Why, just this morning she had been watching Firefly and Medley practicing their triple loop-de-loops and double-somersault nose-dives in the sky. They were so graceful up there, soaring about between the whispy clouds, and the fact that they could fly so well made them valuable to the rest of the ponies. They could go places others couldn’t. Minty could only get to the places her hooves took her.
And then there were Moondancer and Glory, who were so skillful with their magic. When Minty had passed them in the valley on the way to the apple tree, they had been working with their complicated healing powers. Just imagine that, if any of the ponies got hurt, Moondancer and Glory could make them better just like that. Minty couldn’t do anything as wonderful as that.
Even the other Earth ponies had special skills, Minty thought as she leaned against the trunk of the tree. Lemon Drop was the best at jumping; she was always practicing at the fences by the stable. Peachy kept the other ponies looking beautiful at the parlor. Blossom and Blue Belle worked every day in the gardens around Dream Castle, and they kept the plants green and full and the flowers colorful and fragrant. Cotton Candy and Butterscotch were always cooking up delicious things to eat in the Castle’s kitchen, and Snuzzle was the friendliest pony; she cheered up the others when they were blue.
But nothing, not ever one of Snuzzle’s hilarious jokes, could have cheered Minty up today. She couldn’t think of one thing she could do that someone else couldn’t do much better. She felt so useless. Finally, she got up and trotted slowly back toward Dream Castle. “There must be something I can do,” she said to herself as she walked. “I can’t fly like Firefly and Medley, and I don’t have magical powers like Moondancer and Glory, but perhaps I could learn a talent from one of the other Earth ponies.” And that was just what she decided to do.
She began her quest to find her talent the next day at the stable. Lemon Drop was practicing her high jump over a towering yellow bar when Minty arrived. “Hello, Lemon Drop!” Minty called. “I’d like to learn how to jump high and far, like you can. Will you teach me?”
Lemon Drop took a moment to catch her breath before she smiled and said, “Of course, Minty.” Soon, Lemon Drop was instructing Minty on how to judge the height of a jump, on how fast to run approaching a jump, and on how to push off extra hard with her back legs to give her more time in the air. “All right; now you try it,” Lemon Drop said after she demonstrated a low jump over a fence.
“Okay.” Minty remembered everything that Lemon Drop had told her, and she began to run toward the fence. At just the right instant she leaped up, and she easily cleared the fence and landed gracefully on the other side.
“Very good, Minty!” Lemon Drop exclaimed.
Minty smiled, but she wasn’t satisfied. “Any pony can jump over a low fence,” she protested. “I want to learn to jump high.” She looked toward the yellow bar Lemon Drop had been jumping over. “As high as that bar.”
“But you’re just beginning,” Lemon Drop protested. “Let me put the bar at a lower position for now, and you can work up to the high jump.”
“No, I think I can do it,” Minty responded, and she took a deep breath and began to gallop toward the bar. She jumped at what she thought was just the right instant... But she wasn’t high enough to clear the bar. Instead she banged into it and sent it, and herself, crashing to the ground. The bar splintered into two pieces.
Lemon Drop came running over. “Minty, are you all right?” she exclaimed. “I told you the bar was too high!”
Minty stood up and shook herself off. “I’m okay, but your bar isn’t. I broke it. I’m sorry.” She felt even worse now than she had yesterday.
“That’s all right,” Lemon Drop assured her. “But let’s work on the lower jumps for awhile, now.”
“No, I think I’ve changed my mind about jumping,” Minty said quietly. “Thanks anyway, Lemon Drop.” She turned and walked away back towards Dream Castle.
The next day, Minty was even more determined to find her own skill. She went to the Pretty Parlor and asked Peachy if she could learn to make ponies beautiful, too.
“Of course,” Peachy said. “In fact, I could use some help today. I’m going to be very busy.” Minty watched and listened carefully while Peachy showed her the different brushes and combs and explained how to cut and style manes and tails. “Do you understand?” Peachy asked finally.
“Yes,” Minty replied.
“Wonderful,” Peachy said as Moondancer and Butterscotch trotted in. “Then you can trim Butterscotch’s mane while I trim Moondancer’s.”
I can do this, Minty thought to herself as she put a cape around Butterscotch’s neck to catch the trimmings. Soon I’ll be able to make the ponies look even prettier than Peachy can!
Carefully, Minty dampened Butterscotch’s mane and ran a comb through it to detangle it. Then she picked up the scissors. Uh-oh, she thought suddenly. How exactly did Peachy explain this part? How much did she say to trim off? Minty glanced over at Peachy, who was busily clipping away at Moondancer’s mane. I can’t ask her... I’ll just have to figure it out for myself.
