The Unnatural Cutie Mark
It had been a clear, breezy day. Celestia’s sun had reached its zenith, with clouds just barely there enough to lessen the heat. Cheerilee’s class was in session and the latest subject had been the evolution, from microscopic organisms to the present-day pony and other creatures living in Equestria. The school bell rang out loudly to let the students out for lunch.
“And after lunch, we’ll be covering some equations, class. So hurry back as soon as you’re finished eating!” Cheerilee chimed, chipper as ever while her students filed out of the room.
There then came a sigh from the back of the tiny classroom. The one student who had remained behind, reluctant to go to lunch with the others, was a small orange… filly. No one was really quite sure what she could be called. She had three horns and a pair of gothic wings. Her eyes had slitted pupils, like those of a dragon. She had a combination of fur and scales covering her body, all bright orange. Her long and jagged mane and tail were a dark purple, like the membranes of her wings. She also had a few freckles. She had a lot of noticeable differences from the other students, but there was one difference in particular that was keeping her from following the others out. She lacked a cutie mark. She was a blank-flank. Her name was Vesta, as her parents had read somewhere that it had long ago been the name of a goddess of fire and agreed that fire was the perfect connection between herself and the name.
Cheerilee smiled hopefully and slowly approached the little one.
“Is everything alright, dear? You seem down today.” she asked, tentatively.
Vesta lowered her head and closed her eyes, fighting an obvious sob. Cheerilee gently placed a hoof on Vesta’s small shoulder. There was another sniffle, then Vesta slowly opened her eyes and raised her head to meet Cheerilee’s gaze.
“Everyone always picks on me. They call me a ‘blank-flank’ because I’m the last one in class to get a cutie mark…” Vesta sniffled.
“Oh, well they just don’t know a thing about cutie marks. They often take time to appear. You know, I was one of the last in my class when I was your age to get mine!”
“… You were?”
“You bet I was. So you just have to try to keep your patience and try not to let them get to you. Besides, you’re one of the brightest little fillies in my class. I have no doubt you’ll get your cutie mark soon, Vesta.”
“I am? That’s good to know… Thank you, Ms. Cheerilee.” Vesta managed to crack a weak smile as a single tear streamed down her cheek.
“You’re very welcome. Have you tried getting the Cutie Mark Crusaders to help? I hear they often go above and beyond to help others get their cutie marks.”
“I did, but they’re not certain that I can actually get a real cutie mark.” Vesta’s face resumed its earlier glum appearance.
“What did they tell you?” Cheerilee looked appalled, surprise bubbling in her voice.
“… It’s because I’m not 100% pony. I’m only 50%. A halfling… and in their experience, no other creatures besides ponies have ever been recorded as having cutie marks… Ever.”
“Well, there may be another way that you could get your cutie mark. Another natural way that nopony else has yet to discover. Maybe the pony half of you can still find a way and you just have to keep trying. Good things often happen to those who have patience and who persevere. In fact, I remember-“
They were interrupted when Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara pushed through the door to the classroom. Vesta gritted her teeth and ducked under her desk while Cheerilee went to ask them why they were back so soon from lunch. They told her that they had come back early to study together and Cheerilee was a little suspicious, but decided to let it slide. She turned in Vesta’s direction, smiled kindly and announced that she would leave to go eat her own lunch and be back shortly. Vesta was visibly shaking, covering her eyes with her wings and curling up into a tiny ball beneath her desk and Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara approached, sneering and sniggering. The two of them had been taught a lesson or two about this by the CMC, but it often takes fillies and colts several times to finally learn the message against picking on others.
“So, hiding again, are we?” Diamond Tiara grinned, poking her head under the desk.
Vesta did not reply.
“Too stunned to speak?” Silver Spoon chimed in, also ducking down to get a good look at Vesta.
A small whimper issued through Vesta’s gritted teeth.
“Then I guess you won’t mind if we… play a little game?” Diamond Tiara’s voice twisted from menacing to a false sweet tone.
Vesta peeked through her wings and hooves to look at them. Still shaking, she replied, “A… game? Like what?”.
“Hide and go seek!” Diamond Tiara giggled.
Vesta could hear something being moved on top of her desk and noticed that Silver Spoon’s head was no longer under the table. She was standing on her hind legs, doing something… Then, it hit Vesta.
She must be taking my Halloween history books! They’re going to hide them again! I can’t let them do that… Not after Ms. Cheerilee just told me that I can’t give up.
This string of thoughts flashed by in Vesta’s mind. She uncurled herself and prepared to buck the underside of the desk to stun Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She bucked with all the force she could muster and in the confusion, snatched her bag of books using her magic and took off through a window.
“Yeah! Go ahead! Leave and never come back, blank-flank!” came the voices of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon from the window as Vesta soared into the skies.
