Fellowship is Madness

by Imperator Chiashi Zane

Welcome to the Show

“Where are we going, Blueberry?” The little Griffon, Cuuper, hopped up into the air beside Blueberry Jam.

She sighed, and muttered under her breath, “Far away from town,” her voice rose to audible as she finished, “Somewhere you can hang out, besides the kitchen.”

The six ‘Destiny Knights’ trailed behind her in a line, and Blueberry had to keep glancing over her shoulder to check that they were still there, and that Scootaloo hadn’t tackled Sweetie Belle into another pile of brambles. Finally they arrived, and she stepped aside, presenting her old treehouse to them.

The spit-adhesive she had used originally had long since degraded away, leaving just the rotten wood and rusty nails hanging off the tree.

“What is it?” Sweetie Belle was the first to speak up, followed by Strawberry Punch.

“I think it’s a tree house,” she had no idea, since it resembled more a pile of scrap than a house.

Rumble just stood there and shuddered at the mess that used to be a treehouse.

Applebloom was the next to comment, “It looks like the one Applejack told me to stay out of on our farm, except it has a ramp. Applejack’s doesn’t, so I can’t even get to it.”

“Well, I think you could use it as a clubhouse. It used to be mine, when I was your age. I know it looks like it hasn’t been used in a few years, but it’s empty, and on a secluded part of the farm, well away from the important crops,” she smiled, “It’s all yours. It just needs a little TLC.”

Scootaloo scoffed, “Tender Loving Care, or Total Lost Cause?”

“How are we supposed to make this into a clubhouse?” Applebloom added.

Blueberry pointed her horn at the rotten timbers, “Well, maybe you’ll get Cutie Marks for house building or something?”
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Scootaloo’s wings buzzed as she helped Rumble lift a new beam into place. The timber was fresh, purchased with some bits Applejack and Ferrous had given them, after a bit of sweet talking from Cuuper and Apple Bloom. The treehouse was coming together nicely, actually a bit larger than it had been originally. Probably because they were following some plans Strawberry had swiped from Kajiik, when they had gone to the library to look up building codes.

It had the ramp leading into a large room, with the tree as a centerpiece, and enough room for them to store all of the extra pieces of equipment they had bought, or borrowed, then up a pair of spiral ramps, a second floor made up of three rooms built onto the strong branches. One room was for Cuuper and Rumble to decorate however they wanted, while the fillies shared the other two. Between the six of them, it was almost complete by the time Blueberry called them all in for dinner.

Scootaloo hooked her scooter onto the front of the wagon they had borrowed, and all of the others except Rumble climbed in. He decided that it would be safer to fly overhead back to the house.
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“So, what have you gotten done today?” Raspberry Jam asked them as they trotted in the door. He had been told about the treehouse, and had even snuck out to take a peek a few hours before, but he knew stoking their egos would get it done sooner, and he could get his tools back.

Sweetie Belle’s voice rang out first, “We’ve got a map, and a clubhouse, and transport, and I wrote a theme song, and we’re going to need to borrow some stuff tomorrow, we’re thinking about trying cloud surfing.”

The large stallion stopped abruptly, “No. Half of you can’t fly, and neither of you Unicorns have enough power to cast cloudwalk on yourselves, let alone others.” He was already planning what to tell the weatherponies so they could keep an eye out for the ‘Knights’.

Cuuper objected loudly, “I won’t let them fall,” it was true, mostly. His wings were rather large for a Griffon chick, already almost as broad as his elder sister, despite his age. Of course, he still hadn’t learned how to catch a non-griffon in his talons without injuring them.
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“Why don’t you stop breaking things around town,” Rarity shooed her sister out the door, “Go try something else.”

Cheerilee caught the six as they made their way down the road, dejected, bruised, and bearing the signs of everything they had tried that day, “Children, you’re going about this all the wrong way. Instead of trying to get your cutie marks in things you aren’t familiar with, why don’t you try something you are good at?” She pulled out a flyer for the school talent show, “Try this. It’s the perfect place to start.”

“That would be perfect. We could get our talents for Juggling!”

“Acting?”

“Magic Tricks!”

“Square dancing?”

“Tightrope walking!”

“Tiger taming!” Five sets of eyes glared at Scootaloo.

Cheerilee just pressed her hoof to her forehead, “You’re missing the point, children. Think about what you already enjoy doing. Think about what you’re already good at.”

“Sure, we can do that.”

“Of course, Miss Cheerilee.”

“No problem Teach.”
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“Sweetie, where are you taking my sewing machine?”

