//------------------------------//
// New Cutie Marks 
// Story: This Is A Bad.....minton Fiction 
// by Brian Jacko 
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	Several hours went by and everypony played the entire time. 

The Wonderbolts and all of Twilight's friends were currently taking a short break. They walked over and got some drinks and watched Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle duke it out on the courts. They were surprised at how aggressive and how well Scootaloo's form was already for just playing for only a few hours. She was a filly who could scoot, or more like, scootaloo over to the shuttle and hit it in time no matter how far she seemed to be away from it. Her recovery time was next to flawless.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were currently having a volley. 

Sweetie Belle lobbed the shuttle to the back of Scootaloo's court. 

Scootaloo ran back and event though she was very tiny, she was inspired by how Rainbow Dash would leap into the air when she smashed a shuttle. Scootaloo did the same thing and hit the shuttle with all of her might. 

The shuttle went hurling down into Sweetie Belle's court as she watched it hit the line. Scootaloo had scored her final point and won yet again. 

Just then, a bright shining light formed around Scootaloo's flanks. 

Everypony had covered their eyes because the light was so bright. 

When the light dimmed down, everypony, including Scootaloo, looked at her flank. They all cheered loudly for her.

Scootaloo now had her cutie mark. It was a picture of a shuttle. She unstrapped her racket from her front leg and ran at full speed to Rainbow Dash. She wrapped her two front legs around Rainbow Dash's front leg. "I can't believe it, Rainbow Dash! I'm not useless anymore and I finally have a purpose in life!" she cried out.

Pinkie Pie was bouncing around the two ponies while blowing into a party horn. She would have to throw Scootaloo a party to celebrate her newly discovered special gift in life.

Rainbow got down low to her level and messed up Scootaloo's mane with her front hoof. "Hey! Way to go kiddo! You were never useless though! You're like my little sister to me and you made us all smile whenever you were around us. It looks like it just took you a little extra time to find out what you shine at. Not even your disabilities got in the way this time." 

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom ran over and hugged there friend. 

"Congratulations, Scootaloo," Sweetie Belle said. "You got your cutie mark sooner than us."

"Yeah, but now we're the blank flanks and we still have to earn ours," Apple Bloom said with sorrow in her voice. 

Pinkie Pie suddenly came out of a closet and was rolling a table that was folded up. On top of the table, were two wooden blades, some sheet rubber, an orange three star ball, and some speed glue. 

Princess  Celestia looked over and said, "Pinkie Pie! How did you know about that? That's our top secret experiment!"

"It was only sitting in the corner under a sheet. My Pinkie senses were going bonkers when I walked near it." Pinkie Pie took off the equipment and placed it on the floor. She opened up the table and then took one of the wooden blades off of the floor. She grabbed the ball and began to bounce it up and down on the wooden blade. "So, who wants to glue some rubber on these bad boys and earn their cutie mark in Table Tennis?" Pinkie Pie asked. 

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each other and then ran over to Pinkie Pie.

"Hey!" Pinkie Pie said. "Can we call this sport Ping Pong too? How about, Pinkie Pong, or Ping Pie! Hey Applejack, if we played on the same team together, would we call ourselves, Apple Pie? I bet Soarin' would love our team name." Pinkie Pie started giggling madly.

Applejack face hoofed.

Soarin' let out a little giggle. 

"We weren't supposed to show them this game until Badminton becomes accepted as an official Equestrian sport," Luna said.

"I know," Celestia replied. "But I am curious to see how they react to this game. How did Pinkie Pie even know that we like to call the game, Table Tennis?" Celestia asked.

"Probably just a Pinkie sense or something," Luna replied.

Celestia and Luna walked over to Pinkie who was struggling to open the can of speed glue. 

"Pinkie Pie, you may want to let us open the speed glue. The glue is incredibly toxic, and breathing that in can be harmful, if not fatal to a pony, if they are using this stuff in a place that has poor ventilation," Celestia said. 

"Why is that?" Pinkie Pie asked. "It's not made out of anything crazy like pony glue, is it?" Pinkie pie gasped at the idea. "You don't take poor ponies who haven't earned their cutie marks yet and send them to the glue factory, do you? Well, at least Scootaloo is safe. We wouldn't want to have to say Toot-a-loo to Scootaloo before she gets turned into scootaglue! That would be so sad!" 

Princess Luna looked at her sister and asked, "What exactly are the top secret ingredients when it comes to making speed glue?" 

"Some things are just better off not known," Celestia whispered to her sister. She used her magic and painted the wooden blade with glue and then used scissors to snip away at the excess rubber sheets. She placed the red rubber on one side of the blade and the black rubber on the other side. She took out a rolling pin and began to flatten the rubber out.

Luna did the same to the other paddle as well. 

Pinkie Pie giggled and said, "Now we have a place where we can bash shuttlecocks and balls at the same time!"

Both Princesses face hoofed.

"Ya have to understand Pinkie Pie, my dear Princesses" Applejack said. "She can be a few apples short of a bushel, sometimes."

Both Princesses giggled at what Applejack had said because it was true.

Applejack and Rarity pushed their sisters over to the table. 

"I can't see over this table!" Apple Bloom cried out. 

"Neither can I," Sweetie Belle added.

"Should we shrink the table?" Luna asked.

"No," Celestia replied. "We have this table down to a science and I can't risk not being able to resize it back to normal." Celestia used her magic and summoned two long stepping stools. "That should do the trick." 

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stood on the stepping stools. Both of their sisters helped strap the paddles on to their front legs. 

Rainbow Dash and Soarin' went back to the courts with Scootaloo. They were both trying to teach her more tricks and to see her full potential, since she was the first to ever get a cutie mark in Badminton. 

