TYPE-Pony Theory # 3
Cutie Marks and Their Origins: Explained

Cutie Marks. These little tattoo-like insignias appear on the flanks of ponies at the point when they discover their "special talent." But WHY do these marks appear? WHAT is this "special talent?" And WHERE do they come from? In the Nasuverse, we may find our answer. Welcome, one and all, Bronies and Type-Lunatics alike, as we dive through the Kaleidoscope once again to peruse this new TYPE-Pony Theory. Here we shall discuss Cutie Marks and their potential connection with, well, the Beginning. Get your drinks, your popcorn, and your various paraphernalia – this is a long one. Let's go!

Getting to the Root of the Issue... And Everything Else

So, to best lay out this theory, we will need to start with two questions: "Where do we come from when we are born?" "Where do we go when we die?"  Now before all you Deadpan Snarkers out there start commenting, "Well, when a stallion and a mare love each other very, very, VERY MUCH..." Or, "The ground" let me explain better. When I say "we" I mean our souls. In the Nasuverse, souls contain everything about us – our identities, our memories, our Magic Circuits (a kind of nervous system for prana) in the case of magi, and even the information on our genetic code. Getting back to our original questions - "where do we come from" and "where do we go" - it turns out that both questions have the same answer. All souls come from a single point that exists outside of reality as we know it. This "place" has been called many names: "Heaven," "afterlife," "Guf," "Emptiness," and "truth," for instance. Magi name it The Swirl of the Root, or simply "the Root" for short.
Now we get to the next point: what is the Root? The Root is many things at once. It is the ultimate source and destination of life and all of reality, and a compendium of all knowledge across all timelines and worlds, past, present and future. This second property lends to another name that magi give the Root: Akasha, or The Akashic Records. It is also why magi, who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself, try to reach and access the Root, theoretically becoming all-powerful in the process. This is seen as a threat by the World (reality itself), so the Counter Force (which I detailed in previous theories) thwarts all attempts to access the Root. However, sometimes a magus can trick the Counter Force and access the Root, but not touch it. This action grants the magus, or the very method used becomes, True Magic, which I covered in an earlier theory.¹ All things can be traced back to the Root, even time itself, but especially souls.
 So how does this work? Do souls just "pop" into existence upon birth, then enter a heaven/hell within the Root upon death and that's it? Well, not exactly. There exists a somewhat twisted version of the reincarnation cycle within the Nasuverse, proceeding as follows: Souls come from the Root and are interred in a physical body. The body acts as both an anchor and a preserver for the soul. When the body dies, the soul automatically returns to the Root, and is broken back down into raw material for new souls. Think of it like scooping a spoonful of soup from a pot, pouring it back in, then scooping out another spoonful. This way, no two reincarnations are the same, and identities never survive death, as their foundations are destroyed upon reentering the Root.²However, there is one component of the soul that ALWAYS remains constant, across ALL reincarnations: The Origin.
¹_{For instance, the Fifth Magic – Magic Blue - is a direct result of finding a pathway to Akasha, while the Third Magic – Heaven's Feel – was developed as a method to reach the Root}
²_{There are three exceptions to this rule, barring unique circumstances: Heroic Spirits, Counter Guardians, and the Third Magic. Heroic Spirits are those who committed enough notable deeds in life that they were worshipped after death, prompting Alaya to remove them from the reincarnation cycle and record them into the Throne of Heroes. Counter Guardians are humans who make a deal with Alaya in life to serve Alaya as worst-case-scenario protectors of humanity after their death. The Third Magic materializes the soul, thus preserving it and converting it into a state where it does not need a body, living forever as a kind of mana-based perpetual motion engine.}

Origins: The Beginning of All Our Problems

The Origin is one of the most fundamental concepts of the Nasuverse as a whole, showing up in one form or another in all three primary franchises; Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai and Fate. Of course, one must ask what an Origin is in the first place, and why it is so important. It has to do with the reason life exists in the Nasuverse at all. In a nutshell, concepts are king in the Nasuverse, and life itself only takes place because concepts and ideas leave the Root and manifest physically in the World. Because of this, every human being – every form of life in existence, really - has a defining concept that formed them – these concepts are called Origins. Normally, they are dormant in humans,only subtly guiding them at most,but can directly affect humans in one of two ways: by "awakening" the Origin, or in the practice of Magecraft. I have found two examples of both scenarios. On the awakened side, we have Shiki Ryougi and Lio Shirazumi from Kara no Kyoukai. With Magecraft, we look to Shirou and Kiritsugu Emiya, from the Fate franchise.

