North Wind: Earning your Cutie Mark

by BlackBonitaCherry

Epilogue- Creatures in Canterlot

“So how long can you stay up like that? Don’t your wings get tired?” North thought about the question, a giggling Pinkie jumping in the small wind tunnel she created, free of wind blades and letting the filly spin to the top before shooting out into the castle pond. Lyra already had her turn and was getting her bearings, swirls in her eyes, while Garble tried creating his own tunnel, flapping his wings and looking frustrated at his lack of progress.

Giggling hit her ears as the wind enjoyed the show, and she ignored it, glancing at Fluttershy who was bending her wings in different directions according to a scroll Judge Oak prepared for her.

“Consider I once flew for seven hours, five of which were spent fleeing from teenage dragons, I’m not sure,” blue eyes widened in surprise.

“Seven hours?! That’s a lot,” those eyes turned to her wings, looking a bit self-conscious, “Hopefully I’ll be able to fly as well, these new wings are rather different to what I’m used to,” North smiled at her friend, not looking back as Reese appeared out of nowhere to jump into the tunnel, tackling a shrieking Lyra into the pond with a cackle.

“You’ll get the hang of it, and if you don’t want to ask for pointers from the Nocturne tribe, you can always ask one of your similarly winged friends,” she wasn’t going to force the filly to meet with them after her ordeal, even if the one’s responsible were punished.

“Oh, no I don’t mind talking to them, Judge Oak and Crescent Spiral were rather kind, and the latter’s cousin sent me a bunch of tips on how to take care of my wings and even a new toothbrush,” Fluttershy bit her lip, “I just, I don’t know if I can go near the Badlands for a while, it’ll take some time,” North landed on her hooves and pulled the filly closer to her,

“That’s fine, no one’s forcing you to,” they would have basked at the moment a bit more and gone on to enjoy their picnic that the princess had arranged.

Unfortunately, someone had other ideas.

Both she and Fluttershy stiffened, and in the corner of her eye she saw Pinkie’s mane going flat, the filly glaring towards the exit with her hooves on the ground.

Sharing a glance, the two nodded before the wind tunnel disappeared, Reese pausing in flying into it with a look of confusion before yelping when North flew passed her, a tail made of wind wrapping around the disguised griffin and carrying her off while Fluttershy whispered to a confused Lyra and Pinkie galloped with a bewildered Garble clinging to her back.

They fled towards the castle, North leading them down a passage in the side, closing the door just as a Royal Guard appeared in their picnic area, looking around with a frown on his face.

“Why ar-” North shushed Reese, pointing at the Guard who took his helmet off, the illusion spell dissipating to reveal a rainbow mane, the stallion searching with his eyes, and they ducked before he could spot them through the bars.

“I thought Princess Celestia dealt with all the corrupted Guards,” Lyra hissed, “And didn’t that guy give up after the first time we avoided him?” North sighed.

“Probably thinks if he catches me, he can take me to Cloudsdale without getting into any trouble,” not to mention while he was associated with Wind Scar, he hadn’t done anything treacherous like the other guards had.

The only thing he was guilty of was delusion, and possibly neglect.

“Well the Princess does want you to give a briefing of everything, so maybe you can talk to her about it?," at the thought of the briefing North snorted.

"If we ever get to it," she muttered, seeing Reese's confusion and the others' understanding.

After Master Ruffalo's appearance and the fillies plus dragon hiding in the secret passage, Princess Celestia had been a bit sidetracked.

Plus, she sent some Guards with Po to search the temple for any journals.

And maybe Wind Scars corpse while they're at it. Until that time they were still guests at the castle, and North still wasn't sure what that group she saw before was doing.

Nor why Granny Smith was there either.

North could understand that, but she was itching to get it over with so that they could all move on.

The only upside was getting to cl-explore the secret passageways throughout the castle.

Whether or not the Princess was aware of them doing it.

With their combined abilities, Lyra’s Perfect Magic Pitch, Pinkie’s Blessing, Fluttershy’s talent with animals, Garble’s sense of smell towards different types of rocks, and her knowledge combined with the Wind had them mapping out a majority of the castle during the three days.

They found at least ten escape routes from the throne room (five unused, two a bit small for their intended use, not that any of them were going to say that to the princess, and the other three led to the kitchen, a private pantry filled with cakes, and a bedroom with a sun themed decor.

Pinkie almost got into the cakes, if Lyra hadn’t shielded them and Fluttershy hadn’t taken the younger filly aside to scold her for eating someone else’s food.

Even if it was obvious the Princess wasn’t supposed to have them, she even had some under preservation charms and upon checking the dates, they all agreed to leave the pantry alone.

Several passageways led into the crystal caverns and Garble gorged himself silly before they managed to drag him away.

Then they discovered a private chorus room with instruments that had both Lyra and Pinkie being dragged away.

Fluttershy was gently and firmly turned away from a strange window overlooking an even weirder butterfly garden, with creatures not unseen in fairy tale myths; and it took a promise to ask the Princess for permission that had her reluctantly continuing with them.

They did come upon a lab with old relics and the like, and North spent five seconds in the room.

That was enough for her to leave.

The Wind did not like it here.

