//------------------------------// // First Crusade // Story: Daienu // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Yaazi finished packing up her things at school, her grades still as high as ever. While school was fun, it wasn't quite as fun as when her Daddy instructed her back home. Then again, Daddy's lessons generally involved more explosions. Even so, she still loved going to school. The few students that still gave her a hard time for being different were outnumbered by the vast majority that were quite welcoming of her. And besides, she was able to partner with Dinky in class a lot, which made things even more fun. Smiling and laughing with Dinky, she raced outside. However, when they got there, she noticed a few fillies looking somewhat down. "Who are they?" she asked Dinky. Dinky looked over. "Oh, that's Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. They're a couple classes ahead of us. They're the only ones in their grade who don't have their Cutie Marks yet, so they banded together to find their Cutie Marks, formed a club." Yaazi blinked. "A club? How does bashing ponies heads in help with getting Cutie Marks? Is there a murder Cutie Mark?" Dinky's eyes widened. "Don't mention that around them. They've tried almost everything else, and I don't wanna imagine what they might try for that one!" Yaazi nodded, glancing towards her own flank. She wondered if she could get a Cutie Mark, being half Changeling. Her unicorn form might be able to get one, but she doubted if she could get one on her Changeling body. Still, it wouldn't happen if she didn't try. She ran over to them. "Yaazi! Wait!" Dinky ran after her. Scootaloo looked up. "Oh, hey! You're Yaazi, Twow and Fluttershy's kid." Yaazi blinked. "You know my parents?" Sweetie Belle giggled. "Fluttershy's well known around town, and everypony knows Twow by now. Makes me wonder why he thinks he still needs to hide in his lab." Apple Bloom smiled. "He's been a good friend. Kinda like an extra big brother. That makes us almost family!" Yaazi giggled. This was fun at least. "Dinky was telling me about your, umm, club?" "That's right!" Scootaloo said happily. "We're-" The three leaped up and shouted together. "THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" "Crusading for our Cutie Marks!" Apple Bloom finished. Yaazi smiled. "Can I join?" Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo looked at each other. "Huddle up girls," Scootaloo said. The three fillies turned towards each other, huddled up as they had a whispered discussion. After a time, they turned back. "Well," Sweetie Belle said, "if you don't have a Cutie Mark, I don't see why not." "The Crusaders welcome anypony trying to get their Cutie Marks!" Apple Bloom said proudly. "But crusading can be difficult," Scootaloo continued, "so first we're going to have to test your crusading ability." Apple Bloom smiled. "Head on home, both of ya, and tell your folks you'll be spending the afternoon with us. Then come meet us at our Clubhouse." "Okay!" Dinky said. "Where's the clubhouse?" "That's the test!" Scootaloo said with a grin. "You've got to find it. We'll be waiting for you there!" With that, the three raced off towards Sweet Apple Acres. Dinky looked towards Yaazi. "Well, we'd better go tell our folks. Think you'll have any trouble?" Yaazi smiled. "Doubtful. Mom and Dad have both been pushing me to socialize more. If all else fails, I'll just beg. Neither one of them can resist that for long." Yaazi giggled wickedly. Dinky giggled in return. "Mom won't be a problem. As long as she knows where I am, she's fine with me spending my afternoons how I want, as long as I'm home for dinner. As for Dad..." She rolled her eyes. "If I tell him I'm spending the afternoon with the Crusaders, he'll go off on a tangent about one of his adventures, talking about how he saved the world this one time. He won't even notice when I leave." Yaazi got into a racing stance. "Race ya. First to the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres wins." Dinky grinned. "One, two, three...GO!" With a flash, Dinky teleported. "Hey!" Yaazi yelled out. "No fair!" She raced off to her Mom's cottage, since she knew her Daddy was going to be spending the day there. However, when she got there, she found that neither her Mom nor her Dad were anywhere in sight. However, Angel was looking up at her with a pout. Smiling, Yaazi dropped her bags off and grabbed some food out of a cupboard for Angel. "Hey, Angel, would you do me a favor?" she asked. Smiling, Angel nodded as he began eating the food. "When Mom gets back, tell her I'm spending the afternoon with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, okay?" Angel swallowed convulsively, then nodded. Then he made a gesture at the area outside the cottage, and held his paws up in an X. "You don't want us to be anywhere near here?" Angel nodded vigorously. "I don't get why...but okay." Turning, she raced out to the Entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. She expected to see Dinky waiting for her there. However, it was several minutes before Dinky came running up. "What kept you?" Yaazi asked her, confused. Dinky stared at her flat eyed. "I wound up with my tail stuck in the wall. Then I had to wait for Dad to get back and modify the wall's phase variance so I could get out without losing my tail. Then I had to sit through a lecture on responsible use of magic. And now I'm going to be taking extra lessons with Twilight because I have 'untapped potential'." Dinky sighed heavily. "Not. Fun." Yaazi patted her friend's shoulder sympathetically. "Sorry about that. But you still get to spend fun time with friends, right?" Dinky nodded, smiling. "Yup! So, why are we here? How is this going to help us find the Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse?" Yaazi smiled. "Daddy taught me logic. The most likely spot for the clubhouse for those three is somewhere on the property of one of them. We've