Tale of a Gray Tempest

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.

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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.