The storm in the distance seemed to have mellowed out a great deal, and by the time it reached the Crusaders’ campsite it had changed from a towering dark monster into a low-hanging wall of gray. By now it was too dark to see, the sun having long since set and the rainclouds blocking out Luna’s light, leaving them with only their ears to judge the state of the weather. Luckily, the rain was nothing more than a soft patter on the roof of their tent, and they heard no more thunder. It appeared that they just might last the night.

The tent wasn’t especially large, but neither were its occupants. Their sleeping bags lay unrolled on the ground, forming a relatively comfortable “floor” on which they could sit. The lantern was situated in the middle of the “room” and the three fillies huddled around it as though it were a campfire, keeping as far from the open ends of the tent as they could. It was comfortable enough, but the past few hours had been so worrisome that they didn’t feel the least bit sleepy. To pass the time, Scootaloo suggested that they tell ghost stories; and, being an expert on all things scary, she volunteered to go first:

“…so she came to the door where the knocking was coming from. But the weird thing was: it was a closet. There couldn’t be anypony inside it…could there? But then the knocking started again, and now it was right in front of her! So she reached her hoof forward….”

“Yeah? Yeah?” The other two fillies’ eyes widened in suspense.

“She pushed the door open….”

“Yeah? And then what? What happened?”

“AND THEN A SKELETON POPPED OUT!”

There was a long silence. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stared blankly at their friend.

“Well…” Sweetie said at length. “I guess that was kind of scary.”

“Really?”

“No.”

Scootaloo sighed.

Other attempts to amuse themselves were just as fruitless. The next hour and a half seemed to drag on without end, and still fell the rain, steady and continuous. The oppressive atmosphere stifled every conversation and quelled every effort to lighten the mood. And as the night rolled on, the air grew colder and colder – even though there was little wind, they could still feel an uncomfortable chill in the air.

Sweetie Belle shivered. “Is anypony else really cold?”

Scootaloo dug through her backpack and produced a tattered old blue blanket. “Here,” she said, and passed it to the unicorn filly. Sweetie wrapped it around herself.

There was brief pause.

“Hey, Scootaloo?” said Apple Bloom.

“Yeah?”

“Why d’ya carry that blanket around in yer backpack?”

“Uh…in case somepony needs it. Like right now.”

“Uh huh.”

“I’m serious! It’s just a…an emergency blanket. Yeah. For emergencies.”

“Then how come it’s got your name sewn into it?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“It’s…um….”

“And why’s it so full of holes?”

“Oh that? It’s….”

“And why are there so many of your feathers stuck on it?”

“I’m not…I mean….”

“And why are ya blushin’ like that?”

“It’s just my favorite blanket, okay?!” Scootaloo blurted out. “My…my mom gave it to me when I was really little and I’ve always had it with me. I just….” Her voice grew softer and she looked embarrassedly at the ground. “I didn’t wanna run away without it, all right? I couldn’t leave it behind…it’s kind of important to me.” Then she added, almost silently: “It reminds me of her.”

There was a short, uncomfortable silence. Apple Bloom looked down, ashamed. “I’m sorry, Scootaloo,” she said. “I didn’t mean to make fun of you.”

“I’m sorry, too,” said Sweetie Belle. She suddenly felt rather awkward under Scootaloo’s blanket. She reached for her now-empty saddlebags. “If it makes you feel any better, I feel the same way about these bags. Rarity made ‘em for me for my birthday last year. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Apple Bloom looked at the bags. “They sure are pretty.”

Scootaloo looked at them as well. “Blech. Sorry, too frilly for me.”

“Well….” Sweetie paused. “That’s kind of why they remind me of my sister.”

“’Cause they’re too frilly for ya?”

“No! I mean, yeah, they’re really frilly…but that’s sort of how Rarity is. The more she cares about something, the prettier she makes it. It’s like it’s her way of saying….” Sweetie trailed off as a thought occurred to her. She looked down at the lavishly, lovingly decorated bags and said softly, more to herself than to her friends: “It’s like it’s her way of saying how much she cares about me.”

Once again, silence reigned. Apple Bloom broke it with a yawn. “Say, Scoots? What time is it? I’m getting’ a mite sleepy.”

Scootaloo reached once again into her backpack and passed the “compass” to her friend. Apple Bloom held it in her hooves and fixed her eyes on it. “Looks like it’s gettin’ close to midnight,” she announced, but continued to sit and stare quietly at the watch.

