"Times almost up," Scootaloo sighed, staring at her watch.
"Yeah," Applebloom frowned.
Sweetie nodded, eyes locked onto the clear evening sky as they waited for midnight to come around. That was the arrangement Princess Celestia made with their parents. When the clock struck twelve, they were going to be brought back to Equestria if they didn't willingly go through the portal themselves. Naturally, none of the girls wanted to incur the Princess' wrath and for that reason they stood in front of the Canterlot High statue. Technically, they didn't need to wait until midnight to go through the portal, but the need to spend as much time in their normal form as possible was something they couldn't pass up.
"Ah didn't see big sis all weekend," Applebloom frowned. "Ah guess she's still sore with me. Can't really blame her, all thin's considered."
"Ditto with Rarity," Sweetie sighed, her gaze shamefully shifting to the snow-covered ground. "I hope she's okay."
Scootaloo let out an acknowledging grunt, her lips pursed as she stared at the statue.
A cold breeze washed over them, forcing a shiver down their spines as they waited for their time to crawl on by. They expected this kind of treatment, but that didn't make it any easier to handle. Applebloom expected a lot of screaming now that her sister had time to sit down and think about what she wanted to yell at her about. Sweetie thought she'd see empty bottles hidden in her sister's room after the week she spent watching Rarity destroy herself before her sentencing. Scootaloo was ready for some kind of retribution from her former mentor now that she didn't have Mr Discord standing in the way. This was worse. To not have their sisters or sister-figures in their lives felt like a part of themselves got ripped away. It left them feeling empty in a way that ate at them from the inside out. Not even the snow that surrounded them could even compare to that feeling.
"It'll get better for you guys," Scootaloo sighed, eyes still locked onto the statue. "Just give it some time."
Both of her friends paused for a moment as they let her words set in, then shared a pair of determined smiles as they turned towards their friend.
"You're right," Applebloom nodded. "We just need ta' tough it out."
"Yeah!" Sweetie cheered. "It'll take a while, but things will get better."
"Yeah...," Scootaloo nodded, eyes still trained on the statue.
The two girls gave their sporty friend a pair of confused looks before realization set in. While they had a chance to fix their relationships with their sisters, Scootaloo's chances for reconciliation with Rainbow looked excessively slim in comparison.
"It's gonna be okay," Applebloom sighed, pulling the girl into a tight hug with Sweetie not far behind her.
"You can fix this," Sweetie said with an encouraging smile. "Don't give up."
"Maybe," she said, lips trembling as some tears crept past her stubborn pride. "I don't know girls. Maybe some things can't be fixed."
Sweetie gasped at that while Applebloom frowned as they held her tighter.
"Do ya' really think that?" the farm girl asked.
Scootaloo nodded, refusing to look away from statue as she said, "I think the best thing I can do for Rainbow is stay away from her."
"What?!" Sweetie squeaked. "But Scoots, she's your Honorary Big Sister!"
"I know," she sniffled. "And that's why I'm cutting off all ties to her. She doesn't need someone like me in her life."
"Who says?" growled a familiar voice.
Both girls flinched, then slowly turned towards the voice. Standing a few feet away from them were none other then the very same girls they were talking about. The CMC cringed back from the girls, Scootaloo more so then her friends as they struggled with their urges to either run from or towards their family and mentor respectively.
"H-Hey Sis," Applebloom stammered with a trembling smile.
No response, the shadow of her elder sister's hat hiding her face from the youngest Apple
Applebloom took a step back as what little nerve she had died a miserable death.
Sweetie gulped, then said, "H-Hi Rarity. C-Come to see us off?"
Rarity nodded, her face failing to give away any of her thoughts, though the lack of makeup did paint a pretty good picture of the girl's mood.
Scootaloo refused to look away from the ground, briefly wondering if she could make it through the portal before Rainbow could catch her. The gleam from Sunset's gift on her wrist killed that urge with the efficiency of a sniper's bullet. She promised herself that she wasn't going to run away from her crimes anymore. That she was going to do whatever it took to set things strait and move on. Just like Sunset did.
