Chapter 12: Dangerous Territory
It was nearly eight o'clock as Apple Bloom awoke on the next morning. Carefully blinking, she opened her eyes as the rays of the sun shone into them, multiplied a thousand times by the crystal walls around her. Only as she had gotten used to the bright light in the room, still wondering how crystal ponies could endure waking up like this every morning, she noticed Dinky at her side and remembered the events of last night.
Careful to not awake the unicorn filly just yet, Apple Bloom sat up in her bed and stretched her forelegs, yawning. Her body felt stiff, a result of the hard research work and not much food on the day before, and she pondered about lying down again and getting another round of sleep. Neither the prince nor the princess would mind that, she was sure, as it was Twilight who had sent them. A look into Dinky's face changed this plan, though.
The filly was still lying in the same position as she had been when she fell asleep after the nightmare. Her face was wrinkled and spots of dried tears were visible on the hairs of her cheeks. Her breath was going steady, but had something fitful to its rhythm. Occasionally, her eyeballs twitched behind her lids. The sight was enough to convince Apple Bloom to get up immediately, despite her remaining tiredness. Swiftly, she slipped out of the bed and tiphoofed in a quick tempo to the door and outside, then closed it behind her quietly.
Upon arrival in the rooms of her friends, she found that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had just woken up, too. Sleepily, they rubbed their eyes, but both of them agreed to get up now and leave the Crystal Empire as quickly as possible, for a further attempt to help Dinky with her big problem.
As Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle left their rooms together with Apple Bloom to wake up Dinky, already carrying their luggage, they found their client to be awake, too, by now. There were heavy bags under her eyes and she wished them a good morning with a morose voice. A moment later, she was already wearing the heavy backpack again, carrying it along the castle corridors, which seemed to be much harder for her now.
The Crusaders and Dinky afforded themselves a fast, but sumptuous, breakfast in the castle's large dining hall, then they left immediately and soon, found themselves on the next train back to Ponyville.
The trainride home mostly happened in the same way as the trainride to the Crystal Empire on the day before. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle took the chance for a nap, as all three of them were still tired from the efforts they went through in the Crystal Empire, and Dinky was sitting in the seat opposite of them. Except this time, her face was dark and her eyes gloomy. She was sitting still and constantly staring out of the window, her dull mind not really perceiving the landscapes that swooshed past her. All three of her counselors misinterpreted the miserable state of her as a result of tiredness and the bad dream she had to endure the night before. They figured she would fall asleep for a nap soon, too, but as they woke up, they still found her in the same position, motionless. It was only then that they realized the true reason for her condition which was, unsurprisingly, the same reason that made her depressed for more than a week now.
Worried, but trying to set up a cheerful face, Apple Bloom slid down from her seat and approached the filly on the other side. Gently, she put a hoof on Dinky's knee, requesting her attention.
“Dinky?”
In a lumbering tempo, Dinky turned around, until she faced Apple Bloom. Her eyes looked lifeless and resigned. Apple Bloom felt like Dinky was looking right through her. Dinky did not speak.
“We still have a plan, Dinky. The Crystal Empire didn't have an answer for us, but Scoots, Sweetie and I have decided that we check out t' old library in the Everfree Forest.”
No reaction came from Dinky.
“The library in the old castle of Princess Luna and Princess Celestia,” Sweetie Belle added, explanatory.
“Exactly,” Apple Bloom confirmed. “There's another chance, Dinky. We ain't done with this yet!” She gave her a broad smile, all happiness she could muster put into it.
Finally, Dinky stirred. Slowly, she climbed down her seat.
“Well, I'm done with it,” she said, her voice sounding as lifeless as her eyes had looked before.
The lips of the Crusaders pointed downwards immediately.
“I will never get my cutie mark. I will just continue to live as a pointless blank flank with the occasional pseudo-mark.” She did not await a response and lifted the backpack, that had rested in the seat to her left since they departured from the Crystal Empire, and put it on her back. As the train came to an unexpected halt and the conductor announced that they had reached Ponyville, something of surprise for anypony but Dinky, the filly with the heavy luggage trotted slowly to the exit, leaving her counselors behind.
