Of Harmony & Chaos

by BBeee

Always Look Up!

“…We’ll totally need some of these…”

“…I hope it doesn’t get too cold…”

“I’m assuming from all the mess that none of you are ready yet? It’s late-morning already.” Penwell looked at the pile of bags, supplies and two young ponies with a clear sense of disdain. ‘By the Earth…how can Aumean trust the fate of the Elements to them…?’

“Ah, buck it! I’m just gonna take what I have here.”

“Fire…all you have is a pair of sunglasses, two loaves of bread and a hat…” To prove her point the pegasus grabbed one of the speedster’s saddle bags, turned it upside down and shook it. A few crumbs dropped to the ground. “Make that one loaf…”

“I got hungry on the way here!” The pink earth pony innocently shrugged. “Besides, we don’t even know what direction we’re headed in yet! No point weighing myself down with stuff I might not even end up needing!”

“Still…” Surprise could not help but share some of Penwell’s concern -at least she thought it was concern- for the speedster. It was true that the route had been left for Celestia and Discord to work out, but Firefly hadn’t even packed a scarf! Who knows where they might end up?

“Surprise!” a bold voice called out over the loose crowds of Ponyville’s market, a voice that made Surprise’s heart skip a beat. She turned and found herself face-to-face with an auburn coated, coal maned earth pony. His cutie mark was a varied heap of valuable rocks and gems. Like the prescious stones his mark represented, his emerald eyes often gleamed in stark contrast with his somewhat dull coat and mane. “Surprise! I’m glad I found you, I wanted to say goodbye before you left.”

“R-Restone! Oh, uhh, umm, h-hi! H-how did you, umm, know I was…?” the snow coated pegasus spluttered. It was all she could manage, all Penwell and Firefly managed to do however was to roll their eyes.

“Going on an adventure?” he finished. “The latest gossip’s that Aumean’s kids, Firefly and you were heading off on some journey. Took a while for the news to get to me, so I’m just glad I got here to see you off in time.”

“Hey, did you hear that Surprise? Your boyfriend came all the way from his rock farm to say goodbye! How swe-” A hoof to the head cut Firefly off, but it was already too late to stop either the pegasus or the geologist pony from turning scarlet.

“I-ignore her Redstone! I at least know it isn’t a ‘rock farm.’” Surprise’s don’t-reference-the-boyfriend-part plan worked. Redstone’s blushing ceased and was replaced with a slightly less awkward smile, much to her relief.

“I know! Why don’t you come with us Red!? Then you and Surprise could get all lovey-dovey on a mountainto-” Once again Firefly’s head made a harsh impact with the earth. The blow had been made in vain however as it could not stop her mischievous cackling which ensured the embarrassment was shared between her two victims in generous doses.

“Heh…it sure sounds, uhh…exciting, Firefly. But my folks really need me around these days and I’ve got a paper due soon anyway, so…” The question had made the usually stoic auburn pony even more uncomfortable. He desperately sought to change the topic. “So…what do your folks think about all this? Sure they’re okay with you just up and going on a voyage like this?”

“Nah, they’re cool, said they’re glad to get me out the house. Whatever that means,” said Firefly with disinterest, earning her a momentary scowl from Redstone. The question had been meant for Surprise.

“It’s fine. They were a bit surprised, but said they were happy I would get to see the world. They also said that even if they wanted to, they couldn’t have stopped me anyway.”

“Well…that’s good. I wish you luck, Surprise!”

“D’aww, how romant-OW!”

“Surprise, Firefly!” The two ponies’ sparking conflict was halted just in time by Celestia’s voice ringing overhead. Turning, they saw three alicorns and one draconequus quickly approaching the village for a landing. The two waved and a few moments later the travelling party was assembled.

“Do you girls have everything?”

“Sure do Ms. Aumean! Got everything we need-” Surprise shot Firefly an expectant glare before tuning back to Aumean. “Uhh…want. And we’ve told everypony we know that we’re going to be out of town for a while.”

“Hello Ms. Aumean.”

“Redstone, it’s nice to see you again! How are Flint and Amethyst?”

“Oh, they’re getting on in years, happy thou-”

“Hey, did you get a route sorted out? Are we going to Canterlot? To the mountains?” interjected Firefly, eagerly bouncing up and down.

“You’re free to go in whichever direction you like, but I’ve made something to help guide you. Celestia, if you would?” The ivory alicorn nodded to her daughter who proceeded to levitate a golden yet simple metal box from a leather string around her neck and float it close to the intrigued faces of Firefly and Surprise. Itt snapped open to reveal a compass-like dial, complete with markings.

“A…compass? How is this going to help us find the Elements?” remarked Firefly, clearly unimpressed.

“This isn’t just any compass; I have enchanted it to point in the general direction you should go. Follow it, and you will surely find what you are searching for.” Celestia narrowed her eyes at her mother’s words. It was tiny, but she was sure she had detected a slight trace of sly cunning in the red maned pony’s voice. She could not help but feel she was hiding something, or at the very least not being as forward as she could.

“Wow, this’ll be really helpful!” Surprise grabbed the compass from Celestia’s magic with her front hooves and turned it towards the north before peering at it in more detail. Much like Aumean had said, the compass’ dial pointed only in a general direction; the arrow never fixed itself on any certain path and was constantly flitting back and forth within a 90° range. According to the pointer’s current alignment, they should head in a westerly direction.

“We have our things, we have our routes and we’ve said our goodbyes. Is there anything else anypony would like to do before we depart?” The draconequus’ question was met with a nervous silence. As hyped as the team had been at the idea, the scale of the task they were about to perform was beginning to dawn on each of them .

The elder alicorn broke the silence with a light hearted chuckle and more of her words of wisdom. “Remember everypony, this adventure is yours to shape. Take your time. Yes, the journey will be hard, but it should also be fun and exciting. There is no hurry, be sure to stop every now and then to take in and reflect on what you’ve seen and done. There is no finish line to race to.”

