The sun was close to setting and six multi-colored ponies were getting more and more frenetic. The intensity of their gallops sent vibrations up the long undisturbed tree trunks in this section of the Everfree Forest. Brambles and vines were mercilessly torn down to allow for sight and clarity into the clearings of the area.
“Come on, ya’ll! The map they took led to somewhere here.” Beads of sweat rolled down and along her muzzle as Applejack’s head darted left and right for any sign of her sister and her friends.
Behind her, Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle held aloft a stack of old parchments in the lavender glow of her magic. She scanned the top page and found it unhelpful before stuffing it back into her saddlebags.
Up above, Rainbow Dash tore through multiple clouds, bursting and dispersing them like the puffs of vapor they were. Though the trees were too thick for her to see through, the less cloud cover there was, the more light could seep into the forest.
Fluttershy, a short distance away, was talking to one of her animal friends, an owl in this case, that she had enlisted to help them in their search. Unfortunately, all he had to hoot was that none of the other animals had yet to find a trace.
Every few moments, branches and leaves from the thick forest canopy would break as Pinkie Pie emerged and asked, “Applebloom? Scootaloo? Sweetie Belle? Where are you?” She would wait for a response and return above if none arrived.
Further forward, in a small clearing, Rarity was using her magic to bend several tall clumps of grass in the hopes of finding something—anything—that might point them in the right direction. Her eyes scanned left and right finding nothing. She turned around and was about-
The sapphire of her eyes practically glowed as she realized they had spotted something. “Girls!” she called out.
Not a moment later, three galloping ponies and two flying ones converged on her position.
“Did ya find anything, Rarity?” asked Applejack. Her ears were hanging low and her eyes were starting to sag.
Rarity turned her head. “There’s a cave just behind that patch of brush. I remember overhearing my sister mentioning something about spelunking, so it’s likely they went in there.”
“Well what are we waitin’ for?” Applejack galloped straight towards it, plowing flat any unfortunate grass blades in her way, “Let’s go!”
The sound of their thunderous hooves caused the old cave’s walls to vibrate in protest to the sudden disturbance. Dust and pebbles formed from the debris of the alicorn sisters battle long ago took to the air again and found the familiar warmth of the bodies of ponies. The ancient and eldritch darkness was quickly banished as two massive sources of light raced past.
Rarity’s eyes were beginning to tear up as the group made their way deeper and deeper into gloom. “Where are they? Celestia knows how long they’ve been in this dreadful place!”
Twilight looked to her friend. “Don’t worry Rarity. We’ll find them soon. Their footsteps only lead inside so they must be somewhere in here.”
“That’s just it, Twilight. They are somewhere inside this dark, damp and disgusting cave, cold and alone.” She was halfway through a gasp before se was cut off by her panicked breaths. “What if something else got to them first?”
“Rarity! Don’t you go sayin’ things like that. Those fillies are resourceful little ones and they’ve gotten themselves into other situations where they managed to get themselves out again. I’m sure they’ll be fine,” said Applejack, the element of… honesty. She squinted to herself.
It felt as though the tunnel wouldn’t end, it just kept going and going and going. Worse yet, the walls were all starting to blend together into a repeated pattern of rock and stone. The ponies panic pulsated as they—a spot of yellow, orange and white became apparent in their field of vision.
Yellow eyelids cracked open but shut once again at the burst of light that greeted them. A slight groan escaped her mouth as she brought her hoof up for some therapeutic eye rubbing. She sat up and opened her eyes with more success.
The setting is warm and cozy. Walls are a calming green with a nice fire roaring in hearth. Mementos and knick knacks litter the ledges, shelves, and tables that dot the room. The couch she was on was made from old, strong material and had clearly been through more than her. The very quilt that was draped over her lower half was stitched and sewn together with the care and love only a loved one could give.
An Apple motif existed on most everything.
Apple Bloom shook her head to get things running again. She raised an eyebrow as she walked to the back door of her house. The last thing she could remember was Princess flying triumphantly above them, their weapons taken and broken, her teammates down and restrained, then suddenly darkness. Now here she was safe and sound in the comfort of her own home. Did they lose? She took one last look at her house as she reached the gate that lead into the orchard. She wouldn’t find any answers here. As she began to trot into the thicket of trees, her mind couldn’t help but notice that there was something eerily wrong with the noontime skyline but for the life of her she couldn’t put her hoof on it.
