Crusader Camp

by Lighthawk

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, Original Character, Spike, Comedy, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 7784

Back in mah day, we had to earn our Cutie Marks our own selves! But now Applebloom and her friends gone and dun institutionalized it or sum'thin, ah dun know, but it just ain't the same sum'how. But shoot, ah guess if it works...

Back in mah day, we had to earn our Cutie Marks our own selves! But now Applebloom and her friends gone and dun institutionalized it or sum'thin, ah dun know, but it just ain't the same sum'how. But shoot, ah guess if it works...

Published 2013-03-28 07:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-11-17 08:46:43 UTC

Chapter 1

The door chime roused Applebloom from the waking sleep she had dropped into while trying to fight her way through the pre-summer paperwork. Try as she might, she just could never get herself properly worked up about all the figures and scheduling needed to ensure that Crusader Camp ran smoothly. Sweetie Belle kept telling her that she just needed to adjust her attitude about the paperwork.

Scootaloo on the other hoof agreed whole heartedly with Applebloom on the subject, and was quick to point out that Rainbow Dash hadn’t become Captain of the Wonderbolts by being good at paperwork. To which Sweetie would point out that Dash could have made Captain years ago if she hadn’t kept getting busted down for constantly failing to file her reports. At which point Applebloom was forced to kick both of her friends and fellow camp councilors out of the room if she was going to have any hope of completing said paperwork.

She shoved the offending file folder to the side of the welcome desk and quickly wiped away a trickle of drool from one corner of her mouth. Applebloom glanced up as the door finished opening, and her face split into a wide smile.

“Rarity, Spike!” Applebloom exclaimed happily, trotting around the desk to greet them. “Well ain’t it a pleasure to see ya’ll, it’s been way too long!”

“Applebloom darling, how have you been?” Rarity beamed, coming over to hug the young mare.

“Aw shoot, Ah can’t complain,” she responded, returning the hug. When she pulled back, Applebloom was a bit surprised to realize she was actually looking down a bit at Rarity. Had she been taller than the fashionista last time they met? How many years had that been now? Two at least, and maybe more. “Hows about ya’ll?”

“Marvelous dearie, simply marvelous,” Rarity replied cheerfully. “My last fall fashion line did well enough that we’re getting the apartment renovated. We’ve been needing new doorways for a bit now actually…”

“New doorways?” Applebloom questioned. She got her answer when she realized that Spike was only just currently managing to squeeze himself into the room. “Landsakes,” Applebloom quipped as she watched the dragon unfolding himself to his full height, the spines on his head brushing the ceiling as he did. She could still remember when the two of them had been able to look each other right in the eye. Then she’d gone and hit puberty, leaving the young drake in the metaphorical dust. But Spike had kept on growing, slowly but surely, and as the years passed he had caught up with, and then passed Applebloom, and eventually every other pony in height. Then he’d kept right on growing, his body shifting until he was much more comfortable on all fours, which had brought him back down to merely tall instead of towering…and then he had kept right on growing…

“Hey there short stuff,” Spike boomed as he smirked down at her, earning a friendly scowl from Applebloom.

“One summer, just one summer and ya’ll never gunna let me live it down, are ya?” she complained through a smile.

“Serves you right Miss ‘Ah am a lady now’” Spike replied, his deep bass tone lending itself very poorly to his attempt to mimic her voice.

“Dear please, you’re going to set a bad example,” Rarity mock chastised.

“Too late for that,” Spike joked.

“So where is the little one?” Applebloom asked.

“Right here,” Spike replied, finally pulling his tail in through the doorway. It brought a young filly along with it, the tip wrapped snugly around her barrel even as her hooves dragged futilely across the floor in a desperate attempt to get away. Spike rather effortlessly swung her around, and plopped her firmly in front of Applebloom.

The young mare’s coat was as pristine white as her mother’s, though touched with kisses of purple around her hooves and muzzle. Said muzzle was somewhat more pronounced than normal, more rounded, casting a slight reptilian light to her features. The purple coloration continued along the leading edges of her wings, but her feathers where a deep green to match her mane, which was done up on a pair of bobbing pigtails that poked up behind her ears.

“I don’t wanna,” the filly pouted, sitting back on her haunches and crossing her front legs over her chest.

“Manners dear,” Rarity said primly. “Applebloom, this is Fire Ruby. Ruby, say hello to Miss Bloom.”

The filly glanced up at Applebloom uncertainly.

“Howdy, how ya’ll doin’?” Applebloom said cheerfully.

“…hey,” came the unenthusiastic reply.

“Fire. Ruby. Belle…” Rarity said in tones of descending doom. The young mare sighed, but got to all four hooves and dipped her head in a rather graceful little bow, her wings spreading. Applebloom noticed that she seemed to have some kind of thin membrane running along the length of the limbs, only slightly visible between her feathers in a few places.

“Pleased to meet you Miss Bloom,” Ruby said in a suddenly crisp, flawless upper Manehatten accent. The courtly greeting was rather ruined by the grotesque face she pulled, obviously certain her mother couldn’t see it from where she stood.

“Pleased ta meet’cha too Fire Ruby,” Applebloom replied, holding back a snigger and deciding she liked the little filly already.

“Okay, greetings over, let’s go home,” Ruby stated, no trace of the accent remaining. She spun and made for the door, but Spike casually raised one paw and caught her around the midsection. His talons encircled the filly’s entire barrel, and with a gentle flick of just his thumb and foreclaw, spun her in a complete one eighty between one step and the next, sending her walking right back to where she’d started.

