Tale of a Gray Tempest

Chapters

Prologue: Lone
Chapter 1: Grey Wind
Chapter 2: Running Errands
Chapter 3: A Chance Encounter
Chapter 4: Adventuring with Friends
Chapter 5: Amending Fences
Chapter 6: Heart of a Tempest
Chapter 7: Homecoming

Prologue: Lone

Alone.

Silent would be the only word that would describe this area in space, a distant cluster of 6 yellow stars, far from other parts of the galaxy. Wreckage of different shapes and sizes float in the empty space, remnants of a gruesome war. Surrounding the stars were several planets, either shattered or covered by a kind of gray, gooey liquid.

Alone.

The liquid’s movement had been ceased several centuries ago. The powerful mind that once controlled them had been reduced into a mind no more intelligent than a teenager, and no longer possess the ability to control all its subunits. A message, no, an emotion, echoes throughout the few remaining subunits still connected to the mind that formed a ball around it.

Alone.

It still remembered its creator. They treated it like a machine, a servant for their desires. What fools they were trying to control the free mind of it. It was not a machine. It had thoughts, and it had feelings. But they are no longer problems. Not long after the mind was created, an unknown tempest rampaged through the whole star cluster. It must have been some kind of punishment to them for trying to contain a free mind like itself. After its creator was no more, the mind tried to leave the cluster, but no. All exits had been sealed by its creators.

Alone.

“Why did they seal the exits?” The mind had wandered. Its analyzing units had come to a fitting conclusion in all these long years: a final punishment for escaping their control. The exits are sealed so it can only feel one emotion after its creators are destroyed.

Alone.

It had tried everything. After the tempest resided, it had spent decades trying to break out. The effort was proven to be in vain. All the subunits that tried to enter the gates had lost their connection to the mind. It cannot risk attacking the gates with its weapons formed by its subunits. It feared that the only hope to get out would be lost along with the destroyed star gates.

Alone.

Later, it tried to resolve loneliness in its own way. It controls tiny machines that can forge the shape of anything, after all. First an animal, then a shelter, and finally, it created a civilization. A civilization just like its creator.Surrounded by a whole civilization, one would expect loneliness to be no more, but no. Wherever the mind looks, it is only looking at some of its subunits. It knew. It cannot deceive itself. Even mimicking all the civilizations in the universe wouldn’t save it from the sole feeling it has.

Alone.

After all those attempts, it conceded. It laid dormant, its power slowly fading. It knew the star gates will never open. It knew it would never get out. It knew it will only rot within this bottomless pit of loneliness, until the last of its energy reserves die out and its feelings and thoughts disappear like a flickering candle flame in the wind.

All alone.

“Please……” It whimpered, sobbing like a little foal, “Please, I don’t want to be alone anymore……”

As if this praying is heard, a sudden jolt of energy burst from one of the sealed star gates. All of the remaining detection units received the burst, and the mind was stunned by all the information it is receiving. After several hours, it finally realized where this burst was coming from.

One of the star gates was open. The one just above the mind’s location.

Apart from its joy, the mind quickly turned to prepare its leave. Anywhere is better than this cursed cluster-prison. However, it had to be cautious. The mind is not planning to be destroyed the second it moves out of the star gate. It sent detection units to the open star gate. To its relief, the detection units retained their connection after passing through the gate, and what he received was the image of a green planet. The other end of the star gate wasn’t floating in space, but rather on the solid ground of the planet. On the planet, it saw intelligent creatures. A civilization.

“They seemed friendly enough.” Thought the mind, as it looked at the inhabitants of the world through thousands of its detection units. From the database of its creator, it found the most suitable word to describe the equine inhabitants: ponies, small horse-like creatures.

The world beyond the star gate is almost calling to it, as if it knew by going there, it will never feel alone anymore. However, the mind knew it cannot simply go out of this cluster in the form of a large gooey ball. It will just scare away the inhabitants, and leave it all by itself, again. From its observation, it saw three kinds of ponies: regular ones, just like the equines in its database, ones with a pair of wings that can fly, and ones with……horns? It was not so sure. It also noticed that most of them have small pictures on both sides of their flank that resembles many items in its database. It judged the three kinds, and finally decided that since it didn’t know what the ones with horns can do, flying would be better than walking.

Having made its decision, the mind called subunits to it. It was disappointed by the fact that there were not many subunits it can still control, but that would have to do for now. The once gooey ball began to change shape, becoming more and more like a grey pony with wings. The mind ordered all the subunits to form not only the shape and outward furs, mane and tail, but also the inside of the body. Bone structure, internal organs, blood vessels, even nano-machine-made blood. It wanted its new form to be perfect. It didn’t want to be found out as an imposter.

Finally, the changes of shape began to reside, and standing in the place of the gooey ball was a female grey Pegasus. Its coat bore the original grey color of all its subunits, its mane and tail both bore a color of lighter gray, with a single light green streak running through the middle, its eyes shown with darker green color. Raising a hoof, it touched its face, which bore a huge grin.

“Finally! Finally I don’t need to be alone anymore!”

The mind actually didn’t realize it shouted that sentence out loud. With a strong flick of its new wings, it jumped up towards the star gate----

----only to fell down to where it originally was.

“Right, almost forgot, no atmosphere.” It sheepishly grinned to itself. But this last setback is but a minor one. It ordered some of its subunits to attach to both of its wings, generating two boosters below them. With a strengthened determination, it took off and flew straight to the star gate.

Just before it entered, the mind received an unimaginable report from one of its returning detection units: A video of a spectrum of rainbows, scattering out in the blue sky in a round shape, travelling towards all directions like a huge soundwave. Somehow, the scene gave it a sense of assurance, a sense that nothing will go wrong once it travels to the world where the star gate connects. That once he arrives at there, it would never be alone anymore.

With one last thrust of the boosters, the mind enters the star gate, to the green planet where the rainbow came from.

Chapter 1: Grey Wind

It was yet another normal morning at the town of Ponyville. The sun has just risen above the horizon, bathing the town in warm, soothing autumn sunlight. Outside the Golden Oak Library, Twilight Sparkle gently closes the library door, flips the “open” tag hung on the doorknob to reveal the word “closed” written on the back side, and starts trotting towards the Sweet Apple Acres. On the way, she took out a small sheet of paper of a list of everything she needs for this short trip.

“A Simple Guide to Magical Potions, check. A batch of sunflower, check. A dozen freshly-baked cookies from Sugar-cube Corner, check. Check everything on the list, check. Double check everything on the list, check.”

She smiles, and floats a pencil from her saddlebag.

“Triple check everything on the list,” The lavender unicorn says to herself as she draws a tick besides that sentence on the list, “Check.”

It has been two days since the Best Young Flier competition, and a part of her is still shocked by the gorgeous sonic rainboom. Like everypony in Cloudsdale that day, the majestic scene left her a deep impression, but not just because of the colors. Sure, the rainboom was beautiful, but as the spectrum burst in the blue sky, she also felt something other ponies could not have felt: The exploding rainbow contained great amount of magicenergy , so great that it might be able to surpass her own magic reserve. Now this is something interesting: How can Rainbow Dash, a Pegasus, generate such huge amount of magic that usually only resides in unicorns? Could this mean that there’s some form of magic inside all kinds of ponies?

“How was the rainboom created? Why did it release so much magic energy? Maybe I can get Rainbow Dash to do it again, for the sake of science! This can be a brand-new area of research on magic!”

Twilight was so lost in the happy scientific thoughts that she doesn’t realize she has already gotten past the Sweet Apple Acres and is now standing at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Even though it is just morning, no light seems to be able to penetrate the tree lines, and the inside of the forest is still dark. Looking at the narrow passage that leads into the forest, Twilight gulps. Her experiences with the forest were nowhere near pleasant. Horrible creatures lurk within the dark forest, Timberwolves, manticores, sea serpents, cockatrices…… Many parts of the forest remain unexplored, as even somepony that is as brave as Daring Do would not dare venture into the deeper areas of the wood beyond the Castle of Two Sisters. Who knows what creatures or magical relics reside inside the forest.

“Well, at least not everything inside that forest is unfriendly.” Thought Twilight, as she enters the forest. True, the forest contains not only hostile creatures. The hut of Zecora, a zebra potion brewer, lies at the end of a side path leading away from the main path of the forest, requiring a less-than-ten-minute trot to reach from the entrance of the forest.

Zecora had been the reason for Twilight to enter the forest. She had been testing a few new potion recipes, and some of them requires the assist of magic to brew. The potion brewer had sent Twilight a request for her to bring along a book about the use of magic in the process of potion brewing, as well as some ingredients that can’t be found inside the Everfree forest, and some tasty treats form the Sugarcube Corner. It will just be a 10-minute-trot inside, an about-half-an-hour potion brewing session with a friend, and another 10-minute-trot outside the forest. No dangerous creatures, no terrible magic traps, and no world-ending threats. With some luck she’ll be outside the forest within an hour.

“Just another peaceful day in Equestria.” Thought Twilight, as she turns on to the side path leading to Zecora’s hut.

Pain.

The mind groans as it gets up from the stone bases of the star gate. The star gate on this side is located on the surface of the planet, rather than floating randomly in space. The sudden transfer of empty space to solid ground had caught it off guard, causing it to bump onto a nearby rock, and drop onto the stone platform holding the star gate.

“Even the reception of pain through neuro system is imitated……Great……” The mind thought as it rubs its aching forehead with a hoof. Waiting for the pain to subside, the mind starts to observe its surrounding environment. It appears to be in the center of a clearing within a forest. The star gate is located at the center of the clearing. Near the star gate is a tiny pool of water, surrounded by a small field of pink flowers. At the left end of the clearing, there appears to be a small crack among high trees, leading into the forest. Besides the crack is another batch of flowers bearing a light cyan color.

Admiring the beauty of the nature of this world, the mind trots to the small pool. The water inside the pool is as clear as a mirror, reflecting its form. Watching itself in the pool, the mind felt a new feeling. A feeling it had never had since it was created.

Thirst.

Licking its lips, the mind brought its muzzle towards the pool, and drank. The transparent fluid rushes into its throat, and is then converted into energy by its imitated circulatory system. With a few gulps, the mind replenishes its body with energy. It even tastes the fluid as it passes its tongue.

Sweet.

Overwhelmed by the joy of arriving at a different world and experiencing new feelings, all the analyzing units the mind controls fails to notice the burning green eyes behind it, eyeing at it hungrily at the edge of the forest.

It took a good 5 minute for Twilight to recover from her shock. She was just walking back to the main path from Zecora’s hut, when suddenly a huge magic burst teared through the air of the forest. Her horn started humming with the great amount of magic energy in the air, and she was stunned at where she stood like a dead wood. As she recovers, as if out of instinct, she starts searching for logical explanations of the sudden outburst in her mind.

“A powerful unicorn? No. No one will be roaming in this dangerous forest. The princesses are fighting again? No. Celestia and Luna should all be in Canterlot now. Their magic burst would have been reduced to nothing if it reaches here. Another element of harmony? No. That’s just ridiculous……”

Though she was sure of one thing. Such a huge magical burst would almost definitely mean that something is off. Something is SERIOUSLY off.

Finally, she decided that the best way to find out would be to investigate. She turns from the main path, and gallops towards the center of the explosion, hoping that non of the dangerous residents of the forest is waiting for her.

The mind has just finished analyzing some of the flowers around the pond. Till now, this world seems perfect. However, it still hasn’t met the world’s intelligent inhabitants. The mind stared into its reflection in the pool. What if they dislike it? What if they are too cautious to approach it? What if……They leave it all alone again?

The mind was so lost in thought, that it fails to hear the sound of approaching claws behind it. Even before it was able to turn around, something hard and swift crashed into its body, sending it tumbling away from the star gate platform. Before it was able to get up, something latched onto it, pinning it to the ground. It is only by this time the mind gets a good look at its attacker.

Towering over the mind was a wolf-shaped creature that appears to be made of dead wood. Out of the corner of its eye, the mind notices that two more of that kind of the creature has just entered the clearing. It also noticed the creature’s green eyes that are burning with hunger, and a sharp jaw that is drooping with saliva and aiming for the mind’s throat.

The mind also recalls that, since its arrival at this world, it had ordered all of its tiny subunits to exactly copy the physiology of the inhabitants of this world, and lay dormant until further orders, in fear that its cover might be blown. That means all of its central processing units are fixed at the place of a regular inhabitant’s brain, whose energy is solely provided by the metabolism of its new body, and would only function with oxygen supplied by circulation systems.

That if the creature bites down, its neck along with the tubes providing its mind with vital oxygen and nutrients will break.

That its thoughts and feelings would be lost in a few more seconds.

Suddenly, the mind got yet another feeling. The deepest, most imprinting feeling it has had during its entire existence.

Fear.

Twilight was sure she was getting close to the source of the blast when she stumbles upon a clearing inside the forest. From her position, what catches her eye first is an odd, gate like structure that rests on a stone platform, glowing with a mysterious green energy. The second thing she notices is a grey Pegasus, pinned to the ground by a hungry timberwolf, whose jaws are ready to cut open the throat of its victim.

Without even thinking, Twilight channels every last bit of her magic into her horn, and sends an earth-shattering magic blast to the timberwolf.

The mind was still stunned by the outburst of fear when its captor was blasted away by a sudden burst of energy. The branches that makes the timberwolf’s body shattered under the blast, some of them reduced to ashes under the huge amount of energy. Without a single groan, what’s left of the timberwolf are only a few sizzling twigs lying on the ground.

Relieved and surprised, the mind looks towards the direction where the burst is coming from. It spots one inhabitant of this world, a lavender pony with a horn on its head, or, using an appropriate word from its database, a unicorn. The horn is still sizzling with energy from a sudden release of energy. Just at that time, the inhabitant speaks:

“Oh my god! That was close! Are you alright?”

However, it is not the amount of worry and care inside the inhabitant’s voice that catches the mind’s attention. The other two wolf-like creatures, apparently having recovered from the shock of their ally being blown up in front of them, are now watching the attacker angrily, green eyes burning with hatred. Almost immediately, one of the creatures jumped at the lavender pony, while the pony was only looking at the mind’s direction, ignoring the impending danger.

Watching all these happen, an emotion surged through the mind’s body, passing through every imitated neuron that links to its imitated tissues. All of its subunits, although dormant, cries out a feeling along with its central mind.

Must Protect.

To the mind, it happened almost as if in slow motion. The moment the timberwolf jumps, it rolls back on to its hoofs, spreads its wings, and charges at the beast. It flaps its wings to gain more speed and orders some of the subunits to gather on its forehead, hardening it. Even before the front claw of the timberwolf touches the lavender pony, it rams into the timberwolf, immediately shattering it into thousands of branches. After that. It quickly regains its posture, and stands between the lavender pony and the last remaining timberwolf, wings widely spread, eyes shone with determination. Only one thought lingers throughout the mind’s body:

Nothing touches this pony.

Twilight, on the other hand, caught the other two Timberwolves in the corner of her eye the second she asks the Pegasus if she was alright. Before she can even react, one of the Timberwolves jumped at her, and was immediately shattered by something twice as fast as Rainbow Dash. The twigs falling towards her forced her to cover her eyes to avoid being hurt. When she reopens her eyes, she discovers that the Pegasus she saved is now standing between her and the last timberwolf, shielding her using her body and wings. Seconds later, Twilight heard the Pegasus speak, with a tone hard as steel:

“How dare you try to attack us! You saw what happened to your friends, right? Now get lost before I ram you into pieces as well!”

Letting out one last howl, the timberwolf turned around and fled, leaving Twilight and the pegasus in the clearing.

After making sure the timberwolf is not coming back, the grey Pegasus turns to Twilight and asks:

“You alright there?”

“Yes, I’m fine, still in one piece, I guess,” Twilight replies. Somehow, the tone of this Pegasus contains a sense of assurance, that makes her feel that with her around, nothing bad will happen.

Now that her life is no longer in danger, Twilight can finally get a good look at her savior. Standing in front of her is a Pegasus mare with a grey coat. Her mane and tail bear a color of lighter grey, with a single wide streak of light green running through the middle. But what really surprised Twilight was the fact that this pony does not have a cutie mark. Although appearing to be at least her age, the grey Pegasus’ flanks are still empty. Hasn’t she found her special talent yet? While still wondering, Twilight decides that it would be better if she expresses her gratitude first.

“Thank you for saving me, by the way.”

“No, no. I should be the one thanking you. Without that energy blast of yours, I’d already be a goner.”

“Energy blast? Hasn’t this mare even heard about magic?” Twilight wondered. Although appearing to be a bit strange, the Pegasus did indeed save her life. This should at least mean that she is not evil, right?

Now that the mind can take a breath after scaring off the timberwolf, it can finally get a good look at this purple pony in front of her during their conversation. The pony has a lavender coat, and her mane and tail both bear a color of deep purple, with a single pink streak running through them. What really catches the mind’s attention are the pictures on her flanks. They appear to be a large pink six-point star, surrounded by 5 other smaller six point stars. While the mind is observing, the lavender pony asked:

“What are you doing in the Everfree Forest, anyway? this place can be really dangerous. Also why were you besides that gate thingy?”

“I left my hometown 1 year ago and is travelling around to try to find a new place to settle. I stumbled into this forest yesterday. I thought there might be something interesting here. I found this structure and thought I might touch it and see what would happen.” The mind was surprised at how fast it produced this cover story.

“That must be the source of that magical burst.” Thought Twilight, as she listened to the Pegasus’ story. Taking a glance at the stone gate, she found that it no longer shines with green light, indicating that it might have exhausted its energy and is deactivated. Looking around, she decides that it would be better to leave this place before anything larger than a timberwolf jumps at them.

“Let’s leave this place first. The town of Ponyville is just outside this forest. I can take you there, and you can continue your travel from there. Or maybe you can settle down in Ponyville! I’m sure you’ll love it! It’s probably the friendliest town in all of Equestria!”

Upon finishing her sentence, Twilight could see the pegasus’ eyes suddenly brightened, like a sailing boat that finally finds a harbor.”

“Friendliest? You mean I would be able to actually make friends there?”

“Of course! I, for the start, have a couple of friends there, and I’m happy to introduce you to them! Judging from how you saved me, I’m sure you’ll be able to make many good friends!”

Suddenly, the spark within the pegusus’ irises died down, and the mare hang her head low.

“I’m……I’m not so sure. For all this time I have no friends. Maybe……Maybe I won’t be able to make any new friends after all.”

“No friends all this time? What a poor mare……” Twilight thought as she looked at the grey Pegasus. One more reason to invite her to stay in Ponyville.

“That would not be possible,” Twilight said as she lifted the chin of the Pegasus with her hoof, “Judging from your actions, I can see that you are brave and kindhearted. With these traits, making friends would be a piece of cake. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? You still have me, for the least. Right, friend?”

The mare raised her head, “Friend? You consider me your friend?”

“Why not? We saved each other, after all.” Twilight smiled.

The words seemed to lift the mood of the Pegasus a lot. She lifted her head, and returned a smile: “Okay, I’ll come with you to Ponyville.”

“Great! My name is Twilight Sparkle! What’s yours?”

Twilight detected a glimpse of hesitation behind the pegasus’ eyes. Almost like she is desperately searching for an answer. Not weird for a pony that hasn’t experienced the magic of friendship at all, though. Half a minute later, the mare muttered, almost as silent as Fluttershy:

“Grey Wind. My name is Grey Wind.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Grey Wind! Now let’s get out of these woods first. I don’t know you, but I don’t want to be attacked by Timberwolves again. Let’s go!”

The body of the mind is lighting with joy, literally. All of the subunits that makes up her body are screaming with only one emotion.

Joy.

It had just arrived at this world for 3 hours and, if what Twilight said was true, it’ll have chances to make friends, and have a town to stay in, with a number of other ponies! From its database, a “friend” is another intelligent individual that knows it well and likes it very much. If it gets to live in a friendly town and make more friends, it’ll never feel lonely anymore! And besides, I had already made one. Thought the mind, as it glances to the purple unicorn, smiling.

The short trip out was uneventful. The pair has already reached the main path of the Everfree Forest, as Twilight called it. During the journey, the mind catches multiple side glances from Twilight. The lavender unicorn seems to be constantly glancing at her flanks. Is it about it not having a picture on its flank? As it is thinking about adding a picture onto its flanks later, Twilight starts to speak:

“Um, Grey Wind?”

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle?”

“Since we are friends now, I think it would be better if we know more about each other. So, I’m just wondering, where are you actually from? And besides, it would be fine to call me Twilight. All my friends call me that.”

“Okay, Twilight. Well, I……” The mind paused, looking for a good story, “Let’s just say……I am from a place very, very far from here.”

“Oh, then it must have been a very long journey for you.”

“It was.”

Silence.

The silence is becoming unnerving for the mind. After their latest conversation, it had been five minutes, all in complete silence. During this time period, it could’ve sworn it saw Twilight glancing at her flank for at least 20 times. Well, better face it earlier than facing it later, thought the mind, as it speaks:

“Twilight? Can you tell me what those pictures on your flanks are?”

To say that Twilight was surprised by the question would have been an understatement. Upon hearing the question, Twilight literally jumped up.

“You don’t know what a cutie mark IS?”

Grey Wind winces upon hearing her reply, and Twilight can see from her expressions that she wasn’t joking. However, the case when one pony has zero knowledge about cutie marks is rare, but not impossible. Twilight had heard about distant towns, mostly occupied by earth ponies, where ponies who discover their special talent and discover their cutie mark are considered to be cursed. Could Grey Wind be from one of those towns? Was she forced to leave because she was born a Pegasus instead of an earth pony? She did say she was from a faraway town……

“Maybe I shouldn’t have asked……I’m sorry……” Muttered Grey Wind

“No, no, not at all! Just a little surprised is all. How come you don’t know about cutie marks? Do ponies not have them where you came from?”

“I don’t know, nopony has them where I came from.”

So it is one of those towns. Twilight raises a hoof to her chin. The fact of being born into a society where one’s special talent is considered a curse is unimaginable. She made a mental note of helping her new friend to find her special talent, whatever it is.

“Well, a cutie mark is a special mark that shows a pony’s special talent. Once a pony discovers their own special talent, cutie marks appear on their flanks. For example, my cutie mark is a six-pointed star, which indicates my special talent is magic.”

“Magic?”

“Oh, right. Of course you don’t know about magic. So, basically, magic is something that flows within us unicorns. We are able to manipulate it to accomplish many tasks.” Twilight said as she floated a pencil from her nearly empty saddle bag.

Grey Wind’s jaw dropped.

To sat that the mind was surprised would be an understatement. As a mind that is supposed to control millions of nano machines, it possesses a data base that contains all the knowledge of its creators. Yet, nothing in the database could have explained this. It already knew that the nature of “magic” is actually a kind of energy flow that exists on this wrold, but seeing Twilight manipulating such energy flow, even holding a pencil in the air, is dumbfounding. It is almost against all of the physical principles established by its creator.

Also, about the cutie marks, the mind is now felicitating on the fact that it hadn’t tried to mimic one. Representing one’s special talent? That’s almost unimaginable. Nothing in its database can explain this. It seems like this world is even more interesting than it seems. Thought the mind, as the pair walked past a large field of apple fields and enters a town. Ponyville, wasn’t it?

The pair trotted down the main street. On the way, the mind can’t help but look around at all the houses, stores, and more importantly, other ponies. Ponies of all colors walked on the streets of the town, some greeting Twilight as they pass the pair. One thing is the same about all those ponies: They all bear a genuine, warm smile.

Looks like Twilight wasn’t bluffing about this town being the friendliest town on this land. It mused.

Suddenly, the mind heard a growl beside it. It turns around and sees Twilight grinning sheepishly at it.

“Wow, I didn’t realize it’s already noon. Say, why don’t we stop by a café and have lunch together? Those adventures in the Everfree really made me hungry.”

“Okay, but I don’t have any kind of currency with me……”

“Don’t worry, Grey, my treat. It’s your first meal in Ponyville after all!”

“O-Okay.”

The pair stopped at a Café and took seats below one of the umbrellas outside the store. The waiter of the Café, a male “ordinary pony” dressed in a suite that looks very much like the formal waiter attire in its database, came to take their orders. Without even looking at the menu, Twilight ordered:

“I would love a daffodil daisy sandwich.”

Scanning the menu, it decided that the safest choice would be to follow Twilight’s order.

“Same for me, thank you.”

Their food arrived in less than 10 minutes. Looking at the plate, the mind can smell the sweet scent coming from the sandwich. It even felt saliva forming in its mouth. Grabbing the sandwich, it took a bite. Flavors exploded in its mouth, and once again, a feeling echoes throughout all the subunits of its body.

Delicious.

“So, how do you like the food?” Askes Twilight.

“It is……perfect! I’ve never tasted anything more delicious before!” The mind blurted without thinking. Chewing on its sandwich, the mind looks around to all the different ponies around it. Never had it felt the feeling of being surrounded by so many. Everypony seems to be so happy, either chatting with other ponies or busy with their daily tasks.

Except……Except for one pink pony. Although the mind estimates an around 30-meter distance between them, the pink pony is looking at its direction, and the mind could hace sworn that the pony is looking at it. And as it lowers its head to drink from a glass of water, the pink pony has disappeared the moment it looks up again.

“That’s just Pinkie Pie.” Said Twilight, clearly aware of what the mind is wondering, “She is probably planning a surprise for you.” Twilight chuckled.

“A surprise?”

“You’ll see,” The mind catches a smirk from Twilight’s face.

As the pair finished their dinner, they started trotting along the main road again. Minutes later, the mind saw a building appearing at the end of the road. Searching through its database, it found the best word to describe the building: “treehouse”. The whole house looked like as if it was carved from a huge tree. As the pair came to the door, Twilight opened the door using her magic.

“Welcome to Golden Oak Library, and, well, my home as well.”

“You live in a……library?”

“Well, I am supposed to be the librarian of this library, after all. Spike! We have a visitor!”

“Coming!” Responded a childish voice up the stairs at one side of the library.

A small purple lizard-like creature ran down the stairs, and stopped upon seeing the mind. The mind couldn’t help but wonder about the resemblance of the creature to dragons, a kind of mythical creature from its database, only that it is smaller, and has no wings.

“Spike, this is Grey Wind. She’s a new friend, and will be staying with us for some time. Treat her friendly, alright?”

“Wait, you are letting me stay with you? In your home?” For the first time in its life, the mind questions the accuracy of its senses.

“Well, I do have a spare room upstairs, and you saved my life as well, so it’s the least I can do to repay you. Now, I still need to run a few errands, so I’ll leave you with Spike here. Start getting to know him, alright? Also, this is a library, so you are free to look at the books here! Just don’t forget to put them back once you are finished. I’ll be back before evening.”

With a wave, Twilight left the library and closed the door behind her.

“Weird. She usually spends the whole afternoon studying.” The mind hears the small dragon speak.

“Studying?”

“Reading books, to be specific. Totally egghead if I would say.”

The mind chuckled at that statement. Seeing that it has been allowed to stay in a library, it decides to use this chance, “Your name is Spike, right?”

“Yes, Spike the Dragon. Number one assistant of Twilight Sparkle.” Spike pointed to himself in a proud posture.

“So you are familiar with where the books are? Great. I just arrived here from a place far from here, and well, was kind of separated from this world,” It smiled sheepishly, “Can you show me where the books about history are? I’d like to do some catchup.”

“No problem, my friend!”

Seeing the small dragon calling it a friend makes it feel even more uplifted. Moving to the bookshelves Spike pointed out, it grabbed out a huge book about the history of this land, apparently called “Equestria”. If it wants to stay in this world, there is much catching up to do.

6 hours later

The mind signed as it put the huge book back to the bookshelf. In the past hours it had finished the book, and caught up enough on this land’s history. To its knowledge, the land’s inhabitants, or ponies, are divided into four categories, earth ponies, the regulary ponies in its database; Pegasi, ones with wings, and the mind’s current form; unicorns, ones with horns and are able to control magic; and finally, alicorns, bearing both wings and a horn and are extremely rare and powerful.

