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// A Prologue : The CMC And What It Means To Be 
// Story: BAP : Being A Pony 
// by MerlosTheMad 
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All was peace and quiet on Sweet Apple Acres. Beside the family's freshly painted barn sat a pen full of pigs and piglets, oinking contentedly. A chicken coop with several of the feathered, flightless birds rested beside that, the inhabitants out and about pecking absently at the ground for food that had not yet come. Within the barn itself, were several napping cattle, content to sleep and eat their day away amidst all the peace.

Everything was picturesque.

...

Apple Bloom deftly jumped out of the second story window of her home. “GEEEROONIMOOOOO!” She cried enthusiastically.

Below her, the unsuspecting target, and her friend, Scootaloo, let out a shriek of surprise. “AAGH!- Ooph!”

Apple Bloom had been slowed by the makeshift bungee line which she had put together. Immediately after landing, she rose up to her hooves and stared excitedly at her flank. “Did I get it? Did I get mah ninja cutie mark!?” The flank in question however, was as blank ever. She felt her emotions once again sink, as they always did. “Aaaw...” 

There was a slight groan of pain from beneath her.

“Oh uh, you alright, Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom pointed her head down expectantly at her prone and sprawled out friend.

“Yeah...” The orange pegasus filly croaked out. “Never felt better...” She coughed, managing a weak smile, then struggled to stand up. “Good surprise, did you get anything?” Her eyes spun some in her head, then straightened to look over at her friend.

Apple Bloom's disappointed tone when she answered Scoots' inquiry said it all. “Nope, nadda thing, Scootaloo...” Her blank as ever flank turned towards her friend so that she had a clear view.

“Aaaw, I totally didn’t see that attack coming either-” Suddenly, Scootaloo was cut off, as an alabaster and black cloth shrouded blur streaked across the ground to Scootaloo’s left.

“HEE-YAH!” Sweetie Bell shouted. Her hoof came crashing down atop Scootaloo’s head, resulting in a solid thud as she made contact. The other filly’s expression shifted from a goofy grin—caused by the blow—over to that of an unconscious pony toppling over. 

The attacker and Apple Bloom stared down nervously at their plan’s results. 

The figure beneath the veil of dark cloth spoke up in a squeaky voice. “Uh oh, I think I hit her too hard." The pony ninja shook Scootaloo's shoulder with a hoof. 

Apple Bloom replied absently, her eager eyes already searching her friend’s side. “Mmmhm, out lahk a candle before bedtime, Sweetie Belle. Any luck?” She was certain the flawless attack would have at least gotten the other Crusader her mark. 

Sweetie Belle moved the the folds of black silk she’d absconded with from Rarity’s boutique with to reveal... absolutely nothing. Her flank, was still blank.

“Shucks, no cutie mark though.” Apple Bloom sat back and wiped a bead of sweat from her brow with a foreleg, then crossed them angrily. 

Sweetie stared longingly back at her own flank in defeat. “Darnit, you’re right, nothing..."

Apple Bloom's frown deepened, her eyes not yet leaving the absence of a cutie mark on Sweetie Belle's flank. "This is getting ridiculous." She flung her hooves up into the air, then fell back into the grass, sighing. "I thought for sure that coordinated double fake out attack would get us our ninja cutie mark too...” 

Sweetie Belle nodded, looked once more, then huffed and stamped a hoof. “Well," her voice cracked. "Let’s get back to the clubhouse and go back to the drawing board again, I guess...” She began prodding Scootaloo in order to wake her up. “I think I may have hit Scoots a bit too hard though... oops...”

Apple Bloom lifted her head. "Hm, she'll be fine ah think." Getting up she grabbed one of the miniature pegasus' wings in her mouth. "'ome on, ah 'ot an i'ea a'ready!" 

Sweetie Belle failed to feel the same enthusiasm that had struck Apple Bloom, but sighed and hesitated to follow. Before leaning down to pull the unconscious Scootaloo the same way the earth pony was, she instead focused on her horn.

Grunting, Sweetie pushed and pulled with all her might at the magic conduit she knew was capable of great things. She could feel it all the time, after all. 

"Sweetie Belle?" Apple Bloom dropped Scoots with a thud, just in time to see a golden burst of light envelope Sweetie Belle's horn, and then blink out with a fizzle. "Wow."

Sweetie panted, from both the summer heat around them, and the effort she had just exerted. Groaning she trudged forward and grabbed Scootaloo's wing.

"That was amazin' Sweetie Belle! You almost had something that time I think." Apple Bloom grinned then retook up Scootaloo's other wing.

The unicorn smiled a little as well, but was getting fed up with failure after failure. "Yeah, thanks, Apple Bloom..."

The two fillies rounded the corner of the apple family's ancestral home, busily dragging back Scootaloo the old fashioned way, when Applejack stuck her head out of the kitchen window, right above them.

