With the sun once more rising into the air above Equestria, the first residents of Ponyville began to stir. It had now been a month since Rarity’s return and since the mane 6 were blessed with perfect gentlecolts. However, it may have been a blessing for them; it was a nightmare for others. Particularly Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Spike. The new stallions hadn’t been accepted by them yet, and for some it was understandable, and soon they began to notice changes about the mane 6’s behaviour.
The weekend had now dawned across Equestria, and Applebloom was already to get going with her fellow crusaders that afternoon in their quest for their cutie marks. She would be out now, but she had let her room get into a terrible state over the week. She normally always tidied up after herself immediately, but there had been frustrations over the week. Guess with whom?
That’s right. Lasso, Applejack’s coltfriend. From an older Pony’s view, one would simply interpret this in terms of jealousy and fear of losing her older sister to this intruder. This may have been the case, but Applebloom wasn’t just thinking of that. She knew that she could be jealous of Lasso which had brought up most of her frustration however; Applejack had been acting weird of late.
Applejack had been getting up a lot later than usual. Completely unlike her at all. But more than that. Her most notable change would be her signature job. Bucking Apples. Not only were they only about half the strength of how she normally kicks, she also wasn’t on mark. By the end of the week she had several grazes on her hooves from missing her mark. She had even missed a tree completely on several occasions.
Of course Applebloom still wasn’t happy with Lasso. He may have been nice to everypony else, but for some reason when it came to her, he just sort of turned his nose up at her. And she swears every time they pass each other she hear him whispers, “Blank Flank.” Applebloom just couldn’t see why her sister would turn a blind eye to this.
More so though, she can’t believe Granny Smith let’s is slide. “She’s just in love youngin’,” she would say. “You git distracted very easily.”
‘Love smove,’ thought Applebloom as she put the last of her toys away. ‘Somethin’ ain’t righ’ here.’ However, there was one thing she was happy about. Her room was finally done. Now she could go out with her friends. They thought about getting there sofa movers at the ‘Quill and Sofa’. She always wondered why she only ever sold two things.
“A’ve done ma room granny,” she shouted. She was actually pleased with it. The room seemed to sparkle.
“Alrighty then. You can go off with yer friends now.” There wasn’t any need to inspect the rooms to see how clean it was. The Apples were terrible liars and you can just tell in the tone of their voice if they were lying or not. Applebloom was said to be the best of the liars in their family, but was only by just a slight margin and you can still tell if she was lying or not.
Further down the hall, she heard her older sister call as well. “A’ve done ma room Granny. Ah’m gonna go see Lasso now.”
Lasso. The mere name made Applebloom cringe a little. But it was a beautiful day and she was not about to let it get spoiled. As she went out her room, she saw Applejack descending the stairs, but also noticed that she left the door open a bit. In her mind, she always felt competitive when it came to tidying rooms. She was mainly at war with Applejack seeing as Big Mac’s normally too busy to spend any time in his room. Applejack always seemed to get her room cleaner then Applebloom. Looking into her room again it seemed to sparkle once more. ‘Ah haven’t seen Applejack’s room sparkle before,’ she thought. She was sure that. She decided to have a sneak peak just so she can mock her later.
As she opened the door though, she was greeted with a horrid sight, and a horrid smell. Applejack’s room was a mess. Bed sheets were all over the place, several bits of discarded cloths and, weirdly rope were scattered all over the place and the smell, Applebloom winced at it. She quickly ran over the window and opened it for a chance of fresh air. A mess frankly couldn’t begin describe the place. ‘How could Applejack say her room is tidy,’ thought Applebloom. ‘The pig sty is in a better state then this.’
She then realised something. Her sister, the element of honesty and is one of the most up front ponies in all of Equestria, had lied. To be honest it wasn’t that big of a deal in any normal circumstances. Applejack had lied before when Pinkie had her moment, and the other time was when all of Equestria had a moment. But neither was for her own gain. This was big, because Applejack hadn’t just lied. She had lied, well. Very well. Applebloom and Granny Smith actually bought it.
