Adventures in Shopping
I heard my door open and lifted my head at the sound. Before I could react, Oxford lept onto the bed and made a beeline for my face. I felt a tugging on my covers as Kloe tried to get up on the bed, but wasn’t able to make the jump with her stubby little legs. Amidst Oxford’s licking, I managed to prop myself up. “Buwha?”
“Sorry John.” I rubbed my left eye and realized mom was in the room as well. “I just wanted to tell you that I need to run your sister over to her friend’s house. She left some clothes and makeup over there.”
I flopped back onto my bed. Last night’s fiasco had seriously drained me and I really wanted some more sleep. “Ugh, so? Let me sleep.”
“Sorry,” mom mumbled, “your father already went to work and I didn’t know what else to do... there’s cinnamon buns in the oven though.”
That got me away from my pillow. I grinned for a couple of good reasons. “Well, why didn’t you say that first?”
~~~
It took a lot of restraint to not eat more than one cinnamon roll. It took even more restraint to not take the middle piece. The whole ordeal was exacerbated by rolling out of bed and facing the struggle of taking a shower with a cast on. By the time I was clean, I was really hungry. I ate some yogurt and a banana to keep from eating any more of the rolls.
Luckily, by the time I’d eaten breakfast, so had mom and Rachel. They left just as I was tossing out the banana peel. When I was certain their car wasn’t in sight anymore, I grabbed the plate of cinnamon rolls and went out to the guest house. For once, we wouldn’t be throwing out the extra pastries.
I knocked on the door, not wanting to just barge in if the girls were still asleep. Apparently, I was right about the sleep issue, since Apple Bloom opened the door and looked like she’d just flopped out of her bed, with her hair going in every direction. “John? Is it mornin’ already?”
“Yeah.” I made my way into the house. Sweetie and Scootaloo were still lying on the bed, sound asleep. “I got ya’ll something good for breakfast.”
Apple Bloom finally took notice of the plate in my hands. Her eyes widened as the rolls’ scent filled the room.
“Cinnamon buns!” Scootaloo suddenly shouted. She jumped out of bed and lunged over to us. “Please tell me the middle piece is still left?”
“So that’s what it takes to get ponies up in the morning,” I mused. I set the plate down by the stove and pulled down some plates. “You can have the middle piece... if Sweetie doesn’t want it.”
Scootaloo’s right hand twitched as if she were about to raise it in objection, but she glanced over at Sweetie instead. “Okay.”
By now, Sweetie had managed to pull herself out of bed and was shuffling over to us. She kept her eyes on the ground all the way over to us and when she stopped by the stove. “Sorry about last night.”
I gave my head a light shake. “Nothing you could have done about some bad food, but you can have some proper food to make up for it.”
Sweetie’s lips turned up in a soft smile and her eyes went over to the place of rolls. “I... I think that’d be nice. Rarity doesn’t usually make cinnamon rolls since they’re messy.” Her attention then went over to Scootaloo. “You can have the middle piece though.”
Scootaloo’s grin stretched from ear to ear. “Thanks Sweetie!”
Sounds like somepony’s sister has rubbed off on them. I separated the rolls with the spatula I’d brought with the plate and gave Scootaloo and Apple Bloom two each and gave Sweetie one. When I gave her her plate I said, “There’s another one here if you want it.”
“Mmhmm!” Sweetie replied, unable to speak due to the roll in her mouth.
The girls all hummed in delight at the cinnamon rolls. I made a mental note that Pillsbury was a powerful weapon against ponies. Bracing myself against the stove, I cleared my throat. “We’re gonna be going shopping today.”
“Neat!” Sweetie sang.
“Okay,” Apple Bloom said with a nod.
“Ugh,” Scootaloo groaned.
I chuckled a little at Scootaloo’s reaction. “I know, I know, I was the same way when I was little. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to get the clothes you want... just nothing too expensive.” I’m not made of money after all.
