//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: A Day in the Life // Story: Element of Balance // by SamSwordsman123 //------------------------------// It was a busy time around Ponyville for quite a while. They were making good progress on the repairs at least. Hopefully it would be just a few more days before everything was back to the way it was before the parasprites showed up. Vine Archer had to say, he’d expected this job to be dull in the country once he was assigned to be part of the Flame Guard that would be responsible for protecting Prince Fire Sword. But it had been just about anything but ever since he came here. They’d had a griffon, dragon, boastful magician, a trio of robbers, a zebra thought to be an evil enchantress, and now parasprites. What was next? Either way, Vine Archer was glad to take a break from all the excitement and now rebuilding. He got up early one morning and stood in front of Warm Heart Tower and faced his foe, an archery target made of hay. Vine readied his bow, it came with a stand at the bottom that allowed it to stay up right while he used his mouth to fire. Vine had heard that some species like griffons actually had to grip their bows with claws to steady them. No matter, Vine’s bow worked fine for him. He grabbed an arrow with his teeth and set it to the bow before taking the string in his teeth as well. His arrows flew with years of practice. They didn’t set the target on fire or freeze it like some arrows that had been forged with special properties could. But that was probably for the best, didn’t need to burn the target after all. The simple wood shafts ending in steel tips soared and struck the hay in various rings. Vine managed to strike exactly where he aimed at least nine times out of ten. He was good, as archery was his special talent, but even that didn’t gurantee him every time. But with enough practice he could one day get there. Landing ten out of ten every time. Then maybe he could partake in a big archery event sometime. He went about it for around half an hour, shooting his arrows, retrieving them, and shooting again. They flew, he retrieved, they flew again. One, two, three… he shot four more with perfect precision. Eight, nine, and… He readied his last shot and focused, this was it. If he could get this last one he’d be satisfied for now. He aimed and was about to “Hey Lieutenant Archer!” a voice called. Vine jumped in surprise, his razor-sharp focus that had been the result of his guard training in Canterlot wavering just enough to cause his arrow to slip a hair out of where he intended to hit it. He watched it hit the target on the right just before the outer ring that he’d wanted to hit. He’d managed to three of his arrows on the corners of the target. But now that wouldn’t be a perfectly placed set. He sighed and looked at the pony that interrupted him. It was Hoofrunner, the other Earth Pony stallion in the Flame Guard besides Vine himself. Hoofrunner was a grayish blue pony with a short brown mane and green eyes. Like Vine, he wore the armor with flame designs that had been made shortly before the squad of six guards arrived in Ponyville. “Hoof, you broke my concentration!” Vine scolded. “Sorry sir!” Hoof apologized. “But its time for training!” “Oh,” Vine realized he’d been so focused on his archery he’d lost track of time. “Thanks.” They made their way to the other side of the grass lands around Warm Heart Tower. Prince Fire Sword had decided it would serve as their training grounds. He was there waiting for them, his sword at ready. The other four were present as well, each wielding a training version of their preferred weapon. Fire Sword had a sword of course, and Silver Javelin a staff in the place of his usual javelin. The other three guards were Fast Stab, Feather Falls, and Axe Eagleeye. Fast was a unicorn who levitated a pair of unsharpened daggers. Feather and Axe were the Pegasus members. Like Silver, Feather carried a staff in the place of a spear. “Ready boys?” Vine Archer asked. The guards nodded and Vine turned to the prince. He knew alicorns were stronger then the regular ponies, and thought by many to be immortal. It was the responsibility of the royal guards to make sure they were unharmed in the event that something unexpected might happen. Prince Fire’s special talent was reputedly combat magic, even so he couldn’t handle everything on his own. Vine just hoped he’d be there for his prince when Fire might need him. So far he’d not exactly done a top-notch job. He’d let Fire Sword go off with the mares that wielded the elements of harmony and lost him during the rainstorm. Of