A cold night had fallen over Ponyville, and a kind of hush had gathered over the sleepy little town. It was sleepy, but not sleeping, not tonight, for things of a very different sort were happening. For while the town was silent, that was only because most of the townspeople had found their way to Sweet Apple Acres, to stare and gawk and gossip as they watched the venerable brigade of royal guards (fresh from Canterlot) form a perimeter. The guards were professionals, tried and tested, ready to do or die for Celestia and country. Each one of them understood that they could not break, could not falter, no matter the consequences. Duty came first, and on tonight of all nights, they would need all the courage and devotion to duty they could muster. No one wanted to make a single mistake as they tried to keep the curious populace separate from the place where they were certain : the tree-fort known to some as the clubhouse of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Twilight Sparkle stood just behind the guards and looked squarely at the darkened fort. In front of her, she levitated a megaphone. Just behind her stood Applejack and Rarity, trying hard to comfort each other in this hour of turmoil. Rainbow Dash hovered not too far off, trying to conceal her own concern.
Twilight spoke into the megaphone, “Come on, girls, we can talk this out. We just want your side of the story, that’s all. If you just cooperate, I won’t stop until I’ve gotten you the best deal I can. But you’ve got to talk to me.”
“Oh, how could this happen, Applejack?” Rarity said, almost crying. “We raised them properly, did we not? I always though Sweetie Belle would become such a lady someday!”
“Ah know, Rarity,” Applejack responded, patting her on the back. “Ah know. But it’s like Granny Smith always says. There’s goin’ to be a bad apple in even the best bunch. I just never expected it to be Apple Bloom….”
Twilight tried to not let the emotion get to her. She steeled herself and said, “Now, girls, just come down here without any trouble. We can sort this out. There doesn’t need to be any more bloodshed.”
She paused to whisper to one of the guard captains to prepare the troops to storm the fort if no answer came. This done, she continued.
“We know you three always had some issues with Diamond Tiara. I’m sure you all felt completely justified in what happened. Maybe if it had been any of us getting bullied constantly, we’d have snapped too, eventually. And maybe the death of her father and everyone else in the market, maybe that was just an accident. Come on, girls, let’s just talk it over.”
Inside the fort, a nervous and frightened Sweetie Belle sat by the window, listening to every word Twilight Sparkle spoke. Then she looked to her compatriots, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Apple Bloom was busy pouring a murky brown liquid throughout the clubhouse while Scootaloo stood on the level above her, desperately trying to kick the lantern out of its hanger.
“Not yet, Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom scolded, the fear in her voice mingling with anger. “Ya know what a punch Big Macintosh’s Knockout Cider packs! Ya’ll set the three of us on fire if you knock that thing down too quick!”
“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Scootaloo said, her voice equally edgy. “If I don’t get this thing knocked down, there won’t be a fire at all!”
“Um, guys,” Sweetie Belle said, “maybe we should just explain everything to Twilight. She’s our friend. She won’t blame us for anything. Besides, she’s a princess now. She could get us out of trouble!”
“Ain’t you been listening to her out there?” Apple Bloom said without looking up from where she was now pouring the liquid. “She thinks we’re guilty! They all do! They think we killed Diamond Tiara and her daddy and all those ponyfolk! An’ since they found Scootaloo’s scooter an’ one of our spare capes at the scene–”
“I told you, someone stole it! I haven’t seen it in a week!” Scootaloo protested, kicking the lantern so hard that it shook the floorboards on which she was standing.
“And I told you that I thought someone had broken into the clubhouse a few days ago!” Sweetie Belle added. “But no one believed me!”
“Ah ain’t blaming either of you,” Apple Bloom said. “But somepony’s clearly tryin’ to frame us. An’ until we can figure out who that is, this is the only way.”
“But–” Sweetie Belle began.
“The only way!” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo said together.
Sweetie Belle looked forlornly out of the window one more time. Then she turned back to her fellow Crusaders and nodded. It was the only way.
“I mean, it’s not like its permanent,” Scootaloo said. “Once we figure out who framed us, we can just pop and everything will go back to normal. It’ll be like nothing ever happened at all.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Sweetie Belle responded, having now been largely persuaded to the other two’s way of thinking. She did one last check on the three small manikins she had stolen from Rarity’s shop. She had been so careful to get them in the right positions in front of the window and had spent so much time getting the Crusader capes to fall just right over their shoulders. It seemed such a sad thing that all of her work would soon be gone….
But it was the only way.
“There. That’ll just about do it!” Apple Bloom said, once she had covered nearly every corner of the clubhouse in highly-flammable cider. “Y’all ready?”
Scootaloo gave the lantern one last good kick. It finally fell from the ceiling and landed on the floor with a mighty crash, causing the “thinking spot” to go up in flames.
“Ready!” Scootaloo said as she and Sweetie Belle rushed to stand by Apple Bloom.
“Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom said. “Ya did finish clearin’ out the emergency exit, didn’t ya?”
“You wait until now to ask me that?” Sweetie Belle said as she watched the bright flames cut off her last glimpse at the outside world.
“Well, did ya or didn’t ya?” Apple Bloom demanded, the thought that she might have just doomed the three of them to a fiery death impressing itself upon her for the first time.
“Yeah, I did!” Sweetie Belle responded, turning her eyes away from the flames. That was becoming increasingly hard to do, as the flames were quickly surrounding them on all sides.
“Then let’s get out of here!” Scootaloo shouted. She kicked the floor directly under them, causing them to fall through it. They spiraled rapidly through a tunnel cut hastily into the tree that supported the clubhouse and came out just above the roots. Without saying anything, all of them made it as far away from the clubhouse as they could.