With the girls satisfied with breakfast, I put the last cinnamon roll onto a paper plate and grabbed the glass one the rolls had been in. “It won’t take my mom long to get back, so I gotta go now. Watch a movie if you want to. Oh, and make sure to wear the clothes I found you in.” At least those won’t look as odd.
I gave them a wave with my cast and scuttled back to the the main house. Inside, I checked my computer, but there were no new emails aside from the usual drivel I got from my school. TV seemed like a more appealing distraction right now, so I made my way to the family room and plopped myself down onto a couch. With a click of the remote, the tv flicked on.
Just when I was about to jump to Comedy Central, I remembered that it was still early in the morning. I wished I’d had more time to show the girls how to use the tv, now would have been a good time for them to watch stuff. As for me, nothing came to my mind to watch. Thank god for DVR.
I clicked around on the remote and pulled up the list of recorded shows. The list was filled with History Channel, Travel Channel, and god-knows-what-else dad had recorded. South Park was in there somewhere and I was going to watch it.
However, before I reached my desired show, a different one popped up on the list. In the right hand corner of the screen, Twilight and Celestia popped up along with the MLP logo. My eyes popped open at a realization. The season finale was yesterday.
Even though I couldn’t see it through the walls, my eyes crept in the direction of the guest house. My finger inched over to the play button. I wonder...
~~~
“Really?” I pouted as the credits for part one rolled. Man, part two better be epic. This was just... blah. My finger once more went to the remote so I could watch part two when the garage door opened. Later then.
I pushed myself off the couch and over to the door. Mom was already inside by the time I made it over to her. “Have fun dropping Rachel off?”
“The sooner she gets her license, the better. One second she wants to come home, the next, she’s staying with her friends to do homework.” Mom went to her knees, reached up for the two leashes on the coat hanger, and attached them to Oxford and Kloe. The two of them would always rush to the door whenever someone came in through the garage and that made it easy to get leashes on them. “Are you good to help me take them out?”
I bent down and snatched up Kloe’s leash. “Unless she somehow finds the strength to drag me, I think I’ll be good.”
We walked through the family room and out into the backyard. The dogs eagerly rushed over to the grass to do their business. While that was going on, I looked over at mom. “So, what were you planning for today?”
“Whatever you want,” she replied in a sweet voice like I was a kid again. People should get casts more often, it takes ten years off you.
I shrugged my shoulders and rotated them around. “I don’t know. I’m still a little tired from the drive over, not really in the mood to go out.”
“Well, I can always make you anything you want for lunch or go out and get you something.”
“I think I’ll do fine with the leftover pasta from last night.” I’ll even be hungry enough to clean the whole bowl.
“That’s fine too. Are there any movies you want? Video games? Books?”
I kept my face stoic at mom’s offers. “I think I’d like you to help dad. He’s probably really behind because of the past few days. Why don’t you go to his office? I’ll be fine here.”
“He has been quite busy,” mom murmured. She looked down at the dogs, who were at our feet, ready to go in. “It’s okay that I just rest a little right now? I’ll go to dad’s office in a bit, but I want to watch my soaps.”
“Of course,” I said with a grin. At least now I get to watch the rest of the finale.
~~~
I clicked the tv off and stared at the blank screen. Wow... so I can now say I’ve seen a little girls show that involves hellspawn, attempted regicide, and frickin’ laser beams. I chuckled a little at the last thought. Pretty Disney-esque too... man, people are gonna be making Little Mermaid jokes till season 3.
Just as I was about to chuckle again, a dark thought slapped me in the face. My eyes darted in the direction of the guest house again. Oh my god! They were there! Wait, no, were they? Maybe I should as—
An image of the changeling queen baring her fangs at the Crusaders sprung up in my mind. They were all shivering as she backed them into a corner. Her jagged horn lit up and sent out a sickly green jet that wrapped around the girls and encased them in a gelatinous cocoon. They screamed, but no one heard them.
The thought only took a second to pass, but it left me shaking. Better I not ask.
