Sweetie’s heart was thudding in her chest; the dreaded cute-ceañera was already well underway by the time she arrived at Sugarcube corner. Her hooves felt heavy with anticipation of the event, as if they knew how much she and Scootaloo had riding on the events to come.

“There you are,” Scootaloo greeted, slightly annoyed. “For a minute there I thought you chickened out.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I lost track of time.”

“Whatever. Let’s get inside.”

Pinkie Pie had outdone herself with the decoration of Sugarcube Corner. Streamers and balloons hung from the walls and ceiling, confetti covered the floor, and tables stood all around the main room, cupcakes and cookies and sweets of every type imaginable piled high on top of them for the guests to eat. A low, round table with a huge punch bowl provided refreshments, in the form of one of Pinkie’s tastiest punch recipes. She had even acquired a life-size chocolate sculpture of a rearing pony and set it up in the back of the store. In the adjoining room, a white unicorn with her vivid cyan-striped mane spiked up wildly and her eyes hidden behind a pair of vibrant purple sunglasses stood behind the sound equipment that filled the room with an upbeat, lively party song.

Diamond and Silver were patrolling the room, soaking up compliments from the assembled masses and flaunting their cutie marks in front of everypony. Their eyes periodically darted around the room in search of any of the fillies they had invited solely to tease and humiliate, but Scootaloo pushed Sweetie Belle off to the side of the room before they were detected.

“Hey!” Sweetie objected.

“Do you want Diamond and Silver to see us?” Scootaloo hissed.

“I thought the whole point of coming here was to stand up to them when they tried to embarrass us.”

“Well, yeah, but… we can’t do it now.”

“Why not?”

“Because…because it’s not a good time. Wait a minute.”

“Look over there!” Sweetie was distracted by a pale yellow filly about her age, her bright red mane adorned with a huge bow and her flank—blank.

Scootaloo gasped. “Another blank flank? I thought we were the only two left!” The filly jumped behind the chocolate statue, hiding from the rest of the crowd.

“What’s she doing?” Sweetie Belle wondered out loud. Pinkie Pie appeared from nowhere and slapped a cone-shaped party hat on her head, mumbling something to her that Sweetie and Scootaloo couldn’t hear over the voices and music, and then bounced away with her traditional springy gait as quickly as she had entered. The yellow filly ducked back behind the statue, abandoning the silly hat immediately. She checked to make sure nopony was looking directly at her, then dashed over to the table bearing the towering multi-tiered chocolate cake.

“She’s trying to leave the party without being seen!” Scootaloo recognized. “We need to stop her and bring her into our plan!”

Scoot bit one of Sweetie’s curls and dragged her quickly to the giant pile of gifts further into the room. Snails, the dopey unicorn from Sweetie Belle’s class, took a large bite out of the cake and was promptly yelled at by Diamond Tiara. The yellow filly took advantage of the diversion to bolt across the room to a spot on the counter behind a cluster of balloons. Scootaloo watched her carefully, trying to predict her movements so she and Sweetie Belle could intercept her before she escaped the party.

Another unicorn approached the balloon cluster and began jabbing at them with the sharp point of his horn as he danced, popping them one by one until the yellow filly was once again exposed. She ran for the punch bowl, ducking under the table and hiding again. She pushed up against it, lifting the heavy table just enough so she could tiptoe forward toward the door. If she inched forward in this manner, she could get close enough to make a mad dash for the door and be free.

“She’s going to get away!” Scootaloo exclaimed, grabbing Sweetie Belle again and dragging her under the next table so they could rush under the punch bowl once it drew close enough. “Wait, where’s Rainbow Dash?”

“Huh?”

“Rainbow Dash! She said she was coming! I wanted her to see me stand up to Diamond Tiara so she’d be impressed with me.”

“Oh…” Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure how to take that. Had the whole plan just been an act to impress Rainbow? Did Sweetie’s feelings actually matter?

“Oh, there she is! Over in the corner. Let’s do this.”

The punch bowl table aligned itself perfectly with their hiding place, and Scootaloo moved to charge. She glanced back toward Rainbow Dash, but her back was turned. “Wait a minute. Rainbow Dash isn’t looking this way!”

“We don’t have time to wait for her,” Sweetie Belle protested. “The other blank flank’ll be escape if we don’t go now!”

“Oh, alright,” Scootaloo sighed. “Come on.” She buzzed her wings and leapt forward under the punch bowl table, followed closely by Sweetie Belle. But the other blank flank was already gone—she’d bolted for the door just a second earlier, when Scootaloo was preoccupied with her idol.

