//------------------------------// // Kingdom of the Cutie Mark, Part 1 (CMC, Diamond Tiara) // Story: The Life and Times of Everypony // by Leafdoggy //------------------------------// “Come on, it’s such a nice day! We have to do something.” Sweetie Belle was whining to the other Crusaders as they sat around in their clubhouse, doing nothing. Outside, birds tweeted happily and a perfect breeze rustled the leaves. Inside, Scootaloo was lying on the floor staring at the ceiling, Applebloom was sitting on top of their podium, and Sweetie Belle was pacing anxiously. “Feel free to come up with an idea anytime,” Applebloom grumbled. “At least I’m trying to come up with something,” Sweetie Belle said. “At this point I’m almost ready to just go to my sister and have her give me work.” “Yeah, right,” Applebloom argued. “If you’re so bored, maybe I’ll go get Applejack and have you work on the farm.” “Stop it!” Scootaloo groaned loudly. “Why are we even here if all you’re gonna do is fight and—” She was cut off by a sharp knock on the door. Sweetie Belle perked up immediately. “Come in!” Her screech was so loud the others flinched and had to cover their ears. The door creaked open, and Diamond Tiara walked in. “Good morning, girls,” she said. “Hey Diamond Tiara!” Applebloom hopped down from the podium and rushed over to give her a hug. “Why’d you knock?” Diamond Tiara hugged her back, then scoffed at the question. “Because,” she explained, “last time I came here I didn’t knock, and you all just kept talking! I wanted a proper greeting.” Applebloom laughed, and the others groaned. “Well, hey,” Applebloom said. “Come hang out!” Diamond Tiara peered suspiciously around the room. “What exactly are you three doing?” “Uhh…” Applebloom couldn’t think of an answer. “Nothing,” Sweetie Belle grumbled.  Diamond Tiara pouted. “Well, that’s just great. I came all the way out into the middle of the woods because I was bored, and you three aren’t doing anything either!” “Yeah, sorry,” Applebloom said remorsefully.  “I don’t want an apology,” Diamond Tiara said. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I just wanted you to take me on an adventure!” Applebloom scratched the back of her neck. “I mean, I get that, but we don’t really have any adventures to go on.” “And they refuse to try to think of any,” Sweetie Belle added. “Why do we need somewhere to go?” Diamond Tiara asked. “If I just wanted to get somewhere, I would take a train.” “Well, our adventures usually happen once we get where we were goin,” Applbloom said. “I don’t really think we’re old enough to go, like, climb a mountain or somethin.” “Says who?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Your sisters? If you wait for them to decide you’re old enough to do something, you’ll never be old enough.” “Okay, but they’ll never let us actually go,” Scootaloo said. “So?” Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. “Who needs their permission? Let’s just go without asking them.” “Ehh, I dunno,” Applebloom said. “I think that might be a bad idea.” Diamond Tiara laughed. “Please, I’m not capable of bad ideas.” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo groaned again. “Come on, Applebloom,” Diamond Tiara continued, “you’ve been on so many adventures, and I’ve never been on a single one!” Applebloom sighed. “I just…” “I say we do it,” Sweetie Belle said. “Anything’s better than sitting around here.” “I’m pretty much always in trouble anyway,” Scootaloo said, “so I’m down.” “Fine,” Applebloom relented. “We’ll go on an adventure.” “Yay!” Diamond Tiara pulled Applebloom into a tight hug. “Oh, thank you!” A few minutes later, Diamond Tiara was leading them through the streets of Ponyville, head held high in victory. Applebloom walked beside her, and the others lagged behind, whispering to each other and snickering under their breath. None of the ponies in town paid much attention to them. After all, it was just a group of children walking through town. “Here we are!” Diamond Tiara announced after they had walked a fair distance. “The start of our adventure!” She gestured grandly towards the high wooden platform she had brought them too, and the massive hot air balloon attached to it. The others gazed up at it in awe, and she grinned with pride. A pink mare popped out from behind the platform and trotted over to them. She was small and cheery, wearing a bright smile along with her helmet and goggles. “Well, hey there! You all looking for me?” “Uhh… Maybe?” Sweetie Belle said. “Who are you?” The mare laughed. “I’m Cherry Berry! I take care of the balloon.” “Oh, wonderful!” Diamond Tiara smiled sweetly at her. “We’d like to borrow it, if that’s alright.” Cherry Berry chuckled. “Uh, well, I get the appeal and all, but if you want a ride you’re gonna have to find an adult to go with you.” “Oh, uh, we have an adult!” Diamond Tiara said. “We’re with, um…” “Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo told her. “She wanted us to come get the balloon in the air while she got the wind ready.” Cherry Berry raised an eyebrow. “That sounds extremely untrue.” The kids all frowned, and Diamond Tiara exaggerated hers into a