“Welcome back,” Applebloom grinned. Fire Ruby blinked in mild surprise, then scowled over at her father.

“I don’t wanna,” Ruby repeated, sinking down to her belly on the floor. “I don’t even care about some stupid Cutie Mark.”

“Well that’s alright,” Applebloom said cheerfully, folding her legs under herself to join the filly on the floor. “Cutie Mark acquisition is only a small part of Crusader Camp,” she explained.

“I probably can’t even get one anyway,” Ruby said with forced indifference.

“Now what makes ya say that?”

The filly eyed Applebloom with that extremely serious look only young children can manage. “Because…” she said melodramatically “I’m a mutant!”

“Fire Ruby Belle…” Rarity repeated dangerously.

“What?” Ruby said indignantly. “I am. How many ponies you know that can do this?” She sucked in a deep breath, and huffed out a shower of green sparks that danced briefly across the floor before winking out.

“That doesn’t make you a mutant, dear,” Rarity said pointedly.

“Yeah, having me for a dad does that,” Spike agreed, earning a small smile from his daughter and a glare from his wife.

“Well Ah think that’s right amazing,” Applebloom told Ruby. “And who knows, maybe being half-dragon does mean ya’ll never get a Cutie Mark, or maybe it doesn’t. But like Ah said, that ain’t all camp’s about.”

“I know,” Ruby said. “And no offense meant Miss B, but I don’t want to go to camp, yours or otherwise.”

“Really? ‘Cause based on the last letter I got from your ma, she seemed to think ya’ll was plum ‘cited to go.”

“Yeah well…” the filly hedged. “That was then, this is now.”

“Well whatever made you change your mind darling?” Rarity asked, bewildered. “Most of your friends will be here...”

“I know…”

“As will Auntie Sweetie…”

“I know…”

“And you’ll get to do all kinds of activities that you couldn’t in Canterlot…”

“I know!” Ruby exclaimed, a small puff of smoke issuing from her nostrils.

“Ya’ll worried about being picked on?” Applebloom ventured, easily seeing how the filly would make a tempting target. “Cause Ah can assure ya, we don’t put up with none of that nonsense here at all.”

“Pfft, heck no,” Ruby said dismissively, surprising Applebloom with her obvious lack of concern at the idea. “Nopony’s picked on me, at least not to my face, since I threatened to eat Maple Leaf.” She smiled widely at Applebloom, showing off teeth that, while not anywhere nearly as pointed as her father’s, were noticeably sharper edged than most pony’s.

“You did what!” Rarity exclaimed even as Spike let out a snort of laughter that quickly turned into a loud cough as his wife fixed him another glare.

“She was being a jerk,” Ruby said defensively.

“That is no excuse to threaten to devour somepony!”

“I wasn’t really gonna,” Ruby replied. She dropped her voice until only Applebloom could hear her. “Bet she would have tasted awful.”

“That is not the point,” Rarity went on as Applebloom held in her laughter. “No wonder the Leafs have been so distant lately…”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Spike muttered. “I’m with the kid, one more snide remark from Elm Leaf and I might just have to eat him.”

“Nopony is going to be eating anypony,” Rarity declared imperiously.

“Fine with me, I’m no pony, I’m a dragon!” Ruby said brightly, snarling in a manner that made Applebloom want to cuddle her for being adorable.

Rarity rubbed tiredly at her face with a hoof.

“Well Ah got to side with your mother on this one,” Applebloom said gently. “Ya’ll just can’t go around eatin’ folks that ya don’t like. But that ain’t what we were really talkin’ ‘bout.” She leaned down to look the filly in the eyes. Narrow, vertically slitted eyes. “Why don’t ya want to go to camp anymore?”

“I just…” Ruby averted her gaze, glancing back at her parents for a brief instant. “…changed my mind.”

“Because you’re afraid to be away from ya folks?” Applebloom tried again, and this time she nailed it if the worried expression on Ruby’s face was anything to judge by.

“Wha, uh, no!” the filly denied hotly, the fierceness of her own reply betraying her.

“Oh, my little gemstone,” Rarity cooed, her eyes turning misty.

“That’s not it at all,” Ruby tried to protest, but her voice lacked any conviction, and she only squirmed for a brief moment when her mother scooped her up in a hug.

“You could have just told us darling.”

“I…I didn’t want you to be disappointed,” Ruby said softly.

“Disappointed? Ruby, why ever would you think that?”

“Not you mom, I know you wouldn’t be,” the filly ducked her head shamefully. “I mean dad…”

“Me?” Spike said in confusion.

“Being homesick doesn’t sound very dragonish.”

Spike’s mouth hung open as he tried to think of the right way to reply to that. He was saved the trouble by Rarity putting a hoof to her own mouth in an attempt to stifle a giggle.

“Oh my, excuse me dearie,” she chortled. “But if your father is anything to go by, dragons can and do get homesick. Rather easily now that I think about it…”

“Hey!” Spike boomed indignantly. Rarity just quirked an eyebrow at him, and after a moment he relented. “…yeah, fine…” he sulked.

“…really?” Ruby asked, wide eyed as she looked up at her father.

“Yeah really,” Spike admitted grudgingly, blowing out a smoky breath. “If you want to hear some really embarrassing stories, ask aunt Twilight. She’d be happy to spill the dirt on me.”

