//------------------------------// // The Powerpuff Fillies Arrive! // Story: The Powerpuff Fillies! // by Lake and Doc //------------------------------// The Cutie Mark Crusades sighted in unison. The three of them had their gazes fixed to the ground, heads propelled by hooves, and flanks pasted into the ground. No, they weren’t sad. They weren’t upset; even though their sisters (and idol) had scolded them for meeting the great Red Pony Ranger and asking for his help in their epic cutie mark crusade. They were utterly, incredibly, unbelievably bored. It was around ten in the morning. Stuck in Rarity’s room, they had nothing else to do to gain their cutie marks. The first part of the party had already finished and they had been grounded for the rest of their stay in Evelestria because… “You have broken the most important rule. The Golden Rule. Rule number one: DO. NOT. EVER. TALK. WITH. STRANGERS!” Rarity’s angry voice echoed through their minds, reminding them of the evil adult’s injustice. Yes, they had broken the Golden Rule, but nothing happened, right? They were perfectly fine! Not even a scratch! “If the Red Pony Ranger was here he would bring justice to this land!” Sweetie Belle dramatically cried, mimicking her sister’s usual gestures. “Yeah… but Rainbow isn’t gonna let us see him again!” Apple Bloom joined her fellow crusader’s complaints “And he’s busy too!” “You know what?!” Scootaloo suddenly shouted, catching her friends’ attention. She was tired of seeing her best friends in such a state because of some unfairness coming ironically from the bearers of fairness and harmony themselves.” If nopony is gonna make things right then… we shall bring justice to this castle! Maybe not only the castle, but the whole kingdoms of Evelestria and Equestria!” “That’s a pretty awesome idea ya got there, Scoots!” Apple Bloom joyously said with sparkling eyes; her friend’s enthusiasm was very contagious! “Maybe we can earn our cutie marks by saving other sad foals like us!” “Yeah, but… How?” however, this enthusiasm wasn’t contagious enough to lift Sweetie Belle’s negativity “We’re grounded and we don’t have any special powers!” “Of course we have!” Scootaloo was fast to counter Sweetie Belle even though she had no idea of what to answer to that “AB can… build stuff. I can… kick stuff and do awesome tricks in my scooter and well… And you can… sing… I guess…” “Maybe the costumes will give us powers!” Apple Bloom suddenly claimed her joy still intact. Her other two fellow crusaders only gave her a questioning look. “Y’know! Like, maybe the costumes give them those incredible flying and jumping powers and well…” “But then, who are we gonna disguise as?” Sweetie asked, at least she didn’t look as down as before, Scootaloo thought. The three of them were ready to think for another half hour; however, Sweetie already had the answer for her own question. “Oh! I know!” she ran for her suitcase and took out in her mouth one of the comics of the series she possessed. The book had a drawing of three flying fillies in the cover, a pink one in the middle, a blue one in the left, and a green one in the right. Each of them left a trail of the respective colors behind them. In the background, there were dozens of villains who had been knocked out easily by the super powerful fillies. There was a title written in a giant size in the head of the cover. It was known by many foals and mostly fillies of their ages, and some older fans, but what they had in common was that they could answer it without thinking twice; almost as if their tongue had a brain of its own and the only valuable information it possessed was that famous title… “The Power Puff Fillies!” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom squeaked and shouted in delight, and Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and puffed her chest, almost as if feeling and enjoying the pride and congratulations from her friends shower her. She approached her crusaders and put the comic in the center of their small crusader circle. “I’m gonna be Buttercup!” Scootaloo was the first to claim her character, throwing punches and kicks at the air. “I wanna be Blossom!” Apple Bloom said next, giving a high jump into the air. “And I’ll be Bubbles!” Sweetie Belle said with the cutest voice she could pull, bouncing up and down with vigor. “Cutie Mark Crusaders: Power Puff Fillies!” the fillies sang in unison, jumping into the air like the other three fillies in the comic’s cover… However, they fell flat into the ground to remember that they couldn’t fly. “Hold on a second!” Apple Bloom said “How are we even supposed to fly?!” “And how am I supposed to throw laser through my eyes!” Scootaloo asked with a pained expression. “And how am I supposed to become blond?!” Sweetie Belle complained, but met the question-mark faces of her friends. “Y’know! Bubbles is blond!” