“Girls, girls, I got it! I know what we can do!” Scootaloo announced excitedly, almost as if a light bulb had gone off in her head. The other two members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at her, all eager to listen to this new glorious idea that Scootaloo had just thought of. They both leaned in closer on their seats.
“What if we all managed to get our cutie marks on something to do with music?”
“But haven’t we already tried that?” questioned Sweetie Belle.
“Well, yeah, but this is going to be different.”
“How?” asked Applebloom.
“Well, I have this idea.”
“And…?” Sweetie Belle and Applebloom moved forward.
“And I think we should try to get our cutie marks in music by doing something different. Not like what we did last time. This time it’ll be better.”
“And what is it?” Sweetie Belle asked Scootaloo impatiently.
“Well, it’s kind of a secret.”
Applebloom was a little confused now, “Ah want to know though, how can our cutie marks be a secret?”
Scootaloo sighed, she didn’t just want to expose the idea out to her friends just yet, it really was great, and she wanted to have everything planned out for it to happen before she even recommended it. “Okay,” she said, “Look, can you girls meet me at Sugarcube Corner later today? I promise that I will tell you how we will get our cutie marks.” The two fillies groaned in unison. “I promise it’ll be great girls, just wait and see.” She left the tree house and got on her scooter, travelling quickly out into the distance to where ever.
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Both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom waited by the bakery on Sugarcube Corner, waiting for the arrival of their orange Pegasus friend and what fantastic idea she had. The wait was almost unbearable for both of them, minutes seemed like hours, and seemed to just drag on and on. How could Scootaloo keep them waiting on such an important thing like their cutie marks?
“Where is she?” shouted Sweetie Belle, obviously getting a little annoyed, “Didn’t she say to meet her here?”
“Ah believe so…” Just then they saw the familiar plumb maned filly, hastily coming towards them on her scooter.
The filly slid to a dramatic stop in front of her friends and took off her helmet slowly, as both of her friends stared at her, waiting for her to tell them the answer to the thing they wanted the most in all of Equestria. “Alright, are you girls ready to earn your cutie marks?” she said with a huge grin on her face.
Of course they were ready “Yeah!” both of her friends shouted simultaneously.
“Alright,” Scootaloo quickly looked to her left and right then stared back at her two friends, “Just follow me.” Scootaloo turned around and with the rest of the Crusaders following her, headed down to where they were going to earn their cutie marks. For a good ten minutes, the girls followed Scootaloo, oddly silent on the way. They were both far too busy wondering where they would be going and what they would be doing for that matter. All sorts of thoughts swarmed through both of the filly’s minds. What could it be? Cutie Mark Crusader Gold Miners? Cutie Mark Crusader Space Explorers? Cutie Mark Crusader Vampire Hunters? The possibilities seemed endless.
“We’re here.” The girls looked ahead, and it certainly wasn’t what was expected. Not at all. Why, it was just a regular house!
“A house?” questioned Sweetie Belle, “Why are we just at a house?”
“Not just any house girls. Do you know whose house this is?” The orange Pegasus turned around to her friends, who both shook their heads ‘no’ in unison. “She’s really popular around here. She makes some music.” Again, they didn’t seem to have any clue to who this pony was that she was talking about. “Aww, C’mon! You have to know her, she’s a DJ…” But, no response from either of them, they clearly both did not know of DJ-Pon3. Scootaloo facehoofed “Just forget it, she’s going to help us get our cutie marks, alright?”
Even though Applebloom and Sweetie Belle didn’t know this mysterious pony, they were going to help them earn their cutie marks and that was okay with them. Scootaloo walked up the path to the door and knocked and took a few steps back, waiting for the famous DJ to answer her door. A few seconds passed, and the three Crusaders waited anxiously for the door to open. Scootaloo was going to knock again, but suddenly, the door opened.
A white Unicorn with purple goggles stood behind the door, smiling “Ah… are you here to record on the tracks I made?” The orange Pegasus put on a big smile and nodded. “Come inside.”
Scootaloo quickly went inside, the other two hesitated, but followed her inside as well. Both of the fillies were inside the house now. The house didn’t have very many decorations in it, with only a bit of cream colored furniture here and there, but something about them… the furniture was bolted down onto the floor. Most likely the reason for what was down further in her house. There, she had huge speakers, they were just a tad larger than the size of an average adult pony, accompanying the speakers was her famous turntable and beside that, was what Scootaloo was interested in, the recording studio.
