//------------------------------// // Crusaders of the Lost Mark- Where are our marks! // Story: Rainbow Reviews My Little Pony // by SciWriter //------------------------------// Torkuda was out this day. I clicked off the TV and set down the remote. “So um… Twilight decided not to review this one ahead of time to make a list, saying she wanted us to be surprised along with her…” I looked at the five Cutie Mark Crusaders. There was my adopted daughter Scootaloo who had an orange coat and a messy purple mane. Then there was Sweetie Belle, white with a neatly styled mane that was two shades of violet. Then, the last of the original crusaders, was Apple Bloom, yellow coat with a red simply styled mane. The two new members were Lightning Strike and her adopted brother Dusk. Lightning was the most messed up looking kid I ever laid eyes on, with a yellow coat, freckles on only one side of her face, a messed up front mane with a jagged back mane shaped comically like a lightning bolt. Her brother had a normal colt cut of his navy blue mane and a cyan blue coat like mine.                 All five of the crusaders sat there in stunned silence, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom staring at their still bare flanks. “Um guys… I didn’t know… um…” I tried. “It had um… Crusaders in the title so I figured it would be um… interesting for you guys.” I slowly forced out. Apple Jack and Rarity were also in the cave. AJ just shook her head at me.                 “I’d say they found it interesting all right,” Rarity said.                 “So are we… should we have those marks?” Scootaloo finally said. “I mean, you said that was all fake Rainbow-“                 “Mom.” I interjected.                 “Sorry, mom. You said none of this stuff was real. So… I guess I liked those marks… so that means we won’t get them?” Scootaloo finished her question.                 “I really have no idea,” I admitted.                 Apple Bloom gritted her teeth. “Ah… ah so wish ah was in that world! Ah wish that was me! Ah want ma mark! Ah’ve been trying fer two years, tryin’ everythin’ ah cn’ think of and there, we just repeat a buncha’ the lessons you already taught us after bein’ nice to a bully and BOOM, instant cutie marks! Ah been tryin’ so hard-“                 “Now that’s not fair, they’ve been trying hard in the show too,” I noted.                 “OH PLEASE!” Apple Bloom shouted. “Ah’ve been tryin’ since ah was six, an’ everything ah try, nothin’, not even a hint!”                 “It comes when it comes kiddo,” I replied. “Don’t know what to tell ya.”                 “Why can’t ah live there? Ah have ma mark, ma bully is ma friend, the worst damage from Tirek was the playground, ah don’t have to worry about getting ma mark before ma friends cause ah got it at the same time, no one gets left out, everyone is happy- AH WANT TA LIVE THERE!” The girl glared at the ground breathing hard.                 AJ sat next to her. “Now… now hun, ya’ll don’t really know what yer sayin’. Yer just reactin’. Just think about it. Did ya see yer friends Lightnin’ n’ Dusk in there? Ya’ll never met there.”                 “SO FREAKIN’ WHAT! AH WANT MA MARK! No matter what it takes ah want it, ah want it now! If ah would git it without them bein’ around, then ah want it still! So what if they don’t exist! Ah have ta git it, ah have ta, ah just have ta ah- wait what did ah just say…?”                 Lightning’s ears went down and a whine came out from Dusk. Dusk, who was just six, ran and hid under the couch. Lightning screamed, stomped her front hooves and then shot out of the room and probably out of the cave. “Crap…” I said.                 I quickly unfurled my wings and flew off after the yellow filly as I heard AJ shout “Apple Bloom, now that was a terrible-“ but I was out of ear shot before she got much out.                   Outside the cave I sighted the filly in the distance, flying hard and fast away. Still she was no match for me- until she engaged her abilities. In a single beat of her wings, a powerful burst of electric energy shot out behind her and propelled her forward faster than I could track. She reappeared hundreds of yards away, her power not being something she could sustain indefinitely. I lowered my eyebrows. “Reminds me why I’m content with my daughter’s disability, catching her is never a challenge.”                 It took a good fifteen minutes of flying in what I guessed was pretty much a random direction, for me to finally catch up to and grab the child. She didn’t fight me, she just fell limp in my forelegs, pretty clearly exhausted. I landed with her near a small river.                 “Lightning, she was just lost in the moment, she didn’t mean-“                 “I’m not stupid!” she shouted. “And it’s not like I’ve haven’t had worse things said about me, or done to me!” she panted a little.                 “Then what is this?”                 “That world, those ponies… they’re all happy, all of them. But here… the crusaders don’t have their marks, Tirek disabled ponies and there was an entire war with Gray that, let me guess, didn’t happen there, did it?”                 “You figured that out from one episode?”                 “I guessed on Tirek… or was hopping… that’s the only thing that doesn’t have to do with me.” She hung her head. “I’ve scared Diamond Tiara with my powers a lot… she makes me SOOO angry sometimes! She makes fun of my brother… NO ONE HURTS DUSK!” A bolt of electricity shot out from her right wing and tore violently through the ground sending tufts of earth in several directions. I wasn’t really scared of Lightning, but she had her moments. “There’s no way she’ll make friends with the crusaders here, she’s scared to go near me. Gray experimented on me, and learned how to make his own powers, and then, his army. No way he could have done what he did without me… am I wrong?”                 “I…” she was just an ignorant child, surely I could outsmart her on that but… I drew a blank. Her role in the conflict with Gray was pretty obvious. “No… you are definitely part of what happened. Especially with Gray.”                 “So… what Apple Bloom said… just… made it all click. If I wasn’t here, everyone who got hurt, everyone who died… I sometimes think about this. I… can I go back? Can I change it? How?” I shook my head.                 “Kiddo, he experimented on you. He tied you up and abused you… you can’t act like you’re responsible for something like that, it doesn’t work that way. Someone took advantage of you. He hurt you too. It wasn’t your fault.”                 “You sure?” she asked back.                 “Look, I get the impression a lot of the bad things that happened in our real world, didn’t happen in that made up one okay?” her ears went down. “But there’s more than that. The good things, they didn’t happen either. I mean, for instance, I’m not Scoots’ mom there. Scootaloo never met Dusk there, so she’s not mentoring someone herself, something she tells me all the time she loves.” I held the filly’s chin. “And we never met you. A filly with mood swings that give me whiplash, but despite her weaknesses, somehow brought at lot of very different folks together. Your father, your brother, your mentor Vinyl, the crusaders… Not gonna say you made EVERYONE’S relationships, I mean the crusaders were around before you showed up in town, but you made a lot of things happen, and half of it by accident. I don’t know how, but when you come into a room… things just sorta start happening.” She raised an eyebrow to me. “Look, nothing I say I like about you is going to take the pain of a war away.” I sighed. “Look kid, you’re too young, you should never have had a part in any of that. War sucks, and… what happened to us, it’s always going to hurt… But look, why don’t we go back and talk with the others about the episode? Let’s see if we all REALLY want to live in that world alright? I have a feeling a lot more is missing than a war. Some pretty important things.” I picked her up and flew her back to the cave.                 Truth was, I was grasping at straws. The things that happened, the ponies I watched die, good friends made just to have them be torn away by an evil stallion… even my daughter had been kidnapped and attacked several times. Gray was a monster and his army was sadistic, probably worse than anyone I had ever fought before. I had had three nightmares this month about what happened… Lightning was a good kid, but… I had no idea how to help myself, let alone her.                 I landed with her in the cave. We found Dusk sitting with Scootaloo, her foreleg on his shoulder. She smiled warmly at him and had apparently given him a handkerchief while we were gone. Lightning ran to him and hugged him. Apple Bloom sat hanging her head. “Sorry…” Apple Bloom said. “Guess it’s gets the best of me sometimes…”                 “Sometimes!?” shouted Sweetie Belle, sitting next to her and folding her forelegs. “You and cutie marks- you have a problem!” She grunted.                 “I guess I forgot, ma friends matter way more than some… butt mark,” Apple Bloom said, sounding like calling it that hurt her. “Please Lightnin’, ah wouldn’t want to lose you or yer brother, okay?” Lightning nodded.                 “Come sit with us?” Sweetie said, her and Apple Bloom parting to give her a spot between. Lightning smiled and sat between them. Dusk stayed with Scootaloo.                 “Well let’s really look at that episode everyone,” I said, not sure how I was going to end the statement even as I said it. “I’m betting I can find things about that world you guys will think less of. You’ll see, it’s a different world, but not a “better” world.”                 Scootaloo hung her head a little. “Well I already notice one thing, I can sing in that world. My voice sucks here.”                 “Oh I don’t know that that’s a bad thing!” I said, grinning. “Lightning, Scootaloo, Dusk, theme song, on three: THREE!”                 “Um… My little pony!” Scootaloo said.                 “I used to wonder what friendship could be!” shouted Lightning, her signature grin returning to her face, her voice changing octaves every other freaking note. Like I said, her mood swung like a tether ball.                 “Until you all shared its magic with me!” Dusk “sung” in a completely monotone voice.                 “My little pony!” Scootaloo shouted in her raspy voice with… some… melody. Suddenly couch pillows went flying at the three, Sweetie Belle apparently not as in love with the sound as I was… I was personally having a blast. This was crap! It was awesome!                 Everyone in the room started laughing, even the angry music loving Sweetie Belle had to grin. Rarity spoke up, “Girls… and Dusk… you’ll grow into your voices, but with practice. Give yourselves time to learn. Besides, singing isn’t for everyone, just like fashion.”                 “I’m 20, and I still can’t sing!” I shouted.                 “And I’m 29 and it’s still a challenge,” Rarity admitted.                 We looked over at Apple Jack, “Oh no, ya’ll cn’ blab yer ages all ya want, ah’m not sayin’ how old ah am. All the same, ah can’t sing worth a darn.”                 “You’re alright,” I said. “I’m the one who sucks.” I chuckled. “In any case, that brings up a point, something I noticed watching your characters crusaders. In reality, you guys are all over the place. Apple Bloom, you are obsessed with cutie marks, but Sweetie, you care about them, though you’re more focused on just projects in general. Scootaloo… really I get the sense you don’t care about your mark, just so long as you’re doing something fun, you’re happy.” Scootaloo nodded and grinned. “And Lightning, you and your brother… oh sweet Celestia, Lightning you’ve screamed, cried and just flew half way across the country side and he still has yet to talk without being motivated to. Lightning, you never even seem to talk about cutie marks, just loving to move around and be with others and Dusk, you seem to just like seeing others happy.” Lightning smiled at her brother. “But in that world, you all just want your marks, and yea, you don’t have two siblings whose personalities are complete opposites. Those kids get along better probably, and good for them, but any adventure they have, they don’t see from five completely different angles. Would you really want to hang out with copies of yourselves?”                 “They weren’t that similar…” Sweetie Belle pointed out.                 No they weren’t, but I was trying to get the ball rolling. “They certainly weren’t that different,” I said back.                  “Still like how determined they were in the show,” Apple Bloom said. “Even just that episode showed it. “Think I’m the only one that determined to get a mark… ah… ah hate ta say it, but sometimes ah wonder… if ah had friends just as determined, would ah already have it?” everyone turned to her. “Look ya’ll, ah’m sorry, okay, but it’s how ah feel. Ah can’t change it, even if ah want to. Ah know, ah’ve tried. Ah love all of you more than anything, more than whatever ma mark might be, and ah would never give ya’ll up, ah love ya… ah just… ah wanna know what’s comin’. And wonderful as ya’ll are, ya aren’t helpin’. Ah hate it, but it feels like ah have ta choose… ya’ll r’ more important, but this is pretty important too…”                 Scootaloo sighed. “I… I’m sorry Apple Bloom it just… I don’t see why it matters. I just like the chance to try new things, why else should I care?”                 “Apple Bloom, what do cutie marks even mean?” Sweetie asked.                 Apple Bloom shook her head. “Ah… ah don’t really know. Apple Jack says hers is what made her stay with the family, Big Mac says it stands for his love for apple work, which kept him here too… ah… ah guess what I want is a mark like theirs, one that keeps me with ma friends… but… what if ah get one like Fluttershy’s or Rainbow’s and it calls me half way across the country? What then?”                 No one seemed to know how to answer her. I wasn’t ashamed of my path in life, but I couldn’t deny, there were times I wished I hadn’t left behind my father and my old friends. I wasn’t even sure if my cutie mark made that happen or not.                 Rarity suddenly chimed in. “Um well… oh is Pip really that small?” she asked.                 “Oh yea he is,” Scootaloo said. “It’s just a growth issue really, he’s not younger than us. He’s fun to hang out with sometimes.”                 “Why isn’t he a crusader?” I asked.                 “We asked, but he has his own club of friends,” Sweetie Belle replied. “They’re all colts. Says he’d feel weird being the only boy and we haven’t asked. Since Dusk joined… maybe we should try again.” She seemed to think. “Ya know… Pip seemed to have a lot of authority in that episode, for a class president. I don’t think a student president can fix a play ground… kinda wish a president really could do that.”                 “You sure about that?” I asked. “They could make a better playground, but they could also just make a statue of themselves to replace the whole thing.”                 “A rather adult lesson about politics, ironically,” Rarity said. “A class president with that kind of power could be a real problem. What if they made things more fun for some, but then played favorites? What if they made a longer music class…” Sweetie Belle smiled, “But took away PE class?” Scootaloo scowled. “You would all have to be focusing on getting on his or her good side. Trust me children, you don’t know it, but you’re much happier having adults in charge.”                 “I would make free cookies at lunch time, let’s see an adult beat that!” Lightning shouted.                 “Lightning for president!” the crusaders all shouted, save Lightning herself, who just grinned.                 “Right, and free tummy and head aces from too much sugar,” I commented. “You sure?” They all looked down, acting rather unsure of themselves. “Besides, in that world, the whole class looks gullible enough to elect the school bully to be president.”                 “She threatened to reveal their secrets!” Scootaloo pointed it.                 “Exactly what secrets do you guys have that would make you vote a bully the power to take away your playground?” I asked. I was half expecting them to give me a bunch of grimaces, but actually they all looked confused.                 “Ah guess not much…” Apple Bloom said. “Ah mean, ah’ve had some embarrassin’ things happen but… ah think everyone already knows about them.”                 “Apparently it works on more than half the class in that world. You sure you gals want to live in a town where all your classmates are that dumb?” I asked. Wow I was over simplifying things, and I knew it, but no one I was trying to convince was over the age of ten, so I was taking advantage.                 Rarity shrugged. “I did notice the election was an overly optimistic view of a socialist candidate vs. an overly simplified bad nationalist candidate. Even if you don’t like candidates who disfavor socialism, you do yourself no favors seeing your opponents as just selfish easily satisfied… none of you are following any of this are you?” the crusaders just stared at her. “Maybe that’s why they simplified it…”                 “Oh I got it,” I said. “Don’t like socialism, except you should! Acting like my personal opinion is the solution to everyone else’s problems. Yay politics!” Rarity gave me a tired glare, to which I simply smiled. I then looked down and said quietly, “And thus, Pip, was assassinated, and the proletariat rejoiced!” She paused. “What? I went to high school, I know words.”                 AJ interjected here saying “Ya know, ah will say, ah like how humble Pip was. Actually don’t see how a person like him would make a good socialist or the like, ya know, what ya’ll are talkin’ bout. Someone running something like that would kinda need a pretty high opinion of themselves to think they could…” but she paused, looking at the uncomprehending crusaders.                 “Can we get back to stuff we understand?” asked Sweetie. “I did like how Silver stood up to Diamond… is it bad that that was my favorite part?”                 “It was mine too,” I said, hanging my head. Several nervous grins were exchanged around the room. “What can I say? Karma is fun to watch.”                 Apple Bloom sighed. “Ya know, AJ, ah know it would make ya proud if ah could befriend Diamond in real life, but she’s been so mean- especially to ma friends. She’s made fun of Scootaloo’s disability, made fun of her being abandoned, told Sweetie she makes her sister ashamed, teased Dusk about how he was tortured by Gray, tore into Lightning about her mood swings… ah just… just… when Lightnin’ finally snapped an’ blew up a tree nearby with her powers, making Diamond run away screamin’ and cryin’… ah was happy to see it! She stopped makin’ fun of me because ah broke her nose and gave her a black eye more than once! She needs to leave ma friends alone r’ ah’m gonna… ah’m gonna… dag nabit ah hate that-“                 AJ put a hoof on her back. “That’s enough of that now. Let it go.” The filly started seething, but after a few minutes started to relax.                 “Ah’m not as good as that Apple Bloom. Really, what ah said earlier, ah know those words hurt you Lightnin’, an’ ah’m sorry they did. If ah were as good as the filly in that show, ah never would have said somethin’ like that.”                 No one seemed to know how to respond to that. A whole half minute must have passed. “Don’t be so down on yerself,” AJ finally said. “It’s good that yer sorry.” She thought. “Ah have ta say, Apple Bloom, in real life, maybe ya go a bit far, but ya have every right to be angry at that filly Diamond. She’s older and bigger than ya’ll’s friends, doesn’t give her the right to prey on ya’ll like she does. An’ really, in real life, her mom left her father a long time ago, but ya’ll have had yer own problems. Her problems give her no right to act the way she does.” She looked at the TV. “Ah guess ah’m torn on the episode. DT’s life apparently cut her off from others, which is a good lesson, an’ forgiveness is a good moral, ah wouldn’t say anythin’ against that, really, ah wouldn’t but… In the show Diamond did a freakin’ heal turn. No one actually SHOWED her a better way, they just talked about it. It doesn’t happen like that! Nothin’ the crusaders did in the show was wrong, not at all, but expectin’ results that fast… it could even be dangerous! We have punishments and prisons for a reason, folks don’t just turn around with a few nice words.”                 “AJ it was simplified for kids,” Rarity pointed out.                 “Feel like it was over simplified… maybe… like it was right on the line between teaching forgiveness and teaching unbelievably naive optimism.” AJ replied. “Folks cn’ get better, but not that fast!”                 “I don’t think they were trying to teach how bullies really work,” I said. “I think the point was to teach how to act towards them.”                 “That’s why ah say it’s on the line. It taught it’s message alright, but the subtext is all over the place… maybe…” she sighed.                 Rarity looks at her flank. “Anyone else here confused as to what cutie marks actually mean? They seemed so sure of it in the show, but me, I don’t know. You get a revelation about your true passion and there it is, but even that changes over time. I’ll always like fashion, but I will change with time. Perhaps someday I’ll have a family, and then they will be my passion I’d imagine. Or maybe charity, I’m surrounded by orphans a lot, so their plight is starting to hit me pretty hard.”                 “Kinda envy that world for another reason there,” Apple Bloom said, “Fer the record, better bullies, better presidents… ya’ll aren’t makin’ a good case for our world really. And they actually understand their marks!”                 “Yea, they know cause they’re stuck in a rut!” I said. “Pretty sure the me in the show could never be a mom. Scootaloo is my new life passion,” I looked at my daughter, who was fighting a blush. “I still work weather, and I still like moving fast, but there’s more to me than that!”                 “There’s not more to them?” Apple Bloom asked.                 “From what I’ve seen of the show… yea,” I admitted, hating that I lost the point. Again, I sought to derail the subject. “Hey, wasn’t Pip’s pee pee dance funny when he asked for help the second time?”                 The girls grinned.                 AJ ruined it though. “Odd that it mattered so much that a promise didn’t work out from a politician. If ah had a bit for every politician’s broken promise ah’d be rollin’ in em’ by this point!”                 Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “So, better leaders ah guess.” We all grimaced.                 AJ shook her head, “Well, however we get through this, girl, ya’ll need to understand somethin’. Back on Diamond Tiara, the show kinda glossed over a certain point, even if it did bring it up. Yes, her attitude can get you friends, ya know, win at all costs. Because, well, folks like to be near success. However, once you start losing, just like with Silver Spoon, you’ll start losing those so called friends. Better to be a good person and have a few good friends, than be like her and have many friends, none of whom really care for you.” She then nodded side to side. “Then one thing it got flat wrong. Diamond’s problem wasn’t looking at herself wrong. She didn’t really care how others felt, something that didn’t change until she miraculously cared about the crusaders felt after one of the musical numbers. At no point did anyone tell her that her issue was caring too much what folks thought of her, and not genuinely caring about others. Ironically, it felt like Silver was about to point that out, but she never really did.”                 “That is something that gets to me about the real Diamond, she doesn’t really seem to care about anyone else, like hurtin’ another pony’s feelings is just something she does for fun,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah mess up, ah get angry an’ maybe, ah get mean from time to time, but ah know it’s wrong and try to fight the urge… it’s hard, but ah fight! With her, it’s like it doesn’t matter. She hurts ma friends because she thinks its funny!” Lightning was still sitting with her and suddenly found herself locked in a one foreleg hug, “Ah love ma friends! Ah don’t understand how someone cn’ see them as just something to laugh at!” Lightning smiled a little.                 “Well…” I thought, “Ya know Apple Bloom, I did notice no one really standing up for you kids in the show, not even your teacher. You were all pretty much on your own. The real Cheerilee would not just stand by as a mare talked about you guys with contempt right in front of her. It looks like some problems might be easier to deal with in that world, but… I don’t know. Looks like you’re also a lot more isolated there. Like folks are just kinda there, but the community often doesn’t do anything. Only your direct friends.”                 “There are communities like that,” Rarity pointed out.                     “Well, not a place I want to live!” I replied.                           “If ma bully would become ma friend, stop hurtin’ ma friends- ow-“ Lightning finally gave Apple Bloom a small shock to get her to let go. Apple Bloom looked at her to see she was grinning and happy. “Good to see you’re feelin’ bet-“ and she was tackled in a bear hug by Lightning. Lightning got off, Apple Bloom sighing. “Ya know what… ah doubt we’re gonna be able to say that world is worse, but if some of ma friends aren’t in it, ifn’ they’re not the same ponies there as here, even if they are there… ah wouldn’t wanna live there.” She sighed again looking at her flank, “Really if ah never git ma mark, so what? If ah have ma friends it’ll be okay. Ah’m sorry ah-” a light started to flash on Apple Bloom’s flank.                 The flare went away after blinding everyone in the room. We all stared at the filly’s hindquarter. Right there, where a cutie mark should be was… a heart with a knot around it… it was her mark.                 “It’s really that easy!” Apple Bloom shouted. “All that work and when ah give up, you just appear?!!!” she shouted at her own butt.                 “No, ah, ah think ah know what that is,” Apple Jack said. “Apple Bloom, a cutie mark may have been your goal at first, but the thing you really cared about all this time, was yer friends. You have a strong tie to them, and yer family, maybe even stronger than most. An’ the reason it never came before, is ya never realized that before yerself.”                 The filly smiled contentedly.                 I blinked, then shook my head. “Oh no! We’re not done here, I still want to dig into this world! What about all those unnecessary songs? What about no one’s parents being at the cutecineara? What about no one being able to talk about serious issues, like whether Apple Bloom’s parents are alive there, like freaking adults?”                 “Rainbow, it doesn’t matter. Ah think we got what we’re gonna get from this episode.” AJ turned off the camera.       Afterwards                 Actually, no, we weren’t done with every issue that had come up that day. After the camera went off, I grabbed up Dusk and had his sister fly with me. We traveled to the edge of the badlands.                 Explosions from miles away rocked area as we landed. Off in the distance we saw what looked like insects flying around a giant bird… this was why we ponies REALLY never traveled far into the badlands. Those insects… those were full sized dragons. And that “bird” was a massive outer demon. A beam of energy fired as a line into the demon and one final explosion tore across the land, a scream echoing out.                 It was the day job of dragons. Not long ago, we thought of them as all barbarians, not realizing they were the last line of defense we had against forces far beyond pony ability. The dragon who fired the beam was none other than the bearer of the dragon element of courage, the five hundred year old monster who adopted two pony children. The “monster” Torkuda.                 Quickly four legs touched down on the ground, shaking the earth. He looked down at us. I held up his daughter. “If you’re done for the day, someone needs to talk to you… sorry, her demons might be even scarier.”                 I flew away, hoping her father knew how to help her. Hoping someone knew how to help me.