“Mayday! Mayday! Brace yer’selves for impact, Crusaders,” Applebloom shouted through the flashing red lights of their space shuttle. They were hurtling toward the earth, spinning out of control in a spacecraft.
“Who’s bright idea was it to bring THOSE guys in here,” Scootaloo screamed, flapping her wings feebly to try and steady herself, but to no avail.
Jebediah Kerman was trying to fix the problem by pushing random buttons at the control panel. One of his hands happened to hit the wrong button and sped them faster toward the ground. He started freaking out even more now and was trying harder to figure out how to solve the problem
Sweetie Belle was trying to grab hold of the little green man to try and get him away from the controls. Everyone in the ship looked up to the front window and saw the Earth hurtling toward them and screamed.
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Previously…
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Sweetie Belle was on her way to the library, carrying a saddlebag full of paper and quills. She had been going to the library more often than normal this week, trying to find things that could possibly lead the Cutie Mark Crusaders to their ultimate goal. Some of the papers in Sweetie Belle's bag already had been filled out with ideas for them to try out.
After roughly five minutes, Sweetie Belle arrived at the library. As she entered, Sweetie Belle waved a cheery hello to Twilight, who was, of course, reading a book. The cover was bright and looked as if there were white dots all over it, some larger than others. This caught Sweetie Belle's eyes and she made her way to Twilight. "What are you reading Twilight? It looks interesting!"
"Oh! Its just a guide to the stars and universe. It's very intriguing. I've read it many times! I think there might be some things in here that you would like, Sweetie Belle!" Twilight shut the book and handed it over to Sweetie Belle.
"Oh. Well thanks Twilight," Sweetie Belle said, not wanting to feel rude and reject Twilight's offer. She took the book in her hooves and went over to a small table set in the library to sit down and read. As Sweetie Belle began to delve into the book, she found it to actually be quite interesting. It had many pictures of things in space, such as planets, stars, and descriptions of things such as comets and asteroids. One article in particular caught her attention. It was about an organization called the MANE, known also as the Massive Aeronautic Nebular Explorers. As Sweetie Belle read further and further on, ideas began popping into her head. And then it hit her.
She closed the book, stuffed it into her saddlebag, and pulled out a piece of paper and a quill. Sweetie Belle began writing furiously, jotting down all the ideas she had just come up with, and placing one in particular on the top of the list. The young pony then rolled up the paper tightly and put it in the saddlebag again, along with her quill. She waved a hurried goodbye to Twilight and sprinted out of the library, on her way to search for Applebloom and Scootaloo.
After about 20 minutes, Sweetie Belle found her first target. “Applebloom! There you are!” The small filly that Sweetie Belle had been looking for, was standing next to Applejack who was bucking apples in her family's orchid. “ We're having a meeting at the clubhouse tonight! Be there!”
“Alrighty then! See ya there, Sweetie Belle!” Applebloom waved a goodbye to her friend as she departed in search of Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle looked up, searching for rainbow streaks in the sky. Scootaloo was sure to be wherever Rainbow Dash was. The pony's eyes found what they was looking for within a few minutes. The explosion of color in the distance was not easy to miss. Sweetie Belle began trotting in that direction, and it was there, sitting next to a blue scooter, that she found Scootaloo. Dash was doing one of her trademarked moves; The Buccaneer Blaze, as Scootaloo watched in awe.
“Wow Dash! That was amazing,” Scootaloo shouted up, trying to get Dash's attention. The small foal attempted to flap her wings and get some air, but only rose a few feet in the air and fell back to the ground.
Rainbow Dash alighted down next to Scootaloo, seemingly trying not to laugh as she had seen the little filly try to fly. “Heh heh, you’re alright kid! Maybe someday you can do it too.” The Rainbow Pegasus rubbed Scootaloo’s head with a friendly hoof.
“Scootaloo! Hey, Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle was attempting to call Scootaloo from a distance, but to no avail. Scootaloo was mesmerized by Rainbow Dash. She moved closer and shouted at her again, “Scootaloo, you dodo! Get over here!”
The filly looked over, finally distracted from her idol, obviously bothered. “What? Can't you see I'm busy?!” Scootaloo looked at Rainbow Dash. “Sorry, Dash, I got to go,” she sounded disappointed, “The dictionary calls.”
Rainbow Dash looked puzzled by this, but waved a goodbye to the filly all the same and sped off back into the sky, a rainbow streaking behind her. Scootaloo mounted her scooter and sped toward Applebloom, fluttering her wings madly to speed her along. “This better be good, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said, obviously angry that Sweetie Belle had interrupted her time with the best flyer in all of Equestria.
