Three figures sat in the center of a tree house, arguing, breaking the silence of the night.
"No, ah don't think that would be such a good idea," one figure said to the other two.
"But it would be so cool! Just think about it, doesn't a knife juggling cutie mark sound awesome?" The second figure asked.
"No, no it doesn't Scootaloo," the other two said in unison.
"Aw, come on, guys. Please? Apple Bloom?" Scootaloo looked expectantly at her friend.
"No," AppleBloom shook her head.
"How 'bout you Sweetie Be-" She stopped in mid sentence while looking over to find that her other friend had fallen asleep. She sighed, and turned away, getting up to get her stuff and leave. "Fine then, I'll go and find a cutie mark myse-"
She looked up at her friends to find that they were now both asleep, and grumbled.
"Guess I'll go get a cutie mark myself; Some friends they are..."
And with that, The orange pegasus left the clubhouse into the night.
Her first stop was Ponyville Knife shop. Which, as it was almost midnight, was closed.
"Aw, ponyfeathers, I should have known. Now where am i going to get some knives?" She pondered. After a few moments, she glanced in a few directions, hoping for some inspiration to hit her. A few seconds later, she got her wish, as she looked at the detailed sign for Sweet Apple Acres.
'There,' she thought. 'Apple Bloom's family absolutely HAS to have knives. What else would they use to chop their apples with? Axes?' She laughed at that last thought. 'Yea, right. Axes. Sure,' She chuckled.
She Gingerly cantered over to the farm house, making sure not to be to loud. Stepping onto a twig or a sharp object in the middle of the night would only make other ponies wake up, question her about what she was doing, and most likely stop her from successfully getting her cutie mark.
As she quietly tip-hooved toward the kitchen window, she heard something. It sounded like a pep rally, but a pep rally with only one pony. Grunting. 'Thats right, There's grunting', she thought, now getting curious more about this "pep rally of one" than where the Apple family kept their butcher knifes.
"Yeah, yeah! You are going to this! You will ask out that mare!" The voice said, voice cracking at that last sentence. It sounded familiar, she realized. But what, or who, would be up this late, and in the middle of an apple orchard?
Curiosity got the better of her as she found herself start to gallop towards the noise. As she swerved in and out of the trees, the voice got louder, and she could see a silhouette against the moon light. It didn't look like any pony she knew. 'It looks like a monster," she thought, now getting a little scared and reluctant to move forward. Well, just a little reluctant, apparently, as she just kept on moving towards the creature.
'Wait a second,' She thought once again, as she finally matched up the voice with the shape of the creature. 'I know who that is! That's Iron will.'
With the identity of the encouraging minotaur confirmed, she now galloped at full speed towards the minotaur. A little to fast maybe, as he bumped into him and sent him flying a few yards backwards.
"Huh?! Flutters-" He stuttered as he waved his head around, looking at Scootaloo, and stopping, then blushing as he realized what he had just said. "Oh, um, hi," he said, looking at the filly. "What do you want?"
She sighed. "All I want is my cutie mark!" She said, exasperated at the truth behind the remark.
"Your cutie mark, eh?" He said, a mischievous grin now forming on his face. "Well then. I have a way to get yourself a cutie mark."
"You do?!" She perked up almost instantly. 'Finally,' she thought to herself. 'My own special talent! No more getting teased by that dumb Diamond Tiara.' "So, how do i get it?" She asked, excited now.
"Wait a second. I'll only do you a favor if you do me a favor," he said, now looking a little more nervous and blushing again.
The remark made Scootaloo sigh again, not really wanting to know what the favor was, but she asked anyway. Her cutie mark was on the line.
"Okay, what's the favor?" she asked.
"Well, um, do you know, um... Fluttershy?" He asked quietly.
"Im sorry, who?"
"Fluttershy," he restated. "I... I want to ask her out on a date, but I'm nervous. I'm not always shouting and being strict like ponies think I am, you know."