Awakened Origins

As mentioned before, normally an Origin makes little impact in your life, if at all. It will passively guide you, but not overtly. For instance, if you have the Origin of "taboo," all your reincarnations and past lives will have, without fail, taken up an interest not accepted or rejected by the general public at the time. At most, it is a vague instinct that one could easily ignore without a second thought – if it even registers. However, once an Origin is awakened, that all changes. The Origin begins to rule every aspect of one's life, becoming a chaotic impulse that can never be ignored,that one can never disobey. You cannot bring yourself to even want to disobey this absolute order from the core of your very being. All you can do is obsessively adhere to that one concept at all times. In the most extreme cases, the Origin would physically warp and mutate the body to better suit said Origin. Unique abilities pertaining to the Origin in question would arise as well.
Enter exhibit 1: Lio Shirazumi, primary antagonist of Kara no Kyoukai chapters 2 and 7; "Murder Speculation Part 1 and Part 2, respectively. Lio, in a bid to impress protagonist Shiki Ryougi, accepted the offer of overarching antagonist Souren Araya to awaken his Origin. This was what we in the Genre Savvy business call a Very Bad Idea. Lio, who wasn't very stable to begin with, happened to possess the Origin of "consumption" - as in "to eat." Turns out that all his past lives were of various predators, and the more an Origin goes through reincarnation, the more ingrained it is in each successive life, and the more overpowering it is when it is awakened. The result was Lio gaining all the abilities of a predator – or more accurately a herd of predators in one body– with a big heaping side of cannibalistic tendencies to boot. What fun! He killed six people in Murder Speculation Part 1, and countless more in Part 2. He was ultimately put down, like the rabid animal he had become, by the next example of our discussion, Kara no Kyoukai'sheroine, Shiki Ryougi.
Even among awakened Origins, Shiki Ryougi is a unique case, or rather the unique case. Her Origin is "nothingness." This is so special for two reasons: 1) the Dual Personalities ability of the Ryougi Clan flourished to perfection within a person with such an Origin, and 2) awakening the Origin of "nothingness" (like the Ryougi clan was capable of) forged a permanent connection between Shiki and the Root itself. In fact, instead of the usual two personalities that would arise, three personalities formed – two personalities with a special third – essentially the Root personified - hidden between them and dormant, to prevent Shiki from being erased by the Counter Force as a threat. This is the true source of Shiki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, and the reason for Souren's interest in her throughout the series, as through this third personality, called "Void Shiki," he can directly access the Root without backlash. The power of Void Shiki is literally infinite, but she remains dormant due to her seeing her Root Power as pointless.

