Re-earning Your Cutie Mark

by Ractrin


Weapons Against Struggle

Canterlot could be seen coming into view as Nova and Oz rounded the mountain. Fighting back tears, Oz pushed ahead of Nova, wanting more than ever to get some form of distraction. His mind couldn’t replace the image of Rainbow looking at him with disgust. How long he had waited to be with her, and just when she was in his hooves, she pushed him away. His heart ached more than it had in years. Glancing over to Nova, he pondered if the stout Alicorn dealt with these feelings all the time. Nova couldn’t wait for his arrival at Canterlot again. Twilight had told him that she had something for them. According to what she had told him, it was an object of importance to each of them. Getting closer to Canterlot, the two winged stallions could smell the fresh baked bread coming from the royal bakery. The sweet rolling smell wafted into their nostrils, making both of their stomach grumble. They hadn’t eaten a thing since they had arrived in Canterlot the previous evening. “Was there any food?” Oz asked over the wind.
“I didn’t see any in the Starswhatever-it’s-called” Nova responded.
“Maybe they’ll have some for us when we get there.”
“They better.” the two ponies landed in the courtyard at the rear of the castle and walked inside. Oz had traversed these halls last night, but now they looked different as they followed the corridor to the main foyer. There they attempted to climb the forked staircase but the two guards at the base of the incline slammed their wings together, impeding the two equine’s path.
“Nova, Oz.” the guard to their right stated. “You are expected in the meal hall. Celestia has requested your presence.” Nova looked over to Oz with sincere surprise. These two guards had scoffed at his presence just the night before. Now they were telling him…well….both of them that Oz and himself were welcomed at the table of Celestia herself. Oz just simply returned his look with a shrug of his wings.

In the meal hall, both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia sat, sharing their one of two meals for that day. Luna slept the day away to maintain her strength for the night, and Celestia did the same at night. Only the morning and evening meals could the sisters share together. Celestia did notice something different about her sister this morning. She was quiet. It almost seemed as if she was deep in thought. “Is there something troubling you this morning, sister?” Celestia inquired. Luna shook and looked at her sister with an assuring smile.
“No, Celestia. I’m fine. I just had an eventful night. I had to make a trip to the Everfree Forest ‘tis all.” Luna stated as she twirled a spoon in her drink with her magic. Celestia wasn’t stupid. She knew something was up with her sister, but she chose to simply keep playing along in hopes of finding out who the imposter was. She suspected a Changeling and hoped that if that was the case, she could impede its mission and rescue her sibling.
“Oh? I thought you were afraid of the forest since that was where Twilight and her friends changed you back from Nightmare Moon.” Luna’s eyes shot wide and her spoon dropped. She dug for an answer, any response to hopefully not tip Celestia off.
“Well, I became curious.” she stammered.
“Curious?” Celestia had enough. Whoever this imposter was, they were doing a horrible job of pretending to be her sister. Her horn began to glow. She was full and well in the mindset of blasting this Changeling across the room. Just as she prepared to cast her spell on this being, the doors across the room slammed open and she saw the two newcomers come walking in. Luna had been watching Celestia and had seen her horn light up. She wasn’t sure if the spell that was supposed to be cast was going to be an attack, which she was ready for, or just simply to levitate some food to her plate. Apparently it was the latter as some pancakes lifted off the plate in the middle of the table and drifted over to the mare of the sun. She then simply began using her magic to cut the food apart into smaller portions. This caused Luna to just let out an inaudible sigh as she turned her attention to the two winged ponies walking down the table to them. Before Oz and Nova could get to much closer, Luna stood abruptly from her seat and excused herself from the table. The three other ponies in the room simply watched her disappear. Once again Oz saw that orange glow around the eyes as she looked back. However it was more present and almost seemed to drift from them and then dissipate as if it were a force of magic wafting from Luna’s ocular organs. He cocked his head in confusion and before she could disappear from the doorway he called out to her. She stopped and looked at him. Her eyes flashed orange and then returned to normal. However as she stood there, a small mist could be seen forming around her. The entity was doing everything in its power to keep from revealing itself. It was using everything, even Luna’s own magic, to keep the signs of possession hidden, and it was failing quickly. Luna’s impatience became the best of her as Oz just simply studied her. She then darted off. Nova had also noticed her strange behavior. On the other hoof, he didn’t really know her, so her actions also didn’t phase him. The dark mist floating around her seemed cute to him though.