“And that's it?” Apple Bloom looked after her, shouting. “Ya give up everythin' and decide for a life without a real cutie mark, always accused by other ponies of bein' a talentless failure who has ta fake a cutie mark?”
For a moment, Dinky stopped in her tracks. Apple Bloom expected an answer to come from her, but then, she continued her path immediately. “Yes,” she said taut, her voice still devoid of emotions.
It was an answer that let the hearts of the three fillies who stayed behind sink. Apple Bloom gritted her teeth, before she opened her mouth to say another thing.
“FINE!” Her hoof came down on the ground with force. “Then just leave and continue ta be a dumb, useless blank flank!”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle gasped, then looked at each other with sad faces.
Swirling around in anger, Apple Bloom huffed, then climbed up her seat and took her saddlebags. She put them on her back and headed for the other exit. Hastily, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle did the same and followed their friend. It was in the last moment that the trio got out of the train, the doors having become shut behind them almost immediately after their tails were safe. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle hurried to catch up with Apple Bloom.
“What was that, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked her, frowning. “You know it isn't Dinky's fault. You can't blame her.” There was a good amount of disappointment and accusation in her voice.
“Why not?” Apple Bloom hissed back. “We didn't get our cutie marks for so long! Did we ever give up, Scootaloo? Did we?” Furiously, she kicked a pebble in front of her.
“No, but.....” Scootaloo halted, trying to think of a way to weaken the argument.
“You're right, Apple Bloom. We never gave up,” Sweetie Belle chimed in.
“There! Sweetie Belle agrees,” Apple Bloom said, using the opportunity to strengthen her point. “Dinky has given up and that's just–”
“But” – Sweetie Belle interrupted her – “that's exactly why we shouldn't give up now, Apple Bloom”
Apple Bloom raised her head and looked at Sweetie Belle, dumbfounded.
“Dinky doesn't want to give up,” Sweetie Belle continued. “She's just frustrated, Apple Bloom. Let's not get as frustrated as her, ok?” Sweetie Belle put a hoof on her friend's shoulder.
The touch and the thoughtful words had their effect on Apple Bloom. The anger in her face lifted and her features became softer again, although, there were still a few remaining wrinkles.
Apple Bloom sighed. “But what should we do? If Dinky doesn't want ta continue.....”
“We just go to the castle alone and search without Dinky's help,” Sweetie Belle answered the question.
“That's the best thing we can do,” Scootaloo agreed, nodding. “Let's give Dinky some rest, Apple Bloom. If we find anything, we can tell her tomorrow at school.”
“Ya sure?” Apple Bloom asked, looking around between her friends. She was met with smiles from both of them.
“Mhm!” they answered.
Apple Bloom sighed again. “Okay..... Let's give it another try, ah guess, and search for the book alone.” She forced a smile on her face.
“Okay, that's settled.” Sweetie Belle took the reins. “Let's all go home quickly and let our stuff there, then we meet again at the entrance of the Everfree Forest in half an hour. Hurry up, it's only a few hours anymore until it gets dark!”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom gave Sweetie Belle a confirmative nod, then the three fillies separated and ran off to their respective homes.
As Apple Bloom and Scootaloo arrived at their point of meeting, Sweetie Belle was already waiting for them. Not intended to lose any of the time they had left, the three turned towards the black, gaping entrance. They shuddered as a cold wind moved some of the dead trees at the edge of the forest and as, just a second later, a howling rang into their ears. Undoubtedly, a sign for the presence of timberwolves.
Scootaloo gulped and took a step back. “It's not a good idea to go in there, is it?”
