“Alright, uh, Samantha.” The girl snapped out of her thoughts and smiled down to the little fillies. “Hop in!”
“Huh?” The girls moved aside and revealed a rather small looking red colored wagon, attached to it was a harness. “You… want me to pull that?”
There was the distinct sound of blinking, followed by three fillies breaking out into fits of giggles.
Samantha’s muzzle shifted to that of a scowl. “Hey, stop laughing! Fine! I’ll- I’ll just head home then!” She stuck her nose into the air and stormed off.
The three instantly stopped. “Hey, wait! We weren't laughing at you! Please stop!” Scootaloo begged after running to stand in front of her.
So she did, it wasn’t as if she had a home to go to at the moment, but they didn’t need to know that. What they did need to know was that she was hungry, it was worth a shot anyway. She could get food and playtime! “Alright, alright, fine.”
“So, you’ll come with us?” She looked to the Crusaders bulging eyes and couldn’t help but chuckle herself, they were good.
“Sure… but why were you laughing?”
“Duh! Cause Scoots here pulls the wagon!” As Sweetie Belle said that, Scootaloo’s wings buzzed slightly, she couldn’t help but stare.
“Woah, do that again!”
“Uh...okay?” Scootaloo looked to her sides and forced her wings to move as quickly as possible.
“Those are so awesome! I wish I had wings…” Samantha looked legitimately sad for a single moment, before shrugging it off. “So where we goin’?”
“To our clubhouse. So hop on!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, and hopped into their wagon. Sweetie Belle quickly joined her while Scootaloo strapped into the harness and jumped onto a scooter which Samantha could swear wasn’t there a second ago.
Samantha slowly climbed on board, causing the wagon to squeak a bit. “Is there gonna be food there?”
“Uh, we have some food in our hide out place.”
Sweetie's face was immediately scrunched up by two massive hooves. “Why didn't you say so before?!” She let them go and turned around. “Quick! Ride like the wind, Bullseye!”
Scootaloo gave her the most perplexed look she could muster. “...What?”
“Just go.”
“Oh...okay.” Her wings began to buzz again while she clenched her teeth together in concentration. That lasted for around a solid minute before all four of them realized it would be quicker if they walked. Or if at least one of them walked.
Around ten minutes later, the would be mare found herself surrounded by countless apple trees, farm tools and dirt pathways. It smelled wonderful, better than candy did! All though candy never smelled particular strong, she realized. Still, candy was better than apples, everyone knew that.
“Sorry you had to walk, Samantha.”
She looked over and found Scootaloo looking a tad ashamed.
“My wings aren’t that… uh strong.”
“You’re just not big yet. They’ll grow.” I think? She assumed so, after all it only took her a short time to become a grown up, all be it not as a human, but it still counted!
“You think so?!”
“Sure!”
Scootaloo looked off into the distance, imagining her wings growing in a days time to even bigger than Rainbow Dash’s. She knew it sounded silly, but that didn’t make it sound any less awesome.
Walking wasn’t something she normally hated, but when her stomach kept rumbling it became a huge chore to keep going. The Crusaders had never heard such a noise, perhaps they hadn't heard adults go hungry before? They couldn’t recall a time until now. It took the four another twelve minutes of walking deep into the trees to reach their clubhouse.
“Huh…” Samantha wasn’t sure what she was expecting, she assumed it would be a simple put together little fort. Like she had constructed one day. Hers didn’t last very long. This place though looked professionally built, painted and structured properly in an actual tree. It looked like a miniature house fit perfectly for ponies, with slanted ladders leading up, it even had more ladders leading to a smaller building that held a telescope pointing off into the orchard and the town.
“You three built this?!”
“Uh, not really…” Scootaloo laughed and rubbed the back of her head.
“It was Applejack’s old club house, but Apple Bloom fixed it up. We helped to paint it… mostly,” Sweetie Belle said.
The farm filly rolled her eyes. “You both helped plenty. But forget that, let’s initiate her already!”
Sweetie Belle saluted her. “Right! Scoots, get your drums!”
