Fluorite Vapor couldn't exactly remember how he ended up sitting in a booth at a colorful bakery with a sampler platter filled with all sorts of sweets in front of him. He was being talked at by some pink... figure? Supposedly the pony Pinkie Pie, who was supposed to direct him toward the ponies in town known as the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' but instead she had sat him at a table and was probing him for information.
"What's your favorite color?" She asked, with a pencil between her teeth and a clipboard in her hooves.
"Um, p-purple? I guess, but I-" Fluorite stumbled as he spoke what little he could.
"Okay okay..." Pinkie said while scribbling many more notes than seemed necessary. "Favorite style of music?" She asked relentlessly.
"I don't know, ambient? Pinkie, I-" Fluorite continued to fail to find any steady position in the conversation.
"Ooh, now that's interesting..." She said while scribbling out more notes. Fluorite wondered if she was acting as some kind of psychiatrist now. "Do you prefer free-form parties or purpose driven?"
"Pinkie!" Fluorite threw his hooves down on the table between them, making an abrupt crash. A scowl fell over his face, causing Pinkie to visibly shrink away. Fluorite hadn't meant to lose his temper, he could tell the pink pony meant well, but at this point apologizing would be placing the reigns back in Pinkie's hooves, and he had to take this chance while he had it. "I'm looking for the Cutie Mark Crusaders! How do I find them?"
A noticeable hush fell over Sugarcube Corner as everypony's attention was drawn straight to Fluorite, and now drawn to his flank. The silence grew more uneasy with every passing second, Fluorite's Cutie Mark was being watched now, and it seemed to be watching everypony right back, making the discomfort all too conspicuous.
"There's no need to get pugnacious,you." A voice firmly declared from just behind him.
Fluorite turned to see a young mare, no younger than himself. She had a clean white coat and a carefully braided mane of pink and purple brushed to the left side of her horn. Her light green eyes glared down toward Fluorite.
"pug- what does that mean?" Fluorite asked, trying to ease the situation down somewhat.
The unicorn sighed loudly. "inclined to fight..."
"What are you, a d-" Then a bright green aura clasped his lips together so tightly Fluorite thought they were going to be torn off.
"Don’t. You. Dare. Finish that sentence." The young mare commanded with authority rivaling the princesses themselves.
Fluorite nodded fervently and the grip on his lips was released. Turning away from the blazing anger over his shoulder, Fluorite focused on Pinkie Pie, who sat so incredibly still since flash of anger it was getting a little creepy.
"I'm sorry Pinkie. I shouldn't have snapped like that and..." Fluorite said with his eyes aimed downward. Looking up he saw the pink figure sitting across from him, and the same figure beside that one.
Pinkie reached over and grabbed the frozen pony and dragged it toward an open spot in the room. She tapped her hoof rhythmically and a trap door opened up from below. Pinkie dropped the frozen figure into the hole, before closing the hatch and returning to her seat across from Fluorite. She looked over the clipboard at the desk and returned her attention to Fluorite.
"Okay, another one needs fine-tuning. I should be angry you somehow broke one, but to be fair this kind of testing is necessary. I'll just take your new party dossier downstairs, we can hash out more details later." She said in such a matter-of-fact tone that Fluorite couldn't even find the confusion to ask what she was saying. Fluorite would later walk away from the situation recognizing it all as nonsense, but while Pinkie was there before him, everything she said seemed totally sensible. "Fluorite, this is Sweetie Belle! Sweetie, this is Fluorite Vapor, he's looking for you!"
"I noticed." Sweetie gave a deadpan response.
"Well, my job here is done, so I'll leave him with you!" Pinkie said enthusiastically.
"Your job here is not done, in fact: your break ended five minutes ago, your JOB is waiting for you, Pinkie!" Called the voice from the kitchen.
Pinkie's smile slid off her face. "Yes, Mrs. Cake..." Then her body began sliding down her seat until she was out of view. Fluorite looked under the table but she was entirely gone, looking back to Sweetie Belle, she simply shrugged.
"Pinkie." She said.
Fluorite walked slightly behind Sweetie Belle away from Sugarcube Corner. He saw her Cutie Mark seemed remarkably similar to the badges Gabriella always had on her bags, but Sweetie didn't seem to be in the mood for much conversation.
"So, um... You're the 'world famous Cutie Mark Crusaders'?" Fluorite asked.
"What? What pony in their right mind told you we were 'world famous'?" Sweetie asked in response.
"Well, not a pony really. Her name's Gabriella, she's a griffon." Fluorite responded quietly.
"Oh. Her. You know, I shouldn't be surprised." Sweetie responded rather glumly.
"um..." Fluorite found it incredibly difficult to dance around a conversation with an unfamiliar pony, but in this dance, his partner was just stomping her hooves. "Is now a bad time? I mean, if there's some kind of appointment process or something, I only heard what Gabby told me, so..."
Sweetie Belle simply stared at him through an unchanging, flat expression. "Fluorite, it's been a few years since the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'. We never really disbanded, but we kind of ran out of work. As it turns out, 'satisfied for life' means no repeat customers. It's been a couple months since I've even sat down and talked with the others. We'll help you out, but it's not in our schedule just yet, alright?"
"Okay... well I'm staying at the inn, so we've got time." Said Fluorite.
Sweetie turned and cast her eyes upward, thinking deliberately. "Okay, tomorrow head over to Sweet Apple Acres. We'll pull a plan together by noon."
Sweetie then walked off. Leaving Fluorite basically alone.
"Okay, I'll uh... see you then." Fluorite said awkwardly, before trotting to the inn.
"Well... it's good nopony minds the mark!" Ocean Vapor said in an attempt to comfort her son after a surprisingly long day.
Fluorite practically crashed like a meteor and laid on his bed in an awkward position, but between being tired, being upset, and being stubborn, he remained in that position.
"At least I got directions to Sweet Apple Acres, those bench ponies are nice enough..." Fluorite grumbled. "I know Gabby's not lying, but... I was expecting different..."
Ocean Vapor ran her hoof through Fluorite's mane. "Everything's okay. It might be tough, but we'll come out of this whole thing better for it."
Fluorite sighed. "Yeah, you're right..."
"Of course I'm right, I'm always right." Ocean declared.
"Being a mom doesn't make you right all the time." Fluorite argued.
"Prove it." Ocean countered.
Silence responded.
"I thought so."