The Un-Marking
Twilight and her friends continued to walk amongst the town in a way that would be aimless if it weren’t a one-street town. As they waved to the locals then came across, “An aura mark is a representation of a person's unique talents, skills, their identity, their destiny and so much more.” Twilight muttered more to herself than address the others, “How is it possible to—”.
There was dramatic gasp that cut Twilight short, a gasp as only Rarity could, as they came to one house, which seemed to function as the village’s tailor, “What in the name of Mystica is that?!” she pointed to looked like potato sack like cloth shaped to look like some sort of cloak in the loosest definitions of the term.
“Welcome!” The shopper keeper exclaimed upon seeing them as he stepped out. “Care to sample some local fashion? We've got cloaks this month!” He was trying to market his wares.
Rarity blinked three times before she fainted in the dramatical way only she can. Pinkie reached into her pockets and pulled out her special blend of smelling salts, “How long has it been since I used these? Well, let’s see if they…”
“Oh good heavens, no!” Rarity exclaimed as she came to and crawled back from Pinkie before getting back on her feet. “Um… perhaps another time.” She then started to push the others away, a feat that caught four of the five by surprised, Applejack, however, gave a bemused expression more or less indicating. ‘Oh, now that fashion is involved you have upper body strength.’ As they left, “Thank you, good sir.” After getting to the next building and as the shopkeeper walked back into his store, Rarity stopped and had the five others huddle with her, “No wonder everyone wearing the exact same thing.” She spoke in whispers. Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie seemed to agree in silence.
“Really, girls!” Fluttershy scolded her friends in a hushed tone as she broke the huddle to have them look at the town. “They may do things a bit differently than we're used to, but that's no reason to be rude.”
“No, the reason to be rude is that they all keep staring at us!” Rainbow Dash pointed out as the townspeople looked at the six giving them the smiles that even she, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight had to agree with Pinkie about how creepy and unnerving they were. How Fluttershy couldn’t see it was lost on everyone else in the group.
“Need something?” Came Double Diamond’s voice from behind the six. The Six turned and were unsure what to say or do to confront the Earthborn.
“Maybe you could point to where we can get a meal? We haven’t eaten for the better part of the day.” Twilight asked knowing that them having a space to sit down and talk would be much less suspicious than standing out in the open. Double Diamond then pointed to a small little cafe and opened his mouth to speak only for Twilight “We're good now, thank you!” The six then went to the cafe and took two of the open tables, putting them together to form a larger table. Double Diamond went across the street into the building there, the local printing press. After seeing him enter the building as they all sat down Twilight started the conversation anew, “Fluttershy's right. If we're going to get to the bottom of this and figure out why the map directed us here, we'll need the help of these people.”
“Well Sugarcube, Ah think wah ran off to the end of Mystica before wah even knew what that map was.” Applejack pointed out as she took off her hat and fanned herself with it before placing it on the table.
“If we were at the end of Mystica, we'd be sitting on a big 'A'!” Pinkie joked, making a play on the expression getting a chuckle from both Applejack and Rainbow as she herself giggled at it. Turning the Rarity and Fluttershy, both of whom weren’t assumed, Fluttershy was shaking her head while Rarity rolled her eyes. “What, you don’t get it?” Pinkie asked legitimately unsure if Rarity got the joke.
“Oh, please, Pinkie! This is hardly the time for jokes!” Rarity did, in fact, get the joke, but she failed to see how the joke was funny namely given the timing, “We've come all this way and for what?”
Twilight shushed the group as she spoke in a hushed tone, “Maybe you're right, Rarity. But we're here now, and it sure feels like something's wrong.”
Applejack could not help but give a bemused expression, “That and two bits'll get you a mug of cider.”
“Is this a bad time?” The six turned to see the source of the voice. She woman around their age. She wore a baker’s apron over her light gray-like pink dress, with equal signs near the bottom of her dress. Her hair was dark grayish purple and her eyes were cerise. On her forehead was another one of those black stone focus gems the other Magicborns in town were also wearing.
“I am sorry, could you hold on a second,” Fluttershy said to their server before she turned back to her friends, “We shouldn't be bickering like this in front of our new friends. Really, Applejack, you're almost as bad as Rainbow Dash!”
