Chapter 4
-New Friends and Enemies-
After several games of frisbee had passed, all of which hadn’t been about who won or lost but more about who had the most fun, Wonderwing’s mother had all said that it was time to get ready to head to Sugarcube Corner. As promised, Dinky and her friends, “helped,” Wonderwing and Flower Petal head over to the direction of the bakery. Once inside, the sight surprised the pegasus foal.
A whole assortment of decorations ranging from balloons and streamers to a huge, “WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!” banner hung all across the room. There was an extremely good looking spread of food, ranging from cookies and candy to soda pop and punch. Plus, to the pegasus foal’s surprise, everypony that had attended were all being introduced to him as if they were some part of his family. He had also met the other Elements of Harmony as they introduced themselves, each of them in turn were more impressive than the stories he had heard about them all.
“So this here’s the little one o’ yers Flower Petal?” Applejack, the first pony that Wonderwing had met besides Pinkie Pie at the party asked.
“Of course he is.” Flower Petal said happily, watching as the cowpony nodded.
“Well it sure is nice ta meetcha’ Wonderwing.” Applejack said, shaking his hoof again. “Yer jes’ gonna like it here in Ponyville. Ah just know it.”
Wonderwing nodded, looking a little scared as Applejack trotted off. The foal watched as she began talking to Rarity, who was apparently a pony that wanted to dress him up in a new line that she was creating but was dragged away from him by Applejack before she could get any measurements done on him.
He could see that Pinkie Pie was busy wandering around, making sure that ponies were happy at the party she threw for him, and popped up from crowd to crowd like a party-hardy mole would. Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy chased after her, apologizing as they went in a vain attempt to calm her down, while Rainbow Dash was just watching from a table in the front, trying her best not to giggle at the whole spectacle.
“Hey, you’re that foal from earlier aren’t you?” A voice asked from behind Wonderwing. The pegasus turned, watching as the unicorn that had shown up earlier that day smiled at him gently.
“Uh...” Wonderwing said, shying away from the unicorn a little as he struggled for something to say.
“Heh, I know this is something you didn’t expect when you got here.” The unicorn continued. “But this is what Pinkie Pie usually does. I’m Sweetie Belle by the way.” She said.
“Wonderwing... I’m Wonderwing.” Wonderwing replied.
Sweetie Belle smiled, before extending one of her hooves to the pegasus. “It’s nice to meet you Wonderwing.” She said.
“Sweetie Belle, come on!” A voice moaned. Both foals looked up to see that both the orange pegasus foal and the yellow earth pony foal from earlier were sitting at a table with Dinky, Pipsqueak, and Twist. The orange pegasus appeared to be a little peeved at Sweetie Belle, but the unicorn paid it no mind as she waved the pegasus off before turning back to Wonderwing.
“Well I was just wondering, we’re telling stories of how we tried getting our cutie marks,” Sweetie Belle explained. “And we need somepony else to join up with us. Are you game?” She asked.
“Telling stories is a game?” Wonderwing asked.
“Of course it is!” Sweetie Belle answered. “Now come on, time’s a waistin’.” She said, dragging Wonderwing without so much as a second thought over to their table.
When they got over to the table, Wonderwing was introduced to Scootaloo and Applebloom who were the ones that came up with the idea in the first place. Wonderwing was trying his best to be friendly, but was completely nervous as the other six foals gave him the feeling that he was an outsider. That quickly changed however.
Scootaloo, who apparently idolized Rainbow Dash, had a story where she had tried to perform a Sonic Rainboom using a scooter and a ramp that she had constructed. Her entire goal was to get going fast enough that she would use the ramp at the bottom of a large enough hill to get her airborne and getting her cutie mark. The foals cringed when she told them that she rode her scooter in during a stampede that started only ten seconds into the run.
Applebloom’s story wasn’t as bad as Scootaloo’s, she wanted to do some simple jump rope tricks, but got tangled in the rope before her first jump.
As the stories were passed around from foal to foal, Wonderwing realized something. “I don’t have a story to tell...” He thought, swallowing a small lump in his throat. As Twist finished her story, which was hard enough to follow as it was, everypony at the small table clapped their hooves together as Twist took a bow.
“Wow Twist, I didn’t know that bubblegum and honey could be so dangerous.” Scootaloo complimented.
“That wathn’t the wortht part though.” Twist replied. “I don’t think that I got all of the bubblegum out of my mane when I went to get cleaned up.” The other foals cringed, before turning their attention to Wonderwing.
“Well Wonderwing, what sort of story do you have for us?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Maybe by the look of you, you probably caused a bit of damage in trying to find your cutie mark.” Scootaloo said.
