//------------------------------// // Cheerilee // Story: Mistakes Have Been Made // by PureLogic //------------------------------// "AH, MAN! WHY WON'T THIS THANG WORK?" Applebloom yelled dramatically to her friends, while beating the machine brutally with her hooves. Sweetie Belle shrugged, "I dunno, but I'm not sure that hitting it will help." "Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know!" Scootaloo jumped excitedly. "Try kicking it!" "See, Applebloom! Scoot's thinking outside of the box!" "But, how do I kick it if it's on a table?" Applebloom asked. She couldn't buck it, because she was sure that it would break the strange device and she couldn't risk getting Sweetie in trouble for breaking her sister's machine. Even if it is just a huge, boxy, bully that nopony even likes, and it should just leave because it is broken and won't work! "Duh! Just, like, jump on the part on the ground!" "Thanks for that smart tip, Scoot," Applebloom said sarcastically. But she jumped on the floor pedal anyway. To her surprise, the idiotic white box of doom actually started! For about a second. "Hey! Why did it stop? SWEEEEEEEETIIIIIIE BEEEEEEEEELLE!" Applebloom wailed for her friend, who was, in fact, standing right next to her. "WHAT?!" Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo cried in unison. "Why did it stop?" Sweetie Belle groaned and facehooved, shaking her head mumbling not-too-sweetie words about Applebloom. Sweetie Belle then stepped up and nudged Applebloom away from the machine. "Let me try, Applebloom," She placed a white hoof on the pedal and quickly pushed it down. The silly mechanism worked, but again only for a second. "Hmmm..." She pushed it down again, but this time she let it back up, and then pushed it back down. The atrocious apparatus appeared to work a slight bit longer this time around, so Sweetie figured that pushing the pedal was the way to start it. But how to use it? Sweetie Belle cautiously pushed the pedal, slowly, to make sure that the calamitous contraption didn't run too quickly. "Okay... well I think I got it working, but I'm not completely sure how Rarity works this thing. Scoot, could you grab me a roll of material?" she asked. Scootaloo saluted and ran towards the back room of Carousel Boutique. "Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo called, "There's, like a ton of stuff back here! What kind, err, color do you want?" Sweetie looked at Applebloom. "Umm...I don't know." Applebloom said. "Don't look at me. What's her favorite color?" After a thoughtful second, Sweetie Belle screamed, "SCOOTALOO GET PURPLE SILK!" "MM'KYYYY!" Scootaloo tried to yell and ran back in with a roll of deep purple fabric pinched between her teeth. "Hemm ya go!" Sweetie Belle took the fabric from her friend's mouth with her magic, "accidentally" hitting Applebloom with it. "Ouch! Sweetie! That hurt!" "And so did my ears when you screamed into them," Sweetie said sweetly while unrolling the fabric with her hooves. "Eew, Scoot! It's all wet." "Heh, heh, sorry about that," Scootaloo pawed at the ground with her hoof. "It's fine!" Sweetie Belle chirped. She continued pumping the pedal of the machine. "Now... how to work this thing..." Sweetie Belle cut a portion of the silk off from the rest of the roll and pushed the roll itself out of her way. Folding the silk in half, she carefully put it under the needle that thrust up and down as her hoof moved. Ever so carefully, she began to slowly push it forward so that she got it just perfect, and- "Oh, for pony's sake, Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo shoved Sweetie Belle out of the chair. "OUCH!" Scootaloo furiously ran the machine and quickly slid the material under. "Done! " Scoot said. "And faster than you!" "She's right ya know." Applebloom had produced a stop watch from somewhere and showed her ground bound friend. "Ah whole 5 seconds faster." Sweetie Belle squeaked, "Scoot! The line isn't very straight at all! Let me fix it-" "No!" She pulled the soon-to-be accessory away as Sweetie reached for it. "Hey!" Sweetie used her magic to grab it away from Scootaloo. "That's cheating!" "Gals?" Applebloom said. But it