The last room they discovered ended up with all of her friends dragging her kicking and screaming, pleading with them to let her stay in the room for one no two hours.

Five tops.

Lyra’s sleeping spell was the only thing that managed to stop her, and on unanimous agreement, everyone decided to play outside.

Which is how they came to this situation.

“You know-” “No,” pouting at her friend’s answer, North’s wings twitched, her eyes moving away from the wall towards another spot, hooves digging into the packed earth.

“I just nee-” “No,” “No one’s touched that ma-” “For good reason-” “THere’s no good reason for that kind of negle-” “Ask the Princess for permission first,” Fluttershy interjected, North shot her a betrayed glance, but her normally shy friend just raised an eyebrow in response.

North grumbled to herself, mind whirling as she came up with the idea after idea on how she could fix something like that machine.

Lyra groaned,

“If you need to fix or clean something, why don’t you start with the passageways? That one behind the throne room-” “I already did,” “was dir- what, when?” North avoided their glances, finding a particular spot on the floor fascinating.

Huh, looks like she wasn’t as thorough as she thought.

“North Wind,” Fluttershy’s voice was firm and she winced, glancing up at her friends, all of them with unamused looks, well, except Reese and Garble who found it amusing.

“Wwwelll, I could not exactly sleep, and the Wind doesn’t like dirt just lying around-” “Do not use your Blessing as an excuse,” Lyra warned her, North huffed,

“I could not get it out of my head okay? They should hire more maids, or fire the ones they have if they’re neglecting their duties,” Lyra facehooved.

“You realize, they might not even know its there,” “Not an excuse,” North stated, “Now if you’ll excuse me since we’ve explored the whole castle now, let’s just go back to the Planetarium, I want to see how to mess- what,” all of them, even Garble were exchanging weird glances and North narrowed her eyes, “What’s wrong with the planetarium?” Pinkie Pie nervously laughed.

“About that-” she trailed off.

----------

Twenty minutes later

North stared up at the building, feeling the annoyance bubble up as ponies went in and out of the place like it was public property.

Which apparently, it now was.

“Uncle Fancy did it to prevent Mom from trying to destroy it, he figured turning it into the base for the magazine would be more helpful. Don’t worry about your research, everything was filed and put into the basement which was converted from a training room into an archive. Each of our rooms more or less remained the same, the only exception being a dark room and a printing room installed near the back. North!” Lyra called after her, but North was already entering through the doors, a frown on her face as she watched ponies with ‘North Star’ written on a hat or vest hurrying around, shouting about deadlines and the like.

There was a very large desk with four different ponies, all of them sorting through files or dealing with customers standing in a queue, waving around letters or books in their hooves. To the corner of the planetarium, there was a climbing wall, a tunnel at different heights that climbers of different ages would crawl through, emerging from a tunnel at the top using a rope.

"Excuse me," a nerdy-looking colt with glasses and pimples blocked her from going any further, "You'll need a ticket if you want to participate or tour the place," Lyra caught up to them as North contemplated scaring away the colt by dissecting the reason he had pimples despite not being human or just ignoring him.

"It's fine Point Dexter, she's on Uncle's list of approved personnel along with my friends," the colt took a step back, looking mortified.

“S-sorry about that,” he went away, making North click her tongue in annoyance, glaring at Lyra,

“So, I have to find somewhere else to live then?” the planetarium was the only place she could sleep in Canterlot, and she wasn’t keen on spending the night at Lyra’s place.

“You’re fine North, the Princess is letting you stay in the castle remember?” North knew that it is after everything is settled down that she is worried about.

“Come on! We can talk in the letter room!” Pinkie bounced ahead of them, a key jangling at the end of her mane as she stopped in front of North’s former research room, unlocking it with a flourish, “I have cider in here,” she said in a low whisper, grinning as they all went in, locking the door behind her. The lights turned on and North saw the piles of unopened letters along with different boxes one would see in a mailroom.

“So, letter room?” she asked, Lyra going to one of the boxes and retrieving a few envelopes, passing them out to the others.

“Yep, it’s where the mail to North Star is stored and where they put our mail as well-” she paused in reading her letter and with a snort of disgust, turned it to ash, “Another letter from Mom, what’d you get Garble?” the dragon jerked and hid his letter somewhere on his body.

“Just a letter from my sister, that’s it,” he crossed his arms, looking stubborn, and the unicorn rolled her eyes.

“Alright geez, I won’t bother you about it, can you please make up your mind about whether you want to be a grump or not?” the red dragonet avoided her gaze, North nudged her from pushing further, shaking her head.

“Another postcard from Dad! He’s still watching the rock farm while Mom’s here, and he sent another picture of the family!” Pinkie passed it around while Fluttershy smiled over her letter.

“Is that from your Dad about Frost?” North asked, it’s been a while since she’s had an update about the cubs and she wondered how they were adjusting.

The implications of their presence made her wake up at night sometimes, worried for the future and any changes, but the alternative for these little ones was worse.

The future was derailed at this point anyways.

“Oh no, it’s from Zephyr, his training on the peak is going well, and he got his Cutie Mark-” huh, North was rather surprised to hear no exasperation or annoyance normally present when the pegasus talks about her brother.

Wait.

“What peak?” she blinked, confused, seeing Lyra bite her lip and Pinkie look away as Fluttershy gave her confused expression.

