//------------------------------// // Part 1, Chapter 4: What My Cutie Mark Is Telling Me // Story: Everything is Certainly Fine, or "Magical Mystery Cure in three parts" // by Kaj-Nrig //------------------------------// Part 1 Chapter 4 – What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me “Twilight! You gotta help us!” cries a passing pony. “What's going on?” Twilight asks in return, giving the pony's rump a puzzled look as a white-hot sizzle of lightning lances across the sky. The wind whips wildly around the village, throwing up seemingly random clouds of dust and foliage. In the distance, she makes out the faint white outline of snow on the roofs of houses, and in another direction, the sky darkens into jagged lines of sleet. The clouds producing them loom overhead, arranged in what could almost be called a neat checkerboard pattern. (Wrong, wrong, wrong, something inside her complains.) “It's Rarity! She's gone crazy!” another pony explains, pausing just long enough to point in the direction of the bridge leading out of town before another bolt of lightning sends her scampering away. Twilight stares at the pony's cutie mark for a moment as well, then takes off immediately toward the bridge, ordering ponies to find shelter as they panic around her. (It's all wrong, and you have to do something about it! she hears again.) She spots Rarity right where the pony said. “Rarity!” she yells, skidding to a halt at the base of the bridge. Rarity stands amidst a crowd of other unicorns and earth ponies; the unicorns seem to be focusing their magic at the sky above, while the earth ponies trot anxiously. Twilight frowns at their cutie marks, just like she did with everypony else, but she can't quite seem to put her hoof on what looks so off and why... Her white-maned friend spots her almost immediately and pushes her way through the crowd. “Twilight! Positively perfect timing! Can you—Twilight?” It's another dream, it's another dream, it's another dream, Twilight tells herself. It has to be a dream, because there's no way this can happen. But try as she might, the pitter patter of rain on her coat and the sound of thunder above and the sight of Rarity's cutie mark is all too real. Still, she taps the multicolored lightning bolt twice just to make sure, and again on the other side to make doubly sure. “What are you doing? What happened to your cutie mark?” she blurts out. Two of a quickly growing number of questions. Like “why do you have Rainbow Dash's cutie mark?” or “when did this happen?” or “who are those other ponies and what are they doing?”. Actually, speaking of whom, where IS Rainbow Dash? “Whatever do you mean, Twilight?” Rarity responds, almost offended. “I'm simply doing what I've done since the day it first appeared. Does my sky look fabulous or what?” She gives a hard, judging sneer to the crowd of ponies assembled on the bridge. “If only THOSE simpletons would leave me to do my work, but NO, they have to 'play their part.' Argh! I mean, really, Twilight, do they not understand how artiste fashion is?” “Rarity, what are you talking about? You're a dress-maker, not a weather pony!” Rarity scoffs. “The term is FASHION DESIGNER, Twilight. And of course I'm a weather pony! Don't you see the—” She pauses for a moment and shakes her head. “I mean... I...” Twilight watches intently as Rarity's eyes take on a far-away look, her mouth hanging slightly open. Then she shakes her head again, the glow of her horn ceases, and she lists slightly before catching herself. “I... You're right, Twilight. I... I AM a fashion designer. But... But... my cutie mark.” Rarity motions to it with one foreleg. “I-I MUST be a weather pony. It's what my cutie mark is telling me!” One more bolt of lightning strikes mere meters from where the two of them stand, followed by another, and another. Twilight feels the energy of the lightning strikes deep in her bones. “First things first! We have to clear these skies!” she shouts over the loud ringing in her ears. “How!?” “Follow me!” She heads back to the group on the bridge. “Are you all the weather team!?” With the way they look at her, she may as well have asked if they were ponies. She tries again. “Were you all weather ponies yesterday!?” “Of co—” “Yeah! Wait...” “Duh, Twilight—What?” And just like that, the unicorns' magic stops and the lightning and wind cease, though the rainclouds and condensation still remain. Twilight sighs quietly to herself. “That's better. Now I know you're all probably very confused about your cutie marks. Believe me, so am I. But we have to take care of this weather first or else we won't be able to figure out what's going on. Okay?” All present glance around at each other nervously before hesitantly nodding. “Good. Now. One, two, three, four... eight-nine-ten... twelve-thirteen, fourteen. Is this the entire weather