Happy 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary, my Crusaders! <3 · 4:37am Oct 21st, 2020
I am late with this (ten days late, to be precise), because I spent October 10th with personal celebrations and then had to focus on writing a lot to catch up on projects that see a coronated delay this year. But I still wanted to write a little bit about the big anniversaries. That only feels right to do and it would feel wrong not to write down some words about them.
And since my Crusaders mean everything to me in life, I of course start with the 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary of Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle! 
The 10th Anniversary of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic will follow in a blog entry after this one.
October 10th, 2020 passed and that means the Cutie Mark Crusaders, my all-time favourite ponies and the best fillies in the world, have their cutie marks for five whole years now. A lot has happened in this time, good and bad things, for both them and myself. But I don't want to talk about the events of these five past years now, instead, I want to talk about how their 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary looked like.
Something I am always nervous about each year, is that no one will create anything for them and their cutie mark anniversary. It is wonderful that they got their cutie marks exactly on the day that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic started, but it also leads to it that they are often overlooked on their big day, because most of everyone only thinks of the overall anniversary of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
This year, though, they have been lucky and a few people dedicated little tributes to them and created something for their 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary.
The first of two videos for them I watched, right after waking up and while I had breakfast, is a WIP progress of an animatic done by Imalou:
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It was supposed to be a finished animatic that Imalou hoped to get done before their 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary, but regardless of the fact that it was not completed in time for their big day, I loved that something like this has happened for them today. Among the things that I always love the most, is when someone ponifies something non-pony. It gives the perfect way of still enjoying something that has nothing to do with MLP: FiM, without having to abandon ponies to watch it.
For people like me, who aren't interested in non-pony works/franchises/shows/ect. anymore, unless they are enriched with ponies in some way (such as pony character mods for games like "Left 4 Dead 2", "Garry's Mod" or "Skyrim"), because they found their calling with ponies and Equestria, this is a delight, as it allows to combine two things and for everyone else, it keeps their minds connected to the show even if they seek out something else for a little while. Ponifications are a major pillar of the G4 My Little Pony fandom that will sustain us long into the future, possibly even forever. And let us not forget the artistic merit of adapting something non-pony to ponies and Equestria's culture and the artistic challenge it poses to make it work in the best way.
Imalou succeeded with all this and I found myself so surprised about how well this song fits to Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. For one, because I would have never thought that a show like "South Park" could have so much heart. This song could easily be one that ponies sing in Equestria. Particularly, them, as what the song is about really sounds like a typical thing the three would start singing about if it happened to them.
For second, and the most important reason of course, because the individual sing parts of the "South Park" characters fit to them perfectly, like they were tailored for them.
The voice of the character whose role Scootaloo took comes quite close to the scratchy sound of Scootaloo's voice and singing this sad part of the song is something I can see Scootaloo do so much.
Sweetie Belle sings about her mom fighting everyone and, in ways I have to admit I cannot explain, but the feeling is strong, this is something that seems to fit to her mother's personality. I can see her mom sometimes bickering and starting a fight with others. The high voice is also perfect and really reminds me of Sweetie's voice when she was younger.
Applebloom's voice that she lends from the character whose role she took sounds so noticeably deeper than the voices of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, which exactly mimics the difference between her voice and theirs. Only the country slang is missing, but the depth of the voice and the casual way of talking, it's all there.
It can be so perfectly seen why Imalou chose this song to be animated with them. The energy of the song and the theme of it shout "Cutie Mark Crusaders!".
The plot of the animatic is a little unclear to me, as I don't know the source material, something about Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle desiring to meet a superhero called Brian Botano (how would his pony name be?), but being unable to for some reason? This is all I got after dozens of watches of this animatic, but it's just a WIP, and I am sure the plot and how it relates to them and Equestria will come out clear once it's finished.
I strongly love this animatic and easily watched it 20 - 30 times already and I can't wait to see the finished product! 
The second video that was made for them is a Cutie Mark Crusaders tribute PMV by AxelThePony:
It's a collaborative PMV made for their 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary that AxelThePony, Cole Donnerstag, Fade_Brony, SketchMedia, Shiron, Tangerine Blast, NicxChy, Makenshi179 and ZX worked on together.
This PMV moved me a lot, which is needless to say, it is a Cutie Mark Crusaders tribute, after all. But my emotions are also largely owned to how this video was made. It shows, in mostly random order, moments in the lives of Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle since we got to know them from all nine seasons.
