Chapter 1: Dust Devil
Dust devil awoke in a cold sweat, "Today is the day." She thought to herself. She threw her front limb groggily over her eyes in an attempt to block out some of the harsh morning light that was peeking through her think curtains. She sighed heavily as she remembered that today was going to be show and tell. She has been strategically wearing skirts and dresses all week to hide the fact that she had discovered her super special talent over the weekend. She was planning to reveal it, and her cutie mark, to the class, as was the trend for her class to do when a foal or filly got their cutie mark.
Her best friend Fleur Dis Lee, a stylish white unicorn with a light pink flowing mane, had been guessing at it all week trying to get Dust Devil to fess up to what her cutie mark was. She was close, of course; Fleur knew everything about Dust Devil. They had known each other for as long as she could remember and made the most unlikely, yet wonderful friendship. Fleur had always been a delicate character; she liked her fashion, her tea, and brushing her long mane. She was as girly as girly gets, and she had known from the day she got her first magazine that she wanted to be a model (good thing she was naturally gorgeous), but she was kind and very understanding. Dust Devil however had always been a little rough around the edges. She liked to fly fast, yell loudly, and get into all sorts of mischief. Despite all of this she never really felt a passion for anything besides being free and letting the wind take her anywhere at a moment's notice. Her mother always said that Dust Devil's cutie mark was bound to be either a splotch of mud (because she always came home dirty) or some sort of depiction of the wind.
Fleur was upset all of this week because Dust devil had been there when Fleur had gotten her cutie mark, but Fleur was not there when Dust Devil had gotten hers. "What kind of a best friend am I if I wasn't even there when you discovered your super special talent?" Fleur murmured with a distressed look on her face. "I feel like I've failed you."
"That's just dumb Fleur, you had your modeling audition in Canterlot this weekend and if you were here you wouldn't have had that chance."
"Well I still don't understand why I had to wait all week to find out at show and tell like everypony else."
Dust Devil was silent to that remark. She still wasn't sure if she liked her cutie mark, all her life her peers, and even her mother had joked about how her cutie mark would have something to do with her getting covered in dirt all of the time, and in a weird way they were right. She had gotten her cutie mark last Saturday while playing out in the abandoned fields where the apple family used to live before they moved their orchard to Appleloosa. She was whizzing up and down the field while trying to think of something fun to entertain herself with while Fleur was in Canterlot for her first real modeling audition. Dust Devil was excited for Fleur because she knew this was what Fleur wanted. As Dust Devil was flying through the fields her attention became drawn to the way the dust from the old dried fields kicked up so easily when she flew low to the ground. She remembered the way the pegasus ponies in her town had gathered together to bring water up to Cloudsdale one year by flying in circles to create a tornado over a lake. Dust devil was too small when that happened to participate but she remembered really wanting to try. "Maybe I can make a tornado all on my own." Dust Devil thought to herself as she continued to watch the dust from the fields blow around in the wind she created.
She began to change the methodical pattern of her flying into a tight circle and watched with glee at how easily the dust got sucked into her flight pattern. She was going pretty fast when she started getting painful dust particles wafting into her eyes. She slowed down and rubbed her eyes until they no longer hurt. "How am I supposed to make a tornado when I can't even open my eyes?" She thought, getting irritated. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw a gleam. Her attention was drawn and she touched down on land to trot over to the shining object. It was a grimy old pair of work goggles, and they were perfect. She looked them over and found that other than being dirty they were perfectly fine and did not hesitate to clear the lenses of grime and place them over her eyes. They were warm from sitting in the days hot sun but Dust Devil disregarded this for she was far to enamored with moving forward with her experiment. She took off with speed and began flying in circles with full concentration. Her goggles were keeping out the dust wonderfully and as she peered around her flight area she saw that once again, a wall of dust began to rise to join her in her flight pattern. She led the dust higher and higher watching in amazement at how beautiful and calm the center looked as the dust blocked the harshest of the sun's rays and made a shade within the tunnel. She got to the level of the clouds and could feel the pull of the tornado telling her that it was now self-sustaining. She had done it! She had made a tornado all on her own, something it took 15 pegasai to do!
She watched as the tornado of dust moved slowly out of town and eventually dissipated, feeling completely accomplished with this game she had played. She noticed that the first nights star (her favorite star) had appeared in the sky signifying it was about time to head home and began to slowly drift down towards the earth. As she landed she pulled her new goggles up to her hairline and shook herself heavily in an attempt to throw off as much dust that had gathered on her body as possible so her mother wouldn't be cross with her again. As she turned around to bat her curly tail to free up more dust she noticed it. A cutie mark! It was three tornados sitting there on her flank! She squealed with joy before noticing that they had a dusty sheen to them. These tornados on her flank were specifically made of dust like the one she had just created. "What the heck kind of a talent is making dust tornados?" she yelled to the sky. She was happy to have a cutie mark finally but not too happy that, as everypony had jested, it involved being dirty.