As summer was approaching its end, Sweetie Belle was meandering about the Village looking for any signs of potential cutie mark problems. She encountered Mussel and Old Lady Cooper; the former was collecting some spiders from the latter’s rocking chair.
“Still looking for spiders, huh?” remarked Sweetie.
“Yep,” Mussel nodded. “This’ll be my last round before I leave for Boarding School.”
“Already? It’s a bit early, isn’t it?” asked Sweetie. “There’s still a week of summer left.”
“I’m not leaving until the weekend,” said Mussel. “It’s just that the mosquito problem isn’t as bad as it was last month.”
“Oh, okay,” said Sweetie.
“He may not be leaving yet,” Old Lady Cooper remarked, “but a lot of the Village foals are going to head out this week.”
Sweetie said nothing to this. She was just happy that Mussel was looking forward to school, was striving for his potential, and was being social.
*****
But when she returned to the Cafe to tell Apple Bloom and Scootaloo about Mussel, she was discouraged to find that her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders were already packing up.
“Aren’t you two jumping the gun a little?” she asked.
“Not really. It’s not like we’d packed much to begin with,” said Scootaloo. “Our stay here did kinda come outta nowhere.”
“Good point,” Sweetie said, glancing over at what she’d brought to the Village from home; a toothbrush and a bag of Bullseyes.
“It is too bad we have to leave,” said Apple Bloom, “but at least we did do a lot of good while we were here.”
Sweetie Belle thought about Mussel and Old Lady Cooper, and Phlegm, and B Rainy, and Mancy, and Marble and Limestone. It did seem like a good count.
“And it’s not like we can’t go on crusading for cutie marks after we’ve gone back home,” put in Scootaloo.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Sweetie with a slight smile. “But… I still don’t feel like packing up yet.”
*****
Instead, Sweetie went into the orchard to see if Big Macintosh needed any help. She found him bucking some gala trees.
“Need any help?” she asked.
“Nnnnope,” answered Big Mac. “I already got me a volunteer for today. She’s spreading compost on the golden delicious saplings while I handle these galas.”
Sweetie Belle glanced over at the field of recently planted golden delicious trees. There was a unicorn filly she’d never seen before using her magic on a spade to scoop top soil out of the bottom of a composter and spreading it over the field.
*****
“Hi there,” said Sweetie, ambling up to the golden delicious field. “I’m Sweetie Belle.”
“Hi,” said the unicorn filly. “I’m Evensong Glisten. I’ve heard about you. You and your friends came here from Ponyville to help the Villagers reconnect with their cutie marks.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” smiled Sweetie.
“You three helped Double Diamond with his hobby, right?” Evensong went on. “And you got Night Glider to relax a bit while she’s exercising with everypony watching her. And is it true that it was you three who encouraged Party Favour to reconcile with his brother?”
“Well… we did convince him to reach out to Bend Twist,” Sweetie faltered. It occurred to her that they hadn’t really followed up on that, and hadn’t heard anything from Party Favour about getting a reply in the mail.
“You’ve helped lots of ponies in this town, haven’t you? Do you think you could help my parents?” asked Evensong. “Nopony understands their cutie marks.”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened. “Ooh. What are their cutie marks?
“Well my dad, Day Star, is a big fan of Queen Celestia. His cutie mark is a sun with a ribbon hanging from it,” said Evensong. “And my mom, Selenic, is a Luna fan. She’s got a crescent moon shaped like a smile for a cutie mark.”
“They got their cutie marks for being fans?” asked Sweetie.
“I know. Sounds like a weird destiny, doesn’t it?” said Evensong with a slight chuckle.
*****
Evensong told Sweetie where her parents’ cottage was. Sweetie Belle, excited, started to leave, but stopped.
“Aren’t you going to come?” she asked Evensong.
“I’m still working here. I volunteer to help Big Mac sometimes, like a lot of Villagers do,” replied Evensong, continuing to spread topsoil on the field.
So off Sweetie Belle went. She was so excited about the prospect of one final cutie mark problem to solve that summer, that she went straight to Evensong’s cottage without stopping to tell Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.
“They’re busy packing anyway,” she said to herself as she approached the front door of Evensong’s parents’ house.
*****
Sweetie Belle introduced herself to Day Star.
“Oh, yes. Evensong’s told us about you,” he said. “Alright, come on in.”
Day Star started to lead Sweetie into the house and to the sitting room, when suddenly…
“Watch out!”
Day Star used his magic to halt Sweetie’s hoof mid-step… or rather he tried to. His magical grip was rather weak, and Sweetie’s hoof barely slowed before touching the floor.
“What’s the matter?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Day Star pointed to the spider, two of which’s legs were trapped under Sweetie’s hoof.
“Sorry about that,” Day Star said as Sweetie lifted her hoof to let the spider scuttle away, “but ever since that Mussel colt came by offering to help us with our mosquito problem, my wife and I have been having to watch our steps.”
*****
Day Star pointed Sweetie Belle to a sofa, and as she parked herself, she looked around the sitting room. On a shelf in a cabinet with glass doors were what Sweetie recognised as Queen Celestia commemorative plates. The curtains hanging over the windows had moon patterns on them; full, crescent, and so on.
