The sun's rays sifted through the cracks in the blinds and graced the cheek of a pegasus colt with a gentle caress like that of a mother. The child groaned softly and rolled onto his back before yawning while absentmindedly scratching his groin. He cracked his eyes open and stared about his room absently as his brain slowly dragged itself into gear.
After a few minutes of blank staring the colt fell out of his bed, realising too late that he had converted the sheets into a nest like structure in his sleep. With a grunt he flailed his limbs to free himself and restoring his stance to a vertical position and trotted out of his room towards the kitchen.
His entrance was met by the energetic greetings of his parents who had no doubt been up for some time before he had. With the staggering gait of someone who had just risen from slumber and had yet to fully awake he approached the kitchen table and deposited himself in one of the chairs.
“What would you like for breakfast, Kitten?” Windancer's motherly trill drifted into the colt's ears. “Oatmeal? I hear it's a stable for growing colts.”
“Urmhugmarfrm.”
“Gale?”
“He said, 'Yeah, that sounds good.' Dear.” The male gryphon replied without lifting his head from a copy of the Foal Free Press.
The gryphoness looked between her husband and son with a deadpan expression before muttering something about males and turning to prepare the oatmeal for her child.
After placing the bowl in front of the child, who quickly began to shovel the food into his waiting internal black hole, the gryphoness wandered back into the kitchen and wondered aloud, “Now what to make for your lunch? Perhaps something nutritious to keep you attentive?”
“Fergmrmnhrm...”
“There is no school today dear, it's a weekend.”
Slowly the gryphoness turned towards her husband and child only to find the bowl that had been filled with oatmeal empty and spinning lazily on the table with the child nowhere to be seen. Her eyes narrowed and turned her gaze towards her husband before opening her beak to voice a question.
“He’s gone out to explore the town, Dear.” Gale cut off his wife before she could even start. The edge of his newspaper tilted down to allow him to look her in the eye before he added with a purr, “He knows I’m the only one who can do anything when you get like this.”
All Windancer could think to do in reply was to blush.
It didn’t take Skywinder long to be well out of earshot of his home as he mentally recorded every weave and turn he took around random buildings and corners. He was quickly forming a mental map of the area around his home if for no other use then good places to hide from his folks.
He didn’t really need to, but if they ever decided to play hide and seek he wanted to be ready.
As his journey spiralled outwards further and further from his starting point he noticed an odd noise coming from down the street that, if he remembered right, lead to the river with a windmill.
A serene voice rippled through the air, the sound of which was the most beautiful that he had ever heard. Tracing it to its source, he was faced with the prettiest young unicorn he had ever laid eyes on, not that he had met all that many. Her eyes were closed as she sang, breathing pure life into the air in her dulcet tones. Her two-toned pink and purple mane and tail were immaculately curled and brushed, and made a perfect contrast to her pristine white coat.
After a moment, she seemed to realise she was not alone, as she stopped singing and looked around, quickly catching sight of him. Her eyes were a striking emerald green, bright and full of life shinning out of her youthful face – a face whose cheeks were now tinted a rosy pink.
“Y-Y-You heard that?!” the filly squeaked before hiding her face behind her hooves. If not for nearly damaging his eardrums with her pitch the colt would have almost found her position cute.
“You where singing outdoors.” He deadpanned in reply while flapping his ears in a vain attempt to shake the ringing loose, “Kind of hard not to hear when you’re belting it out louder then a kookaburra on laughing gas.”
“How could you say that?!” she demanded indignantly, “I don’t even know what a kookaburra is and I find that offensive!”
Skywinder just shrugged with his wings, “A very loud bird from back home that could hold a tune.”
Sweetie’s retort caught in her throat as she looked at him and actually recognized him for the first time, “OH!” She squeaked, “You’re the new colt from yesterday!” She sniffed before nodding slightly, “I’ll forgive this once but don’t do it again, ok?!”
The colt sighed in exasperation, genuinely having no idea what he’d done wrong but replied in the affirmative anyway. If this filly was anything like his mother it was probably best if he just gave her what she wanted…
Surely she would leave him alone quicker…
He then realised her eyes had focused on his unmarked flank. This reminded him of how all the adult ponies he’d seen had adorned some sort of symbol on their rear ends for whatever reason. He assumed it was some sort of tribal tradition.
