Apple Bloom Goes Crusading

by Brass Polish

1 Payback

When word got out that a prisoner had escaped from Tartarus, but no one had seen or heard from him for over a year after his escape, the fear that had come over Equestria’s citizens had practically gone away completely after a while. The escapee was one of the few inmates who was a pony; a unicorn named Glean Fetcher who had the ability to collect or harvest just about anything. He was sent to Tartarus for stealing money from ponies all over Equestria. After he broke out, everyone in Equestria was commanded to keep watch over their money sacks for months on end. As time passed, it became more and more unlikely that Glean Fetcher was a danger to anyone. Eventually, security slackened, fear faded, and Glean Fetcher was nearly forgotten about completely.

By this point, it was business as usual. Ponies were working and playing all hours of the day. In Ponyville, nothing was out of the ordinary. The weather team had made the day sunny, but breezy. Stores and restaurants had plenty of customers coming and going. And today, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were playing hide and seek in an attempt to find out if any of their special talents was either one of those. They’d been at it all day and so far, Apple Bloom was doing well with the hiding.

“How are you so good at hiding with that huge bow on your head?” asked Scootaloo.

“Well first of all, I don’t giggle when somepony passes my hiding spot,” smirked Apple Bloom.

“OK, why don’t you forfeit your seeking turns for the rest of the day?” Scootaloo suggested. “We’ll see if finding great hiding places is your special talent.”

“And the two of us will look for you at the same time,” added Sweetie Belle.

“You’re on,” Apple Bloom agreed.

And she darted off to find her next superb hiding spot.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle found themselves looking in the strangest places in Ponyville. Apple Bloom was feeling really confident when her two best friends spent almost an hour looking for her hiding in, of all things, a basketball net in the park.

“How did we miss that?!” cried Sweetie Belle. “You were in plain sight and we missed you!”

“Well, you didn’t see me when I was hiding in the display window at Carousel Boutique either,” said Apple Bloom. “And you were looking right at me.”

“I didn’t recognise you,” Sweetie Belle insisted as Scootaloo laughed. “You had that giant hat on.”

“Funny how you didn’t spot me when I was wearing something bigger than my bow,” smiled Apple Bloom.

She was trying to not to show her concern at running out of ideas for hiding places.

While Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle counted to a hundred for the umpteenth time, Apple Bloom was running around town trying to find somewhere or something she hadn’t hidden in before. Eventually, she saw Fluffle Puff, who was doing a bit of drawing at an outdoor café. Apple Bloom thought her huge fur would be a great spot to hide. But as she ran up to Fluffle Puff and jumped into her quaff as if it were a ball pit, she realised what the subject matter of her drawing was. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were posing, each sporting new dresses.

“Dang,” groaned Apple Bloom, as she climbed back out of Fluffle Puff’s sea of fur.

“No, no, stay in there,” said Diamond Tiara.

“We won’t say anything,” said Silver Spoon.

“Yeah right,” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes.

“No, really, we won’t,” Diamond Tiara insisted. “Cross our hearts, hope to fly.”

“Stick a cupcake in our eyes,” said Silver Spoon.

Fluffle Puff held up two cupcakes.

“Not literally,” frowned Silver Spoon.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had noticed that Apple Bloom was doing well at eluding Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. They both had a feeling that she would finally earn her cutie mark, and they wanted to see how long she could keep it up.

“You swear you won’t tell them I’m in here?” asked Apple Bloom.

They both nodded and Apple Bloom decided to chance it. She climbed back into the massive pink bush, who continued her drawing now that Diamond and Silver were back in their poses.

“If she can outsmart those two,” Diamond Tiara said to Silver Spoon in a quiet voice, “there’ll be one less blank flank in school.”

“You know what?” asked Silver Spoon. “What if she already got her cutie mark, but it’s hiding?”

Diamond Tiara looked at her the way Rarity would look at a pair of plastic horseshoes.

“Just a thought,” Silver Spoon frowned.

Apple Bloom was definitely on to something. Scootaloo approached the café, looked right at Fluffle Puff as she drew Diamond and Silver, but she never thought that Apple Bloom would be hiding in her fur. She walked right by the café and continued to search. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon asked Fluffle Puff to do another drawing after she finished. They wanted to stick around for as long as Apple Bloom was hidden, so they changed poses and waited around. When Sweetie Belle eventually appeared, she walked to the café and approached Fluffle Puff. But she was actually hoping to check if Apple Bloom was concealing herself under Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon’s dresses.

