The three sleep-deprived fillies trotted happily towards the schoolhouse, mouths full of some rather lumpy and misshapen cara-fills. They had as a group decided to keep their new marks covered up, so that they could wait for a good time to show them off. If they were lucky, they were hoping they might even be able to do it at a time when it would put Diamond Tiara's hoof into her prissy little mouth. Mouth still full of slightly undercooked but still very gooey chocolate and caramel, Scootaloo turned to her friends.
“Ngm-gmph muh mhmm!”
The other fillies nodded heartily in agreement. Scoots was right, these were the best. Sure, they had arguably risked life and limb to get them, but the fact that they had managed to all get their cutie marks on the way more than made up for any imperfections with the candy. Sure, there might have been the occasional pocket of sugar that didn't get mixed in properly, but they tasted like success. As the schoolhouse came into view, Apple Bloom forced down her current mouthful of sweets.
“Girls, miss Cheerilee won't let us bring these into the class! We should probably finish these before we go in.”
The crusaders looked at the remaining half-bag of sugary goodness with hungry eyes.
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Cheerilee, despite many claims to the contrary, had never been a morning pony. She was good at faking it by now, having had years of experience, but for the first hour (or two, depending on how caffeinated her coffee was) she was just about sleepwalking through the lessons. On the bright side, the students were also usually pretty vacant that early in the morning, so by the time any of them were awake enough to cause any trouble she was well awake to handle it. Sadly, this didn't always prove to work out right.
Take, for instance, the three fillies with bags under their eyes wearing wired expressions. Apple Bloom was tapping her hoof and fidgeting incessantly, Scootaloo was playing with another one of those little hoof-boards she kept confiscating, and Sweetie Belle was doodling all over the handout she had just given out. She groaned inwardly as she recognized the unmistakable signs of a pony in the depths of a sugar binge. She could see that the other students were getting distracted, Diamond Tiara was developing an angry twitch from Apple Bloom's tapping, and for the second time today Scootaloo had quietly scampered out from her desk to retrieve the wayward hoofboard. She could tell that she wasn't going to be getting through to very many in the class, not while those three were being so distracting. Sighing, she looked out the window.
Well, it's a nice day I suppose, and seeing as I -do- have last say in the schedule...
Walking over to her desk, she loudly closed the open geography textbook, getting the attention of the class. Even though she wanted nothing more than to make a nice cup of tea and go back to bed, she forced on a bright and cheerful smile as she looked over the class.
“Since it's such a nice day out, how about we move PE up today? I think we could all use a bit of a wake-up, hmm?”
This was met with mixed reactions, some of the more physically inclined cheering while some of those who had been trying to nap groaning loudly. Just as she had predicted, the Crusaders were the first out the door, their step possessing less of a spring and more of a pneumatic bounce. Pulling the key to the PE shack out from a desk drawer, she followed them out into the sunlight.
Fumbling with the lock for a moment, she let herself into the eternally-musty shed. Frowning at the array of equipment, she realized that she really wasn't feeling up to trying and make all of her students try and play in an organized fashion. Shrugging, she simply pulled a random assortment of gear off the shelves, dumped it into the half-full bag of balls, and hauled the whole mess out to the waiting colts and fillies.
“Dibs on the soccer ball!”
“We've got lawn darts!”
“Gimmie that frisbee!”
Cheerilee had, by now, had enough experience to simply stand back and let them work it out. Now was the time to go and tune out for a little bit while they burned off energy. There would be time for teaching later, when they were tired and didn't have the energy to be disruptive.
The Crusaders had quickly grabbed a small pile of gear and booked it away before any of the others could try and grab them. Now, in their own little chunk of field, they were trying to figure out what to do with all of it. Sweetie Belle had a few frisbees she was starting to play around with, Apple Bloom was rigging up a dangerous looking combination of lacrosse sticks, lawn darts and a medicine ball, and Scootaloo was organizing some jerseys into red and blue. Sweetie Belle, eyes locked on the two frisbees she was starting to spin, was the first to speak up.