Sweetie Belle looked at it as well. “You said that watch was your dad’s, right?”

Apple Bloom nodded but didn’t look up. “Uh huh.”

There was another short pause. Scootaloo rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “Hey, Apple Bloom?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Uh…sure. What?”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shared a quick glance; the expression on the latter’s face told the former that she was thinking the same thing. “Um…I was just wondering…you’ve never really talked about it before….” Scootaloo paused to collect herself. This wasn’t going to be easy. “What…what happened to your parents?”

A very long silence ensued. Scootaloo was beginning to wish she hadn’t asked when Apple Bloom finally spoke up.

“My momma died when I was real little,” she said. “Big Macintosh always said that she’d been sick while she was carryin’ me. I don’t really remember her much. But I remember her voice. She used to sing to me every night to help me get to sleep.” She paused. “About a year later, my daddy got sick too. We didn’t know what with – nopony knew. He was in the hospital fer a week. We didn’t get to see him much.” She looked back down at the watch. Her vision was beginning to blur and her voice was getting shaky. “We all got to see him one last time, even though I was still so little I can’t hardly remember it. He gave Big Macintosh this here watch, and he gave Applejack that hat she wears.”

“Did he give you anything?” Scootaloo asked.

Apple Bloom sniffled softly, and then nodded. “He…he gave me my hair bow. It used to belong to my mother. Applejack helped me put it on and we showed it to him. He said that I – *sniff* – that I was a spit’n image of momma with this bow in my hair.”

“Oh, yeah,” Sweetie Belle remembered. “I saw a picture of her in your house once, but I didn’t know that was your mom. She was really pretty.”

“Yeah,” said the yellow filly. Tears filled her eyes. “She was.” Her voice broke.

In an instant, Sweetie Belle was at her side, wrapping Scootaloo’s blanket around her trembling form and hugging her tightly. Scootaloo pushed aside her distaste for mushiness and followed suit. For a while they just sat there, holding their friend as her body shook with tiny sobs.

“I…I don’t wanna run away anymore,” she eventually choked out. “I don’t care if we get in trouble. I jus’ want my family back.”

“I’m so, so sorry,” said Scootaloo. She pulled the blanket around herself as well and huddled down next to Apple Bloom. The blanket’s familiar scent and texture stirred up a bit of homesickness in her own heart. “I want to go home, too,” she whispered.

“But…what if we can’t find our way back home?” Apple Bloom asked worriedly, her voice still trembling. “What if we’re lost forever?”

Sweetie Belle joined her two friends under the blanket. “Then we can be your family.”

Apple Bloom’s heart melted in an instant. In spite of all her fears, she couldn’t stop herself from smiling a little and hugging her friends back. She was still homesick; she still missed her brother and her sister and her granny…but at least she wasn’t alone.

The smile still hadn’t left her face even by the time she fell asleep.

The sun shone clear through the trees and glistened off the wet leaves; the world was still quite damp from the previous night’s rainfall. The air was clean and fresh and a gentle breeze wafted lazily through the woods. It seemed as though the world had refreshed and renewed itself overnight and awoken with new purpose and direction. It was the kind of morning Fluttershy adored. She found them soothing and uplifting, and she’d often spend them curled up under a tree with a good book (borrowed from Twilight’s library) and all manner of cuddly woodland creatures snuggled up against her. In fact, that was exactly what she was doing when her friends found her.

The three of them – Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle – came racing down the path at a near-frantic pace, stopping just short of her and causing her animal friends to scatter. Fluttershy set her book aside and stood to greet them, concern written all over her face. “Oh, hello girls. Is…is something the matter?”

Then, gasping and panting for breath, they did their best to explain the situation: the Cutie Mark Crusaders had gone missing.

“The poor dears haven’t been seen since yesterday evening,” said Rarity. “Our best guess is that they ran away to avoid getting in trouble for that awful incident at Sugarcube Corner.”

“Wait…what happened at Sugarcube Corner?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, long story short, Pinkie Pie tried to teach ‘em how to bake a cake – I guess they thought they could earn themselves cake-bakin’ Cutie Marks – and, well….”

“There was a…slight mix-up,” Rarity continued as Applejack trailed off. “The Cakes were set to receive a new shipment of baking soda that day, but Derpy was in charge of the delivery, so….”