“Yeah… I’m not doing that again, my hoof was hurting for days. Can’t we just give her the cape and go Crusading?”
Ordinarily the other two would get into a fight with Scootaloo and argue that it was important, but nothing could be as important as making a grownup a Crusader. Not even cupcakes from Pinkie Pie, not even Candy.
The three zoomed off at such a speed that miniature dust trails had been left behind, they came back quickly with a rather large red looking tarp. She looked confused until she noticed the fillies were wearing their own tarps, only much smaller. The three laid out the tarp on the grass and then flipped theirs around, making them look like capes.
Without thinking she lept forward, eyes bulging out. “I want a cape!”
Two of them blinked, but Sweetie Belle simply smiled. “That’s what we were showin’ you! Now dawn your… uh, towel. So you can be an honorary Cutie Mark Crusader!” The three had tried to make a larger cape but had ran out of time, instead they simply sewed on their symbol to a red towel. It was the best they could do on such short notice.
“Yay!” She snatched up the towel in her teeth and tried to tie it on, but gave up in frustration and simply placed it on her back. “I still don’t know what a Crusader is.”
Three hooves smacked their owners heads. “We crusade for our cutie marks.”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo said then quickly tied the towel around her neck, “it’s what we do when we get free time.”
“What does crusade mean?”
Two heads looked to Sweetie Belle waiting for her to fill in the gap. “It means to lead or take part in an energetic and organized campaign concerning a social, political, or religious issue.” She finished with a bright smile, the other two simple shaking their heads in disbelief.
“Oo, you’re smart.” If there was ever a time where Sweetie Belle go to look smug, that was it. Then Samantha’s tummy rumbled again. “Uh, can we crusade for food first?”
It took Apple Bloom a solid four minutes to return with snacks in tow. “Sorry we only have chips n such, but that should work ...right?” She figured it would considering the mare was now laying on her back, busy scarfing down chip after chip.
“Mhm!”
The three giggled at her peaceful smile and shrugged. “Okay, so now what do we do?”
Scootaloo’s question remained unanswered for another four minutes, while the mare ate a few bags of “food” and pondered it.
“Howdy girls, Samantha,” Applejack said while walking by, a cart of apples being pushed. The four waved and it took the other mare a few moments to realize that Samantha was indeed there. “Uh, Samantha? What ya doin’ here? Don’t you got work?” It was very uncommon to see a grown mare or stallion in the town of Ponyville off work in the middle of the day. It was a farm community after all and ponies kept busy. Not that rent was expensive or anything, it was that ponies typically enjoyed their jobs, it gave them purpose after all.
Samantha panicked for a moment. Grownups work, and I’m supposed to be one. Drat! She didn’t want to be found out so soon, it was too much fun! “I, well… I’ve been busy… moving in.”
“But you’re out here… doin’ what exactly?”
“She’s becoming a Crusader!” Sweetie announced.
“Yeah!” The others exclaimed in unison.
“Ah see. But what about moving in?”
Applejack wasn’t going to let this go, Samantha decided. She needed a lie. “W-well they were going to get their pretty marks in--”
“Cutie Marks,” Scootaloo corrected.
She laughed nervously and smiled. “Cutie marks in house cleaning? Yeah, they wanted to act adult today. So they’re helping me with my new house.”
Applejack wasn’t really buying it, but she turned to her sister with a frown and asked anyway. “That true?” She mostly trusted her sister to tell the truth, but she didn’t trust Samantha yet. She didn’t know her and it was a tad odd for her to hang out with her little sister and her friends, even if they had something in common.
“Yep!” Apple Bloom didn’t want to clean somepony’s house, but it was an adult activity. It was something, and if agreeing to it would get her big sis to leave, then so be it.
Applejack turned to her friends who were nodding, smiling and looking overall relaxed. “Alright, just make sure to watch them. Have a nice day!” She walked off without a second thought, she figured if her sister and her friends were helping her get settled in then it was fine. As weird as it was, a club designed to get somepony their cutie mark sounded like a good idea for a mare like Samantha, even if it was embarrassing. So she didn’t say anything else, or risk causing shame to the poor dear.
