The Crusader Crisis

by AstroStar

The Day After

The jubilant atmosphere from Sweetie Belle's accomplishment carried over to the following morning. The campers got up bright and early to get back into town as soon as possible. The big sisters, including Rarity by surprise, carried all their equipment to town, giving the fillies more time to revel in the occasion. Sweetie Belle couldn't wait to tell everypony the good news, and Rarity wanted to get straight to work in planning her little sister's long-awaited cute-cenera. However, the cute-cenera would have to wait for a short while as Rainbow Dash and Applejack reminded her of the consequences the events of last night have on 'Friendship is Magic'.

"Do we really have to involve Pinkie Pie in this so soon?" Rarity whispered, making sure her sisters and her fellow Crusader friends could not hear her conversation.

"Ah’m sorry Rarity," Applejack whispered back, "But we can’t hide this from her, especially after the summer we’ve had."

"Think about it, Rarity," Rainbow started to point out. "A cutie mark crusader who suddenly shows up with a cutie mark. That's like a divide by zero error. We can’t pretend that nothing ever happened."

"Well, perhaps we can write it in," Rarity suggested. "That's how we dealt with Twilight's wings, right?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "We were going to write it out before Hasbro forced us to keep it in, remember? At any rate, this goes a bit deeper than that. Sweetie Belle is still trying ti figure out who she is in the show, right? She can't do that if she already has a cutie mark."

Applejack nodded in agreement. "Rainbow’s right. Sweetie Belle’s gonna have to cover her cutie mark up, or at least have a changeling play her part."

Rarity sighed sadly. The two had a point. "Either way Sweetie’s going to be crushed. I guess I will tell her."

Applejack shook her head. "Don’t, Rarity. Rainbow and I will talk to Pinkie. You go and plan her cute-cenera. Celebrate with her for now. This is her moment. We shouldn't ruin it... at least not yet."

While the elder sisters continued their conversation, their younger siblings carried on a conversation of their own, all three fillies still awestruck over the new cutie mark. Sweetie Belle had been so engrossed with her cutie mark, going over every single minuscule detail.

"Look! The color scheme matches my mane!" she squeaked excitedly. "It’s like this cutie mark was made for me."

"That's sort of what a cutie mark is," Scootaloo laughed.

"I can’t wait to tell Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They’re gonna freak out!" Sweetie Belle smiled.

Apple Bloom nodded in agreement. "I can’t wait to get back either. Ah want to get back to crusading as soon as we get home."

Scootaloo was a little confused at Apple Bloom's eagerness. "Don’t you want to relax a bit before we go crusading again?"

Apple Bloom shook her head. "You see, now that Sweetie Belle has her cutie mark, it’s only a matter of time before we get ours too!"

"Yeah, you're right!" Scootaloo shouted. "So what do you think we should try when we get back, Apple Bloom?"

"Well, Ah heard Applejack talking about the bull riders from the rodeo last year. Maybe we could try that?"

"That sounds awesome!!!" Scootaloo shouted. However, she felt a bit worried from the suggestion. "Isn't that really dangerous, though?"

"Ah know," Apple Bloom conceded, "But Ah was thinking we could work our way up to it. Try riding smaller animals until we're ready for the big one!"

Scootaloo shrugged. "Well, it can't hurt to try. What do you say, Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie Belle slowed her pace as a sudden thought came to her head. "You know something girls? It just hit me that now I have my cutie mark, I don’t have to go crusading anymore."

The other two fillies stopped in their tracks as Sweetie Belle's realization hit them too.

"Whoa, you're right. I never thought about that." Scootaloo said stunned.

Apple Bloom nodded. "Yeah, it’s going to be weird crusading without you, Sweetie Belle. Ah'm sorry if you're feeling left out right now."

Sweetie Belle smiled. "It's ok. I understand. Hey, I could still cheer you on."

