//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 Pegasus in Tall Tale // Story: North Wind: Earning your Cutie Mark // by BlackBonitaCherry //------------------------------//   “While we’re waiting for them to clear the area, I think just staying in town should,” Golden trailed off, staring at Agape with a deadpan look as the unicorn was still staring at her flank. Two days had come and gone, and the unicorn seemed to take turns eating food, staring at her Cutie Mark, looking over her instruments, staring at her Cutie Mark, and not even wanting to leave the hotel room. Which had given Golden the chance to go to the post office herself to message her contacts and arrange for the pick-up of the Diamond Dog clan. Agape herself admitted that the sleep spell always lasted a good twelve hours, though the dogs themselves might wake up faster than that.  At least their scents would be still around for the search party, even if Golden was rather curious on how they were planning on punishing the Diamond Dogs. Oh well, she could always send a letter asking, at some point.  Seeing that the unicorn was too occupied, she let out a sigh and decided to go visit the library. She might as well get some research done here. Especially since Agape, no Lyra’s Cutie Mark was very different from the show. Well, technically different, it was a golden lyre, in that it was a lyre harp with the golden color and a star with a heart in the middle at the bottom. She had no idea how Lyra got her Cutie Mark originally, and it was bad enough that Fluttershy’s Cutie Mark also changed, even if the filly seemed rather pleased with hers. Wait, don’t think about it, don’t think about it, shook her head, still feeling that uneasiness that made her wings want to flare. She tightened them under the binds and went out. The rest of the second week Golden spent in the library while Agape tested her magic over and over again, trying to replicate what she did with the sleeping spell with her other spells which came much easier when she summoned the lyre harp and played a song, or any other instruments. Golden put a stop to it when she came back just as Agape accidentally made all the hotel furniture come alive while humming and playing a certain song and one of the unicorn staff had to put it right again. "You have plenty of time to practice when you get back," she told Agape, who sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. By the end of the third week it was Agape's turn to pull Golden to a stop in her research when the unicorn saw the mountain of scrolls in the room Fluttershy had slept in. Then she read the contents. "Have you been researching my Cutie Mark?" Agape asked, a bit stunned to see a quarter of the scrolls on lyres or harps, their meanings and other ponies who had a harp as a cutie mark. "Well yes, I'm still trying to research why they call it a lyre harp even though the two instruments clearly have differences from one another! All I know is some lyres represent a talent in poetry and harp is the instrument of bards, but what does it mean together," North looked frazzled and rolling her eyes, Lyra picked the younger filly up with her magic and took her to the other room away from the chaos. "Look, it might be both of those things, the lyre harp just represents my desire to represent meanings of the lyre and the harp. I secretly like poetry though I don't tell many that, a bard is something similar right? Besides I've mastered practically every single type of instrument there is. With my best ones being all the types of lyres and the ten types of harps, but I didn't find what I wanted to do till you told me about those fictional ‘Harpers.’ How they were teachers that traveled around, telling stories and educating others and such, the other ones preserving history and art, generally being the good guys I wanted to do something like that. Sure its missing the crescent you said was part of the symbol and technically its not the real harp but it is something. Besides, you do not have to worry about me and my Cutie Mark, okay?" the unicorn stared at North whose ears drooped before she nodded, "Good, I'll arrange to have these scrolls sent to Pinkie in Canterlot. We cannot take them with us.”  A few moments later she stared at the large pile with a deadpan, "This will take a while, I really wish I knew that spell the princess gave Spike, I heard she is going to teach him how to send messages through fire when he's older," she stared at the pile hard, horn glowing as she summoned her magic, shaping it into a guitar and narrowing her eyes, she tried to remember how the spell sounded the one time Princess Celestia had done it in front of the class.  The guitar started a fast pace song as she tried to recall the sound of the spell and both of them flinched back when the entire pile of scrolls disappeared in a green flash, Golden’s face drained of color as her research for the past two months’ disappeared in a flash. "Oops, sorry,” Agape laughed sheepishly, “Maybe it wo-” she stared at the fainted filly in deadpan, her magic grabbing a hold of the blue spirit that started to disappear through the ceiling and slammed it back into the body, "Your fine," she rolled her eyes, the filly could have more faith at least. The fact that they did disappear showed she sent them somewhere, right? Recalling suddenly she didn't specify where to send them, her eyes turned into pinpricks, what if Princess Celestia received them?! Princess Celestia was teaching Twilight another lesson when a large pile of scrolls appeared in gold flames and music notes, covering the both of them. "What is this?" Twilight cried out, popping out