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// Chapter 4- Pegasus on the Rock Farm 
// Story: North Wind: Earning your Cutie Mark 
// by BlackBonitaCherry 
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“Cloudy Quartz, thou must come and see this letter,” with some concern she did so, the moment her husband had opened the letter he had stood rock still and hadn’t even scolded Pinkamena for accidentally knocking over the cart of rocks.

“What is within this communication?” she took it from him with his permission and began reading.

“A filly by the name of North Wind ahs requested our hospitality for the last month of summer. She wishes to learn from our ways and pick at our knowledge of geology. This North also states that she will work and sleep in a nearby cave if we are unable to provide boarding.” What an unusual request, and Cloudy Quartz could not find it in her to be offended at the insinuation as they have never had anyone over before.

One thing did stand out to her however.

“By her name we can only assume which tribe she is from,” he nodded, a grim look on his face as they thought about why a pegasus filly was interested in their way of life.

“But tis not a horrible idea,” she agreed on that part, on the whole they get requests to sell their rocks and even do construction work sometimes. They also harvest crystals to sell to unicorns for certain spells and apart from asking the local weather team for certain conditions to be maintained; no one has ever requested to live on their farm to find out what they do day to day.

Looking back down on the letter she searched for the filly’s age but it was remarkably blank apart from a forwarding address to Ponyville

Did this filly have a good reason for wanting to stay with them on the Rock Farm?

North had a good reason for wanting to stay with the Pie Family on the Rock Farm. In fact she had several good reasons.

Number One was that it meant she didn’t have to deal with her family and Chief Ruffalo agreed to let her spend the last month of summer on the Rock Farm before they would pick her up to maintain cover. He was still searching for the traitors in the Ruby Dog tribe that had sworn loyalty to her uncle but it was proving harder than he expected. Not to mention the stallion somehow got holds in the Diamond and Sapphire tribes respectively. The Emerald tribe hadn’t been seen in quite some time and unfortunately there was no records of where they had gone in any of the archives she could get to. As far as her parents were concerned she was with her uncle doing special ‘training’, they did not even push for her to be in flight camp.

Well, technically her f- Bow Hothoof tried once but Windy Whistles insisted on her going with Wind Scar again for safety and Rainbow Dash said nothing, as usual.

Number Two was the fact that she found evidence of a cave somewhere near there but needed to ask permission from them to use it. There was said to be some sort of strange magic in the cave and she wanted to see for herself what it was.

Number Three was her growing interest in geology and speleology and the decreasing material available for her to devour. The idea of a rock farm appealed to her and she was hoping that they would have new material she could look at.

Number Four is the fact the name of the family was Pie which meant Pinkie Pie was there. She hadn’t known that the filly lived on a rock farm (her knowledge of the show was spotty at best) and despite her misgivings about meeting other main characters, her curiosity of the Element of Laughter’s home village won out.

Number Five, she was going to put together a project that would impress the teachers and earn her an early graduation. She had already cleared it with the teacher in charge of the graduating class whose bitterness at the way things were done in Cloudsdale (he wanted to be a painter but his dreams were crushed years ago.) led to him agreeing to reading her project and giving her two separate tests, one near the end of summer and one at winter. If she passed both she was considered for graduation and did not have to worry about school anymore. He would file her graduation to be announced by the end of the year, at which point her parents might figure it out too late, but she would be out of there.

Hm, maybe she could arrange a transfer to Lyra’s school, maybe? Unless they did not let Pegasii or Earth Ponies attend their school which did not seem all that fair to her. Then again, going to Canterlot permanently means a chance at running into Bow Hothoof, Wind Scar, or worse, Princess Celestia herself.

Maybe two years ago she would have considered going straight to the princess about what happened, used the opportunity of her dad being a Royal Guard to slip into the palace and try to find the alicorn.