Now that Applebloom thought of it more, she realised that this was becoming more of a regular thing. Applejack had lied when they were bucking apple trees once, saying she did thirty Apple trees when really she had only done twenty-nine. She lied when a customer gave her the wrong amount and kept a bit for herself. And she lied when she said that she put in a new mane band to make herself look prettier for that colt whose name shall not be mentioned inside Applebloom’s head.
These things were more or less minor things but Applejack’s lying had gotten worst and worst ever since... Applebloom realised that Lasso had to have done something to Applejack. She thought she was turning him into, a bad apple. She had to tell her friends immediately.
Over at carousel boutique Sweetie Belle was washing the floor. She had made a mess the previous day when attempted to get her cutie mark in stitching and had only stitched Rarity’s bed to her curtains. Rarity was not even sure that was possible. The floor cleaning was but a mere punishment. Sweetie though had insisted though that despite her being known for being klutzy, that she in fact did not sow Rarity’s bed to the curtains. She wasn’t even sure, and she could burn juice, as well as turn toast into, whatever that thing was. There were only two things that she was sure of. One. Whatever the toast turned into had crawled away when they were tidying the mess away, (she thought about looking for it but she decided things could only get worst) and that she did not do it. Rarity didn’t believe her and the only other pony that was in the house was Emerald Wings.
Much like Applebloom, Sweetie Belle had taken a dislike to Rarity’s new coltfriend. For one thing she could not understand a word he said. ‘It would be nice for these foreign ponies could learn our language before coming over,’ she thought to herself. Rarity had insisted that the polite thing to do would be to learn his language. But she had argued that the more generous and easiest thing to do would have been for him to learn their language, but no. Apparently she now has to take Prench lessons. Not even the fillies and colts in the grade above her learned that yet. Instead they were taught about the Zebracan culture by Zeccora.
Another thing was that he kept on flaring his wings up and then essentially blinding everypony within a fifty feet radius. She even swore it did blind somepony when she heard a scream shouting “MY EYES!”
To try and prevent herself from going blind she had to borrow Scootaloo’s set of sunglasses that looked suspiciously like the set Rainbow Dash had. “That girl needs to get over her fan girl obsessions,” she said to herself.
There was one more thing about Emerald wings that really, really got under Sweetie Belle’s fur. It was when the two were forced to spend some time together or even when Rarity left the room for a few minutes. For reasons completely unknown to her, he always gave her dirty looks, and he would always say something in Prench so that she couldn’t understand him. She still can’t comprehend that how he was able to go on for so long without not speaking in Prench. Her train of thoughts were interrupted when she heard the door open. In an attempt to distract herself, she decided to see who it was. She peered round the corner and could not believe her eyes.
“Woooo good Morning Carousel Boutique. Sapphire Shores has graced your shop once Moooooooooore!”
It wasn’t the first time that Sapphire shores had come to Carousel Boutique, but this was the first time that Sweetie Belle was present. She adored Sapphire’s music and was proud that her sister had done the designs for her show. Now was her chance to meet her. She charged down the stairs at such a speed it would have made Rainbow Dash jealous. She stopped just a few feet from Sapphire with a huge grin on her face. “Well hello little filly,” said Sapphire. “Who might you be?”
“Hi I’m Sweetie Belle and can I say that I am a HUGE fan of your music I own all your records and know them off by heart do you wanna hear me sing?” Sweetie Belle had said it all in one breath that Pinkie could have been impressed by it.
Sapphire was taken aback for a moment due to Sweetie’s eagerness. But then again she had met more creepy fans before her. “Why not? I am looking for new backing singers.”
But before Sweetie Belle could begin Rarity intervened. “Oh I am sorry I’m late darling, I just had to do something upstairs. So Miss Shores, of what do I owe the pleasure once more.”
“Well Rarity do you know those dresses you made for a year ago.”
“Oh why yes of course. I cannot tell you what I had to go through to make them.”
“Well Rarity I was just wondering if you could redo them for the tour I’m doing. SAPPHIRE SHORES, SAPPHIRE DANCERS! The diamonds were fine but I was hoping you replace them with Sapphires. It would make more sense after all.”
