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// No More Crusading 
// Story: No More Crusading 
// by CrazedWhiteDude 
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No More Crusading
By: CrazedWhiteDude
(Story inspired by the picture “Crusade No More” by Nelvakre)
It was a calm day in the world of Equestria. The leaves had started to fall and the birds’ chirping quieted. The Running of the Leaves had marked the first day of fall, and everypony was out enjoying it.
All but one.
Somewhere in the forest behind Sweet Apple Acres stood a fully grown orange Pegasus, her purple mane and tail brushed to perfection, she was ready to take flight in a moments notice. What was once just a little filly, looking for her cutie mark, was now a fully grown mare. Her name was Scootaloo.
Scootaloo was a young mare, full of energy and ready to take on the world; just like her mentor did many years before. Back then, she was seldom seen without her friends, trying to find her special talent. Now, however, she is alone.
She walked alone into the forest. The wind blew gently, pulling at the trees and grass. It made soft whistles into the sky, creating a lovely melody of music. The flowers smelled of sunshine and morning dew. And the noise of the animals was soft, quite and peaceful. All of these together brought beautiful harmony among the forest and made it feel perfect.
As she walked down a path in the forest, in her mouth laid a red cape. It was decorated very little but it had one thing that made it unique to her. A picture of a yellow pony on a blue shield. It may not seem like much, but to her it was her childhood, her memories, everything.
As she continued to walk down the path, a familiar sight started to take shape in the distance, The Cutie Mark Crusaders Club House. It was here that her and her friends made all their plans to find their cutie marks. But not anymore. Laid on its fence were two more capes, identical to the one she was holding.
As she approached the house, the damage done to it through age had started to become clearer. The wood had stared to decade. The windows had been shattered. And the paint had faded pale. I guess even the hardest of work will wither down over time.
She now stood in front of what had been her and her friend’s clubhouse and looked at it with a log, deep stare. Memories had begun to flood back into her head like nothing. Some were happy. Others were sad. Some made her feel angry. And others, sorrow. As she continued to stare at what was once a beautiful house, the memories continued to come back. And she started to cry.  A mix of both happy and sad. It was un-sure what it was fully but it was there.
After what had seemed like hours she approached the house and climbed the ramp to the balcony. She did so slowly but she reached the top. She then laid her cape next to her friend’s capes. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were no more. They had grown up and moved from Ponyville. Scootaloo stayed in Ponyville though.
As Scootaloo thought about leaving, she turned around to what was now a faded, pink door with a small, square, broken window at the top. Even though many memories of her childhood came back to her, many more lied inside the house.
She opened the door.
Inside it was dark, damp, and dust. Cobwebs hung in all corners of the room and the floor had ferns growing out from under it. The little light that had penetrated the room showed that the place was on it last legs. It wouldn’t be around for more then a couple more years.
Scootaloo ducked her head and walk inside, her head almost touching the roof of the room. As she finished walking though the door, she looked around the room. More memories had started flooding back into her head. Mainly of the times when they went crusading for their cutie marks.
From where she stood, she could see the thinking circle, where they thought of ideas. The podium, where they made announcements. This is where the enrolled Bab Seeds into the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Even the small table where they had tea time. Scootaloo smiled as she remembered all of these and started to walk around the room.
She walked along the walls and touched them with her hoof, feeling every bump and crack in the wood as she walked. She walk across some carpeting, as if it felt as if she was walking across fur. Soon, she walked in front of a shelf. A bookshelf, but it didn’t hold books. It held some past items the crusaders gather on their adventures. One was a broken wheel from Scootaloo’s Scooter. Another was some of that gold fabric Sweetie Belle used when making their capes. But there was two that held more meaning then any of them. A blue ribbon and a gold trophy.
The blue ribbon belonged to Applebloom and the trophy, Sweetie Belle. The ribbon said “Best of the Filly Famer Show” and the Trophy was “1st place in the Talent Show”. Scootaloo continued to look at the ribbon and trophy as the memories of how they all got their Cutie Mark came into her head. 
Applebloom and her sister, Applejack, had gone out of town one year during the summer when school was out. They had gone to some Farming championship Applejack went to every year and Applebloom wanted to go with her big sister. Big Macintosh had stayed behind to watch the farm and Granny Smith as they were out of town. Many event took place their like fastest round up, most apples bucked, most Apple Pies eaten. Yeah, that was one of the events. Then there was the Filly Farmer event. It was a small bit of everything a normal farm pony would have to deal with. Rounding up animals, bucking trees, stuff like that. Applebloom had been training for a while for this event because she wanted to make her family proud.
All the training paid of to. Not only did she win the event. She did it in record time! She the entire event faster then and filly has ever done in the past. No pony could believe it.  The judges didn’t argue though and gave Applebloom the blue ribbon. In the moment of all the celebrating, Applebloom had gotten her cutie mark. A pony bucking an Apple tree. When she came back, she immediately told her and Sweetie Belle about it. It was amazing.
Now Applebloom works at Appalusa. She is continuing her farming work with the ponies down there and helping the buffalo tribe, which is now being lead by Little Strongheart. They still have their differences resolved though, on occasion had had a few fights in the past. Overall though they still have a strong relationship with one another.
