It was another peaceful day in Cartenlot, the Pegasi were clearing the clouds for perfect weather; Willie, a little boy, was literally crashing through the clouds to clear them, to him it was just more fun that way; Anna, a plain blue Pegasus, on the other hand was dismissing his Pegasus duties, preferring to go fishing on his boat than waste his time getting rid of clouds. Rainbow Dash put a stop to such laziness by bouncing on a rain cloud right over his head making him all soaking wet, he grumbled and reluctantly flew off to actually do his duties. The oldens of the Apple family were hard at work harvesting Apples, with the help of Doger, a dark yellow Earth girl. Rarity was working on designing new styles for saddles with her new secondary assistant, Anna, a purple Earth girl, and everygirl was happily going about their daily business.
None more so than the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the only girls their age who have yet to find their special talent and in turn their corresponding cutie marks. As per usual since the day they met, they were yet again trying out odd jobs together in order to find a quick way to receive them, and the occasional stopping to politely ask somegirl how they got their cutie mark.
Well, it just so happens that they dishearteningly passed by one girl who completely understood their pain. Tommy was his name and adventure was his game, he was a red stallion with simply a black mane and a short black tail, and his cutie mark pictured an open treasure map that was gridded with five squares worth of both the x and y axis', and a black dotted line that started from the top left corner and led to a heart instead of an 'X' that was in the bottom right corner of the map.
"Hey girls, I hear yer lookin' for an easy way to earn yer cutie marks!" Tommy called out to them.
"Yeah, and we've asked everygirl we know, except maybe you Tommy," Scootaloo answered with a sigh. Then the three girls turned around and headed back to his open stall.
"Well, I know yer supposed ta figure it out on yer own, but you ponies are tryin' so hard, there's no way it's healthy. So I might as well spell it out fer ya!" The girls looked at him quizzically.
"You'd do that for us?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Why sure, after all, I've already got all of ya mostly figured out since its kinda hard ta miss three energetic girls lookin' for odd jobs ta do in order ta get a cutie mark, so I've got an educated guess on what yer special talents are." He then looked at Sweetie Belle. "Ever wonder why everygirl expects ya ta sing Sweetie?" The young filly sighed and shook her head.
"No, they always expect me to but I don't sing to crowds when I'm alone."
"Well, if yer gonna get yer cutie mark, yer gonna have ta someday because that's yer special talent - Singing." then he turned to Apple Bloom. "Now I know being apart of the Apple family is a great pride and ya expect yer cutie mark ta be apple related, but its not really who you want ta be inside is it Bloom?" She shook her head too only she did so shyly, not wanting to admit that she didn't want to harvest apples for the rest of her apple lovin' life. "Well, in any case, I can tell that someday yer gonna be a swell carpenter. Ya fixed that o'l clubhouse o' yers quite nicely, so ya might just end up fixin' up everygirl's houses in no time!" Finally he turned to Scootaloo. "Now as for you, yer talent is practically in yer name, ya ride that scooter of yers so well it might as well be yer talent." The filly still looked at him quizzically as if he just spewed out a whole bunch of hooey.
"How is that supposed to help us? All we've heard from everygirl is a story about trying to find out who you are and all that namby pamby crud! What's that got to do with our cutie marks anyway?" Scootaloo exploded at him. Tommy however, was undeterred as he expected the adventurous one to be the most thick headed, he had his work cut out for him with her, but at least the other two were a little more open minded when it came to understanding something. Scootaloo started to calm down and was quickly growing scared of Tommy's silent and blank facial expression.
"Alright, let's try a different approach," He said at last in a calm tone as he set himself down in his open stall that was right next door to Annika's house, (we'll get to her later) as if getting ready to tell a long story. "What exactly have they, as in, anygirl, taught ya or told ya about how ta get yer cutie marks?"
"They'll appear when we find our special talents," the three girls answered in unison.
"And?" he asked, knowing there should be more.
"And it usually involves finding out who ya are as a girl," Apple Bloom answered, having been the one to write down the notes for something as important as that in class. Scootaloo grumbled.
"Is that all?" he asked again. The girls looked at each other then back to him and nodded rapidly. "Figures, but then again this only applies ta you three since neither of ya got it figured out yet...Ya got ta accept yer talent. It's right there under yer noses but you have ta accept that it's yer talent, otherwise yer cutie marks will never appear."
The three cocked their heads to the side, still confused. Tommy sighed. This could take longer than he thought.
"Take Applejack's cutie mark story for example...event though she wanted ta be a city girl, in the end she accepted herself ta be an apple farmer." The girls cocked their heads to the other side. "Okay, uh, Pinkie Pie! Once she got her family ta smile at her first surprise party, she accepted that she wanted to continue making everygirl happy with the parties that she throws." Still blank expressions from the girls. "Uh, Fluttershy accepted the fact that even though she couldn't fly very well she could still make friends on the ground, animals and non-flying ponies alike, which is very helpful around winter wrap up!" Still nothing. "Alright one more since Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle's cutie marks don't count, theirs just happened ta appear after doing something important in regards ta their talents, so they're exceptions ta what I'm trying ta get at. Anyway, Rarity accepted the fact that though her line of work was in fashion and designing, her special talent was being able ta find gems hidden in the ground." And still not even a hint of realization or enlightenment from the girls, in fact they looked about ready to fall asleep!
