Chapter 1 From Hang Gliding to Marbles, We'll Never Stop Trying!
“At this rate, we'll never get our Cutie Marks! We'll be as old as Granny Smith and STILL be blank flanks!” Apple Bloom remarked sadly as she laid down in the Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse next to her two best friends and fellow Crusaders.
Scootaloo nodded as she laid her head on her hooves in despair. Their latest attempt (Cutie Mark Crusader Window Washers) hadn't worked either.
“Come on you guys! We can't give up! There must be something we haven't tried yet...” Sweetie Belle trailed off in thought.
“Oh, I know!” She exclaimed with a crack in her voice.
“What about Cutie Mark Crusaders Video Game Experts!” The two other fillies looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
“Yeh need bits to play them video games...”
“Yeah, and how can we be experts if we haven't even played them before?” Scootaloo asked with another roll of her eyes.
“Oh... well, what if we saved up our allowances for a couple of weeks and then played the games to see if we get a video game cutie mark?”
“Well, Ah guess that would work. But what do we do in the mean time?” Apple Bloom asked as she sat up. This gave Sweetie Belle pause, as video games were her only idea.
“Hey! What about hang gliding?” Scootaloo exclaimed as she jumped up from the floor. The others pondered for a moment before nodding along.
“Yay! Cutie Mark Crusaders Hang Gliders!” The Cutie Mark Crusaders yelled as one and took off for town.
As they ran, Apple Bloom turned to the others with confusion on her face.
“Where are we gonnah find hang gliders?” All three fillies pulled to a sudden stop as they looked at one another. They sat in a circle and put a hoof to their chins in thought. Their ears twitched as they heard somepony near by singing....
“... is my bestest friend, whoopy, whoopy,
she's cutest smartest the all-around best pony, pony,
I hope she'll soon like me, like me,
I just can't wait, hopefullllyyyy~”
The Crusaders' eyes went wide as they all yelled, “Pinkie Pie!”
“She'll know where we could get some gliders. Let's go ask her!” Sweetie Belle said as she bounced in place, glad for an answer close by.
The others nodded joyfully and they raced away towards the pink mare. They found her bouncing away from the library.
“Hey Pinkie Pie! We've got a question for ya!” Scootaloo said as she pulled up next to the older mare, Apple Bloom nodded along as Sweetie Belle chipped in with, “You wouldn't know where we could get some hang gliders do you?”
Pinkie Pie tapped her chin with a hoof as she looked skywards to think.
“Oh! Oh! Let's go to the Sporty Pony. They have lots of extreme sports things!” And with that the party pony hopped towards a large tent that was green with blue top and a large banner over the front with various sports equipment on it and its name 'The Sporty Pony”. The girls hadn't seen that store before and knew they were going to be frequent customers.
As Pinkie Pie trotted up to Ace, who was working the counter that day, the Crusaders looked throughout the store, ideas for many more Cutie Marks flashing through their minds. After a minute of talking and hoof-waving on Pinkie's part, the pink earth pony hopped over to the young fillies.
“Great news guys! Ace just received a shipment of hang gliders! But they're only one size, big, so you'll have to share one so you don't get hurt, ok?” Pinkie threw her front hooves out and pulled a green box over (the girls were nearly positive there wasn't any boxes like that near them a second ago).
“Here you guys! The bits are all taken care of, so long as you guys stay safe ok?” Pinkie asked with a wink and bounced away. The fillies were amazed, they didn't have to pay for it?
“This is so cool! Alright you guys! Let's go earn our Cutie Marks!” Scootaloo yelled as she began to push the box with her head.
The others joined in and soon they had pushed it all the way to the edge of Ponyville where the highest point was (which was the hill/mountain where they tried to earn their mountain climbing Cutie Marks previously).
It took the three friends thirty minutes to put together the glider. Fifteen was spent trying to put it together, ten to actually read about how to put it together and another five to untangle themselves from each other. Once they were done they climbed to the top of the hill/mountain and strapped their legs in.
“You ready guys?” Scootaloo asked from the middle of the trio.
“Ready!” The two others replied, Sweetie Belle's voice cracking a little from excitement.
“Here we go!” Scootaloo shouted as they pushed together and jumped off. It was at that moment that a gust of wind blew by and made them stay air born for a second longer, but not long enough for them to learn how to steer.
With a loud 'CRASH' the Crusaders tumbled from a tree that they flew into. They had crashed into no less than three trees before landing in a heap of twigs, tree sap and pine needles.
“Well, tha' could have gone better...” Apple Bloom said as she tried to get out from under the ruined glider.
“Well, let's find out. Any Cutie Marks?” Scootaloo asked as they managed to get out from the mess and looked at their flanks.
“Nope.” The three sighed and began to pack up the glider.
They managed to drag the wrecked glider to their club house, where they stuffed it into the attic. After putting it away, they went in search of water and cleaning rags to get all the tree sap off. They found some in the Apple's barn, and spent another half hour trying to get the tree sap off.
“Mah gosh, tree sap is really hard to git off. Maybe we'll get our Cutie Marks in cleaning ponies?” Apple Bloom asked as they used more soapy water to try and get cleaned up.
The others' eyes lit up and they began to clean more vigorously to see if they could find anything. Once they finally got cleaned up, they looked in excitement at their flanks to find them still blank.
“Awwww....” The three fillies cried as one.
They sat on the barn floor as they tried to think about what to do next, when Apple Bloom grew thoughtful.
“How 'bout we go inter' town and see if anypony could use some help?” The others sighed as they nodded, they would try just about anything at this point.
