Element of Balance

by SamSwordsman123

Chapter 23: Gossip, Sights, and Starts

Author's Note:

Okay I decided to take last week off to do some editing. You may have noticed an inconsistency in regards to Gold Steel/Steel Gold. I kinda inadvertently jumped between the two. After the last chapter though I felt like sticking with Steel Gold since that was the name I'd been using most of the chapters. But as I thought about it Gold Steel sounded better in my opinion. So I went back over almost all the chapters and edited that as well as some other stuff.
Also, I’m considering splitting this story up with the different seasons being different books. What do you guys think? Another series that was obviously inspired by AlexLonewolf’s story did that and I kinda like the idea. But we’ll see, we still got a while before the Season 1 finale of Grand Galloping Gala and (Spoiler Alert) Fire and Rarity get together.

Fire and the mares sat in a high-class restaurant in Canterlot.

"Wow, this place is great!" Pinkie Pie said as their starters of bread and butter arrived.

"Being friends with a prince certainly has great benefits," Rarity said.

"I'll say! I may not be into fancy-smancy but I won't say no to the best food this place has to offer," Applejack said.

"I agree that it is quite nice," Fluttershy said.

Twilight smiled at her. "Thank you. Feels good to know my friends approve of my home. Though I've only been here a couple times with my parents."

Fire scoffed. "I used to come here once or twice a month when I lived in Canterlot."

"Lucky you!" Twilight replied in a teasing manner. “Having a practically endless supply of bits.”

“Yeah, I’m a lucky young stallion to be the son of Celestia,” Fire agreed. “Though there are times when I wish I knew my father. My mom doesn’t like to talk about him. But hey, you didn’t do so bad on the luck yourself becoming my mother’s star pupil! Literally!” he gestured toward her flank where the bright red star cutie mark was.

“We got quite the various designs of cutie marks here!” Pinkie Pie said as she ate her grilled asparagus. “Swords, rainbows, diamonds, butterflies, stars, apples and balloons!”

“We all have our different talents, but together we’re quite a team,” Applejack said. “And having a little extra help never hurts like when we had Moondancer there.”

“Yeah,” Fire agreed.

His future date to the gala wasn’t with them right now as she was on a lunch date with her sister.

They all laughed. Soon their meal arrived and they dug in. As they did, somepony approached them. A gray coated blacked maned mare with a cutie mark of two pony heads facing each other with speech bubbles above them. Fire’s heart sunk as
he saw her holding a microphone with a brown camera stallion by her side.

"Prince Fire Sword! I'm Gossip Guesser!” the mare said.

“Hello,” Fire greeted as politely as he could.

He’d never liked the publicity aspect of being a prince. Plus this mare was largely responsible for presenting Blueblood as such as an esteemed bachelor in her Canterlot News and Speculation. Gossip Guesser only took what was on the surface and didn’t always bother to get the real facts. It was much more open to interpretation in many cases.

“We heard about your arrest of a member of the Royal Guard yesterday!" the reporter said. "Tell me is it true? Is this guard the unicorn thief who's been involved in over two dozen
heists?"

"Yes," Fire replied.

"Excellent! Tell me how did you learn of the identity of the traitor?" Gossip asked

"Uh, thanks to Twilight Sparkle," he said gesturing to the mare sitting next to him. "She's my mother's prized student.”

"Ah yes! We’ve heard of Celestia having a top student! Though she hasn’t done anything newsworthy that we know of now has she?” Gossip said.

Fire noticed Twilight frown at that and he did the same.

“Twilight is a very skilled magic user! She is smart and gifted in all of its aspects! The only thing I can do better than her is fight! She was with me when I confronted not only Gold Steel but Nightmare Moon as well!” Fire said defensively. “As were all these mares!”

Gossip looked at Fire’s female company. “Hmm, I see you are following in your cousin Blueblood’s hoofsteps as well, surrounded by mares!”

“What? No! Eww!” Fire exclaimed.

“Oh no need to be shy about it! All the mares love Blueblood!” Gossip said. “And they might actually love you more before long with you doing such worthy acts!”

Fire might not mind that actually. Gossip then looked closer at the girls.

