“So… what’s your story anyway, Amethyst?” I asked. She’d since gone to sleep and now we were both once again in the dreamscape which was, this time, one of Canterlot's parks where the two of us were seated and having a picnic.
“What do you mean?” Amethyst asked.
“Like… tell me about your life. How you got where you were before all this craziness.” I said as I floated a peanut-butter jar to her. The other mare eyed it for a second and smirked at me. “How you got your…” I said, the word ‘cutie mark’ was still way too… girly… for me to want to say out loud. “You know… ‘cause I’ve looked at it a few times and I still can’t figure out exactly what it means or says about you.”
“I guess since we’ve bonded so well, I can tell you.” She said, struggling with the jar for a moment before tapping it against a rock then unscrewing it.
“I’m all ears.” I said, floating a plastic knife into the open jar to scoop out some peanut-butter for my crackers and sandwich.
Amethyst took a deep breath and looked up at the sky for a moment. “Well, I was born in Canterlot. My dad was a royal guard and my mom did a lot of dancing in her day so she taught dance classes. We weren’t rich but we weren’t poor either, we always got by.” She explained. “My dad… I didn’t see him often due to his job, but any free time he had, he always spent time with me. He even taught me some of the combat spells I showed you so I would be able to defend myself. Yeah, imagine teaching a little filly… not the best student in the world.” She said with a laugh. “It was like… soon as I could use magic. He was just so excited and wanted to have a way to spend time with me, you know?”
I smiled and took a bite from my sandwich. I admit, when I had to tell my folks they were… well… in for quite a surprise.
“Mom did most of the raising as a result, she’d show me how to dance and I do love to dance when the music is good.” She said, smirking. “Then right around when my little sister Dinky was born, I was old enough and out of Magic Kindergarten, I was already a fast learner… and that got me accepted into CSGU.”
“Right, you mentioned you even had Lyra as a classmate.” I said.
“Yup. Next I see her, she better have those five bits.” Amethyst replied. “There were some others, too, when I first started. Seaswirl, Minuette… Sunset Shimmer…”
“Who?” I asked, the last name drawing a blank.
“Ugh, Celestia’s golden filly before Twilight. She was always alienating everypony else, and a few of us tried to invite her to parties in hopes of getting her to open up a little, but she always treated us like we were… well…” Her ears drooped a little.
“Beneath her?” I asked.
“Exactly.” She replied. It was odd, I’d never heard of that pony before. She wasn’t on the show and Twilight and Celestia had never made mention of her on the show.
“I take it something happened to her?” I asked. “I never saw her in the show.”
“That’s the thing, she just disappeared one day. Nopony knows where or why, and hasn’t seen her since. Then, not too long after, Twilight replaced her as Celestia’s new student.” Amethyst said. “Twilight was also… not very social, but she wasn’t rude about it, so she was much more likable.”
“I see…” I replied, wondering what could have happened to this Sunset Shimmer pony.
“But I think we’re a little off-topic.” Amethyst said, brushing back her mane and then taking a bite of her own sandwich. “Anyway…” She said after eating. “I made some friends, and I studied magic, like I said I was a fast learner. A gem of sorts, I guess.” She said.
I looked at her cutie mark for a moment, and she laughed and rolled her eyes. “No, that’s not what my cutie mark means.” She said. “If it did, I’d have had magic as a specialty, but I don’t. I was just lucky to have good teachers and a creative mind for what I could learn.”
“Same here.” I said. “I’ve always enjoyed drama classes and stage work, it always gave me a chance to be creative and make things.”
“Something we have in common, I guess.” Amethyst replied with a small smile. “But even that’s not it. Anypony can be creative, have hobbies, but we all have a distinct special talent or destiny of some sort that a cutie mark represents.”
“So what does yours represent, then? You a jeweler or something?” I asked.
“No.” Amethyst explained. “I’m just… somepony who likes to shine, like my name. I try to be as creative as I can be; I want to make a difference for myself and for my little sister. When I got older, I decided to move out to Ponyville. Dinky was having a really hard time with her upper-crust classmates at Canterlot's school so I figured a quieter place would make it easier for her to make friends so I brought her along. Plus, it was where my cousin Ditzy lived. Dinky loved it there.” She said with a smile.