Without warning, Aumean found herself being leapt at by her two daughters, who clung to her tightly and nuzzled her affectionately. “I promise I’ll look after Luna!”

“I’m going to miss you, mother!”

After overcoming her surprise, Aumean chuckled again. “Girls, girls, you’re taking this all a little too seriously! Now hurry, your brother and friends are waiting for you…” Aumean trailed off, her words not quite as accurate as she thought. While Discord seemed content, smiling happily at the show of warmth, the sight of the open road out of Ponyville seemed to be encourageing Surprise and Firefly into welling up with the same emotion as Luna and Celestia.

Penwell rolled his eyes. “…Please, just go already…”

_____________________________________________________________________

Thirty minutes, more than a few tears and countless cries of “farewell!” and “good luck!” later, the party was trotting and hovering along the western road out of Ponyville towards the Everfree Forest and the looming mountains beyond. They all moved in relative silence; while Celestia furrowed her brow between their compass and a map, the others plodded along happily, enjoying the warm sun and rolling hills that made up most of Canterlot Valley.

“Sooo… this is it, huh? We’re actually doing it.”

“Sure are, Fire. Scared?” Surprise teased the pink earth pony, who tried and failed to swipe at the floating pegasus.

“’Course I’m not scared! I’m more pumped than ever!” retorted the speedster, puffing her chest out an impressive distance.

“Oh, yeah? Prove it!” Surprise did not actually expect the speedster to take her up on the challenge and immediately stop to scan the surroundings fields for some way for her to do just that. It only took her a moment to make her decision, her eyes darting from one lonesome tree just visible in a distant field to the south to another by the roadside several meters away. An evil grin spread across her face.

“Alright, listen up everypony! I know we’re just started, but here’s our first challenge! See that tree there?” She pointed with her hoof to the distant tree once the rest of the group, who had carried on walking, came to a stop and craned their necks. “And this one?” With her other hoof she pointed to the closer tree. “We have to move as fast as we can from this tree to that one!” she proclaimed, a mock-tone of alarm in her voice.

“Umm…why, Firefly?” nervously inquired Luna, picking up on the blue-maned pony’s voice.

“What’s wrong?” piped in Celestia, tearing her eyes away from the navigational tools before magically rolling up the map and slipping it away in one of her saddlebags. Discord glanced at the closet tree and seemed to notice something which prompted him to share Firefly’s mischievous smirk.

“Well, none of you want to get stung, do you?” commented Firefly with barely contained laughter and she totted casually up to the tree and lined her back legs up with its trunk.

“Stung…? Fire, what are you- Wait, you wouldn’t…!” Realisation dawned on the pegasus and she flapped her wings fiercely to try and tackle the earth pony away from the tree, though for all her efforts, she was too late.

“We have to run or we’ll get stung by these wasps of course!” Without a second’s hesitation, the speedster reared back and bucked the tree as hard as her strong legs would let her. The tree shook violently and four rough, beige melon-sized objects came crashing down to the ground where even the soft grass did not stop them from shattering.

“Eeeh!” Luna squealed, Celestia froze with shrunken pupils, Discord laughed merrily, Surprise pulled a sharp 180° in the air and Firefly leapt forward and launched herself across the fields full gallop as a gargantuan wall of buzzing rage formed in front of them.

“RUN!” Firefly yelled back cackling. The draconequus and ponies took heed and turned tail, bolting into the air to follow the pink blur as a massive vibrating hand, large enough to cast a intimidating shadow over the earth, charged after them.

“Firefly, are you insane!?” shouted Celestia as she pumped her wings as hard as she could, surprisingly unable to overtake the earth-bound pony.

“Delightful, Firefly! What a way to start us off!” applauded Discord, who struggled to feed his own beating wings with precious air over his giggling. The conversation ended at that as each of them concentrated on putting as much distance between them and the angry hoard close behind them as they could. Despite the immediate danger, each of their fear slowly drained away as they exchanged challenging glances, wordlessly egging themselves on to go faster than not just the rampaging wasps, but each other as well. After only a handful of minutes, the dash for life had turned into an all out race which even Luna participated in with gritty determination. Small meadows, rolling hills and even the clouds shot past as the five pushed themselves to even greater levels of speed. The wind slapped and stung at their eyes but could not deter any of them. The distant tree that was previously just a speck grew in size and beckoned the racers on. The now far-off swarm was forgotten, the only thing that mattered now was reaching that tree! Nopony could really tell who was in what position since there was no audience and the racers themselves had only the gently-swaying oak in their focus. Closer and closer and closer, the tree became little more than a green blur and then…gone!

“…wha?” Each contestant blinked and gradually brought themselves to a stop. Each turned their heads and realised that they had overshot the tree by some diatnce. They all exchanged glances as it hit them how exhausted they had made themselves. Luna snorted. Then she snorted again and held up a hoof to try and hide her growing tittering. Celestia likewise let out a rising chortle, then Surprise and Discord and finally Firefly joined in. Soon the five of them were rolling on the floor rasping for breath, on the verge of suffocating themselves through their uncontrollable laughter. They didn’t even know who had won, yet the spur-of-the-moment contest had left them each in a fit of humour.

“…Why…oww…why…did we…?”

“…Just…because, Tia!” replied Firefly, which prompted a second round of boundless giggling. The party continued their carefree laughter until their aching sides could take no more and they flopped limply onto the cool grass with a cheerful sigh.

“L-lunch now…?” Speech was still painful for the snowy pegasus. Everypony simply nodded, intent on letting their lungs rest. Too weary to move, Discord saved his companions the effort and levitated a trio of shiny red apples from his backpack and distributed them to his sisters and himself before bringing forth another two for Firefly and Surprise.

“These should do…eat up now…everypony!” Each nodded in thanks and took slow bites of their apples. It had been less than an hour since their journey had begun and they had already been confronted with a potentially painful scenario and were completely exhausted.

Celestia looked around at her fatigued companions. ‘It’s going to be an interesting trip indeed.’

