//------------------------------//
// Blank Flank 
// Story: Growing Up Glimmer 
// by Lord Camembert 
//------------------------------//

“And you’re absolutely sure that nopony can see us?”
Starlight furrowed her brow. “I checked like five times! I’m sure.”
“Alright… do it.”
Starlight’s horn illuminated Night Glider’s flank as she levitated a makeup brush into place. With a few strokes of the brush, she was done.
“Ok. Have a look!”
Night Glider stretched her neck, craning to see her flank around her wing.
“Good job.” 
Night Glider’s cutie mark was coated with a thin layer of concealer. 
“I know! And it only took twenty tries,” exclaimed Starlight. She gestured to the small pile of concealer bottles on the floor of Night Glider’s dorm room. “So. What do you think?”
“I think I look pretty silly.”
“No, I think it looks... ok, it looks pretty silly.”
They giggled. Night Glider dug through the pile of concealer, picking out a light purple hue matching Starlight’s coat and picking up a brush in her mouth. “Nah iffs yorph turrf.”
Starlight turned and Night Glider began brushing over Starlight’s mark. Starlight struggled to contain her laughter.
“Hey, stop tickling me!”
Night Glider finished and spat out the brush before replying, “Well, maybe you should just use your magic next time.”
“Thanks for teaching me how to use that stuff." Starlight slowly circled in place as she stretched her neck to get a foot view of the blank spot where her cutie mark lay. How do you know how to use it? I don’t see you wearing makeup much.”
“No reason.”
"Huh." Suddenly, Starlight's eyes lit up. "Hey… why don't we try going for a walk like this?"
"What?"
"Come on! Imagine the looks on everyone's faces."
"No way. There is no way you're dragging me out there looking like this."
"You complain all the time about ponies telling you what to do because of your mark; wouldn't it be nice to see what happens when they can't see it?"
 "But that's–"
There was a knock at the door; Sugar Belle sounded slightly muffled as she spoke. "Hey, Night Glider? There's somepony in the lobby who wants to talk to you."
Night Glider looked confused. "Did they say who they were?" She looked at Starlight, who shrugged.
"She said her name was Sharp Shield. Earth pony?"
"Oh, fuck." Night Glider slapped her forehead. "Hey, Sugar Belle, can you do me a favor and stall her?"
"Uh… okay, if you say so."
"Thanks, I owe you one."
"You'd better explain what's going on later." Starlight heard hoofsteps fade into the distance.
Night Glider returned her focus to Starlight. "Ok, new plan."
"What's the plan?"
"We're going with your plan. I'll be plucked if I'm gonna let my mom give me another lecture on joining the Guard."
Starlight looked shocked. "Your mom's in the Guard?"
Night Glider cocked her head to the side. "Did I never mention that?"
"No." Starlight put a hoof to Night Glider's chest to reassure her. "But trust me, I get mom stuff."
"Thanks." Night Glider opened her room's window. "I'll meet you outside."
Starlight stood for a few moments as her friend jumped out the window, then closed







Night Glider sighed. “You know, I was kind of hoping nopony would make a big deal about this.”
Starlight and Night Glider had moved from the dorms to the edge of campus. Though they’d seen few of their peers during the walk, the campus was lively. Ponies filled the pathways moving to and from their afternoon classes. Initially, no one noticed the markless mares, but Starlight soon noticed ponies furtively glancing at them. Groups whispered amongst themselves, while some ponies quietly snickered as they walked by.
Starlight glared at the hecklers, annoyed, while Night Glider quietly seethed.
“You alright, Night Glider?”
“Peachy.”
“Do you want to head back?”
“No. This is way less of a pain than dealing with my mom."
As the two continued to the center of campus, the whispers and derision continued. However, near the confluence of paths abutting the Saltlick cafe, Starlight and Night Glider could hear a change in the mood of the ponies who saw them.
The crowd of protesters in front of the cafe carried no signs that day. Starlight could hear indecipherable yelling, which died down as the mares approached. An earth pony left the crowd and called out to them.
“Hey, are you two here to join the protest?”
Starlight and Night Glider gave each other a long questioning glance. Night Glider shrugged.
Starlight bit. “What are you all protesting, exactly?”
“Like, we’re out protesting the system and stuff, y’know?”
Starlight’s expression bounced between confusion and skepticism as she replied, “Right; what about the system are you protesting?”
“Yeah, like, uh… Hey, Fancy Grass, what are we protesting again?”
A voice rang out from the crowd.
“Systemic oppression of the free pony!”
“Haha, that’s right!”
Starlight’s confusion gave way to ambivalence. “Oppression by who?”
“Society! Like, we’re tired of society telling us what to do and… like, yeah… right?”
“Got it.” She shrugged, then turned to Night Glider. “You wanna join in?”
“Sure, why not? We've come this far.” Night Glider pushed her way through the throng of protesters. “You trying to show me you’re hardcore?”
Starlight rolled her eyes before following Night Glider into the crowd. “Three moons later and you still aren’t letting that go, are you?”
Night Glider smiled and blew a raspberry at Starlight. From inside the crowd, all they could hear was vaguely anti-authoritarian chanting as the protest picked up into full swing.

