//------------------------------//
// Taking the Lead 
// Story: The Basic Sketch of life 
// by Knightwolf09 
//------------------------------//

It was midmorning in Ponyville. Everypony was out doing their usual business in town, except for the new resident, Sketch. So far it has been two days since he moved to Ponyville, and right now he is finishing his latest project, his own house/art studio. All that was left for him was to put up the sign.

“Phew. I’m finally finished. Sketch’s Pad is now open for business.”

Twilight Sparkle then shows up to see how Sketch was doing on his newly improved house. So far it looked nice. It looked quite simple compared to the other houses, yet it still looked unique in it’s own way. It was almost as if he built it in a way that it represents him.

“Hi Sketch. Wow. I like your improvement to your place. You must’ve been work hard on this on this place.”

“Hey Twilight. Yup, pretty good job if I do say so myself. You know it’s funny, I don’t know anything about housing or interior design either.”

“Could’ve fooled me. Well let’s go inside and see how you did.”

“Wait just a second. Don’t come in yet.”

Sketch quickly zoomed inside of his house as Twilights waits a few seconds, waiting for what was going to happen next.

“Okay, you can come in now.” Sketch shouted.

Twilight then walks in and sees his studio which had a little bit of bookshelves with books for different kinds of art and designs, a giant canvas at the other side of the room with a wonderful illustration of Ponyville, and three canvases on each side  the room.

“Welcome to Sketch’s Pad where imagination’s loud, proud, and open to the crowd. How may I help you?” Sketch says with a little hammy acting voice.

“Wow Sketch. This place turned out really nice. Really hard to believe that this was the most rundown house in town.”

“You think so? I only bought it because I saw potential in it. All I did was make it bloom into the beautiful masterpiece it is now.”

“Of course. So, what exactly do you do here?”

“Okay, you know how art studios just mostly exhibit art? Well instead of that I not only exhibit my own art, I also let other ponies create their own, or they can purchase mine. That’s not all. When other ponies create their art, they have the choice to take their masterpieces home with them, or hang them up on the personal Wall of Fame for everypony to see.”

“It really does sound a bit different from any art studio I’ve heard of. You could make great business here.”

Suddenly the front door slammed open and three little fillies Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo run to Twilight with super eager smiles on their faces.

“There you are Twilight. We’ve been looking all over for you”  Scootaloo said.

“Come on, come on. We only have one lifetime to get our cutie marks.” Sweetie says hastily.

“Oh, that’s right. I was supposed to watch over you three today while everypony else was busy today.” Twilight said surprised from her realization.

“Hey Applebloom.”  Sketch said waving to the young filly.

“Hi Sketch.”

“Oh I’m sorry girls. I can’t watch you today. I got some research for a time rewind spell I need to work on. Maybe you can find somepony else.” Twilight explained with the highest regret.

“But that’s the reason why we were sent to you. Because everypony else was too busy.”Scootaloo replies with a bummed out face.

“I could watch them.” Sketch announced. 

“Really?!” everypony reacted with great shock.

“Yeah. I don’t have any customers yet. So I have tons of free time on my hooves. Plus I’m great with kids.”

Twilight felt really uncomfortable leaving the three with Sketch. It wasn’t that she didn't trust him, he really might be good with children, but it’s the fact that it was a special case with those three. She felt like she could at least give Sketch a little warning about them.  

“You’re sure you can handle them? They’re kind of a rowdy bunch.”

“Shh, shh, shh. Twilight…..I can handle them.” Sketch whispers as he placed his hoof in front of Twilight’s muzzle.

“Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Girls I’ll leave you to Sketch. Be sure not to give him any trouble okay?”

“Okay!” replied the crusaders

“Bye Sketch. ( And good luck)”

Twilight began her exit. As soon as she walked out the door, the crusaders already started to work on their plans.

“You hear that girls?” Sweetie asked.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS PLANNING SESSION AT SKETCH’S HOUSE!!!! YAY!” all of them shouted.