____________________________________________________________________

The teacup rattled on its saucer as the nervous hoof that had carried it half-placed half-dropped it. The owner of said hoof had already received a number of wary looks from the two waiter ponies who ran the cosy Ponyville café. She wasn’t a regular, a daisy yellow pegasus with a curly silver mane and tail, and it seemed almost certain that she would at some point break something with her jitteriness. Both made a note to subtly try and replace her cup with one of the less valuable ones as soon as possible.

“…You sure she’s alright?” The light brown stallion looked the quivering pegasus up and down once more. He then turning his quizzical eyes back to her husband, also a pegasus whose coat was a baby blue whereas his mane was straight, unkempt and copper in colour. His cutie mark was three connected arcs like those that would illustrate something bouncing in a drawing. The earth pony had seen plenty of shy mares and stallions in his time, but few who reacted as uneasily in such a casual situation as she did. Her cutie mark, three marshmallows, didn’t give much to suggest why she was as shy as she was. The earth pony scratched his short, rough black mane with one hoof while taking a large bite out of his mushroom sandwich with the other. He was big but not normally labelled as intimidating. Still, perhaps it was him?

“Sorry, she always gets nervous around strangers, Mr..?”

“Dustcloud. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you two. Surprised we haven’t done so before, way our kids are usually together.”

“Not that surprising, Dustcloud. Cloudsale is not that close, after all.” Though the voice wasn’t as loud as any of the other customers who were sat in the the café, it still received the most attention and practically everypony threw a greeting in its direction.

“M-Ms. Aumean!” gasped the timid daisy coated pegasus as the powerful alicorn approached the three seated ponies.

“Please, dear, you know she doesn’t like it when ponies stare…” the baby-blue pegasus reassured his wife who, proceeded to shrink into her seat and paw the ground nervously.

“I should apologise myself, but Sun Spring is right, Softheart. It is a little… uncomfortable.” Both the alicorn and pegasus had begun blushing, causing the former’s partner to try and frantically comfort her.

“Hehe, well this is a good start!” chuckled Dustcloud, completely unaffected by the awkward silence which had slowly begun to descend on what had been intended to be a causal meet. The three other parents smiled but remained mostly quiet until one of the waiters appeared by their side, graciously offered a menu to Aumean and took a discreet glance into the shaky pony’s cup to see if it was empty yet. With an inaudible curse, the waiter bowed his head and disappeared as quickly as he had materialised.

“So…do you truly think they’ll be alright, Aumean? I know Surprise is a grown girl now, but I still worry about her so much. She’s our little pony, after all…”

“Please, Softheart, do not worry,” interjected the ivory-mare while placing a supportive hoof on the pegasus’ shoulder. “I have every confidence that they will all be fine. The lands beyond the borders of Canterlot Valley are not known for their extreme danger. Even the Western Range should not pose much of a threat to a large group like theirs,” she confidently explained. Aumean realised she would have to be sure to make her faith in the children clear so as to not harm their parents with worry. “You should also remember that Surprise is travelling with some powerful magicians. I try not to promote violence, but Celestia, Discord and Luna each know how to defend themselves should they need to and,” Dustcloud received an approving nod from the alicorn, “from what I know of Firefly, she can also be a force to be reckoned with.”

“She sure is. Once my girl sets her sights on something there ain’t no stopping her getting it.” The earth pony nodded to himself in a mix of agreement and pride.

“There. So you see, Surprise is quite safe, I assure you,” finished Aumean with even more confidence than when she had started, having assured herself in the process.

“Well, I suppose in that case we shouldn’t worry, should we?”

“We won’t worry, dear. There’s no reason to. Surprise will be fine. Let’s not make her feel guilty and want to come back for our sakes, hmm? This will be good for her.” Sun Spring placed his hooves on the silver-maned pegasus and stared hard into her eyes as if to try and transmit his own trust in his daughter into her mother. Softheart did not respond immediately and seemed deep in thought. “…dear?”

“Yes! You’re right! All of you are right! I won’t worry! I’ll… I’ll do the complete opposite!” The pegasus burst into the air enthusiastically, eyes burning with passion. “We should cheer for them-oh, oh, we can make a banner and streamers for when they come back! A real party! Surprise, would like that wouldn’t she!?”

“Dear-”

“And cake of course! Lot’s of cake! Ooh, it’ll be so fun!” Infected with excitement, Softheart began flying in circles and twirls, oblivious to the efforts of Aumean and her husband to calm her, Dustcloud’s snickering and the other gawping customers of the café.

“Softheart-”

“We could invite the whole of Cloudsdale! No! All of Cloudsdale and Ponyville! It will be the best celebration in the history of Canterlot Valley!” As the pegasus finished with a dramatic flourish of her front hooves, perfect silence fell over the café. The other patrons gazed, mouths agape at the odd outburst.

“Oh my…”

“Seems she went a little overboard with not worrying, eh?” The brown stallion seemed to be the only one to find it funny at first, though Aumean also joined in grinning.

“Perhaps we should go to another café now?”

____________________________________________________________________

“Come on brother, we’re leaving now!”

“Just a moment, Luna!” The young alicorn could tell that Discord must be doing something with their leftover apple cores. She hesitated for a moment and looked over her shoulder at the waiting group but nonetheless trotted over.

“What are you doing, brother?” she asked curiously, trying to see over one of his wings.

“We don’t know exactly how long we’ll be on this journey, do we? So, I thought it would be a fun idea to plant these apple seeds and see if they’ve grown at all when we get back!” proclaimed the draconequus, proud of his idea.

“Luna! Discord! Hurry up, we’re waiting!”

“There, that should do... Coming, Celestia!” As Discord reared his slender body around, Luna could see that he was indeed holding a pile of apple seeds in his paw. As the two began to walk over to the other three, Discord quickly noticed Luna staring at the seeds he carried. “We’ll each throw some into the ground as we move back to the path. It’s a little late, but they should be able to grow at this time of year and I think that these hills are plenty fertile.”

