Examination 2.2
Everypony was there. Okay, if 'everypony' counted the Crusader's families and teachers. But all of them were in attendance. Why, Rarity had even managed to remove her parent's tacky clothes for the occasion, rendering them naked but presentable for once. Though her mother was ever so slightly dyed with a rather disturbing shade of green and shivering for some odd reason.
Oh, and Pinkie's sister and her family were there too. They were fun.
"Awwww..." Sweetie kept herself just low enough compared to the table so that Rocky Road could just barely see her eyes peeking over the level of the table. The giggling foal reached for Sweetie Belle, giggling and burbling happily as he tried to grab her horn to suck on.
"Cweam! Cweam!" Rocky babbled as he waved his finely dappled legs at Sweetie.
"Ice Cream?" Sweetie asked, letting her surprise escape confinement as Rocky nodded hard enough to fall over. The vanilla and chocolate colored foal giggled and sat back up closer to Sweetie, once more trying to grab onto and suck her horn as he did. "Okay, I guess a little." Rocky pouted and whined. "A lot?" The mischievous foal filled himself with escaping giggles once more.
"Or a none, you little scamp." Marble said as she crept up beside Sweetie and joined her in just barely looking over the surface of the table. Rocky took one look at her eyebrows of frowny doom and pouted, crossing his forelegs. "Don't you pout at me. You're cute enough to fool her with your sorcerous ways, but we both know that you want it just so you can smear it all over yourself and force me to give you a bath."
"Bawh! Bawh!" Rocky gurgled, instantly cheering up. Little stinker.
"Wait..." Sweetie Belle climbed down and sat down beside the table. "I though foals that young hate baths..." Sweetie said, watching the foal and his mother playing.
"He gets it from his father. I fell in love with that big, squishy.... ooh, that irritatingly suave galumph of a stallion over the way he'd play in the mud fields and marshes building roads and bridges before he'd drag me into the tub with him for 'enhanced cleanliness techniques.' He he." Marble said, breaking down into girlish giggles at the end. Rocky made gagging motions as he tried to figure out what his mom was saying, before getting sick of it and frowning while sticking his tongue out. Marble replied in kind, adding a raspberry to her own. Rocky replied once more with an even more impressive one, only for Marble to cut to the chase and snatch him off of the table. The foal never stood a chance against his natural predator, the mother, no matter how much he waved his hooves to ward her off. Ravenously, she dipped her muzzle to his soft and baby-fat coated belly before mercilessly blowing raspberries directly into his belly-button.
Sweetie smiled and backed away slowly, letting mother and foal play. Why didn't her mom play with her like that instead of leaving her with Rarity half the time? Heck, the only reason she and her dad had showed up was because Pinkie had to drag them in so they could talk about whatever stupid teachy stuff was going to be taught to her.
Looking around was a big fat waste of time, too. Sure, there was Scootaloo and Surprise having a wing buzzing contest, and Applebloom was having some kind of argument with Limestone, but her sister was too busy being a bigshot and talking with all of her friends and some stupid orange pegasus from Canterlot. Where was the teacher they were getting, anyway. At least with her she could talk about the future with. Stupid adults. Stupid business. Stupid party. How in the hay did Pinkie make a party that was..... boring.
"You know, for somepony who has had as many stories told about them as you, you aren't nearly as larger than life in person, Sweetie Belle." The nearly golden voice instantly lifted Sweetie's spirits. It was infused with a loving warmth that flowed into her and through her upon a motherly tone of patience that seemed willing to forgive anything. A hot hoof began to slowly stroke her back just in the right spot to soothe her as the voice talked.
Sweetie opened her eyes back up from her introspection and looked over. And up, and up into the eyes of the mysterious mare who had just been giggling with her sister. The tips of the big pegasus's flowing mane and tail quivered in a nonexistent breeze, or maybe just all the little movements her body made. The mane draped down past her long neck and massive barrel to flow over her wing and tickle at Sweetie's back. More striking were her eyes. The eyes of a grandmother, almost. She spoke again, standing there beside Sweetie. "If you want, I can babble until you want to talk. A great many ponies say that I'm good at that."
"W-who are you?"
"Sunbeam Daffodil Flora. But let's just stick with Sunbeam, it makes the brain hurt less trying to remember it. I'm your new teacher. It should be interesting to teach somepony whom my prize student recommended that I teach." Sunbeam gave Sweetie a smile wide enough to squeak.
