The Striped Apples

Rockstar and his cousins walked through town chatting idly, with the exception of Big Macintosh, as they made their way to Sugarcube Corner.  Rockstar looked around at the buildings, feeling as though he should know at least a few of them from his time living here as a colt.  In truth, Rockstar was very glad that he had Applejack and Big Mac leading the way, or else he would be very, very lost.  The only routes though town that he remembered from when he lived in Ponyville were from his old house to the schoolhouse, and to Sweet Apple Acres to hang out with Mac. Even though his cousin was his only friend, Rockstar was never picked on much, but he was extremely introverted, and the most socializing he did with other ponies was receive a few strange looks.

"Well, here we are," Applejack said as she gestured towards a very strangely designed building.  Rockstar stared at the building for a moment, taking note that is was "very subtly" made like a giant gingerbread house. 'But then again, it's not the weirdest thing that I've ever seen,'  Rockstar thought as he walked into the bakery.

"I'm so glad you could make it to your party because if you didn't make it to your own party then it wouldn't really be your party, now would it?" A voice asked in rapid succession, making Rockstar jump into the air in surprise and crash on the ground on his back.  'You have wings, idiot,' Rockstar's brain snarked.

'Shut up Brain, nopony asked you this time either,'  Rockstar thought.  He returned to his hooves and faced the pony responsible for the barrage of words. "Hey Pinkie. How did I not know that was you?", Rockstar returned with a smile on his face.  "Thanks for throwin' a party for a stranger you just met, that's real thoughtful."

"Oh it's no problem,"  Pinkie said.  "Everypony is my friend, and I like making my friends smile." And with that, she trotted around the floor of Sugarcube Corner to mingle with the other ponies at the party.  Rockstar and his cousins followed the strange pink mare into the crowd and were met with a group of ponies dancing in front of an odd, blue haired DJ who was currently playing a Swedish Hoof Mafia's song. Rockstar looked around at the interior of Sugarcube Corner, which seemed as chaotic and loud as the Manehattan bars he would play.  He felt completely at home.

"When Pinkie throws a party, she pull out all the stops,"  Applejack yelled over the music, drawing her cousin's attention back to her and Big Macintosh, offering him a mug of amber colored liquid. Rockstar recognized what it was immediately.

"No thanks, AJ," He declined, waving a hoof at the cider.  "I have absolutely no resistance to alcohol."

"Suit yer self, but it would be funny seein' you get drunk and trying to dance or somethin',"  Applejack said as she walked away to socialize with the other party goers, cider in hoof.  Rockstar looked around the room, tapping a hoof in time with the song the DJ just put on, the Poniez's song, Dare.

'Remember Rockstar, make some friends, you're not a scared little colt any more,'  he thought to himself.  Rockstar slid his aviator sunglasses up and looked into the crowd of ponies for a candidate to start a possible conversation with.  Just then he spotted a rainbow mane in the crowd.  Rockstar worked his way through, trying his hardest to not bump into every other pony in his path.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash,"  He said as he finally reach where she was sitting.

"Hey Rock,"  Rainbow Dash answered, motioning for him to sit in the chair across from her.  "Pinkie throws an awesome party,doesn't she?"

"Yeah,"  He answered.  "You doin' o.k. after that crash you took into the roof of the barn?"

"Yeah, I'm fine,"  Rainbow Dash replied, simply waving the recent incident off like it was nothing.  "I've taken worse hits and come back, like this one time that I crashed and broke my wing after I was trying to do this awesome routine to impress the Wonderbolts with," She said as she relayed the entirety of the routine and the incident.  "So what have you been doing, Rock?"

"Settlin' in. I supposed that i might as well stay a while, revisit old times,"  Rockstar answered.  "I used to live here for a while when I was a colt, but where didn't I live is the question I ask myself a lot.  My momma, dad, and me moved around a lot when I was younger to help with the harvests at whichever one of my family's farms was closest.  I even wound up in Cloudsdale for a while at one point."

"Cloudsdale, how'd you get up there?", Rainbow asked, now confused.

Rockstar unfurled his wings and said,  "I used these here wings."

Rainbow Dash looked slightly taken aback for a moment, surprised that she had not noticed his wings when he was sitting right in front of her. "You're a pegasus, too?  I mean, I though since you were related to AJ and Big Macintosh you'd be an Earth pony, too."

"Eeyup, being an Earth pony in the Apple Family is the norm, but there's so many of us spread out so far that there's a bit of everything floating around in there somewhere," Rockstar clarified for the rainbow maned mare.  "I never was that good of a flier, and I don't even know how I got up there, but my parents thought that if they sent me to Cloudsdale for Flight Camp it would help me learn to fly better, but it didn't do much."

Rainbow Dash nodded and said,  "Well, if you're going to be spending a some time in Ponyville,"  Rainbow forced a mug of cider into Rockstar's hoof and held her's in the air.  "To old times and new friends,"  she proposed.  Rockstar looked at the mug and thought for a moment.  'Well, what harm can on cider do?' he thought.

"To old times and new friends!", Rockstar said, clanking his mug against her's.