It was early morning in ponyville, most ponies were still sleeping, but Twilight was bright awake and trotting happily around the crystal castle, she had gotten a shipment of books from canterlot and was eagerly putting the books in place, complimenting every book with a smile and a “welcome home” as she put them on the shelves one by one.

The calm and quiet was suddenly interrupted as an orange pony burst through the door to the castle, and slammed right into Twilight, sending them both into the shelf of books she had just spent an hour filling and sorting.

Silence filled the castle for a moment, before a hoof and an angry Twilight emerged, followed by a blushing scootaloo enveloped in a magic field, and a scooter in another.

Twilight held scootaloo right in front of her, and tried her best to not turn into a living ball of flame as she started shouting in an angry yet somewhat forgiving tone “what is the matter with you scootaloo, do you have any idea how much work it took to sort all those books! And now i have to start all over!”

Scootaloo quickly responded “i'm so sorry twilight, i was just practicing some new moves, and i didn't think the big door would open so easily, i can help you sort them again if you want.” Twilight rubbed her chin with her hoof for a moment before nodding at the small orange filly with a smile.

Hours passed as they started sorting the big shipment of books, which became smaller by the minute and was now just a small pile of the thickest books which they had both agreed to save until last, mostly because Twilight didn't want scootaloo to hurt herself by helping her.

Scootaloo picked up a massive dusty tome and stared at it for just over a minute before opening it and reading to herself while her eyes got bigger as she turned the first few pages. She closed the tome, walked up to Twilight, and was now staring at Twilight with a confused expression on her face as she asked “where do cutie marks come from?” Twilight giggled and looked down at Scootaloos confused face as she responded “what do you mean where do cutie marks come from? they happen naturally whenever anypony discovers their special talent.”

The little orange pony tilted her head sideways and walked closer to Twilight, pushing the big tome in front of Twilight before opening it, and pointed at the first page as she asked “then why does this book mention “cutie mark magic” and “the cutie artifacts” so many times, what are they then?”

Twilight eagerly pulled the book up to her face, sending Scootaloo rolling onto her back, It didn't take long for the filly to get back on her hoofs and placing herself next Twilight so they could read together.

They both sat down as Twilight started reading from the dusty pages.
“We have finally found a way to improve everypony’s role in society, a way to make it possible for everypony to do well with whichever task we assign them, though the system does have its fair share of control problems.
For one we cant decide who gets which job, since the magical items seems to just give most ponies whatever they either like the most, or the thing they are already good at, so the dream of being great at everything doesn't look like it is going to become reality sadly. Though i would love to say being able to excel at whatever you’re already good at and like doing is great, i'm sadly going to have to disappoint you.

The bad side of these marks, which we have come to call “cutie marks” because the females kept saying they were cute, anyhow back to the point, the marks tends to make you worse at what isn't your talent according to the mark. I for one used to be able to cook some grand apple fritters, and my painting skills weren't the worst I've seen either, but after the magical items gave me my mark i have only been good at gardening for some reason, and i now have to leave all the cooking to my significant other who got a cooking pot for a mark.

This book i picked up has several hundred blank pages, and i intent to fill this tome with everything i can find about the damned things, and if i'm lucky, find a way to get rid of them, or at least deactivate them.

All i know about the artifacts so far is that there are seven in total, and they each have a part in creating magic that makes the marks work, also each of them represents a part of what the mark means.

So this is where i will end the first of my notes on the magical cutie items, and start my research.”

“Scootaloo! do you have any idea what you just found!” Twilight was jumping up and down with a big grin on her face as she shouted at the orange filly

“Yes! i found a way for the cutie mark crusaders to get their marks” Scootaloo responded as she too started jumping up and down with glee.

Twilight grabbed the tome firmly in her magic and flew out the front door, with scootaloo right behind her as they both sprinted out of the castle and went their separate ways to inform their friends about their discovery.

Pinkie pie had her head burrowed deep inside her pillow, it had been a long day of partying yesterday, and she may or may not have stayed up an extra three or four hours to prepare some plans for today's parties, there was only one problem, she had stayed up for an extra three or four hours, so she was completely smashed, and was considering taking a calm and quiet day of napping.

She had only just finished the thought before a certain eager purple pony woke her by slamming on her window. Before she could even respond, Twilight had opened the window with her magic and was now holding the book up to Pinkie's muzzle whilst holding a big grin on her face as said "Pinkie, we need to get the girls together, now!"

Author's Note

just starting out with writing things i publish online, any and all critique is warmly welcomed, hope you enjoyed the first chapter :)