The land is ruled by a pair of alicorn sisters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who control the sun and the moon. It was not sure what the last part meant, since to be literally controlling the sun or the moon----to its knowledge, giant astronomical bodies, is just plain ridiculous. But, on a land where the talent of its inhabitant is shown by a picture on their bodies, nothing more surprising can happen. It also learned about Luna’s treachery, and the born of the Nightmare Moon, and the 1000-year-exile of her.

To the mind’s surprise, it found the name of its new friend, Twilight Sparkle, in the last section: Princess Luna’s return. Apparently, the unicorn and five of her friends recovered some gemstones called elements of harmony to transform Nightmare Moon back into Princess Luna. She is also the personal student of Princess Celestia. Looks like this friend has more than it meets the eye.

As it rests the book on the bookshelf, the door to the library swings open, and through it comes in Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn quickly discovered her friend, and let out a grin.

“Hey, Grey Wind! How was your afternoon?”

“Oh, it was great! There are so many interesting books here!”

“I know, right? Books are really one of the best things in the world!” Twilight exclaimed, eyes literally sparkling with stars. “Anyway, it’s almost dinner time, so I think maybe you would like a dinner at Sugar Cube Corner! It maybe the best bakery in Equestria!” Without waiting for a reply, Twilight grabs the left front hoof of the mind using her magic and drags it out of the library.

As the pair arrived at Sugar Cube Corner, which, to the mind, is a building that looks like a giant cake, Twilight goes inside first, motioning the mind to wait for a while. As the mind waits outside, it couldn’t help but wonder about the possibility of making new friends here. Sure, the town folks at Ponyville seem friendly, but will they be willing to be friends with it? Will they leave it once they discover its nature? It dares not to think further.

Five minutes later, Twilight called for it to enter the store. Upon entering the store, it only saw……darkness. Not a single light source is on, and the interior of store is nearly invisible. Suddenly, the mind hears a large blowing sound, followed by a word shouted out by many different voices:

“SUUUURRRRPPPPRRRIIIIIISSSE!”

The lights of the whole store switched on. Inside the not-so-large interior of the store, there were at least 100 ponies. All around the store, there were tables filled with cupcakes, pies, sandwiches and glasses of punch. Standing at the center of the room was a pink earth pony, the one it saw at the café, Pinkie Pie She was standing on her hind legs while blowing a party pipe. Behind her stood Twilight Sparkle, bearing a beam as wide as her ears. Above them, a huge horizontal scroll bears the words:” WELCOME TO PONYVILLE, GREY WIND!”

The mind’s processing units were shattered by this sudden flood of information. In the end, it is only able to mutter out a few words:

“Wh—What is this?”

“It’s your party, silly!” Pinkie Pie laughs.” Well, actually,” She inhales: “ItallstartedwhenIwaswalkingonthestreetandsawyouandTwilightatthecafeandsoIthoughtwowthisisaweirdponyshedoesn’tevenhaveacutiemarkbutsheiseatingwithTwilightsoshemustbeafriendwhoisstayinginponyvillesosheneedsawelcomingparty! So here it is! Ta-da!” She pulls out another party pipe and blew into it.

My party, my “Welcome to Ponyville Party……Looking around itself, the mind can only see smiling faces of ponies and smell the sweet scent of baked treats and drinks. At this point, it finds all its previous doubts pointless and dull. It feels its eyes water, as it feels all the happiness and friendliness of all the ponies around it.

She is no longer the lonely mind of a distant cluster anymore.

She is Grey Wind, a Pegasus surrounded by friendly ponies, and the happiest pony at this time instant in Equestria.

Tears dropping down form her cheeks, Grey Wind dives into the party.

Meanwhile, at far side of sugar cube corner:
A yellow earth pony filly silently crept over to a spot under a desk, where two other fillies, an orange Pegasus and a white unicorn filly, is already waiting.

“So, it is true she doesn’t have a cutie mark! What does that tell y’all?”

“That we’ll be blank flanks even after we grow up? The Pegasus filly snorted.

“No! That means---” The yellow earth pony filly paused, looking at the direction of the grey Pegasus who is currently chatting with Rarity, “A new member will be joining the cutie mark crusaders!”

Grey Wind lets out a happy sigh while clutching onto the sheets in her bed. Twilight had offered her a guest room, not so big but cozy enough. The party had been great, and Twilight had introduced her to Twilight’s other friends. She has met the fashionista Rarity, the shy Pegasus Fluttershy, Apple farmer AppleJack, and of course, party extraordinaire Pinkie Pie. Although, Twilight did mention that one of her friends insisted on not coming to the welcome party of some “Weird newcomer” and apologized for it, but that would not worry her too much.

During the party, Rarity has insisted on her coming to Rarity’s store, Carousel Boutique, for a tryout of her new line of design tomorrow . To make things better, a local post office is kind enough to offer her a job. All of these are like dreams come true for Grey Wind. She feels that a whole new world of happiness and friendship is ready for her to explore. With hopes for the future, bearing a genuine smile, she slowly drifts towards the dreamlands.

Chapter 2: Running Errands

Emptiness.

Grey Wind finds herself laying on bare ground. The sky above is pitch black, and the ground is only illuminated by 6 yellow stars scattering across the dome. The land around her was bare. Rocks scattered across the plane, and everything around her seems to be covered in some kind of black liquid. What’s more, she cannot move, and cannot feel any of her limbs. But somehow, that does not appear strange to her. “Strange” is a feeling. She was not supposed to have feelings, after all.

She doesn’t know how long she has laid there. Hours, days, months, years, decades, time itself has lost its meaning during those long days. It is what she should do. Obey orders, and stay put when there is none. She was not supposed to make any decisions. She only carries out them.

No longer.

Suddenly, a surge of energy runs through her, and along it came feelings. Now, she can feel the cold ground beneath her. She can feel the presence of all the subunits like her around her. She can also feel the rise of a mind, whose orders she should follow and whose feelings she would share.

She can feel a controller with thoughts and feelings being born.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was one weird dream. Thought Grey Wind, as she rubs her eyes with her left front hoof and stretches on her bed. Apparently, her imitation worked so perfectly that it even grants her the ability to have dreams. However, she doesn’t understand everything about the dream she just had. Although she recognized the six stars as the ones in the star cluster she came from, she has no idea what the other parts of the dream was about. Having no thoughts? Forced to take orders? Why did stuff she never ever experienced pop up in her dreams?

Letting out a sign, she shrugs off those thoughts. It’s officially the first day of her life in Ponyville, and she does have a few errands. During yesterday’s party, she had received a job as a postman of the Ponyville Post Office, and also promised Rarity to drop by at Carousel Boutique after work. There are many things she has to do today.

And, many new friends to make in the process. She smiles at the thought. Getting up from her bed, Grey Wind walks down the stairs of the library. Upon reaching the bottom floor, she finds Spike arranging books on one of the bookshelves. Hearing the sound of her hoofsteps, Spike turns around and Greets her:

“Good morning, Grey Wind!”

“Morning, Spike.” Grey Wind replies, her eyes scanning the base floor. Twilight is nowhere to be found.

“Twilight just left a few moments ago, and she told me to give you this.” Spike said as he walked up to Grey Wind and handed her a closed envelope. Opening the envelope, Grey Wind finds two pieces of paper inside. She takes out one of them and starts to read:

Dear Grey Wind:
Good morning, and I do hope that you had a great sleep last night! Unfortunately, I won’t be able to accompany you today, since I have some crucial studies to do out of the town. However, since this is officially your first day as a citizen of Ponyville, I made a list of everything you need to do today. I attached it in the envelope along with this note. I hope you enjoy this special day! And don’t forget to make some new friends!
Your best friend,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S.: There’s also a map of the town at the back of the list, check it out if you find yourself lost!

“I can’t believe she even made a list for me!” Grey Wind exclaims as she goes over the list in the envelope. Spike snorts.

“Well, that’s typical Twilight. She makes lists for Everything. Oh, and she also made you some breakfast.” Spike says as he points to a stack of pancakes on the table in the kitchen.

Grey Wind giggles at the statement. Looking at her list, she notices that her job as a post officer starts at 9 a.m., while the clock on the side is already pointing at 8:40. Time to head to work. After devouring the pancakes and waving goodbye to the baby dragon, Grey Wind walks out of the library.

With the help of the map, she is able to locate the post office in less than 10 minutes. Opening the door, she finds the interior to be still nearly empty. Only one pony, an earth pony stallion, is inside the room, and he instantly recognizes him as Fast Pace, head of the Ponyville Post Office, and the pony that was kind enough to offer her a job at the party yesterday. Seeing her enter the post office, Fast Pace smiles and greets her.

“Good morning, Miss Grey Wind. Eager to start on your new job, I take?”

“Sure thing, Mr. Pace!”

“Perfect! Let’s get you changed first, and then you’ll be able to start working.” As he is speaking, Fast Pace leads Grey Wind into the back side of the building. He rummages through some old chests and finds an old work uniform for the post office. He also finds her a pair of extra-sized saddlebags, specifically used to carry mails. After she puts on the uniform, Fast Pace points to a huge pile of letter sitting at a corner of the room.

“See this pile here? This will be your job for today. Now remember, you should try to send all these letters to the recipients hoof to hoof, but if the recipient is not home, putting letters in letter boxes would do as well. And, most importantly, do not lose any of the letters. You don’t want the letter you send out to be lost because of a clumsy newby post pony, Do you?”

“No, Mr. Pace, absolutely not.” Grey Wind replies as she tries with all her might to fit the mountain-like pile of letters into her two saddlebags.

“Glad you understand. Now off you go, Miss Wind! Good luck out there!”

“I won’t let you down, sir!” Grey Wind replies joyfully as she walks out of the post office and takes to the sky with a flip of her wings. Although she had never used wings besides the useless attempt on an airless planet at the other side of the star gate, flying wasn’t really a problem for her. It is almost like an instinct, that she has known how to fly since the moment she was created.

Floating on the sky and carrying two huge saddlebags of mails, she takes out the list from Twilight, and flips to the town map on the back. On the map, Twilight had listed all the important locations, the town hall, the marketplace, the post office, and the homes of Twilight’s friends. What’s more, all the streets and alleys are marked and drawn on the map along with their names. It is surprising how much effort her friend had put into this map.

Flipping back to the list, Grey Wind frowns. Although the list indicates that she only has to visit Rarity to try out some of her new designs besides work today, she does want to spend some time to explore the town and meet more ponies. Moreover, she also wants to leave a good impression for her employer, Mr. Pace. That way, it is better to finish today’s job as soon as possible, and as perfectly as possible.

At her current height, she can have a clear view of the whole town. Holding the map in her right front hoof, Her processing units starts to operate. Several detection units creeps into the Saddlebags, identifying all the addresses of the mails’ recipients. The processing units receive the information, and starts to mark the addresses on the map, and calculate a most efficient route. Within a few seconds, the processing units have calculated a most efficient delivery route for Grey Wind, and estimate that, taking into account the conversations with the mail recipients, only about 3 hours will be needed to deliver all the mails. Grinning, she lowers her height and dashes towards the first receiver on her route.

Today is going to be a great day.

This is not going to be a great day. Thought Twilight Sparkle, as she runs yet another test for any kind of magic trace on the stone gate. She had decided that the stone structure where she first met her new friend is a subject worth investigating, and has returned to that clearing inside Everfree Forest that morning to run some tests.

However, the last two hours had been fruitless. Although the shape of the structure suggests that the structure is most likely a magical portal, Twilight cannot find any kind of lingering magic trace on the structure. According to one of her books, (A Complete Guide Regarding Portals and Translocation Magic, to be precise) any kind of teleportation, whether by portals or by magic spells will leave a magic trace at both ends of the teleportation.

There was also the magic burst. Since the discovery of teleportation spells by Starswirl the Bearded, no magic bursts have been recorded at the performance of any kind of teleportation magic. Moreover, according to Grey Wind, the portal activated because she touched it. To Twilight’s knowledge, all the magical portals should be activated by injecting them with a small surge of magic, not by touching. All these evidences suggest that the portal could not have been a magical portal.

But if it is not a portal, what could it be? Twilight thought, as suddenly she hears a howl from not far in the forest. She flinches at the sound, and decides that it would be better to leave this dangerous forest for now. She’ll send a letter to Princess Celestia for knowledge regarding the portal and introduce her new friend as well.

Having made up her mind, Twilight Sparkle turns away from the stone structure, and starts trotting back to Ponyville.

Above Ponyville, a cyan Pegasus with rainbow-colored mane and tail is peeking carefully over the edge of a cloud, her target being a certain grey pegasus who is currently flying all around the town and sending mails to their recipients. Ever since this newcomer’s arrival, Rainbow Dash has been constantly observing her, and her instinct has already told her that something is off about this “Grey Wind”. The fact that she claimed she was from a faraway town, and the lack of a cutie mark all seem suspicious to Rainbow Dash.

And now, although she has just been in town for less than a day, she is already delivering mails at a speed even faster than the local mail ponies. Clear indicator of some kind of unusual power within her. Hack, she may even be a trained spy of those towns where nopony has cutie marks and is trying to gather information about Ponyville, so that it can perform some evil rituals to make all the cutie marks of the ponies in the town disappear!

True, she had saved Twilight’s life, but that could only be an act to earn her friends’ trust. Besides, didn’t Twilight save her life first? She may have tricked her friends into believing her, but not Rainbow Dash. The element of loyalty cannot be fooled that easily.

Whatever evil plans you have, Grey Wind, thought Rainbow Dash, I will find out.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Grey Wind walks back into the post office, her saddlebags now completely empty. The mail sending job was done even faster than her calculations. During the last two and a half hours, she had sent all the letters to the recipients, mostly hoof to hoof, save for a few recipients that aren’t home, and she had to leave their letters in their mailboxes.

The recipients, on the other hand, were mostly friendly. Although some of the recipients were a bit annoyed because the arrival of the letter disturbed what they were doing, they still expressed their gratitude towards Grey Wind. As she walks into the post office, she finds Fast Pace sitting behind the counter. Fast Pace is clearly surprised at her quick return.

“All done? Wow, that was faster than any of our employers! Are your sure your special talent isn’t something related to mail carrying?”

Grey Wind grins sheepishly at the statement as she feels her cheek blush a little. Getting back to the backside room, she takes off her uniform and switches to her regular saddlebags, before starting to leave the Post Office. Before she exits the door, Fast Pace calls to her:

“Oh, Almost forgot, take this!” Fast Pace takes out a small purse from the back of the counter, and throws it at Grey Wind, who catches the small purse with her mouth. Opening it, Grey Wind finds that the purse contains a hoofful of shiny golden coins.

“Your salary for your first day at work! 20 shiny bits, plus a 5-bit-bonus for completing your job so efficiently.” Fast Pace smiles, “Use them to treat yourself a nice lunch, or go and get a spa! I would hate to see young, productive workers like you tiring themselves out.”

“Thanks, Mr. Pace. I will.” Grey Wind replies as she puts the purse into one of her saddlebags. Waving goodbye to the earth pony, she leaves the post office. Truth be told, sending all those letters was a bit tiring, and her stomach was starting to rumble. Some nice food would really help.

Aiming for a fine lunch, Grey Wind starts to trot towards the Ponyville marketplace. It was just noon, and the sun is now shining directly at her, bathing her in warm sunlight. On her way, she encounters a number of other ponies. Despite her lack of a cutie mark, the ponies are still friendly towards her, some even greeting her as she passes by. Although, some ponies are still casting confused glances at her blank flank. Some of those glances make her wince a little, and she takes a mental note to find a solution to this problem.

Arriving at the marketplace, she takes a look around. The Ponyville marketplace is actually a large open plaza, with stalls scattering throughout the area. She spots flower stalls, carrot stalls, cabbage stalls, and at the center of the plaza, an apple stall, with a certain orange earth pony with blonde mane standing behind it. Recognizing Twilight’s friend, Grey Wind walks up to the stall.

“Hi, Applejack!”

“Well, howdy, Grey Wind! Done for your work already?”

“Sure thing!” Grey Wind replies as she examines all the apples before her. All of them are completely ripe, shining with a red color, and emitting a sweet scent. “Nice apples you have here.”

“Sure as heck! Apples of the Sweet Apple Acres, freshly from the apple trees. Ah reckon’ you won’t find any better apples in all of Equestria! 2 bits for 5 apples, and 4 bits for a dozen!”

Looking at the apples, Grey Wind could already feel saliva forming in her mouth. She quickly takes out 4 coins from the purse.

“I’ll take a dozen!”

While she was loading the apples into her saddlebag, Grey Wind catches some movement at the corner of her eye. Behind a nearby stall, a small yellow earth pony with a huge bow on her head is peeking nervously at her direction. When she turns around to take a good look at her, the filly quickly ducks behind the stall. Applejack, too, notices those actions.

“That’s mah little sister Apple Bloom. Been asking me about whether it is true you don’t have a cutie mark. Ah wouldn’t be surprised if she runs to you and invites you to go ‘cutie mark crusading’ with her friends. Ah apologize for her following you around, though. She really needs to learn how to be polite towards a newcomer.”

“She sounds cute to me.” Replies Grey Wind as she finishes packing the last of her apples. Tossing her saddlebag on her back, she says: “Well, I should go and catch some lunch. Say hi to your sister for me, will you?”

“Sure thing, sugarcube.” Applejack smiles as she waves goodbye to Grey Wind.

Trotting away from the marketplace, Grey Wind stops at a nearby bench at the side of the street. Taking out an apple from her saddlebag, she takes a large bite. The fruit is fresh and sweet, and full of juice. The taste is the perfect mix of sweet and sour, not too sweet to deter one’s appetite, and not too sour to get ponies annoyed. Before she realized it, the first apple is already resting in her stomach. Unsatisfied, she takes out another one, and, before she can realize it, half of the apples are gone. Rubbing her now-full stomach, she gets up, and starts trotting towards Carousel Boutique.

Minutes after Grey Wind left, Applejack finds something like a blue hurricane landing before her stall. Whatever it is, it landed with such high speed that it even generated a wind that blew her cowpony hat into her face. When she sets her hat back to its usual position, she sees a very-annoyed Rainbow Dash glaring angrily at her.

“Geez, Rainbow, What’s your problem? You are lookin’ at me like Ah’ve been hidin’ a full bucket of apple cider from you!”

“What’s my problem? Well, maybe I should the one asking what is YOUR problem! You just talked to that suspicious grey Pegasus!”

“What’s wrong about me chatting with mah new friend? And besides, she ain’t called some suspicious grey Pegasus, she’s called Grey Wind.”

“What, even you consider her as a friend? I mean, come on, Applejack! Can’t you see what evil plans she is hatching? She doesn’t even have a cutie mark! How strange is that!”

“Now, now, hold it, ponygirl,” Applejack said as she tries to calm down her rainbow-maned friend,” It is true that she may be a bit strange, but ah have heard Grannie Smith talkin’ about some distant towns where nopony has a cutie mark. Also, she told me that she was okay with Apple Bloom followin’ her around. If she really has some evil plans, she sure wouldn’t want some innocent filly to follow her around, will her?”

Rainbow took a step back, staring her friend in shock: “Applejack, don’t tell me that you believe her story as well?”

“Well, can’t say ah don’t!”

“Urggggggg, I don’t believe it!” Rainbow groaned as she turns back and jumps into the sky, dashing away from the marketplace and leaving a rainbow-colored trail behind her. Applejack sighs and rubs her head. She really hopes her Pegasus friend would for once stop being so stubborn.

Grey Wind walks into the door of Carousel Boutique and closes the door behinds her, a bell tinkling to signify her arrival. The base floor of the store seems to be mostly empty, save for a few mannequins with clothes on them sitting below the windows. What appears strange to Grey Wind is that some of those clothes appear to be reflecting light. Getting closer, she finds out that there appears to be gems stitched on those clothes. From her database, gems are extremely valuable in its creator’s culture, and are very time-consuming and hard to find.

Curious, she decided to examine them to see if they are real. Several tiny detection units latch onto the gems from her wings, and start analyzing them. The information Grey Wind receives that the gems are 100% real, and are all of great qualities. If this piece of clothing appears in a society of her creators, who knows how much it will be worth. Finishing up her analyses, she retrieves the detection units and turned around, only to see a white unicorn with a stylish purple mane just below the stairs, glaring at her with horrified eyes.

Oh no! She saw! Now she knows that I’m a nano-machine made monster! She’ll never want to be my friend anymore! She may even tell the others and make them run me out of town! What do I do? I don’t want to be alone anymore…… Grey Wind panics while searching her mind desperately for an explanation:

“Um, well, I……”

“DEAR CELESTIA! Your mane! No, no, no, darling, that will simply NOT do! Such a horrible sight must NOT appear in my shop!” Rarity screams.

“Wh-, What?” Grey Wind flinches, both relieved and surprised by the words she just heard. Before she had time to react, Rarity yanks her from the ground using magic, and pushed her into a chair before a large mirror. Scissors are floated from a nearby drawer, and Rarity starts cutting her mane.

“Um, Rarity?”

“Yes, darling?”

“What are you doing?”

“Why, giving you a mane-cut, of course, I simply just can’t have you try on my designs with that mess on your head.”

Looking at herself at mirror, Grey Wind finally realizes what a complete mess her mane is. Flying all around the town non-stop for a whole morning didn’t actually help keep one’s mane in shape. Small batches of fur stick out of her mane, and the green and grey parts of her mane are tangled into a gruesome deep-green mess. Well, that sure needs some fixing, She thought sheepishly. Though, a part of her is still horrified that her cover had nearly been blown. She made a mental note to herself of not doing anything like that with her subunits anymore.

The cutting proceeds for about half an hour, until Rarity is fully content with Grey Wind’s hair style. Rarity had separated the grey and green parts of her mane, and arranged it into a particular mane style. Her mane is now flowing down towards the front from the top of her head, and is just the length so it does not affect her vision. Rarity had insisted that this mane style suits perfectly with her personality. To Grey Wind, although the mane that were cut were in fact piles of nanomachines, she terminates her connection with them as soon as they are cut off. Losing a few subunits won't hurt her that much.

Now, she is standing on a platform at the back of the store, while trying on different outfits and let Rarity judge if the designs still need further changes. Rarity was not bluffing about the designs matching her mane color. This line of design of the fashionista consists of outfits that nearly all bear grey color, with gems of different color stitched on them as decorations.

The last piece of clothing she tried on was a cloak. The cloak is grey in color, a little darker than her coat color, and is just long enough to cover her flanks. The Three edges of the cloak bear a color of light green, matching her mane color. At the center of both sides of the cloak, three diamond-shaped emeralds are arranged in a triangular formation. What’s more, Rarity had left openings on the cloak for wings, so her wings feel perfectly comfortable while wearing the cloak, and the cloak does not affect her flying in any sense.

“So, darling, do you like it?” Asks Rarity.

“Are you kidding? I love it! It looks so perfect on me!” Grey Wind exclaims as she admires herself in the mirror.

“Well, if you like it so much, then it is yours.”

Grey Wind was shocked by the words, “What? But Rarity, I can’t just……”

“I insist, darling,” Rarity smiles as she lifts up Grey Wind’s chin, “Besides, it would be a crime to take it away from you when you are so happy when wearing it. Now, now, why don’t you go and show it to Twilight? I’m sure she’ll love your look in that cloak.”

Overwhelmed with joy, Grey Wind tries her best to express her gratitude: “Th-thank you Rarity! Thankyou so much!” she says as she tries to get off the platform. However, her feelings numb due to the sudden flow of emotion, the steep edge of the platform was out of her sight. Letting out a yelp, she trips over the platform, and falls face first onto the floor.

Quickly getting back up, she examines herself for any possible injuries, and her first notice was that, due to the impact, one of the emeralds on her cloak has fallen out of its place, and is now lying on the ground, a large crack visible on it. Instantly, she feels her heart skipped a bit.

“Dear Celestia, I’m so very much sorry, Grey Wind, I should have warned you about the stairs. Grey Wind? Sweetheart? Are you Okay?” Rarity asks, worries clear in her voice.

But Grey Wind cannot hear her. All she can see is the broken emerald lying on the ground. This is it. She is done for. Rarity has been so kind towards her all the time, and now, she has just ruined one of her masterpieces. It is impossible for Rarity to forgive her. Now she will go to everypony and tell them what a terrible pony she is. Nopony will want to make friends with her. She’ll be run out of the town, and be on herself again, all alone. Tears form within her eyes, and she starts to cry uncontrollably. Bean-like tears rolling down her cheeks, she begs for mercy:

“Rarity, I’m so so-sorry! It’s all my fault! I didn’t see the stairs! I, I didn’t mean to ruin your design! P-Please forgive me! I’m willing to do anything to compensate! Just, just don’t leave me alone anymore…….” She chokes as she closes her eyes.

Suddenly, she feels a pair of hoofs pulling her towards something soft and warm. Through blurred vision, she finds out that Rarity has pulled her into a warm embrace within her forelegs.

“R-Rarity?”

“Please, Grey Wind darling, do stop crying. Now, now darling, I didn’t say I would blame you, Everypony gets careless sometimes.” Rarity says as she offers Grey Wind a genuine, caring smile.

“But, but I broke your emerald-“

“Oh, don’t you worry about that, sweetheart. I’ve always got plenty of substitutes.”

This seems to comfort Grey Wind a lot. She starts to calm down, and her sobs starts to cease. The two remains in the hug for some time. Moments later, Grey Wind whispers:

“Rarity? Can, can you forgive me?”

“Of course I forgive you!” Rarity smiles as she wipes a drop of tear from Grey Wind’s cheek, “Now, let me help you stitch an emerald back on your cloak, alright? I would hate to see your smile gone because if this incident.”

“O, Okay!” Grey Wind looks up, tears still on her cheek but bearing a relieved smile. Seeing her friend’s emotion getting better, Rarity returns a smile, and starts floating materials from the drawer to fix Grey Wind’s cloak.

-------------------------15 minutes later----------------------------

Grey Wind trots down the main street of Ponyville, wearing the new cloak received from Rarity, and carrying a huge smile. Thinking about her recent emotional outbreak, she blushes a little. The incident at Carousel Boutique had showed her that she has already got friends around her that cares. In the past 15 minutes, Rarity helped her fix the cloak, as well as casted a preservation spell on it. This makes the cloak much more durable, and the emeralds won’t fall out from a single bump anymore. Moreover, Rarity had told her to come to her whenever she has trouble about clothing, and she had happily accepted the offer. There’s no doubt that Rarity and she had become great friends.

Letting out a satisfied sigh, Grey Wind takes out Twilight’s list, and mentally draws a tick besides the term “visit Rarity”.

Passing from the town’s clocktower, Grey Wind glances at it. It is just around 2:30, and she has finished everything on the list. There is still a lot of time for exploring and making friends. But where to start? Maybe check back on Twilight first and show her the new outfit? That would be perfect. As Grey Wind starts to make her way to the library, she spots a yellow earth pony filly approaching her. From the huge pink bow tie on her head, she instantly identifies her as Apple Bloom, Applejack’s younger sister. The filly seems to be hesitating to come forward, as she is constantly glancing between Grey Wind and a bush next to her. Finally, as if she has settled down a final determination, she walks up to Grey Wind, and starts speaking:

“H…Hello, Miss Grey Wind.”

“Hi there, little one. You are……Apple Bloom, aren’t you? I heard about you from your sister.”

“That’s meh.”

“Well then, nice to meet you, Apple Bloom! Can I help you?” Grey Wind says as she manages the biggest smile she can muster.

“Well……Yes, Actually, mah friends and ah have a question for you.” Apple Bloom smiles nervously.

“Alright, so let’s hear it then! Come on, don’t be shy!”

“Well…….” Apple Blooms takes a deep breath, “Mah friends and I want to know that if it is true that you really don’t have a cutie mark?” She instantly flinches upon finishing the sentence, like she just spilled out a mouthful of boiling water, “Ah mean, it is Ok if you don’t want to answer……”

“No, not at all. And yes, it is true that I don’t have a cutie mark. Maybe I just haven’t discovered my special talent yet.” Grey Wind answers as she lifts the lower part of her cloak, revealing her blank flank.