those had been when Fire insisted on going on alone or sent his guards ahead to Warm Heart Tower. Vine would have to make sure to accompany Fire the next time something happened. But for now, they had to train. “Your highness?” Vine asked. “Yes,” Fire said raising his sword. They divided into pairs. Since there were a total of seven of them one had to be the odd one out. That would be Vine for this round. Prince Fire Sword faced Silver Javelin. They would fight up close and personal Vine Archer liked archery of course, but the bravest members of the guard engaged their foes up close and personal. When he’d first joined the recruits, he’d been unable to stand and fight, running away. Boy he was punished harshly for that. But he’d worked past his fear of facing an opponent up close. They began their morning bouts, with Fire's training sword clashing against Silver's staff that stood in for his spear. The guard's weapon had the advantage of reach, but Prince Fire easily parried it with a maneuver of his blade. He then stepped forward and caught Silver with the weapon. "Oh!" the unicorn exclaimed. "Nice one your highness!" "Thanks," Fire said with a smirk. "But there's more where that came from!" Silver stated. They resumed their position and came at each other again. Silver thrusted out with his spear, and Fire attempted to block but missed. The thrust this time had been a feint to draw the blade off to the side while Silver thrusted to the other side. His shaft caught Fire in the shoulder. Fire chuckled it off. "Not bad, you got me." Silver returned the smirk from earlier. "You're not the only one with talent in combat! Best two out of three?" "You got it!" Fire agreed to the challenge. "Then we'll switch partners." And so they took a few steps back and began again. Fire focused, trying not to let himself be caught offguard like he was last time. Silver thrusted out his shaft and Fire parried before trying to move in close. This time however, Silver was ready, quickly retreating out of range of Fire's training blade. He then let out a flurry thrusts that Fire struggled to dodge. Even though his talent was combat, he didn't put in quite as much time into training it as the royal guards. Still he managed to hold his own and remained focused, spotting the thrust that was the feint and quickly rotating his blade to block the real strike. Then he took the spear under his armpit and trapped it there while striking with his sword. The unsharpened blade made contact and struck the silver stallion once again. "Ah! You win!" Silver exclaimed. "Ah well, guess it’s to be expected. A humble unicorn like me can only be so good at physical combat. That's an Earth Pony thing." "You're pretty good though," Fire complimented. Silver smirked. "Thanks!" He then turned to Vine. "Alright Lieutenant! Ready to lose?" Vine frowned. Even though he was ranked higher, the unicorn often managed to outdo him. "We'll see who wins this one!" Silver put his spear down and cracked his hooves together, Vine didn’t have a preferred melee weapon apart from his hooves. The two stallions faced each other and... several strikes and grunts later...Vine was knocked down by a sharp kick to the stomach. He groaned. Silver laughed. "Guess strength isn't everything huh, Vine?" Vine frowned before admitting, "No, it’s not." He pushed himself to his feet. Silver smirked at him. "You're lucky we unicorns don't use our magic in sparring matches, you'd never beat me for real!" he taunted. Vine glared at him. "Give me a boy and we'll see who beats who." "Okay that's enough!" Fire put up his hooves. "We don't need to fight amongst ourselves!" They rotated partners a couple more times and then it was time to go out on patrol. Axe Eagleeye and Feather Falls, the two Pegasus members, flew into the sky while Vine, Prince Fire, and the other ponies trotted the ground, except for Silver who started behind to make sure Warm Heart Tower was secure. Though remembering how those robbers took on just him and Silver when they’d remained behind, Vine worried. "Perhaps we should expand on the guards, Prince Fire," Vine suggested. "I mean we can only do so much with just six of us." "Perhaps," Fire agreed. "Or perhaps we can fortify what we have, maybe some security spells put up at night to prevent anyone unauthorized from entering. I believe the captain of the guard in Canterlot has a spell that keep out anyone with hostile intent." There was a moment of silence as they walked. But it was soon interrupted by - “Wahoo! Here comes the heavy feather!” Feather Falls came flying down in a sky dive before pulling up. “And he pulls up!” Feather