A yellow filly with red mane sat in front of a giant boulder next to the Carousel Boutique. Looking at all the pictures that had been drawn on them. Her big sister and her friends used to call it the Cutiemark Vault. Applebloom looked at it while remembering how it came to be. Tears forming in her orange eyes.
It has been quit a normal day, but she and her friends - Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle - were quit excited. Her cousin Babs Seed had announced that she is comming for a visit. So the three fillies had gathered at the train station of Ponyville, waiting for the train from Manehatten. It eventually arrived. As Babs Seed sat her orange hooves on the plattform the Cutie Mark Crusader rushed to her. It was the first time they saw her since she got her cutiemark. They welcomed her cheerfully and congratulated her. Applebloom remembers the melancholy face of her cousin, as did every word she spoke: "Thanks girls. It´s just that I am not sure what to do with it." Babs Seed blow some air as if she had to blow away hair in her face, but there was none in her sight. Old habits die hard. "I wanted to introduces you to the new leader of the Manehatten Branch of the Cutiemark Crusader. Since I can´t be continue being a Cutiemark Crusader." Only now they had noticed the soft pink pony standing behind her. She was a unicorn with a purple mane. They did not pay the new pony the amount of attention she had deserved. They were reminded what getting a cutiemark meant to the crusaders.
It was Sweetie Belle that broke the looming silence with her squeaking voice: "Follow me." The other fillies looked at her.
"What for?"
"Don´t worry I got this." Sweetie Belle said with the brightest smile on her face as she ran off. Knowing that the others will follow her no matter what.
The milk white unicorn led the cohort to the Carousel Boutique. She looked in the bush under the nearby tree.
"What are you looking..."
"Found it! Scootaloo help me get it out." The fillies put their strength together to roll a humongous boulder out of the bush. "Ladies, may I introduce you to Tom."
"Tom?" Four pair of eyes stared at Sweetie Belle as she stood there posing with a rock.
The awkward moment hold on forever till Applebloom finally asked: "So what do ya want with a rock?"
Only after the question Sweetie Belle realized that nopony was on the same page with her. "Oh... I thought we can draw her cutiemark on it as some sort of memorial for the Cutiemark Crusaders who got their cutiemarks." The pink unicorn whom accompanied Babs Seed offered to put her cutiemark on the stone.
Applebloom touches the brittle colors of the first cutiemark ever that had been put on the stone. Babs Pair of scissors, a tomato cutiemark with a single bit and a bird cutiemark. Three fillies had their cutiemarks at the Manehatten branch already when they started this tradition.
As time went by more and more cutiemarks were added to them and a lot of foals around the Ponyville and Manhatten pilgrimaged to Tom. Even none Crusaders wanted to put their marks next to their friends. Soon Applejack and Rarity started to call it the Cutiemark Vault with a smile on their faces as if that name meant something different to them.
The Cutiemark Crusader grew bigger over time, there became a Cloudsdale branch, a Fillydelphia branch and even a Las Pegasus branch of the Cutiemark Crusader. It was out of her hooves and still all this young ponies set their eyes to Ponyville.
The Crusaders have replaced the scouts in many towns by now. Quit an accomplishment. A warm lavender wing embraces the small yellow body. "Howdy Twilight."
"How are you Applebloom?"
The yellow filly whipped away the tears. "The vault it´s full. Sevenhundretfourtytwo fillys and colts got their cutiemarks. Tell me Twilight... Why does change hate me?"
The alicorn princess looked at her worried. "You know i have know idea whats wrong with you."
Applebloom escaped the carring wing talked back to the princess. "If ya excuess me Princess. Ah think my niece needs help with her son!" Angry the eternal filly made her way back to Sweet Apple Acers.