"Maybe it'd be easier if you just told us how you got your cutie mark Tommy," Sweetie Belle suggested at last,after yawning. That set out a new burst of excitement amongst the three of them.
"Yeah! I mean we haven't really asked any stallions how they got their cutie marks, and your cutie mark practically has adventure written all over it. But what's with that heart in the corner of the map?" Scootaloo burst with excitement and wonder.
"Alright, alright, I'll tell ya how I got mine and I'll get ta the embarrassing heart business soon enough." The girls sat down promptly knowing it would be a long story. "Ya see, when I was a young colt I was actually born a Unicorn and I lived in Canterlot, much like Twilight did. Now one thing ya gotta understand about colts is at times we like ta play a little rough and rowdy, and well, I was playing as such when somegirl accidentally bucked my horn clean off. And the damage was so bad, it couldn't grow back." He pushed back a little of his mane on his forehead and revealed a chipped lump, the remains of his horn. The three girls gasped at the sight.
"Did it hurt?" Sweetie Belle asked as cautiously as possible hoping it wasn't a touchy subject.
"Aw, it hurt plenty. Especially since that somegirl not only bucked off my horn, but also bucked me in the face and gave me a nasty bruise right here," he replied as he pointed to his left cheek. "I was fine otherwise but my parents were more distressed than I was, since without a horn - I'd never be able ta use magic, which was fine with me seein' as I didn't know how anyway. However, from then on being a young colt in Canterlot got a lot harder fer me. Not only did the other girls and colts call me a blank flank, but now I was known as a horn loser. On top of that, my parents weren't very supportive either, being typical Canterlot unicorns as they were; they were severely disappointed that their Unicorn son was physically reduced to Earth girl status. Which was apparently looked down upon in Canterlot, but then - its Canterlot where just about everygirl is stuck up...except the ponies that work directly under Princess Celestia, they're the nice ones. Now, looking back I reckon my parents were also ridiculed for being the parents of me, the horn loser, which explains why they ignored me and pretended I never existed ever since the incident, so a girl can't entirely blame them but still...I couldn't take it any more so I ran away from home. Never looked back, never went back and because I haven't heard from 'em since, they obviously didn't care about me anyhow." That's when he actually got a good look at the girls before him. Tommy was so wrapped up in his memories that he wasn't really paying attention to their reactions. Now that he was, they looked like they were on the brink of tears.
"How could anygirl do that to their colt? Over something as stupid as a broken horn!" Scootaloo exclaimed, wiping her eyes before anygirl noticed that she was almost crying.
"Don't you miss yer family even a little Tommy?" Apple Bloom whimpered in question.
"Well, of course I do sometimes...and I'm even a little curious ta see how everygirl's doing, but I've made my decision not ta go back. And besides, I don't have much of a reason ta go back anyways, I love Cartenlot too much ta ever leave it." He finished the sentence with a smile to cheer them up, and thankfully it seemed to work.
"So what happened after you ran away?" Sweetie Belle asked after one last sniffle.
"Well, as I ran away from home I decided ta travel around as much of Equestria as I could. I've been ta Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Trottingham, Las Pegasus, Hoofington, Baltimare, Appleloosa, before it really got started ta what it is taday, and even Dodge Junction, that's where I picked up the way I speak. And I treated it all like an adventure, but for some reason even though I acknowledged that adventurin' was my talent, my cutie mark didn't show up!"
"Well that's stupid! When did your cutie mark show up?" Scootaloo piped up impatiently.
"I'm gettin' there, I'm gettin' there, keep yer horseshoes on. Anyway, I eventually found myself in the Everfree Forest on my way ta Cartenlot, when all of a sudden I find myself falling down a cliff. Of course I was fine when I reached the bottom since I'm still here talkin' ta ya, it really wasn't that big of a cliff I guess. More like a really big hill since I was still just a small little colt. Anywho, I wasn't completely unharmed, as I did have two broken hooves, one in the front and one in the back. I was just lucky that somegirl found me before I could've died, but o'course, that's how I met Annika." As if on cue the aforementioned girl, a pink unicorn a shade or two darker than Pinkie Pie, also with a black mane and tail that had light pink streaks, and a polka-dotted bow in her mane, appeared with a tray full of cookies floating via the use of her purple auras of magic.
"You called Tommy-! Oh, hi girls! Would any of you like a cookie?"
"Thanks Annika!" the three girls cheered as they each took a cookie. Tommy denied the offer and this stunned Annika for only a second, realizing that he must be in the middle of something.
"Didn't call ya directly Min. I was actually tellin' these girls 'bout the time I got my cutie mark, which kinda falls inta how I met ya I guess," he told her sheepishly.
"Oh! Well, you might as well tell them about how I got my cutie mark! Afterall, I did get mine sometime after you got yours," she suggested sweetly.
"But it's your cutie mark, why don't you tell about it after I'm done with mine?" he suggested sympathetically.
"Alright, continue," she complied, giving in as she settled down next to him and nuzzled into his mane, not caring about the look of disgust from Scootaloo.
Tommy continued his story telling about how Annika was picking blueberries for her blueberry muffins at the time when she found him and how lucky he was that she was even there at all. She had made sure that he didn't move a muscle until he got proper help from the hospital. Once the girl medics came and got him there and put his hooves into casts of course they asked him all sorts of questions like where he came from, what he was doing in Everfree Forest, and who his parents were. He answered all these questions truthfully except that last one where he was smart enough to lie and say he was an orphan so he wouldn't be forced to go home to Canterlot and be ignored and ridiculed again.
