Snowsweet walks down the stairs as she sees her mother is currently sitting at her desk, doing paperwork. Snowsweet walks up next to Wild Crisp and looks at the stacks of paperwork. Snowsweet raises an eyebrow, “What’re you doing, ma?”
Wild Crisp turns to her filly daughter and smiles, pausing her work, “As the owner of the shop, it’s my responsibility to do the paperwork that comes with running a business. I’ve always been better at this than anypony in the family. ”
Snowsweet looks down at her mother’s flank to see her cutie mark. It’s a paper and quill with the paper having pictures of apples on it. “Is that how you got yer Cutie Mark?”
Wild Crisp is surprised at this question and smiles, “That’s right. When I was a little filly, I discovered that I was meant to run Galabella Acres and this ol’ thing appeared.”
Snowsweet turns around, looking at her own flank, which is blank, “I wonder what my Cutie Mark is gonna be. Applebloom is always obsessing over getting her own. And it has me wondering what it’ll be like when I get my own.”
“Everypony has a unique experience when it comes to getting their Cutie Marks.” Wild Crisp says.
Snowsweet’s eyes light up, “Really? EVERYPONY?”
Wild Crisp chuckles, “Yes, everypony. You probably won’t find a single story that’s too similar to another.”
Snowsweet smiles brightly, “WOW! I wonder how Ruby Frost got HER cutie mark.”
“Why don’t you ask her? I’m sure she’d be happy to tell you.” Wild Crisp says.
Snowsweet jumps excitedly, “Of course! Where is she?”
Wild Crisp points to the front of the house/shop, “It’s her shift today, so she’ll be at the front counter. Don’t bother her if she’s too busy.”
Snowsweet nods rapidly before scurrying her way to the front of the shop. She catches eye of Ruby Frost, smiling and waving as she just finished dealing with a customer. “Thank you for visiting Galabella Apple Store. Come again sometime.”
“Ruby Frost!” Snowsweet says, trotting up to her big sister.
“Howdy, little sis. Whaddya need?” Ruby Frost asks, turning her head in the general direction of Snowsweet.
“Ma told me that everypony has a unique story on how they got their Cutie Marks. And I was curious, how did YOU get your cutie mark?” Snowsweet asks.
Ruby Frost goes wide-eyed and smiles passionately, “You wanna know the story of how I got my Cutie Mark?”
“Mhm! Mhm!” Snowsweet nods rapidly.
“Well, much like everypony in the Apple Family, I was a late bloomer when it comes to my Cutie Mark.” Ruby Frost says, beginning to tell the story.
“There weren’t many workers in Galabella Acres. It was just Ma, Pa, Jonamac, and I. And I wasn’t the best at bucking Apple Trees, not by a long shot.” Ruby Frost reminisced.
Ruby Frost bucked a tree, causing the apples to fall down from it. She turned to the apples in delight before her face shifted to one of disappointment. She had bucked a tree that hadn’t produced ripe apples, again. Ruby Frost’s father, Suncrisp, looked with disappointment. “No, Ruby. That one’s not ripe yet. Try again.” He said, sternly.
Ruby Frost looked down with a sad expression. “It’s no stretch to say I was borderline useless.” Ruby Frost reminisced.
Suncrisp facehooved, “Ugh, we’ll try again tomorrow.”
“But I just couldn’t let it go. I was determined to learn how to pick out good Apple Trees. I just had to! I stayed all the way until the sun set, trying my darndest to get it right.” Ruby Frost narrates. Young Ruby Frost stayed out and looked at the trees. After a while, she finally thought she had it. She walked up to one and bucked it, but unripe apples fell as usual. Ruby Frost looked down in sorrow. But just then, something shined brightly in the sky. Ruby Frost went wide-eyed and looked up. A bright, red stream of what appears to be magic flies from the direction of Canterlot.
“I had never seen anything like it before. It was beautiful. But as I stared at it, it grew larger. Unitil…it smashed right into my head. Why, I don’t know what it was, but it must have given me some sort of magical ability. I was able to immediately tell a bad tree from a good one.” Ruby Frost narrates.
