Random Dedications
Dedicates to -_silverstream_- - one of my first ever friends here on Wattpad.
Mack, I know things are tough for you over there and I know that you will most probably never see this, but I hope you know that we all wish that things could get better for you, especially with this crisis over our heads. Don't give up! There's still hope!

+*+ ON WITH THE ONE-SHOT +*+

   "Ugh, this lesson is too hard," Gallus said frustratedly as he slammed his head on his book.

"Come on, Gallus, you can do it!" Sandbar said encouragingly, flipping to the next page of his own book. Granted, the lesson is harder than he has expected. His Professors sure were bent on making sure that they perfected every single angle of friendship.

"Gee, I don't know, Sandbar," Ocellus said after she finished scanning the chapter ahead of them, "These lessons are pretty hard"

Silverstream gasped and grabbed her own head with her claws. "If Ocellus can't do it, then what does it mean for us?"

"It means we need help, that's what," Smolder said, deciding to state the obvious as she gave up on the lesson and closes her book, letting it drop on the wooden picnic table with a thud.

    "It's not like we can ask the Professors. They're really busy ponies!" Sandbar said, placing a sad hoof on the cover of his book. He hoped that he could understand the lesson more with his friends, but turned out he was quite mistaken.

    "Yak agree," Yona said as all heads nodded in agreement.

    "But if the Professors can't help us, then who can?" Gallus asked, turning his head around slowly to look at every single one of his friends in the eye, since, quite frankly, they definitely would not know the answer to the question as well.

    "I have an idea," Sandbar said with a goofy grin.

    The Young 6 followed Sandbar all the way to the depths of the dense apple trees surounding Sweet Apple Acres, the apple smell being very intoxicating, especially since this was the place where the best apples of Equestria were produced and harvested. They had to stop Gallus from eating a ripe apple from a tree twice.

    Soon enough, the apple trees became less dense and all sighed in relief as they approached a small clearing where a treehouse was attached to a particularly large apple tree.

    Sandbar looked at his friends worriedly, deciding that it was best for them to not all climb up the treehouse at the same time.

    "You guys stay here," he said, pointing his hoof to the very spot they were standing in. He received a nod from all of his friends and he ascended the very firm staircase that lead to the outside balcony of the treehouse and Sandbar knocked on the rosy apple red door. He really didn't expect them to be here, and a goofy grin settled on his face as a taller yellow Earth Pony with a red mane opened the door. Behind her were a white Unicorn with a pink and purple mane, and an orange Pegasus with a vibrant violet mane. He really didn't expect them to be here around this time of day. He just assumed they had already retired for the day, but he was so relieved to be proven wrong.

    "Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Sandbar said, his eyes lighting up with relief. He was still bewildered with the fact that they were taller compared to him. He had heard about the Extreme Growthspurt, as Silverstream liked to call it, secondhand, but it was still dizzying how it actually was. They were actually taller than him now.

    "Uh, hiya, Sandbar," the Earth Pony said in a Southern Accent that wasn't as deep as Applejack's, stepping forward into the balcony. She tilted her head. "What do you need?"

    "We actually need help doing our assignment, and I heard you were tutors before," Sandbar said, trying to rub the ground with his hoof before realizing that he was standing in a balcony with a wooden floor and twitched a little bit as the rough wood came in contact with his skin.

    "Oh, yeah!" the Unicorn said, nodding vigorously, "Don't you remember, Applebloom?"

    "Well, of course I remember, Sweetie Bell, but we don't do that now," Applebloom snapped, looking at Sweetie Bell then Sandbar.

   "Why not?" Sandbar asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

    At this, Applebloom's eyes widened and she bit the bottom edge of her lip before taking a step back and bowing her head in guilt. Sweetie Bell rubbed her hoof cluelessly. The Pegasus groaned internally, knowing that shd would be the only one of the Crusaders to be brave enough to answer the question.

   "Well," the Pegasus said in a matter-of-fact tone, "It may or may not have something to do with Cozy Glow..."

    Sweetie Bell slapped her hoof in her own face. "Really, Scootaloo? May or may not?"

    Sweetie Bell was used to her Pegasus friend using that whenever they were together but she had told her friend a hundred times to not use that with other creatures, as Scootaloo could be more than a little faint with her point.

"Why did you stop? You can't let one bad apple make you think you failed! Especially when we really need you!" Sandbar said, shaking his head at how hesitant the Cutie Mark Crusaders still were.

"Ugh, fine, we'll give it a go with you and your friends," Applebloom said, looking away and scoffing, though it was less teasing and more on disbelief. She genuinely felt that the Cutie Mark Crusaders could no longer be tutors, but she wasn't going to say no to her friends.

