Chapter 2
Selfless Generosity and Loyal Trust
"The stallions arrived! Just as you predicted sir."
"Excellent. Soon, their will be nothing to stop me. Get ready."
----------------------------------------------
Twilight took the remaining four stallions to Sugercube Corner so they could see the bakery and retrieve their friend. But when they arrived, they saw the Cakes looking a little distraught and amused.
"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Cake...is everything alright?" Twilight asked, looking over their shoulders.
"Oh! Oh dear, yes. Everything's fine. It's just this stallion who came into the shop earlier and asked to use the kitchen." Mrs. Cake leaned in close to Twilight and whispered, "He reminds me of Pinkie Pie. It's kind of weird deary."
Twilight smirked a bit and backed up towards the group of stallions, "Well, these stallions know him. I'm showing them around town a bit."
Firewing bowed his head slightly. Then he cringed at the sound of a dish breaking and when he did, his wings unfurled just enough for everypony to see. As soon as it happened, he snapped his wings shut and stood up straight, an awkward look on his face. He cleared his throat and said in a quick manner, "Well, I like your establishment. I apologize for my friend and we'll take him off your hooves. Ok? Ok." He motioned for Storm to grab the baking pony and started backing up towards the door while Storm tore his friend away from the oven.
"NOOOO! I'M NOT DONE! I NEED TO MAKE THE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS! NOOOOOOOOOOO!" The earth pony yelled while being drug out of the bakery by his tail. Storm was having a hard time pulling the pony, but he finally succeeded in getting the off-white pony away from the shop.
Twilight was close behind the group and said goodbye to the bakery's owners and followed after the distressed pegasus and his friends. Not noticing the Cake's worried faces. Just as she caught up to the other ponies, her eyes immediately saw a problem. Firewing was obviously worried, Storm and Windy were comforting him, and Riverbank and Snowfall were trying to think of a spell to cover up the dragon wings. Then she heard Firewing, "Great. Just great. Now they're gonna chase us outta town. Grr, I'm sorry you guys."
Snowfall spoke next, "You have no need to apologize. They are not chasing us now, and you only showed your wings to three ponies. We are safe from malice and hatred."
"Yeah!" Riverbank's head went up, "We can still make a good first impression." He turned to see Twilight, her eyes showing her worry.
Twilight could have run, or told everypony Firewing's secret, or even told them to come with her to see the Princess. Instead, she galloped up to Firewing and gave him a hug. Firewing's face turned crimson, Storm and Snowfall's jaws nearly hit the ground, Windy was oblivious, and Riverbank audibly cursed his luck. Twilight stepped back and blushed, then she said, "You guys have nothing to worry about here. I'll talk to everypony, they won't chase you out of town or show malice. They are just jumpy at new ponies. I heard you talking, and I feel like I should help make you feel more welcome than any other town you may have been chased out of." She smiled at all of the stallions and started trotting towards the edge of town.
Windy day, being the only pony unphased by the hug Twilight gave Firewing, suddenly noticed she was leading them somewhere. "Ooh! Hey! Where are we going now?" he asked as he bounced up to Twilight.
Twilight turned her head and said, "I want you to see a good friend of mine. She runs the boutique at the edge of town."
------------------------------------------------------
Pinkie was hurrying to get all the supplies she needed, she needed to bake a cake, make the punch, invite everypony, and she would need a balloon for everypony in Ponyville and the new ponies. It was gonna be so fun! She was returning to the library to start setting up the decorations when she spotted AJ with one of the new ponies. She still needed an invitation, but she wanted it to be a surprise party so the stallion couldn't know. She sat down to think when she got a great idea. She would give Big Macintosh his invitation and ask him to give Applejack the invitation when it was almost time to go to the party, because, let's face it, AJ is a bad liar. She took off towards Sweet Apple Acres to tell him.
______________________________________
Firewing was uncomfortable now. He felt uncomfortable anyways because of his shy nature, but he was uncomfortable because he accidentally showed his wings to three ponies, he got a very unexpected hug from their tour guide to Ponyville, and he was unsure about how this friend of Twilight's would react. Yeah, he would try to hide himself under a rock if he could. But his friends were counting on him, they wanted to settle down in a new town and this was probably their last chance to do it. He followed the lavender mare to the boutique aptly name Carousel Boutique, as it looked like a carousel at the fair, just without the animals that went around and as far as he could tell it didn't rotate. They entered the boutique and a bell rang above their heads. As soon as it did, a very eloquent voice sounded from somewhere in the back. "Just a minute!"
