North Wind: Earning your Cutie Mark

by BlackBonitaCherry

Chapter 8- Pegasus on the Run

Surprisingly the plan worked and while the guards and canines lay unconscious, one having run screaming into a wall from the spiders covering him and another knocked himself from being shocked by the party poppers and knocking his head against a cart. Pinkie Pie even produced some smoke bombs to cover their scent by stinking the place up. The rest North took care of with carefully placed hits while Lyra unlocked all the cages. The griffin they freed went straight towards the eggs and carried them off through one of the tunnels without a backwards glance.

Lyra kept silent at North’s look, helping her put the dragon eggs in a saddle bag and stripping the guards of their money but not their weapons (she heard about a tracing spell on them and didn’t want to risk it.)
Fluttershy managed to calm down the Chimera and pointed it in the direction of an exit, giving them some cheese and snacks she’d packed for the trip to satisfy them (one made a crack about eating them but was stopped by its siblings.) Pinkie Pie then insisted on leading them out and took them through a dizzying trail of tunnels till they ended up in the basement beneath the observatory. After a few months of knowing her, and a rudimentary knowledge on the Blessing of the Earth, the others didn’t question how she did it and just sat there to rest.

“I can’t believe we just did that,” Lyra said, stunned that they had gotten away, before panic set in, “Wait, what if they track the eggs to us? What if that griffin gets caught and tells them! (Can’t believe she left without saying thank-you!) W-what if we actually interrupted something Princess Celestia was doing and she sets out to arrest us,” a spider was thrown into her face and she spent the next few minutes rolling around on the ground screaming as it clung to her muzzle.

“North Wind!” Fluttershy scolded the filly who looked deadpan at the unicorn.

“Lyra, while there are many things about Princess Celestia that we don’t know, I’m pretty sure smuggling isn’t one of them. Especially griffins, and griffin and dragon eggs; you can stop screaming now,” Lyra got up, panting and the spider fell off her face to the ground before scurrying over to Fluttershy who picked it up and started cooing at it.
“I will get you for this,” she vowed, North rolled her eyes and brought out the dragon eggs, staring down at them.
“How about making sure the door to this basement is invisible first, Pinkie Pie is anyone coming?” the Earth filly stood on all four hooves and stared at the ceiling for a moment before shaking her head.
“Nope!” she joined Fluttershy in cooing at the spider, North shook her head and stared at the eggs.

They couldn’t hide them forever, and North knew for a fact that dragon eggs needed constant warmth in order to hatch. Otherwise they stay in stasis and refuse to hatch until they get the necessary spark.
Like what happened with Twilight and Spike.
But if she tried asking Lyra to hatch them, what will they do with two baby dragons that will have the same coloring as their eggs?

She started pacing back and forth, considering her options and discarding them as soon as she thought about the repercussions if they were discovered early.
Klugetown? No, they’ll end up as dragon slaves and she can’t live with herself if that happened. Chief Ruffalo or Gaius? No, that wouldn’t work either, they still need to root out the spies and she doubted the fact they wanted to look after dragon eggs.

Go to the Dragon Lands? But would that work and could she go straight there? Wait, wasn’t there a Dragontown in Fillydelphia, she could head there first.
Still there would be a lockdown and whichever guards were under Wind Scar would be under red alert for the eggs, and no doubt when she goes back to the house he’ll have her searched. She couldn’t go completely under the grid lest he suspects her of being behind the theft. For a moment she wished for a cellphone to have taken an instant picture of the operation, providing evidence of what Wind Scar is doing.

So she would have to wait till summer, or the end of summer, to figure out a way to get to Fillydelphia so she could hand the eggs over to whichever dragon was the leader there. But she would also need to leave a trail away from the city, but what- her eyes fell on a flyer peeking out from one of the books on the one bookshelf and a thought came to her.

“That’s it!” Pinkie and Fluttershy jumped while Lyra came back from warding the door.
“What’s it?” North grabbed the flyer and showed it to them.
“12 Month Training for Rangers, get experience in twelve different environments and catch the eyes of sponsors and organizations. Ranger?” Fluttershy’s eyes widened while Lyra took the flyer for herself, Pinkie peeking over her shoulder to get a better look at it.
“When did this even exist,” the unicorn filly asked in disbelief, “A twelve-month training course? Is that even long enough for Fluttershy to learn everything she needs to, and isn’t there an age limit?”
“Nope!” North said in a matter of fact tone, “You know that Fluttershy has had difficulty finding a college she wants to attend.”