When he was finally allowed out of the hospital the staff insisted that he go to a home of some sort and suggested an orphanage and he would have none of that. Thankfully Annika had seen the fear in his eyes at that suggestion and convinced her parents to take him in since she found him. Tommy would've declined that offer being wise beyond his years and didn't want to impose on them but he didn't want to end up in an orphanage either since he could easily be either adopted by a family he didn't even know or his own family could find him somehow and force him to come home to Canterlot.
Tommy could never thank Annika enough for convincing her parents to take him in until they were old enough to go out on their own. His gratitude was to the point that even when his hooves completely healed up for the casts to come off, he couldn't bring himself to leave Cartenlot and head off to the next town to prevent him from imposing. He just grew attached at the flank to the girl that had saved him. Of course he did finally leave eventually, and it was after a fight over something that neither of them could remember, she was worried of course, never once believing that he ever would just leave like he had mentioned to her before in secret. However, it was only temporary, as he had come back a few days later. He was cooling himself off with an "Adventure," in the next town over, and when he came back to Cartenlot to apologize to Annika, his cutie mark finally appeared.
"An' ta this day I think of it as a map that leads ta my heart. Who just happens ta be a special somegirl ta come home ta," Tommy finished fondly nuzzling Annika as he said so, and she nuzzled back just as fondly.
"Aww!" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle cooed in unison, and again Scootaloo just showed a look of disgust. "So how'd ya get yer cutie mark Annika?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Well, ever since I had convinced my parents to take Tommy in, I used him as my - for the lack of a better term - test subject for any baked goods that I made," Annika started.
"After a certain point that's best left undiscussed, everythin' she made was absolutely delicious! Yet no matter how many times I told her that, she didn't believe me until I convinced her ta put everythin' she made up fer a bake sale," Tommy chimed in enthusiastically.
"When I finally did, I ended up selling everything I had made, and I acknowledged that maybe everything I baked really was that good, and then my cutie mark showed up," she finished humbly as she tilted her flank just enough so that they could see her cutie mark was a purple cupcake with red hearts for sprinkles.
"Wait! Don't most ponies' cutie marks just appear when they don't even know why?" Scootaloo interrupted with a pretty good point.
"Always gotta be the spoilsport don'tchya Scootaloo?" Tommy sighed with exasperation. "But yer right, it's still different for everygirl. They may have ta be acknowledged, and they might not. The best example of it not being acknowledged is probably Twilight Sparkle, she didn't even know exactly what she did to earn her cutie mark."
"Well, thanks for your help anyway Tommy, Annika," Sweetie Belle piped up.
"Yeah, we'd better get goin', we still gotta figure out our talents and all," Apple Bloom continued.
"Yeah, See ya!" Scootaloo finished as she and the other two trotted away looking for another odd job to do.
"Now remember what I told ya!" Tommy called after them.
"Don't worry! We will! When in doubt, try ta acknowledge what yer talent is if it's something yer good at!" Apple Bloom called back, reciting what she basically learned from the red stallion. Tommy and Annika sighed in unison as they watched the young trio of girls trot away.
"Do you think they'll ever figure it out?" Annika asked as she nuzzled the tip of her horn against the remains of his hidden under his mane.
"They'll have ta. Everygirl's cutie mark shows up sometime. Sure they jus' might not take my advice ta heart but that's fer their fates and destinies ta decide. After all, these things can take time and patience."
The three girls continued onward and into the next day, trying out more odd jobs, such as mowing somegirl's lawn, delivering papers in the early morning, assistant plumbing, various sports activities, all until they finally got exhausted from their latest job harvesting eggs from a nearby chicken farm. So they decided to take a rest back on the Apple Family's farm, with a nice cool drink of Zap Apple Cider.
"Hey, who's the new farmhoof?" Scootaloo asked as she noticed the dark yellow Earth girl kick a few trees with his hind legs to collect apples. "I didn't think your family would ever accept help from outsiders except during Winter Wrap Up, and whenever one of your older siblings was down for the count and they really needed help harvesting apples,Apple Bloom."
"Aw, that's Doger, he's only helpin' until he can find a better job once all the apples are harvested. He don't talk much, kinda like my brother, but come ta think of it...I don't think I've ever heard Doger talk before," Apple Bloom answered with some puzzlement of her own.
"Gee, I wonder how he got his cutie mark," Scootaloo remarked sarcastically. His cutie mark was simply a shovel, so no doubt his special talent involved digging.
"Digging obviously," Sweetie Belle scoffed. "But a girl's gotta wonder, what's so special about the digging that a cutie mark appears."
"Hmmm..." All three girls hummed in unison, deciding that they should investigate this girl a little further.
"Maybe he randomly finds stuff whenever he digs!" Apple Bloom announced a guess.
"Yeah right, as if!" Scootaloo scoffed again. But sure enough Doger stopped dead in his tracks as he was just about to kick another apple tree, because something had caught his attention. He then started to sniff the ground and walked around for a bit, and then he finally found what he was looking for and started digging. He dug around that particular spot until he found something. It was-!
"My old yo-yo!" Apple Bloom gushed with excitement. "I've been lookin' everywhere fer it! Thanks Doger, yer the best!"