“Don’t worry, Rarity, I’ll bring it back after the talent show!”
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“Thanks bro, we’ll bring your fan back soon.”

Thunderlane stared at his brother, then at his home gym, which was now lacking in a decent breeze, “What?”
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“Six two-by-fours, four sheets of plywood, a box of nails, four cans of paint, and four brushes,” Scootaloo smiled sweetly over the counter at the hardware store, standing on Strawberry’s back.

The clerk rolled his neck back to look at the stocks, “And what colors of paint will you be needing?”

“Red, Yellow, Blue, and um…”

“Black,” Strawberry called up from below.
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“Ghosts, Goblins, and Ghoulish Figures? What on Equestria do you need that for?” Kajiik hoofed the book over to Apple Bloom, and she darted out the door, “Thank you. We’ll give it back as soon as we’re done with it!”
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“Cuuper, you better bring back those tools. Master Bruin will be cross with you if you don’t.”

“Yes, Hammer. I’ll bring them back tomorrow-ish.”
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“Ok, Knights. Props are good. We’ve got the song written out. Costumes look great, Sweetie Belle. Now what’s left?” Cuuper looked at the list, “Oh, right, PRACTICE!” He was the only member of the group with any sense of practice, probably because it was how he had learned to hunt. The fillies and Rumble didn’t have the instinct yet to repeat an action until it became habit. Though it occurred to him that using his eyrie voice inside the clubhouse was probably not the best move. Nor was baring his teeth.

This occurred to him when he felt a pair of teeth close around his throat, and a pair of hooves slamming his wings into the deck. The teeth released him, and his talons went to his neck to check for blood, even as Strawberry Punch sheepishly rolled off of him, “Sorry…Instinct. Uh…Don’t bare your teeth at me…Please.”

“Oh. Kay. Anyway, uh, I’m not bleeding, so let’s get to practicing our act,” Cuuper rolled his neck and flapped his wings as he took position on top of one of the sets. Sweetie Belle slid onto the stage with a smile. Scootaloo joined her, and Cuuper’s talons started sliding across the electronics panel he had swiped from Vinyl Scratch. Without asking. She would kill him if she found out.
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Applejack nudged Blueberry, “They’re pretty good, right?” She cringed a little as Strawberry swept Sweetie Belle off her hooves and slid across the temporary stage, then off the end.

Blueberry just pulled her hat down over her eyes, her other hoof pushing Applejack’s down, “They sound good at least.”
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“…And on the count of Three, this rabbit will disappear, and something tasty will appear in its place,” The bunny looked furious, arms crossed and a scowl on its otherwise adorable face. Most of the audience felt at least a little sympathy for the poor creature Snips held in his magic, one mare even had her hooves over her eyes, like she didn’t want to see it.

“A one, a two, and a three,” the rabbit floated into the hat, and out floated something else. It resembled thin noodles, at least until the yellow strands exposed the head of a filly, “SNAILS! Where’d the carrots go?”

His partner in the act failed to conceal the carrot he was chewing on in time.

“Ok, that’s it for the Snips and Snails Magic Act,” Cheerilee sighed, and waved the two off the stage, “Up next, Sunny Daze and Peachy Pie in ‘Poetry in Motion’.”
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“Are you sure you’re ready? This is a really complex act for the amount of time you’ve been able to prepare in,” Kajiik looked up from the script he had been provided by Cuuper, “I mean, even the Royal Playwright Company wouldn’t do something like this without weeks of preparation, and they’re professionals.”

Cuuper nodded, “I agree. I know I can handle the lights and the soundboard…And get them back to Miss Scratch before she notices I borrowed them.”

“Right. No criminal acts that I’d have to report…” Kajiik smiled weakly at the young Griffon, “I better not have to see that report across Iron’s desk.”

Cuuper nodded, “Affirmative, Sir. You won’t see a thing.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. Break a leg,” he watched the Griffon go, followed by the rest of the act. Cuuper would be down in the orchestral pit, while the other five would be up on stage.
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Cuuper settled onto a pile of pillows he had placed with the board, and spread his wings across the panels, his talons taking up the middle, “Begin!”

The haunting sounds of the music floated patiently out of the speakers, almost passively dissonant to their purpose. Smoke floated out over the stage, concealing Scootaloo and Rumble, wearing matching costumes, with one major difference. Rumble’s grey wings were concealed beneath chainmail, while Scootaloo’s were encased in ribbon streamers. The black leather glinted as the stage lights burned into the smoke.