"I stabbed you in the back," Scootaloo said, grief heavy in her tone as she glared at the ground. "I tricked you guys into almost killing Sunset, all because I wanted to spend more time with you. Hell, when Meme Queen sent us that message, I was the one who talked Applebloom and Sweetie Belle into keeping the lie going. We had a chance to stop the whole thing and I blew it! What kind of Honorary Little Sister would do that to their sis?! So..."
With trembling hands, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone.
"As soon as I'm done with everything in Equestria, I'm gonna get out of your hair. Starting with this."
She scrolled through her contacts until she came to Rainbow's number. With tears in her eyes and trembling fingers, she tapped the number's options icon and selected the delete option. A prompt came up asking if she was sure she wanted to delete the number, but before she could tap 'yes' a pair of cerulean arms enveloped her in a tight embrace.
"You dork," Rainbow chuckled, a hint of sadness distorting her voice. "Who the heck said I wanted that? Do you really think I'm gonna give up on you over this? Not happening."
Scootaloo's eyes widened, then closed as her pain started to force more tears past them, "B-But Rainbow-"
"No buts," she sighed. "I mean, yeah I'm still mad at you for what you did, but I still don't want to lose you. You're my sis and no matter what happens, that's never gonna change. Besides, you think you three are the only one's that feel bad about everything?"
At that point, any resistance Scootaloo had shattered and she bawled into her mentor's shoulder, painful wails she had been holding in for days finally escaping from her soul into the night air as she clung to Rainbow. Sweetie and Applebloom were so focused on the moment that they almost missed it when their own sisters approached them.
"Bloom."
Applebloom jumped at how close her sister seemed to have materialized before her, but instead of seeing the rage she expected to see in the shadow of Applejack's hat, she saw a weary smile with eyes full of love and tears. Before Applebloom could say anything, her sister fell to her knees and pulled her into a gentle hug.
"Ah missed ya," Applejack choked. "Even when Ah wanted to tan your hide, Ah missed ya something fierce. Right now, mah head's all screwy and Ah'm talking to someone to help with tha', but even now one thin's clear; Ah love ya and Ah'm gonna miss ya."
"S-Sis," Applebloom sniffled, struggling to find the words she needed to say while they still had time. "Ah love ya' too. Ah don't want ta' go, but Ah gotta."
"Ah know," Applejack sniffled, a sad smile spreading across her face as she pulled her face away from he sister's shoulder. "So do what cha' gotta do over in Magic Pony World and come back soon. Ah got a ton of chores waitin' for ya when you get back to make up for all of this."
"R-Right," Applebloom sniffled, a small smile brightening her face.
"And so ya don't forget about me, take this."
Applebloom's eyes widened as her sister took her hat off and gently placed it on the littlest Apple's head.
"B-But sis-"
"Now none of that," she said, a hint of firmness in her features as she locked eyes with her sister. "Ah want ya to have this and Ah won't take no for an answer. Yah got me?"
Her shock quickly turned into joy as happy tears replaced sad ones before she nodded. As this was happening, Sweetie stood before her bedraggled sister with trepidation. The poor girl looked like she hadn't done more than brush her hair in days. The simple jacket and jeans she wore were wrinkled and tweaked in ways that their wearer would've found utterly unacceptable even on her worst of days. This would've been more than enough to put Sweetie Belle on edge, but one thing brought a faint, hopeful smile to her lips. Instead of the faint hint of alcohol, she smelled a trace of expensive root beer coming off of her sister. The same smell she remembered from two years ago when her sister actively tried to kill her old habit.
"H-Hey Rarity," She stammered, still struggling against her flight reflex as the young fashion designer continued to stare at her.
After a moment of awkward silence, Rarity sighed then bent down to her sister's eye level.
"I am not blind and you are not stupid," Rarity frowned. "I know that you know that I relapsed."
Ashamed, Sweetie nodded.
"Let me make one thing clear," the older teen said, eyes narrowing. "While you may have been involved in what led to it, you are not responsible for it."
"B-But Rarity-," Sweetie started, only to get cut off by a silencing fingertip on her lips.