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom shrugged. “Maybe we should try the costumes…Miss Rarity could help us with that!” Apple Bloom offered an idea. “Yeah! I’ll ask her for fabric and I’ll make them!” Sweetie Belle volunteered. “Pfft, no way! You remember how that went last time?” Scootaloo complained “a costume made for a five legged pony? Seriously?” “What if we ask Miss Rarity to make them for us?” Apple Bloom innocently asked, but Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “Nah. She’s gonna start with the ‘Stop saying such nonsense, little fillies! You know I am extremely busy with an extremely big and important order! And it has to be simply gorgeous and fabulous!’” Sweetie Belle complained, imitating her sister’s usual behavior. “But it doesn’t hurt to try…” “Stop saying such nonsense, little fillies! You know I am extremely busy with an extremely big and important order! And it has to be simply gorgeous and fabulous!” Rarity told the three fillies while drawing a sketch of a dress that was sure going to be a great success when finished. She had arrived shortly after the fillies’ discussion. Sweetie Belle sighed, shooting a ‘Told ya’ glance at Apple Bloom. Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Can you at least give us the fabric?” Apple Bloom stepped forward requested with puppy eyes. Rarity refused to look at them and fall in their well laid trap, but couldn’t resist for long. She sighed in frustration and walked towards one of her numerous and heavy suitcases. “Fine. Which colors do you need?” “Well…” she peeked from the corner of her eyes at the comic book on the floor “Pink, green- not a dark shade but… a lighter one, and… sky blue. Not too soft. Also black and white… And a yellow hair dye.” she finished her order confidently. Rarity was just a tiny little bit surprised, but quickly shook it off and began looking for the materials. After the extremely busy and inspired fashionista gave them the materials she also took the liberty of politely kicking them out of her room claiming she also needed privacy and concentration. “Great! Now we don’t have a base!” Scootaloo complained with a long face. The soon to be heroines were walking towards the exit of the castle, castle Valhalla “Weren’t we supposed to be grounded anyway?” “Y’know! Who understands that mare?!” Sweetie Belle followed suit. “Well, at least we got the materials!” Apple Bloom said with a still optimistic attitude while looking at her saddlegabs which were full of said materials “Plus, how can we save the world inside Rarity’s room?” “Well yeah, but we can’t work in the middle of the hallway!” Scootaloo retorted, but Apple Bloom shrugged it off, refusing to let go her cheeriness. “Then why don’t we start looking for a temporal base?” Sweetie Belle proposed, other two heads nodded in response, and their search for a temporal Crusading base began. “This will be a perfect base! We have a giant pool here!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed proudly pointing with a hoof at the pool in front of them which had decorations befitting for a princess. Ironically, they actually were made for a princess. “AH!” a head of a red maned and golden coated alicorn mare screamed as it surfaced from the pool “What are you three doing in my royal bathroom?!” “P-Princess Sonne!” Sweetie Belle said with a shaky voice “There’s lots of food here!” Apple Bloom said while looking at the pastries and other dishes “This will be the perfect base!” The crusaders’ mouth watered uncontrollably; each of them had already made their separate ways to different plates which contained many different kinds of delicious looking pastries… until… “Shoo! Shoo! Get away from the princess’s food!” a royal chef suddenly appeared, a spatula in his magical grip. “Run!” “Here we have a lot of space!” Scootaloo said, marveling at the amounts of space she had to do her tricks, while the other two fillies marveled at the exotic beautiful flowers planted all around the place in some sort of special arrangement. Sweetie Belle paid special attention to the statues that seemed to have been chiseled to represent ancient legendary heroes or other important figures. Scootaloo readied herself, strapping the helmet onto her head and jumping on her scooter which she had seemed to have materialized out of thin air. However, before she could transform the masterfully planted garden into a mess