“The one you had me recommend to him, you know, the one with the brochure? He got accepted into their training and everything,” she even held up a picture, showing the colt with his Cutie Mark showing, dressed in a training outfit she vaguely recalled from cultivation novels in her previous life.

The creatures around him had her rubbing her eyes, because if they were there, and he wasn’t lying, then.

“That place exists?!” she thought it was a hoax! She only gave him that brochure because she heard tales of campers forced to defend themselves and the fact it was a good character-building camp.

No one reached the peak! At least, that’s what her research said.

Fluttershy pursed her lips, staring at her, and North cleared her throat, feeling nervous.

“Care to elaborate?” the tone was soft but a shiver went down her spine.

Uh-oh.

------------------------------------------

Daring Do was finding it difficult to stay still, and she was itching to get to that temple everyone was talking about. Yet here she was, forced to play the curious author with an interest in history instead of the adventurer she usually is.

She normally did not stay in a place this long as A.K. Yearling, and especially not in a crowded place like Canterlot.

But Golden Lotus, or North Wind, caught her interest, and when Wind Scar’s name was brought up, she had to get herself involved.

The guilt of being too late to stop Amethyst ate away at her, and she wished that she had stopped the mare from stepping back onto the train at Canterlot. The mare had met with Princess Celestia while Daring researched the filly, and the two had met up over tea.

She knew the look in those eyes, knew that the Ranger had a dangerous idea in mind.

But her desire to figure out what was going on stopped her from doing so, and now a great mare is dead and four fillies are traumatized by her death.

One who even saw her die and of whom Daring knew blamed herself.

She hadn’t even been able to speak to the filly yet, Fancy Pants waylaid her and she found herself being dragged into a strange council of sorts to talk about several subjects that were going to change everything.

Though one thing everyone agreed on was sitting in on the briefing, and that was why they were waiting outside the throne room while the Princess finished day court.

“I’m just saying Fluttershy-” ears perking up, she and a few others watched the fillies and dragon walking towards them, North pleading with a frowning bat-winged pegasus, “It wasn’t meant to be malicious, and everything turned out great for him anyways right?” what were they talking about?

“Stop being mad at her Fluttershy, or are you forgetting your reaction to Zephyr’s character development?” yellow cheeks turned pink, and the filly avoided looking in her smug unicorn friend’s direction, spotting them, and it surprised Daring when the filly lit up upon seeing her and approached her.

“My brother is training at Yunhumen Peak and he said you have an unpublished script on the Sects, is that true?” that was not the question the mare expected.

“They finally have students again? Huh, usually campers choose the other two,” the only reason she ended up on that Peak was for research and artifact-related reasons.

“Wait,” North’s eyes were wide, “There’s an unpublished Daring Do manuscript?” feeling embarrassed, Daring rubbed the back of her head.

“Yes, but I don’t have permission to publish it yet, so they’re just keeping it there,” a calculating look appeared in those blue eyes before Lyra smacked the back of her head.

“You're not sneaking onto that peak,” North rubbed her head, muttering about how she wasn’t going to sneak, and Lyra gave her a look, “And you're not joining the peak either, Zephyr’s stuck there for the next who knows how many years, and you may not do the same thing,” Daring had to chuckle at the pout on her fan’s lips, there was a bit of mortification about being the reason for the filly’s idea, but she was used to weird fans at this point.

That one quibbling one caused a headache every time she saw him, and the letters he sent about her latest book not matching her series themes made her wish she could just ban him.

Even her editor was considering it, and the mare was obsessed with promoting the series!

“Hiya!” a different pair of blue eyes were staring at her now, their owner standing on her smaller friend’s back who didn’t seem bothered by it, still arguing with Lyra in a low voice.

“Hello, you must be the other Golden,” she mused, recognizing that shade of blue, the Earth filly giggled.

“Yep! Thanks for the help that one time, and while I might not be as big a fan as North, I do enjoy reading your books!” “Thank you, Pinkie Pie is it?” her eyes slid to Cloudy Quartz who was quietly sitting next to the yellow one’s mom, both of them watching their children. The mare nodded at her filly who beamed at her, and the scent of sugar reached her nose as the filly quickly hugged her mom before returning to her perch on top of her friend.

“You know, North did a book on Ahuizotl and I helped her with it!” the pegasus turned bright red, looking at her friend with a betrayed expression.

“That wasn’t a book report, and you said you’d never tell anyone!” the pink pony giggled, while Lyra rolled her eyes.

“It’s too technical to be a fanfiction, so yes, we’re being kind calling it a report,” Granny Smith cackled.

“Ah, that little book of yours you left once during Zap Apple season? Ah read it myself and ended up needing Big Mac to translate some of it for me,” the red turned even darker and feeling curious, Daring raised an eyebrow at Pinkie Pie,

“So what was this ‘book report’ about?” “I’m glad you asked!” and suddenly she had a filly on her own back who was ignoring the intake of breath from her friends, leaning on her head, flattening her hat, and bending down to look at her.

“It’s a review as written from the perspective of Ahuizotl himself!” the filly proclaimed, “In the story, the real Ahuizotl reacts to his fictional self and gives his critique of the others’ actions, and at the end, he talks about how relieved he is that the adventures are fictional. Or his job would be in trouble,” A.K. furrowed her brow, taken aback at that statement.