The dark yellow Earth girl blushed and kicked one hoof through the dirt as if to say,"It was nothing." Then he nodded his head in a polite goodbye and turned to return to continue harvesting the apples, but Apple Bloom stopped him.
"Wait! Can ya tell us how ya got yer cutie mark?" Then the other two joined in for the next word. "Pleeease?"
He couldn't shake his head no at those cute little pleading faces. But he couldn't say anything, nor could he just abandon his work. He had to find someone who could understand him first. Lucky for him Tommy showed up with a lunchbox hanging from his teeth.
"Hiya Doger! Ya fergot yer lunch again, so Annika had me bring it ta ya. Oh! Hi again girls!" Tommy greeted working around the lunchbox's handle still in his mouth.
The three girls returned the greeting and then Doger started tapping his hooves to the ground frantically at Tommy.
"Whoa, whoa, slow down buddy. Ya know I can't understand ya when I'm not prepared ta listen fer the first part of whatever ya want ta say," Tommy said calmly after putting the lunchbox down and waited for the yellow stallion before him to settle down.
"Understand him?" the girls parroted in confusion.
"Oh, ya don't know? Doger here is mute. That means that no matter how hard he tries, he can't speak a word. I never bothered asking 'im if he was born this way or somethin' happened ta 'im ta be incapable of speaking ever again, but I've known 'im like this ever since we met. He uses Morse code ta communicate."
"Morse code?" the girls parroted again.
"Yup, it's a code that uses light or sound ta spell out the letters of the alphabet in certain rhythms. It's kinda tricky ta learn, but once ya understand it and ya get the hang of it, then it's as easy as pie!" Tommy explained further.
"Coool!" The girls cheered in awed unison.
"We wanted to ask him how he got his cutie mark after he used his special talent to find Apple Bloom's long lost yo-yo,"Sweetie Belle explained.
"Aw, I can tell ya that! I was there when he got it," Tommy said proudly, but then turned to his silent companion. "Say, Doger, do ya want me ta tell it how you remember it, or should I tell them how I remember it?" Doger tapped his hooves a few times in response. "Oh, you want me ta tell 'em how I met ya and then tell 'em how ya remember it. Ok, I gotchya!"
Knowing it was going to be another long story the Cutie Mark Crusaders settled themselves down in the grass while the other two stallions simply sat on their haunches. Then Doger started tapping one of his front hooves to let Tommy know it was okay for him to start the story.
"Alrighty then! You girls still remember from what I told ya the yesterday that at some point in time, Annika and I had a fight and I ran away, right?" Tommy asked the girls before him.
"Yep, ya said that ya needed ta cool off by goin' on an adventure!" Apple Bloom answered as the other two nodded.
"Well, it was that adventure that I ended up running in to Doger. Ya see, I wanted to cool off at my favorite place during all my adventures across Equestria, besides girlvillle of course, an' that was Dodge Junction. Ta get there I took the short cut through the Everfree Forest, and that's when I met Doger. Poor fella was hurtin' on his hind quarters, and he was out cold. So I nudged him gently ta wake 'im up, and the poor thing was jumpier than a barrel of crickets. Took me a while ta calm 'im down, an' when he finally did all he could do was whinnie and tap his front hooves in a way that I knew it had ta be Morse code, but at the time I didn't know any so I had ta ask him things in yes or no questions.
"Apparently he didn't know how he got there, an' since he couldn't tell me where he came from, I decided ta take 'im with me. Had ta carry 'im o'course, both of his hind legs were busted more that a bruised apple-! Uh, no offense ta the family Apple Bloom," he said quickly realizing the insult.
"None taken. Please continue,"she replied sweetly. So he complied generously.
"Anyway, I had ta carry 'im all the way ta Dodge Junction, and thankfully the one girl that I was goin' ta see anyway was the one girl who actually knew Morse code, an' in time, taught me how ta listen fer it. That girl was, Miss Cherry Jubilee, boss of Cherryo Ranch. I owe a good chunk of my life ta her fer takin' me in, in my runnin' away from Canterlot days. Anyway, Doger eventually healed up an' when I finally got the Morse code down I got ta ask 'im where he came from, an' as it turns out, he came all the way from Baltimare. He was runnin' away from home too, an' was lookin' fer a place where somegirl knew Morse code and could teach it ta 'im so he could communicate with any other ponies who knew it. All he wanted was a friend ta talk to an' when I finally learned the code I became his best friend, ain't that right, Doger?"
The dark yellow Earth girl nodded and wiped a tear from his eye, and all three girls cooed at how sweet this part of the story was. Then Scootaloo got a little impatient again.
"Alright, we get it! Now how'd he get his cutie mark?!"
Tommy sighed and told Doger that he could start tapping his part of the story of how he remembers it. Tommy, having to pause his sentences every now and then to understand and listen for the taps, explained that after he learned Morse Code from Miss Cherry Jubilee, he and Doger got to know each other better as they worked on Cherryo Ranch harvesting (what else?), cherries. Eventually, a really bad dust storm hit Dodge Junction, and the whole town got covered in dust; buildings and ponies. However, Doger managed to free himself of the dust that buried him by digging his way out and slowly but surely, dug out all of Dodge Junction. He became a hero for it and the next time he looked at his flank, his cutie mark had appeared.