Selenic entered the room. “Ah, you’re a CMC."
“Yes. I hear you have a bit of a problem,” said Sweetie, taking another quick glance around the room full of Celestia and Luna memorabilia.
“Yeah, we do,” said Selenic with a frown. “We’ve lost our daughter’s respect.”
Sweetie Belle was taken aback.
“You see,” said Day Star, taking a seat along with his wife, “We met in this Village after running away from our respective homes. We gravitated towards each other, as we had similar problems with our cutie marks.”
“Starlight had no qualms when we asked for permission to get married,” said Selenic, “as we’d bonded over common ground. We had Evensong not long after we got married, and under the anti-cutie mark laws at the time…”
“You told your daughter right from the start that cutie marks are bad and that it’s wrong to strive for potential?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Day Star and Selenic nodded glumly.
“And now that Starlight’s left and everypony’s free to embrace their cutie marks, Evensong…”
Sweetie Belle stopped. She remembered Evensong had a cutie mark; a purple sun.
*****
“Evensong never believed us when we told her cutie marks are bad,” said Selenic.
“She was a bright young thing,” Day Star sighed. “She defied us…”
“And rightly so,” put in Selenic.
Day Star nodded. “We realise this now, Sweetie. Evensong resisted our attempts to break her spirit and pressure her to give up.”
“We made things so difficult for her,” frowned Selenic. “At any given moment, at least one of us was keeping an eye on her. We knew she was interested in casting spells, and that she wanted to sneak in as much unstructured time as possible."
“Your sister and her friends really couldn’t have come soon enough,” said Day Star. “After they exposed and unseated Starlight, and everypony got their cutie marks back, Evensong was not the least bit shy in rubbing it in our faces how wrong and horrible we were.”
*****
“We barely see her anymore,” Day Star went on. “Even during the summer, she deliberately arranges to stay with school friends.”
“We sent her to Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns, you see,” Selenic told Sweetie Belle. “We hoped it would make up for our mistakes if we let her go to a school where she could learn about magic. But it did no good. She still hates us.”
“We have it on good authority that she’s doing well, though,” Day Star seemed to be trying to force a smile.
“Do you know…” Sweetie said, “that Evensong’s here in the Village? And that she has her cutie mark?”
“Yes, we did find out last month that she earned her cutie mark,” said Selenic. “But it seems she’s had it for months.”
“And we know she’s come back to town. Seems there was no one from school she could stay with this week. But she’s still doing her best to avoid us,” sighed Day Star. “She’ll probably spend the whole week volunteering on the orchard.”
*****
Sweetie Belle soon returned to the Cafe. She intended to go out back and to the Orchard to speak to Evensong Glisten, but she soon found there was no need.
“That sounds kinda hazardous,” she heard Evensong say as she entered.
“I kind of is,” said Apple Bloom. “Marble Pie cut her hoof pretty bad on a shard of…”
Sweetie Belle interrupted. “Evensong, you never mentioned that you hated your parents.”
“Why does it matter?” Evensong shrugged. “I’m doing well in school, and I have plenty of supportive friends.”
“Your parents want to be supportive to you too,” insisted Sweetie.
Evensong scowled. “So now I’m supposed to respect them because they finally realised they were as stupid and horrible as I told them they were for falling in with a brainwashing evil cult in the first place?! I’m going back to Canterlot! Maybe I can check into my dorm early.”
And Evensong Glisten stomped out of the Cafe.
Sweetie Belle slumped into a vacant chair. “Maybe it was a bad idea to try and find one last problem in this town. I never expected to find such a big one.”
*****
Sweetie Belle slept badly that night. She couldn’t help but toss and turn in her bed.
“Too bad Big Mac and Sugar Belle don’t have a cat or a dog,” she muttered to herself. “Maybe it won’t be so bad going back home. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I kinda miss Opal.”
Sweetie’s lack of sleep put her in a rotten mood the next morning, and it didn’t help when Sugar Belle suggested she start packing for home like Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had done. She grabbed her bag of Bullseyes and started snacking. Then her mood lightened when, to her surprise, Evensong entered the Cafe.
*****
“You’re still in town?” asked Scootaloo.
Evensong nodded.
“Did you spend the night at your parents’ cottage?” asked Sweetie Belle, perking up a little.
Evensong nodded again.
“Did you…?”
“No,” said Evensong with a frown. “I doubt they even knew I was there.”
The Crusaders made no effort to hide their disappointment.
“I was going to leave town to go back to Celestia’s school,” Evensong told them, “but on the train ride there, I realised I’d forgotten about what you two were telling me about the Cave and the broken Cutie Mark Vault. So I got off at the next station and got on the last train to here. It was late by the time I got back, so I spent the night at my parents cottage.”
“And they have no idea you were there?” groaned Sweetie.
Evensong ignored this, and turned to Apple Bloom. “That Cave’s not really being used for anything anymore, is it?”
“Well, no,” said Apple Bloom uncomfortably. “Since the cult’s been disbanded and the Vault’s been broken open, there’s nothing in there but glass shards and the Staff Of Sameness.”
