On the next day, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders and their first client, the filly named Dinky Hooves, were in the operation center early already. The sun had just risen a few hours ago and their bellies were full with the breakfast they had. This was nothing that could satisfy Dinky, though.
The young unicorn was looking around the table where the three Crusaders were seated, a frantic expression in her eyes. She was shifting from one hoof to another and her teeth were clenched. Sweetie Belle didn't tell her the idea she had gotten yet, so the impatience was driving Dinky nuts. And the sleep deprivation just made everything worse.
The bags under Dinky's eyes told about how she had been lying awake in her bed for almost the whole night, changing her sleeping position every three minutes in futile hope to fall asleep while thoughts and speculations rushed through her head. Eventually, she had been able to sleep, but then her mom was calling for her to get up just an hour later. “For your appointment with the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” she had said. Derpy was a responsible mom, so she had noticed how tired Dinky looked and was urging her to lie down again, but Dinky refused and insisted to go. All the expectation and all the mystery about what Sweetie Belle was planning had made her antsy. And she still was, indicated by her inability to stand still. As she couldn't hold the stress and the tension inside of her anymore, Dinky finally expressed her feelings to the three other fillies.
“Why are you just whispering all the time?! Can we finally start?!” She did an energetic step towards the table and put a hoof on it, now wearing an angry expression.
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stopped their whispering immediately and stared at her with shrunken eyeballs. But then their eyes returned to normal and they nodded together.
“Sorry for letting ya wait,” Apple Bloom began. “There wasn't enough time anymore ta discuss everything last evenin', so we had ta talk about the rest of it now.” Apple Bloom cleared her throat while Dinky's expression was easing. The client sat down on one of the pillows, still a bit anxiously.
“We now figured out what ya special talent might be! There's something Sweetie Belle remembered yesterday. Ah let her explain it.” She looked over to Sweetie Belle and pointed at her with a hoof, signaling that she was hoofing over to her.
Expectantly, Dinky turned her gaze to the other unicorn. Her eyes were big as plates as she waited for Sweetie Belle to begin.
“I was watching you sometimes during a lesson at school,” the Crusader started. “I noticed that you pull out a piece of paper every time you seem to get bored and that you start doodling on it. Miss Cheerilee called you out for this very often.”
Dinky nodded. This was a correct observation. “Mhm,” she said, her head bobbing up and down. “That's right. Math lessons are always so boring and history too, so I sometimes distract myself that way. I'm drawing trees and other ponies and landscapes then. It's fun.” She smiled.
“I've seen it!” Sweetie Belle replied, enthusiasm in her voice. “I could take a look at your doodles when I walked past your desk and the ones I saw looked pretty good! So–“
“So you think drawing is my special talent?!” Dinky interrupted her. She had stood up and was now beaming at Sweetie Belle, her hooves placed on the table surface. Her face was almost one big grin.
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle answered the eager question. “I suppose you don't draw very often, right, Dinky?”
Dinky shook her head, still grinning. “Only to pass the time in class!”
“Great! We need you to focus more on this then! You are really good at it, so I bet this is your special talent!”
There was a certain logic behind it and it caused her two fellow Crusaders to nod in agreement. The sentiment was shared by Dinky.
“I want to start right now!” She was bubbling with eagerness now and swiftly turned around to the door. “I gallop home and get my pencils!”
“Not necessary!” Sweetie Belle interrupted her. “I have already prepared something.” She gave Apple Bloom and Scootaloo a wink and they left the table for the corner of the room.
Dinky turned around and watched them pulling a large cloth off of some object she hadn't noticed before. From under it, a scaffold came into appearance. It already had a canvas put on it and at its bottom, an assortment of water colors and a few brushes had been placed. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom carried everything over to Dinky.
The purple-grey unicorn observed them sceptically while they were building everything up. “I-I should draw with this?” she asked, her eyes widely opened in disbelief.
“Exactly,” Sweetie Belle confirmed. She trotted at Dinky's side and put a hoof on her shoulder. “If this is your special talent, then we need you to draw much more and to draw more professionally. No doodles on paper anymore.”
Dinky gulped. What had only been a side distraction for her so far, was now getting turned into a full-on profession. It made her feel uneasy.
Sweetie Belle noticed and she gave her a push forward. “Come, try it out! There's no reason to be afraid it could look terrible! You are here to learn, Dinky, and you can practice as much as you want.”
Dinky did not appear convinced. She was approaching the canvas slowly, looking at it like she had just found an unknown lifeform on an alien planet.
“Yeah!” Scootaloo shouted, coming to motivate Dinky as well. “It took me years to master the hardest stunts with my scooter, but now I can do them!” She lifted up a brush with her mouth and was holding it in front of Dinky's face.
“Take it!” she said, her voice muffled, as Dinky didn't react for a few seconds.
“O-Ok,” the unicorn replied. She hesitantly took the brush out of Scootaloo's mouth with her magic. Then she stared blankly at the canvas. “W-What should I draw?” she asked after a few moments of staring.
“We have thought about this too,” Sweetie Belle took the floor again. She looked at the pegasus opposite of her. “Scoots?”
Having received her signal, Scootaloo jumped on the table right behind the canvas. “You're going to draw me!” With that, she stroke a heroic pose; head proudly raised and her hoof in the air, like she was standing on top of a mighty beast she had slain.
The idea cast a smile on Dinky's face, though, her anxiety remained for the most part. “I-I'm not sure.....” she whispered.
