9.00 AM
As the date of the Gala approaches, I have decided to spend a day monitoring the thing known as Fluttershy. While I have effectually decided on a course of action regarding the other five Ponies, the one who eludes me is this Pony, due to the vague definition of her character.
To that end, I will keep track of her for a day as she spends her time with the townsfolk, to see what drives her and how I might use her in the grand scheme.
Currently, all I know about her is that she likes animals, and is afraid of everything else.
Not a good start.
Actually, she's afraid of most animals too, but her odd ability to control them makes them less daunting.
Either way, Fluttershy is currently at her home on the reserve that borders the Everfree Forest, taking care of that horrid little cat that follows Rarity around sometimes.
I have always wondered, if she is so afraid of everything, what possessed her to build her home on the edge of the most frightening place in all of Equestria?
I believe it has something to do with the duality of Pony nature. While on the outside, she seems to be a frail, timid lady with a penchant for hiding, her sub-conscious animus is that of a fierce Alpha male stallion, who enjoys the challenge of fear and the subjugation of lesser species.
Either that or she is addicted to being frightened, and has severe mental issues.
10.02 AM
Fluttershy has returned the cat to Rarity. The cat loves Fluttershy even more than its rightful owner. But I have come to expect this from cats.
Cats have never made good pets. They tear up your bed sheets and eat your fish.
Cats make me very unhappy.
10.20 AM
It's those three again. The Cutie Mark Outcasts. What are they doing there?
It appears that Rarity has made an exchange.
One cat for three fillies.
I still say Rarity got the raw end of that deal.
Accursed felines.
10.45 AM
Dear me, those outcasts are like a whirlwind, swathing a blanket of destruction over all that they touch. They bewilder and depress everyone they meet, and callously play with their lives as if they were toys to them. Separate, they are mere annoyances, but together, they are a pack of wild parasprites, hungry for the delicious taste of Pony misery.
I really, really hate children.
For the sake of the record, I shall attempt to catalogue them for reference in the future.
Of the Cutie Mark Outcasts, there number three; one Earth, one Pegasus and one Unicorn. Ever since Cutie Mark Counsel Day, they have banded together in a strong subculture in order to battle peer pressure and to find some sort of meaning in their lives.
Ironically, that meaning in their lives is to find the meaning in their lives, and thus is quite paradoxical. If their purpose is to find their marks, then their marks would reflect that as their purpose. However, if they were to then stop, their marks would no longer be applicable to their lives.
So in the case presented above, either they would get pointless marks which are shallow reflections of a small time in their respective existences which actually had any meaning to them, or their marks will never show up because it knows that as soon as it does, it would no longer be the right mark.
But I don't really want to think too much about it.
Also it is far more likely that they will get other, more normal marks once they give up this nonsense, and I wonder if there is anything that would speed this process along.
I do not know why I am bothering to describe them. In reality, their personalities are so dry and one-dimensional that you could probably just use their profiles interchangeably, and you would still pretty much have the gist of their natures down.
I think I just have a lot of free time today, since there isn't anything much going on.
But I digress.
Here are the members of the splinter social group; The 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'. -
Apple Bloom
Apple Bloom is the younger sister of Applejack, the Pony who works at the Sweet Apple Orchards and Farmstead. As mentioned many times before, she shares her sister's talent in doing things without thinking (much), and does not enjoy backing down. Her brash and unforgiving nature usually finds her in a lot of trouble, due to the fact that she is careless and has no empathy. She will be a constant source of trouble, and I pity the foal who has to look after her. I am sure that if Granny Smith weren't going slightly senile, she'd realise a long time ago that Apple Bloom needs to be sent very far away.
Potential Cutie Mark:
Oh, I don't know. An apple. Something to do with apples. Apple-shaped gidgets. Apples.
Sweetie Belle
Sweetie Belle is the younger sister of Rarity, the Pony who works at Carousel Boutique. She is a little off-white Pony with extremely curly hair of purple and pink. She looks like a piece of cotton candy that somepony accidentally dropped on a blob of cement. She shares her sister's talent in being stubborn, elitist and condescending. She enjoys not caring about others, not thinking about her actions and their ramifications, and being a brat in general. She will be a constant source of trouble, and I am not surprised if she was the reason that Rarity's parents have long since run away. If I were Rarity, I would probably run away too. Just as long as there's a little distance.
Potential Cutie Mark:
She seems to share Rarity's passion for fashion and design, so, Rarity's face, probably.
Scootaloo
Scootaloo is the Pegasus filly who will one day skin Rainbow Dash and wear her like a coat. It is unnatural how much she likes Rainbow Dash. She is a little orange thing with some sort of weird.. something colour hair, and she's also annoying and
Alright, do you know what?
What is a Scootaloo anyway?
It sounds like a mobile toilet that you can bring with you on long holidays.