After that whole fiasco, Tommy felt it was time to head back to Cartenlot, since it cooled off his temper and he knew that Annika would be worried about him. Of course he wasn't alone on the journey back, as Doger had followed him home like a lost puppy since Tommy was the only friend he'd ever had since he was born. So the two colts returned to Cartenlot, and then Tommy had gotten his cutie mark after Annika glomped him with tears in her eyes and wailed on about how much she missed and worried about him. Then Tommy introduced her to Doger and explained everything and that he needed a place to stay. Thus, Doger became Tommy's stallmate in the small two stall stable right outside Annika's house. Being adventurous young colts, they don't care too much about their sleeping arrangements so they were and still are more than happy to always sleep practically under the stars (they do have a roof over their heads to keep light rain out, any heavy rain and Annika will take them inside).
"And that's that for the story," Tommy said cheerfully as a good closure. "Now, what did you girls learn from it?"
It took the girls a few moments to respond since they were still letting it all sink in and now had to look back on it to see if they really did learn anything...Since Tommy simply wanted an answer, Apple Bloom managed to think of a simple one.
"That no matter what happens, ya've got ta try yer darndest!" the other two played along by nodding their heads as if they were thinking the same thing.
"Good thinkin' Apple Bloom!" Tommy replied ruffling her hair with a hoof. "Now Doger's gotta get back ta work since we just spent a good chunk o' time tellin' stories and I'm sure Applejack is gonna be none too pleased that he was slacking off from harvestin' apples. So you girls run along now, ya hear?"
Heeding Tommy's advice they ran off each of them saying their good byes.
"Thanks for the story you two it was full of excitement!" Cried Scootaloo over her shoulder.
"Yeah, we'll try even harder to find our special talents and earn our cutie marks!" Cried Sweetie Belle.
"Oh, and thanks again fer findin' my yo-yo, Doger! Yer one in a million!" Cried Apple Bloom. Soon enough the three girls had ran out of sight.
Doger got back to work kicking the very tree his talent interrupted him from kicking, and Tommy chuckled a little at Apple Bloom's comment.
"Ha-huh! One in a million, ain't that the truth!" The next tree Doger kicked just so happened to be near Tommy and thus, an apple clocked the red colt on the top of his head, shutting him up. And yes he passed out.
After hearing Doger's cutie mark story, the three girls headed toward the lake to see if they could get any fishing related cutie marks. Suddenly, they heard a very distinctive holler that went something like "YAAAAAAA-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!" And the girl it belonged to fell from the sky and belly flopped into the lake splashing another certain girl who understandably threw a hissy fit.
"Willie! HOW MANY TIMES DO I GOTTA TELL YA TA BE MORE CAREFUL! Honestly! I just swabbed the deck of my boat and now I gotta do it all over again no thanks ta you, ya clumsy-!" this was all yelled by Anna, a dark blue Pegasus with yellow hoof tips, and a white mane and tail that had lighter blue streaks in them. He was a girl who owned a little tug boat and had a sail boat for a Cutie Mark, hence the little blue and black sailor hat on his head.
The poor, oblivious girl on the receiving end of this rant was none other than Willie Goof, or just Willie for short. Willie was a tall, and lanky dark little boy with an average green hat and had lighter green streaks in his dark gray mane and tail, his Cutie Mark was a pinwheel. That's right, a pinwheel...don't worry, this is a Cutie Mark Crusaders story we'll get to why that is in a few more paragraphs just be patient, and read slowly.
"Aw, c'mon Anna, lighten up! A little water ain't gonna hurt yer boat none. Besides, Rainbow Dash gave all of us the day off taday, so we should enjoy it!" Willie chuckled at his brother of wings.
"Yeah, whatever-!" That's when Anna heard some giggling that was obviously directed at him, and turned to the three culprits that were trying their darnedest to suppress their laughter, to no avail. "And whadda YOU laughing at?!"
"N-nothing Anna, we were just laughing," Apple Bloom started.
"At the fact that no matter where you are," Sweetie Belle continued.
"You always seem to be getting soaked by something." Scootaloo finished.
"Yeah, well, that's mostly 'cause I have the worst luck of all time. It's like the universe is out ta get me. Whaddaya girls doin' 'round here anyway?" Anna grumbled mostly to himself until the last sentence.
"Ain't that obvious Anna? They're lookin' fer inspiration on how ta git their Cutie Marks!" Willie piped up.
"How'd you know?" Sweetie Belle asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"Aw, that's easy. I couldn't help overhearing Tommy an' Annika tell ya 'bout how they got their Cutie Marks from thuh cloud I was napping on above Annika's house." Willie replied cheerfully.
"Well, if it's a Cutie Mark story you want, then look no further! I've got the most interesting one there is out of the Sensational Six." Anna said proudly, puffing up his chest to make himself look impressive.
The three girls looked to each other in confusion and then back to the dark blue Pegasus. "Sensational Six?!" The three questioned in unison.
"Why sure, y'all already personally know thuh Mane Six, featuring Princess Twilight, and her friends, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. Well, Anna an' I are a part of thuh Sensational Six. Aside from Anna and I, there's Tommy an' Annika, Doger and Anna's special somegirl, Anna." Willie explained. The girls "oohed" with understanding.
