//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: Sharing the Nation // by Cast-Iron Caryatid //------------------------------// — ∴ — Scootaloo was bored within the first ten minutes of the train ride. The food was good and the seats were comfy, but that wasn’t enough to occupy her. “So…” she began, trying to prompt herself into coming up with something to talk about. “…What would you do if you had a bunch of stars like all of Princess Twilight’s friends?” Apple Bloom sat back and gave it a thought. “If Ah could do everything Applejack can do? Well, Ah’d… probably wanna move the house back near Ponyville, ’cept Ah don’t think she’d take too kindly to that.” Sweetie Belle didn’t have a much better answer. “Well, I wouldn’t be a dress, at least,” she grumbled.” “What about you, Scoots?” Apple Bloom asked, fully expecting a rant about flying and Rainbow Dash. She wasn’t disappointed. “What wouldn’t I do?” Scootaloo beamed, recovering some of the excitement that recent setbacks had lost her. “First, I would go up as high as I could go and fly for, I dunno, a week straight. Then, I’d go find Rainbow Dash and we’d race each other for another week…” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle listened to all the things that Scootaloo wanted to do, including but not limited to flying, air soccer, flying, going to see Cloudsdale and also a great deal more flying. That, at least, put a smile on their faces, and Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but giggle at some of the crazier suggestions. When Scootaloo finally wound down, however, she thought for a while and added one last thing. “And… I’d go up into the sky and grab some more stars to give to other ponies who can’t fly or cast magic or use their hooves because they’ve got weak stars, I guess.” The sudden somber mood that statement brought hit hard, but it made Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle really think about it. “That’s… huh,” Apple Bloom said, just thinking aloud. “We could do that, couldn’t we?” Sweetie Belle wasn’t so sure. “I dunno. You’d have to be really sure somepony was a good person before you go giving them stars, or anything they do becomes your fault.” Apple Bloom nodded along. “Ah guess that’s why Princess Twilight ain’t doing it any more than she already has.” “It’s not like I’m saying I’d want to go around making ponies as powerful as Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo argued. “Just give them regular stars like everypony else already has. Nopony can complain about that.” “Ah can agree to that,” Apple Bloom said. “It’d be worth doing.” Sweetie Belle considered it a little longer. “If how powerful a star is really decides how easy it is to get a cutie mark… I guess we could help a lot of ponies.” “Alright, enough about that,” Apple Bloom said. “You said what you’d do, Scoots, but no matter how much you like Rainbow Dash, you wouldn’t be made of rainbows and lightning like she is, so what would you be instead?” Sweetie Belle opened her mouth, but Apple Bloom interrupted her. “Ah’m assuming ‘not a dress’ is our baseline.” Sweetie Belle no longer had anything to say. — ∴ — By the time the train had finally rolled into Canterlot, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had all but forgotten why they were there in the first place, so when Scootaloo finally remembered that she was supposed to be stalking a princess, it resulted in a mad dash to the exit to be sure that she didn’t miss her chance. Fortunately for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Twilight and her friends were still on the platform when they disembarked, so at least they hadn’t lost them. Unfortunately for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Twilight and her friends were still on the platform when they disembarked, so they had to do some quick thinking to stay out of sight. The crusaders were waiting in hiding when Scootaloo realized two things. One, the crowd on the platform was beginning to disperse as ponies moved on, and two, even if they weren’t, they all seemed to be giving Twilight, Luna, their demigoddesses and the dragons a wide berth for reasons that were obvious in hindsight. Needless to say, sneaking up on a group of thirteen important ponies and dragons, who were just now acquiring a royal guard escort as they watched, was maybe… not going to happen. “Hoo boy…” Apple Bloom remarked. “Do you reckon we oughta just get back on the train now and save ourselves the trouble of getting caught?” “Nope, not a chance,” Scootaloo said, still determined. “Sweetie Belle already said it isn’t like we’d get in trouble for coming here on our own.” It was only when Twilight and company were far enough away for the crusaders to follow them, that it became clear that the platform had emptied rather more quickly and completely than seemed entirely normal. “Um…” Sweetie Belle said. “Does anything about the