Master of All trades

Touring Ponyville and Learning to Trust

"No... No... No... Ugh, this is going to keep me up all night!"

"I'm really sorry Twilight, but like I said: me not having a Cutie Mark is completely natural to me!"

"I don't know; that's never happened 'round these here parts of Equestria. I reckon it's not even happened anywhere in the world!"

"Oh man, that's so wicked! Who cares, Applejack? This just means he might have some super, awesome talent that it takes this long to show!"

Twilight Sparkle continued levitating books to her face to skim through them faster than Joat Mon could count, Applejack watched her speed reading, and Rainbow Dash continued hovering around Joat to admire his flanks.

"This is rather new, but I don't think it's any problem. Actually, I kinda like how it looks," Fluttershy said while blushing ever so slightly.

Joat had no idea how to respond to any of this; never has any pony been so readily accepting of his abnormality or even excited about it like Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy were.

Suddenly, the room was full of the heavy thuds made by Twilight releasing her magical grip on the myriad of books that once circled around her, "Oh well, it's not like it changes anything; I'll just ask the Princess about it later. How about we just show you around town and get you familiar? This is going to be your new home after all."

Joat half smiled and nodded, feeling strangely trusting of these pony's intentions, but at least he had finally gotten a break from his pursuers.

"I know just where to start! Let's head over to the Market so we can meet Pinkie and Rarity and to see the town center so Joat can see Ponyville from the inside out," Rainbow Dash cried out and zipped right through an over head window.

"Sounds like a plan, come on y'all, before Rainbow Dash hurts herself," Applejack laughed.

Together, the band of friends left Twilight's library to tour Ponyville. Joat lagged a little behind everypony feeling slightly uncomfortable with being so quickly befriended and still not entirely sure how he should act.

"You any good of a flier?" Joat jumped at hearing Rainbow's voice right behind him. For the first time that he saw her, she was actually walking, looking at him expectantly.

"Well I'm not actually sure. Nopony has actually taken the time to watch me," Joat responded timidly.

"Let's play a little game then! You know how to play ‘Horse’?" Rainbow Dash crowded closer to Joat obviously eager to test his mettle.

"No; no pony ever played any kind of game with me for a very long time, but I'm willing to try," Joat perked up slightly at the idea of actually participating in a pegasus game.

For a moment, Rainbow seemed to lose her spunk as she frowned at hearing about just how much this poor stallion suffered, but she recovered quickly enough, not wanting to worry him any more than necessary, "Just try to copy my moves and don't mess them up or you get a letter. First pony that messes up so much that the letters spell Horse loses. Ready?" Rainbow Dash slowly lifted off of the ground.

Joat immediately understood the idea and nodded with a smile, mimicking Dash and floating up with small strokes of his wings.

"Here I go!" Rainbow took off and did a triple barrel roll in the sky and landed, "Now you try."

Joat swallowed, suddenly unsure of his aerial prowess, but he took off and succeeding in the triple barrel roll but landed very sloppily.

"That honestly wasn't too bad, but that landing earned you an 'H'," Rainbow said. "So I'll do some other trick until you get it, or spell Horse first." Again, she took off doing a loop-da-loop, climbed straight up, somersaulted once and softly floated back down on her hind legs.

Joat admired her making it seem so easy and he took off managing to mimic the stunt perfectly and landing smoothly while the other girls clapped and murmured their praise.

"Not bad, newbie,” Rainbow playfully sneered, nudging into Joat gently causing Joat to grin with a small sense of pride, “No letter this time and it's your turn to set the stunt," Rainbow Dash smiled.

Much more confident, Joat took a moment to think about a potential stunt. Once he found something that he thought should be a challenge for Rainbow, he lifted off high enough to launch himself into a horizontal-wingless-cartwheel slash barrel roll, and flare his wings just before hitting the ground in a softer than most landing.

Again, the girls praised the interesting maneuver and shifted their gazes to Rainbow, "Wow, I've never seen a move like that. Let's see if I can't do it," Rainbow Dash laughed excitedly.

She took off fast executing the cartwheel perfectly, but had to flare her wings early to regain her bearings after trying to barrel roll too.

Once she landed, Rainbow was wide-eyed and stared at joat in disbelief, "I've never gotten a letter before," Rainbow eyed Joat mischievously with a subtle sneer, "but that's the only one I'll get."

The next half hour went by with Joat and Dash performing numerous aerial maneuvers that sometimes ended painfully as one or the other crash landed. Many nearby ponies came to watch and applaud the duo as they tried to outdo the other. Joat had completely lost himself in the spirit of competition and found himself smiling endlessly; he was unaware of the applause or praise of the many who enjoyed the show. Rainbow did win but it came very close; she had it to the 'S'.

At the final move that gave Joat the last letter, Joat wound up upside down in a tree after trying to replicate what Rainbow caller her Famous Buccaneer Blaze.

Much to Joat’s surprise, a random unicorn stallion, took a hold of him in his magic and gently dropped him on his hooves, “Great good show, Buck! Nice moves up there!”

Not knowing how to respond to the stallion, Joat just smiled nervously and rubbed his ear, but the stallion didn’t seem to mind, gave him a nod and stalked off with the rest of the dispersing crowd.

Once the relative quiet came back after the crowd left, the other girls came to congratulate the two.

"Whewie, that was some mighty fine flyin' just now, what were some of those tricks you were doin'?" Applejack asked.

"Actually, a lot of those were stunts I had to pull to avoid possibly fatal crash landings," Joat casually answered while stretching his wings free from the sudden exercise. His mood still carefree from the positive attention he had just received and the elation he felt from competing with Rainbow.

"Whaddya mean by ‘fatal’," Twilight gasped.