“Fertile for what?” inquired Celestia a tad sceptically, having only caught the last part of Discord’s explanation over studying her map and the compass some more.

“Ooh, ooh, brother had a great idea sis!”

“...did he now?” Discord smirked as he was hit by one of Celestia’s questioning looks. She always did suspect him of plotting some kind of mischief, even though most of the time her suspicions were proven completely false.

“Yes! We’re going to plant these apple seeds as we walk and see if they’ve grown when we return home!”

“Hey, that sounds like a cool idea!”

“Yeah, we can leave our own little mark!” agreed Firefly and Surprise, having stopped their own talk to listen in on their companions.

The white-alicorn looked around at the faces of her travelling mates. Even if she had objected to the idea, she would have been defeated four to one. Admittedly, Celestia hoped it would not cost them anymore valuable time. Their mother would not keep the sun out longer just for them and the pastel maned pony wanted to reach the cover of the Everfree Forest before dusk. She did not want to sleep in the middle of a field, even if the stars were to be pretty that night. Despite those thoughts, she did have to give credit to the draconequus; it was quite a nice idea. “Alright then, just so long as we don’t dawdle.”

“So we’re all in agreement then? Good!” With a touch of magic, Discord gave out an equal number of seeds to everypony. “Shall we be on our way?”

Nodding between them, the party set out on their quest once again. Every few meters and under Discord’s instruction, one would throw a seed into the rich soil. It was a small thing, but each enjoyed the idea of leaving their mark on the journey, something for them to tell and boast to others about in the future. They remained quiet as they trotted northwest through the fields towards the lush green of Everfree Forest, appreciating the simple beauty of Canterlot Valley as the sun made its lazy way across the sky above them. Before long, they had thrown all their seeds and had returned to the road. Everfree was home to Celestia, Discord and Luna and even the two other ponies visited it often, but it was the growing mountains beyond it that plucked at the strings of adventure-lust in their hearts. It would not take long to traverse the width of the Everfree, a day at the very most, at their current pace. Once they had done so, they would have to scale and find a way through the mountains, not a unique task in itself, but one none of them had ever attempted themselves. ‘Assuming the compass doesn’t take us in some other direction before then…’ Celestia half-hoped they would not have to go through the mountains. Naturally, it would be a breathtaking experience, but at the same time the Western Range was -unlike the Everfree- actually regarded as dangerous, and few ponies attempted to traverse it. There were plenty of balloon or chariot services available that covered the Canterlot-Manetserdam route, though Celestia had a distinct feeling that the trials their mother had set for them would involve venturing into that mountain range.

“Well, here we are: the Everfree Forest!”

“So we going to stay at your house or something?” replied Surprise to the draconequus’ announcement.

“What!? No, of course we aren’t! Where’s the adventure in that!?” cried the pink earth pony, evidently wanting to camp out.

“It would take us quite far out of the route, and I’m not sure we could make it that far south before nightfall-” Celestia thought aloud, the only one with any real concerns.

“And think of the adventure!” threw in Firefly.

“Yes…that as well…”

“Everfree isn’t dangerous either. Let’s stay out, it’ll be fun, right?” With Luna’s opinion, it was once again decided by majority for them to follow the compass and continue west into the forest and simply camp out.

“Well, let’s be on our way then!” With a gesture of his talons, Discord lead the way under the leafy blanket. Despite the forest canopy being thick, light still managed to somehow filter through onto the floor and cast the whole wood in a gentle yellow glow. The air was charged with magic that even Surprise and Firefly could feel playfully tingling on their skin. Celestia had a lot of happy memories and experience wandering the forest, though she had rarely ever ventured to this part of the old wood, so far north of her home. It seemed that few others had either; it only took several hundred yards for the dirt path to virtually disappear under a carpet of grasses, ferns and bright flowers, each resonating with life. The sheer diversity was captivating as always: ants, beetles, bees, cicadas, crickets, dragonflies, mantises and hundreds of other insects buzzed and crawled around them, while the trees shared their trucks with mosses and fungi. Above them in the canopy doves, parrots, sparrows, toucans, hummingbirds, owls and swifts all sung and chirped, further adding to the loud yet strangely calming song of the forest. Content with listening to the melodious tune, the five kept up a fast canter that saw half of the forest’s width behind them in good time and without incident.

As the gold of the sun began to fade to a bright orange with early evening, they arrived at a clearing by a wide river. Discord signalled for them to stop, having noticed the beads of sweat running down Celestia and Luna’s coats. “We’ll rest here for now and have something more to eat. None of us are workponies after all.” He, Surprise and Firefly were breathing harder than normal but were no where near as exhausted as they had been after their race earlier. Discord and the pegasus had opted to use their wings, as they were used to, instead of their hooves and Firefly had simply trained her endurance as a side effect of trying to improve her speed almost everyday. It was Celestia and Luna who really needed a break, they were not athletes like Firefly. Their larger frames and wings also made flying more awkward for them amongst the dangling vines and thick woodland than it did the smaller pegasus or slender draconequus who also preferred to remain in the air on a far more regular basis.

“S-sorry everypony!” apologised Luna as she wiped her brow and horn with a hoof and levitated a water canteen out of her saddlebags with her magic.

“It’s cool, I’m hungry anyway.” A rumble from her stomach confirmed the blue maned pony’s claim and she reached around to grab the single loaf of bread left in her saddlebags with her teeth.

“Shouldn’t you save that for the Western Range, Fire? There’s plenty to graze on here, up there I doubt there’s going to be much.” Firefly hesitated clamping her jaws down on the scrap of bread she had already torn from the loaf at the snowy-pegasus’ words. The earth pony looked back and forth between the looming mountains and the fresh grass at her hooves, the bread still in her mouth.

