Scootaloo whizzed through Ponyville's market, her tiny ginger wings going a mile a minute to propel her tiny blue scooter.
" 'Xcuse me! Sorry! Whoops…" Scootaloo hollered at ponies in the crowded marketplace and she did her best to weave and dodge through the tangled masses that made up the typical Ponyville marketplace crowd. She managed to avoid all but that flower trio, Daisy, Lily, and Rose. They seemed good enough at dodging though...
She was on her way to meet up with the rest of her friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, for a sleepover at Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack was even willing to let them sleep out in the tree house, which never happened! Sweetie Belle's sis was out of town and needed someplace for Sweetie Belle to stay so when Applejack offered, Scootaloo of course had to go to, if two went why not all three? After all they were the most inseparable group of friends! And they planned on doing all sorts of daring tricking and tricky stunts tonight, sleeping out in the tree house would be almost like no parent supervision…why we could be like ninjas., sneaking around after dark, not getting caught by the nefarious bedtime. CUTIE MARK CRUSADER NINJAS, YEAH!
"Come on Apple Bloom!" hissed an annoyed Sweetie Belle.
"Ah'm coming! It's just these statue thingies are creepy in the dark…"
"They're not statues, they're ponniquins. Rarity uses them when she's making a dress for a client."
"Cough, cough, dictionary." Muttered Scootaloo in the dark, referencing one of their little groups most popular jibes.
"Dontcha you think you can try to make some light? It could make it a wee less creepy and we could find that black fabric much easier" Suggested Apple Bloom, trying to lead and control her friends from fighting while she was trying to control her own fear.
" Fine…"
Sweetie Belle grunted in an uncouth manner, bending her front legs forward, her eyes closed, she put her whole body into summoning just the teeniest tiniest bit of magic. Her big sister Rarity made it seem so natural whenever she used her magic. But Sweetie Belle just could never seem to get the hang of magic no matter how often she tried. Then she found it. With a sizzle and fizz the Carousal Boutique lit up. For just the merest second it seemed brighter than Celestia's sun in the small creation room at the famed Carousel Boutique. Then with a pop, not unlike the sound one of Rarity's champagne bottles would make, and a slight surge of magic the retina burning light was out , leaving it darker than before.
"Come on!" Complained Scootaloo, "What kind of unicorn can't use magic!"
Sweetie Belle just let her head droop. Scootaloo was right. Even the Cakes baby Pumpkin had a better grip on magic then her.
"Hey! That isn't any way to treat a friend, plus you're a Pegasus and you can't fly! And remember when Miss Twilight told us how she got her cutie mark? She could barely even lift a page after weeks a studying and practicing! Ah'd say you're getting better Sweetie Belle!" Piped up Apple Bloom, while trying to glare at the pegagus whom she knew to be somewhere to the left of her.
'Yeah…' murmured the soft voice of the unicorn, not sounding convinced.
"Hey, nothing combusted this time" Scootaloo said, nudging Sweetie Belle's shoulder, trying to cheer her up. "I'm sorry too, that was a bit harsh of me. It really does look like you're getting better and that's more than I can say about my flying. Or lack of flying actually."
" You really think so?" asked Sweetie Belle, lifting her head to look in the direction of both of her friends.
"I know so! Why I bet by the end of the week you'll be rivaling Twilight Sparkle's abilities" Encouraged the little orange Pegasus trying not to think about her own failures as a pegagus now.
The girls went back to rummaging around in the dark for the black fabric. Sweetie Belle went through the rolls of cloth nearest the floor while Apple Bloom held on to Scootaloo's hind legs while the young pony searched the top shelves. Scootaloo furiously flapped her tiny wings to stay light as she pulled out rolls to see, her choppy purple tail accidentally brushing her friend's snout on occasion. Finally, in a back corner of the very top shelf did she find the desire black cloth the trio had been searching for. Forgetting to be careful she pulled it out too quickly, causing her to sneeze from the amount of dust that had been gathering on top of it. Off balance Scootaloo quickly started to lose balance, wobbling this way and that. Her hooves flailed out, dropping the heavy bolt of cloth on to Apple Bloom's foot. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo crumbled into a pile getting Sweetie belle in the process. Between muffled ow's and not so muffled crashes it was probably best that Rarity was out of town for the night. With lots of squirming and kicking the Cutie Mark Crusaders detangled themselves from various fallen bolts of cloth Soon all three fillies were on their feet and raring to go.
" Cutie Mark Crusader Ninjas! Yay!" Shouted three excited filly voices in harmony.
Without a backwards look the three fillies raced out the boutique and into the starry night. But behind them all was not still as it should have been. There were of course the random flappings of fallen fabrics left unpicked up and left willy nilly…but there was something else too. Something was there. Had a pony happened to walk into Rarity's boutique at the time of night, sometimes called the witching hour, they would have felt it. But there were no ponies to walk into the small store for all but a few had already hit the hay for the night and others were too preoccupied with their own going ons to think about going in to a closed store at midnight.