Mints and Magic

Chapter 2: Adorable Distinctions

Just when you thought there weren’t going to be any cameos!

Sugarcube Corner, as it turned out, was actually a nice place...or so Spearmint thought, now that he knew what it was. He inhaled the alluring aroma of the various available goods the bakery offered. Beside him, the bouncing ball of blue and red fuzz known as Pyra looked about ready to explode from excitement, and the pegasus was genuinely worried that she might do just that. However, to keep himself relaxed, he felt it was better to focus elsewhere. From the back room, he could hear the hustle and bustle of the shop’s owners--the Cakes, he had been informed--with a metallic clatter here and a ceramic rattle there. His eyes wandered across caramel-colored wooden walls, swirling, peppermint pillars, and taffy trim. The sugary sensations brought on by his sight were only supplemented by those he could still smell, sweet and sublime as they were, and he couldn’t suppress his starvation any longer. It had only been a day or so, at least by his count, but he hadn’t eaten in all that time. His stomach agreed with a rumble that it had been much too long, and he found himself browsing the available stock. Pie, cake, muffins, and an arrangement of other various delectable delights fell under Spearmint’s appraising eye.

It was then that the pony he had to assume was Mrs. Cake stepped out from the kitchen. The bright blue pony, with a mane that was two different shades of pink, wore a welcoming smile as she greeted her two customers. “Well hello, Pyra Technic!” she said warmly. “Anything I can get for you and your friend today?”

Spearmint and Pyra exchanged looks before both of them focused on the mare behind the counter. “Cupcakes!” chimed in the pyrotechnic pony.

“Um...” The pegasus took another moment, deciding he wanted something at least slightly more wholesome than that. “A...muffin, if you don’t mind? Nothing too sweet, please.”

“Alright!” Mrs. Cake replied, still beaming. “That’ll be four bits, dear.”

Oh no, the minty pony thought with a frown. He nearly panicked for a moment before the money floated onto the counter in front of him, surrounded by a red glow. He gave a sigh of relief. Saved by the unicorn again, who just smiled back at him. Meanwhile, the cupcake-colored mare behind the counter retrieved their ordered items which were promptly caught in that same red glow.

“C’mon!” Pyra beckoned him with a grin. She made her way over to a booth by one of the windows and scooted into it. Spearmint followed, sitting opposite his unicorn companion. “So what are we gonna try first?”

The pegasus paused, his mouth half-open from trying to bite into the muffin precariously perched between his hooves. Then, the sound of the door opening brought his thoughts back into focus, and he blinked as a brow slowly crept its way up the left side of his face. “...What?”

“To get your cutie mark, silly!”

“Oh,” Spearmint replied, staring at his muffin. To be honest, he didn’t really care about getting a cutie mark. He continued, apathetically, “Um...I dunno.”

The merry mare chewed on her cupcake thoughtfully. “Maybe we could try bowling! Or...hm...you’re a pegasus! Maybe your special talent is flying!”

“I don’t think my special talent is flying, Pyra.”

“Why not?”

He couldn’t tell her that it was because he didn’t even know how to fly. He had wings; certainly that and the way she was acting implied he should know. “I’m just...not that good. That’s all.” He stared at his muffin before taking a bite of it. “Maybe s--”

He was cut off, however, by a giant, pink blur filling his vision accompanied by a long, drawn out GASP!! The mint-colored colt sputtered, nearly choking on the muffin, and then immediately dove underneath the table. Oh god, it’s gonna kill me!

Wait, his thought continued once he’d had a moment to collect himself. What’s going to kill me? He debated poking his head above the table for a moment, weighing the danger of doing so. On one hand--er, hoof...er...oh screw it, this place was too messed up for it to even matter anymore. He cautiously rose up above the lip of the table. There, standing next to Pyra, was a bright pink pony--this one also lacking wings and a horn. She beamed broadly, his unicorn companion mirroring the expression. As she began to speak, she started to bounce around emphatically.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! I couldn’t help noticing that I’d never seen you before, and if I’ve never seen you before then that means you’re new ‘cause I know everypony, and I mean everypony in Ponyville! And if I don’t know you, that means we can be new friends! Oh! And ‘cause you’re new, we can throw you a welcome party!”

White ears folded back in line with a green mane. “Um...that’s nice and all, really, but I’m not much of a party, uh...pony.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” chimed in the unicorn with a mouthful of cupcake.

“Fireworks!”

“Ooh, yeah!”

Oh no. Now there’s two of them. “That’s great and all, really, but...um, we have to...uh...figure out what my special talent is! Remember?” The pegasus winced the moment he said it. What was he thinking?!

