The three Crusaders, with their capes and plumbing tools, were surrounded by small groundhog-like creatures who called themselves Koopas, who were leading our trio of fillies to their underground kingdom.
“How do we git ourselves intah these messes?” Apple Bloom asked the others who both shrugged while stating, “I don't know.” Apple Bloom sighed and turned back to their surroundings, looking for anything that might help them escape, as unlikely as it seemed.
“Maybe we can talk to the king and get him to let us go?” Sweetie Belle asked hopefully, looking at the other two fillies.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at one another and shrugged, maybe they would get lucky. As the group of Koopas and Crusaders rounded the last turn of the tunnel, the sight before them left the fillies in shock.
The space opened up to a large cavern that was three to four stories tall (it was hard for the girls to tell, their captors were slightly smaller than them and everything was made with Koopa sizes in mind). In the center of the caverns was a large castle structure, with two towers and a very sturdy double door as the entrance. Surrounding the castle was a town made of one and two storied buildings, though there were more single floor places than anything. There were lanterns all over to provide light while everything seemed to be made of the same dirt as the walls and floor, making everything one color and deceiving as to know how many buildings were actually there.
There were other tunnels with more teams of Koopas coming from them around the kingdom's walls, and overall gave the young fillies the feeling of smallness and uselessness. They didn't resist as they were pushed along the road towards the castle.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were amazed at the kingdom before them. They looked all over as they were led to the castle in the center and were trying to tell each other about the different landmarks and things they saw when they would get told to be quiet from the guards. After the seventh time this happened, the two remained silent and annoyed that they weren't even allowed to talk to one another. Sweetie Belle had just been looking around, taking note of where they were and where they came from during the entire walk up to the castle.
As they neared the largest structure in the kingdom, the doors seemed to loom over the group. With more high pitched chattering from the leader, the doors opened slowly from the inside swinging outwards, revealing a very tall and long hallway and more guards.
All the guards, who were stationed every few feet, wore green armor and stood at attention while the group filed through. They were silent as they traveled down the long hallway, passing many doors and heading towards another large double door at the end, flanked by two more guards in sky-blue armor this time.
As they reached the doors, the red armored guard ordered for the tools to be taken away before turning to face the doors once more.
“Hey! Them's mah big brother's tools! Give them back!” Apple Bloom cried as she tried to keep a hold of her wrench.
“Yeah! We need to get those back!” Sweetie Belle yelled as tried to grab the hammer.
“What would you want with some old tools anyways?!” Scootaloo shouted as she tried to fly up and grab any of the tools that were being taken away.
With quick thrusts of their shields, the guards had the fillies pinned once more while some put the tools into a separate room. The girls became very sullen at losing tools that weren't even theirs and had a feeling that things were only going to get worse from that point on. They pouted the entire time as the guards turned towards the doors once more and led them forward.
The doors opened inwards to the room which was slightly taller than the hallway they just left and was much wider, though still filled with green armored guards. At the far end of the room was a large red cushion chair with a much bigger Koopa sitting in it, the chair raising him half a Koopa's height from the ground. He was as tall as the girls' head when they were standing on all fours and was more heavy set than all the Koopas they had seen so far. He too had the two half shields, but the one on his back had the spikes out already and the other part was resting next to his chair. The King (for who else would be sitting in such a chair?) looked down his nose at the fillies as the red armored Koopa stepped forward and addressed his king.
After some more chatter in the native tongue of the Koopas, the King roared in shock and rage.
“WHAT!? Plumbers?!” He looked at the young ponies with a fire of hatred in his eyes, which made the girls cringe from the sight.
“Please, yer majesty, we didn' mean any harm. We were jus' tryin' to find our way home. Please let us go.” Apple Bloom pleaded as the trio cowered from the large Koopa.
“Yes, please! It was an accident that we came down here at all, we promise we won't tell anyone that you're here!” Sweetie Belle added fearfully.
“Yeah, it was a total mistake. We promise it won't happen again.” Scootaloo tried to pacify the angry king, worried for her friends who both had somepony who would miss them.
“You are not here as plumbers? What is that sign you wear?” The king demanded, perhaps these fillies weren't here to cause trouble.
“Well, these capes are represent the Cutie Mark Crusaders! And we were trying to earn our Plumbers Cutie Marks.” Sweetie Belle happily explained to the king with a grin on her face upon seeing his rage lessen. However at end of the explanation he grew angry once more.