“Job?” the blush disappeared a bit as North furrowed her brow, looking confused.

“Um, his job as Guardian of the Tenochtitlan Basin. According to history records, he and a few others are part of a council made up to guard the artifacts of ancient cities against being taken from their home and are tasked with dealing with intruders in any way possible. I just thought writing the ‘book report’,” the words looked like they pained her, “would be interesting to speculate about. Though you’d think if they took so much pride in their ruins, they would at least do some sort of upkeep,” then she started muttering something about ‘restoration and cleaning potions’, but Daring Do was still stuck on the ‘Guardian’ part.

She wanted to deny that fact because of how big of pain and brute the creature was, but with that information swirling around her head, their interactions were starting to make sense.

And she did not like the implications of that, at all.

“W-wh,” she cleared her throat, chastising herself for the slip, “Where did you get these records? My research said nothing about this ‘Guardian’ thing,” that Ruby Dog chose the moment to speak up, looking extremely amused.

“From the Ruby dog archives no doubt, she figured out our language and practically translated all the scrolls, and even helped restore most of them. You can even ask your Princess about the truth of them, or visit our archives,” he bared his teeth in a grin, and Daring Do felt tempted.

But.

“I’ll start with Princess Celestia,” she sighed, that alicorn had some explaining to do.

Then Daring needed to find Ahuizotl, and clear things up with him, maybe, ugh, even apologize.

Great.

----------------------------

North was concerned about her favorite author, the mare looked as if her entire world was upended and the filly wished to know what caused it.

Did not help that Master Ruffalo was amused, as was the Wind, though neither were giving her any answers.

So she decided to think about something else,

“Granny Smith, the farm-” “Is fine,” the Apple matriarch waved her hoof, “My son can manage on his own, and a few cousins are staying on at the moment, got some business here with young Fancy,” she nudged the unicorn in the side who cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses.

“Quite, and I do hope you enjoyed your tour of the North Star Headquarters,” Gaius coughed into his claw as she gave the unicorn a deadpan look.

“Yes, funny how everyone is under the impression the writer of the magazine is a unicorn,” “Ah, that was an unfortunate necessity, the research on magic would not make sense otherwise, and I figured you did not want the attention,” “I don’t, didn’t mean I wanted my diary printed for everyone to read,” he paused in his next reply, looking surprised.

“Diary?” “Yes, diary,” they stared at one another, him with a lost expression while she had an annoyed one.

“Excuse me for saying, but the content-” “I’m not good writing out my thoughts,” she interrupted, cheeks once again turning pink, “Like with fiction, my writing always turns out to be a bit technical, and most of my observations were just that, observations and speculations based on my own findi It’s something I try working on, but it's difficult,” the doors opened before he could respond, and she huffed, turning away as all the court nobles exited, giving the group wary looks, particularly the non-pony ones.

The looks directed towards Fluttershy made her furious, a mix of pitying and fear at her new features.

Fluttershy drew into herself, wings covering her head and North saw Lyra and Pinkie with their angry expressions.

Reese had gone over to Gaius and was hiding behind him despite being in her pony disguise, the older griffin sneering at the snobby ponies while Master Ruffalo waved a paw mockingly at some.

“Come in,” they entered to see the Princess getting off her throne, ignoring Master Po who was holding a purple baby dragon in one of his arms, the little dragon was sucking on his tail, slit green eyes staring up at the older dragon.

To her surprise, a familiar unicorn filly was there as well, standing next to Raven Quill and writing something on a long piece of paper.

She didn’t even look up as they entered, and before North could ask about whether she was there to listen to the briefing, Celestia walked over to the filly,

“Twilight, why don’t you go with Raven and she’ll show you that File Organization spell of hers,” the filly stopped writing and lit up, purple eyes gleaming while Raven shot their ruler an unimpressed look, placing a hoof on the babbling filly’s back and guiding her out.

The door closed and there was a flash of gold as the Princess cast a silencing spell on the room.

“Right,” pillows appeared on the floor, enough for everyone to lie on, and the Princess summoned her pillow, glowering at Po when he leaned against her, still holding Spike (because who else could it be?) while his tail wrapped around one of her legs.

North saw the dusting of pink on her cheeks and hoped the two did not start fighting.

Again.

“You didn’t want your student to hear the story?” Master Ruffalo asked, Celestia, sighed,

“Not yet, I’m not sure if she is ready to hear about such a thing, and there are already enough that will hear it,” she gave the council of parents a look, getting innocent stares back.

“Considering our daughters were involved, we wouldst liketh to know what went down,” Cloudy Quartz stated, Mrs. Shy, nodded.

“Among all these adults here, I’ve known North Wind the longest, and we’re sure as heck not letting her other parents listen to this,” Gaius raised an eyebrow at Granny.

“I’ll have you know that Master Ruffalo and I are the ones who’ve known her the longest-” Princess Celestia cleared her throat, making them fall silent,

“North Wind, why don’t you start, and I need you to include everything about your Blessing as well,” North wished for some water at the moment.

This was going to be a long talk.