A white unicorn mare came from a doorway leading to somewhere else in the boutique. Her purple mane and tail curled around and bounced as she walked, making it seem very hypnotizing. She saw Twilight first and rushed over to greet her. "Oh Twilight, darling! I wasn't expecting you until later."
Twilight rolled her eyes and said, "Rarity, I would like you to meet the new ponies in town." Twilight waved her front hoof towards the group. She started introducing them to her, Snowfall first. His gentlecoltly nature immediately got an invite to the boutique later. Next up, Windy Day, who only succeeded in saying hello before he zipped around the boutique looking at all the ponyquins shooting off random questions that Rarity promptly ignored. Then came Riverbank, and her reaction to his mane and tail was overly exaggerated. She snagged the poor unicorns tail in her mouth as she moved a brush over his head with her horn. About a minute later, Riverbank's mane was evenly distributed color-wise, and his tail now looked much better kept. He went to the nearest mirror to asses the damage and his face started loosing it's color. While Riverbank was busy with his hair, Twilight pushed Firewing forward with her magic. Not a gentle push, mind you, but a rather forceful push meant to have Firewing involuntarily spread his wings. It worked, his rump was in the air, his wings were spread, and his face turned beet red.
"Oh my, darling. Are you alright?" Rarity asked, more concerned for the Pegasus' well-being than his wings. He got up with her help and nodded his head. Rarity watched as Firewing got his wings moved into a more comfortable position before he noticed Rarity was blushing only a bit. He wondered if he maybe had what looked like a wing-boner, but it was apparently not the case.
"Um...I-is everything alright? Is it my mane? I swear I would not look good in some fancy clothes." He stopped when Rarity leaned towards Snowfall, who was whispering in her ear. She then composed herself and asked a very simple question. "What is it like darling? To have wings that aren't feathery."
Firewing was a little taken aback by the question, but he answered it anyways, "It's a bit heavier to carry around all the time, and to be honest...they weigh me down when I'm flying or walking anywhere. I do know that they are more durable though, I can fly through a tree's branches while other pegasi can't because the feathers get ripped out of the wings. I hear it's uncomfortable losing feathers." Firewing was about to shy away from the mare in front of him but when he turned his head, Twilight looked curious about his wings. He hesitated, but he opened the wing closest to her and let her feel it with her hoof. She gasped, she had felt Fluttershy's wings before, but it was different (She asked Twilight to stop, it seemed awkward to Fluttershy but she never explained why) in that, while a pegasi's wings are one long limb, three bones joined by joints and surrounded by muscles, his wings were more like a large claw with long fingers to stretch the skin, wait no, these were scales. Firewing's wings were not those of a pony, in fact he had a claw sticking out of his wing right at the spot where it bent, and feeling his wings let her feel the powerful muscles that moved them. Twilight rubbed her hoof against the main limb and got a very startled Firewing in response. "Ah! C-could y-you please not d-do that Twilight? It's strange." he stuttered like Fluttershy did when she was really frightened or uncomfortable. She deduced that Firewing was only comfortable letting her feel the stretched part of the wing, but she stopped entirely so he could go and be away from the two pairs of eyes that were on his wings. He took the silent hint and went to try and help Riverbank sort out his mane. He asked him what he thought of it, which got him bluntly saying quite loud, "It looks so dorky. I like it so my mane and tail match my name, just like my parents wanted."
"So Twilight, what did it feel like?" Rarity inquired, her voice just loud enough for Twilight to hear. Twilight leaned in close and answered with all her observations, eliciting a gasp from her friend."Wow, so it doesn't just look like a dragon's wing, but it is! Well, why is he hiding them?" Before Twilight could answer, the yellow pegasus who hadn't been introduced spoke up. But he was quiet about it, "We have been chased out of many towns because we looked different, acted different, and even because we could fly. Firewing is looking out for us, so he's trying to get into the town first. Then, he planned to show what made us different when we had the trust of you ponies." he took a deep breath and started speaking again, "Firewing is a pony who barely stood up for himself, to the point where if he got mad enough he would spout insults at everypony. He is a bit shy and cowardly when it comes to other ponies but if it's for us he'll do it."
Rarity who had been startled and intrigued by the story, then spoke up. "Well then, you all need a home don't you Mr.?"
"Stormy Skies. But you can just call Storm." Storm said as he got up on all fours and took a quick bow, his huge wings unfurling and almost knocking over a display and startling Rarity again. Twilight just looked at them in amazement, like she was hypnotized by the knowledge she could obtain from studying them. Then, just as she was going to look at the size of the feathers, he folded them to his body. "I am sorry Rarity. I keep forgetting how big these things are. They're caused by a rare disease called Eagle Wing Syndrome, it came from the gryphons. They are unaffected by it, because they are the carriers of the disease. It is a weak disease though, and can only be spread by a direct bite to a pregnant mare. Which means my mom got bitten by a gryphon when she was pregnant with me. I think it's cool, my dad, not so much. Hey did you know..." Storm just kept rambling about whatever he could think about next.
