//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 the party 
// Story: Trickster and Steelwing the Equestrian outcasts Part 1 
// by Bronyraptor26 
//------------------------------//

        Steelwing was born into the Forge family, who were known for their amazing metalworking ability and craftsmanship. He lived just outside of Manehatten in the foundry ran by the Forge family. During these days his father taught him the Forge families art of metalworking and his mother taught him how to fly and told him stories of her travels across Equestria. Around the time he turned six a terrible accident occurred in the foundry, which resulted in the destruction of the foundry and leaving Steelwing as the only surviving member of the Forge family. While in hospital after the accident his right wing had to be amputated due to the severity of his wounds to it and was then told he would no longer be able to fly. Steelwing was unable to accept this, so he found a book that explained the inner workings of flight and the structure of the wing. He spent all his free time designing a new wing and then stealing the needed materials. It took one year of work, but Steelwing succeeded in creating a metal wing that worked the same as a real one and allowed him to fly once more. This endeavor had earned him his cutie mark, which appeared as a metallic shield with a white wing on it that represented his skill in metalworking and the endeavor of creating his wing. In school and in public he was picked on and ridiculed for his strange wing. One school day he was caught stealing pieces of metal from the cafeteria to repair part of his wing and sent to detention. While in detention he met Trickster, the first pony to not ridicule him for his wing. The two quickly became best friends and were inseparable. Upon reaching high school, they met Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, and Steelwing discovered that Trickster was a mare magnet. Everywhere they went, one of the three was there and would go straight to Trickster. After high school Steelwing studied abroad and refined his metalworking skills and took on other crafts. Some time later he moved to Ponyville for its abundant natural resources and the rare materials that could be found in the area, taking up residence in a workshop of his own design. Not many knew who he was and rumors started circulating around him and the workshop. In a strange turn of fate, he was reunited with his friend Trickster who moved to Ponyville some time after him. Trickster had now taken it upon himself to introduce the other ponies to his quite friend.
"Trickster, where are we going?" Steelwing asked as his friend lead him through the town.
"You'll see pal. Just a little longer." The metalworking pony just walked in silence next to Trickster, thinking of what the pegasus had in store for him. They soon reach a brightly colored shop and the sign read Sugar Cube corner.
Steelwing glanced at the sign. "I appreciate the thought, but you know I'm not a fan of sweets." He turned to leave, but Trickster jumped out in front of him.
"We're not here for food. Just... just come on, when have I steered you wrong?" Trickster asked in an innocent tone.
Steelwing thought for a moment. "Well there was that one time in middle school when-"
"Forget I asked. Come on, trust me on this one."
Steelwing let out a sigh and nodded to his friend and they both walked inside. 
Upon stepping through the door party poppers went off and seven mares yelled "Surprise!" in unison.
Trickster stood inbetween the group of mares and a confused Steelwing.
"Girls, this is my best friend Steelwing. Steelwing, these are my fiends I made since coming here. The one in the hat is Applejack."
"Howdy." Applejack said.
"Next to her is Fluttershy."
"H-hi." Fluttershy mummbled.
"The colorful one is Rainbow Dash."
"Another pegasus I see. This'll be fun." Dash responded.
"The fancy one is Rarity."
"How do you do Mr. Steelwing?" Rarity bowed.
"The purple alicorn is Twilight."
"Hello. Trickster told me much about you in college."
"The one bouncing up and down excitedly is Pinkie Pie."
"Hiya, hiya Steely."
"Finally, the last one is Sugar Mint."
"Afternoon." Sugar said happily.
Steelwing looked around with a blank look. "Sorry, I don't do parties, but it was a pleasure meeting you all." He turned to leave once more, only to be stopped by Trickster.
"Dude, please stay for a little while? It's just a small gathering." The other ponies joined in with the convincing, making the light gray pony stop and turn back around.
"Alright, alright. I'll stay." He said and everypony cheered.
He approached the group and Rarity gasped loudly. "Don't tell me you actually went out looking like that!"
Steelwing was taken aback. "What's wrong with how I look?"
