Harmony and Balance

by BlazingShadowBrony

Chapter 1-The Honest Truth and Magical Knowledge

Chapter 1

The Honest Truth and Magical Knowledge

It was a busy day in Ponyville, all the shop owners were happy with all the business they were having today. It was like something was pushing the ponies from out of town, into town. But that wasn't something Twilight Sparkle, the pony in charge of the library and prized student of Princess Celestia, was worried about. She had a business, sure, but it wasn't somewhere ponies spent their bits. So Twilight started researching the Elements of Harmony again, just in case. She wouldn't admit she was just bored and wanted something to do, but she would admit she was surprised at an entry in the back of the book called Harmony and Balance that hinted at other Elements in Equestria. In fact, she was pacing right now, a little sweat appeared on her brow, "Spike, haven't you found that book yet?"

A purple head appeared around the corner, "Not yet, Twilight. What's so different about this book than the one you've already got?" the baby dragon asked as he and Owlicious were nearly tearing apart the library trying, unsuccessfully, to find the other book on the Elements of Harmony.

Twilight just sighed impatiently and tapped her hoof, "This book is supposed to have more information, but I don't know what kind of information." She looked at the sun, as she usually did when she was nervous, or paranoid, but she was just nervous right now.

"Ah ha! I found it Twilight! Whoa! UGH!" Spike found himself being pulled by the book itself, and he was pulled straight to the floor. It gave him a feeling of deja vu, but he shook it off.

"Thank you, Spike!" Twilight said as she used her magic to flip through the pages. She stopped on a certain page and read it aloud, "When the Midknight comes to take the throne, Harmony and Balance must be owned. I need to tell Princess Celestia! Spike, take a note." Twilight turned her head to see if the purple dragon was ready, but saw he was glaring at her.

"Twilight, the last time you did this, the Princess made sure you kept your mind off of it, while making sure the fate of Equestria was in your hooves. Are you sure you want to tell her now, instead of when you have more knowledge on the subject?" Spike made a good point, if she didn't study this a bit more she might make a foal of herself. "You're right Spike, I'll look into this more, while you go and get those things I needed from Pinkie Pie."

"You got it! Number one assistant, on the job!" Spike did a little salute before making his way to the door. As soon as the purple dragon touched the knob, he was sent flying by the pink blur of a pony that slammed it in his snout, "Woah!"

Twilight sighed, she knew it was coming, because the very mention of her name would attract her to the pony who said it, as Twilight looked up and she saw the pink fur and the pinker curls. "Twilightyougottahelpme!" the energy from Pinkie was enough to tire out a pony miles away.

"With what exactly?" Twilight asked, her patience was gone now and she was worried about what the Balance part in the prophecy was, and more importantly, who or what the Midknight was.

"Well, I was on my way back from Fluttershy's cottage when I met six stallions and they said they were headed here and I went *pinkie gasp* and I ran here as fast as I could so I could throw them a party to welcome them to Ponyville! But I need help distracting them. Can we hold the party here?" Pinkie barely bated an eyelash at the amount of words she said in the small amount of time, instead she smiled a pleading smile.

"Fine, but only until you're done." Twilight stared at Pinkie, who then sat back on her haunches, "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

"Alright, now where are these stallions?"

----------------------------------------------------

Hi! My name's Snowfall, this is Riverbank. Pleased to meet you.

"Firewing!"

Firewing was torn out of his memories as the voice of his friend Stormy Skies filled his ears. "Yeah! What is it Storm?"

"Well, ever since that mare gasped and ran away, I feel, uncomfortable about this town." Stormy had an expression of uneasiness written all over his muzzle.

Firewing didn't answer his friend fast enough, as another, more sophisticated sounding, voice cut in, "Now, really? I think she was just eccentric for a pony. We will be fine at this new town, I swear! Besides, I haven't slept in a real bed for weeks!" Firewing turned to the source of the voice, the stallion who said it was a unicorn with an icy blue fur and a dark grey mane specked with white, all this was accented by the red color of his eyes. A look at his flank, and Firewing was reminded why he was called Snowfall, as his cutie mark was one of a paintbrush and a colored pencil drawing a blue snowflake. He looked at the stallion though, because he expected a hoof on his forehead, as he was a very dramatic pony, but instead he found him looking relieved.

"Oh, come off it! I said I was sorry, okay?" This voice was a bit less sophisticated, and a bit more laid back. Firewing saw the other pony step up to Snowfall, "I didn't know those were Parasprites okay!"