Origins and Magecraft

Now, considering the only ways we've seen Origins applied so far is via awakening them, it may be surprising to know that magi have discovered a way to apply Origins without awakening them. Then again, considering magi seek knowledge for knowledge's sake, this may not be surprising at all. There are two general ways a magus may use his Origin, sans awakening: using a Mystic Code, as evidenced by Kiritsugu Emiya, or in direct application of Magecraft, using Shirou Emiya as an example. This will delve into the basics of Magecraft, so prepare some coffee, will you? This may take a while.
Kiritsugu Emiya's application of his Origin is both underwhelmingly simple and overwhelmingly effective in that he uses a Mystic Code – a support tool for Magecraft, like a magic wand of sorts - geared to his Origin. Remember when I said, in my Elements of Harmony post, that a gun was once used as a Mystic Code? Well, Kiritsugu is the proud owner of this Mystic Code – a Magecraft-modified Thompson/Center Arms Contender Custom hunting pistol, or Thompson Contender for short. Now this pistol, while a one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable weapon more powerful than your average hand cannon, isn't so much the focus here as the ammunition it fires. Kiritsugu's Contender normally fires mundane-yet-powerful .30-06 caliber Springfield bullets (and these alone are POWERFUL – they surpass magnum rounds in terms of raw force), but he has a secondary ammunition specially designed to kill magi: The Origin Bullets. When he was starting out as "The Magus Killer," Kiritsugu had the upper two rows of his rib-cage surgically removed, ground to powder, then made into the cores of sixty-six bullets. Because parts of his body are made into the bullets, the bullets essentially contain miniature fragments of his soul, and thus, his Origin. The reason these bullets are so effective against magi is because of Kiritsugu’s unique, double-concept Origin: "Severing and Binding," ironically reflected in his own name ("Kiritsugu" literally means "to sever and to bind" in Japanese). Have you ever cut a string in half, then tied the ends back together? There will always be a knot where the ends are rejoined, an imperfection or corruption that was not there before and cannot ever be removed. Kiritsugu's Origin Bullets apply this to a person’s body, and especially Magic Circuits. The bullet will leave no physical mark, no hole, where it strikes a body, but where it passes, the flesh will become necrotic, like a brown recluse bite. This is because the Origin Bullet tears through the flesh and heals it imperfectly as it passes. In the case of magi, contact with one of these bullets immediately shreds the Magic Circuits then reconstructs them chaotically. As a result, the prana within those Circuits will wash over the internal organs, severely damaging them, and the Circuits will be rendered absolutely unusable – a fate worse than death for a magus. One can liken it to a drop of water on a circuit board – the water causes a short circuit that permanently damages the board. In a similar fashion, if the bullet strikes either the magus or especially any Magecraft he is actualizing at the time, that magus will be rendered completely and permanently unable to use Magecraft, and he would be lucky (or unlucky, depending on the readers' perspective) to live, let alone have an even barely functioning body.
In the case of Shirou, we have a more typical, but no less spectacular expression of his Origin via Magecraft. In the Magecraft system one's Origin and what is called the Elemental Affinity are extremely important. There are Five Great Elements in Magecraft: Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, and Ether (there are also Imaginary Numbers and Nothingness, but those are rare.) Almost all magi have an affinity to one or more of these five elements. Those that can manipulate all Five Elements are called Average Ones, and these are incredibly rare. In fact, the only Average One that I know of for certain among Nasuverse characters is Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night.  Elemental Affinities determine one's general field in Magecraft. There are those, however, who are exceptions, and these sometimes have to do with their Origins. The Origin narrows one's scope of ability further – it determines one's specialty in Magecraft.  There are cases, however, when not only will a magus not have any affinity towards the Five Elements, but his Origin will be the affinity itself. Such individuals are known as Incarnations, and finding one is like finding a speck of diamond in the Sahara Desert. Incarnations are known to be extreme specialists, and typically cannot use any other Magecraft beyond a minimal level. Because of this, they can be mistaken for third- or even fourth-rate magi, if one does not know where to look. But in their respective, specialized fields, they can go so far as to nearly brush the realm of True Magic with sheer talent. The best example is found in Shirou. As some readers may have already guessed, he is an Incarnation, with the Origin of "Sword." Because of this, his average Magecraft ability is all but crippled. He only has one effective spell in his arsenal, but this spell, due to being connected to his Origin, encroaches on True Magic in quality and power: A Reality Marble called "Unlimited Blade Works: Infinite Creation of Swords."
Let me pause here to answer a common question: "What is a Reality Marble?" In a nutshell, a Reality Marble is the result of one's mindscape or inner world getting projected onto and over the outer, real World – following the real-life World Egg theory- within a set, Magecraft-affected area called a Bounded Field. Remember the Marble Phantasm I mentioned in my True Ancestors vs Changelings post? This is similar, and both concepts derive their names from the following analogy: Think of a jar filled with 99 black marbles and one white marble. With Marble Phantasm, the 1% percent chance of drawing the white marble gets bumped up to 100% each time, so you will always get the white marble. With a Reality Marble, on the other hand, all the marbles in the jar would turn white. So, Marble Phantasm can be called Reality Warping while abiding by the rules, whilst a Reality Marble is best summed up as the most extreme and literal interpretation of the following words: "I reject your reality and substitute it with my own." All caught up? Good! Now let's continue.
To better elaborate on Shirou, his being an Incarnation of "Sword" enables him to structurally grasp any weapon down to its very history and recreate it near perfectly via an enhanced version of Gradation Air – better known as Projection – that Shirou calls "Tracing". Projection only copies the physical structure of an object, and Gaia will recognize and destroy the Projection within minutes. Tracing adds said object’s history for a stronger and more long-lasting projection – they have a lifespan measured in hours, as opposed to minutes, and they will be closer to the original, even bearing any and all of its abilities.This power extends to Noble Phantasms– the armaments of Heroic Spirits -and is the very foundation of Unlimited Blade Works itself. UBW is essentially a massive factory and storage area for an infinite number of weapons, instantly forged from the blue prints within Shirou's mind gained by Structural Grasping. When Shirou Projects the weapons, he is essentially calling them from his Reality Marble. When he actualizes the Marble itself, he can call an infinite number of weapons to his side faster than thought. While extreme, this is a perfect example of an Origin being applied to mainstream Magecraft without having to be awakened.

