The Strange Case of Dinky Hooves' Cutie Mark Curiosity

Chapters

Chapter 2: The First Day
Chapter 3: Magical Misery Detour
Chapter 4: Artistic Endeavors
Chapter 5: Manifested Sorrow
Chapter 6: Cutting Marks
Chapter 8: It's My Party.....
Chapter 9: ..... And I Cry If I Want To
Chapter 10: The Crystal Empire Library
Chapter 11: The Night Mare
Chapter 12: Dangerous Territory
Chapter 13: Deception & Integrity
Chapter 14: Defeat
Chapter 15: Manifested Nightmare
Chapter 16: Ancient Truth
Chapter 17: Sister Sorcery
Epilogue
Chapter 1: The Foundation of the Future
Chapter 7: A Real Cutie Mark

Chapter 2: The First Day

It had become afternoon as Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle returned to their operation center on the next day. The night, and most of the morning, had been spent with a deep and revitalizing sleep by the three fillies. After a sumptuous breakfast, they had proceeded with equipping their new operation center with interior; posters on the walls, cushions to sit on and a round table of generous size in the middle of the room. Now they were sitting at said table, a sheet of paper in front of each Crusader and pencils in their mouths. It was Apple Bloom who addressed the question that was going through their minds.

“So, how should we do this exactly, helping ponies ta get their cutie marks?”

Clueless silence hung in the air for a few moments, until Scootaloo spoke up. “Just the same as always,” she said, lapidary.

Her friends rested their eyes on her. “What do ya mean?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Well, just what we always did. You know, trying out stuff. Every pony has a special talent, so if we try out different things they could be good at as fast as possible with them, they will have their cutie marks in no time!” Her face showed a cheerful conviction.

“Hmm.....” Apple Bloom looked down at her paper. It was an obvious idea, but she made a note anyway, if only for the sake of organization. While she scribbled with her pencil on the paper, using her mouth, Sweetie Belle chimed in and distracted her.

“But is this really going to do it?” the young unicorn squeaked.

Scootaloo looked at her. “Why not? It's what we always did and it helped us.” One of her eyebrows got cocked.

“Well, not exactly,” Sweetie Belle objected. “We tried out a lot of things, yeah, but nothing we did got us our cutie marks. And our special talents turned out as something we would have never guessed.”

“Right.....” Scootaloo felt her conviction waning. She cast her eyes down on the table.

“She does have a point, Scoots.” Apple Bloom had stopped scribbling and looked at her pegasus friend intensely. “A pony we help could have an unexpected special talent, somethin' unique. If we use our way ta try and get that pony a cutie mark, it could take us years ta help that pony! We must go about this differently.”

“So, what should we do?” Scootaloo crossed her arms and looked at the ceiling, thinking.

“We need to talk a lot with a pony that comes to us,” Sweetie Belle recommended.

At the other side of the table, Apple Bloom nodded, then made another note. She crossed out the first note she had taken, then looked at her friends again. “Sweetie Belle's right. We need ta get informations about our clients first. First, we need ta know what they've already tried ta get their cutie marks.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement and Apple Bloom wrote it down on the paper.

“And we need to ask them what things they like to do,” Scootaloo provided another idea.

Apple Bloom put it on the paper, right under her own idea. She took the pencil out of her mouth as she was finished. Remembering an old advice she had received for getting her own cutie mark, she brought another idea on the table.

“And we have ta ask them what they're already good at and what they think their–” Before she could finish her sentence, three loud, but hesitant, knocks on the door interrupted her. Startled by the sudden sound, she turned around and looked at the door. “Who's that?” she asked, bewildered.

“Maybe it's Applejack,” Scootaloo suggested.

“But we told her that we're busy,” Sweetie Belle reminded her friend. “Would she interrupt us like that?” Her face expressed disbelief.

“She might,” Apple Bloom confirmed Scootaloo's words, now looking at her friends again. “Applejack is always checkin' up on me. Ah bet she's carryin' a tray with apple juice an' pie ta pretend she just wants ta bring us some snacks.” The filly sighed and slid off the cushion.

As Apple Bloom had pulled the door open, she was greeted by a familiar face, though, it was not Applejack's face. In front of her stood Dinky, a charming smile playing around her lips. “Are you ready to start?” she asked, her voice sweet. There was anticipatory thrill in her eyes.

“Dinky?” Apple Bloom looked surprised at the filly in front of her. “What are ya doing here? We told ya ta come tomorrow!”

Apple Bloom did not leave her position in front of the entrance, but Dinky used the confusion to push past her, earning annoyed glances by all three Crusaders for this. “But today is tomorrow!” she said cheerfully. The disapproval in the faces of the other fillies deepened.

Apple Bloom turned around at Dinky, one eyebrow raised. “Seriously? Ya know exactly what we meant.....”

Dinky gave her a grin. Although she was trying her hardest, it looked more sheepish than confident.

“Dinky, we told you that we aren't ready yet,” Scootaloo clarified from behind. “There are a lot of things we need to plan before we can help other ponies.”

Dinky turned around as the words washed over her. A flash of sadnes crawled on her face, but it disappeared as quickly as it had come. She did not respond to Scootaloo and her next reaction caused the trio of fillies to exchange concerned looks.

Stoically, almost mechanically even, Dinky trotted around the table and took seat at the far end of it. Diligently, she placed her hooves on the table in front of her. “Can we start?” she repeated her question from earlier, only slightly modified. She was still grinning, which looked creepy to the Crusaders now. Cold shudders went down their spines.

“Dinky, are ya alright?” Apple Bloom asked the odd-acting filly.

“Mhm,” Dinky nodded, her face now reduced to a simple smile. “I just wait for you to start.” There was a powerful insistence in her voice. It was almost stern.

Apple Bloom cocked her head. “Okay, this is really weird,” she said. The statement was loud enough for Dinky to hear it, but she did not react.

Not knowing what else to do, Apple Bloom closed the door. She felt helpless as she approached the table and sat down on her cushion again. Sitting now, she turned around at Dinky, prepared to tell her to leave and come back tomorrow, as they had agreed on. But as her eyes met Dinky's, Apple Bloom's resolve shattered like a glass window that got pierced by an arrow. Suddenly, there was an expression of utter desperation in Dinky's eyes. A short look down at the table revealed to Apple Bloom that even her hooves had started shaking.

Apple Bloom observed all of this, her empathy increasing by the second. Dinky wasn't just impatient about getting her cutie mark, she was downright nervous and distraught over not having one! There was one particular reason for this Apple Bloom could think of, which was harassment by their former bully Diamond Tiara, but she shoved the thought away and did not address it.

As sadness over Dinky's condition began to spread out in her, she confirmed with a quick glance that her friends were moved all the same way, then reached across the table and touched one of Dinky's hooves, keeping it still. She gave her a warm smile.

“Okay, let's get this started, Dinky. We aren't really ready yet..... But Scoots, Sweetie Belle and ah are worried about ya and we want ta help ya feel better!” In her voice, a very deep concern was ringing. The voices of her friends sounded the same as they agreed.

Apple Bloom's announcement changed everything. In a sudden mood swing, Dinky's hooves stopped shaking and her face cleared. Her smile became a happy one again and she placed her other hoof on Apple Bloom's, squeezing it gently while smiling at the earth pony filly. A few tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.

The extreme emotional reaction of their client not only moved the three other fillies, it surprised them as well. All of them had been desperately trying to get their cutie marks for years, but even they were never that distraught about always failing with their attempts. They understood the sentiment, though, so none of them was asking any questions about Dinky's motivations. Instead, they got right down to business of helping Dinky with her problem.

Dinky and her having separated, Apple Bloom looked down at the makeshift plan in front of her. Her eyes fell on the first note she had made, the one she didn't cross out again, that is.

“Alright, Dinky,” she said then, sounding a little unprepared, “we're goin' ta ask ya a few questions first.”

A grin appeared on Dinky's face and she nodded eagerly. But as she heard the first question that Apple Bloom was asking, the happiness left her expression again.

“So, what have ya tried ta get ya cutie mark already, Dinky?”

Dinky's ears dropped and she looked down on the table, her eyes casting a sad glance on the surface. “Nothing,” she whispered.

“Huh?” Apple Bloom's brow furrowed from confusion. She didn't expect this answer.

“What do you mean?” Scootaloo asked the sad filly.

“What I said,” Dinky answered quietly. “I haven't tried anything to get my cutie mark yet.....”

“Why?” Scootaloo asked, as baffled as her friends.

Dinky's head shot up suddenly. Beads of sweat were on her forehead. Her eyes darted hectically around. “I..... I-I just couldn't think of anything!” The answer sounded fake and Dinky's sudden nervousness deepened this impression.

Apple Bloom set up a smile. “Uh, that's fine! It's makin' things a bit harder, but we're goin' ta help ya!” Without awaiting Dinky's reaction, she looked at the paper again. “Okay..... What's it that ya like doin'?” She looked back at Dinky, expectantly.

And with that, Dinky's nervousness had been washed away again. She only appeared confused over this question now. “What I like to do?” She eyed Apple Bloom, puzzled.

“Yeah. Ya know, ya hobbies. The things ya doing after school or on the weekends.”

“Oh.” Dinky blushed a little, feeling embarrassed. “I like to play video games a lot.” Her face became brighter again. “I have a Neightendo 64 and an own TV for it! And I spend my pocket money mostly on games, so I have a big collection of them!”

Now Dinky appeared like a completely different filly. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle noticed the sudden mood swings between happy and sad, but, not wanting to be rude, they didn't say anything.

“Got it!” Apple Bloom said and wrote down what Dinky had told her. “And is there more?” she asked as she was finished.

Dinky looked into the air, a thoughtful expression on her face. “Hmm..... Not much. Sometimes, I like to read a good book, but not too often. And I play outside, of course, but we all do that. Oh and I hang out with Lily often!” Her face became adorned with a big smile as she mentioned the name.

To her left, Sweetie Belle looked up. “Lily?” she asked curiously. “Isn't this the filly with the hedgehog cutie mark who just moved to Ponyville some weeks ago?”

Dinky looked over at the unicorn and gave her a nod, still smiling brightly. “Mhm! We became friends at your cute-ceanera!”

“She does have a really odd cutie mark,” Sweetie Belle answered. “Maybe she needs help with it, too?”

Dinky wanted to reply, but Apple Bloom cut her off as she had just opened her mouth. “Not now, Sweetie Belle. We need ta focus on Dinky now. We can help Lily later, if she wants to.”

Sweetie Belle moved a hoof over the back of her head and laughed dryly. “Hehe, yeah, I guess you're right. Let's talk about you, Dinky!”

Apple Bloom addressed Dinky with the last question. “So, what are ya good at? Ya have an idea what ya special talent could be?”

Another thoughtful expression began to grace Dinky's face. “There isn't much,” she said after a while. “I'm good at school, but not really better than you or anypony else there. And I guess I'm average at gaming. But I'm sometimes shooting spells at targets with my big sister Sparkler and I've gotten really good at this!” Her face showed a proud grin now.

“Magic, huh? That sounds like somethin'.” Apple Bloom took more notes.

The tone in her voice lifted Dinky's spirits more. “Do you think this could be my special talent?” she shot a question at Apple Bloom, excited.

“Maybe,” Apple Bloom answered as she had put her pencil down. “Obviously it didn't get ya a cutie mark yet, but maybe ya just need ta do it more often and get more practice!”

Dinky beamed with joy now.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo agreed. “You said you got better a lot, so, maybe you're really close to getting it!”

Dinky jumped up from her cushion. “So we're going go try this together?!”

“You bet!” Scootaloo responded, giving Dinky a determined look.

Apple Bloom laughed. “What Scoots said!”

Sweetie Belle agreed as well.

Now Dinky couldn't hold onto herself anymore. “Then what are we waiting for?!” she asked, impatiently. “Let's go and get me a cutie mark!” Without a care in the world, she jumped onto the table, galloped over it, jumped down at the other side and rushed outside the door, leaving Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle behind in the operation center.

“She's really exciteable,” Apple Bloom commented on the happy outburst. Then the three of them laughed.

“And that's great, it's more fun that way!” Sweetie Belle said with her squeaky voice.

“Yeah, who would have guessed that our first time helping a pony to get a cutie mark would be like this?” Scootaloo added in excitement.

“Well, girls, are we ready ta leave?” Apple Bloom finally asked. Before Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle could answer, though, Dinky took care of it for them.

“Hey, why are you letting me wait? Come on!” Her eager voice cut through their eardrums, coming from outside.

“Well, guess that answers this,” Apple Bloom chuckled. “Let's move, girls! There's a pony in need of a cutie mark and we are the only ones who can help!”

Not wasting more time, the three cutie mark counselors left their seats and hurried outside, following Dinky to their first mission of helping a pony to get its cutie mark.

Author's Note

It feels so good to finally publish something new again.

This is a rather short chapter. I could have written more, but I think it's balancing the long first chapter out very nicely, so I decided to end it here.

Chapter 3: Magical Misery Detour

The sun was still in the sky, but already shimmering with an orange glow and on its way to sink beneath the horizon, as Dinky and the Crusaders arrived at the Hooves household.

The bundle of energy she was, Dinky did not waste time and happily bounced through the entrance door into the foyer of the house. “I'm home, Mom!” There was a drive for attention in her voice, but not an unpleasant one. Behind her, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle entered the house with smiles on their lips.

A rustling could be heard, coming from the kitchen to the right, then hoofsteps. In the doorframe of the kitchen, Derpy appeared. She looked at Dinky through her crossed eyes, wearing a smile as well. For a short moment, her glance fell on Dinky's companions, then she looked back at her filly. “Did they agree to help you, Dinky?”

She set herself into motion and approached her. A small drop of muffin batter slid down from her cheek and landed with a splosh on the floor. Derpy didn't pay any attention as she stepped right into it, leaving small pieces of batter like a trail behind her.

At her daughter's side, she touched her cheek, then gently scratched her chin. Dinky lifted her head and closed her eyes, enjoying the warm gesture.

“They did!” she answered as her mother had retreated her hoof, cheerishly. “We're going to start right now!”

Derpy turned towards the Crusaders, who confirmed Dinky's words with nods.

“I hope you can really help her.....” A shadow was on her face suddenly and her eyes expressed some grief. “Dinky is trying to get her cutie mark for so long already, but nothing ever worked..... We already started thinking that she is unable to get one.” There was a portentous tone in Derpy's voice.

Dinky dropped her ears and looked to the ground, her eyes now full of grief, too.

“Don't worry, we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We're goin' ta get Dinky a cutie mark, it's our special talent!” Apple Bloom reassured the worried mother and her daughter.

“Yeah, everypony can get a cutie mark! Just look at how long it took us to get ours!” Scootaloo assisted her friend with more encouraging words. She looked behind on her flank.

The positive reinforcement by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo wiped the sadness and the grief away and both mother and daughter returned to wearing smiles, Dinky's ears perking up again.

“You're right,” Derpy said. “Who else if not you could help my little Dinky?” Her voice still had a sad tone, but some confidence was ringing in it as well now.

Derpy turned back at Dinky. She placed a hoof on her head. “Don't try it for too long, Dinky. Dinner is almost ready.” Another piece of batter hit the floor, this time dropping off her mane, indicating that “almost” was relative.

Scootaloo held a hoof at her mouth, stiffling a giggle. A stern expression in her face, Sweetie Belle poked into her side with a leg.

Dinky nodded. “Mhm.” Then she reached out to her mom and gave her a tight hug, not caring about batter getting smeared on her face as well now. “I promise, mom, we're doing it real quick and then we can talk about my new cutie mark once we're finished!”

The cheerful conviction in Dinky's voice cast another sad expression on Derpy's face. But she suppressed the sigh that was building up in her throat and gave her daughter a firm squeeze.

The two of them let go of each other and Derpy ruffled through Dinky's mane. “Take care, Dinky.” Then the young mother turned around and trotted back to the kitchen, leaving more splotches on the floor of the foyer. Dinky added some, too, as she wiped some batter off her own face.

“So,” Apple Bloom called for Dinky's attention, “where is that shootin' range ya talked about? The sun's almost down, we better hurry if we want ta still try it out today!”

To their right, Derpy froze in her movement. She stood still for a moment, but then continued her way to the kitchen, slower than before. She did not look back at them.

Dinky acknowledged Apple Bloom's question and turned around to a short corridor at the right side of the stairs. She pointed at it. “It's out there in the backyard!”

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle followed her hoof and squinted their eyes. The corridor was dark, and they couldn't tell if the lights were just out or if there weren't any, but in the shadows, they could see the faint silhouette of a door.

“Let's go then!” Apple Bloom said.

Together, the three of them moved towards the door, but before they could reach it, Dinky rushed past them and blocked their path. Stretching out a hoof, she pushed Apple Bloom back a little. The three Crusaders could see that her face looked frantic in the light of the illumination spell she had cast to see in the darkness. The impression only lasted for a moment.

The faint, melodic humming of her magic stopped suddenly and it became black around them. Dinky's horn flashed up again two times for very short moments, then the spell fizzled out completely. Sighing, Dinky reached for a light switch to her left. As the corridor was illuminated again, this time by the magicity the house was equipped with, her face appeared calm again, mostly.

“Not yet,” Dinky said. “You can't go to the backyard yet.”

Puzzled, the three other fillies looked at her. “Why not?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I-I still need to prepare the shooting range!” Dinky shot back an answer.

“Preparin'? Why? Ya said ya doing this often with ya sister. Why it ain't ready yet?” Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes sceptically.

Some beads of sweat began to trickle down Dinky's forehead, but she tried to ignore them. “B-Because it's a mess right now! Sparkler and I really destroyed it yesterday when we were practicing! I just need to clean it up first and put up new targets!”

“Uh-huh,” Apple Bloom said, plainly. An eyebrow of hers was raised now.

“Is anything wrong?” Scootaloo asked worried, noticing the sudden nervousness of the young unicorn.

“N-No!” Dinky answered hastily. “I really just need to clean it up! It will just be a moment, wait here until I'm done!” With that, she turned and rushed outside, leaving the Crusaders in the corridor, alone and confused.

As the door had fallen shut behind her, Dinky darted over to the left side of the house. A few empty paint buckets stood there, left from the last time the house needed a repaint. Three long planks laid in the grass in front of the buckets and Dinky was grabbing one of them. She pulled it away from the house and over to the fence, where she let it drop again. She went back to the paint buckets, took them and arranged them on the plank.

Dinky furrowed her brow, scrutinizing the arrangement, then shook her head. She turned around at the spot and galloped to the other side of the backyard, where she snuck around the corner of the house, aiming for the trash containers.....

Meanwhile, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle waited patiently inside the house. A look through the window confirmed them that it was slowly, but steady, becoming evening. Soon, it would be too gloomy outside to shoot spells at targets. They sighed collectively. This was only their first mission as the cutie mark counselors they had become now, but it was exhausting already. Another sigh leaving their throats, they leaned their heads against the wall behind them.

While they sat there, waiting for Dinky to return, they suddenly heard hoofsteps above their heads. Looking up, they followed them with their eyes across the ceiling until the steps suddenly stopped, then began to descend on the staircase a moment later.

Sparkler's content face took on a surprised expression as she noticed the three fillies sitting in the lit-up corridor that led towards the backyard door. They answered her look with tired expressions.

“What are you three doing here?” she asked them. “Has Dinky invited you over?” She knew the three fillies in front of her, especially after the parade that went through the streets a few days ago and the massive cute-ceanera Pinkie Pie had thrown for them, both events that nopony in Ponyville would forget that quickly. They had never been as guests in their house, though.

“Not exactly,” Apple Bloom answered the question of the purple unicorn mare that approached them now, rubbing the back of her head. “It's more like we got hired. Dinky asked us for help ta get her cutie mark, she's our first client.”

“Mhm,” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded confirmingly, slightly grunting in annoyance. They were getting impatient.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Sparkler said. “My little sister is waiting for her cutie mark for a long time already.” Her words were similar to Derpy's words before and like her, Sparkler's face showed grief for a moment, but she was better at hiding it than her mother. She looked around, appearing confused now. “But where is my sister? Why are you not together?”

The fillies closed their eyes and did their third collective sigh. Then Apple Bloom explained.

“Dinky is in the backyard. She told us how the two of ya shoot ya magic at targets and that she is really good at it, so we figured this could be her special talent and came here ta practice it with her. But now she left us alone, saying she needs ta fix up the shooting range first.”

Sparkler's face cleared up, then darkened, then got adorned by a rather stern expression as a realization came over her, all in quick succession. Without saying another word to the fillies, she turned left and trotted past them, approaching the door. She opened it with her magic and went outside. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exchanged concerned glances, then they got up and followed Sparkler.

In the backyard, Sparkled spotted Dinky immediately. The younger unicorn was still busy with preparing an impromptu shooting range. Sparkler trotted over to her until she was close. “Dinks? What are you doing?”

Dinky twitched, immediately knowing that she was caught. She put down the empty glass bottle that she was holding in her hooves and hesitantly turned her head around to her big sister, eyeing her. The expression in her face was an assortment of regret, sadness, guilt and even a bit of fear. On shaky legs, she turned around completely, inch by inch, the grass blades getting shoved aside by her hooves. She looked at the ground for a moment and pawed it, then back at her sister. “I'm sorry, Sparks.....” she whispered quietly.

Sparkler sighed, then she closed the last distance between them. She tipped Dinky's horn with a hoof. “Were you talking about that shooting range stuff again, sis?”

“Mhm,” Dinky nodded, not saying more. A few tears appeared in the corner of her eyes.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had arrived at the scene as well by now. Dinky looked over to them, the regret in her eyes deepening. “I'm sorry.”

“Uh, what's happening?” Apple Bloom asked the filly, utterly confused now. The expression in her friends' faces showed they felt the same.

“I lied to you.” Dinky cast her eyes on the ground, a depressed look in them. “I can't shoot at targets with my magic. I just made it up when you asked me what I'm good at already, because there is nothing I'm really good at.” Her eyes began to well up more. “I'm just a talentless waste of space.....” Dinky sat down and closed her eyes, then started whimpering quietly, tears running over her face now.

“What? But.....” Scootaloo began, bewildered. “B-But you used magic! You helped us lifting up the plank with a levitation spell!”

“Yeah, and you used a light spell in the dark corridor!” Sweetie Belle added.

“And ya hammered in nails with ya magic! What's wrong, Dinky?” Apple Bloom completed the trifecta of confusion.

The young unicorn didn't answer. Sparkler sat down at Dinky's side and put a hoof across her back. She pulled her closer. Head resting on her big sister's chest now, Dinky continued crying.

Sparkler looked at the Crusaders gravely. “Dinky hasn't completely mastered magic yet. She can sometimes cast a spell, but her magic is only slowly developing. She's not there yet.”

Scootaloo dropped her ears and the concern in her eyes increased. “And that's everything?” she asked.

“Yes!” Sparkler replied, a little harshly. Scootaloo did a step back. “My sister has very big problems with figuring out what her special talent is and it does not make her feel good.”

“I-I'm sorry.....” Scootaloo lowered her head a little. “I just wanted..... I thought there is.....” She sighed. “Nevermind. Just forget it.”

A portion of regret appeared in Sparkler's eyes now. “I know you want to help my sister and I appreciate it. I'm sorry if I sounded rude, but it's not an easy situation for any of us.”

“It's fine,” Scootaloo assured her. “I shouldn't have asked this either.”

Now Apple Bloom took the floor. “We all understand how it feels ta not know what ya supposed ta do, Dinky. And we would never let a pony in need of a cutie mark hang.”

Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we aren't mad because you lied to us. We're still helping you and we will get you this cutie mark!” She slammed a hoof into the ground as a sign of determination. “You can count on us, Dinky!”

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle agreed with their friend's words.

At Sparkler's chest, Dinky sniffed. She opened her eyes and leaned away from her big sister a bit, the tears in her eyes making it hard to see the three fillies in front of her. She wiped with a hoof over her eyes, then retreated from Sparkler and got up on wonky hooves.

“Thanks.....” she whispered. “You are my only hope.” She wiped the rest of the tears out of her eyes and attempted a smile. It barely worked.

“Don't worry!” Apple Bloom spoke up again. “Whatever it takes, we're going ta continue until there is a mark on that flank of yours!” She pointed a hoof at Dinky's bare flank.

Dinky looked at Apple Bloom and gasped, her eyes suddenly showing fear, but it only lasted for a moment. Finally forcing herself to a smile, she trotted over to the three Crusaders.

“What should we do?” she asked. “How should we try and get me a cutie mark?”

It was apparent in their faces that this was something they hadn't figured out yet, though, Sweetie Belle's face suddenly lit up like a lightning bulb.

“I think I have an idea.....” she said.

Author's Note

"For a short moment, her glance fell on Dinky's companions, then she looked back at her filly."

Also, I have officially settled for the term "magicity" now, for whenever I refer to the special, magic-fueled and magitek-like "electricity" that Equestria has, after I came up with that term while writing "Aunt Millie".

Chapter 4: Artistic Endeavors

On the next day, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders and their first client, the filly named Dinky Hooves, were in the operation center early already. The sun had just risen a few hours ago and their bellies were full with the breakfast they had. This was nothing that could satisfy Dinky, though.

The young unicorn was looking around the table where the three Crusaders were seated, a frantic expression in her eyes. She was shifting from one hoof to another and her teeth were clenched. Sweetie Belle didn't tell her the idea she had gotten yet, so the impatience was driving Dinky nuts. And the sleep deprivation just made everything worse.

The bags under Dinky's eyes told about how she had been lying awake in her bed for almost the whole night, changing her sleeping position every three minutes in futile hope to fall asleep while thoughts and speculations rushed through her head. Eventually, she had been able to sleep, but then her mom was calling for her to get up just an hour later. “For your appointment with the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” she had said. Derpy was a responsible mom, so she had noticed how tired Dinky looked and was urging her to lie down again, but Dinky refused and insisted to go. All the expectation and all the mystery about what Sweetie Belle was planning had made her antsy. And she still was, indicated by her inability to stand still. As she couldn't hold the stress and the tension inside of her anymore, Dinky finally expressed her feelings to the three other fillies.

“Why are you just whispering all the time?! Can we finally start?!” She did an energetic step towards the table and put a hoof on it, now wearing an angry expression.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stopped their whispering immediately and stared at her with shrunken eyeballs. But then their eyes returned to normal and they nodded together.

“Sorry for letting ya wait,” Apple Bloom began. “There wasn't enough time anymore ta discuss everything last evenin', so we had ta talk about the rest of it now.” Apple Bloom cleared her throat while Dinky's expression was easing. The client sat down on one of the pillows, still a bit anxiously.

“We now figured out what ya special talent might be! There's something Sweetie Belle remembered yesterday. Ah let her explain it.” She looked over to Sweetie Belle and pointed at her with a hoof, signaling that she was hoofing over to her.

Expectantly, Dinky turned her gaze to the other unicorn. Her eyes were big as plates as she waited for Sweetie Belle to begin.

“I was watching you sometimes during a lesson at school,” the Crusader started. “I noticed that you pull out a piece of paper every time you seem to get bored and that you start doodling on it. Miss Cheerilee called you out for this very often.”

Dinky nodded. This was a correct observation. “Mhm,” she said, her head bobbing up and down. “That's right. Math lessons are always so boring and history too, so I sometimes distract myself that way. I'm drawing trees and other ponies and landscapes then. It's fun.” She smiled.

“I've seen it!” Sweetie Belle replied, enthusiasm in her voice. “I could take a look at your doodles when I walked past your desk and the ones I saw looked pretty good! So–“

“So you think drawing is my special talent?!” Dinky interrupted her. She had stood up and was now beaming at Sweetie Belle, her hooves placed on the table surface. Her face was almost one big grin.

“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle answered the eager question. “I suppose you don't draw very often, right, Dinky?”

Dinky shook her head, still grinning. “Only to pass the time in class!”

“Great! We need you to focus more on this then! You are really good at it, so I bet this is your special talent!”

There was a certain logic behind it and it caused her two fellow Crusaders to nod in agreement. The sentiment was shared by Dinky.

“I want to start right now!” She was bubbling with eagerness now and swiftly turned around to the door. “I gallop home and get my pencils!”

“Not necessary!” Sweetie Belle interrupted her. “I have already prepared something.” She gave Apple Bloom and Scootaloo a wink and they left the table for the corner of the room.

Dinky turned around and watched them pulling a large cloth off of some object she hadn't noticed before. From under it, a scaffold came into appearance. It already had a canvas put on it and at its bottom, an assortment of water colors and a few brushes had been placed. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom carried everything over to Dinky.

The purple-grey unicorn observed them sceptically while they were building everything up. “I-I should draw with this?” she asked, her eyes widely opened in disbelief.

“Exactly,” Sweetie Belle confirmed. She trotted at Dinky's side and put a hoof on her shoulder. “If this is your special talent, then we need you to draw much more and to draw more professionally. No doodles on paper anymore.”

Dinky gulped. What had only been a side distraction for her so far, was now getting turned into a full-on profession. It made her feel uneasy.

Sweetie Belle noticed and she gave her a push forward. “Come, try it out! There's no reason to be afraid it could look terrible! You are here to learn, Dinky, and you can practice as much as you want.”

Dinky did not appear convinced. She was approaching the canvas slowly, looking at it like she had just found an unknown lifeform on an alien planet.