“Nope!” Sweetie Belle said, surprisingly straightforward. “But we're doing this for Dinky. We don't just run in there to search for a chicken or to have an adventure and neither are we getting lured into the forest with the promise to win a scavenger hunt. This time, we have a really important reason, so we need to be especially brave.” Sweetie Belle did not seem to have any fears and if she did, she was hiding them well.
Scootaloo gulped again. But the words had worked, so she did a step closer to the entrance. “O-Okay, let's do this. It's dangerous. And I wish we would still remember the exit of the secret passage we found a couple of months ago..... But you're right, we're doing this for Dinky, so, let's go ahead!” Having spoken these words, Scootaloo marched forward, her thoughts focused on their goal. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle followed her promptly.
Crouched and using every shadow in the cursed forest to their advantage, they made their way towards the castle carefully. They had to stop and jump into a bush to hide, occasionally, when a manticore approached or a cockatrice was suddenly flying into their direction. Their journey through the forest was otherwise undisturbed, until they were already on the bridge that led to the abandoned castle. It was here where the always present howling of the timberwolves suddenly became much louder and, all of a sudden, a whole pack of timberwolves was heading towards them. Chased over the bridge, they galloped as fast as they could into the castle, the vile wooden creatures following them. It was only sheer luck that saved them. As they clinged in fear to an old tapestry in Princess Luna's colors on the wall, cornered by the pack, the wall suddenly gave in and turned around, transporting them to a whole different room. Their prey suddenly gone, the timberwolves turned away from the wall and left the castle, their eyes emanating a dark, green glow. On the other side, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle gasped in shock, pale-faced.
“We definitely take the fast route back!” Scootaloo said, shivering, as she could finally find some words again. “D-Do you still know the room where we found the entry of the passage?”
“Mhm.” Sweetie Belle simply nodded, a sign that she wasn't quite able to talk yet and a confirmation at the same time. As the tempo of their racing hearts had been reduced to a more or less normal speed, they began trotting through the rotten, old corridors to the library on shaky hooves.
Fortunately, and much to their surprise, the library was in a lot better condition than the rest of the castle. The shelves were dusty and the ceiling had tumbled down centuries ago, letting them see the second floor of the library when they looked up, but the books themselves were in a pristine condition. Not a single one crumbled to dust as they pulled out a few experimentally. Even the wooden entrance door was still perfectly intact, so they hastily closed it to avoid uninvited timberwolf visitors.
“How are those books still in such a good condition?” Scootaloo asked, looking over the shelves, as they trotted through the rooms of the library. They discovered five of them, the main room in the middle in which they had arrived and two rooms at each side of it.
“I guess Princess Luna and Princess Celestia cast a spell on them to protect them,” Sweetie Belle answered the curious question.
“You think?” Scootaloo came up with another question, looking at her friend doubtful. “I'm sure they have lots of other, new books now, I don't see why they would do this.”
“Yep!” Sweetie Belle answered swiftly. “I know I would do this with my books.” They had arrived in the last room, now looking at a stone wall, instead of another passage. Sweetie Belle looked outside through the shattered window. The light of the sun was shining through it in a bright orange.
“Anyway.....” Sweetie Belle looked back at her friends. “We should better start searching, there's not much time anymore. I stay here. You and Apple Bloom go and check out the other two rooms to the right.” She gestured them into the direction they came from, then approached the first shelf and began to examine the book titles, while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo went outside for their respective rooms.
Fortunately, they knew what book to look for this time; the one they had already seen in the Crystal Empire, but with the missing page. What complicated reaching their goal, though, was that the shelves weren't labelled here. Any helpful labels the shelves might have had at some day in the past had definitely crumbled to dust now. It forced them to check each book title separately..... And to hope that the book they looked for was not in one of the shelves on the second floor.
Each of them skimmed over the book titles as fast as it was possible for them. Despite that, it was already getting dim in the castle and the shadows came out of the corners they had lurked inside during the day, as the book was finally found.
They had scoured through three rooms of the library and were busy searching through the other two, with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle in one room and Apple Bloom in the remaining one, as Scootaloo's voice suddenly echoed across the bookshelves.
