//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Of Brothers // by FirestormFIM //------------------------------// Scootaloo raced through the bustling Ponyville marketplace, dodging market stalls and startled Ponies. She was going fast, even faster than she normally did while pulling her two best friends towards a day of Crusading – this time, she had a real time limit, and she couldn’t be late. I can’t believe this is finally happening! Could this day get any better? Scootaloo inwardly screamed. Apparently it could, and following the normal rules of ‘the odds’, it did as soon as the orange filly finished the thought. A rainbow trail plunged out of the clouds to come up next to the scooter. “Hey squirt! What’s got you in such a rush?” asked Rainbow Dash. “He’s coming to Ponyville today!” came the inevitably vague reply. “Whoa, a new pony’s coming moving into town? Awesome!” exclaimed Rainbow “wait, who’s coming? And why are you so excited? Usually it’s Pinkie Pie sprinting through the town to meet a new pony.” “My big brother Firestorm! You’re gonna like him for sure! He’s one of the coolest ponies ever!” “I didn’t know you had a brother.” The cyan Pegasus replied. “Huh, so he’s pretty cool is he?” “Yah! He’s the coolest! Uh… other than you of course” Scootaloo stammered, somewhat unsettled by so much attention from her idol combined with her excitement at her brother’s long-awaited move to Ponyville. “Well obviously he isn’t as cool as me, I’m Rainbow Dash, best flier in all of Equestria” At this point Rainbow, Scootaloo, and an unusually quiet Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, were nearing the outskirts of the small town. They were headed towards the small platform near the train station where travelling Pegasi and chariots from Canterlot could land. Standing alone for the moment on the platform was a visibly excited Cheerilee. “Hey Cheerilee! What’s got you so excited?” Rainbow asked. “Well seeing as you just came here with Scootaloo, I don’t need to explain that her brother is coming to town. Firestorm and I are actually old friends, so even as much as I love meeting new ponies –" “Did somepony say new ponies?!” This outburst naturally (or would it be unnaturally?) came from Pinkie Pie who had suddenly burst out from one of the boards of the platform, causing the waiting ponies to jump in surprise. “Gah! Pinkie how did you… you know what? Never mind, I probably don’t want to know.” Was the universal response voiced this time by Rainbow. “Well I had a twitch that told me that somepony said a new pony was coming to town so here I am!” Explained the currently bouncing in place party pony. “So who’s the new pony?” Now it was Scootaloo’s turn to start bouncing. “It’s my big brother Firestorm! He’s so cool! He left his old job in the Royal Guard just to come live in Ponyville with me!” This last statement received an ‘aww’ from Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. “I didn't know your brother quit his job just to be with you! That’s awesome!” said the youngest member of the Apple family. “Does this mean I’m gonna have another weather pony around? Sweet!” Replied Rainbow after some thought on the implications of a jobless Pegasus, and how it could help reduce her workload. “Actually” Cheerilee explained, with a tone of voice that indicated the immense patience of somepony who spent her working life dealing with foals, “Firestorm’s one of the best blacksmiths in all of Equestria, he was the best in the Guard before he left so he’ll be moving into and fixing up the old forge on the edge of town.” “A blacksmith? That’s awesome! Is he a Unicorn then?” asked the best young flyer. “No, you were right about him being a Pegasus. That’s part of what makes him such an oddity among smiths, most of them are Unicorns, and he’s actually even better than most of them.” The schoolteacher replied. “THERE HE IS!” shouted Scootaloo, pointing her hoof at a small dark spot on the horizon. Pinkie Pie, who had been unusually quiet and thoughtful after Scootaloo answered her question jumped up with a smile as wide as a mile. *GASP* “If he used to be a guardpony he probably knows Shining Armor! And if he knows Shining Armor he’s probably friends with Shining Armor ‘cause Shining Armor is such a nice pony, and if he’s friends with Shining Armor maybe he knows Twilight Sparkle! And he’s almost here! I need to go get Twilight!” With that Pinkie performed a full dive into the whole in the platform she made when she appeared. The dot on the horizon was growing steadily larger as the remaining ponies each came to the decision to ignore the fact that Pinkie just dove into a hole in the platform as apparently the fastest way to get to the library. A couple minutes later, the dot had turned into a silhouette of a Pegasus pony and a very confused and slightly irritated Twilight Sparkle had just reached