The cutie mark, an essential part of all ponykind. Something you earn when a pony discovers what makes them special, what makes them tick and what makes them who they are. But a ponies mark does not define how they act, it is but a guideline for them to follow. A mark that might indicate you are good at magic doesn't mean you are good with manners. Being useful on an apple orchard has nothing to do with being honest and connecting with animals and nature does not necessarily mean you will be kind. No the cutie mark is nothing but a guideline, it is what makes you special, but it is only a sliver of a pony’s hidden potential. Personality is different.
A pony’s emotional responses and behaviors have almost nothing to do with their cutie mark. A mark can work for you or against what you are trying to achieve in life. A pony can choose to ignore his or her emotions, but a special talent is always there, always nagging at the back of your brain to keep pushing on to keep doing what you are good at, what you were born for. Some may choose to be casual with their gifts, but others choose to stand strong and be the best pony that they can be.
Saving Grace was one of these special ponies, she never let anything get her down. She faces every obstacle with a smile on her face and always follows through. But what sets her apart is her knack for getting into those problems. She is always offering help to those in the town of Ponyville. Why? Because it makes her happy, it fills her with a purpose and seeing others smile is always a plus. As a bonus she is often fed very well. Good manners and offering advice will do that for you.
It is on this faithful day in Ponyville that she finds herself offering help to one Vinyl Scratch, a unicorn pony who runs the local dance club. Vinyl was having trouble keeping her machine running while constantly having to re feed it her magic during songs. Grace already knew the solution to her problem, electricity.
"So kid, let me get this straight. You want to help design a new way to power my table here and you don't want anything in return?" Vinyl was now glaring down at the young filly. Grace was simply smiling away. Any hint of foul play was already thrown out the window when dealing with a young child, but her smile was making it difficult to be betrayed by. It was this very fact that made Vinyl paranoid, often times when something seems too good to be true, it is.
"Yep! You just seemed like you could use a little help and fixing up machines is my special talent after all!" Vinyl searched over and found the symbol she was referring to. Saving Grace had a peculiar cutie mark, a couple gears working in tandem. The eldest assumed this meant she was in fact good with machines, like she said. But it all just seemed so odd.
"Well...I could use some extra help, but are you sure you don't want anything in return?"
"Oh I'm positively sure! I have everything I need at home so I don't care about getting stuff, now let me just get to work here." The smile never wavered from her face, it reminded Vinyl of the time she met Pinkie Pie, only somehow more innocent, if that were possible. She let out a quiet sigh and happily relinquished her precious DJ Table to the young filly and waited.
Saving Grace immediately set to work, taking out various tools and tiny bags that she had brought with in her massive saddle bag. Vinyl was unable to see how such a tiny filly could carry such a large thing around, but so far she wasn't complaining. Grace looked over the machine and eventually found what she was looking for, the power supply. This one was meant to receive magical energies and distribute it to the table. She knew what the problem was, magic was not enough to power it. The table needed something more, it needed something powerful, it needed a natural element, such as an electrical charge.
In no time at all she had removed the power supply after powering down the table. It looked big, bulky and downright ugly. Tossing it aside without care she brought up a piece of technology that looked like a cross hybrid of the old power supply and something very advanced. It was her own creation, by accepting unicorn magic it could convert it to electricity and store it. Vinyl or any other unicorn could simply charge the power supply for a set amount of time and it would power on the table for hours without interruption. It could also be powered through a crank, something she was quite proud of. Earth ponies such as herself could power various devices, be it much slower than the average unicorn, but it was possible none the less.
With practiced skill she installed the new power supply and tested it herself. At first Vinyl was unimpressed with how long it remained charged, cranking power was only a fraction of what she could do. So Grace suggested she charged it with her own magic and sure enough not only did the table remain on and function, but the power output was through the roof. Ten minutes of charging would allow the table to remain stable and functional for at least one hour.
"Kid this is amazing!"
"Please call me Grace," she replied while bowing to the white colored unicorn.
"Grace I don't know how to thank ya, this will probably save my club. Certainly save me some hassle."
"Well, you’re very welcome, it was my pleasure!"
"No, I gotta at least give you some bits, Grace." Without waiting for a reply she had levitated a nice large bag of bits in front of her, but she respectfully declined.
"If you say so, tell you what though. You are welcome in my club any time free of charge on any night! How’s that sound?" This perked her up, she hated getting physical rewards, but friendship and being welcomed was another story.
"Sounds awesome! I'll see ya around, Vinyl!" They both waved and the little filly left the club to seek out another issue in the town.
Looking around she noticed quite a few happy stares and waves. She had helped at least half the town with various problems, but that also caused a little problem. She was happy that she helped so much, but now she worried that she might have overlooked a bit. Vinyl was the first 'popular' pony she had offered to help and it did not disappoint. She had always helped out whoever needed it, but she felt it was best to avoid those that stay above the social ladder. Mostly because those types of ponies usually didn't need help in the first place at least that is what their appearances told her. She wasn't dumb. She knew most of the town’s population. This means that she also knew that each and every one of the Representatives of the Elements of Harmony lived in Ponyville.
She was never sure if it was nerves or just common sense, but Saving Grace had never once even approached any of them. Today she decided to change things up so she chose to go off the beaten path. But which one should she try and help?
