Heroes of Harmony

by Nova Arc

Chapter 2: Meet the New Guy

"So how long will this take again?" Digit asked, impatiently. They waited at a bus stop where they were supposed to be waiting for transport.

"Not long," Sparks replied. "Actually, there's the bus." A bright yellow and white bus.

"The bus will take you straight to the school," said Sunset. "When you get there, look for Principal Celestia."

"Principal?" Digit asked.

"Hey, she needs some kind of cover." They waved as the bus drove off. "Well, that's one down. We should probably get packing."

"We?" Sparks asked, smiling. "I already packed." Then Sunset punched him.

---

White Tail Woods, Canterlot City Outskirts, 15:00...

"I can't believe you took an hour to pack! You're lucky my sister knows her way around this city," Sparks said. He had kept the orange tank top and khakis, but had changed from a sleeveless to a short-sleeved hoodie, still with the scarf and goggles.

"Hey, I'm not like other overly-self-conscious girls, but I'm still a girl. It's practically second nature!" Sunset had also gone home and changed to a red shirt with white accents and three-quarter length sleeves, yellow shorts, and red and black high-top sneakers. She turned to Blaze in the driver's seat. "Thanks, again, for taking us."

"No problem," Blaze replied as she turned into the woods. They soon came up to a path that led to the school: a magnificent building with a structure that could rival the White House. "We're here."

"Yikes!" Sunset exclaimed. "I knew it was grand, but seeing it for myself..."

"Yeah," Sparks added. They got down and unloaded their suitcases. "Thanks again, Blaze," Sparks said, hugging his sister.

"Anytime, bro. If you need anything, just holla."

"I will."

"And Sunset?"

"Hm?" Sunset answered.

"Please make sure my brother doesn't do anything too stupid, okay?" Sparks playfully punched his sister.

"Yeah. That won't be a problem," Sunset replied. Blaze burst into laughter. "What? What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing," Blaze said, stumbling into her car. "Later." And she drove off.

"Well, we're here," said Sparks. "Now what?"

"I think our bags go over there," Sunset said, pointing to a pile of suitcases. "Quite a few new arrivals." They dropped their bags and headed to the schoolyard. "So, do you think we'd meet anyone we know?"

"Probably," Sparks shrugged. "That blast was too big to have only affected a few dozen people."

"True." Sunset's phone rang, and after looking at the message, she said, "You go on ahead. I'll catch up."

"Sure. See ya," he said as Sunset walked off.

Despite his friendly and bubbly personality, Sparks was rather shy, especially around a lot of new people. It had gotten even worse after the Manehattan incident. But once he opened up, he was a different person. But first, he had to open up. He slowed down as he entered the yard and pulled his hood over his head. He thought to himself, "They're just like you... almost. They won't eat you alive... I think. Ho boy." As he made his way through the courtyard, he saw a lot of metahumans, some who looked normal, and others, not so much. As he walked, he didn't the person coming around the statue in the middle of the yard and bumped into her. He stumbled back, but the girl fell over. Side effect of his powers; due to the amount of energy his body generates just from moving, bumping into him was like bumping into a giant rubber wall; painless, but you're the one that moves. "Oh, sorry," he said, holding out his hand to help her up. She was wearing white long-sleeved dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, black trousers, and black flat-sole shoes. Around her neck was a purple scarf and a diamond-shaped hairclip adorned her curled hair.

"Well, I certainly hope you are," she replied with an accent. "Bumping into a lady is a bad way to make a first impression."

"Again, sorry. I didn't see you coming."

The girl looked at him. "That's quite alright. My, my, you have an interesting taste in clothes," she said, looking at him.

"Huh?"

"Well, your clothes are all fairly popular designers, but why the hood?"

"I like hoodies."

"Mhm. Oh, but I love the scarf."

"Thanks. My mom gave it to me. Oh, I'm Sparks, by the way," he said, holding out his hand.

"Rarity Belle," she replied, taking it.

"Charmed," he added, feigning an accent and kissing her hand.

"Nice try," she said, smiling smugly.

"Hey, I tried."

"Come to think of it, what is your full name?"

"Um, what?"

"Well, I told you mine. Its only courteous that you do the same."