"You're coat and mane are filthy!" Rarity held out a mirror for him to see. Trickster had taken him in the middle of work without giving him any time to clean up. There was soot and grease along his coat and his white man was matted and stained from sweat.
"Sit still." Rarity took out a wash cloth and began cleaning the pony's coat. Steelwing froze up. He was unused to contact to this contact and wasn't sure what to do, but decided it would be rude to fight it. Rarity then moved on to brushing Steelwing's mane.
"Okay, thank you, but that's enough." Steelwing said, but Rarity ignored the Stallion's request. "Please stop." Rarity continued to brush. "I said stop!" Steelwing raised his wings to shoo the unicorn away. All eyes fell on his right wing and Twilight immediately ran over to him.
"You're wing..." She stared in disbelief. "It's made of-"
"Yes, I know. It's made of metal and looks weird."
"What!? No! It's actually quite fascinating! Please, you must tell me sometime how it works. I see no difference between the movement time of it and you're real wing. It is as if it you were actually born with it." Twilight explained, taking Steelwing by surprise.
"I must say... the craftsmanship is of high quality. Where ever did you get it from?" Rarity asked from behind Steelwing.
"Get it? No, I made it myself. You see, I'm of the Forge family."
"The Forge family! You say YOU'RE a member of the Forge family!? Their craftsmanship is considered the best across Equestria!" Rarity came around in front. "Tell me, what happened to your family? Nopony has seen any of their work in years."
Steelwing frowned and struggled for words. "Well you see... I'm the last one." Everypony stared wide-eyed.
"W-what happened to the others?" Twilight asked.
"You see... the entire Forge family lived in a foundry in Manehatten... but... an accident happened when I was still a young colt." Tears were welling up in his eyes. "And I was the only one to survive out of my 23 other family members. That accident is also what took my wing..." Steelwing stopped and hid his eyes behind a hoof in attempt to prevent his tears from falling.
Silence lingered in the room until Applejack spoke up. "... Ah'... Ah' heard about it... Saw it in the paper the day after it happened. I was still a little filly when I saw it, but I remember it now. The collapsed building, the melted rubble, the headline calling it a tragedy. Didn't know the only pony that made it out alive was just a colt." Applejack placed a hoof around Steelwing's shoulder, causing him to look up. "Ah' know how it feels losing both yer parents, but ah' can't say ah' know how it feels to lose yer whole family, I can only assume how lonely it must feel."
"I feel awful now." Rarity said. "I treated you so poorly in high school because of your wing. If only I known. I'm sorry"
"Whaaaa!" Pinkie Pie cried. "I'm sorry for being such a meanie in high school, too! Please forgive me!" She gave Steelwing a bone crushing hug of forgiveness.
Fluttershy, too, gave the metalworker a hug. "I'm sorry you went through all that. How awful it must of been." The other ponies approached Steelwing and gave him reassuring smiles.
"So Steelwing, mind telling us a little about yourself?" Rainbow Dash asked after Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had released Steelwing and things calmed down.
“Like what?” Steelwing returned the question with one of his own.
“How about telling us about your family?” Twilight suggested.
“My family… okay. My father was an earth pony named Ingot, and he was the one who taught me about just about everything I know about metalworking. He always had something to new to teach me and would stop whatever it was he was doing to take a look at something I made. He had a habit of stroking his beard if something was interesting to him, so I always got ecstatic when he did that before he gave me an honest evaluation on what I made. I still remember how he would tell me how proud he was to see me working so hard at such a young age.” Steelwing stopped and thought for a moment before continuing. “My was Thundercloud, a pegasus used to be a part of the weather team before she moved to Manehatten. She was so out of place in the foundry, a young pegasus among mostly earth ponies and unicorns running machinery. You wouldn’t believe how happy she was to see I was a pegasus, dad told me once she just about shot out of her coat when she got the news. As soon as I could stand on my own, she began teaching me how to fly and showed me the wonders of the sky. She promised me once I was old enough, we would fly across Equestria so she could show me all the wonders there are. It was because of her and that promise I made my replacement wing after losing my real one. I will fulfill that promise.”
