"Pilot to co-pilot, ready for take off? Over."
"Skies clear for take off, mam. Over."
With the snap of some goggles over his eyes, Steven gave the thumbs up. With the word, Lapis Lazuli happily spread out her water wings in the sunlight. Steven went on her back, piggy-back style. They were on top of the barn house, and having some freedom, decided to have some fun. Steven had his magic key in hand, and oddly he also had a make-shift slingshot. With a flap of the wing, and a hop off the roof, Lapis and Steven were airborne. Lapis flew at a good speed, going over the hillsides and open fields. Steven readied his slingshot, and put his magic key in it, aiming forward. He also added some thick string to the handle to work with what idea the two came up with. Soon, Steven shot the key forward, and downward, with the key rushing downward. They waited until they saw the key land correctly, and the magic door opening up, before Lapis folded in her wings, and began to dive towards it. As they did, Steven grabbed the string on the way down, and soon they both rushed through. With Steven holding the string, the key popped out of the keyhole, and shutting the door behind them, as they flew through with high speed. Soon, they went from Earth skies, to Equestrian skies, as the door had opened up to the skies above Ponyville.
"WOHOO!" Steven beamed. Steven fished back the magic key, as Lapis slowed down her flight, and basically went to cruising speed, her wings out spread. They had a great view of Ponyville from where they were, and flew past the clouds with ease. Steven loved flying with Lapis, and sat up on her back, his arms spread out like he was flying himself. Lapis looked up to him with a smile, glad to see a smile on his face too, as she glided along. However, as she went, she didn't noticed where she was going for that one moment.
They both ended up going right through a cloud. Even at slower speed, they were still going pretty decent, and they got through the cloud after a little bit. They were alright, but Steven looked back to his hands, and realized something.
The key was knocked out of his hands!
Lapis and Steven looked down, but barely caught a glance of Steven's key tumbling in the air, down to the ground below. as it fell, it ended up getting knocked about in some tree branches a number of times, until it finally landed on a rooftop, sliding to the edge of the roof's gutters. The roof didn't belong to a house exactly, at least not in the sense like a cottage.
This small building looked more like a small house, built in the understory of a old apple tree. Some steps lead up from the ground to the front door. The whole house was purely made of wood, from the foundations, to the porch, hammered together with nails which showed in a number of places. A rope also connected a part of the stairs to one of the tree branches as extra support. The house itself had a slightly red appearance, possibly from the material being made of a sort of redwood perhaps.
"Alright, Cutie Mark Crusaders! The official meeting is now in session!"
Inside the house, some ponies were already inside, known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. One of these ponies was actually Apple Bloon, the same little yellow Earth Pony, and Applejack's younger sister. With her were two other ponies, looking about the same age as her. One was a white unicorn, her mane and tail well maintained, curled, and a mix of lavender and pink colors. The other one was a young Pegasus, though her wings were too small for her to fly. Her fur was orange, and her tomboyish mane and tail were purple.
"Roll Call; Sweetie Belle?"
"Here," the white unicorn announced, hoof up so Apple Bloom could see.
"Scootaloo?"
"Here!" the Pegasus said, hopping in the air with her wings beating like a hummingbird. Apple Bloom nodded.
"Everypony here, great!" Apple Bloom smiled.
"Alright, Apple Bloom, what's on the agenda today?" Scootaloo asked, ready to go.
"Oh, I got some good plans, girls," Apple Bloom assured them. The clubhouse had a map of Ponyville up on the wall, and the yellow Earth Pony got their attention to it. A few spots on the map were circled, and these spots was what she was referring to.
"Okay, what do we got? Paragliding cutie mark? Racing cutie mark? Boxing cutie mark -"
"Gardening," Apple Bloom revealed. Scootaloo immediately lost her interest, but Sweetie Belle was happy with that answer.
"Gardening sounds great!" Sweetie Belle said. Apple Bloom then pointed to one part of Ponyville on their make-shift map.
"Mr. Greenhooves is doin some extra work this morning, so why don't we lend a hoof? We might get our Gardening cutie marks!" Apple Bloom explained, heading to the door. It may not be the craziest idea they tried (they've done crazier), so Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle went over to her. Apple Bloom stepped out of their clubhouse, confidence on her face.
"Alright, Cutie Mark Crusaders, time to get our - OW! What the?" suddenly, the key on their roof suddenly fell, landing right on Apple Bloom's head. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both saw the key land on their front step. Apple Bloom rubbed her head as all three looked at the key. The three surrounded it, as Sweetie Belle picked it up with her hoof.
"A key? How'd it get here?" Sweetie Bella asked, confused as anypony.
"I dunno, maybe somepony dropped it," Scootaloo figured, looking to the sky.