Feeling like her reasoning was of little importance now; Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo, “There is a Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting tonight at the clubhouse. I just thought I would let you know.”
Scootaloo immediately perked up, “Cool! Let me go home! I’ll get my cape!” The filly seemed to have forgotten all about her lost time with Rainbow Dash
Obviously grateful that Scootaloo had not exploded in her face, Sweetie Belle ran to Carousel Boutique to grab her Cutie Mark Crusaders cape
A few more hours passed, and the sun was beginning to set outside, and the stars were winking their hello's to Equestria. Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo, all began to make their way to Sweet Apple Acres, where their tree house resided. Applebloom arrived first, of course. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo arrived about 5 minutes later. Scootaloo had brought her wagon for Sweetie Belle to ride in.
“Alright! Everypony’s here, now I recon’ we can get started,” Applebloom said, as the trio began climbing up the stairs into their clubhouse.
Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle, an excited look in her eyes, “Why exactly did you want a meeting tonight Sweetie Belle?”
“I’ve compiled my own list of things to try and get our cutie marks,” Sweetie Belle said, her voice rising with verve. “I want you two to see something I have written down! I’m sure that we can get our cutie marks this time!”
Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had all gotten up to the small deck on the outside of their tree house. Applebloom opened the door for the others and they all slipped in. Sweetie Belle took off the saddle bag she had brought and pulled out a small piece of paper that was wrapped in a tight scroll. The determined pony spent the next few minutes trying to make the paper lie flat on the small table they had in the house. When it finally laid itself out, Sweetie Belle thought to herself, that after working for at least an hour of this list, at least one of these ideas would get them their cutie marks. How many ideas could there possibly be that wouldn’t work?
“What’s first on your list, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo was asking, eagerly looking over Sweetie Belle’s shoulder.
“Lemme’ see,” squeaked Applebloom, knocking over Scootaloo in the process. “Oops, sorry Scoots.”
“Common’ girls! There is plenty of room to see,” Sweetie Belle said, rolling her eyes at Scootaloo on the floor and helping the pegasus up. The three crusaders all stood up and gathered around the paper equally.
“First on the list,” stated Sweetie Belle, “The Final Frontier!”
“What does that mean?” Scootaloo sounded confused.
“Ah’ have no idea, it sounds like somethin’ you would find inna’ race,” Applebloom voiced, sounding downcast. “Ah’m no good at racin’, Sweetie Belle.”
“No, no! You got it all wrong Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle shouted, worried that her friends had gotten the wrong idea, “This isn’t a race at all!”
“Well what in the hay is it then?” Scootaloo's voice sounded curious; almost eager, maybe.
“Don’t you girls know?” Sweetie Belle sounded dumbfounded that her friends didn’t know what she was talking about.
Applebloom and Scootaloo both joined voices as they looked at their friend, “Spit it out already!”
Sweetie Belle looked at them and uttered in the slowest and deepest voice Applebloom and Scootaloo had ever heard their friend use, “Space… The Final Frontier.”
There mouths dropped in both surprise of the idea that Sweetie Belle had proposed, and in the newfound voice they now knew their filly-friend had.
Then Scootaloo voiced what Applebloom was thinking. “You mean to tell me,” she opened a window, “that we should try and find our special talent, up there?! In space?!”
“Well… ya,” said Sweetie Belle, taking a step back from Scootaloo, obviously thinking that her idea sounded crazy to her friends. “I mean, why not? I think it would be cool to be high above Equestria.”
“Well ah’ agree with Sweetie Belle! Ah’ think that we could all have a special talent at bein’ astro-ponies.”
“Alright then,” said Scootaloo, sounding enthusiastic again, ”We will need a spaceship though, won't we?”
“Ya, it’s not like we can just fly up to space,” said Sweetie Belle, eyeing Scootaloo with a grin on her face.
“Hey! Stop making fun of me,” said Scootaloo, as both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle fell over laughing. “Really though, how are we going to get a space ship?”
Applebloom got back up, smiling, and answered Scootaloo. “Ah’ think we can make our own. Ah’ mean, how hard could it possibly be?”
“Yea! It should be a cinch,” Scootaloo said.
Then all three yelled at the top of their lungs, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SPACE ADVENTURERS ARE A GO!”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were still in their tree house, thinking how in Equestria they were to make a rocket. As Scootaloo said earlier, it should be a cinch. How hard could a rocket be to make?
