Plot Bunny #5 - Angry Fillies or the Bad Crusaders

Okay, this is, of all things, a fusion with the tablet game Bad Piggies by Rovio Games. It started off as an Applebloom Cutie Mark story but has expanded somewhat.

In essence, this idea calls for the merging of Applebloom's fan-favoured natural talent of being a handy-mare with the technology used by the Bad Piggies in the game with that name as well as in Angry Birds. Basically, building contraptions and buildings out of what is basically scrap parts. You've got to admit that sounds right. There are some incompatibilities coming from the fact that the ponies don't seem to have liquid hydrocarbon fuels like gasoline. However, there is a lot you can hand-wave away with magic.

Book 1 - The Soapbox Rally
Every year, Equestria holds the Soapbox Rally, a journey from Fillydelphia to Canterlot for colts and fillies in pony-powered carts and other contraptions across a wide range of terrains and environments. There is a cash prize (say... around 10,000 Bits) but the real prize for the foals is the adventure and to stand out from amongst their peers. Inspired by the Equestria Games, the Ponyville CMCs decide to compete (not without Sweetie Belle's reservations... she really doesn't think that she wants a "Cross Country Rally Cutie Mark").

A quick bit of research in the library's newspaper archive confirms to Applebloom that the competition will be tough. Some of the brightest and toughest foals on Equestria are involved and many large companies enter teams running in carts built by professional engineer ponies. She's just starting to despair when Princess Twilight recommends to her a book on the history of the race and on the principles of pony-powered transports (pedals, bike chains and even unicorn magic-powered pseudo-electric motors). Applebloom's eyes light up: She knows how to do this.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon come across the testing of the CMCs' Mk1 prototype cart and provide their usual mocking commentary. However, Applebloom has done enough work on the propulsion, steering and suspension that, as it is bouncing through the countryside outside Ponyville, the two bullies are impressed despite themselves. Filthy Rich has taught Diamond how to spot a winner and, by Discord, this machine could be a winner! This is, in her view, unacceptable. She somehow manages to talk her father into funding a team whose only real objective is to rob the CMCs of the prize. Naturally, Diamond and Silver won't dirty their hooves with racing. No, that task falls to Rumble, Snips and Snails (none of whom really understand what the Hay is going on here).

The story is basically a series of race levels where Applebloom uses what the reader should understand to be Piggietech to get the Crusadermobile Mk2 over various courses and obstacles, up to and including parasol-assisted soft descents from jumps and using modified air circulation fans for propulsion whilst descending under the parasols. Maybe also have the plunger-equipped roof-walking 'wheels' too!

Finally, after a spectacular run up the mountainside to Canterlot (including the use of soda-bottle boosters to handle the steeper slopes) the CMCs are declared winners. Princess Luna, who has always had a fascination in all things mechanical, congratulates the CMCs on their victory. Diamond Tiara storms forwards and demands that they be disqualified (the soda bottles aren't exactly 'pony-powered'). However, the judges admit that nopony had even attempted to use them before and so there isn't a rule against them. In any case, they were triggered by Sweetie Belle shaking them super-fast with her magic so it is technically pony-powered. Babs, who has been cheering her cousin's team on with the rest of the Manehatten CMCs, nearly starts a fight with Diamond Tiara, calling her a sore loser and a wannabe lawyer trying to cheat honest ponies out of their bits.

Luna asks who developed this marvellous contraption and everyone points at an embarrassed Applebloom. Luna gives her a special congratulation and, as the CMCs are handed the cup to the cheers of the crowd, including the M6 and all their friends, she feels... weird. "It's like this is what ah'm meant to do!" she blurts out. "It's like this is who ah'm meant to be! Like it's mah... mah... destiny!" And then her cutie mark, a green apple inside a bronze cog, appears.

"Let nopony doubt the integrity of this victory," Luna declares with her full Royal Canterlot Voice. "For this day Magic itself has acknowledged her!"

"Stupid magic," spits a bitter Diamond Tiara. "Stupid hayseed! She's still a nopony, cutie mark or not!"

Book 2 - If Chickens Could Fly
This isn't a fully developed idea yet; basically, the doctors are saying that Scootaloo's wings will never grow properly and she'll never fly. Applebloom doesn't accept this and starts developing madder and madder contraptions to let her friend fly as high and as fast as she wants, basically wing harnesses to give her lift so her wings' propulsion power can get her moving.

Then, Rainbow Dash remarks that one of the few airborne records she won't be able to break is the fastest flight from Canterlot to Cloudsdale by means of something other can conventional pegasi flight. Applebloom decides that this is a record that will have Scootaloo's name on it.

Book 3 - Icing on the Cake
Pinkie Pie is taken ill. This leaves the Cakes with something of a dilemma: Who will gather the unique ingredients from around Equestria for their Every Possible Flavour Cake that they make for every Ponyville Nights Festival? The Crusaders step up and there follows a sort of road trip story with the Crusaders taking their mechanical marvel to every corner of the Pony Nation in pursuit of unusual, rare or just crazy ingredients that Pinkie's receipie needs.

This can include the roof-walker modification from Bad Piggies and as many crazy Sandbox creations as you can imagine (hovercraft? Rocket-boosted cave-running carts? The sky is literally the limit).

Something random to add somewhere
Applebloom has been applying her talents to the gang hut, turning it from a tree-house to practically a Fortress of Solitude with various mad mechanical features.