“Ffhin,” she gurgled as the small bit of bread slid down her throat. Peering at the leaves closely she took an experimental nip. Surprise and Discord were already tearing up clumps of green and chewing on them happily, so the grass couldn’t be bad. Grass normally wasn’t bad per se, but Firefly had always found it to be extremely dull in taste and never capable of fully satisfying her often ravenous appetite. Can’t win races on something as energy-deprived as grass after all. Of course, they weren’t in a race and Firefly knew it. ‘Still…’ she thought.

“Come on Fire, it’s pretty good stuff! Juicy!” Firefly rolled her eyes at the ever optimistic pegasus and gave in, ripping a mouthful of grass from the dew-soaked earth and chewing on it with a clear look of disapproval. It really wasn’t bad, better than average for grass actually, but still nothing to get excited about. By this point, the two sisters had finished guzzling water from their canteens and had silently joined their three companions in munching. A few minutes later, they were all rested and recharged, and after refilling their canteens in the river they resumed their way.

Despite its large girth, the river proved not to be a problem. Four of them could fly and quickly hovered over and the waters were calm and not particularly deep, prompting Firefly to splash her way across in a deliberately explosive swimming style that was more playful flailing than it was an actual technique. With the river crossed and their manes soaked by the earth pony drying herself like a dog, they ventured deeper into the magically-engorged forest.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Perfect. Just perfect. Really, were they alive, I would thoroughly lecture these damnable hills on the meaning of respect!” Voice dripping with corrosive levels of sarcasm and burning annoyance, the Grand & Mightful Viator concluded that today was not a good day. The azure stallion sat on his haunches, hooves crossed and stared at the largely broken heap that was his stagecoach lying, twisted and wrecked at the bottom of a steep slope. With twitching eyes, he was seemingly willing the situation to fix itself. When all he got was the suspiciously mocking-like screeching of a falcon flying overhead, the traveller sighed and rubbed his horn. A throbbing headache was already taking root in his skull. The Western Range truly was perilous: one moment Viator was happily pulling the cart along a high-up path, fantasising about the fame and fortune that would be his once he reached Manesterdam, the next the road had partially collapsed under his coach’s weight and had attempted to bring it and the unicorn cascading down to the gorge below as well, the former successfully. So taken by surprise had the pony been that he had had barely enough time to magically undo the harness that would have also dragged him down to a no doubt messy doom.

“Phewee! That’s one mighty fine pickle ya got there, pardner,” the strongly-accented voice boomed in his ear and sent another pulse of pain racking through Viator’s head, encouraging his headache to undergo a growth-spurt. Casting a wincing eye to his side, Viator’s vision was filled with sight of a moustached, moss-green earth pony grinning uncomfortably close to the unicorn’s face.

‘When did he get there…?’ pondered Viator. Apparently he was losing his senses as well as his patience. “Please, sir, I’m quite capable-”

“Name’s Craggy! I’ma these ‘ere mountain’s ranger! Pleased ta meet’cha!” Craggy, as he called himself, grabbed Viator’s hoof and shook it vigorously as part of his introduction before sitting himself down on his own haunches to survey the damage strewn about below them.

“’Ranger’? And what exactly does that-”

“Eeyup, a mighty fine pickle indeed. Don’t know if ya’ll be able to hocus-pocus it back up ‘ere or not, bu’ either way, looks trashed ta me, pardner.” Viator glared at the oblivious earth pony. The hair of his moustache and mane was an earthy brown colour. His cutie mark was a far-off shot of two stubby mountains stood together with what looked like a path winding off between them. To complete his appearance -which the azure-stallion was already beginning to loathe- he wore a beige, brimmed hat on his head and a short vest of the same colour.

“Would you please let me speak-”

“A’ight, tell ya whut, pardner. Ya makin’ ya way to good ol’ Manesterdam, yea? That there gorge, where ya wagon’s lying in bits, ‘ll take ya there as well. Add a coupl’o hours onta ya trip, but ya can least gather up what ya can carry, an’ what’s not been smashed, ‘course. I’ll show ya a safe way down if ya want.” As much as his pounding headache and throbbing veins yelled at him to throw Craggy into the gorge, Viator could not help but admit that the aggravating earth pony could help. While the unicorn was sure he would be able to levitate the wagon back up onto the path, it would take far too long to fix it and there was still the possibility of the exact same accident occurring later on. Although there wasn’t anything of terrible importance to his work in the coach, Viator still hoped that he would be able to salvage some of it simply to save him time and bits replacing anything that might have broken when he got to Manesterdam. He was also torn over whether to ask the infuriating Craggy to help him carry what he could salvage, assuming there was anything left to carry. On the one hoof, it would mean he wouldn’t have to leave what may be perfectly good supplies behind; on the other, he would have to travel for hours more with the insufferable pony Viator suspected Craggy of being.

Today was indeed not a good day.

_____________________________________________________________________

“…We should stop here, it’s getting dark.” The four other travelling ponies came to a halt as Celestia spoke. They had reached another clearing where a clear stream flowed freely and glistened in the fading light of the sun, which was already dipping below the horizon. It was unlikely they would find another good spot such as this before reaching the mountains proper, already the terrain had become considerably more rugged and inclined. A mixture of boulders, some covered in moss and some freshly fallen from the slopes, dotted the ponies’ path, and more and more frequently did the grass suddenly give away to patches of bare rock. It would be better to stop here where they still had at least some cover from the wind and rain which might pounce them at any point, so untamed was the weather of the self-regulating forest.

“Agreed. I’ll gather up some firewood, shall I?”

“I’ll help, brother!”

“Alright, Luna, Discord, you go get some firewood. Surprise, can you help me build up a bit more shelter? And Firefly, would you mind going to fill up our canteens?” Everypony, bar Firefly who grumbled something about getting the most boring task, saluted cheerily and set about their assignments. Working together with their wings and magic, Luna and Discord were able to snap off some dry, fat branches from the surrounding canopy while Celestia and Surprise were soon on their way to making a makeshift tarpaulin by meshing together the thicker leaves of the floor species with strips of bark from the nearby trunks. Within minutes, smoke was billowing from a large campfire and three ponies and a draconequus were comfortably sitting around it taking occasional bites from bits of torn up grass.