“Yeah!” Scootaloo shouted, coming to motivate Dinky as well. “It took me years to master the hardest stunts with my scooter, but now I can do them!” She lifted up a brush with her mouth and was holding it in front of Dinky's face.

“Take it!” she said, her voice muffled, as Dinky didn't react for a few seconds.

“O-Ok,” the unicorn replied. She hesitantly took the brush out of Scootaloo's mouth with her magic. Then she stared blankly at the canvas. “W-What should I draw?” she asked after a few moments of staring.

“We have thought about this too,” Sweetie Belle took the floor again. She looked at the pegasus opposite of her. “Scoots?”

Having received her signal, Scootaloo jumped on the table right behind the canvas. “You're going to draw me!” With that, she stroke a heroic pose; head proudly raised and her hoof in the air, like she was standing on top of a mighty beast she had slain.

The idea cast a smile on Dinky's face, though, her anxiety remained for the most part. “I-I'm not sure.....” she whispered.

“You still want to get your cutie mark, right?” Sweetie Belle asked her.

Dinky nodded.

“Then you need to try everything that is possible! If drawing is your special talent, then you must broaden your horizon and draw in more ways than just doodling on a scrap of paper!”

“B-But..... But I never–“

Noticing the remaining nervousness, Scootaloo spoke to Dinky again. “Come on, Dinky, try it! You will never know how it looks and never know if you get your cutie mark for this if you don't!”

Dinky looked over to the posing Crusader, insecurity in her eyes.

“After all,” Scootaloo continued, “we didn't get our cutie marks for sitting around and doing nothing! We could only get there because we tried all the time!” It wasn't the best description, since nothing they ever tried got them their cutie marks at the end, save for the realization that they are good at helping other ponies to get their own cutie marks. But Scootaloo was slowly running out of ideas for how to motivate the nervous unicorn. Finally, it worked.

“O-Ok,” Dinky said again, stepping closer to the canvas. She dipped the brush into the orange color of the watercolor set to her left, then brought the brush down on the canvas. She did a first stroke over it as, suddenly, the magic around her horn vanished and the brush dropped to the floor, leaving an orange stain there. Dinky sighed, but picked the brush up again, this time with her mouth, and continued to draw Scootaloo in her heroic pose.

Brush stroke after brush stroke, she depicted her model on the canvas. Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead and more than once, she slipped with the brush. Her face was an indication for how hard it was to draw with the mouth, in a medium she was completely unfamiliar with to boot.

Dinky was only making slow progress, which Scootaloo noticed as her limbs began to hurt. Her face showed the desire to ask the painting unicorn filly how long it would still take, but, not wanting to stress her, she bit her lip and quenched this desire.

After about half an hour, a time that surely had felt like 3,000 years to Scootaloo, Dinky was putting down the brush. Some spots of orange and purple were on her chest, from when she had put too much of the paint on her brush and it had dripped down of it. Dinky stepped away from the canvas and eyed it from a few hooves distance. Her expression was more insecure than before and she bit her lip, as her eyes darted across the canvas and the picture she had just drawn. “It looks terrible,” she said in a depressed tone.

“Really? I don't believe it does. Let me look!” Scootaloo answered after she was finished stretching her limbs. She jumped down the table and trotted in front of the canvas to take a look at it. Her two friends joined her. Together, they checked out the picture Dinky had just drawn.

The colors of the picture looked messy. At some spots, they suddenly became brighter and at some others, darker, than their surroundings. The top part of Scootaloo's mane appeared to be detached from her head and her tail had about thrice its normal size. A lonely wing was sticking out of her back like an awkward expansion of her body. Despite the anatomical flaws, the picture of Scootaloo wore her trademark, determined and proud expression.

“Well, it does look like me,” Scootaloo commented, scrunching her face a little.

The three of them looked at the picture for several minutes, taking in each part of it to be able to give Dinky proper feedback. Their client was standing behind them in the meanwhile, pawing her hoof on the floor, because she did not dare to look at them. As they were finished with inspecting it, each Crusader had a different reaction to the art piece.

“It looks pretty good!” Sweetie Belle chimed. A smile was on her lips.

“Ahm not too sure, Sweetie. It looks.....” She struggled to find the right word. “Off,” she finally said. “If this really should get Dinky a cutie mark, then she's got a long way ahead.”

“I like it,” Scootaloo said plainly, her face completely serious.

“Ya do?” Apple Bloom looked over to her, surprise in her eyes.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo answered, matter-of-factly. “It does look a little rough, but don't forget that it's her first time drawing with watercolors, Apple Bloom. And she had to use her mouth, too! It can't look perfect at the first try.”

That made sense to the earth pony filly. “Ah guess so.....” Apple Bloom replied, shrugging.

“Scoots is right!” Sweetie Belle voiced her agreement. She gave her friend a pat on the back. “And I think it looks great!” she added then. “Looks exactly like something I have drawn.” She was still smiling.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at their friend, their eyes radiating scepticism. Then both of them giggled.

“What?” Sweetie Belle asked, cocking her head in confusion.

“Nevermind,” Apple Bloom said as they had regained their composure again and turned around to Dinky. Her friends followed her example.

Dinky was still looking at the ground, not answering their looks. “W-What do you think?” she asked. “Painting with watercolors won't get me my cutie mark, right?” Her voice sounded defeated.

“Not yet,” Apple Bloom said. “But it does look good for a first try and ahm sure with more practice, ya have a good chance ta get a cutie mark for this!”

Shyly, the unicorn looked up at them. “Really? I know it doesn't look great..... My pencil drawings are better.”

“Really!” All three Cutie Mark Crusaders answered together now, their voices full of conviction.

“And now” – Scootaloo walked towards Dinky, carrying the brush again – “go and draw more!” Before Dinky could react, Scootaloo had stuck the end of the brush into her mouth. Dinky looked up surprised. She received a push by Scootaloo, then trotted slowly towards the scaffold.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had replaced the canvas with a new one by now. Sighing, Dinky dipped the brush into one of the colors again, now attempting to draw Apple Bloom, who was taking up her position on the table.

Scootaloo joined Dinky's side. “Just do it like before! I'm sure it will look a little better this time!” She nudged her.

Dinky gave Scootaloo an awkward smile, then she brought the brush down on the canvas and began with drawing her new model.

Author's Note

To make this chapter more immersive, I have decided to draw the picture Dinky was drawing. It's uploaded on my Deviantart account:

http://cmc--scootaloo.deviantart.com/art/Chapter-art-for-my-current-Dinky-fanfic-683197155

Chapter 5: Manifested Sorrow

Several hours later, the clubhouse was littered with used canvas. They were strewn around across the floor and, on the table, small mountains of stacked canvas towered over Dinky and the tree Crusaders. The table didn't offer enough space to stand on since hours anymore. Instead of posing on it as models, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stood behind Dinky, on the few, free spots of the floor that were left.

The unicorn filly with the cutie mark problem was still standing at the scaffold, painting on a canvas that she might have called the fiftieth one, if she would have cared to count them all. Eagerly watched by the trio of fillies behind her, she moved the brush over the canvas to finish an eye she was painting right now. It was supposed to point into a different direction than the one she had already drawn and as she was sure it did, she put the brush down, stepped back and looked at her work. There was a small smile on her face now.

Behind her, the three Crusaders looked at each other, wearing smiles as well, then Apple Bloom stepped at Dinky's side. She went over the picture with her eyes, admiringly, then gave Dinky a pat on the back. “Better!” she said.

Dinky blushed and looked away, awkwardly lifting a hoof. “I don't think it's that good,” she said, her voice quiet.

“Aww, come on!” Scootaloo stepped closer and another pat came down on Dinky's back. “You improved so much! This looks much more like a pony than the first picture did!”

“Yeah!” A pat by Sweetie Belle. The white unicorn ignited her horn and pulled out the first painting from under one of the stacks on the table, making it almost tumbling down. She hovered it at the side of Dinky's painting of her mom, bringing the differences to light. As Dinky still didn't look at her picture again, Sweetie Belle gently cast her magical grip around the hesitant filly's head and moved it into the direction of the picture. “You should look at it better!” she commented the movement.

Dinky's pupils shrunk a little as her head got forced into a different direction and she gasped, but facing the picture brought the smile back onto her face. Now that she could see the differences herself and compare the two pictures with each other, her heart started to beat faster. She could feel the blood pumping through her veins as the excitement rose in her. The picture was not perfect, that was something she could see. But it looked better, a lot.

The wings looked more like wings, even the individual feathers were distinguishable from each other a little now. The body looked much better proportioned than before and had less anatomical flaws. The mane and the tail had been painted by her exactly where they were supposed to be and the different parts of the face had some space between them, so that they weren't all clumped together anymore. It was a good picture, no masterpiece, but good, and it was hers. Hers!

Dinky turned away from the canvas to present her three supporters with her gratitude. Scootaloo was the first who got met with it, as she felt pulled into a tight hug by Dinky. During all those hours of her painting incessantly, Scootaloo had encouraged her the most. She prodded her to continue every time she wanted to give up and pointed out all the small improvements she was making. If it wouldn't have been for Scootaloo, she would have stopped hours ago, this was something Dinky could feel.

Dinky continued squeezing Scootaloo with a grin on her face until she got told to stop as Scootaloo started to run out of breath over the tightness of the hug. Dinky retreated and allowed the pegasus to get some air into her lungs again, but proceeded with hugging Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in the same fashion. All three of them wheezed slightly as Dinky was finished.

“Maybe we should try ta get her a cutie mark in chokin’ other ponies next,” Apple Bloom sputtered some words between her breaths, making her two friends erupt into a weird sound somewhere between giggling and coughing.

Dinky, though, did not join in on the amusement, instead, her face took on a baffled expression. “Next?” she asked and looked behind her. “Didn’t I–“ The words got stuck in her throat and drowned out in the disappointment that came over her as her eyes fell on her flank. It was blank as usual. Immediately, tears shot into her eyes. She turned around at her picture again. “I should have figured…..” she said, weakly. “Nopony can get me a cutie mark, it’s never going to work, never…..” Dinky slumped down on the floor, where she started to weep without restraint.

The sudden, bitter reaction caused the smile to vanish from the faces of the three Crusaders at her sides. Apple Bloom did a step closer and put a hoof on Dinky’s back, rubbing over it comfortingly. “Hey, it’s fine, no filly ever got a cutie mark over night! Ya just keep practicin’ and it will come eventually!”

Dinky looked at Apple Bloom with tear-filled eyes, then she shook her head slowly and looked back at the picture she had just finished. “No….. That’s not my special talent. W-We have to try something else.”

“I don’t think so.” Sweetie Belle inched a little closer to the distraught filly in front of her and gently put a hoof on her shoulder. “You are very good at this and–“ She stopped abruptly as she saw Dinky rising to her hooves all of a sudden. Dinky turned around at the other unicorn, her eyes now showing anger behind the streaming tears. Harshly, Dinky slapped Sweetie Belle’s hoof away.

“Ouch,” Sweetie Belle whimpered slighty. She stared at Dinky with her mouth open, shocked over it that the impact on her hoof had actually hurt quite a bit.

“I don’t care what you think, you are not even helpful!” Dinky burst into her face. She lifted her hoof again, her face more grim than it had been seconds ago. In front of her, Sweetie Belle flinched and squeezed her eyes shut, but then Dinky turned around suddenly and began to punch the picture. “It looks like crap!” she said as she let her hoof come down on it. It teared through the canvas right where her mom’s face was. “This doesn’t get me a cutie mark, nothing will, everything I want will always just disappear when I think I have reached my goals!”

Violently, she grabbed the upper side of the canvas with her other hoof. She pulled at it strongly, small cracks appearing on the surface where the traction was the strongest. A second later, it got ripped into two pieces, freeing her right hoof again that had still been stuck in the hole of the canvas until now. She threw the two pieces of canvas onto the floor of the small operation center and began to stomp on it with her forehooves repeatedly, smearing the barely dried color on it.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders just stood there with gaping mouths and watched her in disbelief, having retreated from the raging filly. Only Sweetie Belle found some words to address the situation.

“I-I think you overreact,” she stuttered, still rubbing her hoof. “Even we didn’t freak out like this while waiting to get our cutie marks.” There was a bit of disdain in her voice, but it was mostly filled with shock and fear. Her lips were trembling slightly.

Apple Bloom said nothing. She just gulped repeatedly as she watched the violent outburst of their client.

Only Scootaloo dared to come a step closer, a hoof lifted in what was both a defense mechanism and an attempt to show she didn’t want to do her any harm. “Dinky….. What’s wrong?” she asked, trying to hide the fear in her voice and to sound as calming as possible.

Dinky did not pay attention to her. Instead, it was Sweetie Belle who she turned to again. The canvas was merely shreds now, only a few, grey spots showing what was once on it. There was still so much fury in her eyes as she stepped towards Sweetie Belle that it let Scootaloo shiver. Sweetie Belle inched back in terror until her flank bumped into the wall. She began to whimper as she didn’t see a way out anymore.

Scootaloo motioned into Dinky’s direction slowly, attempting to grab her from behind and to pull her away from her cornered friend. But she only grabbed air as Dinky finally rushed forward and lunged her hooves at Sweetie Belle. The afraid filly closed her eyes and began to tremble, then she felt the hooves of Dinky tightly grasping her neck. She gasped and already began with choking sounds in expectation of what would happen, but then, she felt Dinky’s nose at her cheek. Quick, but not harsh, it brushed over it, then got buried in her mane. Dinky’s hooves felt strong as she got pulled closer to her. Sweetie Belle’s mane became wet as Dinky began to cry into it. A muffled voice emerged from her, producing something that sounded like an apology. Then the words became more clear at the second try.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!” Dinky repeated those words in an agonizingly heartbreaking tone.

Sweetie Belle’s former fear got washed away by a wave of sadness and empathy and her trembling stopped. Mixed in with the other two feelings was a bit of guilt. “I-I’m sorry too….. For saying this.” She put her hooves around Dinky and pulled her closer as well. “I didn’t know you are so stressed because of it.”

Seeing that Dinky’s aggressive reaction had ceased, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo came carefully closer to the two hugging unicorn fillies. Dinky was crying heavily, so much even, that a few tears hit the floor, dropping from Sweetie’s drenched mane. Dinky’s crying fit was loud and racked with pain, as she weeped her sorrow into Sweetie Belle’s embrace. It let the ears of Scootaloo and Apple Bloom drop. Both of them put a hoof on Dinky’s back in a comforting gesture. But it was only Scootaloo who spoke again.

“Dinky? What is wrong?” she asked, voice ridden with concern. “This isn’t just because of your cutie mark, is it?” Scootaloo eyed the weeping unicorn worried.

“T-That’s all!” Dinky managed to press some words out of her mouth between her sobs. “I-It’s all just be-because….. because of my c-cutie marks!” More desperation overwhelmed her and her crying grew in intensity.

“Cutie marks?” Apple Bloom asked, dumbfounded. “What’s that mean?”

“She’s confused,” Sweetie Belle explained, stroking a hoof over Dinky’s mane. “I don’t think we should her ask too many questions now, Apple Bloom.”

Scootaloo came a step closer and bent forward to take a look at Dinky’s face. Her eyes were closed, the tears pouring out under the shut lids. Her cheeks looked puffy and her skin shimmered through the short coat in a bright red. Occasionally, she opened her mouth fitfully as a sob left it. Scootaloo sighed, then moved away again.

“Sweetie Belle is right. She’s not in a good condition, Apple Bloom.” Her brow was furrowed.

“But.....” Now their leader seemed upset. “But what if somethin' really bad happened ta her? We need ta know then, how else would we help her if we don't?” She did an energetic step forward, but placed a hoof on Dinky's shoulder gently. The gesture was met with frowns by Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

“Dinky?” she asked, making her voice soft. “We don't know what happened ta ya, but if ya tell us, then–“ Before Apple Bloom could finish her sentence, Dinky suddenly broke away from the hug with Sweetie Belle. Stampeding, she rushed past them, almost galloping Apple Bloom over in the process, and out of the operation center's door. Her sobbing hung in the air for seconds as all three Crusaders looked after her with shocked and sad faces.

As fast as her hooves carried her, Dinky was galloping home now. Ponies gave her surprised glances as she had reached Ponyville and hurried through the streets, all the way to her house, until she had finally entered it. With a bang, she slammed the door shut behind her, then stopped. She stood there motionlessly, leaned against the door, and panted, the tears still flowing. No other sound than her sobbing and the slowly vanishing echo of the door found their way into her ears. This could only mean one thing.

Dinky rubbed the tears out of her eyes, then looked around, her heart seeking comfort. “Sparks? Mommy?” she called out for her sister and her mother, but the only answer she received was the echo of her own words. Shudders went down her spine as the echo bounced off the walls and became more distant, like there were several other Dinkys deeper inside the house that repeated what she just said.

As the young filly realized that she was alone in the house, she felt her heart getting constricted and a new stream of tears started to flow from her eyes. Shaking, she started crying again, then dashed up the stairs. She bolted through the corridor to her room and flung the door of it open. Right next to the door was her pet turtle, Twee. He retreated into his shell in panic as Dinky almost ran over him, not properly paying attention to her surroundings.

Dinky plunged into her bed, slipped under the blanket and buried her face deeply into the pillow, soaking it with her tears in seconds. There were no thoughts going through her head, all she felt was a cloudy feeling of sadness and the loneliness in her heart. Both feelings made her numb to her surroundings still, as she slowly cried herself into sleep. She wasn't noticing anything, not even a faint glow coming from under her blanket, back down where her flank was situated.....

Author's Note

And so, Dinky got her cutie mark, after all..... Or did she?

Also, since I'm not sure if all of the readers I have with this fic have read "Aunt Millie" as well, here is a picture of Dinky's pet turtle, Twee:

https://www.derpibooru.org/553113?scope=scpeae9a86415811b2424798ef2b5eadb37652b08426

Chapter 6: Cutting Marks

Sweetie Belle looked across the round table, over to her two friends. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stared back at her with empty glances, not changing their pose of their heads firmly planted on their forehooves. Much like her, they wore bored expressions, and the sound of their backhooves scraping over the floor was a constant reminder of their impatience. In unison, the two other fillies sighed loudly.

“When is she going to come?” Scootaloo asked. She sounded tired. Apple Bloom at her side just nodded, silently agreeing to the expressed sentiment.

None of them had heard anything of Dinky since she had left the operation center yesterday. Worse than that, she wasn't even at school today! They had no idea if she would come or if she had given up on getting a cutie mark. Dinky's absence left them clueless, but worse than the fact that they couldn't explain it, was that they became increasingly worried for their client.

“Do you think anything bad happened to her?” Sweetie Belle finally addressed the sentence that was going through her head after looking at her friends for a while.

Scootaloo's brow furrowed. “I hope not.” She got up and poked Apple Bloom. “Maybe we should go and look for her.”

“Alright,” Apple Bloom said, thrown out of her trance. “Let's go ta Dinky's house and see what's up.”

Together, the three Crusaders moved their from the long sitting stiff limbs out of the operation center and onto the fresh grass of Sweet Apple Acres. They trotted behind each other stoically, their boredom still clouding their minds. Only as Scootaloo heard something while they were trotting past the clubhouse, they stopped.

Scootaloo's ears pricked up and she stopped in her tracks, then turned and looked up at the clubhouse door. “Is this sound coming from inside?”

“What sound?” Apple Bloom asked. Slowly, she and Sweetie Belle turned around to face their friend. It took them a few seconds until they could hear it as well.

A faint and muffled wailing sounded out to them from behind the door.

They exchanged frowns. What worried them about those sounds was not so much the fact that somepony was apparently in their clubhouse and cried its eyes out over something, it was that they exactly knew who was crying there, from the events they had witnessed on the day before. Without saying another word, they dashed up the ramp and hastily opened the door.

Gasping, they saw Dinky in front of them, just as they had expected. She was not alone, though. Behind her, another filly sat on the floor. Her purple pigtails rustled as she looked up at them in surprise. She was relentlessly rubbing over the upper body of Dinky, who was leaning against her, almost lying on the floor, and who cried her tears into into her belly. The left hoof of the other filly was resting on Dinky's mane. The sadness in her eyes pierced through the Crusaders as she looked at them.

“Who are ya?” Apple Bloom asked, as the first one to find her speech. It was seconds later that she recognized the face in front of her, but she got leapfrogged by Sweetie Belle before she could speak her realization.

“That's Lily,” she answered her friend's question. “Lily Longsocks, the filly that just moved here to Ponyville a few weeks ago.”

“Lily.....” Apple Bloom's eyes opened widely. “What are ya doin' here? And what happened?”

“I found her like this.....” Lily cast her eyes down on her friend. “I don't know what happened. I just came here to see if Dinky is here and then I heard her crying. She was like this when I entered the clubhouse.”

With bated breaths, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle came closer to the two fillies. Only now they saw the marks on Dinky's flank. Three red streaks adorned it, all of them going into a different direction, like somepony had randomly drawn on Dinky's flank with a marker. Leaning down to examine them, Apple Bloom moved a hoof over the marks. She gasped as she retreated her hoof to look at it, finding it smeared with blood. Swiftly, she turned around to her friends. “That ain't a cutie mark, girls!” Her pupils had shrunken and her mouth gaped open.

“B-Blood? Did she hurt herself? How could this happen?!” Scootaloo looked at Lily in agitation, shooting a question at her.

Lily shook her head dejectedly, but she pointed to the side, taking her right hoof off of her friend's body for a moment. As Scootaloo followed it to the object she was pointing at, she had to sit down, suddenly feeling all energy drained from her.

A pair of scissors was lying there, a few drops of blood on their blades.

Behind the pegasus filly, Sweetie Belle held a hoof at her mouth. “W-Why did she do this?” she whispered.

“And why didn't ya stop her?!” Apple Bloom shot a question at Lily now, furiously.

Lily gasped and flinched. “I-I-I couldn't. S-She had already done it when I came here.” She returned her attention to her friend again. “I wanted to bring Dinky to a doctor, but she doesn't react when I talk to her and only keeps crying.” Gently, she moved a hoof over the distraught unicorn's mane, trying to get her attention. “Dinky, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are here.”

The words had a weird effect. All off a sudden, the relentless sobbing stopped and Dinky opened her eyes, lifting her head slightly. She couldn't see any of them from her position, so she slowly retreated from Lily's embrace and got up on wonky hooves. A yelp escaped her throat as she felt pain flashing over her flank, but she didn't falter and turned around to the arrivals nonetheless. Having wiped the tears from her eyes, she found herself staring in three faces of disbelief and shock. Scootaloo was still sitting on the floor, motionlessly. Leaving Apple Bloom behind, Dinky trotted towards the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders, unsteadily.

“I'm sorry I didn't come. Let's try something else for my cutie mark.” Then her legs gave in and she collapsed to the floor with a thump. Apple Bloom rushed at her side swiftly.

“Ya can't!” she shouted. “We need ta get ya ta a doctor first, Dinky!” She glanced at Dinky's flank again, then looked back into her face. “Why did ya even do this?” Her voice was ripe with concern.

“I-I just..... I wanted, it was j-just because t-there–” Dinky stammered in response, but then stopped her sentence abruptly. Shaking once more, she got up again. “I-It's nothing. I-I was just frustrated, that's all.” Ignoring Apple Bloom now, she trotted stoically to the exit, biting on her lip to endure the pain. The other three fillies in the room looked after her in disbelief.

“Let's go to the doctor,” Dinky said suddenly. “Maybe I can try something there, maybe it turns out I'm good at bandaging if I take care of my own injury.” Her voice shivered as she spoke those words, desperate courage ringing in it.

As Dinky reached the ramp outside and stepped with a hoof on it, trying to appear as secure as possible, she started to sway. Alarmed, Lily galloped at her side. Having collapsed again, Dinky's lower body began to slide over the edge of the ramp. In the last moment, Lily reached her friend and grabbed her forehooves. Swiftly and without a struggle, she pulled Dinky on top of the ramp again. Holding her in a stable position, Lily looked at her with worry in her eyes. “Be careful, Dinky!” she said, the tone of her voice bordering on scolding the unicorn.

Dinky did not acknowledge the gesture or the call and just kept trotting down the ramp, now assisted by Lily. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle followed them in some distance, their eyes glued on the cuts on Dinky's right flank.

The five fillies did not speak a word as they made their way through Ponville to the office of Doctor Muffin Top. The air around them was somber and they felt like a dark cloud was flying over them and following them around town. They kept looking at Dinky, not sure what to think of the situation, and it was only once that Apple Bloom did a glance to the side, having gotten distracted by something.

A booth at the market place caught her attention just for a second, the sign on it advertising “Magical Cutie Mark Potions”. The old mare behind it smiled at her, exposing a multitude of missing teeth in the process, which made Apple Bloom shudder. An old conversation crossed her mind, about magic not being able to give a pony a cutie mark. She frowned, then looked away and focused her attention on Dinky again.

At their destination, the doctor scolded Dinky. None of them was telling him that it had been Dinky who hurt herself what caused these scratches and so, he was calling Dinky out for not playing careful enough. Luckily, the cuts weren't too bad. As exhausted as she had been from her desperation and several fits of rage, Dinky did not manage to cut into her flank very deeply. Disinfection and a thin bandage around her flank was all the treatment the injuries needed.

While the doctor took care of Dinky, Lily and the Cutie Mark Crusaders sat on chairs at the wall opposite of the table she was lying on now, her flank facing towards the doctor. The four of them gave Dinky empathic looks as whimpers escaped her while the doctor was generously pouring antiseptic over her cuts. Finally, it was Apple Bloom who broke the silence between them.

“Say, Lily, ya Dinky's friend, right? Do ya know anything about why she's actin' so strange? That jus' can't be jus' because she doesn't have a cutie mark.” Her two friends gave her confirming nods, silently showing their agreement.

“I-I don't know,” Lily stammered a little, suddenly feeling nervous. “I only met Dinky a week ago. We became friends at your cute-ceanera.” She looked away and bit her lip. “Dinky said I should come to you and ask you to find out the meaning of my cutie mark. I said I don't need to know right now, because I'm already happy with it and my super-strength, and suggested she should ask you for help instead, because she doesn't even have a cutie mark yet. She said she doesn't need your help for getting a cutie mark and insisted that I should get help by you first, but then.....” She trailed off, thoughts coming over her.

“Then what?” Apple Bloom asked, eager to find out everything.

“But then..... Just a few days later, Dinky had changed her mind completely. She said she absolutely needs your help now and that I should forget what she said before. She was nervous and unhappy suddenly, like a different filly.....” Lily frowned. “I wonder it this pink filly picked on her for not having a cutie mark..... How was her name again? Diamond Tiara?”

In unison, the three Crusaders shook their heads. “Diamond Tiara's a different filly now. She's not doin' this anymore,” Apple Bloom explained.

“Then I have no idea what has gotten into her.....” Lily's ears flattened and she looked down at the floor, her lips pointing downwards.

Apple Bloom wanted to ask another question, but before she got a chance, the doctor interrupted her.

“Now you are fixed up, young lady!” he said to Dinky, putting the bandage a last time around her flank. Then he cut it off, smoothed it down and stepped back.

Dinky rose to her hooves slowly. She looked back at her flank that was now covered in white, her eyes looking sad. With the doctor's help, she climbed down the table, then she approached Lily at the chairs. She didn't dare to look at her friend and there was guilt in her eyes. “Sorry I worried you,” she quietly spoke an apology while facing the floor, while a few tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.

Lily got down from her chair and wrapped her hooves around Dinky. She gave her mane a comforting kiss. “It's okay, Dinky, just please don't do this again.”

“Your friend is right,” Doctor Muffin Top commented Lily's plea. “Be more careful at the playground next time.”

Dinky retreated from the hug and turned her head around to the doctor. She nodded.

“Fine, then please leave now. There are other patients waiting.” The doctor opened the door for them.

Sliding down from their chairs too, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle followed Dinky and Lily outside into the waiting room. Morosely, they trudged by the row of waiting patients. As they were already past most of them, Apple Bloom suddenly stopped. Turning her head to the left, she looked at a mare with a pink coat. Forgetting that it might be impolite, Apple Bloom scrutinized the mare. What caught her attention were the unusual colors of her mane. Strains of lavender and turquoise streaked through it, but, more odd than that were the huge sunglasses she was wearing. Her fore legs were crossed in front of her chest and she looked past Apple Bloom like she didn't even notice her. Only as Apple Bloom kept staring for a few seconds longer, a pondering expression on her face, the mare stirred and finally looked at her.

“What do you want?” she asked harshly. “Do you want me to admire your precious cutie mark?” The second sentence got highlighted by a clear presence of mockery in her voice, with a trace of bitterness.

“Oh, ahm sorry!” Apple Bloom got thrown out of her thoughts, finally realizing how rude she had just acted. “Ya just' reminded me on somepony, that's all!” Quickly, the filly set herself into motion. She increased her trot to a gallop to catch up with her friends, who had already left the building.

“Where have you been, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked her as she was at their side again.

“Sorry. Ah thought there was.....” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Nevermind. How's Dinky doin'”?

“She's feeling better,” Scootaloo answered. “I don't know why, but she's suddenly acting completely different again. Just look at her.” Scootaloo pointed ahead at Dinky, who trotted at Lily's side. A grin was on her face now and it grew wider as she pulled a roll of bandages out from under her mane and presented it to her friend.

