School could not have ended soon enough. By the time it was a little past noon and Miss Cheerilee was nearing the end of her lessons for the day, the cutie Mark Crusader were itching to gallop out of the schoolhouse and head for their tree fort. Applebloom was tapping her hoof impatiently on the desktop. She let out a sigh of frustration and turned to Sweetie Bell on her right. The white unicorn was chewing her pencil eraser to particles. There were even teeth marks on the pencil itself. Applebloom turned to her left to see that Scootaloo had her helmet in her lap and her scooter wedged between her hind hoofs under her. They were all on edge and waiting for the bell to signal the end of the school day.

"Applebloom?" Miss Cheerilee seemed to say almost suddenly.

The yellow filly jumped with a start and turned to her teacher at attention, "Yes'm?"

"What are the names of the founding kingdoms?" the teachers asked, returning Applebloom to their lessons in Equestrian History.

"Umm, well, that is... what ah mean t' say is..." Applebloom floundered for a bit, trying to come up with some form of answer, "The names of the kingdoms... arrrrreee..."

The ringing tune of the school bell had never sounded so welcome as it did just then. Miss Cheerilee looked at the clock on the wall to check the time. "Oh, well, I guess we can cover that tomorrow then."

Applebloom felt herself slump with a sigh at the save. Everypony got busy collecting their things to leave while Miss Cheerilee spoke out their homework assignments for the day. Scootaloo was packed, helmeted and on her scooter faster then most ponies could blink. Applebloom shoved everything off her desk and into her bag in a haphazard heap, then just slumped the whole thing over her shoulder and on her back. Only Sweetie Bell took her time to collect everything neatly and fasten her school saddlebags securely onto her flank.

They joined the flow of departing foals and gave their collective "Goodbye, Miss Cheerilee." as they passed their teacher at the door. Once they were out of the schoolhouse and into the yard, the three friends let out a united cry of joyful freedom and galloped (or in Scootaloo's case, scootered) their way to the fork in the path.

"Alrighty, so we all go home, drop our stuff n' meet up back at the club house after lunch, ok?" Applebloom dictated..

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan!" Sweetie Bell nodded.

"See ya then!" Scootaloo agreed and scootered off with her wings buzzing at full throttle.

Sweetie Bell waved goodbye and skipped away towards Rarity's boutique and her home. Applebloom took the path at full gallop, not wanting to waste a single second. Before long, she leaped over the front gate to the orchard and continued galloping all the way up to the house.

The front door swung open with a clatter as she burst in, "Ah'm home, everypony!" she called loudly into the house.

"Oh, hello Applebloom," Granny Smith was sitting in her rocking chair in the living room. Her lap draped over with a large patchwork quilt. A needle and thread were in her hooves and she was wearing a pair of glasses with lenses that were so wide and thick they made her eyes look like a lemur's after drinking too much coffee. "How was yer day?" Asked Granny as she tried to thread her needle, and missed.

"Great! Can't chat now, club meeting after lunch, wanna finish chores n' homework fast, what's for lunch? never mind, gotta go, bye!" Applebloom ran her mouth at full speed as she crossed the living room and disappeared up the stairs. Granny Smith could hear the little filly dumping her stuff and turning on the radio to her favorite channel for what she called Homework Music.

The old, apple-green mare just shook her head with a wise, knowing smile and attempted to thread her needle once again. And missed.

"Ah, fiddle-faddle!"

* * * * *

By lunch time, Applebloom had managed to finish most of her written homework. Except for the math which she needed help with. Her brother, Big Mac, would later make the time for her in the evening after he was done with his wagon deliveries. Most ponies wouldn't take him for such a good mathematician due to his easy going nature, but he explained numbers and equations better than even Miss Cheerilee did in Applebloom's humble opinion. She also had a book report to write, but that wasn't due for a couple days, so that could wait until later.

Applebloom got her school stuff sorted out and neatly shelved. She then went downstairs into the kitchen. Granny Smith had abandoned her quilt in the living room and was busy preparing lunch for her family. The smell of fresh baked bread and bubbling vegetable stew was enough to cause anypony to salivate on the spot. The old mare was standing on a stool with a flowered apron around her skinny waist. She was stirring the stew pot on the stove with a large wooden spoon while humming to herself. She paused for a moment to dip her hoof tip into the pot and take a taste. Smacking her lips with a thoughtful expression, she grabbed a spice jar from the rack and gave it a few shakes into the pot. A quick stir and another taste test later, Granny grinned with satisfaction and eased herself off her stool to check on her bread in the stove's oven.

