My Cutie Mark Got It Wrongby Ink SpillChaptersChapter 2: The ReplacementChapter 3: The Small TownChapter 4: Finding SerenityChapter 5: Not, Strictly Speaking, PossibleChapter 6: Existence Chapter 1: The Canterlot LibraryChapter 2: The ReplacementFinding a replacement for yourself is always difficult, especially if you’re pressed for time. You have this urge to hire the first pony who shows up because you can get out of there faster if you do, but at the same time many (including me) still feel they have the obligation to hire somepony who is up to the job. A surprising amount of ponies showed up to try and get the job of head librarian, most of them were book fanatics who only wanted the job because they liked the idea of getting paid for sitting around reading all day. Apparently they were unaware that sorting all of the library’s books can take multiple days and usually by the time you get through sorting all of them half of it has already gotten messed up again. The more ponies came in trying the get the job the more I just wanted to give it to them and the less and less I felt an obligation to find a good librarian. But in the end I still couldn’t just give the job away, and after a week and a half I still hadn’t hired anypony. I wasn’t sure what to do; I still believed that if I couldn’t find a replacement before the end of the month the best thing for me would be to just leave, I was sure if I wasn’t around the princesses would get someone else to find a new librarian, but until I left it was still my job to find the replacement. Why did I feel so obligated to this finding a suitable replacement? I still don’t know, maybe it was as simple as just not wanting to bother anyone. I had just finished interviewing somepony when Lilly came in to return The Canterlot Caverns Adventure. “Hello Lilly.” “Hi Tailor,” Lilly gave me the book. “So what did you think of the novel?” “It was okay…” Lilly sounded a bit disappointed. “Not what you expected it to be?” “Yeah, I guess my expectations were a little too high after reading some of her other books.” “That’s too bad.” I was about to go shelve the book when Lilly spoke again. “So you’re leaving the library?” “Hmm? Oh yeah, I am,” I nodded, “Hey, is there any chance you know anypony who would make a good librarian?” Lilly was quiet for a moment, “Honestly, I’d be interested in the job.” “Really?” I was a little surprised; I had no idea that Lilly would want to be a librarian, but when I thought about it she did seem like a good fit. “Yeah,” Lilly answered, “but I’m not sure I’m really qualified…” Then I had an idea; I realized Lilly would be a great librarian, she seemed to have a good knowledge of books and she did know her way around most of the library. “Lilly, if you really want the job I could train you, I mean if you-” “You would do that?” Lilly seemed to get really excited, “that’s great!” “Yeah, I’m a little busy today but if you come in tomorrow I’ll show you what the job entails.” “That would be great,” Lilly smiled, “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” *** Lilly showed up at the library early the next day, I began to train her. That first day we went over the Library’s filing system; the Canterlot Library had its own unique filing system. The whole day we only talked about filing, I was a little bored but she seemed to find it interesting, which helped to convince me that I’d picked the right pony for the job. At the end of the day, before Lilly left, she asked me something not related to filing. “Tailor?” “Hmm?” “Why are you leaving the library? This is a great job.” “Well, honestly, I don’t feel like it’s what I’m meant to do.” “What? But you have a book genre cutie mark, isn’t your talent helping people find books they like?” “Yeah…” “Well then how can working in a library not be what you’re meant to do?” “I don’t know… but, ugh, it’s hard to explain, it just feels wrong, this job doesn’t fit who I am.” “I see…” “You do?” “Well, I guess, everypony should feel comfortable doing what they’re meant to do, if you feel like your job doesn’t fit you then I guess you must be in the wrong place.” “So, do you feel comfortable in the library?” “Yeah I do, my talent is sorting actually… a bit of a dumb talent eh?” “Not really… so I guess organizing books is a good fit for you.” “Yeah, I always feel at ease here.” “That’s nice for you.” “So, what are you going to do after you leave this job?” “What?” “Where are you going to go? What are you going to do?” It was at that moment that I realized my plan to leave had a major flaw: I had nowhere to leave to. *** It had been ten days since Lilly first came in for training and I felt certain that she was ready to be the head Librarian. And while Lilly seemed to know exactly what she was doing I was still completely unsure of what to do. Once I left the Library I’d have no income, I did have a bit saved up; I got paid surprisingly well for a librarian. That morning I told Lilly that I knew she was ready to run the library, and that starting immediately she would be head librarian, she told me she was honoured and we said goodbye. I went back to my apartment and packed, I didn’t know where I was going but I felt in my heart that I couldn’t stay in Canterlot. I counted my money; I had enough bits to last me maybe two months if I were to live the minimalist lifestyle. I left, I began walking in no particular direction, I planned to just go wherever the world decided to take me. As I walked forward I reached a dirt road with a sign that read Ponyville Ahead. I decided to take that road, and it has made all the difference. Author's Note I feel like the first chapter was better than this one... that always makes me a little sad. But I have pretty high expectations for the next few chapters so keep an eye out for chapter 3. Also with the whole Ponyville thing I'm not going to suddenly include the mane 6 as primary characters in a story that isn't about them... so yeah... maybe one (or maybe two) of them will show up briefly. I wonder which one? Thanks for reading. Chapter 3: The Small TownThe dirt road was long, and I did not make it to Ponyville, which was supposedly ahead of me, for a very long time. By nightfall I was still walking down the road. “Really? It’s already dark… ugh, hopefully I’m close.” I kept walking and after a few hours I finally saw lights off in the distance. I began to run and soon found myself in a small town; it dawned on me that I had never left Canterlot before and that I now found myself in a small backwoods town in the middle of nowhere. I was hit with this sudden feeling of calm, the world was quiet, and the stars were bright, I felt a lot better than I had in a while… but then I realized that I had nowhere to stay. I walked around for a while, looking for something like a hotel, it took a while but I did find one. “Hello, welcome to the Ponyville Inn, would you like a room?” A stallion greeted me inside the Inn. “Yes please. Can I have your cheapest room?” The stallion looked at me a little oddly; I guess most ponies didn’t ask specifically for the worst room, “Sure, that should be fine, that will be 200 bits.” “For just one night?” “Yes.” “In the worst room?” “Mhm.” “200?” “That is what I said sir.” I was a little ticked off, though maybe that was partially due to having been walking for twelve hours, “Okay fine,” I gave the stallion the money and he gave me the key to room 42. I sleepily entered my room, it was nicer than I expected, but I didn’t have much time to take it all in since I almost immediately collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep. *** When I woke up it was already late afternoon. I got up quickly and went out. I had no specific plans; I just wanted to look around and see what there was in this town. Ponyville was pretty much just like how I had always imagined small towns; there was a large farm that grew apples, a lot of small family businesses, and that general neighbourly kindness you can’t really find in the city. Nothing much of interest happened while I looked around the town except for this odd earth pony who broke out into song, and seemed very determined to make me smile, which she managed to do, but that was about all that happened. As I headed back to the inn that evening I felt surprisingly defeated; I guess I had expected to get some sort of answer about where I was supposed to be, where I was supposed to go. I suppose I was expecting too much from my first day out of Canterlot. As I entered the inn I paid the stallion at the front desk for one more night, I planned to leave in the morning so I asked for a wake-up call. In retrospect it probably was not a good idea to give up on the town so quickly, but at the same time if it weren’t for that wake-up call I may have never met her, and subsequently never have gone where I went to next. *** When I was given my wake-up call I instantly regretted asking for it, simply because I was tired. I got my stuff and went out; still tired I accidentally bumped into a mare outside the inn and a bunch of my stuff, which was mostly books, spilled out of my bag. “Oh sorry,” I apologized immediately and levitated the books back into my bag. “That’s a lot of books you have there,” the unicorn I bumped into stated bluntly. “Yeah,” I nodded, “I love books, I used to work in a library actually.” “Isn’t that funny, I actually live in a