“Oh hey, you’re a Blank Flank too?” the filly asked, excitement suddenly filling her voice. She raised a hoof to her chest and chirped, “I’m Sweetie Belle! It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance!”
She wasn’t going away was she?
“I’m Skywinder.” He replied with another wing-shrug. After a pause he asked, “What’s the big deal about being a ‘Blank Flank’ anyway? First those two fillies who gave me a hard time called me that and now you’re using it…”
The unicorn filly looked at him with a confused stare before answering, “It means you haven’t gotten your Cutie Mark yet. Everypony knows that!”
He shook his head and looked her in the eyes, “Well, I have no idea what this ‘Cutie Mark’ or whatever is.” Was it some kind of tribal tattoo foals of this culture get for completing some kind of coming-of-age ritual?
In that moment you could have heard a pin drop as Sweetie Belle’s face twisted into uncomprehending confusion and shock. For a brief moment the colt wondered if he’d said something unspeakably offensive.
“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT A CUTIE MARK IS?!” Sweetie Belle shrieked with enough force to blow the surprised colt clean off his hooves and shift the nearby houses off centre. She inhaled a few breaths to try and calm down before continuing with an obviously distressed, cracking voice, “How is that even possible? It-it… where have you been living all this time?! The Moon?!”
The colt flipped himself back onto his hooves in a single swift motion, catching the filly’s eye, before giving another casual wing-shrug, “The Southern Continent, Terra Serpantis. I told you and the other…” He paused to find the right word, “Foals? I think that’s the word, anyway I told you all that yesterday.”
Sweetie had the decency to blush in embarrassment before clearing her throat and explaining, “Well a Cutie Mark is something every colt and filly gets when they find their special talent. It tells us who we are and how we should live our lives to be as fulfilling as possible.”
“So you find your talent and the adults give you a Cutie Mark.” Skywinder nodded, “Kinda like my tribes coming of age ceremony.”
“What? Nononono.” Sweetie shook her head vigorously, “Nopony ‘gives’ you a Cutie Mark, it just appears on your flank and that’s that.” She smiled at the colt hoping he understood now.
His incredulous expression told her otherwise.
“Um… ANYWAY!” She skipped up to the colt and grinned, “Since you don’t have a Cutie Mark either you should meet my friends Apple Bloom, she’s an Earth Pony with a red mane and yellow coat, and Scootaloo, a Pegasus with purple mane and orange coat, and if they like you could become…” She paused for dramatic effect, “A CUTIE MARK CRUSADER!!”
This is a horrible nightmare, it has to be. Skywinder’s eyebrows creased into an upwards V while his jaw hung open in horror. To make matters worse the filly was now looking at him with a huge grin and sparkling eyes. How could he have angered the Rainbow Serpent to visit such horrors upon him? “I’ll… consider it…?” He replied nervously, eyes darting too and fro for an escape route.
Salvation came in the form of a pink unicorn with purple mane who poked her head out of a nearby house and called out, “Sweetie Belle, could you be a dear and give your old mother a hand?”
The filly jumped slight and looked towards the older unicorn, “I’ll be there in a second, Mum!” She looked back at Skywinder with a sheepish grin before apologizing, “Guess I got to go, see you later Skywinder.” She then galloped off into the house.
After a moment Skywinder blinked and muttered, “I can only hope we won’t…” before he turned on his heels and trotted off in a random direction.
Within five minutes he was positive he knew where he was.
And that was at an apple farm. The problem was he had absolutely no idea where the farm was in relation to his house. Farmers where often very hospitable folk so he figured he could ask for directions and be on his way back home.
Surely he could manage that without getting sidetracked by another nuisance, right?
…Why did it suddenly feel like the Dream Spirits where grinning at him?
As his eyes roved around the area, taking in the sight of row after row of apple trees lining the grounds, a distinctly accented voice caught his attention from nearby. “Howdy y'all!” it said, “Welcome tuh Sweet Apple Acres!”
He turned to see a young filly who couldn't have been any older than himself happily working away on fixing the fence that ran through the orchard. She had a rust-red mane and tail, both of which were kept in a rather loose flowing style, with a large pink bow tied in her mane. Her coat was a similar yellow to the flesh of the farm's main produce, complemented by the amber hue of her large and expressive eyes. This had to be Apple Bloom, another of the Cutie Mark Crusaders the crazy unicorn had mentioned.
“Ain't yuh gonna interduce yerself?” she asked with a friendly smile.