"That's a great idea Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom shouted. "You can be a Cutie-Mark-Crusader-Cheerleader!"

"But Sweetie Belle already has a cutie mark!" Scootaloo pointed out. "She don't need another one. We don't need another Cutie Pox scare. You remember what happened, right?"

Apple Bloom frowned. "Yes. Ah remember the Cutie Pox scare. We wrote the whole thing into the show, after all." It was much to Apple Bloom's dismay that she remembered the incident that the episode was based off of, and how the incident was worse than what was depicted in the show, with cutie marks covering every inch of her yellow coat before she finally confessed the truth. She quickly shook away any lingering memories of the incident.

"At any rate," Sweetie Belle spoke out, "I don't think I can even catch the Cutie Pox if I have a cutie mark, so I think we don't have to worry about it that much."

"Thank goodness!" Apple Bloom shouted. "Ah don't want to go through that ever again!"

"How did things get so out of control back then anyway?" Scootaloo wondered. "Zecora said that it was rare to have a case of Cutie Pox that bad."

Sweetie Belle thought for a moment. "Well, maybe it has to do with Apple Bloom herself."

Apple Bloom frowned again. Her pace suddenly got a tad bit quicker as she pretended she ignored the conversation.

"Really? How so?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well," Sweetie Belle began to speculate. "She wants to get her cutie mark so badly that she's willing to try her hoof at just about anything, right? Maybe that's why her bout with the Cutie Pox was so bad. It's because she's so desperate to get any cutie mark."

Apple Bloom couldn't pretend to ignore any longer. She stopped in her tracks, and turned around to the unicorn filly in anger to defend herself. "Who are ya callin' 'desperate'?"

Sweetie Belle was taken aback slightly by the yellow filly's confrontation. "Well, I was just wondering why your cutie pox episode got so bad. That's all." she explained.

"Well, Ah think that was a silly idea." Apple Bloom huffed. "Nopony knows anything about cutie pox anyway. When did you become a Miss Know-It-All?"

"I'm sorry Apple Bloom," Sweetie Belle apologized. "But you know, talking about my cutie mark and the cutie pox got me thinking..."

"Thinking 'bout what?"

"Well," Sweetie Belle began, "I got my cutie mark and I didn’t have to go crusading at all to get it. It’s kind of ironic that I wasted all that time crusading when I didn’t need to do any of that after all."

The words struck Apple Bloom. "Wait... are you sayin' that crusading is a waste of time?"

"Well," Sweetie Belle tried to explain. "Now that I have my cutie mark, the idea of crusading sounds kinda silly when you stop and think about it."

Apple Bloom glared at Sweetie Belle. "Ah wouldn’t call it silly, at all."

Sweetie Belle was surprised by her friend's threatening look. "Whoa, hold on! I didn't mean it like that! I just thought it was kind of funny if you thought about it. You have to admit Apple Bloom, it is pretty ironic."

Apple Bloom got into Sweetie Belle's face. "Crusading. Ain't. Silly."

Before the situation escalated any further, Scootaloo quickly broke the two apart. "Ok, Apple Bloom, you're right. Crusading isn't silly. Can we just drop it right here?"

"Yeah. Let's drop it." Apple Bloom glared at Sweetie Belle before continuing down the path.

"Apple Bloom? I'm sorry." Sweetie Belle tried to apologize.

"Yeah, whatever." Apple Bloom replied without even looking back.

Sweetie Belle took another look at Apple Bloom and decided not to take the conversation any further. There had been other things she had been thinking about since she got her cutie mark, and she figured that sharing these thoughts right now wasn't going to help. She couldn't help thinking these things, but she still couldn't help but wonder. She got her cutie mark without crusading at all, and now that she finally got hers, it made her begin to reassess the whole Cutie Mark Crusader thing, her role in it, and its role on her. Did being in the cutie mark crusaders hold her back this whole time? Would she have gotten her cutie mark quicker on her own? Did she even need to be a crusader at all? Sweetie Belle chuckled at herself for thinking something so ridiculous in the first place. Even if crusading itself turned out to be a waste of time, it still led her to meeting her two very best friends, so being a Cutie Mark Crusader was worth it in the end.