“Common’ girls,” Applebloom voiced, “it ain’t rocket science!”
The other two foals just looked at her funny, wondering if she was being serious or joking. They decided on the latter. “Applebloom is right! We just need to come up with a place to start!” Sweetie Belle was trying to keep the excitement of their meeting going. She didn’t want the other two to lose interest. “Ok, so what’s the first thing we need to build a rocket?” They all thought for a moment.
Scootaloo was the first to speak. “Well, aren’t rocket made of metal?”
Sweetie Belle quickly brought out a second sheet of paper and a quill from her saddle bag on the floor and placed it on the small table next to the other list that had been made as a reference for cutie-mark ideas. “Good, good,” she said, writing the item on the paper, “We need more! Applebloom, you are good at this kind of thing, what do you suggest?”
“Well,” Applebloom said, looking up in though, “Ah’ recon we need somethin’ to hold the whole thing together now, like that fancy super glue er’ somethin’ like that.”
“That’s a great idea, Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle said, jotting this onto the paper also.
Scootaloo perked up quickly with an idea. “Don’t we need glass too? I want to be able to see how awesome Equestria looks from space.”
Sweetie Belle wrote this thing down on the piece of paper also. “Anything else you can think of?”After thinking for something they could have missed, Sweetie Belle clapped a hoof to her forehead. “We need gas and food too, don’t we?” She put pen to paper once more. “Alright then! I think we have our list, girls!” She put the list they had just made back into her saddle bag and fitted it onto her back. “Let’s go then!”
“Wait justa’ second, Sweetie Belle,” Applebloom shouted, halting her friends at the door, “Just how do ya’ expect us to afford all o’ this?” This made Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo frown.
“I have no idea, Applebloom. Maybe we could ask my older sister to help us out,” Sweetie Belle said, “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind lending us a few bits!”
“Maybe we should make a price list,” Scootaloo said, “just so we can get a rough idea of the total cost of all of this stuff before we ask.”
“Lets go then Crusaders! We’re wastin’ time,” stated an eager Applebloom, ready to get the project started.
Then they set off. The first place they had decided to look was of course somewhere where metal was sold. After several different locations, they settled on the cheapest one, which happened to be a scrap-metal junk yard. The owner knew Applebloom’s older sister and agreed to give them a rather generous discount. Only 50 bits for all of the metal they needed.
They waved a cheery goodbye to him and left in search of their second item to price; super glue. They were not sure where to start looking for this. It was not like super glue was used very much around Ponyville. After several failed attempts at various shops in Ponyville, Sweetie Belle turned to Applebloom.
“We can’t find it anywhere, Applebloom,” she said, sounding downcast, “Any other ideas? I mean, we need something to hold our rocket together, don’t we?”
“Well,” Applebloom thought, “we could use some o’ Big Mac’s screws ah guess. Ah’m not sure if he’d let us though, he doesn’t like anypony, and ah mean ANYPONY, in his toolbox.”
“We could just borrow a few without him noticing, couldn’t we Applebloom,” Scootaloo asked, sounding mischievous. “I mean, what’s so bad about taking a few screws out? We wouldn’t have to spend any money either”
“Ah’ guess we could,” Applebloom said slowly, as if she thought this was a bad idea, “We should get a move on though, Big Mac is workin’ in the acres right now, so if we hurry, we might just be able ta’ get some o’ them screws without him noticin’.”
They began their way back to Sweet Apple Acres, discussing their plan of action as they went, in case anything went wrong, deciding that one should stand next to an open window in the barn and keep watch over Big Mac. Applebloom had told them of a small hole in the back of their barn they could crawl in and out of, so they wouldn’t draw too much attention to themselves by coming through the front.
Once they were at Sweet Apple Acres, the first part of their plan went without a hitch. They had entered the barn unnoticed and were able to place Scootaloo near a window where they were able to see the surly, red earth pony.
“Alright now, Applebloom, where is his toolbox in here,” Sweetie Belle whispered, looking around.
“Right over here, Sweetie Belle.” Applebloom led her around a few bales of hay, and to a large, red, metal toolbox, full of variously sized drawers. “We gotta make it quick though, Ah’m not sure how long Big Mac ‘ll be out workin’.”
The two foals began to open the drawers, first, starting on the bottom. Drawer after drawer, all they saw were a mixture of wrenches, oily bolts, and things they didn’t even knew the name of. Finally, after having no luck, they got to the top drawer.