Filly Ruby Frost looked at the trees in the Orchard with a determined look. As morning came, her family woke up to find she had harvested most of the apples in the orchard. Seeing her dragging a bucket of apples to the rest.
Ruby Frost looks up in the air and smiles, “And that’s the story of how this here mark ended up on my flank.” Ruby Frost gives a sad expression, “What I wouldn’t give to see it one more time.”
Snowsweet looks at her sister’s cutie mark, it being an apple with the inside exposed, showing 5 seeds inside, a star mark on the skin, and two bite marks on it. “Wait, so a magical accident gave you your cutie mark? I don’t believe it.”
“Neither did I when it happened. It’s not too much of a story, honestly. I just got lucky is all. But I’m glad it happened as it secured my place as a part of the Apple Family.” Ruby Frost says.
“Well that’s not a satisfying story.” Snowsweet says, annoyed.
“Well…if you want a satisfying story of how somepony got their Cutie Mark, how about you ask one of my friends? I’m sure their stories are good. Granted, I don’t even know what their cutie marks even are.” Ruby Frost says.
Snowsweet smiles as the excitement comes back into her face, “Of course! Star Dream is a successful pony! Maybe I can ask her how she got her cutie mark. I’m sure she has an exciting story of success and triumph!” Snowsweet darts out of the shop, “Thanks, sis!”
Snowsweet gallops as quickly as she can towards Town Hall, where Star Dream works. She’s so excited, she pays little attention to where she’s going and quickly crashes into somepony. The two ponies fall over. Snowsweet shakes her head and sees that she crashed into Blossom Night, “S-Sorry!”
Blossom Night looks at Snowsweet, annoyed, “C’mon, kid! Seriously?”
Snowsweet looks down at the ground to see a bunch of flowers, dropped on the ground, “O-oops! Sorry!”
Blossom Night tries to calm herself down, “It’s fine, kid. But watch where you’re going next time.” Blossom gets up, collecting her disheveled flowers.
Snowsweet looks to Blossom Night’s cutie mark. A berry bush with 5 berries on it, with a waxing crescent moon to the upper right of it with 2 crater formations that make up the heads of two mares. Snowsweet quickly smiles, “Hey, Blossom Night. Mind telling me the story of how you got your cutie mark?”
Blossom Night raises her eyebrow and turns to Snowsweet, “Why do you wanna know?”
“I wanna hear a good story on how somepony got their cutie mark! My sister’s story was pretty lame. So maybe you have a better story?” Snowsweet says.
“Alright, I can tell you. But you have to help me return these flowers to Hazel Bloom’s shop, okay?” Blossom says, holding the flowers up.
Snowsweet nods, “Mhm!”
Blossom Night begins her story as the two pick up the flowers, “When I was a filly, I lived on a Berry Farm just east of the White Tail Woods with my family. I always wanted to help take care of some of the bushes. So my parents gave me the responsibility of a single bush near the outside of our property. I took care of it like it was a child, until one night when I went out to water it…”
Filly Blossom Night gasped, dropping her watering can. Next to her Berry Bush, stands a tall equine, who’s stomping and destroying the berry bush. “HEY!!! STOP IT!” Blossom Night yells. The creature turns its head to Blossom Night, showing its glowing green eyes. It quickly turns and runs into the White Tail Woods. Blossom night quickly gallops to her now disheveled bush, “Oh no!”
“Having been unable to take care of the bush, my parents wouldn’t have let me help them with the farm. I tried desperately to use whatever tiny bit of magic that my filly horn could generate to help the bush, but it was no use. Until…something unexpected and, honestly, extraordinary happened…” Blossom night narrates.
Filly Blossom Night laid next to the destroyed bush, sobbing at the fact that she couldn’t take care of the bush. Suddenly, a bright stream of light flew into the air. Blossom Night quickly stood up, mesmerized by the strange occurrence. It was a green band of magic.
“I’d never seen anything like it. But before I could discern what it was, it flew right into me. Suddenly, I could feel an intense magic flowing from my horn. A green aura surrounded the bush as I began healing it. But, it didn’t just stop there. I put it into full Blossom, under the light of the moon.” Blossom Night narrates.
“And just like that, my cutie mark appeared.” Blossom Night says as the two ponies arrive at Hazel Bloom’s flower shop.