"Hey Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo whispered in her ear, "what do you think got in to Apple Bloom?"

"Who knows," Sweetie Belle shrugged. She didn't want to spend anymore time worrying about Apple Bloom. She had other things to worry about. Particularly her new-found cutie mark.

"Hey Scootaloo? You want to hear about some of the ideas Rarity and I came up with for my cute-cenera?"

"Sure!" Scootaloo smiled.

"Well, we thought that we could go with a royal theme for the party, kind of like a smaller version of Twilight's Coronation."
"Cool! Hey, you could be Princess Sweetie Belle!"

Sweetie Belle blushed. "Gee, I think that's a bit too much for a cute-cenera."

Apple Bloom didn't partake in the conversation. She was still very annoyed over what Sweetie Belle said. She couldn't understand why just said those things about crusading. She never thought crusading was silly before. Did earning her cutie mark do something to her brain? Did she always think like this? She must have, right? It's the only explanation to where these crazy thoughts came from. Apple Bloom took a quick look towards Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo talking between themselves, and Apple Bloom felt a pang of irritation at the sight of Sweetie Belle gushing over her cute-cenera. The yellow earth filly was surprised she felt this way. After all, she was happy for Sweetie Belle, right? All of a sudden, Apple Bloom couldn't answer that question honestly anymore.

~~~~~

While most of Ponyville took the hiatus as a chance to unwind from a busy season three, Sugarcube Corner and the ponies in charge of it were busier than ever. It always seemed like it was a bit too much for Pinkie Pie to handle, with running the shop and running the show. But the end results of both endeavors, whether it be an 'Friendship is Magic' episode or a Sugarcube Corner party, made all the hard work well worth it, especially since she got to work with her best friends. On this particular day, Pinkie was hard at work with one of her oldest friends, Minty, at Sugarcube Corner.

"Hey Pinkie? I think we're running low on streamers!" Minty shouted.

"We’ve got more in the basement." Pinkie replied. "I’ll get some after I put this cake in the oven. I hope we have enough though. We’ve got three more parties to plan this week!"

"Are you sure you’re not being overworked, Pinkie?" Minty asked.

Pinkie simply giggled. "After everything we’ve been through with the show this summer, handling Sugarcube Corner is a piece of cake!"

"That reminds me," Minty suddenly remembered. "You never told me how everypony changed back from being human after Lyra’s party."

"Heh, funny story actually..." Pinkie laughed nervously as a memory popped into her head.

~~~~~

"So Lauren?" the humanoid Pinkie nervously asked the auburn-maned alicorn, "Do you think you can give us a little help here?"

Lauren looked round the room, taking a good look at all the ponies that were stuck as their human forms from Equestria Girls. She sighed. For starters, she couldn't believe she would be back in Equestria so suddenly, but Pinkie managed to call her back for this emergency. She also couldn't believe that everypony had this party without figuring out a way to change back to normal. As she closed her eyes to focused her magical energy, a warm white glow began to radiate from her horn. Within a few seconds, a bright flash shone through the entire room, enveloping everyone in it. The light seemed to linger for several moments before it finally faded. As everyone began to regain their senses, they quickly saw that they had been changed back to their normal pony selves.

"Thanks Lauren. I think we can take it from here." Celestia bowed her head in gratitude and began to walk away.

"Not so fast, Celestia!"

Lauren's sharp tone paralyzed the sun princess on the spot. Celestia nervously turned her head to see Lauren's deep frown aimed directly at her.

"You and I need to have a little talk."