Then she read an edict sent by the princess and vowed never to go into the castle. The princess apparently decreed that all bearing the ‘Blessing of the Wind’ (a title North gagged at when she found it) were to be taken into custody by the Royal Guards. Those who had been taken in the past were never heard from again and she did not want to find out what happened to them, at all.

Why her parents hadn’t done it yet was a mystery, but she had a strange feeling Wind Scar was behind it, as was her mo-Windy Whistles who she caught arguing with Bow about it once. Not that it mattered to her in the end, they’ve already proven that they did not have her best interests at heart and the constant meat withholding in an attempt to keep her curse in control was getting tiresome. 

A week after sending the letter to the Pie Farm, she went down to Ponyville where Granny Smith greeted her with a mane rustle and a reply.
“Never met a rock farmer, yer sure you want to do this?” the Apple matriarch asked, a bit concerned, but North gave hear a reassuring grin.
“Yeah, it’s the best option,” the school year was almost over and she had a back-up plan in case they couldn’t take her in.
Go to Klugetown. She hadn’t been there yet but Ruffalo and Gaius made her promise not to go there by herself, or just with Lyra.
“Well I do hope you plan on visiting sometime this summer, none of my grandchildren want to listen to my stories anymore, and I need someone to share embarrassing stories with,” she whispered the last part, making North snort.
“More like someone to keep the embarrassing photos you’ve taken somewhere safe so that they don’t try to destroy them,” the green Earth pony winked.
North liked Granny Smith, she was one of the only mares in Ponyville who didn’t automatically try to coddle her or force her to give up her parents’ names so that she could contact them. She accepted North’s interest in weird areas and had plenty of stories about the past.
Even ones about the Wind.
North didn’t say she had it and Granny never asked her, but North learned more about legends and the like from this mare than she did in the books contained within the Ruby Dog archives. Including a particular rumor about a place capable of relinquishing the Blessing back to the Wind itself albeit with a price. Gaius had said something similar but refused to tell her anything and made her gut fish in retaliation when she tried to push the issue.
Gutting a fish with only a knife in her mouth was kind of disgusting and she gave up asking him.
North figured the mare was trying to subtly warn her away from doing such a thing by also telling stories of those who used their Blessing to protect their loved ones; but the filly felt they had a better hoof or claw at life than she did. They didn’t have family members who hoisted them off to a wicked uncle who was too lazy to pay off his own debt.
Ripping open the letter she skimmed over it, letting out a breath of relief, they said yes, with the added note that yes, they did have room for boarding.
“Well that is good news, why don’t we celebrate with some mulled cider and nachos, without my son finding out of course,” North couldn’t help but laugh at that, Granny was always trying to enjoy her favorite foods, but her overprotective son has lately been trying to get her to eat more healthy and cut down on salty foods.
“Sure, with cheese and habanero sauce?” they went into the grocery store and came out with a bag of chips and mentioned items, taking them to a secret spot where they settled down and began eating, trading words and embarrassing stories. North talked about the caves she’s been to and Granny Smith about her farming days.
It was nice.
“I can’t believe you had a picnic with Granny Smith and didn’t invite me,” Lyra pouted as they waited for the train.
“Sorry, it was sort of last minute and I was only there to pick up a letter which thankfully had good news,” she had the minimum packed to avoid suspicion, and was dreading the moment her uncle arrived.
“Sorry I can’t come with you, but I’m going to music camp,” the mint green unicorn said apologetically, North waved her off.
“It’s fine, make sure to at least message me when you can, and no casting magic willy nilly either,” she said dryly, Lyra winced as she remembered a few memorable moments of failed magic casting.
“I won’t, I’m actually thinking of signing up for a different instrument than the lyre to play, I’ve been taking so many lyre lessons but I’m already proficient, and it will be good change up between instruments,” they said one last goodbye before Lyra disappeared on the train and North spotted her uncle with his usual unsettling smirk heading right towards her.
‘It’ll only be two days’ she told herself, ‘two days’ as the stallion forced her into the next train and put the binds on which he then covered with a Wonderbolts shirt.
‘T.W.O. D.A.Y.S.’ she reaffirmed, trying to focus on how she’ll be spending the next month on the Pie Farm.

