The train was moving at a steady clip through the brushland. The sights were somewhat familiar to Babs as she stared out the window, much as she had before. She frowned a bit, considering the shifting landscape. It was kind of unreasonable to think that anything dramatic would have happened. Not like a jungle would grow up overnight or anything. Still, she was having trouble keeping her mind occupied to reduce her nervousness.
She stared into her reflected eyes with the obvious question settling into them. Why was she nervous? She was meeting up with friends, staying with family, and this time she was more than ready to stand up for herself if something went wrong. On the other hand she was also returning to a place where she'd built herself a bad reputation.
She groaned a bit, watching groves of scattered scrub trees and brush speed by. She'd gotten better about it since the Ponyville incident, but it was one of those sore points. Like still being a blank flank. Her tail curled its way to her side at that thought. She glared at the traitorous appendage. It took a little more willpower than she would've liked, but she did return it to its more passive state. Sighing, her eyes turned back to the setting passing beyond the window. She spotted a small caravan trailer in the distance, and wondered what it would be like just ignoring what everypony else thought, and what everyone else would say, just wandering from city to city to make a living.
And promptly snorted at the idea. The loneliness would drive her nuts. Might start talking in third person or something silly like that.
She dug into her bag, looking over some of the mail she'd been exchanging with the Ponyville Cutie Mark Crusaders since the 'official' Manehatten branch had opened. It was hard not to smile at the lengths they'd gone through. Alligator wrestling, even with a toothless alligator; skiing, down a gigantic cake; lumberjacking, which ended almost destroying a pony's house; crime scene investigators, for a missing duck; they always seemed to find the most ridiculous ideas to pursue. Or at least the ridiculous ones were the ones most ponies remembered.
She smiled, digging a little further into the luggage, pulling out her official Cutie Mark Crusader Cape, and slipped it over her shoulders. Maybe she wasn't as crazy as those three were, but she still felt a bit better knowing there were still other colts and fillies looking for their cutie marks.
Looking ahead she could just make out the familiar Ponyville station rising from the dirt, as well as some energetically bouncing blobs of white, orange, and yellow around a larger orange blob. Looked like the welcoming committee was in place.
"Next stop Ponyville station! Next stop Ponyville Station!"
Taking a deep breath Babs let her thoughts drift to simpler ones. She was about to get to hang out with friends, and spend time with delicious Apple family cooking. There was no way this could go wrong! With a huge smile she got herself ready to disembark.
***
"Babs!" A hugely grinning white blur approached before the steam from the door even cleared.
"Hey Cuz!" Quickly flanked on one side by a yellow shape she recognized.
"Yo! Welcome back." And an orange shape on the other side.
As the steam cleared Babs was entirely unsurprised to discover the Cutie Mark Crusaders smiling hugely at her, each armed with their own cape. Before she could even get clear, the Crusaders had dragged her into a hug.
"Augh! Hey! Come on! At least let me get offa the train!"
Babs flailed ineffectively for a moment, her smile betraying her intent as she returned the hug a moment later. Applejack smiled at the scene, reaching over to get Bab's luggage as the youngsters started chattering cheerfully. She was worn out, but in the good way that traveling miles with a cart after helping family could bring.
"-Applejack's been out of town and she just got back Babs! It was so lucky we ran into her on the way here!"
"Yeah! Cause now someone else can handle your luggage, and we can handle welcoming you back!"
"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle blinked before looking at Scootaloo. "Huh?"
Scoots couldn't keep her wings from fluttering with excitement as she leapt into the air. "We're going on a crusade! Right now! Cutie Mark Crusaders! Go!"
Applejack rolled her eyes as Babs was dragged away by the enthusiastic Crusaders.
"Be back home by dinnertime! And don't get covered in tree sap this time!"
"""We wooooon't,""" came the chorused reply as the three fillies plus guest vanished in a cloud of stampede dust.
Applejack rolled her eyes again with a smile. She'd heard that one before.
***
"Are you sure this is safe Scoots?" Babs adjusted the green and pink striped crash helmet on her head with a frown.
"Sure I'm sure!" Scoots grinned proudly from under her cyan helmet with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark emblazoned on it.
Sweetie Belle adjusted her paper white helmet with musical notes hovering around her sister's cutie mark. She tapped the four modified party cannons with a frown. "But pony cannonballs?"
The orange pegasus nodded enthusiastically. "We've got the net, we've got the cannons, and we're going to be helped by the best cannoneer in Ponyville!"