"Oh, do calm yourself Riverbank. I was angry, but I got over it," Snowfall looked at his brother with sincerity, "and besides, mom told me to look after you." This got a reaction out of the other unicorn, "Don't bring mom into this!" Riverbank screamed, jumping in front of Snowfall. His features were a bit more obvious now, his fur was the color of the ocean, a clean, dark blue, and his mane was a lighter blue, like that of a river, with muddy brown streaks on the edges of it. It was styled so that his bangs were just above his eyes, and the rest was long and flowing, like a river. His eyes were a brilliant shade of green, it matched the color of seaweed in the ocean. But his cutie mark showed he was a different stallion then his voice portrayed. His cutie mark was that of a book with a river flowing out of it. He was a very smart pony, who took everything seriously and almost always had his muzzle in a book. Him and Snowfall were brothers, but they acted more like friendly rivals more.

Firewing only shook his head as the two brothers escalated the argument to a fight. This always happens, those two are like the never-ending argument, he thought to himself. He turned and looked at Storm, who only shrugged. "Would y'all kindly shut up! Ah've got enough of a headache already without you two arguin' an' hollerin'!" the largest pony of the bunch said, his southern accent cutting through the unicorns fight, like a hot knife through butter.

Riverbank lowered his head in defeat and mumbled, "He started it."

Snowfall also lowered his head, looking like a foal who got scolded by its parents.

"Thank y'all very much," the large pony said, holding his head up a bit. He was quite a stallion, most mares swarmed him when he arrived to a new town. His fur was a steel grey, and his mane was the color of the natural soil he often planted his apple trees in. It was a bit long and had to be pulled into a, 'scuse the phase, ponytail. His eyes were hazel, depending on his mood the color would appear to change, and his cutie mark was that of an apple sitting atop a boulder that was split from the bottom to the top. He looked like a normal earth pony, except his hooves were a bit more bare of fur, showing he was a work pony.

"Thank you, Redcore." Firewing nodded at his friend, who nodded back.

"Out of curiosity, where is our hyperactive baker?" Snowfall quickly asked, trying not to upset Redcore. As if waiting for a cue, a white stallion dropped on top of Storm. This sent the easily startled pegasus running at speeds a normal pony would never reach, and ran right into a tree. "Ow!" the flattened pegasus muttered before his body fell away from the tree.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Storm; I was trying to scare Red," the white stallion said as he walked over to his friend, "Are you okay?"

"Yep. Just few broken ribs, a shattered muzzle, and a bit of brain damage. Nothin' I can't handle!" the pegasus said sarcastically, which prompted Redcore to say, "How much Ego have you been feeding him?"

Firewing looked at his friend and replied, "None, it's self-supplying. He never runs out." Firewing almost forgot, they met Redcore at the town they were at before the last one, so he was still new to the unusual antics of the other ponies he decided to travel with. The six were looking for new homes, as they figured they traveled enough. Well, except Red, he just wanted to move away, but the five ponies he traveled with were his friends. They all grew attached to the work pony as soon as they met him, the white pony especially. Speaking of whom, the orange pegasus yelled at his friend, "Windy! He's fine, get over here!"

The pony known as Windy Day practically teleported over to Firewing's side, "Okie dokie lokie!" Firewing knew the pony's features by heart, he was white, but more like off-white, and his mane was a multitude of colors. It was like somepony took the most random colors and splashed them all over his mane and tail. That, and it was never, never, the same pattern or color combination, it was like his mane was directly connected to his brain. Anypony who looked at his eyes would be captivated by the intense red hue they were, and red eyes are very rare, so that was another bizarre thing about him. His cutie mark was even more bizarre, it was a multicolored tornado coming out of a cupcake! The pony never had a normal thing happen around him either! He led the Parasprites out of the last town, with a polka! Granted the townsponies still chased them out of town, but it was still abnormal since nopony knew what a parasprite was, yet he knew.

"Ah! There it is! Ponyville, our new home!" Firewing spread his foreleg out at the town.

Storm smirked and said, "That's what you said about the last ten towns." Firewing's expression deadpanned as he tackled the other pegasus. They all laughed as they got closer to the town.

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Twilight was nervous, she agreed to Pinkie's request only so she could get back to finding out about the prophecy. Ugh! This is taking forever, where are they? Oh! There they are! Twilight saw them off in the distance, six total stallions, two pegasi (one of them had strange looking wings, but it could have been a trick of the eyes), two unicorns and two earth ponies. "Gee, sounds like me and the girls. Hmm...could they? Nah!" Twilight shook the ridiculous thought out of her head and head to the edge of town to meet them and welcome them.

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"I smell a muffin!" Windy said, snout in the air and sniffing.

"That's nice Windy, go and get the muffin," Snowfall said, waving his forehoof dismissively before realizing his mistake and catching the earth pony by the tail with his magic, "Woah! Wait, remember the last time you ran into a town because you could smell a muffin? We were just lucky you didn't destroy anything important."