“Hey! 1) We only know like four of their names and that Starlight is the village head, they aren’t our friends yet and 2) Don't drag me into this!” The elementalist countered slamming her hands on the table she was at.
“Is your friendship ending?” the server asked seeming to be scared about what she saw in front of her.
“Are you crazy?!” Pinkie said having seemed to manifest right behind the poor girl spooking her with the focus and emphasis that Pinkie put on the word ‘crazy’. Seeming to teleport right back to her seat dressed with a large lobster bib with her mark on it a large fork and knife in her hands, “We'd never let a disagreement get in the way of food!” Similar bibs each with the other five’s respective aura marks, for lack of a better term, seemed to materialize on them with forks and knives too, well except Fluttershy, she had one spoon in her right hand.
For reasons she didn’t understand, the server elected to not question what she just saw, giving only an “O-kay, “ before she put her pencil to the notepad she had. “Well, my name is Sugar Belle. What can I bring you?”
“What do yah’ve, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked the recently self-identified Sugar Belle as she and all but Pinkie placed their utensils down on the table and took off their bibs.
“My name is …” Sugar Belle started, slightly confused about why the paladin didn’t get her name right.
“She calls everyone ‘sugarcube’, Sugar Belle, darling.” Rarity explained, “So what do you serve?”
“We have muffins…” Sugar Belle informed followed by a couple seconds of silence.
Once it was clear that muffins were the only thing on the menu to eat, “Then we'll take six muffins!” Twilight placed the order. Sugar Belle began writing it down.
“Make that twelve!” Everyone turned to Pinkie, “What? I'm hungry!”
Before anyone of the other four could groan as Sugar Belle started to go fill their order, “Come on, girls,” Twilight said to her comrades, “We've got to stick together. It doesn't matter what happened before, we're here now. Also, it’s an hour back to the station and the next train won’t stop there for three days.”
Applejack picked her hat back up and put it on her head, “Yah're right, the sooner wah figure out what wah’re tah dah here, the sooner wah can go home, assuming it takes more than a day.”
As the other four gave various statements and expression of agreement, Sugar Belle, turned to the six, utterly befuddled at the change among them, “Forgive me for overhearing,” she said as she walked to them, their order having been placed but not ready. “But just a moment ago you were disagreeing, and now it sounds like you're... agreeing.”
Applejack gave a soft chuckle, more so out of pity for the poor thing, “To quote mah big brother, ‘Eeyup’. Granted he ain’t much of a talker as his other go-to response is ‘Nope’. But if yah were tah ever met him, don’t let his size frighten yah, he’s as gentle as they come.” After looking her over, “Ah think he’d like yah, maybe if yah put a little bounce into yahr hair.”
Sugar Belle began to blush a little, after a cough to collect herself, “Well, it's just that you had expressed such differing opinions – and you have such different aura marks.”
Rarity gave a “Pshah,” as she seemed to brush the matter away, “We have differing opinions all the time, darling. I for one, as you can tell,” Rarity stood up and did a fashion walkway twirl of her alabaster gown, “am a woman of form and fashion, while Applejack prefers a more overall functional approach to her choice of clothes. Rainbow has more of a specific functional approach, predominately her aerodynamics. Fluttershy has a more one-with-nature approach, or lack thereof at times. Twilight is still trying to find just works for her given her new status in life and the small town librarian look she had before and Pinkie … well… it’s best to not ask questions," Rarity then stared into the void right in front of her as recalled having made that error her eyes glazed over in horror, "many a night I could not sleep having made that very error." She then snapped out of it she turned to give Sugar Belle a smile as she took her seat, "And that’s on the topic of fashion.”
Sugar Belle was still having a hard time processing all this, “But you look like you are friends.”
“We are friends.” Twilight pointed out, “A simple disagreement wouldn't change that.”