Over the past two years she had exhausted all the resources on speleology and magical theory at the Canterlot Library, even the Archives that she was able to gain access to once. In Ponyville she tried not to be dismissive of their selection which contained more books on speleology. Her and Lyra must have gone to fifty different caves over the past two years when they could. The only areas near them that they had not gone to were the caverns said to exist beneath Canterlot and the cave system in the Everfree Forest. The former because they did not have the clearance nor did they know where to start, and the latter because, well it was the Everfree and even North had enough preservation not to go in there till she was older. Lyra had been very patient when it came to her interests, even though at some points the unicorn looked like she wanted to quit cave exploring.
There were several things that North had learned about Lyra through the past two years they had known one another.

First was that Lyra’s fascination from humans had stemmed from a book that her deceased father had had in his collection. He read it to her once as a bedtime story and she learned all she could on humans from him. But when he passed her mother put a stop to the subject and Lyra had been forced to keep her interests hidden, it didn’t last long.

Second was that Lyra had way more patience for North’s ‘quirks’ which North admitted to herself would drive any other pony crazy. Sure, the mint unicorn had interesting expressions when North did something particularly strange, but at least she had the sense to ask instead of judge on it (especially the sweet and spicy obsession North herself had.)

Third is something North feels Lyra’s mom is unaware of, and that is Lyra’s prodigious talent in the field of music. When it comes to memorizing music or playing, Lyra practically had a perfect pitch and great memory when it came to music. Though if Lyra could only use that memory for magical spells and how to perform them correctly, North shook her head. She tried teaching North music but they both found out the hard way that while she can read notes and such, she could not sing. Lyra's despair was almost amusing if North didn't find it somewhat annoying that she could not sing at all. 

Fourth is Lyra’s noble front which North had witnessed once or twice when she saw her at a dinner with other ponies. It was obvious the pony had gone through years of etiquette, and North did not know whether to be impressed or freaked out that Lyra could pull off looking so poised and elegant, and calm.

Fifth is that apart from being afraid of the statues of the garden of Canterlot, Lyra had a small fear of fire, and was kind of wary about dragons. Something about a migration incident and a torched campsite (along with Lyra’s stuffed animal.) 
Sixth is that Lyra’s uncle was a very important person despite his young age and that the planetarium had belonged to his father who had been a very important astronomer. Lyra had an interest in studying the stars herself, just not to the extent of looking at it as a career. Her uncle had found out about them using the observatory, but instead of getting mad, arranged it so that they wouldn't get in trouble for using the place and even put the observatory under Lyra's name.

There were other things that North learned about Lyra that she could write a small report on, but above everything, North was glad the older filly was her friend. Being mentally older than a lot of fillies, North thought her only friends would be Ruffalo and Gaius till she got older and made friends with adult ponies. (Even if Ruffalo was gruff most of the time and tried to deny the fact of them being friends.) But Lyra was a breath of fresh air, who did not mind that despite being two years younger, North was much smarter than her in some areas. They both had an understanding that there were things the other was good at, that the others were not, so no jealous or ugly feelings had risen, yet at least. Sometimes North wished she was a unicorn, and sometimes Lyra wished she was a Pegasus, but it was something the two debated over several times despite knowing it could never be possible for them. 

The whole month she spent between hunting and controlling exercises with Gaius and in an entirely new archive that Ruffalo had managed to unseal. Luckily there was some sort of special magic in place that kept the work from rotting, but all that she found in there were mining records and complaints about ponies and griffins on the ‘surface’. Ruffalo also had her giving reading and writing lessons to some of the high-ranking canines in the tribe, Ruffalo himself included. Then of course there was the fighting matches she did the previous summer that she had to do again to increase her rank among the canines. She had to do this without her curse activating which also served as a way of strengthening her mental fortitude and control. Control she’d been perfecting in the basement of the planetarium for the past two years along with her fighting abilities. Lyra was so confused when North asked if she could borrow some of the old training equipment from her house’s attic that she felt a bit bad. It probably didn’t help that she asked Granny Smith for some old round-up training poles that she could practice jumping and weaving around. But if she didn’t practice there was a chance of her losing a lot more matches than she did and she did not want to risk being caught off guard.