“Guys, I got it!” She took the book in her mouth and, with a swing, pulled it out of the shelf, then jumped down from it and landed with a thunderous crash on the table beneath her. She presented the book to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as they came galloping with a subtle grin, just enough to ensure the book didn't fall out of her mouth.
The book was in the same, good condition as the other books, but, to make sure, Sweetie Belle hovered it in front of her and opened it, then flipped forward to the page. All three of them were holding their breaths as she turned the page with the start of the recipe..... And it was complete! The next page showed them a whole bunch of additional ingredients and a few last instructions. All three of them broke out in cheers that would have been deafening, if anyone except for them would have been there to hear them. The cheering didn't last long, though, as it was getting dark in the castle fast now.
“Okay, that's it! We have everything we need and we're going to show it to Dinky tomorrow at school!” Sweetie Belle announced, accompanied by nods. “But now, let's better get out of here. If it gets too dark, we won't find the room with the secret passage anymore and have to sleep here!” She shut the book and turned around on her hooves, then cantered out of the library.
Apple Bloom's and Scootaloo's pupils shrunk over these words and they followed their friend at a fast pace.
“Wait for us, Sweetie Belle!”
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Nice refrence! Getting in was easy. Getting out will be harder
8348438
After the thing that happened? I would not call that "easy".
8348456
Yes, I meant to say, that I suspect that getting out will be much harder than they got in, thus the meaning it was easy to get in.
"Lumbering speed" is kindof an oxymoron... and lumbering is kinda hard for a tiny filly to do.
8348483
A new reader!
Thank you for coming here, I hope you're really enjoying this story! 
I didn't catch this one while writing and I can see what you mean. I changed it to "tempo" now. Thanks for pointing out that error!^^
8408100
You're back. I thought you left and stopped reading.....
Fixed.
Not..... fixed. And if it can be fixed, is something I can't say yet.
I really like that theory! Sounds like something I could have written.^^ But if I did or did not remains a mystery for now.
This is true. I admit, that's a thing I overlooked while writing this chapter.
But, upon thinking about it, I also couldn't have written it that way.
I can say as much, if Twilight would examine Dinky that way, she would not find out what's wrong with her exactly, but get a hint and a basic idea of what it is. And this would steer the fic into a direction other than the one I have planned.
If Twilight would find that out, she would be alarmed, she would call her friends, maybe even inform Celestia and Luna, and the Mane Six would be on the case..... It would bump Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle out of the spotlight and make impossible what I intend, that they take on the task of helping Dinky alone.
It would essentially turn it from a CMC fic into a Mane Six fic, so this is a predicament I fear I can't solve. And with three more chapters already written, it's too late to apply any changes or fixes now, so I'll have to leave it the way it is.
Unfortunately, I'm starting to think more and more this really isn't my best fic..... Even though the idea I have in mind is great and it's important to me because it's a fic based on "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" (luckily, only the first of many in that regards), I feel I could have written this a lot better. Maybe it is because I limited myself with writing it, due to my goal of staying in the 2,000 word range to hopefully attract more readers after the long time I didn't update it..... This might have been a mistake.
And I didn't write anything for a month now either..... A sudden rise of depressions and a feeling of mental exhaustion are responsible for that. I could not even bring up the energy to inform about that in a blog entry, even though I promised to always do that after the derp from last year..... Which won't look good for my author reputation here again.....
Anyway..... I'm still writing this fic. I'm occupied with other things this week, but next week, I finally want (and NEED) to pick myself up again.
I'm itching to write something new, so I need to finish this one up next week on a day that is dedicated to nothing but writing.
I hate to be a bother, but the end of the episode where the CMC got their cutie marks had them give up everything and decide for a life without a cutie mark, even if other ponies thought they were talentless failure.
