Errant Finale

by Doug Graves

19 The Cataclysm

Her Friends regrouped far faster than Twilight Sparkle thought possible, and made it through the storm before the lightning started in earnest. Now, everypony is gathering on the ground floor of the library, dried off and waiting. Some, which is to say one, of her friends is waiting more patiently than the others, though they are all grumbling considerably less than she expected.

Starlight Glimmer has explicit instructions to keep Pinkie Pie still, the pink mare complying without question; the sad way she just sits there, though, just gets depressing. At least, initially; as soon as Rainbow Dash walked through the door, she perked up, eyes honing in on the balloon like they are calling to her. The Crusaders are each with their dam, nuzzling or cajoling them into staying put, and having a hard time of it.

“I brought cupcakes~!” Rainbow Dash exclaims giddily, the only pony of the group who seems happy to be there. Two cupcakes of every color of her mane are quickly distributed to everypony, though she pauses in her pronking when she gets to Starlight and Spike. She finally decides on giving Spike the purple cupcake, Starlight a red, though she keeps lingering on the blue. “You’ll never guess the secret ingredient!”

“Ah know you said it was an emergency, but Ah’m real busy at the farm!” Fluttershy exclaims, angrily glaring all around, her anger not at all mollified by the yellow cupcake roughly shoved towards her. “I need to get back to farming!” She, like the other mares in the room, keeps motioning towards her cutie mark like it explains everything.

“And Ah was just gettin’ the hang of sewing some fabric together and makin’ a dress!” Applejack eyes Twilight’s lack of clothing disapprovingly, her own Stetson fancily embroidered with small red apples. A different Stetson than the one she wore to the Gala, based on the wear and tear. "You sure you don't need nothing?"

“The animals were just about to go to bed! I just know it! I mean, I can understand not wanting to go to bed because of how awesome I am.” Rarity looks over at Rainbow Dash, sighing. “You know what I mean, don’t you, darling?”

“Alright, everypony, that’s enough,” commands Twilight.

“Aren’t you going to tell us what’s going on?” asks Scootaloo plaintively, munching on an orange cupcake.

“Yes,” Twilight says. She looks each of her herdmates in the eye. “Earlier today, I inadvertently miscast a spell that affected the Elements of Harmony. The spell, I believe through your connection to the Elements, swapped your cutie marks as well. And with your cutie marks, according to the spell, it also swapped your destinies; I believe because the two are quite intertwined.”

“Swapped our cutie marks?” Fluttershy scoffs, looking at the apples on her flank. “That sounds like a joke! But, Ah’m sorry, not a great one.” She shies down a little bit. “A rotten one.”

“Darling, Ah’m sure we’d have noticed if’n our cutie marks got swapped.” Applejack snorts, shaking her head. “Couldn’t this have waited until morning? Ah’ve got customers countin’ on me!”

“I’m afraid not, for two reasons.” Twilight sternly stares down each of the other ponies; if they had any objections, they don’t any more. “First off, I have… reason to believe that the swap is slowly degrading the mental barriers that make you, well, you. And every second that you spend with the other’s cutie mark just makes it worse!”

Rainbow Dash giggles. “Oh, silly! That’s the most ridiculous claim I’ve ever heard, and that’s coming from me!” She pats a hoof against her chest. “I mean, it’s not like you can improve on this kind of awesomeness!” She holds up one of the few remaining cupcakes. “Just like you can’t improve on these cupcakes!”

“I think you’re proving my point,” Twilight states.

“I am?” Rainbow Dash raises an eyebrow. She gets up, about to leave. “I’m sorry, but this has gone from weird straight on down to crazy town. I'm out.”

“Dam, I’m scared,” Scootaloo says, trembling as she reaches a hoof out. Rainbow stops in place. “I don’t know why this is happening, or exactly what is going on, but please, listen to Twilight.” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle nod along, each looking to their own dams and practically pleading with them to stay.

“Alright, but, this better be good,” Rainbow Dash says, sitting back down, though she keeps pronking in place.

“Second, have any of you seen Doug?” Twilight asks, looking at each of them.