city seem… off, to either of you?” “Ah know what you mean,” Apple Bloom agreed as the three of them crept along behind Twilight’s group staying out of sight in alleys and doorways. “How come there ain’t nopony else going this way?” Scootaloo was dashing forward ahead of the other two, about to duck into the next alley when Apple Bloom’s statement proved patently wrong as someone stepped out in front of her. Someone bigger than all the rest of the passengers from the train combined. The girls all froze as they looked up… and up and up at the massive dragon walking down third avenue… and they kept looking up even as the dragon passed, because the roofs of the buildings were all covered in dragons, some of them crawling along, but many just lined up silhouetted against the blue sky. “That… is a lot of dragons,” Sweetie Belle squeaked. Apple Bloom whistled. “You ever notice how quiet like dragons actually are for being giant walls of muscles and teeth?” — ∴ — Distracted by the dragons that were practically infesting the city, the Cutie Mark Crusaders very nearly lost track of Twilight and her friends. Well, ‘nearly’ wasn’t quite the right word for it. When the Cutie Mark Crusaders were finally able to look away from the rooftops covered in dragons, Twilight and the rest had been gone, but as it turned out, the road to Canterlot Castle was not exactly labyrinthine in complexity. Not that this helped the Cutie Mark Crusaders any as they watched their target walk through the large golden gates to the castle and beyond their reach. Apple Bloom was growing tired of sneaking around. “So… are we breakin’ into the castle now?” “Is it really breaking in if everyone is doing it?” Sweetie Belle asked, pointing down the way where several merely large dragons were crawling over the outer wall. “Yes,” Apple Bloom said. “More people doing illegal things doesn’t somehow make them not illegal.” “But nopony is even stopping them,” Sweetie Belle pointed out, and sure enough, though there were almost no guards present, almost none was still some guards and they were all just standing at their posts trying very hard to pretend there were no dragons in Canterlot. “And there’s a public event going on, isn’t there? Are we sure we’re not allowed to break into the palace?” Scootaloo abruptly straightened and glanced back the way they’d come. “Girls, quick! Hide!” she whispered crossing the road opposite the entrance to the castle to hide behind a bush. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle immediately jumped to follow Scootaloo in hiding, then peeked back out to see what it was they were hiding from. “What’s the big deal?” Apple Bloom asked, scratching her head. “Everypony already went inside. Even if there’s someone coming, it’s not like they’re gonna know us.” It was sweetie Belle who pointed out the pink dragon dragging a luggage cart behind herself and looking a little disgruntled. “That’s Cinders, Rarity’s new assistant.” “Spike’s replacement, you mean?” Apple Bloom asked. “I wouldn’t say it quite like that…” Sweetie Belle prevaricated, then shrugged. “But yes, it’s exactly like that.” “Yeah, but you did see how he looks now and the dragonesses he had with him, right?” Scootaloo said. “I don’t think he minds much.” “Yes, Scootaloo, we saw,” Apple Bloom said, rolling her eyes. “We’ve only been starin’ at their tails for the last fifteen minutes following them.” Sweetie Belle shushed the other two as Cinders got closer and the three of them got ready. None of them even had to ask what the plan was. As soon as the luggage cart had passed, they all zipped out and hopped on, hiding amongst Rarity’s many suitcases. Under any kind of normal circumstances, this would be the most nerve-wracking part of the day, but they’d already almost been stepped on by dragons and the guards at the castle gate gave no more attention to Cinders or her cargo than they did any of the other dragons taking liberties with the castle security. “Do y’all get the feeling that we probably coulda just walked right in?” Apple Bloom whispered as the cart was wheeled inside. The others didn’t answer until they found an opportune moment to jump off the cart and hide, their hoofsteps muted by the soft red velvet rug running down the center of the hall. “Isn’t that what I said earlier?” Sweetie Belle finally responded. “You two wanted to break in,” Apple Bloom countered with a huff. “Totally different thing.” “Forget about that,” Scootaloo said, interrupting before an argument could get started. “We’re inside and that’s all that matters.” “Right,” Apple Bloom agreed. “So…” “Where do we go?” Sweetie Belle finished. — ∴ — “Do you think that maybe we should’ve followed Cinders?” Apple Bloom asked after a few minutes of wandering around and avoiding everypony they came across. “Why?” Scootaloo asked. “It’s not like she saw where everypony went.” “Yeah, but she probably asked the first pony