Adeleine and Ribbon: Unlikely Survivors

by Kir B

Chapter 1

It was a beautiful day in Dreamland. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and for once Planet Popstar wasn't in grave danger! Everyone on the planet surface was taking full advantage of the day. However two in particular were having more fun than anyone else in Dreamland.

"Come on Ribbon! We can set up right over here!"

"Alright Adeleine! Wait for me!"

Adeleine and Ribbon were out in the fields, looking for a place to play games. The two were moving as fast as they could, Adeleine running, and Ribbon flying through the sky trying catch up. At last, the human girl came to a halt.

"Right here should do it!" Adeleine exclaimed, as she pulled out her portable easel. Ribbon had managed to catch up to her by now, panting lightly.

"So. . ." The fairy began. "Is this the place you were looking for?" Adeleine turned to face her friend, who had decided to settle down on the ground.

"Correct!" Adeleine smiled, as she finished setting her things up. She looked at her easel and brought out her paintbrush. She put an hand up to her chin and her face fell in thought.

'What to paint. . ." the painter thought aloud. Hearing her query, Ribbon spoke up.

"How about a bubble gun?" she offered. Adeleine was brought from her thoughts and she her face broke out into a grin.

"Good idea Ribbon!" she said, already stroking the her brush across the canvas. With speed and accuracy that would put most painters to shame, she painted two pink bubble guns. They looked rather rushed, but the painter wasn't exactly going for high quality, she didn't really need to. Once she deemed the picture done, she took a step back and watched as the two bubble weapons magically fell from the canvas and onto the ground, gaining depth as they did so. Adeleine walked up to one and picked it up. She smiled deviously as she turned to face her fairy friend.

"Hey Ribbon. . ." she said ominously. Ribbon gulped.

"Y-yes Adeleine?" she stammered. Adeleline's grin grew wider.

"Think fast!" The painter shouted, raising her weapon and firing a stream of bubbles towards the fairy girl. Ribbon squeaked in reply, taking flight just fast enough to avoid the barrage of bubbles.

"Hey no fair!" she called out, as Adeleine began chasing her around, firing bubble shots towards the small fairy. Eventually though Ribbon managed to loop around back to the canvas, nabbing the second bubble gun. Adeleine's face fell as Ribbon cocked her weapon.

"Heh heh. . . oh boy."

Ribbon fired towards the painter, giggling as the bubbles managed to hit their target. exploding in a shower of water.

"Ah! I've been hit!" Adeleine shouted in mock pain, before running from the fairy. She began firing her own weapon again, this time actually managing to hit her target. Ribbon yelped, before giving chase to her human friend. The two ran around the field for what seemed like hours, shooting bubbles at each other, and dodging the other ones attacks. Ribbon was a far better shot than Adeleine though and so the painter ended up taking more "damage" than the fairy did.

"Tactical retreat!" Adeleine suddenly shouted, and darted off, giggling as she ran.

"Oh no you don't!" Ribbon shouted, and flew after her, firing a few bubbles as she did. They ran through the fields away from the area they were in. They were having too much fun, and they didn't plan on stopping anytime soon.

So engrossed in their game they were, that they didn't noticed a danger sign placed just to the side, they ran right past it never even knowing it existed.

The two continued their chase, Adeleine looking behind her so as to dodge Ribbon's bubble shots. Ribbon was about to fire another round before the fairy suddenly noticed something ahead. There was a gaping hole in the ground and Adeleine was currently running straight for it!

"Wha?!- Adeleine look out! Stop!" she shouted, pointing at the danger ahead. The painter girl's face fell to confusion and alarm, and she turned around just in time to fall into the abyss, shrieking as the world turned to darkness.

"Adeleine!" Ribbon shouted. The fairy quickly flew into action, diving into the hole. She summoned a crystal beneath her, and rocketed downwards slowly catching up to the falling girl.

Adeleine managed to stop screaming as she noticed the glow of the crystal above her. The wind was rushing through her ears but she managed to hear what the fairy was currently shouting at her.

"Adeleine grab my hand! Hurry!"

The painter reached out as best she could, the crystal carrying her salvation drawing ever closer to her. Soon the fairy was just about in reach of her, when all of a sudden, everything went dark and Adeleine felt nothing more.