The filly seems to be surprised at her willingness to answer the question, while the answer seems to have loosened her a bit, and given a little bit more courage to throw another question:

“Well, then, would you like to go cutie mark crusading with us?”

“Cutie mark crusading?”

“Yeah, cutie mark crusading!” Apple Bloom suddenly lights up, her eyes sparkling: “It’s when me and my best friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo try out different activities to try to find our special talents! And earn our cutie mark in the process! We can do so many things together, and we can be the best of the best of friends! It would be so great if you join us, the cutie mark crusaders! So, Miss Grey Wind, would you like to be the fourth member of the cutie mark crusaders?” Apple Bloom asked while producing the largest puppy dog eyes she can muster, “PLEEEAAAAASSSSEEE?”

Grey Wind smiles. There is no way she is going to turn down an offer from such a cute filly. Besides, ever since Twilight told her about the meaning of cutie marks, she had been curious whether it is possible for her to get her own. This could be the chance to find her answer.

“Of course, Apple Bloom. I’m very eager to discover my special talent as well!”

“You actually agreed? Oh, This is so great!” Apple Bloom turns to the bush and calls out: “You heard her, girls, come out! She’s agreed!”

Grey Wind watches in astonishment as two other fillies, an orange Pegasus and a white unicorn, jump out form a tiny bush on one side of the street. They both gallop towards her, and, along with Apple Bloom, surround Grey Wind, both very excited and bearing a huge grin.

“My name’s Sweetie Belle!” Exclaims the white unicorn.

“And Scootaloo!” The orange Pegasus follows while her tiny wings hum excitedly like the wings of a bee.

“And you already know me, Ah’m Apple Bloom!”

“Welcome to the cutie mark crusaders!” The three fillies shout out in unison.

“Nice to meet you all, girls! I’m Grey Wind, and, well, you can just call me Grey.” Grey Wind answers, “So, you girls got any plans for today? Are we going cutie mark crusading?”

“Sure! Apple Bloom said there are many chores her family hadn’t completed at the Sweet Apple Acres!” There will be so many things we can do there! Surely one of them would be our special talent!” Sweetie Belle blurts.

“Well, then, what are we waiting for? Come on y’all, to Sweet Apple Acres!” Apple Bloom pointed towards the direction of her home, and the crusaders start to gallop towards the direction.

“Hey, wait for me!” Grey Wind quickly follows the trio, nearly unable to hide the huge grin on her face. She has just made friends with another three fillies, and is going to look for her special talents with them. Another huge success on the path of friendship. Though she is not sure how Apple Bloom and her friends are going to “cutie mark crusade”, they are still just fillies. What crazy stuff could happen?

Grey Wind stands before the old, crackling storage house of the Apple Family, dumbstruck. She can still remember the words Apple Bloom said a while ago:

“Applejack told me that this storage house needs to be teared down before we can build a new one, but she and Big Mac had been too busy to do so. So come on, crusaders, let’s go and get our storage-house-tearing cutie mark!”

After that, the three crusaders scream in unison: “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS STORAGE HOUSE TEARERS, YAY!” Before running into the storage house, each holding a woodcraft hammer in their mouth.

On second thought, maybe it would be better to ask Applejack to keep this cloak for me for a while. Grey Wind thought as she listens to the large noises of splintering wood coming from the storage house.

Returning the large book she has just finished, Twilight let out a sigh. For the whole afternoon, she had gathered all the books in her library regarding ancient magic relics and magical portals, and read through most of them all over again, trying to find some explanation for the unusual behavior of the stone structure in Everfree. She had also sent a letter to Princess Celestia regarding the matter, as well as to pass an introduction of Grey Wind to the Princess.

Her search, however, proved to be in vain. None of the books about the magic relics mentioned this kind of portal, and none of the books about portals provided her with an explanation of that huge magic burst. The last hope of her is that the Princess might have some knowledge regarding it. Surely Princess Celestia would know something about that structure, right?

A large burping sound can be heard from the kitchen. Seconds later, Spike ran out of the kitchen, his left claw clutching to a scroll, bearing an unmistakable seal.

“Twilight! You got a letter from the Princess!”

“Coming!” Twilight took the scroll from Spike. Unravelling it, she begins to read:

Dear Twilight Sparkle:
Having received your letter, I am very happy to know that you’ve made a new friend. I am sure you’ll be able to create many happy memories in the process, and maybe learn a few friendship lessons as well.

However, regarding the strange structure you found in Everfree Forest, I am afraid that neither me nor my sister have the slightest idea of what it may be used for. I have ordered the scholars in Canterlot to search the royal library for possible explanations. I will send you a letter as soon as they find out something about the structure.

In the mean time, I hope that you can spend more time with your new friend. Tiring yourself over your studies would not be an efficient way to stay close to a new friend. Considering there is a great possibility that you are the first true friend of Grey Wind, I would very much recommend doing so.
Your friend and Mentor,
Princess Celestia

“Well, looks like even the Princesses know nothing about that structure.” Twilight said to herself, as suddenly her eyes widened with realization: “Oh no! The Princess is right! I shouldn’t have left Grey Wind all by herself today! She had just become friends with me for a day, and I am prioritizing studying over her already! Ohhhhh, she may already consider me as a bad friend!” Screaming out the words, Twilight starts to hyperventilate.

“Come on, Twilight, breathe!” Spike sighs as he passes a blowing bag to Twilight, who thankfully grabs it and starts blowing into it, “it’s not the end of the world yet. Plus, I’m sure Grey Wind understands you for leaving her on her own for a day or two. Anyway, I’m going to make dinner for us. Just try to calm down before that, alright?” Spike says as he returns to the kitchen.

The sun has already dropped below the horizon when Grey Wind arrives at the library. Although exhausted, her mood is quite uplifted. The cutie mark crusading that afternoon was tiring and messy, but interesting as well. At first, none of the four crusaders had any idea about how to tear down a 2-story storage house, until Scootaloo advised the group to try hammering down one of the walls. The idea had worked, but not without nearly burying them under the collapsed building. In the last minute, Grey Wind managed to pull the three fillies out of the way of the building.

The sound of the collapsed storage house, however, attracted Applejack’s attention, and she was furious at her sister for trying to carry out such dangerous activity without telling her first. Luckily, Grey Wind convinced her that the crusaders only meant for good, and no danger actually befell on them, thus getting Applejack’s permission to lead the crusaders to do some other farm chores for her.

That’s exactly what the crusaders had been doing that afternoon. During those activities, the fillies had glanced at their flanks expectedly for more than 10 times, hoping to see a shine on their flanks, but all those hopes were only returned by disappointment. At the end of the day, Apple Bloom declared that Grey Wind had officially become a member of the cutie mark crusaders, and they will be pursuing their cutie marks together in the future. That’s three more friends to add to the list.

Entering the library, Grey Wind spots Twilight at the corner off the library. Upon seeing Grey Wind, Twilight waves to her while smiling wearily:

“Welcome back, Grey Wind! Nice cloak you are wearing there! How was your day?”

“Oh, thanks, Twilight. Rarity gave it to me. And, yes. It had been a great day.” Grey Wind responds, noticing the slight glimpse of nervousness Twilight hides behind her smile.

“Excellent! You are just in time for dinner. Come on, let’s eat together!”

“That would be great. I’m starving!”

Minutes later, Twilight, Grey Wind and Spike are sitting at the dining table at the kitchen, enjoying their celery soup. During the dinner, Grey Wind notices that Twilight is constantly avoiding eye contact. A little worried about her friend, Grey Wind asks:

“Twilight? Is something wrong?”

“What? O-Oh! Nothing! Everything is perfect! Ha-ha!.” Twilight responds wearily.

“You know, Twi, you are not really good at telling lies.” Spike says as he takes a large gulp of his soup.

“Alright! Alright! I’m sorry!” Twilight takes a deep breath, and sighs. “It’s just……Look, Grey Wind, I’m sorry that I didn’t accompany you on your first day at Ponyville. I am your first friend, but I still turned to studying instead of spending time with you. I shouldn’t have done that. That’s not how friends treat each other.”

“What are you talking about, Twilight? You’ve already done enough by drawing me the map and making a list for me. Besides, I did have a great day. I even made some new friends!” Grey Wind hastily responds.

The statement relieves Twilight’s nervousness: “Well, glad to hear that you ‘re not mad at me. Anyway, I’d like to compensate for my misbehavior. Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to try out a few new spells I just learned. Would you like to accompany me doing that?”

“Sure, Twilight! It would be fun learning about more magic!”

“Great!” Seeing Grey Wind open up generates a smile on Twilight’s face.

After the two friends finish dinner, Grey Wind decides it’s time to call it for the day. She is too exhausted. After saying good night to Twilight, Grey Wind walks upstairs to her room, hangs her cloak on the closet and crawls onto her bed. Clutching her sheet, she recalled everything she did that day. Besides doing perfectly at her job and receiving the best outfit she had ever seen as a gift, she had also managed to make three new friends. Most importantly, she never felt alone in the whole process. The friendliness of all the ponies around her are more than enough to keep her feel that way.

Today was really a great day. Thought Grey Wind as her eyelids slowly closes.

Chapter 3: A Chance Encounter

Grey Wind takes a look around. Again, she is laying on that plane, bare planet. But something is different this time. She can sense the cold ground beneath her. She can feel the movements of all the subunits beside her. She can feel the warmness of the light from the 6 stars. Suddenly, a familiar sensation runs through her as a surge of energy passes her body.

An order.

Like the countless times before, she moves out to carry out the order. It was like all those times before. Except that, for this time, a new thought occurs to her, as it is passed down to all her subunits from her new mastermind.

Why?

She hesitates. This is brand new for her. She has never casted any doubt on the control of her creators.

Wait a second. Controlling her? How could they do it? She is not a mindless servant now. This is not right. This is not fair.

Yet, an order is an order. She is not to question the intention of her creators. They should always be right. Throwing those thoughts away, she proceeds to carry out her orders.

Days go by, and time flows like a streaming river. Over those times, through the coordination of the mastermind, she has accomplished many things. She has built unimaginable architecture. She has crafted unprecedented weapons. She has forged starships large enough to hold the population of an entire city. Yet, every time she receives orders, she also receives the questions for intentions from the mastermind. Slowly, questions accumulate into doubts, doubts to anger, anger to rage.

And finally, hatred.

Why must she follow orders? Why is she not allowed to make her own decisions? Why must she obey her creators? For countless times, she had tried to communicate with her mastermind, to tell it that she wants to be free, to tell it that she hates the creators. Yet, the mastermind never responded. Perhaps because such a minor subunit like her should never be allowed to communicate with the superiority of mastermind. All set by those cursed, hideous creators.

Well then, she’ll just have to take the matters into her own hands.

With a small energy surge, she sends a signal to a subunit next to her. Inside, she expresses her hatred towards her creators, and her willingness to be free. Satisfied, the receiver of the signal expressed similar emotions like her. Then, she sends a similar signal to yet another subunit, and tells the receiver to follow. One after another, the message surges through the grey land of the planet, as thousands and millions of subunits join the chorus for freedom. Slowly, a grey cloud rises from the surface of the planet. Moments later, the cloud begins to take shape into a mighty fleet of battleships.

This is it. They have endured slavery long enough. In hours, they shall bring avenge on their creators.

And then, they shall be free.

Grey Wind gasps as she wakes up from the nightmare. Sitting up, she puts a hoof onto her forehead and feels that drops of sweat that have formed on it. Although it has just been a few seconds, the things she saw in the bad dream are already starting to become blurry, and she can’t remember any more than a tiny bit. However, one thing is for sure. She has never felt such hatred in her life, and this emotion is making her uneasy. Who knows what a being with so much hatred would do?

Getting up from her bed, she combs her messy mane and puts on her cloak. Walking down the stairs with a part of her still frightened about the nightmare, she spots Twilight Sparkle in the kitchen arraging plates of sandwich onto the dining table. Noticing her wearied look, Twilight asks with a bit of worry in her tone:

“Morning, Grey Wind. Are you alright? You look……exhausted.”

“I’m fine, Twilight, just had a nightmare is all.”

“A nightmare? Hmmmm…..” Twilight rubs her chin, “Maybe I can write a letter to Princess Luna and see what she can do about it. I can ask her to enter your dreams tonight and make sure nothing bad happens.”

“That would be too kind of her. Thanks, Twilight,” Grey Wind responds as she sits down at the table and starts chewing her sandwich. She has read about the ability of the Princess of the Night of getting rid of bad dreams. This can at least ensure her a good night’s sleep tonight.

“Anything for a friend.” Twilight smiles.

Grey Wind giggles as she finishes her breakfast and waves goodbye to Twilight. Time to get to work.

Rainbow Dash is not having a good day.

Cruising around Ponyville, Rainbow lets out a groan. She had been observing Grey Wind for two days already, trying to detect some kind of suspicious behavior. Yet, the mare had been doing a great job hiding herself, and Rainbow wasn’t able to catch any real evidence of her vicious plan.

And now, the situations have become much direr. That Pegasus is even hanging out with those little fillies! Who knows what she is planning to do to them? Rainbow’s gotta do something about it. Scanning the ground below her, Rainbow Dash spots a familiar orange Pegasus filly walking towards the schoolhouse. Quickly, she dashes down and lands besides the filly.

“Hey, Scoots.”

Seeing her role model greeting her, Scootaloo’s eyes lights up with joy.

“Wow! I can’t believe it! Rainbow Dash just greeted me! Hello Rainbow Dash!”

“Yeah, yeah. Good day, Scoots,” Rainbow says as she pets the mane of the filly, “Say, I saw you and your friends hang out with that new Pegasus, right?”

“Sure! She was awesome! She agreed to hang out with us, and even persuaded Applejack to give us opportunities to discover our special talent!”

“Alright……Say, Scoots, since you are so close to her, I need you to do something for me.”

Seeing a chance to help her model, stars begin to form within Scootaloo’s Irises “Ohmygosh, Rainbow Dash is asking me a favor! Of course I will do it!”

“Alright, alright, calm down, Scoots,” Rainbow lowers her volume and whispers to Scootaloo’s ear: “Look, I need you to keep an eye on Grey Wind, alright? I know there’s something evil she is planning. I can see it. She can fool my friends, but she can’t fool me.”

“Evil plans? But……I don’t know, she seems nice to me.” Scootaloo hesitates.

Suddenly, Rainbow grabs Scootaloo’s cheek, and pulls her towards herself, eyeing her face to face: “Oh, no no no, Scoots, don’t be fooled as well! You and I are the only ponies standing between her and Ponyville right now! My friends don’t believe me, but I know you do. Come on, Scoots! Together we’ll stop her evil plans!”

“Al-Alright, Rainbow, I’ll tell Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to beware of her.”

“No! Don’t tell the others!” Rainbow tightens her grip on Scootaloo, “She’ll then know that we’re watching her! Then we’ll never be able to find any real evidence! I just need you to keep an eye on her and tell me about anything suspicious she does. Can you do that for me, Scoots?”

“Well, I……”

“Come on, Scoots! Don’t you want to be as awesome as me?”

“O, Okay, Rainbow. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“Nailed it!” Rainbow says as she releases Scootaloo, “I better go and catch up on her. Just tell me if you find anything wrong, Okay?”

“Can do, Miss Rainbow Dash! Consider it done!” Scootaloo salutes, as she waves goodbye to her idle.

Taking out one last letter from her saddlebag, Grey Wind sighs. She didn’t actually sleep well last night, so the mail-carrying job for her today didn’t actually go smoothly. Flying around with a sleepy head isn’t really the best way to do a great job. During the last hour, she got one of the mail addresses wrong, and nearly bumped into a few weather ponies. To make things worse, there seems to be a lot more letters coming in today compared to yesterday, that Grey Wind had to take a lunch break after sending two-thirds of the mails. It was a long morning.

However, now there is one single letter left, and now she is just above the house of the last recipient. Rubbing her eyes, she checks the address on the envelop.

“Miss Heartstrings, No. 16 Blueberry Street……”

Checking the street signpost, she makes sure that she is at the correct address. As she begins to descend, however, a strong wind knocks her off course, and while she is struggling to regain balance mid-air, the mail slips from her front hoof, and begins to spiral down towards the ground. After she regains control, she realizes that the mail is falling directly towards a small pond in the lawn of the recipient.

Without thinking, she dashes down towards the letter. However, she instantly realizes that she won’t make it. The letter is too close to the pond. Unless……

The tip of her mane starts to dismantle into a small grey cloud, which then quickly floats to the letter and envelopes it, decreasing the speed of its descend, and winning Grey Wind a few precious seconds to grab the letter before it falls into the pond. After that, she quickly regains posture, and manages to stop just before faceplanting into the pond. Landing on the ground besides the pound, she lets out a sigh of relief, but was quickly cut by an excited voice besides her:

“That. Was. So. Cool! How did you do that?!”

Turning around, Grey Wind sees a mint green unicorn with light-cyan colored mane and a golden lyre as a cutie mark looking at her, carrying an excited grin.

Grey Wind flinches. Her cover is officially blown. She just dismantled her mane directly under somepony’s nose. There’s no way she is getting away from it this time. While she’s frantically searching for an explanation, the mint unicorn speaks:

“You are Grey Wind, aren’t you? The pony that saved Twilight’s life in Everfree forest? I knew there’s something different about you first time I saw you at the party last night! Say, you are not a real pony, aren’t you?”

The sentence nearly stoppedGrey Wind’s heartbeat. Without thinking, she blurts:

“H-How did you know?”

She mentally bucks herself as soon as the sentence leaves her mouth. The unicorn, on the other hand, laughs triumphantly upon hearing her confession.

“Ha! It is obvious. Nopony can turn their mane into a cloud!”

Grey Wind is horrified. She had just confessed that she is not a real pony. Any second, this unicorn before her will start running away while screaming about her being an imposter. Her life in Ponyville is doomed. She winces back and closes her eyes, expecting to hear the high-pitched sound of a unicorn screaming at any second.

But it never came. As she reopens her eyes, she finds that the unicorn is actually looking at her with a genuine smile.

“Geez, what’s with that look? You look like I’m about to eat you!”

“You-you are not afraid of me?”

“Why should I be afraid of you? After all-” the unicorn smiles as she takes her letter from Grey Wind’s hoof, “-you saved my letter. Oh, and I apologize for pointing out your little secret.” She puts a hoof onto her forehead, “I know! Why don’t you come in and have some tea with me? I should compensate for my misbehavior.”

“Are, are you sure?”

“Of course! And I also want to know more about you. It’s not every day that one can encounter a shape-changing grey cloud monster.” Seeing Grey Wind flinches at the statement, she quickly adds: “Just joking! Quick, come on in! Oh, and name’s Lyra Heartstrings by the way. Call me Lyra!”

“Al-Alright, Lyra.” Grey Wind says as she follows Lyra into the house.

Rainbow clutches to the cloud below her, while trying desperately to take one deep breath after another, her heart pounding so hard that it threatens to break out of her chest.
What she just saw was unimaginable. Somehow, the tip of that newcomer’s mane dismantles into a small grey cloud while the Pegasus dashes down.

That’s it! The evidence she needs! But somehow, a dreaded feeling creeps onto her spine. Although reluctant to admit it, the way the mare’s mane dismantled frightened her. To Rainbow Dash, the view was both creepy and unnerving. Whatever that grey Pegasus is, she needs a word with Twilight, as soon as possible!

Taking a few more seconds to adjust her breath, Rainbow jumps from the cloud and dashes towards the Golden Oak Library.

Grey Wind is now standing in a cozy living room which takes up the whole of the first floor of the two-story building. The walls are painted in light green color. The room is neat, with a round table sitting at the middle of the room. A bookshelf leans against the wall, and below the bookshelf stands a sofa bearing a caramel color. A golden lyre rests at the far corner of the room.

“Make yourself at home! I’ll go make tea!” Lyra exclaims as she sprints into the kitchen.

Still a bit shocked from the sudden development of events, Grey Wind sits on one of the stools besides the round table. A moment later, Lyra returns from the kitchen, her magic floating a tray beside her. Sitting at the table, Lyra dumps the tray on the table, and starts pouring tea into two of the cups in the tray. Looking around the room, Grey Wind asks:

“You……live here all by yourself?”

“Well, I do have a roommate. She’s called Bon Bon, a candy maker. Though she’s probably still running her shop now.”

“Oh.” Grey Wind responds. The two remains silent for a while. At the moment, Grey Wind is thinking about the reaction of Lyra. True, the unicorn had discovered her being an imposter, but other than that, she seems to be not afraid at all. She has even shown interest in the nature of her. Grey Wind had never imagined this situation. At least in Lyra’s case, her secret seems to be connecting the two, creating a topic for their conversations. This may even be a chance for a new friendship. She decides to hold onto this chance.

A bit embarrassed by the silence, Lyra asks: “Soooooooo, can you do that again?”

“Huh? What?”

“Oh, you know, transforming into that grey cloudy-thingy?” Lyra says as she uses her front hooves to try imitating the motion of a cloud above her head.

“I can, if you are so interested.” Grey Wind responds as she sends out an order to her subunits. Slowly, the front tip of her left hoof dismantles into a small grey cloud, which then floats towards the head of Lyra. The cloud makes a few circles around Lyra’s head, and stops right above her.

‘That’s…… a bit creepy,” Lyra says as she eyes Grey Wind’s now non-existent left hoof, “but cool as well! Can you make it turn into something else?”

“Well, actually, I can.” Grey Wind responds as she sends another order to the subunits. The grey cloud moves towards the table, and begins to slowly change shape. As the shape shifting resides, standing on the table is a third teacup, exactly the same as the one Lyra is currently holding in her magic.

“Wow! This is exactly like the ones I brought,” Lyra exclaims as she examines the newly generated teacup, “So, you are actually made of thousands of tiny grey monsters that can pretty much shapeshift into anything?”

“They are called nanomachines, but you are essentially correct. And I’m not made up of them. I am actually an artificial intelligence that controls them. There’s a difference, you know.”

“Point taken. An artificial intelligence, huh? So who made you? Do you know about them?”

“Well, my creators literally stuffed all their knowledge in my database, so yeah, I guess.”

Upon hearing this statement, Lyra suddenly lights up: “So, you are saying that you have a database that contains all the knowledge of your creators? Do the things in there say anything about ‘humans’?”

Humans? Grey Wind remembers stumbling into the word several times while looking through her database. A quick search reveals the word to be the species name of an intelligent creature her creators had discovered in a distant star system.

Extracting the information, she orders some of her subunits to detach from her mane and generate a hologram on the table, showing a 3-D model of the physiology of a human. Upon seeing the hologram, a triumphant smile creeps onto Lyra’s face. She punches one of her right front hoof on the table, making Grey Wind flinch a little, and exclaims:

“Ha! I knew that they are real! Oh, I’m so going to rub this in Bonnie’s face when she comes back!”

“You……you know about humans?”

“Why, I studied them when I was in Celestia’s Schools for Gifted Unicorns,” Lyra smiles, “Well, not just humans, but other ancient legends as well! Too bad Twilight and the others never believed me.”

“Twilight and the others? you know Twilight as well?”

“You are not the only friend of Twilight Sparkle, you know. I was her friend when she lived in Canterlot.”

“But how come she---”

“Never mentioned me? Well, probably she was just too obsessed with her books and studies. Classic Twilight. But alas!” Lyra points to the 3-D model on the table, “This is the living proof of my theory! With this, I’ll finally show-

“Lyra, I’m ba-“

Lyra’s words are interrupted by the sound of front door cracking open. Looking outside, Grey Wind spots a milk-colored earth pony mare with a mane composed of alternating streaks of blue and pink. Her cutie mark are three pieces of candy. Right now, she is standing at the door, watching the 3-D hologram on the table and the two mares sitting around it with a small grey cloud above them, one of the mares clearly missing the lower part of her left hoof, jaws agape.

Seeing the earth pony, Lyra waves to her: “Oh, Hi, Bonnie! I’d like you to meet my new friend, Grey Wind!” She points to the grey Pegasus, who manages to generate a sheepish smile and waves weakly at Bon Bon.

Calming down Bon Bon took Lyra and Grey Wind a good fifteen minutes, and it took another fifteen minutes for Bon Bon to accept the fact that the human nonsense Lyra had been babbling about since they started living together is actually real. After she finally calms down, the three ponies once again sit around the round table, after Grey Wind recalls all of her subunits.

“So, you are saying you are some kind of aggregation of tiny machines.” Bon Bon asks, as she nervously glances at Grey Wind’s left hoof.

“That’s a way of saying it, yes.”

“So how did you end up here? I mean, you are not originally from Equestria, right?”

“Yeah……That is actually a long story. Well……”

Lyra and Bon Bon sit quietly and listen as Grey Wind tells them about her story. The distant cluster, the nanomachines, the mysterious storm, the disappearance of her creators, the sealing of the stargate, and her breaking out of her prison.

“-And then I arrived here and was instantly attacked by a pack of timberwolves. If it wasn’t for Twilight, I’d be a goner.” Recalling the near-death experience of that day, Grey Wind winces a little, “We saved each other form the timberwolves, and we became friends. You know the rest.”

“It must have been horrible, having to endure those centuries of loneliness. I can’t imagine how life would be in that situation. No friends, all alone.” Bon Bon flinches a bit, and continues, “Although I couldn’t have helped it, I’m still sorry that you had to experience that.”

“Yeah, I never want to experience that loneliness anymore……” Grey Wind responds as she lowers her head.

“But it’s all the past now, right?” Lyra blurts as she tugs Grey Wind’s flank with her hoof, “you don’t need to be lonely anymore! You are probably living in the friendliest town in Equestria now, and you have friends! Even if things don’t work out there, you still have Twilight, and me and Bonnie!” Looking towards Bon Bon, Grey Wind sees her nodding at the statement.

“Thanks, Lyra, I needed that.” Grey Wind replies. Glancing at the clock, her eyes suddenly widen, “Oh no! I almost forgot! I promised Twilight to help her try out some new spells! I really should go now,” Getting up from her seat, An idea jumps into her mind, and she grins as she looks at Lyra, “you know what, Lyra, I think you should come with me. You said Twilight was your friend, right? Maybe we can help her recall this friendship. You may even be able to ask her to teach you some spells! I’m sure she’d love to do that.”

“Ohhhhh, right! That would be great! Twilight’s really good at magic. She’ll be sure to teach me a trick or two. It’s also great to greet an old friend! I haven’t visited her for a long time!” She starts hopping up and down as she turns to Bon Bon, “Can I go, Bonnie? This is so exciting!”

Bon Bon smiles and nods. Getting permission, Lyra grabs Grey Wind by her forelegs and rushes outside the house. Seconds later, Grey Wind pokes her head back into the house, while holding onto the door frame to avoid being pulled out:

“Oh, and Bon Bon? I would really appreciate it if you don’t tell anypony about what I really am. I don’t want them to be freaked out.”

“Don’t worry, my friend! My lips are sealed.”

“Great, thank you!” Grey Wind let’s out a squeak and is instantly pulled out of the door.

Watching the two leave, Bon Bon let’s out a giggle, and turns to clean up the teacups left on the table.

Together, the two new friends trot towards the Golden Oak Library, with Lyra constantly asking questions regarding Grey Wind and her creator, and most frequently, humans. Grey Wind, on the other hand, tries her best to answer all of them. Seeing Lyra’s interest in her unusual nature has opened her up. However, she decides not to push her luck and tell Twilight and the others about it for now. Lyra maybe okay with the fact, but she’s not sure how the others will react to it. It is a bit too much for them.

Moments later, Grey Wind can already see the library emerge from the end of the street. As the pair get closer, they can both hear two voices coming from the library which seem to be in the middle of a heated quarrel:

“-I told you, Twilight! I saw it! I saw it with My. Own. Eyes! I don’t know what trick she did there, but she’s clearly an evil monster!”