“Let's just say you’d be surprised how similar baking soda and nitroglycerin look on a chemical level,” Twilight finished for them. “No one was hurt, but Sugarcube Corner will have to be closed for a couple of days at least.”

“Oh…oh my,” was Fluttershy’s only response.

“We’re guessin’ they ran off ‘cause they were afraid we’d think they blew up the oven on purpose,” Applejack continued. “But we can’t know for sure ‘til we find ‘em. And if we’re gonna find ‘em, we’ll need your help, sugarcube.”

“M-me?” Fluttershy stammered out. She glanced nervously back and forth between her friends, silently inquiring why they needed her.

“We tried going to the Mayor and asking her to form a search party,” Twilight explained. “But with so much ground to cover, there simply aren’t enough ponies available to help.”

“Not to mention we haven’t the slightest idea where to start looking for them,” added Rarity. “It’s like they simply vanished without a trace.”

“Almost without a trace.” Applejack scowled slightly. “It looks like the three of ‘em made off with all of Big Mac’s campin’ equipment. But knowin’ that ain’t gonna help us figure out where they went to.”

“Well, I…I’d be happy to help,” Fluttershy replied, and she meant it. She always felt duty-bound to help any creature in need, but those three fillies in particular were quite close to her heart. Having saved them from danger once before, she felt a little responsible for them. But still she was confused. “But…but what is it you need me for? What am I supposed to do?”

Rarity smiled. “Only what you do best, dear.”

“Just because there aren’t enough ponies to form a search party,” Twilight continued, “it doesn’t mean we can’t still form one.”

“But…how? With whom?”

As if on cue, her animal friends began to emerge cautiously from their hiding places. Squirrels, robins, badgers, ferrets, ducks, rabbits, all gathered around and stared at her with curious eyes.

The worry on Fluttershy’s face gave way to steely determination as the solution dawned on her. “Right,” she said. “Let’s do this!”

Thanks to Twilight’s keen organizational mind, it took only minutes to draw up a search plan. Fluttershy related the unicorn’s orders as best she could to the gathered creatures, and soon the animals scattered in various directions. Squirrels hopped from tree to tree, alerting their neighbors to the situation and asking if any had seen the lost fillies. Flocks of birds gathered overhead and spread out across the land, scanning the ground for any sign of their quarry. In under an hour, nearly all of Ponyville’s wildlife was involved in the search.

A few ponies were also recruited (most notably Rainbow Dash, who was eager to help – once she was roused from her nap, that is), along with Applejack’s dog Winona. Pinkie Pie was approached as well, but her hooves were quite full for the time being, foalsitting Pound and Pumpkin Cake while their parents worked on getting Sugarcube Corner fixed. However, she wished them all well and promised to be with them in spirit, for which they were grateful; after all, moral support from Pinkie Pie is often worth more than “real” help from most ponies.

News of the first sighting came to them just before noon: a flock of geese had spotted the fillies at the edge of Sweet Apple Acres late last evening. Armed with a general idea of where they might be, the five ponies (and one dog) set out across Ponyville. Birds continued to bring Fluttershy reports along the way: a family of rabbits had spotted them as they passed by their hole; an old badger had spied them fording a shallow brook; and so on. Eventually their search led them to the edge of Whitetail Wood. There, the butter-yellow pegasus came to a stop at the foot of a large oak tree in which sat several squirrels.

“Um, excuse me,” she inquired gently, looking up at her little tree-dwelling friends. “Have any of you seen three fillies around here? Since yesterday, I mean. One of them is a unicorn, and….”

Her description was cut short when the squirrels began to chirp loudly. They all pointed deeper into the woods.

“Oh, thank you so much,” Fluttershy answered them, and promised to return later with some manner of “thank you” gift. She turned back to her friends. “They said that they saw them yesterday evening. They passed by this tree three times from three different directions.”

“Yeah, that’s gotta be them,” said Rainbow Dash. “Only those three could get that lost. C’mon, let’s get moving!” She took to her wings and flew into the forest. Applejack managed to keep up with Rainbow on the ground while Winona ran at her side, and Fluttershy winged her way through the air just behind them. Rarity trotted briskly beside Twilight; neither unicorn was accustomed to this much running, though they did their best to keep pace with their friends.

“Oh, I do hope Sweetie Belle is all right,” said Rarity. She ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch, lest it muss her elegantly coifed purple mane. “Mother and father are just worried sick about her….” A light blush colored her cheeks. “And well, honestly, so am I.”

