“Mayday! Mayday! Brace yer’selves for impact, Crusaders,” Applebloom shouted through the flashing red lights of their space shuttle. They were hurtling toward the earth, spinning out of control in a spacecraft.
“Who’s bright idea was it to bring THOSE guys in here,” Scootaloo screamed, flapping her wings feebly to try and steady herself, but to no avail.
Jebediah Kerman was trying to fix the problem by pushing random buttons at the control panel. One of his hands happened to hit the wrong button and sped them faster toward the ground. He started freaking out even more now and was trying harder to figure out how to solve the problem
Sweetie Belle was trying to grab hold of the little green man to try and get him away from the controls. Everyone in the ship looked up to the front window and saw the Earth hurtling toward them and screamed.
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Previously…
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Sweetie Belle was on her way to the library, carrying a saddlebag full of paper and quills. She had been going to the library more often than normal this week, trying to find things that could possibly lead the Cutie Mark Crusaders to their ultimate goal. Some of the papers in Sweetie Belle's bag already had been filled out with ideas for them to try out.
After roughly five minutes, Sweetie Belle arrived at the library. As she entered, Sweetie Belle waved a cheery hello to Twilight, who was, of course, reading a book. The cover was bright and looked as if there were white dots all over it, some larger than others. This caught Sweetie Belle's eyes and she made her way to Twilight. "What are you reading Twilight? It looks interesting!"
"Oh! Its just a guide to the stars and universe. It's very intriguing. I've read it many times! I think there might be some things in here that you would like, Sweetie Belle!" Twilight shut the book and handed it over to Sweetie Belle.
"Oh. Well thanks Twilight," Sweetie Belle said, not wanting to feel rude and reject Twilight's offer. She took the book in her hooves and went over to a small table set in the library to sit down and read. As Sweetie Belle began to delve into the book, she found it to actually be quite interesting. It had many pictures of things in space, such as planets, stars, and descriptions of things such as comets and asteroids. One article in particular caught her attention. It was about an organization called the MANE, known also as the Massive Aeronautic Nebular Explorers. As Sweetie Belle read further and further on, ideas began popping into her head. And then it hit her.
She closed the book, stuffed it into her saddlebag, and pulled out a piece of paper and a quill. Sweetie Belle began writing furiously, jotting down all the ideas she had just come up with, and placing one in particular on the top of the list. The young pony then rolled up the paper tightly and put it in the saddlebag again, along with her quill. She waved a hurried goodbye to Twilight and sprinted out of the library, on her way to search for Applebloom and Scootaloo.
After about 20 minutes, Sweetie Belle found her first target. “Applebloom! There you are!” The small filly that Sweetie Belle had been looking for, was standing next to Applejack who was bucking apples in her family's orchid. “ We're having a meeting at the clubhouse tonight! Be there!”
“Alrighty then! See ya there, Sweetie Belle!” Applebloom waved a goodbye to her friend as she departed in search of Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle looked up, searching for rainbow streaks in the sky. Scootaloo was sure to be wherever Rainbow Dash was. The pony's eyes found what they was looking for within a few minutes. The explosion of color in the distance was not easy to miss. Sweetie Belle began trotting in that direction, and it was there, sitting next to a blue scooter, that she found Scootaloo. Dash was doing one of her trademarked moves; The Buccaneer Blaze, as Scootaloo watched in awe.
“Wow Dash! That was amazing,” Scootaloo shouted up, trying to get Dash's attention. The small foal attempted to flap her wings and get some air, but only rose a few feet in the air and fell back to the ground.
Rainbow Dash alighted down next to Scootaloo, seemingly trying not to laugh as she had seen the little filly try to fly. “Heh heh, you’re alright kid! Maybe someday you can do it too.” The Rainbow Pegasus rubbed Scootaloo’s head with a friendly hoof.
“Scootaloo! Hey, Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle was attempting to call Scootaloo from a distance, but to no avail. Scootaloo was mesmerized by Rainbow Dash. She moved closer and shouted at her again, “Scootaloo, you dodo! Get over here!”
The filly looked over, finally distracted from her idol, obviously bothered. “What? Can't you see I'm busy?!” Scootaloo looked at Rainbow Dash. “Sorry, Dash, I got to go,” she sounded disappointed, “The dictionary calls.”