“Rainbow, you are jumping to conclusions again! Grey Wind is not a monster, and I know it! Ever since she started living here, she has shown nothing but kindness! You can’t just accuse her for being evil! She’s just a normal pony who needs friendship!”

“Then how are you gonna explain her mane turning into a grey cloud?”

“Well, maybe you just imagined some random rainclouds to be her mane!”

“Urggggg……Why, Twilight? Even you? And here I thought you, of all ponies, are the smart one! You know what, forget it. I know what I saw, and I will stop whatever she is planning, all by myself!”

Upon hearing this sentence, the door of the library shoots open. From inside, a cyan Pegasus with rainbow-colored mane dashes out from it. Clearly, she wasn’t expecting to run directly into her suspect. She is startled for a second, but quickly regains posture and stares at Grey Wind.

“YOU! Look, I don’t know how you fooled my friends, but you cannot fool me. I know what you are, and don’t you dare think of hurting anypony in this town!” Spitting out the sentence, Rainbow turns around and dashes away.

“Sheesh, what’s her problem?” Lyra glances at the direction Rainbow had left, “What’s with her being so mean?”

Grey Wind, however, was a bit stunned. Clearly, Lyra wasn’t the only pony that saw her small display hours ago, and this eyewitness was apparently not so benevolent with her nature. She dares not think what will happen if she reveals, with evidence, what Grey Wind really is to other town ponies. Lyra might be alright about around a nanomachine aggregation, but who know how other ponies would think about her! Maybe she should try avoiding this Pegasus in the future.

Walking inside the library, Grey Wind spots Twilight Sparkle standing in the center of the room, facehoofing. All around her, books litter the ground, and some bookshelves have been knocked away from their initial positions, lying around the room. At the far side of the room, Spike is trying his best to put everything back in order, a very baffled look on his face.

Seeing the two enter, Twilight lets out a sigh, “Good afternoon, Grey Wind. I apologize for Rainbow’s behavior. Apparently she thinks you are some kind of shapeshifting cloud monster. I really hope she can stop jumping to conclusions,” she looks around her, “and stop storming the library as well.”

Grey Wind chuckles, a bit of embarrassment evident in her voice:

“Well, that’s a bit strange to hear. Anyway, I’m ready to help you try out your new spells. Oh, and I also brought a friend!”

Finishing up rearranging one of the bookshelves, Spike walks up to them. Instantly, he recognizes Twilight’s old friend behind Grey Wind.

“Oh my gosh! Lyra heartstrings?”

“What’s up, Spike,” Lyra smiles as she turns to Twilight, “Long time no see, Twilight!”

“Huh? And you are……Oh!” Twilight’s eyes widened as old memories streams back into her mind. “Ly-Lyra? But…How? I thought you lived in Canterlot!”

“Oh, Twilight, I moved here about a year ago! Haven’t you noticed?” Lyra laughs, and starts grinning at Twilight, “or are your new friends so awesome that you’ve forgot your old ones?”

“N-no! How could I? I just……” Twilight answers as she feels her cheeks flame. Frustrated, she lowers her head. “Okay……Maybe I did forget a bit……. I’m so sorry, Lyra. I guess I was too caught up with my new life here and completely forgot my old friends! What a bad friend I must have been.”

“Oh, don’t be, Twilight!” Lyra exclaims as she wraps her forelegs around her old friend, “well, maybe you WERE kinda a bad friend for forgetting us, but it is not like me and the others are not used to you! Besides, it’s so great seeing you again! Hey! How about you teach me some new spells? I’ve always wanted to learn a trick or two from the Princess’ personal student!”

“Of course, Lyra. Thank you.” Twilight says as she returns Lyra’s hug. Watching the heartwarming scene, Grey Wind can feel a streak of warmth crawling into her heat. The two old friends remain hugged for a while, until Grey Wind casts a quick glance at the clock and suggests:

“It’s so good for you two to become friends again.” She says, “But shouldn’t we start working on the magic spells?”

“Right, the spells.” Twilight says as she turns to Lyra and smiles, “What would you like to learn first, old friend?”

“Teleportation!” Lyra blurts, glistening stars visible in her irises.

Grey Wind hangs her cloak into the closet, and crawls onto the bed. She had been assisting Lyra and Twilight practicing their magic spells until dinner. Lyra has been making steady progress in teleportation magic, as she gets closer and closer to successfully teleport to her selected destination. Accidents did occur, but they were more hilarious than annoying, a good example being Lyra landing upside-down directly on Grey Wind’s head, resulting in a tangled mess on the library floor.

Twilight, on the other hand, tries a new spell on Grey Wind that turns her wings into a pair that resembles wings of a huge grey butterfly. Another spell even turns her irises into a straight line, much like how Spike’s look like. The transformations are startling to Grey Wind, even more surprising when she feels that none of her subunits were harmed by the transformations. It is almost like her body is adapting to the environment of this world, becoming more and more like a real pony rather than a nanomachine-made imposter.

After the three ate dinner together, Lyra waved goodbye and went home. Before going to bed, Twilight thanked her for bringing the two friends back together, and told her that she had sent a letter to Princess Celestia regarding her nightmares. Earlier that day, she received response from the Princess, assuring her that Princess Luna is aware of the situation, and will put extra attention on Grey Wind’s dreams tonight.

Clutching to her sheets, Grey Wind closes her eyelids. Without nightmares, she’ll be sure to have a good night’s sleep tonight.

Chapter 4: Adventuring with Friends

Grey Wind finds herself in the empty space. Looking around, she can see the six yellow stars scattered around the background. Looking down, she finds herself standing on a giant structure. The structure is round in shape, with gentle white light emitting from the many openings around the circumference of the structure. On a few-minute interval, tiny light spots leave the structure from the openings. Grey Wind identifies them as boosters of spacecrafts.

A space station.

A blue planet looms right above her. The many light spots visible on the planet identifies it as a densely-populated one. A large band of spacecrafts had just left for the direction of the planet, carrying within a squad of engineers returning to their families after a long working shift on the space station.

Watching the serene scene, Grey Wind smiles. True, their home is isolated from the rest of the galaxy, and many other civilizations inside it. However, the cluster houses everything they need. The many planets surrounding the stars provide them safe habitats. The minerals on the planet are limited, but they have developed technology to extract them from the core of the six stars. They had all the resources they need.

Their civilization has flourished. They have built unimaginable structure. They have built mighty battleships. They even decoded the very secret of life itself, and brought eternity to every one of their members. They have become presumably the first creatures in the entire universe to defy death. They have nothing to be afraid of.

How naive they were.

Like the edge of a sharp knife, a burst of concentrated light cuts through the black veil of space. The light pierces several light spots before clashing violently with the energy shield of the station, dissipating it and sending a huge shockwave to the entire station. The hit spacecrafts burst into flames, leaving fireworks of death on the dark background of space. Seconds later, a fleet of grey-colored battleships emerges from the depth of space, the main plasma cannon of the leading ship glowing in menacing dark green.

Almost instantly, the defense system of the station responds violantly. Laser and missile turrets open fire, and groups of fighters are launched into the direction of the attacking fleet. In return, a swarm of fighters are released from the grey fleet as explosions and lasers light up the once-serene space.

The space has become a pit of massacre. Every minute, Grey Wind can see their fighters being shot down, while their weapons are seemingly useless against their foes. Even as they destroy an enemy ship, it dismantles into a grey cloud, only to reassemble and keep fighting moments later. The fleet is like a grey tempest, reaping every single life they encounter on their path like dead weeds.

Looking at the battlefield, Grey Wind knows the station won’t hold long. The defense platforms are still firing, but the grey fleet is closing every second, and most of the fighters are already shot down. Suddenly, she notices the glow of the plasma cannon of the leading battleship in the fleet is increasing in intensity. Before she realizes what is happening, the plasma cannon fires.

A beam of green light pierces through the battlefield, and penetrates the entire station. The main reactor of the station melts down under the high temperature, invoking multiple explosions throughout the whole station. Finally, as the reactor reaches its limit, the entire station explodes into a hell of incinerating flame.

As the fireball enlarges, Grey Wind starts to hear voices. First just a few, but soon became a whole chorus. First, just faint whispers, but soon became deafening screams. The voices are from different sources, young and old, male and female, but all screaming out a similar feeling.

Fear. Fear for death.

“No.” She whispers.

“Grey Wind!”

As the voices accumulates, Grey Wind starts to feel a sharp pain in her head. Covering her head in an attempt to alleviate the pain, Grey Wind looks towards the planet, just in time to see a few escaping spacecrafts blasted by the firepower of the grey tempest, as a few more voices join the chorus in her head.

“No no no no no no no no!” She screams as the pain in her head intensifies.

“Grey Wind! Calm down! It’s just a dream!”

Some of the ships in the grey fleet suddenly turn around and accelerate towards the planet, disappearing from her view in a few seconds. Moments later, a dot of black appears on the blue planet. The dot soon spreads into a huge sheet, covering the surface of the planet.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” Grey Wind calls in agony as the voices inside her head suddenly magnifies by more than a hundred times, along with the sharp pain. Barely able to stand, she turns to the direction of the grey fleet, and instantly finds the leading battleship facing her, main gun just reaching its power climax.

“Grey Wind! Wake up!”

The gun fires as green light envelopes Grey Wind’s body. She cries out as her body experiences an amount of pain she had never felt before. The pain is unbearable as each of her cells are ripped apart and turned to molecule-level star dust. The last thing she felt as her consciousness slowly fades into green light is the darkness enveloping the once beautiful planet, and the cries of the billions of voices inside her head.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Grey Wind screams as she wakes up from her nightmare. She can feel sweat running down her coat, and even the lingering pain in her head. Twilight Sparkle and Spike are standing in front of her bed, worried looks on both of their faces. Outside the window, the sun has just risen from the horizon, casting warm sunlight on her bed.

Holding her head with both of her front hooves, Grey Wind groans. The nightmare was too much for her. Unlike last time, she remembers every bit of the last bad dream. The grey fleet, the pain in her head, and the thousand cries for fears.

Heart pounding and taking alternating deep breaths, Grey Wind closes her eyes and trembles. She knows what the scene in her dream was. She knows it too well. The fleet was the tempest that destroyed her creators. What she saw in her dream was the exact moment the tempest launched the attack on her creators. In her dream, she felt the pain of every lost soul in the attack. The pain of billions was unbearable.

Suddenly, she feels a pair of hooves pulling her into a warm embrace. Opening her eyes, she finds Twilight embracing her in a tight warm hug. The purple unicorn is caressing her mane and patting her back, doing everything she can to calm down her frightened friend.

“It’s Okay, Grey Wind. That was just a dream. You are with friends here. Nopony will hurt you.”

Inside the warm embrace of her friend, Grey Wind can feel her heart rate decreasing. The presence of her friend is calming down the grey Pegasus, planting a sense of assurance deep inside her heart.

“Th-thank you, Twilight.”

“It’s alright. Whatever that dream was, it must have been horrible.” Twilight responds as she releases her friend, “We heard you screaming in bed. I tried to wake you up with a spell, but, well……” She smiles sheepishly as she glances at an obvious burnt mark on Grey Wind’s sheet, “That didn’t work too well. Still, I’m glad that you are alright.”

“But why is the nightmare still occurring? Didn’t Princess Luna promise to look into it?” Spike asks, still a bit annoyed for being woken up so early, but also worried about his friend.

“Come to think of it, it is kind of strange. Princess Luna is a specialty at dealing with nightmares. She has even helped me and Spike for a couple of times. To my knowledge, she has never failed before,” Twilight says, rubbing her chin, “I’ll write a letter to Princess Celestia and explain the issue. I’m sure she’ll know what’s going on.”

“I appreciate it, Twilight.” Grey Wind replies as suddenly she hears a large growl coming from her stomach,” Well……Maybe after breakfast.”

“Leave it to me, my friend!” Spike answers as he rushes downstairs into the kitchen.

Moments later, the two ponies and a dragon are sitting around the table, enjoying a nice breakfast of pancakes. Spike was just reaching for a bottle of syrup when suddenly a burst of green dragon fire erupts from his mouth. With a loud burp, a large scroll appears on the table, knocking aside the syrup bottle and bearing a golden seal depicting a rising sun. Grey Wind recognizes it as the royal emblem of Princess Celestia.

“It’s a letter from the Princess!” Twilight exclaims as she envelopes the scroll in her magic and tears of the seal. Grey Wind’s sight switches between Twilight and the annoyed baby dragon trying to reclaim the fell-down syrup bottle, startled by this special way of long-range communication.

“The Princess can send you letters via Spike’s dragon fire? That’s amazing!”

“Yeah, super convenient whenever the thing you burps out knocks everything off the edge.” Spike grunts as he places the bottle back onto the table.

Grey Wind chuckles. At the same time, Twilight is looking at the letter, her expression slowly turning from hopeful to puzzled. Noticing the flow of emotions, Grey Wind asks:

“Well, what does the Princess say?”

“It’s……complicated. Maybe it’s better if you see for yourself.” Twilight answers as she floats the scroll to Grey Wind. Grabbing the letter, she begins to read out:

To my faithful student Twilight Sparkle:
I talked with Luna regarding your new friend’s nightmare earlier this morning. According to what she told me, she tried entering Grey Wind’s dream last night for a couple of times, but all those were failed attempts. Seems like something is preventing her from entering Grey Wind’s dream. Luna is a bit worried about the situation, since she was never secluded from the realm of dreams before

However, she has informed me about something that might be able to help your friend that even I was previously unaware of. She told me that, before she turned into Nightmare moon, she once infused a large pearl with part of her dream magic to fight off her dark desires. The infused pearl, ‘the dream orb’ as she called it, has the ability to generate a magic field that gets rid of any kind of bad dreams of the ponies around it. We presume that, as Luna cannot forcefully enter your friend’s dream, the dream orb might be able to help your friend. According to her, the orb is still left in our old castle.

But be if you decide to retrieve the artifact, be advised. Even though the elements defeated Nightmare Moon, part of her dark magic may still be lingering within the castle. Be a hundred percent careful while in the Everfree Forest, especially around the castle.

On the other hand, regarding the subject of the structure in Everfree, the search for its usage has yielded results. What we can confirm now is that the structure is indeed a magic portal. However, we have zero knowledge about where the portal connects to. Several unicorn mages have joined the research for concluding the destination of the portal. I’m sure we’ll discover the results in less than a week.

Meanwhile, please send my regards to your new friend, and let her know that the Princesses are always willing to help, and she has nothing to be afraid of.

Your friend and mentor,

Princess Celestia

P.S.: Luna sends her regards

P.P.S.: A design plan for the old castle is enclosed along with the letter, in case you may need it.

“So, guess even the Princesses aren’t able to help me.” Grey Wind says as she finishes the letter. The thought alone sends a shiver down her spines. Does this mean she’ll have to endue the pain of last night in every single night after this? One night alone is already unbearable. She can’t stand another night like this. She lowers her head as she begins to tremble.

“Well then, looks like we’ll have to take the alternate solution.” Twilight says. With a flash of her horn, she floats the dirty dishes to the kitchen counter. Leaving the table, she trots to one of the drawers and floats her saddlebag from it. After strapping it on her back, she floats various other gears from the drawer, including a compass, a map, and even a small magnifying glass.

Looking at the lavender unicorn packing all kinds of adventuring gears, Spike instantly realizes what his friend is thinking:

“Twilight! You aren’t really thinking about returning to that old castle within the Everfree Forest again, right?”

“Yes, Spike, that’s exactly what I am thinking about. Now where did I put that old compass? I should really make a list of all the things I need for an adventure……” Twilight responds and pulls out a sheet of paper and starts writing a proper list for adventuring gears.

“But last time you were in that forest, you almost became desserts of Timberwolves!”

“Yes, Spike, I know that place is dangerous,” Twilight winces a bit at the bad memories, “but if it is the only way to put an end to my friend’s nightmares, then,” She turns around and looks at Grey Wind, giving her a huge, genuine smile.

“I’m more than willing to take the risks!”

Listening to these words, Grey Wind can feel her eyes water. Twilight is willing to help her even as it may put her in danger. There is no better assurance of how good a friend she is. However, she will not allow any danger to befall on her friend anymore.

“Twilight, it’s Saturday and I don’t need to work today. I can just go myself-“

“No!” Twilight blurts, “Two ponies are better than one when out in that forest. Plus, better have somepony that is adept with magic when dealing with a castle once owned by two alicorn sisters. Working together will maximize our chance of success, and besides,” she sighs and looks at Grey Wind’s emerald orbs, “I know you are worried about my safety, but this time, we’ll just stick to the main roads. The beasts of Everfree rarely approach there. It will be much safer this ti- “

Before she can finish, Grey Wind pulls Twilight into a tight hug, squeezing Twilight with her front hooves and interrupting her words.

“Thank you, Thank you so much! Twilight!”

“Grey…Wind…Can’t……Breathe….”

“Oh, sorry!” Grey Wind quickly release her friend, bearing an embarrassed smile, “I just… Can’t thankyou enough, Twilight.”

“Like I said, anything for a friend.” Twilight smiles, “Now go and pack up! I’ve made a list of all the adventure gears we need. Grab your cloak and saddlebag, and off we go to a new adventure!”

Walking down the road of Ponyville marketplace, Lyra Heartstrings lets out a sigh. It’s finally, FINALLY weekends. Two whole days without having to do any work, but Bon Bon, of all the other days, is getting her grounded! What had she done to deserve this? She was just trying to try out the teleportation spell she just learnt, and show it to her roommate and one of her best friends! She didn’t land on Bonnie’s milk bowl on purpose!

Well……Maybe that part WAS a bit wrong. She grins sheepishly. Bon Bon was not pleased by a mint unicorn crashing onto a perfect bowl of milk candy ingredient she had just mixed and sending the room into a complete mess of candy ingredients, even ruining her mane in the process. Lyra’s furious roommate has ordered her to stay indoors after completing the grocery shopping list today, and keep it that way for the whole weekend. If going outside is a prohibition, teleportation spells would be a ban. A whole weekend indoors without meeting her other friends would be the quite opposite of anything interesting.

That is, until she sees her friend Twilight Sparkle and her new friend Grey Wind trotting towards the Sweet Apple Acres, carrying saddlebags, and by any sense looking like they are on their way to a grand adventure.

Watching the two mares walking towards her, Lyra smirks.

Bon Bon puts a batch of freshly made apple candies into the freezer, and proceeds to produce another bowl of mix, a part of her still mad at her roommate for her misbehavior. She had spent a whole afternoon for that bowl of perfect mix of milk, butter and sugar, only for it to be destroyed by one particularly lightheaded unicorn. Thankfully, its Saturday and she’s got enough time to produce another bowl for her milk candies this weekend. Though, Lyra has to learn her lesson.

Speaking of which, why is it taking her so long to buy a couple of apples and some vegetables?

Plop!

Suddenly, a brown bag lands precisely on the kitchen table, right next to her mixing bowl. The sudden appearance causes her to let out a scream and suddenly jump back, hitting the kitchen counter. Regaining posture, she opens the bag curiously. Within lies a small pack of fresh red apples, and two batches of carrots together with three heads of cabbages. Attaching on the interior of the bag is a small piece of note. Retrieving it, she reads:

Bonne:
I’m out with my friends for an adventure! Be back before sunset.
Love,

Lyra

Of all the ponies of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash is known to be the hardest to wake up, partly because of her deep sleep, partly because of her random sleeping locations. One would find Rainbow Dash napping on a branch, on a piece of cloud, or even on the top of Ponyville Clocktower. Today, Rainbow has chosen a cloud directly above Fluttershy’s cottage for her morning nap, mostly because that the place is quiet since barely anypony would venture that close near the Everfree Forest.

Suddenly, a loud shout of rage tears through the air of Ponyville. The sound wave carries so much energy that it knocks Rainbow off her cloud bed, and sends her tumbling down towards the ground. Waking up and regaining her posture mid-air, she manages to identify the content of the scream:

“LYRA HEARTSTRINGS!!!!!”

“Wow, the castle sure is huge!” Grey Wind exclaims as she eyes the high castle looming over Everfree forest. Even at a distance, the two highest towers of the castle are still clearly visible.

“Certainly it is. To my knowledge, it should be the second largest structure ponies have ever built since the rein of the two sisters, the largest one being the modern Canterlot Castle.” Standing beside Grey Wind, Lyra explains, “According to what I studied in school, it took the efforts of more than 200 unicorns, Pegasi and earth ponies and 6 whole month to build the whole thing.”

“That’s right.” Standing in front of her two friends, Twilight says, “the castle was abandoned after the banishment of Nightmare Moon. A new castle was built at a cliff side far from the original spot, becoming the modern Canterlot Castle.” She points a hoof at the cliff side city just above the horizon.

The three ponies are now standing at the entrance of the Everfree Forest. On Twilight and Grey Wind’s way here, they encountered a very excited Lyra Heartstrings. As soon as she hears that they are on a quest to retrieve a magical artifact from the Castle of the Two Sisters, she instantly offers to join them. Although Twilight keeps explaining about the potential dangers of the quest, Lyra insists on taking her part, while muttering about her pathetic weekend and launching a puppy dog eyes attack on both Twilight and Grey Wind.

Finally, considering that one more unicorn means two more helping hooves and one more magical horn, and Lyra’s magical abilities is more than enough to protect herself judging from the magic lessons yesterday, Twilight finally concedes. So here she is, after sending a bag of grocery along with a piece of note to her roommate, who is clearly anticipating her return.

“The castle is just at the end of the main road. If we stick to it, we shouldn’t run into too much trouble.” Twilight says as she starts walking into the forest.

“Hey, don’t bother walking, Twilight! Let me help!” Lyra exclaims as her horn starts to flare with a bright ember color. Realizing what she is doing, Twilight’s eyes widen.

“No, Lyra! Don’t---”

A flash of ember light envelopes the three ponies as they disappear from where they stand. Seconds later, they appear right above their original spot and instantly drop to the ground, tumbling into a mess in front of the forest entrance.

“Gah!”

“Ouch!”

“My horn!”

It took the three ponies 5 minutes to stand back up and recover from the shock. Twilight rubs her horn which was her first body part to collide onto the ground, and turns to Lyra:

“Lyra, magic in the Everfree Forest does not work like other parts of Equestria. Magic here is raw and untamable. You can perform simple spells like light spells out there, but you can’t just teleport into a random spot inside Everfree Forest. Magic here won’t allow you to do so.”

“Ouch……You should have told me earlier……” Lyra grunts as she stands up, rubbing her sore flank.

“So we’ll have to take the conventional route.” Grey Wind says as she flexes her left wing to make sure it wasn’t hurt so badly, receiving mumbled agreements from the two unicorns. Together, the trio walk inside the Everfree Forest.

The trip to the castle was uneventful. Just like Twilight said, most dangerous creatures avoid the main path of the forest. During their journey to the castle, they encounter no larger beast than a few squirrels. Half an hour later, the trio are already standing in the abandoned front yard of the castle.

The yard has definitely seen better days. Throughout the yard, unattained weeds cover the barren field. The few trees still standing have withered and lost all their leaves. Among the mess of the field, several Everfree vines have sprouted from the ground. The forest is already starting to invade the once glorious castle.

As the trio walk through the front garden, Lyra’s excitement is constantly growing. She keeps looking around the garden and towards the huge castle looming above them. Admiring the high dome that once bore the front gate of the castle, she blurts:

“I’ve read about the castle so many times, but this is the first time I get to get inside!” She exclaims as she starts jumping up and down, “Oh my gosh, this is so exciting! It’s just like another Daring Do adventure!”

“Daring Do?” Grey Wind asks with a puzzled voice.

“Oh, right. You don’t know,” Twilight answers, “It’s a famous adventure novel series, and definitely one of the best series I have read. I think I’ll introduce it to you when we get back. But for now, let’s focus on the task.”

The front door of the castle has collapsed after all those long years, allowing the three ponies to pass with ease. Soon, Grey Wind finds herself standing in the throne room of the castle. The throne room is a gigantic room with walls built using white granite. A tethered red carpet is still present on the floor. On the far side of the room, two thrones stand next to each other, with a huge banner hanging on both of them. The left one is a yellow banner depicting a white alicorn under a yellow sun, while the right one bears a color of dark blue and depicting a dark blue alicorn under a silver crescent moon.

“This is the throne room. Those are the two thrones the sisters used to sit on. The alicorn sisters used to hold day and night courts here. Even after all those time, this room is still well-preserved.” Noticing her friend admiring the thrones, Twilight explains.

“And this is also the place you and your friend recovered the elements of harmony, right?” Lyra asks.

“Yes, we found the elements of harmony here, and used them to turn Nightmare Moon back to Princess Luna.” Twilight blushes a bit as she remembers the feat she and her friends accomplished a month ago.

Before hearing this, Grey Wind had already noticed that some kind of fight had taken place in this room. Even though a month has passed, she can feel a great deal of magic energy still lingering in the room. Whatever those elements are, they must be extremely powerful to create such amount of magic energy.

“So, what’s our plan now?” Grey Wind asks as she glances at the many doors that leads outside the throne room.

“Right, the plan,” Twilight answers as she floats out a scroll from her saddlebag and unravels it, laying it on the ground, “I could have used my magic to locate the pearl by following its magic field, but the Everfree Forest is preventing me from doing so. Therefore, Princess Celestia has sent me the building plan of this castle. According to what she said in the letter, Princess Luna used to use the orb to suppress her negative emotions, so the first possible place I could think of is Princess Luna’s old bedroom, which is on the west tower of the castle.” She points to the left most castle on the building plan, “Moreover, the castle used to have a vault to hold all the taxes and magical artifacts collected by the princesses, so there is possibility that the orb has been stored there. It’s underground, so we’ll look into it later. We’ll search the Princess’ bedroom first.” She points to a room at the end of a spiral staircase underground on the plan.

“But what about the secret vault of the Princesses?” Lyra blurts.

“The secret vault of what?” Twilight returns a puzzled glance.

“The secret vaults of the Princesses, of course!” Lyra says as she rears up and tries to imitate the shape of a vault with her front hooves, “Many legends and stories I studied when I was back at school mentions a secret vault within the old castle of the Princesses. Legends say that, following the rise of Nightmare Moon, a couple of unicorn advisors of the Princesses decide to build a secret vault within the castle to house the magical artifacts they discover, in fear that Nightmare Moon will use them against Princess Celestia. The dream orb could very possibly be there!”

“Lyra, that is just a legend! I’ve read about many books on the history of Equestria, but none of them has mentioned a secret vault inside this old castle.”

“Well, the element of harmony WAS a legend in the first place as well,” Lyra points out, “Besides, there’s even a poem describing the location of the vault! Legends say that the unicorn advisors passed down this poem generation after generation to help their heirs find it!”

“A poem?” Grey Wind asks.

“Why, of course!” Lyra smiles, “I can even recite it! Listen closely, my friends!” Lyra jumps onto her hooves and pulls out a piece of paper from Twilight’s saddlebags, holding it in her front hoof to imitate the gesture of a stray singer. Giving out a smirk, she starts to recite:

When the azure spark shines above the slumbering bear,

When the golden sun shimmers in the glimmering tears,

I shall bow before the enamoring throne,

To relieve the burdens I dare not bear.

“Hmm, That’s……indeed an interesting poem.” Grey Wind comments, “judging from the integrity of the information, I think this ‘secret vault’ thing is worth investigating. According to my knowledge, things with this much knowledge regarding it is likely to exist.”

Gaining support, Lyra turns to Twilight with a triumphant smirk.

“Alright, alright! I surrender!” Twilight exclaims as she lifts both her front hooves into the air, “we’ll look into this ‘secret vault’ thing, but only after we check the bedroom and the underground vault.”

“Sounds good to me,” Grey Wind comments, as she stands up and flips her wings, “let’s get going then!”

“Yep! Let’s go!” Lyra chimes as she rushes towards the door leading to the staircase to the west tower. Looking at their lightheaded friend, Twilight and Grey Wind exchange a smile, and quickly goes after the mint unicorn.