Realizing that he had already said too much, Joat hung his head and spoke nervously, "Well I've tried escaping before... They'd try really hard to catch me... And they weren't careful about it," Joat glumly replied.

"Gosh, you weren't too badly hurt were you," Fluttershy asked.

"Well duh! He almost beat me in a flying game! Of course he's perfectly fine," Dash bumped up against Joat giving him an admiring wink.

They had walked a bit more, Joat once again letting his mind roam, I couldn’t find myself to be rude to them, couldn’t lie to them, I’m trusting them with my secrets!? What am I doing? Joat glanced up, watching the girls chattering amongst themselves with Rainbow dominating the overall conversation with her talking about her exploits and Joat's near victory over her. Many of the details were greatly exaggerated, causing the girls and Joat to roll their eyes.

Before Rainbow could delve into the last stunt that won her the game, a giant red-coated stallion approached the group, "Uh, A.J.?"

Applejack groaned and face hoofed herself, "Let me guess, Applebloom hurt herself again, didn't she?"

"Eeyup," the stallion answered in a deep, rumbling voice.

"Do you need any help Applejack," Fluttershy asked, her voice full of concern.

"If you wouldn't mind too much; I'm pretty sure she's done herself a doozy," Applejack sighed.

"I could help too, if you need it," Joat spoke up.

"Really? I mean, do you know how to fix up cuts and bruises? Fluttershy can handle it pretty well, usually, since she helps injured animals all the time," Applejack peered at Joat, trying to assess just how useful he could be.

"I'm sure it'll be okay, because I've had to fix myself up a few times and that's not necessarily easily accomplished," Joat smiled sheepishly, hoping she wouldn't ask why he had to heal himself.

"Alrighty then, if you think you can stomach it. I reckon she's done made a mess of herself this time. Unicycle cutie mark... How does that make any sense," Applejack sighed disapprovingly. And not for the last time, Joat found himself wondering about why these mares didn’t seem to mind Joat’s background so much.

Were they just this trusting in new ponies? Or was it just because he was an alicorn? Or did they really not seem to mind him being so radically different at all?

The whole group decided to follow Applejack and the large stallion that Joat learned to be Applejack's big brother, Big Macintosh (and may my name be changed to Mule Face if he wasn't the biggest pony I've ever seen, thought Joat to himself), to her home at Sweet Apple Acres.

They were led to a large barn with a young, crying filly with a big bow in her red mane, who had apparently hurt her right foreleg and hind right leg.

"Oh dear, what happened?" Fluttershy rushed over, inspecting the filly's injuries.

"Looks like she pulled her back tendon and twisted her foreleg really bad, not to mention slicing herself up pretty good," Joat said kneeling beside the crying filly, her coat was the same color as Fluttershy's, but just like Joat, she had no Cutie Mark.

"That was a pretty good diagnosis, Joat Mon, but I'm afraid it's actually broken. How'd you hurt yourself Applebloom?" Fluttershy asked in a sweet voice.

"I was tryin' to get my Cutie Mark in unicyclin', but I couldn't even get on the darned thing," Applebloom sniffled.

Joat couldn't help but smile to himself in hearing that her Southern Accent was thicker than her sisters, "Here, I'll help you work a splint over it," Joat offered Fluttershy.

"Thank you. Now, Applebloom, this is going to hurt a bit," Fluttershy grabbed a nearby piece of wood and had Applebloom bite into it, "but I'll work as fast as I can. Joat, can you tie the splint together once I reset the bone?"

Joat nodded and grabbed some nearby medical gauze that Big Macintosh had prepared. Fluttershy placed her hooves gently on either side of Applebloom's leg and nodded once in Joat's direction. He moved quickly just as Fluttershy pushed hard into Applebloom's leg which gave off a loud snap as the bone was forced back into alignment.

Applebloom screamed into the wood, almost chewing it in half, but was surprisingly strong in not moving as Joat wound the splint in place, making sure the medical guide-struts were properly aligned over the bone before tying the gauze off in a tight neat knot.

Every pony in the room paled at hearing the bone snap and Twilight had to turn away as her face turned green.

"There, all better," Fluttershy pulled the wood from Applebloom's mouth who began inspecting the treatment.

"Thank you, Fluttershy," Applebloom sniffled and shivered, cold from the shock of having her bone reset, "and thank you, Mister..." Applebloom watched Joat, unsure of who he was.

"Joat Mon, and it's not a problem at all Miss Applebloom," Joat took off his cloak and tucked it tightly around Applebloom's shoulders.

Applebloom's eyes went wide at what she saw, and could no longer feel Fluttershy putting another splint over her sprained leg, even though the motions made Twilight feint when she thought it was safe to look.

"You have a horn AND wings!? You're just like Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! How in Equestria did ya do that?" Applebloom gasped.

"I was born that way," Joat smiled and tucked his wings tightly to his body, suddenly self-conscious, than Applebloom gasped a second time, this time much louder.

"You don’t have a Cutie Mark! The others need to know about this," and suddenly Applebloom was gone in a poof. Fluttershy didn't even have time to warn her to be careful, let alone tell her not to move.

"You may have just made the top of the list of three fillies," Rainbow Dash laughed.

"Whaddya mean? What did I do? Why do you say 'three fillies'," Joat asked concerned.

Twilight moaned as she regained consciousness, but the others continued snickering at the thought of Joat being the new Filly Idol, "Look girls! See? He's just like us," Applebloom's voice burst from behind every pony.

Everypony turned to look at the new visitors, but Joat's vision was completely blocked, first by an orange pegasus with a short purple mane, "You have a horn!", then a white unicorn with a frilly purple and pink mane, "And you have wings!"

"Girls, I think we just found ourselves a new leader for the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Applebloom cheered.

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