team?” Again, all the ponies look around at each other, some with more visible signs of panic than others. “Do any of you know how many ponies make up a weather team?” “Of course we do!” exclaims a maroon-colored earth pony. “It's... wait, no. That's right. I'm a weath—no, a grape farmer. I—aaaaaargh! I know I'm not a weather pony, but I keep telling myself I am!” “Focus, everypony. I need you all to focus as hard as you can. Try not to pay attention to what your cutie mark says, okay? Something's going on here and I'm going to get to the bottom of it, but I need all of you especially to focus. You're supposed to be in charge of the weather now, except none of you are equipped to deal with it, and you might end up hurting lots of fillies. You absolutely must NOT mess with the weather. Can you all handle that?” Their collective nods are about as enthusiastic as an aquaphobic pony crossing a stream. Still, it's the best Twilight is going to get. “Okay. Now, were there any pegasi helping you, kicking clouds?” “A few,” answers one of the unicorns. “What do you think? Three?” A murmur of yeses ripples through the crowd. Twilight cringes. Three is better than none, given the circumstances. Still, she would have liked better numbers than that. She turns to Rarity, and places what she hopes is a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Rarity, I need you and everypony here to find them as fast as you can. They're our weather team now.” Rarity looks at her questioningly. “Where are you going, Twilight?” Twilight smiles calmly, feeling nothing at all like calm. “I'm going to find Rainbow Dash and march her down here to help.” -_-_-_- Of course, finding a pegasus is easier said than done. Rainbow Dash isn't home – Twilight doesn't actually know this (because although she could normally bring Dash's cloud house down to earth with her magic, her magic seems to be particularly lackadaisical today), but she trusts it to be true – and nobody seems to know where the wayward pegasus has run off to. Maybe Spike can help, she finally surmises after half an hour of roaming the outskirts of the village. And Owlowicious, too. After all, neither of the two have cutie marks to worry about, so they can't possibly be affected by this like the rest of Ponyville seemingly has. She really should have thought of this sooner. Who better to help her than them? Maybe Fluttershy isn't affected by whatever's going on, either. Twilight doesn't bother holding out hope, though. That just wouldn't seem right given how everything's been going today. She sets off in the direction of Fluttershy's house. -_-_-_- Or she could find Rainbow Dash there. That works, too. “Hey, Twilight,” sighs the blue pegasus when she knocks on the door. “Twilight!? TWILIGHT!” cries another familiar voice, the owner of which charges straight past Rainbow Dash and into Twilight's forelegs. “You gotta help us, Twilight! Fluttershy left me alone with Rainbow Dash and the animals and Rainbow Dash is trying to take care of them and that's never a good idea because you know how bad she is with animals and all the animals know not to trust her anymore and I think Angel might have declared a coup I don't know I don't speak bunny but now they're trashing Fluttershy's place and—” “Rainbow Dash, what are you—” Twilight begins as she picks up the panicked purple dragon onto her back, but a sudden crash from the living room interrupts her. “What in Equestria is going on in here!?” she finishes and charges into the house against Dash's protests (she notes Dash's cutie mark without surprise: butterflies). She is in no mood to see the state of carnage here – she still vividly remembers the incident with Dash dropping Tank through the cloud floor onto some poor delivery mare's head, and said mare's cart turning over, and said cart's contents spilling onto Ponyville's hapless citizens – but there is little choice in the matter. And, after a few seconds of careful observation, she utters a simple “yep,” turns around, grabs Rainbow Dash's ear firmly, and abandons Fluttershy's home to the animals. “Spike.” “U-uh-huh? What is it, Twilight?” “Can you take care of these animals?” “H-hey, Egghead! You can't expect him to do MY—” “Can you do a better job than Dash has done?” “Um... uh...” “Don't look at her. Look at me. Can you?” “Yeah, I guess. A little. Why—” “Good. I'm leaving you in charge here, then. Where's Fluttershy? Where's DISCORD? I swear to Celestia, if he's the one behind this...” “As much as it would please me to be today's mastermind, I have to sadly admit this is someone else's genius at work.” Twilight feels an eyelid twitch ever so slightly. This day just keeps getting better and better. “By the way,” the draconequus notes offhandedly, “I LOVE what you've got going on, sister.” He slaps her fondly on the flank. Twilight breathes in deeply, lest she