Every story has a milestone, a time where you achieve something extraordinary.

I sat on my bed quickly shoving two cupcakes in my mouth. “These are SO GOOD!” My voice was muffled as I spoke with my mouth full.

This wasn’t one of those times for me. But what this day turned out to be was pretty huge, the turning point in my story, and I promise you we’re really making progress now! So it all started with a visit… from my mother.

“Oh Flick I can’t believe you missed out on the grand galloping gala!” Sweetie Belle bounced in cheerfully, Rarity followed behind her.

“Ugh! I HATE the grand galloping gala!” I hissed.

“Yeah I figured that out.” She rolled her eyes. “You know Discord was there too, you really missed out!”

“It was certainly eventful.” Rarity laughed, carefully stitching some fabrics eagerly.

“I looked so adorable!” Sweetie Belle sighed lovingly to herself.

I sighed and shook my head. “Sweetie Belle that was days ago and you’re still going on about it.” I groaned.

Sweetie Belle stuck her tongue out at me and looked away proudly. "You're just jealous because you're scared of going!"

I rolled my eyes in response.

“Oh Flick I do hope you were okay staying here” Rarity asked for the hundredth time.

“Of course I was!” I replied once more.

Rarity squeaked with happiness, still sewing some fabrics together. “At least now we can all have a nice day and go to the wedding without any problems hopefully!”

And cue the knock at the door.

“I’ll get it!” Rarity rushed to the door, opening it swiftly.

And there my mother was standing in the door way, I hadn’t seen her in quite a while and I had no idea why she was here.

“Flick! Your mother is here!” Rarity called to me.

“Oh Flicktailus I have missed you so much!” My mother called happily.

She was exactly how I remembered her, her long luscious blue mane was tied up in a bun, her fluffy purple tail similar to my own, a tail worthy of the Flufftail name, her cutie mark a bright purple fluorescent flower blooming with each petal sparkling various colors, it really stood out on her immaculate white coat.  And here she was, right in front of me.

“Hi mother!”  I panicked. “What brings you here?”

“Oh I thought I’d drop in to see how you’ve been doing here, tell me, is this small town always so crowded and full of rude ponies everywhere?”

“There’s a wedding taking place that’s why the town is crazy!” Sweetie Belle beamed. “Hi Mrs. Flufftail!”

“Ah Sweetie Belle! Oh how you’ve grown!” My mother squeaked, before glancing towards Sweetie Belle’s blank flank. “No cutie marks yet I see.” She observed us both.

Sweetie Belle frowned. “No… thanks for pointing that out.”

“Oh I am so delighted to have you visit us, this is a lovely family reunion!” Rarity gleamed. “No Mr. Flufftail?”

“I’m afraid he’s out on business, he was too busy to come and visit Flicktailus today.” My mother replied.

“Nothings changed then.” I grumbled.

"I thought i'd just drop by to see how you're doing, I needed a few days away from the shop for a while" She spoke towards me.

I smiled the most unconvincing smile I could in response.

“So you’ve just been to the Grand Galloping Gala” My mother asked Rarity.

“Oh yes, of course it’s not the first time I’ve been, it was glamorous as always!” Rarity giggled.

“I hope you didn’t take him.” My mother gestured towards me. “Not after the last time his father and I took him there.”

Rarity shook her head. “Flick wanted to stay here so I made sure he was looked after and – “

“Oh it was awful when we went there… Flicktailus embarrassed us all, to this day I can’t show my face in Canterlot.”

“Okay seriously! Flick! What happened when you went to the Gala? I have to know! Sweetie Belle growled.

I groaned. “Okay! Enough about Grand Galloping Galas! Come with me mother I’ll show you around Ponyville!”

Sweetie Belle sighed, before composing herself. “You’ll love Ponyville Mrs. Flufftail, it’s amazing!” She smiled.

“Hm, it certainly seems to be a special little town now doesn’t it, there are ponies running around like crazy out there.” My mother shook her head.