“So now that we have our talents, what do you wanna do after class?” She began to move the frisbees around as she spoke, keeping one centered over her horn while passing the other one under her belly. They were picking up speed, faintly whirring now. Scootaloo shrugged, trying to separate two tangled jerseys.
“Well, we gotta put Pinkie's book back, but I could probably do that myself. Just need to leave it in her room after all, not like we have to sneak down and put it back where we found it.” She paused for a moment to fish a small notebook out of the saddlebags she'd been wearing, flip it open and read from a small graph. “Yeah, she should be working this afternoon, so I'll swing by after class and just deal with that.” She snapped the book shut and dropped it back. The fact that she had this information on hoof didn't even phase her friends anymore. Apple Bloom was too busy at any rate, her latest contraption having come together as a mass of creaking beams, bent wood and a palpable feeling of high-tension. She stepped back, rubbing her hooves.
“Well girls, take a look! This baby should be able to chuck whatever'll fit in it to about the other side of the school! And for a test run...” At this, she pulled out a pile of pointed metal. “Lawn darts!” With gusto, she dumped the hooffull of them into the lacrosse stick, which was bent like a catapult scoop. It really looked like it should have broken after being bent that far. Sweetie Belle looked a little worried as she eyed the pile of sharp metal ready to be launched, and moved the frisbees in front of her like some sort of spinning shield.
“I don't know about this...” Scootaloo didn't share her concern however, momentarily ignoring her mostly-sorted piles to pump a hoof in the air.
“Go on, hit it! Let's see what it can do!” Happy to oblige, Apple Bloom stomped on what was apparently the release pad.
With a sound of wood grinding on wood and mesh whipping through the air, the device sprang into motion. The scoop quickly moved far too fast to see, propelling the bundle of lawn darts up with the scoop...
And over with the scoop...
And straight towards the ground with the scoop.
Apple Bloom facehooved as the lawn darts vanished, having punched several holes into the field. From somewhere underground, there was the faint sound of a dog yipping. Apple Bloom just grumbled to herself.
“Figures. Ah was afraid a that, I was hopin' they wouldn't stay stuck in the net like that.” Scootaloo had quickly closed the distance to the foot of the machine, and with one eye screwed shut was peering down one of the holes.
“Yeah, they're gone.” Shrugging, she went back to her two (finally) sorted piles of jerseys, before taking a deep breath and shouting out:
“Who's up for Red Rover?”
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It had been a while since most of them had played Red Rover, but it didn't take too long for everypony to pick it back up. Pretty quickly the line had gotten pretty long, ponies like Featherweight being called early with no real chance of getting through. Sweetie Belle had also been called over and clotheslined with some precision, and had taken up a spot on the end of the line where she figured she was less likely to get run over by any of her classmates. Only Apple Bloom had opted not to play, instead tweaking her improvised catapult. Finally Scootaloo's name was called, the moment that she had set up the entire game for. Reaching back, she loosened the straps on her empty saddlebags before turning, flaring her wings, and charging headlong at the line, specifically towards Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. Silver Spoon, looking nervous at the swiftly approaching orange blur, looked to Diamond Tiara for direction. Winking at her, Diamond Tiara stuck a hoof out, aiming to trip her as she tried to push between them.
On any other filly present, it likely would have worked. Instead, the pink and grey fillies were slammed into the air like cartoon bowling pins by what felt like a filly-shaped chunk of solid iron. Slightly dazed, Diamond Tiara noted with some small measure of satisfaction that she'd at least managed to knock her saddlebags off. Woozily, she got back to her hooves, only to wonder where the line had gone. Looking towards where the rest of the class had gone, she was starting to wonder if she got hit harder than she thought- they all seemed to be clustering around Scootaloo, of all ponies. Wondering what the commotion was, she motioned to Silver Spoon to get up before heading over herself. What she saw made her jaw drop.
