Making a Mark

"Hey, Rainbow Dash!"

The pegasus's ear twitched. She tried not to move on her napping branch.

"Rainbow Dash, wake up!" the young voice yelled again.

No movement. Stay perfectly still and maybe-

"Rainbow Dash, wake up!" The inflection was remarkably similar.

The voice apparently wasn't taking any hints. The cyan mare rolled over on the branch, shedding the pink blanket to the ground. She lowered her head closer to the ground, not caring to register who she was staring at before responding. She had a pretty good guess already. "What?"

"I wanted to invite you to the clubhouse. We're trying to earn our Cutie Marks the cool way today!"

The pegasi stared at each other. Dash, still through bleary eyes, made out a close cropped purple mane on the orange filly. At least it's not rainbow.

"Sorry," Dash began, "I'm a bit too busy to help you get your Cutie Mark right now."

"But you're the coolest pony in Ponyville. You're the most super ultra extra..." Scootaloo trailed off, looking for the words of praise discussed at the last fan club meeting.

"Extremawesomazing?" The fastest filly flier in Equestria completed the compliment without stumbling over her recent addition to the dictionary. She examined her admirer. The young pegasus's mouth was ear to ear with a white grin. Her diminutive wings were open to full mast, doing nothing to hide her flanks.

"Yeah! And Apple Bloom was saying how you went hangliding and did karate and stuff. That sounds wicked fun!"

Still perched on the apple branch, Rainbow weighed her options. Scootaloo was young, fast, full of potential, energetic, loyal, eager...

And way too annoying for today.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll help you girls out later. Just as soon as I settle some of my own stuff."

"Oh." The filly's voice lost its abrasive tone. "Okay. See you later then, Rainbow Dash."

From her regained position lying down on the tree limb, Dash heard a helmet buckle click and the engine-like sound of a filly’s wings. The sound diminished in pitch and volume as it sped off towards the site of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

She laid under the canopy's shade for a few minutes longer, now and again reaching up for an apple and tossing it into a collection bucket under a nearby tree. The last shot bounced off of the rim twice before dropping to the ground. The rainbow mare hovered down to the ground, flinging the blanket she dropped back on the branch. She picked the stray apple off the ground and, noticing the bucket to be full, bit into the crisp fruit.

Dash looked at her surroundings, listening to the late summer wind and occasional chirp of birds. The apple crunched again under her teeth. "Maybe I should actually get something done today."

She walked over to a pair of full baskets teeming with braeburns and harnessed up, buckets still on the ground. She tried to lift herself and the apples, but her momentum was stopped suddenly by the weight of the bushels of fruit and their containers. "Heh. I just... wasn't expecting it, that's all." Her excuse fell on no ears at all. With a greater heave, she hoisted herself and the apples off the rich soil and her legs locked under what must have been at least a hundred pounds of extra weight. Dash tried to spread her wings, but the path was blocked by bushels of braeburns.

She kicked into the ground with a foreleg. "Guess I have to walk back." She began the long march through scenic Sweet Apple Acres. Her walk grew to a trot, and her legs accepted the faster gait by regaining the natural bend.

"I still can't believe Applejack thought she could take care of this on her own." Rainbow chuckled as she passed through a well fenced path in the middle of an orchard. Each acre would need hours of work from most stallions just to get the apples, let alone make anything useful out of them. Applebuck Season would be starting soon – maybe everypony could help out the poor earth mare this year.

Dash arrived in the clearing outside Applejack's house well behind her already lenient schedule. She looked around cautiously and, noticing nobody around, set the bushels down on the ground and squirmed out the harness. She didn't feel winded, but her legs felt like lead weights. The Wonderbolt-in-training spread her restless wings and started to stretch out her stiff back and limbs. She rejoiced in the soreness, a sensation she hadn't felt in her body for the past few months aside from in her wings.