"B-but I need the muffin!" the earth pony was strong, so strong in fact that only Red could stop him fully, which he did. "Whoa! Hold up 'ere! I wasn't around when that happened but it don't sound pretty. We're tryin' to make a good impression." That got Windy to calm down and listen, both because he really liked good things and because he always listened to Red, he had a feeling the work pony was sensitive to certain things. That and he admired the large stallion, seeming like a calm pony, that is until the unicorn brothers started fighting.

"Okay. I'll wait. For you guys." Windy's mane almost seemed to shift colors, from the normal random color splashes, to the more blue colors, but nopony really noticed because they were too focused on the mare approaching them.

Storm shifted nervously, "Um...we didn't even do anything yet. Did we?" he asked Firewing who was unsure himself why a mare would approach them unless it was to keep them out of town. Firewing looked to the rest of his friends, and noticed that Riverbank had a look in his eyes that told Firewing that he was either A.) very tired or B.) lovestruck. He decided that it was the latter and turned to the mare, who was closer by now, and inspected her features. Her fur was a light shade of violet and her mane and tail was lavender, with a streak of pink and a streak of purple running the entire length. She was a unicorn now that Firewing finished looking at her mane, he could see the horn poking out. He couldn't quite see her cutie mark, but he was grateful he couldn't, beings how even though he was a leader, he was a bit self-conscious about his wings(and a bit shy). So if he couldn't see her cutie mark, she probably couldn't see his wings. Storm picked up on the movements that Firewing made with his wings, they twitched and were hugged so close to his body, Storm was certain Firewing was trying to fuse them with his sides. So he decided to help his friend cover them indiscreetly, he moved closer to Firewing's side enough to cover his wings from view, but still look like they weren't a couple, cause that would be weird. He then motioned for Red to do the same, he moved to the other side and positioned himself much the same way Storm had.

The mare trotted up casually and smiled, "Hi!" she said, her voice was beautiful and matched her looks, unsurprisingly making Riverbank sigh. That earned him a look from both his brother and the mare, who only shook her head and returned her attention back to the orange stallion, who only smiled back and said a very sheepish, "H-hi."

(Whee! Perspective changes! Oops! Sorry, I’m not a narrator, I'm an author. *clears throat* Sorry, proceed!)

Twilight was amazed at how much this reminded her of her own friends, one of the stallions looked ready to throw a party, one looked like he was more suited for designing than outside, another looked at the sky so often, she was sure he was going to take off, another looked like a longer-maned, steel grey version of Big Macintosh, and the one in the lead, he looked like if he had the mane for it, he would hide behind it. She was still feeling awkward about welcoming these ponies, but she promised Pinkie. "Uhm, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I would like to welcome you to Ponyville." She gestured to the town behind her with her forehoof and looked back at the travelers. That was her first mistake, as the one who was leading the group had his wings stretched out, as if he was waiting for her to turn around so she wouldn't see them. As soon as she saw them though, she knew why he acted so shy and looked like he wanted to disappear. Twilight turned her head back to Ponyville so fast she was sure the whiplash would get to her later. She sat there, surprised and confused about what she saw, and dared to look back at the group. To her surprise, none of the stallions changed demeanor, except the one with the multicolored mane, he now looked like he wanted to throw-up. Then the one in the front spoke up again, "M-my name is Firewing. This stallion over here is Stormy Skies." He waved his hoof over to the yellow stallion. He looked a bit less shy, but only a bit. His friend bowed his head, "Nice to meet you, Twilight."

Before Twilight could even answer, his off-white friend was in front of her, "Omygosh! Hi! I'm Windy Day, but most ponies call me Windy! Do you like cupcakes? I do and I can make some good ones. But I don't really know if there's a bakery in town." He suddenly gasped and looked at Twilight again, "You live here so you could tell me, right?"

"Y-yes." Twilight was a little freaked out by how fast he warmed up to her.

"You can!? Gee, thanks Twilight!" he shook her hoof and took off like a bullet. Twilight yelled after him, "It's called Sugercube Corner!" Twilight got a wave as a response. Twilight returned her attention back to the group, "So would you like a tour of the town?"

(perspective change! yay.)

Firewing was utterly dumbfounded at how fast Twilight recovered from having Windy ask her questions and generally act creepy. "Y-you're not freaked out by us now?" He was still in shock.

"No. Should I be?" she asked, sending all the stallions into a frenzy of 'no's' and 'not at all's'. She smiled and said, "Come on, you can introduce yourselves on the way to the marketplace." she led the way towards the center of town and the others introduced themselves. The whole time, the travelers lightened up and enjoyed the fact that they might have finally found their home.

