//------------------------------//
// Ready, Set, Go 
// Story: Ascension 
// by cloudedguardian 
//------------------------------//


(AKA Royal Ruckus Prologue)


“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER CASTLE EXPLORERS YAY!”
“Hoo boy.”
Applejack shared a wince with Rainbow Dash as the three fillies barrelled by them and up a nearby set of stairs. As they disappeared around a banister, Bright Shine’s audible scolding declared them out of sight, but definitely not out of mind.
“Castle Explorers?” Applejack questioned, raising an eyebrow at the blue speedster beside her.
“Eh, Scoots has been reading a lot of Daring Doo lately, and I think I seen Sweetie with a Lyra Croft comic. Must be where they got the idea.”
“Well that’s just grand, ain’t it?” Applejack asked a little coldly, voice brimming with sarcasm, glaring up at whatever sadist greater force had set what looked like a giant metaphorical line of chaotic dominoes, and as the other girls arrived, Applejack could even see that somepony was about to knock the first one over.
You see, because of Celestia’s “illness”, and the very poor timing of it, a ridiculous amount of work had piled up and set before them. This year’s Grand Galloping Gala was coming very quickly, and needed to be planned. The gardens were beginning to fall into their autumn splendour, and would be needing tending, and due to how Celestia had taken it on as hobby, there was no current gardener on staff, aside from an older stallion who generally just raked up stray leaves. Fluttershy had claimed the garden for herself, but had left shortly after the sun had been risen to gather up all her little animals from back home, and escort them here. Also, due to old trade agreements with several nearby countries nearing their expiry date, a large group of royal dignitaries would be arriving this evening. Add on top of that the day-to-day Royal duties, as well as what had been fallen behind on the past two days, this was not a good time for three very young fillies to be tearing around the castle more-or-less unsupervised.
The reason for why the CMC were at Canterlot castle wreaking their havoc- I mean, crusading, was a story in and of itself, but I will do my best to sum it up:
Applebloom was in her older sister’s care due to the orchard undergoing some major changes, and Granny Smith had simply deemed it best that she be elsewhere. The reason for this, of course, was a lot more complicated than Applebloom would ever know. 
Due to Applejack having to leave the farm, Sweet Apple Acres was very suddenly in very sorry need of extra help, as a single filly and an already very-overworked stallion is not nearly enough able bodies to keep a farm going. Pride and tradition dictated that only family could work on the farm, but almost all “family” were already busy with their own farms, jobs, and duties. The solution came in the form of Granny-Smith’s great-nephew, or more specifically, her brother’s daughter’s son. The colt in question had dropped out of school when he was a teen, and had gotten into a large amount of trouble in the past two years. Now, he was desperately trying to pull himself together for the sake of his pregnant fiancée, but was unable to find work due to his haunting past and “recovering addict” status. Family sticks together however, and this was no exception. Even if they didn’t agree with his decisions, they could tell they no longer sat well with him, and were willing to give him the second chance he so desperately needed. All the same, a family meeting had judged that until their newest help could get settled in and comfortable, it would probably be best for Applebloom to simply be elsewhere.
Sweetie Bell’s reason for being at the castle was a good bit less noble. Although she had been brought to the castle initially by her older sister, it had wholly been their intentions for the young filly to return to their parents after Rarity’s new royal duties had begun. Sure enough, when their parents came to sight-see, chat, and otherwise gloat about their daughter, Rarity had pulled them aside to remind them that they would need to make room in their plans for their youngest daughter now, as she herself would be far too busy to play care-taker any longer. They had been quick to agree, ‘Well of course we know that darlin’!” but they had failed to actually comply- For when Rarity came to check on them in their rooms the next morning, she had discovered them long gone, and that they had made room in their plans for their youngest daughter… Starting next month. You know, right after their cruise to the tropics. The two had earned their eldest daughter’s asperity before on similar antics, but this would be the first time that they would be returning to the holy wrath of a full-fledged alicorn raining down on their sorry, sun-kissed flanks.
Scootaloo, on the other hand, had the almighty puppy-dog pout, and had successfully begged Rainbow Dash to let her stay for a couple nights.

Applejack groaned slightly as her mind whisked up the very large list of things her younger sister could get into with her friends, and had half-a-mind to do much as Fluttershy had, and declare that she had an emergency/extremely-important duty to perform, and would cause the four advisors before her eyes to grow wide once again as they stepped aside to allow her to rush off. However, declaring that would be a very large stretch of the truth, and not wholly honest, as she was pretty sure that the Royal Guards would keep the three out of the worst of it. As she slid her gaze over to Rainbow Dash once again, she could tell by the way the blue alicorn was shifting in place and folding and unfolding her wings that she was thinking about doing very much the same thing, only hesitating due to the fact that leaving all this stuff for her friends to do by themselves would not be the most loyal thing to do.
As the youngest of the four royal advisors, a bright lemon green unicorn mare, rolled up the scroll she was reading with a satisfied nod,  she turned to smile far too cheerily at the five alicorns before her.
“Well! Let’s get started shall we?”
And so the first domino was tipped…







A/N: Wow, I haven't worked on Ascension properly for a while. This little mini chapter is my way of getting into the feel of things again ^_- Hope you enjoyed, and there should be more relatively soon.