Unmarked Once More

by gamernerd717

Teamwork

“So, how are we gonna do this?”, Applejack asked Twilight.

“This situation is different this time around. We can’t try to trick him into giving them up. He’s too smart and too powerful.”, Twilight told Applejack.

“Well, that’s just great.”, Rainbow Dash said, frustrated at their situation. “I say we just go in there and take them by force.”

Applejack looked at Dash with a confused and annoyed look “We’ve already discovered that that obviously wouldn’t work. Did you not see what just happened back there?”

“Of course I did!”, Rainbow replied.

“Come on, you two. This isn’t helping and you know it.”, Twilight intervened in the two’s bickering.

“Now, what I propose is that we sneak in without being noticed and try to get the cutie marks back that way. There’s no way he hasn’t improved the strength of the barrier, so we’ll have to find another way in”.

“Okay, so we get the cutie marks and then what? How do we deal with the sorcerer and make sure he doesn’t do it again?”, Rainbow asked Twilight.

Twilight thought for a bit “We can’t take his magic away because it’s too strong. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it”.

“What bridge? I don’t remember crossing a bridge to get in there.”, Pinkie asked.

“It’s just an expression, Pinkie.”, Twilight reminded her pink friend.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go and get their cutie marks back!”, Rarity said.

The six ponies and three fillies snuck into the sorcerer’s lair, unbeknownst that he’d set up a trap for them. The trap was triggered, trapping everypony inside an impenetrable cage, immune to any magic.

“I told you to stay out of my way. You didn’t listen.”, the sorcerer told the ponies before him.

“Of course we didn’t! Did you think you could just take our cutie marks and get away with it?”, Scootaloo asked with fury.

“Like we’d ever let you take away all our hard work and not do somethin’ about it!”, Apple Bloom told the foe that stood before them.

“I couldn’t agree more!”, Sweetie Belle followed.

The trio’s three sisters looked on with pride as they witnessed their younger siblings’ resolve. They may not’ve had as much experience with dealing with threats to Equestria, but they could still know when to not back down.

“I don’t care one whit about what you think. Neither you, nor your sisters or cutie marks, are going anywhere.”, the sorcerer told them with a dead serious tone.

“You’re gonna have to try harder than that to scare the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”, Apple Bloom said. “Wastin’ all that time and magic creating fake copies of our sisters to get our cutie marks? How sad could you possibly be?”

Applejack signaled to her little sister to lay off and not push any harder, but the little filly wouldn’t listen.

“Why do you even care about our cutie marks anyway? What could they possibly mean to you?”, Apple Bloom asked.

The sorcerer undid the magic surrounding Apple Bloom, grabbed her by her mane, and dragged her to the center of his lair in front of the other ponies.

“What are you doin’ to her?! Let go of her right now! You hear me?!”, Applejack commanded their foe.

“She’s our friend! Give her back this instant!”, Sweetie Belle also commanded.

“She was just talking! Bring her back!”, Scootaloo followed Sweetie Belle.

The sorcerer again used his magic to hold Apple Bloom in place before finally opening his mouth again.

“It seems that in order to keep you in check and not be any more of a nuisance, you’ll have to go through a little pain”.

“Wh-what do you mean by that?”, Twilight asked worriedly.

“You’ll see.”, the sorcerer addressed the Princess’s question.

Without another word, the sorcerer swung his cane right across the young Apple’s face, knocking her tooth out in the process.

As Apple Bloom held her mouth and cried out in pain, the magical barrier surrounding Applejack was the only thing stopping her from galloping up to that sorcerer and giving him a peace of her mind. She couldn’t stand seeing her little sister in such pain.

The other Crusaders shared the bigger farm pony’s feelings. Scootaloo had bitten her tongue hard as to not lash out and get what Apple Bloom had just received, and Sweetie Belle was also upset, but also simultaneously shocked at the punishment her friend had been dealt.

