CH 3
It had been about a day since Billy, now known as Saber Strike, and the mane six got back to Ponyville from Canterlot. Twilight decided to hold off on starting Sabers magic lessons for a couple of days so he could better familiarize himself with Ponyville.
Yesterday the future Warrior of Equestria was shown town hall. Twilight took the opportunity to introduce Saber to Mayer Mare who let him in with open hoofs and started the paperwork to make Saber an official citizen of Ponyville. Saber thought the Mayer seemed like a kind trustworthy pony But he decided not to get on her bad side after a little incident during their meeting in which the Mayer through a little fit after she lost all her writing quills and she couldn't sign the important paperwork. If Twilight hadn’t conveniently had some quills on her she might have brought down the entire building looking for them.
As they left the hall Twilight remarked that the Mayor usually didn’t take her job quite as seriously as she had at that moment. She informed Saber that usually she shows little to no interest in her work instead using the title of Mayer to boost her ego. Twilight then theorized that with the music festival coming soon she has a lot more pressure on her than usual to put together something great.
Then the alicorn gave Saber a closer look at the now finished stage for the music festival which was to take place in two days from then at sunset. He was curious as to what the music of this pony world would be like. He hadn’t heard much music in Equestria aside from trumpets bellowing back in Canterlot to announce the arrival of him and his new friends at the castle.
The human turned navy blue pony then had thought of music from earth and how they might work in Equestria. He figured rock might be popular with the teenage ponies, as well as Rainbow Dash. Rarity would probably enjoy classical being the classy pony she is. And thou he couldn't quite pinpoint what kind of music Fluttershy would like he was absolutely certain that Applejack would love country. He also had a strange feeling that he couldn’t explain that Pinkie would be into rap. Do they even have these types of music here? he had thought to himself.
A little while after that Sabers stomach had started to growl. After all, he hadn't eaten scene he first arrived in Equestria, So Twilight brought him to a fast food place called the Hay Burger. At first he felt a little freaky when he found out that the burgers had hay in it instead of meat. It took a little while for him to remember that horses and ponies are herbivores. But I don't eat hay. He had thought. But when he looked at the table to see Twilight he saw a purple pony princess gobbling down burger after burger occasionally sipping from her large vanilla milkshake and urging him to eat. Well, I guess I'll try it. He had thought as he took a small nibble from the dried grass filled sandwich. And to his surprise it hadn’t tasted all that bad. In fact, it tasted delicious. Which caused the ponies to eat hay burgers for the rest of the afternoon.
That night Twilight showed Saber the tree castle that was created by the chest she and the rest of the mane six opened in order to defeat Tirek. How he did not fully notice it when he first entered Ponyville he did not know because it was pretty big. Maybe it was the jet lag of being torn from his world, being brought to another world, and being turned into a pony.
The bookworm pony then brought him inside and took him to a chamber that would be used as his place to stay while he was in Ponyville. Saber was happy to get some sleep after such a busy day, but it was a chore learning how to get comfortable in a bed in pony form.
It was in the afternoon the next day as Saber walked with Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity. “So where are we going today?” Saber asked excitedly.
“Today,” Twilight started “we're going to introduce you to some ponies you might be able to relate to.”
“In what way?” the navy blue warrior to be pondered.
“You'll see.” was all Twilight said.
A few minutes passed and Saber spoke back up. “I must admit,” he said as they all walked. “I felt a little odd walking thru town not wearing any clothes.”
“I suppose humans would fell weird being naked like this.” Applejack chimed in. “but we ponies really only put on duds for special occasions.”
This is when Rarity popped in. “Oh my,” she said. “We can't have the Warrior of Equestria feeling out of place like this. Saber why don't you stop by my boutique later today and we can get you a proper outfit.”
“Why thank you Rarity. I might just do that.” Saber said.
“Just what we need,” Rainbow said. “another fashion...”
Before anypony else could say anything else Twilight stopped the group. “Here we are,” she said.
They were beside a small red building with a short bell tower on the roof which was sounding off very loudly.
Saber soon realized what kind of building it was. “A school house?” he said curiously.
“Yep..” Twilight responded. “and it's out for the day.”
