//------------------------------// // Shattered Crystal // Story: Cutie Mark Wishes // by Silver Letter //------------------------------// Ribbon almost managed to doze off until a great pain in her side caused her to flip over and fall off the bed. It felt like the hot touch of a branding iron. She yelped and cried although very little tears came out. Her ears squeezed shut as she sat up and rubbed her flank with her hoof. She looked up and saw that light had been concentrated into a beam through the magic crystal, focusing on the door now that she was no longer in its way. It hurt a lot but it was already fading. She decided to see if it left a mark. She didn’t expect much except a reddish spot. As she looked at it, she noticed that there wasn’t much inflammation or damage to the fur but there was something far worse. Just looking at it gave her chills. There were trails of greyish ink spreading across her fur going up towards her spine. She was lying down so it went in the direction of gravity, making the crystal ball in her cutie mark look like it got destroyed violently. Ribbon couldn’t believe her terrible luck. She had to get it fixed right away before somepony saw it. She tried to think where they kept the dyes. It was probably in the cupboard over in the downstairs closet. With everypony busy doing something, she was sure that she had the time and opportunity to fetch the dye and clean her fur. She went downstairs and went around the corner at the same time Cotton entered the family room. He had a pencil behind his ear. “Dear, it sounded like you were in distress! What was the matter?” he said. Ribbon backed away and covered her left cutie mark with her tail. “Oh, nothing. Just a little accident.” Her eyes quivered uncontrollably so she blinked to stop them. “Oh dear. I hope I hadn’t caused you to start…hurting yourself,” he whispered so others couldn’t hear. Cotton raised his hoof to his mouth in mild shock. Ribbon was in no mood for drama and rolled her eyes. “No, uncle. I am not “hurting myself”.” “Then what could have possibly happened?” His curious nature took over and he walked closer to try and get a look but Ribbon tried to prevent him. Of course, she knew that he would only become more concerned as long as she kept it up so she eventually lowered her tail. He blinked several times in a row when he saw it as if he thought he was seeing some impossible parlor trick. But he had one of the highest intellects in the family and the only logical thing dawned on him. “That cutie mark…..is…fake,” he stammered. “I’m really sorry, uncle. Please don’t be mad.” He didn’t respond and walked backwards until he found the couch and sat on it. Two pairs of hoof steps approached the front door. It was already too late. She couldn’t go anywhere in time. Crystal and Glitter entered the house, arguing as usual. “Oh, you’re done catching up, uncle?” Glitter said. He nodded weakly but didn’t reply. “I hope so. It’s best that we start discussing our plans going forward for this family,” Crystal added. She then turned to Ribbon. “Ribbon, make yourself useful and get some…” She was in such a hurry that she didn’t notice it at first but with her incredible perception, it didn’t take long to see that something was amiss. “What happened to you?” “It looks like she was playing with dark magic,” Glitter joked. She chuckled but with nopony else remotely finding it funny, she stopped. “It looks like she was playing all right,” Crystal hissed. She rushed over and ran her hoof over Ribbon’s flank. “What is this?!” Her eyes looked like they were going to pop from her skull with veins pulsing in her head. Ribbon shoved her hoof off and struggled to get away. Crystal still reached for her and in the process, accidentally stepped on her tail. Ribbon was pulled to the floor, hitting her hooves on the wood. She squeezed her eyes shut and winced painfully. “Stop it!” Glitter screamed. She nearly threw herself at Crystal and put her hoof around her neck. They both fell backwards, spitting and yelling at the same time like she had her older sister in a wrestling hold. Lavender came into the family room. With no hope even for her voice to be heard over the cacophony, she blew into a whistle. Everypony became silent save for the sounds of breathing and sniffling. “Why is my family fighting like this?” she demanded. Crystal got up, pushing Glitter away. Her mane was messed up and her nostrils flared. “Mom, the papers were right after all.” She pointed at Ribbon. “I don’t know how but all these years, she’s never had the power of foresight. I went and I defended her…for nothing!” “How dare you! She’s our little sister!” Glitter cried. She went and helped Ribbon up. Ribbon looked at Crystal, her rage fueled sister, and knew that it was no mistake. That was the new Crystal and there would be no returning to the way things were