Celestia gulped.

~~~~~

"I’m telling you, it’s not everyday that you get to see Princess Celestia chewed out like that!" Pinkie pointed out.

Learning about Lauren's visit and the subsequent scolding made Minty cringe. "Yikes! Is Celestia all right?"

Pinkie nodded. "She was a bit rattled in the moment, but Lauren forgave her. But she did tell her to be more careful next time."

Minty sighed in relief. "That's good. But I still can't imagine Celestia of all ponies being scolded!"

The two continued chatting when they heard the shop's front door bell ringing. Minty went up to meet the newcomer and saw that it was. When she got to the front of the store, she was met by the familiar figures of Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

"Howdy, Minty, is Pinkie here?" Applejack asked.

"Yes she is, hold on a sec..." Minty turned back to the storage room. "Hey, Pinkie? Come on up here! Look whose back!"

It didn't take very long for Pinkie to emerge from the storage room. She smiled as she saw the two newcomers.

"Rainbow Dash! Applejack! You're back! So how did the camping trip go?" Pinkie asked excitedly.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other nervously. With all their talk about the dire need to break the news to Pinkie, the two found themselves grossly unprepared to actually say it.

"It went… great!" Applejack eventually said as a response.

"Yeah… great…" Rainbow Dash nervously agreed.

The stilted manner of the response caught Pinkie as odd. "Are you sure? You don’t sound that excited. Is everything all right?"

"Eeyup! Everything’s just fine!" Applejack answered quickly. Unfortunately it was a bit too quickly as her face scrunched up in response to what she had said.

Rainbow Dash facehoofed at her friend's telling reaction. "Applejack, you’re scrunching up!"

"Shoot! Ah really tried this time," Applejack cursed at herself.

Pinkie shifted her eyes at the two, confused at their odd behavior. She started to feel a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. "Applejack? Rainbow Dash? What’s going on?"

Rainbow Dash sighed. There was no use beating around the bush anymore. "Listen Pinkie, something happened at the camping trip, and… we think it’s gonna be bad news for the show."

Horror started to slowly grip Pinkie's form. Oh no! Not again... She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "What happened?" she asked.

Applejack closed her eyes. "Well, you see…"

"You’re pregnant!" Minty suddenly shouted out.

The wild guess took everyone by surprise. Applejack's eyes nearly popped out of her head due to the shock.

"WHAT?!?" Applejack shouted back.

Minty's eyes grew wide. "You are, Applejack?"

"No! Ah’m not pregnant!" Applejack frowned.

Minty turned to Rainbow Dash. "So you’re pregnant!"

Rainbow Dash's face twisted in disgust. "Are you kidding me? No way!!!"

Minty turned to Pinkie. "Then you're pregnant!"

Pinkie quickly shook her head. "No I’m not!!!"

Minty gasped. "So that means that… I’m pregnant?"

Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "I... I don’t even…"

"Minty, nopony’s pregnant!" Pinkie reassured the mint pony. She cast a quick aside glance to Rainbow Dash. "Nopony is pregnant, right?"

"Not anyone we know." Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Minty scratched her head. "But… if nopony’s pregnant, then what’s the problem?"

"It’s Sweetie Belle," Applejack answered.

Pinkie Pie gasped. "What happened to her? She isn't hurt, is she?"

Applejack shook her head. "Far from it. Ya see, Sweetie Belle…"

"Sweetie Belle kidnapped Spike and is holding him for ransom so she can get more screen time?" Minty guessed.

Applejack did a double take, again. "What?! No, Minty!"

"She won the lottery?"

"NO!" Rainbow Dash shouted angrily.

"She was tricked into selling her soul and she’s now a magical girl?"

Minty's latest wild guess left the other three confused. Doesn’t being a unicorn technically make her one already? Pinkie wondered.

"She got a cameo role on Pound Puppies and…. mmmph!!!"

Minty was surprised when Pinkie covered her mouth, making her unable to continue.

"Ok, seriously. What happened to Sweetie Belle?" Pinkie said as she kept Minty's mouth closed

Applejack sighed and broke the news straight. "Sweetie Belle got her cutie mark."

Pinkie's jaw dropped "WHAT?!!"

"That was my next guess! I swear!" Minty insisted as she broke free from Pinkie's grasp.

Pinkie Pie sat on the floor, absolutely bewildered by the news she had just heard. "Sweetie Belle got her cutie mark?" she asked, her voiced hushed by the shock.

Applejack nodded. "It happened last night at the campsite. That's why we came straight here first." Pinkie inspected the cowpony's face. It was stone cold serious with no hint of scrunching whatsoever. That was more than enough for Pinkie to confirm the news was indeed true. She lowered her head, her mind racing with millions upon millions of thoughts to what the ramifications of this event were.

