The Legend of Friendship - Harmony

by Danieru

3. Nightsky

In the skies above Ponyville...

Pegasus Ponies were the only race of ponies who were able to manipulate the weather in Equestria by moving clouds or using them to create rain or even snow. Some Pegasi were even making a living to take care of exactly that just like that one pony who was flying high above the roofs of Ponyville. He flew directly from one cloud to another, kicking all of them in the process and making them disappear and clearing the sky. This pony was Nightsky, a Pegasus stallion with a dark blue coat, a light gray and dark blue mane. His eyes were yellow and his Cutie Mark was a yellow and light blue shooting star.

The stallion looked into the distance and saw how it was starting to get dark, which meant that his shift as a weather pony was over soon. With that in mind, he started to continue getting rid of all the remaining clouds in the sky. There were not many left so he could do it slowly, the way he liked to do things. When it comes to his work, he liked to do everything in a well-paced speed, not because he was lazy but because he preferred to not over exhaust himself.

Still, some ponies didn't share the same mindset that he had and one of those ponies happened to be just passing by him at full speed. It was a mare with a blue coat and a rainbow-colored mane. It was the self-proclaimed fastest pony in Equestria, Rainbow Dash.

To some extent, he was happy that somepony took care of his work but at the same time, now he was left with nothing to do and just had to wait for his shift to be over, instead of skipping time by working. As if that wasn't bad enough, Rainbow Dash flew up to Nightsky. Having worked a few times with her, he knew that both of them were very different so conversations would always end up being a little bit exhausting. And this was one of them...

"Could have at least tried to kick those clouds away," Rainbow Dash said with a little scolding tone in her voice. Nightsky, however, didn't understand why she was saying that, especially since he actually was trying to kick away those clouds. Rainbow Dash just happened to appear before he could do that. As soon as he explained exactly that, however, Rainbow Dash continued to look down on his speed. "Not to be mean or anything but...you're kinda slow," she straight out said to Nightsky's face.

But the stallion was not bothered by those words at all. "Well, everypony has his or her own pace," he replied calmly and without any sign of being offended by those words.

Rainbow Dash put on a confident smile after hearing those words. "I guess, you're right. Not everyone can be as awesome as me after all," she said as she raised her head in confidence. "Still, it would probably better if you train to fly a little bit faster," she advised.

Now Nightsky was the one who grinned confidently. "I don't know, as long as you are around to do my work, I think I'll like to stay slow," he commented jokingly before he started to fly away now. "All work is done, so I might as well go home now, right?"

Rainbow Dash felt a little annoyed to hear those words, especially since Nightsky didn't seem to take her advice to heart at all and continued to stay in his mindset. It was not up to her to tell him how to do things and she kept telling herself that it was not her problem but she also was a little mad to see such behavior by someone who is practicing the same job that she did. Without noticing that, Nightsky continued to fly his way home. For him, his job was done after all.

Later...

Nightsky entered his home and immediately was greeted by a Pegasus mare. She had a light blue coat, a white and light blue colored mane, orange eyes and a pink flower as a Cutie Mark. It was Nightsky's little sister, Lightbeam.

"Welcome home!" She greeted with a huge smile on her face as soon as her brother stepped inside.

"Hey, Lightbeam," Nightsky replied with a smile on his face as well.

The stallion walked through the living room of the house. The walls were white and decorated with all kinds of pictures from multiple landscapes. This was because of Lightbeam's interest in nature. There were also a lot of flowers scattered throughout the house, all kinds of them, in multiple colors, picked by Lightbeam herself. This all gave the living room a very warm feeling and made it quite easy to relax, the way how Nightsky liked it.

Nightsky walked around the house and picked up an apple that was inside a bowl on a table that was in the middle of the room. As he took a bite from that apple, Lightbeam was continuously following her brother, which Nightsky was fully aware of but he didn't seem to bother. In fact, he expected her to say something. And his expectation came true shortly after.

"Well? Don't you want to tell me how your day was?" She asked curiously.

