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// Chapter 3- Unicorns in Cloudsdale 
// Story: North Wind: Earning your Cutie Mark 
// by BlackBonitaCherry 
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After a year of knowing North Wind, there are twelve things that Lyra could say she knew for certain about the cunning little filly.

The first is that despite sounding so calculating about everything (including the reason for their friendship,) North herself is desperately lonely and needs somepony to be there for her. Lyra heard briefly about somepony named Ruffalo and someone under the name Gauis, but the blue Pegasus kept those details to herself and refused to say anything more on the matter. Considering it was only their third time meeting one another, Lyra felt it was fine if her younger friend needed to keep secrets. 

The second is that North has a slight obsession with being organized and orderly, Lyra had only found this out when she entered the planetarium to find the entire area spotless and North working on the library with scary intensity. There was no housekeeper to maintain the building so Lyra had been using one or two rooms, keeping them in a somewhat clean condition, North apparently did not agree with that. Every time she arrived at the planetarium she found North wiping down everything and she even went and got a trash can for every room that they used marked recycle and regular trash.

Third is North’s awareness but obliviousness of her own physical and mental needs, Lyra did not want to know why North seemed to think eating two days a day is okay. Or the fact that the filly looked all over Canterlot for a griffin run restaurant and actually went in to get a meal with meat in it. At one point Lyra found her opening a crate that came from somewhere and almost gagged at the smell and sight of the dead fishes within. There were two crates of meat, one filled with smoked meat while the other was filled with ice and raw ones with a book on how to prepare them. North had asked her if it was possible to use the freezer in the observatory and despite her disgust Lyra led her to it. This was definitely something that the filly wanted to be kept secret and after eating a small bite of smoked fish and not getting sick, Lyra decided not that bad after all. North admitted to needing fish for her diet and how her parents refuse to give her meat for fear of it 'corrupting' her while giving it to her sister who actually 'needs' it. 
Lyra was really starting to hate this so called family of North's.
Then at one point they found out that the Pegasus direly needed glasses, Lyra had only noticed this when she caught her squinting at something on the wall and forced the filly to take an eye exam. She ended up with glasses for reading and one for nearsightedness, she also heard something from the doctor about similar cases from those who spend a lot of time reading or working in the dark. When she asked North about it, the filly stated she read in the dark but did not elaborate any further. This added another key to the puzzle that Lyra had on her friend. 

Fourth is that North's knowledge in certain areas should not be possible, nor should her interest in them. When Lyra complained about the tutoring that she was getting in magic (none of her teachers understood why she was having difficulty), North asked her some questions, looked at the material her tutors had assigned her and two hours later she produced an entire scroll of all the theory broken down in a way that Lyra understood much easier. Within an hour she was producing a ball of light from her horn and couldn't help the squeal coming from her mouth. After two weeks she could do levitation and telekinesis spells (even if her limit was anything under ten pounds.) Unfortunately or not, while she was practicing the magic, North devoured the rest of her magical books and did notes not just to summarize them, but to critique some of them. Mutters about favoritism and narcissistic unicorns filled the air, and she gathered all the useful notes into a notebook which she placed into a folder; which was then put into the bottom of the bookshelf in one office in the observatory.  
There were ten rooms within the observatory, not including the main one with the telescope and they had gone through each room to decide what to do with the contents. Lyra felt bad in the beginning since North spent most of her time cleaning on the one day she came down. Then she started staying for the entire weekend, and Lyra knew if there was a way North would only attend school in Cloudsdale during the day and sleep in Canterlot at night. They arranged the first two rooms to contain all the research that the previous owners had done and the third room contained all the equipment which had been difficult to move around. Rooms four through six were their study rooms, Lyra bringing over all the books that used to belong to her dad before her mom tried to throw them away. Room seven was North's private room located right in the basement where she warned Lyra to knock before coming in. The seriousness in her eyes made the older filly agree. Room Eight was Lyra's own private room, she even put a small bed in there and all of her comics that she did not want to keep at home. They left the last two rooms alone just in case (even if she'd seen North cover the walls in maps of cave systems.)
The fifth thing that Lyra learned about North Wind was her desire not to get a Cutie Mark that resembled her name. Of course, she already knew the Pegasus didn’t want to get one in areas Pegasus were good for, but this was a kind of different. The bookworm was adamant about gaining a Cutie Mark that has no relation at all to her namesake and went into a rant about how it makes little sense that so many ponies got their Cutie Marks in areas that centered on their names.
“I mean, how do the parents know? How is it possible for them to somehow know what their foals would be like? I mean, it would make more sense if somepony was named after their Cutie Mark, but no, are there seers put at the hospitals who tell the parents some clue or,” Lyra stuffed a ravioli in her mouth and pointed at the other ponies staring in their direction, causing the Pegasus to meep and hide under the table in embarrassment.