do something like zap him into oblivion. Breath in, and out. In, and out. “What about me?” she asks calmly. “You mean you haven't noticed?” Discord laughs that smarmy kickable laugh of his. “I've been a little BUSY this morning, Discord, in case you couldn't tell. Now. What. About. Me?” “Oh, it's nothing, really. You can't even notice it, really—” “DISCORD!” “Hey, Twilight!” Spike suddenly chimes in. “Your cutie mark is gone! You're a blank flank!” Under most circumstances, this would alarm Twilight greatly. Her cutie mark is her life. Magic is her life. Without it, even if she had another cutie mark, she just would not feel the same. She would feel like a part of herself is missing. Under most circumstances. Under these circumstances, she just takes it in stride. “That explains why I haven't been able to use my magic,” she says, and that's the end of the matter. “Some chocolate milk, perhaps? Drink your sorrows away?” Discord offers. Twilight knocks the glass from his hand and doesn't bother to feel sorry for it. “Rainbow Dash!” she shouts. Rainbow Dash comes to a sudden stop just before touching the front door of Fluttershy's cottage. “Get over here now!” The tone in her voice brooks no argument. -_-_-_- “Got it, Discord? Princess Celestia wants to use your powers for good, so here's your chance to do so.” “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” “I'm serious, Discord! I better see you clearing the skies after you're done helping Spike here!” “I Pinkie Promised, didn't I? Twilight, you're in a perplexingly foul mood. Here I am, offering my humble services. I won't even comment on the fact that surely with your magic powers, clearing the skies would be a—” “DISCORD!” “And that would be my cue. Arrivederci!” Twilight bristles quietly to herself for a moment before turning to Spike. “Think you got this under control? I know I'm putting a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, watching over Discord and all—” “Aw, just leave it to me, Twilight! Besides, if anything goes wrong, I can just send Owlowicious to get you.” “Exactly. And you said Fluttershy went over to Sugarcube Corner, right? Gee, I wonder what her cutie mark can be.” “Are you going to be okay, Twilight?” Twilight pats him on the head and tries not to let the tears well up in her eyes. He has absolutely no idea how important he is to her. Not for the first time, she promises she will cherish him forever and ever. “Thanks, Spike. There's a reason you're my number one assistant.” They share a lingering hug. She senses just how afraid he is: of Discord, of his responsibility, of this day. She feels exactly the same. They tighten their hold on each other for one more moment of comfort in each others' arms. Then he heads back into the house and she turns to Dash. “Okay, Dash. Now what are you again?” “A vet, duh. Wait! I mean... Aaargh!” “I know it's hard, Rainbow Dash, but you have to keep reminding yourself who you really are.” “Easy for you to say, Twilight. You're just a blank flank. Nothing's really changed for you. Me... I know who I am, but the moment I stop paying attention, I start to drift back here, like it's my destiny. It's what my cutie mark is telling me.” “Do you think not being able to use magic is easy for me?” she retorts with far more venom than she intended. Dash doesn't say anything for a few seconds, just follows meekly. “I guess not. Sorry, Twilight. I'm just on edge.” Twilight sighs. “I know, Dash. Me, too. Like I said, just try to focus on what you're supposed to do. Once we get back to Ponyville and you start kicking in those clouds, it'll be just like it was. Everything's going to be just fine.” “I hope you're right, Twilight.” -_-_-_- About the only consolation Twilight can find today is in the fact that the town hasn't yet burned to the ground... though it certainly did its best during her brief absence. By the time she made it back into town to check on Fluttershy, Rarity and the other “weather” unicorns had taken it upon themselves to resume unintentionally terrorizing Ponyville. Fortunately, the three pegasi she had heard about earlier had also been combating their efforts with varying levels of success. (As it turns out, two of the three pegasi had been cloud kickers even before the cutie mark switcheroo, and they managed to give the third – an astronomer named Stardancer – an almost literal crash course in weather control. Thank Celestia for small miracles.) Once Dash took to the air and Twilight bullied the unicorns back to their senses, Ponyville was back on course for a semi-normal day, for the time being. She then spent lunch at the Sugarcube Corner working crowd control for Fluttershy's rather disastrous foray into grief counseling. Whereas Pinkie Pie exuded positivity and darn near forced even the most despondent ponies into a state of perpetual joy, Fluttershy's