The Cutie Master

by Hogbobson

I: I Don't Know

The Cutie Master

Chapter 1: I Don’t Know

After having usurped the throne from the alicorn rulers of the Sun and the Moon, Princess Twilight Sparkle ruled the magical kingdom of Equestria with an iron grip. There were no smiles. There was no laughter. Was Princess Sparkle in a good mood, all was terrible. Was Her Majesty in a bad mood, I dare not speak of the consequences.

I am, of course, merely jesting. In the story I am about to tell you (and I am quite fond of stories, indeed), Princess Twilight Sparkle was no tyrant, nor had she usurped the throne – although she was ruler of the fair kingdom.

You see, the past 20 years or so, something had been rather odd in the land of the magical ponies. Everything had begun to turn weaker, somehow. As if the magical essence of which the ponies drew their powers had begun to wane, although it was hardly noticeable at first.

The unicorns of the land, being magical in nature, were first to notice. Levitation was not as much of a breeze as it used to be, and teleportation became nigh impossible for all but the most skilled of unicorns. But Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle’s predecessor, had informed the fine ponies that she had indeed experienced this kind of magical flux before: it would soon pass.

But soon the problems seemed to spread. The pegasi of Las Pegasus and Cloudsdale were the next to be hit. For although a winged pony is physical in its natural element, air, some magic does play in, as a flying equine hardly has any aerodynamics. The pegasi were having troubles controlling the weather, not to mention the problems that came around during their other duties. Unexpected storms arose, seemingly out of nowhere, and whenever water reserves had to be sent to Cloudsdale for the next season, it was more often than not that several assistance teams were required to reach the minimum power to propel the water properly.

The earth ponies of Equestria, relying on simple, brute strength and stamina, were seemingly unaffected for many a season, which was quite fortunate indeed, as it was they who were in charge of tending to the land, growing crops, and thus feeding the entirety of Equestria. However, eventually they, too, began to feel this “magical flux”, as Princess Celestia had coined it. The harvests seemed poorer, and the earth ponies felt rather exhausted beyond that which comes naturally with being a farmer.

The alicorn princesses, being the most magical and powerful in all of Equestria, were last to be struck by this phenomenon. However, when it struck, it struck hard. Princess Luna of the Night and Princess Celestia of the Day had to abdicate from the throne altogether, as they were too weak to both rule Equestria and raise the Moon and the Sun, respectively. Only with the loving care (and a good chunk of magical help) from Princess Mi Amore Cadenza were the alicorn sisters able to do their duties as raisers of Sun and Moon, and that only with great strain. Some even claimed that the Sun had begun glowing weaker with every passing year, but that was nothing more but mere paranoid whisperings amongst the commoners on the streets, if you ask me.

With the diarchs of Equestria being quite unavailable, it was up to Princess Twilight Sparkle to keep order in the kingdom of the ponies. Being almost the living manifestation of magic herself, she somehow was very much able to hold her head as well as her abilities high in this mysterious catastrophe that plagued the land. But she, too, felt the strain of the so-called “magical flux”. However, Twilight Sparkle had been Princess Celestia’s star pupil in the teachings of magic when she was but a filly, and knew very much about how to handle magic in times of crisis – learnt from the history books, of course. But in a somewhat amusing turn of events, it turned out she had to be the pupil once again, but this time in how to properly rule a country of equines, and I assure you, it was no simple task!

The only equine being utterly unaffected by all of this was not even fully equine altogether. Discord, Draconequus and the Avatar of Chaos, was at his full capacity. As to why, nobody knew. The Avatar of Chaos works in mysterious ways, it was said.

Although a being of Chaos seems like a bad idea in this scenario – some even dared to imply that he was the cause for all the trouble – Discord had been reformed from Evil to Good a long time ago, and he wouldn’t dare causing anything but minor, everyday chaos as pranks these days, much less drive the entirety of Equestria to ruin. In fact, he would have been a valuable asset during the crisis. Alas, he had left Equestria many a year ago, never to be seen since, although the princesses would hesitate not to call upon his aid if things seemed to get out of hoof.

