Dylan squirmed in his bed. He had spent so long going in and out of consciousness, unable to tell how much time had passed. To him, it felt like forever, as if time had been stretched out to infinite lengths. On occasion, he could feel a spoon full of soup slipping into his mouth and a comforting hoof on his forehead, most likely checking his temperature.
After what seemed like forever, he opened his eyes to see Applebloom at his bedside. She stared at him with curiosity, as if he were completely foreign to her.
"Dylan? Are ya feelin' any better?" she asked.
Dylan nodded. "How long was I out?"
"A week," Applebloom replied. "I think you should see yourself..."
"I'm a pony, aren't I?" Dylan asked. He somehow knew. Enough time had passed, so it would have been obvious. He didn't feel bad about it though. In fact, he felt even more cemented into the Apple family because of it, because he was like them now.
Applebloom nodded in response. After helping Dylan up, she helped him take his first steps as a pony. It felt odd to him. He wasn't sure if he'd ever get used to it. Dylan had trouble getting down the stairs, almost falling twice.
On the way out, Dylan saw himself in a mirror on the wall. He truly was a pony, an earth pony to be exact. His coat was a chesnut brown, and his pale blue eyes were bigger. His mane was a dusty blond color, just like his hair when he was human, except it was longer, and seemed to be free-flowing.
When they got outside, Dylan could see Applejack packing crates with glass bottles full of a strange rainbow colored substance. There were hundreds of bottles, leading Dylan to wonder what had happened while he was unconscious. "Applejack?"
Applejack turned around and smiled when she saw Dylan. "Well, howdy there! Glad to see yer up! How's the new body feelin?"
Dylan smiled back with a look of pride on his face. "I'm doin' great! What are y'all doin' though?"
Applejack looked confused until she realized what Dylan was asking about. "Oh! We're gettin' this zap apple jam packed up for Filthy Rich! We promised to him the first hundred jars for his business."
"Oh..." Dylan rubbed the back of his head nervously. "He came by earlier while I was sick. Said he was sorry for callin' me an ape or somethin' like that. I can't really recall..."
"Well," Applejack replied as she turned back to packing her crates, "At least he apologized. He knows that he makes mistake, and he will apologize at times for them when he realizes he's wrong. His wife is a completely different story though."
"Yeah," Applebloom chimed in, "I remember when Spoiled Rich used to pressure Diamond Tiara to be like her. But now Diamond Tiara is her own pony thanks to me and the rest of the Crusaders!"
This piqued Dylan's interest. "Crusaders?"
"Yeah!" confirmed Applebloom, "I'm in the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We help other ponies with their cutie mark problems!"
"What's a cutie mark?" Dylan was now confused, tilting his head.
Applebloom's pupils grew smaller as her eyes grew wider. "You've never heard of a cutie mark?!"
"Nu uh?" Dylan was now concerned with what may happen next.
"A cutie mark is the most wonderful thing in the whole entire world!" Applebloom explained excitedly. "It only appears when you find your life's calling!"
"Life's callin'?" Dylan felt like he shouldn't have asked, yet he did anyways.
"Yeah! Somethin' you've always liked to do, somethin' yer good at!" Applebloom felt major pride from her knowledge of the subject. It felt good to tell someone about it. She looked Dylan over and noticed something. "Wait... you don't have one!"
Dylan looked back at his flank and nodded. "It's nothin' bad. I think I can live without one."
"Nu uh!" Applebloom began to push Dylan across the ground and onto the nearby dirt path. "No adoptive brother of mine is gonna be called a blank flank! You'll be thankin' me later!"
"Girls! We got ourselves a cutie mark emergency!" Applebloom stood at a table with a large white spreadsheet laying across it. On it were pictures with check boxes next to them, all unmarked.
Next to Applebloom were two fillies. One with a pretty white coat and even prettier purple and pink mane while the other had an orange coat with a purple/pinkish mane.
Dylan looked out the window of the clubhouse. It made him feel excited to be in a treehouse for the first time. He'd always dreamed of being in one since he was little. "This is so cool! I've never been in one of these before!"
The three fillies approached Dylan. The orange one, Scootaloo, looked at Dylan's flank. "So, Dylan! Whaddya wanna do first?"
Dylan turned around to face the trio. "What do I wanna do? What do you mean?"
The white filly, Sweetie Belle, held up a list. "We drew up a list of things you could try in order to get you your cutie mark! We could try dancing, bowling, skateboarding, or anything really!"
"I've never really done any of those before." Dylan looked at Scootaloo with a confused look. How does a pony skateboard?
Sweetie Belle took another look at her list. "We've also got skydiving, bear wrestling, and bull fighting!"
This made Dylan gulp. What were these fillies thinking? "I don't think I'm cut out for those last three... Don't you have anything safer?"
"Swimmer?" Scootaloo suggested.
"Guitarist!" Applebloom chimed.
"Underwear model!" Sweetie Belle shouted. This earned her a look from her two companions.
"What?" Sweetie Belle asked, "It could happen!"
