New Cutie Mark, New Problems
One day, a nice little colt was working on a school project with his friends, and in the middle of it, he obtained his cutie mark!
“I did it! I got my cutie mark!”, he exclaimed.
He rushed to show everypony the new mark on his flank.
“Wow that’s great, dude!”, one of his friends told him.
“Yeah!”, another friend agreed.
The young pony went home feeling proud and accomplished at what he’d done, and his family also congratulated him.
“I’m so proud of you!”, his mother told him.
“We all are.”, his father added.
His brother and sister congratulated him, and he went to bed with a renewed feeling of pride and confidence.
The next day, however, his personality took a turn for the worse.
“Hey, I heard you got your cutie mark yesterday.”, a classmate who was sick that day reminded him.
“Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. Might even be better than yours for all I know.”, the colt boasted.
“Woah, hold it. I just wanted to congratulate you.”, the classmate stated.
“Yeah? Well, I was congratulated plenty yesterday, but one more compliment wouldn’t hurt at all. Especially since I know for a fact it’s better than yours”.
The classmate stopped talking to the colt and thought to himself “Well, if he’s just gonna be a jerk about it, then I just won’t talk to him”.
In the hallway, the colt showed off his cutie mark with pride, boasting about it to everypony that noticed. He had an audience, and drank in the moment as much as he could.
“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. Especially since I got it just yesterday. Some ponies wish they could have a cutie mark as great as mine”.
It was like this for the next week or so: The colt would show off his cutie mark, smugly rub it in the faces of any blank flank or pony that he didn’t consider a friend, and brag about it every chance he got. When his cute-ceanera came along, it was even worse. He turned down anypony that didn’t have a cutie mark, and made sure to constantly remind any blank flank of what he had over them.
“Sorry, only ponies with cutie marks are allowed to attend. Come back when you have a cutie mark like I do.”, the colt rudely reminded a cutie mark-less pony that had come to hang out with her friends.
“Gee, ever since he’s gotten his cutie mark, he’s turned into such a jerk!”, one filly told her friend.
“I know! It’s like he doesn’t even care about anypony besides himself anymore!”, the friend agreed.
“What’s going on?”, a unicorn filly with a purple and pink mane and tail, green eyes, white coat, and a shield cutie mark with purple, pink, and red mixed in with a musical note in the middle said.
“A colt in our class recently got his cutie mark, and now he’s acting like a huge jerk!”, the other filly told the unicorn.
“Mmm, sounds like a job for the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”, the unicorn filly said excitedly.
“Who?”, the other filly asked.
“Me and my friends. It’s kind of a long story.”, the unicorn answered sheepishly.
“What’s your name?”, the other filly asked.
“Sweetie Belle”, the unicorn filly answered.
Sweetie Belle made her way to her two friends. One of which had a red mane and tail, yellow coat, red and brown eyes, a pink bow in her mane, and an identical cutie mark to Sweetie’s, with an apple in the middle in place of a music note. Her name was Apple Bloom. The other had a purple mane and tail, an orange coat, violet eyes, and an identical cutie mark to Belle’s and Bloom’s, with a wing in place of an apple and music note. Her name was Scootaloo.
“Hey Crusaders, we have a cutie mark problem on our hooves!”, Sweetie Belle alerted her two friends.
“Really?”, Apple Bloom asked excitedly.
“What is it?”, Scootaloo asked in the same tone.
“It’s not a pony who’s trying to get their cutie mark, it’s a pony who’s turned into a huge jerk because of his cutie mark!”.
“This feels familiar. Didn’t we deal with something like this with Diamond Tiara?”, Scootaloo asked.
“I’m pretty sure she was a brat before she got her cutie mark, Scootaloo.”, Apple Bloom reminded her pegasus friend.
“Oh, right.”, Scootaloo corrected herself.
“Well, do you know where he is?”, Apple Bloom asked.
