//------------------------------// // Morning Milk Run // Story: CMC Watch Bedtime Stories // by Lord Blundergosh //------------------------------// “Rarity… RARITY!!!” The fashionista snapped her eyes open with a gasp. She had half a mind to give her little sister a most stern warning for so rudely waking her from her much needed rest. That was, until her shifting eyes finally looked down. It was then she remembered that she actually wasn’t in bed, but was in the middle of pouring bowls of cereal for Sweetie and her friends. And thanks to her, Sweetie’s bowl was now overflowing so much that a… let’s call it a “milkfall”, was spilling out onto the floor. Rarity immediately put the carton of milk down before sheepishly apologizing. “Oh! I’m sho so- *yawn -rry, Sweetie!”, she said wearily. “Let me clean this up first and I’ll get your cereal soon.” “How about we just pour our own cereals, Miss Rarity?”, Apple Bloom suggested from her seat at the table. “Of course.”, she replied, happy to just focus on getting this milk off the floor before any pests came. She grabbed a roll of paper towels from the cabinet and moved to start cleaning the floor when she saw something that gave her pause. Standing right in front of her and licking at the milk puddle was her fluffy, white cat, Opalescence. Rarity smiled at her pet’s “assistance” and instead decided to clean the counter until Opal was done helping herself to that milk. For her part, Sweetie Belle picked up the overfilled bowl and poured some of the excess milk into a bowl being held up to her by Apple Bloom. Now using the actual carton, Sweetie started pouring milk properly into both her friends’ cereal. Unfortunately for Scootaloo, the last of the milk was used up on hers, leaving her breakfast just a little dry; however, the pegasus seemed too busy looking out at the window to notice. Sticking an ear out to listen closely, Sweetie Belle gave the carton a shake. “Hey Rarity, we’re out of milk.”, she said. “*sigh. Of course we are.” Rarity took a look out the window. The rainfall last night was positively merciless in its downpour, but it’s seemed to have calmed at the moment. So much so that it looked like it might cease altogether soon. She’ll be fine as long as she brings her raincoat and umbrella with her. “Well, I did promise to check on Sweet Apple Acres every couple of days.”, she said as she finished wiping down the counter. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to pick up some milk on the way back.” “Can we come with you?”, Scootaloo suddenly spoke up. Turning her head back to face the little pegasus who had been quiet all morning up until now, Rarity’s voice displayed her surprise as effectively as a mood ring. “O-oh! Tired of being cooped up in Sweetie’s room I take it?” Using one hoof to rub the back of her head, Scootaloo replied, “Yeah, I guess. But, if it’s not too much trouble, could you maybe drop me off to see Auntie Lofty and Holiday on the way there?” Rarity got a good look at the filly’s body language. Noticing the flattened ears and anxious eyes, she responded accordingly with her most reassuring smile. “Why of course, darling!”, she said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster in her sleep-deprived state. “The weather looks like it will calm down enough for us to make a trip soon. So, how about we head out as soon as you girls are finished with your breakfast?” Scootaloo visibly perked up, unable to contain her bright smile and embarrassing wagging tail. “Thanks for being so cool, Miss Rarity!”, she complimented before finally digging into her Lucky Horseshoes. Sweetie Belle turned to Apple Bloom, who was also happily chowing down like Scootaloo. As much as she wanted to join them for the sake of her grumbling belly, there was still something that had her mind preoccupied at the moment. Getting Apple Bloom’s attention with a tap of her shoulder, Sweetie took the opportunity to lean in and whisper a question into her ear. “Did Scootaloo seem okay to you when you woke her up?” With an audible swallow, Apple Bloom whispered back, “Well… she did sorta shriek a bit when ah jostled her awake.” “Yeah, same thing when I woke her up yesterday.” “Ya think she’s havin’ nightmares about the accident?” “Well, what else could it be?” The farm filly simply shrugged her shoulders, “Ah’d probably be havin’ nightmares too if ah went through what she has.” The two of them snuck a glance at Scootaloo holding her bowl up to her face and slurping the rest of her cereal as they continued talking. “Whether or not that’s the reason, we’ll find out after today.”, Sweetie said. Apple Bloom nodded, “If she’s really so shook up about her Aunts’ safety, then seein’ ‘em safe and in one piece is sure ta quiet those nightmares down!” Unfortunately, her optimism wasn’t quite as infectious as it probably needed to be right now. Sweetie Belle grimaced as she dared to imagine the worst outcome. “What’ll happen to her if they aren’t okay, though?” ~ The Ponyville weather team was finally feeling merciful today. Their uneventful stroll through the town’s muddy main street so far was definitely an improvement over that wall of wind she and two of the girls had to fight their way through a couple days prior. Though the hustle