“Thundercloud… Thundercloud… Wait, was she a teacher at flight camp in Cloudsdale?” Rainbow Dash asked after hearing Steelwing’s story.
Steelwing thought for a moment. “… Yeah… she would volunteer there every so often.”
“Fluttershy and I an awesome teacher by that name! I think at some point she mentioned she had a colt as well. Do you remember her Fluttershy?”
“Oh… uh… yes. She was really nice… but also kind of… scary…”
“Yeah, you never wanted to get her mad. She had a habit of stomping her hooves or kicking something really hard when she got mad.”
Steelwing smiled. “Yep, that was her alright. And you’ll be happy to know, she passed that habit down to me.”
“It’s true.” Trickster jumped in. “No pony ever tried to make him mad after he nailed a bully square in the jaw after school one day. I wonder how that bully would feel now knowing Steelwing got that move from his mom.” Everypony chuckled at the thought.
The party went on with Trickster telling stories about the mischief he and Steelwing caused as colts. The party came to a close some time later and everypony went their separate ways. As Steelwing walked towards his home he encountered another old friend of his. “Steelwing! Is that you?”
Steelwing turned to see Miss Cheerilee walking over to him. He didn’t recognize her at first, but he quickly remembered who she was. “Cheerilee! I didn’t recognize you at first! It’s been ages since we last saw each other. How have things been going with you?” They both were now walking next to each other as they chatted.
“Things have been going good. I’m a teacher now. Got some good students with bright futures, but I should warn you. There are three fillies that have still yet to earn their cutie marks and they have been going around trying to earn them. They’ve been pestering every pony they can find to help them. Don’t be surprised if they come to you and ask you how you got yours or for you to teach them something. They call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
Steelwing chuckled as he imagined the mischief three fillies could cause. “I’ll keep an eye out for them.”
“So tell me, how have things been going with you?”
“Good. Set up my own workshop, made some new friends. Only thing of interest I can say I’m doing right now is researching magic resistant armor.”
“Glad to hear it. Do you have a special somepony?”
“Huh? No.”
“Really? There aren’t any ponies you’re interested in?”
“Nope, can’t say there are.”
“If you want, I could set you up with one of my friends. I know the wonderful mar-”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m fine being single.”
“Come on. You’ll have fun.”
“I said no thanks.” Steelwing said with a hint of irritation.
“Fine, fine. Hey, what if I help you find yourself a special somepony? We could go around town a-” Miss Cheerilee was cut off by the stamping of Steelwing’s hoof wing on the ground.
“Seriously, I appreciate your effort, but tell me, why do you care so much about me getting a special somepony?”
“Because I think it would be good for you.” Steelwing shot her a confused look. “Look, you devoted your life to perfect your craftsmanship in honor of your family’s name and got yourself a workshop. You’ve done everything needed to pick up where your family left off. So don’t you think it is time you finally settle down and be happy now that all the hard work is behind you? You are the last of your family and I distinctly remember you saying the Forge family style can’t be taught.”
Steelwing sighed. “Alright, alright, I get it what you’re telling me. Yes, I have done everything I set out to do since school, so I guess I could try to be… a little more social now… and focus less on my work.” An almost pained look appeared on his face as if he couldn’t believe what he just said.
Miss Cheerilee smiled. “That’s all I’m asking.”
“Good, so will you please get off my back about the subject now? Even in high school you wouldn’t leave me alone about it.”
“Yeah, yeah. I promise, but if you don’t hold up your end Tricks and I will steal your wing and turn it into a fancy lawn decoration.”
“Fair enough.” They chuckled and gave each other a high-hoof for old times sake before going their separate ways. Steelwing continued on towards his home nestled in the Everfree forest. Upon reaching his workshop he entered and immediately flew up to his loft and fell on to his bed in a heap. A large brown falcon swooped down next to him and squawked. “Hey Falchion, any messages for me today?” Falchion turned his head. “No then? That’s good. I’ve had a long day and I’m tired.” Steelwing yawned. “I guess I’ll just take a nap then. Wake me up if anypony comes by.” Falchion squawked and flew off, letting Steelwing take his desired nap.