She took to the air to continue the calisthenics, flying every which way in forward, backward, strafing, looping, and all other configurations. She finished her exercises with her head in the clouds, looking down on the orchards. Concluding that she'd done an excellent job of conditioning for the short time she took, Rainbow dove back down to the ground, stopping face to face with her enemy of the day: apples. She lifted them up on her body once more, ready for the sudden weight.

Dash hadn't even taken a step when Applejack emerged from her home. Without missing a beat, the orange mare's face brightened. "Rainbow! Ya came ta help out with th'apples! How..." The farmer looked at the scene again, walking towards the pegasus. "... nice?"

"What?" the athlete managed to stammer out. "I was just around and saw that some of these were full. So I figured I'd take a few and run back here." Dash nodded in agreement with her own technical truth.

"And by 'around', ya mean sleepin'." Applejack nudged her friend in the side with a knee. "Well shucks, Rainbow, ah didn't think y'were the kind ta do that. Last time I asked fer help, y'were busy. Sleepin'." She began reminiscing innocently. "Come ta think of it, y'were busy sleepin' last time, too. And the time before that..." Dash sank into her apple-based armor at the accusations.

"Hey!" Rainbow piped up indignantly. "Are you saying I don't help ponies when they need it?"

Applejack mulled over the question. "Well, yer always makin' a big show of it when ya do. Buckin' apples seems a bit slow for ya."

"Excuse me for trying to help a friend, Applejack," Dash joked. "Where can I put these things?" She bounced her body up to make the fruit shake.

"Tha braeburns can go with tha rest of 'em, in the shed. Lemme open it up for ya." The two walked side by side, the pegasus making her best effort to not let the weight and fatigue show. The orange pony casually kicked the door open, revealing huge piles of apples. They were all organized by type.

"Now y'all can just put those there on tha pile with tha rest o' their kin." Applejack stepped back with a confident smirk on her face. The cyan mare paced around the shed, trying to compare her own red apples to some other red apples. She thought she found a match and turned expectantly to Applejack, who just stared back with a knowing smile. Taking this as a bad sign, Rainbow moved on to the next pile of apples that looked exactly the same. She got the same reaction.

Not about to admit defeat, she took out one of the apples and threw it on the granny smith pile.

"What in the hay are ya doin'?" Applejack asked flatly.

"Oh, just putting them on their pile."

"Rainbow, are ya blind?" The farmer trotted over to the pile of green fruit, walking up a small hill of harvest to reach the offending apple. She picked it up in her teeth and tossed it to the appropriate grouping. "These here apples ar-"

"Hah!" Dash ran over to the correct mountain of products and dumped her bushels on the pile. She turned to face her orange adversary and, feeling a huge weight off her shoulders, began a high skip as if she were actually using her wings.

Applejack opened her mouth to say something belligerent, but just looked at the blissfully objectiveless pony in front of her and smiled a sincere but subdued expression. She galloped up next to the pegasus and grabbed her, tousling the multicolored mane. "Yer a silly little hayseed, ya know that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow asked from her disadvantageous position.

"Oh, don't go worryin' about that, sugarcube." Applejack tried to shrug off her sudden comment from her and her friend's minds. "So now that yer done here, what's on yer plate?"

"Not much," the cyan pegasus replied, as nonchalant as ever. "Scootaloo asked me to help out the Cutie Mark Crusaders today, so maybe I'll surprise them by showing up."

"Ah should probably go survey trees out there 'ventually. Ya wanna head on out?"

"Sure, as long as I don't need to carry this thing around." Dash bucked the bushels off of her body, and the two ponies, side by side, galloped out towards the CMC clubhouse.

"Are you sure about this, Apple Bloom?" Sweetie Belle asked, a huge doctor's head mirror pushing her mane up.

"Ah'm positive!" the youngest Apple announced with a stethoscope around her neck. "This is sure to get us our Cutie Marks!" The two fillies peered into a cast-iron kettle as big as the two of them combined.

