//------------------------------// // Ch. 5 Cutie Mark Crusaders // Story: Scootaloo's Dreams // by Broneyofnoel //------------------------------// As I walked away from Fluttershy's cottage, I became really nervous and really excited to meet Rainbow Dash. The way that Rarity had described her in the story...it was amazing! All the action, the strength, the selflessness! Sweet Luna, I wanted to meet her so bad, yet I wasn't sure what to be looking for aside from a rainbow mane, which wasn't very common, so that's what I'd scrounge around for. I looked around the clouds, mainly the low flying ones, for the rainbow mane, but all were empty. I kept searching all around Ponyville and even the Apple family farm, Rainbow wasn't anywhere that I could see. I saw it, a hint of a rainbow tail hanging from a cloud. It swayed back and forth with the breeze, so Rainbow must be asleep, either that or just being lazy. All of a sudden, the tail flipped and rolled a few times, still staying on the cloud, she was waking up. I started running as fast as I could towards the underbelly of the cloud, even using my small wings to propel me forward to the cloud. I saw two cyan hooves stretch above the surface of the cloud, then a rainbow mane rose up, followed by the rest of her body. I was almost under the cloud when I yelled, “Rainbow Dash!?” The mare turned around and looked down at me. I’m not sure why, but I felt a small spark. “Yeah?” she said as she descended towards me. “You’re amazing!” I said loudly. “Heh heh, thanks.” she put her hoof behind her head. “You really did all that stuff when you used the elements?” I asked, still excited. She recoiled a bit, but responded, “Yeah, who told you about that anyway?” “Rarity did! I’m friends with Sweetie Belle.” I said cheerfully. “Cool kid, I gotta go for weather duties.” Rainbow ruffled my mane, and then flew off. “Bye!” I waved my hoof, she was awesome! The speed that she flew off with was amazing, I’d never seen anypony fly like that. I trotted home, well...the cart that I’d found. I had, in the last week or so, found better pillows and blankets so I could be comfortable in there. -----------------------------------A few weeks later-------------------------------------------- Sweetie Belle and I walked towards Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara’s Cutie Mark party, Cutescinera I think, I couldn’t remember. When we got there, I saw a few other fillies and colts, only a couple of them were familiar, like Featherweight and Twist. The two of them were just mingling around the punch, listening to music, and talking to a few other of the ponies. All of a sudden, the music cut off and everypony looked over at the record player, right in front of it was the filly that Sweetie Belle had grabbed at the Summer Sun Celebration. “Wow, that is an amazing Cutie Mark!” Silver spoon said sarcastically as the two prissy fillies laughed at her. “Nice try Blank Flank!” Diamond Tiara spoke, but they said in unison by the end. We hid under a table, hoping to avoid ridicule from the two fillies. Once everypony started talking about how bad it was to be a blank flank, I spoke up, “You got a problem with blank flanks?” Everypony at the party gasped, and the two fillies in front of us shot to the sides. “I said,” I spoke louder, “You got a problem with blank flanks?” “The problem is,” Silver Spoon started, “She’s like, totally not special.” “No,” Sweetie Belle argued, “It means she’s full of potential.” “It means she could be great at anything!” I agreed, “The possibilities are, “I used a mocking tone,”Like endless!” “She could be a great scientist, or an amazing artist, or a famous writer, she could even be mayor of Ponyville someday!” Sweetie Belle chirped. “And she’s not stuck being stuck up like you two.” I said, pointing a hoof at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Ponies around them started to giggle and laugh at the two hostile fillies. “HEY, this is my party, why are you two on her side?” Diamond Tiara yelled. “Because..” Sweetie Belle and I raised our own blank flanks. “You don’t have your Cutie Marks either, I thought I was the only one!” AppleBloom said, astonished. “We thought we were the only two!” I said happily. “I for one,” Twilight said, “Think you three are very lucky fillies.” “Lucky?” Diamond questioned, “How can they be lucky?” Twilight recoiled a bit, but continued, “They still get to experience the thrill of discovering who they are, and what they’re meant to be!” “And they’ve got all the time in the world to figure it out!” Applejack said as she walked up, “Not just an afternoon.” Ponies murmured, and some of the smaller colts and fillies even ran up to her and asked her hundreds of questions. “Hey, what’s everypony doing, this is my party! Everypony is supposed to be paying attention to me!” Diamond yelled as she stomped her hooves. “Whatever, we still think they’re losers, right Diamond Tiara?” Silver Spoon said, “Bump Bump, sugar....lump...rump?” “Not now Silver Spoon!” Diamond said as they walked off. “My name’s Scootaloo!” I said to the filly that we’d rescued. “And I’m Sweetie Belle!” “AppleBloom!” she cheered. The party went on for quite