Not Every Mark is Cute

by tjcullinan326

Summary

I'm sorry everyone but I can't finish this story. I have zero interest in the brony fandom these days and thus zero interest to continue writing for it. Plus, looking back, Brawler was basically a self insert Mary Sue. Ya know, me but really cool and super important. I know there are people who don't see him that way, but I do.

All that said, I don't regret this story. Going through the chapters, I can see my improvements over the years. I'm particularly proud of the chapters that focus on Fighters who aren't Brawler, those characters might even appear in my future stories.

Thank you so much for all your support. I may not be proud of this fic, but if you enjoyed it that's awesome. Here's a summary of what would happen if I finished the story:

---

Shining Armor comes to Ponyville. He and Twilight talk, Twilight tries to dissuade Shining from going to Brawler but Shining goes anyway. When Brawler sees Shining he instantly becomes hostile (Because Shining is royalty and a former guard). He doesn't lunge out immediately, but he does act extremely rude and mocks Shining for being torn up about Cackling Lightning. Eventually Shining snaps and attacks Brawler, they fight, and eventually Shining is forced to hide behind a bubble shield. Brawler beats the shield using his 'anti-magic' training, and breaks through. He begins to beat Shining's face in, but stops when he sees Twilight begging him to let her brother go. Brawler looks down at Shining's bloody swollen face and backs off.

"Go bitch and moan about your problems to somepony that gives a damn, and thank your precious princess that you have a pony who cares."

Brawler storms into his gym, Twilight takes her brother to a hospital. Scar, the CMC, Shadow Dust, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie all take turns convincing Brawler that he does have ponies who care about him. At the hospital, Shining decides not to press charges against Brawler.

In Canterlot, Luna notices that something's bothering Celestia. She confronts her about it, and Celestia tells her about Fire Cracker. Luna persuades Celestia that Fighters are ponies too, and that the best way for Celestia to start to make up for what she's done is to apologise to Brawler.

At this point after a few more fights, Scootaloo got her Cutie Mark for fighting with her scooter when she injured Brawler in a fight, and Sweetie Belle got hers when she successfully countered Shadow Dust and beat him.

Back in Ponyville, Marehammed Ali arrives at Brawler's gym. She goes in while he's having a training session with his students. Brawler can barely form words around his childhood hero, and the CMC laugh at him coming close to fangirling. Later, after Brawler's students have left, Ali asks Brawler why he was so quick to train those kids. Brawler reveals that he still gets nightmares of being locked in a prison cell, and that he chose to train them because they were the sisters of ponies who were very close to Celestia. He gets the fillies to like him, they get their sisters to keep him out of jail. Ali sighs, and says she doesn't blame him, especially since now it's clear that he does care about the kids, and leaves soon after

(Bonus chapter: Marehammed Ali touring the Griffin Kingdom, encounters mugger in an ally, beats him up and relives her memories of her time as a boxer while doing it.)

Celestia comes to Ponyville, gets Twilight to bring Brawler to her castle to apologise. Brawler still hates Celestia, seethes through the entire apology, and asks for a pardon for a future crime against royalty to prove the apology is genuine. Celestia writes it up, Brawler beats her shitless, then walks away. With Twilight's help, Celestia gets back on her hooves, and says that she got off easier than she thought she would.

A few days later Applebloom and Applejack are walking around the edges of their orchard. Applebloom's sad about not getting her Cutie Mark yet, AJ comforts her. Then a timberwolf leaps out of the forest and attacks AJ. Applebloom tackles it to the ground and beats it to within an inch of its life, then tells it to warn its friends that if they come here, they'll get worse. She doesn't notice, but this earns her her Cutie Mark: A round shield with an apple emblem. Applebloom turns to AJ to ask if she's alright, but AJ backs away in fear. Applebloom is stunned, but then remembers Brawler's warning about family becoming scared of her. She runs to Brawler, crying. Brawler does his best to comfort her, then tells her to go hug AJ, who had followed her. The sisters make up, then AJ asks Brawler to teach her to fight to make sure she's never scared of Applebloom again. Brawler agrees, and training begins the next day.

A few training fights, teaching AJ how to fight and seeing how each character fares against one another, and then time for the climax.

The CMC are goofing off in a park when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon come to try and bully them. The CMC brush them off, showing them their new Cutie Marks, and telling them to leave. The bullies are stunned, then Diamond Tiara gets smug, she says that those Marks must've come from Brawler, and that her Daddy was putting together a case against him to throw him back in jail. (Citing the fight between Brawler and Shining as evidence.) Sweetie Belle snaps, and begins to beat up Diamond Tiara.

"Where's your Daddy now, huh!? What good's your bucking money now that I'm beating your face in?!"

Applebloom and Scootaloo drag her off, and Sweetie Belle has to be taken to the police station. Rarity and Cheerilee attempt to scold her, but she only really gets scared when Brawler comes in. He tells her that he was ashamed to hear that she attacked a pony who couldn't fight back, then tells her to face her punishment without complaint because she has it coming. Rarity tells Brawler about how Filthy Rich is the one pressing charges, and Brawler becomes worried the case'll be an excuse to lock all Fighters away for good. He goes to his gym, gets drunk, and Rainbow Dash and Pinkie need to pull him out of it.

In the courtroom (I've planned this part out the least) the case is held. Sweetie Belle is sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile hall, but it's ruled that being a Fighter is not grounds for imprisonment.

Epilogue: After her sentence is over, Sweetie Belle comes back to Ponyville, greets all her friends, goes to Brawler, and challenges him to a fight.

"Hell yeah."

---

And that's it. If someone wants to adopt this fic they're welcome to do so, just let me know.