Cutie Marks: How Do They Fit In?

NOTE: In thus section, I will be referring to MLP's magic as Magecraft for simplicity's sake. It is my opinion that MLP "Magic" is Equestria's equivalent to Magecraft in the Nasuverse, barring the Elements. Please keep this in mind as you read on.[/i]
So, what is the connection between Cutie Marks and Origins? Well, if the Origin is the driving force behind an individual's existence, and the Cutie Mark is a visual manifestation of one's special and unique talent gained upon realizing said talent, then one may assume that the awakening of one's Origin is the key. If that were the case, however, then everypony would be completely overtaken by the Origins that formed them, like Lio from Kara no Kyoukai. This is obviously not the case, so what's going on? The situation with Lio, ironically enough, might hold the answer. I failed to mention earlier that just before Souren fully awoke Lio's Origin, Lio had already partially awakened the Origin on his own. Souren just opened the door the rest of the way, with Lio's consent, and up until that point Lio was still coherent (for a given value of "coherent," anyway). My current idea is that instead of a fully awakened Origin, Cutie Marks arise from a partial awakening of a pony's Origin. Not only that, since the incident naturally occurs as opposed to a forced awakening, I would say that this partial awakening is a genetic/spiritual predisposition of ponies and their relatives (i.e., zebras). The Cutie Mark, then, can be called a reflection and visual manifestation signifying a partial awakening of a pony's Origin that all ponies are predisposed to undergoing at a certain point in their development.

Significance and Application: Pros…

Now, while a Cutie Mark reflects an Origin’s partial awakening, it is not the Origin itself. So aside from a Cutie Mark appearing, what does a partial awakening do to a pony? Well, first off, a pony will gain abilities pertaining to his/her Origin, but only a certain part of it, focused on a particular application of said Origin. For example, a pony with an Origin of "speech" may gain a special talent as a master linguist that can decode even the most obscure dialects with little to no reference to go on, or as a powerful ad chaismatic debater who can effortlessly draw crowds within seconds. Remember, the Origin is not fully awoken, and there are many ways to interpret just one concept. Another explanation would be from a Magecraft perspective. As opposed to differing Affinities and Origins being the norm in the Nasuverse, having a separate Affinity from your Origin would be completely alien or even unheard of for ponies. In short, nearly everypony in Equestria is an Incarnation. That’s why their abilities are so varied from pony to pony. Even earth ponies, who would mainly use Reinforcement, would have their gifts greatly differ due to being Incarnations of separate Origins.
On a personality examination, most ponies have fairly rounded out personalities, with only a certain focus and minor obsession with their special talents. This is because the Origin is only partially awakened, and that’s a big difference from being fully awakened. The ponies can still think freely, for the most part… except when a major incident arises that directly clashes with their special talent/Origin.