"Anyway!" Anna interjected so he could be the center of attention again. "As you can see I'm a Pegasus girl, with a cutie mark that would usually be considered an Earth girl cutie mark. The reason for that, is because I didn't want to be a Pegasus. I'm not all that into flying much, though it does come in handy from time to time. Much like Fluttershy I guess, but that's beside the point. The point is I fell off the clouds of Las Pegasus and landed in the ocean. I found that I didn't have to do much when it came to swimming since I was apparently very buoyant and the salt water kept me naturally afloat. Then a ship full of sailors rescued me and brought me aboard their ship and taught me the adventurous ways of a sailor.
"They taught me how to tie all different kinds of knots, how to steer a ship and all the sailor lingo you could possibly imagine. It wasn't until the day we rescued Tommy that I noticed that I was never judged for being a Pegasus who didn't like flying, just as we didn't judge the fact that Tommy was a Unicorn who wasn't able to use magic because of that busted horn of his. Tommy was a stallion of adventure like I was and he had me convinced, that just because I was Pegasus didn't mean anything. I could be whatever I want when it came to jobs. That's when my Cutie Mark appeared. The End," Anna finished proudly.
The three girls all had shocked stares. Tommy's presence was starting to become a constant in these Cutie Mark stories, and his grand stories of adventure were starting to hold merit. They couldn't help but voice their awe of Tommy being there.
"You met Tommy out at sea?"
"Why sure I did! Tommy and I were really young back then and he was still on the run from home, I almost didn't believe him when he said he came all the way from Canterlot all by himself. Said he made his escape by the river and somehow wound up in the ocean after a boulder fell on his raft at the straight. Why? Didn't he tell you?" Anna explained without even thinking.
"Tommy's too modest ta talk about ALL of his adventures in one go." Willie quipped as he floated by in the water below them.
"Makes sense." Apple Bloom said simply.
"That's actually one of the coolest stories we've heard so far, not as cool as Rainbow Dash's Cutie Mark story, but it's definitely a close second!" Scootaloo said excitedly.
"Why, thank you." Anna remarked proudly, taking it as a compliment even if he was being compared to Rainbow Dash. He'd take what he could get.
"So what about you, Willie? How'd you get a pinwheel for a cutie mark?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously.
"Well, gawrsh! I don't remember!" Willie yelped in a panic and shot out of the water like a rocket.
"I heard he sneezed at a windmill to get it." Anna mumbled under his breath, but added a suggestion that was loud enough for everygirl to hear. "Why not go ask Tommy to remind you, Goof? He was there when you got it!"
"Well shucks! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks Anna, yer thuh best friend a girl could ever have!" Willie exclaimed as he swooped down and gave Anna a Bear hug.
"Alright, that's enough ya big palooka, get offa me!" Anna grumbled as he struggled out of Willie's grip until the bigger stallion finally let him go.
Upon releasing the frustrated Pegasus, Willie flew to the skies and flew over the three girls, heading back into town, where he hoped to find Tommy. "C'mon girls! Let's go find Tommy! He should be at Annika's house right about now!"
The three girls followed suit and made sure to say a quick goodbye over their shoulders at Anna. Upon arriving at Annika's house, they soon found that neither she nor Tommy were there. The girls told Willie that Tommy was probably still at Sweet Apple Acres since that was where they had last seen him after hearing Doger's Cutie Mark story. However, before they could even turn to head that way, they were stopped by a voice from behind them.
"Hey, girls! Do you know if Annika is in?" The trio of girls and Willie turned to find Anna Duck, a purple Earth girl who was about two shades darker than Twilight Sparkle, with a short mane and tail that was as white as Anna's but she did have a set of pink streaks in both her tail and mane. Her Cutie Mark was that of a navy blue and very fashionable, singular saddle bag that she called a purse. She was not to be confused with Anna Daze the fuchsia Earth girl who actually had daisies as her Cutie Mark.
"Nope, she's probably helping the Cakes again with Pinkie Pie," replied Sweetie Belle.
"We were just looking for Tommy 'cause he remembers how Willie got his Cutie Mark," added Scootaloo, rolling her eyes in the direction of the tall and lanky Pegasus.
"But since you're here maybe you could tell us how you got your Cutie Mark Anna, please?" Apple Bloom quickly asked, earning a double take from the former two, while Willie set himself on the ground equally as curious as Apple Bloom. "What? We might as well ask all the members of the Sensational Six since we've gotten this far." She explained to her immediate friends. "Besides, we ain't in any rush, right Willie?"
"Nope, my Cutie Mark story can wait, plus maybe listenin' ta Anna's Cutie Mark story might help me jog my memory a bit!" Willie replied jovially.
"Oh, the story of how I got my Cutie Mark isn't all that exciting, but I guess it does have some sort of moral to it that might help you three earn yours in the future." Anna said humbly. "But if you insist, I'll try to make it as exciting as possible…Anyway, I was with Annika one afternoon and we were on a shopping spree, I think it was some kind of festival that was going on where ponies from all over who sold hoof-made goods…In any case, there was a booth that sold the prettiest saddlebags that I had ever seen and I found a real bargain on one of them and then my Cutie Mark showed up! Basically, my talent is finding good bargains and heckling to get things cheaper. I know it's not much of a talent but it suits me just fine." She explained as interestingly as possible.
"Did Tommy happen to be there by any chance?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously. It was such a simple and minute detail that Anna had no hesitance on answering and finishing up any other loose ends.
