//------------------------------// // "The Cutie Mark Crusaders (AKA Ponyville's most destructive fillies)" // Story: "The Name's Dash" // by calmcalmcalm //------------------------------// “Hey! How did you meet Rainbow Dash?” Do you think she’s awesome? Cause she is! Have you ever seen her do a sonic rainboom? Have you heard the story of how she got her cutie mark? How’d you get your cutie mark? How do you think I’ll get mine? Have you ever met my friends, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle? Ooo, what about my teacher, Miss Cheerilee? What about-” Scootaloo had been talking nonstop ever since she and Soarin had left Dash’s house. “Whoa, slow down there squirt!” Soarin struggled to recall all of the questions. “Ok, I met her at the Grand Galloping Gala one year, I have seen her do a sonic rainboom a few times, I haven’t heard the story of her cutie mark, I got my cutie mark when I first discovered I wanted to be a Wonderbolt.” He paused to take a breath before continuing. “I have no idea how you’ll get your cutie mark, sorry Scootaloo, I haven’t met your friends Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, and I have not met your teacher either.” He was feeling quite proud of himself until he glanced down at Scootaloo trotting beside him, raising an eyebrow. “Impressive. But you missed one!” she grinned cheekily up at Soarin. “Do you think Dash is awesome?” “Uh, sure?” Soarin winced at his lame answer. Smooth move asshole! This is the little filly’s idol you’re talking about! “Good. Cause if you didn’t then we couldn’t be friends. I only know one pony who doesn’t think she’s the coolest pony in Ponyville. Well, actually I’ve never asked her, but she sucks anyways!” Scootaloo grimaced. “Her name is Diamond Tiara. Ugh, don’t even get me started on her!” Soarin chuckled. “So Scootaloo, where do you usually go for flight practice?” he asked her questioningly. “Oh! We go to Sweet Apple Acres! There’s loads of room there and sometimes Dash flies up and steals apples for us! Don’t tell any of the Apples though, or else we would be in deep trouble. I mean the ponies, not the fruit. But don’t tell the fruit that we might steal them either I guess….” Scootaloo rambled as they turned onto the path leading to the apple farm. “Do you think fruit has feelings?” She asked, looking concerned all of a sudden. “What?” Soarin wrinkled his brow. “Um, I don’t… think so.” “Ok, good.” Scootaloo looked relieved as the farmhouse came into sight. “Wanna go to the west field? That’s where the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse is!” “The Cutie Mark what now?” Soarin trotted behind the small filly as she lead him to the west field. “Cutie Mark Crusaders. It’s only the most awesome club in all of Ponyville! Well, except the Rainbow Dash fanclub that I started. That’s pretty awesome to.” She explained. Soarin was impressed. Rainbow Dash has a fanclub? With more than just Scootaloo in it? As he followed the orange Pegasus she explained all about the CMC’s- how their club started, what their meetings consisted of, and what they had tried to get cutie marks in. “Wow, sounds… interesting!” Soarin remarked upon hearing about a failed attempt at getting tree climbing cutie marks. “Yeah! Sweetie was stuck in that tree so long that Applebloom and I just went home!” Scootaloo exclaimed, the pair reaching their destination. “So squirt, ready to fly?” Soarin asked as they stopped amongst the apple trees in the west field. “Yup!” she cried, hopping up and down. “Alright. Show me what you’ve got.” “So Dash, what do you do for fun around here?” Fleetfoot asked, leaning on the kitchen counter. The three mares had been segregated in Rainbow’s kitchen, Fleet spending most of the time creating a sandwich that she called “a culinary masterpiece”, and the rest of the time devouring said sandwich. “Well,” Rainbow began, thinking of how she usually spent her days. “Sometimes I prank other ponies, usually with Pinkie, who you met earlier. Other days I find neat places to fly, and just hang there. Sugar Cube Corner is also fun! Sometimes I head down to Sweet Apple Acres with Applejack and continue our “Most Daring Pony” competition. Our friends made us stop after an… event involving pies that were set on fire…. Apparently that’s dangerous, so now AJ and I have to sneak around.” She winced upon hearing herself, thinking wow, I just made my life sound super lame! She was surprised at the Wonderbolt’s reactions. “That sounds fun! Let’s do it all!” Fleetfoot exclaimed! “I wanna prank and fly and be daring! Pies on fire sounds fun!” “Well, usually I would spend the day in the gym, but we’re on vacation so what the hell!” Spitfire grinned. “Aright!” Dash beamed. She was glad that her idols thought that she was fun. I knew I would get along with these two… Soarin on the other hoof… “Can we leave Soarin here? He was being a big grouch today.” Fleet huffed, looking at Spitfire. “Sure, wouldn’t want him spoiling all of your fun Fleet.” Spitfire rolled her eyes at her friend, Dash snickering beside her. “Yay!” Fleet hopped up and down, completely missing, or choosing to ignore Spitfires sarcasm. “Where to first?” “Hmm… I know! Twilights place!” Rainbow grinned as the two mares stared at her. “What?! You wanna go prank THE Princess Twilight?” Spitfire’s eyes widened, while Fleet cackled behind her. “Yep.” Dash replied snickering. “More like Princess Egghead.” Fleet laughed. “I knew we would get