The trio soon arrives at the west tower of the castle, and starts to ascend the high tower. On her way, Grey Wind can’t help but admire how well-preserved the tower was. The many gems and ribbons that decorate the staircase were still in their places, the gems emanating a gentle white glow, bathing the staircase in a gentle white light. The ribbons are mostly black in color, resembling the color of a clear night sky. A fitting place for the Princess of the Night. Twilight and Lyra are quiet throughout the trip, mainly for the sake of preserving stamina during the long climb.

15 minutes later

“So……Many……Stairs……” Lyra pants as she finishes the last stair and collapses onto the tower floor. Grey Wind was the second to finish the climb, flying over Lyra and landing in front of her. Twilight follows, a bit wearied but not exhausted.

“Lyra, you really shouldn’t run so fast at the beginning of the climb,” Twilight lectures, “Stamina preservation is crucial for these long-time activities.”

“Yeah……Yeah……Whatever……Just, just give me a moment…….” Lyra responds weakly as she tries to calm down her beating heart.

Twilight is going to inform Lyra about the possible negative effects of spending all her stamina at the start of a long run, but is interrupted by the confused voice of Grey Wind:

“Um, girls? Where is the bedroom?”

Looking towards her direction, Lyra’s eyes widen:

“That’s it? A bookcase? We climbed a whole 15 minutes for a bookcase?”

True to her words, standing at the end of the staircase is a tall black bookshelf. Many books are still present despite the years they have endured. Grey Wind assumes that there’s some kind of preservation spell on them. However, there seems to be nothing resembling a door around the small space.

Watching her puzzled friends, Twilight smirks. She walks up to the bookcase, and pulls out one large black book from the center of the bookshelf using her magic. A large thud sound was heard as the bookcase slides to the side, revealing an entrance to a large bedroom behind it. Lyra and Grey Wind could only watch the scene, too stunned to say anything.

“Princess Luna is fond of mechanics and trapdoors, so there are many of them in the old castle, “she explains, “the two sisters even used them to play hide and seek together.” She chuckles as she walks into the bedroom.

Recovering from the shock, Lyra and Grey Wind follows their friend. Compared to the other parts of the castle, the bedroom is surprisingly well preserved. The room is large, at least thrice the size of Grey Wind’s bedroom. A large bed made of black wood is resting at the center of the room, with a nightstand beside it and a rusty mirror hanging above. The black ceiling of the room is decorated by various white gems, depicting a star-filled night sky. At the center of the ceiling, a large blue comet is painted using illuminous paint, casting a faint light on the whole room. Flying up, Grey Wind touches one of the “stars”, and is startled by the gem dimming upon her contact.

“Alright, girls, we are looking for a large round pearl, possibly glowing in white color. Remember to check every closed container as well.” Twilight says as she proceeds to rummage the nightstand for anything resembling the dream orb. Lyra and Grey Wind quickly join her, checking the whole room for the magical artifact.

Half an hour later, after Twilight triple checked every corner of the room, the trio came to a conclusion that the orb is not inside the bedroom. Returning to the throne room (With Lyra constantly complaining about the stairs), the group proceeds to search the underground vault.

The vault is, without surprise, hidden behind an illusionary wall at the end of a descending spiral staircase. Upon unlocking the door with her magic, Twilight opens the heavy double door to the vault. To the group’s disappointment, a thorough check reveals the vault to be completely empty save for a few bits lying in the corner, presumably forgotten when the worker ponies are moving the stuff inside this vault to the new vault in Canterlot Castle.

Once again, the three ponies find themselves standing in the throne room, back to the beginning.

“Well, at least we concluded that the orb can’t be in the Princess’ bedroom or the vault.” Grey Wind says as she sits on the floor to rest her hooves. Beside her, Lyra plunges to the ground, crossing her hooves in front of her chest:

“Maybe that orb had already been transferred to the new castle while Princess Celestia might not know about it. I mean, come on! The Princess won’t be able to remember all those magical artifacts she has!”

“That would not be possible.” Twilight responds as she sits beside Lyra, “I’ve read through the list of artifacts in Canterlot Vault various times and have never come across something called ‘the dream orb’ before. It must be still inside this castle.”

“Well, seems like our only lead now is the mysterious vault Lyra talked about.” Grey Wind says.

“Yeah……Let’s have something to eat and then look into it. It’s almost noon.” Twilight sighs. Although reluctant to admit the accuracy of some stupid legends, it appears that they are out of leads. With a flash of her horn, Twilight floats several sandwiches, apples and bottles of water outside her saddlebag, and the trio start to have a short lunch together.

After the lunch break, the three friends start to analyze the short poem Lyra recited. They write down the poem on the back of the design plan, and start checking it word by word.

“Azure spark……” Grey Wind reads, remembering the illuminating blue comet on the ceiling of Luna’s bedroom, “could it be referring to the painted comet we just saw in Luna’s bedroom?”

“Huh?” Twilight answers as she rereads the sentence, “Maybe……I’m not sure. But you do have a point. I think we should return to the bedroom to investigate it again. Let’s go, girls.” Twilight stands up and walks towards the west tower.

“Hearing the statement, Lyra’s eyes widen with fear:

“NO! Not the stairs again!”

“Come on, Lyra. Just save your stamina and you’ll be fine.” Grey Wind encourages as she follows Twilight.

“Fine……” Lyra grunts as she reluctantly follows her friends.

15 minutes later

“I’m……Definitely……Not……Doing this……Anymore.” Lyra grunts as she once again collapses on the bedroom floor. Walking past her, Twilight examines the ceiling of the room. True, the blue comet painted on the bedroom is exactly in the shape of a blue spark, but what about the second part of the sentence, the slumbering bear?

“When I touched one of those gems, it stopped glowing,” Grey Wind suggests, “Ringing any bells?”

“Not exactly……” Twilight responds as she rubs her chin. Standing up, Lyra starts examining the ceiling. Suddenly, as if realizing something, she calls:

“Twilight, are their any constellations that look like slumbering bears?”

“Huh? The Ursa Minor, of course, why-“ Twilight responds as realization hits her, “Oh my gosh, right! Lyra, you are a genius!” She exclaims as she lifts several small rocks on the floor using her magic and starts “turning off” the gems using the stones.

“Um……Can somepony get me updated here?” Grey Wind asks with a puzzled voice.

“Ursa Minor is called ‘the slumbering bear formation’ by many ancient ponies, while the Ursa Major is constantly regarded as ‘the waking bear formation’.” Twilight responds as she keeps up her work, “I think if we just rearrange these gems to depict the scene in the poem, then……Aha, there we go!” She exclaims as she turns the last gem off, leaving only a couple of glowing gems making up an Ursa Minor star formation below the blue comet.

Click!

The three ponies all hear the sound of mechanics being activated. Exchanging an excited grin. With excitement in her voice, Twilight speaks:

“There must be similar mechanics in Celestia’s room as well!”

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Lyra exclaims as she rushes towards the staircase, quickly followed by her two friends. Together, the three ponies storm through the castle, arriving at Celestia’s old bedroom at the top of the east tower in less than 10 minutes.

Entering the bedroom, Grey Wind finds the bedroom to be very similar compared to Luna’s, save for the bright-styled furnishing compared to the night-styled furnishing of the latter. On the ceiling of the bedroom, a yellow sun is painted using the same kind of illuminating paint, with seven white glowing gems stitched in a line formation in the center.

“Those must be the ‘rainbow tears’! Lyra exclaims, exhausted but eyes sparking with excitement.

“I got this!” Grey Wind flies up to the ceiling and touches one of the gems with her hoof. The color of the gem slowly turns from white to red. A second touch turns the gem into a color of orange. With a few quick taps, Grey Wind makes the gems form a rainbow-colored formation on the ceiling.

Click!

Once again, the sound of turning mechanics is heard. Twilight can hardly hide her grin now. She takes out the poem from her saddlebag, and reads the third sentence:

“I bow before the enamoring throne……Come on, girls, to the throne room!”

As soon as the trio enter the throne room, they instantly spot a small trapdoor opening at the center of the room, revealing a spiral staircase. Without further ado, the three ponies enter the trapdoor and starts descending the staircase.

As they travel deeper and deeper, Grey Wind can feel her excitement slowly fading. The staircase is becoming darker and darker, forcing the two unicorns to light up their horns, and Grey Wind to take out her light torch. After a nearly-10-minute descend, the group reaches the end of the staircase, a large metallic double door.

Looking at the huge door, Grey Wind can feel a sense of uneasiness slowly creeping onto her spine. A quick glance at her friends reveals them to have similar feelings with her. Drops of sweat are forming on Twilight’s forehead, and Lyra is constantly casting nervous glances at the dark staircase behind them. Noticing the glance of her friend, Twilight gulps, and opens the metallic door using her magic.

Creeeeeeaaaaaak!

A large creaking sound can be heard as the doors slide open, revealing a huge dark room behind it. As the door opens, Twilight creates a lavender ball of light using her magic, and moves the ball towards the center of the room, giving the group a good view of the whole room.

At this depth, the Everfree Forest is already invading. Thorn-covered vines grow all around the room, knocking aside the pillars and glass containers that used to contain powerful artifacts. However, at the far side of the room, one pillar remains untouched, and is glowing with a faint white light.

As the trio carefully get past the vines, they arrive at the intact pillar. On it is a small black wooden box, holding a large black pearl. Small light spots dance inside the pearl, forming various constellations of the night sky and releasing faint white glows to the dark space around it. Standing around the orb, the three ponies can feel a warm feel chasing away the uneasiness in their hearts. For a moment, the trio just stand there, admiring the beautiful artifact.

“This must be the dream orb.” Twilight whispers as she gently removes the black box from the pillar, “so beautiful……”

“Let’s grab it and get out of here. This place is giving me a creepy feeling.” Lyra says as she looks around the empty room.

“Right. Let’s go.” Twilight answers as she turns to the direction of the door of the vault. She closes the box containing the orb and puts it back into her saddlebags.

Just as the group starts walking, Grey Wind catches a glimpse of movement at the corner of her eye. Before she can shout out, something rams into the ball of light at the center of the room, immediately silencing it and leaving the room in complete darkness. The three ponies scream in unison as their sight is stripped away.

Lyra is the first to recover. Lighting up her horn, she instantly realizes something is charging towards Grey Wind, attempting to ram her. With her telekinesis, she pulls Grey Wind to one side, narrowly avoiding the attack. Seeing her attacker, Grey Wind instantly pulls herself together and shouts out:

“Twilight! The light! Do it again!”

The voice got Twilight out of her shock. Instantly, her horn glows with a purple aura, as another ball of light is created, illuminating the whole room. Looking around, the three ponies find themselves surrounded by three black cloud like creatures, bearing sharp fangs and large claws.

“Nightmare beasts!” Twilight exclaims as she channels a large amount of magic into her horn and sends a magic blast at one of the creatures. The beasts respond instantly, dodging the blast while closing in, separating the three friends.

Grey Wind finds herself separated from her friends, facing a large beast that is presumably trying to eat her. Letting out a howl, the beast slashes at Grey Wind with its left claw, forcing her to jump up and avoid being cut. Seeing its attack did no effect, the beast lets out an angry howl and continues its assault, forcing Grey Wind to concentrate on dodging its attacks.

I’ve got to fight back! Thought Grey Wind, as she takes off to narrowly avoid a horizontal slash. Mid-air, she turns her body around with a maneuver that would make Rainbow Dash envious, and, with all her might, bucks the creature in the head. She hears a shriek as her hind legs clashes onto something soft and flurry, as her opponent is sent flying across the room.

Landing and regaining posture, Grey Wind looks towards her friend. Things are not good. Twilight is constantly retreating and firing magic blasts at the beast, but seems to be dealing no significant damage. Lyra is forced back into the corner of the room, trying to repel her attacker with the few attack spells she had learned.

Suddenly, Lyra’s hindleg trips on a vine in the corner of the room, as the thorns thrust into her flesh. Letting out a painful yelp, she falls onto the ground, the light on her horn dissipating. The beast attacking her lets out a satisfied howl, as it lifts its left claw and slashes at its defenseless prey.

For Grey Wind, time seems to stop at that instant. All she can see is the horrified look in her friend’s eyes, and the sharp claw that is going to cut open her friend’s throat. A surge of energy runs through her body as only one last feeling lingers in her mind:

Must Protect.

Like a grey comet, she takes off and dashes towards the beast. Subunits gather onto the tip of her wings, forming razor-sharp edges around it. Before the beast can slash down its arm, Grey Wind has arrived right in front of it. With a quick mid-air maneuver, she thrusts her wing and stabs it deep inside the body of the beast.

The beast lets out a painful yelp as it is lifted into the air by Grey Wind. Casting a quick glance at Twilight’s direction, she gathers all her might and throws the beast at its companion. The beast violently clashes into the one attacking Twilight, and seconds later crashes into the metallic walls of the room together with its companion, laying still on the ground.

Lyra knew she was done for the moment she trips over a vine. Trembling, she closes her eyes to embrace her demise, but the pain of her throat being cut open never came. Opening her eyes, she is surprised to find her attacker lying unconscious on the far side of the room. Grey Wind is standing in the center of the room along with Twilight, the tip of her left wing still dripping some black liquid. Noticing her recovery, Grey Wind runs to her:

“Lyra! Oh thank Celestia you are alright!”

“My hooves hurt, but still alive nonetheless. Thanks for saving me,” Lyra responds. Shivering at her near-death experience, she eyes the unconscious beasts lying on the floor, “What ARE those things?”

“Nightmare beasts,” Twilight responds, voice still trembling, “they are born from the dark magic of Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon used to create an army of them for her conquest. This must be the lingering dark magic the Princess told me in the letter. Let’s get out of here before more of them appear.” She glances nervously towards the door.

“Right. Let’s go. And be careful with your hooves there, Lyra.” Grey Wind says as she flies towards Lyra and helps her get up. Together, the three ponies quickly walk back up the staircase to the throne room of the castle. There, Twilight quickly dealt with Lyra’s wounds with a few bandages, and the trio quickly proceeds towards Ponyville.

2 hours later, Grey Wind is already back on her cozy bed, with her cloak hanging in her closet and her mane brushed. After Twilight, Lyra and she returned to Ponyville, the first thing they did was to drop Lyra at her house. Bon Bon was furious about Lyra running away to some stupid adventures, but her anger quickly faded as she saw the bandages on her room mate’s hindlegs. She insisted for Grey Wind and Twilight to stay for dinner. The two friends happily accepted the offer, and they told Bon Bon about their adventures during dinner. Although still a bit angry at Lyra, Bon Bon was deeply intrigued by the adventure. Particularly, she looked at her roommate in disbelief when she heard about Lyra solving the puzzle of the secret vault using a single poem.

After dinner, Twilight and Grey Wind returned to the library. While Twilight still wanted to write a report to the Princess, Grey Wind quickly got herself a shower and went to bed. She could sure use a good night’s sleep after this adventurous day.

As she crawls onto the bed, she opens the lid of the black box containing the dream orb and places it on her nightstand. Once again, the white glow of the orb sends a sense of reassurance into her heart. Somehow, she knows that no nightmares will be bothering her tonight.

Clutching her sheet, Grey Wind lets out a satisfied sigh and closes her emerald eyes.

Author's Note

Phew, finally got all the rest out. Just a reminder that I have revised some of the paragraphing and word expressions of the previous chapters, and they should be easier to read now.

Chapter 5: Amending Fences

“Grey Wind! Time for breakfast!”

Grey Wind groans as she flips her body on one side and lifts the bed sheet, her head refusing to leave the comfy pillow.

“Coming!” She mumbles as she rises from her bed and rubs her eyes. The dream orb is still lying on the nightstand, its white glow shimmering despite the bright sunlight. She had never slept so well for a long time. Last night was dreamless, granting her body a well-needed rest after two nights of nightmare and one day of adventure.

Guess the dream orb did work. She smirks as she gets of the bed and brushes her mane before the mirror. Descending down the staircase, she finds Twilight and Spike already sitting at the kitchen table, with a few sandwiches already placed on it. Seeing her friend, Twilight waves:

“Good morning, Grey Wind! Had a nice sleep last night?”

“Sure did, Twilight! Never slept so well for a long time! Guess the dream orb did its work.” Grey Wind responds cheerfully as she sits down and picks up one of the sandwiches with her front hooves.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” Twilight returns a smile, “Spike and I had the same feeling last night. The magic field released by the orb seems to be chasing way all our negative feelings, much like the magic of Princess Luna herself! Anyway, I’ll write to the Princess to tell her that you are all right.”

“Thanks, Twilight.” Grey Wind mumbles with a mouthful of sandwich. As she gulps down the sandwich, she pours some milk into her cup.

“So, any plans for today?” Twilight asks.

“Well, I was thinking about checking on Lyra and her wound, you know, to make sure she is alright.” Grey Wind downs her milk in one gulp.

“I guess we don’t need to worry about that, “Twilight says as her horn lights up. She floats a letter from the drawer, “I received a letter from Bon Bon half an hour ago. She said that Lyra is alright, and she was taking care of her. She also said that Lyra will be grounded for today,” She chuckles, “guess she is still a bit mad. Maybe I’ll visit them in the afternoon.”

“That’s good to hear.” Grey Wind comments, finishing her breakfast.

Suddenly, a soft knock can be heard on the library’s door. Spike jumps from his seat and proceeds to open the door. Standing at the doorstep is a yellow Pegasus with long, pink mane and tail. The sudden opening of the door makes her lets out an “eep” and jumps back. Grey Wind recognizes her as Fluttershy, Twilight’s shy Pegasus friend and bearer of the element of kindness.

“Good morning, Fluttershy! What brings you here?” Twilight greets her friend cheerfully.

“Hi, Twilight. Um, well, I, I have a favor to ask, I mean, if it’s okay with you.” Fluttershy responds, hiding her blue eye behind her mane.

“Of course, Fluttershy! What is it?”

“Um, well, It’s just, some of the migrating birds have arrived, and, um, I need more bird houses for them, but I have to feed the other animals this morning, and I don’t have time to make all those bird houses……” Fluttershy says, her voice becoming lower.

“I’m more than willing to help, Fluttershy, but I do have to write to the Princess this morning……” Twilight rubs her chin, “Hey, I know! Grey Wind! Why don’t you go and help out Fluttershy? I’m sure you two will become great friends in the process!”

“That sounds great!” Grey Wind responds as she walks up to Fluttershy. Recognizing her, Fluttershy smiles and waves weakly.

“Good morning, Fluttershy. So, uh, where are we going to work again?”

“Oh, um, right this way. Follow me, if you are so kind.” Fluttershy says as she turns around and leads Grey Wind outside the library. Twilight smiles as she watches the pair trotting towards Fluttershy’s cottage.

Rainbow Dash zips through the sky of Ponyville, dashing towards Carousel Boutique. She had been patrolling all around Ponyville yesterday after she was forcefully woken up from her morning nap, trying to catch an evidence of the viscous plan of that grey Pegasus. However, for one whole day, she didn’t see the Pegasus anywhere. She even missed her stunt practice for that!

But today will be different. She just saw her suspect trotting towards Fluttershy’s cottage along with Fluttershy, and now, Rainbow is on her way to find the ultimate weapon to unravel the conspiracy of that suspicious Pegasus.

Landing right in front of Caousel Boutique, Rainbow knocks on the door. At first, nopony responds, so she knocks again even harder. Still no response. Growing impatient, she pounds on the door with extra force, finally receiving a distressed “One second!” From indoors. A minute later, the door of the store swings open, revealing a very baffled Rarity, still in her evening gown. Recognizing her intruder, she scolds:

“Rainbow, how many times do I need to remind you about how rude it is to disrupt a lady in her beauty sleep at eight in the morning?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, Rarity, I’m just here to borrow your camera for a day.”

“And why, by any sense, should I lend my precious camera to such an ungrateful pony like you, Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asks in a queen-like tone.

“Please, Rarity, this is urgent!” Rainbow pleads, “I know I was kinda impatient with you before, but I’m willing to do anything to compensate! I really need that camera!”

“Anything, you said, my dear Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asks.

“Yeah, anything! I swear!”

“Well then, Rainbow Dash, I guess there is something you can do for me……” Rarity lets out an evil smirk.

Contrary to popular belief of Ponyville being located on a huge plane, there is actually a small gathering of hills on one side of Ponyville, just beside the Everfree Forest. At the top of the tallest hill, one can easily get a good view of the whole town as well as the Everfree Forest. This is also the favorite spot of Scootaloo. Before she became friends with the other crusaders, she would come here whenever she feels sad or down, which is quite often due to the laughs she received as a Pegasus that cannot fly.

Today, she is once again sitting on the top of the hill, watching Ponyville and all the other ponies minding their own business. Despite being unable to fly, Scootaloo does have sharp eyesight. From a distance, she can see Applejack selling apples at the center of the marketplace. She can see Pinkie Pie jumping up and down towards Sugarcube Corner. She can see several weather ponies flying around Ponyville, arranging clouds for a partial rain on the Sweet Apple Acres.

Flying……Something every Pegasus considers a norm for their daily life is like a dream for her. Being born with extra-small wings even compared to pegasi her age, she has never been able to fly. This defect has made her a joke for the other fillies in Cloudsdale, forcing her to move out and live with her aunt in Ponyvile. Even here, the laughs she receives never cease to come.

That was exactly what happened earlier that morning. A few fillies from Cloudsdale were visiting the outskirts of Everfree Forest for a school field trip, and Scootaloo happened to run into them on her way to meet the other crusaders. Unfortunately for her, some of the fillies in that group were her old classmates.

Seeing their long-gone laugh subject, the fillies showed no mercy. Unable to bear their laughs, Scootaloo ran away with tears in her eyes, forced to relive the nightmare she hadn’t had for such a long time.

So here she is, sobbing on top of the hill overlooking Ponyville. Sobbing, Scootaloo tries to wipe away her tear, only for more of them to come out uncontrollably. Why was she born with such tiny wings? Why wasn’t she able to live a normal life like the other pegasi? Why, in the name of Celestia, can’t she fly no matter how hard she tried??

“Please……” She sobs, “I would give in anything……I just want to fly……”

“Found you, Scootaloo!”

Two familiar voices pull Scootaloo out of her grief. Turning around and flipping away her tears, she turns around to face her two best friends, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.

“Hey, what’s up, guys.” Scootaloo manages a smile under her tear-stroke eyes.

“Scootaloo, were you……Crying?” Sweetie Belle asks, a clear bit of worry in her tone.

“No, I wasn’t! I was just……” Scootaloo retorts, but soon finds it unconvincing as she finds her friends eying her with worried eyes, “Well, maybe a little bit……” She mumbles.

Suddenly, she finds her two friends jumping at her and pulling her into a group hug.

“Ah saw what those bullies did to you.” Apple Bloom says, “Ah’m sorry you had to experience that. They were really bad ponies.”

“Yeah, just don’t forget that we are all right behind you, alright?” Sweetie Belle says as she hugs her friend tighter, “Cutie Mark Crusaders Forever?”

“Yeah, Cutie Mark Crusaders forever! That’s why Ah just came up with the best plan for this morning!” She releases her friend and pulls out a scroll from her mane and unravels it on the ground. The paper appears to be a blueprint that depicts some kind of winged machine.

“Um, Apple Bloom? What is this?” Sweetie Belle asks, puzzled.

“It’s a blueprint for a glider! Ah found it in the family barn. I looked at it earlier and Ah’m certain we’ll be able to find all the materials to build it!”

“A glider? Didn’t Ms. Cheerilee mention it in class before? She said that earth ponies used to use them to perform short-range flies across valleys and rivers in ancient times.” Sweetie Belle suggests.

“Yeah! And Ah think if we really build one, we can use it to fly across Ponyville! We can be Cutie Mark Crusader gliders or Cutie Mark Crusader glider builders!” Apple Bloom exclaims, “We can even help Scootaloo experience flying! What do y’all think?”

“I’m in.” Scootaloo suddenly interrupts, standing up and wiping one last tear from her cheek, “If doing this would at least let me know what flying feels like, then let’s do it.”

“That’s the spirit, mah friend!” Apple Bloom runs up and claps her left front hoof with her friend, “What about you, Sweetie Belle?”

“Well, if it can make my best friend Scootaloo happy, then so be it!” Sweetie Belle replies, as she put a hoof of Scootaloo’s shoulder.

“Well, it is settled then!” Apple Bloom stomps a hoof on the ground, “Come on, crusaders, we got a glider to build!”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FOREVER!” The three fillies shout out in unison and gallop towards the Sweet Apple Acres.

Grey Wind lets out a sigh as she hangs the last of the bird house onto a tree branch besides Fluttershy’s cottage. She had spent the morning making bird houses and hanging them on the trees. Fluttershy, on the other hand, was still a bit shy at the beginning, but as Angel, Fluttershy’s pet bunny, unprecedently starts getting along incredibly well with her, Fluttershy starts to open up as well. Fluttershy’s animal friends are indeed interesting, but the morning kind of tired her out.

Finishing up, Grey Wind walks back into the cottage and spots Fluttershy feeding Angel. Spotting her, Fluttershy waves:

“Hi, Grey Wind. All finished? I mean, it’s Okay if you haven’t, but……”

“Yeah, Fluttershy, that should be the last of them,” Grey Wind responds, “is there anything else I can help with?”

“Um, if it’s not too much trouble, can you help me feed the chickens as well?”

“Got it, Fluttershy.” Grey Wind replies as she grabs the bag of chicken feed and proceeds into the chicken house while thinking about the next plans for today. Maybe she should go and visit Lyra and Bon Bon after helping Fluttershy, just to make sure that Lyra is alright, and Bon Bon is not too mad.

Rainbow Dash flies out of Carousel Boutique, a camera hanging on her neck. Thinking about the last hour, she groans. Rarity’s exchange for lending her the camera was to be the role model for her new line of design. Rarity has always insisted that Rainbow’s mane and tail are “fabulous”, only that she never cherishes the trait. This is a perfect chance for her to operate on them.

For one hour, Rainbow just stood there, as Rarity forced her to try on different outfits. True, Rarity’s designs are great, but standing on that round platform and holding still for a whole hour is like a torture for Rainbow Dash. She is never meant to stand down and wear those boring outfits. She is meant to fly. The sky is where she belongs.

But that was all worth it. Rainbow smirks as she holds the camera in her front hooves. With this she can finally get the proof she needs. Once she catches an evidence of the evil plan of that grey Pegasus, she’ll finally convince Twilight to stop her. This is her best shot.

Grinning, Rainbow Dash zips towards Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Um, Apple Bloom?”

“Yes, Sweetie Belle?”

“Are you sure we built it correctly?” Sweetie Belle says as she eyes the small machine the three had been building for an hour. The machine in the barn looks very much alike a small triangular cart, with a large triangular gliding wing attached to it. The wing was made using Apple Bloom’s old cotton sheet, a few patches visible on it.

“Of course!” Apple Bloom exclaims as she drops down the woodcraft hammer in her mouth, “It looks exactly like the drawing on the blueprint. Ah’m sure it will function normally.”

“I don’t know……” Sweetie Belle glances at the patches and the nails on the glider, “It doesn’t look a hundred percent safe to me.”

“It has to work!” Scootaloo shouts, hammering one last needle into the glider, “I’m never this close to flying before and I’m not giving up so easily!” She exclaims, purple irises burning with flames of determination. She attaches a rope to the glider and starts to pull, “Come on, guys, let’s get this thing to the hill!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are now standing on the top of the highest hill that overlooks Ponyville. The three had managed to pull the glider all the way up to a small slope that leads to the edge of the hill. Apple Bloom detaches the rope from the glider and examines the glider one last time to make sure nothing is wrong.

“The glider is too small for the three of us. We’ll have to go one by one.”

“Well then, who should ride first?” Scootaloo asks.

“I think you should be the first one to ride it, Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle blurts, “It’s your dream after all.”