As the memory started fading, she smiled at the ribbon and then looked over to the trophy.
Sweetie Belle was the next in the crusaders to earn her cutie mark. It was the middle of the school year. The very one that came after Applebloom got her Cutie Mark, and the talent show was coming up. Like last time, the Crusaders worked together on what they wanted to do and they did another singing trio like last year. This time though, Sweetie Belle song the lead part while Scootaloo did her acrobatic stuff in the back. Applebloom stay on the sides of the stage and changed the scenes and stuff in the back. Sweetie Belle was very shy at first because she didn’t really want to sing but they eventually convinced her she could.
When the night of the show came, she sang another song that she both wrote and sang. It was one of the most beautiful songs anypony could ever hear. When it was finally done, every pony was just staring at them, silent. They thought they had humiliated themselves again. They started to walk of the stage until somepony started to clap. Soon more joined in until the entire crowed was clapping. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Some were even crying it was so beautiful. The judges gave the 1st place after the whole show was over. As much as the trophy did go to all of them, they Scootaloo and Applebloom both felt that it should be Sweetie Belle that earned it. Without her singing, they never would have won. With that, Sweetie Belle earned her Cutie Mark. Two musical notes and a microphone, showing that she had amazing singing. It was an amazing feeling for her, the crusaders and even her sister, Rarity. 
She now tours the country on her career. Singing with some of the greatest ponies that ever touched the spotlight. On occasion, she stops by Ponyville to visit old friends but it’s very rare with her tight schedule. It was nice when she did visit though.
Scootaloo smiled once more as the memory faded and she looked around the room once more. She then looked back at the shelf. She didn’t have any ribbons or trophies like Applebloom or Sweetie Belle had. The only thing she had up there was a broken wheel from her scooter. But to her though, that wheel was the greatest award she’d ever gotten.
It was quite a few months after Sweetie Belle had earned her cutie mark and the crusaders were out enjoying their day. They were walking around Ponyville when Rainbow Dash had flown over head and Scootaloo, being her number one fan at the time, couldn’t help but point her out and talk about her. She wanted to be just like her. One day, she asked Rainbow Dash if she would mentor her. Rainbow Dash did take her under her wing but there was a slight problem. After about three or so months of training, Rainbow Dash came to the conclusion that Scootaloo couldn’t fly. As heart wrenching as it was, Scootaloo knew it was true. But that didn’t stop them from training. Rainbow Dash did remember that Scootaloo was quite talented with her scooter and started to train with her using the scooter.
Only a few months had pass and Scootaloo had already became extremely good on the scooter. Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe how fast she learned. She felt like it was time to push Scoots over the limit. She had constructed an obstacle course to test how well Scootaloo had improved. She was hesitant at first but remembered that Rainbow Dash wouldn’t make something she knew she wasn’t ready for. With a quick last second thought, she charged at the course without rethinking about it. She cleared jumps easily and did tricks without a problem. At the end of the course though was a full loop. Something she’d never attempted to try before. She charged at it with no fear and started going up. She could do this. She knew she could. 
As she reached the top of the loop, one of her wheel became loose and started to cause her to lose balance. She started to panic and felt like she was going fail at the end. She continued to push the loop and the wheel became more loose. She was at the near end of the loop and the wheel popped off. The scooter hit the ground and caused it to start skidding across the ground. She wasn’t going to fail though. Not when he came so far. She forced the scooter to stay up on three wheels as she forced way down the rest of the loop and came to a skid right in front of where Rainbow Dash was standing. She had finished the course Dash had put out for her and was panting.
She asked her how she did but she didn’t answer. Instead, she pointed at her flank. Scootaloo was confused and looked to where she pointed. What was once a blank flank was now a flaming scooter. Scootaloo just stared at it for the longest of times. After what seemed like forever she looked back up at Rainbow Dash, who was smiling. She gave a simple nod and turned around smiling. As she left though to leave Scootaloo alone, she said one thing.
“Looks like my work here is done” And flew up into the air and disappeared.
Scootaloo, now standing in the house alone, looks at her Cutie Mark. She still couldn’t believe that was her special talent all along. She took in a deep breath and sighed as the last of the memories started to fade from her mind. With that, she turned back to the door and walked outside to the balcony where she had hung her cape. Her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. As she finished walking out of the house and closed the door she turned around to the open grassy area in front of the house. Standing there were two grown up mares. One yellow with a red mane, the other was white as snow. Both were looking up at Scootaloo and smiling. Scootaloo smiled back as she walked down in silence. As she approached the two ponies standing there, she gave them both a big hug.
“I’ve missed you guys.”
“We have too Scootaloo.”
As she let go of them they continued to smile. The Crusaders were all back in Ponyville again.
“Hey.” Asked Scootaloo “How about one more crusade for old times sakes, huh?”
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom nodded as Scootaloo took the lead back to Ponyville.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders may have gotten there cutie marks. They may have grown up. And may have even moved away, far from each other. But deep down inside all of their hearts, cape or no cape. They would always be…

Cutie Mark Crusaders