Maybe you should reword that a little bit... like have Apple Bloom saying, "There's something mysterious goin on and you can't just let it go. Your cutie mark, your real cutie mark is counting on you!" or maybe, "You gotta long way to go before you can say that. If'n you're not happy with bein a blank flank, then it ain't your destiny, and we're gonna keep looking until you find what you need!" or maybe they could wait and stare at Dinky's flank expectantly, then when nothing appears and Dinky's confused, Apple Bloom explains, "That's how we got our cutie marks, so ah don't know why yours didn't appear just now."
Apple Bloom's anger and frustration here is perfectly in character... until the Troubleshoes episode, and then they changed her character to suit the cutie marks they thought up. So she doesn't think cutie marks determine your success in life anymore. And cutie marks no longer appear when you discover that certain something that makes you special. They appear when you uh... do the thing that you're fated to do, whether you realize it or not. I guess.
But that's just my opinion. If you think Apple Bloom would still say “Then just leave and continue ta be a dumb, useless blank flank!” when she was happily ready to become one herself, go for it I say.
Aaah! Nightmare CMC!
8408763
Why would I stop reading? This's getting interesting! I just try not to read faster than people are writing, so that I'll always have some stories saved up if I need something to read.
I have no problem with sidelining Twilight. I'd just have done it like she went into research mode and wandered off mumbling, and 3 days later when she still hadn't emerged from it, the CMC decide to take matters into their own hooves. Then I'd have it so when they all triumphantly returned at the end, Twilight'd come rushing out shouting "I think I found something!" Or when they all limped home covered in the vaporized remains of DInky, Twilight'd come rushing out shouting, "Wait, you're making a terrible mistake!"
8453444
The fandom confusion about how cutie marks work..... I didn't expect I would see that pop up under one of my fics one day.
This is something to explain, but I try to keep it as short as possible.
The way cutie marks work and how a pony gets one was always the same. We just got it presented from two different perspectives between Season 1 and Season 5, perspectives that covered the whole complexity of the system. And there were also certain details in all episodes that were about cutie marks in some way, details that are important to understand everything.
But let me start from the beginning.....
In Season 1, we heard that a pony gets a cutie mark if it has discovered the one thing that makes it special, or in other words, its special talent. We promptly got an example of this delivered, too, when Twist got her cutie mark and told Applebloom about it. She said that she always loved making sweets, but that it took her some time to discover that it was her special talent. The moment she did, she got her cutie mark.
That's how we learned how getting a cutie mark works and it became a known fact.
Then, some years later, the Season 3 Finale came and we saw how Twilight's friends got their cutie marks switched and how they suddenly believed that different things are their special talents, things that were clearly not their special talents, because they weren't good at those. And this is where the fandom started to become confused about cutie marks:
"We got told that a pony gets its cutie mark after discovering its special talent, that means the special talent of a pony determines the cutie mark. But how can getting a different cutie mark because of casting an unfinished spell on a pony make this pony believe that its special talent is something else suddenly, then? That would mean the cutie mark determines the special talent and that cutie marks brainwash ponies to think that something is their special talent! They changed how cutie marks work for plot convenience!"
As this point, the fandom pretty much started to think that the writers diverted from what we heard in Season 1, that a pony gets a cutie mark for discovering its special talent, and that it is now so that a pony just gets a cutie mark while doing something it is good at and this is the thing the pony is destined to do then, or in other words, that the cutie mark dictates a pony's special talent and destiny, like brainwashing.
There's a huge flaw in this thinking, though, namely, that Twilight's friends were under the influence of a spell. It was no natural occurence that their cutie marks got swapped. It happened because Twilight cast a spell on them that wasn't completed and had therefore unknown and undesired effects. The brainwashing that happened to Twilight's friends was one of the effects, since this contradiction to how cutie marks work only happened while they were influenced by rampant magic. If a disfunctional, unfinished spell can cause that cutie marks get randomly swapped if cast on a group of ponies, then it is self-explanatory that it can cause brainwashing as well. Nothing was changed there about how cutie marks work, it was just an incomplete spell that altered how their cutie marks work for them.
