Something I was thinking about recently on writing a FIMfic over, but I can't really pinpoint my exact feelings on it either so it wouldn't do me much good to make the attempt.

Apple Bloom is seen by a lot of people as the traditional leader of the CMC, but I think that's based more off the first 2 seasons where she got the most screen time, being the first to get real screen time past occasional cameos (Friendship is Magic Part 1, Bridle Gossip), and she dominates Call of the Cutie. Sweetie Belle doesn't get her first episode until Season 2 in Sisterhooves Social, and Scootaloo not until Season 3.

With the five seasons that have aired so far, I think it's a lot more fluid situation of shifting leadership between Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle kind of follows the action for the most part with occasional moments, with the exception of Hearts and Hooves Day where she leads.

Scootaloo shows her biggest leadership chops of course in Flight to the Finish with getting their act going. With how smoothly she gets things going and set-up before Diamond Tiara decides to be an awful pony again, she showed some really strong character there.

Thoughts?

4919008

Technically Apple Bloom is the founder, and also was the one most invested in the club's mission (getting a cutie mark), which is why if it's ever needed to positively identify somepony as the leader, it usually falls to her. However, as you note, the show has never pushed that angle, which is something I always quite liked about the CMC. Any one of them could and did take the reins at any time.

4919008 To be honest, I see both Bloom and Scoots as a leader, they could both be a leader.

4919008 I think that early on, Scootaloo seemed to be the leader, and then Apple Bloom briefly took the reigns in Season 2, before Sweetie Belle took charge until Season 5, when it seemed to go back to Apple Bloom. They don't seem to have a definitive leader, though they said it themselves they work as a team.

There have been plenty of episodes where they have each taken their turn as leader.

Call of the cutie and cutie mark chronicles lean toward Applebloom.
Show stoppers and flight to the finish lean toward Scootaloo.
Hearts and hooves day and twilight time seem to lean toward Sweetiebelle.

It really seems to be what activity they are engaged in at the time, with the pony more comfortable and suited to the task taking the lead. I have actually found this a point of much enjoyment as it mirrors more closely real life friendships, where there is no 'Leader', but a mutual respect for each others individual abilities. I'm sure some circles of friends in the real world don't operate this way, but my own circle does and it enhances my enjoyment of these episodes.

Being shoehorned into a constant leader role would be much more two dimensional than the nicely fleshed out characters we currently have.

TL;DR version, it switches constantly. You can very easily write a 100,000 word fic with scootaloo as the leader and then write another a month later with Applebloom or Sweetiebelle as the leader as a direct sequel without missing a beat!

imo of course

The CMC seem to be a club where a leader isn't necessarily together. All three know what they want to achieve. I think the leader depends on the project they are next pursuing (back when they were still cutie mark-less, of course), Scoots may lead more acrobatic or dangerous projects, Sweetie would lead the more calm and creative projects, such as musicals, and Apple Bloom would lead the constructive projects, the ones that aren't dangerous, but still ambitious. These examples are a bit rusty, I know, but it's just a general idea.

If an overall leader, however, were to be determined, Apple Bloom would be the most likely, with Scoots a close second.

Funny I should see this thread while I'm in the middle of writing lyrics to a song from Scootaloo's perspective on how unfit she feels to be the group's leader…

Like others are saying, I feel it's a somewhat truer-to-life-than-average situation where leadership is fluid and nobody's locked permanently into one role or another even if they might have different tendencies. Past that, here's a little thought exercise: If circumstances were to have the leader of the moment slow down and reflect, what differing (or common, I suppose) ways might each of them feel about being in the role?

This is obviously down to your interpretation of the characters, and mine goes something like this: If your average Sweetie Belle were to stop and realize she's in charge, she'd probably get very self-conscious and maybe try to slip back out of the spotlight—not natural leader material, basically. Other hand, Apple Bloom—youngest of a decently sized immediate family who must have been in charge of her for her whole life despite her protests—would make for a natural leader, as she'd probably feel very gratified to realize that her friends are following her lead, be more than willing continue said lead, and (one can only hope) might even be inspired to recognize/respect the responsibility in that.

I might say Scootaloo's a bit harder to pin down than the other two. Like, in a few things I'm writing, a chunk of her character arc is devoted to this very topic, taking her from a painfully self-recognized follower—always aware of just how much of her time and will has been devoted to things like hovering in Rainbow Dash's shadow—into the leader that the others, or Sweetie in particular, already see her as. I think that if Scootaloo were the one currently in charge and became fully conscious of it, she might discover that it feels more natural than she'd ever suspected it could, and would want to keep on going with it for better or for worse. Probably less likely than Apple Bloom to lead responsibly, but yeah, still a leader in her own right.

Definitely a fun dynamic to think about.

4920174

Call of the Cutie is actually really weird narratively as an episode, in that a part of it is Apple Bloom's dreading going to Diamond Tiara's cuteceanara because she thinks she'll be the only one there without her Cutie Mark, simultaneously while everyone in her class will be there. In that very same episode we see Sweetie Belle and Scootablue in class, so it's like, filly, are you even paying attention in class? Obviously Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle's introductions are for the convenience of the viewer, but then in every future episode they're in the same class all the time.

And now that I realise I went off-track, talking about Call of the Cutie, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle are introduced huddled together under a table at DT's party. For all we know they could've met one another twenty seconds ago for the first time ever, but I like to think they were friends for a little while before meeting Apple Bloom.

On a not-serious point, Slice of Life confirmed Scootaloo as the most important Crusader. In an episode where only background and one-off characters speak outside of Twilight and RD at the end, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both have lines, and Scootaloo doesn't. Scootaloo is less of a background character!

I dunno..it always seemed a bit like apple bloom was the leader because the episode where she was going to a party and was the only one without s cutie mark, it was her first, THEN she met the other cmc's.

4919177
Even a team has a leader though. Like, the leader of the Avengers is Nick Fury. Or like how the leader of the X-Men is Cyclops.