The colt silently wondered to himself exactly how much the filly had between her ears. So far, she struck him as being a pretty face and not much else.
“Skywinder.” The pegasus replied with a deadpan. He had introduced himself to just about every foal in this town the day before, how was it they’d all forgotten already?
“Well Ah’m Apple Bloom!” The filly declared as she suddenly appeared in front of the colt and started shaking his hoof so violently he was lifted off the ground, all with her eyes closed. As she let him go, placing him back on his hooves as she did so, she opened her eyes and chirped, “It’s muh pleasure to make yuh acquaintance!”
“Yeah… a pleasure.” Came the muddled response from the stunned colt. He felt like he’d been used for hunting practice by-
“So wutcha doin’ around these here parts?” The filly cut off his line of thought, “Ya’ll got business at the farm? Wanna buy some apples?” She asked before bringing a hoof to her chin as she thought for a moment, “Hmm… Big Macintosh should still be at the market though…”
“I’m not here to buy any apples.” Skywinder replied while shaking the cobwebs from his mind, “I don’t even know what they taste like anyway…” He muttered under his breath before continuing, “I just need some directions because I got a little lost, new town and all that.”
“YA’LL DON’T KNOW WUT AN APPLE TASTES LIKE?!”
So… loud…
As the colt opened his mouth to explain why he had never tasted an apple before he found it stuffed with an imperfectly spherical fruit muffling his retort. Glaring at the filly he began to chew, the apples juices squirting from the pulverised fruit and flowing about in his mouth. After a few moments the colt spat out the core and seeds before swallowing.
Apple Bloom stood before him with a massive expectant grin on her childish muzzle.
After several moments of just staring at her with half-lidded eyes Skywinder wing-shrugged, “It was alright I suppose.”
“Yuh suppose?!” Apple Bloom glared at him, blatantly offended, “Ah’ll have yuh know that Sweet Apple Acres is THE producer of THE finest Apples in all of Equestria!!”
The colt looked her in the eye for a moment with a tilted head, “I’ll take your word for it.” He wing-shrugged as her glare deepened, “I can barely tell the difference in taste between lettuce and celery.”
Apple Bloom blinked in surprise, both lettuce and celery had distinctly different flavours. Lettuce tended to be more mild while celery was more defined with a slightly tangy and a little bit of bitterness defining its flavour. And that’s not even delving into the texture.
Yet this colt couldn’t tell the difference? No wonder he had no idea how good Sweet Apple Acre Apples where… and he was adopted too…
Why, no wonder he was acting so miserable!
Skywinder blood ran cold as he noticed Apple Bloom’s face melt into an expression of pity. He hated that look. The few ponies he’d met during the move from Terra Serpantis to Equestria that had learned of his parentage had looked at him in much the same way and had tried to coddle him.
They had treated him like some kind of delicate flower that would die the moment the slightest amount of stress was applied to it. He was a male of the Ninganarra and prided himself on the strength that came with that upbringing.
He noticed the filly slightly shift her weight and reacted by springing away right as she reared up to try and embrace him in a hug. Being surprised and off balance Apple Bloom finds herself face down on the ground. As the shock wore off she pulled herself to her feet in time to see the colt dashing off in the direction of the town.
Apple Bloom only knew a little Kung Fu, having been taught some by Rainbow Dash, though that little was enough to recognize a fighter when she saw one move. She could tell the pegasus colt had done a fair bit of training, enough that it was so ingrained he hadn’t even thought about it.
This just puzzled her more, why was a pony her age doing with that much fighting ability?
Looking down at her hoof she remembered the way his has felt; hard and rough with a strong, firm grip. Perhaps she already had all the information she needed to answer her own question.
Yet it only made her want to learn more.
A blush crept across her cheeks as she remembered one last detail about his hoof. It had been warm and inviting, so very, very warm.
Some distance away Skywinder’s hooves slowed to a trot as he glanced around the various buildings that surrounded him. Breathing deeply in through his nostrils and exhaling through his mouth he quickly regained what breath he had lost in his rush to escape the crazy Earth Pony filly.
He was also able to confirm that he was still lost.
Only this time he was within earshot of the markets where he could likely ask for directions. Hopefully this time he could do it without getting sidetracked by some crazy filly.