“Ditzy’s your cousin?” I asked.
“Yeah, what’d you think she was, my mom? We’re practically the same age!” Amethyst said sarcastically and giving me the feeling she must have read the rather bizarre fanon theory I'd heard of in my mind. “But yeah, grandparents on mom's side were a unicorn and pegasus, so they had two different foals… anyway… my cutie mark...” She explained. “I like to dance, and I like finding ways to do things with my magic. Stuff that makes me stand out.”
“So that’s what it means?” I asked.
“Not quite. Dancing’s just a hobby, but being creative with magic led me to finding out my special talent. See… there’s one more spell I have that's exclusive to me. See, unicorns can use a number of different spells they're taught in Magic Kindergarten or by their parents, but everypony has a unique one that corresponds to their cutie mark, unless magic is their special talent, in which then they can learn high-level spells. For me… I can create gems from rocks, provided I have the right ones on hoof.”
“Like alchemy, the whole lead-to-gold thing?” I asked.
“I guess, but as a spell.” She said.
“Heh, diamonds in the microwave.” I said, snickering.
“Excuse me?” Amethyst asked, offended.
“There’s this myth that if you microwave peanut-butter covered coal, you can create small diamonds.” I explained.
“…Why would anypony waste peanut-butter and I’m assuming a ‘microwave’ like that?” Amethyst asked me.
"I guess when making gems is an option some find it worth it. But I'm not gonna spend the money to test that theory." I said.
“Anyway, I found with the right three-rock combinations I can create various types of gems.” Amethyst continued. “It was a nice way to make some extra money to help support the family, in between the foal-sitting jobs, though I mostly did those just because I adore fillies and I’m good at it.” She said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.
“I… see.” I said. “Any way I can learn it? Might help pay for the rent and the landlady’s probably not gonna buy the ‘stuck as ponies so can’t make money’ excuse for long.” I explained.
“I suppose I could compile a list and show you in case you’re in control, or just wait for me to be in control again and I’ll remember to give it a shot if we can find the right rock combinations.” Amethyst explained.
“I’m all for that.” I said. “I gotta admit though, you’re a natural for this Mare Do Well thing.”
“Saw me lay onto that pillow dummy, huh?” Amethyst asked.
“I caught a bit of it.” I said. “We keep at it, those bastards won’t stand a chance against us!”
Amethyst laughed. “I can only hope.” She said. “Even in Ponyville, Dinky got picked on a bit in school from time to time. I don’t like bullies and these PAPA guys are the worst I've seen.”
“You went to Diamond Tiara’s party though.” I pointed out.
“Everypony was told to come. I went to make sure no one teased Dinky. They also paid real well to help out… truthfully I can barely stand Filthy’s little brat. Seriously, he's nice and all, but he really needs to figure a way to discipline her.”
“That yellow saddle outfit looked ridiculous, though.” I remarked.
Amethyst rolled her eyes. “I guess I can’t argue with that. I dunno what I was thinking at the time, really. I’ll just have to consult Rarity for something next time I’m going to a fancy party.”
I snickered a bit, then she did, and soon we were both sharing a laugh.
“You’re an interesting pony, Amethyst Star. Cider?” I asked, floating the thermos over to her.
“Sure.” She replied, unscrewing the top and pouring some into a cup with her magic.
“It’s weird, but the more I think of it, the less I mind… all this.” I said, gesturing at my pony body that mirrored hers.
“What’s not to love about being able to use magic?” She joked.
“Well, not that. Just… ever since I became Mare Do Well… I’ve been scared, worried I won’t make a difference, and worried about what consequences the differences I did make would cause… but also… it feels worthwhile now. I feel like I can be a lot more then I used to be. Even the gender-switch feels pretty trivial compared to that… especially when I remember that filly, or the two pegasi I saved.” I explained. “Don’t get me wrong, being a different sex and species still weirds me out a bit, but…” I managed a smile “Not as much as it used to.”
