The Case of Christian's Cutie Mark

by Chris-Cross13

Three Fillies And A Fluttershy

"Hi! I’m Applebloom!”

“I’m Sweetie Belle!

“And I’m Scootaloo!”

“And we’re…The Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

The three ponies exclaim. Christian just stares at them, mouth agape and eyes wide. He can’t believe what he is seeing in front of him. When Twilight said she knew three ponies that could help, he figured she meant stallions or mares or anypony around Christian’s age group. Instead, he is greeted by three fillies. FILLIES! They look as if they are around Lily’s age! Christian glances back to Twilight and Dash, who were smiling nonchalantly.

“This is a joke, right?” The three fillies look at him funny while Twilight and Dash deny his question.

“Nope Christian, these three have done it all to try and get their cutie marks. We figured that if you need help trying to find your special talent, who’s better than these three?”

“Celestia, Luna, anypony who’s not in elementary school! This is ridiculous! I am NOT taking orders from a few kids!” Christian protests.

“Well arguin ’bout it ain’t gonna change the fact that you don’t have a cutie mark just like us.” Applebloom says plainly. Christian glances back to his bare flank, a little embarrassed. The filly was right though, he was just like them, albeit older.

“Yea, plus in terms of talents, we’ve done it all…Sort of.” Scootaloo adds in while rubbing her neck awkwardly. Christian cocks his head at the trio again before eyeing Twilight and Dash behind him, still smiling like nothing was wrong.

“Are you sure you three can help me?” Christian asks strictly. The three fillies nod quickly.

“You betcha!” Sweetie Belle chimes. Christian ponders the answer and the situation he is in. He still thinks this entire thing is nuts, but he didn’t want to hurt their feelings by saying: ‘If you know so much about talents, why don’t you girls have your cutie marks?’

“Heck, if Twilight and Dash trust these three, what’s the worst that could happen?” He thinks to himself. “Alright, I’ll give you three a shot.” He says with a sigh and a smile.

“You mean with the thing on your hoof or a chance?” Scootaloo asks.

“I’m assuming a chance, he can’t hit buck all with that thing!” Dash yells from behind. Christian rears backward and points the bow right at Dash, his white teeth showing from a fierce face. He snaps his hoof to fire three darts, all of which veer to the left and don’t even come close to Dash. “See, told ya he was a bad shot!” Christian sighs, yet again missing horribly from only seven feet.

“Maybe next time Christian; you should wait for a shot instead of randomly shooting.” Twilight points out. Christian nods at the somewhat friendly comment. “Anywho, we’ll leave you four alone. Good luck with the talent Christian!” Twilight and Dash turn and start trotting back to Golden Oaks. Christian gives off a blank and emotionless face as he watches them leave. Applebloom glances at her two friends happily before lightly patting Christian’s back.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it Christian! Shootin’ that bow is only one thing on a list of talents we made for you to try!” Christian perks up at the words. ‘They made a list?’ Christian thinks to himself.

“You made a list?” Christian says aloud.

“Yup! It’s only a few odd jobs, but with any luck, you’ll find your talent!” Sweetie Belle explains. Christian nods understandingly.

“Alright then, but I still need to fulfill my job. So keep an eye out for anything that is suspicious.” The trio nod and start leading Christian in the opposite direction that Twilight and Dash were walking. The two of them turn one more time to see the three fillies bound down the road with an apprehensive Christian behind them. Twilight and Dash smiled, but Dash’s quickly turns into a eyeing look at the stallion in the distance. Twilight starts walking again, leaving Dash staring at Christian, thinking about what he said earlier.

“Hmm,” Dash ponders suddenly. “It doesn’t add up.”

“What doesn’t?” Twilight asks in a concerned manner as Dash catches up.

“Why would those three morons be so far from Cloudsdale?” She wonders aloud. Twilight shrugs.

“Christian said they probably saw you with him and figured he would be an easy target to pick on, with no cutie mark and such.”

“If that’s true then that means they skipped work, and I know those two aren't that dumb.” Dash looks up into the blue sky.

“There has to be a bigger game here. I know it.” Twilight was astonished. It is rare to see Dash think so observantly! ‘Then again, it IS rare.’ Twilight thinks to herself.

“I think you're just paranoid about Dumb-Bell and the others.” Dash’s head quickly snaps down to meet Twilight’s

“No way! I could totally take all three of those dopes with one hoof and my wings tied behind my back!” Dash yells offensively while raising a hoof. Twilight rolls her eyes again happily.

“And Dash is back.”

