Writer, reviewer, creator of Filly Fantasy VI, occasional PMV maker, and uploader of mildly amusing image macros to Derpibooru. https://www.patreon.com/drakeyc
Wandering the dreamscape one night, Luna comes across a very peculiar nightmare. It seems a young filly is tormented by the meaning of her cutie mark. They say a cutie mark is a sign of a pony's special talent when they discover what they truly love. So what does it mean when one receives their cutie mark for doing nothing special at all?
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Wow, this is such a heart-pulling one-shot...you've earned yourself a like, favourite and a follow.
I knew it was Diamond Tiara all along, but this was still a great story.
I was hoping it was her!
very interesting. that could explain her behavior. she is afraid that when the cutie mark crusaders finally get their marks that that she would be the only one without purpose.
while the cutie marks are said to represent special talents it seems to repersnt more personality and soul. each of the mane six have a cutie mark that can interpreted to mean far more thn merely their talents.
"WHOSE THAT PONE'MON!?"
Now that that is out of the way, I just have to say this was a real joy. Thanks for writing this.
That's really all I can say.
Guardian Luna is best Princess. Protecting all her little ponies from harm, even in their dreams!
Love that you used Diamond Tiara!!
Hm. I always figured her cutie-mark had something to do with making jewelry.
If I could offer anything, I think Silver Spoon might've been a slightly better fit for this story. I mean, she's sort of a walking pun.
4007910 True, but DT is the more prominent of the pair, and her cutie mark means more or less the same thing.
For being such a sweet filly in this story, dt sure did turn into a jerk.....love the story though!
4008732 Actually the fic is intended to be set during the events of the show. :)
Oh...we'll she is showing her sweet side
What a sweet story. I give it a nice 8/10
I thought it was that her talent was acting like a princess... or a talent for wearing a crown...
This story is a strong look into why she has such contempt for the CMC because their talent may outshine her undisclosed talent.
I always assumed her talent was for bossing people around, but she is currently using it for evil, not good.
Stories that involve an older character giving advice to the younger character can be very difficult. First, you need to give the younger character a flawed yet believable understanding of something, and then you need an equally believable counterargument for the older character to make. As far as these stories go, I believe this story is a good example of how it can be done well. The subject matter is swiftly and effectively set up, the emotions seep through the dialogue without them being stated outright, and the explanation that Luna gives comes across as both believable and germane.
This story delves into a lesser-known field of Diamond stories, a field that doesn't address her antagonism or portray her as an antagonist. Though the last-second statement towards the end briefly hints at it, there's no mention of Diamond in this story as a bully, a brat, a coward, a dog, a pig, a skunk, or any of the other of the other derogatory names she's often called. More importantly, Luna doesn't see Diamond as any of these things, which means her words aren't filled with rebuke or scorn as many have come to expect. Luna's message is strictly comforting, and that makes for a much more focused emotional piece and a much deeper portrayal of Diamond's character.
One of the great acts of subtlety in this story is the fact that Diamond's question of what her cutie mark means is never actually answered. Her cutie mark appears as a dot instead of taking its normal shape, which works well to symbolize that the actual meaning of her cutie mark has no significance in this story. Luna's message isn't based around telling Diamond that her cutie mark has a more spectacular meaning than she thinks it does. It says that no matter what it means, it doesn't make Diamond any less special. Luna is addressing the source of Diamond's fears by challenging the ideas that led Diamond to develop them. If Diamond were to just hear an explanation of her cutie mark that made her sound more special, it would only push her fears away. It wouldn't remove them in the slightest. I think I can safely say that the advice Luna gives is very fitting of a pony her age.
If I were to state this story's greatest weakness, it would have to be the premise. Though the emotions and fears that Diamond has over her issue are believable and thought-provoking, the fact that she has them doesn't really make sense. From everything we've seen about cutie marks, nothing about it would indicate that one could get one for no reason or have no idea what it means. The act of receiving a cutie mark has been described as "finding who you are" and "realizing who you were meant to be", meaning it likely takes place at the conclusion of Erikson's fifth stage of psychosocial development. As far as I can tell, the mark appears as a result of a conscious realization, which is why the CMC don't have theirs yet. If Diamond still needs to find her sense of identity and learn who she really wants to be, she shouldn't have her cutie mark yet. I can't see it making sense otherwise. Also, the leap Diamond makes from not being special to ending up alone doesn't quite add up, at least not unless she thinks Silver Spoon's cutie mark has a much more significant meaning.
