//------------------------------// // 11 - Preparations // Story: Cutie Mark Crusader Superheroes // by infernape612 //------------------------------// Once they left the hospital, Apple Bloom began summarizing what they needed to be able to fight the bad guys who had taken them hostage. "We need more gadgets. Scootaloo, have you begun workin' on those Mare-Do-Rangs and upgraded grapplin' hooks yet?" "With all the chaos, no, but I'll get right on that." "Sweetie Belle, we need to learn how to fight. Not just you, though, but all three of us - you're probably gonna be our heavy hitter, though." "With Scootaloo's dad hurt the way he is, he's in no condition to teach us anything. That just leaves Wedge..." Apple Bloom nodded. "The problem is, how are we gonna convince him to teach us anythin'?" Wedge was dumbfounded. "Why would I teach three innocent fillies how to fight?" Sweetie Belle took the lead. "Fighting is my cutie mark talent, so I've gotta know how to do it! I might be looking at a future as a Royal Guard or something, so I might as well get a head start! And as for Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, we do everything together! Just because we have our cutie marks now doesn't mean that has to stop! So please? Wedge frowned. "I don't know..." The three fillies began to use their (in)famous puppy-eye trick. Wedge started to sweat. "PWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE?" "I... it's not... safe... for you..." "PWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE?" Press X to resist! Wedge began to mash his mental X button. "PWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE?" "OK, fine! But you're going to have to get permission from your families!" Wedge began gasping for breath. "And I warn you... my teaching will not be easy..." "Fine by us." Twilight and Rainbow Dash ended up heading back to the castle after discovering Mare Do Well's true identity. Rainbow Dash couldn't help musing, "You know, I still can't believe we didn't catch the CMC sooner. It was so obvious in hindsight..." "I guess it was kind of dumb, but your deductive reasoning evidently needs work. After all, you jumped to the complete wrong conclusion when you learned her - uh, their size. As for the rest of us, nopony really cared enough to look too deeply." "Even Biggs?" Twilight glared at her friend, who chuckled nervously. "Ask a stupid question, get a death glare..." They were interrupted by the sight of the CMC running up to them. "Oh, hey guys..." Apple Bloom asked, "Hey Twilight and Rainbow Dash, can you teach Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo how to do magic and fly, respectively?" The two adults glanced at each other. Twilight said, "Uh... of course we would, but why are you asking us this now? ...Wait, this is about-" The three fillies nodded. "Of course it is." Suddenly, they were all rained on by chocolate milk. Looking up, they saw Discord waving to them from atop a cloud. Apple Bloom, dumbfounded, asked, "Why are you pouring chocolate milk on us?" Discord began juggling his limbs. "Well, after my whole hindsight speech to Spike, I realized something horrible - I'm going soft! So I'm flexing my chaos magic." The five ponies shrugged. Discord glanced around before turning to the reader. "You know, I think this fan-fic writer is an idiot. It's about time he put my characterization back on track. I mean, it really says something when probably the most faithfully characterized pony is Pinkie Pie, and she had four lines and a profanity joke!" Discord then realized something else horrible. "Wait a minute... showing up out of nowhere for no clear reason... preaching ideals... breaking the fourth wall! Dear God, I'm being used for a self-deprecating author tract! DAMN YOU, AUTHOR!!!" Apple Bloom read the pamphlet on the town bulletin board. "PARKOUR LESSONS! JUST 5 BITS FOR 5 EASY LESSONS! GET FROM A TO B IN A FLASH!!! ...Sounds like a good thing for me to invest in to keep up when the others start teleportin' around and flyin' everywhere." Soon, she had signed herself up for lessons and began learning how to dash up and around things so fast it would make anypony's head spin. Meanwhile, after Sweetie Belle had visited her sister at the hospital (and reassured her for the umpteenth time that no, the fight at the school had not ruined her mane), she began learning magic from Twilight Sparkle at her castle. "Now, the only good way to learn how to do anything is by reading books, studying, and