Back in Sweet Apple Acres, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were having another meeting in their clubhouse. Apple Bloom overlooked her two best friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle on the pedestal.
“Hear ye, hear ye. The Cutie Mark Crusaders will now officially begin this here meetin’. All rise to sing our Crusader anthem!”
“Uhhh, Apple Bloom? We don’t have an anthem,” said Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “Yeah Apple Bloom, since when did we have an anthem?”
“But I just said we don’t have one.”
“Yeah, but Apple Bloom said we do, so you could be wrong.”
“Could not.”
“Could too.”
“Could not.”
“Could too.”
Apple Bloom watched the usual bickering from the two and pounded her small hammer on the pedestal with a thud thud.
“Order! Order! Actually, Sweetie Belle’s right; we don’t have one.”
“Aha!” the white unicorn pointed her hoof triumphantly at her pegasus friend, much to her irritation.
“Which brin's us to our current agenda of today’s meetin’—gettin’ our very own CMC anthem!” Apple Bloom exclaimed excitedly.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo naturally joined in the excitement.
“Awesome! Let’s do it!”
“Yeah, this is going to be the best song ever!”
All three fillies grinned at each other with glee and hoofbumped.
“So got any ideas of a tune, Crusaders?” asked Apple Bloom.
She and Scootaloo then turned to Sweetie Belle, who in retrospect would naturally be the one with the best ideas in terms of music.
“Hmm. Ooh, how about we use the song we sang when we got our cutie marks! Sounds symbolic don’t ya think?” with a tap on the floor from her hoof, Sweetie Belle hummed a melodic tune, and then sang out a memorable line from the song:
We started out just three
Crusaders driven to see
What we find in our hearts
Discover our destiny
The two fillies watched her in joy, remembering the many events that lead them to that fateful day. Before they realized it, they were singing along as well:
And here we are, best friends
About to start it again
An adventure that never will end!!
All three were singing out loud now, twirling together with their front hoofs hooked to each other:
WE’LL MAKE OUR MARK!!
HELPING FILLIES MOST IN NEED
WE’LL MAKE OUR MARK!!
SO EACH ONE OF THEM SUCCEEDS
‘CAUSE THE ULTIMATE REWARD
IS A CUTIE MARK!!!!!
The three fillies collapse their backs on the floor, filling the room now with laughter, giggles, and all of the fun memories they’ve had together.
“Wow, that song really is symbolic!” Scootaloo said.
Apple Bloom then rose to her hooves.
“Eeexactly! So all in favor for having that song as the honorary Cutie Mark Crusaders Anthem, say I!”
“Yeah, definitely!”
“Of course we should have this as our anthem! It’s like it’s meant for us!”
“That’s because it is meant for us!”
The two fillies giggled in approval. Apple Bloom sunk her head slightly without them noticing;
“…None of you said ‘I’.”
But immediately after that she was joining the other two in giggles.
With an exciting hop, Sweetie Belle grinned at the other two. “Now I’m in the mood for some more singing!”
“Yeah, me too!”
“What other songs do we got?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Hmmmmm….” Sweetie Belle pondered hard about this. From what the other two could observe, it seems that Sweetie Belle doesn’t want to stop with just one more song.
It was Scootaloo this time who spoke up.
“Ooh! How about that one song we did on the day we performed in the Crystal Empire?”
“Ooh! Ooh! I loved that one! The beat was so catchy!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
“Me too! But uhh, how does the chorus again?” Apple Bloom asked with a little blush.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes, and with her hoof tapping on the floor, she began to sing in a marching tune:
We’ve got hearts
As strong as ho—w-woah!
Her singing was cut short by a sudden quake shaking the tree house. Fortunately, the tree house was built sturdy, so there were no signs of anything breaking apart such as the ceiling or flooring, but the same cannot be said about furniture inside. Picture frames fall off from the wall, a flower pot topples over and spills out its contents and the table and chairs fall over, giving the fillies a frightened scream.
