Blankness - What Do Ponies Truly Fear? · 12:27am Jul 7th, 2015
“Blankness”
What do ponies truly fear?
Cutie marks are closely associated to terms such as “destiny” and “purpose”. They’re supposed to show the talent of a pony, that one field or activity in which they excel.
So, it’s logical to think that, should they disappear, it would mean a blow to a pony’s self-esteem and their understanding of who they really are. If you were to lose the emblem, the sign that shows what makes you unique; it would have a serious impact on your mind. At the very least, it would still make you doubt yourself.
However, the question to be asked here is, would ponies lose faith in their abilities if they were to suddenly find their flanks bare? Would they trust themselves to perform their activities correctly? Would the baker trust herself to properly make all the confections that earned her cutie mark? Would the artist trust himself to create if he thought he had somehow failed to live up to his destiny? The disappearance of their cutie marks could have severe effects on ponies’ minds.
This, however, wouldn’t last long. The same way losing your high school diploma doesn’t make you forget everything you’ve learned, losing your cutie mark doesn’t mean you lose all the experiences that relate to it. A musician wouldn’t forget how to play, or the countless songs they have played. Nor would a doctor forget how treat illnesses, or all the cases they’ve had over the years.
Because, ultimately, cutie marks are merely the representation of a pony’s talent, and not their talents themselves; and once they realize this, they’ll move on.
But does it go beyond that?
While a cutie mark is indeed a visual representation of a pony’s talent, it would be remiss to ignore all the other aspects that make up the whole of what cutie marks truly mean. Therefore, let’s take a deeper look at all of what these patches of pattern-coloured fur encompass.
Think of the circumstances that normally surround the event of getting a cutie mark. Think of all the different factors that play a role in it. For example, when Pinkie Pie got her mark, it wasn’t just because she threw a party and had a good time with her family. According to what we were shown, Pinkie’s life had been one without smiles (There was no talking. There was no smiling. There were only rocks). What Pinkie Pie achieved was more than simply getting her parents and sisters to laugh and have fun for an evening; she changed her entire family dynamic with that simple act, she got them to smile, to enjoy things, to dance and to laugh. You can bet that Pinkie Pie often thinks back to that moment whenever she makes someone happy.
Or look at Fluttershy. As a pegasus who had lived her entire life in the sky, there must have been some established notions about what is considered normal for a pegasus to do. When Fluttershy plunged to the Earth and got her cutie mark, not only did she realise the connection she had with animals, but also that if you’re a pegasus, your only options aren’t the weather, or racing.
Now try to imagine what it means to have those concepts undermined. When a cutie mark disappears, it also takes all of those adjacent concepts with it. And suddenly, losing a cutie mark becomes much more.
For an example within the story itself, look no further than Golden Harvest, who deems the loss of her cutie mark as some sort of punishment for not living up to the expectations she had set for her own life after the events that surrounded the time she got her mark.
There is a term called “sonder” which is defined as “the realization that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you”. Now think about how that applies to ponies and their cutie marks.
When you look at a crowd of ponies whom you’ve never met, you can at least know something about them based on their cutie marks. The stallion that has a fruit on his flank will most likely be a farmer of some kind, the mare with clouds on hers probably works in something related to the weather, and so on. Sure, given that cutie marks don’t always have a literal interpretation, you’re bound to be wrong from time to time, but the point still stands that every pony in Equestria has their own story behind their cutie marks.
All of which could disappear in the blink of an eye.
That's just the problem with cutie marks. Ponies view it as a rite of sorts that they go thru when one grows up & that everypony eventually gets one. They hinge their identity on this fact, & even the very names they are given- quite randomly so in grand scheme of things, serendipitously allude to their special talent.
Their belief of individualism finds its roots on the cutie mark, a belief that is quite naive & self contradictory to the idea in the 1st place. Quite ironically, it is blankness that actually hallmarks individualism. From a blank canvas, one paints details of their self & gradually discovers their identity as a whole. If need be, certain aspects or details of their identity can be changed, whether to fit their desires or circumstance. Having a unchanging watermark, i.e. cutie mark, forever etched into that blankness & dominating it, screws with the point of individualism. Not only that, it throws a wrench in the dynamism of identity & the ability to adapt.
Hell, many creatures both in & out of Equestria's borders get along just fine without a cutie mark, which basically is any biologically non-pony character. That is if you count Zecora's flank stamp as a cutie mark too, which is very much the case of your story, IIRC. So I find it quite odd that you have no input yet from a non-pony this far in. IMO, you should try & look at this from that perspective for a fresh view of things. Spike especially, since he's the most recurring non-pony in the story. But so far all he's done is worry & support the ponies, rather give them the heads-up that cutie marks aren't the center of the universe. With the way things are, the story is going to set up everypony alive as a 'special little snowflake' that can only barely live or function properly without their cutie marks.
Not that I'm telling you what to do. Just give it a thought.
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I have two other essays that mention those problems, but I chose to post this instead since the other two contain spoilers for the events of the last act of the fic.
The first one deals with both the ups and downs of cutiemarks, analysing them from two perspectives, and pondering whether or not they ultimately act as limiting factors of Equestria's zeitgeist, or rather serve as a complementing factor of the ponies' lives, as a back-up as it were. I took a page out of the "10-000 Hour Rule" book and another couple of research papers that for the life of me can't remember at the moment, but I tried to give a balanced, if admittedly superficial, glance at both sides.
The other one is a thematical analysis of the fic, tackling the major points that are brough up during the story, the focus on the why cutie marks disappear rather than the how being the key factor that sparkles fear and distrust, alongside the point of view of the outsiders, like you mentioned, as well as the different outlooks the rest of Ponyville have regarding their future. The paradigm shift that occurs once ponies are faced to accept that one of the pilars in which they've based a large portion of their culture is being obliterated plays a key role in the resolution of the story's core conflict.
Chapter Eight will bring up these points, and from that point on they'll be explored in-depth throughout the meeting at Town Hall (Ch. 8) as well as the assembly to be held with the whole town (Ch. 9 if all goes according to plan) in what will surely be a riveting moment in this saga of ponies talking.
I'm willing to accept that maybe I have not conveyed the message I wanted to as efficiently as I could have through the story, and I'll work to remedy it.
God, that came out more pretentious than I intended. Anyway, thanks for sticking with my story in spite of my erratic schedule. I'll be sure to work hard to provide an enjoyable story.
Thanks a bunch.