of the scrolls while Celestia blinked a couple of times in surprise. "It appears someone has mastered my mailing spell," she leaned in to open one of the scrolls when a small note appeared in the same manner and she raised an eyebrow upon reading it, "Looks like Miss Lyra got her Cutie Mark and sent the scrolls to the wrong pony, it appears this was her first time doing it,” Celestia chuckled, “she asked 'what is the fastest way to wake up somepony who thought I destroyed her entire research of two months doing the spell and fainted?', sounds a bit like somepony I know," Twilight's cheeks pinked before realization hit the purple unicorn. "This is all from two months?" she squeaked, there must have been fifty scrolls here at least! Celestia opened one of the scrolls, "Oh my, this is rather neat hoofwriting, let's see, Sand Dollars and their Properties, this is rather detailed," Twilight, seeing what her mentor was doing, took a scroll herself and started reading. They were so engrossed in the scrolls it took a flash bang to startle them out of it, "Your Majesty, my niece sent me a note in a rather peculiar fashion begging me to hurry here and get some mail she sent while experimenting, I see its still here," Fancy Pants had an amused look at the twin looks of embarrassment as the two were caught snooping through someone's research. "I see," Celestia coughed, gathering up the scrolls into a neat pile, hiding her disappointed look better than Twilight who was rather interested in a detailed report on the prehensile capabilities of a pony's mane and tail to see if it was possible for ponies to write with them. Fancy Pants took the scrolls in his magic and gave a bow before leaving, "There is an interesting new column in the Canterlot Times for you to read if these caught your attention, articles written by North Star," he left and it was silent for a moment before Celestia called for a newspaper, using the time to finish teaching Twilight the lesson. Unaware of this, it took Golden a few minutes to wake up and see Agape's unamused expression, "The spell worked, Princess Celestia sent me confirmation a moment ago," the annoyed unicorn told her and Golden sat up, a blush on her face. "Sorry, the spell looked too much like certain other flames that took my scrolls up into smoke, well more like lightning but," Agape softened at that and bumped into Golden, thinking about what would happen if someone did that to her instruments and shuddered. "No big, knew I got the rhythm right," she cheered and Golden raised an eyebrow, "Rhythm?" "Yeah, I was trying to recall the sound of the spell Princess Celestia used and it worked," she saw the filly’s expression and started backing away, "Why are you looking at me like that?" "You can hear spells and remember what they sound like?" Golden’s eyebrow started to twitch, "Uh yeah? What's so special about that?" she’s always been able to do it, can’t everyone hear them? "And the sleeping spell you used, did you remember the sound from hearing someone else's spell?” Agape was starting to have a bad feeling about this. "Well yeah, I recalled mom doing it whenever I got too rowdy, though she always ended falling asleep as well," luckily that stopped when Uncle Fancy put a stern stop to it when she entered magical school. "So maybe your talent is pitch perfect spells, something that isn't at all common?" "Um, I guess?" Golden’s magic was flaring around her, and at another time Agape would feel impressed that it wasn’t destroying anything, but right now she felt too cold at the moment. "And you have had the ability to hear the sound of magic this whole time and didn't think to tell me in all the times we were trying to figure it out?" her glasses were glinting and the air in the room was getting even colder. Shivering at the cold presence, Agape laughed nervously, "Sorry, I didn't think it was all that important," then she noticed her sister’s focus towards the door and realized what the filly was intending. "Golden, no library, bad Golden!" she chased after the filly who made a break for the door then pivoted and jumped over her towards the window, but a few strums of magic and her momentum sent her crashing into the thankfully sturdy glass, sliding to the ground, Agape wincing at the impact. "Oops, let's get you to bed," muttering under her breath about studious ponies, the disguised unicorn tucked the younger filly in, taking in the dark rings under her eyes and made a vow to keep her sleeping for twenty hours if she had to. Then she saw Golden’s eyelids fluttering, and something moved on her barrel, but Agape couldn’t see what it was. Realization hit her, right, she knew what they were doing in the morning, and she was not going to let Golden, no North Wind, get out of this. Next Morning “Alright, the Diamond Dogs are completely gone. They’ve cleared the mining area, and your ‘contacts’ have ensured us they’ll keep an eye out for Wind Scar and any Royal Guards. Take them off,” Golden avoided the unicorn’s stare, staring at the mine’s walls and wishing that her ‘sisters’ new Cutie Mark distracted her a bit more. “It’ll be fine, it’s not like the binder is actually restric-” losing patience, Agape’s horn flared and Golden yelped as the straps on the binder fell off and it was taken from her, freeing her wings. Caught off guard, her wings flared and wind swirled around her, cutting into the walls and sending one of the discarded carts scattered across the ground. At least Agape wasn’t in the mines, Golden grimly thought, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as she directed the wind towards the walls, making the space around her even bigger. “Take a step back,” she told Agape, who disappeared from the opening, and Golden sighed, right, no more putting this off. She let go. For the next few years, ponies would talk about the mini canyon that appeared overnight, looking like some sort of large earthworm had fun with the place. They eventually turned the area into a skating park with the different passageways and it became a popular attraction for the young ponies. As the sun rose, Agape whistled as a panting Golden appeared, before collapsing on the ground next to her. “Feel better?” a hoof pointed in her direction, gesturing for the binding, and Agape rolled her eyes, “Fine,” she gave it to the filly who slipped it back on, looking almost relieved as her wings disappeared.  