Some of the other ponies went back to playing Badminton, but many other ponies stuck around and watched this new experimental game. 

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were having a little volley as their two bigger sisters stood closely near by. 

The sound of the ball clicking every time it hit the paddle was very pleasurable to everypony's ears.

Sweetie Belle was already doing crazy things like adding under spin, side spin, and even combining spins like top and side spins. 

Apple Bloom was getting frustrated and yelled, "Can't ya just work with me to keep the dern thing on the table? I can't read all these spins that yer doin'!"

"Give your friend a chance, Sweetie Belle," Rarity said. "It would be a generous thing for you to do." 

Sweetie Belle moaned and began to hit balls with light top spin added to them. 

Applejack put her front hooves on Apple Bloom's paddle arm and helped her close her paddle a little bit, to counter the top spins, in order to block the shots. 

Apple Bloom began experimenting with the positioning of her paddle and sending the ball to different parts of the table. 

Sweetie Belle adapted quickly and moved from side to side as she hit them back very close to the exact same spot where Apple Bloom had her paddle positioned. Sweetie Belle already had wonderful form and would follow through with her forehoof strokes all the way to her forehead as if she was saluting with her paddle. Her backhoof shots to the ball were beautiful and she also made sure to follow through with her backhoof strokes as well.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle volleyed like this for a few hours now and Apple Bloom was starting to get a little braver and began to follow through all the way up to her forehead like Sweetie Belle had been doing. One of the shots from Apple Bloom was so deep into Sweetie Belle's territory and was so full of top spin, that Sweetie Belle had to back away from the table. She seemed to have forgotten that they were both standing on a long stepping stool and it wasn't very long in width as it was in length. Sweetie Belle fell off of the stepping stool and landed on her back on the floor, The ball came down at her and she lobbed the ball high into the air with heavy top spin and a bit of side spin. 

Apple Bloom saw the little bit of side spin on the ball and she moved over to the left side of the table and prepared to smash the ball. The ball came down, just tipped the very edge of the table, and the bounce of the ball was too short and awkward for Apple Bloom to even try to attempt to return it without diving to the floor. 

Just then, rays of bright shining light came off of Sweetie Belle's flanks. 

Everypony covered their eyes from the bright light. 

When the light dimmed down, everypony opened their eyes back up and was shocked to see that Sweetie Belle now had the world's first Table Tennis cutie mark. She had a picture of two Table Tennis paddles, one side of the paddle black, the other side of the paddle, red, and a three star Table Tennis ball in the middle. 

Everypony inside the arena had seen this happen and everypony cheered loudly. 

Sweetie Belle took off the paddle that was strapped to her front leg and ran over to her sister. She wrapped her front legs around one of Rarity's front legs. "Rarity, I did it! I earned my cutie mark! I'm going to be a Table Tennis athlete! 

Pinkie Pie bounced over and began to giggle madly. "It looks like we're going to have to throw two special parties now! One for Scootaloo, and one for you, Sweetie Belle!" she exclaimed.

Sweetie Belle grinned from ear to ear and then looked back at Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom was sitting on the floor with her head hanging low. She had taken off her paddle put it on the ground' She refused to look up.

Swettie Belle came over and asked, "Aren't you happy that I got my cutie mark, Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom sighed and said, "I sure am happy that yer happy, but it looks like it's just me and Babs Seed that are blank flanks, and I don't see her very often. I guess I'm just not good at anythin'." 

Fluttershy came over and tried to comfort the little filly. "There, there," she said. "Maybe Badminton and Table Tennis just aren't right for you to pursue as a career, but you can still have fun with the games. Maybe you can play doubles in Table Tennis and invite Babs Seed over and take turns alternating who gets to hit the ball next on your team with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Would you like to come with me to the ice rinks and earn a cutie mark in curling? I'd be more than happy to teach you."

"A cutie mark in Curling!?" Apple Bloom yelled out with disgust. "I think I'd rather shovel horse manure!" 

Fluttershy put her front hoof to her mouth in shock and said, "Apple Bloom! Be careful what you wish for!"




When the time came to showcase this epic new sport called Badminton, the Equestrian game officials deemed that this sport would be played at this years upcoming events when they saw Twilight Sparkle and her friends play with the Wonderbolts. Some ponies would openly mock the sport when they tried it out for themselves and called it a game that could be played in a backyard barbeque party for fillies and colts, but when those same ponies saw other ponies play who actually knew what they were doing, they too became believers that this is one of, if not the greatest sport that had even been invented. The Equestrian games quickly built there own professional sports arena for Badminton alone. This sport had so many line judges and other ruling officials that needed to pay close attention because of how insanely fast this sport was. For the final top tier games, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and Princess Cadence, would be the umpires. 


Table Tennis was also shown off and many of those same ponies who mocked Badminton, called this sport a basement game for ponies who didn't have enough skill to play real Tennis. There eyes had to be opened once more when they watched or played against ponies who knew how to play the game on a more professional level. Table Tennis would also become a part of the Equestrian games and be hailed as one of the greatest sports ever invented. They also built a sports arena for Table Tennis too. The Princesses were also in charge of umpiring the top and best matches.

Rarity worked so very hard to design both shuttles and Table Tennis balls to be designed after the top players in the games. The Table Tennis balls also left a trail blazing effect like the shuttles. She would make these sports pretty and interesting for the spectators to watch. She loved to create special shipping balls and shuttles for mixed doubles players.

Applejack was happily in a romantic relationship with Lightning Streak and Rainbow Dash was hooked on Soarin' as well. 





Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both stared at a shuttle that was under a glass in the center of their palace. 

The shuttle was so beaten up and broken down, but it had great significance to them. For that shuttle was the very first shuttle that they had ever invented and it was the humble beginning of something that turned out to be huge and epic.