Suddenly Sweetie Belle

Chapter 6

The Next Crusade

Having regained consciousness after fainting by the sound of cars zooming past, I find myself in the backseat of a Ford, if the Ford badge on the dashboard is anything to go by, with Blueblood sitting next to me, watching over me like a mama bear, despite being my friend/some random prince dude, the distinctly different cutie mark on his side catching my eye, which could have been noticed earlier, as it was a pencil, eraser and helmet-with-a-star-on-it instead of the compass rose.

“Hey,” I start, pointing a hoof towards Bluebloods alabaster flank, “How come you’ve got a different cutie mark?”

“Hmm?” Blueblood, who was actually Asha at the time, queried, turning his gaze from me to each of his flanks, then back to me, “Oh, it’s nothin’, just my cutie mark on this side, while Bluebloods is one the other. It happened on Smatterday.”

Somewhat satisfied with that answer, I return to my seated position, intrigued by the fact that two ponies in one body will each have separate cutie marks.

‘Hmm,’ I think, my face contorting slightly to accommodate the frown I get whenever I think relatively deeply about stuff, ‘I wonder, if Blueblood and Asha both have their cutie marks, maybe Sweetie and I do too.’

Gazing around to my right, I find no cutie mark, but the left provides a different image. There I found a quill and quaver, the cutie mark I had when I was that pink pony inside my head. Looking over it, I became more and more curious, questions bubbling to the fore-front of my mind.

‘Who is this mysterious pony? Why do I feel as if I met them a long time ago? What is the connection between us? Is it Sweetie? Is she the link? Or has she just allowed it to become manifest?’ Are a small variety of the questions running through my head, chosen because I could actually keep track of them before settling on a thought and shrugging, ‘I just don’t know.’

Sighing slightly, I turn my gaze to the world beyond the car, watching the buildings and other cars go by, the tiniest little bit bothered by the idea of driving on the right-hoof side of the road. It doesn’t take long for me to get bored, so I undo my seatbelt and rummage around the car for my backpack.

Finding it in the front passenger hoofwell, I grab it with my teeth and drag it back to my spot in the back of the car, straining slightly to lift it up. Opening the bag, I pull out my jacket, which is now torn and slightly blood-stained in multiple places, mostly around the torso area, placing it on the back of the seat and my iPod, untangling the earphones from themselves with great difficulty and placing them in my ears with greater difficulty.

“I thought Blueblood taught you levitation magic already?” Asha asked, concern evident in her/his voice.

‘Hey Sweetie, did Prince Jerk teach you how to levitate stuff?’ I think to Sweetie, masking it on the outside with a thoughtful look on my face and a hoof rubbing my chin after I zip up the bag.

‘Who’s Prince Jerk?’ Sweetie replies, unawares of the fine art of name-calling.

‘Blueblood,’ I deadpan, though it still gets the message across to Sweetie.

‘Oh, yeah. He said that he was really frustrated with my progress though, whatever that means. Why’s he a jerk?’  Sweetie informs, slight confusion evident in her voice nearer to the end.

‘Ask your sister when we see her,’ I finalise, or, at least, I thought I did. Closing the channel, something I didn’t consciously know I could do until just then, I prepare to return to watching cars drive past, when Sweetie stopped me.

‘Wait, hang on,’  Sweetie started, obviously having noticed that one mistake I made, ‘How do you know Rarity?’

‘Uh… Because you know her?’ I asked hopefully, blanking slightly as a minor side effect and metaphorically shitting myself.

Hearing nothing but some mutterings from Sweetie in response, I return my attention outside.

“Yeah,” I started, “Apparently he, or you, whichever, did.”

Actually looking at the human-girl-turned-unicorn-prince, I saw that she, or he, I don’t know, I’ll figure it out at some point, was fast asleep, drained from the trek up to this point, at a guess.

Overwhelmed by the cuteness of a pony sleeping, even if it is the biggest jerk in the show, I ‘d’aww’ softly, bringing myself to the driver’s attention.

“I didn’t know ponies were so susceptible to the cuteness of each other.” She said, glancing in the rear-view mirror to see Blue sleeping as if he were dead to the world.

“I didn’t know that either,” I say, provoking an eyebrow to be raised, “Maybe I still don’t know. After all, I’m not the original pony here,” I finish, pointing a hoof at myself.

“So you’re not Sweetie Belle then?” She asked, even though it sounded rhetorical to me.

“Nnope,” I say in an attempt to emulate Big Mac, even though the vocal chords I’m equipped with can’t actually hit that area, so it ends up sounding like Apple Bloom, as I throw the torn jacket on, sliding the bag onto my back next, then clambering over into the front passenger’s seat.

“So how long ago did you become Sweetie?” She asks, adding a “If you don’t mind,” as an afterthought.

