Some of the teachers would say that her talent would eventually be this: precision and order.
It was common knowledge for only a very select few outside of Starspire that not only winged ponies live on floating Islands. The order of Mentats– Bat-unicorns– for ages were surrounded by honor. And for good reason. After all, only here, at unthinkable heights, bearers of magical gifts were born among the winged ponies. Small in numbers, unpredictable, and therefore - they always attracted a lot of attention.
When from the day you were born, you were told ‘you are special.’ Inevitably, you will start being proud that, instead of wings behind your back, you got a horn on your head. Normal in length, spiraled, and a bit dull at the end, your horn set you apart from other ponies. But most importantly — even at such a young age, capable of casting conscious magic.
Mentats were few among the thestrals. Just one in two or three hundred, or even less. And most of them — stallions. Not surprisingly, Loadstar was the only filly in the class. And, of course, she tried her best to prove to everyone– not least to herself– that she was no worse than boys. Or possibly even better than the colts.
In addition, she had an eye catching appearance: dark-purple, almost black fur, and, as if in stark contrast, mane and tail as white as snow.
Loadstar walked down the street, and in front of her in red-ish magical glow (that matched the colour of her eyes) floated a sizable list of tasks for today. To her credit, about a third of them was already marked by chunky X's: morning exercise, school, homework, and a few others. Loadstar was an exemplary student, and she would consider a B+ to be a crushing failure! Her orderliness was set as an example not just in her class, but for the whole school.
Some of the teachers would say that her talent would eventually be this: precision and order.
"So!" thought little mentat, checking the list as she walked "Quills, notes, ingredients for alchemy lessons, oh, and ..."
The thought was abruptly cut by a sudden jolt. Little mentat fell from her hooves and stretched out in the dust, losing her concentration and as a result, her list. On top of that, her square glasses flew of her muzzle, and everything went blurry in front of her eyes. Early childhood in constant company of books did not go without exacting a price from her slightly slanted, expressive eyes.
"Ow!" squeaked someone nearby.
Loadstar pushed away someone's hoof that was trying to help her up. She fumbled around on the ground, and finally found and fitted her glasses back on her nose. Good thing they did not break! She could have picked them up with telekinesis, but little filly had learned that talent only recently, and old habits were hard to break.
«I cannot wait for the practice portion of the transfiguration class to start» She thought to herself «just so i can turn bumbling fools into something more small and nasty... yeah, fufflers will do. They are not small, but are gross».
"You have to be more careful" she cried out, looking at a young thestral sitting on her flank next to her. "What? Sky's not enough for you?"
Young thestral shyly lowered her eyes and ears.
"Sorry..." The thestral was astonishingly ordinary: dark-gray fur, gold-ish eyes, pale-purple mane of a very tousled variety. Empty flanks: she probably was no older than Loadstar.
"Oy!" someone roared from above "Don't bully my friend!"
The second filly, brighter in colour than the first, skillfully laid a turn over everyone’s heads, dove down, and landed on the cobbled pavement in a cloud of dust.
Loadstar choked from outrage.
"Bully her? I am the aggrieved party here!"
Winged fillies looked at each other. Loadstar noticed that the second thestral too, had a blank flank.
"What's a grave party?" asked the first one.
"That means," Loadstar fixed her glasses while answering, "that all of this was not my fault."
That was said with a tone she used to talk to her dumber classmates, those who were unable to grasp even the simplest of classes. Like, Calculations for triple-level cascade transformation of stardust.
"You dropped this, little mistress," young stallion's voice suddenly boomed next to them, while someone passing by handed her list back to little mentat.
"Thank you kind sir," She nodded and caught the list in a magic field.
It felt like both of the winged fillies just noticed the horn on their companions head. Loadstar suppressed the urge to just throw her head up and walk away, seeing the reaction on young thestrals faces.
"What are you looking at?" she grumbled. "Never saw a young mentat before?"