library.” “That’s quite the coincidence,” I said. I was about to continue on my way, but the unicorn continued. “You used to work in a library? What happened?” “I left, everypony told me it was my destiny, but I didn’t really fit the job.” “Having problems with destiny I see… you should go talk to Serenity.” “Who?” this bit of advice caught my attention. “She’s a unicorn from Las Pegasus, she studies magic related to fate she's apperntly the best, they say she'll help out most people with problems about their future; I read about her in The Future Sciences: Universal Predictability.” I thought for a moment, I didn’t have any plans on where to go anyway. “How do I get to Las Pegasus from here?” “Just head South-West, you can take a train but it only goes halfway there.” “Thanks,” I nodded and left. *** I bought a train ticket since apparently the full walk there was not very easy; this was another hit to my wallet, I was going to have to try and earn some money soon. I wondered what Las Pegasus would be like, it was a big city, I knew that, but nothing like Canterlot. This was the home of all the big celebrities and was a city that basically lived off of tourism. I knew they had a lot of hotels so I was set for somewhere to stay, though I had also heard that the rooms were outrageously priced. On the train ride there I imagined ways in which this pony Serenity could help me, of course I knew absolutely nothing about her, but that didn’t stop me from imagining. In my mind it seemed like it was going to be so simple, that Serenity would just know what I was supposed to do. I was still young and naïve I suppose. Of course nothing about my journey was ever that simple, if anything things always seemed to be getting more confusing and difficult. The train stopped and I got out and found myself on another long dirt road heading to another place I had never been. I wondered if my whole journey was going to be like this, just going from place to place at random and hoping for the best. Which I guess was more or less right. Suddenly sompony grabbed me. Things were about to get a lot more difficult. Author's Note Still not as good as the first chapter, darn. But I have now setup a story arc, so the bridge between the introduction and the actual story pretty much ends here. Chapter 4 may not be done for a day or two. Thanks for reading. Chapter 4: Finding Serenity“Give me all your bits.” Was I really being robbed? I had always been, for a lack of a better word, “sheltered” and had absolutely how to react in this sort of situation. I guess I’d had things stolen before, but only in the sense that I left something somewhere and when I went back for it was gone; I had never been directly robbed and it had always seemed like one of those things that would never happen to me. I was frozen in shock and the robber had to repeat himself. “I said give me all your bits.” “They're in my saddle bag.” In retrospect maybe I shouldn’t have just told them that, I mean the pony was behind me, if I was a little braver I could have easily kicked them in the face. But of course I was too afraid of the possible consequences to do anything like that. I felt him rustle through my saddle bags, quickly skipping over the books and going straight for my bits. I soon noticed that my saddle bags felt substantially lighter. “Thanks bud, have a nice day,” the thief said mockingly as he rushed out of sight; I never even managed to get a good look at him. I just stood there, completely dumbstruck. I had just lost all of my money, though my food had been spared, but still, what was I supposed to do now? I couldn’t head back to Ponyville as I had no money for the train, and if I were to walk I’d have to cut through the Everfree Forest to make it back in less than a week, and that was not an option. In the end I decided to continue on to Las Pegasus; it seemed like the most logical course of action. I figured once I got there I could figure out what to do. *** The walk had been long and depressing but I had finally made it to Las Pegasus; maybe it was here that I would find what I was meant to do. Wow, I had almost forgotten the whole reason I was on this journey, that robbery had been a major distraction but now I was back to focusing on my ill-fighting cutie mark. It wasn’t necessarily realistic but I couldn’t help but blame my cutie mark for this whole mess; If my mark had fit me from the start I would never be here, in an unfamiliar city with no bits to my name. Now that I was here it was time to come up with a plan. First thing first: find out where this Serenity lived, I believed that if somepony helped me discover what I was meant to do all my problems would go away so finding Serenity was my top priority; a flawed priority to say the least. I had realized on my walk that I had never asked the Unicorn in Ponyville where this Serenity pony lived specifically. In my youth I was always making simple mistakes like this, jumping into action before I had all the necessary information. And now I had to think of someway to find out about Serenity. I was trying to think of what to do when suddenly it hit me, the unicorn had said she learned about Serenity from a book, What was it called? After some thought I managed to remember the title, The Future Sciences: Universal Predictability. I knew what I had to do, and I was not very happy about it. I had to go to a library. *** The Las Pegasus Public Library was quite different from the one in Canterlot, not only was it smaller but it had an entire floor dedicated to magazines related to celebrities and films. Luckily though they did still have sections for “actual books”. I acted fast, I felt very uncomfortable being in a library so soon after leaving the one in Canterlot. With my knowledge of the workings of Libraries I managed to find a copy of The Future Sciences: Universal Predictability relatively fast. I headed straight to the Index. S, Se, Serenity P.202. I flipped to page 202 and found that there was entire chapter written by Serenity on the topic of Cutie Marks and how they affect a pony's decisions and lifestyle. I didn’t read much then and there, I was quite desperate to get out of there, and headed straight to check out the book; thank Celestia for the implementing of the "Universal Library Card" for all of Equestria, otherwise checking it out would have been for more of a hassle. Once I was out of the library I headed to a park bench and began to read the chapter by Serenity. I don’t feel the need to retell the entire chapter, so let me summarize: Serenity theorized that a Cutie Mark was not a definitive sign of a pony’s talent or fate; a new and seemingly outrageous idea. While the theory conflicted with a lot of common beliefs her proofs and evidence examples were well stated and justified. After reading it through I found that her case had been very persuasive; and also found that she would be the perfect pony to help me with my problem. As luck would have it, they had an address where you could reach her (not her home address of course). As luck would not have it, the location was on the entire other side of Las Pegaus. After a bit of lazing about I finally accepted that I was just going to have to deal with a little more walking. So I walked. *** Before the day was out I had managed to reach the address the book had given, it appeared to be a small office building. I climbed up the steps and knocked at the door. After a moment of waiting the door opened. Before me stood a grey unicorn with a black and white mane and light blue eyes. “Hello?” The pony said; it came off as a question. “Um, are you Serenity?” I asked, a little nervous that I may have had the wrong address, something I often worried about. “Yes… and you are?” “Oh, sorry, my name’s Tailor.” “Nice to meet you Tailor”, Serenity greeted me, “do you have some sort of business here?” “Um, yes, I was hoping you could help me… I have my problems related to my cutie mark.” “Do you have an appointment?” “Um, no, sorry, I wasn’t aware I needed one.” “I see…” Serenity thought for a moment, “okay, come in, take a seat in the waiting room, I apologize but you may have to wait a while… I don’t usually talk to people without an appointments, you’re lucky you caught me on a slow day.” “Thank you.” I stepped inside the waiting room. There were a few other ponies there. I found myself very nervous, which I guess was not surprising, as I believed I was about to learn something important about my destiny. Which I suppose was true, but it wasn’t something I was going to be happy to learn. Author's Note Chapter 5 might take a few days to work on before I post it, sorry if it takes a while. Thanks for reading. Chapter 5: Not, Strictly Speaking, PossibleI sat in the waiting room nervously. Serenity had given me a number, 17, and had told me to wait. I was tapping my hoof very quickly, something I tended to do when I was nervous. But I had to keep stopping because some of the other ponies would start to glare at me after a few minutes of incessant tapping. “Number 16 you can come in now,” Serenity poked out of her office door. A pegasus got up and headed in. I was next, and was now even more nervous. I was, I believed, about to learn what I was supposed to do with my life; Serenity’s personal take on the theory of universal predictability had seemed very sound, and I was convinced she could help me. But