//------------------------------// // Chapter Uno // Story: The Cutie Mark Crusaders Fly Delta Airlines // by V-Pony //------------------------------// They say the path to hell is paved with the best intentions...and Rarity, being a unicorn who prided herself on being "in the know" on current gossip and idioms between Equestria and Earth, was certainly no stranger to the phrase, especially when applied to three certain little fillies she knew were just chock-full of "good intentions." But this latest one took the cake, the kitchen, hell-it took the whole of Sugarcube Corner as far as she was concerned. At the announcement of her little sister's latest scheme to gain her Cutie Mark, Rarity quite literally dropped everything she was doing-working on a very expensive ensemble for Sapphire Shores, mind you-whirled around, and regarded her with an expression of shock and annoyance so sour that it would have made the Ponyville Express take a dirt road. "You most certainly will not be going there, Sweetie Belle!" The small unicorn filly winced as her older sister practically screeched her dismay at her plan for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to go to Earth through one of the transport portals opened up over the last few years. "But it's only for a few days! And that magazine said there's plenty of stuff to do in Japan; we're sure to get our marks there!" she bounced as she replied squeakily, trying in vain to approach the level of volume with which her worried sister was using. It wasn't that Rarity thought that Earth was unsafe (ponies had been going there and coming back for over half a decade now without issue, being treated as international ambassadors most times), it was the fact that it was her little sister going off with her unintentionally semi-destructive friends to Earth! A million scenarios ran through her mind, ranging from them getting lost again (it had happened in North Carolina in what Rarity was still convinced was due to gross negligence by Applejack who had promised to keep an eye on them), to them ruining the good inter-world relations between Earth and Equestria by trying to earn their Cutie Marks in some ungodly crusade...speaking of which... "Sweetie Belle, why are you covered in soot?" Rarity cocked a brow at the dark marks peppering her white coat. "Oh, um..." the filly shuffled her hooves awkwardly. "Applebloom, Scoots and I were trying to get our Marks and stuff..." "In what?" "...fire eating?" Sweetie Belle offered hopefully, but needless to say, Rarity was less than pleased with that little announcement. "..............ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR LITTLE PONY MINDS?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!" ................................ "So I guess that didn't go very well," Scootaloo muttered as she and her two friends shuffled across Ponyville, headed for their clubhouse. "Yeah, but Ah'll tell ya what: Ah didn't know Rarity could pull off a Trixie impersonation like that," Applebloom chuckled, trying to raise her friends' spirits, but to no avail as Sweetie Belle simply snorted and grumbled at the ground, her little hooves practically stomping their way down the cobblestone streets as she trotted. "Oh well, we'll just try our hoof at something else," Scootaloo perked up. "Um...hey, what about boulder-rolling? Yeah, we'll go get Tom and act out that scene from Daring Do and-whoa!" the pegasus filly gasped as Sweetie Belle suddenly yanked her and Applebloom around the corner of the Quills and Sofas shop. "What's the big idea, Sweets?" The little unicorn glanced back around the corner of the building towards Carousel Boutique, and when she was sure nopony named Rarity was watching, she pulled back behind the corner again and turned to her friends with a conspiratorial grin on her face of a size usually shared between all three of them. To see it concentrated on the single filly's face was a bit unnerving, but her friends' curiosity won out in the end...and Sweetie Belle obliged them with a semi-wicked little chuckle as she dropped the "heart-broken little sister" act. "Hey guys," she reached into her little saddlebag with a hoof. "What's round and gold and shiny all over?" "Uh...a basketball?" Scootaloo shrugged. "Nah, that's orange, Scoots!" Applebloom shook her head. "Well you got any ideas, country girl?" "Um...eggs?" "Eggs aren't gold, they're white," Scootaloo scoffed. "And they're not round, they're...well, egg-shaped!" "They can be sorta goldish," Applebloom insisted before Sweetie Belle spoke up to head off what she knew from experience was going to be an argument/brawl/trip to Ponyville Medical/scolding by Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. "Even better," she snickered and pulled out a hoof-full of shiny gold coins. "Enough of Rarity's bits to pay the portal toll to get us to Earth and do plenty of stuff once we get there!" It bears noting here that one of the main reasons why inter-world relations