As an emotional piece and a Diamond story, this story has plenty of strong points. It uses its imagery and symbolism effectively, its characterization of Luna is fittingly mature, its portrayal of Diamond is sufficiently deep, and the emotions of both characters are all too real. While the logic behind it may not be perfectly sound, the quality of the writing certainly makes up for it. I don't believe I saw any errors minus the one in your comments at the end.
I'd call this story a white dreamsicle. Pun aside, this story has all the sweetness and smoothness of such a dessert, and while it may not be my favorite type of ice cream, it's got an interesting look and flavor to it that makes it stand out.
Make the most!
4016763 Thank you very much for your analysis, I greatly enjoyed it :)
To answer the idea of "a cutie mark for nothing", I interpreted DT's cutie mark as being symbolic of her being born a rich brat in a wealthy family and she enjoyed it. But, once you stop and think, even if you enjoy being rich, that isn't really a talent, is it? And if her family were to go bankrupt or something, what then would it mean for her? She probably did do *something* to earn it, but with what the mark means, to her in her current mindset, it was not anything worth getting a cutie mark for.
The loneliness was to be implied as a result of her bullying. I didn't want to come right out and state it because that wouldn't be s interesting to read, but in my mind, DT bullies and insults others because she has to marginalize them to cover up her own insecurities. So she's not only not special, but because she acted out to conceal her fears over it, the other special ponies want nothing to do with her and she's an outcast twice over. "I'm not special and I'm a bad person on top of it, no one wants me around".
Finally a story about Diamond Tiara that doesn't make her look like a jerk you have made me one more piece closer to a whole thank you.
I like this take on DT.
Not quite sure what is meant by her eyes being "white on black". Unless you meant the pupil was white and the eye around the pupil black?
Nice piece.
Wow, that was a really deep and sympathetic take on Diamond Tiara. Granted, I usually don't like the character as she is oft an antagonist, and an obnoxious one at that, but this one I actually like. I really like how you really didn't know for sure until the very end who the filly was.
Well thanks for telling us what was in the Pulp Fiction briefcase! DARN IT! You should have NOT had Luna say the filly's name at the end! You should left it ambiguous, and had us wonder who it was. Was is Diamond Tiara? Was it Silver Spoon? Was it somepony else? But NOPE! You just go ahead and tell us it's Diamond Tiara! Thanks a lot! And shouldn't Luna be haunting Diamond Tiara for being a sociopathic bully instead? Like when she haunted Sweetie Belle? This story fails.
4383618 Speaking strictly, Luna didn't say her name, that was narration.
As for revealing her identity, it was not to remove the ambiguity of which pony Luna was talking to, if anything other commenters have said it is quite obvious it was Diamond Tiara and I agree. The idea of the story is that, in her head, Diamond Tiara is nobody. This is why she appears as a pure white filly with no cutie mark or any distinguishing physical features, and why she has no name. She is a blank slate with no sense of self. Luna consoling her and giving her peace of mind allowed her to reclaim her identity, causing her normal appearance to come into view and, thematically in a fourth-wall sense, letting her claim her name.
But, everyone has their opinion, and yours is perfectly understandable. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I'm sorry you didn't like it.
4383690 Well, maybe my negative reaction came from watching a scene from the Nostalgia Critic''s Lorax review. I can't deny that this story was really good.
4384919 Aaaaah, lol, I know what the scene.
Woah. Didn't see that coming. I'm writing a story about Diamond Tiara's life before she gets her cutie mark, so it won't work well with this story.
COMING SOON: Life of a Bully
Love this portrayal of Diamond Tiara, giving some light to her character. Luna was also well done in my opinion. Keep up the good work.
This is a great little character piece. My one and only suggestion would be to REMOVE the character tag that identifies the filly. Knowing who it is all along reduces the impact of the story. I didn't glance at the character tags before reading, so I had the pleasure of figuring it out for myself as I read, and THAT is what anyone reading this story needs. That sense of enjoyment of working it out on their own.
So yeah, you might want to consider removing the character tag that gives the whole story away.
Anyway, great little one-shot.
4012254 No, now she's
/me sees date.
Oh, that other person doesn't realize that DT,
/me sees date.
etc. :)
Ah, buck it... *wipes tears away* I can't review this. Take a favorite and an upvote, I need a tissue...
Patience, young one, you needn't have worried. :V
Pretty awesome, and scarily prescient.
Wow, such an amazing story and to think you wrote this a year before Crusaders of the Lost Mark. Wonderful work, keep it up. :)
That kid in the silhouette is Diamond Tiara
Weird how this predicted Crusaders Of The Lost Mark perfectly. DT, I think her special talent is Leadership - but it also being wealth is interesting - the whole plotline of that ep was that she had NO idea what her special talent truly meant or was.