Vesta flew for several minutes before her wings began to tire. It was one thing to be a normal Pegasus, with feathers, but the winds above often turned harsh for somepony with thin, membrane-based wings. The skies had also started to darken with clouds. She located a clearing in the forest that now lay below her and made a rough landing. At just about six months old, she of course, still had much to learn about flying and landing. Unfortunately, neither of her parents were fliers. They had not been able to give her the lessons, experience and advice that she needed and so, she was having to learn all on her own most of the time. As her hooves reached the soft, green grass, thunder clapped and lightening appeared on the horizon. Several straggling pegasi were scrambling against their own wind to make it to shelter in time for their storm to start.
“Oh, why couldn’t they have scheduled this storm for a better day? It’s kind of hard to feel excited and cheery when everypony at school keeps picking on me…” Vesta folded her wings and sorrowfully looked around for a dry place to hide.
There was a darkened hole somewhere between the trees, among the foliage and Vesta decided that she would hole up there for now with her book bag until the storm passed.
Once inside the darkened space and after she had settled on the dry patch of Earth inside it, Vesta’s body began to shudder with the cooler temperatures. So, she fanned out her wings and tucked them under her body to help stay warm, then lowered her head down onto the dirt to watch the droplets splatter on the ground outside.
“What should I do now? Should I go back when the storm is over?” she wondered quietly to herself.
Vesta sighed a long and drawn out sigh. Her eyes began to wonder over to her open book bag, its contents spilled out beside her and she thought for a moment that it might be nice to read one of the books while she waited. Then, that train of thought was brought a jarring halt as a deep voice, louder than the weather, filled her ears.
“The others bully you, don’t they?” it echoed.
Vesta looked quickly all around her to try to see from where the voice was coming. A light, tingling sensation creeped up to the tip of her main horn and ignited at the end to illuminate the area. “Who are you?” she demanded, moving her books underneath her in case it was somepony else come to pick on her, too.
“Who… am… I? Who am I?” it repeated, terrifying.
“Or WHAT are you, if you don’t have a name.” Vesta gulped, quaking.
A small, ethereal ball of golden light slowly began to manifest just behind her, casting a pale glow over her and out into the rain. She extinguished her horn, since casting spells cost energy and turned to observe the strange phenomena. This time, the voice seemed to come from the ball of light, as it animatedly bounced around the small enclosure to emphasize it’s words.
“I am a spirit of nature. One which has become sentient. A rare case in my kind, as this does not happen often.”
“I should say so… I haven’t even read about it happening.”
As the voice continued, Vesta’s fear began to ebb away. It spoke to her in a gentle, calming manner, although still authoritatively with its booming sound.
“It has been many moons and many suns that I have been trapped in this form. Forced to wonder this plane without physical manifestation. When you ponies arrived to settle this land, my kind had no idea what sorts of creatures you were. I was fascinated that you all could enjoy things that we unearthly spirits had no idea existed. We do not feel rhythm from music. We cannot taste what you call food. For eons have I wanted- no, desired- to know what that feels like.”
While it spoke, the ball of light displayed images of its past memories within its bright center. It had also slightly dimmed its light so that Vesta could observe.
“And from what I understand, based on your vibrations, young one, you have your own desire as well. You wish for the other ponies not to jab at you- to give you the same respect that they would your other peers. You wish to have a-“
“A cutie mark. Yes. I was told that I shouldn’t give up trying to get my own cutie mark. I had thought that maybe I would come back to this place tomorrow… Do some exploring for fun and see if I could get my mark that way somehow.” Vesta shyly admitted, feeling ashamed after thinking that to a transcendent spirit, her desire for a cutie mark would probably seem either incomprehensible or miniscule. Or both.
But her nervousness was short-lived. Something thick and slimy was caressing and curling its way up all four of her legs. She whimpered and tried to pull away, but she was steadfastly held down by what she then realized where gigantic vines sprouting out of the dirt. She frantically flapped her wings, sending dust and dirt in all directions as she tried to rear up and tear apart the vines. The effort was in vain.
“Do not struggle. I will not harm you. I instead intend to make a deal with you. You said you wanted a cutie mark, correct?”
“Well, yes, but aren’t you being a bit pushy?! If you try anything more, I’ll-“
“These vines will be our link, should you agree to the deal. That is why I am holding onto you through them. Not to prevent your escape. Should you refuse, I will let you go free. I am not a malevolent being and I want you to try to trust me. I know that your experience has made it difficult for you to trust others. But I would like to make a deal with you and for that, we are going to have to trust each other. I will have to trust that you will allow me a psychological connection of supplied energy if this happens and you will have to trust that I will do all in my power not to cause you pain. Please, allow me to be the first being to take and build upon your trust.”