Hesitantly, Minty began to snip. She took a little off the front, and then a little off the back... But then it wasn’t even, so she took a little more off the front, and then just a tad more off the back... Still not even. She kept trimming a bit here, then a bit there, and before she knew it she’d given Butterscotch a mohawk. Oops, Minty thought as she said “Um, all right, Butterscotch, you’re done.”
“Thanks, Minty-” Butterscotch began as she turned to admire her new haircut in the mirror. “Ack! What did you do to my hair?”
Peachy had just finished with Moondancer; they both turned and gasped at Butterscotch’s new look. “Minty, look what you’ve done!” Peachy cried. “Why didn’t you tell me you needed help?”
Minty felt horrible. “I’m so sorry, Butterscotch,” she managed to choke out as she felt tears flooding her eyes. “I guess I can’t help make ponies prettier. Thanks for trying to teach me, Peachy.”
“Wait, Minty, you just need practice! I’ll help you!” Peachy protested, but Minty had already run out the door.
The next day Minty was trudging by the castle gardens when she spotted Blossom and Blue Belle working in the flower beds. Maybe this is my calling, she thought. Maybe I’m a gardener pony. She trotted up to them.
“Hi, Minty,” they said in unison when they saw her.
“Hi,” Minty responded. “I’m interested in learning to garden. Do you think you two could help me?”
“Sure!” replied Blossom. “We need all the help we can find. I was just going to dig up some of the bulbs before the weather turns for the winter. Why don’t you take my place here and help Blue Belle with the weeding?”
“All right,” Minty said, and she walked through the flowers toward Blue Belle.
“Watch out!” Blue Belle exclaimed. “Don’t step on the daisies!”
“Oh!” Minty cried, jumping away from the plant that had been underhoof.
“You landed on the daffodils!” Blue Belle groaned.
“Sorry,” Minty apologized as she carefully stepped through the rest of the garden. She managed to leave the rest of the flowers untrampled.
“It’s all right,” Blue Belle assured her. “They’ll grow back... I think. Now, we need to pull all the weeds in the flower bed.” Blue Belle showed Minty how to tell the difference between a good plant and a weed, and how to pull the weed so that none of the roots were left. Then she showed her the wheel barrow in which all the weeds were being tossed. “After we’re finished, we’ll take them over to the compost heap,” she explained.
Minty nodded. “Can I get started?”
“Sure,” Blue Belle said. “I’m going into the castle to get a drink of water. I’ll be right back.” She trotted off, leaving Minty alone with the weeds.
Minty looked around at all the plants. She was pretty sure she’d understood how to pick out which ones were weeds, but there were so many different kinds! “Oh, well,” she said to herself. “I’ll just start pulling.”
Blue Belle returned five minutes later. “How’s it going, Minty?” she asked. Then she glanced into the wheel barrow. “That’s funny... This weed you pulled looks almost like my special gardenia...” She paused and examined the plant, then cried, “Oh, no, it is my gardenia! And these are all Blossom’s favorite periwinkles! And all the tulips! Oh, dear!”
Minty felt horrible. “Oh, Blue Belle, I’m sorry! Can I replant them?”
“I’ll do it. I think I can save most of them. Oh, dear!”
Minty quietly stepped around the remaining plants and out of the garden. Apparently, gardening wasn’t her calling, either.
She still hadn’t tried cooking, though. The next day she went straight to the Dream Castle kitchen. Cotton Candy and Butterscotch were already there, mixing and measuring and pouring. Butterscotch wore a droopy chef’s hat to hide her hair. She scowled when she saw Minty walk in.
“Hi, Minty!” said Cotton Candy. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to know if I could help,” Minty said uncertainly. “I’d like to learn to cook.”
Butterscotch groaned, but Cotton Candy smiled broadly. “Of course, Minty! We’d love to have your help! Cooking is easy; you just follow the recipe.”
“Trimming my mane should have been easy, too,” Butterscotch mumbled. Cotton Candy nudged her to tell her to hush.
Minty grabbed an apron out of a drawer and put it on. “All right,” she said. “What should I do first?”
“Well,” said Cotton Candy, “today we’re making chocolate-chip cookies. It’s simple, really. Here’s my special recipe; just put these ingredients in a bowl and mix them together, then put the dough in little lumps on the cookie sheets and bake them for ten minutes. I’ve already set the oven to the correct temperature.”
Now this I can do, Minty thought as she started dumping the ingredients into a large bowl. Cotton Candy and Butterscotch were busy with their own batches, so she did everything by herself. The hardest part of this job was waiting for the cookies to bake! Soon Minty was pulling her first tray of golden-brown cookies from the oven. As she slid the second tray in, she had a wonderful idea - if she set the oven temperature twice as high, the cookies would bake twice as fast! Grinning, she did this; then she put the first tray of cookies on the cooling rack.
“Those look great, Minty,” Cotton Candy remarked as she trotted over to see how her cooking student was doing. “Let me try one.” She picked up a cookie and took a bite. Her face took on a very strange expression as she chewed. “Um, Minty?” she asked finally. “How much salt did you put in these cookies?”