All three of them run around Sketch’s house with excitement as began to plan on what crazy antic to do next.

“Okay, so they’re a little loud, but I’m sure I can handle them. Remember Sketch, you’re great with kids.”

Sketch goes to the three huddled together fillies to listen on what they were planning.

“You know girls? Lately I’ve been wondering. In our attempts to get our cutie marks, what is the one thing that we seem to lack?” Sweetie Belle suggested.

“Our cutie marks?” Scootaloo replied sarcastically.

“No. Actual planning.”

“Whaddya mean?” ,Applebloom asked.

“I mean that everytime we fail to get our cutie marks, we just always jump to something randomly before thinking. So I thought maybe we should have a leader to make plans for what to do next.  That way we could be more organized and maybe get our cutie marks faster.”

“I like that plan, and I will be more than happy to be the leader.” Scootaloo said proudly.

“Wait. Who said you’ll be the leader?” Applebloom replied with an upset tone.

“Yeah. We all know it’s going to be me.” said Sweetie Belle

“No way. It’s goin’ to be me.” Applebloom again replies angrily.

The three fillies then began to get into a little tussel for their supremacy. Sketch decided that he should break up the conflict by bringing up another topic.

“So….. I heard that you three were part of this group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders. What’s that all about?”

The three immediately stopped their fighting and stare at Sketch.

“Well our main goal is to discover our cutie marks to find out true destinies.” Scootaloo explained.

“So we do tons of different stuff ta find out our special talent.” said Applebloom.

“Sounds interesting.”

“But most of our attempts so far didn’t turn out so well. We think we could do better if we had a leader, who we all know is me.” Sweetie Belle stated. 

“No way it’s me!” 

The three of them looked like they were about to fight again until Sketch brought up this comment. 

“You know, all those activities that you mentioned you’d be doing sound like it could be alot of fun. You know what? I’m gonna help you girls.”

“Wait, you will?” Scootaloo responded shockingly.

"That might not be a bad idea Sketch." said Applebloom

“Yeah. And that way you’ll be having a responsible pony watch over you three.”

“And as soon as we find that responsible pony, we’ll be in buisness. Alright girls let’s have a deal. We’ll have a competition to see who will become the leader. Whoever gets their cutie mark first, wins.”

“Yeah!” all three of them exclaimed while they seal the deal with a three way highhoof.

Suddenly all their enthusiasm disappeared as they now had a blank expression on their faces.

“So what should we do first?” Applebloom brought up.

“Might I suggest one thing?” Sketch asked.

Later that day, the crusaders and Sketch are found on top of a large, steep hill outside of Ponyvile with snowsleds on hoof.

“Grass sledding!” Sketch eclaimed.

“You sure this will get us our cutie marks?” asked Scootaloo sketchily.

“I don’t know. I just wanted to go grass sledding.” Sketch replied

“Wait, did you agree to watch over us so you wouldn’t have to work on the first day of your job?” asked Sweetie Belle

“Pretty much. 1,2,3 GO!! GERONIMO!!!!”

Sketch was the first to go down the hill. He zoomed down like a rocket all the to the grounds below. While Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, Scootaloo were hesitant to go down, but they finally decided to go down. While going down the hill at high speed Sketch was having the time of his life while the other three looked more scared for theirs. By the time Sketch finally made it to the bottom he was busy laughing while he heard a crashing sound behind him. He sees the crusaders in a pile but no marks on their flanks unfortunately.



“Is there something there?” Sweetie Belle asked writhing in pain.

“Sorry, nothing.” Sketch sighed.

All of their heads go down in disappointment.

“Ah well. Wanna go down again?” Sketch asked eagerly.

“What’d be the point? We didn’t get our cutie marks.” Applebloom whimpered.

“Okay, so you didn’t get your marks, but you gotta admit it was fun, right?”

“Yeah, I guess it was a little fun.” Scootaloo replied hesitantly.

“Then what are you waiting for? Race ya to the top.”

