//------------------------------//
// XII 
// Story: Finding Harmony 
// by Alice Eddor 
//------------------------------//

Firelight had to say, quite honestly, that he had no idea what he was doing.

He was walking, with Lightning Chaser flying close by, with no particular direction or destination in mind. All he knew was that they were no longer in Canterlot, and travelling east through grassland. He would have asked Lightning Chaser to lift him, but that seemed a bit extreme. He could walk. And if he really wanted to move quickly, he would grab her and teleport somewhere. The fact that he didn't have a destination in mind put a damper on that plan. He hadn't expected Lightning Chaser to come with him, going blindly with someone she had never met, but she had surprised him.

He had tried to explain everything he could to her, but it was a shabby explanation at best, considering he wasn't entirely sure of what Celestia had told him. He had to wonder what she was thinking. As soon as he came to the end of his awkward explanation, she rocketed into the sky, hovering about fifty feet above him. She had been rather indifferent to the whole deal, which made him wonder what was in her head. If there was one thing he couldn't do, it was read minds.

They were walking for a few minutes before there was a rush of air and quite suddenly Lightning Chaser was landing beside him. He shielded himself from the dust that came up with his arm, waiting for her to close her wings before asking anything. She beat him to it.

"An Element of Harmony? You think that's me?" She sounded almost flattered.

"There's no way of knowing-"

"But you think I'm one of them."

Firelight frowned. He hated being cut off, but she was insistent. "Sure. Well, I don't know. But Celestia said that I probably wouldn't know the other people who were supposed to be the Elements. I don't know you, so you could be one. You were just the first person I met after she told me."

"So you're going on assumption."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Cheers."

There were a couple minutes of silence during which Lightning Chaser pulled an arrow from her quiver and fiddled with it. She had said he would know, just on an impulse, so where was the impulse? The 'gut feeling'? It didn't matter. She seemed trustworthy enough, and clearly capable of holding her own if they were to be attacked on the road, which was certainly a possibility.

"How can I be magic if I'm not a Mage?" Lightning Chaser said, crashing Firelights train of thought.

"I don't know. It just works, I guess. I don't think you'd be the one actually doing the magic."

"No, that's you isn't it."

"Well yeah. I'm a Mage."

"Yeah, that makes sense." She ran her fingers along the feathers at the end of the arrow. "Where are we going?"

"Uh..." Firelight glanced around, seeing nothing for miles. In the distance in one direction he could see the Foal Mountain, for what it was worth. Could there be someone in the mountains? It wasn't doing either of them any good to be wandering around in a field; he needed to get to a town, for food if anything else. They would need to eat, wouldn't they? "How do you feel about teleporting?"

She glanced at him. "Teleporting? I can fly."

Firelight snorted. "I can't though."

"Well I'm sure if you really tried you could-"

"What, make wings out of gossamer and morning dew?"

She raised her eyebrows at the sarcasm in his voice. "Is that a thing?"

He hesitated. "Yes. But I'd really prefer not to... It's hard magic."

Lightening Chaser giggled quietly. "Yeah okay, where are we going?"

"The nearest city that’s still intact. So I'm not sure where we'll end up, but I'm pretty sure I can figure it out. Here." He held out his hand to her, which she took with some hesitation. She wasn't entirely sure it was safe, having trusted in her wings her entire life. Part of her didn't trust magic, though mostly because she was not used to it. Regardless, she put her trust in him, and they were gone.

They re-appeared on the edge of a large city that neither of them recognized. Firelight was quite pleased to see that they were on solid ground rather than clouds, though it honestly wouldn't have surprised him, seeing as he had just made himself go. Lightning Chaser stumbled and he caught her arm, steadying her.

"It takes some getting used to," he said, his hand on her back. She looked rather pale.

"I prefer flying," she said shakily. "Where are we?"

Firelight closed his eyes for a second, tracking their path in his mind. "Baltimare."

"Baltimare? That's no short distance."

"Such is teleportation." He glanced around. He had come here clearly on a subconscious level, so that had to mean... "There's an Element here."

"Really? You think so? How do you know?"

"It's... A gut feeling." He laughed to himself; the obscurity of it all was so trivial.

"How do we find them?"

"We walk around. I don't know, she said that I'd know when I found someone..." He trailed off, rubbing his face. He had nothing to go on. There was even doubt that he was the Element of Magic. How could he be expected to do this?

"We need food."

"Are you hungry?"

"No, I just- yeah. I haven't eaten in a while."

"I know how that feels, c'mon, I've got an idea."

He started walking, Lightning Chaser jogging behind him to keep up. He was looking around for a food stand, a restaurant, anything. He could get food, it wasn't an honest way but he could do it. He could feel a map of the city forming in his head as he walked, his silent spell doing its work. Lightning Chaser raised an eyebrow at his palm, open towards the ground, but asked no questions. She had no interest in knowing the ways of Mages.

Their ultimate objective was far from where they were, on the other end of the city with his guitar case open at his feet, singing melodies to the passing citizens who were less than generous towards his humble songs. It wasn't entirely unexpected, though he just wished that he could bring Contrabasse something other than the bad news that was weighing on his mind.