“Um, I was going to do the General Course at the Cloudsdale Academy and maybe a General degree at the college?” she squeaked when North marched up to her.
“Fluttershy, you shake every time you talk about going to that place,” she pointed at the older filly’s legs which were indeed shaking, “We know your terrified of going there, I know its common for many ponies to go to secondary general education before they start specialization schooling in their Cutie Marks. But tell me honestly, do you want to go to high school with the same ponies you’ve been going to school with right now?” the yellow Pegasus shuddered as she shook her head rapidly.

“But what else is she going to do, technically you can start specialization school at age 15, and her parents don’t have the money to send her to a different school,” Pinkie nodded at Lyra’s statement.
“I’ve been homeschooled till now, but I’ve been thinking about attending a party school once I graduate,” she pouted, “If I can find one that is.” North patted her on the shoulder.
“Fluttershy won’t need to go to a different school, that’s why I’m showing you three this flyer,” she lied down, prompting them to do so as well, before continuing, “Those who will finish this course will be able to be accepted into an organization that will further train them. There are even apprenticeships available for those interested, they’ve been planning this kind of course for years and have just got the necessary sponsors and funding for it. There will be twelve master Rangers in a variety of Rescue situations from all over Equestria, and we will be traveling to different parts of Equestria each month,” Lyra raised an eyebrow.

“We?” she asked dryly, North coughed.

“Well yes, Fluttershy will need an assistant to keep track of her schedule and finances, and as her sponsor Trade Star approved it, there should be no problem,” Pinkie tilted her head.
“Whose Trade Star,” North blinked innocently at them.

“The pony that was gracious enough to lend her financial assistance of course,” Lyra’s mouth dropped.
“North Wind, please tell me you did not create false papers and a fake identity for this.”

“Of course not,” North looked insulted, and Lyra almost breathed in relief when she added, “I created that identity years ago with the help of Gaius and Chief Ruffalo so that I didn’t need to keep all my personal wealth in Cloudsdale.” Lyra looked like she wanted to strangle her while Fluttershy had wide eyes.
“Your paying for it?” her voice was small and North turned to her with a reassuring smile, knowing that the yellow Pegasus would need some convincing.
“Fluttershy, you’ve been having trouble finding scholarships because of general stupidity,” more than once while North was over she saw rejection letters from the Cloudsdale school board and other pegasus financial programs; Fluttershy also had red eyes from crying some of those times.

“I wouldn’t say-” FLuttershy tried protesting but North wasn’t having it.
“Fluttershy, do you want to be a Ranger or not?” Fluttershy stared at her hooves,
“Yes,” she mumbled, North leaned against her, Pinkie Pie doing the same and Lyra in front of her.
“Don’t worry, I know how to set a budget for the entire year, and if we go over, I have several back up plans, besides, I might get my Cutie Mark traveling around Equestria with you, and at least you won’t be going around by yourself,” Fluttershy felt a bit better at that.
“Hey! What about Pinkie and I,” Lyra protested, Pinkie nodding, North gave them a look.
“You two have school,” she reminded them, Pinkie drooped in disappointment but Lyra wasn’t deterred.
“But it doesn’t mean we can’t go with you in the summer, and I’m saying this now, but it is kind of freaky that you have your own account set up and no one knows. How’d that even work?” she demanded.
“Lots of careful planning,” was the reply, Lyra twitched.
“That’s not an answer,” she pointed out,

“I know,” the smug look made her snap and she charged at the pegasus, the two of them wrestling around till Pinkie Pie hopped on top with a wee and Fluttershy watched with a worried look. She always got anxious when Lyra and North start fighting, but after the first few times she realized it wasn’t out of malicious intentions or anything. Pinkie Pie joined in because she thought it was fun and Fluttershy knew they were silently offering to let her do it as well, but she was still getting used to the idea of fighting for fun.

Once morning came, the four separated and the moment break was over North and Fluttershy returned to Cloudsdale separately, the former reluctantly and the latter a bit nervous about having to return to school. Lyra promised to look after the eggs and be a warning system while Pinkie promised to keep in touch in case anything happens. The Earth filly was going to see about finishing her schooling up early because she wanted to go with them, though she stated that she might end up doing something different instead.