“Stay out of our new dresses, blanky!” snapped Diamond Tiara when Sweetie Belle requested a peak.

“I only wish we could hide from you and Scootaloo as well as Apple Bloom can,” sneered Silver Spoon.

Apple Bloom was not happy to hear this. It dawned on her that the two bullies were hoping she’d get her cutie mark so she could become friends with them.

“No way am I gonna be friends with you two,” she muttered.

She raised her head and looked outside the pink tall grass. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were watching a very huffy Sweetie Belle walk away indignantly. Apple Bloom had an idea. She rubbed against Fluffle Puff’s fur rapidly, jumped out of her hiding spot, crept up to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and placed a hoof on them.

Bzzzz!

The static shock had made Diamond Tiara’s and Silver Spoon’s manes almost as big as Fluffle Puff’s. There were quite a few ponies at the café for dinner time by now, and they all found it very funny.

“You genius!” exclaimed Sweetie Belle. “A great hider, and a huge prankster.”

“Don’t draw this!” Diamond Tiara grouched to Fluffle Puff.

Apple Bloom had not earned her cutie mark by the end of the day, but Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were sure she was destined to be a hide and seek champion. So they decided to continue their game the next day. This made Apple Bloom happy because she now had the whole evening to think of new hiding spots.

“And this time, don’t hide anywhere near Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon,” advised Scootaloo. “We don’t want to make it too easy for them to get back at you.”

“They won’t get me,” Apple Bloom smirked. “I’ll be hiding from them more than I’ll be hiding from you two.”

“What can they do anyway?” asked Sweetie Belle. “Bad Seed made them scared to pick on us too much.”

“Would ya stop calling her that?” Apple Bloom demanded.

Scootaloo remembered something. “They know where our secret headquarters is.”

“Well, I guess it ain’t so secret then, is it?” said Apple Bloom.

“I mean they might do something to it,” finished Scootaloo.

“They can’t do that,” Apple Bloom objected. “They’d be trespassing on our farm.”

All the same, Apple Bloom’s concern grew as she returned home. She’d recently spent two days repairing a warped buttress and she didn’t want anything bad to happen to her handiwork. She decided to stand guard for as long as she could in case Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon turned up.

“Apple Bloom?”

The young earth pony jumped out of her slumber.

“Oh no! I fell asleep! Did they wreck the clubhouse?!”

She quickly discovered that the treehouse was undamaged. It was Big McIntosh who had woken her up.

“Bit past your bedtime, ain’t it?” he asked.

“I can’t go to bed,” said Apple Bloom. “I ticked off Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and I think they might try to wreck my clubhouse to get back at me.”

She yawned for thirteen seconds as soon as she’d finished saying that.

“Come on, now,” said Big McIntosh. “Get yourself inside.”

“Big Mac, could you please keep an eye on the clubhouse?” pleaded Apple Bloom.

“Mmm,” Big McIntosh considered. “OK.”

So Apple Bloom walked wearily to the barn, climbed into bed and slept the night away. But the rooster hadn’t even crowed before she woke up and her curiosity compelled her to check up on the clubhouse. She suspected that her brother hadn’t kept watch all night. But when she ran outside into the early morning glow, she saw Big McIntosh lying asleep beneath the steps of the clubhouse with Smarty Pants clutched in his hooves. And there were two figures peering from one of the windows looking startled.

“You two!” bellowed Apple Bloom.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon dashed from the window and clambered down from the clubhouse.

“Apple Bloom! We saw Glean Fetcher!” they both shouted.

“Huh?”

“Just- just before you came!” stammered Silver Spoon. “We saw him appear right in front of Big McIntosh!”

“He put a spell on him!” Diamond Tiara exclaimed. “Silver Spoon gasped, and Glean Fetcher saw us and disappeared.”

Apple Bloom ran to Big McIntosh and shook him awake.

“Whoa- what- what is it?”

“Big Mac, are you OK?!” asked Apple Bloom with wide worried eyes.

Big Mac shook his head to get himself fully awake.

“Eeeyup,” he said. “I guess I dozed off.”

“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon said they saw Glean Fetcher!” cried Apple Bloom. “They said he put some kinda spell on you. Do you feel any different?”

