Balance

Conflict Resolution

In a world where there are two distinct sides to everything, how much would you give for a little grey in between? That is what you must ask yourself as you read this tale, because in a world of polar extremes, one would desire grey areas. This tale has a beginning, middle, and end. The ending will be tragic, and the middle will be fraught with emotion and pain, but I do not want to spoil the story for you...

As we are, starting in the beginning, as we must for the story to tell its' tale, there is a young unicorn filly named Equinox, she has a coat that is somewhere between black and white, a nice deep grey, and her mane has a glorious silver sheen. Her eyes have striking violet irises with streaks of white in them. She has yet to earned her cutie mark, but she has a feeling that she is getting close to earning it. She has a soft Canterlot accent, and she recently moved to Manehattan. This is where our story begins.

“Wake up Equinox, time for school!” Equinox's mother called out.

“Just five more minutes?”, Equinox called out, hoping to get a tiny bit longer before having to start her morning routine.

“You need to get up now, you don't want to be late for your classes” the mother replied. “You are already running behind as it is, you have 45 minutes to get ready and out the door if you want to catch the bus”.

“Fine, I am getting up now, just don't give me that lecture about how I am lucky to be able to go to this school and that I should feel good about learning new things”.

“Don't worry, mommy won't lecture her little snuggle-wuggle since she is so cute when she is tired.”

“Mom! You know I am too old to be treated like a foal!”

“But mommy loves her little snuggle-wuggle.”

Equinox huffed and decided to drop the conversation, as it was starting to become circular.

At school, Equinox does very well in most of her classes, her best being Magical Theory and Application, while her worst is Ancient Equestrian History. At the end of each school day, students are given an hour to spend time with friends and classmates before the bus arrives to take them home.

As Equinox goes outside to meet with her friends, she hears a loud ruckus and familiar voices.

“I don't care if you called first, it is mine and I get to go first”

“I called first, it doesn't matter who owns it, since we are both playing the game”

“But I learned a new transformation spell in my class today and I want to try it out.”

“You can try it out when it is your turn!”

As the fight escalated, Equinox opened the door to see her friends Bright Lily and Wind Stream about to exchange blows. Quickly grabbing them both in a levitation spell she begins to yell. “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU TWO ARE DOING!”

Lily opens her mouth to speak, but is interrupted by Wind. “Lily here won't let me go first even though I called first.”

“It is my ball and I want to try my new transformation spell on it!” Lily interjected.

With a sigh, Equinox puts on her neutral 'lets sort this out like grown mares instead of foals' face. “Wind, do you think you could let Lily go first, she does own the ball and she did learn a new spell today. And if I recall, you always go first normally.”

“I still called first... but I guess I could let her go first since she almost never does.”

“Now I want you to apologize to Lily for your inconsiderate attitude towards her.”

Wind let out a sigh. “I'm sorry for being an inconsiderate jerk Lily.”

“That's good Wind. now Lily, I know you want to try your new spell, but you let your anger get in the way of common sense, you could have simply asked Wind and explained why you wanted to go first. Now I want you to apologize to her for letting your anger get the best of you.”

Lily turned to Wind. “I am sorry for letting my anger get the better of me, and I hope you can forgive me for my mistake.”

“I accept your apology, and you can go first if you really want to.”

“Thank you for letting me go first Wind, and thank you for helping us sort this out Equinox.”

“Yeah Equinox, thanks for helping Lily and me sort this out. You are really good at settling arguments.”

With that, Lily and Wind went out to the yard to try their spells on the ball, leaving Equinox surprisingly pensive about that last statement Wind made. 'Hmm, I did settle that argument quite well, and now that I think about it, I was always the one who helped sort out issues between friends.' She felt a sudden itching on her flank and as she turned to look she saw a flash of light. As the light faded, a black and white yin-yang with a silver outline appeared. With a jump that would make one think she could fly, Equinox let out a yell. “OHMYGOSH! I GOT MY CUTIE MARK! I HAVE A CUTIE MARK!” Her screaming drew the attention of everyone in the yard, and several ponies approached her to congratulate her on her achievement.

As she realized what her cutie mark means, that she can settle issues with anyone, and that she can find the silver lining in any situation, Equinox felt a surge of magical power within her. The next day of class, in her magic class, her spells were stronger than normal, and she was having a hard time controlling her magic. It seemed that she had the magical strength of two unicorns, not one, and she was struggling to re-learn how to control her magic.