she came across where Rarity was,” Apple Bloom explained. “On account of having her stuff.” “Oh,” Scootaloo said, seeing the logic in that. “Good point.” They were heading down another empty corridor when they heard a pair of voices coming their way and hid, this time behind a plinth with a decorative helmet on it. “Oh, I do hope they don’t mind us stepping out,” came the unmistakable voice of Rarity. “It is such a dreadful issue, and I am so glad that we don’t have such problems with the dragons in Ponyville. As they say, though, ‘the show must go on,’ and we must trust that it shall do so… or at least ensure that our customers are well-dressed in their disappointment.” The Cutie Mark Crusaders waited, listening to Rarity narrate her life to Cinders as they passed by until, eventually, the sound of her voice faded enough for them to relax the breath they were all collectively holding. Still doing their best to remain quiet, the three of them crawled out from behind the plinth only to run straight into Pinkie Pie with an “oomph” from all three of them as they tripped over each other and came crashing to the ground in a heap. Scootaloo was the first to recover. “Oh, uhh, hey, Pinkie Pie,” she said with a fake smile as she rubbed a bump on the back of her head. “It’s… nice to see you here?” Pinkie Pie gasped. “The cutie mark crusaders! Of course! I knew I felt an itchy two-hundred-and-seventeenth vertebrae!” “Uhh.” Apple Bloom leaned closer to the others and whispered, “Sweetie, ponies don’t have two hundred and seventeen vertebrae, right?” Sweetie Belle shook her head “Yeah, but—” Scootaloo gestured at the pink pony. “It would explain a whole lot, wouldn’t it?” “Well, come on, girls!” Pinkie Pie shouted from down the hall. “My Pinkie Sense™ tells me that you’re going to love this!” The Cutie Mark Crusaders all hesitated. It was Apple Bloom that broke first. “If she says we’re gonna enjoy it, we might as well listen to her.” Sweetie Belle followed soon after, saying, “If we show up with Pinkie Pie, not even Rarity will say anything.” Scootaloo followed along just to keep from being left behind. “Fine,” she grumbled. “It’s not like we can find Twilight anyway.” — ∴ — Pinkie Pie led the crusaders to an area behind the throne room and closer to the residential wings of the castle. The crusaders weren’t sure that they were all supposed to be allowed there, but the guards that they came across all seemed to give Pinkie Pie a wide berth, which was only sensible. Everything became clear when Pinkie Pie finally pronked them down a discreet passage that took them to the castle kitchens, which, though hidden away, were actually just as nice as the rest of the castle. They were wide, airy and got plenty of sunlight through the arched clerestory windows high up on the walls. What also surprised the crusaders was just how busy the kitchens actually were. Throughout their entire, short time in Canterlot Castle, it had seemed all but deserted. The kitchens, in contrast, were practically desserted. The kitchens had been equipped with enough space to prepare food enough for entire banquets and yet it seemed as if every flat space that wasn’t in use for cooking was filled with every dessert imaginable or the ponies who had prepared them. It was no wonder that the castle seemed empty of anypony if they were all down here. It wasn’t even just the culinary staff that was packed into the room either. maids, guards and even what looked like some of the fancily-dressed guests seemed to have all come here either to help or just hide from the infestation of dragons. Oddly, many of these ponies seemed to be quite comfortable in the kitchen, indicating that this might not be their first time bunkering down while waiting for their problems to go away. “Isn’t it great?” Pinkie Pie said bouncing around the room checking on all the different things that had been and were being made. “The Princesses Celestia put me in charge of all the preparations for the parties today and wowzers, they are gonna be special!” “Parties?” Apple Bloom asked, looking around the kitchen again and noting that, while the room was filled mostly with desserts, there were, in fact, several different divisions of styles present and even some small amounts of the regular sort of appetisers that were usually found in high-class events, at least as far as Apple Bloom knew. “As in, plural?” “Yuppers!” Pinkie Pie beamed back. “This isn’t even all of it,” she said, hopping over to a pair of wide double doors on the other side of the room and opening them. “I’ve got at least another six kitchens in the back!” The crusaders all winced as the sight through the doors did something weird to their eyes. It took a bit for them to focus, and Scootaloo was the first one to see what seemed to be another exact duplicate of the kitchen they were already in, complete with its own Pinkie Pie holding the door open to