...and Cons

While the system of Cutie Marks seems to be leagues better that what humans have with their Origins, that doesn’t mean there are some… drawbacks. Most My Little Pony fans are more than familiar with the term CMFIS. Given its widespread knowledge, I must address it here and now, as it ties heavily in the Origin theory.
CMFIS stands for Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome and refers to those instances where ponies (more notably the Mane 6) seemingly fail to adhere to their special talent (in their perspective, at least) and go insane in the process. Generally speaking, this also makes sense when we consider the above idea that special talents and Cutie Marks come from a partially awakened Origin. Remember that when an Origin is fully awakened, it dominates you. It is impossible to act against the Origin, or even want to. If the Origin is partially awakened, however, you have a little leeway. Most of the time you can ignore the Origin to a degree, enough to function as a normal person; but on some level, it must be obeyed on occasion. When you fail to meet the Origin's standard (a very real possibility, as the Origin has not awakened enough to make your body more suitable to it – think of Lio), it would be like a computer trying to override a fault in its logic coding; your mind refuses to comprehend it, and thus you begin to break down. This is how it works with CMFIS. The pony in question will normally undergo a personality inversion of some kind. This is most likely due to the pony's mind trying to re-stabilize itself from the mental blow, by following a form of reverse logic. It inevitably fails, and the pony will go down a slippery slope trying to appease his/her Origin, until they either snap out of it themselves, someponyelse snaps them out (as in "Pull yourself together, mare!") or they go completely mad. There are a good number of examples of CMFIS to pick from, but I think two will be enough for the purpose of this discussion. No worries though, readers, for what I lack in quantity, I will make up for quality. Read on, and you will see.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Dearie...

When Bronies think of CMFIS, they may, more often than not, think of the Season Two episode "Lesson Zero" as one of the best examples. In the episode, Twilight Sparkle has not had a friendship lesson to report to Celestia, and the pressure to deliver a report by the end of the day (and meet the once-a-week deadline in the process) ultimately makes her snap and try to engineer a friendship problem for her to solve (essentially, she tries the Syndrome Method). As we can see from the above picture... it wasn't pretty. This mental meltdown (one of the most spectacular in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) is explained as Twilight going nuts because she is afraid of displeasing and failing her magic teacher – and with her cutie mark representing magic, this lends credence to the CMFIS theory. However, I find that this also well supports my theory regarding Origins, and furthermore, I believe I have figured out just what Twilight Sparkle's Origin actually is.
Now most of you MLP/TYPE-Moon fans may believe that Twilight Sparkle's ^Origin must obviously be "Magic" or "Magecraft." After all, it would match her Element of harmony, right? However, when I look at it, I cannot help but notice some holes in that assumption. If Twilight's Origin were "Magic" - as in, True Magic – she would have already achieved feats of True Magic long before she was sent to Ponyville. She wouldn't have needed the Elements of Harmony to call forth the Sixth Magic (which I detailed in my first theory)! She is an excellent magus, to be sure, but a Magician she is not – not at this point, at least. Even an Origin of "Magecraft," while explaining some of her traits, wouldn't fit the bill – her breakdown was not directly because of Magecraft specifically. Nor could it be "friendship" - she was horrible at social interactions except with her immediate family and Celestia (I count Spike as immediate family), not to mention she originally didn't have any interest in having friends in the first place. So, what is Twilight Sparkle's Origin? After looking at her character traits a bit more closely, and especially the direct reasons for her breakdown in "Lesson Zero," I believe I have the answer. Instead of the more obvious concepts of "Magic", "Magecraft" or "friendship," Twilight Sparkle possesses the Origin of "excellence." 
Now, before you all start hitting that dislike button and commenting that I'm obviously wrong, please hear me out. Remember, please, that I read between the lines very deeply here, and I have already listed my reasons for not going with the more predictable choices. Now, why "excellence," you ask? Because that is a major part of Twilight's backstory and overall character. She has a stellar track record, an earlier lack of friendship notwithstanding. Any test she takes as Celestia's student, she passes with flying colors. She even showed this at a young age – her beyond-prodigal ability in the use of Magecraft at a VERY young age was what made her Celestia's student in the first place! Other characters point out at multiple points just how much of an ace she is. She is no slouch whatsoever in the achievements department.
 Now, please keep in mind, when I say "excellence" is Twilight's Origin, I don't mean she is good at every single thing on the planet without exception. Remember that if we follow this theory, the Cutie Mark is an echo of the Origin partially awakening; and Origins are basic concepts and broad ideas with more than one application in reality, and thus, several interpretations in practice. The idea of "excellence" is a prime example. The Oxford definition of "excellence" is "The quality of being outstanding or extremely good." Note that the definition does not say "at everything." One could achieve excellence in one thing, or several. It depends on your preferences, and we see this especially in Twilight Sparkle. Twilight could have chosen any interest whatsoever, and her Origin would have made her the best in that field. In the end, she became interested in Magecraft. Thus, when her Origin awoke, she was guaranteed an excellence in Magecraft – and that is what her Cutie Mark represents. How the Origin of "excellence" makes this special is that Twilight isn't just specialized in one field of Magecraft; she is a complete savant in all fields of Magecraft. Add the idea that all ponies are Incarnations of their Origins, and we have a mare who can – and did – push her Magecraft very close to the boundary of True Magic itself. It's a wonder that she didn't get a Reality Marble!
However, such a powerful Origin has its downside, as we can see. To sum it up in one sentence, Twilight's Origin forces her to have extreme standards for herself. Because her Origin of "excellence" is focused on her Magecraft studies, she must excel in those studies and pass every test of her skill with flying colors. Above all, she must prove her excellence to the one who taught her Magecraft: Celestia. And since her reports are under her teacher's orders, to study a form of True Magic, much less Magecraft, it's understandable why she broke down. Her excellenceas a magus was seemingly in jeopardy, especially in the eyes of her teacher – and keep in mind that for any magus in the Nasuverse, such a thing is already a fate worse than death. For Twilight, it's worse; it goes against the very reason she exists. Cue the Sanity Slippage and cue the manure-storm. Oddly enough, however, she manages to snap out of her Origin/Cutie Mark induced insanity when she sees all the gruesome consequences of her scheme, not to mention she was quite repentant over all her mistakes, so she thankfully hadn't quite gone past the point of return. However, our next example did go past that point, so she needed a little help in coming back to her senses.

