The Price of the Cutie Mark
The Price of the Cutie Mark
By Wanderer D
o.0.o
Princess Celestia sat on her throne, overlooking the day court. While inevitably she would have days where she would be bored out of her mind for living through the motions for yet another day after thousands of years, today was not so.
It was in fact, quite the opposite. For, hovering in front of her, was the open scroll that Twilight had penned for her mere seconds ago... and for once in her lifetime (really, for about the 16th time, although 10 times had had happened in the last year or two), she was speechless.
A griffon had acquired a Cutie Mark.
A griffon.
With a Cutie Mark. A dwindling of long-forgotten hope blossomed in her heart. Could this be the return of a border-less world? A place where something as simple as a Cutie Mark was not regarded as a symbol of superiority or grounds some "nobles" used as an argument to throw out helpless immigrants?
She quickly re-read Twilight's hastily written note: The Cutie Mark Crusaders had somehow unlocked the potential in a griffon visitor named Gabby and had reported to Twilight their success.
"Captain Cloud Hammer!" she barked, quieting the whole court with the sudden call.
Every noble stared in confusion and a little bit of fear. It was not normal for her majesty to speak up with such urgency, interrupting the diatribe report of the Minister of Forgotten Items' latest forages into the Royal Chamber—an activity that entertained most of the court.
They parted as soon as the court doors slammed open, allowing for a large, muscle-bound Pegasus Captain to fly in and bow at the bottom of the steps leading to Celestia's throne.
"Your Majesty!" he exclaimed, not looking up at her. "You summoned me."
Celestia nodded, her visage a frown of concern. "I did, Captain. According to Princess Twilight, a griffon named Gabby is headed back to Griffonstone. She cannot be allowed to leave our territories."
This caused a murmur to grow among the courtesans.
Captain Cloud Hammer looked up, surprised. "But... your Majesty... we cannot lawfully detain a griffon from returning home, unless she has committed a crime?"
"It is far worse that that, Captain," Celestia declared. "This griffon... if she leaves our territories might start a war with what's left of the Griffon Empire. She must detained and taken to the Friendship Castle along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders to meet with me and Princess Twilight."
Captain Cloud Hammer nodded. He didn't understand the exact reason behind the Princess' orders, but that was not necessary. He would do his job.
As soon as the Captain was gone, Celestia stood up. "I must go, my little ponies. If there are any urgent matters, please bring them up with my secretary."
And the next moment she was gone.
o.0.o
Celestia materialized in a ray of sunshine in the middle of the Castle of Friendship. "Twilight!"
"She's in the library," Spike said, walking past the princess. "New project. You know how it is."
Celestia watched in silence as the little dragon walked past her, silently thanking the fates that Twilight hadn't informed her pre-pubescent assistant of what had transpired earlier that day. The less individuals involved, the better.
With the appearance of utter calm, Celestia walked up to the library and stepped inside, closing the doors behind them. Already, she could see her former student buried in a veritable fort of books, scroll after scroll of notes floating out from behind them, no doubt elaborating on dangerous theories of how the crusaders had accomplished what was thought impossible by the last few generations of ponies.
"Twilight," she called gently.
Twilight's disheveled mane popped from behind the books, preceding the emergence of Twilight herself. "Princess! What are you doing here? Are you excited? I'm excited! Never in the recorded history of Equestria has a member of another species earned a Cutie Mark!"
"Yes, about that..."
"I wonder how they did it!" Twilight blabbered on, ignoring Celestia's attempt to interrupt her. "I've developed five theories so far—"she did not notice Celestia's body tensing—"but until I talk to Gabby, I won't know how she did it!"
"Twilight."
"Isn't wonderful news?!"
"Twilight."
"A brand new area of study!"
"Twilight!"
"Just imagine! Dragons with Cutie Marks! Sirens! Manticores! Donk—"
She found her mouth abruptly shut by the familiar feeling of Celestia's magic around it. "Now, Twilight, listen to me. It's very important that you don't look deeper into this. We already have a lot of work to do."
Once she was sure she had Twilight's full attention on herself, she released the magic, allowing Twilight to speak again. "What do you mean, Princess?"
Celestia sat down, and after casting several spells on the library door, glanced at Twilight with a little bit of concern. "Twilight, what I'm about to tell you does not leave this room, understood?"
Twilight nodded, settling down and staring intently at the princess.
"I had to have this talk with Luna and Discord as well... I just never thought... I'm sorry." Celestia stopped talking and took a deep breath, clearly centering herself. "There is no easy way to say it, so I'll be blunt... Twilight, other species have had Cutie Marks before."
Twilight blinked. "What? But... there's no record of—"
"There isn't because I erased them."
Twilight gave Celestia a look of horror. "But that's... that's evil! Why would you do that?"
"A long time ago, all species were able to get Cutie Marks," Celestia explained. "Griffons, Buffalo... any being who discovered their talent, could have them appear... except for dragons, who for some reason had never in my memory possessed them... but as time went by, certain species started developing certain traits... Buffalo and Donkeys became too stubborn; Griffons too selfish; Sirens... well, evil and Yaks were yaks. The Cutie Marks started disappearing from them and completely vanished within two generations.
"The other species thought that we had something to do with it, and blamed the ponies, even though Zebras as well had been able to keep their marks. But they were always a distant lot, and seldom seen outside their lands... and similar enough in looks to ponies for most of the others to not care.
