We have areas of interest, which seem very similar to your description of special talents. (I will do my best to avoid it. If you are concerned that ponies are reading the forum, you might want to be cautious, because several of your posts imply that you are a changeling, although they might miss it if they only read a few posts, or do not read carefully.)

The most common way to discover one's interest if it is not already obvious, is to read books describing different things to do, and look for patterns in which are most interesting. Some people also discover their interests by trying things that are related to hobbies they enjoy. Another way is to follow a favorite adult around and help them with what they do. If nothing about it feels like the best thing to do in the world, then one would switch to a different adult. If something feels like it might be at least related to one's interest, then one would look in a directory for people who do similar things, and have short apprenticeships with them to narrow it down further.

If you want, I will ask Chayis to research other ways people discover their interests, as his is researching.

Oh! Also, if you would prefer more anecdotal information, I could ask the counterpart of a friend of mine whose area of interest is journalism, who is apprenticing with a reporter, and they probably have written stories or reports of how various people discovered their interests.

Thank you! I've suggested these to their families, and they've found some books of things to do in the library. Thanks for the warning, too. And anecdotes would also be helpful.

(I am expanding the scope of this PM to include Chayis.)

(Chayis, could you also ask Thakon about it? And also possibly ask him to ask Nashi Bayehem, since she has more records about it? I asked Shator to ask them, but she was distracted and might not remember, and I could not find Yihel.)

The anecdotes I know best are my own and that of one of my best friends. I discovered my area of interest, inventing mechanical and runic devices, when a spinner-wheel broke and I watched an adult fix it, and they explained how the parts worked together and what each was doing, and took it apart again to show me more slowly, and it felt like the best possible thing to learn to do. My friend Yihel discovered his interest in cartography when he was reading a book and it included a map, and he found himself unusually curious about that part of the book, even more than the story, and stopped reading it to do more research on maps in general, and when someone finally found him he was totally surrounded by books on the subject and there was no question about what had happened.

Thanks. I know it's unlikely that any the foals currently looking for Cutie Marks here have the same special talents as either of these people, but it's still good to have an example of finding a special talent is like (although with ponies there wouldn't be doubt someone had found theirs even if they didn't react obviously; when a pony finds their special talent they get a mark called a "Cutie Mark").

Other ways people discover their interests are: copying someone they like and a few variants to see if that's what they like, trying things that are useful and under represented because it would be lucky to be interested in something like that (there are always fewer people interested in farming than are needed, for example, taking generic training to see if any specific applications are what they like, looking for patterns in books they like, and reading encyclopedias in order and skipping everything boring to see if any subjects listed are interesting.

The news people are out investigating something, I'll need to go find them. It's nice that ponies have physical confirmation of their talents.

I discovered my interest in researching when I started to read about various interests and noticed that what I actually liked was the process itself! My mentor discovered their interest in being a librarian when cavern their original nearest library was in began to collapse and they volunteered to help rescue and reorganize the books, and found they were interested in organizing, keeping, and recommending books. A friend of mine discovered her interest in fungi when news was released of a new medicine invented from the spores of a mushroom and she investigated more and discovered that mushrooms and molds were interesting in general to her. Other anecdotes will have to wait until I can find my journalist friend and his mentor.

Thanks Chayis, I'll suggest these things.

I'm sorry for the delay. Our device ran out of sunlight and it took Fayet a while to invent a way for it to use deep light instead. I hope this is not too late to be helpful.

I have found and spoken to my reporter friend and his mentor. Quite a few people seem to have interests in acting, which they often expand or specify into interests in writing, mnemonics, building, speaking, clothesmaking, painting, storytelling, singing, or movement so they can do something of use and interest when there is not an impending play. People with interests in plants, animals, or fungi usually generalize into farming, breeding, or experimentation. People with interests in math often specify into economics, engineering, runic devices, or codes. People with interests in writing, art, or reading often generalize to scribing.

One of my favorite adults is interested in singing, and organizes important things into mnemonic songs, and sings to people who do boring things while they work. She has a secondary interest in flying animals and trains them to carry correspondence. She says she discovered the interest when friend rearranged the letters of her name and showed her that they spelled out the word for a flying-animal trainer, and she thought it was funny enough to try. This method obviously does not generalize well, though. Another writes up recent historical accounts, but I'm not sure what his actual interest is. His friend's counterpart is interested in mechanical devices and clockwork, and is Fayet's mentor.

One of my favorite adults' friends is interested in linguistic rules and helps edit announcements to be grammatically clear and correct, and sometimes translates writing from farther caverns to and from their dialects. Her counterpart raises fish. Another is interested in scaled animals, so he helps farm several, and keeps several rarer ones as pets, observes their behavior, and collects venom from the venomous ones for experimentors. 

My friend's mentor is from somewhere else, and has reports of some of the ways people where she first lived discovered their interests. She discovered she was interested in reporting by copying her favorite adult, who was a reporter.