shouted for all to hear. He liked to be dramatic and daring. "Alright, I think I should check on all my friends," Fire said. "They should be just about fixed up with everything today. You guys head into town and make sure everything is fine." "Yes sir!" Hoofrunner said with a quick salute. He then ran off, that pony preferred to run rather than walk. Just like Prince Fire's friend Rainbow Dash preferred to fly everywhere. He was originally from Manehattan and claimed to win several racing prizes there and was a fan of the Earth Speeders, a group of Earth Pony joggers that were renowned for being fast on the ground, similar to the Wonderbolts in the sky. Vine snapped himself out of his thoughts however and looked at Fire. "Um, your highness, I think at least one of us should stay with you." "I can handle myself Lieutenant," Fire said. "I know but you have been facing quite a few things recently. Not all of them are dangerous I admit but one of them was a dragon and the other an Ursa Minor. We should have gone with you up that hill," Vine said. "Fair point," Fire acknowledged. "But I had the bearers of the Elements of Harmony with me. Everything was fine. Don't worry. If anything like that comes again I'll make sure to have you guys by my side." Vine nodded, though hoped that would be the case. Fire then flapped his wings and took off. … Fire stopped over at Sweet Apple Acres and saw Rainbow Dash as well Applejack, Big Mac and Granny Smith on the farm. They’d managed to get their house rebuilt at least. “Hey Applejack!” he called with a wave. “Just about done huh?” “Yeah, at least the supports were still intact so we just had to build a new outside and put everything back up,” Applejack said. “Cheerilee even had Applebloom’s class pitch in yesterday! And Rainbow flew around and helped too.” “Good,” Fire said. “Always nice to have a loyal friend.” “That’s right!” Rainbow put a hoof to her heart. “Sure was hard to do it in this heat but I managed, and summer is just about over! Hello fall soon!” Fire nodded and went around to check on all of his other friends. First was Twilight. “Seems the vegetation around your library is grow back,” Fire told her when he stepped in and saw her. “Yeah, and I’ve replaced most of the books,” she said. “Hey, you up for reading together with me and Moondancer soon?” He nodded. “Good to exercise my mind as well as body. With the repairs almost done we should be able to go back to normal.” “Great,” Twilight said with a grin. “I kinda missed having you reading and practicing magic with around here. But I’ve been so busy with ordering these books I’ve barely had time to read them! It will be nice when things are back to the way they were after these past few weeks.” “Yeah,” Fire agreed. “See you later.” “Bye Fire,” Twilight said as he walked off. “See ya,” Spike waved. Fire headed to Sugarcube Corner which was patched up as well. One could almost never know there was a disaster. Now they just needed to bake new treats to sell. If a certain somepony didn’t eat them all up. “Ah, all that rebuilding sure makes me hungry!” Pinkie said as she patted her full stomach. Fire chuckled and looked at Mrs. Cake. “Can I get a couple boxes of cupcakes?” he asked. “Yes, of course deary!” the Earth Pony mare said. She handed him the boxes and he quickly flew them over to Warm Heart Tower before resuming his patrol. Still two more ponies to see. Fluttershy still needed to replace some furniture, and was sad because… “I wish I could have kept just one of them,” she said when he stopped by. “They were more trouble than they’re worth Fluttershy.” Fire put a hoof on her shoulder. “Next time we find an animal even you aren’t familiar with let’s research it.” “Okay,” she said with a small nod. “So um, I recall you wanted to maybe get a new pet in addition to Aurora?” “I thought about it,” Fire said. “I do love animals.” She smiled. “They make wonderful friends. I got my cutie mark because of animals you know.” Fire returned the smile for a moment. “I had a feeling that was the case. You just have it so natural with them.” “And you a natural fighter,” Fluttershy said. “But you’re still kind. I admit I was… a little scared and sad seeing you burn those parasprites, but you did it to protect us.” Fire nodded. “But maybe burning them was a bit extreme, I mean they weren’t trying to eat us.” Fluttershy walked over and hugged him. “Its okay. Your heart was in the right place. Sometimes nature… and even this beautiful world can be cruel. We need strong ponies like you for times of conflict. I really admire your strength of character. You’re brave, strong, honest, funny, loyal, and