6 months later
Willow Bloom sat in Sugarcube Corner with tears in her eyes. She felt so useless, and now that Cella had moved away she felt so alone.
Pinkie Pie walked over to her table.
“Why so glum Willow Bloom?” She asked.
“I miss Cella.”
“I’m sure every Filly in ponyville does, she was very sweet.” Pinkie said, pulling up a chair to sit beside Willow, “Do you wanna talk about it?”
“I dunno, I just want her to come back.”
“That makes sense, if one of my friends moved away, oh I don’t even know what I’d do!”
“Yeah, that’s how I feel, I don’t know what to do.”
“Well I can give you a suggestion,” Pinkie said, sliding a cupcake in front of the filly, “have a sweet and go out to find some other foals to hang out with. I know it won’t be the same, but one friend moving doesn’t mean you can’t make more!”
“Thanks Pinkie,” Willow whinnied, taking a small bite of the cupcake, it was caramel swirl, her favorite. She watched Pinkie walk back behind the counter to serve another pony.
“I guess I can try…” she said, standing up and walking out the doors of the bake shop.
“Find new foals…” she whinnied to herself and looked around, “new foals, new foals, hmmm.” It was like there wasn’t a single foal in all of Ponyville at this moment.
She felt a quick breeze race past her, sending her toppling to the ground.
“Careful Scootaloo! You just knocked somepony over!” She heard a voice yell, she turned to see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom standing in front of her.
Apple Bloom held out a hoof, “are you alright Willow Bloom?”
Willow stood up and dusted herself off, “yeah, I’m fine.”
“Well that’s a relief!” Sweetie Belle whinnied.
“Scootaloo! You knocked Willow Bloom over!” Apple Bloom called after her friend.
Scoots turned around and turned her scooter swiftly, zipping her way back to the other three fillies.
“Sorry Willow!” Scootaloo said.
“It’s alright.”
“I should have been more careful… hey, you look a little blue, you doing alright?”
Willow sighed, “…not really.”
“Missing Cella?” Apple Bloom asked.
Willow nodded.
“We completely understand,” Sweetie Belle whinnied, “must be really hard to watch a best friend move away.”
“If you want to get your mind off of it you can come hang out with us,” Apple Bloom offered.
“Thanks guys, what are you doing?”
“We’re headed over to Scootaloo’s Aunts’ house,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Are you sure I’m allowed to come?” Willow asked.
“Of course!” Scootaloo whinnied, “Auntie Lofty and Holiday love having guests!”
“Okay.”
The four fillies walked down the dirt paths of ponyville, making their way to the house.
Scootaloo opened the door.
“Hello You three!” Auntie Lofty said, “oh hello you four.”
“Did you fillies bring another friend?” Holiday asked.
“Yep!” Scootaloo whinnied, “Auntie Holiday, Auntie Lofty, meet Willow Bloom!”
Willow waved to the two mares, “hi there.”
“Why hello there Willow Bloom.” Holiday said with a smile, “welcome to our humble abode.”
“You’ve got good timing miss Willow, I just finished a batch of cookies,” Lofty said.
“Ooh! Yay!” Scootaloo squeaked, “Auntie Lofty makes the best cookies!”
The four fillies trotted into the house and sat down on the couch.
Lofty walked in with some cookies on a platter and Holiday sat down next to the foals.
“Any new cutie mark adventures crusaders?” She asked.
“Of course!” Apple Bloom replied, “we’ve been helping all sorts of ponies!”
“Uh huh!” Scootaloo agreed, “Like just yesterday! We met a griffon! Have either of you ever met a griffon?”
“No, I don’t think I have…” Holiday began.
“I have.” Lofty interrupted, “When your friend Rainbow Dash brought her griffon friend to town.”
“Right, Gilda!” Scootaloo said, “well we met another one!”
Sweetie Belle nodded, “her name is Gabby, she came looking for us!”
Willow Bloom looked over, “she did? Did you do something to her?”
Apple Bloom shook her head, “not at all, she came looking because she wanted a cutie mark!”
Willow Bloom stared, tilting her head in a confused glance, “but, Griffons can’t get cutie marks… can they?”
“No they can’t,” Sweetie Belle said, “but she realized it wasn’t really the cutie mark she was looking for.”
Scootaloo nodded, “she just wanted to know what she was meant to do! And we helped her figure it out!”
“And what was it?” Willow asked, eager curiosity glowing in her eyes.
“She wanted to help creatures, in any way she could!” Apple Bloom said with a smile, “and because of it we made her a cutie mark of her own, see!”
Apple Bloom set a photo on the table in front of Willow. Pictures were the crusaders and a small grey griffon, attached to her saddle bags sat a lovely wooden carving, set in the shape of a shield, it mimicked the very marks the crusaders bore on their flanks.
“That’s wonderful, you three really do know how to help everycreature don’t you?” Holiday asked with a smile.
Scootaloo nodded giving a bright grin, then she turned to Willow Bloom.
“So cool right?” She asked.
Willow nodded, she was smiling now, quite a bit happier. It was hard to be sad around the crusaders. They had this kind of joy that surrounded them, and it was very contagious.
“You know what ponies,” Willow said, “if a griffin can find their destiny without a mark, maybe I can too. I mean, surely these scars must mean something.”
“That’s the spirit Willow!” Scootaloo cheered her on.
“Want our help figuring it out?” Apple Bloom asked.
Willow nodded, “sure, couldn’t hurt right?”
The crusaders nodded, and the four fillies left Lofty and Holiday’s housed waving a friendly goodbye.
“So Willow Bloom, what do you want to try first?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Willow sat for a moment, “maybe let’s start with what we already know.”
“And what’s that?” Scootaloo asked.
“Whatever this scar means, it must have something to do with battle right? That’s how I gained it, so it must have something to do with my destiny right?”
“It’s a good start!” Apple Bloom said, “so what kind of fighting stuff are you good at Willow?”
“I’m not sure…”
“Well you have always been feisty.” Sweetie Belle mentioned.
“And ever since we’ve known you, you have fought against mean ponies!” Scootaloo added.
As the fillies spoke a small piece of paper floated to the ground in front of Willow. She picked it up with her healthy wing and stared at it.
“Everypony… I think I know what it means,” she said, turning the flyer around for the Crusaders to see.
“Join the royal guard trainees today…” Apple Bloom read aloud.
“If I’m good at fighting bad ponies, then that’s just what I’ll do.”