“So you are Plumbers! Guards! Take these, these Plumbers, to the dungeons!” The King roared once more, green armored Koopas surrounding the girls once more with the spikes already out on their shields, leading them back out to the hallway.
“What?! But we weren't doing anything! This is crazy!” Scootaloo exclaimed as she stood on her hind legs, trying to get away from the spikes without backing away from the king.
“Yeah! We jus' want tah go home!” Apple Bloom yelled as she fearfully looked at the king.
The King merely glared and watched as the young fillies were led out of his throne room and turned to his grey and black armored General, who wore a grey mask in the shape of a bird's beak.
“Make sure they are given the worse treatment and constant watch, throughout our history plumbers have always heralded disaster.” The King commanded as he pointed a paw towards the retreating figures.
“Yes, my liege.” The Koopa bowed low and turned to follow the group out.
The Crusaders were led back down the hallway, but instead of heading back outside, they turned to the right and went down a dark set of stairs.
“How much farther down can we possibly go?” Scootaloo asked the others as they eyed the stairwell.
“I don't know. Maybe they have too much time on their paws and they just keep digging.” Sweetie Belle asked with a tilt of her head.
“Beats me. Wonder wha' got the King in a twist; sure can't be our fault.” Apple Bloom looked at the others who nodded as well, knowing they did nothing wrong though that wasn't exactly what the king was afraid of.
“Silence prisoners!” The girls were prodded a little with a blunt shield, causing them to trip down the rest of the stairs. Luckily they were near the bottom and they didn't have far to fall down.
“Where are we supposed to put them anyways?” A green armored guard asked the red one who snorted at the thought of having to worry any more about the three ponies.
“Put them in with the Toad. Not like they could do much down here.” With a sharp salute, the guards led the fillies down the darker hallway, past rows of cell doors showing small damp rooms with no furniture in them and depressed and weary prisoners.
“In here, foolish ponies. In the morn, you will join the prisoner crew in digging the farthest tunnels. Don't even try to escape; there are no windows or any other ways out aside from where we just came from. And no speaking!” The red officer commanded as the Crusaders were pushed into a slightly larger cell that already had an occupant in it.
As the guards all turned and marched away, the girls looked at one another and then to the other being sharing their cell. He was a slightly smaller Koopa with a lighter fur coloring and wore no armor, showing that he was pretty skinny. He shifted a little under the scrutiny and glanced at the girls before checking that the coast was clear. The girls caught on and also checked around, once they were sure no guards were standing nearby, they came closer to their cellmate and started to ask questions.
“Who are ya?”
“Why are you here? You a spy?”
“What's your name?”
“Whacha done that made them fellers put ya down here?”
“What tunnels? Are they dark and scary?”
“Is there a rebellion and a way to escape?”
The Koopa was a little shocked and overwhelmed by the questions. He waved his paws to get the girls to be quiet while he tried to figure out the best way to respond to their many questions.
“My name is not important.” The Koopa started to explain slowly and quietly.
“Though most call me Toad, because I've been in these dungeons the longest.”
“Well howdy Toad! Nice tah meetcha!” The girls all took turns shaking one of his paws while Toad's eyes widened at how they seemed unable to keep focused or at least let him finish.
“Right. Anyways, we're down here because we don't agree with King Koopa's plan for surface domination.”
“Wait, what? Surface domination? What's that mean?” Scootaloo asked in shock, she didn't like how that sounded.
“Domination, the control or power over another or others.” Sweetie Belle pipped up, pleased to help her friend understand more.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes before realizing what the entire phrase then meant.
“Woah, wait, what?!”
“Wait jus' a minute! Ya mean that there King wants tah control over the world? How in the world would he be doin' somethin' like that?” Apple Bloom asked as she rubbed her temple, realizing that the problem was getting bigger by the moment.
“My little ponies! Please, allow me to explain!”
Three sets of ears flipped back in sorrow at having annoyed the Koopa.
“Sorry.” The trio intoned together as they sat in front of their cellmate, willing to try and listen for the explanation.
Toad sighed and rubbed his face with a paw, though he was glad the girls quieted down, he hadn't meant to upset them. He gave them a soft smile as he continued to speak quietly.
“It's alright. Just please, listen to what I'm about to tell you.
“The Koopa Kingdom wasn't always after domination over the surface. In fact, our ancestors came to live underground in order to avoid fighting. Kooper, the leader of the small band of refugees, led everyone away from the fighting between a being of chaos and the alicorn princesses. But we still had to defend ourselves, so we had come up with the shields that are still used today, as a means of both defense and offense at the same time, saving time, energy and resources.