He slowly dialed up the microphone volume, “Look here, at six little ponies, ready to sing for the crowd!”

Scootaloo leaned back as Rumble leaned forward, lifting her into the air. The music softened only slightly, “Listen up, ‘cause here’s our story.” A little wobble on the filters, and her voice came out hauntingly deep, with a crackle of lightning echoing through.

Rumble’s voice melted in with an echoing melody that slowly rolled over Scootaloo’s voice, “When you’re a younger pony, and your flank is very bare…” his voice went cold, almost angry, with a slight offset reverberation, “…Like the sun will never come, when your Cutie Mark’s not there.”

Two more voices rolled in, crackling with power from the two Unicorns, “So now, we must fight! There is nothing that we fear! We’ll have to figure out what we’ll do next!”

All five melted into a haunting background moan as Apple Bloom’s gritty voice took center stage and she stepped between Rumble and Scootaloo, “Till our Cutie Marks are here!”

The two Pegasi rolled to their hooves, wings flared behind Apple Bloom, “Like the Knights of Old, on a quest to find who we are!”
Two horns lit up and wind ripped across the stage, filling it with thick black fog that rolled over the stage and filled the orchestral pit, concealing the Griffon from sight entirely.

“They say you’ll get your mark, when the time is right! And you know,” Applebloom cut out and dipped below the smoke, her black body-sock blending in perfectly, “Just what you’re supposed to do, And your talent comes to light!” The stage lights flipped from an illuminating white to a fearsome red that accented the makeup on the two Pegasi’s faces and made the ribbons look like dripping blood.

Scootaloo dropped backwards, dramatically, into Rumble’s waiting hooves as he threw his head back, “But it’s not as easy as it sounds,” Cuuper had to hold back a snort as Rumble’s voice cracked, “And that waiting is so hard to do…”

Sweetie Belle stepped into the brilliant spotlight, a single spot of white shining off her hip as the red flooded everything else, “So we test our talents everywhere,” the fog blew away in a gust of wind, revealing that Sweetie Belle was less than a hoofspan from the edge of the platform. The red light went blue, and she spun, falling off the platform, into a new cloud of white, “Until our faces are blue!”

“Like the Knights of Old, on a quest to find who we are!” Rumble’s wings flapped, rattling the chainmail loudly, timed to conceal the sound of Sweetie Belle landing with a thump on the cloud, a real one Rumble had snuck under the set earlier. He raised his hoof into the air as Scootaloo returned to his side, dropping to her knees and wrapping her forelimbs around his leg.

He stopped wobbling, having a stable-ish platform to lean on as the lights went down and the sound cut out. As soon as the crowd disappeared into darkness, he dropped to all fours and they hurried off the stage, meeting up with the rest of the Knights.
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“I can’t believe that worked!” Scootaloo grinned, and flapped her wings, “I hope it was caught on film.”

Applebloom wrapped a hoof around Sweetie Belle’s shoulder, “I saw at leas’ two cameras out there. Anypony else want ta throw up?”
Cuuper mimed gagging, then genuinely coughed up some black fog, “Maybe next time we don’t use Hammer’s vegetable soup as our fog juice. That stuff’s rank!”

“Oh quit whining, you carnivore,” Strawberry jumped on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck, “It’s not like some veggie juice is gonna hurt you.”

“Alright, time to get back up on stage. Awards are being passed out,” Cheerilee seemed far too excited about giving fillies and colts large pieces of pointy metal, but they followed her back to the stage anyway.
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“Alright, our first award of the night,” Kajiik held up the tall metal model of a pointed hat that resembled a dunce cap far too much for his liking, “Snips and Snails, for Best Magic Act!” Only magic act. And it was blindingly obvious how they did it. Runic window etched into the hat. The other end was inside Snail’s coat, which he hadn’t been wearing, hence the poor filly getting pulled through.

Cheerilee lifted the next award, “And Best Poetry goes to Canyon Carver,” The young Thestral trotted up and grabbed the fake gold book in his teeth, smiling as he moved over to the line of winners.
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After what seemed like forever, Kajiik finally got to the award he wanted to give out. It weighed as much as a filly, and stood taller than he did, with three posts and a golden microphone on top, “And the final award of the night. For Most Dramatic, The Destiny Knights, with their original song, Trials of the Mark.”

It took three of them to lift the monstrous trophy, and he could hear them arguing about who got to display it at home as they trotted away. The argument devolved into a wrestling match, and he cringed as the sound of breaking metal hit his ears. Moments later, though, the fight was silenced by Strawberry Punch, “How are we going to fix this?”