“Girls, we are going to earn our cutie marks by becoming rappers!” Scootaloo happily announced.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle didn’t look so thrilled to hear that. “Rappers?” questioned Applebloom.
“Yeah, rappers!” Scootaloo excitedly shouted again.
“What makes ya think that’s our talent?”
“No, I don’t just think it Applebloom… it almost seems like….. a calling.”
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, “A calling? What makes you so sure that this is our talent? Besides, I’ve seen you try to write lyrics, this can’t be it.”
Scootaloo shook her head, “No, you don’t understand, I’ve been practicing at it, and working on it more and more, I really think that this could be it for us, girls! I’ve been writing out songs, and all sorts of ideas, and I had help from the DJ and now it’s really going to happen! I just wanted you guys to be in it too, it might work.”
“Ah guess it doesn’t hurt us, maybe it could be a talent.” Admitted Applebloom, nodding her head, “Why not?”
Sweetie Belle sighed “I guess so… what exactly are we going to do?”
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For the next few weeks, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were not seen at their usual clubhouse, but instead over at DJ-Pon3’s house, recording songs in the recording studio she had. The three young fillies had realized in order to create a masterpiece album, one must be dedicated, and so they were. Dedicated to record the tracks, dedicated to make an album, dedicated to earn their cutie marks. The process of constantly going over to the studio, and recording was a hard one, and even coming up with lyrics for what they wanted proved to be a challenge. But as the days went on, the album came more and more together and was close to being finished. Until finally, the day arrived, the final track, that needed to be recorded and then after that, all their hard work would be done. This was the end of the long task, and hopefully the beginning of the discovery of their special talent.
All of the crusaders stood in the studio, listening to the beat of what their final piece was. It was really catchy and possibly the best one on the whole record, it was Scootaloo’s favorite, and she wanted to use her best lyrics for it. The song was titled “Trap til’ I die”, she honestly wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but if it meant being a great rapper and earning her cutie mark, she was all up for it. Sweetie Belle finished her verse, and Applebloom had just finished hers, all that was left was some real gangsta spits from the orange filly, who showed no mercy to the microphone in front of her. “I ain’t a silly filly, I ain’t no joke, earnin’ my cutie mark and travelin’ on boat. Across many lands that are foreign to me, but I’m not scared of them, I never flee.” She was rhyming really fast, at an incomprehensible speed that even Sweetie Belle and Applebloom couldn’t believe it. Why, she simply went ham. “And when things seem to always end up in the dark, I’ll always end up on top, and earn my cutie mark.” And she stopped. She finished with her verse on time with the end of the track, in perfect sync and Sweetie Belle and Applebloom stood outside of the studio with their jaws wide open. It was hard to believe, but they witnessed it. The sick rhymes of MC Scoot.
The little orange Pegasus stepped out of the studio and took a big breath and looked at her two friends. “So what do you girls think?” She didn’t even get an answer, they still both stood there in shock, still not believing the event that had taken place in front of their own eyes.
“Wow…” said the DJ pony, still wearing the purple goggles as she had all the time they were around to record. “That… that was great. Uh… tomorrow I’ll finish up mixing it and I’ll make copies and put them out somewhere.”
“Wow, really?!?!” Scootaloo asked in wonder.
“Of course, be expecting to be Ponyville’s new stars by tomorrow.”
“Oh boy, oh boy!” Scootaloo said excitedly hopping around the room, she really couldn’t wait for tomorrow. All of Ponyville will be able to hear the music she and her friends had worked so hard on and she will finally earn her cutie mark! “Girls, we have to go around and spread this around as much as possible!” and with that, she ran out of the house excitedly, getting on her scooter and travelling down towards the center of Ponyville shouting “HEY, EVERYPONY!” and delivering the good news all around. She certainly couldn’t wait.
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The day of release, all three of the girls tried to put out the message of their great record, putting up flyers around all of Ponyville, putting an article in their school newspaper (though it wouldn’t have the same reach as Gabby Gums, it was publicity none the less), and even to just simply shouting about it in the town square. Scootaloo had even gone to the extent of following customers around in stores and pestering them to buy their CD. The ponies, eventually getting tired of listening to the young filly would give in and pay the few extra bits. Much to their surprise though, after giving the album a chance they seemed to… enjoy it. And with the other ponies liking it, they told their friends about it.
