> Bart and Scoots > by Gazmanafc > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter One: Last Exit to Ponyville > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter One Last Exit to Ponyville “Uh-oh, Scootaloo, where are you?” “Ah think we had better tell Twahlight about this” ~~~~~ Springfield. Your average American town. If your definition of average features the town being covered with a giant dome recently destroyed at the hands of a fat bald man on a motorcycle and his son, the former of which caused the dome to be placed there in the first place. The town has since recovered, going back to their normal lives. The adults work, and the children play in the school yard or in the Noiseland Arcade among other places. Except for one boy who remains in school in detention, possibly for his usual wave of pranks on the school principal. The young boy had yellow skin and wore a orange T-Shirt with blue shorts and blue shoes, the soles of his shoes were white with a small circular label on the insides. His hair was short and spiked. He had his feet on a skateboard that was dark green with a light yellow stripe down the center. As he was skateboarding down the street though, he notices a curious shape in the bushes, it was a mix of orange and purple, a stark contrast to the surrounding greenery. Normally, the boy wouldn't think much of it, but this time, he had a strange urge to investigate. Kicking his skateboard off the ground and into his hands, he walked over to the unknown shape. On closer inspection he discovered that the shape was moving slightly. It had a rhythm to it's movements, like it was breathing. Finding this curious, he found a nearby stick, and poked the shape gently. “Nggh” the shape moaned. “Huh?” the boy responds while poking it again. “Nngh” the shape responds again. “Seriously...” the boy replies getting annoyed now that he has a vocal response of a small degree. This time the boy pokes it hard. The shape opens a pair of large purple eyes. Awake, it stumbles around for a few seconds getting up. It turns out that the shape is a small animal, though the boy was never good with his studies so he couldn't determine what animal it actually was. In the creatures daze, it stumbles around looking at her surroundings. “Huh... Where am I..?” the creature asks. “WHOA! Wait a minute! You can talk?!” the boy shouts genuinely surprised. “Ah!” it jumping back at the sudden outburst “Yeah, I can talk... who are you? And where am I?!” the creature shouts back. “Well, I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?” the boy smirks as if introducing himself is a usual catchphrase. “And how can a creature like you talk?” “Well... My name is Scootaloo. What do you mean 'How can I talk', it's perfectly natural” the creature responds. “I'm fairly certain that talking perfect English isn't natural for a creature such as you... say, what are you anyway?” asks Bart. “Well, if you must know, I'm a pony.” states Scootaloo. “A pony huh... No way. I've had my fair share of incidents with ponies, and they looked nothing like you do.” says Bart. “I am what I am. It's my turn for questions. Since I've told you what I am, you can do the same. What are you?” asks Scootaloo. “I'm a human” says Bart, but not really knowing how to probably respond. “A human... hmm... Isn't that what that pony with the harp instrument for a cutie mark keeps talking about?” Scootaloo wonders. “Alright then, human, where am I?” “The name is Bart! But to answer your question, you're in Springfield, USA.” he replies. “Springfield?” Scootaloo says with worry in her voice. “Yup. Listen, this is weird, and I need to get going, my mom'll already kill me for getting detention” he says, turning around. “Wait! Uh... Bart! I need your help. I have nowhere else to turn right now. I need a place to stay for a few days while my friends come to find me!” Scootaloo somewhat begs. “Well... if I brought you home with me, it'd make things worse.” says Bart wondering. “I'll do anything right now. I have nowhere to go...” Scootaloo says with a sad voice as she sits on her haunches. Bart ponders his situation. While he's a delinquent and a prankster with very little respect for authority, he's not heartless, there's also the fact that she's a pony, he has a sister who's absolutely crazy about ponies, so much so that when his father missed her jazz recital at school to make it up to her he bought her a pony that was worth half a million dollars. While Scootaloo was far smaller than that pony his sister had, he was worried about what his sister would do to her if she found out about the pony even though he knew that she wouldn't do anything to physically harm Scootaloo. Even if he didn't take Scootaloo home with him, he was still going to be grounded regardless because of his detention. “Alright. I'll let you stay in my bedroom-” Bart says. As soon as he said that, Scootaloo is already jumping about. “Oh Thank you Bart!” she says jumping about. “But there are a few things I need to mention.” he says. Scootaloo stops jumping. “You need to be kept out of sight, and that isn't to keep me out of trouble. I get into enough of that already” he continues. “What do you mean?” “I have a sister, her name is Lisa. She's absolutely crazy about ponies. While I'm sure she won't hurt you, I just worry about she would react if she saw you.” “O-okay... what else?” “Yeah... Think you can keep up with me?” he says with a big grin on his face. “Huh?” she asks wondering. “Speed. We need to get from here to my house quickly if we're to avoid the rush hour.” “In that case,” Scootaloo says, as she scans the area for something, she spots it, a blue wooden object near where Bart had found her. “Awww Yeah! My scooter! With this I can keep up with you and then some!” “Oh yeah? We'll see about that” Bart says with a cocky grin as he flings his skateboard into both hands. Bart and Scootaloo walk to the sidewalk where Bart places his skateboard down and steps on it, Scootaloo steps onto her scooter. “Ready?” Bart shouts “Set?” Scootaloo replies “GO!” Bart exclaims as he kicks his skateboard off. Scootaloo powers up her wings and speeds off after him. She knows that the race to Bart's house is impossible to win since she doesn't know the way there, so instead, she decides that it'd be best to simply just keep up with Bart. Though she did think that he could travel reasonably fast, but not as fast as her idol, Rainbow Dash, nor did she see him nearly as awesome either, she did appreciate his help at least. Keeping her spirits up, she hums a tune to herself. “Look here are three little ponies Ready to sing for this crowd Listen up, cos here's our story and we're gonna sing it very loud...!” All the while Bart was actually doing the same. “Everybody if you can do the Bartman Shake your body, turn it out if you can man Front to back, to the side yes you can, can Everybody in the house do the Bartman” > Chapter Two: Scootaloo's Human > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Two Scootaloo's Human Bart and Scootaloo raced towards Evergreen Terrace, for the entity of the race, Bart held the lead, Scootaloo knew that she had no hope of winning if she didn't know the way, but she kept that to herself, it was her own fault that she neglected to ask him directions to his house, she kept close behind to keep the thrill of the race alive. During the race, she had to ask what his house looked like, so she knew that she could speed ahead when it came into view. As soon as they past the house belonging to the Simpsons's next door neighbours the Flanders's, Scootaloo picked up speed and sped past Bart straight for the front door of 742. Quickly braking as she came into the approach, the only thing Bart could do was watch in awe as she passed him. “Ha! I win!” cheered Scootaloo in victory. “You cheated!” Bart shouted. “Nuh-uh!” “Yuh-huh! You was behind me the entire race, how could you have gotten past me at the last minute?” Bart commented. “Hey, I didn't know the way here, you never told me!” Scootaloo replied. Bart couldn't argue with that, she was right. He was outsmarted, and by a magical talking pony of all things. Sure, he's used to being outsmarted, his sister, Lisa, and even his youngest sister, Maggie has outsmarted him a couple of times. “...D'oh!” Bart grunted annoyingly. Scootaloo got off her scooter, and took off her helmet placing them near one of the windows. “So, how are we sneak me inside” asks Scootaloo. “That'll be easy, you can pretend to be a plush doll” responds Bart. “What? I'm no toy” Scootaloo replies with disgust in her voice. “I know, but that way, it'll be easy for me to explain to my parents if they ever spotted you. If you're a plush doll, I can explain that you're a gift for my kid sister, Maggie. She can't talk, so as long as only me and her are in the room, you're free to move around. In other times, you'd be best hiding in the closet or under my bed.” Bart explains. “Okay. I suppose that makes sense” says Scootaloo “But what if I'm not quick enough to be able to hide?” “Then stay still, and do nothing until they leave.” replies Bart. “Stay still?” wonders Scootaloo. “Yeah. I won't be able to hide you going up the stairs, so I'll have still have to explain where I got you. I kinda promised my mom that I'd spend a little more time with Maggie, since she's been following me around the house for a while for some reason. So, she'll praise me for quote-unquote buying her a toy to play with, you'd earn my brownie points for it and maybe I won't be in so much trouble for getting in detention with Principal Skinner. If you stay still, no one will question it and think you're a doll for Maggie that she just left in my room. That will mean though you'd probably be picked up and taken to Maggie's room, at which point, if you want, you can sneak back into mine. Our rooms are only across the hall from each other.” comments Bart. “Okay, that sounds like a good plan, but what about my scooter and helmet, where can we hide those?” asks Scootaloo. “Follow me,” Bart says as he picks up Scootaloo's scooter and helmet then walks around the back of the house with Scootaloo following close behind. “we can hide them in my treehouse” “You have a treehouse?” asks Scootaloo. “Yeah. Milhouse and I read comic books in there most of the time,” Bart says as he approached the tree and started climbing up the trunk, he puts the Scooter and helmet down in a corner then climbs back down. “It's barely ever used by anyone else. So they should be safe there.” Scootaloo notes that the treehouse Bart has is significantly different from the one that she and her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle use back in Ponyville. Bart's treehouse was high up into the branches the tree, it was built out of wood, and never painted so it maintained the brown colouring, there was no door or any actual closable windows either. The Cutie Mark Crusader treehouse meanwhile is more structurally sound thanks to repairs that Apple Bloom made to the hut, it was painted and had a few windows with a skylight for a telescope poking out. The doorway to the clubhouse actually had a door in it, so the clubhouse had some degree of privacy. Scootaloo also noted that the entrances to their respective treehouses were also different, while the Crusader treehouse had a ramp leading up to the door so they could just walk, Bart's had a series of planks nailed into the trunk of the tree, he had to climb up them to get access to the treehouse. Scootaloo thought that she probably wouldn't be able to climb the steps like Bart did, and unless she asked him for a ramp up it, the only way in for her would be to fly, which she knew she couldn't do and the only pony she ever wanted to teach her, Rainbow Dash was stuck back in Ponyville. “Okay, ready to go inside?” asks Bart. “Yeah.” “Okay, from here on, until we get to my room, I'm going to have to carry you. Just to keep cover.” says Bart. “Um... Okay” Bart kneels down to pick up Scootaloo, it's a little awkward for the two, but eventually, Bart opens the back door to the house and walks in. In the kitchen was Bart's mother, Marge. Marge wore a light green strapless dress, with a pair of red sandals, and a red pearl necklace around her neck. Her blue hair was kept up into a beehive. Scootaloo took one look at Marge and was rather surprised by her appearance. She once heard from Sweetie Belle about the time that Rarity's mane was once unwillingly restyled into a beehive by a travelling show-mare named Trixie. Scootaloo was staying with Rarity and Sweetie Belle at Carousel Boutique for a sleepover when that happened, Rarity made them both Pinkie Promise not say a word to anypony about it ever again. Because of Rarity's reaction she was surprised to see that Marge had no problems with it and because she swore to Pinkie Promise she didn't even dare bother to think about saying something to Bart about it. She didn't to incur the wrath of Pinkie Pie. Scootaloo instead turned to take a look at the surroundings, and it wasn't too different mostly, from her own house, or even the layouts that Sweet Apple Acres and Carousel Boutique had. There was an odd device in the middle of the room though, in front of a couch. Scootaloo wondered what it was and reminded herself to ask Bart about it later. “Bart! You're home late, where were you?” asks Marge. “Um... I sort of got held up in detention.” says Bart, nervously. “That's the sixth time this month!” replies Marge unhappy with what she was just been told, but she quickly noted that Bart was holding something. “Bart, what's that?” pointing to Scootaloo. “Oh this, it's a plush doll that I found on my way home from school. I thought it might be something that Maggie would like to play with...” Bart says slightly nervous. “That's sweet that you thought of her Bart, but are you sure that it doesn't belong to someone already?” asks Marge. “Yeah. I found it by a dumpster.” replies Bart, thinking quickly on the spot, Scootaloo caught note of what he said. “Okay Bart. Maggie's playing with Lisa at the moment, so why don't you take that doll to the bathroom and give it a wash quickly before giving it to her?” responds Marge. “Sure... Mom.” Bart says before darting up the stairs. Once Bart reached his bedroom he released Scootaloo and allowed her to take a look around before dumping his backpack on his bed. “What was that, a dumpster? Really?” asks Scootaloo with a slight disgust in her tone of voice. “Hey, I had to think of something. She's right, I couldn't just take something that to give to Maggie. I did that once before, with a teddy bear that belonged to the Richest Guy in Town, lets just say that it didn't end well for us.” responds Bart “What happened?” she questions. “Well, when he found out that we had it, he stopped at nothing to get it back. At first it was a simple matter of bribes, heh, dad even wanted three Hawaiian islands, good ones, not the leper ones mind you, and a recording studio for a hamburger commercial. But Maggie cried so he allowed her to keep the bear, lets just say that Mr. Burns wasn't happy about that, so he cut off the Beer supply to the town and also bought out every TV station in town, replacing the programs with terribly scripted sitcoms that he himself wrote and acted in with his suck-up assistant, and then finally, he simply tried to fight Maggie for the bear directly and lost.” Bart said trying to keep a straight face. “Huh? Why's that funny, how old is Maggie?” asks Scootaloo. “She's only one year old.” Bart replies with a large grin. Scootaloo bursts out laughing like crazy. “BWAHAHAH! He lost to a one year old kid?! Hahaha. That's funnier than some of the pranks that Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie pull sometimes! Hahah. How old was this guy, who couldn't even beat Maggie?” she asks, still laughing. “No one knows actually, it's ranged from eighty one to a hundred and four. One things clear though, he's been known to not have the strength to crush a paper cup. Some people refer to him as 'Skeletor' because of it.” says Bart. That set Scootaloo off again. True, Mr. Burns is widely known for his incredible lack of strength, but somehow he can summon enough to do basic tasks when needed. After calming down, Scootaloo observes Bart's room, noticing that there are plenty of posters and action figurines all of the same character, a man with a white coloured face, a large red nose, and pointed green hair, a purple shirt, and green trousers. The layout and content of Bart's room, reminded Scootaloo a lot of her own bedroom back in Ponyville regarding her decorations and posters of the Wonderbolts and a couple of Rainbow Dash. For Bart, he knew that he couldn't avoid it. He had somehow found a talking pony, it was clear to him that she was from another dimension or something, he's read plenty of comic books to know how things like that can happen. Though his favourite fictional event to happen would be to be caught in a nuclear explosion and gain super powers similar to Radioactive Man, his favourite comic book series. He felt that maybe he should just challenge Scootaloo on how she came to Springfield. “So uh, Scootaloo, I know I said that I'd help you out, but there's just one thing I need to know...” says Bart, nervously. Unsure on how to exactly ask her. It might be a touchy subject for her, since she's in a foreign world. Even if she does seem rather chipper for someone in a strange world. “How exactly did you end up in Springfield?” “Well... you see... me and my friends were taking a break from working on our usual crusade to find our Cutie Marks.” replies Scootaloo “A what-ie Mark?” asks Bart “Cutie Mark” Scootaloo responds. “They're a mark that we earn when we discover our special talent. I don't have mine yet, but neither do my friends, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. We formed a group, 'The Cutie Mark Crusaders' we're on a crusade, a mission to find what ours are together. How could you not know that?” she asks. “Well...” Bart says pausing. Unsure on what to make to make of what he was just told. The only “marks” he's heard of someone earning are tattoos, and he knows all too well how someone gets one of those, his mother too, since she had to pay a large amount of the families Christmas money to get the one Bart wanted removed. At least that Christmas didn't turn out too bad with Santa's Little Helper jumping into his fathers arms. He finished “...we don't have those here” there was a chance that these so-called “Cutie Marks” and tattoos could be two different things. “You don't have Cutie Marks?” she asks. “Nope.” he says. “No cutie marks? Does that mean that I can't get mine while I'm here?” she says worried. “The hell do I know. I can only say that you might. It's worth a shot if you get the chance, I suppose” Bart says, trying to ease her worry, which seems to have worked since her attitude changes instantly. “So carry on, you were with your friends and then what happened?” “Me and Sweetie Belle decided to work on our flying and magic. I'm a Pegasus who can't fly yet, even when all the other foals in my class can. I get teased quite a lot for it.” says Scootaloo with a depressed tone. “And what about your friend, Sweetie Belle?” “She's kind of the same as me, except with her Magic, she's a unicorn who can't use magic.” she replies with the same depressed tone. “Unicorns, oh geez” Bart thought “Lisa would have a field day with Scootaloo's friends. Then again, she'd have a field day with Scootaloo anyway” “And your other friend, Apple Bloom, there's nothing holding her back?” Bart wonders. “Compared to me and Sweetie Belle, no. She has her own problems to deal with being an Earth Pony working on the farm. But she doesn't get bullied like me and Sweetie Belle do.” “Why is that?” asks Bart. “Each race of pony has set definitions in society. The Unicorns use Magic, and the Pegasi fly, neither of which Sweetie Belle and I can do. The Earth Ponies grow and harvest the food, which is quite easy for Apple Bloom.” says Scootaloo. “Anyway, to practice both Flying and Magic at the same time, it would work that I would climb a tree and then jump out, trying to fly, if that were to fail, then Sweetie Belle would try to catch me with her magic.” “And that didn't work out too well I assume” says Bart. “Duh. While Sweetie Belle did manage to catch me, she lost control and must have accidentally teleported me here.” she says. “Oh.” says Bart flatly. “Well... then, there's nothing I can do to help you out.” says Bart “What do you mean, nothing you can do? You said you would help me!” says Scootaloo loudly. “Keep your voice down!” says Bart “I said I'd help keeping you safe. I can't help you get home because there's no such thing as magic here. Unless you count card tricks.” “Oh.” Says Scootaloo, apologetically “Sorry.” “Don't worry.” Bart responds. “So, all I can say is that you'll have to wait until someone realises where you are.” “That shouldn't take long!” Scootaloo says excitedly. “Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle have probably already gone to Twilight, who's probably looking up spells in her stupid library, trying to find me” “Well. Until then you're welcome in my room. Just don't mess anything up” Bart replies. > Chapter Three: Gone Scootaloo Gone > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Three Gone Scootaloo Gone “You ready Sweetie Belle?” asks Scootaloo as she stands in a tree. It was a beautiful summers day in Ponyville, located within the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, where three fillies who would usually be up to some dangerous shenanigans in town trying to earn their Cutie Marks, where two of the fillies were instead trying to practice for an alternative goal, since one of them, Scootaloo actually, figured that in her own case, learning to fly may lead to her Cutie Mark much like how it did for her idol, Rainbow Dash, in the same vein, she pointed out that maybe Sweetie Belle's Cutie Mark had something to do with learning Magic similar to Twilight Sparkle. The plan was, that Scootaloo would climb a tree at the farm, and then jump out flapping her small wings as fast she could hoping to fly, if that were to fail, then Sweetie Belle would attempt to catch her in mid-air with her magic. Apple Bloom didn't consider on what could happen if both plans failed, such as getting a pillow or something soft for Scootaloo to land on. “Are you sure this is a good idea, Scootaloo?” the white unicorn filly responds. “I've only had one practice session with Rarity with my magic.” “Of course it's a good idea! It combines two practice sessions into one. Making things twice as fast!” Scootaloo responds eagerly. “Well... O-Okay. If you're sure about this.” Sweetie Belle replies nervously. Scootaloo jumps out of the tree that she is standing in. Trying as hard as she could, she couldn't get any lift from her wings she just kept falling. “Quick Sweetie Belle! Ah don't think she's getting anywhere!” shouted their yellow filly friend, Apple Bloom, with a country accent. Without a word, Sweetie Belle put everything she could into firing up her magic, a green glow started to form around her horn, and a second later, it formed around Scootaloo as well, slowly lowering her to the ground. “Good work Sweetie Belle, ya did it!” exclaims Apple Bloom in excitement, but Sweetie Belle didn't respond. Instead her magic was still active. “Uh, Sweetie Belle, y'all can let go of yer magic now” But it was too late, there was a loud bang and a bright flash which caused Apple Bloom to shield her eyes, as soon as the flash ended, Sweetie Belle's mana reserves died out. Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were unharmed, though Sweetie Belle was on the floor exhausted and out of breath, but Scootaloo was nowhere to be found. Apple Bloom sits with Sweetie Belle while she catches her breath, though Apple Bloom does have a questioning look on her face having already noticed that Scootaloo has disappeared into thin air. A few minutes later, Sweetie Belle had recovered her breath, and was looking around with Apple Bloom for Scootaloo, but the orange Pegasus was nowhere to be found, both were getting worried about her. “Scootaloo, where are you?” asks Sweetie Belle. “Ah think we had better tell Twahlight about this” says Apple Bloom. “Yeah, maybe you're right. I'm worried about what I might have done Scootaloo...” Sweetie Belle says, worried. “Ah know” says Apple Bloom. The pair run as fast as they can through Ponyville. Avoiding everypony they can. On arrival at the Library where the studious unicorn, and faithful student to the monarch of Equestria, Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle lives, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in their haste practically broke the door off the hinges. “TWILIGHT!” they both shouted at the top of their lungs as they broke in. “What the-” says a dragon as he was walking down the stairs. “Oh, hey Sweetie Belle, hey Apple Bloom what's up?” He does take note that there are only two Crusaders, not three. “Oh hey Spike,” replies Sweetie Belle “Is Twilight here, we have a big problem” “Yeah, sure, she's in the next room. I'll go get her. Say, I couldn't help but notice that you're missing Scootaloo, where is she?” he says. “She's part'o the problem” says Apple Bloom. “Oh.” He says, as he walks into the next room. About a minute or two later, a lavender unicorn mare arrives from the room that Spike had previously entered. “Hi girls,” Twilight says as she walks into the room “Spike said you wanted to talk to me?” “Twilight, we have a big problem, it's Scootaloo, she's...” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle say extremely fast in unison, not giving Twilight a chance to digest the information she's being given. “Woah, woah, girls, calm down. Now, slowly tell me what happened to Scootaloo?” she asks. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle look at each other, then back to Twilight. “I think I may have vapourised Scootaloo...” Sweetie Belle says in a panic. “What are you talking about?” Twilight says, shocked. “I was practising my magic, trying to catch her and levitate her to the ground while she jumped out of a tree to practice her flying. But then... then I lost control! I think I may have vapourised her into oblivion!” she says quickly adding, “It was an accident, I swear!” “It's okay Sweetie Belle. Calm down, we can get to the bottom of this.” Twilight says. “W-What are you going to do?” she asks. “You're not going to tell Princess Celestia about this are you? Or worse, Rarity!” now in panic mode. Twilight laughs at the thought that anything Rarity would do to her was worse then what Princess Celestia would. “Heheh. No, I'll scan your horn to detect what type of spell you actually cast.” Twilight replies calmly, mentally hoping that she didn't actually vapourise Scootaloo into oblivion. “Y'all can do that?” asks Apple Bloom. “Yes, Apple Bloom. When a unicorn casts a spell, that spell leaves mana markers within the unicorns horn.” she says. “I can scan Sweetie Belle's horn to find out what the last spell she used actually was. For a filly such as Sweetie Belle, the horn is only big enough for one spell, while Rarity for example, her horn has grown enough cache to store information about the last three spells she used. It helps when using the same spell over and over in succession as each use makes the spell easier to cast. It's what makes raising the sun and moon easy for Princess Celestia and Luna.” “Well, Ah never knew that! So just what kind of spell did Sweetie Belle use?” asks Apple Bloom. “Lets find out shall we?” Twilight says “Sweetie Belle, just relax your body for a little while.” turning to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle tries her best to relax, despite still being worried about what has happened to Scootaloo. Twilight leans her horn and places it inline with that of Sweetie Belle. Twilight's horn starts to glow a light shade of purple, while Sweetie Belle's fires up too as a shade of green, a small spark flares over Twilight's horn, and then it soon dissipates. Twilight takes her horn away from Sweetie Belle. “I have good news Sweetie Belle, you didn't vapourise Scootaloo into oblivion” Twilight says with a smile. At this, both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle jumped with excitement. “But if I didn't vapourise Scootaloo, then what spell did I use?” Sweetie Belle asks. “You used a teleportation spell...” Twilight responds. “Then where's Scootaloo?” asks Apple Bloom. “That... I don't know. Location isn't one of the mana markers. If you have something of Scootaloo's I can probably trace her that way. But that would require some reading.” Twilight states. Knowing full well, that they probably have something belonging to Scootaloo in their clubhouse. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turn to each other trying to think of an item that they still have around that belonged to Scootaloo. “Where did we leave her Scooter?” asks Sweetie Belle. “Ah think it was by the tree we were practising near.” replies Apple Bloom. “Lets go see” “Right.” Sweetie Belle agrees. “Don't worry Twilight we'll bring you something as soon as we can!” “Okay girls, I'll get a head start in looking for spells I can use in the library.” Twilight says as the two fillies run out of the door. > Chapter Four: Make Room for Scootaloo > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Four Make Room for Scootaloo It has been little over a week since Scootaloo arrived in Springfield, staying with Bart at the Simpson household. While she has been trying her best to only allow Bart and Maggie, who enjoys playing with Scootaloo, the pony even allows the youngest Simpson to ride on her back every now and then and run around Bart's room. This latest time, she has come extremely close to being spotted, mostly by Marge, and had to once follow up on Bart's plan to just remain still when Marge came into the room while Bart was at school, as he expected, Marge picked her up, maybe with a confused look as to why it was heavier than expected, so Scootaloo thought. Instead of sneaking back into Bart's room, she felt it would be simpler to just stay in Maggie's room and play with Maggie when she got the chance, that is until Bart came home. A few hours after he did though, Bart and Scootaloo were both in for a surprise when a puff of green smoke appeared out of nowhere followed by a scroll appearing out of the embers. “Where did that come from?” Bart questions. “I think...” Scootaloo says “I think this is a message from Twilight.” “Who?” “The unicorn who lives in the library back home” Scootaloo replies “she must have been able to track me somehow” “That's pretty cool.” Bart says, “What does it say?” Scootaloo opens the scroll and reads it. Dear Scootaloo, Everypony in Ponyville hopes that this letter finds you are safe. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle told me about what happened at Sweet Apple Acres a week ago when you were trying to fly. I can't say I'm too thrilled that you both tried that route, but it can't be helped. You could always have asked us, Rainbow Dash even told me that she would be happy to tutor you when you get home. I'm going to be tutoring Sweetie Belle with her magic once we get you home. That said, I have managed to use some of your mane hairs you had left in your Crusader cape to locate you, and as I'm sure you've guessed you're in another dimension. We've only just been able to work out a way that we can send you messages, but we can't create a method to come and bring you home just yet, but Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and I are working on a way to do that. Until then, Spike and I have created a way that you can continue to communicate with us in Ponyville, with each letter we send, including this one, Spike has bottled up a portion of his breath so you can send your letters to us like I would send my friendship reports to the Princess. Just insert your scrolls into the bottle and it'll be sent to Spike. I'll enchant the flames so that they don't leave the bottles when you open them. We look forward to hearing from you. Your Friend, Twilight Sparkle. PS. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle have agreed to stop Crusading for their Cutie Marks until you come home. “Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh!” Scootaloo said excited about what she just read. “What? What is it?” Bart asks. “What did it say?” “Rainbow Dash wants to teach me how to fly!” Scootaloo says getting even more excited just talking about it. “Is that good?” Bart says. “Good? GOOD?! It's fantastic!” Scootaloo replies. “She's only the fastest and greatest flier in all of Equestria!” “Hmmm.... Sounds like something you would enjoy.” Bart says, “Not that I'd be able to make a true judgement I suppose, what else does it say?” “It says that Twilight, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna are working to find a way that bring me home.” she says. “Wait, this Twilight pony got royalty to help out?” Bart says surprised. “It's not really that surprising really when you know them. Twilight Sparkle is Princess Celestia's star student, and freed Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony.” Scootaloo says. “Ugh.” Bart thinks to himself. “Maybe it's best that I not know the full details on what happened in your world, it all sounds like something Lisa would write. Anything else?” “Yeah, it says that she gave me a way to send letters back using some of Spike,” Scootaloo says, with Bart giving her a questioning look “a dragon, who can send letters to the Princesses through his flame breath. When he receives one, he burps it out.” “Sounds painful” Bart says. “I wouldn't know. But I would like to send a letter back right now if I could. You got a scroll and quill?” Scootaloo says. “This is 2012, we don't use scrolls, and if I remember my history classes right, a quill is just a feather dipped in ink right?” Bart says. “That's right” Scootaloo responds. “Well, we don't use those either. Too old fashioned.” Bart says. “But I can give you some of my personal paper, and a pen to use” Bart says as he picks up a pad of paper and a pen from his desk. “Personal paper?” Scootaloo says. Bart hands the pony the pad and pen throwing them onto the floor. The header banner on the pad contained the phrase “From the Brain of Bart” with two pictures of brains above it on the left and right side. “Here you go, knock yourself out.” Bart says, jumping onto his bed to read a Radioactive Man comic book. Scootaloo tries to work with the pen but the paper is to thin compared to the scrolls she's used in the past, she kept putting holes in the paper. “I can't work with this, it's too thin compared to the scrolls back home.” Scootaloo says. “That's the paper we use in our world, so you'd have to make do” Bart says not looking up from his comic. “I know, but I keep putting holes in the paper. I think I'd need you to write the letter for me.” she says. “Just keep trying” Bart says. “But I don't want to waste your paper.” she replies. “Ugh. Fine. But just this once.” Bart says “Alright.” Scootaloo says. “Bart, take a letter.” “What?” Bart says annoyed. “Sorry, I've always wanted to say that, it's what Twilight says to Spike when she wants to send a letter to the princess.” By now, Bart had picked up the pen and paper and taken to his desk ready to write. “Just get on with it.” From the Brain of Bart Dear Twilight, I received your letter, and I can happily say that I am perfectly safe. I'm so happy that Rainbow Dash wants to teach me to fly, to be honest, I did want to ask her, but she always seemed busy, so I didn't want disrupt her. I'm looking forward to getting home just for that! And I'm happy that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle don't want crusade without me, they're the best friends a filly could ask for. I've landed in a town called Springfield, the town has humans. I've been given shelter by someone here, his name is Bart Simpson, he's allowed me to stay in his room while I'm here, though only he and his youngest sister, Maggie know that I'm even here. Bart says that his other sister, Lisa is crazy about ponies, which from what Bart says are different from the ponies in Equestria and he's concerned about how she would react more than if he got into trouble with his mom for me being here. I look forward to hearing from everypony. Scootaloo. “That's about it” Scootaloo says. “Mind if I add something?” Bart says. “Sure. I guess.” Scootaloo replies. PS. This is Bart Simpson. This is just a message for me to let you know that I wrote this letter for Scootaloo. Just in case you were wondering why the handwriting is different from what you might be expecting. Scootaloo's happy in Springfield, I'm sneaking her food as and when I can, going by what Scootaloo told me of her diet, I must say that it's different from the ponies that we've had as pets before, one actually cost my father half a million dollars, and caused him to work two jobs to pay for it, and we had to give it back, which is why I'd be worried about how my parents would react to Scootaloo, there's also the reaction that Lisa, my other sister would have, she's absolutely crazy about ponies. “Alright. You should be able to send it off yourself right?” Bart says. “Yeah. Twilight says the flames wont leave the bottle when I open them, and I just have to push the paper into the bottle to send it.” “Interesting mail system” Bart thought, but left Scootaloo to her business and the letter was sent. The next few hours were rather uninteresting for Bart. He just kept reading his Radioactive Man comics, while Scootaloo and Maggie played together and Lisa was in her room practising her sax. As Scootaloo was giving Maggie a ride around Bart's room, when just then, two more scrolls appear in a breath of green flame, but they appeared in different locations within the room, one landed in front of Scootaloo while the other landed on Bart's bed. Bart and Scootaloo turn their interest to them. Maggie's not quite sure what's going on around her. “Seems like there's a letter for each of us this time” Scootaloo says. “Seems that way.” Bart says. He picks up the scroll and opens if up to have a read of what it says. Dear Bart, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for showing your kindness and generosity towards one of my subjects in her time of need. I don't know if Scootaloo told you about them, but Kindness and Generosity are two of the Elements of Harmony here in Equestria. The Elements of Harmony are a collection of six jewels that hold immense power, I hope that you can forgive me if I withhold full details about the Elements from you. I appreciate your concern with your parent's reaction to Scootaloo, I'm sure they would be surprised, like you yourself was, correct? But I believe that it would be best for both them, as well as Scootaloo if they knew that she was there. It would make things less complicated for us when we come to visit you to come and bring her back to Equestria, and I would also very much like to meet you myself. I'm surprised to hear that ponies in your world are kept as pets and that they would cost so much, if I'm correct in assuming that what you call “dollars” is a form of currency, I'm sorry to hear that your father had to work himself so hard to finance one of the ponies you've had previously and I hope that pony went to a happy home in the end. Because of this, we want to help you with the burden we've unfortunately thrown upon you and your family. If there's anyway you think that we can help you, your parents are welcome to write to me. I will have Spike include an extra bottle of his flame for that. I look forward from hearing from both you and Scootaloo. Equestrian Princess of the Sun, Princess Celestia “Who's it from, and what does it say?” asks Scootaloo. “It's from one of your princesses. She thinks that maybe I should tell mom and dad about you.” says Bart. “Oh. Do you think that's a good idea?” “I think she's right, I can't hide you forever, we've already had some close calls. It'd be far easier if you could walk around the house freely. The princess said that she'd help any way she could which is good enough for me.” says Bart. “But what about Lisa?” says Scootaloo. “She's crazy about ponies sure, she's not the type of person that would actually attempt to hurt you. In fact, I'd say she'd be more able to help you out then I would.” says Bart. “Oh, okay, that sounds like a plan.” “What does your letter say?” asks Bart. Scootaloo opens the scroll to read it's contents, when she did, three smaller pieces fell from the scroll, she decided to read those first. Dear Scootaloo, I'm sorry about what happened, I lost control of my magic, I hope you're not mad at me. Though even if you are, I'm glad that you're safe in Springfield. Bart sounds like a really nice person (which I'm told from Twilight is the correct term to use). Twilight's already told you that she's going to be tutoring me with my magic, so hopefully something like this won't happen again when we practice more. I hope that you can come back home soon. Hopefully still your friend, Sweetie Belle. -~~~~~- Dear Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle wont stop worrying over what happened to you. I keep telling her that it was all an accident, and I'm sure that you'd agree with me. I must say, things in Ponyville are a lot different without you. We've both agreed that we shouldn’t be crusading for our Cutie Marks without you. It just wouldn't be fair. I hope you'll come back soon. Apple Bloom -~~~~~- Dear Scoot, Why didn't you ask me that you wanted me to teach you how to fly sooner? I've always thought of you as kind of like the little sister I never had ever since you started that Rainbow Dash Fan Club of yours. It's why I was with Applejack and Rarity when you performed in that talent show. I thought that if Twilight is fast enough in bringing you back, that maybe you'd want to race with me in the Sisterhooves Social, what'd you say? Until then, have fun Rainbow Dash Scootaloo's brain went into overdrive that Rainbow Dash wanted to spend more time with her and that she thought of her as a little sister. Regaining her composure she then turns her attention to the main scroll itself. Dear Scootaloo, Everypony here is happy to hear you're safe, especially your mom, she was very worried about you. I'm sure you've noticed that there were three notes included with this letter, if you've not read them yet, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash have a small message to give to you. Princess Celestia wanted to write to Bart herself, so Spike gave a separate bottle of flame for you both. Tell Bart that I also extend my thanks to him for keeping you safe and helping us out while we try to find a way to get you home. I exhausted all the books in the library in Ponyville with no results, so Spike and I have moved back to Canterlot for the time being searching the Canterlot Archives. Rainbow Dash volunteered to help any way she can, which at the moment, is only delivering letters from Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle so that Spike can send them to you. She's really concerned about you, to tell you the truth, I was surprised when she told me that she thought of you like a sister, but I guess I can see why. While I'm searching the library, be sure to enjoy yourself! Your friend, Twilight Sparkle. “Wow.” Says Scootaloo. “What's up?” Bart says. “Twilight's already read through all the books in the Ponyville Library, she's had to move back to Canterlot.” says Scootaloo. “Well, I'm sure they're all concerned about you. They must be pulling out all the stops to get you home.” says Bart “Yeah. That's true.” “Anyway, should we go tell my mom and dad that you're here.” says Bart. “Okay.” > Chapter Five: New Pony on the Block > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Five New Pony on the Block The stage is set for Bart, it's traditional boring time of the day when the family would sit in the den and watch something on TV that Lisa would want to watch. Bart and his father typically found it extremely boring, Bart only did it because he was forced to, and his father did it because he didn't want to hurt Lisa's feelings. By the time that Bart had arrived into the entrance from the family room into the den, Lisa, as well as Bart's parents were already sitting on the couch, Lisa was primed with the remote to the TV to set it to the specified channel that she wanted. “You're late boy.” says Bart's father. “I was taking care of something upstairs,” Bart starts, switching to a slight nervous tone, he continues, “uh... Mom, Dad, I have something I gotta tell you.” “What is it son?” his father says. “Girl trouble again?” laughing “No, nothing like that. It's just that, Mom, remember the orange pony-plush doll I brought home for Maggie a week ago?” “Yes Bart” Marge says, wondering why he was bringing that up. “what about it” “Well...” Bart says nervously as he walks into the room, with Scootaloo walking directly next to him, though keeping her eyes dead centre on Lisa. “You see, it's not really a plush doll at all. It's a real pony.” “I don't think so Bart, you know as well as I do that ponies aren't that small. After all, you remember Princess and Duncan” Lisa remarks with disbelief in what she's being told. “Yes, yes, I know. But for probably one of the few times in my life, this is the truth.” Bart says, nervously. “He's right you know.” Scootaloo speaks up. Lisa, Marge and Bart's father all give a double take, but Lisa is still skeptical. “Nice ventriloquist act Bart” Lisa says, “I must say I'm impressed, what you practising for?” “Nothing!” Bart says, “she's a real life pony! Watch... Scootaloo walk over there.” Bart points to the other side of the room. Bart holds his hands out in front of him to show that there's nothing there. Scootaloo nods to Bart then trots to the other side of the room. When she stops, Lisa jumps off the couch, walking over to Scootaloo, Lisa kneels down next to her then lightly pokes Scootaloo in the side. Lisa shuffles back in surprise. “...what the... Bart 's right... I don't know how but this thing IS real...” she says in surprise. “HEY! I'm not a 'thing',” Scootaloo says angrily turning to Lisa “I have a name you know, it's Scootaloo!” “Bart, just how long as this pony been here?” asks Marge. “Since the day I found her and brought her home. I saw her passed out by the school. I brought her home so that she could be safe at least.” says Bart. “While I'm upset that you lied to me Bart and kept this pony...” starts Marge. “SCOOTALOO!” she shouts. “...kept Scootaloo a secret from us, I'm proud of you for thinking about her safety.” says Marge. Marge notices that her husband hasn't said anything since Lisa confirmed that Scootaloo was real. “Homie?” Homer was still taking the information in, he finally managed to come out with something. “Uh.. yeah. Your mothers right boy, you should've told us that she was here. But just how much is she going to cost to keep?” “Hopefully not much. Y'see, the ponies from Scootaloo's dimension are already working on a way to get her home...” “Wait,” Lisa chimes in, “you mean to tell us that Scootaloo's from a different dimension” “Yeah,” Scootaloo says, “to make a long story short, I was practising my flying when one of my friends accidentally teleported me here with their magic.” “And how do you two know that these other ponies are working on a way to get you home Scootaloo?” asks Marge. “Twilight Sparkle, a really smart unicorn...” Scootaloo starts before being interrupted by Lisa. “YOU HAVE UNICORNS! TELL ME EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM! I LOVE UNICORNS!” she says excited. “Woah! Easy there Lisa. Give the poor creature some space.” Says Marge “She can tell you all about her dimension later. Carry on Scootaloo” “Oh, right, sorry, Scootaloo” Lisa says, apologetically. “Twilight Sparkle has worked out a way to be able to send messages to each other across dimensions. She's working with Princess Celestia, her mentor and Princess Luna, Princess Celestia's younger sister with a way to get me home.” “Do you two know how long that will take?” asks Homer. “We don't” says Scootaloo. “But, Princess Celestia has already sent me a message saying that she will help us anyway she could from her dimension, all you have to do is let her know” says Bart. “And how would we do that?” asks Homer. “With a super weird mail system. They send their mail by spurts of green fire in a bottle.” says Bart as he pulls a small bottle out of his pocket. “It's not normally in a bottle, Spike just breathes it onto the letter itself.” says Scootaloo. “Spike?” says Lisa “He's like their mailboy.” says Bart “Their mail system works a lot like email, only instead of sending messages on a computer, they're written on paper the old fashioned way, and sent through the air after being breathed on by green fire” “Okay boy, we'll help you keep Scootaloo here until her friends come to pick her up. But this will come out of YOUR allowance.” Homer says. “WHAT?!” Bart shouts in disbelief. “Actually, Dad. Take her spending out of my allowance until we can arrange something with the pony Princess, what's her name...?” Lisa asks looking in Scootaloo's direction. “Princess Celestia.” she replies. “Until Princess Celestia can come up with a way to help us.” Lisa continues. “That's very nice of you Lisa.” Scootaloo says, “I don't want to be too much of a burden though” “Nonsense!” Says Marge, surprising both the kids and Homer. “You're a welcome guest in this house. So don't think of yourself as a burden here.” “U-um. Okay. Thank you Mrs. Simpson” says Scootaloo. “Just call me Marge.” She replies. “Oh, o-okay” She says. “Since you're here, you might as well join us for tonights family time. It's Lisa's turn to pick what we watch on TV.” Says Bart. “Sure. Why not. What are you going to watch.” She says. > Chapter Six: The Great Celestia > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Six The Great Celestia Two days later, in a Great Library of Canterlot, her former home before she moved to Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was still reading some books looking more into the trans-dimensional travel, Rainbow Dash was there with her to make sure she was alright, and to give her an update on the latest happenings in Ponyville. Rainbow spots a spurt of Green Flame appear as a piece of paper appears out of nowhere and drops to the ground. “Looks like another letter from Bart” she says. Twilight looks up from her book, picking up the piece of paper from the floor with her magic, encasing it in a purple aura. The paper is unrolled and placed onto the desk for them to read, like Bart's personal paper, Marge had her own. From the Mind of Marge “Who's Marge?” asks Rainbow Dash. “I don't know. Maybe she's Bart's mother?” says Twilight. Dear Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle et al I'm Marge Simpson, Bart's mother. He has told us about Scootaloo and my husband Homer and I have agreed that she can stay with us until you can find a way to take her home. Bart has probably already told you that she is safe here, I will confirm that she is safe once more. She seems to enjoy playing with Maggie mostly, Maggie enjoys the pony-back rides around the house on Scootaloo's back, and gets on well exchanging stories of Equestria with Lisa. Our budget is limited and feeding an extra mouth, even on a diet that's similar to Lisa's, is difficult, so any help you'll be able to offer financially would be greatly appreciated. Though I'm not sure on how you can, since as I understand it, your currency system is different from ours. “What does she mean, a diet 'similar to Lisa's?' is Bart's different from Lisa's or something?” asks Rainbow Dash. “I heard from Lyra that humans are known to eat meat.” says Twilight, Rainbow looks at her in disbelief with an 'eww, meat!' type face on her “Hey, it's part of their culture, but some are known to voluntarily chose not to and only eat fruits and vegetables. Lisa must be one of them” Also, in my opinion, I don't think keeping Scootaloo in the house is going to be doing much good to her health. She needs proper exercise, which she can't get being cooped up in the house. I heard from Scootaloo that you're able to cast magic spells, so I think for the time being assuming that you're capable of it, that it would be in Scootaloo's best interests if she were to be turned into a human to be able to go outside, make some friends here and travel around Springfield and enrol her into Springfield Elementary without any suspicions. I have also included a picture of our family so that you know what we look like. Yours Sincerely, Marge Simpson. “She wants to turn Scootaloo human? Can you do that?” asks Rainbow Dash. “Maybe, but I will need to check with Scootaloo's mom, and Princess Celestia to allow Marge to do so, it wouldn't be right otherwise. Though I do think that she's right, it's not fair on Scootaloo to be constantly in the house hidden away, could you imagine what that would be like?” says Twilight. “Uh, yeah. I think I could actually.” says Rainbow Dash, Twilight looks at her slightly nervous. “Oh no, maybe she's starting to remember..! Quick, I gotta change the subject!” Twilight thought. But thankfully, she didn't need to change the subject herself. “So anyway, this picture Marge gave us,” Rainbow Dash says turning her attention to the photo with features the Simpson family sitting on the couch. “They look like a nice family.” says Twilight. “Yeah, I guess so. So who do you think is who?” asks Rainbow Dash. “Well, from what Bart has told us,” Twilight proceeds to identify who she believes is each member of the Simpson family. The two continue to discuss what to do next regarding the letter that Marge has sent, and agree that the first step should be to talk to the Princesses. “SPIKE!” Twilight shouts at the top her lungs so that the dragon could hear her. Spike, who was in the other room doing... something that wont be mentioned comes into the room. “What is it?” he asks. “I need you to take a letter to the princess. Tell her that we got a message from Bart's mother about Scootaloo and need to talk to her immediately.” Twilight says. Spike writes out a letter to send to the princess on his own featuring the content that Twilight asked for. While he was doing that, Twilight and Rainbow Dash talked between themselves briefly the outcome of which caused Rainbow Dash to fly off in the direction of Ponyville, just as Spike is about breathe his fire breath onto the scroll he was writing onto. “And sent.” Spike says, turning around to look at Twilight. The efforts of the past week and a half has hit Twilight