Now finally she was done and if Wind Scar were to ask where she was, they would tell him she was at a different mine. 
“Are ye North Wind?” forcing the desire to raise an eyebrow at the old way of speaking, she turned to see a stallion standing with an impassive face, wearing a hat and with a straw in his mouth.

“Yes, I am, Mr. Pie?” she asked attentively and he gave a slow nod. He then turned and walked away and she had to trot to catch up to him as he led her to the Pie’s rock farm.

There were not that many rock farmers and North (before her thoughts turned to Lyra) had been thinking about her reasons for choosing the Pie Family Farm to learn from that had nothing to do with her other goals.

The Pies were the foremost experts in geology and have had their own dealings with different canine groups in the past. Hopefully not all of them were negative ones. 
They came upon the rock farm and she could see the Pie sisters in the distance, turning or flipping over the rocks,
“There is to be a rain schedule for tomorrow, so we must finish what needs to be done,” Igneous Rock Pie explained and she hummed in thought as they reached the house where the mother was spooning out soup.
“So this is the little Pegasus interested in how we do things here,” Cloudy Quartz looked down her glasses at North who straightened under her gaze, “If ye want to stay here, ye will be expected to finish chores and listen to everything we say,” she nodded and the mare called her daughters in for a meal break.
One of Pinkie’s sisters approached her and looked at her through narrowed eyes,
“Stay away from Houlder’s Boulder fly pony,” she said pointing at the large rock off to the side of the house and North nodded quickly, not wanting to get on their bad sides. The filly sniffed and entered the house, grabbing her bowl of rock soup that her mother handed her.

“Sorry about Limestone,” one of them said, a blank expression on her face, and North gave a small smile.
“I do not mind all that much, it is very important to your family right?” the older filly nodded and led the Pegasus to the dining room where bowls of rock soup were being devoured by the younger sisters.
“It is surprising one your age is not pursuing other interests, what made you interested in asking for our guidance?” Igneous asked and she took a deep breath, there would be no point lying to them.

“I’ve been researching caves, mining, and geology the last few years in the hopes that my Cutie Mark could come of it. But so far the only thing I have acquired are the dos and don’ts of speleology. I was hoping to work on a rock farm and learn from those who deal with rocks yearly, I might get some insight on whether I am missing something,” when asked if she had any of her reports with her, North’s cheeks darkened, “One or two,” and she dropped one of her bags on the floor and opened it to reveal several notebooks and scrolls.
“One or two indeed,” the Mrs. Pie said dryly and North looked sheepish.
They sent her out for work with the sisters while their mother looked over the notes with their father and was partnered with Maud who was the most knowledgeable about rocks.
“I plan on getting a Rockterate when I’m older,” the filly stated blandly and North tilted her head.
“Are you interested in a certain type of rock? Or is there a specific area you are hoping to live in and add to the science world?” clearly the filly didn’t expect this kind of question.
“Few outside our family are interested in such things,” 
“They should be, especially those in Canterlot, where do they think their roads and building materials come from,” North muttered under her breath about the close-mindedness of the nobility while Maud gazed at her from the corner of her eye.
“You are very interesting,” the blue Pegasus shut her mouth, embarrassed.
“Sorry, sometimes I can’t help myself,” 
“It is no trouble,” they worked for several hours before ‘Ma’ and ‘Pa’ as the sisters called them, summoned them back inside.
“I noticed a few irregularities in the notes you took on this one chap’s books, I fear that he mixed sandstone with something else,” North looked dismayed as she looked over the notes.

