The Cutie Mark Crusaders visited The Sporty Pony often, looking for new things to try and get their Cutie Marks. They were in the section of sports that used balls when Sweetie Belle remembered that their school had sports teams.
“What if we practiced and tried out for the school teams? Surely we'll get a Cutie Mark for something if we tried a few different ones at the same time.” The others nodded as each of the fillies grabbed the needed equipment for three different sports.
Scootaloo took a soccer ball, Apple Bloom grabbed a baseball bat with her mouth and balanced it's corresponding ball on her head, and Sweetie Belle rolled a basketball along with her head.
As they pooled together all the bits they had, Ace waved it off with a hoof.
“You three have an open tab under 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'. Don't worry about the bits.” Ace said a little gruffly. He wasn't sure if the fillies were using the equipment properly or not and was a little worried for the safety of his store.
“Huh? But who'd be payin' fer all this stuff?” Apple Bloom spat out the bat to ask. Granny Smith raised her grand-kids the right way and it didn't feel proper to just take stuff without paying for it.
Ace huffed and was tempted to not respond but the pony who set up the tab didn't say anything about not saying who was paying for it all.
“Hmph. Well, if you must know, the one who is backing your activities is Pinkie Pie. Hay if I know why, but that's how it is.” Light brown shoulders gave a shrug as he marked down what was being purchased.
The three friends looked at one another as Scootaloo voiced what they were all thinking.
“Huh. Why'd she do that?” Two sets of shoulders shrugged as all three ponies gathered the equipment and walked out of the store.
By unspoken agreement the fillies kept an eye out for their pink benefactor as they headed for a clearing just outside of town to practice the different sports before trying out for the teams.
Luck was with them, they found the party pony bouncing along to the library. They ran up and plopped in front of the older mare as they placed their equipment in front of them.
“Ooh, what are you doing today? Are you going to play basebaskecer ball? Can I play too? Oh, but I have to get Twilight so we can go and help Applejack move Bloomberg. Can I play later?” Blank stares were the only response for the pink mare until Apple Bloom was able to break free of the shock and tried to set the older pony straight.
“No, we're not playin' all three at once, we just wannah try 'em all. But that's a different thing. Why'd you pay fer everything for us at the Sporty Pony?” Apple Bloom asked with a tilt of her head, her two friends on either side of her nodding along.
Pinkie blinked twice before realizing what the young filly meant and smiled while waving in an off-hoof manner.
“Oh that! Well I want my friends to be happy and everypony is my friend and I knew you guys want your Cutie Marks which is something you have to work and look for on your own and you need bits to get somethings and you're just little fillies and you'd have to save up your whole allowance and then you wouldn't be able to have fun or get yummy things and I make a lot of bits that I don't need most of the time and I knew you'd need bits and this way you don't have to do any crazy stunts to earn it and still try to get your Cutie Marks.” Three pairs of eyes were glazed over as they looked at the hyper mare in front of them, each of the fillies understanding different parts of the whole spiel.
Scootaloo rubbed a hoof against her temple as she closed her eyes, trying to understand. “So you want everyone to be happy...?”
Sweetie Belle scrunched up her face as she too tried to understand. “And we'd have trouble getting the bits to buy the various things to earn our Cutie Marks...? Which would make us sad?”
Apple Bloom rubbed the top her head as she tried to understand as well. “And ya earn lots o' bits and are offerin' some to us...?”
Three voices joined together for the last sentence, “So we can earn out Cutie Marks?!”
Pinkie Pie nodded rapidly, pleased that they understood so quickly.
“Yepperonie! Just let your ol' Aunty Pinkie Pie know if you need an extra hoof, okie dokie?” The three fillies' faces brightened and with a shout of 'YAY!' grabbed their equipment and ran for the clearing.
“What was all that about?” A lavender unicorn walked up to the pink earth pony as they watched the fillies run off.
“Oh, they're just playing different sports to earn their Cutie Marks.”
A purple brow rose as purple eyes looked at the pink mare.
“You're sure it's safe, all the things they want to do?”
Pinkie Pie covered her mouth with a hoof as she giggled at the look on Twilight's face.
