//------------------------------// // Cutie Mark Crusaders! Yay? // Story: Blank Flank! // by Dusty Sunrise //------------------------------// Dusty trotted through the streets of Ponyville, smelling the fresh morning air, “Such a beautiful day…” he beamed. It has been a few years since Twilight and Dusty first got together, and now, he was going to ask her the question, Dusty nearly squealed with delight, he had it all planned through, he was going to take her out to dinner, come home afterwards, and as soon as she was about to leave, propose. Dusty almost passed Sugarcube Corner when… “DUSTY!” Pinkie shouted, tackling Dusty and proceeding to bounce up and down on top of him, Grunting all the while, Dusty choked, “Off! Please!” “Okay!” Pinkie replied cheerfully, she looked as though she was hiding something, “Alright, Pinkie, what are you hiding?” Dusty approached, “My feelings for you!” she giggled as she knocked him down and dragged him inside, “Wait what?” Dusty shouted, Pinkie leaped into Dusty’s arms as he struggled to keep from dropping her, “Pinkie, you know I’m in love with Twilight!” he retorted, setting her down, “What are you talking about, silly?” Pinkie giggled, Dusty sighed, Something’s not right here… he thought as Pinkie kept trying to smooch him, “Quit fussing, you moron!” Pinkie chortled as she pushed him to the ground, Well, look who’s talking… Dusty thought, trying fiercely to push her off him, that was when Twilight came through the door and froze, Dusty gasped in fear, “It’s not what it looks like!” Dusty explained, still trying to push Pinkie off him, “Yes it is!” Pinkie giggled, Shut up, Pinkie! Dusty thought, Twilight ran out the door slamming it, “Pinkie!” Dusty shouted, “PINKIE!” screamed. “PINKIE!” Dusty shouted again as he flung out of bed, hitting the ground head first, “Well, not exactly.” A voice replied, he recognized it as Spike, Dusty poked his head up and chuckled, giving a nervous smile, “How’s it going Spike?” he asked as though nothing happened, he held out a hoof for a hoof bump, which Spike returned kindly. “Not much, Twilight wanted me to let you know that she left today.” Spike said, "Thanks for letting me stay over, by the way." Spike blurted all of the sudden, “Don’t mention it,” Dusky smiled, “Now that I’m awake, I’m going to do some shopping.” He said, “Alright, hurry back.” Spike called as Dusty left his room and out into the fresh morning air, everything was peaceful, until… “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DAREDEVILS, YAY!” he heard a trio of fillies shout, “Daredevils?” Dusty asked aloud, he heard the rumble of an engine become audible, Oh no… “Look out!” a filly shouted, Dusty looked in the direction of where the voice was coming from and saw a scooter speeding towards him at an alarming rate, sending him flying, "WHOA!" Dusty grunted as he hit the ground and groaned, “Sorry mister,” he saw an orange filly appear in his vision as well as two more, two of which bore resemblance to his friends, all except the orange one. “That’s…alright.” Dusty grunted as he got up, then the filly’s all gasped in unison, “You’re a blank flank?” the white one squeaked, “Yes, so are you three.” He replied, annoyed at their comment, The three fillies looked at each other and huddled up, Dusty pretended he couldn’t hear them, “Do you think he would be interested in joining the CMC?” the white one asked, CMC? Dusty thought, “He’s a stallion, Sweetie Belle!” The orange one replied to the white one, That’s her name… Dusty thought as he continued to listen, “Still, he’d be a good edition to our team, ‘The more the merrier’ they say.” The third with a country accent replied, “Fine, but don’t expect me to go easy on him.” The orange one spoke bitterly, that statement sent a shiver down Dusty’s spine, the three fillies turned to face them and introduced their selves as Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, and followed it with, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS! YAY!” making Dusty want to clamp his ears shut, “And we want you to join!” Sweetie Belle squeaked, “Me?” Dusty’s eyes widened, “I’m honored, really, but…” he began, but was cut off by the saddest look Applebloom gave her, trying to find words, Dusty sighed and gave a smirk, “Fine, I’ll join your little group.” He gave in, and after a brief moment, Scootaloo approached him and said, “Follow me.” And began to walk away, What have I gotten myself into? Dusty shuddered, After the scariest initiation involving strange tribal drum beats and a few questions to which Dusty had to answer, “I do.” The three fillies cleaned everything up in what seemed like a few seconds and Applebloom asked, “So what’re we goin’ to do to get our cutie marks today girls, and boy?” She winked at Dusty getting him to smile, after a few whispers, the trio gave a shout, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ROLLER-SKATERS, YAY!” and Dusty chuckled, This is going to go off without a hitch, he thought as the trio dragged him towards Sugarcube Corner, “Hi girls, hi Dusty!” Pinkie cheered, Dusty smiled and waved, and Scootaloo began explaining the plan, “We’re going to go roller-skating, and we need some roller-skates.” She demanded, “No problem!” Pinkie cheered, “Four pairs of roller-skates coming up!” she shouted as she ran upstairs, Pinkie soon returned with a few pairs of Roller-skates, three small ones for the fillies and a large pair for Dusty, as