the hardest, she's been pulling many all nighters to try and find something that'll help bring Scootaloo home. She has massive bags under her eyes, and her mane is in bad shape. She was walking around as if she was easily ready to fall over her own hooves but still manages to walk away from the window back to the book that she was reading with Rainbow Dash when the letter from Marge arrived. Spike quickly took notice. “Geez, Twilight, you look like you're ready to pass out” Spike said. “I don't care. Scootloo's counting on me to get her home! I can't let her down!” Twilight says. “We already know that she's safe with Bart. I don't think she'll mind if you actually sleep at night.” Spike responds. Without either of them noticing a voice speaks up from behind them. “Spike is right Twilight,” the voice said. Spike and Twilight look up to a majestic white pony featuring both a pair of wings and a horn along with a large tri-coloured mane that seems to flow in a breeze despite the fact that they are all inside a building without any open windows, it was Princess Celestia. “Scootaloo is a strong filly, I can't see any reason why she would want you to put your own health at risk for her sake. So this meeting will be short so you can get some rest.” Princess Celestia says. Twilight could do nothing but nod to her tutor. “I got your letter that Bart's mother has sent you a message.” Twilight picks up Marge's letter with her magic, and hovers it over to the Princess who takes over control of the spell with her own magic giving the letter a light yellow aura. The Princess reads through what Marge had written. Twilight and Spike look on awaiting her response. “I see. Marge does raise a good point. If Scootaloo were human for a short while, she could blend in better with the citizens of Springfield.” says the Princess. “But how would we be able to turn Scootaloo human?” says Twilight. “She's a pegasus, so she can't do magic, and from what I understand about humans, I don't think they can do magic either.” “Then we'll need to supply them with some and instructions on how to use it.” says the Princess. “What do you mean?” asks Twilight. “I mean, my faithful student, that we should give them a bottle of mana, and an incantation that'll turn Scootaloo human on command.” the princess responds. “But I don't know how to do that.” says Twilight starting to frantically switch her research on learning how to. “There's nothing to worry about Twilight, Luna and I used to use small portions of each others magic before Nightmare Moon, it was a precaution we learned in case anything were to happen to one of us for a short time. I can easily give the Simpsons some of my magic and create an incantation that only they can use.” says the princess. “But what about Scootaloo's mom? I think she should still get a say in what happens to her, even while in Springfield.” says Twilight. “You are absolutely right my faithful student, she should. I shall catch up to Rainbow Dash and talk to Scootaloo's mother personally, the fewer ponies in Equestria that know about these skills that Luna and I have the better, you concentrate on getting a good long rest.” says the Princess as she turns to leave, she kneels down towards Spike. “Make sure that she doesn't go anywhere but to sleep and doesn't do any more reading for the next twelve hours, and send a letter to Marge saying that if we're to help her with money for Scootaloo she'll need to send us a small amount to look at, and that I'll be talking to Scootaloo's mother about turning her human.” “You can count on me!” he replies. And with that, Princess Celestia leaves Twilight and Spike alone, Twilight closes her book and then heads off to bed. As she left, Princess Celestia flies off in the direction of Ponyville catching the glimpse of a rainbow coloured mare in the sky, the sun goddess uses her magic to give herself a boost of speed so that she could catch up to Rainbow Dash, who was flying at a casual rate, but without breaking the sound barrier. In the sky above Canterlot, Rainbow Dash while flying casually was occasionally performing some aerial tricks, in one of her loops she saw a familiar white pony flying towards her, knowing who she was, Rainbow Dash stopped heading towards Ponyville and simply waited for the familiar alicorn to catch up. “Oh. Uh, hi Princess” says Rainbow Dash “what are you doing here.” “Hello, Rainbow Dash, I read the letter from Marge, I think she has a point about Scootaloo. Since you're headed in the direction, I thought I'd fly with you to Ponyville so that I could talk to Scootaloo's mother about it” “Oh, okay, sure!” says Rainbow Dash. Princess Celestia and Rainbow Dash start heading towards Ponyville. Once they reach the town borders, Rainbow Dash and Princess Celestia head in the direction of Scootaloo's house. Unlike the families of the other Crusaders, Sweet Apple Acres in the case of Apple Bloom and Carousel Boutique in the case of Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo's mom doesn't run a business of her own, so they live in a more traditional house, like rest of the houses in town, theirs features wooden beams for the key structure points and has a overhanging thatched roof. Rainbow Dash and Princess Celestia touch down on the ground and leisurely walk up to the front door, to which Rainbow Dash knocks on. “Just a second!” a female voice is heard from inside. After a few seconds the door opens slowly with a slight creak, the pony who answers the door, is an orange Pegasus mare, with a coat a few shades darker than Scootaloo's own orange coat, unlike Scootaloo though, the mare's mane and tail are far longer, and again a darker shade of the same colour that Scootaloo herself has, in this case, purple. Her mother's mane and tail are brushed, and her mane is parted in the centre to keep it out of her eyes. Her eyes are a bright shade of green, Scootaloo must get her purple eyes from her father... “Oh, hello, Rainbow Dash and...” the mare looks up to see who is with Rainbow Dash, she gasps at who she sees “... Your highness!” registering that the Princess is with Rainbow Dash she bows down to her. “Rise, Skylight. There's no need for formalities on this occasion.” Princess Celestia says, “We're here to give you some information about Scootaloo, may we come in?” “Why, yes. Of course!” Skylight says, lifting her head back up, and moving out of the way so that the pair can walk into the house. The house is like any other family home. The living room is adorned with a fireplace to keep the atmosphere cosy in the winter months, with a three piece suite surrounding it, coming off of the living room is a kitchen and dining area, with a half-wall separating the two, so that ponies in the kitchen could still view into the living room. “I hope that Scootaloo's still safe in Springfield?” asks Skylight. “Indeed she is, in fact, Twilight recently got a letter from Marge about her.” says Princess Celestia. “W-who's Marge?” asks Skylight. “If you don't mind me asking, that is” “Your daughter's safety is of great concern to you, is it not?” “Yes, it is! Scootaloo means the world to me!” Skylight exclaims. “Then you should not hold back your questions. Rainbow Dash and I will answer them as best we can.” says the Princess. “Right! Twilight's pulling out all the stops to find away to bring the squirt home.” says Rainbow Dash. “To answer your question about Marge, she is Bart's mother. It seems that Bart has taken my advice and told his family that Scootaloo is there. Marge even sent us a picture of the family to show you.” Princess Celestia uses her magic to materialise a photograph of the Simpsons sitting on the couch. Homer and Marge are in the center, with Maggie on Marge's lap, Bart and Lisa are seated on either side of Homer and Marge. “Seems like a nice family” says Skylight. “Indeed. Marge does have some concerns about Scootaloo and does ask something of me that Rainbow Dash, Twilight and I believe that should be put to your approval first.” says the Princess. “Oh, what would that be, your highness?” “Scootaloo is different from the natural ponies that live in Springfield, so the Simpsons cannot allow Scootaloo to leave the house at the present time. Marge believes doing that can have a negative effect on Scootaloo's health, and I believe that Marge does have a good point. Marge believes that if Scootaloo were somehow human, she could get the exorcise that Scootaloo needs.” “Can she do that?” asks Skylight. “From what we can tell, not on their own no.” “Then how would she-” “I can offer her a very small portion of my own magic, and provide an incantation that only myself or my sister can reverse once Scootaloo is back in Equestria. The magic would only ever be able to respond to this specific incantation. I will not do any of this without your express permission however.” “I see, you really believe that it could take some time for Twilight to find the spell to bring her home?” “I'm afraid so, the Canterlot Archives are quite large.” “I understand. Scootaloo does have boundless energy-” “You got that right!” laughs Rainbow Dash, “you seen the squirt on that scooter of hers! She'd easily beat me in a race on the ground!” “Heh. That's true Rainbow Dash.” laughs Skylight, “Alright, I agree with you, your highness, I think it would be in Scootaloo's best interests for now that she would be able to blend in better with the citizens of Springfield, so you have my permission. I'll let Scootaloo decide if she wants to follow through with Marge's idea though.” “Thank you, Skylight.” Princess Celestia says, “I'll send a message to Marge once I have risen the sun in the morning.” “Actually, do you mind if I wrote to her instead?” asks Skylight. “Not at all. I'm sure Rainbow Dash can stop by in the morning and pick it up” says Princess Celestia. “You got that right Princess. I can get it to Canterlot in ten seconds flat!” boasts Rainbow Dash, “I'll even throw in a Sonic Rainboom for free if necessary!” “It doesn't need to be that fast Rainbow Dash,” chuckles the Princess. “Skylight, Rainbow Dash, if you'll excuse me, I must return to Canterlot and make sure that Twilight isn't pulling another all nighter. Enjoy the rest of the evening.” “Yes. Thank you your highness.” says Skylight as the Princess takes her leave. She turns to Rainbow Dash who is leaving as well. “Rainbow Dash, is Twilight really pulling all nighters?” she asks. “Yeah. She was practically falling over her own hooves when I left.” says Rainbow Dash. “I appreciate that she's working hard to bring my Scootaloo back, but she shouldn't push herself so hard. Please tell her that for me.” comments Skylight. “I will. No problem!” says Rainbow Dash, as she beats her wings then takes off out the door and into the sky. Skylight watches as the Rainbow maned mare take off into the sky and into the direction of her cloud home above the outskirts of Ponville. Closing the door behind Rainbow Dash, Skylight trots back into the living room, moving towards the mantle above the fireplace that has a picture of Scootaloo on her scooter with a happy grin on her face. “Please stay safe Scootaloo.” Skylight says to herself. > Chapter Seven: Little Big Scootaloo > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Seven Little Big Scootaloo The following morning, Rainbow Dash knocked on the family home of Scootaloo and Skylight ready to claim the letter that the worried mother of one had written to her beloved daughter stranded in another dimension, after a minute or two, the door opened to reveal the dark orange pegasus in the doorway. “Hello, Rainbow Dash. Here to pick up my letter to Scootaloo?” she says. “Yup. I'm just on my way to Canterlot” Rainbow Dash replies. “Okay, I'll just get it, why don't you come in?” Says Skylight. “Okay, thanks” Rainbow Dash says as Skylight moves out of the way so that Rainbow Dash can enter the home, Rainbow Dash closes the door behind her. Skylight enters the kitchen area where she picks up a pair of scrolls that are sitting on the dinning table, grabbing them with her hoof, she gives them to Rainbow Dash and places them in one of her saddlebags that she has across her back. “Rainbow Dash, before you go, I want to ask you something?” says Skylight. “Sure Skylight, what is it?” asks Rainbow Dash. “How are you holding up, I mean, Twilight's pulling all nighters but what about you, you keep racing back and forth between Canterlot and Ponyville, especially since you're now in effect carrying two jobs. Why?” she questions. “That's easy. Princess Celestia actually put any mail from Ponyville to Twilight in Canterlot on top priority and made it Top Secret too. The only ponies allowed to know anything are you, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the Elements of Harmony, the Princesses and of course The Simpsons though they're not ponies. Because of that, we needed a pony within that group to get mail delivered quickly, normally Derpy would handle the mail, but she cant handle the flight like I can. Besides, I volunteered.” “But what about the weather in Ponyville? Are you still handling that?” “Well, yeah, but not as regularly for now. When I'm on mail duty for Twilight, I drop the forecast into the office before heading out to collect the Springfield mail to take to Canterlot. Thunderlane makes sure that the work gets done as my deputy. Given the priority of the situation, nopony can say anything because it comes as an order from Princess Celestia.” “I can understand why you'd be the best pony to do it, given your speed and stamina, but volunteer? Why?” “I said this in a letter of my own to Scoot, and to be honest, I kind of see her as the little sister I never had.” Says Rainbow Dash, Skylight is taken aback by the revelation, even Scootaloo's own mother couldn't tell that Rainbow Dash thought that way. “While she was here, I hardly spent any time with her despite the admiration she had for me, she's like me on so many levels. I don't want to let that go to waste. So I offered to spend more time with her. Hopefully participate in Applejack's Sisterhooves Social and maybe teach her to fly. Of course, if all that is okay by you.” “I think Scootaloo would enjoy that a lot. Just as long as you don't have her do any crazy stunts or Sonic Rainbooms.” jokes Skylight. “Heh. Of course. Sonic Rainbooms are way out of her league. Maybe in a few years, she could pull Sonic Scootabooms!” Rainbow Dash comments with a laugh. “Maybe.” giggles Skylight, getting Rainbow Dash's joke. “Anyway, I shouldn't keep you.” “Right. I'll drop by if we hear anything else from the Simpsons.” says Rainbow Dash, as she turns towards the door to leave. “Of course. Thank you Rainbow Dash.” “Hey, no problem” says Rainbow Dash as she opens the door and flies off towards Canterlot. In Canterlot, Twilight is awake and already reading through more books from the Canterlot Archives. Spike is running back and forth trying to keep Twilight's backlog of already read books to a minimum. On her desk beside her is one scroll already sealed and ready to go, but it hasn't been sent since Twilight was told that she should expect an arrival from Rainbow Dash with further mail from Skylight in the morning. Just as Twilight finished a book and passed it into Spike's out pile and picked another from her own in pile, Rainbow Dash flies through the window and lands in the library. “Hey Twilight, what's up!” says Rainbow Dash. “Oh hey Rainbow. I was told you'd be stopping by.” Twilight replies. “Yeah. Skylight wanted to send some letters to Scootaloo. Though I think one of these might be for Marge.” Rainbow Dash replies. “That's fine, I have one from Princess Celestia to send to Marge too. It contains a bottle of her magic that Marge can use to turn Scootaloo human.” Says Twilight. “Cool. Skylight agreed that Scoot should be human in Springfield, but she felt that Scoot should make the final choice.” Says Rainbow Dash. “Fair enough I guess. Lets send these off then” Says Twilight as Rainbow Dash hoofs Twilight the two scrolls she got from Skylight. “SPIKE!” Twilight shouts at the top of her lungs. A few seconds later, Spike returns from where he was. “What is it Twilight?” he asks. “Springfield Mail, three scrolls, two for Marge and one for Scootaloo. You know what to do” Twilight says as she prepares three bottles for Spike to breathe a small portion of his flame into, after he does, Twilight enchants them with her magic with her horn glowing a purple aura around it. Spike breathes more fire onto them sending them into thin air, he also picks up the letters and breathes on them too sending them to their destination at 742. Meanwhile in said household on Evergreen Terrace, the Simpsons were waking up, the family, minus Bart and Maggie are still getting used to having Scootaloo around. True to Bart said, her diet is very much like that of Lisa. Her breakfast in the morning, generally consists of some fruits. Mostly two or three apples, which the family have around the kitchen anyway since they make a regular feature of Bart and Lisa's school lunches at Springfield Elementary. Scootaloo notes that they're not as delicious as the apples grown at Sweet Apple Acres, but she's happy with what the Simpsons can offer her. While eating the three scrolls that Spike sent appear into thin air, Homer, Marge and Lisa are shocked that they appeared from nothing. “You weren't kidding, they do just appear from thin air!” comments Lisa. “Told you.” replies Scootaloo sarcastically. “So who are they from?” asks Bart. “It'd be easier if they had envelopes” says Marge. As a result of them not being placed into envelopes with an addressee Marge opens one of them which happens to be from somepony by the name of Skylight. “Hmm.. This one is from a pony by the name of 'Skylight'” says Marge. Scootaloo's ears raise at the mention of her mothers name. “Skylight... that's my mom's name” Marge takes a read of the letter. Dear Marge, I want to thank you personally for taking in my little Scootaloo while she's trapped in Springfield. Princess Celestia showed me the photograph of your family, and I believe that I can place my trust in you to care for her. I was informed of your concerns and suggestion to turn Scootaloo human while she is in your home. I'm writing to give you my full permission to do so, but I believe that it should be Scootaloo's ultimate choice to follow through with the idea, so I'll place that decision in her hooves. Despite her tomcoltish attitude, she's a smart filly, and I'm sure she'd follow through with the idea, though I must warn you, even though she is unable to fly at present, she is very proud of her Pegasus heritage, and is very proud of her wings, so be advised, that a substitute pair in her human form may be needed. I remember a time when she and her friends accidentally trotted through a field of Poison Joke (it's a plant that plays practical jokes on anypony who comes near it according to what Twilight Sparkle told me) where their races were altered, Scootaloo lost her wings, and from what her friends tell me, she became quick to anger, and had a mental breakdown which caused her to openly attack one of her friends, Apple Bloom who she struck was who gained Scootaloo's wings. Of course, it was all an accident, so the two are still great friends. Thank you, Skylight. Marge turns her attention to another letter, opening it up, it turns out to be from Princess Celestia herself. Dear Marge, I have consulted with Skylight, Scootaloo's mother and asked her for permission to provide you with a small portion of my magic which you can use to transform Scootaloo into a human. It is enchanted to respond to a specific incantation, it's a one time use I'm afraid on your end, the only ponies in Equestria that can use the incantation again would be myself, or my sister, Princess Luna, even my most faithful student Twilight Sparkle won't be able to perform this spell. The incantation to say is “Mannulus ad humanam.” Once spoken the enclosed bottle of magic will react and transform the nearest pony into a human, so you would of course need to ensure that there are no ponies between you and Scootaloo. Sincerly, Princess Celestia, Equestrian Princess of the Sun. Out of nowhere, a small bottle of yellow a yellow glowing substance appears next to Marge already on the table. Putting it to one side for now, Marge takes the third letter and scans it, she quickly notices that she's not the addressee. “Scootaloo, this one is for you” Marge says as she passes the scroll to Scootaloo. “Oh. Thanks.” She replies. Dear Scootaloo, I hope that you're safe in Springfield, but I'm sure you are. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle are keeping me informed on how you are doing there. Princess Celestia asked me for permission on an idea that Marge had, which is to turn you human for the time you are in Springfield. I have given my full permission to that, but I have placed the final decision down to you. I have informed Marge of how proud you are of your pegasus heritage, I hope you wont be too upset incase you do lose your wings, and I'm sure that she could arrange for a fake pair for the time being, I'm sure you and I both don't want a repeat of that impromptu vacation you took with your friends, where you blasted Apple Bloom in the face with a mana beam. I know that this might be rough on you Scootaloo, but I want you to know that I love you and I miss you, but you have to be strong, we both do, you're representing all of Equestria now, even if by accident. Love, Mom “So, what's the verdict” asks Bart. “My Mom has given Marge permission to transform me into a human with Princess Celestia's help” replies Scootaloo. “...and?” asks Bart “The choice is now Scootaloo's” replies Marge. “I won't do anything unless you say so, Scootaloo” Marge says addressing the young pony. “Well... do you really think it'll be a bad idea for me to hide away in the house?” “I do. For someone as young and energetic as you, you need to go outside and get excercise.” “And what about my wings?” asks Scootaloo uneasy. “I don't know about that. We'll have to wait and see. I can ask Ned if he can make you some ornamental wings to wear. It wouldn't be the same, but it's better than nothing.” says Marge. Scootaloo pauses for a moment, just staring at her breakfast on the table. It is a tough decision for her, probably one of the hardest she's had to make. Does she stay indoors hidden away but possibly damage her health, or possibly lose her wings and wear some ornamental wings in their place, but be able to travel around Springfield. “I... I don't know what to do. Do I have to decide right now?” Scootaloo says. “No, you can take as long as you like.” says Marge. “O-Okay. Thanks. I'd like to ask what Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and maybe Rainbow Dash think. They may not be here in Springfield, they're my friends, so I still want to know what they think I should do.” “Sure. I can send a letter now if you'd like.” “Thanks Marge.” Marge leaves the kitchen to find a pad of paper in the den, after a few minutes, she returns with said pad of paper and a pen to write with. Without anyone saying a word she sits back down and begins to write. Dear Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle We have received Skylight's permission to transform Scootaloo into a human with Princess Celestia's Magic. Skylight has left the choice in Scootaloo's hooves, and as a mother I will honour that wish. Scootaloo is aware that becoming a human may cause her to lose her wings, and from what I'm told, she is very proud of her wings and pegasus heritage. Which is understandable. I am writing to tell you that Scootaloo is conflicted in which choice to make. She doesn't want to lose her wings, or betray her heritage, but she understands that she can't remain in the house for long periods of time. She has asked for your opinion in what choice you think she should make. Yours Sincerely, Marge Simpson Marge sends the letter off by sliding it into the enchanted bottle of Spike's breath she had close by her on the kitchen side. Marge passes a glance at the kitchen clock, where it shows the time as eight o'clock. “WOAH! Look at the time!” Marge exclaims, “Kids, you better hurry up or you'll be late for school!” > Chapter Eight: Ponies Defined > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Eight Ponies Defined Back in Canterlot, Rainbow Dash has finally managed to pry Twilight Sparkle away from her books, so that the two could sit down and have a hearty breakfast prepared by Spike. “Gosh, Twilight, Spike sure knows how make good pancakes!” says Rainbow Dash with her mouth full. Spike overhearing what Rainbow Dash says replies from the other room, “Oh, I can make just more than Pancakes, Rainbow Dash!” “I don't doubt that Spike!” she compliments Unexpectedly, a puff of green flame appears. “What, a letter from Springfield already?” questions Spike walking into the room with a another plate of pancakes which he gives to Twilight once doing so he leaves again. Using her magic to levitate the letter in a purple aura, she unfurls it, and takes a read. Dear Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle “Oh, this one is for you Rainbow Dash.” says Twilight “For me? Why would the Simpsons want anything from me?” comments Rainbow Dash. “It's not just to you. But to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as well.” Twilight flips the page around so that Rainbow Dash can read it but keeps it floating in her magical aura so that Rainbow Dash can read it easier. We have received Skylight's permission to transform Scootaloo into a human with Princess Celestia's Magic. Skylight has left the choice in Scootaloo's hooves, and as a mother I will honour that wish. Scootaloo is aware that becoming a human may cause her to lose her wings, and from what I'm told, she is very proud of her wings and pegasus heritage. Which is understandable. I am writing to tell you that Scootaloo is conflicted in which choice to make. She doesn't want to lose her wings, or betray her heritage, even though a neighbour of ours, Ned Flanders could make a plastic pair of ornamental wings, she understands that she can't remain in the house for long periods of time. She has asked for your opinion in what choice you think she should make. Yours Sincerely, Marge Simpson “Scoot doesn't know what to do... Hmmm...” ponders Rainbow Dash. “What do you mean?” asks Twilight as she lowers the letter onto the table and releasing it from her magical aura. “Skylight wanted Scootaloo to decide if she becomes human or not. Marge is honouring Skylight's authority.” says Rainbow Dash. “So, even if it goes against her own better judgement, Marge won't go through with it, unless Scootaloo wants to?” asks Twilight “Yeah. But Scootaloo is conflicted from what Marge says. She's proud of her wings, even though she can't fly. Turning human could cause her to lose them, even though The Simpsons's neighbour, 'Ned Flanders' apparently, can make some fake wings out of plastic for her.” says Rainbow Dash. “So, what's she asking?” says Twilight. “Like the letter says, she's conflicted, so she's asking for what my opinion is. As well as the opinion of her friends for what we think she should do.” “I think it's sweet that she thinks of her friends so highly for such a big decision. What do you think she should do, Rainbow Dash?” questions Twilight, legitimately interested in what Rainbow Dash's