“Yeah. A friend of his said he’s at his cute-ceanera.”, Sweetie Belle answered.
“Well then, let’s go Crusaders!”, Scootaloo commanded.
The three fillies trotted to the colt’s cute-ceanera, and saw him arrogantly flaunting his cutie mark in front of all the ponies at the party.
“Wow, he sure is proud of his cutie mark.”, Apple Bloom commented.
“You said it.”, Scootaloo added.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go talk to him.”, Sweetie Belle told the other Crusaders.
The trio trotted up to the recently-marked pony, and got his attention.
“Excuse me, can we talk to you?”, Sweetie kindly asked the colt.
“What do you three want?”, the colt asked rudely.
“We just want to talk to you about your cutie mark.”, Sweetie told the colt.
“Yeah? What do you want to know about it, aside from the fact that it’s totally better than yours?”, the colt condescendingly asked. “In fact, it seems like your cutie marks are exactly the same! Ha! Really? You girls really got the short end of the stick, considering that you all got the same cutie mark. Must mean that you three aren’t as special as you might’ve thought.”
Scootaloo nearly reached her breaking point at hearing the colt so arrogantly and snidely disrespect their cutie marks. The Crusaders had always taken pride in their similar cutie marks and weren’t about to hear any mockery of their uniqueness.
“HEY! We worked really hard to get these cutie marks, and we’re proud of them! Do you know how many ponies we’ve helped earn their cutie marks? Everypony we’ve helped has been grateful and thanked us, and we’re not gonna hear any colt disrespect them.”
“Alright, Scootaloo. Calm yourself a bit.”, Apple Bloom tried to cool down her occasionally prideful friend.
“What we really wanted to talk to you about was how you’ve been acting recently. A friend of yours told us.”, Sweetie Belle informed the colt.
“That squealer. Why does she even care, anyway? It’s my life. I’ll live however I want to and act however I want to.”, the colt callously talked about his friend.
“Wow, he needs a bigger attitude adjustment than I thought.”, Apple Bloom whispered to Scootaloo.
“No kidding!”, Scootaloo whispered back.
“Come with us. We’ll help you.”, Sweetie Belle requested the colt.
“Fine.”, the colt responded.
Begrudgingly, the colt followed the three fillies to their clubhouse. When they got there, they immediately got to work.
“Welcome to the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse. Let’s help you improve your attitude, and maybe you’ll make some new friends while being able to keep your old ones. We have a lot of work to do, so let’s get started!”, Sweetie Belle welcomed the colt with a tone of preparedness. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were ready to help in any way they could, and couldn’t wait.
It may take a while to fix this colt’s attitude problem, but it’s nothing the Cutie Mark Crusaders can’t handle.
Author's Note
This is meant to be a short, slice-of-life story. I couldn’t think of creative names, so I just decided not to name them. This story isn’t meant to last long, anyway. I just wanted to write a short story.
“Okay, so you’ve got your cutie mark, and you were just really proud of it?”, Sweetie Belle asked.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”, the colt asked in return.
“There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that you were rubbing it in everypony’s faces.”, Sweetie Belle answered.
“We totally get being proud of your cutie mark. You should be proud. We couldn’t be more proud of our cutie marks, but you don’t see us throwin’ them in the faces of any blank flanks.”, Apple Bloom told the colt.
“Yeah, kinda like how you talked about how much better your cutie mark was than ours.”, Scootaloo reminded the colt, still irritated at how he had so snidely mocked them earlier.
Apple Bloom glared at her pegasus friend.
“Sorry.”, Scootaloo apologized.
“Yeah sorry, girls. As much as I would love to hear you lecture me about my cutie mark, I have more important things to do.”, the colt rudely dismissed the fillies once again.
“See? That’s exactly the problem.”, Apple Bloom said.
“We might have our work cut out with you.”, Sweetie Belle told their newest client.
“The important thing you need to learn is to know how to talk to other ponies in a calm and peaceful manner without bringing up your cutie mark every two seconds.”, Scootaloo told the colt.