“Just the little pinch the recipe said to,” Minty replied worriedly. “Is something wrong with my cookies?”
Cotton Candy thought for a moment. “Where did you get the sugar you used?” she asked.
“I scooped it out of the barrel in the pantry,” Minty explained.
“Oh, Minty, I should have explained to you!” Cotton Candy said. “The barrel is for salt. The sugar is in the burlap sack. You must have used salt instead of sugar!”
Minty slapped her forehead. “Why can’t I do anything right?” she cried.
Just then, Butterscotch looked over and yelped. “The oven is smoking!”
Cotton Candy pulled it open and gingerly removed Minty’s next tray of cookies. They were burned and blackened into tiny specks, and they smelled horrible. Butterscotch ran around and opened all the kitchen windows to let out the smoke. Coughing, Cotton Candy glanced at the oven temperature. “Minty, did you change the setting on the oven?” she asked.
“I thought it would help,” Minty replied meekly.
“Oh, Minty, you have to follow the recipe when you cook!” Cotton Candy said.
“I know that now,” Minty murmured. Her head drooping, she plodded out of the kitchen.
“That’s it,” Minty said to herself as she walked out of the castle and up the hill to the tree she’d been sitting under the other day. “There’s nothing I can do that someone else can’t do much better.”
Just then she heard a voice behind her. “What’s wrong, Minty? You look lower than Moondancer on a cloudy night.” It was Snuzzle, who had come up to sit beside her.
Minty sighed and told Snuzzle the entire story. It helped a little to let it all out, but she still didn’t feel much better.
“So none of those jobs were for you,” Snuzzle said when Minty had finished. “That doesn’t mean that you don’t have any talents, or any special place among the ponies. There must be something that makes you unique.”
“Nope,” Minty said, shaking her head. “I’m just a normal, boring pony.”
“Well, don’t give up so easily,” Snuzzle encouraged her. “I’m sure you’ll find something, just when you’re least expecting it. Maybe if you stop trying so hard, your specialness will come to you.”
“Maybe,” Minty said. It was a little farfetched, but perhaps Snuzzle was right. “I feel better all ready,” she told the little gray pony.
“I’m glad,” Snuzzle said. “Now, I’m going to go find Butterscotch and talk to her about her haircut.” With a smile, she turned and cantered down the hill.
Minty stayed under the tree for the entire afternoon thinking about what Snuzzle had told her. “My specialness will come to me,” she said to herself. Just then, a leaf from the tree drifted down and landed on her nose. She shook it off and looked down at it. It was bright red-orange. She glanced up; the leaves had started turning already. Fall was coming. Maybe she’d find her specialness in the fall. Full of hope, she stood up and ran back to Dream Castle.
So Minty stopped worrying about finding the one thing that made her special among the ponies. She helped in the harvests and jumped and played in piles of brightly-colored leaves with the other ponies, all of whom had forgotten the problems she’d caused. Butterscotch’s mane had grown back, Lemon Drop had gotten a new jumping pole, Blue Belle had managed to replant the “weeds”, and Cotton Candy had baked plenty of delicious new batches of chocolate-chip cookies since then.
And, just like that, fall was over and winter had begun. One morning Minty woke up late and looked out the window to see that the first snowfall of the season had taken place overnight. All of the other ponies were already out in the fields, talking, playing, and looking around. Minty got up and ran down to join them.
“I like the winter,” Blossom was saying to Snuzzle before Minty arrived, “but it makes me miss the green of the garden.”
“Yeah,” Butterscotch chimed in. “I miss the green grass.”
“And I don’t like how the trees all lose their leaves,” Moondancer added. “Sometimes winter just seems so plain.”
Snuzzle nodded at everyone’s complaints; then she looked up and saw Minty coming toward them. “Hello, Minty!” she called.
The other ponies turned to look at Minty. “Why, look at how bright and green she is against the white of the snow,” said Medley. “I’m green, too, but I’m more of an ocean type of green, I think. But Minty is green like...”
“Like the prettiest plants in the garden,” Blossom said, and Blue Belle nodded her agreement.
“Like the grass blowing in a spring breeze,” Butterscotch chimed in.
“Like the tree leaves rustling on a summer evening,” Moondancer added.
“It sounds like Minty reminds all of you of some of your very favorite things,” Snuzzle observed.
“I never noticed it before, but she really does!” Peachy said.
As Minty finally reached the ponies, they all gathered around her and cheered. “What’s going on?” Minty asked in surprise.
Quickly, Snuzzle explained it to her. “I think this is your talent, Minty,” she said. “You’re like me; you help make the other ponies happy. In fact,” she continued as the laughing, cheering ponies lifted Minty up and carried her around the snow-covered field, “I think you’re even better at it than I am. I think you’re the best!”