This is an important detail the fandom largely overlooked and by overlooking this, the fandom started to falsely believe that the writers changed everything in regards to how cutie marks work.
Another few years later, the fandom even felt confirmed in this false thinking, when the Season 5 Opener came. We saw Starlight stealing cutie marks from ponies and blocking their special talents. So the fandom thought:
"In the Season 3 Finale, we saw that cutie marks brainwash ponies to think something is their special talent. Now we have a villain who steals the cutie marks of ponies and their special talents with them. They can't use their special talents anymore after they lost their cutie marks, so this means their cutie marks tell them what their special talent is and make them able to use it! It wasn't just an error in the Season 3 Finale, they really changed how cutie marks work!"
Like with the Season 3 Finale there is a flaw in this thinking, though:
The equal sign cutie mark Starlight put on the ponies in her village to replace their real cutie marks.
It wasn't that their cutie marks got removed what caused them to lose their special talents. They still had their talents afterwards. What made them unable to use those talents then was the equal sign cutie mark that Starlight had put on them with her magic.
We even directly saw this when Pinkie Pie tried to make a joke and to be her usual, crazy self, something which is connected to her special talent of planning and throwing parties, but then the equal sign cutie mark on her flank flared up and immediately suppressed this behavior of hers, so she became stoic and unmotivated. It was this equal sign cutie mark that suppressed both their special talents and their personalities.
Now, if the removal of cutie marks alone would remove their special talents as well, then Starlight would have had no reason to equip them with this equal sign cutie mark that suppresses their special talents. Their talents were still there after their cutie marks were gone already, so Starlight had to do something else to get rid of their talents too, which is why she developed the spell for the equal sign cutie mark and used it on the ponies in her village.
If this detail and fact is taken into account, one can see that what we heard in Season 1, that the special talent determines the cutie mark, is still correct, cause Starlight Glimmer needed additional methods to simply removing their cutie marks in order to remove their special talents as well.
This is another important detail the fandom overlooked and that even increased its misconception about how cutie marks work and that the writers changed it.
Just a few episodes later, in "Bloom & Gloom", it was also directly confirmed that cutie marks still work the same way they did in Season 1, when Luna told Applebloom that worrying about her cutie mark is the same as worrying about who she is, because that is all a cutie mark is, who she is. After the Season 3 Finale and the Season 5 Opener, though, the fandom did not pay attention to this anymore. The belief the writers changed everything about cutie marks was too cemented at this point and, worse actually, some even began to believe that the writers don't even care about how cutie marks work anymore and just make them work in whichever way they want and need it for an episode. The overlooked details in both the Season 3 Finale and the Season 5 Opener show that they haven't changed anything about the mechanics of cutie marks at all, though.
And then, finally, there was Trouble Shoes. He got his cutie mark while doing a rodeo performance or, more precisely, after this rodeo performance failed and he got the jury to laugh, because his special talent is to entertain as a rodeo clown. However, he believed all the time until meeting Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle that this special is having bad luck, because of the circumstances when he got his cutie mark and because of his cutie mark being an upside-down horseshoe, an old symbol for bad luck.
So, the fandom thought again:
"So, Trouble Shoes did not know his special talent is being a rodeo clown and confused his special talent with something else because of the way his cutie mark looks. But if he would have discovered his special talent before getting his cutie mark, like we got it told in Season 1, then he would have known that being a rodeo clown is his special talent and he would not have been confused in the first place. So he acted like a rodeo clown, then his cutie mark appeared, but he didn't discover his special talent when that happened, this is just further confirming that cutie marks don't work like we heard it in Season 1 anymore and that they changed that!"