“Ah’ hope this’ll be the one,” stated a weary Applebloom. They both had to stand on their hind hooves to even look over the top.
Sweetie Belle began to search around. “What’s this?” She pulled out a small picture frame and looked at it. “Why in Equestria does he have a picture of Cheerilee in here?!”
“Lemme’ see that!” Applebloom took the picture and looked at it. She began to giggle.
“What’s so funny?” Sweetie Belle was wondering why this was so funny to her. Sweetie Belle found it kind of creepy.
“He wrote ‘Pumpkin Pie’ in the corner,” Applebloom chuckled. They both began to giggle.
Once their girlish-giggling was over, Sweetie Belle looked at Applebloom, “Let’s keep looking in here.”
They kept their hooves in the top drawer, searching. Then Applebloom’s hoof found a cardboard box, “Ah’ found somethin’!” She pulled the box out and it was a box of the very thing they had been looking for. “There’s a couple more boxes in there, grab some Sweetie Belle.”
Sweetie Belle reached in and put 3 boxes into her saddle bag. Just in time too. Scootaloo began waving at them frantically and they saw that Big Macintosh was making his way toward the barn. They all quickly squeezed into the hole in the back of the barn and high-tailed it out of there.
Once they were well away from Sweet Apple Acres, they stopped to catch their breath. “Now that that is done and over with,” gasped Sweetie Belle, “let’s go see how much the last few items are.”
They commenced their descent into Ponyville, looking for any stores that could possibly sell them windows. After several uneventful minutes, Scootaloo perked up, looking at a sign overhanging on a shop. “What about there girls?” Scootaloo pointed at it with her hoof.
“What does that place sell,” Sweetie Belle asked, sounding unsure. She could see through the front glass of the shop from where they were standing. Inside were all sorts of gadgets and things that looked expensive. Nothing looked like a window or pane of glass besides the front of the shop.
“Ah think it one o’ those fancy computer shops, Sweetie Belle,” Applebloom answered, sounding just as confused as her. The two looked at Scootaloo.
“Why in Equestria would they sell windows in there?” Sweetie Belle was questioning her friend’s logic.
“It was just a hunch I guess. How about we try the store next to it?” Scootaloo and the other two shifted their gazes to a shop next to the technology store. It had an ancient sign overhanging the road below it reading “Crystal Clear’s Window Emporium”.
“Huh,” said Applebloom, matter-of-factly, “Ah’ wonder why we didn’t come here in the first place.”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders entered the shop. It had a small, run-down, look about it. Upon entering, a stout pony seemed to appear right before their eyes, showering them in dust. “What can I help ye’ with, young’ns?” It was clear to them that this aged pony was up in his 70’s or 80’s. The fillies just stood and stared.
Feeling that they might be being rude by staring, Sweetie Belle piped in, “Um, we would like to ask if-,”
The aged pony interrupted, “What’s that, sonny? I can’t hear ye’!”
Sweetie Belle spoke louder, “We want to know if you sell any really strong windows here!!”
“Well ‘course we do, young’n! What do ye’ take me for, an old fool?” He thought for a second, wobbling on his unsteady legs, “Well, ye’ got the old part right.”
More confident now, Sweetie Belle asked her second question. The one she was dreading the answer to. “How much will it cost?” She was shouting again.
“Well, young’n, how much do ye’ need, now,” the old pony asked.
Sweetie Belle drew a good-sized square in the dust of the floor. “About that much, sir!”
The clerk thought for a moment. “Hmmm. That ought’a be about, maybe…. 150 bits.”
There mouths dropped. “That’s mighty expensive, Sweetie Belle.” Applebloom sounded worried. “Ah’m not sure that your sister would lend us that kinda’ money.”
“I think you’re right, Applebloom,” said Sweetie Belle. She began thinking of ways they could get more money. After all, they still had fuel and food to buy. “Maybe we could ask Rarity’s friends! We only need 200 bits for the parts of our rocket! Maybe we could put our own savings aside for the fuel and food!” Sweetie Belle looked at the old pony, “Could you hold onto that glass for us, mister?”
The old pony chuckled, “Sure, young’ns, just don’t forget to come back, ya’hear!”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders left the shop, waving a goodbye to the ancient pony. “See ya’ later, mister,” Applebloom shouted behind her.
“Alright,” Sweetie Belle said as the door snapped shut behind them, “Who’s house do we go to first?”