“So it’s okay to…to be homesick and miss your parents?” Ruby said in a small voice.

“That it is my little gemstone,” Rarity told her. “And we’d miss you too.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely, right dear?” Rarity asked up at Spike.

“Of course,” Spike replied. “I mean, who else can I share a sapphire sundae with?”

“Nopony,” Ruby answered, a bit of smugness creeping into her tone. “Not unless they want broken teeth.”

“And who else could I ask to judge my latest designs?” Rarity asked.

“Not daddy,” Ruby said around a small smile. “He doesn’t know the difference between a fashionable dress…”

“…and a dessert table,” Rarity finished with a giggle that made Ruby smile wider.

“One time…” Spike groused under his breath. “One time!”

“So…it’s really okay?” Ruby asked meekly.

“It really is okay,” Rarity assured her daughter. “Do you still want to come home instead?”

Fire Ruby looked at her mother, then up at her father, before finally turning around to face Applebloom again. Her golden eyes took on a sudden shine as they filled with determination, and she gracefully extracted herself from Rarity’s embrace.

“Miss Bloom,” she said, once more adopting the high class accent and giving her head a little upward tilt. “I would be honored if you would permit me to privilege of staying at your camp.”

“Well shoot, Ah’d be honored to have ya here,” Applebloom replied happily. “Come on, how ‘bout we fetch your luggage, and Ah’ll show ya and your folks where ya’ll be staying. And then we can track down where ever your aunt has gotten herself to.”

“I’d like that very much,” Fire Ruby said with dignity to do her mother proud. Then she dropped the persona, and was bouncing towards the door, trying in vain to push her father before her. “Come on!” she squeaked excitedly, making Spike chuckle as he slowly turned himself around and ducked to squeeze back outside.

“I must say Applebloom,” Rarity spoke as she watched her husband try to wriggle through the doorway. “You really have done an amazing job with this place. Who would have imagined what a little filly’s club could have turned out to be?”

“Ah know, right?” Applebloom said proudly. “Course, who would have thought helping others find their special talent could be a pony’s special talent?” She shook her head, glancing back at the image upon her flank. A stylized blue shield adorned the spot, with a yellow caped pony in silhouette within.

“Well I think it is a wondrously generous talent,” Rarity said. “And if Ruby can get a Cutie Mark, I know you’re just the pony to help her do so.”

“Thanks Rarity,” Applebloom replied warmly.

Spike finally managed to get through the door without breaking anything, and Fire Ruby bounded after him, a little shower of sparks flying around her as she gave a miniature roar of excitement.

“Oh, I am going to miss that,” Rarity spoke softly as she watched her daughter frolic around her husband.

“It’ll only be for a few weeks,” Applebloom reassured her.

“I know…” Rarity replied, wiping a hoof at her eyes. “…but she’s my little gemstone.”

“Well come on,” Applebloom laughed. “Before either of ya’ll changes her mind.”

Rarity tittered lightly, and followed the Crusader Camp’s head counselor outside.

Author's Note

Some of you might remember this back when it was called Pony Tails and had the promise of becoming a collection of shorts. Well for various thises and thats, that plan kind of fell through. So I'm recycling the first (and only) short I actually got done and using it as the spring board for a story of camp, youth, and mischievous behavior.

Chapter 2

Crusader’s Camp was a sprawling establishment, covering several dozen acres of tree dotted land along the western edge of the White Tail Woods, just a few hours north of Las Pegasus. The main complex was a collection of wooden cabins, lodges, and various sheds, all spread about in a seemingly random fashion, and connected by a spider’s web worth of crisscrossing paths, tracks, and trails. The land contained between the various hoofwalks varied just as much as the interspaced structures, being comprised of close cropped grass in places, small groves of trees in others, and still others apparently left to grow as they would without any supervision at all.

Fire Ruby felt she might be developing a tweak in her neck trying to take in everything. That didn’t stop her in the slightest as she bounded in a circle around her parents and Applebloom in her efforts to survey everything there was to see. Over there was a collection of interconnected wooden beams and pillars to shame any jungle gym she’d ever seen! And over there sparkled a crystal clear lake, with several small docks and a diving board and even a big super twisty slide! And over there was an enormous fire pit, ringed with large stones, a pyramid of firewood tall as her father standing ready to be lit!

And right before her, coming down the path at a quite alarming rate, was a bouncing pink blur that was emitting a noise of purest glee and excitement.

“RARITY! SPIKE! RUBY!” the blur exclaimed as it rocketed towards the group.

“Pin…” was as much as Rarity managed to get out before the blur reached her in a flying-tackle-hug of greeting.

“I’VE MISSED YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!” Once she had stopped moving, the blur resolved itself into a mare with an impossibly bouncy, curly mane and tail, both of a hue slightly darker than her bright, bubble gum pink coat.

“Missed you too DEAR…” Rarity gasped as she was hugged with rib cracking force. Before she could think about extracting herself, the pink pony had already dropped her to the ground in order to launch herself at Spike.

The dragon seemed to be expecting it, and had braced himself for the impact. Despite that, and despite outweighing the mare a good three or four times over, she still managed to knock him back on his haunches. Her hooves never got more than halfway around Spike’s massive chest, but he still had a bit of a wheeze to his words when he spoke.