“Over time, our ancestors grew comfortable living underground and took the name Koopa as the new name of our race in honor of our great leader Kooper, with the kings being King Koopa, which is more of a title than their actual name. Soon our population grew and we were losing resources. A few decades back, a group of Koopas went to the surface and scouted the land. What they found amazed the rest of us, there was no more chaos and peace reigned instead. Perhaps we could rejoin the surface world and no longer worry about our resources!
“But the latest king didn't want us to rejoin the world as subjects to a different ruler nor equals with other kingdoms, but as a ruler of all. He decided that it was time for us to strike when no one was expecting it after such a long time of peace. For a while now he's had us digging more and more tunnels, looking for the right route to appear from and attack.
“From what I've been able to hear, he has found a small village a few hours away from the alicorn's capital that he wants to capture first before moving onto the capital. He will stop at nothing to be victorious.”
At the mention of a town near the capital, the three fillies gasped as one. The king planned on attacking Ponyville!
“Come on girls! We can't let him get away with this!” Scootaloo cried as she stood up once more, clenching a hoof upwards.
“Yeah! We gottah protect our town!” Apple Bloom stood as well as she stomped once on the ground to emphasize her point.
“Yeah! We, uhm, we have to save everyone from the crazy king!” Sweetie Belle declared as well as she too stood up and nodded along.
Toad was a little surprised at the sudden exclamations, and was taken aback when the fillies began to thoroughly search their cell for anything that could help or provide a way out. After a few more minutes punctuated with shouts of “nothing here!” the girls sat in front of the Koopa once more, panting lightly from their sudden burst of energy and movement.
“Alright, so we can't get out from this cell from the inside. Is there anyone we can trust to get us out from the outside?” Scootaloo tried to reason as they looked at one another.
“No one knows where we are, remember? Ever since that first sleepover by ourselves, nopony checks in with us, and we all promised not tah tell anyone what we were doing anymore so Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon don't pick on us.” Apple Bloom said dejectedly as she looked at the ground.
“Well, Pinkie knows we were trying to fix her plumbing. Surely she'll find us?” Sweetie Belle asked with a hopeful tint to her voice.
“Nah, Pinkie Pie might jus' think we went and moved on after tryin' to fix it. We jus' got tah think of a way out on our own. Come on, we fought Timberwolves! We can beat this here bully!” Apple Bloom stomped a hoof as she tried to get the others to cheer up and start thinking of a way to escape.
The three fillies all put a hoof to their respective chins, deep in thought. Toad wasn't sure how to make of these rambunctious ponies who flip-flopped from being depressed to working on a way out.
“Wait! They said that we would be with others to dig right?” Sweetie Belle shrilly asked, a sudden light in her eyes.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at one another before looking back at the unicorn.
“Yeaaaahhh... ?”
“Well, what if we tried to escape on the way to the dig site?” The others' eyes also lit up at the suggestion, plans forming in their minds.
“Would the other prisoners want to try and escape with us?” Apple Bloom turned to ask the Koopa who was weary that the guards would hear any of these plots.
Little did the Crusaders or their new friend know, the guards would not be able to hear what was being said because of a pink guard pony. Pinkie Pie had found the fillies rather quickly as they sat in their prison cell and made sure the guards were distracted the entire time so that they wouldn't stumble on the planning session.
She had come down to the kingdom in her spy suit once more and to help blend in even more, she had rolled around on the dirt to get the same coloring as all the walls and buildings. Once she found the girls, she was going to take out the guards and break the fillies out when once again they became hopeful and attempted to find a way out themselves; making Pinkie Pie very proud of the them.
So instead Pinkie Pie hung from the ceiling and watched for any guards that may be coming. She used her no-squeak-suction-cup shoes to help stay up on the ceiling, with a clear view of the entire hallway.
“Well, there are others even in the guards who do not like the King's plan. If we could escape our chains, I'm sure we could get the others to help rise up against the king. We'll need to get the word out for when it would happen so that everyone would be prepared, but we can never escape these chains! There are too many guards watching us, and only one key which is kept by the Sergeant in charge of the guards who keep the prisoners in line.”
Scootaloo rubbed her chin as she thought.
“Hmmmmmm, what if we tried to escape while we were digging? Then we'd have pickaxes and a small tunnel to narrow down the number of guards coming at us.” Scootaloo suggested as she looked towards the Koopa who frowned thoughtfully.