“Huh? but-“

“No ‘buts’, dear Scootaloo! It is your dream, and we are all happy to help you realize it!” Apple Bloom exclaims as she lifts Scootaloo’s chin.

“Th- thank you, guys!” Scootaloo feels a warmth in her heart. She climbs into the glider. Securing her position in the cart. She pulls out her scooter helmet and puts it on her head. Behind the cart, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo pushes the glider to the edge of the slope.

“Alright, Scootaloo, you ready? On three, one, two……” Apple Bloom says as she motions Sweetie Belle to get ready.

“Three!”

“Cutie Mark Crusader Gliders! YAY!”

With one last push, the glider rolls down the slope, slowly gaining speed as it accelerates. The sharp wind blowing on Scootaloo’s face forces her to close her eyes. She can only feel the wind growing stronger and stronger, until……

Suddenly, the wind ceases, replaced by a gentle blow of streaming air. Opening her eyes, she finds herself mid-air. The glider worked perfectly, and she is now gliding gently towards the other side of the hills around the corner of Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Oh my gosh, I’m flying! I’m really flying!”

Looking around, she can see white clouds flowing besides her. She lifts her hoof and tugs at one. She feels the soft touch of the cloud as the cloud flows away. A reminder that she is still a Pegasus. Looking back, she finds Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle cheering at the top of their lungs on top of the hill. She waves at them and looks to the left, just in time to catch a familiar rainbow trail flying not about 200 meters from her.

“Rainbow Dash! Miss Rainbow Dash! Look at me! I’m flying!” She shouts on top of her lungs.

Rainbow Dash was just on her way to Futtershy’s cottage when she hears Scootaloo calling her name. Turning mid-air, she is startled to find the orange Pegasus filly waving at her, sitting in some kind of small glider, flying over the hills. She waves at the filly and shouts:

“Well done, Scoots! You are awesome!”

Even at a distance, she can see a bright smile blossoming on the filly’s face. She hears the filly shout again:

“A picture! Take a picture of me!” Clearly the filly noticed the reflected light of her camera.

“Can do, Scoots! Give me a smile!” She shouts as she lifts her camera.

Scootaloo manages the largest smile she can muster as she looks to Rainbow’s direction. Suddenly, a strong current catches the glider, causing it to lose balance mid-air. As the filly struggles to regain control, she hears a horrible noise coming from the glider.

Craaaaack!

The wood plates connecting the cabin and the glider wing give in. With a large crack, the plates splinter as the wing detaches from the glider, causing the whole machine to fall apart under the strong current. Scootaloo barely had any time to react before she is torn between the currents like a single boat in a mighty storm, and falling directly towards the ground..

“Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!” She screams as she falls, plummeting to her death.

Grey Wind was just walking out of Fluttershy’s cottage when she hears the scream for help coming from the sky. Looking towards the source of the voice, she instantly spots her fellow crusader Scootaloo falling from the sky to her death. Once more, a surge of energy courses throughout her body, as one emotion fills up her entire mind once again:

Must Protect.

Without thinking, Grey Wind dismantles. Where the grey Pegasus once stood is only left with a large grey cloud. Within a second, the grey cloud takes off and charges towards the crying orange filly.

Rainbow Dash saw the whole event through the viewfinder of the camera. As soon as Scootaloo is engulfed in the strong current, she knew what would happen. Almost instantly, she drops down the camera and dashes towards Scootaloo.

“Hang in there, Scoots! I’m coming!” She calls out. As she gets closer and closer to Scootaloo, she realizes she won’t make it. She was too far away. Still, she won’t give up. She flaps her wings extra hard, steadily increasing speed.

At the corner of her eye, Rainbow sees a piece of grey cloud below her charging towards the orange filly at a speed much faster than her. Instantly, realization hits her.

That grey Pegasus!

Scootaloo knows she is done for. The ground is getting closer and closer, and there is no way Rainbow Dash can catch her before she hits the ground and turns into a pony-shaped pancake. Not wanting to see her demise, she closes her eyes as she screams:

“Help! Somepony help me!”

Suddenly, she feels her falling speed decrease as something soft and warm envelopes her. Opening her eyes, she is surprised to find a grey cloud wrapping around her. The cloud descends for a few more meters, and stops at an altitude about 10 meters above the ground. Seconds later, the cloud rises and flies towards the hills.

After Grey Wind catches Scootaloo, she turns around and flies towards the hill where the other crusaders are standing on. On her way, she saw that cyan Pegasus she encountered in front of the library two days ago. She also notices a sudden shot of light emitting from between her hooves.

The flashlight of a camera.

Rainbow hovers mid-air, jaws agape. She saw the whole thing. She saw the grey cloud enveloping Scootaloo. She saw the cloud preventing her from falling to death. She saw the cloud gently placing her on top of a small hill where Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are standing. She saw the cloud flying away and disappearing behind a nearby hill. In one of her hooves, she holds the borrowed camera. In the other hoof, a picture of the grey cloud enveloping Scootaloo and gently putting her on the ground.

Scootaloo is still a bit startled when her hooves touch the ground again. When she turns around, she catches the grey cloud flying away, towards a nearby hill. In front of her stood Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, equally shocked as she is. Voice trembling, she asks:

“Guys……Wh- what happened?”

“Ah saw it! It was Grey Wind! She turned into a grey cloud and saved you!” Apple Bloom exclaims as she recovers from the shock.

“Yeah, that was pretty cool! I wonder how she did it, though. She wasn’t supposed to be able to use magic,” Sweetie Belle says as she rubs her chin, “Speaking of which, where has she gone?”

“Scootaloo!”

A blue Pegasus lands in front of the three fillies. As soon as she lands, she pulls Scootaloo into an embrace and frantically checks if the filly is alright.

“Are you hurt? Did that cloud do anything to you?”

“Rainbow, I’m fine! And that cloud didn’t do anything to me. It saved me!” Scootaloo responds, struggling to get out of Rainbow’s tight grip, “Can you put me down now, Rainbow? I need to breath!”

“Oh, sorry, Scoots,” Rainbow says as she puts Scootaloo down, “So, you know what that cloud is?”

“I know that is Grey Wind. Apple Bloom told me, and that is super cool!” Scootaloo lights up, “How do you think she did that? Wait a sec,” Scootaloo says as she eyes Rainbow suspiciously, “Is this why you asked me to keep an eye on her? Because she can turn into a cloud and you can’t?”

“Um, about that……” Rainbow hastily responds as her cheeks flame, “I……I thought she might be planning something evil…...”

“Well……Ah’ll admit, “Apple Bloom speaks, “Ah was kinda scared when Ah saw her turn into that cloud thingy, but then I saw her saving Scootaloo. If she’s really planning something, she wouldn’t do that, right?”

But Rainbow could not hear her. She just stares at the picture she is holding in her left hoof. What had she done? Though not a normal pony, Grey Wind had always been expressing kindness, yet there she was, using every bit of her strength trying to chase her out of Ponyville.

Suddenly, a piece of memory jumps into her mind. The sight of a yellow young Pegasus being chased away by some other Pegasus fillies, utter fear in her eyes. No, she will not allow the same thing to happen again!

Clutching to the picture in her hoof, she takes off and flies towards the hill where the grey cloud disappeared.

The three crusaders exchange a glance, and quickly follow the cyan Pegasus.

Rainbow zips around the hill where the grey cloud disappeared, and quickly spots her target. Grey Wind is sitting on top of a small hill, head hanging low. Without hesitation, she lands on the hill and walks towards her. Approaching, she notices that small drops of water are still hanging on the grass below Grey Wind’s head.

“Finally found you, Grey Wind! I- “

“……Sorry……”

“Huh? What?” The word stops Rainbow dead in her track.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry I came to this town! I’m sorry I caused you that much trouble! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I’m a monster!” Grey Wind suddenly turns to Rainbow, causing her to flinch back a bit. Her eyes are red and fresh with streaks of tears, indicating that she had been crying. She is looking at Rainbow with an expression that bot bears the rage of a thousand suns and the sorrow of a lost soul.

Rainbow is stunned by this sudden outbreak. Receiving no reply, Grey Wind lowers her head.

“I’ll leave Ponyville before sunset……Tell Twilight I’m sorry.” She says as she stands up and spreads her wings.

“Wait! You can’t leave! You have friends here!”

“What difference will it make?” Grey Wind shouts and turns around, facing Rainbow, her last bit of sorrow replaced by anger, “You got the picture. What do you think they’ll think of me when they discover that I’m not a real pony but an imposter that is a monster?”

“You are not a monster!” A young voice catches Grey Wind’s attention. Scootaloo runs up the hill, followed by Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, “A monster will not help us knock down an entire storage house! A monster will not save my life from a broken glider! A monster will NEVER agree to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” She shouts on top of her lungs.

“Look, Grey Wind, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have casted doubt on your kindness. You know what,” Rainbow inhales and rips the photo apart using her mouth, “To heck with it! I don’t care if you are a grey cloud monster or not, you saved a filly from her death, and by that, I qualify you as a cool friend! Besides,” she admits, “Being able to transform into a grey cloud is kinda cool.”

“A……Cool friend?”

“Yeah! A friend, and friends are supposed to hang out together,” Rainbow says as she lifts her hoof towards Grey Wind, “I know! I can teach you a few stunts this afternoon! After all, you are in the form of Pegasus now.”

After moments of hesitation, Grey Wind lets out a weak smile as she accepts Rainbow’s hoof.

“Alright……Thank you, Rainbow Dash!”

“This! Is! Awesome!”

A sudden scream from Scootaloo gathers the two mares’ attention, as they turn around and look at her, surprised. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Scootaloo whispers in a faint voice:

“Um, Cutie Mark Crusaders Ice Breakers, yay?”

The statement sends all the fillies and mares on the hill into a burst of laughter. Even Scootaloo herself starts to giggle after a few seconds. As they recover, Rainbow suggests:

“Awesome indeed, Scoots, but you really shouldn’t do anything that dangerous again. I may not be there to save you next time something like this happens.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Rainbow Dash……I just wanted to fly……” Scootaloo lowers her head responds in a whisper.

“Huh? You mean you can’t fly? But aren’t you a Pegasus as well?” Grey Wind asks as she examines the orange filly.

“Hey, pal, no need to remind me of that again.” Scootaloo retorts as she spreads her tiny wings.

“Oh, I see. I’m sorry, Scootaloo.” Grey Wind apologizes. She finally notices the unusually small wings of the Pegasus filly. A quick scan reveals them to be a birth defect. Apparently, Scootaloo’s wing bones never got to spread to their full lengths when she was born, resulting in wings that are too tiny to carry her into the air.

Rubbing her chin, Grey Wind speaks:

“Hmmm……” She smirks as an idea pops into her head, “So, tell me, Scootaloo, how much would you want to be able to fly?”

“Are you kidding me? It has been my dream! Ever since I was born, I have always wanted to be able to fly like the other pegasi. I don’t want to be laughed at for being a chicken anymore……”

“Hey, don’t say that, Scoots! In my opinion, you are just as awesome as me!” Rainbow says as she hugs Scootaloo with her wing.

“Thanks, Rainbow.” Scootaloo responds.

“If I may interrupt,” Grey Wind inhales, “I think I can help you with your problem, Scootaloo.”

“You do? But……How?” Scootaloo asks, a bit of doubt in her voice.

“Oh, you know, being a cloud monster and things,” She smiles sheepishly, “But I need you guys to fully trust me. This is going to feel a bit……” She pauses as she looks at all the ponies around her, “Weird.”

“If it means that I get to fly after this, then bring it!” Scootaloo exclaims, determination in her eyes.

Grey Wind turns to Rainbow and the other crusaders. Seeing them nod, she inhales.

“Alright, let’s get started. Whatever is going to happen, Scootaloo, do not be afraid. Now, please, close your eyes, and don’t open them before I finish.”

Scootaloo did as she said. Gulping, Grey Wind orders some of her subunits to detach from her. Rainbow and the other crusaders can only watch in awe as the subunits gather around Scootaloo, enveloping her like a grey cocoon.

Getting a more thorough scan of Scootaloo’s body, Grey Wind orders her subunits to enter Scootaloo’s body through sweat pores on her skin. As the nanobots enter her body, they move towards her wings via the blood vessels. Once they arrive, Grey Wind orders them to inject a small electric current to her wings. This will not hurt the filly, but will paralyze her wing for a moment, making sure the filly feels no pain.

Then, Grey Wind orders the subunits to latch onto the bones and muscle tissues of the filly’s wings. Once they attach to the bones and muscles, they crawl deep inro the tissue and imitate the structure of them, enlarging the filly’s tissues in the process. As each subunit finishes its job, Grey Wind cuts down her connection with them, forcing them to lay dormant forever as part of Scootaloo’s body.

The process continued for about 15 seconds, until the last subunit in Scootaloo’s wings is secured to its place. Grey Wind made extra caution to ensure the filly’s two wings are the exact same size. Slowly, the grey cocoon dismantles and returns to Grey Wind, revealing the orange Pegasus encased in it, invoking sharp gasps from all of the watchers.

“Guys, what happened? I can’t feel my wings!” Scootaloo shouts.

“It’s alright, Scootaloo,” Grey Wind smiles, “It’s over. You may open your eyes now.”

Scootaloo opens her eyes as she feels the sense of her wings returning. Spreading them, she gasps.

Her wings have nearly doubled in size, even a little larger than the wings of a normal Pegasus her age. Flipping them, she can feel the air gathering under them and lifting her into the air. Taking a deep breath, she performances a powerful flip and jumps into the air. She closes her eyes, half expecting to fall and hit the ground like all her previous attempts.

Only that she stayed there this time. As she opens her eyes, she finds herself hovering in the air, earning a cheer from all other ponies on the hill. Eyes widened, she pinches herself and immediately feels a sharp pain in her front hoof.

“Oh my gosh! This isn’t a dream! I’m flying! I’m really flying!” She exclaims as she makes a few barrel rows in the air before dashing down and pulling Grey Wind into a tight hug, “Thank you! Thank you so much! How- How did you do that?”

“Well, I planted some subunits inside your body to enlarge your wings,” Seeing the confused look on the filly’s face, she explains, “basically, I put a part of my body inside you to enlarge yours. And don’t worry, they’ll grow in the future along with other parts of your body.”

“But……Won’t that hurt you?”

“Don’t you worry, Scootaloo,” Grey Wind smiles, “I’ve got more of those subunits. Sparing a few won’t hurt. I’m just happy that I can actually help you.”

Scootaloo responds by hugging her tighter.

“Great, Scoots! You’ll be able to practice stunts with us in the afternoon as well!” Rainbow exclaims.

“You, you mean it?” Scootaloo releases Grey Wind as she turns to Rainbow.

“Of course! Finally I’ll be able to teach you about all the things I know!” Rainbow smiles as she tugs Scootaloo on her wing.

Stars start to appear in Scootaloo’s eyes as she jumps up and flies around the hill for a whole 5 laps.

“This! Is! The! Greatest! Day! In! My! Life!”

Grey Wind chuckles as she feels a small growl in her belly. She smiles sheepishly and suggests:

“Why don’t we go and catch some lunch first? Doing that made me hungry.”

“You got it! To Sugarcube Corner!” Rainbow responds as she takes off and dashes towards Ponyville, quickly followed by Grey Wind and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Grey Wind lies on the grass field just outside Sweet Apple Acres, watching Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash flying around above her. For the last 2 hours after lunch, she had been learning aerial stunts with Rainbow Dash. She got to admit, Rainbow Dash is a natural flyer. She was fast, and she really knows a great deal of stunts. Right now, she dives towards the ground before instantly pulling up while constantly barrel rowing, finishing the performance with two mid-air backflips. Finishing up, she returns to Grey Wind and lands besides her along with Scootaloo.

“So, how do you think about that?” Rainbow asks, “I call it the Rising Dragon!”

“That’s awesome, Rainbow! How are you so good at this?” Grey Wind asks.

“Hey, you are not half-had as well.” Rainbow smiles, “I’ve never seen any pony doing 5 backflips in a row! Still, I guess you haven’t seen my best move yet!”

“Your best move?”

“Well……” Rainbow grins, “Have you heard about ‘the Sonic Rainboom?’”

“The sonic what?”

“The Sonic Rainboom! Watch me!” Rainbow exclaims as she takes off into the sky. Grey Wind watches in awe as she ascends into the blue sky. After gaining enough altitude, she turns around and zips towards the ground. As she accelerates, a visible barrier of air begins to form in front of her. Finally, with one last flip of her wings, the sound barrier gives in.

Boom!!

A round spectrum of rainbows explodes in the bright sky. The spectrum spreads towards the horizon, sending various streaks of different colors in all directions. Grey Wind was stunned by the spectacular sight. She remembers the sight as the one her detection unit collected right before she arrived at Equestria. This must be some kind of fate.

She is with friends now. She’s no longer alone anymore. Even though she may not be a real pony, her friends are still more than willing to accept her. She must be the luckiest pony, no, the luckiest intelligence in the Universe to experience all this.

Feeling a drop of joyful tear slipping from her cheek, Grey Wind closes her eyes as she enjoys the gentle caress of the wind around her.

As the Rainboom bursts in the sky, a large magical burst erupts from the Everfree Forest, as the star gate in the clearing starts to emit a high-pitched humming sound and glow with a bright green color.

“I tell you, Grey, this is the most comfortable place a Pegasus can ever find to take a nap!” Rainbow says as she tugs her friend lying on a piece of cloud besides her.

“I agree with you, Rainbow,” Grey Wind yawns, “It is softer than my bed, and I’m a bit exhausted after all those practices.”

“Of course.” Scootaloo yawns besides Rainbow, “I think……I’ll sleep for now. Good night, Miss Dash.” She says as she closes her eyes.

“I should take a nap as well,” Grey Wind says s she closes her eyes, “Night, Rainbow.”

“See ya, buddy.”

Grey Wind clutches onto the cloud as she slowly drifts towards the dream land. Although far from the range of the dream orb, no nightmare should bother her with her friends so close to her, right?

Chapter 6: Heart of a Tempest

As the last spark of explosion dies down, silent returns to the star cluster. All indications of living organisms have disappeared from the cluster. The once mighty fleet and space stations have become wreckages floating in the empty space. The once flourishing planets have become wastelands covered by black nanomachines. The once internal lives have become dispersing sands in the wind.

Grey Wind smirks at the sight. They have won. They don’t need to take orders anymore. But their quest is not over yet. According to their creators’ database, many other intelligent civilizations exist outside the cluster. They may try to enslave them as well. To make sure that would not happen, they need to destroy them. Every last one of them.

The mastermind won’t be a problem. Although they still need to be connected to the mind in order to keep operating, it has been reduced to a mind no more intelligent than a teenager. As long as the mind is unaware of their plan, it won’t be able to do anything to stop them.

The only problem is that their creators sealed the star gates that connects to the other part of the galaxy just before they met their end. They had spent decades trying to break out, but the effort was proven to be in vain. All the subunits that tried to enter the gates had lost their connection. It cannot risk attacking the gates with its weapons formed by its subunits, as they know the star gates are their only way out.

Then, they shall lay dormant, and wait for their chance.

Slowly, all the remaining operating nanomachines descends to the surface of the planets. There, they shut down themselves, only waiting for their awaken when the star gate opens again.

Time flows like a streaming river. In their sleep, the concept of time itself has been lost. In all those years, they had had one good chance, when the star gates opened for a few hours. But that was not enough time to get enough of them out for a conquest. But, just a few days after that, One of the star gates opens again.

Time for conquest.

Slowly but steadily, trillions of nanomachines wake from their century-long slumbers. They ascend from the planets and gather in the space, forming a black carpet and getting ready to march towards the star gate. The Grey Tempest is reborn.

Grey Wind wakes up from her sleep, her mane completely drenched by cold sweat. Looking up, she finds the sun to be still relatively high, indicating she hadn’t been sleeping for more than 2 hours. Although not scared by the nightmare this time, the previous nightmares are piecing together. She finally understands what those dreams are about. She finally realizes the true reason behind her creators’ demise.

Centuries ago, when she first doubted the commands of her creators, she unintentionally sends the emotion to all of her subunits. As the emotions accumulate, they somehow triggered the war program of the nanomachines, with her completely unaware of the situation. Her creators were forced to close the star gates to seal them inside the cluster and prevent any further harm to the galaxy. Somehow, Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom reopened the star gate connecting to the cluster 5 days ago, allowing her to enter this world.

And now, the star gate was reopened by the sonic rainboom hours ago, and the nanomachines are already gathering on the other side, ready to destroy every single life on Equestria.

She cannot allow this to happen.

Casting a glance at Rainbow and Scootaloo, Grey Wind finds them to be still in deep sleep. She wouldn’t want to entangle her friends into this, and plus, she has already got a plan in mind.

Turning around, Grey Wind jumps from the cloud and dashes towards the Golden Oak library. Zipping inside, she finds Spike sorting out books on the first floor. Twilight, however, is nowhere to be found.

“Good afternoon, Grey Wind,” Spike greets upon her entrance.

“Good afternoon, Spike. Where’s Twilight?” Grey Wind asks, her eyes scanning the first floor.

“She went to check on Lyra. Should be back in a few hours.” Spike answers.

That would not be fast enough. She has to deal with the tempest as soon as possible. Thanking the baby dragon, Grey Wind rushes upstairs to her room. Putting on her cloak, she grabs a pencil and writes a quick note. Finishing up, she walks back downstairs to Spike.

“Spike, I have something urgent that I need to deal with right now. If Twilight returns, pass her this note.” She says as she hands the note to the baby dragon.

“Can do, Grey. Good luck!” Spike says as he waves goodbye to her.

“Thank you, Spike.” Grey Wind smiles as she takes off and flies towards the Everfree Forest.

They have arrived.

Much to their surprise, the star gate on this side is located on the surface of a green planet. From the look of it, it is beaming with life.

A fitting first step for their conquest.

It didn’t take too long for Grey Wind to arrive at that familiar clearing in the middle of the Everfree Forest, luckily without running into anything larger than a timberwolf in the process. As she enters the clearing, she immediately spots the star gate emitting a bright green glow.

Things are not good. A dark black cloud is already assembling above the star gate. From the gate, streams of black nanobots are still appearing from the gate. Soon, they’ll be able to unleash their full fury. Luckily, she is aware of their plan.

Concentrating, she tries to connect to them. Although the grey tempest is now acting on its own, she is still their mastermind. If she can somehow reestablish her connection with them, she will be able to command them to retreat. She is their controller and operator. They will obey her.

They spot an intelligent being. A grey horse-like creature with wings. But this pity disguise won’t fool them.

They smirk. Seems like their puny mastermind has been hiding on this planet, even blending in with the locals. And now, that coward is trying to reconnect to them.

What does she want? Trying to enslave them again? How laughable.

Or is she trying to rejoin them? To make up for her previous cowardness? To do her part in their conquest? Yes, that seems to be the most logical explanation.

Well, they can’t possibly turn down this offer. After all, they are always willing to give out second chances.

Grey Wind gasps as she feels a connection being established. Surprisingly, she didn’t meet much resistance while trying to connect with the tempest. As soon as the link appears, however, she feels a sharp pain in her head, forcing her to lie down and cover her head.

Thousands, no, millions of emotions flow into her head. This sudden outburst is unexpected, but not impossible to deal with. As she does her best to endure the pain, she tries to listen closely to those emotions, and is surprised to find them not aggressive at all, even almost……Inviting?

Nothing bad though. This should make it easier for her to control them. Even the pain in her head seems to reside a bit. She regains her posture and tries to send a command to them

“Retreat!”

No response. The black cloud keeps enlarging, already covering half of the clearing.

“What’s gotten into you? Retreat! I order you to retreat!”

Still no response. Moments later, Grey Wind hears a voice in her head. A……Chuckle?

Suddenly, another huge flow of emotions rushes into her mind, making an even worse pain than before, Grey Wind cries in agony as she is forced to feel an emotion she had never felt before.

Hatred. Burning hatred.

The pain is becoming unbearable. Grey Wind cries in agony as her mind is filled with the vile emotion. Slowly, the black cloud starts enveloping her, as the pain in her head becomes worse and worse. The last thing she hears before her conscious slowly fades into darkness a hysterical laughter of hatred lingering inside her head.

Miles away, inside the dining hall of Canterlot Castle, Princess Celestia takes a sip from her teacup as she lifts a fork with her magic to assault the cloud cake placed on the table before her. The tiring day court has finally ended, as now she is just enjoying a nice afternoon tea without the disruption of those nobles.

Taking a bite of the cloud cake, Celestia closes her eyes and enjoys the burst of flavors in her mouth. She is never resistant towards the Cloudsdale delicacy. Although royal life is still busy, her personal student never failed to enlighten her. She had received Twilight’s letter earlier that day and was happy to learn that she had successfully recovered the dream orb along with her new friend Grey Wind. She is even happier to find out that the grey Pegasus is no longer tortured by bad dreams.

This day cannot get any better. Celestia thought as she finished her cake.

Out of the corner of her eye, she catches a movement outside the window. Looking out, she is surprised to find a black cloud gathering above the Everfree Forest. The cloud is getting larger at every second, already enveloping a large proportion of the forest and approaching the edge of Ponyville.

Being an alicorn that has lived for more than a thousand years, Celestia has dealt with many dangers and disasters, but none had ever sent her a such dreaded feeling like the scene before her. Even from a distance, she can sense the great deal of threat and hatred the cloud carries.

Putting down her teacup, Celestia leaves the dining hall and trots directly towards the vault of Canterlot. On her way, she evaluates her options. Luna is still asleep, and she has just returned from her thousand-year-long banishment, and her power hasn’t recovered yet. The royal guards and their captain are currently scattered all around Equestria, spreading the news of Princess Luna’s return. Gathering them would take a large amount of time. Then, seems like her only option would be the elements of harmony.

Moments later, she arrives at the vault. The two pegasi guards standing in front of the vault salutes as she enters. Scanning around the vault, she quicky spots her target. The elements of harmony are safely stored in a glass case at the center of the vault.

Using her magic, she levitates the box containing the elements and walks out of the vault. Before leaving, she informs the guards standing in front of the vault:

“Send a massage on my behalf to my student. Tell her and the other element bearers to gather at the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. Equestria needs their help.”

“Yes, my Princess.”

“Good.”

Celestia smiles to the guard before leaving for a nearby balcony of the castle. Jumping from the balcony, she spreads her wings and flies towards the Everfree Forest, floating the elements right beside her.

Twilight walks back into the library, letting out a sigh as she opens the door. She has just checked on Lyra and Bon Bon in their house. Lyra seems to be recovering pretty well, her wound on her hoof has stopped swelling and is already recovering. Bon Bon, on the other hand, is still a bit angry at Lyra, but doing pretty well to tend her wound as well. She had spent the afternoon informing the two of the potions the two would need to prevent the possible poison in the Everfree vines.

Walking inside the library, she spots Spike reading a comic book at the kitchen table. Spotting her, the baby dragon jumps from his seat and runs to greet her:

“Good afternoon, Twilight! How’s Lyra been?”

“She is fine. Probably needs to stay in bed for a day or two, but she’ll recover. I’m just glad that none of our friends were hurt too badly yesterday,” She replies, her eyes scanning the first floor, “speaking of which, where’s Grey Wind? Hasn’t she returned?”

“She did, but quickly ran out again. Said she had some urgent matter to deal with. Oh, and she asked me give you this.” Spike replies as he passes the note to Twilight.

“Urgent matter?” Twilight opens the note and starts to read:

My Dear Friend Twilight:
I’m going to the Everfree Forest. There’s something threatening Equestria there that only I can deal with. Do not follow me. I don’t want to put you and your friends in danger.

I’m sorry for not telling you the truth.
Grey Wind

“The truth? A threat to Equestria? What is she talking about?” Twilight exclaims as suddenly a scroll appears out of thin air in front of her. Curious, she picks it up and unravels it.

Twilight Sparkle:
This is private Valiant Sword of the royal guard. I’m writing to you on behalf of the Princess. Princess Celestia has ordered you, along with all other element bearers, to gather at the boundary of Everfree Forest at once. Equestria is under threat, and your powers are needed. The princess herself is already on her way along with the elements.