Golden shook her body, sending dust everywhere, Agape gave her a look. “Your taking a very long shower,” she got a deadpan stare in return. “I know,” she went ahead, and Agape gave one last glance at the new impression in the dirt before following after her. “Your not restraining yourself  for more than a week again, right?” she asked pointedly, Golden sighed. “Fine,” she didn’t have to look that reluctant about it, Agape thought to herself, sighing, this was going to be a long two weeks, wasn’t it? And she was going to make sure Golden relaxed, nothing else. By the time Fluttershy returned, pulling a cart behind her full of fruits and veggies, Agape had tied Golden to the bed seven times, once each night at seven, playing her song and having the pony sleep till the sun rose the next day. She kept a strict schedule of  going to the beach with her till noon where they would then have lunch at a restaurant or one of the stalls, bring back whatever seashells, rocks, or sand they collected back to the hotel before going to one of the stores marked as acceptable on Golden’s list. At four they at a light dinner before Agape let the younger filly go to the library till six-thirty, at which time she dragged the Pegasus filly, kicking and screaming in her magic back to the hotel, ignoring the complaints of unfinished scrolls or research as she dumped the filly in the bath for ten minutes before giving her a light snack and sending her to bed with the spell. A spell that unfortunately, Golden somehow became immune enough she woke up at midnight and continued working on that accursed trunk. Then, once every three days, she dragged a reluctant ‘Earth’ filly to different abandoned areas, from where the ‘canyon’ now was, to a small underwater cave on the beach. Golden would then release her magic and try to keep it in a contained area, which proved harder than it should be. Something kept throwing her off and once she ended up cutting through a cave floor into an even deeper passage.  Agape had to stop her from exploring when the water from the ocean found a way in, flooding the cave and making it difficult for further exploration. At least she got a few more pieces for her trunk restoration. Fluttershy returned to them just as Golden finished restoring the trunk and giving it a new paint job. She gave proper exclamations over Agape’s Cutie Mark, then asked if the two had fun in Tall Tale over the past month. Agape then whispered something in Fluttershy’s ear, which somehow ended with Golden being ‘grounded’ from her spices for the next week. Glaring at an unrepentant Agape, Golden walked over to the cart Fluttershy had brought in, asking where she got it from. "Oh I got the cart from a nice family on Smokey Mountain, and the vegetables from the other family, the Hooffields and McColts," Golden spluttered, catching her friend’s attention as she asked what was wrong, but the filly waved her off. "I'm okay," she could laugh at the names later. Giving her one last concerned look, Fluttershy explained that during the month she had come across animals who had told her of the two families fighting one another and bringing the valley between two of the peaks to ruin. "They told me the real reason behind the whole feud and I convinced Miss Amethyst to help me talk to them," the Earth Pony had not been all that thrilled with the situation but had agreed and the two made each family meet in the middle of the valley where Fluttershy told them the real truth, "I realized the families each had a talent that could be combined to make the valley thrive, and Miss Amethyst who knows Earth Ponies better than I do, managed to convince them to combine their talents so that one family doesn't have to suffer bad buildings while the other can have the right amount of food. In the end they thanked our group by giving us a brand new cart filled with vegetables and fruit." Golden saw that Fluttershy had clearly gained some confidence from this venture and smiled, though Lyra frowned "Wait, what happened to the other groups, where were they this whole time?" Fluttershy looked uncomfortable. "Actually they avoided those two mountains and some of them had egged on the families, one group taking most of the produce while the other took building supplies when the families weren't looking. Miss Amethyst and the other trainers weren't very happy with them. Though some of them kept to the forests surrounding the mountains," Golden wasn’t all that surprised. "I'm just glad you didn't have any problems, I know how you are with heights," she commented and Fluttershy retreated behind her hair. "I didn't look down," she admitted and froze, as if realizing something, "Oh, we have to travel on mountains to the next stop," she started shaking, it had been easy to ignore before because of how much the animals needed her help, but the Unicorn Range? Golden and Agape exchanged looks, this was not going to be easy, was it?