“I take it you saw it too?” Celestia asked the analyzing Pegasus. He spun to face her and raised an eyebrow in question.
“What was I supposed to be seeing?” he asked. Nova walked over next to where Luna had been sitting and placed himself there. He lifted some food from the table and placed it on his plate. He wasn’t sure what manners he was supposed to participate in with the ruler of Equestria almost next to him, so he simply attempted at being patient and just ate small portions of his food. Oz walked around the table and sat across from where Luna had sat. He used his wing to cause a small tornado that brought a small portion of food to him. He learned the trick from one of his fellow classmates back in Cloudsdale. His first attempt at the trick gave him a bath in mashed potatoes. This time the food glided successfully onto his plate right where he wanted it to. Nova looked up from his meal, genuinely impressed with Oz’s little feat. He held out his wing as Oz and Celestia spoke about the matter of Luna. He curled it as he saw Oz do and then tried to let a little tornado float across the table to some pancakes. He watched as the cyclone picked up the food and then boomeranged right at his face. He gasped but it was to late, as a pancake hung from his snout and another had his broken horn stuck through it. Oz looked at him surprised and did everything he could to keep from out right laughing.
“Don’t worry, Nova, I screwed that trick up the first time too.” Celestia however was not amused. She simply simmered, and it was evident that she was annoyed as she just simply glared at the Tesorian. Oz noticed her furrowed eyebrows. “Is everything okay?”
“My sister has been replaced by a Changeling, there is a potential threat to Equestria, and you two are my only hope of finding out what that threat is.” she looked sternly at Oz as she spoke. “No, not everything is okay.” Oz lowered his ears. Nova simply huffed as he continued cleaning himself off.
“I didn’t ask for this task, Princess. I’m simply doing it so I can get my Cutie Mark back and so that you will send Tesorias help.” Nova grunted. “How I go about doing this will be done my way.” He looked up at Oz, his eye not leaving the Pegasus’s frown. “Our way.” he finally corrected himself. Oz looked at the blue Alicorn in surprise. He pondered to himself wondering if the pony was finally beginning to respect him to some degree, and in truth, Nova was. He had listened to Oz describe to Celestia what he had seen as Nova was hitting himself with cooked dough. The analytical capabilities of the Pegasus would definitely be valuable to him, so he was willing to accept the annoyance’s presence. Celestia was willing to accept that. She wasn’t the one going into the Catacombs today anyhow. She sighed and let her anger lift away.
“Forgive me” she said as a subtle smile returned. “I’m just worried for Luna. I am simply hoping she is okay.” Oz nodded understanding.
“The why don’t YOU do something about it princess?” Nova challenged as he crossed his fore hooves and glared under his mane. She looked at him and responded with a simple, emotionless sentence.
“I am the ruler of this land, therefore I must take care of my subjects as well.”
“Don’t you think that the moon rising in the night is important?” Nova wasn’t backing down. He was an Alicorn too, so he knew she couldn’t pull anything like that into the argument. However, she did say quite the unexpected.
“Yes, it is. However, young Alicorn, should the need arise, I can still raise it myself. My sister is still not as strong as she was before she became Nightmare Moon. I think…she’s afraid of her power.” Celestia looked away, he flowing magical mane hiding her face from the two ponies in her presence. Oz went to say something, but a guard came through the door.