“Did she.....?” Apple Bloom blinked.

“Yeah. Probably stole it when the doctor wasn't looking. I have no idea how she managed that.” Scootaloo shrugged.

“Geez, she really was serious when she said she might be good at bandagin', wasn't she?”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded together.

As they had arrived at Dinky's house, the group separated. Dinky was, as they were expecting already, asking for more cutie mark counseling today, but the three Crusaders turned her down. Dinky's mood became more gloomy again as they insisted she should stay at home and rest, but she accepted the advice. Dinky and Lily exchanged a last hug, then Dinky disappeared inside the house. The remaining fillies made their way through Ponyville, one after another leaving the group for their homes, until only Apple Bloom was left.

Alone, she trotted down the path towards Sweet Apple Acres, her thoughts circling around the encounter she had in the waiting room. She could still not tell who the mare was, only that she had seemed familiar. One particular name was poking at the back of her mind, faintly, but her memory failed to provide her with it. Eventually, she shrugged the thought off, as she didn't reach any conclusion with her pondering. A dark feeling remained in her chest, though, and it remained until she had entered the farm house.....

Author's Note

Because I have a feeling that many will not recognize him, this is Doctor Muffin Top:

https://www.derpibooru.org/788532?q=Secret+of+my+Excess%2C+Spike%2C+screencap

Chapter 8: It's My Party.....

It did not take long for Dinky to find Lily. After about ten minutes of stampeding through town, she found her pig-tailed friend sitting on the teeter-totter of the playground. Broadly grinning, Dinky galloped to the playground apparatus and took seat on the other side. Lily began the conversation first.

“Why are you smiling, Dinky?” she asked in her soft voice, not yet seeing the surprise on Dinky's flank. A circumstance that should change soon, as Dinky jumped up and onto her seat, holding the white mark into Lily's view.

“So you finally got it now!” Lily commented on what she saw, in a voice that sounded less excited than the situation required, but the grin that formed on her face, as well, now indicated the opposite. “Congratulations, Dinky!” Lily began to cheer for her friend, clapping her hooves. “So, the Cutie Mark Crusaders could help you?”

“Mhm!” Dinky confirmed, finallly saying something again after having just stood there motionlessly, presenting her new cutie mark to the earth pony filly on the other side of the teeter-totter. “The first thing they tried with me didn't work, but after they got me to try out bandaging other ponies, it finally appeared today after school! Bandaging is my special talent!” Dinky sat down again on her end, without the grin leaving her face.

“What are you going to do now?” Lily asked. “We should throw you a party, you celebrate cute-ceaneras here in Ponyville, right?”

Eagerly, Dinky nodded. “Mom and Sparkler already prepare something, I left them right before they started, to meet you!” Laughing, Dinky pushed herself off the ground with her hooves, letting her friend come down from her high position.

“And who are you going to invite to your cute-ceanera?” Lily asked as she was on the ground again.

This was something Dinky hadn't thought about yet in all her excitement, so her face began to show a clueless, puzzled expression. “I'm not sure yet..... Mom and Sparkler will be there, obviously. And I need to invite the Crusaders, they are responsible for it that this could finally happen! And you can come, too, of course.”

Lily gifted her with a smile.

“And then.....” She scrunched her face for a moment, thinking. “And I could invite Button Mash, I guess. And Pipsqueak too. And maybe Peach Fuzz and Train Tracks, I bet they wouldn't mind coming together to the same party.....” Trailing off, she held a hoof at her mouth and snickered, a faint blush on her cheeks.

“And then First Base!” Dinky shouted. “I can't forget him, he really livens up parties! Then Little Red and Bubblegum Brush and, uh.....” She tapped her chin, looking up into the sky.

“And I should invite Carrot Crunch!” Dinky shouted, leaving her thoughtful trance. “And Noi should come, too! And I guess I'm going to invite Fry, even though he might eat most of the food..... But Sparkler and Mom probably have hired Pinkie Pie already to take care of everything, so there should be enough food even for him, I bet Pinkie Pie reckons that he will come.”

Lily did not get a chance to comment on the guests Dinky chose, due to her friend's spate of words, but she approved each choice with a nod. “Those are some good choices, Dinky.”

“Then let's go and invite them right now!” Despite the height, Dinky jumped off the teeter-totter, not awaiting a response by her friend. The ground thundered under her hooves as she came down on it and a split-second later, she already dashed away from the playground. Lily followed her at a slower pace.

Five minutes later, the two fillies stood in front of the door of a house, on which Dinky knocked loudly. As the door got opened, a filly with a long mane of a dark pink came into view.

“Yeah?” she asked. “What is it?”

“A cutie mark, that's what is!” Dinky burst into Bubblegum Brush's light-blue face.

“Huh?” the other filly asked, cocking her head in confusion.

“Oh, I mean.....” Dinky stroke the back of her head, grinning sheepishly. She turned her flank to Bubblegum Brush. “I got my cutie mark today and my cute-ceanera is going to be in the evening and you are invited! Do you want to come?”

Bubblegum Brush lifted a hoof up to her mane and wrapped some strains around it. She let her hoof go round in circles, wrapping more of her long mane around it, while she looked at Dinky and Lily without changing her expression.

“Ok,” she said after a few seconds, taking her hoof down again. Her mane fell into its old position. “I need to fix up my mane first, but I'll be there in a few hours!” She closed the door in front of them, then clopping sounds indicated that she was trotting away from the door.

“Score!” Dinky shouted, stretching a hoof into the air. “The first guest is in the bag! And I already know who I'm going to invite next!”

After Dinky led Lily across Ponville to the next house, a colt with a bright, orange coat and a blue mane opened them.

“Hey, First Base!” Dinky shouted into this face immediately as the door had been opened. Then she proceeded showing him her cutie mark and shoved her flank almost into his face in her excitement, making him tumble back a step. “I got my cutie mark and now I'm having my cute-ceanera! Do you want to come?”

“Uh.....” First Base stumbled to the side a few steps, until he had more room to breath. “S-Sure,” he said. “When is it going to be?” He didn't move his eyes from her cutie mark, the white of it giving him an idea. “What is your cutie mark? Is it a hoofball like mine?”

“I have no idea!” Dinky shot back a response, simultaneously moving her flank out of the way again. “But who cares, it's finally here! The cute-ceanera is in the evening, make sure to show up!” Turning on her hooves, Dinky did not leave him a chance to reply. She already was on the way to invite another classmate as First Base closed the door, a bit dumbfounded by this quick visit.

Next on Dinky's list was Little Red. At first, the chubby filly with the glasses was hesitant about attending, she wasn't one for large gatherings like this, but Dinky's excitement eventually infected her and she finally agreed.

Roughly two hours later, all of the foals Dinky had decided for were invited to her cute-ceanera. On the way back to her house, Dinky trudged behind Lily, her tongue hanging out. She was wheezing a little. They had galloped all over town together, even made a short trip to Sweet Apple Acres to let Apple Bloom and her two friends know of her cute-ceanera, so Dinky was visibly exhausted now.

While Dinky tried to catch her breath, Lily suddenly turned around to her. “Didn't we forget somepony?” she asked.

“Who?” Dinky replied weakly, too tired to give it a thought right now.

“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Do you want to invite them too?”

Dinky shook her head. “N-Not necessary. They come to most parties in town and especially to every cute-ceanera. They are going to show up by themselves anyway, there's no need to invite them.” A trace of disdain appeared in her voice, but Lily was not sure if it was really there or if it just seemed like it because of Dinky's wheezing.

Not knowing what to think of it, Lily shrugged it off. A second later, Dinky's wheezing stopped all of a sudden and got replaced by a strong gasp. Lily looked ahead, then she gasped, too.

In front of them was Dinky's house, but the two of them barely recognized it. The whole house was wrapped into long, thick streamers of all imaginable colors, a huge banner showing Dinky and her cutie mark hung above the entrance door and the place in front of the house was littered with balloons. What was the most odd, though, was the colorful smoke that came out of the chimney on top of the roof. With open mouths, Dinky and Lily watched it as the colors alternated between purple, yellow and white. Then, shock got added to the surprise, as a shrill voice shrieked into their ears.

“It's smoke in the colors of your coat, your mane and your cutie mark!” Pinkie Pie suddenly bounced up and down in front of them, not doing any efforts to explain where she came from.

Dinky and Lily did not say a word and just kept staring in awe, their hearts racing now.

Pinkie frowned for a moment, then returned to her crazy cheerfulness. “Eh, I know, it's not the exact same colors. Should have seen the face of the pony in the fireworks shop when I told him I need magic wood that produces smoke that has precisely the colors of the coat, the mane AND the cutie mark of Dinky Hooves. No idea why that shocked him so much..... But it's close enough!” She patted their heads, then bounced away and into the house.

As she had disappeared inside, Lily found her speech back. “D-Did she all of this in just a few hours?”

Silently, Dinky nodded.

“How?” Lily asked plainly.

Dinky gulped. “I-It's Pinkie Pie.”

The answer confused Lily even more and she raised an eyebrow.

“You will understand one day,” Dinky continued. Then she cringed. “Or, maybe not..... But you will get used to it.” She shook off the weird feeling, then marched ahead to the door of the house, Lily following close behind.

The inside of the house didn't look much different. Balloons everywhere, streamers hanging from the ceiling and the stair-rails and pictures of Dinky, seemingly hoofdrawn, were hanging on every wall. Dinky and Lily turned right and made their way towards the kitchen. They had a hard time trotting forward, as the balloons covered pretty much the whole floor. Occasionally, they stepped on one of the balloons, the loud bang making them twitch and stopping in their tracks for a few seconds.

As they had brought half of the way behind them, Pinkie Pie rushed at their side. She broke out in laughter as Dinky stepped on another balloon and let it explode.

“Everything looks nice, but I think that's a bit much, Pinkie,” Dinky addressed her concern to the party mare. “The guests will have almost no room to trot anywhere with all those balloons!” As to confirm what she said, a curse rang out behind her after another bang could be heard, the voice unmistakably coming from her big sister.

Pinkie stopped her laughing and gave her a smug grin “Everything according to plan!”

“Huh?” Dinky looked into her face, puzzled.

As response, Pinkie stepped on one of the balloons herself. She snorted after the bang had dissipated. “Isn't it fun?” she asked then. “You and the other foals can pop as many balloons as you want!”

The answer did nothing to stop Dinky's confusion over the idea, but at least she knew that the balloons on the floor were intentional now. Typical Pinkie Pie logic.

“Uh, I guess..... Maybe?” she answered. Instead of receiving a reply, Pinkie Pie suddenly rushed forward as a slurping sound came from the kitchen.

“Hey, don't you dare touching this!” Her face and the tone of her voice had become slightly aggressive.

As Dinky and Lily finally reached the kitchen, after what had felt like a march through the brightest mine field ever, they saw the reason for the commotion.

At the right side of the kitchen, a big chocolate fountain had been placed. In front of it stood Gallop J. Fry, his mouth smeared with the delicious, brown substance. Pinkie had just finished scolding him for going at the food too early and before any of the other guests arrived. Begrudgingly, he left the scene.

On the table in front of Dinky and Lily, an assortment of sweets had been prepared. A few of them had bite marks, making the two friends scrunch their faces, but Pinkie quickly removed the half-eaten pieces after seeing them.

Aside from Gallop J. Fry., who had obviously just come for the food, none of Dinky's guests had arrived yet. It were another two hours until the start of the party, a time Dinky spent with taking a little nap in her room, while Lily was reading a book. As a shrill call for her rang through the house, Dinky woke up almost instantly, knowing that all of the guests had arrived and that the party was about to start. She stretched her limbs before jumping out of the bed, then did a searching look on her flank. She breathed out audibly, then left her room together with Lily.

The cute-ceanera to celebrate the acquisition of her cutie mark happened exactly as Dinky had imagined it.

The invited foals, and a few more who had heard about the occasion, knocked on the door one after another, each of them having a small present for Dinky. There had been a speech by Pinkie Pie and, luckily, by her mom too. And, of course, there had been tons of food, of which nothing was left after the great feast was over. The rest of the party, that lasted way beyond Dinky's bedtime, was filled with loud music, dancing and some funny party games Pinkie Pie had come up with.

As everything was over, Dinky felt exhausted and stuffed, but happy. Not all foals had stayed for the whole party and now that it was a little past midnight, only Pipsqueak, Diamond Tiara and Peach Fuzz were still here.

Dinky guided the three of them to the door to let them outside. She even offered them to accompany them home, since it had become late and very dark outside, but they rejected this offer.

“Not necessary,” Peach Fuzz said. “I like to trot.” She bent forward and gave Dinky a tight hug. “Congratulations again to getting your cutie mark! Now you don't have a reason to be sad anymore.” Dinky squeezed the other filly, then Peach Fuzz let go of her and galloped out of the door with a bright grin on her face.

Even Diamond Tiara had a hug to give for Dinky before she left, something Dinky wasn't quite used to by the rich filly.

Surprising to Dinky, it was only Pipsqueak who did not offer her a hug. Instead, he just raised a hoof and waved at her a little, barely noticeable.

“Bye, Dinky. I really hope you don't do it again this time,” he said in a strange, sad tone. Having spoken those words, he turned around and trotted out of the door.

Dinky did not close the door immediately. She looked after the colt, his statement lingering in her mind, until he was so far away that it was impossible for Dinky to see him in the dark night. She waited one more second, then she shrugged and closed the door. Noticing how heavy her eyes felt now, Dinky did not waste much time anymore. It had been an eventful day and her tired body made her aware of this now.

Two fast goodnight wishes for her sister and her mom later; one consisting of a casual hug, the other one of a kiss on the cheek, Dinky already found herself in bed. Covered in her blanket and with a content smile on her lips, she closed her eyes and allowed sleep to take her away.

In her last conscious moments, she felt hope that it wouldn't take away anything else.

Author's Note

Some of the background foals mentioned in this chapter:

Peach Fuzz: https://www.derpibooru.org/559254?q=Peach+Fuzz%2C+screencap

Train Tracks: https://www.derpibooru.org/1000394?q=Train+Tracks+%28Pony%29%2C+screencap

Little Red: https://www.derpibooru.org/559673?q=Little+Red%2C+screencap

Bubblegum Brush: https://www.derpibooru.org/998771?q=Bubblegum+Brush%2C+screencap

Carrot Crunch: https://www.derpibooru.org/1363246?q=Carrot+Crunch%2C+screencap

Gallop J. Fry: https://www.derpibooru.org/1048380?q=Gallop+J.+Fry%2C+screencap

Chapter 9: ..... And I Cry If I Want To

As Scootaloo opened the door of their operation center this afternoon, responding to some knocks on it and expecting a new client, she was experiencing a déjà-vu.

Dinky stood in front of the door, though, as opposed to yesterday's happiness, she now showed a grieving expression, had tears in the corner of her eyes and her ears were pressed flat against her head. It was a heartbreaking display that moved Scootaloo immediately.

“What's wrong, Dinky?” she asked, her own ears dropping, too, now. Behind her, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked up from the table.

“M-My cutie mark.....” Dinky stammered. “I-It's gone!” The few tears in the corners of her eyes got company as her eyes welled up completely. Sniffing, she turned around and presented her flank to the pegasus filly in front of her.

Scootaloo's eyes widened. It was as blank as it had been yesterday morning.

“What's up?” Apple Bloom asked into Scootaloo's direction. “Does Dinky need more help figuring out her cutie mark?”

Wordlessly, Scootaloo shook her head slowly, her mouth widely open in shock. “That's impossible.....” she whispered then.

As their friend did not say anything after a few seconds still, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle got up from their seats and trotted to the door. As they were at her side and Dinky had come into their view, both of them froze in the same manner as Scootaloo just had a minute earlier.

Empty, Dinky's flank greeted them. The three other fillies were completely silent, the only sound came from Dinky's desperate whimpers.

Finally, Scootaloo managed to break free from her frozen state. She trotted at Dinky's side and put a hoof around her shoulder. “Come inside, Dinky. Let's talk about it.”

Dinky let herself getting led into the operation center by Scootaloo, her legs shaky. Inside, she took seat at Scootaloo's side, where she started eyeing the table top. The tears continued to run down her face.

“So, uh, how did this happen, Dinky?” The other two Crusaders had been silent until now, too paralyzed to speak, but now Apple Bloom began to address the situation.

Dinky sniffed and brushed a hoof over her nose, then she looked up at Apple Bloom, her field of vision blurry, the tears not letting her see anything left or right of the filly that sat opposite of her. Scootaloo stretched out her hoof and put it around Dinky's shoulders again in a comforting gesture.

“I-I don't k-know,” Dinky started talking, rubbing the tears out of her eyes with one hoof. “I-It disappeared right after I c-came home from school. I-I j-just can't g-get a c-cutie mark.....”

The faces of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle became stern. The three friends exchanged knowing glances. Then Apple Bloom addressed Dinky again.

“And it isn't t' first time this happened, right?”

Dinky looked straight up at her, her eyes having turned into lakes again already by a new supply of tears. She lowered her head again, looking at the table top once more.

“No.....” she whispered. “Every time. Every time I get a cutie mark it disappears again.” A new fit was shaking her body and she began to cry louder.

Scootaloo rubbed over her back. “Why did you never tell us, Dinky?” She tried to make her voice sound as little accusatory as possible.

“B-Because you wouldn't b-believe me,” Dinky stammered her response between her sobs.

“And now?” Sweetie Belle asked, still confused and bewildered over the sudden situation.

Dinky sniffed again. “Now you can see for yourself.....” She fell into silence again, shaken by more cries and sobs.

The Crusaders exchanged another round of stern glances. It had been a challenge to get Dinky her cutie mark, but now, this challenge had suddenly grown tenfold. All three of them felt it looming over their head, like a dark cloud that would strike them with thunder the moment they fail.

And all three of them had the same dark thoughts going through their heads, yet, did not dare to speak them, for Dinky's sake. And seeing Dinky's condition, neither of them would bring it over her heart to turn her down. So, they did the only thing that seemed right to them in this situation.

“Dinky?” Apple Bloom addressed the distraught, young unicorn again after a few moments of relative silence. “Since when this is happening ta ya?”

This time, Dinky did not respond immediately. Instead, she kept crying, out of strength to speak even just one word.

Gently, Scootaloo patted her back. “Dinky?”

Dinky stopped sobbing for a moment and looked at her with her tear-filled eyes, then directed her hazy gaze at Apple Bloom. She rubbed the tears out of her eyes once again, then choked.

“A-Always..... It happens as long as I can remember. M-Mom said it happens since I was born. The doctors told her they never saw a pony born with a cutie mark before, but just a few weeks later, my first cutie mark d-disappeared.....”

“So, ya constantly get cutie marks and then they disappear again after a while.....” Apple Bloom concluded the obvious.

Dinky did not speak any words again, only her continued crying serving as a response.

“And it happens since Dinky's birth.....” Scootaloo continued. “Sounds like a magical problem, if you ask me.”

“And that's out of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' league..... I don't have enough knowledge about magic to deal with this,” Sweetie Belle said, casting glances at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, then one at Dinky. “But we know somepony who has.”

“Twilight,” Apple Bloom said, matter of factly.

“And you think she can help me?” Dinky stared at Apple Bloom all of a sudden, intensely, her pleading eyes drilling right through her heart.

“You bet she can!” Scootaloo gave Dinky another pat on the back, a stronger one this time. “Twilight has more knowledge about magic than anypony else, if we go to her, she will find a solution for your cutie mark problem!”

Unfortunately, it turned out that Dinky would have lost this bet, if it would have been a real one.

“Sorry, girls, but I never heard of a pony with disappearing cutie marks before.” Twilight felt her heart sinking as she saw the four fillies in front of her dropping their ears as their hopes for a quick solution got crushed. Dinky started crying again.

Scootaloo put a hoof on Dinky's shoulder. “Are you sure, Twilight? Isn't there anything you can do?”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom agreed. “Equestria has a history of several thousand years of magical disasters and something like this never happened before? Not even once?” Apple Bloom stared at Twilight in disbelief.

“No..... Not that I know of, at least,” Twilight admitted, suddenly feeling uneasy. She rubbed with a hoof over her left foreleg. “There's only one pony I know who can let cutie marks disappear..... And she isn't here.”

“Ya mean Starlight Glimmer?”

“Yes. She's the only pony who has developed a spell to let cutie marks disappear.”

“And do ya think it could be her who is stealin' Dinky's cutie mark?” Apple Bloom probed.

“No. See, if Starlight Glimmer lets a cutie mark disappear, she replaces it with a fake cutie mark that looks like an equal sign.”

Twilight ignited her horn and shot a spark of magic into the air. The magic twirled around for a moment, then formed the familiar equal sign that Twilight and her friends had seen in the oppressive mare's village. The Crusaders and Dinky stared at it, the sign giving them shudders.

Twilight stepped closer to Dinky and looked down at her. “And you never had a cutie mark like this on your flank, right?”

“No..... Never.” Dinky let her head hang, as she felt another possible solution for her problem slipping away.

Twilight nodded. “Besides, Starlight Glimmer only takes cutie marks away, she doesn't let new ones randomly appear. If she would be behind this, Dinky would lose her cutie mark and never get a new one again and it would be replaced by this instead.” She pointed at the floating equal sign in the air. “There is no way it could be her. It's impossible.”

Twilight got met with frowns after this explanation. “So, what should we do?” Scootaloo asked. “If Starlight Glimmer isn't behind it and if you never heard of such a case before, then how should we ever find out what's wrong with Dinky?”

“Research!” Twilight exclaimed, her voice suddenly upbeat and positive.

“Research?” Sweetie Belle asked. “But you have read all of the books about magic. Where could we find something you don't know?”

“Not all of them,” Twilight clarified, trotting to one of the shelves behind her. “I have read all of the books here and in the Canterlot Castle library and–“ She interrupted herself as she felt a certain desire flaring up. “Well, except for those in the Starswirl the Bearded Wing..... Princess Celestia keeps it locked most of the time, she only let me see inside it once and I had no time to read all the books back then. But it's his personal library, all it contains are documentations of his work. It wouldn't be the right place to find what you need.”

She sighed wistfully, then turned around to them again. “But Equestria has more libraries to offer. I suggest you to check out the library in the Crystal Empire. It is full of ancient books that contain wisdom that was lost for a thousand years! Even I couldn't read all of them yet..... Maybe you can find an answer to Dinky's problem there.”

It was a vague possibility, what Twilight suggested them there, but it filled their hearts with new hope. Their sorrowful expressions disappeared as their faces lit up. Even Dinky allowed herself a little smile.

“Should we give it a shot?” Scootaloo looked at her fellow Crusaders.

Dinky did a determined step forward, a sudden fire in her eyes. “I go!” she said, resolve in her voice. “It's probably the only place where I can find out what's wrong with me, so I'm taking this chance!”

The three other fillies exchanged glances. “Well, we can't let her go alone,” Scootaloo stated.

“And we promised ta help her get a cutie mark..... It's our first mission, we can't drop out of this just because it gets a little hard!” Of course, “a little hard” was an understatement, but Apple Bloom ignored this realization and stretched a hoof into the air. “We don't let our first client hang!”

A split-second later, it was met with the hooves of her friends, a sign of their agreement.

Dinky just stood there, watching the scene in front of her with tears in her eyes, tears that formed there for a different reason now. She sniffed. Then, with a smile on her face, she let her hoof join the other three. “Yeah!” she shouted.

“Okay, let's do this!” Apple Bloom turned at Dinky. “We still have school on the next two days, but on Saturday, we will travel ta the Crystal Empire together ta find out how ta help ya! Make sure ta be prepared by then, Dinky!” she commanded her.

“Mhm! I will have everything ready for the travel!” Dinky assured her, confirming the tone in her voice with a strong nod. Then she crushed Apple Bloom with a spontaneous hug.

“Thank you for not giving up on me!” she whimpered, her voice filled with tears of happiness now.

Twilight lowered her eyes and smiled. “And I will let Spike set up a letter and send it to Shining Armor and Cadance to inform them of your visit. The library will be prepared and ready for your research once you arrive.”

Dinky let go of Apple Bloom and gave Twilight a grateful smile. “Thank you, Princess Twilight!”

Twilight nodded. “Anytime. But 'Twilight' will suffice, you don't need to be so formal.” She chuckled.

“Okay..... Twilight.” Dinky looked at her with a sheepish grin, feeling a little awkward over not using the royal title.

She turned around at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, now wearing an expression full of hope and expectation. “Then let's not lose any time!” she shouted cheerily. “We need to have everything ready for Saturday!” She gave each of them a strong nudge, then galloped out of the library and into the hallway.

Apple Bloom rubbed over her chest, as it began to feel slightly sore, but she smiled. “That's more like it,” she said. “Don't ya think?”

“Absolutely!” Scootaloo agreed and her wings buzzed to support the statement.

“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle followed her example, grinning.

The three Crusaders exchanged another hoofbump, then they followed their client outside, hurrying to catch up with her.

Chapter 10: The Crystal Empire Library

Two days later, Dinky sat in a train to the Crystal Empire together with her three cutie mark counselors. It was still early in the morning, the sun had become risen only a few hours ago. Despite that, Dinky was widely awake and full of energy. While all of her three companions were sitting sluggishly in their seats, still tired from getting up so early and using the seven hour train ride for an additional nap, Dinky could barely sit still. Not only was she asking every three minutes if they're already there, she also left her seat in regular patterns and began to wander around in the train car or carried out all sorts of weird movements in her seat because she didn't know where to put her energy and anxiety. Only a rather sharp command by Apple Bloom to finally cease it and let them get some sleep, spoken at the end of the farm filly's patience, stopped the twitchy, restless behavior. Since then, Dinky was quiet and did not move, except for the occasional look out of the window and one or two trips to the train's toilet.

Her restlessness was not the only sign of her anxiety, however. Inches above her head, in the rack, she had placed her backpack. It was bulging the net of the rack, so much, that the backpack almost touched Dinky's head. In her excitement and due to the importance of this trip, she wanted to be prepared in the best possible way and so, she had packed everything that seemed like they could need it somehow.

Matches, a sleeping bag, pans, a large pot, an insect net, provisions for at least two days, three flashlights, a shovel, some snacks, a large pocket knife with all sorts of tools and, lastly, even a set of umbrellas, in case they would get into rain.

As they had met at the train station in Ponyville, Dinky looked like she was going on a week-long camping trip, compared to Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who had shown up with medium-sized saddlebags only. Their explanations that they would only spend an afternoon in the Crystal Empire, a weekend at most, that the guest rooms of the castle had been reserved for them and that there was enough food in the castle fell on deaf ears for Dinky. Nervously, she insisted to take all those things with her, to be prepared for any trouble they might get into and to ensure that everything would go smoothly. After a while, they had given up on arguing with the stubborn filly, figuring that it would be best to just let her, if it made her feel better.

And now they were here. Dinky's backpack was dangerously close to her head, her three companions were slowly waking up from their slumber and, outside, flurries of snow got blown over wide fields of ice. Dinky shot the Crusaders a look, her lips beginning to form words, but Apple Bloom leapfrogged her.

“Yes, now we're almost here. The Crystal Empire's just around t' corner.” She stretched herself, yawning loudly, then proceeded to rub her eyes.

Dinky smiled at the prospect, but, only a moment later, she cast her glance on the floor, eyeing it sadly. “I'm sorry I'm such a bother,” she whispered, her hooves trembling slightly.

Apple Bloom paused the rubbing of her eyes, looking at Dinky with one eye open and the other one covered by her left hoof. Her face signaled surprise, then her mouth formed a smile. “It's okay,” she answered. “Ah've been a little harsh this mornin', but ah was just tired.”

Dinky looked up at her carefully, her eyes still lowered.

To Apple Bloom's right, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded. All three were wearing slightly regretful expressions now.

“We all know how hard it is for ya, Dinky, and we ain't bothered,” Apple Bloom continued.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle confirmed with an uplifting smile. “We decided to help you and to make this trip with you, there's nothing you have to blame yourself for.”

“Are you really sure?” Dinky continued to look at them with the same, hesitant expression.

“Mhm!” A convinced and determined group nod in front of her followed.

Dinky lifted her head and, finally, her face lit up again. “Thank you.....” she said, now rubbing away a tear that formed in her right eye. “I will try to be more patient, though. It might a be while until we have found the right book.....” Her voice trailed off and she began casting her eyes on the floor again, subconsciously. But then she shook her head, ending her trance almost immediately the moment it had started. “But I won't give up!”

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle laughed happily.

“That's the spirit!” Scootaloo pointed at her with a hoof. “Somehow, in this ancient, dusty library, we're going to find an answer for your problem and find out how to get you an actual cutie mark!”

Dinky answered the uplifting words with a smile. Right before she could say something, though, her eyes got distracted by a drastic change to her right.

From one moment to another, the ice and the snow disappeared, and got replaced by lush, green grass as far as the eye could see. The train had just entered the magical sphere of the Crystal Heart; that kept the cold, arctic weather out of the empire. Dinky leaned with her forehooves against the window, pressing her nose flat on the glass.

“We're finally here!” she shouted cheerfully, her eyes glistening in awe and expectation.

Just a second later, the voice of the conductor rang out. “Crystal Empire, arrival in two minutes! Final station, please leave the train!”