“Lovely mares, I must say. Though some of them could likely use some work on their manes.” Gossip said as she eyed Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

The camera stallion took a few pictures.

“Okay, I think that’s enough,” Fire said.

Gossip merely smirked. “Well, we got what we needed. You’ll see a little entry on you soon your highness I can say for certain in our Canterlot Collection of Rumors!”

Fire growled. “You’re lucky that you say those things aren’t always true cause if not for that we would probably shut you down!”

“Everypony loves it when circumstances are a little more free to interpretation,” Gossip smirked again. “Who knows, we might make you more famous then Blueblood!”

“Oh I doubt that!” Rarity said. “Prince Fire is probably more famous already!”

Fire smirked at that now.

“Even so Blueblood is so very handsome!” Rarity said.

And Fire frowned.

The two unwelcome additions made their way out and Fire ate the rest of his food in a less pleasant mood.

“Well those two weren’t very nice,” Applejack said.

“Yeah, telling us to work on our manes!” Rainbow agreed.

“I feel they are right about you two!” Rarity spoke up.

Applejack winced as she walked on her leg which was still suffering from the burn made by Gold Steel. Fire noticed this.

“You okay Applejack?” he asked the Earth Pony.

“Yeah, just hurts a bit,” Applejack said.

“Maybe we can find you a cart to ride on!” Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack frowned, her pride forbidding such an act. “I can manage just fine as long as keep putting the medicine on! I’ll be healed in no time! In fact I’m ready to return to Ponyville!”

“Oh but we only just came to Canterlot yesterday!” Rarity objected. “I’ve always wanted to live here! This is my first time visiting!”

“Well, allow me to book a tour for you!” Fire said.

“Really, you’d take us on tour?” Rarity asked.

“Well, I can see about the tour guides. We do have them here for visitors across Equestria,” Fire said. “But I suppose I can at least show you around the castle.”

He did so, showing them the various wings of the massive place he called home.

“We have hundreds of rooms in the castle, like the kitchen, barracks, and you’ve already seen the armory,” Fire said as he led them through each of the rooms. “And here’s my room.”

Rarity looked around, seeing a picture of him with his mother and Princess Cadance. “Who’s this?”

“That’s Princess Cadance!” Twilight said. “She’s my former foalsitter and Celestia’s adoptive niece!”

“Yeah, my cousin,” Fire said. “Though I consider her more of a sister.”

He blushed as he thought back to his former feelings on her before that. Among other things.

“That’s sweet,” Applejack said.

They made their way outside to the sculpture garden where many statues were kept. Including-

“And this here is Discord,” Fire said as they approached a large dragon like creature with a variety of body parts from different animals.”

“That’s a weird creature,” Pinkie remarked.

“He should be weird, he is the Spirit of Chaos after all,” Fire said. “My mom and Aunt Luna encased him in stone over a thousand years ago when he tried to take over Equestria. He caused a bunch of weird stuff to happen like cotton candy clouds, corn turning into popcorn and chocolate rain.”

“WHAT?” Pinkie exclaimed. “That sounds like fun! Why would you ever want to stop something like that?”

“Cause it was disruptive and ponies couldn’t go about their lives. He even brainwashed several ponies into thinking they were having fun,” Fire said.

“Oh, well forced fun is no fun at all,” Pinkie said before looking at the statue. “I’d like a little bit of something like that though!”

“Let’s just pray to my mother it doesn’t come to that,” Fire said.

He showed them the rest of the castle and finally.

“And here is the school for Gifted Unicorns!” he said as they were in front of the school. “This is where I went to school.”

“Me too,” Twilight said. “We had such good times, all the learning, homework, science experiments, spell casting.”

“Yeah,” Fire agreed somewhat. “I could do without so much homework though.”

Twilight gasped as though Fire said something offensive. She looked ready to faint.

“Well, I don’t think I could ever get tired of living in a place like this,” Rarity said as she marveled at the castle.

They looked through the rest of the city for the rest of the day then retired for the night.

…

The next morning before noon, they returned to Ponyville along with Vine and Silver who stood silently. When they arrived, they found a fair-sized crowd waiting for them.

"You're back Applejack!" Apple Bloom exclaimed as she ran and hugged her

big sister.

