Far Cry, an anxious unicorn with perhaps a slight drinking problem, is a skilled sculptor, designer, and painter who lives on the outskirts of Ponyville. He has found his lot in life and made quite a name for himself since moving there a few months ago by selling various artworks. However, even being a grown stallion with several well-realized skills, he has not yet earned that elusive cutie mark. This only feeds his anxiety and causes him to avoid the outside world more and more, opting instead to work long hours - sometimes days on end - in his apartment without speaking to another soul.
Although he is constantly frustrated by the fact that his mark of destiny has not yet presented itself, Pinkie Pie - his only friend in Ponyville and one of his biggest fans - is as supportive as ever. Since Far Cry came to town, she has come to enjoy bouncing on over to his place once every few days to check out his newest works and cheer him up for a while, confident that one day he'll finally earn the mark through his artwork.
This is a very personal, metaphorical story about my "ponysona" and a mirror for my experience with the fandom in many ways. A cutie mark is a very important idea to me, as it represents your "destiny," and I was having a hard time defining my ponysona's mark and feeling generally uninspired earlier this year while in a bad place in my life. The story of Far Cry's cutie mark pursuit came to me in a jolt of inspiration one day when I first heard an ultra, ultra beautiful acoustic song by MandoPony about Pinkie Pie entitled, "It Started With Your Smile." Since then, I have expanded the plot into this 4-chapter work you see here.
Since none of my proofreaders have accounts here, I'll just mention them either by their DeviantArt account handles: Thanks goes out to UnderworldFaery, SilverDrgnbane, and FaceOfSorrow for proofreading and editing duties, and a special thanks goes to SilverDrgnbane for helping me write a particularly important paragraph in Chapter III.
Rated Teen for decidedly more adult topics such as depression and a hint at alcoholism.