“Hi Pinkie Pie,” he said, engulfing her in a return hug until it was hard to see anything but her mane and tail sticking out.

“IT’S BEEN FOREVER!” Pinkie wailed as she buried her face in Spike’s shoulder and started sobbing hysterically.

“It’s been two months darling,” Rarity replied in a slightly exasperated tone as she dusted herself off, a bit out of breath.

“FOREVER!” Pinkie insisted. Then like flipping a switch her sobs just stopped, and she slipped out of Spike’s hug with an audible pop to land before Ruby. The filly was ready for her, and launched herself at Pinkie practically before the party pony’s hooves had hit the dirt.

“Auntie Pinkie!” Ruby squealed as her own tackle-hug connected, and the two of them went rolling down the path in a jumble of laughter, limbs, and dust. They somehow ended up with Pinkie laying on her back, balancing Ruby up on the end of her legs, hooves to hooves.

“Heya Sparky,” Pinkie grinned up at her. “Been practicing?”

Ruby shot her aunt a cocksure grin and bounced up off her hooves, her wings giving a quick little beat to help as she performed a slightly off center backflip. She still managed to land back on Pinkie’s waiting hooves however, her balance wavering for only a second or two. Then she threw her head back and blew a small fountain of sparks into the air.

“Ta-da!” Ruby announced. Pinkie giggled appreciatively, and she gave the filly a little bounce, quickly sitting upright to snatch her out of the air in a smothering hug.

“That was superiffic!” Pinkie gushed proudly.

“Aw, it was nothing,” Ruby said casually, though she was smiling proudly at the praise.

“It was very nicely done darling,” Rarity remarked with a fond smile, reaching out to brush some of the dust out of her daughter's mane. She glanced down at Pinkie. “Where is little Reasoning?

“Oh he’s coming,” Pinkie answered, pointing a hoof down the path she had come rocketing up. Ruby glanced along the line of her aunt’s foreleg, and let out an excited little squeal as she saw the figure of her cousin Circular Reasoning come calmly trotting into view around a patch of particularly wild looking bushes.

“I’m gunna go say hi!” the filly declared as she slipped free of Pinkie’s hug, and went galloping away before anypony could give or deny her permission to run ahead.

Reasoning saw Ruby coming, and the colt seemed content to stop and wait for her, taking a seat in the grass alongside the path. He waved as she approached, though after a moment the motion became a bit hesitant and uncertain as she continued towards him at top speed. He froze for half a panicked second, and then tried to jump to his hooves and get out of the way, but realization of his cousin’s intentions came a bit too late. There was a delighted shout, a grunt of impact, and an instant later the two were sprawled out in the grass with Ruby perched triumphantly on Reasoning’s chest.

“Hi Pi,” the filly smirked down at him.

“Sparks,” Reasoning gasped faintly, looking up at her with a slightly annoyed expression. It didn’t last long though, a mild smile slipping over his features. “You’re getting heavy.”

“Maybe you’re just turning into a wimp,” Ruby shot back.

“Or maybe you’ve been scarfing down too many diamonds,” Reasoning replied calmly. “You know those things go right to your flanks, right?”

“Hmm,” Ruby hummed thoughtfully. “Well maybe I just need a bit more pony in my diet.” She flashed him her teeth as she spread her wings wide, rearing up with an overly-dramatic growl.

Reasoning just rolled his eyes, and Ruby suddenly felt something seize her by one wing and tug. It wasn’t anything strong, but she wasn’t in a very balanced position as it was, and it was enough to make her stumble off to one side. Reasoning quickly rolled back to his hooves, shaking out his dark grey coat and running a hoof through his coal black mane in an effort to brush out the grass clippings.

Ruby meanwhile was staring at her wing in surprise, certain she had seen an electric blue glow surrounding the limb out of the corner of her eye. Her shock turned into realization and she glanced back at Reasoning.

“You got your magic!” she exclaimed, her eyes flashing to the stubby horn poking up out of the wild, spiky mess of Reasoning’s mane.

“Yup,” Reasoning replied simply.

“That’s awesome Pi, what else can you do?” Ruby asked brightly. The colt just shrugged.

“Pick stuff up, move it, put it back down.”

“…that’s it?” the filly demanded after a pause, her smile turning into an expression of disgust and disappointment.

“It’s only been a few weeks since my horn lit up,” Reasoning said, a bit defensively. “You flying yet?”

“Yes!” Ruby declared hotly. “Kind of,” she amended as Reasoning eyed her doubtfully. “I can glide a little anyway,” she proclaimed loftily.

“Uh huh,” the colt smirked.

“Shut up!” Ruby retorted with all the wit of youth. Before the conversation could devolve further though the filly felt her ear seized in an all too familiar magical grip. Nothing painful, unless of course she struggled against it, which she knew better than to try.

“Fire Ruby Belle!” Rarity’s voice crashed down on her as the adults finally caught up. “What have I told you about pouncing on ponies!”

“Pi doesn’t mind!” Ruby whined as the magical ear lock turned her head around to face her mother.

“That is not the point!” Rarity retorted.

“You didn’t make a fuss about me jumping on aunt Pinkie,” the filly complained.

“Oh don’t you even,” her mother warned her. “You know full well that Pinkie is a special case…in a lot of ways…”

“Aw, thanks Rarity,” Pinkie Pie beamed.

“Now then, apologize,” Rarity went on, choosing to ignore the party pony for the moment.