“We'd still need the key to get the chains off.” Sweetie Belle pointed out as she looked at her friends.
“What if we got intah a fight and Sweetie Belle grabbed the keys off that there Sergeant while he wasn't lookin'?” Apple Bloom asked as she looked at Scootaloo, who began to nod along.
“Yeah, I'm liking this idea! Alright, here's the plan! In the morning, we'll all go along with the guards and head to these 'digging sites'. Once we get there, Apple Bloom and I will start fighting and cause enough trouble that the Sergeant will have to come over, which is when Sweetie Belle will try and find the keys. We'll try to help and distract him to give you plenty of time, Sweetie Belle.” Scootaloo waved reassuringly at the grey-ish white unicorn who had started to look worried about finding the keys.
Once Sweetie Belle nodded her agreement, Scootaloo continued to lay out the plan. Toad was in shock, these little fillies go from panicking to making a well-reasoned plan in moments.
“Alright, so after that, the keys will get passed around and once everyone is unchained and we're in the tunnels, we'll turn around and take them out! They won't know what hit them!” Scootaloo said as she smacked her hooves together threateningly.
“Right!”
“Sounds good tah me!”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Escape Artists!” The trio quietly yelled together in glee. Toad shook his head before turning to the wall behind him; they needed to get the word out fast.
He began to pull at a small section of the back wall and pulled a small square shaped part away, revealing a little bit of the outside, though it was near the top and too small for anyone to get out of. The girls watched silently as a pair of feet walked up and stood right in front of the whole, to which Toad then explained their plan of escape. As the feet disappeared once more, he put the small square back in place, making it seem like it never was removed to begin with.
“Hey, wait a minute! I thought you said there was no way out!” Scootaloo shouted annoyed, pointing a hoof at the Koopa.
“Yes, because this hole took me ten years to make, or so my friends on the outside tell me. So far no guards know about it, and since no one was able to think of a plan of escape and overthrow, it only helped to keep my mind off my current troubles.” Toad wore a sheepish smile at the shock and sadness in the faces of his new friends and allies.
“Oh.” Scootaloo slowly dropped her hoof to scrape it along the ground instead.
Toad gave a small chuckle before settling down for the night.
“Come my little ponies, we should go to bed so we will be ready in the morning to put our plan into action.” The girls nodded at this sound advice and laid down next to one another for comfort and warmth. Luckily they still had their capes and it helped keep them warm for the night.
The next day went almost exactly like planned. After a brisk wake-up call from the guards, a small breakfast of flat bread with some kind of jelly spread on it, and a quick check that all the prisoners were in line, they found themselves in a long chain of prisoners heading to the farthest tunnels to dig.
The fillies were able to guess as to which tunnel they had used to get into the Kingdom was based on the fact that they went straight from the tunnel to the castle doors, indicating that the one they would need would be four tunnels to their left.
As soon as they were given their cheap pickaxes and placed along the tunnel, they put their plan into action, with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo getting into a fight.
“Ah'm tellin' ya, ya hold the pick THIS way.”
“No, you have to hold it THIS way.”
“No, ya gettin' it wrong! It's THIS way!”
“No, it's THIS way!”
At this point, both fillies dropped their axes and started to resort to physical blows. While they both pulled their punches, they still had to make it look convincing to bring the Sergeant over. Luckily, they had enough practice that it was easy to cause a large disturbance to bring the Sergeant over, and while he stood over the two fighters trying to sort them out, he didn't feel the third filly search his armor for the keys.
The guards were well trained enough that they were not distracted by the fighting and kept an eye on their positions, while keeping an ear out in case their leader needed extra help.
Pinkie Pie, on the other hoof, was watching closely, seeing if they needed a helping hoof or for her to throw the extra pair of keys she had swiped to Sweetie Belle so that they could get on with the plan. She wanted to help while at the same time allowing the Crusaders room to grow and learn. Fortunately, Sweetie Belle found the keys in the middle of the shield on the Sergeant's back and snuck away.
She looked at the fighting pair and gave a rather large wink that had anyone been watching properly would have thought it was odd. Once the others saw the wink (an impressive feat since they were both still thrashing around), they slowly quieted down, wanting to make their act realistic.
As the Sergeant felt that the fillies were slowing down, he gave them a rough shake, causing both to become dizzy and stop fighting each other. Once he had their attention, he snarled a warning to them before dropping them onto the ground once more.
“If I hear so much as a peep from either of you, it will be the stocks and a beating! Do I make myself clear?”
