Change of Direction

The Cutie Mark Crusaders weren't a hugely known group in Ponyville, let alone Equestria. Small rumours around Ponyville occasionally came up when they did something out of the ordinary, and they were just as soon forgotten when they stopped being interesting. That was just how the crusaders liked it best; their name was out there, but attention didn't attract them everywhere they went.

For one, their secret spots wouldn't be much of a secret anymore. Their lake would be plagued with beach-goers constantly and the normally flat and glassy water surface would always be disturbed. Their headquarters, Applejack's old tree house, was known to a few ponies other than the crusaders, but the inside was just as sacred as the lake. No one went in other than the crusaders.

Which is exactly why Sweetie wanted to get Spike inside.

She had just come from the lake with Spike, him being the only non-crusader ever to see the peaceful haven. The other crusaders were about to have a meeting, as it is generally scheduled on that day, and she didn't want to miss it even if it meant leaving the lake.

'Sweetie, where exactly are we going?' Spike said nervously, observing the sun that was getting dangerously close to setting. Night time was approaching, and Twilight would probably start looking all over for him, since he generally leaves something on parchment if he leaves flr a while.

Sweetie seemed amused by his constant gulping and shifting, chuckling slightly to herself. 'Well, I need to be somewhere, and I thought I'd show you that place too!'

Spike's curiosity was piqued by the mysteriousness, but he still could not shake off his thoughts of how worried his friend might get.

By the time they arrived at a large tree, the sky had begun to glow with an orange tinge from the sun, much to Spike's chagrin despite the sheer beauty it displayed for Ponyville.

He turned his sights towards the building on the tree, which was a nice looking house for someone to stay in. It was stable amidst the thick branches supporting it, and the walkway up looked sturdy and secure.

'Wow, Sweetie. Who built this?' Spike said, his curiosity piqued once again.

'This used to be Applejack's tree house when she was a little filly. She gave it to me, Applebloom and Scootaloo to make it...' Sweetie paused for dramatic effect. 'the Cutie Mark Crusader Headquarters!'

Spike had known about the crusaders, but not to an extensive degree. He knew that they had secret spots, but he had absolutely no idea why he was getting shown these spots without being a crusader himself.

That's when he realized what Sweetie may have been implying.

'Spike? Is the name too long? Just call it the CMCH if you want, it is pretty long for a name,' Sweetie said. She had begun ushering him him up the walkway after she had finished. 'Go on up! Don't be shy!'

Spike started to make his way up the walkway to the door, deciding to keep his suspicions to himself in case this wasn't a recruitment. He began to doubt that notion more and more when he pushed the door, hearing the voices of Scootaloo and Applebloom.

By the time the door was opened, the voices had stopped. There, he watched as the building's two occupants stared at him with confusion, having never seen anyone but a crusader inside.

The silence was broken when Sweetie walked in, happy and eager to get Spike to get involved.

'Hey, girls! Did you guys start on the meeting? I'll just join you anyways!' Sweetie said, taking a seat on the south side of the square table in the center, offering Spike a seat on the east side.

'Use the cushion, Spike. Normally, we only have three here, so we only got three chairs-'

Sweetie's offer was accepted by Spike, but she was interrupted soon after by the loud slamming of an orange hoof- Scootaloo's, who hadn't spoken yet- on the table.

'Yes, we only expect three people in here. I see four. Care to explain, Sweetie Belle?' Scootaloo said sternly, crossing her hooves across her chest and staring accusingly at Spike and Sweetie. Applebloom looked at Spike with curiosity, as though she were thinking about him, but remained silent.

'Look, I just wanted to let him see the inside of he headquarters! We don't have guests often, you know, and it's nice every once in a while!'

'Exactly, we don't! What makes Spike so special that he should be allowed here? We don't just want guests piling in here every day, we want this to be our thing!'

Sweetie stopped for a moment, as if hesitating to say an important point. Before she began again, she sighed deeply and closed her eyes.

'Scoot, I showed Spike the lake,' Sweetie said softly. Soft was the last word someone would use to describe Scootaloo after she had heard the latest piece of news.

The only sound she made when her mouth was agape with anger and confusion was the grinding of her chair against the wooden floor when she pushed it away to run over to Sweetie.

'You did WHAT?!' Scootaloo yelled angrily, waving her hooves all in Sweetie's face. 'You know that that's our spot! How could you disobey the rule? Only crusaders can know about the lake!'

'Hey, you let people in for the Rainbow Dash fan club! What about that?'

Scootaloo was almost at a loss for words. 'Th... that was different! This isn't an event like that! Only crusaders allowed!'

'Well, why can't Spike be a crusader?'

That only made Scootaloo madder, but instead of yelling at Sweetie, she turned to Applebloom.