"I could've done countless other things to deal with my grief, but in the end I chose to backslide. I was the one that decided to fall into a bottle. That was and is my fault, not yours. Do you understand?"
Shaking, Sweetie nodded as guilty tears slid down her cheeks.
"Good," Rarity smiled, gently wrapping her arms around her trembling sister. "Now, while I am doing what I can to deal with my mistakes, I want you to do the same. Once that is over, we can sit and talk about what we can do from there. I love you Sweetie and I will do whatever it takes to move past this."
"Y-Yeah," Sweetie sniffled. "Me too sis."
At that moment, a dull golden glow started to surround the three Elementary Schoolers.
"Ah guess our time's up," Applebloom sighed, reluctant to free herself from her sister's grip.
"Looks like it," Scootaloo sniffled as she glanced at her phone's clock.
"I don't want to go," Sweetie sighed. "B-But... I guess I need to, to make things right."
With that said, the three glowing girls freed themselves from their sister's and walked towards the portal. Before they crossed over, each turned towards their family or family figure and gave them one final wave goodbye. As soon as the last girl walked through the portal, the three teens made a solemn oath to themselves. To never let their convictions to their loved ones waver, to take full responsibility for their actions and weather the weight of those crimes, and to make whatever sacrifices they needed to set things strait in the end. As they did, a faint glow surrounded them for a split second before they made their way towards The Sugarcube Café before heading home. For a cold dark night like tonight, a warm drink was just what they needed.
***
"The Princess is evil," Sweetie mumbled, her head teetering dangerously close to falling into her bowl of oatmeal.
Scootaloo nodded from her seat across from her Unicorn friend as she struggled to shovel a spoonful of her own breakfast into her mouth. Applebloom giggled a little at her friend's antics as she inhaled her food.
"Hah! Y'all act like you've never got up early before," Applebloom giggled.
The two fillies slowly turned their heads towards the grinning Earth Pony and tried to glare holes into her.
"Early is six in the morning," Sweetie growled, then pointed a hoof at a nearby window and exclaimed, "Four is an act of evil!"
Scootaloo nodded before her head slammed into the table.
Applebloom rolled her eyes before she got up to get a fifth bowl of oatmeal.
"Y'all wouldn't last a minute on the farm," she smiled.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Scootaloo groaned, face still firmly planted in the table.
The farmer smiled smugly as her walk towards the kitchen turned into a strut. As the evil morning pony went to fill her bottomless belly, Scootaloo rolled her head until she was facing her zombie of an ally.
"I blame you for this," she frowned.
"What'd I do?" Sweetie mumbled.
"Who's idea was it to wait until midnight to go through the portal?" she growled.
"How was I supposed to know Miss Raven was going to wake us up so early?!" she exclaimed.
The dark-orange Pegasus let out a groan as she forced her head off of the table.
"Too tired to argue. Let's just eat and get the day over with."
"Agreed," Sweetie sighed. "And then we can plan our invasion of the Marshmallow Kingdom with the power of the dark King Bowlser."
Scootaloo nodded as she tried to get the rim of her cup to aline with her mouth. After a minute her mind finally processed what Sweetie said, earning a confused blink as she turned to face her friend.
"Wha?"
Sweetie giggled then muttered something about being in the wrong castle before nodding off in her seat.
"O-key then," she muttered before she went back to eating her food.
The Pegasus filly's posture went ridged as a familiar Unicorn mare entered the Staff Cafeteria.
"Good morning fillies," Raven nodded, taking a seat across from the two Terrans. "I hope you all slept well."
"Y-Yes ma'am," Scootaloo gulped, giving her friend a sharp elbow-nudge.
Sweetie woke with a start and cried, "Toshi! Come back!" before blushing sheepishly when she saw Raven.
"Apparently, some of you are not morning ponies," she monotoned, a raised brow the only reaction allowed to slip past her professional mask. "I recommend that you adjust your sleeping schedule with that in mind from this point forward."
"Yes ma'am," they chorused, a muffled yawn coming out of Sweetie as she tried to hide it behind a hoof.
"Where's Applebloom?" she asked.
"Getting fifths I think," Sweetie mumbled as she levitated a spoon into her breakfast.
