//------------------------------// // 19 - Snails // Story: Sweetie Belle Gains a Soul // by Bad Dragon //------------------------------// The school bell announced the end of the tedious class. Scootaloo walked up to my desk. “You can use magic again. That’s awesome!” A yellow tush approached us. Apple Bloom swayed left and right while she dragged her saddle bag on the floor with her mouth. My glance caught with Scootaloo's. She gazed back at Apple Bloom’s charred tail. Her raised hoof indicated that she wanted to say something, but no sound came out of her mouth. Apple Bloom released the handle on her bag. She turned around and almost jumped in my face. “Congratulations, Sweetie Belle! I was really hopin’ your horn would heal soon.” “I fixed it,” I said simply. “Told you you’d heal up in no time.” Scootaloo smirked. “You worried for nothing.” “I guess time really does heal all wounds.” Apple Bloom drew closer and observed my horn. “Did you play with crayons again?” “Whaa?” I raised both eyebrows as I looked at her. “Wow! The crack is totally gone now. To be honest, I was kind of worried about it. I even asked my brother if horns can heal if they break and he said nope. But never mind that! When did you find out that you can use magic again?” “Today in class.” “This is really great!” Apple Bloom glanced at her bag on the floor. “You might even be able to use it on tonight’s crusade.”  “Why can’t you tell us what the mission is, already?” Scootaloo poked her. “You still haven’t told us what the plan is!”  “I brought the capes!” She smiled at me while reaching into her bag with a hoof. “That’s not what I asked...” Scootaloo sighed then grabbed the cape with her snout from Apple Bloom's foreleg. “Do you know who was the first to get a cutie mark?” Apple Bloom buttoned up the cape that Scootaloo threw on herself. “Celestia?” Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom facehooved. “From our class!” “Oh,”—Scootaloo’s half-closed eyes pierced her—“you didn’t mention that!” “You’re wrong, either way.” I lazily lifted my head off the table. “Celestia wasn’t the first pony…” They both gazed at me as if I fell from the moon, and I didn’t feel comfortable in educating them further in the matter, anymore. I wasn’t sure I could, even if I wanted to. What do I know about the time over a millennium ago? Apple Bloom looked back at Scootaloo and broke the silence. “Snails!” “Whaa,” both I and Scootaloo uttered in unison. “Snails had his cutie mark for as long as I can remember.” Apple Bloom explained. “He must have done something right to win it that early.” “How did he get it?” Scootaloo asked. “I’ve no idea. We gotta’ ask him.” “Is this the mission you were going on about?” I sighed while my head dropped back onto the table. “Asking Snails how he got his cutie mark? That’s your big idea?” Interviewing ponies had been my suggestion, and it hadn’t worked out that well when we had tried it a few days prior. I glanced back at her without lifting my muzzle from the table. “Yes!” Apple Bloom lowered her eyebrows as she looked at me. “Asking him and possibly getting them ourselves.” She threw the cape over my head. “Put it on!” I sluggishly wrapped it around my body.  “Come on!” Apple Bloom waved to me from the doorway. I sighed, then trotted to join them.  We found Snails in the schoolyard where he usually hung out in the afternoons. It was at the playgrounds where adults are never seen after school because they are afraid of everything fun. He sipped water from a puddle and didn’t notice us. “What are you doing, Snails?” Scootaloo asked. He jerked and turned around, raising his head to face us. Brown water slid down his neck, forming two dirty lines on both sides of it. “Look at my creation,” he gurgled as he pointed a hoof at heaps of mud. “You made mud?” I asked. I always thought mud formed naturally, but I’ve been wrong before. A long time, almost a year ago, I had thought that rainbows formed naturally. How stupid was that? Well, actually not as stupid as me believing that the sun and moon moved over the sky by themselves. But that had been way back when I was just a little filly and didn’t know better. “It’s Canterlot,” he said. We stood there, looking at the piles of mud. I tried to find similarities between Canterlot buildings and domes of mud. I worried that my imagination might have been limited. “I can’t see it.” He stepped to a cone of mud and pointed a hoof at it. “This is the castle.”  “Hmm…” I pressed my eyebrows together, trying to boost my imagination to the maximum. “Canterlot castle does have a pointy rooftop. This pile of mud is also kind of pointy. Yes, I can see the resemblance now!” “Want to help me with a waterfall?” He dunked a hoof in dirty water and lifted it high into the air. A few drops of water fell down to the ground, but most of it flowed on his short-haired coat. He jerkily shook when the cold liquid reached the exposed leg-pit. “Eek!” Scootaloo was the closest to him. She took a few steps back to avoid getting sprayed. “It looks—fun, but we’re—on a time schedule?” She looked at Apple Bloom and me. We nodded. ‘Time schedule’ was, indeed, a word. Scootaloo looked back at Snails. “Yeah, on a tight time schedule!” “Thin calendar?” Snails raised both eyebrows and looked under our hooves. Apple Bloom facehoofed.  Scootaloo’s eyebrows rose high. “Not on a calendar.” she shook her head. “On a mission! We are on a mission.” I sighed. “We want to do this today before it gets dark.” Apple Bloom pointed a hoof at Snails. “We hope you can help us with our quest.” She winked at him. He raised an eyebrow. “Does it involve mud?” My first instinct was to say no, but it could have been a trick question. I communed with a distance to ponder about it. “There might be mud,” Scootaloo answered. It snapped me back to reality. “Whaa...” Was mud part of the plan? “It’s been raining.” She smirked. “Mud’s everywhere…” “Ugh! This isn’t going anywhere!” I turned to Snails. “We want to know how you got your cutie mark.” “Oh, that old thing?” Looking back at his flank, his neck craned to the side. When it couldn’t bend anymore, he walked in a circle. Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and jerked up his head. “You like it?” Apple Bloom pointed to his flank. “It’s a cutie mark. We like cutie marks.” She lifted the cape, revealing her blank flank. “We want to get cutie marks of our own.” She let the cape slide over her flank and pointed to the sewn-in pony patch. “We’re called the Cutie Mark Crusaders for a reason, ya’ know?” “I can show you how to get them.” Snails proposed. With my mouth ajar, I looked at Apple Bloom then Scootaloo. The hope of getting somewhere lifted my spirits. I couldn’t hide my smile, and neither could they. It was a bit hard to believe that getting a cutie mark could be as simple as he made it sound. Still, the fuzzy feeling of earning my cutie mark overshadowed the pesky doubts. Why would I question something that feels good, anyway? “Come, I’ll take you to where I got my cutie mark.” He pointed a hoof toward the road. I took a step forward but stopped in my tracks right after because he screamed at me, “Watch the railroad!” My body froze, and I only dared to shift my eyes to both forehooves on the ground. There were two lines imprinted leading to one side of a hoof and continuing on the other side. I jerked up the apocalyptic leg then brought it back in to even out my hoofprint with the surface level, demolishing even more of the railway. It couldn’t be helped. Sometimes you have to destroy the old to create anew. I connected the broken lines of the railway with the edge of a hoof and fearfully looked up at Snails. “It’s fixed!” He kept staring at me with half-closed eyes. I looked for a clearing and jumped. Mud sprayed around me. “Sweetie Belle, watch it!” Apple Bloom tried to remove a mud spot from her cape but quickly found out that blots only grew bigger when you smudge them. “Ugh! I just got them cleaned…” Scootaloo held a hoof to her face as she murmured. “Can we go already?”  “This way!” Snails jerkily pointed with his head and broke into a gallop spraying mud behind him. Apple Bloom took a step away, despite being at a fairly safe distance. “Maybe we shouldn’t be wearing capes for this one.” “They were your idea.” I pointed out to her and ran after Snails. We stopped at a ditch beside the road. There were plants with big leaves growing in it. How they were called escaped my mind. I wasn’t sure if I’d even seen them before. The green surfaces were riddled with holes and there were snails everywhere. “This is where it happened.” Snails smiled. “What happened?” Scootaloo asked. “I tried to invent a new way of running.” “You