Dylan imagined himself wearing underwear as a pony, and it just didn't seem natural. He shuddered before looking at Sweetie Belle's list. "Anything else? I'm sorry, but... I've tried playing guitar and I was never very good at it, and I'm ok at swimming, but I could never be up there with the big shots."
"We've got plenty more things to try!" Applebloom assured.
"I've got an idea!" Scootaloo said excitedly.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Dylan stood upon the top of the clubhouse, looking down at a small inflatable swimming pool.
"High diving is sure to be your cutie mark!" Scootaloo encouraged. She turned off the water hose that had been filling up the pool. "Besides, you don't even have to be a good swimmer to jump into a pool!"
"What would a high diving cutie mark even look like?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"We're ready when you are, Dylan!" Applebloom called up.
Dylan stared downward at the small swimming pool, his pulse racing. He closed his eyes and jumped, screaming on the way down before splashing into the pool. He poked his head out of the water, confused as to how he was still alive in such a shallow body of water. Fuck physics, he thought.
"Did you get anything?" Scootaloo asked, looking at Dylan's flank.
"Still blank," Sweetie Belle said. She rubbed her chin with her hoof, thinking deeply. "Oh! I got one!"
"Sweetie Belle, darling, you know I'm busy today. I have to finish up these dresses for Sapphire Shores' performance in Bitsburg," a busy pony said.
Dylan and the Crusaders were at a fanciful boutique that screamed "sophisticated." At a table stood a beautiful white pony with dazzling diamonds as a cutie mark and a royal purple mane. She was using a sewing machine on a luminescent cloth. Dylan had never seen fabric glow before.
"But can't you at least loan us some stuff to make dresses with if you don't have the time to teach him?" Scootaloo asked.
"I'd feel absolutely dreadful if someone were to be harmed by my sewing machine," the fanciful pony admitted.
"We could just use ordinary needles," Sweetie Belle pointed out. "That way we can go slow and not get hurt! Please, Rarity?"
"Well, I suppose..." The white pony, who was apparantly named Rarity, trotted over to a fancy blue dresser. She opened up a drawer and pulled out a couple of needles and a few thread spools.
Scootaloo noticed a box in a corner of the boutique. It seemed to hold random fabrics, with no organization whatsoever. "Could we use those, too?"
"Help yourself, Darling. Those are fabrics beyond redemption," Rarity replied. After handing the objects over to Sweetie Belle, she walked out of the boutique with her briefcase, saying, "I have to go now. If you need anything, just send me a letter!"
When Rarity was out of sight, the crusaders sat Dylan down at the table. Dylan dumped out the box's contents, pieces of fabric flooding the table.
"Dylan is obviously a designer!" Sweetie Belle proclaimed.
"I don't even know how to sew," Dylan protested.
"I can help!" Sweetie Belle assured, and soon, he was set to work.
Six Hours Later...
"It's... hideous," Scootaloo commented, and she was right.
Rarity wasn't kidding when she said the fabrics were beyond redemption. Dylan had tried to keep a consistent fabric, but no matter how hard he had tried, none of the fabrics could match each other. In fact, they didn't seem to match themselves.
What Dylan had done was create a frankenstein blanket, made up of hideous yellows and browns. "I don't think even a hobo would want this..."
"No cutie mark yet," Applebloom commented, "But ya gave it yer best shot! I think I got an idea though!"
Back at the clubhouse, Dylan and the Crusaders sat in a circle around a mess of glass vials. Applebloom held one of the vials up to Dylan, and he accepted it. It had been filled with a green liquid.
"Twilight taught me how to make different kinds of potions!" Applebloom proudly stated. "This one is supposed to help plants grow!"
Dylan looked at the liquid closely before sniffing it. It smelled like burnt tires to him. "Sounds like you can make potions for pretty much anything."
"Not everything," Applebloom explained. "There isn't one that can make your cutie mark appear, but maybe if you find your calling in potion making, you'll finally get it!"
"I still don't understand how a cutie mark is special..." Dylan commented as he mixed two potions together into one vial.
"It's what tells a pony what their talent is!" Sweetie Belle answered.
"But what if I don't wanna know my talent? What if I'm already happy?" Dylan began mixing more potions into the one vial, causing it to bubble.
"But I don't want ya to be made fun of like we were..." Applebloom looked at Dylan with big ol' puppy eyes.
Dylan smiled and rubbed Applebloom's mane, ruffling it up. "Don't you worry about me. I just need to go at my own pace. And if anyone makes fun of me, I still got you guys."
"Uhh... Dylan?!" Scootaloo cried out, pointing at the bubbling vial. It had been shaking for a while now.
"W-What do I do?!" Dylan asked, now concerned that he may have made some sort of bomb.
"I dunno! Usually when I do something wrong it explodes before I can do anyth-"
KABOOM!
Dylan scrubbed down his goop-covered fur as he soaked himself in the bathtub at home. It had been a crazy day for him, and still no cutie mark. As he dried off, he thought back to how Applebloom was so determined to make sure he wasn't picked on. It made him feel welcome to the Apple family.
He walked past Applebloom's room and caught a glimpse of her in bed. She was sleeping peacefully, and Dylan couldn't help but smile. He felt like they were of the same flesh and blood.