//------------------------------// // Prelude 1/4 // Story: My Little Black Ops // by Kaelzoroden //------------------------------// “That's it Sweetie Belle, stay focused...” Rarity watched with a smile on her face as her little sister concentrated. The sputtering light-pink aura surrounding the plate was wobbling, but the plate was staying in place several inches off the table. Sweetie Belle, her horn glowing with a matching light, had her eyes shut and her face screwed up as she struggled to keep the plate afloat. “Rarity... I'm losing it!” The light partially flickered out, and the edge of the plate dropped. “Alright Sweetie, lower it gently, try to keep it...” She trailed off as she watched. The plate was beginning to spin around the point that was still glowing, slowly at first, but with increasing speed as the little unicorn held her concentration. It quickly became a blur, spinning out of control as Sweetie Belle clenched her eyes shut in focus trying to stop it. She let out a yelp as her horn sparked brightly before going dark, the little filly toppling backward as the plate whizzed over Rarity's head and crashed into the wall. “...Sorry.” Rarity shook her head. This was why she wasn't using the good plates. Not anymore, at least. ------------------------ The next day saw the Crusaders at the clubhouse before the sun had finished clearing the horizon. “So, what's the plan fer crusadin' today?” Scootaloo shot a smile at Apple Bloom before pulling a rolled up piece of paper from her bag. “Today, I'm thinking...” she unrolled the paper with a flourish. “Cutie Mark Crusader freerunners!” The paper was a map of Ponyville, with a dotted line leading from a poorly-drawn representation of the crusaders to various buildings. Buildings that, incidentally, happened to have rooftops that were rather close together. “Isn't this like when we tried to be Cutie Mark Crusader re-roofers though? I think we would have gotten a Cutie Mark for climbing around on rooftops by now if we were gonna get one.” Scootaloo smiled and shook her head at Sweetie Belle. “Last time we were just climbing up and hammering on the roof. This time it's all about speed and control!” She jumped and gave a brief flutter for emphasis before falling back down. “It'll be totally awesome, and we'll get our Cutie Marks for sure!” She turned to look at Apple Bloom, who'd been quiet since she outlined her idea. “Well what do YOU think about it? Pretty cool, huh?” Apple Bloom took a moment to respond, staring at the map with her chin on her hoof. “Is this that map I made when we were tryin' ta be Cutie Mark Crusader cartographers?” At this, Scootaloo gestured to the corner that was currently occupied by a rather large mound of papers. “Yeah, we're still working through them. Why?” “Uhh... no big deal or nothin'. I just mighta drawn some of the buildings the same is all...” Looking at the map, it appeared that the first three buildings were painstaking replicas of those on the edge of town closest to the hideout. Every other building in Ponyville was drawn as a box with a pointy roof, a door, and a chimney. Even the library. “...Rats, I was counting on that being the easy part, since all those houses are the same height.” Apple Bloom just sighed, and spoke up again. “Well it's better'n nothin, and we're still banned from using the Acres on account of the whole Cutie Mark Crusader rave host thing, so I guess it's worth a shot. Lemme just grab the helmets.” Scootaloo responded with an ear to ear grin. ------------------------ Later, on her back forty feet in the air, Scootaloo reflected back on to where exactly her brilliant plan had gone off the tracks. It had started out fine, beginning with the three of them clambering onto the roof of a building just outside the town hall. Things had gone swimmingly as they managed to jump to the next roof over, even though Apple Bloom had needed to pull Sweetie Belle up. Things had started to go a little off when they accidentally crashed through that one window into somepony's living room, but had gotten back on course as Scootaloo led the charge out the open window on the other side. No, the point where things probably started to go haywire was when they landed in that wheelbarrow somepony had left in their upstairs balcony. They had managed to keep it upright as they rattled down the roof, trailing loose shingles in their wake, but wheelbarrows are notoriously hard to control while the user is in front of the handles rather than behind them. The weathervane they hit became an impromptu figurehead for the craft; they arced out over the street and cleared several market stalls. Even then, the day might have been salvaged if they hadn't plummeted directly towards a certain purple Unicorn who, with a reflexive spell, bounced them up as though they had hit a trampoline. Yes, that was probably where things got well and truly out of control. Now beginning their descent from the bounce, the screams of her friends snapped Scootaloo back to the present. Well it may not have been their fault that they had been flung into the air, but darn it she thought, I'm not a Pegasus for nothing! Buzzing her wings, she managed to push herself sideways through the air to grab her friends hoofs. She'd never managed to fly before, but it was now or never. Scrunching her eyes shut, she buzzed her wings harder than she could ever remember. Slowly, she felt the pull of gravity shift, until it felt like she was ascending. Opening her eyes, she wondered for a moment why the sky was underneath her. And then her world went dark. She felt like she was being crushed. She couldn't see, and for a terrifying moment she couldn't breathe either. Slowly though, a sliver of light pierced her vision, and her lungs allowed her to pull in a deep breath. As she opened her eyes, she saw her two friends on top of her, unconscious but unhurt. Looking around, she expected to see the ruined debris of something they crashed into, or else a unicorn who must have caught them. All she saw was a few orange feathers though, along with an otherwise unoccupied section of packed dirt road. She let her head thunk back onto the dirt, groaning a little. As she did, Apple Bloom stirred and opened her eyes. “S... Scoot? Ya'll right?” As Scootaloo opened her mouth to tell her that she hurt all over, she found herself in a coughing fit instead. It was enough to roll Sweetie Belle's still unconscious form off of her while Apple Bloom stepped off. After a moment, it subsided. Scootaloo looked down, now able to see the damage that her friend's bodies had been covering. Or rather, the lack of damage. She hurt like she'd stepped in front of the Canterlot Express, but she didn't look bad at all. Her back felt bruised, but an experimental twitch of her wings and stretch of her legs showed that nothing was broken. She pulled herself up, groaning a little as she did so. “Okay, Cutie Mark Crusaders Freerunners might not have been such a hot idea.” She looked up, and realized that they had cleared Sugar Cube Corner with their final bounce. “Apple Bloom, did you see anypony help us out there? Unicorn magic, or something?” Apple Bloom just shook her head. “Nope, just remember you grabbin' us, then pullin' yerself under us. We both landed on you when we hit, I think we'd be a might more hurt if you hadn't been in the way! Speaking o' which, I'm surprised you're standin'; I would have thought that after that-” She was interrupted by a light-pink light from where Sweetie Belle lay. She was still unconscious, but her horn was glowing, along with a matching light across her rear legs. As the other crusaders watched, her back end lifted a few inches off the ground and started lazily rotating around her head, pivoting her slowly in place as her head lay on the dirt. She mumbled something to herself about Rarity and mud, as Apple Bloom looked back at Scootaloo with a smile. “Let's figure this out back at the hideout.” Biting Sweetie Belle's tail, they set off for the hideout, leaving two trails of hoofprints and the mark of something being dragged.