//------------------------------//
// Reinforcements 
// Story: What? Moi? Me Jealous? Never! 
// by misskoifishpony 
//------------------------------//


"Um guys, are you sure this rocket will work?" said Sweetie Belle.

The three crusaders were sitting in a small wooden & cardboard go chart shaped like a rocket. The rocket was accented with blue and red marker colored wings, an orange safety cone in the front, and glittered and rim stone studded rocket fins in the back. They were prepared for their inter-stellar mission by wearing giant brown kneepads on each leg, and fish bowls on top of their heads with tape seal around the rim of the bowls to keep the air inside.

"Relax Sweetie, we got this!" said a very confident Scootaloo. "Besides, I've ridden down these hill tons of times. It will us give enough speed to break that…ugh, what was that sky layer thing again?"

"The stratosphere." Sweetie Belle responded, still nervous about the task before them. Especially when looking down from the top of hill. The hill being located on the outside border of the Apple Orchard, far away from parental vision. Sweetie Belle noticed how small and unsettling their little homemade ramp was at the bottom of the hill.

Scootaloo exclaimed "Yeah that's it!"

Apple Bloom asked Sweetie Belle "I don't get it Sweetie, y'all were so excited about all this when we meet up this morning. Now, you gonna chicken out on us!"

Scootaloo scowled at Apple Bloom "Hey!"

Apple Bloom covered her mouth "Oops, sorry Scoots. Forgot that we're not supposed to use chicken as an insult anymore."

Sweetie Belle sighed "I was excited about it because it wasn't actually an idea we were supposed to do today, but just rather someday. Maybe…you know…when we're older!"

Apple Bloom put her hoof on Sweetie's shoulder "Look you have the Apples' oath of truth that this is going to work, you'll see."

Sweetie Belle then said "Okay, okay, I can do this. But I just have one more question….why do I have to be in the front!"

Scootaloo said with a shrug "It was your idea in first place."

Then Scootaloo pulled out a medium sized firework stick and placed it in the hole in the back of the cart. Then, Apple Bloom handed Scootaloo a match box. Scootaloo rubbed one of the matches on the strip, and got a fire going. She lightly lit the firework and quickly blew out the match before throwing it away.

Sweetie Belle immediately heard the crackling and sparks coming from behind "Please don't tell me that's..."

Scootaloo shouted "HERE WE GO!"

Before the CMC knew it, they were swerving from left to right uncontrollably down the hill with the speed up to 40 miles per hour! Their go chart steering wheel was useless because the massive power of the firework was controlling the movement of the go chart. All that the little fillies, especially Sweetie Belle can do, was scream their little pony heads off.

The speed of the little rocket kept increasing as they gained more coverage down the grassy hill. All of sudden, one of the sparks of the firework landed on one of the back wheels and set it on fire! The overpowering heat of the spark combined with increasing velocity of the wheel made it exploded. Boom! The explosion caused a chain reaction to occur, and Bam! Two back wheels were out. The rocket was now just about 4 feet away from the ramp.

"Please sweet Celestia, stop this crazy thing!" begged Sweetie Belle.

Kaboom! The front left wheel was out, and the rocket was screeching against the grassy hill. It kept charging to the upcoming ram with no brakes. The cutie mark crusaders screamed and closed their eyes, preparing themselves for a world of pain. Screech-a-boom! 

It's been a full two minutes that Sweetie Belle has been shutting her eyes tight. Yet so far, there's no pain. No stinging, or twisting, or aches in her head yet. She slowly opened her eyes and noticed that there was a lion paw holding her around the waist. She looked up and saw….

"Discord!" joyfully exclaimed the CMC.

Discord was holding the trio in his arms high above the apple orchard, and high above the crash. "My, my, you ponies would call on dear far away Celestia before your friendly neighbor Discord," said a smirking Discord.

Before he knew it, his head was being squished by three fillies hugging his snout and face. Whoa two hugs in a row in one day, you are on a roll dear boy! Discord complimented himself inside his mind.

Sweetie Belle proclaimed "Oh Discord, you saved us!"

Scootaloo nervously chuckled "Hehe yeah, we owe you…big time."

Discord pouted with big fake puppy eyes "You must certainly do. My dear club members did something dangerous and chaotic without me."

Apple Bloom soothed Discord "Aww we're so sorry Discord. We didn't mean to do it on purpose. We're trying to get our rocket into space as smoothly as we could. But…"

"Oh space exploration! Well why didn't you say so? I could have gotten us to Mars with the snap of my talon. Who's idea was it?" asked Discord.

Sweetie Belle raised her hoof "It was…my idea. But I told them I didn't want to do it today! I was just thinking out loud! I guess…I was inspired by that meteorite ride of yours when you last visited us."

Discord chuckled while ruffling Sweetie's mane "Oh I'm touched. Truly I am." Sweetie Belle giggled at Discord's playful gesture.

