//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: With the Help of a Wolf 
// by bronzewolf78 
//------------------------------//

Chapter five

After taking two wrong turns, with oddly no one to ask for directions I eventually arrived at Twilight’s house. It seemed deathly quiet, especially if all of the girls were supposed to be hanging out inside. From my own experiences, a group of girls is not normally a quiet group. 
I hesitated at the front door. Should I just go back? No, Fluttershy told me to come here. Knowing her, she probably asked ahead of time for permission for me. She might even feel disappointed if I didn’t show up. Maybe-
Fuck it. I knocked on the door, and it slowly opened, but no-one was there on the other side. It was unlocked, and unlatched. Against my better instinct, I crept inside, although ‘creep’ is not the right word, because my hooves made loud noises on the wood floors. My head illuminated most of the room, but I still couldn’t see the far side. It made me wonder what happened to the girls. 
The door slammed behind me. Before I had enough time to freak out, the lights turned on.
Dozens of ponies jumped out from hiding places, yelling “SURPRISE!”, including a pink one with a poofy pink mane that somehow jumped up from below my field of vision. Music started playing.
She got in my face and went on to ramble so quickly that I could barely follow. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you! Were you surprised? Were ya? Were ya? I was so excited when Twilight told me about a new pony, because if there’s a new pony in town, it means a new friend! And I love making new friends! Even if they don’t want to be! I remember there used to be this cranky old donkey, his name was Cranky Doodle Donkey! At first, he was really cranky and sad, but nopony can withstand the happiness of Pinkie Pie for long! I always cheer everypony up! So what kind of cupcakes do you like? My favorite is-”
I tuned her out, and I saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash watching. Rainbow was hovering, keeping weight off of her hurt leg. They were remarking to each other. “Do ya think it was a good idea lettin’ Pinkie go full throttle on this one?” Applejack was saying.
Rainbow was laughing so hard that she was crying. “Man, this is too funny!”
Applejack chuckled along.
“-and then there’s the Grand Galloping Gala, which is this huge party they throw in Canterlot! And I thought ‘I love parties! I want to go! It’s the only place for me!’ But then when we got there it turned out to be one of those boring parties thrown by those snooty Canterlot nobles! But with all of my friends there, it wasn’t too much of a drag! I’m sure this party isn’t going to be a drag! I remember when Twilight first came to Ponyville! I surprised her so good at her party! But back then she wasn’t interested in friends and I didn’t see her for the whole party! I only saw her when we all went out to watch the sun rise! But the sun didn’t rise because meanypants Nightmare Moon wanted to keep it night forever! And then we-”
I heard Applejack again. “Should we stop her yet? She could keep on all night like this.”
Oh no. Please no...
“No way! This is gold!” I could barely understand Rainbow through her laughing.
“Ah feel sorry fer him. Ah’m goin’ over there.”
Oh thank you Applejack!
“-And then there was that other time when we-” Suddenly there was an orange hoof in Pinkie’s mouth.
“That’s quite enough Pinkie. I know ya’ll’re excited about yer new friend, but fer land’s sakes, let him breathe!” Applejack smiled at me.
I nodded my thanks to her as Rainbow joined us, still hovering, seemingly recovered from her laughing fit. “Having fun, Rainbow?” I asked, trying to let her know that I saw her enjoyment out of my misfortune. 
She smiled guiltily and shrugged. Pinkie suddenly shouted, “Come on ponies! Let’s PAAAARTAAAYYYY!” then triple-backflipped into the midst of the dancing crowd.
“How did she-” I started to ask.
“Don’t bother. Even Twilight couldn’t figure Pinkie out.” Rainbow Dash laughed.
I noticed a refreshment table set up near the back. “Hey, are there any hard drinks here?”
“Of course not, silly! There are foals here!” Pinkie cartwheeled into view, then jumped away again.
“Wha-nevermind. Good. Never liked alcohol.” I said, leading Applejack and Rainbow towards the table. There were all sorts of baked goods, and I’ll look at the drinks later, but some pink cupcakes caught my attention. I never had lunch, and I’ve always had a huge appetite. Especially when it came to sweets.