“Apple Bloom! Ya made it!” the yellow filly had made a break for the door, only to be blocked by an orange mare coming in. She continued walking forward, pushing Apple Bloom farther and farther from the door to freedom. “After Ah heard about Twist, Ah was afraid you wouldn’t show up. Ah sure am glad you came to your senses about this whole cutie mark thing. These things happen when these things are s’posed to happen. Tryin’ ta rush it’ll just make ya crazy.” Only when she had pushed Apple Bloom all the way back to the counter beside the chocolate statue did the orange pony stop advancing. “Ah’ll let ya be. Looks like your friends want ta talk to you.”

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had heard the commotion, and now descended on her like a pack of wolves wearing smug, malicious grins. Apple Bloom panicked, then darted back to the punch bowl table and tore off the tablecloth. She frantically tied it around her neck, wearing the thing like a cloak so her flank was covered and the others couldn’t see that she was still without her cutie mark.

“Well, well, well. Look who’s here!” Diamond called out arrogantly.

“Nice outfit,” Silver Spoon mocked.

“Just somethin’ Ah, uh, pulled together last minute!” Apple Bloom hastily explained.

“It really shows off your cutie mark,” Diamond mocked. “Oh, wait, you don’t have one.

“Ah have a cutie mark!” Apple Bloom defended.

“What?” Silver Spoon was doubtful. “Since when?”

“Since…um…earlier today.”

“Oh, really?” Diamond didn’t believe her either. “Let’s see it.”

Apple Bloom’s mind raced, generating an excuse. “Ah shouldn’t. Ah couldn’t! My cutie mark is so unbelievably amazing…Ah’m afraid that if I show it off, everyone will start paying attention to me instead of you. Outshined at your own cute-ceañera? Can you imagine how embarrassing that would be?” Scootaloo couldn’t help but marvel at the way Apple Bloom had turned Diamond’s own words against her.

“Uhh…forget it,” Diamond retracted, now genuinely fearful that Apple Bloom might be telling the truth. “I didn’t really want to see it anyway.”

“Okay, well, Ah’m gonna go mingle. Enjoy your party!” Confident in her small yet satisfying victory over Diamond Tiara in the middle of her own lavish party, Apple Bloom was too careless in placing her hooves as she walked away. She snagged the edge of the tablecloth, tripped over it, and pulled the whole thing off. She stumbled forward, crashing flat on her face with her cutie-mark-less flank sticking high up into the air for everypony to see. Diamond and Silver rushed to her side, grinning devilishly.

“Oh no…” Scootaloo heard Apple Bloom whimper.

Silver Spoon giggled. “Wow, that is an amazing cutie mark!” she mocked. Diamond joined in the giggling, stamping her hooves on the floor as she threw her head back and laughed in Apple Bloom’s face.

“Nice try, blank flank!” Diamond spat, Silver joining her for the final two words. Then the two of them laughed even more, until Apple Bloom looked on the verge of tears.

“You got a problem with blank flanks?” a voice called from somewhere behind. Everypony turned to see who had spoken up. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle left the cover of the punch bowl table and strode over to the middle of the room, both wearing vengeful expressions. Scootaloo had even flared her little wings as high as they would go, though they were hardly fearsome. “I said, you got a problem with blank flanks?” she repeated.

“The problem is, I mean, she’s, like, totally not special.”

“No, it means she’s full of potential!” Sweetie rushed to Apple Bloom’s side, and Scootaloo followed.

“It means she could be great at anything. The possibilities are…like, endless,” Scootaloo mocked the way Diamond and Silver spoke, insulting them further.

“She could be a great scientist, or an amazing artist, or a famous writer,” Sweetie Belle speculated. “She could even be the mayor of Ponyville someday!” All around the room, everypony wore a wide, beaming smile at their speech. All except the scowling Diamond and Silver.

Scootaloo drove the point home. “And she’s not stuck being stuck up like you two.”

The party guests erupted into a chorus of laughter, all at the expense of their hosts rather than the un-special Apple Bloom that was supposed to be the target of all the jokes.

Diamond was stunned, too shocked by the blatant attack on her character to respond for several seconds. “Hey!” she finally objected, “This is my party! Why are you two on her side?”

“Because…” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle turned inward, pressing their tails together so the whole crowd could see their utterly bare flanks.

Apple Bloom gasped. “You don’t have your cutie marks either? Ah thought Ah was the only one!”

“We thought we were the only two!” Scootaloo happily confessed.

“I, for one, think you are three very lucky fillies,” Twilight Sparkle chimed in from the back of the room.

“Lucky? How can they be lucky?”

“They still get to experience the thrill of discovering who they are, and what they’re meant to be!”

Apple Bloom’s older sister added, “And they’ve got all the time in the world to figure it out.”

The crowd had turned against Diamond and Silver; all eyes were on Apple Bloom and the other blank flank fillies. Introductions were exchanged, and even Diamond’s temper tantrums couldn’t turn the tide. It was a victory, that was for sure. Neither of the mean-spirited self-obsessed fillies would dare to bother them about their lack of cutie marks again.