another kitchen… and another and another and another Fortunately for the ongoing sanity of the crusaders as well as that of the rest of the world, there remained only one set of Cutie Mark Crusaders, who remained in the first kitchen and adamantly insisted that they remain that way. Sweetie Belle, who took the longest to get a handle on the weird space where the extra kitchens were, was the sole dissenter in this, as, when she did finally overcome her disorientation she ceased having any problems with it at all. Staring into the space beyond, she instantly expressed her desire to go explore it only to be shot down by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo in a hurry… though the other crusaders were admittedly curious about the giant banana cream pie that was being prepared several kitchens down. “What are all these parties that you’re preparing for?” Apple Bloom asked, shutting her eyes and stumbling forward to close the door to the other kitchens. “And that giant pie!” Sweetie Belle added, giving the door a hungry look even though it had been shut. It wasn’t entirely clear if she was hungry for pie or adventure, though given the great piles of sweets filling the room they were already in, Apple Bloom didn’t think it was likely that it was about the pie. “I can’t tell you that, silly fillies!” Pinkie Pie chided them. “It would ruin the surprise! The pie is for a special guest, though!” “Uhh, Pinkie?” Apple Bloom said, getting the distractible mare’s attention. “Do the Celestias know about any of these ‘surprises’?” “Nope!” Pinkie Pie said, confirming Apple Bloom’s fears. Just as Pinkie Pie was popping the ‘p’ of her statement, the entire castle shook, knocking down delicately stacked piles of pastries, scones and other such things everywhere in the kitchen, though thanks to Pinkie Pie and the panicked flailing of the staff, none of it reached the floor. “Whoopsie!” Pinkie Pie said, quickly piling pastries faster than the crusaders could count. Bouncing over to the door to the other kitchens, she said, “That’s him now!” and was gone, leaving the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing in a room full of desserts and nothing to do. Sweetie Bell waited a moment, then proceeded to grab a tart with her magic. When nopony said anything, the other two followed suit. “So, we gonna go see what that was?” Apple Bloom asked. “Yep.” — ∴ — The Cutie Mark Crusaders had all finished their respective pastries in a few bites before they were quickly off, retracing their steps back in the direction they’d come and towards what seemed to be the west side of the castle where the commotion seemed to be. As the three were running, though, something seemed strange to Sweetie Belle and she slowed down, gaining the ire of the other two. “Sweetie!” Apple Bloom shouted from further down, once she realized that Sweetie Belle had stopped. “Come on! We’re almost there!” “Girls, hold on a second and look outside!” Sweetie Belle pleaded, pointing out one of the castle’s tall windows. As before, the buildings outside were covered with dragons as far as the eye could see, but out beyond and above that sight was the usual blue sky with its more recent additions of a rainbow ring, invisible not-a-sun and… stars? Before either of the other crusaders could comment, they all stumbled as the ground seemed to jump out from underneath them for just a moment. Half a second later, the windows were blown open by a shockwave that knocked all of them off their hooves, though they remained impressively intact. Somepony had really cut corners on Princess Twilight’s tower back in Ponyville. Once the crusaders had recovered, they all ran over to the open window to see what had happened. “No way,” Scootaloo exclaimed, her eyes wide. Out on the castle grounds surrounded by a bunch of irate dragons who were also just getting back up, was a small crater. And from that crater was shining the unmistakable light of a star. “I’m gonna go get it,” Scootaloo said, staring breathlessly at what could be the thing that would allow her to fly. The churning mass of dragons that were in between Scootaloo and the star disagreed, and so did Apple Bloom. “Do you really think that now is the best time for that?” she asked. “Doesn't matter,” Scootaloo said, buzzing her wings as she lifted herself over the windowsill with her hooves. “Now is the only time!” Leaping from the windowsill, Scootaloo hit the ground running as she focused on the light in the distance shining out between the mass of scaled bodies. The area immediately outside of the windows was walled in on three sides by wings of the castle, the enclosed area providing only a short amount of clear space between the building and the crowd of dragons before she was in the thick of it, dodging and swerving around the claws and legs of confused and panicking dragons, her speed and size the only things she had going for her. It