“I'll make sure they have fun AND are safe. I Pinkie Promise that I won't let them do anything they can't handle.” Twilight was shocked, she didn't mean for her friend to take it to mean that she had to always be watching the fillies.
“Oh uh. I hadn't meant for you to take it that far Pinkie. I mean, I was talking about maybe guiding them along the right path, not obsessively watching them." Twilight shuffled on the spot, torn between invasion of privacy and making sure the rambunctious fillies stayed safe.
“Nopey dopey. It's no fun if someone got hurt and that would just make everyone sad, so I'll make sure they don't get hurt badly.” Pink hooves stomped resolutely before a large grin came across the pink face. Pinkie Pie bounded forward as she yelled to the studious pony behind her.
“Come on Twilight! We don't want to be late to help move Bloomberg!”
The lavender pony shook her head with a small smirk as she followed after her friend, heading for Sweet Apple Acres to help move a tree.
As soon as they reached the clearing, the three fillies tried to decide what to do first. After a few minutes of arguing, Sweetie Belle suggested they pick a number between one and three. The others thought for a moment before shouting at the same time, “Two!”
Sweetie Belle nodded and declared which they'd do first.
“Ok, we'll do baseball first.”
“Hey, how do we know that's what two stood for?” Scootaloo demanded with a raised brow.
Sweetie Belle sighed. She had a feeling something like that would happen, so she wrote on the ground what each number corresponded to. As the orange peagasus looked at the uncovered writing, she grew sheepish at her previous mistrust.
“Oh, eh heh. Right.” Scootaloo rubbed the back of her head with a hoof as Apple Bloom just shook her head at the impatient peagasus.
Apple Bloom grabbed the bat with her mouth as Scootaloo grabbed a glove and flew to the 'outfield'. Sweetie Belle grabbed the ball with a hoof and stood in the center of the clearing. As Apple Bloom's head tilted towards the side and downward due to the weight of the bat, Sweetie Belle stood on her hind legs as she threw the ball towards the batter, and Scootaloo was waiting in the outfield, smacking one hoof into the gloved one.
As Sweetie Belle released the ball, she wobbled for a minute before falling backwards with a cry, “Wooaahhh!”
Apple Bloom tried with all her might to the swing the bat from its position of leaning on the ground. With a muffled yell of effort, she managed to swing the bat before momentum caused her and the bat to go in circles before it flew out of Apple Bloom's mouth and into a tree that was near the clearing, cracking ominously.
As the young filly was circling around, she had a lucky hit that sent the ball flying high into the sky before it came down slowly. Meanwhile the earth pony had finally stopped spinning and fell over dizzy.
“I got it! I got it!” Scootaloo shouted as she ran forward to try and catch the high ball. But her wings propelled her too far and the ball landed on her head with a solid thud as she fell down, glove out-stretched to try and catch it.
The crusaders sat in their various positions on the ground for a moment before getting up slowly and assessing the situation. The three friends moaned in unison from the pain.
“Well. Tha' could have gone better.” Apple Bloom said as she shook her head to clear the dizziness from it.
Scootaloo stood up while rubbing her head. “Ugh. Did we get anything for it?”
“Nope.” Came the two short responses as the others stood as well.
As they met in the center of the field, Sweetie Belle asked what was on everyone's minds.
“Should we try again? We only did one pitch. Maybe we need to get better at it first.” The others pondered this for a moment before reluctantly nodding.
The Crusaders continued their baseball practice for a while longer before calling it quits when the bat gave up the fight and broke in two from when it had crashed into the tree. As they sat in a circle panting from the effort, Sweetie Belle tried to keep their spirits up.
“Come on you guys! Maybe we'll get our Cutie Marks when we try out for the team. How about we try soccer next?” The others sighed they put the baseball stuff off to the side and got the soccer ball instead.
They got the one used by younger ponies, which was half the size of a normal soccer ball, to accommodate child's smaller size.
Scootaloo had an easier time with this sport, though she would trip every now and then because of going too fast. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, on the other hoof, couldn't go for long without tripping, running to each other and knocking the ball into each other and nearby trees.