Sketch immediately flew back to the top of the hill with the crusaders slowly making their way back with their disappointed faces till intact. About an hour later it was on to their next attempt. They were inside the Ponyville wreck center with a ping-pong table in front of them and paddles at the ready.

“Table tennis!” Sketch exclaimed “First to 5 points wins the game. I’d say it’d be best if you teamed up against me.”

The four of them then begin to play game. First game began with Scootaloo versus Sketch, who obviously had the advantage over the poor little pegasus. The game went back and forth until Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo decided to actually gang up on Sketch. Even with the two against him he was still doing pretty well on his own, but finally Applebloom joins the game and all three fillies go up against Sketch at the same time. As the game continued it finally ended after the fillies accidentally took out Sketch with a ball to the head. The three then celebrated and checked their flanks to see if they’d gotten their just rewards, but sadly there was none. Just more disappointment.

“Awww. Still no cutie mark.” Applebloom whined.

Sketch got back up in a daze from that attack, and shakes his head in order to stop his world from spinning.

“Alrighty then. Maybe you’ll get your marks if you face me one at a time next time. So who’s going first?”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were wallowing in their disappointment while Applebloom went back up as if she already forgot about her disappointment. It seemed like she was enjoying the game more than just focusing on not getting her mark. While the other two were still confused, they just shrugged their shoulders and waited their turn. For the rest of the day it was nothing but fun. Sketch and the crusaders were busy doing any activity that can pop into their minds, like Jet skiing, painting, and even dancing. Even though the three fillies didn’t get their cutie marks, they were still having fun everything that they did. By the time they came back to Sketch’s Pad, it already became sundown.

“Today was so much fun!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed

“Yeah. Ah had so much fun, ah almost fergot that we didn’t get our cutie marks.” said Applebloom.

“Well I’m glad that you enjoyed yourselves today. I thought maybe doing all this fun stuff would help you get your marks.” Sketch said.

“Really? How?” asked Scootaloo curiously.

“You see, finding your special talent can be found a lot easier in something you enjoy doing. So the better you enjoy yourselves, the closer you are to finding your talent. So next time try to make some fun out of your attempts for now on. *Yawn* Phew, I’m beat. Gonna hit the hay.  Night.”

“Good night Sketch.” The crusaders replied.

Sketch and the crusaders went their separate ways and it was time for a good night’s sleep after a long and exhausting day.   The next day the crusaders gathered together again to plan for their next attempts to get their marks.

“Hey girls. Ready to get our marks today?” said Sweetie Belle.

Both Scootaloo and Applebloom eagerly shook their heads in agreement.

“So what should we do today?” Scootaloo asked.

“Hmmmmmmm……I have no idea.” Applebloom shrugged.

“Well let’s remember what Sketch said yesterday. He said to make some fun out of our attempts. So let’s just do what we normally do except we’ll try to make it more fun.” Sweetie Belle explained.

“Yeah!” 

All three had their signature three-way highhoof to seal the deal. 

“We’re still having that competition, right?”

“Oh, big time.”

The crusaders then set off to start their attempts. Having their minds set on not only marks, but also becoming leaders. The first attempt of the day was hang-gliding. They climbed on the biggest they could find and stood on the edge as they prepared for launch.

“Scootaloo, ya sure this is safe?” Applebloom asked nervously.

“Since when were any of our attempts safe?” Scootaloo replied.

“Well…………..Huh.”

“Now if we’re done. TAKE OFF!!!”

The three of them began to suck in their guts and charge straight off the cliff. For a short while, they were beginning to glide, but suddenly the glider begins to tear and they began to slowly plummet down to the earth below, crashing into a tree.  

“Everypony still in one piece?” Scootaloo groaned.

“Yeah, but I think that was as fun as I thought it wouldn’t be.” Sweetie Belle answered.

“Did we get anythin’?” asked Applebloom.

All three of check their flanks, hoping to find a reward for that experience, but instead found more disappointment.

“Nope.”

