Twelve

Scribble, scribble, scribble.

"No..."

Scribble, scribble.

"No."

Scribble.

"No!"

Apple Bloom slammed her pencil. Her homework laid in front of her, half made. It had remained half made for nearly an hour. It should have been done two hours ago. The paper laid in front of her, taunting her, mocking her. Who knew making a simple science report could prove to be so hard? After a couple more minutes of not coming up with anything, she made a decision.

"Ah' need help."

But who could help her? Taurus, Applejack and Big Macintosh were working on the fields, and even then, she wasn't sure they were that smart. Twilight was probably busy with Capricorn and Leo, her friends were troubled with their own homework. Pisces was with Rarity and Virgo, Aquarius was with Cancer and Pinkie, and Aries...

"Aries is a mechanic." she whispered to herself. Thats it! Aries was a mechanic, therefore, he was a scientist! He could help her!

"But where is he..."

Ponyville was a big town for a small filly like her, and finding one pony, eh, zodiac, was going to be a problem. She was on the clock here, and didn't had the time to search the entire place. She was going to need help. But who?

"Ah' need somepony who could help me find a zodiac fast...somepony like-"

"Hello Apple Bloom."

Apple Bloom would have jumped from her chair in feart, but by now, she was used to the twins just popping up behind her. They had taken a liking to scaring ponies. Maybe Pinkie was starting to rub off on them.

"Gem, Minnie, just the foals Ah' was looking for." Apple Bloom said with a smile.

"What can we do-" "-to assist you dear Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom quickly explained her situation. She was confident the twins would help her find Aries.

"We can't help you." Minnie said. "At least, not in the way you want." Gem finished.

"What?! Why not?!" Apple whined. "Ah' really need to find him!"

The twins shared a quick glance.

"Zodiacs can sense each other only when they use their powers." "Aries rarely uses his."

"The forget it...Ah'm going to get a red mark cuz Ah won't deliver my report on time." Apple Bloom slumped on her desk. She felt a hoof on her shoulder.

"We can still help you." Minnie said. "For we sense a zodiac who knows Aries very well and is currently using her powers."

Apple Bloom's face lit like a candle. There was some hope left! She closed her eyes, just as she had learned from her experience with the twins...moving around. For a mini second, the world around her vanished. She opened here eyes, now finding herself in the market. But not the market in the way that she knew.

"Wha..."

The entire place was a mess. Solid wooden crates had holes in them, entire stands had been torn down and the entire place looked like if a hurricane had walked through.

"What happened?" Apple Bloom asked out loud.

"Some crazy mare ran by, chasing some critter." one seller answered from her ruined shop. "You should have seen it, she was swinging her tail like if it was some sort of weapon!"

"She broke my vinegar bottle!"

"She destroyed my food stand!"

"She broke my bottle and destroyed my food stand!"

"We demand some compensation!"

"Lets go see the mayor so she can poach some bits from Twilight!"

Apple Bloom had to jump out of the way of the stampede of the angry capitalists as they ran for their money. The twins seemed like they wanted to ask something, but a sign from Apple Bloom told them it was best to save the question for later.

"It was Scorpio right?" she asked. The twins nodded. Apple Bloom sighed. Scorpio scared her, and now that she had done all this, getting to her was all but impossible.

"Anypony else?"

The twins closed their eyes. A second later, Apple Bloom was now looking at a tree. Why in the world, had the twins brought her to the outskirts? She needed aries, not-

ssssssssTACK.

Her bow fell on on her head. On both sides of her head, as an arrow had passed above her, impaling itself on the tree.

"Ups! Sorry there little girl..."

Sagittarius landed besides her. A few sparkles of light shined around his hoof briefly before vanishing.

"You shouldn't appear out of nowhere like that. You might get hurt."

"You...you just shot an arrow to me!" Apple Bloom shrieked.

"First, its not arrow, its a light arrow, and second, I aimed to the tree, not you. You appeared right before the arrow." Sag explained. "Why did you anyway?"

"Ah'm looking for Aries to help me with my homework, cuz he's a mechanic and mechanics know stuff, but Ah's don't know where he is, so Ah asked the twins to help me, but we found the market Scorpio rampaged through it, so they went looking for another pony to help me find Aries, and they brought me here and now my bow is ripped!" Apple bloom flipped the ends of the bow that hung on her head. "Whats a light arrow anyway?"

"Its an arrow formed from the cosmic energies that flow on my magical bracelets." Sag started flapping his wings, lifting himself from the ground. His front hooves started glowing and soon, a a bow and arrow, both made of light, popped on them.

"Thats...pretty cool actually." Apple Bloom admitted. "But it doesn't help us find...where are the twins?"

Back in the market, two foals chugged down to bottles of milk that were strewn around in the wreckage.

"Without them, Ah wont find Aries!"

"So he can help you with your work? Why, can't you do it yourself?"

Apple Bloom looked at the ground, downcast. Sag slapped his forehead. Nice going Sag. Just insult the sister of one of your few friends on this planet.

"Eh, look, how about I help you find him?" he offered. Apple Bloom looked at him, wiped her eyes and smiled.

"Okay."