A couple hours later, the protesters began to disperse. After most had left, the pony from earlier and another unfamiliar earth pony approached Starlight and her friend.
"So you two are the cutie markless chicks Limber Timber here was talking about. Nice. I am Fancy Grass."
Starlight shook the colt's outstretched hoof. "Are you the leader of this, uh… group?"
"Nah, brah, we don't, like, do, leaders and stuff, ch'yeah?"
"Okay…"
"So, like, are you two actually markless, or what?"
"Oh, no, no, we just, ah, put some makeup on to cover them up."
"Like as a protest thing, cool. Totally dig it."
"No, no, not as–" Starlight was interrupted as Night Glider jabbed the knee of her foreleg into Starlight's side. "I mean, yes, definitely." She was keenly aware of the stares of the ponies surrounding them.
"You two are a couple of cool dudes. We come out here to protest sometimes. You should join us next time, too."
"When will that be?" asked Night Glider.
Fancy Grass shrugged. "Dunno. These things just sorta, like… happen."
"Right…" Night Glider's confusion was transforming into frustration when Starlight interrupted.
"Night Glider, why don't we head back? I'm sure Sugar Belle's waiting for us."
"What? Oh, yeah, that thing at the place."
"Yeah, so anyways, we'll see you guys later?"
"Keep it real, dudettes."







The two waved to the earth ponies and walked back to the dorm. Starlight's step was light while Night Glider appeared deep in thought.
"Ok, weird personalities aside, wasn't that awesome? All those ponies and none of them thought it was weird we were covering up!"
"Hmm… I guess."
"What if we ran a protest? We could actually put effort into it and get more ponies to join us!" Starlight was beaming.
Night Glider, however, looked conflicted. "That sounds cool, but… I just wanted to try walking around without thinking about my mark for a little bit. I don't know about taking it that far."
Starlight waved her hoof dismissively. "Oh, that's okay, but think about it. We could make a real difference." she said, rubbing the bottom of her chin.
"You’re serious about this."
"Aren't you? Didn’t we literally only come here to escape your mom pressuring you into joining the Guard?"
"Avoiding my mom and running a protest aren’t the same thing. Just because we joined them today doesn't mean I want to get my name plastered all over campus!"
“Haven’t you been trying to get me to claim credit for the whole kite thing?”
“That’s just teasing! I wasn’t serious!” Night Glider threw her forehooves in the air. “And also that was you getting the credit, not me!”
“Hey!”
Starlight stopped after Night Glider turned to face her. "Starlight, look… I don't know that I want to make a big deal about this. Not in front of the whole campus. I was kind of hoping today was a one-time thing. But if you really insist, I'll think about it, okay?"
"Okay."







