The Residential: Day 1
Apple Bloom made her final preparations to set off on residential. Applejack and Big Mac were helping her get her cases to the door. Just as the last case settled on the wall, Mac released it from his mouth's grip and sighed with relief.
"What've y'got in these cases anyways, Apple Bloom?" Applejack asked, "there's two of 'em and they're heavier than ol' Bessie's cowbell collection."
Apple Bloom's nervousy was thankfully subtle; she didn't have the heart to tell her siblings that she'd packed equipment to face off against or rescue from an unknown and evil supernatural force in an apparently haunted and dangerous manor house in another county.
"It's just clothes, sis! We need a lot if we're gettin' down and dirty in our activities," Apple Bloom explained.
"Well, whatever. You just take care, 'kay?"
Apple Bloom embraced and nuzzled Applejack and Big Mac, "o' course I will! I'll see y'all in a week. Bye now!"
She then stormed out the door with her bags attached to her back as she galloped towards Ponyville Train Station. A tear made up of both pride and sisterly worry worked up in Applejack's eye as the teenage mare happily made her way off.
"They grow up so fast," Applejack noted to Big Mac with a smile.
"Eeyup," the stallion replied.
***
Rarity quickled hastled to prepare the rest of Sweetie Belle's clothes. With a huge repitoire at hoof, she was struggling to find something suitable for the activities described in the residential letter.
"I honestly don't have much that can get dirty, Sweetie Belle! Everything here is just too precious and delicate!" she cried.
"I know that," her sister replied, "and I knew before we packed anyway. Just pack normal stuff, Apple Bloom said she'd lend me some of Applejack's old clothes for the walks and stuff."
Now Rarity was worried, "Applejack's clothes? Oh dear, oh dear, that won't do! They're all scruffy and...ick! I wouldn't want you wearing her 'fashion style'."
"They're just gonna get dirty anyway..." Sweetie Belle noted.
This didn't occour to Rarity. If she'd thought of that before she wouldn't have blabbed about her friend's choice of clothes. This was embarrasing and she wanted the moment to clear quickly, so she pushed Sweetie and her many bags out of the door quickly.
"Now have a nice time, be careful, don't get too dirty and wash and brush your mane every night! I love you, bye now!"
And the door shut. Sweetie Belle giggled then, with what magic she could use, she lifted her five bags from the ground and levitated them around her as she made her way to the station.
***
Scootaloo's parents had already left her house down in Ponyville for work this morning, but Shiner was coming to pick the pegasus up. Scootaloo tiredly plopped herself on a sofa in her dawn-filled living room, looking at the dust dance around the light flooding through the windows. She glanced at the clock, seeing that Shiner was a few minutes late. She rested her eyes, but just as her eyelids met, there was a hasty knock on the door. Scootaloo hopped off the sofa she had just sat upon and opened the door with a wing, then smiled at the sight of her boyfriend behind the door, wings aspread.
"Are ya ready to go?" Shiner asked with a smile.
"Of course!" Scootaloo replied, quickly hovering towards her single suitcase. Though she could not fly, Scootaloo had mastered hovering; she never got any bashful comments on her lack of proper areial activity. Scribble Dibble, another flightless pegasus, had cleared up that controversey a year or so ago.
"And that's everything?" Shiner asked before Scootaloo could turn around.
The mare paused for thought. She had obviously forgotten something if Shiner was asking that. Her eyes then fully opened in rememberance. She dashed upstairs and quickly galloped back down with a rolled up orange piece of fabric. The sleeping bag that Sweetie Belle had made for her. The Crusaders all promised to bring them to this trip.
"There we go!" Shiner laughed and opened the door wider for Scootaloo to exit.
Once the two had begun their trot to the station, Scootaloo asked Shiner why he was late.
"It was only a few minutes, Scootie...besides I got a little caught up reading my book," Shiner explained.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes, "the kid's book?"
Shiner narrowed his eyes in return, "Daring Do and the Pegasus Pendant is not a kid's book, Scootie. Loads of adults read the series! Even Rainbow Dash wrote one!"
"Yeah, yeah," Scootaloo giggled as Shiner blushed.
***
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders, GO!
We're on an adventure, we're on a quest,
to find out what we do the best.
Our cutie marks are what we seek,
we'll push our selves every day of the week!
Cutie Mark Crusaders! Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Apple Bloom's the handy one,
give her work in a minute it is done.
Sweetie Belle, she just loves to sing,
she wrote this song, it has her ring.
Scootaloo is rad and cool,
try her stunts and you'll look like a fool.