Nightsky took a bite from his apple. "Nope," he replied as he continued to chew.

Lightbeam seemed disappointed. "Come on!" She said in an almost begging tone. "I know all you do is kicking and moving clouds but you could at least try to make it sound interesting to impress your sister,"

Nightsky rubbed his chin for a minute before he gave a quick answer. "Nah."

Lightbeam laughed at this response and only shook her head. She knew how her brother was and just went with this. Nightsky wasn't really a pony who showed his emotions that open but she knows that he was happy just to be home. Many ponies would probably set goals in their lives and try to pursue them but Nightsky was really simpleminded when it came to this. All he really needed to be happy was to spend time with his sister which was already the case so everything else didn't really too much for him.

The two did talk a little while but Nightsky was starting to yawn more often, which wasn't unnoticed by his little sister. "I guess you want to go to sleep?" Lightbeam asked.

"Yeah, I'm kinda tired," Nigthsky replied before letting out another big yawn.

After the day was over, Nightsky was going to his room. Since he was tired he decided to go to bed early. He laid down on his bed and opened the window next to him, revealing a scenery that mostly consisted of white buildings and clouds. It was his hometown Cloudsdale. It was a fitting view for him. There was only one color and looking at the clouds actually helped him to relax. Not to mention that, up in the clouds, things were really quiet, making it easy to fall asleep. Before he knew it, his eyes closed and he drifted off to dreamland.

The next morning...

Cloudsdale...

Not too far away from Ponyville, high above the sky was the city in the clouds. This city was called Cloudsdale and was home to most Pegasi in Equestria. It was not like other ponies could live there anyway because Pegasus were the only kinds of ponies who had the ability to walk on clouds. This made it impossible to live there for other ponies since Cloudsdale mostly consisted of, as the name suggests, clouds.

Two ponies who lived in this city were Nightsky and his little sister Lightbeam. Both of them spent most of their time in Ponyville though. One of the reasons was, that their closest friends all lived there but in Nightsky's case, it was also his job that kept him there. He was a weather pony that was assigned to take care of the weather in Ponyville, which naturally meant that he had to be there most of the time. Still, both of them were living in Cloudsdale. It was not really far away from Ponyville anyway.

The sun was just beginning to rise but Nightsky was still sound asleep in his bed and didn't plan to get up anytime soon. He didn't need to work today and whenever that was the case, he decided to spend the day to relax. Most of the time, that would include sleeping through the whole day.

Unfortunately, one pony wasn't having it...

"Wake up, Nightsky! Wake up!" His sister said as she slammed the door to his room open and jumped up and down on the bed where Nightsky was sleeping in, much to his dislike. The stallion tried his best to continue sleeping but the mare that was jumping up and down on his bed made it a little hard to do exactly that.

"No. I have the day off today Lightbeam, you don't need to wake me up for work," he explained before he hid his face under his bed covers and tried to ignore all of this.

"No!" Lightbeam replied. "Today is Apple Cider Season!" She said before she took away the bed covers from her brother.

But Nightsky did his best to cover his head under his pillow. "No, it's not. I'm pretty sure of that," he said before tried to sleep again.

But his sister still wouldn't let go that easy and took away his pillow now as well, leaving him to be the only thing left on the bed along with her. "Yes! You're right, it's not really Apple Cider Season. But Pinkie Pie was just here and told me and everypony else that the Apple Family had a really good harvest and they decided to make some Apple Cider to celebrate! That means we have to go to Sweet Apple Acres as soon as possible to get ourselves some cider!" She said with her voice sounding like a mix of excitement and frustration.

"That early?" Nightsky asked as he started to sit up now after figuring out that sleeping wasn't an option with his sister being in the room with this much excitement in her voice. "You want to go there now?" He asked confused.

"Of course!" Lightbeam replied. "You know how popular the Apple Family's cider is! There are gonna be a bunch of ponies there already! That's why we have to go there as early as well!" She demanded.