Up ahead Saber Strike noticed lots of little ponies leaving the school. Three were running up to them. One was orange with a purple mane and tail with small pegasus wings. Another, a unicorn, was white like Rarity with a curly mane of two different shades of purple. And the last was a light yellow earth pony that wore a big pink bow in her red mane.
“What's going on?” Saber asked.
The three little fillies reached the group. The one with the bow ran up to Applejack. “Big sis!” she exclaimed as she gave her a big hug.
The white unicorn filly embraced Rarity. And the orange filly did the same to Rainbow Dash.
The orange one then noticed Saber. “Who's this guy?” she asked rather bluntly pointing a hoof at him.
Applejack explained. “This little fillies is Saber Strike. He's a new friend. Saber this here is my little sister Applebloom.”
The marshmallow-like white filly said “Hi there. I'm Sweetie Belle and I'm Rarities little sister.?”
“I'm Scootaloo,” said the orange filly. “Technically I'm not Rainbow Dashes sister but I might as well because were both so cool and awesome.”
Rainbow then gave Scootaloo a noogie. “Thanks for the compliment,” she said.
Saber was a little clueless as to what was going on.
“Um... Any reason why you're all are introducing me to your siblings?” he asked.
“Why darling you're going to watch them for the afternoon.” Rarity answered.
Saber was shocked. “What?” he said. “Why do you want me to watch a bunch of kids?”
Saber wasn’t really too fond of children. At least children that he wasn’t related to. He found them rather annoying and troublesome. And unlike most other people he did not consider human babies to be cute. Puppies and kittens he found cute, but not babies. So learning that he had to watch some pony kids for the afternoon was something he was not too sure about.
“Now now,” said Twilight. “If you take the time to get to know these fillies, you might find you all have many things in common.”
Twilight then turned to the three fillies. “Take a look at his flank little ponies,” she said to them.
Applebloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo did as they were told and looked upon Sabers blank flank.
“Hey!” Applebloom shouted in a similar accent as her big sister. “He ain’t got no cutie mark.”
“Exactly,” said Applejack. “Perhaps you could make him a cutie mark crusader.”
“A what?” Saber asked confused.
“The Cutie Mark Crusaders is an organization we started,” Applebloom said.
“To help ponies find their special talent,” Sweetie Bell added.
“And get their cutie marks.” Scootaloo finished.
“Oh, I get it. You think hanging with these uh... fillies will help me get my cutie mark.” Saber Strike said.
“We can hope sugar cube.” said Applejack.
“Now we will be back in a few hours after our spa treatment,” said Rarity. “And girls...”
“Yes.” all three fillies said at once.
“Be on your best behavior. Saber Strike is in charge so mind him.” Rarity finished.
“Of course.” the three young ponies said together again, all with big grins all on their faces as little halos floated above their heads.
“See you all later,” said Twilight as she and the other adult ponies turned to head to the spa. “And Saber,” she added, “we'll be starting your magic lessons tomorrow morning so be ready.”
Applejack looked to Twilight and asked worriedly“Do you think our little sisters can really help Saber get his cutie mark?”
Twilight answered “Maybe. But I think he can teach them as much as they can teach him.”
As they left Saber overheard Rainbow Dash mutter “I don't know about this spa thing. I've got an image to keep.”
“But Rainbow...” Rarity said. “You will be more aerodynamic with a properly groomed coat and mane.”
Rainbow was silent for a short while as she thought about what Rarity said. Then let out a sigh and said “Fine.”
When Twilight and the others were out of sight the three fillies all grouped together and Saber could hear them muttering something.
“Maybe I should be in the loop seeing as you'll be helping me get my cutie mark.” he said to the gathered younglings.
Saber did not get an answer for a few seconds. But then the three crusaders all raised their heads ant front legs up in the air as they shouted “YEA CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ROCK STARS” out as loud as they could.
Saber had to hold his front hooves up to cover his ears that shout was so loud. Then he realized he no longer had any front support and fell to the ground with his pony plot sticking up in the air.
The crusaders caught sight of this and started to laugh. “This pony's funny,” said Sweetie Bell.
“Nice faceplant” Scootaloo commented.
Applebloom went over to help up Saber Strike. “Sorry,” she said as she pulled out a helping hoof.
