A Balance of Fire and Light

by Stolenalicorn

22 New Surroundings

“I have to admit,” James said with a grin as he looked around the table, “it's nice to have breakfast with all of you.” He smiled at the ponies as he placed plates in front of them. “Thanks again for the help Applejack.”

“It weren't nothing.” Applejack said with a smile.

“Though I think tomorrow I'll try my hand at making a traditional Japanese breakfast. That might be fun for us to try.” James commented.

“Anything planned for the day?” Twilight asked with a smile.

“Not today. Yesterday was kind of a lot so let's take some time to rest.” James explained. “There's a lot to see here if you want to look around. If you want I can show you how to get around, their long distance transit system isn't as straight forward as New Guardia's.”

“I guess Rarity's already taking your advice on resting.” Starlight commented, noting the empty place at the table.

“Yeah, it's not like her to sleep in.” Twilight commented.

“I'll go get her.” Before anyone could respond, Rainbow Dash had flown from the table and down the hallway to knock on Rarity's door.

“Hey Rarity!” She called as she finished knocking, “Breakfast is on the table.” Rainbow Dash was surprised when she heard Rarity call back. She sounded tired, but not as if she had just woken up.

“Thank you very much, dear, but none for me today.” Rarity answered, “I really must have these dresses done soon.”

“Wait, you're working already?” Rainbow Dash asked as she opened the door.

“Still, darling.” Rarity corrected.

Rarity's room had several folding blinds set up to partition spaces as she saw fit, right by the door was an area set up as sitting room with a finely carved wooden coffee table with a silver tray set along with a matching English tea set, as well as a regal looking fainting couch, with complimentary wingback chairs.

Rainbow Dash sighed and flew high enough to see over the partitions, and was quickly able to find Rarity sewing in what she would describe as an explosion of fabric.

“Wow, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash commented as she landed a midst the chaos, “I didn't realize a place could get this messy so fast.”

Rarity paused and looked around. “Oh, I guess it is a bit cluttered, but I need the room to think as I'm working.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled as she heard the explanation.

“Everything okay Rarity?” Twilight called from the door.

“Yes, I'm just working. Sorry to worry everypony, I just need to get these dresses done.”

“Alright. We'll save some breakfast for you.” Twilight called back.

“Thanks again for your concern, but I simply can't right now.” Rarity said as she collected material from behind Rainbow Dash and arranged it on a pony form.

***

Applejack smiled, watching the scenery rush past her as she jogged along the roads near the house. While she had insisted that she would be relaxing as much as she could, she found herself getting restless when she tried and a jog around the block sounded like a good idea.

I am relaxing, just in my own way. She insisted to herself as she continued her jog, nodding towards a creature that she wasn't entirely sure if it was a person or not.

As she crested a hill she found herself looking down towards a relatively empty beach. Her smile widened as she enjoyed the sight of her discovery. She'd have to tell the others about this place soon.

***

Rainbow Dash flew over the clouds, letting her mind wander as much as it could. She was trying to understand what had bothered her when she was planning out her room. James didn't bat an eye at the personal gym she wanted, and she agreed that she should at least try the bath before talking about a hot tub.

And he even got her the hot tub without another word. So why was she upset?

She told herself that she should talk to James … About what? She asked herself, dodging around a cloud, her wingtip brushing the edge and leaving a small wake behind it. Why am I thinking so hard about this?

As she did a loop she found her mind clearing and she began to relax. Up in the air she could stop thinking, she could live in the moment again. She didn't have to worry about more than the present.

***

Fluttershy smiled as she lay in the shaded grass and heard the birdsong. She was glad that there was so much greenery and that even here there were wild animals.

As she listened she couldn't help but begin to hum, which soon led to her singing.

Just as she reached the bridge of her improvised song she stopped as a she found herself with a small audience.

Several brightly colored song birds sat in the trees, but what caught her attention was a small light brown weasel-like creature.

“Oh, hello there,” Fluttershy said as she landed and got a closer look at the creature. The creature was clearly similar to a weasel though it's tail was wider and longer. It's eyes didn't look right either, red, and larger than they should be for it's size. It's tiny paws were webbed, and she couldn't see any claws at the end of it's toes.

