The day was sunny, Twilight Sparkle trotted merrily through Ponyville Park. She looked around, admiring the scenery. Suddenly, she heard a scream from some bushes nearby, she turned and ran in the direction of the scream, and skidded to a halt as three fillies ran out of the bush. The Cutie Mark Crusaders ran into Twilight and fell to the ground. When they got up, they began yelling things at Twilight so quickly that the unicorn couldn’t understand them.
“Hold on! What happened?” She asked.
“We were trying to get our cutie marks when we saw something in the bush, we didn’t know what it was so we went to investigate and it was a pony!” Scootaloo bolted out.
“There’s a pony in there?” Twilight ran to the bush. She pushed through it and found an unconscious, (at least she hoped unconscious) pony lying in a twisted position. She was a blue unicorn that had a mane stripped with white and a dark blue. Twilight gasped at the sight. She recognized the pony as Colgate, Ponyville’s only dentist. Twilight reached out and gently shook her. Colgate slowly opened her eyes, and then closed them. Then they shot open and Colgate began yelling and flailing around, struggling to get free of the bushy prison. Twilight jumped back and watched. Finally, Colgate became worn out and closed her eyes again.
“Please don’t hurt me…” she muttered as she lost consciousness again.
Several hours later, at Ponyville hospital, Colgate woke up screaming. She quieted down when she realized there was no danger. She looked around the room panting.
“w-Where am I?” she asked.
“You’re in the hospital. Twilight Sparkle found you unconscious in some bushes.” A doctor entered the room.
“In some bushes? Where is Twilight? I need to talk to her.”
“She’s in the waiting room. She refused to leave until she knew you would be alright. I’ll go get her.” The doctor left and Colgate took a deep breath. She didn’t know if it was a dream or reality, but there was only one way to be sure. She lifted the blanket up and looked down at her flank. She half –expected to see an hourglass sitting there, just as it always had. Her eyes teared up at the sight of her flank. Just her flank.
Her Cutie Mark was gone.
There was a knock at the door and Twilight Sparkle entered the room. She smiled, but it quickly faltered as she saw Colgate Crying.
“What’s wrong?” She asked. “Is everything alright?”
Colgate sniffed and wiped her eyes. “No Twilight, it’s not alright. He took it.”
“Who took what?”
"Twilight, I was attacked last night. Somepony attacked me and knocked me out. I woke up and they did something to me, then they knocked me out again.”
“What did they do? Did they hurt you?”
“They took my Cutie Mark!” Colgate yelled. “It’s gone!” She began sobbing uncontrollably, Wrapping her hooves around Twilight for comfort. The purple unicorn looked around the room in confusion, not really sure what to think of the situation. She pulled away from the uncomfortable embrace and looked Colgate in her tear-stained eyes.
“What happened?” Twilight’s stare could bore holes in concrete. Fluttershy would’ve been proud. It wasn’t a hostile stare, but one of a deeply concerned friend. “Actually, don’t tell me yet. I’m going to call the police.”
Colgate nodded and shrunk down beneath the covers of the bed. Twilight took one last look at her before she turned and left the room. She used a payphone to call the police.
A few minutes later, the police had arrived. A few officers and a detective entered the room with Twilight and the doctor.
“Colgate, tell us what happened, okay?” Twilight asked. Colgate nodded and took a deep breath. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes.
“It all started a few days ago, I was doing a routine examination on a new patient, his teeth were pretty bad, and we got to talking about my career as a dentist, and how my cutie mark didn’t seem to match my profession. I finished up the examination normally and he left. The day progressed normally for me, and I closed the office and went home like normal.”
“Go on, tell us more.” The detective spoke up.
“Well, I felt like Somepony was watching me, I kept glancing over my shoulder on my way home and I just got this creepy feeling whenever I passed by a dark alley. I got home safely, but this happened for two more days. Then on the fourth night, I was walking home and a pony jumped out of a dark alley and jumped me. He put a rag over my face and I passed out.”
“Anything else?” The Detective looked up from his notepad and raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, I woke up, I don’t know how much later, and I was tied to a metal table with leather straps. A masked unicorn did some weird stuff to me and then used some magic. It was really painful and then my cutie mark disappeared. He put the rag over my mouth again, saying something about his “collection” and then I passed out again.”
“Interesting. Can you describe this pony to us?”
“No, I couldn’t see his face because of the mask. The only thing I know is that he was a stallion, but he wasn’t very strong. I almost got away by fighting back but then he put that rag to my face. And his voice was really raspy and wheezy, also, his breathe was really bad.” Colgate was beginning to relax a little. Twilight could see that she wasn’t as upset as earlier.
“Colgate, is your Cutie Mark really gone?” Twilight dared ask. She immediately regretted it as Colgate’s eyes began to grow watery again. Colgate lifted the blanket to show off her blank flank. The detective took down some more notes and handed something to Twilight.
“Miss Colgate, I’m sorry about what happened to you but I really can’t help you with a description like that. I can name ten stallions right off the bat that have bad breath and a raspy voice. And the randomness of this event doesn’t exactly help your case any. I’m sorry, but there is nothing left that I can do.” He turned to leave. Colgate and Twilight stared dumfounded as the officers left. Colgate burst into tears again and Twilight wrapped her in a warm embrace.
“It’s all right, Colgate. Look.” Twilight held up the paper the detective had handed her. Colgate wiped her eyes and read it.
Colgate looked to Twilight. There was a small twinkle of hope in her eyes.
“What do you think that means?” She asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but it looks like we might get some help after all.”