"Oh. Um, well, it's kinda-"

"Rarity, give the guy a break," a voice called out in a southern accent. "He only just got here." From behind Rarity came a girl that almost frightened Sparks. He had seen tall girls and had no problem, but this girl was probably his age and was probably taller than his sister! She wore a plaid white shirt tied up in front under a brown sleeveless leather jacket, blue jeans, and brown boots. She also wore a Stetson hat and a thick brown belt with three apples on the buckle. "Sorry 'bout that partner. She can be a bit pushy, sometimes."

"It's fine," Sparks replied, shaking the wonder from his head.

"I just wanted to know his name," Rarity said.

The girl turned to Sparks. "Is that true?"

"Well... yeah," Sparks admitted.

"Any particular reason ya don't wanna tell 'er?"

"Well, I've kinda had a bad experience telling people my name."

"Mah name's Applejack Apple." Sparks froze, forcing himself not to laugh. "Exactly. No one has a perfect name. So?"

Sparks inhaled deeply then exhaled. "Eve Spark Weaver... Eve." He heard it; a snicker. Applejack nudged Rarity. "See what I mean."

"Terribly sorry," Rarity said. "It's just..."

"Eve sounds like a girls name?" Sparks deadpanned. "Yeah, I get that... a lot."

"No, no. It's cute," she said. "Do you... mind if I call you Eve?"

"Yeah, sorry. Only my mom and sisters can call me that," Sparks said. "Family only."

"Aren't we technically a family?" asked Applejack. "Being a community and whatnot."

"Fine. Blood relatives and nuclear family on-"

"COMING THROUGH!" Sparks was cut off by a gust of wind and what looked like a rainbow streak, closely trailed by another teal streak with a yellow streak in the middle, like a lightning bolt. When you can move fast enough, you can process images pretty well. Sparks followed the trail and saw two girls. One had rainbow hair and cerise eyes and wore a light blue tank top under a darker blue sports jacket, black shorts with a white stipe down the sides, and white trainers. She also had on a pair of fingerless gloves, an armband with a cloud and a rainbow-colored lightning bolt, and a necklace with a gold lightning bolt on it. "Nice run, Lightning," she said to the other girl.

"Thanks," she replied. She had golden yellow hair and was wearing a teal sports crop-top, black track pants, and teal and white trainers. Neither of them seemed that out of breath. "I'm gonna go find Spitfire. You coming?"

"Nah," Rainbow said, spotting Sparks and the other two girls. "I'll catch up."

"Okay, later," she said, taking off. The other zipped forward to meet the group.

"So, you must be new here," she said, observing Sparks. "Name's Rainbow Dash, fastest girl alive," she said, pointing at herself.

"Or so you say," added Applejack.

"I guess you've met the duchess and hayseed over here," Rainbow said to Sparks, gesturing towards the other girls.

"Yeah," Sparks said, nervously. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be friends with Twilight and Sunset, would you?"

"Yeah," replied Applejack. "How'd you know?"

"They told me about you. Good things, mostly."

"That's nice," Rarity said. "Wait, mostly? What about the others?"

"Hey, no one's perfect," Sparks said, chuckling. "So," he said looking at Rainbow, "Apparently, you can run at super speed."

"Yep," she said proudly. "Plus, the static I generate can be amplified so I can fire bolts of electricity; blue is for force, yellow is for paralysis and knock-out, green forms a magnetic field to hold stuff." As she spoke, she cycled through the different colors of electricity, the respective colors in her hair glowing in response.

"Cool," Sparks said. "And you two?"

Applejack went first. "Mah limbs work like pistons. Gives me superhuman strength and a punch and kick with the force of a stallion with hoofs the size of cannonballs. Also, Ah'm a pretty good shot."

"I'm a metamorph," said Rarity. "I can turn into different types of stones, usually gems, and not only become stronger and more damage-resistant, but different gems give different effects."

"Such as?" Sparks asked curiously.

"Rubies for heat resistance, jasper for electrical insulation, emeralds for anti-corrosion, and the list goes on." As she spoke, she shifted to her different armors, each with a unique design.

"Pinkie! Slow down!" They all looked left and saw a girl with fluffy pink hair wearing a pink tank top, blue jeans shorts, and pink flip-flops walking towards them, followed closely by a girl with flowing pink hair wearing a white tank top under a yellow turtleneck sweater with long detached sleeves, blue jeans, and yellow sandals. The pink girl stopped on a dime, and the other overshot her, suddenly turning and revealing that the sweater was almost like a halter top, with no back except for the lower back and neck. "Really, Pinkie. There's a reason you shouldn't eat so much sugar in crowded areas like this. You could tackle someone into a wall... or run into a wall yourself."