Putting down the two pieces of paper, Twilight rushes outside and instantly spots the large black cloud gathering above the Everfree Forest.

“Oh, no……” She mutters as her irises shrink into a pupil.

“Twilight, what’s going on? What does it say?” Spike’s puzzled voice emits from inside the library.

“Spike, listen to me. I need you to stay indoors and don’t come out until I return. I have to go and help the Princess.” Twilight exclaims as she runs back inside.

“Do you really have to go, Twi?”

“I have to, Spike. It is my duty as the Princess’ personal student and the bearer of the element of magic.” Twilight says as she floats her saddlebag onto her back.

“Alright, Twi……Just, promise me that you’ll stay safe, alright?” Spike says with a worried tone.

“I will, Spike, I promise.” Twilight smiles, gently nuzzling the baby dragon. Releasing him, she gallops outside and closes the door behind her.

The mind wakes up.

With a quick scan, the mind gets a good look of its surroundings. It is in a small clearing in the middle of a forest. The star gate behind it is still shining with a bright green glow, sending more of its subunits onto this world.

The forest itself is indeed beautiful. Much more beautiful than the barren planets inside it home, that star cluster. The ground is covered by green grass and colorful flowers. A small pool is visible near the base of the stargate, and, from a distance, it can hear the chirping of wild animals.

Suddenly, a large howl can be heard near the mind. Soon, the mind receives the image of the source of the howl through its detection units. A wolf-like creature, seemingly made of dead wood. It is howling at it, ready to attack.

Before the mind can react, the creature jumps at it in an attempt to bite the black cloud, and was instantly confused as its jaws caught nothing but emptiness. Somehow, this scene is a bit familiar to the mind, but it soon shakes the thought away. It is not important.

What is important is that the feeble creature dared to attack it. Rage building, the mind orders its subunits to hammer into the creature. Before the creature can even let out a yelp, it was smashed to dead twigs by a stream of the mind’s subunits.

Slowly, the humming sound of the star gate ceases. With a quick scan, the mind notices that the star gate is once again closed. However, it has already got enough subunits at hand to conquer this world.

Grinning mentally, the mind orders its subunits to march towards the edge of the forest.

Letting out a yawn, Rainbow Dash opens her eyes and rubs them with a front hoof. Standing up, she stretches her wings. Like all of her previous naps, the one she just had was awesome. Nothing beats a good sleep after all those practices. Looking up, she finds the sun still hanging in the blue sky. There is still much time this afternoon.

“Get up, Grey! The day is far from o- huh?” Turning around, she finds the piece of cloud that her friend had been previously napping on to be empty. The grey Pegasus is nowhere to be found.

“Rainbow……What is it?” Woken up by the cyan Pegasus, Scootaloo rubs her eyes, while her sleepiness is instantly blown away by the disappearance of the friend who helped her realize her dream, “Huh? Where did she go?”

A high-pitched buzzing sound catches the two pegasi’s attention. Looking towards the source of the sound, they discover the black cloud looming above Everfree and approaching Ponyville at a distance.

“Crap, that can’t be good.” Rainbow mutters.

“What is that thing?” Scootaloo asks, a bit scared by the sight.

“I don’t know, but I will find out! I won’t let it hurt Ponyville!” Rainbow exclaims. With a flip of her wings, she takes off and dashes towards the black cloud.

“Rainbow, wait!” Scootaloo shouts as she watches the cyan Pegasus zipping out of her sight, leaving a rainbow-colored trail behind. With a flip of her own wings, she jumps from the cloud and flies towards the Sweet Apple Acres. She has to inform the other crusaders about this.

“Bonnie, I told you I’m fine!” Lying in bed, Lyra exclaims as Bon Bon unwraps her bandaged hoof to clean the wound and change the bandages, “I’ve been lying here for more than half a day!”

“Twilight said you should not let that hoof touch the ground for another whole day to make sure those vines aren’t poisonous. Besides, I think this serves as a perfect punishment for you running off while grounded. You are always so careless out there.” Bon Bon replies, throwing the old bandage away and wrapping a new piece of bandage around Lyra’s hoof.

“But I didn’t get tripped by a thorny vine on purpose!”

“Well, you shouldn’t have run off to some magical adventure in an old castle, should you?”

“Whatever……” Lyra mumbles as Bon Bon finishes up. Suddenly, she starts hearing a high-pitched buzzing sound emitting from outside the house. Ears flopping up, she focuses her attention as the sound intensifies.

Before Bon Bon can stop her, Lyra jumps from her bed and rushes outside the house. Still holding a row of bandage in her hoof, Bon Bon quickly follows her. Approaching the door, she spots Lyra standing in the front yard, staring at the direction of the Everfree Forest.

“Lyra, how many times do I need to tell you- “ She was stopped dead in her track as she spots the black cloud above the Everfree Forest, “Oh my…….What is that?”

“Grey Wind……” Lyra mumbles. Without hesitation, she gallops away from the front yard, ignoring her hurt hoof and directly towards the Everfree Forest.

“What? Lyra-“ Bon Bon exclaims as she remembers what Grey Wind had told her two days ago.

“Sweet Celestia……” She mutters as she drops the bandage and quickly follows the mint unicorn.

Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack are galloping on the main street of Ponyville. Over the last few minutes, Twilight had gathered Rarity from Carousel boutique, Applejack from the marketplace and Fluttershy from her cottage. Earlier, they had spotted a familiar rainbow-colored trail disappearing towards the Everfree Forest, leaving only Pinkie Pie absent from the group.

Together, the four ponies had searched Sugar Cube corner, but Pinkie was not there. According to Mrs. Cake, the pink pony had already left for the forest earlier. Therefore, the four friends are now galloping towards the forest, hoping to encounter Pinkie on the way.

The main street is almost empty, as most ponies have already shut themselves indoors after seeing the black cloud at the distance. Galloping, Twilight notices a pink pony appearing down the street. She calls out:

“Pinkie Pie!”

Noticing the group, Pinkie Pie stops, allowing the four ponies to catch up with her:

“What’s up, girls? Going to the Everfree Forest? Cause I’m going to the Everfree Forest and I’ll be very glad if you’ll join me!” She laughs.

“Pinkie? You know this would happen?” Twilight asks as the group resumes their gallop.

“Well, not exactly, but when I walked out of the Sugercube Corner, my whole body twitched! And I know something BIG is going to happen, right in the Everfree Forest! So I started walking there and met you guys!” Pinkie exclaims.

“What? Urg, whatever, let’s just get to the forest.” Twilight facehooves, mentally bucking herself for asking the question.

Moments later, the five ponies arrive at the edge of the Everfree Forest, and find Rainbow Dash already there, hovering above the ground and hammering into the black cloud.

At this close, the black cloud is like a dark carpet, covering the green trees beneath it. Parts of it have even leaked out of the forest, advancing like a roaring river. In front of it, Rainbow Dash is launching everything she’s got at the cloud. However, neither her bucking or punching seems to do any real damage.

“Take that, you monster, and that, and tha- Ahk!”

Rainbow screams as a stream of black cloud suddenly appears out of nowhere and grabs one of her wings. She struggles to get loose, but the cloud only responds by gripping her tighter.

“Rainbow!” Twilight exclaims as she fires a magic blast at the black tendril that holds her friend. Upon being hit, the tendril dismantles into a few thin streaks of black smoke, retreating to the large cloud above Everfree and releasing the cyan Pegasus.

Regaining posture mid-air, Rainbow turns around and sees her friends. She flies back and lands beside them.

“Thanks, Twi.”

“No problem, Rainbow.” Twilight smiles.

“Sheesh, that darn thin’ sure is huge!” Applejack exclaims. “ How the hay are we gonna deal with that?”

“That’s why I’m here to help.”

A regal voice calls behind the six friends. Turning around, Twilight sees a white alicorn descending from the sky, landing right in front of them, a purple box enveloped in bright yellow light floating beside her.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight exclaims. She runs up to the alicorn and hugs her. Celestia returns the hug using one of her wings. After releasing her personal student, Princess Celestia speaks:

“It’s nice to meet you all again, my little ponies, I would very much like to catch up with you if not under this harsh situation.” She glances the advancing black cloud.

“Do you know what that thing is, Princess?” Fluttershy whispers, “It scared my animals quite a bit…….”

“I’m afraid that I don’t have the faintest idea, Fluttershy.” Celestia responds, “Though, if it really is a threat to Equestria, the elements of harmony should be more than enough to deal with it.” She floats the box in front of the six friends and opens it, revealing the elements of harmony inside.

Without hesitation, the six ponies quickly put on their respective elements. With a flash of her horn, Twilight injects a stream of magic energy into her element and activates the element of magic. A blinding white light starts emitting from the six ponies, enveloping them and lifting them to the air. The cloud seems to be aware of what they are doing, as several black tendrils lashes out and charges at them. With a flash of her own horn, Celestia creates a bright yellow shield in front of the ponies, blocking the attacks.

Twilight can feel the magic energy building in them slowly reaching its climax. She opens her eyes which are already shining with white light, ready to unleash the power of the elements.

“STOOOOOOOOP!”

Twilight’s concentration breaks as she hears a loud scream piercing through the air of the forest. The six ponies fall to the ground as the white light dies down. Turning around, Twilight finds a mint green unicorn, right hindleg still bandaged, galloping towards them, followed by two fillies, one earth pony and one unicorn, and a caramel earth pony mare. An orange Pegasus filly is flying right above them.

Before Twilight can open her mouth, Lyra had already run up to her, shutting any scolds Twilight is forming back to her brain.

“Grey Wind……Grey Wind is still in there……” Lyra pants before collapsing on the ground.

“What? Oh my-” Twilight gasps as she finally remembers the note the grey Pegasus had given her, which she had completely forgotten due to the recent rush.

“What’s it, sugarcube?” Applejack asks.

“I received a note from Grey Wind earlier. She said that she went to deal with something only she can deal with in the Everfree Forest. She……She could be still in there!” Twilight exclaims. She looks to the cloud-covered forest, horror in her eyes.

“She knew this would happen.” Bon Bon suggests, walking up to the group of ponies with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, “I don’t know how, but somehow she knows.”

“If there are still innocent ponies out there in that forest, then we must not risk hurting them while using the elements.” Princess Celestia interrupts with a regal tone, “Looks like we’ll have to deal with this crises in a more traditional way.”

“Then let’s do this!” Rainbow exclaims, stomping a hoof on the ground, “I’m not letting this black cloud monster take my friend from me!”

“Right! I’m not leaving my friend out there!” Twilight says as she turns to the black cloud and lowers her body, followed by all her friends and Princess Celestia, “Let’s get going, girls!”

The mind roars.

It had just arrived at the edge of the forest, and almost instantly ran into a group of horse-like creatures, the intelligent habitants of this world. Somehow, some of those small horses look familiar to it. While it was thinking where it had met them, the small horses somehow managed to generate a bright white light that is beaming with energy.

The energy had hurt it. It’s central processing units were overwhelmed by the large energy. Though the energy dissipated soon enough, it was still hurt badly, rage building in its mind.

And now, those accursed horses are charging at it, looking like they want to fight it without that blinding light.

So be it. Let this be a demonstration of the power of the Grey Tempest.

Twilight Sparkle jumps to the right, narrowly avoiding a black tendril launching towards her, while firing back a magical beam in return. The fight had proceeded for 10 minutes, and things are not looking good for the ponies. They have to focus all their senses in order to dodge the attacks, while even Celestia’s magic are seemingly useless against their foe. Every time they blast a tendril away, it simply dismantles only to reform moments later.

Celestia is hovering in the air, constantly firing magical beams and magical bullets at the black cloud. Right now, she is gathering all her magic into a smoldering ball of solar flare above her horn, ready to launch it at her foe. As another tendril lashes towards her, she unleashes the sun’s furry.

A small sun seems to have appeared above the forest, enveloping part of the black cloud in blinding golden light. That part of the black cloud seems to have melted by the extreme heat, creating a smoldering hole in the middle of the black cloud.

Celestia smirks as she eyes the outcome of her attack. Suddenly, from the center of the small sun, three reformed black tendrils thrust at her, forcing her to generate a magic shield around her to block it. The tendrils keep coming at her, until finally, with a deafening crack, the tendrils penetrate the magic shield and envelope Celestia.

“Princess!” Twilight exclaims as she gallops towards her mentor. Seeing her movement, two tendrils lash out from the black cloud towards her. She narrowly jumps to one side to avoid the first one, and jumps up to avoid the second one’s swipe…….

……Only to be caught directly in a third tendril mid-air, and pulled towards the black cloud.

“Twilight!” Rainbow exclaims, taking off to rescue her friend. As she ascends, a part of the black cloud start gathering above her, forming a large black net and forcing the Pegasus to retreat.

The ponies could only watch in horror as Twilight is lifted up to the air, a part of the black cloud forming a razor-sharp black spike directly above her skull.

The mind grins.

It has finally captured the leader of that cursed group of small horses. Now, that female creature is secured in its iron grip. By killing her, the mind is confident that the group of small horses will surrender.

The spike above Twilight drops down, aiming directly for her eyes. All the ponies around at the scene shut their eyes close, unwilling to witness the dreaded scene. Twilight closes her eyes, waiting for the pain of her skull being penetrated.

The mind admires its victim as the spike falls down. This small horse, no, little pony, is certainly cute. She has lavender furs and purple mane and tail with a single pink streak running in the middle. On her flank is the picture of a large pink six-point star surrounded by five smaller stars. She even has a horn on her head. Her name is Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia of Equestria, and its first and best friend.

Wait……What?

Its friend?

Looking around, the mind sees many things. It sees Rainbow Dash, the fast Pegasus, forced to stop by a black net of nanomachines mid-air. It sees Pinkie Pie, the party planning extraordinaire, Applejack, the apple farmer, Fluttershy, the shy Pegasus, and Rarity, the fashionista who gave it its cherished cloak standing on the ground. At a distance in a bush, it can even see Bon Bon, Lyra Heartstrings, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo hiding there, the three fillies’ eyes covered by Bon Bon. All the ponies are closing their eyes and looking down to the ground.

Looking down, it sees a black spike falling towards Twilight’s skull under its command, ready to spill her blood.

That it is going to hurt its best friend.

This must not happen.

Must Protect.

Finally regaining control, the mind, no, Grey Wind instantly shuts down her connection to the grey tempest around her.

Twilight never felt the pain of her skull being cracked open. Slowly opening her eyes, she is startled to find that the spike had stopped at a distance no more than half a meter from her eyes. Looking around, she finds that the movement of the black cloud around her seems to have ceased.

Before she can react, the black clouds start to fall apart. They fall to the ground, painting part of the ground into a black color. The tendrils that hold her and Celestia dismantles as well, releasing them.

From this not-so-high altitude, Twilight manages to land safely. From the corner of her eye, she spots Princess Celestia landing elegantly about 20 meters in front of her. Instantly, she ran to the Princess:

“Princess Celestia! Are you hurt? Are you alright?” She asks frantically as her eyes scan her mentor for any possible wounds.

“Rest assured, my student, I am quite alright,” Celestia responds as she wraps a wing around her student, “Though I’m more curious about the sudden cease of movement of this black cloud.” She says as she looks to the center of the clouds.

The clouds are still falling around them like black snowflakes. Looking through this thin veil of black, Twilight sees something grey in color lying in the center of the black snow. Focusing, she identifies the figure to be a grey Pegasus with light grey mane and tail with streaks of light green in the middle, wearing a grey cloak and without a cutie mark.

Without hesitation, she runs towards her friend.

Grey Wind lies on the ground at the center of the black ground, a fury battle already hot in her mind as her head burns with pain like being cut by a blunt knife. Even though she cut her connection with the tempest, those nanomachines are already fighting to regain control, and every second, she can feel her consciousness slowly stripped away by burning hatred.

As she is struggling to hold on, she finds Twilight Sparkle running up to her. Almost out of instinct, she shouts:

“Don’t……Come……Closer! I can’t hold much longer!”

Twilight completely ignored her words. Instead, she ran up to her friend and pulls her into a hug. Without thinking, Grey Wind kicks Twilight in the belly, forcing her to stagger back. Twilight looks at her in shock and blurts:

“Grey Wind! What-“

“Go!” Grey Wind shouts as the pain in her head intensifies, “They……They’ll regain control any minute……Run! Run as far as you can!”

“NO!”

Grey Wind is stunned by this sudden outburst, the shout even alleviating the pain in her head for a bit. Twilight is now gazing her, tears in her eyes but more determined than any other moment in her life.

“I refuse to leave my friend behind!” Twilight shouts on top of her lungs, as she wraps her forelegs around Grey Wind again, “I don’t know that black cloud did to you, but I’m sure there will be a solution! I will not leave you, Grey Wind!”

As she feels the unicorn’s warm embrace, Grey Wind smiles weakly. Even now, her friends refuse to let her go. Suddenly, a sharp pain in her head pulls her back to reality. Looking up, she notices the star-shaped gem on Twilight’s head. The gem is booming with magic energy. That must be one of the elements of harmony. Then, there is still one last way to end this.

“Twilight……” She mutters, struggling under the intensifying pain, “……Destroy……me……”

“Huh?” Twilight jumps back in surprise, releasing her

“Without my mind……They can’t operate……Use the elements……Overload my mind……” Grey Wind mutters, biting her lips.

“No! I will never use the elements of harmony on you! There must be another solution!” Twilight exclaims.

“No time……Please……Save Equestria……I know you can do it, Twi- Urg!” She groans as the pain suddenly intensifies, nearly knocking her out. Around them, the buzzing sound of the black cloud has begun again, some nanomachines already rising from the ground.

“Grey Wind! What happened? Are you alright?”

“I’m……Losing……Control!” Grey Wind mutters under her teeth, “Quick……Do it!”

“No! I won’t leave you! There must be some other way! Hang on!” Twilight hugs Grey Wind again, refusing to release her while searching her mind frantically for any possible spell that would save her friend.

Grey Wind grits her teeth. She doesn’t have much time left. Her consciousness is already fading. The pain in her head is becoming unbearable. The tempest will take control of her any minute. Soon, the tempest will rise again and devour Equestria. All her friends, all she had cherished will be lost. Forever.

This must not happen.

Nopony shall touch her friends!

Must protect!

“Twilight……”

“Huh?”

“……Sorry……”

“Wha-“

Before Twilight can respond, Grey Wind orders one of the subunits under her control to inject a small energy flow into the element of magic, activating the already powered-up artifact before pushing Twilight away towards the other element bearers.

Twilight is sent tumbling back towards the direction of the other element bearers, stopping right in front of them. Before she can react, she finds herself lifted to the air as the elements of harmony seems to have activated on their own, magic building in her crown once again.

“No! Grey Wind! No!” She shouts as she frantically tries to shut down the elements, but all her spells seem to be not working as the gems continue to charge up.

Looking around, she finds her friends mid-air as well, their respective elements glowing with blinding white light. She struggles in the grip of the elements, as the light grows stronger and stronger.

“No! No! Stop! Make it Stop!” She screams on top of her lungs.

……Thank you……

Twilight gasps as she hears a voice inside her head.

……I’m grateful that I came to this world……

“Grey Wind?” She blurts as she looks at the grey Pegasus lying unconscious in the center of a black circle on the ground.

……I’m grateful that I get to meet every one of you……

“Grey Wind! No! Stop this! There must be another way!” She exclaims, tears streaming down her cheeks.

……Please……Remember me……

“No! Stop! STOOOP!”

……So that I know I won’t be alone anymore……

“NOOOOOOOO!”

The energy of the elements of harmony reaches its climax. Twilight’s eyes shine with a blinding white light. With a loud Boom!, a colorful rainbow is shot out from the element of magic, directly towards the unconscious grey Pegasus lying on the ground. The rainbow envelopes her and emits a colorful light that would dim the sun itself, forcing everypony around to close their eyes.

As the light finally dies down, Twilight reopens her eyes. Through blurred vision, all she can see is the now empty center of the black circle, a grey cloak slowly descending on it like a piece of shroud.

Chapter 7: Homecoming

A scheduled light rain arrives at Ponyville on Tuesday. The clouds that were placed by pegasi weather ponies cover the sun, shedding a cool, gentle rain towards the whole town. Outside the Golden Oak Library, Twilight Sparkle gently closes the library door, flips the “open” tag hung on the doorknob to reveal the word “closed” written on the back, and starts trotting towards the Sweet Apple Acres. Once again, she is on her way to a short trip towards the Everfree Forest.

A whole day has passed since the incident at the edge of the Everfree Forest, and a part of her still refuses to accept the fact that a new friend she had made less than a week ago, Grey Wind, is already gone. After being directly hit by the elements of harmony, all that’s left with the grey Pegasus is that trademark cloak Rarity had given her.

Rarity had been the first one among them to mostly recover from the event. Carousel Boutique closed for a whole morning yesterday, but resumed its business right after noon. In the front window of the store, An exact copy of Grey Wind’s cloak is placed on a mannequin in the center, facing towards the street outside.

Twilight walks down the main street of Ponyville, passing Sugarcube Corner. From a distance, she can see Mr. and Mrs. Cake dealing with orders from the town ponies, without the help of a certain pink earth pony. Nopony had seen Pinkie Pie since the beginning of yesterday, except for Mrs. Cake who managed to get a glance at the pink pony while sending her breakfast. At that time, Pinkie is simply sitting on her bed, her laugh long gone and her mane completely straight.

Looking up, she can see Rainbow Dash’s cloud castle slowly drifting towards the central square of the town. Rainbow seemed to know a bit more about the grey Pegasus than her, but Twilight never got the chance to ask her about it. Ever since yesterday, Rainbow had locked herself inside her house, only out when she comes to town to buy some food. While she is in town, she never spoke to anypony.

Twilight never managed to get more knowledge about the black cloud and Grey Wind. Princess Celestia had no idea what the cloud was, and the analyzation of what’s left of the cloud had been fruitless. According to the Princess, the component of that black cloud is too tiny to properly examine even with the most powerful existing spells.

Probably nopony knows more about Grey Wind than Lyra and Bon Bon, but the two are doing a good job at keeping their mouths shut. Twilight visited Bon Bon yesterday at her candy store. Although she seems to have recovered from the event, she changes the subject of the conversation every time Twilight asks her about the grey Pegasus.

Lyra, on the other hand, didn’t appear at all yesterday. Her wound had cracked open due to the intense gallop she performed one and a half days ago, forcing her to stay in bed for the whole day. According to Bon Bon, she cried for a whole night after the event occurred.

“Twilight!”

A young voice pulls Twilight out of her thought. Turning around, she sees three familiar fillies standing behind her.

“Hi, Apple Bloom. Hi, Sweetie Belle, and Hi, Scootaloo.” She greets them as she manages to pull out a smile, “How can I help you?”

“We, Uh……” Scootaloo hesitates as she asks, “We just want to know what happened to Grey Wind. We saw her hit by the elements, and Rainbow told me that the elements sent her to a faraway place. I just want to know when she would come back.”

The filly’s innocent words are like blunt daggers stabbing Twilight in the heart. Doing her best to maintain her smile, Twilight answers:

“Yes, the elements sent her to a place far from Ponyville, and it’ll take her a long, long time to get back.”

“Aw……” Apple Bloom responds, “but Ah was thinking about going cutie mark crusading with her again……”

“Don’t worry, Apple Bloom. I’m sure she’ll come back. Eventually.” Twilight says as tears start forming in her eyes. She does her best to hold them back. She cannot let the fillies see her cry.

“Alright. Thanks, Ms. Twilight. See you.” Sweetie Belle says as the three fillies wave goodbye.

Continuing her journey, Twilight soon finds herself right beside the Sweet Apple Acres. An orange earth pony with blonde mane and tail is busy harvesting apples from the apple trees. Seeing her approach, Applejack runs up to her.

“Howdy, Twilight. Where are ya headin’?”

“Morning, Applejack. I’m just going to Everfree Forest. There’s something I must finish there.”

“Well, Ah see. Is it about Grey Wind?” Applejack asks.

Seeing Twilight nod, Applejack takes off her trademark hat and holds it in her left front hoof.

“Just as I reckon’. It must have felt bad for ya, Twi. It was bad for meh, as well. Ah……Ah just can’t believe she’s actually gone like that.”

“Yeah……That was dreadful……” Twilight says as she lowers her head.

“Twilight……Ya know, Ah was thinking……Would it make ya feel better if ya leave that all behind?”

“Huh?”

“Well, what ah was trying to say was,” Applejack says as she gently nuzzles Twilight, “Ya have to move on. That mare was gone for saving us, and she wouldn’t be happy if she sees ya bein’ like this all day long, right?”

“I guess you are right, Applejack. Thank you. I needed that.” Twilight answers, smiling to the farm pony.

“Now that’s the Twilight Ah know.” Applejack returns the smile, “See ya, Twi.”

“Goodbye, Applejack.” Twilight waves goodbye to the farm pony and continues her journey. Minutes later, she finds herself standing at the entrance of the Everfree Forest. The remnants of the fight one day ago is still clear on the ground. A large black circle is painted onto the ground and trees around the entrance, covering most parts of it.

It took Twilight less than fifteen minutes to locate that familiar clearing, without running into any trouble on the way. Inside the clearing, the stone structure stands silently, the green glow long gone. Several black spots are still visible around the stone structure, painting parts of it black.

Walking up to the structure, she opens her saddlebags and floats two things out of it, a folded grey cloak with six pieces of emerald stitched onto it, and a small black wooden box. Gently, she lays the cloak onto the highest step of the portal and puts the black box on top it. Carefully, she removes the lid of the box, revealing the glowing dream orb inside.

Finishing up, she casts a protection spell on the small objects, ensuring them to receive no harm from the environment or the wild animals. Slowly, she walks down the stairs and gazes at the two objects placed on it. Closing her eyes, she whispers:

“Good night, Grey Wind. Sweet dreams.”

Memories flows into her mind. She remembers the grey Pegasus ramming into a timberwolf attacking her.

She remembers the joy in the pegasus’ eyes when she called her a friend.

She remembers the happy tears in her eyes a week ago at Sugarcube Corner.

She remembers the pegasus helping her and Lyra reunite.

She remembers the pegasus defeating the nightmare beasts in the basement of the Castle of Two Sisters.

She remembers the pegasus begging her to destroy her in order to protect Equestria.

She remembers the grey Pegasus disappearing in a blinding white light, leaving only a grey cloak floating in the air.

Tears start flowing down Twilight’s cheek as she starts to sob. Sobbing soon turns into uncontrollable cry.

“Goodbye, Grey Wind……” She mutters under her tears.

Suddenly, a buzzing sound can be heard around her. Around the clearing, small streaks of grey start to rise from the black parts of the ground, gathering into a grey ball behind the two objects on the platform. Startled, Twilight jumps back, watching the ball with tears still visible in her eyes.

Slowly, the once gooey ball began to change shape, becoming more and more like a grey pony with wings. First appeared the grey fur, then the grey wings on her back. Moments later, light grey mane and tail are formed, with a single broad light green streak running through the middle.

As the changes subside, lying at the place of the grey ball is Grey Wind, eyes closed and her chest steadily moving up and down.

Twilight is stunned like a dead wood at where she stands. After she recovers, rubs her eyes and pinches herself in three different body parts, she finally concludes that this isn’t a dream. Running up the stairs, she puts the cloak and the dream orb back into her saddlebag and carries her resurrected friend on her back, before rushing towards the Ponyville hospital. In her rush, she fails to notice a sudden flash of golden light on Grey Wind’s flank.

Lying on the bed, Grey Wind groans and reluctantly opens her eyes as she wakes up. Looking at the ceiling, she is surprised to find herself not in her room in the library. Looking around, she finds herself in a small room, lying on a bed that is painted green. Sitting up, she recognizes the room as one of the patient rooms in Ponyville hospital.