They continued practice until Scootaloo, in an attempt to be cool and make a super-shot, head bonked the ball high into the air and right into a pile of sharp rocks where they heard a pop and slow whooshing sound as their ball deflated.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turned to their last friend with annoyance on their faces and in their voices as they shouted together.
“Scootaloooo!”
The young peagasus, for her part, rubbed the back of her head as she said with an apologetic look, “oops.”
The others face-hoofed as Scootaloo began to get indignant at the accusations.
“Hey, I'm not the only one wrecking stuff! Apple Bloom broke the bat!” She yelled as she pointed to the earth pony, which caused her to look sheepish as Sweetie Belle also turned towards her.
“Sigh. Let's just try basketball. Maybe we'll get our Cutie Marks in that.” Sweetie Belle turned away and headed to the side of the clearing.
The others two were surprised, they forgot about possibly getting Soccer Cutie Marks! As they checked that they were indeed still blank flanks, Sweetie Belle got the basketball.
As she brought it to the two others, they sat in silence as they realized that they were missing an important piece of equipment for this sport.
“Uggg, I can't believe we forgot about the hoop. We'll just have to practice dribbling and throws for now.” Scootaloo said as she face-hoofed.
“Why do we need tah scribble? Ah thought we were playin' basketball?” Apple Bloom asked with a tilt of her head, Sweetie Belle in a similar confused state. Scootaloo dragged her hoof along her face as she groaned.
“DRIBBLE not SCRIBBLE.” She stressed the difference. “You know, bouncing the ball as you run?”
“Ooooh.”
It is important to note that there were more peagasi who played basketball than any other kind of pony, since they had better ability to stand upright with their wings to help or dribble with their wings instead. Unicorns were the second most common players, but there were some talented earth pony basketball players like Shaquille O'Neighel.
None of these facts or disadvantages stopped the Crusaders though as they tried their hardest to dribble, pass and throw the ball to each other.
Scootaloo tried to balance on her hind legs with her wings to help but ended up just propelling herself face forward into the ground most of the time. Apple Bloom, due to her lack of balance, couldn't stay upright for longer than a few seconds and kept landing on all fours causing the ball to shoot out of her grip. Sweetie Belle was having the hardest time, not use to standing on her hind legs and uncoordinated as she was. She got so frustrated that she tried using her magic to dribble but used too much force and sent the ball rocketing into the woods.
They all ran after it as the ball bounced off of several trees and rocks at rapid speeds. The three fillies ran after it, yelling at the retreating object.
“Slow down ball!”
“Yeah, we won't hurt yah, we promise!”
“Dumb ball! Dumb magic! Dumb FOREST!” The two others looked at the unicorn with raised brows as the filly asked shrilly, “What?! It's TRUE!”
They heard the sound of a soft thud and a critter's annoyed high pitched chatter. They rounded a large tree and the sight before them made their spirits drop once more.
A porcupine was chatting angrily at the now deflated ball which had a few spines in it. The Crusaders could guess what happened and as the porcupine turned its attention to the fillies, they began to apologize for having bothered it.
“We're really sorry Mr Porcupine. We didn't mean fer the ball to hit ya. We'll make sure to be more careful from now on, right gals?” The others nodded as Scootaloo grabbed the offending ball.
They kept apologizing until they were out of sight of the small critter, then they trotted back to the clearing. As they gathered all the broken equipment, they sighed as one while sitting down to rest.
“Well gals, no Cutie Marks yet, but maybe we'll git them when we try fer the teams... let's put these away.” Apple Bloom suggested as she picked up the pieces of the bat and baseball.
“I don't know if we should try for the teams, we didn't do such a good job out here.” Scootaloo commented as she picked up the flat soccer ball.
“You never know, maybe we just need better equipment or more team mates to play against.” Sweetie Belle tried to cheer up the others as she grabbed the punctured basketball and lead the way back to the Clubhouse.
The trip back was a lot slower and quieter since they were exhausted and had their mouths full.
As they put the used equipment into the attic, Apple Bloom took mental note of how much more it would be able to hold before they had to expand or change something. The crusaders decided to take a break for lunch in the club house.