and bustle in the commercial area was a bit much today, they at least got to the residential neighborhood they were looking for just fine. Rarity had heard from passerby’s that it wouldn’t be raining for another hour or so. Even then, the rain was supposed to be much lighter this time around. “Perhaps I should just go with that glow in the dark mask idea I drafted yesterday?” Unfortunately, Rarity was not in the mood to start counting her blessings. Especially when Stage Craft’s commission was still looming over her. “But that’s not what he’s looking for.”, she realized. “Maybe one of those glass-bowl space helmets can work?” The fashionista in her immediately stamped out that idea; one couldn’t get more tacky than that. Rarity’s gut had been telling her that she needed to figure out a good design for the mask first, then the rest of the costume would fall into place. After all, the most iconic piece of the phantom pony’s costume was always his mask. It’d be madness to not implement an equally striking piece of face wear in this new design. Unfortunately, no inspiration was coming to her. “Why is this so much more challenging for me than it should be!? Is this a sign my degree in fashion design was all for nothing?” Her mind would have gone on a much longer stream of self pity if her train of thought hadn’t been interrupted when she heard Apple Bloom speak. “I dunno if ah wanna talk about Cindy right now.” Upon hearing this unfamiliar name Rarity’s ear flicked to get a better listen to the girls behind her. “Just hear me out.”, she heard her little sister say. “I promise I’m not gonna argue again about whether Roy did it.” Without putting their walk to a halt, Rarity turned her head around to ask, “Who are Cindy and Roy?” Those names of an unfamiliar tongue left Rarity’s mouth in an awkward manner. The two fillies looked at Rarity like she had just caught them conspiring to prank her (again). “Well…”, Sweetie began, her eyes shifting all over the place as if her surroundings would give her an answer. “They’re… from a story we listened to last night.”, Apple Bloom quickly chimed in. As Sweetie snapped her head towards Apple Bloom and practically told Apple Bloom to “shut the buck up” with just a single glare, Rarity quickly recalled the magic crystal ball she gave the girls back on Friday night. “Oh, that’s nice. What was it about?”, Rarity asked as her gaze shifted away from them and back to the road ahead. “Uhhh…” Swiftly stepping in to save her friend the trouble, Sweetie spoke up, “It’s about a girl named Cindy who had… a bunch of cakes that were stolen from her.” After Sweetie frantically finished that brilliant plot synopsis, Apple Bloom helped elaborate, “Yeah, it was somethin’ like forty cakes.” That certainly got Rarity’s attention. “Forty?”, she exclaimed, making eye contact with the fillies behind her once more. “Well that’s just terrible!” The two girls felt relief wash over them in waves upon seeing she had bought it. “So, what happened to them?”, Rarity asked. “Oh, we didn’t get to finish it last night! It was getting late.”, Sweetie Belle quickly explained. “I see. Well at least you three are finding the entertainment you need in Twilight’s device.”, the mare concluded, finally content to let the conversation end there. Waiting a moment for her big sister’s attention to lapse, Sweetie Belle carefully whispered to Apple Bloom, “Gosh, you really are Applejack’s sister!” Sensing the jab made at her for almost giving away what they’ve been secretly been watching, the farm filly shot back, “Ah was raised under the same roof as the Element of Honesty; we weren’t taught how ta lie good. What’s yer excuse?” “Hey, Rarity is still none the wiser after that. So, I obviously did something right!”, she defended. Apple Bloom sighed, “So, what were ya gonna ask me?” Sweetie once again checked to see if anypony was listening. “You know how we talked yesterday about how the human world has versions of us living in it?”, she said. “Yeah?” “If that’s the case, then shouldn’t that mean there’s versions of them living in Equestria?” Apple Bloom took a second to consider this. “Huh. Ah suppose yer right.”, she said, before something occurred to her. “Wait, so ya tried ta bring up Cindy… cuz you were wonderin’ if she was here in Equestria?” “Yeah! I was wondering if you think she might be alive in our world.” “Well shucks, ah dunno.”, the farm filly shrugged before tapping a hoof to her chin. “She definitely ain’t gonna have the same name she does in the human world, I bet. We’d probably have ta search every mental hospital in Equestria for any crazy mares who burned down their own house.” Sweetie Belle scowled, miffed by her friend once again insinuating that Cindy was secretly creating disasters around herself. “Hmph. I personally like to think she had a happy marriage and now lives as an old mare in a retirement home.” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes before realizing that she had the option of getting a third opinion. She turned to the orange pegasus right in front of her and asked, “Hey Scoots, what do ya think?” The filly in question snapped out of her day dreaming. “Huh?” “Ah was wonderin’ where ya think Cindy James’ counterpart here in Equestria would be? What’s she be doin’?” It took a second for what Apple Bloom said to register before Scootaloo finally responded. “I’d guess she’s still a nurse in our world, probably. Maybe even a doctor.”, she said with a shrug. Turning away to look out in the distance once again, Scootaloo was content to let the conversation die just as it was starting. The two other fillies noted how antsy the pegasus was, anxious even. Her eyes were simultaneously wide open and alert, yet blank and distant. The way she trotted also seemed to exude a sense of urgency, evidenced by how her much quicker strides put her ahead of her two friends. If one were to look closely, they’d see her efforts to pacify herself with deep breaths. These were signs that Scootaloo was picturing, perhaps even expecting, the worst; though she obviously hoped with every fiber of her being that this wouldn’t be the case. To Apple Bloom, it looked like Scootaloo might explode at any moment if given enough time. Even though her friend’s troubles would be over soon, the farm filly honestly couldn’t stand looking at this any longer; she just needed to get Scootaloo to chill out. She frantically tried to think of a means to that end until her eyes fell upon the massive puddle on the ground ahead of them. It was then a smirk, like some sort of infection, grew and spread across her face. She then suddenly crouched down like a cat ready to pounce. Both Scootaloo’s internal panicking and her walking were put to a halt by a big slash. While the rain coat, hat and boots that she was wearing gave cover to much of her body, her face was still left vulnerable. Getting over the shock of the splash, she immediately began snorting and spitting the water from her face. Once she was done spluttering and wiping the the water from her face with her foreleg, she looked with squinted eyes to where the splash came from. As her vision cleared, she began to see somepony to her left standing in the middle of a puddle and looking back at her. It was when she registered that somepony as Apple Bloom did Scootaloo finally said, “What the hay is your problem!?” Thankfully she didn’t say that loud enough for Rarity to hear. Part of the reason the mare hadn’t heard the splash or Scootaloo’s subsequent protest was because the three fillies had lagged significantly behind her. The other reason was that she was a little too lost in her own head at the moment to take notice. Apple Bloom, for her part, kept wearing that cheeky grin as she addressed Scootaloo. “Only one way of gettin’ back at me for that.” She hopped in place, splashing Scootaloo once again. Apple Bloom then hopped to the next puddle over where she made yet another big splash. For a second, Scootaloo continued to frown for a moment before suddenly returned with a mischievous smirk of her own. She took Apple Bloom’s invitation, galloping to the nearest puddle and practically canon balled into it, splashing the water all over the farm filly. Sweetie Belle had been looking upon all of this, absolutely perplexed. Not sure what to do, she then recalled the famous saying, “When in doubt, join them.” Okay, that may have actually been an amalgamation of two different sayings, but it’s one she’s followed ever since she met both of her best friends. The little unicorn filly then hopped into the puddle nearest to her, creating a big splash of her own. It continued on like this for the three of them, leaping from one puddle to the next, trying to soak each other as much as possible. For a moment, Scootaloo allowed even herself to forget about the worries she’d been carrying with her on this trek through town. Unfortunately, that all came to a stop when Sweetie made one final splash. “AHH!” Upon hearing the shriek behind her, Sweetie immediately froze in place; her entire body went as stiff as a board. For a solid seven seconds she dare not turn around, as she could already tell what was awaiting her and she sure wouldn’t like it. Nevertheless, she still eventually did turn around, albeit as slowly and hesitantly as possible. As expected, her dinner plate-sized eyes were met with the sight of Rarity with her face both soaked and flushed red with fury, her mane now drooping and clinging to her shoulders. The mare was scowling at all three fillies, but, of course, being Sweetie’s older sister, her glare soon focused on just her. “I can hardly believe that a few years ago you chided me for treating you like a foal.”, she said in the most composed manner she could manage, though a growl was occasionally sneaking through. “Yet here we are now and I must remind you to act your age!” Like Apple Bloom, Scootaloo continued to watch Rarity scold Sweetie Belle like this for a little longer until she got bored. Allowing her eyes to wander elsewhere, she scanned the lively streets full of ponies excited to finally be exiting their homes; it had been even more busy on the main street though, filled with the hollering of shop and stand owners trying to make up for the abysmal, practically non-existent sales they had yesterday with everypony cooped inside. Scootaloo’s wandering gaze then froze upon spotting in the corner of her eye a rickety old shack sitting on the right side of the street on the path ahead of them. And the best part about this was