“You sure about that, Starlight?”
“I’ve always wanted to see the Luna Ocean. If I’m to travel so far from home, why not visit all the places at once? Vanhoofer isn’t half bad, right?”
“I guess so.”
I looked at the view outside the window of this small mountain inn. Moonlight reflected off the snowy slope of the western face of the Himareyas, the roof of Equestria. Ville de Platine was a beautiful place, if not a bit damp and cold at times.
I drew in a breath and decided to ask Starlight a pertinent question.
“Starlight, I want to ask you a favor.”
“Shoot.”
“Can you teach me your cutie mark stripping spell?”
She looked shocked and a bit worried. “W- What for? That spell is for-”
“I want to cast it on myself.”
After a prolonged silence, she wordlessly elevated me using her magic into the air and shoved me into my own bed.
“Hey!” I yelped.
“I don’t know..."
She bit back a sad sniffle. "I- I have never thought you’ve received such a severe mental damage... I’ve definitely worsened it by my reckless actions! Woe to me and to Equestria! You’re such a good friend, not to mention an extremely bright magical mind-”
I then shouted and interrupted her grieving monologue. “I’m not brain-damaged, dang it!”
“Who in their right mind would want to strip their own cutie mark away?”
“It- It’s a very important experiment!”
“What experiment, pray tell, exactly requires the removal of your own cutie mark?”
I tightly winced. “… Please, just teach me that spell. I will never use it on anypony other than myself.”
“I’m not doubting that! You’re just not that kind of pony. I’m just concerned, very very concerned!”
Starlight crossed her hooves and said. “You’ve shown your wares. You know magic, you have integrity, but you’re always so unsure of yourself. I thought it was nothing, until just now! Don’t you try to harm yourself for whatever reason!”
“I- I assure you, Starlight, I’m not trying to do silly things. It’s a research on cutie mark and… minds I’ve been wanting to do very much.”
“… Go on.” Starlight raised a brow hearing the topic of mind magic.
I gulped, and tried to pull together a story about my research, while omitting the real reason – finding a way to isolate and separate my influence from the real Twilight, who might be somewhere hidden in ‘my’ mind.
Since cutie mark was in theory such a potent influence on a pony’s goals and personality, I couldn’t discount the strong possibility that it was binding me down in a way.
Starlight raised a hoof and interrupted my blabbering. “Okay, I get it, you want it badly. But no, I’m still not teaching you the spell.”
I let out a desperate cry. “I beg you, Starlight! I don’t need the money, I just need the spell!”
She stonewalled. “No, nope. No way.”
I then sulked. My research was going nowhere, and now my only breakthrough point was being actively denied. I sat down next to the bed, my gaze weakly swam onto the ground.
I heard Starlight sigh aloud. “… I didn’t say I won’t help. But I will be the one who cast the spell.”
“… Huh?”
“Since cutie mark removal is such a personality-altering experience, self-experimentation will be way too dangerous. How do you record your results if you’re all disoriented and out of your elements anyway?”
My eyes lit up with delight. “Really? You say you’ll help?”
She scratched her mane, a helpless smile developed on her face in response to my enthusiasm. “Well, since you’re so desperate. Goodness, not even I was that enthusiastic about my own spell.”
************
“Uggghhh!”
Starlight groaned and yelled. Immense turquoise light shot forth from her horn. The sheer amount of magic was literally distorting the space near the path, and the exhaustion was visible on her face. The brilliant cyan ray directly struck my Cutie Mark.
And then nothing happened.
If that was a spell with intent to harm, I would probably have exploded right there and then. But I felt not even a small breeze.
Starlight didn’t even care the ground was a cold slush of dirty snow. She just sat down and loudly complained towards the grey sky. “What the Tartarus, Twilight? Are your Cutie Mark just a paint-job?! Are you even a pony?”
Hahaha… Sheesh, that hit way too close to home to feel funny.
And actually, nothing had happened the last fifteen times we had tried this.
At first, we did it in the hotel room. After a few failed trials, she began to get anxious and desperate, while I became slightly suspicious of the efficacy of her spell.
Of course, being the hard-headed unicorn that she was, she got offended at the idea that her spell was phony. Against my vigorous protest, she sneaked up on one of the hotel maids and one of the passers-by, and successfully demonstrated the incredible theft of their Cutie Marks.
She even offered to show me she could even switch them as she returned them. I then, of course, firmly rejected the proposal to screw somepony over just for scientific demonstration.
With the doubt on her spell cleared, she theorized that it was simply the matter of insufficient magic. Hence we had moved to a clearing in a forest nearby, in order to minimize any possible hazard to the civilians. We figured that the magic level she would draw on would have been tremendous.
And lo, it was once again proven that she was an incredible magical prodigy. The sheer magical energy involved in this little spell-casting session could level a small hill, conjure a new one, and then level it several times again.
Could I even take her on in a one-to-one battle and win…? Argh, why was I thinking about fighting her? I was not a dragon anymore, there’s no need to be this competitive and territorial. This Cutie Mark matter was truly driving me to paranoia.
Where was I? Oh right, so she increased her magical output time after time, until now, which she had clearly totally exhausted herself. After yelling towards the sky again like a demented mare, she buckled and dropped onto the ground, falling straight into unconsciousness.
After briefly checking up on her to see whether she was alright other than being exhausted, I simply magicked her up and put her on my back.
Ugh… I was now so physically weak. The life of a magical bookworm with a dragon assistant surely was sedentary and comfortable... Way too comfortable. Even though I had moved and exercised more since the incident, it was still a tall order to carry another pony on my back for such a long walk. I cast a feather-weight spell on us both to ease the burden.
But at least I could bring home with the knowledge that something strange and curious had happened with my mind and body due to the Element mishap. Cutie Mark was the manifestation of a pony’s destiny, and the fact that it couldn’t be separated from this body with my mind squatting in there…
There were too many possibilities. I must study this more when I got back to Ponyville.
For now though, I should carry Starlight back to the hotel myself. She had been such a great help and a great friend. It was but my own small way to give thanks to her, however paltry and insufficient.