“Tarnished Teapot, I am going to Ponyville and I will be gone for a—”
Maud Pie fell silent mid-sentence. She stood there, her sleepy looking eyes focused upon Tarnish, who was sitting in a chair at the kitchen table. She blinked once and then became downright statuesque. After what seemed like a brief eternity, she blinked again. She stepped forwards, her ears swivelling around and extending out over her eyes. After reaching Tarnish’s side, she reached out with her hoof and poked Tarnished Teapot, booping him right on the cutie mark.
“What’s going on, Maud?”
“You tell me.” Maud lifted her gaze and looked Tarnish in the eye. She poked Tarnish again. “You have a soft backside.”
Bending his neck, Tarnish looked down, trying to see why Maud was poking him. He didn’t see anything out of place. His eyes narrowed and then he looked at Maud. “Is something wrong?”
“Your cutie mark… it’s grown.” Maud poked the colt in the backside again.
“What?” Tarnished Teapot refocused upon his hip. He squirmed in his chair, trying to get a better look. “AAAAAAAAH! There’s little buds on my cutie mark! Even my cutie mark is out of control and trying to prank me!”
“Tarnish, calm down—”
“Why does everything have to be weird!”
“Tarnish, just calm—”
“Why can’t anything about my life be normal? Everything is weird! My magic is weird! I’m weird! I’m crazy in love with a weird mare who is making my life weirder! And now my magical butt weed is growing… I’ll be taken over with flowers!”
“Tarnish—”
“WEIRD! WHY IS EVERYTHING WEIRD!”
Maud, a hardcore pragmatist, did the only thing she could think of. She jammed her muzzle against Tarnish’s, shutting him down with a kiss and some high powered suction. She reared up on to her hind hooves, got her front legs around Tarnish’s neck, and then went to work to clear the disturbed colt’s mind.
Pulling away just enough to break the lip lock, Maud remained snoot to snoot with Tarnish. “Say that part again… the part about being crazy in love with a weird mare that is making your life weirder. I like that.”
The colt closed his eyes, threw his legs around Maud’s neck, mindful of his cast, and then pulled her close in a hug that expressed his need for her. He took a deep breath, very much like a swimmer getting a lungful of air before a dive, and then smooshed his lips against Maud’s. His good front leg slipped from Maud’s neck and then snaked around her middle, sliding over the fabric of her smock. She was warm in a pleasant way, she had been walking, and Tarnish’s thoughts became a jumble, overwhelmed by the different sensations of the moment. Maud’s lips against his, her warm body, the way she smelled, his own confusion, it all added up to one euphoric moment that threatened to overwhelm him.
He pulled away and looked Maud in the eye. After taking a moment to recover his thoughts, he blinked once, then twice, and then asked, “Why are you going to Ponyville?”
“Business.” Maud disentangled herself from Tarnish’s embrace and then dropped down to all fours. “There is something I need from you. I need that restorative tea recipe. Can you make me a copy?”
“Yeah, sure... what’s going on?” Tarnished Teapot asked.
“You’ll see. Just stay here and keep studying. I think it’s been good for you.” Maud climbed up into a chair beside Tarnish and then leaned on the table. “I don’t know what is going to happen in the next few days. Whatever does happen, just remember, no matter what takes place, I love you and that will not change. I am the rock. I am your rock.”
“Maud, what’s going on?”
“Tarnish, I have to ask you to trust me. I don’t want to spoil the surprise or get your hopes up. I’ll send word back home if this works. Don’t worry, Limestone and Marble will both know to go to town to check for telegraphs.”
“Okay.” Tarnish started to look down at his cutie mark once more, but his movements were halted by Maud’s hoof under his chin. He looked at her. There was no expression upon her face, but her ears were perked forwards. Her smock was rumpled and needed to be smoothed out. Her mane was a mess of tight, poofy curls. The seriousness of her face and the curly mane was too much for Tarnish to bear. He began to giggle.
Reaching out with his good leg, he took Maud’s fetlock in his, gazed into her eyes, and then kissed her fetlock, pressing his lips down upon the joint. He began to work his way up her leg, planting little kisses as he went.
Maud, sitting in her chair, watched with almost unblinking eyes as Tarnish continued with his romantic gesture of affection. A peculiar sensation overcame her, but she could not say what it was, only that she felt light, almost as though she might float away.
“Tarnish, tell me how weird I am…”
Frustrated, Tarnished Teapot shook his mirror. “Twilight? Are you there?”
There was a crackle and then Twilight’s smiling face appeared in the mirror. “Hello?”
“Something happened Twilight, something really strange, and I’m kinda worried about it.” Tarnish looked down into the mirror, trying to study Twilight’s face.
“Calm down and tell me what is going on.”
Tarnish took a deep breath and then blurted out what he wanted to say. “My cutie mark has changed. There was only one little poison joke flower there before, now there are two little buds growing off of it and I think I know when it happened and I was having all these thoughts and I don’t know what is going on. Cutie marks aren’t supposed to change.”
In the mirror, Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “Um, cutie marks can change. Princess Cadance’s cutie mark changed. When she became the Empress of the Crystal Empire, her heart cutie mark became a crystal heart. When she grew and evolved, so did her cutie mark.”
“What?” Tarnished stared down into his mirror, stunned.
“There are other examples of this happening, but no one has really studied the phenomenon, at least not since Star Swirl the Bearded. We know that cutie marks can change, but we don’t understand the how or the why. Just that they do.”
“I see.” Peering into the mirror, Tarnish tried to wrap his mind around the new information. “When Princess Cadance’s cutie mark changed, did anything else about her change?”
“Her magic got stronger. She manifested the might of the Crystal Empire and she gained some new crystal based spells. Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t know as much about this as I should, I need to do a study and ask Cadance some questions.”
“Twilight?”
“Yes Tarnish?”
“Do you know anything about Maud’s trip to Ponyville?”
“Tarnish, I suspect you’ll be finding out soon enough, but I can’t tell you. I promised that I wouldn’t. Sorry, it was a Pinkie Pie promise.”
“I understand.” Tarnish peered into the mirror. There were so many things he wanted to tell Twilight. His insights. His ideas. His thoughts on poison joke. He wanted to blurt out so many different things. He wanted to tell Twilight that he was in love, and that being forced out into the world was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him. A million different things all danced upon the tip of his tongue. Instead, all that came out were a few simple words.
“Thank you, Twilight, for being a friend and listening to me. Thank you for everything. Thank you for the books. I think I understand my purpose now, and it’s all because of you…”