I wonder if it's actually possible to lose a cutie mark.

...

Let's make the assumption that it's possible. By what methods can this happen?

Surgically transplanting the skin with skin fromyour underbelly or something

Paint?

I was hoping for something more dramatic. Like being traumatized so badly that they end up hating their special talent.

Well, I thought that maybe losing your... Uh, your calling in life. For example, let's assume that AJ - after x years of applebucking - decides to quit and yet again try her luck in Manehattan at being city pony. If she won't be able to Sweet Apple Acres for some reason and won't find her new realization, maybe she'll grow bitter and... Well, poof.

Of course, it's only a theory and is unlikely to be true though I was looking for something more "mystical" than your typical "transplant skin operation".

@Troper who put that "obligatory Castlevania reference": Win of the week, Sir.

Perhaps a pony will realize that the thing that they thought they liked isn't a good as they thought. Raise of hooves; how many of us changed majors in college?

Could you explain the Castlevania thing. I didn't get the joke

edited 26th Sep '11 12:15:09 PM by gingerninja666

I'm assuming it used the "Die monster, you don't belong in this world [etc. etc.]" dialogue, yeah? That was an infamous set of lines in Symphony of The Night. It ends with Dracula tossing the wine glass he was holding to the ground and beginning the fight.

So, since Discord happened to be sitting on an elaborate throne, and explosively threw his glass chocolate to the ground before getting up, it was perfect.

^^^I don't think that's what causes it. We've said it several times, but your interests do not dictate your cutie mark any more than your cutie mark dictates your interests. One reflects the other, but neither causes the other. If you ask me, they arise from the same thing.

Thus, I don't think anypony would come to hate their calling just over time or anything. It would take something really traumatic, like a horrible accident or something, to change their perception of their calling from the outside.

I'm pretty sure that Pinkie would still be having fun with people even if she didn't have balloons on her behind, is what I'm saying.

edited 26th Sep '11 12:22:35 PM by RedSavant

@ gingerninja 666: On it. In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night when you play as Richter Belmont, you encounter Dracula as the last boss. The cutscene before the fight - being overly melodramatic and hammy - ends up with Dracula saying "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk, have at you!". The first part of this final set of sentences is followed by throwing a glass with wine/blood by Dracula which then epicly shatters on the floor.

Discord's win is that instead of shattering the glass, he ''drinks it'' and then throws out the content which then explodes. Other parts of the video were rather random though, if you ask me.

EDIT: Gah'ninja'ed.

edited 26th Sep '11 12:22:29 PM by FergardStratoavis

What is a pony? A miserable little pile of friendship!

Oh, just to clarify (didn't want to edit): Cutie marks aren't 'assigned' to ponies to dictate their jobs or anything, and the Crusaders show us prefectly well that settling for a job isn't the way to get one's mark either. Getting a mark is equivalent to the thrill one gets when one realizes "this is it. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life." There's a reason I call them 'callings'.

I'm still amazed that there aren't that many adult blank flanks if "Not knowing your calling in life" is the only criteria for being one.

edited 26th Sep '11 12:28:15 PM by gingerninja666

Ponyville, at least, is an idealized town where nearly everypony has a role to fill. I think there are NO adult flanks there!

What if your special talent was not having a special talent? Like some pony called "Jack" who's pretty good at anything an earth pony can do... just not spectacularly good at any one thing...

Then it would be something pointlessly abstract.

Do you REALLY think Cheerilee's cutie mark actually meant what she was saying?

Just like it's imposible to make fake CM it's impossible to remove CM.

I don't thing even changing personality could change CM

Just tell them you watch it for the plot, like everyone else does.

You have proof for that?

(darned ninjas)

edited 26th Sep '11 12:43:00 PM by KylerThatch

^I really think that's a case-by-case thing - I would think that would depend on what the pony's calling is, what their personality was, and what it's changed to. For instance, I can see Pinkie's calling remaining the same even if her personality were to shift for the depressive - she'd continue trying to make others happy even if she herself wasn't. (Even in "Party of One", she focuses on making her prop friends happy rather than herself.)

edited 26th Sep '11 12:55:42 PM by RedSavant

Because CM is something deeper that just thing what you whant to do and you are good at it.

CM thing is something what humans don't equivalent of it.

"castelvania video was random": I love how they used Wilhelm there...

I'm kinda with Death on this one. I imagine some people get callings like that; it just happens a lot more often in Equestria than it does here.

(There is, of course, also the fact that it's a lot simpler to have characters who are satisfied with what they want to do in life and deal with it in a specific episode, if at all, if your series isn't about finding oneself and existential angst.)

Existential angst in case of ponies can be only if one is adult blank flank.

Not really. Those children have textbook existential angst, but they deal with it in avery proactive way: by exploring the different venues open to them. They aren't feeling Quicksand Box, they're exploring everything they can. You have to admire that energy and willpower: they're never gonna give it up.