The sorcerer scolded the yellow filly “That’s what happens when you press me too hard.”

He then grabbed Apple Bloom by her mane once again, and re-summomed the barrier he had put up. However, Apple Bloom was in too much pain to put up any sort of resistance.

Rainbow Dash piped up “Once we get out of here, you’re gonna wish you hadn’t done all this”.

The enemy that stood before her simply turned away, not paying her any mind.

Rainbow’s fellow pegasus Fluttershy spoke up as well and asked the question that had been plaguing everypony’s minds since the Crusaders’ cutie marks had first ended up in the sorcerer’s possession.

“What are you going to do with their cutie marks?”

The sorcerer replied “What I plan to do with them shouldn’t be important to you, but if you must know, I’m going to keep these marks forever for my studies. Nopony seems to know why they are similar, but my purpose for obtaining these girls’ cutie marks is simply to understand them. To understand why their close friendship warrants their similar cutie marks, and to understand why a set of ponies can have similar cutie marks if the very nature of them is to represent individuality amongst a pony’s special talent. That is why I currently have them in my possession. I have no delusions of equality amongst ponies with cutie marks”.

“Our cutie marks bein’ the same has a reason that you can’t ever understand. That reason is our crusade to get them and the bond that we built up along the way, as well as the friends we helped and made while we tried to get our cutie marks.”, Apple Bloom told the sorcerer.

“Did I not say that your friendship warrants your marks’ similarities?”, the sorcerer asked.

“You said it alright, but you left out one important part: The effort we put in to get our cutie marks and the lessons we learned allowed us to finally earn what was rightfully ours, and it wasn’t until we stopped worryin’ about ourselves and started thinkin’ about other ponies that we finally got our cutie marks, and I couldn’t be more thankful of how it all happened”.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself.”, Scootaloo complimented her earth pony friend.

“You nailed it, Apple Bloom.”, Sweetie Belle added.

“That’s my little sister.”, Applejack said proudly.

“Save your sentiments. These cutie marks are too rare and intriguing to give up, and no amount of friendship, effort, or learning you display will ever change my mind.”, the sorcerer told the filly and her friends.

“We’ll see about that.”, Scootaloo said determinedly.

***

After an hour of racking their brains, the Crusaders huddled together along with the 6 ponies and worked out a plan. The Crusaders would work as a distraction, while the main six would take the opportunity to retrieve the girls’ cutie marks. It would take some effort, since he was smarter than some of their other adversaries, but with the workings of a team, it could most definitely be pulled off.

Apple Bloom started the distraction, wailing in pain in the most convincing manner she could.

“Ow! Maybe you shouldn’t have broken my tooth so hard!”

Scootaloo started her bit of the plan, as she tried to set up a stunt she could execute to make as much of a racket as possible. She purposely tried using the walls of his lair as a way to get some air, and knocked over some items that made lots of noise as they hit the ground and broke.

Sweetie Belle’s task was simply to try and disrupt the sorcerer’s magic to further the distraction.

With all of this noise going on, the sorcerer had reached the end of his rope and turned to the three girls.

“What is this chaos? Trying to escape? You should know very well by now that escape should be impossible for you to achieve”.

While the sorcerer was occupied, the main six snuck behind him and reached for the glass casings holding the Crusaders’ cutie marks.

Hearing the sound of hoofsteps and following the Crusaders’ eyes as they tried to uphold the distraction, he turned to see the six ponies in the act and stuck out his cane in their path to obstruct their progress

“You’ll have to try harder than that to fool me. If you really want the cutie marks so badly, then come and take them.”, the sorcerer challenged.

The lone villain rushed the ponies standing before him as a fierce struggle began.

Author's Note:

I wanted to make this chapter longer than the shorter previous ones, and present some character moments and physically active moments for the characters. I might try to incorporate a tad bit more of the Mane Six next time.

Any criticism is welcome, of course.