~~~
I’d eventually clicked the tv back on. To steady myself, I’d switched to a news channel. I would have gone for C-SPAN, but I wanted to calm down, not fall asleep. I’d flicked through a couple of the news stations, but nothing noteworthy appeared to be going on. The only thing that seemed of importance was that kidnapping in Austin. If my school was still in the news, I didn’t see it since mom walked in just as one news show ended and another began.
“I took the dogs out again just to be sure.”
I hadn’t even noticed her open the door from her bedroom to the backyard. The news must have really done the trick in calming me down. “Thanks.”
“You’re certain you’ll be okay?” she asked with a slightly pleading tone.
“I’m not the one who needs help right now, dad is,” I sighed.
“Okay.” Mom turned around and shuffled over to the garage. “Just call me if you need anything.”
“Got it.” I waited on the couch while mom pulled her car out and drove off to dad’s office. Oxford lept up to the couch while I sat in silence. I gave him a scratch behind the ears. “You hold down the fort while I’m gone, okay?”
Oxford attempted to lick my nose in response, but I was too far away.
“You silly dog.” I got off the couch, convinced enough time had passed that the coast was clear.
I went outside and knocked on the guest house door once more. This time, Scootaloo answered the door. “Ready to go?” I asked with a smile.
“Yeah,” Scootaloo replied. Sweetie and Apple Bloom came over to the door, ready to go as well. With my mind on shopping, I noticed Jane’s flip-flops that were hilariously oversized on the girls.
“It wasn’t too bad waiting in the house this morning?” I asked as we walked away from my house and over to the main street. For once, the mall being close wouldn’t be a pain.
“Nah,” Apple Bloom said with a shake of her head. “It was actually really fun.”
“We got to see Princess Luna!” Sweetie enthusiastically added.
I nearly tripped over my own legs. I bent down and grasped Sweetie by the shoulders. “Where?”
“Oh!” Sweetie flinched back and looked to the ground, red tinting her face. “We... we didn’t really see her... it’s just that...”
“She was on that tv thing that plays the movies,” Scootaloo chimed in, “but they got all our costumes wrong except for Sweetie.”
Apple Bloom pushed in between me and Sweetie to get my attention. “Yeah! I went as a ghost pony not Frankenstallion.”
“She’s right!” Scootaloo jabbed a thumb at her head. “I went as the headless horse, not a wolf.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” I raised my hands up and down to quite to girls and stopped squatting over the ground. “First off, we’ll talk and walk. Second, how in the world did you find the HUB? Third, what else did you see on tv?”
The last question especially worried me. However, Scootaloo quickly spoke up while we walked. “Well, we got kinda bored and we tried to figure out that movie machine. We got that weird disk thing into it, but then it just showed these short shows before it just stopped.”
I wanted to whack myself in the head. I’d explained how to put a movie into the DVD player, but I hadn’t explained DVD menus. “Sorry, that’s my fault for not explaining menus.”
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow at me. “What’s this gotta do with ordering food?”
I opened my mouth, about to explain how DVDs worked, before I closed it again and waved a hand at Apple Bloom. “Nevermind, I’ll tell you later. Scootaloo, what did you do after that?”
“We tried to get the movie to work by pressing that thing with all the buttons,” Scootaloo continued, “but we pressed this one button and then there was this really boring guy on tv.”
“He was like a human version of that donkey Pinkie Pie made friends with,” Sweetie commented.
“Oh lord, Larry King must have been on for a special,” I half-joked half-sighed.
“He was a king?” Sweetie nearly tripped in surprise and I had to grab her arm to keep her upright.
“No, that’s just his name,” I explained, letting go of Sweetie’s arms as I did.
“Whatever,” Scootaloo pouted, “can I finish now?” When she got silence from the rest of us, she spoke again. “So we started pushing the up and down arrows. I don’t know what that button thing says, but we figured out that two up and down arrows make the tv really loud and the other two make other people show up.”
Scootaloo then smiled up at me. “Then we found a bunch of really fun looking fish... and a sponge.”