some time, we didn’t see Diamond or Silver Spoon the whole time, near the end though the three of us decided to sit at a table and talk. “So i was thinking, now that we’re friends, I mean, we are friends right?” AppleBloom questioned. “How could we not be? We’re totally alike, we don’t have Cutie Marks, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon drive us crazy,” I started. “Totally crazy!” Sweetie belle said, and the three of us laughed. “Now that we’re friends, what if the three of us together find out who we are and what we’re supposed to be?” AppleBloom asked. “Oh Oh! We could form our own secret society!” Sweetie Belle said. “I’m liking this idea!” I said. “A secret Society, yeah, we’ll need a name for it though!” AppleBloom said. “Cutie Mark 3?” “Cutastically fantastic?” “How about, The Cutie Mark Crusaders?” “It’s perfect!” I said. The three of us celebrated with some cookies from the party. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A couple of weeks of crusading went by, but on one of the days, Applejack told us to follow her out to a deep part of the orchards. “Where are you taking' us?” AppleBloom asked. “We’re almost there youngins.” Applejack said. “I’ve never been here before.” Sweetie Belle said. “Ouch!” I yelped as a branch hit me. “Oh, sorry!” AppleBloom said. “There? Where? What? I don't even know what we're doing.” Sweetie belle said as she walked by the branch. “Here we are!” Applejack said as she stopped in front of a...treehouse? “What are we looking at?” AppleBloom asked. “I have no idea.” I answered. “What is that thing?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Cutie Mark Crusaders, welcome to your new clubhouse!” Applejack said proudly. After a moment of silence, Applejack continued, “Well, don’t thank me all at once.” “This was my clubhouse when I was your age. Sure it hasn't been used in a while, but it's empty and on a secluded, private part of the farm. And it's all yours. It just needs a little, uh... TLC.” Applejack said. “TLC as in Tender Loving Care or Totally Lost Cause?” I asked. “Well, maybe y’all will get you Cutie Marks when you discover your talent for...” Applejack yelled as she fell through the wall. We surrounded her, yet she continued, “Uh, house cleaning?” The rest of the day went by in a blur, us checking out everywhere we could think of to earn our Cutie Marks, the farm, SugarCube corner, the lake, the park, Rarity’s boutique, but something slowed down in the library. We were digging through the books in the library when we heard Spike say, “I had nothing to do with this.” “What’s going on in here?” Twilight said, accompanied by Cheerilee. “Well, we sure aren't getting our Cutie Marks for being librarians.” AppleBloom said, tossing a book beside her. “I should think not!” Spike said, causing a stare from Twilight, “What?” “Fillies, I think you're going about this the wrong way. Instead of trying to do things in areas you're not familiar with, why not try doing things in areas that you already like?” Twilight asked. “And I have a perfect place to start!” Cheerilee said, pulling a poster out of her saddlebag. “Showcase your talents, for all to see, at the annual Ponyville talent show!” The three of us read in segments. “There'll be all sorts of awards. Best dramatic performance, best comedy act, best magic act... Surely you can find your talent amidst all of these!” Cheerilee said. “This would be the perfect place to discover our talents!” AppleBloom said. With that, the three of us rushed off, we knew what we’d be doing, it would be a musical act, Sweetie belle would make the costumes, like rarity, AppleBloom would do the dance moves, and I would make the song. We rushed around town getting materials from Twilight, Rarity, Mr, Breezy, Applejack, and other ponies. Once we were back at the clubhouse, we got right to work on our performance. “Oh, ow!” AppleBloom said as she fell on me. “Ow, Apple Bloom! What are you doing?” I said as I got up, “Oh, I feel like I have four left hooves. I can't even spin right.” AppleBloom sighed. “Don't be silly. You just gotta keep your head forward until very the last minute, like this. See? Easy-peasy. You just gotta practice a bunch, that's all.” I said as I demonstrated a spin for her. “Wow! That does look easy. Thanks. Okay. Let's try this again.” AppleBloom tried to spin again, but alas, she fell again. “Keep practicing!” I said. “Will do!” AppleBloom said. The rest of the week went by quickly, the talent show passed, we won best comedy act, which we weren't going for, but it was a medal. I had ditched the cart to sleep in the clubhouse, and the three of us had become closer than ever. That was all a year and a half ago, a lot of interesting things had happened, the Rainbow Dash fan club had been started, Equestria almost ended...twice, and the three of us were at a royal wedding. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOM! We’re at somewhat current time, at the -4 years mark at least, no I can start to gain steam, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter though! It took like three days to write. Also, Valve said no to the Cutie Mark 3, you know, cause of the number.....