Around them, movement came into the passengers. They got up from their seats, took their bags, then began heading towards the exits. Not needing any more prompts, Dinky stood up in her seat and started pulling at her heavy backpack. It was locked tight in the place she had left it and did not move an inch, despite her best efforts. Only as Sweetie Belle assisted with her magic, both unicorns managed to pull it down, through the combined efforts of muscles and magic. It landed with a thump on the floor, startling a few of the other passengers. Receiving more magic assistance, Dinky succeeded in putting it on her back. Shivering from the weight, she fought to keep herself on all four hooves while the other three fillies brought down their saddlebags without effort and put them on.

Equipped like this, all four of them went to the nearest exit, just in time for their arrival in the empire. With a hiss, the train came to a standstill and the doors opened. Fleet-hoofed, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle trotted out of the train, followed by Dinky, who set one hoof in front of the other at a creeping slow pace. The sweat on her face and her gritted teeth were other indicators of how heavy her baggage was, as she tumbled over the step and onto the crystalline floor of the platform. She wheezed, strongly, then continued her way with a red face. Conviction kept her going, much more than the strength of her body did now.

The quartet made their way through the Crystal Empire and towards the castle; the Crusaders still at the top, while Dinky did her best to keep up behind them. Each of her three companions suggested taking a break a few times, but Dinky declined this offer every time. Only as the group had reached the castle, Dinky's legs finally gave in and she collapsed to the ground, almost right in front of the Crystal Heart. Gasping for air, she remained lying there, too out of breath to answer the worried questions about her well-being by her companions.

“That's a bit much for a young filly, don't you think?”

Dinky felt her back relaxing immediately as the heavy weight she had been carrying got lifted into the air by a purple aura. Almost automatically, she let her forelegs slip out of the straps, allowing her unexpected savior to remove the backpack from her body completely. Being helped on her hooves again by Sweetie Belle, she looked into the face of the captain of the Crystal Empire Royal Guard, Shining Armor, who had just stepped outside the door in one of the pillars that served as the castle's foundation. His face showed a slightly amused, but friendly, smile.

“Thank you,” Dinky said, her voice strained. She turned around and rubbed over her aching spine.

“Don't mention it,” the stallion answered casually. “Twilight already told us of your arrival. Come inside, we have everything prepared.”

Feeling much lighter now, Dinky set herself into motion again. Together, the four fillies followed Shining Armor through the door, up a small staircase, then through the sparkling crystal corridors. Dinky still did not pay much attention to her surroundings, only fixating her eyes on their guide as he led them to their destination. It was in front of a narrow corridor with turquoise doors on each side that he turned around to them again.

“Here we are. That's the guest wing of the castle.” He waved a hoof over the width of the corridor. “The first four rooms are prepared for you. I'm sorry we can't offer a room for all four of you. The shared room of the castle is already used by a group of delegates who insisted to sleep in the same room.”

Dinky frowned over this answer, though, for a different reason than Shining Armor expected.

“It's fine, let's just get on with it. I need to see the library!” Her face looked strained suddenly, the nervous impression she was giving further reinforced by the slow, impatient scraping of one of her hooves. It produced a slightly eerie, shuffling sound on the corridor's red carpet.

Shining Armor chuckled. “Twilight only told me you girls have some research to do, but it seems it's something really urgent. Come inside.” He gestured Dinky to follow him, then turned towards the first door in the corridor and opened it with his magic, still floating Dinky's heavy backpack.

Eagerly, Dinky did as told, while Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle trotted to the other three doors. Inside, Shining Armor placed the backpack on the generously-sized crystal bed. Around the backpack, a tiny pit got formed in the blue cotton blanket. That view created a desire in Dinky; of resting her body on the comfy bed and of snuggling her head deeply into the white, soft pillow. Her eyes suddenly began to feel heavy and her lids lowered themselves without her doing, but she shook her head and snapped herself out of this state before the desire for sleep could grow too big. Instead of giving in to the temptation, she focused on the reason why she was here again, addressing Shining Armor before he had turned around at her completely.

“Where is the library?” she asked. “I need to go there now, there's no time to lose!” Her voice had grown louder now.

The sudden question and the urgency with which it was brought forth to him caused a bit of confusion in Shining Armor, but he composed himself. “Huh, you're really making it sound like things are at stake..... I'll bring you right now.” He trotted past Dinky, his tempo faster now. As they left the room, it was just in time for Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle coming out of their respective rooms as well.

The way to the castle library was spent in silence. While the three Crusaders, especially Scootaloo, admired the crystal architecture in awe, Dinky was once again focused on Shining Armor and the path ahead of them, a stern conviction radiating from her face.

Five minutes later, that went by surprisingly quickly for Dinky, they were at the entrance of the Crystal Empire Castle Library. The wings of the massive door stood open, allowing them to see the crystalline shelves filled with rows upon rows of books. The shelves at the walls weren't any less massive than the door, they reached from the floor up to the ceiling of the cavernous room. The view of the upper rows of books would have been lost to the darkness, if it weren't for the lanterns fixated on top of the shelves. Each shelf had a ladder, to reach even the highest books.

In the wide space between the walls, much smaller shelves formed a labyrinth of books. Between some of them, small desks with candles had been neatly arranged. Surprisingly, the desks were made of wood, rather than crystals.

It was a gigantic library, reaching far beyond the scope of their eyes and bigger than any library they had ever been to. Seeing at least half of this library was only possible for them because of a high plateau located right behind the entrance, that allowed them an overview of everything. A set of stairs, one in the middle and two at the sides, led down into the actual library. Not losing one single moment, Dinky was already stepping on the stairs in front of her and descending on them. A second later, her companions and Shining Armor followed her.

Arrived, they were greeted by the librarian, an elderly mare with a turquoise coat that was less shimmery than that of other ponies they had seen on their way here. Shining Armor left them in her custody and, soon, they trotted between the bookshelves, led by the librarian. Only now they noticed the small, white signs on the shelves, explaining what kinds of books could be found in them. They stopped in one of the far corners of the library. The shelves were labelled with “Magic, Spells and everything related” here. The mare turned around at them.

“So, what informations do you need exactly?” She gave them a smile that was surprisingly sugary, considering her age.

“Cutie marks!” Dinky burst out, before the Crusaders could explain anything. “I need to know everything about cutie marks; origins, mechanics and especially anything about cutie mark problems, diseases and anomalies!” The words came like a barrage out of her mouth, but the librarian remained unphased by the reaction.

Calm, she put a hoof at her chin and thought about the request for a moment. “Cutie mark anomalies, hmm.....” Then her eyes lit up all of a sudden and she turned around, waving them to follow her. Behind a corner, she pointed at a small secluded bookshelf standing at the wall opposite of them. Scattered across it, was a measly number of ten books, most of them looking worn and rotten. “This is everything we have about cutie marks,” she said, plain and simple.

“Those are all of t' cutie marks books?” Apple Bloom looked at the shelf in disbelief, eyes wide.

“Yes,” the mare replied. “Not much research has been done on cutie marks, beyond the basic facts. We always keep the books in this shelf, so that they don't get lost among the other books.”

“That is ALL?!” Dinky shouted suddenly. “You want to tell me you don't have any more books about cutie marks?!” Her face was full of rage.

Now, the librarian twitched. “Y-Yes. As I said, these are a-all the books we have. N-Now please excuse me, there are other d-duties I have to take care of.” She turned at Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “You three, please come and tell me if there is any other book you need.” With that, she turned around and trotted away, at a smart pace. Apple Bloom could have sworn she saw some sweat on her face.

The three fillies she had spoken to last shuddered slightly as they noticed that just after a few seconds had passed, they could not hear her hoofsteps anymore. The thick bookshelves and their, not any less thick, content swallowed the clopping sound very efficiently. All of a sudden, it was completely silent around them, giving them a feeling of suddenly being alone in the wide library.

“Let's start, uh..... searchin', girls,” Apple Bloom finally spoke as her mind had begun with getting used to the forlorn atmosphere around them, raising an eyebrow over her own choice of words. She approached Dinky, who was wearing a desperate expression now, her lips quivering, and put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Let's see what we find, okay? Ah know it ain't much, but there's still a chance!” She poked her as she didn't react immediately, making Dinky look at her, bewildered.

“Okay.....” she said, ears dropping. “I guess it's my only chance.” She turned away from Apple Bloom and trotted towards the small shelf, her head low. Having taken out the first book and starting to look through it, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle followed her example and started searching as well.

Chapter 11: The Night Mare

Despite the terribly small number of books in the shelf, going through all of them actually took the four fillies an unexpectedly long time. While the books themselves weren't much in number, their page count made up for it with ease. Most of them were huge tomes, counting three-hundred to five-hundred pages each. They were also old, very old, and their condition much worse than those of the books on the other shelves. Already the first book Dinky had started looking through had its first page crumbling to dust the moment she touched it. A circumstance that made it necessary to go through each book individually, as Sweetie Belle was the only one who could turn the pages safely and without destroying them, by the use of her magic.

It was long after sunset, the library now completely abandoned save for them, that they carefully closed the last book on the table in front of them. Tired, all four of them sighed.

Unfortunately, barely any of the books had turned out as useful for them. There was a book about general cutie mark history, listing notable and unique cutie marks that had been acquired by several ponies, who apparently used their special talents for countless heroic deeds, if the book was to be believed. Judging by the fact none of them recognized any of the ponies named in that book from their own history lessons at school, they figured it probably had been written more than a thousand years ago.

Another book was a more recent one; a short guide about getting cutie marks, apparently aimed at young foals who became impatient with getting their marks. It contained nothing that they didn't already know.

There were books about cutie mark philosophy, trying to answer questions like “Where does the magic of a cutie mark go after a pony has departured into the afterlife?” and books that made connections between cutie marks and alchemy, with descriptions of rites and practiques about which none of them wanted to spend too much time thinking.

Only one of the books they found in the shelf was about cutie mark diseases, the rest of the books were merely fictional stories, most of them fairy tales, that involved cutie marks in one way or another.

Having now closed and hovered back the last of these books to its place in the shelf, Sweetie Belle returned her attention to the book about the diseases, which was still lying on the table they sat at. With care, she opened it again, and went back to a page they had looked at earlier. On it, a particular cutie mark disease was described that caused a pony's cutie mark to disappear. It was not a temporary condition; once gone, the cutie mark stayed gone, unless the disease became cured by a specific potion, whose ingredients were listed on the same page, as well. Sweetie Belle looked at her friends, sceptically.

“I'm not sure if that is what we're looking for..... It says nothing about multiple cutie marks or that the cutie mark returns after a while.” She put down the book, so that her fellow Crusaders could take a look at the page again.

“But that's all we have, right?” Scootaloo's question sounded more like a confirmation.

“Mhm.” Dinky stared absentmindedly down on the table, her eyes dangerously shaking in their holes.

Igniting her horn, Sweetie Belle turned the page with the ingredients, then sighed. The next page, supposed to contain the rest of the ingredients needed, had been ripped out. A deed probably committed long before the disappearance of the Crystal Empire. The rest of the confidence in Sweetie Belle's face faltered. The same happened with her two friends.

“Ah guess that's it then, huh?”

Scootaloo poked Apple Bloom into the side, then pointed to the opposite end of the table. Looking ahead, Apple Bloom saw that tears started to appear in Dinky's eyes, that were still fixated on the table's surface.

“Ah mean..... For now! We just looked through all t' books here, I'm sure we're goin' ta find some answers at other places!”

It was a well-meant intervention, but it came too late. Broken in her hope, Dinky retreated from the table, a thin stream of tears now trickling down her cheeks. Without saying a word, she turned away from her counselors and dragged herself back the way they had come from this afternoon, not really looking where she was going.

“Hey, wait!” Apple Bloom shouted after Dinky and left the table to follow her. Sweetie Belle wrapped the book with the incomplete recipe in her magic, then she and Scootaloo dashed after Apple Bloom.

The four fillies left the library and made their way back to their rooms. Several attempts were made by the Crusaders to talk with Dinky and to cheer her up, but she did not respond to anything they said. Silently crying, it was like she did not even notice their presence. As they had finally reached the guest wing again, she rejected them a last time, as they offered to get together in Apple Bloom's room and to discuss what to do now. Dinky trotted past them silently, opened the door of her own room and entered it. A second later, a click indicated that she had locked the door from inside. Looking after her with sad expressions, the three remaining fillies retreated into Apple Bloom's room together.

Sweetie Belle placed the book carefully on the nightstand on the right side of Apple Bloom's bed, then they climbed into the bed and made themselves comfortable.

“Our next step?” Scootaloo asked, frowning, as all of them were lying on top of the blanket.

“Ah don't know.....” Apple Bloom admitted. “The library here was probably our best chance.....”

The three fillies fell into contemplation for a moment. Before anyone of them could continue the conversation or come up with a new plan, their stomachs grumbled, and they got painfully reminded how hungry they were and that they hadn't eaten anything since they had left Ponyville in the morning.

“We can talk about it later, let's eat something first,” Sweetie Belle suggested. She was met with approval by her friends.

“Yeah, dinner's already over but Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor can sure–”

As if Scootaloo's words were a cue, a knock came from the door, suddenly. As it opened, Cadance trotted into the room, carrying a tray with four plates and four glasses in her magic's aura. On each of the plates was a generous portion of pasta bake. Water began to form in each of the Crusader's mouths as their eyes fell on the delicious crust of cheese on top of the noodles and as the scent from the hot, and still steaming, dish entered their noses. They swallowed, while their stomachs grumbled even louder at the sight and the smell.

Cadance chuckled. “I figured you four would be hungry after skipping lunch. So I made you some late dinner.” As she had closed the door behind her and trotted towards them, she noticed that they were alone in the room.

“Where is your friend?” she asked. “Has she already gone to sleep?” Cadance placed the tray on the nightstand right beside the book, then hovered one of the plates in front of each of them.

“We don't know,” Scootaloo answered, without taking her eyes from the plate that hovered towards her. “Dinky went into her room and locked it from inside.” The tone of her voice indicated that she was currently more thinking with her stomach than with her brain, though, one surprising realization still fought its way to the top.

“Wait, did you say you made dinner?” Scootaloo's mouth was opened wide, not just because of the food in front of her, but also from surprise.

“Yes,” Cadance answered. “Why not?” There was a tone in her voice that indicated that Scootaloo treated slightly dangerous terrain with this question.

“Well, you're a princess and..... Uh, nevermind.” She avoided Cadance's gaze and grabbed the fork, then started digging into the food, pulling out a huge chunk of pasta that swiftly disappeared in her mouth. At her side, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle did the same thing.

“I see,” Cadance commented on the indiscriminate answer, but turned her focus on the other information she had gotten. “Shining Armor mentioned that she appeared nervous to him, she really should not go to sleep without eating something.” A slight frown was on Cadance's forehead. Barely noticed by the hungry trio of fillies, she took the tray with the remaining plate and glass into her magic again and trotted back to the door.

“I bring Dinky her dinner. Please don't stay awake for too long anymore after you have finished eating.”

Faint mumbling from full mouths came as responses, the hunger making them ignore any etiquette. Smiling, Cadance opened the door and trotted out into the corridor. She turned left and headed towards Dinky's room.

As she got told by Scootaloo, the door had been locked from the inside. She could hear some sobbing coming from behind the door. Gently, Cadance knocked.

“Dinky? I brought you some dinner. Please open the door.”

For a moment, the sobbing stopped and something rustled inside the room. It then continued in a quieter volume. Some more attempts to get Dinky to open the door for her later, Cadance gave up. Taking a step back, she put the tray in front of the door, then knocked a last time.

“I leave it here in front of the door. Make sure to eat soon, it's getting cold fast.”

Then she turned around to leave the guest wing. Her instinct told her to say more, but with barely knowing the filly and with having no idea what put her under such stress, she simply did not know what to say. And the last thing she wanted was making whatever troubled her worse, because of not knowing what caused those troubles.

In the room, Dinky sat on her bed, attentively listening to the receding hoofsteps. As she didn't hear them anymore, she got down from her bed slowly. Dinky rubbed over her nose, sniffing, then unlocked the door and carried the tray inside. She placed it in her bed after locking the door again and sat down in front of it.

New tears streamed down her face and got mixed with the pasta she was shoveling into her mouth, giving it a salty taste. The dish was only slightly warm anymore, but Dinky did not recognize it much and neither did it matter to her. Calming her aching stomach, she just kept eating, until everything was gone. She took the glass into her hooves and gulped it down in one go, then put it down on the tray again. After staring at the empty tray for a second, she shoved it off the bed in a sudden fit of anger.

Dinky barely heard how it hit the crystal floor, as her sobbing had already become loud enough again to drown out the sound of anything else. Feeling overwhelmed by her desperation, she buried her face into the pillow and drenched it with her tears. The crying slowly wore her mind out, until it gave in and, unnoticed by her, let her drift off into sleep.....

As Dinky awoke again, after what could have been only a few hours, she immediately realized one particular oddity around her:

She was in her own bed and in her own room. Not the guest room in the Crystal Empire Castle, her actual bedroom!

The thought entered her mind that their short trip into the empire was already over, that they had returned to Ponyville and that she had just slept through most of the way back and therefore, forgotten everything. But she shook that thought off quickly, it was impossible! She remembered too well how she had just been eating pasta bake, before she broke down crying again. She definitely had fallen asleep in the Crystal Empire. But how did she get here then?

All of a sudden, a familiar feeling was coming over Dinky. It was akin to a déjà-vu, yet not the same. To Dinky, it felt like an old, distant memory buried its way to the surface of her mind. Suddenly, she noticed that she couldn't move. Her body felt like it got pressed down by something very heavy, though, there was nothing covering it, except for her blanket.

As Dinky saw a shadow approaching her bed with careful steps from the corner of her eyes, she moved her head to see who it was. She could not recognize the shadowy pony, all she saw was the horn on the pony's head. Dinky wanted to ask who the pony was, yet, as she opened her mouth, completely different words than the ones she had intended left it.

“Does it really need to happen again? You won't let it disappear again, right?”

What did she mean with this? And why did her voice sound so young? Dinky could not make any sense of it. She was clearly there, yet, at the same time, it seemed like she was only watching what happened in the room.

As the shadowy pony had finally reached her bed, it began to speak. Dinky could not place it, but it was the voice of a mare and it spoke to her in a calming way that sounded slightly creepy to her.

“Ssssssh. Just close your eyes and go to sleep again. Everything will be over tomorrow and then you will feel better. I promise.”

The mare's horn was suddenly glowing. Dinky could not explain why, but this sight caused sheer terror in her. Before the mare could do whatever she wanted to do, Dinky sat up in her bed, suddenly freed from her paralyzed state, and let a loud scream leave her throat. Sitting in the darkness, she kept screaming and screaming, the fear holding her heart in a tight grip.....

One room further, Apple Bloom suddenly found herself getting woken up by something. At first she did not know by what. Sleepily, she sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes. As a faint scream entered her ears from the wall behind her, she suddenly was fully awake.

“Dinky?” Alarmed, she jumped out of the bed and galloped to the door. Throwing it open, she galloped outside and took a sharp turn to the left. Arrived at Dinky's door, she could hear the screams much louder. Apple Bloom began banging against the door.

“Dinky? What's wrong? It's me, Apple Bloom, open the door!”

The screaming from behind the door continued and no answer came from Dinky. To Apple Bloom's left, two doors opened and out trotted Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, both looking at her tiredly.

“Apple Bloom? Why are you banging against the door?” Scootaloo asked drowsily. She and Sweetie Belle shuffled closer, joining her in front of Dinky's room.

“It's Dinky! She's screamin' in her room, but she doesn't open the door when ahm knockin' on it!”

The explanation let Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle become more awake, but also caused confusion to appear in their faces.

“Screaming?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I don't hear Dinky screaming.”

And she was right. Suddenly, Apple Bloom noticed that the screams had stopped. And before she could face the door again, she suddenly heard it getting unlocked, then it was opened swiftly and a visibly distraught Dinky clasped her hooves around her, shivering and crying in fear. Her mane was pointing into all directions and her coat was sweaty.

“Dinky? What is wrong, did anything happen to you in there?” Scootaloo's sense for danger activated itself suddenly, letting her jump to full attention.

“The mare..... The mare.....” Dinky whimpered. Continuously, she kept speaking the same words.

“What mare, Dinky?” Apple Bloom asked, putting a hoof on her trembling back.

Using her magic, Sweetie Belle switched on the lamp in Dinky's room. As the light flooded it in front of them, the three of them saw that it was empty.

“There's nopony here.....” Sweetie Belle said. “Must have been a bad dream.”

“The dream..... The dream.....” Dinky suddenly whimpered something new, like to confirm Sweetie Belle's words, but without an actual intent to do so. “My cutie mark.....”

In a calming fashion, Apple Bloom moved her hoof up and stroke over Dinky's mane. It eased the distraught unicorn filly a little and she looked up and into Apple Bloom's face. Apple Bloom gave her a reassuring smile. “Did ya hear what Sweetie said? It was all just a bad dream. There's nopony in ya room but yourself, Dinky.”

Biting her lip, Dinky nodded. But then, a thought entered her mind and her heart began racing again.

“But the light!” she burst out. “I know I left it on when I fell asleep, why was it turned off?!”

“I'm sure you did it yourself, Dinky. You probably turned it off while you woke up for a moment and you can't remember because you were half asleep.” Scootaloo did a step closer and put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Scoots is right, Dinky. Ya didn't unlock your room, did ya?”

Dinky shook her head slowly. A small feeling of ease came over her as her rational mind began to work, thanks to Scootaloo's explanation.

“See? Ya were alone in there, no creepy mare came into ya room!” Apple Bloom continued her attempts to calm Dinky down.

Dinky nodded. The fear did not leave her, though. She tightened the grip around the other filly she was still clinging to. “I-I don't want to be alone..... C-Can I stay in your room?”

“Sure!” Apple Bloom said, purposely cheerful. Then she looked at her two friends. “Action's over. Lets get back ta sleep, girls.”

Feeling their tiredness suddenly returning, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle just nodded. They yawned, then turned around and crept back into their respective rooms.

As they had disappeared inside of them, Apple Bloom guided Dinky into her own room. She locked the door behind them, at Dinky's demand, then both fillies slipped under the covers. As they were lying on their backs in the bed, blanket pulled over their chests, Dinky rolled to the side and draped a hoof over Apple Bloom. Letting out another whimper, she instinctively snuggled against the face of the earth pony filly.

“Everything's fine.” Apple Bloom put her left hoof over Dinky's back. “There's nopony here but ya and me, Dinky.”

The words did not reach Dinky anymore, though, as she had already fallen asleep, exhausted by the terrifying nightmare. Apple Bloom closed her eyes and just a few seconds later, she was sleeping again as well.

Author's Note

A slightly longer chapter than I usually write for this fic..... This was not done intentionally, but the chapter is of more importance, so it just happened to become this way.

Chapter 12: Dangerous Territory

It was nearly eight o'clock as Apple Bloom awoke on the next morning. Carefully blinking, she opened her eyes as the rays of the sun shone into them, multiplied a thousand times by the crystal walls around her. Only as she had gotten used to the bright light in the room, still wondering how crystal ponies could endure waking up like this every morning, she noticed Dinky at her side and remembered the events of last night.

Careful to not awake the unicorn filly just yet, Apple Bloom sat up in her bed and stretched her forelegs, yawning. Her body felt stiff, a result of the hard research work and not much food on the day before, and she pondered about lying down again and getting another round of sleep. Neither the prince nor the princess would mind that, she was sure, as it was Twilight who had sent them. A look into Dinky's face changed this plan, though.

The filly was still lying in the same position as she had been when she fell asleep after the nightmare. Her face was wrinkled and spots of dried tears were visible on the hairs of her cheeks. Her breath was going steady, but had something fitful to its rhythm. Occasionally, her eyeballs twitched behind her lids. The sight was enough to convince Apple Bloom to get up immediately, despite her remaining tiredness. Swiftly, she slipped out of the bed and tiphoofed in a quick tempo to the door and outside, then closed it behind her quietly.

Upon arrival in the rooms of her friends, she found that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had just woken up, too. Sleepily, they rubbed their eyes, but both of them agreed to get up now and leave the Crystal Empire as quickly as possible, for a further attempt to help Dinky with her big problem.

As Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle left their rooms together with Apple Bloom to wake up Dinky, already carrying their luggage, they found their client to be awake, too, by now. There were heavy bags under her eyes and she wished them a good morning with a morose voice. A moment later, she was already wearing the heavy backpack again, carrying it along the castle corridors, which seemed to be much harder for her now.

The Crusaders and Dinky afforded themselves a fast, but sumptuous, breakfast in the castle's large dining hall, then they left immediately and soon, found themselves on the next train back to Ponyville.

The trainride home mostly happened in the same way as the trainride to the Crystal Empire on the day before. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle took the chance for a nap, as all three of them were still tired from the efforts they went through in the Crystal Empire, and Dinky was sitting in the seat opposite of them. Except this time, her face was dark and her eyes gloomy. She was sitting still and constantly staring out of the window, her dull mind not really perceiving the landscapes that swooshed past her. All three of her counselors misinterpreted the miserable state of her as a result of tiredness and the bad dream she had to endure the night before. They figured she would fall asleep for a nap soon, too, but as they woke up, they still found her in the same position, motionless. It was only then that they realized the true reason for her condition which was, unsurprisingly, the same reason that made her depressed for more than a week now.

Worried, but trying to set up a cheerful face, Apple Bloom slid down from her seat and approached the filly on the other side. Gently, she put a hoof on Dinky's knee, requesting her attention.

“Dinky?”

In a lumbering tempo, Dinky turned around, until she faced Apple Bloom. Her eyes looked lifeless and resigned. Apple Bloom felt like Dinky was looking right through her. Dinky did not speak.

“We still have a plan, Dinky. The Crystal Empire didn't have an answer for us, but Scoots, Sweetie and I have decided that we check out t' old library in the Everfree Forest.”

No reaction came from Dinky.

“The library in the old castle of Princess Luna and Princess Celestia,” Sweetie Belle added, explanatory.

“Exactly,” Apple Bloom confirmed. “There's another chance, Dinky. We ain't done with this yet!” She gave her a broad smile, all happiness she could muster put into it.

Finally, Dinky stirred. Slowly, she climbed down her seat.

“Well, I'm done with it,” she said, her voice sounding as lifeless as her eyes had looked before.

The lips of the Crusaders pointed downwards immediately.

“I will never get my cutie mark. I will just continue to live as a pointless blank flank with the occasional pseudo-mark.” She did not await a response and lifted the backpack, that had rested in the seat to her left since they departured from the Crystal Empire, and put it on her back. As the train came to an unexpected halt and the conductor announced that they had reached Ponyville, something of surprise for anypony but Dinky, the filly with the heavy luggage trotted slowly to the exit, leaving her counselors behind.

“And that's it?” Apple Bloom looked after her, shouting. “Ya give up everythin' and decide for a life without a real cutie mark, always accused by other ponies of bein' a talentless failure who has ta fake a cutie mark?”

For a moment, Dinky stopped in her tracks. Apple Bloom expected an answer to come from her, but then, she continued her path immediately. “Yes,” she said taut, her voice still devoid of emotions.

It was an answer that let the hearts of the three fillies who stayed behind sink. Apple Bloom gritted her teeth, before she opened her mouth to say another thing.

“FINE!” Her hoof came down on the ground with force. “Then just leave and continue ta be a dumb, useless blank flank!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle gasped, then looked at each other with sad faces.

Swirling around in anger, Apple Bloom huffed, then climbed up her seat and took her saddlebags. She put them on her back and headed for the other exit. Hastily, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle did the same and followed their friend. It was in the last moment that the trio got out of the train, the doors having become shut behind them almost immediately after their tails were safe. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle hurried to catch up with Apple Bloom.

“What was that, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked her, frowning. “You know it isn't Dinky's fault. You can't blame her.” There was a good amount of disappointment and accusation in her voice.

“Why not?” Apple Bloom hissed back. “We didn't get our cutie marks for so long! Did we ever give up, Scootaloo? Did we?” Furiously, she kicked a pebble in front of her.

“No, but.....” Scootaloo halted, trying to think of a way to weaken the argument.

“You're right, Apple Bloom. We never gave up,” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

“There! Sweetie Belle agrees,” Apple Bloom said, using the opportunity to strengthen her point. “Dinky has given up and that's just–”

“But” – Sweetie Belle interrupted her – “that's exactly why we shouldn't give up now, Apple Bloom”

Apple Bloom raised her head and looked at Sweetie Belle, dumbfounded.

“Dinky doesn't want to give up,” Sweetie Belle continued. “She's just frustrated, Apple Bloom. Let's not get as frustrated as her, ok?” Sweetie Belle put a hoof on her friend's shoulder.

The touch and the thoughtful words had their effect on Apple Bloom. The anger in her face lifted and her features became softer again, although, there were still a few remaining wrinkles.

Apple Bloom sighed. “But what should we do? If Dinky doesn't want ta continue.....”

“We just go to the castle alone and search without Dinky's help,” Sweetie Belle answered the question.

“That's the best thing we can do,” Scootaloo agreed, nodding. “Let's give Dinky some rest, Apple Bloom. If we find anything, we can tell her tomorrow at school.”

“Ya sure?” Apple Bloom asked, looking around between her friends. She was met with smiles from both of them.

“Mhm!” they answered.

Apple Bloom sighed again. “Okay..... Let's give it another try, ah guess, and search for the book alone.” She forced a smile on her face.