Nightsky didn't reply at first. He was clearly bothered by getting up this early, not to mention that he planned to spent his day off by relaxing a little, instead of standing in a line to get some apple cider. Lightbeam started to notice that reaction and started to feel bad. She probably knew that she was going on her brother's nerves, even though Nightsky was not showing it directly, especially since he didn't have to work today and planned to relax.

That was until he finally gave a response to her...

"Give me five minutes to get ready," Nightsky said in a really tired tone.

Slowly, Lightbeam formed an excited smile on her face and her eyes were wide open. She quickly hugged her brother. "You're the best!" She said before she left the room and started to get herself ready as well.

As soon as Lightbeam left the room, Nightsky began to go in a sitting position on his bed. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Guess, I can still sleep tonight..." he figured before he got out of his bed and started to get ready, even though it was quite a bother for him. When it came to his sister, he just couldn't let her down, that was just who he is.

Later...

A huge line of ponies was in front of Sweet Apple Acres, all of them waiting to get a taste of the famous apple cider from the Apple family. Some ponies were glad to be early because their chances of getting some cider were relatively high. However, the ones who were further back in the line were not so happy. With such high demand, it was obvious that those who came in late probably wouldn't get any cider. The Apple family made sure to always make a lot of cider but sometimes it just wasn't enough for everyone.

That was also the fear of one pony who was nervously waiting almost at the end of the line. It was Rainbow Dash. "I can't believe Pinkie Pie didn't tell me about this!" She complained as she jumped up and down to see how long the line in front of her was and how far away she was from her cider.

Right behind her was another Pegasus mare with a light yellow colored coat, a long pink mane, cyan-colored eyes, and three pink butterflies's as a Cutie Mark. She was worried too but not because of the cider but rather because of Rainbow Dash. "I'm sure that there will still be plenty of cider left once it's your turn," she said, keeping up a positive attitude.

For a moment, Rainbow Dash wanted to believe that but as soon as she saw a certain mare walking towards them, she got even more nervous. This mare was an Earth Pony with a light pink coat, a pink fluffy mane, light blue eyes and three balloons as a Cutie Mark. It was none other than Pinkie Pie, who had a whole bunch of cups filled with apple cider with her. "Hey, Rainbow Dash, hey Fluttershy!" She greeted in a cheerful tone as she walked past the two happy with the cups of cider with her.

Seeing Pinkie Pie walking around with around ten cups of cider only made it worse for Rainbow Dash and she released a huge groan in frustration to which Fluttershy could only smile nervously in response. If everypony would by that much cider, then the chance of her getting any was even slimmer, making her even more nervous.

In the meantime, two other Pegasus pony stood in the exact same line as those two, only a little closer to the stand where the cider was sold. Maybe it was because he just got up but Nightsky just now wondered why he had to accompany Lightbeam by getting some cider. She herself said that she didn't want him to miss out on it but he really wasn't that interested in the cider himself. But since he was already there, he didn't worry too much about it anymore and just went along with her plan.

Still, he couldn't help but look at how many ponies were in front of him and his sister. "I can't believe that there are so many ponies here already. After all, we came here pretty early," Nightsky wondered as he looked around the orchard to realize how long this line actually was.

"Of course there is a huge line!" Lightbeam replied excitedly. "The cider of the Apple family is really famous after all! It's no surprise that so many ponies appeared here! They are probably as excited as I am!" She explained as she jumped up and down on the spot happily.

Ironically, everypony else in the line contained their excitement. Nightsky was also not affected by all of the excitement of his sister and remained to be his usual self. Still, he looked over to his sister and couldn't help but smile. "Clearly," he just said.

"I just hope that they won't run out of cider until we get our share," Lightbeam said before her excitement vanished and was replaced with worry.

Nightsky looked over to where the cider was sold at and figured that there was not too much to worry about. "We are not too far away anymore and I still see a lot of barrels so you should get your fair share of cider," he said, in an attempt to cheer his sister down again.

