Twelve

A few hours earlier, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle walked away from the library, followed by Gem and Minnie. The library was noisy, messy, and possibly hazardous to enter at the moment. But most importantly, Scootaloo wasn't there, which meant that the whole trip there had been pointless. Perfect.

"We'll never find her like this," Sweetie Belle sighed. "She could be anywhere!"

"Have faith Sweetie! We'll find her!"

The twins hadn't said anything since they joined their quest. It creeped Sweetie Belle a little but she nothing on it. Gabby gums was in the past, and she had learned from it.

But they were still creepy.

"How does your friend look like?" one of twins asked.

"She's orange with purple. And a blank flank like us." Apple Bloom pointed to her bare flank.

"What do your cutie marks mean?" Sweetie asked. The twins stared at her in confusion. Cutie mark? What was she talking about? What was a cutie mark? Both fillies seemed appalled when they voiced their questions.

"You don't know what a cutie mark is?!" Apple Bloom gasped. The twins nodded.

"How can this be?! Apple Bloom, we have to do something!"

"Agreed. Twins prepare yourselves for a crash course on crusading!" Apple Bloom decided.

"What's crusading?"

"You're about to find out."

The search for Scootaloo was postponed for the moment. They had an emergency on their little hooves, and fixing it was the outmost priority! They headed straight to the clubhouse.

"Alright new crusaders. First of all. What is a cutie mark? Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom asked. sweetie Belle lifted a paper with a messily drawn pony. On what seemed to be its flank was a circle, though it seemed more like something a dragon had chewed, spit and chewed again.

"A cutie mark is the sig of ones special talent. What you're good at." Apple Bloom explained, pointing a hoof at the paper. The twins nodded in understanding. She pointed a hoof at her bare flank.

"Unfortunately, we haven't found ours yet. Our mission is to find our special talent and earn our cutie marks!"

"Speaking of which, how did you two find yours?" Sweetie Belle asked. The twins stared at each other, then at their flanks.

"You mean our star mark?" "We were born with it."

The silence was deafening. The twins wondered if they had said something wrong. Sweetie Belle was trying to appear as calm as possible.

Apple Bloom seemed like on the verge of a heart attack.

"Born...with it?" she asked.

"Yes. From day one."  Gem said.

"Born with it." she repeated.

"It represents our native land our powers." Minnie added.

"Born. With. It"

"Apple Bloom..." Sweetie Belle murmured, worried for her friends increasing twitching. Her hoof started tapping on the floor. Meanwhile, far from the clubhouse, all the way in the sugarcube corner, two friends prepared a party.

"This is gonna be the best part ever!" Pinkie said.

"Smile...Leo...Smiiiileee....there! All done." Cancer said as she finished painting the sign with a metal brush. The windows suddenly exploded open, a scream sound like a manticore being raped by a timberwolf invading the room.

"Wow..." Pinkie removed the pillow from her head." What was that?"

"Sounded like a really angry scream." Cancer said.

Back in the club house, the zodiac twin plus Sweetie Belle cowered in the corner while Apple Bloom laid waste to the room, spouting curses and angry tirades against destiny for cursing her with a blank flank.

"Why is she so mad?!" Minnie asked.

After a couple more minutes of screaming and cursing, Apple Bloom began to cool off. Panting, sweating, she stood in the middle of the room. She took a deep breath. That had been enough wrath for now.

"AB...you ok?" Sweetie asked timidly.

"Ah'm...fine." Apple Bloom said. The rest of the group didn't seem very convinced. "Honest."

"I saw the capes at the entrance. There were three of them. We believe we are still one member short." Gem said as he picked a cape. Apple Bloom cleaned the messed clubhouse while Sweetie Belle helped with the organizing.

"Scootaloo is still missing. We need to find her." Sweetie said as she placed the table back in spot.

"I can see her near the library." Minnie said.

"How can you see her at the library? We're on the other side of town." Apple Bloom snarked.

"Can't you? We're right behind her." Gem said.

"No were not!" Sweetie said.

But they were. Scootaloo was in front of the library. They were right behind her. A hair stuck out of Apple Blooms mane, much like Twilight in her less than perfect moments.

"Can you two please stop doing that?" she growled.

"When did you get there?" Scootaloo asked as she heard the growl, not worried about the fact that reality warping on the level of Pinkie Pie happened right behind her tail.

"Uh...just now?" Sweetie said, taking the situation a lot more calmly than her friend. Introductions were quickly made, with Scootaloo warming right up to the zodiacs. While it was nice and rather cute to see the five kids become friends, they still had a problem. A big problem.

What now?

"How about some cooking?" Sweetie Belle suggested.

"Done already. House repairing?" Apple Bloom said.

"We tried that too. Is there really nothing to do?" Scootaloo replied.

"Maybe archeology?"

All heads turned to Gem, who blinked innocently.

"That's a great idea! What do you say crusaders?" Apple Bloom asked her friends, receiving positive nods all around. It was decided. Archeology it would be.

"But where?" Scootaloo asked.

"The old palace! My sister said they found the elements of harmony there. Who knows what we can find!" Sweetie answered.

"Alright then. Everfree forrest it is. Take us there twins" Apple Bloom cheered. The twins stared at her, confusion written their faces.

"Whats wrong? Do your thing."

We can't." Minnie said.

"What?! Why?!" Sweetie Belle asked.

"We can only appear on places we have already been before." Gem answered.

"We can't go somewhere we have never been before." Minnie finished. While it did damper their spirits a bit, the crusaders quickly lit back into action. Teleporting was out of the question?

"The Ah' guess we'll just take the long way there."