“W-what’s goin’on?!”
“I-I d-don’t know!”
The three ran around the clubhouse in a panic. Scootaloo stopped mid-panic as she suddenly remembered the earthquake-safety class she learned the other week.
Remember class, she remembered Cherilee say, in the event of an earthquake, it’s important to stay low and most importantly, together.
“Q-quick! Stay together!” shouted Scootaloo. And as quickly as she said that, the other two panicking fillies huddled together with her; their heads lowered and front hooves covering each other. They had their eyes sealed shut and only waited for the shaking to stop, and after about two minutes, it did.
The Crusaders looked around and saw the mess the quake made with the room.
“Gosh, what was that? That was like Big Mac rushin’ down the stairs once he gets a whiff of his favorite apple pie.” Apple Blood said.
“Where is your brother, anyway? Gasp! Do you think he’s okay?” Sweetie Belle asked in a worried face.
“He probably is. I think he’s with Sugar Belle in her village today.”
“What about Granny Smith?” asked Scootaloo.
“At this hour, she’s likely takin’ her nap.” Apple Bloom giggled in relief to that. “And I’m pretty sure a quake like this’un won’t wake her up.”
“So what do you think caused it?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Do you think it’s another monster in Ponyville?” said Apple Bloom, giving the trio more thoughts.
“Ooh! Maybe it’s a giant monster pony?” suggested Scootaloo. The other two just stared at her with confused looks.
“What?”
Just then they heard a loud, hard neigh by the orchard. Startled, the trio rushed up to the window.
“What in tarnation was that?” asked Apple Bloom.
“I don’t know, I don’t see anything,” said Scootaloo.
“Uhh girls, I think I know what caused the quake just now,” said Sweetie Belle, as she pointed towards a large shadow not too far from their clubhouse. It was difficult to see with the apple trees blocking the way, but from the shape of its silhouette it looks what seems to be large, oddly-shaped pony.
Apple Bloom turned deadpanned to the orange pegasus. “You had to ask.”
“What should we do?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom replied, “Only one thing we can do—check it out. It could be a lost pony or somethin’.”
“Or maybe a misunderstood pony like Troubleshoes!” exclaimed Scootaloo.
“So what are we waitin’ for Crusaders?! Let’s go!” said the yellow filly, running out of the tree house with the other two following her.
As the three ran to the large silhouette, Apple Bloom shouted to get its attention. “Excuse me! Are you lost?! Or maybe ya got a cutie mark problem?! Because the Cutie Mark Crusaders are here to….” She could only trail off as she and the other Crusaders stopped and craned their necks to look up at the large creature.
The creature in question is what appears to be a Saddle Arabian stallion, although the three rarely see one in Ponyville. He isn’t wearing any clothes, and he has a wild, unkempt mane and well-developed muscles glisten all over his body. More importantly, however, was that this pony was huge, even slightly bigger than Troubleshoes; and that’s saying something. In fact, he was so tall that they watched him stand on his hind legs and eat an apple that was still hanging on the tree, and nopony—not even Troubleshoes—could reach that high!
“Woah…” was what the Crusaders said in unison as they continue to watch the giant pony eat the apples off Sweet Apple Acres’ orchard. Apple Bloom is not as disciplined as her siblings, but she does know when somepony is taking something that is not theirs and is showing no means of paying for it.
Snapping out of trance, she interrupted the giant stallion’s eating. “Hey! Those apples belong to Sweet Apple Acres! You can’t just take ‘em straight from the trees!”
The stallion’s ears flick in notice to the young farmer filly’s shouting, and turned to the fillies. They flinched as they realized how big his head is. His eyes seemed exhausted, as though he ran a hundred marathons, and given his size, the fillies would believe so. He tilts his head slightly as he looked at Apple Bloom with a strange, confused look. When he turned his attention to the white unicorn and orange pegasus, he reared his head back so quickly that the three fillies toppled back in shock. He then gave the three fillies a snort and neigh, and stomped the ground with a hoof, which to the fillies gave another, yet smaller, quake.
