Tale of a Gray Tempest

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.