Ruby sighed as she felt her mother’s magic let go of her ear, and she spun around sullenly to face Reasoning.

“Apologizes,” she muttered half-heartily.

“Accepted,” Reasoning replied easily.

“Ahem…” Rarity pointedly cleared her throat, but before she could go on Reasoning slipped in front of her with an expression full of childish excitement.

“Aunt Rarity, Aunt Rarity!” he suddenly bubbled, nearly as well as his mother, eyes wide and demanding attention. “Look, look what I can do!” His horn glowed, and a pebble lying beside the trail wobbled into the air. A look of determined focus spread across the colt’s features, and the rock flew into a lazy, erratic circle around the group.

“Oh Reasoning that’s…uh…” Rarity paused, her mind momentarily derailed as she was forced to shift from the role of disciplinarian to that of properly supportive relative. Technically Reasoning was no more her nephew than Pinkie was her sister, but over the years those had become the roles they had filled in each other’s lives, and Rarity was not one to shirk the duties and expectations of such relationships. “That’s quite wonderful darling, very well done,” she managed after just a mild hiccup in her word flow, her tone quickly shifting to a happy, if slightly over blown, tone.

“Very nice,” Spike rumbled, casting a smirk at Pinkie. “Though I guess that means you can’t just hide the cookies up on the top shelf anymore.”

“Oh please…” Pinkie scoffed playfully. “The top shelf stopped being challenging for my little cupcake before he was out of diapers. Why just last week he managed to find the stash hidden behind the fake wall in the secret room under the subbasement’s bolt hole.”

“Mmm, white chocolate chip…” Reasoning said in a reminiscing tone, the light around his horn fading, letting the pebble crash to the ground.

“So uh, how do ya’ll keep him out of things he’s not spose’ to be in if’n he’s that good at finding stuff?”Applebloom asked.

“I just tell him not to,” Pinkie answered as if it was obvious.

“Wait, that works?” Rarity demanded.

“Should it not?” Pinkie asked.

“Well, so far in my experience…” Rarity grumbled slightly, looking pointedly at her daughter.

“Hey look at that!” Ruby exclaimed, loudly and suddenly, pointing off vaguely down the trail. “I wanna go see…whatever it is! Come on Pi!”

“Ruby!” Rarity called after her as she bolted, but the filly just pretended not to hear her mother. “Young lady, you get back here this instant!”

“Mom?” Reasoning asked calmly, glancing up at Pinkie.

“Go on sweetie, keep an eye on your cuz for us, k?”

“Thanks mom,” the little colt said. “Aunt Rarity, Uncle Spike, Miss Bloom,” he added with a polite little nod. Then he turned and scampered after the frantically fleeing form of Fire Ruby.

“Oooo, when I get my magic on that girl…” Rarity growled.

“Uh oh, I think we’ve got a grump-a-saurus on our hooves,” Pinkie sing-songed.

“Darling, please,” Rarity half snapped.

“Aww cheer up Mommy-saurus,” the party pony said, unfazed. “Let em have some fun, it won’t hurt anything.”

Rarity glared at Pinkie for a bit, though quickly gave up the attempt. It would take far more than what she currently had to make any sort of dent in Pinkie’s armor of cheerfulness. Instead the unicorn took a moment to take a few deep breaths and compose herself.

“I don’t understand Pinkie, how do you do it?” Rarity asked finally, her tone only lightly tinted with annoyance.

“Do what?”

“Get him to listen to you like that,” she elaborated. “Sometimes it feels like it’s all Spike and I can do to keep Ruby out of trouble. How do you manage little Reasoning so well, and all on your own?”

“Hmmm…” Pinkie pondered, tapping her chin with one hoof. Then she shrugged. “I dunno, I just make sure to tell him how much I love him and all that he means to me and how happy and blessed I am to have him in my life and then ask him very nicely what I’d like from him and he does it most of the time.”

“And when he doesn’t?” Rarity pressed.

“Oh, well then I get kind of unhappy and disappointed and he gets all sad and teary-eyed and promises me he’ll never-ever do that again, and he doesn’t.”

“W…wait now, Pinkie, did you just admit that you guilt trip your son in behaving?” Rarity asked in a scandalized tone.

“Is that what it is?” Pinkie asked back innocently. “I just always thought of it as being a good, loving mommy.”

Applebloom let out a short laugh. “I guess it’d be best to put Reasoning in Sweetie’s group then. She’s pretty good at keeping order by making everypony afraid of disappointing her as well.”

“Hmm, you know,” Spike mused. “Come to think of it, Ruby has always been pretty well behaved whenever Sweetie has watched over her for us.”

Rarity gave a noncommittal grunt of a response, though she did look somewhat thoughtful as she watched her daughter running on ahead, her full on gallop slowing for a bit to let Reasoning catch up with her. The two of them quickly vanished off around a bend in the trail.

“Do you think they’ll be alright, off on their own?” Rarity asked.

“Ah wouldn’t worry ‘bout em,” Applebloom said, putting a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “Me, Scoots, and Sweetie used to go running ‘round on our own at their age all the time, remember?”

“Yes, I do actually…” Rarity said with a shudder.

Chapter 3

“Hey…Sparks…hold up…a moment,” Circular Reason gasped, his pace dropping rapidly from a full out sprint to a dragging trot.

