Chapter eight

I woke up to the voice of my mom, "Happy Hearths Warming Eve, Feather!" She held a box in her mouth. I lifted my head and looked at the box. It was small with black paper and gold ribbon; I took the ribbon off and removed the paper. It was a black box, with a gold design on the top. I opened it and saw a small metal charm. I looked closer, written on the front in little letters, it said, 'FeatherDash' I took off my current necklace to slide the charm on. It slid on and hit the lightning bolt with a tiny clink of metal. I put it back on and noticed she had already started to walk away. I jumped out of the bed and started following her. "We get to go to a party today! The girls are all meeting at Sugarcube Corner in a little while. Rarity and Applejack are bringing their little sisters. You could make friends with them. Go get ready, okay?" She had walked with me to the kitchen and made hay pancakes. There have been so many new foods I get to try. After we were finished, I ran up to my room to get my Wonderbolt goggles I had gotten during our trip to Cloudsdale. "Ready?" I nodded to her and she picked me up . We flew off towards Ponyville.
She set me down in front of the bakery. I looked all around me. There were decorations everywhere! I was tugged along gently as we moved for the entrance. "Oh hi Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie said as she appeared out of nowhere. Pinkie dragged her off somewhere; I had no clue where. Just then a voice came from behind me, "Howdy there! What's your name?" I turned to see a yellow and red filly with two others. I was silent until I ran off. I poked mom with my hoof and she turned to me, "yes?" "Where are these kids you were talking about?" I asked. "Follow me," we walked across the room to the same group of fillies as before. "Girls, this is FeatherDash." They all waved to me and I hid behind my mom. "Don't be so shy Feather! Say hi!" "Uh hi there." I slowly came out from behind her and waved. "I'm Applebloom, the purple and pink maned one is Sweetie, and this is Scoots. How do you know Rainbow Dash?" "Feather is my son." Mom told them. All of their jaws hit the floor. "I adopted him after he got out of the hospital." The one named Scoots seemed disappointed at that. Mom giggled for some reason, "You guys have fun!" She said as she walked away. I felt something poke my flank and I backed away in fear of being made fun of. "Hey, check it out! He doesn't have a cutie mark either!" Scoots said as she walked to Applebloom. Her face lit up with excitement. "Wanna join the CMC?!" Sweetie started walking towards me. "CMC?" They read the puzzled expression on my face, "The Cutie Mark Crusaders of course! We are a group dedicated to helping ponies get their cutie marks! Wanna join?" I smiled when I realized they weren't making fun of me after all; I nodded and all three of them went crazy with excitement. They ran off and I didn't see them again after that.

A little while later, I found the cupcakes. As I reached for one, I was pulled back by mom, who had a giant smile on her face. "The others got you presents for your first hearths warming eve! Come on!" I wondered why the other five mares were so insistent on buying me gifts. I didn't understand, but I couldn't say no to them. Five presents later, I had another book (this one with a giant Wonderbolts logo on the front), more cupcakes, a winter jacket with a cool wing design on it, and Wonderbolts tickets.

I thanked everyone, and all of a sudden, the door swung open, revealing a yellow pony. "Sorry I'm late, I had trouble wrapping this." She walked up to me and gave me a box with black paper. Come to think of it, all of them were black paper. I was sitting on my mom's back; I opened the box and saw another Wonderbolt stuffed animal. This one had dark blue hair; I realized it was Soarin. "Whoa cool! It's just like my spitfire one at home!" She smiled at me, relieved; "Oh good! I wasn't sure if you would like it, so I was nervous and-" "It's wonderful Fluttershy, thank you." My mom interrupted before she had time to finish her sentence. I jumped down off her back and walked back to the table with the cupcakes. I grabbed one and ate it. I stuffed more cupcakes into the box Pinkie gave me. I put the box on my back, careful not to spill them. All of a sudden, I was tackled from the side, sending the box flying. I recovered from the blow and caught the box midair. I put it back where I held it before and turned to see two of the three fillies from before. "Hey guys!" I said as a piece of cloth covered my head from above. " Welcome to the club!" Sweetie said to me as I took the thing off, only to see she had joined the other two. I held something gold in my hands; I turned it over to see a pony logo in the corner. They were wearing capes exactly like this one, but mine was a different color. Instead of dark red, I had a dark blue cape with two holes on the back. I quickly put it on and slipped my wings through the holes. It fit perfectly. I smiled as they pulled me along. "Where are we going?" I asked them cautiously, "To the clubhouse of course!" Applebloom responded. I stopped and turned around; after grabbing my new jacket I got from Rarity and getting permission from mom, I ran back. "Ready!" I told them as I ran out the door.