“She’s gone, uh, we're not really going to clean your house are we?” Samantha shook her head and the three sighed in relief. “So what are we doing?” Scootaloo’s question repeated itself.
“Adult stuff...adult stuff...adult stuff…” Samantha was busy trying to think up what adults actually did. She knew they had jobs, did lots of chores and generally were the bosses. However, she hadn’t really ever paid close enough attention to one to consider anything specific. Grownups were just weird, but they were extremely helpful. “I got nothing.”
“But you’re an adult!” Apple Bloom’s argument couldn’t be argued without spilling some secrets, so she simply shrugged.
“I don’t do that much… I just like playing.”
“Adults don’t play!” Apple Bloom exclaimed angrily.
“Sure they do, I’ve seen Rainbow Dash prank ponies all the time. Isn’t that playing?”
Sweetie Belle thought about it and nodded, Rainbow was a grownup, mostly.
Apple Bloom scoffed and crossed her hooves. “Well, AJ doesn’t play…”
“That’s cause she’s always working. Duh.”
Apple Bloom stuck out her tongue and snorted. Mah sis is plenty fun! She just doesn’t play… and… buck. Maybe adults do play?
Samantha stood up and accidently popped her back in the process, causing them all to look in her direction. “So, let’s go do some grownup things.”
As it turned out, doing anything adult wise with actual children involved wasn’t always going to work out. They had tried quite a few things before finally settling on grocery shopping. It wasn’t going to be too terribly exciting, considering she was only given five bits from the Crusaders to do so.
“Why don’t you have money anyway?”
Samantha knew the three would be confused, they were giving her odd looks all morning while they looked through random pathways for money on the ground. Five bits was all they found, but it wasn’t like she had money in the first place. She didn’t even have Earth money.
“Uh, well, it’s in the bank. But not this bank, another one.” She carefully explained, the three nodded figuring that made some sense. Then she had a question of her own while looking at the three fillies who were kicking the dirt or looking depressed. “Why aren’t you going inside with me?”
“Cause we keep screwin’ up…” Apple Bloom muttered.
“Yeah, we wrecked the present we were supposed to wrap for one of Pinkie’s parties.” Scootaloo pointed out, it had been an idea that adults did wrap presents, the pink mare had to come up with a backup after they were through with it. “Babysitting didn’t work, I don’t think Spike wants us to be anywhere near him…” They had all made the argument that since Spike was often called a baby dragon by Twilight, that he must be a baby. Grownups took care of babies and that’s when Spike eventually ended up setting fire to any foal supplies they had gotten a hold of. “Plus I don’t think we're supposed to try and run an electrical plant when ponies are on break.” She honestly had no idea how they even got inside, that was weird.
“Yeah, so get in there and shop! Then you tell us how it was so we can learn,” Sweetie said and then literally shoved her forward. She found herself standing in the doorway of a rather plain looking market, it looked as plain as possible. This wasn’t a huge grocery chain that she was used to, no fluorescent lighting (or huge shiny lights as she called them) or endless aisles of food. No, there were two ponies shopping with four aisles in total and one checker. It was severely underwhelming. This is what adults do? Lame…
She started walking and for the second time since she had gotten to Ponyville, she bumped into someone.
“Samantha? Sorry about that, I wasn’t paying attention.” It was Twilight who literally cast some magic on her to help her up, it felt tingly.
Why don’t I get magic?! It was an outrage! She got sent to a magical land without magic of her own, she didn’t even know why she hadn’t realized it until now. “Uh, no problem. Just doing some shopping, yep. Regular adult shopping… yeah.” She was doing her best to sound like other adults, but if she was being honest when in a market she only ever heard them speak but never actually memorized what they spoke about. Grownups were boring like that.