when I thought about it I wasn’t sure how I was going to describe my problem, all I had to say was that my talent didn’t seem to “fit” me. That wasn’t very specific, and, honestly, I didn’t think I could really explain it any better than that. The more I thought about this the less sure I became of what my problem really was; maybe it was just working at the library that didn’t fit, not my whole talent… No, even my talent of helping ponies find books they’d like seemed like it didn’t fit me, it still felt like my cutie mark got it wrong somehow; it felt like I’d gotten my cutie mark too soon, before I could find what I was really meant to do, what me real talent was. I guess what I hoped to hear from Serenity was what I was really meant to do, or at the least, confirmation that I had gotten the wrong talent, that at least would make feel a little more confident and more sure of my feelings. “Number 17.” I snapped out of my thoughts. “Mm, yes,” I nodded and walked over to the office door, and paused. “Come in,” Serenity said. I entered. I was about to learn what I was meant to do. *** After telling Serenity a little bit about myself, and making a terrible, but admirable, attempt at explaining my problem, we began to see what we could do about my problem. “So basically you have a problem of some sort with your cutie mark right?” I nodded. “Well then, let’s begin,” Destiny closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. She began to cast a spell; light flooded over me. I had to assume it was a very power spell from how hard Serenity was concentrating on casting it. After a while the light slowly got less and less bright and seemed to recede. Soon the light was entirely gone. “So, what am I supposed to do?” I asked optimistically. “You seem to have a talent for helping ponies find books, and that’s all I can see, the only profession that would suit you is working in a library.” I was stunned, not only was Serenity not giving me a solution, she wasn’t even confirming that something, anything, was wrong. “But, I already told you I worked at a library, and I didn’t fit in.” “I know you did, that’s why I’m confused,” serenity was looking over some notes she had written down, “from what I found you should have fit in at the Canterlot Library… I have no idea why you didn’t.” “You don’t have any ideas at all?” “None that are even remotely possible.” “I see… do you have any ideas that are not, strictly speaking, possible?” “Maybe one… You could literally have the wrong cutie mark; maybe helping ponies find books is not your best talent… But nopony in history has ever received a cutie mark that didn’t in some way co-relate to their talent.” “Mm.” “I’m sorry that I couldn’t be more help.” I stood up, “No It’s my fault for getting my hopes up,” I was very annoyed and slammed the door shut behind me. I left the office building. I was alone in Las Pegasus with no money, no direction, and no sense of self. *** I found myself shelving things again, but at least they weren’t books. Working in a market place in Las Pegasus wasn’t too bad, it was a fair bit tedious, and surprisingly busy, but it paid well and didn’t take too much effort. Though, even though the pay was okay it was only really enough to keep me alive, and there wasn’t a lot to set aside to help pay for getting back to Canterlot. I had officially given up, I had gone through a lot and Serenity had been my last hope; I had no idea what I could do about my problem now. The more I thought about the problem the more I thought it was I who was at fault; maybe finding books for ponies really was my talent and there was just something wrong with me. I didn’t really want to accept that, but the more I thought about it the more I became sure of it. There must be something wrong with me, and I was just going to have to live with that. Since I had lost any hope for resolving my problem I had decided to head back to Canterlot and try to get my job back. But what about Lilly? It was her job now; it wouldn’t really be fair for me to just show up and take it from her. Ugh, this was not going to be easy. Maybe I’d have to get a new job in Canterlot. I shrugged; I’d see what would be happen when I got there. I stopped thinking so hard and focused on stacking apples, when somepony came up to me. “Tailor?” “Winter Breeze?” I had turned around to see Winter Breeze, a pegasus I’d gone to school with a few years before I transferred schools. We’d once been good friends, and had managed to stay in contact throughout our school years, but once we grew up we had kind of lost touch. “Tailor, it’s great to see you, it’s been far too long.” “Yeah it has… so, what are you doing in Las Pegasus?” “I was about to ask you that,” Winter looked at me with fake annoyance, “but I guess you beat me to the question; I actually work in the local library.” “…Library?” Winter nodded. Winter shuffled her wings about a bit, and I caught a glimpse of her cutie mark, her flank displayed a number of books from different genres; identical to mine in everyway. “Tailor…? Is something wrong?” Author's Note For the sake of the story I am assuming that in the world of MLP: FIM no two ponies have the exact same cutie mark and that when it happens in the show it is simply due to a limit of cutie marks the staff had on hand. So I am assuming that naturally no two ponies have the same mark, they can be similar but not exactly the same, because that would wreck the whole idea of everpony being "unique" which would sort of go against what the whole point of cutie marks. The point of them being to show that each pony is unique. Okay, please be aware of that for the sake of this story. Thanks for reading. Chapter 6: Existence Chapter 6: Existence “Tailor, is something the matter? You look pale…” I was stunned; Winter Breeze had the exact same cutie mark as me. Of course, it wasn’t entirely uncommon for two ponies to have amazingly similar marks, but they were never identical! Not only did Winter’s mark display books of different genres, they were the same books as mine, and in the same positioning too. Winter was staring at me as I got lost in thought. I was trying to remember some of the letters we had sent to each other after I had transferred schools; had we ever talked about getting our cutie marks? Even in passing? For the life of me I couldn’t remember. I found it unlikely that we had never mentioned getting our cutie marks to each other, as it was quite an important event, but I honestly had no recollection of any mention of cutie marks in any of our letters at all. “Tailor, seriously what’s wrong? You’re beginning to freak me out a little…” It dawned on me that I was wearing an apron for work and that it was covering my cutie mark. Winter couldn’t see that we had the same mark. “Um, yeah, well… Can we talk alone? I just need a minute to ask my boss for a quick break.” “Actually,” Winter began, “I have to get back to work, maybe we could meet up tomorrow to talk about whatever’s wrong.” “No,” I stated sternly, “I think this is something very important, I need to talk to you now.” Winter stared at me for a moment, taking in my serious mood, “Fine, but I really can’t talk long.” I nodded, and went to tell my boss I was going to be gone for a little while. *** Winter and I were sitting on a park bench. I was having difficulty starting the conversation I wanted to have. “So why did we need to talk so urgently?” Winter began the conversation for me, she looked at me quizzically. “Well, um…” I looked down at my hooves for a moment, then I took off my apron, “take a look at my cutie mark.” “Hmm,” Winter moved her gaze to my flank and then let out a gasp. She stopped and stared, just as I had done a few minutes before. “But that’s… not possible…” was all Winter managed to say. “I know.” We were both silent for a moment, then finally Winter spoke again. “What is you talent?” “Helping ponies find-” “Books they like…” Winter cut me off. “You too?” “Yeah,” she nodded. More silence. I spoke first this time. “Are you happy with you talent?” Winter looked at me oddly again, “Of course I am.” “Well there’s the difference…” “You mean you’re not happy with your mark?” “No, I’ve always felt like I’d been given the wrong talent… and now, it seems like I have yours…” Winter and I took part in a little more awkward conversation but soon had to go, we had to get back to work. We agreed to meet again the next day. I was now just even more confused than I had been before. I was now not only convinced that I had the wrong cutie mark, I was convinced I had somepony else’s. *** Winter and I met up the next afternoon at a coffee shop. Once again things were a little awkward, but we seemed to be a little less shocked than yesterday and it made talking a little easier. “I have to ask,” I began, “how did you get your mark exactly?” “I helped somepony who didn’t enjoy reading get into reading.” “Me too… Where were you working?” “My school library, as a volunteer of course." “Me too… when was this?” It turned out we had received our marks on the exact same day. This was only getting stranger and none of the information was actually helping me understand the situation better. I thought for a moment. “Winter?” “Hmm?” “There’s somepony I think we should talk to.” “Who?” “Their name is Serenity.” *** I was still I bit upset with the results of my first meeting with Serenity and felt