“It’s all right, Rarity,” Twilight assured her. “Applejack and Big Macintosh must feel the same way about Apple Bloom. I can’t imagine how awful it must be.”

The other unicorn frowned in contemplation. “No, I don’t suppose you could,” she said, frankly but not unkindly. “But then, you’ve never had a little sister, have you?”

“No,” Twilight answered with a sad smile. “I was always the little sister. But if I had run away like that when I was young, Shining Armor would probably have been worried sick about me.” She glanced aside in thought. “I guess I’ve never really thought about it before.”

“Most ponies don’t,” said Rarity. “Believe me dear, I know. I never realized how much Sweetie Belle meant to me until that whole dreadful episode when she decided she’d rather be Applejack’s sister than mine. It’s strange how little we think about the ponies closest to us until we’re afraid we might lose them.”

Twilight smiled, a little more brightly. “That sounds like it would make a great letter for the Princess.” Her smile faltered. “…if I ever get a chance to write it, of course. I really hope we find them.”

A sudden round of barking caught both unicorns’ attention. Up ahead, their friends had come to a stop. They were staring intently at Winona, who was yapping energetically and hopping in place like Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush. “What’s going on with Winona?” Twilight asked once she and Rarity had caught up with them.

Winona lowered her head and sniffed at the ground. Then, without further warning, she took off through a dense patch of undergrowth, barking all the way as if to say “follow me!”

Applejack’s face lit up excitedly. “I think she’s onto their scent! Hang on there Winona, I’m right behind ya!” She galloped after her dog, and the others followed as quickly as their legs and wings could carry them.

“I’m coming, Sweetie!” Rarity cried as love and concern seized her heart like a vise – her chat with Twilight had only served to remind her how precious her sister was to her. On she ran, ignoring every obstacle the forest threw at her: she crashed through foliage, splashed her way through shallow streams, and charged up and down steep hills like a mare possessed. She soon caught up with Rainbow Dash and Applejack, prompting the two athletic ponies to exchange a surprised glance and quicken their own paces.

At long last, Winona came to a stop at the edge of a particularly dense patch of trees. She issued another sharp bark and then waited in silence. When Applejack and her friends arrived at her side, they were greeted by a sight that took them all rather by surprise.

There, at the center of the grove before them, was a tent: a very flimsy, rickety, primitive tent, but a tent nonetheless. And under it were the very three fillies that they were searching for.

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo slept side-by-side atop an unrolled sleeping bag, all snuggled together beneath a ratty old blue blanket. It was such a heartmeltingly adorable image that for a moment, the five ponies could do nothing but stare. Rarity and Applejack were especially dumbstruck; upon finding their sisters safe and sound, the joy and relief that washed over them felt like a tidal wave.

Then Apple Bloom stirred; Winona’s barking had awoken her. She raised her head and opened her eyes, looking blearily ahead. The blurry, smiling visage of her sister hovered before her. “A…Applejack?”

Unable to restrain herself any longer, Applejack rushed forward and swept her little sister up in her forelegs, hugging her as tightly as she could. “Oh, Apple Bloom,” she said, her voice half-choked with love as tears streamed from the edges of her squeezed-shut eyes. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”

Rarity soon followed suit, capturing the still-sleeping Sweetie Belle in an equally loving embrace. The unicorn filly’s eyes fluttered open, only to close again in contentment when she realized what was happening. This prompted a round of “d’awwws” from Twilight, and Fluttershy, and even Rainbow Dash couldn’t stop a warm grin from creeping onto her face.

Eventually, Scootaloo awoke as well, stirred from slumber by all the commotion. Rainbow landed at her side and prodded her with a hoof.

“C’mon, squirt,” she said with a smile. “Your parents have been missing you really bad. They’ll wanna know you’re okay.”

“My…parents?” Scootaloo yawned. She looked all about, taking in the scene as best she could: Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were now both fully awake, and their sisters had finally released them from their crushing embraces. The other two fillies trotted over to Scootaloo’s side and helped her to her hooves.

“I’m so glad we found you three,” said Twilight. “I was beginning to worry that I might have to cast a locator spell to find you.”

“And there’s no telling what sort of horrible repercussions that might’ve had,” Rarity said with a smirk. The other unicorn merely rolled her eyes.