"Ummm... Sweetie Belle. But you knew that, I think?" The little unicorn hesitantly offered in return, declining the offered wing. A pegasus? Teaching magic? That didn't make any sense at all. She looked to Sunbeam's cutie mark and stared for a bit as she realized a whole lot like Princess Celestia's sunburst. But with a strange little smiley face drawn on the sun.
Sunbeam followed Sweetie's gaze to her hindquarters, and her ears dropped with worry. "Is there something wrong with my cutie mark?"
"Yeah. Uh, it kinda looks like the Princess's. You're not the Princess, right?" Sweetie put on her mental detective hat on, humming a tune of espion- espio- spying that she had heard in one of the serials she had seen at the local theater.
"What? No! It looks similar because, uh, it roughly means the same thing?" Sunbeam spoke quickly after shaking her head rapidly, trying to assuage Sweetie's curiosity. "Princess Celestia's mark doesn't directly mean that her special talent is raising the sun! Her cutie mark actually means that she acts as a beacon for other ponies and beings to follow her example, and as a guiding light to help them grow." She winced at the babble coming out of her mouth. Babbling wasn't supposed to happen.
"Oh. That sounds pretty reasonable." Sweetie Belle perked up and dropped her suspicious looks as she satisfied herself with that answer. Cheerilee's cutie was sort of the same thing. Of course.... "Uh, that still doesn't explain why Twilight asked for you instead of a unicorn. I- uh... don't mean to be rude, but- uh..."
"I have my ways. Most of my tricks I'll show you while teaching you. I helped Twilight through a great many of the basics and some of the advanced work. But, in your case whether or not I know the basics and can teach them to you is entirely irrelevant to your further magical study."
"W-what?" Sweetie turned paler as she began to imagine that she had already gotten as strong as she possibly could.
Sunbeam facehoofed hard enough for it to hurt. "What I mean to say," She began through her hoof ", Is that whether or not my suspicious, Twilight's suspicions, and Princess Celestia's theories are correct or not, you still are learning and using magic in a way that is entirely different from normal and I cannot teach you in the same way that I taught Twilight." Sunbeam explained. Reaching out with a wing, she stroked Sweetie on the back wit hit, prompting the young filly to snuggle into it.
"I don't wanna be different. I just want to be normal and have my stupid cutie mark already." Sweetie depressedly pouted as she let herself be slowly shifted up against Sunbeam as the great pegasus laid herself down. Each breath escaped her in a huff of indignation over the fact that she had to be 'different' and 'special'. Stupid overused words. Stupid expectations. Stupid adults. She wasn't 'special', she was just Rarity's dumb little sister, and that was all... she was ever going to be.
One of Sunbeam's big and fluffy hooves slowly lowered itself down to stroke down the center of Sweetie's back. "Being different IS normal. Look at me, I got all of my alfalfa growing up and nowadays if I wear a fake horn I could be mistaken for Princess Celestia at a distance!"
Sweetie Belle harrumphed a little, setting her tired head down onto her crossed forelegs. She wasn't interested in stuff like that, or the way her mom seemed to be halfway dyed to lime green, or any of that other stupid stuff.
Sunbeam frowned, ever so slightly. The warmth emminating from her grew a little stronger as she snuggled up closer to Sweetie Belle to get her to pay attention. "And Sweetie Belle? Cutie marks aren't 'normal'. They tell other ponies that you ARE different, that you ARE special, and how you're different and special. I'm like C- Princess Celestia, but I'm more cheerful and use that. Twilight shares the core of her cutie mark with her brother, but Twilight's mark shows how she connects everypony together through magic and friendship while her brother's shows his need to protect everypony around him."
Sweetie grumbled more, incoherently as she glared over her hooves. Sunbeam carefully tweaked her horn with a hoof, trying to get the reluctant foal to face her. "G'way. Not done being unspecial yet." Sweetie turned her head away, aggressively sighing.
Sunbeam's gaze turned to follow Sweetie's, then turned back the other way when she realized that Sweetie was deliberately staring at a blank wall. Ah, much better. Rarity was nearly dead center of where her younger sister's gaze would otherwise naturally wander to. She suspected that that explained a great deal. "Is your sister Rarity unintentionally showing you up all of the time without even realizing it or trying and making you sick of getting compa-"
"YEEEEEEEEES!"