“Oz, Nova. Twilight has requested your presence in the Starswirled the Bearded wing.” he shouted.
“Oh yeah, she was probably expecting us immediately huh?” Oz asked Nova. The Alicorn simply nodded; his eye, no longer possessing a glare, staying on the Princess. Oz stood and began to walk to the other side of the room. As Nova stood, Celestia looked over her mane at him. He could see only one eye, and a tear ran down it. He bit his lip as something he didn’t feel very often crept up in his chest: sympathy. Oz called out to him and broke his thoughts. He turned and followed the Pegasus out of the room. As Celestia watched them leave. She thought to herself,
“How can I protect my Kingdom, if I can’t protect my sister?” A tear slid off her cheek and splashed on the floor.

“I’m going back to the Crystal Kingdom.” Shining Armor stated. His statement made Twilight pick her head up out of her studies and look at him in shock.
“But…what about Velocity’s memorial?” she responded worried.
“I will have to miss it.” he lowered his head and sighed. Twilight looked upon her brother with great sympathy. He stood there, weak, and almost destroyed as if is youth seemed to have drained from him overnight. The longer he stood there the more it almost seemed as if he was going to collapse into one of the bookcases he stood between at any moment.
“What’s wrong Shining?” she walked up to him and matched her vision with his, having to lower her head to do so.
“It’s Cadence…I haven’t heard from her in a week. I have to go find out what’s wrong.”
“I’m sure she’s okay” Twilight smiled weakly. He looked up into her eyes fully, the seriousness in his own making her ears drop.
“It’s decided, sis. I know you enjoy my company, but if Cadence is in trouble…she may need me” he looked away as he finished his statement. Twilight just simply hugged her brother and then stepped back smiling.
“Be careful, Shining Armor.” she said in a tone that gave him blessing.
“I love you Twily” he said as he turned down the hall of books.
“I love you too BBBFF.” he chuckled at the old nickname and walked away. As he exited the aisle he saw Rainbow fly in through the open window and land quietly on the top of the hourglass.
“Bye Rainbow.” he said as he kept walking.
“Huh?” she responded with a raised eyebrow.
“I’m going to check up on my wife in the Crystal Kingdom.”
“Oh, yeah. Princess Cadence is back there helping them out right?” he simply nodded and continued to explain to her what he had already informed to Twilight, who was slowly walking to the middle of the room. Rainbow noticed her and did everything she could to keep from letting her ears drop in tune with her heart. To avoid disrupting Shining, she quickly looked back at him, half interested in his story. When he finished she simply and quickly stated, “I’m sorry. Good luck and uh…have a safe trip.” she gave a fake smile as he nodded and left. When he was fully around the corner Rainbow’s ears flopped to her neck and she looked over to the Arch-Unicorn with an expression of remorse. “I’m sorry Twilight.” she said, rubbing her upper arm with her other hoof. The purple mare didn’t say anything. She just teleported Rainbow to the same floor as her and looked deeply into the nearly crying eyes of the Pegasus. Rainbow just froze, her mouth hanging slightly ajar, as if they were a landing pad. Twilight leaned closer, her lips also slightly separated. The cyan Pegasus’s heart began to beat faster as her infatuation drew near. She began to question reality. Maybe she was dreaming. After all, Twilight had just said no more than a couple of hours ago that she wasn’t a fillyfooler. Their noses passed and their lips were just millimeters away. Twilight’s eyes were shut, but Rainbow had her’s just open enough to see what was happening, to make sure that everything was real. Just has Rainbow could feel Twilight’s breath on her chin…
“Well, this is an interesting sight.” Nova interrupted. Twilight and Rainbow Dash jumped apart as if an anti-gravitational explosion had tossed them away. Rainbow hovered over the hourglass as Twilight stared at the two winged males, one of whom had their wings straight up in the air. Nova glanced at his companion and rolled his eye. Oz himself was completely petrified. He had seen the most awesome, yet depressing, sight. Had Nova not stopped them Oz might have lost control of himself. He shook his head and tried to regain his composure, lowering his wings as he did so. “When you asked for us to stop by, I didn’t expect a show too.” Nova jested as he walked into the room. Oz, for a moment, refused to enter. He was to embarrassed for himself and the two mares.