But even though she listened to her brother just now, she couldn't help but still feel nervous. "I really hope you're right,"

Of course, Nightsky just wanted to cheer up his sister. There was still a good amount of ponies in front of them. He figured that maybe if some of them would buy more then one cup, then the chance that his sister would get one would become really slim. Obviously, he was not saying that out loud because it would really upset her. All they could do was wait until it was their turn.

Later...

Having spent quite a while in this line, Nightsky got a little bored. He even began to fall asleep a few times while standing there, much to the dislike of some ponies behind him. A pony pushed him from behind just when he was dozing off at the moment. "Move it!" The pony said to wake up Nightsky, who was just now blocking the whole line behind him.

"Sorry," the stallion replied with a tired tone in his voice. He was clearly a little sleepy from not getting too much sleep today and it was pretty hard for him to even keep his eyes open, especially since it was pretty boring to just stand there in line. And that was saying a lot since he usually spends his time sleeping or doing other not too exciting activities.

He let out a big yawn and rubbed his eyes. He figured that it shouldn't take that long anymore and kept telling himself that he could soon get back home to catch up getting some sleep. But then suddenly, a scream could be heard right in front of him. He recognized that it was his sister, which caused him to get fully awake now.

Lightbeam was sitting in front of him with a crushed expression on her face. Of course, Nightsky got worried pretty quick to see her in this state and asked away what happened.

"Night..." Lightbeam said with teary eyes.

"Yes! What is it!?" Nightsky replied in concern.

Everypony was looking at the two, especially at Lightbeam who drew everyponies attention at her after this scream. Nightsky was asleep for a few seconds so he figured someone did something to her while he was not looking but right now, all he could focus on was his sister, who he was waiting for to give him a response.

Finally, after trying her best to not start crying the whole time, Lightbeam went out with what was the matter. "I forgot...to bring my money..."

Nightsky's concern quickly vanished and he let out a sigh. It was not remotely as bad as he thought. "That is all?" He then asked, much to Lightbeam's disappointment.

"What do you mean with "That is all?". I don't have any money to buy the best drink in all of Equestria! I totally messed up!" She exclaimed in her frustration.

Despite, this situation being very serious for his sister, Nightsky was actually very calm. "It sure is weird that you forget to bring money on a day that was so important to you," he said.

Lightbeam rubbed the sides of her head. "I must have gotten so excited that I forgot to bring my money! I think I left it home! What am I gonna do now!?" She asked in her frustration.

Unlike his sister, Nightsky was still being really calm. He stretched his legs for a few seconds before he stepped out of the line and decided to deal with the situation. "I'll be right back," he said.

Lightbeam instantly knew what he was about to do and got her hopes up again, however, she looked over the heads of everypony and realized that it wasn't long until it would be her turn to get some cider. But before she could even say anything, Nightsky spread his wings and flew up into the sky. He looked over to the distance, where he was heading to, and then suddenly, he flew at a high speed right past everypony who were all surprised to see somepony flying at a ridiculous speed like that.

Not even a second has passed when Nightsky flew past the whole line of ponies, including Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the later one being highly fascinated by the speed of Nightsky.

"Wow! He was flying so fast! That's probably the fastest I've ever seen anypony fly!" She said in awe after witnessing what just happened in front of her eyes. However, she realized that she was not thinking before she said those words as soon as she looked over to the mare next to her. Fluttershy quickly grinned nervously as soon as she saw the unamused look on Rainbow Dash "Oh! I mean...except you of course," she then added to avoid getting her friend upset.

Rainbow Dash didn't pay too much attention to those words though. Her mind was instead highly focused on the stallion that just flew past her. Seeing the pony she previously called slow was flying at a speed like that was certainly a shock for her. He was already long gone but she kept looking at the direction where he was heading to and had an expression on her face that was a mix of concern, shock, and even anger.

Meanwhile...

Nightsky was flying at full speed towards his and Lightbeam's home. As he flew over Ponyville, he created a light gray and blue trace behind him which was caused by the sheer speed that he was flying with. Despite flying that fast, though, Nightsky was fully concentrated as if he was flying at normal speed.

