((Prompt: How the pony got its cutie mark.))
History was bunk.
That was a word Rainbow had picked up from her Daring Do books. It meant 'lame.' History was uncool. Totally not awesome. History didn't do loop-de-loops or fight off dragons or anything neat like that. It was just a bunch of boring, stuffy old ponies droning about what other boring, stuffy old ponies did a long, long time ago.
There was one exception, though.
Commander Hurricane was awesome. She was so completely un-bunk that Rainbow felt there had been some kind of mistake when she was put into history. There needed to be a separate subject just for Commander Hurricane, and it would be called Awesometasticness.
Rainbow Dash flapped her wings excitedly as she dug out the prop helmet from the box of costumes. “This is so awesome!” she cheered. “I can't believe I get to play Commander Hurricane for the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant! She's only the most wicked-cool pegasus in the history of ever!” —excluding herself, she silently added. She could hardly blame the Commander for not being quite up to Dash levels of coolness; nopony was, after all.
“I'm glad you're excited,” Twilight said, glancing up over the top of her copy of the script.
Dash inspected the wooden sword that came with her armor. It would've been sweet if they had real swords on stage, but whatever. “Did you know that I'm directly descended from her? I'm like her great, great, great times a zillion granddaughter!”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Every pegasus in Equestria's descended from her, hon. Comes natural with bein' one of Equestria's founders.”
“Still counts for awesome points,” Rainbow said, her enthusiasm undimmed. “I wonder what kind of cutie mark she had. It must have been awesome.”
“Ooh,” interjected Pinkie, her face poking out one of the leg-holes of her costume. “What if it was something that didn't have anything to do with commanding, or hurricanes? I bet she had a poetry-reading cutie mark!”
“No way,” said Rainbow, shaking her head. “She must have had something really cool, like a gust of wind filled with lightning, or a spear flying through a torrent of rain, or—”
“She didn't have a cutie mark,” Twilight said.
Rainbow Dash blinked. “C'mon, Twi, you can't tell me a pony as awesome as the Commander Hurricane was a blank-flank!”
Twilight shook her head. “Commander Hurricane couldn't have had a cutie mark. Nopony did, back then.” She was met with confused looks from her friends. “Oh, come on, they taught us this in school, don't you remember?”
More blank stares. Twilight rolled her eyes. “The founding of Equestria was the end of the preclassical period. Nopony's sure exactly how long ago it was, but it was before the princesses, and it was before Discord.”
Fluttershy's eyes brightened. “Oh, I think I remember this, now!”
“Good,” said Twilight, smiling. “Do you want to tell them what it has to do with cutie marks?”
Fluttershy shrank behind her mane as five pairs of eyes turned on her. “Well, um... see, Discord...” She gulped. “I think you'd tell it much better than I can,” she squeaked.
Twilight sighed. “Okay. When Discord held power over Equestria, Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony to freeze him in stone. But they couldn't contain all of his power. And with so much of Discord's magic still on the loose, it would only be a matter of time before he managed to use it to set himself free.”
“So the princesses came up with an idea,” she continued. “They would channel the leftover magic into a spell cast over all of Equestria. This spell would find ponies that have special skills and abilities, and subtly guide and assist them. That's what cutie marks are. So long as the magic of the spell was being used, Discord couldn't access it. And therefore, as long as ponies continue to learn and grow, Discord won't ever be able to take back control of Equestria, even if, like a few months ago, he escapes from the stone.”
“So you see,” Twilight said, nodding proudly, “None of the founders of Equestria could have had cutie marks. They were thousands of years too early for that.”
“Okay, fine,” said Rainbow, waving her hoof at her. “But if she did have a cutie mark, I bet it'd have been awesome. Maybe a cloud that was on fire! Yeah, and the flames would be all different colors, and...”