the platform balanced oddly on Pinkie’s back. “Pinkie, will you please tell me what was so urgent that you had to throw me on your back and gallop here without slowing your speech to a point where anypony could even understand? Oh, hey Rainbow Dash, hey Cheerilee, hey girls!” said Twilight, becoming more excited upon noticing the other ponies around. “My big brothers coming to Ponyville today!” came Scootaloo’s enthusiastic response “And Pinkie had the idea that since he just left the Royal Guard to come here, he probably knew Shining Armor and because of that, he probably knew you.” “I didn’t know you had a brother Scootaloo, that great! What’s his name?” asked the ever-curious Twilight Sparkle. “Firestorm! The best blacksmith in Equestria!” “Really? I do know him! He and Shining Armor are really good friends, they joined the guard on the same day!” *Gasp* “That’s so amazing! You’re BBBFFs are PFFs!” Pinkie Pie looked like she was about to burst with sheer excitement. By now the waiting ponies could make out the shape of the approaching Pegasus, the position of the sun made it still it impossible to see his coat and mane colors. But they could still tell his size. “He’s almost as big as Big Macintosh!” Said Apple Bloom through her shocked expression. “Yep, he always was just a little bigger than Shining Armor” said Twilight, grinning as memories flooded back into her mind. No more than a minute later, Firestorm landed on the platform. He was a big stallion, as they had already established, with a coat the same orange as his little sister and the same violet eyes, his mane and tail however, were as unique as they come, at the base where the mane and tail met the Pegasus, they were a deep red, the kind of red that brought hot coals and embers to mind, farther out however, they were a fiery orange and yellow similar to that of Spitfire of the Wonderbolts. It was definitely obvious where he got his name from. “Firestorm!” Scootaloo shouted at the top of her voice while sprinting towards her brother as fast as her legs could carry her. “Hey Scoots!” Firestorm said laughing and pulling Scootaloo into a hug “It’s been waay too long.” They broke the hug and Firestorm got a chance to look around at the other ponies. “Hey Cheerilee, it’s good to see you again, thanks for taking care of Scootaloo for the past two years, if she’s still the Scootaloo I remember,” he grinned at the orange Pegasus filly, “and if she really is my sister it must have been a lot of work, I owe you big time.” The schoolteacher chuckled and gave the Cutie Mark Crusaders a slightly accusatory look. “Well I do recall an incident with a love poison.” This caused the three fillies to suddenly look anywhere but Cheerilee and Firestorm. “Oh really? You’ll have to tell me about that sometime” Firestorm replied with a conspiratory grin. He looked down at the two fillies next to his little sister, “and you two must be Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, Scoots talks about you in literally every one of her letters.” This got another ‘aww’ from the two, and a light blush from the third Cutie Mark Crusader. Firestorm then turned his attention to the other ponies, “you must be Rainbow Dash, the famous prospective Wonderbolt, Scootaloo talks about you a lot too, oh and Soarin’ says hi and he asked me to thank you again for saving his pie at the Gala.” “Oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh, oh-my-gosh!” Rainbow Dash replied, smiling even wider than Pinkie Pie. Speaking of Pinkie, she was the next one addressed by Firestorm; “And judging from all the, you know… pink, you must be Pinkie Pie, the infamous party-pony. It's good to meet you.” Then his gaze fell onto Celestia’s protégé, and his eyes widened in surprise, “Well if it isn’t Twilight Sparkle, I was hoping I’d have a chance to visit you at some point, hardly expected you to be here with a welcoming committee though. How are you doin’?” “I’m really good,” Twilight said, “I didn’t even know you were coming until after Pinkie had already dragged me here, Shining Armor didn’t mention it in his last letter.” “You always did have your face so deep in those books you didn’t know where you were going” Firestorm laughed. “But yah, your brother wasn’t happy when I told him I was leaving the Guard.” Firestorm rubbed his neck uncomfortably as he said the latter and proceeded to change the subject. “Well I’ve kept you all long enough, I should probably go down to the forge and take a look around.” “Okie Dokie Loki! Be sure to come down to Sugarcube Corner around 6 tonight for your big welcome to Ponyville party!” “I will, don’t worry Pinkie.” The other ponies left, and as Firestorm started to do the same, he looked down to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders looking up at him expectantly. “What’s up Scoots?” “Do you have to go to the forge already? You