It didn't take too long until he arrived home and entered the house from one of the windows. He entered Lightbeam's room and looked around for the money that she supposedly left. Lightbeam's room was really fancy decorated. Her walls were covered with pictures, some of them had her and Nightsky one them. Seeing those made the stallion smile until he remembered what he came back for. He figured that her money should be somewhere on the cupboard that was next to her bed.

His guess was right. He found a little wallet with a note beside it. It said, "Don't forget! Money for Apple Cider!!!". Given the situation that his sister was in right now, Nightsky could only shake his head while forming a smile on his face. He quickly grabbed the wallet and left the house again, hoping that it wasn't Lightbeam's turn already to fetch some cider.

Later...

"Next!" A female voice shouted towards the line of ponies so that they could continue.

The voice came from a female Earth Pony mare, wearing a brown stetson. She had an orange coat, a blonde mane, emerald green eyes, and three red apples as a Cutie Mark. It was Applejack who was accompanied by the rest of her family, which included, her big brother Big McIntosh, her little sister Apple Bloom and Granny Smith, her grandmother.

The family was waiting for the next pony to step up, which happened to be Lightbeam, who was not moving forward until the pony behind her annoyingly prompted her to finally go and buy her cider. The only problem was that Nightsky didn't return so far and she couldn't buy the cider. She also couldn't afford to leave the line because it would be impossible to get any cider by starting from the end of the line again.

The ponies behind Lightbeam began to get louder so she had no choice but to step in front of the Apple Family. Applejack already prepared a fresh cup of apple cider, making Lightbeam pretty excited to finally get a taste of it, unfortunately, she couldn't buy it because she had no money with her.

Applejack lowered her eyebrows and was wondering why the mare was just standing there without taking the cup or placing some bits in front of her. "Is something the matter?" She then asked confused.

Lightbeam rubbed her neck nervously and put on a smile in her frustration. "Could it be possible that you wait for a few more minutes?" She suggested.

However, Granny Smith overheard that and explained. "Listen, dear, you either buy it now or not. We have other ponies who want to get some cider too," she said, pointing forward towards the line behind Lightbeam.

"Yeah, sorry, we still have more customers to deal with," Applejack agreed, even though it was visibly obvious that she was feeling a little bad denying her some cider.

Lightbeam's eyes were about to be filled with tears after she realized how she would not get a chance to get some cider his time. Then suddenly, a gust of wind was making her jump which was followed by a few bitcoins falling on the counter of the apple stand.

"Two cups, please," Nightsky said as he landed next to Lightbeam who was overjoyed to see her brother making it in time.

Big McIntosh prepared another cup for the two Pegasi and placed it on the counter while Applejack took the bits with a smile on her face. She seemed happy to not turn Lightbeam away. "Here you go, " she said as she gave the two their cups.

The two of them walked away, both having a cup in one of their hooves. Lightbeam was giggling happily, much to Nightsky's relief. "Glad to see you happy again," he said with a smile on his face.

"Thanks to you!" Lightbeam replied. "Thank goodness that you are the fastest pony in all of Equestria!"

Nightsky was happy to hear her say that but he had to disagree. "Equestria is pretty big, I'm sure that there is somepony out there who is faster than me," he said modestly.

"Well, you are at least the fastest pony in Ponyville," she said as if she wanted to hear him at least admit that but Nightsky only smiled and didn't answer.

This sentence was overheard by one certain Pegasus, who was not happy at all to hear this. It was Rainbow Dash, who was keeping her eyes on Nightsky as if he was a long time enemy of her or something. "I can't believe this," she said under her breath in a really mad tone.

"Oh! Look! It's finally your turn, Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy then said from behind, causing Rainbow Dash's expression to turn from a mad one to an exited one in the matter of a second.

The Pegasus mare hopped over to Applejack and placed some bits on the counter. Applejack was smiling as soon as she saw Rainbow Dash in front of her. "Figured that you would show up too. I bet you can't wait to get some cider!"

