//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: No Reservations 
// by Snaproll 
//------------------------------//

The day after I woke up in a pony hospital, I struggled in vain against the bonds that lashed me to an infernal torture device. My muscles ached, my limbs, still new to me, quivered with the strain. My breath came in ragged gasps, my throat raw with the strain, and I ached for a moment's respite. 

My tormentors, however, had other ideas. 

"Oh, for Celestia's sake! I've been pulling that wagon since I was in Filly Scouts! He's not going to be very useful to me on the road if he can barely carry his own weight." Trixie's voice was laced through with derision, doing little to assuage my own discomfort. Or pride, for that matter. 

Sunset trotted around the front of the wagon, her tone clinical. "Let's get him out of the harness and traces. He could probably use a break." She leaned in front of me. "Hey! Can I get you some water? Blink once for yes, twice for no." 

I nodded, panting and drooping in the traces as Sunset glanced off to one side. "Hey, Trixie, could you get Comstock a bucket?" 

"Oh, of course, Sunset." I waited a bare few seconds, and then a bucket of nearly ice cold Canterlot water clattered over my shoulders and spilled over my hide. I was delighted to discover that yes, indeed, ponies do get goosebumps, all of my breath fled my body for warmer climes, and I began shivering despite the rather warm ambient temperature. 

"Darn it, Trixie! Why'd you do that?" Sunset was doing her level best to hold in laughter as her aura flared and surrounded my harness. "That water's going to make these knots harder to undo." That said, a few minutes later, she had me out of the wagon traces and I was resting by the side of the road. Trixie, to her credit, had produced an extra bucket of water that I drank greedily from. 

"So...how are you adjusting to life on four hooves?" Sunset glanced at me after I came up for air, her tone solicitous. I snorted water out of my nostrils. "Not bad, really. I mean, it's weird going along on all fours." I sat back on my hindquarters and held up my forehooves for examination. "It's...weird. I keep trying to reach over and pick things up, or twiddle my thumbs when I'm bored, except I don't have thumbs." I shook my head and glanced over at Sunset. 

"Mind if I ask you a question?" 

Trixie leaned in between the two of us. "You just did ask her a question." 

I gave her a flat look. "Trixie, nobody likes someone who makes puns. And besides, that's my schtick." 

Sunset was concealing a broad grin behind a hoof. "Certainly. Ask away." 

I nodded, waving a hoof at her and Trixie. "Well, there's you Unicorns. I've seen you guys use levitation and, according to the Informational Pamphlet I've been reading since last night, you pointy heads can much around with...what was the phrase? 'Arcane Forces Beyond Mortal Ken', I think." I gestured overhead to a trio of pegasi, who were pushing a cloud overhead and providing for some much needed shade. "Those guys up there can fly, which would be pretty dang cool on its own, but can also manipulate the weather to boot."

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Those aren't questions." 

I gave her my best glare, which she blithely ignored and stuck her tongue out at me. 

Sunset, meanwhile, nodded. "I think I know where you're going with this. You're wondering what Earth Ponies can do." 

I glanced back at her. "I mean, in a nutshell, yeah." 

Sunset looked down at the ground, her eyes flicking back and forth for a minute while she marshaled her thoughts. It took her a minute before she spoke, her voice thoughtful and her words deliberate, as if she was reciting from memory something told to her years ago. "In many ways, Earth Ponies are the most versatile of the three main Equestrian races. Certainly, Unicorns can discover heretofore unknown Arcane Knowledge, and Pegasi can soar high in the sky, but none of them would be able to do what they do best without Earth Ponies. And woe betide the unicorn or pegasus that forgets it." She added at the end with a glance at Trixie, who ignored her with a magnificent display of indifference. 

"The vast majority of Earth Ponies," Sunset continued, "Have talents that tend to run towards farming, animal or plant husbandry, or processing the fruits of the former." With that, she levitated a familiar looking bottle in front of me, pried the cap off, and let me take the bottle in my fumbling hooves. "In rare cases," she continued, prying the top off a bottle of her own, "they have abilities that seem to defy the laws of reality. You might get to meet one of them in the next week or so."1

1: In fact, she'll probably throw a party for him.2
2: Count on it! I've already got the streamers and soda and sasparilla and sunblock and...3
3: Dangit, Pinkie! Get out of my hoofnotes!

I nodded at that, mulling her words over while she took a pull from her bottle. She let out a satisfied sigh and continued. "Now, as for what your talents are, that's something you'll have to find out for yourself. Everypony's good at something."

Trixie nodded down towards my hindquarters. "You can always start with that." 

I frowned at her. "My ass? I had no idea you appreciated it so much." 

Trixie tossed her mane dismissively, though she was blushing. "Trixie has no designs on your flank. But you might consider the design that is on yours." She stuck her tongue out at me again. "Jerk." 

Curious, I...look, I'm not the sort to stare at my own body. Especially my rear. As far as I've always been concerned, its chief benefit is that it's something soft upon which to sit. The fact that it might have destiny altering characteristics had never once entered into my mind, other than that one time I'd had the misfortune to eat a massive burrito before an important meeting. 