"Can ah help with anithin'?" offered Applebloom.

Granny shook her head, "Thank ya, dearie, but I can manage jus' fine. It'll be 'bout thirty more minutes, so ya can help yer sister in the orchard."

"Alright," Applebloom skipped out into the living room to go out the front door. She spotted the thread and needle that proved to be the bane of Granny's old age, still lying un-joined on top of the quilt. Applebloom threaded the needle in one motion and pinned it into the pin cushion for Granny to use later. She then cantered out into the yard and headed for the apple orchard to help Applejack buck apples.

* * * * *

Sweetie Bell set up the dinning table with impeccable accuracy that months of living with her sister had drilled into her. Regardless if they would even use half the utensils, Sweetie Bell prepared a table that would make any formal dinner shine. Rarity was at the stove magically levitating the lid off her cooking pot and peering into it to check on her steamed alfalfa and dandelion dumplings. The older white unicorn nodded and checked on the second pot to make sure her noodles weren't over cooked.

"Sweetie Bell, be a darling and make some limeade, would you?" Rarity asked while flipping her perfectly curled, dark-purple mane over her shoulder, "And do try to remember the sugar this time, please."

"OK!" Sweetie Bell said happily. She dashed for the fridge and opened the door. Limes floated out in a pinkish aura of magic and landed in a neat little row on the counter top. Sweetie Bell then levitated a pitcher out of the cupboard and had it filled with tap-water.

"Ahem," Rarity cleared her throat and raised a brow in warning.

"Oh... oops!" Sweetie Bell quickly dumped the tap-water down the drain and levitated some chilled battled water out of the fridge.

Rarity nodded with a sisterly smile and went to double check her food again. A few moments later, both sisters were at the dining table with a beautiful meal that was fit for royalty, (or so Rarity would like to say).

"So, how was school today?" Rarity asked while she levitated a fork into her plate to twist the noodles.

"It was ok." Sweetie Bell replied.

"Anything particularly interesting happen today?"

"Well, Snips and Snails got their flanks stuck together with chewing gum again during recess. And Silver Spoon dropped her glasses when she was cleaning them and Diamond Tiara accidentally stomped on them."

"Oh my," Rarity said with wide eyes.

"OH!" Sweetie Bell added excitedly, "And Dinky passed out flyers for a circus that's coming to town soon!"

"A circus you say?" Rarity asked with polite interest.

"Yeah, it's going to be awesome! Me and the girls..."

"The girls and I, Sweetie. A proper lady must always speak in proper terms," Rarity recited out of habit, "but do go on, this all sounds very interesting. And please pass the limeade, would you?"

"Well, we're going to meet at the club house after lunch." Sweetie Bell continued, She levitated the pitcher of limeade and poured her older sister a glass full. "We were talking about it during recess and we all agree that maybe this would be a great chance to earn our cutie marks!"

"That's nice, Sweetie Bell, but do try and be careful while you're at it doing... whatever it is that circus folk do that you girls will no doubt attempt to mimic." Rarity said while magically dabbing a napkin daintily at her mouth.

"Hey, Rarity, is it alright if I take some stuff out of your scrap chest?" Sweetie Bell asked.

"As long as it's only from the Rejected scrap chest and not the Salvageable scrap chest, then yes, it is." Rarity said and took a sip from her limeade.

Instantly, the older unicorn's eyes bugged out in such a way that made it look like they were about to pop right out of their sockets. Her face turned an ill shade of green as she desperately looked around for a way of escape, but failed to find any alternative. In all unladylike fashion, Rarity spat the liquid out of her mouth in a disgusted spray.

"SWEETIE BELL!?" Rarity shrieked, "What have you done?"

"What? I remembered to add the sugar, like you asked!" Sweetie Bell protested.

"Darling, whatever you remembered to add, it certainly was not sugar." Rarity said while washing her mouth out with sparkling water.

"But I did!" Sweetie Bell whined. She hopped off her chair and went to the counter where several plastic jars with labels were set in a row, She levitated the second one on the right and floated it across the kitchen to her sister, "See?"

Rarity read the label on the jar and smacked her hoof to her forehead.

"That's the sea-salt jar, Sweetie."

* * * * *

After lunch, Scootaloo was zipping through Ponyville on her way to Sweet Apple Acres. Her tale whipping in the wind behind her as her wings propelled her scooter at awesome speeds. She zigzagged and twisted between the crowd as expertly as ever. An orange comet streaming between the ponies without a single bump.