“Oh yeah!”

“Huh?” Pinkie Pie looked confused, then leaned over to look at the Spearmint’s flank before letting out another emphasized gasp.

Here we go again. “Yes, I have no cutie mark. No, I’m not particularly concerned about it. There just isn’t anything I’m particularly good at. Or whatever. It’s no big deal, really.”

“But everypony--”

“...Has a cutie mark. Except for little fillies. Yeah, I know.” He stared at the pink pony, who promptly stared back at him with an almost suspicious look. “I don’t mean to be rude, but is it alright if I finish my muffin?”

Really, Pinkie, he’s just misplaced. Don’t worry about it. He’s a dirty, filthy little being called a human that is capable of nothing but hatred and self-destruction, but that’ll be taken care of soon enough. Wait...the author says I wasn’t supposed to tell you that yet. Crap.

Um...carry on.

“...Okie-dokey lokey...” She responded in a suspicious tone, and, with that, the pink party pony backed away slowly before disappearing up the stairs behind the shop counter. Pyra waved an emphatic goodbye.

The pegasus was left blinking, alternating looking from that stairway to his unicorn companion before his eyes finally came to rest on his half-finished muffin. With a silent exhale, his jaw extended to try to fit in another bite. Meanwhile, the cobalt-colored unicorn seemed to feel it prudent to begin the conversation anew.

“Ooh!” She exclaimed, looking through a magazine of some kind that she had pilfered from a nearby table. “Look at this, Spear!”

Spearmint looked up, swallowing his bite to take another as he browsed over the article in question. Displayed prominently was an earthy-brown unicorn with a white mane whose face bore a set of rather large and heavy-looking glasses. His cutie mark was difficult to make out from the image, but to the pegasus it looked like some kind of star, or possibly what a spark of magic might look like if it were to be graphically represented, with a scroll overlaid atop it. Reading the article, it briefly summarized the life of a pony by the name of Mystic Method, whose specialization was in the study of various magics, and theoretical magic in particular. Further down the page, it elaborated on a thesis the pony had written about cutie marks. Various theories and speculations from Mystic about how they formed, whether or not they were predetermined, and the underlying magic behind them were detailed throughout, accompanied by speculation from the writer of the article itself.

“Well?”

The minty colt canted his head to the side, peering at Pyra. “Well what?”

“Well, should we go see him? I bet he can help us get you your cutie mark!”

“We don’t even know where he is.”

“It says right here he works in Fillydelphia! We could catch a balloon there!”

“...A balloon.”

“Yeah!”

“To...Fillydelphia.”

“Yeah!”

“To talk to some stranger, who has never heard of us, about getting me a cutie mark.”

“Yeah!”

“...Why do I keep letting you drag me along for these things?”

Pyra just beamed and scooted out of the booth. Spearmint reluctantly followed, quickly finishing off the last of his muffin as he did so. As she pushed open the door, the unicorn waved a hoof at Mrs. Cake, who smiled and returned the wave before returning to work. The duo then exited the bakery and stepped into the square where the pyrotechnic pony promptly paraded them along toward the balloon station. Her winged companion wondered just why they were taking a balloon of all things as their mode of transport, and only realized all-too-late that his wondering had been aloud. “I guess we could wait for a train,” the unicorn explained as they went along. “But for just the two of us, a balloon is so much faster! Don’tcha think?”

The white-coated pegasus gave a sigh and nod of resignation. He supposed it could be interesting. He’d never taken more than a car anywhere before. With this new positive outlook, Spearmint actually looked forward to the balloon ride. He beamed brightly as they approached the balloon station, which was significantly larger than he had initially expected. It was by no means excessive in its size, but he guessed--based upon the scale of the balloons currently present--that it could provide dock for at least six, perhaps eight multiple-passenger balloons at any given time. The front of the station was marked by the charter booth--where Pyra was presently negotiating their passage--and the wooden stair which lead to the elevated dock beyond. Spearmint made his way over to it as Pyra completed their purchase and met up with him there.

The two stopped at the portion of the raised wooden walkway that was labeled “DOCK 2” in large, painted letters. There, a brown earth pony with a sand-colored mane, who wore a pair of goggles over his eyes, was busy looking over the various parts of his balloon. The pegasus and unicorn stood on the dock, watching with interest before the balloon pilot finally noticed them. He offered a nod and a beckoning hoof. “Hop on in, folks. We’ll be ready to leave in just a minute.”