Rainbow and Applejack both picked up a cupcake. Applejack took the paper off hers and threw the cupcake in the air, catching the whole thing in her mouth. I will never understand these ponies. Rainbow chuckled. “Nice.” She landed on her hind legs, using her wings to keep her balance. She then proceeded to do the same with hers, a little higher this time, catching it flawlessly. By now Applejack was done chewing. Rainbow chose another cupcake and made a throwing motion to Applejack, who seemed to understand and backed up a few paces. Rainbow gave the cupcake a high lob with her good hoof to Applejack, who took another step back and again ate the treat flawlessly. 
I looked on in what some would consider awe. Rainbow leaned over and closed my mouth with the splint on her hoof. As I was looking at her face, which was only a couple of feet from mine, I couldn’t help but notice that a scabbed gash on her forehead, above her left eye, was the only thing marring her wild charm. I wondered how she even got so scraped up on a dirt road.
She looked back to Applejack, who had another cupcake in hoof. She launched it in an arc towards Rainbow. Another perfect catch followed.
“How much have you guys practiced that?” I asked in wonder. I then realized that they had both had two cupcakes each, and I hadn’t even finished the one in my hoof. The rest of it disappeared in one bite.
“Oh, we do this at every one of Pinkie’s parties,” Applejack said, coming back to stand by us again. I chose another cupcake.
“Pinkie always makes so many extra, so it doesn’t really matter if we miss. Even though we never really do anymore,” Rainbow boasted with a smirk.
I handed Rainbow my cupcake and motioned away from the group. “Try me. It looks fun.”
Rainbow laughed while she waited for me to get far enough away. Then she lobbed it towards me, much like she did for Applejack. 
I saw it coming, and for some reason I was more excited about catching it than anything else since I came to Equestria. Time seemed to slow down, and some undeniable urge came to me to just jump for it. So I did. I pushed off with my front legs and launched myself skyward with my back legs. I could see every pony in the room, but all of my attention was on the tumbling pink prey in my vision. My mouth was open wide, and my treat was in the middle of my crosshairs. I chomped down and was rewarded with sweet baked perfection.
I landed and suddenly became aware of my surroundings again. I felt so many kinds of awkward as I made my way back towards the refreshment table. Rainbow was laughing and Applejack was chuckling. My face grew warm as I approached them.
“That was awesome!” Rainbow said as I came within earshot, which wasn’t very far away considering how loud the party was.
“Y'all looked like Winona when Ah toss her a stick!”
I didn’t know who it was that Applejack referenced in her simile. “Who?”
“Mah herdin’ dog, Winona. Y'all got that same look on yer face.”
“I never thought that I’d be compared to a dog,” I retorted, smiling to show that I wasn’t offended.
Before either of the mares could respond, the music changed. (A/N:I’m sorry. Please don’t hate me.) I winced and Rainbow and Applejack visibly cringed.
“I’m gonna go put in a request,” I said. They nodded.
I saw two tall speakers on the far wall. I assumed that a mixing table was in between them, blocked from my sight by the crowd, some of which were looking as displeased as I felt. Others just kind of stopped dancing, and a few seemed to be enjoying themselves. 
Being physically larger than most of the ponies in my way, I could have just shoved through the crowd, but I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Some of these ponies looked so small and fragile. I started to carefully make my way towards the speakers, and after a couple of steps, I remembered what I was listening to. The black boxes of house-shaking awesomeness were being misused. I bumped ponies out of my way a little less gently, and my progress was faster.
When I reached the source of the ear rape, I saw a familiar blue top to a white pony tossing a stallion out of his previous spot behind the mixing table. I smiled as I saw that Vinyl and I thought alike.
The stallion had a brown coat and a lighter brown mane. He looked angry, understandably. But I held only a twinge of sympathy for him. Someone with that taste in music shouldn’t be a DJ. The music mercifully stopped as Vinyl took out the vinyl. Heh. He was yelling at his usurper.
“I don’t care who you are! Those are my tables!”
Vinyl didn’t even look down at him as she looked through the disks he had brought. “Don’t worry everpony! Just some technical difficulties! DJ PON-3 is in the house!” Cheers erupted from the crowd. She muttered to herself. “What shit is this? Why did you bring this crap to a party?”