“Depends, what date is it?” I ask, figuring it wouldn’t have been that long since Blue ‘woke up’, for lack of a more descriptive term.

“The 6th,” She said provoking a look of shock from me, which was quickly pushed away.

“Shit, that long already?” I start, earning myself a nod, “Well, that means Sweetie and I have been sharing her body for four or five days now.”

“Oh, yeah. You’re Australian.” She said, as if that explained everything, though it did wipe a confused look from her face.

“Eeyup,” I return, before remembering that I should at least try to be polite to her, especially after helping as much as she has, “By the way,” I continue extending a hoof towards her, “We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Jason. What’s your name?”

“Sandra.” Sandra responds, carefully shaking my hoof with her hand while keeping her eyes on the road.

“A lovely name, Sandra,” I started, receiving a snort of amusement at the faux-British accent that I displayed, “Well, allow me to be the first, assuming ‘his royal highness’ hasn’t already, in the event of which, then allow me to be the second, or maybe third if ‘his majesty’s’ body-double has as well, or even fourth if Sweetie has, which seems likely, considering how long we’ve been here to thank you for helping us. We’d probably still be in Australia if it weren’t for you.”

“Nah, it was nothin’. ‘An enemy of my enemy is my friend’, even if they are a pony.” Sandra says, prompting a strange look from me.

“Enemy of your enemy?” I ask, the sort-of-but-not-really-hidden message passing straight over my head, a look of perterbence plaster on the front of Sweetie's head.

“You’ve not heard of PAPA?” Sandra queries, or, at least, that’s how it sounded to me.

“Who?” I return in a rather nice imitation of Owlowysious, if I do say so myself, which I do, so to all those people who say that I can’t, fuck ya, ya wankers.

“People Against Ponies Association, or whatever the second ‘A’ is. They reckon that you ponies are at fault for all the weird shit that’s been happening lately, like the thing with calendars.” Sandra informs me, eliciting a small “Ah,” of comprehension.

“So, what’re you lot called? ‘People Against People Against Ponies whatever-their-A-is whatever-your-A-is’? PAPAPAA?” I ask, which just earns me a brief chuckle from Sandra.

“Nah, we call ourselves ‘The Crusaders’. Dunno why though. I mean, it’s not like we’re fighting a war, right?” Sandra answers, provoking a chuckle from me, “What? What’s so funny?”

“We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, on a quest to find out who we are,” I sing, slightly bemused by the overwhelming joy that comes from it, “And we will never stop our journey, not until we have our Cutie Marks!”

Breathing a little heavier after blasting a song like that, I do a mock bow when Sandra applauds, though most of the applause is for Sweetie. I stop for a while, my train of thought carrying me to an interesting station.

“If Sweetie’s here, which she is, else this conversation would definitely not be happening, then Pinkie Pie probably is too, don’tcha reckon?” I ask Sandra, who responds with a look of confusion before holding a finger up to stop me for a moment.

“Speaking of the pink chaos spawn,” Sandra starts, pulling a laptop out of the bag beside her,

“The prince and his femme comrade wanted me to show you both this.”

Quickly jumping inside my head to bring Sweetie into the ‘drivers seat’ with me, Sandra pulls over the car before booting the laptop, accessing YouTube, and searching ‘Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy – This Is Halloween’, opening the first video that appeared.

The video opened to a crowd of media men and women, throwing a barrage of questions at Pinkie and Fluttershy. Pinkie manages to quieten down the media folk by stating that she, nor the others would be answering questions at that time. She, however, then seems to be about to make some kind of wacky speech, to which the crowd become silent and the camera zooms in on Pinkie, while Sandra continues driving across the United States. The beat from ‘This Is Halloween’ starts, and Pinkie sings the first line, the camera passing over a fellow crusader for a moment.

“It’s Apple Bloom!” Sweetie squeaks, pointing a hoof at her image while I privately curse myself for thinking along a particular line that I shall not divulge.

The song continues like it did in ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, but with a completely new cast; Pinkie and Apple Bloom, obviously, Fluttershy and Gilda, the latter of whom I did not see coming, a unicorn and alicorn that I’ve never seen before, and some random people, who seemed to be immersing themselves in the mood. After it finished, I immediately clicked the ‘more notes’ clickable, hoping that it might inform me as to the names of the two ponies I didn’t recognize.

“Hmm, ‘Shining Armor’ and ‘Princess Cadence’. Who are you?” I mutter, having resumed sole control of my body.

Googling their names, I find out that they were introduced to the show at the end of season 2, in a double episode likened to those that opened both seasons. Deciding against jumping ahead to their episodes, I open YouTube again and continue to watch the show from where I left off before all of this nonsense started.

“Season 2, Episode 3. Here I come.”