Firewing finally managed to help Riverbank with his mane, and turned to Rarity, who had left Storm to talk to Twilight, who was correcting his facts on his particular wing syndrome. She walked up to Firewing and smiled, "Darling, the ponies here in Ponyville will not hate you for being different. We just need time to adjust to your differences."
Firewing listened and when Rarity had finished speaking he smiled and nodded. He now felt a little less inclined to hide his wings, but only just a little.
______________________________________________
The stallions left after Snowfall got acquainted with Rarity a bit more, and Twilight whispered something in her ear. She offered to house all the stallions. Firewing, Storm, Riverbank and Windy all refused, politely. The group all toured the town a bit more before Applejack and Red showed up and joined the group. Storm then looked restless and took off to the sky to fly for a bit, making Twilight and Applejack worry. Firewing reassured them he would be fine and that he was just releasing some pent up energy. What the mares didn't know, was that Storm needed to fly to release some of the electricity he had stored. His flight took him to the edge of some large woods, and a giant field right next to it. His excess electric energy was gone, but he was still tired. He landed in the field and looked up at the beautiful rainbow that was forming...wait, what?
Storm hadn't seen wrong, it was a rainbow that was forming and dissipating just as fast. Storm squinted and strained his pegasus eyes, known for their eagle-like vision, and saw the rainbow was coming from a cyan colored pegasus with a mane to match it's trail. Then Storm noticed the pegasus was pulling stunts even the Wonderbolts would envy. He sat and watched as the pegasus looped and rolled, diving and puling out into tricks that would cause an untrained flier to crash. He watched for minutes before he wondered why the pegasus was suddenly climbing in altitude, then going into a full-fledged dive. Then he saw a cone forming around the pegasus' forehooves, thinking a Sonic Rainboom. But also thinking only one mare in Equestria had ever pulled that off, but...could it be? Before he could finish his thought he heard screaming and it was getting louder. He looked up and saw the cyan pegasus hurtling towards him. Abandoning all thoughts of self-preservation, he flew right into the pegasus' path knowing this was no trick. The pegasus crashed into him and they both tumbled into the field. When they stopped, the pegasus got up and shook her head, looked around, and heard an audible grunt when she took a step. She looked down and noticed another pegasus, the one who saved her from the inevitable pain she thought she would be feeling. She gasped and hovered over him, "Omigoshomigoshomigosh! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" she helped Storm up and he only responded quite curtly, "I've had worse. Better question, are you alright? Had I not caught you, you would more than a few casts on your wings and that would be bad. Especially since your flying was spectacular."
The mare went from concerned, to confused, to accepting the praise blushing. "I-I Uh, y-you really like my flying?" she stuttered out.
"Well yeah! You have skills the Wonderbolts would envy!" Storm's eyes lit up, "Hell! You should be a solo Wonderbolt! Leading the group flyers! Oh geez! I'm sorry. I haven't introduced myself, my name is Stormy Skies. My friends call me Storm though."
The mare, still blushing from the praise and complements, raised her hoof saying, "Uh...name's Rainbow Dash." Rainbow nearly fell on her muzzle from the hoofshake she recieved. "Oh my Celestia! Y-y-you're Rainbow Dash!? The only pegasus to pull off the Sonic Rainboom, the fastest mare in Equestria and the most loyal friend?" Storm nearly started flying from excitement, his wings flared and went out full.
"Wow!" Rainbow managed to say, "Nice wings."
Storm blushed and folded his wings again, "Heh...um, it's a medical condition." Storm silently cursed his lack of words to say to the mare who inspired both him and Firewing to travel.
"Who's Firewing?" Rainbow asked, having heard some of the 'silent' curse.
Storm stiffened at the mention of Firewing's name and made a mental note to stop thinking out loud. "He's a friend of mine. He's a really good flier, and so am I." Storm said, his ego returning as quick as lightning.
Rainbow's ears perked up at the thought of learning something from some good fliers, but she contemplated being sneaky about it. She was the 'Best Young Flier' after all. "I would like to meet this friend of yours. Come on, I'll fly with ya!"
Storm jumped at the chance, and they took off towards Ponyville.
Start of Chapter 3!
Author's Note: WOW! I know I said I was changing things, but this is redonculous! I apologize this took so long to get out, but I think it's worth the wait. ENJOY! *KZT*