“It’s far more peaceful than back home usually mother.” I glanced up to Fuzzy who’d just climbed up to my mane. “Isn’t that right Fuzzy?”

“OH MY WORD!” My Mother shrieked.

“What is it?” I panicked, looking around to see what was wrong.

“That rodent! On your head, oh my!”

I sighed with relief and looked up at my beloved pet. “Oh yeah, mother this is Fuzzy, my ferret, Miss Fluttershy gave him to me!”

“Oh my just think of the fleas.” She groaned, stepping backwards.

“Oh he’s harmless and clean it’s okay, it’s that one you need to watch out for…” I glared at Opal. “Sweetie Belle can you show my mother around Carousel Boutique for a while, I need to go get ready.”

“Sure thing, don’t take too long though, the wedding is in an hour!” Sweetie Belle squeaked with excitement.  Sweetie Belle was about to show my mother around until she decided to head in to our room to have a word with me. “I’ll be one second!” As she entered our room, I was nowhere to be found. “Dang he’s getting really good at these magic tricks.” She glanced around bemused, until she noticed the laundry basket was shaking ever so slightly.  She sighed to herself and walked up towards the trembling basket. “Give me strength...Flick why are you in the panic basket?” She opened the basket and peered at me shaking softly inside.

“I know why my mother is here! You need to hide me!” My voice was muffled from the laundry I was hiding under. “She’s going to take my back to Manehatten I just know it!”

“Why would she do that?”

“I told her I was going to come to Ponyville to find my cutie mark, it’s been forever and I still haven’t, she’s going to try and convince me that I shouldn’t stay here!” I was clearly having a panic attack, but Sweetie tried to reason with me.

Sweetie Belle sat by the basket to talk to me. “Oh I’m sure she won’t do that, if you just talk to her in a calm reasonable way I’m sure she’ll –"

“NO WHERE IS SAFE!” I leapt out of the panic basket and shot out of the room faster than I’d ever ran.

“Flick wait!” Sweetie Belle called.

I zoomed past Rarity and My mother, Fuzzy clinging to my mane in an attempt to not fall off; I quickly slammed the door and left Carousel Boutique.

“Flicktailus where are you off to?” My mother called, but got no reply. I just galloped as fast as I could.

“You know he never usually runs off like this, he has been so well behaved!” Rarity laughed nervously.

“So he’s not usually running around destroying this town with his clumsiness then?” My mother seemed surprised.

Rarity stopped in her tracks. “Erm – “

And then Rarity recalled a few... minor things I'd done since I came to Ponyville. Destroying town hall for instance.

“Nope, not at all! I’ll go look for him, don’t worry! I won’t be long, I’ll be back in time to prepare for the wedding!”

So while Rarity headed out to search for me, I was outside, with no idea what to do.

I was walking aimlessly around Ponyville, lost in my thoughts. “My mother doesn’t even care about me why is she here? She never bothered being home much when I was growing up…stupid flower shop and all the stupid work she had.” I was ranting to myself while walking around alone. I’m sure I looked crazy.

Before I could think anymore -  

“I’m sorry Miss – erm…” I flustered at the earth pony in front of me, I often forgot some of the name of the other residents of Ponyville.

“Oh hey little one, I’m Special agent – “ She stopped suddenly in a panic and coughed to cleared her throat. “I mean Bon Bon! My name is Bon Bon! I’m sure we’ve spoken once before.” She laughed nervously. “You seem kind of lost or something, are you okay?” She looked down at me smiling.

“Hi Miss Bon Bon.” I spoke fairly confused. “I’m not lost I’m just – “

This was a good chance to maybe get some advice from somepony with a fresh perspective on my situation.

“- In a bit of a panic about – “

“The wedding! Oh aren’t we all!” Bon Bon gasped excitedly.

“I… what?”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll all get it under control, why don’t you see if anypony needs your help? I’m just going to help Lyra!” She grinned.

“Yeah sure, I’ll... do that.” I spoke slowly, before turning to run away.