with her scooter’s wheels… “No! Not the flowers! What are you three doing in the royal Valhalla garden?!” “Well… this ain’t the best of places but…” Apple Bloom muttered. The three fillies sat in a corner of the bad smelling bathroom with pins on their snouts. Their faces made it obvious that they were disgusted. “At lest nopony’s gonna run us outta here… right?” “The bathroom of the hotel where Ponyville’s staying? Seriously?” Scootaloo deadpanned as she wondered just what in the hay these mares ate to be able to… defecate such odorous and atrocious substances. Of course, these weren’t the words this filly used. Suddenly, they raised their heads to see the head of an angry uniformed stallion towering over them. Behind him a couple of angry mares stood, glaring daggers at the poor crusaders. The fillies sighed. “I thought we could use the mops and brooms in here as… weapons?” even Scootaloo herself was about to laugh at what she just said. “Okay. Yeah. I admit it. The janitor’s room wasn’t the best idea, but hey! It can’t be worse than Sweetie’s idea of ‘Princess Sonne’s royal bathroom!” “I didn’t know it was Her bathroom! I thought it was some sort of… spa?” Sweetie Belle retorted. “A spa?! Who in the hay would make their crusading base in a spa?!” Scootaloo yelled back, her nose pressed against Sweetie Belle’s in a challenging manner and their eyes locked in a fierce staring contest. “G-girls…?” Apple Bloom called for her friends, her eyes were staring at something fearfully. The other two crusaders looked up to find the same uniformed stallion, with the same angry look. “AAAAAAHH!!” shrieks, roars, barks, and other terrible sounds could be heard inside the ancient temple. No, not even the Cutie Mark Crusaders themselves knew how they had arrived there. However, they had no time to figure that out now, unless they wanted to be gobbled up by the monsters that were pursuing them. They could only run for their lives. In a flash of light they found themselves in the strangest place they could find themselves in yet. Dragons, tall buildings and machines they have never ever seen before surrounded them. “D-d-d-d-DRAAAAGOOOOONS!!” And in another flash they found themselves in another of Valhalla castle’s room. There was a lavender unicorn mare staring at them suspiciously. “What were you three doing in such a place?!” Twilight scolded the Crusaders angrily, but the fillies were too shocked to even formulate a proper response other than ‘uhh’, ‘umm’ or ‘ugh’. “W-where were we?” Apple Bloom was the first one to speak, though it sounded more like she was asking this to herself. “I… have no idea” Twilight still answered, lost in thought “but it certainly was somewhere you three weren’t supposed to be in” her stern look returned. “We’re sorry Twilight” the Crusaders apologized in chorus. “It’s okay, girls” she reassured the fillies, her expression now shaped into a gentle smile. “What matters is that I took you out of there in time… somehow. But just what were you doing to get stuck in such a mess?” “Hold on!” Scootaloo said after finally coming back to her senses “How did you know we were… wherever we were?” “Oh” Twilight rolled her eyes “Just Pinkie being Pinkie… Anyways, could you answer my question?” “Well… we just wanted to get our cutie marks in being heroines, but we don’t even have a base.” Apple Bloom answered with a gloomy face. Sweetie Belle took the Power Puff Fillies comic from her friend’s saddlebag. Twilight took the comic with her magic and began studying it. “The Power Puff Fillies, huh? This is quite the famous comic!” Twilight remarked, having heard of the series herself “I take it all that fabric you’re carrying is to make the costumes, right?” she said, glancing at the saddlebag overflowing with materials. The fillies nodded. “Hm… Now that I think about it…” Sweetie Belle muttered to herself, feeling how a light bulb inside her head was about to light up. “Miss Twilight, would you give me the comic?” “Sure” Twilight put the comic book on the floor right in front of Sweetie Belle’s hooves. Said filly opened the comic book in a random page and began skipping through them until she found what she was looking for. She lifted the book to her eye level, right next to Twilight and compared the character drawn in the page to the super studious and intelligent mare, sticking her tongue out in a gesture indicating she was deep in concentration… Both the character and Twilight shared the same confused expression. “Professor Plutonium!