when she still believed that they would be together always. Those times were past. One look past a fake cutie mark brought out a look into Crystal’s very soul. All the memories, expectations, even love, were just a shell. And in an instant, neither of those two mares knew the other. Everything was quiet as Lavender took Ribbon to her room. “Please wait here. I need to deal with things, okay?” she said. She gave Ribbon a kiss then closed the door. Ribbon wanted to hold her ears shut and not have to hear the muffled arguments downstairs concerning her. It all sounded painful. What she wanted most was to get out of that room, out of that house. She grabbed a few things and stuffed her saddlebags. There was no room for thinking. No time for worry. Lastly, she opened her window and breathed in the fresh air of freedom. When she reached out, she knocked her crystal ball down and it struck the floor with a nasty cracking sound. Almost out of instinct, Ribbon turned and looked at it. “Oh no…what have I done?” Scooping up the two halves of her ball nearly elicited tears but she managed to choke them down. She put them in her bag with her other things and jumped out of the window onto a wood shed then on the ground. She forced herself not to look back as she left home or she wouldn’t have wanted to go any further. Ribbon’s inability to predict the weather bit her in the flank once more as the wind picked up speed. She choked on dust and had to cover her muzzle to protect it from the swirling dirt. Her flank began to hurt too so she took cover near the bank of a stream. She splashed a little cool water on it which helped a little. She thought of maybe sleeping under a nearby bridge that night when she saw Twilight Sparkle trot across it. Ribbon whistled and caught her attention. The princess used her powers to teleport next to her. “Princess, why are you walking out in the country?” Ribbon asked. She certainly didn’t expect royalty to just go wandering around. “I wanted to come and make some sort of peace with your family after what happened,” Twilight explained. “I think we both said things we shouldn’t have and I’ve been reflecting on my actions. I might have been hasty in enacting a ban upon you all.” “If anypony should apologize, it should be me,” Ribbon said. She looked away. “I’ve made so many lies. So many that I couldn’t keep up. Everything’s just been falling apart these days.” “What do you mean? You never knowingly lied, have you?” “Of course not. I tried my best to give everypony my best advice and as far as my family was concerned, I was just another fortune teller in a long line of fortune tellers since that’s how it’s always been.” Twilight went and gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Please tell me…how have you been lying all this time and what does it have to do with fortune telling?” “I don’t exactly have their gift. The power of foresight. It didn’t matter though. I really wanted that power so much because all Wishes are supposed to have it.” Twilight seemed a bit confused. “But you could have chosen to follow a different path. Maybe one that was meant for you?” she said. “No, being part of the family was not something I could choose,” Ribbon said. She hated admitting to something so simplistic but it was true. Every fortune she gave and trip to town was just one more lie on a whole mountain of deceit. She grew up hearing how bad lying was. Her teacher would say that liars were the ones that were selfish and only cared about themselves. But she knew it was more complicated than that. Sometimes ponies lied on behalf of others. Ponies like her. And when they did, it was very easy for lies to become mixed with the truth until they couldn’t be told apart. A cutie mark made of dye would look real until light revealed it for what it truly was. But light that strong always hurt especially when it literally burned a hole through it all. Twilight convinced Ribbon to return to the cottage and to take her there. It wasn’t far and in no time, Twilight looked upon it for the first time. One look at how simple everything was drew her in. It even made the Apple Family farm look complicated. There was just one small stable for farm animals and a fenced pen where chickens pecked at the dirt for seeds. As they approached the cottage, Ribbon saw Cotton sitting on a rocking chair on the front porch. “Uncle, what are you doing out?” Ribbon asked. He looked weary and he fanned himself. “I’m tired of listening to their racket. I just can’t stand being yelled at much less threatened with...” He looked at Twilight. “Who is this? Did you bring a guest?” “I am not a guest. I am Twilight Sparkle.” “Twilight? So you’re the princess of friendship I heard so much about? I think I first read your name in the Las Pegasus Times.” He got up quickly and made an awkward attempt at a bow. “Excuse my ignorance.” “You’re