“Maybe we should get Sketch to help us.” Sweetie Belle suggested.

“No way. We can still do this on our own. We just gotta step it up a little.” said Scootaloo.

The crusaders then proceeded to move on to their usual attempts.  They move onto more shenanigans such as jet skiing, bungee jumping, as well as water diving, which surprisingly ended up in a lot of belly flops. So far the entire day wasn’t even close to being fun like it was with Sketch.  Though, as expected, they haven’t received any cutie marks of sorts. The three little began to fall into a slight depression. They couldn’t shake the need to just give up for that day. 

“I can’t believe this!” Scootaloo shouted. “What the hay are we doing wrong?”

“Ah don know.” Applebloom replied. “We tried to put fun into ar attempts like Sketch told us to. Did he just give bad advice? ”

“How about we give up? I say we give up.” Sweetie Belle suggested.

“Come on girls. We have to keep on going.” said Scootaloo. 

“There’s gotta be something we can do to make it more fun.”

Scootaloo scans the premise to see if there was anything they can do. Off in the distance, she noticed a pink pony walking away from a hot-air balloon tied to a post. An idea suddenly surges through her brain, and she grew a smirk on her face. This idea made the other crusaders afraid that it might lead to trouble.

“Girls, I think I have an idea.”

The three fillies run toward the balloon to talk to the owner, but it seemed like she was already gone.

“Huh, I wonder where the pilot went.” Sweetie Belle said.

“Guess she left.” Sweetie Belle said, “Maybe we should wait for her to come back.”

“I’ve done enough waiting for my cutie, and I’m not gonna wait any longer.”

Scootaloo climbed inside of the balloon and was about to prepare for take-off. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle climbed in after her to stop her from doing this crazy stunt. As they were squabbling they happened to notice Scootaloo holding on to the rope tethering them to ground in her mouth.

“Scootaloo, this is crazy.” Applebloom said , “You can’t just drive a hot-air balloon by yurself.”

“Yeah.” Sweetie Belle agreed, “Besides, do you even know how to fly this thing?” 

“I don’t need to know how to. If I’m able to fly it without-”

As Scootaloo was about to retort, she noticed that she accidentally let go of the tether, and they begin to ascend to the sky.

“Ah great. Now look what you did.” said Applebloom.

“What I did? If you guys didn’t try to stop me, you wouldn’t have had to worry about being up here.”

“How can you even get a cutie mark of flying a balloon if you don’t even know how to drive on?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“I know how to drive it. You just gotta…um… pull on this rope thingie…and I think that’ll make the balloon go higher, and you just let the wind do the rest of the driving.”

“Don’t ponies usually get lost like that?” replied Applebloom.

As they keep slowly rising to the skies above Ponyville, a sudden gust of picks up and begins to carry the balloon close to the edge of town.

“Okay Scootaloo, you know how to make this thing go up, but do ya know how to make it go down and stop?” asked Applebloom.

“Maybe these bags on the side are like anchors.” said Sweetie Belle.

“NO!!” shouted the other  two fillies.

Sweetie Belle takes three of the sandbags off of the balloons and drops them down below, only resulting in the balloon rising even higher.

“Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo shouted, “Those were the only things that were keeping us from going any higher.”.

“Well how was I supposed to know? I’m not a balloonatoloigist.”

“That’s not even a thing!!”

“Will yall just calm down?!” Applebloom intervened, “Yellin’ at each other won’t get us back down.”

“Neither will Sweetie Belle at this rate.”

“Shut it. Now how exactly are we gonna lower the balloon?”

The three little fillies sat and began to think. Scootaloo was mostly scratching her head as hard she could, and Sweetie Belle kept poking her head with the same amount of force. Applebloom looked out the side of the balloon and sees that they were flying towards the entrance of the Everfree Forest. She was begging stress out and couldn’t think of any single clue of stopping balloon as well as lower it. Suddenly, something bumped the back of Applebloom’s head. It turned out to be a rope. Applebloom was confused since the rope Scootaloo grabbed was on the other side of the balloon. She looked up and noticed a lid on the top of the balloon connected to the rope. She pulled on the rope and opened the lid causing the balloon to lower. 