"From the sky?" Questioned Sweetie. As they thought, Apple Bloom looked up closely to where it could've come from. As she did, something came into sight. She got her hoof above her eyes as she tried to see it correctly. Then, as she saw the water wings, she got it almost immediately.
"The Gems!" She shrieked, excited as ever. Scoot and Sweetie looked at eachother, not hearing of the Gems yet. Now, Apple Bloom saw that it made sense. Heading down to the ground from their clubhouse, Apple bloom waved her front hooves in the air to get their attention, a smile on her face. Lapis and Steven, flying high above, saw the filly waving to them, and Lapis decided to fly down to them. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle watched in awe, as Lapis landed gently on the ground.
"Howdy," Apple Bloom said, as Steven got off Lapis's back.
"Hi, Apple Bloom. Did you see a yellow key drop around here?" Steven asked, looking around for where his key had dropped. Soon, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked over to them, Sweetie holding the key in question.
"You mean this?" Sweetie Belle asked, holding it for them to see it. Steven got a big smile.
"You got it! thanks!" Steven beamed, as Sweetie Belle gave him his key back. Steven and Lapis hadn't met the other two ponies before.
"So, what're y'all up to?" Apple Bloom asked, glad to see them.
"Just having some fun. What about you?" Lapis asked. Before Apple Bloom could answer though, Scootaloo was looking over Lapis's transparent water wings. Her face looked kinda funny since she was standing behind Lapis, and her reflection was distorted like that of a funny mirror.
"Whoa. Are these water wings?" Scootaloo asked, trying to get a grip on one of them, only to have her hooves go right through them. They ended up wet, like she stepped in a puddle of water.
"Yep, and they work well too," Lapis replied, hovering in the air a little bit to show what her wings can do. Scootaloo was surprised that wings made of water were enough to get her to fly, as Steven went over to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.
"You know these two?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yep. Steven, I like y'all to meet my friends; Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo," Apple Bloom introduced. Sweetie Belle politely nodded to Steven, who smiled to her, as Scootaloo just waved hello with a big grin.
"So, what're you up to?" Steven asked.
"We're just heading down to see Mr. Greenhooves. Wanna come with us?" Sweetie Belle offered. Apple Bloom nodded in agreement to her.
"Sure, let's go!"
~~~~~~
With a steady step, and a whistling tune, one pony was happily at work with his gardening work. This pony didn't look overly colorful like many other ponies were, with his fur a faded brown. His mane and tail were a bit scruffy and grey, with a long goat beard on his chin, as long as his neck. On his back was a blue sheet, looking like a saddle, and he had a large, saggy hat on his head He looked like a fairly old stallion, but one unique detail was that his flank had no Cutie Mark on it! That didn't seem to bother him though, as he continued going about some of the neighborhood gardens as apart of his daily work to Ponyville. He dragged behind him a empty wooden wagon, with some gardening tools and potted plants inside it. The Earth Pony went over to the community flowers, ready to begin his work.
These flowers were rather close to the town square, by one of the town's bridges. When he got there, he parked his wagon nearby so he wouldn't be in the way, unhitched himself, and began with digging a decent sized hole in the ground, nearby the bridge. After this, he'd grab the potted plant, and proceed to plant it himself. However, after he was done this time around, suddenly the plant ended up right in front of him, held in front of him by Steven. Lapis, and the CMC stood nearby, as he took a minute to figure out what was going on.
"Morning Mr. Greenhooves," Steven said. Mr. Greenhooves took a minute, clearing his throat.
"Mornin there, youngsters. Thank you, I'll take that," Mr. Greenhooves said, taking the potted daisy bush from Steven. Lapis was more intrigued by what Mr. Greenhooves was doing, rather than help him out like the others wanted to. As Mr. Greenhooves continued with his whistling tune, Lapis kneeled down right by the hole, observing the old pony working on his planting.
"What're you doing to that?" Lapis asked, as Mr. Greenhooves placed the pot next to the hole.
"Planting, of course. Never seen a gardener before?" He asked, followed by a chuckle, as he got the daisy bush out of its pot, and putting it in the soil.
"Well, is this what you ponies normally do?"
"It's what I normally do, mam," Mr. Greenhooves replied, as he went back to his wagon, looking inside it.
"Where's that shovel?" he wondered, his hoof moving around some stray items and tools. Suddenly though, Apple Bloom popped out of the wagon in sight, holding the shovel in question. Mr. Greenhooves was startled a bit at first.
"Here you go," Apple Bloom said, a bit muffled from the object in her teeth. Mr. Greenhooves looked a little skeptical, as he took the shovel from Apple Bloom. As he walked back to bury the plant correctly, Apple Bloom spoke again.
"so, I was wonderin if, maybe, you need some help?" Apple Bloom asked, hoping for a good answer. However, Mr. Greenhooves preferred working by himself, so unless these kids were going to learn from him, he didn't feel like he needed it. So, after a bit, he turned back to Apple Bloom.