The girls nodded sullenly as they looked at the ground before turning to their pickaxes once more and starting on their work.
After remaining a moment longer to make sure there were no other issues, the Sergeant moved on, never noticing that he was missing his keys or that those same keys were now being passed down the line to unlock every shackle.
After the last shackle came off, everyone waited a moment longer before turning on the nearest guard and subduing them. The Crusaders went for the Sergeant themselves, knowing that he would be able to order his troops about or get word out for back up. While Apple Bloom and Scootaloo distracted him, Sweetie Belle had went around the back and tripped him, making him lose his balance and his hold on the other half of his shield while he was stuck on his backside.
The girls knew they had to do something to get him out of the picture, and as they were spinning the Sergeant around on his back (he was at this point going too fast to get any words out) Apple Bloom had an idea.
“Scootaloo! Grab the biggest rock ya can find and we'll knock the feller out cold!” Apple Bloom looked at the peagasus who nodded rapidly and began to look at the rocks near the trio.
Once she found one that she could both lift and still work for the idea, Scootaloo managed to hover just a little bit with a large rock in her hooves as she flew over to the Sergeant. As the two others saw their third friend fly over, they stopped their spinning and held the Sergeant in place. As Scootaloo hovered at the top of the Sergeant, the others felt the need to look at his face as well. The three fillies gave sugary sweet smiles as Scootaloo dropped the rock on the red armored Koopa's head, knocking him out cold and keeping him out of the way.
Since they had gotten free so swiftly and expertly, the guards were subdued just as quickly and they all let out a cheer.
“Come my fellow Koopas! Let us take back our Kingdom!” Toad led the Koopas back down the tunnel into the cavern where more freed prisoners and normal citizens awaited them, to help with the riot.
Just as everything was escalating, Toad turned to the three young ponies and spoke loud enough to be heard over the roar of rebellion.
“Girls, you should leave while you can! My friends set up explosives at most of the tunnel entrances to cause trouble and to delay any attempts at escaping or continuing their current plans of expansion. We shall always remember the Cutie Mark Crusaders who helped us rebel against the false king! Go, quickly!” Toad gestured towards the tunnels along the walls, wanting to be sure the fillies understood what he was saying before turning back to the large crowd and leading the way to the castle.
“Come on guys! We gotta get out of here!” Scootaloo waved at the others as she turned to face the tunnel they would need to use. The others saved their breath for running, following along dodging around the crowd who were still rushing towards the kingdom and the castle in the center.
They ran as fast as they could while keeping a hold of the pickaxes, since they weren't sure if they needed them to fight off any guards. Though they did feel really bad that they had to leave Big Mac's tools behind, they would have to get him some replacements instead.
Any Koopa who saw the symbol on the capes as the young ponies ran knew of the Crusaders and the help they did for the repressed population, and in turn helped keep the guards away from the fleeing fillies. The girls didn't meet any resistance because of this, and were just barely able to make it to the right tunnel before a series of explosions began to go off.
They spared one look between each other before running down the tunnel, trying to put as much distance between the oncoming explosion and themselves. A large boom and a blast of wind, which propelled the fillies forward, the girls knew they now had no choice but to continue onwards through the tunnel.
As they came to the end of the tunnel, they were met with a surprising and disappointing sight, the end had been closed off. As Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sat down in sadness and to catch their breath, Apple Bloom stepped up and placed her ear to the new wall. She quickly stepped back and looked at the others with shock on her face.
“Gals, there's water on th' other side. We gottah try and dig through this here wall, there is the pipe beyond it, remember, it had that weird water?” Apple Bloom asked as she picked up her ax once more, while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stood and nodded along as they too picked up their axes.
Soon the girls were swinging away (and with much better aim this time) at the bottom of the pile of dirt. With every shift of the pile and cascading of rocks and debris, they grew more hopeful as a new thought occurred to them.
Perhaps they could get their Cutie Marks in Cave-In Clearing! As one they dug with renewed vigor, until with small cracking sounds, the cave-in cleared in moments with a rush of water taking away the loosened dirt and shocked Crusaders.
They had forgotten that they were originally trying to help Pinkie Pie with her plumbing, which had gotten to the extreme opposite state than when they first came to help. The pipe couldn't handle the extra stress and had blew into a strong blast of water pouring out of the sink pipe into the drains at a rapid rate, making the drain and pipe below it to overflow. The Koopas had noticed the increase of water and sealed off the tunnel for that very reason, though the Crusaders did not know that.