“Hey!” the white unicorn playing the music asked. “You got a request or something?”

“What?” Rainbow Dash didn’t realize how it must have looked when she walked up to the sound equipment the way she did. “Oh, no, I’m just trying to duck out of here and keep Scootaloo from seeing me.”

“Who?” her eyebrow raised up from behind her purple-tinted glasses.

“Scootaloo. The little orange pegasus. She’s…well…I guess you could say I’m like an idol to her. She asked me to come here to support her in case the others ganged up on her for being a blank flank, but I guess she handled that herself. Twilight said I shouldn’t be there as a distraction and that it’s best for Scootaloo to get to know her new friends rather than follow me around looking for my approval. I think if the filly wants to be more like me, then, hey, more power to her, right? I am pretty awesome, after all. But Twilight made me promise to lay low, and I do not want to see her upset.”

“So you’re kind of a big deal around here, I take it?”

“Are you kidding?” Rainbow posed impressively, her legs set apart and her wings flared high. “You’re talking to the one and only Rainbow Dash! The greatest flyer in all Equestria!”

“Impressive. I’ll have to remember to make sure you’re a VIP at the club…if that ever actually happens.”

“Club?” Rainbow abandoned her pose, as some of the others were starting to look at her funny.

“I’m trying to get a nightclub set up somewhere in town, but I’m having trouble getting the money together.”

“You don’t seem like the sort of pony who normally DJ’s kids’ parties.”

“Believe me, I’m not. I’m only doing this because the one filly—Silver Tiara?—anyway her parents were asking about music and with me being as broke as I am right now, I kind of had to accept the job. I’d much rather be doing a rave right now, playing some actual music.”

“Tell me about it,” Rainbow agreed. “I’d much rather be dancing to some actual music. It’s pretty lame that Ponyville doesn’t have anything like that already. We could use a nightclub around here.”

“You’ll have one soon enough. Assuming I can get a steady source of income, that is.”

“You’ll do fine,” Rainbow promised optimistically. “You’re an awesome DJ, and Ponyville’s small enough for word to spread if you give it some time. I’ll make sure I tell anyone planning a party to look up…”—Rainbow read the sign hung from the DJ’s sound equipment—“DJ Pon3? Is that your name?”

She laughed. “Just a stage name, Rainbow Dash. My friends call me Vinyl Scratch.”

“Well good luck with your club, Vinyl Scratch.” Rainbow turned to leave. “I’ll refer anypony I can think of to you. You’ll have more business than you know what to do with.”

“Thanks. A celebrity endorsement from the ‘greatest flyer in Equestria’ would definitely help me out.” Rainbow said one final goodbye and started away. “Wait! Uh…we should hang out sometime. You know, as friends.”

“Sure,” Rainbow agreed without hesitation. “You’re really cool. Cooler than most ponies around here.” Rainbow turned around again before she could see Vinyl’s cheeks flush red at the compliment.

DJ Pon3 flipped over another record, changing the tune to a soft dance beat that brought all the younger guests out onto the dance floor. The three blank flanks sat around a table, discussing recent events.

“So Ah was thinking,” Apple Bloom began. “Now that we’re friends—I mean, we are friends, right?”

“How could we not be?” Scootaloo happily agreed. “We’re totally alike. We don’t have cutie marks, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon drive us crazy…”

“Totally crazy!”

“—well, now that we’re friends, what if the three of us work together to find out who we are and what we’re supposed to be?”

“Ooh! Ooh! We could form our own secret society!”

“I’m liking this idea!”

Both the others were in agreement. “A secret society! Yeah! We’ll need a name for it, though…”

“The Cutie Mark Three?” Scootaloo proposed.

“The Cute-tastically Fantastics?” Sweetie Belle gave her own idea.

Apple Bloom had the winner. “How about… the Cutie Mark Crusaders?”

“It’s perfect!” Scootaloo agreed.

And so it was settled. The three blank flanks joined forces, in the hopes that they would be more successful as a team than they had been individually. Teamwork had already seen them overcome the tyrannical schoolyard social rule of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, an obstacle that had affected all three of them equally since the taunting began almost a whole week ago. Apple Bloom came to see the wisdom in Applejack’s words of encouragement, and Sweetie Belle could now see the guidance Rarity had intended to give her younger sister, and she understood that the harshness was purely brought on by stress and the time constraints of her commission; she hadn’t intentionally ignored a sister in need the way she had. As for Scootaloo, her actions had validated Rainbow Dash’s advice to stand up for herself and fight against her aggressors instead of backing down and hiding. That never got anypony anywhere. They were strong now, the whole group of them, and together they would be able to overcome any obstacle that came between them and their cutie marks.

Next Chapter: Chapter 6 Estimated time remaining: 37 Minutes