“That is art! I demand that you let me get back to the job I was hired for!”
Enough of this. “Hey buddy,” I addressed the stallion.
He turned and the anger in his expression turned to surprise and fear. I guess this is the life of a living torch. Do I really look that freakish? The memory of when Bronze showed me my reflection came back. Yes... Dammit.
The stallion was still looking up at me, shrinking back more and more. Well, might as well make the most out of it.
I leaned in close and whispered loudly, “This is the part where you run away.”
A cloud of smoke and the slam of the door were the only signs he hadn’t teleported. Vinyl’s chuckle brought me back to the current moment. 
“Nice job there. Thanks for that. How are my shades working for you?”
“You left these there? I thought they looked familiar. I picked them up because I thought that Twilight would be able to tell me whose they were. You want them back?”
She smirked. “Nah, keep ‘em for now. So what’d you come over here for?”
“Same reason you did. Find anything better?”
“Not from him. Fortunately, this library is the place for most of the parties that happen in Ponyville.”
“Ironic.”
“I know, right? Well, here or the town hall. Or Pinkie’s house. Anyway, I keep records stashed around for times like this!” Vinyl tapped the wall behind her with a hoof. A panel slid open and a rack of upright records slid out. “Hey, can you do me a favor?” She picked one up from the end.
“What is it?” A favor for this mare could only be a fun one.
“I made this a long time ago, and since then, I feel like it needs something else. I haven’t had the opportunity to remake it, and I need somepony with a deep voice.”
“Sure. What do you want me to do?”
“Can you dance?”
“Uh, depends. Freestyle? Sure. Slow, country, or intimate, no.”
“Great. Go out there into the middle. I’ll start up this record, and when I give you the signal, you stand up and shout, ‘DJ, spin that record.’ Then, when the beats hit heavily, I need you to make a spectacle of yourself. Got it?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle, and I couldn’t refuse. I had wanted to be a DJ since I was a kid, and now I was getting the chance to work with one. Score! “Isn’t that a little… I don’t know, cheesy?”
“Just work with me here. If we can get this right, it’ll sound awesome.”
“Alright, I’ll do it. What’s the signal?”
“You’ll know.” she turned her attention back to her tables, and I took that as a dismissal. I looked back at the crowd and noticed that I could have just gone around the whole thing instead of straight through it. I resisted the urge to facepalm.
I made my way around the crowd back to Rainbow and Applejack. “Hey guys, check this out. Watch the middle.” I weaved my way into the crowd before either could get off a word in response. I’m pretty sure that I had a stupid grin on my face as I made my way towards the middle of the crowd. 
Vinyl looked up and lifted her glasses; immediately, a low note started followed by a higher one. I recognised a build up and I pushed myself back and onto my back hooves, pointing a hoof at Vinyl and shouting in the most rounded tone I could, “DJ, spin that record!”
I started to dance. I didn’t know how ponies dance, so I danced like I used to, on two hooves and awesomely. Ponies started to back up to give me some room, and I saw blurs of orange and cyan next to each other in the circle as I flung myself about. At one point, I threw a punch. It seemed like it fit. I threw in a few pelvic thrusts too, because why not? After a while, Rainbow got shoved into the circle and started dancing like me, spinning in portions to the beat before stepping out again.
If she was going to make this a competition, then I needed to step it up. I started to breakdance, dropping to all fours and then to my front hooves, spinning myself around, keeping my back hooves off of the ground. Then I spun myself into a headspin before rolling out of it. 
All too soon it seemed, the song ended. I stood up, panting a little. A familiar voice broke out over the speakers. 
“Hello, ponies! Are we ready to party?” Deafening cheers sounded all around me. “I said, are we ready to party!” My vision blurred from the ringing in my head from the cheers that were somehow louder than the last ones. “That’s more like it! Who wants to Balloon Party?” Another chorus of assent sounded. “Well, we’ll get to that later!” A couple of boos and awws here heard as she went on. “We’re gonna kickstart this!”