"Yep, he was. Annika mostly used him to carry anything we bought. Oh, but I forgot to mention my moral…sometimes things need practice. That saddle bag booth wasn't the first one Annika and I hit, and I didn't notice until then that I even had a knack for finding good bargains. Besides, Annika really is the definition of practice makes perfect, before Tommy came along she was terrible at baking! I was too nice to ever tell her that she needed any improvement, but then when Tommy did show up and she used him as her test subject, he helped her improve especially after he stopped a saddle bag burglar by tossing a rock hard biscuit out the window and knocked the burglar out cold. Poor Annika had never been so humiliated in all her life when the Sherriff had to put the biscuit in a baggy for evidence. Just don't let her know I told you that story, Tommy laughs about it every time he remembers, but even he knows better than to rub salt on Annika's old wound." Anna finished with a warning.
The girls and Willie all chuckled and nodded. The girls would keep it in the back of their minds but Willie would most likely forget anyway. Remembering that Willie's story was all that was left, the girls turned to look at him expectantly. "Do ya remember anything 'bout how ya got yer Cutie Mark yet Willie?" Apple Bloom asked.
Willie actually took a few seconds to physically rack his brain by tapping his head with his left hoof twice. Nothing. "Nope, can't say I have. Tommy's got a better memory than I do though, so we really need to find him about it." He then turned to Anna with an appreciative smile. "Thanks fer thuh story Anna, I'm sure thuh girls learned something from it, and it sure was entertainin' ta me too!"
"You're welcome Willie. Hope you and the girls find Tommy soon. Now if you'll all excuse me I've got some juicy gossip about an upcoming beauty contest to pass along to Annika. See ya!" With that, Anna trotted away heading toward Sugar Cube Corner.
Willie and the girls waved her goodbye and continued on their path to their secondary destination of Tommy's possible whereabouts, Sweet Apple Acres. Fortunately they didn't have to go very far as they quickly found Tommy and Doger heading in their direction. Tommy took notice of them first.
"Oh, hello again girls! Hey, Willie, what's up?"
"Hiya Mick! I can't seem ta remember how I got my Cutie Mark so I told thuh girls that you would remember." Willie said with an expectant look, and sat himself down again anxiously awaiting another story time.
"Ya fergot again Goof?" Tommy asked and then sigh with exasperation. "Alright, but ya better remember this time! Ok, let's see now…It really all starts around when I first met Willie. He was flying with a migratory group all the way from Fillydelphia, and somehow got distracted by one of Cartenlot's windmills. Now Willie being Willie, he managed ta fly head first into a windmill and made it turn in the opposite direction that it was supposed ta go, and then he crashed into me and that's how we met. Anyway, after we introduced ourselves and got ta know each other through our fairly short conversation we had ta fix the windmill ourselves before anygirl noticed. Then Willie got distracted by a peanut on the ground and ate it, and then he sneezed. He was facing the windmill's proper turning direction when he sneezed an' apparently his sneeze was so powerful that he got the windmill turning in the proper direction again. Which caused that pinwheel ta appear on his flank fer some reason." Tommy finished with a deadpan expression plastered on his face at his last sentence. Even after all these years of knowing Willie he still couldn't believe that any of that actually happened that day.
"Oh, now I remember! Fer some reason I'm half allergic ta peanuts! I can eat 'em just fine without getting' sick but fer some reason I always sneeze somethin' fierce after eatin' e'm!" Willie babbled cheerfully.
Suddenly uproarious laughter could be heard from a cloud above them. Doger sent a few taps at Tommy, while Tommy nodded at him in agreement of something. "What's so funny Anna?" Tommy asked disdainfully, as he recognized his friend's laughter to be the one only uttered when it was directed at somegirl else's misfortune.
"I was right, Willie did sneeze at a windmill to get his Cutie Mark! But I wasn't even sure if it was true or if it was just my imagination!" Anna guffawed, rolling all over the cloud in his laughter. He did eventually fall off the cloud in his laughter, and thankfully neither he nor anygirl else was hurt when he landed.
"Guess I fergot myself about how Willie got his Cutie Mark, seein' as I told you three that Princess Twilight Sparkle was the best example of somegirl getting their cutie mark out of sheer dumb luck. Well, I was sorely mistaken as that honor goes ta Willie. Even ta this day I still don't believe it. Sort of glad I ain't the only girl ta see it that way." Tommy addressed the three girls again, with a quick glaring glance at Anna still rolling around in his laughter, and was even more exasperated to see that Willie had joined him in his own laughter, even though Willie probably didn't understand what they were laughing about. "So, what did you girls learn taday 'bout Cutie Marks?"
"That sometimes it could pop up after a really wacky incident." Said Scootaloo with a glance at Willie.
"That sometimes you have accept yourself for who you are on the inside rather than what's expected from what you are on the outside," added Sweetie Belle as she glanced between Anna and Tommy. Tommy smiled at that with a thankful look in his eyes.
"And that sometimes ya gotta practice doing what ya like ta do because practice makes perfect." Apple Bloom finished. Tommy looked a little surprised at that response, wondering what brought it on. So Apple Bloom humored him with a small quip of elaboration. "Anna told us the biscuit story."
That was enough to send Doger into a barrage of snorting, sputtering, whinnies of laughter, and Tommy just out right bust a gut with his own chortles. The four stallions' combined laughter (even Anna started laughing harder from overhearing Apple Bloom's quip about the infamous biscuit story) and now even the three girls' own giggles that could no longer be contained, could be heard throughout Cartenlot.