Peering at my left...cheek...was a mark I'd not noticed before. It reminded me almost of a brand, save that it was in color. A trio of cards superimposed over a merged bass and treble clef. Two of them, the Ace of Hearts and the Ten of Diamonds, flanked a center card that I didn't quite recognize. The central card featured an intricate celtic knot circle, the whorls and twists suggesting a five pointed star. Outside, at each of the star's five points, stood minute symbols: A Staff, An Open Book, A Bag of Gold, A Pair of Linked Rings, and a Horseshoe. Huh...well that's new... Even more perplexing, a cursory examination showed that there was an exact duplicate of the mark on my other side. 

"Well...I can recognize a few of those cards. It's a winning hand in blackjack...but for that other one, I don't recognize." 

Sunset peered at it as well. "I can't say I recognize it either." 

Trixie snorted. "It appears that your feeble minds are no match for my Great and Powerful Intellect." She poked a hoof at my flank...hard. It was only because I am supremely in control of my own faculties that I didn't flinch. Trixie continued speaking as if she hadn't noticed. "It's the Wheel of Fortune." 

I gave her a look. "So...I'm going to buy a vowel?" 

She poked me harder. "It's a powerful card in fortune telling. One of the Major Arcana. In a reading, it's supposed to represent that somepony's fortunes are going to change for the better. It could mean any number of things...New Travel, Increased Knowledge, Newfound Wealth, Deep and Lasting Love, and Luck in general." As she spoke, she traced her hoof over to each of the symbols in order. "Trixie doesn't know what the card means in relation to the rest of your cutie mark, but it is definitely significant." With that, she pulled her hoof off my flank and regarded me steadily. 

"Every pony has a Cutie Mark. It's a symbol of their intrinsic talents and abilities." She raised the hem of her cloak and showed a very shapely flank. I nodded appreciatively before Sunset bopped me on the head with a hoof. "Quit oogling her and see what she's trying to show you, you dope." 

Shaking my head, I looked again and noticed the mark on Trixie's flank, a magic wand superimposed over a wave of ether, suggesting a crescent. Trixie was blushing faintly again as she spoke. "Trixie's mark is a symbol of how good I am at stage magic and illusions." She let her cloak fall and nodded over to Sunset, who stood before me. Her symbol was more abstract: A starburst of red and yellow fire, surrounding a similarly colored yin and yang. "Sunset's mark is less specialized, but she has definite talents in magical theory, power, and all that sort of boring nonsense." Trixie waved her hoof airily. 

Sunset, for her part, gave her a deadpan glare. "Why Trixie. That was almost a compliment." 

"Don't mention it." 

"Wait a minute." I glanced from Trixie to Sunset. "I read that 'So You're A Pony, Now What?' pamphlet about four or five times. There wasn't anything in there about...magic asses." 

Sunset smiled. "Alright, first of all, the terms are 'Cutie Mark' and 'Flank'. You might as well get used to them, since you're supposed to be blending in. Second of all, there's some good reasons we didn't include a section on Cutie Marks. Mainly because when I put the pamphlet together, we had no idea if new arrivals to Equestria would even have their own cutie marks to begin with, or if they'd have to find them on their own." 

Trixie snorted. "Twilight wanted us to do a run with that explanation and the one you read, but it was decided that there wasn't room in the budget." 

Sunset nodded. "That too. But more importantly, it was decided that even if new arrivals had their own Cutie Marks on arrival, they would be missing out on an important aspect of them. You see, most colts and fillies earn their cutie marks just on the cusp of adolescence, and often it is a journey of self discovery, trying to find out just where everypony's talent's lie. Or, more commonly, where they don't." 4 Sunset nodded down at my flank. "The Princesses decided that in the event that a newcomer had their mark out of the gate, it would cheat them out of that selfsame journey of discovery."

4: To date, no Cutie Mark Discovery Group has ever had a member get a Cutie Mark in Property Damage, Entropy, or Arson, but it's been a very near thing.

"It also would have prevented a good deal of flailing about and whatnot." I noted, with a rueful grin. 

Trixie sniffed. "It's a Mare's perogative to be mysterious. And the Princesses have to have their own fun too, I suppose." 

Sunset coughed into one hoof. "Well, yes, there is that." She smiled kindly at me. "The fact of the matter is, I can't tell you where you're going to be talented. That's up for you to find out on your own." 

"Lucky me." I shook my head and rose to my hooves, turning back towards the recalcitrant wagon. "Well, one thing at a time I suppose. Let's see if we can get this..." I stopped, considering the wagon for a moment, in particular what I had just noticed up against its wheels. "Hey. Trixie. After you had me hooked up in the traces, did you, perhaps, forget to remove the chocks holding it in place?" 

"The Great and Powerful Trixie has no idea what you could be possibly insinuating, Comstock." 

Sunset's voice had a thread of poorly concealed laughter. "Perhaps she just wanted to admire your physique as you worked." 

"Why not? Isn't it a mare's perogative to enjoy a stallion's perspirations?" 

"Aha! So you were admiring his physique! And you said you had no designs on his flank." 

"Hardly! His flanks can keep to themselves for all Trixie cares." 

While the two mares bickered, I quietly removed the wheel chocks and took my place in the wagon's traces. After all, I evidently had work to do, and plenty of time to figure out just how I was going to do it...And, for that matter, what I was going to do. As I fumbled with my hooves to get into the unfamiliar harness, I wondered, and not for the first time, just what I had managed to get myself into.