"Cutie Mark Crusader Potion Makers! Yay!" The cheer lacked a certain cut through the air, and the two young ponies stood next to each other for a brief silence.

"Maybe we should wait for Scootaloo first," Apple Bloom said nervously.

The increasing pitch of an approaching scooter rang through the orchards of the Apple estate, and the two crusaders ran to the window to see their friend burst through a bush into the clearing.

"Hey, Scootaloo!" Both treehouse-dwellers shouted downwards with wide grins.

"Hey, girls," the pegasus of the group replied as a matter of course. She unbuckled her helmet and draped it over the handlebars, keeping eyes set firm on the base of the scooter.

"We're gonna be Cutie Mark Crusader Potion Makers!" Sweetie Belle's voice cracked in anticipation out the window.

"Oh. Alright," Scootaloo responded with hesitation. She trotted up the ramp, her body low in a weak posture.

"Are you alright, Scoots?" Apple Bloom inquired, walking slowly towards her friend.

The pegasus entered the clubhouse proper, stopping in front of Apple Bloom. She looked at the various maps, charts, and lists on the wall, then to the giant alchemy pot set up in the middle of the room. A hoof placed lightly on top of her torso brought her attention to the crimson-maned pony in front of her. "Yeah, sorry Apple Bloom." She shook her head clear. "I asked Rainbow Dash to help us today, but she was busy." Scootaloo walked up to the black cauldron. "So we're making potions today, huh, Apple Bloom?"

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle jumped in excitement.

"Don't worry about Rainbow Dash. We should be able to find our Cutie Marks together!" Apple Bloom boasted. "I asked Zecora about it, and she gave me some herbs and flowers."

"What are we making?" the orange and purple filly asked. "Something awesome that'll explode?" Her head managed to hold itself up to a normal level, but her voice still lagged behind in energy.

"Nah," Apple Bloom responded, "it's just some medicine for a cough. We can't go hurtin' ourselves yet."

"Aren't you excited, Scootaloo?" The unicorn of the crusaders had had a grin plastered on her face since the pegasus arrived.

"A little bit. But I wanted Rai-"

"You need ta stop worryin' about Rainbow Dash so much," Apple Bloom lectured in interruption. Scootaloo lowered her eyebrows at the remark. "Phooey, she couldn't help me find mah Cutie Mark when she tried. She'd get all bored mixin' oils and leaves." She shook her head at her fellow crusader.

"Has Applejack helped you find your Cutie Mark?" Scootaloo poked sharply.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stood in silence for a long beat. The continually energetic unicorn stopped her metaphorical bouncing off the walls. The ribboned filly put out a hoof again to calm her friend.

"S-sorry," Scootaloo stammered in a rare bout of unconfidence, "that was not cool of me." She struggled to find words to rationalize her actions. After a few failed utterances, she sighed and hung her head. The yellow earth filly breathed in to speak.

"Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, please don't start another one of your arguments. We already said we can't get an arguing Cutie Mark." Sweetie Belle took a step back from her position between the other crusaders, timidly sinking to the ground.

Apple Bloom was the only member of the group still in a confident posture. "Sorry, Scootaloo. Ah guess ah didn't think of how important Rainbow Dash might be to ya." She backed off, leaving the clubhouse devoid of any conversational or active impetus.

"...Everything's cool, right?" Scootaloo asked hopefully, breaking the silence.

"Yeah. I forgive ya, Scootaloo." The two young ponies embraced tightly. Sweetie Belle watched, smiling, and began to sing.

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders," the gifted pegasus began tentatively, "on a quest to find out who we are." She paused and looked to her companions. They broke the hug and stood flanking Sweetie Belle.

"And we will never stop the journey," all of the crusaders joined in loudly, "not until we have our cutie marks!" The fillies laughed together, the sounds echoing through the apple orchards all around them for acres.

"Now, then, crusaders!" Apple Bloom called attention. "What are we today?"