seen the Carousel Boutique: nowhere for a secret Clubhouse there." Dinky nodded. "And Rarity would never tolerate it, with how finicky she can be about her workspace." Yaazi nodded. "And from what I've heard from Mom and Dad, Sweetie doesn't really like spending time with her parents, so she won't have it at her place." "Which leaves Apple Bloom's home or Scootaloo's," Dinky continued. "Exactly," Yaazi replied. "Do you know where Scootaloo lives?" Dinky blinked. "Umm...no, I don't." She shrugged her shoulders. "So how can we search there?" "We can't. So we start here." She gestured to the farm. "Besides, there's lots of room here. Better place to hang out and do stuff. So we search." Dinky smiled, nodding. "So, what's the first step of the search?" Yaazi grinned. "The easiest one." She headed right up the main path. Dinky followed, a little confused. Soon, another pony came into view. Running up to her, Yaazi called out, "Miss Applejack! Miss Applejack!" Applejack chuckled as she turned to her. "No need for the Miss, sugarcube. What can I do for ya?" "Where's the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse?" Applejack chuckled. "You mean that old treehouse Apple Bloom and her friends fixed up?" She pointed out towards the orchard. "Just keep going straight thataway. Ya can't miss it." "Thank you!" Yaazi said happily, hugging Applejack's leg. Chuckling, Applejack ruffled her mane. "Well ain't you a sweet heart. Now you go have fun, you two. I've still gotta finish mah chores." Yaazi and Dinky ran off through the orchard. To fine tune their directions, Yaazi used her emotion senses to track the concentration given off by three excitable fillies. Finally arriving, they climbed the ramp into the clubhouse. "That was fast!" Scootaloo said, surprised, as they came in. "We haven't even finished making your capes!" Sweetie added. Dinky grinned. "Yaazi rules at hide-and-seek." Apple Bloom blinked. "Say, have we tried getting a Hide-n-Seek Cutie Mark before?" Sweetie Belle pulled out a scroll and unrolled it. She quickly scanned the contents. "Hmm, let's see....no...no...no...oh wait, here it is. October 17, last year. Apple Bloom, you were hiding under the front porch of your house, but got pulled away to do chores. Scootaloo got stuck in the rafters of the barn. I was it, and I never found either of you." All three sighed. "Well, it was an idea, at least," Scootaloo finished. "We might as well finish the capes and do the official induction." "Unless either of you have any ideas?" Apple Bloom asked hopefully. Dinky tilted her head in thought. Yaazi blinked. "Well, Mommy says Daddy enjoys playing god in his lab. Maybe we could get our Cutie Marks in that?" Scootaloo gasped. "That sounds awesome!" "That sounds dangerous," Sweetie said nervously. "Same diff," Scootaloo countered. "Looks like we're in agreement," Apple Bloom said. The three original CMC leapt into the air. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS GOD MODDERS! YAY!" "Come on!" Yaazi said happily. "Let's go!" She quickly led the group back to the lab. ------------- Once at the lab, however, enthusiasm had deadened. "This is that science stuff Twilight's always toying with," Scootaloo commented, looking at the lab askance. "Boring!" "I don't even know what to push," Sweetie Belle said, staring at the computer. "I thought yer Dad was a mad scientist," Apple Bloom commented to Yaazi. "Where's the electrodes, the tesla coils, and the brains in jars?" Everypony turned to stare at Apple Bloom. "What? Frankenstallion's a good movie." Yaazi tilted her head, confused. She was pretty sure the movie she'd watched with her Dad was called Frankenstein. She shrugged. "Maybe we could get our Cutie Marks in something a little more...exciting." She walked over to the weapon locker, turning herself into a young duplicate of her Mommy as she went. She placed her hoof against the scanner. Authorization accepted. Client Fluttershy granted access to Weapons Locker. As the locker opened, Yaazi turned back into herself. "How about we make things explode?" All four of the others grinned. Racing in, they each grabbed a rather large, wicked looking weapon a piece. Then they raced out together shouting, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DEMOLITION TEAM! YAY!" ----------- Hours later... Yaazi sat in her room, wilted in on herself. All five of them had received the talking to of their lives after their attempts at getting their Cutie Marks in marksmanship and demolition had leveled half the town. Thankfully, the town got half leveled often enough that it was actually fully rebuilt before the lecture had even finished. In Yaazi's case, that had taken the wind out of her Daddy's sails as far as lecturing her, especially when he saw how sad she looked, wilting in on herself under his words. He had wound up not even punishing her, just hugging her saying he was glad she hadn't gotten hurt. Her Mom, on the other hoof, had been much more firm. As such, she was grounded for a week. No playtime with friends after school, extra chores, and no dessert. She was also forbidden from ever touching any of her Daddy's inventions without his supervision. Still, it had been fun while it lasted, and nothing irreplaceable had been damaged. Perhaps the next Crusade would go better... ------------- One week later... "Well, it was fun, even if we didn't get our Cutie Marks," Scootaloo said as the group sat together, the two newest members now fully inducted into the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "And we got in trouble," Sweetie Belle added. "Nothing new about that," Apple Bloom countered. "But we still have to try everything. Anypony got any other ideas?" There was silence for a while. Then Dinky spoke up. "Umm...I'm a recognized user for the controls of my Daddy's time machine." They all stared at each other. Then grins spread across their faces. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TIME TRAVELERS! YAY!"