______________________________________

They all arrived to the marketplace and they immediately found out that the ponies here were just as nice as Twilight. They toured the stalls and entered a few stores. The one that Firewing and Storm loved was the candy store belonging to a pony named Bon-Bon. The pegasi were sad they had to leave, as their bits were limited. Unbeknownst to the group, the work pony had been missing, that is, until they went closer to the stalls. A crowd was around the apple stall and it attracted the attention of Twilight, who looked worried about the stand's owner. Firewing was more concerned at the fact that there was a crowd, and his wings were more exposed with Redcore missing, he just realized. But he followed the concerned unicorn, and regreted it.

"...An' ah'm sayin' your apples are not at their peak of ripeness. You are sellin' ripe apples, sure. But their flavor is sufferin'!"

"An' ah'm tellin' you, mah apples are perfect the way they are! You have no right to come inta town and criticize how ah grow mah apples!"

Firewing saw Redcore arguing with an orange earth mare with a blond mane and tail with what looked like scrunchies on them. But her most prominent feature was her cowmare hat and cutie mark, which was three red apples. Both him and Twilight ran up to the arguing ponies and interjected.

"Applejack? What's going on?"

"Red? What the hay are you doing!?"

Both ponies turned to their respective friends and unleashed a volume hell upon them.

"This pony trotted up here an' insulted mah apples."

"Ah was tryin' to help this here mare with her apples when she started yellin' at me."

"Insults are no help! You...You...You unbalanced colt!"

Everypony knows, a work pony without balance, is like a pegasus without wings, and the insult got the steel-colored earth pony right up in Applejack's face. His ears were down and his forehoof was pawing at the ground. "You take that back!"

"You first," Applejack said, her ears down also.

Firewing had slipped back into the back of the crowd, his wings tucked back against his sides. "This can't end well. Storm, would you go up there instead. You know, just in case."

Storm did his best salute and pushed through the crowd to the front. He watched as the two ponies gave an all out verbal war.

"FILLY-FOOLER!"

"DULL-EYES!"

"DRUNK!"

"DEVIL!"

"Y'ALL ARE A DISGRACE TO APPLE FARMERS EVERYWHERE!"

Applejack snapped, his last insult hit her hard, "NOW Y'ALL LISTEN HERE! Y'ALL BEST THINK TWICE BEFORE Y'ALL INSULT THE APPLE FAMILY NAME!" Applejack's face was as red as her brother's, and starting to get to Twilight's shade of purple, "PUT 'EM UP! I'M GONNA LAY YOU OUT! Huh?" Applejack realized that the stallion stopped, jaw down and rump down onto the ground. He was staring at Applejack like he was looking at Princess Celestia.

"Oh, mah stahs! Yer a part of the Apple family!? Ah apologize for insultin' yer apples." Red backed off, his ears now lowered in shame and his tail was swishing in nervousness.

"Beg yer pardon?" Applejack was now a bit calmer, but now she was confused. The stallion that was so bent on saying her apples weren't good enough was now looking like a colt about to get punished for breaking something.

Storm saw what was happening and suddenly started to break up the crowd. "Alright, there's nothing to see. Go on, get." He busied himself with getting some ponies who didn't get the idea, that Red was uncomfortable with talking in front of other ponies, to leave.

"Ah'm from the Red family. Ah know our families are close, an' we trade some of the family secrets for growin' apples and sellin' them for more bits an' all that." He hung his head as he talked, "Ah'm real sorry."

Applejack's mind went racing. She knew about the Red family, their specialty apples are the Red Delicious apples, but the two families had a falling out during the last apple bucking season. This pony had no idea, so she would have to try and be friends with him. After all, if he gets to know her better, he might help her call off the feud. "S'aright. Ah fergive ya. Why don't ah introduce y'all to the rest of mah family here in Ponyville?"

Red's ears perked up at the chance to meet more of the Apple family. He stood up straight and said, "Would ah! See ya later, Firewing!" he said as he trotted off with the orange mare.

Firewing shook his head and turned to Twilight. "We would still like to tour the rest of the town."

Twilight smiled as she said, "I would be glad to give you the rest of that tour."

End Chapter 1

Author's Note: If you have read the first version of this chapter, I apologize for the lack of meetings for the other characters but I didn't want you all to read a book in a chapter. I assure you, the other chapters are on their way.

Comments

[mccall12]

Ha Their personalitys are so close

[mccall12]

Oh yeah! your story sounds epic so far keep updating

[BlazingShadowBrony]

20548
Well I'm glad you like it. The next chapter is heading in soon.

[Starshine_Swirl]

I am enjoying this a lot. Also, I would be delighted if Windy Day had a *PINKAMENA* moment. Just sayin'.

[BlazingShadowBrony]

96050
Oh, he won't be so bad.