“OF COURSE SHE CAN,” cut in Sweetie Belle. “Rarity has lots of Sapphires that she’s been keeping for a special occasion. I’m sure she can...”
“Sweetie, darling. The adults are talking,” said Rarity. “I am sorry Miss Shores but I am afraid my sister is mistaken. I have no sapphires available. So I am also afraid I will have to decline redoing the dresses.”
Sapphire was taken aback. Sweetie Belle on the other hand gasped in shock. She’d never deny an order, especially for someone as famous as Sapphire Shores. “Well then,” began Sapphire, “could you please tell me someone who may have sapphires available?”
“WHAT,” Rarity exclaimed. “Oh no, no, no darling. You cannot let anypony else touch my designs. They might not know what there doing and that would be the worst, POSSIBLE, THING!”
“Oookay,” said Sapphire. “Well I guess I’ll have to figure something else out. Oh well. Good BYYYYYE Carousel Boutique,” she sang.
“Ooh Miss Shores,” began Sweetie Belle, “you still haven’t heard me sing.”
“Aw sorry Sweetie maybe another time. But until then, have a free autographed record.” Sapphire handed the record to Sweetie Belle. Even though what had just happened did seem very suspicious, she couldn’t help but squee.
When Sapphire left, Rarity went to go and feed Opalescence; Sweetie Belle went to go a put the record in her room. She had to walk past Rarity’s room to get there but she didn’t mind. But as she past, she caught something glimmering within Rarity’s room from the corner of her eye. Normally this wasn’t that big a deal but there was something odd about this glimmering. Sweetie Belle had gone on gem hunting before with Rarity and like her sister could simply tell whether it was a ruby or a diamond. She had made mistakes before but they really didn’t have much of an impact.
The glimmer though was somewhat odd though. It didn’t look like a diamond or a ruby, or even a crystal. And according to her sister’s latest information, those should be the only precious stones in the entire boutique. Sweetie Belle dropped her record and decided to snoop around. The glimmering that she had seen came from one of bed side cabinets. Much to her dismay and curiosity, it was on Emerald Wings’ side. The new intruder had essentially moved in and was now helping Rarity to model her designs. She decided to look anyway. When she opened the draws, she was amazed to find that it was completely stuffed with Sapphire stones. Sweetie Belle had to cover her eyes as well because the light was being reflected of them. When she closed the draw again, she came to her conclusion. Emerald was stealing from Rarity.
This was the break Sweetie had been waiting for. All she had to do now was to tell Rarity and then his flank is off back to Canterlot. Then a thought occurred to her. Would it really get rid of him? Rarity cleans this boutique everyday so surely she would have caught onto to him by now. ‘So clearly she knows it, but it just doesn’t seem that to be very generous to other ponies. Wait... Generous.’ Sweetie Belle began to think back. Ever since that intruder entered there lives, Rarity seemed less and less generous. Again not a lot of ponies thought about this. Rarity was known to be a bit selfish at times. The whole bride’s maid’s incident came into mind. But this was much larger and she felt she had to tell her friends right away. ‘Something isn’t right here.”
Scootaloo meanwhile was on her scooter once again, trying to find Rainbow Dash. Once again she had promised to teach her how to fly and she was keener than ever to get there as fast as possible. It didn’t take long to find her because a) despite living in a world of Technicolor ponies, Rainbow still sticks out like a sore thumb and b) her snoring can rival that of a Timberwolf’s growl, so it didn’t take that long to find her. And sure enough there she was on her favourite cloud, sleeping.
“Rainbow Dash, Hey Rainbow Dash,” shouted Scootaloo.
After a series of mumbles and groans, Rainbow Dash poked her head from the top of the cloud. “Oh hey squirt. How’s it hangin’?”
“Oh it’s been great Rainbow. I’ve been looking forward to our flying...”
“Yarhhh. Oh Babe, what woke us up,” came a voice. Scootaloo’s pupils shrank as a came the head of a familiar brown Pegasus. Star Scream. “Oh it’s the pipsqueak.”
“I resent that,” went Scootaloo. “Pipsqueak’s at his grandmothers.”
“Yeah whatever. Hey babe, I thought we were goin’ da spend time together today?”