Applebloom sighed, adjusting her own apple cut-away view helmet. "And just who the hay is that going to be?"
"Hey Applebloom, remember how you told me never to mention your-"
"ForEVer!"
"Hi Pinkie!" Scootaloo grinned proudly at the pink pony who had appeared from seemingly nowhere in a nearby bush. Level 1 Pinkie Summon was still effective.
"Hi Girls!" The bubbly earth pony smiled hugely looking from one filly to the other, before she gasped loudly, looking over the party cannons. "Oh man! This is so cool, I knew you were going to do something with those party cannons you wanted to borrow but making it bigger like this means I could shoot even more cake! Or confetti! Oh oh oh! I could totally fit a clown in here! But clowns are scary, especially when they're being shot out of cannons at other ponies. Oh, and I think the clown would be scared too but-"
"Pinkie?"
"Yeah Scoots?"
"Could we ask you to fire us out of the cannons at the net down there? Pleeeease?"
Pinkie paused for a moment, staring at Scoots. "Are you sure this is safe?"
"With you shooting the cannons? I think we're safer than we would be otherwise."
Pinkie put a hoof to her chin as she thought about it, then nodded hugely.
"Okay!"
***
Pinkie struck a dynamic action pose behind the 4 cannons. "Canoneer, ready!"
The four fillies adjusted themselves.
"Orange Lightning Ready!" Scoots grinned proudly.
"Orange Lightnin'?" Applebloom sighed. "Do we really need code names?"
"Nah, I just like them."
"Fine, fine. Appleshot, ready!"
"Appleshot?" Sweetie Belle giggled. "Oh, um, Sweet Slug Ready!"
"Slug?" Applebloom peeked over at Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie blushed. "It's a type of bullet!"
Babs took a deep breath to steady her nerves. Even after reading the letters it was still pretty crazy to actually get caught up in one of these crusades. She put a hoof to her helmet and sent a silent prayer to Celestia that it would all work out for the best.
"Bad Seed Ready!"
"On our mark!" Scootaloo grinned hugely, putting her forehooves out in front of her. Applebloom and Sweetie copied her stance as they all joined in together! """Cutie Mark Crusaders! Pony cannonballs, YAY!"""
"Yay?" Babs barely managed to join in after the coordinated strike on her hearing before the cannon went off and the four fillies went flying, screaming the whole way.
"Oof!" Applebloom rolled slightly to the side as she hit her section of net, looking over to the other crusaders.
"Eep!" Sweetie landed with surprising grace on her part in the net, rolling expertly off in one fluid motion. She smiled proudly at her skill.
"Aw yeah!" Scootaloo took a rougher landing, her wings fluttering the whole time until she finally managed to untangle herself from the net, rolling down to join the other two crusaders. They excitedly presented their flanks, only to be met with the usual disappointment at still lacking a cutie mark.
"""Awwww."""
Sweetie blinked, looking around. "Hey guys, where's Babs?"
Scoots frowned joining in the looking. "She should be here by now. She didn't crash right?" Scoots ran a little back towards the cannons, where Pinkie was waving with a huge smile plastered on her face. "No, not back here."
Sweetie frowned. "I don't get it. I even added some extra powder since she's bigger than us. She should've gotten here no problem."
Applebloom blinked. "Extra? How much extra powder did you add?"
***
She was going to die. She was screaming and she was going to die.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
She ran out of breath and had to stop screaming again. Another deep breath, another scream. She was almost into town, and she was going to die.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Where were the pegasi? Wasn't that super fast pony Scoots was a fan of around?
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Babs was not the happiest of crusaders right now.
***
Spike sighed contentedly. Sure Twilight was off at another 'Princess' thing, probably just hanging out with Cadence and her brother while chatting about how they might improve their efficiency through one adjustment or the other. It would still be another two days before she got back, but he'd been keeping up with his chores and by golly, he was going to have pancakes for breakfast. Topped with a nice big ruby, and maple syrup. The ruby was carefully placed on a dollop of butter. He smiled hugely as he began to pour the syrup over the pancakes.
A massive crash rattled the treehouse as a screaming filly burst through the kitchen door, her unlikely angle bringing her outstretched front hooves to grip the pancake plate as she skid to a stop right where the plate once had been. Spike's incredulous stare lasted long enough for the tipping syrup container to spill sweet delicious boiled down tree sap all over the filly.