The sixth thing was that North was terrified of using her wings in any situation, and that she learned how to get around by the most unusual means.

“Use your wings and flap up,” she called down to the terrified pony who dangled on her rope, a simple spelunking expedition had ended up with North’s rope somehow falling from its grip on the rock above and the poor filly was clinging onto a jutted rock. Lyra knew that her wings worked from the exercises she'd seen the filly put them through, but the pegasus refused to fly for any reason. North took her rope and eyed her choices, the trembling in her hooves betraying her nerves but she seemed to know what she was doing as she knelt before jumping on another rock, scrambling when only her front hooves found purchase and climbed on, tears building up in her eyes which she wiped quickly. Lyra wanted so badly to go find help but they were somewhere far from a village and she did not want to leave North by herself and she frantically tried to summon magic for a levitation spell. Then she watched in disbelief as North stared at the rock before climbing it vertically with no ledges, as if she was walking on the ground. As soon as those blue hooves came over the ledge Lyra grabbed her and held her in a tight grip.
“Never do something like that again,” the unicorn begged her, only to despair at the calculating edge that took over the terrified sheen from before. Questions about North's strange ability put on hold till the filly could master it herself, not that Lyra wanted to learn it at the moment with all her focus on her own magical abilities.

The seventh thing she learned was the reason behind North’s fear of the Rainbow Factory, and she did not know whether to be horrified or amused.
“Where did you hear those stories anyways?” this was met with mumbling and mutters about rumors and dreams and she sighed,
“Have you thought about investigating it?” this was met with furious headshakes and she did not even know North could look as terrified than she did in the cave, so she dropped the subject. She did not blame North for being so scared either, there were horror stories about things done to unicorn fillies and colts who were found to be ‘lacking’ in magical abilities, and the horrors about the statues in the gardens kept her away from the Canterlot Castle. 
“So you haven’t visited the place to see what they do at all,” she sweat dropped at the answer, after all, her mother must be worried to death about her daughter’s (ir)rational fear of the Rainbow Factory where she worked. Not that Lyra cared what the mare must think if what she is getting from North is any indication.

The eighth thing she learned was about North’s tendency to collect, and when she meant to collect, she meant hoard. She came across the filly putting different rocks they found in caves on the shelves in the planetarium and the gems (that one place in Ponyville contained a lot of gems.) in a safe for future emergencies. It wasn't just rocks either, soon every research paper North wrote found themselves on the shelves in book or scroll form, blueprints of caves they visited and records of what happened going on a different shelf. After Cider Season in Ponyville (they started visiting after Hearth's Warming) Lyra had to draw the line when she found the wooden mugs handed out by the Apple Family were cleaned out and filled with pens,
“Please collect things that make sense,” she had begged the stubborn girl (filly, the girl was term humans used.) 
The next week she stared at the seed collection and had to face hoof when North admitted to liking the idea after hearing Granny Smith (why were most of their trips planned to Ponyville anyway?) talk about her family in the old days.

The ninth thing she learned was that for her age, North was exceedingly strong. It had not been as obvious before when they were just going through research stuff or going on hikes or spelunking. But once they came across a traveling magician who needed help to pull a cart out of the ditch and Lyra’s jaw dropped when North took the harness and started pulling with the unicorn. The cart came out easily after that and as thanks, he gave them some books on his trade which North added to her book collection. Then it was as if the veil lifted as Lyra saw her friend doing physical things that should not be possible at all for her, but she did not voice it, sure she would find out the reasons later.

The tenth thing she learned was the real reason behind North’s fascination with caves, why her eyesight was poor, her eating habits and everything. Summer had begun and she was surprised to learn from North that she was being sent to her uncle’s again like last year when it was obvious the filly hated him. But grew concerned when she overheard Rainbow Dash mutter something about hoping the lessons stuck this time and about a wing binding.

