//------------------------------//
// Cutie Markless 
// Story: Falling 
// by Maddie Koester 
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Don’t think I wasn’t happy for them, I was just feeling bad for myself. Mom would always say that you shouldn’t pity yourself, but I did at that moment. Sure, it was possible that I would get my cutie mark at my competition, but what if I didn’t… I felt so alone when I saw Shining’s cutie mark appear. It made her look more beautiful tha- it made her look more grown up, and here I was, with no cutie mark, looking like a little colt. If I just had my cutie mark! I never thought I would get my cutie mark last in my class. 

“Platinum! Let’s go, we don’t want to be late!” Mom called from downstairs. 

At this point, I almost didn’t want to see my friends and their cutie marks; I just wanted to lay around and mope. Mom yelled at me again, so I shuffled downstairs. 

“Why so glum dude” Dad asked in his “Cool colt” voice, and I smiled and tried not to giggle. 

I felt slightly better as I thought about all the fun games that would be happening. We walked out the door and over to Shining’s house. Her large manor was glowing with light, and the faint sound of music came through the open windows. Shining Feather opened the door as we walked onto the porch, and she ushered us in. In the living room, Jazzy sat eating a slice of cake, and waved to me. Controller and Hurricane were dancing to the music blaring throughout the house. 

“How do you like it?” Shining asked over the loud music. 

My only response was to smile. She laughed as I grabbed her hoof and joined the two foals on the dance floor. We spun around as Jazzy and the parents watched. Locked in a dance that came from our hearts, we continued even when my leg started burning. Only when I tripped on a pillow, thrown by Jazzy, did we stop. 

“You two were dancing longer than a pig in a mud bath,” Jazzy informed us, though I didn’t understand. We weren’t in mud, but Jazzy never really made sense. The other two foals had stopped, and grabbed food from the large table in the dining room. Silver Spoon smiled at us, and gestured to the other three foals. 

“Why don’t you five play one of the games together?” she hinted, so we all ran over to the table of food to think of a game. I munched on one of the cookies as idea’s were thrown around. 

“Hide and Seek! Battles! Pillow Fight!” they all threw out. I had no ideas, and no idea how to get a cutie mark. 

“What about hide and seek tag?” I finally asked. 

It was a combination of two classic games, and the only thing I could think of. They all nodded excitedly, and Hurricane volunteered to be it. We ran into the backyard, and I climbed up into the old treehouse in the corner of the yard. Shining said it was there when they bought it, and she fixed it up by adding a slide. I saw Shining fly up into a low branch of a different tree, and Jazzy jumped into a bush. Controller Note was nowhere to be found, and I scanned the yard. The porch had no hiding spots, just a table and a chest with a hose in it. The yard was also mostly empty, there was greenery lining the edges. A tall fence marked the edges of the yard. There was the old treehouse, and the pool as well, which was crystal clear. Everything about her house was clean and pristine except the old treehouse. It became Shining’s territory in her perfect-seeming home. With drawings and paper scattered on the floor, and a bright yellow rug, it seemed like it shouldn’t be there. 

The gray pegasus hunter had come out and was scanning the yard for us. He spotted me and flew at me. I frogot that he was a good flyer, and a fast one. As he flew towards the doorway, I jumped onto the slide spun around before landing on the lawn. Running as fast as my legs would go, I tried to escape the pegasus. All of my focus went into running, and I felt like my old friends were with me in my yard. A memory long forgotten came into my mind: I was with four friends, all under the age of 7, and we were daring each other to do crazy things. My friend had a trampoline, and I had just been dared to do a flip off of it. That was something I had never done before, and didn’t seem smart, but I wanted to prove I was cool… so I stepped onto the springy surface and jumped a few times. They were all watching as I went to flip off. I had counted to three, and with one last jump- I flew back to the present as I crashed into a bush, with a yellow earth pony and a big purple bow inside. Hurricane had been close behind, so we jumped out of the bush, and he turned to chase Jazzy. My legs burned, and my muzzle ached from where I had landed on my face all those years ago. I had cried, and they stopped talking to me. It was nice to know that everything had turned around from then. No longer did I cry to myself at night, or sit alone at lunch… I would laugh with my friends, and tell crazy stories at lunch. 

“TAG! You’re it!” Hurricane called as he tapped my on the side. And so the chase began.

After the party had ended, Shining and I left our parents to clean. We just walked, listening to the evening noises of ponyville. As we walked, we began to follow a dirt path leading to a small house in a tree; a place where five friends tried to find their special something. I thought we would stop there, but we kept walking, into the orchards, even though we weren’t allowed in. Red and green apples dotted the trees, and a sweet smell was on the breeze. We came to a hill with a small clearing and sat, looking across the farm and into ponyville. Canterlot was a small dot on the horizon, and the setting sun turned the sky pink. I wanted to say something, but no words would come to me. The silence wasn’t like the silence when someone yells and then the room gets quiet; it was more like listening to each other mentally. I watched the sky, and glanced at Shining, who was wearing a small pink flower in her mane. 	

“What’s that?” she asked, breaking the silence. I looked to where her hoof pointed, and It was a small clearing in the midst of the farm, with an odd glow around it. 

“Let’s find out before we have to head back,” I replied, standing up. She followed suit, and we walked in the direction of the glow. 

When we got to the source, we found a large tree. It wasn’t just any tree, but a large apple tree twisted around a pear tree. To the left were a few pear trees, but they were alone among the many apples. A rock sat between the roots of the two intertwined trees, and It had a small carving in it. There was a small heart with a B and a P with a small plus inbetween. I had no idea what they meant, or why it was out here, but I felt a strong comfort being in this place with Shining. It was like someone was watching, but not in a creepy way. A strong breeze blew through once, then it was truly silent. No creatures, wind, or any other noise sounded. Shining and I glanced at each other, and I saw her shudder. 

“We should probably head home…” she hesitated, “Your parents probably want to go home”.  I nodded in agreement and we away from the two trees and a small rustle came from it. Once we reached the hill we sat at, the noises had started up again, and the crickets were chirping. The moon was rising higher in the sky, and It was probably close to ten. Once out of the farm and back in Ponyville, we ran to her manor and came through the door to four panicked and angry parents…