“Oh, that’s not good,” then she saw some notes written about the Sapphire Dogs and realized they must've read her report on what she knew about Jewel Dogs. But they didn't say anything so she kept quiet and nodded in thanks. 
“I will give you the correct information tomorrow, now it is time to rest,” and they all went to bed.
It was so strange to see a non-smiling Pinkie Pie, her straight hair caused nightmares to appear and North had to steady herself and try not to show how freaked out she was. 
‘I have to forget about the Psycho Pinkie stories, they don’t exist, Pinkie Pie just has not learned how to smile yet’ she took a deep breath, turning the rock in front of her ninety degrees like the others had done. The rain had flooded the area a bit and they had to make sure all the rocks were accounted for.
The next two weeks passed like this, North spent ten hours outside (five in the morning, thirty-minute lunch break, then five hours in the afternoon.) Then she would spend several hours studying with one of the adults and learning about the different companies that they had contracts with.

“Some ponies come asking about where to find the best gems,” the distaste in his tone told her how he felt about that, “But we primarily deal with construction companies or toy ones that want to buy rocks for pets,” North had to whistle, inwardly, there were sure a lot of building companies that depended on them. 
She, of course, did the report on the weather and how it affected the rocks, and after several revisions and a review by Mrs. Pie, she sent it by mail to her teacher. She did not want it getting lost when she went through the cave.

At the end of three weeks (two weeks left till she had to return), she was ready to go and the Pie family gave her gifts as several smooth stones, and with Igneous an old book on rock lore that also contained information about not just Jewel Dogs, but a race of ponies called Nocturne. Huh, so there was a fourth pony tribe? She looked up at him but he shook his head,
“Take heed and do not take unnecessary risks,” he warned her, knowing where she planned to go, and she gave him a salute.
“I’ll be fine, if there is something I’m sure about, it is how to navigate a cave. Besides, I packed some snacks and a water bottle so I should be good for a few days at least.” 
Despite their concerns, they let her go and watched as she entered the cave with a headlamp strapped to her head.
“At least she didn’t break Holder’s Bolder,” and that was the only nice thing Limestone had to say about the strange filly.

Applejack tossed and turned in her bed. The noisy nightlife of Manehattan had kept her up these past few nights, and she couldn't wait for morning to come, even if it meant another day in this lonely and foreign city.

Rarity struggled to stop her horn from dragging her further, it had dragged her through forests and strange places the last few days, and she wanted it to stop now!

Twilight was nervous as she waited for her turn in the entrance exam, several ponies went ahead of her, and she saw the looks of those who came out, feeling increasingly nervous at the defeated expressions most of them had. How was she going to get through this?

Fluttershy wished she was anywhere but here, it was her last year school, she had no Cutie Mark which led to much ridicule in her class and those younger than her. Her parents were gone on a trip with her brother and she had insisted on improving her flight, but now she was regretting it.

Rainbow flew, rejoicing in being able to fly as much as she wanted. No more crashing for this pony. She got over that! The grin on her face disappeared when she saw two familiar bullies approaching Fluttershy, who she only knew from this camp and wouldn't be able to defend herself. With a determined nod, she flew down to stop them.

North Wind climbed down from the very tall cliff, using the pick-ax she had stowed away as a hook with a rope tied to it, she wanted to master this part of spelunking without having to use her strange ability to climb down with her hooves. But it would be so much easier if she had fingers! With a sigh she dropped to the ground and turned on the headlight that one of the Pie sisters had given her, too small to fit any of their heads now but was slightly big on hers. Making sure all of her stuff was secure, she recalled the map in her mind and looking at the two paths before her, took the one on the right. Just as she reached another split path, a rumble sounded and startled, she looked up to see stalactites above her, and they weren't attached to the ceiling!

Above the cave in the sky the first sonic rainboom in centuries exploded through the sky, breaking glass in several places and scaring not just the residents of villages, but the animals as well.