"I see," Raven nodded, noticing said filly standing in line with the rest of the castle staff. "It makes sense. An Earth Pony's body needs a lot of energy to function."
"Nah, she's just a big eater," Scootaloo chuckled. "Once, she ate a whole apple pie just to prove a point and still had dinner."
"Is she active in your world?" Raven asked.
Scootaloo nodded.
"She works at her family's farm. The stuff she does after school everyday could make the Canterlot High Soccer Team drop dead in a minute!"
"And yet she became an Earth Pony when she came here," Raven stated, a faint smile forming on her muzzle. "And I suppose you have a preference for seafood and other such proteins."
"Y-Yeah?" Scootaloo blinked.
"And Sweetie Belle has a fondness for sweets, correct?"
Sweetie nodded, now awake enough to show a interest in where this conversation was heading.
"You all remember your magic lessons, correct?"
They nodded.
"A pony's diet is largely linked to their tribe and how their magic functions. Pegasi often favor a protein rich diet to give them the energy needed to maintain flight while Earth Ponies prefer a diet heavy with grains and fruit to help power and maintain their much stronger bodies. On the other hoof, Unicorns usually favor foods heavy with sugar, milk, and honey to help maintain the glucose we burn through when we use our magic."
"Is that why you gave me candy bars after our lessons?" Sweetie asked.
"That, and I felt you earned a reward for your hard work," she said, her smile widening slightly.
Sweetie smiled weakly at that before digging into her honey-laced oatmeal.
Raven's smile dropped as she returned to her professional persona before saying, "Since you all have obtained full control of your bodies, you can now carry out your punishment under the Princess' orders. In about fifteen minutes, you three will be brought to the first room that you will be cleaning. All of the tools you will need for said task will be left for you by the staff. You will also be required to wear the uniform that will be provided in said room."
"Uniforms?" Scootaloo asked as Applebloom took a seat next to her.
"But of course," Raven nodded. "It is only natural to wear the proper attire when doing a task."
"Makes sense ta' me," Applebloom shrugged.
"I guess," Scootaloo grimaced.
"Aw, come on Scoots," Sweetie smiled, throwing a foreleg over her friend's shoulders. "It won't be that bad."
"If you say so," she grumbled.
***
"I hate this," Scootaloo grumbled, scrubbing a tile floor dressed in a black and white maid's outfit.
"Ah wish Ah had a camera," Applebloom smirked, pausing in her own scrubbing to watch her friend sulk.
"I think we look good in these," Sweetie smiled as she sprayed some cleaner onto the floor with her magic. "Maybe Princess Celestia will let me keep mine when we're done."
Both fillies gave her slow blinks.
Weirdo, they thought as they resumed their scrubbing.
Near silence dominated the empty gymnasium-sized room for a few minutes as the fillies worked, reactions ranging from an irritated Pegasus to a grinning Unicorn with an indifferent Earth Pony in the middle. None of them had anything they really wanted to share beyond their opinions on their uniforms and the almost sterile conditions of the room they were working on gave them very little to comment on. After all, there was only so much someone could say about grout and marble tiles.
Scootaloo was the first to break the silence.
"So...what did you guys do over the weekend?"
"Cleaned the cow pen,"Applebloom shrugged. "Took a couple days ta' do it, but it got done."
Sweetie cringed at that and said, "Cleaned and helped fix things around the house."
"Like what?" Scootaloo asked.
"A table, a few walls, and a whole kitchen counter," she grimaced.
"Yikes," Scootaloo cringed. "Did you try to cook something again?"
"Ha, ha," Sweetie frowned. "No, I got trapped in a giant magic hamster ball and fell down the stairs."
"Ya' got magic too?" Applebloom asked with a wide smile.
"You too?" Sweetie gawked.
"Eeyup!" she smiled, then added, "Well, no hamster balll, but Ah got magic! What about you Scoots?"
Scootaloo nodded, a cocky grin replacing the frown she gained at the start of their work.
"I got super speed. It. Is. AWESOME! I polished off, like, twenty chores in one hour! You should've seen the look on Aunty Lofty's face!"