"Yeah, but I wanted to meet the new guy," she said, leaning towards Sparks. "Hi, my name is Pinkie Pie! Just call me Pinkie, Pinks, PP... teehee, PP... Anyway, you are?"

"Sparks."

"Just Sparks?"

"It's a long story."

"Is it really?" interjected Applejack.

"I got time, anyway," said Pinkie.

"Nope." Sparks noticed the other girl had practically been hiding behind Applejack and hadn't said a word. "And you are?"

"Fluttershy Gale," she replied inaudibly.

"Ah. Pleased to meet you," he said, holding out his hand. She moved from behind Applejack and shook it.

"You are probably the second shyest person I've met. No offence."

"None taken," the girl replied, almost inaudibly. "Um, who's the first, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Me." They all stared in disbelief. He place her hand on his chest. Fluttershy could feel it; his heart was racing like he had just finished running a cross-continental marathon. "See?"

"Oh, my," Fluttershy said. "You don't look very worried."

"I've learned to hide that. Makes it easier to meet new people without breaking down."

"Wait a minute," Applejack said, "How could you hear her before? She's quieter than a forest animal in the dead of winter."

"Side effect of my powers is that I can hear things better by amplifying the vibrations of particles in the air, making sound waves travel faster so I can hear more clearly. I can do it for myself... or for everything around me." They all collectively clapped their ears like a bug was buzzing next to it.

"Yikes. Felt like mah entire ear just started shaking. So you can manipulate sound?"

"No. It's... complicated. My power is a branching ability. It's one power with multiple applications. I actually just absorb, manipulate, project, and materialize energy."

"Materialize?" asked Rainbow.

"Like I can coat my hands with energy to make my hits stronger, or create an energy wave to for a force field. I pretty much just use the kinetic application of energy to produce more force than heat and vice versa."

"Care to explain how that all works?"

"Nope. I understand and I can explain, but overthinking it gives me a headache. Simply put, it's like giving energy a solid form by absorbing and releasing at the same time to maintain the mass-to-energy ratio so the tangibility remains constant." They all gawked as their brains tried to process what he just said. "Told you. It's better shown than told."

"So," Rarity said, shaking the brain cramp off, "What energies can you manipulate?"

"Kinetic, mainly. But also light," he said as the streak turned to bright ginger like the rest of his hair and the ends instead turned pink, then holding a bright blue light in his hand, "And plasma," a pink energy materialized in the other. "Just superheated particles to change their state."

"Yikes," Rainbow exclaimed. "How do you keep track of it all?"

"Don't need to. Their all the same ability," he said as the light and plasma turned to what looked like silver streams with a faint pink tint in his hands. "Energy. I just need to remember how to apply it. Like applying physics."

"Care to give a demonstration?" inquired Rarity.

"Not here," he said as the streams vanished. "Bad idea. But I can do this." Suddenly, he vanished, leaving a stream of pink, silver, and orange, then suddenly reappeared.

"Whoa," Applejack said, almost jumping like the others. "What was that?"

"I can, in a sense, "ride light". It's like I can follow the flow of light energy to run at super speed to the point that everything almost looks like it's standing still."

"Yeah, I can do that," Rainbow said with pride. "But I gotta know, what's with the pink?"

"Hey, I didn't chose what color plasma should be."

"I meant your hair."

Sparks looked at his pink tips. "What? A guy can't like pink anymore?"

"Well, no, it's just-"

"Relax. I don't know. I just like it. Maybe a side effect of living in a house with at least two girls at a time."

"What about your dad." Silence fell. Sparks' smile died slowly.

"Rainbow!" Applejack nudged Rainbow.

"Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, it's fine," Sparks said. "I just don't like to talk about him."

"We respect that," Applejack said. "Don't we?" They all nodded in agreement.

"But what's your mom like?" asked Fluttershy, finally speaking.

"She speaks!" Sparks teased, making her blush slightly. "Well, she's pretty cool. She can't stay in one place, so she's always traveling when she can take us. She also does this to her hair," he said, pointing at the pink tips.

"You must really love her," said Rarity.

"What's not to love? And..."

"Mama's boy," Rainbow mumbled

"Don't hit her for that one," Sparks said as Applejack raised her arm. "I really don't care because I know she's joking."