Vesta decided that it had sounded sincere enough. After all, it did not laugh or prod at her like many ponies had when pushing her around at school. As soon as the decision was made in her mind, the vines began to glow in a light, blue pallor. She closed her eyes and allowed the magic to course between her and the conductors.
“Thank you so much, young one. In exchange, once we are united, I will provide you with access to all of my abilities and an allowance to dip into my energy reserves when you need it. There is just one more thing I would like to ask of you before we are merged.”
Vesta gritted her teeth to endure the magical energy and managed only to say, “What is that?”.
“That, as this process completes, you think of what you would want your cutie mark to look like and that you give me a proper name, as it is one of the mortal luxuries that you creatures have always had… to be able to know somepony is calling on you, specifically, because they called you by name.”
Vesta said no more, but the brief, positive vibe that the spirit received from her told it that she would agree to those terms. In an instant, there was a brief flash throughout the space and when everything settled, she was alone again in the dark. Rays of sunlight now filtered through the clouds outside and the last droplets were making their way down the leaves of the trees. Vesta opened her eyes and looked all around her, searching for the ball of light.
“Hello?” she called out, a little nervous now to be without it.
It seemed very powerful and it seemed to take a liking to her, so it had made her feel safe.
“Hello. The connection is complete, young Vesta. So we have both received our desires.”
“Really? It’s done?” she was glad to hear that she was not alone, but try as she might, she could not see where the voice was echoing from again.
She turned all around until it occurred to her that she might be able to see what had been done by moving outside to take a look in one of the puddles. She moved her flank into the puddle’s reflection, straining a little to see if anything had changed. She was thrilled to find exactly what she had imagined earlier- on her flank, there was a brightly lit, glowing jack-o-lantern.
“Yes! Yes! Oh, this is so exciting!” she squealed, a huge grin breaking across her muzzle.
“Indeed it is! You now have your cutie mark and I now possess the energy and ability to make myself a body from time to time.” it grinned wider with a sense of deep satisfaction.
“Wait… YOU’RE my CUTIE MARK?! You’re not going to POSSESS me, are you?!” Vesta gasped, in shock that another being could serve as a cutie mark.
“Yes, but as for that last thing… Uh… No. There will simply be times when I will need to get your assistance in conjuring myself a temporary body in which I can perform my own tasks. It will not be often and most of the energy will come directly from me, so there is no need for you to worry about that too much.” the jack-o-lantern explained carefully.
“Wow… I had no idea something like this could happen… This could take some time to sink in, you know.” she commented, still pleased at all of their future prospective teamwork abilities.
“I know… In the meantime, how about giving me that name I asked for?” he nudged.
Vesta thought hard for some minutes.
“I’ve got it!” she suddenly exclaimed, slamming a hoof down on the grass and whipping around to look the spirit in the eyes.
“Yes? Something spooky, I take it. Or else I’m not a proper jack-o-lantern cutie mark!” it grinned again.
“Well, last night, I was reading one of my books and it had said that long ago, in an ancient civilization, there was somepony named Guy Fawkes. He supposedly led a gunpowder-packed opposition against his king and November the 5th was forever remembered as Guy Fawkes day…” she paused.
“But what made you think of this??” the spirit inquired.
“Well,” she began again, “My own name comes from an ancient goddess of fire. Vesta. I figured that a jack-o-lantern pretty much runs on fire, so it might be a good idea to give you a name with a matching association. You can’t light gunpowder without fire and Guy Fawkes is associated with gun powder… Plus, you seem to be very powerful, like the blast that comes from gunpowder… So I think your name should be Fawkes.”
The spirit processed this name for a moment. Then spoke up. “I like it. The meaning does seem to suit my abilities. Fawkes it is! … But aren’t you forgetting something?”.
Vesta looked taken aback.
“I wouldn’t know wha- oh… Oh, I see. A pony’s cutie mark usually completes their full name…” her jaw dropped in shock from the realization that she had neglected this vital piece of information.
“How about ‘O-Lantern? Vesta-O-Lantern. How does that sound?” Fawkes suggested calmly. Vesta looked back at him and grinned even wider than before.
She nodded her head to an excited extreme and exclaimed, “Yes, that sounds perfect, Fawkes! Thank you!”.
With positivity and renewed confidence, Vesta retrieved her bag and she and Fawkes made their way back to Cheerilee’s school house.
Author's Note
The reader should note that there are more adventures to my OC’s life after this, but I have written this one first, as this will have been her most important memory. It may also serve as reference material for future stories involving her as a main character and should probably be read before reading a story dated later. The reader may now be wondering who Vesta’s parents are… It is a little difficult to admit because her parents are a canon OTP in the series. But it appears to be a widely shipped OTP, so I’m going to announce it here and now. Her parents are Spike and Rarity. Please refrain from putting down the OTPs of everyone in the comments, author included.