It was Luna who first noticed the absent one. “Firefly…?” Looking over through the growing darkness to the quietly gushing stream, the midnight-alicorn spotted the speedster lying silently in the grass. Her mane was drooped over her eyes and she sporadically pawed aggressively at the damp ground. “Firefly, why are you all the way over there…? Come join us!” By this point the other three had realised how long the pink earth pony had been by the stream and enthusiastically nodded their agreement with Luna’s words.

“Are you sure I don’t need to have wings or be able to cast magic to be able to do that!?” She did not raise her head to her companions, and her voice was laced with stinging bitterness.

“…F-firefly…?”

“‘Firefly, would you mind going to fill up our canteens?’ I can help, you know!?” her mocking tone quickly reverted back to a harsh cry. “I know I’ve been holding us back, you could have all just flown over the forest and been halfway through the mountains by now, so at the very least let me help with something, I don’t know, important!”

“Fire…? What’s wrong?” Surprise’s look of concern reflected all four of their expressions.

“What’s wrong!? I just…just…ARGH!!” as she screamed in frustration, the speedster violently kicked one of the canteens by her hooves. It span through the air spraying water, where it then landed by the fire with a dull thud. “…I just hate seeing you guys- no, everypony, do all these amazing things that I know I’ll never be able to do…” A few tears began to trickle down her muzzle, defying the desperate sniffling that tried to stop them. Firefly’s four companions could do nothing but stare in shocked silence. Never had they seen such an outburst of emotion from the normally confident and strong earth pony. “…ever since I was small, I’ve always looked up to the sky and saw ponies soar so…so freely…and no matter how much I train, no matter how fast I get, I can’t help but be…be…j-j…j…” she choked on the word, seemingly terrified to say it. “…jealous.”

Surprise, Luna, Celestia and Discord instinctively furled their wings in closer to their bodies. “Firefly…is that why you wanted to come on this journey? To somehow…well-”

The earth pony cut the white alicorn off. “To prove myself? I dunno. Probably.” Firefly rubbed her mane out of her eyes to wipe away her tears before turning to look up at the steep mountains. None of them knew what to say to her. Each had the natural gifts she was so envious of and none of them could think of a counter for her sorrows. Earth ponies were generally stronger, studier and more resolute than their unicorn and pegasi cousins, but even knowing and acknowledging this could not soothe Firefly’s longing. “Even speed, my special talent,” she rubbed her cutie mark, two blue lightning bolts, while keeping her eyes fixed on one particularly tall and steep mountain, “isn’t so special. I mean, I have to work so much harder, just to achieve the same thing as a pegasus. Sure, I can beat an average flier in a race, but no matter how hard I push myself, I’ll never be able to win against one who puts a bit of effort in to exercising.” She took a deep long sigh and wiped her eyes again, still sniffling.

“And that’s why you’re better.” Discord’s calm voice managed to swivel even Firefly’s head away from the mountain she had been staring at so sternly. “Because you keep pushing yourself, even if you know it’s hopeless, you’ll always be the one to achieve the most.”

The pink speedster looked to Discord quizzically. “What…what do you mean?”

“What I mean, Firefly, is that yes, you may never be the fastest, but the ability to always look up means you’ll prevail in not just speed, but any challenge fate sets you. So really, there’s no need to cry-”

“ROOO-DAAAAAHHHHHH!!!” the roar tore the calm quiet of the increasing night apart; it was so loud the air itself shook as if in terror. The draconequus and ponies automatically squeezed their hooves to their ears in a vain attempt to block the shockwave. After a few moments, once the frantic scurrying and rustling of animals had died down, the silence returned. The travellers each blinked and looked around with the tiniest of pupils.

“Sis…what…what was that!?” Luna had tried to crawl under her elder sister’s wing and was shaking in fright. The roar had been a thing of nightmares and in all her years living within the Everfree, Celestia had never heard such a dreadful wail.

“I…don’t know, Luna, just stay there…” the pastel maned alicorn continued to dart her head around, scanning the clearing and the pitch black woods beyond. None of them had realised just how dark it had become and each had let their guard down.

“THERE!!” Firefly’s scream was too late. A massive shadow had been skimming the tops of the trees, silently despite its bulk, coming in from the east. Before any of the assembled could follow the earth pony’s flailing hoof, it was upon them. The thing landed in the clearing with enough weight to crack the earth beneath it and almost crushed the four seated around the fire. As it bent its long neck down the campfire revealed its identity: a dragon. Plated from its razor sharp claws to its spiny head with diamond-hard, crimson scales the beast was certainly a sight to behold. Each of the hopeful adventurers were stunned into paralysis. The huge creature largely ignored the other ponies, whether because it hadn’t seen them or because it simply wasn’t interested none could say. Instead, it settled its eyes on Firefly, who could only stare in still horror. The dragon took two snorts before bursting into action once more. With one of its colossal taloned hands it swiped up the pink pony and leapt into the air with a powerful gust of wind from its wings that blew out the others’ fire.

“FIREFLY!!!” they all shrieked in unison. Without another second’s hesitation, their wings sprung from their sides and they took to the air in pursuit of their abducted friend. The dragon’s mighty wings had ensured it had a good head start, and they created a constant downdraft that forced those who chased the beast to fly above it or be sent hurtling back to the ground. The dragon climbed higher and higher into the air, apparently heading for the peak of the mountain which Firefly had been eyeing previously. For all its superior wing strength however, the creature was not flying at its full potential and was flapping casually back towards where its home would undoubtedly be. Firefly’s companions, however, were beating their wings as fast as they possibly could, allowing them to slowly begin closing the gap on the ponynapper.

“HELP~~~!!!” Even though she yelled as loudly as her lungs would allow, Firefly’s shouts did not nothing to deter the dragon and could only just be heard over the howling winds.