Back inside the house, a very concerned orange mare popped into the living room from the kitchen to make a quick check. Her eyes could easily match the saucer on her back when she found the tossed quilt and noticeably empty couch. They locked onto the still open back door as a rough growl-like sound came from her muzzle. “Honestly, Bloom. Ya’ll get yourself lost in some cave in the forest and the moment ya come to ya head straight back into crusading.” The rest of her rant became a rough unintelligible mumbling as she stomped her way out.
Apple Bloom felt strangely lethargic. Every step was took considerably more effort than usual, as sweat started to run over her blank flank. No matter how deep she tried, her breath still felt shallow. She paused and shook her head again. Whatever witchcraft Princess had done to her, she did not like it one bit.
Regardless, it would probably over once she got help from-
Her eyes expanded and kept going. Her hind legs gave out bringing her to a sitting position. A bird on a nearby tree briefly considered turning the filly’s invitingly open mouth as a new nesting site. A low, high pitch sound slowly made its way from her mouth to the surroundings. Her eyes were still expanding but now had an additional twitch here and there.
The explosion of sound went far and wide causing some of the local fauna to duck in fright. Several of the flora also managed to duck in fright despite having no known muscle tissue.
“Apple Bloom?!” Applejack’s voice quivered in desperation as she shouted her sister’s name.
The fillies eyes narrowed into slits so thin it could slice air. She knew that voice well. Time and time again they had battled but it was different somehow. It was had deeper quality to it, but more importantly, it came on its own. She turned her head and saw her archenemy, her sister, Applejack. “YOU!” she screamed as she pointed a hoof.
Applejack stopped dead in her tracks as she focused on the accusatorial look her sister gave her. Hairs on the back of her head stood up at the intensity of it all.
“What did you do?” Apple Bloom’s voice held the tension like a gas tank with a worrying leak.
“What are you talking about, sugarcube?” said Applejack as she took a step towards the filly.
Apple Bloom’s face contorted so much that a corner of her mouth nearly made contact with her eye. “THAT!” her hoof moved to point at the Crusader’s Clubhouse.
Applejack tilted her head. The walls were still pink, the roof shingled and altogether, her sister’s restoration job still held together very well. “Your treehouse?” Her gaze softened as she looked her sister in the eye. “It seems fine to me. You, on the other hoof, don’t. Come over here, sugarcube, you look like you could use a nice long rest.”
“...” Apple Bloom’s face had snapped back to look devoid of emotion. Her eyes were half-lidded and glazed over while her her mouth was as straight as a line.
The air felt thick as her sister’s stare slowly bore into Applejack’s emerald eyes. She shifted uncomfortably and tried her best to dig her hoof into the ground. “Apple… Bloom…?” She lifted her left hoof and brought it forward in the hope that-
Apple Bloom took off at breakneck speed. A streak of yellow and red zigzagged amongst the trees getting as far away as possible from the clubhouse. In the brief moments she left the shade of the trees, the light of day caused the tears that were streaming from her eyes to sparkle. Every now and then a sob would escape in between her breaths.
By the time exhaustion started climbing up her legs she had completely lost track of where she was going. She paused and took a bearing of her surroundings. The river wasn’t too far away and if she wasn’t mistaken Numbuh 3’s house was somewhere along its banks. The comfort of the company of a teammate was badly needed as she dragged her sore and numb hooves across the peculiarly hard ground.
Over in the market district, she noticed a building that she was sure wasn’t there yesterday. It was shaped like a short tower with the calming shades of blue and pink adorning it. It was elegant, to say the least, with decorations and embellishments and a whole lot more architectural frou-frou making it look like it was ready for building ball. The second floor was slimmer than the first and was circumscribed by the silhouettes of galloping horses held in place by rods that bisected them. The carousel motif was enforced by a similar image emblazoned proudly on a sign above the front door.
Curiosity overwhelmed exhaustion as she found her course being subconsciously altered to investigate the inviting building.
She put her muzzle to a window and peered inside. Several ponnequins were lined up together each wearing outfits in various stages of completion. The walls were were mostly decorated with flowing pink curtains with yellow lace borders. One side had several pedestals with three full length mirrors in front of each. As she continued scanning the room, she noticed a large, red, velvety fainting couch and upon it was, “Numbuh 3!”
She burst inside and sent the bell above the door into a ringing frenzy. “Coming!” said an elegant and clearly accented voice coming from somewhere within.
Sweetie Belle turned her attention from the comic she was reading and smiled at her friend. “Hey, Numbuh 1! Nice to see you today.”
“Numbuh 3? What are you doing here?”
“Hanging out with my sister,” said Sweetie sweetly.