“Girls, I think I have an idea. If this works, we’ll right in front of Flutterhy’s cottage.”

“How do we know if Sweetie Belle isn’t just going to just make it worse again?”  Scootaloo scolded.

“It’s your fault that we’re up here in the first place.” Sweetie Belle angrily replied.

“Well you didn’t HAVE to jump in after me.”

“It was a stupid idea to fly a balloon you didn’t know how drive anyway.”

“Are you calling me stupid?!”

“No, but thank you for thinking it first.”

“STOP!!!” Applebloom screamed. “That’s enough. Fightin’ aint  gonna help us get down from here. Look, ah know all of us are only up here because one of us just wants to be leader, and thanks to that, all we’re doin is just screamin our heads off at each other while on the verge of floatin away from Ponyville. Maybe Sketch just didn’t give us good advice, and we went overboard with it. Can’t we just act like the friends we were before we made this silly contest, and work together to get us to safety?”

The other two fillies lower their head in shame for their pointless arguing. They looked at each other, and gave a little smirk, knowing that they didn’t have to say their sorry to prove it, but they thought it probably be the best thing.

“I’m sorry if I called you stupid Scootaloo.” Sweet Belle said.

“Yeah. And I’m sorry that I got us into this mess in the first place.”

“Alright. That’s better.” said Applebloom as she nodded in agreement.  “Now, are we ready put this oversized bag of air down to the ground?”

“YEAH”

“So how are we going to do that?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Ya see this rope? When ah pull it, it must let some of the out. If ah let out enough air, along with a little bit weight, we can probably land right in front of Fluttershy’s cottage before we go above the Everfree forest.”

“But where are we gonna find something to weight it down?” Scootaloo asked as she sat down. 

Scootaloo suddenly realizes that what she was sitting on was a small chest. Inside was a couple of extra sandbags.

“Why didn’t we notice this?” Scootaloo asked.

“Alright, that’ll work. Scootaloo you tie the bags to the side of the balloon.” commanded Applebloom.

“Oh oh oh. What can I do?” Sweetie Belle asked excitedly.

“Uh… No offense Sweetie Belle, but ya might be better off keepin an eye out for the ground to make sure we land safely.”

“Can do.”

“We can do this, girls. We can do this!” exclaimed Applebloom.

Meanwhile, not far from Fluttershy’s. An enthusiastic Sketch happily flies in the clear blue skies on the way to Fluttershy’s, humming a tune he thought up in head. 

♪Oh oh oh. Oh I’m on mah way to Fluttershy’s. To play with some animals. And maybe in the process I’ll get an idea to draw a portrait of- ♪

“Of…Darn it what rhymes with animals? Bah, I was never good with making songs anyway.”

Just then he happens to notice a floating object further down.

“Hello? Look at that. They have hot air balloon rides here? Wait, why am I getting excited if I can already fly?”

Sketch takes a closer look and sees the three small fillies piloting to balloon as it slowly descends.

“Wait a second. Isn’t  that…”

Back at the cottage, Fluttershy was tending to her daily routine of tending her animals. Today happens to be the day she lets her birds go for an hour long flight so they can get their exercise.
“Alright my little birdies, now make sure that you be careful out there and to come back before dinner time. Now have fun.” 

Fluttershy walked back inside the cottage to tend to the rest of her animals. As all of birds begin take off, they headed straight for the crusader’s balloon. The swarm of birds fly completely through the crusaders, seemingly without leaving any damage. Suddenly the three hear a strange sound coming from the top of the balloon. They looked up and spotted a crane whose beak got stuck in the balloon when it flew at it. It pulls it out and flies away, leaving a hole that quickly lets the air out, and causes the balloon to plummet down to earth. 

“OH JEEZ!” Sketch shouted as he dashed towards the falling balloon.