a little odd when knocking on the door of her office building. Soon after knocking Serenity appeared in the doorway. “Tailor? Here again without an appointment I see; you realize you don’t have the excuse of not knowing you need one this time… Hmm, who have you brought with you?” “This is winter,” I stated, “I know I don’t have an appointment, again, but I think you may want to talk to us.” “And why’s that?” Winter and I moved so both our flanks were visible. “But, that’s...” Serenity was silent… I was already beginning to get tired of all these stunned silences that I’d been receiving since the day before. “So,” Winter began, “is there any chance we can come in unannounced?” Serenity took a moment to snap back into reality. “Um, yeah, yeah, come right into my office… We’re going to talk now.” *** Serenity had taken us straight to her office, to the noticeable annoyance of the ponies in the waiting room, and we began to talk immediately. “What is your connection?” Serenity asked, “I mean, how do you two know each other?” “We were child hood friends,” I explained, “we only went to the same school briefly, but we wrote each other letters throughout most of our youth.” “And, Winter, what is your talent?” “The same as Tailor’s… But I’m happy with mine.” “I see…” We informed Serenity of how creepily similar the ways we got our cutie marks were. Even Serenity had no idea of what to make of the information, so she moved right onto casting her spell. Once again light surrounded me, and also Winter. After a while the light receded. Everything was still and silent. “So?” Winter asked, “What do you think?” Serenity stared at us, the emotion displayed on her face was odd and I couldn’t tell what she was thinking at all. All I knew was her look did not inspire confidence. “I don’t know how to say this…” That’s all Serenity said for a long time, neither Winter or I dared to say anything. Eventually Serenity spoke again. “One of you… you shouldn’t exist.” What? Once again nopony spoke. I couldn’t take this damn silence anymore. “What do you mean?” I shouted. Serenity spoke, still stunned, “One of you... well, your mere existence is not possible.” “What does that mean?” Winter asked seriously. “I can’t really explain it, it doesn’t make sense.” “It’s me isn’t it?” I said quietly, “I shouldn’t even be here… I don’t fit here; I don’t belong,” then even more quietly, “I knew I was the problem… I should have accepted that sooner.” Author's Note Oh, I almost forgot to include an author's note... which I guess I have always done in the last five chapters. I don't really have much to say about this one... It's not bad but the last chapter was a bit better. This only came out so soon after the last one because I used this as an excuse to procrastinate on some work... But I feel my sort of nervous mood about getting my work done actually added to this chapter a bit... maybe it doesn't though and I'm just crazy. Oh well, hopefully you enjoy this chapter. Comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading. Chapter 1: The Canterlot LibraryI remember the day I earned my cutie mark clearly, I was still in school and was working as a volunteer at the library. I spent most days simply shelving books but soon found I had a talent for helping ponies find books they’d like. When ponies came in looking for nothing in particular I could always tell immediately what genre of book they’d like and bring them a book of that type. Over my school years I kept doing this and one day I brought a book to somepony who had informed me that they were only there to get a book for a report, they detested reading, but along with the book for their report I also brought them a classic adventure novel, the pony showed up a few days later and thanked me because they had loved the book and asked for something else similar. It was that day that my cutie mark appeared, my flank from that day forth displayed a number of books from different genres. I guess I didn’t get my mark in any way special, it was pretty conventional, but there was something about my talent that was very unique, but I didn’t know that at the time I got it. I was a grown stallion now and I’d been working in the Canterlot Public Library for a number of years. It was a prestigious possession, head librarian of the largest public library in Equestria. It was the summer, and the library wasn’t too busy, it was calm, and I had plenty of free time and even when somepony needed help it didn’t take me too long, this was an ideal job, but it was not a job I planned to have for much longer. I was organizing the history section; somepony had gone and messed it up. Before I could finish somepony came up to me. “Hello Tailor, do you have time to help me find a book?” “Hmm,” I turned around to see Lilly, a mare who was a regular visitor of the library, “of course I can, just give me one moment,” I took a few moments to finish sorting the shelf and gave Lilly my full attention, “so, what kind of book are you looking for today?” “Well I was hoping the library might have something by Star Treasure that I haven’t read already.” “The fantasy writer? We have all of her books, let me show you.” I lead Lilly over to the fantasy section shelf that had Star Treasure’s books on it, she intently read the names off the book’s spines, “So are there any you haven’t read?” “Yeah,” Lilly took a book from the shelf, “this one.” I looked at the title The Canterlot Cavern Adventure. It wasn’t the most ingenious name ever, but I'd heard the book had been well received. Lilly checked out the book and we said goodbye. I went back to organizing shelves. *** I was back at my apartment; it had been a long day. I was alone with my thoughts, and couldn’t help but think about that I was not happy. Everypony always says that doing what their cutie mark tells them works out fine, that they’re happy with what they’re doing. But not me; sure I liked volunteering at the school library, but as an actual job I despised it, it was time consuming and lonely as almost nopony else worked at the library. And then I thought to myself what I thought to myself every night, My cutie mark got it wrong. I was getting tired of it, sure I was talented as a librarian but I couldn’t accept that as my ultimate destiny. It wasn’t just that I disliked the job, my whole talent felt wrong; it felt like I was meant to be doing something else. That was it, I had finally made up my mind, I was going to quit my job tomorrow and go look for my destiny somewhere else. Whatever my destiny was I was convinced it was not for me to work in a library. But destiny seemed to have different plans. *** That morning I went to see Princess Celestia to inform her that I would be leaving the library, which she owned of course. I had only met the princess twice before, once when getting hired and another time when I requested some vacation time, and was no less nervous this time, maybe even more nervous. It took a while to get in, security was tighter than usual and I had to talk to a large number of guards. Eventually I managed to get into the throne room. Princess Celestia was there and so was Princess Luna, who managed to make me more nervous, she had been there the second time I had met Princess Celestia, she seemed nice but something about her seemed to make me more nervous, maybe it was just that there were multiple royals in front of me. "Good morning Tailor," Princess Celestia smiled at me, it helped me feel more comfortable "Good morning Princess," I bowed, "oh, sorry... princesses," I had almost forgotten to acknowledge Luna, she glared at me slightly, but then smiled in a forgiving way . It seemed like both the princesses were in a relatively good mode today. "So why did you request to see us on such short notice?" Celestia asked "Um, well Princess, you see, I'd like to leave my position as head librarian as soon as possible," I was a little worried, I wasn't sure how she'd respond. Celestia quietly spoke, "Oh dear." That did not inspire confidence. "Oh dear?" "Well, obviously, you can't just leave that easily," Luna cut in. "Why not?" My question came out a bit ruder than I meant it to. "Well," Celestia explained, "we can't just close the library, you can't leave until we find a replacement for your position." That didn't sound too bad, "How long should that take?" "The last time we had to find a replacement it took two years," Luna informed me. Two years? That was crazy, I really had to leave that library. I didn't say so of course, "Okay then, I'll begin looking for a replacement," I hung my head in defeat, that was it. I politely said goodbye to the princesses, and left for my home. I knew I couldn't wait two years, I had to find somepony to take my job. What if I couldn't find somepony? After some thought I decided that if I couldn't find a replacement within a month I was just going to leave. I had to leave. Author's Note This is my first MLP: FIM based story so I’m not too sure how it will turn out, hopefully well. Also I’m going to let a lot of this story form “organically” so I won’t have the entire story planned ahead of time so there may be a few things that don’t go anywhere (though I’ll try to avoid that or remove parts like that if it happens) and there may be some large gaps between chapter releases due to having to come up with the story as I go and not knowing ahead of time what I want specifically in each chapter. I fairly like my concept for this and I hope you do too. Thanks for reading.