Sweetie raised her hand like she was asking a question in class. “How can a sponge talk? Also, I don’t think it’d be that happy, not after the stuff Rarity has cleaned with them.”
A fit of laughter escaped out of my mouth. “He looks like a cleaning sponge, but he’s actually a sea sponge.”
“A what?” asked Apple Bloom.
“A sponge that lives under the sea,” I explained.
“Yeah Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo interjected, “that weird pirate guy said so. Kinda weird that you can grow pineapples underwater. Ours died when we gave it too much water, guess we really didn’t give it enough.”
We came to a crosswalk and I held up a hand to halt the Crusaders. “So what happened next?”
Scootaloo swept her foot across the ground while we waited. “The sponge disappeared after he got out of this weird dark place with a glove balloon. The tv just showed these old people talking about something called ‘enshurants.’ They were really boring, so we changed the channel and then Princess Luna was talking to us really loud.”
Apple Bloom frowned just as the light changed. “We tried to talk back to her, but it was just on the tv... she wasn’t really there, right?”
“No, just a show,” I sighed while we made our way across the street.
Sweetie clasped a hand to her chin just as we stepped onto the adjacent sidewalk. “Our costumes were different after all... except mine, how’d they get mine right?”
I shrugged my shoulders at Sweetie. “I honestly don’t know.”
Scootaloo brought her eyes to the ground. “I hope Princess Luna’s okay.”
I pulled off the best smile I could. “Hey, she managed a thousand years on the moon, right? Here it can’t be half as bad.” Hmm, actually, I should check how much of Equestria was affected by whatever sent everypony here. Maybe Slorg would know.
However, that question would have to be answered another time since our goal was now in sight. In front of us stood the mall, namely the Macy’s entrance. “Well, here we are.”
Apple Bloom looked forward then up at me. “Where’s here?”
I pointed forward at the building. “The mall.”
All three Crusaders gave me blank stares. Sweetie broke the awkward silence. “Um, what’s a mall?”
“Oh.” It finally dawned on me that Equestria didn’t have malls. “Think of it like a big marketplace. There’s a ton of shops and places to eat inside. We’ll get ya’ll some clothes and then some food. Sound good?”
“Yup!” they all replied at once.
“Then lets go shopping.” Never thought I’d say that.
We quickly walked through the parking lot and over to the sliding glass doors of Macy’s. When we stepped inside, all the girls’ eyes went around the store, taking in the white tiles, the rows upon rows of clothing, and the escalators that stood in the center of it all.
“Oh ma stars!” Apple Bloom gasped. She tugged on my jeans to get my attention. “Ya didn’t tell us this place was a castle!”
“It isn—” Before I could say anything else, Sweetie tugged on the other leg of my jeans.
“There’s so many clothes!” Sweetie happily exclaimed. “Rarity would love it here!”
“Girls!” I shouted with a shake of my legs. “Calm down!”
“Sir,” a female voice called out, “can we help you with something?”
I turned around just as I managed to shake the girls off of me. In the confusion, a store assistant had walked over to us. She had on that stepford smile all good employees have, the kind you really shouldn’t have when you see a man in a cast trying to calm down three little girls. “Er, uh sorry, it’s their first time here.”
“Oh,” the assistant replied while keeping her smile, “well, the children’s section is on the third floor to the left of the elevator. There are other assistants upstairs if you need them.” Without a moment’s hesitation, the assistant then scooted off to help some other poor soul.
Scootaloo twisted her head over to the escalators and looked up through the gap they made in the ceiling. “So we gotta go up those weird moving steps?”
“Nope.” I marched forward towards where the entrance into the main part of the mall was but stopped after a second and turned around. The girls were still behind me, but seeing all the people around us gave me an nervous feeling. I extended a hand out to Scootaloo, who was at the front of the group. “All of you, take each others’ hands. The mall is really big, so I don’t want anyone getting lost. Only let go if you’ve told me, okay?”
