This is...

by WatchMeShadow

A Simple Shopping Trip (Optional?)

Babs checked her saddlebags one last time. Satisfied she had everything, she moved to the door, “I’ll see youse later mum!” she yelled opening the door and exiting.

“Are youse sure youse don’t want me to help youse fillies out?” her mom asked loudly before she could close the door.

She stopped and popped her head back inside their apartment, and blew a bang out of her view, “Yeah! I’m sure mum, thanks for the bits, by the way!” she yelled back and went to close the door again.

“No problem brown sugar! Youse got your list?” her mother asked before she could close the door again.

She stopped herself from closing the door again, “Yeah, I got it right here!” she said, pointlessly patting her saddlebag, “I’ll Cya later!”

“Lunch is at twelve thirty,” her mother said, before she could close the door yet again.

“Okay!” she yelled loudly before closing the door, locking it, and moving to the stairs. She didn’t want to keep her friends waiting longer than they already had been. She hurried down the stairs and outside. It was warm, and the buildings casted long shadows in the clear morning. She was greeted by an excited Emollient and impatient Volt, both wearing mostly empty saddlebags, “Alright, let's go,” she said. She knew why Volt was in a hurry, they were going to meet up with Princess Twilight. Even though they weren’t there for the Princess, she knew that’s who her friend was excited to see. They planned on asking their fellow cutie mark crusaders if they wanted to go shopping with them, and by extension Princess Twilight in Volts mind no doubt.

They knew where the vacationers met and ate in the mornings so they hurried there before they missed them. Fortunately, they made it to the restaurant just as her cousins and their friends walked out, “Hey Applebloom! Applejack!” she yelled and waved getting their attention.

Applebloom smiled and yelled, “Babs,” running up to her. they hugged briefly, “what’re you-" she stopped as soon as she looked to Babs side, "V-Volt,” she stuttered., while her smile suddenly seemed forced like yesterday, “and Emollient doing here?”

“We came to see if youse guys wanted to join us, to go shopping for cutesceneria party supplies,” She answered her cousin.

Applejack wasn’t far behind, “Are yer parents okay with y’all walking around unsupervised?” She asked sternly.

“Yeah,” she answered simply. She was a little surprised Volt hadn’t said anything yet, so she glanced to her side where a grey unicorn filly with two tuned spiky blue and straight yellow hair should’ve been, instead was nothing but empty space. She looked around and found her friend talking to Princess Twilight, just ahead of her and behind her cousins. She was no longer surprised.

“How’d you know we were here?” Applebloom asked, drawing her attention back to their conversation.

“Applejack gave us a copy of youse guys vacation list,” she answered. “So youse want to go with us?”

Applebloom sighed, “well, it sure sounds fun, but...” she glanced behind herself to Volt, “Ah just can’t. Sorry cus. Ah’m goin-”

“Hey, no pressure,” she interrupted, then blew a bang out of her view. She raised a forehoof to stop Applebloom from talking. “We know youse guys are on vacation, we just figured we’d ask. I know what youse’re gonna do today and I kind of wish I could be there to watch it,” She knew exactly what Applebloom was going to do. Considering what they had planned on the list and what she learned her cousin was capable of yesterday. She was able to put two and two together. She couldn’t and wouldn’t blame her cousin even if it was the cutesceneria party itself that she missed. “But,” she continued, “we need to buy this stuff if we’re gonna have the party before youse guys head back home.”

“Thanks for understanding cus,” Applebloom said, “how’d you know what Ah was gonna do?” Babs pulled out the copy of today’s plans she made of Applejacks list, and pointed to the subject at hoof, “Oh, well you know…” she said thoughtfully, “I’m glad Twilight actually planned that in the vacation, it’s something I was going to do on one of our unplanned days, but this is much better,” she sighed, “even if Ah’m gonna miss out on hanging out with you guys.”

“It’s okay. We’ll see youse at the party for sure then, and youse can tell us all about it,” Babs proposed.

“That sounds like a plan Ah can get behind, but we should really get going, Ah want to start as soon as possible,” Applebloom said.

“Alright then,” she looked behind her cousins to Volt who was talking to Scootaloo and Rainbow, while Emollient was to the side talking to Sweetie, “Hey Volt do either of them want to come?”

Volt hit herself on the head, apparently she completely forgot why they were there. No doubt to excited to talk with Princess Twilight again. “Oh yeah, so either of you want to come with us and help us go shopping for cutesceneria party supplies?” she asked them.