Apple Bloom asked Discord "Are you visiting Fluttershy again Discord?"

Discord responded "Actually, I permanently moved my estate outside of Ponyville. In the Everfree Forest to be precise. So, now I can visit my favorite Fluttershy and my favorite little crusaders anytime I want!" Discord twirled them around all, making the fillies giggled in glee.

Once Discord stopped twirling them, he slowly landed himself and his friends to the ground.

Scootaloo exclaimed "This is sooo awesome! Oh man, what should we do first?"

Discord remarked "That's another reason why I'm here. I have an important and official club emergency!"

They gasped "What is it?!"

Discord then magically dressed himself in his military outfit (from the Twilight's Kingdom episode), as well as poofing up a large black chalk board. He also dressed the CMC in camouflage solider uniforms with dark green helmets too big for their heads. The club members were lined up in front of Discord ready for action.

He drew a picture of Fluttershy on the board and said while pointing it at with his bubble pipe "Our mission…to protect Fluttershy…from the enemy!" Then he drew a very large and spikey pony with giant and sharp teeth that looked like fangs. The pony's eyes looked demented and too big for his face.

He pointed at the scary looking pony and growled "Our target…Stellar Eclipse! AKA the enemy!"

Apple Bloom raised her front hoof. Discord said in commanding voice "Yes sergeant Apple?"

Apple Bloom looked to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle on the sides before answering "Um who is Stellar Eclipse? And why is he the enemy?"

Discord raised his eyebrow at her remark. Apple Bloom quickly added in "sir!"

Discord smiled and said "Glad you asked sergeant. Stellar Eclipse went to Flight Camp with Fluttershy when she's was a filly. However, he was no friend of hers. He was a bully! The biggest bully there was at that camp! And his favorite hobby was picking on poor sweet Fluttershy."

The solider fillies exclaimed "Aww that's so awful! Poor Fluttershy."

Discord continued "The worst part is that he'll be joining my picnic with Fluttershy."

Sweetie Belle shouted "What?! But why?"

Discord sighed "That Stellar Eclipse forced Fluttershy to invite him to our picnic. Fluttershy couldn't say no due to the kindness in her heart and the overwhelming fear she has for that bully."

Scootaloo growled "No way! That's not right! We need to find that punk, and give him a piece of our minds. You can even punish him with your magic Discord!"

Discord explained to Scootaloo while patting her head "I'm afraid I can't do that Scootaloo. I promised dear Fluttershy that I would not harm him or ruin this picnic tomorrow. If we get rid of him now, Fluttershy would have known that I broke my promise."

Apple Bloom asked Discord "But have you tried telling Fluttershy not to go through this? And convince her to shoo this bully away?"

Discord answered "Oh indeed, millions of times, but she's convinced that this picnic will help change his attitude. And from the looks of it, he can be a real Diamond Tiara."

Scootaloo then says "Well, sounds like he can never change."

Apple Bloom was still unsure about all this. Her own cousin was a bully for some time, but only because she was scared. She doesn't want any pony to get hurt like her cousin did. She asked "Maybe we should go and talk to this Stellar Eclipse guy? What if he's just going through a rough patch and taking it out on Fluttershy?"

Discord then commented "What kind of cruel pony does that?"

Apple Bloom stuttered "Well I..."

Discord continued "Especially to a pony who has never done a single wrong thing in her life?"

Apple Bloom said "Well…maybe…Apple Jack could talk to him!"

Sweetie Belle exclaimed "Or Rarity!"

Scootaloo added "Or Rainbow Dash!"

Apple Bloom finished "Maybe even Twilight? After all, she is the Princess of Friendship!"

Discord replied like a grumpy foal during time out "Humph! Fine then! I guess we're not friends."

The girls asked in unison "Huh?"

Discord plainly remarked "Friends trust in each other's word no matter what. I know that I would believe all of you if you were panicking about the sky falling. Or if you all saw the Legendary Hairy Big Hoof. My point is, I wouldn't question all of you if you were in a crisis. But since you seem to no trust me or believe me in my time of need, I guess I was wrong about our little friendship."

The girls looked back at each other with sincere guilt and sadness in their eyes, feeling so awful that they let their friend down. As far as they have known him, Discord has never let them down. He's probably the only grown-up that ever took their crusade seriously. Besides, he asks so little of them every time he visits, so this mission is really important.

Apple Bloom took the initiative to stand on her hind legs and raised one of her hooves in the air. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo immediately followed her.

With a determined look on their faces, Apple Bloom shouted "We're with you!"

Sweetie Belle added "That's right! We crusaders always stick together!"

Scootaloo followed with "No matter what!"

Discord's cheerful toothy grin returned and joined in the team high hoof. "Operation Fluttershy is a go!"