"Cutie Mark Crusader Potion Makers! Yay!"

Rainbow Dash pulled her head out from a tree teeming with ripening fruit. “Cutie Mark Crusader whats?”

Applejack released the branch from her mouth, sending immature apples bouncing through rustling leaves on the rebounding limb. She looked up to the pegasus examining the tops of the orchard’s individuals. “Sorry, what now?”

“I think I heard the girls yelling about something.” Rainbow casually hovered down to the ground. Her back knees gave inwards the moment they hit dry earth, and she rocked forward quickly, her eyes focused on Applejack during the swift process. “Applejack,” Dash quickly offered, “do you ever feel worried about the Crusaders?”

“Sure ah do,” the farm pony nodded. “Ah mean, you’d feel mighty worried if yer sister was-” The orange-colored pony’s body rebounded back for a moment as her cadence broke. “If she was…” She looked to Dash for support. “You know what ah mean, don’tcha?”

“Uh, not really, Applejack,” Rainbow answered with a bouncy voice. “Apple Bloom’s just trying to get her Cutie Mark, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is, but I-” She stomped her strong forehooves down on the dirt path. “I really want this fer her, but it ain’t fair, plain an’ simple.”

“What do you mean?” Dash took a step forward and cocked her head a few degrees. “She’s just trying stuff out. You know they’re always bugging somepony for a Cutie Mark story.”

“Ah know that, Rainbow! She gets to be a little filly!” Her tones got angrier as her signature hat seemed to sink further back on her head. “But she could hurt herself doin’ all these silly games with girls that know less about a Cutie Mark than a snake knows how ta paint a barn! An’ Apple Bloom ain’t even gonna-” The frustrated farmer reared up and let out an annoyed groan at her continued inability to express herself.

The pegasus spread her wings out to be parallel with the ground, refusing to step back. “Calm down, Applejack.” Her eyebrows lowered to a more serious expression. “Apple Bloom’s just being a filly,” Dash insisted. “She can be anything she wants to be in the future.”

“Can she, now?” Applejack questioned to herself and her friend.

“Well…” Rainbow’s wings drooped a hint. “Well, yes, of course she can!” She held herself high for a moment, expectant of Applejack’s response. “And,” she continued, “she should try everything so she knows what she likes.”

Applejack took her hat off of her head, clutching it to her chest. “Rainbow, I… she’s gettin’ older. She’s gonna get her Cutie Mark soon and…” She gritted her teeth. “She’s gonna get an Apple Cutie Mark.”

“W-well, what if she doesn’t?” Dash’s eyes were fixed on the vacant top of Applejack’s head.

“Rainbow, yer gonna need ta trust me on this. Ah could go on ‘til the sun set and came back up three times about this. She means a lot ta me. Ah know what ah’m sayin’.”

The pegasus looked her friend over again and smiled. Back to her usual high trot, she marched forwards and snatched the hat from Applejack and tried to flourish it onto her own head. The result was the hat hanging lopsided by one of her perky blue ears. “Applejack,” she laughed with assurance, “I’m a hundred percent confident that if she set her mind to it, she could get any Mark when it’s time.”

“Ah really want that ta be true, Rainbow, I just don’t know if that’s tha whole truth o’ tha matter.” It was now Applejack’s turn to look at Rainbow’s head. She saw the off-kilter hat had accidentally mixed together a few of the red and orange strands and hair, both elements contributing to a suddenly disheveled looking pegasus.

Dash gave a closed-eye grin and another surprisingly controlled laugh. “Why don’t we go over to the Crusaders? I bet they have something to say about this. Maybe I could try to help Apple Bloom get her Cutie Mark some time.” She stepped forwards with a grin, flipping off the hat and placing it hard on Applejack’s head with two hooves. “Maybe I’ll even try some apple stuff, if you want.”

The mares stood still, a few hooves away from each other. “Sure,” the earth pony began after a prolonged pause, “we can talk ta them today.”