The Tribe of the Everfree Forest

Being shunned is one of the worst punishments to get in the tribe. You aren’t given your food from the hunters; you have to hunt for it yourself. You couldn’t talk to anyone who wasn’t shunned, and you would have a bad reputation. Getting your acceptance ritual delayed also counts as being shunned, though not for as long as normal shunning goes.

Neon Zap felt awful; she was hiding in a cave on the outskirts of the camp, her green eyes glinting with tears. “Why did I have to be curious? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” She banged on her forehead with one of her hooves. She put another hoof up to her scarred ear. Tears started to fall again, wetting the surface of the cave floor. Her crying echoed through the cave and it reached the camp. Night Star pricked his ears up.

“Is that pony crying again?” Night sighed. She had been crying for over an hour, and, because of the rules, he wasn’t allowed to comfort her, or to talk to her in general. Snow Frost trotted up to Night.

“Night Star? Are you ok? It must be hard to have your daughter shunned at such an early age.”

“I’m not ok… it’s only been three days, and she hasn’t stopped crying. But there’s one other thing bothering me.”

“Oh? What would that be, Night Star?” Night looked at his flank, where his glistening cutie mark of the Milky Way showed.

“She hasn’t gotten her cutie mark yet, and she is a bit old to not have it… Could she be one of the Flanks? Like Fern?”

“There’s no way to tell if she will never get her cutie mark like the Flanks, but we should keep an eye on her, eh?” Night nodded slowly as Snow quietly walked away to his den.

The Flanks were a group of ponies from all of the tribes with no cutie marks. Because of the tribe’s rules, somepony’s talent may be magic, or kicking clouds, but they can never find out. Fern is part of the Flanks.

Night looked at his cutie mark again, this time from just outside of the camp entrance. He was very, very worried that Neon might be a Flank. Flanks had less privileges then normal ponies, like not being able to lead if the leader died, among others. “Hmmm…” Night whispered. He had been staring at his cutie mark for so long that it looked like it was starting to swirl in the middle. Wait a minute… it was swirling. Night whinnied and ran into camp, all other thoughts forgotten, to the healer pony.

“Is there anyway you can save him?” Fern worriedly asked. Night Star had gotten a case of Cutie Swirl. Cutie Swirl is a rare disease caught when you stare at your cutie mark for way too long. The cutie mark itself wants to disappear to get away from your gaze, and it starts to swirl, disappearing into your skin, but the thing is… it’s lethal. If somepony gets their cutie mark, and disappears, they die. No-pony knows exactly why they die, but they do.

“I’m afraid not,”

“How long do you give him to live?”

“A week,”

Fern slowly walked to her mate, tears streaming down her face. She hugged him, and he licked her response. “C-can you say if he will live to see Neon’s acceptance ritual?”

“Probably, though we need to tell Neon that.”

Fern looked at Snow Frost, who was watching silently near the entrance of the den, expressionless. “Snow F-Frost… can you please tell Neon about Night…?” Tears were still falling down into Nights fur.

“Of course, Fern,” Snow trotted out, leaving Fern, Night, and the healer alone to talk. Snow kept walking, thinking about how unfortunate this family was. The cave stood wide open, and he walked in, hooves echoing in the dark. “Neon Zap?”

“Snow Frost? What are you doing here? Am I getting out early?” it was very dark in the cave, and they couldn’t see each other.

“Come out, I need to tell you something about your father.” Neon followed the noise of Snow’s hooves clopping on the stone, and then out into the sun.

“So? How is my father?” Snow sighed. “C’mon, tell me, I want to know!”

“Your father has… Cutie Swirl,” Neon gasped, and stood up, her wings splayed out in shock. “He has a week to live, and he will be able to see your acceptance ritual.” Neon’s eyes once again glistened with tears. She ran past her leader and into the healers den.

“DAD!” Neon shouted. “DADDD!” She jumped on her father, knocking the breath out of him.

“Neon…” He coughed, making sparkles from his cutie mark come out. “Be a good girl, ok?”

“I will, I will!” Neon nodded vigorously.

“Good…”