"How can ya tell?"

"I can hear it in the tone of your voice. It's not a power, unless being able to read people well counts?" Applejack lowered her arm and shot Rainbow a look. "So, how did you guys find out about your powers?"

The five girls looked among one another. "I guess we just sorta... found out," Applejack said. "Ah remember waking up a few days after the Battle of the Bands and ripping mah bedroom door off its hinges just by pulling it open. Then, I was kicking apples down from trees when one of mah kicks took off a chunk of the tree bark. Thought it was termites until I remembered a relative had come over to fumigate the farm."

Rarity spoke next. "I was in my room working on a new outfit and I didn't know what to do to make it more... classy. I thought of using gems, but where was I going to get gems? So I rest my head in my arms in despair and hit my head on something hard; my arms! Imagine my surprise when both my arms were covered in garnet armor. Just as a test, I chipped a piece off, and it grew right back! Next was that it was I was able to see gems in the ground. Twilight says I can pick up on the unique vibration frequencies of gems. Oh, and I also have telekinesis. Twilight says she's not sure, but it might be due to some field my body gives off because of the gems. Either that or I just have two different abilities."

"Oh, oh! Me next! Me next!" Pinkie said, jumping up and down excitedly. "So, I was working at Sugarcube Corner when I suddenly felt hungry, which was odd because I had about ten coffee cakes that morning for breakfast, because I was really hungry when I woke up. So I went to the kitchen and found some leftover cake. Who leaves a quarter of a good cake just lying around, am I right? So I ate it and suddenly felt this burst of energy. I wanted to walk out of the kitchen, but wound up walking out of the shop altogether! So I went home and tried it again. And it happened again!"

Sparks looked on in both amazement and confusion. "So... your power is basically... a sugar rush?"

"Exactly! Well, except the sugar hangover you get after. As long as I don't eat to much or use too much energy, I'm safe. But if I... eat an entire cake in one sitting or run across the city, I can get really, really, really tired. Like sleep-in-the-middle-of-the-road-during-rush-hour tired. So I try to keep it steady... sometimes."

"Pinkie..." Fluttershy said, disapprovingly.

"What?" Fluttershy glared at her and Pinkie pulled a cookie from her hair.

"Oh, oh! Also! Also!" She reached into her hair and pulled out a hammer. Sparks' jaw dropped.

"Apparently," Rarity explained, "Pinkie's sugar level is so high, her hair practically turned into a sort of... super strong, super elastic... cotton candy. Her hair has always been this... puffy, but now it's almost as if there's a pocket dimension in it she can use to store items and can even extend her hair! I believe that qualifies as a branching ability?"

"Yeah," Sparks replied. "What kind of stuff can she store?"

"Reasonably sized items. It's like a door; she can only take it through if it's significantly smaller than her, like how you can only walk through a door with something smaller than the door. So she can hide a pillow in there, but not a bed."

"What of people?"

"Nope," Applejack replied.

"Have you tried?"

"Nope!"

"Then how do you know?"

"Because people are not significantly smaller."

"What about babies?"

"Ee..." Applejack froze and the girls looked among one another. "We... don't know."

"Probably," said Rarity.

"Babies are significantly smaller than me," Pinkie added.

"It would make a kind of sense," Fluttershy added. "Wait, how would it breathe? Is there air in there? Or even space to move?" More puzzled looks as Fluttershy sank back behind Applejack.

"Err, Forget I asked," Sparks said. "Any other surprises?"

"Oh yeah," Pinkie said. She walked over and moved Sparks one foot to the right and stepped back just as what looked like a ball of magma hit the spot where he was standing.

"What the...?"

"I call it Pinkie Sense," she said. "I get these different feelings when certain things are about to happen."

"So... you're psychic?"

"Of course not, silly. I can only predict immediate events, like stuff that'll happen within the next five seconds after I get the feeling."

"Oh."

"Twilight tried to deduce how Pinkie's powers worked exactly," Rarity explained. "She understood the... sugar rush ability, but she couldn't understand the Pinkie sense or cotton candy pocket dimension hair. No one has been able to come up with a logical explanation for them."

"I have one," Sparks said confidently.

"Oh?"

"There is none." They all laughed at the idea. Sparks turned to Fluttershy. "So, what can you do?"

