Cutie Mark essay · 8:29am Nov 10th, 2015
(Note: I've decided that my essays are written from a Doylist POV rather than a Watsonian POV. Basically, its from MY POV rather than from Coin Flips)
On Cutie Marks.
The term "cutie mark" refers to the marking on the rump of a pony. Since MLP is targetted towards girls (although FiM has gained quite the large periphery audience), the name sounds cutesy. I'm fine with that. Coin Flip would probably call it a rump marking, because he's (most of the time) a stallion.
Whichever term you prefer, the marking appearing generally marks the pony involved finding their special talent. Fanfiction tends to make it that once you have your rump tat, you are locked into that sort of job for the rest of your life. (I think there was an episode that was part of the Dreamwalker Luna trilogy where Apple Bloom has nightmares about getting a crap marking and regretting getting it in the first place, so it might be canon.) You get your rump ink when you find your talent and actively do it. I think I prefer adding something to the requirements. In my fics, you get your cutie mark when you work out your talent, actively Do It AND after your first heat.
Why did I add that last one? Well, the FiM community seems to make the human equivalent of getting your cutie mark be becoming sexually mature. It also adds a little more feeling that the ponies involved are growing up. One pony in a relationship getting their cutie mark while the other remains blank is an important point in the backstory of one of the 6+1 OCs.
(Yes, that means that despite the CMC having an idea of what their talents are supposed to be, they won't get them until after their first heat, meaning that by my reckoning, the CMC are sexually mature by S5. Note that RL human girls can be sexually mature at 13, but that does not mean that they are mentally mature enough to deal with the baggage)
(Did you know that there isn't a term for when semen production begins? I mean, there's menarche for when the Red Knight starts requesting lodging, but nothing for starting up the baby gravy factory)
ANYWAY, moving past biology, another thing I should point out is that a cutie mark does not mark out a ponies destiny. All it does is allow a pony to add double their proficiency bonus to their talent. Look at Rarity. Her rump marking shows that she is talented at finding gems. Does she work as a geologist or a miner? No, she makes luxury items that use gems! Look at Fluttershy. Her puberty marking shows that she can walk on clouds of butterflies. Fluttershy works as a vet/pet store/Co-Guardian against the Everfree. One fan character got her cutie mark by giving REALLY good oral. Does she work as a high-class escort? No, she's a nurse!
Speaking of Deepy, heres another thing that I think makes sense AND clears up a problem that some fans have. Names. You see, some ponies have names that really fit their talent.
REALLY fit their talent. These ponies seem to have had these names since birth.
I find that silly. My headcanons (shut up, it's a perfectly cromulent word) have it work differently. Namely that the sire and the dame give their foal one name (usually along some sort of theme, like Apples) and when the puberty parasprite gives the pony their puberty disfigurement, they can choose to give themselves a new name. Coin Flips family tend to give shadow based names, but CF didn't want to be known as "Shadow Consumption" for the rest of his life. There is a reason why Golden has the name she has, but as Jordan used to reply, RAFO (Of course, that requires me to WTFS so you can RAFO, but it seems that S5 is frelling up some of the stuff I've worked out).