"Actually," Scootaloo said, raising her hoof, "If the Young 6 are already having hard enough time with their lessons, don't you think other students are, too?"

"Gee, thanks, Scootaloo," Sweetie Bell muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.

Applebloom sighed. She should really just take full responsibility for this and get it over with, no matter how much of a failure it could be. "That's settled then, right? Five in the afternoon over here. Bring another student each," Applebloom said, gesturing to the bottom of the treehouse.

"But it's almost five," Sandbar said, motioning to the sun as it hovers, but barely, above the mountains where it would eventually disappear behind.

"Well, you better hurry up now, ain't you?" Applebloom shot back, tilting her head to motion for him go along now. She caught Sandbar mutter a few distasteful words under his breath before leaving. Applebloom sighed. She would admit it. They had been pretty harsh to them, but they failed with Cozy Glow. What makes the Young 6 think that they could help them now?

    The Young 6 return with additional students handpicked by them themselves as Applebloom finished up arranging the last bag of snacks. Okay maybe she was going a little too overboard with the snacks, but she couldn't help it. Apples had always calmed her down no matter what occassion, and she wished that the students would feel the same. But maybe she should pack a little bit more snacks. She peeked inside to see a bottle of apple cider, and she made it as alchohol-free as possible for obvious reasons, and apple fritters. She walked over to the nearest tree to get twelve fresh apples, placing them in each paper bag. Telling herself that everything would be okay, she folded the top of the last bag and faced the incoming students.

Sweetie Bell looked at picnic tables —"Our sorry excuse for desk and chairs," Scootaloo said spitefully a while ago. Meanwhile, Sweetie Bell loved the idea of picnic tables. She thought that it would be less formal compared to the all too strict classroom. Safe to say, she loved picnics and wanted to make everything feel like one huge picnic where everycreature helped each other. Hopefully everything would feel like one big picnic. On second thought, maybe she should rearrange the picnic tables. She used her magic to arrange them in rows and columns, contrary to the circle she has made a while ago. She nodded her head, satisfied. Then her eyes grew wide with fear that maybe the new arrangement was a little too formal.

    "Would you stop moving the tables?" Scootaloo yelled from arranging their lesson plans. Well, more on tutor plans. She clicked her tongue at herself in disgust. She was the last person in the Cutie Mark Crusaders who she would imagine to do things like these, and yet here she was, somewhat enjoying herself. She had already read through the lessons three times already and scanned through the next one twice and was currently in the middle of rereading the lessons. It was about doing the next right thing to do in every possible situation between friends. If Scootaloo was being honest, she found this lesson quite tricky as well, but she knew with the help of her friends, they could manage anything!

    "Welcome, everycreature, to the first ever session of Cutie Mark Coaching!" Applebloom yelled enthusiastically. Scootaloo cringed while Sweetie Bell raised her eyebrow at their friend, but both reactions went unnoticed by the yellow mare.

    "Uh, Applebloom?" Gallus said, already on his front-row seat beside Geo, as he motioned to the small group of students.

    There was Ocellus and a pink pony with a red and white swirly mane and glasses, pornably also in the book club Ocellus was in, both seated on the picnic table to the left of theirs. Behind them were Silverstream and Goldendrop. Silverstream knew that Goldendrop wasn't a student there but pulled her along anyway. In the picnic table to their right had Smolder and a purple pegasus with a pink mane. Behind them were Yona and Gina. Even though they weren't friends anymore, they were still in somewhat good terms with each other. Then to the left of them were Sandbar and Riverbed who recently enrolled at the School of Friendship.

   Applebloom smiled sheepishly, realizing that she didn't have to be so... extra. She cleared her throat once again. "Say hey, everycreature, to our Cutie Mark Coaching," Applebloom said in a friendlier tone, earning an approving proud smile from Scootaloo and an approving friendly smile from Sweetie Bell.

"We're gonna make this exciting!" Sweetie Bell said, standing beside Applebloom as they exchanged a smile.

"And you won't regret it!" Scootaloo added, stepping beside her friends as well.

They start the tutoring session and it went without a hitch, making the Cutie Mark Crusaders believe that they were ready to take on more students, until their grades arrived.

    "WHAT?" Sweetie Bell screamed, going octaves higher than her usual high-pitched voice, staring at the paper levitated by her magic in front of her.

    "How?" Scootaloo asked in a less frazzled tone as she peered over Sweetie's paper to look at their scores.

   "It's Cozy Glow all over again!" Applebloom said pacing back and forth, then stopped with fear written clearly on her face, "Except they didn't do it on purpose this time!"

    The best case was a below-average score from Sandbar, which was considerably higher than most others, and the fact that he was a Pony may be a huge factor. As expected, most of the Young 6 had scores nearly as high as Sandbar's, except for Gallus and Smolder. The worst case was an almost failing score. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were really grateful that nocreature failed.