As you can see, this was all quite distressing indeed, and that was the biggest understatement Equestria had heard since Discord first escaped from his magical stone prison, and the antics he caused were described as “rather unusual”.

A certain darkness fell over Equestria. Not a literal darkness, of course, as the Sun still shone bright, but the uncanny darkness of despair. The brightest heads of the land had estimated that if things did not soon improve, be it by chance or their scientific discovery, Equestria would have less than 80 years of relative prosperity left. In fact, “relative prosperity” simply meant: “A decent amount of Equestrian ponies are alive.” Everypony went about their business as usual. After all, what else could they do? Sit down and cry like foals? That would imply giving up, and nopony in Equestria would ever give up. They were a strong race, and they had faith in their leaders. Everything would work out, somehow.

However, with the alicorn sisters disabled, the unicorns tapped of magic, the pegasi in weathery disarray, the earth ponies weak, the scientists scratching their heads in befuddlement, and the goodly Discord nowhere to be found, who would be able to work it out? The ponies turned to their newfound monarch, Princess Twilight Sparkle, but she had few answers, and knew not how to fix it. In fact, she never did. For this story I am about to tell you is not about Twilight Sparkle at all (though she does play an important role in it, as you will see). It is about her grandson: Morning Light.

_______________________________

“Let’s quiet down, please! We have a very important lesson to get to,” said an old, but kind voice in the busy classroom. The greying mare knew this particular lesson like the back of her hoof; she had indeed been through it many a time. As always, the young colts and fillies fell silent, for she was a much respected teacher indeed, and was thus able to continue:

“Thank you. Today we’re going to be talking about cutie marks!” she said, as she walked up to a small stand, and removed the topmost paper, revealing a plethora of pictures depicting various cutie marks.

Some of the small ones gave excited gasps, while others just watched in awe.

“You can all see my cutie mark, can’t you?” she said, as she proudly flashed the three smiling flowers she sported on her flank. A few nods of acknowledgement spread in class.

“Like all ponies: I wasn’t born with a cutie mark,” she continued, as she removed another paper from the stand, behind which were a few veritably ancient photographs of a filly so much younger than the old mare standing before the class. There was little resemblance between them, unless you made quite the effort to search for it.

“Miss Cheerilee,” asked a yellow filly on the second row, “who is that?”

Cheerilee managed to keep down a wince, then threw a rather stiff smile at the class. “Believe or not; I am the young filly in these pictures,” she had to tell the class, as she had discovered she often had to the last years. Alas, growing old is a tough, but mandatory thing of life.

“and as you see:” she said, as she pointed at the first picture her as a small, purple foal, “my flank; was blank.

“Then one day, when I was about your age, I woke up to find that a cutie mark had appeared!” She removed the picture of the foal, and thus revealed another of a significantly more mature, older filly with the craziest mane style you can imagine. A few of the young ponies made a rather poor effort not to chuckle, as you do not laugh at one of the most respected teachers in Canterlot. The adolescent Miss Cheerilee was sporting the same three smiling flowers the old teacher before the class wore.

“I had decided to become a teacher, and the flowers symbolised the hope that I could help my future students bloom if I nurtured them with knowledge!” Miss Cheerilee continued, “the smiles represented the cheer (!) I hoped to bring to my little ponies while they were learning!”

“Now,” the class perked, ready for the obvious impending question: “can anyone tell me when a pony gets his or her cutie mark?”

Being the grandson of the legendary Twilight Sparkle, Morning Light’s aquamarine hoof was naturally first in the air.

“Yes, Morning Light?”

“I do believe it is when a pony discovers their certain talent that sets them out from the rest of the crowd. That which makes them special, if you will.”

“That’s right, Morning Light! A cutie mark appears on a pony’s flank when he or she finds that certain something that makes them different from every other pony!” Cheerilee taught on. She was obviously in her element, and rightly so, for cutie marks were a topic very fond to her indeed.

“That’s what I just said!” half-chuckled Morning Light to himself, but paid it no further mind.

“Discovering what makes you unique isn’t something that happens overnight. And no amount of hoping, wishing, or begging will make a cutie mark appear before its time!