“Oh yeah about that.”
Scootaloo sighed with relief. Star Scream had come along to all of her flying lessons and every time she failed, he laughed at her. Well not today. Now it was simply going to be Rainbow Dash and...
“Sorry Scoots, but I did promise Star last night that I would spend the day with him.”
‘What?!’ “But you said last week you would teach me.”
“Sorry Scoots, but things came up. So see ya.” And with that, Star Scream and Rainbow Dash’s heads disappeared behind the cloud.
Scootaloo was dismayed. She slowly began to turn her scooter around and head off into town. She thought for sure that Rainbow Dash would spend some time with her. She couldn’t understand how any mare can stand a colt for 3 months straight. She could barley spend the school day with the colts in her class. But she really didn’t understand Rainbow Dash. If one thing was truly about Rainbow Dash was that she was always kept her promises. ‘I need her to make a Pinkie promise next time,’ she thought.
‘I still don’t get why Rainbow would do something like this. She normally would do things like this. She is just so awesome and so loyal.’ It then hit her. ‘Loyal. She hasn’t been doing that of late.’
Scootaloo was right. Rainbow Dash didn’t keep as many promises as she did and she wasn’t exactly loyal to them either. ‘Could it be something to do with Star Scream,’ Scootaloo thought to herself. She pondered, and pondered, and pondered some more. After a good few minutes of pondering she came to a conclusion. “Nah,” she said out loud. “Maybe I should just give Star Scream a try.”
Scootaloo kept going until she reached Sugar cube corner to meet up with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. As she walked inside, she saw her two friends chatting away, looking very serious. “Hey guys. Wassup?”
“Oh hey Scoots. We were just discussing our sister’s,” said Applebloom.
“And seeing as your here, we also wanted to bring Rainbow Dash into discussion,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Oh sure, what is it?”
“Do you think that they’ve been acting, odd of recent,” said Sweetie Belle.
“How do you mean?”
“Well, it’s just that mah big sister has been lyin’ a lot of recent. And I mean well. And Rarity has been keeping gems for herself instead of putting them on dresses.”
“And we think it has something to do with their colt friends. Tell us Scoot, has Rainbow Dash been acting funny, ever since Star Scream came into the picture.”
“Well, now that you mention it,” lied Scootaloo, who noticed it almost immediately. “But, I’m sure that Star Scream is just so awesome. I’ve been thinking about getting to know him.”
“Scootaloo, don’t you think that Rainbow Dash has been acting a little, odd lately,” questioned Sweetie Belle.
“Not really.”
“Haven’t ya’ll noticed that Rainbow Dash hasn’t been doing things she normally does,” questioned Applebloom.
“Well,” began Scootaloo acting more nervous, “she has been sleeping a lot more than usual, and, she still hasn’t taught me to fly like she promised. And I suppose she has been a little...”
“Un-loyal,” finished Applebloom. “As in loyalty. As in the element that Dash represents.”
“So you’ve noticed it as well huh?”
The three girls turned their heads to the new voice. There at one of the table sat Spike, with the local paper and a gem cupcake. “Spike?”
“The very same. And I’ve been over hearing you have noticed changes with Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack. I’ve been having the same issues with Twilight.”
“What you mean Spike,” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Well for one thing she seems to be neglecting me more and more now that she’s spending more and more time Borealis. There have also been times that when she’s talked to me when all of a sudden; she blanks out for few seconds and changes topic.”
“Now that you mention it Spike,” said Sweetie Belle, “Rarity’s been doing that blanking out thing as well.”
“And Applejack,” put in Applebloom.
“And also,” continued Spike, “I’ve been noticing what she’s been reading. And it does scare me.”
“What would that be,” asked Applebloom.
“She’s been reading a load of old scrolls that date back even further then Star swirl the bearded. And some of the things I am not too happy with. I don’t even know where she got them from.” Spike then leaned in closer. “Girls, I think that there is something wrong with the elements of harmony.”
“Oh for Luna’s sake,” stated Scootaloo. “I haven’t heard such crud in my life. The only reason you are noticing this is because they are way too normal. You need to do a proper comparison with somepony who is weird all the time. Somepony who does something out of left field. Somepony like...PINKIE!”