   "Sorry, Cutie Mark Coaches," the pony beside Ocellus said, looking down.

   "It's fine," Applebloom replied, wondering why she said that when it really wasn't.

    "We're new to this. We all are," Riverbed said loudly, hoping to lighten up the mood.

    "Well, maybe you are, but some of us aren't," Applebloom snapped, glaring at his direction.

    "Hey, calm down," Sweetie Bell said, placing a hoof on her friend's shoulder.

"Yeah. We can't give up. It's gonna turn around eventually. Before an up, there's down," Scootaloo said, stepping in front of Applebloom.

"Uhuh," Sweetie Bell nodded and agreed.

"We won't help them if they didn't fail first," Scootaloo said, looking at the students, smiling proudly. Until she saw their faces. That proud smile turned into an apologetic one.

"Scootaloo," Applebloom scolded her.

"Eh, sorry," Scootaloo replied, scratching her hoof.

"But she's right. Maybe we were teaching them all wrong. They certainly have some strengths and weaknesses," Sweetie Bell said, levitating the rated papers and using her magic to draw some circles made of pure magical aura around critical strengths and weaknesses of the students.

"Heh, maybe you're right," Applebloom said, her face getting brighter.

And so they got to it. They sent the students home, or to their dorms, whichever was nearer, and promised them that when they come back, their tutoring session will be a blast.

The entire morning the next day, when the sun was raised high in the sky, the Cutie Mark Crusaders resolved to make the next Cutie Mark Coaching sessions the best that they could. Since that morning, Swetie Bell found herself reading old books that she discovered one time with her friends, looking for stuff in Applebloom's attic, about the health benefits of each apple treat that has ever been made in their family from generation to generation. She was now hard at work baking all those that would help improve the student's enthusiasm and energy, with the help of Applejack.

"Ah mighty appreciate how you three are ensuring that our students pass," Applejack said, finishing the stirring of the bowl of apple custard.

"Well, it was a bit rough at first. This is only our third meeting," Sweetie Bell admitted, using her magic to chop more apples for Applejack, who was doing most of the baking. It was proven more than once that Sweetie Bell wasn't exactly the best at baking, and ponies only trusted her with the simple stuff. If she was being honest, she liked it that way, but she did find a desire to learn how to bake every now and then.

"If ya want, ah could appear at your Cutie Mark Coaching sessions now," Applejack said, wiping a sweat of her brow before spooning some of the apple custard into a baking tray with cooled cooked puffed pastry on the edges.

"Really?" Sweetie Bell asked hopefully, looking at her.

"Sure. Though the way ah teach may not be too useful for the students," Applejack said, placing slices of apple on the custard.

"Well, you'd certainly be useful there for us!" Sweetie Bell said.

Just in the living room, Applebloom took some of Sweetie Bell's data about the students and converted it into statistical graphs. It was a lie to say that Applebloom wasn't the least bit interested in statistics. She was now refining their lesson plans, adding additional refinements that would help the students learn better, because it seemed like she missed a lot of things last night. She also wrote on a notebook about how their professors could change their ways so the students would understand better. Applebloom took a sip of steaming hot apple cider and yawned. She was a morning pony, but she had stayed so late last night re-writing their lesson plans, finally finding out what they'd been doing all wrong.

Outside the door, Scootaloo prepared the classroom. Or what would be the classroom. And she didn't stop at rearranging everything. She added additional little things at their table that could potentially make the students feel more at home and relaxed. She found herself someone enjoying this little outside arts-and-crafts activity, but of course, they were very similar to making posters and merchandise for the Official Rainbow Dash Fan Club, and once, the Official Washouts Fan Club. Who knew she would get some other interest other than flying. Scootaloo frowned and looked at her wings longingly, wishing that she could fly as well. She placed extra effort in the decorations for students that could fly, and she sat in their seats, imagining how it would feel. At least she had the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

    That very afternoon when it was thrity minutes until time, the Cutie Mark Crusaders tired themselves out. Every bone and muscle felt weary and overworked. Sleep was a persistent call towards them. They found it really hard to ignore it. But as it was thirty minutes until their second Cutie Mark Coaching session, they barely had time to rest and were now sharing a snack on what Scootaloo called the Tutor's Table, along with Applejack and the early-comers, which were Ocellus, Yona, Silverstream and Goldendrop. The students had received the result of a second set of quizzes today, this time for their Generosity and Honesty classes. Applebloom refused to hear about the scores from the early birds or from Applejack. She wanted to wait until everycreature was here, which kept the anticipation floating free in the air between the three Crusaders. Applebloom couldn't stop nibbling her food. Sweetie Bell couldn't stop tossing an apple back and forth. Scootaloo couldn't stop flapping her wings.