"Eh, I'm good youngin, you go off and play," Mr. Greenhooves said, waving a hoof to her, as he continued until the daisy bush was properly planted in the ground. Apple Bloom seemed a bit down.
"You sure you don't need anything?" Apple Bloom asked. Mr. Greenhooves walked over to her, a hoof scratching his chin.
"Ya know? There is one thing you can do for me."
"Really, what?" Apple Bloom asked, excited ...
All Mr. Greenhooves did was move her out of his wagon.
"There ya go, thank you," Mr. Greenhooves said. He didn't want to act rude, but Apple Bloom knew when somepony didn't need their help. With his first plant properly planted, Mr. Greenhooves got his wagon hitched, and he trotted off again. While Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were bummed out, Scootaloo felt slightly relieved that they didn't waste the day on flowers.
"Well, now what?" Sweetie Belle wondered. Then Scootaloo had an idea after looking to Lapis, and remembering her water wings.
"Hey, I know what we can do!"
~~~~~~
"I don't know about this," Sweetie commented.
Scootaloo's fancy idea got her, Sweetie, and Apple Bloom up on the Sweet Apple Acres barnhouse roof. Steven stayed on the ground as Lapis hovered nearby the fillies. The Pegasus had got herself a large glider, so it was pretty obvious what she was going to try to do.
"It'll be fine! Hang gliding cutie marks will be a synch!" Scootaloo assured, ready to go. Apple Bloom knew this won't work; trying something familiar a long time ago with bad results. Sweetie Belle was scared and had enough common sense. Before anypony could stop her though, Scootaloo started to run forward, and leaped off the roof! At first it seemed to go well, but the wind wasn't kind to her glider, and a few gusts got the thing broken up right away ...
"You got to be kidding me."
That was all Scootaloo could think before she started to fall down to the ground. Steven looked up and saw she was going to fall right onto him! Almost instinctively, Steven protected himself with a bubble, which was enough to break Scootaloo's fall. Lapis brought Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle down safely, as Steven removed the bubble, the fall not as painful as it would've been.
"How'd you do that? That was awesome!" Scootaloo asked.
"I guess it just happened," Steven said modestly, shrugging. That was purely out of impulse, so he didn't fully pay attention much to how he did it. Still, it was good that Scootaloo didn't break anything. For Scootaloo, she only checked her flank to find it was still bare.
"Aww man."
"You okay, Scootaloo?" Steven asked.
"Yeah I'm fine. Anypony have any other ideas?" Asked Scootaloo.
"Hopefully not as dangerous," added Lapis. She didn't want to see anypony hurt in these shenanigans. As they tried to think, Sweetie Belle noticed Steven's key, the handle poking out of his pocket. Sweetie and Scoot both weren't told too much about them, and the only main thing they were told about them was they're from another world. That's when a light bulb lit up in Sweetie's head.
"I just got the best idea ever!" Sweetie Belle beamed, catching their attention.
"Does that idea involve sewing?" Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle looked over to Lapis and Steven next.
"Steven, right? You two are from another world, aren't you? Can we have a visit?" Sweetie asked.
The answer was quick to decide.
~~~~~~
The barnhouse was rather busy at the moment, with the sounds of power tools being used. Inside, Peridot was busy handling some mechanical experimenting. Since there was a lot of stuff inside the barnhouse, there was plenty of stuff to look at and examine. Working on the Galactic Ray was fun, and gave her plenty to look around in the barn already, but she still had a few items she didn't get to look at. Here, she was opening up a compartment to an airplane engine, looking over how it works.
"Primitive," Peridot noted. she leaned in, ending up on her tip-toes, and just one foot. She was a bit too busy to really notice anyone else with her. Behind her, someone walked right over to her, casually ...
a push on her butt made her fall in.
"ACK! HEY!"
Peridot turned around to a snickering of another Gem. This one was a Gem that the group took in for the time being after the whole shebang back on Homeworld; Emerald. However, Emerald looked a bit different from before though. Thanks to some help from the Gems and Steven, his Gemstone no longer had such a large crack on it, and therefore was healed up. Not too much was changed on his body apart from a few things; his eye patch which once was covering his left eye, was replaced with a set of visors. These visors didn't look like those of Peridot, nor Garnet, but instead looked more like sharp-edged glasses, like a sharp-edged W. They did had a shade of green to them, much like Peridot's visors.
"Gotta be aware, Peridot," Emerald snickered.
His freedom to move his mouth also came back ... For better, or worse.
"Did you have to do that?" Peridot grumbled, getting herself out, and wiping off some dust.