“Aren't you just the cutest thing.” She said, admiring the creature more. “What are you, little creature?”

The creature did not answer beyond flicking out it's long, thin, forked tongue, and licked her cheeks.

Fluttershy only giggled as the creature licked her. “You're just so cute.” She cooed as she wiped her cheeks.

After a moment, the creature stood up, looking around and sniffing.

“Oh, did you find something?”

Before Fluttershy could finish asking, the creature darted off into the wooded part of the yard. Eager to know more about the creature, Fluttershy rushed to keep up, finding it half concealed by the leaves of one of the large ivy-like plants. The rustling of leaves made Fluttershy pause briefly, she knew carnivores needed to eat meat, but even still she didn't like predation.

Hoping to help whatever the creature had caught, Fluttershy moved the leaves to see if there was something she could do. What she found was the creature with it's face buried in a long amber flower, another shake of it's head getting it's face just a little deeper.

Before Fluttershy could speak the creature pulled it's pollen covered face from the flower. It's tongue flicked out again, licking up some of the pollen but not much before it rushed off again. Leaping into another patch of leaves.

Fluttershy giggled as she watched the creature rush from flower to flower, excitedly thrusting it's face into flowers it found. “Oh, you just wanted something sweet.” She reasoned.

***

“I'm sorry about this morning, James.” Rarity said as she walked out of her room, shaking her head as she did. “But, I can thankfully say that I have this order complete. Shouldn't be a problem again.”

“I get it,” James said as he put down his book. “I've got a lot of work to do while we're here too.”

Before Rarity spoke again she was interrupted by an uproar of laughter from Pinkie, who watched the television where a humanoid beetle and robot stood on stage, the beetle man saying in a complaining tone, “Give me a break, will ya'.”

With a sigh James shook his head. “I must be the only one in the galaxy who doesn't understand that show.”

Pinkie, still laughing turned to James and gently smacked him with her hoof. “Give me a break, will ya'.” She said before laughing again.

“Right.” Rarity said, giving the show a curious glance, “Anyway, where did everypony go?”

“Everyone else decided to take a look around the area. As for where specifically, I don't know. You can call them on your omnitool if you want to ask them.”

Rarity just shook her head. “No, I was just curious. But I am afraid I must ask for help with one thing, if you don't mind.”

“Sure.” James said, standing up as Pinkie laughed once more at the beetle man repeating the same line. “What can I do for you?”

“Well … I've finished the order, now the only issue is that we're on another planet. Could you, perhaps, arrange a delivery to my boutique?”

“Ah, something I'm actually kind of good at.” James said with a smirk. “Let's step into my room and hash this out.”

James' room could be best described as bare. Inside his spacious room was his bed, a dresser, and an armchair with an end table. A portion that had been partitioned off with a small desk, a couple office chairs, and a large intimidating console.

“Oh my, it's quite … minimalist.” Rarity tried to compliment.

James chuckled and nodded. “I really haven't decorated for myself in over a century. If I'm missing something I'll probably pick it up.” He casually lead Rarity to the small office area he had set up that looked out the window over the lawn.

“Alright,” James continued as he sat at the console. In moments it blinked on with a translucent screen appearing, as it did James typed out a command that opened what appeared to be a spreadsheet. “So, let's see what we're looking at with this.”

James began to type out details of the delivery, asking Rarity to elaborate on the size and weight of the package. James hummed as he finished typing, examining the final number he arrived at.

With more than a little concern, Rarity took in the number on the screen. “And what is that number, James?” She hesitantly asked, fearing she already knew.

“That would be the cost to ship your parcel to Equestria from here.”

Rarity's face fell as she considered the number. “I'd have to mortgage my boutique for that!” She exclaimed.

“Let me clarify: That would be to ship just that parcel. Now that we're here we can start looking at ways to get that price down. Let's see …” James said as he began typing out more factors on the spreadsheet. “There's a shipment from the academy leaving for New Guardia tomorrow we can drop the parcel in: That will get it on the standard shipping cost of the GP for most of that trip, which also covers the majority of tolls.” James explained, as a number simply dropped off.

“That's much better, but still quite expensive.”