“I thought he was staying at Applejack’s,” Rarity quietly states, eyes shifting around. “Is that not the case?”

“Okay,” Twilight says with a brief nod, “then who was staying with Applejack?”

Everypony stammers, glancing among themselves. Silence lingers for several long seconds, Twilight smirking to herself.

“That’s what I thought. And you know that Doug spends every night with two of us.” Twilight takes a deep breath. “So, in order to fix this, we just need to-”

“I can’t take it any more!” Pinkie Pie yells, bursting forth from her seat.

Starlight Glimmer’s horn flares, but the aura of turquoise magic comes too late to stop the pink pony from hurtling herself towards Rainbow Dash. The pegasus screams in fright as Pinkie Pie tackles her. Everypony watches, aghast, as Pinkie Pie’s balloons reform on her flank just as they dissolve off of Rainbow Dash’s.

“Oh, that feels so much better! Ah’m back to being mahself again!” Pinkie Pie does a quick square dance, a loud ‘Yeehaw!’ escaping. She pronks over to the leftover cupcakes, scarfing them down and licking her lips.

“Not this again,” Rainbow Dash moans out, dejected. “I’m so much less… um…” She twirls a hoof around, searching for the right word. “Super fantabulous? No, that’s not quite right.”

“It’s okay,” Twilight says to herself, pulling out the notes she had written down. She scribbles a bit, nodding to herself as she writes a second chain of ponies stealing cutie marks.

None of the other three mares react, just bored expressions as if nothing had happened. Applejack idly twists her hoof, inspecting the rough edge. She shows it to Fluttershy. “So, do ya think Ah should get a hooficure tomorrow, or save it for our weekly visit?”

“I thought you went with Rarity to the spa,” Fluttershy replies, a slightly confused expression on her face.

“Oh, yeah,” Applejack says with a nod. “Ah guess Ah do.” She turns to Rarity, showing the hoof. “Do be a dear and let me know if you’d like to bump up our weekly spa visit. Ah never realized my hooves were this bad!”

“Darling, those are dreadful!” Rarity exclaims, holding a hoof to her mouth to cover her shocked expression. “We should go right now!”

“We can still do this. Yes! We can still do this!” Twilight grins, her outburst enough to stop Rarity and Applejack from leaving. Twilight spins, pointing to Applejack. “Okay, Here’s the plan. I need you to go over there, and give Rainbow Dash a hug.”

“Right now?” Applejack asks, slightly dismayed. At Twilight’s commanding nod she shrugs. Her eyes focus on Rainbow Dash, a bit of sympathy coming over her and softening her hard expression. “Ah mean, she does look a little out of it, Ah suppose.”

Applejack gets up, walking over to Rainbow Dash and hugging her. Just like every other time, the diamonds fade from Applejack’s flanks, reappearing on Rainbow Dash’s. Rainbow perks up, sitting up straight with perfect posture, for once. Applejack sags, more reminiscent of Granny Smith than the strapping mare who had been sitting there seconds before.

“Wua… what just happened?” Applejack says with a long yawn. “Ah could go for a nap right about now.”

“Yes, darling, you look positively dreadful,” Rainbow remarks with a frown. “You have been getting your beauty sleep, yes?”

“Ah sure thought Ah was, but this late night must be dragging on something fierce.” Applejack glances outside with a sigh. “Ah sure hope this storm clears up, too. Must be Tartarus for them pegasi to clean up.” Applejack turns to the other pegasus in the room, her eyes locking on Fluttershy’s cutie mark.

“Yes, yes, it’s terrible, we’ll get right on it.” Twilight motions towards Fluttershy while her hoof checks off a box. “‘Shy, can you please give Applejack a hug?”

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Fluttershy says, happily spreading her forelegs. “Ah love to put smiles on everypony’s face, and here’s a pony who especially needs one!” She grins. “Ah’d offer you a cupcake, but…”

“Mistakes were made,” Pinkie Pie says with a small belch. “Ah’ll be sure to bake more next time.”

Applejack wastes no time in striding over, her eyes hungry with desire. She and Fluttershy embrace, the apples reappearing on the orange flank where they belong.