Apple Bloom took a step back. “Yer sister?” She tried to think of any other siblings her teammate had. Her mind came up short. “Please don’t tell me ya mean-”
“Apple Bloom! What a pleasure seeing you, darling.” Rarity walked in carrying a tray with two glasses of sparkling iced lemonade in the blue hue of her magic. One gently floated over to Sweetie who took in in tiny appreciative hooves. The other went to Apple Bloom. Rarity tilted her head as she observed the stock still filly who just stared at the glass in front of her. “Anything wrong, dear?”
The filly in question shook her head to regain herself and tried to look Rarity in her eye without necessarily looking her in the eye. “Thank you,” she said with more than a little uncertainty.
Several points started to connect within the inner machinations of Rarity’s mind. “Yes, well why don’t you two just sit tight. I have few cucumber sandwiches on the way and we can all sit down to a nice snack.” She gave them one of her trademark smiles before returning to the kitchen.
“What is goin’ on?” said Apple Bloom through her teeth.
Sweetie shrugged in response. “Don’t know, but it’s pretty awesome. My sister,” she giggled as she said the word. “She’s been taking care of me all morning.”
Eyes shrunken and mouth agape, Apple Bloom stared at her teammate. “Numbuh 3, what’s the last thing you remember before getting,” she waved her hooves around, “here?”
She placed her hoof on her chin and thought about it. “Well I remember us going against Princess and her gloating and then bam!” She looked around the room for a moment. “When I woke up, Rarity was watching over me with a really worried look in her eyes.”
“So you ain’t even the slightest bit worried about what’s goin’ on here?”
Hooves and faces normally aren’t a good combination, but there are situations when they’re appropriate. This was one of them. “That’s it. Yer comin’ with me. Right now.”
“Awww, but Numbuuuh 1.”
“Right. Now. That there’s an order Numbuh 3.”
A grunt came from Sweetie as she pried herself off the plush and fluffy couch. “Fine,” she said begrudgingly. “Guess it’s back to the treehouse.”
Apple Bloom looked away from Sweetie. “There is no treehouse.”
That caught her attention completely. “What?”
“Just come with me. We can talk about when we’re in a more, secure location.” She grabbed Sweetie by the hoof and practically dragged her out of the door.
As they galloped away, a faint groan was heard coming from the Carousel Boutique.
It had taken a while before they bumped into Scootaloo wandering around town, gawking at all the sights and sounds like a fly in a light show. After establishing the weirdness happening around town, they proceeded to gather the rest of their team.
They found Dinky casually reading a book with big words on the cover under a tree in the park. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Come on, Numbuh 2.” said Apple Bloom. “This is no time for messing around. We need to find out just what they hay is goin’ on here.”
Dinky tilted her head and looked blankly at Apple Bloom.
“The tree house is gone! We have to contact central command and get reinforcements here ASAP! The fate of the CMC could be hanging in the balance for all we know!”
“Central command?” Dinky said incredulously. “And I already said I’m not interested in joining you guys. I mean your adventures look fun and all but I’m happy right here.”
“What’s the last thing you remember before waking up this morning?” asked Scootaloo.
Dinky thought for a moment. “Going to bed? Nothing much really happened yesterday.”
“So you don’t remember the fight with Princess at all yesterday? The one in the cave where we trying to get the magical mirror from her? And she had us surrounded by her army of ice cream ponies?”
“Pfft-” Dinky tried the best as she could to hold it in. She felt like she was going to burst and so gave up and just let it all out. “Bwahahaha! That sounds hilarious guys. Okay, maybe I’ll reconsider joining you on a crusade one of these days.” She got up and gathered her stuff. “Anyway, I gotta get on home. My mom’s makin’ muffins!” She gave them a smile and trotted away.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders got onto their still blank flanks and looked at each other with glassy eyes.
Apple Bloom pawed at the dirt. “She doesn’t even remember us. At all.”
“I don’t think that was Numbuh 2, Numbuh 1.” Sweetie looked one last time at their teammate as she nonchalantly trotted away.
“Where… are we?” asked Scootaloo as she looked imploringly her friends.
“There you are!” said six familiar, but distinctly older, voices in unison.
The three nearly jumped and slowly turned their heads and stared at the six older, and more importantly, marked, Delightful ponies. They each gave them a personalized of a glare for their archenemies.
The six were lined up rather than clumped together than usual. They were fully grown ponies who all had various Cutie Marks, horribly taking up their flanks.
Apple Bloom briefly wondered what was worse, seeing their worst enemies right in front of them and being completely unarmed and unprepared, or seeing those same enemies stuck with the very butt mark that they all hated so much. It didn’t matter now as she reared up on her hind legs. “Cutie Mark Crusaders! Battlestations!” she shouted as the three little fillies charged the six ponies.