The two companions complied, crawling into the carrier. Spearmint noted that it was large enough to fit the three of them comfortably, but more than four or five might have left the vessel feeling a bit cramped. Looking up, he saw the brightly colored balloon, its girth expanding outward enough to block the majority of his view of the sky beyond. The bulk of it was red, though he could see the edge of some form of bright yellow logo on the side. He thought it might be a sun, though it was impossible to tell at his present angle. His focus was interrupted by the pilot climbing back into the basket, jostling the pegasus back into the moment.

With that, the pilot promptly chomped down on the rope tying the balloon to the dock and yanked it loose. Following a light buck to the dock, the balloon had pushed off, drifting away from the station. Hot Air then pushed down on a floor pedal with a hoof, a fire flaring up from the pillar-like apparatus in the middle of the basket and into the open space of the balloon above, before it tempered to a more reserved, but constant, flame. Spearmint looked over the side of the basket, watching the world below shrink away as they made their ascent. Pyra trotted up beside the pegasus and watched with him. He had never been this high up before, and his eyes widened in amazement. As he saw Ponyville grow smaller and smaller and the grander view of the world open up to him, he felt both terrified and exhilarated. He felt the high winds blowing through his mane, the smell of various blooming flowers and tall grasses passing through his nostrils with an oddly appetising aroma. Further out, he noted the tall mountains surrounding much of the region. Behind them, the sun was making an approach towards one of those sets of mountains, while on their right lay what Spearmint now knew to be the Everfree Forest.

Shaking her head, Pyra chimed in proudly, “Manehattan, born and raised! But I wanted to share my fireworks and explore the world, so I did!” The unicorn beamed brightly, her wild mane only made to look more so as it rustled in the wind. Spearmint noted that, with the sun going down, her coat bore a rather similar resemblance to the shade of the encroaching night sky. A bit pretty even, he thought.

...Not in that way! Jeez. We’re only in the second chapter, for Celestia’s sake!

The goggled earth pony turned his attention to the mint-colored pegasus. “And how about you,” he asked, noticing the wings. “Cloudsdale?”

Spearmint froze for a second, then just half-nodded silently. He opened his mouth as he tried to think of something more to say when a crack of thunder from somewhere behind him made him jump in surprise. As he spun around, his wide eyes caught sight of the clouds he’d seen earlier. Only now, they were close enough to see it was a full-fledged thunderstorm...and the balloon was headed right into it!

“I don’t mean to be rude, Mr. Air, but shouldn’t we avoid storms like that?” Pyra asked with a hint of concern.

“Can’t we land?” proposed the pegasus passenger.

“‘Fraid not,” Hot Air neighed. “Nearest marked shelter is just outside Fillydelphia. Now, stay low and hang on. This ride might get a bit bumpy.”

Spearmint swallowed, looking down at the sight that he thought was so breathtaking when they had first lifted off. It was still breathtaking, of course, only now he was not thinking about how amazing it was at all. There was a light wood below, barely visible anymore as the sun hid behind the mountains, but it almost seemed to reach up at them with crooked arms in the darkness. The clouds ahead rumbled threateningly, and the wind continued to pick up from a calming breeze to something much more violent. He looked to Pyra for some semblance of comfort, but her worried appearance only had the opposite effect. He huddled up into one corner of the basket to ride out the increasing turbulence. Hot Air was entirely focused on the balloon controls, trying to keep the craft as stable as possible.

Spearmint thought he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

Just then, another crack of thunder exploded. It was louder than any of the others the pegasus had heard so far. In fact, it was louder than anything he had heard in his entire life. The balloon shook and lurched downward, causing Spearmint to feel a sudden nauseating, floating feeling before he managed to wrap his forelegs around a rope tied to the side of the basket nearby. Once he was a slight amount more confident in his stability, he chanced a look up. There, near the very top of the balloon, was a hole. Not just any hole, however; this hole was on fire and growing rapidly, causing the previously stable, round shape of the balloon to almost instantaneously degenerate into an incoherent, billowing mess. As if to add insult to injury, rain suddenly started pouring into the basket, dousing all inside as if a large bucket had simply been emptied on top of them.

And worst of all, they were falling now, of course. Spearmint didn’t need to look over the side of the basket to see that. He could feel it. The rush of the air, the inertial effects as he held onto that rope for dear life. His eyes were closed tightly now, and not even because of the water. If they were going to die, he didn’t want to see it. He couldn’t bear to see it. He felt the impact as the basket hit something. He wasn’t sure what. He heard a terrible crunching noise, but underneath the roar of the storm, he couldn’t tell if it was the basket or bone. Or both. He also thought he heard shouting, but over all of the other noise, it was difficult to tell. He didn’t have time to find out. The next thing he felt was something hitting his head.

And then everything just stopped.