He sighed and pulled his expression into that of exasperation, So maybe that was a little harsh…
Looking back the two fillies hadn’t really been that ba-
“Hey, watch out!” a slightly rough-sounding voice yelled. He looked round a little too late: there was only a brief glimpse of orange, purple and red, before the scooter that had been bearing down on him knocked him flat. He heard a crash and a muffled “Ow!” as the pegasus that had yelled at him tumbled off the vehicle.
“Jeez... can't you watch where you're going!?” she complained. He shook his head to clear it of stars and sat up, blinking, as his vision focused on the indignant pegasus approaching him. He had to hold in a gasp – Scootaloo, as he'd worked out from the description he'd heard from her friend, was by no means as outright beautiful as her unicorn friend, but there was something about her.
Something rough, something untamed... it was reflected by the fact that her dark magenta mane and tail both were rather rough around the edges, and he got the general impression that she didn't care much how she looked and wanted everyone to know she was above that girly nonsense.
“Hey, are you alright?” she questioned, a suspicious look in her amethyst eyes. “You're kinda just... staring. Look, sorry for running you over. I didn't see ya there in time. You really should be more careful crossing the street, though.”
The colt’s eye twitched.
Three for three…
There was no way this could all be coincidence. The Dream Spirits had to be setting this up somehow. All the old legends said nothing about them interfering with the lives of the Tribes and yet he found himself with them seemingly throwing fillies at him.
As soon as he became an Elder he was going to scold the shit out of every last one of them.
“Skywinder? Helloo?” The orange filly poked the colt curiously as his silence continued. Her violet eyes slowly examined his purple form, her eyes lingering on his wings slightly longer then the rest of him, before finally settling on his flank before returning to his eyes.
“Huh?” Skywinder suddenly snapped out of his daze and looked Scootaloo in the eye, “Hey, you remembered my name!”
The filly rolled her eyes and shrugged, “Duh, of course I did! You know how few pegasi live in Ponyville?” She watched his expression shift, turning puzzled before sighing, “Right, different country. Anyway; there is only like six of us and most of them are only here because their parents are part of the weather team.”
Skywinder grunted and shook his head, “The idea of manually changing the weather still weirds me out.” Gryphons may have been able to stand on clouds but they couldn’t move them or manipulate them like how pegasi could. In all his experience with manual weather systems consisted of an overnight stay in a hotel back on Terra Serpantis and two days getting settled into his new home.
Other then that Watering Hole Incident, but that didn’t count since that definitely never happened.
“So your home was kind of like the Everfree Forest?” Scootaloo asked while shivering slightly, the mere thought of that forest gave her the creeps. “I guess I can understand what you mean.”
The colt grunted an indistinct response while rubbing his head where the filly’s scooter had impacted it. This brought his mind to a question of his own, “So why where you charging this way faster then an angry Emu?”
“OH!” Scootaloo perked up excitedly, the glimmer of passion entered the filly’s eyes and drew the attention of the colt, “I was trying to follow the most stupendously amazingly awesomest pony among awesome ponies, THE one and only Rainbow Dash, of course!”
“Who?” He asked and immediately regretted that single word more then any other he had ever spoken.
“YOU DON’T KNOW WHO RAINBOW DASH IS?!”
Three… for… three…
“How can you not know who Rainbow Dash is?!” Scootaloo cried in indignation. The very idea that her idol could be unheard of by anypony simply didn’t sit well with the filly.
“Only been in Equestria for two days you know.” Skywinder replied indignantly.
A crazed look entered Scootaloo’s eyes as she placed her hooves on the colt’s shoulders and declared, “Well, we’ll just have to fix that and induct you into the Rainbow Dash fan club! All young pegasi should look up to Rainbow Dash!”
NopeNopeNopeNopeNope.
The young colt knew exactly where this was going to go. If he went with the filly he would end up with some ridiculous headwear, possibly tied to the ceiling and surrounded by strange fillies. He had been naïve during his family’s one day stay in Sydneigh and he was not about to let that happen again.
Like a bolt of lightning his fore hooves shot up between Scootaloo’s and pushed outwards, breaking him from her grip. His hind legs sprung into action and threw him away from the filly, into a flip from which he landed on all fours.
Surprise was clearly written all over the filly’s face as the colt wasted no time capitalizing on the opening it created. His wings buzzed to life like little motors as he sprinted away, his feathered appendages granting him greater speed then pure galloping would allow.
The roar of beating juvenile wings behind him told the colt the crazed filly had snapped out of it in time to give chase. A quick glance behind himself revealed that she was riding a blue scooter, her wings beating furiously as she raced after him.
