• Published 3rd Jan 2020
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Renaming Starlight's Village - Brass Polish



The Cutie Mark Crusaders move to Starlight’s Village with Big Macintosh, where many ponies are still struggling to reconnect with their cutie marks.

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3. Summer Holiday In Wherever

Author's Note:

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle want to spend their summer in Starlight’s Village, as it’s still full of ponies with existential crises.

“It’s called ‘Slugs With Shells,” said Double Diamond to the Crusaders. “The story is of pony-kind vs giant cyborg mollusks. Me and Phlegm have gone through it quite a few times. You get ejected from it once you fail or complete the story mission, just like any enchanted comic.”

“If he’s done it before, it looks like he’s not gonna lose the game,” Sweetie Belle frowned.

“How long does it take to finish?” asked Scootaloo.

“It depends,” shrugged Double Diamond. “We never really kept time in the cult days. We mostly just did whatever we did outta boredom. We never admitted that, though.”

“Well Phlegm might try and drag out the mission as much as he can,” said Apple Bloom, “but there’s no way he can stay in there forever, now that you two started the mission. In the meantime, we’ve just gotta keep watch over this comic.”

“Go ahead and take it with you, then,” offered Double Diamond. “And don’t worry about the window.”

“Thanks.”

*****

Big Macintosh and Sugar Belle were happy to accommodate the Cutie Mark Crusaders while they waited for the enchanted copy of “Slugs With Shells” to spit out the pony who owned the cutie mark that now sat in a jam jar on the Cafe table next to the comic. Customers came and went while Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle sat and waited for the enchanted comic book to reintroduce Phlegm to reality. One of the customers, Apple Bloom was surprised to see.

“That was a quick visit,” she remarked.

“Yeah, my fillyfriend’s pretty busy,” said Feather Bangs. “I told her about how quiet and slow things are here, and she says she’ll consider leaving Las Pegasus and move in with me.”

“What does she do in Las Pegasus that keeps her so busy?” asked Sugar Belle, as Feather Bangs selected a chocolate glazed donut from the display case.

“She runs an all-you-can-eat buffet,” Feather Bangs answered while he paid for his donut. “She says she’s thinking of selling it, moving here, and opening a smaller buffet. I told her I’d be okay if she wanted to renovate my cottage.”

*****

As Feather Bangs left the Cafe with his snack, Sweetie Belle saw a sour expression cross Sugar Belle’s face.

“You’re not too keen on having competition here in the Village, are you?” Sweetie suggested.

Sugar Belle tried to behave like she wasn’t bothered, but then decided not to try and hide it now that Sweetie had called her out.

“I’ll tell you why I ended up in this Village in the first place. It’s because I felt redundant. Lots of ponies I knew were good at the same thing as me. I did miss it, though, when I gave it up and ran away to here and Starlight removed my cutie mark. Now that I’ve got it back, I’ve had fun baking… but… if there’s another pony in town who can do what I do… I don’t…”

“Well, speaking of being redundant,” Scootaloo interrupted, “does a small town like this need another restaurant?”

Sugar Belle’s frown faded a little. “Good point.”

*****

Nothing more was said for a few hours, apart from exchanges between Sugar Belle and various customers. Big Macintosh came into the Cafe having been working in the Orchard all morning.

“Eeeyup. They’re all still at it,” he observed. “Listen, ladies. Y’all needn't be cooped up in here at once. Why not take shifts?”

“Okay,” said Scootaloo. “I guess I’ll go get some exercise.”

“Me too,” said Sweetie Belle. “I could use some fresh air. Is that alright with you, Apple Bloom?”

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, we’re not leaving because we’ve lost interest in our quest,” said Sweetie hastily.

“Yeah, don’t worry,” insisted Scootaloo. “We just…”

“I understand,” Apple Bloom smiled. “It ain’t much of an outing, just staring at a closed comic book.”

Once outside, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle instantly found something to do. Scootaloo saw that Double Diamond was heading for the mountains with his ski gear, and asked if she could go with him and watch. Sweetie Belle saw Night Glider spinning the clouds in the sky like tops, so she climbed the tree at the end of the road to get a good view.

*****

Up on the snowy slope, Double Diamond was soon skiing down, with Scootaloo gliding behind him. She had to beat her wings quite hard to keep up, and she took a fair amount of snow to the face, but she enjoyed watching him race down the mountain.

“Woo! What a ride!” Double Diamond bellowed when he reached the bottom.

Scootaloo agreed. Double Diamond started to climb the slope again, but stopped when he saw Scootaloo wasn’t following him.