'What do you think, Applebloom? Do you think this is stupid?'

No reaction came from Applebloom, as she was still looking at Spike in her own thoughts.

'Bah! You are all crazy!'

This time, it was Applebloom's turn to speak.

'Well, Scoots, Sweetie does have a point. If ya think 'bout it, Spike doesn't have a cutie mark, he is probably lookin' for some stuff to do and we don't have a rule that only says ponies can be a crusader,' Applebloom said, pausing to catch her breath. Spike was still sitting in his seat, unable to think of anything to do that won't aggravate someone in the building. 'If he wants to, I have no problem havin' another friend to do stuff with us.'

'Oh, so this is a vote now? And you two are fine with letting him be a crusader?' Scootaloo said sarcastically, even though the other two crusaders nodded their head. 'This was our thing. I didn't even think making the rules was necessary, because I thought it would always just be us friends!'

Without another word or pause to let someone else speak, Scootaloo was out the door on her way back home.

'Well, she'll come back to her senses, she was just upset that Rainbow Dash broke her wing last week so she couldn't watch her compete. Golly, we haven't even asked Spike if he wants to join in the firs' place! Silly us!' Applebloom said, watching Spike with interest once more.

Sweetie joined in, anxious to see what Spike thought of the whole ordeal. He himself was not comfortable with having just created a fairly aggressive conflict, so he wasn't sure what he wanted at this point.

'Well, I should be getting home, it seems to be getting dark out. I'll come by tomorrow and make my decision, if that's what you girls want.' Spike paused for a moment. 'Say, what do the crusaders do? I see you do stuff sometimes, but I haven't really talked to you about it.'

Sweetie was the first to chime in.

'The main thing we do is us trying to find our cutie marks. We also love to just hang out with our friends, so we have meetings- like today was supposed to be- to plan the day. We do stuff that's fun, like acting as reporters or playing games, so that we enjoy our time. We're hoping something we eventually do will get us our marks!' Sweetie exclaimed happily. 'You probably can't get one, Spike, but you can be do stuff with us! Like an assistant!'

Spike groaned at the assistant notion.

'If I join, just call me a member. I assist enough for Twilight.'

Sweetie chuckled, finishing with a wink towards Spike. Applebloom chuckled too, but she began walking to the door in lieu of having the assumed-to-be-cancelled meeting.

'I'd reckon you best head home, Spike. It's startin' to get late. You think about joining, you hear?' Applebloom said, close to leaving through the door.

'Alright. Wait, what about Scootaloo?'

'I'll go check on her before I head home. She'll be fine tomorrow!'

Spike felt relieved that the issue would be dealt with, and since he had no more qualms, he passed a goodbye wave to the crusaders and left the building.

It was night out, and when he got to the front door of the library, he heard the old clock tower ringing 10 times. The rings rang in his ears for a while before he opened the door, as though they foretold some terrible thing to happen inside.

What was inside wasn't a worried or angry Twilight, but the surroundings laid out still made it it apparent that something bad had happened.

A banner with the words "Thank you Spike!" was plastered on the wall, complete with tables of treats, drinks and party favours.

Party favours.

'Spike? You're back!' Twilight said, coming in from her study. 'I guess you wouldn't know about this, since it was a surprise party.'

Spike nodded his head slowly, having already had enough surprises and things to gawk at for one day.

'I wanted you to a small errand for me in the meantime while I set up a party with my friends for you, to celebrate you being such a great little dragon. We waited for a while, and eventually, everypony left. We didn't know where you were (except Rarity, I think she was working on my dress. She had the thread after all), so I just went to my study to continue working, waiting for you to come back.' Twilight took a moment to catch her breath. 'So, where were you?'

Spike felt terrible that he made them all wait, and he wouldn't have missed the party for the world if he knew about it. Then he felt overwhelming happiness at the thought of them throwing a party for him, knowing that he was appreciated well for his hard work.

'You really did that for me? I'm so sorry I couldn't come, but I feel so good that I almost had a party for myself!'

Spike realized too late that what he said definitely came out completely wrong. Twilight, however, seemed to take no notice.

'Tell you what: me and my friends are going to the Hearts By Fire restaurant tomorrow, and maybe we can all celebrate together! How does that sound?' Twilight inquired, making her way back to her study. 'Oh, and you have to clean this party up by then, or you can't come!'

'That sounds like a fun idea- wait, what?' Spike said, trying making out what Twilight had said. Twilight simply laughed, much to Spike's confusion.

'No, silly, I was kidding! First thing tomorrow, I'll clean this up and we'll head over,' Twilight said, still chuckling to herself. 'So where did you go?'

Spike thought about it for a second.

'I think I made some new best friends.'