“Yee-haw!” exclaims Applejack, hips swaying back and forth. “This is wonderful! That could have been the. Worst. Possible. Thing. But it wasn’t!” She and Apple Bloom trade gleeful nuzzles, the young mare overjoyed at seeing her dam with the correct cutie mark.

“Oh, not this again,” whispers Fluttershy mournfully. Her teary eyes meet Twilight’s. “Why, Twilight? Why are you doing this to us?” She drops down, sniffling, hoof and mane covering her eyes.

“It’s okay,” Twilight says reassuringly, her hoof stroking Fluttershy’s mane, another box getting checked. “Just go and give Rarity a hug. She’ll make it all better.”

Rarity offers Fluttershy a soft smile. “I don’t really know how, but, um, if you insist.” She flicks her mane back, her curls bouncing. “Come here, darling.”

Fluttershy slowly, reluctantly gets up, cautiously approaching Rarity. The butterflies fade off the white flank, reappearing on Fluttershy’s just as quickly.

“Oh, that’s much better,” Fluttershy grins. “Rarity, Ah don’t suppose you remembered to feed everycreature before you left? They tend to get awful hungry at night, if’n you don’t feed em proper-like.”

“I… must have forgotten,” Rarity confesses softly, with a limp shake of her head. “I really am the worst, aren’t I?” She sniffles, pulling her purple mane out in front of her to hide behind.

“It’s okay, Rarity,” Twilight says, two boxes remaining unchecked. Her quill hovers over the last one, waiting with bated breath. “Just go up to Rainbow. She’ll give you a hug, and make everything better.”

“I am a pretty loyal friend like that,” Rainbow Dash agrees, smiling broadly.

“And once Doug gets back, Rainbow, you’ll be able to swap with him.” Twilight sighs, finally relaxing. “And we can put this whole nonsense behind us.”

“Why’d you even do this is the first place?” Rarity asks, walking over to Rainbow Dash and embracing her.

“Well, I needed to remove Starlight’s cutie mark.” Twilight can’t help but glare at the unicorn in question. She adds, almost as an afterthought as Rainbow Dash and Rarity break apart, “Oh, and Rarity, if you can stick around, I wanted to take a couple readings from you, and you from me. To try to help Starlight with the other, ahem, side of her problem.”

“Uh, I guess,” Rarity says, massaging her head. “I’m still feeling a little under the weather, though.” As if to help prove her point, thunder booms from outside. “I don’t suppose it can wait until morning?”

“That’ll be fine,” Twilight says, smiling at Rarity’s blank flank.

Wait.

Blank flank!?

“Rarity!” Twilight bellows, the mares in the room covering their ears. “What happened!? Why didn’t your cutie marks swap?”

“Huh?” Rarity says, looking at her blank flank. “Why would they swap?”

“That’s what we’ve been doing this whole time! Swapping cutie marks to get them back to who they belong to!” Twilight grits her teeth. Where did she go wrong? What happened?!

Twilight gasps as she realizes.

At the start, Doug hadn’t taken Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark from Rainbow.

He had taken it from Rarity.

And then Rarity took Fluttershy’s cutie mark from Rainbow. She had even seen the cutie marks swap, though it was with the Elements.

And without being able to swap with a pony they swapped from before…

“Oh, no…” Twilight blankly states, ashen faced. “What have I done?”

Comments

[badninja]

Well that isn’t good.

[PurpleFloof]

I see. So Doug's cutie mark is depression - it all makes sense now!

[Doug Graves]

9763379
For ponies who get euphoric feelings whenever they trigger their cutie mark... that's probably exactly how they'd see it! And it's probably truer for Doug than he'd like to admit.

[chibilink]

Uh oh...

[chibilink]

“Why’d you even do this is the first place?” Rarity asks, walking over to Rainbow Dash and embracing her.

I was a little confused about why rainbow and rarity couldn't swap, was it cause rarity first swapped with doug and so couldn't swap again without swapping back?

[Doug Graves]

10418940
Exactly. Rainbow Dash and Rarity have already swapped marks, and it doesn't matter that they are trying to swap different marks. They can only swap once.

[f0st3r21]

Might be time to enlist some help, Twilight.