Going Home

by -Mazer


4: The Cutie Mark Crusaders

It was quite a while until I felt confidant enough to show my face back outside. After receiving the letter from my mother, I had retreated back to my bedroom as quickly as possible. I did not want anyone to see how upset I was. I mean, I was Pinkie Pie. I couldn’t be upset. I was the party pony of Ponyville. How would the others react if they saw how sad I was?

I sat in my beanbag watching as Gummy chewed against my ankle. Normally his cute little antics would bring my frown upside down but I was just to worried to smile right now. My morning had seemed so alive, so upbeat and now it seems like the entire world is crashing down upon me.

What made matters worse was the fact that my emotions were running wild. On one hoof, I was worried about my father’s health and on the other I was afraid of going back home. On the left back hoof I was debating on whether or not I should ask my friends to come along while on my back right hoof, I was concerned about Gummy’s well being as I knew that I couldn’t bring him with me.

Well, before I could do anything, I had to prepare myself for the journey back home. No matter how I felt, I knew that I had to obey my mother’s wishes. That was priority one.

I tried my best to distract myself as I packed my green suitcase (complete with pink spots, thank you very much!). I brought a few things that I thought would bring a smile to mother and father’s faces; some of my favorite balloons (deflated of course. I’ll inflate them there), a few bright colorful streamers, and a few of my picture frames to show them all the friends I have made here in Ponyville. I also brought my pink blankie and one of Gummy’s favorite chewing toys (a rubber dragon) to keep me company.

As I worked, I thought back to life on the rock farm. It was a very desolate piece of land that my great grandfather purchased for a bit and a song. It didn’t take ol’ granpa Pie long to discover that the land was, in fact, infertile. There was nothing outside of magic that would allow him to grow any plants. Due to the fact that none of my great-relatives knew any unicorns, they decided to figure out another way to survive off the land.

Thus the rock-farm was born. We used plows and shovels to dig stones out of the ground and then carry them from one end of the field to the other. It was there where we would then have the stones ground up into gravel to ship all over Equestria in order to be used for gardening, housing projects, and ceramics. Any gems we came across would instantly be sold to the highest bidder but gems were in rare supply so we never held our breath.

We were never well-off, my family. We struggled to live month to month and while we were never really all that comfortable, we weren’t suffering either. It was because of this that Mother and Father had grown up to be so strict. They wanted nothing to do with fun and frivolity because it interfered with work and used up what little resources we had. My sisters and I were taught at a young age that hard work and responsibility were the keys to life. As such, we were kept out of school to work and toil the fields. It was a hard life but a fair one. We needed to survive and survive we did…even if it cost us our happiness.

I settled my last picture frame into my bag. It was the very last family photo taken before I left home. Father and mother stood on either side of me with their stone-cold expressions chiseled upon their faces. They may not look like the most loving parents in the world but that was only because they never smiled. To those on the outside, they would seem like very cold-hearted ponies indeed when in fact they were quite loving and compassionate. They just didn’t know how to express it.

I zipped my bag up and grabbed a hold of Gummy’s tail with my mouth. I tossed him onto my back and skipped out of my room and downstairs. He clung to my neck with his gummy mouth as I made my way through Ponyville towards Fluttershy’s house. Hopefully she’d still be home and willing to watch over Gummy while I was away.

For the second time in the past hour I thought about inviting my friends to come along with me. I know they’d be welcome but to be very honest, I wasn’t so sure how much fun they would have over at the rock farm. It wasn’t the most cheerful of all places to be and I wouldn’t really want to damper any of their fun. Besides, it would only be for a couple of days so why bother? I am sure I can be fine on my own.

I stopped outside of Fluttershy’s cabin and knocked on the door. “Fluttershy!” I sang. “Are you still home?”

The door opened revealing not one pony, but three little fillies. I wiggled with joy at seeing my favorite little Crusaders; Apple Bloom with her apple-red hair, Scoot-a-loo who was currently covered in leaves and twigs thanks to her adventures on her scooter, and finally SweetieBell, looking more and more like Rarity every day.

“Girls!” I exclaimed while bouncing on my hooves. “What are you doing in Fluttershy’s home?” I gasped. “Oh no! Don’t tell me that something happened to her in the Everfree forest! Let me guess, you are forming a search party in order to rescue her from the brown-nose snoresboggle!”

Sweetie Bell and Apple-Bloom giggled while Scoot-a-loo raised a brow in my direction. “What is a brown-nosed snoresboggle?”

“A snoresboggle with a brown nose of course. I hear they live deep in the forest and try to capture innocent ponies. They then play horrible polka music to torture their captive before sending them to hunt down frogs for the snoresboggle stew!”

“Aw Pinka Pie, you are so silla!” Apple Bloom giggled. “There ain’t no such a thing as a Snoresboggle.”

“Is too,” I countered.

“Is not,” She giggled again.

“Is too, is too, is too!”

Apple Bloom fell onto her back giggling as Scoot-a-loo rolled her eyes. “Anyways,” she said rather loudly. “What’s up Pinkie Pie? If you’re looking for Fluttershy, she already went into the forest with Twilight. They won’t be back for a couple of hours.”

“Oh,” I said, disappointed. “Well that’s no fun. I needed Fluttershy to watch over Gummy and…”

“We can watch over him!” Sweety Bell exclaimed.

“We can?” Asked Scoot-a-loo.

“Sure! We’ve never taken care of an alligator before. How much you want to bet that babysitting animals is one of our special talents!”

“Ya!” shouted Apple Bloom. “We can take care of him.”

“I don’t know girls,” I pulled Gummy off my neck and set him down in front of me. “He can be quite a hoof-full. Are you sure?”

“Why of course we can. We are goin to be stayin’ here with Fluttershy all week so its not like we are goin to be alone in this.” Apple Bloom explained.

“All week?”

“Yeah,” Scoot-a-loo went into detail. “Fluttershy is going to help us find our cutie marks. Since Rarity is working on her next big fashion show and Apple Jack is busy on the farm, Fluttershy offered to let us spend the week with her.”

“Well that’s very sweet of her,” I commented. “But can she really watch over all of you and Gummy?”

The three girls exchanged a look to one another then swallowed nervously. “We’ll behave.” they promised. I didn’t understand what had just happened but I didn’t give it a second thought. I nudged Gummy over to the girls and nuzzled him. “Mama will be home soon, Gummy. So you be a good boy and be nice to all of Fluttershy’s little animal friends.”

He blinked his purple eyes at me.

“Alright girls,” I said, “You can watch him.”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS PET MOTEL SERVICE A-GO!” They screamed loud enough to be heard all the way to Canterlot. I giggled while giving Gummy one final nuzzle farewell. I turned to leave when Scoot-a-loo trotted up to me. “Where are you going anyways, Pinkie Pie?”

“I am going to visit my parents for a while.” I answered calmly, trying my best not to let Scoot-a-loo know how nervous I was about the trip.

“Ah, okay then. Have fun!”

“I’ll do my best,” I said while offering a smile. I watched the girls bring Gummy into Fluttershy’s home. My heart ached a bit knowing that I wouldn’t be seeing my favorite Gummy for a whole week but I reassured myself that I was a grown up Pinkie and that I could handle it.

Now all I had to do was make my final plans and head on home…