Nightmare Moon: All Shall Fear Her and Rejoice!

It may be a little unexpected for some readers (or, then again, it might not), but Princess Luna's alter-ego of Nightmare Moon may be an even better example of CMFIS than Twilight's brief stint as a gender-flipped pony version of Syndrome. The events that led to the advent of the Mare in the Moon are a little different from Twilight's round trip through the crazy house, so we will have to start once more with Luna's Origin and the connection to her Cutie Mark. We will also detail her fall and also what I believe to be the most likely cause of Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon. This is both simpler yet more complicated than Twilight's case, so bear with me.
The reason for Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon is quite straightforward, and the identity of her Origin is even more easily determined. After looking at her personality and the reasons for her fall to madness, I feel that Luna's Origin is most likely "reverence," defined as "deep respect for someone or something." The main reason for her insanity was that ponies didn't give her the reverence she felt she deserved – y'know, bein' a demigoddess princess that controlled the moon and all – and she tried to force them to give her their reverence by keeping the moon - which has been a major symbol of divine entities and an object of worship in real life, thus neatly connecting to her Cutie Mark - in the sky and causing eternal night (mwahahaha). In the end, she tried to remove Celestia from the equation, so she would be the only princess, and thus the only one to gain reverence (screwed up, I know, but that's CMFIS for you.) However, while she was the better fighter, she was younger and less powerful, so Celestia could just outlast her if she wanted. Therefore, Luna needed a boost of some kind. So, she became Nightmare Moon to match and hopefully overwhelm Celestia in a fight. But even if we know the reason, it is harder to figure out how the transformation into the Mare in the Moon took place. However, I do have a rough idea as to the method of Luna's transformation. Mind you, this is just guess work, and my own opinion, so this is all open to interpretation.
It has already been explained by Word of God that Nightmare Moon came about due to a nameless force of darkness possessing Luna in her madness. I do feel that this is true, but I do not believe that this darkness was a separate entity from Luna, per se. It is more likely that this darkness was an intrinsic part of Luna that she was not quite ready to wield just yet. Remember that Luna was younger than Celestia, and since in both the Nasuverse and the MLP-verse Mysteries (a net term for powers borne from the Root, including Magecraft and psychic power) gain strength as they get older. I believe that Luna intended to quickly age her body to match Celestia, and that she did so via the very source of her magical prowess: her Origin. It is possible, even likely, that she forcibly awakened her Origin further than would usually be seen in a pony (it could also be that the situation was the opposite -- her Origin nearly fully awakened as a result of the forced aging –- that sort of Magecraft would no doubt put immense strain on oneself, the mind especially). Her change in form lends further credence to this idea, as some Origins, when awakened fully, will forcibly mutate the body to better suit it. Reverence generally increases with age and distinction. A tall, dark and regal alicorn mare with an overwhelming air of authority and strength will most certainly not escape notice and will all but demand respect. At this point, Luna is all but completely overcome by her origin of "reverence," and can only think of setting herself up as the ultimate focus of worship. If she cannot gain reverence through love like Celestia does, then that reverence will be gained via intimidation, fear and dominance. Celestia is an obstacle to be erased, and the ponies of Equestria exist only to worship and revere her, at any cost. None may resist, all must comply. Instead of a princess, she would stand as a Queen, beautiful and terrible, treacherous and mightier than all in Creation. All would love her and despair; all would fear her and rejoice; all would enjoy her eternal night and perish -– and thus, the Mare in the Moon came to be.
