//------------------------------//
// A new Name a new Town. 
// Story: A Game of Homes. 
// by Lethrael 
//------------------------------//

A day like every other, above the clouds, in Cloudsdale, in a school. 
She sat on her favourite spot right next to the large Wonderbolts poster like she did every day, dreaming to be one of them.
“Wingdaloo, are you there?”
The gentle voice of Autumnbreze, her teacher echoed towards the empty room and wake the pegasus filly from her dreams. Wingdaloo yawned and stretched her body, her little wings cracked and the bright orange coat bristled. A shiver wandered over her head and the filly cringed. She stroke over her red mane to fight down the strange feeling, but it stayed and she rolled her eyes.

“There you are. We have to talk.”
A spotted deep red body with mossy green spots and a long mane of the same colour became visible for the filly as her teacher entered the room. He looked to the little filly behind the cloud-desk, the wings firmly pressed against his body.
His green eyes shimmered for a moment and a grin glided over his face.
“I think you should be here. As you already know the class is going to the junior flight camp
tomorrow.”
The teacher stopped, as the filly raised her head and her eyes filled with joy were shimmering in excitement. The stallion sighed and cocked his head.
He didn't want to say these words, but this was the only solution for the problem at hoof.
“You have to understand, Wingdaloo! We won't accept a pony with your wingsize there. You should.”
The upset voice of the trembling filly interrupted the low sounding explanation. The stallion ducked down and sighed.
“But I thought, I could be there for a while. Maybe they will grow if I train hard enough.
Please, let me try.”
Autumnbreeze simply raised his right hoof and stopped the yell of the filly. He tried to lay it down on her side, but Wingdaloo just scooted away.
He could spot tears in the eyes of the stammering Pegasus but she looked away quickly. He tried to touch her, but she didn't let him. So his calming didn't go like he wanted to.

“You will be relegate for just one year, Wingdaloo. If you will learn and train hard enough,
you can go next year.”
“But I want go now. All my friends are going. Why I've to stay back? What should I tell them?”
Her voice faded away and she wiped over her face to brush away the tears, but new ones gathered quickly.
“I know, this doesn't sound good. But you will find friends in your new class. I promise.”
The filly stared a long time at her teacher, then turned her head away. She even started to sob and buried her face in her hooves.
Her voice sounded so painful, that Autumnbreeze shivered and walked two steps closer.
“I want go. Please, let me go. Please!”
The teacher shook his head and tried to say something, that would help her. But the filly didn't want to hear it any more. 

Wingdaloo jumped through the cloud wall and ran away from his unwelcome  try to calm her down..
As she ran, her wings flapped faster and faster, even buzzed, but she didn't take off. She galloped over soft clouds and looked around
Everywhere she looked, she saw pegasi flying, smiling and goofing around with friends.
This darkened her sour mood even more.
She just wanted to be like all the others, just being able to fly.
They should stop following her with pitying looks.
They should stop glancing at her, like she was wrong, or ill. She wasn't.
She ran faster and faster, but she couldn't outrun her feelings so simply.
The hooves led her home finally.
She didn't want to see the place or be there right now, but where else should she go? 
Where else could she hide from the pain of being different?