“FIREFLY, JUST HOLD ON!!!” Celestia attempted to yell back, though it was unlikely the pink pony could hear her over the wind and the fatigue which was beginning to seep into her wings, making her breath go ragged. None of them were accustomed to flying at such speeds at such high altitudes. Little by little they closed the distance between themselves and the dragon, but they had only moments before it reached its lair, a gaping cave on the face of the mountain. A wide ledge situated in front of it provided the dragon with somewhere to land lest it clip its wings attempting to fly into the cave directly.

“Celestia! We have to do something now!” Discord was right. They were out of time. There was no way they would be able to fully catch up to the hulking beast before it returned to solid ground and could put Firefly in real danger.

“Its underside looks softer! On the count of three!?” Discord nodded, needing no further explanation. “1…2…3!” as soon as Celestia reached three, the two swooped down, horn and talons glowing. In the brief second before the irresistible downdraft forced them out of range the alicorn and draconequus let loose with two golden beams of pure magical energy. The beams danced and twisted around one another before merging into an intensely bright blast which struck the dragon hard on the sandy skin of its belly. The creature released another deafening roar and bucked in the air, involuntarily releasing its prisoner moments before coming to land on its ledge. Each of the four pursuers gasped in terror as Firefly fell and collided hard with the mountain below the now-raging dragon’s ledge. Bruised and slightly winded, but not incapacitated, the pink pony waved her hooves desperately to try and catch onto something as she began to slide down the mountain face. Luckily, her hind legs landed on a tiny sliver of rock poking out of the cliff, giving her a chance to better secure her precarious balance by wrapping her forelegs in some branches and roots growing above her.

“Firefly, we’re coming to get yo-AHH!” Celestia’s reassuring words were interrupted by a column of flame that almost turned the earth pony’s would be rescuers into ash. The ponies circled and attempted to get closer to Firefly again, only to be forced back once more by another fiery pillar from the furious beast’s stomach.

“Celestia, we’re going to have to distract or defeat it, we’ll never get close otherwise!” yelled Discord as he narrowly dodged another bout of searing breath.

“Curses…Discord, Luna, with me! Surprise, you get Firefly!” ordered the alicorn, as she swooped up to the ledge to meet the dragon head on. “Bombard it with spells, it doesn’t matter what, just distract it!”

“G-got it!” Though she was terrified, the younger alicorn and draconequus ascended to accompany their sister. Despite its intensity, the last magical attack had surprised the dragon but failed to cause any significant damage. The following arcane pelting by the trio fared little better. The armoured beast’s scales were naturally resistant to magic and the siblings’ spells did little but bounce straight off. It didn’t matter though; so long as Surprise could get close enough to airlift Firefly to safety, and they could actually get away themselves, then it was good enough.

“Hold on Fire, I’m nearly there…!” the snowy pegasus called, pumping her wings to try and keep steady in the unrelenting winds. “Just a little more- WOAH!!” As Surprise extended a hoof towards Firefly, she looked down to her waist to find a scaly, crimson tail wrapped around it which proceeded to yank her up onto the ledge and away from the perilously placed pony. A moment later her head poked over the cliff. “Just stay there Fire, I promise we’ll get you-!” was all the yellow-maned pegasus could manage before she was forced to roll to the side or be squashed by a humongous claw.

“G-guys! Don’t…!” she looked down and could barely even see the ground thousands of feet below her for all the clouds. There was no question: if she fell, she would die. The unceasing growls, roars and spurts of fire also told her that her friends were fighting a battle they could not win. Even with all their years of tutelage under perhaps the most powerful pony in the land, neither Celestia, Discord nor Luna could harm the dragon to any great extent and Surprise would be no help at all in that situation. And neither would Firefly, stuck there clinging for dear life on a bump of rock. The emotions that had filled her before began to resurface and it took all her strength to force back more tears, rolling her head back to try and stop them from escaping her eyes.

“…the ability to always look up means you’ll prevail…” For some reason, Discord’s word echoed in her mind and Firefly could not resist unclenching her eyelids to gaze at the stone face above her. It was certainly steep, even sheer at times, but it definitely wasn’t smooth. Branches, roots and slivers of rock just like the ones she was using to hold herself up jutted out from the cliff at least every few inches. Suddenly, she realised something: there was no reason why she couldn’t physically climb up. She would do it. She would climb the cliff, climb higher than she had ever climbed before. She may not have wings, but it didn’t matter, because she would let her resolve carry her. She wasn’t going to let some mountain stop her! She was going to reach her goal, not just for herself, but for her friends! And if she fell and died trying? Then at least she would be able to experience the feeling of soaring through the air once! There were no more tears left in her eyes, just a glare of steely determination.

Unwrapping one of her forelegs from the cradling safety of the branches, Firefly pulled herself upward with the other and caught another hoofhold. She repeated the action with the other leg and slowly but surely she began to rise. Lift one leg, then the other, and repeat. It wasn’t that hard, she could do it.

CRACK!!!

A piece of rock gave way beneath her. She roughly slid down the cliff, grazing the skin on her stomach and knees, but managed to hook a hoof around a branch and stop her fall. Her goal didn’t change. Lift one leg, then the other, and repeat. Even the wind and dragon’s earth trembling stomps that threatened to throw her off each moment didn’t stop her, she simply continued to cling to the mountain side, downright refusing to let go again. The pink speedster entered an almost trance like state; all that mattered was reaching that ledge. And she would do it. Then, almost without realising it, she had. She was there. Heaving herself up once more, her four hooves were planted firmly on solid, flat stone. She looked behind herself at Canterlot Valley below, twinkling with lights like the night sky above, an indescribable view she would never forget.

