It didn't take long for the four of us to get to the clubhouse, but to say these kids had made a clubhouse would be a massive understatement- a mini clubmansion was more like it! Although from the outside it looked like a fairly large treehouse, inside was fairly impressive, rivalling my small city apartment: a kitchen area, with messy dishes stacked up high to the ceiling, a meeting place, with lots of papers scattered all over a large round table, and even a little workshop, with scattered wood and nails about the floor. I'm sure it was everybodies dream to own a place like this as a kid- I know I was no exception back then.

I asked where I could get myself cleaned up, but apparently on-suite bathroom facilities were not included in the clubhouse (surprisingly). They pointed out the small stream that ran right next to the house, and they handed me a towel. It only took five minutes to freshen up and dry off. Now looking considerably cleaner (although now my dress was damp), I made may way back inside. The three ponies were all standing together, as if they just had another group huddle, but then broke up as soon as I re-entered the clubhouse.

"Just make yourself comfy!" Sweetie Belle called out while she made her way towards the kitchen. "You want a s'more? It's all we have left after last night."

I shrugged and sat on a small sofa near to the meeting place. A few seconds later, the pony had brought me a plate stacked with about 3 s'mores. How those kids still had teeth, I don't know... that thing was probably the sugariest thing I've ever bitten into. One of those s'mores would have probably given me a lethal dose of diabetes! Before I could take a second bite, the other two ponies had taken a seat either side of me. The yellow one called Apple Bloom started asking a few questions.

"So... are you really a monster? Or just a cursed pony gon' wanderin' around all confused 'cus she's a big bunny now?"

I resented those "bunny" remarks, but it was a step up from monster at least.

"Nope. Neither."

"So what exactly are you then?" she asked curiously. To be honest, there was no easy way to answer that question.

"I'm a hare who's just confused as to why I ended up all the way out here in this... strange place."

Scootaloo, the peach one, cut in with "Strange? This isn't anyplace strange. You're at Sweet Apple Acres!" That really didn't help matters much.

"Where's that?" I asked her.

"Oh, it's not far from Ponyville!" she replied. Not quite the answer I was looking for.

"And... where's that?"

"Oh, take a look at this!" She got up and walked over to the table at the meeting place. She pulled out something from under a stack of papers and showed it. On it was a map with a lot of contryside surrounding a small town called Ponyville. Sweet Apple Acres was just to the south, but there was no scale, so it could have been miles away for all I knew. "See, it's not too far away" she said to me, pointing at the town after I studied the map for a few seconds. I didn't recognise any locations on it, so I had to ask the three if they had any idea where Mewston* was.

"Uh... ah don' think a've heard of anyplace like that" said Apple Bloom with a puzzled expression.

Sweetie Belle chimed in. "Maybe someone else knows! We could go ask around in Ponyville!" I was pretty wary of this idea; if these three girls thought I was a monster when I first met them, what's to stop an entire town from thinking the same!

"Do you think that's a good..."

Scootaloo cut in "I'll fire up the scooter! We'll be there in no time!" The way she said that, you would have thought they wanted rid of me. Maybe they were scared of my magic?

"Just a second" I said. She stopped before she reached the door, and the other two ponies looked up at me. "You're not afraid of me, are you?"

"Afraid?" Sweetie asked me. "Why would we be afraid? You're a giant bun- er, hare. You seem harmless enough to us!"

"Really? You're not scared because of what I did before? With magic?" The three looked at each other for a few seconds, and then Sweetie turned and smiled at ne.

"To be honest, that was pretty cool what you did!" she replied excitedly. I think that's a second first I discovered that day; someone actually finding my magical abilites cool. Not wanting to waste anymore time, I left the clubhouse, prompting Scootaloo to get the scooter ready.

The scooter was actually impressive, much better than the "push around with your feet" ones you might have had as a kid. It was electric, for starters, and painted a brilliant, vibrant red with white "go faster" stripes on it. Hooked up to the back was a small trailer, large enough to fit a few people on, and inside were a few helmets. She grabbed one and asked all of us to do the same. Unfortunately, it was a little too small for my head, and my ears killed from being bent at a funny angle on the inside. In the end, I just took it off, and got inside the trailer after Sweetie and Apple Bloom. Once we were all in, Scootaloo revved the engine and the scooter took off at a jarringly fast speed that knocked me down! We turned the corner out of Sweet Apple Acres, and rode off into the countryside.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: BUNNY ESCORTERS, GO!"