A few days had gone by and more word was being spread around about the new hit album made by Da Cute Spittahs. Just a few days out, and already having success and recognition by Ponyville’s radio station. The three young fillys were being praised by almost all of Ponyville, it was a dream come true! The hit single on the album being “Trap til’ I die” seemed to be played on the radio every hour. Everypony just seemed to enjoy the music, and as the Cutie Mark Crusaders were being recognized for this feat, they started to earn bits as well. Bits reeling in, and being famous, it seemed that the CMC was on top of all of Ponyville. Of course, with oodles of cash, comes tons of swagger, and that’s just what the Crusaders did.
All of the crusaders got decked out, and bought some fresh new clothes. Applebloom bought herself a black skull bandana, covering the bottom of her face, and decided to get some shades, covering her eyes. Sweetie Belle got a purple bandana and some fresh shoes to match with that bandana. As for MC Scoot, she got a white bandana, and some brass knuckles for herself. Needless to say, they had swag.
As the popularity of Da Cute Spittahs increased every day, it reached out to further regions of Equestria. Their singles expanding its reaches further and further until, it hit one destination where a particular group didn’t like it. In the town of Manehattan, in the slums of the town, a notorious rap group also heard Da Cute Spittahs, and didn’t like it at all.
“Aye man, do you hear this?” A big brown pony with a goatee said. He turned over to the rest of his crew, showing the scar underneath his eye. “Take a listen to this.”
There were three other ponies that were in his crew, each turning their attention to the Radio setting on a window sill. The first pony walked up to it, he was a buff blue pony, and he had noticeable gunshot wounds stitched up around his body. He had a cutie mark of a Gold chain, much like the one that he wore around his neck as well. The two other ponies stayed close behind him. They looked really similar, which made sense, they were brothers. Both had the build of an average stallion, and had the same coat color of a dark red. They really did look similar, but the only difference you could spot out was their cutie marks. One had a pistol on his flank, the other had a bunch of bits. They both wore bandanas on their heads that matched.
“What is it?” questioned the blue one.
“Shut up! Just listen.”
Everyone in the crew heard the last few lines of Scootaloo’s verse before the song finally ended. The DJ on the radio came on shortly afterwards, “And that was the new hit single taking over Equestria by storm, ‘Trap til’ I die’ by the group Da Cute Spittahs, who are actually three young fillies from Ponyville.”
“Yo, what the fuck? Fillies thinkin’ they in the trap game and that they better than us?” It was obvious that the blue pony was angry.
“Yeah, man, I wanna find these lil’ niggas.” Commented one of the brothers, “They’re from Ponyville? Ha! How can they be trappin’ there?”
“I don’t know man,” said the brown pony, stroking his goatee, “But I think we should go down there, and teach them a lesson. Show them a real crew.” He grinned, still stroking his goatee. “Show them that they don’t mess with us.”
________________________________________________________________________________
“This is great, girls! Don’t you think?” Scootaloo asked her two friends while walking around the club house, which was also added on with luxuries as well. With a huge HD Plasma screen TV against the wall, and where their old table used to be, had a caramel colored couch in its spot. There were three wardrobes pressed against a wall beside each other, each labeled with the three crusaders names and containing new outfits that they bought for themselves.
“Ah guess so…” Applebloom said looking down, it was clearly audible in her voice of a little bit of disappointment.
“What’s wrong, isn’t this awesome, girls?”
“I don’t know,” said Sweetie Belle, “It’s great and all… but even with all this fame, we haven’t earned our cutie marks.”
Scootaloo had almost forgotten about that, “Oh… yeah…” she said. With all the fame and popularity the three fillies had been gaining it seemed like she had other things to worry about. But it all came back to the reason on why she wanted to do this in the first place, to earn her cutie mark, which none of the crusaders had earned with the success they gained. “You’re right,” she managed to say “Even with everything we did, we haven’t found our talent.”
“Ah jest don’t understand, with this kinda recognition, ya’d think it’d be our talent.” Applebloom said.
“Maybe, we should go see my big sister,” said Sweetie Belle, “Maybe she can explain why we don’t have our cutie marks yet.”
The three young fillies nodded their heads, why not? Each of them exited out of their club house, using the elevator that they had installed and headed over to the Banquet to see Rarity.
