Cutie Mark Crusader Tea Makers

Scootaloo stepped away from the poster. Her part of the mission was to find a small sieve to filter tea leaves, and an ingredient which would make the tea more awesome! She knew just where to find a sieve: the grocery store! They sold various pots and pans, so it makes sense that they would have a tea sieve as well. She quickly waved to her friends and then trotted off to find a grocery store.

After searching for a while, Scootaloo had still not found a grocery store. Honestly, she thought, surely there would be a grocery store here!

Maybe it would be a good idea if she asked somepony. She looked around, seeing a variety of snobby Canterlot ponies which she could ask. Scootaloo spied a tall, elegant mare with a light coat and a flowing pink mane. She looked slightly less snobby than all the rest.

Approaching quietly, Scootaloo suddenly felt shy. Why did she have to ask a question like this? Oh well, best to get it over and done with.

"Excuse me, can I please ask a question?" Scootaloo meekly asked, far from her usual daredevil self.

The mare looked down to Scootaloo and smiled a little. "Of course, young one, how can I help you?"

"Do you know where I can find a grocery store?"

"A grocery store?" The mare gave a little laugh, "We don't have grocery stores in Canterlot. We do have a market just a little way away from here that sells almost everything though."

Scootaloo gave a little sigh of relief at finding some useful information. "Okay, thank you!"

She carefully walked away from the mare before realizing that she hadn't asked where the market was. Duh.

Oh well, she would find it! Scootaloo looked around. Where would a market be? She idly wandered down the road and blinked at the expansive grassy field full of tents before her. The market! Her eyes regained their daredevil fire as she boldly ran to the field and began searching among the tents.

"Come one, come all! See the latest Tea Day merchandise! Just this way!" A yellow unicorn stallion with a red and white mane and red mustache was leading a small crowd through the market grounds. "Tea Day equipment, tea sets, tea blends, tea leaves, come this way!"

That's convenient, Scootaloo thought, joining the crowd and making sure to shove her way to the front. They approached a big tent with a larger crowd around it. After some more pushing and shoving she emerged at the front of the crowd just as the tent doors opened.

Quickly scurrying in to avoid being trampled by the surge of ponies, she looked around, and sure enough, there were some sieves! Or what looked like sieves. They were made of bird netting taped to old bangles, and would be useless for filtering tea leaves.

Scootaloo looked down at her hooves, disappointed at failing her mission, as the crowd around her gave general murmurs of discontentment. An old mare drew near to her, looking similarly annoyed, but on seeing Scootaloo her face filled with anger and she turned to the two yellow unicorns who seemed to be running the 'stall'.

"How dare you try to exploit a little filly! Or anypony!" The old mare cried at the unicorns, "You should be ashamed! In my day no one took advantage of a simple competition to sell rubbishy wares to ponies!"

She turned her back on the protests of the two unicorns and addressed Scootaloo, "So, you're looking for a sieve? Are you participating in the tea competition?"

"Yes, I-" Scootaloo began, but was interrupted by the old mare.

"It's such a pleasure to see youngsters interested in worthy things," The mare commented, digging around in her bag, "Here you go, you can have my spare sieve."

Scootaloo smiled at the act of generosity. "Thank you! I can't wait to get back to my friends once I finish shopping around here... at other stalls of course."

"Like I said, it's a pleasure. Off you go and finish your shopping," The mare hustled Scootaloo off towards the exit, "I'm going to give these stallions the telling off of a lifetime. Selling wares like that? That's not selling, its scamming!"

Scootaloo exited the tent, giggling at the mare's anger at the scammers. They were going to get quite the talking to. She examined the sign which explained the parts of the market and headed to the spices section. Chili flakes would definitely make the tea awesome!

Sweetie Belle knew what she wanted to get. Those edible sugar pearls! They would be amazing in tea! And Canterlot was a fancy place, there would definitely be a tea shop and a baking shop. Posh ponies making posh things was huge here.

Of course, she had to get the tea leaves too. Nothing fancy, just her favorite afternoon tea.