However, as we all know, Nightmare Moon was laid low by the Elements of Harmony not just one, but twice. This event, in and of itself, was extraordinary, so it deserves some mention and explanation here. Let's review what we know, and have determined in the theory so far. Luna, resentful of Celestia and the Equestrians not giving her due respect as a Princess of the Night, forcibly awakened her Origin and aged her body to gain power, becoming Nightmare Moon in the process. The combination of a near-fully awakened Origin with the mental and physical strain of forcibly aging oneself was enough to drive her nearly completely insane. Her entire being was thrown out of whack and far too powerful for Celestia to deal with alone. Thus, Celestia was forced to utilize the Elements of Harmony, an extension of the Counter Force, to temporarily incapacitate Nightmare Moon. It later took Twilight Sparkle and the other Bearers, one-thousand years later, to fully revert Nightmare Moon back to Luna – but this left Luna in a weakened, regressed state. So, what happened? First, remember my postulation that the Elements of Harmony function by means of what I call the Sixth True Magic – that is to say, "The Materialization of Emotions." In layman's terms, it takes a wielder's emotions and transmutes them into a physical, tangible current of prana – magical energy – that is literally fused with the wielder's intent. This allows for a nearly infinite number of applications, and it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume that an awakened Origin can be sealed off via this method. In Luna's case, however, things got more complicated.
Now, an aspect of Magecraft exists that is called Resistance. This ability is inherent in all beings with active Magic Circuits, like Magi. Essentially, it is the ability to expel any foreign prana that is attempting to invade the Magic Circuits and body by cycling prana through them. This way, you can cancel out a spell before it actualizes (but only if the spell involves prana invading the Circuits, and actualized effects cannot be cancelled out – unless you have ungodly amounts of prana at your disposal, like Fate/Stay Night's Caster.) Nightmare Moon's physical state just after her transformation would likely involve her prana generation being in overdrive, and the almost unbelievable amount of prana within her would be automatically cycling through her Circuits. Over time, this may lessen as her body acclimates to her new power and stabilizes. I would best compare Nightmare Moon when she fought Celestia to something like the Kaio-Ken from Dragon Ball Z – immensely powerful in direct combat but puts immense strain on the body and cannibalizes stamina. When the Elements were used, things didn't go as planned for this reason. The Elements seem to be a brute-force tool. Their usualmodus operandi involves the target being literally doused in the current made by the Elements. Prana invades the body and soul, and the intent fused within forces everything back into a certain state, catered to the bearer's intent. However, a high level of Resistance may mitigate this. Celestia tried to purify Nightmare Moon herself, but at that point, Luna had just transformed, so her Resistance ability, overclocked by the recent transformation, was at an all-time high. It basically boiled down to "unstoppable force meets immovable object." Therefore, Celestia opted for a more roundabout method: Seal Luna in the Moon, wait a thousand years to let her Resistance lower, then blast her again with the Elements. The second time, it worked, but Luna's Resistance was still quite higher than the average pony – and this bit her in the rump big-time. The Elements basically had to cancel out, then overpower her Resistance, and thus the excessive force all but completely shut off her Origin – an exact inversion of her Nightmare Moon state. As such, she regressed into a filly with barely any power at all. However, since ponies are naturally predisposed to partially awaken Origins in the first place, Luna regained her former powers after roughly a year of recuperation.