The girls all looked at each other, nodded, and clasped their hands together while Scootaloo grabbed my left hand. Their safety secured, I led the Crusaders through Macy’s. Whenever I took a cursory glance back, their eyes were going in all directions.
“So many perfumes,” Sweetie remarked.
“Oh just wait,” I teased right as we stepped out into the main part of the mall.
All of the girls gave very audible “woahs.” Apple Bloom broke the formation, raced up to me, and tugged my shirt. “There’s so many shops! Even Canterlot doesn’t have anything like this!”
“This is so cool!” Scootaloo exclaimed. It didn’t slip past me that her eyes had gone up to an Industrial shop that was prominently displaying its skateboards in the windows.
Sweetie’s eyes had gone to a Claire’s. Earrings and cheap jewelry glinted from it’s windows. That unnatural pink-magenta light also radiated from it that had always veered me straight away from it and over to the GameStop next door.
Coincidentally, that was where Apple Bloom’s focus went to. She let go of my shirt and raised a hand up to the store. “Hey, they got that thing Ms. Sybil had!”
“Yes, yes they do.” I reached down and took Apple Bloom’s hand. “Remember what I said about holding hands though? We’ve got to be careful.”
“Sorry,” they all meekly replied before linking hands again.
I gave them an encouraging grin. “Don’t worry, if we have time, we’ll go to all the stores you want after lunch. Clothes and food come first though.”
The Crusaders excitedly grinned at the prospect of going to the stores they found alluring. Suddenly, they all shouted, “Cutie mark shoppers! Yay!”
More than a few heads turned at that. My vision awkwardly went to the ground and I quickly tugged the girls to our destination. I only looked up when we were a good distance away from where the Crusaders had yelled. We all stayed silent until I halted the girls in front of our goal: a GAP outlet store. “Alright girls, you can get any clothes you want in here and I’ll help you pick out anything else you want.”
“Um...” Sweetie, using her free hand, scratched the back of her head. “How do we pick out clothes? Do we just ask the people inside to make them for us?”
“Oh...” The girls’ wonder hadn’t just come from the size of the mall, but the quantity of stuff in it too. Mass production wasn’t a concept they understood. This was gonna take a bit. “It kinda works like that. We’ll ask the clerks what size ya’ll are and go from there.”
We stepped into the store and I led the girls over to the cashier. My cast thumped on the desk and the clerk’s attention went to me. “Hello, can I help you with anything?”
“Yeah,” I replied. I let go of Apple Bloom’s hand and used it to gesture to all of the girls. “My sisters need some new clothes, but my parents didn’t says what size they are.”
The clerk raised an eyebrow to me. “You’ve never gone shopping with them before?”
“Never had to pay attention to their sizes before,” I shot back.
The clerk narrowed her eyes and scanned over the girls. “Hmm, well, they all look like they’d be good for girl’s size small for shirts. They’ll need to try some pants on themselves to figure that size out though.”
“Thanks.” With that, I backed away from the cashier and over to the girl’s section of the store. The Crusaders followed after me. “Alright, just pick out any shirts that have a big M on them.” To help illustrate what an “M” was, I pulled out my phone and typed the letter on it. “This thing. As for shorts and jeans, pick out ones that look like they will fit. Get jackets too.”
“Sure!” they all replied before fanning out around the area. In a short order, a large amount of white blouses, orange t-shirts, yellow t-shirts, and blue jeans came into my possession. There were some jackets of similar colors and beige shorts mixed in as well. After a few minutes, a mountain of clothing had formed.
“I think that should be good.” I said looking over the pile. “Lets see, we’ve got shirts, pants, and jackets, but you also need socks and...” I paused and cringed. Oh god, I forgot about underwear!
~~~
I’m going to Hell. The rest of the short time we’d spent in the store had been a huge awkward nightmare. I’d picked out the necessary clothes, but the girls questioned me the entire time about the weird little pieces of fabric. It didn’t help that Sweetie kept mumbling the entire time. I only caught a few words in my fluster, but I’m sure I heard something about socks and grown-ups.