Rainbow Dash looked puzzled by this, but waved a goodbye to the filly all the same and sped off back into the sky, a rainbow streaking behind her. Scootaloo mounted her scooter and sped toward Applebloom, fluttering her wings madly to speed her along. “This better be good, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said, obviously angry that Sweetie Belle had interrupted her time with the best flyer in all of Equestria.
Feeling like her reasoning was of little importance now; Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo, “There is a Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting tonight at the clubhouse. I just thought I would let you know.”
Scootaloo immediately perked up, “Cool! Let me go home! I’ll get my cape!” The filly seemed to have forgotten all about her lost time with Rainbow Dash
Obviously grateful that Scootaloo had not exploded in her face, Sweetie Belle ran to Carousel Boutique to grab her Cutie Mark Crusaders cape
A few more hours passed, and the sun was beginning to set outside, and the stars were winking their hello's to Equestria. Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo, all began to make their way to Sweet Apple Acres, where their tree house resided. Applebloom arrived first, of course. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo arrived about 5 minutes later. Scootaloo had brought her wagon for Sweetie Belle to ride in.
“Alright! Everypony’s here, now I recon’ we can get started,” Applebloom said, as the trio began climbing up the stairs into their clubhouse.
Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle, an excited look in her eyes, “Why exactly did you want a meeting tonight Sweetie Belle?”
“I’ve compiled my own list of things to try and get our cutie marks,” Sweetie Belle said, her voice rising with verve. “I want you two to see something I have written down! I’m sure that we can get our cutie marks this time!”
Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had all gotten up to the small deck on the outside of their tree house. Applebloom opened the door for the others and they all slipped in. Sweetie Belle took off the saddle bag she had brought and pulled out a small piece of paper that was wrapped in a tight scroll. The determined pony spent the next few minutes trying to make the paper lie flat on the small table they had in the house. When it finally laid itself out, Sweetie Belle thought to herself, that after working for at least an hour of this list, at least one of these ideas would get them their cutie marks. How many ideas could there possibly be that wouldn’t work?
“What’s first on your list, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo was asking, eagerly looking over Sweetie Belle’s shoulder.
“Lemme’ see,” squeaked Applebloom, knocking over Scootaloo in the process. “Oops, sorry Scoots.”
“Common’ girls! There is plenty of room to see,” Sweetie Belle said, rolling her eyes at Scootaloo on the floor and helping the pegasus up. The three crusaders all stood up and gathered around the paper equally.
“First on the list,” stated Sweetie Belle, “The Final Frontier!”
“What does that mean?” Scootaloo sounded confused.
“Ah’ have no idea, it sounds like somethin’ you would find inna’ race,” Applebloom voiced, sounding downcast. “Ah’m no good at racin’, Sweetie Belle.”
“No, no! You got it all wrong Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle shouted, worried that her friends had gotten the wrong idea, “This isn’t a race at all!”
“Well what in the hay is it then?” Scootaloo's voice sounded curious; almost eager, maybe.
“Don’t you girls know?” Sweetie Belle sounded dumbfounded that her friends didn’t know what she was talking about.
Applebloom and Scootaloo both joined voices as they looked at their friend, “Spit it out already!”
Sweetie Belle looked at them and uttered in the slowest and deepest voice Applebloom and Scootaloo had ever heard their friend use, “Space… The Final Frontier.”
There mouths dropped in both surprise of the idea that Sweetie Belle had proposed, and in the newfound voice they now knew their filly-friend had.
Then Scootaloo voiced what Applebloom was thinking. “You mean to tell me,” she opened a window, “that we should try and find our special talent, up there?! In space?!”
“Well… ya,” said Sweetie Belle, taking a step back from Scootaloo, obviously thinking that her idea sounded crazy to her friends. “I mean, why not? I think it would be cool to be high above Equestria.”
“Well ah’ agree with Sweetie Belle! Ah’ think that we could all have a special talent at bein’ astro-ponies.”
“Alright then,” said Scootaloo, sounding enthusiastic again, ”We will need a spaceship though, won't we?”
“Ya, it’s not like we can just fly up to space,” said Sweetie Belle, eyeing Scootaloo with a grin on her face.
“Hey! Stop making fun of me,” said Scootaloo, as both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle fell over laughing. “Really though, how are we going to get a space ship?”
Applebloom got back up, smiling, and answered Scootaloo. “Ah’ think we can make our own. Ah’ mean, how hard could it possibly be?”
“Yea! It should be a cinch,” Scootaloo said.
Then all three yelled at the top of their lungs, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SPACE ADVENTURERS ARE A GO!”