She started with the first time the Blessing appeared, when Rainbow Dash thought it would be funny to pull a prank she’d seen older students do at school.

“I was scared of heights at the time, and uh,” she cleared her throat, “I refused to go near the ends of Cloudsdale, preferring to stay in the house or the yard. My sister thought it was silly for a pegasus to be afraid of heights and kept trying to get me to fly but it did not work. So she thought it would be funny to steal my book and throw it on a path of clouds the older kids used for play. When I got close to the cloud she appeared, and grabbed it, retreating further while a friend of hers dissipated the clouds behind me, making it difficult to find a different route to her. I tried lifting myself with my wings but they wouldn’t cooperate. She started waving the book, and to my horror, started throwing those Pop-Cloud balls, the ones a colt at our school developed for a project, shrinking the cloud I was on and telling me the only way to get over was to fly. Then the last ball took away my platform completely and I fell a good twenty feet to the cloud below. The adrenaline of the fall had me shaking, and when I saw her running towards me, I panicked and flapped my wings, telling her to go away,” she shuddered, Fluttershy’s wing touching hers and she saw the concerned expression on the adults’ faces, “That is when the Blessing activated, seeing Rainbow as a threat and attacking her, sending her spinning away and,” she closed her eyes, “cutting the tip of her ear off.” Her sister’s scream echoed through her head.

“And you blame yourself?” Granny Smith sounded incredulous. “that filly should’ve been spanked by your parents for such an act,” North’s ears flattened.

“If they also didn’t believe that not wanting to fly was a disgrace to being a pegasus,” even before that they always preferred Rainbow to her.

“After that?” Princess Celestia looked calm, and North centered herself,

“My parents grounded me-” “But Rainbow-” Lyra’s outraged cry was cut off by a flat maned Pinkie who shook her head, and North continued, “And sent for Wind Scar, calling him my Uncle and he arrived, starting with how he is going to make sure I do not endanger anyone else with my dangerous abilities. Binding my win-” Celestia spluttered when Po smacked her muzzle, stopping her from saying anything, at the same time the flames on her mane were snuffed out.

North eyed them and anyone else, but when no one else said anything, sighed, “Binding my wings, he sent me to the mines to learn ‘discipline’ and I was left with the Ruby Dogs for the entire summer.

It wasn’t all that bad, apart from being on restroom duty, and they were mindful of my age, only having me pull smaller carts and letting me do two or three trips a day to fulfill my quota. The bindings were kept on, but there was talk of taking them off so they could have someone fly to the ceiling.

One of the other pony workers had a grudge against Wind Scar, and when he saw me and found out our connection, he thought it was the perfect chance at revenge. He cornered me while I was in the room and tried to force himself on me, but he ended up ripping the bindings, and my magic that had been suppressed lashed out.

He didn’t survive the attack,” she went on to talk about running away from the guards and passing out in a strange cavern. Then she woke up to Master Ruffalo and was assigned to work with Gaius on gathering food.

That her fear of her Blessing increased when she ended up slaughtering a bunch of fish just by ‘swimming’ in the water.

“That was quite a feast,” Master Ruffalo hummed to himself, Gaius rolled his eyes.

“When I returned to Cloudsdale,” North frowned, wondering if she should mention that part as well, before shaking her head, “The moment I touched the cloud I blacked out, it felt like I was suffocating. When I woke up the feeling was still there, and my parents scolded me for not being thankful to Wind Scar and for being dramatic about my return. After that I went to my new room and tried thinking of a plan to find information on how to return my Blessing,” angry buzzing made ponies tense but she huffed, “I told you I wouldn’t do it again,” the buzzing stopped and she went to continue, not seeing the confused expression on Master Po’s face.

“Wait, North are you seriously not going to say anything about your ‘new room?’” Lyra demanded, getting the other’s interest, which North did not want.

“Look, it’s not imported-” “I meant everything North Wind,” Princess Celestia told her firmly, and North groaned,

“Your Highness, this has nothing to do with my Blessing-” “What do you mean nothing?! They kicked you out of the room you were sharing with Rainbow Dash, and you had to sleep in the attic,” “The attic was comfortable,” she tried, Mrs. Shy raised her hoof.

“Pardon me, but I have been in that house, and I know there’s another room connected to Rainbow Dash’s, is that not yours?” North winced.

“I-it’s their trophy room for Rainbow,” she answered reluctantly, all the adults going still, “They keep all of their memorabilia in there,” “They also forced North to eat elsewhere because Rainbow didn’t want to eat at the same table,” “Lyra!” “What? You had to use Gaius as a supplier because your parents refused to feed you fish,” “What?” A.K. Yearling breathed, shocked, “Pegasus is supposed to have fish as part of their diet, why would-” “Because they figured me having meat would make the Blessing stronger,” at this rate they were never going to finish.

It did not exactly get better.

Her dead-end in Cloudsdale earned a few scoffs and derision, especially from her favorite author who grumbled about it still being a non-academic environment.

Meeting Lyra at least drew some chuckles, the unicorn going pink at North’s recounting of her being kidnapped and the filly’s continued meetings afterward.

Her Blessing training had Po frowning and glaring at Gaius who was giving him his challenging look, daring the dragon to say anything.

Surprisingly he didn’t, but North felt the tenseness in the air anyways.