Leaving the store was a refreshing change of air. My left arm was weighed down with two bags. Apple Bloom had kindly taken the other two bags, which was pretty impressive given I was having a bit of trouble with mine. She wasn’t even breaking a sweat.
However, when I looked back to check on the girls, I noticed that Sweetie was actually the one sweating a little. With a concerned frown, I asked, “You okay?”
“Yeah...” Sweetie muttered. She raised a hand to her head and rested it there. “My head just hurts a little.”
“We were standing for a while.” My eyes went over to a nearby bench. I gestured my cast over to it. “Why don’t we take a seat over th—”
“Oh my gosh!” Scootaloo screamed. She then broke away from the group and rushed ahead.
“Darn it!” I dropped my bags and gave chase. Without looking back, I yelled, “Stay over by the bench! I’ll be right back!”
Scootaloo raced forward and disappeared into a nearby store. I stomped in and found her gawking in front of a row of shirts. I grabbed her by the wrist and spun her around. “You can’t just go running off like that!”
Surprise, confusion, and finally realization fell across Scootaloo’s face. “Oh... sorry.” She then gained a smile and waved her free hand at the row of shirts. “It’s just that I saw this place and had to check it out! It’s so awesome!”
It finally dawned on me to look around the store. The shop was dimly lit and shirts upon shirts lined the walls. There were shirts for bands, shirts for movies, shirts for internet memes, and shirts for tv shows. The last one was what had drawn Scootaloo’s attention, specifically a certain pony related show. Directly in front of us were a ton of MLP shirts, namely ones displaying Dash’s prismatic mane. Scootaloo had found the Hot Topic.
With gleaming eyes, Scootaloo asked, “Can I get one?”
✦✦✦
Now I get why people wear clothes, it’s so they can show off! I looked down again at my new awesome Rainbow Dash shirt and kept smiling. John was pretty cool to get it for me. Still, I probably shouldn’t have run off when I saw the shirt. Even Apple Bloom got mad at me when we went back to her and Sweetie.
Sweetie looked a little tired, but I can’t really blame her. That other clothing store was so boring. We should have just gone to the cool store. They had a so many Rainbow Dash shirts, but John only let me get one. There were a bunch of other cool shirts there too. I should’ve asked to get this one that had a phoenix on fire and clutching an arrow. That one looked sweet.
After we met back up with Sweetie and Apple Bloom, we had to go and get shoes. Shoes make even less sense than clothes. They’re these weird things you put around your feet like hard socks. I don’t know what they do though. They don’t help you walk like land flippers. I asked John about it and he said human feet are softer than hooves and that’s why they wear shoes.
I picked out these really cool looking shoes that had a lightning bolt on them. Apple Bloom just picked out some brown ones and Sweetie picked out these white ones that had flowers on them. I picked the best ones since I asked the shop person if the shoes made me faster and he said they did.
John made us put on the new shoes after we bought them. They felt kinda weird, but he said we’d get used to them and if they were really uncomfortable we’d give them back. He then took us over to this weird screen thing. It kinda looked like a tv, but it had a bunch of numbers below it. John looked really surprised when Apple Bloom asked what all the numbers were for, then he told us it was a money machine. He took out one of those magic card things, the machine ate it, he punched in some number, and then it gave him a bunch of that green paper. That was pretty nice of the machine.
We walked down this huge hall and over to this part of the mall that smelled really good. There were people sitting down everywhere eating all sorts of different food. John said this part of the mall was like a giant restaurant, but you had to go order food rather than a waiter coming to you. He got us a table and handed us a piece of that green paper. He said we could go wherever we wanted for food but he warned us about meat. We all had to Pinkie Promise that we wouldn’t take too long getting food.
Sweetie went off to a salad shop that John pointed out, but I wasn’t really in the mood for salad. I saw Apple Bloom heading over to this shop that sold things that looked like crepes but they were filled with beans and cheese and then rolled up. They looked pretty good and I was gonna get one too when I smelled something really good.
