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// Prologue 
// Story: Somepony to Watch Over Me 
// by Ana Matic 
//------------------------------//

	Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night can stay a Cutie Mark Crusader from her appointed meeting.  But a lot of rain and a leaky clubhouse roof can certainly make the meeting less enjoyable.  In fact, most of it was being spent hauling and emptying buckets rather than discussing new ideas for earning cutie marks.
“Hey, maybe we can get our cutie marks in bucket emptying!”
Scootaloo snorted at the suggestion from the overly-optimistic unicorn filly.  “That's a dumb idea!  I don't wanna spend my life as part of a bucket brigade!”
Apple Bloom dumped another bucketful out the window before rushing the tin pail back to its spot underneath the leak directly above the podium.  “Maybe when this storm lets up, we can try our hooves at a roof repair cutie mark,” she suggested hopefully.
“Except you're the one who fixed up the clubhouse to begin with,” Sweetie Belle pointed out.  “If you didn't get your cutie mark then, why would you get it for repairing the roof?”
“Good point,” the yellow filly conceded, her ears drooping a bit.  “But we still gotta fix up those leaks soon as the rain stops.”
“No kidding,” Scootaloo griped as she hauled another bucket to be emptied.
…...........
Hours of guarding against indoor flooding later, the rain finally stopped and the sun filtered through the clouds again.  And that was all the invitation Apple Bloom needed to grab her tools and scamper out onto the balcony, where a still-soaked, rickety old ladder leaned sideways against the wall.
“Girls, help me with this ladder!” the young earth pony called to her friends.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle complied, helping Apple Bloom raise the ladder against the roof.  As the youngest Apple climbed, the other two Crusaders tried to keep the ladder steady.
“Careful up there, Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle called.  “The roof is still really wet.  Maybe we should wait until it dries.”
“That could take days,” Apple Bloom griped.  “Scootaloo said the pegasi were going to be bringing in showers on and off for the next few days in order to help fill the creeks for summer.  And we need this roof repaired now!”
“It's not like it would kill us to meet somewhere else for a while,” the pegasus filly in question said.
“Ah'm not gonna be that long!” Apple Bloom replied, hopping onto the roof to begin her repairs.
No sooner had the yellow filly made her way to the top of the roof's slope and begun hammering loose shingles into place than her hooves began sliding on the slick, wet wood.  Apple Bloom scrambled to get her hooves underneath her, but every move caused her to slide back even faster.  Before she knew it, she was sliding out of control right toward the edge of the roof.
“AAAAAAHHHH!”
The other two fillies, helpless to aid her, could only watch as their friend plummeted over the edge of the roof to the ground several lengths below.
“Apple Bloom!”