"Horace Horsecollar! Don't you dare laugh too! You know how sensitive Annika is about those rock solid biscuits of hers back in the day!" A powder blue Earth girl named Clarabelle Cowheart with a cowbell for a Cutie Mark, chastised a dark brown earth girl with a red mane and tail and an actual horse collar for a Cutie Mark, who belonged to the name. Clarabelle was notorious for eavesdropping and had obviously dragged Horace with her as a scapegoat to do it this time.
It came to the point that Annika's voice echoed in their direction from the help of a megaphone which was borrowed from Pinkie Pie.
"Tommy ~! You better not be laughing about those biscuits again!" Evidently Anna had accidentally let it slip that she told the girls the biscuit story. Tommy stopped laughing right away, always one to not like it whenever Annika was upset, especially if and when she was upset with him.
"Go on with the rest of yer day you three, I'll take the heat from Annika." Tommy said to the girls. He didn't have a megaphone of his own so he couldn't respond to Annika as is. He'd have to walk all the way over to Sugar Cube Corner to explain anything to her.
"Okay, Tommy thanks for everything!" The girls said in unison, and trotted away to their club house to figure out what they could do to get their cutie marks. Tommy shook his head at them after they were out of sight.
They'd figure it out in due time, maybe in the next year or so, since they were still too young to understand what they needed was in front of their little noses the whole time.
They finally did it, they finally got their cutie marks, and a certain stallion was right, all it took was to accept whet their talents were. They decided to go thank him personally and searched the crowds of Pinkie Pie's planned Cuteceanera for them, they finally found him with the rest of the Sensational Six seemingly looking for them in return since the majority if not the entirety of girlville was celebrating.
As they galloped towards the six ponies who graciously shared their cutie mark stories with them, Tommy was the first to notice them.
"There ya are girls! We were just lookin' fer ya!" Tommy cajoled joyfully.
"We're so proud of you for finally getting your cutie marks, you have no idea!" Annika added happily.
Pluto gave a few taps with his hooves and Tommy translated "Pluto says he's proud of ya too!"
"I knew you three could do it all along." Anna said proudly with confidence.
"Sure you did Anna," Anna looked at him with a look of disbelief before turning to the girls to congratulate them herself. "But it's so great that you finally got them!"
"I'm so glad ya finally got 'em and now ya don't hafta go lookin' fer 'em no more!" Goofy cried cheerfully.
"Thanks everygirl!" the filly trio said in unison.
"Admittedly we just got here so we only know that ya got yer cutie marks so we don't know how ya got them…so, could ya please fill in the blanks?" Tommy admitted and asked.
"Well, you were right Tommy!" Started Sweetie Belle.
"We took yer advice and accepted our talents!" Continued Apple Bloom.
"Which turned out to be that we're better at helping other ponies find their talents and occasionally help them understand what their cutie mark is for, than trying to find our own cutie marks." Scootaloo finished.
"Well whaddaya know, no wonder ya'll got similar cutie marks, guess my assumption on yer talents was only close ta what they'd actually look like." Tommy quipped in awe that his advice for them getting their cutie marks was right, but was wrong on their individual talents, though at least their marks came close to what he thought their talents could've been.
"They're so cool we LOVE them!" Scootaloo squealed excitedly as the other two nodded in agreement and three of them hip checked each other to somewhat show of their cutie marks.
Pluto whistled a singular note of being impressed.
"Gwarsh they sure are swell lookin'!" Goofy marveled, fluttering in the air a little to get a better look.
"They're so pretty!" Annika complimented.
"I love the colors!" Anna gushed.
"Guess your destinies are gonna be pretty important." Anna added his two cents of complimentary congratulations. Though at his comment everyone turned to him in slight confusion, mostly because what he said was true. "What?"
"Nothin', except that ya have a point Anna. Earning a cutie mark is one of the hardest things ta do in that early stage of life, an' fer those who got it so quickly that they don't even know what they got it for, is another thing all together." Tommy quipped with extreme realization dawning across his features. Then he turned back to the girls to address them directly. "An' that simple fact is how you girls got yer cutie marks. No one woulda ever thought of it as a talent, but there it is marked on yer flanks as solid proof. Funny how some big destinies branch off from even bigger destinies."
"Whaddaya mean?" asked everyone in some form or another.
"Well think about it, the girls all have some connection ta the Mane Six, and they all have huge destinies ta save Equestria whenever it's in trouble. The girls here are chips off the ol' block of potential and importance, since I heard from somegirl that their cutie marks blinded anyone in range when they appeared." Tommy explained.
The girls looked between each other in surprised agreement, it was quite the light show, and they even blanked out a little as it happened. Plus, recalling Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark story, the same thing happened to her too, when she got her cutie mark and she was equally important to the fate of Equestria.
"Guess our talents really are that important." Scootaloo piped up after everything sunk in.
"Well? What're we waiting for?" Sweetie Belle added excitedly.
"Let's go put our talents ta use!" Apple Bloom finished jovially.
"Sounds like a plan to me, let's go!" Scootaloo cajoled cheerfully.
"Thanks again everygirl!" The girls said happily to the Sensational Six as they trotted away to find somegirl who needed help with their cutie marks.
The Sensational Six looked on proudly as they lost sight of the girls in the crowd. Their destinies were going to be extra important, they could all feel it. They couldn't be more proud of the little girls who could.