(AKA Royal Ruckus Prologue)
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER CASTLE EXPLORERS YAY!”
“Hoo boy.”
Applejack shared a wince with Rainbow Dash as the three fillies barrelled by them and up a nearby set of stairs. As they disappeared around a banister, Bright Shine’s audible scolding declared them out of sight, but definitely not out of mind.
“Castle Explorers?” Applejack questioned, raising an eyebrow at the blue speedster beside her.
“Eh, Scoots has been reading a lot of Daring Doo lately, and I think I seen Sweetie with a Lyra Croft comic. Must be where they got the idea.”
“Well that’s just grand, ain’t it?” Applejack asked a little coldly, voice brimming with sarcasm, glaring up at whatever sadist greater force had set what looked like a giant metaphorical line of chaotic dominoes, and as the other girls arrived, Applejack could even see that somepony was about to knock the first one over.
You see, because of Celestia’s “illness”, and the very poor timing of it, a ridiculous amount of work had piled up and set before them. This year’s Grand Galloping Gala was coming very quickly, and needed to be planned. The gardens were beginning to fall into their autumn splendour, and would be needing tending, and due to how Celestia had taken it on as hobby, there was no current gardener on staff, aside from an older stallion who generally just raked up stray leaves. Fluttershy had claimed the garden for herself, but had left shortly after the sun had been risen to gather up all her little animals from back home, and escort them here. Also, due to old trade agreements with several nearby countries nearing their expiry date, a large group of royal dignitaries would be arriving this evening. Add on top of that the day-to-day Royal duties, as well as what had been fallen behind on the past two days, this was not a good time for three very young fillies to be tearing around the castle more-or-less unsupervised.
The reason for why the CMC were at Canterlot castle wreaking their havoc- I mean, crusading, was a story in and of itself, but I will do my best to sum it up:
Applebloom was in her older sister’s care due to the orchard undergoing some major changes, and Granny Smith had simply deemed it best that she be elsewhere. The reason for this, of course, was a lot more complicated than Applebloom would ever know.
Due to Applejack having to leave the farm, Sweet Apple Acres was very suddenly in very sorry need of extra help, as a single filly and an already very-overworked stallion is not nearly enough able bodies to keep a farm going. Pride and tradition dictated that only family could work on the farm, but almost all “family” were already busy with their own farms, jobs, and duties. The solution came in the form of Granny-Smith’s great-nephew, or more specifically, her brother’s daughter’s son. The colt in question had dropped out of school when he was a teen, and had gotten into a large amount of trouble in the past two years. Now, he was desperately trying to pull himself together for the sake of his pregnant fiancée, but was unable to find work due to his haunting past and “recovering addict” status. Family sticks together however, and this was no exception. Even if they didn’t agree with his decisions, they could tell they no longer sat well with him, and were willing to give him the second chance he so desperately needed. All the same, a family meeting had judged that until their newest help could get settled in and comfortable, it would probably be best for Applebloom to simply be elsewhere.
Sweetie Bell’s reason for being at the castle was a good bit less noble. Although she had been brought to the castle initially by her older sister, it had wholly been their intentions for the young filly to return to their parents after Rarity’s new royal duties had begun. Sure enough, when their parents came to sight-see, chat, and otherwise gloat about their daughter, Rarity had pulled them aside to remind them that they would need to make room in their plans for their youngest daughter now, as she herself would be far too busy to play care-taker any longer. They had been quick to agree, ‘Well of course we know that darlin’!” but they had failed to actually comply- For when Rarity came to check on them in their rooms the next morning, she had discovered them long gone, and that they had made room in their plans for their youngest daughter… Starting next month. You know, right after their cruise to the tropics. The two had earned their eldest daughter’s asperity before on similar antics, but this would be the first time that they would be returning to the holy wrath of a full-fledged alicorn raining down on their sorry, sun-kissed flanks.
Scootaloo, on the other hand, had the almighty puppy-dog pout, and had successfully begged Rainbow Dash to let her stay for a couple nights.
Applejack groaned slightly as her mind whisked up the very large list of things her younger sister could get into with her friends, and had half-a-mind to do much as Fluttershy had, and declare that she had an emergency/extremely-important duty to perform, and would cause the four advisors before her eyes to grow wide once again as they stepped aside to allow her to rush off. However, declaring that would be a very large stretch of the truth, and not wholly honest, as she was pretty sure that the Royal Guards would keep the three out of the worst of it. As she slid her gaze over to Rainbow Dash once again, she could tell by the way the blue alicorn was shifting in place and folding and unfolding her wings that she was thinking about doing very much the same thing, only hesitating due to the fact that leaving all this stuff for her friends to do by themselves would not be the most loyal thing to do.