"Whoohoo!" she called out, leaping her scooter onto the ledge of fountain and grinding across it from one side to the other.

Scootaloo leaped off and scootered her way out of the town and into the trees. She knew this short-cut perhaps even better than the back of her hoof. Before long, she skidded to a halt right in front of the ramp leading up to the tree fort. A cloud of dust and sand billowing up in her tracks.

"N' the crowd goes wild as the Amazin' Scootaloo makes her appearance into the ring!" Applebloom called out from the tree fort.

"Thank you, thank you," Scootaloo said taking her bows to an invisible audience. She then unlatched the chinstrap and took off her helmet. "But if it's all the same to you, I'd prefer something a bit more flashy. Maybe something like, Daredevil Scoot, or Orange Lightning. you know, something that literally screams AWESOME!"

"Well, whatever your name is, get up here. Sweetie Bell brought some stuff for us to use!" Applebloom reported and disappeared into the tree fort.

Scootaloo hung her helmet on the handlebars then parked the scooter against the tree trunk. She cantered up the walk ramp and entered the tree fort to pause at the door way and drop her jaw.

"Presentin' for the first time anywhere, the great and powerful, Madam Bell!"

Applebloom said in a grand flourish. She was dressed in a shiny red jacket and had a black top hat crowning her mane. Beside her, Sweetie Bell was dressed in several layers of sparkling blue silk and satin and her mane was done up with strings of gold costume jewelry and garnished with fancy blue feathers. Sweetie Bell hopped in front of Scootaloo and reared up on her hind legs to wave her hooves in a mystical manner.

"From the ancient times of forever, come the mysterious forces of the past, present and future," Sweetie Bell chanted in a creepy voice, that was a little too high pitched to really be creepy, "I, The Mystical Madam Bell, see all, and know all!"

"Do you know what my future will be?" asked Scootaloo, her eyes widening as the game enchanted her.

Sweetie Bell closed her eyes and hummed mysteriously while still waving her hooves around. "I see... I see... A mark!"

"A cutie mark?" asked Scootaloo.

"Yeeeessssss," Sweetie Bell hissed as if in a trance, "a cutie mark!"

"What will it be?" Schootaloo asked.

"Your cutie mark... will be... an awesome mark! Representing the talent you are best suited for!" Sweetie Bell offered.

"Awe, come onnnn! That's not a real prediction!" Scootaloo whined, completely shattering the whole game's illusion.

"Well, duh! I can't really predict that sort of stuff. I need to practice first!" Sweetie Bell shot back and clopped back down on all fours.

"We all need the practice," Applebloom agreed, "That's why we're here, right?"

"So where's my outfit?" Scootaloo asked excitedly.

"Check it out!" Sweetie bell offered and escorted her friend to the back of the club house.

There was a huge purple and gold colored trunk that had the word Rejected labeled on it in a fancy, curly font. The lid was wide open to reveal a haphazard array of fabrics, clothing, jewelry, feathers and odd nicknacks that really have no place in a clothing boutique.

"One mare's trash is another mare's treasure, as they say." Sweetie Bell said, "Rarity is always scrapping some pretty awesome stuff. So I brought this here to help us make costumes for our act."

"Good thinking, Sweetie Bell." Scootaloo went to work digging into the chest for something she liked.

"Ah think this is the best idea we had yet," Applebloom exclaimed. She was checking herself out in a mirror, posing as a ringleader to a grand audience that wasn't there.

"It'll certainly be one of the funner ones, that's for sure," Sweetie Bell said twirling in her silks. "I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and bright!" she sang out in her lovely singing voice.

"Pfft," Scootaloo rolled her eyes, "And I pity, anypony that isn't me tonight!" she continued the song and pulled out a bright blue vest that dazzled the eyes in bright, flashy sequences. She quickly tossed it on.

"Who's that pretty pony in that mirror there?" sang Applebloom.

"What, mirror, where?" asked Sweetie and Scoot together.

"Who could that amazin' mare be?"

"Which? What? Where? Whom?"

"Such a purdy coat, such a purdy hat, such a purdy smile, sucha purdy MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

When Applebloom ran out of breath, all three friends burst out laughing and falling to the floor in fits.

Author's Note

All chapters will be revised a few days after they are posted. This is cause it's easier for me to catch mistakes after taking a break from them when I write.

so please excuse them while they exist before editing.

enjoy the new chapter.

***please do not re-post my drawings without permission, thank you.***