//------------------------------//
// A Stressful Evening 
// Story: The Markless Mare 
// by StormLuna 
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Another day was drawing to a close and a lavender unicorn was getting off her shift at a local bakery.  While she did enjoy her job, she did not enjoy her life overall.  At the age of 20, unlike pretty much every other pony her age, she still lived at home with her parents.  As she headed home that day, like it was every other day, ponies would hurl the same insults at her, "Look at the blank flank!  What a loser, a full grown mare without a cutie mark!  What a failure, an adult without a cutie mark!" 

This always caused her to rush to work and to rush home.  When she arrived home that day, she had the same distraught look on her face that she always did.  Her mother was the first to greet her when she got home, "How was work honey?"

Twilight gave her a look of sadness given that she only asked about her work.  She sighed, "It was ok, I guess." 

Her father approached her and asked, "Twilight sweetie, were you tormented on the way home again?"

They asked the same questions everyday when they should know that was the problem.  She screamed, "You ask me the same question every single day and my answer is always yes."  She broke down crying, "Of course it is all the name calling I receive on the way home!  I'm sick of it, I'm so sick of being called a blank flank!"

That evening it wasn't just her parents who were at home, her brother Shining Armor was as well.  When he heard his sister crying he rushed into the dining hall and embraced her.  He asked, "Who is it Twily?  Who is it that is doing this to you?"

Twilight began to cry, "Just about everypony!  They see me and they immediately notice I don't have a cutie mark.  Just about everypony in the city calls me that, everypony knows I'm nothing special....."

Shining put his hoof over her mouth and interrupted, "Twily, don't ever say that about yourself.  You are special and you always will be."

Her parents nodded in agreement and while Twilight knew that her family loved her and would accept her no matter what, it was a matter of nopony else accepting her, it was a matter of her having no friends.  She continued to cry, "I know you'll always be here for me but I have nopony else who cares about me!  Nopony will be my friend because they don't want to associate with a blank flank!"  She stomped her hoof into the floor and continued, "I wouldn't care if I got a cutie mark in digging ditches, it would beat all the torment I get now." 

This caused Shining Armor to start thinking.  He asked, "Twilight, what would you think about me going and talking to Princess Celestia?  Since you're my sister, maybe she'll be able to help you get your mark."

Twilight calmed down a bit and asked in return, "You really think she would help me get my mark?"

Shining replied, "Yes Twily, I think she will."

Twilight didn't have to work the following morning so she asked, "Do you think that we could go talk to her tomorrow morning?"

Shining replied, "Of course we can Twily." 

Twilight embraced her brother and the topic was dropped for the night.  What had began as a stressful evening with Twilight arriving home crying wound up ending as a time of lighthearted conversations and hope for Twilight, hope that Princess Celestia could help her get her mark.