Cutie Mark Crusaders

The Cutie Mark Crusaders is a club consisting of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, which they form in Call of the Cutie.

Founding
The three fillies meet at Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera and form a bond, as all three don't have their cutie marks yet. Sweetie Belle suggests they found a "secret society", although it's not very secret, as they later come to sing about it at a talent contest, and they often shout out the name of their group. The club's purpose is to "work together to find out who we are and what we're supposed to be", and the Crusaders are often seen engaging in activities in pursuit of their cutie marks.

Activities
The Crusaders pursue various activities to discover their special talents. They briefly try carpentry and chicken-herding in Stare Master, and feature in a montage of pig farming, taffy making, hairdressing, mind-reading, mountain climbing, and underwater exploring in The Show Stoppers. Right after the montage, the three are making a mess in Twilight Sparkle's library in a pursuit of a librarian cutie mark. Twilight enters along with Cheerilee, who suggests the Crusaders appear in a talent show. The fillies excitedly suggest juggling, acting, magic tricks, square dance, tightrope-walking, and tiger-taming. but Twilight tries to steer them to things they're already good at. They concur, but throughout the series they seem oblivious to their innate talents. The Crusaders' insistence on pursuing different activities seems to comes from Rainbow Dash in Call of the Cutie, who suggests "[trying] as many things as possible as quickly as possible", however this view is not shared by Applejack, Cheerilee, or Twilight.



Innate talents

 * Apple Bloom: Whoa! Hi, Scootaloo! Back already? You're amazin' on that scooter.
 * Scootaloo: Thanks! Wow, Apple Bloom. You did all of this?
 * Apple Bloom: Yep! I've fixed the broken shutters, sanded off the splinters, rebuilt the roof, painted...
 * Scootaloo: That's so cool. What's Sweetie Belle up to?


 * Sweetie Belle: [humming a song]
 * Apple Bloom: There you are, Sweetie Belle! See? I told you we could find her by following her totally awesome voice.

The Crusaders demonstrate their talents very clearly in The Show Stoppers. Apple Bloom quickly and masterfully repairs the broken-down tree house that Applejack passes on to the Crusaders; Sweetie Belle effortlessly composes rhymes and music for their "theme song"; and Scootaloo performs spectacular maneuvers on her scooter. Later, Apple Bloom asks Sweetie Belle to be the singer in their acts, but she opts for making the costumes and scenery; she asks Scootaloo to do the choreography, but she opts for singing; and Apple Bloom herself is left with the choreography. They each find their chosen task difficult, and get help from the other Crusader who is skilled at the task.

Sweetie Belle tries her hand at sewing in Stare Master too. She makes capes for the Crusaders, complete with a patch of the club's emblem, however the results are somewhat patchy and ragged. In the same episode, she breaks into song in a very theatrical and professional manner.

Near the end of the episode, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash visit the Crusaders backstage. While Applejack and Rarity are Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's older sisters, respectively, Rainbow Dash is not related to Scootaloo. However, Scootaloo idolizes and looks up to her.

Appearances
There are three episodes centered around the CMC: Stare Master, The Show Stoppers, and The Cutie Mark Chronicles. The CMC also feature together in Friendship is Magic, part 1, Call of the Cutie, The Return of Harmony Part 1, Luna Eclipsed, and The Cutie Pox.

Prior to the events of Call of the Cutie, the three ponies can be seen huddled under a table when Night Mare Moon appears at the town pavilion. According to a layout artist, the scene was originally story boarded with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, but he was sent different characters for the shot. The artist assumed the different characters were sent by mistake, and used the Cutie Mark Crusaders instead.

In the cold open of The Return of Harmony Part 1, they argue over what the "statue" of Discord represented. Apple Bloom says it represented confusion, Sweetie Belle says it represented evil, and Scootaloo says it represented chaos. After a brief scrap between the Crusaders, Cheerilee assigned them to each write an essay explaining the meaning of "discord". In Lesson Zero, the Cutie Mark Crusaders make an appearance as the initial victims of Twilight Sparkle's shenanigans for attempting to cause a problem in order to get in her friendship report on time.

Galleries

 * Apple Bloom image gallery
 * Scootaloo image gallery
 * Sweetie Belle image gallery

Trivia

 * See also this article's speculation page.


 * In the season 2 theme song, all three Crusaders can be seen in the last car of train that appears after Twilight Sparkle hops off her hot air balloon.
 * Starting at 3:21 in Friendship is Magic, part 1, when Twilight and Spike are looking for their copy of Predictions and Prophecies, one of the books Twilight pulls out has an emblem similar to the Crusaders' emblem.
 * One of each of the three types of ponies is present in the group (Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasus).
 * In Luna Eclipsed, their costumes represent the three classic Universal horror movie monsters - Sweetie Belle is Dracula, Scootaloo is the Wolf Man, and Apple Bloom (though not dressed as the actual Frankenstein monster) is the Bride of Frankenstein.
 * In the episode Call of the Cutie, the trio referred to this group as a secret society, but in subsequent episodes, everypony seems to know about their group.