Making her way to the tea shop she had previously visited with her sister, Sweetie pulled a few bits out of her hidden bitpurse. Opening the door with a pleasant jingling, she made her way to the counter.

"Why good morning, Sweetie Belle," the brown mare behind the counter chirped cheerfully, "What can I do to help you? It's not often you're here by yourself."

"Hi-" Sweetie glanced at the name tag "-Cinnamon, can I get a small box of Afternoon Tea leaves?"

"Leaves? Are you making a blend for the Tea Day?"

"Yeah," Sweetie grinned with excitement, "My friends and I are being Cutie Mark Crusader Tea Makers!"

"That's nice," Cinnamon leaned over the counter a little, "I'm meeting my competition before I even step into the castle! I'm entering my secret cinnamon blend. Best of luck to you now!"

Cinnamon picked up a box and set it on the counter, taking the offered bits. "Would you like a receipt for that?"

"No thanks" Sweetie replied, levitating the tea box into her bag. "Good luck to you too!"

Sweetie left the tea store and pranced a little in satisfaction, celebrating her success before making her way to a store her parents had taken her to once.

Or she would have made her way there, had she not tripped on a loose cobblestone.

"Gah!" Sweetie momentarily slid down the gentle incline, letting out an audible 'oof' as she fell to the ground, the offending stone bouncing out before her once again.

"Clumsy children these days," a passing golden earth pony muttered.

"Hey!" Sweetie scrambled up and scurried in front of the mare, "I'm not clums-AAH!"

Sweetie just managed to get out of the way as the gold mare tripped over the same stone with a mortified shriek.

"You horrible pony! You're a harbinger of bad luck!" The golden mare yelled, more out of shock than actual anger, "I should report you for kicking up the cobbles on the street!"

A nearby royal guard, alerted by all the noise (and looking rather amused at the mare's antics), came over and helped the mare up. "Miss Golden Touch, you know well that the cobbles here are due for repair. The filly was not at fault."

Sweetie, having seen that she was not going to get into trouble over a loose cobblestone, hastily trotted away from the awkward situation. She knew it wasn't nice to laugh at the misfortune of others, but she did feel a small satisfaction from having seen the mare suffer the same 'clumsy' fate as her.

Sweetie trotted off to the shop to purchase her pearls.

Apple Bloom sauntered with purpose through the streets of Canterlot. Normally one would have no idea where to find a mortar and pestle in Canterlot, but she knew. Her zebra friend, Zecora, had opened a small store in the city to market natural medicines to the nobles, and the money raised from it would go to supporting the Ponyville Disaster Repair Fund. Zecora, not being big on travelling, had employed a withdrawn stallion named Ace Chaser to run the store, and offered school foals holiday employment if they wanted to earn a few bits.

Apple Bloom figured that she could borrow one of the several mortar and pestle sets from the store. And while she was there she could figure out what she wanted to add to their unique blend.

She opened the door to the store, stepped in.

"Hi Apple Bloom, it's nice to see someone sane today," Ace greeted, "Are you by any chance participating in the tea contest?"

"Ah am actually," Apple Bloom said, "Ah was wondering if Ah could borrow a mortar and pestle."

"Of course, come this way," Ace made his way through the ornate looking store to the back room, "Can you believe that some ponies want to spike their teas with addictive substances so they win the competition?"

"Seriously? How is that supposed to work if the Princess only actually takes one sip of each tea?" Apple Bloom curiously inquired.

Ace grunted, "I have no idea. Here, a mortar and pestle. Are you going to be putting any secret ingredients in your tea?"

"Yeah, but not anything addictive I hope," Apple Bloom tucked the mortar and pestle into her saddle bag, "Do you have any suggestions?"

"How about your namesake? Apple blossom?" Ace reached out to a shelf and retrieved a small plastic bag of petals, offering them to Apple Bloom. "On the house, because you're the first sane pony I've seen in a while."

"Sounds good enough," Apple Bloom picked up the bag and stashed it away as well, "I've gotta run, and get back to my friends, see ya Ace."

She stepped out of the door and began to make her way back to the agreed meeting spot.