Every head in the building turned to Sweetie Belle, who turned crimson red and shimmied under Sunbeam's offered wing until she couldn't be seen anymore. Mouthing 'later' to Twilight, Sunbeam carefully consoled the filly with rubs as she quietly broke down.
"Yes. I thought it would get better after Princess Luna saved me from ruining her life." Sunbeam confusedly smiled at the mention of the lunar diarch. Something that she hadn't been told about... "But she keeps on doing it and making me look bad next to her. And she's not even trying to, that's the worst part. She just wants to be a good big sister and- and-" Sweetie Belle slowly broke down into choked breathing as she let out the tension. Her little hooves clutched and dug into the hay-covered ground as her fears of always being no more than 'Rarity's little sister' ran through her mind.
She was so engrossed in that pitiful state that she didn't even notice as Sunbeam's Wing slowly rose from her. Nor did she notice the three sets of hooves delicately wrapping around her into a hug. No, not until a pair of hot tears dripped down onto her forehead did she look up to see her sister's worried face just above her head. Her two closest friends tightened their pony-pile hug, nearly crushing the life out of her as Rarity let Sweetie rest her head on her shoulder.
"I-I didn't know, Sweetie Belle."
"I know. You just wanted to help."
"Rather mucked it up again, didn't I?"
"It's my fault for not telling you."
"No, my fault for not asking you."
"No, it's my fault for-"
"Stopping this here!" Sunbeam loudly proclaimed to break up the impending sisterly squabble. "You aren't just 'Rarity's little sister', little one. You ARE special, perhaps enough that you will shadow Rarity as she has shadowed you." Her wing carefully wiped away the small streaks on Sweetie Belle's face before squeezing the entire group close to her side. "There is something in you, something so wonderful and powerful that it made Princess Twilight ask for help from Princess Celestia. That is the biggest reason why I am here. Besides examining all three of you to help her find the optimal lesson plan, that is."
Scootaloo stopped in horror, looking up from her friend. "Wait. Exam? Like a test?"
"Yes?" Sunbeam tentatively answered, wondering if she should ask for medical help with the way that Scootaloo started to suddenly tremble.
"Tomorrow? The field trip day to the Crystal Empire?!"
"Yes, I think?"
"NoooooooooooOOOO-mmph!" Scootaloo was hushed by Applebloom shoving both of her hooves in the little pegasus's mouth to keep her keening wail of horror muffled.
"Okay, okay, we get it! Is there any way ya could push it back or something?"
Sunbeam frowned. She didn't really want to push back examining the trio, but it couldn't hurt, could it? She did need time to unpack and settle in, and some Twilight time to make plans for teaching the trio regardless. She shrugged, not seeing much reason at all. "Well, I don't see why not. Events do seem to follow a pattern in Equestria nowadays, and being just a little over a week after the Equestrian Games, I don't see any major crisis popping up that will cause problems. Is that alright with you, Princess Twilight?"
Twilight jerked upright on the other side of the room, looking a little panicky. "Yes, yes! My library, next week?"
"Sure. See? Nothing to worry about." Sunbeam said, worridly watching as Twilight twitched a little. "Okay, maybe a little. I should probably talk to her about that this week." She turned back to the foals, putting a smile on for them. "No, I think we'll be just fine. It isn't like Tirek will rise from Tartarus or something else as dramatic as that so close to the Equestrian Games."
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1 Week Later....
Sunbeam stood at the former site of Twilight's old home, which still smoldered underground despite two days of firefighting efforts. 'Not like Tirek will rise from Tartarus' her big, plush tushie! "So... do things like this happen often around here?"
"Sorta. Kinda. You know, I have no idea anymore." Scootaloo forlornly said as she looked over the handlebars of her original scooter into the crater carved into the landscape.
"Eh, sorta. Just normally not this big." Applebloom answered, poking at the lip of the crater. "Ponyville likes to screw with ya like that. At least Twilight got a new home out of it. Ah don't think anypony in town could take Twilight sleeping on their couch for more than a day."
"Yeah! I actually kind of like it. It's like a big... fortressy... thingie... of- I dunno, friendship?" Sweetie slowly worked out. All three of them stopped what they were doing as the realization of what they could do struck them.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, FORTRESS OF FRIENDSHIP HOUSEWARMERS! YEAAAAAAAAAAAY!"
Oh sweet tree, this was going to be bad!