they exited the building, Dusty felt compelled to ask, “Where are we going?” he asked, Scootaloo gave him a seriously? Look, “The skate park.” Scootaloo said bitterly, and Dusty raised an eyebrow, What did I do to you? He wondered as the skate park came into distance. The skate park was huge, with ramps and walls and rails and other assorted dainties, “Do you know how to roller-skate?” Sweetie Belle asked, suddenly wearing a helmet and pads, “Oh yeah, my sister taught me a lot, I still practice!” he grinned happily as Sweetie Belle’s face brightened, “C’mon girls!” Scootaloo shouted, as she slowly slid down the ramp, “C’mon, Dusty!” Applebloom called, but Dusty wasn’t paying attention, he was paying attention to Sweetie Belle watching her struggle to stay balanced, then to Scootaloo who had just as much trouble, You should stick to scooters kid… Dusty thought to himself, all three fillies managed to make it to another ramp, “Your turn Dusty!” Applebloom called again, Scootaloo said something to Applebloom that seemed to make her angry, then Scootaloo turned to Dusty and called, “Are you sure you know how to roller-skate?” she called, Watch and learn… Dusty smirked as he slid down the ramp, Up and over he went as he grinded against rails and even pulled off a backflip as he made it to another ramp, but he didn’t stop there, he managed to pick up enough speed to ride on a wall for a second, and as he came up to the ramp with the three fillies, he flipped and landed gracefully on his feet, “Does that answer your question?” Dusty answered proudly, he chuckled as the fillies all stared wide-eyed, “Wow! that must be your special talent!” Sweetie Belle commented, Dusty felt flattered, “Nah, I just practiced all the time.” Dusty responded, “You fillies might be able to get as good as me in a year, if you practiced hard enough.” He threw out, “I didn’t practice as hard as my sister had liked, but I got good anyway.” He chuckled, “Shall we go again?” he asked, “YES!” the three shouted simultaneously, then immediately they flew down the ramp, attempting to keep their balance, Dusty slid down the ramp and just calmly swept up and down shouting encouraging words at the fillies, keeping watch as each filly got slowly better at keeping their balance, laughing and screaming with joy, everything went perfectly, until… “Whoa!” Sweetie Belle shouted just as he was going her direction, she went flying as her forearm hit a rail hard, sending her flying over, Time slowed as Dusty turned and speeded toward Sweetie Belle. “Look out!” he shouted as he caught her as she was flying, he tried to carry her as gentle as he could with the large burst of speed he had, He flew up a ramp, threw off his roller-skates and set Sweetie Belle down, “Are you okay?” he asked, laying down in front of her, she shook her head as she lifted up her hoof which hung limp, “Oh, you poor thing.” He held the hoof in place, “You sprang your hoof.” His horn began to glow with magic, as her hoof sprang back to life, one by one the two fillies flew up the ramp and watched as Sweetie Belle moved her hoof around with excitement, “Wow!” she said again, That must be word of the day. Dusty chuckled, “You are the best, Dusty!” she wrapped her forearms around Dusty, “Don’t mention it.” He rubbed her mane, “Aww…” he cooed as Sweetie Belle nuzzled him, and went back to roller-skating, with the two following. He sat and stared at the sky, his mind slowly drifted to Twilight, Let’s just hope she doesn’t see what I’m doing… he shivered at the thought of Twilight getting angry at him, “Dusty, look at me!” Scootaloo shouted, Dusty looked up to see the orange filly sliding across a rail, her face beaming with pride, Dusty opened his mouth to speak when all of the sudden, “Good job, squirt!” a voice rang out, “Rainbow Dash?” both Scootaloo and Dusty looked up to see the pegasus floating above them, Rainbow Dash descended next to Dusty, “You showing these kids the ins-and-outs of roller-skating?” Rainbow asked, Dusty noticed she had a saddlebag on, “You bet, you want to join us?” Dusty asked, hoping for some more company, “Well, it just so happens that I saw you four and decided that I wanted in on some of the fun.” Rainbow replied, slipping on roller-skates she slid down the ramp, Dusty laughed as he joined her, as she slid up a ramp, she went way high up, and Dusty followed suite, “Dusty, up high!” Rainbow shouted, holding out a hoof, Dusty held up a hoof and slowly, their hooves met with a Clack! “All right!” Rainbow Dash cheered, the fillies stared in awe as the two attempted to best the other, and finally after what seemed like ages, Dusty and Rainbow dropped, gasping for breath, “Who do you think won?” Rainbow asked, “I think we tied…” Dusty replied, they got up and high-fived each other before getting ready to leave, as did the other fillies, “Hey, kids.” Dusty said as he approached them, “Any cutie marks?” he asked with a chuckle, and the three looked and frowned as they saw…nothing. “Well, keep trying, you’ll find your special talents eventually.” He smiled, “Now I got to go, before the market closes.” Dusty turned to Rainbow Dash and chuckled, “Glad you could be here, Dashy.” He held out a hoof bump. Rainbow smiled as she hoof bumped Dusty, “Same time next week?” Rainbow asked, “You bet.” Dusty asked as he trotted towards the market, “You’re pretty good at roller-skating, Dusty.” Dusty gasped, turning to see Twilight, Oh, buck.