"This is completely pointless!!" Scootaloo yelled at the top of her lungs. "We'll never get our Cutie Marks like this! In fact I don't think we'll ever get our stupid Cutie Marks in anything!! I think that the universe is out to get us!!"

"Scootaloo, calm down. Ah don't really think we'll get out Cutie Marks in this either." Apple Bloom responded. "And don't yell so loud. Ah think ya broke Rarity's ears."

"Quite right dear. I don't think you really have... the gift necessary to be a model." Rarity answered. "Please hold still, Sweetie."

"If Scootaloo doesn't have what it takes, I don't think I have it either." Sweetie Belle said. "Thanks Rarity, but I think it's about time we got back to the clubhouse."

"Be home in time for dinner, alright? Have fun!" Rarity called as the three left.

"Okay, so now what?" Sweetie Belle asked. "What should we do next? Clearly modelling isn't how we'll get our cutie marks."

"What's next on the list?" Scootaloo asked. "Apple Bloom?"

"Alright, let's see, um... we already did sculpting, marksmanship, boating, boat building, boat repairing, skyship piloting, skyship building, skyship repairing, modelling..." Apple Bloom trailed off, looking in disbelief at the list.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Scootaloo concernedly asked.

"Ah can't believe this. We ran out of things ta do!"

"What?!? How?!?" Sweetie Belle yelled. "We spent an entire month making that list!!! How can we be done?!?!?"

"Yeah, we put about 5,000 things to try on that list!!" Scootaloo agreed.

"Ah can't believe it either, but we are done the list."

There was a moment of blessed silence in Ponyville. Then the silence was violently broken (along with a fair amount of windows) when three voices simultaneously screamed "But we don't have our Cutie Marks!!"

"Sweetie Belle, I know that you're upset, but did you have to break every window in the Boutique? Some of them are extremely expensive, you know." Rarity said as she prepared a bowl of soup for Sweetie Belle. Sweetie was lying on the couch feeling miserable.

"I won't ever get my Cutie Mark, will I?" She asked miserably.

"I'm sure you will, one day." Rarity soothed her, putting down the soup and patting Sweetie's head.

"And I'm sure that the other Crusaders have already earned their Cutie Marks without me."

"Sweetie, I know that you will get your mark, just not today is all. I'm sure that you'll get it when the time is right."

"But when will the time be right?" Sweetie asked, looking hopefully at Rarity.

"I don't know, Sweetie. I just don't know."

"I hate my life." Scootaloo mumbled into her pillow.

"Is it really that bad?" A small lavender unicorn sitting at the end of her bed asked.

"It's worse, Dinky. I've tried everything, but nothing seems to work. It's like the universe doesn't want me to get my Cutie Mark. What do you think?"

"I think you need to try harder." Dinky replied.

"I've tried as hard as I can, and I still don't have it! You'll probably have yours before I have mine!" Scootaloo lamented.

"Relax, nopony ever doesn't get their Cutie Mark. Besides, isn't Sweetie Belle the drama queen?" Dinky smiled.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm probably overreacting. But still, isn't it odd that I haven't gotten my Cutie Mark yet?" Scootaloo rolled over and looked at Dinky quizzically.

"Maybe your Cutie Mark is so special that you need to work really really hard for a really really long time to get it!" Dinky suggested.

"Yeah, that's probably it! I just wish that I could have worked hard enough for long enough already."

Apple Bloom sighed. After Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had gone home she had locked herself in her room and had refused to come out, preferring to attempt to distract herself by reading. Unfortunately, it hadn't worked, and now she was even more depressed. She ran over the list one more time, hoping that there was something she had missed. Card playing, game designing, lumberjacking, bowling, alchemy... There was nothing they could do that they hadn't tried. Wait...

Apple Bloom sat up. She had a plan.

Apple Bloom ran downstairs as fast as she could. She paused for a second to ask permission from Applejack.

"HeyApplejackcantheCrusadersandahgoforatriptoAppleoosapleaseokaythanksbyeseeyalater!!" Apple Bloom yelled in the general direction of Applejack. She shot out the door as fast as she ran down the stairs, which was pretty fast, leaving Applejack blinking in confusion at the spot her sister had occupied for all of one second.

"... Okay?"

Scootaloo walked over to the door, intending to go to the playground with Dinky for a while. However, the door was thrown off its hinges as Apple Bloom ran in, grabbed Scootaloo, and yelled a barely coherent apology as she ran in the direction of Carousel Boutique with an extremely disconcerted Scootaloo in tow. Apple Bloom sprinted at maximum speed towards Sweetie's house.

"Appplleee Blloooooomm!!!!! Whaaaat Aarreee yyyoooouu dooooiing?!?!?" Scootaloo yelled.

"What?" Apple Bloom asked, stopping just in front of the Boutique.

"WHAT IN EQUESTRIA ARE YOU DOING??? I SHOULD BE THE ONE DRAGGING YOU AT A MILLION KILOMETRES AN HOUR, NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND!!!!!!!" Scootaloo yelled. In a much lower voice, she continued. "Why were you running anyways?"

"You'll see." Apple Bloom said cryptically.

"You know how we can get our Cutie Marks?!?" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

"How?" Scootaloo asked. "We've tried everything."

"Not everything. We've only tried things that we can do in Ponyville!!" Apple Bloom declared. "We haven't been able to try a lot of things that we might get our Cutie Marks in because we can't do them in Ponyville. So I thought that we could wander around Equestria for a while, try to get our Cutie Marks while we're away. What do you think?"

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sat in silence for a while, then nodded in unison.

"Sounds like a good idea!" Scootaloo declared.

"Count me in!" Sweetie Belle said.

"So it's decided?" Apple Bloom asked. The other Crusaders nodded. "Excellent! We leave whenever you're ready."

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS WORLD TRAVELLERS YAY!!!!!!" The three yelled in harmony.

Somewhere else in the world, Discord looked up from his newspaper. "Why do I feel like there's going to be a lot of chaos in the near future? Oh, right! It's Thursday!" He went back to his paper.

To be continued...

Author's Note

As you might have guessed from the title, this is the real first chapter of this story. As I said before, the previous chapter (which I'm going to post only after the story is complete) is a huge information dump/backstory. If enough people ask, I'll move the not-really-a-chapter to the back, so that you can understand why things are... different from the show. This has an AU tag for a reason, you know. So, this is the real first chapter. It's kinda rushed, because I promised a new story by the end of September 2015, and I remembered my promise three days before the end of the month. So, yeah. I'll try and remember to expand this at some point. As always, tell me what you think and thanks for reading!