Chapter 2: The ReplacementFinding a replacement for yourself is always difficult, especially if you’re pressed for time. You have this urge to hire the first pony who shows up because you can get out of there faster if you do, but at the same time many (including me) still feel they have the obligation to hire somepony who is up to the job. A surprising amount of ponies showed up to try and get the job of head librarian, most of them were book fanatics who only wanted the job because they liked the idea of getting paid for sitting around reading all day. Apparently they were unaware that sorting all of the library’s books can take multiple days and usually by the time you get through sorting all of them half of it has already gotten messed up again. The more ponies came in trying the get the job the more I just wanted to give it to them and the less and less I felt an obligation to find a good librarian. But in the end I still couldn’t just give the job away, and after a week and a half I still hadn’t hired anypony. I wasn’t sure what to do; I still believed that if I couldn’t find a replacement before the end of the month the best thing for me would be to just leave, I was sure if I wasn’t around the princesses would get someone else to find a new librarian, but until I left it was still my job to find the replacement. Why did I feel so obligated to this finding a suitable replacement? I still don’t know, maybe it was as simple as just not wanting to bother anyone. I had just finished interviewing somepony when Lilly came in to return The Canterlot Caverns Adventure. “Hello Lilly.” “Hi Tailor,” Lilly gave me the book. “So what did you think of the novel?” “It was okay…” Lilly sounded a bit disappointed. “Not what you expected it to be?” “Yeah, I guess my expectations were a little too high after reading some of her other books.” “That’s too bad.” I was about to go shelve the book when Lilly spoke again. “So you’re leaving the library?” “Hmm? Oh yeah, I am,” I nodded, “Hey, is there any chance you know anypony who would make a good librarian?” Lilly was quiet for a moment, “Honestly, I’d be interested in the job.” “Really?” I was a little surprised; I had no idea that Lilly would want to be a librarian, but when I thought about it she did seem like a good fit. “Yeah,” Lilly answered, “but I’m not sure I’m really qualified…” Then I had an idea; I realized Lilly would be a great librarian, she seemed to have a good knowledge of books and she did know her way around most of the library. “Lilly, if you really want the job I could train you, I mean if you-” “You would do that?” Lilly seemed to get really excited, “that’s great!” “Yeah, I’m a little busy today but if you come in tomorrow I’ll show you what the job entails.” “That would be great,” Lilly smiled, “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” *** Lilly showed up at the library early the next day, I began to train her. That first day we went over the Library’s filing system; the Canterlot Library had its own unique filing system. The whole day we only talked about filing, I was a little bored but she seemed to find it interesting, which helped to convince me that I’d picked the right pony for the job. At the end of the day, before Lilly left, she asked me something not related to filing. “Tailor?” “Hmm?” “Why are you leaving the library? This is a great job.” “Well, honestly, I don’t feel like it’s what I’m meant to do.” “What? But you have a book genre cutie mark, isn’t your talent helping people find books they like?” “Yeah…” “Well then how can working in a library not be what you’re meant to do?” “I don’t know… but, ugh, it’s hard to explain, it just feels wrong, this job doesn’t fit who I am.” “I see…” “You do?” “Well, I guess, everypony should feel comfortable doing what they’re meant to do, if you feel like your job doesn’t fit you then I guess you must be in the wrong place.” “So, do you feel comfortable in the library?” “Yeah I do, my talent is sorting actually… a bit of a dumb talent eh?” “Not really… so I guess organizing books is a good fit for you.” “Yeah, I always feel at ease here.” “That’s nice for you.” “So, what are you going to do after you leave this job?” “What?” “Where are you going to go? What are you going to do?” It was at that moment that I realized my plan to leave had a major flaw: I had nowhere to leave to. *** It had been ten days since Lilly first came in for training and I felt certain that she was ready to be the head Librarian. And while Lilly seemed to know exactly what she was doing I was still completely unsure of what to do. Once I left the Library I’d have no income, I did have a bit saved up; I got paid surprisingly well for a librarian. That morning I told Lilly that I knew she was ready to run the library, and that starting immediately she would be head librarian, she told me she was honoured and we said goodbye. I went back to my apartment and packed, I didn’t know where I was going but I felt in my heart that I couldn’t stay in Canterlot. I counted my money; I had enough bits to last me maybe two months if I were to live the minimalist lifestyle. I left, I began walking in no particular direction, I planned to just go wherever the world decided to take me. As I walked forward I reached a dirt road with a sign that read Ponyville Ahead. I decided to take that road, and it has made all the difference. Author's Note I feel like the first chapter was better than this one... that always makes me a little sad. But I have pretty high expectations for the next few chapters so keep an eye out for chapter 3. Also with the whole Ponyville thing I'm not going to suddenly include the mane 6 as primary characters in a story that isn't about them... so yeah... maybe one (or maybe two) of them will show up briefly. I wonder which one? Thanks for reading.
Chapter 3: The Small TownThe dirt road was long, and I did not make it to Ponyville, which was supposedly ahead of me, for a very long time. By nightfall I was still walking down the road. “Really? It’s already dark… ugh, hopefully I’m close.” I kept walking and after a few hours I finally saw lights off in the distance. I began to run and soon found myself in a small town; it dawned on me that I had never left Canterlot before and that I now found myself in a small backwoods town in the middle of nowhere. I was hit with this sudden feeling of calm, the world was quiet, and the stars were bright, I felt a lot better than I had in a while… but then I realized that I had nowhere to stay. I walked around for a while, looking for something like a hotel, it took a while but I did find one. “Hello, welcome to the Ponyville Inn, would you like a room?” A stallion greeted me inside the Inn. “Yes please. Can I have your cheapest room?” The stallion looked at me a little oddly; I guess most ponies didn’t ask specifically for the worst room, “Sure, that should be fine, that will be 200 bits.” “For just one night?” “Yes.” “In the worst room?” “Mhm.” “200?” “That is what I said sir.” I was a little ticked off, though maybe that was partially due to having been walking for twelve hours, “Okay fine,” I gave the stallion the money and he gave me the key to room 42. I sleepily entered my room, it was nicer than I expected, but I didn’t have much time to take it all in since I almost immediately collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep. *** When I woke up it was already late afternoon. I got up quickly and went out. I had no specific plans; I just wanted to look around and see what there was in this town. Ponyville was pretty much just like how I had always imagined small towns; there was a large farm that grew apples, a lot of small family businesses, and that general neighbourly kindness you can’t really find in the city. Nothing much of interest happened while I looked around the town except for this odd earth pony who broke out into song, and seemed very determined to make me smile, which she managed to do, but that was about all that happened. As I headed back to the inn that evening I felt surprisingly defeated; I guess I had expected to get some sort of answer about where I was supposed to be, where I was supposed to go. I suppose I was expecting too much from my first day out of Canterlot. As I entered the inn I paid the stallion at the front desk for one more night, I planned to leave in the morning so I asked for a wake-up call. In retrospect it probably was not a good idea to give up on the town so quickly, but at the same time if it weren’t for that wake-up call I may have never met her, and subsequently never have gone where I went to next. *** When I was given my wake-up call I instantly regretted asking for it, simply because I was tired. I got my stuff and went out; still tired I accidentally bumped into a mare outside the inn and a bunch of my stuff, which was mostly books, spilled out of my bag. “Oh sorry,” I apologized immediately and levitated the books back into my bag. “That’s a lot of books you have there,” the unicorn I bumped into stated bluntly. “Yeah,” I nodded, “I love books, I used to work in a library actually.” “Isn’t that funny, I actually live in a library.” “That’s quite the coincidence,” I said. I was about to continue on my way, but the unicorn continued. “You