Snowsweet scowls, “Really? You too? You just had some random magical event happen to you and got your cutie mark?”
“What do you mean…me too?” Blossom asks.
“That’s exactly how my sister got her cutie mark!” Snowsweet says.
“Really? Huh, what are the odds? Well, anyway. Thanks for the help, kid.” Blossom says as she begins to walk into the shop.
Snowsweet, annoyed, looks up at the flower shop. Her face lights up as she has an idea.
“Oh? You wanna know the story of how I got my cutie mark?” Hazel asks, speaking in her usual soft spoken voice.
Snowsweet nods rapidly, “Uh huh! Everypony else’s story is lame. Since you’re a successful shop owner, maybe you’ll have a good one.”
Hazel Bloom turns around, looking at her cutie mark, which is a branch with 5 Blooming flowers and 2 hazel leaves. On the end of the left of the branch is a fully bloomed flower, “Well, it all started when the school was having a big performance. For the town.”
Hazel Bloom flashes back, thinking about how the events happened, “I was always into collecting flowers. So I was tasked with collecting flowers for stage use. Over the course of a week, I had collected hundreds of flowers.”
Filly Hazel Bloom walked around the stage with Filly Amber Gem, “I can’t believe I was able to collect this much in only a month!”
Amber Gem nodded, “And I was able to find quite a few gems.”
“SOMEPONY DESTROYED THE DECORATIONS!!!!” Somepony yelled.
Amber Gem and Hazel Bloom went wide-eyed and looked at a pony who was standing next to the door that leads backstage. Amber and Hazel quickly ran backstage to see what the fuss was about. The two were mortified. All the flowers Hazel Bloom had collected had been destroyed. And all the Gems that Amber found were missing. “Wh-What happened?!” Amber asked.
Their teacher turned to Amber and Hazel, “Somepony must have come in and taken the gems.”
“A-And my flowers!” Hazel Bloom uttered in a sad manner.
Their teacher walked up to them with a concerned look, “There’s only 2 hours until the show starts. We need you two to go out and collect more flowers and gems.”
“To collect that many flowers again in 2 Hours was an impossible feat, but I tried to do it anyway. I went out with a cart.” Hazel Bloom narrates.
Filly Hazel Bloom sighed as she had only collected a few flowers, “This is hopeless. I can’t collect that many flowers in only 2 Hours.” Hazel Bloom detached the cart from herself and laid on the ground.
“But then, something amazing happened. A bright pink beam of light shone in the sky. As I watched it fly towards the ground, it quickly flew in front of me, landing on the flower in front of me.” Hazel Bloom narrates.
Filly Hazel Bloom looked at the flower as it quickly grew from the magic it was just infused with. After a moment, it had grown into a large, golden, glowing flower. From the pedal of the flower, a drop of nectar falls onto the grass below, prompting tens of flowers to grow immediately. Hazel Bloom gasped as she held the flower in her hooves, the glow reflecting in her large eyes. She carefully plucked the petal off the stem and poured more of the nectar out, prompting lots of flowers to grow where the drop landed.
“Using the nectar from the magical flower, I was able to collect enough flowers for the show to continue.” Hazel Bloom says.
“And just like that, I got my cutie mark.” Hazel Bloom says.
Snowsweet’s eye twitches, “You’ve gotta be kidding me! The same story! Some magical mumbo jumbo nonsense!”
Hazel giggles, “Well, y’know. Amber Gem got her cutie mark while she was out looking for gems that night. You should ask her how she got hers.”
Snowsweet smiles, “Of course! She had to get those gems in such a short amount of time. She must have discovered her special talent for finding gems while looking for them. She’s bound to have a good story!”
Amber Gem looks back at her flank, her cutie mark being an opened rock with 5 small gems inside of it and one larger diamond. Surrounding the rock on the left and right are two smaller rocks. Amber turns to Snowsweet, who’s standing in front of the main desk in Amber’s Jewelry shop, “Well, the story of how I got this sweet thing is quite the tale. You see, it all began when the school was-”
“Yeah yeah, I got the plot. Hazel Bloom gave me the story. Just skip to the part where you went to get the gems.” Snowsweet says.