"Oh," Fluttershy said, a bit surprised. "Well, I can mimic the properties and abilities of other animals, like a cat's reflexes or a eagle's vision-"

"Or a bull's strength or cheetah's speed," Rainbow continued.

"Well, there's those."

"What about physical?" asked Sparks.

"I can do some, like a tiger's claws," she said, as her nails extended, but somehow didn't look as horrifying as one would picture, "But I can't do anything that involves a body part I don't have, like growing horns like a bull." She retracted her nails. "I can also communicate with animals."

"How? Do you just talk normally?"

"Sometimes. It depends on the species. I can talk to them normally, but there are sometimes where I have to actually... squeak... like for chipmunks and squirrels. But I usually talk normally, yes."

"How did you find out?"

Fluttershy went quiet. "Come one, darling, Rarity said.

"Well, I was working in the animal shelter and was taking care of a dog who had hurt its leg. As its owner took it away, it barked, but for some reason, I heard, "Thank you." It was really weird. It got even weirder when I kept hearing animals sating, "Hi," to me; cats in trees, dogs walking by, even pigeons that flew down were... asking me for crumbs."

Sparks forced himself not hold back his laughter. "That's adorable!"

"I thought was both adorable, and creepy. I thought it had something to do with hitting my head on my bed when I woke up that morning. Up until I started getting used to hearing animals talk to me, that whole day was terrible."

"How terrible?" Fluttershy kept quiet and turned red. "Never mind. Continue."

"What really scared me was when I fell and twisted my wrist. Good heavens it hurt! Then I saw a lizard walk by and somehow, my brain got the idea to twist it back in a way that wouldn't hurt as much as it did then. So I did and the bone healed and pain disappeared in a matter of seconds."

"Wait, if you can replicate the powers of any animal, can you replicate the cellular regeneration of a lizard? Like losing an arm and growing it back?"

"I don't want to find out," Fluttershy said, holding her arms as if they were the source of her life. "But I can heal from cuts and bruises really quickly... though I try to avoid getting cut of bruised in the first place."

"Cool. Rainbow?"

"Saved the best for last, huh?" the girl said proudly. "First of all, I want you to know that my hair has always been this color, but I don't know why. Doctor said it was some kind of mutation or something."

"Must've been some mutation. And I know it's natural."

"Really?" Rainbow asked, confused.

"Hello? Photokinetic? You just saw me change my hair color. I can sorta see the reflective and refractive nature of objects and use that to tell the natural color based on what colors it should be absorbing and reflecting."

"O...kay..." Rainbow said, still trying to process the explanation. "Anyway, I found my powers pretty basically. I woke up, went about my day like any other, until I realized that I had somehow run all the way to Pinkie's house in about ten seconds... and that was at least a mile away. But there was one problem with my super speed that made it hard to hide the fact that something was wrong from my parents."

"Fatigue and constant hunger due to hypoglycemia."

"Yep. I could eat an entire box of cereal in the morning and be hungry again in the next half hour. So Twilight made me go on a new diet. I have never been so happy to have agreed to such a thing! Diets should be healthy, but for me, ten McBurgers, fifty McNuggets, and three McFlurries is as healthy as a salad!"

"Hehe. Yeah. When my sister said I had to change my eating habits, I didn't know how much I would enjoy it either."

"So, how did you discover your powers?" asked Rarity.

"Well... where do I start..."

As Sparks thought, Twilight walked over to them. "Oh, hi Sparks. Hi girls. I see you've all met?"

"Yes," Rarity replied. "Sparks was about to tell us about how he discovered his powers."

"Well, that'll have to wait. Principal Celestia wants to give her opening speech to welcome newcomers."

Author's Note:

So, new stuff, like the Mane 6...
Name: Rarity Belle
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Powers: Telekinesis, self-repairing jewel armor, crystalline location

Name: Applejack Apple
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Powers: Super strength, piston-like/hydraulic limbs

Name: Rainbow Dash
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Powers: Super speed, electrokinesis

Name: Pinkie Pie
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Powers: "Sugar rush" (enhanced physical capabilities via sugar consumption), elastic hair; acts as an appendage, pocket dimension in hair, Pinkie Sense

Name: Fluttershy Gale
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Powers: Animal mimicry, animal communication

Also...
Name: Lightning Dust
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Powers: Super speed

So, that's for them. Not much to say for this chapter. Any questions? Leave a comment. Unclear on something? Leave a comment. Have a comment? Leave a comment. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned and stay awesome!