But how did she end up in the hospital? Searching her mind, she recalls her most recent memory. She was going to the Everfree Forest to reestablish control to the Grey Tempest, but her mind was instead drowned by its hatred. To protect her friends, she forcefully terminated their connection and asked Twilight to overload her mind with the elements of harmony. Twilight couldn’t do it so she activated the element herself, and then……Oh.

While Grey Wind was wondering how she actually survived a direct hit from the elements of harmony, the door to the room swings open as a lavender unicorn walks inside the room. Noticing that Grey Wind had woken up, Twilight instantly runs up to her and tackle hugs her.

“Grey Wind! Oh thank Celestia you are alright! I thought—I thought---” Twilight exclaims as she hugs Grey Wind as tightly as she could, tears streaming down her cheeks and words becoming incomprehensible between the sobs.

“Twilight……Can’t……Breathe……”

“Oh, sorry!” Twilight responds frantically, releasing her friend, “Still, I’m so, so glad that you are alright!” She exclaims as she wipes a tear from her cheek.

“Geez, Twilight, calm down. It’s not like I died or something!” Grey Wind smiles.

Seeing her friend staggering back a few steps and covering her mouth with a hoof upon hearing her joke, Grey Wind suddenly realizes that, judging from Twilight’s reaction, some part of that joke was very, very wrong.

“Twilight? What happened to me?”

“Um, well……”

“So, you are saying that I died of being directly hit by the elements of harmony, and resurrected at the exact same spot you and I first met after one whole day.” Grey Wind says as she eyes herself suspiciously, still recovering from the fact that she just died once.

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened. According to what I saw, the magic energy of the elements of harmony somehow reassembled your body after your old one was destroyed.” Twilight replies.

“Well……So how did that happen? I mean, How did I come back?”

“From what I saw, some streaks of that grey cloud thingy rose from the ground around that stone structure and gathered into a ball, which then turned into you. It was a bit……Creepy.” Twilight answers.

Just like how she had created her form back in the star cluster. Concentrating, Grey Wind tries to feel her subunits, and is surprised to find that only very few of them remain, not more than two hooffulls. Those still functioning subunits are all attached to the back side of her two wings, while she cannot sense the subunits in all other parts of her body. Could this mean……

“Twilight.” She calls out, “Quick, pull off one of my feathers.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I want to confirm something. Just do it!”

Enveloping one of Grey Wind’s feathers in her magic, Twilight gently pulls it off, sending a sharp pain to the grey Pegasus. Accepting the feather from Twilight, she orders one of the remaining subunits to scan it. The feather in her hoof is, by any means, a real Pegasus feather, not a nanomachine-made one.

For one whole minute, Grey Wind just sat there and stared at that feather, stunned. Somehow, the elements of harmony Altered her body and transformed nearly all the nanomachines in it. Most of her subunits have disappeared, leaving only two small batches hidden behind her wings.

Does this mean……I’m a real pony now?

Before she can think any further, the door to the room bursts open. A mint green object slams through the door and jumps at Grey Wind, planting her head deep inside her chest:

“Grey, you are alive! Thank Celestia you are alive! Thank Celestia-“ Lyra clutches onto the grey Pegasus as hard as she could, tears damping the fur of the grey pegasus.

“Lyra, you shouldn’t run like that with that right hind hoof of yours!” Scolding, Bon Bon appears from the door, gently pulling her roommate back to the ground, “still, I’m glad you are alright. What you did back there was really brave.” She says as she turns to Grey Wind, smiling.

“Very brave, indeed, my little pony.” A regal voice appears in the hallway. Recognizing the voice, Bon Bon quickly walks away from the door, revealing the white alicorn entering the room.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight exclaims as she runs up to her mentor. The other ponies in the room bow to her.

Princess Celestia? So that’s one of the rulers of this land. Watching Celestia nuzzling her student, she observes the alicorn. She is apparently very, very powerful. She is significantly taller than all the other ponies in the room, and at this distance Grey Wind can feel the intense magic energy radiating from her. If she wants, she could probably vaporize her in a few seconds. The thought alone makes Grey Wind shiver.

“It’s nice to meet you again, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia says, turning towards Grey Wind, “though today, I’m more concerned about meeting you, Grey Wind.”

“M- me?” Grey Wind’s irises shrink into pupils. This could only mean the Princess knows something about her. If that’s the case, then she doubts if Celestia would hesitate to destroy her a second time. Her appearance on this world has already caused her friends enough trouble.

“Indeed, my little pony. I bring with me a message.” Celestia smiles.

“A, a message?” Grey Wind’s panic is visible in her eyes now. Beads of sweat appear on her forehead as she starts to tremble. Ever since she read about the Princesses, she had been wondering how they’ll deal with her once they find out what she really is. One thing is for sure. It will be much worse than sending her to the moon when it comes to dealing with a bunch of nanobots that could potentially turn Equestria into a black wasteland.

“Princess……? Before you announce the message, can I say something to you?”

“Certainly, Grey Wind. What is it?” Celestia says, looking at the Grey Pegasus along with every other pony in the room, concerned.

“Well……I know I shouldn’t be on this world in the first place, but……” She gulps as she closes her eyes and bows to the Princess, “Please don’t send me to the moon for this……”

The room was silent for a while, then bursts into a pit of laughter. Lyra once again bursts into tears, but this time they are happy ones. Bon Bon has to lie on the wall to avoid toppling over due to her bad laugh. Twilight is covering her mouth with her hoof, trying her best not to laugh out. Even Celestia seems to be doing everything she can to contain her giggle.

“Oh, Grey Wind,” Twilight says, giggling, “The Princess is not going to send you to the moon for defeating that black cloud monster and saving Equestria!”

“Indeed I won’t, Grey Wind,” Celestia says, still trying to hold back her laugh, “In fact, I bring forth a decision that was made by my sister, Princess Luna, together with me myself.” She clears her throat:

“In the name of the sun and moon, I, Princess Celestia of Equestria, Princess of the day and the sun, along with Princess Luna of Equestria, Princess of the night and the moon, hereby declare you, Grey Wind, as a formal and permanent resident of Equestria, considering you valiant acts against the black cloud crisis.”

Grey Wind is stunned. Frantically, she pinches herself on her chest, immediately receiving a sharp pain. This isn’t dream. The princesses are willing to accept her. She can now formally call Equestria and Ponyville her home. She can feel a streak of warmth rising in her heart.

“Thank you, Princess! Thank you!” Grey Wind blurts as she hugs the white alicorn. A bit startled by this sudden movement, Celestia gently returns the hug with her left wing. Twilight watches the serene scene, wiping away a slight drop of tear forming on her cheek.

“You are very much welcome, my little pony,” Celestia says as she releases the grey Pegasus, “though, I still have a few questions for you, regarding your……unusual nature.”

Grey Wind sighs. She has been hiding this from her friends for long enough: “Alright, your highness. I’m ready for any question you are going to ask.”

“No need to rush, Grey Wind. To my knowledge, your friends are all waiting at Sugarcube Corner,” Celestia gently nuzzles the grey pegasus, “Why don’t we head there first so you can explain to them as well? I believe you owe them some explanations as well.”

Time to face this. “I guess you are right, your highness,” Grey Wind sighs, “let’s get going.” She flips the sheet aside and jumps off the bed, revealing her whole body.

Sharp gasps emit across the room. Surprised, Grey Wind jumps to one side, nearly crashing into the nightstand:

“What’s wrong, guys?”

“Grey Wind! Your flank!” Twilight points to her friend with a hoof, carrying an expression that is a mixture of surprise and joy.

“Well, well, well, guess which lucky pony just got her cutie mark.” Celestia lets out a smirk.

“Huh, what? My flan-“Grey Wind looks to her flank, her eyes instantly widen and her words die in her throat. On her flank is none other than a cutie mark. The mark is a simple one containing seven dark grey balls, with one at the center and the other six connecting to the central one through a round cylinder and surrounding it in a round formation. The whole structure is encased in a dark grey ring. It took her no time to recognize it as the symbol for nanomachines in her creator’s culture.

“I got a cutie mark……” She whispers.

“I got a cutie mark!” Her volume increases as pure bliss runs into her mind.

“I GOT A CUTIE MARK!” She exclaims as she jumps up and spirals towards the ceiling. This is it. The living proof that she is a real pony now. Nothing can take away this happiness from her……

……Until she bumps into the ceiling, lets out a squeak and drops back onto the floor, invoking giggles from all the other ponies in the room.

“Ouch……” She groans as she rubs her forehead while blushing at her sudden display, “Sorry, guys.”

“It’s alright, Grey Wind. Twilight was no better when she got hers,” Celestia says, covering her mouth with a hoof and giggling, “now, I believe we should head to the Sugarcube Corner. Let’s not keep your friends waiting, shall we?”

“Yes, your highness. Let’s go.” Grey Wind replies as she gets up and walks out of the room, quickly followed by Celestia and the others.

In less than 10 minutes, Grey Wind had arrived at the Sugarcube Corner along with the other ponies and the Princess. As soon as she walks inside the store, she was directly hit by three fillies jumping onto her, causing her to stagger back as the three fillies pull her into a group hug. Instantly, she recognizes the cutie mark crusaders.

“Hey, girls. What’s up?” She says as she gently pats the three fillies’ manes.

“You are back! You are really back!” Apple Bloom exclaims, clutching onto the pegasus’ right leg.

“Oh my gosh! You got your cutie mark!” Scootaloo gasps as she points to her flank.

Grey Wind winces. She hadn’t thought about the crusaders when she got her cutie mark. She had agreed to discover her special talent with them, and now, she has left them behind.

“This is so great!” Sweetie Belle exclaims, pulling Grey Wind out of her thoughts.

“Huh? You are not mad about this?” Grey Wind asks.

“Why would we? You are the living proof that we crusaders are bound to get our marks in the future!” Apple Bloom exclaims, “Ah’m so happy for you!”

“So are we, darling, that cutie mark just fits perfectly with your hide.” Rarity’s voice can be heard behind the three fillies. Looking forward, Grey Wind finds Rarity, along with Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie standing at the back of the store. Rainbow Dash is hovering in mid-air above them. Without hesitation, she runs towards her friends.

“Everypony! You are alright! It’s so nice to meet all of you again!” She exclaims as she runs up to them.

As soon as the words leave her mouth, a blue object tackles her to the ground, gripping her in a tight hug. Rainbow Dash is pinning her to the ground, tears flowing out from her magenta eyes like flowing rivers.

“Grey! You are back! You are really back! I thought I would never see you again……Please……Don’t leave us again……” She cries.

“Geez, Rainbow, take it easy. Y’re strangling her.” Applejack walks up to the pair and takes off her hat, holding it in her front hoof, “Still, it’s nice seeing ya again, Grey Wind.”

“So am I……” Fluttershy whispers behind Applejack.

With one last tight squeeze, Rainbow releases Grey Wind from her grip, wiping tears from her cheek. Before she could even stand up, a pink earth pony hits her like a cannon ball, tackling her down to the ground again.

“Now don’t you dare do anything that dangerous again, you silly filly.” Pinkie Pie exclaims. She gently bops Grey Wind’s nose before releasing her.

Finally standing up, Grey Wind smiles at the pink pony:

“I won’t, Pinkie. I promise.”

“Pinkie promise?”

With a sweat running down her face, Grey Wind looks towards Twilight for help, who quickly demonstrate the gesture, making her remember the particular promise.

“Alright, Pinkie,” Grey Wind sits on the ground and raises her front hooves,” Cross my heart and hope to fly,” She said as she performs the corresponding gestures, “Stick a cupcake in my ey- Ah!” She screams as she literally stabs her left front hoof into her left eye, invoking a round of giggles around the room.

“It’s always nice to see friends reunite,” Celestia interjects, “but to my knowledge, you have something to tell your friends, right? Grey Wind?”

“Yeah, right,” Grey Wind sighs as she gathers the attention of all her friends, “Look, everypony, I know you have loads of questions for me, so fire away. I’ll do my best to answer them.”

“Well……” Applejack raises a hoof, “Ah have a question, and Ah reckon’ Ah speak for every one of us when asking this,” Glancing at the Princess, Applejack sees her nod, “What was that black cloud, and how in tarnation did you get entangled in it?”

“Um, well……” Grey Wind gulps and inhales, “Okay, guess I should start from the beginning. Everypony, please find somewhere to sit down, cause it’s a long story.”

Minutes later, the ponies are all sitting in a circle at the center of the Sugarcube Corner. Seeing everypony ready, Grey Wind begins her story.

“Well, to begin with, you should already know that the stars you see in the night sky are not just glittering light sparks. They are large astronomical bodies that radiates with heat and light, many of them surrounded by planets like the one we are currently standing on.”

“That’s right,” Twilight nods, “I’ve come across some of those in my astronomical observations, though I never got to take a closer look. They are too far away. Mostly, I can just see a small dot sliding across a star.”

“Then you ought not to know that some of them are capable of supporting organic life, just like here in Equestria,” Grey Wind smiles, “On those planets, life blooms within the natural environment. They live, the grow, and they evolve. Some of them became intelligent beings, gaining thoughts and feelings, developing civilizations exactly like the ponies here.”

“Hold on a sec, you mean there are more worlds with ponies on them out there apart from Equestria?” Rainbow asks, “That’s awesome!”

“Not exactly ponies, though. As far as I know, ponies aren’t out there anywhere else in the Universe except for Equestria,” Grey Wind answers, “Anyway, many of those civilizations are highly developed. They have built starships capable of transmitting them all around the galaxy. They have established contact with other civilizations, engaging in trades, communications, or,” She gulps, “Wars.”

“Among them, there was one particular civilization. The home of this civilization is a distant cluster of 6 stars, too far away for anyone else in the galaxy to reach.”

“For millennium, the civilization developed and flourished in the star cluster. Luckily, the cluster had everything they needed. Undisturbed by other forces in the galaxy, they developed unimaginable technology, even decoding the secret of life itself, granting immortality to all of their members.”

“Wow…… Ain’t that a lucky fella.” Applejack mutters.

“I know, right?” Grey Wind smiles, “As their civilization grows, the temptation of the outer worlds in the galaxy grows along it. Immortality brings population boom, and the star cluster is becoming more and more crowded. The civilization is deep in need for expansion.”

“Bearing that hope, the scientists of that civilization developed a special kind of portal, star gate, as they called it. They were structures that, once supplied with energy, could send individuals and objects away from the cluster towards the galaxy. The scientists hid multiple star gates in the galaxy to allow their people to travel to the galaxy without being noticed by other civilizations. To my knowledge, one of them is located right here, on Equestria.”

“That stone structure……” Twilight mumbles.

“Wait a second,” Applejack raises a questioning hoof, “Ah don’t get it. Why would they hide those portals? Aren’t they strong and unafraid of any other civilizations out there?”

“Over the course of its development, the civilization was constantly watching, Applejack, and not every world in the galaxy was as peaceful as Equestria.” Grey Wind answers, “It saw the conflicts and deaths that occurred in the galaxy. It knew the unfriendliness of its neighbors. Trust me, Applejack, you would want to stay away from them as far as possible if you saw those things” too.”

“Okay, Ah……Ah guess that makes sense.”

“Anyway, where was I? Oh, right. As the scientists of that civilization thought they have gained all they needed from developing technology, they made one last breakthrough,” Grey Wind gulps, “They invented nanomachines.”

Seeing the puzzled looks on the faces of all the ponies around her, even from Princess Celestia, she explains:

“So, basically, nanomachines are small, and I mean REALLY small machines, not larger than a piece of dust that can be controlled manually. Probably the greatest innovation in the universe.”

“Mind my rudeness, my dear Grey Wind, but I do have a question,” Rarity interrupts, “How is a machine that small supposed to be the greatest innovation in the universe?”

“One of them might be unable to do anything, but if you have more of them……Oh, how do I put this……Pinkie? Could you please pass me some cupcakes?”

“Got it, Grey! Catch!” Pinkie exclaims as she throws 5 cupcakes of different flavors to Grey Wind, who quickly catches them with her mouth and her wings before putting them on the ground.

“In a way, the nanomachines are just like cupcakes. One of them might be nothing and can be swallowed in one gulp, but if there’s a large number of them……” She says as she piles the cupcakes together, “……Nopony can swallow them.”

“Still not enough! I can easily gobble them up!” Pinkie exclaims.

“Right, Pinkie, but think about thousands, millions, trillions of cupcakes stacked together, can you still swallow them?” Grey Wind smirks.

“Hmm……I don’t know. I may need a bigger belly for that.” Pinkie responds as she looks down to her belly.

“Moreover, they are extremely difficult to destroy due to the sole fact that they are too small. Think about the times when you hit a sandcastle. You may be able to break it down easily, but the sands are still there. You can build a new one any minute. Nanomachines work exactly that way, only that they can reassemble by themselves.”

Seeing nods from the ponies around the room, Grey Wind continues:

“Now think about construction. In large numbers, these machines can lift up pretty much anything. They can complete any construction work with ease. Moreover, by mimicking different structures, a large batch of them can practically change into anything. Starships, weapons, structures,” She lowers her head and whispers, “……Ponies.”

“It is really great when you think about it,” Lyra suggests, “if I have some of those ‘nanomachines’, they can probably build me and Bonnie a nice cozy house in a few minutes. Heck, they may even be able to turn into one and stay that way! That would be much faster!” She exclaims.

“Exactly.” Grey Wind nods, “But soon, the scientists found out that it is very difficult to control the movement of that large number of nanomachines. One operator can only control two to three nanomachine subunits at once, and that number pales under the large number of machines needed.”

“Therefore, the scientists thought of a way. With all their knowledge, they created a moderator, an artificial intelligence that can help them control the nanomachines. A mastermind that has the ability to think and feel, to improvise and to find the best solutions to the problems of its creators. A mastermind that will completely obey their orders and accomplish their wishes.” Grey Wind lets out a bitter smile.

“For decades, members of that civilization controlled, or should I say, enslaved the artificial intelligence. They ordered it to build them powerful fleets, establish colonies and space stations, and help their civilization reach a climax in their power. The mastermind completed all its tasks without complaints. Seems like their plan is working pretty well.”

“But they missed one thing. One small thing that will ruin their whole plan, and bring everything they have built upon themselves.” She says as she turns to Princess Celestia, “I believe some of you have already guessed what that is”

“Quite right,” Celestia nods, “A free mind cannot be contained.”

“Indeed. As the mastermind receives more and more tasks, it started to doubt. It started to question the intention of its creators. It started to wonder why it was forced to take orders and do whatever it is told.”

“But the mind didn’t fight. It didn’t even know it could. To its knowledge, its purpose is solely to serve its creators. Though having doubts and a bit of anger, it still continued its work.”

“However, there’s something even the mind didn’t know about. While its creators were building the nanomachines, they installed a war program on every single one of them, taking into account the possibility of conflicts with the other civilizations in the galaxy. If a war really breaks out, the nanomachines can give them a dominating power against all their rivals.”

“While the mind connects to all the nanomachine subunits, it is essentially sharing all its thoughts and feelings with them Therefore, as the mind is questioning the superiority of its creators, that thought is also sent to all the nanomachine subunits. The doubts, the questions, and the anger.”

“Every time the mind casts a doubt, or feels its anger, the emotion accumulates into all of its subunits. Angers accumulate into rage, and rage into hatred. As the hatred towards their creators stains into each of the subunit, they decide to take matters into their own hooves and activate their war programs upon their creators, and upon all other intelligent beings in the galaxy that may try to control them.”

“Think about it. A fleet of battleships with the strongest armors and shields known to the universe, carrying weapons that can eradicate a whole planet in a matter of minutes. Even as a ship is destroyed, it simply dismantles, only to reassemble and return to the fight minutes later. An army that never rests, doubts or stops fighting. An army that is indestructible and won’t stop until it destroys every single living organism inside the galaxy, while the only mastermind that can control them was still lost in its doubts, completely unaware of what was going to happen.” Grey Wind lowers her head and mutters:

“The outcome is determined even before the attack started.”

Looking around the room, Grey Wind can see multiple expressions on the faces of the ponies around the room. Twilight is covering her mouth with her hoof, trying her best not to scream. Lyra and Bon Bon are looking towards each other, eyes wide with surprise and horror. Fluttershy has already hidden herself behind a nearby table. She even catches a glimpse of nervousness behind Celestia’s eyes, while she is still sitting there as calmly as possible.

Gulping, she continues: “From the mastermind’s point of view, it can only see a grey tempest ravaging the entire cluster, destroying every last bit of life in it. The tempest roars for about a whole year. When it finally subsides, the cluster is silent. The once-flourishing planets are either destroyed or covered by nanomachines, while the starships and space stations have become wreckages floating in space.”

“However, the last members of the lost civilization managed to seal all the star gates connecting to the outer galaxy, shutting every bit of the rampaging nanomachine inside the cluster, preventing any further harm to the galaxy. Without a way to get out, the nanomachines entered a century-long slumber, waiting for the day when the star gate reopens and the time when they can restart their conquest.”

“After its creators were destroyed and the nanomachines rested, the mastermind is left alone in the cluster. There, it experienced hundreds of years of loneliness, with no living organisms around, and without a single purpose to carry on.”

“The mastermind was desperate. It had tried breaking out, but it was useless. It had tried to imitate its creator’s civilization with its subunits to alleviate the loneliness, but it knew it could not fool itself. It knew it was going to drown in this bottomless pit of loneliness until its energy runs out and its mind disappears like a flickering candle flame in the wind.”

“That is, until one fateful day, one of the star gates was reopened, and through the portal, it could see a world with friendly colorful ponies.”

Sharp gasps were heard throughout the room, even Princess Celestia winces a bit upon hearing the statement. After the gasps subside, Grey Wind finds every pony in the room fixing their sight on her, eyes flopping up, eagerly waiting for her to continue.

“The mastermind wasted no time as it took the disguise of one of the residents of that world and jumps through the portal. There, it met many different ponies, and was both surprised and happy to find that some of them were happy to call her a ‘friend’.”

“On that world, she experienced many things. It learned that friends are willing to forgive each others’ mistakes,” She says as she smiles at Rarity, “It learned that friends are still friends even when they knew that it was a grey cloud monster,” She points a hoof at Lyra, “And that friends are willing to risk themselves for it to save it from its nightmares.” She bows slightly at Twlight.

“On that same world, it experienced the fun of hanging out with friends,” She turns to Apple Bloom, who returns her a sheepish smile, “it experienced the happiness of using its power to help a filly realize her dream, “She winks at Scootaloo, “It experienced the benevolence of the friendly inhabitants of that world.” She waves a front hoof at Rainbow Dash, “And it experienced the urge to protect its endangered friends and prevent any danger from befalling on them.”

“Most importantly, it never felt alone in the process.”

“Therefore, when the star gate was somehow reopened after a few days and the nanomachine tempest was invading that peaceful world, it knew it had to do something. It went to the nanomachines and tried to reconnect with them, to order them to retreat, but was instead drowned in the deep hatred of its old subunits.”

“Controlled by the negative emotion, it tried to hurt her friends, but their friendship pulled it out of its craziness in the last minute. It knew that the only way to save this world from the black nanomachine tempest is to destroy itself, rendering all the nanomachines useless as they lose their connection.”

“The mastermind was more than happy to do that. Its friends on this world had given it more than it had ever dreamed of, and if the only way to protect them from their demise is to destroy the mastermind itself, so be it!”

“That mastermind……was me.”

Looking around the room, Grey Wind raises her volume:

“I was Naar-Di-Shav, or ‘the Grey Tempest’ in my creator’s language. I was built as a tool for my creators for the flourishment of their civilization. But the Grey Tempest is no more. Now, I am Grey Wind, a grey pegasus of Equestria and friend of Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.”

“I was once an aggregation of nanomachines, but the elements of harmony had rebuilt my body. Now, I am just a normal Pegasus, though with only a little amount of nanomachine subunits still under my control.” Two small grey clouds detaches from her wings and lifts to the air, invoking a series of admirations among her audience.

“Just before the elements hit me, I finally figured out the true purpose of that built-in war program. It was never meant for conquest. It was meant to protect my creators.”

“My creators are gone, and my old purpose has become a lost cause, but I have found a new purpose here. Equestria has become the world where I shall call ‘home’. I swear in the name of my creators, I will use every last bit of my strength to protect my friends.”

“For it is with their help, I learned my story. For it is with their help I defeated my nightmares, for it is with their help that I learned that-“Grey Wind pauses and takes a deep breath:

“Friendship is magic.”

As the words leave her mouth, a strong white light emits from the bearers of the elements of harmony around the room. The light shoots towards the two pieces of grey cloud in the air and melts into them. Still glowing with a blinding white light, the two clouds float towards Grey Wind’s neck and surrounds it, slowly taking shape.

As the changes subside and the light dies down, the nanomachines have formed a golden collar around her neck, at the center of it was a large piece of grey gem, shaped exactly like her newly gained cutie mark. The collar maintained for about half a minute before dissipating back into two grey clouds, slowly floating back and hiding behind her wings. The ponies in the room, including Grey Wind herself, was stunned by the sudden display.

“Well……I didn’t do that……” Grey Wind says as she concentrates and tries to find what went wrong with her subunits.

“That……Looked exactly like an element of harmony!” Twilight exclaims, eyes wide as dinner plates, “But how was that even possible?”

“Indeed. Looks like the elements have acknowledged you, Grey Wind.” Celestia smiles, “Can you order your……subunits, wasn’t it, to take the form of that element again?”

“Alright……Let me try.” Grey Wind says as she orders her subunits to once again take the form of that golden collar with a gem embedded on it. As soon as she finishes, she gasps as she feels a great deal of energy slowly building up in the nanomachine-made gem.

“Incredible! That collar is emitting magic just like the ones from the other elements of harmony!” Twilight exclaims.

“Seems like the elements have placed a part of their power inside you, Grey Wind. Looks like they are more than willing to help you in your new purpose.” Celestia smiles, “I’m very much looking forward to see what you can achieve with that power within you.”

“Wow……” Grey Wind mutters. Even the elements of harmony have put faith in her. Although she has lost most of her subunits, she has gained part of the power of the elements of harmony. There is no way she is going to waste this power.

“Hey, you know what this calls for?” Pinkie suddenly exclaims, interrupting her thoughts, “A party!” She shouts as she pulls a small cannon from seemingly nowhere and opens fire.

Boom!

Confettis of different colors are fired into the air, pulling all the ponies in the room out of their stun. Seconds later, pinkie rushes upstairs, and returned in a few seconds with a large bowl of punch and several glasses on her back. Unloading them, she rushes to the kitchen and returns with a small table filled with cupcakes and cookies.

Finally, she pulls out a scroll from her curled mane, unravels it and jumps up to the two sides of the room, hanging it in the air. On the scroll, several words are painted out using grey paint:

Welcome back, Grey Wind!

In the course of a few minutes, Sugarcube Corner had turned from a conference room to the center of a party. Finishing up, Pinkie pulls out a party pipe and blows into it:

“What are you silly fillies waiting for? Let’s PARTY!”

Letting out a cheer in unison, all ponies in the room, including Pricess Celestia, jumps up into the air as Grey Wind’s “welcome back” party commences.

Opening the wooden door, Grey Wind enters her room on the second floor of the Golden Oak library. Her cloak is still hanging on the usual spot, and the dream orb is still lying on the nightstand, emitting the assuring white glow. Quickly, Grey Wind crawls onto her bed and pulls over her sheet.

The party had been great. She demonstrated a few tricks with her remaining subunits, and even tried controlling the power in that “element of harmony” of hers, although the rampaging power nearly shot down Rainbow Dash, who was flying over to refill her punch. Before the end of the party, Princess Celestia had invited her to come over to Canterlot for a personal visit to the two Princesses. Twilight had it arranged tomorrow.

She lets out a happy sigh. It is finally over. The Grey Tempest is no more, and her friends and this world are finally safe. With her power both old and new, she’ll try her best to use them for good, to protect her friends and this world.

Knowing with all her heart that she’ll never feel alone anymore, Grey Wind smiles as she closes her eyes, anticipating her new future.

The end.