fierce. But you’re not cruel or mean when you act strong. You’re a perfect balance. I really admire those things about you. You have the best traits from all of our elements. I feel safe when you are around and I know the others feel the same way. You’re a wonderful stallion, truly worthy of being the son of Celestia herself.” Fire smiled and returned the hug. “Thanks. And I think you’re a wonderful kind mare as well, Fluttershy.” She blushed. “Thank you.” Finally, he visited Rarity. “Your store seems all back to normal as well Rare.” She blushed. “Yes, those bits you got from the nobles of Canterlot certainly helped everypony to be able to purchase repair supplies quicker. I can finally return to making my beloved fashion creations rather than making my home again!” “Well in that case would you be up for taking a royal order?” Fire asked with a grin. “Oh no I couldn’t!” Rarity exclaimed. “I’m in no condition to make something so regal after just getting my store back in working condition!” She giggled. “Of course I can your highness!” Fire smiled. “Well, I think I would like a new coat. Summer is ending in just a couple days and I’ll need something warm for when the cold weather sets in.” “It shall be my pleasure!” Rarity agreed. “I shall have to design something warm and regal! You are the son of Celestia after all! Hmm… how does a red fire themed mantle sound? I can make it with the finest material!” “Guess it would fit royalty,” Fire said. “Thank you my dear.” She blushed again at that and said, “No don’t get too flirty with little old me, your highness! After all you have another mare waiting for you on the day of the gala.” “Yeah, and you have another prince you wish to woo,” Fire reminded her. They looked away from each other with forced smiles. Each of them thinking a similar thing. I wish she liked me instead of Blueblood. Fire thought. A gorgeous and good mare like her shouldn’t be with a vain stallion like that. But I have Moondancer as a date already. I can’t abandon her. I wish he had asked me instead of Moondancer. Rarity thought. If he had, I’d gladly go with him. But he’s known her much longer and it is his choice to make. And I have another prince I wish to be with. Still, he is so fine a prince. I only hope Blueblood is as dashing and gracious! “Good day Rarity,” Fire said as he began to walk out the door. “Good day Fire Sword,” she replied as she watched him go. Fire gave the boutique one more look as the door closed behind him. He finished his patrol for the day, enjoying the last traces of summer warmth that would soon turn to a comfortable fall temperature. Then at noon he returned to Warm Heart Tower and donned his armor and crown for when Mayor Mare arrived for a meeting. He got on his throne just in time, the brown Earth Pony entered the door and approached the throne. “Prince Fire,” the mayor said with a bow. “Our town has just about recovered from the infestation a few weeks ago.” “Yes, that’s good,” Fire said. “And just in time for fall.” “Yes, we will soon have our annual fall events including the running of the leaves!” Mayor Mare said. “I don’t expect you will be participating in that though but-“ “I will be actually,” Fire told her. “I maybe a prince but I want to do my part. Besides, running can be fun. I doubt I’ll win first place though.” “Oh, and here I was thinking you could be our announcer in the sky this year,” the mayor said. “Well, who am I to deny a royal his wish if he wants to run in the running of the leaves? Pinkie Pie has been the announcer for the last couple years. She should do fine.” Fire smiled. “My mother would probably love to be here. Fall is one of her favorite seasons cause of all the colored trees.” “Actually, I got a letter from Canterlot and it turns out she’s coming!” Mayor Mare said. “Oh!” Fire exclaimed. “Guess we’ll get a royal visit finally!” Mayor Mare grinned. “Yes, and it is an honor to have a royal living with us in our humble town!” “Your humble town is quite nice,” Fire complimented. “With friendly ponies everywhere. Not so many stuck up nobles like we have in Canterlot.” He then realized that might not have been an appropriate thing to say. “Um, sorry.” “It’s alright,” the mayor said. “Every town… or city has some rotten residents. We have a certain Spoiled Rich here.” Fire didn’t relish the idea of meeting that pony whoever he or she was. They concluded their meeting soon afterwards and the soon the guards returned. “Nothing happened out there?” Fire asked once they were all assembled. “No, your highness,” Vine Archer said and the others shook their heads in agreement. “Just a few helping