Twilight Sparkle was the first to come to mind, why? Because she was probably the most well-known pony in the entire town. But she doubted that the librarian would need help with any machine, nothing came to mind so for now she decided to pass.
Pinkie Pie was next. She knew that she was the town's most popular baker. But she never seemed to have trouble keeping up with the demand. She did however make a mental note to come back to that. An automatic baking machine, that was something she might be able to help with, later on.
Her next idea was in fact Fluttershy. She knew that not all tasks had to do with machines, but when someone asked her for help or when she offered it, it typically had to do with something complex. Feeding animals and helping tend to them was by no means complicated, but then another idea came to mind. YES! She would help Fluttershy. With a happy tune she began to hum, Saving Grace was on her way to Fluttershy's cottage.
It didn't take long to find it, everyone knew exactly where the Element of Kindness was located. Animals were all over the place, but not a single one consisted of a large yellow colored pegasus mare. She looked all over the place was, but was unable to locate her.
"Oh, hello little one!" Grace looked up in surprise and there in all her glory was the kind element floating just above her. She had to mentally scold herself for not looking in the air sooner.
"Oh hi! My name is Saving Grace, you are Fluttershy right?" She added with just a hint of nervousness.
"That I am, it's a pleasure to meet you, um, Grace. Is it okay if I call you Grace?" Grace couldn't help but giggle a bit, she was kind, perhaps a bit too kind!
"That is my nick name silly, so of course. I was wondering if you needed any help around your cottage." Fluttershy landed right next to her and tilted her head in confusion.
"Help? With what exactly?" No stranger to that question she rolled her eyes, but only slightly and spoke up.
"With anything really, I like to help others. I do it around town all the time and I was just wondering if maybe you needed some help with your animals? Or something else? I'm really good with making new machines, but I can't really think of one that might aid you...can you?"
"Oh, well, no not really. But I would be glad to accept some help, it is very kind of you to offer. Perhaps you could help me by feeding some of my birds? There are quite a bit of them." Fluttershy gestured around and sure enough there were tons of birds. More birds then Grace had ever seen in one place before.
"I would love to! Let's get to work!" The upbeat attitude and upfront emotions did not seem out of place. What threw Fluttershy off though, was her age. Why in all of Equestria did this random filly offer to help? She wasn't against it, not in the slightest, but usually fillies and colts her age do it for various reasons. Perhaps for a promised reward or to earn her cutie mark or even as a punishment. But Grace just showed up out of the blue and offered to help, with a smile no less. She put that all aside and played along. Halfway through the feeding, she decided to strike up a conversation, it was against her shy nature, but Grace was just a filly after all.
"So Grace, have you been living in town long?"
"Oh for a while now yes."
"It's just I don't think I have seen you around town before," she replied while trying to sound as casual as possible.
"Well I don't stay in town for too long, my home is a bit far away."
"Oh, where is that?" That question rocked her to her very core. She had no reason to lie to her, but the question felt odd.
"No one has ever asked me that before! But I live in the White Tail Woods!" She said with a smile.
"Really? Do you and your parents have a cottage there as well?"
"Oh, I don't live with my parents, no. And it's more of a campsite, but it's quite cozy." The smile still did not stop, Fluttershy's on the other hoof did.
"You, you live all by yourself out in the woods?!" The shock of what she just heard caused Fluttershy to drop her bag of seed.
"Not by myself silly, I live with Night Shade. Although quite shy he is a very wonderful friend. We help each other out and maintain our campsite. I have loads of inventions down there to help us." Grace began to help pick up the bird seeds. Fluttershy cracked a small smile, but still felt quite curious.
“Oh, I’m sorry Grace, you scared me for a moment. I thought you were on your own or something, a sweet filly such as yourself should never be living on her own. This Night Shade is a stallion I take it?”
“You could say that, acts more like a colt in my opinion, but I don’t know what I’d do without him!” Grace knew this was the truth, but also knew quite a bit more than she was letting on, she would never lie though if a question was asked of her, Saving Grace would usually do her best to let the truth out.
"Well at least you’re not living by yourself, that would be terrible. I'm sorry for freaking out there."
"It's fine, I guess you’re the first I have told about Night Shade and our site, oh well. Hey Fluttershy how many birds do you, well own?"
"Oh I don't own them, but if you mean take care of I would say at least over 100, why?"
"Well, we keep switching to different types of feed for all the different types of birds, it gives me an idea for a new invention!"
"Invention?"
"Yes, oh do you mind if I leave early? I need time to build it back at my campsite, I can come back tomorrow morning when it's ready."
"I don't mind at all sweetie, I'm not paying you after all. But, um... if you would like I could come and see your camp tomorrow and pick it up?"
For the first time in a long, long while Grace was taken aback. No one had ever asked her to come visit their campsite, let alone know about it. But she was having trouble coming up with any excuses as to why this might be bad. She had mostly nothing to hide after all, Night Shade might need to stay away, at least that's what she told herself. But for some reason having someone else come made her excited. "Sure, do you need directions?" Fluttershy nodded.
"Just head straight from your cottage and when you first enter the White Tail Woods you take a left, our campsite is pretty big, you can't miss it! See ya tomorrow, Fluttershy!" Saving Grace ran off waving.
"Bye." I wonder if any of my friends would like to come? I don't see why not, I just hope Grace won't mind. Also what kind of name is Night Shade? Fluttershy thought.