“SIS!!” Luna’s alarmed screams snapped Firefly back to the present. Lying huddled against a boulder, singed, bruised and bleeding lay her companions. Luna had rushed over to her siblings to try and help them up, but the dragon was already staring at them, hatred pouring forth from its yellow eyes. In one swift moment, the dragon had reared its head back, getting ready to spew one last breath of flame that would finish the fight, and Firefly’s friends. Without a single thought, the speedster then did what she was best at; she galloped. Time seemed to slow as the dragon’s head came back down, embers leaping through the gaps in its teeth, foreshadowing the burning torrent that would cut their journey and their lives short. As the moment dawned, Celestia, Luna, Discord and Surprise clustered together even tighter and shut their eyes. They missed the pink blur that hurtled through the air and collided with the leering eye of the dragon with enough force to shove the entire beast’s head off target, causing the stream of flames to fire off harmlessly into the open sky. When they did not feel death’s scorching embrace, the four wounded travellers peeked a look to see their fierce foe thrashing about wildly, clutching its eye in immense pain.

“How…Firefly!?” As Celestia spluttered the name, they all gawped at the grinning earth pony. “What…but…”

“I’ll explain later, now let’s just RUN!!” They needed no further encouragement. Careful to avoid the crashing limbs of the dragon, the adventures struggled to their hooves and galloped as fast as they could towards a downward path. They kept on galloping down the mountainous trail, often almost tripping and falling from their injuries and aching muscles. After minutes of painful fleeing, safety presented itself. “Quick, in there!” Skidding to a halt, Firefly pointed towards a thin inlet within the rock, another cave with a small and well disguised entrance which they should be able to squeeze into and hide from the dragon’s wrath. With some huffing and groaning, the five companions found themselves safely tucked up in what was little more than a hole, only just big enough to accommodate them all. With what small drops of magic they had left, the three sorcerers of the group lit up their hiding spot and created a minuscule fire for them to hunch around. Wary of revealing their position, they ensured that the flames provided only the bare minimum in illumination.

“We…phew…made it…!” gasped Surprise between breaths, collapsing to her stomach. Everypony nodded and smiled, relieved to have survived. They didn’t care that they had left their saddlebags and supplies back at the clearing, they could head back and retrieve them once they had recovered and there wasn’t an angry dragon possibly on the hunt for them. In turn, they each fell to the ground and simply lay, but they all jumped in surprise when it came to Firefly’s turn as she yelped in pain. Turning her head down to the ground to try and see what had poked her in the bottom, she could only make out a faint glint in the weak light of their fire.

“What’s this…?” Frowning, the earth pony reached down and pulled a slightly glowing, orange gemstone from the pile of stones she had tried to sit on. “Wait, is this…guys, look!” Weariness forgotten, the speedster thrust her hooves into the middle of their circle, holding out the gemstone for them all to see.

“By the…is that one of the Elements!?” The mention of the artifacts which their entire quest revolved around caused each of the ponies’ eyes to bulge from their sockets.

Taking the gemstone into his paw and weighing it up, then covering it in a magical glow, the draconequus grinned intensely “It is!”

“WOW! We did it! We found one of the Elements! Can you believe it!?” Reinvigorated, Surprise leapt back to her hooves and began dancing around the cramped space with Luna.

“We did it!? We did it! YAY!” cried Luna, echoing everypony’s cheer at their success.

“Which is it? Generosity or…?” inquired Celestia, peering at the perfectly cut gemstone in Discord’s paw.

“Ambition, I believe. Though I do wonder how it got in…” the draconequus trailed off in thought and let the stone be levitated from his paw by Celestia who examined it thoroughly before nodding in agreement.

“Yes, Ambition… one of the Elements of Chao-”

“THIS IS SO AMAZING! We actually did it!” Surprise and Luna continued to dance around the small cave happily. Their near-death experience all but forgotten, even Celestia could not help but eventually join in with the two’s merriment. They were in high spirits, and rightly so. They had only just began their adventure but had already made a great success. Though their harsh trial was out of mind, it was not out of body, and one by one as they sang and danced in celebration the ponies and draconequus gradually slumped to the floor and slept.

_____________________________________________________________________

The ivory alicorn beamed a soft smile into the clear orb where an image of four ponies and a draconequus slept soundly in a small cave. She had been worried, for a moment, but deep down knew that Firefly would find the courage and ambition in her heart to conquer that high mountain and the perils it held. One down, ten to go. The mare felt a pang of guilt streak through her. She hoped the little ones wouldn’t think that their whole journey would be quite so daunting. She didn’t want to put them off after all. It also seemed that Discord was the only one who was beginning to suspect the true nature of the trial and the manner which they had found the Element. No matter, the others had plenty of time to catch on, or be told. Taking one last look at her children and their friends, the alicorn dimmed the orb with a spark of magic and made her way to her own bed. “Well done, little ones, well done…”

Comments

[Meta Knight]

Excellent

[BBeee]

Thanks for all the positive feedback, I just hope I can continue to deliver!

And @Mänic, I'll try and root out those mistakes and correct them if I have the time. If anypony can quote them, I would certainly appreciate it.

[Dream Catcher]

Marvelous

It seems one-word comments are in this season. But I am much too verbose a person for things such as that. Have some more praise: 5/5; tracking; please keep it up, I can't wait for me.

[Dream Catcher]

Whoopsie... *can't wait for more*

[Flutterbreeze]

Wow... this is really good.

I'm liking where this is going; the whole story so far is really well thought out and I'm liking the foreshadowing of the future events (Grand and Mightful Viator, Zecora ancestor, etc). Question: are the apple seeds they plant the origin of Sweet Apple Acres? cause that makes total sense to me if its true. also, did that dragon say "Ro-Dah!"? I wonder where that's from...XD

[Shotdown]

Perhaps the start of Sweet Apple Acres as the group dropped the apple seeds on the ground?

And was that the second and third parts of the Unrelenting Force shout that the dragon did? FUS-RO-DAH!

[KaputSugar]

Hehehe, I'm guessing that “ROOO-DAAAAAHHHHHH!!!” was the second and third part of Fus ro dah. Nice reference there, chief!

[BothMyHearts]

It. Was. So. AWESOME!

[BasementDragon101]

"Fus-ROOO-DAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!" Screams dragon.
Woah. This is REALLY good! I thought it would be SUPER boring. But it's not!