7 Days Later
“Are you sure you don’t remember ANYTHING?!”
I put a hoof up to my chin and made a big show of thinking about it just to see Twilight even more flustered. “Yaaaa… no,” I said.
“ARRRGGGGHHH!!!” Twilight ground her teeth together in frustration and paced around the library. This had become a common occurrence over the past week I’d been in Ponyville. Everyday Rarity and I would go to Twilight’s library where she would try some new spell in order to cure my “amnesia”. She never succeeded, of course, because I didn’t have amnesia, but we couldn’t tell the studious unicorn that. I barely managed to suppress cracking up at the mare’s frustration, her facial expressions were just so funny. “Are you sure I can’t use the memory spell to look into her mind and see what’s wrong?” She asked.
“Come now darling, you know that that is a terrible invasion of privacy,” Rarity didn’t even look up from the magazine she was reading, she didn’t need to. Twilight had asked that same question every time her spells failed to achieve any results, so Rarity’s answer had become habit for the fashionista. After all, there were a few memories in there that I’d very much prefer the frightening (to me anyway) purple unicorn not to see.
“Well then I’m at a loss! I’ve tried absolutely every spell known to ponies, and even a few zebra remedies! I’m sorry Dusty, but I don’t think I can help you,” Twilight Sparkle said, her eyes cast down towards the floor avoiding my gaze. I will admit, my fear and hatred of her had lessened just a smidge after seeing how she did legitimately care about my wellbeing and tried to help me. I say a smidge because I still was well aware that that compassion would vanish in an instant once she knew who I really was.
“It’s ok Twilight. I guess it’s just a new start for me is all. I’ll adapt!” I put a hoof on the depressed unicorn’s shoulder and gave her my now-signature smirk. Even though, thanks to Rarity, I didn’t look like Pinkie Pie anymore, I still endeavored to make my movements as little like her as possible, including not giving any of her giant goofy smiles.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rarity looking up at me and smiling. While Twilight was still looking at the ground I turned my head and shot her a questioning look, but she had gone back to reading her magazine as if nothing had happened.
***
Later that day I was lying on Rarity’s couch (the one that she sometimes lugs around with her when she’s feeling particularly dramatic) staring at the boutique’s ceiling. My host had left for her weekly spa trip with her friend Fluttershy. I’d been invited, but I could tell that Rarity kind of wanted a break from me, which was fair considering I’d spent most of my waking hours clinging to her in fear. Though, looking back on it, I’m not really sure what I thought Rarity was going to protect me from. But anyway I’m just sitting there minding my own business when suddenly I hear whispers coming from underneath the couch.
“So she’s just been staying here? And you have no idea who she is.”
“Nope, my sister didn’t tell me. I just came home from crusading a week ago and she was just here.”
“Well that’s mighty strange.”
“So what’s her cutie mark supposed to be?”
“I don’t know! I never asked!”
“It looks like a sword to me.”
“No way! It’s obviously some type of abstract painting.”
“Y’all are crazy, it’s definitely some sorta beetle.”
“Sword!”
“Painting!”
“Beetle!”
“You know, you could just ask me.”
The three fillies were suddenly silent as they slowly turned their heads to the right to see my face smirking at them. That smirk quickly turned into uproarious laughter as they screamed in surprise and bolted out from under the couch. You see, while they had been having their “private” conversation I’d quietly slipped off of my resting place and slid under the couch next to them, and they’d been too wrapped up in their argument to notice.
Still laughing, I crawled out from underneath Rarity’s furniture and found the three fillies standing there looking embarrassed. I recognized one of them as Sweetie Belle, Rarity’s sister, who lived here but seemingly spent almost all of her time either at school or playing with her friends, who I assumed were the bow-wearing earth pony and the orange pegasus standing next to her. Sweetie Belle was biting her lower lip and twisting her front hoof into the ground, looking like she wanted to say something. Her earth pony friend apparently thought that Sweetie was taking too long as indicated by the swift kick she gave to the unicorn’s blank flank.
“We’re really sorry Miss Dusty. We were just curious is all,” Sweetie said, not making eye contact with me, “Ummm, these are my friends Applebloom and Scootaloo.”
“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said, managing to make my laughter subside to a mere chuckle, “And as a matter of fact, I don’t know what my cutie mark is supposed to be.” The joke was on them in that my cutie mark really didn’t mean anything at all, being just a recreation of a splattering of coal and dust. I’d decided to use my “amnesia” as an excuse for not knowing what it meant if anypony asked me.
“Wait wait wait, how can you have a cutie mark and not know what it means?!” Scootaloo said, her wings buzzing in shock and annoyance.
“Scootaloo! That’s a downright rude thing to say! Don’t ya remember Sweetie Belle tellin’ us she had am… en… asia… ”
“Amnesia,” Sweetie Belle helpfully supplied.
“Ya, that. Which means she can’t remember nothin’. So a’course she don’t know what her cutie mark means,” Applebloom finished, shooting a glare at Scootaloo, “She probably doesn’t like to talk about it. Imagine how horrible that must feel, not even knowin’ what your own cutie mark means.”
“Actually, it doesn’t really bother me. In fact… I haven’t given it all that much thought,” I interjected myself back into the conversation, as I was a little bothered by how the little fillies were talking like I wasn’t even there, “I guess it’s just not all that important to me.”
