Soft Soil, Bab Seed

by ILurvTrixie

Rainy Day

The crusaders sighed as they stared out the library window at the stormy day that had developed. Things were going fine until just after a hearty breakfast of hay bacon and oatmeal. Unexpected lightning had flashed ominously. Then, the clouds let loose with a torrential downpour of cataclysmic proportions. Now the day was wet, dark, and dreary unto the depths of dreariness. Applebloom frowned. "Hey Sweetie, what's another word for dreary?"

"Dark?"

"No, I used that one already."

"Depressing?"

Now the day was wet, dark, and dreary depressing unto the depths of dreariness. Applebloom pondered the thought a moment, than nodded.

"That sounds better. Thanks."

"Sure thing?" Sweetie blinked in utter confusion.

Scootaloo groaned. "I can't believe this! The one full day we had to spend with Babs, and it's pouring buckets! Can't go swimming 'cause of lightning, can't go lumberjacking cause of the rain, can't go out and help Zecora with her potion ingredients because it's a storm; which makes the Everfree like twice as dangerous."

"Maybe three times." Applebloom nodded at the Pegasus' assessment.

Sweetie smiled happily. "Well, we can always try getting our cutie marks in board games. Or maybe in art!"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes with a dismissive snort. "Come on, we need to do something exciting! Memorable! How about scary stories?"

"After breakfast?" Sweetie didn't look enthused.

"Considering how dark it is outside-" Scootaloo grinned "-all we need is less light inside."

Babs rolled her eyes from her position on the couch, Spike having just walked in from cleaning the dishes.

"Shouldn't Babs be making the calls here? She is the company." The young dragon gave Scoots a curious look, which Scoots promptly deflected by leaping for the nearest light switch.

"Sure! She can pick who goes first!"

As the lights went out and Golden Oaks Library was plunged into gloom, Scootaloo's proud grin avoided any damage from the large number of rolled eyes, by simple virtue of not being able to see them.

***

Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to have Scootaloo go first. Babs, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Spike were all huddled in a single mass on the couch as Scootaloo regaled them with a flashlight under her chin. The campy effect was occasionally broken by a flash of actual lightning outside.

"-all they found were the tracks, leading off into the well. The bodies were never found. Much like the first pony, their loved ones kept hearing... sounds. A scratching. A banging at the door. But there was never anypony there, only cold wet tracks of a drowned pony on land. Those who sought to harm them would go missing, some found later trapped in kelp nets, some simply vanishing into water sources. The survivors would always talk of ponies, wet from head to hoof, dripping, water pouring from their mouth with every labored gasp they made. Drowned Ponies walking.

"The old man? Who set this all in motion? It's thought that he walks Equestria to. this. very. day. Still speaking of his love lost beneath the waves, still trying to gather enough drowned ponies to him, to one day dredge the ocean for his beloved, singing softly 'Shoo be doo, shoop shoo be doo'."

The door slammed open with another flash of light, revealing the watersoaked form of a drowned pegasus and an earth pony with a glimmering eye in a mariner's coat. The fillies and dragon screamed in unison.

***

Rainbow Dash was laughing heartily as she toweled herself off. The lights were all back on again as the abashed fillies glared at the floor of the library, as if it might erase that rather embarrassing reaction. Applejack shook her head as she slipped a dry package of Apple family cooking from under her heavy old fashioned raincoat.

"Honestly, telling scary stories in the middle of the day."

"Looks like they got a scare out of it, so they were doing something right!" Dash wooped as she was hit with another towel from Spike.

"That's not funny." Spike grumbled. "What are you two doing here now anyway? Applejack I get, she's dropping off some food now that the crisis is over, " Applejack nodded at the assessment, "but what about you Dash?"

"It was my fault that this storm managed to brew up since I had to leave a thick layer of cloud cover waiting for sunup-" She shot a small glare at Applejack "-so I've been given patrol duty on the underside of the clouds for the duration. Wet, cold, but I'm still probably the most able flier for the job."

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Hasn't hurt your modesty none either. I'm just checking in on the fillies, the trees are thankfully not making crazy amounts of apples at the moment, but we still have an overflowing section of fencin' to empty of the already dropped magic apples." She shuddered at the thought.

"We're fine Applejack." Applebloom smiled.

Sweetie perked up. "Any news from Rarity?"

Dash snickered. "Screaming. Panicking. Multiple fainting couches spotted through the window. I think she's still a little stressed." Sweetie sighed dejectedly.