As the youngest of the four royal advisors, a bright lemon green unicorn mare, rolled up the scroll she was reading with a satisfied nod, she turned to smile far too cheerily at the five alicorns before her.
“Well! Let’s get started shall we?”
And so the first domino was tipped…
A/N: Wow, I haven't worked on Ascension properly for a while. This little mini chapter is my way of getting into the feel of things again ^_- Hope you enjoyed, and there should be more relatively soon.
FIRST!
Anyway, awesome way to get back into the swing of things. I'd hate to be Rarity's parents when they get back from their cruise. Layabout vacationers...
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk
Why did I just read everything in Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's voice?
1654474
I couldn't tell you XD
Fix it. Right now.
Other than that brilliant work. Glad to have seen this update. Really like this story.
1654507
Err, fix what?
1654524 Say that sentence out loud. There is a problem with it. "I think I seen" doesn't sound right at all. It should be more along the lines of
1654544
Mm, well it is RD speaking, but if it bugs you that much I'll change it to the more correct "saw"
Crusaders in the castle....... Not like I haven't seen THAT blow up in their faces before.
*cough*Discord*cough*
Ok, WHY haven't I been tracking this already? *Clicks the Star*
1654560
I've always believed that the Crusader's huge argument in the gardens was because of Discord slowly breaking free, rather than the other way around.
But yes, this doesn't bode very well does it? XD
1654507>>1654544
Ok, while your way may be gramatically correct, the writer does have a point about RD'S more of speech. It would even sounded further incorrect had it been AJ speaking I would think.
To the author... its all golden, and the chapter set the tone quite well for an impending CMC disaster lol
i.imgur.com/cbE9a.gif
where the fuck is Regidar?
Can't wait to read more.
Yay! Update, finally! I've been waiting for this... This planned series of yours is too good to leave hanging.
This chapter summed up in one word? Adowable. Great job as always, CG.
*expiry date*
Should be Expiration date...well, I looked it up, and it is a word, but I still might advise 'expiration' as working better in the context, and next to 'date'.
Great chapter, even if it FEELS too short.
"Reeking" means really smelly; the word you want is "wreaking"
At least for Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, life has just got a bit more complex anymore. They are at least technically princesses now. That means that they can't just run around Ponyville and attend Miss Cherilee's school. They could (probably should) qualify for 24/7 Royal Guard protection agents, the most expensive and exclusive private tutors in Canterlot, personal retinues of servants and literally palatial suites of rooms in the castle. As for Scootaloo...? Well, that will be a bit more complex and depend on what her background is in cloudedguardian's fanon.
Oddly enough, I can see a stern-faced guard telling a terrified Diamond Tiara to "Step away from Princess Appleboom and Princess Sweetie Belle, please Ma'am."
1657214
Stupid autocorrect
"Lets see. First up The Grand Galop.."
Rarity "Mine!"
i liked this chapter, but that whole part in the middle felt weird. it seemed out of place. it was also unclear whose point of view it was from.
wreaking their havoc. you might also consider taking out "their", because the phrase is "wreaking havoc"
805465 we have currently just read all thy way through and we found thine story to be quite exhilarating and easy to read. you our good sir have created a piece of art with thine story and very much look forward to the rest of the chapters. have nice day good sir
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[img]tumblr_mbpiszWWHw1r05905o1_400[/img]
1657557
Not necessarily. Rarity and Applejack are princesses by direct royal grant, and Sweetie Belle and Applebloom are not their heirs of the body, so they would probably receive courtesy titles at most, and possibly not even that. Their sisters could, of course, grant them peerages in their own right, but there's no indication that has happened yet.
tl;dr: Lady Applebloom and Lady Sweetie Belle, maybe. Princesses, probably not.
1689362 Rarity + Alicorn = Raricorn.
P.S. An alicorn is any equine with a unicorn's horn and pegasus wings. No, it's not a term the fanbase made up. Look it up on wikipedia.
1689726 Oh. Ok, I see what you were talking about--I just thought that, since there was no mention of Rarity getting Earth pony abilities right then, she still had that third "tier" to go before she was fully an alicorn. My mistake.
1691850
Well, by the plot-line terms, you are correct, she needed that last push to fully qualify as one.
Mythologically speaking however, her and Fluttershy already techincally fell under it after their first "blessing", as Rainbow Dash points out in "Sharing MAgic"
1691850 It's okay. It can be a bit confusing.
Combustible lemons! C
1654474 Who?
1738160 cave Johnson approved
Oh, good. No more nightmare inducing pictures of Fluttershy.
*shiver*