Meanwhile, four stallions were walking around Ponyville, they stayed in a group, keeping a look out for Da Cute Spittahs but having little luck. “Where are these niggas?” Kamonte looked around, stroking his goatee, “You guys see anything?” the two dark red ponies shook their heads. “What about you, Beven?” he turned to the buff blue pony.
“Nah bro.”
“Hmm…” Kamonte thought to himself. “I’m sure somepony knows where we can find them.” He approached a pink pony with a curly mane. She had balloons as her cutie mark and she was happily skipping around in Ponyville. “Hey!” Kamonte shouted, “You better tell us where we can find Da Cute Spittahs if you want to live!” The crew suddenly gathered around the pink pony, whose expression didn’t change at all as they moved in closer towards her.
The pink pony giggled “Hey, I’ve never seen you ponies around here. Are you guys from here? Because if you guys are from here, then I don’t know how I managed to not see you guys and be my friends. Oooh, where did you get that scar? It looks real-“
“Shut up!” yelled the brown pony. His crew had now surrounded the hyperactive pony, and he wanted to get answers. He slowly pulled out a gun with his right hoof, “Now, can you tell me where I can find the group that calls themselves ‘Da Cute Spittahs’?”
Again, the pony giggled, apparently not taking him serious. “You mean the Cutie Mark Crusaders? That’s what they also call their group too, they’ve been trying to go around and do all sorts of things to figure out their talent. There’s Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle, and Sweetie Belle stays with her older sister who owns a store farther along the road from here an-“
“Stop!” Kamonte said “That’s all I need to hear.”
“Okie dokie lokie, you know, if you have any more questions, you can always ask me. My name’s Pinkie Pie! Which reminds me, what are your guys’ names, you never told me what they were an-“ She was silenced after the brown stallion shot her multiple times.
“Damn, she just wouldn’t shut up.” He grabbed her body, and dragged it along the ground, and hid her body behind some bushes. “Alright then.” He said, brushing dirt off of his hooves. “So, apparently, there’s a store up ahead where we can find these niggas. Let’s go look for them, and show them not to mess with us.”
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“Well, I’m sorry girls… I don’t know what to say, it just isn’t your talent.” Rarity explained to the three young fillies, who all groaned in disappointment. “I’m sorry girls, but sometimes, it just takes a while for a pony to discover their talent. You just have to wait and- AHHHH!” Rarity screamed aloud as she heard glass breaking in her shop followed by gunshots. She quickly ducked for cover, “Girls, get down!”
The three young fillies stayed down in cover as well, hiding under a table as the shots continued to be fired at the building, destroying more things inside. Shattering windows, destroying furniture, and even ruining some of the dresses that Rarity was working on. Suddenly, the firing stopped and a voice was heard from the outside of the building, “I know ya’ll niggas are in there. Get the fuck out here, we have some shit to settle!” The girls were confused, what was going on? “I’m talking to Da Cute Spittahs! Get out here, I dare ya!”
The three fillies were scared, “What’s going on?” Applebloom asked.
“I have no idea, but I don’t know what to do…” Sweetie Belle said.
“Well, they said they were looking for us, and they want us outside.” Scootaloo said, “Should we go out there?”
“Are you crazy? They’ll kill us!” Sweetie Belle said angrily.
“Well, I don’t see you coming up with anything, maybe they won’t hurt us.” She suddenly stood up and looked out the shattered window. “Yeah, what do you guys want?”
Kamonte started laughing, “You’re from Da Cute Spittahs? Hahaha! Where’s your crew?”
“They’re right here!” Scootaloo yelled back and motioned her two friends over. They both hesitantly walked over and were scared. “What do you want?”
“So ya’ll niggas thought you were better than us? No way, we got a problem here.”
Scootaloo knew at this moment, she had to be bold, and face these ponies head on, and not cower down… besides, this might give her her cutie mark! “You don’t scare me!” she yelled at the crew in front of her.
“Oh, I don’t? Get out here then, and see me face to face.”
Scootaloo stayed silent for a bit and looked over to her two friends. They both were shaking in fear. “Alright then… I- I will!” and she slowly opened the door and peeked her head out, looking at the brown stallion and his crew behind him as well with an uneasy look on her face.
“I said face to face!”
Scootaloo gulped and looked back at her friends, “Come- come on girls.” She said, her voice a little shaky as she took small steps outside the door. She took baby steps ahead of her, and marched slowly closer and closer to the four stallions. Her friends followed along side with her, trotting slowly as well. She kept advancing forward, with small steps until finally, she met with the stallion, face to face.