Sugar Belle went to get the order for the six and place a dozen muffins, served on a large plate, on the table, “I'm sorry, I'm just having a hard time understanding. Different talents lead to different opinions, which lead to bitterness and misery. So... why aren't you bitter and...?” The young woman slowly seemed to get it, but was quite a ways from there. As soon as the muffins arrived Pinkie started to eat one of the muffins. One bite was enough for Pinkie to started dry heave, her face greener than a lime. After the last heave, Pinkie turned up and gave a thumbs up. Sugar Belle dipped her head sadden that her muffins brought that much disgust. “It's all right. I know I'm not a very good baker. At least, I know I'm not any better than anybody else in the village.” She looked out the window and saw Double Diamond walk by and looked in the cafe, “Well, I... hope you enjoy our little village!” Sugar Belle then went back to the kitchen, humming to herself. Pinkie tried the muffins again, only to go back to dry heaving. As Double Diamond turned from the window and started to walk away. Once he was out of sight, Sugar Belle doubled back and in a hushed tone, “Come to the back of the house before you go! Meet me downstairs!”
“Okay, that was weird too.” Rainbow commented looking at the other five clearly put off by what just happened.
Before anyone else said anything Double Diamond came in and took a seat at another table, and Sugar Belle then went to get him some muffins.Twilight nodded and the six leaned in, “Let's all sit here and eat these muffins and act normal. I think we're being watched.” As she said this, Applejack stole a glance to see Double Diamond was had the town’s paper, but she could tell that it was a rouse.
Applejack then leaned back in, “Ah have tah agree, Double Diamond seem tah spook Sugar Belle. It’s like whatever Sugar Belle has tah say is somethin’ shah knows somebody doesn’t want to be known by us.” Everyone gave a small nod. Applejack then turned to Pinkie, “Yah ain’t gonna like this, but Ah’ve an idea, actually eat as many of the muffins yah can Pinkie.”
“Why me?!” The jester almost whined, but still in a hushed tone.
Applejack gave her a bemused look before she spoke still in a hushed tone, “Yah the one that got us tah have a dozen of these when Twilight placed an order for just six.” Before Pinkie could protest, “Ah didn’t say yah be eating them alone. Grab a muffin each, girls.” Applejack picked up on and took a fair size bite out of it. After chewing it for a minute, “Yah know, after the first bit, they ain’t too bad.” Everyone followed suit, they could tell that the muffins weren’t the worst thing ever, but they would never give these to Brighteyes… especially if they wanted time-sensitive mail to arrive when it should. As they ate, Double Diamond had his order got up and left, walking away as if his suspicions were misplaced. After he exited, the group finished their muffins, Pinkie was the verge of vomiting again, in fact, everyone but Applejack was sick to her stomach. “Okay Pinkie had six more than any of the rest of us, Rarity’s eats only the finer thin’s, Twi grew up with that fancy Chantalot lack-of food, but Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash?”
“Dashie is an athlete and there are just somethings you just don’t eat,” Fluttershy explained while trying to keep the muffin she just ate down.
“How does it not bother you?” Rarity asked. Applejack just shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, we better meet with Sugar Belle, and hopefully not lose our meal,” Twilight said as they all got up and headed to the stairs. All but Applejack using the wall or railing as part of their support.
“I've accidentally eaten cardboard tastier than that…” Pinkie leaned on the railings and swallowed to keep down what would have come up. “These are worse than Applejack’s baked bads.”
“The one time Ah was Applebucking on my own,” Applejack countered.
Not wanting to dwell on the past and focus on the matters at hand, “Hello? Sugar Belle?” Twilight called out as she reached the bottom of the stairs followed by her friends.
That was when Sugar Belle greeted the six coming from the shadows in the basement, “Thank you for coming!” The baker hugged her guests and gave to five that appear to have stomach issues some ginger root. “It should help settle your stomachs.”
The five gave it a shot and while it didn’t get rid of the root cause, it did take the edge off, making the process bearable. For Twilight it actually worked instantly, most likely due to being a demigod. Once she recovered, “Why did you want us to come down here?”
Sugar Belle looked back into the dark area of her basement and nodded before she answered, “So nobody could see what's about to happen.” Just as she finished Night Glider and Party Favor emerged. However, neither gave the creepy almost unnatural looking smiles that rubbed Pinkie the wrong way since the six’s arrival. They looked nervous themselves, Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack recognized the look, it was one their little sisters have given when they wanted to do something that might get them in trouble, like the whole gabby-gums incident with the school paper.