************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Being in the trailer on the long trip gave me a chance to ask a few questions I had for them.When I asked what kind of club they had, they told me that they were called "Cutie Mark Crusaders" looking for "Cutie Marks". That meant absolutely nothing to me, so it lead to more questions than straight answers. A cutie mark is, according to them, a special mark that you get on your "flank" (or butt, to put it bluntly) that symbolises what your special talent is. So far, they hadn't earned theirs yet, and they were working together to get one. How long had they been trying? They sighed "forever" in unison with great disappointment. After, they just entertained me with the misadventures they made for themselves: hangliding, abseiling, ultra-pony-roller-derby (whatever that was), the list went on and on! Whether they were being serious or not, I don't really know, but it seemed they had done almost anything and everything to get that mark.

We must have been riding around for at least a couple of hours before we hit a little snag. Driving around a short bend on top of a pretty steep hill, I lost balance, accidentally fell and slammed into the side of the trailer. Unfortunately for the kids, they didn't count on having to one day escort a large hare with their little scooter and trailer set, it it tipped over. Worse still, it started rolling over the edge of the hill and downwards! Tumbling around freely, smashing around on the walls and against Sweetie and Apple Bloom, all of us screaming in unison, I thought "maybe it wasn't a good idea to leave the helmet off after all." The bangs and bashes were deafening as we crashed down the hillside, and with an almight "boom!" we finally hit the bottom.

Clutching my head, I stepped out of the trailer to see where we were; we landed in a forested area below the hill, which was gloomy and cold from where I stood. I looked back to the trailer and saw that it was totally wrecked: dints, holes and a missing wheel. Suddenly, I spotted Scootaloo's scooter not too far away- it was smashed to pieces! Frantically, I searched for her to see where she might have gotten thrown off, but she emerged with ruffled hair from a nearby bush.

"WHAAAAAAT?! MY SCOOTER!" she screamed. She knelt over it, giving the most dramatic "NOOOOOOO!" you could imagine before burying her head into the seat of it. Behind me, Sweetie and Apple Bloom were emerging from the trailer, walking slightly off balance and groaning.

"Oh... the scooter..." they both whispered sadly. Looking up the hillside we fell down, we caused quite a lot of damage, cutting chunks out of the grass and taking out several bushes. Hey, I think we got the hill as good as it got us. We were standing around for several minutes as Scootaloo mourned the death of her pride and joy, before she finally got up and asked what we should do.

"Well, we can't lug that up the hill, it's too heavy" I answered "so we'll have to walk through the woods."

"Hey... I've got it! I saw a campfire coming from here! There has to be campers in these woods!" she shouted hopefully. She seemed to get over her loss pretty easily, as if this was an everyday occurence or something.

"Well that jus' settles it then" Apple Bloom ordered "we're goin' to find those campers!" Before I could get a word in to object, they were off, pushing the scooter with them. I thought that I should remind them about the trailer, but whatever, I had more important things to deal with. We were going into a forest without knowing where we are or who's in here, but at the end of the day, I think my brain just resigned to the attitude "what could possibly go wrong?" and ordered me to trust in their headstrongedness.

Sure enough, we found the camp that Scootaloo claimed she spotted. But when we got there, it was eerily quiet. Silent. The campfire was still going, so there had to be someone nearby. I shouted out... no response. Cautiously, I walked further in, telling the girls to stay away. There was a lone tent near the fire, and two poles with some laundry hanging from it. For some wierd reason, I went for the laundry first. It was nice and dry from the fire and, unfurling it, it appeared to be some kind of cape patterned with stars on a purple background. Then I spotted a hat on top of one of the poles. Oddly, it was a wizard hat, like the kind you see nerds wearing when they play their little fantasy games. There were patterns on this hat too, identical to the ones on the cape. I tried picking it up off the pole.

"WHO DARES TO STEAL FROM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE?!" a deafenly loud voice boomed out of the woods. My heart froze in shock as I released my grip and bolted from the camp! But the voice started laughing in a mocking way. "YOU CANNOT RUN, THIEF!" it exploded, and I felt my feet catch on something. Falling, I frantically looked around for the fearsome voice and couldn't see anyone. Suddenly, I felt someone wrap around my legs and looked down... a rope! Desperately trying to wriggle free, I pleaded with the voice to let me go, but it just kept laughing and laughing. The rope finally stopped moving as it made a powerful knot around my legs, binding them together. I lay down, panicking from the surprise attack, and tried to watch from all angles to see if I could spot the attacker. Several quiet seconds passed before I heard a rustle come from behind me, and, trying to flop over onto my back to get a clear view, I saw something emerge from a bush.