“N-Nova…Oz…uhm…I wasn’t expecting you two so soon.” Twilight stammered. Oz finally gained control of his legs and walked close enough to the flying pony to beable to talk to her.
“You okay Rainbow?” he asked. She looked down at him, tears streaming from her eyes and then dashed out of the window, a rainbow following close behind her. He stared at where she went for a long while as Nova helped Twilight off the floor. She straightened her blue and starry robe as she regained some of her self esteem.

“Well, lets get down to business.” she said as she tried to brush off the embarrassing moment. She turned back to the hallway the two had come from and motioned for them to follow. As she left the room, they did as well. Oz stopped at the turn into the hallway just long enough to look out the window again. He frowned and then rejoined the other two.
“Where are we going?” Nova inquired as they approached a locked gate near the end of the hall.
“This is where I test new technologies.” she simply stated. She seemed to be short tempered at the moment, but then again, her cheeks were still a little more red than usual. She used her magic to open the gates. They swung open with a metallic whine that ran shivers down Oz’s back. The luminescent aqua tone at the bottom of the steps almost seemed foreboding, but Twilight began to just trot down them as if at the base there would be no worries. Nova and Oz followed close, to ensure one could duck behind the Arch-Unicorn should anything try to blow up in their face. As they drew nearer to the bottom of the rounding stairwell, loud explosions and the metallic thumps of some sort of device could be heard. As they rounded into the bottom hallway, the room opened up into a small testing laboratory. The dim aqua colored lights let the fire billowing from the ends of tubes and large cylinders be seen easily through the thick glass windows lining in a hallway. Twilight passed through the corridor without concern as Nova and Oz looked around worried that something may try to kill them at any second. As they passed one particular testing station, Oz noticed a Pegasus with two cylinders on his wings. He held them up, only curving at the joint to level the cylinders with a target at the end of the room. Oz also noticed that there were chain like ribbons running along the bone near the marginal coverts of the Pegasus’s wing. They went into a grey metallic box that sat on his back. Without warning the two cylinders became ablaze as white hot streaking metal flew from their barrels. At first the pony had problems keeping the recoil from pushing his wings into erratic movements, but as the bullets kept firing he was able to overcome the force and realign them.
“We have been developing a system to try and negate the adverse effects of using guns on Pegasi wings” Twilight lectured as she kept walking. “The weapons are placed at just the right leverage point that the Pegasus can control them, but they also can push to hard on the wings and force the user into uncontrollable fire, leading to inaccuracy. However, we think we have a solution,” she stopped at the end of the testing room and looked down at a table there. On it resided a vest, having two chains run from a box on it to two other cylinders. However, coming from the cylinders were two hydraulics lifts that connected to the base of the vest. “These tie-rods will tighten at the bite on the bit and will prevent the weapons from pushing the wings backwards. However, when one stops firing, the mechanism releases to prevent any form of not allowing the user to fly.”
“The bit?” Nova asked as he looked the contraption over. Twilight gave a smug smile and let her hoof rest on a helmet that sat nearby. A long cable could be seen running from the back of the helmet to the box on the vest.
“There is a bit inside the helmet here that the user bites on to fire the weapons. Biting the trigger will send a signal down to the box which then relays that signal to the wing mounted guns informing them to open fire.” Oz looked at the device in awe.
“What are guns?” he asked.
“Projectile weapons designed on firing a single cartridge like this,” she hovered a brass tube with a copper top in front of them, “so that one may beable to kill your advisory from afar.”
“Kinda like magic?” Oz’s tone of excitement was hardly hidden.