wasn't heard over the other two's arguing. "Just let me fix it, Scoot!" Sweetie Belle started up the strange appliance and put the silk back under the needle. "No! We need to finish quickly if we want our cutie marks!" Scootaloo pulled on the fabric, and Sweetie Belle pushed. "Gals!" Applebloom got in between her two friends, and somehow managed to push the menacing mechanical box off of the table. The Crusaders were quiet for a second, and then- "OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH! RARITY IS GONNA KILL ME!" Sweetie Belle screamed. Scootaloo facehooved. "Applebloom, take Sweetie Belle to her room," she grabbed a baseball bat and began walking slowly up to the broken machine laying on the ground. "I'll take care of the evidence..." Applebloom eyed Scootaloo but took Sweetie upstairs anyway. "Sweetie Belle? Ya feelin' okay now? Cuz, the mare at the hospital said that-" "I'm fine now, Applebloom! Okay? I'm just going to write my Last Demands and prepare myself for my funeral. Which hat is better, black or flowers?" Sweetie Belle rummaged through the closet tossing clothes out behind her. "Why are these all so big?!?!" A muffled cry of protest came from beneath a huge pile of frou-frou gowns, and then a red bow popped out. The small earth pony clawed to the top of the pile, gasping for air. "MAYBE IT'S CUZ WE AIN'T IN YOUR ROOM!" Applebloom screamed. "WHAT?! Why aren't we in my room?" "Cuz Ah don't know where it is! Why would Ah?!" "Well didn't you read the signs?" "WHAT SIGNS?" "The ones I put on the door so that I would stop stomping into Rarity's room!" "Well Ah can't read glitter!" Sweetie Belle groaned and stomped out of her sister's room, leaving the disarray where it remained. "Wait! What about Rarity's room?" Applebloom called out the door. "Leave it! We'll blame it on Scootaloo!" she called back. Shrugging, Applebloom walked out and closed the door behind her. Sweetie Belle strode into Carousel Boutique's backroom, "SCOOTALOO!" Scootaloo came out from behind a rack of gowns, innocently kicking a piece of metal back under the rug. "Heh, um... Yea, so are you guys ready?" Scootaloo asked quickly. "No. We haven't finished it yet!" Sweetie motioned to the silk they fought over not minutes ago. "Ah guess we should decorate it. Don't ya think Ms. Cheerilee would like somethin more, um, decorative?" Applebloom picked the silken accessory up, eyeing the uneven stitching and the rips. "And Ah thank our saddlebag needs a handle." Scootaloo's eyes got a sinister look to them as she quickly disappeared around the corner and returned with a giant bottle of white glue. Before Applebloom could protest, she poured the entire bottle on her head, coating her and the purse in the sticky substance. Then, she disappeared again. "SCOOTALOO!" Applebloom tried to set the sticky bag down before she returned, but it was stuck to her hoof. So, when Scootaloo returned to 'decorate' it again, She covered Applebloom and the bag in colorful feathers, glitter, and gem dust. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were on the floor in tears, clutching their stomachs from the sight of their sticky, colorful friend. Applebloom growled. "Hey, gals! Wanna hug?" The angry earth pony tackled her friends in a bear hug, spreading the icky sticky-ness to them. "Eww! Applebloom!" Scootaloo cried. "Serves y'all right!" Applebloom tried to stand, but found she was stuck to the floor. "Uh, oh. Um, gals? Can y'all move at t'all?" The three fillies struggled to move, but the glue held them captive. "Crud! How do we get our cutie marks if we're stuck to the floor?" Scootaloo questioned. She flapped her wings quickly, but that only caused them to get stuck as well. "Gah!" ~~~ The three fillies pranced down the road toward school, their gift in tow. "Mwhy da Ah gmma cmrry 'is 'ang?" Applebloom complained. "Because you got us stuck to the floor for, like, 5 hours!" Scootaloo exaggerated. "Well, actually it was more like 45 minutes," Sweetie Belle interrupted, "But it was really uncomfortable!" Applebloom grumbled, but desperately wanted to get the taste of glue out of her mouth. So she quit talking and ran to the door of the school, her two friends following quickly. Scootaloo rammed into the door of the school with her head, before falling promptly on the ground. "Umm, Scoot? You know that there is a door there, right?