“Okay, that's settled.” Sweetie Belle took the reins. “Let's all go home quickly and let our stuff there, then we meet again at the entrance of the Everfree Forest in half an hour. Hurry up, it's only a few hours anymore until it gets dark!”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom gave Sweetie Belle a confirmative nod, then the three fillies separated and ran off to their respective homes.

As Apple Bloom and Scootaloo arrived at their point of meeting, Sweetie Belle was already waiting for them. Not intended to lose any of the time they had left, the three turned towards the black, gaping entrance. They shuddered as a cold wind moved some of the dead trees at the edge of the forest and as, just a second later, a howling rang into their ears. Undoubtedly, a sign for the presence of timberwolves.

Scootaloo gulped and took a step back. “It's not a good idea to go in there, is it?”

“Nope!” Sweetie Belle said, surprisingly straightforward. “But we're doing this for Dinky. We don't just run in there to search for a chicken or to have an adventure and neither are we getting lured into the forest with the promise to win a scavenger hunt. This time, we have a really important reason, so we need to be especially brave.” Sweetie Belle did not seem to have any fears and if she did, she was hiding them well.

Scootaloo gulped again. But the words had worked, so she did a step closer to the entrance. “O-Okay, let's do this. It's dangerous. And I wish we would still remember the exit of the secret passage we found a couple of months ago..... But you're right, we're doing this for Dinky, so, let's go ahead!” Having spoken these words, Scootaloo marched forward, her thoughts focused on their goal. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle followed her promptly.

Crouched and using every shadow in the cursed forest to their advantage, they made their way towards the castle carefully. They had to stop and jump into a bush to hide, occasionally, when a manticore approached or a cockatrice was suddenly flying into their direction. Their journey through the forest was otherwise undisturbed, until they were already on the bridge that led to the abandoned castle. It was here where the always present howling of the timberwolves suddenly became much louder and, all of a sudden, a whole pack of timberwolves was heading towards them. Chased over the bridge, they galloped as fast as they could into the castle, the vile wooden creatures following them. It was only sheer luck that saved them. As they clinged in fear to an old tapestry in Princess Luna's colors on the wall, cornered by the pack, the wall suddenly gave in and turned around, transporting them to a whole different room. Their prey suddenly gone, the timberwolves turned away from the wall and left the castle, their eyes emanating a dark, green glow. On the other side, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle gasped in shock, pale-faced.

“We definitely take the fast route back!” Scootaloo said, shivering, as she could finally find some words again. “D-Do you still know the room where we found the entry of the passage?”

“Mhm.” Sweetie Belle simply nodded, a sign that she wasn't quite able to talk yet and a confirmation at the same time. As the tempo of their racing hearts had been reduced to a more or less normal speed, they began trotting through the rotten, old corridors to the library on shaky hooves.

Fortunately, and much to their surprise, the library was in a lot better condition than the rest of the castle. The shelves were dusty and the ceiling had tumbled down centuries ago, letting them see the second floor of the library when they looked up, but the books themselves were in a pristine condition. Not a single one crumbled to dust as they pulled out a few experimentally. Even the wooden entrance door was still perfectly intact, so they hastily closed it to avoid uninvited timberwolf visitors.

“How are those books still in such a good condition?” Scootaloo asked, looking over the shelves, as they trotted through the rooms of the library. They discovered five of them, the main room in the middle in which they had arrived and two rooms at each side of it.

“I guess Princess Luna and Princess Celestia cast a spell on them to protect them,” Sweetie Belle answered the curious question.

“You think?” Scootaloo came up with another question, looking at her friend doubtful. “I'm sure they have lots of other, new books now, I don't see why they would do this.”

“Yep!” Sweetie Belle answered swiftly. “I know I would do this with my books.” They had arrived in the last room, now looking at a stone wall, instead of another passage. Sweetie Belle looked outside through the shattered window. The light of the sun was shining through it in a bright orange.

“Anyway.....” Sweetie Belle looked back at her friends. “We should better start searching, there's not much time anymore. I stay here. You and Apple Bloom go and check out the other two rooms to the right.” She gestured them into the direction they came from, then approached the first shelf and began to examine the book titles, while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo went outside for their respective rooms.

Fortunately, they knew what book to look for this time; the one they had already seen in the Crystal Empire, but with the missing page. What complicated reaching their goal, though, was that the shelves weren't labelled here. Any helpful labels the shelves might have had at some day in the past had definitely crumbled to dust now. It forced them to check each book title separately..... And to hope that the book they looked for was not in one of the shelves on the second floor.

Each of them skimmed over the book titles as fast as it was possible for them. Despite that, it was already getting dim in the castle and the shadows came out of the corners they had lurked inside during the day, as the book was finally found.

They had scoured through three rooms of the library and were busy searching through the other two, with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle in one room and Apple Bloom in the remaining one, as Scootaloo's voice suddenly echoed across the bookshelves.

“Guys, I got it!” She took the book in her mouth and, with a swing, pulled it out of the shelf, then jumped down from it and landed with a thunderous crash on the table beneath her. She presented the book to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as they came galloping with a subtle grin, just enough to ensure the book didn't fall out of her mouth.

The book was in the same, good condition as the other books, but, to make sure, Sweetie Belle hovered it in front of her and opened it, then flipped forward to the page. All three of them were holding their breaths as she turned the page with the start of the recipe..... And it was complete! The next page showed them a whole bunch of additional ingredients and a few last instructions. All three of them broke out in cheers that would have been deafening, if anyone except for them would have been there to hear them. The cheering didn't last long, though, as it was getting dark in the castle fast now.

“Okay, that's it! We have everything we need and we're going to show it to Dinky tomorrow at school!” Sweetie Belle announced, accompanied by nods. “But now, let's better get out of here. If it gets too dark, we won't find the room with the secret passage anymore and have to sleep here!” She shut the book and turned around on her hooves, then cantered out of the library.

Apple Bloom's and Scootaloo's pupils shrunk over these words and they followed their friend at a fast pace.

“Wait for us, Sweetie Belle!”

Author's Note

Sweetie Belle is taking the lead here for once. I'm glad I could write it this way, she didn't have nearly enough of an active role so far.

Also, in case you're wondering what scavenger hunt and what secret passage they talk about; this is referring to the Friends Forever comic issue with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
In short, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle participated in a scavenger hunt with them and Diamond Tiara faked a note to send them into the Everfree Forest, where they found a secret underground passage in the old castle of Celestia and Luna that brought them right back to Sweet Apple Acres.

Chapter 13: Deception & Integrity

On the next day at school, Dinky was the last one to arrive in the classroom. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle already reckoned that she would not show up at all, as she suddenly trudged through the door in the very last moment. Miss Cheerilee entered only a few seconds after her.

On the way to her desk, Dinky did not give them a single look. Her mane was frazzled and her eyes marked with heavy bags under them, strong indicators of a night without sleep and of constant tossing and turning around in bed. It wasn't just Dinky's tiredness, though. All three of them figured that, even if she would have gotten a decent amount of sleep last night, she still would not heed them. Dinky had made her surrender to the vicious disease very clear. Luckily, there was now a new reason for hope.

Dinky's counselors had to wait until recess to show Dinky their discovery. As the bell rang, the foals in the classroom swarmed out onto the schoolyard, eager to get some rest and playtime. Aside from the Crusaders, only Pipsqueak and Dinky stayed behind, the latter looking like she would fall asleep on her desk any moment. As Pipsqueak still did not leave the classroom after a few minutes had passed, the three Crusaders shrugged and left their desks to join Dinky at hers. Sweetie Belle hovered the book with the potion recipe discreetly at her side. Pipsqueak followed them with his eyes, though he was too far away to be able to hear anything of the conversation they would now have with Dinky, so they continued their way undeterred.

Dinky greeted them with closed eyes. They could not tell if she had finally fallen asleep now or was just close to it, but decided to use the surprise effect. Now without anything of the discretion Sweetie Belle had shown before, she hovered the book over Dinky's desk, then let it suddenly drop. With a loud bang, it landed on the surface, causing Dinky to open her eyes.

“W-What happened?” she asked, her voice sounding unexpectedly bewildered for her tired condition. Her vision was hazy. Dinky narrowed her eyes and it took her a few seconds until she could identify the three grinning faces in front of her. She rolled her eyes at them. “What do you want?” she asked them, the annoyance still clearly audible behind her from tiredness slurring voice. “I told you I have given up, why did you return?”

Apple Bloom began to explain. “Yeah, ya might have given up, Dinky, but we didn't give up. And we have found exactly what ya need! We searched the library in the old Everfree Castle yesterday and now we have the complete recipe for the potion that will cure your cutie mark disease!”

A flicker appeared in Dinky's eyes, but it was weak and only visible for a moment. Dinky's face did not show any sign of excitement or happiness. Unimpressed and weakly, she looked at them.

“Really? Just another dead end..... This won't help me.” There was no sign of grief in her face either, Dinky could not have looked more resigned. She held a hoof in front of her mouth and let a long-stretched yawn escape it. Only her laid back ears revealed that she felt unhappy and distraught, behind all her tiredness.

“Thanks for trying anyway,” she then added, as she noticed disappointed frowns on the faces of her cutie mark counselors.

“Don't thank us!” Scootaloo corrected her. “We are sure this will help you and if it does, you should rather thank the pony who came up with this cure, this M-M.....How was the name again?”

Sweetie Belle opened the book at the correct page and held it in front of Scootaloo's face. “Meadowbrook!” she finished Scootaloo's sentence.

“Right, Meadowbrook, that's the name!” Scootaloo grinned at Dinky. Like her two friends, she was full of determination to help Dinky and would not back down until the problem of their client was solved.

“I don't think Dinky will still be able to thank Meadowbrook today, though,” Sweetie Belle corrected Scootaloo now. “This book is very old.”

“Meadowbrook?” Dinky asked. “I never heard of him..... Probably some quacksalver or jungle doctor who tries to cure you with frog blood and swamp water and even believes that works,” she scoffed.

“Her,” Apple Bloom responded to the remark. “And ya almost right about the swamp water.”

Surprised, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked over to their friend. “You know this Meadowbrook?” Sweetie Belle asked in disbelief. Scootaloo's face expressed the same.

“Yup!” Apple Bloom confirmed. “Zecora told me about her once while I helped with some potions. She was an earth pony healer who lived about two-thousand years ago. She made herself a name with finding cures for a lot of diseases and saved the lives of many ponies. Until she suddenly disappeared one day..... Nopony heard of her again, but Zecora told me she wrote down all of her cures. And that's–” Apple Bloom pointed to the open page “– is one of her cures! She helped so many ponies, Dinky, ahm sure this here potion she made will help ya too!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle agreed wholeheartedly, trying to convince Dinky on their own.

Finally, after a few minutes and a barrage of arguments and motivational speeches directed at her, Dinky gave up her resistance.

“Okay, then.....” she said. “Fine. Let's try it out. But it's the last time. If it doesn't work again, I don't want to hear anything about this anymore. I take that as my final chance.”

“Deal!” Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shouted in unison.

“And ya can bet this is goin' ta work, Dinky!” Apple Bloom encouraged her again.

“Sure.....” Dinky replied doubtfully. She did not get to say anything else, as the bell suddenly rang and signaled the end of recess.

The rest of the class trotted back inside. Swiftly, Sweetie Belle closed the book with her magic and returned with her two friends to their respective desks. Sweetie Belle let the book disappear inside of her desk, then looked around to see if anypony had noticed it. Other than Pipsqueak, who had silently observed them the whole time with a rather grim expression, all the foals were minding their own business. Relieved, Sweetie Belle sighed. Then Miss Cheerilee entered the room for the rest of the lessons and finally, even Pipsqueak turned to the front of the classroom, starting to pay attention to the words of their teacher.

A few hours later, not long after the bell had announced the end of school for today, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stood outside of the building together with Dinky. Dinky swayed slightly, the school day not having done anything to improve her condition.

“Are you sure?” Scootaloo asked her. Her face was adorned with worry. “You should really get some sleep first, Dinky. Now that we have what you need, we are not in a hurry anymore.”

Dinky shook her head weakly. “No!” she exclaimed. “We need to do it now, I can't wait any longer!” With all her remaining strength, she brought a hoof down on the ground. Its impact was minimal.

Apple Bloom placed a hoof on her shoulder. “We still need ta collect the ingredients with Zecora anyway, Dinky. We can still try it tomorrow.”

Hastily, Dinky shoved her hoof away. “No, it needs to be today!” she said, firmly. “I will wait in the clubhouse for you!” Dinky turned around and trotted away. She was still swaying, which caused Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to exchange concerned glances.

“She should really go home and sleep.....” Sweetie Belle shook her head.

“Dinky should stop with everything,” a voice to their right suddenly said.

They turned around. None of them had noticed that Pipsqueak had joined their side.

“Pipsqueak? What do you mean?” Scootaloo asked.

“What she is doing with her cutie marks,” Pipsqueak answered, turning around to her. “She needs to stop pretending she got her cutie mark already and she needs to stop faking everything.”

“We know that and that's what we're here for!” Apple Bloom explained. “Dinky won't need ta fake havin' a cutie mark anymore once we helped her getting a real one!”

“And it's not as easy as just faking it,” Sweetie Belle took over the explanation from Apple Bloom. “Dinky actually has–”

“I know,” Pipsqueak answered deadpan.

“You do?” Scootaloo asked. “How?” She eyed him in disbelief.

“I heard what you and Dinky were talking. It was quiet enough in the classroom to understand everything after so many went outside.” He paused for a moment, taking a breath. “You shouldn't believe Dinky,” he continued then.

“Not believing her, about what? The disease?” Scootaloo looked at him with a blank stare.

“Mhm.” Pipsqueak nodded. “Dinky is lying to you about it. She is not sick, she is just pretending that she gets so many cutie marks so that you help her with getting a real cutie mark.” His expression was sad.

“Why would she lie about that?” Apple Bloom came a step closer to Pipsqueak. “Ya haven't seen her, Pip, she was crying and she even said she wants ta give up because we can't find a cure for her disease!”

Pipsqueak stayed surprisingly calm. “But you found one. Dinky knew you would find something to help her with the disease she told you about. Wait until you made the potion and she drank it, then she will pretend it worked and stop faking cutie marks. She's doing all of this because she wants that you help her first. Dinky was always impatient about getting a cutie mark.”

“But.....” Sweetie Belle interfered. “This doesn't make sense. How would Dinky even fake such a disease?”

Pipsqueak looked at her. “In the same way she is faking her cutie marks. With magical cutie mark potions. I don't know how they work, but they let a cutie mark appear on your flank for a few hours. They get sold on the marketplace.”

“Really?” Scootaloo questioned what she heard. “But everypony knows that there is no magic that can–”

Apple Bloom gasped. “He is right!”

“Huh?” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked over to her.

“The cutie mark potions! I saw them on the marketplace when we brought Dinky to the doctor a few days ago! They really exist!”

“Of course they do!” Pipsqueak shouted.

“And ya really think Dinky is just makin' up this disease?”

“Yes!” the young colt answered.

Apple Bloom looked at her friends. “What should we do, girls? Should we ask Dinky about this?”

Scootaloo frowned. “I'm not sure..... I don't think Dinky would do this. Do you think she would, Apple Bloom?”

“Well.....” Apple Bloom avoided Scootaloo's glance. “Maybe. Ah mean, Pip said Dinky is impatient. And ah know that ah would have done a lot of crazy things to finally get mah cutie mark if ah wouldn't have met ya two.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at each other.

“She does have a point,” Sweetie Belle said, sighing. “But there's still a chance she didn't trick us. We're just going to ask her, if she didn't, we can clear this up quick!”

Apple Bloom agreed.

Only Scootaloo gritted her teeth at this suggestion. “I don't like this.....” she mumbled as they left for Sweet Apple Acres.

Chapter 14: Defeat

As the trio of Crusaders arrived at the operation center and headed up the stairs, Dinky was already inside. She sat on the floor, her eyes half-lidded and her body trembling slightly. The unicorn filly looked like she would fall asleep on the floor any moment. As her milky gaze fell upon her cutie mark counselors who just entered through the door, everything changed abruptly.

Dinky's eyes shot open, the tiny, red blood vessels in them much more apparent now, and she rose to a wonky standing position. Swaying from getting up so fast, she tried to keep her balance. For a few seconds she succeeded, then Dinky collapsed to the wooden floor, just when Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stepped in front of her. She gasped for air, tongue hanging out.

“Just stay down there. There ain't any need ta get up,” Apple Bloom addressed Dinky's attempt of getting on her four hooves. Dinky recognized the presence of something strict in her voice, but only on the edges of her sleep-deprived mind.

Dinky looked up at the other three fillies. “H-Have you.....” She trailed off, her eyelids lowering. As her eyes had fallen shut almost completely, Dinky shook her head, which nearly rested on the planks already. She forced herself to focus, then looked into their faces again. “Have you brought what we need to make everything stop?” she asked in a weak, thin voice, but still with audible conviction.

“It's all here!” Scootaloo said, smiling at the dead-tired filly in front of her. Confirming her words, Sweetie Belle lifted up the book and a tow sack that filled the air with the strong smell of herbs.

Apple Bloom gave them stern looks, which made Sweetie Belle release the magical grip on the items. With a loud sound, the book landed on the floor, then got covered by the tow sack. The sound made Dinky twitch, as it descended on her. Collectively, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle lowered their heads and let their ears drop.

Turning away from her friends, Apple Bloom looked down upon Dinky now. The stern look was still in her face.

“I-Is anything wrong?” Dinky asked in an unsettled voice. “You couldn't get all I need, right?” Water began to form in her eyes.

Slowly, Apple Bloom shook her head. “No, we got everythin'. We want ta Zecora's on the way here. But there's somethin' else we need ta talk about first.”

The way Apple Bloom spoke the word “else” did not help Dinky to feel any safer. She rubbed the emerging tears out of her eyes, but dropped her ears simultaneously, until they were pressed flat against her head. Dinky cowered down a little. “What is wrong?” she asked, suddenly feeling dread.

Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes a little over this sudden behavior. “We have talked with Pipsqueak at the schoolhouse after ya left.” She eyed Dinky expectantly.

Hearing this name, Dinky felt her tiredness suddenly getting washed away, like somepony had just splashed her with a bucket of icecold Canterlot mountain water. She rose to her hooves in a panicked, frantic movement, even her trembling had stopped.

“W-Why did you.....” She stopped mid-sentence, bringing a hoof down on her face for a moment. “Why? Why have you done this? Why did you talk to Pipsqueak of all–” She interrupted her furious, agitated voice and covered her mouth with her hoof. “I mean..... What did you talk with Pipsqueak about?” Dinky set up a less than convincing smile.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exchanged a glance. A deep frown appeared in Apple Bloom's face.

“It's not really important, isn't it?” Dinky continued to ask, dismissively waving a hoof to underline her words. “We can talk about it later, now we should take those ingredients and make my potion so we can finally work on getting me my real cutie mark.” She did not await any answers and moved straight towards the dropped tow sack. Apple Bloom, however, stepped in her way.

“Forget it!” she shouted at her.

Flinching, Dinky looked up at her, carefully. Apple Bloom's face showed anger now. Even Sweetie Belle looked at her rather sternly and not much less intimidating. Only Scootaloo's expression was more of a sad, disappointed one.

Dinky shivered, but managed to gather the strength to address them still. “Please.....” she whispered. “Let us just continue, we are so close.” She tried to trot past Apple Bloom, but the other filly lifted a hoof and stopped her in her tracks.

“We? Ya mean YA!” The tone in Apple Bloom's voice did nothing to hide the underlying accusation.

“W-What do you–” Dinky did another attempt at pretending everything was fine, but Sweetie Belle interrupted her.

“You betrayed us, Dinky. Why?”

Confronted, Dinky did not know what to answer immediately. Biting her lip, she looked over to Scootaloo, who avoided her glance and looked sad down on the floor. Seeing that she wasn't receiving any support, fear rose in her chest and her heart started to beat faster. She looked down, too, then breathed in and out sharply, before she looked back up.

“Please don't believe anything! I don't know what Pipsqueak told you, but–”

“Pipsqueak told us everythin'!” Apple Bloom cut her off. “About the potions, about ya cutie marks, about ya plan!” Her voice sounded outraged now.

“M-My plan?” Dinky stuttered. “W-What did he even tell you, there's–” Her attempt to reason with the angry filly in front of her failed again.

“All about that cutie mark disease was just a fake! Ya lied to us and ya faked that disease with cutie mark potions from that old, fishy mare on the marketplace, because ya wanted to be the first one we're helpin' ta get a cutie mark!”

Now intimidated, Dinky began to retreat into a corner of the operation center. She only stopped as she stepped on her saddlebags.

Feeling unable to retreat further, she looked back at the wrath in front of her. “P-Please believe me.....” Her voice was only a whisper. “I'm not lying, it's all true. Pipsqueak is the one who lies. H-He is jealous, because he wants to get a cutie mark with your help, first, t-that's why he's making all of this up.” She gulped. “I-I never did this..... I never used any potions to fake me a cutie mark..... Please believe me.” Dinky sniffed and brushed over her nose. “I-I never betrayed you.....”

Instead of getting an answer on her desperate plea, Dinky saw the three fillies in front of her doing something very strange and unexpected. They all looked past her, with grim faces. Dinky started to follow their stares, but before she could see what they saw, Apple Bloom raised a hoof and pointed behind her.

“And how do ya call that if not a 'potion'”? Apple Bloom's voice was as deadpan as it could possibly be.

Dinky could hear herself cursing inside her head as she slowly turned around to what her saddlebags had just revealed. She bit her lips as her own eyes fell on the small bottle.

“It's not what it looks like..... I promise. It's–”

“– not a bottle with a label saying 'Cutie Mark Potion' on it?” Scootaloo interrupted and finished her sentence at the same time. “But that is how it looks like.....”

Swiftly, Dinky shot her head around, looking at them again. Lips pointing downward, while she still bit her lower one, her face showed a horrified expression.

Scootaloo sighed. “Why have you done this? All three of us were worried about you and we thought you have a really serious problem. Especially after you cut into your flank.....” Her brow got furrowed. “You did all of this to convince us of your lie. This was dangerous, Dinky.....” Unlike her friends, Scootaloo appeared to be more concerned than angry.

Sweetie Belle stepped forward. “You made us believe that your cutie mark problem is worse than it actually is, just to be first..... But there are other ponies who have problems with finding their special talent, too!” The accusatory tone in her voice cut into Dinky's eardrums like a knife. As she felt tears forming in her eyes again, she looked down onto the floor.

“And what's worse than that,” Apple Bloom added “ya even brought us in danger! We went deep into the Everfree Forest ta find out how ta make that potion and almost got chewed up by timberwolves there!” She lfited a hoof off the floor and brought it down again to reaffirm her words.

“I-It's..... I-I'm..... I-It's not what it l-looks like,” Dinky stuttered, repeating her words under tears, while keeping her eyes focused on the ground.

Apple Bloom opened her mouth again, her lips getting ready to form a sharp response, but Scootaloo interferred before she could say anything.

“It is..... Don't make it harder, okay?” Her voice almost sounded like she would tear up herself any moment.

“W-What a-are you g-going to d-do n-now?” Dinky asked, now trembling all over her body.

Scootaloo glanced at Apple Bloom sadly, a silent call for a decision. Instead of answering immediately, Apple Bloom looked around between her two friends. Scootaloo turned her head away as she realized that Apple Bloom prompted her to give her own opinion on the matter. Only Sweetie Belle answered.

“I think Pipsqueak deserves a chance now..... I would have voted for him as the first one anyway, if Dinky wouldn't have come to us.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Ah agree.” She turned to face Dinky again. With a strict look, she stared down at the distraught filly. “Ah was doin' a lot o' crazy things mahself when ah couldn't wait ta get mah cutie mark..... Ah even faked a cutie mark with a potion once.”

Dinky looked up at Apple Bloom, still tears in her eyes, but a weak feeling of hope rising in her chest.

“But,” Apple Bloom continued “ah only brought mah own life in danger with that, not the lives of other ponies.”

Immediately, Dinky felt the tiny hope in her heart getting extinguished again. She sank to the ground, her eyes looking empty now.

“We will go and see Pipsqueak now, he had ta wait long enough. Go home, Dinky.”

At Apple Bloom's side, Sweetie Belle nodded, but Dinky didn't notice. Only as Scootaloo reached out to her, because she stayed frozen in her spot, Dinky reacted.

“We need to clear the clubhouse so that we can help Pipsqueak here..... Go home and get some sleep, Dinky.” Scootaloo was still rather disappointed than angry and still a bit concerned for Dinky, but slowly, coldness creeped into her own voice.

Dinky was shaking and trembling strongly, by heavy sobs that escaped her mouth now, but she managed to get back on her hooves somehow. At a slow pace, she turned around and began to close her saddlebags. Her shaky hooves made her clumsily fumbling around with their clasps and she needed three attempts to close them, then three more to put the bags on her back.

Finally, she tried to grasp the bottle of the potion with her magic, but aside from a few small sparks, nothing else happened. It was all her concentration allowed for. Unphased by this result, she instead grabbed the bottle with one hoof, then turned around and slinked past her former counselors sluggishly. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle followed her movements with squinted eyes.

Dinky's head was hanging low again now, but her eyes still showed the same empty, emotionless expression. Only as she had reached the door of the operation center, her tempo suddenly increased, and she dashed down the ramp and away from the building, as fast as only three hooves on the ground allowed it.

The further she got away from the operation center, the more she began to choke from all the tears and the lump in her throat. As the desperation began to turn into anger, the young unicorn finally got a better control of her magic again. Her horn flared up and her light-blue aura got wrapped around the bottle in her right hoof. Still clumsily, but relatively secure, she hovered the bottle in front of her mouth and pulled out the cork, then threw it carelessly to the side. She lifted the bottle to her mouth and began to drink from it. “I don't need them, I can help myself!” she repeated in her head until she had gulped down the potion with a few, quick swallows.

Having finished, she threw the bottle to the side as well. She did not even hear the sound it made as it shattered to pieces on a nearby tree.

“I don't need them!” she shouted now. “I don't need them to get a cutie mark!”

Chapter 15: Manifested Nightmare

“Okay, stir it a little bit faster!” Scootaloo looked up from the book in her hooves, directly at Pipsqueak. The colt's head was adorned by a chef's hat and in front of him stood a big bowl filled with a thick dough. His face did not look happy. Teeth clenched, he tried to follow Scootaloo's command, but had hardly success with executing it.

Scootaloo furrowed her brow. “Hmm, maybe we have used too much flour..... We should throw it away and try it again.”

Pipsqueak stopped stirring the dough and sat down on his pillow. He wheezed slightly and his head had turned red.

“Or maybe baking cakes isn't my special talent and I'm just not good at it,” he said after catching his breath. He looked over the messy table, that was sprinkled with pieces of pastry and fine layers of flour, then at the three cutie mark counselors at the other side of it.

They looked at each other. “Do we try something else?” Scootaloo asked towards Apple Bloom.

“Hmm.....” Apple Bloom played around with a pencil in her mouth, trying to make a decision.

Seeing her hesitation, Sweetie Belle took the bowl into her magic and hovered it away from Pipsqueak and over to her. She grabbed the spoon with her right hoof and tried stirring the pastry on her own. She barely had to put pressure on the cooking instrument.

“It's easy,” she said. “Do you really have problems with this?” Her face showed disbelief and surprise as she looked at Pipsqueak.

“Well, ah guess that's one talent ta tick off,” Apple Bloom stated the obvious. She took the pencil out of her mouth and crossed out “Baking Cake” on the list in front of her.

“I knew this is not my special talent,” Pipsqueak said, removing the chef's hat from his head. “Just because my brother is good at this, does not mean I am, too.” He threw the hat into a box to his right. “What are we trying next?”

Instead of answering straight away, Apple Bloom let her eyes wander over the table for a few seconds, observing the mess. “Cleanin',” she said then. “Might as well try and see if ya good at this while we do that.”

She put the pencil back in her mouth and looked at her list again. “And then, if we still have time left today, we go and try c–” She did not come to finish her sentence, as the door to the operation center suddenly got flung open and struck the inner wall of the building. All four of them twitched as the sound startled them, then they looked at the door to see who the intruder was.

Champing with rage, Dinky stood in the doorframe. She was met with eye-rolls by the Crusaders and Pipsqueak gave her a fierce glance, but before anypony of them could say something, Dinky shot a hoof at Pipsqueak.

“YOU!” she yelled loudly, her anger getting carried over to the table by her voice. “Everything is worse now and it's all because of you and your lies!”

Pipsqueak looked at her unimpressed. “I don't know why you are upset. If you would have told them the truth, then everything would be fine for you. You brought this on yourself, Dinky.”

“FINE?!” Dinky shouted right back at him. “Do you call THIS fine?” She turned around and revealed her flank to him.

Pipsqueak opened his mouth, yet failed to comment on the sight in front of him.

At the same moment, Apple Bloom's pencil fell out of her mouth, as she showed a similar reaction. “W-What is it doing?” she stammered.

Dinky's flank was glowing in a bright blue, so much, that the four other foals almost felt the need to shield their eyes. In the middle of it, there was a cutie mark in the shape of a star, but before they could really get a look at it, it disappeared and was replaced by a shovel. A split-second passed and the shovel turned into a tomato, then into a cage. One cutie mark after another was flashing up on Dinky's flank, just to disappear again almost immediately.

