The Cutie Mark Crusaders

The Cutie Mark Crusaders, in One Bad Apple

The Cutie Mark Crusaders (CMC) is a club consisting of Apple Bloom , Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle formed in Call of the Cutie, with Babs Seed joining in One Bad Apple.

Their unity is based on being "blank flanks", ponies who have not yet gotten their cutie marks. Each of the founding three fillies represents a different race, with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle being an Earth pony, Pegasus pony, and a unicorn respectively. Starting at the end of One Bad Apple, Babs Seed, Apple Bloom's cousin from Manehattan, joins them and says she will start a Manehattan branch of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The exploits of the Cutie Mark Crusaders are featured in several episodes in the series.

Founding: The Cutie Mark Crusaders (CMC) is a club consisting of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle

Their very first meeting

formed in Call of the Cutie, with Babs Seed joining in One Bad Apple . Their unity is based on being "blank flanks", ponies who have not yet gotten their cutie marks. Each of the founding three fillies represents a different race, with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle being an Earth pony, Pegasus pony, and a unicorn respectively. Starting at the end of One Bad Apple, Babs Seed, Apple Bloom's cousin from Manehattan, joins them and says she will start a Manehattan branch of the CMC. The exploits of the Cutie Mark Crusaders are featured in several episodes in the series. Development: The society is not kept a secret, as the Crusaders later come to sing about it at a talent contest

Often shouting out their club name and adventure

and 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 very often, if not always seen engaging in activities in pursuit of their cutie marks.

In The Show Stoppers , Applejack passed on her old clubhouse for the Crusaders to use. Initially the clubhouse is dilapidated, but Apple Bloom fully repairs it and the clubhouse becomes their headquarters. The initiation speech, written by Scootaloo and read out in One Bad Apple by Sweetie Belle, is long and repetitive to the point where Scootaloo herself interrupts it and makes a note to revise it.

   Sweetie Belle: [reading] We, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, elect Babs Seed to join us as a sister, friend, [pronouncing wrong] confidante, ally, bossom buddy, gal pal, compadre, chum of chums... 
   Scootaloo: [clears throat] 
   Sweetie Belle: Well you wrote this. 
   Scootaloo: Oh, uh, yeah... 
   Sweetie Belle: [reading] Homegirl... Amiga... blah blah blah blah blah. Oh, yes, here. ...and fellow Cutie Mark Crusader! You are solemnly sworn in, here this day, in witness of your fellow sisters, friends, confidantes... bossom buddies... compadres... 
   Scootaloo: Congratulations! [quickly, under her breath] Gotta remember to revise that.

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 make a mess in Twilight's library in pursuit of a librarian cutie mark. Twilight enters with Cheerilee, who suggests the Crusaders appear in a talent show. The fillies excitedly suggest juggling, acting, magic tricks, square dancing, tightrope-walking, and tiger-taming, but Twilight advises them to try 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 come 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 .

In One Bad Apple, the Crusaders build two floats for the Summer Harvest Festival (the first being destroyed by Babs Seed). The first is designed to look like a pumpkin, the second a golden apple. They build these in one of Sweet Apple Acres' barns.

Joint activities which the Crusaders have attempted (and failed at), or mentioned, include the following:

   Creature catchers (Stare Master - Apple Bloom and Scootaloo disguise themselves as a dangerous creature from the Everfree Forest, and Sweetie Belle attempts to catch them)
   Carpenters (Stare Master - The Crusaders attempt to fix a table broken during their creature catcher attempt)
   Coal miners (Stare Master - Fluttershy stops them before they can do anything)
   Chicken herders (Stare Master - Trying to round up Fluttershy's chickens, until Fluttershy interrupts them)
   Cottage cleaners (Stare Master - Apple Bloom suggests this after running out of ideas, which Sweetie Belle quickly rejects)
   Chicken rescuers (Stare Master - Running into the Everfree Forest to try and find one of Fluttershy's chickens)
   Zip-lining (The Cutie Mark Chronicles - Spike suggests this to Scootaloo; the Crusaders in turn end up covered in tree sap and pine needles)
   Something involving a cannon (The Cutie Mark Chronicles - Scootaloo starts suggesting this after the failure of the zip-lining attempt)
   Pillow testing (The Cutie Mark Chronicles - a 'safe' idea suggested by Sweetie Belle)
   Flower sniffing (The Cutie Mark Chronicles - a 'safe' idea suggested by Sweetie Belle)
   Bowling (The Cutie Pox - Apple Bloom's idea in the opening sequence; none of the Crusaders are able to launch their ball well enough to knock over a single pin)
   Potion making (The Cutie Pox - Scootaloo's suggestion after Apple Bloom is cured)
   Box packing (Ponyville Confidential - Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle using strips of the Foal Free Press to pack boxes, in order to transport fragile items)
   Nest making (Ponyville Confidential - Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle using strips of the Foal Free Press to assist a family of birds make a nest)
   Paper mache (Ponyville Confidential - Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle mentions attempting using pieces of Foal Free Press to make paper mache while complaining to Apple Bloom)
   Paper boating (Ponyville Confidential - Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle folding the Foal Free Press into a giant boat, which sinks)
   Journalists (Ponyville Confidential - Apple Bloom suggests the Crusaders join the Foal Free Press)
   Water Skiing (Spike at Your Service - Apple Bloom runs off to join the other Crusaders in performing this activity)
   Critter-Sitting (Just for Sidekicks - Spike convinces Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo to try to get their cutie marks by watching over all of the ponies' pets. This job was originally given to Spike.).
   Sky Diving (Just for Sidekicks - This is to be achieved by jumping off a bridge into a river several feet below. Spike ushers them off to the Crystal Empire before they can attempt the jump.)

One additional exchange from Stare Master has Apple Bloom and Scootaloo considering whether they could get their cutie marks in arguing. Another additional exchange from The Cutie Pox has Scootaloo joking about whether or not she could get her cutie mark in demolition.

Appearances: There are eight episodes centered around the Cutie Mark Crusaders: Stare Master, The Show

The CMC, as flower fillies in A Canterlot Wedding

Stoppers, The Cutie Mark Chronicles, Family Appreciation Day, Hearts and Hooves Day, Ponyville Confidential, One Bad Apple and Sleepless in Ponyville. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are also featured together in Friendship is Magic, part 1, Call of the Cutie, The Return of Harmony Part 1, Lesson Zero, Luna Eclipsed, The Cutie Pox, Secret of My Excess, Hearth's Warming Eve, It's About Time, A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, Just for Sidekicks, and Games Ponies Play, and separately in A Friend in Deed and Magical Mystery Cure. They also appear in the remastered opening sequence in the last car of the train that passes by after Twilight Sparkle hops off her hot air balloon.

In the cold open of The Return of Harmony Part 1, they argue over what the "statue" of Discord represents. Apple Bloom says it represents confusion, Sweetie Belle says it represents evil, and Scootaloo says it represents chaos. After a brief scrap between the Crusaders, Cheerilee assigns them to each write an essay explaining the meaning of "discord".

They are the initial victims of Twilight Sparkle's shenanigans in Lesson Zero when she gives them a doll in hopes

Making a "love potion" for Cheerilee and Big Mac

that they will fight over it, allowing her to stop them and get in her friendship report on time. She casts a "want it need it" spell on the doll and shows it to the girls. The girls' pupils eyes turn to hearts and they begin fighting over it. Twilight, unable to break up the fight, gets Big McIntosh to take the doll away from them, but the spell affects him too, and subsequently causes dozens of ponies to fight over the doll. Princess Celestia eventually undoes the spell.

They make brief appearances in Luna Eclipsed, dressed up as the three classic Universal Studios horror movie monsters: Sweetie Belle as Dracula, Scootaloo as the Wolf Man, and Apple Bloom is the Bride of Frankenstein rather than the monster. CMC Ingredients 01 S02E17The CMC in Hearts and Hooves Day. In Hearts and Hooves Day, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are trying to find a stallion in Ponyville that would be perfect for their teacher, Cheerilee, for Hearts and Hooves Day. They are also featured in the song The Perfect Stallion in this episode, where they choose Big McIntosh as Cheerilee's "special somepony".