So I kept running, I was panicking like crazy; I just needed some space away from –

I’d collided again with somepony again. “I’m sorry!” I gasped.

“I’m going to get flowers!” The grey derpy eyed Pegasus wasn’t fazed by the collision, happily grinning at me.

I smiled nervously and backed away.  “Calm down Flick, there’s no reason to be scared of the local mailmare anymore, you’re not thinking straight!” I muttered to myself, until I’d suddenly backed in to somepony with a bump once more. “Sorry Mr. Cake!”

“Oh no worries Flick! Hey, I’ve been hard at work on some cakes for the wedding, would you like to come try some?” Mr. Cake ruffled my mane, disturbing Fuzzy.

“I’m fine thank you sir!” My voice broke as I panicked more. I used my hooves to fix my mane, waving goodbye to Mr. Cake and running off.

The entire of Ponyville was crowded with everypony rushing around in preparations. “Who the hay is getting married anyway…” I asked myself as I galloped off. “I need some space away from everypony!”

And sure enough –

“WILL EVERYPONY JUST GET OUT OF MY - " I suddenly stopped. “Whoa nice Cello!” I beamed at the grey earth pony. “I’d love to learn to play…” I was fixated on the beautiful instrument.

“Oh really? Well you should first watch where you’re going mister. Anyway you simply must hear the beautiful music I’ll be playing at the wedding!” She spoke so classy and polite, she was incredible, she adjusted her bow tie proudly.

“I’m sure it’ll be great! I do adore classical music, it’s just so enchanting!” I smiled in awe.

“Well you should pick up an instrument one day!” She examined me closely. “It could be your special talent, although it does indeed take a very talented ear to learn such an instrument.”

“I’ll bare that in mind! See you later Miss…erm sorry I don’t know your name!” I ran off once more.

“Its Octavia, but hold on there young one, aren’t you attending the wedding?” She called after me.

“Oh, um, not really.” I turned around to face her, still walking backwards. “I’ve got super… important problems to deal with.”

“Hm, what could be more important than a wedding?” Octavia asked herself.

“It seems to be so busy out there… what on earth is taking Rarity so long finding Flicktailus?” My mother spoke to herself impatiently.

At that moment, Sweetie Belle entered Carousel Boutique, after she too had been out to search for me. “Good news, I found Rarity! Bad news, there’s no sign of Flick and there’s a monster attacking Ponyville.”

“I beg your pardon?” My mother asked, suddenly terrified.

“It’s just a bug bear, Rarity and Twilight will deal with it, and in the meantime we can go to the wedding! You wanna go get ready?” Sweetie Belle asked.

My mother shook her head. “I think I’ll go snooping around your room to make sure Flicktailus has been keeping it tidy.”

“Sure thing… that’s totally a polite thing to do.” Sweetie Belle shook her head.

And so my mother went in to our room to look around and on the bed she saw something very special of mine.

“Oh I see he still keeps this silly diary…” She picked up the battered book. She glanced around several times to make sure Sweetie Belle wasn’t there, before opening the book and reading.

Hey you’re probably wondering how I know this if I wasn’t there at the time, but it’ll all become clear later.

Back through the busy streets of Ponyville, I’d managed to find a quiet spot.  “My mother has always been so critical of me Fuzzy… I just know she isn’t proud of me.” I sighed talking to the ferret resting on my mane. “And she’s going to take me back to Manehatten because I’m a failure.” I pulled out a long list that I’d always carried around with me

'One hundred things I’m not good at’

I can’t stress this enough, I was obsessed with keeping lists.

“Allons-y everypony! This wedding is just going to be the greatest!” Somepony behind me spoke before tripping over me. He quickly got up and composed himself “Whoops! Sorry kid! I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s okay sir!” I replied to the brown earth pony that’d collided with me.

He smiled and proceeded to walk with the other ponies following him.

“Whoa Fuzzy his cutie mark is awesome… you think maybe he’s a time traveler or something?” I admired the hourglass cutie mark. “Oh I’m doing it again! Admiring other ponies cutie marks and still no closer to finding my own! Ugh, this is a complete load of – “

Sprinkle, a complete load of sprinkle.