mutterings of “cheer up, um... that is, if you want to...” and “I know you're feeling down, but, um, um... um...” could barely get a rise out of her audience at best, and roused their ire at worst. Twilight even went so far as to hide Pinkie's party cannon after Fluttershy stuffed herself into it and nearly shot herself into the Sugarcube Corner's wall. In the end, she managed to convince the shy pegasus to return home by way of “your animals need entertaining, too, right, Fluttershy? Plus, I'm sure Discord could use a good laugh right about now.” That last part was as lie as lies could be – the LAST thing needing some cheering up in this situation was Discord – but it was good enough for Fluttershy, which was good enough for her. Then it was on to Sweet Apple Acres to check on the Apple family and be less than surprised to find Pinkie Pie zipping across the fields. Twilight would have stepped in, but wonder of wonders, Pinkie actually made for a surprisingly effective apple farmer. Maybe her days on a rock farm had prepared her for this. She took no joy in the endeavor, though; her usually unkempt mane was well-groomed and orderly, and her eyes had a habit of drifting off-center on occasion, two sure signs of Pinkamena Syndrome. Of the Apple family, only Applejack and Applebloom were missing from the farm. Big Mac and Granny Smith had luckily switched cutie marks with each other, so the only odd behavior either of them exhibited was when Big Mac tried baking a pie. Applejack had apparently taken off that morning to the Carousel Boutique, but of Applebloom there was no sign. This did not and does not sit well with Twilight. The poor filly and her friends must be terrified of their new responsibilities right now. With that in mind, Twilight is back in Ponyville proper, half a block from Rarity's boutique. If anyone knows where Applebloom is, it's Applejack. Suddenly, and without reason, she yawns. That's weird, she says as she shakes herself back to full awareness. I don't FEEL tired... Then again, it HAS been a hard day... Sleep is just about the LAST thing she needs. What she needs is to check on Applejack, and then meet with Mayor Mare (or whoever is mayor now) in order to organize an emergency town hall meeting. “Excuse me. AJ, are you in here?” she asks as she opens the door to the shop. “C'mon in, Twilight,” drawls Applejack from inside the shop. “Maybe y'can help me with sumthin'.” Twilight enters the shop to find Applejack hunched over a sewing machine, scissor in one hoof and dress in the other. “I've been tryin' all day to work this darn contraption, but I—” here she grunts and bites down on the sewing machine thread, using both hoofs to awkwardly hold the scissors “—I jus' cahn do uh ting widdit.” Twilight can't help but giggle just a little bit at the sight of Applejack attempting to sew. The world may be going crazy, but that doesn't make Applejack trying to do fine work any less silly. After futilely attempting to work the scissors with her hoofs, Applejack finally throws it onto the workstation and cuts off the thread with her teeth instead, tying it into an ugly, awkward-looking knot. “Tell me, Twilight: Why can't y'all unicorns invent stuff as can be used by us normal, non-magical ponies? Because that there ain't fit to be used by a dog, much less a pony.” “You don't look too good, Applejack. Been a rough day?” Twilight asks in lieu of an answer. She fights off another yawn by stretching until she hears a series of satisfying cracks in her bones. “Y'could say that. I ain't hardly had time to take a break, I've been so busy. Lookie here at what I made.” She takes the dark turquoise dress and lays it out on a merriequin. Off-color patches dot the dress, and buttons seem to have been sewn on at random. “I think,” Applejack says after some consideration, “that it's a dress.” “Applejack, it's okay. You're not a dress-ma—a fashion designer.” “What in tarnation are ya talkin' 'bou—” If Twilight is a bit more forceful than necessary when she places her hoof in Applejack's mouth, it only speaks to how often she's had to repeat this question today. “Were you a fashion designer yesterday? Let me answer that. No, you weren't. I know you're confused. I am, too. Try to focus on who you really are. It helps for a little while. It seems everypony's cutie marks have been switched around at random. I don't know how or why. I'm trying to find Mayor Mare and get everypony together for a town hall meeting. Maybe we can figure this out. Right now I'm worried about Applebloom. Do you know where she and her friends are?” Applejack is quiet for a long time. Then she blinks. “Come again?” “I said—” Twilight falls mid-sentence. She is asleep before her body even hits the ground, leaving a very confused Applejack alone in the quiet boutique. “Um... Twilight?” -_-_-_- Part 1, Chapter 4 END