The faces of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were marked with a mix of astonishment and shock. “Is this real?” Sweetie Belle asked, her pupils growing ever bigger.

Only Pipsqueak stayed calm. “So, I guess the cutie mark potions you take all the time finally had a side effect. I told you that you shouldn't use them.” He closed his eyes and shook his head.
Furiously, Dinky retracted her flank again, making it easier for him and his counselors to see. She glared at Pipsqueak.

“All the time?!” the enraged unicorn filly burst out. “I just took one for the first time ever, because you forced me to it and now I have to deal with THIS!” She presented her flank again. “Now I'm getting cutie marks every second!”

Pipsqueak blinked, yet did not comment on it further.

“Pip?” Apple Bloom turned to him. “Didn't ya say Dinky was just fakin' a cutie mark every time we saw with her one?”

“Mhm.” He nodded. “For years. Dinky is doing this for a long time already.”

It caused another angry reaction by Dinky. She did a thrusting step towards him. “I told you I don't–”

Apple Bloom interrupted her. “But this never happened before..... Doesn't look like it's just the potion doin' it.” She raised an eyebrow at Pipsqueak.

“I..... I.....” Noticing the reaction, he began to stammer. After repeatedly failing to put his thoughts into words, he slid down from his pillow and approached Dinky carefully.

“And this is actually real this time?” he asked, as he trotted closer slowly, trying to get another look at Dinky's flank.

“It. Was. Real. All. The. TIME!” Dinky hissed at him. “And now, thanks to your jealousy and your lies about me, you made it worse!”

Pipsqueak inched back a little, trying to avoid the filly's wrath.

“Worse?” Scootaloo asked now. “How?”

Dinky answered, yet did not avert her eyes from Pipsqueak. “After you didn't want to help me anymore..... Because you believed his lies.” She growled at Pipsqueak. “I was drinking the cutie mark potion that you saw falling out of my saddlebags yesterday. It was supposed to give me a cutie mark and it did, almost instantly.” She huffed. “But then, a few hours later, it disappeared again and got replaced by another one! And with each new cutie mark, it happened faster and faster and now it's completely out of control!”

Dinky sat herself into motion again, now slowly trotting towards Pipsqueak, as she seemed at the end of her efforts to contain her anger.

“Because of you and your jealousy after they chose me first, my flank is acting like disco lights now!”

Scared, and now visibly embarrassed, Pipsqueak retreated from the angry filly. “I-I'm sorry, Dinky. I could not know anything like this would happen. B-But I was not lying..... Maybe jealous, just a little. But I said the truth, I really thought you were making all of this up!”

It was a confession that came too late, one that only seemed to fuel Dinky's anger even more. Lowering her head, she stomped on the floor with one hoof, then dashed at him with her horn at face level. Pipsqueak winced and closed his eyes.

“ENOUGH!” Apple Bloom's voice rang out. Swiftly, the yellow filly stepped in front of Pipsqueak and, with one sharp movement, brought a hoof down on Dinky's horn and shoved it to the side. As a result, Dinky lost balance and found herself on the floor a second later.

“Have ya two gone crazy?!” Apple Bloom shouted, equally furious now.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo joined her side, the latter helping up Dinky, but keeping a close eye on her.

“Everypony?” Pipsqueak asked a question in return. “Not me, but Dinky did!” he said, pointing at the unicorn filly. He was visibly agitated after Dinky's attempted attack.

“What? Did you just call me 'crazy'”? Dinky clenched her teeth. “Take it back!” She tried to lunge out at him, but Scootaloo was holding her back, hooves tightly clasped around her chest.

“Calm down, Dinky! It's over now, he apologized already!” She struggled with keeping the outraged unicorn under control.

Apple Bloom spoke a word of command again. “Ah said it's enough!” she scolded both Dinky and Pipsqueak, then turned towards the latter. “Pip, ya go home, right now. We'll give ya another appointment later, but we need ta deal with Dinky now.”

Pipsqueak frowned. “But you promised that you will help me–”

“Now!” Apple Bloom cut him off sharply.

Startled, he nodded. Apple Bloom shielded Pipsqueak from Dinky, who was still full of rage, while Sweetie Belle accompanied him outside. As she had closed the door of the operation center behind him, she returned, just to see Apple Bloom turning towards Dinky.

“What was this all about?! Did ya try ta stab him with ya horn or what?”

Dinky opened her mouth to shoot a response at Apple Bloom, but then she bit her lip and just looked down on her hooves instead. Now that the offender was gone, her confidence disappeared with her anger. She just felt empty inside now.

“What was this all about, Dinky?” Apple Bloom repeated her question. “Why did ya do this?”

Scootaloo, who had let go of Dinky in the meantime, poked Apple Bloom's side. As her friend looked at her, she shook her head. “Just stop, Apple Bloom. It's not like we don't know why.”

“Yeah, Dinky wasn't lying to us. And now it has become even more bad.” Sweetie Belle pointed at Dinky's flank, which was still glowing brightly, with a plethora of cutie marks flashing up on it.

Apple Bloom looked over her friends, then at Dinky, who still eyed her hooves.

“Fine.....” she said then, after contemplating the situation for a few seconds. She pointed in the corner, where the book with Mage Meadowbrook's recipe and the tow sack were resting. “Let's get it done.”

Half an hour later, the potion was ready. After chopping and mixing the ingredients and a spark of magic from Dinky's horn, a bottle with the finished potion stood on the still messy table. The potion was of a dirty, green color, akin to swamp water, and Dinky almost retched in disgust as she looked at it. Despite this, though, she grabbed the bottle swiftly, opened it and gulped down the content in one go. Her face scrunched, she bent forward as she had emptied it, and erupted into a few coughs.

“I never..... never had something that tasted as icky as this!” she managed to say in-between two coughs.

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Well, it's medicine. I guess that's just what it is supposed to do.”

“Does it work?” Apple Bloom asked Dinky. “Ya feelin' anythin'?”

Dinky shook her head. “Not yet. Does it do anything? How does my flank look?” She turned her head around, taking a look herself without awaiting an answer.

“It's still looking the same.....” Scootaloo answered anyway. “So far!” she quickly added then, as she noticed Dinky's disappointed expression and her ears going down. Unfortunately, the correction came too late.

Feeling defeated once again, Dinky sank down on her haunches. “It's not working..... Nothing does,” she said weakly. “And nothing will.” The young unicorn sighed. “I guess that's it..... I will just have to live with it, to be the filly with multiple cutie marks for all time.” Her voice sounded more resigned than desperate now.

Like on command, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sank to the floor, too. Their hooves resting between their stretched out hindlegs, they let out a collective sigh as the feeling of defeat washed over them.

“If only there would be an expert for cutie mark magic.....” Dinky whispered after a few seconds had passed.

Apple Bloom looked at her for a short moment, then down again. “Well, there's one.....” she said.

Dinky looked up at her, curiosity in her eyes. “Who?”

Apple Bloom shook her head, sadly. “But she ain't helpin'. She hates cutie marks.”

Now Sweetie Belle looked up. “You mean Starlight Glimmer?”

“Mhm. By what Twilight told us about 'er, she would be the last one ta help a filly gettin' a cutie mark. She much rather takes them away instead of givin' them.”

The hope got crushed for Dinky before she could even feel it. “Taking cutie marks away,” Dinky whispered. “Just like the mare in my nightmares.....”

Scootaloo pricked her ears at these words. “Nightmares? You mean the one you had in the Crystal Empire?”

Dinky looked over to her, a bit of fear in her face now. “Mhm.” She nodded. “There was a mare and I thought she would take my cutie mark, but the nightmare was over before she could do anything.”

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow, then glanced to the side, at Apple Bloom. Before she could ask the question that was on her lips, though, Apple Bloom already started to address Dinky's words.

“And that wasn't the first time ya had this dream, right?”

Dinky shook her head. “No. I have this nightmare for years already. It happens a few times a month and it always ends before the mare can do anything. Sometimes I wake up screaming, but the end is always the same, the mare promises me that I will feel better in the morning and then I wake up.”

Now all three Crusaders looked up. They exchanged glances between them, glances that showed that all three of them had the same suspicion.

“Ya'll thinkin' what ahm thinkin'?” Apple Bloom asked her friends.

“That's the same question I just wanted to ask you..... I do,” Scootaloo replied.

“Starlight Glimmer.” Sweetie Belle nodded affirmatively.

The sudden, mysterious behavior of her three counselors made Dinky feel uneasy. She looked around between them.

“What are you talking about? It was only a dream. Just a nightmare..... right?”

The three counselors got up together and Apple Bloom walked at Dinky's side. She placed a hoof on her and prompted her to do the same.

“We'll explain ya on the way. But now, we need ta see Twilight.”

Author's Note

In this chapter, Dinky's personality is a lot closer to the way I characterized her in "Aunt Millie" after analyzing her appearance in "Flutter Brutter" and finding out her real personality that way.
Nonetheless, since this fic here was started before that episode aired, it is not canon to "Aunt Millie".

Chapter 16: Ancient Truth

Like on many afternoons, Twilight was sitting in her castle library, nose stuck in a book, and her mind caught in the book's content. It was peaceful, satisfying, serene..... Until a loud, thrusting knock on the door brought her mind back to reality.

It took the bookworm some time to stop reading, she just wanted to finish this sentence, then the next three, as she was right at the end of a chapter. And why not reading the first three sentences of the next one, too, the title hinted at something so exciting..... With a sigh, Twilight retracted her eyes from the letters. Using all her mental strength, she forced herself to shut the book in front of her. Not without putting a bookmark in, though.....

Groaning a bit, she got up from the armchair she was sitting in. After stretching her limbs for a little bit – she had been reading for hours without moving much so her muscles had started to hurt – she finally trotted to the door. Pulling it open right after the latest knock had ceased, she found herself looking in the faces of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Dinky Hooves. They looked at her and each of them was wearing a different expression; Scootaloo's eyes were adorned with deep worry and she was biting her lip, Apple Bloom had the stern expression a pony could only wear if something was at stake, Sweetie Belle's eyes darted nervously from side to side and, finally, Dinky looked completely terrified. It wouldn't have needed a genius to figure out that something happened, something serious.

Twilight felt her senses reacting alarmed immediately. “What is wrong, girls?” she asked, her heart starting to pump. Inside her skull, her brain was already rushing through several dangerous scenarios, ranging from Tirek having managed to escape from his prison again to another difficult situation with the unpredictable yaks that would require her to mediate as a diplomat. She did not come far with her thoughts before Apple Bloom shot out her response.

“Twilight, we need ta talk!” Not awaiting Twilight's response, she rushed inside the library, quickly followed by her two friends and their client. It happened in just a split-second, but Twilight noticed that Dinky was shivering all over her body. The left side of her flank was covered by her tail, but Twilight could have sworn she saw light flashing up on it. Closing the door with her magic, she turned around to them, frowning.

“Okay, girls, what disaster happened? Tell me and–”

Apple Bloom cut her off. “We know what's wrong with Dinky's cutie mark, it's Starlight Glimmer who messes with it!” The tone in her voice brought out the urgency much more than the words she spoke.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, the alarm in her mind starting to fade. “Starlight Glimmer?” she asked, her voice doubtful. “We haven't heard anything of her since we chased her out of her village and that was more than two months ago. And didn't you say Dinky was born with this condition? It really doesn't look like Starlight Glimmer was experimenting with her cutie mark.”

Apple Bloom frowned, but didn't intend to give up. “And what's with this then?” She turned at Dinky. “Show her, Dinky.”

Reluctantly, Dinky moved her tail away from her flank, eyeing Twilight in the process. Immediately, the large room got much brighter. Squinting, Twilight shielded her eyes.

Apple Bloom turned to face her again. “She's getting' a cutie mark every second now! And it wasn't much better before..... Ya said Starlight Glimmer replaces a cutie mark with an equal sign and Dinky here constantly gets a cutie mark replaced with another one! Does this really not look like Starlight Glimmer's hoofprint to ya, Twilight?”

Behind her right foreleg that she was holding protectively in front of her face, Twilight frowned deepy. Yet, she stayed calm. As Dinky had covered her flank again, she put her leg back on the ground and proceeded to answer Apple Bloom's question.

“You are right. I'm not denying there are similarities. But Dinky has alternating cutie marks since her birth. And Starlight Glimmer definitely ran her village for not more than a few years, so it really is unlikely that she brought this over Dinky.”

“Ya sure, huh?” Apple Bloom squinted at Twilight. She began to lose her patience.

“Yes. All of the villagers were medically supervised for two weeks after they got freed, by Princess Celestia's order. If Starlight Glimmer would have brainwashed them for ten years straight, the mental damage would have been much higher. They have recovered very quickly, so it can't have been that long.” Twilight's voice was secure, but Apple Bloom countered her, still.

“And who says she wasn't tryin' ta prepare her plan for a much longer time, Twilight? Maybe she experimented with Dinky since before she was born, ta figure out how ta develop a spell that that takes cutie marks away. It wouldn't have been hard for her ta reach Ponyville if it's true.”

The constant questioning by the young filly caught Twilight off-guard, she had not expected so much resistance over something that should be clear. Lifting a hoof to her chin, Twilight began to overthink Apple Bloom's words. She couldn't deny that her theory made sense. As unlikely as it seemed to her, there was a chance.

“And then there are the nightmares!” Apple Bloom interrupted Twilight's thought process.

Twilight put her hoof down, eyeing the filly with curiosity now. “Nightmares?”

“Well, more than a nightmare, actually,” Apple Bloom added. The emphasis she used turned Twilight's curiosity into confusion. Once more, Apple Bloom turned around to Dinky. “Tell her about the nightmares.” She nodded in encouragement and with a smile, noticing Dinky's increasing uncomfortableness.

Still reluctant, Dinky went over everything; the horrifying dreams she had for many years, the mare in them, the feeling that her cutie mark would get taken by the mare..... All in all, it came down to one conclusion, that Starlight Glimmer had made nightly visits to Ponyville, to use Dinky as a test subject for developing a cutie mark removal spell. And it was exactly the conclusion Twilight came to, as well.

“Fine.....” Twilight adressed Apple Bloom again. “I concede your point. Although I'm still not completely convinced, there might be something to it.”

“So, ya will help us doin' some research in Starlight Glimmer's old village?” Apple Bloom asked, being ahead of Twilight. At her side, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who had been quiet so far and let Apple Bloom do the talking, smiled and did a relieved cheer, feeling they had won Twilight over. Only Dinky kept her terrified expression.

“That's the plan,” Twilight responsed, now motivated to get to the bottom of this. While she spoke, she already wrote a note for Spike, then quickly hovered a saddlebag in front of her. She filled it with some things she might need, including some scrolls, a quill and an ink bottle and left it on the table. She turned around to the four fillies. “Let's go!” she commanded. “This needs investigating!”

The way to the train station passed uneventfully, safe for a few moments where Dinky needed encouragement to go on. The closer they got to the train station, the more nervous the unicorn filly became.

As they had boarded the train, the four fillies and the mare sat down in an otherwise empty wagon. Twilight wanted to get over everything again on the hours the train would need to reach the rock desert in the north and she rather did want to have more ears than theirs listening in on the conversation.

As the train had reached its destination and Twilight had heard the whole story again, followed by intensive thinking for the rest of the train ride, Twilight headed out of the train full of zeal, now even more convinced to bring light to this mystery. The four fillies she accompanied could barely keep up with her on their way through the gray, depressing landscape. An hour later, they finally arrived in Starlight Glimmer's former village. Greeted by Double Diamond right when entering the village, Twilight immediately came to the reason for their visit.

Stoically and stern, Double Diamond listened to Twilight's words. A frown appeared on the forehead of the white stallion and it became deeper and deeper the more Twilight progressed in her retelling of the events. Occasionally, he glanced at Dinky, which added empathy to his expression before it returned to being stern when he looked back at Twilight. As he was in the picture about everything, he nodded understandingly. Double Diamond turned around, then waved at them, a signal to follow him.

“Starlight hasn't returned to us since we chased her out,” he spoke while they trotted through the tiny village to the house ahead of them. “And we haven't entered her house ever since and not touched or removed anything. If she left any notes behind that can help you, they are still there.”

Something in Double Diamond's voice, the way how he pronounced Starlight's name and the choice of certain words, gave Twilight an unsettling feeling. Looking back at the small procession of fillies behind her, she found it confirmed that they felt the same.

“Why did you never enter it?” she asked the stallion, following her feeling. “I know that all of you have their own houses, but maybe you could use hers for something else? It would make an excellent town library.”

Double Diamond turned around at her, now wearing a frown again. “We wouldn't,” he said. “Starlight's not gone for long and she might return one day. None of us would mind if she would come back and we want that she finds her house exactly the way she left it.”

There was a weird conviction in his voice and it confirmed Twilight's bad feeling. She decided to not address her concern, but it was clear to her that there was still a lot of work to do here.

Naturally, it did not take long until they had arrived at Starlight's old house. It even felt silly that Double Diamond was leading them there, with how small their village was. In front of the house, Double Diamond just pointed at it from a few hoofsteps distance, but did not do any attempts to enter it.

“We're there,” he said, looking at the four fillies who accompanied Twilight. “If you need anything, just come to my house and knock on the door.” He turned and pointed at a house that was located right in the middle of the row to their right.

Twilight nodded. “Thank you, Double Diamond, I think we can handle the rest from here on out.”

Double Diamond nodded in response, then he trotted away and towards his house. Although the distance wasn't far, Dinky marched ahead and went right into Starlight's house before Double Diamond had reached the door of his own house.

As her counselors and Twilight entered it, Dinky was already rummaging around in a shelf full of notebooks. Randomly, she pulled one out, opened it and started to read. Her eyes were flying over the sentences and she did not even notice that the others had entered by now as well. Going to work, too, the other four ponies spread out as much as it was possible in the small house and soon were caught up in their own searches.

As they had already suspected, Starlight Glimmer's house was full of information, most about magic, some of scientific nature. A bunch of the notebooks were indeed filled with information about cutie marks, others about powerful spells Starlight Glimmer had been studying, but none of the books they flipped through had anything that could help them.

Only hours after sunset, and after Twilight had unsuccessfully told the fillies to leave so they won't miss school the next day numerous times, attempts that always failed because of Dinky's insistence to stay longer, Sweetie Belle finally called her friends and Dinky over. Her voice sounded excited.

Grouping themselves around the white unicorn, they looked expectantly at her.

Full of adrenaline, Sweetie Belle knocked on the page of the book she had just been reading a few times. “This is it! It's one of Starlight Glimmer's journals and it looks like it explains everything!” she shouted before she calmed herself a bit and started to read out loud what was written on the page.

“Today, my genealogical research came to an end. I was wrong all along. I should have guessed it, how could I possibly be a descendant of the great Starswirl the Bearded? Me of all mares? I was foolish to believe this...

Apparently, Starswirl's bloodline ended a few hundred years ago. Some imbecile unicorn, stupid and reckless, who wandered off into the Everfree Forest to prove its bravery and got killed by timberwolves there before it could have any foals.

Only one of his assistants still has descendants, a unicorn stallion going by the name of Written Script who lives in a countryside town called 'Ponyville'.”

Before Sweetie Belle could continue, Dinky interrupted her with a gasp of surprise. “Written Script? B-But that's my dad!” Eagerly, she ripped the book out of Sweetie Belle's hooves and continued reading herself.

“He conceived two foals with a pegasus mare called 'Derpy Hooves'. They named them Sparkler and Dinky.”

Having reached the end of the page, Dinky hastily flipped to the next one, almost tearing it in the process.

“One of them, the younger one, still carries that curse I read about. The accident Starswirl's assistant had in ancient times, it's still affecting the ponies in his bloodline to this day. Poor filly... It is horrible to have a cutie mark, I can't imagine how much worse it must be to be cursed with multiple cutie marks.

Unfortunately, her curse cannot even help me with my studies. I need something to make cutie marks disappear completely, something that lets them vanish from existence, not something that multiplies them! It's utterly useless for my plans. Unless I find a way to wipe out cutie marks once and for all, the suffering of this filly will always be in vain...”

While reading, Dinky's voice had become quieter and quieter and, having finished the last sentence of the journal entry she was reading, Dinky now dropped the book from her shaking hooves. Her eyes had grown wide, while her mind had been swamped with the realization of how horrible the reality truly was for her. Her mouth was nothing more than a thin line now and her eyes seemed to stare into endless depths only she could see, so much, that she did not even notice the expressions of compassion and sadness of the ponies who were with her.

Dinky stood like this for a moment, completely still, then she turned around on her hooves and stampeded out of the house, a heartbreaking sob leaving her lips. In a tempo nopony would have expected from her, she galloped out of the village, making it almost impossible for Twilight and her three counselors to catch up with her.

Dinky had no idea how she managed to find the way back to the train tracks, with her tear-filled eyes and in the darkness, all she could hear inside her head was the last sentence she read in Starlight Glimmer's journal. It was blocking all of her other thoughts:

Unless I find a way to wipe out cutie marks once and for all, the suffering of this filly will always be in vain...

The words felt like hammer blows on Dinky's mind.

Chapter 17: Sister Sorcery

Their heads hanging low, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle trudged through the streets of Ponyville. The air around them was filled with the morose atmosphere of failure and misery. What they had discovered the day before in Starlight Glimmer's village had made clear that there was nothing that could help Dinky. And even though they didn't have to endure the same fate as her, the turnout of everything laid as heavy on their minds as it laid on Dinky's.

She was their first client and already, they had failed to help a pony to its cutie mark. The fact that Dinky's cutie mark problem was one of such enormous, cosmic dimensions that no one could could blame them for being unsuccessful did not help lifting their spirits in the slightest. It was depressing and that was exactly how they felt.

Right now, they were on the way to Dinky's house. Dinky had not been at school once again today and all three of them knew what this meant.

They had caught up with Dinky at the train tracks, just at the right time for the train to arrive. Dinky had not talked with them, neither while entering the train, nor during the entirety of the trainride. The despaired unicorn filly had separated with them inside the train and retreated to a seat at the opposite end of the car, out of their sight. All four of them had expected to hear her cries until they would arrive at home in Ponyville. What actually happened, though, Dinky's real reaction, scared them much more than any crying or even furious outbursts could have managed:

The young unicorn was completely silent.

No cries sounded into their direction, no curses or swears because of the hopelessness of her situation, and she had not spoken a single word with them.

At first they thought that Dinky had fallen asleep, mentally exhausted after all she had to go through just to discover that nothing could help her, but every time one of them checked up on her, Dinky was widely awake. It was the impression her body gave to the outside, by her widely opened eyes that still seemed to stare into those endless depths only she could see. Inside of her, though, Dinky was far away; her mind separated from the reality around her, perhaps in a better one where she didn't have to suffer from this curse. That's something they could feel at each of their check-ups to see if she wouldn't do anything she would regret later. And during none of these check-ups, Dinky did notice her companions. To them, it seemed like she was looking right through their bodies.

As they finally arrived in Ponyville after Dinky had been in a state like this for hours, she slipped down from her seat and left the train without them. Yet her movements couldn't be called lively, she was still staring in the same way and moved stoically through Ponyville all up to her house and until they left her there in the caring hooves of her family after they had explained what happened. It would have been an understatement to call Dinky's condition “miserable” and all three of them were worried sick she could hurt herself or worse. And after they had failed so much with helping her, the least they could do, what they needed to do, was trying to console their client as best as they could.

Because of this, they went to Dinky's house right away after school had ended, without going home before. And now they were finally here, something that became evident to them by the house of the Hooves Family coming closer in the distance. At the door, nopony dared to knock on it, at first. Only after many exchanged glances, the trio of fillies pushed themselves to knock on the door together. Simultaneously, three hooves in different colors came down on the wood and produced a rather quiet, hesitant knock. The sound made them twitch and, before that twitch had fully stopped, the approaching hoofsteps caused another one to happen. None of them was really prepared for meeting Dinky or had thought about what to tell her. Nonetheless, the hoofsteps stopped in front of the door and it got pulled open very slowly now.

Inside the doorframe, Dinky appeared. She eyed them without saying anything, a tired, resigned expression on her face. The heavy, dark bags under her eyes indicated another sleepless night or, at least, one spent with crying many more tears. Her flank was still showing alternating cutie marks, although, the intervals between their disappearance had increased since yesterday. At an almost hypnotizingly slow speed, Dinky turned around and waved them to follow her.

Their heads still near ground level, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle crept inside. Staying behind a bit, Sweetie Belle closed the door, then she rushed after her friends.

“So, uh,” Apple Bloom finally started to talk to Dinky “how, uh, was your night?” It was a terrible question and she knew that, but they still didn't have any ideas of what to say and this was the first thing that jumped to Apple Bloom's mind. She almost cowered a little in expectation of Dinky's reaction, but surprisingly, it was a calm one.

Dinky shrugged. “Crying, barely slept, more of that dream, the usual,” she rattled off the events of last night. Her voice sounded mechanic to her three counselors.

The three of them looked at each other consternated.

“Uh, the same dream?” Apple Bloom asked another question whose answer was actually obvious.

“Yep,” it came back from Dinky, monotonously. “That creepy night mare was back again, talking nice to me, but all she really wanted was getting my cutie mark.”

Dinky was just about setting hoof on the stairs, as she felt playfully grabbed at her neck and pulled backwards. “How dare you to call me 'creepy', Dinks!” a voice rang into her ears, a voice that sounded similarly tired as hers, but was unmistakenly the voice of her big sister.

Turning around to remove the hoof from her neck, Dinky saw the identity of the sneaky assaulter confirmed, as she looked right into the face of Sparkler. It looked worn and heavy, dark bags were under her eyes, too.

As Sparkler had finally let her go, Dinky sighed. “Right.....” she said. “The nightmare was a little different last night, I woke up during it, for the first time ever.....” She trailed off and cast a glance aside, eyes fixated on the wall.

Sparkler continued for her. “And then you screamed like a mad filly and accused me of stealing your cutie mark and made such a fuzz in your room that I had to keep you fixate you in bed with my magic until you had calmed down.” Sparkler made her voice sound intentionally obnoxious, with the clear purpose of playfully teasing her little sister to take out the seriousness of the situation with humor. Though, what usually worked, had a different effect on her little sister this time.

Dinky did not smile or even look at Sparkler, she kept staring at the wall. Sniffing, she brushed a hoof over her nose.

Seeing this reaction, Sparkler reached out to Dinky and pulled her in for a hug. “It's fine, sis, I don't mind.”

Instinctively, Dinky put her own hooves around Sparkler for a tight grip. After all that happened, she didn't want to have a fight with her big sister.

As they had let go of each other, Sparkler ruffled through Dinky's mane. “Do you want to hang out with your friends now, sis?”

Dinky nodded. “Mhm,” she gave confirmation monotonously.

“Alright, sis, if you need me, I'm in my room!” She ruffled her mane again, then sent her off.

A short trot up the stairs later, the four fillies arrived in Dinky's bedroom. Having closed the door, they grouped themselves in a circle on the floor. More moments of silence followed, until Scootaloo finally broke it.

“So, I guess this explains your nightmares? Was it always just your big sister?”

“Yeah.....” Dinky answered. “She never told me, how I was mumbling in my sleep with opened eyes and acted the same way like last night until she had to fixate me on the bed every time I had this dream, because she didn't want to worry me. Mom didn't tell me either.” Her ears dropped. “But last night it was the first time it didn't happen during sleep-trotting, it was a panic attack while I was awake. So, Sparks had no other choice than telling me about everything. There never was a creepy night mare who wanted to steal my cutie mark.....”

“Well, guess that finally rules out Starlight Glimmer for good,” Apple Bloom commented on the reveal. “But it finally leaves us without options, too.”

At her side, Scootaloo poked her hard in the ribs, then pointed with her head at Dinky. The damage had already been done, though. Dinky did not start to cry again, but she hung her head and eyed the floor quietly.

For about ten minutes, nopony dared to speak and all of them were dwelling on their own thoughts. The mood stayed like this, until Sweetie Belle suddenly raised an eyebrow and wore a sceptical expression on her face, by a thought that had just entered her mind. She looked over at Dinky, eager to express it.

“Hey, what's with Sparkler's cutie mark?” she asked.

Dinky looked back at her, puzzled. “What about it?” In her current condition, she was not able to follow Sweetie Belle's trail of thoughts.

“Because of the curse. Since you are a descendant of Starswirl the Bearded, wouldn't that make Sparkler one, too? So, why is her cutie mark not disappearing?”

“Oh..... I-I don't know. Sparkler never had any problems with her cutie mark. She has a cutie mark since I can think and it never changed or disappeared. Only mine does, just like I still can't use my magic properly, guess it's all related.....” She sniffed.

Another lightbulb went on in Sweetie Belle's head. “And Sparkler never had problems with using magic?” she continued to probe.

Depressed, Dinky shook her head. “She excels at magic, compared to me.” Another sniff came from her before she continued. “My dad doesn't have any problems with it either, I guess the curse sometimes skips a generation or two. It's random, just like my cutie marks. Too bad I was born in the wrong generation.....” After all the surprising calm Dinky had shown until now, new tears finally entered her eyes after she mourned her fate anew.

Sweetie Belle, though, was in the exact opposite mood. By now, her mind was brightly illuminated. “Or, the curse is getting weaker across the generations!”