Normally in the outback there was little in the way of obstacles to be avoided or used to ones advantage to get away so everything used either powerful venoms to stop its foes or pure speed to get away. Only the Wedged-Tailed Gryphons could afford to rely on raw strength.
Skywinder lacked the natural strength of his Tribesmen and had thus needed to develop a way to out run anything that tried to attack him. A combination of strong legs, strong wings and an innate understanding of aerodynamics allowed him to find a way to combine the pure speed his wings and hooves could generate when combined with angled beats to create down force, granting and overall greater top speed then even an angry kangaroo.
Ponyville was full of obstacles of all shapes and descriptions. A gentle rainbow shimmer played across the colt’s eyes as they darted to and fro absorbing all the information they could about the area directly ahead of the colt. With a mental map formed in his mind in less than a second the colt planned his route to freedom and continued his boosted gallop.
Moving with precision born of years of martial training the colt dodged and weaved between adult hooves eliciting gasps and indignant shouts from those whose paths he crossed. With fluid grace he altered the course of his momentum by using a crate as spring board onto the shade cloth of a vendor which he in turn used to launch himself high into the air where he performed a forward flip before landing on the roof of a nearby building.
Hot on his tail Scootaloo spotted a plank of wood laying against a barrel of oranges and angled her scooter towards it, using it as a ramp to launch herself into the air. As she sailed through the air she lifted her rear hooves from the scooter and spun the deck in a tail whip before landing on a beam connecting several vendors and racing along the narrow surface, occasionally glancing down at the colt as she chased him.
As Skywinder bounced into the air Scootaloo had no option but to hop off the beam and race into the alley way, ollie-ing over a trashcan as she went. As she shot out the other side she glanced up at where she thought he should have been and saw nothing but empty air. Furrowing her brow she glanced all around in confusion before grumbling.
After a moment of pouting her little wings buzzed as her thoughts drifted over the colt’s wings. Small like hers, not ready to let him fly just yet but strong and muscular with very healthy feathers. A faint blush, barely hidden by her coat, crept across her cheeks as she wondered what it would be like to preen them.
Shaking her head violently she silently admonished herself for thinking of something so uncool before spinning her scooter on the spot. She cast a grumpy glance at where she thought Skywinder had disappeared before her wings roared to life once more and carried her away with her scooter.
A fair distance down the road a violet mare with a blonde mane stopped pushing a cloud and smirked, resting her elbows on the edge as a smirk spread across her face, “She’s gone, you can come out now.”
Her eyes twinkled with barely contained mirth as a dark purple colt emerged from within the cloud. The utterly exasperated expression on the colt’s face tipped the mare over the edge and she burst out with uncontrolled laughter.
As her cackling settled down to a gentle giggling she asked, “So why where you running from Scootaloo anyway?”
“I’ve been in this country for two days so I don’t know who this ‘Rainbow Dash’ pony is, she suddenly went crazy talking about some fan club as was going to make me join.” Skywinder replied without losing his deadpan. A quick glance at the sky confirmed that it wasn’t even noon yet.
The mare just burst into laughter again for a few moments before regaining her composure, “Yeah, that’s Scootaloo for you; always obsessing over her idol.” Her pink eyes met the colt’s orange as she smiled, “The name’s Cloud Kicker, nice to meet you little guy!”
“Skywinder of the Ninganarra.” The colt replied before deciding to get the inevitable questions out of the way, “My parents are Wedged-Tailed gryphons from Terra Serpantis, they moved here so I could learn pony culture yada-yada.” He waved a hoof about vaguely as he spoke.
“Wedged-Tailed gryphons, eh?” The mare smirked as she scratched her chin with a hoof.
“I hear they’re about double the size of the Northern gryphons.”
“Really?” Cloud Kicker’s grin grew further.
“Yeah.” Skywinder wing shrugged before beginning a question, “Say, I’m lost. You wouldn’t- huh?” It was at that moment he noticed a rather large shadow had enshrouded him. Glancing up he noticed what looked like a rather large, and heavy, bag falling towards him, “Aw…”
In a blur the colt disappeared from in front of Cloud Kicker and the cloud exploded followed shortly from a loud thud echoing from the ground below. Heaving a sigh the violet mare cast her gaze skyward as an apologetic voice called down.
“I just don’t know what went wrong!”