Party Favor was the first to speak, having swallowed to suppress his fear, “Are you really the Princess of Friendship, Twilight?” he asked. Twilight nodded after raising one of her eyebrow confused that they would still question her but elected to not press the matter.
Night Glider was next as she stepped closer and took Twilight’s hand’s “And you do know Princess Celestia?”
“And Luna and Mia Amore Cadenza, We are even slightly familiar with Prince Blueblood, a textbook example of a spoiled brat.” Rarity huffed the last part turning her nose up in disgust.
“Yah do know Discord did say his last words before charging at Tirek was 'For Rarity,'? Ah think yah left an impression.” Applejack elected to point out.
“And so has he. I wouldn’t forgive that lout of his behavior even if he helped me open a boutique in a hundred cities!”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared a half-open-eyed grin and fist bump, more or less saying to each other ‘so there is a threshold number.’ Applejack then turned to see Sugar Belle looking extremely close to the paladin’s pauldrons with a child-like awe smile on her face. While most would find this disconcerting, Applejack brushed it off, Sugar Belle clearly likes her apples. “I love your aura mark!” the baker exclaimed gitty as a school girl.
Night Glider turned to Pinkie and Rarity, noting the vast differences between the two and them and the other four, “How can you be friends with different aura marks? Don't you end up hating each other?”
Sugar Belle turned her attention to Fluttershy’s butterfly brooch, calling Party Favor's and Night Glider's attention to it, “Oh, look at this one! This one's great too!” She almost shouted getting a little too close for Fluttershy’s comfort, (not that such a feat was difficult to achieve). She then turned back to Party Favor and Night Glider, “I'd love to have my special talent back even just for a day!” She gave a Pinkie Pie certifiable smile before she looked down at the floor with a sad frown on her face. “Make something besides those disgusting muffins…”
“So what's stopping you?” Rainbow asked as she took to fly just above everyone else, after waiting for a few seconds and no response from the three, “So go get your aura marks back.”
“Daydreaming is one thing,” Party Favor admitted with a slight sigh before he connected the dotes, then a nervous look grew on his face, “but you mean actually having it put back on?” Rainbow nodded in response, “That seems extreme.”
“I'm not sure Starlight would like that.” Sugar Belle said as the three looked down at the floor forlorn about the prospects, “She wants us all to be happy in our sameness.”
“How do you take somebody's aura mark anyway?” Twilight asked the question that was on
Night Glider held her left hand aloft and waved it as she looked the ceiling, “The aura unmarking is a beautiful experience! Starlight uses the Staff of Sameness to magically take them away and replace them with these.” She then pointed to the equal signs on her and Sugar Belle’s dresses and Party Favor’s shirt.
Twilight was the most taken aback at this, “But nobody should keep you from your aura mark. It represents at least one of so many such essential parts of who you are.”
“Oh, we're not kept from them.” Night Glider said shaking her head with her eyes closed and a smile as if there was in fact nothing wrong. Like everything was par for the course. “They're in the vault up in the caves. We can visit them anytime we like to remind us of the heartache of a life with special talents.”
In that instant Twilight had an idea, “Can we visit this cave?”
About an hour later, Starlight was leading Twilight et al passed her house at the end of town to the mountains beyond that end of town. She turned to look over her shoulder as they just exited the town proper, Applejack and Rainbow Dash in the front of the six right behind Starlight, with Rarity and Pinkie right behind them with Twilight and Fluttershy in the rear, “I’m so delighted you're interested in our aura mark vault. We hope someday everyone in Mystica will make a pilgrimage here to our little village to have theirs removed too, and our message of…” As she said ‘of’ she turned to face ahead and her voice was not as loud allowing for Twilight and Fluttershy in hushed tones to speak over, “perfectly equal friendship can finally spread across the land.”
Twilight turned to Fluttershy, “This must be the reason we're here. To help those people get their aura marks back.”
“Oh, are you sure, Twilight?” the druid countered, “Maybe they miss them a little, but even they didn't seem all that unhappy.” Fluttershy was not convinced that they should be involved here, why fix what isn’t broke, live and let live.