"You bet!" Rainbow Dash replied excitedly. "Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!" She said like a filly that was waiting for her presents on Hearts Warming Eve.

Applejack gave her little sister a signal so that she could get another cup ready. The filly was pulling down a lever on the barrel, where the cider was inside, however, not a single drop was left anymore. Applejack had no choice but to announce to everypony what happened. "Sorry everypony. Looks like we run out of cider already!" She said towards the line of ponies, who all let out a frustrated sigh at the very same time. The only exception was Rainbow Dash, who was frozen in her happy expression as soon as she heard that news.

Slowly, everypony left and the Apple Family began to remove the barrels and the stands to return home as well. The only ponies that were left were Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, the latter one still smiling in shock.

"Um...we should go now too," Fluttershy advised as she placed her hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder.

Finally, Rainbow Dash showed a reaction and screamed loudly in frustration which could be heard throughout the whole orchard. Needless to say, Fluttershy felt a little unease but there was nothing that she could do now in this situation.

In the meantime, Nightsky and Lightbeam slowly walked on the road to Ponyville in the direction of their home. Lightbeam already took the first taste of her cider and was shaking as soon as she swallowed. "Incredible as always!" She said with a huge smile on her face.

Nightsky was smiling as well after seeing the happy expression on his sister's face. "Glad that it was worth it for you. Even though it's just a drink,"

"Just a drink!?" Lightbeam replied in shock. "How can you say that!? You know how good that cider tastes!"

Nightsky looked at his cup. "Actually, I don't. This is the first time I'm holding this cider in my hooves," he explained.

Hearing that, completely shocked Lightbeam. "What!? You never tasted the Apple Family cider!?" She asked to which Nightsky only shook his shoulders in response. "Then what are you waiting for!? Go ahead!" She then said, prompting him to finally take a sip from the cider so that he could experience what she just tasted.

Nightsky did as he was told and took a sip from the cider, emptying half of the cup in one go. He was actually a little exhausted because of the little trip back home, which was actually the sole reason why he bought one cup as well. After he was done drinking, Lightbeam couldn't wait to hear what he would think about the cider.

"And? And?" Lightbeam asked.

Nightsky gave a quick response. "It's okay," he said.

Again, Lightbeam was shocked. "Okay? Okay!? That is all you have to say!?" She replied confused.

Nightsky gave it another try. "It's good?" He then said, hoping that it would satisfy Lightbeam. "It's not bad if that's what you want to hear," he further explained.

Lightbeam couldn't believe how Nightsky wasn't as impressed by this cider as she was and her jaw dropped down in shock. Then again, Nightsky was not really someone who would express his excitement that openly so she figured that it was the best that she would get from him.

"I can't believe this," she said disappointed, much to Nightsky's surprise, who had no idea why she reacted like that. "Next time, we gonna buy you a lot more of those to get you convinced!" She vowed determined.

Her brother was not sure what he was supposed to be convinced to but whatever it was, it could wait. Right now, all he wanted was to go home to get a good amount of sleep. At first, he thought that this morning was ruined but after looking back at it and seeing the happy expressions on his sister's face, he came to the conclusion that it wasn't so bad after all.

Author's Note:

Yes, I know. WHERE ARE THE CHAPTERS AT!?
I will admit that I took quite some time to write this one chapter and don't really know why it took so long myself. I just hope that you will still be okay with that. I try to get the next chapters out faster but I don't want to promise anything that I can't keep up so I hope that you will be patient.

That is all I guess XP.

Please let me know what you thought about this chapter or the overall story. I would really like to hear your thoughts about some things. With all that said, please consider leaving a review or some other kind of feedback and make sure to follow me or this story to always be up to date with everything that I upload.

See you all in the next chapter.
Bye Bye ^^.

Reading Order:

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 1 + 2(Chapter 1 - 53)

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Diary of The Storm Wings

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 3(Chapter 54 - 65)

Equestria Girls - The Legend of Friendship

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 4(Chapter 66 - 91)

Rainbow Rocks - The Legend of Friendship

The Legend of Friendship - Harmony