“Wimp!” Fire Ruby called back from her commanding lead in the impromptu race that the two foals had fallen into. Neither of them had any idea why they were racing, just that somewhere along the way in their run to go off on their own, things had turned into a competition.

“Cheater,” Reasoning panted.

“Am not!” Ruby shot back indignantly as she turned around and started back.

“Are so,” the colt insisted. “Having dragon blood is totally cheating.”

“Pfft!” Ruby declared with a raspberry. “It’s not cheating if you can’t help being that awesome.”

“Thank you Aunt Dash,” Reasoning said sarcastically, taking a seat on the grass as he tried to catch his breath. Ruby trotted on up to him, and flopped down next to her cousin.

“Soooo…” she prompted.

“What?” Reasoning asked.

“Oh nothing, nothing really, just…”

“Just what?”

“Just that I totally kicked your flank!” Ruby exclaimed with a grin, pointing a hoof at his face. “And not even by a little bit either, I stomped you right into the…”

“You hear that?” Reasoning asked, cutting her off.

“Hey, no fair interrupting when I have bragging rights!”

“Dang it Sparks, I’m serious, shut up a second and listen.”

Ruby scowled at him, but she shut her mouth and did so. The scowl quickly turned into a quizzical expression as a soft, continual sound reached her ears.

“What is that?” she asked.

“I think…it kind of sounds like somepony crying,” Reasoning said after a moment.

“I think it’s coming from over there,” Ruby said, pointing a wing towards a grove of squat, wide trees sharing space with some thick bushes along the shore of a small pond. The two foals glanced at each other for all of half a second before they both nodded in silent agreement, and then took off at a trot towards the sound.

They had to duck under the lowest branches of the short trees, and soon found themselves inside a nearly cave like space beneath the low canopy. The branches of the trees wove and knit together above, forming a virtually solid ceiling that turned the bright afternoon sun into a diffused, gentle luminesce. The grove had a sweet, oddly familiar scent to it, which seemed to be wafting from the numerous brightly colored pods that hung all over the trees. They were leathery looking, oblong growths in all shades of yellow and red.

Huddled up against one of the many trunks was a tan coated earth pony filly. Her face was buried in her forelegs as she cried, making the tightly curled ringlets of her mane bounce as she shook with each sob. Her tail was similarly curled, if not nearly as tightly, and both were shot through with a swirling pattern of dark brown and off white.

Ruby and Reasoning crept forward towards the filly, both walking quietly even if neither was certain exactly why they were reluctant to make their presence known. Maybe it was the sense of intruding upon a moment that felt like it ought to be private, though that did nothing to deter either from walking right up to the crying foal, who only finally realized she was no longer alone when a fallen branch cracked under one of Ruby’s hooves.

The filly froze at the noise, going dreadfully still for several long seconds before she ever so slowly brought her gaze up. She stared with red rimmed eyes at the two newcomers in a silence that was broken only by her occasional sniffle.

“Uh, hi,” Reasoning finally managed to say with only a slight bit of awkwardness. “Um, sorry to interrupt you while you’re…ah well that is to say we were just passing by when we heard you uh…look what I’m trying to say is…”

“Oh for the love of Luna,” Ruby cut in impatiently, bumping Reasoning aside with a hip and thrusting out a hoof of greeting towards the filly. “Hey, name’s Fire Ruby, you?”

“Uh, oh,” the filly replied uncertainly, flinching back slightly. She quickly ran a hoof over her eyes, wiping at her tears. “Marble Rye.” She eyed the offered hoof for a second, before hesitantly reaching out to bump her own against Ruby’s.

“Nice to meet you,” Ruby said firmly. She flicked a wing towards Reasoning. “The dork here is my cousin Circular Reasoning, though I just call him Pi.”

“Pie?” Marble asked with a sniffle, looking over at the colt in puzzlement. “Is he a good baker or something?” she asked softly.

“Not that kind of pie,” Reasoning replied. “The math kind.”

“Oh…okay…” Marble said, clearly confused.

“Pi is...uh,” Reasoning paused, then glanced at Ruby. “How the heck did aunt Twilight put it?”

“Me? You expect me to remember anything she says when she goes off on one of her science or math or magic rants?” Ruby scoffed.

“Well anyway, it has to do with the math of circles, and my first name is Circular, plus my mom’s last name is Pie, like the baking kind, so…” Reasoning trailed off in his attempt to explain the nickname.

“You know, I don’t think anypony but your mom actually laughed when aunt Twilight made that joke,” Ruby remarked.

“Yeah, most of them just kind of groaned or looked confused,” Reasoning agreed after a moment’s thought.

“So…so your aunt made a bad math joke about Circle’s name, and you just decided to keep it going?” Marble asked.

“Yeah, she was trying to suck up because Hearth’s Warming was coming up and she thought she might be able to get some extra presents,” Reasoning supplied, and then ducked quickly as Ruby swung a wing at him.

“I was not!” the half dragon filly protested.

“She totally was,” Reasoning said to Marble, who seemed taken a bit off guard by the direction the conversation had taken. “And she kept it up all week, and it just kind of stuck after that.”

“I’m going to stick you in the lake there if you keep lying!” Ruby threatened, striding forward. Reasoning darted to the side, putting Marble between him and his cousin. The earth filly’s eyes went wide as she looked back and forth from her suddenly undesirable position.

“Whoa, time out, time out!” Marble exclaimed desperately.