“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?” repeated Big McIntosh. “Ain’t those the fillies you were worried were gonna wreck your clubhouse?”

Apple Bloom, stricken with realization, looked back at Diamond and Silver, but they’d run off. Then she went into the clubhouse. Lying on the floor was an open bucket of black paint she had never seen before.

“If I hadn’t shown up, they’d have gotten away with their prank,” she said. “They just wanted to scare me when I caught them.”

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon didn’t seem to be done there though. Shortly after the Apple family had finished breakfast that morning, Twilight barged in with Spike riding on her back holding a clipboard. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie walked in behind them with strange machinery on wheels in tow.

“Sorry to barge in, Apples,” said Twilight as Spike ushered Big McIntosh towards the machines.

Before anyone could say anything, Big Mac was wired up like a Hearth’s Warming Eve tree. Computer screens beeped, a long sheet of paper was being scratched by swivelling pens, and the stallion’s pulse and heartbeat were being projected from two large speakers.

“What in tarnation is all this?” demanded Applejack.

“We’ve been told that Glean Fetcher appeared in front of your brother while he was sleeping and did something to him with his magic,” Twilight explained.

Apple Bloom groaned loudly. “Those two went to you?!”

“Well, she is Princess of Ponyville,” said Spike.

“Twilight, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were just pranking me,” said Apple Bloom. “I found a paint can in my clubhouse after they left. I got there before they could do anything, so they told me Big Mac was cursed instead.”

“But then why would they have come to me?” asked Twilight as her equipment continued to beep and whirr.

“Just to creep me out,” Apple Bloom claimed.

“You feeling hungry yet, Big Mac?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Nnnnope,” replied Big Mac over the beeping and whirring of the machines. “I just ate.”

Twilight slapped her forehead. “This equipment doesn’t make ponies hungry, Pinkie! It records a pony’s life signs and tells us if something’s wrong.”

“Really? The last time I was hooked up to this stuff, I got hungry,” said Pinkie Pie. “And I wasn’t even on there for a minute.”

“How’s he lookin’ so far?” asked Applejack.

Twilight looked at the results her machinery had thus far produced.

“Nothing bad yet,” she said. “Brainwaves are normal, no sign of serious infections or diseases. Let’s give him an eyesight test. Spike?”

“I’m on it,” Spike replied, walking up to Big McIntosh. “OK. How many claws am I holding up?”

“Um, I don’t know,” said Big McIntosh.

“Spike, you’re doing it wrong,” cut in Twilight.

Spike had two claws held up, but he had them held up behind his back.

“You’re supposed to show him your claws,” said Twilight.

“But that’s cheating,” objected Spike.

Twilight slapped her forehead again.

Before the testing was done, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walked in.

“Girls, Apple Bloom told me she found an open paint can in her clubhouse,” Twilight said to them. “Were you going to vandalise it?”

“Now, how in the hey do you vandalise a paint can?” asked Granny Smith.

“I meant the clubhouse,” Twilight corrected. She was starting to get annoyed.

Diamond Tiara gulped. “Yes.”

“We were gonna paint over their good idea bulb,” added Silver Spoon.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie laughed like drains.

“What a fine example you two are setting,” moaned Twilight.

“We only wanted to get back at Apple Bloom for giving us static shocks,” Diamond Tiara glowered.

“I did that because you were badmouthing Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo while I was hiding,” retorted Apple Bloom. “You thought I was gonna get my cutie mark yesterday, and that’s why you helped me while we were playing. But you still treated my friends like garbage.”

“We did not!” protested Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

The next pony to come barging into the Apple’s kitchen was Fluffle Puff. She rolled in, dropped three drawings in front of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and then jumped out the open window. They looked at the drawings. Fluffle Puff had coloured the sketches she’d done of Diamond and Silver. One drawing in particular interested Apple Bloom.

“Look at this!” she said, showing the drawing to the adult ponies.

Fluffle Puff had drawn Sweetie Belle in this one. And a word bubble was sketched above Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon saying “Nah, nah.”

Author's Note:

Inspired by a bit on Wiki that said that all ponies possess magic but only unicorns and alicorns can use it. That was as far as I got.

Comments

[Rayanne]

OH MY GOSH FLUFFLE PUUUUUUFFFFF I like fluffle puff