Starlight returned to her dorm after she and Night Glider saw each other off. Midnight called out to Starlight as she arrived.
"Hey, Star. You've been gone all day and… sweet Celestia, what happened to your cutie mark?"
Starlight looked at her flank, still covered with concealer. "Oh, whoops! I meant to wipe that off before coming back."
A quick dash to the showers, and Starlight's mark was visible again.
"Why was your cutie mark covered up?"
"Oh, I was hanging out with Night Glider–"
"Again? Wait, was this her idea?" 
Starlight ignored the interruption. "–and we were talking that whole cutie-markless society I told you about, and I saw she had a bunch of bottles of makeup–"
"Right, so–"
"And so we bought some in my color–"
"So you went outside like that? How did everyone react?"
"There was a lot of pointing and whispering. We found a bunch of ponies who were cool with it, though!"
"Oh, yeah?"
"Right outside the Saltlick Cafe. They thought we were covering up as a protest and asked us to join them!"
"Did you?" Midnight looked concerned.
 "We did!" Starlight's voice reached higher and higher pitches. "I think I’m gonna try joining more! With a little organizing, maybe we could get ponies to actually pay attention to the… anti… authoritarian-and-societal-expectations… team."
"You are definitely going to need a catchier name."
"It's a working title."
"I just hope this goes like you want. A lot of ponies are happy with the status quo."
"Are you?"
Midnight shrugged. "I don't know. After getting to know you and Night Glider, I'm a lot less opposed to what you're saying than I probably would have been before we met."
"So would you join?"
"I'll think about it," Midnight said. Her voice turned playful as she added, "though, I hope this doesn't mean you'll be too busy to meet up at the observatory tomorrow."
"Oh, definitely not. I've been looking forward to that all week!"
"Great!" A grumbling stomach interrupted whatever Midnight meant to say next. She chuckled, asking "Want to grab some grub?"
"Sounds good to me."







"Wow."
It was the next day. Midnight's aura surrounded the day's student newspaper. Starlight leaned over her shoulder, reading the opinions and editorials section. 
Midnight continued. “They did not like you.”
The paper was open to the op-ed section, containing a variety of takes from the students at Canterlot University.

BLANK FLANKS? AT MY UNIVERSITY? IT’S LIKELIER THAN YOU THINK

The editorial sharply criticized the “two ridiculous delinquents” who had covered their marks during the previous day’s protests. Later in the editorial, the writer complained about “ponies rejecting their Celestia-given destinies.” 
Starlight was, in a word, upset. “Ponies had cutie marks for millennia before the Celestial era!”
“You really are spending too much time with Night Glider.”
Starlight grumbled. “Still a dumb point, though.”
Most of the other opinion pieces in the section concurred, though none reached the same level of invective. 
“Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, look at this: not everyone hated it.”
Under the scathing screed was an editorial praising their efforts.

THE BRAVERY OF THE BLANK FLANK

“I think they thought it was a performance art thing, but, hey, they liked it!”
“They want us to do it again! I’ve got to show this to Night Glider.” Starlight grabbed the paper in her magic aura.
"Cool. When do you want–"
With a zap, Starlight had disappeared.
"–to meet up tonight…. I hate it when she does that."







Starlight arrived at Solar Hall with a pop, startling two ponies who had been snuggling under a tree in the courtyard. Night Glider lived on one of the top floors, with most of the other pegasi in the building.
Starlight knocked on the door to room 624. A few moments later, a groggy-looking Night Glider poked her head out, wincing at the natural light which radiated from the windowed exterior of the building.
“Whozat?”
“Hey! Woah, you, uh… you don’t look so good.”
“I was out late.” Night Glider shook her head, but the bleariness in her eyes remained. “What’s up?”
“Look!” Starlight held the paper up to Night Glider.
Night Glider beckoned Starlight inside, then took the paper.
“They’re closing the bagel place near campus?”
“Oh.” Starlight chuckled as she flipped the paper to the editorial section. “Wrong section, heh.”
Night Glider’s bleariness slowly faded as her eyes scanned the pages of the paper. She looked at Starlight, confused. “Wha?”
“See? Lots of ponies supported us.”
Night Glider held up the paper, pointing to the less flattering editorial. “Lots of ponies didn’t.”
"All we have to do is change their minds!"
Night Glider looked skeptical.
"Please? It won't be just us. I'll talk to Fancy Grass and his friends."
"Argh, fine! But only because I know you're terrible with that make up."
Starlight wrapped Night Glider in a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Seriously, it took me forever to get that stuff off with how much you caked it on."
Starlight chuckled sheepishly.
"Sorry."