“Oh my Flick, using such language… well I cant exactly tell you off since we’re not in the class room.”

I looked around to see Cheerilee. “Miss Cheerilee, Hi!” I blushed at her hearing my use of a bad word. "Sorry miss!"

“Why are you sitting out here alone Flick?” She asked, rather concerned Rarity wasn’t with me.

“My mother is visiting… so I ran away.” I blushed staring towards the ground; Fuzzy scratched my mane to attempt to cheer me up.

Cheerilee sighed sadly. “Again, we’re not in the class room so I can’t tell you what to do but – “

I quickly interrupted her. “I know… running away from your problems isn’t good, I should go back home and be happy and feel the warm, not at all critical judgmental love that my mother can give me.” I noticed Cheerilee looking sympathetically towards me. “Sorry Miss… I just have family problems, and other problems.” I sighed as I stared at the list I was holding.

“What’s that list?” She asked.

“It’s a list of one hundred things I’m not good at, all the things I’ve tried to do to earn my cutie mark and all of them I was terrible at. My mother must be so disappointed in me.” I bowed my head and felt tears forming in my eyes.

“Well Flick, I’m sure your mother loves you, you’ll know when you have little ponies of your own one day, the love you’ll have for them is stronger than anything, you’ll always be proud.” Cheerilee attempted to cheer me up.  She smiled at me before heading off. “I’ll see you in class next week!”

I watched as my teacher walked away, my mind stopped for a moment.

At the time I probably didn’t realize how true that statement was, until I had you two I didn’t know how much I could love two little ponies of my own.

I tried to weigh up the pros and cons of going back to Manehatten. “At least if I have to live back in Manehatten I can see Daisy Spring again.” I smiled at the thought of the last time I saw my friend. She’d given me a beautiful rose flower to wear in my mane. “But I’ll miss the crusaders, and Rarity and the others! Oh this is all a mess…” I growled to myself. “I suppose I should go home and face the music.”

And then as it often happened, a crazy idea came to me. I’d thought back to what Octavia had told me earlier.

“I need to face the MUSIC. Fuzzy! I know how to earn my cutie mark right now!” I beamed hopping up and down excitedly.

If there’s one thing this story has more than anything else, it’s crazy moments that I threw myself in to, and again, this was one of them.

“Excuse me coming through!” I ran through the busy streets of Ponyville until I faced a huge crowd on ponies that refused to move. “Ahem, excuse me!” I jumped up several times trying to get everypony to hear me.

No pony moved out of the way.

“Important wedding stuff coming through!” I yelled. Everypony swiftly moved out of the way, any mention of the wedding caused commotion and excitement.

“Sorry I need to borrow this!” I’d found Octavia, I quickly cast a glow around her cello and struggling immensely I managed to lift it off the ground with my magic. Her cool looking DJ friend was too busy playing records to notice me stealing her friends instrument.

“Excuse me! What in the name of Equestria are you doing? How dare you steal my cello!” Octavia shrieked.

I galloped as fast as I could, quickly lost in the crowds, attempting to not hit anypony while levitating a huge cello.

I swear I eventually stopped with all these crazy shenanigans.

So back at Carousel Boutique -

“He seems to be very gifted at magic, our friend Princess Twilight is very impressed with his skills, I’m sure he’ll get his cutie mark one day soon!” Sweetie Belle spoke about me. “And me? Well I’m a great model clearly, look how beautiful I am, I take after Rarity!”

“I hardly think Flicktailus can be that gifted, surely he’d be at the school for gifted unicorns otherwise, with his clumsiness he’s probably a danger to anypony. And you are indeed quite pretty Sweetie Belle but a model… really, of all the potential career choices…” My mother spoke judgementally.

Sweetie Belle sighed. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. “Excuse me for a moment!” She grumbled. She opened the door to see me barely managing to keep the huge cello floating off the ground, the sparkle of magic cast around it fading quickly.