was only when she was finally nearing her goal that she realized that there was a particularly large and mean looking dragon between her and it, though it was looking the other way. Preparing herself, she buzzed her wings and leapt onto its back running up and—it instantly twisted out from under her, nearly taking her head off as it snapped its jaws at the thing that had crawled up on its back, not even realizing that it was a pony. Scootaloo hit the ground hard, knocking the air out of her lungs, but she forced herself up and kept running, not wanting to find out if the dragon would take another go at her. Panting more from stress and adrenaline than exertion, Scootaloo finally neared the star, noticing that the dragons were actually shying away from it and the power that it was radiating. Scootaloo dove into the unexpected gap with no small amount of relief, hoping that whatever it was that was keeping the dragons back, that she would at least be able to withstand it long enough to get the star someplace safe. She had no time to pat herself on the back as the cold starlight washed over her to little effect, though, and she wasted no time in swooping down in her almost-flight to snatch up the hoof-sized celestial object. She was just turning around to run back when she spotted another star shining through the chaos not too far away and she realized that of course there were more of them. Picturing a future where she would get stars for all of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she barely hesitated at all as she changed her course and headed to the second star with the first one under her wing. She was halfway there when it became clear that the dragons’ panic was not being made better by the star that she was carrying, and it was two gallops beyond that when she was struck in the side by the tail of one such dragon who was, ironically, turning and running away from the starlight. Unfortunately for Scootaloo, the lack of any hostile intent on the part of the dragon had little to do with the outcome and she heard a crack as the very star that she had under her wing was pressed violently into her side, sending her flying. She tumbled in the grass, crying out in pain and despair as the ground jolted her injuries and knocked the star from her grasp. She braced herself, then, for the expected trampling that would come from being prone in the middle of a dragon stampede, but it never came. Opening her eyes, she counted her lucky—hah—stars that the one that she was carrying hadn’t gone far and the dragons were still avoiding it. Wincing at the pain in her side, Scootaloo crawled closer to the star and set her hooves on it again. She tried to tuck it back under her wing, but the pain that shot through her side when she tried precluded that option, so she switched it to the other side, which was bearable. Wheezing and out of breath now, Scootaloo staggered and stumbled her way to the second star and picked it up. Two. She had two, now. To her right, significantly further out and past any shelter of the nearby castle, there was another star in the morass of dragons. To her left were more dragons, but also her friends and relative safety. But she had two stars now and the dragons wouldn’t want to come near her. But she had two stars now, and the dragons wouldn’t appreciate her running around carrying them. And she had two stars now, one under her good wing, the other that she could carry in her mouth and no good way to carry a third. She wasn’t stupid, she turned, not to the third star and not to her friends, but off at a slight angle to where the nearest part of the castle with an open window was. It was excruciating, crawling up through the window with her injured side and injured pride, and when she finally flopped down onto the cold marble floor next to her two stars—only two—she just sat there for a moment and breathed. Not long later, she heard the shouting voices coming up the hall outside of the room she found herself in. “…aloo? Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom was shouting, opening the door to each room along the way and looking for her. At least that made her smile. She decided, then, what she would do and didn’t notice the small flash of light from behind, drowned out as it was by the light of the two stars on the floor next to her. Moments later, the door crashed open revealing a panicky and distraught Apple Bloom. “She’s in here!” Apple Bloom shouted back to Sweetie Belle. Coming in behind Apple Bloom in a rush, Sweetie Belle stopped to cover her mouth with her hooves in shock. “Oh my gosh!” she said and ran over to Scootaloo’s side. “Are you alright?” Scootaloo smiled weakly and said “I’m fine” before pushing one star each over to her two friends. “I couldn’t get three, so… here.” Apple Bloom whapped Scootaloo upside the head where she fortunately hadn’t been injured. “You think we care about