When North came home a month early (her parents had demanded it) Lyra had confronted her, but even then, she could see the obvious difference. North looked exhausted but at the same time, she had a muscle tone to her that Pegasus normally don’t, the marks cleverly hidden underneath the wings that North rarely used in her home. This answered the question of why North was so strong for her age if she had been mining the whole time, though this time apparently the Diamond Dogs (Ruby Dogs North had corrected her) had forced her to enter some sort of battle royal to prove her toughness. Lyra wanted to give the adults an earful, but North had stopped her, saying adults would always believe other adults over children, and so long as North did good work, her uncle couldn’t do too much to her.
“Though I do not see him as Uncle, he is forever Wind Scar to me, despite my distaste for the same word in our name,” she had said and Lyra growled.
“It is not fair though, you are supposed to enjoy your summers, not work, and your wings,” she looked ready to cry and North quickly gave her a handkerchief.
“It’s fine, I have friends among the Ruby Dogs who I enjoy seeing, I actually saw one of them recently. Having a network in the underground could prove to be useful,” groaning at the pun, Lyra gave her friend a look.
“Just promise me that if he does try anything, you will find a way out of there,” her friend blinked before smiling,
“It will be fine, my uncle won’t be able to run from his debts for very long anyways,” Lyra decided not to ask after seeing her friend’s expression, there were some things a seven-year old’s face should not show. 

The eleventh thing was that when she wasn’t around ponies in Canterlot or from visits to Cloudsdale via cloud walking spell, North Wind secretly had a sweet and spicy addiction. Lyra lost count the amount of times when they were at Sugarcube Corner and North would order a chocolate milkshake with different peppers, one time it would be a ghost pepper, the other time with a jalapeno one. The other customers would stare and wince at the steam coming from North’s ears when she ate a hot one but the filly did not seem to notice. During Nightmare Night, she made hot sauce from various peppers and dipped candy canes and other candies they had gotten from their trick or treating night. North had dressed up as an explorer while Lyra had dressed as a mummy. 

“Ok, I’m curious, why the fascination with hot sauce?” Lyra asked and North took her spicy flavored candy cane out of her mouth.

“I like spicy stuff,” she explained, “And combining them with sweets makes for interesting flavors and combinations,” she took out a notebook and Lyra slammed her face into the table at the title ‘Sweet vs. Spicy’ on the cover.

“Of course, you are recording those as well,” then she had a thought, and it came out of her mouth before she could stop it, “Isn’t Rainbow liquid said to be the spiciest in Equestria,” and saw North’s mouth pull into a frown,

“Not something I will try,” she said dryly and Lyra sheepishly apologized, putting something in her mouth and too late realized it was one of the already dipped candy and rushed to the nearest trough to get rid of the burning taste.

The twelfth thing happened when Lyra brought two fellow unicorns with her to Cloudsdale, one from her school and the other who was a former mate in kindergarten. She had gotten accepted into a program for fillies and colts, who wanted to attend Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns that was held on the campus itself and had run into one student there. Despite the unicorn’s haughty and arrogant attitude, Lyra felt something similar with her she felt from North and saw if the two would hit it off.

Unfortunately, when North arrived the unicorn decided she wanted to see the Rainbow Factory immediately but when the youngest filly said it was closed because of maintenance, had suggested they sneak in to see what was going on.

“Unless of course, you are afraid of seeing something you shouldn’t,” the orange-furred unicorn taunted the blue Pegasus causing the other two of their group to tense.

“I do not want to get in trouble just because you want to fulfill some sort of superiority or inferiority complex that you have. I may be the youngest and not even have my Cutie Mark, but that does not mean I am naïve. If you want to see the Rainbow Factory, you can arrange a visit in the future when it is open to the public, but not today, who wants to visit the stadium where all the flying sports are played?” and the discussion was dropped. Lyra couldn’t tell whether her upperclassmen was impressed with North’s show of spine, but the green unicorn felt her own respect growing for the studious filly.

The twelfth thing she learned about her friend that even if she had her ways and believed certain things about her race, she would not disobey rules to satisfy an older pony’s ego. This should not have been new, but Lyra felt it best she tell herself this before she could forget.

Of course the orange unicorn never returned but Lyra could only muse that if they had met differently, North Wind and Sunset Shimmer would be great friends. There were still areas where she felt like she did not know anything about her friend, but in their journey through Equestria that no one but the two of them knew about, Lyra decided she did not really care. There were secrets that one must keep till they are ready to reveal them, and she wasn't in a rush to demand the now seven year old to tell her anything. 
Even if she was dying to know who keeps sending the filly those crates of meat without anyone getting caught.