//------------------------------//
// A Time with Friends 
// Story: Society as We Know It 
// by Comma Typer 
//------------------------------//

The pegasus opened his wings and took off to the air; he flew gracefully and with style, his eyes closed as he smiled in mid-air.
A few ponies watched the pegasus with awe and amazement as they cheered on. With them were a few changelings.
As the ponies and the changelings stood on the sidewalk, looking at the pegasus fly between buildings and over rooftops, Long Winded nudged Nastic. "Do you think this could be the next Wonderbolt?"
Nastic sighed. "I'm not sure, and stop being so happy about the Wonderbolts. They perform frequently—if you want, you can just attend the next one if you wanted some real aerial performance."
"But, I hope this pony gets in!" Long Winded said. "He has lots of ability, lots of talent—"
"What is his talent, anyway?" Nastic asked. "Is his talent flying? That would be alright for a Wonderbolt, but if it isn't flying, then I'm not sure if he's going to be a Wonderbolt."
"Anyone can join!" Long Winded said, raising his front hooves in protest.
"What about Dorso?" Abdo added. "He's now in the reserves or a trainee, at least."
"That's the thing," Nastic said. "Just a trainee."
The pegasus flew past them, breezing by.
Nastic looked at the pegasus and then he looked at his changeling friends. "Dorso is just a trainee. I don't think the Wonderbolts are willing to accept their first new Wonderbolt that isn't a pony."
"Maybe they are," Long Winded said, "and they're just waiting for the perfect moment to announce it to all of Equestria! If Dorso gets accepted, let's get to the party or the celebration! Dorso is going to be so proud of us being there to see him when he gets promoted to a real Wonderbolt! Then, we're going to see all of the Wonderbolt shows, knowing that he's going to perform there alongside Spitfire, Soarin, and the others!"
"Don't get too excited, Long Winded," Nastic said, extending a hoof towards Long Winded. "How do you know Dorso is definitely going to become a real Wonderbolt? How do you know that Dorso is going to perform there with the real Wonderbolts?"
"I'm very excited and happy for it," Long Winded said.
"Me, also," Abdo added.
Nastic eyed Long Winded. "Don't expect much. There will be some tension. A lot of ponies are going to accept us with lots of parties. But, we still have to be wary and we still have to watch out—some ponies might still not be so accepting of us. Maybe some of those ponies are a part of the Wonderbolts."
Long Winded and Abdo gasped. "What would make you say those words?!" Long Winded yelled.
"It's something that could happen," Nastic said, "and that's undeniable—you can't escape that."
"What if we can?"
"Yeah!" Abdo added. "What he said!"
"How would you feel if somepony were to sneer at you just because you're a changeling? Just because they wouldn't forget about what you did in the past, about you stealing love when, now, you're fine and OK and a truly good creature?"
"You know that ponies are forgiving," Long Winded answered. "Very forgiving! They were willing to forgive lots of bad ponies!"
"There must be a point where the ponies wouldn't forgive somepony."
"Maybe they don't," Long Winded said.
Nastic sighed. He tapped the ground with his hoof as he watched the other ponies watching the pegasus. "Actually, this is getting boring. I don't want to stand here just looking at a pegasus fly around." He looked around. "Are there any good places here in Canterlot? Any mentally stimulating activity that would lead to discussions all around and not just lead ponies to just watch an event happen before their eyes?"
"There's the library," Abdo said, "but we already went there. We stayed there for, like, an hour."
"Well, if you don't want monotony, we can always go to some place different."
"Where are we going?" Abdo asked.
"I don't know," Nastic said. "What about we try to find a place together?"
Long Winded flew to the air. "Let's go!"
"Uh, let's think about planning out how we should find the place first."
"I think we should just go and see what places will be fun to go to!" Abdo yelled.
Then, the two changelings flew away to somewhere.
Nastic followed them, sighing.



Long Winded and Abdo looked around in awe, their mouths open. "This is a very historical place!" Long Winded said as he looked at the walls and at the tables and at the chairs and at the ponies sitting on those chairs, eating their fancy food with a fancy attitude while wearing fancy clothes and speaking with fancy accents. "This is going to be one of the best restaurants that we've ever been to! Everything here is very good!"
"I agree with you, Long Winded!" Abdo said as he kept looking around.
"This is meant to be quiet," Nastic said, "so keep quiet and just don't cause any trouble."
They passed by more tables with fancy food and fancy ponies. Waiters in formal suits walked by, carrying plates of fancy food.
"Where is a free seat when you need one?" Nastic asked, sounding exasperated. "It's as if everypony here in Canterlot decided to eat at the same place!"
"Maybe the food here is fancy to the point that they feel fancy eating it!" Long Winded said.
"I wouldn't see that as unrealistic," Nastic said. "Anyway, try to find a free table and let's get ready to eat later."
The three changelings looked around. Here and there, there were tables full of ponies eating their fancy food. Some of them looked at the changelings, most of them not smiling at the changelings. Some of them even gave the changelings a mean face before they went back to eating their fancy food.
"Why did we go here again?" Nastic asked. "I'm not sure if you're willing to spend lots of money on food that's not going to make us full."
"Because it's fancy!" Long Winded said.
"What's so nice about a fancy restaurant when you don't have a table to eat at?"
"You can at least see how fancy ponies eat here!"
Nastic sighed. He eyed each table he could see. They were all occupied. "Well, if we don't find a free table within a few minutes, we're leaving. No questions."
"I have a question."
"What is the question?"
Long Winded looked around. Then, he looked at Nastic. "Why not wait a few more minutes?"
"I don't know how long these fancy ponies are going to be eating," Nastic answered. "Look, just go and do your job of finding a free table and we'll just go away from here if we don't find a free table."
Nastic flew away.
Long Winded and Abdo looked at each other. "I guess we're going to do this as a team," Long Winded said.
"You want me to scout out this area?" Abdo asked, pointing over to one part of the restaurant.
"I'll scout out the other area," Long Winded said.
They both smiled.
Then, they flew away.



Nastic approached one of the waiters. "Excuse me, have you found a table? A free one?"
"You mean the one with two changelings?" the waiter asked.
"They already found a table?"
"I think so," the waiter said.
"I think not!"
"Go ask another waiter," the waiter said. "I'm not willing to waste my time with customers like you." The waiter then trotted away.
Nastic looked at the trotting waiter. Then, he looked at the tables.
All of them were occupied with fancy ponies. There were no other changelings in sight.
Nastic sighed. "Where are you, Long Winded?" Nastic asked. "Don't you go around finding tables without me being there! I shouldn't have asked them to do that when I went away!"
Nastic flew.
He looked around, passing by more and more tables that only had ponies, not changelings.
Then, he turned around and saw more tables. Most of them had ponies on them as well. However, one of the tables had changelings.
Nastic flew towards the table.
"We found one!" Long Winded said. He smiled. "Aren't you excited that we found a table and that we could eat here and eat all the fancy food we can see?"
"We did it as a team!" Abdo added.
"Well, I didn't find a table," Nastic said.
"At least you have us!" Long Winded said.