It was another pony. A unicorn to be more specific. It was a beautiful azure blue with a long silver mane, and had sparkling purple eyes. I could see that "cutie mark" too, a wand with sparks shooting out of it. For a menacing and terrifying enemy, she looked pretty harmless. I saw her emerge first with an expression of triumph, then one of sheer bewilderment. She looked at her prize catch as if it were a monkey on a pogo stick juggling five burning chainsaws while wearing a tutu (I don't know, it's the wierdest thing I can think of!). She stared at me for several seconds, before finally speaking.

"Ugh, what is THAT?!" she snorted in disgust. I wasn't expecting that at all! "Here I am, trying to defend my campsite from ne'er-do-wells and all of a sudden, I catch a gigantic rabbit!" She turned away in a huff, as if disappointed in her fantastic efforts to scare people away. I had to talk my way out of this.

"Look, I don't know anything about ne'er-do-wells, but..."

"Oh, and it speaks!" she giggled. Then she quickly shifted back into contempt. "Trixie is amused, but certainatly not impressed. Someone obviously turned you giant to terrorize me! But did they count on my magic? Hah! The great and powerful Trixie, proving she is best in Equestria once again!" Magic! How could I forget? I still had my hands free, so I could still escape! This time, focusing power into my fingertips, I moved them around, trying to undo the powerful knot she placed on me. It only took a matter of seconds and some fast finger wiggles until it eventually came free right before her eyes! Shocked, she broke out into a bullbering stream of stammers as I got up. Looking into her eyes, I let out a smug smile to put her in her place; I think that just made her angry, actually.

"WHAAAAAT?! M-m-m-magic?! No, no, no, no, no! I'm not being defeated yet again!" she started bawling. "I'll show you! This is real magic!" her unicorn horn started to glow furiously as if she was storing magical power. I had to ready myself, so I concentrated all my power into the two fists I was clenching, ready to counter. But then I heard shouting to my side.

"Stop it you two!"

"You're goin' on like two silly fillies!"

"Quit fighting before you hurt yourselfs!"

We both stopped and faced the interveners. It was Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, all with frightened looks on their faces. I looked back at the unicorn, and she did the same to me. After several intense seconds of staring down each other, she backed down and sighed.

"Very well. But know this, intruders..."

Scootaloo cut in once again. "Oh we're sorry if we intruded, but we need your help." The unicorn looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "You see, we crashed off the main road and totalled my scooter. We need to get back to Ponyville to repair it. Care to help us get back?"

"Get BACK?!" she shouted, alarmed at the very thought by the sounds of it. "I can't go back there! Did you see how they kicked Trixie out like that?! The nerve of them... having the gall to call me liar-". She suddenly stopped her rant and recomposed herself. "Uhh... I mean... Trixie would love to help three sweet children like all of you, but I have other matters to attend to... important... things..." I saw the faces of the three droop in despair, so I asked for directions to Ponyville. "Wait, you're leaving? Now?! But it's getting dark out! Nightime!" I looked up in the sky and saw the sun was high and bright; still clearly midday, maybe 2pm at the latest.

"Really? Well, we'll just have to hurry then" I said to her. But she insisted that we stay for a while. When I asked why, she claimed she was lonely.

"I need someone to keep me company for tonight, and since it's getting dark and I have extra tents, stay a spell!" she giggled slightly at her own little remark (I got it, but I didn't laugh...). The crusader kids obviously had no qualms with this, as the sat around the campfire getting warm. Trixie smiled at them like a motherly figure and walked into her own tent, emerging again with some bags. Using her magic, she got them all set up in about 5 seconds (impressive) and each of the children all called dibs on a tent for the night.

I wasn't convinced about Trixie's sudden gesture of kindness. The fact that it was still broad daylight, and that she was all too eager to have our company after our little fight, made me extremely suspicious. I wanted to find out what she was really up to. Soon enough, I learned what she was doing... and what she had done.

-TBC-

*If you can honestly think of a better city name with an animal pun, I'd love to hear it! Yeah, I'm ashamed of Mewston (ugh) but I suck at making puns.