“Not entirely. It is actually the force of physics. I discovered the studies on the use of black powder a few years ago and asked Celestia if I could research further into it. When she agreed, I was more than happy to develop these weapons for our guards who aren’t fortunate enough to have control over magic.”
“This is so cool! May I take this into the Catacombs?” he looked at her with excitement written all over his face.
“That was the reason I summoned you two down here. Our weapons haven’t been field tested yet, so we would like this opportunity to fit both of you with some of our-”
“Fuck you Twilight. I’m not using any pussy shit. I’m good with my magic.” Nova said glaring at her. She looked at him disgusted at his choice of words, but decided against reacting openly to them.
“Fine then. I understand your decision Nova. I too am not to apt to use such devices, but I made them for our, not so magical associates.” she looked at Oz, who was mulling the weapons over gleefully. Nova looked at the childish pony and huffed, catching his attention. He looked up from the table to see the two other ponies staring at him. This caused him to blush and move away from the table. “Well, Nova, if you wish to just use your magic I will not argue. Oz, our fitting room is down the hall. We have a vest and helmet waiting for you there.” he did everything to keep his excitement hidden as he trotted past the two others. He disappeared around the corner where the testing chambers stopped. Nova looked at the ponies firing an assortment of different weaponry, all of them were either Earth Ponies or Pegasi.
“You do not think any Unicorns would prefer these crude devices?” he inquired.
“I am certain that most if not all our guards that can wield magic, would be okay with us developing our technologies only with the Pegasi and Earth Ponies in mind.” he looked at her and grunted.
“You’re just like every other scientist I-”
“How do I look Nova!?” Oz asked as he came high trotting around the corner. He held his head up with pride as he approached them. Nova looked over the Pegasus Pony and saw that the vest fit him very well. His helmet was a little different from the one on the table. Over Oz’s right eye was Celestia’s Cutie Mark painted onto the grey metallic surface.
“You look like a soldier, how unfitting of you.” he said in a flat tone.
“What do you mean?” Oz asked.
“You just don’t seem like a fighter to me.”
“HEY! I fought off that Unicorn fairly well down near the Everfree Forest!”
“That was just instincts.” Nova turned and started to leave.
“Where are you going?” Twilight asked.
“I’m going to the catacombs to get me a crystal.”
“You’re going the wrong way. The entrance is down here. We power most of our manufacturing equipment from the crystal formations below, so we kept the entryway close by.” he stood there, looking at her over his shoulder and simply sighed. Irritated, he walked past the two ponies. Twilight teleported herself to the end of the hall and turned the opposite direction Oz had taken. The Pegasus followed closely, moving his wings up in down to get used to the weight on them. As Nova and Oz rounded the corner. They saw Twilight standing next to a closed door with cart tracks at its base. The tracks turned into a hallway that cut into the wall. As the two walked past that hallway the stared down it to see another closed door. However, this door was metallic and had warning signs plastered all over it. Once they came closer to the Arch-Unicorn, they noticed she stood next to a button on the wall. She saw Oz investigating it visually and she pressed it to demonstrate its function. The door in front of them slid up and a cold breeze hit all three of them.
“All mining has been halted for you two to find the crystal. Remember, it’s very rare and has to be pristine. Anything else will cause the magical flow to be off balance and cause the spell to fail.” Oz peered down into the tunnel. It’s rainbow glass walls shimmered as his perspective made the light bouncing off changed. leading down on both sides were a row of yellow lights connected by wires. Nova and Oz stepped through the threshold together and peered down into the majestic cave. Noises of wind flowing through the main cavern could be heard echoing up to them. “Good luck you two. When you return, just simply press the button on the wall on your side of the door and it will open.” she hit the button again and the door slammed shut, leaving the hallway to be only lit by the amber glow of the lights lining the walls. Nova looked at Oz and sighed.
“Well, here we go.” he then started walking down the narrow passage with Oz shadowing him nervously.