But then Shiner already has his mark but,
he'll help us catch our cutie marks!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusa~ders!
There's no limit to what we will try!
No matter how many rules we will defy,
WE WILL GET OUR CUTIE MARKS IN TIME!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders!
Teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders YEAH!
***
That morning, the Ponyville train station was in full bustle with young ponies and teacher strewn across the wooden platform along with their bags. The last ones to trot along were the crusaders, all coincidentally arriving at the same time. They all saw each ther and giggled, then looked forward to see there was no space for them on the platform, but then they saw a hoof fly up and wave to them. The hoof was a deep shade of blue and there was no fur on the end, leaving bare hoof. Curious, the four ponies shoved their way through the crowds to reach the one waving to them. They were then surprised to see a circle of emptiness on the platform and grinning at them, with a coat the same colour as his hoof, a scroll cutie mark, square-rimmed glasses and pegasus wings was Scribble Dibble.
"Uh...Scribs?" Shiner looked towards the enthusiastic pegasus, "why is there a huge gap in the crowd? Anypony could stand there...."
Then the ponies (except Scribble, who was still smirking) flinched as they heard a scream and saw a pony get flung into the air, landing at the other end of the platform. From where that pony was launched stood a grey unicorn with a white mane which, whilst spikey, remained downward flowing. Left to his matching tail was a microphone cutie mark. The faintest white aura faded away from his horn.
"Heavy Metal and I have been guarding this spot for you guys, don't wanna miss a catch up with our dormmate, do we?" Scribble laughed.
"What about Stellar Spike?" Apple Bloom asked.
Another deep voice rung out from overhead, "are they here yet, guys?" accompanied by a descending brown pegasus with darker brown hair and a telescope cutie mark. He landed on the ground and looked at the crusaders for a few seconds, "oh! How long have you been here?"
The four looked to one another, then to the pegasus. Sweetie Belle spoke up, "a few seconds."
"Oh," Stellar Spike laughed, "fine then."
Ponies began to scream and cheer as the train came into view. It stopped with a mighty screech and a huge blast of smoke, washing over the crowded platform and making the loads of ponies cough. The doors opened and chaotically, ponies boarded, shoving others out the way and making some unable to move. The crusaders were stuck in the middle of all of this, so they decided to stay still and be the last ones to board. As hoofsteps drummed around them, Scootaloo looked behind them and saw another pony standing still; though she didn't recognise it from the ones at school.
In a couple of moments, the crusaders were the last ones on the platform; even Scribble Dibble and his friends had left them after saving them a place. The four were about to step forward but they heard a voice.
"Oh, guys, glad to see you're here!" the familliar voice chirped. It was the voice of Twilight Sparkle.
"Twilight?" Apple Bloom chuckled, "what're you doing here?"
"My brother asked that I take care of you at the manor house. He has faith in you but of course he needed a pony as dependable as me to make sure you're all okay!" the alicorn had a hint of self-approval in her voice.
"Shining Armor did mention that somepony was coming with us, I never really thought about it though," Shiner admitted, then looked behind him, "we'd better get on the train! It'll leave without us!"
So the ponies dragged their bags along and boarded the train, which was at full bustle with ponies. It was hard to find a place for them to all sit down. Eventually, they found a place with Shady Daze that was completely empty. Only now did the crusaders notice he had a cutie mark of a newspaper. Upon seeing them, the earth pony invited them to sit down, looking rather enthusiastically at Sweetie Belle. He spoke as soon as they sat down and the train started its journey to Buckingham.
"How did the interview go?" he beamed.
Sweetie Belle immediatley answered, "it went well, we found out some information that we need to keep a secret for now, but interviewing is really fun!"
"I know!" Shady Daze agreed, "interviewing a prince and princess has to be much more interesting than what I'm doing..."
"What's that?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Shady began to explain "Well, Aperture and I were doing a report on the owners of the Shining Plate Bistro-"
He was quickly interrupted by Shiner, "That's my parents' cafe! I work there, what brought you over there?"
"Your parents are thinking of selling the place. Didn't you know?"
Shiner's pupils widened. His parents hadn't told him this yet; to him business there seemed great.
"Did they tell you why?" he asked.
"Lack of staff. They did mention only their son and one other pony were working there besides them, it's made things pretty stressful. Ponies have been leaving because it's been taking too long to get their orders," Shady explained, "here, have an advance issue of the Tribune. It's all in there."
Shady moved a newspaper towards Shiner. He moved it closer with his hoof and mumbled through the words, "I have no idea why they wouldn't tell me..."
