Class started again as usual, this time the subject focused towards writing. With a pencil in his mouth, Butter tried replicating the cursive writing on the board. After struggling to get it perfectly copied, he looked down at his work. It looked more like a bunch of spaghetti on the ground rather than it did cursive. Butter groaned as he put the pencil down. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his right shoulder.

Butter turned his attention towards Scootaloo. "Dude, it's okay. I'm worse than you, actually!" she said, presenting her attempt. Butter would normally try to be modest as his mother told him, but she was right. It was far worse than his. Feeling relieved, Butter smiled a bit before he heard the bell ring. All the students around him stood up before Cheerilee spoke up.

"Hold on class! I haven't assigned your homework!" Everypony, including Butter either sighed or groaned. "Your assignment is a small essay on somepony you appreciate!"

Butter's miffed expression soon turned into an elated one as an idea soon ran through his mind. Wait, I can write about Dad! He's pretty interesting! Plus, I could earn popularity points from the others for having an awesome dad! Butter's wings flapped a bit in glee as he tried to contain his excitement.

"Alright, have a good rest of the day!" Cheerilee said as she dismissed the students. Butter followed the rest of his peers outside as he looked towards the Crusaders. He jumped a bit, noting that Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were both giving off very creepy smiles towards him, the kind of smile a Timberwolf gives before biting into its prey. Scootaloo trotted over to get her scooter and helmet before she realized what they were doing. Her eyes widened as she quickly joined them, sharing their unsettling smile.

Butter felt a chill down his spine. "...W-What?"

Sweetie broke their silence. "It's time." Suddenly, all three of them starting walking off, Scootaloo slowing down her pace on her scooter to accompany them.

Applebloom looked back at Butter. "Are ya comin' or not?"

There was a brief silence before Butter anxiously nodded and caught up to them. I'm going to regret this, aren't I...?

They started to walk casually to their unknown destination until Scootaloo started to smirk and open her wings. "Race ya guys!" Immediately, she start to buzz her wings as she bolted off with her scooter, leaving Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looking annoyed.

"Scootaloo! Ah said we were gonna be professional about this!" complained Applebloom.

"Professional my flank!" swore Scootaloo as she started to speed up.

Sweetie joined in the argument. "That's not even fair! You're on a...scooter..." It was too late, as Scootaloo was too far ahead to listen to their pleas. Both of their walking turned into running as they both tried to catch up to the obnoxious, competitive pegasus.