North was grounded the moment she came home, even Rainbow tried to threaten her away from Fluttershy, stating that she didn’t want North hurting her. North just gave her a silent stare before slamming her door shut and climbing out the window and jumping out into the cloud below.
Things got even more tense as time went on, North was forced to go straight home to her room and not even allowed to go to Canterlot with Bow Hothoof at all. Every night her parents tried to extol the virtues of a Cloudsdale Pegasus but she drowned them out, even ignoring them when they tried to appeal to her as her parents and that what they were doing was for her own good.

Closer to graduation time things came to a head when her mom scolded her for being so ungrateful for everything Wind Scar had done for her.
North felt her control snap.
“Ungrateful?” she whispered, “Ungrateful?! You call binding my wings and throwing me into a mine to pay off his debt ungrateful,” she glared at her mom with hatred, wind building up and saw the mare flinch, but there was no surprise at her statement, nothing, “Wind Scar is nothing but a gambling, low-scum monster who should be thrown into Tartarus or a volcano, and your no better than him,” she ran out, almost bumping into Rainbow who looked angry.
“He was trying to help you gain control, there’s nothing wrong with hard work,” North scoffed, ignoring the breaking of her heart at the fact Rainbow knew the truth of her summers as well.

“You have no idea what happened in those mines, and how about you bind your own wings for weeks on end before telling me that,” Rainbow stopped her from continuing, steam coming from the filly’s ears.
“You walk around like a martyr, but I know the truth, what you did to that stallion when he dared to get in your way,” so Rainbow knew that as well, huh? Looks like Wind Scar doesn’t hide his actions from her at all.

“So I should’ve let him toy with me?” she glared at Rainbow who stepped back, “Let him take his revenge on Wind Scar out on me because I look like him? Is that what I should’ve done?! Be raped and take it with grace because heaven forbid I deserve it because of my stupid curse,” the angry look on Rainbow disappeared, the filly looking startled.
“Wait, ra-” North pushed passed her and ran out, ignoring any calls to get her back and going to a certain part of the tunnel where she kept an emergency escape vehicle. Their class had recently done Cloud-Kart racing and she kept hers afterwards, adding a few of her own touches just in case and telling her parents that the teacher had confiscated it along with the others.

Moments later there was the whir of a blade as her CLoud Kart shot off the edge of Cloudsdale, wings on either side nearly the same size as her cart and small blades underneath each one to help keep it balanced.
It couldn’t be in the air all that long but it gave her enough distance, and with Pinkie’s help she managed to put some explosive power to make it go even further.
She didn’t even try to understand how the filly managed that.
Upon seeing her destination she released the parachute, slowing down her ride and landing non too gently onto the grass.

A streak of pink bowled her over, sending her out of the kart as the two of them went rolling down the hill.
“Windy!” North laughed as Pinkie Pie beamed down at her.
“What are you doing in Ponyville Pinkie?” the Earth filly helped her up, still beaming.
“My family wanted to come for cider season, and I’m taking baking lessons from Mr. and Mrs. Cake at Sugarcube corner! Granny Smith is also asking Mom and Dad about maybe building a barn from rocks to make it more stable. They’ve been exchanging letters since summer and Mom and Dad actually leave the farm more to socialize,” North hummed, a bit surprised at that, Granny Smith and the Pie parents getting along was the last thing she expected. For some reason Granny Smith ended up being the go to for not just Pinkie’s parents, but Fluttershy’s as well, the pegasus learning how to be more assertive, slowly, but it was working. They were trying to get their son interested in things and away from Rainbow Dash, once Granny sat them down and told them that the crush was not mutual, at all. Fluttershy put her own effort in and bought books with North’s help that had the slightest chance of pointing Zephyr down a certain path.

Hopefully it does end up working, because otherwise North wasn’t sure how long Fluttershy could deal with her brother without wanting to kill him.
“So why are you here Windy?” North let Pinkie lead her into town, the long line of ponies telling her where everyone was, although it seemed the Pie family already got theirs and were sipping them at a table outside Sugarcube Corner with plates of desserts before them.
“North Wind, tis good to see you again,” Igneous Rock gave her a nod which she returned, Cloudy Quartz was nibbling a daisy sandwich and letting Marble have a sip of her cider. The silent filly giving her a nod and small smile. Limestone was messing around with several different rocks, pouring different liquids over them while Maud read from a book, on rocks.