"Say," Apple Bloom pondered, "since when did we start having such good quality photographs in the school paper?"
"Since Aperture came along of course!" Shady Daze chirped, "he's a natural with a camera. You can certainly tell why he has his cutie mark."
"So a lot of the ponies on the newspaper team have cutie marks related to it, huh?" Scootaloo thought out loud.
"Looks like we're on the right track!" Apple Bloom laughed, looking out of the train window.
***
Many hours later, after much newspaper talk between Shady Daze and Sweetie Belle, the train finally arrived at the convinent train station in front of Buckinghamshire Manor. It was a huge gothic mansion on the edge of a seaside cliff. Accompanied by the soothing sound of waves crashing against the lower rock was the fresh and delightful salty sea air smell. Ponies flooded out of the train and a warm coast breeze swayed their manes. As they were instructed, the ponies carried their bags along towards the manor. The crusaders, Twilight Sparkle and Shady Daze were once again the last ones to deboard the train. The six ponies made their way behind everypony else into the manor.
***
One inside, the ponies were shown to their dorm rooms. This was the time the crusaders were dreading as they were sharing a dorm with Diamond Tiara. They held their breath before entering but thankfully she had already dropped her bags and left. Looking around, the walls were grey stone, a small glass window sat above a small reading table and the floor was a comfortable carpet. The girls claimed their beds, which were bunk beds, and left their bags where they could be easily accessed. There was an en suite bathroom with their dorm with a toilet, sink and shower. They then exited the room and headed downstairs for dinner as it was late and they had already eaten lunch on the train.
They trotted down a narrow set of stone stairs and through a corridor to a huge dining hall with long wooden tables surrounded by equally longer wooden benches with a large and fine array of foods lined along the tables. Scootaloo dashed to the nearest empty seat and began grabbing things from every tray, making her own meal as big as any other ponies. Her friends laughed at her antics and joined her.
A few hours later everypony in the hall was stuffed but still bursting out with chatter. Carpenter Chemist came to the head of the hall and coughed for attention to no avail, he then looked to Shiner who rolled his eyes and hovered in the air.
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!!" he yelled over everyone. The attention was on him, all eyes were making contact with his, "Chemist Carpenter wants to talk..." he chuckled and sat down in his seat. It was all quiet except for Scootaloo in hysterical laughter.
The teacher cleared his throat, "Now everypony, I know you're probably all filled to the brim after that wonderful meal, curtosey of the manor chefs of course. In a few minutes we will have a campfire to break ourselves into the house, so please come round the back in ten minutes."
Ponies cheered and galloped away to prepare for the campfire, but the crusaders were left once again to exit last. Twilight came up to them, her wings outspread in joy after her meal.
"How was dinner, guys?" she asked positively.
"Delicious!" Scootaloo quickly responded, "I could get used to this!"
Twilight chuckled, "well I won't be coming to the campfire, I'm going to have a look around the place. I hear the manor has an excellent library! It'll be interesting to see what kind of books they keep." the unicorn then smiled sheepishly and hopefully, "might even get a few leads as to where my nephew is."
The crusaders nodded. They had almost forgotten their main reason for coming in the first place; to find Regal Crown. They said bye to the princess then trotted outside to enjoy the campfire.
***
Twilight was in a relaxed state after ten minutes. The manor was silent spare for the quietened mumbles of the ponies outside enjoying the campfire. She happily trotted through the halls, looking for the library. Suddenly, she stopped. She saw something infront of her, but not something; somepony. It was the ghostly figure of a red pegasus stallion with a white mane, smirking innocently at Twilight. She almost screamed at the shock the spirit gave her, but she kept her cool and studied him for a moment.
"A..are you a ghost?" she whimpered. Her wings opened up as a natural defencive reflex.
The ghost nodded, then turned around and looked towards Twilight, signalling for her to follow. She perked up a bit seeing as the ghost was friendly and began to follow him.
Meanwhile, at the campfire, everything had come to a hush as somepony suggested they tell ghost stories but nopony volunteered. Scootaloo looked around then stood up with a cheeky smirk plastered on her face.
"I'm sure nopony here has heard of the Darkness of Buckinghamshire Manor," she giggled.
Ponies shook their heads, slightly worried at the prospect of what they might be able to hear.
"It's a thrilling story, true too!" Scootaloo laughed, "they say that in this manor is an evil spirit. It lurks around, talking to ponies then takes them in its grasp and brings them to another dimension!"
Ponies recoiled in fear at what Scootaloo had just said, some of them unknowing if it was the truth or not like she had said. Apple Bloom pulled the pegasus down and whispered for her to shush.