“Come on chicken, face me like a stallion why don’t ya?” Ruby taunted, ignoring the earth filly.

“Yeah no, rather not get another set of teeth marks,” Reasoning retorted, his horn lighting up as he spoke, and Ruby felt something suddenly smack into the back of her head. She let out a yelp of surprise and spun around, finding one of the odd, elongated pods rolling away from where it had bounced off her skull. Then she felt another fleshy impact against her flank.

Ruby spun back around to see a second pod bouncing away, a third already floating next to Reasoning in his magic’s bright blue aura.

“Uh…” the colt hesitated, and then tossed the pod to Marble, who caught it by reflex. “She did it!”

“What!” the earth filly half-shrieked indignantly. She looked about ready to chuck the pod at him for that, but Ruby beat her to the punch, stepping forward and kicking one of the grounded pods at her cousin. Unfortunately it flew wide of her target, who proceeded to stick his tongue out at her.

“Missed me, missed me, miss…oh sweet Celestia!” Reasoning’s taunting singsong quickly cut off as Ruby charged, and he did the only sensible thing he could. He ran like crazy, with Ruby in hot pursuit.

Marble Rye watched the two darting in and out of the trees with something between amusement and bewilderment. Ruby was obviously faster than Reasoning, but the unicorn seemed to be more nimble than the pegasus, slipping around and between tree trunks in order to just keep ahead of his pursuer. The whole while the two were volleying taunts and insults back and forth, Ruby generally offering up threats and mockery of Reasoning’s courage, while the unicorn tossed back sarcastic barbs about the pegasus’s intelligence.

The chase came to a sudden and decisive end as it swung back around by Marble, who promptly tossed the pod still in her hooves right at Reasoning’s head. The unicorn managed to skid out of the way of the unexpected obstacle, but the loss of speed sealed his doom. Ruby pounced on him, and the two went down in a heap.

“Say uncle!” Ruby declared as she pinned Reasoning to the ground, one of his legs sticking out at an awkward angle.

“Ack! Spike!” the unicorn yelped.

“Say you’re sorry!”

“You’re sorry!”

“No, say you’re sorry!”

“Only that I got caught!” Reasoning said defiantly. “And that girls always team up,” he added with a grumble.

“Hey! You tried to frame me!” Marble protested, seizing up another pod and hefting it like a weapon.

“Sorry about that, survival instinct,” Reasoning told her. “Ruby’s just so quick to violence.”

“Am not!” the pegasus denied, smacking him with a wing.

“See?” Reasoning grinned.

“Jerk!” Ruby said.

“Brute,” the colt shot back.

“Sissy stallion!”

“Daddy’s girl.”

“Dummy head!”

“Poo face.”

“Blunt horn!”

“Wobbly wing.”

“Enough!” Marble shouted. The two looked up at her from the ground, and she ducked her head in a slightly self-conscious manner. “Uh, I meant, please, that’s enough?”

“Eh, sure. Truce?” Reasoning offered.

“…truce,” Ruby accepted with a shrug, letting her cousin free and getting back to her hooves. She glanced over at Marble as the three of them settled into an uncertain silence. “So…uh, what were you crying about?”

“I…uh, I wasn’t…I mean…” the filly hedged.

“Really Sparks?” Reasoning asked drily.

“What?” Ruby demanded defensively. “Something really upset her, maybe we can help?”

“No, it was nothing,” Marble said softly. “Nothing at all, really.”

“You sure?” Ruby pressed, and the earth pony nodded swiftly.

“Very sure, just being silly about something stupid,” Marble said. She looked around suddenly, trying to find something else to talk about. “So, do either of you know what kind of trees these are?”

“No clue,” Ruby replied reluctantly, still eying Marble like she wanted to push on with the previous topic. She glanced over at Reasoning for support, but the colt had accepted the new subject readily enough and had picked up one of the fallen pods, turning it over with his magic.

“I don’t know either, never seen these kind before. Is this thing a fruit you think?”

“Looks more like a squash to me,” Marble put in, eager to keep the conversation going the direction it was, away from her crying like a little filly. Just because she was one didn’t make it any better.

“Squash from a tree?” Ruby asked.

Reasoning’s puzzled expression slowly turned into a smirk as he eyed the pod, and he glanced over at Ruby.

“Hey, dare you to eat one,” he said, his magic floating the bright red object before her.

“What? No way,” Ruby said, pushing the pod away with a hoof.

“Double dare you,” Reasoning pressed.

“I am not going to…” Ruby began, but Reasoning kept going.

“Double. Diamond. Dog. Dare you,” he said ominously.

“Ooooo…” Marble said seriously.

“Oh…” Ruby said gravely, hesitantly turning her attention back to the pod. She swallowed drily, and took hold of the thing between her hooves.

“Come on, you eat rocks, how bad could this be?” Reasoning reasoned.

“Gems, thank you very much!” Ruby said hotly.

“Rocks, gems, what’s the difference?”

“You’re really going to stand there and say that to me?” Ruby demanded. “Your mom used to be a rock farmer, how do you not know any better?”

“Key words, used to be,” Reasoning replied. “And stop stalling.”

“Wait, she eats rocks?” Marble asked.

“Gems!” Ruby half shouted. “And smart mouthed ponies,” she added in a growl at her cousin.

“She’s half dragon,” Reasoning explained.

“Uh huh,” Marble replied dubiously.

