All The Ponies

by CanterlotGuardian

Cleaning Day

“What in tarnation have y’all been doin’ in here?”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked up from a stack of papers that they were all looking at. There in front of them, they saw the stern face of the older sister of one of the Crusaders’ roster members.

“This place is a darn mess!” Applejack declared. “How on Equestria can y’all stand ta live in such… substandard livin’ conditions?”

“It isn’t that messy in here!” Scootaloo proclaimed. “Sure, there are papers in here everywhere, and Sweetie’s got one of her fashion projects over there in the corner-“ She pointed to the back of the clubhouse where, sure enough, one of Rarity’s ponyquins sat with a few scraps of fabric tacked onto it here and there- “but it’s not like we don’t know where everything is! We can get around just fine!”

Applejack was about to respond when she sniffed the air. Her nose wrinkled up. “What… what is that smell? It smells like a week-old sandwich…”

“Oh, that?” Scootaloo pointed to the window- more specifically, a plate with a very moldy sandwich on it. “We’re trying to grow things! Maybe we can get our cutie marks as botanists!”

AJ looked at the three Crusaders. “Ah had no idea it was this bad in here… I tell ya what. If y’all don’t get this cleaned up by the end of the day… Ya can’t use the clubhouse to meet in anymore. Ya hear me?” She walked away before receiving anything close to a proper response.

Scootaloo and Sweetie looked at each other, then over to Applebloom. They put determined faces on.

“What has to be done, has to be done…” And thus, they set to work.

Applebloom went around back and pulled over a trash can. “First off, we need to throw everything away that we’re absolutely sure that we don’t need.”

They started to go through everything that they had in the clubhouse with them. As they sorted through all their various collections, they very quickly came to a realization: they could name potential future uses for just about everything that they had there.

“Like these drawings that Sweetie did for those wings,” Applebloom pointed out. “We might be able to use those if we have to do some stuff for Nightmare Night, like we did last year.”

“Or these old scraps of carpet and rugs that are over here,” replied Scootaloo. “Those could be used for when we have to do the set design for the big play again, later on this year.”

“So what are we going to do?” Sweetie asked. “Obviously, our former plan isn’t going to do us very well.”

They thought for a minute. “How’s about this,” Applebloom finally replied. “Let’s just keep the stuff we know we’re gonna need sometime in the next few months or so. The rest, we can just re-do if we decide that we’re going to need it again.” It sounded like a good enough plan to them, so they set off on it.

As they worked, the sun beat down hard upon them, as it was the middle of the day when it was the hottest. Sweat beaded off their faces, but still they kept on going. If it meant them being able to keep the official clubhouse of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, they were going to do anything in order to make that dream a reality.

It took them about three hours to get everything separated into piles. When they finally finished, they all collapsed onto the floor, breathing rather heavily.

“Can we please… take a break…” Applebloom gasped.

“Yeah… It’s really hot out here, and we’re all pretty tired…” Sweetie added.

Scootaloo was going to put on a bravado show and say something about how she was feeling just fine and she could keep working, but she just didn’t have the energy to do so. So, she simply replied, “Yeah, let’s rest a bit.”

They all closed their eyes and laid on the floor there. When next they opened their eyes-

“It’s night-time!” Applebloom exclaimed. “We slept through the whole afternoon!”

“Oh man, we gotta get everything done!” They started rushing around, only to find something wasn’t right about their clubhouse.

“Everything’s done already!” Scootaloo exclaimed when she finally figured it out. “Someone came in and cleaned for us!” Just then, Applejack came in.

“Wow, y’all really did a heck of a job on this place!” she said in awe. “I’m impressed. Come on, let’s go eat some dinner.”

Applejack led the way, and the Crusaders followed. As they walked, they made a solemn pact to each other: never would they tell Applejack about what really happened.

The Great Nap would be their own little secret.

Comments

[SunStartheAlicorn]

Love that pic

[SunStartheAlicorn]

1510401 Oh, you were talking about this one!

[EAtrooper]

I like this story I guess.....//dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Vinyl_sad.png

[OtterMatt]

Thumbs up, because I know perfectly well what you're doing with this idea.

My main suggestion is that you need to condense it more. Not word count, but in scope. I feel like these two so far just sorta meander, like I'm not sure from the writing what it's about or where it's going. Almost as if I watched three minutes of a tv show from before the actors knew they were supposed to be filming.

This scene in specific is better. And your writing is really good in technical aspects, so keep working on the scenewriting!

I'll be faving this so I know when you update, and I'll be glad to offer more advice as you go!

[MallaJong1]

Hey, this is a fun idea! I'd love to submit a story, or at least try something like this myself. But this is your story! Hahaha.