had gone so well was the trade of bits to Earth; bits being roughly the size of a half-dollar and minted in solid gold, the lure of getting more of the precious metal circulating into Earth's markets was more than enough reason to remain friendly with Equestria. And with gold going at $600 an ounce, one bit would get you quite far on Earth. To say the exchange rates seemed skewed all over the place in Equestria in comparison would be an understatement, but that's a discussion for another place and time! "Oh my gosh, you stole those from Rarity?" Scootaloo gawked. "How?!" "When she got all distracted and ranted about Applejack getting us lost last time, I snuck a few dozen from her cash register," she smirked in a manner most unbecoming for a young filly...least ways, one that wasn't in the CMC. "Sweetie Belle, yer a dern thief," Applebloom squinted at her friend, knowing what Applejack would say if she got caught up in a scheme like this...as if that ever stopped her before! "Not like Rarity'll miss a few of'em, though," the country filly's face split into a grin to match Sweetie Belle's before turning to their orange friend. "Ya'll in, Scoots? It'd be a shame ta waste Sweetie Belle's "good" efforts like-" but she and Sweetie Belle were merely looking at the after-image of Scootaloo formed by the pegasus kicking up road dust as she tore down the street for the clubhouse. "Last one there to pack's a rotten griffin egg!" Her friends needed no further prodding and they took off after her. Meanwhile, Rarity had finally gathered herself enough to notice that her cash register was open a crack. "Hrm...could have sworn I had this shut and locked earlier," she muttered before shrugging it off and returning to her work. "No use crying over cracked registers; I've got an ensemble to finish!" ............................... Several Hours Later... Gaining access to the portal outside Ponyville had been a breeze; it wasn't like it was forbidden to go near it after all. The Cutie Mark Crusaders presented the 4 human soldiers on duty at the check station with their ID's from their last trip to Earth, drawing no more than a friendly smile and a nod of consent from the tall bipeds. They presented the final human, this one a grey-haired woman that Applebloom swore looked like Grannysmith minus the green fur, with one bit each. She gave the coins a cursory once-over, dropped them through the coin-slot of a steel strong-box receptacle, and waved them on towards the softly-glowing blue portal. As they neared the garage-door sized entrance, Sweetie Belle thought she heard one of the soldiers mutter that he could have sworn he'd seen those little fillies before...and it wasn't exactly the friendliest of mutters either. "C'mon guys, almost there," she grinned and hurried her friends towards the portal before the humans recognized and stopped them. In her haste, she missed the red knob on the side of the portal that one used to determine the destination on the other side, and as they stepped through the warm, shimmering, water-like surface, the unicorn filly sensed that something was wrong...very wrong. Toyko wasn't supposed to be so hilly, nor did she remember anything in the magazine about their being train cars in the street! A wide-mouthed bay crossed by a gigantic red-orange bridge that Sweetie Belle didn't recognize loomed in the West, while tightly-packed, narrow stucco houses crowded up against the road and towered over them. "So, we're in Japan now?" Scootaloo asked, her wide purple eyes scanning the crowed of people that passed by them near the portal station. Some merely glanced at them and continued on their way, having seen dozens of ponies before in the last few years, others, especially children, stopped and stared for a moment before being scolded for being rude and escorted away by their parents. "Wow, Ah kinda thought it'd be more...Japan-y," Applebloom scratched her chin and pulled the magazine out of Sweetie Belle's saddlebag. "Yeah, Ah don't think this is Japan, Sweets," the country filly tapped her hoof on the pictures in the magazine. "Tha writin's all wrong, tha colors are too dull, folks ain't bowin' and smilin', an'...them human's eyes ain't right either." "Whatcha mean?" Sweetie Belle cocked her head up at the people passing by. "Look, their eyes in tha pictures are all...squinty-like. An' nopony's wearin' a suit an' tie, either," she waved a hoof at the casually-dressed crowds, some of which weren't wearing much in the way of clothes at all. Uncouth, Rarity would call it. "Then where the hay are we?" Scootaloo flared her small wings and glanced about before they all three spotted the large greeting billboard in the portal-station at once. "Uh-oh..." Sweetie Belle muttered, glancing back in vain at the entrance-only portal. "I think we missed," she frowned as she read the large block-style words that covered the sign from top to bottom: WELCOME TO SAN-FRANCISCO .......................................