Thank you all so much for reading this story, I'm sorry that I don't have it in me to finish.

(Shameless self promotion! If you want to read more of my stuff, my account on fanfiction.net is Tf2sniper326. I have three stories uploaded there but the only one I'm working on is a RWBY fic called A Different Pyrrha. In which instead of being an overly polite champion, Pyrrha is a foul-mouthed street punk who only went to Beacon Academy to escape the mob. Check it out if you want, if not, oh well.)

Comments

[Silent Echo]

Good luck in the future Buddy Sad to see you leave but thats life have a long good life.

"Live long and prosperous"

[J-90]

Well, story was great while it lasted. But at least we got good summary.
But good luck in your future stories.

[Synonym Toast Crunch]

same thing for me, I've lost all interest in writing for the fandom. i tried rewriting hoping to try to get back into it, but i just couldn't.

nowadays I'm just reading stories, because its easier to understand the characters.

[DragonRaiderX9]

I confess disappointment. I truly enjoyed this story. Still, I wish you best of luck in your future endeavors.

[coldsilverd]

Aw, bummer. I liked this story.

[ErikPhantom]

Blast, that's a damn shame.

It was going so well too: With good world-building, foreshadowing future developments and good characters. Sure it wasn't perfect but it was pretty damn good.

The fandom does seem to be slowly dying. People moving on/losing interest and not enough active and creative new blood to replace them. I've tried fanfiction.net but I can't find any method of finding quality fics in the sheer mass of them all (fimfiction at least I'm used to and can be pretty sure highly rated stories are written competently.)

[Corwyn]

It always pains me to see an excellent story go unfinished, but you must write for yourself first and foremost. If you've fallen out of love with writing MLP stories, then write what you do love. All I ask is that you leave your FiMfiction profile & stories up, so that those of us who continue to read and write pony fics can still enjoy what you've already written. May your Muse be generous, and your life full of joy.

[Bloody_Tofu]

This.... this just kinda ruined my day.

I can't exactly blame you for not being interested in it though and wish you luck as a writer in the future. i really enjoyed this story and will keep it in my favs to reread from time to time. It was one of the best examples of a non traditional MLP story.

Should your interest ever rekindle we'll be here.

[Gigas]

I may be sad it's not gonna be finished, but I'm glad it was started.
Wish you luck on your other writing projects.

[LordMentat]

~sigh~

Damn shame its over. Enjoyed this quite abit.

[Archivist Nightwatch]

I like you have fallen a bit away from the show but I still love reading the fanfiction. So many stories about different things happening. crossovers with amazing other shows/books I really like it.

[KVFFour]

Aw come on!

[TheMyth]

Why not give this story up for adoption?

[Ice Justice]

Well, see ya. It's been fun.

[qazse]

Can you at least put it up for adoption in the forums?

[Dustchu]

Daaaamn man, I got so excited seeing this update... now I'm sad.

But I can't blame ya, I went through the same thing with regular fanfiction for a spell before moving back into it after MLPFIM. Now I'm writing for both fandoms. While it's sad I won't see this update again... it was quite a ride.

Good show, and good luck with future stories man.

[tjcullinan326]

8281940
How do I do that?

[qazse]

8282273
Pick a group that your story is in, and has a lot of members, and post it up for adoption. Someone might respond, and if you do find someone, private message them the summery chapter you've made and they can work from there.

[EvilEnchantress]

Sad to see this go as I was really looking forward to seeing Marehammid Ali meet Brawler, however I do understand why you are backing off. So go in courage and in honour.

[Inertial]

Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

Thank you for the closure, most of the time folks just sort of disappear. The summary of might have been was an excellent parting gift.

[Rockyvolcano4]

Sad that the fic is dead but thank you for the closure with the summary. I hope you get the best out of all your future endeavors. Godspeed

[Liqwidice]

Thank you ever so much for the synopsis. Too many writers just drop stories and leave us hanging, wondering just where the story might have lead. This at least gives us some closure.

[Greatazuredragon]

8283591
Agreed.
Sad to see this go, but at least you didn't just leave us hanging completely.

[Sinestere]

I and others are grateful for the words you left here. Finished or not, this story is meaningful to us and we thank you for it. Please live well.

[Spike of the Bastion]

I'm sad to see this fic will not be finished but I understand and I'm not gonna complain. I loved reading the story and was always looking forward to the next chapter. Brawler was cool and watching Pinkie fight him in such a Pinkie kind of way was always a blast. I was curious to see where you would go with the CMC and if Celestia would ever be able to find a way to allow fighters to live in Equestria.

Reguardless of what you do in the future good luck to you mate.

[Adamastos]

Damn dude, I am supremely impressed by you story. Just finished reading it all and I appreciate how you keep a good consistency with the characters as you portray them.

[The Dark Bro]

Saw the cancelled, fuck.

[Vigriff]

Shame that this story was cancelled.

[Ello Calebero]

At first I wasn't sure about reading this story considering the cancelled status but I gave it a try anyway.
Normally I wouldn't read it cause I'd be sad it wasn't finished.
But I'm just happy it happened the way it did and didn't force yourself to keep writing when you couldn't. I'm not sad about how this story was I'm glad it happened.
And for all you said about not being a good oc (believable complaint he fought tirek at like chapter 1) despite being unfinished this story leaves me with the satisfied feeling of finishing the book and that means something
I hope you keep writing and sharing stories like this. Like what you want because if they are they'll be even better than this one

[Windy0]

8282273
Hey. Has anypony adopted this fic yet?

[tjcullinan326]

9849950
No

[Galaxy of Equestria]

maybe, i like fimfic, but i don’t great write . probably have pay someone to write it.