“This is so heavy!” I struggled to speak.

“Flick why do you have a – “ Sweetie Belle stopped. “I’m… not even gonna ask just - just, whatever.” She sighed.

“Hi oh dear mother of mine! I’ve found my new talent!” I grinned nervously.

“New talent?” My mother asked curiously.

“I can play the cello now! See I’m talented, I’ll get my cutie mark soon and I can stay in Ponyville, no need to take me away from all my friends here!” I yelled as I panicked and began to play random notes on the cello. “Oh yeah! Just listen to the beautiful classic sound of the beautiful instrument! I’m doing this all by myself, I am talented!”

The noise I was making from the cello was not something worthy enough to be called music.

The sound of me playing the cello caused Sweetie Belle and my mother to cover their ears. “Flick stop trying to play that thing, you’re so terrible!” Sweetie Belle cried.

“Where did you even get that thing?” My mother yelled over the harsh noise of my failed attempts to play something melodic.

“I borrowed it from Miss Octavia, the pony who’s playing at the wedding!” I grinned, yelling over the sound of the continuing noise I was making with the instrument.

KRRRKRKRKRK The sound of my terrible playing scraped the strings, creating a terrible sound.

“He’s only doing this because – “ Sweetie Belle yelled.

“What?” My mother yelled over the noise, holding her ears in pain.

“I said he’s only doing this because you wont admit you’re proud of him!” Sweetie Belle yelled loudly.

I stopped playing upon hearing Sweetie Belle's words.

Silence filled the room.

“I am proud of him!” My mother yelled, only now noticing the horrific noise had stopped.

“What?” I asked, my heart had stopped for a moment.

“Flick… I saw your mom earlier, she went through your diary.” Sweetie Belle shot a glare at my mother.

“Journal” I corrected. “Wait what?”

My mother glanced around to make sure Sweetie Belle wasn’t there. Just around the corner however, Sweetie Belle hid, peaking carefully around the door so my mother couldn’t see her.

“Oh there is so much stuff in here, I never knew he wrote so much…” A few moments later, she came across an entry that captivated her.

My mother then glanced down to the attached letter, clipped to that journal entry with a parchment clip, she gasped slightly as she read it. It was the first letter my parents sent me from when I moved here, a loving letter my mother had wrote, telling me she loved me and cared about me.

Then she had realised, the letter she wrote and how she had acted in real life towards me, were both complete opposite behaviour. So when my mother finished reading that journal entry, according to Sweetie Belle -

“No, I don't believe you, there’s no way my mother cried.” I shook my head and laughed at the idea, there was no way that was true.

“She did!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. “I saw her!”

“My mother has never once cried… except when I embarrassed her and my father at the Gala. And she and him, were always way too busy working to ever want to spend time with me, why would she cry just because she realizes she’s a bad mother!” I yelled, looking over at my mother.

And to my surprise, she was crying.

“Flicktailus… look I – “ My mother stopped as she wiped away the tears forming in her eyes. She lowered her head down before slumping to the floor in bawls of tears.

“Mother?” I asked my voice breaking. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

And it hit me in that moment, as I watched my mother cry like this, maybe she cared after all, and what I’d just said… was nothing short of horrible.

I ran over to her and embraced her, “I’m sorry mommy.” I began to cry myself. “I didn’t mean that!”

“No I’m sorry Flick… I’m so sorry, I’ve never meant to act the way I’ve acted, not spending as much time with you is my biggest regret.” She sobbed. “I know I may seem so critical… but I want you to be happy, and I know all you want in the world is to find your talent, I thought being judgemental would push you further, I see now how it's wrong." My mother looked up at me, smiling softly. “Your happiness is all I want in this world.”

And the world just stopped, as for the first time in a long long time, me and my mother hugged tightly, forgetting all the problems in Equestria.

“Everything will be okay I promise.” She spoke encouragingly, stroking my mane as she did so, Fuzzy sat next to us both, glancing between us confused as to what was happening.