In Conclusion

So, from what we can tell from the research gathered here so far is this: Cutie Marks on Ponies and the special talents they represent are the end result of a partial awakening of their Origins – the concepts that leave the Root and manifest physically as living beings. As the Origin only partially awakens, the ponies are not overtaken, but they still must follow the Origins to a degree. Their relative freedom of mind is also a double-edged sword, as any major event that directly clashes with their Origins has a chance to incur what is known as Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome, driving the pony in question insane, to an extent. A pony's Origin can also be further awakened, at the risk of both being overwhelmed by the Origin and undergoing physical mutation – Nightmare Moon being a good example. The reverse can also happen, but natural predisposition later reawakens the Origin. All ponies are in better touch with their innermost selves than most humans are – but at a cost, as they are also more prone to breaking, their weaknesses more exposed. Whether this trait of theirs would be a gift or a curse in the long run remains to be seen, and may only depend on the individual, and what they may be born to embody. Only Time, in its endless divisions, may tell.
Hey, everypony, thanks for reading! If something doesn't make sense, or if you find a hole or two in this theory, then don't be afraid to point it out in the comments below. No worries, I won't banish you to the moon or anything! If you have an idea for a subject in a future TYPE-Pony Theory, feel free to PM me with your ideas! Ciao, everypony!

I guess it'll be good to leave a commit here after even so much time. These are wonderful, and I love reading them. My nerd in me keeps geeking out at every sentence. Thank you.

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Damn dude, you know your Nasu lore, that's for sure.

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Regarding Nasu lore, I feel I must point out that the term 'Incarnation" is actually not a canon term - even though an affinity being one's Origin is very much canon and documented (in fact, if I am not mistaken here, Sakura is an "Incarnation" too, one of "Imaginary Numbers"). The term was actually coined by the fanfic author Third Fang, who wrote the infamous fanfic 'From Fake Dreams,' which I heavily recommend to any Type-Lunatic. I originally thought it was a canon term, albeit an obscure one that Third Fang had uncovered, and did not realize my mistake until I tried looking up the term to double check. By that time, I had already submitted the theory, and any edit I tried to put in wouldn't take (damn that character limit!). I am pointing this out to avoid confusion by better fans than I. I hope you will forgive this slip-up of mine.

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Oh I am aware that 'Incarnation' is essentially a fanon term. That term does describe an actual thing that happens though.

when i read this theory, a single thought could kept crossing my mind "if cutie marks are connected to a ponies origin, then what about the cmc?"

like are their origins connected to each other somehow?

That is an excellent point! Sorry I haven't responded before -- life was a bit hectic for a while, and I have been hammering at my fanfiction. Anyway, your question is a very good one, and I think I may have an answer. FIrst, I need to note something.

Since I originally wrote this theory -- when I was just starting out in the world of My Little Pony -- my opinion on cutie marks and origins has evolved, for lack of a better word. Looking over the lore, the Cutie Marks seem to be determined by three distinct things: your Origin, your preferences, and by extension your experiences. For instance, Twilight, if we accept the idea that her Origin is "excellence," could have been the best any anything she wanted or liked. Her experiences, however, attracted her to magic, and she was driven to excel in that field. This in turn eventually awakened her Origin and formed a cutie Mark centered around magic itself.

Furthermore, since the Cutie Marks actually seem to provide knowledge what concept and application thereof that they represent, it wouldn't be too out of the question to compare them to a Magic Crest, which stores both knowledge and ways to apply said knowledge -- the phenomenon may be a result of ponies being Incarnations by nature, as well as being biologically predisposed to develop such things.

In the case of the CMC, a vast majority of their experiences were shared -- as Cutie Mark Crusaders, they tried the same ideas, faced the same challenges, and worked out solutions together. It would make sense that their cutie marks would reflect these experiences and share similar traits -- an identical background, if you will. However, while the large majority of their experiences were the same, they would have different origins, different preferences -- for example, Sweetie Belle is an excellent singer and can write good songs, while Scootaloo... Well...

I

I'm sure you get the picture.

As for what those origins are, specifically... I honestly can't say for sure. I'll have to watch and rewatch more episodes dealing with the Crusaders.