“Yeah, it's partly because Equestria is a restricted location, so it would have to go through a special and dedicated customs process.” James explained as he typed, “But if I deliver it to the castle and ask Sara or Amber to take it to your boutique we can ignore all that. I'll just bribe them with a treat from Sugar Cube Corner.”

Rarity gave a sigh of relief as she heard the compromise as more numbers dropped off the cost. “I'd pay for a whole cake for them if they agreed.”

“I'll let them know.” James answered with a grin. “So here's the total we're looking at right now. Let's just convert to Guardian credits, and then into bits.”

The number on the screen continued to shrink as Rarity watched with mounting relief, no longer concerned that the order she took on may cost her her business.

“Alright,” James said, turning from the console to face Rarity, “So the total is eighty credits that I'll pick up. And most likely twenty bits from you to Sugar Cube Corner for Amber or Sara.”

Rarity sighed as she saw the total as a fraction of it's former self. “Thank you, darling. I guess shipping between worlds isn't a cheep affair.”

“Definitely not.” James agreed. “It's mostly larger businesses that establish independent shipping agreements with us, otherwise I have arrangements with governments to provide a bulk shipping option. Access to these markets is often worth the steep cost for most as they tend to make much more than they would domestically.”

“At least at those prices they can be sure it's only high quality goods coming through.”

“More or less.” James said with a shrug. “Sometimes it's the exclusivity of an item that drives up a price.”

“Of course, dear. My dresses wouldn't be worth much if they were mass produced.”

“And the kind of throttle I can put on a luxury commodity can demand an impressive price.”

“Ooh, and what would that be?” Rarity asked, the exclusivity of a luxury item tempting her.

“Zap Apple Jam.” James casually said.

Rarity laughed and shook her head. “Terribly sorry, I thought I just heard you say Zap Apple Jam.”

“I did.” James said with a smile of his own.

“An exclusive luxury?” Rarity asked, “Are you certain we're thinking of the same thing? I mean, yes, Sweet Apple Acres is the only producer of Zap Apple Jam, but it's hardly an exclusive luxury item. I bought two jars at the grocery earlier this year.”

“And I only allow one jar per year to go on sale in markets out here and have publicly given it as a gift (exclusively to heads of state) a total of six times. I whet the market among the ultra rich, and let their lust for the rare drive up the price.”

“How much did the last jar sell for?”

“Well, I can't hope to get to the price that one bottle Shinju Sake sold for,” James explained, “but the last jar sold for enough to buy a good sized island and the luxury ship to provide transport whenever desired. Though I do have a plan to get it up in a couple decades.”

“That much?!” Rarity gasped.

“I know. The super rich will spend insane amounts without thinking. And it certainly helps that the jam is good.”

“But for jam?”

“It hits all the requirements to be considered a luxury good. It's new, it's novel, and it rare. As you yourself said, it's only produced on Sweet Apple Acres.”

“I suppose you're right.” Rarity said, letting her mind work on things she could do that could hopefully earn that kind of money.

***

“Wow, that's what we can expect?” Starlight asked as she watched the recruits jog around the running track, soon moving so fast as to be little more than a blur.

“I guess so.” Twilight added as she turned away, getting dizzy just watching them.

“Are you alright Twilight?” Starlight said, turning herself to talk to her friend. “Is it about the letter?”

Twilight sighed and nodded. “We have no idea who sent it, and it could be important. Every minute I'm here is a minute that the follow up letter could be showing up.”

“Well, let's think about who could be the one lying to you.” Starlight reasoned. “I think we can count out everypony here, and Spike. I guess that still leaves a few ponies. … You don't think they meant Bonbon, do you?”

“No, I don't think so. She's the one who was able to tell us what likely happened.” Twilight shook her head as she began to walk off. “If anything they'd be working with her.”

“I know, and I trust her, but to make the argument: She has been lying to everypony for years about her past. … And I guess she could have made up the letter from her friend.” Starlight reasoned.

“But what would she have to gain from it?”

“Exactly. I'm just trying to think about everypony it could be.”

“What about Lyra?” Twilight threw out.

“I think if we can trust Bonbon, then Lyra's pretty safe too.”