The atmosphere lightened a bit with her trip to the Pie family, but when she brought up the cave-in and Fluttershy’s eventual rescue of her ending in being dropped into glowing pools, Princess Celestia straightened.

“Do you remember anything else about the cave?” North shook her head,

“I cannot even remember the location anymore,” which was strange, and she could tell that it troubled the Alicorn as well.

Time Skip to the fillies exploring the Canterlot Caverns and coming across the Black Market scene, Reese going quiet while everyone else looked grim.

“We brought the eggs back to the planetarium and tried to think of a way to return them to the dragons. But not knowing which Royal Guards were working for Wind Scar, we couldn’t risk taking them out of the city just yet. Then I saw a flyer I got for Fluttershy and came up with the idea of Golden Lotus and Agape Flare,” she could tell a few of them wanted to interject but the ones sitting next to them stopped it.

When they got to the Royal Guards at the station, North found it difficult to talk, recalling Amethyst Storm, luckily Lyra and Fluttershy helped her through it.

They glossed over the griffin cubs being distributed and what happened at the hotel when she spotted her family in the crowd.

The switch had Gaius shaking his head,

“To think the dragon eggs were in Canterlot the whole time, your lucky you two switched when you did,” North sighed.

“I know, sorry Pinkie,” she said, feeling guilty about Rainbow hurting her friend, but the filly waved it off.

Her own experience in Dragontown and the following training under the dragon had Po smirking, though Princess Celestia seemed displeased.

“Training a filly how to fly like a dragon?” she demanded, glaring at him, “Do you know how dangerous that is,” Po crossed his arms, scratching the green scales on top of Spike’s head.

“It’s better than her never learning control, isn’t it?” “Do ah have to get between y’all?” Granny’s question ceased their argument.

Fluttershy’s ordeal took some time to work through, and everyone took a break before it was time for North to tell them what happened with Wind Scar.

She started with the chase by dragons, finding the markers, and running into Garble while running from the dragons who did nothing to stop them from falling.

That caused the pink dragon from before to growl, Garble sighing and going over to stop her.

She still didn’t know if the dragon was his mom or sister.

Falling into the Temple, finding the platform, giving up her sense of smell (the horrified expressions on her friends’ had her realizing too late that she did not tell them about that, yet.)

“That’s when Amethyst appeared, used by Wind Scar as a sacrifice, and he told me the story about Southern Skies,” she shivered, repeating what he told her, and Master Po nodded, eyes blazing,

“I found the journals, seems he decided not to risk taking them with him,” the admittance made Celestia sag, the realization that one of her ponies went to such lengths leaving her shaken.

The news of her being his planned sacrifice was new to some of them, and Granny Smith started muttering underneath her breath, promise of pain in her eyes.

She came to the ritual and the dragon once again interrupted her,

“Wait, you stopped the extraction,” he sounded stunned, and North recalled Wind Scar’s own shocked reaction.

“Uh yeah?” how did he think she got out? “I took the Blessing back and dealt with Wind Scar,” Pinkie hopped up.

“Yeah! She was like, ‘You will not’, when he threatened to kill us, and all the pretty energy flew back into her before a dragon shaped wind appeared over her and it was slash, pow, as they tried to strike one another. She then sent him crashing through the barrier after cutting through it-” “Cutting through it?!” why did she not like the fact he was so shocked by that?

Why was she getting the sinking feeling that wasn’t supposed to be possible.

“Anyways, I did a final attack against Wind Scar, and, I well, let’s just say he won’t be able to wield his Blessing, or his wings, again,” she coughed, looking to the side, Celestia jerked.

“You know-” “That he isn’t in the dungeons? And not in the temple as well? Yes,” assuring herself that he wasn’t a threat didn’t work.

Because she was still scared of what he was could do.

“Wow, that is a lot to unpack, and while Wind Scar being free is alarming, there are other things that must be discussed, like these fillies’ futures,” she exchanged alarmed expressions with her friends, “Nothing bad,” Fancy hastened to assure them, “Just an idea that popped into my head that I have been working on with everyone here. With the information you’ve provided, and the incidents cropping up, we have realized that there is a bit of disconnect between not just the ponies and other creatures, but between the tribes as well. While articles are helpful in informing readers of this disconnect, it would be better for them to see for themselves face to face. To accomplish that,” his horn glowed and he levitated a scroll to the Princess, “We would like to develop the Undiscovered West for this project,” the Alicorn blinked, opening the scroll and running her eyes across it.

“That place hasn’t been occupied in centuries, what are you hoping to build here?” Fancy Pants smiled.

“A school.”

---

Bow Hothoof knew this was a last resort, but if North Wind was not going to cooperate, he would need to go straight towards the Princess.

Inform her exactly what kind of filly she has in her castle and that it was imperative the girl is separated from everyone else.

Recalling the terrifying wings she conjured made him shudder, just using that so willy-nilly, like a party trick, left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He and Windy failed in suppressing the curse, after so many years of trying to get her just follow the rules for her own good, making sure to do everything to prevent it from growing stronger.

It all failed because of her rebelliousness.

And now Wind Scar was missing and the fear of what happened ate away at him as all of his friends in the Royal Guard were taken away on false charges.

