Cutie Mark Crusaders: The Next Generation

by Bluecatcinema

Adventures in Foalsitting

"Come on guys, catch the balloon!" Pinkie Pie cheered, as she cavorted with the new Cutie Mark Crusaders. The three young ponies were dashing around the park, trying to ensnare the pink balloon Pinkie had blown up for them. Even after ten years, Pinkie was still as child-like and fun-loving as ever. She ran around the lush greenery with her young charges, trying to keep the balloon as high as possible. As she ran about wildly, she slipped on a wet leaf, causing her to crash into a bush.

"You okay, aunt Pinkie?" Pumpkin called.

Pinkie emerged from the bush, her hair covered in leaves.

"That was a nice trip." She smiled. "And I made it back just in time for fall!"

Pinkie shook her head, causing the leaves to scatter across the ground, to the amusement of the three young ponies.

"Ooh, I better get going!" Pinkie blurted suddenly. "I promised your folks I'd help with today's orders. TTFN!"

"Catch ya later, aunt Pinkie!" Pound called after her.

"She's a ton of fun, isn't she?" Cream Puff smiled.

"Yeah." Pumpkin said fondly. "She used to foalsit us all the time when we were little."

"She was the best foalsitter ever." Pound agreed.

"Hey, how about that?" Pumpkin asked.

"What?" Cream Puff asked back.

"Foalsitting." Pumpkin continued. "Maybe our special talents have somethin' to do with that!"

"Looking after some stinky, drooly kid?" Pound grimaced. "Count me out!"

Pumpkin and Cream Puff glanced at each, then turned to Pound, smirking.

"Fine, mister negative." Cream Puff grinned.

"But don't blame us if we come out of this with our Cutie Marks, and you don't." Pumpkin sniggered.

The two turned to leave the park. It took all of two seconds for Pound to start following them.

"Hey, wait up!" He called.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders went all over Ponyville, seeking foalsitting opportunities. Unfortunately, whenever they did find something, the parents would decline, believing them to be too young for the responsibility.

"So much for your genius idea, sis." Pound groaned. "That's a whole morning, wasted!"

At that moment, a light yellow form suddenly bumped into the Crusaders. It was Fluttershy.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" She apologised. "I should have been watching where I was going!"

Fluttershy's husband, Forrest, appeared by her side, pushing a carriage containing their three toddler-aged foals: Birch, Holly, and Meadowlark. Birch's coat was eaarth-brown, like his father's, but his mane was the color of orange fall leaves. Holly had a pale yellow coat, and a light brown mane. Meadowlark had a pink coat, and a long yellow mane.

"We're in kind of a rush, you see." He explained.

"What for?" Cream Puff asked.

"We're looking for a foalsitter." Fluttershy told them. "Today is our anniversary."

"We wanted to have a romantic picnic in the park this afternoon, but we just can't seem to find a sitter for kids." Forrest finished.

"We could sit for your kids!" Pumpkin declared.

"Oh, I don't know." Fluttershy mumbled. "No offense, but you seem a little... young."

"So what if we're young?" Pound declared. "It just means we know a little better then most other sitters!"

"Please, just give us a chance." Cream Puff asked. "We promise we won't let you down."

Fluttershy and Forrest exchanged desperate looks.

"Okay, fine." Forrest sighed. "We'll only be gone for an hour or so, anyway. You kids can handle a couple of foals for a hour, right?"

"No problem." Pound smirked.

"Please, follow us." Fluttershy prompted gently.

Fluttershy and Forrest led the Crusaders to their cottage outside Ponyville.

"Thanks for volunteering, kids." Forrest said as they entered. "'Shy and I have been looking forward to this for weeks."

"You can count on us, sir!" Cream Puff saluted.

"There's food in the kitchen, in case they get hungry." Fluttershy told them. "And by the way, they're a little... energetic. Try not to let them out of your sight!"

"Can do!" Pumpkin nodded.

"Come on, hon." Forrest took his wife by the hoof. "Let's go!"

"Thanks again!" Fluttershy called.

After the couple left, the Crusaders looked at the foals, who looked right back.

"This is easier then I thought it'd be." Pound remarked.

Suddenly, as if a switch had been activated inside them, the three foals started squealing and running around, or more accurately flying around.

"Split up!" Pound called.

Pumpkin and Cream Puff complied, each going after a different foal. Using her magic, Pumpkin was able to reign Birch in, while Cream Puff made a lucky grab as Holly divebombed her. Meanwhile, Pound was able to snatch up Meadowlark, the only one who wasn't flying, by coming at her from above. Together, the Crusaders returned the squirming, protesting toddlers to their playmat.

"Easy, huh?" Cream Puff groaned.

"Tell me about it." Pound sighed, just as Meadowlark kicked him in the chin. "I know for a fact that me and Pumpkin were nowhere near this bratty when we were their age!"

Not long after, the foals began squealing again.

"Me hungee!" Birch screeched.

"Me too!" Holly agreed.

"And me!" Meadowlark finished.

"Okay, fine." Pound sighed. "Let's get 'em some food."

The Crusaders walked over to the refridgerator, not noticing the devious grins on their young charges' face. After getting the required food, they turned to find that the foals had vanished.

"Where'd they go?" Pound gasped.

"I don't know!" Pumpkin yelled.

"Fluttershy told us not to let them out of our sight!" Cream Puff remembered.

Just then, the three were tackled by the foals, the food flying everywhere.

"Got yoo!" Birch gurgled.