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Yes! I know! I was just," -Scootaloo chuckled nonchalantly- "Ya know, tackling it for good measure. Just to make sure it didn't try any funny business." Scootaloo hit the door a few times with her hoof, presumably making sure that it knew who was boss. "Crap!" A voice exclaimed on the other side of the door, followed by several crashes and bangs. The three fillies outside of the door glanced at each other. "Ms.Cheerilee?" Sweetie Belle called. "One second!" the grade school teacher opened the door a crack. "Oh. Um, hello girls. Can I help you with anything?" She asked with a worried smile. "Mwe mmde ya a hmmbmg!" Applebloom exclaimed. "A what?" Scootaloo facehoofed. "Can we come in Ms.Cheerilee? "Oh. Um..." Their teacher glanced around her classroom, before opening the door for the fillies. "Of course you can." She laughed nervously, glancing at her desk. Applebloom ran in first, and set the glitterful monstrosity down on Cheerilee's desk. "Oh! Ms.Cheerilee, where d'ya get this perty vase from?" Applebloom looked at the elaborate glass 'vase'. It had many different colors on it, and several different openings. "It almost looks like ah tree, 'cuz of the branches." Sweetie Belle walked over and stared at it. "Oooh! Rarity would love that!" Sweetie Belle looked at Cheerilee who stood nervously by the door. "Where, oh where did you get it at? If I gave Rarity a vase like this, she would totally forgive me for wrecking her boutique!" "Um, I'm so sorry girls, but, uh, that's a one-of-a-kind vase. There are no more like it in Ponyville." Sweetie Belle pouted, doing her best puppy-dog look, but Cheerilee didn't take the bait. "Let me," Applebloom said, and did her best pouty face, with even her bow ears drooping slightly. Cheerilee gave in. "Oh, all right... Just take it. Is that all?" She asked. "Nope!" Scootaloo replied and handed her the sparkly, feather-ful, saddlebag. Cheerilee forced a fake smile, and slipped it on. "It's, er, so... unique? Thank you, girls." Cheerilee said. The three fillies smiled proudly and proceded to glance at their rumps. Their smiles went sour. "Aw, man! Still no cutie mark? What gives!" Scootaloo sulked. Cheerilee groaned, "Oh, girls. Still? Your cutie marks will come with time. Just be patient." "But we're so tired of being patient, Ms.Cheerilee! Almost all of the other foals have their cutie marks already!" Scootaloo sat down, "And besides, we tried being patient yesterday! It was just a whole boring day of sitting with Granny Smith watching-" Scootaloo shudders, "Soap operas." The trio nodded. Cheerilee sighed, "Fine, girls. You want some advice? Try finding a role model. Maybe they'll help you." She began pushing the trio out the door. "Bye, girls!" she slammed the door. Slumping on the door, Cheerilee mumbled to herself, "I need a drink..." Sweetie Belle clutched the 'vase' to her chest. "Get a role model? Hey! Why not Ms. Cheerilee! If we act like she did when she was our age, we'll be sure to get our cutie marks!" The three raced off to the clubhouse, a slew of new ideas coming to their minds. ~~~ "Hey, didn't we already try being Cutie Mark Crusader rock stars?" Scootaloo asked staring at the trio's choice of clothing. "Eyup," Applebloom said. "Ya got us kicked off the stage with your awful song." she giggled, and got hit by Scootaloo. "Knock it off, Applebloom," Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle. "So what do we do now? We're already wearing these awful 80's clothes." She attempted to smooth down her checkered dress, and pulled up her leg warmers, one neon yellow, the other striped pink and green. "I hate this outfit! And my mane keeps falling in my face!" "Yea, I know," Sweetie Belle said placing several multi-colored silly bands on her legs. "But we gotta do this if we want to trick the space-time continuum! Now, can somepony help me fix my dress? It's so poofy!" Applebloom tugged at the end of Sweetie's hot pink