that?” Apple Bloom reprimanded as she went around to Scootaloo’s side and lifted her wing as gently as she could. Even so, Scootaloo hissed in pain at the movement. Apple Bloom grimaced and said, “That’s gonna leave a mark… though Ah guess you could say it already has.” Sweetie Belle looked up from where she was studying the two stars and gasped. “Scootaloo! You got your cutie mark!” “What?” Scootaloo said, shocked. She twisted around to look at her flank as she had many times before, but this time a sharp pain shot through her side. Oh, and she had a cutie mark. It was a star with an arc intersecting it. At first glance, it could be mistaken for a shooting star, but on a closer look, there was also a dotted outline of the star at the midpoint of the arc. “But… that doesn’t make any sense,” Scootaloo said. “I didn’t even get a star for myself. I failed.” “Do Ah have to swat you upside the head again?” Apple Bloom threatened, then declared, “Failures don’t get star-stealin’ cutie marks.” They all spent a moment just looking at it. “…Do you think that there might be some repercussions to having a cutie mark for stealing things from a literal goddess?” Sweetie Belle asked at length. They all thought about it for a second and shared a few looks. “Nah,” Apple Bloom said, shrugging. “Anyway,” Scootaloo said, moving on. She looked over at the two stars over where Sweetie Belle was and pushed Apple Bloom back over to them. “Even more reason for you to have them, then.” Apple Bloom stumbled at Scootaloo’s push, but she went over to them just the same. “Or,” she said, giving them a cursory look, but she didn’t see why it wouldn’t work. Guided by her magic, Apple Bloom reared up and brought her forehooves down on both of the stars, breaking a piece off of each. She then took the two smaller pieces, picked them up and smashed them together. Several times. It took some effort, but in the end she had a third, somewhat misshapen star. Holding it up, there was a second flash of light in the room as she declared, “We could just share.” Apple Bloom’s cutie mark was another picture of a star very similar to Scootaloo’s, only on hers, the arc intersecting the star was the swing of a hammer, with an anvil below it. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo spent a minute oohing and ahhing over Apple Bloom’s new cutie mark, but soon their attention was drawn to Sweetie Belle, who was now the only one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders without a cutie mark. Sweetie Belle, though, remained concerned only with the now three stars and said, “Don’t worry, I got this.” Sticking out her tongue as she concentrated, Sweetie Bell lit her horn, lifting the stars up into the air. She then did… something… and a flash of light blinded them. When the light was gone, so were the stars, but none of them could mistake where the stars had gone. Apple Bloom took a moment to get back to her hooves. “Ah felt that,” she said, rubbing her hoof on her chest. “Boy did Ah feel that.” Sweetie Belle’s cutie mark was, predictably, a star the same as the other two, this time overlaying a burst of magic. Overcome with emotion, Scootaloo grabbed Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and pulled them into a group hug, crying. “We did it. We finally did it.” At some unseen signal, all three of them took a breath and yelled, one last time, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS—” They were interrupted by an irritated Rarity clearing her throat at the door. “…BUSTED,” the girls all finished in unison, sagging. — ⁂ — The crusaders—or were they ex-crusaders now?—all followed after Rarity and her prosthetic doll in silence. Not a word had been said by either party the entire time, and they were getting the feeling that they might be in real trouble this time. Still, what was done was done, right? It wasn’t as if they could take their stars and cutie marks away. Except Princess Twilight one hundred percent could take their stars and cutie marks away. But she wouldn’t do that, right? Princess Twilight was a good princess. …Well, she was an okay princess, anyway. Rarity stopped at a set of heavy golden doors that was much like any other in the castle. “Well, girls,” she said, prim and stern. “I hope that you’re all prepared to get what you deserve.” Afraid of what might be behind the door though they may have been, the Cutie Mark Crusaders all drew themselves up, standing tall and proud to meet the consequences of what they’d done as Rarity opened the doors. Front and center was Princess Twilight Sparkle and next to her, Princess Luna and all of her friends, including a Pinkie Pie that was practically glowing amongst a large portion of very familiar looking party preparations. Uncertain, the three fillies stepped into the room and several pops heralded an eruption of confetti. A banner unfurled, reading: Happy Cuteceñera Cutie Mark Crusaders!