"Hey Rarity great going!" Sweetie Belle said as she did the same with her sister.

"Uh, what's going on here?" Applejack asked.

"You've made the news!" Spike said as he emerged from the crowd holding a paper.

Twilight levitated it over and read the headline. "Prince and his Marefriends Stop Traitor to the Royal Guard. Wait, Marefriends?"

They all looked at Fire whose eyes widened. Twilight then continued reading.

"As Celestia’s sun began to set two days ago, it was discovered that the Unicorn thief who has been able to teleport and steal things from all across Equestria is a member of the Princess's own Royal Guard. Prince Fire Sword apparently found out about this somehow. From what we do know it began just when the Rich family of the small town of Ponyville were robbed and their young filly threatened in their own home. Along with the Prince were a group of at least six mares and a few members of his personal guard. What is the nature of Fire's relationship with these mares? Could one of them be his girlfriend? Is he going to be taking her to the Grand Galloping Gala?"

Fire's face went bright red at that. But Rarity put a hoof on his shoulder.

"Now now Prince Fire, it’s just a little gossip!" she said. "They don't know the whole story so they have to make assumptions. Besides it could be bit fun to guess first?"

"I suppose," Fire said. "But I don't like my personal life being pried into!"

"You are a prince! Everypony's gonna wanna know what's going on with you!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Now since we're gaining a little fame ponies will want to know about us as well most likely!"

"Yeah! We'll be famous!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Well I'm content with my life now," Applejack said. "But this can't hurt can it?"

"Certainly not!" Rarity waved her hoof.

"I've always wanted to help protect Equestria," Twilight said. "It seemed like the best way to make a name for myself with my magic. Of course back then I thought I could do it alone."

"Well you're on a roll so far," Fire said.

“Excuse me!” A voice called.

Fire looked and saw the speaker was Spoiled Rich.

"I want my bits back!" Spoiled demanded.

Fire frowned. "Take it up with my mother in Canterlot! She is handling the return of the stolen objects with her royal guards! She should send letters across Equestria soon to any areas that have been robbed by Gold Steel."

"Very well!" Spoiled hissed as she looked at the train which at that moment sped off. "Arrgh!"

Fire smirked at that. Now she’d have to wait for the next train to Canterlot which would be in three hours time. Fire and the mares then continued on and soon parted ways to return to their respective homes. Fire walked over to Warm Heart Tower with Vine Archer and Silver Javelin at his side. Grand Garden was in the front yard tending to the sprouted apple tree.

“Ah! Welcome home Prince Fire!” Grand Garden greeted.

“Grand,” Fire greeted as well. “How’s everything here?”

“All quiet,” the gardener said. “Though we are getting a little low on some of the supplies. Down to just a dozen apples in the cellar.”

Fire smirked. “Well, that won’t do. I go through those apples pretty quick by myself and with everypony else here they’ll be gone in a day or two. I’m sure you know where to get them.”

“Yes,” Grand said. “Sweet Applej- I mean Sweet Apple Acres.”

Fire had to restrain himself from laughing when Grand almost said Sweet Applejack. Not sure sweet was a way to describe Applejack, but dependable certainly was.

“I’ll take an inventory and make a list of everything we need then head out with some of the others,” Grand said.

Fire nodded. “Very good.”

What would he do in the meantime? It occurred to him to read, but another thing occurred as well. Watching what happened between Applejack and Grand Garden. That could interesting, though it wouldn’t be nice to spy. Of course they didn’t have to catch him. He was trying to set them up, at least a little bit. Might as well see if it went through.

Fire made his way to his study and looked through his spellbook collection. He found one and pulled it off the shelf with his magic. Checking the index he found the spell that came to mind. The camouflage spell.

He lit up his horn, it took him once or twice to get the spell right but when he looked at his white hoof, he saw that it was blended in with the room around him. He smirked and looked out the nearby window to see Grand Garden making his way down to Sweet Apple Acres nearby. Fire opened the window and flew out, blending into the blue sky above Ponyville.
He watched as Grand made his way to the barn. Grand Garden found Applejack outside tending to her family pigs.

“Well Howdy Garden!” Applejack greeted in a friendly manner.