"Ah got super strength," Applebloom smirked, a hint of pride coloring her tone as she went back to scrubbing. "Made lugging that barrel of manure a heck of a lot easier."
"Giant. Magic. Hamster. Ball," Sweetie intoned, jamming her scrub brush roughly into her soap water bucket with each word.
"How'd ya' manage tha'?" Applebloom asked.
"I don't know!" she exclaimed, throwing her brush into the air as she flung her forelegs up in frustration. "I was just cleaning the bathroom when-"
She froze as a soft, barely noticeable buzzing could be heard in a corner of the room. Slowly, her head turned towards the noise while a look of pure rage formed on her face. Nervous, her two friends fallowed her line of sight. Buzzing in a nearby corner by a window was one of the weirdest bugs they had ever seen. It looked like a spider, but had a pair of wings and an abdomen that looked like it belonged to a wasp or a bee. While Applebloom and Scootaloo moved back from the strange creature, Sweetie's eyes narrowed as she took a couple steps towards it.
"Sweetie?" Scootaloo gulped, not liking the look in her friend's eyes as she closed in on the mutant insect.
"Death to the Lord of all Evil," she growled, several dozen spray bottles hovering around her in a light-green aura.
"Wha-?" was all Applebloom had time to say before her friend screamed, "DEATH TO THE LORD OF ALL EVIL!!!" and charged towards the bug with her floating army of spray bottles not far behind her.
Scootaloo and Applebloom watched with slightly hanging jaws as their friend waged a one filly crusade against the strange bug as it frantically flew away from her.
"Did Sweetie always have a thing against bugs?" Scootaloo asked as she watched said bug dodge a ten bottle spray cloud at the last second.
"Ah don't think so," Applebloom said, marveling at how well her friend could wall jump when the bug made a sudden turn away from said wall.
"Think it might be a Unicorn thing?"
Applebloom shrugged then said, "Your guess is as good as mine."
***
Applebloom let out a groan as she fell face first into her bed, every part of her pony body aching in ways that she didn't even know it could. You would think that scrubbing floors wouldn't be that difficult when your body was in the best position to do so by default. Turns out that it only made it so one can do the task longer without suffering back and neck problems. Combine that with a low amount of sleep and even Applebloom couldn't deny how herculean a task it was to get as far as they did today without dropping. Who knew that scrubbing three gym-sized floors could be so physically demanding? None of them even bothered changing out of their uniforms before dropping into their beds.
Scootaloo answered that question with her own agonized groan as she flopped into her own bed.
"How ya' feeling Scoots?" the farmer asked, slowly rolling her head to stare at her winged friend.
"Like my legs got run over," she groaned. "Even my hooves ache. Can hooves even do that?"
"Apparently," Applebloom sighed. "Ah'm not much better."
Sweetie let out an unintelligible series of groans as she shoved her pillow over her head.
Scootaloo cringed and asked, "How's that migraine Sweetie?"
Said Unicorn dragged the pillow away from her face and leveled a strained smile at her winged friend.
"It's like sunshine and rainbows are dancing around inside my head."
"R-Really?" she asked, a nervous smile stretching across her muzzle.
Sweetie's expression turned sour as she snapped, "No you dodo! It feels like my head is in a vice and someone's ramming a hot iron spike through it!"
She let out an agonized wail as she shoved her pillow back over her face in a desperate attempt to ward off her pain.
"Guess ya' shouldn't've used so much magic," Applebloom groaned.
Sweetie's only response was a barely perceived whine from under her pillow.
"Well, look on the bright side," the farm filly groaned as she rolled onto her back. "We got three rooms done."
"Yeah," Scootaloo frowned as she rolled onto her side. "Three out of, like, four-thousand or something."
Sweetie let out another whine as she thrashed around under her covers.
"Ah guess," she sighed, then spotted her sister's hat hanging on the corner of her bed's headboard. A broad smile spread across her muzzle as she added, "But it's a start at least."
Both her friends paused at that, then smiled as they nodded before letting their weariness take them away to the land of dreams. They had a busy day tomorrow and many more after that, but at least the next few will be met with them rested and ready to take them on. One room at a time.