She sneaked through the corridor and fought back her tears, before Mum would see them and tried to comfort her, or worse looked at her so pitying as the others did. She arrived at the door to her room without any problems and raised a hoof to push it open.
“Wingdaloo is that you? Come here please. We must talk.”
She brushed over her eyes and forced a smile back on her face. Mum shouldn't see her tears.
Then she entered the living room, skulked to her mother, who was sitting on a cloud. Well on a cloud-sofa, but it was a cloud. Wingdaloo sighed and drew circles on the floor. The mare laid two plates on the table recently, they were full of her famous hot carrot cookies. Curryfeather, her name matched perfectly with her flaming mane and the bright yellow coat, smiled  first. Her cutie mark, a white pounder in a mortar, showed what a great cook she really was.
The name Wingdaloo was her own idea, but so far didn't match for the filly.
She shook her head, as the filly approached her and fluttered a cloud nearer to her to sit down.
Her magenta eyes looked to her child and she saw, that she had wept again.
Curryfeather sighed and smiled.
“Had Autumnbreeze spoken with you, Wingdi? Did he told you what his plan is?"
She fell silence and cleared her throat. The filly leaned forward, grabbed a cookie, nibbled at it's corners. As usual the hotness drove tears back in her eyes and she coughed a little bit first. But still she nibbled further. She nodded and chewed slowly on the rest, very concerned to say nothing at all.
“You have one other choice. I could move with you to Ponyville and aunt Sunny would take care of you when I flew back to Cloudsdale.
You go to school there, and maybe you find some friends in your new classmates.”
Wingdaloo opened her mouth, but couldn't answer. She bit her lip and closed her eyes. She should  vanish from Cloudsdale. Simply as that?
How could Mum suggest such a gutless action?
Her thoughts were boiling, but she wasn’t just sad, but also angry. Her hooves found the plate and smashed it into pieces.
“I'm not a failure. I'm not sick, I am just not able to...”
She snapped and sobbed.
Curryfeather stood up and walked around the table. She pulled the filly in a tight hug with a wing and nuzzled her. She tried to calm her down, with soft words.
“I'm sorry, Wingdi. This isn't what I want to say. You are something special. Please, let me help you.”
Wingdaloo sobbed even louder and pushed herself harder in the gentle mane of her mother. She yelled her frustration into it and cried.
Curryfeather nuzzled her gently over the head and her little red mane.
She would give everything, to let her wing grow, but even the unicorns couldn't help her. Mum had already try it out, but there she was, flightless and useless.
What else should she do? Maybe she should train harder?

The decision couldn't be make in one day. Wingdaloo took two weeks. Whatever she thought, it felt wrong. She roamed around after school to clear her thoughts.
Wherever she went, everypony looked at her pitiful, or so she thought. How could she feel better then?
Even in school, everypony looked at her in the same matter. Younger fillies whispered and giggled some even laughed, surely about her small wings.
Wingdaloo felt lonely, and even the cheering words from her teacher were nothing as pitying words for her.
Or she took them so at least. Finally her pondering came to an end and she was able to decide next. She sat on a cloud some place else and looked down to the ground.
“I should leave. I have to go to Ponyville. The ponies there wouldn’t dare to look at me like they do here.”
Her voice was calm and she felt a heavy burden fall from her.
On the same day, she talked to her mother, and said that she has made a decision.
“You have to stay here, please. You shouldn’t leave home just because I’m different.”
Curryfeather tried to say something, but a look in Wingdaloo's eyes stopped her.
She understood: Wingdaloo didn’t like the glances from anypony here or any reminder of her state down there. Even she, her mother, was a reminder of those looks.
She had to go alone. Her youth was no excuse.
“I will write you every day, Wingdi. I hope you will be happy down there.”

The transition to Ponyville was easier than Wingdaloo had thought. Aunt Sunny Rays was familiar with Earth ponies, and looked at Wingdaloo like she was one of them. But at the same time she was a little bit distracted. She looked at her without any kind of compassion. She even made her a welcome gift, something the filly had never seen before in her life. It was a scooter.

Dear Mummy,

I've arrived in Ponyville safely and I look forward to school.
Miss Cheerilee is a very nice pony and I'm trying to make many new friends.
Houses here are made of wood and didn't float freely around.
At first it was odd, being unable to go through the walls, and I even took two bump, but I’m getting use to it. 
Aunt Sunny isn't home very often. It seems she has a lot of work to do,
but she gave me a wonderful present and showed me how to use it.
It’s a blue scooter with red wheels. I drew a picture of it for you.
I have to ask you something that I've been thinking about, now.
I know you love the name Wingdaloo, but as long as my wings don't grow, I should change it.
How do you like Scootaloo?
I think it sounds perfect and I hope that you like it too.

Please write soon. I miss you, Mummy.
Love,
Scootaloo.