own opinion was. “Are you kidding me? Of course I think she should do it, she can't stay locked away in the house, she's an energetic filly like I was. Any pegasus is proud of their wings whether they can fly or not. It's not like she's going to lose them forever, she'll have them back when she's a pony again. Remember the time when I busted my wing up in that flying drill just before you introduced me to Daring Do? I may have 'lost' the use of my wing for a week, but I still knew I wouldn't lose them forever, that's the important thing.” “Wow. I never realised you thought that way, Rainbow Dash.” comments Twilight. “Hey, it's not just me. It's a pegasus thing, even Fluttershy feels this way occasionally, but maybe not to the same level I would since flying is my life. Speaking of losing a key part of who we are, how would you feel if you lost your magic forever?” asks Rainbow Dash. “Well... I'd be devastated...” “Exactly. Most Pegasi are the same. Flying is a big part of who they are, as magic is to a unicorn. This is why Scootaloo is conflicted. Even though it's only temporary, she's losing a big part of who she is. I think she just needs to remember that she'll get her wings back when she gets back to Equestria.” Rainbow Dash replies. “So, what are you going to do next?” asks Twilight. “Going to speak to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in Ponyville?” “You bet! Scoot wanted their opinion, so that's what I'll get. For now, I'll prepare a message of my own but don't send it until I get back.” “Sure, SPIKE!” Twilight shouts. The young dragon pops his head from the kitchen. “What?” he asks. “Spike, take a letter” says Rainbow Dash. Spike pulls out a scroll and quill seemingly out of nowhere. Several hours later in Ponyville, wearing a saddlebag on her back, Rainbow Dash touches down at the main household of Sweet Apple Acres, the home of the Apple Family, of which one of Scootaloo's friends, is the youngest member. Knocking on the door, the mare that answers the door is Rainbow Dash's good friend Applejack. “Well howdy sugarcube, what can I do ya for?” greets Applejack. “Hey Applejack,” Rainbow Dash starts. “Is Apple Bloom and or Sweetie Belle around? I got a letter from Scoot for them.” “Sure Rainbow, they're both in their clubhouse. Something about coming up with ideas fer their little 'crusades' or some such.” “I thought they stopped while Scoot is in Springfield?” “They did, but that didn't stop them from coming up with ideas at least for when she's back.” “Ah, that makes sense. Catch you later Applejack.” “Mah Pleasure, Sugarcube.” replies Applejack. Rainbow Dash flies towards a different part of the orchard where a small hut was built into the trunk of a tree. Rainbow Dash knew all too well about this building since it was the place Scootaloo held her small Rainbow Dash Fan Club Meetings which the cyan mare would listen in on and influence slightly in her favour. She ascends the ramp to the clubhouse, and then peeks in through the window to see what the two remaining crusader fillies are upto before walking in. As she does, the two smaller ponies turn to the door to see who has entered. “Well, howdy Rainbow Dash. If yer here for my sis, she's at the house.” says Apple Bloom. “I know, I just saw her.” says Rainbow Dash. “What are yer here fer then?” Apple Bloom asks. “I'm actually here to see you two.” “Us?” replies Sweetie Belle “Yeah. We got a letter from Scootaloo today. It's addressed to you two.” Rainbow Dash says. “Really?! What does it say!” they both respond eager to hear from their stranded pegasus friend. “Take a look.” Rainbow Dash pulls out the letter she had in a saddlebag. It takes a few minutes for the two young ponies to read the letter from Marge. “So, she doesn't know if she wants to be a human or not?” asks Sweetie Belle. “That's right. You're her friends, so she clearly values what you think.” says Rainbow Dash. “Ah dunno what to think to be honest.” says Apple Bloom, unsure. “What about you Sweetie Belle?” says Rainbow Dash. “Well...” Sweetie Belle starts, “I get why she's not sure. After all, I was pretty upset about when I lost my horn on that vacation. But it wont be forever, so she'll at least get them back. So... I think she should do it” “Yeah! She's not going to be a human forever, so she should try it! It might even be fun!” cheers Apple Bloom, making up her mind. “How do we let Scootaloo know?” “Why don't you two write a letter to her yourselves? I think she'd like that.” replies Rainbow Dash. “Okay!” they both cheer. “Lets go write them right away!” says Sweetie Belle with genuine happiness in her voice. “Yeah!” replies Apple Bloom with as much enthusiasm. Rainbow Dash laughs. “Okay. It's too late for me to make a trip back to Canterlot now, so why don't the two of you go home for the night, write your letters and I'll stop by in the morning.” “Okay, Rainbow Dash” they both reply. “C'mon Sweetie Belle, I'll give you a ride back to Carousel Boutique. Grab on.” Rainbow Dash crouches down so that Sweetie Belle can climb onto her back, Rainbow Dash and Apple Bloom trot out of the hut and while Apple Bloom gallops back to her homestead, Rainbow Dash takes off headed for the centre of Ponyville to drop the white unicorn filly off at her elder sisters business home. > Chapter Nine: And Scootaloo Makes Four > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Nine And Scootaloo Makes Four The following afternoon, Homer and Scootaloo are sitting in the living room watching TV as Bart and Lisa come home from school, in the kitchen are Marge working on cleaning the room, and in her high chair watching is the youngest member of the family, Maggie. “Hey Bart, Lisa, how was lamo-school?” asks Scootaloo. “Just as you say, Scoot. Lame.” replies Bart. “Oh, Bart, Lisa you're home” Marge says walking in from the kitchen. “We got these letters from Scootaloo's friends, but she wanted to wait until you two got home to read them. “Why?” asks Bart “Because you're my friends, isn't that reason enough?” Scootaloo replies. Marge gives the three notes to Scootaloo to read, she opens the first one. Dear Scoot, I can understand why you would be conflicted about losing your wings, and how proud you are to be a pegasus, we are the coolest race in all of Equestria right? Heh. Anyway, if you're after my opinion in changing to a human, I think you should do it. It's not going to be forever, so you WILL get your wings back, and you WILL get to fly, I can promise you that. Rainbow Dash *~~~~~~~* Dear Scootaloo, We are so happy to get an update from you in Springfield! I remember the vacation we took when we walked through that field of Poison Joke, so I can see why you would be not certain on becoming a human. Rainbow Dash has said that you have nothing to worry about and not going to be for long, so I think that you should go for it! We want to hear all about it when you get back to Equestria! Sweetie Belle. *~~~~~~~* Dear Scootaloo, We're glad to hear that you're doing well in Springfield still. I want you to know that Sweetie Belle and I miss you. I don't know what you want me to say about your decision about becoming human, but after some talks about it with Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash, I agree with them that I think it would be a good idea to do it. In fact, we want to hear all about it when you get home! Apple Bloom “So, they think that I should do it too.” says Scootaloo. “And, will you?” asks Lisa. “Sure. If my friends and Rainbow Dash think it's a good idea, then it has to be, right?” “But what about your wings?” Lisa reminds. “Well... sure, I'll lose them for now but when I'm a pony again, I'll have my wings back and then Rainbow Dash and I can hang out together and she can teach me to fly!” “Before we transform you though, we should get you a pair of plastic wings to wear. Right?” says Marge. “Of course.” “Homie, go get Ned!” Marge says. Sighing though annoyed, Homer gets up off the couch and steps out into the back yard, where his next door neighbour is raking leaves which is a natural result of the autumn fall which has just started. “Hey Flanders, get your ugly butt into the kitchen, we need you in there.” Homer says. “Okilly-Dokilly Homer!” Flanders replies cheerfully, maybe just ignoring the somewhat hostile behaviour Homer displayed towards him, the fat bald man was already swiftly turning around to the kitchen to sit in a chair with a can of Duff Beer, his favourite brand. A few minutes later, a man with brown hair, and a mustache enters the kitchen. He sports a Green Sweater covering a pink shirt with grey pants. “So what did you didilly need me for Homer?” he asks. “Ned, we want to introduce you to someone” says Marge who is also in the room. Taking this as her cue, Scootaloo trots into the kitchen from the dinning room that connects with Bart and Lisa. Flanders has a shocked look on his face for being introduced to a pony, one that he noticed rather quickly to sport wings on it's back. “Mr. Flanders, this is Scootaloo.” says Lisa. “Hello, Mr. Flanders.” says Scootaloo. Flanders's natural response was predictable. He was stunned that the small pony-with-wings could actually talk. “Uh... Marge. Was it just me, or did I hear this little pony talk?” Flanders asks. “Yes Ned, you did” replies Marge confirming Flanders's suspicions. “H-How is that didilly possible?” “You see Ned, Scootaloo is from a different dimension, in her dimension ponies are the dominant race, they even have various forms of magic.” says Marge. “And she doesn't mean Card Tricks” comments Bart. “Bart!” Grunts Homer. “...as I was saying. I'm sure you've noticed that she has wings.” says Marge. Flanders nods to allow Marge to continue her story. “She was practicing her flying, when one of her friends accidentally used a teleportation spell to send her here to Springfield. She's staying here until her friends in her homeworld can figure out a way to take her home. Problem is, she cant stay cooped up in the house, she's got a lot of energy, we want to allow her to go into town, but can't unless she is human. Her mother has allowed us to transform her into a human while she's here, and her worlds ruler, Princess Celestia has provided me with some mana power to do that with. But there's one problem...” says Marge. “What would that be Marge?” asks Flanders. “Her wings. She's proud to be a pegasus, and doesn't want to lose them. She's agreed to turn human, on the condition that she gets to wear some fake wings instead. Now Ned, I know I don't ask much from you–” “You want me to make them for her?” “That's right. Think you can do it?” “Sure Marge. I can didilly do that for ya.” “Thank you Mr. Flanders” Scootaloo replies. “No problem little one. I'll need proper measurements. So you'll need to be human before I can make them. Do you think you can hold out a day or two without them?” “I guess so.” says Scootaloo. “Super!” “So, shall we do the transformation now?” asks Lisa. “Okay.” Says Scootaloo. “Maybe it'll be a good idea to do this in Lisa's room.” says Marge. “Why?” says Bart. “Human decency Bart.” says Marge. “Scootaloo's naked right now, and she will be when she's human.” “Ah. Gotcha.” says Bart. Marge, Lisa and Scootaloo leave upstairs into Lisa's room, with Marge grabbing Princess Celestia's bottle of mana before she leaves. In Lisa's room, while Lisa closes the curtains just to be on the safe side, Marge opens Lisa's wardrobe which has a blue sword which had a hook at the tip of the blade and a saxophone key-chain attached to the hilt hidden in the back and gets out one of Lisa's spare outfits consisting of a dark grey short sleeve hoodie with cyan cuffs, dark green shorts, and black shoes with a cyan rim. “You ready Scootaloo?” asks Marge. “I guess so.” says the young pony. “Okay then,” Marge opens the bottle of Celestia's Mana, “Mannulus ad humanam” she states, as instructed by the letter from Princess Celestia. At the statement of the incantation, the glowing yellow mana flies out of the bottle then starts to spin around Scootaloo, as a reflex her wings start to buzz, the mana turns from a glowing light yellow colour to a shade that matches the colour of the skin Marge and Lisa have mixed with the orange colour of her coat and the purple colour of her mane and tail. The spinning starts from the ground and then works it's way upwards to Scootaloo's head, it then flies upwards and shoots into Scootaloo's body, a bright flash causes Marge and Lisa to shield their eyes from the bright light and when they can open their eyes again a young girl, of Lisa's height and age is on the floor in front of them, she maintains her purple hair, as suspected, Scootaloo's wings are missing, breathing, slightly short of breath. Lisa turns to help Scootaloo to her feet and wraps Scootaloo's arm around her shoulder. “Well, it looks that worked.” Says Lisa. “Wow... This is too weird...” comments Scootaloo. “You might want to take it easy with your new body. First, lets get you dressed so that Ned can measure you for your plastic wings.” says Marge. Marge aid's Scootaloo in getting dressed. > Chapter Ten: Scootaloo This Isn't Your Life > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Ten Scootaloo This Isn't Your Life It's been a week since Scootaloo has turned human. She's gotten used to walking bipdeally, and is now getting a proper tour of the town so she has a basic idea on some of Bart and Lisa's favourite hangouts such as the Kwik-E-Mart, Noiseland Arcade, Androids Dungeon and Jazzy Goodtimes, Lisa even states that there are a few buildings she should avoid like the plague such as Krusty Burger, Bart still contests that the school is a place to avoid, but Lisa tells her to ignore him. In Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle is still working hard on trying to open a portal, though she has made some progress, she's at least been able to open a portal that can carry a ponies across space within Equestria, the portals aren't open for long, so she has in effect at least made it easier for Rainbow Dash to travel from Canterlot to Ponyville, though there isn't any need for her to do so anymore since Twilight will simply open a portal for herself to do the deliveries instead, then when it's made, she'll use a second portal to go back to Canterlot. She would liked to have moved back to Ponyville and “commute” to Canterlot each morning, but the portal is only currently strong enough to carry one organic being, so Spike can't come along which would make keeping Princess Celestia in the know on what's going on in a timely manner. Sadly, keeping the Princess in the know was placed above keeping Scootaloo's own mother in the know, but she's kept up to date all the same. Marge suggested in a letter that if it'll take a long time, that Scootaloo should enroll into school just so that the local authorities, (which as she admits rather stupid, given the lack of attention to detail that Chief Wiggum has) wont catch on that there's a minor in the house not attending school. Twilight stated that it would take at least another month for a spell that can create portals that can carry more than one pony, let alone across dimensions at that. One of the first things the family sent to Equestria was a picture of Scootaloo's new form sitting on the couch with them. When Rainbow Dash showed it to Skylight she got a small chuckle out of it, especially how out-of-place the wings that Flanders had made her seem, but as long as her daughter was happy with them, so was she. Though the outfit she wore was mostly borrowed from Lisa, Scootaloo did ask for a patch to be added to the shorts, which happened to be of Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. A Blue-Yellow-Red stripped lightning bolt attached to a cloud, according to the letter that she wrote, she would've preferred to have her own mark as the patch, but naturally didn't have one, her second choice was the emblem of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, designed by Sweetie Belle for their capes, since it featured a pony, Marge and Lisa suggested that it would probably be a bad idea to use that patch, so trying to think of a different symbol to use, it was settled to use Rainbow Dash's cutie mark instead, Rainbow Dash is Scootaloo's idol after all. Rarity, Sweetie Belle's older sister and the fashion designer of Ponyville after seeing the photo of Scootaloo's new look wanted to get her measurements so that she could make her a new outfit of her own instead of simply borrowing clothes from the Simpsons, but it took some convincing from both Twilight and Rainbow Dash to not do that. Pony fashion is obviously vastly different from Human fashion and that it would be hard for Rarity to scale back her work enough to blend in with Springfieldian culture a notion that even Rarity herself though begrudgingly admitted, much to Twilight and Rainbow Dash's relief. Besides, Sweetie Belle has to remind her that she has other clients lined up. Princess Celestia did allow Skylight to keep the photograph, but since the ordeal is top-secret Equestria-side, and even more-so Springfield-side, that the Princess had to ask the pegasus mother-of-one to not put on display in her house, but offered allow it to be kept in a photo album or scrapbook, as much as anypony with treasured memories such as their child's birth, first step, first word, first wing-flap among others, Skylight knew that very few would be interested in looking at them outside of immediate family, which outside of Scootaloo she didn't have much of, Scootaloo's father walked out years ago when Scootaloo was a mere baby. In Springfield, Marge was sitting in the Principals office of Springfield Elementary, next to her was Scootaloo, and behind her was Lisa, in front of her behind the desk was the Principal of the school, Principal Seymour Skinner. Principal Skinner was well known to Marge, for two different reasons. For Bart, it was for his delinquency, and his poor grades, while for Lisa it was the exact opposite, Lisa's widely known amongst the faculty for her smarts, though there have been times when even Lisa has been known for her own trouble making such as a time when she rebelled against a future career in homemaking result, and stole every teachers edition book in the school, which Bart took the rap for to save her from ruining her life, there was also a time when she was student body president and staged a strike to bring back music, gym and art the teachers attempted to get rid of her by transferring her to a different school, but they were thwarted by Homer. “So, Marge, what brings you to my office. Bart's not done any pranking this week. Which has to be a new school record.” Principal Skinner says as he clasps his hands together. “Actually, I'm here to enroll a new student into Lisa's class” says Marge. “Oh? And who might that be Marge. I'm sure you know that this isn't a pre-school, we can't exactly enroll Maggie here.” Skinner laughs. “No. Not Maggie. My uh- niece from Manhattan is staying in Springfield for a few months. She's been living on a farm since she was a baby, but wants to get a feel for urban life, so she's been staying with us for the past few weeks.” says Marge. “Okay Marge, I think we can handle that. Though there aren't any farms in Manhattan...” Skinner says as he gets out some paperwork. “Well, I was born in Manehattan but then my mom and I moved to the farm” says Scootaloo. Principal Skinner raised an eyebrow to the accidental quip that Scootaloo made as he hands Marge the paperwork. “...'Manehattan'?” “You see, uh, 'Harmony' got a little too used to growing up on the farm, so she tends to speak with a lot of horse puns as a force of habit” states Lisa looking at Scootaloo who was nervous yet thankful to Lisa for the save. She's been trying all week to break the habit of saying things such as “everybody” instead of “everypony” but it's hard for her, she's too used to the Equestrian terms, but she's trying. “Oh. Okay then. Just as long as the paperwork is filled out, then everything is good.” On the form, one field that needed to be entered was Scootaloo's date of birth, Marge knew that such a question was going to come up since practically everything needs a date of birth, not knowing the time progression for Equestria, Marge had to ask Scootaloo before arriving, which turned out into her favour that Springfield and Equestria run on a 1:1 time difference, so strangely enough the date of birth that Marge was able to put down was actually accurate, the only difference being that the year had to be changed to signify 2004 which is the Springfieldian year she would've been born in rather than the Equestrian counterpart instead of 992-ANM (1) Once the form was filled out, and everything was signed off by Marge and Principal Skinner she was officially enrolled into the same class as Lisa, the second grade which is taught by Miss. Elizabeth Hoover. “Alright then. Everything is set. Harmony, you can follow me and we'll introduce you to your class. Lisa why don't you help me out.” says Skinner. “Sure, Principal Skinner.” replies Lisa. “I'll see you kids later then” Marge replies as she leaves the school and heads home to Evergreen Terrace. The two kids walked down to the second grade classroom, a familiar sight for Lisa, where her teacher was already given some poorly thought out lesson plan that she didn't really care about. Principal Skinner walks in, with the two kids in tow, Miss. Hoover automatically turns around to notice who has just entered the room. “Lisa, we thought you were absent.” says Miss Hoover. “She was with me, Elizabeth. She's not tardy.” says Skinner. Miss. Hoover shrugs with an “eh” murmured. “Class, I have a new student for you today.” Skinner says turning to the class. “Just keep rolling them in Seymour” says Miss Hoover sarcastically. “We'll talk about that later Elizabeth.” says Seymour under his breath, turning to the class “Now it's not easy to come to a new school, so lets give a big Springfield Elementary hello, to Harmony.” “Uh... hi...” says Scootaloo, with a nervous wave to the class. “Yes... well... Goodbye!” Skinner says making a hasty retreat out of the room. “I'm sure this is a nervous time for you Harmony,” says Miss. Hoover, she gives Scootaloo a chance to reply with “uh-huh” before continuing, “So why don't you stand up in front of the class and introduce yourself.” “Well.. there's not much to say really. I came to Springfield to get a new feel for city life after living on a farm for a few years, before that, me and my mom lived in Manehattan, but I don't remember living there too well...” she hated to have to make an excuse on where she lived and why she was in here, but it helped her to keep her cover in Springfield, she knew that she couldn't say that she was a talking pony-with-wings from another dimension she thought that she might have lucked out in getting the Simpsons to believe her let alone an entire classroom of second graders. The class just stared at her. Before anyone could say anything, Lisa spoke up, with the same thing that she had told Principal Skinner. “Y'see, Harmony has lived on the farm for so long that she's gotten into a weird habit of inserting horse puns into her speech, so when she says 'Manehattan' she actually means 'Manhattan'.” “Uh... yeah. While I'm in Springfield, I'm staying with Lisa... she's kinda uh... my cousin.” Scootloo continues. It felt weird to say that Lisa was her cousin, and being from Manhattan, it parallels exactly with the relationship that Apple Bloom has with her cousin, Babs Seed, everything is an exact match, with the lack of an 'e', and that Scootaloo has to use an alias. “Hmm... okay. Why don't you find a seat, Harmony.” says Miss. Hoover interrupting Scootaloo's small introduction. “O-Okay.” she replies. Lisa quickly takes to her own desk, which is in the front row, next to it, is an empty seat, which Scootaloo takes to, Miss Hoover hands her a notebook that has blank sheets of paper for her to write stuff onto. She opens the desk to find an array of pencils and pens to write with. “And now, back onto the lesson of Springfield History.” says Miss Hoover. “Sweet, history.” Scootaloo thought. Despite her attitude towards school in Ponyville, she had a keen interest in history, she wasn't really sure why, but there was always something about learning about the past interested her, though she had an image to maintain in Equestria so she never went to Twilight to check out books, or simply ask the unicorn about the events herself. Here, things would be tougher because while all the events of the past in Springfield were mostly common knowledge to someone like Lisa, to Scootaloo it was all new, she didn't know anything about Springfield's History. Going to school in Springfield was going to be a tough ride. > Chapter Eleven: Scootastic History Tour > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Eleven Scootastic History Tour In Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle is taking a short break from her reading, against Princess Celestia's wishes, she's still pulling all nighters and is sending herself into period of insanity since Hearth's Warming is in three months, she knows that Skylight would want her daughter back before then, even though she's not truly alone anymore, Rainbow Dash has been hanging out with her, and the two have formed a nice friendship, all six mares have agreed to spend their Hearth's Warming feast together in the Ponyville Library and have invited Skylight and Scootaloo into the mix. So Twilight's imposing a self-set deadline on when to discover the spell that will enable her to go to Springfield. By afternoon, she's taken a small power nap, but Spike, who she's also inadvertently been working to death is still sleeping like a log. Just as a new letter from Springfield arrives. Upon opening the letter, Twilight takes a quick skim through the contents of the letter. Discovering that it's worthy of being read to the Princess and her friends. “Ooh. This is about Springfield History. I'll bet that everypony will want to hear about this.” Later in the evening, a group had gathered in the main meeting room of Canterlot Castle, gathered was most of the ponies who were clued in to the situation with Scootaloo, the roll featured, both Princesses, one white, one navy blue, all six elements of harmony comprised of Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy – longtime friend of Rainbow Dash and caretaker of the animals in Ponyville, and Pinkie Pie – Sugar Factory and Party Extraordinaire, also invited was the mother of the stranded pony in question, Skylight. “So, my faithful student, what is it that you called us here to hear?” asks the solar princess. “I got a letter from Scootaloo this morning.” says Twilight. “Oh. I hope she's doing alright” replies Fluttershy. “She's doing well actually. But today she sent me something that I think is worth us all knowing.” “And what would that be Twilight Sparkle.” says the Lunar Princess. “The history of Springfield. Scootaloo's been living there for two weeks now, and we still don't know anything about the town. I've only skimmed this letter so far, so all the details will be a surprise to me too.” “Very well Twilight, any information about Springfield will be useful.” Says Princess Celestia. “Continue” Twilight clears her throat as she beings to read. Dear Mom, Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia I'm sure Marge has told you that I've started school today at Springfield Elementary with Bart and Lisa. The school is okay, larger than the schoolhouse in Ponyville that's for sure, though a bit run-down, classes are bigger in Springfield, instead of only twelve foals, there's about 30 kids in each class here. I'm sharing the same class as Lisa so at least I know a familiar face in the room, there's this one kid who seems on the dim side, always eating paste and making obvious remarks about his cat, saying that it's breath always smells of cat food or it's name happens to be “Mittens.” I'm writing to let you know on what I learned. Princess, this is not a friendship report, I don't know if you'd want me to send one, but it's probably a little too soon for that anyway. I'm sure that this'll shock you, but I've always had a strange interest in History, I can't really explain why. Something about the past fascinates me. “She's always had an interest in History? I wonder why she never asked me about checking out some history books from the library. Skylight, did you always know about this?” comments Twilight, turning to Skylight. “Indeed. I did know. History was the only subject in school that she never needed help with.” Skylight notes. “As for not asking you for books, I'd say that's because of her self-perceived reputation. She thinks checking out books would make her look like an 'egghead' so she says.” Twilight sends a glare at Rainbow Dash. “What are you looking at me for?” says Rainbow Dash, “I never said that to her.” “Maybe not, you did believe the same thing yourself.” says Rarity. Princess Celestia laughs. “Seems that Scootaloo is more like you than you thought Rainbow Dash!” she comments. “Twilight, please continue” “Right.” From what I got out of the lesson in class, Springfield was founded by a person called “Jebadiah Springfield” in a secret uncovered by Lisa, his name was actually “Hans Sprungfeld” who was a murderous pirate and an enemy of “George Washington” the first President of this country, “America” that I'm currently living in. Lisa tells me that she once researched into Jebadiah Springfield for a history project of her own, exposing him as Hans Sprungfeld, exposing him as a fraud, but was given an F for it and called a “PC Thug”. She also tells me that Bart once sawed off the head of Jebadiah from the statue that's in the center of town, and the entire town was angry at him because of it. Lisa was going to expose the truth behind Jebadiah but decided not to, as she thought that the myth despite it being a sham was something worth preserving and meant a lot to a lot of people in the town. “That sounds like what Twilight did with the myth of the Mare in the Moon.” blurts Pinkie Pie. “She proved those myths true.” An orange hoof is forced across Pinkie's mouth to stop her talking as Applejack looks over to Princess Luna who is looking more down than usual. “Ignore her your highness, Pinkie simply doesn't know when she needs to keep quiet sometimes!” “'Tis fine Applejack. 