Wonderwing said nothing, looking away from the other foals. He didn’t want them to know that his father had kept him from trying to find out who he was by keeping him locked in the house. As he remained quiet, looking for something to say but finding nothing he heard a loud thumping noise begin to echo from the center of the bakery. Somehow, for whatever reason or another, Pinkie Pie had managed to find room for and invite a DJ who was busy generating the new atmosphere for the party. It was a minor distraction, but it provided the opportunity for Wonderwing to come up with something.
“Well, do you have a story?” Scootaloo asked. “Or did you just not want to find your cutie mark?”
“I do want to find my cutie mark.” Wonderwing said calmly. “In fact I still do. But the thing is, after what had happened back home, my dad didn’t want me to find out who I am until I get a lot older.”
“What happened?” Applebloom asked as she and the other foals seemed to be intrigued.
Wonderwing took a deep breath before looking to the foals that were now listening to him. “Well, you see when I was a lot smaller my father was going on one of his business trips and he wanted me to mind my manners with the foal sitter that he’d paid to watch me for the weekend.”
“Foal Sitter? You?” Scootaloo interrupted, receiving a light nudge from Sweetie Belle. “What, he doesn’t look like a pony that would need a foal sitter.”
“Yeah, well you need to be quiet.” Sweetie Belle scolded. “Let him finish his story.”
As soon as Scootaloo quieted down, Wonderwing smiled before continuing. “Well my foal sitter was nice, not as nice as everypony here in Ponyville but she was nice to me. And while she was gone off to get some snacks for us, I wanted to make something extra special for her and find my cutie mark at the same time. My foal sitter came back, a few minutes before my father came home, and well let’s just say that the whole house was covered in cement-like batter.”
The foals all stopped, giving Wonderwing strange looks. He looked away from them again, hearing a small cough come from Dinky before looking back up.
“Oooookay... That was a short one. You got anything else?” Scootaloo asked.
“Sorry, I haven’t really had any time to find out who I am. Father wants me to focus on being a smart pony.” Wonderwing replied, hearing audible gasps from the other foals. He watched as they all huddled up, keeping their heads low and whispering about themselves with one of them keeping an eye on Wonderwing closely before they all sat back down. “What’s wrong?” Wonderwing asked.
“Well we had an idea about you since we saw you. Well it was more Applebloom than all of us.” Sweetie Belle explained.
“Ya see, Ah thought that you haven’t actually tried searchin’ for your cutie mark. And what pony doesn’t want to know who they really ahr?” Applebloom asked.
“And its our job as the Cutie Mark Crusaders to help you find out who you are Wonderwing.” Scootaloo said proudly.
“The Cutie Mark Who?” Wonderwing asked.
“The Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Dinky repeated. “We’re all apart of a secret society dedicated to helping ponies get their cutie marks. It’s really fun and stuff, we get to hang out together and go on crusades and try things that we haven’t tried before to get our cutie marks.”
“Dinky, Twist and myself are members too. And we’re going to help you get your cutie mark.” Pipsqueak said happily.
“But firtht we need to thee if you can actually keep up with uth.” Twist said.
“So, you want to get your cutie mark?” Scootaloo asked.
Wonderwing remained silent for a moment and weighed his options. He had never met any of these foals before today, and based on the stories that he had just listened to they did a lot of dangerous things. But they seemed to look like they wouldn’t hurt him, so after gathering up what little courage that he had, Wonderwing nodded. “Sure, it sounds like fun.” He said.
“You won’t regret this Wonderwing, trust us.” Scootaloo said. “You’ll have a lot of fun when you hang out with us and discover who you are.”
“Yeah, and when you get your cutie mark, don’t be like Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and think that it makes you better than everypony else.” Sweetie Belle warned.
“I won’t.” Wonderwing said before he hopped out of his chair. The table with all of the food looked extremely appetizing right about now, and he was getting hungry.
“Where you goin’?” Applebloom asked.
“I’m just getting something to eat.” Wonderwing replied.
“Hey that sounds like a good idea.” Scootaloo said. “Come on crusaders!” The other foals cheered before following Scootaloo and Wonderwing’s lead over to the table with all of the food that was laid out for the party. A good bit of it was gone already but it didn’t stop them from taking what they could get their hooves on and devouring it.
The Welcome to Ponyville Party lasted well beyond Wonderwing’s bed time, and by the time that Flower Petal had found him, he was gently sleeping alone next to the front door with a bit of cake frosting on his face. Flower Petal smiled, gently picking up Wonderwing with her magic and placing him on her back before turning to Pinkie Pie and the Cakes. After bidding them a good night and making sure that Wonderwing was still asleep, she quietly made the trip back home.