Sweetie said no; Apparently, she was looking forward to what Twilight wanted to do. Scootaloo also said no, as she was really looking forward to the activities she and her sister had planned for the day. Babs understood, even if they were all cutiemark crusaders they didn’t have to force the others to do stuff that wasn’t a legit crusade, even then it couldn't be done. She and her friends waved them goodbye and began heading for a specific party shop. They hashed out more details and thoughts about the cutesceneria party along the way.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It wasn’t long before they entered the party shop. They had discussed what to get and who’d get what along the way, along with some other things. There was nothing to special about this particular shop, only that they had coupons for certain items. It was a modest sized shop packed full of party supplies, making it a rather colorful place. It had three alis of party supplies. One entire ali section was set aside for various balloons, while the one across from it was another was set aside for party hats.

Each of their parents had given them a list of suggestions, some bits, and in Emollients case she’d also got some coupons, which is why they found themselves at this particular party shop. They split up and went about finding the supplies they agreed to get. Babs tasked herself with getting a blank banner. It wasn’t hard to find since there was a banner above them proudly displaying “PARTY BANNERS”, after picking out the size she needed she headed to the register.

“Will that be all youngin’,” asked the mare behind the counter, as Babs threw the folded banner on top the counter.

“No, do youse fellas do decorations?” she asked.

“Why yes we do,” the mare answered.

She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out an envelope, then threw it on the counter next to the folded banner, “do youse think you could make it look like this, but more professional like?”

The mare grabbed the envelope, opened it up, pulled out, and looked at its contents for a little bit. In that time her friends came up to them and began putting their stuff on the counter, much to Babs alarm. The mare looked back to her and smirked placing the envelope down, “I don’t think that’ll be a problem. You can pick it up anytime tomorrow,” she said sliding the banner and envelope under the counter.

“Thanks,” Babs said in relief that the mare at least tried to be subtle about it. The mare ringed in and bagged everything that her friends brought. They paid, took their bags of stuff, and left.

They headed back towards Babs apartment, to drop off their supplies so they could get the next set of things they needed for the party, “I can’t wait. This is going to be so much fun!” Volt said, then gasped “and and, Princess Twilight might be there!” She excitedly hopped ahead of them.

“Heh, we know. Youse been talking about it ever since this morning,” Babs said with increased volume as her friend moved further away. She didn’t really understand her friends fanaticism with Princesses. She’d asked about it once before and she got a long answer about honor, justice, grace, and truth. She found it rather reassuring that Volt held those things too high regard, even if Volt herself was a little bit on the mischievous side.

Volt didn’t hear her or she likely ignored her as she kept skipping ahead of them a little more before walking again. “It would be nice if Princess Twilight showed up at our cutescenera,” Emollient said.

Babs smiled at that, “well, I’m more excited that Applebloom and her friends are gonna be there, we are Cutiemark Crusaders after all,” a thought came to her, “speaking of them you seemed to get along with Sweetie just fine.”

“She’s really cool,” Emollient answered, giving Babs pause, she’d wouldn’t consider Sweetie cool. Nice, encouraging, cautious, and even sweet, but not cool. “She recommended a lot of books I haven't even heard of, but then again. I’m not much into action books like she is, so it would make sense that I wouldn’t have heard of them,” Emollient continued.

Babs herself wasn’t much of a reader, “Well, I’m glad youse all got along. I was a little worried youse all wouldn’t, and thanks for letting me host the cutescenera. It means a lot to me…” she said as the continued walking back to her apartment.

“There’s nopony else I’d want to host it, than one of my best friends,” Emollient said enthusiastically, as they walked side by side slowly catching up to Volt.

“Same here!” Volt interjected, as she ran up to her original position.

She smiled and they kept walking. She felt like the odd duck out since they got their cutie marks yesterday, yet they keep reminding her that nothing has changed between them. It felt nice knowing their cutie marks didn’t change them. They eventually made it back, and started making invitation cards and a list while they waited on lunch.

After they ate lunch they set out for their next task. This time they had several different places they could go, but already had a place in mind. It was actually one of their favorite hangouts, and it wasn’t too far away. A short walk later and they were at the “Rusty Bakery,” a family owned bakery that’s been open for nearly two hundred years. Not one of the longest family run businesses in Equestria by far, but impressive nonetheless. They kind of knew the owners after they tried for their baking cutie marks and then began hanging out there.

Outside the bakery sat several small round tables filled with customers finishing up or starting their lunch. They entered in a relative small place with a few tables inside, and a nice counter top. The smell the fresh dough and baked goods filled their nostrils, as a glass display case full of dwindling and missing delectables taunted them while at the end of the lunch rush. Luckily, they already ate and weren’t here for anything in that case so they got in line and waited.

It was finally there turn and no pony had come behind them since, “Well, well, if it isn't the cutie mark crusaders. I haven't seen you fillies in a while. Everything okay?” asked the mare they knew as Iron Baguette. She was a light golden brown earth pony with silver grey mane and lively grey eyes, with a sliced loaf of bread as a cutie mark.