“Hello Applejack,” Grand Garden greeted. “I’m gonna need a few barrels of apples.”

“Fire sure goes through those,” Applejack remarked.

“Like they say, an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” Grand grinned.

Applejack chuckled. “Yeah, it should anyway. I’m surprised Pinkie doesn’t have to see a doctor more often with how much sugar she eats.”

Fire landed on the roof, causing a small thud that caused him to grit his teeth. Applejack and Garden heard the sound and looked up. But they saw nothing.

Applejack then turned back to Garden. “Well, I’ll have those apples brought up in a jiffy. I’m getting kinda low on room in my storage so it will be good to send some out. I’ve considered making myself an apple cellar so I can have extra space to put the apples.”

“You sure have a lot of them,” Garden remarked. “No surprise I guess since growing apples seems to be a family talent.”

“Yeah, runs in the family. But my other talent being honest,” Applejack said. “And hard working.”

She headed into one of the apple sheds and began loading up a wagon with buckets full of apples.

“Let me help!” Grand Garden offered as he went inside with her.

The two of them pulled the bucketloads onto the cart. After a few minutes the cart was full. Grand Garden then handed Applejack the bits for the exchange.

“Thank you Applejack,” Grand Garden said.

“You’re welcome,” Applejack said politely. “Hope everypony at Warm Heart Tower likes the apples.”

“Oh they do, especially Prince Fire,” Grand assured her. “And me of course.”

“That’s nice. Glad we can satisfy y’all,” Applejack said.

Fire curled his lip. If Cadance were here she could just jumpstart their romance with a flick of her horn. But Grand seemed to be just sticking with being professional right now.

Come on ask her out! He thought.

Grand smiled at her. “You certainly… do.”

He tied the cart to himself and Fire thought for sure he was just gonna go without trying. The prince sighed.

Then…

“Say uh, would you like to maybe… go out sometime?” Grand asked.

“Go out? You mean on a date?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah,” Grand said shyly.

Applejack was silent for a moment. “Well, I’m pretty busy. But maybe! You seem like a nice stallion! We can at least get to know each other a bit more.”

Grand Garden smiled. “I’d like that. I really admire you for your hard work.”

“Thank you,” Applejack said.

From his hiding place, Fire smiled. They weren’t together yet but it was a step in the right direction. He flew off, looking at his body which was still camouflaged. This could be a good chance to prank somepony. He had just the pony in mind as well. He soon spotted Rainbow Dash laying on a cloud above Ponyville. He chuckled and flew over to her.

“Boo!”

“Ah!” Rainbow Dash yelled looking around. “Alright who’s there! I’ll teach you to sneak up on me when I’m napping!”

She looked and saw… nothing. At least nothing at first glance.

“Huh? Could have sworn I heard somepony say boo! Rainbow exclaimed. “Maybe I dreamed it!”

Fire grinned and undid his spell. “Nope!”

“Wah!” Rainbow said. “Fire! How did you…”

“Magic and wings!” Fire lit up his horn and lifted his wings as he continued flapping them.

“Oh right,” Rainbow Dash said. “Extra perks since you’re an alicorn! But that doesn’t save you from my wrath! Just wait! You’ll get yours someday.”

Fire grinned at her. “Bring it on!”

“Okay, I will!” Rainbow Dash said.

Well, things had taken a few turns. Applejack and Grand Garden would be seeing each other, and Rainbow had pretty much declared a prank war on Fire. But that’s what made life in Ponyville interesting. Who knew what would happen in the coming months?

Comments

[MarioBrony]

Fire Sword the matchmaker. Who would've thought?
Hope AJ and Grand make a good couple!

[Phetiamwantip]

AJ and Grand are perfect for each other, can't wait to see that.

Also, I'll be willing to see Fire to do some more training with the Crusaders, I want to see them strong.

Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.

Here's a song that will make you natural. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/V5M2WZiAy6k?si=2jJt_cauI5eCab08

[SamSwordsman123]

11895581
Well his cousin/older sister figure is the princess of love. I will have to develop Grands character for sure though.

Edit: And he'll be playing matchmaker with the other mares as well.

[MarioBrony]

11895721
we'll see how this goes.