“But did Lyra always know about Bonbon's past?” Twilight added.

Starlight rubbed her head as she walked. “I don't know. And Bonbon was pretty sincere when we talked.” Starlight shook her head and refocused. “What if we try to figure out what the lie was? Then we can see who would gain the most from it.”

“But that's just it, I can't think of anything that somepony would lie to me about.”

“Maybe it's not somepony, but somebody.” Starlight suggested. “I mean, we're pretty clearly involved in multi world politics now. Some of these creatures have drastically different values than our own. Not to open an old wound, but the mazoku all long for destruction, maybe Xellos lied about finishing his investigation.”

“It's almost been a year, don't you think we'd have heard something about that by now?”

“There was the incident in Saillune.”

“You think that they were attacked because of me?” Twilight asked, horrified.

Starlight shook her head. “No, it's pretty clear what that was all about. But it's worth thinking about other avenues with this. Anything important someone could have lied to you about.”

“I'll have to think if there's anything it could be.” Twilight said, shaking her head and sighing.

***

“They're back!” Pinkie announced as Twilight and Starlight walked in the door.

“Yeah Pinkie, we know.” Rainbow Dash said as she rolled her eyes. “We saw them five minutes ago.”

“I know, I just wanted to say it.” Pinkie said, just as excited as when she announced their arrival.

“Dinner will be in about half an hour.” James called from the kitchen.

“Oh, what are we having?” Starlight asked as she walked to the kitchen.

“Lasagna and salad, with a red wine.” James answered easily.

“Ooh! I'll set the table!” Twilight excitedly said.

“Gotta say,” Applejack said with a smile as she checked her apple pie that was cooling by an open window, “this is feeling awful homey right now.”

“Will this be every night?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Probably.” James calmly answered. “Just seems easier than everyone doing their own thing. Less dishes too.”

“I dunno how much I can help.” Rainbow Dash said with a shrug. “You know I'm not really a good cook.”

“You can always help clean up.” Applejack offered, “More hooves will make the work go faster.”

“Hah, with me it's going to a flash.” Rainbow Dash said eagerly.

“I guess we'll see after dinner.” Applejack taunted.

***

“So how are you doing?” James asked as he pressed down on Rainbow Dash's back.

“Great right now.” Rainbow Dash said with a comfortable groan.

“Yeah, but about earlier? I know you don't like having serious talks, but we need to do this.”

“Do we have to?” Rainbow Dash moaned.

“I'm afraid so. I don't want to have to guess every time I make some mistake.”

“But what if I don't know what's wrong?” Rainbow Dash sighed.

“Then talking about it can still help.” James said as he slowly stretched out her wing, carefully feeling the muscles to find knots.

“But what if talking about it would be the mistake?”

“Then it's even more important that we do. If it's in the open, we can address it together, even if it means getting more help.”

“I just don't know what to do. This is all so new and it's changed everything.” Rainbow Dash said with a shudder as James carefully ran his thumb down her spine, gently pressing down as he did.

“Believe it or not, this is new to me too.” James calmly said, “The only constant about relationships I've found is that communication is essential.” He stretched her other wing, repeating what he had done moments before.

“There isn't really a problem.” Rainbow Dash eventually said. “I'm just afraid I'm in too deep with this whole relationship thing.”

“It is a big change, and it requires a lot from both of us.” James paused as he thought quietly, “It's almost unfair to you,” he admitted, “I've got a family already, which complicates things for you so much more than for me.”

“It's not unfair, I know I've told you about Quibble Pants: His girlfriend has a daughter and they are so not alike. But they make it work.”

“And ours is like that cranked to eleven.” James commented.

Rainbow Dash let out a single laugh, “Are you trying to make it sound more interesting? 'Cause that's what you're doing.”

“Well, one nice thing about this trip: It serves as a nice time to focus on us.”

***

The lights of the city in the distance were unusually comforting to James as he starred out the window. Even in the quiet of the night he found a small refuge of peace in the scene that touched his nostalgia so. His mind tried to go places he didn't want it to venture, but he was able to push those thoughts aside for the time being.

All he needed right now was the sound of the occasional car passing, and the lights in the distance.