Pinkie sat with her at another table, munching on a cookie as North told her what had happened. She had to stop her friend from getting a hot-air balloon and going to Cloudsdale, telling her that so far no one knew of their association with one another and she didn’t want Pinkie getting in trouble. This younger Pinkie was surprisingly quicker to anger than she remembered, then again, Pinkie was still learning how to handle different emotions, as was her family who had been living a certain way for a while now. Her sister Limestone seemed to feel anger rather easily, though North guessed it was just her personality.
Since school was still in session for another few weeks ( North already had her graduation filed and everything), and Pinkie Pie got permission from her family to stay in Ponyville for a bit; North spent that time walking around with Pinkie and showing her the sights. She even introduced the filly to some of her favorite book series and they ended up at a book signing with Daring Do. North had started reading the series before her time in the mines and started collecting the books when she could. Daring Do’s character reminded North Wind of both the grown-up Rainbow Dash and Indiana Jones, and she found herself wanting to read more about the mare and her adventures. She kept the series in Lyra’s room, since the series had nothing to do with humans so the filly’s mom didn’t care whether they were there or not.

When they weren’t doing that Pinkie Pie was throwing parties left and right, using her allowance from the farm and whatever she earned helping out Mr. and Mrs. Cake to buy the supplies. North only asked her once about charging for the parties but Pinkie Pie didn’t feel all that good about doing it.
“Besides, how can I charge ponies when I’m still new at throwing parties? That won’t make them smile,” North sighed, she had a point but North didn’t want Pinkie using up all her money and needing to work constantly to throw parties that she never charged anyone for.
Once the school year did end, the pink pony took her to Sugarcube Corner (North had gone there once a week and Pinkie Pie had been busy each time, this was the first time they were both free together.) and Mrs. Cake made her the usual cherry muffin with spiced cinnamon frosting, sprinkled paprika, and dark chocolate peanut butter filling. The baker had made a lot of unique combinations over the years for her and kept part of the pantry filled with spice filled sweets. North technically was the only one to eat those kinds of combinations, though for some reason it was catching on with other customers who were curious to try it for themselves.

Pinkie Pie was no exception.

“Ooh, that looks good,” Pinkie Pie asked for one as well and even spooned some of the chili pepper sauce to dip the cupcake into. North tried to warn her, knowing that Pinkie had grown up on a rock farm with a limited variety of food and might get sick from trying such a combination so early.
But the filly bit into the cupcake with gusto and even drank the chili hot and pineapple mixed smoothie that North ordered with the cupcakes. Mrs. Cake actually looked relieved that someone else wanted the other half of the smoothie, apparently she just put the rest of it in a cup and put it out as a sample or kept it reserved for when North next came to town. North didn’t mind that part, she felt a bit bad for her strange requests but the mare liked the challenge of new combinations and didn’t say no when she asked.

“Really?” the deadpan tone made her look up at Lyra who was staring at their food in disgust, “Pinkie Pie, please tell me she forced you into eating that,” the Earth filly shook her head.
“Nope! This is really good! Want one? Mrs. Cake made twelve!” Lyra looked at Fluttershy next to her who was biting her lip, no doubt preventing a smile.
“Yeah no, I’m going to get a vanilla with mint icing, let’s go Fluttershy, leave these weirdos to their spicy-sweet cupcakes.” the pegasus giggled but followed Lyra in. North and Pinkie Pie shared a look before shrugging and downing a second cupcake each.
Once the rest of their quartet got their ‘normal’ cupcakes, the four headed towards Sweet Apple Acres where North had been building something with Big Mac and Bright Mac’s supervision. Applejack was missing, again, no doubt with her mom who was pregnant with a third foal after the treatment went through.
Something bugged North Wind whenever she went to Sweet Apple Acres, but she could never figure it out, like something was blocking her mind about the place.
Not like it was something big, right?

Fluttershy hid behind Lyra while Big Mac talked about the dimensions and calculations of whatever it was they were going to see.
Lyra felt the numbers swimming around her head and wished she knew a silencing spell to block out the very talkative colt’s voice as he went on, and on, and on, and on.
And on.
The only ones following him were Pinkie whose smile didn’t waver one bit and North who was probably used to it since she visited the farm more than anyone else.
“Right here it is,” Bright Mac opened the door, gesturing to Big Mac to help him and together the two removed the very heavy looking tarp.
Fluttershy blinked rapidly while Pinkie Pie let out an excited gasp.

Lyra groaned.

