Missing Harmony

by Razor Blade the Unicron

Chapter One: Calm

Starlight danced down from the sky and reflected off of the shining snow, making everything appear to sparkle. The moon shone brightly in the sky, not a single cloud to block it from illuminating Canterlot Castle. Inside was glowing with joyful chatter and music. Ponies danced, ate, and spoke to their heart's content, while the thought of Hearth's Warming laid at the bottom of their minds. Though the Grand Galloping Gala was the largest social event in Equestria, the Hearth's Warming Celebration was a close second. It did have the luxury of not being notoriously dull yet simultaneously chaotic.

Being a formal event, everypony was dressed up in fine attire. The outfits were better suited for colder weather than those meant for the Gala, and many had a festive theme to them. A spring of mistletoe instead of a flower, a fluffy white hem on a red dress, or candy stripes. But others just wore what they would always wear to such an event. A tuxedo or dress. Both types of outfits applied to the seven new ponies who had just arrived, six of whom looked around at the castle interior in awe from having never seen it before.

"Eh, it lossess it charm after the third Gala," said Fleetfoot, who was wearing a dark blue dress with golden ribbons adorning the front clasp and back. "Esspecially when it conssantly getss desstroyed."

"Oh, but et'z juzt lovely," cooed Lotus, who was wearing a two-skirted lilac and fuscia dress and a headband of fuscia lotuses. "I've never even been in Canterlot until now, let alone in ze castle."

The others agreed without even needing to speak, their expressions - sans Limestone's - doing it for them. Princess Luna, her mane partially light blue from when she was changed back from Nightmare Moon and part starry and wispy as Princess Celestia's was, looked over at who had come in, and her eyes lit up at seeing them. She eagerly trotted over to the seven ponies, her black dress sparkling like the night sky.

"'Tis Our most wondrous pleasure to greet thou!" said Luna happily. "We have not graced thy presence from lasteth at the Summer Sun Celebration! For which We must giveth Our humble thanks in favor of such the rejuvenating day it 'twas!"

"Oh, hello, Princess Luna," said Amethyst, who was wearing a simple orange and cream dress with a bejeweled bow in her hair. "It's a pleasure to see you, too. Any reason for the eloquent manner of speaking?"

"Ah, yes. We have been questioned heavily as to wherefore We art conversing in such a way. We understand that We speaketh from an older era, but art having rather a difficult timeth coming to terms with the ways of the new era. Our current way of speaking grants Us more comfort than as Our sister doest, yet We still tryeth to change Our mind to fit the new world."

"That's how ponies used to talk?" asked Flitter, who was wearing a pink dress with a fluffy white hem and had replaced her usual bow with a matching Santa Hooves hat. "Mare, I'm glad I didn't live back then!"

Luna shook her head. "Not quite so, Laughter. Our speech was used by only royals, and such the reason t'is not used now as Celestia explained. The way We spoketh with thee when We were revived from the Nightmare 'twas how most common folk spoketh, as We were not worthy enough to speaketh with thou as We do now. If this mannerism 'twas still used in this era, thou would be entitled to speaketh as We."

Flitter was about to respond, when the lights in the golden chandeliers unexpectedly flickered for a few seconds, before returning to a steady illumination. Luna looked up at the chandeliers in curiosity, and tapped her hoof against her chin.

"We still do not understand how the utaliage of 'electricity' works, yet it still appears to match flaws with those of candles," she commented. "Do these 'lightbulbs' often attract more attention than those traditionally used?"

"Electric lights don't normally flicker unless they're running out of power," explained Amethyst. "Hopefully they don't go out, but the moon is providing plenty of light if they do." She noticed Luna's smile at her mention of the moon. "Are you back to raising the moon and stars?"

She nodded happily. "Indeed! We do not yet have our full strength back, but We have the most wonderful pleasure of controlling the moon once more! Celestia is kindly assisting with the stars until We are back to Our true power." She looked over at three new ponies as they entered, and her eyes lit up once more. "Please excuse Us, Unity. We must greet Our dear niece!"

Luna gleefully trotted over, and Amethyst turned around to see that only Lotus and Saffron were still standing behind her. "Where did the others go?" she asked.

Saffron, who was wearing a silver dress with a golden hem adorned with turquoise - the same gems on her earrings - responded with the answer. "Twirly and Flitter went to get some food, and Fleetfoot dragged Limestone off to meet some of her teammates."

"Ah." She nodded, but then paused to think. "So... what exactly do you do at formal party?" she asked.