“Oh, do you need a rest?” he asked.

“No, I’m fine,” said Scootaloo.

“Uh, are you heading back to town?” asked Double Diamond.

“No, I think this time, I’ll watch you come down,” Scootaloo replied.

Double Diamond turned back.

“Kinda not a good idea,” he told Scootaloo. “I’ll crash into ya.”

Scootaloo’s eyes widened. “Do you have confidence issues?”

“I’ve got target fixation,” Double Diamond confided. “If I’m going down a hill and there’s something in my way… or someone… I lock in and run straight into them.”

“Is that why you started wishing you didn’t have your cutie mark?” asked Scootaloo.

Double Diamond nodded. “I always went for hills with no obstructions. Friends and family always asked me why I couldn’t navigate a snowy hill with moguls and flags and stuff when my cutie mark says I can. I was never able to compete, and nopony would let me hear the end of it.”

*****

“Sorry if this is a personal question,” said Scootaloo.

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” insisted Double Diamond. “You are a Cutie Mark Crusader. And ponies in the Village have said they’ve wanted to watch me ski and board and sled and stuff. And I’ve always had to warn them that they’ll get flattened.”

Scootaloo pondered. “What if there were targets on the slope that you’re supposed to hit?”

“Huh?”

“At the Wonderbolts’ last big event,” said Scootaloo, “they flew through an obstacle course. Some of the things on the course, they were supposed to avoid. But some things, they were supposed to fly right through. Large hoops mostly.”

She looked up at the snowy hill.

“Let’s try something. We’ll make some snowmares on the hill,” suggested Scootaloo. “Then once we get to the top, you try and run over as many snowmares on the slope as you can. And I’ll watch from the sidelines.”

Double Diamond groaned.

“Look, if you look like you’re gonna run into me, I’ll just fly out of the way,” Scootaloo insisted.

*****

Sweetie Belle had a good view from the top of the tree at the end of the road. Not just of Night Glider spinning all the clouds in the sky above the Village, but also of Big Mac digging a hole in the yard behind the barn extension to Sugar Belle’s Cafe. But Night Glider’s aerobatics were a far more arresting sight.

“Great job, Night Glider!” she called as she watched Night Glider zoom around the sky, creating a draft to keep every cloud above the Village spinning faster and faster. “You’re Wonderbolt material, you know!”

Night Glider flew straight down to Sweetie Belle’s perch.

“Please don’t,” she grimaced. “I came to this Village to avoid ponies saying that to me. I don’t need to be a Wonderbolt to know I’m a good flyer.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Okay.”

Night Glider’s face relaxed a little, and she went back to the spinning clouds. Soon, the clouds were creating their own drafts, and so they kept each other spinning around. Night Glider, low on energy by now, returned to the top of the tree and joined Sweetie in watching the show. Sweetie Belle could see other ponies down in the Village street enjoying the spectacle, but said nothing about this audience to Night Glider.

“I wish my old friends in Fillydelphia were as understanding as you,” Night Glider said to Sweetie.

*****

Big Mac deliberately finished his last chore of the day as quickly as possible and returned to the Cafe. He offered to watch over the enchanted comic book Phlegm was hiding in so that Apple Bloom could go outside and break the monotony as well. Apple Bloom didn’t object. Anyone would think snakes were the easiest balloon animals to make, but when Apple Bloom stepped out into the street and spotted Party Favour, he made it look challenging. She happily joined the small group of villagers (the ones who weren’t watching Night Glider’s spinning clouds) watching him make boa constrictors, adders, mambas, cottonmouths, and pythons, using more than one balloon for each snake.

“Really impressive,” said Apple Bloom when Party Favour rounded out his little show with a balloon cobra.

“Thanks,” said Party Favour. “Snakes were the first balloon animals my brother taught me to make.”

“Your brother?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Yeah. It was thanks to him that I got my cutie mark.”

Apple Bloom remembered how Skedaddle taught Kettle Corn how to write haikus, and she got her cutie mark for it, but he never did. She could tell by Party Favour’s slackening smile that his brother might have gone through something similar.

*****

The other villagers who’d been watching were venturing off to go about their own business or to watch the spinning clouds, but Apple Bloom decided to stay and press the issue.

“Did your brother love making balloon animals as much as you do?”

“More. Bend Twist definitely loved it more than me. But for some reason, he never got his cutie mark for it. He said…” Party Favour frowned. “He said I stole his destiny from him.”