Saber took he hoof. When he was back up on all fours he faced the crusaders.
“Now that we’ve had a good laugh,” he said. “what are we going to do to get my cutie mark?”
“Well we were going to go over our routine for the music festival tomorrow,” said Scootaloo. “But I don't think we can fit you in, to last minute.”
Saber started to get curious. “What is this routine like?” he asked.
Sweetie Bell answered “It's a revised version of our theme song.”
“You have a theme song?” Saber asked a little surprised.
“Yeah,” Applebloom popped in. “We performed it at a talent show a while ago and we won for the best comedy act. But it wasn’t meant to be funny so we rewrote it to be more rocking.”
“Rocking? As in rock and roll?” Saber asked.
“Yes, we will rock the festival,” Sweetie Bell said excitedly
“Yeah right. More like stink up the festival,” a mean voice said over by some bushes.
Scootaloo looked around angrily. “Who said that?” she said out loud.
“Just guess.” said Applebloom turning Scootaloos head around to see two fillies coming out of the bushes and walking up to them.
“Great, I was hoping we wouldn’t have to deal with them today.” said Sweetie Bell.
“What, what's going on? Who are those two” Saber said confused.
One of the two fillies trotting up to them was light pink with a wavy mane and tail of light purple with white stripes and wore on her head a small tiara. She trotted to them with a nasty grin on her face, as if she was up to no good.
The other filly was gray whose mane and tail was a lighter shade of gray with a braid hanging off to her left. She also wore a pearl necklace and a pair of glasses with light blue frames.
“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.” said Applebloom.
“Probably here to pick on us again.” added Scootaloo.
“Right you are.” the pink filly said.
After getting a good look at these two Saber guessed the pink filly was Diamond Tiara and the gray one Silver spoon. He then noticed that these two had cutie marks. Diamond Tiaras was a tiara of course. And Silver Spoons was a spoon.
Diamond stepped up “You think you all will rock at the music festival. Ha, I bet after just a few seconds into your song the crowd will turn tail and run for the hills.”
“Good one” Silver added
The two then did a move where they bumped their hooves together and then their flanks while they both said together “Bump bump sugar lump rump.”
“Yes” Diamond put in. “but just to make our quota for today... ahem...”
“BLANK FLANKS.” Diamond and Silver both said out loud.
“Will you stop it with the blank flank taunt?” said Scootaloo. “It's getting old.”
Diamond Tiara said to the crusaders “It's an oldie but a goodie.”
Saber knew what was going on. He knew a bully when he saw one. He figured these two have been pestering the crusaders for quite some time. It was time for him to step up. But before he could Diamond noticed him.
“Well well, what have we here?” the pink bully started. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders have a new friend?” She then noticed Sabers flank. “Wow, an adult blank flank. You don't see that every day. I guess freaks of all ages need to stick together.”
Saber looked over to the crusaders. They were just standing there as tears started to welt up in their eyes. That was the straw that broke the camels back for him. “Now hold it right there,” he said. “Not having a cutie mark yet does not make you a freak. I just happen to be from out of town. And these are good fillies who have hopes and dreams you little brat. That must be your special talent despite the tiara cutie mark.”
Saber then turned to Silver Spoon. “And you, what's your talent... spooning?” He quickly caught himself. “Actually forget I said that. Anyway, these little ponies are under my care so leave then alone. Or I'll find your parents and tell them what you to have been doing to all these Innocent fillies.”
Diamond Tiara was flabbergasted. “Well I know when we're not wanted,” she said, “Come, Silver Spoon. We have other business to attend to.”
And with that Diamond Tiara and Silver spoon walked off with their snouts held snootily up in the air.
The crusaders looked up to Saber. “That was awesome!” exclaimed Scootaloo.
“I've never seen anypony give those two what for like that since my cousin.” said Applebloom.
All Sweetie Bell was able to say was a long “Wooow”
“Bullies are just the worst,” said Saber. “I've dealt with them too much in my past to know.”
He then looked down to the crusaders. “Are you all okay?” he asked them.
Sweetie Bell smiled at Saber and said “Yeah... thanks.”
“Don't mention it.” Saber responded. “Now... about getting those cutie marks?”