'Tis understandable.” Apparently the town was founded when Jebadiah Springfield and a friend Shelbyville Manhattan were traveling to found a new town, Jebadiah wanted to found the town based on chastity while Shelbyville wanted to found the town so that the citizens could marry their cousins, Lisa tells me simply because “they're so attractive.” I don't really see that as much of an excuse myself, this has resulting a long standing rivalry between Springfield and the Neighbouring town, Shelbyville. One of the other things I learned was that the town has a motto, the motto is “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.” I sort of get the idea, but I have never heard of the word “embiggen” until I came to Springfield, when I asked Miss. Hoover about it, Lisa's teacher (by the way Miss. Hoover shows no real interest in teaching unlike Miss. Cheerilee) she said that it was a perfectly “cromulent” word. Which I don't get either. Lisa told me that “Cromulent” meant something that was acceptable, but could never give me a clear meaning on “embiggen.” “Oh great, even the Springfieldians make up words!” grunts Rainbow Dash with a facehoof, “though at least these words sound like words, unlike those Pinkie makes!” “What are you talking about Rainbow Dash, my words are very cromulent!” blurts Pinkie Pie. “Uh... moving on...” says Twilight. Springfield has had many traditions, most are vastly different from Equestria's, Winter Wrap-up is non-existent here, the weather just does what it wants, there's nobody who controls it, I must admit that takes some getting used to. Hearts and Hooves Day, Hearths Warming Eve and Nightmare Night all exist here, but go under different names. There are some traditions they have that we don't, such as “Whacking Day”, it's been abolished given the pointless nature of it, but it was the hunting and killing of as many snakes in town as possible, mostly with wooden clubs. “WHAT?” yells Fluttershy, out of character for her actually, “h-how could they do that! Beating the poor defenseless snakes like that” “There's more Fluttershy,” Twilight says, quickly skimming ahead “Ooh, you'll like this bit” The tradition started again, with Jebadiah Springfield where he killed the first snake in 1775, but Bart exposed that as a sham too. The tradition actually had nothing to do with Jebadiah, instead it was established in 1922 as an excuse to beat up the Irish, (the Irish being the people who come from a country called Ireland). The tradition was abolished after Bart and Lisa banded together to try and save the snakes, and pointed out that they had no right to turn on the snakes after all they had done for them. “See Fluttershy,” says Twilight, “Bart and Lisa were able to fix things” “Thank Goodness!” she replies. Anyway, I'm telling you this because I don't doubt that you would all be interested in knowing a little more about Springfield and the kind of place it is. Scootaloo “So, um... what do we do now?” asks Twilight. “We're not going to do anything.” says Princess Celestia. “We're not?” says Skylight. “No. We still don't know too many details about Springfield and the world it's in. The Simpsons have proven themselves to be trustworthy. But we don't have enough information about the world beyond the towns borders.” “Then why don't we ask Scootaloo for more information, or we could ask the Simpsons themselves?” says Twilight. “Yes. Surely they would answer any questions we have” says Rarity. “That would be true, they might.” says the Princess, but turns to Twilight with a sly look, “if we did that, I wouldn't want Twilight to postpone her studies for a cross-dimension portal for learning about Springfield. Hehe.” Twilight turns her head away from her mentor, inside she knows that's totally what she would do. “Don't be discouraged Twilight,” the Princess says “I'm sure Scootaloo will write to us anyway. Why don't you take a break from everything here, spend a couple of days in Ponyville and get some rest, spend some time with your friends. I think you've earned it” “Yeah! We can totally have a 'Welcome Twilight back to Ponyville for a little while' party!” says Pinkie Pie, jumping up and down. “Uh, sugarcube, she's taking a break, a party isn't going to help.” says Applejack. “Actually. I'd like a Pinkie Party.” Says Twilight. “Say what?” says Rainbow Dash surprised that it was Twilight that said that. “Are you feeling alright Twahlight?” comments Applejack, thinking the same thing. “ALRIGHT!” jumps Pinkie Pie, “I knew you'd see it my way!” “Heheh. I think we can call this meeting adjourned.” says Princess Celestia. Everypony but Twilight bows to their princesses and then turns to walk out the door. “Don't get me wrong, I don't want a big one. Just us in the library. Kind of like a Slumber Party” Twilight comments as they walk and talk, “This'll have to be better than the last one. Right Applejack, Rarity?” “Of course, darling,” says Rarity, “Slumber Parties are much more fun with all your friends.” “I reckon so.” says Applejack. “It'll make a nice treat for Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as well, they can have a slumber party of their own at Sweet Apple Acres. What'd you say Rarity?” “That sounds like a lovely idea,” comments the white unicorn. Twilight turns to Skylight who is walking shyly alongside them, feeling a bit out of place amongst the six friends. “Why don't you join us Skylight?” asks Twilight. “Huh-” Skylight notices that she's being addressed. “Heh, oh no thank you Twilight. I'm a little old for slumber parties. I'd be out of place.” she says. “Nonsense!” exclaims Pinkie Pie appearing from... somewhere. “You're never too old for a slumber party!” Twilight felt like keeping the trip a traditional one rather than making a bunch of portals, so instead they took the train from Canterlot back to Ponyville. At least it gave Pinkie Pie plenty of time to work out a list of activities for the slumber party on the train. > Chapter Twelve: Pony From Another Series > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Twelve Pony From Another Series Taking Princess Celestia's advice, Twilight took the weekend off from searching how to expand the functionality of the portals she's been creating to travel between Ponyville and Canterlot, and instead spent the time relaxing. She spent some time helping out Applejack at the farm since Apple Bucking season is approaching, as well as helping Pinkie Pie with orders at Sugarcube Corner and Fluttershy at her cottage tending to the woodland critters. She did still feel guilty about taking the break regardless, when there was a filly in another dimension to retrieve, as soon as she could when she arrived home in Ponyville, she wrote a letter to Scootaloo at 742 to say that she would need to remain in Springfield a few days longer. Scootaloo replied with a response to not worry about it, she's gotten used to the fact that this is for the long haul. Arriving back in Canterlot after the weekend of rest and relaxation, Twilight immediately got to work again on advancing her portal spell. Amazingly by that evening, she eventually found something that might would enable portals to travel for three. “This has to be it!” shouts Twilight to nopony in particular. “Huh? What'd you say Twilight?” Spike asks. “I think I just found a spell that can temporarily boost the power of another spell for a short time!” “So you think that would allow you to be able to send more than one pony at a time?” he asks. “Yeah. But this will need to be tested before I expand it to try and reach Springfield.” Just then Rainbow Dash flies through the window. “Hey, Twilight, what's up?” she greets. “Huh?!” turning around “Oh hey Rainbow, what are you doing here?” “Just stopping by to see what's up.” “Oh, well. Things are going great actually. Speaking of which, if you're up for it, I could use your help.” “Sure, Twilight, what do you need?” Rainbow questions. “Well, I think I've got a spell that'll be able to boost the power given to the next spell I cast.” says Twilight. “What does that mean?” “It means that if I cast the booster spell followed by a portal spell, I'll be able to send more than one pony to Springfield before it closes.” says Twilight with a hint of excitement in her voice. “That's great, but why do you need my help?” says Rainbow Dash. “I've not had the chance to test it yet. I was wondering if you'd be one of my test subjects in a portal that would travel simply across the room.” “Sounds like a plan. I'm game.” says Rainbow Dash. “Okay, stand back” Rainbow Dash and Spike step away from Twilight who starts to flare up her horn with a magenta coloured aura from there, she shoots out a blue orb at the wall. “We should hurry, I don't know how this portal works. It could be limited by time, or organic entities.” “Right!” Rainbow Dash says taking to the air flapping her wings. She, Twilight and Spike hold their breaths as they walk into the portal a few seconds later, another portal opens in the room on top of Twilight's bed. With all three walking out, just fine. “ALRIGHT! That worked” exclaims Spike. “Good work Twilight.” says Rainbow Dash. “A little inaccurate for my tastes,” Twilight replies jumping off the bed “but it will do, as long as we can get back to Equestria that's all that matters.” “Right.” replies Rainbow Dash. "Now, just to work on extending it's range..." Elsewhere across the Cosmos in Springfield, the Simpsons plus Scootaloo are sitting in the Den watching TV, this time it was Bart's turn to decide what to watch on TV, and with Bart being Bart, he wanted to watch Krusty the Clown. "Live, from Springfield Penitentiary's Fabulous Big Open Area in Cell Block D. It's the Krusty the Clown Second Prison Special" an announcer on the TV states as a Krusty the Clown logo appears on screen. Krusty the Clown walks on stage and starts to sing a theme song. I slugged some jerk in Tahoe They gave me one to three My high-priced lawyer sprung me on a technicality I'm just visiting Springfield Prison I get to sleep at home tonight! "Hey hey, I kid. I kid because I love!" Krusty says after hearing the grumbles of the prisoners. "Hey!" a prisoner shouts, "you already performed that song on your last prison special" "You try coming up with new prison related material!" Krusty snaps back. "That's not our job, you're the clown, you come up with the material." another prisoner returns. The Warden watching this felt like he needed to step in. "Krusty, as much as I hate to say it, the prisoners are right. You're a clown, a famous one at that, I was a fan of your work when I was a kid, but I think you should've been more prepared for a show tonight, no one likes to see a hack." the Warden says. "HACK?! I'll show you who's a hack!" Krusty yells. "No. I'm sorry Krusty, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave, before I get a riot on my hands because of your unprofessional attitude to your work" "B-But what about my show?" Krusty shouts. "This thing is live y'know!" "Maybe so. But I'm not going to let these prisoners even consider a riot because of you. So please leave." says the Warden. "a guard will escort you out." "Bah. What do you know. I'm outta here. Just show Itchy and Scratchy cartoons for the rest of the time slot or something, I don't care!" Krusty says leaving in a huff. In the Simpsons's Den, the Simpsons plus Scootaloo were surprised by what they just saw. Bart had his face in his palm. "That's Krusty?" Scootaloo asks, to which Lisa gives her a "uh-huh" response, "Geez. He sucks. Even the Supposed "Great and Powerful" Trixie could put on a better show than him, and the only thing she could do on her own was a firework display." "No way! Krusty's just having a bad day, that's all" Bart claims. Lisa just rolls her eyes. "Sure. Whatever you say Bart" she says sarcastically. Outside the prison, Krusty is walking away from the complex with an evil grin on his face, below a thunderous sky. "Hahahahahahahah!" he laughs maniacally. > Chapter Thirteen: Wild Ponies Can't Be Broken > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Thirteen Wild Ponies Can't Be Broken Sadly, the booster spell was the only breakthrough Twilight got for several months, enough that it was already December, and everypony was preparing for Hearth's Warming Eve. She had missed her own personal deadline of getting Scootaloo back to Equestria by the Sisterhooves Social, but Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash agreed to have a separate traditional race this year for Scootaloo, and push the next Social ahead a few months to compensate. Even though Twilight was already pulling all nighters, because of Hearth's Warming, she's trying her best to pull double time regardless and has narrowed her spell searching to Dimensional space/time spells checking out pretty much all the books that were available in the Canterlot Libraries and is on the verge of running out of books. "Aggghhh!" she exclaims. "None of these books have anything I can use!" "You just have to keep searching Twilight," says Rainbow Dash who is with her keeping her company, or as Dash would put it, 'keeping her sane.' "But this is the third to last book and..." Twilight says before stopping... "and what?" "THIS IS IT!" She exclaims with a giddy tone in her voice. "What's it?" "How to get to Springfield!" she says jumping around in circles. "You found it?" Dash says jumping onto her hooves. "Sweet! Lets get going then!" "Not yet Rainbow, we still need to prepare..." Twilight says before falling to the floor. "Twilight...?" Rainbow Dash says quickly picking Twilight up..."What's wrong with... oh." she notices that Twilight is out cold asleep. "...I'll go tell Princess Celestia myself instead." Elsewhere across the multiverse, it's Lunchtime at Springfield Elementary. In the schoolyard, Scootaloo spends much of her time by herself, not really wanting to interact with anyone else, not even Bart or Lisa since they have friends of their own and the fact that Scootaloo wont be around for long. She spends the time reflecting on her situation and trying to emulate Rainbow Dash from what she's seen so she uses the lunch period to catch a quick nap under a tree, or when she's challenged by Bart in a foot race. Amazingly despite losing her wings, she has managed to keep some of her speed and can actually take Bart on. Today however, she was instead approached by Lisa. “Hey, Scootaloo?” “Hey Lisa, what's up?” “I was wondering if you'd be interested in hanging out with my friends, instead of being here all by yourself.” “Hmm.. alright.” Scootaloo replies, getting up and dusting herself off. Scootaloo follows Lisa to join a group of girls who were sitting at a table with their lunch boxes out eating various sandwiches, fruits or bags of potato chips of differing flavours. Lisa's friends comprised of Janey, a black-skinned girl with black hair, Allison Taylor, a smart 7 year-old girl who was pushed ahead a grade, and Sherri and Terri, identical twins with shared purple hair and pale skin. One of the twins, Sherri leans to the other whispering "Eew. It's the girl with the stupid fake wings." the response the other gives is of laughter. Lisa and Scootaloo finally approach, "Hey guys, mind if my cousin, Harmony joins us." "Eww... why would we want that horse lover to join us?" says the other twin, Terri. "...What?" says Scootaloo. "We've all heard about your silly shtick you have of talking with horse puns." says Sherri. "..I-I don't know..." stutters Scootaloo. "Don't give us that!" shouts Terri. "And what about those silly wings. Whoever gave you those wings is a moron" laughs Sherri Lisa turned to Scootaloo to notice that she had a look of intense anger. "S-Scootaloo...?" Lisa says quietly, hopefully enough so that Scootaloo could hear her, but not everyone else. "You'll pay for saying that!" Scootaloo shouts before grabbing Sherri by the collar. "What the?!" Sherri exclaims in complete surprise. Scootaloo throws Sherri to the ground then starts to repeatedly pound in face Sherri several times while she was defenseless. From across the school yard the voice of a boy known as Nelson yells "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" as within seconds a huge crowd has grown around the feuding children, with Scootaloo clearly dominating the fight. Fortunately for Sherri, Principal Skinner was just as quick to respond to the fight, and breaks Scootaloo away from her victim. "Alright, alright break it up! Harmony, my office now." Still with her anger on her face, Scootaloo goes into the school, headed for Principal Skinner's office in a huff. "Allison, Janey, you take Sherri to the Nurse." "Yes, Principal Skinner" they both reply in unison picking Sherri up, draping her arms around their shoulders, and heading into the school after Scootaloo. "Alright everyone, shows over" Skinner says walking back into the school himself. Scootaloo sat in the chair opposite Principal Skinner's desk with her harms folded with a disinterested look. "I'm going to cut right to the chase. Why did you attack Sherri." says Skinner. "She insulted me." "That's it?" Skinner says, clearly annoyed. "What else do you want?" Scootaloo responds. "There has to be more to it then that." "Tsk. Fine, it's not like I'll be around much longer anyway. But I want you to promise me something Principal Skinner." Scootaloo replies. "As an Educator I am bound by privacy laws, anything you say here is of the strictest of confidence." "Good. The truth is, she insulted my mother, and my pegasus heritage." Scootaloo says. Skinner raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" "I mean exactly what I said. My name is not Harmony, it's actually Scootaloo. I'm a pegasus pony from the Magical land of Equestria. I was sent here by accident when a magic spell a friend of mine casted misfired. I'm simply staying with Bart and Lisa while I wait for a friend of my friend's sister and student to the ruler, Princess Celestia to come and take me home." Skinner had his jaw dropped. Quickly recovering. "I've heard lots of stories to get out of detention, most of them from Bart, but that has to be the biggest load of lies that I've ever heard in all my years as principal." "But it's true!" Scootaloo shouts. "I know this young lady, after school you're going to stay behind in detention writing 'I WILL NOT ATTACK STUDENTS AND LIE' on Miss. Hoovers blackboard until it's full." says Skinner. "But--!" "No buts, now get back to class. Lunch break is over for you." says Skinner. "Hmph." Scootaloo huffs off. "I'll show you who's a liar." she grunts to herself. Crouching under the window of Principal Skinner's office was a tall man with an orange shirt and trousers and large bushy red hair, listening in. "Interesting, a pony from a magical land hmm... maybe I can use her in my plans for revenge...!" he says. > Chapter Fourteen: El Viaje Misterioso De Nuestro Scootaloo > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Fourteen El Viaje Misterioso De Nuestro Scootaloo (The Mysterious Voyage of our Scootaloo) The rest of the school day went excruciatingly boring for Scootaloo, all of Miss. Hoovers remaining lessons were mind numbingly dull or non-existent, for no apparent reason half an hour was dedicated for "magazine time" but Scootaloo just continued to stare out the window looking up to the skies imagining herself soaring through the clouds with Rainbow Dash. Eventually by three o'clock the entire class rolled out to go home, but Scootaloo stayed behind as instructed to write lines on the chalkboard. With the foul mood that she's been in since lunch time because of Sherri's insults to her heritage and Skinner's refusal to take what she said seriously, she decided that she didn't really care anymore. So instead of writing "I WILL NOT ATTACK STUDENTS AND LIE" she decided that she would much rather write "PRINCIPAL SKINNER CAN ROT IN TARTARUS" instead. Cursing under her breath while she did it, "Stupid Skinner, making me write lines, siding with stupid Sherri, I wish I was back in Equestria, the wind in my hair as I soar in the skies with Rainbow Dash." Meanwhile, in the fourth grade classroom, Bart was writing lines of his own, unlike Scootaloo who was cursing and raging about Skinner, Bart had gotten used to writing the lines, so much so, it sounded as if there was a cement mixer in the room as he wrote. After about an hour and a half, Bart was ready to leave, knowing that Scootaloo was still in the school having heard what punishment she had been given from Lisa, Bart agreed that he would meet up with her when they were both done. But when he reached the second grade classroom, Scootaloo wasn't there, instead a message was left behind on the chalkboard below Scootaloo's curses. I know you're reading this Bart If you want to see your pony friend again, come to the 7G12 Television Studio after dark with $100,000 for her safe return Bart's mind raced, Scootaloo had been kidnapped and is being held for ransom by someone who somehow knew the truth behind who Scootaloo really is, he also knew who had done it too, which wasn't a good thing, the 7G12 studio was the original recording studio for the Krusty the Clown show before he moved to Krustylu Studios, the place where he had exposed this criminal before for the first time in fact. Bart quickly darted out the door as fast as he could to get backup. Waking up after passing out on Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle finds herself lying in her bed located within her room at the Canterlot Library. There's a knock on the door, with a young-sounding southern voice. "Hey Twi, ya up yet?" Not waiting for a reply, the owner of the voice trots into the room. Still groggy, Twilight musters enough cohesion to acknowledge who the owner of the voice is. "Apple Bloom? What are you doing here?" asks Twilight. "Mah sis sent me to get ya." the filly cheers. "I meant, what are you doing in Canterlot?" she asks again. "Oh. Rainbow Dash told Princess Celestia about the spell ya found to go to Springfield. The Princess asked my sis, yer friends, Scootaloo's ma, Sweetie Belle and me for an important meetin' about it." Apple Bloom explains. "Oh! That's right, I was about to tell the Princess myself before I must have fallen asleep." "Rainbow Dash told us that you plum passed out on the floor." the filly laughs. "Moving on..." Twilight responds not wanting to drag that out any longer. "Where are we meeting the princess?" "In the throne room. Everypony is already there waitin', like ah said, Applejack sent me to come get yah." "Then lets go!" Twilight says. It didn't take long for Twilight and Apple Bloom to travel from Twilight's guest quarters to the Throne room, where, true to what Apple Bloom said, all of her friends, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Rarity are waiting, both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are in attendance, with the round off featuring Scootaloo's other filly friend and crusader, Sweetie Belle, and her mother, Skylight. "Welcome Twilight. I take you had a nice rest." the solar princess asks. "Yes princess." Twilight says. "Rainbow Dash has filled us all in on your advancements in finding a spell to travel to Springfield. Is this true?" the Princess asks. "Indeed it is Princess. Just this morning, I found a spell from one of my books that will allow dimensional travel, like the normal portal spells I've been using to travel between Ponyville and Canterlot delivering letters, it is limited to only one pony at a time. But, I have found a booster spell that can enhance the range or duration of the next spell I use, but in a test I did with Rainbow Dash, Spike and I, it lost some accuracy." "So, when you return to Equestria it could be anywhere..." Princess Celestia muses. "Exactly. The inaccuracy wasn't to significant though. In my test, I intended for us to appear next to my bed-side stand, but we instead come out on top of my bed." "Still. It would be wise to take precaution when you return, Twilight Sparkle." says Princess Luna. "I will, thank you for the advice Princess Luna." "You said that the original portal spell was limited to one pony darling," chimes in Rarity, "how many will be allowed with the booster spell?" "Judging from the test I did with Rainbow Dash and Spike, I would guess that only three ponies can cross dimensions at a time. Which means..." "...only two can make the first trip out." Says Skylight. "Yes Skylight. The