When you've got the runs
and there ain't no space,
Just stick your buns
on the handsome face
Of Scootaloo, Scootaloo
dum dum de dum
dum dum
Only 79 bits!
I do not know anything about this filly at all except for her name and the fact that she has a raging pair of wings for Rainbow Dash. I suppose she is also some kind of adrenaline junkie, which means she's an addict, which means her
Potential Cutie Mark:
is a syringe.
Doesn't make her any less blunt than the other two, though.
The problem here, and I am chagrin to admit, but they are not entirely stupid. They are stupid, but only in the Hey, Kid, stop putting your hoof in your eye, stupid kind of stupid, but not in the way that, say, Snips and Snails are, or anypony else in their special class.
They display the sort of 'intelligence of crowds', in which the general intelligence of a crowd increases exponentially with the addition of every new member to the group, up until a certain point, at which the intelligence starts to plummet like a brick.
Three has always been a pretty good number for groups.
This intelligence allows them to get more attention and do more work than single individual might, which then allows them to do more things than they otherwise should be doing.
In addition to this, their number allows them to employ the 'steamroller' strategy, in which they make a lot of noise and try to climb over everything. This tactic confuddles and bewilders everypony into letting them do whatever they want out of desperation. The intelligence part comes in when they need to keep thinking of new things to say, because everypony knows if you just simply repeat yourself over and over and over incessantly, you will be more likely to get a hoof in the jaw.
Compare, for example, a single Pony yelling "I want ice cream!" over and over again at the top of her lungs to a group of Ponies asking you about a hundred thousand random questions regarding life and the nature of the universe just as you're walking past an ice cream stand.
The first Pony will most likely get grounded for two weeks.
The second group would get ice cream if it would make them shut up for a few minutes. This is how I usually get my ice cream.
I mention all this because I just spotted Twilight run into the Fluttershy and the Outcasts, who nearly trampled my dear Twilight to death, and then proceeded to befoul the town's water supply. They are displaying severe levels of steamrollering.
Hopefully this will have no impact on my monitoring of Fluttershy.
11.15 AM
Fluttershy has brought the Outcasts home with her.
Of course she has.
I have changed my mind about my earlier consensus. Fluttershy has ended up with the worst bargain ever. She should have kept the cat. She's good with animals anyway, and I'm not sure that children can even be considered that much.
I have a headache. I am going to go take a nap, and eat a biscuit, talk to Luna, and feed her a biscuit, and come back later and see if the trio of rampaging knocks are gone.
7.30 PM
No, they are still there.
More of this slumber party nonsense, I'm sure.
8.30 PM
It has been a full hour of random destruction. The Fluttershy has barely been able to keep up. It was just one random activity after another, each buffered by a quick glance at their rear ends.
I genuinely wonder if this is normal behaviour. None of the other mark-less children seem to share this trait, but then again, none of the other children have clubs specifically formed for the promotion of this kind of rear-end-staring behaviour either.
9.02 PM
Finally, it's time to go to bed.
9.08 PM
Or perhaps not.
Back in my day, when children would not go quietly to sleep, we would give them a nice hot glass of milk, and when they were done, we would break the glass over the bed stand and threaten to cut them if they would not nicely please go right to sleep, there's a good girl.
9.15 PM
And now the fun has moved outside. It appears that chickens are, in fact, the most exciting thing ever.
And while I do enjoy a good chicken once in a while, I still think that
wait a minute.
9.21 PM
Fluttershy has displayed a manifestation of her ability. This is something of much interest!
As noted before, the Pony known as Fluttershy has an affinity with Animals, although the nature of these interactions have been a bit of a mystery so far.
Today marks the first day I have been witness to her ability being used in a clearer and more straightforward fashion.
And the way she uses it is with...
wait for it...
visual aids.
Oh I crack myself up sometimes.
But seriously, it appears that the key lies in the locking of eyes between herself and her target(s). This narrows down the source of her abilities to possibly a mutation of the occipital lobe, or perhaps some sort of extension of function of the ocular part itself.
Either way, it seems that it is not a magical effect, and it is merely some kind of imparting of will through eye contact, perhaps some sort of sub-perceptive suggestiveness of some kind.
I believe I know a way to test my hypothesis, but it will take a while before it will be ready.
10.43 PM
And now the fillies are sneaking off into the Everfree Forest.
Alright, I think I am done.
Today has been entirely disappointing. A lot of monitoring, but nothing much to write about. The foul children have disrupted my plans, although it was a fine stroke of luck that I managed to witness Fluttershy's ability in action.
I have no way of monitoring the activities that go on in the Everfree Forest, for the lush canopy prevents my spyglass from watching from above. I will have to ask Zecora for any information in the morning.
I am genuinely upset, but there is no more I can do. I have something small to work with, and I always can make a great deal out of small things. Luna tells me so regularly.
Besides, I do not think anything can possibly go wrong in the Forest, not with Twilight around.
Yes, nothing bad will happen, I'm certain of it.