The others look up to see Pinkie just coming through to head out. “Hey, Pinkie Pie,” shouted Scootaloo. As Pinkie walked towards, she whispered to her friends and the drake. “Pinkie laughs at all kinds of jokes. So I’ll tell her the most overused joke of all time. Hey Pinkie, wanna hear a joke.”
“I don’t see why not,” she replied.
“Right. Why did the Chicken cross the road?” She paused. “To get to the other side.”
Scootaloo held a big grin on her face, hoping to prove she was right. All she had to do was to have Pinkie laugh. “That’s not funny.” That line left the three ponies and dragon in shock. Pinkie Pie, not, laugh at a joke. They knew it was terrible, but even a pony like Pinkie would laugh at it. “Well then, I’m off to go see Hokey. We’re going to have out 1 month anniversary party. Hehehehehehehe,” she giggled and left.
Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Spike all turned to Scootaloo, who was still in a state of shock, just silently said, “She didn’t laugh.”
Later after Scootaloo had come out of state of shock, the four of them were walking through the market, and Scootaloo was still saying that nothing was wrong. “Ya can’t be serious Scoots,” said Applebloom.
“The evidence is staring at you right in the face,” said Spike.
“Look, I know that was not the result I was expecting, but I reckon that joke has gotten so old, that even Pinkie is even sick of it. I have a much better one anyway. An ape walks into a bar...”
“Enough with the bad jokes,” said Sweetie. “We now know that something is wrong with the element bearers.”
“Ugh. Would you guys just be quiet about it? Anyway, it’s not like Fluttershy has changed at all.”
“That’s because she rarely seen now,” said Spike. “She pretty spends all her time in her cottage with...”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!” The four of them stopped when they heard the ear piercing screen as they saw a salespony running towards them, fear in her eyes. “THE SPIDERS! THE SPIDERS! GET THEM AWAY GET THEM AWAAAAAAAAYY!”
“Sheesh, how over dramatic,” commented Lilly.
“What was that about?”
“Ah dunno Spike,” said Applebloom, “but ah think it has something to do with Fluttershy and Blue Muscle over there.”
Sure enough walking away from the tomato stand was Fluttershy and Blue Muscle walking away from the tomato stand. The cutie mark crusaders were well aware of Blue Muscle’s special talent, but he didn’t seem to be sorry for it. Neither did Fluttershy. The 4 of them decided to go and see what’s what. “Hey Fluttershy,” called Applebloom. “Wha’ happened with that sales pony?”
The two of them had to stop seeing as the three girls and dragon had stepped in front of them. “Oh nothing,” said Fluttershy.
“Really,” said Sweetie Belle. “Well what was going on with that sales pony then?”
“Well, she put the price up of tomato’s again claiming that their crop was largely eaten by parasprites. Blue Muscle though was able to get them down to the correct price again.”
“But I heard that there crop was eaten by parasprites,” said Scootaloo.
By now Fluttershy was getting annoyed by all these questions much to Spike’s surprise. Even more worryingly, Blue Muscle had noticed this as well, and was beginning to snort. The Girls backed down. Blue Muscle may have been a big wos, but they were well aware to not get on his bad side. “Calm down Sweetie,” said Fluttershy to him. “There just curious.”
And without as so much as a good bye, the two of the trotted off back to Fluttershy’s cottage. It was at this point, Scootaloo finally conceited. “Alright, something is definitely going on around here, and we need to stop it.”
“But how,” asked Applebloom.
“I’ll tell you how,” said Spike. He gathered the four fillies in for a huddle. “Tomorrow, we follow the four of them as much as we can. Find out about them more and see what they get up to when their girlfriends aren’t around.”
Applebloom then gasped. “You know what tha’ means girls?”
The two of them then gasped. “Oh sweet Celestia no,” said Spike.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER SPIES YAY!!!”
“Ahem,” said Spike.
“Oh right. Cutie mark crusader spies yay,” they whispered.
“AHEM.”
“Oh right. Cutie mark crusader and Spike spies yay,” they whispered once more.