along Dash! Pranking a princess… hilarious!” Twilight Sparkle was in her library, reshelving her books for the third time that week. Spike was helping her very grumpily. “Seriously Twi? You woke me up to reshelf AGAIN? We did this two days ago!” Spike complained as Twilight used her magic to organise the books into piles. “Spike, I think I’ve got it this time! The perfect shelving system! I’ll organise the books by putting sixteen on each shelf, organised by genre, author, title and THEN colour! I was putting colour before title last time, no wonder it didn’t work out!” The alicorn cried triumphantly. “Mhmm, six books on each shelf, blah blah blah….” Spike grumbled, still sleepy from his nap he had been woken from. “Sixteen! I have recorded the number of books that I own and if my calculations are correct, which they are, this will work perfectly!” Twilight began levitating books onto shelves at an alarming speed. “Whoa!” Spike dove out of the way as he was nearly knocked over by a current of hard-covers heading his way. “And…. There! The perfect shelving system!” Twilight beamed as she inspected her work. “Wait! Spike! That book over there doesn’t have a spot!” She pointed at a lone book lying on the floor. “NO! That’s impossible! My caculations! I can’t believe this is happening!” she began panicking, checking and rechecking that all of the shelves contained sixteen books each. “Whose book is this? It is NOT mine, it can’t be!” she used her magic to dump all of the books back onto the ground. “SPIKE! Recount these and make sure that my math was right!” “But Twilight! Can’t you just put an extra book on one of the shelves?” He cried as the books all fell on top of him. “Ouch.” “No!” Twilight grabbed the book and galloped out the door. “I’ve got to see who this belongs to! I can’t be wrong! There is no way that this book is mine! Did I steal it from somepony? Oh no, that’s illegal! I can’t go back to jail!” her voice faded as she ran through the castle heading out to find the owner of the book. “Pft!” Rainbow tried but failed to hold in a snicker. Twilight had failed to notice that the extra book was a copy of Daring Do... She, Spitfire and Fleetfoot had been perched on top of one of Twilight’s very high book shelves, out of sight. “I was not expecting that! Sure, maybe yell at Spike, cry a little, I dunno, write a letter to Princess Celestia or something stupid like that… but that was fricken hilarious! I don't even care if I don't get my book back!” she nearly fell off the book shelf as she began laughing. “Rainbow Dash? Is that you up there?” came a muffled voice from under the sea of books. “Ah! Spike! Come on, let’s get outta here!” Dash, Spitfire, and Fleetfoot shot through the doors, still giggling uncontrollably. They flew through the halls and out the door before Rainbow stopped in her tracks. “Wait. Did Twilight say “Go back to jail?” “Ugh! Almost… there… whoa!” Scootaloo buzzed her wings as hard as she could, making it a couple of inches of the ground, realising she was sort of flying, then dropping to the ground out of pure excitement. “Did you SEE that?!” she exclaimed. “I was flying!” “Nice effort kid,” Soarin had been analysing the way Scootaloo had been trying to fly and was impressed by the amount of effort she was putting in. “However you’re making one especially bad mistake.” Scootaloo’s face fell instantly. “Aw man!” “Hey, it’s nothing you can’t fix! Scootaloo, I want you to watch how I lift off the ground.” He began slowly flapping his large wings, the bursts of air allowing him to take to the air. “Did you see?” “Yeah, but I still don’t get it.” She blinked up at him. “Well, the way that you’re trying to fly is small, quick flaps, correct?” he landed on the ground beside her. “Uh, I guess so.” She raised an eyebrow, still confused. “Try again, but this time spread you’re wings out as far as you can, and try going slower.” He extended his wings again, demonstrating what he meant. “You make it sound easy.” Scootaloo complained, looking back at her wings. “One of your wings is like, bigger than my whole body. Mine are tiny!” It was true, her wings were smaller than the average Pegasus foal, but Soarin believed that she could do it. “Just try squirt. It may not be easy at first, but with practice, you’ll be flying high in no time!” Soarin smiled at her. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he had a connection with Scootaloo. I’ve never really hung out with kids before… This is actually kinda fun! Scootaloo squared her shoulders, spread her little wings as far as she could and began to flap them. “Alright! Good job squirt! Go slower… a little slower…” he coached as Scootaloo began to rise into the air. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was rising at a steady pace now. She kept flapping, 10 feet from the ground, now 15, 20…. Her eyes popped open and she began screaming. “HOLY HAY! I’M FLYING!” she glanced at the ground, spotting Soarin cheering for her. “Whoa!” Scootaloo’s excitement had caused her wings to start buzzing again, and she began bobbing through the air. “Whoa! How do I control these things?!” she weaved through the air, eventually landing on the branches of an apple tree. “Scootaloo! You did it! You flew!” Soarin called up at her from the ground. “That was great!” “It felt awesome!” she beamed down at the Wonderbolt. “But it tired me out. I think I’m stuck up here in this dumb apple tree.” Soarin chuckled as he flew up to help her down. As they touched down Scootaloo looked up at him. “Thanks Soarin. You’re a great friend.” Soarin didn’t know what to say, so he just smiled at the little filly by his side. I’m her friend? He knew it was odd, only knowing this pony for a short time, but he felt as though they had a connection. He felt like… a big brother. “Wanna go get milkshakes at Sugercube Corner to celebrate my success?” Scootaloo grinned. “Sounds good kid.” “But you’re paying… I don’t have any bits and last time Mrs. Cake told me that smiles weren't a valid form of payment…” she pouted. “Yeah... Welcome to the real world Scoots.” “I’m hungry.” Fleetfoot whined as she, Spitfire and Rainbow touched down on the ground. After their speedy flight from Twilight’s castle, Fleet had announced that she was hungry seven times. “Okay Fleet, we get it. You’re hungry.” Spitfire rolled her eyes. “Well, we’re pretty close to Sugarcube Corner, wanna head there?” Dash looked around, noticing they were only a couple of minutes away from the bakery. “Sounds good!” Fleet began to trot, leaving the others behind. “Uh, you’re going the wrong way.” Dash snickered at the light blue Wonderbolt. “It’s actually over there.” “Um, yeah! I totally knew that!” Fleet changed course and began in the right direction. “C’mon RD, we don’t want her to get lost… Who knows what she would do…” Spitfire sighed as they followed behind. As they arrived at Sugarcube Corner and pushed open the doors, they were met by an odd sight. Soarin was sitting at a table, sipping a milkshake and chatting with three small fillies. “What the hell is he doing?” Spitfire squinted at him. “I see he’s met the Cutie Mark Crusaders… Otherwise known as Ponyville’s most destructive fillies…” Dash raised an eyebrow. “I wonder what their up to now…” “I don’t give a damn about what their up to, I just care about getting some food!” Fleet marched up to the counter and began ordering a large amount of food. Dash and Spitfire sat in a booth across from the CMC’s and Soarin, who hadn’t noticed them. They seemed to be in the middle of a very interesting conversation- Scootaloo was waving her arms about, Sweetie was giggling uncontrollably, Applebloom was banging her hooves on the table excitably, and Soarin was sitting with his arms crossed, eyebrows raised at the three fillies. The conversation going on at the other table was indeed interesting. Scootaloo crossed her arms and smirked at Soarin. “It’s alright Soarin. We’re friends now so you can tell me.” She glanced at Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. “Right crusaders?” “Yup!” Applebloom agreed, also crossing her arms in front of her. Sweetie Belle followed suit. “Scoots, what are you talking about?” Soarin was perplexed. The pair had arrived at Sugarcube Corner after their flight lesson, where Applebloom and Sweetie Belle happened to be. Scootaloo insisted that he met them, and the three fillies had spent a good ten minutes interrogating him about his history. They were nosy little things, wanting to know all about his past, how he became a Wonderbolt, the whole story. “I’m talking about,” Scootaloo raised her eyebrows and stared at him intently. “You know…” “No, I really don’t.” he was very curious as to what the CMC’s were talking about. “Ugh! Do we really have to spell this out for you?” Sweetie exclaimed, nearly knocking over her milkshake. “Whoa, nopony said anything about spelling!” Scootaloo looked at Sweetie. “What are you, a dictionary?” “Shut it.” The white unicorn squeaked. “Chicken-” “Girls, it’s clear that he doesn’t know that we know.” Applebloom intervened before an argument could begin. Soarin was now concerned. What did they know? “Ok, I’m still not following.” He glanced between the three of them. “What do you know?” “We know…” Sweetie giggled. “That you’re-” “Rainbow’s coltfriend!” Scootaloo interrupted, nearly falling off her stool. “What?!” Soarin’s jaw dropped. “Where did you get that idea?” “Duh! You’re staying at her house. She’s never- and I mean never- let any stallion into her house before. And trust me, I know like, the entire history of Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo snickered. “It’s true! She does!” Sweetie piped up. “And don’t think we didn’t see you two at the royal wedding!” Applebloom grinned. “Just because we weren’t invited doesn’t mean we weren’t there!” she clapped her hooves over her mouth. “I mean, we saw the picture. Of course we wouldn’t sneak away to Canterlot to go to a royal event without telling anypony…” she laughed nervously. “And at the Equestria Games!” Scootaloo waved her hoof in the air. “Which we actually were invited to! You were totally trying to let her win when you competed against her! Not that you needed to ‘cause she’s awesome!” “Ok, you have the wrong idea. Actually, you couldn’t be MORE wrong!” Soarin began. “Me and Rainbow aren’t even friends! I’m staying at her house, but so are two of my teammates, and it’s because we’re on vacation! Sure, I danced with her at the wedding, but I danced with pretty much everypony! And I was NOT trying to let her win at the Equestria Games.” ”Sure. ” Applebloom raised her eyebrows. ”We totally believe ya.” ”No we don’t!” Sweetie scrunched her face. ”We definatly don’t!” ”It’s called sarcasm. Look it up.” Scootaloo blinked at Sweetie. ”Whos the dictionary now” Sweetie shot back. ”You take that back!” Soarin sighed. Yeah, a nice relaxing vacation to Ponyville. Bullshit.