Welcome, readers. Following the frankly unexpected success of my last My Little Pony 'fic, The Shadow, I made a short little story, inspired by the "Cutie Mark Chronicles" episode. I figure that something must've happened for Amadeus' freaky art talents, right? Anyway, this story'll be a side story, made of oneshots, often answering little nagging questions. I wonder if it'll be as good as The Shadow...

Disclaimer: I only own Amadeus.

…

"I wonder what your first piece of art was..." Twilight muttered to herself.

"... Most ponies would I think I used too many cool colors for this kind of picture, but that's the beauty of it. The excited mood's still there, while all I used for warm colors was a splash of yellow here and there, a little bit of red in this area... Orange over here..."

Amadeus was rambling on and on about one of his paintings, not noticing that Twilight had slipped away to look at some other things or that she had said something. She opened a drawer full of various papers, each one with a different picture on it.

"Hey, Amadeus, what was your first piece of art?"

"And really, I- Hm? What was that? My first piece? Ah, yes, interesting story to that one. It was-"

"Amadeus..."

"Right, right, sorry," He said, cantering over to another cabinet setup. He pulled over a step to reach the top-left drawer and pulled out the back-most folder. He blew some dust off of it, and pulled out the paper in the very back of said folder. He brushed it off.

"Ah, yes, this old thing. There's a real story to this one," He said, setting it down. It was a bright rainbow ring above Ponyville, painted from somewhere above. It wasn't the quality he was working at at the present, but spectacular for a first piece.

"This is your first painting?"

"Not just painting, first piece of art I ever made. Strange, eh? Could tell you about it, if you want..."

Before Twilight made any sort of response, he went on rambling.

"It was back when I was no more than a colt..."

…

"Odd as it may seem, I was never good at art before this picture. I loved it and all, but every time I tried it, I failed spectacularly. Play the piano? Break the keys. Try to paint? Big blob of color on paper. Carving? Sculpting? Writing? If it was art, I was horrible at it. Anyway, it was in school..."

"Hey, hey, how's the artist today?" The school bully said.

Amadeus remained silent.

"Whadja mess up this time?"

Silence.

"Heard you knocked over a statue. Just before it was finished, too!"

Silence.

"So, what'cha doin' now? Oh, what's this? A drawing? Looks horrible. Like all your other art. Just give up, you know you can't win. I'm not gonna waste time with you."

With that, he trotted off conceitedly.

"I didn't want to admit it, but that picture really washorrible."

"Oh, don't let him get on your nerves."

"Enter Nyodima. That's pronounced Nie-oh-dee-mah. She was a few years older, but was like a big sister to me. She was tall, I can tell you that. Dark blue coat, bright yellow mane. The contrast in color was spectacular. Had a horseshoe magnet for a cutie mark, and for good reason; She had magnetic properties. Her mane stood up on end due to the static, and she'd often have to be picking paperclips out of her coat. Real fun at parties, too; If a wall was a ferromagnetic metal, she could walk up it a few feet. She was-"

"What happened to her? She sounds nice. She couldn't have left you."

"... She didn't, um... Well, from what I heard, she... Well, I don't know if it's true, but, well... Um, her father was a lumberjack, and on bring your daughter to work day, she got a... A bit too close to a, um, running chainsaw, and sort of... Died. To elaborate, the chainsaw-"

"I get it! I get it! … Thanks for putting that image in my head."

"You're welcome. Anyway..."

Amadeus looked up at her solemnly, then back at his picture.

"I'm sure you'll get it right sometime. He's just a jerk. Don't let him bug you. He teases me all the time about what happened with the science fair a while back, and I just ignore him."

"Yeah, but with me, he has a point; I can't do anything! With you, he's just bringing up a stupid thing. Me, I can't paint or sculpt or carve! He's right!"

"No he isn't! You just haven't gotten it right yet. You'll get it right if you try hard enough."

The bell rang.

"Oops, we need to get to class! See ya, Amadeus!"

With that, she trotted off, while Amadeus sauntered off for his worst class: Art.

"Now, in art, I would usually just stare out the window and scratch randomly at a paper with a quill. To this day, I'm glad I would look out that window, down at the towns below..."

Amadeus made random lines on his paper and watched the clouds go over the towns. He wondered how many people down there were good artists. He wondered if he would ever be like some artists he had seen. He wondered why he was such a failure.

While contemplating, he saw a sparkle. A glimmer, barely noticeable, above a town to the right. Just after that, he saw a bright ring spread from the sparkle.
And then, something clicked in him.

He pulled a paper off the shelf and started drawing the scene he just saw before it went away. When he was satisfied with the outline, he pulled the paints over and started working furiously. One of the ponies glanced up and watched the usually uncooperative pony. His friends watched when they noticed, too. Even the teacher herself wandered over to see what he was working on.

And then, it was finished. The ring above the town, just as he had seen it. That day, he received the pair of gears that was his cutie mark, and an unusual talent for art. His mane gained music notes and started fluctuating with his mood, and his tail changed its shape to its current one.

…

"And I think that the gears were picked because gears relate to thinking, and thinking relates to creativity, and creativity relates to art. So, yeah, that's my first piece of art and how it happened."

"Interesting..." Twilight muttered. Amadeus glanced at her curiously.

"Interesting? Why interesting?"

"Well, all six of us got out cutie marks by Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom. You? You got your cutie mark from the inspiration it gave you. And we all met each other eventually..."

"Coincidence?" Amadeus wondered, "Or maybe it was fate? Nopony'll ever know, so let's not waste time worrying. Anyway, back to the other painting. I think the stars here were the most detailed part..."