“Then why did they want to meet us in secret?” Twilight called Fluttershy’s attention back to more or less what prompted them to be on this path to the cave where the aura marks were stored. “And why did they ask us not to tell Starlight who told us about the vault?” Twilight asked, further proving her point Socratically as Fluttershy had no answer. After giving a reluctant nod considering Twilight’s point. Twilight turned her full focus ahead as they arrived at a cave entrance, a couple minute walk and less than thirty-second mad dash on foot from the town. “Something's not right.”
Starlight then gestured to the cave and beckoned the six in, “Just through here!” After the six entered following her she pointed to the back wall, “Behold! Our aura mark vault!”
The six were struck with awe. They had known certain rocks could be used to trap various forms of magic, but this was an almost perfectly clear crystal that seemed to box itself into what looked like a bank’s safety deposit boxes section in the vaults. In many of these ‘boxes’ were a wide array of aura marks. If one actually took the time to count they would see that there was one less aura mark than the adult population of the village as the few children in town were far too young to have made the epiphany that is the core of one’s aura mark, “I've never seen anything like it!” Twilight commented as she actually floated toward it, awed by it, like a moth is to enclosed light.
At the base of the crystal-wall was stone alter, much like either of the two at Sweet Apple Temple (well more so the exterior one where the sacrifices were burnt, then the one in the temple used for the services). On the altar was a short wooden staff about the length of the average man’s arm which was forked at the top. Starlight picked up the staff and presented it reverently as if it was a relic. “And this is the Staff of Sameness, one of Mage Meadowbrook's nine enchanted items.” After each of the six had looked it over, Twilight with a degree of confusion, “We are incredibly fortunate to have it here.” Starlight continued as point the staff towards the crystal wall where all the aura marks were stored, “This artifact allows us to free ourselves from our aura marks!” She then turned to the six with a small sinister-like smile creeping on her face, “I'm curious” There was a pause as she pointed the staff in the direction of the six, “– how did the subject of the vault come up?”
Before anyone else could provide an answer that question and not sensing it for the trap it was, “Oh, some of the villagers were telling us how much they missed their aura marks, and—” Pinkie started.
“Pinkie!” the other five yelled realizing the trap and that Pinkie Pie might have set it off cutting her off at the 'and', in hopes that no damage was done.
“Oops…” gave a weak sounding apology as she seemed to shirk under the annoyed looks from her friends.
Starlight gasped as if she was clutching a pearl necklace upon hearing that, “Were they?” She turned her focus to Twilight, “Well, it seems you inspire all sorts of free thinking, don't you?”
As the six slowly started to back away in an attempt to exit the cave, Rarity gave a few nervous laughs before she tried to speak on behave of the group in attempt to defuse the situation long enough for a getaway, “Well, w-we certainly didn't intend to cause any disruptions to your charming little—”
Starlight cut Rarity off there, “Good. Let's just make sure of that, shall we?” she asked as looked behind the six and around them. It was then that they realized that there were others in the cave, actually the whole of the adult population.
Seeing that they were surrounded by the entirety of the town, even Night Glider, Party Favor and Sweetie Belle, “It's a trap!” Twilight shouted and tried to be teleport away but was struck by a beam of light turquoise magic. As she struggled to break free she felt the six-pointed stars in her wings be removed from her as equal marks took their place, severing her from her magic. As the stars were hovering in the two prongs of the staff they merged to be Twilight’s aura mark, a purple six-pointed star that seemed to rest on an inverted white four-pointed star surrounded by five smaller white stars. As Twilight’s mark was stripped from her, the others tried to tackle Starlight, namely Applejack and Rainbow Dash, only for the sheer numbers of the villagers to tackle them and prevent them from stopping Starlight from adding Twilight’s mark to the vault. Once Twilight’s mark was added, Starlight repeated the process on the others, first Rarity, leaving an equal sign on her tiara where the sapphires were, as the three sapphires were followed a similar process as Twilight’s. Then Applejack leaving equal signs were each apple on her pauldrons were, as the six stylized apples on her pauldrons were merged to look like three. Rainbow was next as an equal sign replaced her rainbow lightning bolt pin, then Pinkie’s three balloons on her jester hat were replaced with an equal sign. Finally, Starlight turned the Staff of Sameness on Fluttershy, replacing the butterfly brooch like all the others, as the stylized butterfly that made the brooch became a set of three. All the while as each of the six had their aura marks removed, they struggled but the sheer numbers the town folk made it fruitless.