used to work in a library? What happened?” “I left, everypony told me it was my destiny, but I didn’t really fit the job.” “Having problems with destiny I see… you should go talk to Serenity.” “Who?” this bit of advice caught my attention. “She’s a unicorn from Las Pegasus, she studies magic related to fate she's apperntly the best, they say she'll help out most people with problems about their future; I read about her in The Future Sciences: Universal Predictability.” I thought for a moment, I didn’t have any plans on where to go anyway. “How do I get to Las Pegasus from here?” “Just head South-West, you can take a train but it only goes halfway there.” “Thanks,” I nodded and left. *** I bought a train ticket since apparently the full walk there was not very easy; this was another hit to my wallet, I was going to have to try and earn some money soon. I wondered what Las Pegasus would be like, it was a big city, I knew that, but nothing like Canterlot. This was the home of all the big celebrities and was a city that basically lived off of tourism. I knew they had a lot of hotels so I was set for somewhere to stay, though I had also heard that the rooms were outrageously priced. On the train ride there I imagined ways in which this pony Serenity could help me, of course I knew absolutely nothing about her, but that didn’t stop me from imagining. In my mind it seemed like it was going to be so simple, that Serenity would just know what I was supposed to do. I was still young and naïve I suppose. Of course nothing about my journey was ever that simple, if anything things always seemed to be getting more confusing and difficult. The train stopped and I got out and found myself on another long dirt road heading to another place I had never been. I wondered if my whole journey was going to be like this, just going from place to place at random and hoping for the best. Which I guess was more or less right. Suddenly sompony grabbed me. Things were about to get a lot more difficult. Author's Note Still not as good as the first chapter, darn. But I have now setup a story arc, so the bridge between the introduction and the actual story pretty much ends here. Chapter 4 may not be done for a day or two. Thanks for reading.
Chapter 4: Finding Serenity“Give me all your bits.” Was I really being robbed? I had always been, for a lack of a better word, “sheltered” and had absolutely how to react in this sort of situation. I guess I’d had things stolen before, but only in the sense that I left something somewhere and when I went back for it was gone; I had never been directly robbed and it had always seemed like one of those things that would never happen to me. I was frozen in shock and the robber had to repeat himself. “I said give me all your bits.” “They're in my saddle bag.” In retrospect maybe I shouldn’t have just told them that, I mean the pony was behind me, if I was a little braver I could have easily kicked them in the face. But of course I was too afraid of the possible consequences to do anything like that. I felt him rustle through my saddle bags, quickly skipping over the books and going straight for my bits. I soon noticed that my saddle bags felt substantially lighter. “Thanks bud, have a nice day,” the thief said mockingly as he rushed out of sight; I never even managed to get a good look at him. I just stood there, completely dumbstruck. I had just lost all of my money, though my food had been spared, but still, what was I supposed to do now? I couldn’t head back to Ponyville as I had no money for the train, and if I were to walk I’d have to cut through the Everfree Forest to make it back in less than a week, and that was not an option. In the end I decided to continue on to Las Pegasus; it seemed like the most logical course of action. I figured once I got there I could figure out what to do. *** The walk had been long and depressing but I had finally made it to Las Pegasus; maybe it was here that I would find what I was meant to do. Wow, I had almost forgotten the whole reason I was on this journey, that robbery had been a major distraction but now I was back to focusing on my ill-fighting cutie mark. It wasn’t necessarily realistic but I couldn’t help but blame my cutie mark for this whole mess; If my mark had fit me from the start I would never be here, in an unfamiliar city with no bits to my name. Now that I was here it was time to come up with a plan. First thing first: find out where this Serenity lived, I believed that if somepony helped me discover what I was meant to do all my problems would go away so finding Serenity was my top priority; a flawed priority to say the least. I had realized on my walk that I had never asked the Unicorn in Ponyville where this Serenity pony lived specifically. In my youth I was always making simple mistakes like this, jumping into action before I had all the necessary information. And now I had to think of someway to find out about Serenity. I was trying to think of what to do when suddenly it hit me, the unicorn had said she learned about Serenity from a book, What was it called? After some thought I managed to remember the title, The Future Sciences: Universal Predictability. I knew what I had to do, and I was not very happy about it. I had to go to a library. *** The Las Pegasus Public Library was quite different from the one in Canterlot, not only was it smaller but it had an entire floor dedicated to magazines related to celebrities and films. Luckily though they did still have sections for “actual books”. I acted fast, I felt very uncomfortable being in a library so soon after leaving the one in Canterlot. With my knowledge of the workings of Libraries I managed to find a copy of The Future Sciences: Universal Predictability relatively fast. I headed straight to the Index. S, Se, Serenity P.202. I flipped to page 202 and found that there was entire chapter written by Serenity on the topic of Cutie Marks and how they affect a pony's decisions and lifestyle. I didn’t read much then and there, I was quite desperate to get out of there, and headed straight to check out the book; thank Celestia for the implementing of the "Universal Library Card" for all of Equestria, otherwise checking it out would have been for more of a hassle. Once I was out of the library I headed to a park bench and began to read the chapter by Serenity. I don’t feel the need to retell the entire chapter, so let me summarize: Serenity theorized that a Cutie Mark was not a definitive sign of a pony’s talent or fate; a new and seemingly outrageous idea. While the theory conflicted with a lot of common beliefs her proofs and evidence examples were well stated and justified. After reading it through I found that her case had been very persuasive; and also found that she would be the perfect pony to help me with my problem. As luck would have it, they had an address where you could reach her (not her home address of course). As luck would not have it, the location was on the entire other side of Las Pegaus. After a bit of lazing about I finally accepted that I was just going to have to deal with a little more walking. So I walked. *** Before the day was out I had managed to reach the address the book had given, it appeared to be a small office building. I climbed up the steps and knocked at the door. After a moment of waiting the door opened. Before me stood a grey unicorn with a black and white mane and light blue eyes. “Hello?” The pony said; it came off as a question. “Um, are you Serenity?” I asked, a little nervous that I may have had the wrong address, something I often worried about. “Yes… and you are?” “Oh, sorry, my name’s Tailor.” “Nice to meet you Tailor”, Serenity greeted me, “do you have some sort of business here?” “Um, yes, I was hoping you could help me… I have my problems related to my cutie mark.” “Do you have an appointment?” “Um, no, sorry, I wasn’t aware I needed one.” “I see…” Serenity thought for a moment, “okay, come in, take a seat in the waiting room, I apologize but you may have to wait a while… I don’t usually talk to people without an appointments, you’re lucky you caught me on a slow day.” “Thank you.” I stepped inside the waiting room. There were a few other ponies there. I found myself very nervous, which I guess was not surprising, as I believed I was about to learn something important about my destiny. Which I suppose was true, but it wasn’t something I was going to be happy to learn. Author's Note Chapter 5 might take a few days to work on before I post it, sorry if it takes a while. Thanks for reading.