“Also, every cutie mark is unique. You will never find two looking exactly the same; every cutie mark is as special as the pony wearing it,” Miss Cheerilee finished, smiling at the captivated students.

The class looked simply astonished after this thorough lecture. Everypony were either in obvious deep thought or busy furiously taking notes. A small, mint-coloured unicorn filly in the front most row actually managed to break her pencil in the midst of the excitement, although she was quite quick to get a new one. Telekinesis is a handy thing.

“Now,” Cheerilee spoke again, “does anypony have any questions regarding cutie marks?” She gleamed with a cheer in her eyes at the classroom full of knowledge-hungry fillies and colts.

Quite a step up from Ponyville, she thought to herself, even though I miss not living in a large city, I’m glad I took this offer. And it was not the first time she had thought such. Canterlot, and especially Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, offered so many more enthusiastic students. It was a good thing they accepted earth ponies as teachers, too.

A deep blue colt raised his hoof for a question. He had a snorkel for a cutie mark, but how he managed to deal with a talent related to that sort of depiction in a large city as Canterlot, much less deal with it on a daily basis, few ponies knew. Rumour had it that he had a distant relative in the mythical sea ponies of the far south.

“Yes, Deep Sea?” Miss Cheerilee asked kindly.

“I was just wondering…” started the colt slowly, then hesitated.

“Go on.”

“Never mind, Miss Cheerilee, it’s stupid anyway,” Deep Sea said, shuffling a bit in his seat.

“Now, don’t be so shy. No question is stupid. Not in my class, at least,” she reassured with a smile.

“Okay…” the colt dared continue, “I was just wondering: you said no two cutie marks are ever the same…”

“Yes?”

Deep Sea took a deep breath: “Well, my uncle, Swift Nail, has a hammer for cutie mark – he’s really good with hammers – but then I saw a stranger on the street the other day that also had a hammer for a cutie mark, and how can that be and I’m really confused!” Deep Sea buried his face in his hooves in deep shame. The class switched between a befuddled, inquisitive look at Miss Cheerilee and a pitiful, concerned look at Deep Sea.

“That’s a very good question, Deep Sea,” Miss Cheerilee reassured.

“It is?” the colt peeped from behind his hooves.

“Mhm. Does anyone know the answer?”

Not even Morning Light’s hoof went up to answer, although you could hardly blame him anything; cutie marks were little researched in those days, and there were few books about them. Even a knowledge-hungry descendant of Twilight Sparkle would have troubles with a topic like it.

“It’s not as strange as it sounds, but it can be a little tricky to see at first,” Miss Cheerilee started to answer when none of her pupils volunteered to do so, “like different ponies’ special talents can be similar, so can their cutie marks. I can assure you, Deep Sea, that your uncle’s and the stranger’s cutie marks might be similar, but they are different. I don’t know, the one hammer might be… a darker shade of grey, or it could be… from a different angle, or even upside down!” Cheerilee chuckled.

“Oh!” Deep Sea exclaimed, happy for the explanation.

“Yes! I have a fun example I’ve seen myself of the similarities between three ponies’ cutie marks and their special talents: One of my old friends, Tea Cup, has exactly a tea cup as a cutie mark. Can anypony guess what her special talent is?”

The mint-green filly (with a fresh pencil!) cautiously raised her hoof: “She was good at… drinking tea?”

“Almost,” Miss Cheerilee nodded. “She was good at making tea. Many different kinds of tea. She used to sell them.”

“Cool!”

“She had another friend here in Canterlot. A nice gentlecolt named Earl Grey, who also had a cutie mark of a tea cup. Can you guess what his special talent is?”

Deep Sea’s hoof shot to the air like a rocket! Others did follow, but he could barely contain himself from answering before Miss Cheerilee pointed him out.

“He was good at making tea!”

Miss Cheerilee smiled. “A good guess, but no.”

“Aww,” Deep Sea buried his face in his hooves again. The class mate next to him tried to comfort him, but little did it help, that is, not until Miss Cheerilee spoke up again, and he heard that he had been tricked indeed!

“Earl Grey was good at tasting different kinds of tea, and their level of quality. He actually worked as tea critique for many years, and helped Tea Cup with her tea.”