“And you got your girlfriend… I can see she really loves you.” Amethyst replied. “I think we’ve been a good team… most of the time, anyway.” She said, it was obvious what she was thinking about. “Oh if Rainbow Dash could see us now, I bet she’d be so jealous.” She said with a smirk as she sipped some cider.
“Totally, since you're an up-and-coming superhero now.” I said with a laugh, pouring some cider for myself and raising the cup. “So… friends?” I asked.
“Friends.” The other unicorn replied with a genuine smile as she floated up her drink, and our makeshift toasting was complete.
~
That glorious Threesday late morning that followed, Steph and I spent much of the day getting photos of one-another and putting together… after some uncertainty… our own facebook page we decided we’d share. Amethyst Star-Flitter it was dubbed, with a picture of the two of us, forehooves draped over one-another’s shoulder as our avatar picture. Naturally, we did not have to wait long till the requests came in.
“Wow… people are really nuts about this pony thing.” I said.
“Duh.” Steph said dryly, skimming through and accepting the ones that weren’t creepy or weird. “I wonder who else has one.” She asked, looking at me as she couldn’t really type anymore.
“I guess it doesn’t hurt to find out.” I mused, entering random pony names to see what results I got and checking a few over to see if any were actually legit.
“Looks like Fluttershy has one, and it’s pretty popular.” I said, smirking at how adorable the yellow pegasus was, just like in the show. “Pinkie Pie has one, too.”
“No surprise there. Is her friends list maxed out?” Steph replied jokingly with an amused eyeroll.
“OHMYGOSH!!!!” I yelped in a sudden and entirely justified burst of ecstatic joy, startling my girlfriend enough to make her fall from the couch.
“What? What’s so important you had to scare me half to death, Kyle?” She asked, rubbing her head as she sat up.
“I don’t believe this!!!” I squealed a little as what I assume was a huge grin spread across my face. “LOOK! LOOK!” I said, waving my hoof at the screen and Steph flew over and landed beside me. When she saw the screen, she smiled and shook her head.
“Should have guessed your favorite background pony having a page would do that to you.” She said, smirking at Vinyl Scratch’s facebook profile.
“Hey, Cloudchaser’s your favorite… ironically enough.” I said. Very ironic indeed she’d wind up Cloudchaser’s sister. “So let me have my favorite.”
“Hey! Look at this!” Steph said, noticing a ‘fanpage’ tab with the “Like?” button on it.
“Mysterious MDW Sightings?” I asked, reading it aloud. Steph moved the mouse with her hoof and clicked. Sure enough, it was Richmond-based. People were already talking about last night’s adventure… and apparently the one at the food store days before that, connecting the two. A few blurry photos here and there of a shape hopping across rooftops and such, peoples' takes on the news report that had happened after the rescue mission, and of course lots and lots of vectors from the controversial tv episode. I couldn’t help but smile at what I saw.
“Well whaddya know? We’ve already made a splash!” I said, giving Steph a hug.
“I guess so… think we should troll ‘em?” She asked with a grin.
“Sure, why not?” I asked as I looked at one brony post going “MDW: What kind of pony do you think she is???
“Changeling. Totally a changeling.” She posted in response with a mischievous grin on her face.
We realized the folly of our action when we were hit by another wave of friend requests with “OMG MORE PONIES!!!” comments, and a load of questions.
“No, I’m not Derpy’s daughter. Ditzy is my cousin, Dinky is my sister.” I posted hurriedly.
“I’m not Cloudchaser’s lover, I’m her SISTER.” Steph had me post for her.
About six more headcanon debunkings later, we decided to close out of the social network and find a movie to watch, since there was still plenty of time before we’d head to Richmond for another nightly patrol.
“So… what movie, Kyle?” Steph asked with a smile as she looked over our DVD collection.
“Hmmm… I haven’t seen Darkman in awhile.” I mused. For some reason when I thought about those extremists… this movie just sorta called out to me.