ruthless memorization! Spike! Get me Mad Merlin's Magical Menagerie!" As Spike got the book, he mused, "Doesn't menagerie mean a collection of animals or something? You pick this stuff up a lot when you hang with Fluttershy." Twilight took the comically oversized tome and responded, "They called him Mad Merlin for a reason. I think he just wanted to keep the alliteration going, got lazy, and picked the first word that came into his head whether it made sense or not." Sweetie Belle took one look at the book's contents and blanched at all of the hyper-advanced magibabble. "Don't worry, I'll be able to translate it into Equestrian for you." Finally, at Rainbow Dash's cloud house, Equestia's fastest flier began to teach her old protégé. "Now, the only good way to learn how to do anything is by experience and actually going out there and doing it! Scoot, look over the edge. See that lake down there?" Scootaloo nodded. "In order to give pegasi who need to crash land for some reason a safe place to go down, all Equestiran lakes have been magically treated so that they won't hurt you when you fall from a great distance." Scootaloo, failing to see the obvious trap and falling right into it, asked, "How does this help me learn to fly?" She promptly got her answer when Rainbow Dash shoved her off of the cloud house. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" "Don't worry, Scoot! Learning by doing!" A week had gone by, and the three fillies, taking full advantage of the town-wide school closures in the wake of the near-tragedy, had made amazing progress in all of their lessons. Apple Bloom would only go places by taking a straight path, ignoring any obstacles, Sweetie Belle was trying to teleport everywhere, and Scootaloo had, after being thrown off of a building 87 times, finally flitted back up and gotten payback on her teacher/tormentor by punching her in the jaw. (Rainbow was mildly amused.) All three fillies had also learned basic self defense from Wedge, and were well on their way to becoming superheroes. During one of Sweetie Belle's lessons with Twilight, Scootaloo came in with a problem for one of her inventions. "Hey, Twilight, I need your help. I'm trying to get these Mare-Do-Rangs to work, but I can't seem to get them to hit anything and come back at the same time! The laws of physics keep getting in the way!" Twilight took the prototype boomerang, looked at it, and decided to try a magic enchantment. After she did this, Scootaloo returned home and tried it out again. This time, it worked like a charm. Three weeks had gone by since the school incident, and Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo decided that they were fully qualified to go back into the field and clean up the mess they had left behind. The group met up at Carousel Boutique to plan their next move. Once they had decided on their plan of attack, they began to gather up the pieces of their makeshift costumes. However, there was a knock at the door. When Sweetie Belle opened her bedroom door, she was greeted by the sight of her sister Rarity, who had been discharged from the hospital and was now wearing her lucky red thinking glasses. "Oh, hi, sis! We were just about to go." Rarity sighed. "Sweetie Belle... and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo... are you really sure about this?" Sweetie Belle nodded. "We have to. Somepony has to stop the bad guys. It might as well be the divinely chosen superhero and her two best friends." Rarity nodded. "Well... if you have to be stupid..." She telekinetically pulled out a trunk and brought it into the room. "You can at least be stupid and fashionable." The three fillies opened the trunk. Inside were three filly-sized Mare Do Well costumes. "It was a lot of hard work, but I managed to invent a fabric that will be far stronger than steel and still quite breathable. Twilight tested it. Please... just don't get hurt..." The three fillies nodded and began getting dressed. "You're the best sister ever!" "Wha - no, she ain't. Applejack is the best sister ever." "That's crazy. Rarity is cooler." "No, mah sister is cooler!" "Rarity!" "Applejack!" "Rarity!" "Applejack!" "Me, obviously!" Scootaloo facehoofed, seeing that for some reason she was going to have to be the responsible one. "OK, everypony, SHUT UP!!!" Everypony shut up. Rarity gave her sister one last hug. Then she sat back as the Cutie Mark Crusaders - no, Mare Do Well, jumped out the window and vanished into the Ponyville night.