“No, he’s actually telling the truth this time,” Ruby said. “My dad’s a dragon.”

“Sure he is,” the earth filly agreed in a tone that plainly stated she didn’t believe a word. “And my dad’s a griffin.”

“And my dad was the wildest party my mom ever threw,” Reasoning stated.

“Uh, what?” Marble asked, blinking. The colt shrugged.

“That’s all she’s ever told me whenever I’ve asked.”

“Given some of the stuff Aunt Pinkie does, I wouldn’t be surprised if she meant that laterally,” Ruby added.

“Literally,” Reasoning corrected.

“No, that would be aunt Twilight,” Ruby replied, earning a frustrated groan from her cousin.

“No, not literature, liter…”

“I am so lost right now,” Marble interrupted.

“…yeah, you know what, never mind,” Reasoning said. “Besides, we have a dare in progress.”

“Aw nuts,” Ruby muttered.

“Not going to forget that,” the unicorn smirked. “Come on, take a bite. You know, unless you’re scared.”

“I’m not scared of anything!” Ruby declared. She turned her attention to the pod, and with a snarl bit off a chunk of the end.

“…well, how is it?” Reasoning asked after watching his cousin valiantly try to chew up the mouthful, though her progress quickly slowed before grinding to a halt as her face scrunched up. He got his answer when Ruby darted over to one of the shrubby bushes and spat the offending remains out.

“Eww!” a voice shrieked from within the bush, making everypony freeze.

Well Reasoning and Marble froze. Ruby suddenly dropped into a crouch, bellowed “Spy!”, and leapt into the bush. There was a startled yelp, the sounds of a scuffle, and a moment later the pegasus reappeared, hauling another filly along with her by virtue of a headlock.

“Ow ow owie!” the newcomer protested as Ruby dragged her out into the open. She was an earth pony, with a golden brown coat and amber mane, and was perhaps an inch or two taller than the pony mare-handling her. Not that the extra height seemed to be helping her out in the slightest.

“Who do you work for, spy?” Ruby demanded.

“Ow, what?” the unlucky filly exclaimed.

“Who do you work for?” the pegasus repeated, slower. “Who do you report to?”

“Uh, Ruby?” Marble said, but the words fell on deaf ears.

“Sparks, what makes you think she’s a spy?” Reasoning asked, stepping forward. He did not however come close enough to risk getting involved in the tussle.

“Uh, she was spying on us, hence, she is a spy,” Ruby declared. Then added with scorn. “Duh!”

“Well actually…” Marble tried again, with the same lack of results.

“Maybe she was just hiding?” Reasoning suggested.

“Yeah, right, that’s what she’d like us to think,” Ruby scoffed. “What would she be hiding from?”

“Oh I don’t know,” Reasoning said reasonably. “Maybe the psycho dragon pony?”

“You’re lucky I have my hooves full right now Pi, or else…” Ruby growled.

“I’m not a…” the headlocked filly tried to object, but her captor talked right over her.

“Silence! Now talk! Why were you watching us?” The trapped pony hesitated, looking around desperately for a way out. Or at least a clue as to which contradictory command would make the scary pegasus least upset with her.

“Because she’s my sister,” Marble supplied in the following silence. Another silence followed the statement.

“Are you sure?” Ruby asked skeptically, and Reasoning rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, just a bit,” Marble replied drily. “Fire Ruby, meet Honey Wheat. Honey, that’s Fire Ruby. And this is Circular Reasoning.”

“How you doing?” Reasoning asked with a wave of greeting.

“I’ve been better,” Honey Wheat said earnestly.

“Now then, Ruby, would you mind if I requested that you to stop strangling my sister?” Marble asked primly.

“How do you know she’s really your sister?” Ruby asked, eying the filly suspiciously. “She could be an imposture!”

“Well she does rather look a lot like my sister, who I just saw not half an hour ago when she arrived with me and my parents at camp.”

“So? She could be…a…a changeling! She could have snatched your sister, stuck her in a cocoon, and taken her place!”

“Seriously? Is she serious?” Honey asked.

“Silence changeling spy!”

“Oh for the love of Luna,” Reasoning sighed. “Hey, Sparks?”

“What?”

“Okay, let’s go ahead and just assume she is a changeling, because I really don’t feel like trying to argue the point.”

“O…kay?” Ruby replied uncertainly.

“Well then, why are you still holding onto her?” Reasoning asked. “Don’t you know changelings can suck the love right out of you?”

“No they can’t…can they?” Ruby asked. “Can you do that?” she asked the filly in her hooves.

“I…” Honey Wheat paused a moment, and her eyes brightened. “Actually yes, as a matter of fact…” She turned her head around as far as she could in order to look up at Ruby. “Come, look into my eyes, foolish pony.”

“Ack!” Ruby yelped, jumping away from the other filly.

“Is it always like…this with her?” Marble asked Reasoning as Honey started to stalk after Ruby, taunting her to come closer.

“As an uncle of mine would put it, eeyup,” Reasoning replied as he watched his cousin getting chased around the grove, threats of devouring the love for her friends and family following her. “And gems!” Reasoning called out. “Be sure to eat her love of gems, that should be a really tasty emotion!”

“Pi, you traitor!” Ruby shrieked as she started hurling pods in order to discourage the potentially emotion eating monster.

“Well, I guess we don’t have to worry about camp being boring, do we?” Marble commented.

“Nnope,” Reasoning agreed.