Twilight paused to assess what she had said. With Twilight she had developed two ways of listening, one for filtering out nonsense and another for listening to every single word. Each were equally important and more often than not she would use the latter instead of the former, but sometimes she would just tune things out. She heard every word and couldn’t exactly think of a real response. “Uh, I can see that. Good. Did… you need any help finding anything? I’ve gone here dozens of times so I should know it by heart.”
“No, I was just… looking. Yeah.”
She raised a brow to that. “I thought you were shopping?”
Samantha blinked in confusion. “Isn’t looking shopping?”
“Well, usually that would be browsing. I suppose looking is shopping.” She giggled. “Sorry, I live in a library so just think of me as a dictionary, I can get geeky like that sometimes.”
Samantha nodded, not really getting what she meant but tried to act like she was. “Ok. I need to go look around then, bye!” She waved and ran off, sadly she could only run into another aisle and Twilight could still see her. The other mare shrugged and walked out. Samantha sighed in relief, she didn’t want to get found out so soon, no she did not. The fun was starting to dwindle down, but she just knew if she stuck in there that some amazing grownup things could happen! She could learn to drive a car or something! Do they have cars here? She then realized she had been standing there for five minutes before she grabbed a bag of chips and dropped the five bits on the counter. Then, without waiting for a response or change she walked out with the chips and a smile. Shopping was easy.
“You spent five bits on a bag of chips?”
She felt stupid, there was no doubt about that. How was she supposed to know they only cost one bit? What was a bit anyway? She didn’t get it so she nodded and frowned. “Yeah… oops.”
Sweetie Belle ignored Scootaloo’s scoffing and walked forward. “Did you at least learn something for us?”
“No.” She couldn’t really lie about that, plus she was starting to worry about all the lies she was telling. She wasn’t sure why though.
“Well, ah think ah’m gonna head home. Sorry girls, but I have chores.”
They waved Apple Bloom good bye and it was down to three.
“I have homework, c’mon Sweetie Belle. We gotta return the wagon. Uh, bye Samantha!” Scootaloo figured she would be polite. They had made her a member after all, even if it wasn’t the most amazing thing like they had thought it would be, they didn’t want to be rude. The mare was left behind with her bag of chips, at least there was chips.
Twilight was having an odd day, not so much from what had happened to her. However, she kept thinking something was wrong, that something needed investigating. But what? At first she thought it was Samantha, but that was just silly. She was a jittery mare, but she was a regular mare none the less. Well, perhaps she didn’t actually believe she was regular, but she was… something. She pondered it and settled on that Samantha wasn’t hurting anypony, that she knew of. Not that ponies often hurt other ponies, it could happen but she very much doubted it would. She did know that Samantha had acted very oddly at her party, more so than how she had acted at her own way back when she first came to Ponyville.
I guess I was jittery too, but I don’t remember playing any party games. Come to think of it I don’t think most adults ever got that into those games, especially not around other children… It was a passing thought though, nothing would come of it. Maybe she just liked children? Who cared really? Except something was still bothering her about the mare.
Her thoughts would have to wait though, she heard several knocks on her front door and then heard it creak open. “Applejack?”
“Hi Twi’, ah just wanted to return the book I borrowed.” The farm pony dug into her saddle bag and soon it was grabbed over in magical swish and laid on a table.
“Oh, thank you. Was it helpful?”
She nodded. “Very, we took care of our termite problem lickedy split. Heh, just don’t go telling Fluttershy.”
Twilight closed her mouth and ran her hoof along it. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Right. Say… have you seen Samantha recently? Ah mean since the party?”
“Yes, were you looking for her?”
Applejack grabbed her hat and inspected it, then placed it firmly back on her head. “Not exactly, no. Ah was just wondering if she was actin’ odd to you?” The mare blushed and looked away. “I normally don’t pry into other ponies business, but she was hanging out with the Crusaders today.”
Twilight frowned and nodded. That did seem a bit odd, but she just had to keep reminding herself that Samantha wasn’t doing anything wrong. “Well, what are they doing together? It might sound crazy but a club designed to help ponies get their mark wouldn’t be the worst thing for Samantha.”