Bass rocked the floor. Someone else got in the circle as I left with Rainbow and Applejack back to the refreshment table. I smiled as I leaned against the table. This was my place to be.
I fell over as Rainbow tackled me with a hug. My head cracked against the floor, and after my vision came back, I could see that she was sitting on me, still in a hug, and going on and on about “oh my gosh, you never told me you were a dancer” and “when are you going to teach me some of those?” Applejack was laughing in the background.
“Ugh, Rainbow-” I interrupted. “Was that really necessary?”
“Um, probably not,” she leaned back and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. Her wings popped open then, renewing Applejack’s laughter. She rolled off of me and tried to subdue her wings.
I stood up while she was occupied and got closer to Applejack. “What was that?”
“Ya don’t know what a wingboner is?” Applejack managed through her chuckles. “That’s odd, y’all being a pegasus and all.”
Uh oh. I could guess what it meant, and I didn’t want things to get awkward. “Great. I’ll just go and… oh yeah, Vinyl wanted me to see her. See ya!” I left as quickly as I could, Applejack’s laughter fading away, covered by the blasting bass. 
I made my way back over to Vinyl, trying to not think of the implications of Rainbow’s… wingboner. The white DJ was still rocking it at the mixing tables. 
“So how’d I do?” I asked with a sarcastic smug grin on my face.
“That was awesome! Nice dancing, by the way.”
“Thanks. So is what you do at parties? Just stand off to the side?”
She looked at me. “I don’t just stand off to the side. I provide the beats, man! I’m not much of a conversationalist, either.” She turned back to her passion.
“Me neither. But based on my inadequate experience, you seem to be doing well.”
She chuckled. “Maybe.”
We stood in companionable silence as I watched her work her magic. Most of the time she simply stood there, bobbing her head to the beat, occasionally dialing a knob, pushing a button, sliding a lever. I wish I knew how to do that. I could ask her to teach me. No, I’m sure she has better things to do...
Her voice interrupted my thoughts. “So how are you liking those sunglasses?”
“I like them. It’s not too dark in here.”
“You know what the best part of wearing shades is?”
“Aside from looks?”
“Yeah. Nobody can see your eyes.”
“What’s so great about that?” 
“Well, you and me, we’re different. Ponies freak about our eyes. We can just hide them, and all that anypony does is give you grief about wearing them at night or inside.”
Right, we both have red eyes. Out of sight, out of mind is true then. “I guess there’s that. I always liked them because nobo-nopony can tell where you’re looking.”
“That sounds a little…” she paused, trying to think of an appropriate word. “creepy, doesn’t it?”
“Not if you think about it in the right way. I used to wear sunglasses to check out the chicks that go by. Being of the female persuasion, you probably already know this, but wo-mares don’t really like being stared at. So, if they don’t know I’m staring, they can’t feel uncomfortable.”
“That’s not how it-”
“That is how it works. In my head. Its justified.” I interrupted her with a ridiculous argument. 
“I can see where this is going, and I’m not even going to bother.” She laughed, waving away the topic.
“I’ve always wanted to be a DJ. I just never had the time to get started with it.” Oops. It slipped out, and I panickedly looked into her lenses to see a reaction, trying to keep a collected face. I’m sure that my eyes would have given me away, if not for the shades.
“The basics are easy to learn and hard to implement well. But you’ll get used to them after a while.”
She didn’t even notice. Thank god. But why did that even happen? I’m not one to just blurt things out. Maybe I was just excited about being behind the DJ booth. Maybe it was-
Something small and brown caught my eye as it flashed by the window, running on the windowsill and disappearing. I had to fight the urge to chase it.
When I realized what I was doing, I found myself pointed towards the window, in a crouch ready to dash at the slightest provocation. I stood up and shook my head to clear it. What am I doing? I’ve never had the urge to chase small woodland creatures… Sure, I’ve had the occasional pellet rifle kill, but that’s completely different… right?
I looked back down at Vinyl, who didn’t seem to notice my odd attitudes. Man, she gets really into her work.
I spent a long while with Vinyl behind the stand. She even let me flip a couple records on and off the table. Eventually another memorable piece of conversation came up. 
“Hey, you’re getting the hang of it!”