"Oh, um, sure. Now back to my cutie mark! how do i get it?" She asked.
He sighed once more. "Fine, I'll Tell you. All you have to is get close to somepony, about a few yards away, and picture the symbol on their flank onto yours. Just use your pegasus magic by flapping your wings while doing so, and theirs will now be yours," he said. "Now I have to go. Talk to her for me, okay? Thanks." With the last of his words said, he then ran off. Scootaloo was surprised at how fast he could run with only two legs.
She looked back in the direction she had come from, but all she could see was apple trees.
"Aw, ponyfeathers."
It was late afternoon when scootaloo finally reached town.
'Alright then, who's mark should I get first?' She asked herself, pondering the question for a few moments. "I know! Rainbow Dash! Then I'll be almost as awesome as her!" She decided. 'Now where would she be..."
After looking around Ponyville, she finally found herself in town square, which was filled with ponies. She was absolutely sure that her idol would be in this jumble of ponies.
'Perfect," she thought, a mischievous smile now forming on her face as she spotted all six of the Elements Of Harmony. She bumped and brushed against groups of ponies, going "oops, sorry!" And, "My bad!" until she was just a few yards away from the Elements.
She closed her eyes and pictured the crowd with Rainbow Dash Standing clearly in the middle of the bustling ponies. Flapping her wings, she thought of how jealous her friends would be with nothing on their flanks. Suddenly, and surprisingly , she felt something slowly build up in her wings, and she gladly let it out, knowing it to somehow be magic.
She opened her eyes, and saw a very clear essence flowing around everyone, unseen by most everypony except for one. And for a moment, she thought Twilight Sparkle had caught her, until her eye's started to turn... pink? Twilight looked away with an "Eeep!"
'What the hay? Um, okay...' She thought, then remembering what she had been doing. 'Oh yeah, My cutie mark!' She whirled around to look at her flank, only to find nothing on there once again, making her eyes bulge. And, like the true drama queen she was, she ran out of the crowd towards the CMC clubhouse shouting "Noooooooo!"
As she neared the club house, she wondered what her friends would think of her and what they did when they found out she was gone when they had woken up.
'Did they freak out? Did they tell AppleJack? No, if they had, she and her friends would probably have been looking for her instead of going to the town hall meeting. I wonder if they-' Bump!
She shook her head looking up at the clubhouse she had just bumped into. She reared towards the entrance, and heard a familiar voice.
"Of all of the thing that could happen, this is the worst possible thing! Why on earth would scootaloo leave!?"
Then another voice; "Cheer up, Sweetie! Ah'm Sure Sure SURE that we'll find them! Okie dokie lokie?" Scootaloo just stood there, blinking rapidly, trying to process what her friends had just said.
'they sounded just like Pinkie Pie and Rarity...' She thought.
"Oh this is going to be SO good," she said, an evil grin forming on her face.
To Be Continued
A Whole Lot of Meanwhiles
Meanwhile, back in Ponyville town square...
Mayor Mare was giving her ending speech to the crown of ponies. It wasn't a very important one, just a regular speech to sum all of the other speeches up. So, basically, boring. Apparently, it was so boring, that ponies were falling asleep on their hooves, if that was even possible.
As she was finally finishing her last speech, she suddenly felt weird in her flank area, making her stop her talking suddenly. It felt as though there was a muscle spasm where her cutie mark was. She just brushed it off as a case of the tinglys, and didn't bother to look back at her cutie mark to see what it really was.
Without warning, the sensation in her flank spread to her waist, and then her head. When the tingling was done consuming her body, she looked up, realizing that she had been silent for a few moments. Her stomach did a flip flop as she looked into the crowd.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not feeling that well. I... I need to go," She stuttered as she walked off the stage, cross-eyed, and bumping into miscellaneous objects going "Oops!" and "Sorry!" and "My bad!"
'What is wrong with me?' She asked herself.
Meanwhile, back to a plotting Scootaloo...