Before the Crusaders could get to their hooves, the foals were at it again. Birch was squeezing the life out of Angel III, the family bunny, Holly was sitting on the couch, throwing the cushions around, and Meadowlark was attempting to scale the indoor birdhouse.

"You know the drill, guys." Pound sighed.

Once again, the three split up. Cream Puff managed to extricate Angel III from out of Birch's grasp. The instant she did, Birch started crying. In her haste to calm him, Cream Puff slipped on a carrot, falling face first into the rabbit's food bowl. As she pulled her head up, her face was shown to be covered in lettuce and carrot slices.

Birch burst out laughing.

"Funny face!" He giggled. "Funny face!"

"Oh, you like that, huh?" Cream Puff smiled. She started contorting her face into all manner of bizarre shapes, to the foal's great amusement.

Meanwhile, Pumpkin walked up to Holly.

"No, Holly." She said firmly. "Don't-"

She was cut off by Holly throwing another cushion. Using her magic, she stopped the cushion in mid-air, and sent it flying back to the couch, where it was caught by Holly."

"Again! Again!" The foal squealed.

"Okay." Pumpkin smiled as she levitated more cushions. "You want it, you got it!"

Pumpkin gently sent each cushion over to Holly, who caught them. Their unique game of catch seemed to have captured the young foals attention.

Pound made his way over to the birdhouse, just in time to catch Meadowlark as she fell.

"Gotcha!" He yelled triumphantly, returning her to the ground.

"Uppy?" Meadowlark asked, reaching for Pound. "Uppy?"

"Okay, fine." Pound sighed, lifting her up in one of his forelegs.

"No." Meadowlark pointed to Pound's wings. "Uppy."

"Oh, I get it." Pound realised. "You can't fly yet, huh?"

Meadowlark tilted her head glumly.

"Relax, kid." Pound smiled. "I've gotchya covered."

Spreading his wings, Pound flew up into the air, performing a few moderately slow laps around the room.

"Whee!" Meadowlark gurgled. When Pound finally landed, she wrapped her hooves around his neck. "Thank 'oo!"

"You're welcome, kiddo." Pound smiled, returning the hug. "I guess not all foals are stinky and drooly after all."

Having found a way to entertain their charges, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were able to take the remainder of the hour in their stride. By the time, Fluttershy and Forrest returned, the foals were huddled on the mat, sound asleep.

"Oh, my." Fluttershy gasped. "They're all asleep."

"Good job, kids." Forrest smiled. "So good, in fact, that we might consider asking you to sit again."

"If that's alright with you, of course." Fluttershy added.

"Fine with me." Cream Puff smiled.

"Me too." Pumpkin nodded.

"I guess we could be persuaded to do it again." Pound shrugged in pseudo non-commitance.

As they left the cottage, Pumpkin smirked at her brother.

"You're not fooling anypony, you know." She smiled.

"Whatever." Pound replied.

"We didn't get our Cutie Marks, but at least we made some new friends." Cream Puff declared. "That's something, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Pound agreed.

"We'd better get back home for dinner." Pumpkin said. "I'm starving."

"So what else is new?" Pound smirked.

Once again, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had failed to discover their special talents. But, as always, they simply became more determined then ever to discover them. For all they knew, tomorrow could be the day it finally happened. That hope never left their hearts, not even for a moment.

Comments

[Nuki Mouse]

Still just a nice short WAFF, (Warm And Fuzzy Fealing). Your writing has improved though you still could reduce your comma use. Not every place you use a comma actually needs one, and even most of the spots I would remove the comma it is not actually incorrect to use one. It is just that too many commas tends to slow down and interrupt the flow of a story.

BTW I still wish you would align left instead of center. It just marks you as a amatuer, ignorant of proper grammer, &/or just lazy. If you don't believe me, just check out some of the other stories right on FIMfiction. Pick some with a lot of views and thumbs ups (100's or more). See how many of them are aligning left or aligning center? I bet it's less than 1.0%, and even the 1.0% are mostly doing it for poetry or song lyrics (due to the same length approx of each line in songs or poetry, it is the one time center alignment is use alot amoung fiction writers.)

If you use center alignment in the mis-believe it is somehow "20% cooler," then you must also think "Do you want fries with that" is also "20% cooler."

NOW, one glaring mistake I did see is Pinkie using "TTFM" in your story instead of "TTFN."
TTFM means 'To The Fucking Max,' not somethink that Pinkie would say nor does it fit into the dialogue.
I really think you meant to use TTFN, Ta-Ta For Now.

BTW, I think the triplets should have put the CMC though more hell than they did, considering how Pound and Carrot treated Pinkie as toddlers.

One last point, if I didn't like this story, or thought you writing was terrible beyond legibility or readability, I wouldn't waste my time commenting on it. I do this in hopes of helping you become a better writer.

[NgKQ]

Are Birch, Holly, and Meadowlark triplets? And are they all elder or younger than Honeysuckle?

[Shipper107]

"Please, just give us a chance." Cream Puff asked. "We promise we won't let you down."

Fluttershy and Forrest exchanged desperate.

"Okay, fine." Forrest sighed. "We'll only be gone for an hour or so, anyway. You kids can handle a couple of foals for a hour, right?"

"No problem." Pound smirked.

Desperate what?? Desperate looks? Desperate glances? come on, that´s not a typo that´s downright forgetting to write a word.

also, is Forrest and OC?

[Bluecatcinema]

7865526 Yes, Forrest is my OC.