“Hey miss Baguette!” they greeted in unison.

“Well, we got grounded again,” Babs started.

“I still can’t believe the insurance company and that guy somehow put the blame on us. That guy was a total jerk, threatening to sue Gear for his own impatience,” Volt vented.

“Sounds like an interesting story,” Baguette commented.

“That’s not all that happened,” Babs said, taking that as their cue Volt and Emollient turned to reveal their new cutie marks.

“Oh!” she smiled, “Congratulations! What are they for? How’d you get them? Also you just earned yourselves one free treat on the house,” she offered.

“Thanks for the offer,” Babs said, forcefully holding Volt back with a fake smile, “We’ll definitely take youse up on that next time, but we just ate,” she grunted pushing Volt back to her side.

“Bu-but dessee~rts!” Volt complained before pouting, causing Emollient and Baguette to chuckle at her friend's behavior.

“Anyways,” Babs continued, “before we get to that. We got to tell youse how we got to them. My cousin Applebloom and her friends went on vacation here in Manehattan fo-”

“Along with Princess Twilight!” Volt interrupted.

“Yes,” Babs agreed, “along with Princess Twilight, where was I? Oh, so they’re on vacation here for a week, so we figured we’d surprise them with a crusade since it’s not often all the us cutie mark crusaders would get a chance to do something like that. What with us living so far away from each other and what not. So with some help from Coco Pommel a dressmaker who works for the theater and-”

“Princess Twilight” Volt said before Babs could.

Babs sighed then smiled at her quirky friend. She continued to tell Baguette their story of mostly everything that happened yesterday, up till it was appropriate for Volt and Emollient to tell their cutie mark stories. “So, it was the crusaders that almost burned down the theater. I read about it in the news this morning,” Baguette said, then suddenly presented said newspaper before them, “Why am I not surprised?” She asked sarcastically, causing them all to blush, “Though, I never would’ve believed the story you just told me, if I didn't know any better, I would’ve thought you all were lying to me. No wonder why the article was so vague. So, if you already ate what can I do for you? Although, if you’re just here to talk that’s always nice. Well, as long as you’re not holding up a line or anything.” They glanced behind themselves to see no pony.

“Oh right,” Babs said, “we’re having a cutescenera and we wanted youse guys to carter for us, we already got a list and everything,” she said placing said list on the counter along with a bag of bits, and an invitation to said cutescenera.

“Oh, you’d want me to come to your cutesenera?” she asked a little surprised, picking up the invitation.

“Yeah, you’re really nice,” Emollient answered,

She smiled at the compliment, “I’d love to, but I’m not sure if I can…” she looked at the invitation card, “well, we are closed at that time, but catering always backs up our prep late into the night for the next day and going would just make it later… I’ll consider going” she said apologetically.

“Did we mention that Princess Twilight will almost definitely be there?” Volt added.

“Well, you really know how to buy my time, how can I possible refuse now?” Baguette said.

“I know right,” Volt grinned.

“Well, we better get going. We still have some more invitations to hoof out if we want this to be a good double cutiescenera,” Babs said.

“Alright, I’ll cya crusaders later,” Baguette replied.

They turned and walked away, “we’ll see youse later,” Babs waved.

“Hope to see you there,” Emollient added, before they walked out into the hot sun.

They went and delivered the rest of their invitations. Living in a city they grew use to passing by ponies they don’t know without a single thought given to them, of course they knew not to trust strangers that approached them and especially any that followed them. At any rate, they found themselves more suspicious of the ponies they passed the more invitations they handed out. They began to have doubts that ponies who they gave invitations to would even show up. They felt for sure that they were lying to their faces just to be polite. They didn’t talk about this weird sensation of being lied to directly, but they did comment on it. By the end of the day, they could barely walk by a stranger without feeling like they were a criminal of some kind. The feeling didn’t disappear once they made it back to Babs apartment. Volt and Emolient got Babs mom to escort them home, something that usually wasn’t needed since there was still a couple hours daylight outside, and so ended their simple shopping trip.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long wait, I almost got this next real chapter done. In fact, this could easily be apart of that chapter, but then it'd be way too long, and it's probable too long as is, I hope I'm not writing too much. I've read some fictions that have way to much writing and little substance, or too much substance but vary bland and uninteresting. ATM I'm basically only relying on one guys opinion of this story, and he's been very helpful, but I'd appreciate any comments you might have.

Author's Note:
1. I realized a little too late that Babs technically went to a new school soon after she became a crusader as mentioned in S3E8 of MLP "Apple Family Reunion" and therefore the backstory I made for how she met Volt and Emollient isn't really possible to be cannon, oops. Owell, my main focus is on preserving the character of the... well character. I might not be as successful as I want to be but it's hard to tell sometimes.