In Ponyville Confidential , the Cutie Mark Crusaders become reporters for their school newspaper, under the group name, "Gabby Gums." They print several scandalous stories, but when they discover how harmful the stories are, they reveal themselves in an open letter, apologizing to the town. In A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, the Cutie Mark Crusaders serve as flower fillies for the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance.

In the comic series The Return of Queen Chrysalis, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are kidnapped by Queen Chrysalis and imprisoned in the changeling kingdom, although she is rapidly becoming annoyed by them and doesn't know how long she can put up with them.

Babs Seed looking anxiously at her initiation S3E4Babs Seed during her Cutie

Mark Crusaders initiation ritual.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders appear together in One Bad Apple.[4] They invite Apple Bloom's cousin Babs Seed to join them, but she refuses and instead bullies them. The Crusaders sing about her as they worry. Later on in the episode, Applejack explains to the Crusaders that Babs Seed was bullied back in Manehattan, when the CMC passed her their booby-trapped golden apple float. After the following events, (CMC tries to save Babs Seed, before she fell into the mud, they manage to push her out but fall into the mud themselves) she apologizes and joins the Crusaders, promising to found the Manehattan branch of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. In Apple Family Reunion Babs Seed mentions to Apple Bloom that there are two other blank flanks at her new school who might be interested in joining the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders (excluding Babs Seed) make a brief appearance dancing in the trailer for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.

Clubhouse: The Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse, formerly owned by Applejack, is located in a "secluded, private part" of Sweet Apple Acres. Since its first appearance in The Show Stoppers, the clubhouse has been seen in many episodes and used for different purposes, with furniture and equipment being added to suit the Crusaders' needs. It has a wide open space, large enough to practice dance moves in (The Show Stoppers), fit several ponies (The Mysterious Mare Do Well), and create large arts and crafts (Hearts and Hooves Day). It has multiple floors, joined by a staircase, and in some episodes an additional building higher up in its tree, connected via an outside ramp. While normally only occupied by the Crusaders, Scootaloo has previously used it to host the "Rainbow Dash Fan Club" in The Mysterious Mare Do Well, and in One Bad Apple , it was briefly occupied by Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and Babs Seed but was reclaimed by the end of the episode. Things seen and used in the clubhouse are:

   Map of Ponyville: Scootaloo draws a basic map of Ponyville in The Show Stoppers, and it later appears pinned to the clubhouse wall. By the end of the episode, all of the key locations in it have been crossed out.
   Craft materials: In later episodes, pots containing paintbrushes and pencils can be seen on the clubhouse's windowsill.
   Posters: At least two posters of Rainbow Dash appear in the clubhouse in a couple of episodes, along with a poster of "Noi", wearing reporter getup, in Ponyville Confidential.
   Telescope: On the upper level or in the upper building of the clubhouse, the Crusaders have a telescope. They use it in Family Appreciation Day to spot the fourth sign of the zap apples.
   Great idea spot: A target painted on the floor directly below the lamp inside the clubhouse. While first used without a target in Family Appreciation Day, when Scootaloo leaps up into the air and hits her head on the lamp, turning it on, by the time of One Bad Apple, the Crusaders have turned it into a feature of the clubhouse (requiring a second pony to turn the lamp on when necessary).
   Podium: Used by Scootaloo during The Mysterious Mare Do Well for the "Rainbow Dash Fan Club" meeting, and again by Sweetie Belle during Babs Seed's initiation into the Crusaders in One Bad Apple.
   Drums: Used by Scootaloo during Babs Seed's initiation.
   Eating spot: Used by the three Cutie Mark Crusaders while they were trying to persuade Babs Seed to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders earlier on.

The CMC singing The Heart Carol

Sweetie Belle, about to tear up after their clubhouse is stolen