"We’re sorry, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash apologized. "We didn’t want to add anymore stress for the show for you, but we felt you had to know. Just promise us you’re not gonna freak out over this."

Pinkie didn't respond. She simply kept sitting on the floor with her face downwards. Minty slowly approached her as she began to get concerned about Pinkie's eventual reaction.

"Pinkie? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Minty," she replied with a resigned sigh. "Well, I guess there’s only one thing we can do now."

Pinkie suddenly bounced up from the floor and straight onto the kitchen counter.

"We have to throw Sweetie Belle the greatest cute-cenera Ponyville has ever seen!!!" the pink pony said with a huge smile. She quickly began to gather up everything she needed for the occasion. "This is gonna be so great! We're going to need to invite everypony! I hope Sugarcube Corner is big enough. Oh well, if it isn't then we can just have it in Applejack's barn! That's big enough for everypony! Speaking of big, we're going to need a really big cake for this! Maybe a 10 layer cake, what do you think girls? Wait! That's not gonna work, we'll never have enough frosting for 10 layers. Well maybe I can pull it off if I frost every layer a different color. Wait, what am I even thinking? This isn't Rainbow Dash's cute-cenera. Hey Dashie, how many layers were on your cute-cenera cake? I've always wanted to know."

Rainbow Dash blinked at the hurricane of words that had just hit her ears. "Well, it was a two layer cake and..." she quickly shook her head and regained her senses. "Wait a minute!!! You’re not worried about this at all, Pinkie?"

Pinkie smiled and shook her head. "Nope!"

"You’re not going to panic over this? Even a little?" Applejack asked.

"Nuh-uh!"

"But… a Cutie Mark Crusader with a cutie mark doesn’t make any sense," Applejack pointed out.

"I know! Isn’t it great?"

"So... what are we going to do about the show then?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"That’s the best part! I have no idea!!!" Pinkie grinned.

Rainbow Dash turned to Applejack in concern. "I think we just broke Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie shook her head. "No, you don’t understand. I really am glad for Sweetie Belle and I couldn’t care less about the show. But even if I did, we still have a few months before we start filming again. In fact, we could even make an episode out of all this! This isn't like when Twilight became an alicorn and we only had a week to figure things out. We’ve got more than enough time!"

"Well, that explains why you’re taking this so well," Minty observed.

Applejack nodded. "Yeah, RD and I thought you’d flip out over this worse than when you found out about Equestria Girls!"

Pinkie chuckled nervously. "I know, but after everything we’ve been through recently, I think I've learned how to handle these kinds of things now. I’ve learned my lesson."

Rainbow Dash laughed. "Ha! I'll say! Looks like you're little talk with Lauren after the party really did set you straight, huh Pinkie?"

"Yeah. It really did." Pinkie blushed a bit in embarrassment.

"Wait," Minty interrupted. "Lauren talked with Pinkie? Pinkie just told me she talked with Celestia after that party."

"She did at first," Applejack explained. "But that was nothing compared to the tongue lashing she gave Pinkie for how she treated Lyra. Hoo doggy, Ah've never seen anything like it."

Pinkie turned a deep shade of red as the memory of the incident replayed in her head. While Celestia did get chewed out for almost trapping all of Ponyville as humans, it still paled in comparison to how Lauren chewed her out on her overreaction to Equestria Girls. She could barely remember the actual event itself, but she did remember thinking at one point that even Nightmare Moon herself would have been shaken to her core. However, Pinkie stood through it all and took it like a grown mare. She deserved it after the way she acted back then. Thankfully, and to Pinkie's surprise, Lauren give her a big hug at the end and told her she was so proud her her to have resolved the issue like she had.

Pinkie shook the memory away and snapped back into the current issue at hoof. "Hey! Wasn't there a cute-cenera we needed to plan? What do you say we get back to that?"

"Sure!" Minty replied. "There's a lot of things we have to do for this!"

"Ah know Rarity has a few ideas," Applejack informed the party planners.

"I'll get Rarity and Sweetie Belle over here!" Rainbow Dash spoke up. "We can't plan this party without them!"

Sugarcube Corner worked overtime that night as the plans for the greatest cute-cenera ever began to take shape.