excused,” Twilight said. “Well, I’m not sure if you’re trying to make amends but I don’t think Crystal is going to hear it,” Cotton warned. “That may be the case but I will try nonetheless.” Ribbon was the one to open the door slowly. She peeked in and saw her mother and Glitter sitting together on the couch with a used box of tissues on the table next to them. Going into the house wasn’t the same as it was before. Nothing obligated her to return. She could have run off on her search for a new life if she hadn’t cared so much for her family. But for once, she wanted to return. Crystal had been in the middle of another rant aimed at one of them. Considering that she was cut off in the middle of an attack against somepony’s intelligence, it must have been against Glitter. She turned to see them walk in. The sight of her youngest sister must have started to soften her face for just a moment but then she noticed Twilight and her eyes turned into angry slits. If she had fangs, she would have bared them. “Twilight Sparkle! What are you doing here?! You’re not welcome!” she yelled. So much spit came out that she could have waxed the floor with it if she kept at it enough. “Don’t put words in my mouth!” Lavender said. She got up, going close to Crystal. “You can’t speak for all of us like this!” Crystal winced in annoyance. “Are we going to go through this again?! I speak for our best interests.” “Was what happened today in our best interest?” Lavender replied. Crystal almost got into her mother’s face. “This is all because of a lack of family unity! She even went and got that princess involved!” Ribbon couldn’t take any more and stomped her hoof down which forced them to notice her. “Why do you get to decide what holds this family together?!” Crystal huffed like it was such an obvious answer. “Because I’m the smartest! Who does everything around here? Who ran the shop after our mother retired? Who called as much family as possible to help us after what you’ve done?” she said. “You can’t possibly understand what I’ve really done for us! Besides, Twilight is even smarter than you and she agrees!” “Hang on!” Twilight interjected worriedly. She looked at Ribbon. “I’m sorry but I haven’t even heard both your side and theirs. It’s important so I can be honest.” Ribbon knew she was right. She lived with those problems for years but she had to take into account that Twilight was still a stranger. Then she remembered something important. It wasn’t going to be easy but it was something they all needed to see. She rummaged in her bag and pulled out the broken halves to her crystal ball. She set them down on the floor to the shock of her sisters. Even her mother couldn’t believe it. Both the ball and her ruined cutie mark were now out of the shadows. To Ribbon’s surprise, a couple tears broke from Crystal’s eyes as if freed. It instantly reminded her of the old Crystal that presented her with that old ball in the first place. “So now even Cotton’s ball wasn’t good enough for you anymore?” she said. “Crystal, let me explain. It was an accident.” Crystal wiped the tears away. “What about that ink on your body? And everything you’ve done? Was all that an accident too?” “No, it wasn’t. I did it on purpose. I should have known better though. I’m sorry,” she said. Twilight seemed nearly dazed by the thought of Ribbon doing the apologizing. Even Crystal became quiet and she went over to the couch and sat down with the others. Twilight moved two chairs across the table from them where she and Ribbon sat. There was an awkward silence where nopony wanted to speak. But being her usual self, Twilight pushed them to start a new dialogue. Twilight tried to mediate as much as possible to avoid direct accusations from being levied. It was just a start and not a whole lot was said in the end but it was done without any yelling. There was a box of tissues on hoof, just in case. The entire family did agree on one thing, albeit reluctantly. Ribbon was going to go away for a while. Not to live permanently elsewhere but to be able to think on things on her own. Twilight could tell that the mother felt the worst about it but was the first to accept it. In return, Twilight told the family that they could return their business to town with her blessing. Lavender thanked her profusely. Her grateful bowing stuck in Twilight’s mind as she watched her and Ribbon embrace one last time before her departure. The young daughter had everything she wanted to take on her back. Glitter watched from the porch and Crystal could be seen behind a window. Ribbon’s uncle, whose name she had learned, approached her. “Well, that was interesting,” he said. “I guess I’m not really needed now that Crystal can set up shop back in town.” “Don’t say that just yet.” Twilight looked at him and smiled. “There might be something you could still help out with.”