As they ate the various apple treats that Applejack had waiting for them, the young fillies tried to think of anything else to do in the afternoon. In the end, the trio decided that doing the various sports had exhausted them and that they would just add more finishing touches to their club house.
The next day was a school day, and luckily enough, when the various sports team would have tryouts.
They spent the day at school in high excitement. As soon as the bell rang and Cherilee let the class go, the trio ran to the courtyard where others began to gather for tryouts.
All the young fillies and colts were paired up for soccer tryouts and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were paired with other classmates. As the soccer tryouts continued, they found that they were NOT soccer players, though Scootaloo was doing ok until she tried to make a really cool kick which caused her to fall backwards as the ball hit three others, causing a chain reaction that resulted in everyone else hurt. As the coached looked at the three fillies they backed away with sheepish smiles.
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had noticed when the crusaders went to the tryouts. As the trio backed away from the disaster they caused, the two school bullies laughed cruelly at the display.
The Crusaders tried baseball next, which went as badly as the first time they did it, with bats flying all over the place, Scootaloo running into all the other outfielders, making it so everyone got hit on the head, and Sweetie Belle tried pitching with and without magic, though her efforts were the same no matter what she did. The balls were sent flying everywhere aside from the batter, hitting everyone else instead.
As the trio withdrew from the baseball tryouts, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon laughed even more.
“Why do you even have a horn if you can't use magic?” Diamond Tiara sneered.
Silver Spoon laughed behind a hoof. “Yeah, and I guess those wings are just a prop!” The duo laughed.
“Oh no, watch out! Apple Bloom is going near the bats!” The bullies laughed even more as the Crusaders walked past, trying desperately not to listen to the mean spirited ponies.
The Crusaders felt honor bound to try basketball, but they knew it wasn't going to get any better.
Scootaloo tried without her wings and Sweetie Belle without her magic but it still didn't help. They were told to leave the court by their injured and jeering classmates.
The young fillies dejectedly walked through town, all the way to the Clubhouse where they all laid down with their heads on their hooves.
“Let's never do our Crusading in front of classmates again.” Scootaloo sighed.
“Uh-huh.” The others nodded slowly and sighed as they agreed.
They sat in silence for a few moments when they heard hoof steps up their ramp of the Clubhouse.
“Howdy girls! Apple Bloom here said y'all were tryin' out fer y'alls school sports … oh, eh... Ah take it things didn't go so well?” Three heads slowly shook 'no'.
“Well, shoot. Maybe yer not for sports, but Ah know yer'll find what yer talent is. Ah don't know a single pony who don't have one!” Applejack tried to cheer the three fillies up as she stepped further into the Clubhouse.
“Yeah well, now you'll know three ponies who will NEVER get their Cutie Marks!” Scootaloo said with a wavering voice as she turned her head away from the farm pony. The two others looked at their peagasus friend before sighing and leaning even more into their hooves.
“Aww, come on now. Ah know ya three will find yer talents one day. Ya still have lots o' time to find it!” Applejack scuffed the top of Scootaloo's head while looking at the other fillies.
The three fillies cheered up a little as they realized they did indeed have lots of time to Crusade for their Cutie Marks. As they looked at one another, they felt their smiles and energy come back slowly. Within moments they were full of vigor once more as they ran out of their Clubhouse to visit The Sporty Pony.
“She's right girls! We shouldn't waste a moment! Who knows when we will find our special talents! Let's go and find more things to try in the Sporty Pony!” Scootaloo yelled as she pulled out her scooter and attached it to their wagon. Once the other two jumped in, the peagasus propelled them all to town.
“Yeah! Maybe we just need to try different sports!” Sweetie Belle said as she and Apple Bloom held onto the sides of the wagon for dear life as they drove crazily through the orchard.
“Ah think so too! Maybe we should try some o' them sports that use more sticks than balls to play! Thank sis' fer yer help!” Apple Bloom waved briefly to Applejack who had stepped out of the Clubhouse to watch the fillies go.
Applejack chuckled softly as she waved back.
“Y'all be careful now, ya hear? Good luck gals!”
“Bye Applejack!” The trio yelled as they continued on their way into town, anxious to try different sports.