“Ah agree… even if it is embarrassing. And she said they were helping her clean her new house.”
Twilight raised a brow to that. “Did you say new house?” Applejack nodded. “That’s strange, the mayor would have told me if any new homes had been purchased. She’s required to, this library doubles as a public record depository. All though I suppose the mayor could have hold off on giving out the forms… yeah, that’s probably it.”
Applejack nodded, but then had another thought. “Well, have you seen any place that she could have moved in? I at least want to know where the Crusaders are.”
“You could try asking the mayor.”
“Ah think I will. See ya around, Twilight.”
She smiled and opened the door for her friend. “Just tell her I wanted to know and she should dig up any forms for you. See ya around!”
“Miss Applejack, no new houses have been rented or purchased in at least three months. Are you sure she didn’t mention an apartment? Or perhaps a hotel? I don’t really over see those so…” The mayor shrugged and slumped into her seat.
“She definitely mentioned house, but ah suppose she could have meant apartment.” The mare sighed and re donned her hat. “Thank you for yer time.”
I need to go check some places out. While she didn’t exactly wish to spend her free time doing so, she knew it was the responsible thing to do. Her sister was with this mare after all, as far as she knew at least.
“Sorry Applejack, no new rents this month.”
“I think I would have remembered a mare like that walking into my hotel.”
Applejack sighed and walked away. She was beginning to panic a bit.
She tried a few more places and was in full blown ‘panic mode’ when she literally ran out of them. Samantha had lied! It was the only explanation that made sense to her. She started galloping away from the apartment complex, when she spotted a cyan streak in the sky. “Rainbow, hey, Rainbow!”
The streak paused, but not until it had gone way too far meaning it had to turn around and streak back. Applejack watched her friend speed toward her and quickly stop in mid air, only to do a quick flip and land gracefully in front of her. “Sup?”
How that girl never gets whiplash, I’ll never know… “Rainbow, this is a little emergency,” she saw Rainbow’s eyes widen a bit and she leaned in, “ah need you to locate the crusaders for me. Make sure they’re safe--”
“It wasn’t me!” Rainbow blurted out without thinking.
Applejack paused and raised a brow, her emergency forgotten for a moment. “What wasn’t your fault?”
Rainbow laughed and looked away. “Nothing, nothing. Just don’t open your barn… there may be something the crusaders did…. wasn’t my idea. Nope.”
“Okay… just go find them. And come back and meet me at Twilight’s library.”
“On it!” Dash saluted and literally dashed off.
It took nearly thirty minutes of searching, but they hadn’t actual managed to spot any of the Crusaders or Samantha.
“You just left them with her? You don’t even know her!” For once it seemed Dash was being the logical one. At least for once she was and Applejack was not, Applejack thought.
“Ah didn’t think she was gonna be a liar! She seemed… mostly fine at the party!”
“Yeah she seemed weird at the party… almost like…” Rainbow eyes widened in horror and shock. “A changeling!”
“What?! Rainbow of all the illogical ideas--”
Rainbow waved her down quickly, interrupting her. “Think about it! She just shows up in town and she was acting fishy at the party. LIke she was nervous, afraid of getting found out! She has no cutie mark and she wanted to “hang out” with the Crusaders alone. She’s trying to suck their love dry! We have to get Twilight, c’mon!”
“Rainbow!” She watched her friend fly into the libraries window, before she had a chance to stop her. “Gah!” Applejack hated to think it, but Rainbow did have some good points. It couldn’t hurt to look after all, then again it could easily be all one big misunderstanding. She stood there in the street for a solid minute, before standing up and dashing towards the giant tree that was the town’s library. “Better safe than sorry…”
“You both think Samantha is a changeling?” Twilight looked to the two mares in front of her, one frantically nodding her head and the other shrugging but nodding all the same. “Why?”
Rainbow lunged forward, invading Twilight’s personal space. “You don’t think she’s a changeling? Her name is Samantha! That’s a changeling’s name if I ever heard one!”