hooves here and there,” Axe said. “I chopped down a couple trees for some extra wood to give to some ponies.” “Good,” Fire praised. “How was everything here Silver?" Vine asked. "All quiet," Silver assured him. "Our lovely maids got everything nice and clean.” He gestured to the two mares in maid outfits, black dresses with white aprons over them and bonnets in their mane. They were Maid Maria and Anya Housetain. Though their dresses that they'd gotten from Rarity after moving in covered their cutie marks, Fire knew that their marks bore a feather duster and a sparkling house respectively. "Good work you two," Fire said looking at them. They bowed their heads respectfully and offered smiles at him. “No robberies or anything." Silver continued. "Good," Fire said. "Vine made a suggestion earlier that was actually a pretty good one. Maybe we should get more guards. Six might not enough, especially after that robbery when I hurt my wing. But I think we'd be pretty crowded with more. If we can strengthen our current defenses we might be able to turn this tower into a fortress that only requires a few ponies to defend it. "Maybe, I think I can find a spell," Silver said. “Sure I might not be defense talented like the captain in Canterlot but with practice talents can still be developed. We’ll see what I can do.” Suddenly the door opened and a large blackish stallion with a similar build to Applejack's brother Big Macintosh but had a gray mane in a ponytail form. He carried a large crate on his back. Here is the rest of the supplies we need for the cellar!" Strong Stuff, the heavy lifter for the tower said. "Good work," Fire praised. "That should last us for a good few weeks." "Happy to help!" Strong said before looking off to the side and growing red in the cheeks. Fire followed his gaze and noticed Maria smiling at the stallion him with rosy cheeks of her own. "Hmm," Fire said in a low voice only he could hear. "Looks like someponies here have a crush on each other. Well, my big sister is the princess of love. If she were here, she'd probably want to play match maker. I'll have to add that to the things to do later on." He chuckled, imagining Cadance smiling at him. He missed her, he’d have to write a letter later. She’d be back from her tour in a little while though, and he’d get the chance to see her. His cousin, first crush, big sister and… more. Everypony heard him chuckle and looked at him. "Did you say something Prince Fire?" Vine Archer asked. "No, nothing," Fire lied. "Well, I think its about time for dinner!" "I'll get started right away." Swift Cuisine said as he flew to the kitchen area. "Well before dinner, I'm going out for a run!" Hoofrunner said. "Anyone care to join me?" "Sure!” Strong Stuff said. "I think I'll go and read," Fire said. He headed to his study and sat in a chair reading Daring Do for a while. With all the excitement he’d not had much time to read lately. But that would change soon enough and he’d go back to it, along with Twilight and Moondancer. He also found himself thinking of his feelings toward them. Not romantic feelings, at least not for Twilight. Both she and Moondancer were smart and good ponies. Fire knew that his mother was close with Twilight, which was to be expected as the lavender unicorn was Celestia’s personal protégé. Fire hadn’t exactly been close to her until now, they’d both been loners by nature for the most part. Of course, Fire had hung out with Moondancer and the others at Canterlot. Celestia even seemed to value Twilight almost like a daughter. She wouldn’t be bad to have as another possible sister figure alongside Cadance. But Fire wasn’t entirely sure she’d be okay with that. It was just an idea as well. He still needed more time to figure it out, just like he did with Cadance. He’d even wanted to marry her when he was younger. Things could sure change, he’d just have to see. An hour later, Fire raised his solid gold goblet encrusted with a ruby for a toast. “To these past few weeks of hard work and prosperity in Ponyville as well as all of Equestria!” he said. “To the upcoming season of fall!” “Oh, I can’t wait to see all the lovely orange leaves!” Maria said. “That will mean a lot of raking though,” Grand Garden said. “I’m gonna be running in the Running of the Leaves when it comes!” Hoofrunner said. “And I’m gonna get first place just like I did last year in Manehattan!” “Good luck,” Silver Javelin said. “I’ll be entering too.” “We all will,” Fire said. “I don’t expect to win since running isn’t something I do constantly but should be good for the day. Might help my endurance too.” And so, he’d go running soon.