“You still want to get your cutie mark, right?” Sweetie Belle asked her.
Dinky nodded.
“Then you need to try everything that is possible! If drawing is your special talent, then you must broaden your horizon and draw in more ways than just doodling on a scrap of paper!”
“B-But..... But I never–“
Noticing the remaining nervousness, Scootaloo spoke to Dinky again. “Come on, Dinky, try it! You will never know how it looks and never know if you get your cutie mark for this if you don't!”
Dinky looked over to the posing Crusader, insecurity in her eyes.
“After all,” Scootaloo continued, “we didn't get our cutie marks for sitting around and doing nothing! We could only get there because we tried all the time!” It wasn't the best description, since nothing they ever tried got them their cutie marks at the end, save for the realization that they are good at helping other ponies to get their own cutie marks. But Scootaloo was slowly running out of ideas for how to motivate the nervous unicorn. Finally, it worked.
“O-Ok,” Dinky said again, stepping closer to the canvas. She dipped the brush into the orange color of the watercolor set to her left, then brought the brush down on the canvas. She did a first stroke over it as, suddenly, the magic around her horn vanished and the brush dropped to the floor, leaving an orange stain there. Dinky sighed, but picked the brush up again, this time with her mouth, and continued to draw Scootaloo in her heroic pose.
Brush stroke after brush stroke, she depicted her model on the canvas. Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead and more than once, she slipped with the brush. Her face was an indication for how hard it was to draw with the mouth, in a medium she was completely unfamiliar with to boot.
Dinky was only making slow progress, which Scootaloo noticed as her limbs began to hurt. Her face showed the desire to ask the painting unicorn filly how long it would still take, but, not wanting to stress her, she bit her lip and quenched this desire.
After about half an hour, a time that surely had felt like 3,000 years to Scootaloo, Dinky was putting down the brush. Some spots of orange and purple were on her chest, from when she had put too much of the paint on her brush and it had dripped down of it. Dinky stepped away from the canvas and eyed it from a few hooves distance. Her expression was more insecure than before and she bit her lip, as her eyes darted across the canvas and the picture she had just drawn. “It looks terrible,” she said in a depressed tone.
“Really? I don't believe it does. Let me look!” Scootaloo answered after she was finished stretching her limbs. She jumped down the table and trotted in front of the canvas to take a look at it. Her two friends joined her. Together, they checked out the picture Dinky had just drawn.
The colors of the picture looked messy. At some spots, they suddenly became brighter and at some others, darker, than their surroundings. The top part of Scootaloo's mane appeared to be detached from her head and her tail had about thrice its normal size. A lonely wing was sticking out of her back like an awkward expansion of her body. Despite the anatomical flaws, the picture of Scootaloo wore her trademark, determined and proud expression.
“Well, it does look like me,” Scootaloo commented, scrunching her face a little.
The three of them looked at the picture for several minutes, taking in each part of it to be able to give Dinky proper feedback. Their client was standing behind them in the meanwhile, pawing her hoof on the floor, because she did not dare to look at them. As they were finished with inspecting it, each Crusader had a different reaction to the art piece.
“It looks pretty good!” Sweetie Belle chimed. A smile was on her lips.
“Ahm not too sure, Sweetie. It looks.....” She struggled to find the right word. “Off,” she finally said. “If this really should get Dinky a cutie mark, then she's got a long way ahead.”
“I like it,” Scootaloo said plainly, her face completely serious.
“Ya do?” Apple Bloom looked over to her, surprise in her eyes.
“Yeah,” Scootaloo answered, matter-of-factly. “It does look a little rough, but don't forget that it's her first time drawing with watercolors, Apple Bloom. And she had to use her mouth, too! It can't look perfect at the first try.”
That made sense to the earth pony filly. “Ah guess so.....” Apple Bloom replied, shrugging.
“Scoots is right!” Sweetie Belle voiced her agreement. She gave her friend a pat on the back. “And I think it looks great!” she added then. “Looks exactly like something I have drawn.” She was still smiling.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at their friend, their eyes radiating scepticism. Then both of them giggled.
“What?” Sweetie Belle asked, cocking her head in confusion.
“Nevermind,” Apple Bloom said as they had regained their composure again and turned around to Dinky. Her friends followed her example.
Dinky was still looking at the ground, not answering their looks. “W-What do you think?” she asked. “Painting with watercolors won't get me my cutie mark, right?” Her voice sounded defeated.
“Not yet,” Apple Bloom said. “But it does look good for a first try and ahm sure with more practice, ya have a good chance ta get a cutie mark for this!”
Shyly, the unicorn looked up at them. “Really? I know it doesn't look great..... My pencil drawings are better.”
“Really!” All three Cutie Mark Crusaders answered together now, their voices full of conviction.
“And now” – Scootaloo walked towards Dinky, carrying the brush again – “go and draw more!” Before Dinky could react, Scootaloo had stuck the end of the brush into her mouth. Dinky looked up surprised. She received a push by Scootaloo, then trotted slowly towards the scaffold.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had replaced the canvas with a new one by now. Sighing, Dinky dipped the brush into one of the colors again, now attempting to draw Apple Bloom, who was taking up her position on the table.
Scootaloo joined Dinky's side. “Just do it like before! I'm sure it will look a little better this time!” She nudged her.
Dinky gave Scootaloo an awkward smile, then she brought the brush down on the canvas and began with drawing her new model.