have to see the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse!” “I suppose I don’t have to go yet, where is it?” “It’s on my family’s farm; Sweet Apple Acres!” Apple Bloom answered. “Alright, let’s go see where you girls plan your crimes” the stallion joked, earning a resounding “hey!” from his sister and her friends. Fifteen minutes later they found themselves at Sweet Apple Acres. As they walked by the barn a tan mare with a tied blonde mane and tail galloped out, nearly crashing into them. The mare stumbled following the swerve to dodge the unexpected guests, and when she recovered she immediately when to apologizing. “I’m really sorry ‘bout that” she then noticed it was the Cutie Mark Crusaders, “Oh it’s you girls, I was worried it was a somepony here for business, uh… no offence. And then she noticed the unfamiliar Pegasus stallion. “Apple Bloom, who’s your friend here?” “I’m Firestorm, I just came to town today, I’m –“ “My big brother!” Scootaloo finished with all the enthusiasm of a filly of her age. “-right, and the girls wanted to show me their clubhouse, which is apparently on your farm.” Said Firestorm, somewhat wishing he could be even a little surprised about his sister’s interjection. “Well alright! I’m Applejack, you already met my sister Apple Bloom, but I’ll introduce you to the rest of us Apples.” The cowpony said, shaking Firestorms hoof energetically. “I kinda figured you were Applejack, you and your friends are fairly well known at this point, you know.” Noticing Applejacks confused expression Firestorm decided to explain; “being Celestia’s protégé, winning the best young flier competition, a popular fashionista, a brief but extremely successful modeling career, well… Pinkie Pie,” Applejack smiled knowingly at this, “a very successful rodeo pony,” Applejack blushed modestly at that, “and saving Equestria 3 times on top of all of that will tend to lead to some minor fame.” “Ah guess I never really thought about that. Anyway, come and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the family.” They walked up to the farmhouse where Firestorm saw an elderly pale-green mare asleep in a rocking chair on the porch. “Wake up Granny, there’s somepony new to meet.” Applejack’s efforts to wake the mare were rewarded by a “wah?”. “Granny Smith, this is Firestorm, he’s new in town, and little Scootaloo’s brother. Firestorm, this here’s Granny Smith.” “Nice to meet you Granny Smith” Firestorm politely said. Granny Smith replied in kind and promptly fell back asleep. “Alright well come down to the field and I’ll introduce you to Big Macintosh.” Another short walk took them to the edge of a field where a massive red stallion was finishing plowing with a plow that was so heavily rusted and damaged from use that it sent a small shiver down the professional metalworker’s spine. “Macintosh! Come over here and meet the new pony in town!” Applejack shouted at the stallion. Rather than shouting back a reply, the stallion simply left the plow and walked silently towards them. “Mac, this is Firestorm, he’s Scootaloo’s big brother and he just got into town. Firestorm, this is my big brother Big Macintosh.” “Nice to meet you Big Mac.” “Eeyup.” “I couldn’t help but notice the condition of your plow, would you all be interested in a replacement?” Firestorm asked. “Well we’ve been working on it for a couple years now, we just haven’t had the funds, but with you in town we might be able to afford it ‘cause we won’t have to pay for shippin’ it here.” Applejack replied, looking extremely grateful. “Oh don’t worry about paying for it, I’ll do it free of charge.” “Look, I know you’re just tryin’ to be nice, but us Apples are a might stubborn, and we definitely don’t need our stuff replaced for free. We ain’t a charity case.” Applejack said, grateful expression quickly replaced by one of an offended pride. “I’m not trying to say your families a charity case, I like to do my first job for everypony for free, helps spread my name around and if you like it, you’re more likely to come back. Besides, your little sister has been a good friend to mine for the last couple years so it’s only fair I pay your family back for it.” Firestorm said. Big Mac suddenly and subtly shot a glare at Firestorm at the mention of the past two years Scootaloo lived in Ponyville without any family. “Well in that case I suppose it’s ok, we’re mighty grateful.” Applejack said, expression returning to gratitude. “Right Macintosh?” “Eeyup” Big Mac replied, hiding the glare behind his usual stoic expression. “I’ll get to work on it as soon as the forge is up and running. Speaking of which, I’m gonna have to go check it out pretty soon and I promised the girls I’d let them show me their clubhouse first so I should get going. It was nice meeting you though.” Firestorm said, starting to follow the 3 excited fillies deeper into the orchard.