"It's like so cool!" Scootaloo shouted. "I mean, Rainbow Dash is going to be going on a camp out with me!"
Sweetie Belle was genuinely happy for the little Pegasus, even if she had spent the last two hours gushing about how Rainbow Dash was coming with them, to the point where even Sweetie Belle was starting to be annoyed.
They were at Sweet Apple Acres, waiting for Rarity to arrive with her things. Judging by the amount of packing that she'd had done when she'd kicked Sweetie Belle out of the Carousel boutique, it was going to take a long time. Not that there was space to fit it all in...
Rainbow Dash landed outside, and Scootaloo ran to greet her idol. Now that Dash could fly again, maybe Scootaloo would get out of the funk that she'd spent the last few weeks in. Silver Horizon had even noticed Scootaloo's mood, and she'd started discreetly asking questions about if Scootaloo really wanted to keep selling Party Powder. Sweetie Belle didn't want to think about what would happen to them if Silver Horizon decided that they really didn't want to sell Party Powder.
No, their sisters were the elements of Harmony. If push came to shove, Celestia would believe them over some strange pony. Maybe they could even help the evidence point to Silver Zephyr and his family. That's what they should have done, instead of making things worse by trying to sell their party powder.
Well, it wasn't too late to change course now. They could still make it look like Silver Zephyr had poisoned all of those ponies. It would take a lot of work, because Sweetie Belle couldn't remember if Silver Zephyr or Silver Horizon had even been at the party.
Wait, there were plenty of ponies that had seen them selling party powder. That would put a serious dent in their credibility. Well, maybe. Sweetie Belle wasn't sure. This kind of thing wasn't exactly her her of expertise. Well, actually it wasn't any ponies area of expertise. There wasn't a pony in all of Equestria that had ever pulled off a lie on the scale that the crusaders were now pulling off. Ponies might lie about little things, but they didn't tall gigantic fibs.
While Sweetie had been letting her mind wander, Rarity had arrived outside. She was levitating a suitcase along, while complaining to anypony foolish enough to get close how she was going to have to rough it with so few creature comforts
Apple Bloom and Applejack headed outside, so Sweetie Belle followed them. It only took a few minutes for the other ponies to split the remaining supplies between them, and they set into into the afternoon.
"I've been hearing bad things about this Party Powder stuff." Applejack said.
Sweetie Belle nearly jumped out of her skin at the mention of party powder. She hadn't thought about what they'd say if their siblings or any other pony became suspicious of them. In fact, there excuse that they'd been studying at Twilight's library had been a bad one. Why had they even felt a need to give an excuse? It wasn't like Applejack knew where they were at all times. Why, they were always disappearing on one of their Crusades.
Actually, the real reason behind them giving an excuse was simple. They'd been certain that everypony was instantly going to recognize that they were up to no good, so Apple Bloom had decided that they'd had to give an excuse. But, they'd been wrong. Nopony had been able to tell that they'd been doing something that might qualify as legally questionable, if not downright illegal.
So now, they had to deal with the fallout from having told Applejack a easily discovered lie. A lie that she might very well have already figured. What if that was why she was asking the question? What would they do? They had to think of something fast. What if they were being dragged into the forest so that Applejack could force them to confess? What if Celestia was going to jump out and turn them to statues at any time?
"I've heard that it killed some foal who only tried it once in Las Pegasus." Rarity said.
"You three wouldn't know anything about something silly like party powder would ya'?" Applejack asked.
"Nah, they're way too radically awesome, and awesomely radical to do something as silly as party powder. Right?" Rainbow Dash said.
The Crusaders walked on in silence. Sweetie Belle tried to get closer to Apple Bloom to try and work out a strategy. But, Applejack was too close to allow them to whisper.
"You know, I heard that party powder stuff rots out all of your teeth." Rarity said, continuing the litany of sins caused by party powder that her and Applejack had spent the last hour preaching.
Sweetie Belle wondered where all of these so called facts about party powder had come from. From what she'd gathered from Flim and Flam, they'd only invented it a month ago.
Was it possible for all of a ponies teeth to rot out in the course of a month, or were ponies just spreading random stories? Sweetie Belle wasn't sure that she wanted to know the answer. It was hard enough selling party powder seeing what it did to some of the ponies that had bought it, if was capable of rotting teeth, it would make it that much more difficult to continue their work.
Finally, Sweetie Belle was able to get Apple Bloom off by herself. They spent a few minutes discussing what to do.
"Well, it sounds like my sister just thinks that we're usin' that party powder stuff." Apple Bloom said.
Apple Bloom was the smart one, so Sweetie Belle decided to take her work for it.
"I say we do nothin'. If it looks like we need to admit to something, I guess we might as well admit to usin'. Just follow me if it comes to that."
Sweetie Belle wouldn't have any problem going along with whatever Apple Bloom wanted to do if things got really bad. At least Apple Bloom seemed to have a plan, which was more than could be said for either Scootaloo, or herself. Apple Bloom was already trying to solve the problem of how to talk to her, without Rainbow Dash hearing the whole thing. It was going to be difficult, because Scootaloo had been pestering Rainbow Dash the entire time they'd been together. In fact, if Sweetie Belle hadn't been friends with Scootaloo, she would have felt sorry for Rainbow Dash.
It was much later, and everypony was sitting around the campfire. Nopony had said another word about party powder. She'd talked to Apple Bloom, and Apple Bloom was already dismissing the incident as an attempt by their sisters into scaring them into not doing party powder. If that was the case, then it was an unnecessary effort. The Crusaders had no plans to ever try their product, ever.
The fire was starting to die down, and Apple Bloom had already fallen asleep. Sweetie Belle had half been expecting some kind of attempt to get them to confess. She'd listened, terrified as Applejack had suggested various campfire activities, half expecting the next one to be some silly sort of game where everypony had to tell some deep dark secret. Applejack had decided on telling ghost stories instead.
"Well, I guess that's enough for me." Applejack said.
She stood up, and walked over to Apple Bloom. She deftly maneuvered the little filly onto her back, and headed towards her tent. Rarity also headed towards the two story monstrosity of a tent that she was sharing with Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle followed Rarity to the tent. There wasn't much use in staying out here.
Sweetie Belle was surrounded by ponies. They were all shouting that she was a murderer. Even Bab's was getting in on the act, her partly decayed flesh falling out in clumps as she denounced her killer. Sweetie Belle backed away. Her accusers pressed towards her. She turned around, so she could gallop away from the scene.
She bumped into Rarity. Her hoof mutated into a monkey hoof, and she was holding one of the strange metal things from the videos.
"Is it true? Did you really kill somepony?" Rarity asked.
"Uh, uhm." Sweetie Belle muttered.
Her hoof was pulling hard on the metal thing sticking out of the bottom. Sweetie Belle didn't want to know what happened when she pulled it. Something told her it wasn't a good thing, or at least it wouldn't be good with the thing pointed at Rarity.
Something changed, and her hoof came back under her control. A shape took form next to her. It was Princess Luna.
"What is going on here!" Luna shouted.
Sweetie Belle wanted to know the answer to the same question.