“North! You went overboard,” North looked smug as she placed a hoof on the cart, or rather caravan, the apple wood painted in the colors of pink and blue with the images of different animals. There was a hatch that if pushed would open up the top to reveal the sun or moonlight, but would make the cart not as heavy as it could be, though the top was still durable enough for tough weather. There was an underside for luggage and the like and there were seats that could fit four ponies facing one another that could be turned into a bed with very soft cushions Granny Smith helped her make. There was even an ice chest packed with food for a month and fresh juice and water that would last just as long.

There were other features but North decided not to reveal them just yet, she didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

Fluttershy sniffed and North looked at the tears in her eyes with alarm before falling to the ground as the other hugged her with great force.
“Ok, since Fluttershy likes it I won’t say anything, but how do you expect to be able to pull that?” North got up, patting a blushing Fluttershy’s mane before attaching the harness to her barrell and with little effort pulled it out.
Lyra’s eye twitched at the display of strength and the smug look on her friend’s face.
“And there’s a second harness in case someone else wants to pull as well, I actually wanted to do two stories but they stopped me,” she had the gall to pout and Lyra banged her head on the nearest wall rather than try to even strangle her.

“I know through these past few years Mom said not to say anything, but I would like to know what exactly your planning on doing with this,” Bright Mac asked, glancing at Big Mac, the scrawny colt yet to become the size of his father and was currently looking at the schematics for the cart, or it was more of a carriage, “Mac here decided he wanted to build his own and has been bugging me to create something similar,” he scratched the back of his head, “Then there’s the matter of you paying,” he held up a bag filled with bits, “Where’d you get this?” North cringed, her and her friends sharing awkward looks.

“Now wait just a darn minute,” Granny Smith stomped towards them, “Bright Mac what did I say?” the stallion opened his mouth but she stopped him, “It’s good enough that I know isn’t it? Now git! We still need to harvest the fields,” her son lowered his head, gesturing for Big Mac to follow and they disappeared. Granny Smith rolled her eyes and spat on the ground, giving the cart a once-over and lightly prodding it, “You sure picked up carpentry quick, I expect updates, even if its some secretive way, and don’t you worry none about that uncle of yours tracing anything to us. We have our own ways and this town is protected and closely watched by the princess herself for some weird reason,” Pinkie bit her lip and Fluttershy’s wings shook, but the two managed to not give anything away. Lyra had her own poker face on, years of practice at noble parties and North just kept hers blank.

Then she decided to be cheeky,

“Got it,” she smirked, “Peaches,” the mare sputtered, especially when Pinkie Pie and Lyra saluted and called her Peaches as well.
“Why you cheeky,” the four scattered, avoiding Granny’s hooves and they all left the farm at separate exits.
“Do you think she’s mad?” Fluttershy asked, a bit worried, once they gathered together in the town library, the librarian giving them cautious looks that they ignored.
“It’s fine, teasing Granny Smith is fun, and I can’t tease Gaius because he’ll end up giving me octopus instead of regular fish, and that’s difficult for me to cook,” Fluttershy gulped, shivering at the thought.
“Okay,” Lyra stared at the calendar.

“So we’re really doing this then?” she asked, nervous now that after a few months of planning the day was now here.
“Yep, I’m going to head back to the Rock Farm for a bit, get things ready,” North gave the party filly a dry look.
“And earn some more allowance?” Pinkie stuck out her tongue at her, causing Lyra to laugh.

“As far as Mom’s concerned, Sonic Recorder is throwing his own special camp that I’ll be attending for the summer,” she drooped, “Unfortunately I’m unable to graduate early, its impossible at Celestia’s School, and without a Cutie Mark I can’t make a case for transferring,” it was kind of frustrating that she didn’t have one after all the stuff she’s mastered with North’s help. In another world she might have focused on practicing the lyre tell she got her Cutie Mark, but in this one her friendship with North made her spread her interest over different areas. Not to mention North’s own frustration with getting her Cutie Mark made Lyra consider what she wanted for hers.

“I really didn’t have to hide anything from Mom and Dad apart from you three’s involvement, but I’ve been reading up on all kinds of animals, and what a Ranger is,” Fluttershy tapped her hooves nervously, “I even put together all my allowance and got everything on the list the program sent me when I applied. They said having an assistant is fine, but that they are not allowed to help me with any training, just to take notes and other stuff. Though I don’t know what they are going to think with three assistants,” North shrugged, a smile on her lips.
“I have a plan for that,” Lyra sighed.
“Course you do,” North Wind always did.