“What are ya goin' for, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom looked at her, cocking her head in confusion.

“Yeah, what's this about?” Scootaloo asked a similar question. “Even if it's getting weaker, how should this help Dinky now?”

Sweetie Belle ignored both of them. She jumped up in excitement. “That's it!” she shouted. “All we need to do is getting some of Sparkler's magic to you!”

Before any of her friends or Dinky could comment on this idea, though, the first comment came from another, unexpected direction, precisely, it came right from the door.

“That's not it.”

They all turned around to the door, seeing Sparkler, who stood there, hovering a tray in her magic. She carefully hovered it down on the floor between them, which revealed its contents to them; a plate full of muffins and four cups of steaming cocoa.

“Huh, why?” Sweetie Belle asked confused. “Do you think it won't work?”

Casually, Sparkler shrugged. She sat down on the floor at Dinky's side, pulling her close.

“I don't know if it can stop the curse. But there's a problem with your idea.”

“A problem? What problem?” The answer had piqued Sweetie Belle's curiosity.

“It's possible for a unicorn to transfer magic to another,” Sparkler began to explain. “The two unicorns need to hold their horns together, right at the tip, then the unicorn who wants to transfer magic has to imagine in its head how the magic helps the recipient. It's something that only works if a unicorn loves the unicorn it wants to transfer magic to.”

Instead of helping, this answer confused Sweetie Belle more. “I understand, but, what's the problem then?”

“The problem is”, Sparkler looked at her sternly “that I won't do it.”

The answer finally caused a reaction in Dinky, who had only stared at Sparkler until now, having felt a new hope that she didn't want to allow rising in her chest.

The young unicorn freed herself of her big sister's embrace. “Sparks, please! It's the only thing that might help me..... This is probably my last chance, please, you need to do this!”

Sparkler looked at her little sister with a sad expression, shaking her head slowly.

“You won't, but why?” Scootaloo asked upset. “Does this mean you don't love Dinky?!”

The older unicorn shot an angry glare into Scootaloo's direction. “I love my sister more than anything else!” she shouted. “But that's exactly why I can't do this,” she added as she had calmed down.

Now all three Crusaders were at a complete loss and so was Dinky.

“Why, Sparks?” she asked, her eyes watery now.

Sweetie Belle picked up for her. “If you really love her, what's so hard? Why do you not help her?”

“It's dangerous,” Sparkler answered taut, before collecting her thoughts for a moment. “I was a student at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and one of the most important lessons we had there was about being careful when transferring magic to another unicorn. Princess Celestia herself told us that it's something we should only do in an emergency. She taught us that magic gets more powerful the stronger our emotions are. If a unicorn isn't able to regulate the amount of emotions that it feels during the transfer process enough, then it could end with the death of the other unicorn.”

She pulled Dinky back into the embrace, which was now tighter than before.

“My little sister is young, her mind can't hold much magic yet. If I transfer even just one drop of magic too much.....” Sparkler stopped, unable to finish the sentence.

The temperature in Dinky's room seemed to have decreased significantly, as a cold shiver went through everypony. Resignated, Dinky dropped her ears, as Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle did as well.

“We can try it once Dinks is older,” Sparkler said as she noticed the resignation and disappointment that spread out in the room. “But not today, I won't risk the life of my little sister.”

At her side, Dinky freed herself of the embrace again and turned around. She eyed her flank, watching how a new cutie mark appeared just to get replaced by another one after a few seconds. The thought she could die because of her eagerness to stop the curse and finally be able to get a real cutie mark filled her with dread. But so did the imagination of having to wait years until she had become adult to find out if Sweetie Belle's idea would work. And the latter kind of dread happened to feel much worse to her.

“Maybe just a little,” she uttered, still eyeing her flank. “Just a small drop, Sparks. Maybe it doesn't need much.” She looked up, directly into the eyes of her sister. Her expression was begging.

But Sparkler shot her request down. “No chance, sis,” she said, sternly. “The stakes of trying this out as long as you are a filly are too high.”

The answer caused a lump to form in Dinky's throat and she sobbed, lakes of new tears forming in her eyes.

“Why?” she sniffed. “Why, Sparks? I can't wait years, only to find out that it doesn't work..... Why do you not care about me?” Desperation began to form in her heart.

The answer felt like a pierce through Sparkler's heart, never had her little sister accused her of not caring about her.

“Knock this thought out!” she responded, a little anger in her voice. “You know that I care about you, Dinks, but this is–”

“Shut up!” Dinky interrupted her. She felt hot inside, suddenly. Then, from one moment to another, the burning feeling in her turned into cold hatred, as the imagination of her sister letting her stay in this condition for years kicked in even more.

Forcefully, Dinky jumped on Sparkler's back. The impact she made was so strong, that it pushed her sister to the floor. For the first time ever in her life, Dinky felt nothing but hatred for her big sister. It was a feeling that was completely alien to her and if her desperation wouldn't be so big, it would scare the young filly, but right now, she just let it happen.

“Dinks, what are you doing?” Sparkler asked her little sister, more surprised than scared about this sudden, rash action.

“SHUT UP!” Dinky responded, now screaming. In all her desperation over the situation and after all she had to go through in the last two weeks, the refusal of her big sister to do the one, last thing that could help her had turned the mind of the filly upside down.
Dinky grabbed her sister's head, one hoof at each side, and slowly lowered her own head.

Terror appeared in Sparkler's eyes as she realized what Dinky wanted to do. She tried to rear up, but somehow, Dinky managed it in her fury to keep her down.

There was one other thing about the transfer of magic that Princess Celestia had taught them, that Sparkler remembered. Not only could a unicorn give magic if love was involved, but a unicorn could also steal magic if it felt great hatred. It was how Tirek must have done it, draining ponies of their magic with the help of the hatred he felt for his brother because he had betrayed him, less than half a year ago. It was something both Dinky and Sparkler had to experience firsthoof. Sparkler still shuddered when she thought on the moment it happened.

“If you don't want to help me, Sparkler, I will take your magic and help myself!” Dinky announced, her voice shivering, as she brought her horn close to her sister's.

Having seen that Sparkler couldn't shake Dinky off, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle now rushed over and grabbed Dinky, pulling at her body. The anger and hatred had given the little unicorn enormous strength, though. Without effort, she shook their hooves off and lunged at them in quick succession, making them tumble backwards and hitting the wall and furniture in the room.

Now undisturbed, Dinky brought the last inches behind her and, finally, touched the horn of her big sister. Sparkler continued to struggle, but still couldn't throw Dinky off. As the tips of their horns touched, everything happened fast suddenly.

Dinky concentrated and imagined how Sparkler's magic would help her, the selfish act that was needed to steal a unicorn's magic as her sister had explained her after Tirek was defeated, and both of their horns started to glow. Purple magic trickled out of Sparkler's horn and got absorbed by Dinky's now blue-glowing horn.

After only three seconds of draining her big sister's magic, the combined magic of the two unicorns caused a small explosion right where their horns touched. The resulting shock wave threw Dinky off of her sister's back and down onto the floor immediately. After producing a loud thud, Dinky's body lay there motionless.

Feeling dizzy, but not as much affected as Dinky had been, Sparkler shook her head. As the room had stopped circling around her, she rushed at her little sister's side. Simultaneously, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle did the same. As they had reached her, all three Crusaders held a hoof at their mouths in shock.

Dinky was lying on her right side, the flank on her left side still showing alternating cutie marks but, after a last flash of about a dozen cutie marks appearing on her flank almost simultaneously, they vanished altogether and left a completely blank flank behind. What shocked them, alongside Sparkler, so much, though, was that Dinky's eyes stood widely open, the fear she felt as the sudden explosion happened still visible in them.

Shoving the three other fillies out of the way, Sparkler rushed up to her little sister. With tears in her eyes she lifted her up and tried to shake her awake, fearing the worst. As Dinky didn't react, she placed her on the floor again and rested her head on her chest. Tears of relief streamed down her cheeks as she finally heard a faint, but noticeable heartbeat.

Quickly, she held her slightly scorched horn at Dinky's chest and concentrated. A purple bubble formed on her horn, then left it and entered Dinky's body. Immediately as the spell took effect on her heart, Dinky blinked and sat up in a flash. Heavy coughs left her mouth, so loud that they probably sounded through the whole house. Tears in the corners of her eyes, her body got shaken by the coughs until her big sister pulled her close and wrapped her into an embrace so tight, that it almost stopped Dinky's coughing by choking her.

After all that had happened over the course of the last few minutes, Sparkler was supposed to be angry at Dinky, but the emotion she felt was of a whole different kind.

“You're a stupid idiot, sis,” she muttered with a sob, barely loud enough to be audible over Dinky's continued coughs.

Author's Note

I feel that Sparkler's characterization is a bit off here..... Then again, a lot of things in this fic are a bit off, so, why not have a last hooray on that?

Epilogue

The day after, Dinky stood in the Cutie Mark Operation Center once more, to the surprise of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

“Dinky? What are you doing here today?” Scootaloo asked in surprise after they had answered the knocks on the door and let Dinky inside. Scootaloo did her best to not stare at Dinky's horn, which was in a worse condition than her big sister's after what had happened not even twenty-four hours ago.

Dinky noticed, though, carefully stroking a hoof over it with a sheepish smile. “Not much left, I know..... But the doctor said the damage will grow out in a few months. Just needs a bit of filing then and it's going to be as new!” She grinned broadly.

“How comes you're here?” Sweetie Belle came closer. “I thought your mom and your sister grounded your for a lifetime for bringing yourself in danger!”

Being reminded on the dramatic events the day before, Dinky bit her lip, the sheepish look in her face now being replaced with earnest embarrassment.

“A month, actually,” she said, watching her hoof drawing invisible circles on the floor. “But I snuck out here as mom left the house to go to the market, to thank you for all the help and for going through all the trouble I caused you.”

Now looking up again, she graced each of them with an intimate, long hug.

“I would still be a cutie mark freak if you would have stopped helping me, but you never gave up!” Having said that, she approached Sweetie Belle again and gave her an extra hug, tighter and longer than the one before.

“So, everythin' is workin' out now?” Apple Bloom asked as Dinky had let go of Sweetie Belle. “No disappearing cutie marks anymore, no curse?”

Dinky shook her head. “No, I haven't gotten a cutie mark since everything stopped yesterday. It seems to be over!” Her voice was one, big cheer.

“And you are sure?” Scootaloo asked. “It's not even a full day yet, are you really sure it won't continue?”

Now, Dinky nodded. “Mhm! Just look at this!” She ignited the scorched remnants of her horn, pointed it at the open window and concentrated. A tiny beam of blue magic left it, but instead of getting shot out of the window where it could do no harm, it hit the wall to its left and burnt a nice, big hole into it.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle lowered their eyelids at Dinky, disapproved stares burning into her now.

Dinky gasped, then squeaked. “Still not completely perfect..... But now my magic works like the magic of other unicorns does, I'm probably just behind other foals a bit.” She grinned again. “And that means.....”

“That the curse is gone, too!” Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shouted at the same time, then started to grin as well.

“Yep! Sparkler's magic really erased the curse and all magical anomalies it caused! I should be able to get a normal cutie mark now!”

“Ya still want ta have help with that?” Apple Bloom offered their continued assistance.

But Dinky shook her head. “No, it's fine. Now that I know I will get a real cutie mark one day, I just wait it out.”

“By the way,” Scootaloo followed a certain thought “how do you and your sister get along now?”

Dinky's eyes turned sad at this question. “We're fine.....” she whispered, now eyeing the floor and drawing invisible circles again. “I feel bad for feeling like this, even though Sparkler said she understands why I did..... But we talked for a long time and she isn't mad at me.” She sniffed, but then wiped over her nose immediately and looked up at the three Crusaders again, forcing herself to a smile.

“I guess that means everything's good then!” Scootaloo grin grew broader.

Dinky nodded, but then, a tiny portion of doubt appeared in her face.

“Well, almost.....” she said. “The downside is that I did drain a little bit too much of Sparkler's magic..... It's not dangerous for me, but it makes my magic act strange sometimes. You saw what just happened..... ” Embarrassed, she eyed the hole in the wall. “Sparkler says it will probably stay like this for a few weeks, at least.”

“Sounds good to me!” Scootaloo said, laughing in relief. “I mean, you will probably cause some property damage until the effect has worn off, but it could be way worse!”

This sentence earned her a poke by Apple Bloom. “Ya don't tempt 'worse', Scoots.”

Not commenting on the warning, Scootaloo just rolled her eyes. Then she addressed Dinky again.

“Hey, wanna hang in your house? The muffins Sparkler served us yesterday were delicious and they didn't say you can't invite guests!” Her wings swung out at the thought of the pastries.

“Sure!” Dinky said cheerfully. “I was going to invite you, anyway, because you helped me so much! You just need to arrive there after me, I need to make it look like I never left the house.” The sheepish grin returned as she rubbed the back of her head.

“Right on!” Scootaloo said. She exchanged a hoofbump with Dinky, then she and her friends galloped out of the operation center, eager to get more of the tasty muffins.

Dinky smiled after them. As she wanted to set herself into motion again, she suddenly noticed that her horn started to crackle. She could feel tiny sparks getting released from it. Before she really knew what happened, a big mass of magical sparks that looked akin to a cloud hovered above her head. Now in panic, Dinky rushed out of the door of the operation center, where Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle already waited for her.

“Get down!” she shouted at them, jumping down the ramp. Right when she had taken cover behind a tree, the windows of the operation center glowed blue, then the whole building blew up in a magical explosion.

In sudden shock, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle took cover as well, just in the right moment for the scorched remnants to fall down to the ground.

As it was quiet again, the four fillies left their cover and trotted over to the place where the operation center stood. All that was left were scorched remnants of the wooden pillars, the strongest parts of the construction, and a few pieces of burnt wood. Their mouths opened in shock, they stared at the destroyed construction.

Apple Bloom was shaking. “I-It..... For Princess Luna's sake, it took a whole day ta build it!” She gave Dinky an angry glare, which made the unicorn filly crouch down and retreat backwards slowly, then she let her frustration out on the ground by stomping on it repeatedly. “Ah said ya shouldn't tempt 'worse', Scootaloo! Now we have ta start over and build everythin' again!”

For a moment, Dinky considered to offer help with the reconstruction, but just remembered in the right moment how the last time she tried to help turned out, so she stayed silent.

“I don't think so, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo reacted to her friend's words.

Sweetie Belle nodded. “I agree with Scoots. I never really felt like we need it, anyway.” She shrugged.

“Ya two serious?” Apple Bloom couldn't believe it.

“Yep!” the other two Crusaders said in unison.

“But what's with the clubhouse and not gettin' disturbed by clients there, then? Ya two agreed ta build the operation center ta avoid that!”

“What about it?” Scootaloo asked, shrugging again. “We can just build a lock into the door of the clubhouse and hang a sign on it if we haven't opened.”

“Yeah, there's no need to do all that work again, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie Belle added.

Apple Bloom let her eyes wander over the ruins. The building had meant a lot to her, but she could not deny that her fellow Crusaders were in the right. She turned around at them.

“Fine,” she sighed. “Ah guess we could have found an easier solution for that problem. But we still need ta clean up here and remove the ruins, Applejack's goin' ta become crazy if she sees the orchard like that.”

“But there's time later for that, right?” Dinky asked, finally daring to speak again. “I need to get you an extra round of thank you muffins now for destroying your operation center.” Her sheepish smile had grown tenfold now.

Seeing Dinky like this, rubbing her hoof and looking at them so sheepishly, it caused all three Crusaders to laugh, even Apple Bloom.

“Fine..... But ya'll better serve apple muffins then!”

Relieved, Dinky smiled. “You bet!” she said, then turned around and gallopped off towards the town.

Her counselors followed her closely, leaving behind the legacy of their first mission as Equestria's cutie mark counselors.....

Author's Note

And with this, it is done. It's really done..... I could cry over the fact that I finally managed to finish this fic. :applecry:

Chapter 1: The Foundation of the Future

The Cutie Mark Crusaders stood in front of their clubhouse, each of them eyeing it with different looks.

Apple Bloom had a stout expression written all over her face and her eyes radiated a fire that was burning brightly with determination and pride. To Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, though, it seemed like a fire intent on burning their clubhouse down.

Scootaloo's face expressed scepticism. Her head was slightly cocked to the side, like she was thinking very strongly about something, and one of her eyebrows was raised.

And Sweetie Belle looked worried and a little sad; her eyes were not welling up, but the grief in them was clearly visible. Her lips pointed downwards, in a wide semi-circle. She choked a little.

A moment passed, then Scootaloo took the floor. “Are you sure, Apple Bloom? Do we really need to reconstruct the clubhouse? I think it's fine as it is,” she asked, a wisp of sadness in her voice. The young pegasus looked at Apple Bloom, the scepticism in her face even stronger now.

Sweetie Belle looked over to their leader, as well. Eyes meeting hers, she nodded once. “Y-Yeah, I love it the way it is. I don't want to change it.” Her voice sounded teary.

Now Apple Bloom spoke. “But it's something we need ta do! If we want ta welcome ponies here who need help with their cutie marks, we need more space. The clubhouse is too small!” she answered the concerns of her friends, a little strict.

“B-But we have so many memories that are tied to it!” Sweetie Belle choked again. “It's where we held our first club meeting, where we appointed Babs to a Crusader and where we spent the whole night thinking about how we could make up for the trouble we caused as Gabby Gums,” she cried, naming a few of the important things that happened in the small treehouse.

“And we prepared all of our crusades in it!” she continued. “And all the other things we did in the clubhouse, do you remember last Nightmare Night? When you told the story of the three-legged pony ghost that haunts the orchards once in a year and Scootaloo was so scared that she peed into her sleeping bag?”

This earned her an angry glare by the pegasus. “I was not peeing into it, Sweetie Belle,” she said with a cold, sneering voice, her flushed-red face immediately revealing the lie. “It was just hot in the clubhouse because you put up so many candles, so I was sweating.”

The mentioned filly smiled sheepishly, but her face turned serious again soon.

“Do you really want that we lose all these memories, Apple Bloom?” she continued to reason with the other filly.

So far, Apple Bloom had been listening patiently to what Sweetie Belle had to say, but now she was stretching out a hoof, gesturing Sweetie to be silent before she could say more.

“Ah understand what ya mean, but have ya thought about how it will be if we don't do it? Then all the fillies and colts who will come into our clubhouse for help will make a public place out of it. We wouldn't have any privacy anymore because other ponies would pester us by knockin' at our door when we just want ta chill and relax!”

Apple Bloom's explanation did not help the other two fillies. They still stared at her with sceptical and worried expressions.

“But how should a new clubhouse change that?” Scootaloo questioned. “If we knock down the clubhouse and build a new one, then it will be the same.”

Apple Bloom stared back at her blankly. “Knockin' it down?” she asked. “Where did ah talk about knockin' it down? We just build an extension for it.”

“An extension?” Sweetie Belle squeaked. She cocked her head in confusion. “But you were talking about reconstructing the clubhouse.”

“Yeah. But ah never said we have ta knock down the clubhouse for that!” She did a step towards Sweetie to emphasize her words. “Ah meant we're going ta build a second one that looks just like it.”

Opposite of her, Scootaloo nodded. “I was going to ask you about that,” she chimed in. She did a sideways glance at Sweetie Belle and raised an eyebrow. “I couldn't imagine you really meant that we should knock it down, but then Sweetie Belle started to panic.”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at their unicorn friend with tired and disapproving expressions now, their eyes narrowed.

Sweetie Belle flinched and gritted her teeth. “Uh, guess I was assuming the worst for no reason there.....” She chuckled nervously.

“Ya don't say,” Apple Bloom answered dryly.

“Uhm..... I'm sorry?” Sweetie Belle gave her friends a sheepish grin, trying to amend for the confusion she had caused.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo hung their heads and sighed. “It's fine,” Apple Bloom said then. “Let's just get this started.”

“So, where do we build this extension?” Scootaloo asked Apple Bloom, focused on the task ahead of them now.

“Let me show ya!” Apple Bloom darted away, over to the big and neatly arranged pile of wooden planks, pillars, nails and construction tools. On top of them lay a roll of blue paper. The earth pony filly quickly snatched it with her mouth, then she returned to her friends, placed the paper on the ground in front of them and unrolled it.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle inspected it curiously. Drawn on the paper was a sketch of the clubhouse, however, on the right of it, a second building could be seen. It was connected with the clubhouse through a narrow, diagonal walkway. The walkway ended in a porch that was going around the whole building, like the clubhouse had one too.

The entrance door at the frontside of the building conveniently pointed into the direction of Ponyville. A ramp was leading up to it. The building had the same height as the clubhouse and, since there was no tree where it stood, was secured with strong supporting pillars made of wood that were anchored in the ground. The walkway was secured by the same pillars. At the bottom was another sketch, which showed the clubhouse and the extension from above.

Sweetie Belle pointed at the blue paper. “What is this, Apple Bloom?” Unlike her farmer friend who had taken part in several barn raisings, Sweetie Belle was not quite familiar with the construction of buildings.

“It's a blueprint!” Apple Bloom answered cheerishly. “It shows us how the extension will look and where we're goin' ta build it!” She stretched out a hoof and pointed at the walkway that was like a bridge between the two buildings. “Here we're makin' a walkway after we have built the new house. That way, we can reach our office a lot faster!”

Suddenly, Scootaloo scrunched her face in disgust. “That name won't do it,” she said.

“What name?” Apple Bloom looked at her, irritated.

“You called it an 'office'.” Scootaloo repeated Apple Bloom's word. “That doesn't sound cool. Offices are places where ponies sit around and do boring paperwork.” She stretched out her tongue over the idea. “But we will help other ponies get their cutie marks! We will be outside often and do a lot of fun stuff!” The pegasus unfolded her wings and began to buzz them, sporting an enterprising expression. “There will be action and adventures! And we need a name to reflect that! It's not an office, it's a..... a.....” She stopped her buzzing for a moment, tapping her chin. “It's an operation center!” she shouted out then, jumping up and striking a cool pose while buzzing her wings again.

“A Cutie Mark Crusaders Operation Center, huh? Ah like the ring of that!”

“Me too!” Sweetie Belle replied excitedly.

Apple Bloom nodded. “Okay, now that this is discussed..... Can we start, girls?” The expression on her face indicated that she became slowly impatient.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded eagerly, excited smiles beaming out of their faces. “Yeah!” they shouted in unison.

“Then let's get to it! Now we build the future of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Apple Bloom stretched a hoof into the air. It was met by the orange and white hooves of her best friends.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Constructors!” the three fillies yelled their signature phrase. Then awkward expressions appeared on their faces. Their eyeballs shrunk slightly, their mouths opened and a faint streak of red flashed up on their cheeks. Slowly, they put down their hooves, so that they stood on all fours again. They looked behind them and eyed their flanks.

“Uhm..... Ah guess we got our cutie marks now, didn't we, girls?” Apple Bloom was the first who got her speech back.

“Mhm,” the other two fillies responded.

Apple Bloom detached her eyes from her cutie mark and they met with those of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

The three fillies just looked at each other for a moment, confused expressions on their faces and their mouths still open.Then all three of them began to giggle and soon erupted into a laughing fit.

As it had subsided and they were able to speak again, Apple Bloom's face took on a determined expression and she trotted to the pile of wooden planks, placed a hoof on it and looked at her friends.

“Okay, Crusaders! Are we ready for this?” she asked them, her voice full of motivation.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stood at attention; chests stretched outwards, hooves at their temples, determined looks on their faces. “We are!” they said together, saluting.

Then they finally got to work. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle grabbed two spades that leaned on the side of the pile and motioned towards the construction site.

Apple Bloom looked at her blueprint, which she had fixated on the ground using some rocks, and told them where to dig the holes for the pillars exactly. She gestured around and gave them commands like “A little more to the left!” or “Come a little closer in mah direction!” every time they didn't stand right. Only as they were at the correct positions, she shouted “Ok!” to signal them that they had found the right spot. Then Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle dug up a deep hole, so the pillars could stand robust and safely.

They continued the procedure for each hole and, two hours later, they were done and all the holes for the pillars that should carry the addition to their clubhouse were prepared. Fourteen holes covered the construction site now.

With this part of the work finished, Apple Bloom joined her friends and together, they carried the heavy wooden pillars to their respective positions and carefully inserted them into the holes in the ground. They filled each hole up with dirt and tramped it down. Some test-shaking confirmed them that the pillars stood strong enough to carry the walkway and the new building. After one hour, all the pillars were in the ground, ready to fulfill their purpose.

The fillies panted and moved a hoof over their foreheads, wiping away some sweat. It had become noon by now and their grumbling stomachs signaled them that it was time for lunch.

The three Crusaders trotted away from the construction site hungrily, but not without doing a last, satisfied glance at their work of the past few hours. They reached behind the pile of their building material, that had become a good amount smaller now, and pulled out their lunch boxes from there. Eager to fill their bellies, the fillies sat down in the grass in front of their clubhouse and opened their boxes. They were stuffed with all sorts of delicious food.

Apple Bloom's box contained an apple and several other, freshly baked apple products. The tempting smell of the baked goods wafted into Apple Bloom's nostrils, to which her body responded with another growl coming from her stomach and with water forming in her mouth.

Sweetie Belle's meal consisted of a few slices of fresh black bread, with a generous amount of butter on them, a big, pink cupcake and, same as Apple Bloom's, a delicious, red apple. The reaction of her body was not any different than the one of her friend's.

Inside of Scootaloo's box was a nice arrangement of different fruits and vegetables. The shape they formed together, a cloud with three-colored lightning coming out of it, indicated who she had prepared her lunch box with.

Not wasting any time, the group of fillies started to savage the food. So hungry that none of them even thought about talking, they ate away at their lunch quietly, the only sounds coming from them being their content munching.

As they were finished, they quickly put their now empty lunch boxes aside and got up again, strengthened enough to continue with the construction.

The next step was placing the longest of the wooden planks, that should become the walkway, on the row of wooden pillars that led away from their clubhouse. At the end of the row were the rest of the pillars, forming a quadratic arrangement, the place where the new building and its porch would be. Before they could place the plank, though, it was necessary that they cut off a part of their clubhouse's balustrade, to create an entrance for the walkway.

Being the only one of them skilled enough to work efficiently and safely with a wood saw, Apple Bloom grabbed it from the pile and marched up the ramp of their clubhouse and onto the porch, closely followed by Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. At the middle of the porch, she turned towards the balustrade and took the saw into her hooves. Watched by her two friends, she brought it down on the wood and, with a few, strong moves, cut through it. Apple Bloom trotted a little to the left, where she repeated the process. Producing a loud thump, the cut-off piece fell down on the porch. An opening was gaping in the balustrade now, wide enough for a foal to trot through. They carried the piece of wood and the saw down to the pile, then turned their attention to the bottom of it, where the long wooden plank was leaning.

What came now would be more tricky to do. They had to move the plank up to the porch of their clubhouse somehow, so that they could place it on the pillars. Which was easier said than done; Sweetie Belle could not lift something that heavy with her magic yet and the porch around their clubhouse did not exactly offer much space to maneuver the long plank around. Despite this, though, none of them wanted to ask for help. They were proud of their special talents and proud of the tasks ahead of them, so they all had agreed to build their operation center on their own, from beginning to end. Moving the plank still wouldn't be easy, but Apple Bloom had figured out a way how to do it.

The fillies split up and took position at different ends of the plank; Apple Bloom at the end that was closest to the clubhouse, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle at the other one. Together, they lifted the plank, then carried it towards the clubhouse and up the ramp, until Apple Bloom stood with her end on the platform in the middle of it.

“And what next?” Scootaloo asked. “We're sort of stuck now.”

Apple Bloom smirked. “Now ya two change position and move with ya end in front of the platform. From there, we can move it up further until ahm at the clubhouse door and then ya just need ta change ya position again!”

A light went on in the two other fillies' heads now. If they constantly repositioned themselves like that, it could work! They followed Apple Bloom's plan, until the long plank was leaning against the porch at the right side of the clubhouse, just where Apple Bloom had cut out a part of the balustrade earlier. In this position, it was ready to get pulled up and to be placed on the pillars.

Quickly, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle galloped up to the porch and at Apple Bloom's side. The three friends grabbed the end of the plank.

“Ready, girls?” Apple Bloom asked. “Ah count ta three and then we pull it up and move it over the pillars!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded, their eyes showing pure concentration. Apple Bloom began to count.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

The friends tensed the muscles in their arms and, with gritted teeth, tried to pull the plank up to place it on top of the pillars. Their hooves and muscles hurt from the exertion, but determined, they continued. The lower end of the plank moved upwards slowly, though, it moved slower than they desired. It was halfway up as Sweetie Belle began to lose her strength.

“I-I can't hold it anymore!” Sweetie pressed out between her teeth, face red.

“Not now, Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom answered her. “We almost made it!”

“Yeah, just look, it's already at the half! Don't give up now!” Scootaloo supported her friend with some encouraging words on her own.

Sweetie Belle responded with a slight nod and gathered her last strength to endure the exhaustive task. The plank moved further up and after ten more seconds – that felt like ten hours to the fillies – it was finally hovering at the same height as the pillars.

“Now just a little longer! Don't give up now, Crusaders!” Apple Bloom motivated her friends one more time.