There has got to be some mistake! He knows these stallions, that they would never do what the Princess is accusing them of.

Whoever is backing North Wind has a lot of influence, and he has a feeling its that dragon seen arguing with the Princess and harassing the good folk of Canterlot.

He couldn’t push back the meeting any longer.

Approaching the throne doors, he nodded to his fellow Guards, stopping the frown that wanted to appear at the disgust he can see in their eyes before they stared straight ahead.

Ignoring him.

“Bow Hothoof,” jumping at his name, he went in, seeing the Princess and her assistant in the room.

No one else was there to his relief.

“Princess, I’ve come to talk to you about North Wind,” pale magenta eyes stared down at him and he swallowed, “I know she might have said somethings, but I need to bring her back to Canterlot, as her fath-”

“As I have come to understand, you are not her father,” the sentence made him pale a bit.

“Princess?” “Even if that was not the case and you two were related, I would still tell you that your guardianship of North Wind is no longer due to suspicion of neglect,” his eyes widened.

“Your highness-” but she wasn’t letting him continue,

“Restriction of food, destruction of personal property, forced to make her own room, Wings Bound,” the last two words made him blanch.

“Your Highness it was necessary!” the words left his mouth before he could stop it and the heat in the room rose.

“Necessary?” she asked softly, “Necessary?” she got off the throne, approaching him and leaning down so that they were eye to eye, “There is nothing in all of Equus that makes binding a five year old with Tartarus level binders necessary,” she straightened, “Bow Hothoof, I am relieving you of your Royal Guard duties,” his heart stopped.

“Princ-” “Your guardianship as well as your wife’s on North Wind is no longer valid, and the two of you are banned from visiting Canterlot.” “Prin-” “‌Furthermore, any suspected contact with Wind Scar will have you and your wife thrown in the dungeon and Rainbow Dash given to another family who can give her a proper home. Because as of this morning, I am declaring Wind Scar a traitor and threat to Equestria,” he sat down, no longer able to stand up, looking at her with wide eyes.

“Princess, please,” he pleaded, she narrowed her eyes.

“You are lucky that North Wind did not wish to press charges, but leave her alone, or we’ll be questioning your custody of your daughter as well,” that snapped him out of his shock and he left, feeling sick.

He didn’t want Rainbow Dash taken away.

Hopefully they’ll see how dangerous she is in time.

---

“I’m surprised that the Princess didn’t just tell him that you got your Cutie Mark and therefore meet the requirements for emancipation,” North shrugged at Lyra’s statement, watching Garble being taken away by that pink dragon while Reese was going to a study group with some of her classmates.

“No point,” he would take one look at it and become completely convinced that she was a troublemaker.

“I think it’s very pretty North Wind,” Fluttershy consoled her, North huffed.

“You say that, but I still do not know what it means, just because the passed year was spent on a plan to return eggs didn’t mean I wanted them as a Cutie Mark,” she gestured towards her flank where the Cutie Mark was, “I mean, I know what the symbol stands for, but I do not know what that has to do with me,” Lyra hummed.

“Yeah, to be honest, I kind of expected your Cutie Mark to be a-” a pink hoof shoved itself in her mouth and she gagged as Pinkie shushed her.

“Sh! You're going to spoil it for the readers, they’re not supposed to suspect anything yet,” “Pinkie, don’t break the fourth wall please,” North begged, feeling a headache coming on.

The filly shot her an offended look,“Lyra was the one that almost spoiled everything,” the unicorn pushed the hoove away, gagging and wiping off her tongue.

“What does her potential Cutie Mark have to do with that? I was just going to-” Pinkie held up a cupcake with a pepper on top, eyes narrowed, and Lyra twitched, falling silent.

Nodding to herself, the filly placed an envelope in front of North,

“Here you go! I asked Mr. Fancy Pants to get it for me,” seeing the Canterlot Bank logo in the corner, North tore open the envelope and pulled out the statement.

Her eyes widened at the amount, a strangled sound escaping her mouth as she stared at the amount.

The statement dropped to the table and her other friends looked at the amount.

Fluttershy swayed on her chair while Lyra whistled and Pinkie beamed,

North stared at it for a moment before sighing,

“Right, do you want your shares under your name or a fake one?” they looked like they were going to protest but she narrowed her eyes, “You all helped me with my research, and you all are getting an equal share, Lyra can put her money towards the Music college she actually wants to go to, Pinkie can pay for college or a party cart or something,” the filly vibrated in her excitement, “Fluttershy-” the pegasus waved her hooves.

“Oh no, I couldn’t after all the money you wasted on that program-” “It wasn’t a waste Fluttershy,” North told her, “And several of the trainers asked about training you, they offered you an internship and everything,” the pegasus still looked hesitant and North narrowed her eyes, “Fine, I’ll take your share and use it to buy a statue of you to place in the Badlands,” the pegasus blanched.

“You wouldn’t,” North leaned forward, smirking.

“Try me,” she challenged, “Accept your share,” the other pegasus pouted at her but drooped, muttering her acceptance with a sigh.

“So, have you thought about what to do with your own share?” Pinkie Pie asked her, eyes wide in interest, “Are you going to use it for that college that the Council of Creatures spoke of?” snorting at the name, North thought about it.