-------

The three fillies (and stallion) trot down the dirt road a bit away from town. Christian wasn’t really concerned about this though, as he is still wondering what talents these three had in mind. His thoughts are answered in the form of Scootaloo.

“Okay Christian! We set a up a few odd jobs to help you find that talent of yours!”

“Alright,” Christian says while rolling his eyes. She just said this two minutes ago, but being rude wasn’t in his jurisdiction. “And who will I be working with to find my talent?” he continues.

“Well we didn’t want you to drift from your comfort zone,” Sweetie Belle starts. “So you will be helping out my sister, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash!”

“Oh, yay.” Christian says unenthusiastically. He is instantaneously reminded of the first time he was here helping out fake Applejack and Pinkie, then the short time he helped Twilight and Spike. He knows it was a bit of an easy way out, but he has never really seen Fluttershy or Rarity doing their normal routine. He is stuck in the middle of an actual answer.

“Oh come on Christian! Be at least a little excited!”

“I don’t know Sweetie. I just don’t think any of these talents are my forté.” He says with a sigh. “Anyway, who’s first?”

“Fluttershy.” Applebloom jumps in. “You were supposed to help ma sister, but after she said you only bucked a few trees with that fake of hers.”

“Twenty-five is not ‘a few’ trees!” Christian protests.

“Aww, forget it. We’re here!” Scootaloo says excitedly. Sure enough, Christian’s view is soon full of a smallish cottage surrounded by woodland creatures...and a bunch of birdhouses. Paying no attention to the odd amount of avian homes, he takes one quick look at the surrounding foliage and immediately succumbs to total cuteness. Rabbits are bouncing around small little patches of daffodils, playing a type of peek-a-boo, robins and blue jays were singing cheerfully in the soft breeze, and finally, he simply adored the squirrels that were gnawing on nuts by a tree with more birdhouses hanging from it.

“Awwwwwwwwww! Is this Fluttershy’s house?” Christian asks with a bit of a voice crack.

“Yes, why?” Sweetie asks.

“It’s SOOOOOOOO CUTE! Look at d’all the wittle animals!” Christian says before his head jerks forward like something kicked him in the back of the skull. “What the heck just happened to me?”

“Well that was interesting. Never saw somepony do that the first time they saw Fluttershy’s house.”

“I blame my human instability to be in awe at extreme cuteness.” Christian says as they march up to the door. “Now let’s see what we’ve got here, shall we?” He raps his hoof lightly on the door. With a step back, he lines up with the CMC’s. Moments pass with no answer, making Christian grow impatient. “You girls did check that she was…” He was cut off by a wooden door slamming into the side of his face suddenly. Behind it, the timid yellow pegesi looks around before smiling to the fillies below.

“Oh, hi girls.”

“Hi Fluttershy! How are you today?” Scootaloo asks.

“Just fine, thank you. I was just feeding Angel and…” She starts to hear some moaning to the left of the door. They all look over to see Christian’s limp body dangling over the fence. Fluttershy gasps at the sudden realization of what she just did. “Oh my, sorry Christian, I didn’t see you there.” She says with a melancholy tone. Christian looks up at her in a daze just in time to see a few cerulean tears fall from her eyes.

“Fluttershy! Flutters! I’m fine! Really!” He protests as he hops to his hooves, a bit wobbly. Fluttershy starts wiping her eyes and sniffling at his words.

“R…Really?”

“Yea! I feel as fresh as a watermelon!” Christian said confidently. He thought he was fine, but in reality he may have bruised his brain just a little bit. The CMC’s start to realize this as they entered Fluttershy’s cozy abode,

“Are you sure you’re ok Christian?” Scootaloo asks in distress.

“Of course I’m human, Scootaloo with three heads!” He says happily. Scootaloo gives an intrigued look to the others as Fluttershy looks around to find something for Christian to do. Continuing her daily feeding routine, she trots into a side room and comes out with a bucket full of little pellets.

“Normally Christian, I would be done feeding the animals by now…But I just got some fish for the river outside. Do you want to feed them?”

“Yea sure, I love fish! The only problem is you really can’t talk to them!”

“Oh yea, he’s lost it.” Sweetie Belle says.

“Actually, I think Christian can talk to animals.” Applebloom comments matter-of-factly. She does vaguely remember seeing Christian talking to bird…at least, she thinks he did.

“Did you hit your head too?” Sweetie Belle points out. Meanwhile, Christian has managed to stumble outside and down to the river, miraculously still holding the bucket of fish food. He looks down haphazardly to see the shadows of all the little koi, goldfish, and bass swimming around. He gives off a smile like a stallion who has had one too many.