that, in contrast to her worst fears, the shack was still intact through all the storms it had to weather. “We’re here!”, she exclaimed, immediately galloping to the shack and began knocking as soon as she got the front door. After leaving who knows how many taps on the door, she waited with her wings fully extended and her tail wagging uncontrollably. The others soon arrived and joined her in waiting… and waiting… and waiting… and more waiting for good measure. This gradually wiped the smile off Scootaloo’s face. The filly then began wondering if maybe her sense of relief was premature. Just when she was about knock on the door again, Rarity decided to do it for her. Giving the door four hefty knocks, they all waited once more… Nothing. Scootaloo called both of her aunts’ names, but it still yielded no reply. Tilting her head, Apple Bloom wondered aloud, “Huh. Wonder what’s keepin’ ‘em?” Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin for a few seconds before making a suggestion, “Do your aunts ever wear any noise canceling headphones, Scootaloo? Maybe that’s why they can’t hear us?” Noise canceling headphones had in fact become necessities for her parents recently, especially when Sweetie invited her friends for sleepovers. She was amazed at what they were able to get away with while her parents slept with the aid of those things. They were even able to clean up the mess left behind by the storm cloud they stole so well that her parents couldn’t tell anything had ever went wrong upon waking up the next morning. “I-I’ve never seen them wear anything like that to bed.”, the pegasus filly answered shakily. Sensing Scootaloo’s unease, Rarity placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder, “Now, now. I’m sure they’re just outside shopping like everypony else in town now that the weather has cleared!” Scootaloo felt her tense expression of anxiety ease into a more neutral face. Considering Rarity’s explanation, it actually made sense. Both of her aunts preferred to do their shopping on Saturday. Holiday liked to go on her Saturdays off work because it afforded her as much time she desired to try on new clothes, while Lofty liked to go on Saturdays because that was usually the day the shops had exotic materials she could use in her quilts. But since it violently stormed all day yesterday, they probably had to push their shopping day back a bit. “I’m afraid we’ll have to get going right now, Scootaloo.”, Rarity said reluctantly as she took her hoof off the filly’s shoulder. Scootaloo turned up to the unicorn mare and asked, “Will we be able to come back here again later to see if they got back?” “No need to worry, we’ll be in and out of both the farm and the store in two shakes of a lamb’s tail!” With that last line of reassurance, Rarity then began leading the way from the house to exit the neighborhood. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom immediately followed, but Scootaloo lingered at the front door for a little longer. She gazed at he shack with a simultaneous feeling of both anticipation and apprehension, not sure whether she should be afraid or excited to hopefully get a look inside. Of course, she couldn’t stand there for much longer. Apple Bloom called out to Scootaloo to hurry up and rejoin them, to which the pegasus filly immediately began galloping to catch up. The journey to the Sweet Apple Acres turned out to a bit more difficult than expected. Somepony had apparently crashed their cart into a lamppost, knocking it down and blocking off the entire street. The pony pulling the cart wasn’t on scene, but according to bystanders they were apparently hauled off on a stretcher. So it wasn’t too much of an assumption to say that they were seriously injured at the minimum; they of course hoped that the injuries weren’t fatal or life-destroying. The ponies setting up the yellow tape told them they must take the longer route. Not knowing any teleportation spells, Rarity and the girls had no choice but to comply. Throughout the entire walk, Scootaloo thought about the possibility that Aunt Lofty and Holiday still aren’t home when they check the shack later; what would that mean? Rarity, for her part, spent the walk hoping they would accomplish what they needed to before the rain came back. “Fifty five buckets of oats on the wall, fifty five buckets of oats…” Meanwhile, Apple Bloom was privately wishing that they were there by now, just so that she wouldn’t have to listen to more “99 Buckets of Oats”. Even sung by somepony as vocally gifted as Sweetie Belle, the song could only be tolerated for so long. Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait much longer. In the very next moment, she soon saw the entrance to her family’s farm on the horizon. “There’s the farm!”, Apple Bloom exclaimed before sprinting into full gallop. The other two fillies quickly followed her example, galloping in their bet efforts to catch up to their friend. Rarity was content to speed up her pace to a faster yet non-strenuous canter rather than pointlessly expend energy trying to run at their pace. Apple Bloom wasn’t sure why she felt like running other than maybe being eager to get a look at her home which she wouldn’t be seeing until the end of this week. She closed her eyes and really breathed in the pleasant, natural odor of the orchard. However, she still hadn’t opened her eyes upon releasing her hearty sigh of satisfaction. She honestly didn’t feel like she needed to; she knew the path like the back of her hoof after all. “Apple Bloom look out!” Before Apple Bloom even had time to process Scootaloo’s warning, her legs were taken out from underneath her and she was forced into a somersault that ended with the poor filly landing roughly on her back, knocking the wind out of her. Letting out a few meek coughs, upon opening her eyes Apple Bloom was greeted by the sight of her two friends standing over her. Scootaloo was visibly wincing, her exposed teeth clenched as she inhaled with a hiss. Sweetie had her mouth covered with a hoof, but just when she removed it to say something, Rarity dashed into frame. “Oh my goodness Apple Bloom! Are you alright!?” “Ah’m fine.”, she breathlessly answered. “Oh Celestia! You’re bleeding!”, Rarity squeaked. Apple Bloom’s mind shot out of its state of lethargy like a canon ball and into a new state of panic. Whatever the injury was, judging by Rarity’s tone it must have been pretty bad. She sprang her head up from the ground into a seating position. “Where!? Where!?!”, she said as she whipped and jerked her head around in search of her injury. Rarity felt completely foolish for what she had just said. Her habit of going into theatrics really could make a bad situation a little bit worse sometimes. Needing the little filly to calm down, she grabbed onto both of her shoulders. “Apple Bloom, calm down.”, she said in a steady voice. “I need you to hold still for a second.” Apple Bloom took a deep breath and did as she was told. Rarity grabbed hold of both of her cheeks to make the filly face her. She then looked at the two streams of blood very slowly traveling down her forehead and followed them up to the source. She pushed back Apple Bloom’s hair to reveal the gash at the top of her forehead. Studying it closely, she was relieved that it appeared to be not as bad as she initially assumed, certainly not fatal. Though she definitely needed to take care of it immediately if she didn’t want the farm filly suffering an infection. “Does your family keep a medical kit in the house?”, Rarity asked. Apple Bloom took a second to breathe in one more time, before nodding. “Excellent!”, she said before taking the filly by the hoof and helping her up. “Perhaps you could show me where it is?” “Sure, Miss Rarity.” The two then began making their way up the path, Rarity continuing to Apple Bloom’s hoof as they headed straight to the Apple family’s house. Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo began following the two. However, the latter was looking behind her as she trotted. At first her eyes caught a blood covered stone on the ground, almost certainly the one that Apple Bloom cut her face on while she was forced into somersaulting. But she found her sight constantly drawing back to the thing that made Apple Bloom trip in the first place. Blocking the path to go in and out of Sweet Apple Acres was a tree that had fallen over. No leaves or fruits were left on its branches; some of their remains could be seen scattered around the tree, matching it’s charred and blackened state. The outer bark could be easily peeled off and judging by the look of the stump behind from where the tree fell from, the insides suffered a lot of burning as well. It was already pretty obvious what had happened, but the lightning bolt-shaped streak of sizzled tree sap and exposed inner bark was the biggest give away. Good thing the rain was apparently powerful enough to dampen the fire and keep it from spreading to the other trees. Scootaloo turned her face away from the fallen tree to look forward where she was heading. She’d already seen one pony suffer for not looking where they were going, she was not about to wind up like her friend just did. When she decided to look down at the ground in front of her, she was taken aback by the sight of something, or the shadow of something, zooming across it from the left to right. With how fast this silhouette passed over, she couldn’t make out much features but she could definitely tell it had wings, a very big wingspan all things considered. In fact, that silhouette seemed to indicate a creature that was massive, bigger than any bird she knew of. Unless this creature was actually of average size and had flown only a few feet above her. But Scootaloo felt that was impossible, given that she should have heard it flapping its wings if that were the case. Scootaloo zipped her head to look above, but saw nothing. Not a living thing could be seen in the sky, and whatever this flying creature was must have been a really good hider for its size, because she couldn’t find in the trees around her either. The filly continued to puzzle over this. For some reason, the more she tried to think about this, her mind kept digging up Apple Bloom’s accident, the struck down tree, the cart accident that happened in the center of town and her parents seemingly having gone M.I.A. for whatever reason. She wasn’t sure why her brain fixated on these seemingly unrelated events. Still, why did they all have to happen today?