Fancy’s proposal had been met with a lot of surprise, and the support of the others in the group seemed to shock the princess.

In the end she did agree, but warned him about being careful, which he promised.

The project was due to start in three years, and North was offered a position at the school right away along with her friends.

For understandable reasons, Fluttershy declined, wanting to go straight into her career as a Ranger once she finished her internship and after she trained her new abilities with the Nocturne in Hollow Shades.

Pinkie also declined, saying while it would be fun, she felt it wouldn’t be for her at all, though she suggested one of her sisters could go in her spot. To the shock of everyone, she also said she was going to the Ruby Dogs to train, and Ruffalo admitted he knew of someone with a strong Earth Blessing who could help her.

Mrs. Pie said she would talk to her other daughter’s about it.

Lyra balked at the thought of being a part of a project like that and stated quite firmly that North was the only one in their group crazy enough to want to do it. Besides, she had her own training she wanted to do before focusing on music, which involved tracking down Sonic Recorder and asking him for help.

North tried not to feel insulted about the crazy part.

Instead she worried about the fact that Master Po wanted to take her back to his mountain for further training. She knew in the long run it was safer, but she didn’t want to be separated from them forever.

“We need a new hideout,” she said suddenly, getting their attention, “You said that lighthouse was abandoned?” Lyra rolled her eyes.

“You just want to clean it.”

“What’s your point?”

Pinkie suddenly started crying and brought them all together in a tight hug,

“I don’t want us to separate for three years!” the light flicking on startled all of them, and they turned to see a pony in the North Star uniform entering the archives, pausing at the sight of them. They stared at one another before the staff member quickly summoned a file to them and ran back up the stairs, squeaking out a sorry and shutting off the lights.
“I kind of forgot they were off,” Lyra commented, pointedly not saying why, which North appreciated.

The glowing thing still happened.

She wasn’t sure whether or not to find that annoying.

Pinkie went back to crying and hugging them, and North rubbed her back.

“We don’t have to separate Pinkie,” she assured her, “We can always arrange meet ups, and there is always letters,” that didn’t seem to make her feel better.

“But what about after?” Lyra tapped a hoof against the ground.

“Well, Nightmare Moon isn’t supposed to return for another eight years right? That means within the next years we just do what we can to cement our careers, then ‌live in Ponyville,” North looked away, grimacing,

She couldn’t really promise that, after all.

Thankfully, the others did not point it out, and Pinkie Pie became deep in thought for a moment before gasping.

“We can become sworn sisters, then we will never be apart!” Lyra hummed.

“That sounds good, I can come up with a way to make a friendship bracelet for us to wear with different special charms,” North nodded,

“And I can always ask Princess Celestia if she could show Lyra that spell on Journal Messaging, I’m sure if we tweak it, we can make it connect to four- Fluttershy what are you doing?!” the animal whisper squeaked at the exclamation, taking in her friends’ horrified expressions.

“Oh, this isn’t what you meant?” the tip of her hoof was bleeding and she was holding it towards them.

At their continued shock she started retreating behind her hair and Lyra panicked.

“No Fluttershy! It’s fine, I just didn- ow!” she glared at Pinkie Pie who spit out the safety pin in her mouth, hoof already bleeding, and after a moment Lyra held out her hoof.

Then they were all staring at her and North deadpanned, a small on her face.

Right.

Her sisters were weird.

---

“She fired you?” Windy Whistles asked horrified. She couldn’t believe it!

Her husband had dark circles underneath his eyes and she rubbed his back while furiously thinking of what their next action would be.

Some part of her regretted ever fulfilling that favor of Wind Scars and giving him a daughter and not stopping after she had her own daughter, but the loyal part of her kept that part silent.

“The Cloudsdale Guard agreed to take me on, but it’s a trial basis, and honey?” he gazed at her with a lost look, “Wind Scar’s been declared a traitor,” she went white.

A knock on their door had her running to check it, and she almost screamed at the stallion standing there, before catching him as he stumbled towards her.

“She’s too strong,” Wind Scar gasped out, “I should have never let my sentiment get a hold of me, I’m sorry Windy,” tears came to her eyes at his state.

“It’s not your fault Scar, and if Princess Celestia refuses to see it,” something told her that even fi they show his state to the Princess, no sympathy would be given to them.

“Wind Scar, I’m sorry, I want to take you in, but if-” Wind Scar shook his head, giving them a weak smile.
“I just need to rest for the night, I won’t trouble you any further than that,” Windy growled at her husband.

On the stairs, a small filly hid behind the banister, eyes wide as she processed the information, unsure of what to believe.

“But where will you go?” the filly’s mom asked.

“I need to find my other daughter that Amethyst hid from me and tell her that her mother is dead,” Bow Hothoof gasped.

“So she did survive? Amethyst said she died in childbirth,” “Amethyst hid a lot of things from me,” Wind Scar said sadly, “And I hope to reach my other daughter before its too late.” the couple hugged him.

“We’ll help you, and don’t worry, we’ll make sure that North Wind is brought to justice,” the stallion smiled at them.

“Thank you,” his eyes met with magenta before their owner retreated, no doubt to her room, a smile appeared on his lips, “Old Friends.”

Author's Note:

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