How to Tag Friends and Influence People

Autumn was just beginning in Ponyville. The harvest needed to be brought in, and brought in it was. Ponies were starting to dress a little warmer as Winter's encroaching shadow started to arrive in the pleasant little equestrian town.

Something else, too, was approaching. Slowly, unsteadily, panting, it slowly made its way into the apple orchard. The last lights of that day's sun made themselves known and gave shadow to the passing form. It was ponylike, certainly, but thin, ungainly. It moved with difficulty, moving from the covers, from tree to tree, as it steadily approached the barn.

Whatever had kept this thing going was starting to wind down now. Its movements became more erratic. A very faint glow came from the thing's head, and slowly, weakly, the barn door came open, the bottom half swinging outward. The mysterious shape went through, closing the door after itself. As storm clouds finally robbed the sun of its last twilight moments, there was a dull thud from within, and the rest was silence.

As the rain started pounding on the roof of the little farmhouse, the Apple family was settling down. It was the last applebuck of the year before the cold, and everything was starting to wind down. Through this, Applejack saw the night sky blotted out entirely by the blackened clouds, lit with the occasional lightning bolt.

Something was giving her a feeling of unease. Something she couldn't quite put her hoof on.

Pulling a poncho around herself, no mean feat for being done by equine mouth alone, she said loudly to the others, "Ah'm a-checkin on the harvest before bed. Can't be too careful a' the barn roof leakin'. That's the last thing we need."

"Eee-yup," came the reply from the large red stallion, her taciturn brother Big Macintosh.

Through the door she sped, quickly through the outside, not wanting to be in the rain any more than was necessary. Lantern in hoof, she made her way to the barn.

After a few moments, she burst through the farmhouse door, pale in face, but fear held tight in the grip of a no-nonsense mind. "Apple Bloom, head up t'bed right now."

"Why? What's-"

"Jest head up. Ah mean it. Big Macintosh, come with me."

The two ponies headed back to the barn. Applejack strode in first, shining light within. Big Macintosh looked closely, his eyes widening when he realized just what he was looking at.

There, unconscious, on the floor, caked in dirt and dried blood, was a strange pony. Though around the same age as Applejack, there was no cutie mark on their flank. Starvation was writ large all over this creature. The bones could be seen through the skin. The barest amount of movement was the only way they could tell that it was mere unconsciousness and not death that had overcome the emaciated pony.

Big Macintosh looked at Applejack expectantly.

"Ain't no way we can care for this poor soul here. Git the wagon. We need to get whoever this is to the hospital."

Big Macintosh hesitated.

"Aw road apples, Mac, they cain't even move." As he moved to get the cart, rolling the sealed barrels off first, Applejack nudged the pony who'd found their barn. "Hey stranger, can y' hear me?"

The pony opened their eyes, a task seeming to take all their strength. They tried to say something, but couldn't, and quickly fell right back to unconsciousness.

With great care, working together, the mare and the stallion managed to get this skeleton of a pony into the wagon, and together they pulled it down the muddening road, the rain showing no partiality or mercy.

A month later, after intensive care by the hospital staff, it became clear that this was a stallion, one who was slight, not any bigger than a mare of the same age. The dirt and blood now long since washed away, carefully fed back from starvation, the stallion had light brown fur and a reddish brown mane, the latter of which was once probably cut short, but was now shaggy.

When he'd regained consciousness, he didn't say much. He asked where he was when he first woke up, and when he was told the hospital in Ponyville, he seemed to relax. Other than thanking the nurses and doctors for their care, he didn't talk about anything else. When asked for a name, he thought for a moment, and gave them a strange one.

doomcup.

Soon, the stallion was fully recovered, but he was a new pony in a new town, and didn't quite know what to do with himself. There was talk, and this blank flank could hear the whispers of rumor all around him. Adult blank flanks weren't unheard of, but very uncommon. The circumstances of his being dropped into this town, however, did much to control the tone of the speculation going on around him.

He wasn't prepared to tell anyone just where he'd come from, and why he was in such dire straits. He didn't want to raise a fuss. He didn't quite know where the name "doomcup" had sprung from, but he wasn't well going to give his real name. He wanted to leave that behind, like everything else he'd left.

The ponies here were friendly enough. He just wished he had the words to really talk to them, but...

He'd been allowed to stay with the Apple family until a place for him to stay could be found. He gladly helped around the farm as a way of trying to pay them back for helping him in his dire time of need.

Applejack caught his eye very often. Sometimes he'd watch as she passed by, and strange feelings welled up that he couldn't speak to or speak of. He wished he just had the words.

"You gon' daydream all day, or are you gon' get this thing off the top shelf?"

"Oh! Right, sorry, right away."

doomcup was a unicorn. This much was very handy, and part of his convalescence was relearning how to use the magic it gave again. If they'd only known that it was really newly learning instead of restoring an ability he had. The recovery had been quite an education. What great things he could do with his horn that hooves alone couldn't!

He longed to do much more than what he thought was possible. But how could he get what he truly wanted?

Either way, in a wave of green magic, the sought for item floated down from the high shelf, finding its way onto Applejack's back.

"Thanks, sugar cube, ah appreciate it."

doomcup gave a smile. He was happy to help.

A place was eventually found. Somebody's sister's cousin's uncle's brother's best friend's roommate's dad had an old house near the Everfree Forest that they had no real plans to do anything with. It's what charitably would have been described in real estate listings as a picker upper, but doomcup didn't mind. His time with the Apple family had taught him a thing or two about being handy around the house, and he soon had the place looking, if not brand new, then at least suitable for habitation.