Applejack smiled at the trio. “But the point is, we’re just happy y’all are safe.”

The fillies looked up in surprise. “You mean, yer not mad at us?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Well, maybe just a little,” replied Applejack. “But only ‘cause y’all ran off without tellin’ us.”

“Lemme guess – this is about that whole cake-baking thing, right?” Dash guessed. The three fillies nodded and bowed their heads in shame.

“We’re really sorry,” Scootaloo pleaded on their behalf. “We didn’t mean for it to happen!”

Fluttershy smiled at them as well. “We know, girls.”

“But it was just an accid – ” Sweetie Belle stopped herself short. “Wait, you mean you believe us?”

“O’course we do,” Applejack assured them. She walked over and tousled her sister’s mane. “Y’all might get into all kinds of messes from time to time, but we know you’d never do anything awful just out of spite.”

“You can always come to us when this sort of accident happens,” said Rarity. “We promise not to jump to any conclusions. Just don’t forget about your families, all right? We’re always here for you.”

“Even when you think nopony else’ll listen to you,” continued Applejack, “we will.” She wrapped a comforting foreleg around Apple Bloom, who simply smiled and leaned into her sister’s embrace. “C’mon, let’s get you gals home, all right?”

Apple Bloom nodded, and clambered onto Applejack’s back.

“Hang on a second, Apple Bloom,” said Scootaloo. She reached into her backpack and produced an old gold-colored pocket watch. “Big Macintosh is probably gonna want this back.”

Applejack smiled kindly as Apple Bloom accepted the watch. “Thanks, Scootaloo,” said the yellow filly, and her big sister nodded in agreement. Sighing contentedly, Apple Bloom closed her eyes and rested her head against Applejack’s neck. Rarity then stooped down as well to allow her own sister atop her back.

Scootaloo stepped to the side, feeling a little left out – only to bump right into Rainbow Dash.

The older pegasus smiled down at her. “Hey squirt. You want me to fly you home?”

Scootaloo nodded meekly. Rainbow lowered herself to the ground and allowed the younger pegasus to climb atop her back. As she wrapped her little forelegs around her hero’s neck, Scootaloo’s thoughts started to drift homewards. Home – to think that just last night, she’d have been happy to never see the place again. But now the thought of returning to her family brought a smile to her face.

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash,” she said softly.

“Heh. No problem, kiddo,” Dash replied. As the pair took to the skies, only one thought ran through Scootaloo’s mind: she was happy to be on her way home.

“So, like I said, we’re really sorry about what happened,” said Sweetie Belle. She and her friends looked apologetically up at the Cakes. They all three stood in the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, which was still in rather sorry shape: flour and milk were spilled all across the floor, the walls were spattered with icing and cake batter, and in the far corner of the room, where an oven once sat, there was now only a great black scorch mark.

“Oh, don’t worry yourselves, girls,” said Cup Cake. “We know it wasn’t your fault.”

“If it was anypony’s fault, it was mine,” Carrot Cake added. “I should have seen right away that Derpy had delivered the wrong package. It just looked so much like some sort of specialty baking soda….”

“At any rate, it was very generous of you to offer a hoof in getting this place fixed up,” said Mrs. Cake. “With Pinkie busy foalsitting the twins, we’re little short-stocked on assistants around here.”

“That’s what we’re here for!” Scootaloo cheerfully declared.

“Yeah! We’ll be great assistants!” Apple Bloom seconded.

“We’ll have this place ship-shape in no time!” added Sweetie Belle

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS KITCHEN-CLEANERS YAY!” the three of them cried in unison before setting merrily about their task.

The Cakes walked out of the kitchen and left the Crusaders to their own devices. Applejack and Rarity stood waiting in the foyer, and Mrs. Cake smiled warmly at them.

“I guess it is rather nice having those three around, isn’t it?” she said.

A loud crash resounded from the kitchen behind them, followed by a very quiet (but still audible) “oops.” The four ponies winced instinctively. Seconds later, Apple Bloom’s voice rang out: “Everythin’s okay! Y’all can just stay out there, no need to check up on us!”

Sweetie’s and Scootaloo’s voices soon joined their friend’s: “Yeah, we’re doing fine!” “Nothing to worry about!”

Applejack couldn’t stop an amused smile from crawling across her face. “Well,” she said to Mrs. Cake, “it’s gotta be better than the alternative.”