---

"Wouldn't Twirly be more interested in meeting your teammates?" asked Limestone, carefully adjusting the cuff of her standard black tuxedo as she walked beside Fleetfoot. "Or maybe Flitter?"

"But they really want to meet you!" said Fleetfoot, her wings twitching with excitement.

"For what particular reason?"

"Well, uh..." She blushed sheepishly. "I might have told them all about how you dove off the edge of a cliff to ssave Amethysst'ss life and held down a brainwasshed Royal Guard without any asssisstance."

Limestone sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm just a rock farmer. It's part of the job to be tough."

Fleetfoot playfully punched her shoulder (which was a bad idea in hindsight considering that Limestone's shoulders were basically just rock-hard muscles). "Don't ssell yourself sshort, Limesstone! You've got to be the sstrongest pony I've ever met!"

"Not if you met my sister."

She tilted her head in confusion. "Pinkie?"

"Maud," she corrected. "She's the second-oldest. Her cutie mark talent is just complete raw strength. My strength is nowhere near as close as hers."

But the Wonderbolt grinned anyways. "But that doessn't sstop you from being the sstrongest pony I know! Pluss my buddy Ssoarin' just lovess piess!" she teased.

Limestone sighed once again. "Alright. But don't expect me be self-indulgent and act as if I'm the only one who did anything in Everfree."

"Knowing you, I wassn't planning on it."

---

Twilight, who was wearing a starry blue dress and matching headband, exhaled sharply in frustration as she entered into the grandiose room standing beside her brother's marefriend and her old foalsitter. It wasn't that she didn't want to be spending time with them, but fancy parties just weren't her forte. She would much rather be working on trying to add a twentieth construct (a tenth spear) to her weapons roster, but her brother had insisted she come.

"Come on, Twily!" said Shining Armour, who was wearing his usual red tuxedo, encouragingly. "You're going to have fun!"

"And your friend is here, too," added on Princess Cadence, who was wearing a simple gold dress, pointing at Amethyst. "I bet that you two can talk about all sorts of magic-related things together."

"Cadenza!" said Luna, trotting up to the young Princess. "Wonderful to see you once more!"

"Hello, Auntie!" she said with a smile. "It's great to see you, too!"

"We also wish to formally greet thee, Captain Armour," she said with a light bow of respect. "The capabilities of the Royal Guards are far greater than t'were they a thousand years ago."

"I'm just doing my job to the best of my extent, Princess." said Shining with a smile.

"And We are pleasured to meet thee, First Lieutenant Sparkle, in a setting that is far more relaxed than as before." She had already bowed to Twilight before, the courtesy that Luna went by, but she gave the unicorn a second one as an apology symbol.

"The same with you, Princess." replied Twilight, returning the bow.

"Did Auntie Celestia tell you who else was coming?" asked Cadence with a knowing smiling of who it was.

"We believe that Celestia did mention such." said Luna. "A nephew she said, as the same way thou art her niece. Pray tell, how many doth she refer to in such a manner?"

"Just three. Blueblood, him, and me."

She nodded in understanding. "We see... This new era 'tis all so perplexing to Us."

"Oh, well, Shining and I would be glad to help teach you about some things!" she said with a smile. "Twilight might be able to help, but she's already going to chat with her friend."

Twilight objected with, "But I never said-"

Cadence pushed her towards Amethyst, and Shining smirked at the Princess of Love's interference in such social matters. Twilight sighed, and headed towards Amethyst. This was going to be a rather long night.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

"We also wish to formally greet thee, Captain Armour." she said with a light bow of respect. "The capabilities of the Royal Guards are far greater than t'were they a thousand years ago."

...Then how did Equestria survive?

[Razor Blade the Unicron]

8588588
With fewer guards and more danger.

[EverfreePony]

This is a really interesting beginning The descriptions are nice, the characters each have some special traits and the grammar is mostly solid. The only issue I noticed was some badly placed punctuation and capitalization in direct speech. When there is a speaking action present in the dialogue tag (said, replied, asked, commented etc.), the tag starts with lowercase letter. You write that correctly However, direct speech in such case cannot end with a period. A comma has to be in its place. (Question and exclamation marks, as well as ellipses, are alright there as well.) On the other hand, when the tag contains a non-speaking action (nodded, blushed, sighed etc.), the tag has to start with an uppercase letter and the direct speech cannot end with a comma. Period or other punctuation mark has to be there. Phew... a little bit of a lecture, sorry for that
Anyway, I want to see where this leads, so I’m now going to dive into the next chapters Also, I’ll have to check out the Unity’s other adventures someday. They seemed to be pretty epic from the remarks I assume to be references to the prequels!