Author's Note: Hey, good to see you guys back here. How have you been? Me, I've had my ups and downs, but I'm good. Okay, back to this now, are we? Well, I think the break was a good idea. Just wait til you see what Dark, Atom, Rhino, and I came up with right here. It's pretty nuts. Anyway, on with the story.
After a few minutes of whispering to the others, which is somehow inaudible outside of the huddle, Zephyr breaks up the circle.
"And that's my plan." he says with a smirk. He looks at everypony else. "So, what do you think?"
"Is that really it?" Dark asks, unimpressed.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it does seem a bit too easy to do it like that." Ice says.
"I like it." Rhino says. "Simple, but effective. No need to go crazy if it's unnecessary."
"Ah agree with Rhino." AJ says. "The more simple the better in this case."
"I don't care what it is as long as it works." Rainbow Dash says.
"I still prefer my idea." Vine says.
"I think you need to work on... whatever it is you call that." Drax says.
"Yeah, it seems really unhealthy." Orion says.
"Oh, would you just let it go?"
"Okay, before we get anymore distracted, does anypony besides Vine have a different plan?" Graze asks. "'Cause if not, then I guess we'll just go with Zeph's."
Dark raises a hoof. "We could try-"
"That DOESN'T involve physically harming them?" Graze interrupts.
Dark drops his hoof and grumbles. "Dang killjoy."
"I really hope that wasn't a pun."
He smirks. "I'll never tell."
"OKAY!" Zeph shouts, stopping them before they go off on a tangent. "So, are we all in agreement on the plan?"
"Ah'd do anything to get this whole mess fixed up. Ah'm in." AJ says.
"Me too. I refuse to let them be like this." Dash says with a determined tone.
"Okay, then it's settled. We'll get it going tomorrow afternoon."
All of the others agree, Vine and Dark a bit more on the fence about it, but knowing they couldn't win the arguement, reluctantly agree.
"Okay, see you all back here tomorrow."
Look at Zeph take charge for once. They grow up so fast.
With everypony in agreement, the plan is set to begin in motion tomorrow. Whether or not it would work though was to still be determined.
I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. But that can wait for now, this day isn't over yet.
On the very outskirts of Ponyville, deep within the apple orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, the Cutie Mark Crusaders sit in their clubhouse, or as they prefer to call it, headquarters.
Each of the crusaders sits around bored, either just looking at the floor or fiddling with their hooves.
Sweetie Belle groans loudly. "I'm so bored!" she starts using her back legs to skoot her slumping front half along the floor of the house.
Scootaloo gives her unicorn friend a questioning look. "What are you doing?"
"I'm bored, so I'm trying to entertain myself." she says as she continues scooting.
"Scooting your face across the floor?"
"I can't think of anything better to do, unless you have some suggestion. Ow!" she stops scooting around as she brings her forehooves up to her chin. "I think I got a splinter in my chin."
Scootaloo reels back laughing, holding her stomach. "Maybe scooting around wasn't such a good idea."
Sweetie Belle glares at her as she wiggles the splinter out. "You should know after you crashed your scooter."
"Hey, that was only one time!" Scootaloo shouts in her defense.
Apple Bloom just growls, getting fed up with their constant arguing. "Come on, guys! That's enough!"
"She started it!" her fellow crusaders shout, pointing at each other.
The bow-wearing farm filly facehoofs. "Look, ah think the boredom is just starin' to get to us."
"Well, then what are we gonna do?" Scootaloo asks.
"We could try gettimg Blue and Atom to make up." Sweetie Belle suggests. "There's something important we could do."
Apple Bloom's eyes widen. "No way! Applejack said not to. Ah'm not gonna risk gettin' punished by her, Big Mac, or Granny."
"What's the big deal?"
"Last time Applejack punished me ah had to clean the pig stighs for a week. When Big Mac punished me ah had to do all his daily chores with no help. And when Granny did it..." she cringes. "My rump still hurts when ah sit down sometimes." she sits down and flinches. "Ow."
Sweetie Belle taps her chin for a moment before her face lights up with an idea. "I've got it!"
"What?" the others ask.
"Remember all that stuff Atom said about being a guard? We could do that."
"Hey, yeah, that's a great idea!" Scootaloo says. "We could go around town, protecting ponies and stopping ponies from committing crimes."
"Yeah, that's a great idea! Ah could even make us some nifty badges. Get me some construction paper."
The pegasus and unicorn fillies hop to it as they grab some golden colored contruction paper. Apple Bloom takes some scissors and uses them to cut badge-shaped patterns out of the paper and uses crayons to add to the effect with a star and the words "Ponyville Guard" on them.
"Wow. These are awesome, Apple Bloom." Scootaloo says as she sticks it on her chest.
How does it stick on their chests? It's magic, don't question it.
Apple Bloom smiles at her friends for a second before a thought crosses her mind. She puts a hoof to her chin. "Hmm."
"What is it, Apple Bloom?"
"Well, ah was thinkin' if we take somepony in, this would obviously be the holding place."
"Right. So, what's the problem?"
"How are we gonna make sure they don't try to run away?"
"Oh, I know!" Sweetie Belle says. "Rarity has a lot of fabric at her place that's indestructible and cuts off magic. We could use that to hold them."
"Great." Scootaloo says. She then thinks up a question that's probably on everyone's mind. "Wait, why does Rarity have all that fabric anyway?"
"This one pony said she uses it to make something called "bondage gear"."
"What's bondage gear?" Apple Bloom asks, a bit weirded out by the sound of it.
She shrugs. "I don't know, Rarity doesn't like to talk about it, but Orion sure does like it for some reason."
"Whatever. Let's just get going." Scootaloo says.
The three energetic fillies rush out of the clubhouse as Scootaloo gets on her scooter and her friends get in the wagon attached to the back. They speed through and out of the apple fields as they make their way down to the Carousel Boutique.
As they get to the boutique, they sneakily peek inside to see if the coast is clear. They look inside to see a distressed Rarity working on an outfit on a model.
Knowing Rarity wouldn't just let them use the fabric, the girls tiptoe passed her, making sure to stay discrete and out of sight. They go upstairs to Rarity's supply room and start to search for the special fabric.
While all that is going on, Orion comes through the front door down stairs. "Hey, Rares." he greets his marefriend.
"Oh, hello, dear." she answers, distraught.
Orion goes over to her and kisses her on the cheek. "Don't you worry, we've got everything under control."
"I do hope so. I hate to see our friends fighting like this."
Back upstairs, the girls continue gathering the fabric. During this, Sweetie Belle accidentally steps on Opal's tail, making the white cat screech.
"Oops. Sorry, Opal." she says.
"What in Equestria was that?" Rarity says from downstairs.
"I don't know, let's go check it out." Orion says.
The girls all look at each other worriedly as they begin hurrying up their work. Without being able to use the door, they find a length of rope in the room and throw it out the window to climb down. They quickly put all their supplies with them in the wagon as they hurry off once more.
Rarity and Orion come up to the room to find it emty of any life whatsoever. "Huh, guess it was nothing." Orion says.
"I wouldn't be so sure." Rarity says.
"Eh, you're just being paranoid. Come on, let's head downstairs for some lunch."
"It's already five o'clock."
"Okay, fine, dinner then."
The couple go back downstairs, leaving the situation be.
Those fools are going to regret not looking more into it. This cannot end well. Not well at all.