Amber Gem rolls her eyes, “Fine.”
“In reality, I didn’t really look for gems. I simply went to the rock field where I found all my gems before and paced around in frustration. My teacher was crazy to ask me to collect in 2 hours what I had collected over the course of a week.” Amber Gem narrates.
Filly Amber Gem paces back and forth, “Come on! Come on! There’s no way I’m gonna get enough. And it’s already dark. I’m not gonna find anything.”
“But then, something amazing happened. From the sky, descended a brilliant white light that found its way to my horn. I have no idea where it came from or what it was. But somehow, it allowed me to track exactly where the gemstones were. I could see every single gem in the whole field. Needless to say, I dug out every single one, getting more gems than I had before. Once I returned to the stage with the gems, my flank glowed as I received my cutie mark.” Amber narrates.
Snowsweet slams her head into the desk, “Ugh! Not again! Where’s the struggle?”
“Oh, there was no struggle. Just a magical miracle.” Amber says, proudly.
“Well, I guess it’s back to the original plan. I’ll just ask Star Dream how SHE got her cutie mark.” Snowsweet says.
Snowsweet made her way down to Town Hall. Rainbow Dash lays on a cloud just above it, “Excuse me, Miss Rainbow Dash?”
“Hm?” Rainbow Dash looks down from her cloud, “Oh! Hey Snowsweet. What’s up?”
“Do you know where Star Dream is? I’m looking for her.” Snowsweet says.
“Oh! Yeah, she needed a book to help her with her work. She’s at the Golden Oak Library right now. She asked me to fill in for her.” Rainbow Dash says.
Snowsweet smiles and walks towards the library, “Thanks.”
“No problem, kid.” Rainbow Dash says.
Snowsweet arrived at the Golden Oak Library, determined to finally hear a good Cutie Mark story. As she opened the door and entered, she immediately found Star Dream looking through some books being suggested by Twilight and Aurora. “Star Dream! I found ya!”
Star Dream turns to Snowsweet, “Huh?”
Snowsweet quickly gallops up to Star Dream, “I’m here to ask you about the story of how you got your cutie mark.”
“Huh? You wanna know how I got my cutie mark? Why?” Star Dram asks, turning around to look at her cutie mark. Her cutie mark is a spiral galaxy with a bright golden center. The spiral Galaxy has 5 individual arms and two stars that shine brighter than the rest on the upper left and lower right of the Galaxy.
“I’m looking for a cool story about how somepony got their cutie mark. I’ve asked my sister, Blossom Night, Hazel Bloom, and Amber Gem. But their stories were all lame. I was hoping that maybe yours is better!” Snowsweet says.
Star Dream smiles, “Well, in that case. I don’t see why not. It started when there was to be a comet passing by…”
“I had looked forward to seeing this comet for months. It only passes by every 150 years. This was a once in a lifetime kind of event. As an enthusiast of celestial events and bodies, I wanted to study it as it passed by. But to do that, I needed a telescope. But when I opened my closet to get my telescope, it was destroyed. It was crushed and unusable. The comet would pass by and be visible for the whole night before disappearing, and there was nothing I could do to see it.” Star Dream narrates.
Filly Star Dream sat at her desk, looking out the window as the comet was soon to appear. She sighed deeply as she knew there was no hope to see it, “Guess I’m gonna miss the one thing I’ve been looking forward to for so long.” Star Dream laid her head on her desk and began to sob.
“But suddenly, a bizarre occurrence happened. A bright orange light flew in the sky. I watched as it quickly flew towards me, crashing into me without any force. And just like that, I had an idea.” Star Dream narrates.
Filly Star Dream quickly scurried around her house, grabbing miscellaneous items from around the house. She quickly set them onto her desk, and with a determined face, assembled them together into a makeshift Telescope.
“With my custom Telescope, I was able to watch the entirety of the Comet’s journey across the sky. I took notes on the entire occurrence that got published in the Cloudsdale Post.” Star Dream narrates.
“And then, well…my cutie mark appeared.” Star Dream says.
Snowsweet stares forward with a blank expression before grunting, “It’s hopeless! I’m never gonna find a good story!”
Star Dream’s eyebrows curve, “What do you mean?”