invented—running?” I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, almost. The problem was that I didn’t see where I was going because with this special method you have to be facing forward with your tail and not your head.” He demonstrated the technique by running backward. Suddenly, he turned to us and waved a hoof in the air. “There I was. Exploring the unknown, when, out of nowhere, a rock appeared under my hind leg.” “You weren’t even looking...” I sighed. “Exactly! Without even seeing the rock, I tripped on it. I don’t know what happened after that, but when I woke up, I was in this ditch, covered with snails.” “Ick!” Scootaloo’s hair stood up. “No!” Snails shook his head in Scootaloo’s direction. “It wasn’t bad.”  “You had snails on you!” she raised her voice. “How was that not bad?” “Sure, being covered with snails might not sound like much.” “It sounds horrible!” Scootaloo almost yelled before her voice broke. “There was something more than just being covered with them; as a bond of sorts. It wasn’t only their ooze seeping its way through my coat to my skin. I sensed something beyond the slime. I felt their very presence. And they also felt mine.” Scootaloo burped. Her cheeks burst out as she pressed her lips together. I slowly backtracked. There were things in the world I didn’t want to witness first-hoof. Luckily, Scootaloo didn’t show off her liquid disgust. She swallowed it, instead. Apple Bloom listened with pinned ears. “Is that when you got your cutie mark?” “Mhm.” He slid a forehoof along his flank. “That seems easy enough!” Apple Bloom turned to us. I froze, putting my stealthy escape to a hold, so she wouldn’t get offended by my lack of enthusiasm. It seemed, in all her zeal, she didn’t notice me being farther away than before. “Girls, I think we might be just a few moments away from gettin’ our cutie marks!” She proclaimed “Um...” Scootaloo's eyes opened even more than I thought possible. They fixed themselves to the center of the ditch where Snails stood proudly. “Apple Bloom, I’m not so sure about this,” I said. She waved me to come closer. “Don’t be so snotty.” “They’re the snotty ones!” I pointed a hoof accusingly at the ditch where the snails were. A few of them already slid out of it and menacingly approached us. “It’s what we came here for. You do want to earn your cutie mark, don’t ya’? Well, now’s your chance.” I turned to Snails. “What does your cutie mark even mean? Anypony can get covered in snails; I don’t really see the point of having a cutie mark for it.” “I told you, there’s more to it than just getting cozy with snails.” His head jerked back. “Watch this, fillies!” He jumped in the gutter and put both forelegs in the middle of it. I stepped closer to see what he was doing. It wasn’t him doing anything, he just stood there, but the snails around his legs twitched. The closest ones to him turned hyperactive. What I witnessed was unbelievable. They slid toward his hoof faster than I had ever seen any snail move. The snail taming effect wasn’t showing just on the closest ones, it was far-reaching. Even the snails that were out of the ditch turned back to it. Yet, they were reacting slower than the ones that were close to our slime-taming cutie mark sensei. They only slightly diverged from their paths, while the ones that were in the center of the ditch had already climbed onto both brown forehooves. The sight of that sent chills down my spine. All the while, Snails just smiled at them. “I don’t think the slime creatures are the only ones feeling the connection,” I whispered to Apple Bloom then walked along the edge of the trench. “How is that even useful?” He put down the hoof with which he was caressing a snail on his leg and looked at me. “Useful?” “What’s it good for?” I asked. “Can you even do anything with it?” “Well… I once used my—power to save a cabbage head from a snail attack. The cabbage was left only slightly nibbled because I led the snail away in time. It was all thanks to my special ability.” I rolled my eyes. “Couldn’t you just pick up the snail and carry it away?”   “Well, I guess that could work too. But you see, I didn’t have to pick it up because I have the power!” He lifted his head high. Apple Bloom raised both eyebrows as she looked at me. “Sweetie Belle, why do ya’ even care what the cutie mark looks like? Anything you get is better than being a blank flank.” I backed away from the ditch again. “I’m not so sure about that anymore.” “What do you mean?” Apple Bloom cocked her head. “You hate being without a cutie mark! We all do. That’s why we’re doing this.” “I don’t think I want to get this one.” “Look, I get that you’re a little grossed out, but it’s really not dangerous.” “They look poisonous,” Scootaloo commented. “I’m pretty sure they’re not.” Apple Bloom clenched her teeth and touched a snail near her with the edge of a hoof. “Just take a deep breath and jump in the ditch. Jump in backward, so you don’t have to look at them. That’s how Snails did it.” “Yup.” By that time, his legs were covered in snails, and the socks of slime climbed higher still. “It’s not about the snails. I don’t even care that they’re gross.” “Well, what’s the problem then?” “I think—we’re doing it wrong.” Apple Bloom facehooved. “Not this again.” “I don’t even think we have to find our cutie marks.” “How else could you get one?” “We could choose it. We could force it!” “That doesn’t work. Trust me on that. I had Twilight cast magic on me to produce a cutie mark. She tried a bunch of times, but none of the marks stuck on me for long. I then used a potion, and it also didn’t work right. You can’t force your cutie mark like that.” “I’ll make it work!” I banged a hoof on the ground. “Scootaloo, back me up on this, will ya?” Apple Bloom said The statue didn’t react. She just murmured through her clenched teeth, “So… slimy…” Apple Bloom gazed at her with half-closed eyes. “You’re not helping!” “If my talent is snail taming, I’m pretty sure I can at least avoid getting a cutie mark for it.” “What’s with you, Sweetie Belle? We don’t get to choose our cutie marks! We test our talents everywhere in hopes of winning. That’s the way of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It’s even in our anthem!” Their crusading brought me only pain and no reward. I had nothing else to say. It was time to end with the trivial and break the bonds that bound me. The new path before me was as clear as crystals. “It may be your way.” I felt out the cape’s buckle on my neck with a forehoof.  “But it’s not my way!” I unhooked the string from the buckle without breaking my eye contact with Apple Bloom. The cape slipped down my body and fell to the ground. I didn’t even look at it. I slowly put down my leg. Gasping loudly, she repeatedly jabbed Scootaloo between her ribs, while still looking at me. The wide eyes reacted and lifted a forehoof to prevent more poking. She slowly turned around, with her gaze following the direction Apple Bloom’s head was turned at.  When she laid her eyes on me, she gasped in horror and shock. “Sweetie Belle, you don’t have to do that! Look, I agree with you. This plan sucked from the start, and we’re stopping it! Come on, just put your cape back on.” Apple Bloom clenched her teeth, then slowly nodded. Her ears flattened on her head. “I admit it, the idea we went with was a bad one. It was wrong of me to force this on ya’ all. I’m sorry, okay? Please don’t go through with this nonsense. Let’s just talk about it, okay?” She looked up at me. “We could go to our clubhouse. We’ll do something you like. Um… for instance, you like… er, composing songs. We’ll, um, let you make suggestions for a song. And then we can write down the good parts for you and, um, pretend that we didn’t hear the bad parts.” I shook my head. “You don’t understand!” Scootaloo pointed a hoof at Apple Bloom. “Get over it, Sweetie Belle! She already admitted she was wrong, and she’s sorry for it.” Her head bowed in response. I faced away from them. There were things on my mind that didn’t involve useless things like standing in gutters. I wanted to rise above, not sink even lower. “Sweetie Belle, you’re overreacting. Just calm down. I was also grossed out by the slime. I get it.” My tearing eyes pierced her. “You don’t get it! You don’t get it at all!” I slowly backed away. “It’s over! I’m out!” Swinging myself around, I broke into a gallop. “Sweetie Belle!” They both screamed in unison after me. I didn’t look back. There was nothing to look back to. I could sense the road before me. They couldn’t help me. I wouldn’t let myself be held back. If they put themselves in the middle of my schemes, I’d only end up hurting them, and we’d all regret it in the end. It wasn’t wise to stand in my path. To keep them safe, I had to cut them off.