---

It was a splendid day in Ponyville. By all means it was just an ordinary day, but to everypony who lived in the town, today just felt special. Ponies walked to and fro, enjoying each other's company as they went about their day. Some sold various goods in the market, while others simply lounged around on a bench, taking in the warm rays of Princess Celestia's sun. There was a bell that rang nearby, signalling the end of the school day for the young fillies and colts that attended. A trio of fillies in particular stood from the rest of their classmates. An earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn raced past the rest of their classmates with tremendous speed. They were known by the entire town as, The Cutie Mark Crusaders. Consisting of Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, the three fillies were on a constant hunt for their cutie marks.

"Come on you two!" Applebloom called back towards her friends, the longer it takes fer us to make it to the club house, the less time we'll have to try and find our cutie marks!"

"I wonder what awesome thing we could try this time!" Scootaloo exclaimed, her wings buzzing with excitement.

"We won't know until we get to the clubhouse Scootaloo." Sweetie belle called out from behind her friends. "But I'm sure that whatever we do, we'll get our cutie marks this time!"

The trio ran clear through Ponyville and up the road towards Sweet Apple Acres. Passing through the gates open land shifted to apple trees that went on as far as the eyes could see, and the three fillies grinned in unison. They were nearly there now. They ran for about a minute more not stopping for anything before their clubhouse came into view. They wasted no time climbing up the ramps leading up to the door. The trio charged inside, skidding to a halt in the middle of the room.

"Finally!" Scootaloo exclaimed. She turned to face Applebloom. "Alright what are we going to do!? Wrestle bears, go zip-lining? O-oo ooo, or maybe some cool stunts!?" She couldn't contain her excitement.

"Scoots we already tried those" Applebloom deadpanned. "The tree sap and injures from the latter two had us holed at home for a few days, and Fluttershy still forbids us from ever seeing Harry the bear after the last time." Scootaloo sheepishly looked towards the floor.

"So what ARE we going to do for our cutie marks Applebloom?" Sweetie Belle questioned. At her question Applebloom smirked. She trotted over towards the podium and pulled out a large book. The cover read, "Mythological Creatures of Legend."

Upon seeing the book, Scootaloo groaned loudly.

"Seriously?" she deadpanned. "You brought us out here to read a book? How it that supposed to get us our cutie marks?" Applebloom glared at her friend.

"This ain't some run of the mill book Scootaloo!" the earth pony replied. "Take a look at this!" She opened the book and began flipping the pages. The other two fillies moved closer, peering skeptically at the pages. Inside the book there were, various sketches and drawings of creatures they had never seen or even heard of before.

"What are all these things?" Sweetie Belle wondered aloud, looking at the various creatures that were drawn upon the pages.

"Apparently these are creatures that roamed Equestria a long time ago!" Applebloom replied. "Supposedly, many of them evolved into creatures that we know today!" Sweetie Belle looked on with interest, while Scootaloo yawned loudly.

"So what exactly do these things have to do with us and our cutie marks?" the pegasus groaned.

"Ah'm glad ya asked." Applebloom smirked, lightly poking the pegasus on the muzzle. She flipped further into the book, stopping on a page that held three odd figures. It was depicted as some sort of hairless monkey, the only hair shown being on the top of their heads. They stood tall while wearing very basic types of cloth around there waist and in some cases their upper chest. They seemed to have a friendly enough grin, but it seemed. . . wrong. . . in a way. A quick look at the top of the page read. . .

"Applebloom, what exactly is a . . . . .hoo-man?" Applebloom frowned at her friends.

"That's something I want to know too." She said softly. I got the book from Zecora! She said that her people liked to write about creatures that they discovered and what uses they might have!" She turned back towards the book. "She said this book was passed down generation after generation and that everything in this book did in fact roam the planet at one point or another!" Applebloom smiled at her friends. Sweetie Belle seemed to be on board while, Scootaloo still seemed a bit disinterested.

"Well what are we waiting for!?" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, snatching the book from Applebloom, she skimmed the contents of the page on to frown a bit. "Ahh. . . the pages are smudged a bit."

"Ah know." Applebloom sighed. "Ah asked Zecora bout it, but she got real quiet and simply moved on to somethin else."

"Well we can at least see what's still here Applebloom." Sweetie smiled weakly. "Though looking at it there's really only a few words. Looking back at the book, she began to read.

"The human is a . . . . . . creature of d-vi--t-t-i-n. . . . . . . .It has been hunted for. . . . . . .laying waste to everything."