“...Rainbow, when have you heard of a changelings name? Other than Chrysalis?”
Rainbow, still invading her space started to blink a few times, then shrugged. “It’s a still a weird name! And she has no cutie mark! And the Crusaders are missing!”
Twilight sighed. “Yes, you mentioned that earlier. Did you two check their clubhouse perhaps?”
It was Applejack’s time to blink, then she quickly grabbed her hat and threw it on the ground in anger. “Ah told you Rainbow, we should of checked my farm first!”
Applejack turned around to leave, when the front door slammed open. “Sweetie, why do we even need that book? Our report is fine!” They saw Scootaloo walk up, her head turned and arguing with Sweetie Belle who quickly joined her.
“Our report stinks, Scootaloo. We-- Uh, hi?” She nearly bumped into Applejack who was staring down at them.
“Girls, where is Samantha? And where is Apple Bloom?”
“Apple Bloom said she had chores to do, uh, we kind of ditched Samantha… she wasn’t that cool.” Scootaloo tried to say the last part quietly, but they all heard her loud and clear.
Applejack was relieved to see two of them were fine, but she wasn’t exactly ready to give up on the idea that Samantha was a changeling. “You ditched her? Where at?”
“Near the clubhouse, why?”
Twilight walked up to the two, and figured if she at least humored the mares, then Rainbow would drop the whole thing. “Girls, did Samantha act odd to you two?”
“She’s a weirdo!” Scootaloo blurted out and nodded.
Twilight sighed and turned to Sweetie Belle. “Hmm?”
“Well… she forgot what a cutie mark was called once. She called it a pretty mark. That was kind of weird, oh and she doesn’t have any money.”
Twilight nodded. “Well I suppose that is a bit odd, but she didn’t try and do anything odd to either of you?”
Sweetie shook her head. Scootaloo pondered that question for a bit before gasping. “Oh yeah, she tried to bite Sweetie Belle after jumping toward her! That was kind of weird. Then--” Before she could finish all three mares and darted out of the room. “She turned into a vampony… wait was that in a dream?” She turned to Sweetie Belle who was giving her a confused look. “Are you a vampony? Or was that in my dream?”
“Why would you be dreaming about Samantha?”
She shrugged.
“No, not a vampony, Scootaloo.”
“Huh… hey, where’d they go?” Sweetie pointed to out the door. “Oh well.”
Sweetie Belle then walked up to Spike, who had been watching the ponies with feigned interest. “Hey Spike, how come they don’t call it a pretty mark? I think that sounds better.”
Spike scoffed at that. “I think emblem mark sounds better to me.”
Scootaloo blew a raspberry at the drake. “That sounds stupid!”
“You’re stupid.”
“Oh yeah? Well, you’re a dragon!”
He nodded. “Yes. Yes I am.” Then he walked off with a whistle and a smile.
“Scootaloo, I don’t think you’re very good with comebacks.”
“You’re a comeback!” Scootaloo smiled proudly, even though she knew she wasn’t very good at making comebacks.
“Uh huh, well, c’mon let’s go earn our pretty marks!”
“Are we seriously calling them pretty marks?”
Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yeah! We can get them in library keeping!”
Scootaloo shook her head. “Nopony, ever, has ever wanted a cutie mark in library keeping. Not even Twilight!”
Spike then quickly ran back into the room. “Wait a minute! I’m still mad at you three for trying to baby me! You’re not even supposed to be in here!”
“To baby you? I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that, Spike.”
Spike then opened a closet, revealing dozens upon dozens of baby relating objects from toys to bottles, pacifiers and anything else that had been severely burned.
Scootaloo thought back and then realized that Spike was right, they had tried that. “Sweetie Belle, do you think we’re too distracted to earn our cutie marks?” Scootaloo turned around and saw Sweetie Belle messing with a marker. “Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie looked up and revealed a heart she had drawn on her flank. “Look! I got my pretty mark!”
Scootaloo smacked her forehead, and then grabbed a book from a nearby shelf. “Let’s just do some homework.”