~~~~~

It was late at night when Applejack returned home to Sweet Apple Acres. Apple Bloom had been sent to bed and Granny Smith was fast asleep in her favorite chair. Big Macintosh stayed up to finish a few kitchen chores when his sister finally returned home to share the good news about how well things went over at Sugarcube Corner. The stallion was left confused.

"So you're telling me that Pinkie was actually happy 'bout all this?" he asked his sister.

"Eeyup!" Applejack nodded with a smile.

"She didn't panic at all? Even a little?"

"Nope!"

"And, there's a good chance she'll even write this into the show too?"

"Eeyup!"

Big Mac shook his head in disbelief. "Wow. Ah'm speechless."

Applejack laughed. "Ah know. Ah couldn't believe it either! Ah can't wait to tell Apple Bloom! You should have seen how happy she was when Sweetie Belle got her cutie mark!"

"Actually," Big Mac informed her, "She hasn't said much of anything since she came back home. She's been mostly quiet all day."

Applejack found this information odd. "She has?"

"Eeyup."

"Hmm... Ah guess she's just tired from the long trip," Applejack guessed. "It has been pretty exhausting since last night."

Unbeknownst to the two of them, their little sister was listening in to the conversation from the very top of the stairs. She heard all she needed to hear before she returned to her bedroom. She couldn't believe it. Everypony was happy for Sweetie Belle. Even Pinkie Pie herself couldn't have cared less about having a cutie-marked Crusader. Everypony was happy, except her. Her mind was swimming in thoughts as she flopped onto her bed. Earning a cutie mark was what they wanted, right? It was what they waited their whole lives for. And now it's finally happened for one of them. So why wasn't she happy?

Apple Bloom frowned. She knew why she wasn't happy. It was Sweetie Belle. The way she acted today rubbed her the wrong way. Just because she didn't get her cutie mark from crusading, doesn't give her the right to dismiss crusading as "silly" or a "waste of time". Was there more 'pearls of wisdom' to come from the unicorn? What if these thoughts led Sweetie Belle to become worse than Diamond Tiara's character in the show. Apple Bloom never thought she would ever think anything like this, but she was beginning to prefer Sweetie Belle as a blank flank. Yes, she wasn't liking this new pony Sweetie Belle was becoming. She wanted the old blank-flanked Sweetie Belle back. A few moments in deep thought later, a smile crept on Apple Bloom's face. She knew what she had to do to get the old Sweetie Belle back.

Author's Note:

YAY UPDATE!!! BTW, School + Life + Writer's Block = NO FUN AT ALL!!!

This was a rough chapter to write for me, and I hope it came out all right. Seriously though, thanks for liking the story so far and I promise I'll get to wrapping this story up as fast as I can. As always, comments are greatly appreciated!

Comments

[Alchemystudent]

Y'know, its going to be funny if Sweetie does get her cutie mark this season.