pout. “Oh, please, Ms Berry?” she asked. “I really don’t want to disappoint Rainbow Dash. I’m still trying to make up for all the things I did wrong in the past, and if I mess this up she might never give me another chance!” “Aw, geez.” Cherry Berry adjusted her helmet and looked around awkwardly. “Do any of you even know how to work this thing?” “Oh, that’s easy,” Scootaloo said. “You just pull the thingy and the balloon goes up! Then when you’re high enough you, like, steer it and stuff.” “You kids are really asking me to put a lot of trust in you,” she said. “I know,” Diamond Tiara said, “and I’m so sorry for putting you in this position. If it’s too much, I… I understand.” Cherry Berry sighed. “Okay, fine, you can use it. I’m only doing this because you’re with Applejack’s sister, though. Otherwise, I’d have to assume you were lying, so tell Rainbow Dash to, like… Be smarter next time, okay?” The kids all nodded fervently, and Cherry Berry lead them up the platform and helped them into the basket. Once they were in, she checked incredibly thoroughly to make sure everything was set and nothing could break. Then, she leaned over the basket and gave the kids a stern look. “Okay, I know you said you could handle it, but I’m gonna give you a crash course on this thing,” she said. “Listen very closely. Like you said, you pull that cord to go up. It’s not fast. Pull it way before you even get near anything you might hit. It’s not fast to stop, either, so quit pulling it a bit before you’re as high as you wanna be. Got all that?” The kids all nodded. “Good. The balloon is magic, so steering is pretty easy. You can either have a pegasus with you to change the wind, or you can just shift your weight to the side you want to go to. You can only ever travel with the wind, though. Got it?” They nodded again. “Great.” Suddenly, she brightened up again, smiling wide. “Have fun!”  Cherry Berry pulled a lever, and all the ropes holding the balloon down fell away. The second they were free, Scootaloo jumped up and latched onto the cord, yanking it down and sending them careening into the sky. They all looked over the edge in wonder as they ground shrank beneath them. First they saw the tops of houses, then the tips of trees. Then those houses melted into streets, and the trees became forests. Eventually, the streets themselves blended together into Ponyville, and the forests became just a small part of the vast sea of trees that was the Everfree. Then they burst through a cloud, and the kids all screamed in surprise. Scootaloo let go of the cord, falling back into the basket, and the balloon started to slow its ascent. Once they recovered from their shock, the kids all looked around at each other and started to laugh. Not long after that, the balloon stopped rising, and the winds picked it up. They were above the clouds now, the fluffy white masses whipping by below them, so their view of the ground below was splotchy and incomplete. Still, it was an incredible sight. “Wow,” Sweetie Belle said. “This is awesome!” “Has Rainbow Dash every brought you this high up, Scootaloo?” Applebloom asked. “A couple times,” Scootaloo said. “It never gets less cool, though.” Applebloom looked over at Diamond Tiara, wonderment frozen on her face, and smiled. “You likin your first adventure?” Diamond Tiara nodded, a giddy grin on her face. “It’s better than I ever could have imagined!” “It does kinda feel different,” Sweetie Belle said. “I guess cuz we’re going without asking. It really feels like we’re doing something huge!” “Yeah, it does,” Applebloom said. “I wish we coulda done it without all the lyin, though.” “Aw, I’m sorry,” Diamond Tiara said. “It was the only way I could think of. Hopefully after this one, your sisters will see that you’re grown up enough to go on adventures, and we won’t have to lie!” “Yeah,” Applebloom said. “Hopefully.” “Hey, uh, guys?” Scootaloo spoke up. “I know it’s cool and all, but we should probably decide on where to go.” “Why?” Applebloom asked. “The adventures ain’t goin anywhere.” “No, but we are,” Scootaloo said. She pointed into the distance, and the other three looked over the edge to see Ponyville slowly drifting away from them.  “Oh,” Applebloom said. “Well, I guess we’re goin… That way.”  She pointed in the opposite direction, and they all scrambled over to the other side of the basket to see what they were headed towards. Below them was a sea of trees, bigger than they’d ever imagined a forest could be. To the left and right, it stretched all the way to the horizon, and ahead of them it went nearly as far. Just past the edge of the trees, though, in the direction they were heading, they could make out a hint of sand. “Is that the Everfree Forest?