“U-um, is there something wrong with the apples, sir?” Sweetie Belle asked in concern.
Apple Bloom turned to her friend in shock. “What?! Our apples are the best apples in Equestria!”
“Then why is he looking at us like that?” asked Scootaloo.
“I dunno, maybe he’s shocked that he has to pay for the apples.”
“But of course he does!”
“But what if you don’t where he comes from?”
“Well, he ain’t where he’s from now; he’s here in Sweet Apple Acres, and he’s gotta pay up!”
To their bickering, it seems that the three fillies have calmed down over the sight of the huge stallion. However, the stallion was staring curiously at the three bickering fillies. He reached his neck down and sniffed at Apple Bloom’s bow, which certainly surprised the yellow filly.
“H-hey! What was that for!” she cried. The stallion was looking at her intently, and after another sniff from her mane, he chortled at her with a breath from his nostrils.
“Eeew! And what was that for?!”
The stallion’s flick once more as a voice suddenly boomed over the orchard. “Apple Bloom!”
The three fillies looked over behind them, towards the source of the voice.
“Applejack!” the Crusaders cried.
To the sound of the voice, however, the giant stallion reared back up with a neigh, stomping his forehooves back down another quake. He flicked his head to the three fillies, as though gesturing them to follow him.
“H-huh? What are you trying to say, mister?” asked the orange pegasus. The other two also gave him credulous stares.
Seeing their confused looks, the stallion shook his head, and then with a final, loud neigh to the three, he reared back up again and galloped off to the opposite direction to Applejack’s voice, running down the orchard and sending the earth a mighty shake with each gallop.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were surprised by the stallion’s sudden run, coughing at the sudden burst of track-dust. They tried to keep their hoofing on balance from the earthquake, and by the time they were able to get their bearings and the dust cloud cleared, the giant stallion was gone.
Applejack and her friends arrived just moments after the dust cleared. Rarity embraced her little sister and Rainbow Dash placed her wing over Scootaloo, both of them relieved that they’re all right. Applejack seemed the most relieved as scooped up her little sister and embraced her tight.
“Oh Apple Bloom! Thank Celestia you’re alright!!”
“Applejack…need…air…” Apple Bloom breathed out her plea, and Applejack put her sister down after seeing her sister’s cheeks turn blue.
“Sorry about that sugarcube. But what in the hay just happened?”
“Yes, what was in the heavens was that horrible earthquake?” Rarity asked. Rainbow Dash flew a little higher, spotting a large silhouette galloping far down the orchard, its strong gallops still audible and leaving a large trail of dust on its wake.
“Yeah, and what is that thing? Even from here it looks bigger than Big Mac!” she told the fillies.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders turned to each other with concerned expressions, then at the group. Apple Bloom was the first to speak.
“We were startin’ our CMC meetin’ and we talked about getting’ our own anthem,”
“Then we sang the song that we sang when we got our cutie marks, we agreed it would be perfect for that to be our anthem,” continued Sweetie Belle. Rarity, Rainbow and Applejack looked at the three warmly as they briefly remembered that special event.
Scootaloo explained further, “and then we were in the mood for more singing but then an earthquake messed up the clubhouse.” This gave everypony a gasp and look of concern.
“And then we checked outside and we found a huuuuge pony—“
“—Even bigger than Troubleshoes!” Sweetie Belle interrupted.
“—and he looked like a Saddle Arabian but we’re not really sure since so don’t always see one.” Scootaloo interrupted further.
“—And we caught him eating the apples right off the trees!” Apple Bloom finished.
Applejack retaliated in shock “HE WHAT?! Nopony goes away scott-free after eatin’ our precious Sweet Apple Acre apples without a rough-housing! And right off the trees to boot!”
With an angry stomp, she turned to Twilight, who had a pretty good feeling where this is going.
“Twilight, get me my rope.”