At this point, the fandom's false belief has unfortunately also turned into a bit of cherry-picking even, because it completely ignored what we heard Luna say in "Bloom & Gloom" and rather preferred to accuse the writers of not caring. To which extent this shows that it's actually the fandom that doesn't care anymore and simply chooses what it wants to believe is something I won't judge, so I go ahead with good faith and say it's still just a very huge confusion because of what was overlooked in the Season 3 Finale and the Season 5 Opener. And like it happened with these two episodes, there is a flaw in this thinking with this episode too, actually, two even:
Trouble Shoes' real special talent is very close to what he originally thought is this special talent, to be a normal rodeo pony, and he only misinterpreted his special talent after he had already discovered his special talent and gotten his cutie mark for it.
When Trouble Shoes had his performance in front of the jury, he was doing quite good with it at first and he said that, in this moment, he knew he was doing what he was meant to do. And then his cutie mark appeared just a second later, the upside-down horseshoe, indicating that rodeo is his special talent. However, being a normal rodeo pony and a rodeo clown are two talents that are very close to each other and that require to do the same things mostly, just in slightly different ways and for different purposes.
Trouble Shoes is technically good at both; being a normal rodeo pony and being a rodeo clown, but slightly better at the latter, which is his special talent. And since being a rodeo pony and being a rodeo clown are professions so close to each other that they are barely distinguishable from each other, simply thinking that "rodeo" is his special talent was already enough to fulfill the requirements of discovering his special talent and to get his cutie mark.
In short, this showed us that, if there are two special talents that are different, but very close to each other, then the cutie mark appears already if the pony thinks on the collective term for those two talents when discovering its special talent.
Trouble Shoes did discover his special talent before getting his cutie mark, in the way we learned it in Season 1, but he got wrong what aspect of rodeo is his special talent, because they are so close to each other and because simply thinking "Rodeo is my special talent!" let his cutie mark appear already.
And then, after he got his cutie mark, he crashed and got the jury to laugh and he started to interpret his cutie mark the wrong way and began to think that having bad luck is his special talent, because of what his cutie mark showed. This was after he had discovered his special talent already and it was simply what his cutie mark depicted that led him to the false assumption that his special talent isn't what he discovered, after all, even though that's now how it works with cutie marks, as Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle made him realize later when they showed him his true special talent.
These are the important details that the fandom overlooked here; that Trouble Shoes did discover his special talent, that his special talent is just very close to another special talent and that he misinterpreted his special talent only after he had already discovered it.
If these details and facts are taken into account, it shows once again that what we heard in Season 1 still applies and that it is still correct.
That the fandom has started to believe that the writers changed how cutie marks work, and then even that they don't care at all and just switch it around like they want to, is something that is entirely based on overlooking important details presented in the respective episodes.
I'm almost willing to cut the fandom some slack in regards to Trouble Shoes' episode. Trouble Shoes' problem was a very complicated one and it wasn't easy to understand what was going on, even I had to bust a few braincells before I had figured out everything. Most in the fandom don't give the show credit for this, sadly, but MLP: FiM is often a very complex show and you have to do some serious, in-depth thinking to understand certain episodes completely and correctly. The fandom's confusion about cutie marks began way earlier than with Trouble Shoes' episode, though, so I have to scold the fandom a bit for not properly paying attention during many episodes.
The cutie mark mechanics were never changed and never rewritten and this whole cutie mark confusion in the fandom (and the subsequent, unfair accusations of the show's writers) could have been avoided if more attention would have been given to these episodes.
I know this isn't 100% related to my fic here, but it bothers me how often I see this misconception pop up in the fandom, so I just had to clarify, now that I saw it emerge here under one of my fics.
Well, because of that, and because you implied that Applebloom's frustrated reaction is not in-character for her because of Trouble Shoes' episode.
Applebloom's reaction makes sense, because she, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle accepted their fate when they started to think that they will never get cutie marks, by deciding to help other ponies with getting cutie marks instead. While Dinky just gave up and threw in the towel, which is something that does not go well with Applebloom, since they tried getting their cutie marks for years and never simply gave up on getting them. And, unlike Dinky, they also didn't see themselves as talentless failures anymore when they made that decision, because they had found a profession in helping other ponies getting their cutie marks after realizing they are good at this, while not knowing yet that this would get them their cutie marks any moment, too.