The smell was coming from this shop that had a black and white bear on it. The shop had a bunch of noodles and rice and these crispy things and it all smelled really good. I saw this guy getting this big plate of food and it looked really good. I was totally gonna get that.
Right by the food, this sales person in a red apron bent over the food counter and looked down at me. “What can I get you?”
I pointed at the guy at the end of the line. He had one of those magic cards too and gave it to another shop pony that swiped it through this thing that looked like a mini money machine. “I want what he got please.”
“Coming right up.” The salesperson got these tasty looking noodles on a plate, followed by these crispy things that were covered a weird orange syrup, and finally he gave me this fried thing that looked like a smaller version of the food Apple Bloom was getting. He slid the plate down to the other sales person and I walked down to her.
“That’ll be eight-fifty,” the other salesperson said. She didn’t sound as happy as the food salespersons. I was confused what exactly of eight-fifty she wanted, but I remembered what John said and gave her the green paper. She typed something into the money machine with one hand and gave me my food with the other. Right after she gave me my food, she also gave me more green paper and some tiny coins. “Have a nice day.”
“Thanks,” I said with a smile. I grabbed my stuff and ran back to the table. Apple Bloom and Sweetie were already back, which meant I was last. At least nopony had brought up whoever was last being a rotten egg.
I seated myself between Sweetie and John. John slumped his shoulders and looked really tired, but he managed to stand up. “I’m gonna go get my own lunch now that you’re all back.”
John walked away and left us to ourselves. I peered across the table at Apple Bloom’s food, which was wrapped up in this shiny metal. “So what exactly is that thing called?” I asked.
“A bureetoe.” Apple Bloom picked at the shiny metal and it peeled away from the bureetoe like it was made of paper. Why don’t they just wrap it in paper? “They had a ton of stuff ya could put into it, like peppers, cheese, guacamole, tomatoes, and black or brown beans. I got mine with black beans, rice, and cheese. They asked if I wanted meat but I said no. What about you Scoots? What’d ya get?”
I picked up the mini-bureetoe and showed it to Sweetie and Apple Bloom. “They gave me a small bureetoe that’s fried like a fritter, I think.” I put it down and then pointed at the noodles and the crispy things. “They also gave me these noodles and these crispy things.”
I put my nose close to the crispy things and smelled it. “The crispy stuff smells like oranges, but it tickles your nose too.”
“People food is weird,” Sweetie muttered. She’d just gotten a regular lame salad.
“Aw c’mon Sweetie, think of it like a vacation,” I helpfully suggested. “I’ve never seen any food like this back home!” I grabbed a fork and jabbed it into one of the crispy things before eating it. It was crunchy on the outside but warm and juicy on the inside. “Mmm! It’s really good!”
Apple Bloom was eating her bureetoe while I was eating the crispy stuff. It looked really good too, so I decided to try my mini one. It was crunchy like the crispy stuff, but the inside was filled with veggies. I have to admit, people make some pretty good food. Hands must help them with that.
John came back to the table just when I finished slurping up this really long noodle. It looked like he’d gone to the same place as me, only he’d gotten this rice with veggies in it, this thick white stuff with green beans and mushrooms. He sat down and dug into his own dish. Walking must’ve made him really hungry.
After John ate some of his food, he looked up at us. “Ya’ll enjoying your food too?”
“Mmmhmm!” Apple Bloom hummed with a mouthful of bureetoe. She looked like a chipmunk with all the food in her mouth. It almost made me giggle.
“Yep!” I happily replied. “That place with the black and white bear is really good!”
John gave me a small grin. “Yeah, Panda Express is pretty go—”
Suddenly, John turned really white, like almost as white as the time with Discord. He wasn’t looking at me anymore but down at my plate. His voice was really shaky and it scared me a little. “Scootaloo... oh god...”
“W-what?” I asked, afraid I’d done something really bad. John always said that “god” word when something was really bad.