Chapter 5: Not, Strictly Speaking, PossibleI sat in the waiting room nervously. Serenity had given me a number, 17, and had told me to wait. I was tapping my hoof very quickly, something I tended to do when I was nervous. But I had to keep stopping because some of the other ponies would start to glare at me after a few minutes of incessant tapping. “Number 16 you can come in now,” Serenity poked out of her office door. A pegasus got up and headed in. I was next, and was now even more nervous. I was, I believed, about to learn what I was supposed to do with my life; Serenity’s personal take on the theory of universal predictability had seemed very sound, and I was convinced she could help me. But when I thought about it I wasn’t sure how I was going to describe my problem, all I had to say was that my talent didn’t seem to “fit” me. That wasn’t very specific, and, honestly, I didn’t think I could really explain it any better than that. The more I thought about this the less sure I became of what my problem really was; maybe it was just working at the library that didn’t fit, not my whole talent… No, even my talent of helping ponies find books they’d like seemed like it didn’t fit me, it still felt like my cutie mark got it wrong somehow; it felt like I’d gotten my cutie mark too soon, before I could find what I was really meant to do, what me real talent was. I guess what I hoped to hear from Serenity was what I was really meant to do, or at the least, confirmation that I had gotten the wrong talent, that at least would make feel a little more confident and more sure of my feelings. “Number 17.” I snapped out of my thoughts. “Mm, yes,” I nodded and walked over to the office door, and paused. “Come in,” Serenity said. I entered. I was about to learn what I was meant to do. *** After telling Serenity a little bit about myself, and making a terrible, but admirable, attempt at explaining my problem, we began to see what we could do about my problem. “So basically you have a problem of some sort with your cutie mark right?” I nodded. “Well then, let’s begin,” Destiny closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. She began to cast a spell; light flooded over me. I had to assume it was a very power spell from how hard Serenity was concentrating on casting it. After a while the light slowly got less and less bright and seemed to recede. Soon the light was entirely gone. “So, what am I supposed to do?” I asked optimistically. “You seem to have a talent for helping ponies find books, and that’s all I can see, the only profession that would suit you is working in a library.” I was stunned, not only was Serenity not giving me a solution, she wasn’t even confirming that something, anything, was wrong. “But, I already told you I worked at a library, and I didn’t fit in.” “I know you did, that’s why I’m confused,” serenity was looking over some notes she had written down, “from what I found you should have fit in at the Canterlot Library… I have no idea why you didn’t.” “You don’t have any ideas at all?” “None that are even remotely possible.” “I see… do you have any ideas that are not, strictly speaking, possible?” “Maybe one… You could literally have the wrong cutie mark; maybe helping ponies find books is not your best talent… But nopony in history has ever received a cutie mark that didn’t in some way co-relate to their talent.” “Mm.” “I’m sorry that I couldn’t be more help.” I stood up, “No It’s my fault for getting my hopes up,” I was very annoyed and slammed the door shut behind me. I left the office building. I was alone in Las Pegasus with no money, no direction, and no sense of self. *** I found myself shelving things again, but at least they weren’t books. Working in a market place in Las Pegasus wasn’t too bad, it was a fair bit tedious, and surprisingly busy, but it paid well and didn’t take too much effort. Though, even though the pay was okay it was only really enough to keep me alive, and there wasn’t a lot to set aside to help pay for getting back to Canterlot. I had officially given up, I had gone through a lot and Serenity had been my last hope; I had no idea what I could do about my problem now. The more I thought about the problem the more I thought it was I who was at fault; maybe finding books for ponies really was my talent and there was just something wrong with me. I didn’t really want to accept that, but the more I thought about it the more I became sure of it. There must be something wrong with me, and I was just going to have to live with that. Since I had lost any hope for resolving my problem I had decided to head back to Canterlot and try to get my job back. But what about Lilly? It was her job now; it wouldn’t really be fair for me to just show up and take it from her. Ugh, this was not going to be easy. Maybe I’d have to get a new job in Canterlot. I shrugged; I’d see what would be happen when I got there. I stopped thinking so hard and focused on stacking apples, when somepony came up to me. “Tailor?” “Winter Breeze?” I had turned around to see Winter Breeze, a pegasus I’d gone to school with a few years before I transferred schools. We’d once been good friends, and had managed to stay in contact throughout our school years, but once we grew up we had kind of lost touch. “Tailor, it’s great to see you, it’s been far too long.” “Yeah it has… so, what are you doing in Las Pegasus?” “I was about to ask you that,” Winter looked at me with fake annoyance, “but I guess you beat me to the question; I actually work in the local library.” “…Library?” Winter nodded. Winter shuffled her wings about a bit, and I caught a glimpse of her cutie mark, her flank displayed a number of books from different genres; identical to mine in everyway. “Tailor…? Is something wrong?” Author's Note For the sake of the story I am assuming that in the world of MLP: FIM no two ponies have the exact same cutie mark and that when it happens in the show it is simply due to a limit of cutie marks the staff had on hand. So I am assuming that naturally no two ponies have the same mark, they can be similar but not exactly the same, because that would wreck the whole idea of everpony being "unique" which would sort of go against what the whole point of cutie marks. The point of them being to show that each pony is unique. Okay, please be aware of that for the sake of this story. Thanks for reading.
Chapter 6: Existence Chapter 6: Existence “Tailor, is something the matter? You look pale…” I was stunned; Winter Breeze had the exact same cutie mark as me. Of course, it wasn’t entirely uncommon for two ponies to have amazingly similar marks, but they were never identical! Not only did Winter’s mark display books of different genres, they were the same books as mine, and in the same positioning too. Winter was staring at me as I got lost in thought. I was trying to remember some of the letters we had sent to each other after I had transferred schools; had we ever talked about getting our cutie marks? Even in passing? For the life of me I couldn’t remember. I found it unlikely that we had never mentioned getting our cutie marks to each other, as it was quite an important event, but I honestly had no recollection of any mention of cutie marks in any of our letters at all. “Tailor, seriously what’s wrong? You’re beginning to freak me out a little…” It dawned on me that I was wearing an apron for work and that it was covering my cutie mark. Winter couldn’t see that we had the same mark. “Um, yeah, well… Can we talk alone? I just need a minute to ask my boss for a quick break.” “Actually,” Winter began, “I have to get back to work, maybe we could meet up tomorrow to talk about whatever’s wrong.” “No,” I stated sternly, “I think this is something very important, I need to talk to you now.” Winter stared at me for a moment, taking in my serious mood, “Fine, but I really can’t talk long.” I nodded, and went to tell my boss I was going to be gone for a little while. *** Winter and I were sitting on a park bench. I was having difficulty starting the conversation I wanted to have. “So why did we need to talk so urgently?” Winter began the conversation for me, she looked at me quizzically. “Well, um…” I looked down at my hooves for a moment, then I took off my apron, “take a look at my cutie mark.” “Hmm,” Winter moved her gaze to my flank and then let out a gasp. She stopped and stared, just as I had done a few minutes before. “But that’s… not possible…” was all Winter managed to say. “I know.” We were both silent for a moment, then finally Winter spoke again. “What is you talent?” “Helping ponies find-” “Books they like…” Winter cut me off. “You too?” “Yeah,” she nodded. More silence. I spoke first this time. “Are you happy with you talent?” Winter looked at me oddly again, “Of course I am.” “Well there’s the difference…” “You mean you’re not happy with your mark?” “No, I’ve always felt like I’d been given the wrong talent… and now, it seems like I have yours…” Winter and I took part in a little more awkward conversation but soon had to go, we had to get back to work. We agreed to meet again the next day. I was now just even more confused than I had been before. I was now not only convinced that I had the wrong cutie mark, I was convinced I had somepony else’s. *** Winter and I met up the next afternoon at a coffee shop. Once again things were a little awkward, but we seemed to be a little less shocked than yesterday and it made talking a little easier. “I have to ask,” I began, “how did you get your mark exactly?” “I helped somepony who didn’t enjoy reading get into reading.” “Me too… Where were you working?” “My school library, as a volunteer of course." “Me too… when was this?” It turned out we had received our marks on the exact same day. This was only getting stranger and none of the information was actually helping me understand the situation better. I thought for a moment. “Winter?” “Hmm?” “There’s somepony I think we should talk to.” “Who?” “Their name is Serenity.” *** I was still I bit upset with the results of my first meeting with Serenity and felt a little odd when knocking on the door of her office building. Soon after knocking Serenity appeared in