“So, you think that you’re better than us, and that you’re in that trap game?”
Scootaloo gulped again, “I- I…”
“No, you’re not better than us. You’re not in that game. You’re not about that life. Just admit it to me, quit, and we’ll leave you alone.”
Scootaloo was scared, but she knew that she had to stay strong, “No,” she said, “We are better than you.”
“Alright then, I didn’t want to do this.” Kamonte raised his gun and the rest of the crew lifted up their hooves as well, each holding a pistol. Then suddenly, they fired at the orange filly.
“Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle and Applebloom yelled in unison, as they saw their friend get shot in front of them. There were only a few shots fired at her, but the young Pegasus was down. The crew turned over to the other two young fillies.
“Ya’ll have any last words?”
The two fillies just sobbed in front of the stallion, it was all they could do. It looked as if he was about to shoot again, but suddenly, “Shit! No way!” he was looking at Sweetie Belle’s shoes. “Where’d you get those?”
Sweetie Belle continued to sob as she replied to him, tears running down her cheeks, “I- I b-b-bought th-them.”
“Damn, my daughter, she would love them.” He looked at his crew, and signaled them to lower their guns. “Look, I’ll spare your lives, and forget all about this, if you let me have them shoes to give to my little baby girl. She would love them.”
Sweetie Belle looked at Applebloom in disbelief and sniffed, “R-r-r-really?”
“Hell yeah. I would absolutely love to give her those.”
Sweetie Belle wiped the tears out of her puffy red eyes and took off her shoes and tossed them over to Kamonte, who caught them with delight.
“Oh wow,” he said as he inspected the shoes, “Thank you, so much!”
The young unicorn just sniffed again in response.
“Honestly, thank you so much for this, and you know what? I’m sorry about this whole thing, let’s just forget it ever happened, alright?” The two young fillies remained silent. “Oh man,” he looked at the shoes, “C’mon boys, let’s get out of here. We need to see our kids and tell them how much we love them.” The three other stallions nodded their heads in agreement.
“Yeah, I need to see my son bro…” admitted the blue stallion.
One of the brother spoke as well, “Yeah, I have twins I need to get back to them and tell them how much their daddy loves them.” The other shook his head in agreement.
“C’mon.” Kamonte said, and with that, the four stallions all walked away, heading back home.
The girls quickly ran over the orange filly lying on ground, she was breathing heavily and had holes in various spots in her body and was very bloody. She was in very critical condition, she wouldn’t make it, even if the two fillies had medical help with them right now. “Girls…” she said weakly.
“What is it Scootaloo?” Applebloom asked, eyes tearing up again.
“I- I…” suddenly a glow appeared around Scootaloo’s flank, and Sweetie Belle and Applebloom stared at her in wonder.
“Scootaloo! You’re getting your cutie mark! You’re getting your cutie mark!” Sweetie Belle shouted.
The filly raised her head up a little, “R-really?” she smiled weakly. She lifted her head up a little more, but she couldn’t see her side. “Girls… what is it?” she asked.
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom stared at her flank until the mark appeared, they stood unmoving, waiting, until the glow went away and they could finally see what it was.
Scootaloo coughed, “What… is it?” she asked again, she didn’t have the energy to turn her head and look at it herself.
“It’s… it’s…” Applebloom started,
“It’s a gravestone,” Sweetie Belle finished.
“A gravestone?” Scootaloo questioned weakly, her eyelids were slowly closing.
“Y- yeah,” Sweetie Belle said, “Scootaloo, you’re talent… was dying…”
Scootaloo took one last look at her friends before she finally closed her eyes forever, “Damn…. Nigga.” And with that, her eyelids closed, Scootaloo was gone, but she had earned her cutie mark.
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The news about the death of Scootaloo and how there was a battle between two rap groups spread around quickly in Ponyville and many ponies were talking about it. The news was heard by almost everypony. To pay respect, they were going to have a funeral service for the celebrity filly.
Applebloom soon returned home from the events that had taken place, and she found Applejack was very angry with her. “Applebloom, what have ah told you about joining rap groups and getting into gang fights?”
“Ah’m… Ah’m sorry, Applejack.” Applebloom said looking down at the floor.
“Ya should be! Applebloom, ya’ll are grounded! Ya have a lot to think about.”