“Scootaloo...” He held up a shaky finger at my plate and pointed to the crispy stuff. “That’s chicken.”
“It’s what?” I yelled so loud that every person around us started looking at it. I only focused on John and the food under me. No! It couldn’t have been chicken! Chickens have feathers and beaks and they squawk. They’re... they’re not tasty! “Y-you’re j-joking right?”
“Ohh...” came a moan to my right. Sweetie wasn’t looking good, her face was really green like it’d been last night. I should be the one getting sick!
In a blur, John sent his chair backward and went over to Sweetie. He gave a grunt and lifted her up in his arms. He raced over to this corner while yelling, “Girls! Follow me!”
Every person was watching us as we ran wherever John was taking us. He moved really fast, almost as fast as Rainbow Dash. Both Apple Bloom and I were out of breath when we got to the corner John had turned around. I managed to catch a glimpse of him running into this room that smelled really clean. Apple Bloom and I ran in and I realized when I saw that stalls that John had taken Sweetie to a bathroom.
We found them over by a stall with Sweetie hunched over a toilet looking even worse than last night. John was kneeling by her with his good hand on her back. “Just get it out Sweetie, you’ll feel better.”
“No! Sweetie groaned. “It hurts! Make it stop! Make it stop!”
“Just get it out!” John yelled. “Get it ou—”
All of us went silent and John’s eyes got as big as dinner plates. Sweetie’s head lit up with this bright blue light. The light zoomed off her head and hit a tile above the toilet. There was a flash and then there was a tiny flower hanging over the toilet where the tile had been.
“S-sweetie... your mane.” Apple Bloom pointed a finger at Sweetie’s head. Her mane was back to her original color except for the tips, which were still brown like my mane was.
Sweetie didn’t say anything and instead brought her hands up to her head and moved them around. She let out a deep breath and then slumped down. “I feel better now.”
“We’re leaving.” John grabbed Sweetie like he’d grabbed me and strode out of the bathroom. Apple Bloom and I nervously followed behind. He grabbed our bags from the table without saying anything. Every person was still looking at us and whispering. I really didn’t like that they were whispering.
John handed a few bags to Apple Bloom and then marched out of the mall. We stayed quiet all the way to his home.
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Magical build-up? OOohhh, that's gotta be hard to deal with, eh?
Soooo... does that count as cannibalism?
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2153641
wait she was ok with because she didn't puke
for her case yes.. yes it does LOLOLOLOL
Poor scootaloo,
Dang, I was hoping you'd say something along the lines of eating a relative.
2154307 I see what you did there.
Scootaloo is now a cannibal
but ou can have some proper food
their eyes were going in all direction
1. You.
2. Directions.
Oh you and your chicken jokes
I was actually hoping those were just french fries and not chicken.
Scootaloo regrets nothing. >_>
Oh dear. As soon as she headed to the Chinese place I knew she'd end up with meat somehow. And now she's the second pony to realize that meat tastes delicious. I almost want to see them all turn into omnivores before going home, hehe. Oh the chaos that would bring...
Poor John. Good chapter. Can't wait til they head off to Australia...or not, actually. I have a feeling one or more of the girls is going to get into something dangerous...
Also:
Shouldn't there be a "Crusaders" in there somewhere?
And then she regroups her horn. :p
Nice change of perspective to Scoot's PoV.
So does Apple bloom count as a gamers in this?
2157178 Apple Bloom and Pinkie are totally hardcore gamers in the PonyFall universe.
2158358 Okay Pinkie i can see but i don't really see Apple bloom as one. I think it's because tv has raised me with the minset that people from the country think technology is evil.
Odd because i'm technically from the country myself and everyone here has a PS3 except for me.
Thinking on something, I'm sorta surprised none of the Ponyfalls I've found so far take place in Manhattan...
Or maybe I'm just curious at what they say when they find Times Square...
2153641 Technically, it doesn't,since cannibalism is eating a member of your own species
2278363
You must be new here.
Geez, they can't just eat at a restaurant without something happening, can they?