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Nah, that’s the other way,” Scootaloo said. “These are just normal woods.” “Ah, yes, just normal dark, dangerous, terrifying woods,” Diamond Tiara said. “And I suppose that it’s a normal desert on the other side?” “I mean, probably,” Sweetie Belle said. Diamond Tiara groaned. “I am not trudging through a desert. Let’s turn around and go a different way.” “It doesn’t work like that,” Scootaloo said. “Unless you can fly up and change the wind, we’re stuck going this way.” “Well, that’s just great,” Diamond Tiara said. She walked over to a corner of the basket and sat down with a grumpy huff. “My first adventure, and I’m going to die in a desert.” “I won’t let you die,” Applebloom said. “We’ll figure it out.” “Why don’t we just go check out one of those houses in the woods?” Sweetie Belle asked. They all looked at her with confused expressions. “What houses?” Applebloom replied. “Those ones.” She pointed out over the edge of the basket, and Applebloom and Scootaloo squinted their eyes to figure out what she was pointing at. Diamond Tiara stayed in the corner. Just barely, they could make out the tan, blocky buildings hiding in the trees below. They were few and far between, but they seemed to fill the forest. “I guess it’s worth a shot,” Applebloom said. ‘If there’s ponies, they can help us go back to Ponyville.” “Alright, I’ll find us a place to land,” Scootaloo said. That was easier said than done. For one, the balloon wasn’t very fast to descend, especially since it was only being weighed down by some children. As they slowly drifted downwards, they couldn’t do anything but watch as the desert crept towards them. Eventually, they were low enough to land, but that presented a whole new problem. Their balloon was big, far bigger than the space between trees, and with their meager weight they could barely steer at all. So, it was a waiting game, hoping a big enough clearing would come into view right in their path. Altogether, landing took them a couple hours, and they weren’t fun. Scootaloo had to give the balloon her full attention to keep it right above the trees, and they had quite a few close calls. Sweetie Belle was beside her the whole time, acting as a spotter, and Applebloom spent the time trying to get Diamond Tiara to stop pouting. They were more than halfway over the entire forest when they finally found a clearing fit for the balloon. Or at least, it would have been, if somepony experienced was piloting. That wasn’t the case, though. Scootaloo let off on the controls as soon as she thought they were close enough, and from that point all any of them knew to do was hope for success.  They cleared the first edge of their landing pad easily. The trees on that side never even got near the basket. From there, it looked like smooth sailing. The grass was smooth and perfect under them, they were going too slow for the landing to be very bumpy, and the woods around them looked surprisingly bright and inviting. They actually found themselves getting excited about the adventure again. Then, the ground below them didn’t stop moving. They waited with baited breath for the final thump as the basket struck the earth, but a sudden gust of wind had picked them up just enough to keep that from happening. They were still going too slowly to be in any real danger, but they were going fast enough that jumping out would be dangerous, so they were forced to watch as the wall of trees slowly came closer and closer to them. The balloon hit the trees first, and it popped immediately. It wasn’t the loud, thunderous boom they would have expected, but they did hear a massive tearing sound, and then a bellowing wind above them. They looked up to see the balloon slowly deflating, falling towards them. Then the basket hit the trees, and they were all so distracted it sent them toppling over one another.  By the time they managed to untangle themselves and climb out of the grounded basket, the balloon had wrapped itself around the trees above them, cloaking them in shadow. They had to struggle to lift up the heavy canvas so that they could slip under it and into the clearing. Despite it all, the clearing was beautiful. Viney plants and low bushes coated the grass, and all of it was teeming with life. Insects buzzed around flowers, frogs hopped across leaves, tiny snakes slithered through the brush, and all of it came together into a perfect landscape. “Eugh,” Diamond Tiara groaned. “Why is it so… Damp?” “Uh… Because it’s humid?” Scootaloo told her. “Humid? I’ve felt humid, this is… Is…” Diamond Tiara grumbled. “This is absurd! Whose idea of a forest is this?” “I think it’s a jungle,” Applebloom said. Diamond Tiara gasped. “Jungles are real?” The others all laughed. “Of course they’re real,” Applebloom said. “Did you think Ms Cheerilee was just makin stuff up?” “I thought it was hypothetical! Why would anypony ever come out here? How are there ponies living here?” “Ponies live everywhere,” Sweetie Belle said. “Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a couple Apples out here,” Applebloom said.  “Dreadful.” “Hey, guys?” Scootaloo interrupted. “I think I see a path.” They looked where she was pointing, and there, barely visible under the dense foliage that had overtaken it, was what looked like the remains of a forgotten trail. “Is that the only one?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Looks like it,” Scootaloo said. “Fine.” Diamond Tiara started walking towards it. “Let’s go, then. The sooner we find ponies, the sooner I can get home to my nice, dehumidified bedroom.”