Pinkie Pie had been so gracious as to throw a little housewarming party for him to be awkward at. Pinkie Pie. Never before in his life had he seen anybody so colorful, so bouncy, so full of life as that mare. Whenever he saw her, he couldn't help but smile himself. They didn't call her the element of laughter for nothing.

And yet...

He couldn't bring himself to say anything. Not even at the party in his honor, which few attended. Pinkie, her sisters Maud and Limestone, Applejack and Big Macintosh, and a few others he hadn't quite gotten to know that well.

He did want to know them eventually, though. One, Rarity, was a beautiful pony, who'd seem like an alabaster statue come to life were it not for her softness. Her cultured voice and her thrilling eye for fashion awoke yearnings in the stallion very easily.

Last was another pone, and this one he felt some odd kind of kinship with. He'd caught her name as Starlight Glimmer, and she had come along, he thought someone had said, to "further her studies in friendship", whatever that meant.

She too was beautiful, as much as real starlight would be. More, from her he felt the vibe that she too was an outcast, a misfit of some kind. Here, he valiantly tried to strike up a conversation.

"Hello there, Starlight Glimmer."

The mare took a draw of her pint glass of punch. "Hi."

"Thanks again for coming to my housewarming party."

"Sure, it was nothing."

Silence. Uncomfortable silence for doomcup. He knew he had to fill it with something, but what? It wasn't helping that whenever he looked at her, very vibrant images filled his mind. Images that would be far more welcome if he were alone.

He wished, fervently, that among his classes during his recovery was how to talk to people. He thought for a while, struggling for a topic.

"It's getting cooler by the day now. I wonder if we'll see snow by the time Decemberween rolls around."

Starlight gave him a strange look. "December what now?"

He tried to squash the panic rising up his neck. "You don't have Decemberween here? The day fifty-five days after Halloween?"

"What's a Halloween?"

"It's a holiday where you dress up and try to get candy, and there's scary things, though I only ever heard about it, since..."

"Oh! You mean Nightmare Night?"

"Oh, is that what it is around here? Interesting. I wonder how different it is from what I know."

"So what is this Decemberween about, then?"

doomcup tried to explain. Starlight tried to understand.

"...and so to celebrate, there's pageant plays and exchange of gifts, including outdated media in your shoes."

"Ah ha, really interesting. Um, I'm going to get some fresh air, okay? Have a good housewarming or whatever."

She slipped away, trying, and failing, to look like she wasn't rushing out as quickly as discretion would allow.

doomcup couldn't help but feel he'd failed somehow. It's not his fault that he didn't know any of the customs around here. He cursed his past, and then he cursed himself for remembering.

He picked up some punch and decided to sit in a quiet corner away from the noise for a bit.

"...know, but he really creeps me out."

He was able to hear a conversation going on just outside the door.

"Aw, but he seems really nice! You should have seen how he lit up when the party started! Jumping like a little colt."

"You ain't been around him like I have, Pinkie. I've caught him looking at me all funny, and I don't like being looked at that way. Can't have no conversation with him neither, with all his weirdness. Where did he come from, Mars?"

"Now Applejack, dear, you're being quite harsh with him. We have no idea just what he's been through. For all we know, there's very good reasons for him being the way he is."

"Ah know. At least here he'll be far away from the rest. Ah know he ain't as comfy around other ponies, and he seems to like the woods, so he can have at it. Ah'll just be glad to be on my way."

"It is quite strange. How does one reach his age without a cutie mark? I don't think I've ever seen a 'blank flank', if I may be so vulgar, nearly as old."

"Aw, lighten up! I'm sure he can find something he's good at."

"Ah cain't help but feel sorry for him. Y'all didn't see the sorry state he was in when I found him in the barn. Ain't nobody should be treated the way he'd been."

"When I was talking to him just now... he's so bizarre. You know, not only did he not know what Hearthswarming or Nightmare Night were, not only did he tell me about these strange variants where he came from, but these were versions he had never even celebrated! He's so strange!"

"Ah had to teach him how to do things I knew how to do as a li'l filly. Whoever saw a pony so useless? How had he never learnt to do them things fer himself?"

"You're being too hard on him! I'm sure he's a really nice and fun guy once you get to know him! He just needs some time!"

"Pinkie, darling, you're a lovely soul, but you must have some standards. No self respecting pony would ever truck with someone so-"

"Did y'all hear something just now?"

They had. The sound of a glass dropping to the floor (thankfully without breaking). The sounds of hoofsteps going up the stairs. The sound of a door slamming shut.

"Ah think he heard us."

The blinds shut. The party's guest of honor was now sharply feeling dishonor. He flopped on the bed, burying his head into the pillows, staining them with tears.

How could those ponies who'd been so nice to him before say such mean things about him? What had he done to make them dislike him so? Why?

He wanted to be their friend- no. He couldn't lie to himself. He wanted to be more than friends with them. But this is how they saw him? With pity and revulsion?

He tried to take heart that Pinkie Pie liked him, but Pinkie Pie seemed to like everybody. This was why he liked her so much, sure, but it didn't make him feel that much better.

He wished he had something, anything, to let him be what the others expected.

He'd only learned about cutie marks recently, but he wished so much that he had one.

By the time his door started knocking, he'd drifted into sleep.