They were in such a state that none of them heard Twilight Sparkle continue her speech through the megaphone.
“Girls, we’re trying our best out here. But we’ve got all night, so if you just want to talk, we can listen. If you just want to talk, we’ll stay here. Just tell us what happened.”
She looked over to the captain again and covered one end of the megaphone with her hoof. “Move in in five,” she said.
The captain nodded and instructed his troops.
“Wait, Twi!” Applejack said. “Let me talk to ’em! Apple Bloom always listens to me! I’m sure if she just heard my voice, she’d convince the others to give theirselves up!”
Twilight nodded and let Applejack step in front of the megaphone.
“Apple Bloom, sis, I’m still here for ya no matter what!” she said. “Please, don’t keep doin’ this. Whatever happened, you just tell ol’ Applejack and we’re gonna work it out! I promise, sis! I promise!” Tears streamed down from her eyes as Applejack broke down. Rarity rushed forward to comfort her.
From behind them, Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed in on the clubhouse. “Wait, something’s not right,” she said as she noticed something bright flickering in the windows, just behind the three silhouettes.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders found themselves lucky. Once they had gotten to what they had estimated was a safe distance, they had taken a look around and saw that there were no guards in this area of the orchard. Since the clubhouse did not face this way, they had probably seen much need to station somepony here.
Out of harm’s way, the Crusaders calmed down, but they knew they could not stop. The area may be deserted now, but they could not risk someone coming along and catching them. This, the three of them knew well.
So, the three took one last look at their beloved Clubhouse and the town they had called their home their whole lives. And then they turned away. They turned away and, without looking back, kept walking in the opposite direction.
Just then, a terrible noise tore through all of Sweet Apple Acres and the orchard was illuminated by a frenzied orange glow. The Cutie Mark Clubhouse was consumed by fire, becoming nothing more than a great ball of flame.
“They don’t call it Knockout Cider for nothing, do they?” Sweetie Belle observed, suppressing all the painful emotions she was currently feeling.
Apple Bloom did the same as she answered, “That’s why it’s banned in six counties! They say it’s more dangerous than moonshine!”
That was the last thing any of the three said that night.
As Twilight picked herself up from the blast, she immediately looked to Applejack and Rarity, who were holding each other, their eyes locked in horror on the burning tree-fort. Twilight quickly tried to come up with a solution, but before she could even assemble her thoughts into a coherent form, a rainbow streak of light sped past her.
“No, Rainbow Dash, you can’t!” she heard herself say. “The fire’s too strong!”
Rainbow Dash paid no attention. As she rapidly approached the burning structure, she could just see the three figures beside what had once been a window. If only she could reach them, she thought. But just as she was about to grab hold of one, the flame roared and lunged at her. It was as though the blaze was claiming the three as its own, telling Rainbow Dash, “You had your turn. They’re mine now!”
But Rainbow Dash was never the type to be defeated so easily. She sped around the clubhouse, looking for any way to get in. She made several revolutions, gaining more and more frantic speed with each one. But from every opening, the fire launched out at her, forcing her back. Rainbow looked up into the sky, hoping that there was some nearby raincloud she could use to put out the fire. But, alas, it was a clear night. Tears formed in Rainbow Dash’s eyes as she realized that there was nothing she could do.
She had been so close to saving them. So close. She had seen them devoured by the monstrous blaze. And now it was too late. For once in her life, she had failed. She had lost three lives – and one of the ponies that she cared about most. The one time it meant the most, she thought, she had just come up short.
It was enough to break even Rainbow Dash’s sturdy heart.
It was perhaps merciful, then, that the fire chose this moment to let out a second large blast, sending Rainbow Dash rocketing back. As she hit the ground hard, a group of fearless guards rushed out and pulled her to safety. She suffered only minor burns to her wings and hooves, as well as a bout of unconsciousness – though it might not be right to say she “suffered” the last one. Anyone else present would have considered it a blessing to be even temporarily unaware of the tragedy unfolding before them.
“I don’t want anybody else going down there until the firefighters have arrived!” Twilight ordered. It was a tough call, but one she knew had to be made. She figured that anypony could see that there was no way the three foals could have survived a blast like that. All that was left was to clean up what was left.
Beside her, Applejack and Rarity were crying heavily into each other’s shoulders. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had rushed forward to try and comfort them, but both found that they had absolutely no idea of how to do it. Instead, they just stared at each other in shock.
Twilight Sparkle joined them. Applejack looked up at her, the despair in her eyes transforming swiftly into rage. “Ya should have done somethin’, Twilight! Ya should have done somethin’!”
“There was nothing I could do,” Twilight answered simply.
“Then what good are ya’?” Applejack hollered. “What good is bein’ a princess anyway if ya can’t even save ya friends? Can’t even save the people that matter most to ya?”
“Now, now,” Fluttershy said gently, patting Applejack on the shoulder. “It wasn’t Twilight’s fault. Nobody could have done anything more.”
“It’s just not fair!” Applejack screamed as she and Rarity broke out into a new round of tears.
Just then, Twilight Sparkle noticed something making its way through the night sky, carried gently on the small breeze that was making its way through the area. She realized that her friends had noticed it too.
The small thing came down slowly and purposefully right in front of Applejack and Rarity. The hearts of those two nearly stopped upon seeing it and the volume of their tears became ten times greater. Even Twilight found herself unable to hold back any longer and she let a stream flow gently down her face.
What did they see? It was the badge of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, stitched onto the remains of one of those robes which the three had always been wearing. Within a few moments, the fire eating up the robe had spread to the badge itself, and the emblem of the Cutie Mark Crusaders disappeared forever into the flames.
What became of the Cutie Mark Crusaders?
Read on.