decision now is to decide who of us goes to Springfield." Everypony looks around at each other for a brief moment. Applejack steps forward. "You've gotta go sugarcube, ye're only one who can bring whoever goes out there back." she says There was no denying that, Applejack was right, everything would've been made redundant if Twilight didn't go to Springfield to ensure the travel arrangements back home were successful. "But who else should go along with me...?" she asks. "I think there's only one pony who would fit the bill." says Skylight. "Yeah! It has to be the one pony who Scootaloo would totally want to see in the whole wide world!" Sweetie Belle jumps in excited. At her enthusiasm, everypony looks at Rainbow Dash. "Me? But..." stutters Rainbow Dash. Skylight steps forward to stand next to Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow Dash, it has to be you. Scootaloo may be my daughter, and I love her to bits, I always will, she knows that. She looks up to you, to her, you're as Bart would put it 'Bigger than Jesus', I think she'd be overjoyed that you came to Springfield to bring her home." Skylight says, trying to encourage Rainbow Dash. It worked. "Alright! I'll do it! For the squirt!" Rainbow Dash proclaims. "Yeah!" the two fillies in the room cheer. "Alright everypony, this it. By the end of today, Scootaloo will be back in Equestria." Twilight declares. Rainbow Dash moves out of her position with the other Elements of Harmony, to join Twilight at her side. With each of the ponies standing in a line, Twilight turns to each of them. "Stay safe Sugarcube" says Applejack. "Be careful in Springfield" includes Fluttershy "Have fun" cheers Pinkie Pie "Take are of yourselves darlings" says Rarity. "Don't expose yourself too much, be discrete." says Princess Luna. "If the Simpsons ask, they are welcome to come to Equestria for a short stay" says Princess Celestia. "Good luck" says Skylight. "Yeah!" cheers Sweetie Belle "Bring Scootaloo back safe fer us!" exclaims Apple Bloom "I will Apple Bloom, and thank you Everypony" Twilight says. Turning to Rainbow Dash, "You ready to go Rainbow Dash?" "Ready as I'll ever be Twilight." says the Rainbow maned mare. Twilight fires up her horn, which glows with a magenta aura, then she fires a green orb at the wall. "Then lets go. See you soon everypony!" Twilight says, as she and Rainbow Dash trot through the portal and to Springfield. > Chapter Fifteen: Lost Our Scootaloo > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Fifteen Lost Our Scootaloo The basement to the Simpsons's household was dark, so dark that quite often, Homer would try to turn the light on, and end up with nothing and falling flat on his face down the stairs which like always he did, grunting and cursing as he fell down, despite the darkness, a bright light of nothing shone out of nowhere, as a portal to someplace opened up in front of him, and two ponies walked out from it. Getting a brief look at them before the portal closed behind them, Homer could spot what they looked like, one of these ponies was purple coloured mare, with a mane of a darker purple shade with streaks of pink colours, with a horn sticking through it. The other was also a mare, cyan coloured with wings on her extending from her shoulder-blades and a mane and tail of rainbow colours. "Oh great. I'm hallucinating again" says Homer. Twilight fires up her horn to brighten the room up. She and Rainbow Dash look at each other. "...Homer?" Twilight queries. "Oh great, and they can somehow talk and know my name too!" he exclaims "Get away you figments of my imagination" he says. Rainbow Dash looks at Twilight "Is this guy for real?" she says. Just then, Lisa appears and comes down the stairs, "Dad, what are you yelling about...?" she queries, before stopping in her tracks, and looks at Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "OH MY GOSH, THERE ARE MORE PONIES IN OUR BASEMENT! AND ONE OF THEM IS A UNICORN!" she squeals running up to Twilight "Uh..." Twilight can only respond uneasy. "Wait, Lisa you can see the ponies too?" questions Homer "So, Daddy isn't going crazy?" "No dad, they're really here." Lisa says trying to contain herself. "You must be from Equestria, right?" "That's right." Says Twilight. "Well, why don't we talk properly upstairs in the living room. Scootaloo should be home from school pretty soon. I'd say that there's no need for introductions, I'm sure, we all know each other's names, right?" Lisa says walking to the stairs. "Okay, Thanks Lisa" says Twilight following behind with Rainbow Dash. "Though if you and Scootaloo are in the same class, how come you're here and she's not?" Twilight asks. "Oh. She got detention earlier for beating on someone." Lisa replies. "Really? We ponies never resort to violence, what caused such behaviour?" Twilight says, shocked. "Well, Sherri, the girl she beat, said that whoever gave Scootaloo her wings was a moron. Scootaloo took that extremely personally." Lisa replies. "I'll bet she did." comments Rainbow Dash. The trio are now in the Living Room where Maggie is sitting on the couch watching TV, with Marge in the Kitchen. Twilight turns to the baby sitting on the couch, who has noticed the new ponies in the room and jumps off waddling over to Rainbow Dash, then stretching her arms out. "Uhm... what's she doing?" Rainbow Dash asks. "Maggie wants to jump on your back. Scootaloo gave her plenty of pony-back rides before we used Princess Celestia's magic, so I think Maggie wants one from you, Rainbow Dash." Lisa answers. "But why me?" "You are the cooler pony between us Rainbow. Twenty Percent Cooler as it were." jokes Twilight in response. "Well, that's true, alright little one, you can jump on my back for a little while" Rainbow Dash says, lowering herself so that Maggie can climb on which she does, the pegasus mare stands back up, flaring her wings open so that they can act as a safety barrier for Maggie. "Aww... that's adorable Rainbow Dash." Twilight teases. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever..." Having completed whatever task she was doing in the kitchen, Marge walks into the living room, as at the same time, Homer finally recovers from his apparent episode in the basement. Just as Homer sets his butt on to the couch to watch TV while Lisa somehow talks to the ponies that appeared out of the darkness of the basement, Bart busts through the front door. "MOM! DAD! LISA! WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE!" he shouts. "I'm in the Living Room Bart!" Lisa responds. Bart instantly runs into the Living room to join Homer, Lisa, Maggie, Twilight and Rainbow Dash, though Bart totally ignored the two new ponies in the room. "Lis, we have a problem, Scoots has been kidnapped." Bart says. Rainbow Dash jumped, surprising Maggie who was still sitting on her back. "WHAT?!" she exclaims. It was Bart's turn to be surprised. Turning around to spot the two new ponies standing in the room in front of the TV. "Woah. I didn't see you there uh..." Bart stutters Realising that Bart hasn't figured out who they are Twilight speaks up. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is Rainbow Dash." "Yeah!" Rainbow Dash boasts. "Now what's this about Scootaloo being kidnapped?!" she shouts. "Please calm down Rainbow Dash. Give Bart some time to explain. Flying off the handle isn't going to help." says Lisa. "She's right, Rainbow. Bart hasn't told us a single detail about what happened." says Twilight. Rainbow Dash tries to compose herself, but despite her reputation, she really cared about Scootaloo. "Well. I don't know everything that happened like how she was kidnapped, but I do know two things. Who took her, and where." says Bart. "You do? How?" says Twilight. "Experience. Both Lisa and I have dealt with this guy before." says Bart. "Bart, you mean...?" Lisa asks. "Yes. It was Sideshow Bob." says Bart. "It seems he's gone nostalgia on us too, he's taken Scootaloo to the 7G12 Television Studio." "What? But that's where you caught him the first time." says Lisa. "Um... can you fill us in here, who's this Sideshow Bob?" asks Rainbow Dash. "Oh right. Sideshow Bob was Krusty the Clown's former sideshow on his television show for many years. Until one night he decided to frame Krusty for a robbery at a local convenience store called the Kwik-E-Mart. Thanks to an eyewitness account by our own father," Lisa says turning towards him "Krusty was declared guilty, and sentenced to jail. All Krusty merchandise was destroyed and Sideshow Bob took over the show. Bart was the only person to believe that Krusty was innocent, and asked for my help in finding clues. Live on his show Bart found the final piece of evidence that pointed to Sideshow Bob as the culprit of the robbery. As a result, over the years, Sideshow Bob has tried several revenge attempts against Bart, but all of them have failed." Lisa explains. "But if he was jailed, how does he keep getting out." asks Twilight. "Oh the police force here sucks!" says Bart. "Whatever. So, now he's using Scootaloo to get back at Bart. We have to save her!" states Rainbow Dash. "Right. Lisa, this is your department." says Bart. "As always," says Lisa. "It's too early to go now." "WHAT! We have to go get her now!" shouts Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow, take it easy. Bart and Lisa have dealt with this guy before. I'm she knows what's she's saying." replies Twilight. "But--" Lisa ignores Rainbow Dash's protests to continue with her plan. "As I was saying, it may be dark, but there are still people outside, so we can't let you two be seen. So, later tonight we'll go to the 7G12 Studio in the shadows of darkness, sneak in, and find Scootaloo. Bart and Twilight can distract Sideshow Bob, while Rainbow Dash and I focus on freeing Scootaloo." "Alright, that sounds like a plan" says Rainbow Dash. "...so what do we do until mission time?" "Sit around and watch TV, I suppose. But Bart, how did you know where Bob had taken Scootaloo?" asks Lisa. "Simple. He left a message for me on the chalkboard Scootaloo was writing her lines on." says Bart. "Really? He must be running out of creative ideas to trap us..." responds Lisa... > Chapter Sixteen: So It's Come Down to this: A Clip Show Chapter > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Sixteen So It's Come Down to this: A Clip Show Chapter The hours drew slowly for everyone. In Springfield, Rainbow Dash spent her time with Bart finding him to be less of an "egghead" as she would put it, Bart mostly played on his Eggbox 180 while Rainbow Dash simply sat on her haunches and watched him, she couldn't play because she didn't possess opposable thumbs. Twilight Sparkle decided to spend her time with Lisa, learning about human culture, enough that she could compete with Lyra in a test of human trivia. Lisa showed Twilight her bedroom and played a few Jazz solos featuring some of her favourites such as "Jazzman", "Baker Street", and "Take Five" on her saxophone much to Homer's annoyance. Twilight looks around the room and finds an album that's all by itself titled "Sax on the Beach." "Who's Bleeding Gums Murphy?" Twilight asks. "You could say that he's something of an old mentor of mine" replies Lisa. "Old mentor? You mean he's not anymore?" Twilight says. "You could say that." Lisa says. "Oh, what happened to him?" "He died. I was never told why." Lisa says mournfully. "Oh, I'm sorry." Says Twilight.. "It's okay. I'm over this passing, he's never truly gone as long as I have his memory in my heart." says Lisa. "And I do still have the recordings I made with him on my computer." "You do? Can I listen to them?" "Sure." Lisa sits at her Mapple computer, and searches through her music, double clicking on a song called "Second Grade Blues" a media player called MyTunes opens, and music starts to play. A gruff male voice, assumed to be Bleeding Gums, starts the first verse with a sax riff between each line supplied by Lisa. Oh I'm so lonely Since my baby left me I've got no money and nothing is free Oh I've been so lonely Since the day I was born All I've got is this rusty, This rusty old horn After a short riff where two saxophones merge, Lisa takes over the vocals, again with a sax riff, this time, supplied by Bleeding Gums himself. I've got a bratty brother He bugs me every day And this morning my own mother gave my last cupcake away My dad acts like he belongs He belongs in the zoo I'm the saddest kid in grade number two "That's an interesting song, do you really think that Homer belongs in a zoo?" Twilight asks Lisa laughs. "Maybe sometimes. But he means well." "And I'm surprised that you don't think too highly of Bart. My brother, Shining Armour and I were inseparable growing up, I don't want to think of life without my BBBFF" says Twilight, Lisa looks at her with a strange look, Twilight felt a small case of déjà vu remembering the time she first used the acronym with her friends, "It means Big Brother Best Friend Forever" "Oh. I thought you added two extra B's as a typo or something" responds Lisa remembering a certain Barbeque invite that Homer had written which stated that an extra B was for BYOBB which also had an extra B which Homer proclaimed as a typo. "Anyway, Bart and I do get along sometimes, I mean, we fight along in classic cases of sibling rivalry, but deep down, I know he cares about me, he once went far enough to pretty much save my future." "Oh really, how did that happen?" asks Twilight curious, already knowing that she would be in for a story, she takes a seat next to Lisa's bed. "Well, the whole school had to take an aptitude test to determine what our careers would be. I was hoping for something creative, mostly to do with Jazz. But, instead, all I got was homemaker, while Bart got Police Officer, I was pretty upset, and abandoned everything, the school band in particular, and started to hang with some older girls. I became a rebel, vandalising the school, and taking up smoking. Promise you won't tell anyone about that part, I'd never hear the end of it if anyone found out, especially from my mom." pleads Lisa. "Uh... I don't know what you're referring to. But okay. I promise not to tell anyone. Cross my heart hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Lisa just stares blankly at her. "Twilight, did you just make a Pinkie Promise?" Rainbow Dash's voice says, through the wall. "Huh, Rainbow, you were listening?" asks Twilight. "Yeah, somehow I can hear you through the wall." Rainbow Dash says. Twilight looks at Lisa, curiously. "Oh, the walls in this house are paper thin for some reason." she replies. A yellow hand punches through the wall, retracting it in, his eye can be seen through the wall. "Hey" Bart says. "If you two were listening then you may as well join us for this story." Twilight says. "Nah, we can just do it like this, we can hear you loud and clear. Though, you know what'll happen if Pinkie finds out you tell anypony" says Rainbow Dash. "Yes, Rainbow, I know." Replies Twilight. Both Bart and Lisa get that it's probably something sacred about Equestria and decide not to pry by asking them questions. "Bart why don't you tell them where you were at while I was running amok through the school." says Lisa. "Well.. I don't like to admit it, but I was serving as the Hall Monitor for the school after going for a ride in a Police car, and assisting them in a car chase and an arrest. They even gave me a gun!" he exclaims. Lisa continues the story. "So we, effectually switched places. Though, I went further than Bart ever did or has. While in detention, to prove a point to the entire school, I stole all the Teachers Edition textbooks and stowed them away in my locker. Simultaneously, in a search for them..." Lisa pauses with something caught in her throat. Bart catches on to Lisa's pause and continues the story for her. "...Principal Skinner and I were conducting a search of every locker in the school. Which was when I found that my own sister had stolen them all, Lisa told me that she was rebelling against her chosen career as a homemaker, she also said that I enjoyed the freedom of rebellion, which is true, but I still have my limits, we didn't have time to come up with a plan to help save Lisa from expulsion. So instead, I simply took the rap for the incident." "Really?" says Twilight turning to Lisa. "Yeah. It was one of the sweetest things he ever did for me." says Lisa. "Heh. Don't get mushy on me Lis." jokes Bart. "I was given six hundred days detention as punishment, because of my recent services as a Hall Monitor." says Bart "I decided to stay behind with Bart everyday playing my sax outside to keep him company as my way of saying 'Thank You'" continues Lisa. "No big. Most of them were simply writing lines on the chalkboard. I think Skinner doesn't have any other ways of punishing people. He even made Scootaloo write lines. Heh. You'll like this Lis, Scoot totally went against what she was told. Skinner told her to write 'I WILL NOT ATTACK STUDENTS AND LIE' instead, she wrote 'PRINCIPAL SKINNER CAN ROT IN TARTRUS'" Bart laughs. "Wow. That's quite a statement." says Twilight. Rainbow Dash has quite a different response. "Ahh. The squirt!" shouts Rainbow Dash. "Oh that's right! I get so caught up in my studies that I lose track of time!" replies Twilight equally as loud. Lisa checks the time on her computer, indicating the time as 10:53PM. "Eleven PM. It's late enough for us to go to the 7G12 Studio now. Bart you ready?" asks Lisa. "You bet, Lis!" Bart responds, "meet you downstairs." "Oh yeah! Lets do this!" Replies Rainbow Dash. > Chapter Seventeen: Day of the Equines > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Seventeen Day of the Equines Bart quickly shut his game down and turned the TV off before grabbing his trusty slingshot just incase and headed out the door with Rainbow Dash in tow. In the next room, Lisa also shut down her computer, and then headed out with Twilight also in tow. The two kids met with the two mares at the front door to the house, with Bart opening up and taking the lead of the group. "So how are we going to get to the studio?" asks Twilight. "Uh... I haven't thought that far ahead. Lisa and I can just take our bikes but..." says Bart "...and I have these babies!" Rainbow Dash says as she flairs her wings out. "Not everypony can go rolling around at the speed of sound, Rainbow" comments Twilight. "Says the pony who can instantly transmit herself anywhere she so pleases" retorts Rainbow Dash. "Hey, I got an idea!" says Bart "Follow me" Bart guides Lisa, as well as the two ponies to the garage where two cars sit, as well as another vehicle covered with a sheet. "This, is how we'll get downtown." Bart says. He yanks the sheet off the vehicle, it's a white rocket shaped car with three wheels and two seats, and a steering wheel. Blazoned across the sides was lettering titled "HONOR ROLLER," it was the soapbox racer that he raced against Nelson in for a friend, Martin Prince. "Bart, that's Martin's soapbox racer, how can that get you downtown?" asks Lisa. "Well, after the final race, Martin had it fitted with a moped engine. This is about as close as I'll ever get to having a moped so I stole it from him." says Bart. "WHAT?! And Martin hasn't found out about it yet?" exclaims Lisa. "Heheh. Nope. For a kid who's supposed to be one of the top students in school, he's a dimwit" laughs Bart. Twilight takes note at the design and the number of seats in the Honor Roller. "Bart, I'm sure you've noticed that this thing only has two seats right?" she asks. "Yeah. So only me and Scootaloo can fit." he replies "But what about the rest of us?" Rainbow Dash questions. "Well, we have plenty of red wagons that we can attach to the back of this thing for Twilight to ride in, Lisa can use her bike, and as you stated yourself, Rainbow Dash, you can fly." Bart comments. "W-What? You want me to ride in a wagon?" says Twilight. "Aw c'mon Twilight, it's not any different than Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle getting towed around Ponyville by Scootaloo" chimes in Rainbow Dash. "Yeah, but they're fillies, and despite her speed alone, Scootaloo can't go too fast when she's towing her friends." "This thing can get some decent speed of about 20 miles per hour on a good day, but since Lisa has to ride her bike, I won't be able to drive very fast so that she can keep up, so don't worry too much." says Bart. Twilight pauses for a second to think. "There isn't really any other option is there?" she asks. "Afraid not." says Bart. The four work on getting the Honor Roller ready to drive downtown and after about 15 minutes of work, the four are ready to head out, Lisa jumps onto her bike, and Rainbow Dash takes to the skies, Bart jumps into the drivers seat of the Honor Roller, and Twilight Sparkle sits in the wagon attached to the rear of the Honor Roller, using her magic, Twilight made minor modifications to the wagon to feature straps that were secured to the rear of the Honor Roller, over her shoulders and attached to the rear of the wagon. "Okay, lets roll!" says Bart as he starts up the engine. Arriving half an hour later downtown Springfield in the 7G12 studio, Bart and Lisa guide Twilight and Rainbow Dash to the most likely place that Sideshow Bob would be in, the original studio that Sideshow Bob used for his own show, so much so that the sets on stage were still set for Sideshow Bob's show, not Krusty's. The group infiltrated the building by making use of torchlight provided through Twilight's magic. They approached via the bleachers and hid behind the last row, where they could get a decent vantage point and survey the situation. On the stage was Scootaloo, tied to a chair. Her hands and legs were both bound to the chair with rope. She wasn't gagged nor was she blindfolded, so she could still see and speak, she was simply rendered immobile, though despite this, she was still extremely frigidity. Sideshow Bob was sitting in the front row opposite her with his back turned to Bart's group, he was already half asleep. "So what's the plan?" asks Rainbow Dash. "The same thing we normally do, I'll distract Sideshow Bob while you free Scootaloo." says Bart. "How are you going to distract him?" questions Twilight. "I haven't thought of that, I usually just like to wing it." he says. "Alright. Lets do it to it then" Rainbow Dash replies. Everyone just stares at her. "What, I've always wanted to say that for some reason" she says. "Ugh. Whatever. Lets just go" Bart says. Bart gets up from behind the bleachers and stealthy approaches Sideshow Bob, where out of nowhere, he jumps onto Sideshow Bob's shoulders and places his hands over his eyes, Sideshow Bob reacts instantly. "Hey, what the...?" he shouts. "Guess who!" Bart says "...Maris?" asks Sideshow Bob. "Guess again!" This time, Sideshow Bob grabs Bart and brings him in front of him. "Hello, Bart" Sideshow Bob says with an evil grin. "To what do I own this pleasure?" While Bart keeps Sideshow Bob occupied on his own, Lisa leads Twilight and Rainbow Dash to the chair that Scootaloo is tied to, but Rainbow Dash tells Lisa and Twilight to hold back, silently telling them that she would want a moment alone with the young pegasus turned human. "Pssst." Rainbow Dash whispers, but Scootaloo doesn't respond. "Pssst. Hey squirt!" Scootaloo stirs. "Huh...?" "Squirt, it's me!" "R-Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo says groggily, which after a few moments, she realises who she's know talking to. "RAINBOW DASH! You're here!" "That's right squirt. We're here to get you out of here." Rainbow Dash signals for Lisa and Twilight to come over, without a word, Lisa goes behind Scootaloo to start untying her bonds, while Twilight joins Rainbow Dash. "Twilight, you're here too?" she asks. "Of course Scootaloo. I did promise you that I'd find a way home for you." "T-Thanks Twilight. I don't know what to say." "You don't need to say anything. Lets focus on getting you free." Twilight says. Just then, the bonds that tied Scootaloo down are released, and Lisa steps forward. "There. You're free Scootaloo, lets go check with Bart." The boy seemed to be able to hold his own against Sideshow Bob who had pulled out a knife from somewhere and is chasing Bart around the room. Noticing this, Twilight fires up her magic to cause the knife to turn into a banana just as Sideshow Bob makes a stab for Bart's head. "Hah! Take that!" Bart says. "What trickery is this?!" Sideshow Bob questions, loudly. "It's magic" says Twilight. "Brilliant, so, this girl was telling the truth earlier, there really are magical talking ponies." "Yes there are, not that anybody will know besides from the Simpsons" says Rainbow Dash. "Are you sure on that?" "Of course." says Rainbow Dash as she takes to the air then starts to fly at extreme speeds around Sideshow Bob that he can't keep up, creating a tornado of rainbow colours behind her, when she stops, Sideshow Bob's hair is now sporting an afro, which causes Rainbow Dash to fall on the floor laughing. "Was that it?" Sideshow Bob asks. "No. I've had my fun, Get him Twi" she says with a grin. Without a word, Twilight fires up her magic once more and immobilises Sideshow Bob. "W-What's going on, I can't move!" he shouts. "You'll see" Twilight says. With minimal magical effort, Twilight levitates Sideshow Bob to the chair that previously held Scootaloo down, and forces him to sit in it. Her magical aura then surrounds the ropes as well, Twilight uses them to bound Sideshow Bob just like Scootaloo was bound. "There, now you'll know what it feels like." she says. "Good job Twilight" says Bart. "Even though, I totally could've handled Sideshow Bob on my own" "Sure you could've Bart." Says Lisa, "Lets just call Chief Wiggum" Lisa pulls out her cellphone and dials 911. An hour or so later, Chief Wiggum arrives with his assistants, Lou and Eddie all in their nightwear. "So you're saying that Sideshow Bob kidnapped you from school for no apparent reason" asks Chief Wiggum. "Yeah." says Scootaloo. "And then Bart distracted him long enough to set you free where he ran into a wall and knocked himself out?" "Yup." she replies again. "That wasn't the way it happened! It was the blasted talking ponies!" Sideshow Bob exclaims. "Sure it was." Chief Wiggum says sarcastically. "Take him to the loony bin, boys" Chief Wiggum says as Lou and Eddie load Sideshow Bob into the back of the police van and drive away. "Whew. What a night." Lisa says, "lets go home and get some sleep." as the group head to where the Honor Roller is parked so that they can head on back to 742. > Chapter Eighteen: Simpson and Elite > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Eighteen Simpson and Elite Once the group had returned to Evergreen Terrace they all turned in for the night. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash each slept on the couch in the den as there was nowhere else for them to sleep. The following morning, during breakfast, Twilight took notice to how the family presents themselves, Homer eats like a slob, practically eating everything down whole, Maggie just ends up getting more food all over her face then she does in her mouth, and the three kids eat naturally. "So, uh... Scootaloo... you ready...?" asks Twilight. Scootaloo looks at Bart and Lisa briefly... "Sure Twilight..." she starts "Great! I'll get ready to cast the spells to go home!" Twilight cheers. "...but, what about the Christmas play?" Scootaloo replies. "The Christma-what-now?" asks Rainbow Dash. "It's a lot like our Hearth's Warming Eve pageants and uh..." says Scootaloo Lisa chimes in, "Every year, most schools put on a Christmas play telling the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, the king of the Jews and Son of God. Scootaloo actually managed to get a key role in our schools version this year." "She... doesn't have to sing in the role does she?" says Rainbow Dash nervously. "Rainbow Dash! I tried my best!" yells Scootaloo knowing full well what her idol was referring to. "I know you did squirt," Rainbow Dash starts, but decides to stop there to avoid hurting Scootaloo's feelings. "So, I take that Scootaloo's a pivotal role in this play?" asks Twilight. "We kind of promised everypony that we would be able to bring Scootaloo back to Equestria by the end of the day, and we're already late..." Twilight replies. "Knowing Pinkie Pie, she's probably already started to draw up crazy conclusions." joins in Rainbow Dash. Lisa doesn't know how to react to that, to Lisa, it sounds like this 'Pinkie Pie' should probably be in a mental institute. But she continues to explain nonetheless. "...She doesn't have a vital role, she's just one of the three wise men who delivers gold, frankincense and myrrh to the new born king. Though it's not vital like my role is, she's still an important part" "What's your role, Lisa?" asks Twilight. "I'm playing the lead female, The Virgin Mary" says Lisa. "Please, Twilight! I really want to do this!" pleads Scootaloo. "Um..." stutters Twilight. Bart chimes in. "I know! Why don't you come watch?" "They're ponies! Having them come along would crazy." shouts Lisa. "Well, after they did their magic thing they wouldn't would they!" retorts Bart. "Well, that's true." says Lisa. "But that's problem, only Princess Celestia and Princess Luna know how to do that. I'd have to go back to Equestria anyway." says Twilight. "Then do that then. Each student gets two invites to distribute how they please, we've got six. With Mom and Dad going anyways, that leaves four more slots open for you to invite who you want amongst yourselves." says Lisa. "...Alright. I think I know just the ponies who would want to see this play. But do you think you could come along with me to explain the situation Lisa." Lisa's mind blew. She was just given a formal invitation to the pony world, a world of her dreams. Despite having a unicorn pony in front of her, she had the chance to go to a world with more. Unable to contain herself, "YES! Of course I'll go help explain!" "Geez Lis, over react much?" says Bart, "We get it, you like ponies." "Oh right. Heheh. Sorry. I'll go with you, if it's okay with mom" Lisa replies. "Of course you can go Lisa, it's not a school day." Marge replies. "Great. Thanks, Marge. I'll establish the portal back to Equestria now." Twilight says as she fires up her horn then shoots a blue orb at the refrigerator creating the portal. Rainbow Dash, Lisa and Twilight all walk through. In Canterlot, everypony was still in the throne room with sleeping bags awaiting the return of their friends from Springfield. It was Pinkie Pie's idea to have another slumber party, but much toned down because of the two fillies that were still in the room with them. Even the two princesses joined in on the festivities, though Princess Celestia was probably the first to have gone to sleep. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were awed when they watched the two royal sisters lower and raise their respective celestial body. From out of nowhere a just of wind started, catching everypony off guard, waking the younger ponies up, as a portal opened. "OHH! OHH! Twilight and Rainbow are back! Yay!" says Pinkie Pie bouncing around watching the portal open. A large yellow hole appears in one of the thrones as Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash walk out. "Y'all weren't kidding about losing some accuracy coming back Twi" comments Applejack. "...But where's Scootaloo?" asks Apple Bloom. "That's what we need to talk about" says Rainbow Dash. Just as she finishes saying that, Lisa walks out of the portal, and the portal closes behind them. "...That's not Scootaloo..." notes Sweetie Belle. Lisa looks around the room, but says nothing. She's just taking in the environment. The throne room was nothing like she imagined, it's very traditional, similar to castles on Earth, stained glass windows, tall pillars, the works. In front of her are nine more ponies except for Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Three are coloured white, each taller than the last, all three have horns, though one seems to have wings as well, one pink who features neither wings nor a horn, two of creamy-butter yellow colours the oldest of the two featuring wings and the younger of the two has a large pink bow in her mane, reminding Lisa a lot of Maggie, two of orange colourisation again, one featuring wings, the other a cowboy hat, and a final taller pony of dark navy blue, much like the tallest of the white mares, features both a horn and wings. "Welcome back to Equestria, my faithful student." starts Princess Celestia. "I see that you were successful in arriving in Springfield." "Yes we were Princess. But we were too late..." Twilight Sparkle starts her tale "Too late for what, may we ask?" says the Lunar Princess. "By the time we arrived, Scootaloo had been kidnapped." Twilight continues. "WHAT?!" yell the Elements of Harmony, except Rainbow Dash plus the remaining two thirds of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Skylight, and both Princesses are relatively calm. "Lisa," Twilight says, turning her head to the girl in question "would be able to tell the story far better than I could" Lisa chimes in, "Right. Scootaloo was kidnapped by Sideshow Bob Underdunk Terwilliger. A notorious criminal who has sought revenge on my brother for many years. It started when he tried to frame a television personality Krusty the Clown for armed robbery at a local convenience store called The Kwik-E-Mart, after an eye witness account from my father, Krusty was arrested and Sideshow Bob took over his show. But Bart believed that Krusty was innocent, and with my help we successfully proved that the robber was actually Sideshow Bob and he was sentenced to jail. He's sought revenge ever since." "And how does that effect Scootaloo?" asks the Solar Princess. "She was kidnapped while serving detention in school. Sideshow Bob left a message for Bart on the chalkboard, telling him where he had taken her. He arrived home shortly after Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash had arrived in our basement. They would have drawn too much attention from other Springfieldians had we gone to rescue her during the day, so we waited until after dark to go to rescue her. While Bart distracted Sideshow Bob, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle and I freed Scootaloo. After that, Sideshow Bob was arrested again." Lisa says finishing her tale. "..So where is Scootaloo now?" Skylight asks. "She's perfectly safe at home." Lisa answers. Skylight let out sigh of relief, knowing that her daughter is safe. "Well then, Welcome to Canterlot Lisa. I think some introductions are in order." says Pinkie Pie. "I'm Pinkie Pie!" "Applejack, pleased to meet ya." says Applejack "I'm Fluttershy..." Fluttershy says quietly... barely loud enough for anyone to hear. "I'm sorry..." Lisa says... "but I couldn't hear you..." "My name's Fluttershy..." she says again nervously, again, still barely audible. Lisa doens't have a response "Umm..." Rainbow Dash leans to Lisa, "Her names, Fluttershy, she gets really nervous about meeting anypony new." she whispers. "Oh. Right. Thanks Rainbow Dash" Lisa whispers back. "My name is Rarity, darling." says the mare in question. "Skylight." says the orange pegasus mare. "You're Scootaloo's mom right?" asks Lisa, Skylight response by nodding. "Ah'm Apple Bloom!" the yellow red-maned filly says. "And I'm Sweetie Belle" says the young unicorn. Twilight turns around to stand in between the two royal sisters. "And these are the two royal sisters. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna." she says turning her head towards each as she says their names. Lisa looks upwards to them, she can see that Princess Celestia is taller than Princess Luna. Lisa doesn't know the proper pony method to greet royalty so she decides to go with the human method that she's read about in books, she's not really sure if it still applies in modern human society in countries that have a monarchy, so she simply bows her head. "Lisa, there's no need for formalities here. You are a welcome guest to Equestria." says Princess Celestia. "You may rise." Lisa does so. "If I may ask however, is why you've come here instead of Scootaloo." "Oh, of course." Lisa stutters, "Sorry. I'm sure Bart has already told you about my obsession with ponies, and unicorns in particular. It's extremely hard for me to contain myself right now." she admits. "'tis fine Lisa. Take all the time thou needs" says Princess Luna for the first time. Lisa pauses to take a breath. "Thank you, your majesty. You see, we're having our Christmas Play in school soon." "Excuse me darling, but what is 'Christmas'" asks Rarity. "Simply put, it's similar to our Hearth's Warming Eve, only it's not about the founding of their country" says Twilight Sparkle. "It's actually about the birth of Jesus Christ, the king of the Jews and the son of God. It's a religious thing. Springfield Elementary, as usual is putting on it's own rendition, as it does every year. This year, Scootaloo has gotten herself a key role in the play. Don't worry, she's not playing the lead, nor is she going to sing, I get the feeling that there was a previous failure when it comes to Scootaloo singing." "Yeah." says Apple Bloom. "You could say that..." continues Sweetie Belle. "I won't ask for details. I'll consider it an Equestria matter, so I don't need to know specifics. Anyway, while we can get an understudy to play Scootaloo's role, she really wants to be a part of the festivities." "So, you're asking if she can stay in Springfield a little longer to participate?" asks Skylight. "That's one thing, sure. But actually, we were thinking of something else." "And what would that be?" asks the Solar Princess. "We wish to extend an invitation to four of Scootaloo's closest friends and family to watch her in the play" says Lisa. "That sounds like a splendid idea." says Princess Celestia. "But who should visit?" "Having met you all, I think I know who Scootaloo would want in the audience watching her performance." says Lisa, turning to each pony in question she says their name, "Skylight. Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash." "W-what? You want me to go to Springfield?" asks Skylight. "Yes. I think it will mean a lot to Scootaloo to know that her mother was in the audience," turning to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, "just as much as it would mean to her that her closest friends were there too." Apple Bloom's and Sweetie Belle's eyes both light up on the prospect that they both get to go to Springfield. They turn to Applejack and Rarity respectfully. "Can ah go Applejack... Please!" pleads Apple Bloom "Yeah, can we go, Rarity!" cheers Sweetie Belle. Applejack turns to Rarity, who nods as a response. "Well, ah reckon so. But you two have to do whatever Skylight or Marge tells ya." says Applejack. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle embrace their respective sister in a hug, both saying "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" until letting go. "This is a public affair, I'll be correct in assuming that everypony would need to be transformed to not rouse suspicion?" asks the Solar Ruler. "Indeed, Princess." says Lisa. "I'll leave you to decide when you transform everyone to my species. It's a matter of whatever works for you, though if you cast the spell before we cross time and space, then you're best doing it in private, since everyone will need clothes to wear before leaving. Trust me." "Clothes you say?" says Rarity. "I can handle a few outfits for you, darling." "I don't know how quick you can be with an outfit Rarity, but I believe that you will need to work with everyone after the transformation one by one." "I've only ever designed for ponies, but I'll take this as a challenge!" exclaims Rarity. "Very well. We shall reconvene this meeting once Rarity has made suitable garments for Rainbow Dash, Skylight, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Lisa, you're welcome to walk around the castle if you wish. I'm sure that my faithful student will be happy to give you a tour." "Huh... O-oh, of course I would Princess." stutters Twilight. "Okay, sure, I'll take you up on that offer. Thank you, your highness." Lisa says. Nodding. > Chapter Nineteen: Suited for Springfield > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Nineteen Suited for Springfield The group split into various groups. Rarity took her friends slash clients that were going to travel to Springfield away to a tailor shop that was within the castle, while Twilight Sparkle gave a tour of the castle to Lisa as best she could, the remaining group, were left to their own devices. Princess Luna tired from guarding the night left to her quarters to rest up, Princess Celestia cancelled a majority of her plans for the day as wanted to oversee the transformations this time which she couldn't do with Scootaloo. Changing one pony was bad enough but now she had to do four. It was agreed upon that they would work on one outfit at a time, thinking about Lisa's advice, whoever was having their outfit created would need to remain hidden while the outfit itself was being made, for as it turned out, even the Castle was abnormally cold in the winter months. Before starting, Rarity designed the outfits on paper, so that when Lisa came by she could approve them or reject them depending on how they would fit in Springfield. Sweetie Belle's outfit was designed first, it comprised of a pink and white striped T-Shirt, with a dark pink jacket, a dark yellow skirt, with pink and yellow knee-high shoes, and a pink headband for her hair. For Apple Bloom, given her farmer family, her outfit was a simple yellow shirt with blue denim overalls and brown boots. Rainbow Dash's was a dark blue short sleeve jacket with a White T-Shirt featuring her cutie mark, black sport shorts, a light pink skirt over that with white stripes on the sides, rainbow coloured socks, and blue shoes. She also had rainbow coloured wristbands. Skylight's was more professional, it consisted of an orange shirt with frilly sleeves and collar, with a darker orange skirt with a purple belt, purple shoes and dark purple socks went with the ensemble. Hours later, after Lisa had completed the tour with Twilight, they came by the studio to check up on the designs, which Lisa had a look over, to Twilight's surprise, Rarity didn't think about including any gems in the outfits. Maybe she was wrong about Rarity not being able to grasp the differences between Springfield fashion and Equestrian fashion when she wanted to make designs for Scootaloo. But that said, Lisa wasn't around to give a seal of approval. "They seem fine to me Rarity, except for Apple Bloom's" says Lisa "Whatever do you mean?" Rarity says "You said they're all fine." "Don't get me wrong, Apple Bloom's outfit is fine on it's own, but there's more to it than that. We created a story around why Scootaloo is with us in Springfield. And from what I can gather is that Scootaloo based her story on her friends, Apple Bloom in particular. We went with the story that Scootaloo is our cousin from Manhattan, who moved with her mother to a farm elsewhere. So if anyone spots Apple Bloom wearing workers outfits like that at her age it can turn a few heads." Lisa replies. "It's how we explained her 'everypony' quip that you all have" "I see... so you need something that doesn't seem so 'worker class'?" asks Rarity. "That's right." says Lisa "You're welcome to create the design anyway if you want, but it would have to be for Scootaloo, not Apple Bloom." "Hmmm... OOOOHHH!" Rarity gasps. "IDDEEEEAAAA!" she exclaims. Quickly levitating a pencil with her magic she grabs a new sheet of paper where she draws a girl of Lisa's stature, the design Rarity drew in the space of a few minutes featured a Green T-Shirt, Blue Denim Jeans with a belt and buckle, orange shoes with a red soles, and Apple Bloom's traditional pink hair bow. "Wow Rarity, you came up with that just now?" asks Lisa. "Certainly darling, I was in the zone as it were. How does it look?" she asks nervously. Lisa studies the design. "Yeah, that'll work. I like it." Says Lisa. Rarity squees at her approval. "Great! Now I can get to work on making them!" Rarity says. "Great. I'll stay out of your mane while you work. Though, I think you should probably work on Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's outfits first, I'll bet that they'll want to go to Springfield first." "Oh certainly darling." Rarity says, already grabbing the fabrics she'll need. "How long do you think it'll take?" asks Lisa "A few days per outfit I think. It's not an easy task after all." Rarity replies. "Sure, I understand." Lisa says walking away allowing Rarity to work her magic. She approaches Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle. "So, Lisa, what are you going to do while we wait for Rarity to make the outfits?" asks Twilight. "I don't know. I've not really thought out it. It wouldn't make much sense for me to go home without anyone, and I'm sure we all have questions we want to ask about each others society." Lisa replies. Princess Celestia was half-surprised. Lisa was smart, she knew exactly what the solar princess was eventually going to want to know. "Y-Yes, I suppose we all do." Says Princess Celestia. "You're welcome to stay here in the castle if you wish" "Uhm... I appreciate that offer, but I'm not too into the being waited on hand-and-foot thing. I prefer to do things myself, perhaps go into town, do a little exploring that kind of thing." "I understand Lisa. But I'm afraid I can't let you go into town for the same reasons you couldn't let Scootaloo" Princess Celestia replies. "Perfectly understandable. But..." Lisa answers, but quickly loses all composure "You could make me a pony! I mean, if you can make Scootaloo and everyone else human, then surely you could do the same in reverse for a few days!" Lisa shouts. Practically everypony in the room was caught off guard by Lisa's outburst. "A-Are you sure?" asks Princess Celestia. "Being a pony is a lot different from being human." "I know. But hey, Scootaloo did it, so I don't see this as being any different. I've always loved ponies, so nothing can top actually becoming one (not that I ever thought about it actually). I'm not interested in being a pony permanently and actually staying in Equestria or anything, I'm happy in Springfield with my family. So this is just for my visit." Princess Celestia closes her eyes and thinks for a moment. "Very well Lisa. I shall transform you into a pony, which race you'll end up becoming I can not say. That'll be based on your personality, talents and desires." she says finally. "Okay." Lisa says. "Please be a unicorn" she says to herself. Princess Celestia looks around the room to find there's very little space. "Come. We can do this in the library." Says the Solar Monarch. "Twilight why don't you come with us?" "Oh! Certainly Princess." Twenty or so minutes later, in the library which was just as Twilight left it with the bedsheet sprawled across the floor, which gets a giggle from the Solar Princess and embarrassing looks from her student. "Don't worry, my faithful student." says Princess Celestia, who then turns to the human eight-year old. "Lisa, stand over there please." says says pointing a hoof. Lisa complies, the Solar Princess fires up her horn in a yellow magical aura, which later surrounds Lisa. A bright light surrounds Lisa, and then starts to spin around her and then flies into her chest, as a puff of smoke appears out of nowhere, shielding Lisa from any observers. Once the smoked cleared, where an eight year old human girl stood now stands an eight year old filly unicorn pony, she looked half-identical to Lisa with a bright orange coat, and a bright yellow spiky mane and tail, around her neck was Lisa's traditional white pearl necklace, next to her was her trademark orange dress and shoes. On the filly's flank was a saxophone cutie mark. It was safe to assume that the filly, was Lisa Marie Simpson herself. Automatically, Twilight materialises up a mirror for Lisa to look into, when she sees her new pony form, and she squees, quickly notices the horn in the reflections forehead, she takes control of one of her front hooves to see if it's real, when confirmed, she faints. > Chapter Twenty: Lisa Eclipsed > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Twenty Lisa Eclipsed A few hours later, Lisa woke up from her black out, she lay within Twilight Sparkle's bed in the Canterlot Library, the only pony there to greet her on waking up was Twilight Sparkle herself, everypony else had gone back to Ponyville ahead of her. Rarity felt tailoring the outfits would be best done with her own resources at Carousel Boutique rather than in the tailor shop in Canterlot. "Huh... where am I..?" mumbles Lisa still mostly asleep. "You passed out..." says Twilight. "Twilight? ...Ugh. Geez. I had the strangest dream. I dreamed that Princess Celestia turned me into a unicorn." "Well..." Twilight uses her magic to lift the covers in a purple aura, revealing and alerting the orange unicorn filly version of Lisa. "Wait! That wasn't a dream?!" Lisa exclaims, jumping off the bed. The purple unicorn laughs at her response. "You got that right. You did want to go exploring after all." Twilight replies. "Uh... yeah, sure. It'll be weird walking on all fours..." Lisa comments. "As I'm sure it was weird for Scootaloo to walk on two legs." Twilight retorts. "Right. This is what I wanted, so I'll have to get used to it." Lisa notes. "Right. Well, everypony has already left for Ponyville. Rarity prefers to work in her own shop then the one here in Canterlot, we'll be spending the week there. You're welcome to stay with me in my Library if you want." Twilight says. "You live in a Library?" Lisa asks. "Sure. Don't anypony do that in Springfield?" asks Twilight. "No. Though I would if I could." Lisa replies Twilight laughs. "Sounds like we're quite the match huh." "Yeah." "Okay, for now, why don't you practice walking around the room before I create a portal for us to go to Ponyville." says Twilight. "Okay" "Now, how did Princess and Duncan do it..." Lisa thinks to herself, Lisa tries to take a few steps forward but fails, but not one to give up, she gets back up onto her hooves and tries again, multiple times she fails. Twilight, spotting that Lisa is having some difficulty guides Lisa with getting a mental rhythm down in her mind that she can remember, though for Twilight herself, it ends up being hard to explain as walking on four legs is natural to her. "It's no wonder Korean animators have a problem animating horses" Lisa thought to herself, in the end she decided to stop thinking about how ponies walk naturally, and switch to the way a human would crawl around instead and eventually, she got it down. "There you go, Lisa." You've got it Twilight cheered. "Thanks. I just have to imagine that I'm crawling, rather than walking. It's not really that different after all." Lisa replies. "Alright. Anytime you're ready. We can go to Ponyville." Twilight says. "Okay." Twilight fires up her magic blasting a blue orb at the wall and a portal opens, to which Twilight and Lisa both walk through arriving mere seconds later inside the Ponyville Library. "Welcome to Ponyville, Lisa." Twilight says as the portal behind them closes. Lisa looks at all the books in the Library in awe. "This is the Golden Oaks Library which is my home" Lisa looks around the room in awe. "Wow. Look at all these books, I can't wait to read a few!" Lisa says. "Heheh. I know what you mean. Anyway, come on, I'll show you around town." Twilight laughs, walking towards the front door. "Okay" Lisa trots over to Twilight who is walking out of the door having opened it with her magic. "So, where to first?" asks Lisa. "Why don't we go to Carousel Boutique and check on Rarity?" Twilight suggests. "Sure." Twilight guides Lisa across town to Carousel Boutique, while many on-lookers mutter amongst themselves on who exactly the filly Twilight Sparkle is with, but they know better than to pry into her personal life, she's really just another pony in town unless she's saving them from unnatural disasters such as Nightmare Moon, Discord and the Changelings. But given that there's a new pony in town, they should all probably expect an invitation to Sugarcube Corner from Pinkie Pie sooner or later for a party. Once at the door to the boutique, Twilight enters the shop with Lisa following close behind, a small alarm bell rings to signify an entry. "Coming! Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and..." Rarity greets as she's walking in from the other room but notices that it's Twilight. "Oh, hello Twilight, I didn't know you were back from Canterlot." "Just got back a few minutes ago through a portal." says Twilight. "Lisa and I just came by to see how the outfits are going." "They're coming along just fine, Twilight..." she says, noticing that the human girl isn't present. "But I notice that Lisa isn't with you...?" "Actually..." "I'm right here Rarity!" Lisa pipes up, walking out from behind Twilight. Rarity sees that Lisa is now a pony. "L-Lisa?! You're a..." Rarity gasps. "I wanted to do some exploring, but Princess Celestia wouldn't let me for the same reasons we couldn't let Scootaloo. So I asked her to change me into a pony. Don't worry, I'll change back to normal before I go home to Springfield." Lisa replies. Before Rarity can respond, Sweetie Belle trots in from the other room. "Sis, what's going on in..." she turns her attention to Twilight and Lisa, "Oh, hi Twilight and..." "Sweetie Belle, you remember Lisa don't you?" asks Rarity. "Of course I do, where is she?" Sweetie Belle asks. The orange unicorn filly pipes up again. "I'm right here Sweetie Belle." "Wait... I don't get it... where's Lisa...?" Sweetie Belle asks curiously. "She's right here, Sweetie. Lisa turned herself into a pony so she could explore Ponyville, just like how Marge turned Scootaloo human so she could explore Springfield." Rarity explains. "Oh! Now I get it!" Sweetie Belle cheers. "Come on, Lisa! I'll show you our Crusader Clubhouse! Oooh! Maybe you can become a Crusader!" "Um... okay... sure. If that's okay with you Twilight?" asks Lisa. "Don't sweat it Lisa. Maybe it'll be better if you're shown around by someone your own age." replies Twilight. "Great!" says Sweetie Belle, "follow me Lisa, see you later Twilight" "Bye, Sweetie Belle." says Twilight. Sweetie Belle races out of Carousel Boutique, while Lisa trots out at a walking pace. Sweetie Belle too excited about the possibility of another new crusader since Apple Bloom's cousin, Babs Seed. By the time she reaches Sugarcube Corner, Sweetie Belle notices that Lisa is still lagging far behind. "C'mon Lisa!" She yells. "Hold up, Sweetie Belle. I'm still getting used to walking on all fours. I've only been a pony for a few hours you know." Lisa replies. "Oh." Sweetie Belle says apologetically. "Sorry." "It's fine. Just slow down a little." Lisa replies understanding. "So where's your clubhouse?" "It's at Sweet Apple Acres. Its Applejack's farm" Sweetie Belle answers. After twenty minutes of walking through the town, Lisa and Sweetie Belle reach the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, closer to the farmhouse, the two fillies find Apple Bloom practicing her apple bucking on a tree while being watched on by Applejack, the two unicorn fillies approach the two youngest Apples, to which Applejack notices. "Well howdy there Sweetie Belle, who's yer friend?" asks Applejack. Lisa answers for Sweetie Belle. "I'm Lisa, Applejack. Princess Celestia did the reverse of what we did to Scootaloo in Springfield, and made me a pony." "Well, I'll be. Didn't take much for you to suggest the idea did it?" Applejack laughs. Lisa laughs with her. "I guess not. I'm staying with Twilight for the week, while Rarity finishes the outfits for everyone to go to Springfield." "That's mighty nice there Lisa. Ah'm sure that'll you'll get along great with Twilight." comments Applejack. "So, what y'all doin' now?" "I was just about to show Lisa our clubhouse!" exclaims Sweetie Belle. "Oh really now?" asks Applejack, turning to her younger sister "Why don't you run along too Apple Bloom? You got some mighty fine applebucking practice in today, y'all are stronger than ah was at your age" "Really? You mean it?!" asks Apple Bloom. "Sure I do. Now run along" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turn around with Lisa in tow to the opposite end of the orchard, where a treehouse is located. Inside, are various nick-nacks from previous crusades. Including a bullseye on the floor, a drawing of the town on the wall, and a piece of paper hung on the wall bearing drawings of each of the Crusaders with a line next to them to which Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle each have ticks next to their name, but Scootaloo has an x next to hers, Lisa assumed that it was some kind of roll-call they had, so naturally, Scootaloo would have been absent from their meetings since she was stuck in Springfield. "So Lisa, what do you think? Do you want to join the Crusaders?" asks Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom, now having a proper look at Lisa's flank notices that something is there. "Um, Sweetie Belle, have y'all had a chance to look at Lisa...?" asks Apple Bloom. "What do you mean?" both Sweetie Belle and Lisa ask, but for different reasons. "Ah mean, this..." Apple Bloom says trotting over to Lisa and pointing at her saxophone-branded flank. "OH COME ON!" Sweetie Belle shouts at full volume, "YOU have your cutie mark already!?" "My what?" Lisa asks. "Scootaloo mentioned details about them, but nothing too in-depth." Apple Bloom is alot calmer than Sweetie Belle at this point. "Ah Cutie Mark is something we ponies earn when we find our special talent. The purpose of the Cutie Mark Crusaders is to find ours together. How in Equestria did you get yours? You were human only a few hours ago!" she comments. "Oh well. I guess my skills with my sax carry over. I've always been good with Jazz music, enough that I can save entire recitals on my own with extended sax solos, there's even been times when Mr. Largo won't even include any compositions for me to play, and will just let me wing it. When we get to Springfield, I can show you if you'd like. Maybe this is implying what my future is going to be like." "What do you mean 'imply' your future is set now." comments Sweetie Belle. "Yeah, once you've found your special talent, that's what ya do for the rest of yer life" adds Apple Bloom. "Not where I come from. In Springfield, you can have multiple talents.." says Lisa. "So, ya'll mean that IS possible to have multiple cutie marks?" asks Apple Bloom. "I don't know. On Earth, symbols for your skills aren't emblazoned across parts of your body." says Lisa. "Well, unless you paid for a tattoo of them of course, but that would be weird." "Oh... well, would you like to be a Crusader anyway?" asks Sweetie Belle, "you could at least try to help us get ours." "Sorry, Sweetie Belle. But I can't." Sweetie Belle pouts, "Aww... but why not?" "Don't get me wrong I'd love to." Lisa says explaining her point of view "But you have to see the feasibility in it. Once the Christmas play is over, and Scootaloo comes home to Equestria, I'll be staying at home in Springfield. There's little point in me engaging with your crusades." Sweetie Belle still seems hurt that Lisa turned them down though, Apple Bloom understands Lisa's perspective. "Lisa's right Sweetie Belle. If her world doesn't have Cutie Marks, then there's no point in her crusadin'. It's not like she's going to turn around and bully us all week..." Apple Bloom says, trying to cheer up her unicorn friend. "I'm not like that." affirms Lisa, "you're both my friends, just as much as Scootaloo is." "Great" says Apple Bloom, "how 'bout we take y'all to Sugarcube Corner?" "Okay, but what's Sugarcube Corner?" asks Lisa. "It's a bakery." says Sweetie Belle "Pinkie Pie lives there with the Cakes. Oh, you'd probably be best prepared for a party." "Why?" asks Lisa "Pinkie Pie has a party for every new pony in Ponyville." Apple Bloom answers. "In fact, ah wouldn't be surprised if it hasn't already been set up." "Already? But I haven't seen Pinkie since coming to Ponyville. How could she know that I'm here?" Lisa asks. "Twilight or Rarity could have talked to her while we were here." replies Sweetie Belle. "But that was probably no more than twenty minutes ago!" yells Lisa, "There's no way Pinkie could have set up a party that quickly!" "Lisa, trust us, when it comes to Pinkie Pie, you're best throwing all perceptions of reality out the window." says Sweetie Belle, deadpanned. Lisa just looks at Sweetie Belle with a puzzled look ready to ask what she means, but she's interrupted by Apple Bloom who's trotting to the front door of the clubhouse. "You'll see what we mean when you get there Lisa." she says. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle guide Lisa to Sugarcube Corner, which is constructed out of various candies, it's a store that would make her father's mouth water, as the trio enter the building they discover that sure enough, the place is decorated with various banners and streamers with a large amount of sugary party foods a large crowd of Ponyville locals are also gathered in the main lobby of the building. Pinkie Pie jumps out from among them to shout, "Surprise! Welcome to Ponyville, Lisa!" Lisa was left flabbergasted staring at the crowd in front of her... > Chapter Twenty One: Lesson Lisa > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Twenty One Lesson Lisa Over the course of a few hours, Lisa was introduced to a large amount of the towns citizens. Their roles varied, but they functioned identically to what she was familiar with, so she wouldn't have much trouble adjusting there, after it winded down, and everypony left. Lisa walked with Twilight back to the library to retire for the night. During the party, Twilight had taken initiative to send Marge a letter about what Lisa had requested and that she will be spending the week in Ponyville, thinking that Marge would have the best judgement on Lisa's choices, Marge agreed to it since as Marge informed the purple unicorn, Lisa is perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and even babysat for kids that are in fact older than her and got paid to do it. The only person who ever gave her trouble was in fact her own brother, Lisa knew why he reacted that way, adding Maggie pepped-up on Coffee flavoured ice-cream into the mix didn't help much either, but she still tried and failed. After getting back to the Library, Twilight gave Lisa moment to recover from the party. "So, what do you think of Ponyville?" asks Twilight. "Minus the party, it's nice. Rather tranquil, reminds me of Cypress Creek." replies Lisa "Yeah. It was a change for me when I moved away from Canterlot." replies Twilight. "So, what are you going to do tomorrow while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are in school?" "I spoke with their teacher at the party briefly, she allowed me to guest in her class for the week." "That's cool I guess. In a related issue then, Princess Celestia has determined that it's safe to inform anypony you wish that you're from an alternate dimension." "She has? How come?" asks Lisa. "Well, the only pony who can open a portal to Springfield is me, she feels it's unlikely that anypony will be able to learn how to head to Springfield anytime soon. When I told her that when Sideshow Bob tried to claim about that we existed and Chief Wiggum thinking he was crazy she summised that everyone else would do the same." "She's right." replies Lisa. "We don't have any intention on spreading the word about Equestria. Even if we did, no one would be able to find it anyway. Magic doesn't exist on Earth outside of sleight of hand tricks." says Lisa. "Only our next door neighbour, Ned Flanders knows anything outside of my family, and from what I understand is that your sun and moon operate differently from ours, so even the highest space technology that NASA has wouldn't be able to find you." "That's good. Thank you Lisa." Twilight says, "it's getting late, so why don't we just go to sleep. I had Spike make the spare bed for you, I'll show you the way up." Twilight guides Lisa to upper level of the library. The following morning, Lisa was kinda exited to able to learn more about Equestrian Culture. It was a shame that she didn't know how to work magic as a unicorn, but she figured that she can just wing it. It would've been nice if she had her laptop with her, but to tell the truth she would probably end up breaking it when she tried to type, now that she has no fingers to type with, all she can do is try to memorise the information she's given. En route to the school house with Twilight, the two unicorns ran into Applejack and Rarity each dropping their sisters off to school as well. The three mares bid farewell to the younger fillies, and return to their day. The three friends, plus their classmates shuffle into the classroom where a dark purple earth pony mare is seated behind a desk reading some lesson plans, Sweetie Belle pointed Lisa to a seat that would usually be occupied Scootaloo. Looking up, the teacher addresses the class. "Good Morning, class." Everypony but Lisa replies, "Good Morning, Miss Cheerilee." Satisfied with the response, she continues. "I have an announcement, that we have a special guest joining us today. Lisa, would you come up here please." Lisa replies, "Sure." "This is Lisa. She's staying with Twilight Sparkle at the library while in Ponyville. Why don't you tell us about yourself?" "Okay. Well... My name is Lisa Simpson. I wasn't originally going to tell you my full background, but I've been given permission to be able to do so by Princess Celestia so I will. I live in a town called Springfield in an alternate planet called 'Earth', there, things are much different. The dominant race are creatures known as 'humans' our species evolved from apes over a millions of years. From what I've seen so far, is that our cultures are very similar to each other. Personally, I like computers, reading and Jazz Music. I live with my parents, Homer and Marge, as well as with my brother, Bart and sister Maggie." One of the foals raises their hoof to ask a question, "If you're from this alternate world, then how come you're here?" "A few months ago, a classmate of yours, Scootaloo was teleported to our world accidentally, by one of her friends," Sweetie Belle knows that Lisa's referring to her, blushes bright red "she was found by my brother and we took her in. We have a Christmas play coming up..." Another foal, with a puffy red mane and large blue glasses asks a different question, "What'th Chrithmath?" with a lisp. Sweetie Belle answers on Lisa's behalf, "'Christmas' is Lisa's counterpart for our Hearth's Warming Eve." Cheerilee has slight annoyed look on her face, but it dissolves after Lisa's reply. "Thank you Sweetie Belle, Christmas is a religious celebration across the world. It's tied to the Birth of Jesus Christ, who is considered to be the king of the Jews. Every year, our school puts on a Nativity Play for the town. Scootaloo and I got key roles in the play. I'm going to be playing Jesus's Mother, the Virgin Mary, while Scootaloo will be playing a Wiseman. It's not a big role for her, but it suits her fine. I'm here to ask Scootaloo's mother if she could participate as well as invite three other familiar ponies that Scootaloo is familiar with." Cheerilee time time asks a question, "So this is why Scootaloo hasn't attended class in the past few months? She was with you in your world?" "Yeah. Princess Celestia turned Scootaloo human so that she could attend school in Springfield Elementary, if she were a pony, she would've had to hide from everyone else, and remain in our house which would've been bad for her health." "Okay. Thank you Lisa. I guess I'll modify my lesson plan slightly to make things easier for you as a guest to not only our class, but to Equestria itself." "Okay." Lisa takes her seat again. Later out in the schoolyard, Lisa, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are sitting under a tree, eating when they are approached by two fillies. One is light pink with a purple and white mane, while the other is grey, with a mane of an even lighter shade featuring large blue glasses. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both take notice. "What do you want, Diamond Tiara?" asks Apple Bloom. "What do we want? We want Lisa to come hang out with us." she replies with disdain that she has to even approach the remaining Crusaders. "I don't think she'd want to go with you two" Apple Bloom responds. "She's perfectly capable of answering for herself, Blank Flank." the snobbish filly retorts "Yeah!" chimes in Silver Spoon. Lisa's ears raise. "Okay, well, explain to me why I should hang out with you?" Lisa questions, obviously having already made up her mind. "Isn't it obvious? Those two are Blank Flanks, they're totally not worth your time!" Diamond Tiara replies. "Oh? And you are?" "Like, totally." Silver Spoon says. "Yeah, how about no." Lisa replies. "WHAT!?" the pair shout in unison. "I may be from a different world, but that doesn't make me naive. I know all about your kind, in fact, I've heard a lot about you two from Scootaloo long before I even came to Equestria to see you for myself. You think that just because you have 'earned' a cutie mark and I use the word 'earned' extremely loosely, that you have the right to bully those who don't. So, let me tell you something, I've taken on multimillionaires and their lackeys, by myself and won, I've taken on an entire town in a battle of wits at least twice and won those too, so to say that you two don't scare me in the slightest is an understatement. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle have been my friends since I came to Equestria, and they will be coming with me to Springfield to watch my performance with Scootaloo." "WHAT?! THEY get to go to Springfield?! They're not special enough to go! WE should get to go!" shouts Diamond Tiara. "Were you not listening? I said that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are going, I decided that long before I ever stepped foot in Ponyville..." Lisa states. "...I'll get my daddy to..." Diamond Tiara stutters "What, you'll get him to change my mind? I don't think so. The line-up is final, and endorsed by Princess Celestia. To go to Springfield you have to be human, which only she can do. So, do you really think you can try that on me? And I should also mention that my Cutie Mark is null and void, I'll be losing it once I transform back to normal. Humans don't get Cutie Marks" Lisa says annoyed. "Hmph. Whatever losers!" Diamond Tiara says as she and Silver Spoon huff and storm off defeated. "Way to go Lisa!" cheers Sweetie Belle. "Yeah, ya sure showed them!" "It wasn't anything big. I can't stand people like that. Thinking they're better than anyone else because of a self-perceived status. Wealth doesn't get you anything." Over the course of the week, Lisa attended the Ponyville school, getting annoyed by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, but not backing down easily defeating both in a battle of wits, proving herself right when she took on Springfield as a whole. It took Rarity longer than expected to complete Apple Bloom's outfit so she's a little behind, which Lisa said she was okay with, the Christmas play isn't another couple of weeks, yet, it was felt among the group, that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle should go to Springfield without Rainbow Dash or Skylight and stay with The Simpsons for the time being. The group gathered in Canterlot for the travel to Springfield. Princess Celestia turned Lisa back to normal first, so that she could help Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle adjust. The party that gathered featured everypony that was needed which was simply Lisa, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash all felt that it was unnecessary for them to be there, but they had other commitments regardless. Princess Celestia transformed Apple Bloom after Sweetie Belle's situation was confirmed, and fully clothed, Sweetie Belle is about two inches shorter than Lisa with neck length pink and purple curly hair, while Apple Bloom is taller than Lisa by an inch also with neck length hair, of red colour, her pink hair bow included. Like with Lisa herself, Twilight waited until they had gotten walking bipedal down. Twilight made notes on a clipboard as when Skylight and Rainbow Dash had to do this, Lisa would not be around to help them, so Twilight would have to substitute in her place temporally. "Now, remember Apple Bloom. Listen to what Marge tells ya while yer in Springfield." orders Applejack. "That goes to you as well Sweetie Belle." adds in Rarity. "Will do, sis!" they both exclaim in unison. "You girls ready?" asks Twilight. "I am." says Lisa. "We're ready too, Twilight." says Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle nods. "Alright. Have a safe trip girls." She says as she fires up her magic firing a blue orb at the wall. The three human girls walk through the portal with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle waving at their sisters as they walk through, with Lisa taking the lead. In the Simpsons kitchen, Homer, Marge, Bart, Maggie and Scootaloo are all eating breakfast when out of nowhere a gust of wind blows food all over the room. "Woah!" Marge exclaims in surprise. A large orange hole appears from the fridge and a portal opens up, Lisa having taken the lead back in Canterlot, comes out first. "Lisa! You're back!" Marge says, hugging her eldest daughter. Maggie, in her high-chair waves her arms in the air. "Yes, mom. I'm home. I met four ponies that'll come see the play," just as two more girls, Lisa's age step out of the portal. "Two of which have come along with me early, as I'm sure Scootaloo will recognise." Lisa finishes continuing. Scootaloo's eyes go wide, and a huge smile on her face as she looks at the two. > Chapter Twenty Two: The Ponyville Connection > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Twenty Two The Ponyville Connection Scootaloo stared at the two newcomers as the portal behind them closed and all that was left behind was a refrigerator. She was able to recognise them immediately, and because she did, she had a huge smile on her face, just as much as the two newcomers had. "Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle! You're here!" Scootaloo exclaims practically jumping over the table to entrap the two in a massive hug that could just as easily have squeezed them to an extreme level. "Aww shucks, Scootaloo!" breathes Apple Bloom. Homer seeing the action separates the three. "Easy there! Give them a chance to breathe!" Looking embarrassed at how the scene must have looked, she turns away. "Oh, right. Sorry guys." she laughs. "But ya know what this is right?" asks Apple Bloom, "it's a..." "A CUTIE MARK CRUSADER REUNION! YAY!" all three shout at the top of their lungs, causing the Simpsons to have to shield their ears with their hands at the increase in volume. "So... uh... is the portal going to open up again or..." asks Scootaloo. "Not yet, Scootaloo" replies Lisa, "Rarity hasn't finished making clothes for Skylight and Rainbow Dash. So it's just Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle for now." "M-My mom's coming?" Scootaloo asks rhetorically. "H-How is she?" "Ah'm sure she misses ya Scootaloo, but she puts on a brave face for ya. Besides, Rainbow Dash has been keeping her company so she' not lonely or anythin'." Apple Bloom answers. "Oh, that's good I guess." Scootaloo replies "I wouldn't want her to become a crazy cat lady or something." Bart snorts at that, while her two friends look confused. Noticing the sad turn the conversation has gone, Marge interjects to cheer things up. "Say, you three must have a lot of catching up to do. Why don't you go upstairs and have fun. Scootaloo, you can take the day off from school." "Really?!" Scootaloo says cheering, as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle follow Scootaloo upstairs. "Thanks Marge!" "Aww... Man, she gets the day off from school? Makes me wish I reunited with Milhouse in another dimension." Bart moans. Scootaloo led her friends into Lisa's room where they discovered the reason why Lisa had the cutie mark that she had, the room is decorated with various saxophone and Jazz related posters, CD's and music books, but the most obvious give away as Lisa's saxophone itself. "So how has everything been in Ponyville?" asks Scootaloo. "Done any Crusading?" "Y'all know that we stopped our crusadin' Scootaloo, we said so in our first letter to ya" replies Apple Bloom. "Yeah!" cheers Sweetie Belle, "It's all for one and one for all. Either all of us Crusade, or none of us Crusade." "You guys.... So, what happened with Lisa when she was in Ponyville." says Scootaloo. "Oooh!" Sweetie Belle squeaks. "She totally put Diamond Tiara in her place!" "What?" "Ya should'a seen it, Diamond Tiara was trying to get Lisa to hang out with her and Silver Spoon because Lisa had her Cutie Mark, but Lisa told them to go away sayin' that she has taken on Springfield in a game of wits and won." continues Apple Bloom. "Wait... what?" asks Scootaloo, "Lisa had a Cutie Mark? H-How..?" "We dunno. Lisa assumes that her abilities with her sax carried over when she was transformed by Princess Celestia into a pony. Which makes sense since her Cutie Mark was a saxophone." answers Sweetie Belle. "Yeah. That does make sense now that I think about it" Scootaloo agrees. "So anyway, what do you guys wanna do while you're here?" "Miss Cheerilee somehow got Lisa to turn this trip into homework," says Apple Bloom Scootaloo groans in response, "Seriously? I've been here for months, I just want to get back to Equestria and relax for a while. As much as I like the Simpsons, Springfield is just too weird. So, what is this 'homework'?" she asks. "There's two different pieces. On Thursday, Lisa gave lecture about Springfield and a pop-quiz." says Sweetie Belle. "Oh? What kind of questions were on the quiz?" asks Scootaloo. "Dunno. We didn't take it." says Apple Bloom. "You didn't?" "Nope. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon weren't particularly happy that we didn't. We had to leave to catch a train to Canterlot so that Princess Celestia could transform us." answers Sweetie Belle. "So, what do WE have to do?" asks Scootaloo. "Lisa is going to go around town taking photographs of landmarks. We have to recognise and identify them, along with their main function to the citizens. So, you have to show us around town" Sweetie Belle answers. "That's easy enough. I can show you around town. Though, not right now since there are truant officers out." comments Scootaloo. "Say what now?" asks Apple Bloom. "We're supposed to be in school. So there are police roaming the streets looking for kids skipping out. The police force here is stupid, but it's best not to take chances." replies Scootaloo, "we'll need to wait a few hours before we can leave the house." "Well, what are we going to do until then?" asks Sweetie Belle. "We could always play on Bart's Eggbox 180 or on Lisa's Funtendo Zii systems." "Sure, how'd ya play?" asks Apple Bloom. With that, the trio loaded up the Funtendo Zii and started to play some video games to pass the time, while playing Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle brought Scootaloo up to speed on what's been happening in Equestria, events included but weren't limited to the Everfree Forrest trying to take over Ponyville, Rainbow Dash meeting the author of the Daring Do series, who turned out to be real, Fluttershy being effected by a spell mishap and turning into a Vampire Fruitbat Pony, and Pinkie Pie discovering that she's related to the Apple Family. After what seemed like days to the three they were finally able to leave the house and explore the town, which was mostly uninteresting given how boring of a town Springfield actually is when one takes time to actually think about it, though Apple Bloom was impressed by how many goods could be sold in a single store and by one guy with a strange accent and a common tendency to say "Thank you, Come again!", other locales other than the Kwik-E-Mart included Krusty Burger which they didn't go inside, Moe's Bar where they peeked in to see Homer already at the bar getting drunk, and the Android's Dungeon where they found Bart and his blue-haired friend shifting through comic books. They tried their best to find Lisa since she should be able to be spotted with a camera taking photos of popular Springfieldian landmarks, but much to their dismay, they couldn't find her. It would be like a needle in a haystack. After arriving back at the house, they settled down with the family for dinner, which was a simpler affair, having no prior warning, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were both caught unware that three of the family members ate meat and were rather disgusted by the fact, that one of Homer's favourite foods was pork, Apple Bloom was ready to explode at him over how they should respect animals, but after a comment from Lisa that humans are omnivores and there are actually animals in Equestria that ate meat too, she held back, making a mental note to ask Fluttershy about that one, after dinner in his bedroom, Bart also tried to convince them that he could sneak out all the photos of Springfield landmarks that Lisa took from her camera and enable them to cheat, but all three resisted the temptation citing how much trouble they'd get with Applejack, Rarity, and Skylight, Bart's only comment was "Your loss." At the end of the night, the two newcomers joined Scootaloo in the guest bedroom that she had occupied for the past few months with sleeping bags and went to sleep for their first night as part of their reunion with their best friend and their first night in Springfield.