Applejack raised an eyebrow at the crusaders, their usual interminable energy deflated like Pinkie's hair when she lost her mind. Well, at least when she got really sad. "Somethin' wrong?"

Scoots grumbled. "Well, we were gonna take Babs on a bunch of crusades today. And- well." She shook a hoof angrily at the storm. "Sometimes living near a place with its own weather really stinks."

Dash chuckled, giving Scoot's mane a ruffling. "Yeah, no kidding. Especially when there's problems if you don't just let it happen." She shot Applejack another glare, pointing a hoof at her. "You owe me. This cider season!"

Applejack chuckled in return. "We'll set some aside for ya extra special, Dash. Anywho, I need to get back out there. Hopefully none of the apples have started to rot and maybe affected the soil. We really need Twi to get back."

"Yeah, I should get back to patrolling, make sure nothing crazy happens while the storm is blowing. You fillies have fun!" With a salute, Dash was back out the door, the several towels sacrifice in vain as she soaked through in seconds. Applejack shook her head and followed her out, leaving Spike and the Cutie Mark Crusaders to their own devices.

"So how about board games?" Sweetie chirped happily.

***

The meetings had broken down. The Apple Family refused to budge and Carousel Boutique Incorporated was sitting on a healthy pile of money. Dragons and Dragons had completely tied up the gem market, while this upstart from Weather or Not kept a death grip on the low end of town. Seed Money looked over the cityscape laid out before her, frowning.

It'd been an hour, and everypony remembered why nopony actually played Monopony to the end.

***

It was the last match of the day. Hoof wrestling. Babs had unsurprisingly claimed an easy win over both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, but when Spike got a surprise win over Scootaloo, the crusaders had thrown together a more dramatic looking table cloth, raised the table and chairs, added overhead lights, and armed themselves with cameras. Babs wasn't exactly sure how they did it, but couldn't argue with the results.

Scootaloo dinged a bell. "Final Round! Spike Versus Babs!"

Applebloom cheered on her cousin. "Go Babs!"

Sweetie cheered for Spike. "Kick her flank Spike!"

Spike rolled his eyes. "I told you. They always go overboard."

Babs laughed. "Well, at least it's not like anything can go wrong this time."

The two mighty combatants braced themselves, hoof to claw, glaring at each other dramatically.

Scootaloo rang the bell again. "GO!"

The strain was visible from the get go. Teeth were clenched in concentration, both fighters straining to keep their hooves steady. The table creaked ominously under their assault. Flashbulbs popped on either side of them, the spotlight above swinging to focus on the epic battle. If nothing else the crusaders proved themselves adept at dramatics.

***

Five minutes earlier...

"Alright Scoots." Applebloom grinned, looking over her construction. "Just gonna need you to push those into place while we lift the table."

"Yeah yeah. This bell is pretty cool, Applebloom."

"Hnnngrk!" Sweetie and Applebloom applied their full weight to the table as Scootaloo pushed the wooden blocks into place under two of the legs. They repeated the pattern, none of them noticing as Scootaloo grabbed the small cardboard boxes the blocks came in instead of something more solid.

***

"I'm. Gonna. Win!" Babs ground out.

"Not. That. Easy!" Spike was about out of breath, but still holding steady.

The cardboard boxes had decidedly had enough of this, with both youths applying their full weight to the table, and spontaneously decided to go on strike. As the side of the table closest to Spike collapsed, he jerked back in surprise as Babs was half pulled over the table.

"Wha!"

"Hey!"

As they fell into each other, the tablecloth managed to get itself wrapped around them. Their momentum and positioning ended with them wrapped tightly together, stuck face to face in an involuntary kiss. The crusader's gaped for a second, Sweetie Belle's camera flashing once more to save the memory.

"Hlmph!"

"MMph!" Spike and Babs were both struggling to get out, and finally managed to get their faces away from each other.

"Blech. You still taste like breakfast."

"So do you! Now are you going to help us or what?" Babs glared at the Crusaders, who finally sprang into action. Both she and Spike were flushed from the exertions of trying to escape. And nothing else. Nothing at all.

It was not a blush.

Author's Note:

Just a little bit of Slice of Life.

DEY KISS! *MWAH*

...What, you didn't think they'd like it, did you? They probably need cootie shots now.

Comments

[TheAppleBloomer]

OMFG THE END!! XD the random kiss!! That was such a cute moment of Babs and Spike! This fanfic is AWESOME! 8D

[ILurvTrixie]

I appreciate the enthusiasm, glad you liked it.

[Frazzled Pony]

Cute. I like this.

[OmniFox]

You can't stop the passion.