"Although we investigated the matter with several teams of magicians, including Starswirl and myself, we never found the reason why others had lost their marks and we hadn't. The other races conducted their own experiments, but nothing seemed to work. It was speculated that it had to do with the loss of their collective purpose and connection with the world... but the Buffalo were a clear proof to the contrary and thus, year after year, the others grew more and more frustrated.
"This started a war... the other species thought we were denying them their destiny and their choices. That we were hoarding the power of true talents to control the world. I think, in part, that is why they left their cultures to degrade like they did for the most part. The Buffalo held on to their traditions, not really blaming us, but resenting us regardless. As generations fought, I decided to simply turn things into a misunderstanding.
"Through careful probing and manipulation of information, I convinced the leaders of the other species that they had never had Cutie Marks to begin with and that it had been a bid from their leaders centuries ago to take land from Equestria. Their elders were long gone, and the new leaders were weary of battle. It was all they had known in their lives, and so, we arranged a treaty where territories were re-drawn and each of us could live in peace.
"To further the idea that it was a natural thing for ponies to have, I made a decree that anypony that earned their Cutie Mark was officially considered a citizen of Equestria, and it has been law ever since."
Twilight's eyes were wide. "So you're saying that the curse that took the Cutie Marks might be disappearing?"
Celestia frowned. "I can only hope, Twilight. It will mean confessing all of this to the leaders of other nations, but for now, until we understand what is happening, Gabby has to stay with us." She smirked a little in a self-depreciating manner. "She's now a citizen as it is."
"But... what do we do? We can't keep her here against her will!"
"Until we can figure out if it's a permanent Cutie Mark, and how she did it... I dare not send her back home, Twilight. It could... no, it would start an international incident. Another four-hundred-year-war because it was apparently through Pony intervention that Gabby obtained hers." Celestia shook her head, but then smiled. "However, if we come to understand how it happened and we could use that knowledge to give the other races their Cutie Marks back..."
Twilight nodded. "Even if we all have come to expect only ponies (and zebras) to have Cutie Marks, there's always been this belief in our superiority over other races just because we have them... I remember how several years ago, Prince Blueblood used to make fun of others just because of that... I know it's still a pervading trend in court." Her eyes brightened, and she smiled. "But if this is true... then we'll bring those walls down! There won't be a false pretense of superiority for something that's outside of their control!"
Celestia nodded. "We'll have to have a long talk with Gabby if that's the case."
They were interrupted by the sound of hooves knocking on the library doors, and after a look at each other, Celestia dissipated the spell keeping them secure and preventing others from listening in.
"Come in," Twilight called.
Captain Cloud Hammer opened the door, and stepped in, followed by a very nervous young griffon and three fillies, surrounded by three guards. "I have brought Gabby the griffon and the Cutie Mark Crusaders as requested, your majesty."
Celestia smiled serenely. "Thank you Captain, you and the others can wait outside."
The princesses, fillies and griffon waited for the soldiers to leave, closing the door behind them before looking at each other.
"Gabby," Princess Celestia said, prompting the wide-eyed griffon to prostrate herself.
"Y-your highnesses!"
"Rise, young griffon. I am here because I heard of a historical moment having just transpired… I heard you got your own Cutie Mark. Congratulations!"
Gabby chuckled nervously. "Oh… that, yeah… it's um… not exactly what you think…"
"Yeah! She got one, alright!" Apple Bloom said proudly, nudging Gabby to turn to her side, displaying one of two carefully carved Cutie Mark Crusader Cutie Mark attached to her saddlebags.
"She worked really hard to find her talent," Sweetie Belle added. "And we discovered that it was helping others!"
Celestia carefully kept her beatific smile, although inside she was feeling a bit… disappointed. And yet… she felt especially proud of this group of fillies and one griffon, who had worked together and turned what their ancestors had transformed into bigotry on one side and jealousy and blame on the other into a strong friendship free of those constraints.
"Congratulations again, Gabby," Celestia said after a second. "It's a great honor to meet the first griffon to earn her Cutie Mark. I'm sure you will make the Crusaders proud."
"T-thank you princess!" Gabby stammered, bowing once more.
Celestia turned to Twilight, feeling tired all of a sudden. "Twilight, thank you for your help with that issue we talked about earlier. Maybe Gabby and the Crusaders could write you a Friendship Report over this?"
Twilight forced a smile. "Of course, Celestia."
Celestia nodded and closed her eyes… a second later she was gone.
o.0.o
"Twilight?" Scootaloo asked, drawing her attention to the girls, who were all looking at her with a bit of confusion. "You look sad."
Twilight blinked, "Oh? I'm… I um, sorry, I'm not sad!" Twilight forced a big, unconvincing smile. "How about you write that friendship report, huh? My friendship diary is in the next room, I think your adventure today would be a great addition to it!"
The girls nodded, looking at her uneasily before turning around and leaving her in the library. Twilight looked at the piled books and her notes.
"It's a shame that it was not real," she said, chuckling a little sadly as she reorganized the books. "But if whole teams of magicians back then were unable to do it, even with Starswirl's help... " she took a deep breath, thinking on Celestia's words, and what this could mean to the world.
She had honestly thought, if anypony could do it, it would have been the Crusaders. The ponies of ancient times hadn't understood friendship as well as those three fillies did. Twilight smiled. "Maybe all they needed to do was work together…"
Slowly an idea formed in her mind. She thought on Celestia's words and how she had hidden this from ponies—every species, actually—for hundreds of years. Would she keep this knowledge to herself too?
She glanced in the direction of the crusaders.
Or would she try to change the world for the better with the aid of the new generation?
It didn't take long for her to start trotting to the other room. "Girls? Let me tell you a story…"
The End?