"Apple Bloom, was that ya'll makin' that racket?" Applejack looked between both girl's, filled with wide-eyed surprise, then out to the chicken coop, where the clucking farm animals were just now calming down. "If you're going to rough house and cause a ruckus with your friends, could you do it somewhere else?” The sound of panicked mooing from the barn and the words 'snake' being yelled over and over reached her fuzzy ears too. "Is that the cattle!? Apple Bloom, what did you do? Those poor girls ruin their milk every time you stir them up. Do you fillies have anything to say for yourselves?"

Apple Bloom's and Sweetie Belle's jaws dropped, freeing Scootaloo to hit the ground. They both answered with their own versions of explanations and excuses respectively. 

"But we weren't even in the barn! I- We-" managed the olive coated filly, while her white coated partner in crime shouted with a squeak, "We were being quiet like the wind, though!"

Applejack sighed and put her hat on, readying up to go calm down the cattle. "Never mind, girls, it's fine. I gotta go calm them down, just please, take it elsewhere." With a second thought, she added, "someplace safe and not somepony else's property. Ah mean it."

Sweetie Belle sighed, and turned from the window to recover Scootaloo once more, while Apple Bloom stayed where she was. In frustration, the red maned filly snorted. "T'ain't fair," she sulked, staring hard at the ground.

Applejack kept from shutting the kitchen window, just barely hearing her little sister's angry mutter. She poked her head back out, holding her hat down with a hoof to keep it from gettin' knocked off by the frame. "What' ain't fair, Apple Bloom?" She spotted a couple tears soaking the ground.

Sniffing, the filly replied, "We're just trying our hardest to find what we're good at. We even try to stay out of the way doin' it, too. It's just..."

Applejack bit her lip and looked around. The sad infecting Apple Bloom seemed to be spreading to Sweetie Belle, who was scrunching her face up as well. Not so much Scootaloo though, the pegasus seemed to be napping. 

"Ah- Now hold on Apple Bloom, don't cry now, okay?" Applejack looked around then, grunted and surprised both fillies by heaving herself out the window and onto the ground outside. She stood up tall, straightening her hat. "How about this, maybe I can't get you your cutie mark, but what if I help you figure out what it was exactly you're good at, besides that?"

Apple Bloom furrowed her brow, confused, then looked at Sweetie Belle, who shrugged and looked just as lost. Scootaloo remained on the ground.

"What do you mean, Sis?" Apple Bloom whipped her head around to look up at the adult, her red bow bobbing from the excited movement.

Applejack smiled coolly. "What I mean, is how about I teach you some stuff about your heritage? Good old, reliable earth pony magic." She struck an energetic pose, digging a hoof at the soil while regarding the small hole she made for effect. She looked up again at her sister with a grin. "How about it? You have to promise not to fret about finding your cutie mark again though. It's like we told you girls, they come when they come! You can't fight the way things work." 

Apple Bloom frowned slightly, then smiled and nodded. "Why, you're right Applejack. I'd like that, too."

Satisfied, she gave the fillies present a confident smirk. Heh, crisis averted. Good job, AJ. 

"But what about me?" Sweetie Belle pointed a hoof to herself, to lower lip still quivering some.

Scootaloo groaned and pushed herself up off the ground, now awake. "Yeah, or me? That really hurt by the way, guys." She gave the unicorn present a glower, who grinned sheepishly in return.

Applejack looked down at Sweetie and Scootaloo, letting out an unsure sound. "Uuuh, well, I can't really touch you anything about being a unicorn, Sweetie Belle..." She rubbed a defeated hoof on the back of her head, unsure of what to say. "Or about being a pegasus, Scootaloo. I just know the basics. Unicorns can use their crazy horn magic to float stuff around and do all kinds of spells, and pegasi can fly like the dickens and push around clouds."

The little white filly sank lower to the ground, joined by her orange friend once she'd sat up.

"Hey girls, I have an idea!" Apple Bloom jumped up and brought the other two fillies into a quick huddle. The three of them began whispering excitedly amongst one another.

Applejack strained an ear to listen, desperate to know how afraid she should be.

"Oh, okay   ...    so I'll ask    ...    Then after that you'll-    ...    and we'll meet back at the    ...    and we'll get our cutie marks for sure!"

Applejack's eyes widened a fraction. She could feel the pit of worry forming more and more in her stomach.

Apple Bloom stood up tall and looked quickly from one of her friends to the other. "Alright girls, it's settled! Scoots, you'll go and get Rainbow Dash to explain the finer points of pegasusing."

"Right!" Scootaloo smartly saluted, then winced when her hoof tapped a tender spot.

"Sweetie Belle, you'll get your sister to explain unicorn magic some. Failing that, go get Twilight Sparkle, because she's the best unicorn when it comes to magic, ever!" Apple Bloom stood up and folded her front hooves behind her back, satisfied. "Alright girls, move out! We'll have our cutie marks in no time!"

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo hopped into the air, buzzing theirs wings and sparking their horn respectively.

Applejack took off her hat slowly, sighed, then muttered a prayer to Celestia and Luna.