As Starlight added the last aura mark and seeing the six still struggling, she gave slight chuckle because she knew it was over, “Aw. I don't blame you for what you tried to do here today. You've spent your whole lives thinking those aura marks are a good thing.”
Twilight used her wings to break free of those that held her, but she was tackled and forced to her knees, her arms pulled back, forced so that she could only look up to Starlight and growl, “Give them back!”
Starlight chuckled as she took Twilight’s chin with her left hand as she lowered the Staff on Sameness on the altar it was one before she used it, “Well, now you can spend the rest of your lives here with us! And we'll teach you just how much better life can be without your aura marks! Take them to the education house!” The rest of the town then began dragging the six out of the cave. Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie trashed around while Fluttershy wept.
And this is what happens when you don't test Pinkie's knowledge on smiles; Fluttershy gets dragged away crying (I imply nothing!).
Not really anything else I can say...
But Applejack shipping Sugar Belle to Big Mac when there's still my sister Marble.
He's tryin' tah find a way that would let mah be supportive to Big Mac being with her despite what just happened, Sugarcube.
I didn't know you could break the fourth wall too!!!
Fourth what now?
I've seen one too many of Magpie's Pinkie Tails.
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8473689
What happened to the Dazzlings? Not sure how the events of Rainbow Rocks would translate in this serie: did they merely lose the " siren" aspect, or lose all access to magic ?
8495383
Please be patient, it is coming.
Now that's how yah start things off.
8495537
Thank you.
'till now, same as the show. Can't wait to see when the twist will arrive!
1. So, is SugarMac canon to this series now?
2. Yay, Pinkie Tales!
3. That scene with the muffins makes so much more sense now. By the way, how many of those muffins would be needed to make AJ sick?
4. Who has the strongest stomach in this continuity? I mean, canonically to the show, Pinkie does because she regularly eats stuff that normally isn't food, probably a family trait.
5. How are you going to adapt the movie? I mean, focus gems are the equivalent of horns, and unless I'm mistaken, they seem to be replaceable in this series. Breaking a focus gem just doesn't seem as crippling as breaking a horn.
BTW, I haven't seen the movie yet. I just know Tempest's motivation from the promotional materials. I'm waiting for the video release because I HATE watching movies alone, and all my movie- watching buddies (aka my parents and siblings) and I are all too busy and/or cheap to go to the theatre in the middle of the school season. Our go-to theatre season is the Christmas week.
4. Who has the strongest stomach in this continuity? I mean, canonically to the show, Pinkie does because she regularly eats stuff that normally isn't food, probably a family trait.
With all due respect, I think SPIKE has the strongest stomach. I mean, we're talking about somebody who ate a "baked bads" muffin and LIKED IT. Mind you, we're talking about the muffins that made PINKIE (among other ponies) sick.
8496289
Okay, its clear 8495777 was referring to the mane6. Which in the show is Pinkie Pie (cartoon logic and or rule of comedy not withstanding), here a mmore realistic approach is taken, being a farmer and needing to live off of a shoestring budget at anypoint for any amount of time due to possible crop failures and such Applejack growing up could not be picky about what she ate, thus she can run a wider array of food sources than her peers. As for Twilight, she's an ascended demigod and this about the last week of summer-first week of fall and her ascension took place about two weeks tops before the Summer Solstice, so only a hand ful of months at the most.
8496361
So, I'm guessing that the short answer is AJ followed by Twilight, correct?
8496395
As things currently stand, yes
8495777
1) Up in the air, but it and MarbleMac are not necessarily mutually exclusive
2) I enjoy them too
3) No idea, the fact should stand that one muffin won't
4) See my other replies
5) I can't tell you without spoilers, but in Erisomachy I do call out the 'third-eye' or pineal gland, which is in line with the center of the forehead, which is counted as the thought or vortex chakra in Hinduism, the chakra that deals with enlightenment, and in The Great and Powerful Amendments I point out that not all focus gems are worn one's head, in Trixie's case her focus gem is more in line with her throat, and back in Revenge of Nightmare Moon Celestia pointed out that not all Magicborn need to use focus gems. And there is still what Didj, the artist whose My Little Mage fanart is the base of all this, will draw.