Though they remembered what may have caused this as the water pulled them along at a fast pace, allowing them only moments to get air before being submerged once again. As they were rapidly pulled to the end of the pipe, they all wondered if they would find out exactly was at the end, a big cleaning plant or a magical one.
Soon they saw a light at the end of the tunnel and hurtled out as though shot from a cannon. As they flew through the air (Scootaloo making a flying pose while the others just kind of waved their hooves around) they noticed that the pipe emptied out into a pony-made lake with a magical barrier on the end of the pipe.
Even though their mouths were full (they managed to keep a hold of the pickaxes somehow) Scootaloo could see Sweetie Belle's triumphant smirk and could just imagine her bragging about being right, causing her to roll her eyes in return.
Eventually they angled towards the upcoming forest and the Crusaders all braced for impact. As they first hit the trees, the axes dropped from their mouths, soon to be followed by the fillies hitting most of the branches and ending up covered in tree sap and pine needles.
Had they the moment or the thought to look behind them, they would have seen a black suited earth pony sitting up in the water stream as though it was an amusement park ride, sailing a shorter distance than the Crusaders sine she was bigger and heavier. Pinkie Pie was envious; the girls got to have the most amazing adventures! The pink mare landed in some trees as well, though she somehow remained unhurt, and once she came to a stop she stood once more and dusted herself off as though nothing had happened. She knew the Crusaders would most likely not do much the rest of the day and set off for the library, she had a feeling about why the water filled the pipe like it did and knew she would have to do some damage control.
After a moment of rest, the girls sat up from their positions and took stock of themselves and their surroundings.
“Anypony hurt?” Sweetie Belle asked as she looked at her friends and the state of their capes (which were relatively good, they would only need a good wash).
“Nah, Ah'm good. How about y'all? And where are we?” Apple Bloom asked as she looked at the forest around them.
“I'm good. I think we're in the forest to the north of Ponyville. Maybe a few hours walk?” Scootaloo said as she looked in the direction she had vaguely seen Ponyville during their impromptu flight.
“I'm ok too. And it looks like our capes and pickaxes made it out ok too!” Sweetie Belle began to get excited, they had a great adventure and no one was hurt!
“Good, 'cause we outtah get Big Mac some replacement tools fer the ones we took and lost.” Apple Bloom said as she stood up, shaking what pine needles she could from her coat. The others soon did the same and each grabbed an ax as they walked back to town.
After their long trek back to their Clubhouse (they had to put away their new equipment) and the longer amount of time spent cleaning up, they went in search of Pinkie Pie to explain what happened.
They found the party mare in the library with the librarian who looked a little put-out. Once the fillies entered the room and closed the door behind them the two older mares turned their attention to the younger ones.
“Hello girls. I hear from Pinkie Pie that you tried to help fix her plumbing.” Twilight said in a neutral tone along with a small tense smile on her face.
“Uhm, yeah. We got the water to turn on!” Sweetie Belle tried to think of how to make it sound not as bad as it really went.
“Yes, we noticed. It flooded Pinkie Pie's Lab.” Twilight frowned a little at the fillies before her, though she kept her tone neutral.
The girls' ears all flipped backwards in sorrow as they looked at the ground.
“We're sorry.” The trio intoned together.
“I know you're sorry. But please, the next time something happens like that, get somepony to help you!” The purple mare couldn't help but get frustrated with the Crusaders, worried for both their safety and the safety of everything around them.
“Come on Twilight! You know they didn't mean anything by it. You forgive them right?” Pinkie Pie nuzzled under the purple mare's chin, causing the mare in question to lose focus a moment before closing her eyes and sighing.
“Yes, I know. I forgive you girls. But please, be careful and if something goes wrong get somepony to help!” Twilight added sternly as the Crusaders perked up once more.
“We will!”
“We'll be real careful!”
“Yeah! What they said!”
Twilight couldn't help but chuckle at the eager responses as the fillies turned around and shouted their goodbyes while they went in search of a proper breakfast/lunch.
Pinkie Pie laughed as well, knowing exactly what happened and what the Crusaders meant with their words. But they were growing up and getting better every time, soon she wouldn't need to step in at all and they could go on their own.
The Crusaders turned as one and began the trek to Hay's Hardware to get the replacement tools for Big Mac. Hopefully nopony noticed that they had been missing and they could put the new ones back without detection.
After such a trying adventure, the girls were more than happy to slowly trot through town and out to the farm, where they enjoyed the rest of their day in their Clubhouse, eating a proper (and multi-coursed) lunch.