But we didn't care, we both sobbed while holding on to each other, I was in my mothers hooves, and I felt loved. So that’s the story of the lovely beautiful sentimental moment with my mother, it was perfect and the whole day was –

“WHERE’S MY CELLO!” Octavia burst in to Carousel Boutique.

“Oh... Sorry!” I grinned nervously through my tears, pulling away from my mother's embrace.

“You better have had a good reason for pulling that stunt on me!” She growled furiously. “The wedding is in twenty minutes!”

“I just wanted to see if it was my special talent so I could finally earn my cutie mark…” I responded sadly.

“Awh darling… I AM SO MAD YOU STOLE MY CELLO. But that is just adorable!” She adjusted her bow tie and cleared her throat.

I laughed. “And as you can see it didn’t work, I’ll probably have 200 things on this list soon.” I sighed, throwing the list aside.

Octavia picked it up curiously. “One hundred things I’m bad at…” She shook her head. “Well you’ll never find your cutie mark if you focus on the negatives, why not keep a list of things you’re good at?” She ripped up the list in front of me shaking her head disapprovingly.

“I didn’t really think about that.” I stared blankly at the discarded pile of paper.

“Listen here, both of you.” Octavia addressed me and Sweetie Belle. “When a pony earns their cutie mark it is because they have finally found that one thing they’re best at, more than anything. And how do you find something?”

I thought for a moment. “Look really hard for it and make several lists of what you’re not good at to eliminate the – “

“You don’t look for it.” She interrupted quickly.

“Don’t look for it?” Sweetie Belle was as confused as me.

“Not all the time, of course do go out there and experience things that could be your special talent, keep a list of what you’re good at if it makes you feel more positive. But keeping a list of negatives and looking day in, day out for your talent… thats not how you earn your cutie mark, positivity is all you need.”

“Whoa…” I could hardly find any words to say.

“Without positivity, I wouldn’t have put all these years in to my music, and it’s my true passion. I love it more than anything.” Octavia picked up her cello proudly smiling at us before heading out of the door. “The universe is writing your song right now, you're probably only on the first verse but soon you'll strike that beautiful chorus.” She spoke happily, walking away.

I glanced to Sweetie Belle and back at my mother, Fuzzy ran up my hoof and on to my mane happily sensing my new found confidence. “You know what, she’s right, it’s time to stop focusing on the negatives, no more list of things I can’t do. From now on I'll keep a list of things I can do! Although there will hardly be anything on it compared to the list of things I can’t do.”

“Quality, not quantity.” Sweetie Belle put her hoof around me encouragingly.

My mother smiled down at me. "I just know you'll find your cutie mark soon."

I smiled back at her, my entire outlook for the first time in forever, was completely positive.

And that was the story of how one pony I’d never even spoken to before, gave me the best advice I could have asked for, the list of things I can do eventually got pretty big rather quickly.  

You know of course my cutie mark wasn't anything music related, or for that matter anything magic related as much as I wanted it to be back then, nor was it for any extreme sports... nothing related to dancing, potion making or anything like that. But it's never too late to try any of those things.

“The wedding really was amazing!” Sweetie Belle sighed adoringly. “It was beautiful… aren’t you sad you missed it?” She asked me.

I sat on our bed next to my mother who had been sitting with me for the last few hours, talking to me and telling me all sorts of stories. I looked up at her lovingly, I now knew cared about me more than anything. “I was a lot happier spending the time with my mother.” I smiled.

My mother smiled softly down at me, although she had her usual immaculate appearance, through my eyes, she looked entirely different.

“Awh…" Sweetie Belle put her hoof to her mouth and giggled at the beautiful family moment unfolding. "It’s a good job you didn’t come anyway, I mean there was a baby changeling there after all!”

I smiled for a moment, before realizing what Sweetie Belle had said, my eyes opened wide and my smile vanished. “Wait… what?” Next Chapter: Chapter 17: Sweetie Belle's Wish (1/2) Estimated time remaining: 20 Minutes