“Yeah, this is pretty fun!” I felt pretty excited. I looked up from the tables at her.
Vinyl looked at me for a couple of seconds, then jerked as if she had realized what she was doing. I raised an eyebrow at her, then remembered that I was wearing large shades. I smirked at her instead. 
“Sorry. Zoned out.”
I chuckled. “It happens.”
We talked for another (shorter) while until I caught a bobbing group of rainbow colors making its way towards where Vinyl and I were standing. I looked for a yellow mane next to it, but I couldn’t find Applejack. 
“You’ve got quite the DJ there, Scratch,” Rainbow greeted her with a nod.
“Yeah, he’s even got the look for it.”
“What look would that be?” I asked.
“Shades and wild hair,” Rainbow put in.
“Exactly!” Vinyl beamed.
Three small blurs popped out from in between the legs of ponies who were on the side of the crowd and rolled into my side before stopping. One was yellow, one was orange, and one was white. The fillies sat on the ground for a second, dazed, before they looked up at me at the same time.
“Woah, he looks awesome!” The one on the left, the orange pegasus with purple hair, slowly turned into an open-mouthed smile of awe.
“Yeah!” The white one in the middle had a two tone mane and a squeaky voice. “I really like your mane!” Oww…My ears…
“Is that real?” The yellow filly with a bow in her hair was looking at my tail.
“Uh, yeah?” I looked up from them to Rainbow. She laughed.
“They like you!”
I felt something on my tail. I turned my head to see that the yellow one was putting her hoof through it. “It’s warm! But it doesn’t burn!” she concluded. The other two were right next to her, all six eyes riveted on the spectacle before them. That’s smart. They see a fire and the first thing they think of is to touch it.
Rainbow laughed. “These three are the CMC.”
“The what now?”
“THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” the three of them shouted together. 
The orange one went on, “We’re on a crusade to get our cutie marks!” They went back to inspecting my tail.
“This is Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom,” Rainbow introduced them. As she said their names, one by one they straightened and smiled. Then they went back to my tail at the same time. 
I turned back to Rainbow. “Why are they so synchronized?”
She shrugged. “They were meant for each other. They’re alike in every way.”
I felt a weight on my shoulder. Scootaloo was feeling the back of my neck, the only place of my mane that she could reach. I know that kids are curious, but isn’t this a little much?
“C’mon guys, thats enough,” I tried to say kindly. The ‘CMC’ zipped around in front of me and started to bombard me with questions. I couldn’t follow any of them, but I thought I heard a ‘Can you adopt me’ somewhere in there. “Woah, woah, one at a time.”
“What does that feel like?”
“What, the mane?” They nodded. “Like a normal mane, I guess.”
“How did you get it like that? A spell?”
Warning bells went off in my head. It probably wasn’t a very good idea to tell them about a chaos demon if they didn’t already know about it… On the other hand, they’d probably figure it out anyway.
“Long story. I’ll tell you later.” I almost said ‘when you’re older.’ I realized they hadn’t even asked for my name yet. “I’m Hot Head, by the way.”
“Where are you from? What do you like to do?...” The questions started faster again.
“Girls, look. I’ll be happy to tell you my life story, but right now we’re at a party!”
They looked a little disappointed. I heard a build to a bass drop coming, and I leaned over and gradually slid the volume slider up.
Applebloom glanced at my tail again, then pulled the other two into a huddle. I glanced at Rainbow, who wasn’t there. Probably went back to Applejack. 
The CMC straightened out again, smiling. There was something about the way they did it that I didn’t like.
“Ya don’t have a cutie mark either!”
“No, I suppose I don’t.” I had no idea where they were going with this.
“So that means that you’re eligible to become a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”
“Uhh…” I’ve always had trouble saying no to kids. “Sure, why not?”
“Alright! We’ll have the initiation tomorrow!”
Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes at Scootaloo. “Did you ever rewrite the script?”
“Uh, maybe?”
They seemed to forget that I was there as they walked away, discussing what they were going to do with whatever later. I looked back to Vinyl, who I couldn’t tell if she had been watching the whole thing or ignoring it. “What did I just get myself into?”
“Dunno, bro.”