“Well, how else am I gonna get everypony else to realize how great I am?”, the colt asked.
“It’s not about your cutie mark. It’s about how you act that counts.”, Sweetie Belle answered his question.
“Havin’ a cutie mark is one of the greatest things that can ever happen to a pony, but your attitude is the most important aspect of all. If you act like a kindhearted pony around others, they’ll return the favor. Whether or not you have a special symbol on your flank will never affect that.”, Apple Bloom told their newest client.
“Huh. Maybe you’re right.”, the colt admitted.
“Nice going there, Apple Bloom.”, Scootaloo whispered to her earth pony friend.
“Aw, it was nothin’.”, Apple Bloom whispered back.
“So now that we’ve gotten that through your head, why don’t we head back to your cute-ceanera and see what you’ve learned?”, Sweetie Belle suggested to the colt.
During the trip, Sweetie Belle had shared some stories of the Crusaders’ past adventures.
“Wow, he really stole your cutie marks? I can’t imagine how I would feel if that happened to me. Must’ve been awful.”, the colt said, shocked at what’d happened.
“It’s been a peaceful few months since then, but I’ve had a few nightmares here and there.”, Apple Bloom shuddered.
“To have all of our hard work just taken away like that…makes me sick!”, Scootaloo added with disgust.
“If anything, I’m even more grateful for having my cutie mark!”, the colt commented.
The Crusaders shared a worried look, as if their attempt to fix his attitude had failed.
The four ponies finally arrived at the colt’s cute-ceanera. As he entered, the guests visibly rolled their eyes at seeing the showoff back at the party.
“Gee, people don’t want him around even at his own party!”, Sweetie Belle whispered to her friends.
“Yeah, no kidding!”, Scootaloo agreed.
“I can’t believe it!”, Apple Bloom also agreed.
The colt made his way to the center of the room, with all eyes on him. Confident, he started to speak to everypony present.
“Everypony, I know I’ve been a huge jerk. After I got my cutie mark, I thought I was better than everypony else and let it get to my head. I treated everyone I saw as below me like dirt. But because of these three fillies that call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders, I’ve learned that it’s not about what’s on the outside, but on the inside that counts. I want to apologize to everypony I mistreated because of my ego. I want to apologize to my friends, the guests, and every pony without a cutie mark that I didn’t let into my party. I promise I won’t ever disrespect other ponies because of my cutie mark.”, the colt finished.
Everypony clapped after hearing his apology. He was forgiven and felt at ease for having his apology accepted. He turned to the Crusaders that had helped him.
“Thank you so much, Crusaders. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“You’re welcome. It was fun to help you fix your social life and get back together with your friends.”, Sweetie Belle told the colt.
“Yeah, and we’ll always be here to help in the future.”, Apple Bloom added.
“That’s a promise.”, Scootaloo added.
“Good. And by the way, your cutie marks actually look great. I was wrong to say you got the short end of the stick. Being the only fillies to have matching cutie marks is a big deal.”, the colt told the Crusaders.
“You bet it is.”, Scootaloo responded, pleased that their client had finally recognized what a huge point of pride their cutie marks were and what they meant.
“Well, see you around!”, the colt said goodbye.
The three fillies waved goodbye, and then went back to their clubhouse.
“It’s always nice to help other ponies, even if they already have cutie marks.”, Apple Bloom said.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded in agreement.
“What’ll we do next?”, Sweetie Belle asked.
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, I’m sure we’ll succeed.”, Scootaloo answered confidently.
“Yeah!”, the three fillies yelled in unison as they high-hoofed each other.
Author's Note
This was meant to be a short, relaxed story. I just wanted to do something a little easier than previously, and a slice-of-life story was the way to go.
Might step away from the CMC for my next fic, as I don’t want all my stories to just have the CMC in them.
Any criticism is necessary.