the doorway. “Tailor? Here again without an appointment I see; you realize you don’t have the excuse of not knowing you need one this time… Hmm, who have you brought with you?” “This is winter,” I stated, “I know I don’t have an appointment, again, but I think you may want to talk to us.” “And why’s that?” Winter and I moved so both our flanks were visible. “But, that’s...” Serenity was silent… I was already beginning to get tired of all these stunned silences that I’d been receiving since the day before. “So,” Winter began, “is there any chance we can come in unannounced?” Serenity took a moment to snap back into reality. “Um, yeah, yeah, come right into my office… We’re going to talk now.” *** Serenity had taken us straight to her office, to the noticeable annoyance of the ponies in the waiting room, and we began to talk immediately. “What is your connection?” Serenity asked, “I mean, how do you two know each other?” “We were child hood friends,” I explained, “we only went to the same school briefly, but we wrote each other letters throughout most of our youth.” “And, Winter, what is your talent?” “The same as Tailor’s… But I’m happy with mine.” “I see…” We informed Serenity of how creepily similar the ways we got our cutie marks were. Even Serenity had no idea of what to make of the information, so she moved right onto casting her spell. Once again light surrounded me, and also Winter. After a while the light receded. Everything was still and silent. “So?” Winter asked, “What do you think?” Serenity stared at us, the emotion displayed on her face was odd and I couldn’t tell what she was thinking at all. All I knew was her look did not inspire confidence. “I don’t know how to say this…” That’s all Serenity said for a long time, neither Winter or I dared to say anything. Eventually Serenity spoke again. “One of you… you shouldn’t exist.” What? Once again nopony spoke. I couldn’t take this damn silence anymore. “What do you mean?” I shouted. Serenity spoke, still stunned, “One of you... well, your mere existence is not possible.” “What does that mean?” Winter asked seriously. “I can’t really explain it, it doesn’t make sense.” “It’s me isn’t it?” I said quietly, “I shouldn’t even be here… I don’t fit here; I don’t belong,” then even more quietly, “I knew I was the problem… I should have accepted that sooner.” Author's Note Oh, I almost forgot to include an author's note... which I guess I have always done in the last five chapters. I don't really have much to say about this one... It's not bad but the last chapter was a bit better. This only came out so soon after the last one because I used this as an excuse to procrastinate on some work... But I feel my sort of nervous mood about getting my work done actually added to this chapter a bit... maybe it doesn't though and I'm just crazy. Oh well, hopefully you enjoy this chapter. Comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.
Chapter 1: The Canterlot LibraryI remember the day I earned my cutie mark clearly, I was still in school and was working as a volunteer at the library. I spent most days simply shelving books but soon found I had a talent for helping ponies find books they’d like. When ponies came in looking for nothing in particular I could always tell immediately what genre of book they’d like and bring them a book of that type. Over my school years I kept doing this and one day I brought a book to somepony who had informed me that they were only there to get a book for a report, they detested reading, but along with the book for their report I also brought them a classic adventure novel, the pony showed up a few days later and thanked me because they had loved the book and asked for something else similar. It was that day that my cutie mark appeared, my flank from that day forth displayed a number of books from different genres. I guess I didn’t get my mark in any way special, it was pretty conventional, but there was something about my talent that was very unique, but I didn’t know that at the time I got it. I was a grown stallion now and I’d been working in the Canterlot Public Library for a number of years. It was a prestigious possession, head librarian of the largest public library in Equestria. It was the summer, and the library wasn’t too busy, it was calm, and I had plenty of free time and even when somepony needed help it didn’t take me too long, this was an ideal job, but it was not a job I planned to have for much longer. I was organizing the history section; somepony had gone and messed it up. Before I could finish somepony came up to me. “Hello Tailor, do you have time to help me find a book?” “Hmm,” I turned around to see Lilly, a mare who was a regular visitor of the library, “of course I can, just give me one moment,” I took a few moments to finish sorting the shelf and gave Lilly my full attention, “so, what kind of book are you looking for today?” “Well I was hoping the library might have something by Star Treasure that I haven’t read already.” “The fantasy writer? We have all of her books, let me show you.” I lead Lilly over to the fantasy section shelf that had Star Treasure’s books on it, she intently read the names off the book’s spines, “So are there any you haven’t read?” “Yeah,” Lilly took a book from the shelf, “this one.” I looked at the title The Canterlot Cavern Adventure. It wasn’t the most ingenious name ever, but I'd heard the book had been well received. Lilly checked out the book and we said goodbye. I went back to organizing shelves. *** I was back at my apartment; it had been a long day. I was alone with my thoughts, and couldn’t help but think about that I was not happy. Everypony always says that doing what their cutie mark tells them works out fine, that they’re happy with what they’re doing. But not me; sure I liked volunteering at the school library, but as an actual job I despised it, it was time consuming and lonely as almost nopony else worked at the library. And then I thought to myself what I thought to myself every night, My cutie mark got it wrong. I was getting tired of it, sure I was talented as a librarian but I couldn’t accept that as my ultimate destiny. It wasn’t just that I disliked the job, my whole talent felt wrong; it felt like I was meant to be doing something else. That was it, I had finally made up my mind, I was going to quit my job tomorrow and go look for my destiny somewhere else. Whatever my destiny was I was convinced it was not for me to work in a library. But destiny seemed to have different plans. *** That morning I went to see Princess Celestia to inform her that I would be leaving the library, which she owned of course. I had only met the princess twice before, once when getting hired and another time when I requested some vacation time, and was no less nervous this time, maybe even more nervous. It took a while to get in, security was tighter than usual and I had to talk to a large number of guards. Eventually I managed to get into the throne room. Princess Celestia was there and so was Princess Luna, who managed to make me more nervous, she had been there the second time I had met Princess Celestia, she seemed nice but something about her seemed to make me more nervous, maybe it was just that there were multiple royals in front of me. "Good morning Tailor," Princess Celestia smiled at me, it helped me feel more comfortable "Good morning Princess," I bowed, "oh, sorry... princesses," I had almost forgotten to acknowledge Luna, she glared at me slightly, but then smiled in a forgiving way . It seemed like both the princesses were in a relatively good mode today. "So why did you request to see us on such short notice?" Celestia asked "Um, well Princess, you see, I'd like to leave my position as head librarian as soon as possible," I was a little worried, I wasn't sure how she'd respond. Celestia quietly spoke, "Oh dear." That did not inspire confidence. "Oh dear?" "Well, obviously, you can't just leave that easily," Luna cut in. "Why not?" My question came out a bit ruder than I meant it to. "Well," Celestia explained, "we can't just close the library, you can't leave until we find a replacement for your position." That didn't sound too bad, "How long should that take?" "The last time we had to find a replacement it took two years," Luna informed me. Two years? That was crazy, I really had to leave that library. I didn't say so of course, "Okay then, I'll begin looking for a replacement," I hung my head in defeat, that was it. I politely said goodbye to the princesses, and left for my home. I knew I couldn't wait two years, I had to find somepony to take my job. What if I couldn't find somepony? After some thought I decided that if I couldn't find a replacement within a month I was just going to leave. I had to leave. Author's Note This is my first MLP: FIM based story so I’m not too sure how it will turn out, hopefully well. Also I’m going to let a lot of this story form “organically” so I won’t have the entire story planned ahead of time so there may be a few things that don’t go anywhere (though I’ll try to avoid that or remove parts like that if it happens) and there may be some large gaps between chapter releases due to having to come up with the story as I go and not knowing ahead of time what I want specifically in each chapter. I fairly like my concept for this and I hope you do too. Thanks for reading.