dress, complete with blue tights and bright yellow headband. Applebloom sat down. "Y'all think you got it bad, just look at meh! These clothes are so tight Ah can hardly move!" She picked at the leopard print tights she was wearing. She also bit at the shiny blue jacket she adorned even though it was the middle of summer. "Let's just get this over with!" "C'mon, girls! I'm sure Twilight has some books about what ponies did back in the olden days!" Sweetie Belle marched out of the clubhouse, with Rarity's 'vase' in her saddlebag. She figured she could drop it off after they hit the library. ~~~ The trio of fillies sat in Sweetie Belle's room reading out of the book Spike had gotten for them. "Ok, so this book says that everyone liked these fancy drinks, and listening to rock music, and-" Sweetie Belle's eyes skimmed the page, "-and smoking? I don't think Rarity would let me smoke, even if it could get me my cutie mark." "Well, where can we go to do that?" Scootalo asked. "Right downstairs! Rarity has fancy drinks like the ones in this book in the small fridge she keeps hidden under her desk. Also, we've got a radio, so why don't we just turn on some-" Sweetie Belle looked at the book again, trying to sound out the name. "-Metal licka? Hmm... M-E-T-A-L-L-I-C-A." "What in the hay is a metal licker?" Applebloom asked and took the book From Sweetie Belle. "Apparently it's a band." she replied. "Well c'mon! We gotta get started right away!" Scootaloo raced downstairs, followed by the rest of the Crusaders. ~~~ "Uhhh..." Applebloom groaned and stood up, to instantly fall back down. "Ow." She mumbled and held her head. "Sweetie Belle? Where are we?" She slurred. "Jail." Sweetie Belle stated calmly. "WHAT?! How? When?!" "Umm... A little bit ago. The policemare listed a whole bunch of rules that we broke when we tried to get our cutie marks. Oh! And no, they aren't there. I already checked." Applebloom shook her head and looked toward Scootaloo, who seemed to be in some sort of a trance-like state. She kept laughing mumbling to herself and staring at odd points in the cell. She looked like if she stood up, that she would either fall over, or pass out. "Sweetie Belle, will ya just tell me how we got here?" Applebloom asked. Sweetie Belle began a recap of the day's events, starting with when they left Carousel Boutique. "Well, we had just finished drinking most of Rarity's fancy drinks, though you probably had the most Applebloom, but anyway, we ran into Pinkie Pie. She saw Scoot with Rarity's drinks and invited us all to a party she was having in her basement. "It was a really, really fancy party, I could tell 'cuz she had a whole bunch of fancy drinks laid out for the guests, and bowls full of small, white mints, and little lines of sugar all cut up nice and neat. Oh, yea, and she had a whole bunch of the fancy vase's that we got for Rarity, too. Though, I'm starting to wonder if they are really vases and not cups, 'cuz everypony was drinking out of them. Isn't that silly? "Well, Scootaloo had a mint, but we didn't 'cuz she said they tasted really bad, and you went over and asked Pinkie to play some metal licker and drank a whole bunch more-" "Just get to the point, Sweetie!" Applebloom said to her rambling friend. "Oh, yea. Sorry. Well, when we left Pinkie's party, It was really, really late, so a policemare stopped us and talked to us and made us do a silly little test. Then she looked through my saddlebag and saw Rarity's vase, and a couple empty bottles of the fancy drinks and took us down here in and locked us up in this cell. She said that she'll call our sisters to come pick us up." Sweetie Belle finished. "So, to sum it up, we're in trouble AND we ain't got our cutie marks?" Applebloom said, exasperated. Sweetie Belle nodded. "Oh, this is ah disaster!" Just then, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity walked in led by the policemare. Rarity's mouth fell open, as if she thought the call from the policemare was just a joke, and she fainted onto the ground. Applejack and Rainbow Dash quickly shut their mouths, and facehooved. Scootaloo stared at her hooves and waved them around. "Oooh... So...Pretty..."