'Okay, so, lets see if this works...' Scootaloo thought, as she calmly cantered into the clubhouse, where her friends were bickering. The first thing she noticed was that Sweetie Belle's eyes had changed from her usual light green to a Bluish purple color. The second thing that she noticed was that AppleBloom's usual Orange eyes had turned to light blue.
The whole thing with the eyes seemed familiar and maybe even important, but she couldn't think of anything that might be of use to her, so she just went along with her business, totally forgetting that it even happened a few seconds later.
Sweetie Belle was asleep on Rarity's fainting couch, which Scootaloo just passed it off as hereditary nothingness. Apple Bloom, However, was nowhere to be found.
Scootaloo walked over to where Sweetie was sleeping and prodded her. Nothing. She Prodded again, and this time her friend muttered, "Ugh, Scoots. Gotta find Scootaloo."
She wasn't at all surprised, as she had heard her friend going on and on about her before she had entered. Instead of putting whip cream on her muzzle like she probably would have if she knew that Sweetie wouldn't freak out if she did, she this time poked her as hard as she could, getting a startled yelp from the filly.
Her eyes opened, looking around. They finally landed on Scootaloo, who was giving her a satisfied smirk. "Gotcha," she said.
Sweetie smiled. "Scootaloo! Where were you? Apple Bloom and I were so worried!"
"Not worried enough to go and look for me..." Scootaloo muttered.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Nothing. So, where is Apple Bloom, anyway?"
"Oh, I think she went to Sweet Apple Acres to wash up, she was looking absolutely dreadful," Sweetie said.
"Uh, okay. Oh, before I forget, congratulations on your new cutie mark," Scoots said smugly, expecting her friend to start to jump up and down exclaiming; "I got it! I got my cutie mark!"
But no, she didn't. Much to Scootaloo's surprise, she did almost the exact opposite. "Oh, I know. I got that thing years ago! Don't you remember me telling you that story? Her confused friend shook her head. "Remember, It was my school play, and I found a big rock and I-"
"No no no," Scootaloo said in response. "That's Rarity's story! Not yours, hers!"
"You mean my little sister? What do you mean? She doesn't have her cutie mark yet," Sweetie responded.
"Wha... Bwa... Huh?!" Scootaloo started to feel lightheaded. Suddenly, without any warning, Apple Bloom appeared out of nowhere shouting.
"Yay! Group hug!" She exclaimed whilst jumping on her friends. Scootaloo scurried out of the way before her friend could land on her and started to gallop out of the clubhouse and down to Sweet Apple Acres. What did I do?! She asked herself.
Meanwhile, at Ponyville's library...
"Um, Are you guys okay?" Rainbow Dash asked her friends. Erm, well, some of the ponies in the main library room were her friends. One of them was a small colt named Pip who insisted that he had always their friend. His eyes were green, like AJ's, though Rainbow hadn't known the little pony long enough to memorize his eye color.
"Yea, um, I'm fine," Twilight said very quietly. "Well, If you want me to be, that it." Rainbow looked over at her egghead friend, who's eyes had turned pink, just like Fluttershy's.
"Yes, I'm perfectly fine, Rainbow, why do you ask?" Fluttershy responded. Okay, this is officially getting weird, she thought. And, I know that something is missing here... but what?
"No, nothing's okay," Pinkie Pie said with an unusual southern twang in her voice. "A'h still don't have ma cutie mark!" Wait, what? Rainbow Dash looked to her friend's flank and gasped in surprise. There's no cutie mark! Its... It's gone!
And she was correct, Pinkie's cutie mark was gone, and as Rainbow looked around, she noticed that Rarity's was gone as well. And Twilight's was... Moths? Or were they Butterflies? She never could tell. Fluttershy's flank had a six point star with other stars around it, just like Twilight's.
So, what, everypony except for me switched cutie marks? She thought. She thought about the possibilities of what could have happened for this to happen. Then she realized what had probably happened. Her eyes then widened.
Oh no, not again!