“Oh, well he’s wrong,” Apple Boom said abruptly. “I mean, no offense, but the only way to take someone’s destiny is to swap their cutie marks. Trust me, I know. It ain’t your fault you…”

“Actually, it kind of is,” interrupted Party Favour. “It was because of me that my brother ended up getting a cutie mark he hates.”

Apple Bloom gulped; she was starting to regret pressing the subject.

*****

“Our cousin, Teak, and his mom came to Tall Tale to visit us one day. Bend Twist didn’t like Teak; when he was a yearling and came for a visit, he’d flushed Bend Twist’s goldfish down the toilet. But Teak had grown since then and was much better behaved. But Bend Twist was still nervous. Especially since he had another goldfish in a bowl in the living room. Then at one point, Bend heard a toilet flush and came sprinting into the room. He didn’t see the goldfish in its bowl, and he ran shouting down into the basement. He started tampering with the plumbing pipework, frantically trying to get the fish to go into a basin. When he finished, the fish did come out… but it was dead. See, Teak and I had seen that the fish was dead in its bowl, and Teak was scared that Bend Twist might think it was because of something he’d done.”

“So he panicked and took the dead fish from its bowl and flushed it down the toilet?” asked Apple Bloom.

“No,” said Party Favour glumly. “I did. So it’s really my fault, because after me and Teak told him what we’d seen and done, we all realised that Bend Twist had a cutie mark. Bent pipes. And that’s how my brother got into plumbing… which he hated.”

*****

Apple Bloom scratched her head. “So Bend Twist got his cutie mark after fiddling with a bunch of pipes to try and save his pet?”

Party Favour nodded. “I should’ve just let him see it dead in the bowl himself. I could’ve vouched for Teak. Instead, I wrecked his future.”

“Did Bend Twist have any other pets?” asked Apple Bloom.

“He had a grey parrot, but after it died, he never wanted another pet. Or maybe he did. But he lost all his trust. In Teak and me,” frowned Party Favour.

“Oh. That’s too bad,” sighed Apple Bloom. “I’ll bet he’d be happy with a hamster or a gerbil.”

Party Favour’s eyes popped. “That’s it! Apple Bloom, you’re a genius!”

He hugged Apple Bloom in a fit of delight.

“I’m gonna write him a let…”

His excitement faltered. Apple Bloom smiled.

“Come with me to Sugar Belle’s Cafe. I’ll join you while you write your letter to your brother,” she offered.

“I haven’t been in touch with Bend Twist since we were in secondary school,” Party Favour gulped.

“Come on,” Apple Bloom insisted. “I’ll join ya. I want to write a letter too.”

*****

Evening came. Scootaloo and Party Favour were returning home, and Sweetie Belle and Night Glider were climbing down from the tree now that the momentum of the spinning clouds had died.

“What’s Apple Bloom doing?” asked Scootaloo.

“I think she’s helping Party Favour write a letter to somepony he hasn’t seen in years,” answered Sweetie Belle. “Let’s go see.”

They joined Apple Bloom and Party Favour at their table outside Sugar Belle’s Cafe. Party Favour told them he was going to reach out to his brother in Tall Tale, and Apple Bloom said she was writing to her sister and grandma in Ponyville.

“What about?” asked Scootaloo.

“I want to spend the whole summer here,” said Apple Bloom bluntly.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stared.

“There are lots of ponies in this Village who are still struggling to understand and connect with their cutie marks and what they mean,” Apple Bloom went on. “There are more ponies here than Phlegm who need Cutie Mark Crusader help. I’ve already asked Big Mac and Sugar Belle if it’s okay if I stay with them all summer, and they don’t mind. Big Mac’s keeping an eye on the comic by the way.”

“That’s good,” said Sweetie.

“Now I just gotta ask Applejack and Granny Smith if they want me back home,” said Apple Bloom.

*****

Scootaloo joined Apple Bloom and Party Favour at their table and helped herself to a blank piece of paper. “I’ll write home and ask if I can join you.”

“Me too,” said Sweetie Belle, sitting down and picking up a quill.

Apple Bloom sighed. “You don’t have to stay here just because I want to, you know. Sure, we still gotta wait for Phlegm to come out so we can help him, but after that…”

Scootaloo told Apple Bloom about Double Diamond, and Sweetie Belle about Night Glider. They were all in agreement about ponies in Starlight’s Village trying to reconnect with their cutie marks.

“Well I guess you two have a better chance of getting permission to stay here all summer,” sighed Apple Bloom. “Applejack’s probably gonna need my help at Sweet Apple Acres soon.”