“Not… that… IMPORTANT?!?!” All three yelled at the same time, which was a tad creepy to be honest. I swear I could not get a more shocked and horrified expression out of them if I suddenly turned into a changeling. I mean seriously, it was like I just killed their puppy or something.
“Well… I… um… ”
“Don’t you know? Your cutie mark determines what your DESTINY is!” The orange pegasus gave me an incredulous stare.
“Ya, how are you s’posed to know what type of pony you are without knowing what your cutie mark is?” Applebloom said.
“Well I can’t remember anything, so why stress about it?” The three fillies were getting just a teensy-bit annoying by this point, and by a teensy-bit I mean I felt how Twilight Sparkle looked after her dragon assistant accidentally set fire to her Starswirl the bearded costume, “And even if I were stressing about it, there’s nothing you or I could do to figure out what it’s supposed to mean anyway.”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo simultaneously looked at Applebloom, who gave a quick nod. The three then grouped up in a huddle on the other side of the room from me and began to intensely whisper amongst themselves. Occasionally one of them would stick their head up and glare at me, probably to make sure I didn’t eavesdrop on their conversation this time. After about a minute they seemed to come to some sort of an agreement and walked back over to where I stood waiting.
“You’re in luck Miss Dusty! We, as Ponyille’s resident experts on cutie marks, would be happy to assist you!” Sweetie Belle said.
“Well that’s nice of you. And I appreciate it, I really do. But I don’t think there’s really anything you can do… ”
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CUTIE MARK INTERPRETERS!!! YAY!!!” The fillies yelled, completely ignoring me. All three of them jumped me and started dragging me to the boutique’s front door.
“No, no, NO! I’m not going to go along with whatever scheme you’ve cooked up. No way! No how!”
***
“Note to self: don’t look in Applebloom’s eyes… ever,” I grumbled as I pulled a small wagon full of Cutie Mark Crusaders down the middle of Ponyville. I looked back to see Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo reviewing a sheet of paper on which they’d written what everypony we’d come across had thought my cutie mark was while Applebloom was taking a quick nap. That little seductress had managed to use her unbearable cuteness to get me to drag them around and ask everypony in town what they thought my ‘cutie mark’ was supposed to be. I briefly considered shaking the cart to awaken her out of spite, but I decided I preferred her asleep so she couldn’t hypnotize me again.
“So what did Lyra think it was?” I heard Scootaloo ask.
“She thought it was a…” Sweetie looked over the paper, “Bongo drum.”
“What about Bonbon?”
“Chocolate bar.”
“Vinyl Scratch?”
“A record.”
“Miss Cheerilee?”
“Whale.”
“Applejack?”
“Cow.”
“Pinkie Pie?”
“She just glared at Dusty then bolted off…”
“Typical Pinkie. What about Spike?”
“Two very odd-looking dragons.”
“Colgate?”
“A very unhealthy tooth.”
“Screw Loose?”
“A… Rorschach test?”
“Wait, why did we ask Screw Loose again? Everypony knows that mare is crazy. I don’t even think Rorschach is a word!” Scootaloo said.
The unicorn filly just shrugged and they continued to discuss the results of their survey. I tuned them out as I focused on pulling the cart back towards Carousel Boutique. A few ponies snickered as we walked by, but a glare from me quickly shut them up. The fillies didn’t seem to notice, however.
I was suddenly almost brought to my knees as one of the fillies jumped on my back, only just being saved from doing so by my earth pony fortitude. I looked back around to see that the offender was Applebloom, who had presumably just woken up from her nap. I briefly considered bucking her off but decided having a vengeful Apple family after me was not in my best interests.
“Why’re you so mopey Miss Dusty?” she asked with her giant, disturbingly cute eyes staring into my very soul.
“How’d you feel if you had to shuttle around three annoying little fillies all day?” I said, not bothering to hide my frustration.
“Well I suppose I’d be pretty happy I’d get to go out and have some fun. ‘Specially if I’d been cooped up at Rarity’s house for a week, not goin’ out to see nopony,” she put a hoof to her chin as she thoughtfully answered my very rhetorical question.
“Sweetie should really learn to mind her own business and not go blabbing to her friends about the affairs of others,” I muttered, shooting a glare back at Rarity’s sister, who was still absent-mindedly discussing the list of responses with her orange-coated friend.
“She didn’t mean nothin by it, she was just worried about you is all. It aint right for a pony to spend so much time alone. That’s why we were there today in the first place. So cheer up a little!” Applebloom gave me a big smile before jumping off my back into the wagon to get up to speed on what her friends had figured out.
I couldn’t help but grin at the little filly. As annoying as they were, it did make me happy that they’d made the effort to help me out. I didn’t think the fillies would be old enough to understand why I hid myself away from the rest of Ponyville, but they were right in that not getting out and seeing ponies left my life sort of… empty. I wouldn’t fully grasp the wisdom of her words until later when I found out what I had been missing out on, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. Back then the only thing I realized was that that day had, in fact, been marginally better than the ones that had preceded it.
Finally we arrived back at… well… my home for all intents and purposes, at least at that time. The fillies jumped off of the cart as I wiggled out of the harness I’d been using to pull it. The three continued to talk amongst themselves as I walked over and nudged the door open…
“SURPRISE!!!!”