The Crusaders are waiting for Sweetie Belle

“Ah’m worried.”

“I know.”

“But she’s not responding to our calls.”

“I know.”

“She left without even saying goodbye.”

“I KNOW!” Scootaloo shouted. They were waiting at the train station for their friend to return from her sudden trip to the Crystal Empire but Applebloom couldn’t sit still and Scootaloo couldn’t blame her. Even if it did annoy her.

“I’m worried too, but worrying about it isn’t going to help matters,” Scootaloo argued, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration.

Applebloom sighed and collapsed on the station bench with a huff. “Sweetie Belle ain’t been coming to any of our CMC meetings, she ain’t responding to our calls, she ain’t herself. She’s been spending too much time with her sister.”

“Well they are sisters Applebloom, it’s not really surprising,” Scootaloo pointed out, "It's not like you don't spend a lot of time with Applejack."

“But it’s too much time. She’s neglecting her friends, does she even want to be a crusader anymore? And I can’t help but feel there’s something rotten going on with her and Rarity,” Applebloom said pulling on her red bow as she often did when she was stressed.

Scootaloo was struggling to think of what she could say to her, she had a similar same sick feeling in her stomach. It started when Sweetie Belle would keep suddenly cancelling their activities to be ‘with her sister’. What was worse was that Sweetie Belle refused to explain what they were doing.

“I get it Applebloom, I really do. We’ll just have to talk to her.”

They were interrupted when they heard the screech of bellowing steam and the chugging of pistons arriving at the station. Scootaloo bolted to her feet to wave down the approaching train, with Applebloom shortly behind her. The train screeched to a stop and to the two young mares' shock it wasn't the normal train that often went from Ponyville to the Crystal Empire, this was Cadence's personal carriage. The one that had carried her to Ponyville when Discord had gotten sick, the one made out of Crystal.

The doors opened at the far end of the carriage from where the crusaders stood and the first to step out was Spike, stretching from what must have been a very long train journey. The two crusaders found themselves blushing a soft red as even from here they could see his muscles strain against his T-Shirt, they couldn’t help it. There wasn’t a single pony in Ponyville who didn’t dream of being fucked by a dragon like Spike, even lesbians like Scootaloo made an exception for him.

“So what’s the plan now?” Spike asked turning back to the carriage where the other passengers stepped off. The first of which, much to the crusader’s shock was Princess Cadence, who was already sporting a fairly pregnant belly.

“Dragon children grow so much faster than pony children,” she remarked, rubbing her hand over her pregnant belly. She was holding the hand of some blue-haired female unicorn that the two crusaders didn’t recognise. The two were stunned by what they were seeing.

“Since when was Cadence pregnant again?”

“And did she say, dragon children?”

Their shock was interrupted by another unicorn stepping off the train behind her. Rarity placed a hand on Cadence’s shoulder with a reassuring smile. "I think you'll find the experience quite enjoyable dear, I almost wished it had lasted as long as a normal pregnancy. But then again I suppose that is how our Spike wants us, it seems the real wait is when the eggs hatch. Neither mine nor Mrs Cake's has hatched just yet.”

“They might only hatch after Flurry Heart creates her time pocket, speaking of which when is that being created?” Cadence asked, turning her head towards the carriage as a second alicorn made her way out. Flurry Heart was carrying her younger self out of the train, a pondering look on her face.

“I can begin the preparations tonight, and it should be done in the next few days at the latest. I imagine we should summon all the women you want to help raise and prepare the children for their new lives,” Flurry Heart suggested, with a sort of nostalgia in her voice. “Of course, if you want I can control the flow of time within the time pocket so any new members will arrive exactly when they're needed.”

“Excellent dear, off the top of my head I think, you, me, Gleaming and Radiant Hope, and of course if we include Radiant we should bring Umbra as well. We shouldn't split those lovebirds up and perhaps she could teach our children some tricks of her own special magical talent," Rarity suggested, a gleam in her eyes.

So distracted the passengers had been that they had not noticed the two crusaders approaching them, nor had they been making any effort to keep their voices quiet so the young mares had heard their every word. Scootaloo and Applebloom stopped mid step to look at each in shock.

"Did-did she just say that she was pregnant?"

"With Spike's kid?"

The two were both overcome with shock, a shock that both of their minds simply had no way to process. Their minds simply refused to accept it, wasn’t Spike meant to be dating Rarity? And what was Cadence doing in Ponyville in the first place?

Their silent questions were interrupted at that moment by Rarity. “Sweetie Belle dear have you got my bags anywhere?”

Sure enough, Sweetie Belle was stepping out of the carriage at the moment, two large suitcases in each of her arms and another three levitated with her horn. For the petite and fairly magically weak Sweetie Belle, she seemed to struggle significantly.

“Sorry Mistress, I’ll be as fast as possible,” she said as she tried to bring the bags out.

The two Crusaders were still watching all of this with their jaws falling out mouths, the whole situation was so unbelievably out of character for everyone involved that their bodies just simply refused to move. Should they interfere and demand to know exactly what was going on? Or should they just continue listening? Perhaps everything they were hearing was all one big misunderstanding. Right? Surely there was some reason Sweetie Belle was calling Rarity Mistress? Right?

"So Rarity I'm headed back to the Castle of Friendship now, what about you?" Spike asked Rarity, groping the pristine unicorn's ass. To the shock of both Crusaders the usually upright Rarity groaned in pleasure and shot Spike a cheeky but pleased little grin.

“I would just love to join you Spike but I feel I’ve left my boutique neglected for far too long. I should be checking up on it, but when the others arrive on the next train I'm sure they'll keep you company and I’ll be sure to visit soon."

"I'll hold you to that," Spike said with a perverted, cheeky grin, before slapping her ass which caused her to chuckle.

“Come along Sweetie Belle if we hurry I’m sure we can have some excitement,” Rarity called out to her sister, wiggling her eyebrows. Sweetie Belle dutifully followed behind her as she dragged the fashionista's bags along with her. The station had two exits and those who had been on the train took the one furthest from the crusaders so they still didn't notice either Applebloom or Scootaloo.

"What the hell is going on? Why is Sweetie Belle calling Rarity Mistress?" Scootaloo asked her friend, her hands running through her hair in a panic.

"Ah don't right know but ah'm going to find out," Applebloom promised, her hands balled into fists as her eyebrows narrowed with determination. "C'mon."

"Where are we going?"

"To follow them and find out exactly what's going on."

"You mean spy?"

"If that's what it takes. Are you coming?"

A/N: To the surprise of no one the CMC has won, as I said before they've been overdue for a while. This isn't the end of the voting however as I'll mention below. For now though I have a reasonable idea of the plans for the CMC but I'm still open to any more suggestions.

Okay, firstly it's now time to add the next setting to the story and the characters that come with it. Now that Flurry Heart and her time powers are added to the mix I've opted to add G5 to the mix though I doubt they'll win. I want to have another overreaching plot for these new settings but I don't have an idea for all of them so I could do with some suggestions. I would prefer to avoid another the harem could be destroyed plot if possible.

Another vote that applies only to Fimfiction (since it has an active sequel feature and no chapter links) is whether or not I should split the story into a sequel to make it easier to read. The only reason I'm hesitant is that the ratings won't transfer over to the new story so I would kind of prefer to keep it as one. But if people would prefer it I can create a sequel.

Crowdfunding for Commissions: https://ko-fi.com/darkstar239

Still need an editor, though I doubt there are many that can keep up with my schedule.

Setting Vote (I marked which settings I have an idea for an overarching plot for): https://strawpoll.com/polls/B2ZBEWzkLgJ