"So it puts trash everywhere it goes?" Applebloom scrunched her muzzle. "That's kinda weird." Sweetie Belle continued reading.

"If one sees a human. . . . . d-st-u--ion is near. It is...." Sweetie Belle was interrupted by Scootaloo, how shoved her out of the way.

"Come on Sweetie Belle!" she shouted "We don't have all day! Just skip over this stuff and see if there's anything interesting." Before her friends could protest, the orange pegasus began skimming through the rest of the pages, she had to re-read a few parts as badly smudged as they were, but eventually her eyes fell upon something that made her jaw drop. She remained motionless for a time, prompting her friends to see what had her so shocked. They promptly had the same reaction. At the very bottom of the page was a simple phrase. A phrase that had put their minds into overdrive.

". . . capture of a human, will grant you anything your heart desires. . . ."

The three started at the words for what seemed like hours. Then they looked up at one another. A grin broke across their faces at once.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER HUMAN HUNTERS YEAH!"

---

"Girls, maybe this was a bad idea." Sweetie Belle trembled, as the group of friends walked further into the dreaded Everfree forest.

"Come on Sweetie Belle, don't be such a scaredy cat!" scoffed Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle pouted with annoyance, but said nothing further. The three fillies knew that the forest was dangerous, so they planned to only go a little farther than Zecora's home at the max. The sounds of various animals and creatures were everywhere, tittering and tattering everywhere the three went. It was a bit annoying but the three continued on. Eventually, they came across a the small clearing where Zecora's tree hut stood tall.

"Alright, this is it it girls." Applebloom smiled, glancing back to her following friends. "If we can find ourselves a human we'll get our cutie marks for sure!"

"And if we can't get our cutie marks that way, we could ask for some money instead!" Scootaloo chimed in, wings buzzing happily at the prospect. "That way, if we don't get cutie marks for this, we could at least have money to fund our other ideas!"

The idea swirled within the minds of the young ponies, being able to afford higher quality materials and items for their futures plans should this one fall through. That was enough to re-invigorate them. With a nod the three ran forwards, darting into the foliage ahead of them.

The soon came to a halt further inside the brush.

"Alright." Applebloom began, waving her companions over to huddle. "We can't go too far in otherwise we could run into trouble, so pay attention to how far you go!" The other crusaders nodded, and with that they broke away from the huddle and started looking. At first they stayed relatively close to each other peering into bushes and peering into holes. Sweetie Belle checked under a rock. But as time passed on, the three began to separate from each other, heading on their own path to find one of the mysterious humans. Time continued to pass and soon the sun was quite low in the sky. The crusaders would have to leave soon, or risk being caught in the Everfree at night, and that was a venture they didn't want to risk.

With a sigh each of them began walking back they way they had came, meeting up at Zecora's hut.

"Did ya'll find anything?" Applebloom questioned when she stepped into the clearing.

Scootaloo sighed and Sweetie Belle looked down.

"Welp, guess thats a bust then." Applebloom said, glumly. "Maybe would could try again tomorrow?"

"I guess." Sweetie Belle muttered halfheartedly. "Maybe we should just try something else."

"Yeah this turned out to be a bust." Scootaloo stated bluntly. "I call dibs on choosing what we do for cutie marks next time."

"Alright alright." Applebloom sighed. "Fer now though, we should just worry about getting home, its startin to get REALLY late." The others agreed and ran off.

The clearing was silent for a time.

Suddenly, without warning, there was a flash. A bright light swirled into existence a ways away from the hut. With a loud *THUD* two figures fell out of the light, both landing in a large bush to the side while the light quickly dissipated. Moments later, the door to the hut opened, revealing a groggy zebra. Zecora sleepily peered around, trying to see what may have caused the disturbance. Finding nothing, she returned inside, as unaware as every other creature on the planet was of their new arrivals.

Comments

[Crimson Sol]

Oof. This ain't gonna end well. I suppose that Ribbon will be hunted based on association as well... PONIES may be cute, but remember that Earth Ponies can shatter rock and shake trees, Pegasi can outfly any escape attempt as well as manipulate LIGHTNING clouds, and Unicorns... Have magic.

Welp. They screwed without Kirby.

[The Kelduo]

9680147
Don't forget that Ribbon is a fairy, which is basically a tiny human!