> Cutiemarks and Cute Colts > by Maplepone > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Babs's Return > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Come on Sweetie Belle" called Apple Bloom as she runs towards their clubhouse. "I'm coming! I'm coming" Sweetie Belle pants. "What's the rush?" I ask as I zoom through the apple trees on my scooter. "There is somepony visiting" replies Applebloom with a mischievous wink. "Who?" squeaks Sweetie Belle, finally catching up to Applebloom. "You will see" she says in a sing song voice. Belle and I exchange looks. What was all this about? I had no clue. Maybe somepony that could help us get our cutiemarks? Nah, all adults tell us is we will get it when the time is right, but I want it now! We are all thirteen years old now and still nopony from the Cutiemark Crusaders has got their mark. Maybe we are destined to be blank flanks for the rest of our lives. I shock off the thoughts as I skidded to a halt out side our clubhouse. "Uh Applebloom? Where is this pony?" I ask looking at her with a puzzled expression. She just grins at me and says as she trots up the ramp, "Come inside y'all." Sweetie Belle and I follow her into the Cutiemark Crusader Clubhouse. I look around the room but I don't see any pony. "Hello?" I say a little cautiously. "I want you to welcome back our Manehatten Cutiemark Crusader, Babs!" Applebloom declares. Out of a shadowed corner Babs Seed appeares. She blows her hair out of her face and says a little shyly, "Hey." "BABS" says Sweetie Belle excitedly. "Babs! We have missed you!" I say grinning. "What are you doing here?" "Well I uh" she starts looking down at her hooves. "Come on Cuz, ya can tell them" replies gently. I look at the two of them, puzzled. Babs nods and continued, "Ma sis let me come up here after I got" she paused with shy but proud look on her face, "my cutiemark." The clubhouse fell silent. Babs had got HER cutiemark. As I soak in the information, Applebloom nudges me. "Say something!" she hisses quietly in to my ear. "Uh, show us" I say still in shock. "Yeah! Show us your not so blank flank!" pips up Sweetie Belle.[ Babs blushes a little and turns around. There on her brown flank a green diamond with a darker green outline and a apple seed in the middle. I couldn't help but suppress a gasp, Babs got her cutiemark, Babs got her cutiemark, BABS got her CUTIEMARK. Wow. "Wow! So cool!" squeaks Sweetie Belle. "I know right!" replies Applebloom grinning brightly. "We are going to have her cutesinera in the barn tomorrow! Applejack got the Pony Tones to play there and Pinkie Pie volunteered to do the catering!" Finally I regain my voice, "That's awesome! Way to go Babs!" "Thanks you guys" Babs say smiling. "GROUP HUG!" squealed Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle grabs us and pulls us into a huge group hug. Ugh, I hate hugs they are just, well I don't know I juste don't don't like them. For Babs sake I put up with it. Then Babs looked at us nervously and said, "Because I got my cutiemark, am I not a Cutiemark Crusader?" > Sugar Cube Corner > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The clubhouse goes silent once again. Babs looks at us anxiously and says "Beacause you know, I can't really crusade anymore, I have my mark." I think about it for a second and then say, "You could be something like a Senior Cutiemark Crusader." "But she's not OLD!" says Sweetie Belle defiantly. I suppress the urge to do a face hoof as say through gritted teeth, "Not like a OLD senior, but more like a senior member. The senior members could help other members find their special talent! You know like a mentor!" Babs brightens up, "That would be awesome!" "Yeah! I like it!" says a smiling Sweetie Belle. "Thats a great idea Scoots!" Applebloom grins, "But what should we call the senior group?" "Um" I mumble. "The.. uh." "Ooohhh!!! Ooooooohhhh!" squeals Belle, waving her hoof in the air. "The Senior Crusaders." "Its okay..." says Applebloom thoughtfully. "We could just call them The Cutiemarks" I say thinking. "Babs would be the leader of the senior group, so maybe, Babs's Crusders" suggests Sweetie Belle. "I think we should all have equal power" says Babs. I turn to look at her, "yeah we should! The Senior Crusader can help the Cutiemark Crusaders find there cutiemark and we work together till we all have our Cutiemarks!" "Yeah!" says Applebloom. "So we are the Cutiemark Crusaders and you, Babs are our first ever Senior Crusader!!!" Babs looks at all of us smiling brightly, "Thank you guys so much!" "We know you would do the same for us" Applebloom says smiling. I beam at my friends. I was so lucky to have such amazing friends. I knew we would be together till the very end. Ew! Now my thoughts are turning sappy! "Let's go celebrate at Sugar Cube Corner with some of Pinkie Pie's chimycherrychangas!" says Sweetie Belle, jumping up and down. "Yeah" the rest of us say in unison. With that we all run out of the club house thoughts of chimycherrychangas in our heads. I grab my scooter and hop on. "Last one to Sugar Cube Corner pays for all the chimycherrychangas" I yell over my shoulder as I zoom through the apple trees. I beat my wings as fast as I could, gathering speed. The ramp I had set up for when I has going out of the apple orchard was just a head. I prepared my self for the jump, then I was flying, my scooter beneath my hooves and my wings propelling me forwards, then I land smoothly on the ground. I look back to see Applebloom running as fast as she could towards me. "I better pick up the speed" I say to myself smirking. I beat my wings, I know I can go faster, come on Scootaloo. I sped through the trees and arrived at the Sweet Apple Acres barn. I skid, spraying dust, doing a 90 degree turn. I set my sights on the path that lead out of the Apple family's property, within minutes I am racing down the streets of Ponyville the wind in my mane. I was going to win! Then I won't have to pay and I can save up my bits for new