Ponyville's resident dentist, 'Colgate' Doctor of Dental Surgery, formerly 'Minuette' before she found her true calling at 20, has a cutie mark in the shape of an hourglass, which relates to her 'special talent'. If you give Colgate the raw materials and a workshop she can create almost any kind of hourglass you ask for, which will always keep PERFECT time. Want an hourglass that times 2.15 minutes down to the micro second? She can do that, or any other time parameter you care to name: and for the longest time she thought that was what she was MEANT to do with her life: until she cracked a molar in college.
The pain was maddening: she couldn't study, couldn't make hourglasses, couldn't THINK, couldn't do anything but lie in bed moaning till her roommate dragged her to the dental school and got her an emergency appointment.
They knew they needed to do a fracture extraction so they put Minuette under and in that period of unconsciousness she had a vision of Princess Celestia...
All was darkness around her, then Minuette saw a light which resolved into the queen of heaven and earth, Princess Celestia....
"Princess!" Minuette exclaimed, bowing low.
"Why have you not been brushing and flossing Minuette? A dentist has to have good teeth..." Celestia asked.
"I am not a dentist..." Minuette said confused
"Why? Would you ever want someone else to suffer the pain you just went through?" The avatar of the Princess queried.
"No, but my special talent is sand timers, not dentistry..."
"How long would you need to make a timer run for someone to brush their teeth?" Celestia probed.
"Two point five minutes!" Minuette declared, and in that utterance her world changed utterly.
Whole vistas of dental knowledge opened to her, and she saw two paths appear before her, of which she could only chose one, a lifetime of dissatisfied wealth and fame as a maker of custom hourglasses for the rich and powerful, or the same in contented obscurity as the town dentist of Ponyville...
We all know which she picked.
Upon waking from anesthesia Minuette thanked the dental team for fixing her tooth, went back to her workshop in the engineering department, and began making dozens of 2.5 minute timers. A few days later she split her major from business management to both that and dentistry, and has never looked back.
About a year after that she sent letters to all the major toothpaste companies that she was a dental student with a name that didn't fit a dentist and was taking bids on what to change her name too, the best offer would be her new name and a walking talking advertisement for their company's brand forever after. A few companies sent back letters saying not only were they not biding they had court orders that she was not to use their name: but some saw further and bid heavily. Most heavily of all was the 'Colgate-Palmolive' corporation who practically offered her the world for the right to have her serve as a living billboard for their product: A full ride scholarship to any dental school she wished, supplying their products both for personal use and that of her practice for her entire lifetime at cost, the purchase of land and construction of the building for her practice in any town or city of over 5000 residents she cared to name in all of Equestria, or failing that the condo like purchase of office space if she chose somewhere like Manehattan or Canterlot, and to provide the hair dyes to change her off white mane and tail to match the color of their flagship toothpaste gratis till the day she died and once after that to the funeral home so she would still look 'Right' for her children and grandchildren.
Of course she accepted.
Thus 'Minuette' became, in a few years time, 'Colgate D.D.S.' and moved into her brand new practice/residence in Ponyville, a town which barely met the requirements and only if you counted the population of the surrounding farmland but the Colgate-Palmolive company was willing to work with her on this, because their assayers and long term planing department said Ponyville was a town on the rise, soon to have a brand new rail line and close enough to Canterlot that it was attracting summer residents and people from the big cities that wanted to 'get away' and 'live the simple life': but more importantly, was currently without a local dentist meaning their little 'Colgate' would be the ONLY expert opinion on what brand to buy in town... Who says you can't have 100% market share? (Locally anyway...)
That was 5 years ago, and the now 29 year old Colgate finds that this life has lived up to Celestia's promise. Though she is forgotten by most of the world, even the residents of the town when they don't need their teeth filed or polished and so on, she is contented with the life she leads and finds her work fulfilling for all that it is not her 'special talent'. That is in all but one thing: she has no one to share it with...
But tonight will change that: a pony which she has known since she moved to town, but never looked at quite this way before, is about to sweep the double talented mare up in a whirlwind romance, and by the time the 'Season of Love' is over she will be far from lonely...
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