//------------------------------// // Extra Special Wish // Story: Tales of Another Ponyville // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// Written by Violet CLM, who has my eternal thanks! Hi, I’m Skywishes! I’m pink and I have pink and purple hair, and my cutie mark is about a kite! You’ve probably heard of me, or maybe you haven’t, but you used to have, because I used to be pretty famous, and… oh, you know what I mean! Wow, I’m not introducing myself very well! Let me start at the beginning… no, the middle! For a long time I wasn’t sure if I was special enough to contribute anything to Storybelle’s special book, even though Coconut Grove kept telling me I should. But I just had the most wonderful experience on Butterfly Island, and I think it’s important that every pony knows all about it. Once upon a time every pony in Ponyville used to come to me whenever they needed one of my extra special wishes, and I was so happy that I could be so helpful to so many of my friends! I wished that Fizzy Pop would get over her hiccups, and she did! I wished that Kimono would find a book that would prove Wysteria was really our princess, and she did! I wished Sweetberry would find her oven mitts after Puzzlemint didn’t want to take her case, and she did! I even wished an extra special wish for Fiesta Flair once, but… oh no, Storybelle, I don’t think that bit should be in the book, oh dear, you know what I mean? Oh, but the very most amazing day of my whole life was when I wished I could help Twinkle Twirl help all her students with her “dance in the clouds.” Do you know Twinkle Twirl? She’s the dance teacher at the Twinkle Twirl Dance Studio, and as a dance teacher she’s such a wonderful dancer, but… well. Her students were all having problems, and I went up to the most magical place in all of Equestria to make my wish, and that’s where I met the most magical pony in all of Equestria. Her name is Queen Starcatcher, and she rules over Butterfly Island with King Hidden Treasure. She’s white from head to toe, but for the blue and pink parts of her mane and tail, and she has these amazing mystical runes all over her body. Island Delight once told me that if you could read Starcatcher’s runes, you could read the complete history of Equestria written there… but only one pony knows how to read them. You see, it was Starcatcher and her Pegasus pony friends who’d been granting all my wishes all along, in secret! And eventually all her Pegasus friends and all my earth pony friends finally got to meet each other and now all of us are all of our friends and… oh, you know what I mean! And suddenly no ponies were coming to me for wishes anymore because they could ask the Pegasus ponies directly. But do you know, I didn’t mind! Now that I’m not running around after kites all the time I’m able to find out what else I really love doing, so I’ve been learning the ukulele, and also I’m taking hula dancing lessons from Baby Honolu-Loo! She’s the littlest Pegasus pony of them all, but she’s also the most amazing hula dancer you’ve ever seen, and of course she loves ice cream. Today was one of my hula lessons, so I got in one of Ponyville’s hot air balloons and flew to Butterfly Island. I guess I could have asked Starcatcher if I could borrow some of her butterflies to give me a ride, but I didn’t want to bother her just for a little thing like a hula lesson. (And you know, I think I saw another hot air balloon flying around, and it looked just like the one that we keep up in Celebration Castle! Isn’t that strange?) Anyway, I arrived early for my lesson, and Baby Honolu-Loo was crying because she’d dropped her ball in a hole in the ground and her baby hooves weren’t long enough to reach it. I hid behind a candy cane bush and watched to see which of my many extra special friends would come along and help her. I’ve already talked about Queen Starcatcher, of course, but there’s also Coconut Grove, her captain of the pony guard! Coconut Grove tells beautiful stories about faraway places to help the Pegasus ponies with their shyness, and she’s so good with her hooves, she could probably use a coconut leaf to pry the ball out. Or there’s Island Delight, who guards the secrets of Butterfly Island… when she’s not busy surfing! And of course I can’t forget Thistle Whistle! Thistle Whistle is a great whistler, but he’s afraid of everything, but he’s also the bravest pony I know, or maybe the bravest coward… oh, you know what I mean! But as I sat there thinking about all those wonderful Pegasus ponies, and so many others, and of course lots of my Ponyville friends too who might have happened to have been visiting, none of them actually showed up! And suddenly I realized that the pony who could help Baby Honolu-Loo… was me! My legs are much longer than hers, so I reached into the hole and got her ball out. Then I washed off in the ocean and then we had our hula dancing lesson, and Baby Honolu-Loo, who’s such a terrific dancer for her age and such a good ice cream eater, was impressed by me… me! Just because I had longer legs! So what I realized is when we think about how extra special all our pony friends are, the things we’re noticing may be things that they hardly even think about doing at all, because that’s just who they are. We’re all amazing in our own ways. So even though Twinkle Twirl gave me the extra special Best Friend Ever award that one time, maybe what I should really do is give one of those awards to every pony in Ponyville… and in Butterfly Island too, and maybe even Unicornia, and who knows where else?! Wysteria got away with it! When I told Storybelle about all this, though, she laughed at me! She told me Baby Honolu-Loo wasn’t impressed by my long legs, but by my kind heart! “Listen to yourself, Skywishes,” she said. “I’ve never met a pony who cares so much about all her friends like you do. That’s why ponies think you’re their Best Friend Ever.” Me? Wow, but I was only trying to help, so they could do all their amazing things without making mistakes, and… “Didn’t you ever wonder why Queen Starcatcher and the others helped you with all your wishes? Well, I think it was because they were impressed by how selfless you were!” Well, you know, I don’t know what I know anymore. But I don’t wish I did, because I know that I will someday, because I have so many wonderful ponies all around me to help me get there. Maybe I should host a Seaside Celebration and invite my friends to come laugh and dance and play together! Maybe I should go talk to Princess Wysteria and ask if she thinks that would be a good idea. And we can talk about how great it is to have friends, and how much we look forward to making new ones too! Every day! Know what I mean?