“Yeah, I guess all those times getting smashed through stuff crusading really paid off!” Off to the side, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle giggled to each other as Scootaloo revelled in the praise. They let her bask in it for a moment before shucking off their own saddlebags, Sweetie Belle lifting up four frisbees into the air while Apple Bloom tied the end of a long rope to her hoof, the other end trailing off in the direction of her catapult. Calmly they walked forward, Sweetie Belle using the frisbees to push the other ponies out of the way. To a chorus of gasps, the other two fresh cutie marks were noticed. Sweetie Belle knew she was wearing that semi-smug grin her sister frowned at, but there wasn't much she could do about it. Apple Bloom was just grinning ear to ear, all too happy to be showered with praise. Eventually, pushing her way through the teeming mass of foals, Cheerilee came to the front of the crowd and broke into a smile. It's about time those three got their marks, she thought to herself. It just seems so silly that it took Scootaloo so long to realize her talent was... her internal monologue cut off as she looked at the rather unexpected mark on the orange pegasi's flank. Well... that's not what I expected. At least Sweetie Belle finally figured out that she's great at si- her expression began to turn into one of confusion as she looked at the strange disk mark on the white unicorn's flank. That's rather strange... I wonder if Apple Bloo- She was interrupted by the sound of something exploding, and the small sea of pony heads surrounding her pivoting towards the schoolhouse. The fireworks that Apple Bloom had snuck in hadn't worked exactly as planned, her front hoof covering her mouth as she along with the rest of the class looked at the now-on-fire roof of the schoolhouse, and the periodic escape of some of the fireworks that hadn't lit on launch. She tried to subtly kick the rope that was acting as the trigger off of her hind leg, with no success until Sweetie Belle helpfully stood on it and let her pull herself free. Scootaloo leaned over to them and whispered loudly in order to be heard above the fireworks.
"So I vote that we bail for the rest of the day. All in favor?" The others nodded their heads vigorously, and while all the others were watching the weather pegasi rapidly pull some rain over the burning roof, the three fillies made their escape.
The fire was put under control quickly enough, though by the time it was out the rain had soaked through enough of the freshly burned holes in the roof to quite completely drench the interior. After taking one look inside, Cheerliee sighed to herself and turned to her class, wearing as bright a smile as she could muster.
"School is out early today, everypony! Now remember the math homework, that's still due at the start of next week. Have a good weekend!" As the foals charged off cheering, Cheerilee walked in to the soggy schoolhouse and shut the door behind her. Trotting over to her desk, she opened one of the lower drawers, and noticed with some relief that at least her paperwork survived. Moving books off the top of her desk until she found a dry patch, she pulled out a form and began to fill it out.
Name / Names: Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom
Species (In order of naming above): Pegasus, Unicorn, Earth Pony
Gender (In order of naming above): All girls
Please describe the marks (In order of naming above): A broken brick on a starburst, a loop on an angled starburst, an apple blueprint
Please describe any noteworthy events related or possibly related to this / these marks (In order of naming above): Shoulder-checking two fillies of similar mass at the same time hard enough to send them flying, apparent control of multiple rotating objects (better multi-object control than normal in a filly of that age), assembling an improvised siege engine out of PE gear and using it to set the school on fire
Reaching back into the desk, she pulled out one of the small vials of bottled dragonfire all teachers were issued for the purpose of sending such things, the purple color of the flames marking the address as being somewhere in the Canterlot administrative system. Uncorking the bottle, she poured it out like ink over the form, which quickly burned up into smoke that flew out the window. Her duty done and the new marks reported, she made her way to the door. Well, if nothing else, I suppose that means tea and a book is back on the menu. Smiling a tired smile, she set out towards her home.
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Meanwhile, up in Canterlot, a book keeper was frantically cross-referencing a somewhat damp letter and a book that clearly hadn't been opened in a long time. A shaky hoof went down the page, passing over various symbols and brief descriptions, before finding first a broken brick, then a spinning hoop, and finally a blueprint. After a moment of fumbling, the word URGENT was stamped across the form in bright red ink, before the form was doused in green dragonfire; the color only used to send letters directly to Celestia.
When Celestia saw the paper appear, she took hold of it expecting a letter from Twilight, the pony who most frequently used such channels to contact her. As she read though, her eyes went wide, before an uncharacteristically shrewd smile crossed her features.
As usual, Ponyville has impeccable timing. I'll send some letters immediately, I should be ready to move by tomorrow.