Ah, Cloudsdale. A beautiful city in the sky, producer of weather and some of the best fliers Equestria has ever seen. When Scootaloo and her parents decide to visit their hometown to see the Best Young Flier Competition, Scootaloo eagerly invites her two best friends to come with. As usual, the trio gets up to all sorts of wacky shenanigans to find their cutie marks; only this time, one of them is successful. But Apple Bloom's cutie mark doesn't fit her at all, and the girls start to wonder if maybe there was a mistake...
Cover image made with the help of GeneralZoi's Ponymaker and screenshots from the show.
Chapters (3)
Awesome plot, well written, excellent grammar. Can't ask for much more. Please continue.
Intriguing.
the possibilities
Ah Cutie Marks, they have such potential as plot devices... I'm not sure if that qualifies, but no pun intended. I've always wondered about that though, what would an Earth Pony with a talent for flying or magic be like, and how would they express themselves? From what I've seen practicing your special talent is almost a necessity for Ponies; it's their favorite past-time, it's how they self-identify, I would even go so far as to say it's their calling in life. How then, would it affect a Pony for one of the most important things in their life to be something they can't naturally do, or can't do at all for whatever reason?
I've already got an inkling as to how these things work, a Unicorn with a flying/weather Cutie Mark would be preternaturally talented with spells of that nature, perhaps even being able to act as a pseudo-Pegasus; we know at least this much from what happened with Rarity in the season three finale. Though we've yet to see a Pegasus with a magic Cutie Mark I'd be willing to bet that though they might not be able to cast spells, they might very well be able to do things with weather magic that most other Pegasi could hardly conceive of. Unfortunately, things get a LOT more confusing when you get to Earth Ponies, in part because their innate magic is so ill defined.
Unicorns cast spells, period, unless they have a broken or malformed horn they can cast spells of some nature. Pegasi fly and control weather, period, unless something happens to cripple their wings a Pegasus will still be able to fly (although, perhaps not very well depending on the Pegasus in question), even if something does happen to their wings a Pegasus will always be able to affect the weather. Earth Ponies... supposedly they make good farmers, and most farmers are probably Earth Ponies, but not all Earth Ponies are farmers. Supposedly they have a "connection" to the Earth that helps them change seasons, we see this used only once, to make leaves fall (and not all of the participants are Earth Ponies in the first place). I remember hearing from somewhere that they're supposed to be good with animals, but the only Pony I've ever seen that I would call good with animals is Fluttershy, no other Pony seems to possess this ability, not even the Earth Pony veterinarian (and it's her job). Earth Ponies are supposed to be stronger and tougher than regular Ponies, the only instance of this that I've personally seen is Big Mac, RD and AJ seem fairly tied to me. I could mention some of the things that Pinkie does... but she's Pinkie, and since nobody else has done it I'm calling that a wash; I could mention Pinkie's family, if they really run a "rock farm" that would almost certainly qualify as magical in nature, but again, not all Earth Ponies are farmers. The only other thing I can think of is the old fanon idea of regeneration, but we've seen Earth Ponies get injured and put out of commission for extended periods of time (like when Big Mac got his back leg messed up during Applebuck season).
In truth, we just don't have enough information on what Earth Ponies can and cannot do; then again, isn't that what fanfiction is for? I'm curious to see what ideas and possible explanations/solutions you come up with.
3922825
I understand your point. Without giving away too many spoilers, I'm just going to say that it will all be explained in a little epilogue I plan to have out shortly. This story was meant to be just a random little joke at the expense of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but not a deep look into the meaning of a cutie mark. Oddly enough, that's the other story that I'm working on right now (But I have yet to get even the first chapter out).
Would you mind if I used some of your explanation in my other story? I'm in need of some dialogue that adequately explains cutie marks in a way a child can understand, and I've been having a bit of trouble with making it less technical.
3922914
Sure, I'm always happy to help.
Discord dun goofed.
Whoops; you have Sweetie and Scoots speaking together in the same paragraph here.
3889825
Indeed.
Applebloom has a Wonderbolt cutie mark. well, this should be interesting.
3924035
Ormaybe he did it on purpose, you can never tell with Discord, the only one immune to The Stare.
This isn't actually complete, is it?
4711445
Um, yes, it is.
4711675 Augh. This isn't a story. It's the start of a story. It's the beginning of a story. A pre-story. You've set the scene, established the conflict, and-- poof. Quit before anything's even started!
4713766
Since this is a comedy, I decided to forego a traditional "story" structure (exposition, conflict, resolution) and structure it more like a joke (exposition, punchline). Maybe not the best idea, but it's what I thought would work best.
Cute, wish there were more. Well done.
This feels more like the beginning of a story than a whole one.
With the bookshelf update to FIMFic, I've been sorting through my favourites list to see which get moved to the tracking shelf and which stay on the favourites shelf. The incompleteness of this complete fic has led me to the decision to drop it from my list entirely.