“So they have almost the same cutie mark but two different special talents?” asked a brown colt.

“That’s right, Oak Root, but there’s more! See, just last week at a café, I met a mare with a tea bag as a cutie mark.”

Morning Light’s hoof went up: “And I suppose she was good at making tea? Many different kinds of tea?”

“Right you are, Morning Light! You see, class? I know three different ponies, two had almost the same cutie mark, but different special talents, while two others had almost the same special talent, but different cutie marks. There are so, so many ways cutie marks can look, and so, so many special talents cutie marks can represent. We shouldn’t run out of combinations anytime soon.” And with that remark, Miss Cheerilee winked to the class, and thus she made nearly 25 young fillies and colts giggle. She truly was a teacher at heart.

“Are there any more questions? Plum Cake?”

A purple filly had her hoof raised.

“How about magic?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you said no amount of hoping, wishing, or begging could make a cutie mark appear before its time. But how about magic? Could you magically make a cutie mark appear?”

Miss Cheerilee chuckled. “No, I don’t think even Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight Sparkle combined could make a cutie mark appear before its time, even if they wanted to.”

Again the class giggled.

“I’ve heard about a strange disease once. What was it? Cutie pox?” asked a crimson filly.

“The cutie pox was a mysterious disease affecting ponies many, many years ago. It not only made a lot of cutie marks appear all over an infected pony’s body, it also made the pony do the talent related to the cutie marks, causing massive chaos. It disappeared without a trace a long time ago.” Miss Cheerilee briefly thought back to an incident that happened when she was much younger. A young filly, desperate to get her cutie mark, had concocted herself a weird potion and somehow inflicted cutie pox upon herself, but that is a different story altogether.

“Are there no more questions?” she asked, half-expecting there to be none. This class has been much more inquisitive than her usual classes, and although she didn’t mind at all – she in fact really liked answering the young ponies’ questions – but she couldn’t possibly imagine there to be any more of those questi-

“I have one,” sounded Morning Light’s voice from the back of the class.

“Well, let’s hear it!” said Miss Cheerilee with a smile.

“Where do cutie marks come from?”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Cheerilee answered, “cutie marks grow in your coat: you wouldn’t see one if you shaved yourself, but it would grow out again. And as we have already stated, the cutie mark will appear when you find your special talent…”

“That’s not what I meant. I – we – are very well aware of what and when, but I’m asking wherefrom, how… and perhaps why?”

“Well, I…” Morning Light’s question had Miss Cheerilee completely flummoxed. Never before had she been asked that. Furthermore, she had never expected to be, though she had wondered about the answer herself. Miss Cheerilee had to regain her posture, and she did.

“Well, Morning Light, cutie marks are very magical in nature, and they are difficult to study. Because very few young ponies want to devote themselves to science, there aren’t many scientific studies on them, much less their initial appearance.”

“Wait, does that mean?” Morning Light asked nervously.

“Yes, Morning Light.”

The entire classroom of fillies and colts suddenly held their breaths, for this was something you saw very rarely, if ever, at a school such esteemed as this.

“I don’t know.”

Author's Note:

Well! It's all downhill from here!

We're talking my first fiction here, so, please, be gentl-I mean: TEAR ME TO SHREDS!

Corrections and suggestions are much appreciated!

Some proofreading done by The Red Hawk...

Comments

[Zuton97]

>not naming your character Ignus Morteram
You lack virtu.

[Jgame]

Dang. I did not the last line coming. Great read so far.

One thing I personally don't like in stories though (and present in yours) is unknown commentators giving exposition about the world. Instead of the first thirteen paragraphs, you could've had every single part of that info easily revealed through the classroom conversation. (Morning Light gets insulted for being Twilight Sparkle's grandson instead of directly telling the reader, the cutie marks failing, ect.)

However, don't think for a moment that I didn't like the story. The writing itself past the exposition is great.

[Hogbobson]

2864377 I am no good at checking these things...

Thank you, for the kind words! I am experimenting a bit, finding do's and don't's, stuff like that! All that remains is more practise, and less procrastination!

Thanks for reading and commenting!