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in victory, pointing a hoof at Twilight. “Wha-?” “Hey! You’re right! They’re so alike!” Scootaloo remarked, repeating Sweetie Belle’s procedure of comparing the fictional character and the now confused lavender mare in front of them. Apple Bloom peeked through her friends shoulder. “Yeah! That means…” Apple Bloom muttered. “OUR BASE WILL BE IN TWIILGHT’S ROOM!!” the crusaders shouted in glee, but it wouldn’t last for long. Twilight imagined how it would be like to have the fillies jumping, running from one side to another, painting the walls, shouting and other unimaginable atrocities while she could only try and fail miserably at the attempt of studying… “Sorry girls, but I’m going to have to say no to that…” Twilight said with a troubled expression and tone. “Wha?” it was the crusaders’ turn to be confused and disappointed. “But, but, but, the Power Puff Fillies live with Professor Plutonium!” Sweetie Belle protested, showing the comic page which had the heroines and the professor together in the same house, hugging like a happy family. “And since ya’ and him look so alike and he’s smart and yer smart too, we thought ya could be Professor Plutonium!” Apple Bloom joined her friend. “And we don’t know where else to look for a base!” Scootaloo finished their protests, but even so Twilight’s decision was firm. She looked at the crusaders’ puppy eyes and, with all the courage she could muster, gave her very important reason for not being able to allow them to stay. “Please, understand. I-I need continue studying all of the greatest chess books written by the greatest chess masters to keep that atrocity that happened yesterday to repeat itself! I can’t afford to let Princess Celestia down again!” the fillies could not understand most of the words Twilight used, but they listened with due respect “I need a lot of concentration for that… Ahh…” Twilight walked towards the window and sighed helplessly. The position of the sun indicated it was around two in the afternoon “If I could only find that ‘Chinese Dragon Mate’ in those books… but Princess Celestia herself said only that ‘Chinese Dragon’ knew that move and he’s already dead… and Gas is absolutely nowhere to be found now!” “Gas?” Scootaloo repeated the stallion name Twilight mentioned earlier. The crusaders shot glances between each other. Their faces lit up, shouting: Idea! They shared nods of approval “We’ll help you!” Scootaloo said with determination. Sure, they had said before they would help ‘sad foals like them’, but foal or not, Twilight was their friend and she was sad. “Huh?” Twilight looked questioningly at the crusaders. “We know Gas! We’ll find him for you!” Sweetie Belle said. “W-wait… you know him?!” she now had a surprised look with a hint of about-to-go-insane. It reminded the crusaders of when she wanted to give them that… doll. “U-um… Yes! He’s the Red Pony Ranger!” Apple Bloom answered. “Oh no… Now he’s disguising himself to fool little and innocent foals…” Twilight muttered. “No! He tried to help us find our cutie marks!” Scootaloo tried defending the stallion in question, but Twilight seemed not to be paying too much attention. “Whatever…” “Let’s go get that Chain-eese lizard mate!” Apple Bloom exclaimed enthusiastically, throwing a hoof into the air “Wait. What’s a ‘Chain-eese lizard mate’?” “It’s not ‘Chain-eese’, it’s ‘Chinese’. And it’s not a lizard, it’s a dragon. And a ‘mate’ is how it’s called when you win a chess game… or something like that” Sweetie explained and her two friends looked at her with disbelief “What? I pay attention!” “W-whatever” Scootaloo shook her head from side to side, trying to return from the daze she was in “We should go and get… whatever that stuff was. Maybe then Twilight will pay us attention and will at least help us find a club house.” “…maybe he now has a thousand crying fillies trapped in his secret sadomasochism room…” Twilight kept trotting around them nervously, muttering nonsense to herself. The crusaders (fortunately) had no idea what she was talking about but they were sure they didn’t want to know. “W-well…” Scootaloo fidgeted nervously “we can’t be Power Puff Fillies without costumes so…” “Cutie Mark Crusaders: Pony Finders!” they sang in a barely audible whisper which reminded them of a certain pastel yellow pegasus. Then they snuck out of the room, leaving Twilight to keep making crazy theories about the Red Pony Ranger… or any other subject she had lost herself into. “…only Celestia knows who invented ‘The Pear’!” In the shadows, a pony who was not really a pony watched the fillies struggling with outer forces so they could finish their ultimate fight with their inner forces. This not-so-pony wanted to help them… but how? And then, inspiration struck her.