"Na-ah," replied the second filly. "At least never this close. I'm Aria Midnight, and that's Grey Mouse."
"Loadstar, and while we are at it, what was the point of flying so close to the ground?"
Fillies laughed. Little enchantress suddenly felt like a real adult around this two, so she decided to stay with them for a while.
"Well... we just wanted to find our cutie marks" Grey Mouse quietly replied, hiding behind Aria.
"And a high speed fly by seemed like a great idea to try!" Aria added. "Is was Grey's turn, I was flying higher and looking if something would have gone wrong."
Loadstar's brow arced in surprise:
"That's not a very effective way, I'd say... And the fact that you are speeding around Starspire's streets chasing your calling... What methods are you using? Why would you want to rush the inevitable?"
Fillies looked at each other.
"You're talking just like my mom." said Aria Midnight, drooping hear ears in embarrassment.
"And who would that be?"
"A librarian at the Night Tower," Little thestral admitted, not without a hint of pride.
"Night Tower librarian is a Pegasus," Loadstar squinted. "And you don't look like a day-pony."
"That's my mom!" Aria smiled. "Shiny Sun! And you are talking just like her."
Loadstar mentally marked this weird bit in information and decided to check on it later while asking aloud: "Anyway, why have you decided that speeding on the streets and slamming into ponies is your calling?"
"We have not decided that yet," said Aria, "We are just trying everything at random."
"Everything?" Loadstar asked surprised "But how... Don't you care what your cutie mark will be? Even if..."
"Now That's a real mentat!" the perky thestral noted. "Join us, and together we will find the marks for sure!"
"I don't have time for this silliness," pouted young mentat.
"Don't you want to find your calling too?" asked Grey Mouse suddenly and quietly, poking behind her friends back.
Loadstar looked at her blank flank. Temptation was too strong. Plus, finding someone who might turn into a real friend (and was unlike those students that were handling themselves with mentats dignity) was a bonus of its own... also it was hard to say no to those two pairs of pleading golden eyes.
"Well alright," she said. "But on a condition that we will not do such silly things."
"What are we going to do then?" Aria asked immediately.
"I'll see what I can figure out," Loadstar nodded imposingly. "Let's meet at the library, since we all have access to it..."
"Yay!" there was a two-voice cry, after that Loadstar squeaked in surprise when she felt four hoofs lifted her into the air.
"We are going to have a real club!" Aria shouted, lowering her new friend back to the ground.
"And now we need a name!"
"Club?" Grey Mouse asked quietly.
"Well yeah, one pony – is one pony," explained brightly colored thestral. "Two ponies are friends, and three, united by a single goal – is a club. My Mom told me. I think..."
"So we do need a name then," Loadstar smiled.
"How about... Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Aria suggested.
"No, I don't like it," Loadstar squirmed. "That sounds like we don't know what we are looking for. We need something more fitting... and cooler."
Fillies stood there thinking.
Suddenly there was a smile on Grey Mouse's face, and a spark of joy in her eyes.
"How about … Cutie Mark Stalkers?" She said.
Loadstar brows flew up in surprise. A solid idea? That soon?
"That's great!" she said. "It shows that we are not just fumbling about, and looking for something. We are professionally going towards our target."
"Yay!" thestrals cried in unison, fluttering their wings in excitement. "We are Cutie Mark Stalkers!"
"Well then, first club meeting will be tomorrow, at the Big Library's tower," reminded Loadstar with a grave face. "The agenda is: find out what cutie marks we would need. I will wait for you all at five hours after midnight after school. Don't be late."
With that she started walking down the road, hearing her new friends wing clapping behind her.
She pulled her list and added two new tasks: “Find new uniform for the club” and ”Write down club's rules and schedule”.
With that, the young mentat, extremely pleased with herself, clattered down the cobblestone road of Starspire.
Who would have thought that a simple bump on the street could turn out like that!