"You were standing there, exposed as anything. Of course," Emerald joked. Peridot was flustered and fuming; Emerald hadn't been very good company for her since bringing him back, and Emerald seemed to love messing with her head more than he would with the others. Maybe it was because he got a better laugh out of teasing her, or maybe they were both small green Gems. Whatever the case, Peridot herself was regretting letting Garnet bring him along at this point.
"Why are you still staying with us again?" Peridot wondered. Emerald can easily leave the Gems, as far as she's concern. Emerald casually leaned on the side of the airplane engine.
"Unless your gang has a quick ticket back to Homeworld from here, I'd rather hang about Beach City, thank you."
"We didn't use this 'ticket', we used a spaceship. Why didn't you stay anyway?" Peridot groaned, rolling her eyes. Emerald lost his cheeky smile at this point (something he hadn't done in years).
"First off, Just an expression. Second, you had the quick fix for my gemstone, and you weren't going to heal it there," Emerald pointed out. Peridot didn't care though. Before they could continue, they heard a knock at the barn doors. The knock may not be needed, but it was loud enough for Emerald and Peridot both to hear. Turning to the door, they saw three ponies neither recognized, along with Lapis and Steven. Peridot stopped her tinkering when she saw the trio of Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth Pony. As for the three, they were bummed out earlier when they discovered that world jumping wasn't their special talent either, but they didn't keep that sort of feeling once they showed up.
"Hey, Peri! What'chu doing?" Steven asked, as he, Lapis and the CMC ventured in. The three fillies looked around with curiosity, as Peridot went over to Steven.
"And who are these three?"
"That's Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. We're just showing them around," Steven said, as the three began looking at the same airplane engine, not seeing such a thing before back in Ponyville. Emerald didn't seem bothered by the three ponies looking around the engine. Yet, Scootaloo got herself above Emerald, on top of the engine. However, one misstep, and Scootaloo ended up tumbling off of the engine, and landing on top of him. Peridot found this her own way of getting even
"Eh, sorry," Scootaloo said. Emerald sighed, and used his own version of telekinesis to move Scootaloo off of him. He checked his gemstone for any damage, but it was alright.
"Just watch where your stepping," Emerald said. He appreciated it if he didn't get his gemstone cracked for a second time since getting it fixed, accidental or not. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were looking in their reflections off of the engine.
"This one of those fancy future Gem machine things?" Apple Bloom asked, scratching her head.
"This is just archaic compared to our technology," Peridot boasted, a smile on her face. That got the CMC interested.
"Really?! Like what?" Scootaloo asked.
"Believe me, it's nothing anypony can simply imagine," Peridot said. However ...
"OH! Do you Gems have limb pieces with floating digits?" Asked Sweetie Belle.
"Or teleporting disks you can slap on the ground anytime?" Added Apple Bloom.
"Or AWESOME flying hand spaceships?" Finished Scootaloo.
Peridot didn't know what to say, rather blank-faced ...
"I take back my previous statement," Peridot noted. These three basically summed up Gem warp pads, their spaceships, and limb enhancers with their own minds. And here she thought these ponies were primitive. As they were finishing up, suddenly another visitor came to the barn, rather fast, and looking worried.
"Hey, did y'all see - Apple Bloom!"
It was Applejack. She'd found that the three had pretty much disappeared, and she was looking for her younger sister for a while. She didn't look worried anymore though, when she saw Apple Bloom with her friends.
"There you are. You alright, I saw y'all on top of the barn roof, and then you disappeared on me!" Applejack asked firmly. Indeed, the older pony did see them hanging out on top of their barn roof, but she didn't go fast enough to stop them from running off to Beach City.
"Sorry, sis," Apple Bloom replied. Applejack sighed, she was just glad the three weren't hurt from that little act. Then she turned to the Gems nearby.
"Were y'all involved with that?" Applejack asked. Peridot and Emerald didn't had a clue on the matter, and Steven and Lapis glanced to eachother before answering.
"We ... Didn't stop them," Lapis admitted. Steven shrugged and smiled, embarrassed. Applejack didn't put much blame on them really, though at least they weren't hurt.
"Anyhow, bout time for you to get home. We gotta get things ready, remember?" Applejack reminded. Apple Bloom flat out forgot about that - a mental slap to the face.
"Oh yeah! Sorry Steven, girls," Apple Bloom said.
"Ready for what?"
"Spring forward Apple sale. We get loads of ponies wanting our apples, and we need everypony in support," Applejack explained, referring to Apple Bloom. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both had to leave too. Applejack got out her own magic key, and got the door to open up. It was a bummer that this had to be cut short.
"We can hang out with them later, right?" Steven asked.
"Course you can. Just avoid jumpin off anypony's roofs," Applejack said with a wink. Steven and Lapis promised (of course), and Applejack began to guide them through the portal back home. Okay, so this trip was short, but they can meet eachother again soon.