“Everypony’s story has involved some random magical doohickey giving them some sort of ability or whatever. And I don’t even know why!” Snowsweet says, frustrated.
Aurora overhears this and goes wide-eyed, walking towards the filly, “Hold on a moment, every one of their stories had something like that?”
“Yes! Ruby, Blossom, Hazel, Amber, and now Star Dream.” Snowsweet says.
Aurora gasps as her eyes go wide, “What were the colors of the magical beams?”
Snowsweet tilts her head as she remembers, “For Ruby, it was red. For Blossom, it was Green. For Hazel, it was pink. For Amber, it was white.”
“And for Star Dream…Orange.” Aurora says and her face lights up, “That’s….amazing!”
“Yeah, but why does that matter?” Snowsweet asks.
Aurora gives a bright smile, “I think the answer to your questions actually lies in how I got my Cutie Mark.” Aurora looks at her cutie marks. It’s a Sunrise with 5 stars surrounding it. Additionally, two more distant stars in the upper left.
“After I joined Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, there was a magical showcase that I joined. However, the day of the showcase, my magic mysteriously stopped working. I was supposed to perform a levitation spell on myself. But with my magic not working, I couldn't do it. As I went on stage, everypony watched as I just stood there, unable to do anything…” Aurora narrates.
Filly Aurora Shimmer stood on stage, sweating from nervousness as the audience awaited her to do something. Her legs shaked as she tried to channel magic through her horn, but only sparks of magic came out. An audience member coughed, breaking the deafening silence. Aurora sighed from exhaustion, “It’s no use, I can’t do it.” Aurora mumbled to herself as she looked down in defeat.
Suddenly, 6 ponies entered the room, all in cloaks, concealing their appearances. Aurora only momentarily glances at them before she continues looking back at the ground. However, suddenly, Aurora’s horn began glowing. She looked up at it in confusion before she looked at the 6 cloaked ponies. The one in the front’s horn glows the same color as the color on Aurora’s horn. The magic from Aurora’s horn glowed brightly as her whole body began levitating, “Wh-What’s going on?”
A huge gust of magic began emitting from Aurora’s body. Her eyes became completely white as 5 beams of magic; red, green, pink, white, and orange shoot from her horn, swirling around the room. The beams quickly dashed out the door of the auditorium, not to be seen again. Aurora’s body went back to normal as she slowly descended back to the ground. Everypony in the audience immediately began cheering, clapping their hooves onto the ground. Aurora smiled wide as she was given this good reception. Her flank then began to glow as her cutie mark appeared. She looked to the cloaked ponies, to find that all had left except the one in the front. Who upon being seen by Aurora, turned around and walked out the door.
Aurora quickly jumped off the stage and gave chase to the pony. As she opened the door the pony left out of, she saw her walk into an open area with no ponies around, where the door usually leads. “Hey!”
The cloaked pony stopped.
“You helped me! Thank you!” Aurora said with a smile.
The cloaked pony turned their head slightly to the left, acknowledging what Aurora said. The pony gave a little nod as two wings popped out from under the cloak. The mysterious pony quickly flew away and out of view of Aurora.
Aurora went wide-eyed at this, “Wait a moment, I thought that pony was a unicorn. Could it be that they were…an Alicorn?”
Snowsweet stares wide-eyed at this story, “So THAT’S what happened.”
“Mhm.” Aurora nods, “It seems that the magic I emitted on that day was what caused all those things to happen to my friends.”
“Well, in that case. All their cutie mark stories are cool!” Snowsweet says as she quickly runs out of the library, “Thank you, Aurora.”
Star Dream watches as the filly runs off, “Wow! So were we really connected long before we even met?”
“I wouldn’t doubt it.” Twilight says, walking up to Aurora and Star Dream, “A similar event happened to me and MY friends.”
Aurora turns to the table in the library and levitates her journal, “I think this calls for a letter to the Princess.”
Twilight nods, “Good idea. She’d love to hear about this.”
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today, I learned something extraordinary. It seems that long before I ever met my friends, I had a magical connection to them. Even before you meet your friends, you may already have a special connection to them that transcends even time. And I think that that says a lot about friendship.
Signed,
Your Faithful Student, Aurora Shimmer