“Girls, if somehow live through this, Ah just want yall to know that you are the best friends a pony can ask for.” Applebloom  confessed.

“And I’m sorry that I even made this stupid competition idea.” said Sweetie Belle.

“And Applebloom that prank when you were covered in maple syrup and feathers so you would look like a chicken was actually me. It was revenge for that one chicken call joke.” Scootaloo admitted with a nervous grin.

“Wait, that was you?! Ah’ve been givin Snips and Snails dagger eyes for months!” 

Suddenly, before the balloon made impact to the ground, Sketch appears next to the balloon, swiped the three fillies out of the basket, and quickly flies them to safety. The balloon finally kissed with the dirt and left nothing but scattered pieces of the basket and the tarp on the ground. Sketch and the crusaders looked back and witnessed the wreckage of the balloon. They couldn’t help but imagine what would’ve happened if Sketch didn’t make it in time.  It was not a pleasant thought.

“Is everypony okay?” Sketch asked while panting.

“Yeah. I think we’re okay.” Scootaloo replied.

“Good. Now, WHY THE HAY WERE YOU THREE FILLIES DRIVING A BALLOON WITHOUT A DRIVER?!?!”

The three fillies turned away their heads to hide their shame.

“Well, we were just tryin’ to figure what to do next for our leader competition, and the Scootaloo-” 

“Lemme guess. She thought you could get your cutie marks in balloon flying.” Sketch interrupted Applebloom. “Do you even know what could’ve happened to you three if I haven’t happened to be just strolling by? That was a dangerous stunt and I’m sure you know it.”

“Well, i-it’s not completely our faults.” Sweetie Belle hesitantly replied.

“And whose fault is it?” Sketch replied as he gave a scolding stare.

“I just…thought of what you said, and tried to have a fun hot air balloon ride.” Scootaloo answered.

“Then would you please tell me where’s the fun in jacking a balloon that you know you can’t drive? Cause I don’t see it.” 

“Why are you lecturing us anyway?” Applebloom asked.  “It’s not like you’re our dad or nothing.”

“I’m just a little upset because you scared me half to death when I saw that balloon falling like a rock. I can see now why you three have to be watched over sometimes.” 

Sketch paused for a brief moment and slowly breathed in and out before continuing.
“Look, as you can tell, not me or anypony else can always keep an eye you 24/7, but promise me that if you’re planning on doing something that you think might be dangerous, try to think it over before you take the risk, or walk away that works too.”

“We promise.” All three of the fillies replied.

“We’re sorry Sketch.” Scootaloo apologized. “We were just trying to follow the advice that you gave us and try to put more fun in our attempts like you said to.”

“Alright, maybe I said it wrong or you just took it the wrong way, but that’s not what I meant. What I meant was to find your talent in stuff you enjoy doing. For example, I like drawing, but I don’t just like it. It is my passion, a main part of me if you will. By the time I discovered that, I realized that the thing that I loved doing turned out to best thing I was good at, and then I got my cutie mark.”

Suddenly, Fluttershy comes outside of her cottage and happens to notice the decimated balloon on the front lawn.

“Oh my goodness. Sketch, what happened?”

“Not now Flutters, I’m in the middle of teaching children an important life lesson. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that if you want to find out what your talent, you have to look for it things that you already enjoy. You just mostly did what you were already doing, but hoped that your attempts would turn out fun. You girls getting what I’m saying?”  

“Yeah. I think so.” Scootaloo answered.

“We’re sorry for causing so much trouble.” Applebloom said sincerely.

All three of the small fillies bowed their heads to truly show their sincerest apologies.

“Alrighty then. In that case, I’ll let you three slide for today. I won’t tell your sisters of this mess. So  I’m gonna clean up this mess and find the owner of this thing to see if I can get her to go easy on you. I expect for you to give a real apology later. Why don’t you girls just head on home?”

“Wow…um…Thanks, Sketch. You know, you’re actually pretty cool.” 

