"Are you really sure you're okay?" Spike was still sporting a raised eyebrow as Babs nursed her panic and throbbing head with an ice-pack. She was going to need a bath after this to get the syrup off, but she was alive. She was alive!
"I'm fine, I'm fine, thanks. I just. Geez! Even after reading the letters, I didn't think that crusade would go so wrong!"
"Crusade? Oh boy. Yeah, the Cutie Mark Crusader's plans rarely work exactly as intended."
Babs looked around the kitchen for a moment, before peeking out into the main foyer of the library. She winced a bit seeing that her crash had knocked several books off their shelves. "Do you have a lot of trouble with their crusades?"
"Nah. But they always try too hard, which means no matter how innocent an idea starts, it always goes off the rails. What were they.. err.. you all doing?"
"Pony Cannonballs. Scootaloo's idea."
"Yeah, that sounds about right. Well, I don't know about you, but I have a late breakfast getting cold, so if you're sure you're okay, I'm gonna eat."
"I-I should really help you clean up, this mess is my fault."
"Oh no you don't, not while you're still covered in syrup. If you want to help you can go take a bath upstairs first. Twilight would kill me if her books got covered in syrup, and I am her number one assistant."
"R-right. Thanks, uh?"
"Spike, and no prob. If the crusaders stop by I'll let them know where you are."
Babs nodded heading upstairs. It took a moment to find the bathroom, but using a bathtub was rarely a feat. The filly settled into the warm water and started scrubbing at her fur.
***
"Babs? You mean you're Applebloom's cousin?"
"Yeah!" Babs grunted, picking up another heavy tome. It was no wonder these larger volumes had fallen down, from the look of things several of them barely fit on the shelves. She gave the title a curious look. 'Learning to Read, a Pictographic Guide'. There was a picture of somepony puzzled, then somepony reading under the title, giving a vague if unsatisfactory explanation of what was going on. Babs raised an eyebrow at the book, handing it up to Spike on a ladder.
"The one who was doing the bullying?"
"Uh, well." Babs nodded slowly. "Yeah. I mean, I get now that it wasn't a great idea, but..."
"Hey, I'm not blaming you or anything. Sometimes you get so caught up in what you think other people want that you don't pay attention to your own wants. And from what I heard you'd been getting bullied in the first place, so you were trying to dodge that again."
"Y-yeah. So does Applejack bring up a lot of stories?" Babs handed up a copy of 'Super Unnaturals: Magical Ingredients Organized by Potency.' It was dust covered from lack of use.
"Her, Pinkie Pie, the Crusaders, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and" Spike sighed happily, "Rarity. Twilight's pretty much the go-to mare for helping out around here. Heh." Spike couldn't keep the pride out of his voice. "Probably why she's the Princess of Friendship."
"You have a Princess in Ponyville?!" Babs noted her jaw had dropped. "When did that happen?!"
"Oh, a couple weeks ago, now. A few things happened. Twilight really doesn't like to brag." Spike's grin however, implied he did.
Babs grumbled, picking up another oversized book to avoid the obvious questions. 'Advanced Levitation Techniques for Earth Ponies.' Curious, she flipped it open, only to find the pages blank. "What the hay?"
"Huh? Oh yeah." Spike rolled his eyes. "Must be one of the books from Discord's last prank. Let me get that."
"Discord?" Babs blinked as Spike retrieved the tome, walking it over to the kitchen doors, simply creating a new stack for it there. "Ancient spirit of stuff goes crazy? Scary story?"
"He's," Spike struggled for the word, "better now. Fluttershy keeps an eye on him, but he still likes to pull pranks."
Bab just stared at the dragon, unable to fully process that thought. "This town is completely crazy."
"You're not gonna get any argument from me."
"So Pinkie Pie."
"Yeah?"
"She was handling the cannons."
Spike nodded as he climbed back up the ladder. Babs handed up another book. "Makes sense. She has a lot of practice with her party cannons. And you'd be a lot safer with her doing it."
"Scoots said something like that. What are you talking about?"
Spike blinked, looked at Babs, took a deep breath, let it out, frowned, pointed with a finger, dropped it, and finally shrugged. "She's Pinkie. We don't know how she does it, but she's really good at what she does. And things work-" he wiggled a flat hand back and forth "-sort of sideways when she gets involved. Probably why your landing was a lot softer than it should've been."
"But that-"
"Doesn't make any sense, we know. Twilight tried to figure it out, but couldn't find any clues, and after a while you just can't help but smile at her."
Babs sighed, and wondered if she should just spend the rest of her stay at Sweet Apple Acres. She handed up another volume of paper and ink, looking around. "Hey! Looks like we're done!"
The front door slammed inwards, sending all the reshelved books to the floor, and one surprised young dragon off his ladder. He landed on Babs with a mutual oof of pain.
"""CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS PONY TRACKERS, YAY!"""
After the tree stopped shaking, the three crusaders helped Babs and Spike to their feet, giving Babs a triple load of sheepish grins.
"You're okay!" Sweetie looked relieved.
"We've been lookin' everywhere for ya!"
"Didja get your cutie mark? Huh?" Scootaloo's grin quickly resumed a bit of cocksure energy.
Babs frowned. "No, I didn't. And why'd I get shot all the way into town?"
"Sweetie overdid it." Scootaloo nudged the unicorn filly, earning a blushing squee and a smile.
"Good thing Pinkie was on duty, though." Applebloom nodded at Sweetie's comment.
Babs decided not to question that logic, looking around the freshly ruined library with a sigh. Spike was grumbling as he started surveying the damage as well.
"We just finished picking up here." Babs couldn't keep the annoyance out of her voice.
Sweetie looked around confused. "Well it doesn't look like you did a good job. Want some help?" She smiled happily at the mildly annoyed Babs.
Spike rolled his eyes. "As long as this doesn't turn into another crusade. You've already tried being library assistants."
"Oh yeah." Applebloom looked surprised.
Scootaloo grumbled. "Aw man!"
Sweetie smiled hugely. "Well then, this time we don't have to do it fast!"
The other two crusaders shrugged and nodded at that logic. Babs rolled her eyes and resumed helping Spike with re-shelving the books.
***
The girls trotted casually towards Sweet Apple Acres, still chattering.
"You flew all the way into Ponyville? And nopony caught you?" Applebloom looked shocked at the news.
"I lost track of how many times I needed to stop screaming, but yeah. I figure I had enough airtime to get noticed. And was certainly loud enough." Babs shuddered a bit.
Scootaloo pondered. "I heard something was up with the Everfree weather systems again. Big deal of some kind or another. Something about moist rising air and falling cold dry air." She managed to pull her thoughts together, clapping one hoof into the other. "Tornadoes! Right! The weather patrol is on full alert, and all other fliers are on standby. But I'm pretty sure there should've been someone left to catch you."
"Unless something happened." Sweetie looked ahead wide eyed.
"Like wha-" Applebloom and Babs both stared with dropped jaws at the scene unfolding before them.
Sweet Apple Acres was a war zone, piles of apples surging behind hastily erected wooden walls. Several unfamiliar trees were scattered across the landscape, the Apple Family armed with the helmets they had worn during the parasprite infestation. Ponies rushed constantly back and forth as the tide of apples spread outwards from a slowly growing number of trees in the east fields. Every bushel basket was full, the barn was threatening to burst, the home was visibly full past the windows with apples, and there were ponies rushing baskets, buckets, and barrels of apples out of the way as Applejack barked orders.
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow at the madness. "At least it's not our fault this time."