Starting with the founding of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and with moments from "Stare Master" and "The Show Stoppers", it goes through some of their most important and memorable moments throughout all the seasons, including what we saw in "Flight to the Finish", "Sleepless in Ponyville" and of course "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", among many other Cutie Mark Crusaders episodes (either trio episodes or solo focus episodes) and contains all of their most important milestones:
The founding of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the events in their first two episodes, how they learned about the cutie mark stories of the Mane Six and their big sisters (two of their big sisters, to be precise, since Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash weren't sisters there yet), how Sweetie Belle got Rarity to be a better sister for her, how Scootaloo won Rainbow Dash as her big sister, Scootaloo having to face her flightlessness after Diamond Tiara's and Silver Spoon's bullying, their Twilight Time lessons and how Sweetie Belle learned to use her magic (at least symbolically, by showing a moment that is seen in the episode), Applebloom proving Applejack that she is capable, the moment when they got their cutie marks, how they helped Tender Taps with his cutie mark as the first pony after they got theirs, Gabby being appointed as a Cutie Mark Crusader, Sweetie Belle getting Rarity to realize that she has become older and to accept that, Scootaloo finding a surrogate mom and dad in Rainbow Dash's parents, how they heard stories about three of the Pillars of Equestria (a less important moment of theirs, but still very memorable, and it has an important connection to the events in "Sleepless in Ponyville"), their Cutie Mark Day Camp, their help for Cozy Glow, how they saved Scootaloo from being taken away by her "parents" and the events from their last episode.
There are also moments from a few more Cutie Mark Crusaders episodes and a moment from "The Mane Attraction", because of their important appearance in this episode.
I also would have included Trouble Shoes, as he was the first pony they helped with a cutie mark problem before realizing that's their special talent as their second-to-last big step on their path to their cutie marks, and would have shown Zipporwhill instead of Rarity to symbolize the events in "Forever Filly", because Zipporwhill is another pony they helped with a cutie mark problem, and because there is another moment that could have been chosen to symbolize Sweetie's connection with Rarity.
But what is most important in their journey through life is included here and it has been brilliantly done. I especially love how the PMV contains moments from each season, it is like a Cutie Mark Crusaders guide for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. You can watch this PMV and understand, on an emotional level, what their journey is, what their accomplishments are and how it moved them.
My favourite part is when the PMV shows the moment when they got their cutie marks interspersed with the ponies and creatures they've helped. That tells so perfectly how they are, the most helpful ponies in the world, and how their cutie marks and their shared special talent stands exactly for that, their helpfulness, their will to help everyone who needs help and support.
This tribute is worthy of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and I can't express the amount of emotions I feel over it that some people thought of them and did something specifically for them on this great day, to thank them for all their hard work.
And I thanked them, as well. It wasn't as much as I could have done and should have done and I did not find myself able to write a great anniversary story for them or to draw a picture to honor them, after a Spring and Summer that turned out more chaotic for my projects than I would have predicted in this year, but I celebrated together with them and gave them all my time on October 10th.
Here are a few impressions of our festivities together:
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To contribute at least a little something for them on this day, I decorated a cake for them, with a depiction of Applebloom like I saw her in my very first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic that I watched, "Call of the Cutie" (see picture #5 below), to make the cake symbolize this moment when I saw Applebloom for the first time in the show.
Of course the drawing didn't turn out well, I didn't practice my pony drawing abilities as much as I could have since 2013 because my focus always was and still is on writing and I also have drawn with sugar pencils on a cake for the first time ever in this life, and the cake is also representative of the 10th Anniversary of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as much as it is representative of their 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary, but my heart told me I had to imprint Applebloom during this moment on the cake, so I went and did that.
A little fun fact: I didn't get the cake I initially wanted, since the store I went to only had this one and when I discovered the cake I wanted in another store that has more generous opening hours, it was too late (I really can't afford buying two cakes, these are expensive), but then I realized that this gave me the opportunity to make a pony cake. So I am really glad I had to take a cake that I did not want to buy.
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And this was the day of the great anniversaries on October 10th, 2020, from the perspective of the 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary of Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
There is another perspective, that of the 10th Anniversary of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and I will make another blog entry from this perspective soon. But for now, there is this one, as the 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary of Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle is the most special and important to me.
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Happy 5th Cutie Mark Anniversary, my Crusaders!
https://www.deviantart.com/mysticalpha/art/Cutie-Mark-Crusaders-Little-Angels-331131751
Really like CMC, and nice to see this event! This show gave us a lot, including great, unforgettable characters!
In the start I simply liked them, but then I can see into this fillies something big and important. They show us a side of life that some of us forget as we get older. So it's good that I met them on the road of life in my time) First meet - May 2013, when I starting to watch MLP:FiM. Friendship is magic!
This is a classic!
THat's really nice work! I can barely believe it myself that it is 10 years already
One of the best moments in the series