Surprised, Butter whined, "Hey! Wait for me!" He tried to contribute to the race, but after only half a minute of running, Butter was already out of breath and gasping for air. His running turned into jogging. His jogging turned into walking. His walking turned into him staying at a still position, inhaling and exhaling at a fast rate. He inspected his view in front of him, trying to locate the Crusaders. He saw that they were still rushing to their destination at a much faster pace than him, not even breaking a sweat. Butter groaned and tried to start to run again when he felt a sharp pain in his side. Butter growled in pain as he started to mutter to himself. "Owowcrampcramp...sonofadonkeyow...cramp..."

~~~

When Applebloom and Sweetie Belle got to the treehouse, they saw that Scootaloo was waiting for them, leaning on the side of the entrance with a cocky smile. "It's about time you slowpokes showed up..." she bragged.

"Can it, ya cheater!" scowled Applebloom.

"It's not my fault your so slow," she boasted.

Applebloom merely stuck out her tongue at her. Sweetie Belle interrupted their miniature feud and asked, "Hey, where's Butter?" All three of them looked around until they heard some gasping from behind them.

"I-I'm here!" attempted to say. Although with how tired he was, it sounded a bit more like incoherent mumbling. After a few more steps towards their location, he finally fell on his side, absolutely exhausted. Concerned with their new friend, all three of them bolted over towards him.

"Oh my gosh!"

"Are you okay?"

"Are ya dead?"

Sweetie and Scootaloo glanced towards Applebloom. "Wh-What? Ah'm just askin'!"

"N-No...I-I'mfine..." exhaled Butter. "I-I'mjustgonna...staydownhere...foranhourortwo..."

All three of them rolled their eyes. "Come on you drama queen!" said Scootaloo, poking his side. At the small jab, Butter suddenly sprang up and gave a feminine squeal. He got to his hooves quickly and backed away from her. Attempting to contain her laughter, Scootaloo asked, "A-Are you...pfft...alright?"

Butter responded quickly, "Yesjustdon'ttouchorpokemelikethatagain!"

Scootaloo's grin grew. "Ticklish?"

He blushed a bit and shook his head quickly. "Ofcoursenot!"

Observing the glow of Butter's cheeks, Scootaloo snickered. Applebloom just rolled her eyes and fake coughed. "Ahem! I thought we were starting the initiation..."

"Oh, right. Almost forgot!" The three fillies immediately shifted around towards the entrance and walked inside. They shut the door behind them and closed the open windows up with some wooden boards.

Butter heard loud rummaging throughout the treehouse for a few minutes, which was met with complete silence. After a few minutes of silence had passed, Butter called out, "G-Guys? Are you done yet?" There was no answer. He shrugged and stepped up to the door, putting an ear next to it as he tried to see if he could listen better. Still silence. Butter hesitated a bit before finally mustering up the courage to open the door to meet his fate. Inside there was darkness. No light. Not even a sliver of a sunbeam entering between the planks of the floors. Butter stepped forward some more when he heard the door close behind him loudly. Startled, he let out a silent shriek as the whole room went pitch black. "H-Hello?!" he tried to call out again, a bit louder this time.

"BUTTERBALL!" he heard a loud booming voice call from across the room. Butter screeched again and backed up into the wall, heart pounding. "DO YOU PROMISE TO RESPECT YOUR FELLOW CRUSADER BUDDIES FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIVE?"

"Y-Yes!" Butter squeaked out.

A second voice was heard, only this one was equally roaring and eerie. "WILL YOU TRY YOUR BEST AS A CRUSADER TO HELP OUT YOUR FELLOW CRUSADERS IN ACHIEVING THEIR CUTIE MARKS?"

"Y-Yes..." Butter said in a more calm and less frightening manner. It really didn't sound intimidating to him this time due to the fact that the voice used the term "cutie." It was really hard to use that word and still sound chilling.

"AND DO YA PROMISE TA NOT BE TOTALLY WEIRD AN' STUFF BECAUSE Y'ALL ARE A COLT?"

"Y-Ye-...wait what?"

Butter heard whispering from across the room. "Applebloom!"

"What?"

"You ruined the coolness of it!"

"Well, Ah'm just wondering, okay! I don't want 'im ta be like Snips or Snails!"

While the whispering voices were arguing, Butter sighed and felt the wall, seeing if there was a lightswitch somewhere.

"Applebloom, how many times have we told you? The ruling that the Crusaders should strictly be fillies was opposed three months ago!"

"Well, who made YOU the leader?"

"You were beaten two to one!"

"Well if Babs were here she would vote-"

The voices were interrupted as the lights flickered on in the clubhouse. He turned his attention toward the opposite wall and saw the three Crusaders holding megaphones. "U-Um..." stammered Applebloom. "Y-You're in!"

Butter rolled his eyes. "This was NOT a worthy surprise..."

All three fillies looked down at the ground in disappointment. "Butter, we're sorry," apologized Scootaloo. "We tried to make this look cool but we messed up."

Butter looked at them carefully and opened his mouth. The Crusaders were expecting for him to lash out at them, but instead heard him unexpectedly sigh. "It's...It's fine...don't worry."

"W-We'll make it up to you! Honest!" squeaked Sweetie.

Butter was unsure of that statement. "How?"

Scootaloo thought for a moment. "Well, since you are now an official Cutie Mark Crusader...we should go on a crusade!"

Sweetie and Applebloom simultaneously grinned. "Yeah!" they cheered in harmony.

"Woah woah...what do you mean by going on a crusade?"

"Well," Applebloom explained, "We try ta get our cutie marks by doin' things like-"

"Bowling!" Sweetie Belle interrupted.

"Sweetie, we already tried bowling..." sighed Scootaloo as she put her hoof over her face.

"Oh yeah...um..." Sweetie thought for a second before she spoke up again. "Fishing!"

"Did that..."

"...Kite-flying?"

Scootaloo nodded. "Did that..."

Butter sighed a bit, knowing that the others were at another stalemate. If this is some sort of gag, it's obviously not funny...

"Mountain climbing?"

"Did that..."

"Bowling?"

"You already said that!"

"Alright, Ah think he gets it!" Applebloom exclaimed, cutting them off. "What we're tryin' ta say is, we've done a LOT of things ta try ta get our cutie mark."

"But now that we have another member, we'll be able to get ours much faster than before!" noted Sweetie.

"So," added Scootaloo, "Any ideas of what we can do?"

Butter started to think for a moment before finally speaking up. "Well, if we can't think of anything we can do, can't we just look something up?"

"Huh?" Applebloom asked.

"Like, search up things we could do and get ideas from there?"

"Hey, that's a good idea!" piped up Scootaloo. "We could actually go to the library and see if there are any books on fun activities!"

"Good idea, Crusader Butterball!" remarked Applebloom. Butter smiled a bit at Applebloom's compliment. "Alright Crusaders! Forge to the library!"

The three fillies marched out the clubhouse before Butter spoke up, "W-Wait, where is the library?"

"Oh, it's back where we came from!"

Butter frowned a bit, "You mean ALL the way back there?"

Scootaloo snickered. "Don't worry, we'll go slow this time for you!"

Butter let out a sigh of relief. Thank Celestia...

Author's Note

Bad news, school is starting this Monday. So I won't be cranking out these chapters as much as I used to. Worst case scenario: a chapter every two weeks. But hopefully it won't come to that and I'll be able to write weekly chapters for you guys. Just wanted you to know.

Wub all you guys for your support on this lil story! <3