wheals for my scooter. I grin at the thought, Sugar Cube Corner was meters away. Then all of a sudden I am knocked of my scooter and sent flying. I land in puddle of water, my mane was soaked and when I turned my head while still lying down, I saw the rest of the Cutiemark Crusaders racing from Sweet Apple Acres. I tried to get up but my mane had been caught in the wheal. Who or what had nocked me over? Whoever or whatever did it was going to pay! > Rumble > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I whip my head around to see who had nocked me over. In front of me was a small grey colt with purple eyes and a dark blue and dark grey mane. All the feeling of hate that I had felt when I was nocked over disappeared. I stare at him, watching him brush the dirt off his wings. When he finally looks at me he says a little sheepishly, "Sorry about that, I uh, yeah. Sorry. Um need a hoof?" I nod unable to speak, who was this colt? I new emotion bubbled inside me, I had never felt this way before, I felt all sappy but for some reason I didn't care. I return to reality when I feel a gentle hoof untangling my wet dirty mane. "T-thanks" I stutter. "No prob" he answers looking at me. "What's your name?" "Scootaloo but my friends call me Scoots" I say quietly. "My name is Rumble" he says blushing a tiny bit. Did he just blush? It must be the light, or maybe the hit messed up my brain. "Cool. Are new to Ponyville?" I ask starting to regain my voice. "Yeah," Rumble says smiling, "I moved here from Cloudsdale." "I have always wanted to go there" I say dreamily, thinking of me soaring around it the clear blue sky. "Hey, why don't we fly up there sometime and I could show you around" he says as he finishes untying my mane. My heart sinks, "I uh...." I mumble looking at my hooves. "What's wrong? Was it something I said?" Rumble asked concerned. I take a deep breath and shake my head, "I am a blank flank, flightless pegasus." "I am so sorry, I didn't know, I saw you speeding on your scooter and you looked like you were flying..." he mumbled looking at his hooves. I look up at him, a sad smile on my face and say, "It wasn't your fault, you didn't know, beside even if I could fly you won't want to hang out with a blank flank, I am not exactly popular." Rumble was silent for a moment before he said, "I don't care and plus I am a blank flank too." I stare at him, my mouth wide open. Finally I stutter, "Really?" "Yeah..." he says covering his flank with his tail. "I want you to meet someponies" I say smiling. He looks at me questionly as I pick up my mud soaked scooted. "Follow me" I say pulling my scooter beside me. I push open the doors of Sugar Cube Corner and drag my scooter along with me, followed by Rumble. Before I could set down my scooter a shrill voice pierces my ears. > Meet the Crusaders > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "SCOOTALOO! You of all ponies should know not to bring a muddy scooter into a building!" Mrs Cakes say sternly from behind the counter. "Go put your scooter outside!" "Sorry Mrs" I say. Then I look at Rumble and say "wait here!" I grab my scooter, drag it outside and prop it up beside a flower box. Then I go back inside. "Over here Scoots" calls Applebloom from a table near the back of the sweet shop. "Who is the new colt?" asks Sweetie Belle as I approach the table with Rumble beside me. "This is Rumble" I say with a tiny blush. "Hi" says Rumble shyly. "Hiya I'm Sweetie Belle" squeaks Belle. "Howdy! Mah name is Applebloom" grins Applebloom. Babs blew her mane out of her face shyly, "Hey, the names Babs Seed." "Rumble is a blank flank too" I say smiling at Rumble. Rumble turns red, "uh yeah..." "A NEW BLANK FLANK?" squeals Sweetie Belle. "Quiet" I whisper, looking around to see if any pony noticed. The cafe had gone silent and everypony was looking at us. "Nice going Belle" I hissed. Belle covered her mouth with her hooves and whispered, "oh my, I am so sorry Rumble." Babs rolls her eyes, "Belle if you keep blurting out things like that you could get your cutiemark for being a blabber mouth." Sweetie Belle looked up her eyes shinning with excitement, "I could get my cutiemark?" "Really Sweetie, you want that to be your talent?" Applebloom says raising a eyebrow. Rumble looks at me confused, "What's going on?" he whispers his mane brushing against my cheek. I blush, feeling my heart pound in my chest, "Uh..." I say dumbly. Now it's Rumbles turn to raise an eyebrow. I hear Babs, AB and Belle arguing but at the same time I don't hear what they are saying. I shake my head to clear it, "We are all blank flanks except for Babs, she just got hers and we are here to celebrate her new cutiemark" I reply. "Oh cool" Rumble says grinning. "Congrats Babs!" "Thanks" Babs said with a grin. Applebloom and Belle are still arguing to break it a part I say loudly, "HELLO? ANYPONY HOME?" They stop talking and turn to look at me, "Sorry Scoots" says Belle quietly. "Ah am sorry too Scoots" Applebloom says looking up at me. I roll my eyes, "No need to be sorry, I just wanted your attention." Rumble glances at me shyly, I smile at him encouragingly. "Rumble?" I say, now grinning at him. "Yeah?" he asks with a nervous smile. "Do you want to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" I say with a smirk. "The what a what?!" he replies bewildered. "He should totally join!!!" pipes up Belle. "Scoots, Belle, he doesn't even know about the CMC" replies Applebloom with a sigh. "Oh yeah..." giggles Sweetie Belle sheepishly. The four of us quickly explain about our club. I really hope Rumble joins, he seems super nice and he is also really cute. Did I really just think that!? I thought he was cute!? Blah my brain IS messed up. I refocus my attentions to the group. "Oh oh and you get a special cape!!" says Belle enthusiastically. "Yeah, they are cool, Belle makes them with her sister Ra-" starts Babs but she was cut off by the appearance of two, not so blank fillies with smirks on there stuck up little muzzles.