As the trio went back into town, they found some of their classmates in a side ally, with an older pony standing close by. As they drew closer, they noticed that there were marbles on the ground and the light cream colored pony with a two toned blue mane and tail in ponytails was giving advice to her audience.
As the Crusaders stepped up and looked at the pack of marbles laid out on the ground inside a circle drawn on the ground, Allie Way noticed the latest addition to her teaching and looked at the fillies.
“Hi girls. Did you want to learn about playing marbles too?” She asked as she leaned down towards the fillies as they looked back with blank stares.
They turned and looked between themselves as they all gave a small shrug and nodded. Apple Bloom spoke for the group as they all looked back at Allie Way. “Sure, thank ya kindly Ms Allie Way.”
“No problem, girls. Ok, so from the start, it takes a lot of practice to get the aim just right, but if you work at it, you can get the marbles to do just about anything.” Allie Way stated as her class hung on her every word.
To demonstrate her point, Allie grabbed a marble in her hoof, took careful aim, and shot it with a quick flick of her wrist. The marble shot forward before suddenly turning sharply, avoiding one marble to hit the other right behind it and knocking three more out of the circle before coming to a rest in almost the center of the circle.
Allie Way sat back, pleased with her shot as the young ponies gave cheers and all wanted to learn how to do that exact trick. For the next few hours, she helped each one with how to hold the marble, how much force to put behind it, how to aim and other important factors.
For the Crusaders, it was mixed results. Scootaloo used too much force and kept sending marbles ricocheting off the nearby walls, creates and other foals playing close by (who glared as they rubbed the sore spots). Sweetie belle didn't use enough force and the marbles kept rolling only halfway. Apple Bloom couldn't find the right way to aim, and her marbles kept rolling straight out of the circle without hitting a single one.
All too soon, the other ponies learning from Allie way kept glaring at the trio as they rubbed sore spots caused by all three of the Crusaders somehow. Allie Way felt bad that she couldn't seem to help the Crusaders like she was for the others and tried to keep up their spirits with more encouragement.
“Well, that was pretty good for a first time trying girls. Why don't you take some of the marbles to practice later on as well? Just remember, nopony ever got it the first time!”
“But didn't you get it the first time you ever did marbles Allie Way? Like you did for bowling, and darts and hoops and -” A blue-coated, red maned earth pony classmate asked as all the children looked at the older mare.
“Well, yes, but my special talent is near perfect aim. I just have a natural ability for it, but I've taught others who now have great aim as well, so I know these tips and advice work.” Allie tried to counter the colt's words as she could see it effect the Crusaders' spirits.
“It's ok Ms Allie Way. We'll just leave you guys to your practice. Thank you for teaching us, even if we couldn't get it right.” Sweetie Belle quietly said as she and the others turned around and left the ally slowly.
“Yeah, those were some pretty cool tricks. It's too bad we'll never be able to do something like that...” Scootaloo said as she dragged her hooves along; saddened by another failed attempt at getting their Cutie Marks.
“Thanks fer the marbles, Ms Allie Way. Maybe we'll get th' chance to practice more some other time.” Apple Bloom said as she picked up the small sack of marbles, following her friends as they went back into the main part of town.
As they came out to busier streets, they noticed how the sun was getting lower in the sky and two of them knew their sisters wouldn't want them to be out late. So they called it a day and went their separate ways, with Apple Bloom making a quick stop by their club house first to put the marbles away before heading home.
They remained hopeful that they would find their special talents someday though, and spent the night dreaming of what it could be.
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LOL first like all greeni1188.photobucket.com/albums/z420/MarieD-Aqua/2128216-Happy-Forever-Alone-Guy-Meme-Face-Blank-Template_zps1c3f4825.jpg . Andeverythingsandnothings.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/first-post.jpg
3084942 Indeed. Indeed.
Green bar looks so nice. Glad you like it 
3084950. Just derpderpin along
just wanna say interesting story but the beginning was applebloom (i think) saying, "Well be as old as granny smith and still not have our cutiemarks!" happily or with saddness?
3085624 yeah, it was Apple Bloom, mostly with sadness. I think the girls said something similar in the show. Sorry if it wasn't clear. I'll check it and see if there is anything I could do to make it more obvious. (though both of the others were saddened as well by that statement)
Glad you find it interesting, believe me, this is going to get rather interesting throughout the story.
you may have just missed the wording is all
3090202 that was my attempt at making it clearer.
ah yes sorry i missed it before
i read so many things here that i didnt notice you made that change
I will make sure to be more vigilant for things like this in future, fear not dear readers
3090654 It's all good.
I was actually tempted to run the change by you to make sure I somehow didn't mess it up, and when I saw how you quoted it I panicked and checked on it. (the quote was missing the 'a' of remark) 
Did it at least make it a little clearer that they were upset?
3090635 its cool man i just notice things like that now, my new english teacher makes me notice these things
3090675 sounds like a good english teacher. i hardly ever got any feedback about writing from mine...
they usually focused more on what books we had to read. 
that's pretty odd now that i think about it.... maybe I just somehow missed any of the lessons on proper grammar? 
... yeah, they said HOW to write a good essay, but not the nitty-gritty details...
3090673 don't worry about running things by me, it is your story.
the missing "a" in remarked was my fault.
3090675 My English professor also taught to look for those things. It's bothering me right now that I missed that when going through it
3090767 haha yeah i wouldn't blame you like mine gets pissed if we miss something like that well not pissed like dissapointed