“Well like I was saying, that sounds pretty hazardous, just leaving that stuff lying around,” said Evensong. “Tell you what. I know the head of the Canterlot Community Center. If you like, I could ask him to gather some volunteers to have that cave blocked off or something.”
*****
Sweetie Belle interrupted. “If you hate your parents so much, why did you ask me if we could help them with their cutie mark problems?”
Evensong chuckled. “It just always seemed so bizzare; ponies getting cutie marks for being fans. How can a pony’s lot in life be nothing more than living in others’ shadows?”
Sweetie Belle thought about Day Star’s and Selenic’s cutie marks, and about the Celestia and Luna memorabilia they’d decorated the interior of their cottage with. It did look as though their marks really did signify nothing more than admiration… but Sweetie didn’t dare admit this to Evensong.
*****
The Cutie Mark Crusaders felt a little awkward as Villagers gathered at the end of the road for a Town Meeting they’d just called. They never imagined they’d be calling a meeting; they who weren’t even Village residents. And they never would have predicted that their reason for calling a meeting would have nothing to do with cutie marks.
“So, um,” Apple Bloom began when it looked like everyone was there, “you know what Cave on the outskirts of town?”
There were nods and murmurs of “yes” among the crowd.
“Nopony really uses it for anything anymore, do they?” asked Scootaloo.
“And all that’s in there is broken glass and that stupid Staff Of Sameness, right?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Well,” said Sweetie, “Evensong Glisten here…”
Evensong gave a little wave to the crowd. Sweetie could see that Evensong was doing her best not to look at her parents, whose longing faces stood out quite vividly in the crowd, but she pressed on.
“...Says that she has a contact at Canterlot’s community center,” she continued. “She’s offered to have a word with him about getting some volunteers together to block that Cave off, so that nothing in there causes any harm.”
“Does that sound okay to everypony?” Apple Bloom asked.
Villagers nodded and agreeable chatter broke out among the crowd.
“Okay then,” said Evensong. “I’ll be off to Canterlot now.”
And off she went, along the side of the road, and straight by the crowd; she ran right by her parents without so much as a glance. Sweetie Belle’s face fell at the sight of Day Star’s and Selenic’s shameful and self-pitying expressions.
*****
As the crowd began to disperse, the Crusaders weren’t sure how to feel. Their meeting had gone quite well and yielded a fruitful result, but it appeared that they had no hope of helping Evensong’s parents. Sweetie Belle watched them as they walked home, holding hooves and staring at the hill beyond the end of the road where the tiny figure of their young daughter was disappearing over the horizon.
“So does Day Star really have Queen Celestia commemorative plates in his house?” asked Scootaloo.
“Yeah,” said Sweetie. “Probably the same ones Windy Whistles has, but I didn’t get a good look at them.”
“Kinda funny, that,” said Scootaloo. “Windy’s kind of a fan pony too. Only of Rainbow Dash.”
“Are there any Queen Luna commemorative plates?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Probably,” shrugged Sweetie Belle.
Then a thought occurred to her. Uplifted, she dashed off after Day Star and Selenic.
“Where are you going?!” called Apple Bloom.
Sweetie didn’t answer.
*****
Day Star and Selenic had already gone into their cottage when Sweetie Belle got to their door and knocked.
“Come on in, Sweetie,” said Day Star.
“Have you thought of something that might help us make up for the bad things we’ve done?” asked Selenic.
“I just want you to know,” Sweetie Belle said as she entered the cottage, “that even though there might not be much more to the two of you than being fans of other ponies, but your fanaticism doesn’t make you bad ponies.”
Day Star and Selenic were baffled.
“It was because we were so confused by our cutie marks that we both ran off and joined that cult in the first place,” said Selenic.
“You may have been confused about not seeming to have any talents of your own,” said Sweetie, “but when you met, you were still attracted to each other. Even though you’re fans of different ponies. Think about it. How often do you hear about fans of Celestia fighting with Luna fans?”
Right away, Sweetie Belle thought this didn’t sound as good out loud as it did in her head.
“You’re right,” said Day Star. “I always considered myself close-minded. But if that were the case, I’d never have fallen in love with a pony like Selenic.”
He and Selenic embraced.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too.”
*****
Sweetie Belle felt a little awkward standing there watching Day Star and Selenic kiss. It may not have seemed like much at first, but clearly, the two were more than satisfied with her observation. She felt she might as well slip out.
“Watch out!” shouted Day Star as Sweetie turned to leave.
He used his magic to stop Sweetie’s hoof mid-step. Sweetie looked down to see a spider crawl out from under her hoof’s shadow.
“Thanks,” she said. “Well, bye now.”
“Bye, Sweetie. And thank you,” said Day Star.
“Yes, thank you very much for helping us feel better about ourselves,” said Selenic.
“I only wish me and my friends could do more,” sighed Sweetie. “If we think of anything, we’ll let you know.”
And with that, Sweetie Belle left the cottage. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were there.
“What happened?” asked Apple Bloom.
“What did you say to them?” asked Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle didn’t answer. A puzzling thought occurred to her.
Day Star had no trouble stopping my hoof today… but yesterday…