"Y'can't let 'em know 'bout that! If whatever took Regal Crown goes for 'em, they'll be mighty terrified!"
Scootaloo simply sniggered and the campfire chattered roared back up as ponies giggled and sung. Scootaloo noticed that from the other side of the fire, Diamond Tiara was glaring at her. She returned the glare with a scowl and the pink pony looked away.
Twilight had been following the ghost for a few minutes now and finally it stopped at a door. Twilight opened it and what she was greeted with put a huge smile on her face; she had finally found the library! The ghost led her in and she looked around. It was huge. Not as tall as the library in the Crystal Empire, but still huge. The wooden bookcase held many paperback, hardback and leather books for her to explore but the pegasus ghost was leading her to something else. She decided to follow it more. She opened her wings and elegantly hovered up to the ghost's level. Once she reached him, he quickly flew into the bookcase. Curious, Twilight levitated some books out of the way and saw that the back was much wider. There was a large metal case which the pegasus was sat next to, smiling nicely at her. Twilight cocked her head and the pegasus nodded.
"Let's see what in here then..." she said, levitateing the box to her. She kept it above her as she descended towards a red leather chair and lay down, tucking her wings to her side.
She put the metal box on the table next to her and opened it with her magic, then brought out a very dusty leather book. The cover was hardly visible because of all of the dust. Twilight gently blew it off, but it went everywhere causing her to choke. Once she got over her coughing fit she looked carefuly at the cover. Engraved on it were olden pony runes. Luckily, over her years Twilight had studied these runes and quickly deciphered them.
The book was titled "Consonance and Desolation".
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Shit just got real. Or did it? Honestly I'm not sure...
Great chapter, the inclusion of Team S was impressive. But um, Heavy Metal's a Unicorn...not a pegasus. Other than that it's fantastic!
1670544 oh it's gonna get real
1670716 he is described as a unicorn in there. Or so I thought. Ill go over it again and change it if I made a mistake
Edit: oh yeah. Didnt see that I'd put Pegasus. Changed now
1673415 THANKYOU YUSEI!
1673414 Oh. So, as Yoda would say, "About to get real, shit is."
Well, seem to be moving the plot forward a bit, at least in finding Regal Crown. Little bit of confusion abound in this chapter, with the mystery ghost (hopefully, not the same one that took Regal Crown) and I think with unfamiliar names (then again, not as well-versed in lesser-seen ponies as you may be, with the MLP Wiki site). Still wondering about what's planned as far as Diamond Tiara and Shiner subplots, among other things, I think. And for some reason, expecting that even if Twilight finds her nephew, he'll refuse to go and may even insult her, like he did in previous chapter with the Cakes or their merchandise.
Well, not sure if next several chapters are going to cover the Residential as a whole, but even if they do, as long as interesting, will continue to look forward to it, I suppose!
1670716
Team S? If referring to first letter of each of the guys' group with Shiner with the names as think you are, one begins with an H, not an S.
1687414 Fact is, Heavy Metal, Scribble Dibble and Stellar Spike are the OC's that myself, Sonic the Pony and Prince Luna have come up with. The three of us are good friends in real life and we go by the name Team S. That was the reference
1687414
Going the way I have it planned now, The Residential should be about 4 chapters long.
Yep, this is definitely a moving point for the plot. I can't reveal the identity of the ghost, but it will become clear as we go on. And in terms of unfamilar names, the OCs introduced in the chapter are: Scribble Dibble, Heavy Metal, Stellar Spike and Aperture if that helps.
Basically, the next few chapters will be set during the residential in a clever half-and-half idea. The antics of the crusaders will bring character development, truly showing some of the OCs and changes in personalities of already existing characters for the first time. Meanwhile, Twilight's research at the manor is going to be what moves the plot along.
And I can't say anything about Regal Crown, you'll find out when the time comes
Aperture? Testing will begin shortly I guess
Sorry to be a pain because i know how much time it takes to create a masterpiece such as this but i was just wondering..... If i could know when the next chapter comes out because this is SUCH a great story im hooked! Keep it up
1918791 it'll be soon! I'm still writing it but I just started college again so expect that to get in the way a bit
Oh ok yea i just back from break as well. Sweet thanks!
Not going to sugar coat it son, I can love and tolerate like any regular brony, but this... Is trash.
2327660
Care to elaborate?
2490687
Urmm...Scootaloo shared her food with him?
2504779
Well kind but they mess up alot of things ask
Continue it already!
2546367
Next chapter will be finished soon, I'll be completing it after I've settled the first episode of the audio drama