The three fillies then began trot on back home to finally put an end to such a crazy day. Sketch and Fluttershy just sat back and watched as the three fillies gallop down the path to town.

“They’re gonna forget about the lesson I taught them before the end of the day aren’t they?”

“Probably.” Fluttershy replied with a small sigh.

“Ah, kids.”

The next day at Sketch’s Pad, Sketch was sprucing up the work area with a determined look in his eyes.

“Alright Sketch, no more goofing around this time. Today you’ll really get down to business and start working…right after a slow paced breakfast.”

He then heard a sudden knock at the front door.  To no surprise it turned out to be the Cutie Mark Crusaders, with a surprisingly serious look on each of their faces.

“Oh, what’s up girls? Did you apologize to the owner for the balloon? Lemme tell ya, that chick was screaming all the air out of her lungs after I showed her the wreckage. But hey, it wasn’t all that bad. She was actually kinda cute when she was mad. Actually I think she might have a-“

“Yes, we apologized, but that’s not what we’re here for.” said Applebloom.

“We’ve been thinking about yesterday, and we came up with an idea. The reason why we were competing to be leader was that we thought if our group had more guidance, we’d be able to get things done more efficiently. But as you can see we still have a lot to learn about guidance ourselves.” admitted Scootaloo.

“What are trying to say?”

“Our sisters mostly gave us advice, but they never went out of their way to actually help us in our like you did.” said Sweetie Belle.

“Not to mention you find ways to make them more fun that we could ever think of.” said Applebloom.

“What we’re trying to say is, Sketch it is with great pleasure that we, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, like elect you as the first leader.

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom begin to make trumpet fanfare noises to compliment the mood of this sudden election.

“Wait. Me? The leader of the crusaders?”

The three fillies nodded their heads in definite agreement. They were utterly serious about this decision.

“You know, I’m actually honored that you would even think of me as the leader. Hmmm…Alright, I accept the position.”

The crusaders then jumped for joy, elated that he accepted it a lot better than they expected. As they finally stopped they huddled around Sketch awaiting their first order.

“As my first decree, I shall now make the new rule that…”

The three fillies eyes widened, awaiting what he could have possibly have in mind.

“there shall be no leaders.”

“WHAT?!?!” the three small fillies shouted.

“Yup, there shall be no leaders in the Cutie  Mark Crusaders.”

“What kinda first rule is that?” Applebloom asked angrily.

“Yeah, it’s like you made this whole competition pointless.” responded Sweetie Belle.

“Look girls, I really am honored that you would want to make me your leader, but I’m afraid even I wouldn’t have enough time to hang with you girls anyway. My job is kind of an all-day thing. Sometimes I might even have to travel sometimes. So I’m afraid I won’t always have time to be a leader of a group.”

“But what are we going to do about getting a leader then?” Scootaloo asked as she slowly falls into a slight depression.

“There’s another thing, I don’t think you three even need a leader.”

“Huh?”

“When I noticed you three in the balloon yesterday, at first I was going to help out, but then I noticed you three lowering the balloon by yourselves. If anything, you girls work better as a team.”

“Actually girls, I kind of noticed it too when we stopped arguing.  I liked it a lot better when were just working together.” said Sweetie Belle

“Yeah, Ah guess. Not to mention it wouldn’ be as fun if one of us was just bossing each other around.” replied Applebloom.

“You’re right Applebloom. You know girls, who needs a stupid leader anyway?  The Cutie Mark Crusaders started out as a team and will forever stay a team!” exclaimed Scootaloo.

“YEAH!!”

The three little fillies then jump into the air with great vigor and gave one great big high hoof.

“That’s the spirit girls.” said Sketch, “Glad you figure that out. Now I have to get to work. So why don’t you start off on your attempts.”

“Alright, thank you Sketch.” said Scootaloo, “Okay girls, where do you think we can find a cannon at this hour?”

Sketch gave Scootloo a quick glare right before they walked right out of the door.

“Or we can do something a little safer like hiking, maybe?”

“That’s better.”


THE END