They had almost done it. Steady, they moved the plank to the left, ever nearer to the pillars it should rest upon. Their eyes emanating a tense look and fully concentrated on the task at hoof, they moved it closer and closer, happy that they were almost there. Apple Bloom scrunched her face as she felt her own strength leaving her. “Just a little more.....” she whispered, pushing herself towards their goal.

“Hey, Cutie Mark Crusaders!” a loud, upbeat voice sounded into their ears suddenly. Startled, the fillies lost their concentration and as a consequence, the long and heavy plank slid out of their hooves and tumbled all the way down again, back into its old position.

“Ugh, who's disturbin' us now?!” Apple Bloom exploded in frustration, her face showing unrestrained anger.

“We were so close!” Scootaloo stomped her hoof on the wooden porch. “Who's down there?” She angrily trotted towards the balustrade to find out who the distractor was.

Leaning down, Scootaloo looked between the struts of the balustrade. There was a filly standing in front of the clubhouse. A scared expression was on her face and a hunch of embarrassment. She was rubbing over the purple-grey coat on her right foreleg. Her blonde mane was falling back a little as she hesitantly lifted her head to look into the pegasus' eyes.

“Dinky?” Scootaloo asked surprised as she recognized the filly down below. Her face became a little softer. “What are you doing here?”

“I-I just wanted to..... I mean, I heard about your cutie marks and.....” the young unicorn stammered quietly, then fell silent all of a sudden.

“What did you say? Wait, I come down!” Without awaiting an answer on her question, she galloped down the ramp. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle followed her.

Only as Scootaloo stood in front of her, she noticed that Dinky was shaking. The other filly fixated the ground, avoiding eye contact with her now. A tinge of guilt hit Scootaloo. Apparently, her angry outburst had been a bit too much for Dinky. Scootaloo placed a hoof on Dinky's shoulder as a calming gesture. “Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you,” she said, ears dropping.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle trotted at Scootaloo's side and did the same.

“We were just angry because we tried ta move somethin' really heavy and because we let it fall again when ya distracted us,” Apple Bloom explained then.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle confirmed the words of her friend. “It was almost where we wanted it to be.”

“I'm sorry.....” Dinky responded. “I didn't know you were busy.” She rubbed her foreleg stronger.

Apple Bloom sighed. “Can't help it anymore now.” She removed her hoof from Dinky's shoulder. “Why did ya come?”

“I-I need help with my cutie mark,” Dinky answered, still in a low voice.

“With ya cutie mark?” Apple Bloom moved her head to the side a little and looked at Dinky's blank flank. “Ya mean ya need our help ta get a cutie mark?”

The unicorn filly nodded. “Yeah.....”

“Ahm sorry, but we don't accept any clients yet. We want ta build an operation center first, so we can welcome ponies ta help them and we're still busy buildin' it.”

Sadness flashed over Dinky's face. “Okay.....” she whispered. “But do you know when you will be finished?”

Apple Bloom contemplated for a moment before she answered the question. “Well, buildin' it will take us the rest of the day and tomorrow we need ta rest up and do some last preparations. Ya can come back on the day after tomorrow and then we can help ya!” She gave Dinky a smile.

The rising disappointment in Dinky's face showed that this wasn't soon enough for her.

“I can help you building it! If I help, you will be faster!” she said, a sudden urge in her voice.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exchanged unsure glances. They could need some help, especially now, but there was still their resolve to build everything alone.

Dinky noticed their hesitation. “Please let me!” she pleaded. “I really need your help quickly, it's urgent!” Desperation was ringing in her voice and her eyes started to glisten.

This reaction surprised the three friends. Reminded on how impatient they were with getting their own cutie marks, still just a few days ago, they stepped away from Dinky a little and put their heads together.

“What do you think, girls?” Apple Bloom asked her friends.

“She sounds really distraught, we shouldn't turn her down,” Scootaloo argued.

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yeah, I still remember how bad I felt without a cutie mark, we should help Dinky as fast as we can!”

Apple Bloom agreed with her friends. A filly was in need here and since Dinky was so desperated in her mark-less state, it would be wrong to turn her down and tell her she should come on another day. And if Dinky helped them and they got the construction done fast enough, maybe they could listen to her problem today already! The friends let go of each other and returned to Dinky.

“Alright, ya can help us!” Apple Bloom told Dinky their decision, smiling at her.

Now Dinky acted like she had suddenly become a different pony. Her sadness blown away, she gave all of them hearty hugs in quick succession.

“Okay, what do we do? How can I help you?” she asked as she was finished with all the hugging. Dinky jumped from one hoof onto another in her excitement, a broad grin on her face.

Apple Bloom pointed behind her. “We were busy with liftin' up a heavy plank ta place it on those pillars over there. We sure could need another pair of hooves for that!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded very eagerly. Their strained smiles indicated that their hooves were still hurting.

The three Crusaders trotted up the ramp again and Dinky followed them happily. One filly stronger now, they returned to their task from earlier. Once again, Apple Bloom counted to three, then the four of them began to pull on the plank. Quicker than at their last attempt, especially because Dinky was using a levitation spell to assist, they had the plank on the pillars' height again and began moving it to the left like before. This time, everything worked. The fillies gave the part of the plank that was still overlapping onto the porch a push forward and then the plank was finally resting on top of the pillars. It was done. The probably hardest part of their construction work laid behind them.

The four fillies let out a relieved sigh and wiped the sweat off their foreheads. The Crusaders looked at each other, exchanging grins and then a hoofbump. “YEAH!” they shouted in enthusiasm.

“Okay, now let's go down and get the nails!” Apple Bloom announced then, her voice full of cheerful excitement.

The red-maned filly shot down the ramp of the clubhouse and just a few seconds later, she returned with a big bag of nails and three hammers. As Dinky saw that, she frowned.

“Don't you have another hammer?” she asked Apple Bloom. “I still want to help you!”

“Ahm sorry, Dinky, but we didn't reckon we would need more than three.” Apple Bloom's face expressed sympathy.

Dinky hung her head in sadness while Apple Bloom was giving a hammer each to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle and hoofing them a bunch of strong and very long nails.

“Don't worry, Dinky!” the earth pony said then, turning her attention back to the sad filly. “Ya can help us with carryin' ta other planks later!”

Dinky just nodded silently, not giving an answer. She sat down on the porch and, head resting on her hooves, watched the Crusaders while they were nailing down the plank on the pillars and to the porch it protruded from. An unsatisfied, grumpy expression covered her face.

After a few minutes had passed, an idea came to her suddenly. She looked at the bag with the nails that Apple Bloom had left on the porch, enlightenment spreading on her face as the epiphany came over her. Dinky jumped up from her sitting position. “I have hooves! Of course! I will use my hooves to hammer the nails into the plank!”

Feeling joy now, and a bit of embarrassment for not having gotten the obvious idea earlier, Dinky grabbed the bag with the nails, took out a bunch of it and got onto the plank. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked after her surprised as she trotted past them with a grin on her face.

“Dinky?” Scootaloo addressed her. “What are you doing?”

“I'm helping you with nailing down the plank, what else?” Dinky answered her cheery.

“But you don't have a hammer.” Cautiousness was in Scootaloo's voice.

“But I have these!” Dinky turned around as she had reached the free pillar behind them and held her hooves into the air. Her face showed a proud expression.

“Uhm, but Dinky, there is a reason why ponies don't hammer in nails with their hooves,” Apple Bloom explained.

Dinky wasn't paying attention anymore. “I know, it will be fine,” she muttered absentmindedly, already busy with hammering in the first nail.

The Crusaders looked at each other in concern.

“Ah don't have a good feelin' about this.....” Apple Bloom said.

And neither did Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle, but, since Dinky wasn't even listening to them anymore, they hesitantly continued with their own work, hoping that nothing bad would happen.

Unfortunately, their hopes were in vain. After a few minutes that were only filled with the loud, hammering sounds as the nails got driven into the wood by the four fillies, a high screech let the Crusaders froze in their movements. An immediate look over to Dinky revealed exactly what they were expecting to see.

Her face grimaced by pain and a few tears forming in her eyes, Dinky sat there, the nail she just wanted to hammer in stuck in the soft spot of flesh in the middle of her right hoof. A small amount of blood was dripping down from it. She answered the looks of the other fillies, a slight blush on her agonized face.

“And that's why ponies use hammers.....” Apple Bloom closed her eyes and sighed. She opened them again and shook her head, then put down her hammer and went into the clubhouse. As she returned, she was holding a first-aid box in her hooves. Apple Bloom sat down at Dinky's side, opened the box and pulled out a band-aid and a bottle of anti-septic.

Dinky reached up with her other hoof and pulled the nail out of the wound, causing herself to make another screech.

With the foreign object removed, Apple Bloom opened the bottle with the anti-septic and gently took Dinky's hoof, causing the unicorn to shiver and close her eyes. “It's only burnin' for a moment!” Apple Bloom tried to ease her, then poured a small amount of the liquid over her injury.

Dinky yelped as the sharp pain flashed through her hoof. She retreated and looked at it with a painful expression.

“And done!” Apple Bloom announced. She quickly grabbed the band-aid, then removed the strips from it and put it on Dinky's wound. Carefully, she smoothed the band-aid to prevent it from getting loose.

“Thanks,” Dinky said in a low voice, her face still showing pain.

“Don't worry!” Apple Bloom answered simply. She suppressed a sigh while putting the anti-septic into the first-aid box again and closing it, then got up to carry the box back to the clubhouse. “If it continues like that, we'll never get finished today,” she thought on the way.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle noticed that Dinky wanted to continue. Her face was full of determination alongside the pain and she already moved a hoof, the left one this time, back to the nail in front of her. Sweetie Belle ignited her horn and levitated her hammer over to Dinky. “Here, take mine,” she said. “You'll just hurt yourself a second time if you use your hooves again.”

Dinky smiled at her and wrapped the hammer into her own magic. Not saying anything, she got straight back to work.

Sweetie Belle used her magic to lift up a medium-sized rock and continued with her set of nails. In the meantime, Apple Bloom had returned, and all of the four fillies were busy with their task again now.

Motivated, the three Crusaders hammered in one nail after another. They made good progress and were soon finished at their respective pillars. Dinky was slower than them. While the three other fillies moved past her and began to take care of the last pillar, she was still busy with nailing down the plank onto her own.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had just hammered in a nail each, as a new screech sounded into their ears. A clearly annoyed expression on their faces now, they shot looks into Dinky's direction.

“Sorry,” the filly said. She was sucking on her left hoof, the hammer having fallen down on the plank. “I just hit my hoof with the hammer.”

The three friends groaned. Apple Bloom put down her hammer and trotted over to Dinky, her patience having come to an end. “Dinky, ahm sorry, but ah think it's better if ya go home now and let us take care of the rest,” she said sternly.

Dinky's sad expression from her arrival earlier returned and she looked into Apple Bloom's eyes. “Why?” she just said, her voice low from disappointment.

Apple Bloom glanced at the band-aid on her right hoof, at the small bruise on her left hoof that could be seen through the thin coat and then down to the few nails she had managed to hammer in, all of them sticking in the wood askew and in very weird angles. Then she looked back at Dinky. “Seriously?!” she asked.

Dinky dropped her ears and laid the hammer to the side. She eyed the plank. “I understand,” she said quietly, her eyes welling up.

Alarmed by that reaction, Apple Bloom put a hoof on Dinky's shoulder. “But don't worry!” she intervened before Dinky would break out in tears completely. “Just come back when we're finished with everything, then we're there for ya!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle gave the sad unicorn reassuring nods.

“Yeah, we are cutie mark counselors now!” Scootaloo said then, putting a proud emphasis on their new profession. “Once you return, we'll help you as fast as Rainbow Dash can fly!”

Dinky returned their looks, unsure, the sad expression remaining on her face.

“And hey, at least we already know that carpenterin' ain't ya special talent! That's somethin'!” Apple Bloom chuckled a little.

Dinky sighed. Slowly, she got up, yet the sadness didn't leave her face.

“Okay.....” she agreed, rubbing some tears out of her eyes with one hoof. “I'll return when you're ready.” Her voice was still weak and disappointed. Hesitantly, she trotted past Apple Bloom, putting her bandaged hoof down on the plank carefully. Hanging her head low, she made her way over the plank, the porch, then down the ramp, all without looking back at the other filly.

The Crusaders looked after Dinky as she limped down the path back to Ponyville. There was a bit of grief in their eyes now and they almost found themselves calling the filly in need back. As Dinky had been disappeared between the trees of the orchard, they exchanged a short glance, then made themselves return to work.

They finished hammering the nails into the last of the pillars, then turned their attention to the pillar Dinky had been working on. The fillies pulled out the crooked nails and replaced them with new ones, then they were finally finished. The plank for the walkway was prepared and ready for its purpose.

Almost fourty minutes had passed now since Dinky's arrival. The three friends lost time due to the mishaps of the unexpected assistant and on top of that, were a little worried over the nails that Dinky had wasted, fearing they won't have enough now. They were still somewhat on schedule with their plans for the day, much to their relief, but hurried to proceed with the construction now.

They quickly pulled more planks from their pile, shorter and lighter ones this time, then nailed them onto the pillars at the end of the walkway. An hour later, the floor of their operation center and the porch around it were finished.

What they needed now was a ramp, so that ponies could trot up to the building and reach the entrance. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle carried the plank that should serve as the ramp to the construction site, watched by Apple Bloom, who stood atop the newly built porch. Under her instructions, the other two fillies placed it down and, after a few adjustments, it was in the correct position. Apple Bloom proceeded to fixate the ramp with nails, while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were holding it firmly in place.

With the ramp having been placed now, the construction became a lot easier for the fillies. It allowed them to quickly carry the wooden beams they needed now onto the porch without having to trot over the walkway. On the porch, they arranged the beams, began to put them together in the way Apple Bloom had it drawn onto her blueprint and, very soon, it could be seen that they were now laying the ground for the actual building. Another hour passed, then the framework for the Cutie Mark Crusaders Operation Center had been erected on the porch.

They only took one moment to admire the fruits of their labour, then they carried all the rest of the planks that were still left to the framework and, one after another, they nailed them onto the struts. Forming the walls and the roof, they made the building come into being, plank after plank.

Another hour came and went, filled with the sounds of creation. The final steps of the vital part of the construction were marked by building in the door, windows and shutters.

As everything had been completed, the friends stood in awe in front of their work and, for the first time since they had begun, tears of pride entered their eyes. The building looked almost like their clubhouse, the inspiration Apple Bloom took from it apparent at first glance. Their tear-filled eyes glued to the operation center, they reached out and pulled each other into a tight embrace. Then tears of pure happiness started to flow over their faces, getting mixed together where their cheeks touched. After they retreated, the trio exchanged bright smiles, wiping the tears out of their eyes. A hoofbump fueled by joy happened, then they approached the last two stages of the contruction process.

Abuzz with vigor, they took some more wooden beams, making the pile disappear, and carried them onto the walkway. Long ones and short ones where placed and put together, until they formed a sturdy balustrade on the walkway and the porch.

Now everything was in place; the building, the convenient connection between their clubhouse and their operation center and a ramp at the entrance, the latter waiting for many ponies seeking their help with their cutie marks and destinies.

Down below, where the pile had been, seven buckets of paint, three water buckets and three brushes told about what the final step was. The buckets and brushes got snatched up by them, carried to the building and, eagerly, the Crusaders started to paint the operation center.

Using six buckets at once, Apple Bloom began with painting their cutie marks onto the walls. No matter from which side the operation center would be looked at, Apple Bloom wanted that it gave testament of their goal they had reached together. Putting her utmost effort into this important task, she painted Scootaloo's cutie mark on the right wall of the building; from the brown outline, to the symbol in the middle to the tricolored background. And with the same care, she painted Sweetie Belle's cutie mark on the left wall and her own on the back wall. As she was finished, the operation center was graced with the marks of their achievement. Far and wide, they could be seen now.

In the meantime, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had finished painting the roof with their own bucket of brown color and jumped down in front of the building. The three Crusaders split up then, each of them taking care to paint the wall around the cutie marks in a dark purple color, the same one that the outer part of their cutie marks' symbols had.

Finally, as this was done, they came together at the building's front side. Their efforts combined, they painted the door in a dark pink, then the wall in the same dark purple as the other ones. The final touch was added by Apple Bloom, who painted tiny versions of their cutie marks on the plank in the middle of the door, and then, their work was completed.

Silently, they stood in front of their completed Cutie Mark Crusaders Operation Center, their faces, chests and hooves dotted with stains that were as colorful as the joy and pride they felt in their hearts. Some quiet moments passed, as they let their eyes wander over the building reverently. They soon couldn't hold onto themselves anymore and each of them wrapped her hooves around the other two, creating another, very intimate group hug. It stained their coats even more, but it increased the warmth inside of them tenfold.

“Is this it?” Scootaloo was the first one who found her speech, tearing up again. “Did we do it?”

Apple Bloom squeezed her friend tighter. “We did,” she answered, her voice choking a little. “We're really ready now!”

The following minutes were spent by them crying in joy. Their surroundings had been forgotten by them and they noticed nothing, not even how the sun slowly began its decent under the horizon and how it let the orchard become darker. Only as Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and noticed the spreading darkness, they let go of each other.

They still looked at their new operation center reverently, as Apple Bloom spoke up again. “Now it's time to get some rest, girls. We deserve it, don't ya think?”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded, their eyes still glistening.

“We do. We really do,” Scootaloo confirmed.

“It's perfect,” Sweetie Belle added to her friend's statement.

None of them removed their eyes from their creation while they talked. Only Apple Bloom finally forced herself to look away after a few minutes.

“Then let's do this, Crusaders!” She turned at her friends. “We have built our future here and now, we need ta take care of it and make it a brilliant one!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle turned at her, as well, facing her now. They gave Apple Bloom solemn nods. A last, intense glance was cast by them on the building they had built, then the three Cutie Mark Crusaders turned around and left.

The lowering sun behind them, they marched back to the farm buildings; their happy, determined faces showing that each of them was already thinking about the bright future that lied ahead of them.

Author's Note

2017/28/04: Original first chapter removed and replaced with a revised version. Please tell me what you think about it!

Chapter 7: A Real Cutie Mark

“More painting?” Scootaloo suggested. Her and her two friends stood in the operation center, forming a triangle in front of the big table. Dinky had not shown up yet, despite having been at school on this day, but each of them knew it couldn't be long anymore until their client would arrive for another afternoon filled with attempts to get her a cutie mark. Although, and this was the problem the three Crusaders were facing right now, they had no idea what to try next, after the tragic events of the day before.

Apple Bloom shook her head in response to Scootaloo's question. “Ah don't think so, Scoots. If that would be her special talent, ah guess Dinky would have gotten her cutie mark by now.....”

“Mhm,” Sweetie Belle agreed in a simple fashion.

“What else should we try then?” Scootaloo asked her friend. “We can't just sit around here with her and do nothing.”

This statement found agreement as well, though, Apple Bloom's answer was surprising to the pegasus filly.

“Ah guess we have ta,” she said with a sigh. “At least for today. We need ta talk more with Dinky and discuss what we are trying next.”

Scootaloo scrunched her face, but nothing came to her mind to rebut this statement. “You're probably right, Apple Bloom.....”

“Now chin up!” Apple Bloom punched her in the side gently. “Ah know we're goin' ta find somethin' for Dinky! We just need ta rethink our strategy now!”

Scootaloo sighed, but then smiled at her friend. “You're right. We just need to try harder! I go and get us some snacks from the clubhouse real quick, you stay here in case Dinky shows up!”

She turned around on her hooves and dashed to the door, not even seeing the nodding responses of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle anymore. Having opened the door, she caught a small glimpse of Dinky just trotting up the ramp on the last small distance to the entrance as she began to gallop outside. Dinky flinched and closed her eyes, but Scootaloo came to a halt in front of her in the last moment. Scootaloo looked over the young unicorn carefully, checking if she had caused any damage to her, but soon found herself giggling in amusement.

The sight that presented itself in front of her, was a long strip of bandages loosely wrapped around Dinky. It went over her body in different directions; over her back, behind her flank and under her tail, then emerging again from her underside, from where it was wrapped around her neck and, finally, led up to her mane right between her ears. The end of it dangled over Dinky's face and ended right on the tip of her nose. It was a silly sight and Scootaloo did no effort to hide this fact. Holding her belly and sitting down, she finally broke out in loud laughter that could be heard inside the operation center as well.

“W-What happened to you, Dinky?” the pegasus filly finally managed to say after nearly a minute of constant laughing.

Dinky did not answer, instead, a broad grin began to spread over her face, while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle left the operation center and joined Scootaloo outside. There wasn't the slightest sign of offense in Dinky's eyes.

“I did it!” she exclaimed cheerily, barely interrupting her broad grin to speak those words.

Scootaloo wiped a few tears out of her eyes, still giggling. “Did, what?” she inquired curiously and a bit confused.

It was like Dinky didn't even hear the question, but was answering it anyway at the same time. “I did it! I spent the whole evening to bandage mom and Sparkler yesterday, but nothing happened, then I thought about bandaging myself today right after I returned from school and then there was suddenly a glow from the bandages on my flank, so I pulled them down and then I saw this!” The torrent of words got interrupted by the filly turning around and holding her flank right in front of the Crusaders' faces. “I did it!” she said a third time. “I finally got a real cutie mark!”

Scootaloo stopped giggling and gasped, her wide eyes fixated on the flank in front of her. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle came a step closer and found themselves focusing on the same spot. There was indeed a small mark on Dinky's flank, only interrupted by the few red streaks of the wounds Dinky had caused herself on the day before. It was an unshapely form of a simple, white color, with two holes at each side. The three Crusaders bent closer to inspect it before they commented on it.

“What is it?” Sweetie Belle asked after intensely staring at the picture on Dinky's flank for a while.

Apple Bloom brought her face closer and squinted her eyes. “It looks like a roll of toilet paper,” she concluded. Then looked up and ahead into Dinky's face. “Ahm not sure if ya got this cutie mark for bandagin' ponies, Dinky. Have ya tried anything else after we left ya yesterday?”

Dinky shook her head in response, still grinning. “Nothing else! Well, that, and sleeping and doing all the schoolwork this morning. But the bandages are the only thing I used since yesterday that matches it!” Happily, she swung her tail around, before she noticed that she was making it harder to see her new cutie mark and stopped again. “That's it! It's totally a bandaging cutie mark, right?” She stretched her flank out even more, allowing her cutie mark counselors an even closer look.

“Sleeping.....” Sweetie Belle said without answering Dinky's question. “Hmm..... She squinted her eyes at the mark, too, now. “It does kinda look like a pillow. Maybe sleeping is your special talent?”

Apple Bloom's eyes widened as she heard the theory. “Sleeping as a special talent, really, Sweetie Belle? But Dinky has slept a thousand times in her life already, don't ya think she would have gotten her cutie mark years ago if that would be her special talent?”

Sweetie Belle moved her face away from the flank again, looking at her friend. She shrugged. “I don't know. I does look like a pillow, what else could be her special talent?”

“And what if it's toilet paper?” Apple Bloom countered. “Nopony sleeps on a toilet!”

Scootaloo took a closer look at the cutie mark as the last one, ignoring the upcoming bickering. “Hmm, it could be a pillow. Or toilet paper.....” She cringed a little, imagining for a brief second what this could mean for Dinky's destiny. “But it does kinda look like a bandage as well.”

“Ya sure about that?” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turned at her with sceptical expressions.

“Uh..... I don't know. It looks so vague, it could be all of those things you mentioned!” She looked up and over to them. “But bandaging was the last thing Dinky tried, so, what would it be if not a roll of bandages?”

“Ah guess.....” It was all Apple Bloom could muster as response.

“And isn't it the most important thing that Dinky finally has a cutie mark now? We should celebrate this, we can figure out the meaning later!” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

This was something Dinky couldn't agree more to. She turned and crushed the three other fillies with a tight hug. “Thank you so much!” she exclaimed, pure joy leaving her lips. “It's because of you that I finally got my cutie mark!” She squeezed them tighter, making them gasp for air.

“Ugh..... W-We're happy for ya, Dinky, but can ya j-just be a bit more gentle?” Apple Bloom stuttered. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle didn't manage to speak even just one word, so they just gurgled in agreement.

Dinky let them go. “Sorry,” she said, face red, but still grinning. “But I finally got my cutie mark because of you, you have no idea how much you helped me with this!” She gave each of them another squeeze, a lighter one this time, then dashed away before they could respond. “I need to tell everypony about this immediately!” Those were the last words they heard from Dinky in her wake.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at each other in scepticism.

“Did we?” Apple Bloom asked. “She was tryin' herself at bandagin' all alone, we didn't even come up with this idea.....”
Puzzled, they looked after the unicorn filly as she became smaller in the distance, then disappeared between the trees.

Dinky's first destination was her own house. In all her rush and all her excitement over having gotten her cutie mark, all she could think of was thanking her saviours for helping her with this. The urge to express her gratitude had been so big, that she had even forgotten telling her mom and her big sister about the great event. Something that she would rectify immediately.

Full of youthful energy, Dinky stampeded through the entrance door. “Mom? Sparkler? Come here, you'll never guess what happened!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, in such a volume that one would not be surprised if the house would have started to shake because of her voice.

Startled, Derpy almost let a plate fall while cleaning it. She caught it, then placed it gently in the water-filled sink, before taking a look out of the kitchen door to check what her daughter was up to. “Dinky? Why did you rush out of the house like this? And why are you back so early?” She quickly dried her hooves with a dishtowel, then trotted out to see her daughter. “What happened, Dinky, is there–” The words froze on her lips as her eyes fell on Dinky's flank.

It was not necessary for Dinky to say anything, instead, she just turned around to allow her mother a better look at her proud acquisition. Her face was adorned by the same grin she had in the operation center.

And like her daughter, Derpy did not say anything either. Speechless, she stood there, mouth opened widely. A few times her face twitched like she was trying to say something, but each attempt proved futile. As tears appeared in her eyes, then soon streamed down her face, her body language had finally taken on the job of communicating how she felt right now.

Slowly, she trotted towards Dinky, her eyes becoming more misty with each step. As she had finally reached her, she sat down and pulled her into a hug from behind, embracing her with hooves and wings alike.

“It finally happened, mom,” Dinky spoke for the first time since her loud arrival in the house. A second later, tears ran down her cheeks, too. She snuggled her face into her mother's coat, then muffled whimpers emerged from her mouth.

The world around the pegasus mother and her unicorn filly quickly disappeared for them in their embrace, their sobs of relief and the warmth of each other.

“I'm so glad somepony could finally help you,” Derpy managed to whisper into Dinky's ear between two sobs.

It was in this moment, that Sparkler came down the stairs. A concerned expression appearing on her face as she saw the heartfelt scene in front of her indicated that she mistook the situation, having not witnessed the reason for it since she had been in her room until now. And neither could she see Dinky's flank from her position.

“Mom?” Sparkler asked, coming a step closer. “Is something wrong?”

Derpy looked up at her oldest daughter, eyes filled to the brim with tears, and gave her a smile. “Everything is alright, Sparkler. Dinky finally got her cutie mark.”

Sparkler's lips twitched slightly, but there remained a sceptical expression in her face. “No way!” she said in disbelief. “Are you kidding me, mom?”

Calmingly, Derpy shook her head, then moved her wing away from Dinky's flank. The white cutie mark came into view from under it. Sparkler felt almost blinded by it.

In disbelief, the purple unicorn trotted closer, slowly, not taking her eyes off the mark. “I-Is this real? Is this a real cutie mark now?” She was in complete awe.

“You bet, Sparks!” Dinky answered now instead, looking up at her big sister and wiping the tears of joy out of her eyes. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders got me one, something finally helped!” She giggled happily, then freed herself from her mother's embrace and hugged her big sister instead.

Sparkler was still baffled, so it happened merely in a reflex that she put a hoof around her little sister.

“Are you proud of me, Sparks?” Dinky asked, noticing that her sister wasn't saying anything.

It shook the older unicorn out of her trance. Putting her other hoof around Dinky, too, now, she squeezed her tighter. “Of course I am, sis. I just can't believe it yet.....”

“Me neither,” Dinky answered.

Sparkler felt her sister shaking her head a little at her mane, as if she wanted to underline what she just said.

“We need to celebrate this, now that all of this is finally over,” Derpy spoke then.

Dinky turned around to her and nodded. “Mhm. I–” Having barely said anything, an expression somewhere between shocked and excited appeared on her face. She suddenly jumped away from her big sister completely. “But not now!” she shouted. “I have to tell Lily first!”

In her mother's face a little bit of disappointment sparked up, but it disappeared again soon. She gave her daughter an understanding smile. “Just go,” she said. “Sparkler and I will prepare everything in the meantime.”

“Thanks!” Dinky gave her mom another tight hug, then let go and waved at her sister. “I promise I'll be back as fast as I can!” she spoke, then flashed out of the house through the still open door at the speed of a lightning bolt.

Her mom and her sister left behind, the two mares smiled at each other with a peaceful serenity both of them had not seen in each other's faces for a long time.....

Author's Note

Since I have written Chapter 4, this chapter finally feels like I did something right again..... I had a lot of trouble connecting with the last few ones.

The cutie mark Dinky gets in this chapter was not made up by me. In the show we saw her a few times with a cutie mark, which is what inspired this fic:

https://s8.postimg.org/juqbg0ph1/Dinky_s_cutie_mark.jpg