I can see how the sentence could come across the wrong way during the first read, but Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle never threw in the towel and neither of them accepted a fate of being a "talentless failure", so there is a clear difference between what Dinky does here and what they did and it's that difference that is the reason why Applebloom gets angry at Dinky.
I realize this fic isn't the best of my writing so far, but I did take into account what we saw them doing in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark".
And sorry for the textwall. At least you are up-to-date now and I have not written a new chapter just yet, so you have some reading material related to the fic until it continues.
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Fixed.
Well, you have reached the end for now. But I have binge-writing planned for today (again
), so there should be a new chapter today.
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Well that's an interesting claim. I thought it was pretty obvious how they changed things.
I prefer to pretend that episode never happened, but there's no real information what happened there. The changing of their cutie marks could have been—
...yeah, that.
She was literally stealing cutie marks and blocking their special talents. What's a false assumption is that those two things are in any way related. She thought they were, but she was a ravingly delusional sociopath. She might have removed the marks just because of her hatred of them, ignoring the evidence and clinging to the belief that she couldn't block anypony's talents without doing that.
Yeah, pretty much. Why couldn't she just brand that equals sign on top of the mark? Some cutie mark magic interference? But everypony's special talent isn't "blocking Starlight's mind control." So cutie marks don't necessarily give you a special talent, but they do cancel out all sorts of mind tampering, so it is at least evidence that cutie marks (on their own) can have a profound effect on a pony's mind.
No, the Troubleshoes episode pretty much contradicted what Luna said in "Bloom and Gloom" too.
...which was not being a rodeo clown.
Okay I'm pretty sure this is a subtle dig against Applejack, but maybe I'm reading too much into it. Anyway, it's kind of like saying that cheerleading is indistinguishable from being a goalie, because they both happen on the same field.
What it shows is that whatever gives a pony their cutie mark is capable of getting it wrong. Sort of like there are a bunch of gnomes hiding off screen firing cutie mark guns at pony butts at just the right moment, and the gnomes figured, "Welp, he just realized he's a rodeo pony" but then after marking him they were like "whoops, guess not!"
What they should have done is have him screw up his routine before getting the mark, and start getting excited about being able to improvise, and have fun, and goof off, but then when he loses the contest, he figures that it wasn't what he wanted to do, just a bunch of bad luck. But they sort of messed up, thinking it'd be funny if his cutie mark caused him to mess up his routine. (Not necessarily through mind control, but just that in noticing it he ended up accidentally lassoing the barrel.)
Then in the Crusaders of the Lost Mark, the CMC realized that they were okay with helping other ponies understand their special talents, which wasn't something they were interested in at all before Troubleshoes. The writers changed it.
The show writers aren't saints. They aren't gods on earth. They're people, just like you and me. And they had this great idea (they thought) for a thing that everyone would love regarding the CMC and their cutie marks. And they probably had pressure from above to get it over with already. The trouble is they had no idea what they were going to do back in season 1, so they established things that made it so their idea wouldn't work right. But either without a choice, or without a care, they went with the least bad option, and contradicted past episodes, since they couldn't think of any way to get the CMC their therapy marks without doing so. There's no wise plan resolving all of this in the writer's heads. There's no underlying message, that if we were wise fans with actual brains, we could easily understand was part of their plan all along. The Emperor has no clothes.
And honestly... that's fine. People make mistakes, and a perfect solution can't always be achieved. I was only mentioning it, because you had the CMC getting upset over something they didn't get upset over in the show. They realized that they could help ponies without having a mark, so they didn't need one. So I'd have hesitated before having them conclude that without a mark, Dinky's going to be a talentless failure. Apple Bloom cares about helping others now, not cutie marks. They changed that. Is she better that way? Probably. But they really screwed the pooch when they passed up on the opportunity to do this.