“Ok swimming magic turnips, here’s your buttons!” He goes to dump out the contents of the bucket into the river, but chucks it straight into the riverbed, strangely making a loud gonging sound as it hits the water. “Oops.” He says with a silly grin on his face. “Well, better go see what the talking hamster needs me to do next!” Christian twists around to rush back into Fluttershy’s house, but the bridge next to him meets his forehead instead. Instantly, he is knocked down flat onto his back, groaning in pain once more. Surprisingly though, the last jolt must've knocked the sense back into him, as he is only seeing one bridge instead of five. “Uhhhh…What happened?” The pain on his head answers the question for him. “I need to start wearing a football helmet or something; my skull must look like a jigsaw puzzle at this point.”

Suddenly, a shadow looms over his tired body. Christian blinks a few times to get some more focus and starts laughing a little. “Wow, I must still be seeing things. That looks like an alligator with a baseball glued to its head!” The scaly creature snarls at him, quickly making him realize that he wasn’t seeing things anymore. He also quickly figures out from the lump on its head that the gong he heard was the bucket making contact with the lizard’s head, not the water. Christian starts to shutter and sweat as the reptile puts a slimy webbed foot onto Christian’s forehoof and leans its head in to Christian’s.

“You’re right, I’m not an alligator.” The reptile says menacingly, “I’m a crocodile.” Its pointy teeth show a wicked smile, making Christian almost swallow his tongue in fright. He is wishing that he couldn’t hear animals right about now.

---

Inside, the CMC’s were playing with Angel when they heard the most ear-piercing shriek ever:

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The four ponies quickly race out of the house to see Christian wrestling an eight foot crocodile with his bare hooves. The large reptilian monster is twisting and snapping at the small stallion, while he tries to hold down the croc’s jaws down, but to no avail. The crocodile realizes that snapping and twisting will not get him his dinner. Swiftly, the predator jolts its entire body forward, making Christian fly off the beast and back onto the top of the riverbed. Christian rushes up onto his back and starts to quickly scuttle backwards to Fluttershy’s hooves with every ounce of adrenaline in him. The croc flashes a wicked smile at the terrified pony before glancing at the smaller fillies next to his prey.

“Looks like dessert has arrived, but I don’t want to spoil my dinner…” The reptile thinks to himself as he starts low-walking quickly toward his main target. Christian is shaking wildly at Fluttershy’s feet. He knows that even if he could aim his bow and actually hit the beast, the scaled skin would prevent the dart from puncturing the skin. The crocodile stops a foot short of Christian, who then braces for sharp teeth to start tearing apart his body, but nothing happens. Christian peaks an eye open to see his would be doombringer frozen in place. Confused, Christian leans in toward the croc and pokes it with a forehoof.

Nothing happens.

“How the heck?” He starts to say, but looks up slowly to see Fluttershy and gets his answer. Fluttershy’s eyes are fixed onto the crocodile’s like she had some sort of hypnotizing target-lock with the reptile, as it looks like it is not even breathing! After a few moments, the croc starts backing slowly into the river again, eyes still locked with Fluttershy’s evil looking eyes. Christian’s jaw is hanging down at the sight of a ferocious crocodile backing away from Fluttershy, FLUTTERSHY of all ponies! A glance over at the CMC’s shows that they have seen this before, surprising Christian even more that Fluttershy never told him about this little skill of her’s! Finally, the croc slinks back into the water and slithers away, still frightened by the yellow pegasus.

“How…How did you…” Christian stutters. Fluttershy removes her evil glare fixated on the water and gives Christian a warm smile.

“It’s…just my stare Christian. Whenever animals disobey, it just…puts them right again.” She says quietly. Christian still had the same fixated ‘What just happened?’ look on his face.

“Oh…Wow…Uh…” Is all Christian can say at this point. Sweetie starts waving her hoof in front of Christian’s face to snap him out of whatever trance he was still in.

“Uh Christian, we should probably get going to your next job…” Christian shakes his head, giving him a little sense back into his head.

“What? Oh, you’re right.” He gets back to his hooves and nods to Fluttershy. “Thanks for the job Flutters; but I don’t think animals are my style, even if I can talk to them.” Fluttershy nods happily as Christian and the CMC’s cross back over the bridge.

“That’s ok Christian. Thanks for the help anyway.” She waves them off as they start back toward town. As soon as they are not within earshot distance, she turns and sighs to herself quietly. “I knew having Gummy’s cousin over would cause an incident. Thankfully, no pony got hurt.” She nods to herself and trots back into her house nonchalantly, as if nothing happened just a few moments ago.

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[Matthew Stone]

A CROCODILE?!

All ya need now is to scream "SMEE!!"