    Eventually, the rest of their little tutor group emerged from the trees and they finally saw the scores.

   "Yes!" Applebloom cheered as she read the ratings in front of her.

   "Whoohoo!" Sweetie Bell yelled, sending a magical blast into the sky that looked like beautiful fireworks against the twilit backdrop.

   "I knew they could do it!" Scootaloo said, clapping her hooves together.

    Most creatures had a perfect score, and some had very good scores, which were huge improvements. Except for one. The Cutie Mark Crusader's eyes widened in terror as they saw someone failed in all of their quizzes.

    "Geo!" Applebloom yelled, trying her best not to glare at the Griffin, but mostly failing.

"What happened?" Sweetie Bell screamed, turning to face Geo as well, but the abrupt movement of her head caused her mane to fly everywhere in her face.

"Bleh," Sweetie Bell muttered as she used her magic to remove a strand of mane from her mouth.

Scootaloo just looked at Sweetie Bell with a smug grin on her face, grateful for keeping her mane short, then turned to Geo and disappointment filled her face. "How could you do this?" Scootaloo asked.

    "Sorry, I really tried my best," Geo said, holding his head low, surprising everycreature, "The lesson was just too hard"

Applebloom sighed and lowered her head, but remained silent.

"I don't think it's the lesson. I think it's us," Sweetie Bell said, deciding to state what the three of them were thinking, as she looked between her two friends.

Scootaloo nodded. "Maybe we should stop doing this..."

"No!" Geo said, "You've helped so many creatures! Please don't leave us! Please... Don't give up."

"What's the point if you're going to fail anyway?" Sweetie Bell asked, shaking her head.

"Yeah, she's right. There is no point," Applebloom said, looking at her friends, hopelessness mixed into each of their faces.

"But you've made an effort! That's the point! And as long as you keep making them, hope will always be there!" Geo said.

"I... I guess you're... right," Applebloom gave a small smile.

    "Yeah, Crusaders," Scootaloo said, stepping in front of her two best friends and breaking out into a parody of We'll Make our Marks, her voice improving tremendously over the last few years. Eventually, Applebloom and Sweetie Bell contribute their amazing singing as well.

    "We've been searching how to coach
For a while now
Trying to find how they can pass.
So many ways we've tried before
And we'll keep on trying more
Because the struggles of Crusaders only lasts"
+*+ A/N: I know this sucks +*+

The Cutie Mark Crusaders broke out in a small fit of laughs, fondly remembering how they got their first Cutie Mark, and how they finally found what's special about each of them, and their talents. Their purpose. And now, they found a new one.

"You're right, Scootaloo. We can't give up now! We're gonna keep on Cutie Mark Coaching until they all pass!" Applebloom yelled determinedly, and the entire tutor group gave a cheer.

So when the grades the next day arrived for Loyalty and Magic, all had high scores, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders couldn't restrain the smiles that were appearing on their faces.

    "Yes!" Applebloom cheered as she read the ratings in front of her.

   "Whoohoo!" Sweetie Bell yelled, sending a magical blast into the sky that looked like beautiful fireworks against the twilit backdrop.

   "I knew they could do it!" Scootaloo said, clapping her hooves together.

   "I told you guys that you could do it," Geo said, smiling.

   "It was a team effort. Thank you, ya'll," Applebloom said, looking gratefully into the eyes of each student one by one.

    "Does that mean that you're going to take up more students?" Smolder asked, holding her pen excitedly. She really enjoyed these Cutie Mark Coaching sessions and wanted to share the experience with even more creatures.

   "But we already had such a hard time with a small group," Sweetie Bell said as she looked between her best friends, earning an agreeing nod from them.

    "Come on, guys! We believe in you!" Silverstream's enthusiasm sure was contagious. All students nodded or cheered, even Goldendrop.

"Alright. From now on, anycreature interested can sign up," Applebloom said, earning another cheer from the students.

"Are you sure we can do this?" Sweetie Bell asked, a bit paranoid.

"Are you kidding?" Scootaloo asked with a determined face, "We're Cutie Mark Crusaders. We can do this!"

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
You'd be surprised to know who my favorite singing voice is from the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I know I've been going on and on about Michelle Creber and everything, and she sure is very talented, but Claire Corlette is actually my favorite singing voice. Just listen to To dare to compare anywhere to there is unfair and just plain wrong. Colt or mare or you wear feather, fins or hair, this is where you belong in Your Heart is in Two Places. Or You can't tell me no, there's no place I can't go, mountains, cities, jungles or lakes, because being big is all it takes in Being Big is All it Takes

Remember to spread the Magic of Friendship!